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

Friday Favourite- YSL Black Opium

I rarely buy perfume for myself, mainly because I wear the same one (Thierry Mugler 'Alien') 90 percent of the time but a couple of months ago while browsing in Boots my Mum led me over to smell this assuring me it was the most amazing scent ever. 

There is a saying 'Mum knows best'.....

This had to go 'straight in my basket' ;) 

Seriously it is stunning, the base notes are vanilla, the top notes black coffee and the heart notes white florals which combined make it so unusual and so beautiful! A sweet yet sexy feminine scent that in my opinion is suited to both day and night time wear, if i had to pick I'd say that as there is a slight heaviness to it (though not overpowering a la the original opium) it is probably a more night time appropriate scent.

I can't finish without giving a tip of my hat to the bottle, .... Black sparkles and Rose Gold, thank you YSL my dressing table totally appreciates the packaging porn!!! 

xxx

Introducing Baby Finn....

Born at 9:22am 24.06.15 weighing 8lb 5oz <3 

Finn Louie Robinson.

First little outing to see the midwife at 2 days old :) 

Hello world! 

4 months since my last post, lets just say the final months of pregnancy did nothing for my mood, only now 6 days postpartum have I realised what an utter nightmare I must have been for my friends, family, work colleagues etc...oops! 

Anyway since this little man made his very quick entrance into the world (4 hour labour, no pain relief, I'm not bragging there was just no time to drug me up so I made it through by sucking my fist, sounds ridiculous I know but it really helped!) I have noticed my moodiness vanish and I actually like people and things again, phew, I thought I was a lost cause and I'd lost the plot at the grand old age of 30 although I did find myself looking at a snail in the garden the other day and thinking "I love snails" not sure I've ever had much affection for snails before so maybe I'm just on a baby high!

As I said we have been home for 6 days now and it has been the best week of my life, tough at times, but more than worth every single second and touch wood we have a very content little man on our hands and he is very pleased to meet you all! 

<3 

xxx

Proud Daddy! Just born, they will soon learn to get that stupid swaddle off me!

First big brother cuddles with Ben! <3

Bump to birth...left 16 weeks- right 40 weeks.

So in love! Need sleep!

xxx