MUA - Lipstick shade 11

Why don't people wear lipstick any more? When you're in the club and you go to the loo everyone is using a gloss. It doesn't seem to be "cool". Thankfully it seems to be coming back, thanks to bold lip looks that just can't be achieved with a gloss.

Because of how bold a lipstick can be I'm often wary of lipsticks, I'm not that brave to go all out. However, I decided to get an MUA lippy, and I'm so glad I did! When I was younger I used to rock the Coffee Shimmer lippy (who didn't in the 90's?) and I remember it was quite dry and didn't last that long before it started getting a bit patchy. This is brilliant.

No, it doesn't last hours and hours, but it lasts long enough to last between touch ups without looking bad, it's lovely and soft not at all dry, it almost feels conditioning. Again they use numbers and not names for their shades, which still bugs me, but Shade 11 is a nice nudey pink colour, I'd say it comes off lighter on my lips than it seems in the tube, which is good for a lipstick-phobe like me.

As an aside, I hate my camera, it makes images so clear it shows every little hair, I look like a chimp so for my own ego I had to crop this right down, I still look like I have a monster 'tash!! *checks mirror*

I really shouldn't sign out of Blogger...

Because I always forget my password!!

Honestly, I try to be safe and secure and have a password no-one will guess, and I always forget it! I'd write it down somewhere but I'd only lose it.

Has anyone seen the stand in Superdrug for Andrea Fullerton? The polishes look so lush! I didn't want to buy until I'd looked at some other blogs to see them, and the layering ones need to be mine! It all seems decently priced, and finally a nail polish remover in a pumpy uppy tub! I've just bought some on Ebay as well (as well as losing passwords, I'm excellent at dropping open nail polish remover bottles)

Sue Moxley Famous - Purple Dazzle

To the person who decided they should stop selling this at Superdrug and move to Argos - Boooooooooooooooo!

I'm gutted that they're stopping this because I wont be slogging over to Argos when I want a little treat for myself, although I think the half pricey-ness is awesome (although be careful, every single item has gone through at full price every time I've been).

I love, love, love glitter polishes, but I hate, hate, hate taking it off, even with the foil trick. :( But I've tried 5 of these glittery polishes now and each one has been a dream to remove, I'd wear glitter every day if it was as good as this!

Can you see the slight holo?

I wore Purple Dream while I was away this weekend and it held up ok. It's a two-tone polish with flecks of glitter in, it's predominately purple but has flashes of pink and gold. Unfortunatly, unless you're in exactly the right light then you don't see any two tone when it's on your nails as well as you do in the bottle. As with the last polish it goes on nicely, it seems rather thin and watery on the first coat but opaque on the second coat.

I got about 2 days wear out of it, although I did go swimming on the second day and it pretty much all flaked off while I was in the pool. 

With the flash to show the standard colour

George - Shatter Top Coat

George have let me down. :(


I love so many of their products, but I'm just not keen on this. The depth of colour is great, and it's lovely to put on, but that's it.

Asda have brought out a few shades of their new shatter polish, currently on sale at £2 as an introductory offer. I chose to get Silver and Gold because I've already got Barry M's shatters and only tend to use the black one. 

One of my many attempt to make it shatter. Silver

I mentioned it was nice to put on, it is nice and if it was a normal polish I'd be chuffed as monkeys, but it takes a fair long time to dry compared to all the other shatter polishes on the market. This also doesn't seem to shatter well, it more...well...splinters. My other shatter polishes do exactly that, and they look great and get great results even without trying, I had to remove this a few times and apply very thinly to get a half decent shatter otherwise it just looked like streaky polish.

Messy, because I got fed up!

Gold Shatter.

W7 PhotoShoot Foundation - Sand Beige

W7 is becoming quite popular now, I could only get this on the market, but it's popping up in more places.

I spotted this the other week at one of those stalls you see in shopping centres and dapped some on my hand and was lovely and dewy. It was only £2.99 so thought it was worth a punt.

From the bottle it looks very similar to my normal Collection 2000 foundation, but it has one massive draw back. No pump dispenser!! How do they think we get the stuff out? I was having to bash this on the back of my hand to get some out, then trying to get it back in when I used too much, pah! I'm hoping there is something I can buy to decant it into because I hate bottles like this.



Once I got the foundation out, I panicked and thought it was going to be far too yellow, but it blends in beautifully. It's very buildable, and just one layer managed to cover an angry blemish I've been sporting recently, I'd say it gives fair to medium coverage, it feels smooth and not heavy at all.

As for the 16 hour claim, I don't intend wearing it that long, perhaps one day I'll give it a go, at the moment it's looking good and has been on for a fair few hours now.

This is my "that flash is so bright but MUST NOT BLINK" face.

