*REVIEW* The Balm Mary-Lou-Manizer

Hi guys

It's been too long since my last post and I haven't got an excuse really, just been busy with life and not really been testing many new products.

Recently however I gave into the hype and bought myself a highlighter, specifically the Mary-Lou-Manizer highlighter from the Balm cosmetics. these retail at £17.50 on Feel Unique but I understand they are obtainable from the drugstore.

Anyhoo, before this I had a specifically bad experience with one of those Mac highlighter/ blush hybrid things and they colour pay off on my skin wasn't too great it shimmered too silver and you could see exactly where I'd placed it on my skin brushstroke wise and it just felt streaky.

This product however is rave worthy, so here it comes, it leaves a golden shimmer to the skin that is so seamless with no lines, transfer or fallout. It looks really natural and can be used on the cheekbones, cupids bow, bridge of the nose, the brow bone and even as an eye shadow. Having used this religiously for a week I am hooked it lasts all day and does not budge. 

On my NC42 skin tone it compliments nicely, however I imagine this would suit all skin types and would be exceptionally great for the summer months when everyone is vying for that elusive summer natural glow.

So go on guys, give this a try, it's inexpensive and gives the more high end products that are similar a run for their money. 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments box below

Ciao for now xxx

*The Original Beauty Blender* - REVIEW

Hey guys

For the longest time ever, I used to use my bare hands to apply makeup. From eye shadow right down to foundation. I was too afraid to venture into the unknown and rather expensive world of makeup brushes.

I made the transition to brushes a couple of years ago when a good friend of mine showed me her Mac makeup brush collection and I thought, I need me some of these NOW. Especially since my interest in eye makeup was growing and getting the desired blended effect was just not happening with my fingers.

So I went ahead and splurged, and randomly splurged a lot, on not one brand of makeup brush but many...this is getting very wordy....

Anyway I then discovered the amazing world of sponges. I had heard of this phenomenon for a while but loved my Mac face brushes too much to let go, having then had a little jaunt with the Real Techniques face brushes I decided to buy a Beauty Blender since it was on for £21.00 for two on Beauty Bay. A bargain, since one usually retails at circa £16.00

Oh my god guys, this sponge is amazing, no longer do I have to use separate brushes for my foundation, contour and highlight, even concealer. I can use every little nook and curve of this sponge and it does the job fantastically.

It provides an absolute flawless finish, and has just revolutionised the way I apply makeup on a daily basis. Long gone are the days when I used a brush for makeup. Poor face brushes are currently lying dormant in a drawer, never to be seen of again.

A bit about the Beauty Blender, when I first got my hand on these I thought they were the mini version of the original, they were quite tiny from what I'd seen. I then discovered that they had to be thoroughly washed and squeezed of any excess water before you left them damp and ready to use. At first I thought the application of an almost wet sponge on my face would ruin and disturb my makeup but for me I felt like this added to the effect and gave me a dewy look, which I love.

So glad I purchased the pro pack which was released in Black and came with two sponges because I love these!!!

Now to find a use for my other brushes....

X

*Review* Nars Dual-Intensity Eye Shadow Palette

Hi guys

I have been testing the Nars Dual-Intensity Eye Shadow Palette for a couple of weeks now. I was so so so excited when I heard Nars were releasing a palette because, and a few of you may agree with me on this, I hate buying single eye shadows, they hardly get used and you have to pair them up with other shadows. When with a palette most of the work is done for you!!

In this gorgeous palette come 8 shades all of which can be purchased in the single form, apart from the matt brown which is unique to the palette The shades are highly pigmented and apply wet or dry which gives you 16 eye shadows!!! 

The colours and contents are as follows:

Europa - Gossamer Pink Peach

Himalia - Shimmering Topaz

Ursa Major - Chocolate Glaze

Subra - Black Orchid

Andromeda - Alabaster

Lysithea - Shark Grey

Giove - Navy

Sycorax - Black

#49 Wet / Dry Eyeshadow Brush

The palette has a mirror whereas normally, the lid is the signature Nars matt packaging which we all know and love, however I find it quite cool and quirky.

The palette retails at £45.00 and is limited edition, so get your hands on it now! Or miss out as it is a steal considering one dual-intensity eye shadow costs £21.00 👀

What I also love is that it comes with a brush too!! Having used it, I would personally only use it wet when tapping the pigment on my lids as it isn't too great at blending personally, what could beat a 217??!!

