makeup.etc

So this is a sort of follow-up post from my Day 8 of The 10 Day Makeup Challenge. I showed my 8 favourite nail varnishes (very difficult decision) but only in the bottles, and I definitely prefer seeing swatches of colours cos you can’t really tell when they are just in the bottle! I got my nail wheels the other so I thought that this would be a good use of my first wheel!

The photo definitely does not do Prize any justice, it’s a beautiful bright pink holographic polish but it doesn’t show up well with my camera.  This is a really good toenail colour!  It’s my only Nubar polish but I love it and can’t wait to get some more.

I also wanted to show a combination of two of these which I love.  It is Designer… de Better with Juicy Jules over the top, it’s sooo sparkly and gorgeous!  I did a NOTD on my tumblr using this a couple of months ago, click here to see it.

While I was there I also decided to demonstrate just how much glitter is in Nails Inc’s Shelton Street is!  It’s crazy!  Shown below is one coat, compared to two coats of Juicy Jules in 2nd photo down.  I kind of wish it wasn’t so opaque to be honest, glitter is one of those things you should be able to build it up you so wish.  Never mind, it’s impressive alone anyway!

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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!

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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!

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In no particular order…

From left to right;

Barry M - Navy

O.P.I. - Russian Navy

Nubar - Prize

Barry M - Raspberry

Nails Inc. - Victoria & Albert

O.P.I. - Up Front & Personal

O.P.I. - Designer… de Better! from The Muppets Collection (swatches here)

Models Own - Juicy Jules

These are all cruelty free brands except for O.P.I. who are owned by Coty.  They themselves appear to be but Coty are not.

If you would like any more swatches or a description of any just let me know and I’ll be happy to do it!

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Barry M: 

Love their nail varnish!  Loads of great colours.

Nars:

Very expensive but they have gorgeous blushers and eyeshadows.

Urban Decay:

Most of their products are really good, wide range of eyeshadow colours.  Amazing primer obviously!

Lush:

Not make up as such but they do count themselves as selling cosmetics.  I love their soap and also especially Dorothy bubble bar, mmmm!

E.L.F:

With a price range of about £1.50 to £3.50 they have such a huge selection of products.  Some aren’t so good but some are sooo good for the money.

Boots own brands:

This is just my go-to brand for make up remover wipes, hair dye… just anything I’m not sure where to get it from I know I can trust them for being cruelty-free.  They have lots of other brands so have so many things to choose from and of course you earn boots points, which you can use to spend with later!

This is a very boring pictureless post so here is a photo of my cat Theo :)

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I found this one quite hard because there are a lot of brushes I like!  I decided to go for five brushes which have quite different uses like eyeshadow, blusher etc… you’ll see!  They probably look a bit funny in the photo as I had just washed them!

From left to right:

E.L.F. Eyeshadow brush:  This is so good for just applying eyeshadow on the lid and it is only £1.50!  What a bargain!  I’ve got a couple of these.  I’d like to try their Studio equivalent of this, the c brush.

Mac 217:  Best brush I’ve used for applying and blending eyeshadow into the crease.  I would really like another one of these but they are made using goat hair and I am only buying synthetic brushes now - also it’s by Mac who I’ve stopped buying from!  However Sam from Pixiwoo tweeted me (I was so excited by this!) saying that her Real Techniques Base Shadow brush is very similar, so I am going to get the set which includes this when I have got enough Boots points!

Real Techniques Buffing brush:  I use this for powder but it can also be used for foundation and I find it good for wiping away any fallout from under my eyes.

Real Techniques Contour brush:  This one is what I’ve been using for blusher recently.  It is nice and precise!

Real Techniques Stippling brush: Love this one for liquid foundation!  It is also good for blusher too.

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Bourjois Volume Fast & Perfect:

I’ve mentioned it before in Day 1, so I’ll just say again, I use this every day and I love it!

