Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts

Sunday, 1 May 2016

Real Techniques Bold Metals 300 Tapered Blush // Beauty


I had been lusting over the beautiful Bold Metals brushes since they were released by Real Techniques a few years ago.  I finally got my hands on 3 of them last year when my boyfriend treated me for our anniversary (after some major hinting...).

One of the 3 he bought for me was the 300 Tapered Blush which has since become a firm favourite.

Sunday, 17 April 2016

KIKO Kiss Balm in Tutti Frutti // Beauty

"Tinted lip balm with repairing action and SPF 15 protection"
Kiss Balm lip balm in the colour Tutti Frutti was one of my Black Friday weekend bargains from Kiko when they had on an extremely tempting offer of buy 3 get 3 free!  I also got another colour  called Blackberry which I have currently misplaced...  I picked these up as my lips have been too dry recently for lipstick but I still wanted to have some colour on them.

Sunday, 3 April 2016

KIKO Natural Concealer // Beauty

"Liquid Concealer with a natural and radiant effect"
When the Kiko store opened in the Trafford Centre I was really excited but I didn't get round to trying it until Black Friday Weekend where they had an amazing offer of buy 3 get 3 free!  I spent just over £20 and left with 6 products which definitely isn't too bad!

Sunday, 1 November 2015

Bunny Friendly Beauty Tag

[source]
I was tagged by Morag from mo'adore and you can read her post here; the tag was first created by Victoria - you can read hers here.

How long have you been on your cruelty free journey?
I think it was around 2010, so nearly 6 years!

What made you decide to go cruelty free?
I'm not sure of the pivotal moment however I think I just thought about it one day and realised I didn't know enough about it, then after looking into it I discovered how common it still was.  This led me to do my own research on brands and find out which ones were cruelty free and which to avoid.

What has been the hardest product to find a cruelty free dupe for?
A good anti-perspirant/deodorant! I have found ones which are okay, but nothing as good as the ones I used pre-cruelty free unfortunately.

What's the best cruelty free dupe you've found?
I have been cruelty free for so long that this is a hard question for me!  I don't really go for dupes intentionally, I tend to just buy things because I like them anyway.

What product or brand do you wish was cruelty free?
Not one in particular but it would be great if high street brands such as the likes of Maybelline or L'Oreal were cruelty free as they are such huge, powerful companies it would make a big difference, as well as the fact they are so affordable and attainable!

What's your holy grail cruelty free brand?
Probably Superdrug as it's great for getting the essentials like toothpaste then things like suncream.  However I do my food shop shop in Morrisons which is also cruelty free for beauty products, I am hoping their cleaning/household items will soon be BUAV approved soon as well.

Name one cruelty free brand we might not have heard of?
White Rabbit Skincare - an independent Scottish skincare brand which are lovely, also vegan!

Are you a vegan? If so, for how long and have you had any struggles? If not, why not?
Not currently vegan but I have been pescatarian since 2012 and vegetarian since moving out in 2014 and there is no way I would go back to meat, I don't miss it at all!

I am slowly making vegan swaps to things in my own cooking - butter, for example.  I think realistically I will end up being vegan at home and be vegetarian when eating out but I'll see, it might all just fall into place the way it did going veggy! 

What's your favourite local vegan friendly venue?
I live just outside Manchester which is a brilliant city for veggy/vegan places.  A particularly good one is VRevolution which is a totally unhealthy vegan junk/fast food selling the most amazing burger and hot dog concoctions!  They also have a little mini shop selling lots of vegan goodies such as chocolates, and meat and cheese substitutes.

You have 30 seconds to convert someone to a cruelty free lifestyle - what would you say to them?
I would say that although one person doesn't seem like they are making a difference, it is amazing to know yourself that you are not causing harm to animals by your lifestyle and that just by mentioning your views to others can make them rethink their choices.

<3

Sunday, 5 July 2015

BLOG SALE - HIGH END MAKE UP BRANDS

It's blog sale time again!  I have all of these things on my Depop but I thought I would put them on here as well as I know some people don't like using that app.  All prices include postage but if you are buying a few things then of course I would be happy to give a discount, also feel free to make me an offer!  Everything is 100% genuine branded products.  Any questions just get in touch either in a comment, twitter or email.

