Review: MAC 217 Brush

I have been fiddling with the blog settings again! I've reduced the number of blog entries on a page down to 10 from 15. I don't know the meaning of short entries so hopefully the page won't be so huge! Now I'm getting more and more views on the first page, it'll reduce the amount of bandwidth I'm using per month as there will be fewer pictures on each page. I've taken a couple of things off the side bar, and added a Google Blog search widget. I've also changed my avatar, the one I was using was about 5 years old! Anyway, review time!

MAC use a numbering system for their brushes, like a few of the higher end companies do. Those with fewer brushes tend to use names, but MAC have a lot of brushes! The 100 series is for the face, 200 for the eyes and 300 for the lips.

Today, we're going to be having a look at the MAC 217 brush. It's sold for £14.00 on the MAC UK website, along with various counters and stores dotted around the country. It's available world wide. I've had mine for nearly as long as I've owned my 239 so I probably paid a little less for mine.


I have owned this nearly as long as I have had my 239. Maybe I bought it the next time I went into a MAC, I can't remember! The photo above was taken just after it had been cleaned. This brush was actually slightly damaged after I had moved house. A few hairs were bent and in the end I had to pull out those few hairs. I hated doing that but I just could not get them to lie flat.

The 217 is made from white goat hair which has a firm, but not stiff texture. The bristles have the same texture as the 239 but as the bristles are longer, they have much more "give" to them. The firmness allows application of colour to the crease, but the softness and length of the bristle allow for easy blending of the crease area. The rounded edge of the brush fits perfectly into my crease area.

This brush will pick up a lot of colour so you do need to work very carefully if you are using this to apply colour to your crease. I think I need another one of these so I can use one for colour application and the other for blending! MAC says this can be used to apply cream products as well, but I haven't tried it for that.

The white bristles can get stained, especially with bright blues (that I've found). But the stain will wash out as I use and clean the brush. As with my MAC 239 brush, the writing has worn off the handle. It's easy enough to prevent by covering the lettering with clear polish but it's something I never remember to do!

When you wash this brush it will splay out and become very, very fluffy. I really don't like it being so fluffy, it doesn't work so well in my crease. Mine gets dried in a brush guard, that way the bristles are kept together and it dries in the shape in the picture.

I'm not sure this brush is an absolute must have for someone just building their brush collection, but for me it's an essential blending and crease brush.

FOTD: 29/10/09

What's this? An actual FOTD? I actually had time this morning to not only put some make up on, but actually photograph it as well!


I used:
-Fryinnae Rice Powder Primer
-Lily Lolo Foundation "Candy Cane"
-ELF Studio Under Eye Concealer "Light"
-ELF Studio Complexion Perfection
-MAC Paint "Untitled"
-MAC Shadestick "Lucky Jade"
-MAC Eye Shadow "Shimmermoss" on lid
-MAC Pigment "Night Light" in crease
-MAC Eye Shadow "Freshwater" on outer V
-MAC Eye Shadow "Jete" as highlight
-Bobbi Brown Gel Liner "Ivy Shimmer Ink" top liner
-Urban Decay 24/7 Liner "Covet" as lower liner
-Mascara
-Body Shop Blusher "Golden Pink"

Nothing on my lips yet, I forgot! I'm trying out the kabuki on a stick brush from Coastal Scents again so that I can review it. I had only used it a couple of times then put it to one side, but I'm quite liking it for loose mineral foundation. It took quite a bit of cleaning to get rid of the scratchiness, but I'll talk about that when I review the brush. "Shimmermoss" is kind of my lazy eye look! It's probably my favourite eye shadow!

Beautiful Pigments: Sweetscents "Royal Peacock"

In today's Beautiful Pigments, we're going to see the mineral pigment that sparked my love for mineral make up. This is the very first one I bought. Well, I bought a set of 12, but this was the first one I had wanted from the site.

I've had a very long and happy love affair with Sweetscents. They were the very first mineral pigments I bought, going on about 6 years ago. Also, the company owner has always been lovely when I've emailed them. The site can be a little strange to navigate but I usually go for the 12 or 24 sample pack found out the halfway down this page. Then on the checkout, you just list the colours you want. The price of $28.50 may seem a lot for a 12 pack of samples but you get a packed full 10g jar of pigment. That's a whole lot of pigment! Samples in smaller jars are available at the bottom of the page.

