W7 Contour Stick

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Contour sticks are everywhere at the moment with the release of Fenty and the Kim Kardashian West contour sticks I've been wanting to try some myself as they make contouring so much easier but wanted a more budget friendly dupe of the one's mentioned above and that's where W7 didn't disappoint!!

Storybook Cosmetics: Wizardry and Witchcraft Palette

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We can't wait to share today's post with you, as we mentioned in the first look post (you can read that here) we couldn't wait to receive our palettes and they didn't disappoint!

Festival Make Up!

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We love festival style and we've been to Glastonbury in 2014 and 2016 and just loved all the make up and hair. When we didn't get tickets this year we were gutted so we decided to have a night in at mine, play with our make up and drink cocktails and get C to take photos for us of the looks!

We love experimenting and decided this was the perfect excuse. (previous posts on hair here, top ten moments here and some makeup up from 2016 here!)

Urban Decay All Nighter Foundation Shade 2.0 Review

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A few months back I share my thoughts on the Urban Decay Naked Skin if you read that post (here) you'll have seen I'd picked it up in error and had meant to get the All Nighter Foundation.  It turned out a great accident as I fell in love with Naked Skin as it's such a great foundation. I was still curious about the All Nighter Foundation as it's namesake setting spray is my all time favourite so C bought it for me for Christmas.

Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics Review and Swatches

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Urban decay is a brand I love, I have Naked 2 and 3 (reviews Here and Here) And when my other half asked if I wanted anything for Christmas the link to ultimate naked basics was one of the first things I thought of as i don't have many matte eye shadow palettes and it had a great range of light shades.

Also the packaging needs a shout out, how gorgeous is it. It's plastic so long wearing and has a huge mirror.

L.A.B 2 Brush Review

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A few weeks ago we were sent some brushes from L.A.B 2 to test out. Being the make up addicts we are of course we said yes as you can never have enough brushes (mine have reached ridiculous almost triple figures *hides face in shame!!*).

L.A.B 2 isn't a brand I'd heard too much about but are available online or in Superdrug. A big thing for me lately when purchasing new products is that they are cruelty free and L.A.B.2 is cruelty free and suitable for vegans.

TITANIUM-PLATED

FERRULE

HIGHEST QUALITY METAL only found in high-end, professional brushes

NON-CORROSIVE superior durability and resistance to damage

DOUBLED-CRIMPED for stability and to prevent brush heads from detaching and bristles from shedding

Each brush is colour coded to the area of the face, lips are purple, eyes are blue and face brushes are yellow. The colours are mimicked on the handles with the name of each brush. The handles themselves are rubberised for a matte finish and easy grip. I love the look of these but my foundation brush does look a bit mucky in between washes which I find is standard for rubberised materials. 

The back of each brush has helpful tips and detailed information on the brush. The fibers on the brushes have micro-studded surface that mimic the cuticle of natural hair to allow them to be as good as natural hair brushes. They are great at picking up product and the eye brush is perfect for blending out product. I've washed these once so far and they didn't shed which is always impressive.

I've been using the foundation and eye shadow brush the most so far as I'm a bit lazy when it comes to lip brushes. I have used the lip brush to concealer around my brows and it is really precise and easy to use. The fact it's retractable means I don't end up with the left over concealer going everywhere.

The foundation brush is great with my illamasqua skinbase. I find this works best with a traditional shaped foundation brush. It blends the foundation into my skin easily and the bristles are easy to spot clean so I don't have to wash it too often.

I've used the eyeshadow brush for both blending and applying foundation and it works well with both, It softens the edges of my shadow easily but can still pack it onto the lid if needed.

I can't wait to try out more brushes from L.A.B 2!

Have you tried any of them? They have some great sets available.

Love M

xxx

NYX Kush Eyeshadow and Tropical Green Slide on Eye Pencil

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A few weeks ago L and I headed to an event at the NYX counter in Boots. I'd been in a few times prior to the event as I'm addicted to the lip lingeries (which I still need to share on the blog, if you're following my 100daysofmakeup on instagram you'll see they're firm favourites!). I picked up a few new bits so will be sharing those. I love green on the eyes and have featured a few FOTDs on here with greens so when I saw Kush eyeshadow I fell in love. I decided I probably didn't need it as I was buying the tropical green liner so was very happy when I was able to pick it for my goody bag.