All payments through Paypal, I will send an invoice so please give me your email address along with items you want and it will be posted once payment has come through.


Limited edition Nars palette Barely used, a couple of colours swatches and the lipbalm used once. Includes Orgasm blush - all products listed in 2nd photo. 
£25 SOLD




Benefit Finding Mr Bright Brand new, never used. 
£20




Bobbi Brown Bronzer/Blush Duo with Bahama Brown and Pink Peony. Brand new, never used. 
(RRP £30) £23




Illamasqua Powdered Metal in Ether Highlighting face and body powder with a golden sheen. Only swatched a couple of times. I think this is discontinued? 
£14




No7 Radiance Boosting Hot Cloth Cleanser brand new (without cloth). 
£6.50




Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation in Golden 6 Brand new, never used. 
(RRP £30) £23 




Bobbi Brown Moisture Rich Foundation in Warm Sand 2.5 used once. 
(RRP £30) £19




Bobbi Brown High Shimmer Lipgloss in Black Ruby used once with brush
(RRP £17) £12 




Clarins Kabuki Brush in case with mirror. Like new. 
£20



Bobbi Brown Foundation Brush £27
Bobbi Brown Lip Brush (extendable with cover) £17.50
Bobbi Brown Angle Eye Shadow Brush £19
Bobbi Brown Concealer Brush £17.50
MAC 109 Small Contour Brush £21
MAC 227 Large Fluff Brush £18


I have got some clothes and other bits on my Depop which I've not added on here yet but feel free to have a look at my page here and get in touch if you're interested in anything.

<3

Friday, 23 March 2012

Why I try to avoid Superdrug...

I have mentioned in a few posts and on twitter recently that I try to avoid Superdrug and understandably I've had people asking me why, so I am writing this to explain why!

I found out last summer through CCTV for Slaughterhouse's facebook page that although BUAV approved, Superdrug were raising money and donating it to charities such as Cancer Research UK and The Institute of Cancer Research who both use animal testing in their medical research.  This seems very hypocritical to me and is annoying that BUAV don't take this into account (they also don't take parent companies stance on animal testing into consideration).

So sent Superdrug the following email using their contact link:

I am just writing to you to say how pleased I was when your own brands were BUAV approved - which is fantastic.  However I am now very disappointed to discover that you are raising money to donate to charities which use animal testing in the medical field (Cancer Research UK, The Institute of Cancer Research).  I find this very hypocritical and if you really believe that testing on animals is wrong then you should not be contributing to these institutions who believe that animal testing is excusable.  It is also unethical for you to be using people who are against animal testing’s money to pass it on to companies who do so.  This is completely unfair, and in my honest opinion just plain vulgar.  I really hope you review your decision and in the future donate to cruelty free charities instead.  Until then I am very sorry to say I will be boycotting all your products.
Sincerely,
Louise Brown
Please feel free to copy and paste this if you want to contact them yourself!

And here is the reply I received:
Dear Miss Brown,
Thank you for your email enquiry regarding Cancer research UK.
Superdrug supports Cancer Research UK as part of its campaign to educate customers on the dangers of skin cancer and the ways this disease can be avoided by taking some simple steps during the summer.  Rates of skin cancer are increasing each year in the UK and we believe that offering our customers the expertise and advice of the country’s biggest charity cancer research UK, is vital to help stop this growth.

Neither Superdrug or its own brand manufacturers commission animal testing on any of its own brand products or ingredients.  All Superdrug’s own brand beauty and health products carry accreditation from the BUAV.

Thank you for contacting Superdrug.


Kind Regards
Miss S Berry
Superdrug Customer Relations
Which in my opinion is a load of crap.  How about you stop selling low factor sunscreen (pointed out to me by one of the wonderful members of the facebook group “CCTV for all slaughterhouses”)?  Why don’t you do your own research and find a cruelty free charity to support?  By advocating a cruelty free charity I am sure they would gain a lot more of support from various groups!  I am pretty shocked by their sheer ignorance to be honest.  I know that there are a lot of people who shop there for the sole reason that they are cruelty free and vegan, so taking these people's money and putting it towards the very thing that they are against?  They have been ‘unliked’ and ‘unfollowed’ by me!  I urge you to email them if you agree with me - they need to know that this is wrong!

