Holy grail eyebrow pencil

MUA Luxe power brow is (in my opinion) THE brow pencil to own.

I just find the pencil the perfect size and consistency to apply and end up with defined, yet natural looking brows. It is quite a waxy consistency and winds to extend, no sharpener needed here ladies.

There is also a creamy highlighter stick on the other end which is great for adding to your brow bone, the corner of your eye or even your cupids bow. 

You can purchase the power brow pencil in fair, mid brown or dark brown (I get mid). MUA is stocked in Superdrug stores or on the Superdrug or MUA websites for £3. 

Nars orgasm blush

And so my makeup collection expands with yet another quality brand from Cohorted.

Nars blushes retail at £22.50, this for me is a no go. I am a bargain hunter, if you have read other posts of mine you will know this. Call me thrifty, tight or whatever you will, but I like to be good with my money and get the most I can out of it. With Cohorted discount of 25% I managed to get it for £16.88. Yes this is still expensive for a blusher, but a girl can only have so much MUA and Rimmel before she wants something a little more upmarket.

Anyway, you don't want to hear about the money as much as you want to hear about the blush I'm sure!

It comes in smooth black packaging, with a mirror inside. I tried to swatch it a number of times in different light but couldn't get any photos that did the colour justice. It is a beautiful warm rose gold pink with tiny gold shimmery particles. It really is a stunning, subtle blush to wear.

It lasts very well through the day and the shimmer is so subtle that you can wear it during the day without looking like you're off to a nightclub.

I've took a couple of photos below to try and show the colour, but none of them really show the shimmer in all its glory.

To summarise, Nars orgasm blush is a beautiful colour that would go well in any girls collection.

Tanya Burr lip glosses

I got sucked into the twitter excitement of the Tanya Burr range being launched in Superdrug stores a couple of weeks ago. I was going into town on the launch day anyway, but thought I'd go and have a look to see what all the fuss is about.

I'd seen "picnic in the park" on a few blogs, and although the bright pink is a little out of my comfort zone (you may notice that I'm heading out of that zone more regularly at the moment) I got it. At the till about to pay; I decided to get "first date" too as it looked like a really nice lighter pink.

On first application picnic in the park and I made good friends. It's a great colour for spring/summer and complements my skin tone well. My relationship with first date was a little slow starting, I initially considered it to be too light and didn't want to look like a barbie doll. However, I have worked on it, and with a lighter application and sometimes a mix with another gloss, the friendship is now blooming.

These lip glosses seem to have great pigmentation, so I presume the rest of the range must be similar. I think I shall be trying more, as soon as I start to use up some of the many other glosses I already own. You could call me somewhat of a lip gloss hoarder, or addict if you will. But whats the harm, eh?

Emma x

January 2014 favourites

L-R: Tangle teezer, Lush popcorn lip scrub, Rimmel Match Perfection foundation, MUA Undress Me Too palette, L'occitane cherry blossom body lotion.

Tangle teezer 

My hair is pretty long these days so this makes it a whole lot easier to brush my hair after washing or when getting up in the morning. I do kind of wish it had a handle though.

Lush popcorn lip scrub

Perfect invention for dry winter lips, and I think it tastes yummy.

Rimmel Match Perfection foundation

Love the coverage and staying power of this.

MUA Undress me too palette

Great versitility for day and night with these great colours.

L'occitane cherry blossom body lotion

Smells great and keeps your skin feeling wonderfully moisturised.

Real Techniques Core Collection review

I have finally got myself some Real Techniques brushes, the Core Collection kit to be precise. I've been wanting some decent brushes for ages, but as usual for me it takes getting a 20% discount code for me to actually part with my money. I got them from www.hqhair.com but you can also get them from Boots, Superdrug and other websites.

The core collection contains four face brushes; buffing, contour, pointed foundation and detailer.

The brushes are so lovely and soft and have a nice chunky handle to hold so they feel great to use. They also come in a case that can turn into a stand so are great for travelling with.

I have tried them all and have differing opinions on each. Firstly the positives; I love the buffing and contour brushes. They do exactly what they say on the tin (or plastic packaging) and they are really luxurious to use. Now the detailing brush, I could take it or leave it. I used it with concealer round my eyes and whilst it did the job, I think I could have done an equally good job, if not quicker with my finger. 

My least favourite is the foundation brush. In my opinion it is just too small. It took me ages to spread my foundation out using it and it wasn't looking very even. So I ended up taking my beauty blender to even things out and basically fix the mess the brush made. Harsh but true. I will try it again with a different foundation, but I think this will go mainly unused.

So, there you have it. My fairly brief ramblings on Real Techniques Core Collection. Do you have this collection, how do you find it? Or do you have one of the other kits? Let me know by commenting below.

MUA haul

I have been wanting the MUA brow kit since I first knew it existed. I've checked 5 different Superdrugs and they've all been sold out for ages! I saw it was still in stock on the MUA website, but begrudged paying £2.95 postage on something that only cost £3.50. 

Last weekend the MUA Facebook page advertised free shipping on orders over £20. This coincided with them teasing me with the new Top Model palette for only £7.

So I decided to have a little browse and see if I could make up an order for £20 to get my free delivery.

Here is what I got...

The Artiste Collection £6

Brow Kit £3.50

Britain's Next Top Model Palette £7

Intense Gloss in Smooch £2

Fashionista Super Length Mascara £1.50

Exactly £20 worth. Now I know I would have been better off just getting the brow kit and paying the postage, but then I wouldn't have all this great new makeup.

It arrived during the day yesterday and naturally I tried most of it this morning.

The mascara is great, does add length and provides nice definition without making your lashes look like spiders legs.

