I’ve only had this little puppy for around a week now, but I think it’s safe to say I’m kinda in love! Essence have released two shades in their new liquid lipstick range, the other is a nude and wasn’t in Penneys so I couldn’t get my hands on it…yet :p
First off, this liquid lipstick is like a lipgloss/lipstick hybrid. It has a glossy finish, but it is pretty darn pigmented.
We know Essence as a really budget friendly brand, that you’ll find in your local chemists and Penneys stores, but I really think the brand is upping their game and the products they are releasing of late would rival alot of the brands we gravitate towards everyday in Boots or Superdrug.
‘Show Off’ is is what I can only describe as a corally red colour.
I think it’s one of those shades that will suit a multitude of colourings and complexions and is pretty good at making the nashers look a bit brighter too which is always a nice bonus when it comes to picking a lip colour.
‘Show Off’ lasts really well on the lips too. Of course it has a lipgloss consistency so it won’t be staying on like your matte lip creams. However, it’s not sticky in texture, and it does wear off well, so you’re not left with creases of colour on your lips…cos that ain’t cute 🙂
If you don’t necessarily like the opacity of ‘Show Off’ it can be patted down on the lips and worn as a sheerer shade. It looks pretty gorge like that too!
Overall I am a huge fan of the Essence Liquid Lipsticks. So much so I think I need more in my life. So Essence, if you’re reading, bring out more shades pronto 🙂
‘Show Off’ will set you back €3.09, not bad at all right?
The Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette has finally hit our shores! Hallelujah!
Makeup lovers across the country have been waiting with baited breath to add to our Naked Palette collections, and now finally we can. I swear Urban Decay has one of the best marketing teams on the planet 🙂
Of course, you clicked on this blogpost to see the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette in all of it’s glory, so I’ll stop harping on and get to it!
I think this Naked has the nicest packaging out of them all yet. It’s plastic with a magnetic closing and a fancy smoky design of course 🙂
Here she is, fresh off the press with the flash on my camera on.
And here she is sans flash, just so you can get a realistic idea of the colours.
There is 12 colours in the Naked Smoky Palette, with nine brand new shades and three exclusives from previous palettes.
As you can see it’s very cool toned with alot of colours you would expect from a palette called ‘Smoky’.
So from left to right, we have:
‘High’ a pink toned shimmer
‘Dirtysweet’ a bronzey gold
‘Radar’ a warmer toned shimmery brown
‘Armor’ a purple toned shimmery grey
‘Slanted’ a blue toned shimmery grey
‘Dagger’ a shimmery grey
‘Black Market’ a black with a slight shimmer
These are all pictured below:
Then we have:
‘Smolder’ a deep shimmery purple
‘Password’ a matte purple toned brown
‘Whiskey’ a matte cool toned dark brown
‘Combust’ a matte pink toned nude
‘Thirteen’ a matte cream
All pictured below:
Here is the whole Urban Decay Smoky Palette pictured together.
With this palette you also get a dual ended eyeshadow brush.
On one end, there’s a fluffy blending brush and then on the other is a pencil brush. I think this is my favourite brush out of all the Naked Palettes.
So there you have it. An up close look at the new Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette. I picked this up in Debenhams and it was €46. You can get it on the website here.
What do you think? At first look and swatch I’m really digging it, just have to see now how it wears and blends on the eyes. As a makeup addict I am glad to have all the Naked gang to hand though, I must admit…not something I’m proud of but hey ho 😛
When I say top five eyeshadow brushes, I don’t mean you have to run out and buy these specific brushes. I just mean having similar brushes in your life will make your eyeshadow application a little bit easier.
I’m a firm believer in letting your eyeshadow brushes do the work for you. Obviously, makeup lovers tend to accumulate alot of brushes over time, but if you take care of yours, I think 5 (or so) will get you through any makeup look.
First and foremost, you need a blending brush.
Blending brushes can be used for pretty much everything.
The Mac 217 is probably the most infamous blending brush, but most brands have their own version of them nowadays. I use a blending brush for applying my crease colour and blending it out softly . As they have a rounded top, you use the higher bristles to apply the products and then diffuse it using the whole of the brush. It’s handy to have two blending brushes in your collection so if the one you are using gets too much product on it, you can switch, but you can always just wipe it off as you go. Noone wants a muddy crease line do they? 🙂 A blending brush works just as good for applying colour all over the lid to, so it’s a bit of a multi tasker in your arsenal which is never a bad thing.