As I've been such a long term customer of theirs, I have *a lot* of their minerals. Their range used to be much larger so a lot of the pigments I have are no longer sold, including the one I'm going to show you today. I have discontinued pigments, ones that were tested but never sold, custom blend excesses, and one or two that were blended specially for me. I mentioned previously that my Beautiful Pigments posts would probably show quite a few unavailable pigments.

Please note that these are just micas without any additives. They will not stick without a primer or wet application. This is what other companies use as a base for their shadows.

Sweetscents are actually one of the major mineral wholesalers. You can buy up to 20lbs of a pigment from the site. Unlike other wholesalers, they don't have a minimum order value but I don't think you can buy individual samples.


"Royal Peacock" is a rich turquoise with intense green shimmer. Beautiful.

The swatch picture shows l-r:
-Patted dry over primer
-Swatched with a damp cotton bud
-Patted into a black cream base.

The wet application is what I usually use for my lids, it brings out the most amazing shimmer to the pigment. Application over a black base brings out more of the green shimmer. The texture of the pigment is very smooth but you do need a primer to use this. It won't stick on its own as it is just mica without additives.

I have a lot more Sweetscents pigments to show you in the future!

Trying out Sassy Minerals!

Before I get onto this new mineral line, there are just a couple of things I want to point out. First is the new disclaimer to be found on the side bar. I hate that I've even had to put that there, but that's the way things are. Second, I just had a change around with the colours. Let me know what you think!

A couple of weeks ago, the team from Sassy Minerals asked if I would like to try a few bits from their new line that had launched at the end of September. A quick dig around the site looked very promising with some very nice looking colours. You all know that I love my mineral pigments!

Last week a really good selection of jars arrived, which I couldn't wait to get stuck into. There were a few foundation samples included which I haven't got round to trying yet. Once I've had a go, I'll blog about those on their own. They also included 2 matte shades from their Silk Luster range, but I wasn't a fan of the colours so I haven't bothered to include them here.


The samples are $0.75 each, which is a fantastic price! There seems to be about 1/8tsp in each jar. That's a pretty good amount for samples.

Ingredients are listed for every item, a huge bonus as some of the products include Carmine and Bismuth Oxychloride. If you're avoiding either of those then the individual ingredients are extremely helpful. There is an FAQ which explains their decision to use Bismuth Oxychloride.

One more very important issue - Sassy Minerals have created each of their colours. They have not just repackaged wholesale minerals. It's stated on their opening page so they are, quite rightly, somewhat proud of their colours.

A note on the swatches. I want to kiss whoever it was who made a note on their blog that they change the white balance on their camera to the light bulb setting when they do swatches in the evening. I tried it and it has made a huge difference to the colour pick up! The eye shadows and liners are swatched with a damp cotton bud, the blushers are swatched dry over primer. I've saturated the colour a little for the blusher picture as the two middle blushers would not show up clearly otherwise. I'd never wear the blushers that heavily anyway!! Descriptions of colour are from the Sassy Minerals site.

Eye Candy Shimmers


-Silk Sheets - Golden Cream with gold shimmer
-Uplifting - Peachy gold with silver sparkle
-Pop Star Meltdown - Bubble gum pink
-So Over It - Rosy lilac with mauve tones and purple shimmer
-Off Kilter - Silvery lavender with green and purple sparkle
-Rumor Mill - Golden beige with silver and gold sparkle


-Opening Night - Gold with olive undertones and gold sparkle
-Pixie Sprinkles - Neutral peachy beige with copper, green and purple sparkles
-Make It Work - Rosy brown with aqua sparkles
-Over The Limit - Bronzed copper with copper sparkles
-Fierce - Smoky grey with red and blue sparkles
-Why Not? - Deep smoky graphite with red and silver twinkles


-Without Reason - Ocean blue with flashes of aqua
-On the Edge - Deep sky blue
-Jinx - Heather grey with a strong aqua shimmer
-Trust Me - Soft lime with gold sparkle
-Misunderstood - Neutral brown with intense green highlights
-Lyrical - Deep smoky green with intense aqua and green sparkle


