Review - NARS Blush/Highlight Duo in Albatross/Torrid

Hope everyone is having a good week so far! I am dreading getting to and from work tomorrow and Thursday because of the tube strike! It's going to take me at least two and half hours each way! I was saying to my boss we may as well put out sleeping bags in the office and kip there lol!

So anyway, as promised, here is my review of the NARS duo I picked up with my vouchers!
I went to the counter in John Lewis on Oxford Street with every intention of buying the albatross/sin duo. I spoke to the MUA and she recommended I pick up torrid instead as it is much more my natural flush colour. When I looked at the testers it looked so much like Orgasm that I was put off but after swatching it I fell in love! It is much more coral than Orgasm and has a lot less shimmer to it! Comparison in the pan:

And here are swatches comparing the two, obviously this is much more than I would put on my face but I hope that this shows the differences. Orgasm is on the top, torrid on the bottom.

I really do love this blush! I have been wearing it every day since I bought it and it really is much longer lasting than most of the other blushes I have! I think that the amount of shimmer in Orgasm sometimes limits it to night time wear, that isn't an issue with this blush as the shimmer is much less obvious!

Albatross is a gorgeous highlighter, its so similar to MAC Vanilla Pigment but in a much easier to use form! I really couldn't get a decent picture of the swatch of this but I am sure you have seen it already!

The only negative with this is the price, its £27 for this duo which is a lot but individually these are priced at £18.50 so there is a saving to be made by getting the duo! These are only available for a limited time both instore and on the website so if you want one I wouldn't wait too long!!

Review - Collection 2000 Glam Crystals Glitter Liners

I wanted to write this review because I feel that Collection 2000 is a brand that is so easily overlooked! I know this was one of the brands I used to buy a lot from when I was at school as it was cheap and pocket money didn't go far! They have changed a lot since then! The packaging has changed and they do actually have some really good cheaply priced products!

One of my favourite products from them are the Glam Crystals Glitter Eyeliners.

The colours from left to right are 1.Glitz, 2.Pizzazz, 3.Funk, 4.Hustle, 5.Le Freak, 6.Night Fever, 7.Rock Chick, 10.POW!, 11.Shake It Up
I also have an Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner in Spandex and a sample of Too Faced Starry Eyed in Ooh & Aah. Here is a picture where you can compare the size, obviously the Too Faced one is only a sample, I'm not sure of the size of the full sized one!
Now the price difference, the Urban Decay glitter liners are £11.26 at Boots, the Collection 2000 ones are £2.99 and are often on offer in Superdrug/Boots. You would think that for that price the quality would be crap but honestly they are amazing! Here are some swatches taken with flash so you can see the sparkle! Now the Urban Decay one is top left, Too Faced top right and then the Collection 2000 ones in a line in the same order as above.

This is two swipes with the brush and the picture says it all really, the Urban Decay one is incredibly sheer and you really have to work to get the glitter to apply evenly whereas the Collection 2000 ones are even and beautifully sparkly!

I have never tried a MAC glitter liner and to be honest I don't think I ever will! These liners are so pigmented and literally stay put till you take them off with remover! And for £2.99 you really can't go wrong! So if you are looking for a decent Glitter Liner definately check these out, in my opinion they are far better than the higher end brands I have tried!

Hope everyone is having a lovely relaxing Sunday!

Review - GOSH Waterproof Eyeshadow (Shadestick Dupe)

Ok so as promised here is my review of the GOSH waterproof eye shadow shadestick dupes!

What they Say: Silky and creamy eye shadow stick. A lasting formula which stays nice all day long. Also the perfect base for all powder eye shadows. Available in 9 different colours.

The Price: Around £6 but very often on 3 for 2 at Superdrug

What I say: Well the first thing you notice is the similarities in packaging to the MAC shadesticks, especially to the new ones that came out with the Sugar sweet collection. They advertise this as an eyeshadow but I would use this the same way I use shadesticks, as a base. I have the purple one and have used it a few times since I purchased it. First of all I would not recommend wearing this as an eyeshadow, its really not something you can quickly apply and walk out the door with as they have the same problems as MAC shadesticks in that they can apply a bit patchy and its hard to even out the colour. They are soft and creamy though so you don't feel like you have to drag them again and again over your eye to get the colour to transfer and they don't seem to need warming up like some of the MAC shadesticks do. I have been using this as a base and I have to say I really like it. I have worn it all day and there was no creasing or fading at all. So as base it gets a big thumbs up from me!

Would I Recommend It: Definately, these are half the price of shadesticks and are really very similar. As long as you are buying this as a base you really can't go wrong!

Style Warriors, not for me!

