My blusher collection

Some people call it Blush, some Blusher. What is it? I'll go with Blusher since I'm British.

There will be mixed reactions here with some being absolutely horrified that this is the collection of one person alone. Others will be thinking more along the lines of: "You call that a collection? That would fit in one of my five blusher draws!" So which side am I on? Well, I'm torn. This is a rather large collection. But then again I use all of what I own, most of the corals on myself and the rest when I do others' makeup, so it is getting used.

I have always been an eyeshadow fan and my collection has always been more on the eyeshadow heavy side. I was never that into blusher because it wasn't an item I wore everyday, unlike BB cream or mascara for example. But recently I have been really into flushes of colour on my cheeks and my blush collection has grown. Laying it all out has really shown me how much my collection has expanded in the last year. (Here is the link to my previous makeup collection posts if you want to see just how much it's multiplied.)

The dominating brand there is Sleek and I must say that for the price (especially with the 3for2 offers in Superdrug - the only time I buy them) they are very affordable and good quality. I also love GOSH as they provide a really natural flush.

I've got tan/olive skin (NC30 currently, NC25 when I lighten up) so I really love peaches and corals on me.

My most recent purchase was a few days ago - a MAC limited edition shade called Ripe For Love from the Temperature Rising collection. I had no intention of buying anything from MAC or from this collection but as soon as I saw it I thought it reminded me a little of Modern Mandarin but Ripe For Love is a peachier, more coral shade. The sales assistant was really useless, when I asked her for it she told me they didn't have a blush with that name and made me walk to the front of the store to prove to her it existed (like I would make it up!). I have heard a lot of stories about snooty sales assistants in MAC but never ones that are completely clueless, haha.

 The packaging is more rubberised and is slightly two toned.

Whilst I was fawning over that blush I decided to go through my collection and choose my desert island picks and what's funny is that in my pared down collection there is NO MAC whatsoever.

From top left to right: Etude House Corset blush in Orange Mango fit, Sleek Suede, Sleek Life's a peach, Sleek's coral, Sleek's Sugar Trio. Middle left shade: imyss blush (a Korean product, doesn't have the shade written on it). Bottom row left to right: Bourjois shade 54, GOSH powder blushers in shades Melon and Flower Power, Creme blush in shade 001 Peachy Rush, Sleek trio in Lace

If I had to pick a few blushers that I could survive on I would choose the above. Apart from 2 Korean brands, and one Bourjois blush the rest are GOSH and Sleek. Most are also matte shades. Only two pinks!

So yeah, I'm on a no buy now because I'm blessed to have a decent collection. But if I was going to buy any more blushers I'd buy a few pinks or lavender-ish shades more to have in my kit than for my own personal use. No need for that right now though.

Blusher is now my official favourite makeup item :)

My favourite makeup cleanser

MAC's Cleanse Off Oil is £18 for 150ml. I recently purchased my first bottle from a MAC store and was keen to try it out as it has quite the reputation in the makeup world.

 I like the embossed branding on the box.

 It is a Back2MAC item.

Since I have oily skin I am always initially wary of oil cleansers. This one was very light, however, and did not leave any greasy residue whatsoever. I found it very easy to use and it got rid of my face makeup relatively well. I didn't use it near my eyes but some must have gotten in anyway as I noticed my vision clouded a little.

Overall it's an okay product but I will not be repurchasing as I cannot use it on my eyemakeup and it is on the pricier side.
It has only reconfirmed for me my ultimate favourite makeup remover:

Bioderma does it best. Rather than let curiousity get the best of me I shall stick to what I know (for a reasonable price too!) I have no need to try MAC or any other overpriced cleansers when this one works perfectly. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Bioderma's Micelle solution really is the best makeup remover I have ever tried and I would recommend it to everyone, whatever your skin type as they have two versions catering to sensitive and oily skins.

Nature Republic Tweety Line Powder Compact

I have been away from the blogging world for more than half a year! That's quite some time! To be honest I have no actual excuse. Busy with work, yes, but I was also considering what direction to take the blog in. I've decided to blog the way I originally intended to - write about whatever takes my fancy. Currently I've gotten back into an old hobby of mine: journalling. So expect a few upcoming notebook posts! Apart from that I'll still blog about makeup. I've cut down on makeup splurges but not given up entirely :)

Thought I'd get the ball rolling by discussing some powder to begin.

