Jack Wills makeup - Oakland Gloss

Never one to buy something just for its brand name (lies *ahem* lies), on a recent trip to Jack Wills I grabbed some bits from their make up range. This is the first of two little reviews.

I picked up two of the 'Oakland' glosses, in (l-r) Raspberry and Jaffa. These are nicely thick and long lasting yet non-sticky and definitely moisturising which I find unusual for a lipgloss. I would actually liken them to a thicker version of Barry M glosses. According to the JW website, these contain Jojoba oil which is a nice change to other glosses that often leave me with dry lips. 'Raspberry' is a pretty magenta with  lilac iridescence and 'Jaffa' is a non-shimmery coral which would have been very 'in' for summer 2011. Neither shade packs a huge punch pigmentation-wise, however they are nice for quick, easy application on the go. My only problem is that these rrp at £8, which for a non-specialist make up brand is pretty pricey (I didn't pay full price for these as I got them from an outlet store).

Available here.

Have you tried these? What do you think about clothing brands selling make up?

xxxx

A small step for beauties, One giant leap for Hannah-kind

MAC Studio Fix Fluid NW35 / MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NW30 / MAC MSF Medium Dark / UD Naked Palette: Virgin, Buck, Toasted / Maybelline Liner Define / Maybelline 'One by One' mascara/ No7 Lash Adapt mascara / Benefit Bad Gal eyeliner / NARS Mata Hari Blush / NARS Laguna bronzer / MAC 'Improvise' highlight / MAC 'Please Me' lipstick / Barry M 'Toffee' gloss -- Earrings c/o Little Mouse Ears

Anything look different? Anything at all... no? Let's look a little closer..

You may be thinking "seriously, what's new?" but you will see that I have finally mastered(-ish) the liquid eyeliner thing!

I know all of you beauty bloggers will have been doing this since you were in nappies, but it has taken me, (middle name- Clumsy) years to get this right. Many a time I have attempted it, messed up and had to remove all of my eye makeup and start again. Over the past couple years I have tried many methods of application, gel, brush, cream and eventually the winner- PEN! 

This Maybelline one is the best out of the couple I have tried, I just think the nib of the pen is thin enough to be almost foolproof, and the constant flow of product doesn't mean I am stopping and starting to reload my brush. Eventually I hope to buy a brush so I can put all of my fluidlines to good use, but until then I am really happy with this product! It's nice and black too, with the added bonus of minimal smudging. You may have noticed that I haven't mastered he 'flick', that is a work in progress!

The second new thing you may have noticed are my brows! 

See I was brought up in the family of Blonde Hair + Dark Eyebrows = NO NO. However when I was at Julies make-up course, the girl filled in my brows slightly and I really liked the way it made them look. I found this brow brush that I bought ages ago, and after a sweep of my eyeshadows I settled on Busk from the UD Naked Palette to fill them in, just a little. I love it!

What make up trend did you find hard to grasp?

xxxx

The Cheats Guide To Nail Art, Part Deux: Ombre Nails

Yay! It's another blog post for the clumsy and wobbly handed people who just can't 'do' nail art- expecially not x10! You can find my first post about this here. Anyway, I saw this nail effect on LLYMLRS blog ages ago, and the other day I thought I'd give it a go myself!

Basically the idea is that you pick 5 polishes of the same colour, from light to dark to give that gradient effect. Yet again it is relatively simple and doesn't require a whole load of effort!

The only colour fields that I had enough block colours to do this with is pink and blue, here is what I came up with...

Pink!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Pink Slipper' / OPI 'Pinking of You' / MUA #16 / Barry M 'Bright Pink' / Barry M 'Shocking Pink'

I really like the effect of this one, but when applied I thought the index finger and middle finger colours looked a little too alike- during the day I kept arguing with myself as I thought I had mixed them up. 

Blue!

