I Have an Unreachable Dream...

MOAN ALERT! WHINGEING IS ABOUT TO COMMENCE!
For around 6 or 7 years, I have dreamed of
becoming a nail technician. I love applying acrylic nails and LED manicures (like Shellac but cured under LED lights instead of UV and takes much less time). When me and my husband were still together, I thought I had all the time in the world to follow my dream, so I relaxed, I did a beauty course in college as my first stepping stone... And then my marriage came to a rather abrupt halt, I moved out of my home of almost ten years, left my husband and my cats and started a new life elsewhere.
For the past 15 months I have been paying rent, and working overtime to make ends meet and so that I can live a comfortable life and not have to struggle.
Here lies my dilemma; with the divorce proceedings about to start and with no money to do a nail course (which are usually around the £1000 mark), I can no longer see my dream coming true.
I do my sister's nails, my own and a couple of friends and so far I have only recorded mine and my sister's results:

Above, my sister's nails the first day that I did acrylic sculpting on her nails, french fade. It was the first time I'd done french fade on more than one nail. 

Two weeks later, I did a basic infill. Her nails grow so quickly, she had around a month's growth in just two weeks!

Another two weeks passed and I rebalance her nails. They would have been slightly longer but she had filed them down a little before I got to them.

And finally, my nails. I have a different glitter accent nail on each middle finger because I like to be unique and it goes with my motto that "life is too short to find the matching sock", ha ha. 

 I don't know who will read this, but I was wondering if anyone else has faced this dilemma and what they did about it? Any help and/or advice would be lovely and really appreciated x

Rimmel Scandal'Eyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eyeliner in Nude Review

I have never owned a white or nude eyeliner in my life. I was very tempted indeed to buy Urban Decay's waterproof liner in Walk of Shame, but just couldn't justify spending £15.50 on an eyeliner. I know that might make me sound cheap, but since life took a rather sharp down turn last year, I'm more cautious about spending my hard earned moolah on makeup. Even my Urban Decay lipstick was free with vouchers I was given for long service at work!
Anyway! We're here to look at my new purchase!

I saw this in Superdrug for £3.99, and bought it on impulse. And I'm rather glad I did.

I swiped it (as always) on the back of my hand; it applied smoothly, the pencil is very soft and pigmented and when it dried (30-60 seconds later), I rubbed it with my other hand, and it stay put really well.
So! Time to apply!

Above is me with my makeup done but with my waterline bare of any products.

And above is me with the Rimmel waterproof eyeliner on. I like that it applied smoothly to my waterline and didn't cause any soreness or irritation.

And here you can see the effect on both eyes from a distance.
I went about my day, and didn't check my waterline for about 6hrs, and when I did I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was still about 60% of the liner remaining. I touched it up with some more liner and it stayed really well for another 5 or so hours. I'm very impressed with this liner, and will be reaching for this in the near future.

Any nude waterproof eye liners that you use that I should know about? I'd love to know! Xx

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Lip Pencil in "Uptight" Review

Hello my beauties, today I shall be talking to you about Urban Decay's rather scrumptious lip liner, in the colour Uptight...

So my sister and I went to a makeup "masterclass" at the Urban Decay stall last week in House of Fraser. It was to do with the new eyeshadow palette they have just released; the Moondust palette. The lady showed us how to apply makeup (to whom I listened to and watched and nodded politely, hoping to learn any valuable tips), and I was fine - even when she forgot to apply concealer to her model until after she had applied powder foundation over the liquid foundation - right up until she was highlighting. She applied the highlighter, saying "Now don't apply too much highlighter, otherwise you're just going to look stupid,". My sister and I - highlighted to the Gods this fine day, her with Jeffree Star's Peach Goddess and I with a beautiful handmade highlighter called Ophelia that I bought from a wonderful girl from Depop (she's on Instagram and her name there is sophiekia) - looked at each other and just rolled our eyes and laughed under our breath and murmered "I'm with stupid!".
BUT! I digress!
What caught my eye when she was applying lip liner to her model. As you may well know, UD has come out with something like 100 new lipsticks, and have got a massive amount of matching lip liners. I wanted to buy "Liar" to match my "Liar" lipstick, but when I tried it, the colour seemed way too dark, much darker than my lipstick. And that's when I tried "Uptight". I found the perfect match for my lipstick!

The colour is richly pigmented and the pencil is so smooth to apply, it really is a dream. No dragging or uneven lining here!

Scream! My bare, freckled lips! My lips - up close - are fairly lopsided and uneven, so please forgive this. There's nothing I can do to change this unless I use an app to adjust my lip line, but it's tedious and I just can't be bothered! Also please excuse any hairs you see, I'm a real fuzz-face!

Here we are, with my lips filled right in with the pencil. It's a really lovely peachy brown. It reminds me of MAC's Half n Half or Modesty. I'm a sucker for pinky/peachy brown nudes.

Here I am with just the pencil on my lips, so you can see the effect it has on my makeup...

