Jeffree Star - the Marmite of the make-up world... Beauty Killer review.

*waves* Hey!!

I haven't been posting for a while. Due to the devastating loss of a family member, I got really lost. The blog fell away in importance and I had to focus on self-care. It's been pretty rough and weeks later, it's still very fresh and raw. But putting life on hold isn't the way to deal with grief.

I could sit here and discuss my grief and the goings on but it's not really the right platform to voice what's been happening and how I've been feeling and I've been so grateful to have such a massive support network there for me to pick me up when I'm falling down and help me through such an awful time. So normality seems to be something that needs to be put in place because if you don't you'll genuinely go crazy. 

The most recent and exciting thing I have to review is the Jeffree Star Beauty Killer palette. Now, there's an emotional story behind this too. I wanted the Beauty Killer palette since I found out that it was in production but I didn't want to order it from the US due to customs but it didn't seem to be going onto any of the UK JSC stockists sites any time soon. I wasn't exactly rolling in it either so spending that amount of money on customs on top of the palette itself was a less than responsible idea. So I sat down to wait it out. Someone on one of the UK make up groups was selling one and I decided to keep an eye on the thread and then received a message saying one of my friends had ordered it for me. One of my personality flaws is that I find it really hard to accept gifts, I have no idea why but maybe it's something to do with my low self esteem and guilt complex lol. But it's one of the loveliest things someone's done for me just out of the blue and I'll be forever grateful. No matter how terrible the world seems to be, there are beautiful people with beautiful souls out there. 

Now that I've got the emotional part out of the way and I'm on the verge of tears, I should probably talk about the palette. I had seen mixed reviews on the palette. Like Jeffree himself, the palette seems to be a Marmite kinda palette, you either love it or you hate it. So once I've did my swatches, I'll touch on some of the things I've heard on the palette...

The palette retails at $45 which is about £35 but be wary when ordering straight from the site (I'll leave the link below as there may be customs and handling charges which will all depend on the final value of your parcel. The palette contains 10 shades in various finishes, matte, frost (shimmery) and glitter. It works out at $4.50 (£3.50) per shadow. Considering the size of the pans, I'd consider that pretty good. 

The packaging is super cute, all pink and has a large mirror inside. I wear glasses so always use the mirrors inside my palettes as I need to be up close with them off so it's a definite bonus!

The shadows are EXTREMELY pigmented so be wary when using the palette that a little goes a very, very long way. They're really blendable so great to work with and I don't think they're chalky at all. Cruelty free is a must for me when it comes to cosmetics and all of JS's products are vegan and cruelty free.

Onto the swatches. I've done a brush swatch and finger swatch for each shade as I think sometimes swatch videos/posts can be quite deceiving as colour can translate very differently from finger to brush so here it goes...

Top Row L-R - Star Power, Princess, Violence, Rich Bitch, Courtney.
(Rich Bitch comes out a true gold with the brush but as I'd forgotten to dust off my brush after using Violence, it looks as if it's a bit purpleish/brownish but it's a true gold, I promise you)

Bottom row L-R Expensive, Confession, Vanity, China White, Black Rainbow.

So to touch on a few of the things I've heard about the palette...

"It's not cohesive." - Nonsense, the colours all go together and there's plenty of room for doing different looks, I think part of the problem is people's personal styles so to say it doesn't mesh and work together might be true for you but not for everyone who owns and uses the palette. I've created loads of different looks with this from bright eye looks, smokey eye, more neutral looks etc so if you work with it and use some creativity, there's an abundance of looks you can create.

"They're not pigmented." Are you fucking kidding me?! I've used these with and without a primer and the colour payoff is insane. The first time I used it, I loaded my brush like I usually do and realised immediately that I had made a mistake. You do not need a lot of product for a lot of colour, the pigmentation is crazy on these so whoever said they weren't pigmented, God knows what they're expecting from their shadows if they think these aren't pigmented enough.

"You're limited with the looks you can do," Like I said previously, I've done so many different looks with this palette. Using this palette alone and incorporating other palettes along with it, there's no limit at all.

I could go on with the negatives I've heard and I can shoot down every single one of them but I'd be here all day and I have things to do, people to see, places to go.

I've included just three of the looks I've done so far just to show the difference between the looks. You can't just do bright extreme looks with this. Whoever has told you that is either lying so you won't buy it or they've not used their imagination.

