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I only went and spent some of my Boots points on the Nyx Highlight & Contour Pro Palette. I’ve wanted to try it for ages after seeing so many good things online about it. Using my Boots points made me feel less guilty about it because I definitely didn’t need another contour product, let alone a palette! 🙂

nyx highlight & contour pro palette

The description of the Nyx Highlight & Contour Pro Palette on the Boots website: ‘Define your features like a pro with our highlight and contour palette! Each set includes eight customizable highlighting and contouring shades perfect for emphasizing your favorite features’.

nyx highlight & contour pro palette

The packaging is a little more flimsy than I expected for the price. Each pan contains 2.7 grams of product.

Powder contour and highlight palettes are a pretty common occurrence in the makeup world nowadays. Alot of brands have tried their hand at variations of them. I have the Anastasia one and I have the Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette that I reviewed here a while back.

In the palette there is eight powder shades.

affordable contour palette

The four lighter highlight shades are on the top and look a bit like this swatched on the skin.
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Ice Queen/ Soft Light/ Cream/ Nectar

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‘Ice Queen’ and ‘Nectar’ are a shimmery highlight. Then, ‘Soft Light’ and ‘Cream’ are matte.

 

Then, there is four contour shades to hopefully cover a multitude of different skin tones.
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Tan/ Toffee/ Sculpt/ Hollow

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We all probably wouldn’t get use out of all four, but I always end up using these as eye shadows too so that doesn’t really bother me personally. What I do notice about the contour shades though is that they have more of a satin finish rather than being completely matte.

The powders are soft to the touch and they do blend. However, they are powdery and the pigment is softer when you apply the powders with a brush onto the skin.

The Nyx Highlight & Contour Pro Palette is available from any good Nyx stockists. I bought mine from Boots with my points as I said, but you can get it in store or online here for €25. You can also buy refills for the palette here that are €4.75 each. I really like this idea. It means you can just buy the single shades you want, or you can refill the palette as you see fit.

xxx

 

Myself and John are on a little break away in Wexford. We’re in Duncannon and honestly it’s one of the prettiest places I have ever been in my life. The scenery is breathtaking! One of the days we thought we would head out for a bit of lunch and a wander so I thought I would turn the camera on and take you through my Ten Minute Makeup Look.

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I would describe this as quick, simple ten minute makeup look with a bit of added extra effort. I didn’t want it to take too long, but I still wanted to look put together.

The products I used for my ten minute makeup look are as follows:

The Hyalmide HA Blur Prismatic Blurring Surface Hydrator. You can read more about this on their website here.

L’Oreal Nude Magique Cushion Foundation. I have a full review of this here.

Nyx Micro Brow Pencil. Full review here.

Freedom Brow Powder Duo. I spoke more about this here. I also talk about the Collection concealer in this post too.

The Soap & Glory Archery 2 in 1 Setting Gel. I did a post on this here.

theBalm Put A Lid On It eyeshadow primer. There’s a full blog post on this here.

Makeup Revolution, Ultra Contour Palette. I have a review of this here.

Makeup Geek Foiled Shadow in ‘In The Spotlight” and their shadow in ‘Brown Sugar’. You can see up close swatches of these here.

Colorpop Crème Gel Liner in ‘Stomper’. There’s swatches and more info on this here.

Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer. Click here if you want a full review on this.

Fairydrops Scandal Queen Waterproof Mascara. I have a full review and close ups of this in action here.

Mac Full Coverage Foundation. I have literally used this for years. it something I always repurchase. You can buy Mac from Brown Thomas.

Wet n Wild Dual Ended Contour Stick. I did a first impressions video not too long ago on this here.

L’Oreal Glam Bronze Cushion De Soleil. Full review here.

Ben Nye Cameo Powder. There’s a full review and more info on this here.

The Becca x Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection Face Palette is really new to me. I have swatches in this post here if it tickles your fancy 🙂

And then finally the Barry M Matte Me Up Lip Crayon in number 3. I did a post about a couple of these a while back here.

There you have it, my ten minute makeup look from our little home away from home 🙂

ten minute makeup look

If there’s anything else you want to know about, just ask. If you fancy watching this video directly on my Youtube channel you can just click here too 🙂

 

As always thanks for watching and reading. It makes all of the effort worth while.

