New CID Cosmetics Hero Collection: Glamour

I needed a little post Christmas pick me up today, do when I finished work I had a wander round town and this is one of the things I picked up. I found this in TK Maxx for the great price of £14.99. It includes three full size products; i-shadow in Oman, i-line in Black and i-volumise in Black. New CID has been on my radar since I fell in love with the lipstick I received in my Carmine box, and this set is of the same great quality.

There was a few more sets like this in Leicester’s TK Maxx, including a Natural and a Smokey Kit. If you want to try something from New CID these sets are a great and fairly inexpensive way to get a feel for the brand. If there’s anything you would like a full review of let me know in the comments!

Have you tried New CID Cosmetics? Got the January blues yet?

MUA Glamour Nights Palette

I finally managed to get my hands on MUA’s Glamour Nights Palette, and as usual with MUA Palettes it didn’t disappoint! If you’ve got a Christmas Party, Work Do or New Years Eve Bash to go to and want to wear something a bit bolder than a neutral or monochromatic smokey eye, you should consider picking this up.

The Glamour Days and Nights for me are the stand out products of the MUA line (perhaps along with the Heaven and Earth Palette) as they seem to have a very definitive theme, and the I can see myself using all of the colours. I can see the shades in this palette working brilliantly for a deep, sultry smokey eye with a pop of colour on the lid, and understated nude lips.

I find when I’m out for the night I hate having to worry about my lipstick (or gloss on the rare occasion I wear it) smudging or transferring onto my cocktail pint glass, so I’d much prefer to go all out on the eye make-up and keep the lips simple. This palette is perfect for that, and with a good range of mattes and shimmers, including also a matte and a shimmer highlight, I don’t find I have to reach for shadows outside the palette to complete the look.

All the shadows last brilliantly over a primer, and stay on until I take them off. Over all the same high quality that you can now expect from MUA, with some great colours that you don’t normally see on the highstreet.

You can find MUA Glamour Nights at Superdrug or on MUA’s website where it retails at £4.

You might have noticed I’ve been absent on here and twitter for a few days and it’s because I been very preoccupied with this little sweetie…

Me and Nik adopted Jenny, an 8 year old Jack Russell on Sunday, and since then it has been very much like looking after a small child. I love her to bits and have been spending my free time walking her or letting her sleep on my lap! Now she’s settling in I will be back to cranking out some blog posts!

MAC Essentials: Copperplate Eyeshadow

A lot of make-up junkies begin they’re addictions at MAC, and lets face it it’s hard not too. What other brand that’s as easily accessible offers you the range that MAC does? But like most brands they have some brilliant, must-have products and some duds. I’ve bought a lot of MAC in my time, and I have my fair share of bad MAC products. I’ll be doing these types of post every now and then, and hopefully MAC will seem a little less daunting!
MAC Copperplate is a Matte² Eyeshadow, that in the pan looks very unassuming. On the skin it is a beautiful grey taupe. The  Matte²  formula is smooth and a lot more blendable that the regular Matte formula. This is one of the products that reminds me why I love MAC, its simple but its a beautiful colour and formula that will work for a lot of people and situations.

It is a pretty versatile colour and I think it adds depth to both warmer and cooler shades, if I’m feeling a little lazy but still want to look polished I know I can reach for this and blend it into the crease for a defined, put together look.

I can see this shadow work for a lot of skintones, although at first look it looks like it would work better for cooler skin, but paired with a warm brown (I’m thinking Woodwinked) I think it could work well for those of you with a warmer skin.

Do you have any must have MAC items? Any items you’d like some advice on?

You can get MAC Copperplate instore and online where it will cost you £11.50/£9.50 for the Pro Pan.

NYX Soho Glam: Pictures and Swatches

Here’s some more pictures (and a few swatches) of the NYX Soho Glam Collection that I mentioned here. The quality of the shadows is a bit inconsistent, some are a bit powdery and some are more pigmented than others, but the less pigmented shades can be built up fairly easily. The blushers are of okay quality, the lip products are okay but not great. For £14.99, this would make a great gift, or treat for yourself if you have the patience to work with some of the shades.

NYX Soho Glam Collection is available in selected TK Maxx stores.

17 Eyeshadow Trio in Enraged

This week really has been the week of 17 cosmetics, and I’ve splurged twice on the 3 for 2 offer that's currently on. One of the items I picked up was the eyeshadow trio in Enraged, which was released with the A/W collection (there are 2 other eyeshadow trios, and three coordinating nail polishes, including Fury which I showed here)  Normally I would be more drawn to the cooler toned trios, the green or the purple, but lately I prefer the way my skin looks with a warmer a shadow, and like the contrast against my green eyes.

