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I finally got myself to the new Kat Von D Makeup counter in Debenhams! It’s been a long time coming. Well actually it’s only been up and running for a couple of weeks, but for me it seems like an age 🙂 A few of you asked on social media when I shared what I bought for a video on the products. So, I thought I would do a first impressions using all of the goodies.

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Not gonna lie, I want more or less everything that we have on offer here at the Kat Von D makeup stand, but I had to be logical. My budget won’t stretch to that! I did want to try the Lock It Foundation. I was only delighted that I even colour matched myself to the right colour. But of course that was the one shade that was out of stock. Devastating!

I picked up the Shade & Light Eye Contour Palette.

Kat Von D Makeup

The Lock It Concealer in the shade L5 Neutral.

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And then the Lock It Brightening Powder in Petal.

Kat Von D beauty

I already had a mini of her Tattoo Liquid liner in ‘Trooper’.

Kat Von D Makeup Ireland

With also a mini of the Studded Lipstick in ‘Lolita’.

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All of these are of course available now in store from Debenhams in Henry Street, Dublin. They also sell Kat Von D makeup online here.

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You can see them in action on my mug in the video above. Or you can see it directly on my YouTube channel here.

I am not surprised to say my first impressions of the new Kat Von D makeup I picked up are really good. I am sure I will be talking about them individually here in the very near future.

Have you picked up any products from the range? I need recommendations…pronto 🙂

Thanks for clicking.

Gemma

xxx

The Bourjois Palette Le Smoky and Les Nudes are the newest eyeshadow palette from French brand Bourjois.

Bourjois Palette Les Nudes

Both of the palettes come in cool plastic packaging with a magnetic lid.

Bourjois Palette Le Smoky

It is similar to the packaging on their Dèlice de Soleil Bronzer.

Bourjois Ireland

The lid contains a really good sized mirror which you can twist around 360 degrees.

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They also come with a dual sponged tipped applicator. This doesn’t really float my boat if I’m honest though.

As you can of course tell from the names, one of the palettes is meant to be more suited to smoky eye looks. The other more suited to more neutral eye looks. Smoky I can get on board with, the Nudes, not so much. But, let me show you both in action 🙂

First up we have the Bourjois Palette Le Smoky:

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It contains eight shades ranging from an ice white, silver, grey, blue, purple to black.

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Then, we have the Bourjois Palette Les Nudes.

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Again there are eight shades in this palette, ranging from white, silver, purple, gold and brown. To me, this palette isn’t really representative of nude/neutral eyeshadow shades at all. The last four shades, maybe, but the first four shades are icy cool toned colours that I don’t really associate with the term nude (in eyeshadow talk anyways 🙂 ).

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Both of these palettes are full of shimmer and glitter. If you don’t like shimmer, you wont like them whatsoever! They both have one matte shade that is the darkest colour in both of the palettes. After giving both of them a whirl, I will say the shadows are ok. They feel soft to the touch and they definitely apply more opaque with your fingers. But, you can get pay off (not as much though) with a brush. I used a mixture of both of them here:

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They aren’t the easiest to work with and there is fallout and it’s sparkly, so be prepared to have to clean that up. Also, the colour arrangements are a bit odd, I think. And there is a lack of transition colours, so you will probably have to incorporate some other shadows in if you creating more of a look with them. They do last well on the eyelids, well at least they did on mine with a primer underneath.

The Bourjois Palette Le Smoky and Les Nudes are available in Boots stores or online here now. They retail for €15.99 a piece. But, Bourjois have a 2 for €15 deal on at the minute. So if you like what you see you better work fast 🙂 I think that price point is much more suited to them personally.

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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.

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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

 

 

Through the years of wearing makeup and then becoming a bit of a makeup fiend, I’ve realised just how beneficial eyeshadow primer really is. I haven’t strayed very far from the cult classic Urban Decay Primer Potion. I’ve bought a lot of their palettes. And with alot of the palettes you get a sample of the primer potion. It works well for me so I never really felt the need to try something else. However, I received a few pretty decent samples of theBalm Put A Lid On It Eyelid Primer in a goody bag a while back and I must say, tentatively… I think I prefer it 🙂

theBalm Put A Lid On It

I’ve been using theBalm Put A Lid On It for a good 3 months now, so I think I’ve given it a fair trial.
theBalm Ireland I have two 3.7 ml sample sizes and I am still on the first on! When it comes to eyeshadow primer, like your face primer, less it more. You only need a very small layer of it under your eye makeup to do its magic. I sometimes use it under my eyes too to help my concealer sit a bit better too!

theBalm Put A Lid On It

theBalm Put A Lid On It comes out of the tube in a skin colour, but when you blend it across your eye lid, it is pretty much undetectable.

It has a really light texture and smooths over any imperfections you might have. It dries down really quickly too and makes it very easy to apply creams or powders over top.

Of course, the main job of a eyeshadow primer is to make your eye makeup last and theBalm Put A Lid On It does a really good job at that. I have oily lids so I think I am a pretty good judge because without a primer, within a couple of hours I get creasing on my eye lids.

If you are looking for a primer that makes you shadows more vibrant, this probably isn’t for you. There are others on the market for that. But, if you are looking for one that smooths out your eyelids, is not sticky or tacky and makes your shadows last for the whole day, I wholeheartedly recommend this. As much as I like the Urban Decay Primer Potion, it can be a bit drying on the lids, whereas theBalm Put A Lid On It is a bit more fluid in texture and is easier to blend.

A 11.8 ml tube of theBalm Put A Lid On It will set you back €20 from Cloud 10 Beauty here.

Do you use eye shadow primer?

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I’m like a broken record, I know, but I have pretty oily skin and as a result of this makeup, as much as I love it, doesn’t particularly love me. It sinks into my skin, oxidizes and just doesn’t hang around too long. So, as a result, over the years, I’ve tried and tested lots of different ways to make it last longer on my visage. I’ve done a post about this in the past, but I’ve updated and added some different steps, so I thought I would put together all of my Long Lasting Makeup Tips in video form and demo them on my mug 🙂

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Before Makeup

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After Makeup

There is a lot of long lasting makeup steps in the video, I don’t expect anyone to do them all, unless of course you’re really oily like me. But if you struggle with your makeup slipping and sliding, or have a special occasion, some of them might help you a little. You can click on the video up above or go to my YouTube channel here to watch.

Long Lasting Makeup TipsJust in case something takes your fancy, I’ll link any reviews I have done in the past of the products I talk about in the video.

Waxperts Wonder Pads. Review here.

La Roche Posay Serozinc. Review here.

Vichy Normaderm Anti Blemish Care Moisturiser. Review here.

L’Oreal Infallible 24 Hour Matte Foundation. Review here.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Nude Foundation. Review here.

Nyx Micro Brow Pencil. Review here.

Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer. Review here.

L’Oreal Infallible Fixing Spray. Review here.

Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette. Review here.

I really really hope you find something helpful within my waffling. These are by no means my personal long lasting makeup tips. I’ve just picked them up along the way on my makeup journey and tried and tested them on my skin.

As always, thanks for watching and if you have any other long lasting makeup tips to add to the pile, please do comment. I would love to try more 🙂

xxx