New! MUA Matte Perfect Primer

I am constantly on the lookout for a primer that will stop my t-zone from looking like the bottom of a deep fat fryer so was excited when I saw the MUA Matte Perfect Primer and couldn’t wait to try it.

I figured the best test for it was to wear it on a work day as that is when I wear my make-up for the longest time and usually when I get oily the most (you know the saying – blood, sweat and tears!).

Opening it this morning I put a little of it on my fingers. It was quite greasy and I was left wondering how something so greasy was going to make my face Matte. To my surprise once I applied it to my face, despite feeling greasy whist applying it, it did dry Matte! So I applied my make-up over it and everything looked nice.

I completely forgot about it until about 4pm then I decided to look at my face and see if I had a nice big shiny nose. It still looked matte which was nice so the next test was to touch my face. I put my finger on the crease of my nose and it just felt greasy and horrible. Half an hour later (as I write this) I can feel it on my face. I’m not sure if that is because I know it’s greasy or that I just didn’t notice before.

My final test is to get some shine proof papers and the rub them against my face. I swear that I don’t have that much oil on my face when I don’t wear make-up or primer! I know it’s not nice but just look at the picture below to see quite how much came off my t-zone!

I think I am going to go back to my Rimmel Stay Matte primer. That doesn’t work perfectly either but it works better than this! I have combination skin so I dread to think what it would be like on someone with oily skin.

Sorry MUA but this isn’t a hit for me. Going to give it a 1 out of 5 just because it makes you face look sort of matte but it will have to lose the other 4 as it just feel thick and greasy on the face.

NPOTD

I just purchased this nail varnish yesterday. Isn’t it gorgeous! I put it on before a meeting and got compliments on it! It’s Maybelline Super Stay 7 days new pastels collection in Uptown Blue! Did I say already it’s gorgeous?! It’s chipping a bit already but I did it quickly without a base or top coat so it’s to be expected!

Memebox – the Superbox #29 Burst of Color 2

At the weekend I received by first Memebox – the Superbox #29 Burst of Color 2.
I was so excited about this and I wasn’t disappointed, just unfortunately some of the colours are a bit too yellow/warm for me (I have a cool/pink undertone).

When I first got the box it was so heavy so I knew there was going to be some good stuff inside! I got 8 items which I believe were all full size (I got two eye pencils).

The first thing I saw was the Me In Sua Young Mineral Essence In Liquid Foundation which has an spf of 32 in it. I was extremely excited at first as it was a light shade but when I put it on it was very yellow/warm tone so I don’t think I will be able to wear it. It was a very runny foundation like the new L’Oreal and Maybelline ones and I am not sure how I really feel about them. They just feel too oily for me and with my skin currently sitting on the oily side of combination skin, I don’t really want to apply more oil to my face.

The second product I noticed was a Hope Girl mascara. The packaging was gorgeous with a leopard print on it and felt like it was made of metal (I am not sure if it was though). It has one of the plastic wands that I like so much but I haven’t tried the product out yet so can’t really say anything L

In the plastic bag with the mascara was another Hope Girl product called Tinted Cushion Lipstick. Reading the card there was a choice of a pink or a hot orange and naturally I got the orange! It has a crayon lip stick on one side and a blending brush on the other side. I liked the application of the product and the idea of it but there is no way I can wear orange. I know it is the latest trend but I tried this on and I just look like I have eaten too much Spaghetti Bolognaise!

        

The next two items were in a plastic bag together and were all eye products. There were two Beauty People eye liners in a beautiful copper and coral which I am looking forward to trying and a Catgirl waterproof pen liner. This has the sharpest tip I have seen in a while and promises to be waterproof and smudge proof. I drew some on my hand and it produced a really prominet black line so it all looked promising. I lt it dry for a bit then decoided to test out it’s waterproof claim. I licked my finger and rubbed it over the line. Immediately the eyeliner all gathered up on my finger and just peeled off! Hardly waterproof. Still I think it is a good eyeliner just don’t wear it in rainy season (whch is all year in the UK!).

Next I saw what was clearly a face power called Close Up Decuple Fitting Powder. I am not sure of the make but on the puffer it says Ladykin. Again this was in a light shade so I was really pleased. It had the most amazing smell (I think it reminded me of talcum powder). This has a lovely feel on the face and although it is also a bit warm for me, I think I could get away with wearing it.

The final product that was a Hope Girl 3D powder blush. The packaging was the same as the Hope Girl mascara with the leopard print on it. This is one of the blushers that has the powder puff attached to it and the powder comes through when you apply it to your cheek. Looking in the bottle (not sure what else to call it, container?) it looked light a light, corally pink. When it comes out it is a baby pink with little golf sparkles in it. It is GORGEOUS! Not an everyday wear but would definitely wear it on nights out.

Overall I was happy with this box. For $23 you can’t really go wrong with 8 full size products. I guess I was a little disapointed that they were all for yellow toned skin but I had never filled in a questionnaire to say I had pink toned skin so I can’t really complain. I also like the fact that this superbox just contains make up. The thing I dislike about Birchbox, Love Me Beauty and glossybox is you get so many skincare products when I just want make up! The Ipsy bag in Amercia looks like it would be for me but they don’t ship to the UK. I have tried the Wantable make up box which I loved but at $40 something to ship over to the UK, I just can’t afford that.