Gemma

xxx

 

 

The Wet n Wild Dual Ended Contour Stick is new to our shores.

Wet n Wild Dual Ended Contour StickWet n Wild Dual Ended Contour StickWhen new cream contour products come onto the ‘drugstore’ market, I am always intrigued. Not many of the brands do it right. I was given this along with some of the other new Wet n Wild beauty goodies at an awesome event they held at Tropical Popical a couple of weeks back! I thought rather than just playing around with it and giving a review, I would make a first impressions video about it and let you see my honest reaction to the product.

Wet n Wild say: ‘Contouring made easy and portable! This amazing highlighting and contouring stick is dual-ended for precise application to easily enhance your features. The contouring shade helps define and chisel while the highlighter illuminates your best features.’

I have the Wet n Wild Dual Ended Contour Stick in the Light/Medium skin shade. The colour match is really good for me (which of course you’ll see in the video 🙂 ).

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It’s a twistable pen with a cream contour colour on one end.irish beauty blog

And a cream matte highlighting shade on the other end for brightening the skin.irish beauty blog

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As always you can click on the video above to watch it within the post or you can click here and watch it directly from my YouTube channel if you fancy.

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I was worried when I went to edit that my waffling was a bit too much, that can happen sometimes. But, hopefully it gives a real and authentic sense of what I thought of the product and how it fared on me personally. 🙂

The Wet n Wild Dual Ended Contour Stick is available in Penneys, Dunnes Stores and all other good Wet n Wild Stockists now. The recommended retail price is €5.95.

Have you tried it? I’d love to know how it worked for you.

xxx

I have the Sleek Cream Contour Kit in my possession a while now.

Sleek Cream Contour Kit

I have the shade light.

Sleek Cream Contour Kit Review

I was kindly gifted this at a masterclass showing us bloggers how to use the Sleek Cream Contour Kit. I knew it was in high demand and everyone wanted to see it in action, so I embarrassingly rummaged through a few of the very generous gift bags making sure I got the lightest palette because I thought since I have lighter skin this would be the best one for me…dedication to blogging right there! 🙂

Unfortunately, some of the colours don’t seem to really work for me in the way I want them too, so I’ve been putting off talking about it. Some of you lovely lot have been asking me my thoughts on it though, so here they are 🙂

There are three Sleek Cream Contour Kits to choose from light, medium and dark. They all contain 6 cream contour shades ranging in colours to highlight, contour and give definition to the face.

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The texture of the product is really nice. They are creamy to the touch and they do blend into the skin quite well. They also don’t leave the skin feeling or looking to greasy which is an added bonus too.

Here are the colours in the light palette swatched from left to right on my arm.

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With Flash

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Without Flash

And then blended out a little with my fingers.

irish beauty websiteI will be completely honest, and if you’ve been reading Beautynook for a while, you’ll know I’m a big Sleek fan, but I wanted so much more for the palette…

According to Sleek, the shades work as follows:

  • Shade 1 – highlighting
  • Shade 2 – deeper highlighting
  • Shade 3 – concealing / blending contouring
  • Shade 4 – contouring or adding subtle contouring effect
  • Shade 5 – creating the illusion of shadow
  • Shade 6 – adding deeper shadow effects

That sounds a bit overwhelming if you’re not super into your makeup I know, but this is just a guide line of course and they give you an insert with the palette to show you were to place the colours if you want to use them in this fashion. I personally love a bit of contouring and highlighting but I wouldn’t be this dedicated and less face it, my chubby chops need more than some cream contouring to look chiselled 🙂

Here it is in action on my face.

I used shade 3 to conceal under my eyes and then shade 1 to highlight, shade 5 around the periphery of my face and then shade 6 under my cheekbones.

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Before under eye concealer.

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After under eye concealing

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Contour and highlight applied

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Contour and highlight blended in

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Close up

The lighter shades don’t really lift my skin or give any major coverage once blended in. The darkness under my eyes still comes through. I would have to conceal separately before using the palette. They also cake up on my skin slightly too. The three darker contouring shades are just too warm for me to use as contour, although I have used the darker shade a few times more as a cream bronzer and it works well.

