MUA Eyeshadows

I recently picked up 4 new eye shaodws from the MUA pound line at Superdrug. This line is well known for it's super pigmented shadows for the excpetionally low price. You get a lot of product for the price to. I picked up some of the new colours and some older colours to.

The first colour that you can see here is shade 24 and that has a pearl finish meaning it's shimmery. This is one of the new colours that have been brought out. It would call it something like a pinky plum colour. It's a beautiful colour and it looks great on the skin.

 The second colour that you can see is shade17 and that's a matt finish. It's an amazing matt shadow and really is matt which is something that most brands struggle with. The colour is pigmented but it might be hard to see in the swatches because it's a skin tone colour. The swatches will be at the end of the post.

 The third colour is shade 11 and that's a pearl finish. It's a nice brown colour, maybe a medium brown, and it has a great finish.

The last colour is shade 30 and its pearl again. it's a beautiful gold/bronze colour that looks slightly orange on the skin. It looks great blended with other shadows. 

HAUL - Oh my... ELF!

So, when ELF had there 50% sale a week or so ago I put in an order for some bits that I wanted and was planning to order anyways. It was just a bonus that I got the items half price.


Here ELF haul for you all. They are kind of random products and don't real go together but they are super good from what I can tell so far.

1) Cream eyeshadow duo in Sugar Cookie
From my quick swatches and one use of this product it seems okay. It's not the most pigmented colour in the world but it's ont to bad. I tried to use it as a base for powder shaodws but it's not go either. It makes the powder shadows stick to it and it creases super easily. The powder doesnt spead evenly because the product is so sticky. I would say that this would be good for a quick sweep of colour but not much more than that to be compeltly honest.

 2) Studio Bronzer - Warm bronzer
I haven't used this yet on my face but I have done swatches of the individual colours and the mix of colours. They come out quite pigmented when swatched so that seems like a good sign. I can't really way much more on it than that.

 

3) Brightening Eye Colour Quad - Ethereal 

This is a good quad for the price. I really do like it and would pay more for it if it was in a different brand for a more expensive price. The four colours aren't really what I wanted and they looked a lot different on the site but I should know by now that internet swatches are never true to the colour. You get an ivory colour which I assume is a highlight colour. You get an orange and pink colour that I cant really use because they dont suit my skin tone and you get a brown colour that I love. The only problem I can think of with this is the size of the product. The eyeshadow pans are really small and an awkward shape to get a good amount of product on the brush. It probably would have been ok with the sponge applicator that came free with it but I cannot use the sponge applicators so I never tried it.

 

 4) Daily Brush Cleanser: 

I have yet to try this product so comments about how well it works cannot be made yet but I must say that I was shocked with the size when it turned up. I was expecting something much smaller considering all the other elf products that I've brought. Normally the items turn up much smaller in size than I expected but then again for £1.50 or £3.00 you cant really expect to get the biggest products. You get 250 ml of prodcut and I was expecting the bottle to be the size of the setting mist that ELF sell which is 60 ml.

 5) ELF professional fan brush
I haven't used this brush to apply make up yet but it feels nice when you feel it. (if that makes sense). It's clearly synthetic but it's still soft and I'd be happy to use it on the face without hesitation. I'm not entirly sure what I would use the brush for but the packages say that the unique shape blends away mistakes, and that it dusts, wipes and contours powders. It also says that it can be used to create a soft wash of colour over the cheeks and to apply a touch of loose powder to cover shine. It's also states that it's a blending aid. The packaging makes it sound very diverse but the jury is still out on this brush.

 6) ELF professional Blending Eye Brush
I brought this as a replacement for my old blending brush (the same brush from ELF) because the top metal section broken off the end. I had planned to glue it back together but ditzy me lost the handle.  The first brush I had was brilliant and that's why I brought the same brush again but, having not used it yet, I can say that this one is not as good as the other one. It's sheading like mad and the other one didn't and I can already feel the top losening so glueing will occur very soon. The packaging says that the brush "expertly" blends multiple eye shades while softening dramatic and fine lines. It says that it can also be used to set powder or with liquid concealer.

 7) Therapeutic Conditioning Balm - Orange Creme
I've tired this once and it felt soooo good on my lips. It smells amazing and the colour doesnt transfer so it looks good too. If you have some driness under the lips you won't look like a complete idiot with a colour under you lips. It suggests using it at bed time for the best results so I will try that and see if it makes a difference but I will definatly be keeping this in my bag to use in the day. And I have to mention  it again but the smell is soo good. It kinda makes my mouth water.

 8) ELF Kabuki Brush
The box doesn't state what kabuki brush this is but I think it's the mineral brush and the face edition rather than the body one. I haven't used this yet so I can't say much but it is sheding a little and the top is uneven. It feels okay on the skin and I'm sure it will do it's job. It's said that it can provide light to full coverage. The compact size is meant to be helpful for precise and controlled application for blush, bronzer, powder and highlighter.

 9) Studio Cream Eyeliner - Ivory
The pot for this is oversized for the amount of prodcut that you get but from what I've read many ELF products are like that. The colour it's self is good. It wasn't what I expected but it's nice and I can definatly work with it. It's more shimmery than I expected but I like it and I'm glad it's got a shimmer. You do get a small brush with it and the brush is good. I almost never use the free brushes but I will definatly keep the brush and use it with the liner.

 

The above pictures are the liner and you can see the oversized packaging and the picture below is the free angled brush that you get with the liner. It's good. The only problem I can foresee with this would be that it might be awkward to use because it's so small (short). 

