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I Did Some Affordable Makeup Shopping

Over the past couple of weeks I have picked up a few affordable makeup bits in between Christmas shopping for friends and family. I got some really nice goodies so I thought I would share them with you in case you need some shopping inspiration 🙂

First up I went to Boots, one of my favourite places to be. The waft of perfume as you walk through the door just puts me in a good mood.

I picked up Rimmel’s Lasting Finish Nude foundation.

This is a new version of their normal Lasting Finish which is a firm fave here at Chatterbox. This is a lighter version of it. It has a good medium coverage and an SPF of 20 which is great for an everyday foundation.

So far I have been loving this, it’s not cakey, the 100 Ivory shade is a good match for my pale skin and it has been lasting really well on my also oily skin. So far a good buy. This set me back €8.99 in Boots

I got one of Maybelline’s new Color Tattoo Leather Effect Cream shadows to give a go next.

This is in the colour “Vintage Plum 97”.

I have so many of the Color Tattoos and love most of them. This one is nice, I really like the colour, it makes a great base for plum, brown or purple eye looks. It is matte with no shimmer in it at all. I cannot say it really looks like leather though.

The Color Tattoos are €7.49 in Boots.

Another cream shadow creeped its way into my Boots basket…ooops 🙂

This is the Max Factor Excess Shimmer in “25 Bronze”. I am in love with this, let me tell you that from the getgo.

Oh my god the pigment is amazing, a tiny bit of this goes such a long way. The texture is so cool, it’s soft and nearly whipped to the touch unlike the Color Tattoos. It is so easy to blend also.

I can wear this just on its own without a shadow on top. I love the colour too, it’s bronze but with a coppery feel, right up my street. These cost €9.99 from Boots

Last thing I picked up in Boots was the Maybelline Instant Anti-Age, The Eraser Eye in “Nude”.

This is a sponge applicator under eye concealer for cancelling out under eye circles.

I’m on the fence about this product so far, I think I need to keep using it before I give a true opinion. It costs €11.99

Soooo, then I did some damage over on Cloud 10 Beauty They had 20% off their whole site for black Friday, I could not resist!! I firstly picked up the cult product that is The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer.

So many of you told me I needed this over on social media, so thanks 🙂 It is such a pretty gold toned highlighter. It is ridiculously shimmery but there is not lumpy sparkle in it which I think is what makes it so pretty and wearable.

You don’t have to look like a disco ball to get a highlighted effect. You can pick this up from Cloud 10 for €19.00

I picked up a Blank Canvas Cosmetics brush.

This is the E30 eyebrow brush. I wanted an angled eyebrow brush with a spooly on the end and this fit the bill, also the ends are purple how cute 🙂 This cost me €6.95

I got one of the Sleek Eye and Cheek Palette in “See You At Midnight 028”.

I have only gotten my hands on this today so I have yet to try it out properly, but on first look and swatch I really like it.

It is very winter appropriate. Plums, purple,cranberry and gold galore. There is two blush shades “Antique” in the top left corner and “Pomegranate” in the bottom right and then 4 eyeshadows from The Vintage Romance iDivine palette. Can’t wait to get stuck into it 🙂 I think this is the best deal out of everything at €12.95

I got another Sleek product from Cloud 10 Beauty.

Another Eau La La Liner to add to my collection. This is the shade “Cocoa 327”. Nothing much to say about it, it’s a matte chocolate brown eyeliner.

I love these liners, I have them in so many colours, but not in dark brown so I picked one up. This will set you back €5.99

I also got a couple of other random things so I thought I would throw them into the list too for good measure.

I got this when I was buying the other bits on Cloud 10.

This is the Daniel Galvin Junior Hangover Hair. My hair needs a bit of TLC and this was cheap and organic so I thought I would give it a go, no real thought process there. I will report back if it is any good. It is €4.49

Lastly, these are definitely not beauty based, but they are beautiful 🙂

These are New Look heels that I ordered from Asos when they were having 20% off for black Friday. I just thought they were so festive and sparkly and also the heel is thick and respectable not a look I go for very often 🙂 Full price, these are €39.99, so not bad at all, I am sure I will get alot of use out of them over the festive season.

