Jeffree Star and Budget Foundations!

Now I've recovered from my complete meltdown over my parcel coming, I feel that I might be composed enough, MIGHT be, to post this....

MY MOTHERFUCKING JEFFREE STAR'S CAME! Scorpio and Gemini were released last weekend on Jeffree's site but the site I order from in the UK didn't receive them in until during the week. I sat refreshing the page for hours and finally they went live. Unfortunately, Gemini wasn't up there so I ordered Scorpio and Dominatrix. They are everything!!

One thing I will say is these photos do not do the shades justice at all. They are much darker in real  life in the natural light. The Dominatrix shade is such a rich chocolate brown and Scorpio, I cannot even begin to describe the colour of it. It's grey but it's purple and it really is so much darker than it looks in the severe light of my bathroom where I took the photo.

I don't have confirmation but I THINK the formulation might have changed slightly because the new shade seems to be even creamier and silky than before. I'm totally beside myself over them. I can't even. I can't. My Zoeve En Taupe palette will be here tomorrow and I can't wait to try it along with the Scorpio. I think they're going to compliment each other really well.

I'm also running a test of budget (ie cheap lol) foundations to see if they really compare at all to mid-range foundations. I always use No7's Beautifully Matte foundation in the shade Calico (£14.50). It's my holy grail. I really love a full coverage foundation and I spend a lot of my time touching my face (don't ask me why, I'm a total freak) so I like something that will stay put through all my constant fingering (let's not lower the tone pmsl!).

This afternoon I bought a selection of low cost foundations, all supposed full coverage to test out and see if they were worth a look.

The first I've tried out is Primark's stick foundation. Now, I used to always use Max Factor's Pan Stick (I paid £6.99 for it in Boots) but stopped when I found out that they weren't cruelty free. The Primark one is £2.00 and doesn't come in very many shades from what I saw. My local Primark isn't particularly big so the larger stores might carry more variety when it comes to shades. The photos above where I'm showing the lipstick shades is where I'm wearing the Primark foundation.

There's a fair amount of product for the price first of all, there's a faint scent to it but it's nothing over powering or unpleasant. I bought the ivory shade which was the palest one I could see there. I'm quite yellow toned and it fit me perfectly. The colour match was perfect which is a rarity as I seem to find myself in between shades a lot of the time and either having to mix shades together or adjust with powder or bronzer/blush so was pleasantly surprised.

I primed my face with Nivea Post Shave balm and I applied it as I usually do with stick foundation and just run it over my face a few times and blended it in. I used one of the cheapy oval brushes from eBay and it was so rich and creamy, it just slid right over my skin and blended right in. I used my usual setting powder (MUA Matte Perfect Loose Powder) along with a brush to set it and went over the apples of my cheeks with blush. At first glance, it was perfect. I was really taken aback by how flawless it was. The coverage is amazing and like I said previously, it blends so unbelievably well considering the price. HOWEVER an hour later, it looks a bit cakey around my nose. I'm used to that with stick foundation as the Pan Stik did the same so it might just be my skin type that's the problem. My nose gets a bit oily throughout the day and I just went over it with the brush and it evened itself out again. My only let down is, it seems to take a hell of a lot of powder to set it as it's so creamy. I swiped my finger across my lip when taking off the Scorpio to switch shades and managed to wipe off some of the foundation above my lip. It was still soft to the point it would rub off by hand. I'm going to try it again with different setting powder and squirt some setting spray on there too to see if it makes a difference.

Overall, I'm really impressed. Going to give it a 4.5/5, only losing the half mark over the cakeiness around the nose but it might drop depending on wear time so watch this space.

It's something I would contemplate using again if I can find a way to work with the texture of it once set It'll be perfect for drag looks as I'm not typically in drag make-up for an extended period of time out of the house so cheap and cheerful for that. I am really surprised that it was so good if I'm being completely honest. I'm not a make-up snob by any means but I highly doubted that such a cheap foundation from a store that predominantly sells clothing as opposed to toiletries and cosmetics. I'm going to see how long it holds for and then update (with a photo) of how it held up over the hours. It'll be about 5 hours I'll have been wearing it when I wash off so should give a good indication of staying power.

