Match Your Makeup to your Handbag

Make-up has always been heavily influenced by the trends at global fashion weeks, so here is my fashion-inspired trend du jour: matching my make-up to my favourite handbag. What do you think? Is this a trend that could/should catch on?!

Trend-setting aside (he he), coral just happens to be my favourite make-up colour at the moment because it matches my thank-goodness-it’s-spring-at-last sunny mood!

I’m wearing a coral coloured Hello Kitty lipstick in the shade Betz Believe, a bright orangey pink from my Sleek Respect iDivine eyeshadow palette, and a coral blush.

I think this lipstick is amazing – but I don’t know if it’s available anymore as the stands seem to have disappeared from all my local Superdrugs! It has a very nice, creamy consistency and good coverage in just one swipe. Hello Kitty, if you are out there reading this, please come back to Superdrug soon – I’m a big fan of your range!

I teamed the eyeshadow with royal blue eyeliner and mascara because I felt that my eyes needed the extra definition of some eyeliner with such an orange shade (to avoid looking like my eyes were just pink because I had an eye infection!) but I wanted something less harsh than black. I know that many people hate coloured mascaras because they find them a very “teenage” look or consider them to be unflattering, but to be honest, I really do think that certain shades can really be an asset in a make-up bag. Today for example I think black would have overwhelmed this look somewhat, whereas the blue lent it just the right intensity.

Superdrug BB Cream–5 Min Review

This is a product that I picked up a few months ago and have been using pretty consistently since, and now that I’ve almost used it all up I thought I would write a really quick five minute post. It’s a budget BB cream so it’s probably a product that people are keen to try – but only if it’s any good of course.

This is marketed as a 5-in-1 skin perfecting day cream. The RRP is £8.99 for 50ml although it’s often of special offer and I picked mine up for a couple of quid less than the RRP. It comes in the shades Light and Medium, and it claims to:

1. Even the complexion by providing light coverage
2. Moisturise
3. Contain skin-protecting anti-oxidants
4. Contain SPF 15
5. Contain UVA & UVB filters (thereby helping prevent premature aging caused by sun damage)

It’s also paraben free, cruelty free and suitable for vegans if those features rock your boat (personally I’m not so bothered by parabens but I love cruelty free and vegan products).

Here are a couple of pics of me wearing the BB cream. I have the shade Fair which I have to say does come out of the tube looking awfully orange and it does warm my skin up a shade or two, but since the product is very sheer it blends out OK on me.

The flash picks up on the slightly orange tone but I think it looks fine really.

The consistency is very creamy and the product is a good moisturiser but unfortunately it’s a bit too oily for my skin. While that does lend a certain radiance to the skin, if I don’t wear powder on top then it slides off my face by lunchtime.

This product is a solid three-out-of-five product for me; there are definitely plus points but the limited shade range is a major drawback and I wouldn’t recommend it for oily skin. I might consider repurchasing this for travelling with though as it’s convenient to have a moisturiser that also offers sun protection and some coverage – saves having to pack a separate moisturiser and foundation.

Hello Kitty Lipstick in Baby Doll

This is my 2nd lipstick from the Superdrug Hello Kitty make-up range. I really liked the first one I purchased in Betz Believe so I picked up another one when I was in Superdrug the other day. They’re currently retailing for £3.99.

You’re really going to hate this if you dislike really loud, excessive packaging and/or Hello Kitty. Otherwise, you’re in for a treat! :)

I think it’s quite difficult to get a good idea of the shades from the colour representation of the kitty-shaped lids, but fortunately you can just take the lid off and have a peep before you buy them. (Probably not the most hygienic way to show case lipstick, but at least you get to see before you buy I guess).

On my lips this colour comes up as a very sheer, shimmery peach. I love it. It’s also very moisturising so I’m going to get a lot of use out of this both wearing it to work and for evenings out when I want a nude lip to pair with more intense eye make-up. It’s not very long lasting, but I’m not that bothered by light shades fading away. I only get upset when dark lip colours fade away leaving an awful dark lip line and my pale nude lips in the centre, ugh.

Hello Kitty Arrives at Superdrug

Well, hello there Kitty…

I’ve been excited about this make-up launch since I heard about it over a month ago. I do love my ridiculously kitsch make-up.

