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YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils Waterproof Mascara

I am a big fan of ‘drugstore’ more affordable mascaras. As you know if you’ve been around these parts before, I am a waterproof mascara junkie. It’s been a while since I had tried a high end one so I traipsed into Brown Thomas a few weeks ago, had a look around, asked you lovely people on Snapchat what I should get and left with the YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils Waterproof mascara.

May I add the girl on the counter was super lovely and friendly which made the experience so much nicer. I love going to Boots and picking up bargains, but I do also love splurging every now and again on more luxurious items. As Tom Haverford and Donna from Parks and Recreation would say “Treat yo’self’ and that I did with the YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils Waterproof Mascara 🙂

I have to be honest I kind of hoped I wasn’t going to really like it, because it means if it runs out I am going to want to buy one again. Alas, it was love at first use, damn you YSL!

The packaging alone is pretty glorious, right? They definitely get brownie points for that.

The formula of the YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils Waterproof is wet but still very build-able without clumping together on your lashes. It has quite a thin tapered bristled wand that is great for really getting into the roots of your lashes.

The reason I always go for waterproof is because I have really straight lashes and waterproof formulas seem to hold a curl better throughout the day for me. I also have oily eye lids and normal formulas can sometimes transfer and make a mess.Since getting this mascara I have always used a eyelash curler before application, just to give my lashes an extra bit of oomph, for the purpose of this post I didn’t though and I was actually quite happy with how my lashes turned out regardless. For me and my crap eyelashes, there’s volume, there’s length and there’s a bit of curl too!

Here’s my lashes before application.

Then here is my upper lashes on one eye with a couple of coats of the YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils.

I even use this mascara on my bottom lashes too, as the wand it not too big and the formula doesn’t flake or transfer. This means I don’t have to necessarily buy a separate tubing mascara from my bottom lashes which I normally do. That’s penny pinching right there 🙂

Here’s the before and after on each of my eyes.

And then here’s the YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils applied to both eyes.

I do still prefer giving my eyelashes a quick curl with the eyelash curlers because I want maximum lash.

But if I forgot to do it or didn’t bring an eyelash curlers away with me, I wouldn’t be in panic mode as I have been in the past 🙂

I bloomin’ love this mascara, it’s pricey for sure, but it really ticks all the boxes for me. I may not use it exclusively forever because I do like to try new products, (it’s what I do ha), but if I HAD too, I wouldn’t be too unhappy about it at all.

You can pick up the YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils Waterproof mascara from Boots instore or online here and from Brown Thomas instore. It costs 32.50.

What do you think, would you splurge? Let me know what you’re favourite mascara is?

xxx

April 22, 2016/2 Comments/by Gem

Makeup

Ben Nye Luxury Powders Review

I have two of the Ben Nye Luxury Powders. I have them and have been using them for…not gonna lie years now. I had never really thought to do a review on them, I never really thought people would be interested to be honest. The couple of times I have posted pictures on them though, I have gotten so many questions about where I got them, How much they were, are they good etc, so I thought I would pop all that information in a handy blogpost, so people could just come here for all the answers 🙂

The two Ben Nye Luxury Powders I own are the Banana Powder and the Cameo Powder.

Ben Nye (who are a professional makeup brand, that’s why they are kind of hard to get hold of) do a plethora of colours in their Luxury Powder range. They come in a whole host of sizes too. The two powders I have would probably be classed as the medium size. They contain 42 grams of product. If you are just using them on yourself, this size will probably last you a lifetime 🙂 The powders themselves are really finally milled. They almost have a flour like consistency to them, which makes them really messy because they go everywhere, but means they apply to the skin really nicely and you can really layer them up.

The Ben Nye Luxury Banana Powder is of course a yellow powder.

If you are sallow, this would work great as an all over setting powder.

For me, I like it for setting the under eye area. A yellow toned powder is great for adding a little more coverage to any discolouration you may have under there. Depending on how much coverage I want, I’ll use either a brush for a lighter dusting or a sponge to really pack the product on.

The other one I have is the Ben Nye Luxury Cameo Powder.

This, on my lighter and more pink skin tone is the one I would use to set my whole face.

