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Saturday 27 September 2014

Beautifully Disney Lipgloss Swatches (Maleficent, Merida, Ariel, Belle, Snow White and The Wicked Queen)

This week I came back from my wedding/honeymoon in Florida, which naturally for me was largely Disney-based! I’ve always been a huge, huge Disney fan and it was a wonderful trip in every way. I’ll be sharing my wedding makeup soon.

Disney have their own range of makeup available in the parks called 'Beautifully Disney,' and naturally I was all over it! It's available at several locations in Walt Disney World, with the largest range available in the Co-Op Market in Downtown Disney, where the products are (loosely) themed into collections - there was a Villains collection, an Alice collection, and two displays of princesses and Disney heroines - and the range includes blushes, eyeshadow palettes, lipglosses, mini lipstick sets, polishes and polish set, brush kits, nail wraps, a gel liner set, a few false lashes and some sundries like sponges and mirrors. Tiana, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Aurora, Mulan, Alice and Cruella are featured, and I also went on a Disney cruise and noticed some glosses featuring characters that I didn't see in the parks, such as Minnie Mouse and the Blue Fairy, (no male characters, however). Some of the range occasionally pops up in UK Disney Stores, and they are also sometimes available in some of the outlets in the I-Drive area in Orlando as well.

 

Beautifully Disney Lipglosses

Disney Gloss Packaging

Beautifully Disney Makeup

Aaaanyway. Due to luggage constraints and not wanting to smash any powder products, I picked up six of the lipglosses! I honestly would have bought them all, and I’m planning to collect more in the future. Each gloss is named for a character, with that character displayed on the tube, and a sticker on the top of the tube and box displays a symbol matching the character as well - a rose for Belle, an apple for Snow White, etc. Generally speaking the shade of the gloss matches the characters personality or the themes for that film - for instance, the Maleficent gloss is purple, Ariel’s is a coral shade, the Rapunzel shade matched the pink of her dress. A+ for packaging and theme here, there are a lot of nice touches for Disney fans and I prefer this packaging, even though it’s just stickers, to both the MAV Villains and Maleficent collection packaging. I feel more thought has gone into it.

Let’s have a close look at each one!

Mistress of Darkness (Maleficent)

Mistress of Darkness

Mistress of Darkness Swatch


Mistress of Darkness Swatch 2

A bright purple in the tube, this translates to a sheerer lilac on the lips. Your natural tone will show through, which makes this look pinker. The gloss has very small reddish gold sparkles in which don’t translate very well in photos.

Change Your Fate (Merida)

Change Your Fate

Change Your fate Swatch


Change Your Fate Swatch 2

A decently pigmented orange-red gloss, I predict lots of wear out of this one!

Love’s First Kiss (Snow White)

Loves First Kiss

Loves First Kiss Swatch 2

Loves First Kiss Swatch

A dusky pink. I love this shade, it’s very feminine and pretty. If you’re surprised Snow White’s shade isn’t red, it’s probably because Disney gave a red gloss to Cruella.

Mysterious Mermaid (Ariel)


Mysterious Mermaid

Mysterious Mermaid Swatch 2

Mysterious Mermaid Swatch

A pale pinky-coral with gold sparkles. Again, one I can see myself getting a lot of wear out of.

A Rose Is A Rose (Belle)

A Rose Is A Rose

A Rose Is A Rose Swatch


A Rose Is A Rose Swatch 2

A mauvey pink. I think this is the sort of shade Belle might actually wear. I really, really love this one!

Heartless (Wicked Queen)

Heartless

Heartless Swatch 2

Heartless Swatch

A vampy blackened red. How great is this? Glad to see there is at least one shade in the range that will suit darker skin tones or bolder looks!

 

And just for comparisons sake:

Disney Maleficent Ariel Makeup Packaging Lipglosses

Lip Swatch Collage Disney

Disney Makeup Beautifully Disney Lipgloss Swatches


In all honesty, I wasn't expecting too much of these glosses at all, I fell in love with packaging and wanted to add them to my makeup collection. The Maleficent colour is much sheerer than purple lovers would hope, and I expected the rest of the glosses to follow suit. While most of the ones I’ve got are on the sheerer side, these are actually nice quality, with some pretty sophisticated shades! I love the dusky tone of ‘Love’s First Kiss’ and it’s hard to find anything negative to say about the stunning vampy qualities of Heartless – neither of which are shades I would have expected to find in a cartoon themed line, even if it is obviously geared at adults. As glosses, you’re not going to get stunning wear time out of these, but none of them stain or feather, and they are all lightweight and non-sticky which is great.

At $14.95 plus tax, these aren’t the cheapest of glosses (although some places in the parks they are on Buy Two, Get One Free) but as a beautiful Disney souvenir it was a price I was more than willing to pay and I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely these are.


Would you buy Disney makeup?