I understand that a lot of people have a problem with Jeffree Star. Whether it be what you've heard about him online or whatever. Which is fair enough, I'm not going to tell you who to like and who not to like. But if you're going to use your opinion on an individual to add bias to your review of their products then that's not cool. Whether you love him or hate him, his products (in my own personal opinion) are outstanding. Again, I'm not going to tell you to like a product or dislike a product but make sure your opinion on said products are based on your honest view of the products itself and not your view of the brand's creator itself. 

Prime example: I'm not keen on Kylie Jenner *BUT* if I were to buy and review one of her Lip Kits, I'd review based on the products, not my feelings towards her myself. As a reviewer, make-up artist or Youtube vlogger, people are looking for advice and reviews on products because they want to know if they're worth buying or not. So you kinda have a responsibility to provide a non-biased honest review of the product you're testing out. 

I'm hoping to film a tutorial for a few looks with the palette but as the kids are all off school, I'm finding it a bit hard to get a quiet moment with nobody around to actually film it but watch this space.

5/5

Pros: Good value, highly pigmented, blendable, awesome.

Cons: None. Unless you count pink staining on my eyelid when I didn't use primer lol, but it came away with some coconut oil!

- x M x

Beauty Killer palette - Jeffree Star Cosmetics

Stop shaming...

*TRIGGER WARNING* I'm going to touch on the subject of rape culture at some point in this post so just a little heads up incase anyone wants to stop reading.

So it's a bit of a serious one today. And it's not all about make-up, although make-up is a part of it. It's something that's been bothering me for a while and after seeing some more of these "hilarious" or "inspirational" memes, I've felt the need to have a wee rant.

My Facebook seems to be plagued with memes regarding women wearing too much make up, men don't like you if you're too fat, men only finding women attractive who are curvy, men don't women who sleep around etc..

So much about this pisses me right off.

I'm going to open this up, not just targeted at men, but the human race in general.

I have full autonomy. My body is my choice, and so is what the hell I want to do with it! If you want to sit and judge me because of how I look, dress or act, then you can turn your ass around and make your way out of my life.

I don't choose my clothing or make-up to please any man or woman. If a man, woman or anyone in  between happens to find me attractive then that's great but none of my choices are made with the sole intention of pleasing a sexual partner or a potential sexual partner.

My choice to wear make-up is for a few reasons, none of which I should justify to anyone but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. Make-up is a creative outlet for me, it's a point of self-expression and it gives me a bit more confidence. Not the confidence that comes with looking good for the benefit of other people but using my skills to make something that I feel proud of. Whether that means looking like I've been rubbing my face in a paint box or not, at least I'm happy with the finished product. I won't stop wearing make-up because people find "cake face" unattractive. I love make-up, I can't wear enough of the stuff. It's awesome.

My body is slightly on the chubby side. I'm not going to lose weight just so someone else will want to give me one, if I choose to lose weight, it'll be to look in the mirror and find myself more attractive and give me the confidence I need to walk out the door and feel like a queen.

Now, putting my feelings about myself aside, everyone in the world has beauty and not everyone can see that individual beauty. Whether they choose to wear make-up or not, my hope in the world that the people in question feel happy in their skin. Even if that means using a little bit of make-up here and there or plastering their face full of the stuff, what's important is that they feel happy. Would it be better if I look in the mirror and feel like crap but be grateful that someone might find me more attractive because I'm not covered in make-up? Fuck no it wouldn't. That's not how life is supposed to be. What's the point in living an unhappy life for someone else's benefit?

As for the weight thing, nowadays, I see more body shaming geared towards slimmer women rather than curvier women. In support of the typical 'poking fun at fat people' mindset. Well, let me tell you something, if you feel the need to empower yourself by bringing another woman down, then you're just as bad as the people out there taking the piss out of people like you. Body shaming is not cool in any way, shape or form. I've been attracted to women who are very slim, I have been attracted to women who are very curvy. There is no "perfect" body shape. If you're going to be concerned about anyone's weight, it shouldn't be about how they look, it should be about their health and even at that, it's not your business to raise the issue.

In an ideal world, I'd make myself a few dress sizes smaller and my boobs a few cup sizes smaller but that's my business, that's about how I feel when I look in the mirror. If someone only finds me attractive based on how my face and body looks, well, that's a shallow bastard that I really don't want in my life to begin with.

