EOTD with Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara!

I love long, full looking lashes, but I'm totally rubbish with false ones. I either fail to get them on, looking good and then staying put, or, I run out of time to faff around with them for long enough to get them on etc, so a good mascara is always high on my list of beauty must-haves.

A good mascara can make your lashes look amazing, but I've never come across one that has truly made my lashes look like I'm wearing falsies (in a good way), until now. 

Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara has very quickly become one of my favourite mascaras, since it pretty much does exactly what it says on the tube, which can be a a rarity in these days of lash inserts and photographic 'enhancement' via Photoshop. 

Just look at the pictures, every one of these, apart from the first one below has 2 (light-ish) coats of the mascara and was taken at the end of the day, so you can see how well it lasts too.

One light coat, no lash curling or other make-up!

I am very impressed with this stuff, I had at least 3 people in one day asking me if I was wearing false lashes, something I've rarely encountered before bu found to be reassuring that other people also thought my lashes looked as good as I did. 

It's also effortless to use, the wand works brilliantly and seems to do most of the work for you, which is always welcome with me. It's hard to believe that this mascara only costs around £11 as if I'd done a blind test, I'd have easily believed it if I was told it was a £20+ mascara.

My 'extra' eye make-up in the pictures below consists of 3 shades from the Urban Decay Naked palette (the original one): Virgin and Sin in the inner corner and over the lid, and Darkhorse in the socket. It's a very simple look, but one I find myself wearing quite a lot during the day.

Excuse the hair and robe, it was pyjama o'clock when I took this photograph.

You can see the 'stain' left on my lips from my Rouge Volupte lipstick, shade 10, Provocative Pink - another long lasting and impressive product.

 

False Lash Effect Mascara was a PR sample (views are unchanged by this), the rest of the make-up mentioned/worn in this post was purchased by myself.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Bourjois Little Round Pot 'Intense' Shade 04 - Swatched!

Bourjois’ little round pots have got even more intense...literally. The new range are even more pigmented and are said to have 16 hour hold – sounds good, doesn’t it?! I have a few shades that I’ll be swatching, and first up is shade 04, a beautiful, rich, aubergine-esque purple.

I tried this 3 ways in the swatches, as my experiences with baked formulas always led me to applying them wet to get the best pay off, and whilst this is still the case with this shade, I did find that the payoff when dry was still perfectly acceptable... although the slight sparkle that this shade has didn’t really show when dry.

Used wet, the payoff was again, perfectly fine with the sparkle/sheen really standing out but when I tried the shadow over Urban Decay’s Primer Potion it really did seem to help the pigmentation even more so, but the sparkle wasn’t as intense. I am thinking that applying wet (well, damp) over UDPP may be the answer here as that would give the best finish both pigmentation and sparkle wise!

Have you tried any of the range, what did you think?

Haul - YSL Goodies!

It's confession time again, I am posting another haul... a rather expensive haul but oh so worth it! These the YSL goodies I bought on a recent visit to Manchester!

I bought 6 lipsticks and one eye shadow palette (as you can see) and they are all bloody lovely. Let me show you in a bit more detail.

Lipsticks:

Rouge Voluptes!

Rouge Volupte: Numbers 8 and 9, Rose Fetiche (Fetish Pink) and Rose Carresse (Pink Caresse).

Rouge Volupte: Numbers 11 and 19, Rose Frivole (Frivolous Pink) and Rose Culte.

I haven't re-photographed No 10, Provocative Pink as you've seen it in these posts here and here, and also it's a competition prize so I didn't want to open it when not necessary!

Rouge Pur: Number 126, Rose Cachemire (Cashmere Pink).

I also bought the Rouge Pur lipstick in Cashmere Pink which is up for grabs in my competition HERE!

The 'Ombres 5 Lumieres' (5 Colour Harmony for Eyes) I bought is palette 7, Bronze Gold and is a beautifully presented shadow palette containing, yes you guessed it, 5 eye shadows! I've been lusting after these for a while, and I have my eye on at least 2 more in the very near future. 

Do you likey my lovelies? x

MAC & Chanel Mini Haul!

I had a little spend at weekend, I say a little spend but it was still almost £50 (but don't tell Mr Beauty Scoop) on 3 items. Still the 3 items are pretty worth it, in my opinion anyway!