And here I am with Urban Decay's Lipstick in "Liar" on over the top. Match made in lipstick heaven, right? I'm loving this right now.
The liner holds up for hours but does need retouching if you eat a meal, especially if it's oily. This is a lovely lip liner, but on the pricier side at £13.50.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any long wearing lip liners that I need to know about? Please be sure to let me know! Xx

Barry M Chisel Cheeks Contour Creams Review

So I was in Superdrug the other day and this little beauty caught my eye. Of course I checked for parabens (I've been caught out so many times!) and decided that, at £7.99, I was going to grab them up. By the way, these beauties are cruelty free and vegan, so good for people that don't like their cosmetics tested on animals.

Normally, as an oily/combination skinned gal, I contour and highlight after powdering my skin, but it's good to change it up a bit after being stuck in the same routine year after year...
So I put on my foundation and concealer, then went to work with the contouring colour...

Oh, yeah! Check out the girl who can't even contour! Haha! The cream contour just glides on to the skin so smoothly, and it's very pigmented, which was great.

I then started blending it out with a damp Real Techniques miracle sponge. If you use less contour colour, it blends out to a very natural finish. I used a heavier hand as I wanted a more bronzed and more obvious contour.

First she can't contour, now she's pulling faces, y'all... Ahem, yeah, so once I blended out the contour, I went in with the highlight colour, which is a lightish cream colour and blended that in with the Real Techniques sponge again.

So this was the finished look, without any powder. It didn't look seamless, So I used my Real Techniques contour brush and blended my forehead and cheeks a little more, then set it with powder, finished my face around 12pm and went about my day.

And this is me at around 8pm. I have been quite impressed with this contour kit, and it's at a good price too. These are creams so they can feel and look odd upon application, but once blended out looks and feels much better and not so heavy on the skin. I personally would advise that these be set with a powder after blending too, as cream shifts and slides easily across the skin. I also found that my sponges got clogged up with the cream very quickly, so I use two Real Techniques contour brushes for blending it all out; one for the contour, one for the highlight.

I really enjoy using this kit, and will continue to use it as a nice way to change up my makeup routine. Does anyone else have this kit? I'd love to hear your thoughts xx

MUA Luxe Power Brow Sculpting Gel Review

I have been wanting to get my paws on these beauties for a short time, as my brows are pretty darned sparse. I always have to fill them in, from one end to the other, and this gel-cream formula seemed like a good idea. It's definitely a change from my normal pencil routine, for sure.

I bought them for £4 each at Superdrug, in the colours 'Mid Brown' and 'Dark Brown'. I tend to lean towards mid brown colours for my brows as my hair is dark brown BUT my eyebrow hairs are black. And because your brows (if you have brown hair of most shades) are supposed to be two shades lighter than your hair, mid Brown works best as it can be darkened up if necessary.

Each pot comes with its own brush, built into the lid. The brush can be made longer by clicking the opposite end of the brush back into the lid and voila! Longer brush handle!

Ta dah! Ahem! Sorry, I'll continue...

My mid brown pot looked wonderful when I got it home. My dark brown pot, however, looked like it had been overheated and had kind of melted all around the pot and some of the product was even on the inside of the lid.

To be honest, I'm not too bothered by all this. Just thought I'd share haha.

These are the two gels, swatches on my thumb. Top is 'Dark Brown', bottom is 'Mid Brown' These claim to be long lasting and smudge resistant and boy, are they; I rubbed both lines of colour really hard after they had set and the colour barely moved on my skin. I've washed my hands at least 7 times today, and I still have two faint brown lines on my thumb, 12hrs later. They will have to be removed with makeup remover very shortly!

Soooo this is my bare eye/skin/brow - I know, scary stuff! As you can see, my brows are thin - overplucked as a teenager, now the only thing I use tweezers for is to apply false eyelashes - and sparse, so of course they need to be filled in on a daily basis.

So here is the same eye with some basic makeup (age is upon me, my hooded eyes are getting worse!), and my brow filled in with both of the gels. I think I made them look sort of natural looking. I used Dark Brown on the tail end of the brow for definition, and Mid Brown on the rest of the brow to make the brow look fuller.
The gel is super pigmented and a little goes a long way. The brush that goes with it could do with being thinner, so the brush strokes wouldn't be so wide and heavy-handed-looking, but at £4 each I am not complaining.
As for longevity, I applied this gel on my brows around 12hrs ago, and they haven't melted, smudged or faded away. I wish I could say that about my foundation (Hi, super oily T-Zone!), but my brows look like they could go for hours longer without a problem.
Hugs x

Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick 'Celebrity Skin' review

I admit, I am pretty new to the Jeffrey Star bandwagon. I know, right? Shame on me! My little sister (mei mei, I love you but my wallet doesn't ;) haha) is the one that pointed me in his (infectiously brilliant) talented direction, and I have to say, once you go Jeffree Star, you ain't ever coming back... Without a makeup product with his delicious name printed on it.
My first ever purchase was this liquid lipstick, and girrrrrrrl, it was love at first swipe!

