Wednesday 19 March 2014

MUA £1 Blushes - Review

Hii Lovelies!

I'm sure the MUA blushes have been on every beauty addicts radar since their release but for some reason I've never actually picked them up until recently. Priced at £1 each these, like many other MUA products, are a total steal. To make things even better, students with a valid NUS card can save 10% on all their Superdrug purchases.

I'd been a little sceptical about the quality of these but i had a couple of quid left on a voucher so decided to give them a whirl, and i was very pleasantly surprised! The two shades i picked up were Lolly - A bright peach and Candyfloss - A cool toned pink with an almost mauve like hint to it. Both have a satiny like finish with a very fine micro shimmer that doesn't really translate to the skin.
 
Lolly - Candyfloss

Both blushes have really decent pigmentation, apply and blend surprisingly well. Regardless of their £1 price tag these are pretty lovely blushes that could easily go for higher with a packaging change. I have absolutely not faults with the formula just the packaging looks a little cheap and flimsy. But i can't complain for just a quid! On a more positive note these are easy to find in your collection due to the clear tops so the packaging isn't all bad.

Lolly - Candyfloss
 
Overall I'm pretty darn impressed with these shades and will almost certainly be adding a few more, if not the rest of the range to my collection. For a £1 blush you really can't beat these so they get a huge thumbs up for me! If you'd like to see a picture of Lolly in action, i featured in my latest FOTD post. Another resounding round of applause for MUA!
 
Have you tried the MUA blushes?
Whats your favourite bargain blush?
Let me know!

Saturday 15 March 2014

FOTD: A Little Nakedness


I'm talking about the palette of course...

Being a glasses wearer I've shied away from shadow the past few months so i thought it was about time i cracked one of the many palettes I've splurged on in the last few months out. Pulled out of the stash was Naked 3! I decided to try and opt for a more wearable day time look and for now I'm pretty smitten with this palette. Anyway onto the look!

Eyes:
 Urban Decay Naked 3 - Trick, Dust, Strange and Factory.
Mua - Eye Primer
Elf - Black Liquid Eyeliner
Tarte - Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara
Tarte - Brow Pencil in Taupe

Lips:
Fresh - Lip Balm
MAC - Wonderstruck Lustreglass

Face:
L'oreal - True Match Foundation
Nars - Orgasm Illuminator
Nars - Laguna Bronzer
Nars - Light Reflecting Setting Powder
Maybelline - Age Rewind Concealer
MUA - Lolly Blush

Oh and I am actually wearing clothes in these pictures, my hair just covers the straps, so no actual nakedness lol. I'll be playing around with more day time looks over the next few weeks and will be sure to post some of my favourites.

What palettes have you been loving lately?
Leave me a comment and let me know!

Sunday 9 March 2014

January / February Favourites!

Ello Lovelies!

I'm not one for monthly favourites but this year I'm making an effort to make them a bi-monthly occurrence. And the first one would be a tad late... Ooops! I've been changing up my daily stash every week or so to make sure i work through the unloved gems in my collection and these are the things I've been loving the past 2 months!

L'oreal Lumi Magique Foundation - Rose Pearl
This was a new purchase and I reached for it quite a bit over the last month or so. I don't generally have much luck with "drugstore" foundations, but this one is a beauty! Medium coverage with that lit from within glow, really beautiful! I'll be posting a full review soon.

Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment 
A long time ago, i managed to snag the Sephora birthday gift that included two mini Sugar lip balms and I've been hooked ever since. On my trip to London in January I dragged my boyfriend on a mission to find the Fresh store just so i could pick another one of these up. Priced at £18 they are extremely expensive but are honestly the best lip balms I've ever tried!

Benefit Hello Flawless Powder - Shell
I used up a whole one when they were first released and never got round to repurchasing due to having far, far too many powders in my collection. I was lucky enough to get one for Christmas this year. Its a fuller coverage powder that really does give a flawless finish, its up there with my MAC Studio Fix Powder as an all time favourite.

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer - Brightener
Sadly, we can't get this shade in the UK (just like the Radiance shade of Dream Lumi, HMPH!) but i absolutely love it. Perfect for brightening under the eyes and highlighting the face. MAYBELLINE! We need this shade in the UK, K?!
 

Tarte Emphaseyes Brow Pencil - Taupe
This has been so well loved that all the writing has rubbed off. Priced at $19.50 this isn't the cheapest of brow pencils but i absolutely adore it. Its the perfect taupe shade for my blonde hair and has a great little spooley brush on one end for taming them. I'll be interested to see if QVC gets these and their pricing because i fear this is getting near the end.

Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara
As you can see, i love me some Tarte. I was lucky enough to be sent over one of the QVC Tarte TSV's at the end of last year by a lovely lady in a makeup group i am in and it included two of these babies. Like all mascaras, i wasn't a fan at first. But after a few days it really grew on me. It can go clumpy if you aren't careful to wipe off the excess on the brush but it gives amazing volume!

