MAYBELLINE | New Launches

A short while ago I was lucky enough to try out lots of the new releases by Maybelline, one of my top high street makeup brands.  I honestly didn't expect to receive so much, so thank you very much Maybelline :)  As always this review is honest and balanced, so some things are great, and some things aren't - I'll let you know what I think about each piece :)

Colour Sensational Creamy Mattes

First off, I absolutely love the range of colours - pinks, reds (and slightly coral) and nude.  Most of which are colours I'd wear.  A few weeks ago I went to a blogger event and wore a combination of Siren in Scarlet (the 4th shade in) and Divine Wine - I found Siren in Scarlet was a little light for what I wanted, so with a lip brush I went over it with Divine Wine and ended up with the most beautiful red lip.

What struck me the most about these is their lasting power, seriously impressive.  I applied the lipstick at about 10am, and by 5pm it still looked immaculate (without reapplication!).  There was no bleeding or fading, it looked perfect! Have a look at my Instagram pic below, taken after the event, after drinking prosecco and eating a cupcake, having lunch and a lot of chatter.

Back home after the #PartyAtTheAngel - Squidge is asleep (for now) and miraculously my lipstick is still impeccable! I'm trying pit the new Maybelline mattes - this is after 5 hours of wear with canapés, drinks and a lot of talking :)

A photo posted by @twinklinpixi3 on Sep 13, 2015 at 10:46am PDT

Babylips - new shades/scents

I really am a big fan of Babylips.  There's only one I don't really like (the lemon one, I find it a bit waxy).  Both of these are absolutely gorgeous.  The smell fantastic and look lovely on.  They keep my lips well hydrated and don't break the bank.  The one on the left is melon mania, and the one on the right is peach punch :)

Master Ink liquid eyeliner

They've also released some new liquid eyeliners, both with a different finish, one satin and one matte. I'm not really a fan of a satin finish, I like my eyeliner to be bold and matte.  You can see in the swatches below the matte eyeliner is the best pigmented one too.  I was a bit dubious about these as when I tired the master drama eyeliner it did transfer onto my lid, but I'm pleased to report these don't budge!  The matte one is the only liquid eyeliner I've worn these past few weeks and it stays put really well and the applicator is nice and easy to use.

Satin on the left, matte on the right

Colossal Go Chaotic mascara

If you're a long time reader of mine, you'll know I'm a massive fan of Maybelline mascara, I really think they offer the best of the high street.  The original Colossal was one of my favs of theirs (combined with The Falsies).  This version of Colossal is decent, I like the wand, but I do still prefer the original.  I found I had more voluminous lashes with the original which is what I look for, as I'm lucky in already having fairly long lashes.

Master Brow pro palette

This lovely little palette comes with a double-ended applicator and 3 formulas.  One is a wax (the one on the left) and the other two are powders, one for the brows, and one to highlight the brow bone with.  What I like, is that if you're going for a more natural looking brow, you'll really like this.  The pigmentation is decent, but not dramatic, so you're not likely to overdo your brows.  For me, this is best suited to when my brows are well maintained and need just a bit of filling in (as opposed to trying to create something out of nothing).

So there you have my thoughts on the newest releases from Maybelline.  For me the main highlights are the lipsticks (which are seriously amazing) and the matte liquid eyeliner.

What would be your pick of the collection?

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*Post contains PR samples

Maybelline | The Nudes palette

I think it's safe to say that 99% of bloggers know of this palette, and are probably either lusting after it or have it.  I've belonged to both camps.  

This, as far as I'm aware, is Maybelline's first proper eye shadow palette and, it's NUDE! Yes, you know I love my nude palettes, so seeing this excited me very much!

The palette is fantastic for so many reasons.  First off, the eye shadows are a really lovely quality, they're soft and blendable.  There's a great varity of shades, and finishes, so nudes through the spectrum (cool to warm) and mattes and shimmers.  The pigmentation is fantastic, I mean HELLO just look at that black!

What's more, and possibly what I love most about this, is how much effort Maybelline went to when thinking about the structure of the palette.  They've positioned the colours so you can work them as duo's, trio's or quads (or as a whole palette).  All the duo's and trio's are together, so for duo's they're the top left two, then the middle two, then the top right two etc.  Trio's are split to top left, top right etc, and then quads are the 4 on the left (top and bottom) then the middle 4, then the right 4.

Each of the segments and pairings work really well together.  I've honestly never seen a palette so well thought out.