-Apparition - Soft grey with subtle shimmering highlight that appears green or mauve depending on viewing angle
-Smoke & Mirrors - Silver grey
-Don't Blink - Ocean blue with green sparkles
-Sexy Nerd - Multifaceted antique gold with subtle flashes of blue, green and gold

Eye Candy Liners


-Galaxy - Smooth black
-Gasoline Rainbow - Smooth black with intense rainbow of sparkle
-Indulge - Smoky slate blue
-Shocking - Electric blue with blue shimmer
-Endless Party - Vibrant purple with blue and purple shimmer

So Cheeky Shimmer


-Give Me Some Sugar - Rose champagne with gold sparkle
-First Kiss - Coral peach with gold shimmer
-Crowning Moment - Cool petal with golden shimmer
-Tart - Peachy pink with golden shimmer

After spending a couple of hours playing with these today, I'm already impressed with the pigmentation even when they're applied dry. You do need to either apply with a wet brush or over a sticky base, as with most minerals. The camera just doesn't pick up some of the colour complexity. It completely failed to pick up any of the shimmer in "Apparition". They're very light and fine in texture, reminding me a great deal of pigments from The She Space. They also have the same depth of colour complexity. Very lovely pigments! I've got some EOTDs to show with these. I did notice the photos on the site seem a little washed out compared to the actual product, but that's not really an issue.

I just hope that they continue to produce such amazing colours and that they don't become overwhelmed as so many other mineral etailers have in the past.

I've joined Bloglovin'

Everyone's doing it! So I thought I would join in. Looks interesting :)

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Got Milk?

I am excited to announce an etailer has started to stock NYX in the UK! I know there were a few places you could get the odd bit of NYX, but they're stocking a really good amount of the range, including the ever coveted Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in "Milk".

You can find NYX at Smartbeautyshop and the Jumbo pencils are £3.95 each. There are currently 6 shades available.


I haven't had chance to give these a proper use yet, I've just played on the back of my hand. The top swatch on the second photo is a couple of swipes from the pencil, the bottom is it blended out. They're a very thick cream texture and you definitely need to blend these out when you use them. I'm worried about creasing but smoothing out to a thin layer and pressing eye shadow over the top should prevent the worst.

I'm going to have a go with this for today's FOTD (I will do one once I've walked the dog, it's raining today so I don't want to do it before!) so I'll see how well it works as an eye shadow base.

I've got a few different products to play with so I'll show you more in future posts.

NOTD: 22/10/09 Milani Magical

I finally got round to trying out one of the Milani polishes I got in a swap that I posted about here. My favourite, I think, is the one with orange glitter - "Magical". I hadn't seen anything else like it!

My hands, cuticles and nails are very, very dry right now so they're not in the best condition to be photographing. Also, my nails are splitting and cracking so I've had to cut them very short again. I do wish I could have long nails but it's just not meant to be (job related, blah, blah).

This is three coats of polish, a no-chip top coat and a rapid dry top coat. Oh, and a ridge filler under the whole lot. The first coat looked awful! Very sheer and grey. I honestly thought I was going to end up with 5 or 6 coats to get it to bottle colour, despite what the blogs had told me about 3 coats. Yes, it took 3 coats!

I love this polish. I honestly don't care if black with orange glitter should only be worn around Hallowe'en, I adore the colour and will probably wear it all year round! Horrid brush though. It's thin and round and takes about 5 stripes to do my tiny nails.


In other news, I've had 3 parcels this week! All full of very exciting things I need to show you.

Review: MAC 239 Brush

After the huge success of my ELF Studio Brush review, it seems some of you want me to review my entire brush collection!! I thought I'd do them individually, the ELF write up took me quite a few hours! MAC first, I think. I'm busy testing my Sigma brushes. I'm one full week into it, I want to give it a full month before getting into the review. I haven't quite decided yet on how to structure those reviews!

MAC use a numbering system for their brushes, like a few of the higher end companies do. Those with fewer brushes tend to use names, but MAC have a lot of brushes! The 100 series is for the face, 200 for the eyes and 300 for the lips.

