MUA Mini Haul/YouTube thoughts/ideas

I'll start with the YouTube thing. I was recently thinking about having my YouTube channel running along with the actual blog. The main reason being, it's easier to follow a tutorial if you're actually watching someone do it instead of reading off a page. So I was thinking maybe keep reviews and stuff on here and just have tutorials on YouTube. I might end up changing the format and just switching everything over to YouTube but I can only film if there's nobody else home or everyone is in bed so it's not always going to be convenient. Also, I'm not sure if there would be many viewers Any suggestions welcome.

So onto the make-up. I got an MUA delivery 3 weeks ago. I opened it after a rather traumatic hair experience so there was a lot of distraction that it totally slipped my mind to post on the day. Or that week to be honest. The hair trauma is ongoing, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I can go on lol. Live to see another day and all that jazz. Anyway, I wasn't looking for anything in particular so I just gathered a few bits and pieces together. I ended up with 3 lipsticks, 2 liquid eyeliners, 2 pencil eyeliners and a pressed powder highlighter. All for £10 from Superdrug. Gotta love MUA for value.

I have to say, for anyone who hasn't used MUA before, that in this case the cost doesn't reflect the quality of the product. I love MUA Cosmetics, mainly because it's not a case of low cost, poor quality cosmetics. The products are great quality as well as great value. So here it is:

Please excuse my horrendous photographs, I had limited places available at that given moment and was in a rush.

I got the liquid eyeliner in shades 2 and 3. The liners are really bright and colourful but my only issue is with just how wet they are. It might just be because of the sheer amount of eyeliner that I actually were but I could feel it running as I applied it. The brush is superfine as well which is great for getting up close to the lash line but not so good if you want to go for thick wings at the side. I find the brush is a bit too long and thin to be able to do my wing properly. It stays on all day but washes off really easily when it's time to come off.

Next up was the pencil eyeliners in 'Royal Blue' and 'Turquoise'. What I love about the MUA eyeliner pencils is that they're soft enough that they apply really easily across the lid but they're not that soft that they start to crumble as you use them. Now, I saw something that I've never seen before. I'm not sure if other brands do it but there's a SHARPENER IN THE LID ZOMFGICANTBELIEVEIT!!! Aherm... sorry about that but I totally freaked out when I noticed. Ages spent hunting for sharpeners and giving up because I couldn't find one. NEVER AGAIN!! Like the liquid liners, the colours are so bright and don't rub off too easily.

Now for the lipsticks. MUA lipsticks are £1. Yes, £1. And they're bloody fantastic. There's so many different shades. Matte and shimmery. I got  shades 1, 2 and 15. They're so creamy and shimmery and they look great on. The only thing I have an issue with, and I'm probably being hideously picky, is the packaging. The little coloured bits at the end showing the colour seem to always pop off. I know it's not a an actual issue with the product itself but just be wary that you might need to scramble around on the floor looking for one so be careful when using if you want your packaging in the one piece.

Now, the last, but by no means least is the Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder in 'Opalescent Amber'. I have never used any sort of highlighter. Cream, powder or otherwise. I just didn't see the point. But I took a chance to test it out. It's only £3 and there's loads of it! Rookie mistake, the first time I tried using it, I put far too much on and ended up looking ridiculous. Being slightly more careful the second time around I just swept a small amount under my eyes, just across the top of my cheekbones. It's such a slight change but the highlight really sets my make up off. There's just enough shimmer there but not too much that I look like I'm at a 90s school disco (Yes it's a good look but there's a time and a place, know what I mean?). I wish you could see from the photograph just how lovely and shimmery it is. I'll get some photos of it on my actual face with some half decent lighting.

As usual MUA is a win. Yay! Links to all the products on Superdrug are below and also, the link to the MUA website.

MUA Liquid Eyeliner - 3/5 simply because of how runny it is (although that's personal preference) and the brush,

MUA Intense Colour Eyeliner Pencil - 5/5

MUA Lipstick - 4.5/5 - Losing a half point as I have to reapply quite often. Although this could be because I eat and talk so much!!

MUA Highlighter - 5/5

x M x

MUA Store - Make Up Academy

Superdrug - MUA Liquid Eyeliner

Superdrug - MUA Undressed Highlighting Powder

Superdrug - MUA £1 Lipsticks

Superdrug - MUA Intense Colour Eyeliner Pencils

Maybelline Superstay 24 Hour Lip Colour review

Wow, been a bit busy lately with the kids all on holiday from school that I almost forgot about the blog. Bought make-up to review and a mini-haul still to post. So I thought I'd start with the quickest first and it's a review of the Maybelline Superstay 24 Hour Dual Ended Lip Colour. Links to the Maybelline website and Superdrug will be down at the bottom of the page.

