Isa Dora Graffiti Nails Gift Set

Hi everyone! I'm back! I thought I'd be able to post sooner than now but this year's lead up to christmas has been so busy and things are only winding down now.
I got an early christmas present from my mum its one of these crackle effect nail polishes that have been around for a while. I've wanted to try them for ages but have always been hesitant about it so I was happy that someone else bought it for me...so thanks mum! :-)
Anyway the gift set comes in a little leapord print bag and has a gold polish, the crackle polish in black and also a base/top coat.
So you just put on your colour varnish let it dry, then stick the cracle polish over it and you get a really cool result! So happy I have this stuff!
As it was a present, I don't know how much it was, but you can get this stuff everywhere, I also know Barry M have the crackle polishes in loads of different colours! So I'm definatley gonna get a bunch of them!
Also this is posted from my phone so if the post looks different and the pictures are all bad quality and appear at the end of the post, you know why!
Thanks for reading and take care!
X o X

ELF Duo Eye Shadow Cream

Elf Duo Eye shadow cream Left: Butter Pecan Right: Sugar Cookie

These little babies are awesome!! 



I can't blow Elf's trumpet anymore than I have already. Elf are a fantastic brand, and I am a huge fan! Their products are really a bit hit and miss. These Duo Eye shadow creams are one of their products that have gotten mixed reviews in other blogs i've read, but I really like them. 
First thing I like is the price they're only €1.70. They really could charge more for these seeing as you get two different shades of cream shadow in one pot.

Sugar Cookie

The first one I have, which is my favourite of the two is Sugar Cookie. This has a light pink shade and a golden one. They didn't swatch too well because they are so light and because my skin is so ghostly looking that they don't show up great on my hand...so sorry about that! 

Sugar Cookie Swatch Left: Pink shade, Right: Golden shade

Butter Pecan

The second one I have is the Butter Pecan one, and I haven't used this one as much as Sugar Cookie but it's still really pretty! It has a dark brown shade that has a goldness to it and the lighter side is a hard one to describe, its kind of a brown/pink/peachy/gold colour.

Butter Pecan Swatch Left: Darker Brown/Golden shade Right: Lighter Peachy/Pink/Brown/Gold shade

Now onto what I think! These are really creamy, blendable and quite pigmented. They're so easy to work with and you can wear the colours alone or together. I usually use them if i'm in a hurry for just a quick wash over my eyelid. I mostly use these under eye shadow of similar colours, they really brigten powder shadows of similar shades, make them last longer too, so if you use a primer AND one of these before a powder shadow, you're going to get some seriously long lasting vibrant eye looks.

Also bot sides of  the Sugar Cookie Duo make great highlighters! I bring the Sugar Cookie one with me when i'm travelling because I'm scared of breaking my Benefit Highbeam so this is a good alternative to that or for just saving space in your make up bag! I also want to try the black liquorice duo, im thinking maybe the dark side of that would make a good liner? Has anyone tried that with the black liquorice one before?

Thanks for reading and take care!

XoX

ELF Mineral Foundation

ELF Mineral Foundation in Fair and ELF's Kabuki Brush

I've never really been big into mineral make up, I found that with my oily, less than perfect acne prone skin it hasn't ever really worked. For the most part, it has made my skin irritable and break out so bad it's crazy, I had just decided that maybe mineral make up wasn't for me, when I decided to take a chance on ELF's mineral foundation, and I have to say i'm pretty happy that I did, because it changed my mind about mineral make up.

ELF Website Product Description - Our weightless mineral foundation will help get you on your way to healthier illuminating skin. All our powders blend naturally into the skin, and are so light that they work with your skin color to create a perfect color match. All of our foundations contain sun protection factor (spf) 15 and are 100% mineral based with no parabens, no preservatives and no chemical dyes. 


So I got this from the ELF UK website a while back, and I have been loving it so much! It is €4, and I think it's pretty great! 

