Baked-Eye-Colour

I picked these two BodyShop Baked-Eye-Colour Eyeshadows up in the summer when the first came out and there was a lot of talk about the BodyShop’s new ‘baked to last range’ and at first I wasn’t overly impressed with them but after using them on and off for the past 6-7 months I actually really like them!
These aren’t ‘cheap’ eyeshadows and when I first swatched them in store I didn’t understand why people were recommending them but I had a BodyShop voucher burning a hole in my pocket so I picked up Sage and Amethyst. They were £9.50 but they’ve gone up to £10 because of VAT (I used my ‘love your body card’ so I got 10% off!)
(R-L Amethyst & Sage)
I wasn’t sure if these would be too bright but they actually just give a pretty subtle colour with the darker shade being almost grungy so together they are very wearable!
(R-L Amethyst & Sage)
As you can see swatched you get a much more accurate picture of what the colours are actually like. They’re surprisingly pigmented and they are actually very long lasting which is unusual – I find a lot of baked products tend to crease really easily.
Sage is probably the most worn of the two purely because I love how greens look on brown eyes so when I’m stuck for what eyeshadows you use this is a really easy option.
I stayed away from Amethyst at first as plum colours often lose their vibrancy as, for some reason, plum tones look very natural however recently I’ve been reaching for this one a lot as it gives just enough colour to be wearable :)

Overall I really do love these and for travelling these are great as they take up no room at all and you know you can create a natural or smokey night time look. They are quite pricey for eyeshadows, particularly for HighStreet/drugstore, but I’ve used these quite a lot and I’ve barely made a dint in the amount of product so I’d say these are actually quite good value as it will take ages to use it all!

Hope this has been helpful!
The BodyShop has 8 different shades and I’m definitely going to be looking into some of the other shades as they look so pretty!! x

Illamasqua DWS NOTD

This is my first Illamasqua nail polish and I’ve got to say – I’m pretty impressed!
You could easily leave this at one coat as it applied very opaque and completely streak free :) This is shade DWS or concrete, neither of names are very appealing however I really love this colour and I don’t have anything remotely similar!

I’ve tried one or two other shades of gray but they always come out a bit too murky this one though is a pretty slate gray that looks like it almost has blue tinges to it in different lights
(left is in normal daylight the second is when it was really bright and sunny out)

I’m definitely going to be looking at more of Illamasqua’s nail polishes as although they are a lot more expensive (they're £13.50 from their online store however certain places do sell them for signifantly less!) than a lot of brands I want to see if others match DWS for consistency and finish!

Eyeshadow Top Tip

I just wanted to share a little tip on how to get your eyeshadows more vibrant and to achieve a much more metallic finish without, much effort or spending a fortune on various eyeshadow mixers :)
I’m using Honey Lust from Mac to demonstrate how this works because how you apply this particular shadow completely changes the finish!
The first swatch (on the far left) is applied dry, like you would normally use an eyeshadow. It’s pretty but it’s quite chalky and it’s not very vibrant at all.

The second way of applying this shadow (the middle swatch) you have probably heard about before and it’s just using a slightly damp brush. This method nearly always creates a more pigmented look and is a technique I use all the time! I also find it makes my shadow last a little longer.
And finally the third swatch is the point of this post. I used some multi purpose solution – basically it’s just what you put your contacts in! I’ve seen this for about £3 in supermarkets so it’s super inexpensive and as you can see completely changes the look of your eyeshadows!
Multi Purpose Solution like this is normally just salt water and if you are going to use this you only need a tiny drop of the solution :)
I hope this has been helpful!

Famous?

There have been A LOT of mixed reviews on this make up range - Famous by Sue Moxley, with a lot of their products being relatively poor however there were one or two pieces which really stood out, such as their eyeshadow palettes two of which I purchased.

I picked up Jealousy (the green palette) and Cafe Couture (the brown/neutral palette)

The first picked up Jealousy, and it was the first thing that caught my attention from the whole brand and convinced me to take another look at the collection in more detail as it’s really lovely.

You get four vibrant green eyeshadows which are incredibly pigmented and have a pretty unique formula.
The formula is definitely…different. At first glance they seem very crumbly and the pigmentation is a little patchy but – when you blend them (particularly if you use your finger) you get a creamy consistency which looks gorgeous on the eyes!

