Wednesday 29 February 2012

Sigma Synthetic Kabuki Kit




I purchased this kit last year in December after having heard so much about the sigma makeup brushes, along with the essential kit which I'll do a separate review on. I'd been looking for a good foundation brush for a while and as MAC makeup brushes were a bit out of my price range I decided to go with sigma. After looking at their website I decided on the kabuki kit. There are four different brushes in this set, the F80 flat kabuki, the F82 round top kabuki, the F84 angled top kabuki and the F86 tapered kabuki. The first thing I noticed when I purchased them was how soft they were, I think I spent about 30 minutes just feeling them. All four are incredibly dense and I haven't experienced any shedding or fall out in the 3 months I've been using them. I first started using the F82 to apply my foundation and saw that a lot of people preferred the F80 which I've now switched to, although I think they are interchangeable and both work great. Using these I've noticed I use a lot less product and they apply my foundation really smoothly. The F84 I use mostly to contour and/or highlight and sometimes will use to apply my blusher. The F86 is probably the one I use least, but when I do I find it good for highlighting. Overall I think these brushes are amazing and is money well spent. These brushes are also vegan for anyone who is interested which I think is great considering how soft they are! The Sigma synthetic kabuki kit retails for $56 on their website www.sigmabeauty.com and they ship internationally.

What are you favourite face brushes? Have you ever purchased from Sigma before? Have you tried any of these brushes?


Tuesday 28 February 2012

Shoe Collection (heels)








Last year I think I went a bit shoe crazy and developed a bit of an addiction I guess you could say. I'm a bit picky with what kind of shoes I like so when I see it I have to buy it. This year I've told myself no more shoes. Let's see how well that goes! I'm trying to save for a pair of Jimmy Choo's, so with that in mind it might give me some will power to say no, and every time I want a pair of shoes I might put some money into the fund. I find that with these shoes I remember where and when I bought most of them, so I'll tell you a little bit about each one.

1] Bought these at New Look about 3/4 years ago I think, I use them mostly for job interviews
2] These I got to go with my blue dress from New Look for new years eve 2011
3] Bought these New Look about 3 years ago, I love the peep toe and lace
4] I got this pair in Los Angeles last year
5] I really like these, I got these at the Beverly Center, they're by Bagdely Mischka
6] Madden Girl: Bought these for about $12 reduced from $65 in California last December
7] Steve Madden, bought these in Vegas last August
8] Madden Girl, also bought these in Los Angeles at the Beverly Center
9] Bought at New Look, I love the lace on these and the strap, really comfortable to wear too
10] Steve Madden, bought in California. Probably the highest heels I own!
11] Bought these at Dorothy Perkins, I love their shoes so much and I loved the ribbon on these
12] Same with these, I loved that they did up with pink ribbon, bought these from Faith at Debenhams
13] These are my latest shoes, bought them from primark reduced from £18 to £6 to picked a pair up
14] These are Versace by H&M, I didn't go to the opening day of this collection so to find a size 5 the day after I was pretty lucky as there were maybe 2/3 pairs left. The arch on these is quite steep so although it isn't a big heel it still takes some getting used to!

I think it's safe to say I love Steve Madden haha. Are you as much into shoes as I am? Do you have a favourite pair?


Sunday 26 February 2012

MAC: Viva Glam Nicki

The first time I heard about Viva Glam and Aids fund was back in 2007 when I met Dita Von Teese at Selfridges when she was promoting the Viva Glam line. The MAC aids fund was set up to help people affected by HIV and AIDS. MAC donates 100% of the money through Viva Glam to it's organisation. On their website www.macaidsfund.org it shows you what buying one Viva Glam Lipstick can do for people affected By aids. So not only do we get to buy great products but we also get to support a great charity at the same time. MAC uses different celebrities to help promote the charity. The latest Celebrities being Nicki Minaj and Ricky Martin. A few days ago I was emailed a pre-sale code to purchase Viva Glam Nicki, and as I love Nicki Minaj I purchased it straight away. I've purchased previous Viva Glam products including Viva Glam Gaga.

I've never actually made an order from the MAC online store before, so this was my first time and I have to say I was really impressed with the service. Not only did I get free shipping but It also only took 2 days to arrive. 
  The lipstick itself is described as a "yellow pink" and is a satin finish. When swatched it is quite vibrant and pigmented. I really love the colour but when applied it washed me out, probably due to my pale complexion but I found that blotting my lips and sheering it out looked much better.

