September favourites

Hii :]

There are a few bits and pieces i'm in love with at the moment, so I thought i'd share them with you ♥

My first favourite is not a beauty product but a pair of shoes. I think I originally saw these in an OOTD by moreemilk and fell in love, although they weren't what i'd normally go for.

Sorry if they look a little worn!

As you can see, they're leopard print moccasins and although i'm slowly growing to love leopard print, I really never thought i'd be buying a pair of moccasins as they always remind me of my nan! I am so glad I bought them though, they're so soft and comfortable to wear and they magically jazz up any bland outfit I wear to work. If you want to get in on the leopard print trend this autumn but are too scared to wear the more outrageous items (leggings, shirts etc.) then this is perfect and at £17.99 from New Look, you're hardly breaking the bank to do so :]

My second favourite is my new 'Petrol in Water' nail polish by Andrea Fulerton which I mentioned in my last haul post. I'd read a few reviews on this and they all had really mixed experiences. Some found the polish to be too thick and gloopy whereas some found it to be better than Barry M! With these claims, I wanted to find out whether this was worth the money and whether it really did give the 'Petrol in Water' effect.

Apologies, my nails aren't in the best condition at the moment :(

I followed the instructions, darker coat first and then the lighter glittery coat on top and as soon as I put the top coat on, I was really amazed! The only thing I would do differently next time is to apply a couple of coats of the first 'Petrol' colour. This is quite expensive for nail polish (which you can get from Superdrug for £7.99) but as a one off, I think it's worth the money and it's only just started chipping after a week.

Next is the Makeup Academy Intense Colour eye pencils. I bought three of these for £1.00 each in Superdrug because I wanted to find a new eyeliner and these are brilliant.

I'm quite simple when it comes to being impressed with packaging and the fact that these pencils come with a sharpener on the cap is amazing as i'm forever losing mine.

I bought these in the colours Snow White, Jet Black and Starry Night and they're all, as most MUA products are, really well pigmented.

I'm going to put my Barry M and Rimmel eyeliners away and continue to use these until i'm down to a stub!

Last favourite is The Body Shop body butters. My obsession for The Body Shop started last December when I popped in during the sales, but since then I have tried a variety of butters to find my favourites which now are Mango, Papaya and Pink Grapefruit.

They smell good enough to eat and absorb into the skin slowly leaving your skin feeling moisturised and smelling lovely for hours. I tend to use these after showering, especially on my legs as they're normally quite dry and I really have noticed a difference.

If you want to try these out, pop over to The Body Shop now as they have a 'Buy one get one 50% off' offer!

**Some of the butters can have an alcohol scent, especially if you don't use them that often. So far i've notice the Strawberry, Lemon Whip, Blueberry and Satsuma tend to give off an alcohol smell when applied so i've avoided using them but that may just be me!**

That's all for this months favourites :]

Keep an eye out for my next blog, as i've just placed a large order with e.l.f!

xxxx

NYX Lip Products & Sigma brushes

Hello all!

I was happy to receive a little parcel this morning from the fantastic Love Make Up (if you're not familiar, this site is great for products that aren't readily available on the UK high street - e.g. NYX, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Sugarpill). Here's a little peek into what I bought and a little more about the products, hope you all find this helpful :)

Sigma Brushes - (above) Small Tapered Blending E45 / (below) Tapered Highlighter F35

Firstly, two Sigma brushes. The smaller brush I bought primarily because it's so similar to the MAC 217 but not even close to the price (MAC retails at £16 whereas this one was £8.99), and looks perfect for blending eyeshadow. The second brush looks fab for both highlighting and contouring, and again, I bought this as a MAC dupe (MAC 138 retails at a pretty eye watering £37 whereas this only cost me £12.99). I know these prices still aren't amazingly affordable, but from an investment point of view they will last you a long time if you take good care and keep them in shape. The quality is apparent as soon as you see them - they feel great on the skin and appear really well manufactured.

I've never been a big user of lip products but have recently started exploring outside the easy route of lipbalm and lipgloss! Nevertheless, while I find what I like, I don't want to spend a fortune so have been aiming for affordable brands and stumbled across NYX. The lip liner pencils cost £3.00 each and the lipsticks just £3.50 - a bargain for good quality products :)

The two lip liners below are (left) 857 Nude Beige and (right) 834 Prune. The pencils are precise and really well pigmented - not too creamy as to feather around your lips, but soft enough not to irritate.

Finally here are the three NYX Round Lipsticks I found and thought I'd give a try. These apply brilliantly and I have to say, for the price, they are fantastic quality. They are creamy and strong in colour but don't smudge once applied and didn't dry my lips out at all. Here are some pictures for you to see the colours a little better.

