A Little Haul

Hi everyone,
So I've been doing a bit of shopping over the last few weeks. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, Wet 'n' Wild is now available in Dunnes Stores, and I picked up a few things from the stand there. I also made a trip to Boots to repurchase some things (I've had terrible luck with my makeup either breaking or running out over the last few weeks) and I thought I'd show you the things that I got :)

Wet 'n' Wild Comfort Zone Palette

Idol Eyes Creme Shadow Pencil in 133

Lipstick in 'Sugar Plum Fairy'

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation in '100 Ivory'

Rimmel Stay Matte Translucent Powder

Revlon Matte Balm in 'Sultry'

The Perfect Palette Tag

Hi everyone,

I saw this tag going around YouTube a little while ago, and thought I would do it here. Just to forewarn you, the majority of my palettes are from MUA; I just really like their eyeshadows.

1. Best Packaging
My Sleek Storm Palette wins this one hands down. First of all, it comes in this lovely protective box, so it doesn't get really beat up if you carry it around in your makeup bag (you'll see what's happened to some of my other palettes later).

Secondly, the actual palette is just so pretty and well...sleek (except for that one fingerprint...)

And thirdly, the inside a handy little mirror. It's probably only a matter of time before I accidentally drop this palette or do something to damage it (I'm just very clumsy) but till then, let's just enjoy how nice it looks :)

2. Best colour payoff?
All the MUA palettes generally have really good colour payoff, but for this one I decided to go for the Undress Me Too palette.

3. Most versatile?
For this I have chosen the MUA Immaculate palette, because it has 32 colours and I don't think you can get much more versatile than that. It has brights, metallic more neutral shades, and dark colours if you want to do a smokey eye.

The bad news is, this palette is not available anymore.
So, I'm also going to give an honourable mention to the Wet 'n' Wild Comfort Zone palette. This is a versatile palette if you're like me, and tend to lean towards more neutral eyeshadows. It still has a good selection of colours, and you could do daytime and nighttime looks with it.

4,  Best for travel?
I'm assuming this  is if you want to travel light, in which case I'd recommend these MUA trios.

Actually, do these technically count as palettes? Oh well.

'Theatrics'

'Chocolate Box'

5. Biggest Regret?
I suppose the best answer I have to this question is this Electric Beauty palette that I got in Mallorca, just because the eyeshadows aren't the best, they're kinda powdery, and because it has a lot of bright colours that I don't really wear very often. That said, it only set me back by about 2.95, and it's not awful, so I don't really regret it that much.

6. Best colour names?
For this I picked the MUA Undress Me Too Palette again, just because it's the only palette I own that has names for the eyeshadows. The names are fine; Shy, Fiery, Wink and Corrupt are some of them, but I actually really like the really bad puns for colour names.

7. Least Used?
I'm ashamed to admit that I have never actually used these two  MUA palettes, Glam Days and Glam Nights. I went through a bit of a phase where every time I went to a Superdrug I would buy a new MUA palette, and I also have this mad idea that I should finish one thing before I start another. It's a bad idea, I know, and I should really just get down to using them.

8. Most used, desert island palette?

Most definitely the MUA Undressed palette. You can see from the pictures how well loved this is. (remember what I was saying earlier about my palettes getting destroyed? Yeah.) I've completely finished off two of the eyeshadows, and hit pan on three more. This palette lives in my makeup bag.

Essiebutton added an extra question to the tag, which is what is on your palette wishlist?

I have my eye on the Naked 3 palette, but I have so many eyeshadow palettes that I think I should hold off for a little while until I use some of them up. Also, now that we have Wet 'n' Wild in Ireland, I wouldn't mind picking up a few more of their palettes, but for the moment, I'm good with what I have. And by moment, I mean like, this week :)

Review: Elizabeth Arden Lipstick in 'Cassis'

This is one of the lipsticks that I got in the Elizabeth Arden box that I talked about a few weeks ago. I've been trying it out over the past while and thought I would give you my thoughts on it.

Overall, I liked this lipstick. It didn't completely blow me away, but it was nice. Looking at it in the bullet, I expected the colour to be much more purple and berry-toned, but as you can see in the swatch, it's actually more of a dark red.

The lipstick has a very glossy finish, so if you like your matte lipsticks, this is probably one to avoid. It is very moisturising because of the finish though. I think this lipstick would be good if you want to start wearing darker lips, but are a little bit scared; because of the finish it's not a very dramatic lipstick. 

The lasting power is also decent, but not amazing.

Overall, it's a good, but not outstanding, lipstick.

Top 5 Favourite Dark Lip Products

Hi everyone,
Remember that series I started way back in December, where I told you about my favourite lip products of various different colours? Well I realised that I never posted the concluding part of it, so here it is.
I'm relatively new to dark lip products, I've only started to wear them in the past couple of months, and tend to stick to sheer or berry colours, because:
 a) I'm still not brave enough to go all out and buy Black Cherry or something (although I have considered it)
b) Because I'm quite pale, a lot of  the colder purple colours completely wash me out, so I have to be careful what I buy
But anyway, here's what I came up with, if any of you are thinking of branching into darker lip colours, I hope this helps :)

Revlon Colourburst Lipgloss in 'Embellished' 

I did a full review of this lipgloss a couple of months ago, which can be found here. What I like about this lipgloss is that it's probably the darkest lip product I own, but because it's a lipgloss and not lipstick, it's still quite sheer, if like me, you're new to and a bit afraid of dark lip things.

Max Factor Lipstick in 'Mulberry'

Once again, I did a full review of this here, if you're interested (I just learned how to insert links, so they're all over this post). As you can see from the swatches, this is like a slightly more muted down, less-glossy version of the Revlon lipgloss.

Kate Moss for Rimmel Matte Lipstick in '107'

Unlike the other two, this is more of a dark red than berry colour, and annoyingly any photos I take of it never really do it justice; it's a bit darker in real life than it shows up in the photos. My one critique/bit of advice for this lipstick is that because it's matte it can be a bit drying, so you need to wear some kind of lip balm under it.

By the Face Lipstick in '15'

When I bought this lipstick I expected it to be much more of a plum colour. In the top picture you can see that it looks very dark in the bullet, but in reality it's actually very pink. Nevertheless it's a nice colour, and a really moisturising lipstick. The downside is that I bought this in Mallorca, and as far as I'm aware, By the Face isn't available over here.

Rimmel Apocalips in 'Eclipse'

Since starting this blog, I have made no secret of my love for the Rimmel Apocalips, and this is quite possibly my favourite one. This was my lip product of choice during the winter, I wore it so much. I just think it's a really unique colour, and would look great on loads of different skin tones.

*Bonus* 17 Ultimate Volume Lipgloss in 'Very Berry'

I thought since the By the Face lipstick isn't widely available, I better throw in an extra one. This is a lipgloss that I wore a lot last year, and I think that again it's a good one if you're starting to delve into dark lip products, because you have the choice of putting a little bit on and having a simple red lip, or building it up so that it's quite dark and vampy.