I treated myself to Chanel's Miami Peach (203) Le Vernis nail polish which I will swatch very soon. I had this in my shopping cart at Boots.com but I spent so long dithering over what else to buy that it went out of stock. Panic ensued and I took to Twitter, hoping somebody might know where I could find it but to no avail! Luckily I was able to pick it up in store at Debenhams in Milton Keynes (where I was, visiting the almost in-laws)! It's such a beautiful colour in the bottle and I have seen some lovely swatches, so hopefully it will look just as good on my nails!

I then stopped by the MAC counter as I really wanted to have a proper look at the new collections, Fashion Flower and Semi Precious (eyes in particular)! I could have spent a fortune, but unfortunately because I had Mr Beauty Scoop with me, there was no way to hide what I was buying, so I plumped for Golden Gaze, a very shimmery blackened gold hue that I've been lusting after ever since I saw it on Temptalia.com! I will have to buy the other shades that I want, online - ha!

I also managed to justify buying Prep+Prime Line Filler Base whilst there as I said it could be good for disguising the dent in my forehead that I acquired on a night out at Christmas (last year) when I fell over coming out of the hotel and landed on my head (literally, my head was the first thing to hit the floor), leaving a huge dent where it hit. At the time I didn't think I would be left with a permanent reminder, but as time has gone on this appears to be the case. Anyway, this reason seemed to sit well with Mr Beauty Scoop and so it was purchased - result! Now if I could just think of similar reasons for me to be able to openly buy ALL the items I want, that would be great!

I'll be swatching, reviewing and posting about each item individually so please do come back to see more!!

I Can't Wait To Get...Chanel Fall 2011!

Illusion D'Ombre Shadows

And

I want all of the above, I saw some gorgeous swatches on Cafe Makeup and my bank balance is already weeping at my increasingly imminent shopping spree! Will you be purchasing anything from the collection?

Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess 'Island Oasis' EyeShadow Palette!

This palette has been on my most wanted list for about 3 weeks now, so today I toddled down to the shops to buy it, just in time for my holibobs in a few weeks and I have to say, I am so glad I did as I have not been disappointed in the slightest with it.

The colours are so beautiful, it really is an exceptional palette – perfectly put together and even more perfect for the warm summer weather we’re getting. I can’t pick out a favourite colour in this palette because they’re all equally as stunning; but what is even stranger for me is that I can’t find a colour that I don’t like/don’t think would work for me as I can honestly see myself wearing all of them (not at the same time though) on many occasions!!

In fact, this is one of the few eye shadows that I’ll be taking with me when I go on holiday (in the interest of travelling light) because it holds 6 shadows anyway so hopefully I won’t need to take *that* many more shades to give me enough variety!

The swatches are fairly accurate in how much they show the colour and the shimmer of the shadows, (even though I have used the flash on the camera) as they shimmer perfectly on the skin in ‘real life’ without the flash being necessary to see it... and some of the shades are almost metallic in their appearance – something I really love in an eye shadow, it has to be said.

The palette retails at £31 and can be bought at House of Fraser, which I think is very reasonable (actually, I think it’s great, great value) for 6 perfectly pigmented, beautifully coloured, high quality shadows.

Free Bourjois Ombre Stretch Eyeshadow & Brush (£1.99 postage) @ Cheap Smells!

I just got this offer sent to my email box and have ordered one myself, for £1.99 delivered I thought it was worth trying out - it seems to only be available in 'Vert' (shown above) but that's fine with me, I like green!

If you would like one too, then here's how to get yours:

'To claim your free eyeshadow simply add it to your cart, enter freeombre in a discount voucher box below your cart and press add. The offer also works with other items in your cart - it can be free or free with any order - the choice is yours.'

CheapSmells.com

If you find that you like the product then I've just found that Fragrancedirect.co.uk have a larger colour selection available (5, to be precise) for £1.35 each plus £1.95 postage per order.

Max Factor Colour Precision Eyeshadow In Golden Green!

I bought this on a whim when in Tesco last week, I just liked the colour and didn’t really think about it any further than that; so I’ve now had a chance to mess around with it and test it out and I’m not entirely happy with it which serves me right for not looking for a tester of it, I guess.

I love the colour, obviously as it’s the one and only thing that my purchase was based on. The name of the shade ‘Golden Green’ is a perfect (if not slightly uninspiring) name for the colour as it really is an almost perfect mix of gold and green with a slight metallic-ness to it.

Unfortunately this is where the praise stops as this product is pretty pants when it comes to:

Staying power – I’m pretty gutted that the product is let down massively by its lack of staying power - especially when worn without a primer. Now, I usually use a primer anyway - which does help with the products’ staying power, but that’s not really the point as I don’t think a product should NEED to rely on another product, such as a primer in order for it to stay on the lids (or wherever) whilst still looking good for more than an hour at a time. Just as a side note, my eyelids aren't even that oily and I don't usually have this kind of issue, so god knows how bad it would be if they were!

