Illamasqua Aura Palette Review

Swatches: Blush - Highlight - Contour - Brow - Base - Colour - Define - Line

Illamasqua Multi Face Palette - Aura - £45.00 £22.50

Another sale bargain for you all today - this palette is now reduced down to ££22.50 on the Illamasqua site!

Anyway, I bought this before Christmas (when it wasn't on sale, grumpy face!) and i was massively massively excited about it, mainly because I'd been meaning to try the Aura highlighter and the Hollow contour for absolutely ages, so saw my chance to snap up both of those products in a palette with a few other bits... I can never resist a palette.

I don't know if my expectations were too high or what but I feel just a bit disappointed by this. Let me say that I believe there arena bad products out there, just products that suit some peoples' needs better than others (let's face it, if our needs were all the same we just wouldn't have the same array of products to get excited about and would never try anything new as the same things would just be produced over and over again!) but I'll go through by individual product and give my thoughts, since that seems the fairest.

The aura highlighter was one of the bits I was most excited about, and it's ok. I've come to the conclusion I'm not a massive fan of cream products and this is a pretty wet cream product - bye which I mean it melts and moves as soon as you touch it. I feel as though it sort of disappears on my cheeks but sinks in to pores and when used down my nose when I had a little bit of dry skin it really emphasised the dry skin. In comparison to my Chanel powder highlighter or even the Mary Lou Maniser which I reviewed here it just doesn't really cut it. I don't need a highlighter that seems to make my skin look worse than it is, and that I would use only on my cheeks, brow bone and cupids bow and then have to use an alternative elsewhere. I also don't generally feel that the cream products ever live up to powder in terms of longevity, which wouldn't be a problem if it was a case of popping it in my bag and topping up through the day but the thought of carrying the platte plus the highlighter I'd be using elsewhere? Not that appealing really!

The blush is a powder blush in the shade Tremble - it's totally fine, I like a powder blush better and the longevity is there with it. It looks a lot less pink on the face than it does in the pan, which isn't really a good or bad thing, just a comment on it and I have no real complaints. Having said that I also wouldn't have rushed to buy it as an individual blush as I don't think it's anything particularly special.

I do actually quite like the contour shade - Hollow and the longevity on the contour seems much better than the highlighter. It's also much more natural looking when buffed into the skin properly than the swatch would imply. The only complaint I have about the contour is the size of it, it's the same size as the eyeshadow and brow products, so fairly difficult to get the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush or the Illamasqua Highlighter Brush in to properly. The contour should have, in my opinion, been the same size as the blush and highlighter.

The brow cake in Thunder is fine. It's a little dark for my ideal tastes, but when you're putting a palette together you have to go with the shade that suits most people and I totally get that1 I can get away with it so it's not a total waste, though to be honest I do prefer a pencil so I'm not sure how much use I'll get from this. Colour aside though the formula is good and the longevity is there, its easy to apply with my Louise Young 31 sable brow brush. For travelling if I was taking this palette I'd be more than happy to use this to cut down on packing multiple products, so I definitely don't hate it, but it doesn't make or break the palette overall.

As for the eyeshadows, the base and colour shadows are a bit redundant, they're both pretty much lost on my pale skin (#palegirlproblems) but they work well enough to even out skin tone etc.

I actually really, really like the define shade - a nice reddy brown, though I have quite a few shades like this now because I like it so much (I still love this Smashbox palette if you're looking for some great eyeshadows with the reddy toned browns in there). It's a nicely build able one - I have it on quite lightly in the pictures but you could definitely keep building with this one.

Lastly we come to the black shadow, which they suggest you use as liner. Again it's quite build able and in the pictures I applied it with the angled brush from the Real Techniques Nic's Picks set and smoked it up a little bit. My issue isn't with this as an individual thing, but in terms of the palette I think a dark brown might have toned in a little better with the other shadows - I feel like the black looks very stark against the rest of the eye.

