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Top Cream Shadow Stick Picks

I use cream shadow pencils, sticks whatever you want to call them alot in my day to day makeup routine. Formulas have gotten so great nowadays that you can use them as shadow on their own and they don’t budge (for the most part) throughout the day. Or you can layer them under shadows to intensify them or increase their longevity too. They come in very handy.

So I compiled some my favourite brands for this post to show you some of the ones I love using and that I have tried and tested.

First up is the posh ones of the group.

These are the By Terry Ombre Blackstar. These are so very nice and so very posh with their €30 price tag. They are so creamy, pigmented and easy to blend though and they last all day on the lids. You can literally just throw one of these all over your lids, blend the edges and you’ve got yourself a really lovely eye look.

I have two shades…so far 🙂

5 Misty Rock (on top) 4 Bronze Moon (bottom)

I have a couple of brands that I just have one offering from, but I wanted to include them because I pick them up regularly.

The Rimmel Scandaleyes. I love this shade under gold or creamy coloured shadows. It’s a great neutral shade to have in your collection. They come in an alot of different shades though. This is 002 Bulletproof Beige.

I bought one of the new Bourjois Colorband sticks not too long ago in Boots.

This shade 05 Mauve Baroque is a great more affordable dupe for the By Terry Ombre Blackstar in Misty Rock. These stay put on the lid too, no messing about. You need to work quickly with them once it’s on it’s on!

Bourjois Colorband Mauve Baroque

The Kiko Longlasting Shadow Sticks are new in my makeup collection, but I picked them up because I’d read so much positivity about them in the blogging and You Tube world. You have to order online if you’re in Ireland which is a pain but the shipping is really good, as are the sticks themselves 🙂

I got three shades 05 (another dupe for the By Terry Ombre Blackstar, do you see a theme forming?), 10 a sparkly blue green shade and 10 an electric blue.

These are just awesome, simple as that. Creamy, smooth ,vibrant, longlasting, and come in a plethora of colours to suit everyone, and they are so reasonable priced too. More will find their way home to me soon, I’m sure of it.

05, 11,10

A couple of Wet n Wild picks up next.

If you are a regular round these parts you’ll know I am a huge fan of this affordable brand. These are their Idol Eyes Creme Shadow Pencil. So ridiculously affordable and lovely base for shadow to help them stick around and help the colour become more vibrant too. These come in loads of colours, soft, but not as pigmented as maybe some of the others on the market. For the price though they are pretty great 🙂 I have two:

E133 Techno (on top) E135 Graphite (on bottom)

I left the probably most well known ones until last.

These are of course the Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencils. Apologies as mine have seen better days, they aren’t very photogenic. That doesn’t mean they’re not good at their job though. These things are brilliant! I’ve been buying Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencils a long time, I use to have to buy them on eBay from America, but thank god Ireland now finally has gotten its act together and we are starting to see Nyx in pharmacies more and more. Wohoo! These literally come in all of the colour of the rainbow and more. They come in different finishes too, some are matte some are more shimmery or sparkly. They are stupid pigmented and last well on the eyes. I have even used these on my water line and they last really well inside the eye too. I know Milk is such a cult shade now. It’s a matte, opaque white, if you are wanting vivid colours to stand out, you need Milk in your life believe me!

I have six in my collection, I’ve had more in the past but where they’re gone I don’t know 🙁

In Order 603 Pots & Pans, 615 Slate, 612 Gold, 617 Iced Mocha, 624A Rocky Mountain Green and 604 Milk

There you have it, if you are in the market for some new cream shadow sticks, I hope I’ve helped a little showing you some of my favourites. I tried to pick some from all spectrum’s of the market to suit everyone. I honestly get so much use from all of these little beauties. Writing this blog post has just made me want to buy more 🙂

xxx

April 18, 2015/by Gem

Archives

Rimmel Provocalips…Review

I posted a picture on Facebook of my Rimmel Provocalips I had just gotten and was loving, and you peeps seems to be a tad interested. So, I figured I would do a quick blog post on them in case you were thinking of adding some to your lippie collection in the near future. I was even so dedicated that I went out and bought two more…all in the name of blog research I assure you 🙂

The Provocalips are the next level after the Apocalips from Rimmel. To be honest, I bought a couple of these when they came out, but they didn’t float my boat as much as some of the other offering of liquid lipsticks on the market, so they never made it onto Chatterbox.

The Provocalip however, I am enjoying alot. They are a similar to the Apocalips in theory, but they are less sticky and gunky and easier to wear in my opinion.

I am not huge fan of the packaging of the Provocalips. This is completely a personal preference, it’s a bit childish and cheap for me, but I don’t mark them down for that as it’s as your mammy always says, it’s what is on the inside that counts.