Famous By Sue Moxley

Why can I not find hardley any swatches of these polishes online? They're brilliant!

My lovely, well trained other half clearly has good taste because he actually picked this one up thinking I'd like the colour and I do!

Sue Moxley is currently on sale at Superdrug, all items are half price so when I was in having my weekly mooch, I saw this range (I always ignored it before because I always assumed it was out of my price range) and honed in on the half price label. From what I've read, the range is being removed from a lot of Superdrugs and being sold through Argos which is a shame because its really good from what I've seen. This polish was about £2.49-ish.

I got 3 polishes, which I'll come to in other posts. This one is Shade 14; how dull is it when they don't name them? I'll hereby name this Bora Bora! because it reminds me of the shades of bluey green sea they have there.

It goes on an absolute dream, and opaque in only 1 coat, dries to a high shine and removes nicely as well. The depth of colour is great, and so vibrant. I love it! I think I'll be using this to do some Konad as well because of how pigmented it is, I think it will be perfect.

I smudged this one. :(

ELF Purple Dream Nails

A proper party polish from ELF. It can be bought here for £1.50.

Purple Dream is full of colour and very eye catching, I can see this being wore a lot over the Christmas period. It goes on quite nicely indeed, as I've found with nearly all polishes from ELF and the packaging is lovely!  I don't find their polishes to be the most long wearing of polishes, but then I only tend to wear them for a day and then take them off so it's no odds to me, although I rarely use a base coat so I wonder what it would be like if I did?

Because this dries to quite a high shine and is so rich in colour I thought it would look lovely matte so decided to do my ring finger with my George Matte polish, but in all honesty I don't think it makes a massive amount of difference.

ASDA George Faux Lash Mascara.

George really have stepped up their game haven't they? I really don't know why they're not pushing their make up range harder, it's really pretty decent, especially for the price. I'd love to see more testers out as well, there are none at my local supermarkets.


They have offers on every week so I always accidentally walk down the make up aisle every week, this week they had this new mascara. It's currently on a promotional price of £2.50 and is brand new.


Falsh lash effect mascaras are the new in thing and each one is always promising to do it all, volumise, lengthen and give us those amazing lashes we all wish for, so does this? No. It is still a pretty decent mascara and I will carry on using this but only for a day mascara.

If this was marketed as a lengthening and separating mascara then it would be brilliant.

The wand is so-so. It's very good at getting into the lashes, and is curved like Maybellene Falsies. It's a very long wand and found it very easy to use when I was doing my right eye, once I had to move over to my other eye it all went pear shaped, I ended up making a right mess, I'm not sure if it was down to the length of the wand or the amount of curve in the brush.

I had a little clumping but nothing that would put me off. You do have to be quick if you're building it up because it dries pretty quick and is very hard to add more once it dries. You have to be careful replacing the wand back in the tube as well because you end up with mascara all over the place.

I couldn't get a decent picture at all to show how long this actually made my lashes look, I tried in loads of different lights and everything, but pah, it didn't work but here are the best of a bad bunch.

No mascara.

 

Left: One coat. Right: Two coats

 

Left: One coat. Right: Two coats

 

 

 

Boots 17 - Falsifeye Mascara and Gel Liner

I heard the other day that Boots had a mascara and giving a freebie away with it. Free is my favourite word so after a quick Google I found out it's this little beauty. It currently costs £6.49 and includes the Gel Liner as a free gift.

The claim it makes: Falsifeye your lashes from root to tip for a false lash look that lasts all day. The oversized brush builds corner to corner volume for a full set of oh faux fabulous lashes!

Firstly, I really like the packaging, a nice chunky tube and wand, in a nice bright pink colour (so nice and easy to spot in my mascara drawer). I prefer to have a squareish wand, I'm too clumsy so can hold them steadier. The wand itself is lovely and thick with loads of bristles, I personally find these are the best for giving volume, although tend to not be great at separating.


The formula is quite thick and does come out a fair bit onto the wand so you do have to wipe the end but does coat the lashes nicely . It has a smell that reminds me of when I used to open my Mum's old make up case when I was a little girl, that old make up smell, but isn't noticeable once it's on your lashes. I think this has the potential to be very clumpy, although wasn't too bad when I tried it.


I really quite like it. I'm a bit of an idiot and assume that all mascaras are black so just pick them up, this one is actually Brown Black, but it's still pretty dark. 1 coat isn't enough for me because I like mine to be really full, but would be good for a day look. 2 coats is just nice, I think any more and it would start to get clumpy. There was a bit of fall out but nothing too scary and wore pretty well during the day (and through the night because I was too lazy to take it off). Mind the blurry pictures, they looked ok till I uploaded them. It's hard to tell on these pictures because I've been cursed with those stupid eye lids and I've got my best bags goin' on under my eyes, but they are very thick and look really lush in real life.