ELF Mineral Foundation

Just like your normal mineral foundation, this is a loose powder, that comes in a little container with a screw off lid, there was also one of those plastic sifters that are really annoying, I took the sifter out, as it was pushing down on the powder too much and making it all stick together and nothing was coming out. If you're accident prone like me, be careful if you're taking the sifter out, as I knocked it over and half of the powder fell out!
I wore this on it's own, with just a bit of primer underneath, and it lasted really well, only had to touch it up once or twice where my skin was starting to get oily. As for coverage on it's own - it isn't great. It dosen't cover up much, so if your skin is very bad, I wouldn't wear this alone. 
What I usually do is wear this over my foundation, as an alternative for a pressed powder, and it works a treat! It really just finishes off my foundation, and makes me look a little more natural looking. It gives a bit of extra coverage, without making my face look cakey the way most pressed powders do. The shade is also so light that it dosen't make me look orange the way pressed powders can do. 
The best bit about this particular foundation is that it didn't irritate my skin the way other mineral foundation has, so if you have sensitive skin, this is one to try! I do think this is a very good quality foundation for the cheaper than chips price! So I will definatley be getting more when it has run out, and am also thinking of trying some of ELF's other mineral make-up.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the ELF kabuki brush works so good with this! It picks up  the right amount of powder and it's so easy to just buff this into your skin with the kabuki brush, so i'd say it's worth getting the brush if you're getting this foundation. The Kabuki brush is also €4, and is on the website where all the mineral make up is.




Thanks for reading and take care!




XoX

Sleek Mini Haul!

Today is a good day! Yesterday evening I ordered some Sleek stuff from Cloud 10 Beauty, and no joke, I got it this morning! That's not even a day's wait! And I also got a mini lip gloss and a little packet of nail files for free! So happy!

Sleek Eyeshadow Palettes Original and Oh So Special, Blush in Rose Gold

Click Read more for swatches and a proper look at my Sleek goodies!

Review: Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

Hello!

I am so sorry I haven't posted! So annoyed with myself! Had a lot of things going on again this week, but life has slowed down long enough for the moment for me to turn my attention back to the blog!

I have been meaning to do a review on this for a while now, don't know why I haven't done it sooner, because it's really one of my favourite things in the world!

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Ahhhh! I love this stuff! It's so good! I've been using it for a few years and it really is the best eyeshadow primer i've come across. I know people think it's a waste of time and money buying a shadow primer, but personally I have to use it, I have oily eye lids, so everything I put on there just seems to slide right off so with a good lid primer that dosent happen. Shadow primers also bring the colour of brighter shadows out more and stops creasing, so I think everyone should use an eye shadow primer!

Primer Potion with lid screwed off

The first thing i'll say is this is my first time trying the new packaging of the primer potion, (It used to have a doe-foot wand, kind of like a lip gloss wand) and it was so hard to get all the product out of there but now with this squeezy tube it's made it so much easier to use and you also get 10 percent more product...Yay!

Primer Potion Swatched

Primer Potion Blended

So basically when you squeeze a bit of this out, it looks like a creamy concealer, but it blends to nothing so dont worry about having weird coloured eyelids! Then you let it set for a few minutes and put your eye shadow over it.

Top of hand: Shadow without Primer Potion, Bottom of hand: Shadow over  Primer Potion

In the picture above, you will see two shadow swatches, one without a primer potion base, one with. The swatches are of the same shadow, a metallic blue shade. The difference in colour when using the primer potion is obvious. The swatch over the primer potion is more a vibrant blue, while the one without the base is dull and almost black looking in colour. So it's obvious it brings out the colour of your shadows better. As for making them long wearing and non-creasing, trust me it does both! I get through a whole day with my eyeshadow intact and still looking pretty good after hours of wear, with no creasing at all!

I really can't live without my primer potion! Only problem is that it's €19.50, seems like a huge rip off, but when you try it and see how good it is, you can kind of justifiy spending that much money on this! I got this at the Urban Decay counter in Debenhams in the Ilac center (I think!) in Dublin, but every Urban Decay counter will have it, there are also a range of shades, I haven't tried the others, so I am not sure how they work but the one I use is the original one and works for every colour of eyeshadow, so I would be more inclined to get this one!


Thanks for reading and take care!

XoX

ELF Mystery Box!

Hi everyone! Sorry I have been quiet over the weekend, but it was my birthday and I was in my boyfriend's house for the weekend and I didn't get near a computer! But I am home now and I got back and my ELF order with my free mystery box was sitting on my bed! Yay! :-)

Contents of my Mystery Box! :-)

ELF Haul!

