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.

Freedom Pro Lipstick Palette - Naked

Hey all 

Long time no post from me. Life has been a little hectic lately and I’ve just not found the time to write. I’ve got so many posts I want to write but decided to start with the  Freedom ProArtist pro lipstick palette as there are two up for grabs in our birthday giveaway (post here). 

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.

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

Collection Conceal and Light Like a Pro Palette

Hey all!

As everyone else seems to be, I'm totally obsessed with concealing, contouring and highlighting my face. Sometimes you have the time to spend to do the job properly, other times (like Monday mornings....) you don't, and that's where the Collection Conceal and Light Like a Pro Palette comes in.

I picked this up on a random shopping trip when it was on offer, it was £3.99 then and is £5.99 now.

I was attracted to it firstly because of the price but also because of the range of colours that would suit my skin tone. The concealer was really light and the contour not orange, so this was hopeful!



There are 8 shades in the palette in total, all of which are cream concealers. I would say that 2 of these are typical concealers, 2 shades for contour and cream bronzer, 3 for colour correcting and then 1 for under eyes.

Obviously this is taking into account that I am super pale, anyone with a tan or darker skin would be able to use the shades differently to me.



So these are the first four, the top 2 I use as concealers and the bottom 2 I use as the contour/bronzer as appropriate - sometimes if I'm tired I'm totally washed out and the darker shade can look too orange but is a great shade for bronzer and bringing some much needed colour to my cheeks!

Helpfully I have swatched them in rows so the images don't match up - I will have to remember this next time!

Below are the other four shades, top are the reflective pink (undereyes) and yellow contour (good for covering up purple areas - under eyes, veins etc).
Bottom shows the green (good for redness) and blue/lilac (good for yellowing skin tones that may look a bit pasty and dull)





I've been using this the last few weeks with both a Real Techniques Expert Face brush and also a Beauty Blender sponge and have been getting on quite well (for my first cream product palette at least!)

They are swatched below for you to see, it should be pretty obvious which is which but they are arranged 1-4 is the top row, 5-8 is the bottom:





These are swatched quite heavily but blend easily into the skin to correct any issues. Primarily I use the lightest concealer and the pink reflective ones for undereyes and blemishes, the darker concealers I use for contour and bronzing. The others I use as and when depending on how i look in the mirror on that day!

I find they blend well with my make up and do the jobs they were intended for, however they may not last a full day. I've used them for work but by the time I've been to the gym after work there isn't much left, I'd probably get something longer lasting if I was intending to use similar shades for a wedding or full day event but for every day usage they have been great, especially for the price.

I've heard great things about concealer palettes like this and I'm glad I finally picked one up and had a go.

Have you tried concealer palettes like this? What are your favourites? Do you use all shades or just a few?

This is well worth the £5.99 price tag and I'd recommend anyone give this a try!

L xxx

Wish List: September 2016

Hello there! 

I've been writing a wishlist for weeks now and for some reason just haven't got around to getting it posted...in this time it has obviously grown but at least the items on it have a bit of variety.

The last year of house owning has ruined most shopping trips, planned or otherwise so writing a wishlist has been quite therapeutic. If I still want it after 6 months I obviously really want it...right??

Take a look and see if they match your wishlist items too! 

I keep seeing these beautiful gym leggings everywhere. As I'm tall I can struggle to find leggings that are long enough and also sit on my waist properly, but I'm still on the endless search for a long black pair with some sexy mesh panels in - just because I'm sweating doesn't mean I don't want to look good! 

I've seen some from Active in Style, the top ones are from Zanna Van Dijk's range and cost £85, the second are the Inda leggings from Daquini and cost £110.

Travel:

Image from Lonely Planet website

Forever dreaming of a paradise island getaway my latest focus has been pinning pictures from the beautiful island of Bali. Those white sands, turquoise waterfalls and 'once in a lifetime' sunsets are on my dream list. Keeping all my fingers toes and everything else crossed that one day I can actually go on holiday!

Palettes:

I mean it was extremely difficult to choose one palette from Sleek owing to their absolute corker of a collection right now (rivalled by another fave - Make Up Revolution, see below) but this highlighter palette is just all of the Pinterest/blogger/makeup goals right now.Amazing casing, flattering colour choices and apparently awesome blend-ability. 

All of this for £9.99?? Get me on the delivery list pronto!

Lipstick:

Image from UD website

Long have I lusted after the Urban Decay lipsticks but after their recent revamp and 120 shade uber collection I perve on them all the time.

I am still looking for the perfect red, this time a classic blue toned red. I either seem to repurchase orangey ones, or the super dark vampy ones but I always get it wrong!

F-Bomb looks the perfect shade, and is 100% on my wishlist

Browse them all by selecting this link, each comes in at a perfectly reasonable £15.

Chanel Chance:

Another dream - owning a Chanel perfume!

Chance is my favourite and I had another whiff of it recently, I still love it. At £68 for 50ml however I definitely need to save or wait for a rich man.

One day!

MakeUp Revolution: 

Last but certainly not least is Make Up Revolution. 

There are so many things I want....NEED to pick up from this brand and knowing they are affordable means I actually can. I'm waiting for some free time to go in store and browse myself as that's always the best part, but these rose gold brushes are high on the priority list

Five brushes for £34.95 sounds pretty reasonable to me and they are beautiful! So instagrammable!

What's on your wishlist at the moment??

Hopefully I can get some of these soon but it's always nice to dream!

L xxx

Crowd Colour Palettes

Hey All

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

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

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