MUA

Make-up

MUA Luxe London Glitter Eye Palettes in Rock Chick and Diva

November 21, 2013

My transition from occasional glitter lover to full on magpie seems to be reaching an all time climax and I nearly did myself some damage when I saw these little boxes of sparkle!

There are four palettes on offer, Rock Chick, Diva, Burlesque and Twilight, ranging from cool blues to fiery reds. I of course went for the two blue toned palettes Rock Chick and Diva and I’ve been pretty mesmerized with them since.

The glitter is suspended in a gel, which I thought would be poorly pigmented and difficult to build up, but actually it’s the complete opposite! Unfortunately all eight shades are liable to crease purely from the nature of the product, but I for one am happy to overlook this for the sake of such gorgeous colours!

The sponge applicator that comes with each palette is actually pretty good for applying the gel, with a thick and thin end for more precision.

Diva consists of a bright emerald green, a black/silver, a grey holo silver and a white holo silver.

Rock Chick has a deep turquoise blue, a black/multi holo, a light blue and a pure silver.

If you’re a fan of warmer tones I suggest you go take a look at the other two palettes on offer, as they are just as gorgeous and will no doubt make their way into my possession soon!

Available for £4 from Superdrug.com

Totally hellbent for all things sparkly and shiny!

– Gem

Make-up

MUA Pro-Brow Ultimate Eyebrow Kit

November 17, 2013

I picked this up in a haul a few weeks ago, but only just got round to trying it out! It’s silly when I spend ages hunting around for something, and once I have it, it lies untouched…alas.

I always struggle to find the right colour for my eyebrows, I’m a natural blonde but with my blue hair I find I need to darken them a little to not look washed out.

The MUA Pro-Brow Ultimate Eyebrow Kit contains three powders; a dark brown, a light brown and a pinky-nude, along with a gel. It comes with a small pair of tweezers and a short double ended brush.

The tweezers are absolute rubbish. Couldn’t even grab a thicker hair with them, let alone stray wispy hair. The brush is far from ideal, but passable enough to use on the go or in a hurry.

The dark brown was WAY too dark for me, and the lighter shade has too much of an orange understone. In honesty I think the colours are way off in the transition from pan to skin and the texture just feels too creamy, completely wrong for eyebrow powder in my opinion.

The highlight was…alright I suppose, really I feel largely indifferent about it. The only thing I will be likely to use is the gel which is pretty much standard across all eyebrow kits really. The only other real positives were in the packaging, it feels very sleek and heavy duty for MUA and the large mirror in the lid would be very handy for on the go.

Perhaps a lot of my disappointment is based on the fact that neither of the brow shades are really usable for day to day wear with my colouring, but I really wasn’t impressed with this as a whole.

If you have dark brunette brows, you may very well find this a great piece of kit for the ludicrously low price, but for me it’s a dud.

Available for £3.50 from Superdrug.com.

Totally hellbent for getting the HD brows palette that’s winging it’s way through the postal system right now.

– Gem

Make-up

MUA Glamour Days Eyeshadow Palette Swatches & Review

October 26, 2013

MUA have a reputation for amazingly pigmented eyeshadows at unbelievably low prices. I already have three MUA palettes – Undressed, Glitter Ball and The Immaculate Collection, and I picked up Glamour Days and Starry Night in a recent haul.

I will be posting a review and swatch of Starry Night soon, and will add the older palettes too if requested!

Okay onto the lovely colours. Glamour Days has 12 different shades with a mix of matte and shimmer finishes. I personally find the MUA shimmers to be of a much higher quality, and this palette is no exception.

My biggest gripe with MUA is that a lot of their ranges don’t name the shades. A few of the newer products have started naming, so hopefully they will add this to older lines at some point too.

All photographs are in natural sunlight, except for the 7/8/9 which I used artificial light because the sun went behind a cloud for like…a very long time!

The first three shades all have a gorgeous shimmer, and plenty of colour pay-off. Shade 1 looks to have golden hues in the pan, but swatched is a lovely silvery white that makes a perfect highlight for a dramatic look. Shade 2 is a sea green with a lot of shimmer, I can see myself using this one the most out of all the shades. Shade 3 is a pearly pinky-purple that has a lovely glimmer when the light hits it!

Shade 4 is a pearl pink, and the faintest of all the shades. Shade 5 is a matte brown, and as you can see in the swatch applied very badly with blotches. Shade 6 is a very high pigment blue that was especially creamy.

Shade 7 is a shimmery almost Cadbury’s purple, and very complementary to Shade 8 – a shimmery pink. Shade 9 is a bright metallic gold that will be great for the inner eyes or as a main shade for wearing with my most ~~disgusting~~ fabulous Manowar T-shirt.

Shade 10 is a matte black that was just a bit too grey for my like. Good for adding some definition to a look if you only wanted to carry one palette around but not dark and pigmented enough for standalone wear. Shade 11 is a rose gold shimmer that looks very easy to wear, and finally Shade 12 is a more muted gold shimmer.

There’s a good mix of colours and finishes here, and as long as you apply them over a good primer they don’t crease too much. I found there was hardly any fallout when applied, but lots when picking the product up on my brush.

The packaging is simple and the clear plastic top is handy for picking up the right palette in a hurry but I find MUA palettes scratch and smear easily and I don’t imagine it would take too much to damage them. As with most palettes it comes with a double ended sponge applicator, and as usual I throw it aside and use brushes or my fingers!

For only £4.00 though, I doubt you will find eyeshadows of this quality anywhere else (but if you do – let me in on it!)

Available from Superdrug for £4.00 (Currently 3 for 2)

Totally hellbent for a whole lot of glamorous shimmer (and the odd matte too!)