And it’s not just the formula of this palette that I love, the actual colour selection themselves are almost three dimensional and even though they are bright, they look gorgeous on there own with a few muted browns (I’d personally never wear all the colours together as I think it’d just be too much for my own taste)
(these two middle ones are my favourite as I love the metallic look to them!)

So after seeing how gorgeous the Jealousy palette was I went back to Superdrug (I think that’s the only place these are available as the official website seems to be down most of the time) and bought a more neutral palette expecting the same pigmentation, formula and beautiful colour range.

Cafe Couture
There isn’t much to say about this palette, the middle two colours are, again, the prettiest and best of the four as these two have the same formulation of the palette above but….
The other two just don’t compete with the Jealously palette, they’re very ashy and chalky.. And think this is why the make up collection hasn’t done as well – there products seem to be inconsistency with some of their products being really lovely for the price e.g. Jealousy and others just... don’t.

Overall I’m still going to be looking into the brand a lot more as I’m sure there are more gorgeous pieces, I’m just going to be careful of assuming the quality will be constant.
For £9.00 I can’t complain really as I do love the middle colours and I’m sure I’ll figure out a use for the other two :)

-If you are wanting to try out her range, you’ll have to be ready to search around as I think Superdrug have pulled back a lot of the products so it’s getting increasingly difficult to get hold of anything!

(I've just got some eyelash extensions done - Can't wait to post some picture and see how they last!! x)

Valentine's Day

I always think valentine’s Day should be about using make up to just play up your natural beauty, I see lots of people going all out using Valentine’s day as an excuse to wear the classic bright red lipstick. Which isn’t a bad thing but this look is so much simpler and, I think, prettier– it’s all about lightly enhancing your features!I kept my eyes pretty simple using;
Urban Decay’s eye primer potion
GOSH’s lilac shadow stick on the outer half of the lid – you want this to provide the suggestion of lilac and purples, try not to use too much
A light shimmery white shadow all over – MUA 01
Then just take a matte light brown, such as smashbox demure and run it lightly through the crease for some light definition.The real focus of the eyes are the lashes and the liner – I don’t tend to wear false lashes so I kept mine quite small and nothing over the top.
I used Bobbi Brown’s gel liner in black and went for something in-between and cat eye and winged liner – just go for whatever suits your eye shape!
I really wanted the skin to glow in this look so I applied eyeko’s cream as a base to provide some pretty shimmer and then just wore Clinique supermoisture foundation– this has the same sort of coverage as a tinted moisturiser!
I paired this will a cool-toned blush, I used a mix of Clinique iced lotus and Mac’s two virtues. I didn’t contour as I think, particularly during the day, it can be too harsh and it’s difficult to find the right shade (I see so many girls having orange stripes down their cheeks :/)
And finally to finish it off I just used a light baby pink like Mac’s viva Glam Gaga :)

Hope you’ve found this useful for ideas :)

Favourite Lip combo

This is quite a quick little post as I just wanted to show you my current favourite lip combo which I’ve been wearing a lot recently(and that’s saying something as I tend to mix up what I wear on my lips all the time and rarely stick to the same look)
(you can, as always, click on the picture to make it larger)
This is a really long lasting, glossy look which I think is super wearable as it’s not too dark to wear during the day but it’s not a classic nude either :)
I just use three products
Bobbi Brown lip liner in Soft Rose
Revlon Colorstay Ultimate long lasting Lipstick in Premier Pink
Eyeko lipgloss in Mayfair – which I have a review on here.
(All these products actually look lovely on their own too)
(L-R Bobbi Brown Soft Rose, Revlon Premium Pink and Eyeko Mayfair)
Because you have a lip liner, a lipstick and a lipgloss all of which add some colour to the finished look this lip lasts for ages as even once the gloss has worn off the lipstick is designed to be long lasting and will normally last the whole day with a lip liner underneath!

I normally just carry the lipgloss and the lip liner in my bag and touch it up during the day to keep the lines looking fresh- but I only touch it up maybe once in a 6 hour day!

What's with the Cattitude?

