Thursday 31 May 2012

Magazine freebie take two....

Whilst drooling over the free benefit goodies in glamour magazine, I spotted Instyle magazine giving away The boy shop eye liners. Or should I say 2?! There's two things to choose from; a full size mascara or two full size eye liners. I of course chose the eye liners, I'm a sucker for them and like I said in my previous post I have way too many mascara's






When I swatched them, they're not very soft but I'm thinking maybe this is a good thing. maybe I'll get more wear out of them without them smudging. Only one way to find out, I'll try them out over the next few days and give a full review.

The colours are:
* 01 Black
* 06 French Navy ( I love that name for some reason!)

Grab these while you can ladies. The magazine cost £3.80 and I think it's worth buying!

Thanks for reading :)

S xx

Magazine freebies....

Think I'm pretty much the last person to blog about this, but I'm going to anyway because I love a little freebie!

Glamour magazine are giving away 3 benefit products this month (one product per magazine) And for £2.00, who can resist?!

* Bad gal mascara
* The pore fessional
* That gal





I didn't get the bad gal mascara as I already have one, and seriously have so many mascara's that I need to use up. I only got one of 'the pore fessional' and one 'that gal' but I definitely think I'm going to try my luck tomorrow and get more. These would be ideal for my professional kit, and the size of the tube is great for travelling with.

Thanks for reading :)

S xx

Wednesday 30 May 2012

Budget Beauty: MUA....

We all love a good old bargain right? Well I know I do, and especially with make up! There are so many cheaper brands out there and because they're so so, a lot of people avoid them thinking 'If they're that cheap then they can't be that good quality' So what I thought of doing is go out and search all of the cheaper make up brands and review certain products from them to see if it's possible to have 'budget beauty'
The products from each brand I'll be buying and testing are:

* Lipstick
* Lipgloss
* Pencil eyeliner
* Liquid eyeliner
* Eyeshadow
* Mascara
* Blusher
* Concealer
* Nail varnish

First up (One of my favourite brands) MUA:


I've chosen my favourites just for the pictures, but I've used basically every colour in every product I have over the past month.

Let's start with lips:


* Lipstick: 5/5 Extremely pigmented. Long lasting. Dark and bright colours leave a slight stain behind once worn off

* Lipgloss: 3/5 Smells amazing. More of a sheen than a gloss. Not sticky at all. Not very long lasting

Eyes:


* Pencil liner: 4/5 Extremely pigmented. Very creamy. Smooth to apply. Does smudge if not set with a powder (perfect for a smokey look)

* Liquid liner: 5/5 LOVE this eyeliner, I use it as part of my daily routine (have used about 5 bottles) Extremely pigmented. Long lasting. Once dry it stays put until you want to wash it off. Easy application

* Eyeshadow: 5/5 Extremely pigmented. Available in pearl and matte. For me, the black (shade 20) beats MAC's 'carbon' by miles!!! Blend so easily. Lasts all day

* Mascara: 4/5 I'll admit, when I picked this up I thought it wouldn't be any good...WRONG! I actually really like it. It's more of a natural looking mascara, so if you like dramatic lashes this isn't for you. No clumps. Separates lashes

Face:


* Blusher: 5/5 Extremely pigmented. Quite powdery but easily tapped off the brush. Long lasting.

* Concealer: 1/5 Doesn't conceal anything for me. Found it quite greasy. Not pigmented at all (maybe down to my oily skin?)

Nails:


* Nail varnish: 3/5 Two coats needed (I always apply 2 coats with any varnish) Smooth application. Lasts 2 days before chipping starts


Top five products: (in no particular order)

* Liquid eyeliner
* Lipstick
* Eyeshadow
* Blusher
* Mascara

Everything I used for this months budget beauty cost £1.00 each, however there is also a studio range available too which I highly recommend!  

MUA is available to buy online and superdrug.



Thanks for reading :)

S xx






Tuesday 29 May 2012

Kit haul....

I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I'll say it again just in case. It's quite hard building a freelance kit on a budget. I don't have the kind of money to go out and buy all high end stuff, and to be honest I don't think I'd want too, considering there are so many great cheaper brands out there.

Everything in my kit so far, I've used or tried for myself (not the actual products in my kit) because I want and need to know how they apply, the pigmentation and the staying power before I even considering applying them on someone else. I've asked the advice of a few make up artists for their opinion on 'lower end' brands, and they all replied with pretty much the same answer - You can use cheaper make up, as long as you have a decent set of brushes to apply it with.

