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!

NudeStix Lip & Cheek Pencil Review

Nude Stix Lip & Cheek Pencil - Love - £24.00

I received this as a gift with purchase from Space NK (as a regular customer gift with purchase, not a blogger gift, which is why there's no * next to it, you'll always be given full disclaimer for anything featured that was sent to me via a PR for the purposes of blogging, this one was just a regular free gift) and wasn't that interested at first. I had noticed the brand when it first popped up but wasn't all too fussed, I'm not the type of girl whom the whole concept of 'nude' appeals to - I'll always reach for full coverage foundations over light tinted moisturisers and I will always own double the amount of red lipsticks than I do of all other colours combined, #sorrynotsorry - but I gave it a go a few weeks ago and have been forced to admit that first impressions might not make the whole story.

The colour, although it looks quite baby pink in the pencil itself (the shade is called Love btw, which I really like as a name) actually comes out as a nice pinky/peach hybrid - definitely more pink than peach but not insipid and it actually works nicely on my pale skin as opposed to draining me altogether, which is what I thought would happen from the look of it in the pencil. The colour is actually turning out to be my number one factor in why I love this - since it isn't the type of colour I'm usually drawn to it it fills a gap on my collection quite nicely as as a cheek colour it's the perfect compliment to every day make up or playing the background runner to a stronger look that doesn't need a strong cheek to be added into the mix.

Anyway, enough about the colour  - let's talk formula. It actually blends beautifully into the cheeks, it goes on and feels almost wet at first while you blend it in (I used my fingers) but it does dry down and settle - but with plenty of time for you to work the colour to where you want it. The longevity is surprisingly good, it's not on par with something like Tarte but for a such a liquid-y formula it lasts a good 6 hours before it might be time to reapply, and for all the room the pencil takes up in your bag it's hardly a chore to take it with you, especially when you don't need a brush and can use it as your lip product for the day too. 

On the lips it also lasts a reasonably amount of time, it lasted through two glasses of diet coke for a start and was still on the lips when i came back from a 2 hour shopping trip. Again, it's not a matte formula so it isn't a case of apply it in the morning and it'll still be there in 12 hours time, but it's comfortable on the lips and as it fades it does so really evenly, meaning you're not left with a strange half on/half off look. It feels similar to Nuxe Rev de Miel lip balm when applied, is faff free and doesn't need a liner.

I pulled this one out of my bag in my What's In My Handbag video, so you'll possibly know the last thing I want to talk about already if you've watched that but, in case you didn't, I just have to mention the packaging. The little tin with the massive mirror taking up the whole lid is ideal for throwing in your handbag (and there's room for a concealer in there too, meaning for me that I can skip the make up bag entirely) and it also comes with a sharpener, which you can actually use as a lid - it's the lid on one end and the sharpener on the other, meaning you're less likely to lose it. I am a massive fan of this as I hate products that you then need to go purchase something else to use, especially since I constantly lose make up sharpeners and always get side tracked by more sparkly products (like red lipsticks) when I go into a shop with the intent of buying one. 

Lastly, let's talk price. It's £24 which I think may be slightly more than I'd want to pay for it - I thought it would have come in to the £18-£22 category as I hadn't actually looked up the price of it before beginning to type up this review, but I do love it. I think it'll last for ages as I've been using it a fair old amount lately and haven't have to sharpen it yet and it does come with such nice packaging too. For me it's a beautiful, blend able product and the colour has really filled a gap in my collection so I can honestly say I will repurchase it when it's done, but unless you're after one of the individual shades I don't know if it's an exciting product I would rush out to buy. But then, I've got so many exciting products that I rush out and buy that a peachy/pink pencil filled a basic gap in my collection, so if you're in my boat then maybe it is something to rush out for!

Stila Acai Crush Lip & Cheek Stain

Stila Acai Crush Lip & Cheek Stain - £16.00

It is a truth most commonly acknowledged that dual purpose products must be in want of something in one or other department. That is to say, in a less Pride and Prejudice inspired way of speaking, that they're usually designed for two things and pretty much only good at one thing.

This Stila product leans probably slightly more favourably to the cheeks but I actually do like it on both. 

On the lips the stain is dry and sinks into lines, as you can see in these pictures. Having said that a good lip balm underneath to smooth out lines and dryness does take care of that. It can be applied straight from the tube onto the lips with the brush applicator provided, though be careful - this stain is a Stain (note the capital S!) and that little blotch that goes slightly out of the lip line was something I was stuck with until scrubbing it off on my return home that night - following dinner out and multiple cocktails.

Now, onto the cheeks. I love this on the cheeks  - it's gel based and doesn't seem as dry on the cheeks as it does on the lips. For application though, you need to be incredibly careful. First thing's first - don't apply this straight from the applicator onto the cheeks and don't deal with this product if you're in a rush because the pigmentation is crazy. The tiniest amount goes a long, long way and heavy handedness runs the risk of clown style make up. 

When you're first getting used to the product I recommend mixing it with a dot of foundation so you can temper the pigmentation until you get the hang of it. I use the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush to do this. You have to work incredibly quickly with this product as, similarly to the lips, once it sets, it sets. A lot of people recommend a stippling brush with these types of products. Using a stippling brush made me look like I had chicken pox.

As you can see in this photo I have applied the product to my hand and blended, but the place where I originally touched the brush to the skin can easily be outlined and although I blended straight away the edges aren't for feathering off. When I applied the product with the stippling brush all the little areas where the product first touched settled into tiny dots and made me look like I had a real issue going on. You can also get an idea from this photo of just how bright this product can be when applied heavily.

The simplest thing for me is to twist up some of the product, swipe it over the back of your hand and then pick it up from the back of your hand with your chosen dense brush and buffing it quickly like foundation in circular motions. 

It is worth mentioning that these Stila Lip & Cheek Stains are scented - I have the coconut one and it's divine when swatched and sniffed - but the scent doesn't really translate once it's applied to the face and mixed with other produces. I haven't found that the scent has irritated my skin at all but in the interest of full disclosure it's still something worth pointing out!