B E A U T Y | N A K E D C H O C O L A T E*

Makeup Revolution Naked Chocolate Palette Review w/ Swatches | £7.99

The Love Affair with Chocolate continues with the stripped back eyeshadow 
collection in our collectable chocolate bar palettes. Naked Chocolate is 
here. Containing 16 stunning eyeshadows for perfect bare to smokey eyes, 
mixture of shimmer and matte shades. 3D chocolate palette with full size 
mirror and applicator.

The new Naked Chocolate palette from Makeup Revolution seriously feeds my makeup addiction even if it doesn’t fulfill my white chocolate cravings. You may remember a post a while back with the original I ♥ Chocolate palette from the I ♥ Makeup sister line and this new palette is the third installment after the Death by Chocolate palette was launched.

The first thing I’ll say is about the packaging. Just like the original, the whole 3D chocolate bar is fantastic and is executed much better than the Too Faced ‘equivalent’. -Speaking of Too Faced, the first palette was a direct dupe, what I love about this is that instead of releasing a Semi Sweet knock off, MUR have come up with something very original which doesn’t follow on from other releases. 

B E A U T Y | E L F – H D B L U S H*

ELF HD Blush Review w/ Swatches - Showstopper

I posted a picture up on Instagram last week sometime wearing the Elf HD Blush in Showstopper. I wasn’t wearing it on my cheeks though….. I was wearing it on my lips. Before I go into why, I’ll review it and then you guys will begin to understand.

So, first off I knew this would take some working with. Not only was I new to blush when I bought it but I was a complete blending noob which is why I’ve been practicing like mad! But anyway, I was excited for it.

Annnnnd then, the disappointment…..

B E A U T Y | N o. 7 F U L L F A C E*

No.7 Full Face Fresh/Simple Everyday Makeup + Review

There’s a theme on my blog today. It’s No.7, can you tell? You may have seen it in my last post.

But anyway….. I feel as though No.7 is like an affordable luxury brand. Everything reminds me of makeup for older women in that it’s all very subtle and classy. For your business woman or working professional. It makes me feel like someone even though I’m a no one, ya know?

I got this little sample set as a free gift with purchase of a foundation and nail colour a few months back so thought I’d try a full face with it all and see how it turned out.

The products used are:
Stay Perfect Foundation - Mocha | £14.50
Stay Perfect Eyeshadow Trio - Cappucino | £9.50
Youthful Eye Serum | £19.50
High Shine Lipgloss - Glaze | £9.00

 **Foundation wasn't included in the sample set.

H A U L | B O O T S – B O X I N G D A Y*

Boots Boxing Day SALE Haul

When it comes to Boxing Day sales I always go in for skincare and body bits as opposed to clothes or shoes etc. I hate clothes shopping at the best of times and fighting a bunch of teenage girls just to look at the size tag on some jeans really isn’t my cup of tea. Plus, skin care can be slightly expensive so any chance to try out deluxe samples rather than buy a full size and realise you don’t like the product is great for me.

So, I went down to Boots and grabbed a few things from the 1/2 price sale (still going on in some stores) as well as a perfume gift set. You can buy most all of the products in single form (I’m not sure about the White Company set) in Boots regularly anyway.

1 | Dolce by Dolce Eau de Parfum

I’ve wanted this fragrance for a long while and always intended to pick it up from Boots in the sales as that’s how I usually get my fragrance. Luckily my lovely mother got it for me for a late Christmas present. It’s quite a sophisticated fragrance without being ‘mature’. Plus it’s quite strong so a little goes a long way.

B E A U T Y | R A D I A N T L I G H T S P A L E T T E*

NEW Radiant Lights Palette & Updated Makeup Revolution Review

A few weeks ago I absolutely RAVVVVVVVED about the Makeup Revolution Radiant Lights powders that I bought in my last haul. I have the shades Breathe and Glow and absolutely love both and having been using Breathe to death! Each powder comes in its own hefty sized compact which I absolutely love but my addiction to keeping outer packaging and boxes does make it annoying every morning to use (but that’s on me) especially when I want to use the two together. But anyway…..

Enter the new combination palette that launched last Friday. Now you can have all three illuminating powders, supposed Hourglass dupes, in the one palette that you can take on the go easily. What I love about this new layout is that although the pans are smaller, you still get so much product! Not to mention you can try out all three powders without committing to one. I was looking to try the third shade Exhale and now I can with no commitment to spending £5 on what I already said was a pretty large amount of product that I may never use. The compact itself is long and slim and even without any decoration on the outside, still manages to look sophisticated. It also contains a long mirror which is clear as crystal.