That was a very long winded intro! The meaning of this post? I picked up a few bits for my kit over the past week and a half and thought I'd share what I bought with you:



MUA Eyeshadows:

* Shade 11
* Shade 25
* Shade 1
* Shade 8
* Shade 7
* Shade 2




MUA Lipsticks:

* Shade 2
* Shade 7
* Shade 6
* Shade 1




MUA Blush:

* Shade 5
* Shade 2




Wet and Wild eyeshadows:

* Plum silva
* Sensual sage




e.l.f:

* 2x flat top powder brushes


Pic kindly borrowed form the e.l.f website


Other:

* Collection sheer loose powder in 'translucent'
* Gosh velvet touch lipliner in 'nougat crisp'
* MUA eyeshadow primer



My reviews:





Thanks for reading :)

S xx

Monday 28 May 2012

Nail varnish dupe....

I've watched so many beauty videos about the very pretty nail varnish by China glaze called ' For Audrey' and have wanted to get my hands on it. The only place near me that stocks China glaze doesn't stock loads of colours, so I haven't been able to buy it. However, I was out shopping yesterday with my sister, and spotted a total (in my opinion) dupe!


Next to the Tiffany's box, it's the exact same colour......and cost 99p in TJ Hughes.




I had to share this as soon as I got it, because so many people seem to love the 'For Audrey' (with good reason, it's so pretty) and I'm not sure how easy it is for everyone to get hold of. AND 99p? Everyone loves a bargain right?! ;)


The technic nail varnish is called 'moonlit Jade' and costs 99p. I got mine from TJ Hughes, but I have bought this brand from Bodycare too so they should also stock it.

Thanks for reading :)

S xx

Top 10 summer nail varnish....

I was raking through my nail varnishes last night and trying to decide which ones I'd wear over the summer (now we eventually have a summer!) So, without further ado here are my top 10:


First up: e.l.f



* Mango madness £1.50
* Pink gum £1.50
* Teal blue £1.50

Barry M:


* Cyan blue £2.95
* Mint green £2.95
* Bright red £2.95

Rimmel lasting finish:



* Apricot punch £2.99
* Sunshine £2.99
* Lemon drop £2.99


Miss sporty:



* Shade 80 £1.99

* e.l.f - http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/product~prodID~62.htm

* Barry M - http://www.barrym.com/nail-paints

* Rimmel - http://www.superdrug.com/a-z-brands/rimmel/icat/rimmel/?sort=name&sort=release&parentCategoryRef=rimmel&order=asc&order=desc&q=*&type=makeup16

* Miss sporty - http://www.boots.com/en/Miss-Sporty-nail-polish_1121585/


What are your top 10 summer nail varnishes?

Thanks for reading :)

S xx

Sunday 27 May 2012

Advice....

This is probably going to be a very rambley post but I really need to ask some advice.Here we go: Last year I enrolled (and passed) on a 6 week 'basic cosmetic' course at a local college, where I got taught how to apply day, evening, occasion and bridal make up. I f I'm totally honest it was a waste of time and money, because everything I know about make up application I've either taught myself, or learnt from beauty guru's and make up artists on youtube. On the course, I thought I'd learn lots of new techniques and skills, and I didn't. We spent only 4 out if the 6 weeks applying make up which to me really isn't enough.

My whole reason for this post is because I want to work within media make up and I don't know how to go about it all. I know I'll still (hopefully I'll get work) get offered bridal make up, which I'd be more than happy to take on because I love every aspect of make up. I've emailed various make up artists and I've had mixed responses from them all, hence the confusion. Some have said that my best option is to enrol into a make up school and get a qualification, and the others have suggested I shadow other make up artists that are working in the field I want to work in and gain experience.

I was thinking of emailing all local theatres and asking if I could maybe work alongside/assist the make up artists working there, but I'm not sure if the actors and actresses apply their own make up?

I don't know any make up artists, photographers etc that I could get in touch with and ask if I could assist them, so I don't know which path to take: school or no school.
If there are any make up artists reading this, what would you advise? I'd really appreciate any avice anyone could give because I'm pretty much stuck in limbo right now.

Random picture make it all that bit less boring :P



Thanks for reading :)

S xx

Weekly favourites....

It's sundaaaaaaaaaay....again! How fast has this come around please? Monday blues tomorrow, I'm mentally preparing myself for work :/ Fun times! Anyway, here's what I've been loving this week:



* Herbal essences breakage defender intensive mask £1.00 (poundland)


* Bourjois lipstick in '06 Rose' £1.99 (make up stall)


* Soap and Glory 'what's nude' quad £10.00 shades: (boots)
* Vanilla
* Pink T
* Mudhoney



I love this palette, the colours are so easy to just through together, and suit everyone.

