Swatches: My Recent Fyrinnae Eyeshadow Haul!

I've always really liked the Fyrinnae Eyeshadows. But never got around to making another order - until now! Well I say now, it was towards the end of last year! And I must say I managed to pick some real corkers, even better than the ones I had already. They are available from the Fyrinnae Website, I hope you enjoy the swatches and the EOTD at the bottom of the post :) 

Pricing

Arcane Magic Line - $2 for a 1/4tsp sample in a jar, $6.35 for a Full Size jar (3g). 

The Regular Line - $2 for a 1/3tsp sample in a jar, $5.90 for a Full Size jar (3g).

But on with the swatches, which is what you're all here for really! They are all done of Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy and as always they are much more beautiful and vibrant in real life! The writing in italics is taken from the website. Enjoy :) 

Catrina Cabaret - 'Dark, smokey teal frolicks with a fun pink-purple highlight and sparkle' - A blackened charcoaly teal with a pinky purple glitter to it.

Dinosaur Plushie - 'Dinosaur Plushie is filled with much more multi-colored sparkle, some of which can change hue in different light' - Actually more wearable than it sounds. A metallic silver with multi-coloured micro-glitter - lots of blue and green!

Boytoy - 'Varying hues of vibrant green sparkle and shimmer on a soft black base. Leans cool.' - Pretty much what they said! This is deeper, less gold and more foresty in shade than the swatches on the website suggest. Love this! 

 

 Alchemist's Curse (Arcane Magic) - 'This shadow is pink shimmer and sparkle on black, but closer to light or at a different angle and it becomes a vivid gold to green, the black base setting off the highlights.' - I can't see any green to this at all and the gold is very subtle. It's more of a glittery pinky purple black based shade. 

Herbivore - 'Soft lavender with a light green highlight.' - A lot shorter description than the one above! This is a pinky lilac with a lime green duochrome.

Faerie Glamour (Arcane Magic) - 'Violet base with an aqua shimmer that changes to a bright pink when closer to light' - This is a very blue based purple. The aqua sheen is beautiful, but you really have to look at certain angles to see the pink. Still love it though! 

Digital Faerie - 'Stunning deep sky blue with green shimmer' - The blue and green kinda blend into one to give more of an aqua colour with a pearly finish. Really pretty this one. 

Winter Again - 'Semi-sheer white with soft blue and turquoise shimmer' - Spot on, this isn't something I'd use as an all over lid shade, but it works well on the inner corner of the eye to highlight. Has a bit more colour than in the picture.

Shinigami - 'Deep, smoldering purple entwinted with a scattering of blue and crimson sparkle.' - Shiro has a shadow with the same name, it confused me when this came! The descriptions pretty spot on, with the purple being black based. 

The Look 

I think I have an addiction to green and purple eyeshadows! I really should spread my wings a little more into the world of other colours!

 Inner Corner - WinterAgain

Lid - Digital Faerie

Crease - Herbivore

Deepen Crease - Catrina Cabaret 

What is your favourite Fyrinnae shadow? I'd love to hear what your liking! I hope you liked this post and found it helpful/interesting, but if you have any further questions then don't hesitate to ask. Thanks everyone for stopping by and all your lovely comments recently. I really appreciate it, H :)

Review + Swatches: No7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream

And the BB Cream trend continues! The first one I got was the 17 one towards the end of the last year and I really enjoyed it, infact it's getting close to being empty! So when No7 released on I was right on it! I haven't actually tried any of the original Asian ones so I can't compare this to them, just tell you what I think of it as a stand alone product! This costs £12.95 from Boots, does anyone else recon No7 is a little overpriced? Especially with all the deals they do!

As always I've included a summary at the end :) 

The Basics

 Unlike the 17 BB Cream, the No7 one actually has some different formulations for different skin types! They have Normal/Oily, Normal/Dry and Dry/Very Dry, which is great! I would say I have combination skin and so went for the Normal/Oily for the oil control on longer days. It also comes in two shades - Fair and Medium, no dark though. So the range is pretty reasonable and also they have an SPF15! Each tube has 40ml of product in it too which is more than average!

The Formula

It is creamy, but not overly so, so doesn't feel heavy on the skin. Instead it feels light and blends nicely into the skin. I has an SPF15 sun protection to it, with UVA and UVB, so will be great for our not so sunny UK summer! I don't have the oiliest skin, but I do find this BB Cream helps to control oil well, I have a very small amount of oiliness around my nose by the end of the day. So if you're really oily you may not be so impressed with this! I do however find that it moisturizes without adding oiliness and have actually had less dry skin since using this! So all in all great for my combination skin! 

