Nars Blush in Torrid

Morning pals!

I've clearly become obsessed with a bit of Nars and I cannot stop wearing my new blushes; to the point that I actually end up wearing both of them on my face at once. What of it eh?

Today I've got a review on Torrid, a gamble I took when on the Space NK website and I guessed based on its orange colour that I would love it (and a quick search on Temptalia of course)

Again, I love monochrome and the packaging for this is pretty but the rubber gets SO dirty that it never stays pretty for long at all. It's a shame but as my make up stays in my wardrobe without anyone to see then it doesn't matter too much....

The blush is described as a coral blush with slight shimmer. The shimmer is so fine that sometimes it barely shows which is perfect for me for work; I don't mind a bit of it but to be known as the girl with disco ball cheeks probably isn't what I'd go for! Torrid can be gently swept on for a flattering glow or piled on for some seriously pigmented colour.

You can see some swatches of all Nars blushes on Temptalia here, you can instantly see why I chose the colour being a lover of Benefit's Coralista.





For work I tend to sweep it onto my cheeks for more of a glow effect, I've taken some photos of this below:

I love the effect it gives my skin, its a really subtle wash of colour that gives a lovely glow for day time, and I'm sure with a heavier hand you could really get some colour onto your cheeks as the product is so pigmented. I think the price is pretty standard for blushes nowadays and the fact that they are so pigmented means that you really don't need a lot at all so it will last. It also lasts whilst on the face too, i never need to touch it up throughout the day which is perfect for me.

I used to look at other people's blush collections and wonder why on earth they had so many from Nars but now seeing as I've bought near on 11 blushes in the last few weeks it is safe to say it's my new obsession!

Here's Torrid on my skin with a flash:

You can see the subtle shimmer but it's not glittery at all, I think maybe I even prefer this to the beloved Orgasm blush I also bought at the same time!

At £22.50 these blushes are actually cheaper than the Benefit Box o' Powders but still pack just as much of a punch. I feel like I've been missing out in the blush world!

I would certainly recommend for anyone to buy a blush from Nars now that I know the quality and pigmentation is top notch, I will be certain to add my collection as soon as I can. The Virtual Domination palette for Christmas time looks amazing; if only I could find a few £100 to spare!

What is your favourite Nars blush? Do you have a favourite finish? Are you discovering blush is just as good as eye products for changing your look like I have been??

L xxx

Nip and Fab: Viper Venom Eye Fix

Hi all!

As M mentioned in her post last week she will be taking a back seat (so to speak) over the next few months whilst she has tonnes of work on, so we have decided to move our joint Sunday posts to Mondays and you will have to make do with listening to L ramble on a bit more! Hopefully in a few weeks or so M will have a lot more time to write and review again.

Today's joint review is another Nip and Fab product from the Viper Venom range; the Eye Fix.

The Eye Fix is a rollerball product which dispenses a gel/serum like product around the eye area.

It contains Liftonin and Syn-ake to smooth the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and also Red Algae Extract to reduce the look of dark circles. It all sounds pretty good to us!

The black and lime green packaging is also really cool too, I love that each range from Nip and Fab is colour coded to fit the products, i.e. yellow for the Bee range and red/orange for the Dragon's Blood.

The first thing I liked about this product was how easy it was to use. I've never used rollerball products that much but I loved this one, it felt cooling and the product was dispensed evenly. There wasn't any need to get your fingers (and potential bacteria) involved at all but i do like the rub any last bits into the skin myself as I'm usually in a rush to put my eye cream on!

I have been using this for the last few weeks morning and night, just rolling it all over my eye area from brow bone to just above my cheek and it sinks in pretty quickly. The eye area is something I am very aware of in terms of ageing so I try my best to give it the hydration it needs. My skin has definitely felt more hydrated since using it and the crepey effect of skin when it is dehydrated has reduced. I love how easy it is to pile on and just leave to sink in and you could pretty much apply this without the need for touching your skin at all.

It gets the thumbs up from me!

You can buy the Viper Venom Eye Fix from Boots for £14.95 normally but its currently on offer for £9.97. you can also buy this in the Viper Venom Duo Set which is also currently on offer for £16.63 instead of £24.95 and contains the serum which we have previously posted about here (and fully recommend FYI!)

Have you tried anything from Nip and Fab? What's your favourite? Do you like using products containing ingredients such as bee sting and viper venom?

I'd fully recommend anything from their range so far!


L xxx

Hey All

As L said life is getting on top of me a bit lately and I needed a break but after spending so long on the blog with L I wasn't quite ready to give it all up. Without her support I'd have definitely given it all up a long time ago so I'm very grateful to have her help me out with something I love.

Skincare is something I always push myself to use so when Nip and Fab was on a massive offer in Debenhams a few months back I couldn't resist stocking up!

My eyes are probably my biggest concern. I look at my mum and see her's and I'm pretty sure that's how mine will end up. We have quite a lot of eyelid and her's have sagged a bit so I'm hoping a good skincare regime will help me prolong it for a littler while.

I've used a few roller ball products before. Like the garnier concealer thing. I'm not convinced that ever really worked. I love the feeling of the roller ball on the eyes as the metal means it feels cooling and soothing which after a had day I find relaxing and first thing in the morning helps to wake me up.

I've been using it in conjunction with the serum we posted last week and have used both as an addition to my skincare so I apply this before an eye cream. I love the soothing feeling of it and my under eye area has definitely felt smoother and more hydrated over the past few weeks.

