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Beauty Shopping Lust List

Do you know what I like to do when I’m broke? Put potential beauty items in my basket online. It somehow makes be feel like I’m beauty shopping. Do I sound deranged? Probably, but it makes me feel like I’m kind of, sort of shopping Pander to me people 🙂

If money was no object right at this moment in time and I was beauty shopping online, these products would be in my baskets all across the internet. And I could actually put in payment details to proceed with order!!

Two things from Anastasia Beverly Hills are currently in my Cult Beauty basket. The first is the Soft Glam Palette. (£43 from Cult Beauty).

To think I actually call myself a beauty addict and I’ve never owned an eyeshadow palette from Anastasia. It’s embarrassing really. This one just speaks to me. I feel like it has everything you would want. Transition colours, lid crease and liner colours. It’s pretty simple, but I think that’s what gets me with it. I think it’s going to be a great palette for makeup lovers but also artists too. It would make the perfect wedding day palette.

The other thing is probably on everyone’s beauty shopping lust list at the moment. The Amrezy Highlighter, again from Anastasia. (£29 from Cult Beauty).

They’ve either just marketed this impeccably or it’s the shiniest highlighter out there at the moment. Every time I see the promo videos or pictures, drool comes out of the side of my mouth.

Ok, there’s another two eyeshadow palettes on my list currently. I have a weakness for them if you didn’t know already.

First up is the Urban Decay Naked Petite Heat. (Will be available in limited supply from the UD flag shop in Grafton street. Available everywhere else from the end of April. RRP is €32).

This is the Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette‘s little sister. Do I need it? No? Do I already own the original full sized one? Yes. There’s something about UD palettes that has me hooked though. I have a bajillion of them and still can’t get enough. This would make for a great travel companion. There, that’s my justification 🙂

My other palette want is, surprise surprise the Huda Beauty Desert Dusk. (€65 from Cult Beauty).

Anyone who has this palette just says you need it in your life. And if EVERYONE says it, sure it must be true. After trialling the brand with the Mauve Obsessions and the Smokey Obsessions, I seriously need to try more.

There’s another highlighter on my lust list, but hear me out. This is the limited edition Estée Lauder Golden Goddess Illuminating Powder.

They release this every year as part of their Summer Golden Goddess Collection. Every year I want it and every time I decide to bite the bullet and get it…..it’s sold out! The packaging alone has me wanting this and I see so many YouTubers using it and the want grows. I can’t find it to shop for from here currently though, I will keep hunting!

I had a voucher and nearly bought the Nars Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation (€42 from Feel Unique).

I couldn’t get a sample though, so that put me off. I’ve seen so much hype about this foundation online though, so it’s made it back onto my want list. It’s meant to be long wearing with full coverage but still have a radiance to it. When I have cash money to blow, this is going to checkout!

The Ordinary Glycolic acid 7% Toning Solution is not exactly a financial stretch. (€8.70 from Cult Beauty).

The reason this is still in my basket is because it’s an enigma, it is never in stock. This is like the Pixi Glow Tonic I love so much. I have a really old blogpost on it here. The Pixi one is 5% Glycolic, this one is 7% and nearly half the price. My oily, giant pored skin needs to try this.

Last on my beauty shopping lust list is the newest member of the Victor & Rolf Flowerbomb family (€71 for 30ml from Debenhams).

This is Flowerbomb Nectar. Now I’ve yet to sniff this, but I adore Flowerbomb. I know it can be a bit heady and overpowering for some. I love how deep but still sweet it is though. I always have a bottle in my collection. This release intrigues me immensely though. You have the flowery bergamot goodness from traditional Flowerbomb but with a Orange Flower and Osmanthus twist. They had me at nectar to be fair 🙂

And there you have my beauty shopping musings. What’s in your online shopping basket?

xxx

March 7, 2018/by Gem

Makeup

NYX Wanderlust Dublin City Set

Nyx have added four new colours to their City Set range. Toronto, New York, Santiago. And my city namesake, the NYX Wanderlust Dublin City Set.

These sets contain four eyeshadows, an illuminator and a blush. The colours are all supposed to compliment the city named Soft Matte Lip Cream within.

