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I know, I know! This video only went up at the end of last year showing you my bargain River Island find. But having friends like Siopaella means I come into contact with some beautiful things. And sometimes those things stick, like my new Louis Vuitton handbag 🙂

Louis Vuitton Jeune Fille

I’ve gotten some questions about my new purchase, so I thought it would be fun to answer them in video form. My new very fancy purchase, is a vintage find from the 90’s, which makes me love it even more. It’s called the Louis Vuitton Jeune Fille Crossbody bag. I found out later that Jeune Fille means young girl in French, which I am at heart, but definitely not in real life 🙂

Louis Vuitton SiopaellaI am not a designer expert whatsoever. That’s Ella’s job, so be sure to follow Siopaella on Instagram to keep up with all their awesome content. Their unboxing videos are the best!

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There is of course wear and tear to my new Louis Vuitton splurge, it’s old and it’s been used. I am completely ok with that, that comes with buying vintage. In the video, I tell you how I came across the bag and why I bought it, so I won’t bore you with any of that in written form.

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And as an extra little bonus at the end, I rummage through it and show you the compartments that it has and all the crap I can fit into it. Including a stupid amount of makeup, of course 🙂

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Makeup for this occasion was pretty simple. I used the Anastasia Sultry Palette, which I happened to get in Siopaella too!! And also my beloved Urban Decay Torch eyeliner in my water line. Nothing ground breaking.

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Let me know what you think of my fairly pricey Louis Vuitton splurge. It’ll be a while before my next, that’s for sure 🙂

xxx

huda beauty matte & metal melted eyeshadowSo while I was in picking up the Huda Beauty The New Nude Eyeshadow Palette in Brown Thomas over Christmas. As I was perusing, I happened upon the brand new Huda Beauty Matte & Metal Melted Eyeshadow (s).

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I think they were only out a day or so at the time, so all the shades were available in the BT Beauty Lounge. I had a voucher (thanks bro!), so I didn’t mind forking out the 50 quid for two of the shades. They have a pretty hefty price tag at €25 a pop!

There is five Huda Beauty Matte & Metal Melted Eyeshadow colour ways. But they are dual ended so there’s technically two shades within one of them.huda beauty eyeshadow review

So what are they? They are basically liquid eyeshadows, which I guess is an interesting concept. Especially for Huda Beauty considering how successful their liquid lipsticks are. On one end, you get a matte liquid formula with a doe foot applicator. And on the other end, there’s a melted metallic formula in a corresponding shade. I won’t lie, I was kinda intrigued and completely intimidated picking these up. But I’ve actually growing really fond of both shades that I have. There’s five to choose from in total.Huda Beauty Matte & Metal Melted Eyeshadow

I have Hot Sauce and Cherry Soda.

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And Private Jet and Shimmering Sunset.

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The liquid matte colours in both shades, apply really opaquely, but they give you some play time to blend, and they do blend out! You can add colour as you blend, or just go in full on and in both instances for me, I can blend out the colour relatively easily. I’ve been applying them on one lid at a time, with the doe foot applicator and then blending onto the lid with my finger, but switching to a brush for the crease. I find they last really well on their own which just primer underneath and set to a comfortable matte finish. I did use some brown shadow in the crease here just to add some depth.

Here’s Hot Sauce & Cherry Soda in action:irish beauty blog

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The melted matte formula, needs to be worked with more quickly as it does have a faster setting time. I’ve been using both, so far as just a glitter accent in the middle of the lid, or as actual metallic eyeliner. They apply fairly opaquely. This formula isn’t as comfortable when it sets, you can feel it on your eyes. It feels a bit tight once dry. Both of the metallics I own have glitter particles in them. The wear time on the metallic end isn’t as long as the matte. It does fade a little, and it can crack a tad, but after a few hours and not super noticeably. I would be wary if you have textured eyelids though.

