REVIEW + SWATCHES - Maybelline Colorsensational Vivid Lipstick - Electric Orange

Hey Ladies!

I felt like I need a pop of Summer this morning so I decided to go for a bright lip. I chose Electric Orange from Maybelline, a true orange lipstick!

For some reason I find this to be not as pigmented as all the other Vivid lipsticks, that doesn't mean that it's too sheer or a bad lipstick at all. It just needs to be built up more than the others, a good thing really as it's an orange lipstick which can be frightening to some people :-) 

I'm so in love with the colour! 

I'm really getting back into wearing bright lipsticks lately :-) 

I can see this being a favourite for the Summer!

Have you tried any of the Color sensational Vivid lipsticks? 

I wish they'd bring the whole line over to the UK! 

I definitely recommend this lipstick :-) 

Linzi xxx

REVIEW - L'Oreal Rouge Caresse Lipstick - Impulsive Fuschia

Hullo Ladies!

Very recently I picked up my first L'Oreal lipstick.

I've heard lot's about the Rouge Caresse range and how it's always captured and put in the same category as the Revlon lip butters. 

I bought one because at the time they were on offer in ASDA for just £6. 

There was only a 4 to choose from as the L'Oreal range in that ASDA store wasn't very large. 

I picked up Impulsive Fuschia because it looked like the brightest most pigmented of the bunch, which is what I go for when choosing a lipstick. 

I love the packaging. 

It looks more expensive and dare I say it more grown up than the revlon lip butter or the Maybelline Color Sensational's. Although I love the packaging for all of those lipsticks, someone may decide not to buy them because of the way they look. 

My Nan was very dubious about buying her first Revlon Lip Butter because of the packaging. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I first applied this lipstick, after reading many posts I knew that these were considered sheer lipsticks. Luckily, this wasn't super sheer and gave me a lovely bright fuschia that really shows up on my naturally pigmented lip. 

The texture reminds my of a MAC Lustre lipstick, very slick and moisturising. 

You can keep it sheer or build it up for a more opaque look.

The colour is long lasting and gives a lovely even stain.

I have to say I'm very pleased with this lipstick and wouldn't mind picking up some more.

With my experience with the rouge caresse range so far, I'd say it's slightly better than the revlon lip butters in some ways, due to it being very hydrating and a lot more long lasting. I do still love the lip butters,  though some of them are a lot better than others. 

Have you tried the Rouge Caresse lipsticks? What did you think?

I'm in need of colours to try :-) 

Linzi xxx

REVIEW + SWATCHES - MUA - Power Pout - Rendezvous

Hey!

I recently picked up some of the Power Pouts from MUA and I thought I would give a small review on the shade Rendezvous. 

Rendezvous is the nude colour in the collection. 

What MUA Say :  "MUA Power Pout is a lip treatment with colour intensity that relieves dry, cracked lips providing immediate moisturisation. The handy pencil-style applicator provides easy to apply sheer soft lip colour and rolls up for easy use."

What I think : I agree that these lip products have surprisingly great pigmentation. Looking at some of the  chubby lip pencils that are showing up in most brands, these are some of the most pigmented ones. 

Although I find them very moisturizing, I don't believe they give any lasting results for dry lips so I wouldn't class them as a "lip treatment".

 I love that they don't have to be sharpened but the one downside to this is that I've only had it a week and it's breaking slightly so be gentle when applying. 

Some other things I like about the MUA Power Pouts is that they have a nice refreshing mint scent, you notice it when they're first applied but if you don't like that type of scent don't worry it doesn't stay for long and they don't give you any tingling sensation. Yay!

  I also love how soft they make my lips look, gliding right over any dry patches making my lips look really healthy and juicy. 

Rendezvous gives you a lovely  "Your Lip But Better" colour payoff.

 A great product maybe if you're still in school and want to wear something that gives you a lovely natural looking lip. 

Lasting power would be the same as something like a lipgloss, will stay on for an hour or two if you don't eat or drink much but will have to be reapplied often. This doesn't bother me but might be something you would want to think about before purchasing. 

I've noticed some slight staining with the more pigmented colours which is good in the way of lasting power so thats one thing to take into account also.

For the inexpensive price of just £3 each I would definitely recommend these Power Pouts and I will be picking up some more when I get the chance. 

Have you tried these yet?

Linzi xx

REVIEW/SWATCHES - MUA - Undress Me Too - Eye Shadow Palette

Hullo Ladies! 

It's only been two days since I bought the MUA undress Me Too Palette but I've been really busy trying it out and have a few things to say about it, so although I usually wait around two weeks before reviewing a product, I'm going to review it for you now. 

The palette contains 12 shadows, some are shimmers and some are matte. All of them are neutral colours and easy to wear. 