How it looks on!

Once this is first applied it will take a few minutes to sink in. Once it has it's not completely matte and has a slight dewiness to it, which I really like. On the packaging it claims to give a 'flawless healthy complexion', and yes I agree it makes my skin look and feel healthy. But by no stretch of the imagination does it give flawless skin! It has a sheer/medium coverage, but I still feel the need to use powder/concealer if I want my skin to look really nice. Colour wise this is a good match, although when swatched on my arm I did originally think it was a little yellow. 

No7 BB Cream, with Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer and ELF Mineral Foundation.

The Good - 40ml product, lots of choice for different skin types, great for my combination skin - moisturizes and controls oil reasonably well, lasts most of the day, SPF15.

The Not so Good - No colour choice for darker skins, not convinced on the packaging, I think it's a little over priced, doesn't give a flawless finish like it claims. 

Would I repurchase this? Possibly, but only with one of the frequent £5 off vouchers. Otherwise I'd get another 17 one as I don't see a massive difference (No7 lasts better, but is sheerer). 

Who might like this? I found it worked well for my combination skin, so if you have combination skin this could work well for you. 

The Bottom Line - Good product for easy everyday wear, but slightly overpriced for me. 

I hope you liked this review and found it helpful. I do sometimes wonder if my thoughts are spread everywhere and jumbled in my posts, but I'm trying to improve on it so bear with me! As always if you have any questions then don't hesitate to ask and I'll get back to you! Thanks for stopping by and all your lovely comments recently, you're all amazing!

PS You have one day left to enter my giveaway!  

Review + Swatches: ELF Liquid Eyeshadows

I didn't keep it much of a secret how much I loved the Collection 2000 Metallic Cream Eyeshadows. So when I noticed that ELF did something tsimilar - their Liquid Eyeshadows, I thought I'd give them a go. I mean it's not the end of the world if they're awful at just £1.50 a pop. I'll be honest ELF can be a bit of a gamble, but when it's good it's amazing for the price. Anyway you can pick these up here.

As always I've included a summary at then end :)

The Basics

These eyeshadows actually come in a lipgloss style tubes with the standard doe-foot applicator. As you can see they both are designed a little different with one being clear and the other opaque. Possibly because they're going through a packaging change, who knows?! They both contain the same amount though, 1ml of product, which isn't the most, but the price point is low. In total there's 8 shades available, the two I have are Mocha Madness and Sultry Satin! 

The Claims - My Thoughts!

All the claims come directly from the ELF website and are in 'quotes'. And apologies in advance for my bluntness, but I hope you guys value my honesty! 

The Claim - 'endless staying power... without looking faded'

My Thoughts - Well these didn't fade... for the time that they lasted anyway! I put these on at about 8am and when I next looked in the mirror at 11am these had pretty much flaked of except a small amount above the lashline. I wouldn't personally say that was endless staying power...

The Claim - 'The quick dry formula allows for fast and easy application.'

My Thoughts - I'll give them that, they dry down fairly quickly once blended, much like the Collection 2000 ones. But not too quickly that you don't have time to blend (I find it best done with a finger). It could do with drying down slightly quicker but that's just being fussy! 

The Colour & Pigmentation

As you can see from the swatches above this has a pretty reasonable pigmentation to it. However once blended it can become a little patchy but still retains a fair amount of colour. 

Sultry Satin - This is a pretty standard shimmery (not glittery) champagne colour with a subtle but completely wearable goldeness to it. 

Mocha Madness - I love this colour it's a beautiful chocolate brown with subtle red hints and bronze. If only I had a regular eyeshadow equivalent of this!

In the picture below I'm wearing Sultry Satin on the lid, you can't really see it, it's very subtle! I'm not wearing Mocha Madness in this look :)

The Good - cheap, Mocha Madness is a beautiful colour, doesn't take forever to dry, waterproof to a point.

The Not so Good -  flakes off in a few hours, packaging is rather flimsy, blends patchy. 

Would I repurchase these? Sorry ELF, but no. I still like lots of their other stuff though :) 

The Bottom Line - I'd rather spend a bit extra and get the Collection 2000 version (Metallic Cream Eyeshadow), but I still love ELF for their other stuff! 