– Gem

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Make-up, Nails

An Accidental Haul

October 24, 2013

We set out for our little shopping trip yesterday with a thrifty mindset and a small budget. Four hours later that all went out the window! We’ve added links where the items are available online, otherwise you’ll have to hit the highstreet and track them down yourself!

Red links are Amie’s treats and blue are Gemma’s treasure, black things we both picked up!

In our defence we did start off well so first up is the charity shop treasure we found. Our intention was to find things we could craftily turn into cake stands and we did at least succeed in that.

Candle stick – £1.50

Studded belt – £1.25

Glass plates – £1

After that it all started to go downhill (at least for our bank balances, our mood certainly went uphill!) when we dared to venture into Superdrug. 3 for 2 on cosmetics is too good of an offer to resist really isn’t it.

NYC Rock muse in Red hot – £1.99

NYC Rock muse in Gold Maiden – £1.99

NYC Rock muse in Rock Muse – £1.99 (Free)

NYC Disco Inferno top coat – £1.99

NYC In a New York Minute in Lexington Yellow – £1.79

NYC in a New York Minute in Prince Street – £1.79 (Free)

MUA Glamour Days eyeshadow palette – £4.00

MUA Stary Night eyeshadow palette – £4.00

MUA Pro-brow ultimate eyebrow kit – £3.50 (Free)

MUA Heaven and Earth palette – £4.00

NYC in a new york minute in High Line Green – £1.79

NYC Foil Explosion in Magic Earth – £1.99 (free)

technic party brights in Sunset Strip – £0.99 (from Bodycare)

Vaseline Paint The Town – £3.49

It was a complete accident that we fell into Sallys and happened to find two OPI Rock Goddess sets.We’ve been lusting over this for ages and it’s always out of stock so we grabbed them gleefully and spent the next ten minutes talking ourselves out of getting the Mariah Christmas sets too (with a promise that we will get them next time…)

OPI Rock Goddess -£12.95

The poundland search for Revlon nail varnish came up trumps as always and we chose two gorgeous shades at a massive discount.

Revlon Scented Varnish in Grape Fizz – £1.00

Revlon Matte Suede in Fire Fox – £1.00

We then realized that all the charity shops were closed and that we had sort of diverted from our immediate task with the promise of cosmetics, so we decided a quick peek around home bargains might bring us some last minute treasure.

Gemspa body butter in Calming Amber – £0.99

Halloween shot glasses – £0.59

Craft storage box – £0.59

Star cookie cutters – £0.99

Drawer dividers – £0.99

Seeing as we DID get what we set out for, and found a whole host of treasure all at super bargain prices I don’t think we did too badly! A whole bunch of swatches and reviews will be coming very soon!

Totally hellbent for shopping trips with a bad influence

– Gem & Pants

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Make-up, Nails

A mini haul and some unsuccessful shopping!

September 23, 2013

I had to pop to my local shopping mall today to pick up a birthday card and present for my sister and though I’m trying to save money (and thus stop buying lots of make-up!) I promised myself one treat.

I headed straight for Sally and peered helplessly at the O.P.I stand till a clerk came to ask if I needed help. Seems this was due on today’s delivery but she “wouldn’t know till she had sorted it all, so come back tomorrow”.

Drats!

I started lusting after the O.P.I Rock Goddess set the moment I spotted it on-line. Admittedly more for Rolling Bones and The drummer’s hot (and the free bracelet!) than the other two shades, but at a RRP of £12.99 for four O.P.I shades and an extra gift I wouldn’t complain at Yellopalooza and Stand in lime for days as I don’t own any similar shades.

HOWEVER. My lust was not be sated with this delicious treat today so I moved on and picked myself up a few bargains in it’s place. I’ll return for the varnishes next time!

Another Poundland bargain. I picked up two Revlon Top Speed polishes in Ignite and Black Star. RRP is £5.99 so a few pennies saved there!

Also how cute is the butterfly wrapping paper I picked up for my sisters gift!

Bodycare had slim pickings today, but I saw this Chubby Stick style Technic lipstick in a gorgeous pinky purple (shade 16) for only £1.19 and was sold! On that note I definitely need some purple lipsticks – how is it I don’t own a single one!

I popped into Superdrug in search of the new MUA Pro-Brow Kit, but alas the shelves were looking very empty. As my current brow palette is completely out of gel, I settled for going old school and bought a clear mascara to set them. At only £1 I figure it’s not much of a loss if it doesn’t work!

Finally honourable mention goes to these ADORABLE mini animal sticky-notes that arrived in the post this morning. Only 99p from Ebay! You can’t pick which set you get (I was totally hoping for the ones with the zebras!) but they are all quite adorable so worth the risk!

So there you go, a mini budget haul of four cosmetic items for only £4,19!

Totally hellbent for saving pennies

– Gem

Beauty Boxes, Make-up, Skincare

Pants’ June 2013 Spoils

July 11, 2013

I thought I would share some of my favorite spoils with you for this month.

From left to right:

MUA blushers in “Bubble Gum”, “Candyfloss” and “Marshmallow” (check out Gem’s review of these)

Glossybox: Sarah Chapman Skin Tone Perfecting Booster

Beauty UK lipsticks in “naughty” and “vampire”

NYPM lipstick

Glossybox: Me Me Me Long Lasting Gloss in “Indulgent”

Glossybox: Helen E Eyeliner Pencil in “Electric Blue”

Model Co Black Eyeliner and Nude Lip Liner

Model Co Fibre Lashextend Mascara

Collection 2000 Skylash Mascara (a lovely Gem spoil after I helped her in her quest of “operation dressing table” look out for more about that in her blog)

Glossybox: Figs & Rouge Lip balm in Coco-rose

Glossybox: Boss “Jour pour femme” tester

I am most definitely looking forward to trying all of these out!

Totally hellbent for gifts and spoils

-Pants