Weekly Make-up Shuffle #1

I have too much makeup and sadly things do seem to get neglected... what could I do to make sure I wasn't always reaching for the same thing? Gotta Love A Trier gave me this amazing idea (its a linky) she mixes around her make-up bag each week so everything gets loved. So heres my attempt, I plan to try and do it every week and post up what i'm using.
So week 1 is very basic, i am on a training course this week, up at 5am so i need something quick and reliable to wear everyday.
Heres what i'm using (i think mine will probably run monday - monday).

There are a few things that will be in every shuffle as i only own one or two of them so will be using it all the time. These will be marked with a *** before them and i won't re-photograph them each week. I'm not planning on doing reviews here but i will make brief comments on each product.

Top Left - Estee Lauder Holiday 2012 eyeshadow palette - I got this set for christmas 2010 and i love it. This is my go to palette if i know i'm going to be in a rush. The colours are smooth, go on evenly and are all lovely work safe shades in a range to match any outfit.

Top Right
*** - Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic palette - this is a HG for me and i will be buying a new one when i run out of the concealers. An equal amount of shade 1 and 2 matches me well and i love having the peachy toned under eye concealer. The only thing in this palette i don't use is the eyebright, i prefer it in pencil form.
Left to Right (middle)
*** - 17 Ultimate Lengths Mascara (Black) - this is an everyday as i love the brush and formula as a lower lash mascara.
- 17 Falsifeye Mascara (Black) - i love this, the brush is slightly on the large side but i do get a clump free, defined and volumised finish.
*** - No7 Airbrush Primer - smooth non-silicone feeling primer. Applys like a moisturiser and works like a primer.
- Revlon Colorstay Pressed Powder in Light Medium - long lasting (though not the 16hrs it claims) mattifying powder.
- Estee Lauder Holiday 2010 blush and bronzer palette - like the eyeshadow palette this is great as it has 3 blush shades and a bronzer so covers various looks. Good pigmentation and blends well.
*** - Milani Illuminating Face Powder in Beautys Touch - still in two minds as to whether i like this or not or if it even does what it says it does. It is the only non-glittery/sparkly/frosty highlighter i own (which is why its an everydayproduct) so i'll keep playing and report back.
Left to Right (bottom)
- MAC Lipstick in Midi-Mauve -this was my first MAC lipstick and i still love it. Its one of the few shimmery lipstick shades i wear. Its a definate MLBB shade.
- MUA Lipstick Shade 11 - again a great MLBB shade. Only £1 as well. Good formula and works with any look. I actually have a back up of this.
- MAC Lipstick in Fanfare - this is a medium pink shade with a hint of coral. Brighter then Midi-Mauve but still very wearable. This one seems to get neglected even though i love the shade. This needs to come out more.
- 17 Supreme Shine Lipstick in Barely Blush - this is a pink lipstick about 1/2 a shade lighter than my natural lip colour. This is great for a nudish lip when i don't want that concealer lip look (which i don't like anyway).
- Sephora Lipstick in unknown shade - Sephora lipsticks are labelled oddly and i can't figure out what the shade name/number/code is supposed to be. This is very slightly sheer (a bit like the MAC lustre formula) with a glossy finish. Its a pink thats about a shade darker than my lipshade with berry hints. This was probably the first lipstick i loved.
*** - 17 BB Cream in Medium - i prefer not to wear a heavy foundation, they always sink into my pores and make my skin look worse and makes it flakey. This smooths out my skin, evens the skin tone and doesn't cause flakeyness or powderyness (is that a word?) as it has mosituriser in it. Its also SPF25 - whats not to love.
*** - No7 Triple Protection Tinted Moisturiser in Medium Fair - sort of No7's version of the above. A bit more moisturising, slightly sheerer and only SPF15, but this one does have anti-aging ingredients. Love this too.
- NYX eyeliners in Black Brown, Dark Brown and Taupe - love these eyeliners, i have 12 in various shades. You'll probably see these pop up quite a bit. Goes on really softly, and stays put most of the day. I do get very slight smudging under my eyes after a 12hr day, but its probably a mix of the eyeliner, mascara, my oily lids and the stupidly hot weather recently (29C and really humid).
At the end is two items i have little left of and i am using up L'Oreal Smoothing Resurfacing Primer and Benefits Lemonaid - both of these i would repurchase. I have alternatives for both at the moment so i'll wait till my no-buy is over but both products are great and will happily use again.

