February Favourites

I can't believe that I'm doing my February Favourites post already! This month has gone unbelievably quick - probably because it's missing 2 days lol!

Now down to the good stuff!

Mac Pro Pan Palette 

I mulled over the idea of getting a pro pan palette for quite a while. I loved my eyeshadows in their cute little pots but sometimes opening up all the little pots in the morning took time, not to mention they take up quite a lot of room. At the time I only had 6 eyeshadows, so I can't realllly accuse them of taking up too much space but I knew over time my eyeshadow collection would grow and to be honest the thoughts of having a drawer full of little eyeshadow pots that I had to root through every morning was not my idea of fun.

The other thing I was wary about was having to depot my 6 current eyeshadows. I knew I was better to be attempting it when I only had 6 and not 60 but still I was kind of nervous about it.
I finally decided that a palette was the way to go and took the the plunge and bought a 15-pan palette. Thankfully my depotting went without a hitch (kind of - I completely shattered club but managed to put it back together thanks to YouTube!).
I am thrilled with my palette, it really is so much more efficient in the morning and it looks so pretty! Thanks to my most recent haul I now have it completed, with two extra shadows in a 4-pan quad, which I bought for travelling. I'll have to pick up another 15-pan one the next time I'm at a Mac but for the moment I'm delighted with one complete one! Someday I'll have a palette for each colour!Woot!





Sanctuary Salt Scrub
I'm not going to say too much about this as I have a review coming up on it during the week(which I meant to have up before this one - d'oh) but it is amazing stuff! Being addicted to it since I bought it near the beginning of the month!

Twitter
Ok so I only started using it over a week ago but it is so much fun that it deserves to be in my favourites!

Herbal Tea of the Month: Pu-reh Blackcurrant Tea


Yummy. And it's a cool shade of purple! Smells slightly weird but I think that happens all blackcurrant based drinks when they're heated. I don't think it'll pass out last months favourite of Lemon and Ginger, but it has definitely been one of my main go-to herbal teas this month:)

That's my favourites for this month, not too many beauty/make-up related probably because I was just in love with my mac palette for the month!

GOSH Peachy

Colour wise, this nail varnish is stunning. A beautiful coral, with orange/peachy hints but no pink tints, which is nice for a change.

The major letdown with this nail varnish was its application. Atrocious. It wouldn't dry for ages. At first I thought it was because I had put the coats on too thick and after denting the nail varnish one too many times and having it pushed completely to one side of one of the nails, I gave up and took it off.

Take 2: This time, I decided to put on really, really thin layers of varnish and wait as long as I could for it to dry. It worked!! Nearly. I still managed to dent my ring finger:-/



It's such a pity as it's such a gorgeous colour, perfect for brightening up a look. I'll wear it again but I'll probably put it off as long as I can because it's such a pain to apply. And I'll have to do a 3-coater the next time as I can still see a visible nail line after 2-coats:-(

In short; stunning colour, shame about the application.

And it was impossible to capture it's true colour in a picture! Argh, it really doesn't like me!! These pictures are  showing it a bit more neon than it is in real life.:-/

Tweet Tweet!

It just occurred to me that I didn't officially tell ye that I'm now on Twitter!:)

I suppose it doesn't really warrant its own post but meh I'll do it anyway!

So yeah, there's little updates over thata way ----------->> and if you want follow me, do!:D

Tweet tweet!
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Mac Makeup Haul!

This haul was not exactly planned. I ended up having to go somewhere and where was a Mac counter (oh no). I had 6 depotted eyeshadow pots with me to B2M so I knew I'd get a lipstick anyway. I told myself that I wouldn't get any eyeshadows as it wasn't  a pro store and I didn't want the hassle of depotting more eyeshadows just yet when there was other things that I knew I wanted to buy.
So the things I had planned on getting was more brush cleaner, a fix +, a fluidline and a 187 brush. That was plenty I decided.

However, when I got to the counter.....they had pro pan eyeshadows. Well that threw me! And I went a bit mad buying more than I intended lol! Ah the dangers of mac! This will definitely be the last mac haul for quite some time though.

                                                                     The haulage!

                                                    Lipsticks in Viva Glam Gaga and Myth. 