I will give this Memebox at 4/5 as I really liked it but some of the colours weren’t right.

essence haul

During a recent trip to Spain I discovered a cosmetics brand called essence which I was really excited about. It was full of young, vibrant coloured make up and seemed similar to Barry M or Collection so was quite sad that it wasn’t available in the UK. As we went all inclusive I didn’t have much money with me so I couldn’t get the products I wanted. All I got was a magnetic effects nail art pen that allowed you to draw the magnetic effect that you wanted on any magnetic effects nail varnish. When I got home I tried it with the Barry M magnetic nail varnish and it was brilliant. So I went on the net to search for this make up brand.

I was so happy to discover that it has just come to the UK! I think it was literally introduced last month so it is brand new over here. It is stocked in Wilkinson’s (which is a strange place to me but there you go) so as soon as I could I went to my local Wilko that stocked it and got myself some goodies!


The first item I got was an eye sorbet illuminating plum. This is a gel/cream eye shadow in a baby pink with hints of green and gold glitter in it. It is a lovely colour but it is the sort of thing you would need to wear under something else or for a hint of colour. But to be honest, these products are only about £1-3 each so I am not complaining!


I also purchased a power eye shadow in what I thought was a beautiful green but it is called ‘ my baby blue!’ so I am guessing it is meant to be a blue! There is a beautiful pattern on the eye shadow itself and it looks gorgeous. Unfortunately it is not the most pigmented but again what do you expect for a couple of pounds. Again it would make a lovely base for another product.


The final make up product I got was a mini eye shadow pallet called ‘all about candies’. This contains six candy pastel shades of eye shadows which all look gorgeous. These are much more pigmented than the single eye shadow and I am looking forward to using these.

The remaining products I purchased were all nail products (my fav!).



Two of the items I got go hand in hand. I got the nail art paper print manicure transfer solution and the paper print manicure ‘get the news’ transfer. I don’t know what I expected for £1.50 but I wasn’t expecting the transfer just to be a bit of newspaper! Should have known really. I haven’t tried this yet but I am hoping that the transfer solution will be good and will stop me having to use my precious vodka to do the look or having my nails smell like mouth wash!


The next nail varnish I got was labelled ‘colour of the year’ and is their take on radiant orchid. It is in shade 174 purple sugar and is a beautiful orchid pink. I have put it on once and it looked nice but it chipped straight away. I did cheat and not put a base or top coat on so maybe it will last longer with those.


essence have their own gel nails line called ‘gel nails at home’ and sell a UV lamp for approx. £20 that you can use with them. I already have a Sensationail UV lamp so just purchased one of their gel nail varnishes. The one I got was an effect gel top coat in 03 twinkle purple. It’s a glitter  gel top coat but I am not sure if it will work with my Sensationail top coat or not. Will have to give it a go and see. I really hope it does as it is a darn sight cheaper than Sensationail nail varnishes!!


As I liked the magnetic nail art pen so much I also wanted to get one of their custom magnets. I got one called sweet heart which is meant to create a heart shape on the nail. I haven’t tried this one out yet but am looking forward to it. I hope it works!


My final purchase was a manicure aid. It is called ‘easy 2 polish’ and is basically a stand for your nail to make it easier to get the varnish on the nail and not on the table. I thought it would come in handy when I do my nail art (not that I have done any in a while).

Overall I am quite satisfied with essence. You get what you pay for but they are a really good drug store cosmetics company and I will make sure I go into Wilko more often to see if they have anything new on offer!

You Beauty Discovery July 2014

It’s that time of the month again when all of the beauty boxes arrive! Yay! Right now I am only subscribed to one, You Beauty Discover as it is my favourite. For only £6.95 you get two full price products and 2-3 samples which is miles better than paying £12.99 for what is often five samples with Birchbox or Glossybox.

You Beauty Discovery email you at the beginning of the month with of a list of 10-12 (I can’t remember how many) options for your full size products. You then choose two of them to go in your box with some surprise samples. This month I choose the Miss Manga mascara by L’Oreal and a Balm Balm Rose Geranium lip balm.

I was very surprised by the first thing I saw when I opened the box which was a sample of Dove MEN + care pro-moisture shave cream! Now I don’t want to be sexist but I always thought this beauty box was for women? Maybe I am wrong but the cosmetics we get certainly seem to be for females e.g. perfume instead of cologne. As much as this will be useful for my husband, I was a little disappointed to have a sample that I couldn’t use (though maybe I can use it on my legs!!). I guess it was an extra as we still got two full size products and two samples but still. Maybe they should do a separate box for men and women if they want to go down that route?

The sample I saw was the Agent Provocateur Fatale perfume. I am not a big perfume wearer. I have a collected of 3-4 scents and which I always forget to wear! So not necessarily my thing but still nice to try new ones out. I have to say I choked when I first sprayed this. It’s too much of a dry scent for me. I prefer florally/fruity scents. Think this one will be being passed onto the mother in law who loves all samples!