Overall, I think the formula is of the Sleek Cream Contour Kit is one of the best on the ‘highstreet’ market that I’ve used to date yet, but the colours (of the light kit anyways) and the coverage of the lighter shades just don’t float my boat 🙁

You can get the Sleek Cream Contour Kit from Boots, pharmacies nationwide and Cloud10beauty stock it online here too. It will set you back a reasonable €13.95.

Have you used it? Am I being overly critical? Let me know?

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day I filmed this video I was heading to the Irish Beauty Blog Awards where I was casually up for an award…no biggie like 🙂 Unfortunately I came home empty handed, but we had a good night regardless 🙂

 

I love handbags, but I am a lazy git and don’t always carry one. However, for a night out a bag is a completely necessary addition to my outfit. Us girls bring an arsenal of ‘just in case’ items in our handbags. We just make it a little smaller when we hit the town so we don’t have to lug around the big everyday bag. I think this makes what we bring that more important and it’s stuff we actually use and love 🙂

what's in my handbag

So tonight Matthew I bring you ‘What’s in My Handbag’ the night out edition. Just a bit of fun. I love having a nosey into other people’s handbags so I though it was fitting that I let you have a nose into mine. Click on the video about to watch me waffle up a storm and then I’ll have everything I talk about listed below and anything that I can link linked 🙂

So…what’s in my handbag?….

Too Faced Kabuki brush. I can’t find the exact one. This is a similar one from Too faced here.

Mac Studio Fix Powder, you can buy from Brown Thomas here

Catrice Prime & Fine Contour Palette can be found in Penneys nationwide and independent stockists. I have swatches of it here.

Benefit Porefessional License To Blot , You can pick it up from Debenhams online here and I have a full review here too.

You can buy the Rimmel Exaggerate Eyeliners in store or from Boots online here.

You can get the Exaggerate Lipliners like the eyeliners in store or from Boots online here. I also have swatches of it here if you’re interested 🙂

Rimmel The Only One Lipstick in Naughty Nude- I have swatches here and you can buy from Boots online here.

I bought the Chanel card holder from Brown Thomas. Very fancy purchase, but I do get alot of use out of it 🙂

 

And I think that’s it, if I missed anything out be sure to let me know.

Thanks for checking out what’s in my handbag 🙂

xxx

 

I seem to be talking about Makeup Revolution alot lately. Not intentionally, I assure you, I just happened to pick up some bits from them and have been using them over the last while 🙂

 

This is the Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette.

makeup revolution ultra contour palette

Budget brands are finally warming up to the idea of giving up all our contour and highlight needs under one lid. My first experience of powder contour palettes was a few years back when I picked up the Anastasia Beverley Hills Contour Kit from Cult Beauty. I reviewed this so long ago here (the pictures are brutal, I apologise), but it’s still one of my most viewed posts to this day.

Makeup Revolution as a brand, for me can be hit or miss, but I think overall their Ultra Contour Palette, in my humble opinion is a hit! I have been reaching for it pretty much daily over the past couple of months.

In the Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette, you get eight shades, and a large mirror which is always handy.

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On top:

You have a beige toned matte.

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A yellow toned matte.

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A sheeny beige highlight shade.

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And then a full on icy shimmery white baked highlight which didn’t take too kindly to me taking pictures of it some reason :p

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On the bottom:

A matte mid toned brown.

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A cool toned contour shade.

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A more warm matte brown.

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And finally a champagne shimmery baked highlight shade.

makeup and beauty blog irelandirish makeup and beauty websiteHere they all are together too.

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All of the powders are pigmented and soft to the touch.

They blend onto the skin easily and I have had no problem with lasting power either. I use the yellow tone under my eyes to help counteract darkness, and the beige toned matte powder over the top to neutralise the colour. This is a great shade for cleaning up your contour too, or just as a general all over setting powder. I use the cool toned brown shade in the middle to contour and then for me, the others brown colours are more for warming up my skin, although I actually tend to use these more on my eyes as eyeshadows. I love using the highlights in the palette as eyeshadows as well as using them for highlighting the face.

Overall, the Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette gets a big thumbs up from me. I get so much use from it.

I got mine from Superdrug here in Dublin and it cost me €9.99, but you can also buy it online from the Makeup Revolution website here or from the Superdrug website here.

Now I just need to pick up the Nyx version to compare them 😛

xxx