E.L.F Palettes; Blush & Eyes.

The other day I purchased some E.L.F Cosmetics for the first ever time, it was mostly because I had been thwarted in my attempts to get to town and I needed some new make-up. But also it was partly because, well I've never used elf before (shocked face)

I decided on using the elements part of the elf website and customised my own palettes, I went for a palette of blushers and a palette of eyeshadows, which at £1.50 for each component part meant I got 4 blushes and 4 eyeshadows in 2 compacts for £15.

Total Bargain.

My blusher palette is comprised of;

(Top Left Shy, Top Right Glow, Bottom Left Flushed, Bottom Right Bronzed)

And the swatches of the blushers, done top to bottom, left to right as above.

My favourite so far is Glow, such a lovely shimmery peach tone.

My eyeshadow palette is comprised of;

(Top Left Ivory, Top Right Moondust, Bottom Left Pink Ice, Bottom Right Dusk)

And the swatches of the eyeshadows, done top to bottom, left to right as above.

I went for the neutral tones as there are plenty of looks to be done with them, dressed up or dressed down.

In fact I've done a quick FOTD using my new palettes, eyeshadows are Pink Ice across the whole lid, Moondust in the crease and Ivory in the corner of my eye.

My blush in this one is Glow.

It made for a nice natural look perfect for day wear, but easily changed to night wear by using Dusk instead of Moondust in the crease and as a liner.

One last point, the shadows/blushes are very soft to the point that gently swatching them for this post removed the embossed patterns completely.

12 Swatched Nail Polishes

It's been a while since I last did a nails related post, mostly because at first I had no nails due to them all breaking, then I had my acrylics done but painted them a nice colour for the wedding I went to and then I was just plain to lazy to change the colour for a week.

But it's okay I've got lots of polishes to show you.

(L-R Nails Inc Burlington Arcade, Instyle Orange Candy, Instyle Fashion Fawn, Buzz Raspberry)

Swatches in the same order as above.

Before you freak out at how many new polishes I've got, the above ones Liloo sent me. And the three Nails Inc ones below were part of a giveaway I won over at ArtDonatella's.

(L-R Nails Inc Pembroke Close, Nails Inc Strawberry Hill, Nails Inc Draycott Place, Barry M Navy)

Swatches in the same order as above.

(you knew that already didn't you)

These ones I did buy for myself, as well as the Barry M one above, the Nails Inc one came with Instyle magazine, the MAC one I got from a blogsale, the GOSH one was full priced and the No7 one I got with the £5 off voucher.

(L-R Instyle Electric Teal, MAC Bad Fairy, GOSH Golden Dragon, No7 Sultry Sands)Guess what order these swatches are in?
So there we go, twelve new nail polishes without breaking the bank.

My Lipstick Collection (so far)

After I did a post on my blusher collection the other day it occurred to me to do a post with my growing lipstick collection..

After taking these photos I've realised just how many I've got so far, considering the fact that last month I had no lipsticks at all. Yes that's right Zero lipsticks last month.

So here we go;

(L-R - MAC Thrills, Topshop Satin, Accessorize Coral Crush, Revlon Strawberry Suede, No7 Chic)

Swatches, same order as above.

(L-R - Rockalily Roulette Red, All for Eve Eve Red, MAC Viva Glam Cyndi, Maxfactor Sunbronze, Rimmel Drop of Sherry)Swatches, same order as above. (L-R - MAC Drive me Wild, NYC Red Flame, Topshop Ablaze, NYC Rose Gold)Swatches, same order as above.

So there we go, my growing collection of lipsticks. I think my favourites are Rockalily's Roulette Red and MAC's Thrills.

Trying to Dupe Revlons Strawberry Suede

I noticed a little while ago that a lot of people have been finding my blog while searching for a dupe for Revlons Strawberry Suede which has been discontinued.

So I thought I'd have a little look around to see if I could actually find a dupe, and I found one lipstick which I thought was close, although not a matte shade.