Thanks for reading :)

S xx

Saturday 26 May 2012

'Latest in beauty' beauty box....

I recently started following a company called Latest in beauty (@latestinbeauty) on twitter because a friend of mine recommended I follow them. I'll be totally honest, I didn't know who they were or what they did until I was sitting one night and clicked onto their website.

In a nutshell, 'latest in beauty' are a UK based company that offer beauty boxes (little beauty box) containing three samples for the small price or £1.50 (plus the cost of a text message). I've been interested in subsrcibing to a beauty box for some time now, but I've read and watched so many mixed reviews on them all, so haven't taken the plunge yet.
Anywhooo back to the latest in beauty boxes. This company offers three samples for the tiny cost of £1.50 plus the cost of a standard text message (it's all done via text rather than having to add your bank details online), and the best thing is you get to choose your samples.



How it all works:
Firstly, you need to click onto their website and fill in a questionnaire, which asks questions such as 'hair colour and type, eye colour, skin type' etc (along with creating a user name and password) The reason for the questionnaire is to find out more about you and what type of products you're looking for. Once you've registered and filled in the questionnaire, you're directed to the part of the website that let's you choose your samples. There's three categories with four products in each: hair, skincare and beauty. After choosing one sample from each category all you have to do is text the word 'TRY' to the number provided, and wait (literally 3 seconds) for a text containing your checkout code. On receiving this code, type it into the little box, click 'submit' and that's it, sit back and wait for your samples to arrive.

What i love about the 'little beauty box:
* It only costs £1.50 (plus a text message)
* You get to choose which products you want to sample
* The company doesn't claim to send you anything bigger than a sample size (unless stated)
* You receive more than one sample of each product
* You don't need to give out bank details
* There's no subscription. You choose if and when you want to order another beauty box

Here's what I decided to try out this month:

* Treseme split remedy trio 3x10ml sachets


* Liz Earle sheer skin tint 3x 2ml sachets



* Super by Dr Nicholas perricone bright eyes 2x 0.5ml sachets



The company also offers two other beauty boxes: Luxury samples. This  is the same as the 'little beauty box' as in you get to choose your samples, but differs because unlike the 'little beauty box' this box contains larger samples (not sachets) and each sample is individually priced, and P+P costs £2.95 as oppose to the £1.50 that the' little beauty box' costs.
The other option is the 'themed box' These are pre made boxes filled with luxury samples, and unlike other beauty boxes latest in beauty show you what's inside the themed box before you order it to help you decided if you want it. These are available 6 times a year, P+P cost £2.95 (I can't see a price for the actual box)

I'd definitely reccommend giving this beauty box a try. £1.50 for three samples, is totally worth it. Can't wait till next month now :P

Reviews coming up once I have that chance to try everything out.

Thanks for reading :)

S xx

Friday 25 May 2012

Top 10 high street products....

There's been so many of the 'top 10 highstreet/drugstore products' videos going around on youtube, and we all know by now I like to play along :P Sooooo here's my top 10:

* Foundation
* Concealer
* Powder
* Blush
* Highlight
* Eyeshadow
* Eyeliner (liquid and pencil- sorry I cheated)
* Mascara
* Lipstick
* Lipgloss


* Foundation - Revlon colorstay £12.49: I love the coverage this gives me, and it stays put all day
* Concealer - Collection lasting perfection £4.19: Full coverage and long lasting
* Powder - 17 pressed power £3.99: I like this just as much as rimmel stay matte, but prefer this packaging)



* Blush - Fashionista £4.00: Extremely pigmented and long wearing
* Collection - Shimmer and shade £4.19: Perfect for a subtle highlight, but buildable for extra shimmer





* Eyeshadow - MUA £1.00: Extremely pigmented, easily blended and long lasting
* Liquid liner - MUA £1.00 Pencil liner - Barry M bold waterproof liner £3.99: Both of these are pigmented, smooth to apply, and last pretty much all day



* Lipstick - MUA £1.00: Very pigmented, creamy and long lasting
* Lipgoss - NYX Megashine £2.25: The only gloss I've noticed to last quite a while without having a sticky consistency



* ebay - NYX lipgloss: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=nyx+mega+shine+lipgloss&_frs=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m359


Thanks for reading :)

S xx