Too Faced | A Few Of My Favourite Things Palette

After Christmas, I had my heart set on one thing and one thing only: the Too Faced 'A Few Of My Favourite Things' palette. The palette was limited edition for Christmas and was sold out everywhere, but I ended it up purchasing it on eBay for just a little higher than the original price (RRP £48.00). Now I know that seems pricey for a bit of makeup but this palette is so beautiful and comes with so many extras I just couldn't resist. (The following post is photo heavy, beware!). 

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

MAC | Temperature Rising Eyeshadow Quad

Originally I was never going to get anything from the MAC Temperature Rising, but one thing led to another and here we are! 

from l-r clockwise - performance art, temperature rising, swelter, beauty marked. 

MAC Temperature Rising Eyeshadow Quad: £38.50 - 

I am so so glad I purchased this. This quad is seriously one of the most beautiful things I've owned. My pictures don't do it justice but the colours are really stunning. The colours are as follows; 

Performance Art; a frosted golden mauve. 

Temperature Rising; a light warm toned peach. 

Swelter; a mid-tone grey violet.

Beauty Marked; a charcoal black with red pearl. 

I've been loving wearing performance art all over the lid with swelter in the crease and beauty marked to darken up the outer crease. It's such a beautiful palette and surprisingly wearable. It's really versatile too! You could pop temperature rising all over the lid for an everyday look, or use beauty marked to go for a full on smokey eye.

At nearly forty quid this quad is pretty pricey, but I know I'll get use out of this, unlike loads of other palettes I've impulse bought. The quality is up to MAC's usual standards (beauty marked can be a little difficult to work with, but it is a glittery black!) and I have no regrets!

I couldn't get any decent swatches, but if you head over to Heather Davern Make Up (http://www.heatherdavernmakeup.com/2013/05/mac-bare-my-soul-temperature-rising.html) she has some beautiful swatches and a gorgeous FOTD using this palette. 

Fiona xox

Urban Decay | The Glinda Palette

I just couldn't resist this palette from Urban Decay. I was so excited about the release of the Oz The Great and Powerful palettes and decided to order The Glinda Palette, as it was something a little different. As beautiful as the Theodora palette was, I already own umpteen neutral palettes!

Urban Decay Oz The Great And Powerful, The Glinda Palette: £35.00 via Debenhams - 

Firstly, let me talk about how good value for money this palette is. You get six full sized Urban Decay shadows (two are duos), a mini 24/7 glide on eyeliner in Rockstar, and a full sized super saturated lip colour in Glinda. That's over £100.00 worth of products, for £35.00. Bargain! 

The packaging is also another plus. Its absolutely beautiful, like a glittery cloud. The case is made of the same tin as the Naked 2 palette and the Build Your Own palettes. And guess what? It is a build your own palette, as the eyeshadows inside are removable and can be replaced! 

The six shades in the palette are all very girly (to reflect the good witch Glinda, of course!), and are all up to the usual Urban Decay high quality.

There's Tornado - a dark purple with shimmer. 

Aura - a white duo shade with one side blue iridescent and the other pink iridescent. 

Magic - a pinky purple shade with gold shimmer. 

Illusion - a pale peach with shimmer. 

OZ - The second duo, metallic gold and metallic silver both with that pesky UD chunky glitter! 

South - A taupe/grey with shimmer and fine glitter.

The Super Saturated lip pencil in Glinda is a lovely pinky nude with an almost metallic finish, I really love it! I'm tempted to try more of these pencils from Urban Decay now. 

I should have swatched this and the Rockstar liner, I'll add a pic in at a later date.

The palette also comes with a 'get the look' card. All in all this is a great set, a real hit for Urban Decay. It feels like they've really taken their time with the Oz palettes, they don't feel rushed like some other releases. They seem to have pushed the boat out here, as its such good value for money! Plus you can refill with similar shades when you run out of one! 