A great plus with this palette is that MUA have finally started naming the shadows.  Maybe not as fun as some other brands but interesting none the less. 

Top Row L-R - Naked, Devotion and Shy

Bottom Row - Fiery, Lavish and Dreamy.

Top Row L-R - Tranquil, Exposed and Reveal

Bottom Row - Wink, Obsessed and Corrupt. 

My favourite shadows from this palette are :- Shy, Lavish, Exposed, Reveal, Wink and Obsessed. 

So we have all heard that this is supposed to be a close dupe to the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, as I don't own that palette I can't tell you if it is or not. Although as I have a few Urban Decay Palette's in my collection I own some of the shades from Naked 2 anyway. Here are some swatches of Blackout and Half Baked next to the MUA shades that are supposed to be dupes for them 

Left - Urban Decay Blackout 

Right -  MUA Corrupt. 

As you can see this really isn't a great dupe. In fact 'Corrupt' in my eyes,  is probably the worst eyeshadow MUA have ever released. It's a black matte colour but had hardly any pigmentation to it at all. Where as Blackout from Urban Decay is amazingly pigmented. This isn't just a problem for drugstore brands though, good matte shadows seem to be difficult to make for anyone. 

I once had a MAC palette that had one shadow that had even less colour pay off than this! 

Left - Urban Decay Half Baked

Right - MUA Devotion

Devotion is where MUA really show off their skills, its a gorgeous high shimmer gold, it's not the exact same colour as Half Baked but the finish and smoothness is the same, with an eye shadow primer it lasts just as long. This is one colour I know I'll be using a lot in the summer, it's gorgeous! 

Another important fact to point out is that I find that I can wear all of these shadows comfortably, unlike Urban Decay, none of them are stuffed so full of chunky glitter that I'm scared to wear them. 

The only thing I suggest is to make sure you use a good primer, this will make sure the colour stays true and lasts longer. I find with MUA that without a primer the shadow's can vanish within a few hours where as with a good primer they can last all night. 

All in all, I think MUA have made another great palette, with gorgeous shadows. 

I'm still going to be wearing some Urban Decay shadows but I'll also be using MUA along with them :-)

Undress Me Too isn't a perfect palette but for the exceptional price It's well worth the purchase. 

Are you going to be buying this one or are you fed up with all the neutral palettes that are so popular at the moment? 

You can buy this palette for £4 Here 

Linzi xxx

EDIT: Looking at some online swatches other people seem to have no problem with the eye shadow Corrupt. I'm wondering if maybe it was just my palette? If anyone has tried the shadow and has found the same problem, I'd be really grateful if you could tell me in the comments! Thanks! x

REVIEW/SWATCHES - MUA - Lip Boom - It's A Situation

Hullo Lovely Ladies, 

It seems like ages since I've done a review on a product!

I think I've just been rather boring of late! I'm thinking of changing that though and I'm looking forward to writing a lot more reviews in the up-coming weeks. 

This is a product I picked up from Superdrug a few days ago.  

I'd heard some amazing things about the MUA Lip Boom's  and really liked the look of them everytime I walked past the MUA stand. 

I've been loving the 'vampy' look lately and I really wanted another dark lipstick but didn't want to pay a big price for it, then I remembered reading a blog post about this lipstick 'It's A Situation' by MUA. 

For £3 I went straight to Superdrug and picked one up for myself. 

On one side of the Lip Boom you get a lipstick and on the other you get a lip gloss. 

You can wear these Lip Boom's in four different ways.

1) Just using the lipstick for a matte look. 

2) Using the lip gloss for highlighting the center of your lips to give your lips a bigger look.

3) Putting the gloss all over the lipstick to give you a high shine look

4) Wearing the lip gloss on it's own for a sheer glossy look. 

*Don't you just love an untouched lipstick?*

The lipstick is highly pigmented and a gorgeous deep berry red. 

It comes off more matte than my silly camera is making out. 

For a matte lipstick it has a very smooth texture which is almost moisturizing and not drying like you would expect. 

I love the fact that even though my lips are not in the best condition the lipstick doesn't stick to any dry patches. 

Both the lipstick and the lip gloss have a deliciously sweet fragrance that reminds me of caramel. 

As you can see from the swatch, the lip gloss has very big pieces of glitter, which while looking stunning on the lips doesn't feel to good. 

That and the fact that after thirty minutes I seem to find glitter all over my face, is the only downfall to this product. 

If I had paid a high amount for this duo I might have been upset but I'm willing to pay the £3 for just the lipstick alone. I simply just forget about the gloss. 

Though if unlike me you don't mind the downside this is what the lipstick and gloss look like on together.

