ABH Subculture: Hit or Miss?

The Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture palette has been causing quite a stir in the beauty world since its release. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, you’ll be familiar with the coveted Modern Renaissance palette that pretty much every beauty guru has in their collection. You can read my blog post about it here.

Some have been calling Subculture the sister palette of Modern Renaissance, whilst I’d be more inclined to refer to it as the long lost cousin. I, along with pretty much the rest of the world, am a huge fan of the MR, it being my most used palette since I bought it last July, and subsequently have almost hit pan on most of the shades. So, when I first heard rumbles of a second ABH palette I was pretty damn excited, intrigued to see what it would look like. I must admit, when I first saw the images of Subculture, I wasn’t all that impressed. It gave me autumnal, forest-y, earthy vibes, which definitely caught my attention, but I feel as though the colour scheme is a bit all over the place. When I look at MR, my eyes instantly group 4/5 shades together to create a look, but with Subculture I find that they don’t all work together. Don’t get me wrong, I instantly knew I had to get my hands on it, but it didn’t appeal to me quite as much as the warm toned pinks and reds of the MR.

I bought Subculture on the release day from the ABH UK website, over the moon that I wouldn’t be forced to wait ages for it to be available to us Brits, and that I wouldn’t be required to fork out for the extortionate shipping and custom fees. I opted for the free shipping, not wanting to spend anymore than the £42 for the palette I was already paying, but I was pleasantly surprised that it arrived at my house on Monday (31st), just 4 days after placing my order.

So, how does it compare to the Modern Renaissance?

It’s no secret that Subculture has been truly ripped apart by beauty gurus, some claiming the fall out was shocking, others insisting the colours are ridiculously difficult to blend. After hearing all the negative reviews, it put me off and I quite frankly, I wondered why I had even bothered to purchase it. It look me a full 5 days to work up the courage to play around with it, terrified I was going to be faced with a powdery mess of colours.

I’m not going to lie; this palette does have a lot of fallout. But, so does MR, and honestly it’s nothing you can’t handle. You just have to make sure to tap the excess powder off your brush before applying it to your skin.

The eyeshadows themselves are crazy pigmented, just like MR, with the exception of duochrome shades Electric and Cube which require a little more build up. The formula, whilst a little powdery, is really soft and smooth. Adorn, a shimmery metallic shade is a truly beautiful golden-copper, and I can see it becoming a well loved shade.

At the time of writing this review, I have to admit that I’ve only used a handful of them, so I can’t fully comment on the quality of darker shades such as Axis, Untamed and Rowdy, however the shades I have tried I’m relatively impressed with.

Let’s all ignore my dodgy eyebrow, shall we?

The look I created was by no means my best work, and something I really wasn’t all that happy with but to be perfectly honest, I simply could not be bothered to take it off and start again.

I started by using the shade Dawn, which unfortunately was less than impressive. I couldn’t even see it on my skin as it was so pale, and I abandoned it pretty quickly. In its place, I used Roxy, a really pretty coral/peach colour as an easy transition shade and ran it through my crease. This shade is something I can see myself using again and again as it’s so nice and subtle. I found the shadow blended pretty nicely. I then chose to use New Wave, a more orangey colour in the outer V, and loved it so much I put it in the crease too. To be honest, I had no idea what I was trying to achieve with this look and pretty much just yolo’ed (is yolo still a thing?) my way through.

Edge, a mustardy-yellow, has intrigued me since I first opened the palette, and I patted this all over my lid. I found Edge had slightly more fall out than some of the other shadows, and my brush actually left tiny dents in the pan. I decided to ditch the brush and use my finger instead, which worked pretty well, but I found this colour just didn’t want to blend. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about these eyeshadows being difficult to blend and I definitely see where they are coming from.

Because I am a massive sucker for duochrome, I used Electric, a mix between green and gold, over the top of Edge, again applying it with my finger. Electric is definitely more noticeable when you use it over the top of another colour.

I felt like the look was missing something, so I decided to put a tiny amount of All Star on the outer V, attempting to blend it into the crease. All Star was much darker and browner than I initially realised, it’s no where near as red as it looks in the pan. Unfortunately, this ended up ruining the whole look, as when blended with other shadows it just turned into this ugly muddy colour, that was so difficult to blend out.

 

The final look? Not overly impressed…

In an attempt to save the look, I used Cube as an inner corner and brow bone highlight, which I really loved. Despite not looking like much when initially swatched, it’s much more pigmented and prettier when you build it up.

