What my lips are loving: pearls and pink champagne!

Who can resist pearls and bubbles? If you can, you're a stronger woman than me. With the changing seasons and the winter chill setting in, I've started thinking about looking after my poor lips, which like to get all yucky and dry in winter. In order to keep them soft and pretty, I've been stockpiling goodies! Two of my latest favourites are my new lippie from the MAC cremesheen and pearl collection, and a limited edition Vaseline. Vaseline you say? Yes but not just any Vaseline :)

First up, Shanghai Spice from MAC.

 

I've blown this up so you can see how pretty the sheen is on this. The pearl in the lipstick is very delicate, not as obvious as I would have expected, but feminine and lovely. The shade itself is a delicate rose nude shade, it's a very grown up shade for me! 

This lipstick feels gorgeous on, very classy and Kate Middleton. I'm thinking nude heels and a navy dress (preferably with champers in hand). Talking of champers...

Look at that! Sorry I just had to put it in a glass, for the record I did polish it beforehand but it seems to have my grubby pawprints all over it lol. I saw this in the supermarket the other day and let out a little squeal of delight!

At the end of the day, it's just another Vaseline but it's so much more luxurious to carry about with you than plain old Vaseline. On reading the back, it actually does have alcohol and wine extract in it, and you can smell it in the balm.

The scent is rose based I'd say, but with a tingly sweet scent that definitely smells like champagne, it's lovely and lasts when you have it on. The tin claims that it tints your lips slightly, as you can see above the product is very light in colour, it makes no difference whatsoever lookswise once on. It does however feel lovely, smell delicious and the tin is super girly and decadent. On an aside, this looks great over Benefit's Cha Cha tint on your lips!

Well there you go, lovelies. Pearls and champagne for the weekend. It's Friday so pouts at the ready, if you want to give your lips a VIP upgrade, I'd recommend these products.

8/10 for the MAC as it could be more pigmented and 10/10 for the Vaseline as a favourite staple

Illamasqua Lipsticks- let's get bold

Hey guys, I've been horribly busy at uni, fourth year now so lots on my plate! But I'm back with some more lovely product reviews for you. What better to start off with than lipstick, everyone loves a good lippie!

I had wanted an Illamasqua lipstick for ages, I'm still in love with their packaging and entire ethos, and their bold colours really appeal to me. So I went for two of their brightest colours, Fetish and Encounter.

 Encounter (R) and Fetish (L)

I'll firstly start with Fetish as I was a little disappointed with the colour payoff with this shade as it's so bright in the bullet.

It's a gorgeous grape shade, vampy and dark, I had no idea where I would actually wear this but just wanted it regardless.

As you can see from the swatched, the colour comes off a little cooler on the skin, there is a warmth to the purple in the bullet, almost a magenta tone which is totally lost on the skin, it falls a little flat and one-dimensional, which is really gutting. It looks a little Morticia Addams to me sadly.

 I am particularly pale, but even so I cannot see this shade being particularly flattering on many skin tones. I'll play about with is and different looks so we'll see, but I'm skeptical!

On the other hand, Encounter is the most amazing 50's red. It's sexy, luscious and my new favourite red lipstick.

I am besotted with this shade, it makes me feel like a film star! The purple shade just shows every line on your lips and doesn't give the colour you want, but this one plumps and fills out your lips. My favourite thing about this is a lot of red lipsticks fade badly or stain your lips, but this one doesn't. It wears evenly and doesn't budge.

If you're looking for a new red lipstick for winter, I urge you to give Illamasqua a try, their website is here, check it out! If you have any questions about their products just let me know :)

MWAH!

Sephora Goodies!

Morning dears, hope you're ready for another France installment. Richard and I spent a couple of days in Limoges by ourselves, and I had googled the Sephora shops so I could drag him there.What I didn't realise, however, was that every 100 metres there is a pharmacy, full of amazing brands like Nuxe, La Roche Posay, Avene and Bioderma. I was literally in heaven, Richard had to ban me from going into pharmacies after a while :( The Sephora stores lived up to the memories I have of them, stocked to the rafters with goodies, and after each purchase they spray you with your favourite perfume then give you a sample of it to take away!

