MUA Blusher in Bubble Gum | Review + Swatches.

It's been a while! Time to catch up on some reviewing and some reading too. I must say I've kept up with a few of my favourite blogs, but it's not the same.

This is a product I bought a long time ago. MUA has been a firm favourite since Superdrug launched it back in around 2010. So affordable, most items are only £1 and they are surprisingly good quality. Their blushers are my favourite. I love that you can try out a different shade for only £1 and it doesn't matter if it doesn't suit you because it was only a pound and you can always pass it on to a friend of family member. Their lipsticks are also amazing for only £1.
Needless to say I was excited when they released some new blushers. This is one of the shades I bought, Bubble Gum.

ELF HD Blusher in Diva | Review + Swatches.

ELF have always been one of my favourite brands for cheap and cheerful make up products. I also like that they have their bargain products, and there is also the studio range which is slightly more pricey (but still very decent) and a bit better quality so there is a huge range of products to choose from.

In my last haul I bought one of their HD Blushers from the studio range and costs only £3.75, told you the prices were still very decent! The shade I bought is called Diva. This was the shade I chose as most of the others were sold out, but it's still a gorgeous colour. On the website the only one that is still in stock is Encore, this shows how popular these blushers are.

On to the actual product! It comes in a cute little 10ml plastic bottle with a pump dispenser. This blusher is so pigmentent it's insane, a little goes a long long way! You have to be really careful when dispensing it as you only need the tiniest amount. I tend to use my finger to apply it but a stippling brush would work well too.
I love this blusher because I have dry skin and it doesn't pick up on my dry patches as much as most powder blushers do.

FOTD | Simple.

Time for a wee FOTD post, not done one of these in quite some time. This was from a few weeks ago, you may notice that I used the first photo as my new blog icon.

ELF Contouring Blusher + Bronzer Duo in St. Lucia | Review + Swatches.

Over a month ago I picked up some more bargains from ELFs online store, they were having up to 50% off and I think the delivery may have been free also. They're always having amazing sales!
I picked up a few things, one of these was the St. Lucia blusher and bronzer duo (£3.75), I'd read that it's a dupe for the NARS Laguna and Orgasm duo. This wasn't the reason I went for it though, I just think the colours are pretty. I'm easily pleased. If you were looking for this to be a dupe then you'd be out of luck. This bronzer isn't matte and the blusher is too light and too pink when blended.

The packaging however is reminiscent of the NARS packaging, slightly rounded and rubberised casing (not quite as rubbery though, so doesn't get so mucky). It's quite large, but not so large you wouldn't be able to carry it around and you can't really complain though as it's housing two products!
I'm not sure but I had a look on the website again and I can only find this duo in the cream version now.

Accessorize Baked Merged Blusher in Diva | Review + Swatches.

Good evening! It's time for yet another review, starting to feel like I'm getting nowhere with them. Give me strength...
Today's review is on a blusher I bought in Superdrug, it's by Accessorize and it's called Diva (£3.99, I think). It's a merged baked blusher, which is something I'd never tried before. I've always thought they are very pretty!

This shade is mainly made up of pink and peach swirls with a bit of lilac thrown in there. It's rather pearly and shimmery, which I don't tend to go for (pearly anyway). Super pretty to look at!

It's quite toned down which I like, always nice to get a subtle glow going. You can build it up a little if you like, but overall I'm disappointed by the pigmentation. I had my doubts when I first saw Accessorize had a make-up range. I'm not sure on the packaging either, it feels a bit cheap. These two problems somewhat confirm my suspicions about this brand. What do you think?

MUA Blush Pefection in Bittersweet | Review + Swatches.

Before I start I wanted to say that this is my 100th post! Woo. :)

The MUA cream blushers are something I've been wanting to try for weeks, if not months. Last week I finally found the shade I wanted, after it being constantly out of stock. This particular shade is called Bittersweet and it cost me £2. MUA is always such a bargain!