I recently picked up a mini set of OPI’s Shrek collection and I couldn’t wait to try them out so expect a few NOTD’s featuring Shrek OPI polishes!
This is What’s with the Cattitude and is described as 'a moody light blue that's really a pussycat' .
My first thoughts when I saw this was it’s a mix between Eyeko’s rain polish and barry M’s turquoise, and both of those are very similar but this is somewhere in the middle. It’s not as bright as a turquoise so you can wear this during in winter no problem but it’s not got as much gray nor is it as soft as Eyeko’s rain. It’s the perfect balance.
I also love how this looks with my fair skin tone. I was a little surprised at the formula as I expected OPI to be really easy to work with but the first coat was scarily streaky however after the third coat you suddenly end up with an opaque, streak free finish!
I think I’ll be wearing this one a lot of in spring, what do you think of this colour? And what do you think of OPI’s formulation??

Mayfair

I’m not really a big fan of lip glosses as they often just feel heavy and sticky – even if they do look lovely. But eyeko tends to run quite a few promotions and a few weeks ago they offered a free lipgloss when you spent over £15 - they're normally £6.50. Well I picked up a few bits that I’d been meaning to try for a while and I got Mayfair for free(Mayfair was actually my favourite colour out of their range!)
You get 13.5g and it comes in a clear squeezy tube with the classic eyeko art printed around it. The packaging isn’t anything fancy but I’d much prefer to have simple packaging like this with a little bit of a twist instead of paying extra for sleek packaging.
As far as the product it self goes it’s quite a thick, creamy gloss which actually has quite a bit of pigmentation. Mayfair is a really wearable colour as it’s in between a rosy nude and a mauve- I’ve tried this over a few lipsticks and it always looks lovely as it can provide a pretty wash of colour over nudes and alternatively it can add some depth to darker colours.
This is what it looks like on its own and personally I love it :) it’s not in your face and it’s just so wearable - it smells fruity too which is an added bonus! (It’s also just the right size to pop in your purse to reapply throughout the day)

P.S Mayfair is apparently limited edition so you want to try this colour out you might have to rush and order on their website xx

NOTD Multicoloured

This is a slight twist on the usual leopard print look and again it really is super simple. I just used a white base (barry m) then dotted spots of colour, once that’s dry simply dot on your leopard print – I tried this with just pink spots and it looked just as cute :) If you’re just getting into nail art or are thinking of trying some bits definitely attempt some leopard print nails and experiment with the colours. It looks impressive but takes no more than 10 minutes to do!!

Cookie Monster

This was my first encounter with Bomb Cosmetics and I was wary of comparing them to Lush and getting disappointed – their products and approach to business are relatively similar but Bomb cosmetics is definitely the smaller of the two and it's less well known with fewer stores and online reviews. Cookie monster is a sugary sweet bath blasters that has a very distinctive Girly scent that’s made up of vanilla, coconut, white chocolate and candyfloss. Surprisingly I could actually smell all of these notes with the coconut and candyfloss really coming out when it was in the water.

At £2.19 (£2.49 if you purchase online) this isn’t what you’d call a cheap bath, particularly if compared to Lush where the bath bombs are a little bigger for around the same price however this really was one of the best bath bombs I've tried to date!

The best bit about the cookie monster(apart from the adorable name) is how it performed and the effect it had on my skin. It fizzled for a about 10 minutes- alot longer than any Lush bombs I've had, and it filled the bath with a strong girly scent. Unlike most bath bombs I’ve tried the scent most definitely isn’t subtle – just like the colour of the water once you dropped the bomb in. You get a bright blue bath which I loved even if I was worried about it staining the bath as I’ve heard a lot of horror stories from other bloggers who have had that happen after using bath bombs with cheaper ingredients. But the only thing that lingered was the scent; both on my skin and all around my bathroom :) I’m definitely going to be exploring more of their products – if only because I love the atmosphere in their quaint little stores, the strength of the scent and how soft it made my skin feel after us - So expect quite a few more reviews of their products soon!

Overall I’d definitely recommend if you want a fun little treat and love strong scents, like myself. They have several stores all around the UK and you can find your closest one by checking out their website.

