My entry for TravelSupermarket's Beauty and the Beach Competition

I was nominated by lovely Fran from one of my favourite blogs Been There, Done That, Got The Lipstick to take part in a competition being hosted by TravelSupermarket.com

The competition is to document your favourite makeup, hair and nail look for a holiday, and the prize for the winner of each category is £500 cash!! The overall winner is the blogger who creates the best overall look for all three categories as determined by the industry judges, and the winner from that gets £1000 towards their next holiday!! Such an amazing and generous prize, and a holiday is much needed at the moment so the offer is too good to miss in my opinion.

Onto my entry....

I decided to create a simple makeup, hair and nail look that is perfect for a summer holiday, and more specifically this look is aimed towards a day at the beach/by the pool.

Makeup

On holiday, aside from looking fairly presentable poolside, my main priority is sun protection. SPF SPF SPF, I've learnt over the years on my fair skin is without a doubt very important to prevent uncomfortable and unsightly burns. I prepped my face with Avene's factor 50, my favourite product of the summer and a handy 30ml size which is great to travel with. 

With no need for foundation, I applied dabs of Collection 2000's Lasting Perfection Concealer (Fair) where it was needed to cover any uneven skintone and blemishes, and before this dried I popped some Benefit 'Watt's Up' champagne highlighter to my cheek and brow bones and down the centre of my nose and blended using my fingers. I did this so that my skin has that dewy and polished glow. This is a look a strive for whether I'm on holiday or not, however I'm a big believer in embracing your surroundings- there's really no point trying to mattify your skin with dustings of powder, for it'll slip and slide after half an hour in high heat or a dip in the pool.

I quickly filled in my brows using MAC's 'Showstopper' matte brown eyeshadow (limited edition) and applied one thin coat of L'Oreal Telescopic Waterproof mascara to my upper lashes. For my lips I popped on just a small amount of Benefit's 'Benetint Lip Balm', as it contains SPF15 and has a pretty rose tint to it, to help brighten up my face.

Hair 

For my hair I like it to be out of my face, so a fuss free hairstyle is a must. I parted my hair using a comb and parted my fringe into two parallel strands. I wrapped these over eachother, and added more hair to each strand. I continued this process until I reached my ear and secured it with a hair grip, pull your hair back into a ponytail (or a bun if you prefer) and spray with a little hairspray (I used John Frieda's Sheer Blonde Crystal Hold Shape & Shimmer hairspray).

This hairstyle is great for both clean hair and beach hair as it can work with natural, salted curls and is a versatile style that can take you from day to night just by adding a flower hairclip, or turning the ponytail into a top knot.

The hair and makeup takes me under ten minutes everytime, which is ideal as you don't want to be faffing around too long when you've got a holiday to get on with, nor do you want your suitcase to be weighed down with unnecessary products. Makeup and hair products included in this look amount to just 7 items, the makeup look was created using my fingers (make sure they're clean!), a hard angle brush for my eyebrows and my Shu Uemura eyelash curlers. For the hair, you'll need a hairbrush/comb and hair grips.

Nails

On a hot, summer holiday I love nothing more than playing around with colour. Colourful nails are a definite must and nail polish is a cheap and easy way to incorporate a trend. There's no denying that the colour of the season has been orange, so on top of Collection 2000's '2in1 Strengthener Base Coat' I applied a coat of L'Oreal Colour Riche nail polish in '303 Lush Tangerine' and followed it with my go-to topcoat- Sally Hansen's 'MegaShine'.

To add an extra dimension, an interesting topcoat such as Rococo's Gold Leaf topcoat in #7676 will instantly add a bit of holiday glamour to the nails.

As part of the competition I need to nominate 5 fellow beauty bloggers who I think would enjoy taking part in this competition... so I nominate:

1) Hannah from A Little Beauty Spot

2) Chantelle from Dolly Nails

3) Catrine from Unnaked Nails

4) Lydia from Florabundance

5) Beth from Birds Words

Don't forget you can check out the competition on Travel Supermarket's website HERE, where there's all the vital information you need to enter. Good luck!