Nature Republic is a Korean cosmetics company and they released a Tweetybird collection this year.

I purchased a powder (called Tweety line Pact from a trusty eBay seller) in the shade 23 for around £7. There are only the 2 shades to choose from and 23 was the darker one so I went with that.

The packaging here is the real gimmick. It's clearly aimed at fans of Tweetybird or just cutesy fans in general. I absolutely love it.

I can't say I bought it just for the packaging alone though. I was in need of a new powder and wanted to give a Korean brand a try since I've tried dozens of both drugstore and high end western powders.

How adorable is that design?

I gotta say I actually really liked the powder. It wasn't too heavy or cakey for me but at the same time it did provide more coverage that the average anti-shine powder. It isn't the best at oil control, but then nothing I've tried is if I'm honest. I'm just an oil slick after a few hours whether I wear any makeup or not. This helped curbed the oil for the same amount of time that most powders do for me. I was happy with the light coverage too.

In terms of whether I'll repurchase the answer is probably not. I like the product but I don't think it will last a long time. After one swipe with an ELF powder brush you can see above that the design was already fading away. Considering the price I'm a tad disappointed with the fact that a lot of powder gets used up with every use so it certainly won't last me very long. Nevertheless I'm happy with everything else and the packaging has already received compliments, which is its main purpose I suppose!

Random junk I bought

The makeup purchases I made were from Boots. I picked up a Vichy Dermablend stick foundation in the colour Nude. It isn't a complete match for my NC25-NC30 skin but it's the best match I could find. It was £19 which is on par with a lot of mid end foundations but I think it is completely worth it as it conceals blemishes better than any other concealer or foundation I have ever tried.

I also bought a Bourjois healthy balance powder which I haven't tried yet but will use once my Clarins powder runs out which will be next week. The Bourjois powder was around £8 I think. I particularly like Bourjois powders as they last a really long time and do a decent job at keeping oil at bay.

Finally I bought a green-gold MUA single shadow. I like green/brown/gold mixes as I find they make the green in my hazle eyes pop and I haven't found a shade quite like this since I bought a collection 2000 pigment years ago (which is now discontinued).

I usually use Lee Stafford hair conditioner but it's quite expensive (£7 per tub) so I decided to try some Herbal Essences conditioner for £2. I love the way Herbal Essences hair stuff smells.

I haven't tried the facial hair remover yet - it looks a little painful and I have sensitive skin so I'm worried it might inflame my skin a little. I'm going to give it a go on the weekend and see how it turns out.

Superdrug Tea Tree pore strips are around £4. My blackheads have been pretty gross recently (TMI I know) and I find these work the same as more pricey brands.

I wanted to try some new moisturisers in this cold weather so I got a Clean and Clear mini morning energy moisturiser for £1.79. This has little shimmers in it that made me look extremely greasy but I would recommend this cream for those dry skin.  I haven't tried the Nivea night cream yet but at £2 it was a bargain I couldn't pass up. I think they usually cost a lot more but they are often discounted for short periods of time.

Finally I got a big paddle hairbrush for £4 thats bristles fell off after one brush :(

Some clear plastic bottles for travelling.

And an Avene gel cream that will hopefully help clear up some of my blemishes.

The end. 

First order from love-makeup

My first order from love-makeup.co.uk was motivated by all the youtube videos I watched that listed this website as a great one for UK makeup fans. Here's my haul.

I ordered a bunch of yaby single shadows priced from £2.25 to £2.75 (depending on the finish - the pearl paints cost more). I would have bought the full palettes but they were incredibly pricey (£75+) and though the colour spectrum on offer was very diverse I couldn't justify spending that much on colours that I would never wear (the fluorescent greens and oranges). Thus I decided to simply buy single shadows in colours I would wear (mainly browns and pinks).

 

 I also bought my first Z palette. I got the smaller one for £8.99 which was another pricey purchase in my opinion but one that I was very happy with. I have a lot of magnetic single shadows (MAC, Inglot, etc.) so I like the idea that I can mix and match my shadows in these palettes.

The Z palette is sturdy and has the clear cover which makes it easy to see all shadows underneath. It also came with some large magnets which are useful.

