Urban Decay to Launch New 'Naked Smoky' Palette on 30th July!

Urban Decay’s original ‘Naked’ palette set off what appears to be a huge wave of similar, neutral-hued palettes being released by many other brands that then saw the niche in the market for dedicated palettes for such easily wearable shades. The Naked arm of the Urban Decay empire has since evolved into its own series, with multiple palettes containing a plethora of neutral, easy to wear shades.

The newest kid on the block is the ‘Naked Smoky’ palette, which is described as being “Packed with a dozen sultry, smoky neutrals — nine never-before-seen shades and three exclusives” and “loaded with ALL the essentials for the perfect neutral smoky eye”.

I’m a bit of a fan of a smoky eye, so this totally appeals to me… and I’m already making notes about which colour combinations I might like to try. I’ll be getting the palette shortly, so I’ll be sure to swatch them for you as soon as it gets here.

Naked Smoky (RRP £38) is available online at urbandecay.co.uk from 30th July.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Urban Decay Naked Palette 3 Now In Stock at House of Fraser Online!

Ok, so I've yet to get my mitts on one of these palettes, but just to let you know that House of Fraser now have it in stock, online for £37.00.

Will you be getting one for yourself/a loved one, or asking for this from Santa? x

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

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

Naked 2 Palette Now Available Online At Debenhams!

 £36 at Debenhams. x

Go go go!

Urban Decay's Naked Palette 2!

Yep that's right, a sibling palette to the massively successful Naked palette is on its way to our shores (I believe it's already available in the USA - lucky things) and it looks like a stunner! I got a few photographs from Urban Decay's Facebook page to show you, in case you had completely missed all talk of this before now!

Available in January 2012 from Debenhams, and other retailers from February!

Sneak Preview - Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol IV

Blue Bus, Gunmetal, Cobra, Baked.

Bender, Gravity, Lost, Hijack

Midnight Cowgirl, Sin, Midnight Rodeo, Crystal

Bust, Missionary, Skimp, Zephyr

I saw this on their Facebook page, and I just had to post it. The palette looks amazing, I definitely need it in my life (although I'm sure that Mr Beauty Scoop would have something to say about how much stuff I already have, ha)... what do you think, are you loving it (so far) or not so much?

The Beauty Scoop Christmas Gift Guide 2010 - Part 1!

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find myself at a loss as to what to buy my loved ones for Christmas. Now I know it’s the thought that counts, but I like buying gifts that are loved and actually used by the person I buy them for; not just given a polite acknowledgement and then stuffed to the back of the cupboard, waiting to be recycled into a present for somebody else because they secretly hate it!

I’ve decided to give a little run down of items, to suit all budgets that I think anybody would love to receive over Christmas; from stocking fillers to main presents I hope to give you a little inspiration from both the products that I have been using and loving and those that I would still love to receive in my present pile this Christmas!

Aveda have some utterly fabulous gifts available, and if you (or your intended recipient) haven’t had chance to try Aveda products then now is a great time to do so! Their Ritual of Repair gift set (£49) comes complete with Damage Remedy Shampoo, Conditioner, Intensive Treatment, Daily Hair Repair and Tagua Hair Band – it also has a £28 saving on the individual retail prices of the products included.

Burts Bees – Get lovely lips for kissing under the mistletoe with this fantastic Burt’s Bees ‘Lip Balm Tin Ornament’ (£9.99) that has 3 of their fabulous lip balms (Beeswax Lip Balm, Replenishing Lip Balm in Pomegranate and Honey Lip Balm) packaged in a metal tin that can be reused – so it’s also great for the environment too.

Clinique have a selection of gifts available, from candles to skincare, they’ve got it all. Two gifts of note (ie that I would love to receive) are:

Laser Focus Repair Gift Set (£50, shown above), a silver travel bag containing Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle & UV Damage Corrector (30ml), Youth Surge SPF 15 Age Decelerating Moisturiser (in dry/combination) 15ml and Repairwear Intensive Eye Cream 7ml.

Pretty Day Into Night Looks Gift Set (£38), a gorgeous pink bag containing a Round Compact with 4 Eyeshadows & 2 Powder Blush Shades, High Impact Mascara 4g in Black, Double-Ended Lipstick in Different Grape 1.3g/Long Last Glosswear SPF15 in Bamboo Pink 4.5ml, Cream Shaper For Eyes in Starry Plum 1.1g and All About Eyes 15ml.