Overall? I realise this review sounds negative but I don't hate the palette, I just think there are better choices out there and for the sake of the Hollow pigment I could have bought it individually for the price. I didn't pay £45.00 as I bought the palette when ASOS had a 30% discount code running, but I'd be absolutely gutted if I had paid the £45. Now that you can get it for £22.50, if you want to try hollow or aura, which were two products I'd been meaning to for ages, it's still a great way to give them both a go and cheaper than buying both the products individually, but I certainly wouldn't say this one is a must have.

Cargo Northern Lights Palette Review

Cargo Northern Lights Eyeshadow Palette £35.00 £24.50

When I noticed online that Cargo had two eyeshadow palettes go into the Debenhams sale my interest was piqued. If you watched this haul video back in November 2014 you'll have seen me raving on about the Cargo Vintage Escape palette, which ranks as one of the all time best palette purchases I've ever made. I can't find that one online now anywhere, nor was it in store when I purchased this palette the other day, but if you do ever get the chance to get your hands on it then hug it to your chest and run for the till before anyone tries to take it off you, every shade is wearable, they're buttery soft, super pigmented, blend easily and generally just perform incredibly. 

Anyway, having had such a positive experience with that palette I'd been meaning to get back and try more Cargo for ages, but hadn't gotten round to it - till now. 

The Northern Lights palette currently has 30% off at Debenhams, the fact it's a percentage reduction makes it sound like it could go back up in price so I decided it was as much of an excuse as I needed to grab another shadow palette to add to my collection, and it's one I fully recommend you grabbing too.

I'm glad though, that I didn't buy it online and did wait till I saw it in store, as I loved it even more in store and a few of the shades clearly come up very differently swatched to how they look in pan, all for the better in my opinion. For example I thought Fjord - the bottom left shade - would be blue judging by the palette, but it comes up more of a slate colour with hints of bluey green shot through it. Finland (3rd from let bottom row), which has a distinctly yellow hue in the palette is actually a gorgeous gold. Aurora, above Finland in the top row, is a definite rose gold tone with a hit of bisc shot through just to deepen the colour slightly, whereas I thought it would be very pink and very not wearable on my skin tone. Lastly Greenland, which I thought would be a really dark, deep green is actually pretty black when used, with iridescent green sparkles that catch the light when you move. 

The shades are all beautiful - though Osetra, Finland and Lapland are my personal favourites - and they all blend beautifully and build beautifully. I swatched the top row quite lightly and you can see how pigmented they are, but also how they could be applied with a very light hand and buffed away with something like a MAC 217. The bottom row I did two layers of colour to each swatch and you can see from that how easily they build and how you could really pack on the colour with something like a MAC 239/242 (or one of the flat ended brushes from the Urban Decay Naked palettes).

Speaking of brushes, this one comes with a double ended fluffy brush, one side slightly bigger and the other side smaller - not quite tiny enough to be a pencil but small enough to get under the eyes. I don't have a whole lot to say on the brush, it's good enough to be kept around for emergencies and doesn't quite deserve to go straight in the bin but it's definitely not a great brush - but at the end of the day I didn't buy the palette for the brush. I do think bad brushes in palettes cheapen them slightly and to be honest I'd rather just not be given a brush at all, but I realise for some people they do like having the brush in the palette and, like I say, this one isn't the worst I've come across.

Overall this palette is another winner from Cargo for me, I just love the quality of the shadows,  they perform as well as the likes of Urban Decay and better in some places. I'm not overly keen on the faux snakeskin casing but, to be honest, what's inside is pure eyeshadow gold. 

PS Just realised this is the first post of 2015 - happy new year everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and festive season <3 

Dior 2014 Christmas Collection Lipstick

Dior Christmas Collection Lipstick in 006 Ardent Shock - £29.00

I already reviewed this lipstick in the shade 008 Mysterious Shock, but wanted to share this little post about the shade 006 Ardent Shock. 

Since I've already raved about the beautiful formula, which is just as beautiful in this shade as in the other, the beautiful packaging and the whole 'two colours in one' phenomenal idea I won't go on too long.