Barry M 'Indigo' / OPI 'Blue My Mind' / Barry M 'Cyan Blue' / China Glaze 'Sea Spray' /Models Own 'Beths Blue' 

I had some difficulty finding the right colours for this one as I definitely don't own 5 block blues, for this reason I was quite skeptical in using CG 'Sea Spray' (2nd from left) as it isn't a completely flat colour. Also, as you can tell from the name, Barry M indigo which is on my thumb is a deep purple. I think it works though - kind of. Anyway I won't be losing sleep over it!

Have you tried ombre nails? Link me to your posts, I would love to see them :o)

xxxx

Illamasqua haul

When I saw that ASOS had added some bits from the Illamasqua Toxic Nature collection to it's sale, I just couldn't resist. These are the goodies that I picked up...

I've been dying to try an Illamasqua nail polish for some time, but the €17 price tag put me off. When I saw the full range for just over a tenner, I really couldn't resist! I eventually narrowed down my choices to...

gamma, purity

Gamma was always my favourite from this collection. I have wanted a bright orange for some time but nothing has given me that bright bright orange. Purity was what I thought to be a perfect nude. IRL it's more peach, definitely comparable to Barry M's Peach Melba which I already own- oops! Anyway, that's another blog post.

 Although I don't adore my other Illamasqua gloss, I couldn't resist one more! This is in the shade 'Torture' (cute name huh? :/) and is a bright bright orange. From previous experience, these do run quite sheer so hopefully it will give me the coral pop I am looking for!

This afternoon I couldn't resist painting my nails with Gamma, I am so impressed by this polish, it's absolutely gorgeous!

It's coming off kind of yellow here, however it is orange. Think highlighter orange! It dries to kind of a matte finish- not matte entirely but not sheeny shiny. I heart it!

On a completely different note, my little ipod arrived today! Got it from ebay for €60 as I no longer have an iPhone to play in my car. Or maybe I just wanted to show off this nail polish some more :o)

*swoons*

xxxx

Peachy

Unless you have been living in a cave all summer, you will be aware of the huge coral trend that is around lately in clothing, accessories and even cosmetics. Luckily, the peachier hues are readily available and much easier to work with than bright orange (Read: Coral).

Today I thought I would hop on the bandwagon and create a daytime peachy fotd!

MAC Studio Fix Fluid NW35 / MAC MSF Natural 'Medium Dark' / MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NW30 / UD Naked Palette: 'Virgin' (inner corner & highlight), 'Toasted' (lid) & 'Buck' (crease) / Maybelline 'One by One' mascara / NARS Laguna bronzer / NARS 'Gilda' blush / Benefit '10' highlight / Barry M Gloss 'Coral - 11'

A closeup of my eye make up...

Excuse the random silver lash on my left eye, I can only imagine I have a little lash glue stuck there that the eye shadow has attached itself to! I decided to go for a shimmery wash of colour as my blush is matte. I think it looks nice and summery too! 'Toasted' is a neglected shade in my Naked Palette, I really must use it more.

Now for the peachy ingredients...

NARS 'Gilda has been a neglected blush in my collection. When I got it I thought it was a scary colour, far too peach for me! However when it is applied, it gives the prettiest peachy pink flush.

In comparison to Benefits 'Coralista', you can see that it is much pinkier.

Finally, a closeup of the gloss I used - Barry M's 'Coral' (11). I didn't use a lipstick but as my lips are quite pigmented as it is, it came to quite a nice finish.

How have you been incorporating peach into your make-up?

xxxx

Marble Manicure

If you follow me on twitter you will be bored by know about my fun yesterday marbling my nails! I'm not gonna tell you how to do it because it can't be explained any better than Andrea's Choice 's video, so check that out.

Here are my marbelised creations...

OPI 'Koala Bear-y' & 'Lincoln Park After Dark' 

MUA Shade 16 & 4

OPI 'Blue My Mind' & 'Green-witch Village'

OPI 'Pink-ing of you' & 'Koala Bear-y'

Models Own 'Gold Rush' & 'Pink Fever'

So, what do you think? :o)

I also thought I would add some lessons I learnt about marbeling, from my own experience:

For God's sake, use tape!