Here's the palette with some yaby singles thrown in. I'm going to fill the palette with more yaby singles in future as I loved the ones I purchased, particularly the mattes. I ordered a single green which I liked but I won't be buying anymore greens or any blues at all as they are not colours I would ever wear but I would still recommend ALL the yaby single shadows to lover of strong pigmented colour. They are very small but if you are a makeup artist or collector they are ideal. Apart from some Urban Decay shades I have never finished a complete eyeshadow and so I prefer smaller singles to larger ones that I never even hit pan on.

I also purchased a Ben Nye 4 colour wheel. It looked pretty gross when I received it - as though the shades had dried out a little and were cracked.

It was perfectly fine though - very creamy with excellent coverage. I used the peachy orange shade under my eyes and it worked really well at covering my dark circles. As with all thicker, heavy coverage concealers it did crease into my fine lines but then again everything does so I'm not complaining. For the wrinkle free person this would be ideal. I used the yellow toned colour on my blemishes and it worked very well on those too. I'm not sure how much this cost me and it's no longer on the website for some reason but there is a 6 colour wheel for £26.99 which is a very similar product.

natural light

with flash

I also picked up a Makeup Atelier gel liner which claims to be waterproof and so shouldn't smudge, but as with every single gel liner i have ever tried - it did. Neverthless it is still a great liner and again, on the average person I know this would work a treat. It cost £13 for 5g which is pretty much the same as most high end liners.

I got a midnight blue shade. It looks pretty black in normal light but it has a dark blue sheen.

natural light

close up natural light

close up flash - pretty!

This has now become my favourite gel liner. It is the perfect coloured liner for me - not too bright so it is wearable enough for everyday but also different enough from black to make it interesting.

I made my order Sunday night and the items arrived on Tuesday which was super fast delivery. The products came in bubble wrap and were suitably packaged. Overall I am very happy with all my purchases and will happily buy more from the site in future.

Stuff I like/dislike about eyeshadow palettes

First up I like strongly pigmented eyeshadows which is a given with all eyeshadow whether it be loose or pressed. Urban Decay and Inglot shadows have been my favourite pigmented eyeshadow purchases of last year. I also like my Kat Von D palette for strongly pigmented shades.

even on cotton swatches are insane!

One thing I dislike is unappealing eyeshadow names. Now obviously people have different preferences but personally I dislike the sexualisation of EVERYTHING in culture right now, even down to eyeshadow names, everything just has to be a little bit unnecessary.

I also dislike eyeshadow names that don't sound "pretty" as such (like NYX's "Butt Naked" eyeshadow palette.) *shudder*. But I know this is just a personal preference and a lot of people don't care or prefer it.

I like packaging that doesn't take up too much space and is functional. I think TheBalm's "Balm and the Beautiful" palette is good for this.

It has a lovely eyeshadow shade range.

Which are kept easily separated from the cream products.

The cream products themselves are also very good.

I also like packaging to be nice to look without being bulky or awkward. MAC's snowglobe palettes look nice but are a funny shape.

Urban Decay's Deluxe palette is one of my favourite palettes for its buttery smooth and highly pigmented colours but I do like the packaging also, it's very unique.

For strength and durability I would say Inglot palettes seem the strongest (they are definitely the heaviest to lug around).

For placement in a palette I think the Urban Decay Naked palette is my favourite for its arrangement of eyeshadow pans (they are close and don't waste space - I think it is obvious by now how much I hate brands that bulk up packaging and waste space unnecessarily *case in point Sigma palettes*).

My local Specsavers is terrible - I have been doing without contact lens for weeks now and so eyeshadow wearing has been on the back burner for me (feels a bit weird wearing eyeshadow and then sticking on a pair of specs). But I am happy to say I have received the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette and will begin using it soon! I still think the original palette is my ultimate favourite but Naked 2 comes a close second. Will hopefully be doing some more posts this weekend. I'm got suuuuch a backlog of posts to do...

My Kat Von D palette's finally here

Kat Von D True Romance palette - Saint.

without flash

8 super pigmented shimmery shades and a mini black eyeliner.

with flash

I think this is going to be a serious contender for my favourite neutral palette. I'll be testing this out alongside the Urban Decay Naked palette over the next fortnight and then I'll report back with results and swatches but for now I can say this palette has certainly lived up to my expectations.