2013 Favourite Round Up!

 

Alrighty kids, time to jump on the old bandwagon! It's really hard trying to come up with favourites from a whole year - do you pick the things that wowed you or your staples? The below is a little of both, but mostly the things that I've used the most often.

Benefit Birthday Suit

Eyeshadow or equivalent: Benefit Creaseless Cream shadow in Birthday Suit - I use this all the time as a base for work. It never leaves my makeup bag! For more fun colours, I fell in love with MAC Old Gold pigment, and the limited edition Darling Girl Don't Teal Me You Love Me.

 

One of the bazillions of times I've used the MUA palette this year!

 

 Palette: Most used is MUA Undress Me Too for sure. A dupe for the Urban Decay Naked 2, it's an absolute essential for me - I use it almost every time I do eyeshadow! For £4, the quality is really lovely.

 Eyeliner: My Collection felt tip pen, and the Rimmel Scandalise nude pencil - I use both almost every day, and they're both dead cheap. I should really review both as they're such HG items for me!

 

 

Before and after wearing Missha Signature BB cream

 

Face/base: Missha Signature Wrinkle Filler BB Cream. Even though I got this at the end of the year, it's knocked all the foundations I used in 2013 out of the park!

 

 Highlighter: Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter. This was a limited edition from 2012. I will cry when it's gone.

 

Before and after: Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer

 

Concealer: I only got this right at the end of the year, but the Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer is wonderful!

 

Wearing Sleek Suede blusher

 

 Blush: Sleek Suede is my favourite blusher of all time. I wear it at least three times a week - it's basically perfect.

 

 

 

MAC Subculture Lip Pencil, MAC Nightmoth Lip Pencil, MAC Viva Glam V

  

 Lipsticks/pencils: Narrowing these down is always bloody hard as I'm a total lip fiend! Mac Nightmoth and Subculture lip pencils have been total staples for me this year, as has MAC Viva Glam V which I really need to repurchase.

 

Revlon Adorned

 

 Lipgloss/tar/cream: Chanel Glossimer in Savage Grace which I'll be reviewing soon. Also, the lovely Revlon Adorned. Look at that gorgeousness!

 

The lovely Real Tecnhiques Blush Brush

 

 Brush/tool: Real Techniques Expert Face Brush (duh), Real Techniques Blush Brush and the e.l.f eyeshadow brush. For £1.50 I love these bad boys!

 Skincare: Weleda Skin Food! I have a review of this coming up, but it's basically saved my skin!

 Perfume: Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche. Even though generally I prefer 'brothel madam' scents, I always, always come back to this bottle of gorgeousness!

 Bath/body: Lush Rose Jam shower gel, basically all the Soap and Glory ever, especially the scrubs which I repurchase time and time again. I also like the huge Clean On Me shower gel.

 Hair product: Elnett hairspray. Forever. Won't use anything else!

 

Etude House polishes from the Minnie collection

 

 Nail polish: L'Oreal Confetti Top Coat, Illamasqua Hemlock and Minnie In The Nails polishes from Etude House

 

 Biggest let down: Illamasqua Skin Base. Sorry Illamasqua. I really, really, really tried to love this!

 

And my favourite look from this year... let's be honest, it's got to be drag! I really, really want to do more of this, it's much better than my real face :D

I wish you and your loved ones all a happy, healthy and creative 2014! Please share your favourites with me below as well or leave a link so I can check out your pretties!

Soft purple glitter LOTD with Sugarpill and Madd Style Cosmetics

Happy New Year, everyone! I barely wore any makeup over the Christmas period, so when I got back from visiting the family I thought I’d go for a wee touch of sparkle. Just to sit in my PJ’s and finish off the Quality Street, mind you.

Eyes: Lid, Hi-Fi Cosmetics Between the Stars (now defunct company), Sugarpill 2am, matte vanilla from Barry M Natural Glow palette, warm matt brown from MUA Undress Me Too palette, Collection 24/7 Pen Eyeliner in Black and Madd Style Cosmetics Glitter in  Nymphette
Lips: Stained pink with Australis mint lipgloss on top.
Cheeks: Benefit Dallas, Barry M blush from the Natural Glow palette (soft, soft pastel pink)

I got a new camera for Christmas and have to work out how to use it, so if my photo quality is a bit wobbly over the next few weeks, I do apologise!  Continuing the ‘being useless’ theme, I’m still getting to grips with using the Lit Clearly Liquid base  – it seems a bit of a faff and I’m sure it’s down to me missing something. I’m going to review it soon as it’s a great budge-proof product for adhering glitter!