Since reading about Bioderma's Eau Miscellar water cleanser, I really wanted to try some of their products, and they have a really helpful website which shows you all the products they make, click here to have a look. As I tend to be oily and get blemishes the green "Sebium" range was for me. This set was around 12 euros, which is amazing for these two products but it was on a special deal. I got the cleansing gel and the purifying treatment.

You are meant to put this on clean skin at least once a day, and you can wear makeup over it if you like, it's like a very light gel-cream that is meant to combat imperfections. I've only been using it for four days and I can see a difference already. It does tingle/sting a bit when you first put it on but my skin seems used to it now and I haven't had any problems with this. Definitely would recommend this for skin with blemishes. I haven't tried the gel wash yet but have heard good things so watch this space.

I did buy the Bioderma Eau Miscellaire but it is currently still in France waiting for my mum to drive it back for me to review! However I had seen on the Sephora website that they do their own version, which was a little cheaper, so I picked up one of these to try too.

Look at the dispenser! Am I the only one excited by this? You take a cotton pad and put it on the round bit, push down twice and away you go. I later found that Bioderma do a bottle with this design too but it was only available in one out the twenty odd pharmacies I visited. Anyway back to the product, I found this very refreshing and soothing on my skin, it doesn't have a strong scent and it does take off all your makeup. I'm unsure if you are meant to tone after this or not, they do sell toner next to this but this looks too much like a toner already for me! I much prefer this to cream cleansers.

Another item I had researched before going away was this little Precision Sponge, Sephora's version of the Beauty Blender. It was much cheaper than the Beauty Blender, coming in at 10 euros as opposed to £16.00.

It is a little egg-shaped sponge with a rounded base and a pointed top so that you can reach smaller areas e.g. around the nose and eyes. The idea is that you wet the sponge, wring it out and then "bounce" the product across your face. This method of application means that there are no smears, lines, or patchy areas and that application is much easier. You can also use the sponge for cream blushers etc.

I find that this does indeed offer a more even coverage but it takes a little getting used to when using it, especially with cream blushes getting the technique right took a few tries. I really want to try the Cosmopolitan version of this also.

Finally, we have one of Sephora's own lipsticks. I have to say I was a little shocked when I saw the price tags of their own makeup, maybe I've become a cheapskate or maybe they're more expensive than I remembered but this was 10.90 euros, when I remember paying around 8 only two years ago. That's quite a jump! Anyway I had Richard with me and was boring him to tears with the "What do you think of this colour, is it too boring? Yes it's too boring, you're right. What about this one? No, too pale." Poor guy looked like he wanted to jump out of a window when he finally pointed at this one and said "If you have to get something, that one looks alright". So I snaffled it.

How dark is that! Very vampy. I love it though, and on coming home I picked up this months magazines and apparently dark, dramatic berry shades are in. Well there you go. It smells beautiful and applies very easily. It actually can be very wearable if blotted properly, this is heavily applied to show the colour payoff. This is from their Rouge Cream Collection, you can find it on the US website here. They are really the most beautiful colours, this is in the shade Crush.

Well that's it for today, back tomorrow with more goodies. Sorry about the massive post with all the pics but had to be done :) Have a great day guys xx

Post Holiday Blues

Hello you lot, have you missed me? I've missed you. I got back from France last night, and am currently in limbo all out of sync with the weather and holiday frame of mind. Sigh. We had an amazing time, and a week wasn't enough. I nearly cried like a small child when we arrived in Edinburgh to see people bundled up in coats and the rain drizzling around us. But I did get some amazing French goodies, so I will apologise in advance for the onslaught of reviews that is heading your way. First up though, a picture of some patisseries, just because.

YUM. Every second street has a patisserie or boulangerie that puts our bakeries to shame. They are like works of art, and taste amazing. I'm making myself want to go back just looking at this picture. So lets move on. As I'm sure you will be surprised to hear, I managed to control myself at Duty Free and only bought from the MAC counter. I was trying not to spend a fortune before even getting on the plane, so decided to just buy a lipstick...then an eyeshadow blending brush.

