Review: VIVO Baked Bronze in Healthy Glow

Just a quick post to tell you about a product I bought a few weeks ago; VIVO Baked Bronze in Shade 3, Healthy Glow. VIVO are not a brand I'm too familiar with. I've seen plenty of reviews of their products, but I've never tried any myself. The brand is exclusive to Tesco supermarkets, so when I nipped in with two of my friends, we couldn't resist having a look at the beauty aisle!

VIVO Baked Bronzer in Healthy Glow - £5.00

I picked up the lightest shade of their Baked Bronzers. I wouldn't actually call this shade a bronzer unless you were very very pale. It makes for an incredible highlighter, and since buying it I've seen lots of blog posts comparing it to MAC's Soft & Gentle MSF. Its great for using during the day if you want to highlight, but don't want to be all out obviously shimmery!

Photo credit: Hima Beauty Shop.

For £5.00, the quality is impressive. The packaging is really sturdy and doesn't feel cheap at all, and you get a whopping 12 grams of product, compared to MAC MSF's which only have 7 grams.

As much as I'm loving my new MSF's from MAC, I think I'll be scoring Soft & Gentle off my wishlist for now. This is just too good a bargain and too close in colour to waste £21.50, when I could buy all the other bronzers in the VIVO range and some of their baked blushes, which is what I fully intend to do! The brand has really impressed me and I'll definitely be going back for more, its great quality and is so affordable!

Hope you enjoyed this post! Have you ever tried any products from VIVO? xx

MAC Heavenly Creature Collection Haul and Swatches

Hello everyone! So, as I'm sure most of you will know, MAC released their Heavenly Creature Collection at the end of last week! I've been excited for the launch of this collection for a while, so  ordered a couple of things!

Disclaimer: I saved up to buy things from this collection. Makeup is my hobby, its what I choose to spend my money on and I started this blog so my makeup wasn't just sitting in my drawers, instead it is providing information and inspiration for other beauty lovers! I'm also on a spending ban after buying these. Anyway, onto showing you what I got!

I got three things, two Mineralize Skinfinishes from the Heavenly Creature collection, and one Mineralize Eyeshadow from the MAC permanent collection. I've been wanting to try MAC's MSF's for so long now, so I was so happy to get my hands on these!

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Star Wonder - £21.50
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Light Year - £21.50
MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow in Young Punk - £16.50

First off, we have the MSF in Star Wonder. These are different from normal MAC MSF's in that they are several colours swirled together. Star Wonder is a beautiful mix of a pale gold, a bright peachy pink and a darker pink that leans towards being mauve.

Next up is Light Year MSF. This is what mainly attracted me to the Heavenly Creature collection, its a mixture of pale nudey peach, a darker pinky peach and a gold swirl.

Finally we have Mineralize Eyeshadow in Young Punk, which was originally part of the 'Style Black' collection in 2009, but was recently added to the permanent collection. Its the most beautiful eyeshadow I've ever come across. It has a black base, with lots of purple and magenta glitter and some silver. I don't wear dark eyes very often anymore, but I think I can easily say this is now my favourite eyeshadow ever.

Now, onto the swatches!

Light Year and Star Wonder without flash.

Light Year and Star Wonder with flash.

As you can see, Light Year is a beautiful peach with lots of gold shimmer. It is quite sheer, and needs to be built up on lighter skins, although it would make a beautiful highlighter on darker skintones. Star Wonder, which I didn't plan on buying at first, has turned out to be my favourite out of the two MSF's. Its a gorgeous peachy pink with again, lots of gold shimmer. Many bloggers have compared it to NARS's famous Orgasm blush. I don't own Orgasm, but I have compared it to another dupe I own, Benefit's Coralista, and they are very similar!

Young Punk, dry and wet, without flash.

Young Punk, dry and wet, with flash.

As you can see, Young Punk applies black with purple and magenta glitter. It can be applied either dry or wet, one of the benefits of the baked eyeshadows, and is so much more intense when applied wet. I've been applying it wet to my eyelid then using a little of it dry to help blend it out. I seriously can't get over how much I love this, I'm so glad its part of the permanent collection now!

I'm so chuffed with what I've bought from the collection. There are so many more things I'd happily have from the Heavenly Creatre collection, I have my eye on the blush in Supernova. But, as I'm on a spending ban, I'll just need to wait and hope the collection is still available after my birthday in August!