Every tutorial will tell you to use tape around your finger to prevent a hot mess that looks like this:

yeah yeah, it looks nice. But it's a bitch to remove from the skin. So don't!

Prepare to make a mess!

This is the mess I made in my kitchen. Prepare to dig out every polish you own, destroy tupperware, go through a zillion cotton wool pads and stain your mums tea towels!

Not all nail polishes will work...

OPI's were my overall winners with this, however there was a noted exception ('You Don't Know Jacques', I am looking at you!).

Barry M was a total fail, they do not work! Such a shame as I have zillions of Barry M polishes :o(

Models Own were hit and miss, the last nail (above) is models own, however the glitter mostly ran. Instead I tried 'Beths Blue' and 'Cement Mixer', but they just sat on top of the water and wouldn't do anything! (see little floater below! Also, you can see a little failblob on the bottom, courtesy of Barry M!) 

You will be left with pretty cotton wool pads!

When you go to 'grab' the remaining polishes, you will be left with these! I love them :o) They are now in the bin, though.

I am going to do a full marble nail today! Any ideas of what colour combo I should go with?

xxxx

In and Out #3

IN
MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque: Do any of you remember the fuss that I kicked up about the PaintPot that I bought on a whim as part of March's Project monthly MAC? Well, turns out I love it! See, I was of the notion that it was a cream eyeshadow and disappointed that it didn't show up on my eyelid. What it is, in fact is *the* most amazing cream base. It makes colour pop like no other! A cheap dupe is Barry M Eye Crayon in  'Bronze'. It even has the same subtle pink shimmer running through it. However Barry M creases your eyeshadow and MAC does not!

All 200 of You! Thank you all so so much :o) I am already getting super excited to go shopping for some giveaway treats to mark this exciting occasion!

Stuck in Study-mode:  My end of year Uni exams begin on the 28th and stretch right on to May 19th. *sigh* So right now I am study central. I wouldn't mind so much but whenever I have big exams I get seriously stressed. Every time, without fail!

Peter Kay: My brother turns 18 next month (the day I finish my exams, actually!) and to celebrate, my family and I are going to see Peter Kay in Dublin on the 30th March! I am so excited, he is one of my absolute favourite comedians plus a shopping trip in Dublin is on the cards. Yay!

Will n' Kate's big day: I am most excited to see a) what Kate's wedding dress is like and b) what a five month pregnant Victoria Beckham wears! No doubt they will both look amazing :o)

OUT
Losers and Haters: Last night two of my dearest blogger friends (I am not going to name names, I doubt they would want to draw attention to the situation or give the idiot in question any more attention) received some very nasty comments/questions via Formspring. Now come on, did their parents never teach them that if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all? I know I speak for many bloggers out there when I say that the Beauty Blogger community has no place whatsoever for 'hater' comments. So 'they' may take their little nastiness elsewhere.

Complete Blog Secrecy: I told my Mum about my blog! I'm so happy because she gets it completely and she is so supportive. I always knew she would be, it was more a case of plucking up the courage to tell her. She keeps thinking of ideas for posts for me too :o). One major thing that she has done is told me that I have to start making YouTube videos. I feel like this is the push I need to get out there and do it! What do you all think? Should I give it a go? :o)

Control of the TV: Football, EVERY SINGLE EVENING. I cannot deal with it! I understand that you would match if United (big Man U supporters in my house, except Dad, he supports City!) were playing. But when, for example Tottehnam are playing Outer Mongolia?! Not so much.

How cute? Courtesy of weheartit.com

FOTD using NARS Orgasm blush

I hauled NARS's cult blush 'Orgasm' in my ASOS Groupon collective haul, and since Mr. Postie delivered it it has been used every day.

