Neutral

At work I have to avoid wearing the kind of eyeshadow I usually favour (smoky eyed look/glitter/bright eyeliner) and tone things down a little.

!7 eyeshadow in Mardi Gras left, and Ivory Coast right.

I don't think you can really see it here but the brown shadow, Mardi Gras is quite a bit creamier than Ivory Coast. I've actually started using Ivory Coast as a base for a lot of my eyeshadows as I find it evens out my skintone beautifully.

I sweep Ivory Coast all over and then blend Mardi gras into the crease, the corner and a little along the outer lash line and ta-daaaah...Daytime look!

Review: 17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in Beehive

When I was browsing around the 17 counter in Boots I had a dilemma. I couldn't decide between  this 17 mirror shine lipstick in Flirtini or another interesting shade called Beehive.

I went with the former but after reading the forums on the fabulous http://www.beaut.ie/ where people were raving about this colour I decided I must go back and purchase Beehive. As you do. (I'm a beaut.ie addict, anything they recommend I will happily try out haha)

 I'm not exactly sure of the price but it was around a fiver I think.. will update later with exact price! :)

The colour is gorgeous, in the bullet it's exactly the pinky toned nude you see in this pic.



On the lips

 It leaves your lips moisturised and glossy without being sticky and I think the colour is perfect for a neutral daytime look or even to pair with smoky eyes at night.
One of my new staple lip products I think! :)

Beauty Haul- Part Two

Okay I'm finally getting around to the second half of this post.. Apologies! My camera has been sick but I think it's well enough to get back to work now ;-)

In this half I'm reviewing the body butter, 17 mirror shine lipstick in Flirtini, Rimmel nail Varnish in Cranberry Fizz and Maybelline the Falsies Volum' Express mascara in Black Drama.

1)  Boots Extracts Cocoa butter body butter.
I bought a really tiny tub of this cos I'm pretty choosy regarding body butter/ moisturisers and I wanted to check it out. I hate if they take ages to soak in or feel sticky so this tub was great as a tester. It was 3.49 euro. It's also fair trade product which is great.
I LOVED this.
It smelled great. A little bit chocolate-y maybe? It also did its job perfectly, moisturing really well without leaving that horrible sticky feeling and it dried in really quickly. My skin felt lovely and soft all day! I would definitely repurchase this.. just in a bigger tub! The bigger tub is about 11 euro I think.

2) 17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in Flirtini
This is a deep pink colour.To be honest, I normally find lipsticks too drying on my lips.
But I figured if it was shiny like 17 claimed, it should have some sort of moisturising elements... which I'm very happy to report it does.



With flash - gives the best idea of the colour




Without flash



With flash




And finally, on the lips!


As you can hopefully see in the swatches above it's quite sheer but still gives a lovely colour and a glossy finish. I really like this shade and I think it's suitable for day or night.

3) Rimmel Lasting finish nail varnish in Cranberry Fizz
The colour immediately drew me to this.. It's exactly as the name describes a cranberry pinky-red colour.

It looks red here but believe me it's more of a pinky red! The daylight was gone when I took this picture.
It looks gorgeous on! It needed about 2 coats to be opaque and it was really shiny.
Regarding lasting finish, well I put on a base coat and its lasted a day and a bit so far with no chipping!

4) Maybelline the Falsies Volum' Express mascara in Black Drama
I already had the normal Maybelline the Falsies mascara but I saw this which claimed to be  darker, hence the Black Drama title .
and eh....
It was on offer, chaper than my normal Maybelline the Falsies mascara and I am a broke college student so...

 It was about 11 euro or so at the time I believe but I don't think this offer is on anymore



Spoon shaped brush



My lashes without mascara.



My lashes with two coats of this mascara

It's a bit odd trying to take pictures of your own eye isn't it?

Anyway,I have to say I was really disappointed with this mascara. After loving the original Maybelline the Falsies Volum' Express, this new Black Drama was a complete let down. It left mascara clumps in my lashes, stuck them together and they felt weighed down.. Not good!

*Shakes fist in anger at Maybelline lying to me and making me spend 11 euro on bad mascara*

Back to my other mascara I go..

Beauty Haul -Part One

Along with my recent crazy clothes haul I also went crazy in Boots.

 (Why yes, I am a model of self-restraint...)

Here we have Rimmel I love Lasting finish in Cranberry Fizz, 17 lipstick in Flirtini, Prestige Total Intensity eyeliner in Deepest Black, 17 Solo eyeshadow in Regal, 17 trio Starry eyes eyeshadow in Galactic, Maybelline The Falsies effect new Black drama mascara, Boots Botanics Detox brush and Boots cocoa butter.

*Blushes*

I was having a bad day. Exam Blues!

We see a clear divide between need ( body butter, eyeliner, body brush) and want (lipstick, eyeshadows, mascara, nail varnish). In my defence it was 3 for the price of 2 on the 17 things so the lipstick was free. But I digress..

Due to the amount of products and all I have to say on them I think I'm going to split this into two posts.

In this post I will talk about the eye make up: The Prestige eyeliner and the 17 eyeshadows.

1. Prestige Total Intensity eyeliner in Deepest Black

I love this eyeliner. Where has it been all my life?? It really is deepest black as the colour pay off is excellent, better than anything I've used before. It's lovely and creamy too. It smudges well and lasts all day.

The one tiny thing that may be a problem is that it lasts TOO well. It can be a bit dificult to remove. However when I used my proper No.7 eye make up remover as opposed to the cheapy one I usually use at college it was fine to remove so this may have been the eye make up remover I was using rather than the eyeliner. At least you know it won't budge easily unlike some other eyeliners I have used *cough cough* Essence, I'm looking at you! 

I will definitely repurchase. And possibly buy the lovely navy version i saw yesterday in Boots.. ahem, when I'm not so broke =D

2. 17 Solo eyeshadow in Regal

It was the colour that really drew me to this product unfortunetly you can't see it very well in the above picture!! I love doing a dark smoky eye for nights out but I'm getting a little predictable with my trusty grey and black shades so I thought this would be a different take on it.

Its a midnight blue shade with some shimmer but it's not excessive. I have to say it is an absolutely fabulous colour, it looks dark from far away but closer up you can see the lovely midnight blue shade. I would recommend you put this shadow on before make-up though because there is quite a lot of fall-out on application. A lick of primer (I use Urban Decay Primer Potion) ensures it stays perfectly on your lids. Love it!

3. 17 trio Starry eyes eyeshadow in Galactic

I was really excited about this product. I have hazel eyes and green is supposed to make them 'pop'. I much rather focusing on my eyes than my lips so this sounded good to me!

The trio contains 3 shimmery colours; a sort of gold champagne colour, a sage green colour and a fabulous deep emerald green. In the container they look very cool together. However on the eyelid, not so much. The first two shades seemed very similar to me when applied, in fact I thought they looked the same. when I applied the third colour, emerald green I thought that the three colours didnt really go well together. The emerald green looked far too dark with the two lighter colours.

I was disappointed that the colours didnt go better together but they are still perfectly nice shades. The first two I think I'll use as daytime shadows and the intersting emerald green I'll probably use as a twist on the smoky eye look.

Part two coming soon!!