I hope you enjoyed this post! I still have lots of posts coming up, even though I'm on a spending ban I've got plenty of things to review for you from the last month of over-spending! xx

Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation & Concealer

Hey everyone! So, as some of you may or may not know, Illamasqua are currently having a up to 60% of sale on their website! With sale items ranging from £5.00 - £15.00, I couldn't not take the chance to pick up some of their normally expensive products for a bargain price!

So, I ordered two items, a foundation and a concealer.

Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation in 150  £21.50 £10.00
Illamasqua Concealer in 210 £13.00 £5.00

Now, in this photo they look far too dark for my skintone, and I was worried at first maybe I'd ordered shades that were too dark. But 150 in the Rich Liquid Foundation is just right for me, any lighter and it'd be too pale! The concealer in 210 is perhaps a little dark (it looks even darker in the photo, its not that bad in real life), but I had limited choice in the sale and with a slight summer tan its working well for me!

Both are really heavy coverage, but have a lovely finish. The foundation does have a tendency to stick to flaky skin pretty badly, so I'd suggest making sure you moisturise before applying this. I can't give you a true estimate on how the foundation lasts, because we're having really humid but wet weather in Scotland, no good for my oily skin!  But I reckon it has a good few hours of wear in it, especially with a good primer. The only other downside is that you need a heavy duty brush to apply this product, as it doesn't blend easily. I use my ELF powder brush, but something even denser would be better.

I completely adore the concealer. I've never had a concealer in a little compact/pot before, the packaging is so cute and it even has a mirror in the lid! I would say this is best applied with fingers, as the product needs to be warmed a little before it becomes pliable.

Hpe you enjoyed this post, I'm really pleased with both these products, what a bargain! :) xx 

Kate Moss for Rimmel Spring/Summer 2012 Lipstick

Hello all! I've been meaning to pop this up for a while! Heres a quick look at one of the new Kate Moss for Rimmel S/S 12 lipsticks in Shade 16.

In all honesty, I wasn't impressed by the new Kate Moss collection. I have three lipsticks from her first offering, which I love. But I felt not much had changed, apart from changing the red signature on the side of the tube to pink, pretty much all of the colours were similar to the original line. Two reds, a magenta pink and some pinky nudes, just made a little brighter for Spring/Summer. However, when I spotted Shade 16 for £3.99 in Superdrug, I couldn't resist.

Its a gorgeous pinky coral, so different from the rest of the range. I would go so far as to say its Rimmel's answer to MAC's Nicki Minaj Viva Glam. Its very similar, its just slightly less bright and less intimidating.

I've yet to find a way to pull this off just yet, but I haven't tried many looks with it, and slapping a bright lippy on with no other make-up just makes me look terrifying!

Its definitely much brighter in real life than in this picture, but not overwhelmingly so. I'd say this was a nice middle of the road lippy for paler girls who found Viva Glam Nicki just didn't work for them. I'm definitely going to get a lot of wear out of this when/if we finally get decent summer weather up here in Scotland!

I hope you enjoyed this post, I'll be back with a wee Illamasqua haul later! :) xx

The Big Creeper Debate

Hello everyone! I've got something a little different for you today - a fashion post. Well, sort of!

As I'm sure you're all aware, 'creepers' or 'those big clunky goth shoes' have now come in to fashion. A long time lover of creepers, I'm thrilled they're now more readily available, in more colours, and much cheaper than they were before big brands like Topshop jumped on the creeper bandwagon, leading to cheaper shoe manufacturers creating 'lookylikeys'. The girly pinks and purples are a much welcome change to the limited colour range before creepers gained their popularity.

However, I'm not sure how I feel about every Tom, Dick and Harry running around in them. Are we going the way of the Doc Marten, where every 12 year old seems to be running around in a pair of pink patent 1490's? These shoes may not be to everyones taste - they're certainly not the most feminine looking footwear! But I feel that many people who would never have considered wearing creepers are only doing it now because the 'fash pack' is telling them to, which is a touch annoying to a long time fan of the brothel creeper. But if you genuinely love these rockabilly style stacked sole beauties, then I salute you!

I'll hopefully be getting my hands on a new cheaper pair of creepers soon, and will do a review of them compared to a more expensive 'original' creeper manufacturer's shoes.

I hope you liked this post, and I hope you can understand where I'm coming from! I'll hopefully have a review of one of the new Kate Moss lipsticks up later tonight or tomorrow! xx