NOTD Leopard

I did this for New Year and I figured I’d share the nail art with you as it’s incredibly simple and quick so anyone can do it.I applied a coat of Estee lauder ‘Frozen Fantasy’ (just because it’s one of the only brown polishes I own) and then put a light layer of Barry M’s ‘Gold’. Obviously you can make the background as glittery as you like – I know a few people who don’t normally wear polish wanted something a little more muted and have done a similar look with just a plain brown background! Then I just used my dotting tool to ‘dot’ on the leopard print :)
Simples! P.S What do you think of the Blog's new look?

2010 Favourites

This is just a quick run down of my favourite products of 2010 :) Cleanser - simple refreshing cleanser
Toner – BodyShop seaweed toner
Moisturiser – Lancôme hydrazen neurocalm extreme soothing moisturising cream-gel (a bit of mouthful I know)
Eye cream – Clinique all about eyes rich
Lip treatment – Carmex Cherry
Exfoliator – St Ives blemish fighting scrub
Extra – L’Oreal Renewal lash Serum

Foundation – Mac studio sculpt
Concealer – Dior lift and sculpt
Blush – Clinique iced lotus
Eyeshadows – sleek storm palette
Mascara – Maybelline colossal mascara
Eyeliner – Bobbi brown gel liner
Lipstick – Natural collection Sunset
Brows – ELF eyebrow kit
Lipgloss – smash box (all their colours are lovely)

Polish – eyeko rain
Perfume – Chloe
Body exfoliator – BodyShop mango body scrub
Soap – Lush godmother
Top coat – seche vite
Make up remover – Lancôme Bi Facil Double Action Eye Makeup Remover
Eye Primer - mac's paintpots (Inidanwood is my current favourite)

(Just so you know it's taken me nearly a year to learn how to centralise text on here...lol)

Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick

Revlon’s recently brought out some long lasting lipsticks and me being a girl who hates having to reapply during the day, couldn’t wait to get my hands on one :)
I couldn’t find them at the two boots stores but there was a nice supply of them in my Superdrug and so I grabbed it in platinum petal, a lovely rosy shade with some pinky tones.

It’s meant to be :
* Food-proof lipcolor with a built-in, ultra-conditioning topcoat
* One-step application- No topcoat required for comfortable wear
* Stays comfortable and wears beautifully for up to 12 hours
* Does not feather or fade; no touch-ups required, even after meals
* Available in 20 full-coverage, soft satin shades

Revlon seems to have a really nice range of colours(12 shades), from nudes to slightly more sultry shades, there doesn’t seem to be any really dark shades- however I think most people will be able to find something to suit them!

It’s £8.99 for 3ml which is a bit expensive for a Revlon lip colour, but if it does all it promises then it’ll be worth it :p You apply like a lip gloss with a doe foot applicator – I actually quite like this, I feel I can get more precise application =]

Apart from the doe foot applicator the packaging is just OK. I think it looks pretty, but there’s no suction-bit at the top (I’ve no idea what it’s called!) but basically you get a lot of product on the applicator :/

First impressions:
It’s thick, pigmented, and seems to apply really smoothly and evenly! When I first applied it I was really impressed. But once it dries it seems to go very sticky – almost tacky… I’ve got it on now, and I can’t say my lips feel ‘dry’ exactly & it hasn’t made any dry patches stand out but they don’t feel hydrated at all. It smells like plastic and it’d definitely noticeable – it’s not AWFUL though.

After 3 hours
Since wearing it, I’ve licked my lips, drank etc. and the colour is still there – just as strongly pigmented, just as sticky.

- very attractive right? :p
After about 6 hours:
It’s faded significantly but there’s still a lot of colour on my lips :) It’s not made my lips uncomfortably dry but I really don’t like the sticky texture going on!

- I reapplied it with a lip balm over the top when I went out for a meal & problem solved :) It lasted all through the meal, drinks and it was still on when I got home after a long night out!

Overall, I think this is a VAST improvement on other long lasting lipsticks (all the others have made my lips feel awful!) but it’s still less than perfect. I can’t imagine me reaching for it in winter – when I suffer with dry lips ‘cos I think this would make any dry patches stand out, but for summer, I’m really impressed!

lol I think a lipstick that lasts 12 hours and still looks just as good as first applied is going to remain a fantasy though :p

(Sorry about the quality of the pictures, there's a little bit of glitter in the lipstick and for some reason my camera refuses to take decent pictures of glitter! :p)
- most ended up like this :p