So I figured, everyone bangs on about Mac Angel, I really need to see what the fuss is all about. It's a Frost Finish, which I didn't know as it's always portrayed as a perfect nude shade. Also Kim K's favourite (YAWN). As a beauty blogger of sorts, I really should own some of these cult shades to see what I think about them, contrary to following the hype I tend to want to disprove it, maybe my little inner rebel coming out!

As I'm unable to keep things for long without using them, I only waited to get on the plane before taking pics of this. You can only image what I'm like on Christmas Day. Yep, I'm basically an overgrown child. In the bullet this looks like a dusky rose pink with brown undertones. I wouldn't say that the frost finish is very obvious for this shade at all, you really have to peer at the bullet to see the shimmer and it isn't obvious at all on.

This is pretty heavily swatched as I found that it wasn't very highly pigmented on the skin.

Am I blown away by this? No, not really. It's a pretty colour, very wearable but doesn't pack enough of a punch for me. It's a bit too...vanilla. But I'll add it to the collection and I'm sure it will get used at some point. The brush I bought was another Pixiwoo inspired purchase, those girls are no good for my bank balance. A lot of my eyebrow brushes are from various sets, and tend to be smaller in size. I had seen this brush being used by Sam in a couple of smokey eye videos and liked how it softened out the look.

This is the MAC 217 Blending brush, the Pixiwoo girls always seem to keep theirs very clean but looking at these bristles I don't see myself managing to keep this clean at all. In France the weather was so warm that all my eyeshadow and other makeup seemed to slide down my face so I ended up wearing just BB cream and mascara, so I will need to try this out and get back to you on it!

Speaking of the weather, I had a couple of little sun tan lotions to try out while I was away, so just wanted to mention these briefly.

We have Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration and Green People sun lotion with tan accelerator. These are both SPF 15, which is what I would normally use. The Hawaiian Tropic has "ribbons" of hydration throughout the product. The packaging is lovely and you can see the swirled effect through the plastic. It smells delicious, as do all their products, although this is floral rather than fruity. Your skin is indeed left soft and protected but I got rather annoyed at this products as it separated if you didn't use it for over 6 hours or so, meaning that you squirted out a sort of yellow oil and the cream separately. It was fine if you just shook it back together but I wasn't a fan overall. This is £14.99 for 180ml.

The Green People's packaging is dull as ditchwater, but the product is 98% natural in origin and smells of essential oils. It was just a bog standard white cream but certainly did the job. I put this on my legs to attempt to get them to change colour at all as they are very stubborn, and did see a slight difference, but nothing major. If you are into natural products I would definitely recommend this product. It is £17.95 for 200ml.

Anyway guys, it's good to be back, you will be hearing about France for the next couple of posts then I promise to shut up about it! If you want to know, I was in the Limousin region near Limoges :)
xx

Inglot futuristic lips

Hello you lot, today I'm reviewing an item I bought way back in March but had totally forgotten about. When I was up in Aberdeen for work I found the Inglot stall in the new shopping mall next to the train station. I was instantly curious, as I had not heard of the brand but could tell straight away that the colours were highly pigmented and the products good quality. I've since lost the box but the packaging is all a sleek black with white writing, simplistic and classy.

How stunning is that? As you can see I have shade 545, but at the time there were about 6 shades of this AMC lipgloss to choose between. They all had this vaguely scary petrol-effect going on and I was a bit worried they would look ridiculous on, but after swatching I settled for this one. They are all £9.00 I believe, which is a very reasonable price. I spoke to the MUA and she explained she had worked for various high end brands (MAC etc) and she considered these products to be just as good, and that they had been created by a Polish chemist who had worked in the cosmetics industry.

This still looks a little OTT doesn't it! Well fear not as it doesn't look too bad on. This shade makes me feel very futuristic, it's quite a robotic, toxic looking colour which I love. I could imagine pairing this with Illamasqua makeup, and this is cheaper.