Dermalogica products would be a lovely gift for anybody who likes to look after their skin as Dermalogica, in my opinion are still one of the best skin care brands around (I thoroughly recommend that you try their PreCleanse if nothing else as it's suitable for all skin types, review coming soon to the blog). You may not be able to keep this one a secret as a skin mapping session is always recommended to find out the best products for your skin but you could actually make that part of the present if you were to pay for a facial too.

A Denman Brush (approximately £7) – If you want to give a gift that will just keep on giving then one of these bad boys would be great, they look fab and are built to last. There’s an assortment of great designs available (I’ve shown just a few of them here) and you just know they’ll be used as everybody brushes their hair, right?!

Elemis have a fabulous range of gift sets available, many of them offering a saving off the RRP of the individual products which is a winner to me. I especially like the Exotic Spa Secrets gift box (£49.50), which contains 3 full sized products including: Skin Nourishing Milk Bath, Exotic Frangipani Monoi Bath & Shower Cream and Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt and offers a £38 saving from the usual retail price of each item. Other Elemis gift sets that are worth considering are: Elemis Skin Brilliance, Elemis Perfect Pro-Collagen and Elemis Timeless Radiance.

Front Cover Cosmetics have a selection of gift sets available but the one that stands right out for me is their Moonlit Metals set (£16, swatched here), as I think that the colours contained in it would suit most people -plus it also offers such fantastic value, is on trend and generally just looks like a nice present to give/receive (and is easy to wrap too)!

Molton Browns’ gifts are to die for. Their Treasure Island (£65) and Colour Purple (£42, shown above) gifts immediately caught my eye. The Treasure Island gift includes Heavenly Gingerlily Moisture Bath & Shower Gel, Body Cream, Shimmer Fragrance and Airlight. I haven’t had the pleasure of smelling this set but it sounds beautiful. The Colour Purple set contains Relaxing Yuan Zhi Bath & Shower Gel, Body Cream and Airlight - and might I add, smells divine.

No7 have some beautiful gifts and palettes available right now, I've recently swatched their Precious Metals Mini Nail Polish set (£8) here, and their Limited Edition MirrorBall Eye Palette (£12.50) here but there are so many other gorgeous gifts and fantastic products available (to suit all budgets) that I really do think that it's worth looking to the brand for both stocking fillers and main presents alike.

OPI's Burlesque range is causing quite a stir because it includes a great range of polishes, that all have a Christmassy feel (in my opinion) and I feel would be well received by most people as a gift for Christmas. If you didn’t want to buy them individually, there are gift sets available such as their Little Teasers Mini Lacquers Gift Set (available for around £12.15 online).

Better still QVC have a brilliant set available (shown above). For just £34.10 plus postage (this is an introductory price and could end anytime and go back to the usual price of £37.50) you can get a super gift box which includes: Original Nail Envy (15ml), Avoplex High Intensity Hand & Nail Cream (50ml), OPI Crystal Nail File, Bring on the Bling Lacquer (15ml), Tease-y Does It Lacquer (15ml), Let Me Entertain You Lacquer (15ml) and a mini cuticle stick. Bear in mind that the polishes alone usually retail for £9.95 each and you can see what good value this gift set is – and the person you’re buying for will think you’ve spent even more on them!

Perfumes or perfume gift sets are a safe bet for most people, I’m currently loving Paco Rabanne; in particular their ‘Lady Million’ and ‘Black XS’ fragrances. Other perfumes worth checking out are Viktor & Rolf’s ‘Flowerbomb’, Armani ‘Code’, Marc Jacobs ‘Daisy’ and/or ‘Lola’ and Nina Ricci’s ‘Nina’.

Talking of perfume, Penhaligon's have some beautiful gifts available (as well as some stunning standalone perfumes) a few gifts of note are: the Crystal ‘Bullet’ Atomiser (in Amethyst £120), the Ladies Fragrance collection (£32) which includes 5 miniature 5ml bottles in a lovely bow-topped gift box, and their Votive Candle Collection (£45) which includes 4 miniature (70g) scented glass candles.

Sisley has a fantastic new autumn/winter makeup collection that may just hold a few potential gifts within it. Shown above, the collection contains 10 pieces – all of which I’d be happy to own. If the makeup collection doesn’t grab you then maybe a piece of their award winning skincare range may be more to your taste? After all, who doesn’t want to take care of their skin?!

Sleek palettes (£5.99 each) are cheap in price but fantastic in quality, there’s also a decent amount of palettes for you to choose from so you can be sure there’ll be something there to suit anybody you’re buying for. They’re currently on 3 for 2 at Superdrug, making them even cheaper – in fact if you have a secret santa present to buy then this could be a perfect purchase – much better than socks anyway!