The extreme shine liner in tropical green fell into my shopping bag without a question of a doubt on weather I need it. These liners are amazing. They glide so easily onto the eyes, blend out and last. Texture wise they remind me of the Urban Decay liners which are the bees knees!

Tropical green is an amazing emerald green shade and I've been loving sweeping it under the lower lashes for a pop of colour. As it's a deeper green it's easy to wear everyday! At £5 they're definitely worth picking up!

I'm a fan of colour on the eyelids and sway towards green and purple shadows easily. Kush caught my gaze straight away, along with enchanted which I will be going back for. They are a bargain £3.50 and even cheaper in pan form. As you can see from the swatch below they are super pigmented too and blend amazingly.

As you can see from the swatches of the both they are pigmented. They also last really well. I'll definitely be grabbing more of the eyeliners and eyeshadows! Even better than the price is that NYX are a cruelty free brand so one I can easily pick up. 

Here are both products on together! I really love the combination of the two!

I'm going to grab a foundation next, any recommendations?

Love M

xxx

Seventeen Blush Powder in Nude

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I love shopping my stash from time to time, it's so easy to forget long lost products after a favourite comes in and takes over. When I found Seventeen Blush Powder in Nude in my stash I didn't think much of it. It didn't jump out at me and I couldn't even remember buying it, but on the skin this blush won me over. Plus it's a bargain £2.99 (here) and usually on an offer or two. Plus seventeen have just bought out some amazing looking matte lipsticks. I also believe Seventeen is cruelty free (if you know otherwise please let me know as I'm finding brands I'd previously read were now aren't!)

The nude blush is an amazing everyday shade. It's a great neutral that isn't too pink or orange toned. It just gives a natural flush to the skin. It's not a shimmery blush either so very easy to wear.

My camera was having trouble picking up the swatch as on the skin it doesn't show as much but on the face it transfers well. It blends softly to give a natural colour on the apples and isn't overly pigmented that you have to worry about over doing it.

For £2.99 I'd definitely recommend picking this one up. I've had it ages and still love it. I'll be grabbing a new on when I grab some of the new lipsticks! Have you tried any yet? Any shade recommendations?

Love M

xxx

Phee's Make Up Shop

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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

Crowd Colour Palettes

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This is a post I've been meaning to write for ages but for a while I wasn't happy with the photos I originally took so need to get round to taking some more. As soon as I saw Crowd Colour on Kickstarter I had to get involved. I absolutely love the idea that you can choose any image and get it printed onto a palette of your choice. 

The palettes come in three sizes, small, medium and large and with a black or white background. The whole process is really simple, you choose an image, upload it and decide if you want to add text. They also do pre-designed ones. The large of mine is a predesigned image. 

Picking photos was the hardest bit. I decided to go with a few favourite photos of C and me. These would make amazing presents for any make up lover. Each palette comes with a large mirror inside as well and a magnetised base.

I couldn't wait for them to arrive and to start depotting my make up collection. I have so many palettes and I wanted them all together so I'd get more use of them. Below you can see the large one (excuse the image being so dark). It holds a lot, inside are two naked palettes, minus two eyeshadows that were empty or broken and the benefit sweet cheeks box. I love having it all together and this palette now holds some of my favourite shades and is great to travel with.

The naked palette was reasonably easy to depot. I applied some heat from my straighteners to the base and then used a paring knife to ease them out. I do have naked 2 and 3 so had metal cases which made it easier. All of the pans are also already magnetic making it easy as they just stuck. The benefit palette was also really easy to depot. It's so much more convenient in this packaging.

The smallest size you can see below still holds a far amount of samples and is great for popping to the handbag. I really do love these and I've been able to streamline my make up. Any pans I depotted that didn't stick I just attached magnets too. I did break a few eyeshadows depotting things but most have been ok.

I did have a problem with one palette but crowd colour sorted the issue really quickly for me. 

