creativity and positivity: make up

ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS "MODERN RENAISSANCE" PALETTE - REVIEW

January 20, 2018
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SEPTEMBER BEAUTY HAUL FT TOO FACED AND TONYMOLY

Every month I limit myself to one big spending splurge. In July I spent most of my money on beauty buys and a few fashion pieces, whilst in August the majority of my spending went towards homeware for the apartment. With the arrival of Autumn, the new academic year and my first student loan instalment at the end of the month (*Home Simpson voice* woohoo!), September is already shaping up to be an expensive month. My inner student is screaming at me to save money, and get back into the thrifty shopping habits I abided by last year. But then I walked into TK Maxx. After that, my memory gets, ahem, a little fuzzy and the next thing I know I walked out with lots of new beauty bits and pieces. Shit happens I guess. Today I'm going to share with you the results of my September beauty haul, featuring products from Too Faced, TonyMoly and Make Up For Ever.

Let's kick off with the TonyMoly face masks. Sheet masks are all the rage right now, and TM have always had a reputation for being one of the best providers. Their cute packaging is definitely appealing to my inner aesthetic nerd, and I've previously tried out the Pomegranate mask that claims to improve elasticity. It left my skin feeling hydrated and toned, smelt great and gave me a good giggle every time I walked past a mirror. So I'm definitely excited to try more from them (and trust me, there were loads more sheet masks that I could have chosen from, but I took my own skin type into consideration and decided to go for these three. Sensible Rachel won the fight over impulsive Rachel).

My skin suffers from every type of problem you can imagine; oiliness, dry patches, break outs, uneven skin tone, redness, the list never ends. That's why I chose to go with the Aloe Mask Sheet to help moisturise and soothe my irritated dry patches, the Seaweed Mask Sheet to purify my skin and give it a good all over detox, and the Tea Tree Mask Sheet for soothing and mattifying my oily, breakout areas. I prefer to keep my sheet masks in the fridge because they make my skin feel cool and pampered when I'm in the mood to treat my skin. Some brands recommend you keep the masks on for over 30 minutes to allow the excess oils and moisture to sink into the skin, but if I'm totally honest, I don't have that much time on my hands, therefore I usually leave mine on for about 10-15 minutes. Plus I have a small face, so sheet masks rarely fit comfortably on it and there's only so long I'm willing to obstruct my vision and breathing for the sake of vanity.

I'm no stranger to Too Faced's products either. Their palettes have often featured in my wishlist posts and I own a few of their Melted liquid lipsticks courtesy of previous trips to Tk Maxx. Under no circumstances would I claim them to be my favourite lip products, sometimes I find them a little too glossy for my typically matte tastes. However, I do reach for them when I want to glam up and feel awesome, as long as I'm not heading out for food! And at discounted prices, how can I really complain?

I don't have a lot of red or pink shades in my lipstick collection, I'm more of a nude lip type of girl, hence why I picked up the Melted Metal Liquid Lipstick in "Debutante." Yet, for some reason I was drawn to the regular Melted lipsticks in "Candy" and "Frosting." They add a little bit of variety to my makeup bag and they aren't extravagant, unusual shades that take me completely out of my comfort zone.

TOP TO BOTTOM: "CANDY" "FROSTING" AND "DEBUTANTE"

As you can see from the picture above, they swatch more like a gloss than your typical liquid lipstick would, so they're great to layer over deeper, darker lipsticks to add a different tone and dimension to your lip look. Out of the three, "Debutante" is definitely my favourite. The colour is stronger but still gives a really lovely natural look, without making me feel like I'm too made up. My only other complaint with these lipsticks, is that the staying power just isn't on par with the rest of my lipsticks, but as they were discounted, I won't hold a grudge against them.

I've lusted after many of Too Faced eyeshadow palettes, but had never been fortunate enough to get my hands on one until this week. The "Cat Eyes" palette comes with nine classic shades for both day and night, natural and glam looks, and even includes this handy 3-step guide to help perfect those looks. I figured that this would be a good starter palette, and I would be able to tell whether or not to invest in other TF eye products in the future.

Another selling point; all the shades are named with various feline words. How cute is that?!

TOP TO BOTTOM: "PURR", "TIGER'S EYE", "LEOPARD", "MEOW", "PUSSY CAT" AND "JUNGLE LOVE"

TOP TO BOTTOM: "KITTEN", "KITTY GLITTER" AND "PANTHER"

All of the shades, with the exception of the dark, glitter shades, swatched like a dream. I found it easy to build up the lighter colours, and they make for fabulous base colours with a little bit of a shimmer. I didn't have a lot of fall out from any of them either, well nothing that would illicit horrific complaints from yours truly. They're also really long-lasting, that swatch of "Panther" is STILL on my arm as I write this (and yes, I have washed). I also created a lot with the three Day shades, and found them easy to blend, yet they still stood out individually on my eye.