The MAC 239 brush costs £17.00 and is sold on the MAC UK website. It's on the other worldwide sites as well, but since I'm in the UK, that's the website and pricing I'll use. It cost me less than £17.00 when I bought it, but that was some time ago!


The MAC 239 brush was the very first MAC brush that I bought, way back in 2003. Yes, I've really had this brush for 6 years! That photo was taken about an hour ago, after 6 years of heavy use! Previous to this brush I had only used cheap brush sets. I hadn't actually believed that the brushes you were using could make much of a difference to your make up, but I was wrong. This one brush has changed my eye make up completely! In the 6 years I've had this brush I don't think it's ever lost more than one or two hairs while washing.

The 239 is made from white goat hair that has a firm, but not stiff texture. The goat hair feels very soft The head is densely packed with hair but isn't too solid. There's still plenty of "give" to the brush when you apply colour to your eyes, but the brush is firm enough to pick up plenty of colour in one go. I find that these bristles grab the colour you are using very well as the denseness of the head means the bristles are packed closely together. The only issue I've found is that sometimes I wish it were a tiny bit wider. I don't have a huge lid area, but sometimes I think the brush is a little too small.

This brush is described as an "eye shader brush" on the MAC website. I use this brush to pack on lid colours, either pressed powders or pigments. I haven't had much success using this brush for creams. I used to use it for applying pigments wet. It worked fine, but I switched to synthetic brushes for that which works so much better than this. This brush picks up a really good amount of colour when you want to pack it on to your lid, but I found it doesn't work so well as a crease brush or for blending. Others do use it like that but I prefer not to.

After 6 years of heavy use, and with cleaning several times a week, this brush still looks brand new. OK, so the writing has worn of the handle but the bristles look spotless. It does occasionally get stained when I've used a particularly strong colour (blue pigments especially for some reason!), but it has always faded after a few more washes.

I think this is the one MAC brush that I will never be without in my collection and I'm quite tempted to pick up another!

FOTD: 18/10/09

So much for my plans to show you more of my FOTDs. Though, to be honest, I haven't worn a great deal of make up lately. I recorded this look as a tutorial so you can have a look if you like!


Autumn is such a great time for make up! Not only are the gorgeous colours of nature inspiring but I adore all the rich shades that are bought out at this time of year.

I used:
-Bee Luscious Pore Perfecting Primer
-L'Oreal True Match Foundation "Rose Ivory"
-Bee Luscious Shadow Magnet "Light"
-Bee Luscious Signature Shadow Quad "Nouveau Riche" - orange gold on lid, brown on outer edge & crease, light gold highlight, green under lower lashes
-Bee Luscious Powderliner "Forest" lower lash line
-Bee Luscious Liquiliner "Cognac" top lashes
-Body Shop Super Volume Mascara "Black"
-Bee Luscious blusher "Pink Quartz"
-Bee Luscious Liquid Lustre "Pink Champagne"

Here's the tutorial, it's on the Bee Luscious Channel: Bee Luscious Golden Fall

Review: ELF Mineral Lipsticks

Continuing with the ELF reviews after the favourable response to the Studio brush review, it's time to have a look at the Mineral Lipsticks. I've got 3 but I'm sure I'll end up with a few more as there are quite a few lovely colours in the range.

Each lipstick contains 3.8g for £3.50 and is available at ELF Cosmetics.


As I said, I currently have 3 shades:
-Barely Bitten
-Cool Coral
-Rosy Raisin

The swatch photo is showing pretty true to colour on my laptop, but everyone's monitors will show colours differently. I think I went over each swatch twice, but I've been sitting on this half-written review for a couple of weeks.

My favourite of the three is "Rosy Raisin" as it is the perfect "my lips but better" lipstick for me. The other two are a little brighter on me so I tend to use them when I've gone easy on the eye shadow.

The packaging is simple: just matte black plastic with a few glossy highlights. It feels quite solid so it shouldn't break too easily if you are carrying it in your bag.

The lipstick feels very soft and smooth as I apply it and doesn't drag across my lips at all. They feel quite creamy and luxurious. I apply straight from the bullet rather than using a brush as that's just my habit. The shape of the bullet does allow for a precise application, but I'd probably need a brush with deeper colours or as the bullet started to wear down.