Admittedly, I have bought a couple of things from Superdrug since I found out about this, but I did use my points so only had to pay for a pound of it!  I am buying a lot less than what I would be buying anyway!

Also this was last year so I am not 100% sure if they are still doing this, but considering it is coming up to summer again the chances are that they are.  I will look into this!  Click here for an update.

Thanks for reading, a very boring wordy post again boo!!

 
Cute kitty picture!
<3

*EDIT: I no longer avoid Superdrug as buying cruelty free is tough enough as it is, however if there is an easy alternative I will try to use it!*

Saturday, 17 March 2012

Ganguro Make Up

Here is another post I've taken from my tumblr!  Warning: below are some extremely obnoxious photos of myself - enjoy! *cringe*




I did this ages ago but I thought it would something a bit different to put on here!  For more detailed description of this unusual Japanese trend just type Ganguro into Google and you will find plenty of results!

The aim is to basically over do make up which is typically overdone in the first place, such as a really dark/orange foundation or bronzer (mine doesn’t even look that dark in the photo!), big panda eyes, exaggerated brow highlight and nude lips (or foundation over lips - always a sexy look!).  They also tend to have bleach blonde hair and wear very bright scene-esque clothing i.e. lots of coloured bracelets, cutesy hello kitty necklaces etc.!

It is basically the typical Western blonde bimbo image on steroids!  An expression of freedom against what can sometimes be an oppressive traditional culture.

<3

Friday, 16 March 2012

Yaby!

I mentioned in my recent post that I would find out if Yaby are cruelty free so I emailed them and they sent me a really thorough reply:

"Thank you for contacting us at yaby.  We do not test our ingredients or products on animals, neither do our suppliers.  The only two animal derived ingredients we use in our products are beeswax (in liquid foundations and lip colors) and lanolin from sheep's wool (in our lip colors)."

So I think I am quite happy with this, although I'm not sure why it's not mentioned on their website?  Maybe I missed it?

So I will put Yaby on my good list :)

[photo from Love-Makeup no copyright infringement intended]

<3


Thursday, 15 March 2012

Wedding Make Up!

I posted this on Tumblr a few days before my friend's wedding when I was trying to decide what to do with my makeup so I thought I'd put it on here too for anyone interested :)


Trying out make up for the wedding!  For some reason I totally forgot about my lips so I've just cropped them out... whoops, I'll worry about them later!  Also I am getting my eyebrows waxed tomorrow, cannot wait! They're actually driving me crazy so just try not to look at them...
  • I didn't use a primer but I will use UDPP on the day as it is going to need to last!
  • Painterly Paint Pot by Mac over the lid.
  • I then used a mixture of Sin and Virgin from the Naked palette over the lid.
  • Then using the two purpley colours from a limited edition Mac mineralize eyeshadow in Eccentricity, I applied these to the outer corner but unfortunately they ended up looking quite muddy and didn't appear very pigmented - probably my manky brushes...
  • So I then used my Sugarpill eyeshadow in Poison Plum which is really nice and strong, to go over this in the outer corner and into the crease.
  • I also brought this underneath the eye, and went over it with Last Call from the Urban Decay Ammo palette, to darken it as the red pigments in the purple made me look slightly ill!
  • I also tightlined using Avon Glimmerstick in Black.
Here it goes slightly odd because I used different eyeliner on each eye:
  • On the right eye (pictured) I used blue gel eyeliner in Indigo from Coastal Scents and used Avon Supershock pencil in Golden Fawn on my waterline.
  • On the left I used Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack and Avon Supershock in Blackberry on my waterline.
  • Lastly I applied Bourjois Volume Fast & Perfect Mascara.
So now I just need to decide on eyeliner colours, how big to make the wing, lipstick and blusher!

<3

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

Day 10. If you were given $100 to spend on makeup, what would you spend it on? List products and their prices.

First things first let's make that £100 not $100!