On to the "slutty" clothing and sleeping around section of my rant. I can wear whatever the hell I want without earning your judgement. If you don't think I look good, then tough titties. I do. If I want to have my cleavage busting out of my top or wearing a skirt which comes just below my arse cheeks because I'm embracing my curves then that's my business, not yours or anyone elses. My clothes are not for you! They are for me. My clothes are not a representation of my virtue, neither are they worn so that you will find me attractive. Whether I want to wear a boob tube or a turtle neck, I'll be wearing it because I feel comfortable and attractive in it. Rape culture & victim blaming has a tendency to become more obvious an issue when it comes to clothing. If a woman is provocatively dressed then they're "asking for it" or should expect some sort of sexual advance. Yeah, you might end up with someone chatting you up but wearing items of clothing doesn't take away your autonomy and your ability to give consent. If you're sitting saying that a woman deserves to be raped or that it's her own fault simply because she's wearing certain clothing, then you're as bad as the rapist involved in the situation. You are sympathising with a rapist. That is the fact of the matter. I AM NOT DRESSING FOR ANOTHER HUMAN BEING! No matter what their intentions.

The most frustrating one of all is the sleeping around part. Humans are sexual beings. They want to have sex for pleasure, they want to have sex to procreate. So why is it that men are allowed to sow their seed as they please but women are slut shamed if they enjoy sex and want to have it? I've never understood this frame of mind. If a woman wants to have sex with one man or a hundred men (or of any gender), she has the ultimate right to do so because it's her body and if she wants to go out and get the same pleasure that a man would without being judged for it, then she bloody well should do it. As long as both parties are being safe, why is there an issue here? Again, the rape culture issue comes up in that people have the opinion that if you sleep around a lot then you're fair game. Why can't you see what is wrong with that sentence? If you're one of those people who says these things, you might want to take a seat and have a real think about the sort of person you are and if you really think that you can condone assault of any sort based on a woman's (or man's) appearance or actions. CONSENT IS THE ISSUE HERE, NOT HOW A PERSON LOOKS/APPEARS!

And what the fuck happened to feminism? A lot of these memes are geared towards the male opinion but most of the time, it's women I see sharing them! Why are we bringing other women down? Aren't we all fighting for the same thing? To wear what we want, be equals, look how we want, act how we want? Yet we have women ripping other women to shreds simply to make themselves feel better. Well, I'm sorry but that's not how life works. We're all in this together, we're all beautiful and we should all accept that we have the rights to our own bodies and what we choose to adorn them with or what we choose to do with them.


All human beings are beautiful. Yes, it might be that not everyone finds a certain person attractive, we all have our own tastes, but as long as they see the beauty in themselves than that's what's important here. Attraction is subjective. We like what we like and that's fair enough. But what isn't fair is using our preferences to make other people feel like shit.

I have no idea what the purpose is behind this rant except maybe to get it off my chest and let people sharing these memes see another perspective.

Stop shaming other people guys. Whether it's body shaming, slut shaming or whatever, I don't care, just stop!

Peace and love to everyone. Go look in the mirror and see the beauty in yourself. Embrace that beauty. Do not let anyone else tell you that you have to look different for anyone else's benefit.

x M x

Budget foundation part 3 and Drag Wednesday!

So I kinda forgot to post last week about the latest foundation, I've been so distracted lately that I keep writing posts and forgetting to actually publish them, so here it is.

The third cheapy foundation I tried was from W7. The High Definition Camera Ready foundation. Now, I got this in B&M but I lost my receipt so I can't give the accurate price but I do know that it was under £3!

So there's no information about this foundation on W7s website so I assume it's either a discontinued line or a special promotion that they've chosen not to become a regular line. There's nothing on the bottle to suggest what the foundation is supposed to "do" ie wear time, coverage etc.

It comes in a pump bottle which is great because the other W7 foundation I bought to try (more about that tomorrow) comes in a glass bottle which you have to shake to get the foundation to actually come out and I really hate foundations in glass bottles. My pet hate when it comes to foundation!!

The consistency was quite creamy, not too runny (I loathe runny foundation) and not too thick. It applies evenly (I used my RT face brush to buff it in) and the colour 'Buff' was a pretty good match to my skin tone. It got slightly darker as it dried but I blended it right down on to my neck so if there was any noticeable difference in comparison to my skin tone, it wasn't visible.

As from the name of the foundation, it is supposedly "high definition" and "camera ready" but there's no further information as to what that entails. The foundation has pretty good coverage and there's nothing on the bottle to suggest that it has an SPF, which doesn't really go well with flash photography.

It's definitely worth the price and it's a foundation I would go back to again but it would be nice to access some more information on the product before buying again. I'll give it a 4/5 because the wear time was pretty good, I had it on for a good 8 hours and it didn't really show any signs of wear, maybe a little fading here and there but nothing noticeable unless you're being overly critical like I was!