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Coloured Mascara: Miss Sporty Fabulous Lash in Purple and Green

 
Coloured mascaras are a right bugger. We want them to be awesome, they so frequently are the opposite!If the colour is right, the formula isn’t and more often than not, getting the colour to actually show up is nigh on impossible. With fancy-pants brands like Chanel and Diorpopping them out left, right and centre, it made me wonder if perhaps formulas are a little better of late?  Having been pleasantly surprised by a Miss Sporty mascara I purchased recently, I was keen to try out their coloured offerings and at £2.99 each it almost seemed rude not to!

Miss Spory Fabulous Lash

Miss Sporty Fabulous Lash Swatches
This looks actually… promising!

Miss Sporty Fabulous Lash in Purple
This is ‘ Extreme Purple.’ And purple it certainly is. If you want to try a coloured mascara without wanting to worry about looking too out there, go for navy, purple or plum, as this will still give you a little of the depth of colour your normal black or brown mascara one. Pleased with this one, at any rate.

Miss Sporty Fabulous Lash in Green
Now this is where I got my thee quids worth, boys and girls! ‘Extreme Green’ is a bit of a corker.


Okay, okay. The formula on these is not going to give you long, luscious, thick lashes, but neither is it too dry or too clumpy which other cheap coloured mascaras are often guilty of. You’re not wearing these for that reason anyway – they’re for fun. On the lower lashline with a matching waterline they can look great, or if you’re feeling daring, coloured mascara against a deep black smokey eye looks awesome!

Now, Miss Sporty… may I pretty please ask for a pink?!

Monday 30 June 2014

New MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer in Aflush and Halcyon

Everyone still loves a velvet lip product, don’t they? I for one am still a big fan so I was very keen to try out some of the additions to MUA’s line up of velvet lip lacquers, which were introduced earlier this year. Most velvet products seem to be brighter or reds, hot pinks and funky colours such as blues, purples and blacks, so I was really keen to test out a nude shade and a girlier shade! MUA released two more shades; Serene, a very light, blue based pink and Tranquility, a brownish nude. I’ve seen Serene in stores but skipped it as I know it will look awful on me, but I’ve yet to find Tranquility which I am desperate to try!

These wear and perform exactly the same as the existing shades, which you can read my thoughts on here, should you be so inclined! (NB, get Criminal, it’s better than the Lime Crime hot pink.)

mua luxe insta

The TL;DR Instagram photo!

mua luxe

much presentation very luxe wow

MUA Halycon


MUA Haclyon Swatch

‘Halcyon’

This is my favourite out of the two! A peachy brown, this is surprisingly pretty and has a hint of retro creamsicle (a phrase only a beauty blogger or makeup artist could use and mean it, no?) to it that I just think is delightful. I’m on a big nuetral kick at the moment so this will be getting a lot of wear this summer, along with the largest sunglasses I can find! This applies like a dream in one coat.

MUA Ablaze


MUA Ablaze Swatch

MUA ‘Aflush’

I’m not entirely sure I can pull this colour off without a beehive and ten layers of lashes, but it’s certainly a pretty colour. A light, blue based pink that leans toward the neon in real life, I can see this one being teamed with a flower crown at a sunny festival! Not quite for me personally but you can bet it’s flying off the shelves! This one is a little bit of a bugger to apply –it can get slightly patchy, so I’d advise waiting for the first layer to dry before topping up.


A friend in the know told me all the stock has gone to Superdrug stores, but that you can expect to see them online soon.  If you can find them, you can take them home for the bargain price of £3!

Will you be looking out for these?

Monday 16 June 2014

Purple FOTD with MAC

I did not leave the house and did absolutely nothing this day except my makeup and finally reading Death Note (which, hello, worst ending ever amirite), so naturally, enormous lashes happened. Let us examine further:


MAC Purple LOTD INsta
Purple MAC LOTD
Purple MAC LOTD 2
Purple MAC Lotd 3

Eyes: MAC Paint Points in Dangerous Cuvee and Blackground, Very Violet Eyeshadow. Nude shadow on browbone from MUA palette. Brows Rimmel Hazel and touch of dark brown from MUA palette. Lashes Eyelash Laboratory (cheap but super awesome Korean lashes)
Lips: MAC Up The Amp, with a touch of Pink Noveau in the centre, Creamsheen Glass in No Apologies.
Cheeks: MAC Autoerotique



Ugh, I looooved this look! Dangerous Cuvee is a new baby for me, and I have to say, I love it. I’m never really that drawn to MAC Paintpots for some reason, but this one screamed my name and I just had to have it – it’s a deeper silver with subtle green and pink shimmer in it that just elevates it slightly. Ooh, it’s lovely, and juuuust about work safe! What’s been on your peepers lately?

Thanks for looking at my mug!