                                                              Fluidline in Rich Ground

                                            Pro Pan Quad, Brush Cleanser and Fix+ Lavender

                                                       Brushes 187 and 224

Eyeshadows L-R: Phloof!, Steamy, Satin Taupe, Expensive Pink, All that Glitters, Beautiful Iris and Paradisco. 

That should keep me going for a while lol!

Review: Revlon PhotoReady Foundation

This was the foundation that I bought in my 'necessities haul'.
I've been using a Bobbi Brown foundation since the summer, which I have found wonderful but unfortunately there is no Bobbi Brown counter near me and when I ran out of it, obviously I needed to replace it with something!

My local pharmacy had an offer on Revlon foundation, €14.50 instead of the rrp of  €19.95.  I had never tried a Revlon foundation before but I was willing to go out of my comfort zone and give it a go.

It is a liquid foundation (which is what I always use for my primary foundation) and I have being using shade 003 Shell Coquillage. It is what I'd call a medium coverage foundation, which is certainly a change for me as most foundations that I have used are very light coverage. The application is good although on a few occasions I have felt that it is a bit 'masklike' both in feeling and appearance. However, I feel that this has happened because I've been a bit heavy-handed with the brush and is not a fault of the foundation itself.
It definitely lasts all day and I haven't experienced any flakiness on my cheeks which I'm prone to due to my dry skin.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this foundation and I'll definitely finish the bottle. Would I buy again? At the moment I'm not sure. While I like the product, I don't think it's an absolute saviour of a foundation that I want to keep using forever. I'll see how I feel when I'm nearing the end of the bottle!lol!

China Glaze Peace on Earth

What a gorgeous colour! The application for this was flawless. It wasn't streaky at all, it just glided on smoothly and even with the first layer, had a really good opacity.

I believe I used 3 coats in these pictures. It's an olive toned green with goldy reflects. So, so pretty, I couldn't stop taking pictures!:D

 

This is only my second foray into China Glazes nail varnishes, with my first one being Fairy Dust. Fairy Dust is a silver glitter suspended in clear jelly, which I've used as a topcoat, so it's hard to rate it as an actual nail varnish colour and on it's application. 

After trying Peace on Earth, I'm glad that I've purchased other China Glaze colours and will definitely be buying more!:) 

What are your favourite China Glaze colours?

Nail Varnish Haul

I went a bit mad buying nail varnish the last week or so. I showed some of them in my necessities haul and the others I bought afterwards. This morning the postman brought the ones that I had ordered online:)

I seem to have bought a few greens, it must be the promise of spring in the air!

OPI – Last Friday Night and Teenage Dream

Essie – Chinchilly

 GOSH – Purple Heart and Peachy

China Glaze - Heli-yum, Pelican Grey, Re-fresh Mint, Peace on Earth and Tree Hugger

Catrice - It Blue My Mind and I Sea You  

I’m really excited about all of these and can’t wait to wear them all. I’ve already swatched the two China Glazes that I bought in my last haul so I’ll post them next. I haven’t swatched the OPI’s yet as I’m still searching for a decent glitter polish removal method! In the bottle, GOSH’s Purple Heart reminds me of something, I feel like it's a nail varnish version of MAC’s Club eyeshadow but that's more of a reddie-green? Regardless, I can’t wait to see how it transitions onto the nail! 

Chinchilly is my first Essie nail varnish, I've read good things about the brand so I'm looking forward to trying it out:)

Catrice is another brand I've never tried but have heard great things about it. At only €2.79 a bottle, it was too tempting not to try!

Dove Supreme Body Silk

The.Best.Ever.Body.Mosituriser.

That says it all. I felt that for me this was such an amazing product that it warranted it’s own post. I’m as fickle with body moisturisers as I am with shampoos. I’m a sucker for buying any that:

a)     smells nice

b)    are cheap

c)     promises me miracles

However, I’ve remained faithful to Body Silk since last summer when I first tried it.

I think one of the reasons that I’ve previously been so fickle when it comes to body moisturisers is because I’ve such dry skin. My skin literally flakes off if I haven’t moisturised it in two days. Because of this I need quite a heavy moisturiser so that it sinks in and gets rid of any tightness that my dry skin leaves me prone to. 

Unfortunately, I hate the feeling of heavy creams on my skin. Yes, they would work but I hate how greasy they make me feel and I just want to wash it off as soon as I apply it. Not good. I’ve tried the usual ones for dry skin; E45, Eureacin, Aqueous, Cocoa Butter, Shea butter etc., as well as all the other ones in the pharmcy. Some I can tolerate more than others and have skipped between a few periodally, but I never found any that I really loved.