E.L.F. Eyebrow Kit:

Any eyebrow product really because I got chicken pox a few years ago and being a teenager I was completely aware and just scratched them all… So now I am covered in scars!  I have one in my eyebrow so there is a hole and I always need to fill it in.  For everyday I just tend to use a pencil (mentioned in day 2) but as I don’t like that one, for nights out etc. I use the E.L.F. eyebrow kit which is a pigmented cream and a powder.

Oilatum Natural Repair:

This was recommended by the pixiwoo girls and everyone went crazy trying to get their hands on some!  It is sold in Boots and it was sold out for ages but now it has settled down and is quite easy to get hold of!  It’s a really nice moisturiser but because I have combination skin verging on oily, I don’t use it every day - I have my Vitazing for that at the moment - I mostly use it if I’m giving myself a facial or after a shower before an important day/night make up wise!  Unfortunately I don’t know if this is cruelty free or not, since it is a less common brand it is harder to find out about.  I’ll try to find out before I repurchase and will post the results on here!

Mac Studio Finish Concealer:

I’m very lucky in that I don’t get too many spots, but I really need concealer for under my eyes, I have such dark circles!  I’ve been using this one - Studio Finish in NW20 - for a while now and it is quite good.  I wasn’t going to repurchase it, but now I can’t because of Estée Lauder testing on animals anyway!  Not sure what one to get next, maybe Nars?  Any recommendations are welcome!

P.S. I had to use my top in the background of the last 3 photos because I was in my room and I usually just do it against my duvet but my cat sleeps on my bed and it was soooo hairy and disgusting that I just couldn’t do it… haha!  But I think it looks quite good actually!

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Sugarpill eyeshadow in Buttercupcake:

Sin blusher by Nars:

Unfortunately I can’t find a photo of this without stealing someone else’s so if you don’t know what colour this is then just google it!  It is quite similar to E.L.F’s Berry Merry which I own but you know that way I just feel like I need Sin just to compare the two even though it is £20.50 and Berry Merry is £3… It’s just a bit of an obsession!

Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in Shade 2:

Again I do not have a photo of this, I’m not even sure what it looks like to be honest…  I saw this being used in the Pixiwoos videos quite often and I really want to try it.  However I am trying to cut out using products which have animal products in them (not vegan as such, more vegetarian make up!) and I have emailed Illamasqua twice, tweeted them twice, I then told them this via Twitter and they asked what I was wanting to find out.  I asked them again if the foundation is vegetarian, they didn’t reply, I sent my request again and they said they would look into without actually getting back to me… I asked if they had found out a while later again to no response.  So needless to say they are not in my good books!  I think I am going to phone them then they can’t escape, mwahaha!  Cost £25.

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NYX Glitter Cream Palette:

My auntie brought me this palette back from when they went to Florida. I’ve just never been able to find a use for it, there is no way to stop it creasing because of the formula, even if you apply it over an eyeshadow or base, it just melts that eyeshadow and makes it crease too! Also although there looks like there is a lot of glitter in them, some of them are quite sparse when applied. I’m not sure why I’m keeping them, they are just so sparkly I don’t want to bin them! Maybe one day I will find a use for them!

No. 7 Eyebrow Pencil:

I bought this after my Une pencil ran out as my friend had got it and said it was good. However the actual product in it is quite hard (it actually hurts my head ‘cos I need to press it so hard to apply it!) and instead of being ‘blonde’ as it says, it is more of a gingery colour instead of being ashy as you would expect. I am going to try and use it up, grudgingly! One thing I do like about it is the wee brush on the end! Cost £8.

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Day 1. One Product You Use Everyday

Day 2.Two Makeup Products You Would Not Recommend

Day 3. Three Makeup Products You Wish You Had

Day 4. Four Makeup Products You Can’t Live Without

Day 5. Five Favourite Makeup Brushes

Day 6. Six Favourite Makeup Brands

Day 7. One Favorite Of Each: lipstick, lipgloss, eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, blush, contour

Day 8. Eight Favorite Nail Colors (and their brands)

Day 9. Your Nine Step Daily Makeup Routine

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