Mental Sharpie Eyebrows!

As you can see I have had a productive afternoon.

After being left horrified that there was not one single gif on the whole of the internet of this gem from Wayne Goss and his hilarious thoughts on a topic close to my heart I thought I'd take it upon myself to rectify that!

The Full Makeup trends that need to die video can be seen here 

What are your thoughts on 'sharpie brows'?

Happy Friday!

xxx

Primark Velvet Matte Lipstick Crayon VS NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil

I just wanted to share these truly gorgeous lip crayons from Primark (I don't say that lightly I'm turning into a total cynic when it comes to beauty products) that cost me the grand total of £4! As the name would suggest these are comparable to the NARS velvet matte lip pencils at a 5th of the price.

Comparing them to the NARS pencils, which I am doing from memory as I sold my NARS VMLP a while ago (telling in itself!) I find the Primark crayons so much more comfortable to wear as they don't exactly dry down fully without being blotted, so while that means that the lasting power isn't quite as long as the NARS pencil which sets fully but feels too drying for my liking, I personally appreciate the comfort over the longievity... I also appreciate the extra £18 in my pocket. 

The shades that I have are 'Ballerina' which is a warm, Pinky nude....just gorgeous!, and the other shade has no name printed on it so no points to Primark for consistency! I have a feeling it is called 'Mushroom' and if it wasn't before then it is now...'Mushroom' is a stunning Mauve/Pink, if you are after a total Kylie Jenner colour this is the perfect shade!

Top- Mushroom
Bottom-Ballerina

Shade range wise NARS wins here with 33 shades. I believe there are around 6 shades of Primark crayons correct me if I'm wrong though.

The packaging is similar, obviously the NARS is sleeker feeling and without the essay printed on it that Primark favour, this isn't something that bothers me.

Lastly NARS VMLP costs £20 for 2.4g product while the Primark VMLC is just £2 for 3.5g

So while, brand wise NARS will always be a firm favourite of mine I really do prefer the Primark version of a matte lip crayon and I'm definitely going to be picking up the rest of the shades!

Have you tried either of these pencils? What do you think to them?

Morphe 12NB Palette- Review, Swatches, and an EOTD

I noticed this palette while shopping on Beauty Bay the other week and decided to order it as an addition to my kit, I thought it looked to have potential as a fab neutral palette for my bridal clients.

For £13 you get 12 eyeshadows that come in a perfect for travel/pro kit sized palette which I appreciate, I'm really not a fan of the over facing 35 palettes but I've been curious about the hype over Morphe shadows for a while so I am happy they have these smaller palettes as an option.

I was drawn straight away to the 8th shade in the palette, the warm Bronze/Brown and the swatch really made a great first impression, it felt buttery soft and the pigmentation packed a punch, the same can be said for shades 6, 7, 11, and 12 for me these are the stand out shades in the 12NB.

The lighter shades on the top row are less impressive, they take quite a bit of building up to get the colour payoff, as well as that they are chalkier than the other shades in the palette but it's not something that bothers me especially considering how much the palette cost.

I really love the terracotta shade (7) for a transition shade with the warm plummy Brown (12) in the crease with shade 8 on the outer 'V' and under the lower lash line which is what I used here.

Other products used-

MAC solar bits pigment (lid)

Ardell demi wispies (lashes)

Zoeva black eyeshadow from the cool spectrum palette (top lash line)

MAC feline eyeliner (waterline)

Overall I'm really happy to have the 12NB.The shades I mentioned as the stand outs would be worth the £13 alone and I have a feeling that it will be one that I will use a lot both personally and professionally. I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you are after an affordable compact neutral palette with the potential to create many different looks. You can get this palette here

My only real issue is the lack of shade names and that comes from a professional point of view as it's so much easier to remember a shade I've used by name on a job, so if by any chance Morphe reads this and would like to hire somebody to name their shades I am so available for that position! 

In fact I'd go as far as saying that would be my dream, job!

What are your thoughts on Morphe eyeshadows?

Review- Rubis Red Gold Six Star Tweezers. The Ferrari of Tweezers?

Now I am a hairy little beast, its not pretty but I don't know a single woman who doesn't have to battle with the odd chin hair from time to time. Sometimes rapid hair growth works to my advantage, for example if I was going to a fancy dress party as Helga from 'Hey Arnold' and wanted to perfectly replicate her look, boom, my own personal hair gene-ie (see what i did) will grant that wish in approximately 1 millisecond, on the flip side said gene-ie decides to take himself off on a long holiday from his duties when I decide to get 8 inches cut off my hair and regret it the following day.

