Review: ELF Cosmetics Healthy Glow "Luminance"

I've completely run out of prepared pictures of stuff to blog about! Which means I haven't been able to get much blogging done as I'm pretty short on time right now. However, I've managed to get a few pictures done today and I'm starting to build up a stock of pictures again!

So, today I have an ELF product that I've somehow managed to miss! ELF Cosmetics Healthy Glow Bronzing Powder comes in 4 shades from ELF Cosmetics and costs the grand total of £1.50. One of the shades isn't actually a bronzer, but more of a highlighter, and that's the one I have for you today!


I don't have an outside packaging picture for you as it has become quite beaten up and scratched. It's the highlight of choice for holidays (Mum steals it for hers as well) as it's cheap and pretty good. It has been over to the US several times, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. It's well travelled but still in one piece! Originally, it also had a raised "elf" in the middle of the product.


Photographing highlighters is hard! It's a pale, creamy gold with more of a subtle sheen rather than outright, in your face shimmer. It's not massively pigmented but adds a very subtle glow that blends nicely into the skin. Surprisingly, despite me having a good selection of highlighters, this is the one I use the most! It doesn't matter if I overdo this a bit, it's so natural looking that adding a little too much doesn't matter. It can get a little powdery of you over apply but it brushes away easily. It's not as smooth as some of my more expensive highlighters though but it's not unpleasant to use.

It lasts a good 6 or 7 hours on me when I apply to the top of my cheek bones, but that's a non-greasy area of my face.

I've found the basic ELF line to be pretty hit and miss, but this is one of the better £1.50 products (and yes, I know these are $1 in the US).

FOTD #64: 29/05/12

I didn't wear much make up over the last few days, I'd only sweat it off within an hour or two anyway! But I spied some really pretty shades in my unused Aromaleigh bag and just had to use them. Also, I've squeezed a few more pixels into my pictures, let me know how you like the larger size.


I used:
-Urban Decay DeSlick In a Tube
-Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer "Fair"
-Laura Geller Balance & Brighten "Fair"
-Fresh Faces Oil Control Primer (it's all about shine control today!)
-Cecile Baked Blush "07"

-Urban Decay Primer Potion
-Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
-Aromaleigh Shadow "Window Shopping" - on lid
-Aromaleigh Shadow "Trixie" - in crease
-ELF Studio Shadow Single "Sand Dollar" - highlight
-Bobbi Brown Gel Liner "Sapphire Shimmer Ink" - top liner
-Urban Decay 24/7 Liner "Midnight Cowboy" - lower liner
-Buxom Lash Mascara

-Buxom Gloss "April"

Review: Wet n Wild ColorIcon Baked Palette "Baking A Cake"

So, here's something that's probably long sold out but I'm reviewing it anyway! Sparklecrack sent me over the Wet n Wild Baked Eye Shadow Palettes and I've finally got round to wearing and swatching them for you! These were available from Walgreen's for $4.99. I'm pretty sure they were limited edition.


I don't have pictures of the packaging. Sparklecrack did send those over but I seem to have thrown it all out by the time I got round to photographing these. Anyway, I've got a couple of issues with the packaging. It's not too bad as all three managed to survive the trip over to the UK without any sparkle explosions. However, I don't like the fact that the lid comes completely off, rather than being attached with a hinge. I'm sure that at some point I'm either going to lose it or it's going to come off while I'm rummaging and I'll end up with an eye shadow mess. It also feels quite flimsy, which is never good. Most importantly, the name of the palette is not anywhere on the palette! I've had to attach a label so I know which is which!

The shadows are baked so they're a little more delicate than pressed shadows and they also tend to fling up a lot more powder when used. My palette is looking a little messy now, despite trying to clear away the powder. They do work best over a slightly sticky primer, but I have found this to be true for all baked shadows no matter the price point.



There are actually a couple of quite interesting shades in this palette. The two marbled shades create quite a nice effect and I'm quite fond of using the lighter (the one on the same row as the pale pink and lavender) as a lid shade. It's very pretty when used over a sticky primer.