Again, like the banana powder you can sheer is out or really pack it on depending on your preference.

To me, neither of these Ben Nye products give you any major coverage. They are both brilliant for mattifying, and keeping you looking matte without making you look like you are caked in makeup or settling in any fine lines or pores. They will also subtly colour correct the area that you add them too.

Overall, I really love the Ben Nye Luxury Powders. They are a staple in my makeup collection and I reach for them alot. You can buy them online from Ireland here from Sunaura.

xxx

March 9, 2016/by Gem

Haul, Skincare

Lush Winter Wonderland

Lush treated us bloggers and the press to an up close look at what they have in store (literally ha) for Winter and Christmas 2015. As a big Lush fan, I was very excited to see so many new and well known products back for the festive season. They have gift sets galore to suit any tastes and budget, and of course most of the products can be bought individually too.

We were very kindly gifted the fabulous Lush Winter Wonderland Gift Set, and so I wanted to show you what is inside, in case it’s something you would want on your Christmas list.

There are some old faves and some newbies up for grabs in this pretty huge gift box.

Snow Angel Bath Melt is in there. It contains cocoa butter and leaves your bath glittery.

We have Yog Nog Bath Bomb. This is a cinder toffee soak with spicy clove and ylang ylang.

The Ceridwen’s Cauldron Bath Melt looks really interesting. This plops into the bath as is and melts. It has sandalwood oil,oats and wildflower inside.

The Candy Mountain Bubble Bar has sparkles and fair trade vanilla to bubble up your bath with.

The Peeping Santa Bubble Bar looks funny right? This has shea butter and strawberry inside, so great for us with a sweet tooth.

The Yoga Bath Bomb is great for relaxing with. It contains olibanum and ho wood.

You can reuse this cutie. This is The Magic Of Christmas Bubble Bar. It has clove and almond in it. You can just sweep it across the water a few times and then put it somewhere safe to use again.

I get a Holly Golightly Bubble Bar every year from Lush. I think it just screams Christmas, and it smells like it too 🙂

Of course the Lush Winter Wonderland has a Frozen Bath Bomb this year. It contains grapefruit and Tunisian Neroli. Yum yum.

This is the Stardust Bath Bomb. It has vanilla and Rosewood in it.

Cinders is a lush classic. It smells like cinnamon.

I saw this Luxury Lush Pud Bath Bomb (mouthful) in action when we were in Lush. It dissolves into the bath just how it looks in the bomb it’s really cool. It also contains lavender so good for a before bed time bath.

My Father Christmas Bath Bomb got a bit bashed by its friends inside the box. He will turn your bath green though and smells like candy floss.

I think bubble bars are where you get the most bang for your buck in Lush. You can just break pieces off and get as many uses out of them as you want. This is the Bar Humbug Bubble Bar. It contains Liquorice, not my favourite scent, but if you love DollyMix this one is for you 🙂

The Lord of Misrule Bath bomb makes your bath wine coloured, so you could drink wine while you were having your bath and you wouldn’t even noticed if you spilled!

My So White Bath Bomb didn’t make it in one piece, but at least it means I can show you what it looks like inside. It contains bergamot and rose…yummy!

Golden Wonder is my all time favourite bath bomb from Lush. It has lime oil in it, so it smells really zesty and when it melts away it leaves little stars in your bath!

The Butterbear Bath Bomb is great for dry skin, it has cocoa butter in it like the Snow Angel…I might actually use these together for an extra hydrating bath time!

The Comforter Bubble Bar is probably my favourite out of all the Lush bubble bars and is one I purchase all the time. It’s really sweet but not in a sickly way. It contains cassis and cypress oil.

The Twilight Bath Bomb is the last on the list. As you would assume by the name and the look of this bath bomb, this is another good bath time bomb. It contains lavender and tonka and according to Lush makes your bath look like the night sky…we’ll see about that 🙂

The Lush Winter Wonderland will cost you €117.50, it is one of the priciest gift sets instore. I think if you are wanting to buy a hardcore Lush fan (or yourself) a really special gift this is pretty perfect though.

Any of your Lush faves in here? Any you fancy trying? Let me know 🙂

xxx

October 23, 2015/1 Comment/by Gem