                              

♡ 

No7 Intelligent Balance Mousse Foundation 'Tan'

 ♡ Isa Dora Bronzer 'Teracotta Glow' (to contour) 

♡ NARS 'Orgasm' Blush  

♡ MAC PaintPot 'Rubenesque' 

♡

Benefit Eyeshadow in  'Moody' (highlight) and 'Soft Shoulder' (lid)

♡ 

L'Oreal 

Telescopic Mascara 

                    ♡

 Barry M Eyeliner 'Navy Blue'

 

                    ♡

NARS lipstick 'Catfight' 

                    ♡ Barry M Gloss 'Toffee' 

 

Orgasm blusher is described as a 'peachy pink with shimmer', honestly I have nothing quite like this in my collection. Shimmery blushers never appealed to me as I always thought that it would enlarge my pores and look like I had dunked my head in glitter, as is the case with many cheaper blushers. However, this blush is so finely milled that the golden shimmer is subtle yet effective. The application honestly is foolproof. I would say that this is of better quality than any MAC blusher that I have used. I am a NARS convert!

 

Have you tried this?

Do you love it? 

Love H xoxo

Payday Treats! Vol III

Early on Friday morning I dashed out to the shops for a little payday splurge! On Saturday, my mum and I went on another little splurge!! These are the results....

First up, the lip products!

 My first purchase was my very first Soap and Glory purchase! This is the much raved about 'Sexy Mother Pucker" gloss in Peach. I have tried many 'plumping' glosses, but this one is special. If you haven't tried it, you need to (Boots has 1/3 off S&G at the moment!).

I do have a lot of love for Urban Decay 'The Iconic' lipsticks, and this one in the shade Wanted is a welcome addition to my collection. Do not be put off by the extremely dark colour in the bullet, the colour payoff is a mauve-pink.

I picked up this Barry M gloss in Toffee on a whim and I love it, it is the perfect neutral gloss. Most importantly it lives up to its name and is infused with a toffee scent. Yum.

My very first Benefit Eyeshadow!

I picked these up in two shades, Soft Shoulder and Moody.

Cleverly not I have mixed up the swatches, on the left is Moody, a greige colour similar to what has been extremely popular in nail polish lately. Soft Shoulder is a brown with a slightly rusty undertone. It looks gorgeous as an all over lid colour.

A few random bits; Isa Dora bronzer, Stila glitter eyeliner and Sally Hansen blush brush.

 I am unsure if Isa Dora products are available in the UK, it is a drugstore brand in Ireland though. I picked up this bronzer in the shade Terracotta Glow mainly just to experiment with contouring. The swatch is barely visible on my skin tone, but I quite like it.

No idea why I chose this Stila glitter eyeliner.. I do like it, and it is of a reasonable quality. The shade I picked is Sea Green, if you enlarge the photo you can see the swatch more clearly. Any suggestions as to what I could use this for?

Finally... a couple of random purchases!

Do any of you use Radox Shower Smoothies? I absolutey love them however I think the price is quite excessive for a shower gel. This is the second flavour I have tried, and honestly these are good enough to eat! This one was on offer in Boots so I snapped it up. It smells like coconut yum yum!

Finally, a practical purchase. I have been known to lug 400ml cans of Elnett around in my handbag for fear that my hair would fall flat during the day shock! horror! This mini can of Garnier hairspray will now have pride of place in my handbag for those emergency touch ups.

What do you all think? Please let me know :o)

Love H xoxo

NOTD- Models Own 'Beth's Blue'

I am so late hopping on the Models Own bandwagon that the bandwagon has been, gone and left me at the roadside clutching on to my bottle of Beth's Blue for dear life.

Ok, enough of the dramatics Hannah! However, I got my first Models Own polish with my first Groupon purchase and my good God, I am impressed! I have been ever faithful to Barry M Nail Paints for at least a couple of years now, but nothing could prepare me for this: Pastel nail polish that is opaque in ONE coat! Swooon!

I honestly recieved so many compliments over this colour last weekend at work. Some people described it as  "blu-tack blue", one particularly inventive friend said that if lilac was blue, instead of purple, it would look just like this! Either way, I think this is the perfect shade for spring, something different yet gorgeous!

