Beauty: Too Faced Natural Matte Palette

Hey All

Last week I shared a post with you on the Peach Perfect Matte Setting powder which you can read here. This week I wanted to share the palette I bought at the same event.

I couldn’t resist picking up the Too Faced Natural Matte palette. I was instantly drawn to it, not only does it smell amazing and have the most beautiful packaging details but it also has an amazing range of colours and I also find myself wanting more matte colours.

Review: Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette

Good morning!

I'm sure you've probably read a few posts on the fabulous Anastasia Beverly Hills palettes by now but I'd still like to add my own thoughts to the mix.

I bought the Modern Renaissance palette with some money I had pre Christmas and couldn't wait to share. The colours are perfect for this time of year so it was the best time to treat myself.....right?!

Make Up Revloution Flawless Mattes Palette Review and Swatches

Hey all

As I'm if you're a regular reader you'll know we're big Make Up Revolution fans (see your reviews here), not only is it a bargain price it's a Cruelty Free brand too. When L and I were on one of our many shopping trips one palette neither of us could resist is the Flawless Mattes palettes, it can be hard to find good matte shades so to find a full palette of them for less than £10 neither of us could resist.

First Look: Storybook Cosmetics Wizardry and Witchcraft Palette

Hey all!

We've got a quick first look post for you today that we have been super excited about!

A few months ago (way back in February!) we ordered the Storybook Cosmetics Wizardry and Witchcraft palette - we're HUGE Harry Potter fans and heard about this as soon as it was designed, so we just knew we had to get it. Especially after seeing all of the colours and swatches on their instagram account, so we couldn't let it pass us by!

If you haven't heard of Storybook Cosmetics then where have you been?! The business is owned by 3 triplets in the U.S.A., all of whom love Harry Potter and the general fandoms that exist (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Disney....etc etc). They seem like fun people to be around and you can see their enthusiasm for their products! I think there are actually 6 sisters in total so you can imagine the make up wars they must have had over borrowing and sharing their purchases! They have a fair few ideas in the pipeline so we look forward to seeing what they release next.

Morphe Brushes 25B Bronzed Mocha Palette

Hi all!

We recently wrote about the Morphe 25A Copper Spice palette (you can read it by selecting this link Here) and now we have our review on the 25B Bronzed Mocha palette.

We couldn't resist buying both of these, we only saw one instagram post on the Morphe account to know we absolutely both needed to buy both of the palettes.

Morphe Brushes 25A Copper Spice Palette

Hi all!

Just after Christmas we both saw the new Morphe palettes advertised on their Instagram and couldn't resist picking both of them up. We were VERY excited and couldn't wait for them to arrive, it was a long few weeks waiting for them to be shipped to the UK and we were quite annoyed when the Customs Tax charge appeared too!

But eventually we got them and so our first review is the Copper Spice palette, or 25A.

MUA Luxe Enrapture Palette

Morning!

I don't know about you but the endless stream of amazing palette releases have totally rinsed my bank account. There are some beautiful collections available froma variety of brands and I need them all in my life!

One of the palettes that caught my eye before Christmas was the MUA Luxe Enrapture palette, it's a darker and more sultry version on the Enchanted palette (click here to read my review on this one) and I knew I needed it for a variety of reasons.

Phee's Make Up Shop - Eyeshadow Pans in Peppered, Sphinx and Polilla

Good morning all!

I've been wanting to write this post for a while but I've been so busy using the eyeshadows and swatching them on my hand every day that writing about them just seemed too distracting.

If you haven't heard of Phee's Make Up Shop you have been completely ignoring almost every tweet and Instagram post we've put up in the last few months, take a look at these beauties!

First let's introduce you to Phee, she's a blogger herself who makes her own mineral make up. You can read a full bio on her About page but her make up is free of titanium dioxide (no flashback) and no talc so no powdery finish either. All they contain is Mica for a super shimmery finish and they're cruelty free with free postage in the UK - WINNER.

For my first order I picked up three eyeshadows and three highlighters, all of these were in pan form.

From left to right the pans above are Polilla, Peppered and Sphinx.

I couldn't resist picking up a few to try and ever since I have had my eyes on the rest of her collection - and I mean I wish there were more. So many more!

Let's talk about them one by one, Polilla:

I'm not sure I have ever used any eyeshadow that is so pigmented. These are such good quality and the colours are beautiful. The swatches in this post are just one swipe on the pan and swatched directly onto my hand - they're so pigmented it's kind of hard to believe.

Polilla is described as a warm toned dark brown with turquoise duo chrome. The brown gives it some body but the turquoise reflect is stunning.

The photo below shows the eyeshadow put on dry with a brush, however since then I've found that using a wet brush brings out the colour so much more! I absolutely adore it and it has fast become a favourite in my every day make up.