Sorry, I don't have any other makeup on here so my skin looks a little bleurgh, but this is the lipgloss on its on, lightly layered. The petrol-effect is mimised and it turns into a lovely peachy-orange colour which is very wearable.

If you want to use this to full effect, layer it over a lipstick. This is it over Mac Viva Glam Nicki. This picture doesn't do the neon brightness of this look full justice so here are a couple more!

I could have sworn I paid £9.00 for this but I've just checked their site and its £12.00. Ah well. It's still worth that I'd say. It's a lighter gloss, not thick and sticky, I'm guessing it must be water-based. This is great as it is very moisturising but I do think this formulation will make you want to reapply more often. However no hair getting stuck to it in the wind! I love the look of this layered over a base colour but I don't think the effect is strong enough when just used on its own. It also smells lovely.

There are some other stunning shades from this range, you can find them here. I'd love to see 546 layered over Mac St Germain, can you think of any nice combos?

9/10 and will most likely get one of the other colours!

I hate duty free

I don't really, I LOVE duty free, but I hate the way it sucks me in magnetically. I don't think I've ever not bought anything in duty free. I nearly had a heart attack in Florida when I realised our terminal didn't have a proper duty free (no MAC, Bobbi Brown, Chanel or anything). I just get so excited, I love a bargain and you get the chance to wander, usually not being too harassed by sales staff like you are in a department store. The lights, the deals and being surrounded by gorgeous products all in one place. It's like I've died and gone to heaven! So I think you know where this is leading...

MAC Bombshell! It's my first frost finish and I knew I'd probably buy a lipstick so I wanted something different. I didn't count on Studio Sculpt winding its way into my basket also (oooops). I really don't need any more foundation at the moment, which beauty blogger does really? But I tried it in Harvey Nichols a couple of weeks ago and it wormed its pretty little way into my heart. But that's for another review :)

The first pictures were taken in my hotel in Camden on my Blackberry so sorry for the rubbish quality! I wanted to wear it for work the day after I bought it so wanted pics of the untainted bullet. I've always thought of frost finishes in a very 80's old-fashioned way, like blue eyeshadow and pink cheeks. However, as always MAC have hit the nail on the head. This shade is a dusky rose colour with the faintest metallic gold sheen to it, if I was to describe the formulation I would say it's more moisturising that either my satin or amplified creme lipsticks. It lasts well, doesn't feather and feels great on. It fades evenly, which my amplified lipsticks don't.

I love love love this colour. You really need to see it on in the sun to see the depth of colour and sheen. It's a deeply feminine colour that would match neutral eyes and a flushed cheek, great for shopping, work or a romantic dinner. It's not a POW in your face colour like some of my favourites, but I feel very womanly with this on. I don't think this is a well known shade either so I'm giving it a shout-out.

My lips feel very moisturised and plumped up, I hope you can see the golden sheen to this colour. It's like they've taken all the duller versions of this type of shade made by every cosmetics company under the sun, and perfected it. Let me know what you think, but I'm very happy with this.

Oh and incase you were wondering why I was in duty free in the first place, I was down in London for work. As it turns out I am far too old to shop in the city centre (Topshop was a massively stressful experience) and much preferred trawling through Camden market and haggling with the stall owners! I bought a pretty navy dress and found an Aldo sale shop so got some gorgeous sandals:

It was so warm that I HAD to buy these, honest...and then I wore them back to Scotland, and it was raining when I got off the plane so looked like a right plonker. Fabulous. As part of my job, we got taken to lunch to a lovely sushi/noodle place called Bento in Camden, look at my gorgeous flowering jasmine tea! I have to get some of this for the flat.

All in all a successful trip! I also managed to fall in love with Estee Lauder Double Wear light in the airport on the way back but managed to avoid buying any but I go away again next month so we'll see what happens then!!! Oddly I'm NC20 in Mac but the lightest shade in Estee. I'm never sure if it's the light in airports but I always seem to change shade. Oh and smell this the next time you're in Boots, it's beautiful and on my wishlist:

Anyway lovely readers, that's my little update, back in a day or so with my next review. Hope you're well and thanks for reading, as always :) xxx