Thanks for reading, this turned out a lot longer than planned. Next week i will try and start posting on the Monday or the weekend before. I am going to be doing some themed weeks and next week is MUA.

I am going to continue doing reviews and all the items here will probably turn up at some point. If there is anything in particular you would like to see reviewed, leave a comment and i will bump it to the top of the list.

Semi Permanent Flare Eyelash Extensions

Whoops... I've put eyelash extensions on... mascara reviews will have to be delayed for a bit....

Though you do get an Flare Eyelash review...
I used the Ardell Duralash Flared lashes in short and medium. I applied 9 short flares to the length of my lash line before adding an extra 5 mediums for extra length and volume in the outer corner.

Here are the products I used to do my extensions:

(SalonSystem Individual Lash Glue, an upside down Dappen Dish, Tweezers, Ardell DuraLash Short, Ardell DuraLash Medium) and a mirror of course...

Here are my sad looking before lashes

My lashes are quite dark and thick but are short and straight.

Left (right eye) - natural and Right (left eye) - with completed extensions.

Both eyes completed - this took about 40mins total. This is the 4th or 5th time I've done extensions on myself so I have had a little bit of practice.

I love the way these look, great volume and a bit of length while still looking like natural lashes. In my mind this is the look i am looking for with mascara - lots and lots of dark seperated lashes. I haven't found one yet, but when i do it will be my HG.

These hopefully should last 2 - 4 weeks with a couple of touch ups - i do tend to find 1 or 2 lashes fall out each week due to sleeping funny or rubbing my eyes.
With practice these are reasonably easy to do, you dip the bulb of the lashes into the glue ot get a bead and drop carefully on top of your lashes getting the bulb as close to the lash line as possible. The most annoying bit is trying to pull the eyelashes out of the tray, i keep breaking, mis-shaping and damaging lashes meaning i waste almost as many as a actually use.Also if you drop one... you probably won't find it unless you have a tile floor.

Ooh and look what I found in my stash... how thick and voluminous are these...

Left - the Ardells I used above and Right - Ultra thick flares by some unknown brand (if i remember i'll update this).

Thanks for looking!

Sleek Rose Gold and Pan Tao Blush Review

Hello! Todays review is for two of the Sleek blushes; Rose Gold - the infamous NARS Orgasm dupe (apparently - i don't have the NARS blush to test it against) and Pan Tao - a bright peachy colour from the limited edition A La Peche collection.

Here they are in the pans - Pan Tao on the Left and Rose Gold on the Right.

And Swatched...(same order)

Pan Tao is a really bright peachy blush. In the pan it looks bright orange and looks as though it couldn't possibly look good. This however is my HG blush - I love it, especially for summer, it gives a great glow to my face. I am currently on a mission to find a replacement of this - if you know of any bright peach blushes, please let me know.
The blush itself is matte and very pigmented, a little goes a very long way. This blends quite well, its best applied very lightly in layers as the pigmentation makes it hard to blend a heavy application. I will definately be checking out some more matte Sleek blushes (once my no buy is over).

Rose Gold is a rosy peach shimmery blush with a gold duochrome like sparkle. I bought this based on all the hype surrounding the product. I have to say I am rather disappointed with it. It swatches beautifully, the shade is stunning - but it does not show up on my cheeks. Even if i apply multiple layers of this blush all i get it a gold frosty finish with none of the pretty rose base... I really wish this would apply how it looks in the swatches but i haven't had any luck yet using different brushes or one heavy application vs lots of light ones. I am wondering if Sleek blushes can be used wet.... i might as well try it since i can't really wear it as it is (except over another blush).

Thanks for reading! If you have Rose Gold an love it, please tell me how you apply it, i really want to make it work for me.

