Elf Makeup Mist & Set Review

Hii Lovelies!

Bit of a quickie post for you lot today!

A while back Elf had a 50% off sale or two and i just couldn't resist placing an order. I've previously owned the Elf Makeup Mist and Set but it sat on my shelf for over a year because i really wasn't fond of the scent (my nose is a little oversensitive when it comes to odd fragrances). But after seeing lots of rave reviews i decided to purchase another one in the sale because, why not?! I'm guessing either the formula has changed, mine was off or I'm just a big fuss pot because I'm pleased to report this one is much more pleasant!

I'm a big setting spray fan and totally adored my Urban Decay All Nighter but the cheapskate in me really does not like paying for it. The Elf Makeup Mist & Set comes in at a mere £3.75, yes its less product but still works out a hell of a lot cheaper in the long run, plus Elf often has huge sales or offers on their products making this even more of a bargain. I can be a bit heavy handed with my setting powder so a few spritzes of this seems to clear up the mess and give my skin a more dewy (less caked on) finish. I pretty much apply this every time i wear makeup as that last little finishing step.

Honestly, i can't really tell if this makes my makeup last any longer and I'm not claiming its a dupe for the Urban Decay or MAC options, but it does feel lovely and refreshing! And most importantly it is sating my need to spend silly amounts of money on the more expensive ones. Its something i will 100% repurchase although i might decant it into another bottle, purely because the nozzle/spray bit thingymajig doesn't give quite a fine a mist as i would like, but an old Fix + bottle should do the trick!

Overall i would highly recommend checking this little beauty out if you are looking for a budget friendly setting spray. Elf is available online on their website here and i believe they have one stand alone store in the UK, so keep your eyes peeled on their website for sales!

Have you tried Elf's Makeup Mist & Set?

Or do you have some affordable recommendations?

Leave me a comment and let me know!

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Nars One Night Stand Review

Hii Lovelies!  

I'd been itching to post this review for some time now. This ended up being a Christmas pressie from my lovely Grandma, but I chose it so having to wait so long to get it was tough! Now as far as i can see this has sadly sold out in the UK online, but you may be able to pick it up in stores still so keep your eyes peeled!

This is my second blush palette from Nars as i fell in love with my gorgeous Danmari palette last year. It contains six shades; 4 blushes, a bronzer and a highlighter and has a repeat of last years palette in Orgasm. But as I've actually hit pan on my single Orgasm blush this doesn't bother me, i love the shade! I'm happy to see the inclusion of Laguna this year, another shade I've hit pan on because last year's palette had Casino which is much too dark for my pale complexion. 

It boasts six gorgeous shades including three of their best sellers Laguna, Orgasm and Deep Throat. I own and love the first two but was dying to try out Deep Throat and the other shades Devotee: a gorgeous pearly highlighter, Mistinguette: the rather frightening baby pink shade (it looks much nicer on the skin) and lastly Goulue: which to me is what you'd get if you mixed Sin and Orgasm... Winter perfection! 

 

As per usual Nars blushes do not disappoint, however as usual my swatches do not do it justice what so ever. I've been reaching for Goulue the most over the past few weeks, its just beautiful!

At £45 it is a bit of a splurge but well worth it if you're the type of person to never work through an entire blush. If you can get your hands on it i highly recommend picking this absolute beauty up!

What is your favourite Nars blush?

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The perfect lipstick holder!

Ello Lovelies!

Over the Christmas period i went on a little bit of a organising spree with all my stuff including my makeup storage. I found my MAC lipsticks were going unloved purely because i am lazy and couldn't be bothered to route through them all to find which shade i wanted. So i thought enough was enough and went on the hunt for a lipstick holder that would fit in my Ikea Alex unit!

It took a little while to find this gem on eBay due to all the cheaper ones i could find seemed to be tiered, meaning they really weren't going to fit in the shallow drawers that house my lip products. Finally, i spotted this 24 space lipstick holder and although it is tiered it doesn't lift the lipstick, just the casing is a little higher on each row, perfect! 

As you can see this holds all my MAC lipsticks (if i can resist buying any more) and my favourite YSL matte lippies. I can finally see what shades I'm grabbing without having to turn each lipstick over. Price wise its a little more expensive than the basic lipstick holders but is still a steal for a piece of acrylic storage at £7.09 here. It fits in my Alex unit perfectly but leaves a large gap at the side which i now use for storing my lip liners. I've even gone as far as grabbing a second one off eBay for my cheaper lippies... But i think I'm going to need a third!

I'm pretty damn chuffed with this purchase! It fits neatly into shallow storage and would look pretty on any dressing table. So if you're after a new lipstick holder check this one out!

How do you store your lipsticks?

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Coastal Scents Revealed palette review and Naked comparison swatches!

Hey Lovelies!

Coastal Scents are famous for their Black Friday sales and this year was no exception with a generous 50% off the entire store. This was my first ever order from them after missing the sales from previous years so i splashed out and ordered quite a few palettes, today I'll be sharing with you the much hyped about Revealed palette!