10) ELF professional smudge eye sponge
I haven't used this but i can't see much going wrong with it because it's not got bristles or anything like that. I got this because i used to have an eye liner that had one of these sponges on the end and it was a great tool to have. W wanted something more permenant and i can finally through the stubby little eye liner away now. Whoop!

 11) Natural Eyeshadow Palette
This palette looked amazing on the site. It had all the colour that I wear everyday and it came true to the colour, I think. It was what I expected anyways. The packaging is hard (I mean epically hard) to open. For that reason i may not reach for it as much as the other palette that I brought this week. I would so swatches but my camera is awful and wouldn't give you a true idea of the colours. You do get a free brush and I will keep it because it's finally not a sponge. Its not the best, nor is it the worse.

12) Zit Zapper
I haven't used it and there isn't much to say about it but I have high hopes just because it seems to always be out of stock and that must mean that it's popular.

Colour XXL

So about 4 weeks ago I died my hair using Colour XXL in the colour cyber purple. The colour on the front of the box looked light and truly purple. I thought, with my hair being kinda dark to start with so I was hoping that the colour would stay at the same darkness with a purple tinge rather than a red tinge that I had before. This didn't happen. The colour came out super dark and nothing like the purple on the front of the box. I followed the instructions down to the last word and left the dye on for the amount of time I was meant to. I've gorwn to like my hair, and it has faded but at first it looked almost black on my hair. I do have dry hair and some damage so I know that it would be absorded a bit more but I still didnt expect it to be black.

Another point is that the colour does not stop washing out of my hair. It's like it's semi permentant colour. In fact, the semi permenant colours that I've used in the past have washed out less than the Colour XXL colours I've used. I have used 2 colours from this range, one was red passion and that was similar I washed my hair. I have yet to find and colour that doesn't stop washing out of my hair when i've died it. If anyone knows why this is or if there is a reason or something along those lines then please let me know because it's really annoying.

So, this is just my little mini review on the Colour XXL range that you can pick up anywhere. It's not bad on this range because every range that I have used have run out of my hair and washed out all the time. I think it might be my colour choices.

Oh My... ELF!!

I ordered some bits and things from ELF when they had 50% off and they had free shipping for orders over  £30. So, I got £60 worth of cosmetics for £30 which I think is awesome. But anyways this post is on the brushes that I brought from ELF. I got one from the studio range, which was £1.50 and the other brushes I got were from the refular range and cost me 75p (thats with the 50% off).

Lets get into this:

So, Ill start with the studio brush that I got:

 

The stipple brush that I got was from the studio line and more epensive than the regular line but when you compare prices of ELF brushes to others makes like MAC, £3 isn't all that bad. This is a good brush. It's nice and soft and it applied powder really well. It does say on the packaging that it can be used to apply foundation to. I used this brust to apply liquid foundation and it just wasn't good. I used three times the amount of foundation because of it and the brush just stuck together and didn't blend the foundation at all. I ended up having to rub the foundation over the skin with my fingers and another foundation brush. 

 

I haven't used this brush yet but it feels soft considering it cost £1.50. I'll update when I do use it 

 This is a blending brush that I got. It's good. It's just as good as the GOSH one that I got in superdrug for about £6 which is more expensive that this brush for £1.50. I actually got this brush for 75p with free shipping. (Much love to ELF for that!!)

 

This is another brush I got. It's a concealor brush but it's my only real HATE from my haul. It's actually the smallest brus1`you can think of and it's impossible to apply and blend concealor with it. Check out my wearable look to see what my ususal concealor brush looks and compare the stupid size of this brush to the normal sized concealor brush.

TREND! Back to the 70's

Would You Rather (Beauty) TAG!!

1. Would you rather go out with messy hair and nice make-up or nice hair and no make-up?
I would defiantly say that I would go out with messy hair and nice makeup…my hair is always messy so it’s not a big choice.
2. Would you rather shave your eyebrows or have your eyelashes fall out?
OMG! Such a hard question. I look sooo silly with my brows filled in so I think I would look stupid with pencilled in brows but I cannot live without my mascara. Ermmm if I have to choose it would be bye bye eyebrows and a new hair style with a long fringe (or bangs!)
3. Would you rather be forced to shop at only MAC or Sephora for the rest of your life?
As I live in the UK, I don’t have a choice. MAC all the way.
4. Would you rather wear lipgloss/lipliner look or 80′s perm?
Lipgloss/Lipliner, not question. My hair doesn’t need any help being curly!
5. Would you rather leave the house with an obvious foundation line or overdone blush?
It would really be a question of how bad they both were (god that’s a boring answer). Ermm overdone blush probably.
6. Would you rather wear MC Hammer pants or biker shorts in public?
MC Hammer Pants  but I give this answer in a naive way because I have no idea what MC Hammer Pants are but I do know how awful biker shorts are so I’ll go with awful pants haha.
7. Would you rather have a bad orange-y spray tan or really weird tan lines that can’t be covered?
Orange tan (and lots and lots and lots of foundation and powder so I can change it or dull it down haha)
8. Would you rather have a bad haircut or bad hair color?
bad hair colour, it can more easily be changed.
9. Would you rather have youtube or twitter taken away?
Twitter… No question at all
10. Would you rather give up using makeup brushes or mascara?
Brushes!!! I’m obsessed with mascara. I have like 10 (and that is no exaggeration)

Ravishing Red