MUA (Make Up Academy) Haul

Hi all!
This is a haul from about a month ago. I ordered from their online site and it was delivered 2 days later. The website always seems to have an offer on and you get free postage if you spend over £25. This is what I did, i spent £27.50 and their offer was to get a free Immaculate Collection palette if you spent over £8. I bought 19 products in total... bargin!

Heres what I bought:

 Left to right: Top Row - Pressed powder in shade 2, Mosaic Bronzer in Sunkissed Glow, Mosaic Blush in English Rose, Lipsticks shade 16, 3, 11 and 10. Bottom Row - Immaculate Palette, MUA Blushes in 2, 3 and 4, Pro Eye Primer, Lip Boom in Doin Good, Extreme felt tip liner, Mascara in shades 2, 6 and 7, Exteme Volume mascara, Extreme Curl mascara.

All these will be reviewed over the next few weeks. When I review the blushes and lipsticks I will include the ones I already own so you can see swatches of them too.

Thanks for reading!

Fraulein 38 Sun Kiss Golden 88 Eyeshadow Palette (Ebay 88 Palette) Review

Hi all!

Here it is, my amazing new palette. I bought this off ebay a while ago and it never arrived, i was away on holiday for a while so i had to wait until i was back to get it resent. It finally arrived this morning and i love it.

So here it is - all black and shiny

Hehe - reflection :)
No branding on the box itself, just plain black.
And now the bit you actually want to see... so shiny, i love shimmer shadows i rarely wear matte.

 This palette has a great range of shades. They are all shimmer shades so if you prefer matte this may not be the palette for you. Each column has a different range of shades, from left to right: Neutrals, Golds, Oranges and Coppers, Greens, Bright Marbled Shades, Pinky Neutrals, Coppers, Bronzes, Glitter Neutrals and finally Glitter Brights.

These shades are mostly very pigmented with good colour payoff. Some of the shades, particularly the Glitter and most Shimmery shades are very very soft. I had to be careful when swatching them as just sweeping my finger over them to swatch them produced a lot of excess powder. I think even just a slight knock could shatter some of these shades so i'm going to have to be very gentle with this palette. These shades will probably leave a bit of fallout. I always apply my eyeshadow before i do my foundation etc so i don't find this to be an issue.
I love that these a mostly everyday wearable shades with a few brights to throw in a hint of colour. This palette would be great for tanned, bronzed and sunset type looks. I can see myself wearing this one a lot over the summer and autumn.

I have done a few swatches for you to see. I haven't swatched them all so here is a sampling of the shades. I have swatched 2 shadows from each column, the 2nd one down and the 6th one down. If you would like to see swatches of the entire palette, comment below and i shall endevour to do so.

Left to Right - Columns 1 to 5

Left to Right - Columns 6 to 11

Hope you enjoyed this review, thanks for reading.

My 3 month No-buy

This is not a very exciting post i'm afraid, just that i am going on a no-buy for 3 months. I've set the start date as 14th May 2012 and finish 14th August 2012 (just before my birthday so i'm sure i'll want to buy stuff then).

The Rules
Whats included - make-up, toiletries, hair extensions, perfume, false eyelashes, nail art stuff, nail polish and hair colour.
I must post on here if i break it.
I will use the time i'm not buying new stuff to do as many reviews of current products as i can.

I may not buy anything from these catogories except:
Essential toilettries (e.g. deodrant)
LE's which i will not be able to get once no-buy is over and if the LE finishes before i can include it as the end of month treat (no more than 2 items a month) and gifts for others.
Specific items for an important event (e.g. a wedding)

If i keep to my no-buy for each month i may buy one item i would really like (or one offer if drug store e.g. 3 for 2).

On a more exciting note i recieved a palette i ordered about 3 months ago - its gorgeous. Its the Fraulein 38 Sun Kiss Golden palette. I was going to finish my holiday reviews first before doing other stuff however i feel the need to review this straight away. This shall be up some time later today. I also have the 88 Shimmer palette, 88 Warm palette, 72 Diamond palatte, 66 Lip palette and 26 Blush palette so if you have any preference to which palette i will review next please comment below.

Thanks for reading