The red shade was always going to catch my eye, the matte shade (again, it's a matte shade not a matte formula, still the same nourishing one as the last!) is such a classic red, perfect for Christmas or, if you ask me, any other time of year. When I went to Disneyland Paris this year this was the shade I popped in my travel bag and it's a perfect true red.

The other side was great for days on holiday when I didn't want to be thinking about my mouth - the other side is much more peachy, low maintenance formula with a heavy enough dose of shimmer running through it to make it shimmery, without being gritty or frost finish-esque.

I love both sides of this lipstick and it's a perfect one for travelling, and also probably perfect for any make up lover - the combination of a peach lipstick with the matte red means that even those who wouldn't do red as an every day option like me still have a dressing up shade, but their every day colour comes in pretty special packaging! 

Dior Christmas Collection 2014 - Mono Fusion Shadow 'Mirror'

Dior Christmas Collection Mono Fusion Shadow 621 Mirror - £24.00

Continuing on from my last post here's another piece from the Dior Christmas Collection 2014, and this time it's the Mono Fusion Eyeshadow in the shade Mirror.

I'll fully admit that when I bought this product I thought it was going to be okay... Nothing special, just okay but I'm pleased to say that I was massively wrong, I think that actually out of everything I bought from the holiday collection (Christmas collection? Holiday collection? Whatever!) this might be one of the things I'll get the most use out of.

The mono fusion shadow is a pressed pigment style of shadow, something I'm sure we're all fairly familiar with and as such it works bets when packed on with a flat brush or fingers, which is how I applied it in these photos - utilising the tools God gave me and all that! It does come with a little brush - pictured in the top photo - but other than to get in under the lower lashes and stuff it's probably not going to get a whole load of use!

It looks a lot more gold in the pan and in the swatch than it actually transfers on the lids, where it instead seems to become a more iridescent glow albeit with a gold base. In these photos the shadow is on alone but I think this will be absolutely beautiful pressed on over more pigmented shadows. 

There is a fair amount of fall down with this product, but nothing that can't be cleaned up with a little wipe of the finger and some concealer - I just put mine on after I've done my eyes rather than wasting product beforehand!

So overall? A glowing recommendation from me for a beautifully glowing product - get your mitts on this one before it goes! 

Dior Christmas Collection Lipstick - Mysterious Shock

 

Dior Christmas Collection Lipstick 008 Mysterious Shock - £29.00

The Dior Christmas Collection 2014 is a pretty beautiful one, and I've indulged in a few pieces, but I decided they all deserved their own posts - especially the lipsticks which are actually a two in one product. This review concentrates on Mysterious Shock, the deep berry shade in the right hand side of the photograph.

The lipstick is beautiful - although it's pricey at £29 as you can see you get two colours of lipstick, each side of the bullet is different. 

The first photo of me is me wearing the matte shade, which, although I love both sides, wins as my favourite. Although the colour is matte the formula isn't, it's creamy without being too creamy - I'm not scared it's going to move all over my face during the day but it's not drying in the slightest. 

The second photo of me is me wearing the other side of the lipstick, it's from the same colour family and is still a pretty highly pigmented berry shade but it's got that shimmer finish and it doesn't make the same impact as the bold matte colour does. It's still pretty bold though and I think anyone who likes bold lips like me will love this lipstick. The shimmer side does have more grit to it in terms of formula but it still feels comfortable on the lips and doesn't cause flaking the way some shimmer lip products can.

The sales assistant at Dior explained that these lipsticks are meant to be used in an ombre look, the bold colour all over with the lighter, complimenting colour in the middle to enhance the lips and make them look bigger, so you essentially get the three looks in one which makes this lipstick ideal if you're jetting off over the holiday season. 

They don't bleed and you don't require a lipliner as the squared off edge makes the lipstick super easy to control and can we all just take a moment to appreciate that packaging? They're pretty much Christmas decorations in themselves if you just happened to leave these lipsticks on your mantel.

Overall it comes down to whether you like these colours, there's no point spending nearly £30 on this lipstick if you're only going to use one side of it. However I think it's a beautiful choice for party season, and even if this colour doesn't appeal they do have more nude choices available. The formula of the two colours I've bought are equally good, so it doesn't seem to be a case of the formula differing between colours as can sometimes happen and generally... I think it's pretty much lipstick love for me!