Ta Da! :-)

The post man finally came with my elf stuff! Yay! : )


I haven't done any swatches or tried them out yet because I already have make up on and it's also really dark right now so swatches won't show up well, so i've decided to use these things over the next while and just post about them as I go. So I bet you're thinking why is she telling us she got this stuff then? It's just to tell you what I actually did order and what kind of reviews to expect over the next while. So today I recieved 3 Nail polishes in Nude, Blush and Smoky Brown, they all look georgeous cant wait to try them! I got some toe separators, a Kabuki Brush, 2 Duo Eyeshadow Creams in Butter Pecan and Sugar Cookie, Liquid Eyeshadow in Sultry Satin, 2 Studio Pigment Eyeshadows in Naturally Nude and Baked Brown, and a Studio Cream Eyeshadow in Candlelight. And I got all of this for €23! Pretty good if you ask me!

So i'll be using these things and letting you know what I think as I go along. Also got a dispatch text from ELF today saying they''ve shipped my other order I made, and that's the order that I made with the free mystery box, so that is still to come too! I'll use some of this stuff tomorrow and let you all know what I think! :-)

Thanks for reading and take care!


XoX

Sleek Storm Palette

So the postman came today! I was actually expecting my ELF stuff I ordered last week, but I got my Sleek Palette instead! Wasn't expecting it so soon, I only ordered it on Friday! Fantastic delivery Sleek! :-)

Outer Box And Outside Of Palette

John Frieda 3 Day Straight Review

John Frieda 3 Day Straight Styling Spray

Apologies for the glare in this photo, I had to take this on my phone as I ran out of battery on my camera and it's so dark here right now because the weather is crappy that I had to shine a torch on it to make it show up! Lol! I would have waited until I got batteries to do this review but I was just so excited and wanted to share my opinion of this stuff that I couldn't wait!

I was so intriugued when I saw the advert for this on TV. I hate straightening my hair. It takes me forever because my hair is very thick and I have a good few layers and let's face it, I always do a half arsed job of straightening it because it just takes so bloody long! After about half an hour of straightening my hair there's kinks and waves coming back into it, it's a disaster to manage.

So I got this in Boots. It was €9.99. Pricey, I usually don't buy too many hair products, the majority of them don't work and also just make my hair go really greasy so fast it's crazy. I really wanted to try this, read reviews first as I always do, actually while i'm on the subject, MakeUpAlley.Com is an great site for getting quick, honest reviews from normal people who use the product your looking for, I use this all the time if i'm not 100 percent sure about buying something. Anyway, people on make up alley were saying this was a HG (holy grail) product. So I took a risk and invested in this.

And holy grail? More like holy cow! This stuff is....FANTASTIC!

3 day straight is a semi-permanant styling spray for use with hair dryers and straighteners. The semi-permanant thing put me off first I was thinking there must be a lot of chemicals in there that damage hair and it'll probably make my hair really dry, but reviews said otherwise.

The instructions say to use on wet or damp hair, and to use 7-15 sprays depending on hair curl and thickness. You then comb it through hair to make sure it is evenly distributed.

Straight away I noticed a difference, even before I started blow drying my hair. My hair was so much easier to comb through and it was detangling so easily it was crazy. This stuff also makes your hair smell good too, can't really describe the smell, but it's good!

I then started blow drying my hair. Straight away I noticed how much smoother, softer and shinier my hair looked. It may be just my imagination but it was also drying quicker, and I had no frizz! A problem I have always had no matter what i've tried to get rid of it. Honestly once you're done blow drying theres a huge difference in straighteness and you could leave it like this if you want a more natural look, but I took it further and straightened it.

And WOW is all I can say. My hair was so much easier to straighten, was getting shinier as I straightened it, was staying in place like I had put hair spray on but without that feel hairspray has. It took half the time to straighten my hair, and it was poker straight. I was so happy at this point that I didn't even mind if it didn't last the 3 days it's supposed to because my hair looked so good and was so much easier to manage.

So I went to bed after straightening my hair and woke up the next morning and it was still absolutley perfect. I didn't even have to run my straighteners over it again! The second day there was a bit of a kink in the ends, but I lightly straightened them and they were as good as new again. It's the third day now and my hair is still very straight, very shiny and dosent have any frizz.

