Review: Maybelline Color Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencil in '140 Minimalist'

The only lip pencil I own is by Barry M, so when I saw this lip pencil by Maybelline, I wanted to add it to my ever-growing stash of makeup, and this weekend, it now belongs to me... *insert evil laughter here*

It is a lovely pink colour with tiny little sparkles, which are hardly noticeable. It requires a little more pressure to apply on the lips, but the texture is quite velvety once applied. 

Above: minimalist applied to my bottom lip; my top lip bare for comparison. 

Above: zoomed out so that you can see the full effect. I'm only wearing a CC cream and a touch of mascara so please excuse my face... 

My thoughts: This lip pencil looks and feels good on my lips, has almost a soft matte finish but without drying them out. It has a weird taste - so no licking your lips - and it transfers, so reapplication will be necessary. The pencil is light yet feels sturdy, so it'll (hopefully) be travel and purse friendly.  

My First Bridal Makeup Experience...

So this weekend has been so busy, I haven't had a chance to blog about makeup or beauty at all!

On Friday (22nd August) I went to my friend's wedding. The Bride's makeup artist said she couldn't do her makeup last minute due to timing, so she asked me to do it. I've never done Bridal makeup, and I had no time to practice on her for a trial run (she asked me on 21st in the evening when we were super busy doing last minute running around), so you can imagine I was under a lot of pressure to get it right first time. 

I can't even begin to tell you how nervous I was. To make things even harder, she'd gotten a spray tan done two days before the wedding, which means that none of her foundations were the right colour anymore. 

So I turned up armed with all of my foundations, half of my makeup stash and most of my eyeshadow and blending brushes, plus face & concealer brushes. 

Above is the makeup & palettes I used on the Bride. I ended up using my own foundation that I use every day (Estée Lauder Double Wear Light, Intensity 3.0) on her as it is light but super hard-wearing. 

I tell you, it was so stressful, trying to make a bride look perfect for her special day; my hands shook and I was sweating buckets. Plus, she blinked her eyes insessantly when I applied all of her eye makeup; doing her eyeliner and mascara was a real challenge.

Then to top it off, with only 40 minutes to go until she was due down the aisle, she suddenly asked me if it would be ok if I did her maid of honour's makeup too. I was shocked and dumbfounded, to say the least. Good makeup takes care and time to apply; 40 minutes was only enough for a hasty, half-done job! So I prayed for a miracle and rushed (carefully) through her maid of honour's makeup too, then I ran out of the house, ran to the car and sped to the church ahead of them. 

As it turns out I never even managed to get a close up of her (or her maid of honour's) face the entire day! But I'll show you some pics of the day... 

The last picture ^ is the bride and her MoH (plus her gorgeous flower girls, who were adorably cute).

Although doing bridal makeup for the first time was scary, it has only deepened my love for cosmetics and made me appreciate makeup and makeup artistry even more. I know that all I want to do is follow this path of beauty and cosmetics until the bitter end!  

Benefit Stay Don't Stray Primer

I love eyeshadow primers, my favourites being Urban Decay, Too Faced and MAC's paint pots (Painterly and Utterly Becoming), so I decided to get this two-in-one primer using my Birchbox points, so this beauty item was completely free. 

As you can see I got it in the shade Light/Medium, it comes in a nice large tube, with a doe foot applicator for precision primer-application. 

I like how the lid has "Stay" and the bottom of the tube says "Don't Stray". Cute. 

It says put three dots on the eyes (both on the lid and three under the eye) and blend, then apply eyeshadow (and concealer under the eyes). This dries down pretty fast, so once it's on your skin you have to work with it quickly. I put a fair amount of primer on my upper lid (I always do, I find it prevents creasing) but less on my undereye area, as I don't have trouble with my concealer moving or straying, especially once it's set with a powder.  

Picture taken at 4pm

I used MAC's Mineralism & Showstopper and Feather (from Little Mix loves All About The Eyes Palette) for the highlight. I used Bourjois Healthy Mix concealer and set with Bourjois Healthy Balance Unifying Powder to set it. 

Pictures taken at 3am

After eleven hours, my eyeshadow still looked pretty good. There was less eyeshadow in the crease, but it hadn't become so oily that a crease had formed, so thumbs up there. As for my concealer, that was still there, but as I've already stated, that's never been an issue, so I can't say with any certainty that it works. I think I'll stick with my MAC Paint Pots as a primer for the time being but this one would do for me in a pinch. 

Any eyeshadow primer suggestions? Love/hate? I'd love to hear xx

Maybelline Baby Skin Instant Fatigue Blur *cool rose*

I don't know why I bought this, but I liked the idea of it. I'm not a massive fan of primers (except for Milk of Magnesia), but I bought it anyway... 

It's basically a water-based-silicone primer that helps smooth out very fine lines and blurs the skin's imperfections. 

It is a creamy white-pink, but when it's applied and smoothed out it becomes clear. It feels much more refreshing when it's first applied due to the water content, and dries down to a matte finish, leaving my skin feeling light and comfortable. 

Above: my bare face, freshly cleansed before and after application.

My skin looks fractionally more smooth, but it doesn't make me look more awake or any less fatigued. This is a nice little product for people that don't like to wear foundation but like their skin to look smoother without weighing it down with heavy silicone primers. I'm a foundation/CC cream fan myself, but for makeup free days I might be reaching for this little beauty to help perk me up without covering my imperfections. 

I think I'd like to try the apricot colour one next just to use something a little closer to my fakely tanned skin, but my local drugstore doesn't stock it, so next time I go into town it'll be on my shopping list.