That lipstick is Accessorize in Coral Crush

A gorgeous hot coral colour in a silver bullet tube with a big 'diamond' on the top. Cute right?

Comparing the two lipsticks in the tube they look a similar shade although you can see the Accessorize one (Right) is glossy while the Revlon one (Left) is very matte.Swatched on the skin though you can start to see that although it is a close call, the Accessorize lipstick in Coral Crush (Bottom) is slightly more orangey than the very red Strawberry Suede (Top) And on the lips it is again pretty telling that it's not a perfect match.

Strawberry Suede. Coral Crush. And I did have such high hopes for it too when I saw it in the shop.

Never mind, I have another gorgeous shade to add to my collection, £5.00 from Superdrug.

Nair Silky Sensations

If you're following me on twitter you might have heard my opinions about Nair already as I used it Friday night to de-fuzz my legs before the wedding on Saturday.

I was offered Nair to try and thought 'hmm why not' as I don't like to wax and shaving never lasts long enough.

I must admit something at the back of my mind was niggling me, a vague remembrance of having a bad reaction to a hair dissolving cream before, but being un-able to recall the brand and being assured that the product has been up-dated I went ahead with it after all.

I opted to use the Sensitive one first.. (green tube)

Let me stop at this point and quote some information from my email;

'Skin expert, Louise Thomas-Minns said, “.... If you’ve previously been shaving, it’s time to give Nair Silky Sensations a try. This is not your mother’s hair removal cream! Nair Silky Sensations smells lovely and moisturises whilst it works, doing two jobs in one. It makes hair removal actually enjoyable. I definitely recommend you try it.”'

I'd like to take this point up actually because with all due respect it smelt awful, like.. well like it's dissolving your hair.. kind of a chemically melting skin smell with a vague whiff of cucumber (?) about it.

Anyway on to the cream, as seen in the above photo the product is stripy, green and white, while the other is pink and white. And that's how it comes out.. all stripy. A bit like toothpaste, but without the minty freshness.

I followed the instructions to the letter, did a patch test on my ankle, smoothed the cream onto my legs, although I didn't leave it on 4 mins as stated (see below as to why) rinsed, etc etc.

During this time my legs felt very peculiar, they started to sting like a bad heat rash, my knees in particular felt hot.. so I rinsed the cream off before the time was up. To be greeted with bright red knees... (eick)

By the time I'd took this photo they'd calmed down a little, but although the cream had worked and the hair was gone, my legs felt strange, slightly numb really and the awful smell had pervaded the whole house.

I won't be using the pink one as it's not for sensitive skin and even the sensitive one was to much for me.

Now I'm not saying the product is bad, just that it doesn't combine well with my skin. And I'm not overly sensitive.. On other people it may not cause any kind of reaction, and I will say it definitely does remove hair.

The products do have plenty of warnings on them but I wouldn't recommend them if you're sensitive or have eczema.. or mind the smell.

Blusher Heaven

I've decided recently I'm a bit of a blusher fiend and as such I thought I'd share my blushers (so far) with you all..

(Top L-R NYC Peach Glow, Topshop Flush, Topshop Butterscotch, No7 Blossom.

Mid L-R Dainty Doll Goldfinger, Accessorize Pretty Pink, 17 First Kiss, 17 Bramble Frost.

Bottom L-R Bobbi Brown Desert Pink & NARS Orgasm)

I don't seem to aim at just one type of colour blusher as I've got varying different shades, from bright pink to neutrals.

(Top Row)
L-R - NYC Peach Glow, Topshop Flush, Topshop Butterscotch, No7 Blossom

(Middle Row)
L-R - Dainty Doll Goldfinger, Accessorize Pretty Pink, 17 First Kiss, 17 Bramble Frost

(Bottom Row)

My most reached for blushers though are NARS Orgasm and 17 First Kiss.

I rarely use Bobbi Browns Desert Pink due to it being a bit to dark for my skin tone.

And the Dainty Doll Goldfinger blush just looks muddy on me.