The Balm Mary Lou Luminizer

The Balm Mary Lou Manizer - £16.00

The Balm's Mary Lou Manizer is a product that has been circulating as cult for an awful long time but I kept forgetting to try it - since I can't walk into a shop and pick up bits from The Balm it's just all the effort of remembering to order stuff online - but I finally did remember and slipped it into an ASOS basket - bonus of student discount there too!

I was a little bit apprehensive when I saw just how glittery this stuff looks in pan, not to mention the fact it looked a bit American Tan as well, but none of that transfers to the face.

What does transfer is a beautiful glow, one that catches the light and looks incredibly pretty but it doesn't give the Edward Cullen effect, it gives that 'I'm really healthy, sleep eight hours a night and drink tonnes of water' look. 

You can build it up though, I have it on the inner corner of my eyes in this photo as well as on my cheekbones and I've built it up to give a more distinct colour - more than you'd really want on the cheeks - but it's still not overboard.

The glow lasts all day too, you look just as healthy at the end of the day as at the beginning, which is always a good thing and at £16 I feel that the price point is really fair, nowhere near as high as some of the other highlighters out there but one I'm more than happy to pay for a product that delivers the way this does, not to mention that comes in such incredible packaging!

Smashbox Cherry Smoke Eyeshadow Palette

Smashbox Cherry Smoke Eyeshadow Palette - £32.00

I'm in love... with an eyeshadow palette. 

When I took a fancy for MAC's Cranberry eyeshadow to be told it was sold out in my local store the obvious thing would have been to go home and just order it online. But me being me I didn't want to do that, or wait, I wanted something that very day that would fulfil my red toned cravings, so when I spied the Smashbox Cherry Smoke Eyeshadow Palette in Boots I jumped on it.

In the first look I've created I wanted to really emphasise the red tones, so I've layered the matte red-brown with the sparkly one lightly over the top - though it can be layered and packed on for really impressive sparkly impact. I took it slightly under the eye too and you can see the difference in the shades - the matte one is on the outer part of my under eye and the sparkly one is on the inner half of my under eye. To combat putting the red so near my eyes I used my Rimmel nude eyeliner.

Despite the name of it the Cherry Smoke Palette will create way more than the red toned looks the name suggests, which is what I've tried to show in look 2. I used the silvery shade in the top right of the palette all over the lid and under the eye, then used the bottom left shade on the outer edges of the eye.

The palette is incredibly versatile - the lighter shades could create the ultimate day look, maybe with some of the matte red-brown or the mid-grey in the crease, there's your main cherry smoke look which you could create as I've done in look 1 or make more dramatic wight he black shade blended in, or the right hand side of the palette could create a gorgeous traditional dark smokey eye. 

The shades are all highly pigmented and they all blend beautifully. I'd dabbled with Smashbox primers before (who hasn't?!) but this is my first dalliance with their eyeshadows - safe to say more would be welcome in my collection!

Brooke Shields x MAC

MAC X Brooke Shields Eyeshadow Palette - £70.00

MAC X Brooke Shields Cream Colour Base -  £18.00 

On Saturday I made a fairly expensive impulse purchase - naughty naughty! Though aren't they always the best?

I've never identified myself as a particular Brooke Shields fan (I think my experience of her is pretty much a reference made to her in The Princess Diaries and when she turned up as Chuck Bass's Ed Westwick's mother in Chalet Girl) and although I like MAC I don't actively follow their collection released (mainly because there are so many every five minutes now) so I didn't even know about this collection when I wandered in to waste some time waiting on the train the train on Saturday. Needless to say I left with a few pieces.

The first, which I'm most excited about is this 15 shade eye shadow palette (shades are Pretty, Soft Brown, Expensive Pink, Clove, Satin Taupe, Canter, Luscious, Antiqued, Psyche, Carbon, Shroom, Persuade, Plummed, Lofty and Pepper).