Urban Decay gets a 9 out of 10, just get rid of that chunky glitter! 

Fiona xox

Sleek i-Divine | Au Naturel Palette

 I definitely should not have bought this Sleek iDivine palette in Au Naturel: £7.99 from Superdrug and www.sleekmakeup.com - I own so many neutral palettes I will never ever use them all up! I definitely didn't need this high street beauty. But I've heard so many good things about the eyeshadow palettes from Sleek, and its very rare I'm near a Superdrug with a Sleek stand

It came in this cute little box. The packaging itself is the usual sleek (no pun intended!) offering from Sleek, plain black with their logo on. 

The palette contains 12 eyeshadows, mostly matte, ranging from pale all over the lid colours to an extremely pigmented matte black. 

My first six swatches aren't very good, apart from the sixth, a shimmery champagne. The rest are all matte shades with an almost white, pale grey, light brown and two peachy pale shades. They don't swatch well but come across nicely on the eye. 

I had better luck with the bottom row of eyeshadows, which are a mixture of matte and shimmery browns, a matte burgundy and a matte black. The least pigmented was the burgundy shade, and the most was the black! That's serious pigmentation for a matte black, I'm impressed.

Overall, I'd say that though I didn't need this palette it is really nice and I will use it! 

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

 





Urban Decay | Naked Basics Palette

I cracked. I completely fell for the hype, ignored my spending ban and purchased the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette. I've slapped myself on the wrist for breaking my spending ban, but I don't regret buying this at all!

Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette - £20.00 (currently £18.00) at Debenhams.com:

 

I'd heard the palette was tiny, but I had no idea. Even the box fools you into thinking its bigger, but the palette is cleverly suspended inside the box and is about a 1/4 smaller! It fits on my flat hand easily, with room to spare. It really seems like the perfect palette for popping in your hand bag or holdall if you're travelling light.

 

The palette contains six eyeshadows, 5 matte and one with slight shimmer. Venus is a lovely white shimmer, Foxy is a yellow toned nude, Walk Of Shame is a pinkier nude, Naked 2 is a nude taupe, Faint is a medium brown and Crave is a brown/black. All of the colours are really creamy and pigmented, apart from Crave which seems slightly harder to swatch and blend.

 

At £20, you can't really complain. There's more than one dupe for MAC eyeshadows which are £10-£12 each, so technically you're saving money by buying the UD palette!

 

I definitely think I'm going to get a lot of use from this palette, I wear neutral eyes a lot, especially mattes, so for me really, Urban Decay couldn't have brought out a better product!

 

Fiona xox

Wet n' Wild | 8 Colour Eyeshadow Palettes.

Hello again lovelies! After the summer, lots of lovely bloggers were showing off their hauls from America. And I was jealous, really jealous! So I couldn't resist, and purchased three of the Wet n' Wild 8 colour eyeshadow palettes from Ebay.

l-r: petal pusher, comfort zone, blue had me at hello.

These aren't available here in the UK, but you can find them online! I got three palettes, Petal Pusher with pink and purple shades, Comfort Zone with neutral and green shades, and Blue Had Me At Hello, with blues and silvers. In the US they retail at $5.00 each I think, and I paid just over £20.00 including postage and packaging.

 

Comfort Zone: This is the neutral palette out of the three I bought. It has a nice range of creams, bronzes, beiges and greens, and an interesting colour that's a dupe of MAC's 'Club' eyeshadow. 

 

Petal Pusher: This is the pink and purples palette. It has lilacs, purples and some burgundy shades. It has a really good dupe for 'Tainted' (a lilac with golden shimmer) from Urban Decay's 15th Anniversary Palette. 



Blue Had Me At Hello: Unfortunately this palette smashed a little on the way over, but only a tiny bit so I'm not too bothered. This palette has a great mix of blues, silvers and black eyeshadows. It has dupes for Urban Decay's 'Deep End' (the gorgeous teal), and 'Evidence' (the denim blue colour), also from the 15th Anniversary palette.