Companies are whacking out the UD Naked dupes everywhere and Revealed boasts a large amount of comparable shades. Whilst a few may not be exactly the same most are very, very similar and I've included swatches side by side of the shades they match (or near enough) from both the Urban Decay Naked and Naked 2 Palettes. Priced at $20 regularly this comes in at a mere £12ish (plus shipping) so is a steal in comparison with the £36+ Urban Decay offerings. And like i mentioned earlier, Coastal Scents often have really generous sales which knock them down even more, i paid just $10 in one of their latest sales!

The palette holds a whopping 20 shades at just over 1g of product each making this great value for money. Unlike the UD palettes the CS versions do not have very glittery shades, which may be a plus for some that complained about the glitter fallout from the more expensive option. All shades swatched well apart from one in my opinion, the 7th shade on the top row is a matte and a little dry and similar in shade to the better textured 5th shadow. Oh and none of the shadows are named! I really wish these came with names or numbers, it would really make it easier to review and compare!

All the frosted / pearl finish shades are really lovely, soft, pigmented and blend well, whilst for the most part the mattes work well (with the exception of shade 7) but are on the drier side in comparison with the UD ones. They still are really wearable but take just a smidge more effort to build up or blend. In my opinion there are a lot of really close shades to the Naked palettes making Revealed one of the best "dupes" out there right now and a great palette in its own right too.

A little bit of a warning. In the UK you may get stumped with customs fee's with any order over £15 (it applies to all orders from the USA). This includes a 20% customs charge (i believe) and an £8 Royal Mail fee, so it can very quickly turn a bargain into a pretty expensive purchase. So its worth waiting for a sale if you're shipping to the UK or weighing up whether its worth the item + postage fees + customs charges. Its a horrible moment when expecting a package and getting a red Royal Mail slip of doom through the door saying you owe them money (and a bit of a pet peeve of mine). So just keep that in mind when ordering!

My swatches here really do not do it justice!

Top Row

Bottom Row

Naked 1 palette dupes

Naked 1 palette dupes
 

Smog was less of a dupe than i anticipated, but still a lovely colour on its own. The Half Baked shade is slightly warmer and a tad more coppery.

Naked 1/2 palette dupes

The CS palette matte black is a lot nicer than Naked 1's Creep but not quite as pigmented as Naked 2's Blackout but works well to smoke a look out. Foxy barely shows up on my skin tone, sorry!

Naked 2 dupes

Naked 2 dupes

YDK isn't as close as it looks in the pan as the CS version is quite a bit lighter.

Overall Revealed is a really lovely neutral palette but if you own Naked 1 and 2 i don't think its a necessary purchase. If you've been put off the Naked palettes by the price tag or are looking to expand your neutrals collection i wholeheartedly recommend picking up Revealed. And if you can pick this up in the sale, even better! 

You can purchase this from the Coastal Scents website for $19.95 here.

(Is currently $14.95 on the day this was posted)

Have you tried anything from Coastal Scents?

Feel free to leave me some recommendations!

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I'm back! New Years beauty resolutions!

 (Just leaving a picture of my duck face right here...)

Hi there lovelies! Long time no post!

After a month long break i am finally back and getting back into the swing of things with blog posts! With a bit of a hectic Christmas i thought it was time for a quick blogging break to get my shit together, organised and ready for the New Year! So here I am! I have a ton of product reviews ready to be edited so you'll be getting an exciting post or two up over the next few days but for now i thought I'd share with you my beauty resolutions for the year!

2014 - The Year of the Low Buy

Sounds a bit scary, right? Well this year I'm determined to well and truly shop my stash! My Makeup Obsession is going into rehab and i am determined to stick to a budget and not overspend. What does this mean for the blog? Well, not much in terms of product reviews! I'm limiting to myself to a £20 a month budget, which to any normal person is probably still a lot on beauty products but we all know this is going to be hard for me. I do however have one exception; my trip to Florida. I've been good and saved over the past months so the time I'm in the good ol' USA is basically a free for all when it comes to spending, yay! 

I still have an unhealthy amount of products to get through so I've got a lot of reviews coming up over the next few months, i also am determined to explore high street and cheaper brands a little more this year so you'll be seeing some more budget friendly posts! Additionally i aim to post more FOTD's, as over the last six months I've got a little lazy and have generally opted for winged liner and my glasses which has left my mass eyeshadow stash feeling a little unloved.

Experiment with colour

There was a time when i really was unfamiliar with neutral shadows, but now its entirely what i wear when i actually put the effort in with shadow. Well, not this year! I am determined to shop my collection and pull out some of those unloved bright beauties! And that means lipstick too!

Post more makeup looks

As i mentioned earlier i plan to switch up my posts a bit from full of reviews and pop in some more makeup looks this year.

Use stuff up!

 Pretty simple really. My hoards of bath and body products could keep my entire road clean for the year, let alone just me. So i plan to try and work through what i actually have this year before spending a penny on bloody shower gel and body butters.

Switch it up!

I've pretty much been stuck in a big ol' rut with my makeup lately. I use the same products and wear the same looks day in day out (but that hasn't stopped me buying more!), which to be honest gets a little boring. Every two weeks I am planning to switch products in and out of my daily makeup stash to get some use out of unloved products and hopefully find some hidden gems in there!

So there's all my beauty resolutions! Have you made any beauty or general resolutions you plan to keep this year? Leave a comment and let me know!
 

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