These lipsticks are about average for me in terms of how long they last on my lips. They last a couple of hours on me before I need to reapply.

Another huge bonus for me is that these lipsticks have no scent or taste. I can tolerate some, like MAC's vanilla taste, but others, such as L'Oreal, I cannot stand. The lack of scent also won't mask the waxy scent you can get when a lipstick is past its best.

I'm also eyeing up "Ripe Rose" from the website! Have you got any? What did you think?

NOTD: 17/10/09 MAC Baby Goth Girl

I've got to give a huge thank you to the very lovely Jasmine who was kind enough to pick this up from her MAC so that I didn't miss out on this polish! There were a couple of items I wanted from the Style Black collection, but this one really jumped out at me despite the reviews online. A lot of people had remarked that it loses all its dimension once it's on the nails.

In the bottle, it's an incredible deep purple shimmer with a black base and some goldish coloured flakes. On the nails, it does lose some of the depth and the black base of the polish is most evident. It's not completely black on me though, even though this has been one of the most common complaints. Even in the rather dull lighting I have here, I can still see a touch of the shimmer. The flakes only show under brighter light though.

I hate the thin, round brushes MAC uses for their polish. Even though my nail beds are small, it takes several sweeps to cover them with the tiny brush. The brush in this polish is very stiff which hasn't helped matters. This polish is quite thick when compared to my only other MAC polish so it seems there is no consistency to their formula (but then 2 OPIs are never the same!).

This is 2 coats which was perfectly opaque. My very white nail edges do not show through.

Mascara: L'Oreal Panoramic Curl

I haven't done one of my Mascara Series posts for ages! I really do like to give mascaras a thorough testing before review, at least that's my excuse! I've got 2 more ready to review so there might be some more updates to this series soon.

This mascara was sent to me by Beauty Counter Direct absolutely ages ago to use in a video. I hadn't ever planned on a review for this, but it's popped up now I'm doing this series. It's still available on the site and costs £4.50. This is in the shade "Intense Black".


The silver tube is curved into a similar shape to the brush. The distinct shape helps me spot it in my mascara stash (that I will show you one day!). The curved brush isn't easy to see from the photos as the wand kept rolling over as I photographed the mascara! But it's slightly concave on one side, with a fat outwards curve on the other. I'm not sure what colours this mascara is available in as I haven't seen it in Boots or Superdrug.


This mascara has become my daily choice, to the point where I have almost used up a full tube. On me it curls, lengthens and volumises. It's not waterproof but I don't usually have issues with my mascara running or smearing on me. The photo shows my lashes curled just because I have reviewed the others with a curl. As a scientist, I like to keep as many factors the same as possible! I've just added 2 coats here, as I would for daily application. For an evening, I would probably add one more for an almost false lash effect.

To apply, I use the flatter side of the brush to grab and coat my lashes. This seems to add the curl as well. I use the fatter side to coat my lower lashes and the lashes at the edges that I might have missed. The curl it creates stays all day and if I've used my curlers it really sets that curl! My lashes do feel stiff but not solid once it's dried. It doesn't take too long to dry, but it can smear before it's dry (as you can see in the picture! I've been awake too many hours to take macro pictures of mascara!).

I will be repurchasing this mascara, probably from eBay (there are many sellers selling sealed packs so I'm not worried about hygiene). Beauty Counter Direct is now Fragrance Direct, in case you were wondering at the link. I do object though to their classification of make up as solely a "ladies product", I'm sure there are many men out their who love make up.

Beautiful Pigments: Dreamworld "Zombie Dust"

Dreamworld is another of those brands where virtually every pigment I own from them could be listed under my Beautiful Pigments tag!

The site is better than it used to be, it used to be somewhat confusing. The pigments are arranged in different worlds, which are basically just themed collections. I've always liked that you can select to buy samples of each of the worlds. This pigment, "Zombie Dust" is in the Underworld collection but for some reason the page isn't showing the picture.

Individual samples are $1.00 each, the price of sample sets depends on the size of the collection. Sold at Dreamworld Minerals.


I think the names are fantastic as well. The owner takes from Mythology for inspiration. I'm also quite impressed with the colours themselves, the blends are pretty unique. She doesn't just repackage from bulk pigments but comes up with some very unique shades.