Bittersweet is only my second foray into cream blushers, my first being the Revlon Photoready blusher in the shade Flushed - featured here. I've worn this MUA blusher a couple of times now and I must say I really like it. I wouldn't go as far as love, but it's more than decent, especially for the price.

Dainty Doll Haul Number 2 | Swatches + First Impressions.

As you may have noticed there have been many, many posts about the hugely discounted Dainty Doll products on Fragrance Direct and Amazon. I was very excited when I first heard and headed straight over to Amazon. You can see what I got the first time by clicking here.
A couple of weeks later I checked again and prices were reduced even further, I couldn't believe it!

This is what I got the second time round.

NARS Blushers - Deep Throat + Orgasm | Reviews + Swatches.

This review has been a long time coming because I bought these about 3 months ago. I'd heard and read a lot about the Nars Blusher shade Orgasm and I desperately wanted to try it. At the time I bought it I didn't have anything else like it, now I have Candid Coral by Elf and Rose Gold by Sleek. They're not exact dupes but are similar.
When I got Orgasm I also picked up Deep Throat, both costing £21 and available here. The names always make me chuckle, they're so naughty haha! It's a similar shade of pink but with a lot less shimmer, so I think it's a lot more subtle. I'd also say that it's a slightly lighter pink than Orgasm.

Deep Throat.

Sleek Face Form | Review + Swatches.

Hello! How is everyone this week, enjoying the snow, or lack of? It's been pretty snowy here, but not as much as other places. Outside it's bitterly cold and I'm enjoying cuddling up with tea and biscuits, dreading the idea of going out. This is inevitable though as I'm heading up to Kyles' parents for tea very soon!

Last week I was in Superdrug having a wee nosy...really I was looking for Sleeks Face Contouring Kit but I couldn't find it. I'd seen the review of it on Thunder & Threads and I so wanted to give it a try! Highlighting and contouring are things I always skip when doing my make up as I tend to forget if I'm honest. I also didn't have anything to contour with, hence the reason I was seeking out the little duo. 

So I discovered that my Superdrug doesn't stock it....as far as I'm aware, but they do stock Face Form (£10), which is a palette  with 3 different sections (like their Blush by 3 palettes). It has the contour powder, a highlighter as well as a blush in Rose Gold. It's a really handy little palette to have, especially if you travel a lot - it even has a mirror in the lid. It's basically the Face Contour Kit (£6.49) and you get a blusher for £3.51 instead of £4.49. 

The palette comes in four different shades, Fair, Light, Medium and Dark. The two darker shades come with bronzers instead of blushers.

Contour.

Now I don't know a lot about contouring so please bear with me here! 

I really like it and I feel that it's easy to blend, which was a concern I had. Another concern I had was that it was going to be too dark for me. I bought the Light palette as they didn't have the Fair one in stock, I figured Light would work just as well but when I opened it and really thought about it it did look a bit dark. Not to worry though, I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it out! I find it blends beautifully and doesn't look silly on my pale skin. Phew! I will say I did use a very light hand when applying this as I was a little scared by it so once I get used to it I think it will look a bit better. I will do a FOTD post featuring this palette soon, promise. 

Swatches to follow.

Highlighter.

This is a lovely shimmery highlighter, I really enjoy wearing this. There is minimal fallout which is great. I have an Elf highlighter that is very similar to this but it goes everywhere and is a bit of a nightmare to control. So this is a much better alternative! The Sleek one is more subtle as well and has a more natural glow to it. It just depends on what your personal preference is.

Blusher.

Rose Gold is a blush I hadn't seen before. I don't tend to look at the blushers very often as I feel I have plenty to get through at the moment. This one is gorgeous though! I'm actually really glad this one is included in the palette. I'd say it's similar to Orgasm by Nars, the colour is almost the same, but it has more gold shimmer running through it. It's absolutely amazing, eeee! Can you tell I've had a lot of sugar today?!

L-R - Contour, Highligher, Rose Gold Blusher. (Probably didn't need to be labelled, haha).

MAC Venomous Villains - Bite of an Apple Blusher | Review.