Look at this beautiful casing; so chunky, sturdy and darned cute! Normally I'm not one for packaging, but I have to say, this has got me all of a flutter.
The formulation is so smooth and light, then dries down to a matte, pink-toned brown nude that is just so gorgeous and flattering. Also, another wonderful plus is that this lipstick smells of a root beer float, which is delicious. For those that don't like scents, don't worry, the fragrance soon disappears. The formula is also gluten and paraben free, which is an absolute must for me. Anything that can be absorbed by my skin must not contain parabens!

Above is a close up of my lips. My lips are in no way symmetrical so please ignore that, but just look at the colour. I just love it! The colour wears really well, is not as drying as other long lasting lipstick formulas I have used and feels really comfortable on the lips.

Here is me from further away. Forgive how I look, it's been a while since I applied my makeup! I just love how neutral and wearable this colour is. It wears off a small amount through eating/drinking, but still holds up really well unless you eat oily foods, which will break down the formula quickly.
It removes easily with an oil based makeup remover ("Hello, Garnier, how are you today?"), so just keep that in mind should you ever buy one of this talented man's lipsticks.

Yes! Honey, I am loving this shade! I'm currently waiting as patiently as I can for another of his lipsticks 'Rich Blood' to arrive. I can't wait!

Hugs xx

Review: MUA Elysium Palette

I was in Superdrug, on a mission to buy cotton pads, when I stumbled across this little beauty on the MUA stand today:

An eyeshadow palette consisting of 10 eyeshadows and a double ended black eyeliner/pale pink highlighter pencil. This retails at just £6. Of course this made its way into my basket! 

Above is a picture of the back of the palette, with the names of the shadows. 

And a picture of the ingredients. As you can see, these shadows do contain parabens, so if you're tempted to buy these then please use a primer (paraben free if possible!) underneath to stop your body from absorbing them. 

I noticed that at least 6 of the colours bore a striking resemblance to 6 of the colours in the Naked 3 palette...

"Air" and "Cherub" look very similar to Naked 3's "Strange" and "Dust".

"Charm" is an amazing dupe for N3's "Limit".

"Refine" is also a great dupe for N3's "Nooner" (one of my fave matte crease/blending colours).

"Adore" is similar to N3's "Blackheart".

"Astral" is a very good dupe for N3's "Buzz".

The other four eyeshadows don't much resemble the Naked 3 palette, but I really love this palette as a cheap dupe. It has 5 metallic colours, four mattes and one black matte with red sparkle (Adore). 

Of course I had to try this palette out (sorry, swatches turned out crap on my phone so I deleted the pics), so I did this look for college today:

For this look I used Charm as a transition/blending colour, then Refine in the crease and lower lash line. I used Cherub on my eyelid, Adore in the outer third of my eyelid and on the outer third of my lower lash line, lined my upper lash line with the black eyeliner pencil and set it with some more Adore. I then used a highlighter around my inner eyes to bring light to this look, lined my waterline with black waterproof gel liner and curled my lashes and added plenty of mascara (around 3/4 coats) to pull the whole look together. 

My thoughts: I absolutely love this palette, it's a fantastic price, the colours are well pigmented (the metallic ones are super creamy and beautiful to wear), has some brilliant Naked 3 palette colour dupes and they apply and blend amazingly well. The only negative thing I can think of (other than the shadows containing parabens) is that the double ended pencil (the size it is now with the lids on both ends) fits perfectly in the palette, but once the pencil is sharpened, it'll be shorter and it won't be able to fit, so will fall out easier and perhaps even get lost. But! That's only a minor negative - I'm sure I can move the pencil to somewhere safer! I will definitely be using this palette a lot in the future and I recommend it to anyone on a budget or that doesn't want to fork out £37 for the Naked 3. 

Hugs x

MAC Kinky Boots Collection

So! This is my second try at blogging today... My cat deleted my last attempt with just one paw. I lost all my pictures, words, everything. So, im going to start again! 

Kinky Boots is based on a true story of a man whose shoe making business is going under, so he ends up making kinky boots that are made just for men. Apparently this MAC collection is based on the Broadway play, which I've never seen (but I did watch the film when it came out around 10yrs ago, and I really enjoyed it). 

Kinky Lipstick:

 

Kinky Lipglass:

The last picture is the lipglass applied over the lipstick. 

The lipstick is a blue based red matte, smoother/easier to apply than other, older formula mattes I own, and it's not quite as drying as them either. The lipglass is a sheer red with tiny flecks of gold glitter. It looks beautiful on its own or on top of the lipstick (it gives it an attractive, darker, glittery finish). 

My thoughts: MAC already has some very famous blue-based red lipsticks (Ruby Woo and Russian Red being amongst the favourites), so this lipstick doesn't really stand out but it definitely holds it own with pigmentation and staying power. The lipglass, however, is more of a favourite with me. The base colour has just enough pigment to make my colourless lips look rosy (when applied on its own) and the glitter makes my lips sparkle. Another plus is that when the gloss wears away, the glitter remains on the lips, which I personally like a lot. 

Have you got the Kinky Boots Collection? 

Any collections you absolutely love that I need to know about? Please let me know!