"Frozen Zombie" is a dirty grey/lavender with gold and a touch of red/lilac shimmers. Very hard to describe, but very pretty!

I haven't ordered for quite a few months, I think it might be almost a year actually. But I've found in the past shipping can be a little on the slow side, but something she's upfront about. At the moment there's a notice on the website, along with a discount code, as shipping has been slow. But she promises us that after October 31st, shipping times will be very short. I might have to order again in November!

Sigma Make Up Brushes

I was recently contacted by Sigma Make Up and asked if I would like to try their brushes. After seeing reviews from Youtubers whose opinions I trust, I knew they were worth having a look at. I wasn't expecting this box until next week as mail from the US has been quite slow lately, but this arrived in 4 days! As you can imagine, I was quite thrilled to get home from work and find a giant brown box waiting for me.

Inside the box:


The presentation was just lovely! Inside this black box, the brush sets were wrapped in orange tissue paper and they included a little thank you note.

So, what did I get?


They sent two of the full brush sets (which include the three newer brushes), a pink travel set and a Sigma shopping tote. I will be giving away the second full set of brushes once my 10k contest is finished with so keep a look out for that!

The full set:


Also included with each of the full sets is a mini SS217. I won't go into which brushes are included as this post will end up being miles long! But I will be doing a large review, probably split into face and eye brushes once I've given them a good go.

Initially, I am quite impressed. I haven't had time to give them a good go yet as I have been very busy over this last week. The face brushes are lovely and soft, and the eye brushes look like they're going to work very well. I don't have a full set of MAC brushes to compare, so I'm only going to be able to do the ones I have. Some are close to their MAC counterparts, but others are not quite the same. I have noticed the the white hairs in the two skunk brushes (SS187 & SS188) are not quite as flexible as the MAC ones. The face brush I'm planning on testing first has to be the SS109. It's flatter than MAC's and seems a little more dense. I use it a lot as it's my liquid foundation brush.

I also received one of the travel sets. This is "Nice in Pink":


I'm really looking forward to playing with this one! I am always complaining about brushes when I travel to London. I don't have a travel set, or even anywhere to carry my brushes! So as this pink set folds up nice and small, it'll fit easily into my backpack!

The brushes seem to be exactly the same quality as the full sized ones, just smaller. The heads seem smaller as well, not just the handles. An example being the SS150 in the travel set. The head of that seems closer in size to my MAC #129, rather than the SS150. The set comes with a loose brush (both the travel sets have an extra brush) and I'll be adding my SS217 mini that came with the full size set.

I know I'm going to get questioned but I will not feature anything on this blog that is not 100% honest. There's been a lot of Youtube and Blog coverage about the Sigma brushes so people's honesty is being called into question. I cannot speak for those, but I am looking forward to properly reviewing these brushes and giving you my honest thoughts.

If you've tried any of the Sigma brushes, then do let me know! I'd love to hear what you think of them.

Haul - Lincoln Oct 09

There's a reason why I don't normally do the no-buys. It's because I usually fail. Just like I have done this time. All I had planned was a month, and then Urban Decay just had to start actually stocking the counter I go to in Lincoln. And, more amazingly, it was actually *staffed* on a Saturday. There was actually a person working there. Never seen that before at this counter, or the other one to be honest.


Honestly, this isn't bad for me. I just need to make sure I behave for the rest of the month. I'm not treating it as an excuse to buy the black Konad polish from ebay!

-Urban Decay 24/7 Super Stash - Contains 9 minis of the 24/7 eye pencils. This set has 4 exclusive liners.
-Urban Decay Preen Shadow Box - 6 shadows, a mini bottle of Primer Potion, and a mini 24/7 liner in "Zero". I think 4 of the 6 shadows are exclusive, but it could just be 3. The Art Deco style Peacock packaging is just gorgeous.
-The Body Shop Shimmer Gloss "Iced Candy" - Beautiful pink with golden sparkle. Saw it on the limited edition stand. The rest of the collection didn't excite me, but this was very pretty.
-The Body Shop Nutriganics Smoothing Eye Cream - Yes, I am beginning to get little wrinkles :(
-The Body Shop Muslin Cloths - Comes in a pack of 3. An essential part of my skincare.