Before

Left Eye: 2 coats Right Eye: 1 coat

I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to buy it, I think I'll stay loyal to my Maybelline Falsies for now, but I will be using it again.


As for the freebie, the gel liner, I've never used a gel liner before so I might not be the best to review this because I've never used a gel liner before and wouldn't know a good one if it slapped me in the face and called me Judy! However....This one isn't too bad for a freebie.

The packaging again is very sweet, I'm a sucker for nice packaging. The brush was a bit pants, too soft to give any decent direction and too small, but it's a free brush so never expect much of them. The pigmentation of the liner itself  was very good, nice and black and despite the brush it went on well without tugging at my lids, I managed to put it on and I'm a complete muppet at applying liner.

I put some on the back of my hand and left for a minute before wiping to test the smear factor and uh oh....

Maybe I might be best leaving it longer next time.

E.l.f Haul (Eyes Lips Face)

I'm spending way too much money at E.L.F, well I would be if it wasn't so damn cheap! As little as £1.50 for their normal line and not much more for their studio line. If you "Like" their Facebook page then you get notified of any deals and discounts they're doing. I got this lot as part of a 50% off discount and came to £20.70 including delivery.

I got:

Eye crease brush    
Studio Powder Brush        
Nail Polish in Mango Madness                
                     Mod Mauve           
                     Purple Pleaser    
                     Purple Dream            
Plumping lip glaze in Baby Doll                
                                  Ruby Kiss
Brightening Eye Colour     Brownstone
                                        Ethereal
Mineral Eyeshadow     Socialite
Natural Radiance Blusher Flushed
Studio Bronzer Warm
Studio Blush Berry Merry
Mineral Booster Tinted
Mineral Lipstick Pouty Petal

Can't wait to play with/test them all!

George Sunset Orange

I'm  a big fan of George polishes, and for a quid they're in a perfect bargain price range.

I needed some new summery colours because I seem to have collected a rather lot of blues, purples and other dark colours so was pretty chuffed to find this nice orange colour that's not too in your face but lovely and summery (and it matches a top I have as though it's been made for it!)

  Unfortunately the colour, in the bottle, was the only thing I liked about it. It's a crème polish, the application was messy and didn't seem to go on well for me at all and was difficult to swipe along my nail so ended up with loads of clean up to do around my cuticles; however it only took 2 coats to be opaque. The colour once it was on my nails was almost neon, and certainly got peoples attention, I did have a lot of people comment on it, but it was too bright for me and didn't compliment my skin tone at all. I can't completely comment on the wear because I removed it before the day was up, but I did notice some slight tip wear.

I do have a lot of George polishes and this is the only one I haven't liked so I've done well there. I'm not going to completely write it off, I think I'll use it for franking or using it for nail art because I think it will be pretty decent for using to marble my nails or to do splatter nails with, will have to give it a try.

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection

Foundation has always been my downfall. I've always been terrified of it, I am utterly rubbish at choosing colours that are good for me, they're either too pale or too orange. I ended up using one from Avon forever because it suited me and I was too scared to get anything different.

I asked the brilliant Jen at All that glitters and sparkles and she told me about collection 2000. When I've seen her pics I've always loved how flawless her skin looks and she uses this foundation, and it was pretty cheap from Boots at £5.99 so thought it was worth a punt.

I've got to say, it's one of the best products I've bought all year. I'm more than likely telling you stuff you already know as it seems I came to the party late on this one, but hell you can hear it again. It claims to give 16 hour wear and give flawless coverage, oil free, anti transfer and has the added benefit of being SPF 20 (yes, I always forget to put sun lotion on with make up).

It does pretty much do what it says on the tin. My skin looks great, even without a colour corrector or primer underneath. It gives medium to full coverage but is very light on the skin. My skin tone normally is very uneven, sallow and I generally just look ill all the time, so personally that shows how good this is.

 Shall I show you a pic of me with no make up on? Promise not to balk in disgust? Haha.

Just joking, I'm not that hidious!

Ok there we go, me with my gorgeous, yet filthy little man. As you can see I benefit from horrible pinkness and some yellowy pigmentation around the eyes, and that's me on an alright day!

Now to show you my skin with this foundation, now bare in mind, there are no primers or toners or anything on my face other than the foundation and some translucent pressed powder.

And for a close up of it


Now that was taken a bit into the night (there was much to drink, and I had a part in helping it fulfilling its life's destiny to be drunk) so had been sweating....sorry perspiring... and I still think it looks pretty good.