Individually these shadows retail at £10.00 for the palette filling versions or £13 for the individual pots, so to fill a palette of 15 alone would usually cost £150 plus the £14 for the palette and £2.50 for the insert - bringing you to a cost of £166.50. This palette retails at £70. Of course it means the colours are pre picked for you, but still - a massive saving and as long as you like the colours then I don't personally have any issue with them begin pre picked at all.

It's sold out online but I picked it up in store on Saturday so I imagine there will be available palettes dotted around most stores. All MAC shadows are brilliant quality, I've never had a dud yet so I'm not foreseeing any problems with this palette and if you're looking to expand your eyeshadow collection this palette is full of wearable shades that can still make an impact and give you freedom to get creative without being OTT.

The second bit I picked up was the cream colour base which retails at £18.00. I was more attracted to the darker colour in the palette, I find red based colours can often give the most naturally blushed look, especially in winter, but the pink is also a lovely colour. Both can be applied with fingers but I have a feeling the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush is going to be the ideal partner for these.

They're both well pigmented but you can definitely dab them lightly on or build them up for your preferred finish - I used my fingers yesterday to go from light though to a more intense colour coverage and these sit beautifully on top of foundation and don't disappear after a few hours wear, though the colour does fade slightly but not completely as with other cream products. I was able to go back in as well and top the colour up even after having applied powder and the product still blended in really easily with my fingers and no fuss.


Overall unless you're a massive Brooke Shields fan I think these releases are to be considered based on how much use you'd get out of the products, but for me I'll get a tonne of use from them and they've been great choices. I think the fact Brooke Shields is, arguably, less of an icon in the UK than in the US means I've bought these because of the products and not the face of the line, which I really like and which makes me confident that I've bought them for the right reasons - something which, in an over saturated and over marketed world like the beauty world, is something to celebrate!

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara Review

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes 4-in-1 Mascara | $20.00 Sephora | £19.50 QVC

Last Saturday I talked about the L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara and this Saturday it's the Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara. Who knew I was such a mascara fiend?!

Mascara isn't something that massively excites me all that often - I got this little small size in a set of Tarte products that I bought when I was in Florida at Christmas and I definitely wouldn't have made the effort to pick it up on its own, but once I finish up a few of my mascaras that I'm currently trying to get rid of, I'll definitely be replacing this - though the fact the Sephora price is so much cheaper thanks to the conversion makes me think I'll use it as an excuse to place my first Sephora order to be shipped to the UK (along with some more of the amazing brushes I fell in love with when I was over last time!)

Whilst the L'Oreal mascara gives defined individual lashes with a lot of length this one brings volume to the table as well, without compromising on the length. According to the Sephora website this claims to volumize your lashed by 424%, I don't know if I'd go that far but it definitely adds it by the bucketload. It also claims to condition lashes, but I'm trying to use up a few mascaras at the moment so I'm switching between them and can't comment on the long term effects of that. I'm fairly lucky in that my eyelashes are already fairly curly so I also can't massively comment on the curl power of this bad boy, but if it delivers the way the lengthening and volumizing promises do then you won't be disappointed.

This mascara feels so light on the lashes, no matter how much I build it up it never gets dry or flakey or crumbly, it feels like there's nothing on my lashes, and it never smudges. I'm not a massive fan of the snakeskin purple packaging, but it's what's inside that counts and what's inside delivers, so I'll forgive the tacky snakeskin print.

All round, discounting packaging, this baby is a 10/10!

L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara Review

L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara

Now, here's the thing. This mascara isn't online. Not on boots.com or on Feel Unique, it does appear on the L'Oreal website but you can't actually shop from their own site?! And for about two years I could never find it in a store, so I'm not sure what's going on there. When I saw this in Boots recently I swooped in and grabbed it, unsure if I was dreaming or if this was actually reality - which it thankfully seems to be.

If you see this mascara in a store, grab it. That's the L'Oreal telescopic in the gold tube, not the silver. Whether it was discontinued and has only just been brought back, whether there's just been a strange shortage of it for a few years or whether it's back for good I'm not taking the risk and I'm prepared to stock up.