Tomorrow I'm going to be testing out Essence's 16 hour foundation and reviewing the Zoeva En Taupe palette! Now I'm off to stare at myself in the mirror while alternating between lipsticks until I get sick of my reflection. As if that'll ever happen lol!

x M x

Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick restock, new shades and Jeffree/Kylie drama!!!

All my constant refreshing finally came to fruition this morning when I came upon the new Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick shades live on the Cocktail Cosmetics website! 

At the moment, Scorpio has already sold out and from the looks of things, Gemini hadn't yet been added to their site. Currently, Redrum, Queen Supreme, Unicorn Blood, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Dominatrix are still in stock but I'm not sure when exactly they'll be getting more of the Scorpio or if they're even going to get any of the Gemini.

The plan was to order one of each of the new shades but as Gemini wasn't being stocked yet, I decided to order Dominatrix alongside the Scorpio as I've been lusting after it for a while and with £4.25 postage and packaging, I felt it would be best to make the most of it.

The new shade, Scorpio, is absolutely stunning from what I've seen in photos. I'm a sucker for a purple lip and Scorpio is a beautiful muted grey-purple shade. I cannot wait to get it on my face. As for the Dominatrix, it's a shade I've been wanting to buy for ages but never got around to it. It's a rich chocolate brown shade and it seems to suit any skin tone from what I've seen online. I know that Cocktail Cosmetics have said themselves on their site to allow 24 hours for orders to be processed as they're expecting a high volume of orders due to the JS restock so I'm not sure exactly when it's going to be here so there's going to be a lot of order update checking over the next few days.

Now I must weigh in on the Jeffree Star/Kylie Jenner shenanigans that's been plastered all over social media. So, I've seen a lot of people bitching about Jeffree and complaining that he's being unprofessional calling Kylie out about the quality of her lip products (specifically the wands). Now, I might seem biased because I love JS but I don't see the problem with this. It's probably notable that the Kardashian/Jenner clan have a massive following who seem to get defensive at the slightest negative implication towards them but would people rather be ignorant to a problem, buy it and be disappointed or have the real truth and be aware that they're paying a considerable amount of money for a considerably poor quality product? Maybe it's because I love a bit of shade but I was cheering from the sidelines. Thankfully, it's now been promised that all customers will a faulty product WILL be receiving a replacement so I have to give her credit for acknowledging that there was a problem there and trying to rectify it. But I have to wonder what the quality control is like in the factory if so many faulty products were able to slip under the radar.

It's probably worth noting recent speculation that the Lip Kits might actually be a product of private labelling. I can't confirm or deny this so I'm not going to pretend I know for definite but I'd be extremely unhappy if I found out that I had been paying $29 (approx. £20) for a possibly repackaged Colourpop product (the Colourpop mattes retail at $6 on the Colourpop site which is approx. £4). Now this isn't a slight against the Colourpop mattes because I'm desperate to try Colourpop myself as I've heard so much about the Colourpop lipsticks being amazing, but a slight on the speculation that these lipsticks might be repackaged and sold at a considerably higher price. I imagine that we'll hear more about the subject over the next wee while and I'm truly hoping that private labelling isn't the case here for the customer's sake as well as hers because I doubt people would be very happy to find out that the wool had been pulled over their eyes. So here's hoping that it's all a huge misunderstanding.

What I do know for certain is that over the next few days I will be stalking the postman and be prepared to pounce on him as soon as he appears at the door to get my new lipsticks. Decision has been made on my first video post and it's going to have to be swatches of the Jeffree Star lipsticks,. I know it's been done to death but I figure it's an easy enough choice to ease myself into YouTubing and becoming more comfortable in front of a camera. I'd quite like to record a base routine as I get a lot of people asking me what foundation I use and  I'm awkward enough meeting people in real life never mind sitting alone in my house essentially talking to myself. 

AAAAANNNNNDDDDD today is motherfucking Drag Wednesday bitch! So I'm going to do a step by step eyebrow covering photo tutorial and post the final look tomorrow morning!

x M x

Day 2... where did you learn how to do make-up? Typical make-up look...

Okay, so technically I missed out on two days. In my defense though, I had a show to go to on Friday and was too tired for make-up yesterday as I didn't get home until 3am the night before! A rare occurence for me to be happy to skip doing my face!