The best thing is that I usually have to wash my hair every other day. I can't remember ever being able to leave it for 3 days without it looking greasy. Especially my fringe, it gets in my way a lot and I always have to push it out of the way meaning it gets greasier quicker than the rest of my hair, but it still looks like I have just washed it!

This stuff is crazily good! I so recommend this! For very curly hair, or for hair like mine that is just a pain to handle, this is such a good product and I am so getting this again, probably will for the rest of my life! It is just excellent! It has actually made me enjoy doing my hair :-)

A little non-hair related post!

I was hoping to half my order from ELF by today, but no post today :-( So hopefully Monday! Also ordered another order from ELF because I wanted to take advantage of their mystery box offer I posted about earlier, so fingers crossed I get that next week too. And I just got a conformation e-mail from Sleek about my order from them too, they were very slow confirming it, but it's all good now it seems, so just a little update to say that there's lots of ELF and Sleek reviews soon!

Also want to say thanks to everyone who is reading my blog, I can't believe the amount of views I have been getting! I never thought it would be so well looked at! Also I now have a few more followers so thanks to you guys too! And i'd love if more of you reading would follow too, that would be fantastic! Plus I want to do a give away and would like a few more followers before I do that! :-)


Thanks for reading and take care!


XoX

Revlon Color Stay Foundation Review

Revlon Color Stay Foundation in 150 Buff

I have been looking for a pretty full coverage foundation that lasts all day, because I have lots of acne scaring, and when I get breakouts I do get them pretty badly, and nothing seems to cover them. Also I like my make-up to stay where I put it and not have to worry about touching it up during the day,and as I have oily skin its pretty much impossible for me to not have to touch everything up several times a day. I also hate bringing loads of products around in my handbag, it just bugs me. So I was reading really great reviews about the Revlon Color Stay foundation. So I picked this up the other day. (Yes I know all I seem to do is buy make-up! Lol!)


I knew from the reviews I had read that this foundation comes in two types. It has a type for Normal/Dry Skin and a Combination/Oily Skin. I have the Combination/Oily one. The shade I have in this Is 150 Buff, this is the lightest shade in the Combination/Oily type I believe, but don't quote me on it. This foundation is supposed to stay put for 16 hours, though some of the reviews I read said It lasts longer than that. 

Swatch

Blended

One of the first things you'll notice when you screw the lid off is that there is no pump or dispenser for the foundation, it's just a bottle that you're going to have to pour the foundation out of. I don't like this because you end up pouring too much out and end up wasting it. Also this dries pretty quickly so it's a better idea to not pour this onto the back of your hand as your skin will absorb it and it will dry, so what I do is take a plastic lid off a little pot I have for putting your products in while travelling, and pour some of the foundation into that. 


I use my fingers to put this stuff on, as the heat from my hands helps to get it blended quicker because of it drying so fast you really need to get it blended in quickly. I just concentrate on one area at a time instead of dotting foundation over my face and then blending because this could be half absorbed by the time you get to it. But it blends well despite how quick it dries. 


Once on it looks like your skin. I didn't think it would because of how thick it seems, but it really does just even out and make your skin look smoother, it also covers up all of my scarring, which is great, it covers up small blemishes really well, you would almost forget that they are there. At the minute I have one pretty big blemish on my chin, and it has done well to cover the redness, but obviously you're going to have to conceal the bigger ones like you always would, but this particular blemish I have is a monster and is hard to fully cover up but on it's own this did a good enough job of making it look better than it is. 

My Face In Daylight With Color Stay Foundation

My Face After 12 Hours, Without Having To Touch Up (With Flash Because It Was Dark)

Sorry for the pictures of my moody looking face, I would smile properly but it makes my eyes go funny! Lol!


I have only worn this yesterday and today, but I can already tell you that I will re-buy this as I can tell how good it is already because of how bad my skin is today, it's really covering everything. The only things that aren't great are as I mentioned already the bottle and there's also the smell of the foundation. In the bottle it smells like paint, but don't worry! It dosen't smell at all on your face, but the smell of it in the bottle is a little gross. The other thing is the price. I got this for €17.50. It is pricey for something from a drugstore brand, but I seriously don't mind paying this because the foundation really is as good as all the reviews I read claims it is. I just wish for the price you're paying that they would stick some kind of dispenser on the bottle so you don't waste as much, seems like a no brainer for me that that should be there.