The NYX Wanderlust Dublin City Set contains very wearable shades throughout. There’s a lime green in there for good Irish measure though too.

Each eyeshadow is 1.9 grams, the highlight and blush are 3.5 grams and then the Dublin Soft Matte Lip Cream is standard size at 8mls.

The packaging is fairly bulky on the City Sets. It’s a magnetized cardboard palette with a generous mirror within.

All the shadows are powder and have a shimmery finish to them. Here they are swatched in the sequence they appear in the palette. All of shades are soft and pigmented.

The highlighter and blush are also both shimmery powders. The highlight is a really pale gold shade with an iridescent shimmer. The blush is a pale peach with gold sparkles.

The Dublin Soft Matte Lip Cream is definitely my favourite part of the NYX Wanderlust Dublin City Set. It’s a pinky mauve shade, which is right up my lipstick alley.

I am a big fan of the Soft Matte Lip Creams in general from NYX so having one named after the city I’m from feels (cringe worthily) cool to me 🙂

In my opinion, all the shades in the palette are nice, but I would definitely have to add in other colours if I was doing a full on look using it. I think the colour scheme is very much suited to paler skin. Even for me, the blush might be a little too pale. I generally wear blush to warm up my complexion. The palette size is a little bit cumbersome in my humble opinion aswell, for the amount of products you get in it. I think it would be a nice gift though, just probably not something I would go out and buy for myself.

You can find the NYX Wanderlust Dublin City Set now in Boots in store or online, from Debenhams here. Or, I found it on Look Fantastic here for what I believe is the cheapest price from a reputable retailer.

Have you tried it yet?

xxx

*PR SAMPLE**

November 27, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

theBalm Bonnie-Lou Manizer & Foiled Again

Let me introduce you to theBalm Bonnie-Lou Manizer and the new Foiled Again Foil Eyeshadow Palette.

I literally got my greedy makeup loving mitts on these only last night! In fact they were only released into public hands here in Ireland yesterday. And the awesome news is, we are the first to have them. They are officially available in store exclusively from Debenhams today the 27th of October. So if you like what you see, go go go 🙂

I wanted to show the theBalm Bonnie-Lou Manizer. (Incarcerated sister of Mary-Lou which I adore and did a blogpost on yonks ago here.) And the new Foiled Again Foil Eyeshadow Palette up close and swatched so I can hopefully help with your retail decisions.

We will have a look at Bonnie-Lou first.

She’s more warm and golden than Mary-Lou. You can see Mary on the left here. But she is not as dark as Betty.

As with all theBalm highlighters she is super pigmented, buttery and easy to apply to the skin. It would actually make a very pretty eyeshadow too.

theBalm Bonnie-Lou Manizer Foiled Again Eyeshadow Palette_2438

Her recommended retail price is €22.50.

Next up we have the Foiled Again Foil Eyeshadow Palette.

This contains 12 shades. Eight foiled and then four matte, which I actually really appreciate. It means you can do a full look with one palette. I love all shimmer palettes, don’t get me wrong. But, it’s always nice to have a few mattes within too for crease work or to just use on their own aswell.

There’s a good mix of warm and cooler tones within the foiled eyeshadows and the mattes too!

The eyeshadows are talc free, super soft and extremely pigmented. I think I am going to have fun playing with this one.

I swatched them in their rows of four, from left to right:

The recommended retail Price for this is €34.

And there you have the new theBalm Bonnie Lou Manizer highlighter and the new Foiled Again Eyeshadow Palette. Do either intrigue you?

Let me know.

xxx

***********PR SAMPLE*************

October 27, 2017/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Makeup

Brown Liquid Liner

This is not the most interesting blog post title I have ever come up with. I do try to keep them simple though because I never want to mislead anyone. I am going through a bit of a winged liner phase. I never in a million years thought I would write those words. Winged liner to me has always been a struggle to do. I also never really thought it suited my eye shape particularly. But, social media has swayed me. I uploaded a couple of pics to my Instagram page of me rocking a winged liner and some lovely people said some lovely things. Thank you by the way! One was me wearing a black liner, and I do love this look, but I think brown liquid liner for me is where it is at!

