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Barry M Matte Me Up Metallic Lip Kits

The metallic lip trend has hit the beauty world with a bang. I won’t lie, I think I may be too old and uncool to pull it off. But that does not stop me from trying whatsoever 🙂 I picked up the new Barry M Matte Me Up Metallic Lip Kits while browsing the new makeup in Boots.

I had points burning a hole in my Boots card and wanted to buy something fun. The colours are quite wearable, so I thought I would have some fun swatching and writing about them. And then hopefully even attempt to wear one of them outside the comfort of my own home 🙂

I had picked up a couple of the original Barry M Lip Kits when they first came out and did a post on them here. I, overall liked them. The consistency was inconsistent though and I feel like the metallic version are the same. Although using both the lip liner and the liquid lipstick together makes all the colours opaque and vibrant. And they are of course sold as a pair.

The Barry M Matte Me Up Metallic Lip Kits come in three shades.

Being a lip kit, they come with a lip liner.

And, matching liquid lipstick.

I’ve swatched all three on my arm and on the lips to show you them in action.

First up we have ’24 Carat’.

Next up is ‘Allure’. This is probably my favourite because in my opinion, it’s the most wearable shade. Although the liner is a little harder to work with than the other two shades. It’s not as soft and opaque in colour.

The third shade in the Barry M Matte Me Up Metallic Lip Kits is ‘Prestige’.

This is the darkest of the three colours.

They all dry down to a matte, non transferable finish with obviously a metallic look.

Like with most matte liquid lipsticks on the market, they do feel somewhat tight when they dry down. That is something to be weary of.

You can buy the Barry M Matte Me Up Metallic Lip Kits in Boots in store or online here. I got the three on offer as the brand are on 3 for 2 right now. They cost €8.99 each.

Would you wear any of the shades?

xxx

July 10, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

Barry M Matte Me Up Lip Kits

I’m doing a post on these kind of begrudgingly because there are three shades of the Barry M Matte Me Up Lip Kits. But I, like a bad blogger only have two. They were all sold out in the Boots stores I went too, please forgive me 🙂

The shade Runway (that I don’t have) is on the Boots website here. It’s seems to be a coral red shade.

I bought the Barry M Matte Me Up Lip Kits, if I am being honest, just to see what they were like. My love affair with liquid lipsticks is slowly diminishing. Don’t get me wrong, I have a couple of faves that I still use. But, the dry lip scenario usually gets the better of me and I end up reaching for a lipstick instead. I always have a plethora of lip choices on the go with me. I am fickle 🙂

Obviously these are quite similar to the Kylie Jenner lip kits. I am sure there is no coincidence there. So onto the swatching. I have the shades Pose and Go To. They come boxed up. There is a liquid lipstick and lip liner in each box.

First up we have the shade Pose.

I have them swatched on my arm:

And then here they are on my lips. The lip liner on it’s own and the topped with the liquid lipstick:

The next shade is Go To.

I actually thought from the box packaging on this that it was going to be much lighter than Pose. Turns out Pose is definitely the lighter colour of the two nude shades.

I could take a photo of the actual liquid lipstick opened next to the pencil. It is really liquid-y, so it kept spilling out!

Here is the pencil swatched on my arm:

And then the liquid lipstick next to it:

Finally, the two products in action on the lips:

The formula of the lip liners is really nice. They are soft and apply easily and opaquely. The liquid lipsticks are the same. Of course if you don’t like the dry texture of liquid lippies, you will not enjoy these!

For me, personally I like the pencil in the Pose kit, the colour of the lipstick is not flattering on me whatsoever though. Go To is more up my alley. I am in love with the pencil as well as the shade of the liquid lipstick. Even though the formula is a little more loose, it applied the same to the lips. They both dried really quickly and one layer applied an even, opaque coat of colour.

All three of the Barry M Matte Me Up Lip Kits are priced at €9. You can get them from Boots and Superdrug and I believe they are limited edition. You can buy Pose online from Boots here and Go To here.

