lllamasqua Sale Haul

I'm a bit late in posting this but I picked up a few bits in the Illamasqua post-Christmas sale. I bought two powder blushes in Lover and Tremble for £7.50 each and a lipstick in the shade Magentism for £5.00. Not a bad wee bargain!

NARS Holiday 2013 | Guy Bourdin One Night Stand Blush Palette

from l-r clockwise: Devotee, Mistinguette, Orgasm, Goulou, Deep Throat and Laguna

NARS Holiday 2013 Guy Bourdin One Night Stand Blush Palette: £45.00

Okay! I think you've all already seen this, but here it is again, the NARS Guy Bourdin 'One Night Stand' Blush palette! I couldn't resist. I've heard some pretty controversial things about Guy Bourdin and his photography, and I've even heard bloggers say they would refuse to buy from this collection on principle. Art will always be controversial so I wasn't going to let that get between me and this palette. 

It consists of four blushes, a highlighter and a bronzer. The highlighter Devotee is so shimmery: a bit much for daytime but a gorgeous highlighter for evenings out. Then there are three best selling shades, the famous Orgasm and Deep Throat blushes and the Laguna bronzer. Mistinguette is the terrifyingly bright pink (top middle) that swatches a little less scary. Finally Goulou (bottom right) is a gorgeous shade that I can only describe as "if Orgasm and Sin had a baby..." 

The size of the palette was a little dissapointing, I think NARS just seem to have a habit of producing tiny palettes for a huge price. However it does seem to be deceivingly small, as each blush apparently contains 4g, in comparison to a normal NARS blusher which is 4.8g. So you're getting 6 products at 4g for the same price as two 4.8g blushes, not bad!

I've been lazy and haven't swatched this for you but Beautezine has a fabulous post on this: http://www.beautezine.com/nars-one-night-stand-blush-palette-for-holiday-2013-review/

Even though this is a 'holiday' release, most of these shades seem suited to the summer holidays rather than wintertime, but the more shimmery shades do feel rather Christmassy. All in all this is a lovely palette and if you can get your hands on it, do. 

Fiona xox

MUA 2013 New Blusher Shades | Cupcake, Bon Bon & Candyfloss

In recent times, I've become a bit of a make up snob. Thats right, I started to turn my nose up at high street beauty and found myself coveting high end only products. Bad Fiona. But, due to being an unemployed student with a make up addiction, I found myself attracted to these new shades of  blush from MUA! And boy am I glad I picked these up! 

from l-r: MUA 2013 Blusher in Candyfloss, Cupcake and Bon Bon: £1.00 each -

I seriously love these blushes. Especially at the very budget friendly £1.00 each! MUA have released six new shades of blush in 2013 with shiny new packaging. Candyfloss, Cupcake and Bon Bon are the three more 'wearable' shades in the range. 

Candyfloss is a purpley pink with shimmer, Cupcake is a matte nude peach and Bon Bon is a matte peachy pink, almost coral. They're all pigmented, but you do need to work with them a bit otherwise they can look patchy on the cheeks! Nothing a little blending won't fix. 

Cupcake is definitely my favourite from the bunch and has inspired me to try more peachy shades in the future. And at £1.00 I can repurchase it again and again. These are pretty small with only 2.4g of product, but again, they're only a pound, and perfect for popping in your handbag. These are definitely coming on holiday with me as I won't worry about losing them, I may even pick up the rest of the shades when I'm away! 

Fiona xox

Sleek MakeUP | Mirrored Pink Blush

Another post on the new blush from Sleek! 

Sleek MakeUP Aqua Collection Limited Edition Blush in Mirrored Pink: £4.49 via Superdrug - This is the latest offering from Sleek, a new blush that's part of their Aqua collection. 

The packaging is pretty standard for Sleek, classy black with some extra writing to show this is a limited edition product. The outside box is really pretty but other than that theres nothing to shout about. 

But the colour itself, I could shout about that! It's a similar finish to their famous Rose Gold shade, except this blush is more of a blue pink and the shimmer is silver instead of gold! Its really pigmented and the texture is gorgeous, its not chalky in the slightest. 

This isn't a great swatch, but you get the idea. It really is a stunning colour and its a great bargain. The quality of Sleek blushes are great, I don't own that many but the ones I do have I really like! 

I'm not sure when they'll stop selling this, so if you like the look of it grab it while you can! :) 

Fiona xox

Fragrance Direct | Dainty Doll Haul

I jumped on the bandwagon and joined the masses of bloggers purchasing uber-cheap Dainty Doll products from Fragrance Direct! I don't have a lot of money at the moment, but this lot cost me less than £15.00! 