Also having had the shadows on for a period of at least 12 hours I can endorse them for long lastingness!! Is that even a word??! But the colour doesn't budge once on, I normally use a primer as my lids are disgustingly oily, but it's worth a shout out - Urban Decays Primer Potion love ya - so the shadows with primer do not move until removed.

Nars have done a few tutorials on the palette and they're deck worth a watch - link down below for one of my favs

http://youtu.be/po7njs-pwEk

Let me know if you have this, and what shade is your fav???

S x

*Game of Thrones* My Thoughts & Views so far......

I'd like to think when I started this blog, it was going to be a collection of random blogs about things I enjoy doing, hobbies, interests, rants, vents, loves, losses, you get the picture.

So yeah, recently well maybe about 6 months ago I started watching a programme which most of you will have heard of or are familiar with or are affiliated with someone who has watched or heard of it - anyhow I started watching Game of Thrones. Mostly because Boromir from Lord of the Rings was in it aka Sean Bean (love him!!) and it was of a similar old age sort of theme as LOTR.

By Lord, the amount of nudity though, shocked me! I watched because some of the characters were interesting whereas some had forgettable faces and even more forgettable names.

Lady Stark - bad ass, such a good role model, the Snow character, pathetic sod, downtrodden, bless his 'honour' bound socks and Tyrian Lannister - how cool is he?? To quote a friend when told him I thought he was pretty cool, replied with exacerbation 'aw man, you don't have the same level of appreciation as normal people' so let me make it clear, this dude is very cool, very clever and conniving, a character to follow...as small as he is. Also how much of a little s*** is Joeffrey please???!! Grrhh

I'm getting carried away, I have only seen one season LOL - hardcore fans are us, aka commitment phobe, more like. I have literally just seen the dragons being born, hatched, whatever you wanna call it and what erked me was the fact that the blond girl had to be naked for that too?? Jeez!

So maybe, if I don't get trolled too much for writing this, I'll revisit this particular blog and write about my further thoughts and general musings on this show....I believe season 5 is out in April....Lord I have loads to catch up on...

Now I can't get the theme tune out of my head...darn.

Watch this space!!!

*Drugstore Dupes* - Kiko EyeShadow Sticks

Hi guys

It's been less than a year I think, since I first discovered this brand. It may have been when my sister hauled me into the Oxford Street store one time in London, gushing about the bronzers etc etc etc...

I did buy a bronzer that day, and fell in love. Ever since I was happy to hear a store opened more closer to home 💃. Recently I visited and purchased a few of the eye shadow sticks, having heard a few rave reviews I thought I'd try them out for myself and see what the fuss was about. My god were the reviewers right. These are amazing!!! 

I bought three colours, numbers 37 (Burgundy), 38 (Golden Taupe) and 44 (Ocean Blue) -

The colours look terrifying in the tube but apply and look really natural on the lids. I wear them as part of my everyday makeup routine and have received many compliments, especially when wearing the reddish brown shade.

The lighting in the picture doesn't do the colours justice but do go ahead and check out the website for swatches - www.kikocosmetics.co.uk

These are a great dupe for the ByTerry Ombré Blackstar shadows if you're looking for a lower price point product - I bought these for £4.80 each which I believe was the sale price, but these RRP for £6.80 which is a steal compared to the £29.00 each for the ByTerry sticks. However, to give credit where credits due - the ByTerry ones are more shimmery with glittery specks as oppose to these, which appear matt on application.

Kiko claim that the sticks have a long lasting 8 hour sticking power, and I have to agree - the shadow is still on my lids unless I rub it off myself and so buttery  as a result. The formula is so blendable once on the lids and doesn't set at all which means you have more time to blend away and play around.

Eyeshadow sticks are a quick and easy way to get a wash of colour on the lids without making a huge effort with powder/cream shadows and brushes, it literally takes one or two swipes and a bit of blending with your fingers and you're good to go! These also act as a great base for other powdery eyeshadows!

I will definitely be buying more shades when I next pop into my local store, the shade range was quite extensive and a poor friend of mine was getting quite irate at having to wait whilst I swatched away!

See you soon people xxx

Best mascara of all time!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Favourite mascara time!!!!!

I am one of those rare women who have found and fallen in love with their holy grail, best of the best, cream of the crop, amazingly great, mascara of all time. This blog literally cannot continue without me squealing my delight at my long lasting love affair with this product. 

