Monday 31 December 2012

Favourites Of 2012!

Can't believe that we've come to the end of 2012 already. It just seems like no time at all since it started. 

This is been a good and bad year for me in equal measure, but I'm looking forward to 2013 and seeing what will happen for me! One of the things I'm looking forward to is blogging more regularly. Blogging has become something I love, and I really want to put more time into it and get more out of it. 

Before I start posting my favourites of the year, I just want to take the time to thank you all for your support here on blogger, and for taking the time out of your lives to read a post, comment on a post and for following my little blog. It feels really great every time I read one of your lovely comments or see that I have a new follower, it makes me feel like the time I spend putting these posts together is worthwhile. So thanks again, and I hope to hear from my existing followers and some new ones in 2013! : )

Onto my favourites of 2012!


I'm not going to take individual photos of everything, because then this post would never end and I want to keep it short.If I have posted about any of these already I'll link the post, and also there are a few posts on a few of my favourites coming in the new year!




2012 Favourites

L'oreal Lumi Magique Foundation is my favourite foundation this year, and I really need to do a full post on it. Have been very impressed by this foundation. Gives a flawless appearance without being heavy and unnatural looking.

 Revlon Photoready Perfecting Primer Haven't had this primer for too long maybe 2 weeks or so but its impressed me so much that it knocks every other primer I've tried out of the water!

 Mac Mineralised Skinfinish Natural Amazing non cakey, lightweight powder that still provides a bit of extra decent coverage. Probably my favourite powder in the world and will probably be the one I use for the rest of my life I love it so much!

 Urban Decay Vice Palette I got this for Christmas but was given it a few weeks early and it's just a great palette that I keep reaching for. Great variety of colours and great UD quality.I reviewed it recently here.

 Urban Decay Naked Palette I was given the original Naked Palette last year for Christmas by my boyfriend, and its the palette I reached most for this year. I don't have a post on this, but I got the Naked 2 this year for Christmas too, so I might do a comparison post between the two.

 Sigma Mr Bunny Essential Brush Kit This has been my favourite purchase this year by far! Sigma brushes are amazing quality, I had a few individual Sigma brushes and loved them so much that I took the plunge and decided to invest in a full kit. These brushes are the best performing brushes I've ever come across. I'll be posting a full review about the kit in the next few days.

Urban Decay Primer Potion This has been a great little product this year, it makes my eyeshadow last all day and stops it fading as fast, while making the colours stand out more. It really makes a difference to the look and staying power of your shadow.

 NYC Liquid Eyeliner I swear by this liquid liner. Its the only liner I can use that stays put and doesn't transfer from my lash line to my crease. It stays put without being hard to remove, and is also seriously cheap.

 Sleek Blush In Pomegranate A beautiful berry blush, its been my favourite autumn/winter blush. Looks scary in the pan but is really beautiful and flattering on the cheeks.

 Revlon Lip Butters in Peach Parfait and Sweet Tart I love love love Revlon's Lip butters, go here for review and swatches of the ones I have. My favourites are Peach Parfait and Sweet Tart. I really want to pick up a few more of these but every time I go to boots people have messed with them and opened them all so they're all smushed and unbuyable, so whoever is doing this make it your new year's resolution to stop it so I can buy the other shades that I want! Lol!

 Sleek Contour Kit in Light A handy little compact with a matte bronzer for contour and a peachy champagne highlighter. Works really well and also has a built in mirror. This for me along with Sleek's blushes is something I couldn't live without! 

Revlon Kissable Balm Stain in Honey Lovely neutral my lips butter better shade. These chubby stick like lip products from Revlon have really impressed me and I want more!

 17 Lipstick in Barely Blush Not sure what the line of lipsticks is called, but they're the ones in the shiny silver tube so if anyone knows let me know. But this dusty rose lipstick is beautiful. The texture is creamy and moisturising and really comfortable to wear. Really wish they'd put more colours out in this formula, if they did these 17 lipsticks would probably beat Revlon's Lip Butters as my favourite lip product this year!