This lipstick on it's own lasts a good amount of time on my lips, it does become patchy after a few hours so It's best to keep it on you for when you need to re-apply. 

So that's my review of the MUA Lip Boom in It's A Situation. 

You can find this lip product in Superdrug Stores and Online. 

Have you tried any of the MUA  Lip Boom's? 

Which ones are your favourite?

Linzi xxx

REVIEW + Swatches of Urban Decay's Naked Palette

Hullo Lovely ladies!

It's a big post today :-) Lots of pictures for you! You've been warned ;-)

Urban Decay's Naked Palette was one of the first "High End" products I had ever bought, It was so raved about online that I was desperate to get my hands on it. I was finally able to purchase it around this time last year and I've I worn atleast one shade everyday since. 

It's a very adaptable palette, I'm able to make a lot of different looks with it, whether I want a dramatic smokey eye or just a casual everyday look. 

Urban Decay are really great at making beautiful, unique and pigmented eye shadows. 

Yes like most brands they have their faults, mainly that some very similar shadows are re-released with different names and some have way to much glitter for anyone to pull off but I can honestly say that I wont be looking back, this palette will no doubt stay by my side for a long time. 

Last summer when I went to Spain for a family holiday and for my eye makeup I only used this palette and for the whole two weeks there I never repeated my look! 

One of the things I dislike about this palette though is the packaging. It's made out of some type of velvet material so everything sticks to it! Which can make it look dirty easily. Also the embossing isn't that great, the day I got it some of the "N" started to disappear. It just makes it seem like they shirked on the quality of the packaging but as long as they didn't on the actual products inside then I'm not too bothered.

Urban Decay seem to have noticed the flaws and the recent release " Naked 2" has a different design, its made out of metal instead which must make it a lot easier to keep clean.

Onto the shadows

"From L - R - Virgin, Sin and Naked"

Virgin - A pale shimmery nude, great for highlighting the brow bone.

Sin - A Pink Champagne. One of my favourites from the palette as you can see I've used a lot of it :-)

Naked - Matte Light beige. I like to use it in the crease if I have a lot of shimmer on my lid. 

"From L - R - Sidecar, Buck and Half Baked."

Sidecar - Shimmered bronze with pink undertone, very pretty but is my least used as it has a lot of chunky glitter.

Buck - Dark Matte Brown.

Half Baked - Lovely bright gold, very smooth and pigmented. 

"From L - R - Smog, Darkhorse and Toasted"

Smog -  Dark bronze with golden shimmer.

Darkhorse - Chocolate brown with shimmer, a lot more sheer than the rest of the shadows. 

Toasted - Pink taupe with shimmer, very pretty on the eye. 

"From L - R - Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal."

Hustle - Brown shimmer with purple undertone.

Creep - Sheer black with silver and blue glitter.

Gunmetal - Grey with a almost duo chrome blue undertone and silver glitter. Very pretty but just like Sidecar has chunky glitter. 

All in all this is pretty much my favourite palette, especially when you think about how each urban decay eye shadows are priced at £14 each and your getting twelve full sized shadows here for just £36. 

Though I don't think I will be purchasing the Naked 2 palette as it seems to be very similar and I already have some of the shades.

My most used colours from the palette are - Virgin, Sin, Naked, Smog, Darkhorse and Half Baked.

The ones that I rarely use are - Sidecar and Gunmetal, mainly because I hate finding glitter on random parts of my face hehe

I bought my palette from Debenhams and included was a lovely eye shadow brush and a small sample size of the primer potion :-)

This is definitely worth the hype and is a Holy Grail product for many beauty bloggers.

So it has its faults but that wouldn't stop me from repurchasing if I ever get through all the shadows *Highly unlikely!* 

Do you own the Naked Palette? Love it or hate it?? 

Hope you all had a great weekend :-) 

Linzi xxx

REVIEW + Swatches of Urban Decay's 15th Anniversary Palette

Hullo Beautiful Ladies

Last year Urban Decay Celebrated their 15th Anniversary and brought out a few special products, this palette being one of them! 

It includes all brand new shades.

Although hard to keep clean, the packaging is beautiful.

The shadows are on a lid that you can lift and can be used as a keep sake box once you have finished with them.

*That's going to take years!"

 

Like all Urban Decay eye shadows, they are extremely smooth, pigmented and unique.

This palette consists of both, neutral and bright shades. Making it easy for you to transform your look from day to night without fiddling around with all different type of palettes. 

Surprisingly I don't use this palette enough, I usually just go for my Naked Palette to play it safe but I've decided to use this more often as I did pay a good amount for it! 

I don't mind paying for Urban Decay Palettes though, I would rather pay around £30/£40 for a palette full of shadows, than  buying one shadow for £14! 

It makes it a good saving if you think about it because they are still full sized! 