Sorry for the slightly negative review today guys. But if I told you it was great and you bought it and decided it wasn't, you probably wouldn't come here to read what I have to say again! So I wanted to give you my honest opinion. Talking of that, does anybody want to see my top/disliked ELF products? Thanks everyone for stopping by, H :) 

PS You only have 2 days left to enter my giveaway!

A Friendly Reminder About my Giveaway, Some of Your entries....

I've been umming and arring over this post as it seems a little moany. But I wanted to give you all a chance to go and enter my giveaway properly :) To enter the giveaway you need to tell me what you'd like to see more of on my blog, don't worry if you haven't done this, you just need to go back to your comment and edit it. I hope this hasn't been a naggy post as I just wanted to give you all a proper chance :) 

And if you haven't already entered then it's not too late to do so! It's open till midnight (UK time) on 31st January! Just click here to enter, and good luck! I hope you all have a good end to the weekend and enjoy the week ahead. Thanks as always for stopping by, H :)

Beauty Blog Link Love - 28/01/2011

Sorry everyone for not posting for the last couple of days, I've been very busy. But I'm back now with this fortnights Beauty Blog Link Love and something else later as well! I hope you enjoy, H :) 

Is it spring yet? No? Check out the stellar La Roseraie blush from Lancome's Spring 2012 collection at Adorable On Your Vanity - maybe it'll help the flowers bloom.

Beautywoome.com shows you step-by-step how to do the best ballerina bun (aka sock bun) in under two minutes.

Will polish insomniac find a dupe for China Glaze Aquadelic, from the new Electropop collection?

Looking for a great foundation? Jennifer over at Spiced beauty shares herholy grail product!

Fleurissante has tested Chanel Perfection Lumiere foundation. Check her impressions.

Save $10 on the nail system that Gouldylox Reviews named the biggest game changer for your digits in 2011.

Jellyminx re-launches her blog with a new look and a bunch of posts including a nail of the day post with approval from OPI's official Twitter!

Finger Paints Special Effects nail polishes changes the polish game. See the newest craze in polish effects on Beauty Info Zone.

Elena from Endless Summer writes a guest post to show readers her Simple Everyday Makeup Tutorial.

This week Madame B Fatale shares her 6 favourite bargain beauty buys!

Fed up of looking for the perfect red lip? Midnight Violets has some great advice, with lip swatches too!

---

Hellcandy is 3 yrs old! Tell her what's made you blush recently and you could win one of three Benefit tints! Click here to enter.

2012 Empties: No.1 - Softlips Lipbalm in French Vanilla

Towards the end of last year I started giving mini reviews of the products I'd finished up. I asked you all if you liked this kind of thing and the response was pretty positive so I've decided to continue and make it into a bit of a series over the year and see how many things I finish. 

My target is to finish 25 make-up products by the end of the year. I have some work to do! But I do have something else finished to talk about in the not to distant future too! 

What I thought of it?

My original review of this wasn't amazing, but not bad either. But since then I've been using it a lot and actually grown fond of it. It's not the most moisturizing balm, but does make your lips feel smooth and feels amazing whilst on. Then scent is a really beautiful and non-synthetic vanilla scent whilst giving a slightly mentholy feel to the lips - refreshing! And it's probably worth saying it looked a lot nice when new but with use it's all rubbed off. I've added a picture in at the bottom to show how it's supposed to look, from my original review. 

Would I repurchase this?

Yes I probably would, but not for a little while though as I need to finish some more lipbalm up first. This is a steal at £1.83 from Superdrug and really deserves a bit more loving in the beauty world! 

 

Hopefully you enjoyed this quick post from me! Have you guys finished anything up recently? What did you think of it? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for stopping by and all your lovely comments, you're all awesome :)

PS Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already as it's ending soon! Link here :)

Great Value Cosmetic Glitter! NYX Glitter Mania Review + Swatches!

Glitter on the eyes has been appearing all over the beauty world for a while now. But all the options I was coming across were really pricey! That was until I stumbled across the NYX Glitter Mania ones! I got all 10 from Ebay (this seller) for about £14 including shipping. If that's not good value then I don't know what is! 

As always I've given a summary at the end :) 

The Basics

These loose glitters come in 10 different shades each in a vial with 5ml of product. I have all 10 shades here to show you today and I must say there is two pinks, two golds and two silvers. It would be nice if they'd made a green/bronze/black instead of some of these duplicates. I'm not a massive fan of the packaging as you need to pour a bit out to use it and I always end up wasting a little as it's impossible (almost!) to get it back in! 

Blue

How to use them! 