I love  a bit of glitter at this time of year, but didn't actually wear any on New Years Eve itself! Do you guys like glitter all the time or just for partying?

Green and Gold LOTD with MAC and Sugarpill

My other half suggested a green coloured look and who was I to say no? I used Sugarpill Midori as the main colour for this, which just goes to show that even though Sugarpill colours look bright as all hell in the pan, they can be toned down really easily as well. Of course, that really goes for all colours – if you’ve got a good neutral palette with colours that suit you, you can make the scariest, brightest shades work on any level.

 

Eyes: MAC Old Gold Pigment, Sugarpill Midori, MUA Undress Me Too palette to blend/highlight.
Lips: MAC Subculture lipliner and Viva Glam Gaga 2
Cheeks: Sleek Suede, e.l.f Gotta Glow

I was so annoyed it was dark that day as I couldn’t capture how nice this look was. MAC Old Gold looks wonderful with greens and I was happy I managed to find a way to make VG Gaga 2 work for me. I really need to step it up with my makeup – I’m not allowed to wear coloured makeup to work anymore and it’s really making me lazy in the evenings and weekends!

What are your favourite green and gold shades?

Quickie Review: Inglot AMC Pure Pigment Eyeshadows in 22 and 70

It’s no secret that Inglot shadows are absolutely bloody awesome, but I’ve never tried any of their loose pigments before. A couple caught my eye on a recent makeup shopping trip so I grabbed them. Loving my Freedom System shadows as much as I do, I had really high expectations for these!

Simple, sleek packaging, very typical of Inglot.Glass jars, screw-top lid, no sifter. Not much else to say about them! The jars are pretty large – you’re not going to run out of these in a hurry! If you and a friend love a few of these, I’d recommend splitting them up.

This is shade 70, a gorgeous greeny-turquoise. It’s pretty similar to Sugarpill Darling, so I wish I’d gone for a different shade, but I really can’t fault it. It’s got goooorgeous pay off and applies smoothly with minimal fall out. No complaints!

And this is shade 22. In the pot, this looks like the most bizarre eyeshadow you’ve ever seen – like a flaky sort of tinfoil or something! Applied though, it is so beautiful and you get none of that chunky texture on the lid.  In real life it looks a little more pink. Totally in love with this little piece of gorgeousness – I think it’s beautiful on the lid with a lovely texture. There was a more purple shade with this sort of texture which I really want to pick up as well. Oooh, innit nice?!


I have an Inglot pro card, but without these are £12 each for 2g without one, and you can now buy them online here .

Quickie Review and Before/After: Bobbi Brown Concealer Kit

I’ve tried quite a few cult beauty products in 2013 and decided to see the year out with another, the Bobbi Brown creamy concealer. I’ve heard SO many wonderful things about Bobbi Brown concealers and correctors, and on a bit of a whim decided to try it out some of them! I kind of hate wearing under eye concealer so was hoping this would be light and lovely and still do the trick!

 

galaxy filter yo

 

 

The sales assistants at the Bobbi Brown counter, I have to say, were extremely lovely. She had me matched up and checked out in a couple of minutes and the store was absolutely rammed. Good work, lady.  This is the Concealer Kit in Ivory, which contains the Ivory Creamy Concealer and the Pale Yellow powder. As you can see, both items are peach/yellow toned to help combat the blue tones under the eye. Bobbi Brown does correctors as well, but I already have a cream pigment from Illamasqua –among other brands – that I really like for correcting.

 

 

I got excited with stupid filters, but you can see this is a really small little kit. More on that later, but the words ‘handbag friendly’ were made for this set!

 

 

Let’s do a couple of before and afters, shall we? I do apologise for the horror of the naked face, but I done a bit of smizing for you. I think that’s a good smize.

This a light layer of the concealer pressed in with my finger and then set with the powder, blended with the fluffy brush shown above. As I mentioned, I hate wearing concealer under the eyes because they always crease on me, so I don’t like wearing anything that feels too heavy. I have worn this with a little more layered on and it obviously conceals better, but I just honestly prefer not to wear much there. It’s not exactly dry, but it’s quite thick so I’d still recommend using your finger as opposed to a brush to help it ‘melt’ into the skin. The powder is possiblly a little on the dry side for my liking but you really do only need a touch of it to set the concealer - it does it's job.