Admittedly, I'm pretty knackered today. We've got a poorly 6 year old who has been sick all night and then again this morning but I had to do the school run anyway with the 4 year old so here we are.

Day 2's question is "Where did you learn how to do make-up?"

Growing up, my Mum always wore make-up. No matter where she was going, she had her warpaint on before leaving the house. I remember watching her as a kid in the mirror and seeing what she was doing. It was fascinating for me seeing anyone's transformation when it came to make-up and she always stuck to the same look the whole time since as far back as I remember. It was always a fairly natural look with the eye make-up and either brown toned lipstick or gloss. Recently, I've managed to lure her out of her comfort zone and she's worn different lip colour but that's pretty much as far as I can push her by the looks of things.

When I started wearing make-up to school as a teen, I pretty much followed the same routine, although back then, my eyeliner game was pretty rough so I always skipped it. Different coloured lipsticks creeped in over time and eventually eye shadow. The best piece of advice I ever received from her was probably to blend into my neck and stop going overboard with the bronzer. Looking back at photos of me as a teen, I feel mortified (although was hideously offended at the time) seeing the obvious tide marks and the bright orange cheeks. I was a hot mess.

Over time, I managed to improve my skills thankfully. When I discovered YouTube tutorials as an adult, I was already competent at doing my make-up but it was great to see different styles and how to execute them. Particularly with eye make-up as that's my "thing".

I have to thank her for the inspiration growing up, to be honest. Without that introduction to make-up, who knows if I'd have as much interest in it as an adult? My guess is probably yes but who knows. I could still be sitting here an adult looking like I've been tangoed with lines all around my chin. Thank you mother!!

So for the photo challenge, day 2 is "typical make-up look". Well, I don't really have a typical make-up look as I like to try something new every day but I do have a failsafe for any time I'm in a rush and I need to throw on something reliable. So here goes. Basically foundation routine is all the same but instead of some bright eye make-up, it's a natural lid with eyeliner. No matter what I have on my face, I cannot skip the eyeliner!! Coupled with a red lip, it's something that'll fit any occasion and is easy enough just to whack on.

I've used the Urban Decay Vice4 palette. 'Framed' all over the lid, a small amount of 'Bitter' in the crease, a small amount of 'Deadbeat' smudged under the eyes and 'Bones' for the highlight. At the moment eyeliner-wise, I'm using B is for Beautiful gel eyeliner. It seemed awesome at first but I'm starting to wonder if I'd ever buy it again. It seems to dry up pretty quickly even though the lid is screwed tightly shut after every time I use it. Never a good thing. And for the red lip, I either reach for Jeffree Star's Mistletoe or LA Splash's Lip Couture in Poison Apple. Both are liquid matte lipsticks and don't have a tendency to rub off or bleed if I can't find my lipliner (which always seems to disappear). Links below for all products used.

This takes roughly 15-20 minuted depending on what eyeliner I use. This one is particularly hard to work with as it's drying up faster than it should (!) so it takes a bit of fiddling about with to get it just right.

It's something that suits everyday wear but can also work if going out in the evening so it's pretty versatile so a good failsafe!



Nivea for Men Post Shave Balm £5.29
B Flawless Complete Coverage Foundation £5.49 (usually £9.99) I use the colour Rose Ivory which is currently not in stock on the website but can be found instore.
MUA Matte Perfect Loose Powder £3
NYX Powder Blush (Silky Rose) £5.98
MUA Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder £3.00 (Opalescent Amber)
Urban Decay Vice4 Palette £43
B is for Beautiful B. Precise Gel Eyeliner (currently £3.49)
Freedom Pro Brow Pomade (Ebony Brown) £5

The only thing I can't include on the list is the Jeffree Star liquid lipstick in Mistletoe. Unfortunately, it was part of the limited edition collection that was released around Christmas time. If you search about online, there might be some online stores that still have some stock but it was pretty popular, so there might be a chance that's it's unavailable. They do a similar colour called Unicorn Blood which is similar colourwise but the Mistletoe is more glittery. Alas, it's out of stock on the Cocktail Cosmetics site which is usually where I get my JS lipsticks from but they're always replenishing their stock so keep an eye out. Link to site below.

Cocktail Cosmetics

x M x