I finished my eye makeup look off with an unbrushed eyebrow and lashing of Make Up For Ever's "Smoky Stretch Lengthening and Defining Mascara." When it comes to mascara I'm not usually fussy, I have naturally long lashes anyway, so I always go for something to enhance that quality and give my eyes a wide, doll-like appearance. I'm definitely impressed with this mascara, as it gives me everything I want without being clumpy, flaky or giving me serious panda eyes.

As of now, I'm on a serious spending ban and my wallet has definitely received a firm telling off from the rational side of my brain. However, I have to say I'm very pleased with my purchases and I look forward to creating looks with them!

What have you splurged on recently? Have you tried any of the products above? Let me know your thoughts!

I hope you enjoyed reading, until next time.

Rachel

September 05, 2017
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MY DAILY MAKE UP ROUTINE!

do it yourself

As much as I love to be creative and experiment with different make up looks, it's become pretty evident that I have my own signature look that I slap on almost every day. No matter what the occasion, my make up always centres around glowing highlight, a pale complexion and a big, bold winged liner. Today I thought I would share with you all my daily make up routine for simple, everyday use and "I want to be cute but I can't really be arsed making too much of an effort" days and special occasions. As I always state before every beauty post, I'm not an MUA and under no circumstances would I ever claim to be one. This is simply how I do my make up most days and I wanted to share my fave products!

FACE
No matter how many videos I watch or posts I read, I always do my base first. Sorry brows before people! In one of my most recent posts, I spoke about my love for LUSH's Magical Moringa primer, which I always apply before starting on my face. I usually leave it to sit for about fifteen minutes before starting with my NYX Total Control Drop Foundation. Luckily, if I'm pushed for time the primer sets in quick enough to keep my face on even when I'm in a rush, so there's no need to worry. With the foundation, I squeeze out a fair amount from the dropper before applying with my beauty blender, which was so dirty I felt too embarrassed to photograph it (I will clean it at some point, I promise)! I love the shade of this foundation, it matches my skintone pretty perfectly, but on the whole I'm not a fan of drop foundations, and will shortly be working on a post explaining why.

After blending the foundation to my satisfaction, I move onto my Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer and Pressed Powder. I love this concealer because it provides the perfect amount of coverage without being too heavy on my skin, and as someone who has quite blemished, red and uneven skin, a.k.a skin from hell, it is an absolute godsend. However, sometimes I find it oxidises very quickly after applying, so I need to be super speedy with the beauty blender! Personally, I prefer pressed powders to loose, because they don't make me look so cakey and set my make up without wasting a lot of product.

I normally leave my blush and highlight to the very end, but for the purpose of covering all of my face bases (ha!) I'll include them in here. I've also mentioned before how much I love LUSH's Feeling Younger skin tint as a base highlighter. It gives a natural, dewy glow without being too shiny, so if you prefer a lighter look it is fantastic to use on its own. But, if you're like me and you want to achieve drag queen-esque levels of sparkle, you can also layer over the cream, like I do with my trusted MUA Undress Your Skin highlighter. Golden tones are my go to for an easy, every day look because they add sparkle to my pale skin without making me appear washed out. To compliment my pale complexion, I add a little sweep of my Ted Baker Blush, for a light rosy tone that's soft and natural.

BROWS AND EYES
I'm the type of person who provides minimal care for their brows, except for the occasional trim with a pair of small scissors. I've always had quite light, but thick brows, and as much as I hate filling them in, sometimes it's necessary. They're also a really bizarre colour, so I haven't managed to find an exact match, but one of the shades in my Make Up Revolution Fortune Favours the Brave palette comes pretty close. (Note: I would have provided a picture but that palette looks so disgusting after almost a year's worth of usage, and I wouldn't wish that image on anyone.)

My technique is pretty simple: I sweep my brows with a comb, brush them into place, take an angled brow brush and apply a little bit of shadow and lightly follow along the underbrow and then lightly feather them in. Do they look like asymmetric HD brows? No. But the plus side to having a full fringe is that I can cover them up anyway!

As much as I hate this picture, it was the only way to show my eyes and brows properly. Let's just say I have a "strong profile."

I spend the majority of my make up routine fighting with my eyeliner, and after many years of different products and several application techniques, I've finally found a process and product I'm content with. Right now I'm using Soap and Glory's Supercat Eyeliner, which is the perfect product for fans of big, strong eyeliner looks. I love that the pen is easy to control, making it really easy to make both eyes look identical, and the pigment quality is great. My technique right now involves starting with the wing, because I find it easy to build from the outside in. I draw a line, then merge it into a triangle shape and drag the liner across my lid. Then, I simply fill in the blanks and adjust any bits that look strange! It sounds easy, but believe me, it's taken years of practice to even get this far.

