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Kat Von D Shade & Light Eye Contour Palette

I already gave my first impressions of the Kat Von D Shade & Light Eye Contour Palette here not too long ago, along with some other bits from the brand.

I finally got to go into the counter in Debenhams on Henry Street and check out everything in the flesh. How cool is it we have counters in Ireland now though? So exciting 🙂

After using the Kat Von D Shade & Light Eye Contour Palette consistently for the past couple of weeks, I feel I can give a decent enough opinion on it. I also wanted to swatch all of the shades so you can see them in action on the skin.

The packaging is pretty robust cardboard adorned with hand drawn calligraphy depicting the palette name done by the lovely Kat herself. It has a generous sized mirror in the lid too which is always handy. Although if you look at the American site here, you’ll see they have redone the packaging and the shades are now housed in a plastic palette.

The palette is described as: ‘Inspired by an artist’s palette and loaded with twelve matte shades that capture the true hues of shadow and light, this ‘Shade and Light’ eye contour palette is arranged by undertone for neutral, warm and cool shades. Use deeper contour shades to add natural shadow and depth to the face, then accentuate best angles with the brighter highlight shades. These silky, buildable powders blend effortlessly into the skin with a formula so incredibly fine, it’s like brushing on powdered silk.’

So we get 12 shades in this palette. All matte and they are a mix of neutral,cool and warm shades.

They are arranged in their tone families, each one has a base, contour, define and highlight shade. Of course you can mix them whatever way you see fit though! I’ll swatch them in their tone groupings (from left to right) just to give you an idea of what they look like together:

For me, the shadows are rich in pigment, soft and really easy to apply and blend. I do find you get some kickback when you dip your brush into the pan. But, that doesn’t take away from the quality, it is just something to be weary of. There is a good range of shades to suit everyone too! You can go from a really simple makeup look to a full on smoky eye with one palette. Matte colours aren’t always the easiest to get right, I find, but Kat Von D have done a stellar job. The shade range covers a multitude too! I’ll be honest and say I find the colour selection very similar to the Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics Palette which I have a blogpost on here. The Kat Von D Shade & Light Eye Contour Palette did come before it though 🙂

The Kat Von D Shade & Light Eye Contour Palette is available from Debenhams in store or online here. It’s priced at €46. It’s nice to note, the Kat Von D brand is 100% cruelty free!

Have you picked up anything yet? Do you have your eye on anything?

xxx

April 21, 2017/by Gem

Makeup, Makeup Tutorial, Youtube Video

Valentine’s Makeup Look

Off the bat, I will say, I am not a very ‘typical’ romantic person. Romance to me is very simple. Give me time and give me food and I’ll be yours forever 🙂 Saying that, it’s always fun to have a reason to be a little creative with your makeup. So this is my interpretation of Valentine’s Makeup. I took major inspo from the gorgeous look Lily Collins rocked to the Golden Globes this year. The look was created by Fiona Stiles, using all Lancôme products.

(Photo by Venturelli/WireImage)

Now, some obvious disclaimers, I do not look anything like Lily Collins, I am not as talented as Fiona Stiles and I am using no Lancôme products to do my makeup 🙂 I just really enjoy the idea of the soft pink eye and the bold red lip. Actually the beautiful Emma, creator of the blog Ol’ Green Eyes recreated this look on her social media too and did a beautiful job. So she has definitely inspired me aswell.

For my Valentine’s makeup look interpretation, I went a bit more shimmery on the eyes and used a more glossy red on the lips.

You can see my look take shape in the YouTube video above or you can click here to see it directly on my channel.

The main components of this Valentine’s makeup look for me, were the Nyx Lid Lingerie Eye Tint in Rose Pearl, I used that as a base on the eyes. You can see swatches of it here. I used the eyeshadow ‘Paranoia’ from the Urban Decay Full Spectrum Palette then over top. You can see this swatched in a previous post here.

The lip choice I went for was the Essence Longlasting Lipliner in 01 ‘Ready For Red’. With the Métier De Beauté Hydra-Crème lipstick in ‘Maraschino’ over the top. This is a new brand to Spacenk here in Dublin. John bought me it for Christmas and I am in love with the formula and colour. Pricey, but a really lovely treat.

And there you have my really simple ode to Valentine’s Day in makeup form. Let me know what you think. Would you wear red and pink together? I never thought I would, but I am actually in love with the combo now.

xxx

February 3, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

Rimmel Everyday Lip Combo

I go through lip colour stages where I gravitate towards a more brown nude or a more pinky nude on the daily. Obviously, there will be a smattering of other colours thrown in on special occasions. On an everyday basis though, I will be rocking a more ‘everyday appropriate’ colour. Generally, I tend to go for a matte finish too. It lasts longer and they are less messy. If my lips are feeling a little drier on a particular day, I’ll pop a bit of lip balm over top. My go to pink toned nude combo, are both from Rimmel.

I am a big big fan of Rimmel lip products. You’ll see me talk about them alot here and on social media. I particularly always repurchase their retractable Exaggerate lip liners when I run out. And they do run out quite quickly, the formula is very soft. It means they apply really easily, but they wear down fast as a result.

My go to everyday pink nude combination consists of the infamous Rimmel ‘Eastend Snob’ lip liner.