Sleek Blush in Rose gold This is my all time favourite blush. Swatches are here  if you want to have a look at how beautiful this blush is. It's a dead ringer for NARS's orgasm blush for a fraction of the price.

 Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub Has been a life saver this winter! My lips have been so dry and flaky and this saves them every time! I use this to exfoliate my lips then stick a balm over it and I have nice soft lips again. It smells and tastes pretty good too!

 Maybelline 24 Hour Color Tattoo in Pink gold My favourite out of the Color Tattoos that I own. A really lovely pink shade with golden shimmer, looks really pretty on its own or layered with shadow. Swatches are here.

So those are my favourites of 2012! There are a lot of other things that I love too, but I had to narrow it down because the list was getting pretty huge! 

I'll be back in the new year with more reviews, hauls and also a giveaway in the early new year to say thank you to all of you who have supported me and I can say that it's gonna be a good one! : )

I would also love to know what your favourite products have been this year, are any of them the same as mine? Also would like to hear any other favourites of the year like movies, songs anything at all! I know my favourite film this year is a three way tie between Snow white and the huntsman, Breaking Dawn part 2 and the Amazing Spiderman - I cant decide which I liked the most! 

Happy New Year everyone! 



Friday 28 December 2012

Review: Urban Decay Vice Palette



Urban Decay Vice Palette

Just take a moment to look at the beauty of the Vice Palette, doesn't it just take your breath away? :)

I mentioned that my wonderful boyfriend got me the Vice palette Christmas Present Haul post here. He gave me this a few weeks before Christmas, so I've had it for the guts of a month now and have had so much fun playing with it and I'm head over heels in love with it!

The Vice Palette is UD's newest limited edition palette, with 20 brand new never before seen eyeshadow shades. When I say never seen before i mean that there are a few similar UD shadows available that resemble a few of the ones in the palette, but you're not going to have these exact ones in other UD palettes that you may have.

The packaging on the palette is beautiful. The shadows are contained in a Nars(esque) rubber feeling box, with a jewled UD icon on the front. There is also a button that when pushed, makes the lid slowly open to reveal your 20 eye shadows, a dual ended brush and a massive mirror. I really like the packaging on this, it looks expensive and unlike UD's other big ass palettes, its not made from cardboard so it's pretty travel friendly and not overly huge at all. The only thing is that the outside of the palette is hard to clean as it attracts finger prints, but that's a minor detail.


A closer look at the shadows


Swatches 

Top Row Swatches 

Desperation is a deep grey/brown with a satin finish.

Muse Chocolate brown with fine golden shimmer.

Jagged Medium browned olive shade with glitter.

Blitz Bright yellowed gold shade, with a metallic finish.

Penny Lane Shimmery peach shade that leans orange, quite a metallic finish.




Second Row Swatches


Junkie Bright blue/green with gold glitter. 

Chaos Bright matte blue, though sometimes I can see some very slight shimmer.

Occupy Silver/grey with a slight blue hue. Metallic finish.

Unhinged Bright metallic turquoise. 

Black Market Matte black.




Third Row Swatches


Provocateur A pink leaning towards lilac shade, with silver shimmer. Glittery finish.

Rapture Purple with a grey undertone, satin finish shadow.

Vice Deep, metallic purple.

Noise Bright loud pink, some shimmer to it, metallic/glitter finish.

Armor Taupe shade with silver tones. Metallic finish.

Bottom Row Swatches


Nevermind Cool toned medium brown, satin finish.

Echo Beach Light brown that leans slightly towards olive green, satin finish.

Anonymous Pale creamy flesh toned peach, matte finish.

Freebird Pink with peach leanings, frosty/metallic finish.

Laced Browned pink shade, matte finish.


The texture of most of these shadows is really buttery, bar the few very glittery ones but even they are easy to work with. Pigmentation is great on all except Chaos and Jagged, but you can build them up quite easily. Wear time is superb on their own, and even better with a primer. These don't go anywhere on me when I have a primer on and are still mostly intact at the end of the day.

This is by far one of UD's best palette releases of the last few years, in my opinion. It has everything from basic neutral shades to some fun bright ones, along with a nice amount of deeper shades. There really is something for everyone in this palette, great if you're only starting out and want to build up your shadow collection, and also great if like me you re a huge UD fan and already have most of their shades. The dual ended shading/blending brush that you get with the palette is pretty decent too.

