NOTEWORTHY | High Street Blushers

When I wrote my last Five Favs post, I had a request to create a high street version of it.  Without reaslising it all the blushers I'd picked for Five Favs were high end, D'Oh! So I thought I'd go through my collection and pick out a few blushers from the high street I've really loved.  As much as I adore these shades, it's as much that as the brands themselves and formula's that I love.

As you can see, there's a pretty wide spread of shades, some being perfect for spring, and others might be more autumnal - personally I don't really wear blusher colours for seasons, more for my mood or to suit the look I'm wearing.

Makeup Revolution The One Blush Stick - £5*

Now these are pretty amazing - they're a cream product which is very well pigmented.  They blend beautifully and come in 8 different shades - 4 are matte and 4 are shimmery, including bronzers and highlighters - a really lovely collection.  They are dupes for the NARS Multiple blusher stick which is a more hefty £29 - personally with a price difference like that, there's no real contest.

Bourjois Cream Blush in 03 - £7.99*

This really is a beautiful blusher. I'm a real fan of Bourjois, their products are great quality and ooze of sophistication and class.  This shade, 03, is absolutely gorgeous and subtly shimmery.  It blends into the skin beautifully creating a gorgeous soft glow, always a winner in my book.

NYX Blusher in Summer Peach - £6

The NYX blushers are renowned for being fantastic, and boast a lot of dupes for high end brands, like Pinched as a dupe for NARS Orgasm.  This shade, summer peach, is possibly my favourite shade from NYX - it's peachy and beautiful, while being shimmery like Pinched, adding a stunning glow. NYX blushers are great value for money and a really great quality - not cray cray pigmented unlike other brands - this is a good thing.

Maybelline blusher in Flash Plum - £5.19

I really adore this blusher, the shimmery plumyness (is that a word?) of it is amazing, and SO beautiful in autumn... or any other time of year ;)  Now, the quality is great, although I have had the issue with this one where it goes all shiny on top, making it impossible to pick up product, so I've had to scratch it up to stop that happening.  It's nicely pigmented and really blendable, an absolute favourite of mine.

So there you go, they're some of my favourite blushers from the high street - both new and old and all still available to purchase.  All prices are correct at time of writing.

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*Post contains some PR samples, previously blogged about

NYX Smokey palette

I'm a big fan of NYX, I was even their blogger of the month for March this year.  So when I saw they were releasing some new palettes, naturally I was quite excited.  I have a massive palette of theirs and love the eyeshadows, the quality is usually great, the packaging quality and they're cruelty free - all good things in my book.

The lovely people over at Cocktail Cosmetics kindly sent this to me to review, so I'm afraid I can't take credit for parting with my hard earned cash for it, but as usual, here's my honest review of it :)

 ** Swatched without primer **

** Swatched with primer **

I'm going to talk about my first impressions before I get into the full review.  The packaging is typical of NYX, high quality and cute.  The colour combination is great, there's 2 black shades (one is glittery) a deep berry shade, a medium brown, a dark blue and a white.  Once I'd photographed it before using it, I took out the sponge applicator and started swatching away on my hand.  This is where I became disappointed, the product barely showed up.  

So the next day I did my makeup in the usual way, primed my lids and got out this palette, and again it applies very sheer.  I had to repeatedly go back and get more and more product to build it up. Eventually I actually had a really pretty smokey eye, just not the dramatic smokey eye I was going for.  I mainly used the medium brown all over the lid, the deep berry on the outer V and in the crease, and then darkened with the glittery black on the outer corners.