NYX Round Lipstick - 620 'Paris'

NYX Round Lipstick - 511 'Chaos'

NYX Round Lipstick - 619 'Flower'

Hope this offered a little more insight into this lovely brand! Have a great day and feel free to leave a comment! xxx

Barry M Nail Paints

Hello lovely people :)

Here's a little review to show you all the Barry M Nail Paints I own, as out of my whole nail polish collection these are the most reliable colours I have and always turn to. They're easy to apply and so long lasting. After years of biting my nails to next to nothing, I’ve finally grown them to a healthy length so these are my rewards for doing so! Hope you enjoy.

(310 Mushroom / 290 Spring Green / 66 Matt White / 307 Lemon Ice Cream)

                   

(262 Bright Red / 291 Cobalt Blue / 292 Navy / 294 Cyan Blue)

( 289 Gold / 244 Hologram Hexograms / 316 Nail Effects White / 311 Nail Effects Black)

As you can see in the bottom picture, the 'Hologram' polish is clear with large glitter, this can be applied on it's own as shown but also looks great over colour (I'd recommend black). The two nail effects featured are over red varnish, and after a few experiments with these I've found they need to be painted over another polish, and won't crackle when directly placed on the nail.

All of these products are available from the Barry M website, or alternatively from Boots and Superdrug in the UK. The regular colours retail at £2.99, while the nail effects sell for £3.99. If you order with Barry M by Friday 7th October you can receive 20% off all products with the discount code 'DISCOUNT'! I have a serious love affair with this brand so if you are already a fan or just fancy exploring something new, I'd forever recommend them.

Two other products I used today are Rimmel 5-in-1 Base and Top Coat (available here), as well as Avon's Liquid Freeze.

The Rimmel varnish is the best base/top coat I've come across as it goes a long way and provides the protection I look for. Rimmel claims the varnish provides "smoother, stronger, longer, more moisturised and shinier nails" - personally, I haven't noted a huge change myself so I can't support that claim, but it does the job that I bought it for which is to stop chipping and provide shine. 

Avon's Liquid Freeze comes in the form of a liquid in a spray bottle, which, after applying your polish, you spray directly onto the nail for to speed up the drying process. I work for Avon myself, and when I purchased this I was a little skeptical, but as someone who forever smudges their nails after hours of patient concentration, I thought I'd give it a go. Much to my surprise it's a fab product and dries my nails within about 10 seconds. Unfortunately this product has sadly been discontinued from Avon so cannot be bought directly from them, but is available through Ebay if you fancy one for yourself :)

Hope you've all had a great day!

xxx

Little haul ♥

Today I went shopping with my boyfriend and bought crazy amounts of goodies...not all for me though!

Right, on with the haul!

First we went into CEX and I picked up a game (which is not really that interesting) and the first series of Pushing Daisies. I've always seen the adverts and thought it looks quite good and for £6 I thought i'd give it a go. Has anyone else seen it?

Next was New Look. I've recently been really disappointed with New Look, both in price and quality but these bits weren't too expensive so I didn't mind so much.

The following clothes are all from the Inspire range.

First thing I bought was the Pink Bubble top. I have one in black already which is a size up so I can wear it as a dress. Teamed with a black belt, leggings and cardigan, it works quite well, so I did the same with this and bought it in a size up so I can wear it as a dress! This was £6.99 which i think is quite reasonable, as it doesn't shrink in the wash and can be dressed up or down.

I then picked up an Aztec Racer top, which was in the sale for £8 instead of £19.99, which I didn't think was too bad.
Last thing from New look was a Dandelion dress. This wasn't in the sale but wasn't that expensive at £17.99. I was a bit worried when i tried it on that it wouldn't suit my figure, as it's very floaty and the black dress/slip underneath the sheer material is quite figure hugging but it was perfect!
Next was Superdrug and i'd heard about some nail polish on Youtube that gives a strange effect but they never seem to have it in my local branch! I managed to find it today though, it's the 'Petrol in Water' trio by Andrea Fulerton. I've heard some mixed opinions on this, so perhaps a review?Last shop was The Body Shop. Oh my... I spent waaaay too much as usual BUT I did have a '£10 off when you spend over £25' voucher and a further 10% off from my card. I bought more of their Rainforest Radiance Shampoo which at £4 for 250ml may be a little much but it does amazing things to your hair! I also bought the conditioner which was £6 for 400ml and to top it all off, I also picked up some more of the Rainforest Radiance Detangling Spray which was also £6 for 400ml. I really would recommend this collection for anyone with coloured hair, especially if its slightly dry.Body butter was next on my list and I was honestly only going to buy one, but they have a 'buy one get one half price' offer so thought WHY NOT. I have tried a number of these butters but only really like a handful so I just bought the Mango and the Grapefruit butter. Both are lovely and really moisturise your skin after a shower :)
Apologies for the long haul, but hopefully you enjoyed it!

xxx

Ciaté Paint Pots

Ciaté was created by Celebrity Nail Technician, Charlotte Straughan. Her vision was to make professional salon quality polishes and hand/nail care available and affordable to the public. After starting in 2009, Ciaté has grown more sophisticated, not only with their feminine packaging but with their unique formulas and range of on trend colours.