Enraged has three gold toned shades that have a lovely creamy texture, blend easily and last well over a base (I’ve been using them over 17’s Wild Metallic Eyes) all the shades are shimmer shades, but they are metallic as opposed to glittery, and none of them contain any gritty glitter. I have experienced a little bit of fallout, from the darker shade but nothing that can’t be dealt with.

 

The packaging is nothing flashy, but is practical and compact, great for taking to work with you if you plan to head straight out to a Christmas party and need to add a little glitz and glamour to your look.

17 Eyeshadow Trios are available at Boots and cost £5.49.

MUA Immaculate Collection

Another release from MUA that I cannot wait for, their biggest palette yet, containing 24 shades all for the budget-friendly price of £8! It contains a mix of matte and shimmer shades, in neutrals, pastels and more smoky colours. For £8 I will definitely making a trip to Superdrug to pick this up! Expect a review and some looks once I’ve had a chance to try it out.
The Immaculate Collection will be released tomorrow (26th October) will you be picking it up?

Sneaky Peek: NYX Nude On Nude

I spied this in TKMaxx yesterday, and I just couldn’t resist it, I mean you can never have too many neutral eyeshadows right? Well maybe I have a few too many already but never mind!Ill be posting a couple of FOTD’s etc using this palette once I’ve had a bit of a play with it!

I was supposed to be going out tonight but after getting up at 4.30 am for work I’m not sure I’m up to it. Thinking I might stay home, snuggle up and watch a movie. Not sure what food should accompany this though, thinking I might attempt Lily’s Chicken Pie recipe!

Be sure to let me know if there are any shades you would really like to see, and I’ll try to do a look including them!

VIVO Eyeshadows

If you want cheap and cheerful cosmetics that still manage to pack a punch in terms of pigmentation and quality, you won’t go far wrong with VIVO Cosmetics. Today I’ll be having a look at their Pearl and Matte Shadows. I’ve got Shades Goddess, Golden Leaf and Rich Chocolate to review.

All three shades are very pigmented, but have that slightly greasy feeling you can find with some cheaper shadows. This does mean however that they are very easy to blend and aren’t chalky. I find the best way to work with this type of shadow is to pack it on with a dense brush or even you’re finger and then use a fluffy brush to blend it out.

A quick note on the matte shade, the texture is slightly drier than the pearl shades, but if you use a soft fluffy brush to apply and  blend it, it applies beautifully.

For £1.50 I don’t think you can go wrong with these, and with all the great high-street eyeshadows being released of late, I’m far more likely to be itching to get myself to Superdrug, Boots or Tesco than Debenhams or John Lewis.

How beautiful are those shades? I really love all of these shades together, they make for a lovely earth toned smoky eye! There’s a lot of great combinations to be had with VIVO’s eyeshadows, and when you can get three shades for £4.50 you can’t lose!

 

Disclosure: These eyeshadows were provided by PR for consideration.

MUA Glamour Nights & Days Palettes

Here’s a sneak peek of MUA’s latest offerings! Due to be released at selected Superdrug’s on the 26th of October, I think these will be another sell out product for the brand, much like their Heaven and Earth Palette. Both palettes have a great range of shades, including for the first time, some matte shades! I really cannot ait to get my hands on these palettes, the Days palette having some gorgeous colours for work or balancing out a bright lip, and the Night’s having some lovely, festive shades some of which are sure to push you outside your comfort zone! I can’t wait to try out the red in the Nights palette, I’m just hoping it isn’t too pink.

Will you be rushing to Superdrug on the 26th to get these?

Make Up Academy Dusk til Dawn Palette

After buying the Heaven and Earth Palette and loving it and had a look at some of the other offerings MUA had. The Dusk til Dawn Palette really caught my eye, it’s made up of some shimmery neutrals and some more glittery deeper, darker colours. The amount of looks you can do with this palette, makes it great value for money.
As the name suggests if you want one palette, to take you from getting ready for work in the morning, to making your eye make up a bit more dramatic after work, this would be a great one to pick up. The packaging is very portable, slimline and not at all flimsy, so it will withstand travel.
Their are no mattes in this palettes so if you don’t like shimmer, or glitter you might want to look at some of MUA’s matte range. I would definitely advise using a primer, to get the most out of these shadows and they really benefit layered over a creamier base like a pencil or cream eyeliner, or if you have a sticky eyeshadow base such as Fyrinnae’s Epoxy, that should work well with the really glittery shadow like the black one.