LIPS
I'm someone who has always suffered with terribly chapped, dry and nibbled to death lips. I'm also a huge fan of liquid lipsticks, and the two aren't exactly the perfect combination, hence why I need to take care of my lips and prep them so they stay in tip-top condition!

It should come as no surprise that yet again, more LUSH products are incorporated into my daily make up routine. Before I apply any make up whatsoever, I use one of their lip scrubs, right now it's Chocolate, before applying Buttered Brazils lip balm. As well as tasting amazing together, both products help nourish lips, and get rid of / repair the dead skin that I'm constantly battling against. I like to use them before anything else, because that ensures my lip balm has mattified a little before I apply my liquid lipstick. No glossy lips for me thanks.

As for liquid lipsticks, my daily shade is "Harmony," one of the MUA Luxe Velvet Matte liquid lipsticks. They're cheap, dry in quickly and are fabulous quality. I love my NYX Liquid Cremes, however sometimes I find myself reaching for the easy to wear, lighter shades that pack just as much of a punch.

To keep my face in place, I spritz a little bit of Makeup Revolution's Pro Fix Oil Control Setting Spray because it stops everything from melting off when I'm out and about, and leaves a subtle dewy sheen on my skin. I don't always look like a zombie you know!

No matter how much make up I put on, I still end up looking like a grumpy toddler.

And there you have it! My daily make up routine. Who knew it took so many products to create a "natural" every day look? I certainly didn't until I started writing this post!

Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed reading about how I do my make up everyday and the products I can't be without. What's your favourite make up item that you simply have to include in your everyday routine?

Thanks again for reading, until next time

Rachel x

August 28, 2017
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MAKE UP FOREVER BLOGGERS EVENT: MAKE UP MASTERCLASS!

beauty

August 01, 2017
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SLEEK MAKEUP "DISTORTED DREAMS" COLLECTION

make up

July 08, 2017
6 Comments

NYX ULTIMATE BRIGHTS PALETTE - MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS

make up

I'm a huge fan of NYX Cosmetics and bright colours, so after seeing so many people I follow creating some gorgeous looks with this palette, I knew I had to add it to my growing repertoire of colourful palettes. I've created a couple of looks with it now, and wanted to share with you all my thoughts and first impressions on everything about it - from the shade range, to the pigmentation, versatility and price!

COLOUR RANGE

I have a lot of colourful eyeshadow palettes, but I've often found that the shades don't really measure up once they've actually been applied onto the skin. They often lose their vivid colour and fade terribly once they've blended out, and that was my biggest concern with the Ultimate Brights palette. However, after watching many a tutorial with this palette I felt fairly confident with the range of shades and how strong they seemed when they were applied on the skin. What I really love about this palette is the range of shades, NYX doesn't just stick to the seven colours of the rainbow, the brand give you lots of beautiful in-between shades like coral, the beautiful turquoise shades, orange / yellow and the range of pink shades too!

SWATCHES

As you can see, some of the shades do flake, most noticeably the blue shades in picture two, and there was a lot of fall out from the more vibrant and bright shades. I do love the shade range in picture one, and I could definitely imagine creating some looks with those. Overall, I'm not totally disappointed with the quality of the shades, there are some gems among the duds but it does defeat the purpose of a "brights" palette when the darker shades are better quality than the lighter shades, the pigmentation leaves a lot to be desired.

VERSATILITY

Although the shades aren't exactly "natural" as I work in quite a colourful place, to me they are every day shades. I have created a couple of looks with them already, stupidly forgetting to take pictures, and I have to say the shades in this palette definitely stand the test of time. They are easy to blend out and hold their pigment once they have been blended, which is exactly what I was looking for! I'm very impressed with this palette in that respect; the shades are long-lasting, easy to blend and the colours compliment each other extremely well.

VALUE FOR MONEY

At £16 I feel like this palette is quite cheap considering the range of other high-end, colourful eyeshadow palettes in the market at the minute, and I feel like it's a fairly standard price for NYX. With that being said, the product is quite small, as are the pans of shadow, so who knows how long the colours will actually last, especially when you consider how many of the shades are going to need a lot of building to improve the pigment quality. I don't know if I'd spend as much money on a small palette like this again, considering how many other companies out there do unique, original palettes that are good quality for a slightly lesser price.

Overall, I do really like the Ultimate Brights palette. The colour range is fabulous, although I do wish there were less pink shades and more greens / reds / blues, the shades themselves are great, with some being slightly better than others, and the durability / how long they last on the eye for is wonderful. I managed to survive a full day at work without my shadow moving or fading an inch - that has to count for something! I do wish that some of the shades were ad vibrant on the skin as they are in the pans, and the amount of fallout from some of them is going to irritate me. As much as I like the palette as a whole, I think in future I might just choose some of the single shadows over a palette.