Nars Guy Bourdin Blush Palette
Rather than tease you with something that's no longer available, I'm actually loving one of the permanent shades in this palette. Deep Throat (giggles). Childish behaviour aside, it is a beautiful blush that I've been wearing most days for the last month. A subtle peachy pink that just gives a fresh looking wash of colour!

It was hard to narrow down to just these 7 items but i don't think I've featured any of them in previous favourites so a win for me!

What have you been loving this month?
Let me know!

Monday 3 March 2014

Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush Collection!

Hii Lovelies!

With all the excitement of Sephora now shipping to the UK and Tarte's upcoming QVC UK launch i thought I'd share with you my little Amazonian Clay Blush collection! I do have a few of their limited edition ones but there isn't really any point of sharing those since you can no longer purchase them, In total i own 5 full sizes and two minis and I absolutely adore them all. So if like so many of us bloggers you've got your eye on a few to snag when they are released (QVC have now confirmed they will be selling the blushes), here's a close up and some swatches of my little beauties!

Amazonian Clay blushes come in both matte and shimmery shades so there really is something to suit everyone's taste. They are some of the most pigmented blushes i own, blend beautifully and are pretty much my all time favourite blush formula. I have to be a little careful with the deeper shades because of the intense pigmentation but they blend out with so much ease its simple to fix my heavy handedness. They are also incredibly long wearing, these rarely make it into my handbag as i normally don't feel the need to touch up during the day.

 From L - R

Tipsy - A gorgeous matte coral shade. It looks more orange in the pan than it applies to the cheek and has a more pinky-coral appearance when worn. One of my favourite spring/summer colours.

Glisten - My favourite of the bunch. A shimmering peachy pink that on the cheek does slightly resemble Nars Orgasm. But rather than an exact dupe i find it on my complexion more like Orgasm's slightly lighter, more sophisticated older sister. Its much more refined than Orgasm and can be worn as a subtle flush or built up for more intensity.

Exposed - A matte rosy nude that will go with absolutely everything. I find this a more subtle shade and use it frequently as a sort of all in one contour and blush on my lazy days. It really is a beautiful, unique colour and i own nothing even close to this in my collection.

Blushing Bride - A shimmery plumy rose. This is one of my favourite winter shades that could easily be worn throughout the year. It blends beautifully and the shimmer is subtle and just adds a sheer sheen to the skin.

Flush - Bright purpley/berry matte shade. As a little warning this blush used to be part of the permanent line but was discontinued. They have released a new Flush blush but from the Sephora website it doesn't look to be the same. I'll update this post when i can get more information on the newer release. I find this one a little harder to wear because it is so bright, but a gorgeous shade nonetheless.

Dollface - Matte light pink. The last two are mini shades i picked up around the tills in Sephora. I believe these were around $15 for the pair which was a complete bargain seeing as they are just under half the size of a full sized blush, and who gets through a whole one anyway? Dollface is such a wearable colour and goes well with such a variety of looks. I love pairing this with just a simple winged liner and is my go to blush to wear with silver smokey eyes.

Park Avenue Princess Bronzer - Sephora describes this as "A highly pearlized light yellow gold", i can't overly see a yellowness to it but it is way to shimmery for me to use as a bronzer. I'm looking forward to the summer months to see if i can pull this off as overall glow but i haven't actually used it yet. I may even try using this as a wash of colour on the lid to get some use out of it.

L - R: Tipsy, Exposed, Glisten, Blushing Bride, Flush, Dollface and Park Avenue Princess.

Tarte blushes are priced at $26 a pop but to me are personally worth every cent. They work out at £16.48 plus taxes on the Sephora website which is really reasonable and i am extremely interested to see how QVC are going to price these. I've got my eye on adding a few shades to my collection soon. Possible Achiote (LE) if i can catch it before its gone for good and Dazzled as it looks like the perfect shimmering rose.

Have you tried any Tarte blushes?

Are you as excited for the entire Tarte launch as i am?

Let me know!

Sephora now ships to the UK!

YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT!

This is going to be a quick post because I'm not sure how much longer i can contain my excitement!

Thank you makeup gods! I woke up this morning to this lovely news and have been sat filling my cart for the last hour... I've been praying for this day for quite some time, hell i even considered doing my FMP at university on the market for Sephora to return to the UK. Well UK shipping will just have to do for now!

Before you all get too excited i will say that import taxes are calculated at the checkout so you won't pay as cheap as you would in the USA. For me this is actually a good thing, i dread waiting for packages from the states only to get a red letter of doom through the door with Royal Mail demanding taxes and their HORRID £8 fee. Well you don't have to worried, its all prepaid with Sephora! Shipping is a flat rate of £10 over £75 which lets be honest, isn't horrendous for shipping. I just hope its fast!

There are some brand exclusions unfortunately like Nars (but who cares, we can get them in the UK anyway!) and things like perfume and nail polish can't be shipped as far as I'm aware. But there are still a ton of brands we can now get our excited little paws on.

I'm now off to keep filling my basket....

What will you be buying?

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