The final samples was a 3ml packet of Egyptian Magic All Purpose Skin Cream. This is one that I am looking forward to trying. Although I don’t normally like changing up my skin care routine, I have heard wonders about this product so am excited to see the results.

Now onto the full size products:

When I saw the Miss Manga Mega Volume mascara on the list this month I jumped at the chance to get it. In my previous boxes I have managed to get some really good L’Oreal products for effectively half the price and so many people have raved about this mascara I was excited to try it. Ok so it is a good mascara, I will give it that, but does it make my eyelashes look like the girls on the manga cartoons that my husband insists on watching? No. Is it really any better than my Collection No Clumps mascara? No. Nice addition to my collection but I wouldn’t go out and buy it again.

The last item was the Balm Balm rose geranium lip balm. It was quite a small pot but I am pretty sure it’s a full size, after all, you don’t normally get a huge pot for lip balm. This smells amazing! It’s just like the chocolate rose sweets that you get in posh chocolate boxes! I don’t think the smell would be for everyone, kind of like not everyone likes Palma Violets (which I love by the way) so that might put some people off, but not this lady! The product itself seemed quite dry at first sight but it appears to melt at the touch of your finger and glides onto your lips nicely and leaves them feeling nice and soft. Overall I think this was my favourite product of the box.

Not the best You Beauty Discovery box I have ever had but still better than most of the other subscription boxes. I have just purchased a one off Memebox so looking forward to trying that out. Watch this space for the review…

Gwen Stefani OPI Collection – Push and Shove

Again I am a bit late with this review but want to share my thoughts anyway.

I have been searching for a perfect chrome effect nail varnish for so long. Ever since I tried some nail wraps that were basically like mirrors, I have wanted to find a nail varnish to recreate that. I think I have finally found it!

The Gwen Stefani OPI collection ‘Push and Shove’ comes with its own basecoat and warns that you should not use any other base coat and not use a top coat. As long as you follow these rules then it will work. It does have brush strokes when dry but then I don’t know how they can avoid this.

I have seen a few people comment that it doesn’t last very long. If you read the bottle it says ‘put quote here of what it says’. So it isn’t meant to last for more than one night.

Personally I think it is a brilliant idea and you get that shine that you are after. Would have been nice if they could make it last longer but we are on our way to getting the chrome effect that we are after. I have recently seen a couple of reviews of a new Sally Hansen nail varnish that is available in the US which is meant to be a nice chrome effect but it doesn’t appear to be available in the UK just yet. Looking forward to trying that one!

I would give the Gwen Stefani OPI collection Push and Shove a 4/5. It has the colour that people are after but sadly it only lasts for one day!

Revlon scented nail varnishes

I’m a bit late with this review as I haven’t been on here in a while but I still wanted to post it!

Back in April I saw an advert for the Revlon Parfumerie scented nail varnishes and I knew straight away that I had to have them! I went out and purchased two shades, a gorgeous pink and a lovely blue. When choosing which ones to get I was torn between choosing a scent I liked the sound of and choosing a colour. In the end I went for the colours I would generally choose.

When you first paint the varnish it doesn’t smell of the perfume. It is just a really strong nail varnish smell mixed with a strange smell (I am guessing this is what makes it smell of perfume). But when it dries it is lovely. It is so strange having your hands smell of perfume! These work much better than the models own scented nail varnishes as they have a stronger smell.

The next test was washing my hands to see if the smell stayed. Unlike the models own ones, the smell was still there after I washed my hands!! In fact I could still smell it by the end of the evening (I wasn’t out anywhere, just at home). Yet when I woke up the next morning the smell had disappeared. I guess they can’t have it lasting all the time!

I really like these but would prefer some other scents as the perfume scents weren’t really my sort of thing. All in all I will give them a 4/5 (minus 1 for the perfume scents).

Models own polish for tans

Finally back online after my degree and able to do some reviews etc. I think I might expand the blog to be more than about nail varnish to be honest as I also subscribe to a view beauty boxes. Thinking I might add reviews of them to the blog!

But let’s get started with a review!

Models Own have tried again with one of their specialist nail varnishes. This time they have brought out shades that are meant to enhance one’s tan. Despite being the palest person since Alice Cullen I decided I had to have them! So I purchased two colours – ‘Shades’ which is a beautiful luminous pink, and ‘Bikini’ which is an luminous yellow.

I must admit that I haven’t tried the pink on my own nails but I have swatched them both.

Here is a picture of the yellow shade Bikini on my nails (ignore the black nail art lines).

This was one of the thickest formulas I have experienced in a while. It seemed to be really thick but also dry really quickly meaning I couldn’t get a very nice coat on my nails. Now maybe I just have a bad bottle of the Bikini shade and should try out Shades to see if it is the same. But I don’t want gloopy nail varnish on!

I have heard that it does bring out a tan though. But surely that is just because it is a really bright colour and contrasts with the dark tan? Anyone who has other luminous colours and also has a tan, please let me know!

In all I give it a 2/5. I don’t think I will be going out of my way to wear them again really.