Monday 28 November 2011

Review: MAC pink products!

Hello all!

I was very lucky to receive a MAC voucher last Christmas that I've only just got round to using it (god knows how I made it last so long) so after a silly amount of time debating, I bought these two products. Somehow I've managed to follow a little bit of a pink theme.. hope you like!

MAC Lipstick 'Please Me' // MAC Eyeshadow 'Star Violet'
Firstly, the eyeshadow was £11.50 and as I'm sure you're aware, you can get these in a huuuge variety of shades to drool over - you can see them all here. MAC are known for providing blendable and well-pigmented shadows, so I had no doubt this would be worth the pennies. 'Star Violet' is Veluxe Pearl shade, which is essentially slap bang in the middle of matte and shimmer, providing a lovely shimmer but no Christmas tinsel eyes! The above picture highlights the pink in the shadow a little more, but as you can see from the swatch (below) this shadow is more burgundy/plum with pink as an undertone. Fab for me with green peepers, but I reckon this would look fab on most eyes. I've worn this a few times and have found it easy to apply and long-lasting.. thumbs up!

MAC Eyeshadow - 'Star Violet'
As for the lipstick, this was my first ever from MAC and blimey, did it take me long to decide! Their selection is extremely huge, and I toyed with winter plums and nudes until finding a great middle ground here for £13.50. As someone who's new to the lippie game, I'd recommend this shade if you fancy a pop but with little responsibility to keep having to touch up, or a 10 minute session just trying to get it on right. The first thing that struck me was how easy it was to apply, no feathering or mess at all. 'Please Me' is a matte shade though, so if you're a fan of glossy lips you might have to pop a little gloss over the top. MAC describe this shade as "rosy-tinted pink" which I agree with, but it does lean slightly towards barbie pink so if you're shy, try using your finger to apply rather than directly from the stick, as the pigment on this is strong!


What's your favourite MAC lipstick? I think I'll be repurchasing because I'm really impressed with these, give me some ideas ladies! :)

Hope you're all having a great week.
Colly xx

Sunday 27 November 2011

Presents from New York & Nails Inc.

Hello :]

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend? It's starting to finally feel like winter is on it's way. I love it! All those hats and scarves can now be put to good use. I love this time of the year, does anyone else?

Anyway, my mum and her boyfriend just came back from a week away in New York (lucky ..........) and before they went, I asked mum if she should try and find me a new pair of baby pink converse as mine died years ago, as well as a Betseyville bag. OH.MY.GOODNESS. I love this bag. LOVELOVELOVE IT!

The bag <3 <3 <3
Close up - just so you can see the detail a little better.
Inside the bag - beautiful lining :]
When mum was in the outlet and described it to me, I wasn't sure but decided she knew what I liked so trusted her. She was spot on. I love this bag and can't wait to wear it into work tomorrow! Not only did she get me the bag (which was $49.00 so.. £30.00 - which I paid back) but she decided to get me a little present.... THE MAKE-UP BAG!

Betsey make-up bag :]
I have so many make-up bags at the moment but due to my recent make-up addiction, this couldn't have come at a more perfect time! I love this and the lining is the same as the handbag. 

But it doesn't stop there....

Whilst mum & her boyfriend were in the outlet, they saw two pairs of leggings so bought those too! Today mum made me choose  which pair I wanted. The plain black pair with gold zips at the ankles or a lacey pair.. so after lots (and I mean lots) of uhming and ahhing, I went for the lacey pair!

I made this picture slighly larger so you can see the detail.
I'm not sure how much the make-up bag was but I think these were $17ish from what I remember on the packaging. I love them, I just hope they fit! If not, I will lose weight to get into them. 

The only other thing I got was my lovely new pair of converse, which look a little strange because I still need to re-lace them but you get the idea :]

I <3 these so much!
Lastly, I was in TK Maxx on Saturday and they have all their Christmas bits out so figured i'd have a look through the beauty stuff. I eventually found the nail polish and look what little gem I found....
LOOK AT THE PRICE!!
Four amazing Nails Inc colours for £14.99!! These are in the shades (L-R): Burlington Arcade, Hanover Square, Bow Street and Kingly Street. I have been eyeing up these street name polishes on ebay for ages, so was super pleased to finally find some for an affordable price!
I currently have Burlington Arcade on my toe nails (but won't insert pictures as that's a little weird) and I have Kingly Street on my fingernails (but.. it went slightly wrong so I won't include pictures but they will follow).

I love finding these little treasures in TK Maxx or any shop for that matter. Perfect :]

Thank you for reading, it won't be so long next time!

xxxxx

Thursday 24 November 2011

e.l.f super haul :]

Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been so long since i've written here. I did have every intention of doing a birthday haul but it's now 20 days later and I still haven't written one plus I think it's unfair to include some bits and not others so perhaps it is best that I don't show you? Not sure, but either way I had a lovely day.


In the past week, e.l.f have had two 40% off vouchers! One was via email as i'm signed up to their newsletter and the other was because they reached 250,000 likes on Facebook! Although e.l.f is super cheap anyway, this voucher pretty much meant I could have the majority of bits for 90p instead of £1.50 - how pleased was I?

So.. I went a little over the top. I bought some bits with the first voucher then decided to go crazy as it was nearly pay day with my other voucher! I'm not going to ramble too much because i'm just going to get on with the pictures.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures - it's dark and the lights in my lounge are awful! Enjoy :]

Coy & Innocence
Cream Eyeliner & Brush in Black. BEST eyeliner :]
High Definition Face Powder. Not used yet but heard it's amazing.