Moving on to Drag Wednesday!! Since starting to trim my eyebrows after plucking or waxing, there's been a huge difference in the ease of covering my brows. Before, the amount of Pritt Stick I was having to use to get them glued down was a bit ridiculous and it took a hell of a long time but this time around it was so much easier. After gluing and powdering them, I decided to use the Primark foundation that I had mentioned before to go over the top of them and they were gone! It's probably the best coverage I've had so far eyebrow-wise since starting to do drag make-up on myself.

I decided to not use a runway look from the show this week and instead make it up as I went along. I saw a picture during the week of a sort of outlined starburst eyeliner during the week and I wanted to try something like that except huge and filled in instead of just the outline. I used the KIKO gel eyeliner and my Wilko eyeliner brush (as always) to map it out and fill it in with a large wing that joined up with the star burst at the inner corner of my eye. I was really impressed with how good it looked to be honest. I used my Make-Up Revolution 'Give them Nightmares' palette along with a cheapy palette that I don't know the brand name of (oops) to do a sort of gold and purple look. Unfortunately the purple in the MUR palette didn't show up too well on the area where my brow was covered but I actually managed to forget to prime my eyes before I actually started putting eyeshadow on them so I might have to try it again with primer underneath!!

Lips were another story altogether. I used the LA Girl Matte Gloss in Blackcurrant as it's a beautiful dark purple and I thought it would compliment the eyes well.  Which it did, but I had to use literally 4 or 5 coats of it to get a fully opaque lip. Now, I'm not going to blame the lipstick. The skin on the lips is pretty different to the skin covering the rest of your face and lipstick is for your lips. So overdrawing them to such a degree meant I was going over the skin below my nose and below my lower lip and it did need a hell of a lot of lipstick to totally cover that up.

I used my old faithful lashes, cheap and cheerful Primark ones and managed to get the eyelash glue everywhere, so that was fucking great. But it actually worked out pretty good in the end. My contouring looked so much better using my cheapy contour palette along with the Morphe blush palette. Usually in photos, my contour doesn't show up at all so I was pretty impressed.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to film a skincare review on the Boots Witch Hazel and Tea Tree jelly skincare products but that all depends on if we can actually get a hold of them in store! Failing that, it'll be discussing the eyeshadow palettes (that I've yet to try) from Primark! So hopefully that'll turn out better than the last video I filmed. Which was horrendous. Will also be talking on here about the final installment of budget foundations and a little bit about body confidence!

x M x

Zoeva En Taupe palette, budget foundation part 2 and Primark foundation update!

Well, the last time I posted, I was praising Primark's £2 stick foundation. I gave it a 4.5/5 and was rather taken aback by how good it was. Well, the phrase "too good to be true" really was apt in this case. I TAKE IT ALL BACK! BURN IT WITH FIRE! In total, I had the foundation on my face for about 6 hours. My face was a greasy mess. There was absolutely no foundation left on either side of my nose and there were actual streaks on my face where you could see the natural skin underneath where the foundation had swiped straight off my face. It was a hot mess. It felt slippery and almost like my face was sweaty. The rating has fallen all the way down to a 2/5. Never again.

On a happier note, my Zoeva
En Taupe palette came yesterday morning! It was £18 from BeautyBay (will pop the link for it at the bottom) and it is absolutely beautiful. Now, neutrals aren't my thing at all. Most of my eyeshadow palettes are either full of brights or darks but I struggle with neutral colours are they never seem to excite me. But my sister had asked me to do a more natural look on her recently and I sort of just stood despairingly in front of my make-up case wondering how in the hell I was going to pull this off but I found a small Freedom palette with some nice pinky neutrals in it that fit the bill. It was obvious, however, that I was going to have to invest in some more muted palettes if I wanted to be able to cater to more people.

I stumbled across the Zoeva palettes when I was flicking through BeautyBay on Thursday and it's a brand I hadn't come across before. I had a look around on YouTube and apparently they're a German make-up brand with some of the most gorgeous palettes I've ever seen. Like I said previously, neutrals don't generally excite me very much but I saw these are fell in love. Being a conscientious shopper, I had a look at some videos on YouTube with people reviewing the palettes and couldn't resist buying one to check out for myself.

I paid £20.50 all in as I paid the extra £2.50 for next day shipping so it wasn't particularly expensive compared to some palettes on the market at the moment considering you're getting 10 reasonably sized eyeshadows in the palette (works out at £1.80 per eyeshadow!).

The packaging is just your standard thick cardboard magnetic palette and it comes in a pretty little cardboard slip cover as well. I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but I'm a sucker for pretty packaging and Zoeva pretty much nail it, all their palettes come in very pretty packaging and I love it!