As L has mentioned in previous posts we definitely have developed a massive love for all things Nip and Fab. I've not found anything I dislike yet.

What's your skincare routine?

Love M

xxx

Things I've Learned This Week

Hi there!

I always find I've got a lot to say and never enough time to say it; I'm sure you are desperate to hear more from me and my super exciting life and intellectual thoughts. With that in mind I thought I'd start a new series where I can just ramble about things that have been going on, things I've tried not worthy of its own post, things I've tried more than worthy of a post and will probably be mentioned a million times.

It's an insight into my brain, however scary that may be!

1) Nip and Fab is amazing - I cannot get enough and have quite honestly picked up the entire range. Yes really, all of it. Apart from the Deep Cleansing Fix which seems to be sold out all the time, I'll get my hands on it soon! On a side note my skin seems to love everything and as it is cheaper than its' original company Rodial. The dragon's blood range is quite awesome and the glycolic range is too; I could rave but I'll save it for the individual posts!

(in the mean time you should all go out and buy some)

2) Burpees are hard. So very hard. And when you consider them in the form of food they are quite terrifying. 205 burpees for one slice of Dominos Pepperoni pizza? Or 787 burpees for a slice of cheesecake? OH MY. 

Though they definitely do some good to the calorie deficit and fat burning task I've set myself!

3) This from Tresemme was awful. Sorry Tresemme but this coated my hair, made it greasy and in no way helped keep it sleek or whatever else it promised! Bleurgh.

4) Isn't my friend beautiful on her wedding day? How pretty is her dress?! 

5) These were delivered recently, can't wait to play with them as work as I get the time to photograph them! 

6) Is there a person on this earth who doesn't want the new Nars palette??

7) My cravings are being cured by copious amounts of Greek yoghurt and almond butter, particularly in the evenings! Big boost of protein before bed to keep me full.

8) I cannot tell you how excited I am for winter clothes. Boots, jumpers, tights, jeans, leggings, scarves, coats! Also my favourite colours are emerald, burgundy, navy, grey and black so it's the perfect time of year for me. 

What have you been up to the last few weeks? Are you looking forward to winter clothing? Have you been snapping up the new Christmas gift sets and palettes in a frenzy like myself? 

I just got the new Vice 3 palette from Urban Decay delivered and I'm almost a bit gutted that I've made plans to go out for lunch! 

You can check out our Twitter for a few quick pictures that I managed to take :) 

L xxx

Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella

Happy Friday lovely people!

I've got a lovely quiet(ish) weekend lined up where I'm meeting some old friends for lunch and aside from that it's going to be relaxation and bliss on the cards.....and a whole lot of catching up on tv! This new job has taken up a lot of my time doing extra reading and trying to keep up with my gym and classes so I'm looking forward to catching up with everything else.

A few weeks ago both myself and M nabbed ourselves one of the Space NK Gift With Purchase bundles that I haven't even begun to get through; free stuff is so much fun. But obviously we had to spend £150 to get said gifts and this became my opportunity to snap up some much raved about Nars products. I'd never used any whatsoever before this so had quite a wishlist and proceeded to cross some of them off; I've previously posted about the infamous Orgasm blush - post here - and now you can read my review of the nearly as famous Lip Pencils.

It didn't take much convincing for me to add this to my basket, Anna from VDM who I'm sure you all MUST be aware of always looks gorgeous wearing hers so as we are the same colouring it was a no brainer.

Cruella, as if I could leave it after seeing that name! Brings back all the memories of the oh so glamorous Ms Deville and the colour is perfectly fitting.

It's a matte lip pencil, there is also a satin and a velvet gloss lip pencil range (come back for a future review of a satin pencil also!) and so I snapped up one from each range for comparison purposes....obviously.

The pencils themselves are typical in NARS design with monochrome packaging but have the added advantage of having a coloured base; this would be great when choosing between nude, red, pink etc but may be problematic with differentiating between reds...however I don't own enough of them at this point to worry about that!

The Lip Pencils are super easy to use, I have used liner with this one as I have a similar colour to match it but they haven't bled a single time i've used them so are good enough to use without one. The colour is so pigmented and although the matte did feel quite dry on application compared to other lip products, it didn't actually dry my lips out any further.

Clearly they are easy to use, you just need a larger sharpener to get the pencil in (rumour has it UD's Grindhouse is the best - added to wishlist!) and it's so easy to apply the colour that you could even slick on a layer whilst on the bus - though you'll definitely need to check you are in the lines for a colour this bold!

So how does it look on?

These photos were taken with minimal make up apart from the lip pencil and I love the slightly vampy look!

I love the colour, it's a perfect red and I can see me wearing this a lot in future. Even though these photos were taken in natural day light the colour in reality did seem to be darker than the photos show but nevertheless you can see the finish.

I was really impressed by the wear time of these lip pencils too. I'm sure I went a good 6 hours without the need to reapply and that was through multiple meals/snacking/drinks and I think i reapplied purely for the feeling of knowing there was something on my lips!

I would fully recommend the matte range and am tempted to look at the other colours but must resist for the next month or so.....

The Matte Lip Pencils come in at £18 for 2.4g of product and are available in 21 colours.

Have you tried one of the matte lip pencils? What's your favourite colour? Any recommendations for future NARS purchases??

L xxx