So with that said a good pair of tweezers are essential to keep me looking more human than gruffalo,

and when I was offered a pair of what Bobbi Brown called the "Ferrari of tweezers" to review of course I wanted to try them out!

Firstly I've never seen a better looking pair of tweezers, have you?? And while the aesthetics don't really matter of course it is appreciated! 

Swiss company Rubis originally crafted precision tweezers exclusively for the Swiss watch industry and were used to make and set Rubies into the movements of Patek Philipe, Cartier and Rolex watches....Of course this plus the reassuringly expensive (£29) price tag set my expectations higher than Cheech and Chong in a hot air balloon.

Initially I was very impressed, they do indeed grip even the tiny just grown through hairs and remove them with ease, however... you know those miniscule hairs that are basically black dots and can only be seen in the evil that is the 10x magnified mirror? Well sadly the above mentioned blurb does not reflect their ability to get those little fuckers out! In all fairness the fact that they are not actually visible to the human eye has me thinking that I might need to re evaluate my expectations (unless anybody has found something that does remove them??)

Overall I think they are a fantastic pair of tweezers, personally I wouldn't exactly go as far as calling them the Ferrari of tweezers, (the Porsche Boxter maybe) or be willing to pay £29 for them because performance wise they are exactly on par with my mini tweezermans which cost £13. Of course as mentioned the design of this pair are very very pretty however the only stockist I could find for the 6 star design was ebay but the entire Rubis range which has considerably cheaper, plain designs that presumably perform the same can be found on Cult beauty and Beauty Bay

What are your favourite tweezers? 

Five products I will forever repurchase

I believe that I have written about/reviewed each of these products individually in the past, in fact I know that Nars Sheer Glow and 'Alien' have been mentioned approx 657 times each! But as I was sorting through my Make-up drawers fishing out the empties (All of the above have bitten the dust fyi) I decided that I would pop up a very quick post on these in particular and let you know why I will definitely be replacing them! 

*Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua 

Can you see the scuff on the left of the bottle? Yeah, that was where I attacked it with scissors to try and get the very last bit out, didn't work out too well as Chanel evidently do some tough ass packaging but it proves how much I really love it! (or how desperate I was not to have to fork out over thirty quid for a new bottle!)

I love it because it's light but not overly dewy, can be built to a good medium coverage and leaves a velvet finish. I do tend to favour the lightweight formula foundations in Summer and because this has good staying power (even without powder) while still being natural looking it remains a firm favourite.

*Benefit Hello Flawless oxygen WOW

A few years back I had a minor obsession with a foundation called 'light as air' by Jemma Kidd, unfortunately the range was discontinued and this is the closest that I've come to a dupe for it! 

I love this for the reasons that I love the Vitalumiere aqua, it gives the same amount of coverage but it is slightly lighter in consistency (it sits in the middle of mac face and body and VA), and it leaves a more dewy finish on the skin, so although they are similar I do need both!

*NARS Sheer Glow

It needs no introduction really, this has cult status for a reason...I've written, reviewed, and raved about it sooo many times so I'll leave links to those posts below. In a nutshell it is a medium coverage foundation with a satin finish that leaves skin looking flawless! For me it was where the search for the foundation holy grail ended.

read a full review here and some very old posts here and here

*Bourjois Bronzing primer

Supposedly a dupe for the famous Soleil tan de Chanel which I've never tried so can't give an opinion  on that but it's definitely believable what with Bourjois owning Chanel. A whipped mousse style formula that although at first glance looks pretty scary in colour it blends like a dream leaving you with subtly noticeable bronzed skin and a great base for foundation! Another thing to mention is the scent of this is sooo delicious it just smells like a holiday in a pot!!

*Thierry Mugler Alien EDP

It was just in my last post that I mentioned how I wear this perfume 90 percent of the time day and night, it's been out for ages now so I'm sure most of you know what it smells like. It is slightly heavy and more night time appropriate but not so much that it is overbearing to wear during the day although it might be for some. As with the NARS foundation this has been one of my favourites for many years now and I have mentioned it numerous times so I'll link those posts up in case you would like to know more read here and here.

Which products do you always repurchase?
xxx