This is now my favourite foundation! And believe me I have tried a lot of them! So bottom line is if you want medium to full coverage, or want to cover up scars and the like, this could be really great for you!




Thanks for reading and take care!




XoX

NYC Liquid Eyeliner Review

Oh my word! My shelves look dusty in this photo! Sorry about that! :-/ lol


Anyway! I picked this up yesterday in one of my local chemists, it was €2.99. I've been looking for a liquid liner with a fine tipped brush like this for a while. I know rimmel has a good one, but I dont like the brush on it, its a bit too long for my liking and I wanted a bit of a shorter brush for more control. So I found this and thought I had nothing to loose getting this seeing as I had a load of change in my pocket! So I was playing around with this today and did two looks


Defined

Cat Eye

This liner is your basic liquid liner, it does what it's supposed to. What I like is how easy it is to control, as I have pretty shaky hands. I usually apply liner in short strokes, but I was feeling brave today and did one big sweep of the brush over my lashline. Which I don't like doing with liquid liners usually because I get them everywhere, but this just glided on so easily in one stroke, I think it's because the brush is a bit shorter than normal. Staying power is good, I acidentally fell asleep in my make-up last night and the liner was still there this morning!




So all in all, a pretty good liner if you don't want to break the bank, and it's just as good as the Rimmel Liquid Liners, and even cheaper! So I do recommend this!

* * *

A
Also a non-beauty related mini post!


I thought I would mention that I got some Galaxy Caramel Cake Bars in the shop yesterday - honestly, these are yummy! Can't stop eating them! They're so good!
                                                         


 Thanks for reading and take care!


 XoX

Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner

First of all I want to apologize for how messy my eyeliner looks in the packaging, i didn't realise how bad it looked until had uploaded the photos to my laptop and when I was trying to take more to make it look better, my batteries died and I haven't any more lying around right now, so these will have to do!
As you can tell from the above photos I have had this for a while and have used it lots. Before I got this gel liner, I had been using the older Essence gel liners, I think it was under their Most Wanted range, but that one really put me off gel liners, it was hard to work with and I vowed i wouldn't get another again. But then Maybelline brought out this little gem!
This liner claims to be highly pigmented, oil free, smudge proof, waterproof for up to 24 hours, safe for sensitive eyes and contact lens wearers. It's a really creamy liner, very black, actually the blackest gel liner i've ever seen. It goes on like a dream, this is so easy to work with, it just glides on so easily, and it really is as black on your eyes as it looks in the littlepot. The liner also comes with a brush. The bush is okay, but I prefer to use an angled liner brush when i'm using this, as you get a cleaner line from it, in the pictures below, I have applied it with the brush that comes with it so you can see how it makes it look.

The look it gives with the brush is okay, but using an angled liner brush just makes it look a little neater. You can use this liner to just define your eyes like I have above, or you can do some sexy, dramatic, winged or cat eyeliner.
The only thing with this that's not so good about this is that after an hour or so of wearing it, the liner can transfer to the middle of your eye lid with that awful upsidedown almost "stamp" of the shape this is in on your lash line. So the best thing to do with this is to place a small amount of a completely matte shadow over this on your lash line to set it, and that way you won't get the stamp on your lid.
Over all, I think this is a great liner. It's similar to the MAC Fluid line, but a lot cheaper! I got this in Boots when it first came out, and it was €13 I think, it may have gone down a bit in price by now because it has been out a while. So if you're looking for a good gel liner that is easy to work with, this is great.
Also thought I would mention that the eye shadow i'm wearing in the photos is from the Urban Decay Smoke Out kit that I reviewed the other day.

 Thanks for reading and take care!

 XoX

Urban Decay Smoke Out Eye Kit

This is something I bought a while back and though I liked it, I had other products that I liked more, and it really just got pushed to the side. I recently picked it up again though and i've started using it a lot. I'll tell you about what it has in it first of all. The packaging is so cool, I love quirky make-up products,it just gives it a little something extra and makes it more special, and this is definatley quirky which is really what drew me to it in the first place. It has 4 sections that are sitting on some kind of hindge that allows you to swivel each section around 360 degrees, and each section has it's own products.