I also got a lipstick. This shade doesn't seem to be on the website anymore but they still have some great one's. The formulation is these is impressive. You can see from the swatch below how pigmented they are and they're only £5. Again these make great presents with the personalisation option or even for yourself.

Have you depotted products before?

Love M

xxx

Salon Success Event

Hey all!

We've been very busy recently with events which has been lovely, not only is it nice to hear about new products and get to try them out but catching up with other bloggers and meeting new ones is also a favourite part of any event.

We were kindly invited to an event last week by Salon Success, it was an amazing evening and felt like we were having a catch up meal with friends!

On arrival we were greeted with champagne and shown to a beautifully decorated table in St David's Hotel. It felt very posh but also cosy, as we had a room to ourselves with a view of Cardiff Bay and lots of friendly faces to chatter with.

After sitting down we could have a look at the products laid out at each place for us to learn about whilst we were there. The event was put on by Salon Success who represent Paul Mitchell and New CID Cosmetics amongst others, here we also had products from Marula Oil, Awapuhi and Mitch by Paul Mitchell.

First up though, we were treated to a glorious three course meal from the menu above. All courses were absolutely gorgeous and we fully enjoyed it (forgetting alllllllll about our holiday diets!)







It was gorgeous, the warm apple tart tatin was a particular favourite!

We all ooh'ed and aah'ed over the food and the products for quite a while until we decided to get stuck in and trying everything out. As I've already mentioned it was just like having a meal with friends and we all gossiped and shared stories so I think we went way over our original time!

We were lucky enough to take all of the products home with us to try, and also a bag of make up from New CID Cosmetics. I've always wanted to try a number of their products after Mia's reviews and so I was very excited by this, especially the i-groom!

We even managed to sneak outside for a quick selfie outside but it was horrible weather!

We had a lovely time at the event and having a good old natter about hair and make up, which after a day of work is exactly what you need really isn't it??

We will be putting up posts with reviews in future so if anything catches your eye don't forget to check back. I can already tell you that the Marula Oil Rare Oil Treatment smells divine and works a charm!!


L and M xxx

Paul Mitchell and New CiD Event

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Hope you've had a good weekend. Mine was good but crazy busy. It was so horrible to hear about all that was going on in the world on Friday and our thoughts are with everyone involved as well as Frances Cassandras family. The blogging world has lost two great ladies far to soon.

Today's post is about an event we were invited to on Thursday evening at the beautiful St David's hotel. I'd never been before so was excited to see it. It's such a talked about hotel and I've only heard good things so couldn't wait to see it from the inside.

The event was held in one  of the rooms which had a lounge area, bedroom and bathroom as well as a balcony with these amazing views. How lush to wake up and enjoy a morning cuppa over looking the bay. We were treated to some very tasty canapes (I'm a huge fan of mini yorkshire puddings and even got to try quail eggs!)

Onto the event. All around were products we could look at and play with. How gorgeous are the Rose gold straightner set. We got to see these in action and they worked amazing. We were both totally in love the Paul Mitchell Nude wands. They seemed a great size for creating loose waves.

New CiD is a brand of make up I've tried before. My mum has one of the baked blushes and it's the prettiest colour ever. I always borrow it when I'm home. Above is one of the bronzers. Whilst we were there we were taught make up and hair tips and interestingly the bronzers and blushes are made me swirling pigment onto a terracotta stone and then they are baked for 24 hours. I love random facts like that. I'd love to see a make up factory from the inside. The eyebrow pencil made it into my everyday favourites back in 2012 (post here) and I've since repurchased and still love it.

Here are some of the gorgeous hair styles created. How amazing is the plait. L has amazing long hair and is always looking for ways to get the effort loose waves shown above so was pleased to learn some trick. Basically tight ribbon curls (so the hair is flat against the wand, in about one inch sections) are done all over the head and then brushed out. The finish is amazing.



Another product we got to see was the new Ultimate Colour set. Which uses Quinoa to lock in colour and help keep hair in great condition. As someone always dying their hair and can't wait to try this set out.

We were also lucky enough to leave with a goodie bag, We'll be sharing our reviews on these products once we've got to test them out.

Have you got any Paul Mitchell or New CiD product favourites?

Thanks for having us at the event!

Love L and M 

xxx