The Body Shop Honey Bronzer in Shade 1 - Review

Ello Lovelies!

Another extremely hyped product review for you lot today! The Body Shop's Honey Bronzer gets a ton of love all over the blogging and Youtubing world, so on one of their recent 50% off sales i decided it was about time i picked it up. The pale girl in me headed straight for the lightest shade as usual but surprisingly this was a poor, poor choice. I'd failed to notice that most of the extremely positive reviews were for shade 2... oops! For reference I wear NW13 in winter so I'm pretty darn pale. Shade 1 has to be the lightest bronzer i have ever clapped eyes on and in such a shopping rush i didn't realise my mistake until i was home. Bah!

  

 As you can tell by the pan and the swatch below this holds very little colour against my complexion. I gave it a full test for contouring and unsurprisingly it just wasn't dark enough. And for just adding a little dimension to the face it takes quite a bit of building to get any noticeable colour. What i have enjoyed using it for is just a quick dusting around the edges of my face, just to add a little something. Texture-wise the powder is extremely silky and smooth and is a formula i really can't fault, it is also completely matte without looking flat or chalky. I just wish i had picked up the darker shade!

 

Overall, although i can't fault the formula i really don't think i could recommend this shade. The fairest of the fair might enjoy or someone new to bronzers but other than that Shade 1 is a no go. Priced at £13 it isn't an expensive buy, especially with the discount codes The Body Shop always have floating about. At some point soon I'll have to cave and pick up the other shade just to see what the fuss is about!

Have you tried The Body Shops bronzers?

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin 

xo Katie

My Current Favourite Lip Combo!

Hey there Lovelies!

With my no buy still in full swing I've been rummaging through my collection more and more to find those unloved gems that have sadly been forgotten about. MAC's Up The Amp was one of the lipsticks i was most excited to try after my USA trip but i found it a little too harsh and dark on my fair complexion. It wasn't until i started shopping my stash that something clicked and I had that light bulb moment and realised... I could lighten it with my Sleek Pout Paint! Pout Paints are Sleeks version of the much loved OCC Lip Tars and in my opinion are a much nicer formula to work with, i just wish they'd release more shades! Cloud 9 is simply a white mixer shade from the range and works perfectly with every lipstick I've tried it with so far!

Since this discovery I've been mixing my lipsticks like crazy trying to find more unique shades and make some of my more "unwearable" lipsticks a bit more flattering on me. Its a simple concept and I'm a little embarrassed I hadn't thought about doing this before! It is also a great way to try the popular ombre lip trend that's been around lately, although i haven't quite mastered that one myself. This has really brought back my love for lipstick and for once I'm actually making the most of my excessive lipstick collection and really loving doing so!

  

Pout Paint in Cloud 9 (£4.99, SleekMakeup)

Up The Amp (£15.50, MAC)

I'm head over heals for this combo and have been wearing it at every possible chance i can get! My love for lipstick is well and truly back!

What is your favourite lipstick or combo?

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin 

xox

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!

 

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin 

She Said Beauty | Youtube

xox

The under £1 MAC brush "dupes" that are actually worth buying...

Ello Lovelies!

Today I've got a real eBay bargain to share with you! These brushes are priced between just under 80p - 99p each, including shipping... I was a little bit skeptical at first because we all know a lot of what eBay has to offer is utter shite but as these came so highly recommended i thought at this price, i'd take the risk. While i wouldn't say these are "dupes" as such, they are very similar and surprisingly decent quality. So I'm an extremely happy bunny with this little purchase. I've hand mine for a good month or so, so enough time to put these to the test and see how they hold up, so how did they do? 

 


 

The 217 "dupe" as you can see isn't exactly the same size or shape but its a lovely blending brush in its own right. I've had a couple hairs at most shed and I've been reaching for this on a daily basis for a quick wash of colour or some lazy blending. Its a little larger than the Mac version so not as precise for blending. Its not quite as soft, but only by a tad and isn't at all scratchy.

As you can see again, this isn't quite an exact dupe for the famous 239 brush. Its a little larger, fluffier and i use mine for highlight colour on the brow bone or a lazy sheer wash of colour. Its slightly longer, wider and not quite as dense as the pricier option but does make a great fluffy brow bone choice rather than your typical lay down brush!

 

Unfortunately i don't have a 222 brush to compare this to but as with the other two I'm guessing this isn't an exact dupe. It reminds me of one of my favourite Crown Brush brushes the Pro Blending Crease, just a little narrower. I've found this great for applying and blending out my transition colour and general shadow blending. Like the other two brushes I've only had a couple of hairs shed over the multiple times I've washed these, which for the price is not bad at all.

Overall, for under a quid delivered these brushes get a big thumbs up from me and are definitely worth testing out yourself! While they aren't necessarily MAC dupes they are great affordable brushes in their own right. I for one like to delay the boring task of my weekly brush wash by a day or two so having a few extra brushes in my collection has really come in handy!