I think that’s it, if you have made it to the end of this let me know, I know it’s a rambly one 🙂 Did you get any amazing bargains in the sales yet?

Thanks so much for reading and for the support.

Gemma

xxx

December 8, 2014/by Gem

Makeup

Sleek’s iDivine Snapshot Eyeshadow Palette

This Sleek’s iDivine Snaphot Eyeshadow Palette looks scary and amazing all at the same time doesn’t it?

I know everyone is not a fan of bright coloured shadows, neutral girls I’m a-talkin’ to you 🙂

I love a brown smokey eye don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’s nice to mix things up a bit, and this little beauty from Sleek lets you do this, afford-ably and beautifully.

I love Sleek, it is such a well put together brand. It’s so handy to get your hands on in Ireland now with places like Boots and McCabes Pharmacy stocking it in store.

The Snapshot Palette has a beautiful mixture of colours in it, mostly shimmery but there are a couple of brown shades including a matte one to help you blend out your colour combinations too which I think is brilliant. Alot of times when you buy a brightly coloured palette you just get all bright colours and no transitional colours at all.

So onto to the swatches…

The top line of colours looks a little bit like this:

The first shade on the top left of the palette is a matte duck egg blue colour, I will probably never get any use out of it if I am honest, it has the least colour pay off out of all the shadows and is a bit wishy washy, but other than that I have tried and tested all of the other shades here and I love them, how bright is that orange?

The second line of colours looks a bit like this:

As you can see the first matte taupe shade nearly blends into my pale skin, it’s a great blending colour, and comes in very handy. The copper and turqoise metallic shades in the middle I think are my favourite and most used shadows out of the whole palette. They are really pigmented and easy to work with.

Overall, The Snapshot iDivine Palette from Sleek is a little gem to have in your collection. I know you will probably not get use out of every shade in it, but there are some great bright and fun colours to play with and jazz up your looks with. It’s great to have fun with colour even just to smudge some under your lash line for that added pop of interest 🙂

The Snapshot Palette is limited edition. You can find it for €9.99 on Cloud 10 Beauty.

What do you think? Would you buy it? Let me know.

Gemma

xxx

November 22, 2014/by Gem

Anastasia Beverley Hills Contour Kit

When the Anastasia Beverley Hills Contour Kit became available on Cult Beauty I forked out the 45 pound (not euro pound!) no questions asked. There was so much online hype surrounding it and if I’m honest I put myself on the waiting list in hopes of being one of the first in Ireland to get my hands on it.

I waited patiently and when it arrived, I did a little dance, no word of a lie. I opened it and thought…oh ok so this is what it looks like in the flesh…hmm. I wasn’t hugely impressed with the cardboard packaging. But then the Lorac Pro Palette comes in a similar black matte cardboard affair and I love it, so I won’t judge a book by it’s cover.

So let me show you what you get:

Top: Vanilla, Banana, Sand Bottom: Java, Fawn, Havana

So the top layer of colours would be the highlight shades. Vanilla is matte and slightly pink in colour. On my skin you can’t see it at all (I am quite pale and have pink toned skin), it could just be a setting powder for me. Banana would be what the name suggests. A matte yellow toned powder, that would be used for highlighting or setting under the eyes. Sand it a pink toned highlighter shade with a sheen running through it.

Then on the bottom we have what would be the contour shades. Java is a coffee coloured brown shade again as the name would suggest. I think this would work best on darker skin tones for contouring and bronzing. Fawn is more of a grey toned brown, in my opinion better on lighter skin tones for contouring. And then finally we have Havana a chocolate brown shade. Would be best used as bronzer I think.

As you can see from the picture above, these powders are refillable so when you are finished a pan you can buy them individually and pop them back into the palette which is cool. Anastasia have actually brought out a huge version of this palette for makeup artists with loads of shades to choose from. It would be great if you could mix n’ match the perfect shades for you.

