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I am due to get my brows micro bladed very soon. (Wish me luck 🙂 ). But before I do, I thought I could throw in another brow routine here on Beautynook. This time it’s all about budget brows and it’s all thanks to Catrice Cosmetics.

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Catrice sent me out some new and some oldie brow products from their range last week. They have a bucket load of products to choose from now. From pencils, powders, pomades and everything in between. All of the products are under a fiver each too, which is awesome. My three budget brow choices from the range in my video demo are: The Slim’matic Ultra Precise Brow Pencil. I’m using the shade dark. The Eyebrow Set. This comes with two powders, with a tiny brush and tweezer tucked underneath. And to set everything in place I used the clear Lash/Brow Designer.

Budget Brow Catrice

The three products together work out at around €11.50, so I thought it was worthy of the title budget brows. I particularly love the powder and the brow gel regardless of the price tag. The pencil is great, but it’s super duper soft, so uses up very quickly. In my humble opinion of course.

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Here’s my brows before any product is applied.

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Then, here is one completely done with all three budget brow products from Catrice applied. It’s really amazing what a brow can do.

I filmed a really short demo of them all in action which you can check out above and here. Let me know if you are liking the video demos along with the blogposts. I am enjoying putting them together 🙂

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My brows are definitely only distant cousins, but here they are finished and ready to head out the door!

Catrice Cosmetics really do have so many great budget brow products to choose from, to suit any taste. These would just be the three I would gravitate towards on a daily basis. Have you tried anything from the range?

xxx

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Another day, another makeup look with the BPerfect Carnival Palette. I reach for this beauty a ridiculous amount. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that all too well, apologies 🙂 The colours just make me happy, inspire me and blend really bloody well. This time, I am opting for a relatively easy orange eyeshadow makeup tutorial. Well initially it was going to be a full on tutorial, but the neighbours were doing work out their back garden. So now it’s a get ready with me style video. Hopefully that’s ok too.

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I did another makeup tutorial using the mint shade in this palette here too if you want to check that out for more inspiration.

easy orange eyeshadow makeup tutorial

I love using bright shades like this orange eyeshadow, but still making it easy somewhat wearable and easy to work with too. The typical ‘instagram makeup looks’, are amazing, but they’re just not me. I’m definitely more of an attainable, real life makeup gal, but I still like to have fun with it all.

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Some of the main products I used in this makeup tutorial are the L’Oréal Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation. I cannot get enough of this stuff at the minute. The Essence Liner is swatched here. Mascara is here. Concealer is Tarte Shape Tape. I have a review of this here. The blush is from my most recent Colourpop haul. The Wet n Wild highlighter is swatched here. Lipstick is the nude from these Bourjois lippies here. I love the formula of these.

irish beauty blogorange eyeshadow tutorial

Ok, enough jabbering on. If you want to see the orange eyeshadow in action, click on the video at the top of the post or you can go directly to my YouTube channel to see the full get ready with me video. I really enjoyed creating this makeup. It was one of those days where it just went to plan 🙂

Let me know what you think.

Gemma

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If you hadn’t seen all over my Instagram at the time, I went to Budapest a few weeks ago with the lovely sisters known online as @itscherrysue and @stonetravel Corrina is the absolute QUEEN of travel and had gotten this awesome weekend in Budapest for €200 including flights, accommodation and transfers. Not bad at all, right? So, you bet your ass, I jumped in on their little getaway and sure I even managed to fit a little travel vlog in while we were there 🙂

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I’ve done a couple of travel vlogs now. There’s one of Brussels here and Malta here. I still find it weird to pull out the camera on people and myself so just be aware of that. There is a lot of musical montage going on 🙂

We stayed in the Burg Hotel. It was pretty old fashioned, but it was clean and super cheap. It was easily accessible too and the view was lovely! As bad hotels go, I would recommend it for sure. We did a city tour bus and got to see a lot of the amazing architecture that way. It also meant we got a free trip on the Danube too, which was absolutely gorgeous and well worth doing.

budapest travel vlog

We ate some super tasty Japanese food the first day we were there. And then we sampled some of the local cuisine before we went home. You can see that in full in the travel vlog. I have to be honest, I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of Hungarian cuisine.