The first section swivels around to reveal 4 shadows. There is a matte white shade for highlighting, a matte nude shade, a mid tone brown shade with some shimmer, and a dark brown shimmer shade.

The white highlighting shade ( which is on the far left of my hand before the brown shades start ) didn't show up at all really on the swatch because it is so light. These shadows are great, they're really pigmented and easy to put on. They feel kind of satiny to touch and feel great on your eyelids too. The staying power of these is great too, i've tried wearing them just on their own and with a primer underneath and while they did fade a bit without primer, they still looked good at the end of the day. The great thing about this kit is that the browns are subtle enough to do an neutural everyday eye look, but they build up into a great sultry smokey eye too, and they don't look as harsh as some other smokey eye kits do. The only thing with this section of the kit is that I wish there was more of these shadows than there is, because I really like them. There's also a mirror on the section that covers this that flips around, so that's pretty handy too.

The next section of the kit has a mini shadow brush that isn't great for applying the shadow to the eye lids in my opinion, but I find it is good for lining the lash lines with darker shadows as it really gets close into the lashes because of the shape. There's also a mini version of the 24/7 Glide on eye pencil here too, which I LOVE. When I wasn't really using anything else in this kit I was using this liner, it's awesome. It's a really black, dramatic liner, and it's also water proof so it's fantastic for lining the lower water line, and also for tight lining (which is lining your upper water line) So if you're not fond of the rest of this kit, this will probably be the best part of the kit for you, because it was for me at first.

The last little section of the kit has a mini version of the Skyscraper multi benefit mascara. This mascara is great. It really lengthens my lashes which are pretty short, a few coats of this and my lashes seem to be twice the legnth they are. The tube is pretty cool looking too. I would love to get the full sized version of this, but unfortunatley I have never come across anywhere over here that sells much of urban decay's products, so if anyone knows of anywhere in Ireland that does sell lots of their stuff please let me know in the comments!

I also forgot to mention that there is a little pull out drawer that has a little instruction book on how to do a great smokey eye. This kit is well worth getting, especially for those who don't have much make up as you can do a lot with this, it's also great for putting in your handbag too.
 I got this for €20, not sure how much it is supposed to cost, as I got this in a brilliant chemist that we have in Cavan town that gets in random items from higher end brands and sells them pretty cheaply most of the time. So normally this could cost a bit more, but I really don't know to be honest. Even if this does cost a few euro more, it's a great little kit and is worth the money.

 Thanks for reading and take care!


XoX

Daisy Eau So Fresh By Marc Jacobs

This isn't really a review, it's more of a I love this stuff kind of post!
I wouldn't really know where to begin describing how exactly a perfume smells, so i've been looking at reviews that were already done and one listed every smell that was in there so this is what it said it has in it: Top notes of Grapefruit, green notes, raspberry and pear; middle notes of jasmine, rose, violet, litchi and apple blossom and base notes of musk, virginia cedar and plum. I don't know! Maybe it does have all that stuff in there, I think I can get a whiff of the grapefruit and there's definatley a muskiness in there, but all I know is this smells great! It's a really floral scent, but kind of fruity at the same time.
The picture I put up is of a set I got in a local chemist, they had all the christmas sets in and I saw this and I couldn't walk away! The set has a big 75ml bottle of the fragrance, a tube of the body lotion and a teeny handbag sized version of the fragrance! I love the lid of the bottle, I thought maybe it would look cheap in real life, but it actually dosen't, and the little handbag sized bottle is so cute!
 This set was €62.50, don't really know a definate place that has this unless you live in Cavan, where I got mine in Cara Pharmacy, but i'm sure lots of places will have this set, especially coming up to christmas.

 Thanks for reading and take care!


XoX

Benefit Benetint Review

Swatched:

Blended:

Claims: The sexiest flush you can get from a bottle. innocent yet provocative. Our rose tinted cheek stain is see through colour that endures it all.