Here’s Private Jet and Shimmering Sunset in action:beauty blog ireland

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Overall, I have to say I am a fan of the Huda Beauty Matte & Metal Melted Eyeshadow. I think they are fairly pricey and I think I like the matte shades a bit more than the glitters, but I am having fun putting them to use for sure. Have you tried them yet?

Huda Beauty IrelandThere has been a ridiculous amount of hype about the Huda Beauty The New Nude Eyeshadow Palette. And I think we can all agree it’s purely based on just how pretty it looks, right? I wanted it solely just because the shades look amazing in the pan. Even when I forked over the €65 for it in Brown Thomas, I didn’t even swatch it in store beforehand. Nor had I googled reviews, I just blindly bought. But look at it!!!!

Huda Beauty The New Nude Eyshadow Palette

I only own the Huda Beauty The New Nude Eyeshadow Palette a week and have only used it on my eyeballs twice. It’s been a slow New Years week, there wasn’t much makeup being put on 🙂 I put up a poll on my Instagram stories asking would you want to see swatches regardless. 99% of voters said yes, so here we are. After using it a couple of times I did chime in on stories to tell you my initial thoughts.

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The fall out is immense, do your base second and use a creamy base for the glitters to give them more opacity and help them stick. (Huda do include a concealer in the palette). I heard mixed reviews about the mattes, for me so far, they’ve worked well and I find them easy to blend. Although some of them need more building up then others and the fallout is bad, so just be careful!Huda Beauty The New Nude Eyshadow Palette

This isn’t my first Huda Beauty eyeshadow palette. I also have three of the Obsessions Palettes which you can see swatched here, here and here.irish beauty blogger

Ok let’s get into the task at hand, talking about and swatching the Huda Beauty The New Nude Eyeshadow Palette. This palette contains 18 eyeshadows. They range from nude, mauve, gold, copper, to more berry tones in colour. And then you get 10 matte shades, four duo chromes: (Crave, Fantasy, Daydream, Charmed). Two glitters: (Excite, Infatuated). One pressed pearl (Kinky) and then a concealer to use as a base, or however you choose.irish beauty blog

I’ve swatched them in their rows of six from left to right.

Top row: Bare, Crave, Play, Fantasy, Love Bite, Spanked.

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Middle row: Lace, Daydream, Tickle, Excite, Infatuated, Kinky.

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Bottom row: Concealed, Secret, Tease, Raw, Charmed, Teddy.

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top irish beauty blogger

Here are some of the shades in action on my eyes, just for reference, it’s a really simple look, I’m no makeup artist, and I’m definitely no Instagram makeup artist.

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I paid 65 quid for the Huda Beauty New Nude Eyeshadow Palette, I’m sure there’ll be a video demonstration at some point too 🙂 What do you think? Have you tried it yet? Is it on your lust list? Let me know.

xxx

Try saying cranberry & copper makeup tutorial three times fast. It’s pretty impossible, but now that I have your attention, here is my rendition 🙂

cranberry & Copper Makeup Tutorial

Without even realising or trying, I used mostly affordable products to create this look. The Obsession X Belle Jordan Palette is the main component.

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All the shadows are from that with one of the Essence Melted Chrome eyeliners.

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I also tried out the €2 eyeliner stamp I picked up from Penneys before filming. Not a new concept by any means, but I’ve never tried one so I was kinda excited.

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So be sure to click on the video above or here, if you want to see the cranberry and copper makeup tutorial in action, but also see me attempt to use the stamp 🙂

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I was pretty happy with how this look turned out. The liner wasn’t my best work, but I was experimenting so hopefully you forgive me.

Cranberry & Copper Makeup Tutorial

If you want to see what I used for my base, all the products were under investigation here. I filmed a first impressions video before the tutorial.

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All affordable products were used in that too!