217 Dupe Link

239 Dupe Link

222 Dupe Link

What are your favourite affordable brushes?

Will you be trying these out?

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin 

She Said Beauty | Youtube

xox

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!

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin 

She Said Beauty | Youtube

xox

MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer - Review

We all know how much i love mattes...

After weeks of pretty much stalking my nearest Superdrug and being teased with an empty display i finally got my mitts on some of these bad boys! When i first spotted them they only had two on display, but i managed to snag another one before they sold out on the Superdrug website! Hurrah!

MUA are continuously stepping up their game with product launches and these might be my favourite product to date. Matte lips are near enough the only lip i rock nowadays so these were the perfect addition to my collection. I skipped the red shade because i already own Limecrimes Red Velvet and the lighter pink shade because i just wouldn't be able to pull it off, but am delighted to have snagged the other three colours in the collection.

So did they live up to the hype...?

 (silly question since I've already expressed my love for these)

Atomic, Funk and Kooky

Yes

These impressed me so much I'm actually considering buying the red because i prefer the formula to the Limecrime offering. Insanely pigmented, long wearing and extremely comfortable on the lips makes these babies a winner in my books. Like any liquid lipstick i still wouldn't recommend these on dry or cracked lips and i use a good balm 5 - 10 minutes before application. They take a little while to dry down to a matte finish, but when they do they are absolutely beautiful and wear on me for a good 5 hours (I'm a lip fidget so they'll probably wear better on everyone else). 

The frosted packaging feels and looks a lot more expensive than other MUA products and considering these retail for just £3 they are an insane bargain. If a high end brand were to release these they'd sell for over five times the price. I'd go as far to say that these are the best liquid lipsticks available here in the UK at any price point right now. If you're not a fan of bright or bold colours, i don't think these are for you as every colour in the range is extremely bright. But looking at how on the ball MUA are with their releases who's to say we won't see a more natural selection of colours appearing on the shelf in the near future... Dusky rose shade please MUA!

Atomic, Funk and Kooky

Overall i think these fantastic products and I'll be getting a ridiculous amount of use out of these in future and especially over the festive season with parties and Christmas coming up! If you can get your hands on them, do it, do it now! I wholeheartedly recommend these little beauties and can imagine these flying off the shelves for months to come. Superdrug and MUA frequently have deals on so keep your eyes peeled for those, Superdrug currently has 3 for 2 so you could get three shades for a mere £6 currently, bargain!

Have you tried the MUA Velvet Lips?

What is your favourite shade?

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin 

She Said Beauty | Youtube

xox

IMATS London 2013 - The Pictures

 

 Ello lovelies! 

So yesterday i had the hard task of dragging my bum out of bed extraordinarily early (4am to be exact) and hop on a train to London to visit this years London IMATS show. Oh its a hard life.... ha.

This was my second year attending the event and last year for me was all about the shopping! This year i wanted to take in more of what the show had to offer and spend a lot more time watching and enjoying some of the magnificent artistry on show. Oh, and do a little shopping of course. Unfortunately this year my partner in makeup related crimes is currently working in Florida (i know, how selfish right? :P ) but luckily good ol' Mum stepped in and offered to come with me for the day. Thanks Mum!

Because of our super early train times we arrived pretty early and were near the front of the queue. We managed to get most of our shopping done by 11pm due to sticking more or less to my prepared shopping list. I really do not like having a budget lol. There were a couple of minor disappointments on the day, Bobbi Brown were only selling to customers with a pro card, which to me seemed a little silly. Secondly Nars only had a small selection of products on sale, although having their whole range on display. I think this was due to only having a relatively small booth so they obviously couldn't stock the whole range, but to make up for this the stock they did have was significantly discounted (around 50%), so i gots me some bargains! I spent my last few hours there taking in the stunning artistry on show and as you can see from the pictures, it certainly didn't disappoint! I even managed to see Terry Barber from MAC work his magic on the main stage, but due to camera fails I was only able to grab a quick Instagram pic of his work.

I'll be posting a separate haul of all the goodies i purchased on the day

because this post is already huge with all the gorgeous makeup i snapped, enjoy!

We don't have a MAC store in Southampton, so this got me a little excited to say the least!

Oh Parian Spirit, why you smell so good?

Karla Powell MUA doing her thing at the Crown Brush booth! I wasn't around for the finished look but if you follow her on Instagram you would of seen her pop art inspired masterpiece. I really do love her work!

I managed to completely resist Inglot this year....

 

LOOK AT THOSE SHOES! (My bad for the blurry pic, but they were amazing!)

So that's all my snaps for the day. How amazing are those looks!?

Did you go to IMATS this year?

Feel free to link me your posts/hauls, i love a good nosey!

Up next, the haul...

xox