The eyeshadows themselves are amazing quality. They're so smooth and creamy, not chalky at all. Due to the texture of the eyeshadow they are so easy to blend and you don't get a lot of fall out, even with the darker colours. They are so highly pigmented so combined with the texture, a little goes a long way. It's a perfect addition to anyone's collection if they have a soft spot for neutrals.

Moving on to the budget foundations, this time I tried out the Essence Stay All Day 16hr Long Lasting foundation. Again, Essence wasn't a brand I was familiar with but I had seen it talked about on various make-up groups on Facebook, praised very highly so I thought it was worth including in my venture. I looked into Essence a little bit and they're a European brand, cruelty free and reasonably priced. The only place I've seen them sold in store is in Wilko and I must have passed by them so many times without even noticing they were bloody there! So the 16hr foundation is £3.80 and comes in 3 shades. Looking at the shades available, I think I need to go with Soft Beige but the lightest colour they had in store was Soft Crème. I bought it anyway thinking I could use powder to lighten it slightly if it was too dark.

The texture of the foundation is very smooth, it blends really well and is faintly scented. Now, I have no idea whatsoever what it's SUPPOSED to smell like but it's nice. I don't normally like scented make-up products unless it's lipstick so I was a bit skeptical of a scented foundation.

As I suspected, the colour match was waaaaaaaay far off. It was super orange compared to my own skin tone and I looked like I'd been fucking Tangoed. Even other people were pointing out to me how orange my face was, even after powdering to try and lighten it! But I made the best of it and blended it far down my neck to try and cover up the obvious difference since we were only trying it out anyway. Well, that was until I found out we were actually going out for dinner and I didn't have time to change my make-up!!

TRAGEDY STRIKES! My cheapy oval brush from eBay fucking snapped! The handle snapped clean in two while I was applying my foundation so we had to switch half way through to a Real Techniques face brush which actually seemed to blend in the foundation even better in this instance. It blended in very well and gave a lovely smooth, flawless finish. It's medium to full coverage and I wear two coats of foundation anyway so it covered up any flaws whatsoever.

Staying power-wise, it stayed on all day. I had it on for approximately 9 hours. It would be rare that I would have foundation on for 16 hours anyway so I didn't really get to test it to it's full potential. When I came to wash my face that night, I still had a full face of make-up on, nothing had budged or went cakey in patches. I was really impressed. I felt a bit jaded by the Primark fiasco so I wasn't really expecting much from another cheapy foundation. I really do need to try and get it in my own colour because it truly is a wonderful foundation for the price. It's something I would use every day, it's good quality, my only issue is the lack of variety in shades.

This is the finished product of my endeavours. As you can see, the foundation really did look pretty good so worthy of another try (in my actual colour!!!) And the eyeshadows are just to die for. I was planning on doing a tutorial but there were too many people home and I couldn't sit and film it while everyone was sitting around taking the piss SO, maybe another time. If I can get peace. Unlikely. But I'll give a quick run down of what I did.

I primed my eyes with MUA eyeshadow primer. Using a soft brush, I covered my whole lid in the shade Stitch by Stitch (pale creamy shade) and then applied 'Gallery' all over my lower lid. Using a fluffy shading brush, I started working 'Outline' into the crease and blending slightly upwards towards the brow, and the shadows were so soft they just blended right up seamlessly. So be careful if you're using them that you don't just blend everything away LOL!. Then I went into 'Exquisitve' with the same fluffy brush and started working it into the outer crease into a 'V' leading down to the outer corner of my eye. Just a small amount to add a bit of definition. When working with pale neutrals, I love just popping in a wee bit of colour because sometimes, it can just end up looking quite flat and boring. My personal opinion, I'm not saying anyone else looks boring, I just find it hard to stay interested in my reflection at times without looking like a unicorn has done it's business all over my face. Anyway, using a smaller brush, I put a little more of the 'Exquisitve' shade under neath my eye close to the lash line. I then popped a little bit of 'Sheers and Voiles' as a highlight just at the brow bone and dabbed just the tiniest amount of 'Gallery' onto the brush to go into my crease again just a TINY little bit. Finished it all off with a little KIKO Gel Eyeliner and Essence's Lash Princess mascara. Not forgetting to finish off my face with my new joint favourite lipstick, Scorpio.

TA DA!!!!

So tomorrow, it's another budget foundation review. One I can guarantee 100% will not be the same colour as my natural skin tone so that'll be fun. And possibly discussing my lust over the new Urban Decay palette coming out next month that I HAVE to get my grubby little hands on!

x M x

Beauty Bay - Zoeva En Taupe palette

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

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