Thursday 5 June 2014

My first Memebox: 10MinuteBox

A month or so ago, I got rather annoyed when the one beauty box I subscribed to seemed to think that tea and notebooks were somehow beauty items. Nope. Cancelling my subscription, I decided to try out  Memebox, which is a Korean beauty box subscription service. Korean cosmetics are known for being super cute and for having great/interesting skincare, which are of course things literally everyone is interested in, no?


Memebox seems to work a little differently to usual boxes - they do have a monthly box, which seems to sell out, and they also have one-off boxes as well. If you go onto their site, there are a variety of boxes available, and you can buy them as a one-off as opposed to a subscription, which I think is great. It’s hard to determine which is the regular monthly box as there are so many to choose from – including themed boxes such as a green tea box and boxes for dudes, and the larger Superboxes – and the website isn’t super explanatory - but I believe it’s the numbered boxes.

Buying boxes gives you points which you can use off of your next order or in the store- this order shipped late, so I was given points to spend, which I immediately put toward another box! They do take a while to ship boxes after they're bought, but you're let know the shipping date and my box was here five days after it actually shipped, which is great as it came from Korea! They're a little more expensive than the average £10-15 beauty box - I believe after conversion into pounds, this was £18.


The box I chose was the 10MinuteBox:

Memebox 10 Minute Box


"The hottest Memebox has just arrived! It comes with the most perfect make-love-happen-now beauty products that will get you all polished up for a night you'll never forget!"
The premise of this box was getting ready for a date quickly so I was hoping for makeup items in this box!”

Cute box, no? Let's see what I got - all products are the full sized version:

 

Memebox


Aromalab EverEssence Designer Fragrance Oil in 8 Women ($34)

Memebox Everessence Perfume Oil

Memebox Everessence Perfume Oil box


I'm not a huge fan of perfume oils or rollerballs, but this is pleasant enough. I don't get the jasmine promised on the box, but I do get a light rosy musk at the start drying to something a little more woody. This will live in my desk drawer at work for a little pick me up during the day but I can’t see it being a staple.

Hope Girl Powdery Body Perfume ($49)

Memebox Hope Girl Body Powder

Memebox Hope Girl Body Powder 2

Memebox packaging

cheers box


HOW cute is this? This is what I got the box for - cute brands that I've never heard of! I'm not sure how useful this product will be - it's a silica-based powder that claims to absorb sweat and keep you feeling fresh, with a subtle scent. Mine is in the scent 'Tropical Lovers' and it's a subtly sweet, coconut-y sort of scent. It’s a light scent, again, pleasant enough. You can apply with the puff in the lid, or unscrew the top to dip a brush in, or to refill. If I don't wind up using this powder – which remains to be seen to be honest! - I'll decant my regular face powder into it because it is so darn cute!

 

Hope Girl Milky Balm Lipstick in Red Burgundy ($24)

Memebox Hope Girl Milk Balm Lipstick

Memebox Hope Girl Milk Balm Lipstick Swatch

Memebox Hope Girl Milky Balm Lipstick Swatch 2


Oh, glory, glory! More leopard print! In the form of a burgundy lipstick, nonetheless! I have no qualms here whatsoever – the packaging so right up my alley it’s ridiculous. And as for the lipstick itself? Lovely! Creamy, opaque, not too glossy, no slip and very comfortable. This ticks all the boxes. I’d buy more from the brand. The star item in the box in my opinion!


Secret Romance Hair Essence Lovely 60ml ($39)

 

Memebox Secret Romance Lovely


This is a 'pheromone hair essence that leaves your hair smelling like a sensual rose all day.' It also claims to nourish and increase shine. I can't read the ingredients as they're in Korean, which makes it harder to determine what it might actually do! This is an oily-feeling serum with a light, powdery scent, but I'm not sure it smells of rose - perhaps it's a little masculine smelling?! I can't put my finger on it but I like it. From trying it out quickly, a little goes a long way! I'll be trying this out further to see if I can coax a little love back into my dry ends! I am also totally convinced the pheromones in this will turn my other half into a crazed sex beast.

Laboratory Eyelash ($5)

Memebox Eyelash Laboratory

Memebox Eyelash Laboratory Dolly Lashes

Memebox Eyelash Laboratory Dolly Lashes 2

legit and professional application is definitely not straight from the box with no glue at all, nope nope

These are so cute! And how cheap are lashes out there? Pretty jealous. These are chunky yet still manage to have a thin lash band - so in my eyes, basically pretty perfect. Can't wait to use these properly, they are banging!

So...would I get another Memebox? Ahem.  I already ordered one before this one came, but basically, yes, I'm excited to get the next one! A nice mix of unusual items  - which is the point! – that are all full sized,  good value compared to the price of the box, great customer service, you’re not tied in to buy one each month. Yep, yep, yep. Memebox are doing it right.


Have you tried this box? What's your favourite subscription box?