In case you can't tell I love this mascara. I grabbed it at the airport way, way back in 2010 and have been repurchasing since then - not many products can claim that in my collection - until the official drought of 2011-mid 2014 happened. It was a harrowing and heart breaking time which saw me only really buying high end mascaras as nothing else really satisfied me. But now it's back!

During the drought I did try the L'Oreal Telescopic False Lash Effect (the silver tube), hoping it would be the same, and boy did it fall short. It was clumpy, did absolutely nothing for the length of my lashes and smudged about under the eyes within a few minutes of application. Just not for me.

Why when they're from a similar range they're so different I don't know, but this one just ticks all the right boxes for me. It adds a good amount of length without being too much for day time, as seen in the above pictures, but you can also layer it up for a more dramatic look on a night out. And no matter how much I layer this mascara up it always seems to manage to not clump. You know that 'I may have really long lashes but I actually only have 3 of them' look? Yeah, you don't get that with this little wonder tube. In terms of lasting power it stays all day with no smudging under the eyes (a serious rarity) but it still comes off reasonably easily, the majority comes off with my cleansing balm and then I'll go in with a tiny bit of eye make up remover on a cotton pad to remove the rest. And it just comes off, no tugging or pulling required.

So, all in all? I'm back in love with this mascara and I have my fingers firmly crossed that it's here to stay this time!

Statement Eye and Statement Lip

Today's what's on my face post is worked around having a strong eye and a strong lip look and not coming out looking like a clown.

To avoid looking like a 5 year old gone ape in her mother's dressing room it's best to keep the eye colours not at the black end of the colour spectrum - here I've created a gold, green and brown look that is strong enough to make a statement without fighting the red lip for the most attention. I used a gold shadow from a Sephora palette I bought a few Christmases ago and placed that on the inner corner, any shimmery gold shade will work as it's just a tiny bit right on the inner corner, then swept the green shadow - Bella Pierre's Discoteque which is a green with gold chimer running through it, all over the lid and under the eye. I'm not a massive fan of mineral make up for the face but I enjoy using the powders on my eyes and they're a great go to for anyone with sensitive eyes like me who still wants colour choice and pigment pay off. I then used the Bella Pierre shadow in the shade Cocoa in the crease and swept it along under the join with the green/gold under the eye, all done using my Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush (set currently reduced on Feel Unique). So that my eyes didn't get lose amongst all the shadow I used my Mac eyeliner in the shade Mystery - a limited edition shade, but any forrest green eye liner would do, Mac's Tarnish looks similar judging by the website. To frame the eyes I used the Rimmel eyebrow pencil in the shade Hazel, and finished off with my Clinique High Impact Extreme Volume mascara.

Lip wise I used the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet in the shade Hot Pepper. If I'm honest I'm not totally sold on this one, I love the same product in the shade Peach Club but the formulas of both feel completely different and this one is a lot wetter. Although it's not showing up massively in the photos it's quite a glossy finish on this one and just not what I'd expect from something called 'velvet'. It does last a really long time though and once it's set it doesn't move about the face despite the glossy finish so it's a good one if a glossy look is your preference, I'm just very loyal to the old matte red lip look.

The skin was definitely the background of this look - I used my MAC studio sculpt foundation, it has a dewy finish and is great for anyone with dry skin or for when you've gone on a holiday that's involved a long plane journey, but I'm not sure I'll be repurchasing when it eventually runs out. Concealer wise I went drugstore with the 17 Phwoarr paint, it's really similar to my favourite Mac Studio Finish concealer or the Benefit Boi-ing, so definitely worth a look for those of you on a budget who like some seriously heavy duty coverage.

I used the Kevyn Aucoin sculpting powder to try and create a little bit of definition to my round face using my beloved MAC 168 brush and blush wise I opted for Mac's Coppertone, an orangey copper that defines the face but won't fight for attention with the eyes and lips. I dusted the tops of my cheekbones with the Bourjois Java Rice Powder using the Real Techniques setting brush and that was me done!