This is a blusher I've had for a few months now, as usual I've just been lazy with my reviews! I picked this up brand new from ebay for £18. Probably a little more than I was willing to pay but it's my first MAC blusher and I absolutely adore the packaging. I was a little late in hearing about this collection (it came out in 2010 I believe) and I was really disappointed, I'd seen lots of these products in make-up collection videos on YouTube and I really wanted some for myself.
This blusher is called Bite of an Apple and it features the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I would have loved to get most of the Maleficent collection, I think it had the most beautiful colours and packaging. The nail polishes look especially stunning! Maybe I'll hunt them down sometime.

Mini Revlon Haul.

Something I really love about Christmas time is the special offers certain shops have on! Boots and Superdrug tend to have them all year round, but they have more around this time of year. 

I popped into Boots a couple of weeks ago and I noticed that it was 3 for 2 on all Revlon cosmetics, this caught my eye straight away as there are a few things I've been looking to buy from them for ages. Here's what I got.

Elf Blushers | Review + Swatches.

Remember a while back I posted about an elf haul? Well, here's another couple of products from said haul.This time it's two blushers, although one is really more of a highlighter. You'll see what I mean in a moment. These both cost £2.25, that's with 40% discount.

I decided it was time to try a few different shades of blush as for the past few years I've mainly stuck with baby pink. My all time favourite was from the Elite range, I bought it because I recognised the name from Americas Next Top Model. At the time it was the model agency the winner would be signed with. Silly reason for buying something, but I guess I'm easily influenced by things like that! I bought it in Superdrug and the range can't be found there any more, which is a shame as I lost my blusher shortly after hitting pan. Sobs.
I now use an MUA blusher in shade 1, which has a little bit of shimmer in it.

Anyway, I bought Candid Coral and Gotta Glow. As you will see Gotta glow is a cream colour with shimmer, so it works as a highlighter more than anything. Which is nice if you're wearing a matte blush and want to add a little glow to your look, as the name suggests!
I really like Candid Coral as well, it's also got some gold shimmer to it which is lovely and reminds me of some of the Nars blushers. The packaging is also reminiscent of Nars, not quite as sleek but for the price, who can complain!

Candid Coral.

Birthday goodies.

It was my 23rd birthday on Sunday. Oh my, I still can't believe it. I really don't feel that old and I can't believe how fast this year has passed. It's insane.
The year is definitely getting better and better as it goes on, for me it did not have the best of beginnings. That's in the past though, and so, onward!
Does that even make sense?

There weren't many things I wanted this year, but then again my thoughts are never organised enough to realise what I want until it's too late, so I did better than usual! I've had my eye on the Naked palette by Urban Decay (do I even need to say who it's by at this point?!) for quite some time. It may be apparent that I'm (sort of) new to make-up, beauty etc, and the thing I've heard people rave about the most is the Naked palettes. I've read a lot of reviews and seen many a swatch and I just fell in love. My wonderful boyfriend was kind enough to buy me it, and I couldn't be happier. It came with a little pot of the primer potion as well as a brush. I probably won't go on about it much more as I doubt I could add much more insight into it than others already have done. It's totally worth the hype! I've used it a lot this week.
I also got another palette from my friend, this one is by Technic. It's amazing too, it has a good range of eyeshadows (both neutrals and brights), as well as four blushers and a few lip colours. I'm really looking forward to using it.

We also went to see Maximo Park in Glasgow and spent the day browsing the shops.We did venture into Frasers, but it was super busy and I get a bit freaked out by that. So I stopped by the MAC counter as well as the She Uemura one, but like I said it was very busy as it was Saturday. We also went to American Apparel and Urban Outfitters, I love going there because we don't have those stores where I am. On Sunday as few friends came up to the flat then we went out dancing. Lots of fun! Then on Monday night Kyle and I went to Nandos with my parents and my little sister. She was very excited which was very cute. Overall, I had a great weekend!
Photo time!

Getting ready to leave.

Paul Smith of Maximo Park.