I think this would look great with a lip gloss applied over the top to tone down the vibrancy of it whilst still keeping the colour. It has quite a creamy texture but when blotted can dry out the lips I find that using a gloss helps keep my lips moisturised. As this is such a pigmented colour you may want to apply it with a lip brush to get a more accurate finish.

{swatched}
{Viva Glam Nicki}
{With lip gloss applied}
{sheered out}


The MAC Viva Glam Nicki lipstick will be available online 28th February and in stores March 1st. It retails for £13.50.

What do you think of Viva Glam Nicki? Will you be purchasing it? Have you purchased from the Viva Glam line before?


Friday 24 February 2012

Soap and Glory Skin Care: Scrub Your Nose In It





I first tried this face scrub back in december 2010 when boots were offering a soap and glory gift set for half price. My first tube lasted me about 7/8 months and for some reason I held off re-purchasing it. I recently bought a new one about a month or so ago. In october/november last year my face started breaking out quite badly and I started trying out different products in the hopes that they'd clear my skin. Eventually none of them did and I finally decided to buy scrub your nose in it. I'm glad that I finally decided to repurchase this as it is probably one of my holy grail products. It sells for £7.40 in boots and for this price and the amount of time it lasts for I think it's a great buy. Since using this again my face has really cleared. On the front it states "helps refine large pores and prevent blemishes" and I would completely agree with this. I do not break out with this product and use it almost daily. It also says that it can be used as a face mask, just leave the product on for 3 minutes longer for "an oil-absorbing brightening pore cleansing mask". I have always had trouble with acne and clogged pores and this works wonders for my face. I notice that it gets to work almost immediately and really does give a deep clean. You only need to apply a pea-sized amount of this, a little goes a long way. One thing I really love is the smell, it's not quite a mint smell but very similar and just smells very clean. You may experience a tingling feeling when using this but I don't mind this as it isn't very intense.None of soap and glory products are tested on animals either so this would be a good brand to look into if you are against animal testing.

Have you ever tried Scub your nose in it? What do you think of soap and glory products? Do you have any favourite skin care products?


Wednesday 22 February 2012

Glitter Nail Obsession


I was never into glitter nail polish until I tried O.P.I's polishes. Last year when I visited the states I visited a Nordstrom Rack and was instantly attracted to 2 nail polishes. I later realised that they were both from the muppets collection. These were Gone Gonzo and Gettin' Miss Piggy With It. The thing that attracted me to these were the colours, but also the actual glitter particles inside. Both are made up of fine coloured glitter pieces mixed with larger silver glitter. I'd never seen polish like this before so decided to buy them and after trying them I instantly fell in love. I found that layering these was fairly easy, with or without a base and you can achieve the same look that is shown in the bottle. When using the Gone Gonzo polish, I usually layer it with a base and find that blue moon by Barry M is a great base and you'll only need 1 layer or so.

{Gone Gonzo}
{Gettin' Miss Piggy With It}

On the same visit I tried another glitter polish by the Sephora by O.P.I brand however this one was slightly disappointing compared to the previous two, but still a gorgeous colour, which I blogged about here. My most recent O.P.I glitter polish was the Save Me polish which I purchased last week from the Nicki Minaj collection. This one looked a little different on the site but I still think it is a nice colour. The glitter in this is made up of fine silver parts and longer thing pieces which reflect several different colours. When using this, I like to use a top coat to even out the surface as it can feel quite scratchy at times. This is another polish that looks great either layered on or with a base. I'd really like to try this over the top of brighter colours like Pink Friday, which I have yet to purchase. 

{Save Me}

What do you think of glitter nail polishes? Do you have any favourites? 


