Well, here it is, Sunday evening and tomorrow I start my new job, wahoo! It's got me thinking about how I should do my makeup for my first day. Should I be me? Should I go neutral? etc, I've had a bit of a practice today and I've decided to be me, and not tone it down too much :) I figured, scare them the first day, then they'll be pleasantly surprised when I'm more neutral :) Nah, it won't be that bad, but I am going to wear purple eye shadow which is my favourite.
I'm going to be using my Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette and using both purples, and the smokey grey colour 'ace' to darken it. That, combined with soft cheeks and nude lipstick (or no lipstick) I think will be great.
It's very nerve-racking though, wondering what people will expect, how they will judge - ultimately I will be myself, that was enough to get the job - so why would I pretend to be something different now? Here's a couple of pics of what I intend to do - sorry they're not great quality but you get the idea :)
Nails - black (Rimmel) base with Glitter Ball top coat (Rimmel) Nails are also in desperate need of infills :)
Hey everyone! I have a mini Birthday haul that I wanted to share with you :) I've been a bit slow updating my blog recently, sorry about that. I've basically had 3.5 weeks off work and have just been enjoying them so much, I haven't done much else (other than go to Ireland of course). Now, this post is purely about MUA - and I would like to state that I am not in any way affiliated with the brand, and that I purchased all these products with my own money. I haven not been paid to do this blog, these are my own thoughts and opinions.
So, MUA ran an amazing offer, because they hit 20k likes, they did an offer that if you purchased anything from their online store, they would give away with every order a FREE immaculate palette. Now, that palette was worth £8 which is pretty much their most expensive item as it's a budget brand. An offer you definitely didn't want to miss! So, I took the opportunity to be brave, and get a few things I've been meaning to try, things like a white pencil liner, MUA lipstick etc etc. Here's what I got: MUA Extreme Volume Mascara £2 MUA Lipstick in Shade 6 £1 MUA Intense Colour Liner Pencil in Snow White £1 MUA Extreme Felt Liner in Black £2 MUA Eye Dust in Shade 5 £1 I've also since purchased 2 of their Lip Boom's from their online store which turned up today, which is great timing so I can include them in this post too! I purchased 2 colours, ok.com and Doin Good. They are retailing at £3 each.
Extreme Volume Mascara
I've only worn this volume mascara a couple of times, so I can't give a full in-depth review - however, these are my thoughts so far. It's a really nice formulation, quite a wet formula and gives very pretty eyelashes. My hangup is the brush, it doesn't grip the lashes that well. This can be combated by purchasing lash brushes - you can pick them up for a few pounds on the web and generally come in large packs - if you can find ones you like this would be a great solution as the actual product itself is lovely.
Lipstick
I'm really impressed with thier lipstick. This is the first lipstick in their line that I've tried, it feels very hydrating and buttery in texture. The colour range is nice and contemporary. I purchased Shade 6, which has small silvery glitter in it, this helps give it a nice sparkle and make it look more glossy. A definite thumbs up from me, especially for £1.
Extreme Felt Eyeliner
Now, this felt eyeliner has some staying power, even with makeup wipes it doesn't shift easily, which is a good thing. All too many felt eyeliners either transfer on to my top lid, or wear off very quickly. I always end up reaching for my trusty Chanel liquid eyeliner after trying so many others, but with this one I didn't as much. The only negative for me, was that I didn't find it black enough. When I use liquid eyeliner, I like it to be jet black, whereas I found this to be more of a charcoal black. The brush was quite firm too, so if you're going back over your liner to try to make it blacker, you might find it gets a bit sore, but I'm sure with use that roughness will wear off.
Intense Colour Eyeliner
So far, I've used this Intense Colour Eyeliner twice. It was good, it stayed on for a reasonable amount of time. It's very soft and creamy in texture and blends really well. I don't see it lasting too long because of that fact. Again I refer back to Chanel, I love thier Khol eyeliner, I've had it for ages and it takes a long time to go down. But, there is also a massive price difference between the two, and it's unfair of me to compare MUA to High end brands. In some areas, they do compare (lipstick, liquid eyeliner), and in others, not quite as much. But that's not a bad thing - MUA own the fact that they're a budget brand and they embrace that, as they should. They have some fantastic proudcts, and some I wouldn't re-purchase, but hey, you get that with every brand (even my favourite, Chanel).
Eye Dust
So far I've only used this one eye dust. I love, love, love the colour, the only thing I didn't like as much was that it didn't seem to carry it's intensity through to the application and wear on the lid. It did dull after a short while, and even after blending. It's still a beautiful colour, even after all that. I would like to try more of their colours in that range, maybe a sea / aqua blue or a bright purple, it would be nice to compare.
Immaculte Eye Shadow Palette
What a great palette for them to give away, The Immaculate! 24 colours, most are shimmery, and a couple are matt. Some winners, and sadly, some losers which is to be expected. The below picture I've circled the ones that I think are great, and the ones that aren't so great. Green circles are good, red are bad :)
Oh, and here's some swatches. All swatches were done on clean skin, and without primer. So, these colours would of course intensify when using a primer underneath like Urban Decay's Eye Shadow Primer Potion or the Two Faced Shadow Insurance etc.