Yes, I harp on about this all of the time. I even did a post on it here comparing it to Charlotte Tilbury ‘Pillow Talk’. I own both and reach for this more. It’s great for just waking up the lips and giving some natural-ish colour. It works really well for over lining without looking too obvious aswell. I love it worn just on it’s own.

When I want it to last longer and make it more opaque and lipstick like (if that makes sense, ha?). I apply the Rimmel The Only 1 Matte Lipstick in 200 ‘Salute’ on top.

This is a really similar colour, with more pink to it. Eastend Snob is a little more mauve in tone.

I have a post on The Only 1 Matte Lipsticks here, this will give you a more in depth review. I love the formula. It’s a more creamy matte. The smell of these is intense though. It is super floral and sweet. Definitely not my favourite scent ever, but I look past it because I love the finish.

Rimmel Eastend Snob is available in store or online from Boots here. Exaggerate lipliners retail for €5.59. Salute is available from Boots in store or online here. The Only 1 Matte Lipsticks retail for €8.99

These two together just rock my pinky nude lip world. And let me even out my uneven lip line without looking too obvious or over the top. I hope 🙂

Have you a favourite go to everyday lipstick?

xxx

January 30, 2017/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Makeup

Penneys PS Love Lip Liners

The Penneys PS Love Lip Liners have dare I say reached a bit of a cult status in the online beauty world.

We constantly see them in flat lays and in favourites, or at least I do anyway 🙂 I am no stranger to talking about them myself either may I add. But, I’ve never done a post on them specifically. So here are my overall thoughts.

I have four shades of the Penneys PS Love Lip Liners in my lip liner stash. Say that with a few gins on board!

All four shades are pigmented, soft, true to colour and apply to the lips without dragging or feeling uncomfortable. That’s no mean feat! That being said, because they are softer, I personally wouldn’t use them just on their own. I would just use them to do the job of actually lining the lips before lipstick. Or, I would add a gloss or balm over the top. They do transfer and fade after a short period of time, in my experience.

The one I use the most and looks a bit stubby next to it’s colourful friends is the brown, more neutral shade in 06.

My next most used would probably be the red in 05. It is a brilliant true red colour.

I actually did a post last year including this here. It’s about getting a festive red lip for under a fiver if you want to check it out. I think out of the four liner shades I have, this would be the most long wearing.

Then we have the deep plum shade in 04.

For me, this is the one that fades the quickest. But, paired under a similar coloured lipstick, it helps stop bleeding and gives you cleaner edges. If of course that’s what you want.

The last shade I have is a light powdery pink in 07.

This is my least used out of the four I have. Just because the colour doesn’t particularly suit me. Saying that, it works great for adding some pink to a more neutral lipstick. And, you can use it under darker shades and it won’t interfere with the colour of them too much.

Overall, I think it’s fair to say the Penneys PS Love Lip Liners are a hit with me. And for €1.50 they definitely won’t break the bank either. Makeup bargain personified!

xxx

December 5, 2016/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Makeup

My Eyebrow Routine

My eyebrow routine changes from time to time. It depends on how my actual eyebrows are behaving and whether I went crazy with the tweezers. It also depends on what brow products are working for me too.

I have a bit of a funny relationship with my tweezers. I can get completely carried away with them and pluck away hairs I should have never have touched. It also took me a long time to figure out that getting rid of a few hairs at the base of my brows on the inside would work wonders for the shape. And then, of course I did the thing that a lot of people do, plucked the hell of out of the front part of my brows! They were ridiculous for so long, but sure look they are only brows at the end of the day 🙂 I do have brows, the hair on them is quite long and wiry though. And because I plucked them so much in the past, some patches just won’t grow back. If I am just popping to the shops or heading to the gym, I’ll just fill in the tail of them a little with a pencil and be good to go. But if I am doing makeup, this is my brow routine at the moment.

I am still trying to grow them somewhat and they are definitely far from perfect, but I am at a stage now where I don’t completely hate my brows. On makeup wearing days, I use three products to fill them in and keep them in place.

The NYX Micro Brow Pencil which I love and have a full review of here. The shade I use is ‘Ash Brown’. My hair has an auburn tinge to it and so do my brows, so I feel the more ashy brown shade makes them a bit more neutral.

The Freedom Duo Brow Powder is another product I spoke more about in a previous post here. I have this in the shade ‘Soft Brown’. I usually use the darker shade on the tail of my brows and the lighter shade through the rest.

What I use to set my brows is a pretty new product to me. The Too Faced Brow Quickie. This is in the shade ‘Universal Brunette’ This contains fibres so it works well for bulking up the brows, adds some colour and fixes them in place. It is also waterproof. I am still testing it out so don’t have a definitive opinion on it yet. It is available on the Debenhams website here.

If you want to see me put these products into action, you can click on the video above or go directly to my Youtube channel here. I thought it would be easier to do this in video form 🙂

Have you any ride or die brow products that you can’t be without? I would love to know.

Thanks for clicking.

Gemma

xxx

November 11, 2016/1 Comment/by Gem

Haul, Makeup

Nyx Highlight & Contour Pro Palette

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! 🙂

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’.

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.

The four lighter highlight shades are on the top and look a bit like this swatched on the skin.

Ice Queen/ Soft Light/ Cream/ Nectar

‘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.

Tan/ Toffee/ Sculpt/ Hollow

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.

xxx

September 11, 2016/by Gem

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