Black liner is a very specific look. When you choose to rock it is the usually the main focus. Well on me it definitely is. I don’t have extremely big eyes, so it makes them smaller and more almond shaped. I also have more hooded eyes. And, as much as it pains me to say it, the older I get the more apparent it is.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I will still wear black liquid liner when the feeling takes me. But, I have come to the conclusion that brown liquid liner suits me more.

It’s just a softer more wearable way to wear liquid liner and a flick in my humble makeup opinion. I feel less intimidated by it and feel like it’s less of a statement. As I said, creating winged liner is not something I am great with. I overthink it and my left eye seems to know when it’s happening and goes in to twitch overload at the sight of the applicator 🙂

I have two in my stash at the moment. The first one is a Catrice Metallic Liquid Liner in ‘Bronze Lee’ (good name ha).

I feel like the bronzed shade of this suits my eye colour well and the formula is really nice and smooth. It’s something a little different without being too crazy.

The second one I have in rotation is the Maybelline Master Precise in ‘Forest Brown’.

This a matte, deeper brown.

Both of these have a pointed felt tip applicator. For me, this seems to be what I get one with the best. I generally use tape to position where my flick will go. Because my eyes are hooded, I try my best not to go to heavy with the general line and I keep the flick pretty short. But, long enough that you can see it when my eyes are open.

I love coloured eyeliner too! I did a look here a while ago using one of the Nyx Vivid Brights liners. This shows you how I use tape to create my flick aswell.

Are you a brown liquid liner fan? Or is black your go to?

xxx

June 7, 2017/1 Comment/by Gem

Makeup

Wet n Wild Photofocus Foundation

The new Wet n Wild Photofocus Foundation is really hard to get your hands on at the minute.

I even asked the PR did they have any samples when I couldn’t get hold of it in store. I very rarely do that! They didn’t even have any! You will be happy to know, if you are waiting to try it, or you are really enjoying it, the Wet n Wild Photofocus Foundation will be permanent on stands from June. I happened to pop into my local Dunnes randomly when the stand restocked, so I got my mitts on the two shades they had left there.

‘Soft Ivory’ and ‘Nude Ivory’.

After seeing them both in natural light, ‘Soft Ivory’ seemed to be the one for me, so that’s the one I have been using over the past couple of weeks.

According to the brand, the Wet n Wild Photofocus foundation ‘helps eliminate white particle reflection’. To me and you, that means it doesn’t create flashback if you are in front of flash photography while wearing it. Now I always though the white cast you get from flash photography, is usually because of the powder you use on top of a foundation. I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with it from cream products. But, they’ve done loads of tests to ensure it won’t happen with this if it is something you worry about. And when I did use flash photography with it, I didn’t have any problems with it!

It comes in a glass 30ml bottle. The plastic lid has an attached paddle that you can use to apply to foundation to your face. I quite like this feature! Just make sure you give it a wipe before putting it back into the bottle 🙂 It smells a bit meh, in the bottle, but it doesn’t linger once you buff it in.

The foundation itself is quite runny and when you first apply it, you think it’s going to give a much sheerer finish. But, as you buff it in it starts to firm up and you definitely get a more medium build-able coverage. It is quite a silicone heavy foundation, but it does absorb into the skin, and has a semi matte finish once it does. There’s no slipping and sliding, on me personally.

Obviously, I have oily skin. On my skin, I would compare it to the longevity of L’Oréal True Match foundation (review here), it lasts pretty well. I’ll get maybe four hours out of it, before I have to powder, while wearing it with a primer. I find it does cling slightly to any dryness I might have. I tried applying with a damp sponge and a brush. On me, it doesn’t seem to work with the sponge at all, it’s really hard to blend out. I find it much easier to work with using a brush.

Before:

After:

Full face of makeup applied:

This is my skin about six hours after applying, the foundation is still there, but the oils have definitely won the war :).

The Wet n Wild Photofocus Foundation is available in all good stockists now, if you can get your mitts on it. By June, you shouldn’t have to worry about tracking it down though.

