Urban Decay Easy Baked Eyeshadow

The Urban Decay Naked Palettes have been so insanely hyped up (and rightly so), that I pin all my focus on them and forget that Urban Decay have other beauty products that I’ve never thought to venture into. For once in my life I was completely stuck on what to add to my Christmas list and ended up browsing some of Urban Decay’s single eyeshadows – they have so many beautiful looking colours that believe it or not, aren’t featured in any of the three famous palettes. After googling countless swatches I decided to put ‘Easy Baked’ on my list and it ended up under the tree. It’s a shimmery gold shade that is quite similar to ‘Half Baked’ from the original Naked palette but even though that’s one of my favourites, I prefer this one.
As you probably know, Urban Decay are known to have amazing formulas in their eyeshadows, but this one is something else – the application is the most buttery I’ve ever used and it blends like an absolute dream. If you’re absolutely rubbish at blending eyeshadow like me, then you’d be in love. The colour is also more of a muted gold than Half Baked, with a more champagne undertone that looks more classy. I’ve worn it twice now on my lids with MAC Espresso which is a chocolate brown in my crease and this is my new favourite eye combo.
They retail at around £14 and going off this one, I say they’re worth every single penny. If you have any recommendations for Urban Decay eyeshadows then that would be great.
Happy Saturday!

My love for eyeshadow palettes

I have a big love for eye make-up and all the different styles you can create, I’m not a brave user of eyeshadows and you won’t catch me wearing bold colours out unless I’m feeling seriously adventurous – I like my champagnes, bronzes, beiges and greys and here are the palettes I like to use, I’ll explain which ones are best for which looks just incase you’ve had your eyes on any of them. I use all of them a lot which is why none of them are in perfect condition, they’re extremely battered and bruised.

This Chanel palette is so perfect for the brown eyeshadow lovers, you get four shades that go perfectly together, three of them are quite shimmery and the darkest brown is more matte with some slight shimmer. I like to use all four of them to create a brown smokey eye for nights out – they last long and the texture of them is amazing, they’re so creamy and easy to blend. You get what you pay for with these, luxury!

This Estée Lauder palette is my favourite ‘going out’ eye look. There are five shades including two browny/khaki colours, an extreme golden bronze, a shimmery champagne and a vivid purple. They’re all shimmery so I do like to venture out of this palette and find a matte brown for my crease but apart from that, it’s so pretty! As you can see, I particularly love the shimmery champagne shade, it’s a lovely brow highlight or lid base.

The Urban Decay Naked Basics palette is ideal for every day neutral looks or for those who like their basic eyes. I love this for days where I don’t want to do much to my face because the colours are so matte and light. They are a little chalky and the light colours don’t show up much on lighter skin tones but they make perfect bases. The only shimmer eyeshadow in there is my favourite brow highlighter ever and the last three colours are perfect for building a smokey eye.

This is my favourite palette of them all, I find myself reaching for it daily because you can create any look you like with it, trust me ladies, the hype for this product is completely justified. The only two matte shades in this are the most perfect crease colours and then you have so much choice for the rest. I won’t ever use the last shade ‘gunmetal’ because it really doesn’t suit my eye colour but apart from that, they all get generously used. The only downside is the packaging, all the dirt from your make-up bag will cling to it and get it filthy.

The Bobbi Brown Navy & Nude palette is by far the prettiest palette I own – it’s extremely swanky in packaging and the shades are so well thought out, I’ve not seen a palette around similar to it which is always a good thing. The shades blend out nicely and I love that you get one dark navy shade to help vamp up all the other neutrals.

The MUA Heaven & Earth palette is by far the cheapest and you get some lovely high quality shades. If you like your golds, bronzes and shimmery shades then you will love it. Some of the shades are too orange for my liking but the rest are a match for Urban Decay!

Happy Monday! 🙂 x

LOTN : Purple Smoke

For tonight’s make-up I decided to add a pop of colour seeing as I usually stick to browns and neutrals. I used the purple shade to the outside corners of my eyes and whinged them out- it’s one of the easiest looks ever and really stands out.

For my base I used MAC paint pot in Let’s Skate and then used Faint from the Naked Palette in my crease. For the purple haze I used MAC fig on my outer corners which is a gorgeous deep purple shade – I then lined my lower lash line with the same Fig shade before finishing off with my liquid liner from Collection 2000, individual lashes and Benefit They’re Real mascara.