M A K E U P | S P E N D I N G B A N*

Four Month Spending Ban/Cap Outline

Considering I’ve only got one face and don’t even wear makeup everyday, I have far too much of the stuff. Through January I’ve set myself a no makeup spending ban and on day 10, that’s gone quite well despite wanting to go off and buy some new releases. After watching a video on YouTube (I forget who it was by), where a girl drastically cut down her makeup collection over the period of one year, I was inspired. While I don’t want to throw away any stuff, I do want to reduce the amount that I buy.

2014 was the year of ‘bandwagoning’ for me. Buying because it was what everyone was doing was the biggest ‘YouTube Made me do it! I bought so many things because in the community, it was the thing to do. In real life, I’m not one of those people that does things because others do it so I’d like to get out of the habit when it comes to makeup. Plus, I have so many new things that are getting no love. I’ve used them once or twice and they just sit in a drawer or on my vanity. I need to work through the stuff I have before I buy more.

B E A U T Y | Z O E V A U N B O X I N G*

Zoeva Unboxing & First Impressions

As mentioned in a previous post, my lovely boyfriend got me a set of Zoeva brushes for Christmas. Before I do a proper review, because I’ve still not even used all of them, I decided to do a typed unboxing. 🙂 – If you’re wondering why I didn’t go for the ever popular Rose Golden set, it’s because I wanted to order a couple of other brushes and it would pain me to have two black and silver brushes and then a set in brown and copper with a brown and copper bag. I’ve decided instead to get all black and silver now and then the Rose Golden eye set later on. In my warped mind that’s completely logical and stops me freaking out about colours and which container to store each set in. Hahahaha. (Don’t bring the straight jacket right away).

The long and the short is that the package arrived like five days after ordering. Germany isn’t that far away though so I’m not that surprised. I was surprised at how quickly it processed though. I’m not sure if it was the usual processing time or if they were just rushing orders through in time for Christmas, but either way! Whoop. My package came two days before Christmas which was just great.

Y O U T U B E M A D E M E D O I T | #1 B E N N Y E*

YouTube Made Me Do It - Ben Nye Translucent Powder - Sienna Review

We’ve all seen Ben Nye doing the rounds on YouTube and Instagram but the brand has been around for yonks in the costume and stage makeup department. The setting and luxury powders gained overnight fame when Kim Kardashian’s makeup artist revealed that he used the shade banana to set her highlight. I don’t personally like the extreme highlighted look and if I do highlight it’s always only one shade lighter than my foundation. Super bright BAM POW highlights just don’t look right on me. I instead went for an all over translucent powder to set my entire face. I chose Sienna, a powder with an orange undertone.

In the UK this product is quite annoying to get a hold of. I ended up getting mine from preciousaboutmakeup.com for £6.10 with Royal Mail first class delivery at £3.50. I thought that price was pretty fair. They do have a store in London over Shepard’s Bush way but if I had gone, I’d have payed more for tube than I would’ve done for delivery plus I’d have had to get a Costa Coffee and a Pret croissant and would almost certainly have bought more in the shop so it was better for me to jut stay indoors. As it happens, it took like a day after dispatch for it to arrive so that was pretty decent even though it was only coming from up the road. It would probably have been cheaper for someone in the shop to drop it in on their way home. Hahaha.

T O P 5 P O S T S O F 2 0 1 4*

Top 5 Posts of 2014

There were a few of my posts that had a ridiculous  amount of traffic last year compared to my others so I thought I’d share them here in one post for you. Looking at these now I’ll certainly try and do a few more similar ones seen as they’ve been so well received.

Funnily enough, there are a few Makeup Revolution posts there seen as the brand launched in March last year and has taken the budget beauty world by storm. It’s not surprising that 3/5 of my to posts this year were MUR related.

1| S T Y L E | M A L I N B E R G F O R S

My style inspiration/ I con of 2013/2014.

B E A U T Y | M E N O W – L O N G L A S T I N G L I P G L O S S*

Me Now Long Lasting ‘Lipgloss’ Review/ Swatches

I’m a big fan of matte lips because they’re so low maintenance so was really excited when these arrived for me last week. I forgot to take a picture of the packaging but the five I bought from one retailer came in a polystyrene box and then wrapped up in bubble wrap which is such a difference to the usual jiffy bag deal. Of course, it was completely unnecessary but nice all the same.

I got no.2 from here and the other five from here since I couldn’t find any one stockist that sold all 30 odd shades. You can just search Me Now lip gloss and you’ll get 1000 different stockists.

The packaging itself it like a test tube type deal with he round bottom which is you know, ok…. I’d have preferred it to be a flat top and a flat bottom but at least now they look different from other matte lip gloss products I have.

The shades I went for were 02, 08, 22, 28, 32 & 33. There are plenty of nudes but none that really suit darker skin.