On their own these glitters won't stick and will end up making a mess all over your face! Your normal base probably won't be quite enough to hold them either. I have found that Fyrinnaes Pixie Epoxy works well to stick them to the lid. But my favourite way of using them it to first use a matching eyeshadow on the lid. And then to stick them I put some ELF Lock & Seal on a small concealer brush. And then just pat it on the lid. I've found that doing this gives virtually no fall out and lasts all day. I like to apply it all over the lid, but they can also work well as glitter eyeliner. 

 

The Colours!

This is the bit you're interested in I know! Hopefully they're not a let down! 

Apple - This is a slightly paler orangey red, with a small amount of chartreuse green glitter giving it a kinda duochrome. 

Blue - Straight medium bright blue glitter. This one has slightly smaller sized glitter particles than the others. A little odd, but fine! 

Crystal - This ones a bit of a let down for me. I could see it being alright over a bright shadow to give it some glitter though. It has a lot of clear glitter with some green and purple glitter in there too. 

 

Disco Ball - This is a silver glitter with multi-coloured glitter running through it. Really like this one! 

Gold - This is a straight gold glitter, pretty standard but still really nice :) 

Hot Gold - This is the gold equivalent of Disco Ball, having multi-coloured glitter running through it. It is slightly more warmer toned than Gold though. 

Hot Pink - A bright baby pink with a small amount of pale green shimmer running through it. Don't let that put you of though as it's barely noticeable and just makes it less flat overall. 

Pink - This ones more muted and again for me falls a bit from the mark. It also has the same green glitter in it as Hot Pink, with some purple too. 

Purple - I so want to love this beautiful lilac colour. But it has a really strong green duochrome to it which doesn't make it the easiest to wear for me! 

Silver - Straight up silver glitter. Not much more to say really. But I really like this, it's beautiful. 

Look Above - NYX Glitter Mania in Gold on the lid (over gold eyeshadow). 

Look Below - NYX Glitter Mania in Gold as a liner (over black liner).

The Good - cheap, value, 5ml product, really pretty, most of the colours look stunning on, long lasting with ELF Lock & Seal. 

The Not so Good - not the easiest to get hold of in the UK, could do with a green/bronze, packaging can be wasteful. 

Would I repurchase? Absolutely, really cheap and a good amount of product. 

Who might like these? Those that like bold looks/glitter or just want to have some fun with glitter without spending a fortune. 

The Bottom Line - You will need something to stick them with (I can highly recommenr ELF Lock & Seal), but they're really cheap and fun and look great on. 

Sorry that I've only managed to include one of the glitters in looks, but if there any others you wanted to see on then just leave a comment below and I can get FOTD up for you! And as always if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Thanks for stopping by, H :)     

FOTD: Smoky Antique Gold

I've never really seen eye to eye with gold eyeshadows, they tend to not sit well with my skintone. But recently I've found my perfect gold eyeshadow. I was planning to give you a whole post on the eyeshadow but it was limited edition and not for sale anymore by the time mine arrived in the post. So I thought I'd give you a quick FOTD with it that I created today for my partners birthday. I haven't even told you what the gold is! It's a Venomous Cosmetics Pressed Shadow in Sleigh Bells. I hope you enjoy the look! 

PRODUCTS USED

Face

Primer - Too Faced Primed and Poreless

Foundation - Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum - Gel Foundation (51)

Concealer - Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection - Fair

Powder - ELF Mineral Foundation - Fair 

Blush - ELF Cream Blush - Seductress

Bronzer - ELF Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder - Bronze side.

 

Eyes

Primer - Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Base - ELF Cream Eyeliner - Metallic Olive

Lid - Venomous Cosmetics Pressed Shadow - Sleigh Bells 

Crease - Urban Decay Eyeshadow - Dark Horse

Deepen Crease - Urban Decay Eyeshadow - Black Dog

Upper Lashline - Sleek Inkpot (Dominatrix) & NYX Glitter Mania (Gold) set with ELF Makeup Lock & Seal

Lower Lashline - No7 Metallic Eyes Pencil - Bronze

Waterline - Topshop Kajal Pencil - Crushed Charcoal 

Inner Corner - Topshop Crayon - Equinox 

Highlight - Marks & Spencers Eye Palette - Safari (shimmery pale gold)

Mascara - 17 Peep Show Mascara & Too Faced Lash Injection Mascara

Lips 

Lipgloss - Sleek High Shine Lipgloss - In Your Dreams

I'm really loving the look of the gold eyeshadow over the metallic brown base. Definitely something I'll be doing again! I hope you guys all enjoyed the look as well, I know some of you wanted to see more FOTD's, so I'll try and make them more regular from now on! 