The second one is Sphinx, a foiled copper eyeshadow.

I can't say that I've been a fan of coppery toned eyeshadows, in fact I didn't venture much from boring basics. But I decided to embrace them recently after seeing so many pictures of beautiful looks, and this one did not disappoint.

Again, it's super pigmented and I have just applied it all over my eyelid, it's a gorgeous colour and perfect for Autumn. I've been wearing this one non stop too, especially along my lower lashline during the day for a flash of colour for work when I normally wear matte shadows.

Lastly we have Peppered. This is also a permanent choice in my every day make up now, I use it EVERY DAY and I love it.

Peppered is a foil taupe with a gold reflect running through it, this means it is super flattering on my skin tone and it's the easiest shade to just brush on in the morning and go....and with lots of liner it's a great one for the evenings too:

I really do adore all of these eyeshadows, and as soon as I can I plan on purchasing Citrine (I reeeeeeeeeally badly want this one!) and I am keeping all my fingers crossed that Iris is coming back into stock too. There are many more shades that I can only dream Phee makes soon, the quality really is amazing and I'm so in awe that she makes them herself. I wouldn't have the smallest clue how to start making my own eyeshadows let alone make enough to start my own business! Definitely #goals right?!

So in short, for £6.50 per pan I would 100% recommend these eyeshadows, and I'll be fighting anyone on my next pay day so I can pick up a few more! The highlighters are great too, there will be a separate post on those soon.

Have you heard of Phee before? Have you tried any make up from her shop?


Her Instagram is amazing and full of so many make up looks using her own products. Her highlighters are the shizz and I can't wait to share these with you next!

L xxx

MUA Luxe Enchanted Palette

Morning all!

I've been testing out some new palettes recently and the first one I've decided to share is the MUA Luxe Enchanted palette.

I'm sure you have seen these palettes before over on Instagram and Pinterest, or the original ombre type palette that was released by Hourglass. However with the Hourglass Modernist eyeshadow palette costing £56, this isn't affordable for most people and MUA Luxe have released their own version, which is always exciting when an affordable dupe comes along!

The Enchanted palette contains 5 silk eyeshadow shades in a variety of soft pink shades.

On a first glance the palette is so pretty - everyone loves a marble effect and this is beautiful. You can see way there is such a hype surrounding them, and not even starting on the dupe factor!

The outer packaging is quite simple and obviously a lot cheaper than the Hourglass counterpart. Sometimes I think that the cheaper brands could put a bit more into their packaging than making everything black and basic, but I am certainly not complaining about the range of products on the market now that are much more affordable than before.

Looking at the shades, they look very similar and I wasn't sure how wearable they would be nor how pigmented and therefore whether they would even show up properly. My first thought was that the palettes will at least be great for pretty pictures!

You can see the colours swatched below, without and with flash:

How pigmented are they???!!!

I was so impressed! They are very pretty and the colour is so intense, they are perfect rose gold colours ideal for day wear especially weddings.

The only downside I can see to this palette is the colours are very similar and I do wish there was one less lighter shade and one more darker shade to help with creating an entire look. It means I need to use another palette for a dark shade to line my eyes - I look really weird if I don't do this!

I've been really impressed with this palette and how pigmented the colours are.

Unfortunately the pictures I took of me wearing these shades were too blurry to share, not sure what happened to my camera that day but I don't have any more to share right now. I will put some on our Instagram though, you can see them by looking for @thecsigirls

Have you tried the MUA Luxe palettes? Which one do you prefer?

Check back for my thoughts on the other palette, called Enrapture

L xxx

Phee's Make Up Shop

Hey All

This is a post I've been meaning to write forever and never gotten around to. A while ago I order a set of eyeshadows from Phee's Make up Shop. I'd been following Phee's blog for ages and when I saw she was releasing some highlighters and eyeshadows I couldn't wait to try them. The range started with loose highlighters and when phee made shadows too I couldn't resist an order. Since then I've place too other orders.

Top Row - Pressed mariposa, pressed orignal, pressed lasaia and eyeshadow dead weight

Bottom Row - eyeshadows - polilla, peppered, sphrix and iris

Here are the first three of each row swatched on the finger, the quality of these shadows and highlights are unreal, they are super pigmented and so soft to touch. Plus they are all hand made and cruelty free which obviously means I can still repurchase more. Totally eyeing up bellini glow and tie dye sunset glow.  

Here you can see swatches, apologies for the not great quality photo but I wanted to show how amazing the pigmentation is with just one swipe!

The eyeshadows and highlights are sold in pan form and are magnetized so stick in any palettes. Phee has now released some compacts too. The pans are great value for money are they are only £6.50 and come in 37mm pans. 