The Vice Palette is limited edition, so I'm not sure how long it will still be around for as it has been out a good while now, I know there are still some in Debenhams as they still have it up on their website. 

Are any of you as in love with the Vice palette as I am? :)




Thursday 27 December 2012

Christmas Present Haul

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! 



I have been really looking forward to doing this post as i pretty much got everything that I wanted for Christmas this year, cant believe how lucky I was. I was well and truly spoilt. I wont be going into too much detail with swatches etc, because I want to do individual posts for a few of the things also I'm not posting photos of everything I got, just a few of my main presents and theres a couple of pretty exciting ones! :)


Urban Decay Vice Palette





Ahhh! Behold the amazingness that is The Vice Palette! This is one of the two palettes that my boyfriend got me, he went a little crazy this year and bought me pretty much everything I mentioned I wanted which is insane but so sweet too. Anyway I had been dying to get my hands on this and it really hasn't disappointed me, 20 brand new UD shades, I'm in love!
He gave me this palette a few weeks ago, so I've had time to play around with it, and seeing as its limited edition, I'll post a full review on it in the next few days in case they become hard to find and anyone needs help making up their mind about it.

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette





This is the other palette that Noel got me. I have the original Naked palette too, and I was torn for ages weather or not I wanted or even needed this one too. I have to say that I'm actually really liking this more than I thought I would, and that the cooler toned shadows of Naked 2 suit me better than the warmer toned Naked palette. Haven't played with this enough yet to be one hundred percent on it, but so far so good!

Daisy Eau So Fresh By Marc Jacobs



Daisy Eau So Fresh is my all time favourite perfume ever! I ran out of it in September just before my sister's wedding and I've been lost without it. So I was so happy and surprised when my boyfriend gave me this big ass 125ml bottle! I didn't even know they came bigger than 100mls! This will probably last me until next Christmas now, and I wear this everyday its such a strong scent that one or two sprays is all you need so this will last me ages.



Wasn't going to put this one in, but I thought why not? lol My boyfriend's sister got me a Charlie Pink perfume set. While I'm not sure if I like the scent or not, it came with a Revlon nail enamel in Sweet Tart, which is the same colour as one of my favourite Revlon Lip Butters, so I thought that was cool and deserved a mention.

That's my main presents I got, I got a good few bath sets, some DVDs, a McFly greatest hits CD which I can't stop listening to - reminds me of being 14 and being in love with McFly! lol! I also got money off my dad too that will probably most likely be spent on more make up very soon! 

I haven't managed to get out to any of the sales yet, but I am hoping to. Would love to hear what you all got for Christmas and anything you bought in the sales too, so do leave a comment below, with a link to your post or even just a list of what you got! :)



Monday 24 December 2012

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

Hello everyone!


Our Christmas Tree


This is not a beauty related post today, It's just a quick post to wish my followers and any one reading this a merry Christmas, as I really love Christmas and probably won't be posting until around the 27th or 28th as I have a rather large family and need to spend time with them.

I have also just noticed that there is a picture of baby me in the background of the photo! - eek!!

I am looking forward to posting what I got for Christmas - I know that there's a good few exciting beauty items as I have already been given early Christmas presents from my boyfriend, because he's spending Christmas in hospital and decided to give them to me early because I was upset that he wouldn't be here. I won't say what the presents were just yet because I want to post everything I got together! 

I'm scheduling this post for tomorrow, which is Christmas eve, as I wont be at home so I wont be able to post, but I hope everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit by now and if not you better hurry up because Christmas is tomorrow! :)

All that is left for me to do is wish you and yours wherever you are, a very safe, healthy and happy Christmas.