Hey

So even though I said I wasn't gonna buy anymore I couldn't resist going and having a look at Style Warriors! To be honest there were a couple of things I liked but I can live without them if you know what I mean!
I went to the MAC counter in Selfridges and you can tell the credit crunch is having an effect, normally you have to wait ages for a MUA to even acknowledge you but today I had about 4 come up and ask if I needed help! They even offered to do my makeup using the new collection but as I was on my lunch break I didn't have time!
The only eyeshadow I liked was tempting which I already have, I thought I would love Vibrant Grape but when I swatched it the pigmentation was rubbish! It just didn't show up at all!
The only things I really liked where the "Pink Rebel" luster drops, although I think the name of these are a bit misleading. They are pink in the tube and when you first put them on your hand but when you rub them in they just turn into a nice shimmer. It would make a gorgeous highlighter but to be honest I think the pink "Beat the blues" from MEMEME would do the same job for a third of the price!
And the other thing was Impassioned Solar Bits, although I didn't actually try these as the tester was missing from the display I have read really good things about them but I watched Makeupgeeks latest tutorial and she said that Gridlock from the Urban Decay Book of shadows palette was a very similar colour!
So thats two collections I have completely passed on now, the other one was Rose Romance. I have to say in a lot of ways I am glad as I spent a stupid amount on Hello Kitty but it is still a little dissapointing!

On another note I did pick up a NARS blush/highlighter duo in John Lewis as I got some vouchers from work! I picked up Albatross/Torrid. I planned on getting Sin but the MUA said that torrid would be more my natural blush and I have to say I love it! It is quite similar to Orgasm but with less obvious shimmer and is more coral than pink! And my Mum got me a mini OPI set from QVC, the bottles are tiny but I love the colours! Will do a post about them tomorrow with pictures!

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Face of the day and a mini gift haul!

Hey!

Hope everyone has had a lovely bank holiday weekend! I can't believe its all over so quickly!

This was the look I wore today

The products I used are

Face:

MAC Studio Sculpt NC15

Babara Daly for Tesco Concealer

MAC Transparent Finishing Powder

MAC Well Dressed Blush

Nars Laguna

Eyes:

UDPP

Sweet Sienna pigment on lid

Grey from MAC Earthly riches mineralise duo in crease

MAC Shroom as a highlight

Bourjois Black Liquid Liner

Maybelline Lash Stilleto Mascara

Lips:

MAC Strawbaby Lipstick

MAC Bare Neccesity Dazzleglass

I really love Sweet Sienna pigment, the pictures really don't show just how sparkly and gorgeous this really is! The grey side from the Earthly Riches duo is actually very similar but a bit darker!

I also have a couple of new things, I mentioned before that I have a friend that gets to go to the CCO and she picked me up a couple of things! (Thanks Paula!!) Both of these products are discontinued so its great to get to try them!

Its a fluidline in Graphic brown, this is a gorgeous colour, its a rich brown with tiny gold shimmers.

And a chromeglass in Pulsesetter, I had actually never heard of Chromeglass before but I have to say I love it! Its a really nice pink colour, there are no shimmers in it at all its just really shiny. It's not sticky and smells just like the other MAC lipglosses!

Will be doing some reviews during the week of the GOSH products I picked up recently!

Superdrug Haul

I did it again, even though I said I was not buying any more make up till I have used up some of what I have all it took was an advertisment in a window and I gave in!

First I picked up the new L'oreal Telescopic Explosion as it was £2 off so it was only £6.80. Then I noticed that L'oreal was buy one get one half price so I picked up the regular Telescopic to try!

I then picked up two new colours of Collection 2000 glitter eyeliners as they were on two for £5! The colours are Shake it up which is a gorgeous purple and Pow! which is a blue/green/gold mix!

Then I moved on to GOSH, they are on 3 for 2 again so I took advantage of it! I wanted a white kohl pencil so I picked up this one as my freebie, to be honest I wouldn't pay full price for it as its just a standard white pencil and it should have been £4.40! Then I saw something that looked familiar! They are GOSH waterproof eyeshadows, they look exactly like MAC shadesticks. I picked up Love that Purple and the Eye Shadow Base and they cost £5.86 each. The base is really gorgeous on its own, it's white but has a purple/blue duo chrome going on, its actually really pretty! Will be trying these out over the next few days and will let you know what I think! Here are some pictures comparing it to MAC's shadestick in Butternutty and swatches.

Have you tried these yet? Any thoughts??
Now this should definately be the last haul post for awhile, will concentrate on doing reviews on what I already have, if theres anything you would like a review on please let me know!

MAC Pigment Samples

Hey!

I don't know about you but I really don't like buying full size MAC pigments as I don't think there is anyway I would ever use up a whole jar! There are a lot of websites that sell MAC pigment samples and I thought I would recommend the one I use! Its http://www.thebodyneeds2.com/

They are really good value, and at the moment you get 15% off if you enter "MAY" as a coupon code at checkout. They charge $1.79 for a 1/4 teaspoon, although that sounds like nothing you actually do get a decent amount of product as you can see!

When I purchased 6 samples shipping was $5.95 and they arrived in about a week and a half! I have ordered from them 3 times now and each time the service has been great!

It's also a great way to get hold of discontinued/pro/ltd edtn pigments, as you can see I have a sample of Sweet Sienna which I absolutely love!

So if you want to try some pigments but don't want to spend £15 on one colour then this is a great way to try out a variety of colours before making the investment in the full size jar!

MAC madness!!!