The gloss is a great every day colour and  seems to last really well.

The colours in the brow kit are great, but the brush is not the best. I like the idea of the brow gel as I normally use clear mascara, but will have to see if it matches up to last well through the day.

The Artiste Collection palette has some nice shades and I always rate MUA eyeshadows. The blush shades and contour and highlight also look great. Though I think I need a new brush to apply the contour as my fake Mac brush put it on far too heavy.

The Top Model palette is my experiment for tomorrow.

Adiós!

Perfect red lips for £2!

Any regular readers of my blog will know that I really rate MUA from Superdrug, it's just such a reasonable price that you end up trying out looks that you might not normally dare to as you don't want to waste your money.

Red lips have made a major comeback in the last year or so since people like Rita Ora have been seen sporting them. I have only just started trying to up my lipstick game since becoming a blogger and reading so many other blogs about these amazing lip colours I should be trying, so I must admit I was a little bit scared to go for red. However, I had a hen do to go to and an oxblood red dress, so it was my perfect excuse to try it.

I didn't want to spend loads on a red lippy in case I hated it and ended up never using it, so where better to start than good old MUA? I bought their red lipstick in shade 13 and hurried home to try it out.

It wasn't working. I liked the colour, but the edges were bleeding on to my skin, so it looked a bit cheap and tacky. I tried applying it with a lipstick brush which helped, but it still wasn't perfect.

So back to MUA I went in search of a lip liner to use to help get those edges nice and neat.


This worked perfectly, and with a bit of blotting and the finger trick I even managed to keep it off my teeth. The colour on the photos below don't do it justice, it's a really nice bright red colour, quite a close dupe to Mac's Lady Danger so I've read. The swatches show it slightly better.

 

So if you want a perfect red pout for the grand total of £2, get yourselves down to Superdrug. Or even better, on the date of writing this post, they are offering free delivery until the weekend.

MUA Undress Me Too palette

Review to follow, but I thought you should all know that MUA currently have the Undress Me Too palette on sale for £3. £3!!!!

Where else can you get a palette for £3?!

Buy buy buy!

Blue tipped eye lashes

Today I just wanted to share a little makeup trick that I use. I know people tend to think of the 80s if you mention blue mascara, but used carefully it can be very effective.

I have the Rimmel Extra Super Lash mascara in shade 003 Electric Blue.

I apply a couple of coats of my usual black mascara, then apply this blue mascara just to the tips of my upper lashes. This ensures that it doesn't look over-powering and is nice and subtle to use during the day.It is noticeable up close and in a certain light and I get a lot of compliments on my eye makeup when I do this. I think it brings out the blue in my eyes!

It looks really obvious in the picture because of the flash, I promise it's not this "in your face" in the flesh!

My dressing table or 'vanity' area

When I bought my first home, I started my decorating spree with my bedroom. Previously I had lived in rented accommodation, so had never bothered to buy decent furniture or been allowed to do any decorating.

I'm not going to lie, it was hard work! I remember ringing my Dad on one occasion, crying down the phone that it would never be finished (drama queen!). The previous owner had just painted over this horrible textured wallpaper on the ceilings as well as the walls, so it took weeks to remove. But, a couple of months of hard work and toil and finally my bedroom was complete.

The first piece of new furniture I bought myself was my dressing table. I actually spotted this in Homebase before I even moved, and knew I wanted it. It is a penny shy of £200, but as luck would have it, Homebase were having a 20% off furniture sale so I managed to get it for around £160.

On my dressing table I've got my makeup and perfume. There is some fairy lights hanging round the mirror, a couple of sparkly coasters on the top, a sparkly picture frame from Junction 18 and my "little brown bag" makeup bag from Bloomingdales. In the draws I've got some of my main "go-to" hair bits and bobs (clips etc) and a smaller mirror I used to check the back of my hair.

The majority of my makeup is stored in my acrylic Muji storage, which you can read about in more detail here.   

I am so proud of the work I did on my room, and love sitting at my dressing table and experimenting with my makeup. When we move, I'm going to try and convince my boyfriend that I need one of the bedrooms as a dressing room as I get up much earlier than him for work. Wonder what my chances are?! ;)

Muji make-up storage organiser

Muji acrylic storage: ★★★★★

Update: New storage


Recently, I stumbled across a video on YouTube of someone showing their make-up collection and storage system and I was transfixed first of all by the amount of make-up, but secondly, by the way it was stored! (Link to original inspiration here)

Then came my unhealthy obsession of spending far too long trawling the Internet looking for the perfect make-up storage solution for myself. I discovered Muji. If you search "acrylic" or go to the "acrylic storage" category on the Muji website you will find a range of different size boxes, drawers, pots etc.

To start me off, I ordered the acrylic box with 2 drawers (wide) and the 3 partition acrylic desk pot (large). Delivery is only £2.95 for orders up to £24.99, so I spent just under £20 on this. It arrived in about 3 days packaged very well in bubble wrap and other protective coatings.

I packed my eye shadows, foundations, blushers, lipsticks and things in the draws, then used the pot to store makeup pencils, lip glosses and mascaras. I'm really happy with the finished result and it looks great on my dressing table. Although I do still have some make-up in other drawers and make-up bags in my room, so I'm looking to expand my Muji collection in the near future.

The Muji products are all stackable. As you can see I currently have the pot on top of the drawers. I plan to order another set of the 2 drawers and the small 3 partition pot, stacking the draws, then putting the shorter pot in front of the taller one. I'll update this blog with a photo once I've got it.

 
If you are looking to organise your make-up without spending ridiculous money, then I'd definitely recommend Muji.

Update: New storage