Here is the completed look when I got home, still in place and it shows more of the purple under the eye.

Happy Tuesday guys ❤ xxx

Products Worth The Splurge

I’m a girl who appreciates a mixture of high-end and low-end beauty products, both departments have their little gems and I did a post on ‘drugstore picks’ here so this is the high-end part two version I guess. Drugstore products can seriously pack so much quality for the small price but on the other hand, quality can also reflect the cheap price and you can find some terrors – in a similar way, although high-end stuff can be completely overrated and a waste of money, you also get items which reflect their high price and make them amazing. I’ve picked out some luxury items which I think are completely worth their salt and where the higher price tag actually means you’re paying for the good quality rather than the fancy brand or packaging.

Indola Innova Shine Spray.
Starting with a more obscure hair product, this item doesn’t cost a fortune but in my opinion, it’s expensive just for a spray that isn’t essential. It’s a spray designed purely to add shine and glossiness to your locks and it is honestly amazing. Think of lipgloss for your hair, but maybe not actual sticky lipgloss but the same kind of achievement in that you want that extra glossy shine. Not only does it make my hair look a lot healthier, it also smells gorgeous. It retails at £8.99 and doesn’t last all that long but it’s worth it.

Rituals Magic Touch Body Cream
Again, this product doesn’t cost a fortune but I think £15 is expensive for a body cream when the likes of Garnier do an amazing job – however, it smells heavenly, I have the Cherry Blossom and Rice Milk and it is just devine. The cream itself is very luxurious and moisturising so I recommend it.

Le Blanc De Chanel Illuminating Base
This has been mentioned several times on my blog but I can’t help it, it’s honestly a miracle product for me and I would pay more for it if I had to. It retails at £31 and you get a decent sized bottle full of this magic primer. I’ve never found a primer that comes close so if you’re looking for a primer that doesn’t let you down, go for it – I’ve recommended it to many people and they’ve all felt the same way as me.

Estée Lauder Double Wear
This is my holy grail foundation, I won’t say it’s worth the splurge for everyone but I do find most high-end foundations are worth the splurge if it’s right for your skin-type. It retails at £32.

NARS Albatross Highlighter
I love this highlighter, you pay the £21 and get a product which goes such a long way, because it’s so pigmented a small amount is needed each use.

Chanel Illusion D’ombre Shadows
I adore these little pots of eyeshadow, they’re a really creamy but powder texture with no base undertone colour so when you apply them they’re pretty much just really gorgeous and classy glitter for the eyes, I love using them over other shadows for evening looks. They retail at £24 which is crazy but they are beautiful.

Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler
£20 is a bit mental for an eyelash curler is it not? That’s what I thought anyway but took the plunge because I was spending more than £20 on cheap ones and replacing them constantly – this promised to last longer and it kept it’s promise, I’ve had it over a year now and it’s honestly the mother of all eyelash curlers.

Urban Decay Primer Potion
This product is so worth it, it lasts ages, keeps eyeshadow from creasing and makes the eyeshadows a lot more pigmented. It retails at £15 which seems expensive for such a small part of your make-up bag but it will come out as a strong part.

YSL Rouge Volupte Lipstick
I love these lipsticks, I only own two (Peach Passion and Corail Incandecent’) but they are beautiful, creamy and moisturising lipsticks with amazing colour choice. They are expensive at £24 but again, worth it.

Bobbi Brown Golden Light Bronzer
This is such a perfect Bronzer for contouring, it’s just a lovely natural golden shade and the texture is lovely and creamy so I glides on nicely. It costs £27 but I’ve had mine for such a long time and I’m finally hitting pan.

MAC Soft & Gentle Mineral Skinfinish
This is a beautiful highlighter which lasts FOREVER! I use it on my cheek bones and down my nose as well as a brow highlight and I’ve not even made the slightest dent in it. The mineral skinfinishes in general are highly worth the splurge and cost £21.50.

NARS Light-Reflecting Loose Powder
This is the only powder I use and love, it’s insanely messy but it seems to be the only powder that keeps my make-up on all day and doesn’t give me cake face. You can purchase it in the pressed powder version also and both retail at £25.

Urban Decay Naked Palette
Probably the best value for money although it’s still pricey. You get SO MUCH from this palette including the perfect selection of shades, quality eyeshadows and a decent application brush. It retails at £36 but I can’t tell you how worth it they are.