Lengthining and Defining Mascara.
In Sexy Silver and Cream Deam!
Under Eye Concealer & Highlights - i've been using this as a primer :]
Wet Gloss & Brow Clear Mascara.
Just some swatches!!
Just some nail bits and bobs I was needing to restock.
Black and Mint Cream


White, Coral and Dark Navy

Cranberry and Twinkle
Eyelash curlers and tweezers - can never have enough!




As well as some brushes and other nail polishes :] I think I did really well. These were all bought with the 40% off voucher and each box (because i ordered twice) was about £20ish

Has anyone else tried any of these bits out?

x x x x

Thursday 10 November 2011

November feelunique.com Beauty Box! x

Hello cutiepies,

Sending you all some virtual biscuits as way of an apology for being absent from the blog recently! Life has been a little hectic but during that time a box from feelunique.com arrived on my doorstep - it was their lovely new November Beauty Box. Similar to Glossybox and the rest, the premise for this is that for £9.95 a month you receive samples from brands you may or may not be familiar with, to get a feel for the products they currently have in production. Now this might sound like a bit of a shoddy deal (and as I can gather from other reviews, for some beauty boxes it is) - feelunique have included some pretty hefty samples that are well worth the money. Another upside with this box is that all the products included are available to buy from the website, and you get 10% off all the brands featured in it. Good stuff!



 I was so impressed by this.. these are more than samples to me, and so much more than I was expecting. As far as I can gather the last box was similar in sizes, let's hope for the same in December! Here's a little more info on each product..

  • Prada Candy Eau De Parfum 1.5ml spray (full size 30ml costs you £40.00) - Personally I love this (I think you can guess by how much is left!) and would consider buying the full shebang, perhaps with a little caution for the cost though. It's an extremely feminine and wearable scent, for full ingredients have a little look at the link above. Also, the sampler was a spray bottle and not one of the annoying ones you have to force the lid off and spill everywhere. Thumbs up!
  •  BellaPierre Mineral Shimmer Powder in 'Provence' 2.35g (You can't buy these individually on the feelunique website but for a stack of nine shimmer powders it is £59.99 - wowza!). The product card for this describes it as multi-use, so you could use it with eyeshadows, eyeliners, highlighters, lip glosses, etc. Pretty good idea, I've yet to use it in those ways but can't wait to try it out - the pigment on this one is fantastic - mega glitter!

  • Schwarzkopf Professional OSiS+ Dust It Mattifying Powder 10g (this is full size and costs £9.95 - that's the box paid for in itself!). According to the directions, you rub the powder in your hands until it becomes a cream which can be applied to dry hair to style. Not really sure how this will work with my hair, let me know if you've used this product & what you thought!


  • Goldwell DualSenses Rich Repair 60 Sec Treatment 50ml (full size is 200ml and costs you £7.70). Similar to most hair treatments on the market, you apply this after shampoo and leave for 60 seconds to do it's magic work. I'm yet to use this, will report back if it's any good - I'm a huge fan of these type of products so fingers crossed :)

    Update! I used this earlier in replacement for a conditioner and if I'm brutally honest, it's a pile of poo. It took so long to wash out and once I'd dried my hair I realised that this hadn't washed out properly despite spending a silly amount of time trying. My hair feels so product heavy, greasy and not well conditioned. Wouldn't recommend this, such a shame!

    Yep, I'm willing to put un-skin related products on my hands for this. Blogger points?
    •  Xen-Tan Deep Bronze Luxe 30ml (full size is 263ml and costs you £21.50). This self tan is for weekly use and judging by a quick application and a skim of the info, this isn't a developing colour so the result you have on your skin instantly is what you'll end up with. I was really excited about this until I saw it was 'dark', expecting it to well off, but this actually matches me well and I'm fairly pale. It's pretty sheer on application too so seems unlikely to end up streaky. Don't be put off by this one, give it a go! One downside: I smell like a walking biscuit.



    •  Emma Hardie Amazing Face Natural Lift and Sculpt Moringa Cleansing Balm & Dual Action Professional Cleansing Cloth 15ml (full size is 100ml and sets you back £34.00). Firstly, let me say the cloth you get with this balm is so so soft (for three of these on the website it costs a tenner) and has a different texture on each side. The balm looks as if it would be grainy but is soft and smells brilliant - you mix it with a few drops of warm water and apply to the face, neck and eye areas which should create a cream - this should begin to remove all the make-up, excess oils and other rubbish stuff from your face. The cloth obviously is used for removal of the balm using warm water, and the textured muslin side can be used for exfoliation.

      Update! I have just used this on my face for the first time. I wear a fair amount of make-up and was a little worried about using a heavy amount of this product to remove it all due to the sensitivity of my skin, so I first used Simple Cleansing Lotion to get the main body off and then used this as instructed. I usually struggle to get the last scraps of foundation off but this has removed it all, was so easy to apply and my skin feels pretty lovely - will see for any changes with longer use, but so far a great product.


      So that's the lot! For under ten pounds, this is absolutely fab and I'm really excited about using all of these and getting an introduction to a couple of new brands. What do you guys think? Have you subscribed to any beauty boxes?

      Looking forward to your feedback. Have a great day! xxx