New Lip Products!

 

 

Hi everyone!

 

I'm sure, like many of you, I love lip products! Obsessed really! I picked up a couple of new products when I was out shopping in Manchester last week and thought that I would share them with you.

Top 10 Series: Lip Products

 

 

Hi everyone!

 

Welcome to the second post in my top 10 series. Today I am going to share my current favourite lip products with you. As someone who loves lipstick and has way too many, it was really hard to chose only 10!

My Favourite MAC Eyeshadows

Hi Everyone!

 

As you can see from the picture above, I have a pretty large collection of MAC eyeshadows! They are amazing, there is a wide range of colours and finishes to suit everyone. I have lot's of shadows in my collection from various brands but the MAC ones have a special place in my heart! They are the first ones I purchased when I really got into make-up. Woodwinked was my first, followed by Satin Taupe and they are still used on a regular basis to this day! I have repurchased both of them several times! So when I sat down to write this post I wanted it to be a top 10 but I just couldn't select only 10! So here are my favourites!

June Favourites 2016

Hi Everyone,

 

Today I will be sharing my favourite products from the month of June with you. Some are new products that I have discovered over the last month and some are golden oldies! So let's get started!

Current Favourite MAC Lipsticks

Hi everyone!

Today I thought that I would share my favourite MAC lipsticks with you. I love MAC lipsticks and have far too many in my collection but these are the ones that I reach for the most! I feel that MAC offer such a fantastic range of colour and finish options that there is something to suit everyone and the price point is pretty good too!

November 2015 Favourites

Hi Everyone!

I haven't done a favourites post in a long time so I decided it'd be fun to do one today! I've tried a few new things over the last month, mainly lip products, so here are my stand out items!

Beauty Blender: I have owned my Beauty Blender for quite a while now but I've just recently gotten in to using it every time I apply my foundation! Nothing blends product into the skin like this little sponge!


La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo: This is stuff is AMAZING! I have recommended it to so many people! It does an excellent job of clearing up your skin. I apply it once a day after cleansing my skin and before moisturiser.


Make up Geek Eyeshadows: These are a relatively new discovery for me and I love them! Especially Peach Smoothie, Crème Brule and Cocoa Bear. They are so pigmented and apply like a dream! I'm planning on doing a swatch post soon!


MAC Tan Pigment: This is my favourite MAC pigment and has been for a very long time now! Its a stunning rosy- tan colour and works wonderfully when paired with the three Make up Geek eyshadows above!


MAC Soar Lip Pencil & Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Lip Cheat: I have really been loving a rosy-nude lip recently and these two lip pencils are the perfect accompaniment to lipsticks such as MAC's Whirl, Brave and Velvet Teddy.

L'Oreal Miss Manga Mascara: This is a mascara that I've has several tubes of and I just keep coming back to it! It's quite simply brilliant!


Becca Skin Perfector in Moonstone & Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Powder in Fawn: We all love to highlight and contour our faces nowadays and these are the best two products on the market for that job in my opinion!


MAC Lipsticks in Brave & Mehr and Charlotte Tilbury Lipstick in Stoned Rose: As I previously mentioned I have been trying out some new lipsticks recently and these three are my pick of the crop!


OPI 'Just Lanai-ing Around Nail Polish: I've been all about rosy colours over the past couple of months so this colour suits me down to the ground! It's a gorgeous dark, creamy mauve shade that's so flattering to wear!


Tom Ford Velvet Orchid: This perfume is incredible and perfect for this time of year! It's quite a heavy fragrance but I love it! It's worth the heavy price tag in my opinion, if only for the staying power!


I hope that you enjoyed reading about my current favourite products. Please feel free to share some of your below!
Maz x

Top Neutral MAC Eye Shadow's

Hi Everyone!

Today I have decided to share my top 15 neutral MAC eye shadows with you. MAC shadows are amazing and these are my most used shades:

Lip Product Tag!

Hi Everyone!

I have recently read a few bloggers post's on their favourite lip products and decided to join in!

MAC Bare My Soul Eyeshadow Palette - Review & Swatches

Hi everyone!

Today I have a review of MAC's Bare My Soul eyeshadow palette from their Temperature Rising collection. This palette contains 4 full size eyeshadows and costs £38.50. First of all, the colour of the palette itself caught my attention, it is a beautiful, chocolate brown colour which makes a nice change from the usual black and has a slightly different feel to it than the regular MAC quads.

 

 



The first colour is called Romantico and is described as a 'light taupe bronze'. The colour is a mushroom-like shade to me and has a buildable colour pay off. It's a great all-over lid colour.