I really love seeing big high street brands like Maybelline and L'Oreal bringing out proper palettes (not just quads etc), I think they've realised just how popular they are and that people will pay a bit extra for them.

I can't wait to see what colours they release next, especially considering what a hit this one has been. If you'd like to purchase it yourself, you can pick it up at Boots and Superdrug here in the UK for £9.99*.

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*Post contains PR samples

MAYBELLINE | Master Sculpt contouring palette

If you haven't seen it already, Maybelline have launched a contour kit called Master Sculpt. The kit comes with a matte bronzer, and a highlighter that has a subtle, delicate shimmer (not glittery at all). Underneath the powders in a separate tray, sits a brush similar to those in the Benefit box blushers.

The formula is soft, nicely pigmented and without a hint of orange.  It blends beautifully on the skin and isn't easy to overdo (I love that).  The highlighter is very soft in texture, you only need to dab your brush on top to pick up a decent amount of product (I say that but I'm not sure if mine is like that was it was slightly broken in transit).  I love that it isn't too glittery, it really is a very soft sheen, it's more about adding light to counter the darkness in the bronzer.

This really is a lovely product, one of the nicest bronzer/highlighter duo's I've seen.  It's a beautiful texture that blends really well and looks lovely on the skin.

The Maybelline Master Sculpt costs £6.99* and comes in 2 different shades Light Medium (pictured) and Medium Dark and is now available to purchase from either Boots or Superdrug.

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*Post contains PR samples

Maybelline Giveaway

Today I bring you a giveaway!  The lovely people over at Maybelline sent me a few products, some of which I've already bought, tried and reviewed some time ago (the Brow Drama) and the BB Bronze isn't something I'd use as I'm one of these 'pale and proud' people :)  So they said I could do a little giveaway for these products instead, perfect timing just for the Summer too :)

To enter, it's pretty simple, just follow the steps on the Rafflecopter widget below - there's only 2 mandatory entry requirements, the rest are optional.  The giveaway will run for 2 weeks and the winner will be picked at random. Once notified, the winner has 48 hrs to come back to me and confirm their address, otherwise another winner will be picked.

This giveaway is open within the UK only.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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£15 High Street Challenge | April

It's that time again for my next instalment of my £15 high street challenge! I was planning on upping the budget to £20 this month, since I needed to return £5 of goods from last months' haul - but what with e.l.f closing down in the UK I'm not confident it'd all work out, get to them and get my money back, so I'm just going to keep hold of it - maybe I'll sell it in a blog sale? :)

This month my haul was from Boots.com - they had a 3 for 2 offer on where you get the cheapest item for free which is how I was able to get 3 decent products for my £15.  If you're not familiar with why I started this challenge, it was because when looking back at my 2014 posts, I realised nearly all of them were PR samples.  I wanted to bring items I've bought myself back to the blog, but since I'm on maternity pay I needed to keep the budget down (hence the £15).  My goal is to find 3 pieces of makeup on the high street for about £15 each month.  If you want to see my previous months' challenges, just have a look here.

After seeing a lot of people talking about the new L'Oreal Infallible foundations, I thought I'd give them a go - I love reviewing foundation (that and mascara are my favourite to review).  I've also had my eyes on the Maybelline Coloursensational Elixir for a long time and decided to pick one of these.

If you're one of the many people who requested an Essence haul for one of these, don't worry - I've taken what I earned from my mummy blog last month (only a little bit) and put it towards a decent-sized Essence haul too which will be on here in the next few days, as well as individual reviews.

Here's what I picked up:

L'Oreal Infallialbe 24hr Matte foundation in 10 Porcelin - £6.99

I'm a big fan of matte foundations but I do struggle to find one that really works for me - my Makeup Forever HD foundation is the closest I've found (it's seriously amazing!).  Since this arrived on Saturday, I have worn it once (yesterday) and well, I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet.  Obviously this is just a first impression, but it did highlight dry skin, I wouldn't say it was very good coverage - it classes itself as heavy but I'd say it's much lighter than that.  It also didn't set that well (something I often find with L'Oreal foundations).  But, 6+ hours after applying it, a little creasing aside, it looked pretty decent.  It's not a patch on my Bourjois Radiance Reveal Healthy Mix foundation, I think this one makes me look older, but I'll give it a few more go's and see what it's like.