I got all four of the powder blushes at £1.99 each, a cream blush at £1.99 and two lipsticks, also at £1.99 each, bargain! Considering these are only being sold at 1/3 off in Boots its an amazing saving. 

From l-r - Money Talks, Hippy Shake, My Girl and You Are My Sunshine - 

These blushes are great! They are pretty sheer on me as they were designed for really pale skin and although I'm hardly tanned, I'm not beautiful Dita Von Teese pale either. But they make for a nice wash of colour on the cheeks.

Cream Blusher in Billion Dollar Baby - 

This is pinker than I was expecting, but it still makes a nice cream contour without being too ashy. 

Lipsticks in It's My Party and Storm In A Teacup - 

It's my party is the most amazing neon pinky red, the only colour I can compare it to is Stellar from the Rimmel Apocalips. Perfect for summer. Storm In A Teacup is a not too pale shimmery nude, and doesn't make me look like I've got concealer lips, hooray! 

All in all I got an amazing bargain from Fragrance Direct. They don't have much left now but they may restock as they have done before. So grab a great deal while you can! 

Fiona xox 

Inglot Haul

I am so so excited to show you my Inglot haul! I recently discovered that there was an Inglot store in Stirling, about half an hour's drive away from me. So I pestered my lovely parents and today they drove me there! I had some Christmas money to spend so since I won't be back there for a while, I indulged:

I bought two palettes, one 10 eyeshadow palette and one 4 blush palette from Inglot's Freedom System, where you can pick and choose your own colours to pop in yourself. I also got a gorgeous lipstick.

The shop didn't have all the colours I wanted in stock, but eventually I picked these four colours; 55, 33, 25 and 63. I hate that they don't have names! But, on the plus side I've swatched them all and they're all soooo pigmented. The blushes are £6.50 each and the palette costs £10.00.

 

Next up is eyeshadows! I wanted a neutral palette with a few plummy/burgundy shades, and thats exactly what I've got. The colours are as follows; 355, 467, 337, 344, 360, 363, 378, 465, 423 and 452. I chose a mixture of mattes and shimmer shades and two shadows have a 'double sparkle' finish.

 

The shadows are £4.50 each and the palette costs £8.00, which when compared to MAC is so much cheaper. The palettes are really heavy duty and have a magnetic closure so you can take the lid right off.

 

 

Finally I picked up this Inlgot Slim Gel Lipstick - £11.00 in the shade 66. This caught my eye while the shop assistant was looking out the colours for my palette. And its amazing, on the lips it seems similar to MAC's Rebel, but with lots and lots of shimmer and glitter. They had another amazing purple with no shimmer as well.

 

Overall I'm really pleased with my purchases. I'm so impressed by Inglot as a brand and really love their stuff. Now I've been into the store I'd feel more confident buying online as I know what all the finishes look like. And I definiely will because I definitely want more Inglot!

 

Fiona xox

 





ELF Haul

Hello again everyone! Last week, before I went on my spending ban, ELF were doing a 50% off deal on all their products. I bought a few things for Christmas pressies, and more than a few things for myself! So I thought I'd show you what I bought:

I ended up buying a lot of things I've never tried before, and a few of their new products. As always ELF delivered pretty quickly even though they must have been so busy with orders.

ELF Hypershine Lipgloss - £1.50 each.

I bought two of the hypershine glosses for myself in the shades Sugar Plum and Joy. Technically I paid 75p each for these so I can't complaing about much. I'm not a big fan of the whole 'twist brush' thing, but the colours are lovely and the gloss isn't too sticky.

ELF Studio Baked Eyeshadow in Burnt Plum - £3.75

These baked eyeshadows are some of ELF's newest products. They also have some baked blushes and bronzers which I'm dying to get my hands on but they haven't been released in the UK yet.

This is a beautiful purple/red plum colour, its amazing. It really makes my green eyes pop but I do apply some nude eyeliner to my waterline to avoid that 'junkie' red rimmed eyes look. Its so pigmented and really perfect for a winter eye look.

 

 

ELF Studio Single Eyshadow in Pebble - £3.95

 

I love love love this colour. It's like a cross between MAC's Copperplate and NARS' Lhaza. Its a lovely grey taupe. Its not as pigmented as the baked shadow but a few sweeps will do the trick.

 

 

ELF Studio Blushes in Blushing Rose and Berry Merry - £3.75 each.