What do you think of this palette? And NYX Cosmetics make-up in general?

Thank you for reading, until next time!

Rachel

June 27, 2017
2 Comments

NYX COSMETICS HAUL!

haul

First of all, I want to say thank you to each and every one of you who got in touch with me after my last post was published. The level of support I've received since then has been phenomenal and I am so grateful to everyone who messaged me or spoke to me about it, or who even read it. To think my words resonated with so many means a whole lot, so thank you. Today's post is going to be a little different.

When NYX not so recently opened up their store in Belfast I couldn't wait to head down and try out some of their infamous products myself. After previously hearing rave reviews about their liquid lipsticks, naturally, I had to pick some of those up, as well as a foundation too! So in this post I'm going to show you all exactly what I got and what I think of them.

STAY MATTE NOT FLAT FOUNDATION

Pale girls rejoice! When NYX called this shade "Ivory" they were not kidding. The first time I applied this foundation I felt like a milk bottle because I was so used to wearing darker shades on my skin, but this foundation matches my actual skin colour perfectly.

The formula is designed for people of oilier complexions, who struggle finding a foundation to truly mattify on the skin, and this formula mattifies so much on my skin that it can often end up making my skin look dry and cakey. For me, the coverage isn't too heavy, its more light-medium which is exactly what I need to cover noticeable redness and pimples, without being too much. In terms of feel, the foundation is almost a mousse-like consistency, which is why its much easier to control the level of coverage I need.

PROS: I can finally stop my search for a foundation that matches my skin and doesn't make me look too dark! Its also really long-lasting and doesn't melt off of my face.

CONS: This product is definitely not suitable for those with drier skin, because my skin was never dry at all before I started using this foundation and now I deal with a lot of patches on my nose and cheeks!

LIQUID SUEDE LIP CREAMS

I've started to accumulate quite a small collection of the infamous Liquid Suede lip creams now, and I have to say I love the variety of shades that NYX offer. Everything from classic reds, to subtle nudes and bright vibrant oranges and blues. You definitely can't say they don't give their customers a lot of choice!

The three shades currently in my possession are Cherry Skies, Sandstorm and Brooklyn Thorn; here are some swatches in that order.

Out of the three, Sandstorm and Brooklyn Thorn would be my two most worn shades, Sandstorm is the perfect nude shade to me; it's dark but not dark enough that it makes me look vampy like BT does (a look that I also adore). Brooklyn Thorn itself I can't quite categorise as a colour. On my actual lips its dark enough to look almost black, but when I swatch it, its like a weird mauve / brown colour, but whatever it is I absolutely love it. Cherry Skies just doesn't suit me!

The formula is quite thick so it takes a lot to time to dry in, but when it does boy do these colours last. I usually only have to apply them once throughout the day to keep the colour topped up and looking full. I've also never noticed them be drying on my lips, naturally I have quite dry lips anyway but I haven't been aware of any significant change. However, if you are going to wear liquid lipsticks a lot please make sure you always top up with some lip balm to keep your lips hydrated.

PROS: Long-lasting, with a variety of shades to suit everyone, these lipsticks are a winner in my eyes.

CONS: If you're impatient or suffer from very, very dry lips you might want to give these a miss!

COSMIC METALS LIP CREAM in "SPEED OF LIGHT"

I've never tried metallic lipstick before, and when you work in an environment that's filled with colour and glitter you can often be left longing for a little bit more sparkle in your life so I thought I might as well pick one up! I decided to be plain and go for this rose gold shade.

The formula is much thicker than any other liquid lipstick I've ever tried, so as you can imagine, it takes a really long time to dry. However, it didn't leave my lips feeling as sticky as I imagined it would which really surprised me. I absolutely love the colour and the feel, so I might be a bit more adventurous and try some of the brighter shades on offer.

PROS: The perfect product to spice up any plain look and add a bit of sparkle!

CONS: I honestly don't think I can find a genuine fault with this product, no matter how hard I think about it!

Well, there you have it. There's my brief review of some of the NYX products I picked up and tried for myself, and in the future I hope to expand my use of their products. If you get the chance to call in to your local store or order some products online please do! You won't regret it, trust me.

Until then,

Rachel

March 21, 2017
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Pages

ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS "MODERN RENAISSANCE" PALETTE - REVIEW

SEPTEMBER BEAUTY HAUL FT TOO FACED AND TONYMOLY

MY DAILY MAKE UP ROUTINE!

MAKE UP FOREVER BLOGGERS EVENT: MAKE UP MASTERCLASS!

SLEEK MAKEUP "DISTORTED DREAMS" COLLECTION

NYX ULTIMATE BRIGHTS PALETTE - MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS

NYX COSMETICS HAUL!

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