I'll start by saying that I hate longwear lipstick. It dries your lips out, most of the time I find it tastes funny and it never really lasts the length of time promised. But as Maybelline is one of my favourite brands, I thought the Superstay was worth trying. I got mine from Superdrug and it was £8.99. They have an offer on at the moment on Maybelline, buy one get one half price. I opted for the colourway Absolute Plum.

It's a double ended lip colour (well, you can tell that from the name lol) with the colour at one end (which has a stander gloss wand applicator) and the other is a glossy moisturising balm. Their site boasts that the 24 Superstay lasts UP TO 24 hours, doesn't crumble, fade, transfer, smudge and is is non-drying. It comes in 18 (lovely) colours so there's quite a bit of variety there. Although Maybelline is one of my favourite brands, seeing as I'm not keen on longwear, I was still a bit skeptical.

Set up is obvious, apply colour and allow it to dry a little and then apply the balm over the top of it. Pretty simple. I was expecting it to be pretty dry before applying the balm but was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't. I only needed one coat of the colour and it dried within a few seconds and then applied the balm which was really moisturising and left a lovely sheen. Then came the waiting. Now, I applied it straight onto my natural lip, normally I would be putting over foundation and powder. I figured I can wash my face around my lips and go to bed with it on to test the full 24 hours.

After 2 hours, the colour had stayed put, there was absolutely no fading and my lips still felt quite soft.

After 6 hours, still no fading. I had already eaten lunch and dinner plus brushed my teeth again.

At the 12 hour mark, it STILL looked almost fresh. I had been snacking and had a few drinks at this point.

At 18 hours, you could see that it was starting to fade but not by much (the lighting didn't help at this point as it was dark so I wasn't in natural light anymore so it looked darker than it does in the photograph), colour was still there on my lips. So I went to bed at this point.

At the 24 hour mark, the lipcolour had pretty much gone *but* there *was* still colour around the outside of my lips so it would've been interesting to see just how it would've faded had I not brushed my teeth again and gone to bed.

Overall, considering there was still colour around the outsides of my lips the lipcolour DOES last 24 hours. Admittedly, there was a lot of fading post 18 hours but realistically, it's not really likely that you're going to be awake for 24 hours straight and expect your make-up to stay 100% the whole time. I applied the balm at the 2, 6 and 18 hour mark, more out of habit as I was checking my make-up in the mirror than because it was drying my lips out.

The next day, I put the colour on with full make-up and the colour held even better throughout the course of the day. I'm really impressed and will definitely be buying in more colours. It's a great lipcolour to use if you're going out to work our on a day or night out and you don't want to be reapplying your lipstick every 2-3 hours (even less depending on the brand) and don't want your lips to end up really dry.

Pros

Colour lasts all day.
Doesn't dry out.
Doesn't smear or transfer onto clothes or skin.
No bleeding so no need to use lipliner.

Cons

None

Overall, I'm giving the 24 Hour Superstay Lip Colour a 5/5

x M x

MUA mini-haul to follow at some point tomorrow. Also, I've been thinking of starting a vlog on YouTube alongside the blog but still working on it as the house is so busy all the time, I don't know if it's feasible.

Maybelline UK - Superstay 24 Hour Lipcolor

Superdrug - Maybelline Superstay 24 Hour Lipcolour

Mini MUA haul/product review

I've been wanting to get my mitts on one of the new MUA palettes. They're always a winner with me, great value, highly pigmented eyeshadows with a variety of shimmery and matte in each pallete. The palettes range from £4-£8 and I usually buy mine from Superdrug.

Normally I don't have a tendency to buy make-up online so w hen I saw the new 5th Birthday palette, I decided to make my way out to Superdrug. Unfortunately the store closest to me has been closed down so I was gutted to find out I couldn't get one. Luckily, yesterday I was out shopping with friends and happened upon a Superdrug store in Glasgow. Hot footed it to the MUA stand and was absolutely thrilled to see that if you spent £8 on MUA, you got the palette for free (!) and it just so happened that I had run out of primer that morning. So I found a way to make up the £8 (not that it took much persuasion to be fair).

I got this lot for £12. The palette was free since I spent over £8. The concealers were £2 each. Primer was £5. Lip colour was £3. I'll put the link for all the products at the bottom.

The eyeshadows are beautiful in the flesh. There are 6 shimmery colours and 6 matte. Even bought at full price they're fantastic value for money. They're highly pigmented and not chalky like cheaper eyeshadows can be.

The swatches here really don't do them justice. They're gorgeous.

The Undress Your Skin primer was pretty good to. It's not shimmery like the Rimmel Wow primer that I had before, it just glides on clear and does the job well.

I have a palette of concealers I got on eBay. The purple and green were almost done and I didn't want to buy another palette for just two colours so I was chuffed to find I could buy them individually from MUA. Again, they do the job. The purple is much better than the one from the palette. They're quite small though and I use quite a lot of the purple concealer every day but for £2, you can't really complain, can you?