But as always if you have any questions on anything mentioned, or anything else then don't hesitate to ask. And as always thanks for stopping by. PS Don't forget to check out my giveaway! Thanks again, H :) 

My Favourite Foundation Brush - A Review!

I don't really tend to talk too much about the brushes I use everyday on my blog. But this one has wowed me so much recently that I wanted to share it with you, it's a gem you might not suspect from the name. It's the ELF Studio Powder Brush - Available from ELF for £3.50 - bargain!

The Brush

Like all the ELF Studio Brushes this is made of silky soft taklon bristles. These are synthetic, so great for those that don't want to use animal hair and also I haven't had any shedding even with some slightly rough washing!  In shape it is flat topped and reasonably dense. It also looks fairly stylish being all black and has a nice finish on the handle. Basically I'm a massive fan of the ELF Studio Brushes! 

How do I use it?

I generally tend to use this with liquid foundation despite it being designed as a powder brush. I simply squirt a small amount in the middle and repeatedly pat it around my face, giving small stokes with it too in some places such as my jawline. So pretty much I use this as you would a stipple brush except it's denser.

What makes it my favourite? 

It's really easy and quick to use when I'm in a rush. But what really makes it stand out is that it gives a beautiful flawless coverage. It also has a fab habit of making the foundation you've used seem like it has a better coverage than it actually does. 

I really can't give this brush enough praise, and just hope that I don't fall out of love with it! The foundation I currently love using with it is the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum one - which is also amazing! But as always if you have any questions/comments etc then leave me a comment below and I'll get back to you all. Thanks for stopping by, H :)

Grab a Bargain! 17 Peep Show Eye Palette - Review + Swatches!

Yesterday I reviewed the new 17 Peep Show Mascara (link here), and I thought it would only be right to do a 'Grab a Bargain!' post telling you about the free gift you currently get when you buy the mascara. So all in all a pretty good deal when you consider that the mascara is also currently selling at a £1 off! But anyway I'm sure you're all hear to see the the swatches and look I created and not me rambling!

As always I've included a summary at the end :)

The Basics

This palette has the same cute kinda lacy design as the mascara and is kinda pretty and compact. It doesn't come with any sponge applicator, but who uses them anyway? It does have a nice mirror in the lid though that I probably won't use either! It comes with 4 eyeshadow shades, but none of them haves names and I don't have many of the single shades so I can't tell you if they're from the regular range! I'm not convinced these have the same quality as the regular shades, but it's free and you get a reasonable 5g of product too! 

 

The Formula

I usually get on fairly well with the 17 eyeshadows, the palette and individual ones. And I hate to say it but I didn't think these were quite upto standard. The pigmentation is still there, but they're really powdery and fallouty. But saying that I've found these to be really long lasting. I get a good 10 hours wear without creasing and only a bit of fading. 

And sorry about the pictures after I've used it. As I mentioned a few days ago, my computer decided to lose all my pictures I'd taken for the blog. 

 

The Colours!

The palette includes three shimmer shades and a matte and all in the everyday/work friendly colour range. None of them are dupes for the Naked Palette either, which I see as good. The colours are also fairly cool toned which I really like. 

1 - A medium brown which has slight bronze tones to it with it's shimmer. 

2 - This is the matte shade of the palette and as a matte taupe that leans a lot more grey than brown. Still just about taupe though! 

3 - This is a shimmery cool pink that's pale. Think the standard shimmery silvers you get, but with a pink hint. 

4 - I'm stuggling with this one a little! It has tones of taupe, brown and bronze in it and works very well as an all over shimmery lid colour. 

In the this look I created I used 3 on the inner corner and 4 on the lid. Then I used 1 in the crease with 2 too deepen the outer corner. 

The Good - free! good pigmentation, colours work well together, long lasting (10+ hours), great for travel.

The Not so Good - no shade names - are they from the standard range? very powdery. 

Who might like it? Those that think colour and longevity is important, but not so concerned with them being powdery. But who couldn't like this considering it's free! 

The Bottom Line - Nice little product, a little powdery but it's free. I really like the free palettes 17 comes out :) 

I hope you found this review helpful and don't forget to check out my review of the mascara this comes free with! Also if you haven't already, then check out my giveaway, here. And as always if you have any questions/queries then don't hesitate to ask, I get back to every comment. Thanks for stopping by, H :)