Also, worth noting that for only £5 or €7.50 you get a mahoosive 14ml worth of product.

Bravo Models Own! :o)

Stupid question, but have you tried any Models Own polishes? I really want to buy MORE! :o) 

H x

Lipstick Lover Review: NARS 'Roman Holiday'

I was feeling a little disheartened today, as payday is Thursday I won't be able to go on a shopping trip (even a little one) this week. So, I am going to take this opportunity to review some different lipsticks that I haven't got round to blogging about! I am considering making this a mini series called 'Lipstick Lover' because as you all know, lip stick is my guilty pleasure!

NARS Sheer Lipstick 'Roman Holiday'

 Colour/Scent? A muted rose colour. No scent.

Longevity? As it is sheer, 1-2 hours (if you are lucky)

Consistency? Almost that of a balm, very moisturizing and it glides on lips nicely.

Pigmentation? Very pigmented, especially for this type of consistency! It is a very build-able colour too, one swipe gives a pinkish glow but it can be built up to become completely opaque (3 swipes).

 Packaging? Matte black box. The bullet itself is comparable to that of a Barry M lipstick, you know, with the almost velvet feel to it?

Price? £17.50 or €22.96 for 3.4g of product = £5.15/€6.75 per gram.

Other shades? ASOS currently stocks 19 other shades of lipstick in this finish. Plenty of choice!

The Verdict... Yes, I love this! It is my first dabble into NARS, and I am impressed. They are very pricey, even more expensive than MAC. However, I think this price is justified as it is an iconic lip product and a nice addition to my collection. The only problem with this is that it is super wearable and because of this I find myself reaching for it almost every day. This is bad because it is so expensive and I don't want to use it all up! 

Available from ASOS and NARS counters worldwide.

3 Barry M Mini Reviews- Blush, Eyeshadow & Eye Crayon

Barry M is definitely my favourite drugstore brand, I love everything about them; the pigmentation, price points and variety to name but a few. So, this review has been a long time overdue! These three products are ones I use every day, and they are a constant feature in my makeup bag :o)

Trio Eyeshadow- Golden Goddess

 The set comes with an almost matte white (highlight), a gorgeous bronze with shimmer (lid) and a matte deep brown (crease).

As you can see, I have already hit pan on the middle shade there, this is because it is my go-to lazy day all over lid colour. The packaging is nice and sturdy, some dislike the design on the packaging however I think it is cute.

Highly pigmented colours as you can see. This is how I use them...

 Would I repurchase? Yes! I am looking for other shades to add to my collection.
Available here for £5.99 or €8.99.

Blush- Pink Orchid

This blush has taken a good battering in my handbag, hence the missing chunk!

Similar packaging to the eyeshadow, I really like it. It came with a little brush (useless) which I threw away. This blush is the brightest pink in the range, so naturally I was attracted to it! This blush is a matte colour with no shimmer which I like. Again, very pigmented as you can see below, although a little goes a long way. They also contain Vitamin E which is nice.. 

Would I repurchase? Yes, a well pigmented and easy to wear colour, gorgeous!

Available here, £4.59 (not sure of € price).

Shimmering Eye and Lip Crayon- Golden Bronze

This basically is a cream eyeshadow in stick form, however as it not dissimilar from my skintone I think it works wonderfully as a base. I am going to put it out there and admit, this is an INCREDIBLE dupe for MAC Rubanesque Paint Pot, it has the gold and pink shimmer and all. Full post on this is coming soon! This does crease after a long day, however it makes the shades in the Eyeshadow Trio pop. This plus the center shade of the Eyeshadow Trio is my go-to everyday neutral eye. 

Not a wonderful swatch, but you get the general idea.

Available here for £4.59 (still don't know the € equivalent)

Would I repurchase? Yes, I am very impressed by the pigmentation and creamy consistency.

Looks like a 10/10 for Barry M this time!

Have you purchased any of these? What do you think?

Love, H xoxo