 I can't even say how much I love this stuff! Honestly this is just amazing stuff! I've been using this for a long time, (since I was 16) and this is my third bottle of the stuff, so a bottle of this stuff lasts forever! When I bought it the first time all those years ago my first thought was woah! This stuff is so red! and it is, very very red, I didn't understand how I wasn't going to look like a clown when I had this on, but I tried it and i've been hooked ever since!
The first thing you'll notice if you haven't used Benetint before is the smell. It smells like roses! It's such a lovely smell, if it didn't stain your skin wherever you put it, I would wear it as perfume. Anyway back to what it does! There is a little brush when you screw the lid off, and it says to appy 3 dots to the apples of your cheeks and blend it quickly, I do that but then I add 3 more if I want more colour, so most days I use 6 dots of this, and it gives you a really nice flushed colour, 3 dots does give you a really nice flush too but I prefer a little more.
You have to blend this as soon as you put it on, or it's going to absorb into your skin in a lump of colour. So when this is blended, it gives a nice, natural flush to your cheeks, and it stays put until you take it off. It dosent fade either, which is awesome. It's pretty much a hassle free way of doing your blush, you just throw it on with your fingers and you're ready to go, you don't need to top it up during the day so it's just amazing!
The only off putting thing about this is the price...it is expensive at €25, BUT it's money really well spent, my last bottle of Benetint lasted me over two years! and the one in the picture I have had for 3 months and the liquid in the bottle has only slightly gone down. I honestly can't recommend this more! Go and get it!
I got this at the Benfit Counter in Debenhams in the Ilac center I think, but most Debenhams to have Benefit counters I think..! You can also get this on the Benefit website, and on the Debenhams and on the Boots UK website. All the links for these sites will be in my links box on the right hand side of my blog page. So definatly one of my favourite things I use! Can't praise it more!

Thanks for reading and take care


XoX

Maybelline The Colossal Cat Eyes Mascara Review

The Brush:

My Lashes after applying 3 coats:

Hmmm. This stuff dissapointed me hugely. I had seen reviews of this and it looked really good, pictures of it after it had been applied looked pretty impressive. Before putting this on, I curl my eyelashes for a good 30 seconds, with a normal curler and a mini curler to get the corner lashes, this left my eyelashes with a really nice curl. Then I started putting this on. I like to usually put 2 or 3 coats of mascara on, so I started off with one, this was okay, the curl stayed there but lost a bit of it's curl, but that's okay because that happens a lot to me because I have very straight eye lashes anyway. I put a second coat on and it started clumping and weighed down my lashes so much that they practically went straight again. I was pretty annoyed and decided to do another coat anyway just to see if I could get rid of the clumps and maybe make it look a little better...it didn't work.
As for the full lashes and the "feline" look you're supposed to get - I really don't see it at all.The Volum' Express mascaras are supposed to be volumising and give you fuller lashes, but this one actually made mine look longer. The only thing I like about this mascara is the packaging. I think if the mascara formula was a bit drier then it would be much better than it is.
I got this in Boots and it was €11. I wouldn't by this again and would go for some of the other Volum' Express mascaras that Maybelline have.

Thanks for reading and take care


XoX

The Best Under Eye Concealer I Have Ever Tried Is...

The Lacura Beauty Concealer Pen!

Shocked!? I was too! For those of you who don't live in Ireland, or anywhere that has the supermarket chain called Lidl or was it Aldi? Can't remember, but I think it was Aldi! (both unbelieveably cheap supermarkets, that some people think sells nothing but rubbish) you probably won't be able to get your hands on this, but as far as I know everywhere in Europe has Lidl! Anyway I wouldn't have looked twice at the make up in Lidil before, but I was reading a magazine that said this stuff is amazing, and it's also only like €2!So I decided to try it and well, it's the best concealer I have used under my eyes, EVER! There are a good few shades of this, the one I have is Cashmere which looks like this:

Swatched

Blended

It's a really creamy, really blendable concealer, it basically just melts into your skin. There's a few reasons why this is so good for under your eyes. The first is because it's a highlighting concealer pen, which brightens up the skin under your eyes. It's got a slight pinkish tone to it too which helps cover up any blue tones in the inner corners or under your eyes. It's not only good for brightening and concealing either, I put this stuff over my whole eyelid and it makes a great base for eyeshadow.Also this stuff has never creased on me like other concealers do under my eyes. So you're pretty much getting a lot of uses out of this pen that only costs a few euro. The only thing it isn't great for is as a concealer for spots, because of the brightening effect, it just draws more attention to them, so you need a seperate concealer for that, but this concealer pen is well worth getting!