I first heard of Ciaté Paint Pots when watching reviews of July's Glossybox and everyone had received different colours from reds right through to yellows. I had to have one, so i nipped over to their website and was slightly shocked when I saw the prices as the paint pots range from between £7 to £9 each! Now although some people may argue that this isn't that expensive, especially as you're getting salon quality...I still didn't want to spend that much on something i'd never tried before.

So instead I decided to head over to ebay.

I searched through pages of paint pots and eventually found the one I fell in love with. After waiting four days to make a bid on the pot, I managed to grab 'My Fair Lady'for just £3.49 (including postage) which I thought was a complete bargain.



Tuesday evening I used the polish and my first impressions were really positive. The pot was exactly how i'd imagined, the packaging was amazingly cute and the colour was spot on. I prepped my nails using The Body Shop cuticle pen and Barry M clear basecoat, then started painting. I must admit, it did take three to four coats to get the colour I really wanted and a topcoat to add shine.

Five days later, after moving furniture at work and doing the housework, I only have one chip in the polish which is at the side of my nail. I'm so impressed by everything this polish has offered so far. The packaging is amazing, the colour is gorgeous and it lasts like no polish i've ever used before.


Although I think the price is a little more than i'd normally pay, I do believe these paint pots are 100% worth it and would recommend them to anyone. I have also just bought a Ciaté basecoat on ebay, so i'll update you all on whether that makes a difference to the finish/overall colour.

xxx

MUA Professional Eyeshadow Palettes

Make Up Academy is a brand primarily associated with Superdrug, and very well known throughout the beauty industry in the UK for retailing products at just £1 each. They have now started a shiny new line called MUA Professional, where products are just a few pounds more, but nonetheless fantastic value for money. I’ve bought two of the new palettes which are called ‘Pretty Pastels’ and ‘Glitterball’ – they retail at £4 a pop, not bad!

As you can see, each palette comes with 12 eyeshadows, which is the equivalent of about 33p each (compared to MAC where individual eyeshadows sell for £15.50). The texture is great and each eyeshadow offers fantastic pigmentation. The only downside I have to comment on is the fact that you can get a LOT of fall out from these, so go easy when applying and make sure you’ve tapped off any excess to avoid those panda eyes (unless you like that look!). You also get a sponge applicator in there which I know are a bit like Marmite, but I find them helpful with heavy colours if I don't want to ruin my brushes!

Glitterball Palette

                                                                         (top row)

                                                                     (bottom row)

As you can gather from the name, all the shadows contain glitter - what's more, the glitter doesn't disappear when applied or blended so a big thumbs up there!

Pretty Pastels

                                                                        (top row)

                                                                  (bottom row)

All of the shadows in this palette I would say work best as highlighters, as although pale, they have an element of shimmer which would compliment the brow bone perfectly. Apologies for the battered look of mine, the white is definitely my favourite (if you couldn't guess) :)

I’ve owned these products for a couple of weeks now and do find myself reaching for them every time I do my make-up. I think it’s easy to be a little apprehensive of the MUA range, the price gives the impression you wouldn’t get much pay off from your purchase but I would recommend these to anyone interesting in widening their make-up collection – if you’re just starting out or you know all you need to, these will help you achieve some great looks. They’re available here: [Glitter Ball] and [Pretty Pastels], as well as four other brand spanking new palettes.

xxx

About us :)

Hello lovely people,
Here's a little more information on who we are and why we're writing!

♥ I’m Collette, 21 and lover of all the make-up I can get my hands on! I hope to write about the cosmetics I come across and offer my honest opinions on what is worth the pennies and what isn’t. I’m a big believer in buying products that work for you and not just for the price tag, so I’ll be reviewing anything from the £1 MUA range to a little more pricey brands such as MAC and Urban Decay. Feel free to comment with any questions, and I hope you enjoy the blog!


♥ I'm Amy, 22 and I have a strange addiction to The Body Shop! I love any products that help me to relax or make me feel slightly more comfortable in my own skin. Being on the 'plumper' side, I do find fashion very difficult to keep up with, as many shops don't usually stock the larger sizes although it seems that some of the high street shops are starting to think about us a little more now. I love buying clothes though, even if it's just a new dress for work! Primark is my absolute diamond at the moment, so expect lots of hauls and goodies from there. I hope to write lots of reviews, share my hauls and anything else that catches my eye along the way. Enjoy!

xxxxx