 

You can still see some darkness afterwards but my dark circles are pretty nasty at the moment. I really like how this combats the both darkness and also the redness I have around my eye area – you can see on the second before photo I have redness in the corner of my eyes and some under my eye socket as well. So I’m pretty happy with the results! It works nicely on blemishes too, but I tend to touch my face a lot (I know, I know) so it does wear away a little quicker than I would like on them, but that’s probably my own fault.

 

It wears pretty well too – honestly, I’ve never worn a concealer that *doesn’t* crease under the eyes, and this doesn’t claim to be long wearing and it does better than some that do. I apply my makeup at around 7pm in the morning and tend to touch up around 3pm after my lunch break and this needs a little re-blending around that time, so not too bad at all.


I’m going to say this straight – this shit is expensive. You get 5.9 grams for £24.  My last concealer I was using from Collection costs about £4, so it’s a bit ‘ouch’! It is good, but expensive. I’m fine with that because I really like the product, but if I find something else I like equally for cheaper, I’m going to go for the cheaper version! I do find I’m only using a small tiny amount of the concealer but I’m still concerned that I’m going to run out of the concealer way before the powder.

Are you a Bobbi Brown fan? What's your favourite under-eye concealer?

Um…A Vibrating Sponge?

Yep, I'm totally serious. While buying cute nail polishes from Korea a while back I stumbled across this utterly bizarre thing and for some reason, found myself putting it in my basket.  The claims of “more strong 4D vibration”  were just too much. I don’t want 2D vibration. I don’t even want 3D vibrations. I want 4D. 4D VIBRATION. Please read the listing I just linked because it is a beautiful thing. They apply foundation on an orange.

The sponge comes in a shiny metallic packaging and looks rather cute - there's a choice of gold, pink or blue casing. Inside is your sponge, which is a decently thick, dense disc-shaped latex sponge on a plastic backing which clips into the egg. You can detach the sponge to wash it and you can buy three refills on eBay for a few quid.

And then, of course, there's a little button on the side to make it vibrate. I really don't know what the deal with this is supposed to be. I guess it feels nice (ON YOUR FACE, YOU VILE CHILDREN) and it seems to apply things a little more smoothly than a normal sponge, but I don’t see any major application benefits to be honest.

So. Its.... um... well, it's a sponge. And it vibrates. Yeah. I really don't understand this product! I mean, it's kind of cute and the listing is hilarious. If you're the type of person who uses a sponge, I guess it's nice to have one in a case that closes up and doesn't bum around the bottom of your makeup bag, collecting pencil shavings and miscellaneous lipstick smudges. Other than that.... well, I bought it because I'm childish, what can I say?

If you want to try this out, you can get it here on eBay for just under £5.

Quickie Review and LOTD: Loreal Paris Colour Riche eyeshadow quad in Trésors Cachés

Curiosity killed the cat… Having misplaced a lovely khaki eyeshadow my friend Wendy sent me, I went searching in Boots for something similar and picked up this little quad. I’ve barely tried any L’oreal products at all but somehow this found its way into my grubby mitts.

 

 

 

The quad is slim and compact – it’ll fit easily in your makeup bag. It feels very light – no heft to it at all really - and doesn't have a mirror, but I always carry one with me regardless so not a problem in my opinion.

 

The khaki colour was pretty much what I was looking for!  It didn’t have the olive sheen of the one I’d lost and was looking to replace, but I liked the shade and I  thought I could probably get away with it for work. The blackened cranberry colour looked interestingly vampy too. The black and gold colours I was less impressed with, but as this little quad was so compact I didn’t mind two colours I wasn’t overly impressed with.

Eyes: Loreal Trésors Cachés quad, just over primer.
Cheeks: Borjouis Delice de Poudre bronzer. Sleek Suede
Lips: L’Oreal Colour RIche Collection Privee Lipstick in Cheryl: Barely Greige

 

 

 

I don’t really know what to say about this quad… I kind of don’t have any strong feelings about it either way. The khaki and gold colours look lovely layered together, and the cranberry shade either has the bonus or the downside of blending out to a reddish brown, depending on your preference. Applied over a black base or brown base it retains its cranberry-ness, and is a decent colour to put in the crease if you're wearing a rosy shade on your lids. The charcoal colour is nothing to write home about at all. The texture of the whole set is pretty decent but again, nothing to write home about. "Trésors Cachés" translates into "Hidden Treasures" and for me that's not really true. "Alright for Work, Not The Worst" isn't such a catchy name really though, is it?

 

I have nothing negative to say about this palette, but I can’t find anything overly positive to say about it either. Do you ever feel that way?

L’Oreal Colour Riche Quads are £7.99 from Boots.