So I decided for this one to go a bit crazy.  You saw on Day 3 a few things I wish I had and they add up to just over £50, but for this challenge I thought I'd just pick one big thing and see what's left over...
[photo from Love-Makeup no copyright infringement intended]

This is the Something Bright Yaby Palette and it is £74.99 (their pearl palette is £89.99 eek!).  I saw this used by Sam from Pixiwoo - I've mentioned them quite a lot during this 10 day challenge! - and I just thought it was gorgeous!  It is really small actually, smaller than a Mac eyeshadow palette which fits 15, and this one holds 40!  I have no idea if they are cruelty free or not as I just had no intention of buying one because of how expensive they are!  However I am going to try and find out because like Mac palettes you can just buy the palette (available here) and pick the eyeshadows to go in, which are only about £2.75 each.  So at only 9.99 for a 20 piece palette and 10.99 for a 40 piece one I think it would be perfectly reasonable to slowly create a palette!  The only downside I'd say would be that you would need to pick the colours online without seeing them in person so perhaps some research beforehand would be required.

That leaves me with £25.01 and with this I would like to get the Real Techniques Starter Set which is £20.99 available from Boots and Love-Makeup in the UK.

[Image from Love-Makeup no copyright infringement intended]

I mainly would like to get this to try out the eye brushes from her, I have a few of the face ones which I love but as I mentioned in Day 5 I really want a synthetic equivalent of Mac 217 and she said that her Base Shadow brush is similar - the one on the far left I think in the photo.

So I'm now left with £4.02...  Hmm I think I'd just donate that to charity or something haha!

<3

Monday, 12 March 2012

Day 9. Your Nine Step Daily Makeup Routine

I'm going to be honest... I am terrible with routines!  So, hmmm, this will be interesting!  Okay so let's assume that this is a day where I have enough time to do my make up - minimally - but properly i.e. not on the train!

Rinse face (I don't cleanse in the morning... or at night - BAD!)

Apply Origins VitaZing Moisturizer and leave for 5/10 minutes.



Foundation: Avon Cream-to-Powder foundation in Ivory - I don't love this product but I did a big clear out so this is the only foundation I have left, it is nearly finished so I'll be getting a new one soon.  Hopefully Illamasqua Skin Base!

Concealer: MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW20 under my eyes.



Blusher: At the moment I am just trying to use up and old Covergirl one (not cruelty free) to get rid of it!



I then fill in my holey eyebrows using No7 Beautiful Brows Pencil in Blonde.



Lastly I apply my Bourjois Volume Fast & Perfect mascara. 


 
but if I've got time... I like to put some liquid eyeliner on, I'm using MAC Penultimate Liner in Black, but NYX also do a really good felt tip one too.

Powder!  I am trying to use MAC Blot powder as I smashed it so it's just in a wee tub now all loose and I'm trying to finish it!



Yasss I think I managed to fudge 9 steps there!  Proud!

<3

Friday, 2 March 2012

First Impressions: Naked 2 Palette


So here it is, my gorgeous new palette!  This is not going to be a review or any in-depth discussion about it, it is simply my first reactions to the new naked palette.  So I’m not going to swatch and compare every single shade, loads of other fantastic beauty bloggers have done this long before me!

Firstly, looking at the outside it is definitely better packaging than the first one which as you can see from the picture gets boggin’, and the gold ink has started chipping off.  I don’t even travel with mine very often, and I’d imagine it would get more messy if it was being carried around daily in a make up bag.  It is in a tin and also has a more secure fastening system compared to the magnetic closing on the first one, it actually clips shut and feels a lot more robust.  Naked 2 also has a huge mirror which is always useful!

In the second picture down of them both opened, the new one is the one on the top (as opposed to the other photo - nice one there Louise!).  At a glance you can see there are some similar shades and some new ones.  I decided to compare the ones that look similar in the pan to see how they looked beside each other on skin.


These two are Smog (on the left) from first palette and Snakebite from the second palette. Fortunately these don’t look as alike on skin as they do in their pans, Smog is definitely a more metallic gold and Snakebite just quite a plain (sorry!) shimmery brown.

 On the left here is Hustle (Naked) and Busted (Naked 2).  In the top photo there is no flash used and they look very similar!  Then I used the flash and got quite a different outcome… I think it washed them out as they do not look this gold or pale in real life, but I thought it was an interesting comparison nonetheless!


Sidecar on the left (Naked) and Suspect (Naked 2).  Although they would be easily interchangeable for each other I think, Sidecar is more warm and Suspect more cool-toned.