What I did discover is that primer made a big difference, at least when swatching - the first swatch I did, I didn't use primer, and that's when they were very sheer, the 2nd time I swatched them with primer and they looked pretty amazing.  These are good eyeshadows to use wet, and that's probably how I'd recommend them being used, unless you're going for a softer smokey eye but with a variation of colour, if that's the case then this will be a great palette for you.  Personally, I prefer massive pigmentation - but on a positive note, when they are more sheer it's harder to make mistakes :)

In all honesty, I was disappointed with this palette, it's not of the quality I've come to love and expect of NYX.  As you can see from the photo of my eyes, it looked a bit patchy after a lot of blending and as much as it looked quite pretty, it's just not up to their normal standard.  It really kills me to say that as I'm such a fan of their products, but this one just wasn't for me.  If you like a more delicate look then this would be a great palette for you :)

It retails for £8.00* which you can pick up at Cocktail Cosmetics.

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Karen from Liverpool Lashes

 

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NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss & Eyebrow cake powder

So as you know I'm lucky enough to be the NYX blogger of the month for March, and part of the perk of being asked to do this, is I get to try out some of their lovely products for free.  Two weeks ago I posted my review of the first two of the four products I reviewed (an eye shadow and eye liner) and today is my final review of their Mega Shine Lip Gloss in 113 French Kiss, and their Eyebrow Cake powder in Black/Grey.

They say "Kiss me quick! Our signature Mega Shine Lip Gloss delivers shine, moisture and softness and envelops lips with glistening colour. The finish is both creamy and steamy and ensures knockout glamour. A blend of mineral and lanolin oils helps protect the pout. Available in 64 almost sinful lip gloss shades."

They say "Eyebrow cake powder is a duo-shade compact kit that fills and defines eyebrows for that classy retro look. Blend shades for a natural eyebrow coverage to create the best look. Each kit includes a slanted brush to define brows and a round wand to shape and style and features a round pot of wax to keep strays away."

My Thoughts - The Gloss

Other than adorable and sturdy packaging (bow on the lid) there's a lot to like about this.  The first thing you'll probably notice is the scent, cherries!!! It smells so good!  Only disappointment was that it didn't taste of cherries too, but that's probably for the best, probably not good to be eating lip gloss :p  Then we come to it's consistency - not too thick and sticky at all, and highly pigmented.  You'll get great colour pay off, good lasting power (mine lasted a couple of hours before needing a top up (that's with drinking coffee too).  Lets put it this way, I can't wait for my spending ban to be over, as I'll be putting in an order for some other shades of these :)

Where you can find them: Online on the NYX Cosmetics UK website
Cost: £7
Would I repurchase: Definitely!

My Thoughts - the Brow Cake

Ok, packaging - not as cute as the lipgloss (no bows) but still a nice cute kit, packaging is very solid too, not flimsy at all (which some high street brands can feel very 'budget').  It comes with two different powder shades (mine comes in black and grey) and a wax/gel for fixing your brows in place.  You get two applicators, one for applying the powder (an angled liner brush) and a brow brush for brushing the gel/wax through your brows at the end.

I found the staying power on these great, they last as long as my Chanel eye brow palette but the formulas aren't different (not bad).  My Chanel powders are more... solid/waxy whereas these are more of a hard shadow.  What I expect in a brow powder is a hard formula which these are, they're well pigmented, not what you'd expect in an eye shadow, but what you'd expect out of a brow powder, I mean, lets face it, you don't want to add a jet black shadow to your brows, it needs to look natural which these do.  A really good product for £5, especially when you compare it to whats out there, like MUA, FashionistA - with them, I struggle to find a black colour, and they're more like eye shadows in consistency and pigmentation, it's too much.  This is a good balance of price and quality.

Where you can find them: Online on the NYX Cosmetics UK website
Cost: £5
Would I repurchase: Yes, but given how long it lasts, I doubt I'd ever need to!