The shadows last quite well over a primer. When used without, they don't last or show up very well on my lids. You definitely need something to help these work. However, I've got into the habit of using Pixie Epoxy pretty much every day and these look great over it! These also work really well used with a damp brush if you don't have a sticky primer. One or two shades, such as the fuchsia and deep brown were a little drier and sheerer when used.

The liner is not so great. It's a black with silver sparkle. I found it quite pigmented but didn't really set and smudged and wore off through the day.

I've used the palette for a FOTD here:
-24/05/12

I used the lighter marbled shade on the lid, the lavender in the crease and the dark brown with a wet brush as a top liner.

I've got the other two palettes to review soon!

FOTD #63: 24/05/12

Another glorious day today! But I was at work and missed most of it.


I used:
-Urban Decay DeSlick In a Tube
-Laura Geller Balance & Brighten "Fair"
-Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer "Fair"
-Lorac Blush "Soul"

-Urban Decay Primer Potion
-Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
-Wet n Wild Coloricon Baked Shadow Palette "Baking a Cake" - lid, crease & top liner
-ELF Studio Shadow Single "Sand Dollar" - highlight
-Buxom Lash

-Benefit Lipstick "Sugar Cookie"

Haul: A Few Goodies From Boston

Took advantage of the lovely weather yesterday and drove through to Boston for a little bit of shopping (and to scoff a KFC!). The Boots there isn't the biggest or best stocked but I was surprised to see an Essie stand so I'm hoping the Lincoln Boots will be stocking it as well!
The Boots Advantage Points machine spat out a bonus points for a £20 spend, not hard to do in Boots! I bought:
-Essie "Dive Bar" Polish
-Soap & Glory T-Zone Oil Control Daily Moisture Lotion
-Soap & Glory Shower Puff (not photographed, it's in my shower!)
I managed to go over £20 by 49p so I got my bonus points!

The Superdrug in Boston is pretty good, a fairly new and bright building. It doesn't stock Sleek or Accessorize but the make up side of the shop is pretty spacious. I was pleased to see the previous MUA corner was now a proper stand and included MUA Pro. There was a 3for2 offer on so I got these 3 bits from MUA for the grand total of £5.00!
-MUA Pro Trio Eye Shadow "Chocolate Box"
-MUA Pro Eye Primer
-MUA Pro 3 in 1 Extreme Liner "Fresh Mint"

I also managed to snag myself a little jar sample of Benefit's new liquid foundation. I didn't want to spend £25 on a bottle when I wasn't sure about the colour match.

FOTD #62: 22/05/12

Sometimes I apply a lid shade that's so pretty that I can't bear to add a crease colour to, I just want to wear that one shade without any distractions of any other colours! Oh, and my hair doesn't look like that now. It got cut short again this afternoon.


I used:
-Black Radiance Shine Control Primer
-Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer "Fair"
-Laura Geller Balance & Brighten Foundation "Fair"
-Vivo Cosmetics Baked Blush "Rouge Shimmer"

-Urban Decay Primer Potion
-Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
-Love Hues Shadow "Antique Moon" - over lid
-ELF Studio Shadow Single "Sand Dollar" - highlight
-Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner "Black" - top liner
-Urban Decay 24/7 Liner "Stash" - lower liner
-Buxom Lash

-Revlon Lip Butter "Macaroon"

Nails: Nails Inc "New Burlington Place"

This is one of those annoying polishes that just will not photograph properly! All you ever get is the cherry red base colour and none of the copper duochrome. Rwar. I tried. Oh yeah, let's have a dried out, nasty looking cuticle warning, shall we? My job, it is not kind to my hands.


Nails Inc New Burlington Place has a cherry red sparkly foil base with a strong copper duochrome. I took so many photos of this, both with and without flash. We've got very little actual sunshine right now so I used my daylight bulb to try and get something halfway decent.

This polish is so pretty! This is 3 coats and it still showed a little nail line when using the flash but it's not actual visible normally.


Then I turned contortionist to try and get a good shot of the duochrome.