Have you tried it?

xxx

May 19, 2017/6 Comments/by Gem

Monthly Favourites, Youtube Video

April Favourites 2017

It’s April Favourites time for 2017. This year is going too damn fast! But, the weather is getting a little bit better and it’s a bit brighter out. So, I can complain (of course), but I won’t 🙂

My April Favourites for this year consist of mostly makeup, of course. But there is a hair care tool and a new tech gadget, that myself and John splurged on. We had a busy month, so it was a bit of a treat for getting through it.

L’Oréal Infallible 24 Matte. Review here.
L’Oréal True Match Foundation. Review here.
Mac Sheertone Shimmer Blush in ‘Springsheen’. Available from Brown Thomas here.
Maybelline Color Show Pencil in 520. Swatched here.
Maybelline Brow Precise Micro Brow Pencil in ‘Soft Brown’. Available from the Boots website here.
Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in 13. This is a new colour and I cannot find it online. But the older shades are available from Debenhams here.
Paese Artist Silky Matt Liquid Lipstick in 707. I have swatches of it here.
Canon G7X Mark ii. I researched this camera to within in a inch of my life :). I already have a DSLR, so I am hoping this will help me up my photo game on social media. And then maybe myself and himself can experiment with vlogging too. I bought mine from Conns Cameras on Claredon Street here in Dublin. They were super nice and helpful. It is on their website here, if you want to check out the specs and all that good stuff.

You can as always click on the video and to watch or click here to watch it directly on my YouTube channel.

And that is my April Favourites for 2017 in a nutshell. Roll on May 🙂

Thanks so much for watching and reading, as always.

Gemma

xxx

May 1, 2017/1 Comment/by Gem

Posts

Two things from Anastasia Beverly Hills are currently in my Cult Beauty basket. The first is the Soft Glam Palette. (£43 from Cult Beauty).

The other thing is probably on everyone’s beauty shopping lust list at the moment. The Amrezy Highlighter, again from Anastasia. (£29 from Cult Beauty).

Ok, there’s another two eyeshadow palettes on my list currently. I have a weakness for them if you didn’t know already.

First up is the Urban Decay Naked Petite Heat. (Will be available in limited supply from the UD flag shop in Grafton street. Available everywhere else from the end of April. RRP is €32).

My other palette want is, surprise surprise the Huda Beauty Desert Dusk. (€65 from Cult Beauty).

There’s another highlighter on my lust list, but hear me out. This is the limited edition Estée Lauder Golden Goddess Illuminating Powder.

I had a voucher and nearly bought the Nars Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation (€42 from Feel Unique).

The Ordinary Glycolic acid 7% Toning Solution is not exactly a financial stretch. (€8.70 from Cult Beauty).

Last on my beauty shopping lust list is the newest member of the Victor & Rolf Flowerbomb family (€71 for 30ml from Debenhams).

And there you have my beauty shopping musings. What’s in your online shopping basket?

xxx

You can find the NYX Wanderlust Dublin City Set now in Boots in store or online, from Debenhams here. Or, I found it on Look Fantastic here for what I believe is the cheapest price from a reputable retailer.

Have you tried it yet?

xxx

*******PR SAMPLE********

Let me introduce you to theBalm Bonnie-Lou Manizer and the new Foiled Again Foil Eyeshadow Palette.

And there you have the new theBalm Bonnie Lou Manizer highlighter and the new Foiled Again Eyeshadow Palette. Do either intrigue you?

Let me know.

xxx

Now, don’t get me wrong, I will still wear black liquid liner when the feeling takes me. But, I have come to the conclusion that brown liquid liner suits me more.

Are you a brown liquid liner fan? Or is black your go to?

The new Wet n Wild Photofocus Foundation is really hard to get your hands on at the minute.

The Wet n Wild Photofocus Foundation is available in all good stockists now, if you can get your mitts on it. By June, you shouldn’t have to worry about tracking it down though.

It’s April Favourites time for 2017. This year is going too damn fast! But, the weather is getting a little bit better and it’s a bit brighter out. So, I can complain (of course), but I won’t 🙂

*PR SAMPLE**