Ok I know I said I wasn't gonna buy anymore but today there was 20% off at the MAC pro store as part of the Carnaby Street promotion so I had a valid excuse! But to be honest I kind off wish I hadn't! The line just to get into the shop was crazy! In total it took 2 hours before I even got in the door! Luckily there was a lovely girl behind me so we had a good natter!
I made a list in advance so just had to wait about 10 minutes when I got in there for a MUA to be free! I picked up some bits for my Mum too (actually more than for myself) and the total came to £97.86 before discount, I saved £19.57 so spent a grand total of £78.29!
I got:
MAC pro Invisible setting powder, I actually wanted the Colour Ready one but it was sold out! The MUA told me this one is virtually the same and you get more product for the same price! Got one of these for my Mum too!
Date Night Dazzleglass
Mineralise eye shadow duo in Odd Couple
Then for my Mum I got
Circa Plum Pigment
Money Honey Dazzleglass
Mineralise eye shadow duo in Sea Sky

Do I think it was worth it?? To be honest not really! I really wasn't expecting it to be that crazy!!!
Did anyone else go??

I also picked up Prestige Baked Bronzer in Pure Shimmer at boots, I looked at Glam Tan but I think it is just too dark for me to be able to pull off! I was pleasantly surprised that it had £2 off as there was nothing saying that on the display so it was only £6.80!

Hope everyone is having a good week, roll on the weekend!!

Jo x

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin - My Opinion!!

Hey!

So if you saw my USA haul blog you know that I picked up a couple of samples of UDPP Sin from Sephora as the full size was out of stock, can I just say that I am so glad I didn't spend any money on this!

First the positives, the colour is lovely, it dries really quickly and is great for days when you are in a rush!
Here is a swatch on my hand so you can see the colour


I also own MAC's paint pot in Bare Study and they are really similar. Sin has a slightly more pink undertone but the effect they give is very similar, here is a swatch Bare Study on the left & UDPP Sin on the right

Now the negatives, there is only one and it is the thing that dissapointed me the most, it REALLY creases! I was running late this morning so just applied this to my lids with a bit of black eyeliner, I checked it when I got back from work and it was totally creased! Now the original UDPP works fine for me and the ingredients are the same so I can only think its the colour that is causing it!

I haven't tried it with eyeshadow on top so maybe that will work better but as a stand alone product it just doesn't live up to its reputation! Has anyone else tried this yet?

Jo x

USA Haul!!!

Hey!

So I'm back from the States, I had an absolutely fantastic time! Can't believe its all over now!
I bought A LOT of make up! Most of it was stuff I can't get here, some was just cheaper there. This is going to be the last haul for awhile, I am going to try and jump on the Project 10 pan bandwagon and use up ten items before I buy anymore! So anyway here is my stash!

I need to thank Tali for these, check in took so long I had no time to browse duty free but I had seen her post about the dazzleglass set at MAC so I quickly grabbed it!

The colours are Bare Neccessity, Money Honey & Steppin' Out. I looked at the rest of the collection while I was in the states and the only other one I want is Date Night, I thought I would love funtabulous but actually in person I really didn't like it. I wasn't impressed with Rose Romance either so that saved me some money!!!

Next was the Drugstore make up, I picked up quite a bit in December so just picked up a few things

This all came from Target, I was so happy to get the Sonia Kashuk Beauty Blender sponger, haven't had a chance to try it yet but will do a review once I have! I got 2 CG Lash Blast as I do love that mascara. I also picked up the double pack of Maybelline Colossal as it was only $6! I was excited to find Loreal Hip and I got the Teal eye kohl and Eggplant gel eyeliner.

Next came Sephora, I was really good and only bought the things that were on my list!

I got the Smashbox try me set, this was $30 and has trial sizes of the best selling products. Nars love set, this was much cheaper than if I had bought it here, its Orgasm blush, Lipgloss in Pillow Talk and Velvet Matte lip pencil in Sex Machine. Bare Esscentuals glimmer in Drama, I absolutely love this colour, I can't wait to try it! I really wanted to get UD primer potion in Sin but it was out of stock, luckily it was the beauty insider sample and the SA was kind enough to give me two! The bad gal lash was also a free sample!

Then I had the chance to go to MAC CCO! Seriously I was so excited! I only spent $100 which I think was pretty restrained really!

I picked up the Fafi eyes 1 quad, Cool Heat eyeshadow, Viz a Violet pigment, Sandy B Lipstick, Fafi Strawbaby lipstick, Hush Hush tendertone (Absolutely love this!) and Silverblue shadestick. I was really late getting into MAC and had missed the Fafi collection so was really happy to pick these up!
And lastly Ulta where I picked up these Nail Varnishes

They were all buy two get one free but I got one OPI varnish for my friend so its not pictured!
The colours are OPI Princesses Rule & Teal the cows come home, China Glaze Coconut Kiss, Ruby Pumps and Long Kiss.

Whew that was a lot to get through! Let me know if there is anything in particular you would like me to review! I also got a few bits of Jewellry that I can show you if you are interested?!?!?!

Hope everyone has had a good week, I am still trying to catch up!

Jo x