Here's the Preen Palette opened up for you:


I adore Urban Decay's palettes. I have a few of them and I love the exclusive shades they include in a lot of them. This means that I tend to have very few repeats (let's not talk about "Midnight Cowboy", OK?). I used to buy a lot of single shadows from Urban Decay but a lot of the ones I have are discontinued so even those don't appear in the palette.

I got sent some Nutriganics skincare to try out, which I think I'll be posting next. I bought the eye cream to round out the skincare. It's horrible to have to admit, but I'm 27 now and I'm beginning to get fine lines. Bleh. This line is designed for skin that's showing the first signs of aging so I'll let you know how I get on.

Monthly Faves - September 2009

After receiving a huge number of requests to start doing a monthly faves video, I have! I'm also going to post them here. I know it's already the 11th of October but I got the video up a few days ago.


I have decided to keep it to just 5 favourites to keep the video short.

-L'Oreal Panoramic Curl Mascara - Does exactly what it says on the tin. Adds volume, length and great curl to my lashes. Makes my lashes look fabulous.
-ELF Translucent Matifying Powder - Keeps the oil at bay and really is invisible on my pale skin.
-MAC Brush #129 - Really soft but picks up just the right amount of blusher. Due to its large size it creates a lovely flush rather than obvious colour.
-Stila Eye Shadow "Diamond Lil" - Rediscovery from my stash. A gorgeous metallic taupe that's so flattering. Soft and richly pigmented.
-Konad - It's just so much fun and easy to use!!

Commenting

I'm well aware of the current PR issues going on in the beauty blogging world. I am refusing to be drawn into it.

After receiving some horrific comments recently, anonymous commenting has been removed from my blog. I do apologise to those who do not have accounts but post regular comments. A few idiots have ruined it for all of you.

The comments have been removed and all comments are now moderated.

This is something I do for fun, in my spare time. I am not a professional in the industry and I am independent. While I do receive products for free, that is no guarantee of a glowing review, as those of you who are regular readers and viewers of mine know.

If you want to harass me on my blog, then at least have the guts to do it under your own account.

Review: Coastal Scents Smacks

I have wanted to try the lip glosses (or Smacks) from Coastal Scents pretty much since they came out, so I was thrilled when some arrived a couple of weeks ago.

I got:
-Challenge Me - Pinkish toned orange with golden sparkle and shimmer
-Let's Go! - Glowy pink shimmer, more sheer (better as a top colour over lipstick)
-Love Kitten - Neutral pink with a lot of sparkly shimmer

I did actually receive 4 of the Smacks, but the fourth ("Got Back?") is a very deep, very pigmented, shimmery brown that was just not a good look on me. So I am only going to review the 3 that worked for me.

These are $2.95 for 1.5g each. Sold at Coastal Scents.

I'll start with the packaging. The tube are pretty much as long as a MAC Lipglass (about 85mm) but much thinner. The clear plastic tube is very solid, so it doesn't seem like it's going to crack if you're carrying it around in your bag. Due to the small size, it's not going to take forever to use up. My glosses tend to go bad before I get to the end so this is a pretty good bonus for me! They used to be priced a bit higher, but the $2.95 is more in line with the size of the tube.

This gloss has a brush on the end of the wand, which I prefer, rather than the typical doe-foot applicator. The brushes aren't fantastic as a few of the bristles tend to splay. It doesn't currently have an effect on the way the gloss applies, though it might if the whole brush ends up that way! The brush isn't too floppy so you can get a nice, precise application with it.

The Smacks vary in pigmentation. Two of the three are quite pigmented and one is more sheer. I expect this is true for all the Smacks as there are a variety of different shades and finishes. They are also quite glossy, even the more pigmented ones. I've found in some other brands that when glosses are highly pigmented they can lose some of the glossy finish. The pigmented ones I have can be sheered out to a light colour. The sheer one I have looks good over lipstick to change the finish.

All three that I tried are very thick and sticky. As such, they do last quite a while on the lips but I normally prefer a slightly less sticky gloss. I did notice that as "Love Kitten" wore off, the glitter particles stayed on my lips after the colour had gone. It did feel a little gritty at that point. But when freshly applied, it feels just as smooth as the others.