 

I wanted to try some darker blushes for winter, and as I know my lovely Mummy has bought me NARS Sin for my Christmas, I didn't want to splash out. Blushing Rose and Berry Merry are similar shades, but Berry Merry is more pink toned than Blushing Rose. Berry Merry is also more pigmented.

 

 

ELF Studio High Definition Powder - £6.00

 

I'd been eyeing this up for a while as I was curious to see if/how it worked. So far, I'm not too sure but I'm going to keep trying with different brushes to see what effect I get.

 

 

ELF Studio Small Stipple Brush - £3.75

 

What can I say about this? Its a lovely soft small stipple brush, perfect for highlighting, blush and possibly contouring. I'll definitely get good use out of this!

 

Thanks for reading, bye for now!

 

Fiona xox



Fashionista Custom Design Blush Palette

For months and months, I passed by the Fashionista stands in Superdrug, uninterested in what they had to offer. Finally, earlier this week me and my friend were browsing when we stopped to have a look at the Fashionista stuff.

I was pleasantly surprised to see lots of pretty blushes, and a neat little palette to pop them in. Even better when I seen the offer for 4 blushes or eyeshadows, and a palette, for only £10! Normally the induvidual shadows/blushes retail for £4 each, and the palettes are £5. What a bargain!

So I decided to pick up two blushes, a bronzer and a highlighter shade, perfect for travelling!

The blushes originally came in these little cases, but they easily pop out and into the palette! If you didn't want to go for a whole palette, the induvidual cases are really nice and sturdy.

 

 

Fashionista sell two different quad palettes, red and black. I chose the red because it was really different to other palettes I own and will stand out!

 

 

 

 

A great part of the palette is that you can see the shade names on the back! I got four shades:

New York: A shimmer baby pink with dark pink veining.

Barcelona: A champagne shimmer with veining - perfect for highlighting!

Cinnamon: A dusky matte rose.

Paris: A matte bronzer.

 

Without flash, l-r clockwise from top: New York, Barcelona, Paris, Cinnamon

With flash, l-r clockwise from top: Barcelona, Paris, Cinnamon, New York

 

 

I am so so in love with this palette! Its sleek and pretty, and the blushes/bronzers have good pigmentation. I've created it with travel in mind, but no doubt I'll be using it all the time. I fully intend to go back for more! xx 

 





MAC Marilyn Monroe Collection Haul

Its finally here! The long awaited MAC Marilyn Monroe collection has finally arrived in the UK, and me being me snapped it up on the first day it was on the website. I ordered it on Monday, and it arrived on Wednesday.

I was surprised to find the collection was priced slightly higher than normal, but it was only by a few pounds so it wasn't the end of the world!

 



I got for things, two lipsticks, a blush and a beauty powder!

 

 

The packaging is gorgeous, I wasn't overwhelmed by it when I seen the promo photos, but in the flesh its really lovely, shiny, sleek and very Marilyn.

 

 

MAC Marilyn Monroe Blush in The Perfect Cheek: £19.00

I never planned on buying any blush from this collection, but as swatches started coming through from America, I started falling in love with The Perfect Cheek! Its a pinky nude, and comes off very natural. It takes a few applications to build up the colour, but I really do like it.

 

 

MAC Marilyn Monroe Beauty Powder in Forever Marilyn: £23.50

This is a peachy beauty powder with a very slight shimmer, so essentially a highlighter. Its different from all my other highlighters because its more about the pale colour and less about the shimmer/glitter. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone with skin any darker than an NC/NW25 from MAC, I'm an NW20 and a tiny bit on my cheekbones shows up. But if your a pale girl, definitely give it a go!

 

 

MAC Marilyn Monroe Lipsticks in Love Goddess and Charmed I'm Sure: £14.00 each.

In the photo, these look so similar, but on the lips they're two completely different animals. Love Goddess is a bright pink/red satin finish that is almost magenta, whereas Charmed I'm Sure is a true matte red. They're both really pigmented.

 

 

Overall I'm really happy with what I got from the collection, I could have bought more, but in all honesty I don't need anything else so I'm going to try and leave it alone! Did you get anything from the Marilyn Monroe collection? Or are you planning to? Let me know! Bye for now xx

Smooch Blush in Kookie Crumble

Hello all! Just a quick wee post to show you the most recent addition to my blush collection, Smooch Blusher in Kookie Crumble: £3.99

Smooch are a new, relatively small cosmetics brand, but their products are lovely. The outer packaging is pink with a black lace design, like lingerie! Smooch have based their products around sexy underwear, and this is what they have to say:

"The concept for Smooch came quite simply from a drawer of lingerie. Whilst getting ready for a big night out, Kitty mused over the fact that cosmetics were really like underwear – you have your basics, everyday white, black and nudes. These are the foundation of your lingerie drawer.