These shadows are really creamy and pigmented. I love that they're printed with 'browbone', 'eyelid', 'crease' and 'definer', giving you an ideas for how to use the shadows! I think for being 'drugstore' products in the US, they're really high quality. I'll definitely get a lot of use from Comfort Zone, as I love a neutral eye.

I'd really recommend these for anyone who can get a hold of them. For the price, they're fantastic quality. If I ever get to go to America, I'll definitely be buying more.

I'm actually on an eyeshadow spending ban right now, I own far far too many eyeshadow palettes and I'll never get through them unless I stop buying them! But I'll be back with hauls of other products, favourites and plenty of other posts! Bye for now,

 

Fiona xox

MUA Undressed Palette

I'm sure everyone has seen this palette already, but its the 'Undressed' palette from MUA, the famous dupe for Urban Decay's original Naked palette!

MUA Undressed Palette - £4 from Superdrug (currently on offer for £3).
This really is a good dupe for the Naked palette, the colours are really similar, and the quality of the shadows are great. I never really fancied the Naked palette, the colours didn't tempt me enough to shell out £36. For £3 I get all the different looks I could create from the Naked palette without the price tag.

Compared to MUA's other neutral palette 'Heaven and Earth', this one comes out on top. I've actually thrown out most of my Heaven and Earth palette and depotted the rest to use up (I hate waste, but sometimes you just have to get rid of stuff if you're not using it and you can't sell it!).

I really suggest going out and buying this palette if you're a lover of neutral eyeshadows. You can create anything from a soft daytime look to a full on smokey eye for evening.

Bye for now! :) xx

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 

 





Born In The USA: Kat Von D Sinner Palette

Hello lovelies! I'm very excited to show you what my lovely Auntie, Uncle and cousins brought back for me from Florida! Its the Kat Von D for Sephora True Romance Eyeshadow Palette in Sinner!

For those who don't know who Kat Von D is, she's a very famous American tattoo artist, and one of the best out there. She has her own television show LA Ink, and her own makeup line with Sephora stores in America! 

The outer packaging.

Firstly, the palette comes in a beautiful box covered in tattoo designs! Stars, lightening bolts, skulls and filigree, everything you would expect from Kat Von D. It opens up like an envelope, and unlike most of the other boxes makeup comes in, I'll be keeping this for sure.

My lovely Sephora bag, which I'll also keep!

The palette itself is made out of a black metal, and is quite small. For its size its quite heavy! It has the same tattoo art from the box embossed on the lid. It contains 8 eyeshadows, and a mini Kat Von D Autograph Pencil in Puro Amor, a black as black can get black! It retails for $36, which is around £24 in sterling. Not too bad!

The palette springs open, and has a big mirror the whole size of the lid. The only downside is that in order to use the mirror you have to hold it open rather than it sitting up of its own accord.

And now for the good bit!

l-r: disco dust, linzy-jane, ace of spades, violator, holy bible, glock, dorian gray, lucifer

Disco Dust: Pale shimmery pink.
Linzy-Jane: A medium shimmery purple.
Ace Of Spades: Gorgeous dark purple/eggplant with pink and purple glitter.
Violator: A dark silvery grey with pink and purple glitter.
Holy Bible: Silvery white with lots of shimmer.
Glock: Gunmetal grey with, yet again, lots of shimmer.
Dorian Gray: Dark silvery grey, basically Violator but without the glitter.
Lucifer: A matte black.

Puro Amor: A blacker than black mini eyeliner pencil.

My favourites are definitely Ace Of Spades and Violator, they are both stunning, but all the shades are! This palette is great for creating lots of smoky, dark nightime looks.

I am so so chuffed and grateful to have this palette. I would love to try more from the Kat Von D range, but I don't think I'll be in America anytime soon. However, Ebay is always another option, but more expensive!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have you ever tried any brands from overseas? xx