Sunday 23 December 2012

Review: Maybelline 24 Hour Color Tattoo



Hello, hope you're all doing good today! Just a quick post today on Maybelline's 24 Hour Color Tattoos. I know these aren't exactly new anymore, but I've had these for a while and only lately I'm realising how good they actually are, I know there's probably tons of posts about these out there by now, but I thought I'd weigh in too!
L-R: On and on bronze and Pink gold



I only own two of the color tattoos, I have on and on bronze, which is a warm golden bronze shade, and pink gold which is a beautiful pink with a hint of gold shimmer through it. There are a few more shades available, though I've noticed we don't seem to have as many as the U.S. has, which is a shame because I really love the look of some of the shades we cant get here :-(


On and on bronze

Pink gold

L-R: On and on bronze, Pink gold

Color tattoos are cream eye shadows that are supposed to stay put for 24 hours, I can't tell you if they stay for that length of time because I don't want to be wearing any form of make up for that long, but they really do stay put. There's no creasing with these at all, the colour doesn't fade and they don't feel heavy on your eyes like a lot of cream shadows do. I have quite oily lids and these hold up exceptionally well until I take them off, and though they don't go anywhere during the day they are easy to remove with make up remover. Staying power is brilliant on their own but even better with a primer underneath. 

These look good on their own, or as a base for other eye shadows, they really intensify the look of shadows when paired with them, they also make pretty good liners. 

These are pretty reminiscent of MAC's paint pots, down to the way they work and even to the packaging, but at a fraction of the price. 

I really like these and I really wish that Maybelline would pull their finger out and release more of the shades over here so that I can have them all! :)

Is anyone else except me pissed that we seem to get neglected by several of the big cosmetic drugstore brands when they're releasing new stuff? 




     


Thursday 20 December 2012

Review: Urban Decay Smoked Palette


Uh-ohs! I've completely fallen behind on blogging again, it's been a pretty stressful few weeks since I last posted and my life has taken over all of my time, but now things seem to be calming down long enough for me to get a few posts in. Hurrah! : )

A while back I bought Urban Decay's Smoked Palette. I really liked the look of the Smoked palette as I haven't really got any darker eyeshadow shades in my collection. Also, as you may have noticed i'm a sucker for UD's products especially their shadows. 




The Smoked Palette contains 10 eyeshadows: 



Kinky is a pale beige that has a matte finish. This shadow can be a little powdery but is still easy to work with. 




 Freestyle a matte peach shade. Has okay pigmentation, is also a little powdery. 




 Mushroom is a grey/taupe with a shimmer finish. This one comes off more grey on the lids, blends really well and has great colour payoff. 




 Back Door a deep, matte dark brown. Blends beautifully, dosent seem powdery like the other mattes in the palette.




 Black Out matte black. A really good true black shadow.Great pigmentation and no powdery feel.




 Barlust is a shimmery medium brown, has a butter like texture.




 Rockstar is a deep smokey shimmery purple. This is the colour that made me want to buy the palette and it didnt dissapoint. Really soft texture, blends beautifully, fantastic pigmentation. 




Evidence a navy blue shade with a shimmery almost metallic look to it. This shadow seemed a little less soft than the other shades somehow, but still had decent payoff.




  Loaded is a blackend emerald green. Easy to work with buttery soft texture.




 Asphalt is a grey shade with shimmer of another colour that I cant really place. This one like evidence seemed a little less soft than the other shadows, but still decent pigmentation here too.




You also get a full sized 24/7 glide one pencil in Perversion, which is the blackest black liner I have ever seen, even darker than UD's other black liner Zero, it's really incredible! 


Swatches L-R: Kinky,Freestyle,Mushroom,Backdoor,Blackout,Barlust,Rockstar,Evidence,Loaded and Asphalt


I like this palette, though I dont use it religiously every day, its great to have some great deep, dark shades for a little more ooomph every now and then. My favourite shades in the palette are Mushroom, Barlust, Rockstar and Loaded. Least favourite would be Evidence, but only because i'm not a fan of blue shadow. If you love smokey eyes id say this palette is a must for you, but for neutural lovers like myself you may not love this, even though it is a nice little palette.

Urban Decay's Smoked Palette is €40 at the UD counter in Debenhams, which is pretty much the usual price for an Urban Decay palette. 

Hope you're all keeping well, and I will be posting again very soon! : )

Toodles!

X o X


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...