For more defined crease work a tapered brush will come in very handy.
These are just examples of what I use, but again anything similar you can get your hands on will work fine. You just want a soft(ish) brush with a more pointed top. It will let you isolate the colour more when adding it to the crease, so you get a more distinct line there, but you can still use it to feather out the colour if it’s looking a bit too harsh.
A flat brush is a great one to have in your collection too and is definitely a part of my top five eyeshadow brushes list.
Something you can pack colour onto the lid with. It’s great to have a bigger one and a smaller one, but whatever your budget allows is really ok. You just don’t want something too big, unless you’re just using it for washes of colour all across the lid.
I think a pencil brush is another essential brush to have in your collection.
Like a blending brush, they can be used for a plethora of reasons. To apply colour under the lash line, above the lashline, in the tear duct, on the brow brone, or for applying very precise lines in the crease, if you are being particularly fancy.
Finally, I think an eyeliner brush is a must.
I think which one you choose comes down to comfortability really. Whether you are a bent liner brush gal, a straight thin brush, or one of an angled variety, there’s one of to suit all.
There are so many brands out there now that do fab eyeshadow brushes, for all different uses and price points. Sigma, Zoeva, Louise Young, Real Techniques, Mac the list is endless. And us Irish have some fab brands on our doorstep like Nima Brushes and Blank Canvas Cosmetics which is pretty brilliant.
When it comes to real hair or synthetic, just remember don’t apply liquid products with real hair brushes, it will soak up all the product and it will probably damage your brushes in the process too. Synthetic brushes are much more suited to this and you can apply powder with them aswell.
There you have it my top five eyeshadow brushes. I hope that was somewhat helpful, if you’re in the market. If you have any more questions, just ask me in the comments sure 🙂
https://i0.wp.com/beautynook.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/image.jpg?fit=940%2C940&ssl=1940940Gemhttps://beautynook.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo.pngGem2015-08-05 14:32:492016-08-30 14:07:12My Top Five Eyeshadow Brushes
Makeup Revolution is pretty new to Irish shores. We could buy it online but never in store. Now we have a couple of stands, just in the Superdrug’s we have here in Dublin. So still not the easiest to get if you don’t live in the county 🙁
I picked up a few bits which I documented here in a blogpost a while ago.
One of them was their Radiance Palette.
This is a trio of their highlighters. If you are a makeup fiend you may be thinking these look familiar? Well you would be right there.
This palette has a remarkable resemblance to the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette which I also have in my possession.
These are being compared alot online. The Makeup Revolution Palette is being deemed a dupe for the Hourglass. They look really similar in the pan but of course the Makeup Revolution one is a hell of alot cheaper than the Hourglass palette. So do they compare?
Close up shots of both palettes
Here is the Makeup Revolution Radiance Palette swatched on my arm from left to right.
Then, here is the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette swatched in the same way. Radiance Light first, Incandescent Light in the middle and then Dim Light.
I think the Makeup Revolution Radiance Palette fares ok. The palette itself is grand. It had a good sized mirror within a plastic casing and the powders are housed pretty firmly inside. The product is a little powdery and takes alot of building up in my humble opinion. It disappears as you blend it into the skin, but you can eventually get there and build up a glow with them. They have quite a sparkly finish.
As I reiterate in most of my posts I have oily skin, and I find the Radiance Palette doesn’t last very long on me. After a couple of hours of applying any of them, I can’t really see the product anymore, it’s like it just sinks in, not great 🙁 It may work better on drier skin? I don’t know.
So what about the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette?
I have this palette a long time now and really love it. I love the sleek packaging (even though it’s plastic) and then the powders inside are just so soft and buttery to the touch. They blend into the skin without much effort at all. They glide onto the skin much easier and they last much longer on me personally then the Makeup Revolution ones. They look more soft focus than the Radiance Palette, which I prefer too.
There is a pretty substantial price difference between these two. The Makeup Revolution Radiance Palette will set you back €10.35 and the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette is a whopping €68!
On comparing the palettes, it really comes down to brass tax, you get what you pay for. There is often amazing similar products (I find the word ‘dupe’ hard so I’ll go with similar ha) to be found in the ‘drugstore’, of course, and I love to hunt them out and shout them from the rooftop, but I personally don’t think I have found one this time. They definitely look similar, but they do not perform the same at all.