The product comes in two phases. Step one is colour and step two is the lock & shine.

They both have doe-foot applicators.

The colour part is rich, pigmented and goes on pretty smooth, you can get away with only one layer if you are in a hurry or don’t want the full whack of colour. I myself go for at least two. The colour dries down on your lips pretty quickly and is a bit sticky to the touch but makes your lips feel like they have a mask on too if that makes sense? It’s not the nicest of sensations.

This is when you add the lock & shine. I will say this is a bit messy, the lock & shine is clear and the applicator is white, you will inevitably get the colour on it and ruin the appearance. This doesn’t really bother again as you cannot see through the tube so no one else has to see what you are working with.

The lock & shine doesn’t quite offer it’s namesake in my opinion. It locks in the colour, allows your lips to move again after the colour restricting them a bit from drying in. Oh it also smells nice which helps too 🙂 The shine doesn’t last very long, it is like a top coat and wears away quickly. For me, this is perfect, I only crave a really glossy lip once or twice a year. It gives a bit of slip to your lips without being sticky or annoying so that’s great but I would take the word shine with a grain of salt.

Now, your lips are locked and loaded and ready to go, Rimmel says Provocalips are 16 hour lip colours. I have never worn one for 16 hours so I cannot verify this. I will say I have worn them all through a work day, with breakfast and lunch in between and although the colour is not still perfectly there on your lips, it is definitely still there! I’ve made the mistake of brushing my teeth after coming in from work and getting a lovely ring of colour all around the toothbrush head…lovely! On a side note, when I was taking pictures of them on my lips, I had to do each colour on completely separate occasions because once the colour was on it was a nightmare to try get off completely. Thank god I only have three 🙂

So, to show you the colours I have on the lips.

We have the first one I bought.

200 “I’ll Call You”

Then, the other two I bought together.

310 “Little Minx”

500 “Kiss Me You Fool”

Nice no?

I apologise to all of you nude lip fans out there, there was two of them in the Provocalip collection (that I could see on the shelf), but nude lips really don’t suit me most of the time, so I picked up the ones I would get the most use out of, the dusky pink, the blue tone hot pink and of course the red.

I bought the Provocalips in Boots. They do not seem to have them on the Irish Boots site yet, but in store they are 8.99euro. A pretty mid range price in my opinion.

So what do we think of them? Do they wet your whistle at all? Be sure to let me know.

And if there is anything else, you would like me to review or any feedback at all, leave us a comment down below, I love to chat 🙂

Thanks,

Gemma

xxx

October 17, 2014/by Gem

Archives

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

Archives

Revlon Parfumerie-Scented Nail Polish

Scented nail polish? I remember these from back in the 90’s, yep I’m that old! A goopy, cheaply scented mess, that kids painted their whole hands with, not something I really wanted to relive.

When I saw these beautiful little bottles on the shelf in Boots, they spoke to me. That ever happen to you? They are just so gosh darn cute, how could one resist 🙂 There is not a huge array of colours in the Revlon Parfumerie range, but there is enough practical shades and a couple of whimsical ones to keep your colour needs at bay.

I chose two colours “Surf Spray and “Ginger Melon”.

“Surf Spray” is a typical me colour.

I always gravitate towards green and blue nail polish, I don’t know why.

This goes on quite sheer so needs about 3 coats to look opaque on the nails.

It’s a really pretty shimmery blue, and when it dries it does smell of what we imagine surf spray to…or at least what candles and products with similar names do anyway 🙂

“Ginger Melon” is much more of solid traditional nail polish colour.

It’s a fab orangey coral number, which would be fab on the tootsies as well as the fingers.

This is much easier to apply than “Surf Spray”, its very opaque and you could probably get away with one coat in a hurry, although I did two. When it dries it has a lovely sweet scent to it that is not overpowering at all.

Both of the colours lasted really well on my nails and only wore away rather than chipping, I was really impressed.

I like the scented element of them. As a nail polish junkie, I try to get involved in all of the trends that come up. The smells are not very strong. They would not be putting you off your dinner, in my opinion anyway. You just get a subtle whiff if your hands get close to your face or like me if you keep “discreetly” putting your fingers to my nose to see if the scent is still there…I’m a classy lady!

After a few handwashes, I think the scent fades even more, so if you didn’t like it and just enjoyed the colour of the polish, you don’t have to worry too much about it. And lets face it the bottles are adorable, I think I would nearly buy one for that alone, don’t judge me.

Overall, these are really nice nail polishes, and I think Revlon did a really nice job, the scent gimmick would pull you in, but I think the polishes themselves stand alone as good, opaque and long lasting. I bought these in Boots, on offer buy one get the second half off. As with most Revlon items they are overpriced in Europe at 8.99Euro.