Overall, Subculture is an OK palette. It’s not my favourite palette I own, and it probably won’t be one I reach for all that often. I think it’s one of those palettes where there are some shadows in it that you absolutely love and end up using them all the time, but alongside shades from other palettes. I am still yet to try the greens in the palette so I could change my mind, but for now I’m not overly in love. Is it worth the hype? In my opinion: No. Do I regret buying it? Again, no. I think once I’ve stopped being so scared of the colours, and actually try and create some better, bolder looks I’ll probably like it a lot more. I’ve seen some really nice creations all over Twitter, Youtube and Instagram, so I know it can be done! But for now, Subculture hasn’t truly amazed me.

Over to you: Do you own Subculture? What are your thoughts? Do you agree with me, or has it become your new go-to palette?

Current Go-To Eye Make Up

Since I dyed my hair purple last year, I’ve been obsessed with purple eyeshadow. There’s just something incredibly satisfying about matching your make up with your hair. My current go-to make up look, one that I find myself wearing most days is this purple look which I absolutely love. Each time I wear it I get so many compliments too, which is always nice!

Each time I create this look, I tend to use slightly different shadows, ranging between my Morphe 35P Palette, and some of my Make Up Geek shadows. For this particular look, I started with the Morphe 35P, but as they don’t have shadow names (a huge pet peeve of mine) I can’t specify which ones exactly but I’ll do my best to explain.

I ran the 4th shade in on the top row through my crease, followed my overlaying this with MUG’s Wisteria. Next up I took the 4th shade down on the 2nd row to my outer V, running it about halfway through the crease also to darken the eye and attempt to create a smokey effect. Using the bright purple shimmer in the Morphe 35P on my finger, I dabbed this on the middle of my lid, followed by MUG’s Masquerade. I then ran both these shades onto my lower lash line also. Finally, I took MUG’s Blacklight – honestly my absolute favourite eyeshadow ever- in my inner corner and also used it to highlight my brow bone.

Note how pretty this highlight is- another post featuring this is headed your way soon!

Super easy and doesn’t take long at all, but has quickly become my favourite eyeshadow look. When I’m going out to the pub or a party or something I usually tend to stick some pink or
purple glitter from Nyx in the center of my lid too to really make it something special!

Another version of the purple look using slightly different shadows- plus glitter to make it something special!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over to you: What is your current go-to eyeshadow? Have you experimented with any purples lately?

Kat Von D Beauty: First Impressions

First of all, the elephant in the room: I haven’t blogged in 3 months. I’m not going to go into an explanation but I’m *hopefully* back. We’ll see.

Now that’s out of the way, onto the products. If you’ve read any of my past blog posts you would know that I have been dying to get my hands on some of the Kat Von D products for a long time, but they have only just become available to us UK people recently. Kat Von D is exclusive to Debenhams, and it launched at the beginning of October. I’ve had these products for just over a month now so I feel like it’s a good amount of time to decide on my first impressions.

On a side note, the packaging on each of these products are amazing, I love it! The packaging for the eyeshadow palette is my favourite- so different to any other palette I own! My only thing is that because they are black they get dirty very quickly, but this just means I need to stop being lazy and give them a clean!

The first product is the Lock It Foundation. I asked one of the ladies on the stall to colour match me because there were so many different shades (which is great- they cater for so many different skin tones) and I came out as Light 44. This foundation is very thick and has very high coverage so if that’s not your cup of tea than this is not the foundation for you. I’m really enjoying this foundation as it makes your skin look SO flawless and feels so smooth. My only gripe is how long it takes to blend out. I recently bought one of the official Beauty Blenders after trying out so many of the dupes (honestly this little sponge is a game changer, I highly recommend) so that’s what I use to apply the foundation, but I find myself blending, and blending and blending and it doesn’t seem to go anywhere. It takes me a good 10 minutes (maybe a bit of an exaggeration) to blend it out evenly. This can get a little tedious but for the results it gives I am more than prepared to deal with it. It stays on for absolutely ages which is a definite plus. I went to a Twenty One Pilots show on Friday and somehow my make up still looked just as perfect by the end of the night!(Seriously, I don’t even know how!) This foundation retails for £27 which might seem pricey, but one single pump is enough for your entire face so it will last you for absolutely ages!