In conclusion, I think the Makeup Revolution Radiance Palette is OK as a shimmery highlighter palette, I don’t think I would repurchase it, whereas I think the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette is a gorgeous face powder/ soft focus highlighting palette and I would splurge on it all over again. That is my over analytic summation anyways 🙂
Do you have either? Or both? Let me know what you think.
I had to try one 🙂 This is the Charlotte Tilbury Eyes To Mesmerise Cream Eyeshadow in ‘Bette’. I think there is six to choose from and I would have picked them all, but at €26 from Brown Thomas here, I went for the one I thought I would get the most use out of. And so here she is…Ms Bette, as in Bette Davis 🙂
Bette is kind of a burnt gold colour.
Charlotte description of her Eyes to Mesmerise:
‘The clever cream-to-sheen colours form part of my quick and easy ‘Minute Makeup’ range because they’re just so simple to use. Add a wash of colour with your fingertip for a flattering finish for day, then amp things up by applying with my eye blender brush for high-impact, molten smoky lids. The revolutionary water-infused formula with added vitamin E soothes and hydrates the eye area and offers seamless application for super smooth results. It’s the ultimate fool-proof product that forms part of my One-Minute No-Mirror Makeup Revolution: minimum effort = maximum impact’.
I can only speak for Bette, although from swatching the others in Brown Thomas they seemed pretty similar. Bette has a mousse like texture. It is extremely pigmented and glides and blends on to the skin, with no effort at all.
This swatch is from one light push on the product with my finger. It’s quite a wet formula. It does set on the lids but as the lovely bearded dude at the counter did warn me before I bought it, if you have even slightly oily lids you would have to set with a powder. As I do, I was expecting to have to do that. Obviously, that does take away from the colour slightly but it does enhance any colour you add on top which is lovely.
Here it is on my lids with no primer underneath or shadow on top
Overall, myself and Bette are getting along like a house on fire. She is a lovely addition to my makeup collection, and I have been complimented on my makeup every time I’ve worn her 🙂
I am here today comparing and contrasting the two beauties that are Rimmel’s Exaggerate lipliner in ‘Eastend Snob’ and Charlotte Tilbury’s Lip Cheat in ‘Pillow Talk’.
I am sure you have heard of at least one of these bad boys at some stage?
Eastend Snob has been around a long time, I don’t think everyone realised the magic of this lip liner though up until recently.
Eastend Snob by Rimmel is a retractable lip pencil. That can be a con as the pencil is so soft it tends to break regularly. Also, I have found the mechanism can sometimes stop working and you can’t get all of it out. I say con very lightly because the product itself is great. And at €5.49 from Boots it’s not a whole lot to spend. I would rather a soft pencil all day everyday over a hard one!
Eastend Snob is what I would describe as a dusty pink colour. It can even out your lip line, add definition or even be used to over draw the lips, just don’t go nuts and it can look really natural.
You can use it under pretty much any shade of lipstick or it is lovely on it’s own or with a slick of gloss on top.Overall, a really lovely and affordable product.
I wanted to speak about Eastend Snob first because I had this in my possession a few times before I went and made the splurge on Charlotte Tilbury’s Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk. But the splurge I did make and sadly (or happily) whichever way you look at it I can see what all the fuss is about.
Pillow Talk is a darker pink than Rimmel’s Eastend Snob. It has a bit more brown in it. It is a standard pencil, although has the look of decadence that we have become accustomed to with Charlotte Tilbury. Pillow Talk looks more natural on the lips than Eastend Snob, you could probably apply it really lightly and people wouldn’t even know you were wearing it.
It is smooth and creamy, and oh so pigmented, perhaps a bit more so than Eastend Snob but you would kind of hope it would be with it being €22 from Brown Thomas.
It is more of a neutral colour too so would probably bode well for more skin colours than the Rimmel offering. Again it is fab for fixing your lip line, as a neutral colour on it’s own, under any lipstick and of course overdrawing if you wish. In fact calling it a Lip Cheat is making that pretty obvious. 🙂
Rimmel Eastend Snob Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk
In conclusion.
Rimmel’s Eastend Snob is a quarter of the price, if your budget won’t stretch and you are in the market, get the Rimmel one. It does nearly the same thing, not quite as longlasting as Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk but well enough that you won’t feel like you’re missing out if you can’t splurge.
Myself personally, I think I actually prefer the colour of Eastend Snob as I’m more of a pinks girl than a neutrals one. I love Pillow Talk too though 🙂