What do you think?

xxx

March 18, 2017/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Makeup

Spring Blush And Cheek Releases

The weather is kind of changing. I can see daffodils when I am out and about. That’s proof 🙂 With the changing season comes new beauty releases, which is always exciting! I thought I would compile some that I have from a few different brands. This is some of the new Spring Blush And Cheek Releases for 2017!

First up we have two (of three) new Perfect Blush colours from Isa Dora.

05 ‘Poppy Peach’ which is a soft slightly iridescent peach:

And, 60 ‘Pinky Peach’, which is very much it’s name sake.

I have been using these quite regularly over the last couple of weeks and have been enjoying them. I found them online from Feel Unique. They have an abundance of shades to choose from here. They retail for €15.30.

Next is the Clarins Contour Kit.

I already have a full blogpost on this here, so I won’t go into much detail. But, I thought it deserved to be in the mix. It’s a cheek product and it’s new 🙂

Next we have a couple of different offerings from the very affordable Essence Cosmetics.

As part of their Spring/Summer range for this year, they have the BlushPlay Sculpting Blush Palette.

This is in the shade 10 ‘Play It Peach’.

It has a highlight shade, a scultping shade (although to me this is more of a blush colour) and then a light satin coral ‘define’ colour. This is of course the blush shade. It retails for €4.95.

Another new cheek palette from Essence is their Prismatic Rainbow Glow Highlighter.

The internet is kind of going mad for this at the minute. The shade is called fittingly 10 ‘Be A Unicorn’.

The colours, indvidually do show up true to colour.

Swatched together though, they give you a really lovely light gold highlight, with subtle flecks of the colours shining through.

This retails for €4.40.

Next, is the very beautiful 7 Lights Powder Illuminator By Shiseido.

This powder was first created in 1917, and this offering is the modern day version of it.

The packaging alone is pretty stunning and then the powder contains 7 colours that are meant to help uneven skin tone and freshen the skin.

I have been using it to touch up my makeup of late and have found it works really nicely.

The brush that comes with it is really perfect for on the go too. Swirled together the colours give you a really pretty peach, wearable sheen.

Shiseido is sold in pharmacies here in Ireland. It was actually quite hard to source it in stock online. I managed to find it on the Escentual website here. It is priced at €48.76.

The last Spring blush release I have to show is Benefit’s newest Boxed Blush in Galifornia.

It smells like holidays in a box.

Once the gold overspray is gone, you are left with a really pretty peachy pink blush, with a hint of golden shimmer running through it.

Galifornia is available now from Debenhams here and Cloud10beauty here. It retails for between €30-34 depending on where you buy it.

And that’s pretty much Spring Blush products in a nutshell right there 🙂 Any of them take your fancy?

xxx

March 8, 2017/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Makeup

MUA Luxe Strobe & Glow Highlight Kit

I picked up the MUA Luxe Strobe & Glow Highlight Kits after they scrolled themselves into my life on the MUA Instagram page. Social media completely enabled me and I’m ok with it 🙂

MUA say on the Superdrug website, ‘A multi-formula compact, ideal for effortless highlighting. The cream and powder formulas in a light, luminescent shimmer allow for a perfect strobe & glow, iridescent look.’

The packaging alone sold me on these as well as me being on a mission to find awesome more affordable highlighters. It contains two compartments to house a cream highlight on the bottom and the powder highlight on top, along with a mirror in the lid, which is always handy.

There is two MUA Strobe & Glow Highlight Kits to choose from.

This one is ‘Pearl Glow’, and is more of a gold highlight.

This is marketed to lighter skin tones.

Then, there’s ‘Pink Luster’, which is of course more pink in colour.

Here is both of the cream highlighters swatched side by side.

Pearl Gold Pink Luster

The two of them have a really different formula. The ‘Pearl Gold’ is nearly wet in texture and has a light consistency, with lots of shimmer going through it. ‘Pink Luster’ is more mousse like to the touch with a more opaque colour finish to the skin and has more of a shine to it than a shimmer.

Here are the powders on their own swatched side by side.

Pearl Gold Pink Luster

The powders are nearly opposite to the creams in their compacts. ‘Pearl Gold is more of a matte powder with gold reflects running through it, whereas ‘Pink Luster’ has more of a shiny, frosty finish on the skin.