Last summer at work, we were discussing fake tans (as you do – we had just discovered St. Mortitz, which is fabulous) one of the girls mentioned that she used this Dove Body Silk one. Of course it had to be the next one on my bucket list of body mositurisers to try. When I set out on my search for it, I discovered it on offer for around €2.95 in Tesco and at that price I was as well to give it a shot.

I fell in love with it straight away. The smell, the consistency and of course the moisturising effect. It comes in a tub, which I prefer to a bottle simply because it’s a lot less messy. It’s a very generous sized tub as well. I’ve disvovered that prices vary considerably depending where you shop. I’ve seen it as dear as €7+ but usually it tends to retail around the €5 mark. I have seen it on offer quite frequently, though never for as cheap as it was when I bought it the first time.

If you're sick to death of trying  all the moisturisers under the sun, give this one try. Even at its most expensive of €7+, it’s still cheaper than many other body mositurisers out there.

Here’s to soft, supple, scale-free skin!:)

'Necessities' Haul

 

Ah you've got to love a necessities haul! (And yes nail varnish is a necessity).  I had ran out of so many things at the one time, it was unreal. 

Skincare

I bought new face cream - the No7 Advanced Hydration, a new face mask - Dr Organics Virgin Olive Oil Face Mask, a body scrub - Sanctuary Salt Scrub and Tea Tree Oil for blemishes:-/ 

Nails

Nail wise I bought Sally Hansen nail polish remover and the Sally Hansen diamond strength nail hardener. I also gave in and bought 2 more of the OPI nail varnishes from the Katy Perry collection - Teenage Dream and Last Friday Night. I also bought two China Glaze nail varnishes as I currently only have one and that's simply not enough lol! I got two greens - Tree Hugger and Peace on Earth. 

Make-up

I'm nearly out of my foundation and I'm currently using a Bobbi Brown one but there's no Bobbi Brown counter near me so I decided to give the Revlon Photoready a go as I've heard a lot of good things about it.

I got the Maybelline Falsies mascara because I've just thrown away a few of my old ones and I like have 3/4 on the go depending on what look I'm going for. Again this is a product that I have heard great things about and I wanted to give it a go.

I bought a Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in 1999 which is a kind of subtle plum colour (I' tove no idea why I took the photo of it in the box!)

I'm going to do a review/swatches on pretty much all of these products. I'm really looking forward to some of them like the salt scrub as it's supposed to be Amazing. 

I also bought some more nail varnishes online which I should be getting this week....I really have to stop buying nail varnish....at least until I have them all swatched lol!

GOSH Holographic

I bought this nail varnish either just before or just after Christmas. I was first enlightened about it online while on my quest to find Gosh Rainbow.
When I found it in the stand in my local pharmacy, it seemed very blah, nothing special. If I hadn't seen photos online of it, I definitely wouldn't have purchased it. I'd say that happens a lot of people, you don't want to waste money on something that doesn't seem that impressive.

This is actually my second time putting it on, my photos first time around were useless. Application is streaky and can be a bit disheartening the first time you apply it but once you apply a few coats, the holo payoff is immense. These photos are 3 coaters but I had to apply 4 coats to get the effect the first time I tried it.
(Excuse the messy application/cuticles)

 

 

 

I am really happy to have it in my collection. It is really impressive on the nail and a true holo which I belive is always a great addition to any collection!

As an aside, I finally got my hands on Rainbow!! Post on it coming up soon, just trying to get a few more photos!

E.0.T.D 'Fresh Spring Sea'

I haven't posted an eye look yet and it's about time I did!

I wanted something nice and bright to wear in the midst of all this drab weather we've being having here.

All the colours that I used are from a MAC compact palette  Mac Trip in Cool Eyes) that I bought when I was on holidays in the US about 2 years ago. I believe some of the colours were limited edition or are now discontinued, but really any blues/greens that you want to use will work for this look.

I'm not very good at taking eye photos yet so bear with me and please please forgive my hideous brows, I'm re-growing them in order to reshape them - it better be worth it lol!