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We had a pretty chilled weekend to be fair. Had a drink or two, soaked in the views.

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And finished things off with a trip to the House Of Terror Museum. If you want to know the history of Budapest, it’s a must! The Baths were on the agenda, but as I explain in the vlog, it just wasn’t meant to be. Next time for sure!

travel vlog budapest

Thanks to the girls for letting me tag along on their trip, I appreciate it no end! Let me know what you think of the travel vlog. I’m a beauty blogger at heart, but it’s nice to mix it up every now and again.

Gemma

xxx

I don’t know how new the Mac Extended Play Perm Me Up Lash Mascara is. But, I hadn’t heard a dickie bird about it online. I just pottered into Mac in Brown Thomas for a visual makeup refresh. As I do. I like to keep updated on the new releases if I can. And there it was in all of it’s mascara glory!

Mac Extended Play Perm Me Up Lash Mascara review

It’s not really a spoiler if I say I bought the Mac Extended Play Perm Me Up Lash Mascara there and then really is it? Considering this is a review and I am holding it in all of the pictures 🙂 I am such a fan of the normal Extended Play mascara. Specifically for my bottom lashes, which I explain here.

Mac Extended Play Perm Me Up Lash Mascara

The original has a dinkier brush, but the formula is the same. It doesn’t budge or flake, and its super separating. It’s also not too much of a bitch to get off! For some, it works on their top lashes top, but not on my boring straight ones.

However the new one does.

Mac Extended Play Perm Me Up Lash Mascara

The spoolie is bigger, fluffier and curved. It works really well coating and elongating the lashes. It gives a fair amount of volume too. But the big thing for me? It holds a curl. All day long.

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I do curl my lashes just because on their own they’re straight, so they need a little help. I’ve gotten lash lifts sporadically over the past couple of years. There’s more talk about that here. However, my last one didn’t end well. Nothing to do with the treatment itself, just my lashes went a bit haywire at the end. They took a while to go back to normal. So, I am back on the eyelash curler and mascara bandwagon.

I did a super short video of the Mac Extended Play Perm Me Up Lash Mascara in action which you can see at the top of this post and here. And here are some stills as well.

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Here it is on both top and bottom lashes too, just to be thorough 🙂

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Unfortunately for me personally, the brush doesn’t work as good as the original on my bottom lashes. The formula does, but I just can’t get the definition  with the bigger fluffier brush. Kind of gutted. I thought I was on to a money saving winner. However I think I’m still destined to keep buying the original too. It’s good to note, that the OG is 5.7 grams. Whereas the new one comes with 8 grams of product for a pretty identical price point.

Overall though, I am a big fan of the new Mac Extended Play Perm Me Up Lash Mascara.  I am delighted I picked it up. Are you an Extended Play fan?

xxx

I feel like such a broken record when it comes to the Infallible Foundations. I generally love most of them. Well, besides the Total Cover and the stick one. But still overall, I am such a fan, and the L’Oréal Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation is no exception!

L'Oréal Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation

I bought their new More Than Concealer originally. (Review here), and didn’t pick this up, just because I have a bucket of foundations at the minute. However, I got sent it within a PR pack from L’Oréal. After seeing so many positive reviews online about it then, my makeup heart was happy to try it 🙂L'Oréal Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation

So what do they say about the L’Oréal Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation?

It’s ‘available in 26 shades. Weightless feel, fresh wear liquid foundation. Transfer proof, life proof, party proof and waterproof. Long wear formula, lasts up to 24 hours. No compromise, full coverage base. Ultra stretchable gel formula.’

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A very long winded explanation if you ask me. And in my very humble opinion, not completely true.