Then, here are the MUA Luxe Strobe & Glow Highlight Kits used together so the corresponding creams with the powders over top.

Pearl Gold Pink Luster

Used together, they are both very shimmery, frosty and not the easiest to blend on the skin. The finish of either of the creams, doesn’t lend itself to much to layering, in my opinion really either.

Overall, I think the MUA Luxe Strobe & Glow Highlight Kits look really swish and are affordable. But if someone asked me for a ‘drugstore’ highlighter recommendation, I would offer the Sleek Solstice Palette (full post about it here) over these in a heartbeat.

I picked up the MUA Luxe Strobe & Highlighting Kits from Superdrug online here and got them delivered to my nearest store in Tallaght. They cost £5, but they do have them on the MUA stand in store too for €7.50 each.

xxx

July 13, 2016/by Gem

Makeup

Sleek Cream Contour Kit

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

I have the shade light.

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.

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.

With Flash

Without Flash

And then blended out a little with my fingers.

I 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.

Before under eye concealer.

After under eye concealing

Contour and highlight applied

Contour and highlight blended in

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

June 10, 2016/1 Comment/by Gem

Makeup, Youtube Video

Spring Makeup Get Ready With Me

So many of you told me you love watching Get Ready With Me style videos. I love watching them too (not my own though if I’m being honest ha) So here’s a Spring Makeup one, where I am basically applying a face of makeup that I would wear for a Spring day/early evening. Myself and himself were off for some Friday eats this day so I thought it would be a appropriate because I was actually doing my makeup to go somewhere, not just for the sake of filming 🙂

This is more of a talk through style video, which I still haven’t completely mastered, words still elude me 🙂 But I thought I would give it a whirl and sure don’t they say practice makes perfect, right?

I used a mixture of more affordable and more high end makeup which is a true representation of my normal makeup routine. I like to mix it up 🙂

So the products I used (including skincare) are:

La Roche Posay Serozince- Full review here

Vichy Normaderm Beautifying Anti Blemish Care Moisturiser- Full review here

thisworks Light Time Open Eyes Eye Cream

Essence Prettifying Lip Oil

Maybelline Baby Skin Primer

Image Skincare I Conceal Flawless Foundation

Soap & Glory Archery Brow Pencil

HD Brows Kit

Billion Dollar Brows Brow Gel

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Essence 2 in 1 Shadow & Liner Pencil in 06 She’s Got The Mauve

Lorac Pro Palette

By Terry Ombre Blackstar in Bronze Moon

Rimmel Exaggerate Eyeliner in Rich Brown

YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils Waterproof Mascara- Full review here

Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer- Full review here

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

Mac Full Coverage Foundation (as concealer)

Nars Laguna Bronzer

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Powder in medium- Full review here

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette (all three 🙂 )

Ben Nye Cameo Powder- Full review here

theBalm MaryLou-Manizer- Full review here

Rimmel Exaggerate in Addiction

L’Oreal Infallible Fixing Mist- Full Review here

So there you have it all the products I used in my Spring Makeup Get Ready With Me. I would love to know what you think and be sure to tell me your favourite types of beauty videos to watch.

Thanks for watching (and reading :))

Gemma

xxx

April 27, 2016/by Gem

Posts

The metallic lip trend has hit the beauty world with a bang. I won’t lie, I think I may be too old and uncool to pull it off. But that does not stop me from trying whatsoever 🙂 I picked up the new Barry M Matte Me Up Metallic Lip Kits while browsing the new makeup in Boots.

I’m doing a post on these kind of begrudgingly because there are three shades of the Barry M Matte Me Up Lip Kits. But I, like a bad blogger only have two. They were all sold out in the Boots stores I went too, please forgive me 🙂

This powder was first created in 1917, and this offering is the modern day version of it.

And that’s pretty much Spring Blush products in a nutshell right there 🙂 Any of them take your fancy?

xxx

I picked up the MUA Luxe Strobe & Glow Highlight Kits after they scrolled themselves into my life on the MUA Instagram page. Social media completely enabled me and I’m ok with it 🙂

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