Soleil Tan De Chanel Bronzing Make-up Base
This is a cream Bronzer and I use it all over my face to add a warm glowing complexion, it’s a product I can’t live without and retails at £31.

Happy Monday! 🙂 xxxx

Bright Smokey Eye Using Naked 1 Palette

I did a similar post to this recently and it turned out to be one of my most viewed and liked posts so far which I was so shocked by – I adore all things beauty related but when it comes to applying products and doing different make-up looks, I’m pretty average. I was a little nervous about posting it because I know some of you guys are so so good at doing make-up but as usual, you were all extremely lovely and supportive.
Anyway, I’ve decided to do another one on different look that I love doing which is a bright smokey eye, I know that sounds a little silly, surely a smokey eye is supposed to be dark not bright? When I do my ‘smokey eye’ look, I like to focus all the smokiness on my outer corner and keep the inside and the lid brighter so my eyes look bigger. I’ve used the Urban Decay original Naked Palette for this look.

These are the specific colours I used in order as marked by the X; Venus, Sin, Naked, Buck and Creep.

Firstly, I applied Urban Decay Primer Potion to my lids and then used Sin all over the lid which is a really pretty and shimmery base colour. I then took Naked which is a matte pale beige colour and applied that to my crease using a fluffy blending brush, Buck goes amazingly well with Naked because it’s a darker brown matte shade so I applied that to my outer corners and then under my eye to connect it with the outer corner to make a cat eye sort of shape, I took a clean brush and blended all this together. Finally, I used a tiny bit of Creep which is a shimmery black shade and applied this on the outer V of my eye using a crease brush before highlighting my brow bone and inner corners with Venus.

For the rest of the look, I lined my waterline with M.A.C Coffee eyeliner and used Collection 2000 liquid liner for my lids before curling my lashes and coating them with YSL Shocking mascara.

A dangerous February wish list

I’m just going to sadly get this out my system and say the majority of these items on my extremely spoilt wish list, will not be coming true. I made the mistake of being bored and browsing websites forever out of my reach and now I’m in a deep and forbidden love with all of them.
Firstly, how stunning is the new Mulberry Cecily tote? I can see us together, strolling onto a plane and jetting off somewhere exotic – why must it come at a price tag of over £1000, why? I had a dream about this bag the night after I laid eyes on it, that’s how much I want it. Also, the Prada Saffiano in light yellow needs to be mine for spring. I can’t imagine myself with a better bag for the upcoming season, I’m on the hunt for a very similar one in that exact shade.
The wedges are Kurt Geiger and although they’re not an impossible achievement, they’re expensive and I can never justify spending loads on an item that gets rubbed and scratched across the ground – my beautiful boyfriend bought me Louboutins for my birthday last year and I’ve worn them a grand total of twice, it’s just too scary. I really do love these wedges for summer, I wish they were sold somewhere cheaper so I could snap them up.
Staying on the spring/summer theme, although the weather wants to stay in the winter theme, I’ve been browsing sunglasses – sunglasses shopping makes me a very happy girl. I want these ones from Topshop, just a little change from aviators or wayfarers.

Some of the makeup I want this month will thankfully, probably be purchased at payday – I don’t know why I want the MAC Candy yum yum lipstick, it’s an extremely bright pink which I always stay away from. Maybe it’s the fact that it was voted most favoured lipstick, we shall see how I get along with it if I take the plunge.
My favourite Jemma Kidd dewy glow highlighter had a dramatic end, my Moroccan Oil spilt onto it and ruined it, for a girl with oily skin, this just takes the piss. The worst thing about it is that Jemma Kidd is no longer sold – I want to try Urban Decay’s Urbanglow because I love cream highlighters and this is seemingly the most popular.
Illamasqua brought out some limited edition nail polishes, they’re supposed to look like a speckled egg and they really do. So cute for Easter and I’m currently deciding which shade to get, I love them all.
Finally, I really want to try Laura Mercier’s Oil Free Primer, I have the basic primer by her and it’s really good, I hate the smell but the primer itself is decent. Due to my oily skin I thought I’d try the oil free one, it won’t touch my Chanel Illuminating Base but I don’t want to use that up too quick which is why I’m looking for a cheaper one to wear daily.

Don’t forget to check out my giveaway below guys!!

February Wish List

YSL lipstick in Peach
Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

Essie nail polish in Bangle Jangle

Tom Ford Black Orchid

 

If only money grew on trees…