The Power Pout lip colour is very similar to the Bourjois Colour Boost lip crayons that I got for £8 in Boots. They're just as bright and the same creamy texture. I'll definitely be buying more considering it's £5 cheaper than I was planning on paying in Boots for the Bourjois (although I swear by the Red Island Colour Boost so I can't go back on that one!).

So I tried out the full lot together this morning. I used the 'reveal' as a highlight on my brow bone and as a base over the NYX eyeshadow primer. I then used 'taffy' all over my lower lid and 'peach' in the crease. I finished with a little 'obsessed' just in the outer corners of my eyes. Then finished it off with Rimmel Scandaleyes eyeliner and some of the Power Pout lip crayon in Irreplacable.

All in all, it was a roaring success and I highly recommend pretty much anything from the MUA collection!

Primer - 5/5
Lip colour - 5/5
Eyeshadow palette - 5/5
Concealer - 4/5

You can find all the MUA products either on the MUA site or in Superdrug (where you'll get the free palette with an £8 purchase). Both links are below.

x M x

MUA Store

Superdrug - MUA - Make Up Academy

La Riche Directions and Blue Frosting Powder Lightener - Product Review

I am such an idiot... I dyed my hair recently and was dumb enough to wash my hair with Head and Shoulders thus washing most of the colour out of my hair. I figured since I touched it up the other night, I might as well do a product review-cum-tutorial-of-sorts at the same time.

I have quite dark hair so I always need to lighten it before using "unnatural" colours. I always used Ice Lites high lift bleach to lighten my hair but it burnt and blistered my scalp. I could never figure out why, no matter what I did or tried, it still caused me agony. Until I found out that, in my infinite wisdom, I should've actually read the packaging properly before going ahead with it. Ice Lites is actually an off-the-scalp bleach so all along I'd been doing it bloody wrong.

So I looked into different bleaches suitable for on-the-scalp lightening. I stumbled across Blue Frosting Powder by Proclére. Low Dust - Hi Lift (link below) and figured it would be worth a try. I did some reading up on the product and there seemed to be mixed information. Some people were saying off and some people were saying on. Anyway, it's £6.99 trade and I think it was £8.99 retail from Salon Services (please don't quote me on that as I could be wrong). 

I had dyed my hair using Violet Directions a few months back and I wasn't aware that washing out dark purple was one of the hardest things known to man. Basically, my hair went from purple to dark blue. After numerous attempts to remove it using various methods, the lightest I could get it was to a sort of turquoise colour.

 So basically, bleach was the only option if I wanted to go more lighter shades. The previous night, I did a coconut oil mask to my hair. I mixed up (more accurately, my Mum mixed up) the bleach with 20vol peroxide until the texture was slightly thicker than cake batter and applied it straight to my hair using a brush. The bleach itself smells much better than others I've used in the past, nowhere near as strong which was a plus. I was really scared that it was going to hurt as much as the Ice Lites but was pleasantly surprised when there was no paint whatsoever. I kept the bleach on for 30-45 minutes and there was a little itching towards the end just around my hairline at the back and I just gently rubbed over it with the pointy end of my brush.

Now... I did something really bad and I DO NOT recommend that anyone does this. I sort of bleached it twice. The turquoisey colour had lightened but not quite as light at necessary for my next colour to show up (terrible, I know) but it was necessary. I'm pretty fancy free (or stupid) when it comes to my hair and figured if it all crumbled to bits, I'm pretty sure I could work with it somehow. So this was the end result.

Next was time to actually colour it. I used to use Crazy Colour but I gave La Riche Directions (£2.99 from eBay), (link below) a try previously and really liked it. The consistency of it is like a thick gel so you don't get anything dripping down your neck or face which is great. It goes onto slightly damp hair so towel dry before using. I always wear latex gloves as I've learned in the past that it's rather difficult to get off your skin. One drawback of the texture is, although it's easy to apply and non-drip, it's slightly difficult to make sure it covers all of your hair so I'd recommend getting someone else to do it for you (thanks Mum) as in the past I've missed bits (whereas I haven't with CC, hence the assumption that it must be texture related). You only need to leave it on for 15 minutes but as it's quite gentle and a conditioning dye, I just leave it on as long as possible and just wander around and do whatever I need to be doing. I left it on for about 30 minutes this time around.

Upon recommendation, I usually wash my dye out with cold water as, apparently, it's less likely to wash a lot of colour out on your first wash. Dried it up and I absolutely love the colour. It's quick and easy to do, particularly if you don't have to lighten your hair in the first place (!) and it's not too damaging to your hair (unless you're bleaching it first).