I used:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Mac Eyeshadow in Springtime Skipper all over the lid
Mac Eyeshadow in Waternymh in the outer v
Mac Eyeshadown in Flashtrack in the crease
Mac Eyeshadow in Prismique as a highlight
Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack on the upper lash line
Urban Decay 24/7 in Zero on the upper waterline
Mac Chromographic pencil in NC15/NW20 on the lower waterline
Diorshow Blackout on the lashes

It was a brighter look in real life, about maybe 15-20% moreso than the pictures are showing. It's the type of look that you can make as bright or as natural as you want.

Black Shatter by OPI

I am so excited by this Black Shatter!
It was definitely worth the wait and wasn't disappointing at all.
I bought Black Shatter in the Grand Slam Duo pack along with Simply Smashing.  Simply Smashing is a beautiful  green tinged gold and opaque in two coats. The application of this was very good but the most impressive thing about it was its wear.
Due to been extremely busy at college during the week, I didn't have time to change my nail colour from Friday (last) to Friday (yesterday). After the week there was no chipping and only minor tip wear on my middle finger. And this was with no topcoat!! I applied black shatter to my tips and while this wore off and was not unexpected, I just quickly reapplied it to the tips on Wednesday.
Extremely impressed with Simply Smashing and truly fell in love with the colour - I was unsure exactly how much I was going to like it going by promo pictures.

 

Simply Smashing 

                                      

Simply Smashing with Black Shatter on tips 

For the moment I decided to buy only one of the colours from the Katy Perry collection. I went with Not Like The Movies, which is a fabulous purple and green duochrome. It's super shiny and has a foil finish. Appliction was slightly streaky and needed three coats but overall was fine. It's a fantastic colour and I hated to 'ruin' it by putting on the Black Shatter lol! When I put on the Black Shatter it had a great effect but the only gripe I have is that because NLTM is such a fantastic colour by its self that the black shatter doesn't really do much for it, insofar as it's like they're both fighting for attention. I think black shatter works better over 'plainer' colours where it can enhance colours as oppose to fight them.  

After looking again at the other colours in the collection, I'm so tempted by Teenage Dream and Last Friday Night even though I know how disappointingly sheer they are. I think they might work well over a blue/pink base though? 

Not Like The Movies - Showing the green duochrome  

Not Like The Movies - Showing the purple duochrome 




Both of the above  pictures are very true to life of how the colours show up on the nail

 

With Black Shatter

With Black Shatter

The duo pack and Not Like The Movies 

Overall I was really happy with the Black Shatter effect. I think it adds a fun dimension to my nail varnish and I can't wait to try it out over more nail colours:)

NYX Jumbo Pencils

Ok, so I know that these jumbo pencils have been done to death but I'm going to write about them anyway!

When I first started reading blogs and watching beauty youtube videos I was intrigued by these pencils that the Americans kept using. I had never heard of NYX but they kept raving about how the pencils were so cheap and so pigmented and I was just itching to try them out.

I was so disappointed when I found out that we can't buy them over here or in the U.K. but a little bit more investigating led me to Amazon, woot! For my first order I had to try Milk as this seemed to be the most go-to colour and I also went for Bronze as I felt it would look good for a neutral eye.

They were delivered pretty quick and I wasn't disappointed with them. They were very soft and easy to blend. The bronze was lovely to use over eyeshadow without even blending.

Probably one of the best things I found about them was that they really get your eye-makeup to stay put ALL day. No joke, I found it was as perfect at night as it was when it was put on early in the morning.

It also held it's own on a night out, it was wonderful going into the bathroom after a session on the dancefloor and seeing that my makeup was where it was supposed to be and not halfway down my cheeks! (That sounds like I'm usually really bad at applying makeup, lol!)

Combine them with Urban Decays Primer Potion and your eye makeup ain't going anywhere!!

After I had tested them out, I decided to buy a few more as there is such a variety of colour that they can be used as part of nearly any eye look.

The other colours I got were: Cottage Cheese (A silvery white), Oyster (A light sheer pink), Slate ( A dark grey almost black), Gold (A coppery yellow), Iced Mocha (A bright mink brown) and Purple (Generic purple).

                                L-R Milk, Cottage Cheese, Oyster, Gold, Slate, Iced Mocha, Purple and Bronze

So there you have it, the NYX jumbo eyeshadow pencils.

Do you use the NYX Jumbo Pencils? Whats your favourite colours?