Living Nature Lipstick in Wild Fire

Morning all!

A few weeks ago we were sent some lipsticks from Living Nature, so I chose the lipstick called Wild Fire.

Living Nature are a company from New Zealand who produce products that do not contain any synthetic compounds including parabens and only use beeswax and honey from animal derived products. In fact the list of products that aren't in any of their cosmetics is pretty impressive! In fact, here's the list so you can see yourself:

No Synthetic Preservatives, No potentially harmful chemicals, No Mineral Oils, No Herbicide or Pesticide Residues, No GM ingredients, No Animal Ingredients or testing, Only Use Recyclable, Reusable Packaging. The Living Nature preservative system is a synergy of potent plant extracts which are strong antioxidants, bactericides and fungicides. Living Nature aims to create a sustainable, profitable, ecological, educational and inspirational business that impacts on the individual by promoting healthy skin. 

All sounds wonderfully promising don't you think??

In addition to this, the lipsticks in particular have a 100% natural formula containing beeswax, certified by BDIH and produced in recyclable plastic tube. They are not tested on animals either which is always a great bonus, there really isn't any excuse any longer for animals to be tortured for humans to wear make up.

The packaging is black and rubbery on the outside, hopefully this means it is a little more hard wearing than other black plastic packaging we are all familiar with. It feels a lot sturdier and has a satisfying click so you can be sure the lid isn't going to fall of these - which you would think is an odd point to make but I've lost a few lipsticks to my hairbrush and keys recently and I refuse to lose any more!

Wild Fire is described as a semi-matte red with an orange undertone, it is a very wearable lipstick. The colour is quite sheer so it is more like a stain or a tinted lip balm than a traditional 'lipstick' but I really like it.

It's very comfortable to wear which is a welcome change from many of the matte lipsticks and liquid lipsticks that are available now that I can find are very drying.

My lips are quite small and I always prefer a lip product with a cream or glossy finish to give the appearance of more volume so the semi-matte finish is a perfect compromise for every day wear.

The lipstick colour doesn't last all day with eating etc but to be honest it is so easy to reapply owing to the sheer finish that it isn't a problem.

The range of lipsticks from Living Nature contains twelve colours altogether and a lip hydrator. Botanical Brands (the sole distributor in the U.K. for Living Nature) carries all 12 of these which is great! You can find them at www.botanicalbrands.com 

The lipsticks cost £19.50 each which is perfectly reasonable for a lipstick with minimal chemicals and no animal testing in sight!


Have you heard of Living Nature before? Have you tried out some of their lipsticks?


They have a huge range of skincare too, some of their serums, oils and masks sound wonderful and I've spotted some gift sets that would be great on a Christmas list!

L xxx

Pestle and Mortar Skincare Deals

Hey all

When we were contacted to see if we fancied trying some Pestle and Mortar skincare items we of course said yes. We have both taken care of our skin with full skincare routines started from our early 20s in the hope prevention is better than cure.

We couldn't wait to get out hands on the Pestle and Mortar products as not only are they cruelty free (a must for me now), they are suitable for all skin types, both of our skin needs seem to be changing so a product suitable for all is great, they also free from parabens, mineral oil, silcones, sulphates and propylene. When we first started the blog we wrote about parabens, sulphates and silcones in products and what it means, you can find these posts here.

Pestle and Mortar is an Irish beauty brand that have a great range of skincare products all in gorgeous packaging. I love the simplicity of the packaging and the monochrome it looks great on my bedside table.

We were lucky enough to be sent the Hyaluronic Serum. I'm so excited to give this a proper try. L has tried the alpha h liquid gold before which contain hyaluronic acid so was excited to try this to see how it compares.

The serum is formulated from the salt of hyaluronic acid. This is a smaller molecule and is said to be even more penetrative than hylauronic acid. I can't wait to give this a proper trial and see the results. As I'm getting older even though I have oily skin I'm still finding my skin dehydrated. Serums such as this one are great for getting moisture in my skin without drying it out. 

It leaves the skin feeling really soft and the perfect base for makeup. We will be doing a full review once we've been able to try it for a while but wanted to go on and share it as with Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner Pestle and Mortar are offering some great deals. It's worth signing up to the mailing list as you get 20% off. Non-subscribers still get 15% off thought.

Have you heard of Pestle and Mortar? Will you be taking advantage of the deals? They can be purchased from pestleandmortarcosmetics.com.

Love M

xxx

Sleek Matte Me in Old Hollywood

Hey All

Lately I've been very spendy so expect a few hauls coming up!! I was meeting some friends in town the other day and have 30 minutes before they arrived and accidently ended up in boots and superdrug and before I knew it I'd bought 2 lipsticks, a lipstick palette, an eyeshadow palette, a contour palette and a nail varnish. Clearly a lack of self control that day ha!

I tend to go to Superdrug more these days as they have a great selection of cruelty free brands (NYX keeps me going to boots though!). With the weather getting colder I'm getting drawn back into the darker shades and can't seem to resist the liquid lipsticks everyone is loving at the moment. As soon as I swatched old hollywood on my hand I knew I was going to buy it. It's such a deep red colour and perfect for the colder weather.

It comes in the traditional lip gloss packaging with the doe foot applicator you would expect for a liquid lipstick, It's really easy to apply direct from the applicator and get that straight line to the lips. It dries really quickly. I love the colour and love how easy it is to apply but it's not my favourite formula. For me it's too drying and does the flaking off the lips from the middle and leaves staining around the lip line. I prefer more mouse like formulas like the NYX lip lingeries and the liquid satins. 

Even though I'm not sold on the formula the colour is so amazing I will definitely keep wearing it. It just needs reapplying throughout the day to keep the colour looking it's best.

Have you tried the Sleek Matte Me lip products? Any tips on stopping it being so drying?

Love M

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