 

The second colour in the palette is Bare my Soul which is described as a 'Frosted gold'. This colour looks much brighter in the pan that it does on the skin. It's quite sheer too, I was a little disappointed with this colour to be honest.

 

Next we have Friendly which is a 'deep bronzed chocolate' colour. This is a great medium- dark brown which is great to have in any palette but not all that unique!

 

Finally we have When in Rio which is the eye catcher of the palette! This is described as a 'Deep green with copper pearl'. It looks quite similar to MAC's Blue Brown pigment in the pan but when swatched this eyeshadow has a darker brown base than the pigment does. The green does come through more than is shown in the picture below and it is a beautiful colour, however, I think that the colour pay off may be more vibrant is applied wet.

 



L to R: Romantico, Bare My Soul, Friendly, When in Rio

 

Overall, this is a nice palette but nothing really special! When in Rio is most definitely the stand out shade but the other shades are easily duplicated, however, Romantico and Friendly are good staple shades to own!

 

Maz x

 

MAC Red Lipsticks

Hi Everyone!

A couple of Weeks ago I shared my pink MAC lipsticks with you and today I thought that I would write a quick post about my red ones. I love red lipsticks and own 5 MAC ones. I know that red can be quite a difficult colour to wear but I find that if I exfoliate my lips then add a lip primer followed by a suitable pencil, the lipstick looks great. If you are new to wearing red lipsticks I would go for a more coral based red such as Barcelona Red.

(L to R) Spice It Up, Lady Bug, Barcelona Red, Viva Glam Cyndi, Viva Glam 1

DESCRIPTIONS:

Spice It Up: Muted brown berry

Lady Bug: Yellow tomato

Barcelona Red: Coral-red

Viva Glam Cyndi: Coral-red

Viva Glam 1: Intense brownish blue-red

SWATCHES SHOWN ON NW20 SKIN:

(L to R) Spice It Up, Lady Bug, Barcelona Red, Viva Glam Cyndi, Viva Glam 1

I hope that you have found this post interesting and useful. Please feel free to share you favourite red MAC lipsticks with me in the comments section below.

You can purchase MAC lipsticks from MAC for £13.50 each.

Maz x

MAC Pink Lipsticks

Hi Everyone!

MAC lipsticks are my favourite lipsticks and I have quite a decent size collection of them! They have a very big colour selection so I thought that it would be fun and hopefully helpful to share mine with you. In this post I am sharing my pink MAC lipsticks with you!

(L to R) Pink Plaid, Creme Cup, Angel, Fabby, Snob

(L to R) Please Me, Girl About Town, Speak Louder, Bombshell, Milan Mode

DESCRIPTIONS:

Pink Plaid: Dirty blue-pink

Creme Cup: Light blue-pink

Angel: Soft pink

Fabby: Mauve with gold pearl

Snob: A ladylike mauve

Please Me: Muted rosy tinted pink

Girl About Town: Fabulous fuchsia

Speak Louder: Clean poppy blue pink

Bombshell: Bright rosy-pink with shimmer

Milan Mode: Sheer deep pink with multidimensional pearl

SWATCHES SHOWN ON NW20 SKIN:

(L to R) Pink Plaid, Creme Cup, Angel, Fabby, Snob

(L to R) Please Me, Girl About Town, Speak Louder, Bombshell, Milan Mode

You can purchase MAC lipsticks from MAC for £13.50 each.

I hope that you have found this post useful. Please feel free to share your favourite MAC pink lipsticks with me in the comments section below.

Maz x

MAC To Catch a Sailor Lipstick - Review & Swatch

Hi Everyone!

I have another one of the lipstick's from MAC's Hey Sailor collection to share with you which I was lucky enough to receive as a gift from my friend for my birthday! This one is called 'To Catch a Sailor' and is described as 'highly frosted tan'. This isn't the sort of colour that I would usually go for but I was intrigued after seeing one of Tiffany D's videos on YouTube.

I love the sailor themed packaging on the Hey Sailor collection! This lipstick is great. It gives a lovely frosty finish to the lips and isn't too golden. It's great when wearing a more dramatic eye for an evening look as it's fairly neutral but gives you that little bit extra!

SWATCH SHOWN ON NW20 SKIN:

You can purchase this lipstick from MAC for £14 (please note: this item is limited edition).

Maz x

MAC Lightscapade Mineralize Skinfinish - Review & Swatch

Hi Everyone!

I love MAC's Mineralize Skinfinishes and only a couple are in the permanent line. Lighscapade is one that appears in the odd collection here and there and I have had my eye on it for a while so was really pleased when it was recently released as part of the 'Reel Sexy' collection.