Here I've used the original highlight to the inner corner. It really is an amazing inner corner colour. I find myself reaching for these highlights over most of my other hightlighters now. I especially love the purple tones of mariposa.

Here I've used peppered as a lid colour! You can really pack the colour on of these if you want full shimmer or go for softer with a softer brush!

Have you tried phee's make up products? If not I can't recommend them enough!

Love M

xxx

Birthday Time!

Hi all!

It was my birthday last weekend so posts the last week have been a little thin on the ground...it was lovely to have a long weekend for it and I had something planned every day which was really nice.

It was overall quite a quiet weekend but to be honest I'm getting to the age where using a long weekend to see friends and catch up on sleep and good food is the best kind of weekend!

First me and M had an afternoon tea session at Celtic Manor which was amazing as you would expect. It was the Chocolate Afternoon Tea which is available until the 19th of June - we will definitely be writing a full post on this as it is beautiful! Here's a few snaps to show you how amazing:

After that we just about made it through the front door, and had a girly evening in with face masks, tan and some prosecco to celebrate! It was a lovely evening, and M even made some Captain America cookies for me, how cute and clever are these??

After this we had a very civilised night out with yummy cocktails and a cheeky McDonalds which was really nice as we haven't been out for a while.

I also had a lovely meal with my family at Wahaca, me and my dad shared the Wahaca Selection which was lush to try so many different things and I washed it down with a Mexican hot chocolate which is dairy free. It was an interesting taste and I'd order it again but it's quite bitter so hard to finish the whole thing.

I had some amazing gifts from friends and family. My brother bought me a sushi making kit which I can't wait to try out and also a selection box from T2 tea who have some crazy loose leaf tea flavours such as Caramel Brownie and Choc Chip Chai.

M got me a lush Origins set with my favourite products in and a pre order of the Harry Potter and the Cursed child - who isn't excited for that!!
I also had another Barnes and Noble classic book to add to my book shelf. I'm getting quite a collection together now and can't wait to get as many as I can!

I also had some vouchers so I went shopping on the weekend and bought the Naked 2 palette which I have wanted for ages and also some stuff from Lush too!

It was a really nice weekend and it was a shock to go back to work last week!

I've been struggling ever since and now I'm away with work so am feeling all over the place, looking forward to getting back to normality and joining my new gym permanently when I get back.

What have you been up to lately? I have so many posts to catch up on and so much to share with you!

L xxx

Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye Contour Palette Review

Hey all

As soon as the Kat Von D make up hit the scene I knew I had to have some. I'm still desperate for the liquid liner, liquid lipsticks and the foundations as they're meant to be great for pale skin tones. My first product was the Shade and Light Eye Contour Palette. I initially wanted the contour palette but opted for this instead. 

I was drawn to the eye palette as it was a totally matte palette (something I didn't previously own) and the top three shades were large pans and I thought I could use them as contour and highlight shades and get a multi use from these palettes. I love that it comes with some ideas for looks to create to so is great for beginners or to help grow make up confidence. 

Apologies for the used palette photos. I initially took them brand new but wasn't happy with them when I uploaded them. The palette contains 12 different shades set up in three sections. The large shade is meant to be the base, the 1st shade underneath the contour, the second shade define and the third shade highlight. All the colours are really pigmented and blend out easily. I don't tend to follow what the shades are for and mix it up. I love that it comes with warm and cool tone so will suit most skin tones!!

Here I used the large shade called Lazerous to add some definition in the creases Laetus and Lucious on the lid. I love using these shades for a natural eye look. Lazerous also works as a great brow shade.

Here I went heavier with the colours and blended lots of the brown shades through the outer v to deepen it. The colours all blend really well together. I've also used Lazerous to contour here and Laetus to set under the eyes. I love this as a contour shade. It looks so natural against my pale skin as it's more of a taupe shade. I'm wearing the lip liner featured on the blog on Monday Rimmel 1000 kisses in Tiramisu. With Revlon Mauve it Over (which I've now learnt is discontinued, sad times !!)

I love this palette and can't wait to try more of the Kat Von D range, the foundation is next on my list. I'm tempted to purchase a sample of it to try out. It's not the easiest make up range to get but Sephora do now ship to the UK. I personally use a facebook group to order my American make up from. 

How do you get American products? Have you tried Kat Von D products?

Love M

xxx

Urban Decay: Gwen Stefani Palette

Hello all!

We're sure you've heard the hype around this fabulous pallete, and really what isn't to get excited about?!

Urban Decay never fail to produce top quality products, the pigmentation cannot be equalled and their limited edition palettes are always even better. Knowing that this release was with Gwen Stefani was even better! I've loved her style for so long, even with her sometimes quirky outfits she always has flawless make up.