I recently raided TK Maxx and bought 7 Nails Inc polishes for a grand total of £25. Considering that you can buy them on QVC in sets of 5 or so for around £25 and get them fairly regularly on the front of magazines and given away with purchases of Coke, I'm really not sure why I'd ever cough up the retail price of £11 per bottle. Maybe I'd consider it if a particular spiffy new shade came along that I wanted but every time that's happened, I've managed to buy it in a set from QVC.

Still, I do love Nails Inc polishes!

Review: MAC Fluidline "Blacktrack"

This is one of those products that I was absolutely sure I must have reviewed at some point because it's just such an essential part of my stash. Someone asked me to review it on Youtube and I realised that while I had mentioned several times that it was awesome, I'd never given it a dedicated review.


MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack is one of the few make up products that I am loyal to! It's currently £14.00 from MAC shops, counters and the MAC UK website. There used to be a much wider shade range available but MAC discontinued most of them. I will be having words with MAC if they ever discontinue this shade.


It comes in what is pretty much "standard" gel liner packaging. A glass jar with a screw on lid. I store my gel liners upside down to prolong the life. Though MAC Fluidlines don't dry out very quickly for me. If you live in a much warmer and drier climate than the UK then they might dry out faster.

MAC's Fluidlines were pretty much one of the first gel liners available on the UK make up market. Bobbi Brown also had her gel liners but I hadn't tried any at that point. When the Fluidlines were first released, I was so intrigued that I caught the train to Nottingham to go to the MAC shop there specifically to buy a Fluidline. I'm sure I bought one or two other things (back when MAC's product quality was much, much better) but since then, I've always had one of these in my collection. I've bought and loved other gel liners (Maybelline's are pretty amazing) but always come back to this black!


Blacktrack is a very rich black with no shimmer. It has no obvious undertones so it lives firmly between warm and cool and will work with any colour eye look. It's very pigmented, I only have to apply one layer for most looks. If I've gone for very deeply coloured eye make up then I might have to add a couple of layers! It's smooth and creamy in texture and dries down in about 30 seconds to create a line that will not budge until I take it off at the end of the day. It also works well as a black eye shadow base for a really dramatic look but I've found it can be a little drying over the entire lid unless I have a primer on underneath.

Basically, I love this. I think this is about the third pot I've bought and one of the few things these days that MAC is getting spot on.

FOTD #61: 20/05/12

Yeah, yeah. I know. No blogging has been done this week. So today, after work, I decided to slap some make up on for the heck of it. It has also been a while since I used much Aromaleigh so it made sense to dig out a couple of jars.


I used:
-Fyrinnae Velvet-Gel Silica Primer
-Laura Geller Balance & Brighten "Fair"
-Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer "Fair" - there is not enough in the world for my under eye circles
-Nars Blush "Sin"

-Urban Decay Primer Potion
-Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
-Aromaleigh Shadow "Alyssum" - over lid
-Aromaleigh Shadow "Elodie" - in crease
-ELF Studio Shadow Single "Sand Dollar" - highlight
-Urban Decay 24/7 Liner "Midnight Cowboy" - lower lash line
-Vivo Cosmetics Liquid Liner "Slate" - top liner
-Collection 2000 Multiplier Mascara

-Buxom Lip "April"


Right, time to get typing away to write some new posts!

FOTD #60: 15/05/12

I'm not a fan of pink eye shadow on me. It's got to be a certain tone of pink in order for me not to look zombiefied. Fortunately this is fuchsia enough for me to wear.


I used:
-Urban Decay DeSlick In A Tube
-Laura Geller Balance & Brighten Foundation "Fair"
-Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer "Fair"
-Lorac Blush "Soul"

-L'Oreal HIP Cream Shadow Paint "Secretive"
-Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
-L'Oreal HIP Pigment "Fiery" - over lid
-Coastal Scents Hot Pot "ME-15" - in crease
-ELF Studio Shadow Single "Sand Dollar" - highlight
-Urban Decay 24/7 Liquid Liner "Smog" - top liner
-Urban Decay 24/7 Liner "Binge" - lower liner
-Collection 2000 Multiplier Mascara

-Revlon Lip Butter "Macaroon"