MAC describe Lightscapade as a 'Soft candlelit beige with multidimensional shimmer'. This powder is beautiful and makes the most amazing highlight shade. The powder is smooth and glides onto your skin really well and provides a subtle, flattering glow to your cheekbones. Lightscapade isn't too shimmery either which I have often found is the case with MAC's Mineralize Skinfinishes.

SWATCH SHOWN ON NW20 SKIN:

As you can see from the picture above, this powder is really subtle on my skin tone but works as an amazing highlighter. My most used powder highlighter is NARS Albatross and this is similar but much warmer.

Have you purchased anything from the Reel Sexy collection? If so, let me know in the comments section below!

You can purchase Lightscapade from MAC for £ 21.50
Maz x

MAC Salute! Lipstick - Review & Swatch

Hi Everyone!

MAC has just released it's Hey Sailor! collection here in the UK and I picked up one of the 4 lipsticks in the colour Salute! which is described as  "neutral peach" and has an amplified finish.

Hey Sailor! packaging

Firstly I have to say that I love the nautical packaging on this collection! The lipstick tube has a really nice glossy finish as opposed to the usual MAC lipstick packaging.

SWATCH SHOWN ON NW20 SKIN:

As you can see from the picture above this is quite an orangey toned neutral colour. The lipstick is very pigmented as with all of MAC's Amplified finishes. I have found that the lipstick looks better if I use my finger to blend it in. It also looks great with a golden lipgloss over the top such as Stila's Kitten.

I have a few peachy nude lipsticks in my collection so here are some swatches for comparison:

(L to R) MAC Salute! Sleek Barely There, MAC Ravishing, MAC Shy Girl, Revlon Peach Parfait

You can purchase the new Hey Sailor! collection from MAC for £14

Please let me know in the comments section below if you have purchased anything from the collection and what you think of it!

Maz x

MAC Blot Powder Review

Hi Everyone!

I usually use MAC's Mineralize Skinfinish Natural to set my foundation but I decided to try their Blot powder for a change to set it and to try and reduce shine on my face, especially in my t-zone area as this powder absorbs any excess oil on your face. The Blot Powder is a pressed powder and has a really nice silky texture.

The Blot powder has very little colour to it, I am a MAC NW20 and the MAC artist suggested the colour Medium-Dark which is perfect for me. The powder comes with a puff to apply it or for touch ups during the day or you can apply it with a brush such as the MAC 150.

I have used my Blot Powder several times now over several of my foundations including the MAC Studio Fix Fluid, L'Oreal True Match and Make-up Forever HD and it does a great job at setting it and doesn't change the colour at all which avoids the cakey, over-powdered look. I have also definitely noticed the reduction of shine in my t-zone area and only touch up the powder once during the day. Overall, I have to say that I really liked MAC's Mineralize Skinfinish Natural Powder but this is better if you have oily areas like me!

You can purchase the Blot Powder from MAC for £19.
Maz x

MAC Young Punk Mineralize Eye Shadow - Review & Swatch

Hi Everyone!

I am a sucker for a purple eyeshadow and I missed out on the chance to get Young Punk eyeshadow when it was released the first time around so when I saw that MAC had brought it back I was thrilled! Young Punk is described as a 'Mineralize black with pinkish and purple pearl'.

I really like MAC's Mineralize products but the eyeshadows can be a little hit or miss. Young Punk is a really good one though, it can be used dry and built up to achieve the desired effect or used wet to create a more pigmented look.

SWATCHES SHOWN ON NW20 SKIN:

Left: Dry Swatch, Right: Wet Swatch

As you can see from the picture above this shadow is a really dark, black based purple. You get to see more of the purple when using the shadow wet and I think it would look great used wet, packed all over the lid. It would also look great used dry as a crease colour with a lighter purple on the lid to create a really dark, smokey purple eye.

You can purchase this eyeshadow from MAC for £16.50

Maz x

MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation Review

Hi Everyone!

I am a massive fan of MAC and have far too many of their products but for some reason I have never purchased one of their foundations. I have heard good and bad things about their foundations and as I had a gift voucher to spend I thought I'd give one a go and see for myself! I have several foundations in my collection including L'Oreal True Match, Revlon Photo Ready, Smashbox HD and Make-up Forever HD, all of which I like, so how would the MAC one compare?

I had a chat with the MAC consultant and she suggested that I try the Studio Fix Fluid as I have combination skin and this foundation is said to absorb and distribute oil. It also has a matte finish which is great as I hate shine, is oil free and contains SPF 15.