Next up: the Lock It Concealer. Much like the Foundation, this product is very thick and gives amazing coverage. There’s not much to say about this concealer other than it’s great at covering any spots, redness or imperfections you might have and I’m glad I bought it. I sometimes thick it is a bit too thick for use under your eyes though.

Onto my personal favourite of the bunch: the Tattoo Liner in Trooper. I have heard pretty much every one and their mother rave about this eyeliner and I 100% understand why. It is so black and so easy to use. It stays on for hours and doesn’t smudge or fade, which is exactly what you need in an eyeliner. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase and I want to try out some of the other colours! At £16 it is a little on the pricey side, but for the results it gives I am more than happy to pay for it!

The final product I bought from Kat Von D is the Shade And Light Eyeshadow Palette in Rust. I couldn’t choose between the Rust and Plum palette but in the end I went for Rust after seeing so many tutorials using it. I have very mixed feelings on this little quad. The first time I used these eyeshadows they really irritated my eyes, they made my skin really dry and sore and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I have never had this kind of reaction to any other eyeshadow before though, so I gave my eyes a chance to heal and tried them again and they were fine the second time around. I’m still slightly wary of using this palette in case it irritates my eyes again but I have used it several times since and it’s all been fine. Having said this, DON’T get this stuff in your eyes- while running the orange on my lower lash line I got a bit in my eye and it felt like actual acid. Not fun at all. Overall I do like this palette, and it is very handy for travel (which I do fairly often) but I think I wish I got the Plum instead. The colours are lovely and you can create some really nice eye looks, but I sometimes feel like the orange clashes a bit too much with my purple hair. The plum palette on the other hand… I think it would complement my hair perfectly! I think I might put it on my Christmas List. The highlight shade in this palette is really nice and subtle, however I probably won’t use the pink lid colour very often. Also: yes the brown colour is cracked and missing a corner. The first time I picked it up to use I drop it and it hit the corner of my dressing table and cracked. Absolutely devastating. Thankfully it was only the one shadow that cracked!

I definitely recommend giving some of these products a go- especially if you’re in the UK as we’ve FINALLY got them readily available to us. (About time too!)

I really want to give one of the Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks a go too as I’ve heard such great things, but the shades I wanted to try (Lolita and Bow n Arrow) were out of stock and I haven’t gotten around to ordering them online yet. Again, I might put them on my Christmas List.

Over to you: Have you tried any of these products? What are your favourite shades of the Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks?

Boots Haul (yes, yet another one)

I’ve been saving up my Boots advantage card points for months now, as I am always unsure what to use them for. Points build up very quickly especially because they regularly have double points events. In Boots, for every £1 you spend you get 4 points, and each point is equal to a penny- so say you have 360 points, that give you £3.60 to spend. But all of my UK readers will probably know exactly how this system works!

I’ve heard a lot of hype lately surrounding the sleek highlighting palettes and I just knew I had to get my hands on them. Initially I was intended on buying the Solstice palette- who can resist that rose gold packaging?!-  but then I found myself falling in love with the Platinum shade from the Precious Metals palette. It is a beautiful silvery/white colour which just looks insane when it catches the light. It is a cream highlight though which is something I’m not 100% sure how to apply but I’m sure with a bit of playing around I can get it right.

I had also heard a lot of people rave about the contour palette being really great for people with pale skin and I felt it was about time I got myself a contour kit and tried it out- yes, I know I’m a bit late to the party on this one! When I went to Boots they had a 3 for 2 offer on Sleek cosmetics so I decided to pick up both the highlight palettes seeing as one of them would be free!

I also picked up the Sleek Matte Me Lipstick in the shade Birthday Suit as it looked like it would be a colour that would suit me really well. So far I’m really loving it! I find it a little hard to apply because the applicator is a weird shape that’s different to what I’m used to but once it’s on I love it! It goes well with my Rimmel lip liner in East End Snob too, which is good!

On my shopping trip I was incredibly excited to discover that my local Boots store FINALLY has a Nyx counter! Now I no longer have to venture to the Westfields boots to buy Nyx products! The Studio HD Finishing Powder is something I’ve been wanting to try for a long time- it was featured in my Current Beauty Wish List post from last week, that you can read here-and so far I am really liking it. The powder makes your face feel so incredibly soft and smooth after you’ve used it, and it helps to keep your base make up on for just that little bit longer I think. I also chose to try out one of the Nyx Vivid Brights eyeliners in the shade purple (to match my hair haha). I haven’t tried this one out yet but it is a really bright purple which I think is gonna look nice with a simple nude eye look!