The Hello Kitty Superdrug range features a selection of lipsticks, nail varnishes, eyeshadows and more in Hello Kitty packaging. I could have bought so much when I first came across the stand, but I limited myself to one lipstick and one nail varnish so that I could see if the make-up was actually any good, or if they were all just about the gimmicky packaging.

I got a lipstick in Betz Believe, a bright coral pink, and a nail varnish in Respect, a glossy navy. I’ve been wearing them for the past week now and I have to say, considering that they both cost less than £5 and have such funky packaging I’m impressed by the quality. The lipstick is creamy and pigmented and lasts about 4 hours on me, and so far the nail varnish, which only required one coat, has gone 4 days without chipping (though a lot of thanks also has to go to my China Glaze top coat).

I’m definitely going to be going back for more lipsticks and nail polishes, and I think they’d also make great gifts for anybody into their cute stuff.

I love…hand creams

I just wanted to do a quick post to mention these fabulous fun hand creams by the I love…range available in Superdrug. They cost the bargain price of £1.99 and come in a range of yummy smells. I have the raspberry and blackberry and coconut ones.

They have cute, retro-style packaging which makes them look much more expensive than they are.

I was trying to capture the consistency in the shot above but I’m not sure how well it comes across. These are perfect for hand cream addicts like me as they’re quite thick so you only need a small amount each time, meaning that they last longer than their runnier counterparts. So, if you like cute packaging and cheap hand cream, check these out next time you’re in Superdrug!

More Bargains from MUA

I swung by Superdrug last week as I often do for some mid-week make-up treats (my favourite form of retail therapy :) ).  Since MUA Pro had arrived in my local Superdrug at last and since it’s pretty cheap I decided to try a couple more products from the range.

I picked up an eyeshadow primer and mosaic blush in the shade English Rose, both £2.50.

The primer is simply called Professional Eye Primer and comes in a small plastic tube which houses 7.5ml of product and a doe foot applicator.  In the photo above I’ve done a thick swatch and a blended out swatch.  I would always blend this out to a very very thin layer using my finger tips on my eyes and so while the thick swatch can give some idea of the consistency of the product the thin swatch is how it would actually appear when used on skin.  On my skin it becomes invisible though the colour may show up on different skin tones, but the product is not at all visible once eyeshadow has been placed on top.

I’m very, very impressed by this.  It’s similar to Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion – a silicone based primer that’s designed to increase the wear of your eyeshadow by both absorbing excess oil from the skin and gripping on to the eyeshadow itself.  I use the applicator to deposit a small amount of product on my skin, blend it out with a fingertip, wait a minute or so for it to dry then apply my eyeshadow on top.  The consistency is smooth and easy to blend out; I easily get 12 hours wear out of my eyeshadows when I use this which is generally how long I wear make-up for during the day, and it’s a great price so it gets a big thumbs up from me.

I think this blush looks soooo cute!!  The packaging is nothing special but for £2.50 I don’t care at all and I’m definitely happy to keep costs down on some of my make-up – sure I like cute packaging but I’m happy to forgo it for good quality from cheap and cheerful brands.  I just love the colours and shapes in this blush.  The swatch on my finger is pretty heavy and was created by just swirling my finger over all the colours.  When I wear this I actually apply it with a lighter hand using a normal blusher brush but onto the tops of my cheekbones as a highlighter instead of as a blush as it’s very shimmery.  It creates a wonderful silvery pink glow.  I haven’t managed to capture this special glow in a photo yet but I will try to update this post with one if I ever manage to.

These latest two purchases happily confirm MUA Pro as one of my current favourite five brands.  I’m working on a bit of a mammoth post at the moment about all my current favourite products so I will hopefully be posting a long list of products to tickle your fancy with in time for some bank holiday weekend shopping.

Found–MUA Pro at Marble Arch!

So I finally managed to track down a Superdrug store that stocks the MUA pro range last week, at last!  I may well be the last one in on this secret but basically this range isn’t stocked at my nearest Superdrugs on High Holborn, Tottenham Court Road or The Strand so I was quite excited to find it at Superdrug Marble Arch the other week.  I don’t get that far down Oxford Street normally so I decided to try out quite a few products. (Although this range is also available from the Superdrug website).

They have a really cute collection of Love Heart (a kind of sherbet sweet available in Britain) nail varnishes out at the moment (I think it’s limited edition for Spring 2012) so I picked up a couple of bottles (£2 each) in the shades Love U 24/7, a glossy purple, and U R Fab, an intense berry pink.  I have tried both these shades out already although I don’t have any pics of me wearing them on my nails to post at the moment – I will amend that next time I wear them and get some pics up though as I think these are both great products.