So there’s my thoughts on the Revlon Parfumerie range, if you have anything to add be sure to write it in the comments below.

Thanks,

Gemma

xxx

July 28, 2014/1 Comment/by Gem

Nails

Top Spring Nail Polish Colours

I am a nailpolishaholic. If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram you will know I like to post obnoxious pictures of my painted nails on a regular basis…I do apologise 🙂

So I trifled through my collection to talk about the nail polish colours that represent Spring in a nail polish bottle for me. By all means you can switch and change brands and shades, these are just what I own.I am a firm believer that if you have and use a good base coat and top coat, you can use any brand of coloured polish and it should last pretty well on your talons!

I have very recently downsized my collection in order to fit them onto my new acrylic wall rack. So I threw out all the polishes I was hoarding in boxes and only kept the ones I know I would actually use:

So onto my picks for Spring:

Firstly I had to pick a hot pink. A hot pink is essential in Spring for me, it looks fab on your fingernails and your toenails and goes with everything, and helps accentuate a tan whether it be natural or from a bottle 🙂

I chose a BarryM colour. These polishes are so readily available in Boots and Superdrug, they are cheap and they have such a wide range of colours. I love them.

Barry M in Limited Edition 029

Next up I chose Peach. Peach is a colour that screams warmer weather to me. It’s the colour of icepops and sweets 🙂 It’s a good colour to have for those, who do not want to go crazy with their nail colour as it can look quite subtle and clean on the nails. I chose another Barry M polish, shock horror, this was a cult buy for last summer within the blogosphere!

Barry M Peach Melba 318

Next I chose… another Barry M pastel tone! I’m sorry but they’re lovely 🙂 I have a good cross section of brands in my collection but Barry M are really good and the pastels are lovely and creamy. Two coats and you’re good to go! So I chose a pastel lilac tone.

I love this colour and lilac is very on trend at the minute. Again, if you are afraid of colour, even use something like this on your accent nail for a touch of something different.

Barry M 308 Barry I/C

I have a sky blue shade chosen for my next spring nail polish. I think this sort of shade looks great on all skin tones and looks really interesting on long and short nails alike. It can really jazz up a look without going too over board.

This is an Essie shade, I love Essie polish from the point of view that their colour selection is amazing and the polishes themselves are easy to apply and do not need much working with. However, I will say they don’t last aswell as some other brands of polishes and they cost a small fortune here in Ireland, if other brands do the same shade for cheaper I say get it!

Essie Mint Candy Apple

Lastly, I chose a shade that is not for the faint hearted. This shade of nearly apple green sums up Spring in a colour to me. If you’re someone like me who loves bright colours on their nails, rock the hell out of it, if not this would be a great accent colour on the ring finger or whichever finger you choose to be brave with:

This particular polish is a Revlon polish. Revlon do a great formula of polishes, I have a few of them and they are some of my firm favourites. I can’t wait to give their new perfumed range a go 🙂

Revlon 510 Sassy

So there you have it, my spring nail wardrobe. I am rarely without nail polish, I don’t feel put together without it. Whether it is to compliment your look with a similar hue to your clothes or makeup or for it to contrast it, it all looks good in my book 🙂

Thanks letting me ramble on,

Gemma

xxx

April 21, 2014/by Gem

Archives

OPI Liquid Sand Nail Polish Review

So let me start out by saying this stuff is not for the girls who like a nice clean, classic type of nail polish. This stuff is for us who like to be a bit more experimental when it comes to our talons. I introduce to you OPI’s offering of the chunky, glittery, almost sand like (hence the name) polishes. I own two shades of these. The blue is “Tiffany Case” and the purple “Can’t let go”.

To use you use you just put your base coat on as usual, then it takes about two layer of this stuff to make it opaque.

The above is a picture of one layer of “Tiffany Case” to the left and then two layers to the right it’s quite chunky in consistency but it’s easy enough to work with and not too gloopy which is good. It is pretty quick to dry so it is less time consuming than standard polish and you don’t need a top coat. The whole point of the polish is the gritty texture and it last pretty well without any help! I personally love the texture and I think it looks like 3D glitter on the nails and who doesn’t love a bit of glitter :).

The blue shade is definitely my favourite of the two, “Can’t let go” is more of a muted, darker colour with less shine to it, but it really is a personal preference

Polishes like this are great for us normal people who are not experts in the nail department but like to try our best to jazz up our fingers, it’s the little things, right? :). I buy my OPI polishes in Sally’s Salon Services.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and any questions or tips are greatly appreciated in the comments section below. We all love learning new things 🙂

Gemma

xxx

January 8, 2014/by Gem