I have the shade 15 Porcelain, which is a really decent match for me, and it does come in 26 shades.

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The formula for me, is not too fluid and not too thick. In the words of goldilocks, it’s just right 🙂

You can see it properly in action in the super short, Instagram friendly video at the top of this post and here. On me, it has medium coverage. You can see in the video, that I go in with two light-ish layers of foundation and I feel I need that on my red porous skin, to make things a bit smoother and less blotchy.

Here is my skin before application with decent lighting so it looks better than it really does:

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I applied one layer:

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And then I go in with another one for good measure:

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This is it without powder or concealer on top. It gives a nice glow to the skin without looking too shiny. I have oilier skin, so this is definitely a rarity for me. It sets well and gives a decent medium coverage. On me, it’s not full coverage. It doesn’t feel heavy on my skin at all either, so I agree with them there. I’ve never worn it for 24 hours so I can’t attest to that, but I will say it lasts really really well. And if you do need to touch up with powder, it lends itself to that too. It doesn’t move around or become blotchy in my experience of wearing it.

Overall, I am such a fan of the L’Oréal Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation. I’ll reach for it day to day and for a night out too. You can find it in Boots now and online. I found it for the best price here.  Have you tried it?

xxx

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colourpop cosmetics

Zoella collaborated with Colourpop Cosmetics, (just in case you didn’t know). Zoe lives in the UK and Colourpop are in LA, so to celebrate the launch of the collection, they had free world wide shipping.

colourpop cosmetics haul

I’ve bought from Colourpop Cosmetics before, seen here, and never had any issues. Since this order, I’ve seen articles about it being illegal for them to ship to the EU. Apparently they violate EU regulations. I just wanted to state that. I don’t want anyone being out of pocket at all. Always do your research. There’s yet to be an issue for me, but maybe I just got lucky. I always keep my order below the VAT threshold, so I don’t have to pay anything extra. The threshold is only €22 now I believe, before you could have to pay customs charges for orders from America. Because the shipping was free, no matter how much money you spent at the time, I made two small orders and sent them to two different addresses. colourpop international shipping

They both came in about a week. I am obsessed with having an eyeliner in every colour imaginable. In case you don’t follow me on Instagram and didn’t know that 🙂 My Colourpop order definitely reflects that, so might not be for everyone. They have loads and loads of products to choose from though, with decent packaging, quality and price tag.

I am not Zoella’s target market whatsoever, but I liked the look of her collection, so picked up the blush to try. I brought this away with me at the weekend, so excuse its grubby appearance. It’s called Soul Mate and it’s a lovely pinky peachy shade. For me, the payoff is subtle but buildable with this.zoella x colourpop

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The Mar Pressed Powder Eyeshadow Palette came on my trip away too, so it has been used before photographing it for this post. The blogger shame is real 🙂

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From left to right, row by row you have:

El Rey, Wild One, Detour.beauty blogger ireland

Boozy, Gridlock, Sorbet.top irish beauty blog

HWY, Top Down, My Way.top irish beauty blogger

I really wanted to try one of their Jelly Much Eyeshadow. The jelly texture intrigued me so much. I went with the shade Short Circuit.top beauty blog ireland

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This is beautiful and the colour payoff is immense. I just wish I didn’t go for such a predictable shade. I have loads of similar colours in my collection already.top beauty blog

Lastly, I picked up three colourful eyeliners in three different formulas. I haven’t put any of these to the test yet.

A Crème Gel Liner in Zulu.makeup blog

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A Crème Gel Colour in Piggybank.colourpop swatches

honest beauty reivews

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And finally one of their BFF Liquid Liners in Ducky.

colourful liquid liner

colourpop eyeliner

And there you have my latest Colourpop Cosmetics haul. Did you pick up anything? Have you ever tried anything from the brand? Be sure to follow me on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel to really see all of these put to good use 🙂

xxx