So here are the products that I spent my Boots points on!

Over to you: Do you own any of these products? What are your opinions on them?

Current Beauty Wishlist

As beauty bloggers, we all have a endless beauty wish-list that does nothing but grow with every new product the beauty world throws at us. Reading through blog posts, scrolling through Instagram, and watching Youtube videos, we’re constantly exposed to more and more products that we instantly fall in love with. We can’t help but fall into the trap of spending a ridiculous amount of money on all kinds of new products that we’ve watched our favourite beauty guru’s continuously rave about.

That being said, I absolutely love all things beauty- make up, skincare, hair products etc. There is something so satisfying about buying and trying new products, and watching your collection grow. A lot of my friends and family think it’s ridiculous and can’t understand why I choose to spend my money on such things but I am a firm believer of doing what makes you happy.

Anyway, in this blog post I thought I would give you all an insight into all of the products that I’m currently lusting after. My birthday is at the end of August so I’m hoping I can get some of them as presents!

• Too Faced Sweet Peach Palette: I own the Chocolate Bar palette and I absolutely adore it. I love the colour selection and have been really into doing a smokey brown eyeshadow look lately, and that is the perfect palette for just that! When I initially heard about the Sweet Peach palette I have to admit I was pretty skeptical; I just didn’t think that they were going to be able to live up to the hype that still surrounds the chocolate bar, but boy was I wrong! I am constantly seeing this being used in beautiful make up looks all over my Instagram and I definitely want to get my hands on it.
• Becca Champagne Pop (x) : There is no denying that this highlighter is a cult classic; I find it hard to find a beauty guru that doesn’t own it. It is so pretty and just really makes your cheekbones pop, and I have been dying to get my hands on it. It was hard to get in the UK to begin with but Cult Beauty came to the rescue and started stocking it. Whilst I really want to try this highlighter, I just can’t justify the price tag.
• Anastasia Beverly Hills Dip Brow Pomade (x) : Again, this is a product that everyone has been raving about for the last year or so. It seems to be just about everyones go-to brow product and I’ve been wanting to try it for a while. I’ve only recently properly started doing anything to my eyebrows and I’ve been loving NYX’s Tame & Frame as a decent substitute but it is starting to dry up a bit so now might be my opportunity to give the ABH one a shot.
• Kat Von D Lock It Foundation (x) : I have heard SO many amazing things about this product and it just feel like one of those things that I HAVE to try. Unfortunately the only way for my to get my hands on any of her make up products is to go aboard and go to a Sephora! Obviously I haven’t had the opportunity to do so, but the news that Kat Von D is bringing her make up line to the UK in September has been the best thing I’ve heard for a while! It’s about time!
• Kat Von D Shade And Light Palette (x) : Another one of Kat’s products I’ve been wanting to try out- I’ve seen a lot of people singing it’s praises and I like having the idea of having it all in one convenient palette.
• Kat Von D Tattoo Liner (x) : Again, I’ve seen this eyeliner named as a lot of peoples holy grail eyeliner, and I would really love to try it out.
• Colourpop (x) : I thought I should just give this brand an entire section on it’s own as I want to try out just about everything they’ve ever made. At the beginning of the month they announced that they were finally offering international shipping, although at $25 it still feels a bit a steep. I was waiting for payday before I made an order and now that’s come I might just treat myself. I want to try some of their eyeshadows, highlights and the lippystiks of course. Specifically Lumiere 2. KathleenLights new collab with them came out recently and I’d love to try that out too.
• NYX Studio HD Finishing Powder (x) : I’ve heard this is a great dupe for the Make Up For Ever HD Powder which I’ve been wanting to try but a lot cheaper.
• Violet Voss Holy Grail Palette (x) : We all know how much I love eyeshadow and this is just another palette that I desperately need in my life.
• Make Up Geek Manny MUA Palette (x) : This is probably one of the most beautiful palettes I’ve ever seen in my life but I’m just prepared to fork out £50 (yes, I know) for just 9 eyeshadows.
• Fairydrops Scandal Queen Mascara (x) : This mascara was a big hit a long while back and everybody seemed to be loving it. I never managed to get my hands on it but it’s one of those products that I’ve never seemed to be able to stop thinking about.
• MAC Velvet Teddy/Whirl (x) : I’ve said this before but I don’t really wear lipstick all that much. It’s something I am trying to get more into as it can really make or break a full faced make up look, but I just don’t have the confidence for super bold colours, and I don’t have the patience to keep reapplying it all day. Having said that, Velvet Teddy and Whirl are the two I see talked about the most and I think I’m gonna give them a go.
• Spectrum Cosmetics Eyeshadow Brush Set (x) : I recently purchased a fan brush from this company and oh my god I am in LOVE. They are so pretty and I really love the pop of colour they give to my brush pot. They are pretty inexpensive but still a really great quality, and I definitely want to get some more. You can never have too many eyeshadow brushes, right?
• Nivea Men’s Post Shave Balm (x) : Unless you’ve been living under a rock you will have heard about using this product as a primer. Weird, I know but people are swearing that it actually works. I’ve been wanting to try it for ages but I can’t quite bring myself to, and I’m scared it’ll leave my face feeling weird.
• The Body Shop Pina Colada Body Butter (x) : This stuff just smells so amazing which is weird because I personally hate both the smell (and taste) of pineapple and coconut, but somehow this product just smells like heaven in a bottle. Perfect for summer and will leave your body feeling so soft and smooth.
• Jeffree Star Skin Frost in Ice Cold : Now, this one I debated about including in this list. As you all know there’s been a lot of drama and controversy surrounding Jeffree Star lately and I made the decision that I didn’t want to support him or his make up line, so most likely I won’t ever purchase this product.. but I can still admire just how gorgeous it is…
• Sleek Highlight Palette (x) : I’ve seen everyone on Youtube go absolutely crazy over these lately and the packaging is just to die for. I will definitely be getting my hands on this at some point… when it’s not sold out in all my local Boots stores, that is..
• Sleek Contour Palette (x) : I’ve never really been one to go all out on the crazy contouring other than a bit of bronzer and highlight, but I feel like I need to have a contour kit in my make up collection. I’ve seen a lot of hype over this one lately as everyone claims it to be perfect; for fair skin.
• Nyx Vivid Brights Eyeliner (x) : I’ve been wanting to try these for ages and my local Boots store finally has a nyx counter so I’m going to get myself some of them. They give the perfect pop of colour to a cat eye.