Blue Frosting Hi-Lift Low Dust Powder Lightener. 5/5

Pros: doesn't sting, left my hair in pretty good condition considering it was bleached twice, doesn't smell bad, had a measuring spoon so didn't have to faff about looking for amounts online, high lift on dark roots and impossible-to-shift blue, not hideously expensive, tub was huge so will last for a while.

Cons: None

La Riche Directions 4/5

Pros: thick so non-drip, really vibrant shades, not bad for your hair, cheap, large variety of shades,

Cons: can be quite difficult to cover every hair

The long and short of it is, I'd buy both products again. I don't think I'd be inclined to go back to any other type of bleach.
Links at the bottom for each product.

- x M x

Blue Frosting Powder Lightener - Salon Services

La Riche Directions - eBay

Maybelline Flawless Nude Foundation Review

I'm going to review the new Maybelline Flawless Nude foundation (and get my basic foundation routine in there too). I got mine for £8.99 from Boots. I was a bit disappointed in the size. Foundations I've had before are normally 30ml but the Flawless Nude is only 20ml. Considering I usually pay around the same amount for 30ml, I was slightly put off by the price.

The foundation itself comes in a glass bottle which isn't handy when you're coming to the end of the foundation as I usually cut my plastic tubes and bottles open to scrape the last out of the container. There's a strange little dropper inside the bottle, after examining it, I honestly couldn't figure out what it's purpose was so looked around online to see if I could find the answer. Apparently it allows you to measure out the right amount of foundation.

Consistency-wise, it's pretty runny. I usually go for thicker foundations (up until now I've been using the Max Factor Pan Stik foundation) though. The shade (Ivory 10) was a perfect match for my skin. I noticed in the shop that there weren't a large variety of shades, looking on the Maybelline website, they don't actually offer darker shades in this particular foundation.

Time to test...

 The camera I have is quite forgiving so you can't properly see the flaws in my skin in this photo but I have lots of little spots, can't miss the one on my chin though LOL. Dark circles under my eyes and little broken veins around my nose. Normally I use a full coverage foundation, 1 coat foundation, 1 concealer, another coat of foundation.

 I put on a little bit of primer before starting. I use Seventeen Wow primer. It's pretty good but it's very shiny so you have to be careful not to use too much.

 I use a cheap cream contour/concealer palette which I got for £2.80 on eBay. It's fantastic. I use the pale purple underneath my eyes and over any dark patches and the green over any red patches. I go over the top of it with concealer slightly lighter than my own skin tone.

The kids decided they wanted in on the action...

 I always apply my foundation with a beauty blender so I just dabbed it all over my face with the funny little dropper thingy and blended it in. The coverage wasn't bad but as I said before I usually use thick or stick foundation. So I put another coat over the top of it and it was much better. It blends really well with the blender and I use my fingers to blend foundation on my nose. My only gripe is it doesn't cover *large* blemishes very well. As you can see from my chin, you really can't miss it even after trying to dab some more over the top of it. OH AND BY THE WAY!! A little warning. The foundation stings like a mother going over the top of cuts or spots. Think aftershave on a coldsore type of pain. It's very that.

 Popped on the rest of my make-up. I set my foundation using Rimmel Stay Matte translucent pressed powder with a fluffy brush. I don't use bronzer so went straight on to blush. I love NYX Powder Blush in Dusky Rose.

Overall I'd say it's pretty good but it's not the best. I don't think I'd be inclined to buy it again to be honest. 

Pros: Blends well. Don't need to use a massive amount (unless you need two coats like myself). 

Cons: Didn't offer me the coverage I needed. Not a wide variety of shades if you have darker toned skin. Quite a small bottle. Pretty runny.

All in all I'd give it... 3 out of 5. Not the best, not the worst.

If you've got quite nice skin, I think it would be a good buy for you. If not, give it a miss.

- x M x

First post...

So I wanted to start a beauty blog. Thought about it, decided it was pointless because there were so many others out there. Why would mine be of interest? Then January 1st rolled around and New Years Resolutions seem quite pointless throughout the rest of the year because I think "Why not just do it now?" Buuuuut this year I thought. I'd go ahead and start the blog anyway.  What have I got to lose?

So a little bit about me. *waves* I'm Marianne, I'm 26 and I live in Scotland. I love make-up, I love experimenting with colour and different styles. I also refuse to spend over the odds for make-up, beauty products etc. Now, that doesn't mean I'm "tight", it simply means I'm sensible (hah!) and prefer to economise. I'm addicted to eyeliner and I'm on the neverending mission to find the perfect eyeliner. Colour is another big thing, I love lots of colour! Whatever I want to go on my face goes on there whenever, wherever!

So this blog will be more about reviewing more budget-friendly products, some make-up tutorials & a little bit of health & fitness squeezed in here and there too. 

So.. that's it I suppose. Enjoy!

- M