L'Oreal Infallible 24h Foundation in Vanilla - £9.99

My biggest mistake here was picking the 2nd lightest shade, it's too dark, I should have gone with Porcelin (the same as the matte foundation) as that is the closest.  That aside, I will still give it a go and see what it's like, it'll just have to be on days when I don't leave the house :P  Maybe these are more contenders for blog sale stuff?  I'll be back with a full review of all of these over the coming weeks.

Maybelline Coloursensational Elixir in 710 Rose Redefined - £6.99

For ages now I've seen people talk about these, some love them, some not so much.  For me this was more of a 'this will look pretty with my other lipsticks' purchase - I love the packaging and I didn't realise that the colour you see there is plastic, I thought it was the actual product, but sadly it's not. Ah well! We'll see how I get on with this - what do you think of the Elixirs?

Overall it came to £16.98 (not including delivery) as I had one of the £6.99 items for free. Not bad really - but did I pick well!?

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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

Maybelline Lash Sensational

One of the most coveted mascara's to be released recently on the high street is the Maybelline Lash Sensational mascara.  I've always adored Maybelline for mascara's, for my money, I don't think you get much better on the high street, and Lash Sensational really proves that point.

It comes looking like any other Maybelline mascara in the same packaging shape, but with a different wand.  It's firm, rubbery and curved with short bristles to help really get in there and grip the lashes.

What I love most about this mascara is that it really gives volume at the base of the lash - in the last pic of 'two coats' you can really see how much thicker my lashes look at the root.  My lashes are longer, much more curved (they're usually quite straight) and nice and black.  This actually reminded me a lot of the new Benefit mascara, Rollerlash (pic below for comparison) which I reviewed here. The only difference is, I actually prefer the lashes Lash Sensational gives me - they're darker, longer and have more volume, as you can see for yourself.  Don't get me wrong, Rollerlash is lovely, I really am a fan of this mascara, but Lash Sensational just has a certain je ne sais quoi that Rollerlash is lacking and it's only since comparing the two pictures that I'm really seeing that.

Boots is selling this for £7.99 at the moment, which is a great deal - I mean, just look how awesome it is!!! So often you have to pay £25 for a mascara like that, and even then I'm not sure it could compete with Lash Sensational.

Benefit Rollerlash - two coats

What do you think about the comparison to Rollerlash?

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£15 High Street Challenge - February

Cast your mind back to January, I started a year-long challenge to hit the high street, spend £15 and try to pick up at least 3 products.  I decided to do this to try and reduce the amount of PR sample posts on the blog, and give some more variety.  Here's what I bought last month if you want to refresh your memory.  

This month I have spent countless nights browsing the Superdrug and Boots website in search of products to try, and after so much deliberation, I finally made a decision :)

I've never tried anything from Beauty UK before, and this shimmer box really caught my attention. Priced at £4.99 I thought it was pretty good value too, and a potential dupe for the Bobbi Brown ones. I haven't swatched it or even tried it yet, so I can't say anything about it's quality - but I can say that the packaging feels really well made.  

Next up, the new Maybelline Lash Sensational mascara - on offer for £5.98 at Superdrug.  I'm a BIG fan of Maybelline mascara's, 'The Falsies' is probably one of my all time favourite mascara's, it's so good!  I actually unwrapped this today and used it for the first time, I'm not yet decided on it, but I do like it, I'm just deciding how much I like it :)  What I will say as a first impression - it gripped my lashes brilliantly, and was fantastic on my bottom lashes :)

Last but not least, a Barry M metallic liquid eyeliner in Gold (£4.79 in Superdrug) - now, I'm not one to normally sport a gold eye liner, however, I bought this for a look I've had in mind for AGES, I'll post back here with the look when I've perfected it, I need time to practise first :)  If it looks good and I'm happy, I'll invest in some other liquid eyeliner colours for the look.

I'll be back in the next few weeks to review each of these, some sooner than others :)  Oh, and I did go a little over budget with this by 76p

Do you like my picks? Any recommendations for next month?

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August 2014 favourites

I know we're half way through September so this is a little late, but I figured it's better late than never. August has seen me start to wear foundation a little more than in the previous few months, but still not crazy amounts, and I've been wearing some slightly different products, these are the ones that have really stood out to me (tip of the cap to Bourjois for having 3 in my top 6).

Bourjois radiance reveal healthy mix foundation

A beauty that I reviewed earlier this month, my current favourite foundation (don't worry, I'm so fickle this changes all the time).  This is my NARS sheer glow dupe, it gives a beautiful finish that's both quite matte and glowing at the same time.  It lasts well and sits beautifully on the skin.