They apply true to the colour that you see in the bottle and are about 80 – 100% opaque after one coat so I apply one or two coats to get full coverage – which I think is pretty amazing considering the price.  The only slight problem is that the short handle and brush make them a little bit tricky to handle but it still doesn’t really affect the application too much.

Next up as I can never seem to have too many lip glosses I grabbed a couple of Out There plumping lip glosses (£2 each) in the colours Nude and Candy Pink.

I’m not such a big fan of these unfortunately.  I love the colours but the formula is quite thin and although that makes it comfortable to wear on the lips I don’t find it to be either very pigmented or long lasting.  In fact I felt that the swatches on my skin gave a bit of a false impression of how pigmented these were so I took a couple of pics of the glosses on my lips.  The skin swatches were quite thick as I managed to dump quite a lot of product onto my skin but once applied to the lips the colour is a lot weaker – especially the shade Nude.  I also get the feeling that the tubes don’t contain that much product as they are quite thin and a lot of space is taken up by the applicator, which is a not-very-fluffy doe foot applicator.  I don’t really like it as it doesn’t seem to pick up much product each time so I end up having to go back to the tube about three times to end up with the coverage that I want on my lips.

Finally I decided to try out a couple of the eyeshadow trios as I just think that they look so cute – I love the packaging and the raised circular shape of the shadows themselves.  I ended up getting two quite similar shades as I’m currently just dipping my toe into neutral shadows (usually I’m a bright and bold eyeshadow kind of girl) so I thought this would be a good way to find some shades that I like.

For £2.50 you get a generous portion of three complimentary shimmery shades and a double ended foam applicator.  I do like all these shades although I do think that the two darker shades in the Chocolate Box trio are a bit similar.  I think the quality of these shades is great; they are really pigmented, smooth and non-crumbly in the pan, and they last all day on me over an eyeshadow primer.  The swatches below though were made on my bare skin with no primer underneath so that gives some idea of just how pigmented they are.

I don’t know if I’ll be picking any more colours up as I think I have the other shades that they do in my stash already but I do think that I’ll get some good wear out of these this spring.  Big thumbs up for these from me!

top row: Pink Sorbet, bottom row: Chocolate Box

Colourworks Eyeshadow Palette 2011

I visited Superdrug this weekend and came back laden with lots of new make-up, hooray!  I bought some Accessorize make-up as it’s one of my favourite brands and currently on 3-for-2 offer at Superdrug, and I also got some Christmas palettes as they were also on 3-for-2 special offer and they were just so sparkly and cute looking that I couldn’t resist. 

Today I have some pics of one of the Colourworks eyeshadow palettes.  I think it’s a Superdrug own brand but in any case has the leaping bunny seal of BUAV approval that it is not tested on animals which is always reassuring.  Superdrug tend to stock a variety of Colourworks palettes and gift sets in the run up to Christmas each year.  This one contains 18 eyeshadows, each 1.2g, and retails for £7.99 but is included in their 3-for-2 on all gifts promotion which I imagine will run right up until Christmas.

I’ve left this picture quite large so that you can click on it for a better view.  I was attracted to this set by the selection of colours which I think is both very on trend and wearable, and a good mixture of brights and neutrals.  I have to say that when I was making swatches I was also very impressed by the quality – some of the shadows did feel a bit gritty but on the whole they applied well and were pretty pigmented.  The texture is very soft and creamy, so I did make a bit of a dent in some when I later applied some with the sponge tipped applicator that was included in the set, but for the price I’m really not complaining at all.  Most of the shades are shimmery and there are also a few glittery ones.  I think they are very comparable to Superdrug’s MUA eyeshadows which retail at £1 each.

I also created a collage of all the shadows in the palette at slightly closer range so you can click on the photo below to get a really good view of the shadows.

Here are a couple of quick snaps of the look that I wore today which used the two colours in the top left of the palette + a shimmery highlighter in the inner corner of my eye.

The colours were easy to apply and lasted all day over a primer, so I’m really pretty impressed by this palette so far.

I also purchased a set of 7 lipglosses for £7.99 and got a set of 5 nail varnishes free as part of the 3-for-2 special offer (rrp £6.99) which I will try to post pics of later this week.