Application - Another gripe I have is with this is its applicator and application, I kind of expected/assumed (wrongly) that with the word ‘Precision’ in the title of the shadow that this would have a decent applicator that allowed for a precise application of the product; and whilst I’m not entirely sure if this is actually referring to the applicator or not, there’s no getting away from how badly it applies when using the applicator included.

I didn’t find it very precise at all to be honest, I mean the applicator isn’t completely oversized but it is probably a bit chunkier than necessary in my opinion. It’s also quite soft and spongy which makes the product kind of splurge onto your skin, and it’s actually quite patchy too - as you may be able to see in some of the pictures. There doesn’t seem to be a way of applying the product easily, so that you get a good finish. I’ve swatched both a large area and also just swiping the shadow in a line so you can see both results of applying in different ways.

I really wanted to love this as the colour is beautiful, and whilst it seems a shame to waste it, I think this one may have to be given to my nieces to play with – unless anybody knows of a decent way to use it?

I have re-learned my lesson (thankfully not an expensive one); never impulse buy without at least looking properly at the product and swatching if possible.

Bourjois Round Little Pots - 03, 25 and 94 Swatched!

As promised yesterday, these are the second set of swatches from my Bourjois little round pots; this time I have swatched shades (L-R):

Shade 03 – Indigo blue, brilliant when wet... a bit powdery and disappointing when dry, however I’m happy enough to use it wet and it makes a great liner when used with a precision liner brush and a bit of saline! It’s not quite as bright as the swatches with flash show it to be, which is why I took a photo with no flash used – sorry for the bad lighting, I don't think it helped much at all.

Shade 25 – A glittery silver that is quite sheer when dry, but verging on metallic when used wet – I experienced a moderate amount of fall down with this which was expected with the glitter content.

Shade 94 – This is an ivory creamy colour and another disappointing when dry shade, you can barely see it on the swatch which shows 2 swipes, the same amount as I’ve done for every swatch in this range so far. It was a different story when wet though thankfully, another shade that I’m more than happy to use wet when required.

Flash:

No Flash:

I don’t mind the disappointing when dry shades in the range, so long as they’re good to use when wet as that’s how I prefer to use my baked shadows anyway and luckily every one of them has been brilliant when used wet!

I also wanted to add pictures of all the products available and the ‘groups’ that they come under within the range - see below!

Bourjois Round Little Pots - 07, 13 and 74 Swatched!

In the past I’ve always found Bourjois eye shadows to be a little bit too hard which made them appear to be less pigmented than other shadows I used, and as a result I found them hard to work with so they drifted to the bottom of my makeup bag; I always loved the colours in the Bourjois range so it was always a shame that I could never get them to perform for me.

I learned a while ago that they’d had a bit of a revamp and was sent these to try out, and I’ve been very impressed. When used dry the shadows are much easier to use with the new formulation, but as they are still baked shadows, they really come into their own when wet – as you will see in the photo’s (the top row are wet, the bottom are dry).

I’ve swatched the 6 shades that I was sent, but will be doing 3 only in this post and the other 3 in a separate post so as not to make such a picture heavy post. The first shades up are (from left to right):

Shade 07 – A gorgeous, metallic-like black/green duochrome. I think this has such a huge transformation when used wet, it's beautiful, I love it.

Shade 13 – A glittering, glistening prune shade. It did have some fall out, which is to be expected really with it being glittery but I loved it all the same.

Shade 74 – A fabulous brown that is almost metallic when used wet – I love this so much.

Wet (gorgeous, just look at that first shade especially):

Dry:

I’ve used water only for the wet swatches, I think saline solution or MAC Fix+ (or similar) are much better options, but I wanted to use the bare minimum with these so that the products stood out on their own merit, which is why I applied with the supplied applicators too.

No Flash:

Flash:

Edited to add this other photo, with flash that I forgot the first time - I wouldn't usually bother but I think this shows the shadows quite well:

Talking of the applicators, they’re not great... they're not the worst I've used but they’re just too small; I understand this is to fit them in the pot but they’re way too fiddly. They may not be that bad if they were a bit bigger, but then they wouldn’t fit in the pots then so I guess there’s no other option for Bourjois to include an applicator.

All in all I really love these new shadows, I really think that Bourjois have made a positive change with these and can’t wait to get more of the shades into my collection.