Thanks for reading and take care


XoX

Lip Tint Pens

So over the last few months i've been kind of obssesed with these new lip tint pens that are out everywhere.I love the matte colour they give off and how hassle free it would be to not worry about having to re-appy lipstick or lipgloss a thousand times a day. So far i've tried out four of them and when I say tried out I mean i've been wearing them non stop and really testing them out. These are the ones I have been using

Left-Right: Max Factor Lipfinity in 04, GOSH Long Lasting Lip Marker in 001 Red, Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstain in 150 Tender Rose, Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain and Balm in Frenzy

Swatched

Left-Right: Max Factor Lipfinity in 04, GOSH Long Lasting Lip Marker in 001 Red, Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstain in 150 Tender Rose, Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain and Balm in Frenzy

I've been pretty obssesed with trying to find a GOOD one of these that actually lasts. Some of these are okay, but none of them great. Suppose i'll start with my least favourite, which is the Max Factor one.
I love Max factor, they generally come out with great stuff, and they were the first ones who really did this lip tint pen thing so I was so excited about this all those months ago. When I got it, it was great, absolutley loved it, the colour was great and it did seem to last an hour or two no matter what I was doing, eating or drinking or *ahem* even kissing. After the first day, it all went pear shaped! Went to put on my beloved lip tint the second day of owning it, and it had DRIED UP!! I was so annoyed! I had heard people having this problem with them though and saw that people had wet the felt tip end under a tap and the pen worked as good as new again so I tried this. It did make the felt tip wet again yes, but there was practically no colour coming out, there was a really faint barely noticable pinkish colour coming out when it was supposed to be this awesome bright berry colour (the colour before this happened was very like the swatch of the Revlon lip tint, only a bit brighter) When it was going on my lips it wasn't even showing up. So basically, I threw this one aside until now haven't bought another incase the same thing happened and I lost out on more money. So I don't really recommend this one, but that's just my experience of it, others could have had a good one with it.
The next one is the GOSH Lip Marker. This one is one of the okay ones. It smells a bit weird and dosen't taste overly nice, which isn't a huge problem unless you're like me and like to have nice tasting stuff on your lips. It does last an hour or two, the colour fades farly evenly, it hasn't dried out on me at all, there's still plenty of colour coming out onto my lips. The only problem I have with it is that this one is supposed to be red. It's more of an orangey colour, so if you're after a really red tint, this isn't really that red. There are lots more colours available though and I will be picking up some more of those when this one runs out.
The next one is the Maybelline Colour Sensational one. Again there are good and bad things about this one. This one looks very light when swatched but it goes a good bit darker on your lips. It smells good. The colour is nice and it goes on easy, the only thing is it dosent last very long. I put this on have it on for twenty minutes or so and it's really starting to fade at that point, and not fading evenly at that. The fleshy bit of your lips where you want the colour to be fades really quickly and your left with a line of colour around your mouth that looks like you've applied a lip liner and forgotten to do anything else to your lips, which isn't a good look. So overall the colour is good, but it's not good if you want a really long wearing tint.
The last one is the Revlon Just Bitten lipstain and balm. This stuff caught my eye because it's a stain and balm, which I thought was great because these lip pens can be very drying on your lips and it was nice to see that they put that little extra touch to it. The colour on this one is amazing, it's really bright and actually comes out as pink on your lips as the colour of the outside of the pen. It smells good and hasn't dried out at all. The colour lasts a while, but again it fades the same way that the Maybelline one does, which is it's only draw back. If the way it fades was sorted out this would be my favourite one out of all of them.
My favourite out of these four would be the GOSH one. It lasts the longest and doesn't fade in the bad way that the others do. The Max Factor is my least favourite, it's an absoloute no no for me now because of the problems I had with it.
These are all around €10 and i've seen them all available in loads of different places, so they're not hard to find at all.My search continues to find a really great lip tint pen, and if anyone has tried a really great one, please let me know!

Thanks for reading and take care


XoX