Monday 20 February 2012

Bourjois Pop Up Boutique

Today I visited the Bourjois pop up boutique that I've been hearing so much about on various blogs, located in Shoreditch on Bethnal Green Road. I've never actually ventured this way before, I've been around Brick Lane and grew up in East London but just never had a reason to go to this area. It seems a strange location for a pop up shop like this, at least to me it did, I thought it might have been more central. I took a train to Liverpool Street and it was a short walk from there. Today was the last day this pop up shop was available unfortunately, I wanted to get there for opening at 12pm so I could get some free goodies but after missing the train it seems I just missed out. As I was on my way to uni in the afternoon anyways I thought I would take a visit over there. They were offering free manicures, makeovers and hair styling as well as up to 65% off. I did plan on  getting a manicure but by the time I eventually arrived it wasn't long before I had to be in college. I loved the way they designed the whole thing, my favourite was the pink Eiffel Tower's.




I knew that I wanted to buy the limited edition little round pot collection, and also picked up 2 other items. The healthy mix concealer in 52 and the healthy balance face powder in 52. The little round pots were £20 and the powder and concealer came to £9.






Did you guys visit the Bourjois pop up boutique? What did you think of it?


Sunday 19 February 2012

FOTD & Update

So Technically this is yesterday's FOTD but nevermind :) Yesterday I went out with some friends to TGI's which was nice, although it was absolutely packed in there and the day before I was up in Milton Keynes with my friend who was buying a BMW. 4 hours later and we were out, who knew buying a car could be so long and boring? We stopped off at the MK centre because I wanted to check the MAC counter in Debenhams as this is the nearest MAC counter in a Debenhams store to London. I've also been working on my new university project this week, basing it around the Camrillo State hospital in California which is now a University. I visited there last year, was kinda creepy seeing all the original bars on the windows still. Apparently this was the hospital that inspired the song Hotel California which is quite interesting. Thinking of going to the Bourjois Boutique tomorrow, as I'll be in London in the afternoon for my Uni workshop. I also spent some time this week trying to design a new header for this blog, it's changed about 4 times already. The current one I put together quickly so that I'd have something nice at the top instead of just a boring title. I like the layout but it's not quite "there" and it's starting to bug me, so if you randomly see the layout change that's why. Hopefully I can get it the way I want soon :)

I'm terrible at taking photos of myself, I can never see what I'm doing so I just have to guess, it's kind of difficult trying to hold a big heavy dslr still haha.





On my face:

Primers: Rimmel Fix & Perfect, Benefit The Porefessional
Foundation: Revlon Colorstay in 180 Sand Beige
Powder: Cover Girl Clean in 125 Buff Beige
Under eye concealer: Philosophy Eye Hope in Light
Bronzer: Too Faced Sun Bunny
Blush: Too Faced Who's your poppy
Eye Primer: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Eye shadows: Too Faced Silk Stockings, La Cage & Rapture
Eye Liner: Maybelline Gel Liner
Mascara: Urban Decay Supercurl
Eyebrows: Filled in with the darkest colour in the Maybelline Stylish Smokes quad





Friday 17 February 2012

Forever 21 haul

Last week I had a 2 and a half hour lunch break, so I ventured to the Forever 21 store on Oxford Street and although I never planned on buying anything it's almost always guaranteed that I will. The temptation is just too much! I didn't pick up any clothing because I'm trying really hard to not buy clothes for a while as I bought SO much last year, I don't have anywhere to put them and have a few things in my wardrobe that have yet to be worn. So as Forever 21 is famous for their jewellery section I made my way over there. If you've not seen the jewellery section of Forever 21, you NEED to. It's so amazing just to look at even if you don't find anything you like.

I picked up three rings. The sizing scale in Forever 21 isn't just S/M/L it's in numbers so 6/7/8 are what you'll usually find. The three I got were all size 8 which fits fine on my right hand but is very loose on my left. The first ring is this over-sized round off white ring surrounded by crystals which I absolutely love. 


The Second one is this really nice pink flower design which which flows along your finger. I loved this as I've really gotten into flowers and find this ring to be quite fantasy-like.


And the third and last one was this cluster of daisy flowers with crystals in the middle, this ring is on the smaller side compared to the first 2. I like to have a variation of sizes for the days when I want something less fancy.


The other two things I picked up were a bracelet and a necklace. The bracelet is made up of pearls, gold chain and a black ribbon all woven together. It also came with 2 bangles.


And lastly this necklace. I'm loving ribbon at the moment and have been searching everywhere since last year for a necklace like this and have only just found one. It is very similar to the Lanvin designs. I think I'm going to try making something similar to this over the weekend, so hopefully it turns out well!




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