Here are the shades swatched for you:

Vanilla, Banana, Sand, Java, Fawn, Havana

As you can see Vanilla doesn’t come out on my light skin at all, apologies for you not being able to see it, it’s there I promise 🙂

So….what do I think of the palette? Honestly, I think it’s ok. I don’t know whether I am too light skinned for the colours, but most of them of them don’t suit me. They don’t seem to stay on my oily skin too well throughout the day either. They aren’t the most blendable powders I have ever come across either. They are pigmented though! Every day when I’m getting ready, my Kevyn Aucoin sculpting powder makes it into my hands before I grab for this. I am in love with that product and a little of it goes such a long way, thank goodness because the product and packaging is teeny weeny 🙂

I’ll dip in and out of using the Anastasia Contour Kit and get use out of it but it definitely will not be on my list to repurchase. I love my eyebrow products that I have used from this brand (the Dipbrow and the Brow Wiz) and I would highly recommend them so I am not condemning the brand whatsoever. This palette as much as I wanted it doesn’t really float my boat.

It’s so brilliant that brands are bringing out these types of products. Contouring, when done right really is amazing. I think next on the list has to be Inglot’s version 🙂

So there you have it. Let me know if you have any thoughts on it or have used the Anastasia Beverley Hills Contour Kit yourself. As usual, these are just opinions, yours might be completely different and that’s perfectly fine!

Thanks for taking the time to read mine though 🙂

Gemma

xxx

August 8, 2014/3 Comments/by Gem

Powder Highlight

Having oily skin doesn’t mean you have to have matte skin all the time. You can add glow strategically without adding oil or unwanted shine. I love the way cream and liquid highlighters look on other people but for me after wearing one for about an hour, I look like I’ve put my face in a chip pan…not cute. So I get my glowy kick from highlighters of the powdered variety. Here are a few of my firm faves from my stash.

These are the only Dior products that I own…at the minute and I liked this product so much, I got both colours of the powder highlight, very bad I know.

This is Dior’s Shimmer Powder in Rose Diamond. I love these highlighters because they’re so versatile and so they should be for how much they cost. They have a gradient colour so Rose Diamond goes from a blush pink that can be used as a blush to a light nearly white shimmer highlight.

The other one is Amber Diamond

Amber Diamond is the gold version of this highlighter. So it gives more of a bronzer glow, and again has a gradient of colours from a tan to a lighter, nearly white gold.

These highlighter are in no way glittery, it’s shimmer all the way, they are lovely and soft so are easy to blend. You can choose the colours easily in the palette or give them all a swish with the brush to give yourself a coloured glow. I love using the lighter part these for an inner eye corner highlight too, need to get the moneys worth 🙂

Had to add a Mac Mineralize Skin Finish into my mix.

This is Mac’s Soft & Gentle. It’s a gorgeous goldy bronze highlighter. Again, it’s not really glittery as I am not a fan.

This is more of a hardcore highlighter especially for someone who is as pale as me (Mac NC20), so I reserve this for a night out on the town, it photographs lovely. I’ll use this for an eyeshadow too all over the lid, with a nice matte taupe in the crease, gorgeous 🙂

I wanted to add in a blush too to show you don’t need to splurge and buy a highlighter too you can get a lovely highlighted effect from blush as well.

This is my very beloved and very battered Nars blush in Orgasm. I think every makeup lover in the land has at least heard about this blush and has probably owned it at one stage. It is the perfect peachy pinky easy to wear blusher. But what is great about it is it has the prettiest gold fleck going through it which makes it a gorge highlighter as well.

It makes your cheeks glimmer, without being too overpowering. Love it!

Keeping on the frugal end of the spectrum, you do not have to splurge to be fabulous and glowing. You can have a look in your stash and I am sure you will find a lovely light eyeshadow that will do the job perfectly for you. These are a couple of my favourites from my collection for inspiration.

Here are Inglot’s Freedom System’s Pearl Shadow in 393 and Makeup Geek’s Bling. I love these for highlighting my tear duct, the eyelid and the top of the cheekbones.

You can find colours similar to these in any eyeshadow palette or quad, I’m sure you all have one, so why not give it a go?

Phew…I’m all highlighted out now 🙂

Thanks for sticking with me.

Gemma

xxx

June 11, 2014/by Gem