Then you have the other section, the items you save for special occasions, the bra with extra lace that offers additional cleavage, the super sheer pants that give you a great bum with no vpl and make your legs go on forever. Cosmetics are a little like your lingerie drawer, you have your everyday basics that you apply without really thinking about it, then you have the special mascara and uber gloss for that big night out."
 

The packaging itself is very simple, a matte black case with 'Smooch' written in pink. Its actually very similar to NARS blush packaging, and I think thats intentional. Its also the same size as ELF blushes, which is handy for storage!

Kookie Crumble is a lovely nudey colour, with slight peach undertones and silver glitter. I think its meant to be a dupe for NARS Sin, although I don't have it to compare (yet!). Unlike lots of other blushes, the glitter and shimmer does transfer onto your cheeks. Its not chalky at all, and is quite pigmented.

Overall, its a great blush, especially for £3.99. I can't say I'd repurchase because I plan on trying NARS blushes first, but I'm definitely impressed! I bought my blush at my local bargain shop, but you can purchase Smooch cosmetics at www.smoochcosmeticsuk.com

Hope you enjoyed this post, I'll be back with more soon! :) xx

Illamasqua Haul

Hello everyone! It was my birthday last week, so I decided to treat myself with some of my birthday money to some Illamasqua goodies! I had 10% off online, plus a 15% off birthday discount, plussss I got two free liquid metals because I spent over a certain amount!

So I thought I'd show you what I got, since its all so gorgeous!

I also got a free sample of their Freak perfume, which smells absolutely amazing.

Illamasqua Powder Blush in Naked Rose.
Illamasqua Cream Blush in Zygomatic.
Illmasqua Cream Blush in Rude.
I got three blushes, one powder and two cream. I bought Illamasquas two most recent launches from their Naked Strangers collection. Naked Rose is a lovely baby pink with a nudey brown undertone, which makes it totally different to a lot of blushes I've seen. Zygomatic is the opposite, a nude brown with pink undertones! I also bought Rude, a gorgeous pastel peach. I was unsure of how the cream blushes would be on my oily skin, but they last surprisingly well and give me skin a dewy glow.

Illamasqua Matt Primer
I finally got the Matt Primer after it being sold out on the Illamasqua website for months. This has a strange texture compared to other primers, its quite runny. I haven't worn it enough to do a full review, but so far, thumbs up!

Illamasqua Eyeshadow in CanCan
CanCan is an incredible colour, its 'electric lilac', and is a match for the Illamasqua nail varnish in Jo'mina. Its really gorgeous, and very pigmented!

Illamasqua Pure Pigment in Static
This pigment is also gorgeous, it doesn't photograph well, but its a white pigment that when applied is actually pink and purple glitter. Its so shimmery and very 'fairy dust'. Its lovely over CanCan.

Illamasqua Liquid Metals in Enrapture and Phenomena.
I got both of these free as part of an 'Olympic Medal' offer, when I spent over a certain amount of money. I already own the gold colour, Electrum. They are so smooth and creamy, and really are like liquid metals!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Bye for now! xx

Sleek Blush By 3 Palette in Lace

Hello lovelies! Last week I noticed Sleek Make Up had restocked their Blush by 3 palette in Lace on their website, amd I quickly snapped it up. They are only available online now, and Lace has been out of stock for months, so I'm so glad to have it!

Sleek Blush By 3 Palette in Lace: £10.00



The packaging is lovely, sleek and black with shiny writing, just what I like! Its not a large palette at all, but a perfect size for travelling.



Chantilly, Guipure, Crochet

It contains 3 blushes, Chantilly, Guipure and Crochet, and boy are they bright! Chantilly is a matte tangerine colour with peachy undertones, Guipure is a shimmery rose gold, and Crochet is a matte bright coral pink. They are highly pigmented, and very very bright! I recommend those with pale skin to apply with caution, and a light hand.

These really are much brighter than in these swatches, but they're so beautiful. I don't have many scary bright colours in my blush collection, so I'm excited to see what they work with!

Hope you enjoyed this post! I'll be back soon with a biggggg Illamasqua haul, but bye for now! xx