One of my favourite colours was the colour, 2nd from the right on the 2nd row down. A shimmary blue colour with gold flecks in it, really stunning - I can't wait to use this one.
Last, and certainly not least, LIP BOOM!
Now, here's a product they've hit the home run with! Lip Boom is in collaboration with Alexander Burke. They've launched in 8 shades (It's a Situation, LMK, OK.com, Vibe, Cheeky, Doin Good, OMG and Bring It), I purchased 2 of them in OK.com and Doin Good.
with lip gloss
without lip gloss
with lip gloss
without lip gloss
Both are beautiful colours, but I do have a favourite! Doin Good is definitely the winner out of these two for me, I feel that the other one is just too light for my skin tone. When you add the gloss over the top it's much better, but the base lipstick is just to fair. However, with Doin Good, the colour alone is stunning, and then when adding the gloss over the top it's double stunning. One thing I'd also like to mention is that both gloss's smell amazing! They smell like ice cream, really delish :) Pixi3 out xXx
Hi everyone! So so sorry it's been a while since my last update, it's been a bit mental! I've been to Ireland for a week to see my family, and had a few parties to go to, and, next week it's my Birthday. Busy times!
Lipsticks
First off I wanted to show you my lipstick collection - not to show off by any means, but more of an indication of what type of lipsticks I tend to prefer and why.
Starting from left we have Chanel, Revlon (2, 3 and 4), Maybelline, Top Shop, Maybelline, Top Shop, Maybelline, L'Oreal, L'Oreal. I don't tend to go for Chanel lipsticks as much, I tend to prefer thier lip gloss's instead, they're such fantastic colours and pigments, I just haven't had much experience of their lipsticks, and to be honest, for the amount of lipsticks I buy, its probably a good thing that they're mostly 'drugstore' products. For pigmentation and colour pay-off I definitely prefer Maybelline, they have really good staying power and tend to be a really nice consistency too. They also layer really well, so you can build them up for a stronger colour, or you can add a lip gloss over the top to give it an extra bit of sparkle. With Top Shop, they do some great colours, but I've had some bad experience with their colours. Not the one from the Sisters of the Moon collection, but their normal collection. I've found that the lipstick pigment seems to come off and leaves a white reside which is really unpleasant. Whereas the Sisters of the Moon lipstick in Crystal is lovely, a beautiful flush of unique pink depending on your skin tone and hydration. L'Oreal I find OK, very middle of the road from the couple I've tried, that's not to say I won't try others, but from the ones I've tried so far I haven't been that impressed. I do really want to try their Rouge Caresse as I've heard amazing things about it, so that's definitely one for my shopping list. Finally, the Revlon Lip Butters, I'm sure as you've seen in previous posts, I'm totally in love with these - they're a perfect blend of everything you want for your lips! Some are more glossy than others, but all have great pigmentation and come in such a great range of colours (in the USA at least - only 12 here in the UK *shakes fist as Revlon*)
Inglot
Now, here in little old Cardiff we don't have any access to the wonders of Inglot, they're only available in London, and as awesome as they are, I don't really want to do a 3 hour journey just to get a few eye shadows. So, when I was in Ireland my Dad took Chris and I to Liffey Valley shopping centre where they happen to have an Inglot. So, when Dad was busy buying new shoes I scarpered off to check out the free-standing Inglot shop and I wasn't disappointed! Pretty much all the eye shadows were really beautiful when I swatched them, great pigmentation, very creamy in consistancy too - only ones I wasn't as impressed with were their purple ones, they didn't have a very good colour payoff, hence I didn't buy any purple, in stead, I walked away with a neutral quad, which, has become my favourite colours.
So they're the colours I purchased, I didn't catch the names of them, and she didn't give me the packets they were in which had names on - but it's basically 3 that have shimmer, and 1 matt crease colour. I've used them a few times now, they have great staying power, they hold their shimmer and vibrancy and blend really well. I paid €25 which works out at £20, so £5 each (£4.50 each on their website), which for high end shadows is pretty good, they're pretty big too (they range from 2.3g - 3.2g) - a definite recommendation from me :)
Random
Finally, when visiting my family my uncle was over from Thailand (he emigrated there a few years ago from Ireland). When he comes back over he tends to bring a range of presents with him ranging from Thai earrings, scarves, bags, purses etc - all locally made and usually by people he knows. This time was no exception, he gave me a purse which I really loved! It's quite en-trend with it's interior being polka-dots, and the exterior being very floral - also if you look hard enough - the patchwork on the front has an almost 'Chanel' logo on it.
I've no idea where you can get it from other than in Thailand, near Chiang Mai, and no idea how much it costs - very rude to ask how much a present is :)
So, other than all of that, that's pretty much been my last couple of weeks. Sorry for the tremendously long post, I hope you enjoy it all the same, and hope you enjoy my Ireland Vlog too - it's my first vlog, and I really enjoyed it, so if you like it let me know and I'll try to do more.