The last pair are Toasted from the first palette, and YDK on the right.  These two are again very similar and could be dupes for one another, but the one on the left being slighter lighter warmer brown. I am noticing a trend of the the colours in the ‘old’ palette being very gold/warm based in comparison to the second selection.

One thing which surprised me actually was that the actual eyeshadows in the new palette were a lot finer when I swatched them, they felt more finely milled and soft between my fingers, the only one from these which felt pretty much the same as in the previous one was YDK.  Blackout also felt quite chalky and powdery, but I think that tends to come with the territory of having a pitch black matte eyeshadow.

Two colours I really like from the Naked 2 are Pistol and Verve which are silvery/grey shades and are really stunning, very unlike the other colours in the two palettes.
With the palette you get a mini lipgloss and a double ended synthetic (of course!) brush.  The brush is quite nice, not amazing but I’m guessing it’s not one of their best because they are putting it with the palette as a sort of ‘extra’.


The lipgloss is fine, I am not a big lipgloss fan generally so I’m not really the best person to judge it!  It is quite sticky and it is also plumping - that gave me a fright when I first put it on, “AHHH it’s minty and tingles!” - so these are types of lipgloss I would probably avoid.  As for colour, I have very pigmented lips naturally (excuse my lips, I’d spent the whole day biting them!) so it just made them shiny and gave a wee bit of pinky/purple sparkle.  I would rarely wear lipgloss on it’s own anyway so I think it would probably be nice over a pink or even more violet toned lipstick to jazz it up!

In conclusion (oh god, reminds me of Higher English), it is an expensive palette at £36, I used vouchers so it only cost me £21 and I don’t regret buying it at all but I would not have bought it for the full price.  It had some very similar shades to the first one, with a few new exciting ones, but overall I wouldn’t say it is really worth the money if you have the original.

<3

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Things I bought today even though I have no money and really shouldn’t have:

Today was payday, yippeeee!!  So I decided to treat myself with a wee shopping trip because I have literally not bought any clothes other than wedding pieces for a looong time, last thing I bought was one top for a night out at the end of January, and before then… who knows!
Unfortunately even though I got paid I am still broke so it was Primark for me!  I got a few bits so here they are :)
 I found this shirt just lying in a random stand (as you do in Primark!) and loved it, especially the back.  It is quite long on me, I’m only 5’4 so not a big fan of long things but never mind, I can see past it!  Luckily the size I found fitted me fine, it was a 6 and I’d usually take an 8 but it was quite big and baggy. Cost £10.
 One can never have too many white shirts! Cost £10.
 This little aztec print mini skirt caught my eye once I thought I’d finished clothes shopping of course!  I haven’t tried it on properly (I shimmied on over my jeans, all myself, what an embarrassment!) so it might end up going back if it doesn’t fit - hope it does though, love the colours!  Cost £4.
 Lastly I got this pair of bright orange shorts.  If you know me well in person you will probably know that I’ve been quite obsessed with the colour orange recently…  So I obviously couldn’t resist these!  They also had a navy pair and I was torn between them until my friend reminded me that I already have a pair of navy shorts, so I went for orange.  The material has a sheen to it which you can see reflected the flash in the photo.  Cost £10.


I also went to Superdrug because I really wanted to look at MUA and GOSH stuff, and I had some points to spend on my beauty card so I figured it wouldn’t be too bad going, even though I am still pretty much boycotting them (excuses, excuses!).  I got MUA blusher in shade 6 because obsessed with berry blush - I have about 3 on the go at the moment!  It is really lovely and smooth, very finely milled considering it costs a pound, A POUND!!!!  Then I saw the MUA nail varnish in a khaki green colour and I don’t have any colours like that, and for a pound again, you can’t really go wrong.  Finally I was having a look in clearance section and came across this eyeliner in Bananas (love it!) by GOSH for £2 so I got that thinking it might be a nice waterline colour for when white is just too white.  It came to £4 and I could use £3 of my points so I think that wee selection isn’t too bad for £1!  Also, you still get points… when you spend your points… mind blown!  Damn you Superdrug, I wish I wasn’t boycotting you!
Okay I am done… Well done if you made it through that, or at least looked at the pictures ;)

<3
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