I am uploading this on New Years Eve, I thought it would make a nice alternative to the typical red lip or gold eye makeup looks we usually gravitate towards. It’s not exclusive to NYE, so you may read this at a later date. But, I just want to say Happy 2019 to you all. Thanks for clicking and commenting and following me on social media. I really appreciate all the interaction. 2018 was a weird year, for a lot of people, me included. Let’s hope 2019 is a upgrade 🙂

Roll on all the new beauty releases for 2019 too. Jaysis, I better start saving now 🙂

Gemma

xxx

********PR SAMPLE WERE USED IN THIS VIDEO*********

I am no stranger to the EX1 Cosmetics brand online. I’ve seen it mentioned so much over the past few years. It’s been available for us to buy here in Ireland the last while, but only online, so I never pulled the trigger.EX1 Cosmetics First Impressions

However, Boots are now stocking EX1 Cosmetics officially now. I was perusing the makeup aisles in Boots in Liffey Valley. Nestled within the more well known brands, there it was. Small, but mighty 🙂

EX1 Cosmetics First Impressions

They only seem to have four products for us to choose from here. I think they only have five products to choose from in total though, so we’re not missing out too much. They have a compact powder as well, but that wasn’t on the stand in Boots.top beauty blogger ireland

I was ridiculously eager to try the products I got, people have such high praise for the brand. Prices range from around €13-€17, so it’s definitely a brand that’s more on the affordable side. I know a lot of makeup artists love the foundation, so that makes it even more endearing. I filmed this video the day after I picked the products up, just because I couldn’t wait. This is not a review, it’s a first impressions video, just showing you how the three products apply and chatting about if I like them first time around. This is my skin before application, plus a ridiculous screenshot because it made me laugh ha!

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Then this is my skin after applying all three of the EX1 Cosmetics base products. I used the lightest shade 1.0 in all the products. The shade range doesn’t seem to be brilliant.

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EX1 Cosmetics Ireland

They definitely evened everything out and made a blank canvas for me to apply over. Of course I go into more details in the video, but first impressions of all three products are good. I’ll give a more in depth insight once I try them more. Be sure to follow me on Instagram to keep up to date.

xxx

Obsession X Belle Jorden Eyeshadow PaletteI picked up the Obsession X Belle Jorden Eyeshadow Palette completely on a whim in all honesty. I was just perusing the Boots makeup stands, as one does, and happened to give it an oul swatch.

Obsession X Belle Jorden Eyeshadow Palette

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Belle Jorden isn’t someone who is on my YouTube radar. I now see that’s because I am not young and cool! The embarrassment is palpable, don’t come at me 🙂 Anyway, she released the Obsession X Belle Jorden Eyeshadow Palette along with a collection of lip glosses. Well that’s what google told me anyways. Obsession is a sister brand of Revolution Beauty, and we have just recently got stands in Boots stores here in Ireland.

I picked up the palette, because I felt like I needed some more red toned shadows in my life and swatching the tester palette impressed me. And it was only €13 in store. I put up a little teaser video of it in action on my Instagram and got some good feedback. People who have it, were raving about it. And, people who were just checking it out for the first time (like me), were intrigued. This long winded introduction brings us here, I thought I would swatch the Obsession X Belle Jorden Eyeshadow Palette to show you all the colours in action.irish beauty blogger

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There are 16 shades in total ranging from orange, brown, purple, plum and pink. And also including a matte white and black. There’s mattes, shimmers and a couple of fun foiled shadows, warm and a bit cooler in tone for good measure too.top irish beauty blog

From left to right we have:

Starlight, Glow Baby, Pops, Bear.

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Sagittarius, Sassy, Hot Sauce, Queen.

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1706, Mama’s Girl, Magic, So Cute.

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Miami, 13, A.F, Lola.

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Overall, I have to say I’m a fan of  the Obsession X Belle Jorden Eyeshadow Palette! I really like the dare I say, grungy but still glam colour selection. The shadows for the most part are pigmented and I found what I’ve used properly so far, easy enough to work with. There is some fall out, but nothing too ridiculous. And it is very affordable which is always a plus. What do we think? Have you tried it yet? Are you a Belle fan?

xxx