Both the Topshop blushes and the No7 blush are cream formulas, the rest are all powder. I dislike the No 7 stick blush as firstly it doesn't give much colour pay off and secondly the stick breaks half way down making it very difficult to apply.

I'm already looking to add to my collection as I've just ordered 4 blushers from E.L.F and I plan on getting Deep Throat from NARS.

Hope you enjoyed peeking at my blushers. Feel free to share your favourite one.

NYC Mosaic Colour Wheel - Peach Glow.

After seeing several people talking about how lovely a blush the NYC Colour Wheel is I decided to up and get one..

I bought the colour wheel in Peach Glow..

(Please excuse the below photo, it was the best I could get as the lid was reflecting all light back making it hard to focus on it.)

A mixture of peaches, oranges, browns and terracottas (my opinion) it creates a multi hue for your cheeks rather than one solid shade.

Swatched together it creates a lovely shade to give a natural glow to pale skin.

I like it so much I'm planning on buying some of the other mosaic wheels, most noticeably Rose Glow and Pink Glow. And at £3.99 from Superdrug, it's not exactly an expensive blusher to get.

(Sorry for the :( face I'm not really :( just tired)

BeautyUK Lip Lust

I recently bought two lip glosses from Superdrug for two reasons, firstly with any two BeautyUK purchases there was 100 beautycard points to gain and secondly they were lovely colours and called to me.

What are these lip glosses?

BeautyUK's Lip Lust in No 10 Moulin Rouge (top) and No 11 Office Chic (bottom)

With super soft sponge like applicators from which the product is dispensed when the tube is squeezed, they are shaped like a lipstick would be which makes it much easier to apply to your lips.

Moulin Rouge (top) is a gorgeous berry red shade, and fruit scented, with lovely shimmer running through it the photos don't do it justice.

Office Chic (bottom) is a pale pink, even more glittery, shimmery shade which smells like mint and tingles slightly on application.

On your lips the colours aren't as intense as they appear in the swatches, Moulin Rouge translates into a subtle shimmery berry colour. While Office Chic is more a nude colour with glittery sparkle suspended in it, it makes the lips super shimmery but gives very little colour. It also feels slightly gritty whereas Moulin Rouge didn't. But at £2.99 each and 100 extra beautycard points I'm happy with my purchase.

Wedding OOTD & NOTD

Tomorrow I'm off to a wedding and I thought I'd share what will be tomorrows OOTD (outfit of the day) along with a wedding suitable NOTD (nails of the day)

So first up my dress.

This was a bargain find in a sale at New Look, by Madam Rage, it's the currently in trend lace dress.

Isn't the lace pretty, and it makes the dress long enough to be acceptable as wedding wear.

Then we have the shoes, my sexy, glittery black KG's, also a bargain find reduced to £49 from something ridiculous.

As the wedding has a theme of hats and bows I think I covered them both in the hat I got, a mini tophat with a bow and netting, how cute is that?

And finally my NOTD

Using GOSH Magic Star and Nails Inc Cromwell Road

I did two coats of Nails Inc and one coat of GOSH to create this subtle sparkly nude shade.

Still very pretty but nothing to OTT

Perfect wedding nails.

The Continuation of a Mission

In continuation of my 'Finding a Thrills Dupe' mission I have got another lipstick to try out.

(Btw if anyone wants the actual Thrills lippie it is easily found via blog sales as I've just picked up a spare)

But on to the lipstick for today;

NYC in Rose Gold.

(Excuse the smashed end, I knocked it before I managed to get a photo)

This is a lot lighter than some of the others I got in search of a dupe, and actually has that missing element of gold shimmer running through it, although not strongly but it is there.

Swatched on my hand.

It's still a little to rosy rather than coppery to be an exact dupe but it's probably the closest I've come so far.

On my lips.Compared to Thrills below.Still it's another lovely lipstick for my collection, and if you are looking for a dupe for MAC Thrills perhaps the closest one so far, and at £1.49 from Superdrug it's not going to break the bank.(Lazy me combined my MAC foundation photo with my 'dupe mission' photo... saves taking more photos)