Maybelline Coloursensational Nude Lipstick in 725 Tantalizing Taupe

My super favourite colour on my lips have to be nudes. A nude lip goes with everything; got heavy smokey eye makeup going on? Nude lips are your eyes' best friend. Doing the no-makeup-makeup look? Nude lips sure do help! Worried that your lip and eyes are all mismatched? Nudes are there to take the stress away! Basically they take the worry out of your day to day makeup. Yes, they may be boring and predictable, but they're handy and reliable! 

So I knew that this lippie simply had to join the ranks of my other nude lipsticks such as my MAC Half 'n' Half and MAC Modesty. But this lipstick has the added benefit of being drugstore, so it doesn't have a £15 price tag, it's just under half that, at a more purse-friendly £6.99. 

On me it's a creamy, moisturising pinky brown, easy to apply and has a slightly sweet scent. This will be a definite go-to colour for me for the foreseeable future. 

Do you wear nude lips? Love or hate? Any lip colour suggestions? Xx

Review: Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Lips Pencil

I'm a huge fan of red lips (as you may well know) so when I saw this cute little pencil I thought I'd have to add it to my collection. 

If this colour has a name it doesn't seem to be on the pencil, so I'm going to call it Bright Pillarbox. It's a lovely, shiny, creamy, bright-yet-true red, that applies smoothly and has a great opaque colour. 

This is a lovely colour that's easy to wear, but like most balms/glosses, it does need to be reapplied after eating and drinking. Considering also that this is a pencil, it requires being sharpened, so there will be some loss, but these pencils are around £5 so it's not a huge issue. 

Apart from reapplication and loss, I still think that this colour is great and the price is reasonable. 

Anyone else like these pencils? Don't like them? Let me know xx

Review: Barry M Liquid Eyebrow Marker

There's nothing like a little retail therapy to help "alleviate" a chest infection, so while I was buying pain killers and the such, I came across this little pen. 

I was immediately intrigued by it, so the shade 'Dark Brown' joined my medicines in the basket. 

So here is my natural eyebrow, untouched. My brows are wiry and sparse from mid lengths to the ends, so I always fill them in as best I can. 

I filled out the tail end first with the pen. The first thing I noticed is how much product comes out. It didn't matter how light handed I was, the liquid came out fast, making it look clumsily applied. 

I continued on... 

I filled out the rest of my eyebrow. Although the colour is a good match, there is simply too much liquid coming out of the tip, making my brows very noticeably drawn on and cartoon-like. 

My thoughts: The liquid dries fast, so it doesn't require any setting, plus it's long wearing, but at the same time there's just too much liquid coming out of the tip. It is very hard to apply, even with the lightest touch, so it's almost impossible to make the brows look natural in any way. This is probably best used for nights out or very obvious in-your-face makeup looks. 

Any brow products that you like/love and recommend? 

Review: Maybelline Lasting Drama 36h Gel Liner Pen Black Shock

Wow. That is one long title right there! Any longer and it would have it's own postcode haha. Aaaanyway, on to my review... 

When we were purusing through the drugstore, it wasn't me that spotted this pen style gel liner, it was my hubby. I am a huge (and I really mean huge) fan of the Lasting Drama gel liner in the little pots that come with their own brush. Maybelline's gel liner lasts longer on my waterline than any other gel liner I've tried; for me it's a winner - so when my hubster pointed it out in store, I simply knew I had to have it. 

It has a screw on cap and a rubbery pen-like nib with a slanted hole. You have to twist the bottom of the pen around 20-30 times to get the gel up through the nib for the first time (I can't actually remember, I lost count after twisting it 3 clicks at a time for a short while). 

The gel that comes out is quite thick and very opaque. It also comes out thicker where the hole is widest, so it is hard to apply evenly... 

As seen above, it all splodged onto my hand as I dragged it across. I tried clicking the gel out of the nib, smearing it across the opening so it covered the edge a little more evenly, and then I applied it to my upper lash line. 

Above: my first attempt of a slight wing. It's not fantastically even but not bad for a first try. 

A touch of mascara... 

And lastly, adding it to my waterline (upper and lower) and adding Red Cherry lashes (number 43). Please excuse my face, I have swollen sinuses and I'm in a fair amount of pain, so I look a bit crap... But I just wanted to show the eyeliner from a distance! 

My thoughts: I like this gel liner, but I do find it quite strange to use. I think I prefer using the brush to apply the eyeliner as I have more control over how much I use, whereas the pen liner has a lot less control and there is more waste. 

The liner broke up on my waterline pretty quickly, but I think that's because my eyes are watering more than normal. 

To remove, just use an oil based makeup remover and a cotton pad. 

It comes off really easily with Garnier Simply Essentials Soothing 2 in 1 makeup remover, which is cheap at only £3 and the oil in it will dissolve the eyeliner quickly, which won't be unkind to your skin. 

Review: Little Mix love All About The Eyes Palette

I went to my local Superdrug today. When I saw this cute little eyeshadow palette, at just £2.99 I knew I just had to have it. 

It's a little cardboard palette, just over 4 inches long, 2 & 1/2 inches wide and has 6 beautiful shades of cream, sparkly gold, shimmery brown and black. 

Colours from left to right: 

Feather, Sunkissed, Golden Sand, Dazzling Brown, Cocoa Dream & Blackbird. 

My thoughts: This palette is cute, small and the perfect size for travel (and if its cardboard packaging gets ruined, it only costs £2.99 so it's not the end of the world). The colours are quite creamy and pigmented ('Feather' being the exception, being slightly less pigmented and a little chalkier), apply and blend well and are perfect for natural looks (similar to the look I was sporting above) and darker, smokier looks, thanks to 'Cocoa Dream' and 'Blackbird'. It's a fab palette, and although the eyeshadows contain parabens, I use MAC paint pots as eyeshadow primer, so it's not a problem. Worth the money, for sure. Recommended for anyone wanting a decent eyeshadow palette on a budget!