This list could go on forever probably, and there are a lot of other things I could include but I think I’m going to wrap it up here. These are the ones that came to mind when I sat down to write this post, and are the ones I’m constantly wanting to purchase. I’ve tried to link all the products I could but some of them were unavailable in the UK/I couldn’t find links.

As a sidenote, I just wanted to apologise for my lack of posts lately. Between work , being away and a massive slump of lack of motivation I haven’t really felt like writing, nor have I found the time. I’m going to really try to keep on top of my weekly posts though (Wednesday, 5:30pm!) from now on!

Over to you: Have you got any of these products? Are any of these on your wish-list too? What else is on your wish-list?

How Much Is My Face Worth?

I have seen a fair few people do this blog post in the last few weeks and I thought it was a really intriguing one so I’ve hopped onto the bandwagon. After seeing Sarah from Zero do this post on Monday it made me want to do it too! You can read her post here.

I was debating between doing my everyday make up routine and my current full faced routine, but in the end decided to go with the everyday as, after all, it is the routine I follow, yep you guessed it, every day.

So lets get on with it- the products in question:

• Make Up For Ever Step 1 Skin Equalizer Hydrating Primer: £24
• Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Foundation: £29
• Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Complete Coverage Concealer: £17.50
• Rimmel London Clear Complexion Powder: £3.99
• The Balm Mary Lou Manizer Highlighter: £17.49
• Benefit Hoola Bronzer:£23.50
• NYX Tame & Frame Tinted Brow Pomade: £5.50
• Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara: £7.99
• Make Up For Ever Aqua Liner: £16
• Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner: £3.99
• Miss Sporty My BFF Lipstick: £2.99
• Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray: £22

TOTAL: £173.95

My total hasn’t actually surprised me all that much; I expected it to be pretty high- if not higher! I suppose for my quick everyday make up look for work I don’t use my beloved eyeshadow palettes which would definitely have increased the total! I do also think I have a good mix of high end and drugstore products- in my opinion there are some high end things I can’t resist buying (cough anything from Make Up For Ever, cough) but I can’t deny how great some of these drugstore products are. Having said this, as a student with only a part time job this is an eye watering amount of money- especially to be putting on my face all day! To put it into perspective this is about a third of my monthly bills and rent put together…

Anyway, Over To You: How much is your face worth? Does your total surprise you?