I wanted to include this picture because right at the moment a woman walked past! She must have been thinking " What a strange girl!"  Haha. "Taking random pictures of her arm!!"  I just nodded and said hey, think I did pretty well, though I'm sure I went bright red!!!

On to the Swatches :-) 

"From L-R - Midnight Rodeo, Midnight 15, Vanilla, Flow and Chase."

Midnight Rodeo: Brown with Silver Glitter

Midnight 15:  Dirty Pearl with Silver Glitter

Vanilla: Light yellow toned white with gold shimmer

Flow: Peachy shimmer

Chase: Golden Bronze

                                           

"From L - R - Tainted, Junkshow, Omen, Evidence and Deep End"

Tainted:  Pale purple toned pink with gold shimmer

Junkshow: Bright pink with blue duo chrome

Omen: Bright purple with blue duo chrome

Evidence: Deep Blue

Deep End: Bright Teal/blue

"From L - R - Deeper, M.I.A, Ace, Blackout and Half Truth."

Deeper: Dark Golden Brown

M.I.A: Dark Brown

Ace: Dark Gunmetal

Blackout: Matte Black

Half Truth: Dark grey with purple duo chrome

Most Used : Flow, Chase, Deeper, Tainted. *Not all at the same time!*

Most Unique: Half Truth, Junkshow, Omen, Evidence. * I'm in love with Half Truth*

Least Used: Midnight Rodeo, Midnight Cowboy, Deep End. * I find them hard to work with, although they are all very beautiful :-)*

Least Unique: M.I.A, Vanilla,  Ace. *I've seen variations of these colours in a lot of UD palettes*

I can't remember how much this costs exactly, I bought it from Debenhams, I checked last night and it was there, looked just now and it's gone. Debenhams' website can be so tricky at times. Hard work!

I'm very glad I got this palette, I use Urban Decay's eye shadows on a daily bases, they are my favourite above all others, even MAC :-) 

I personally don't feel like I need to own every palette UD brings out because I know they often release the same if not similar colours...so two or three palettes is enough for me. Although I must admit sometimes I get sucked in by the lovely packaging :-) 

Hope you enjoyed this....very long...review!

Do you have a UD palette that you love? What is it??

Linzi xxx

Leighton Denny - Plush Pink - Review and Swatches

Hullo Beautiful Ladies!

So a few days ago I mentioned that I was going to be swatching my Leighton Denny polishes and first up is Plush Pink.

I picked this and Supermodel up in a Magazine and I'm so glad I did, this is a great pink and to look at it you would think that it was like any other pink polish out there but this is probably my favourite out of any that I own. It's unbelievably beautiful and very vibrant without being trashy in any way. 

Plush Pink is a gorgeous, bright, blue toned pink with an amazing glossy finish.

I find that Leighton Denny nail polishes have fabulous formulas and this particular polish went on like butter, very smooth and pigmented.

I knew I was in love with this polish because I wore it for four days straight which is probably a record for me lately as I love to change my polish on a daily bases :-) 

I really like the packaging of the Leighton Denny polishes, I think they look very professional but also simple and not too over done. 

Leighton Denny polishes are usually priced at £11 each but you can get some great deals on the QVC Website and I have also seen some of his sets at my local TK Maxx but I was an idiot and didn't pick any up :-( 

I will next time though :-) 

Have you tried any Leighton Denny polishes? Have a favourite you can recommend? 

Linzi xxx

GOSH Cool Lip Jams - Swatches and Reviews :-)

As you may know a few weeks ago I found loads of GOSH products in the clearance box in my local Superdrug, everything GOSH was just 99p  :-) 

Here are the Cool Lip Jams, the packaging is lovely and very simple.

They're 15 ml which is amazing for a lip gloss. 

Here are the swatches :-) 

Lip Jam In 101

                                                Clear base with a gorgeous blue iridescence.

You can just about see the shimmers in the picture.

Lip Jam in 106

A lovely sheer pink.

Nice on the lips, one I would wear alone or over a lipstick. 

Lip Jam in 102

An opaque nude/peach colour.

Looks great over a nude lipstick.

These can be slightly gloppy if you apply then with a heavy hand.

They have a sticky texture which some people don't like but because of this I find them quite long lasting. 

Like the name suggests they have a cooling feel to them, I wouldn't say they have a lot of tingle but the do feel fresh on the lips. 

They have a lovely bubblegum scent which I really like.

Sadly I think these have been discounted in the UK as I've never seen them before on the GOSH stand in my local Superdrug :-( but you may be lucky and find them in your Superdrug's clearance box  :-) 

I would say they where a great find for just 99p each but I might have been less happy with them If I had paid the usual £5-£6 for a GOSH lip product.