You want volume, length, dreamy thick lashes?? Then look no further!! 

Lancôme have a range of Hypnose mascaras all under the Hypnose umbrella but affixed with another name I.e  Hypnose Dolls Eyes etc and the one I love in this range is called Hypnose Drama. Simply amazing.

Blacker than black, in a few strokes it achieves a look most women die for. Immediately lifts the eyes to create a wide awake look and seldom requires any other application of makeup. Great for busy working professionals or mummies out there!!

Having had a brief fling with Max Factor mascaras I wasn't too fussed, they didn't necessarily wow me. I also felt the same for the Loréal red and white one (they use unnecessarily long names for their mascaras). This was one which involved priming the lashes with a white coat and then following up with the black coat. What a farce, I mean who has time to do that? So i decided to go high end and after using a sample of the Hypnose Drama I decided to buy the real thing.

Retailing at £22.00 it is expensive, but if you're a savvy shopper like myself, you'll wait for the periods of the year when you know it'll go down to at least £15.00 and stock up then. Which is what I did during Xmas. 

What I also like about the Hypnose range is that the mascaras can be bought in gift sets which includes the amazing makeup remover, which has a French name I can never remember. So I always look out for these too.

Another thing I love about this mascara, is the wand. Now I know a lot of people talk about the wand being the actual thing that makes or breaks a mascara, and the formula not really much of a deal. I can't say that's true. Although I love the wand on this mascara the formula is exceptional too. Doesn't clump and smudge and is very easy to remove.

The wand however, is curved. Which bemused me at first but then the lady at the counter showed me how to use it, to make make the most of it. The idea is that you use the outer part of the wand first, apply a generous coat, then twirl the wand and use the inner part and reapply. This is amazing. It definitely makes a huge difference and cuts out soo much time I wasted in the past with the priming mascara.

So yeah guys, I definitely recommend this if you're on he market for a new mascara, let me know your thoughts in the comments box below if you have a HG mascara you love.

X

Burberry Lipstick Edit

Hey guys

Today's post is all about Burberry Beauty. Inparticularly, Burberry Lipsticks!!! 

I have a colour from all the different ranges  apart from the Lip Glow range as I'm not a major lip gloss fan tbh. I can easily say they are beyond fantastic. I love the colours, the formulas and the long lasting power!!

Burberry have four different formulas: 

1. Lip Velvets - these are basically matte lipsticks - across the board all Burberry lipsticks have an amazing scent to them and the Velvets really do embody that. They apply really smoothly and I have no issue (even on my charred lips) of applying. Some formulas can really drag on the lips but these beauties are not in that category.

I have two shades in this category - Rose Pink No. 307 and Peony Rose No.302. Both shades are as the names suggest a shade of pink - beautiful colours I can't get enough of them. I very rarely feel the need to reapply once these are sealed on my lips!!

2. Lip Mist - these are lipsticks which apply very sheer. The colour I have make my lips look a little grey, so I apply it as a highlight as oppose to a full lip colour. These don't apply opaquely, so you do need to apply a good few coats to get a decent colour pay off. But then again, they're mists so how much opacity do you want people??!!

3. Lip Cover - now these lipsticks are your moisturising lipsticks, so uber hydrating and extremely shiny, not gloss like, but you get the opacity you would from a matte lipstick. I love the colour I have of this, it is Primrose Hill Pink No.30, a beautiful orangey pink.

4. Lip Glow - I haven't tried these but if I was to judge them based on the other ones I have tried I'd give it a go!

Priced at £22.50 they are a luxury buy but again I would highly recommend, depending on what formula suits you best. My favourite being the Lip Covers and Lip Velvets.

What I really like about the Burberry range of lipsticks is that every range has a different lipstick case. The Lip Velvets have a matt case, the Lip Mist has a gold shiny case and the Lip Cover a dark grey shiny case. So the formula is easily identifiable without Loki g at the bottom of the lipstick, as I find myself doing, quite regularly, with my Mac lipsticks!!!

Below is a swatch of all the lipsticks on my arm - starting from the wrist downward:

1. Lip Velvet Rose Pink No. 307

2. Lip Mist Trench Kiss No.216

3. Lip Cover Primrose Hill Pink No.30

4.Lip Velvet Peony Rose

I'll see you soon in my next blog!

Happy reading

X