Bargain Beauty Buys

So I went shopping today and didn’t expect to be writing up a blog post on my purchases, but I got some really good bargains that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to let you all know!

As you might not know, Make Up For Ever has quickly become one of my favourite make up brands alongside Urban Decay, and while I was rummaging through the beauty section of my local TK-Maxx I came across a couple of their products. Me being the incredibly lame  person I am, got very excited the moment I spotted their signature packaging (black boxes with white writing). Now as most of you UK people will probably know, the beauty section in TK-Maxx is one of those things that is very much hit and miss- sometimes (like today) you can find some really great products, but on other days it’s all just a load of junk if I am being brutally honest. You have to have a lot of patience to sift through everything there but more often than not it definitely pays off. Another thing I find very frustrating is that 90% of the time the packaging has already been ripped open and is damaged, sometimes so much so that you can’t even tell what brand the product is from. More often than not this unfortunately means that the product inside has also been wrecked and can occasionally be smashed/broken. A few of the MUFE products in my store were like this which was slightly irritating as I probably would have bought those too, but what can you do? (Probably a good thing for my bank account!)

The few things I did manage to find however are great! I found one of the MUFE HD Concealer’s  -something I have been wanting to try out for the longest time- and it was in the shade 325. On a whim I decided to buy it even though I hadn’t been able to test out of the colour (I probably should have but TK-Maxx ask you not to open the packaging/products which I wanted to respect, despite the fact that no one else in the shop seems to..) and I am so glad that I did! I did whip out my phone in the middle of the store and google what kind of shade it was and it is the second to lightest shade so I figured seeing as I am shade Y235 in the Ultra HD Foundation I figured that it wouldn’t be that far off. Luckily it seems to be the perfect shade, so I am pretty pleased with this purchase! The applicator is something I have never seen before which I think is going to take a while to get used to but I will most likely be writing a review on this sometime in the near future. This product retails for £22 but I purchased it for £7.99- that’s over 50% off!

Next, I found a MUFE Artist Plexi Gloss in the shade 500, which is a gorgeous purple colour (I will include swatches of all the lip products at the end of the post) which just really caught my eye. Despite already owning 3 other purple lip products which I never wear, I convinced myself that yes, I really did need another one… Who knows, maybe I will get on better with this as it is a lip gloss so will be a lot less vibrant and in your face than some of my others. This retails for £16, and I bought it for £5.99.

The final MUFE product I found is the Aqua Lip Liner in the shade 21C- a beautiful baby pink. Now, I don’t understand quite how this is the case but this is the first lip liner I have ever bought. Yes, I know, what the hell have I been doing? I guess in my defence I very rarely wear lipstick other than my trusty nudes so I haven’t really found the need to pair it with a lip liner (although I know that I should and that it’ll last longer etc..). Anyway, I couldn’t resist buying this as it retails for £14 and I bought it for £3.99. Who can say no to a MUFE product for just £4? I certainly couldn’t. As soon as I got home I tried this on- both on its own all over my lips and underneath a baby pink lipstick I have and I absolutely love it! I think that I may need to get some more courage to actually wear it out of the house (and put on a less dramatic eye make up look) but I am really loving how it looks. As I write this blog post it is 3 hours later and it is still very much on my lips (in fact I think I might have a bit of a mission to get it off!) I am definitely going to be trying some of MUFE’s other lip liners, and looking in some of the other TK-Maxx stores near me to try and find some more bargains!

Behold a terrible snapchat selfie- sorry I can’t resist the dog filter! But here is the MUFE Aqua Lip Liner paired with a Make Up Revolution Lipstick in Crime.

I then popped into Wilkinsons as I needed to get some wrapping paper and pens, and of course, I was unable to walk past the beauty section. I haven’t been into Wilkinsons for about a year so I didn’t even know that they sold make up brands like Rimmel, Maybelline and Collection until now. After having a browse on the Rimmel section I spotted the lip liner in East End Snob, which I always hear people raving about. I think I was in one of those moods where I just wanted to buy everything in sight, so I decided to get it. Again, I’ve never used a lip liner before so I’m not sure what lipsticks go nicely with this (if you have any suggestions do let me know!) but I know I’ll have fun playing around with it. I bought this for £3.98 which is a tiny bit cheaper than buying it from Boots or Superdrug.