As for the lasting 16 hours? Well as it shames me to say it, I was a little worse for wear the next morning and yes, I went into work with my make up still on from the night before, I am disgusting I know, but my skin still looked pretty good, people even commented I didn't look as rough as they thought I would do, once it woke up and washed it off the full grimness was there to be seen haha.

I love the pump applicator, it means I can just pump some on the back of my hand and I'm not having to tap the end like a ketchup bottle and ending up with a big honking mess. I tend to put a couple of squirts on the back of my hand and apply it with a slightly damp sponge.

A great little benefit I've noticed, I have a tattoo on my arm which I hate hate hate! I can use this to hide it quite well, it takes a few applications building it up, but it covers it well.

George Nail polish

 I don't like ending on a bad point, so seeing as I hated my last product, I'll post one that I love.

I think I'm a bit late on the band wagon with these but I love them! They keep falling in my trolley when I'm doing my ASDA shop (pesky polishes!) and while there on offer for £1 each then they're my kinda price although for the colour range they do, I'd be more than happy to pay more than that.

I've only managed to get a couple so far, but they never seem to have great stock at my local one, bad times :(.

L-R: Be Mine, Streamer, Magical, Deceit, Blue Lagoon, Starry Eyed.

  OK, they don't have the most amazing sticking power, but for a quid and a gorgeous colour, who cares! So long as it lasts the day then I'm happy because I tend to change my nail polish every day, I've found though when testing they start to chip during day 2 but do show slight wear on the tips sooner. The range is great, when they have them of course, they do loads of different shades of each colour and some look like they should be so expensive. The matte shades are on my to-do list, but I've heard these chip really easily so I think I might invest in a matte top coat first.

Deceit

Baring the pastels (why are pastel polishes so hard to get right?!) the formula on them is great, just the right consistency and only ever need 2 coats. The brush is decent for the price, I've had the occasional stray bristle but nothing major.

Starry Eyed over W7 Black Cherry

Has anyone else got their hands on any of these yet? What's your fave colour?

Technics shimmer powder

This might have a real name other than shimmer powder, the colours might have individual names, but to be honest I don't care. This really is quite pants.

I bought this on sale for 99p from £1.99 and the packaging at first glance did intrigue me and looked quite cool. As you can see it's 1 circle seperated into quarters all eclosed and each has their own applicator brush as a stopper. Quite frankly it is rubbish. The applicator sits in a little spout so in order to get some on the applicator you've got to have it in the tub and shake it a bit. I hate products where you have to use the applicator that comes with it and you can't seem to get enough on it to use your own brush.

The colours: Well, they're a bit "meh". The grey/siver is very nice and I will try to decant this to another tub to use, but the other colours lack any richness and I didn't find they lasted all that well, by the end of my working day they'd pretty much gone from my eyes.

In the Shade

In the sun

 Here are some swatches to show the colours. I really don't recommend these, although maybe others might find them better with a primer?

Bodycare Treats

O.K, so despite telling myself I was nipping into town for a hair cut and nothing else....Well I cheated.

I popped into Bodycare because I needed some more cotton pads and remembered they sold odds and ends of cheap make up. The range as gone quite a bit bigger now. Most of it mainly appeals to the younger teens and clubbers etc. but there were some serviceable items and some for 19p on sale. I did my bit for the economy and decided to get some stuff. 

I'll just do a general post now and cover each item individually when I don't have my cat sprawled all over me.

There is an item missing there which is a white loose eyeshadow and you can't see the polish remover I got. Apparently its formulated for removing acrylics and tough polishes, I'm having a right mare removing my flakies and glitter polishes so thought I'd give this one a go.

The one you can't see as I said was an eyeshadow, I may as well put it on here or I'll forget.

So this one is from a company called Body Collection and the shade is 18501 Ice Maiden. I only paid 89p for it but I found it online in other shades at http://www.lovethymakeup.com (I cannot vouch for this website!) a bit more expensive at £1.99.

I'm not a massive fan of really loose shimmers because I'm really pants at putting them on and they end up all over but I can get over it for a colour like this. The applicator is really rubbish, its a hard rounded tip a bit like an eye liner blender so I just used a normal brush and swiped from the applicator.




Getting back to the colour, it is very shimmery and iridescent. I tried and failed to pick up just how sparkly and pretty this is. The colour as you can see is white, but there are flashes of blues, pinks, lilacs and greens. It's not very pigmented, but I do wonder what it would be like with some sort of primer or blending medium, I think it has potential. I could never wear that colour as a base though anyway so it makes no odds to me.

Apparently these are supposed to be good for layering but I just used it on the inside corners of my eyes for the old trick of making them look wider. I used it on a night out with work (which was fab by the way, I went on the karaoke and had to be near wrestled to the ground to get the mic from me) and it lasted all night. For 89p I'm extremely happy about how this one performed and will most certainly be using this again.