This months bigest pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Laura from A Scottish Lass,
And be sure to check out my lovely middle-pixi3 advertisers who this month are Sarah from Life in a Breakdown, Angelica from One Little Vice, Fiona from La Belle Dame Sans Merci, and Sally from The Human Mannequin, and the lovely Luchessa from Beauty Expression by Luchessa - be sure to head over to check out their beautiful blogs <3

 

NYX Eye liner and Glam Shadow

Hi guys, well, have I been keeping a secret for the last month or what! I've been dying to tell you all, but couldn't really until now!  NYX kindly approached me and asked me if I'd like to be their NYX blogger of the month for March! How amazing!  They're putting my banner/pic/links up on their site tomorrow (5th March) - if you want to take a peek at last months her details are still up right now so head over and have a look :)

One of the perks of being asked to be blogger of the month is that they sent me 4 lovely products to review, two in this post, and two in a post to come later in the month :)  So without further ado, here's my review of two of the products :)

Glam Shadow in Emotion available on their site for £5.50 and Slide on Liner in Jewel £6.50

Glam Shadow - They say "Be a glow-getter using the Glam Shadows attainable in 22 long-lasting shades that provides a lustrous finish. Get a standing ovation as you glide through the streets wearing the Glam Shadow packed with extreme color and dose of sparkle enhance your luminous beauty!"

Slide on Liner - They say "Dont let the softness of this eye liner pencil fool you. Silky soft yet delivers a powerful robust colour to line eyes. The formula is waterproof, doesnt smear or smudge, and provides extreme colour. its like a liquid eye liner in a pencil without the mess. available in 18 intense shades."

My Thoughts

I haven't tried a massive range of NYX products - just the mahoosive eye shadow palette I reviewed here, a blusher in Pinched (perfect NARS orgasm dupe) and a single eye shadow in Taupe (beautiful crease colour).

First off - I love NYX packaging.  It's the details like a little bow on the end of their gloss, and the quality of the single eye shadows are brilliant, they're very sturdy and don't feel cheap at all, which is quite fitting as they're not 'that' cheap ;)

The eye shadow - this actually reminds me a bit of the Urban Decay eye shadow in Midnight Cowboy rides again, but not as much fall out and the glitter is smaller, oh and it's slightly darker.  It's a really pretty colour either to work through your crease for a bit of sparkle, or all over your lid with a darker colour in the crease, or under your lower lashes to lighten it up a bit.  As for quality, it lasts really well throughout the day with a primer without the intensity of colour fading.  Only negative I can think of is that you will get a bit of fall out due to the glitter, but it's really not that much :)

The liner - this is probably one of the favourite things that they sent to me.  It's the prettiest colour, a blush/purple with pink/purple/gold-ish glitter in it.  What I love about this, it stays put.  I wear it under my lower lashes and the glitter in it doesn't budge all day.  The colour intensity stays the same too.  It's creamy, but not so much that it wears off quickly.  This really is a great liner, I can't say enough good things about it.  I've pretty much used it every day since I've had it (about 2 weeks).

I always feel conscious of writing a rave review about something which has been given to me to review, but I really am finding it difficult to say negative things about these, I genuinely love them :)  They're good value for money, last well and come in a great range of colours.

What's your favourite NYX product?

This months big pixi3 advertisers are the lovely Laura from A Scottish Lass, Tasha from Belleza Kisses, Gem from Miss Makeup Magpie, Luchessa from Luchessa, Sally from The Human Mannequin - be sure to head over to check out their beautiful blogs <3

 

NYX Blusher in Pinched

Hey guys, another one here as a result of my makeup swap with the lovely WheatenBeauty1 :)

So, this was a request I made as a result of seeing MissGlamorazzi's wonderful video on the Products she would repurchase which you can find here.  She was wearing a beautiful pink blush by NYX and since it was time for a swap, I added it to my list :)  So without further ado, here's the pics, and my thoughts below :)

My Thoughts

I love, love, love it!  Such a great recommendation (on that note, she also recommended the Maybelline One by One, which she'd seen in someone elses video, which I then bought, and now love!) - it's such a pretty pink and has a subtle gold shimmer.  It isn't too soft, so it doesn't splodge all over your face, which I hate, it's really blendable and gives a really beautiful soft glow.  I can see this making it into my September favourites :)

What's your favourite NYX product?

Pixi3 out

xXx