I was initially looking for some of Collection’s glitter eyeliners that I have seen so many Youtube’s use in tutorials lately but I got distracted when I saw their range of lipsticks. Again, I’m not entirely sure why- I rarely wear lipstick- but I was floored by the pigment of the lipsticks for such a cheap price. I probably tried just about every one on my hand (seriously I had to get a wet wipe out of my bag because I made such a massive mess) before deciding that I really didn’t need them. I then saw their Cream Puff range and ended up buying two of those in the shades Cotton Candy and Fairy Cake. For just £2 each I figured I wasn’t really doing too much harm if I decided I didn’t like them! They remind me of the Nyx Soft Matte Lip Creams a little bit except these ones aren’t matte. I haven’t tried them on my lips yet so I can’t properly comment but I they do seem to be a little bit sticky- something that will no doubt irritate me.

So that concludes my bargain beauty buys of the day- this post turned out to be a lot longer than I expected so if you actually made it to the end, thanks! Below is the swatches of the products I bought today.

Over to you: Have you had any beauty bargains lately? Have you ever found a really great product in TK-Maxx?

 

Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette: First Impressions

Anastasia Beverly Hills have been taking the beauty world by storm and unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll be familiar with their coveted brow products and glow kits. Personally, I am still yet to try out these products (I know, what have I been doing?) but when I saw the hype around this palette I just knew that I had to get my hands on it.

Priced at £41, I tried to put off purchasing it for as long as I possibly could, but after 3 weeks of watching what felt like everybody in the world using it, I bit the bullet and bought it. I purchased it from the trusty Beauty Bay (Yes, we all know just how much I love this website) and it was in my hands my lunchtime the next day.

At the time of writing, I have only used this palette once but I already know it is going to become the one I reach for everyday for the foreseeable future. I absolutely love the colours in this palette- I think I’ve said this in another blog post but I’ve been leaning towards the browney red smokey eye more or less every day and these shades are perfect for this. Each of these shades are all very wearable- nothing is too intense. At first glance the colours that immediately jumped out at me were Love Letter, Venetian Red, Red Ochre, and Burnt Orange. Buon Fresco caught my eye as it is unlike any other colour I’ve ever seen; its a strange mix between a dusty pink with both brown and purple tones.

My initial reactions to the shadows themselves were that they were very pigmented- the first swatches I did on my hands showed that they had some great colour payoff, but they have a lot of fallout. The first time using the palette properly for a eye look I ended up getting eyeshadow absolutely everywhere and I can tell that the palette itself is going got get very dirty very fast. You definitely need to tap off the excess on your brush before using it on your eye or I would imagine your whole face would get covered. I am slightly worried that this is going to result in a lot of wastage though, and the eyeshadows aren’t that big to begin with in comparison to some of the other palettes I own. This is something I can get over easily though as the colours themselves are so pigmented and beautiful.

Surprisingly, I also really liked the brush that is included in the palette. Usually I find that the brushes are absolutely awful which is something that I have never quite understood, but this one is great. One end is really great to use in your crease to really blend out the eyeshadows, and the other end is good for packing on some colour to your lid and would probably also work well at blending out eyeshadow along your waterline.

The first look I created with this palette is one that I think is very quickly going to become my go-to look- I absolutely love it! I started by running Buon Fresco throughout my crease, making sure to blend it out. Like I mentioned earlier, this colour is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and it definitely wasn’t the colour I was expecting when I actually used it on my skin but I really love the colour it is! Next I took Red Ochre and ran it through my crease and over my eyelid- I mainly covered my whole eye and just blended the hell out of it, making sure that it wasn’t too intense and didn’t leave any harsh lines behind. I then used Venetian Red in the outer v, blending it into my crease slightly, and I have to say I absolutely love this shade! Love Letter is up next and I placed it all over my lid. I did spray a bit of Mac Fix + onto my brush before dipping it into the eyeshadow in order to make it look brighter and much more intense, but even so the colour payoff for this eyeshadow is absolutely insane! I then took a tiny bit of Cyprus Umber, making sure to tap off the excess as I didn’t want it to be super intense, and I patted it onto my outer v to give the look a bit more definition. I also took a little bit of both Love Letter and Red Ochre and blended them both under my eye on the water line. Finally, I took Vermeer and used it as my inner highlight colour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I absolutely adore this look and I know that it is something I am going to keep recreating! All in all I do believe that this palette is definitely worth the hype! Despite being slightly overpriced (lets face it, most eyeshadow palettes are) I do think it is worth the money and I can’t wait to see what other looks I am going to come up with!