The neutral shades, don’t give any dupes for the Heaven and Earth Palette so if you already have that one you’re not going to end up with loads of similar colours. Some of the neutrals are a bit on the sheer side, but that’s not something I mind really, it makes them great for blending out the darker shades. The darker shades are really pigmented, I have similar shades from Mac, that have a drier texture and bad pigmentation, so I’m really impressed with these.

Top Row

Bottom Row
I think most people will find something to like with this palette, I will try to get a couple of FOTD posts up, in the next few days to show the different looks you can create with this palette.
You can pick this palette up at Superdrug for £4.

Inglot Eyeshadows; Some More Swatches

I’ve already waxed lyrical numerous times, so I’m not going to bore you with my continual rambling! But as expected being in London for me, means a trip to Inglot. I was disappointed however this time with the customer service which seems to have gone down the toilet since I last visited.  Despite my informing the sales assistant, I knew how the Freedom Palette system worked she continued to badger me, and tried to upsell me onto some ‘Rainbow Eyeshadows’ which were basically one pan with shades of the same colour, they cost £6 as opposed to £4.50, and to be honest they all seemed to lack pigmentation and the colours were pretty dull. As well as that the majority of the smaller shadows were out of stock (they are the cheaper option) so to get the colours I wanted I had no option but to buy the bigger pans.

Bad service aside, I picked up two palettes of four which after the recent price hike cost me about £23 each (a five pan palette cost me just £20 this January).

Anyway enough waffling swatch time!

If anyone wants colour numbers let me know, I did ask the SA to write them down for me on the receipt but she just looked at me confused!

Estee Lauder Pure Colour EyeShadow Duo in Platinum

Estee Lauder are fast becoming my favourite high-end brand, the Double Wear foundation being the best I have tried. So when I found myself at a loose end and with five hours to kill at St Pancras I visited the Boots, and my eye was immediately drawn to the Modern Mercury collection designed by make-up genius Tom Pecheux.

I had a very hard time picking just one item to splurge on as pretty much all of the lipsticks and eyeshadow duos were calling out to me. So I decided to pick the one I knew I would get the most use out of. Enter my new favourite neutral combination….

I have been without a decent highlight colour for a while and the white with subtle shimmer is perfect for highlighting the browbone or inner corner of the eye. The taupe on the right makes for a great daytime lid colour, with enough shimmer to stop[ it looking flat but so much you end up looking like a disco-ball. I have been pairing these with a bit of Mac’s Brown Down or Wedge through the crease for a simple five minute eye look.

The quality of these eyeshadows is great they are both smooth and apply well over a primer. They last all day on me without creasing, over either UDPP or TFSI.

The come gorgeously packaged with a very good sized mirror and a small brush and sponge applicator, I haven’t used the sponge applicator but the brush is of fairly good quality and will hold up if you find yourself without your brushes for whatever reason.

Estee Lauder continue to impress me with their consistently good products, and thanks to Tom Pecheux they are starting to lose their image of being a brand for older ladies, and are targeting a broader audience. I have a feeling I might find myself splurging on a few more bits from this collection come pay day!

You can find Pure Colour Eyeshadow Duos at Boots priced £22.50 for 3.5g.

Swatching my Stash–Barry M Dazzle Dusts

One of the first brands I got really into as a teenager was Barry M, I think I was seduced by all the bright colours and glitter, the Dazzle Dusts and Nail Paints being a firm favourite of mine (and they still are). While the Dazzle Dusts may not have the best texture on the market they easily match some higher end brands loose pigment offerings and are a snip at £4.99 a pop (although currently in a 2 for £7 offer at Boots)
There is a very wide colour range available, with something to suit everyone, from metallics, to taupes, neon brights to darker smoky colours. I challenge anyone to not find at least one Dazzle Dust they love.
At the minute I have 8 in my collection (I did have more but I think they may have been ‘borrowed’ by my sister).

Swatched with UDPP (top) and bare skin (bottom)
From L-R 14, 15, 75, 79

98, 64, 44,9
If your into your duochromes and metallics I suggest having a look at these little pots of joy as there’s many interesting colours to discover. I'm loving 98, for a smoky eye with lot’s of black mascara and a nude lip at the minute.