After buying a house and keeping every spare penny for furniture and paint, this was the best news and finally a big enough reason to break into the piggy bank - this release made me EXCITED.

As soon as I saw the packaging I knew I had to have it, the contents at this point hadn't even crossed my mind. I love monochrome and gold metallics so the colours were perfect for me. Even though Gwen Stefani is known for being part of the Punk music scene she's always stayed pretty classic at the same time. I love it.

The colour range of the eyeshadows is also spot on. There are so many beautiful neutral shades to create so many looks with finishes from matte, frost and shimmer. 

As for the colours, here's the rundown:

Blonde is described as a “pale beige with pink iridescent shift.
Bathwater is described as a “pale beige with gold pearl.
Skimp is described as a “pale nude satin
Steady is described as a “medium rose with metallic gold shift
Punk is described as a “reddish brown matte
Baby is described as a “cool metallic rose
Anaheim is described as a “light taupe-brown matte
Stark is described as a “nude-pink matte
Zone is described as a “medium brown matte
Serious is described as a “smoky gray with iridescent floating pearl
Pop is described as a “pale coral with iridescent sparkle
Harajuku is described as a “metallic blue-pink with iridescent micro-shimmer
Danger is described as a “deep metallic royal blue with blue micro-sparkle
1987 is described as a “bright metallic yellow-gold
Blackout is described as a “blackest black matte

I'm finding it hard to say which colour is my favourite as I genuinely think all of the top 2 rows are perfection in a palette. Blonde, Anaheim, Punk and Serious have special mentions though! Love these eeeeeeeeeeeeeevery day!

The surprise in the palette is the gold (called 1987), I was super impressed as it is beautiful and so pigmented. I have so far only used this dry as a liner but I would really love to use a wet brush and try it then as I imagine the pigmentation would be so much more vibrant. 

I'm not sure what I think about Harajuku but I'm willing to give it a try, and Blackout is a staple in anyone's life - it's just a must and the blackest of black eye shadows. I was very excited by Pop and Danger, but sadly these both had quite a lot of fallout. Pop barely made it onto my eyelid so I think some serious primer is going to be necessary. Danger is a wonderful colour but half of it ended up on my cheeks, and I only noticed when it smudged across my face in work and I looked ridiculous!

All of that being said, it's a beautiful and perfect palette that everyone needs. It comes in at £40 but is limited edition and worth every penny. My only downsides are the fallout from Pop and Danger, and I'm a little disappointed there isn't a brush or an eyeliner included like many other palettes.

In fact, although I'm excited for the lip products maybe they should consider an eyeliner collection too, how much does everyone want the perfect liner that Gwen always seems to get right??

Think about UD, it would fly off the shelves even faster than the palette!

What do you think of the palette? Are the colours perfect for you?


L xxx

Hey All

As L and I went to John Lewis Urban Decay counter to see this palette I was sure I wouldn't buy it. I didn't need another palette and after recently moving in with C I couldn't really afford it. As we arrived Kate did my eye make up for me using it and I was instantly sold. In my slightly hungover state I had absolutely no willpower I think knowing it was Limited edition made me want it more.

As L has said the packaging is amazing!! It has a huge mirror with a cute quote in the corner of the mirror which you can see below. The packaging is apparently inspired by some art Gwen has in her house!

The colours in the palette are what made it hardest for me to resist. It's full of mostly wearable colours and the prettiest nudes! Anaheim is one I was instantly drawn to, it's a perfect crease colour and would probably make a great brow colour too. It has a really great mixture of shimmer and matte shades and all of them have the quality you'd expect from UD, there is some fallout with some shades especially Danger but if I'm going all out with make up I tend to do my eye's pre foundation anyway as it makes clean up easier!

Danger is another shadow that made me buy this palette! What an amazing shade of blue. I did a smokey eye using it for last weekend and it just looked amazing (even if I do say so myself ha!). I keep reaching for this at the moment and it's making me feel inspired to play with make up again. If I'm honest Harajuku probably won't get used but I need to play around more and see if I can find a way to use it. Lastly worthy of an honourable mention is Baby. When I swatched it in store it was love, such a pretty everyday shimmer with a hint of worth. It looks great as a lid shade especially with Anaheim through the crease.

As a bonus with the palette you get a preview and sample of the lipsticks that will be released next year. How beautiful is that packaging going to be!!! I love all the four sample colours and will definitely be testing these out. I like that you get a to test out the different formulations of the lipsticks too. I'm intrigued by 714 as it's a mega matte! And let's face it, I have high expectations for the Red lipstick if it's been done in collaboration with Gwen Stefani.

It retails for £40 but the eyeshadow pans are a decent size and almost the same size as a Mac eyeshadow pan! This is one you won't regret.

Have you picked it up yet?

Love M

xxx