Overall, they're a pretty good gloss for a cheap price. I wouldn't mind trying a few other colours.

Review: Go Cosmetics Eye Shadow Trio #1

I originally got my Go Cosmetics Eye Shadow trio from Iona Cosmetics, but as they no longer sell Go Cosmetics I'd suggest trying eBay. There are a few etailers out there that sell Go Cosmetics but I haven't ordered from any of them. This shouldn't cost more than about £3.00. It's a great trio to buy as it's a really cheap way of trying out the smokey look.

You get:
-Grey - A deep, shimmering metallic grey
-White - Frosty white, not off white like MAC "Nylon" but a pure white
-Black - Almost matte black, very deep in tone and doesn't go on grey

Along with the trio, all you need is primer, liner and mascara to create a really good smokey look.

-Grey shade over the lid and lower lash line
-White as highlight and dotted in inner corner
-Black smudged into top liner
-Liner top lash line and waterline
-Plenty of black mascara

You really do need a primer with these shadows. While they're pretty well pigmented, even with nothing underneath them, you do get a lot of fading and creasing without a base. With something like Urban Decay Primer Potion they'll last all day on me without any issues. They're not the best for blending, they do take a little work. The black is easier to blend than the other 2 shades, but as it's so deeply pigmented make sure you only add a small amount at a time! I've got shadows in my collection that are harder to blend, but these don't blend as easily as something like Urban Decay or MAC.

The packaging is cheap. It's a gold plastic case with a clear plastic window. It seems to be fairly sturdy as I haven't cracked it yet! The clasp has broken on a couple of the trios I've had so that seems to be a weak area. There's actually a small mirror in the lid, just about large enough to see your eyes. I've found that pretty useless but might be good enough in an emergency make up situation. The sponge tip applicator went straight into the bin though, I never use those.

There's quite a range of colours available in the trios but this one is the best one I've found so far.

Tag - I Love Your Blog!

I've just got to give a huge thank you to Mizz Worthy for nominating me for the I Love Your Blog award!! I'm sorry I haven't done this yet, but I've only just seen the entry that she posted with it.


The rules are...
1. Accept the award and post it on your blog
2. Pass the award on to others! :)

I pick:
-Vex In The City - She writes exactly the type of blog I love to read, lots of make up chatter and she's an awesome lady in real life as well!
-The Next Best Thing To Going Shopping Yourself - Her swatches are epic I tell you. Epic.
-Hele Says... - Her reviews are lovely and in depth and she never minces her words.
-Nefertari's Sparkles - Her blog post convinced me on the Urban Decay Book of Shadows 2. Not that I needed much convincing! She's not been going as long as some of the others but I'm loving her developing style.

I've tried to pick people from my blog list that I haven't seen nominated and that I think you'd enjoy reading.

Milani Halloween 2009

I'm always so jealous of the make up that gets released in the US at this time of year, and there are always plenty of lovely looking nail polishes that I'll never get my hands on. The offerings in the UK at this time of year are quite pathetic when compared! None of the make up stands have Halloween collections, and the only make up to be found is greasepaint in the children's fancy dress aisle along with the odd black nail polish.

So, as you can imagine, I was thrilled to bits when I managed to swap on Makeupalley for some of the Milani Halloween collection. She got a European exclusive OPI and I got these. I have the feeling we both think we did quite well!

I believe these are around $4.49 each and are sold at US drugstores (CVS, Target, and the like) for a limited time. Each bottle contains 13.2ml (0.45 fl oz) of polish.


The whole collection (there are actually 6 in total) consists of a black cream base filled with tiny glitter. Not quite micro glitter, but certainly finer than the usual glitter you find in glittery polishes.

-Enchantment - Blue/violet glitter. Definitely not blue or purple.
-Magical - Orange glitter. Perfect for Autumn anyway!
-Charmed - Silver glitter. Seems to have the most glitter out of the 4.
-Whimsical - Purple glitter. Actually more fuchsia than my camera shows.

I can't wait to play with these. By all accounts (and the pictures I've seen on blogs) these look amazing when they're on.