Bourjois 1 seconde mascara

I love how this defines the lashes and makes them look amazing.  I love that it doesn't crumble and flake out onto my cheeks, it stays put, even this version the non-waterproof one.  It has a thick rubbery wand that grips the lashes really well.

Bourjois liner pinceau (liquid eye liner)

This was a recommendation from Sandra from The Black Pearl Blog - it's the one she's always raved about.  In fairness, I've grown to really love it too.  It sets pretty matte, and jet black.  The brush is flat so you can turn it on its side to get more precision.  It dries quickly and stays put until you're ready to take it off with no transference to the lid, that's my kinda liner :)

Clarins ombre matte eyeshadow in Sparkle Grey*

I was very lucky and received 3 of these from Clarins from their Autumn collection and this one has to be my favourite, I adore the colour, the finish and everything about it.  I've worn it a LOT over the last month and just by itself, with liquid eyeliner and mascara.  I'm not one of these people that think it's lame to wear just one colour, in fact I think wearing just one colour is often more elegant :)

Sephora blusher in healthy rose

I just can't get enough of this blusher.  It's pretty much been a staple favourite of mine since I bought it in Jan/Feb this year.  If you have pale skin it looks absolutely gorgeous, like a fresh flush of colour on your cheeks, perfect for any of the seasons.

Maybelline quad in Smokey Cinnamon

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of wearing green eyeshadow, especially dark greens.  Ages ago I saw Emily Noel (Beauty Broadcast) create a gorgeous look using this quad, and I've been pretty much recreating it ever since (give or take the lime colour in there).  It's a gorgeous look for Autumn and I'm just in love with the deep green with the subtle cinnamon on the outer edge.  Et voila!

So they were my August favourites, what were you loving in August?

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Maybelline mega plush mascara

I picked this up about 3 months ago.  I really didn't think I was going to like it, I'm not great with fluffy brushes so I was really dubious about this one, but I thought who knows, it's Maybelline, I love them, we'll see how it goes.

A big fluffy brush with a flexible joint just before the bristles

** Left - no mascara | Middle - 1 coat | Right - 2 coats **

As you can see in the pics above, this actually gives really nice fluttery lashes.  Sort of your-lashes-but-better.  It doesn't really clump much either, and it stays put all day, no flaking off (whoop!).  The formulation is good, it's on the wetter side, so not super thick.  In these pictures I haven't curled my lashes either and you can see, the mascara did a great job of doing that for me.

Three months on and the mascara is still doing great, it's thickened a little but nothing I can't deal with, it's still totally usable.  I just love how much this does a good job of curling my lashes and making them all pretty and fluttery.  It's not a mascara for the evening if you're going for big bold lashes, but perfect for the day.

Sorry this hasn't been a super long review, but I think I've summed it up pretty well :)  It rocks, you'll love it!

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Jess from Coffee Cosmetics

 

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Maybelline Colour Tattoos USA edition

Hey guys!  So I called this post 'USA edition' because I wasn't sure what to call it... I recently did a makeup swap as you know, and 4 of the products I got (I'd requested these) were the limited edition colour tattoos that Maybelline have launched for Autumn/Fall.  First off, I love them! Second off, here's the pics and review at the bottom ;)

My Thoughts

I've found the colour tattoo's to be a bit hit and miss... the turquoise one creased on me like a mf'er, others don't blend well (the grey one), but I really loved these colours so I really wanted to try them, and boy am I glad I did!

I have the full collection (Mossy Green, Gold Shimmer, Barely Beige, Rich Mahogany <-- hello Anchorman!) - first thing that strikes me is that Barely Beige is really similar to the MAC Painterly paint pot, it's a good base colour for pretty much any colour/powder you want to put on top.

They all blend well, and you can wear all 4 colours at the same time starting with barely beige in the inner corner and 1/3rd, then Gold shimmer in the middle, then rich mahogany on the outer third, then, use the mossy green on the outer corner and taking it into the crease :)  The Maybelline quad in Smokey Cinnamon goes really well over the top if you want the tattoo's to last longer :) (yes, I got that too, which I might add, is equally awesome!).  As for their longevity, they've been lasting for about... 6-8 hours before they really start creasing and to be fair, that's about as long as normal eye shadows last with me so I'm pretty happy with that :)  Overall I love them, super happy with the colours, especially the mossy green :)

Pixi3 out
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