Over to you: What Anastasia Beverly Hills products have you tried? Will you be purchasing this palette?

Massive Make Up Geek Haul

I have seen a lot of hype surrounding Make Up Geek on the beauty scene for a long while, and I thought it was about time I finally checked them out. As most things, Make Up Geek is a brand that isn’t the easiest to get hold of in the UK, but I found that Beauty Bay were stocking some of the colours. Naturally as soon as I started browsing the website I found myself unable to stop adding colours to my basket and before I knew it I’d ended up with this huge haul!

Before I get into the eyeshadow, I just wanted to take a moment to once again talk about how great Beauty Bay’s customer service is. I qualified for free next day delivery with my order, and was handed my package the next day. Unfortunately, one of my eyeshadows arrived smashed,  but after contacting them they arranged for another one to be sent out to me and once again, it was with me the very next day. I can’t rave enough about the Beauty Bay and if you live in the UK I would very much recommend that you check them out!

From Left to Right: Pillow Talk, Caitlin Rose, Masquerade, Blacklight, Wisteria and Hotpants. I had heard that Pillow Talk was a dupe for MAC’s Satin Taupe which is a colour that has been on my wishlist for the longest time, and whilst I can’t comment on how similar they are, I am definitely loving Pillow Talk! Blacklight is the most amazing duo-chrome shade- a mix between silver, purple, pink- I can’t even find a way to describe it! I’ve been using it as an inner highlight and I just think it looks so pretty! I was slightly disappointed with Caitlin Rose and it is not nearly as pigmented as I was expecting it to be, but it is still very pretty. Wisteria and Hot Pants are both very pinky shades, something that I don’t usually go for but I have found that they both work so well together!

From Left to Right; Bitten, Burlesque, Cherry Cola and Roulette. Bitten was the colour that I was most excited about buying and so far I have found I have a very love-hate relationship with it. I have been really enjoying brown-red smokey eyes lately, and this is the perfect colour to give it a bit more of a reddy tone. It is however quite harsh and I sometimes find it hard to properly blend, but I am sure that it is something I will get better at with practise. Roulette is a really nice shade, and when I bought it I was really expecting to love it that much because I thought it would be just your bog standard coppery colour but I am really enjoying it, and it is SO pigmented.

From Left to Right; Mermaid, Poolside and Neptune. I have been very keen on bold, bright make up lately- especially blues and purples- so I just had to get my hands on some of these! Mermaid is a lot more green than what I was expecting but it is still super nice! I was disappointed with Neptune as it really doesn’t seem very pigmented at all, but I’m sure once I use it along with other shadows it’ll look much better.

I also bought a Large Z Palette that holds 27 (I could be wrong) eyeshadow pans as I needed a place to put them all, and I also have several other eyeshadows that need deporting. I was a little skeptical at the idea of the Z Palette as I thought that the eyeshadow pans would be sliding about all over the place and would fall out easily but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case at all! I think it is a really clever and easy to way to keep all your eyeshadows in one place.

Alongside my Make Up Geek order, I also purchased the Small Fan Brush from Spectrum Cosmetics and I am IN LOVE. It applies my highlighter so nicely and the brush itself is so pretty! It only cost £5 as well so very inexpensive. I will definitely be purchasing some of the other brushes in the collection!

This is one of the make up looks I created using Bitten, Cherry Cola, Burlesque, Roulette and Blacklight and I absolutely love it!

I tried out this look yesterday (right after dying my hair!) and I really liked that too. I used Pillow Talk, Caitlin Rose, Masquerade and Blacklight.

Over to you: Have you tried any Make Up Geek products? What are your favourites?

#LoveIsLove

In light of the recent events, I decided to create a fun eye look to show my support to the LGBTQIA community. Love is Love and nobody should ever be made to feel victimised, ashamed or attacked for their sexuality. Each and every one of us has the right to love who we love with no consequences, no judgement and no fear. Unfortunately the world still has a very long way to go but I stand with and support EVERY member of the LGBTQIA community. You matter, you’re valid, your rights are important. We’re here fighting with you. Be proud of who you are.

The eyeshadows used: NYX Butterscotch, Slowburn/Savage/Urban/Jilted/Gonzo from the Urban Decay Electric Palette, Mad Hatter/Metamorphosis from Urban Decay Through The Looking Glass.