Application:

I applied 2 pumps of the foundation which was enough to cover my face and neck. I used my Sigma F84 brush to apply. The consistency is quite thick compared to L'Oreal's True Match for example, but applies easily and evenly. It blends into the skin well and doesn't sit in any lines or imperfections. I have quite large pores on my cheeks and it covers those well. The foundation is said to be medium coverage which I think is pretty accurate as the finish is fairly natural looking.

Conclusion:

I wore the foundation for around 9 hours over my Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Light and set it with my MAC Blotting Powder and it held up pretty well. I have to say that I like this foundation. I didn't break me out at all which some foundations do and I like the finish, the biggest negative point for me has to be the smell! It has quite a strong, distinctive smell which does last a while, it isn't a particularly horrible smell but it's not pleasant!

You can purchase this foundation from MAC for £19.50

Maz x

Shop MAC Cook MAC Collection Lipsticks - Review & Swatches

Hi Everyone!

I have 2 of the new, limited edition lipsticks from the Shop MAC, Cook MAC Collection to show you today. The collection has not yet been released in every MAC store and counter here in the UK but is available online from Selfridges (and possibly in their stores, I am not sure)!

First up I purchased Dish it up which is described as a medium-dark fuchsia based plum colour. It has a lustre finish which I like as they are supposed to be moisturising and has a really nice buildable coverage. This is a gorgeous lipstick and as I like plum shades I think I will get a lot of wear out of it. I am a big fan of MAC's Plumful lipstick which is similar to Dish it up but not quite as purple.

Secondly I went for Make me Simmer which is a bright, true coral shade with an amplified finish which makes it really pigmented. This would look great in summer with a tan but is very bright so not for the faint hearted! It is similar, in my opinion, to MAC's Ultra Darling Sheen Supreme lipstick but much brighter.

(L to R) Dish it up, Make me Simmer

SWATCHES SHOWN ON NW20 SKIN:

(L to R) Dish it up, Make me Simmer

You can purchase these lipsticks from Selfridges for £13.50 each.

Have you purchased anything from the Shop MAC, Cook MAC Collection? If so, let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Maz x

My Top 5 Contouring Powders

CLICK here to read my updated contouring post from July 2016!

Hi Everyone!

More and more of us like to contour out faces nowadays and this technique can be done using a variety of products, I would recommend trying out a few and finding out which one is best for you. Here are few of my favourite products that I use to contour my face:

(Colour guide: I have MAC NW20 skin)

MAC Harmony Blush:
This is my favourite product to use when contouring my face. MAC describe Harmony as a 'Muted rose-beige brown'. I really like to use a blush product when contouring my face as my skin has pinkie undertones and the pinkie undertones in the blush help me to blend the product in and avoid that over-done look! Harmony contains no shimmer or glitter which is great as it can look a little obvious if you have a lot of shimmer on one section of your face!

You can purchase this from MAC for £17.50

Sleek Contour Kit in Light:
This is a great product and very popular (it's always out of stock!) The kit comes with both a highlighter and contouring powder. The colour of the contouring powder is great for my skin and blends well, I slightly prefer Harmony over this one even though they are very similar in colour as the MAC powder is a little easier to blend and work with in my opinion.

You can purchase this kit from Sleek for £6.50

NARS Laguna Bronzer:
I am a huge fan of the NARS Laguna bronzer which is described as a 'brown with golden shimmer'. This powder does contain some shimmer but it is quite subtle. I tend to use Laguna as a bronzer for an all-over colour but it does double up really well as a contouring powder too. As with all NARS products, this is great quality and is really easy to work with. NARS also offer the Laguna shade in the cream, multiple stick form which would also be great for facial contouring.

You can purchase the Laguna powder from NARS for £25

Benefit Hoola Bronzing Powder:
This is my most recent purchase from this post and I admit that I have only used it a handful of times so far. I have used this is a similar way to Laguna in that I use it more as a bronzing powder than a contouring powder but it makes a great contour powder due to it's lack of shimmer.

You can purchase Hoola from Benefit for £23.50

NYX Powder Blush in Raisin:
This Product is a lovely brown shade with a slightly red undertone. It does a great job at shaping your face and is really reasonably priced. The texture is silky smooth and applies brilliantly as all NYX blushes do!

You can purchase Raisin from NYX for £5.50

Swatches shown on NW20 skin:

So the big question, I am sure, is which of these products would I recommend if you are only going to buy one! I would probably go with the Sleek kit, it is very nearly as good as MAC's Harmony blush and is also great value for money especially if you are just starting to contour and highlight your face. Despite all of this, MAC's Harmony will always be my favourite, go-to contour powder!
In case anyone is wondering - my favourite brush to use when contouring my face is the Sigma F25!

I hope that you have enjoyed this post and found it useful. Please feel free to share your favourite contouring products in the comments section below.
Maz x