Urban Decay’s Naked Palette (around £27) is bound to be a hit, you can’t really go wrong with neutrals as they suit everybody and this palette is currently one of the best to be had.

Anyway, this rounds up my first gift guide - I hope you've found it useful and maybe solved a few gift dilemmas too!

Urban Decay Liquid Eyeliner (Honey) - Swatched!

I’ve had this eyeliner for a while now and I think it’s really lovely. The colour I have is ‘Honey’ which is a fantastic metallic gold colour – perfect for party season, actually. I thought I'd show you some pictures of it on my skin (sorry about the bad camera/lighting - hopefully this is only temporary as I'm waiting on delivery of a day lamp, and my normal camera starting to work soon) so you can see for yourself.

I love the brush/handle on this as it's a bit shorter than most I encounter, which enables me to have greater control over where the product applies. You get 7.5ml of product for your money (usually between £12 and £13 but can be found even cheaper if  you look, at least for certain colours anyway) and it does seem to last very well – helped I expect by the highly pigmented colour, meaning you need to use less.

This is another multifunctional product as it can also be used as a metallic shadow just by painting over more of the lid- if you were going for more of a striking look.

On the skin the liner retains its metallic shine and gives a great colour payoff due to the great pigmentation of the product. There are 13 colours available in the range, according to the Urban Decay website and they all look equally as fabulous.

Having worn this several times I have to say that the product lasts very well, withstanding being rubbed (I always seem to forget that I am wearing eye makeup, which is strange as that’s the makeup I tend to like wearing, messing about with and experimenting with most) and lasting perfectly on a night out!

Recommended. :-)

Urban Decay Ammo Shadowbox.

This set was released as part of Urban Decay's 10th birthday celebrations and it is just perfect.

The box is very slim which means it’s easy to pack in a fairly small makeup or hand bag, and light so it can easily be taken with you when you’re travelling or even going out for the night - if you wanted to do some touch ups and it has a strong magnetic clasp which means that it stays shut; so no danger of it coming open and the shadows getting ruined which is a big plus point in my experience. It is purple with a foil and velvet design on that consists of flowers, leaves, and hearts to skulls and even fish – but it looks lovely and feels nice to touch because of the velvet.

Upon opening the case I notice a decent sized mirror, again with a surrounding foil design that matches the outside of the box. It’s quite decadent looking, and so are the shadows it contains.

Each shadow measures approximately 1.5cm x 2cm and whilst this doesn’t sound very big, I have found that they actually last very well. Because the pigment in them is quite strong, I have found that you don’t need to apply a huge amount to get the coverage and depth you need, even if you want to wear the colours strong and opaque.

The hues contained are beautiful, 10 different colours that are said to be arranged in 5 matching duos, running the gamut from subtle to all out sexy. I actually find that whilst these are arranged into ‘matching colours’ these shadows can be mixed and matched with each other very easily to create a number of different looks suitable for any occasion. Below is a quick rundown of the colours from my perspective.

Smog – A deep coppery bronze, lovely in the eye socket.

Maui Wowie – This is a cool medium gold that has a bit of glitter in it; not over the top though. This is one of my personal favourites.

Mildew – A deep, dirty green. This has the perfect name but is a gorgeous colour, despite the name.

Shattered – A turquoise like hue that edges more to the blue, a classy blue – if you will.

Oil Slick – Black, with glitter. I love this; it’s perfect for smoky eyes with a little bit of fun added because of the very slight glittery particles.

Polyester Bride – White with silver glitter. This is great for brightening the inside of the eyes.

Last Call – ‘Plum punch’ A beautiful medium-light plum colour which nods to a more pink plum hue than full on purple, that will blend beautifully with a number of other colours from this set.

Grifter – Sheer lavender with lots of ‘microglitter’ – a very light colour, but a very lovely one all the same.

Chopper – A coppery fawn hue with silver ‘microglitter’ in.

Sin – A nude champagne hue with probably the least amount of shimmer out of all the shadows included in this set, but this doesn’t make it any less noticeable in my opinion.

All the colours have a sheen/shimmer to them and whilst this would make it seem like these shadows could only be for evening wear, you would be wrong to think this true. These shadows are never overly glittery, and all of the colours can be built up and adapted to suit daytime use as you wish. I personally love using smog and maui wowie or sin together for daytime usage – I just use very thin layers of each of them.

The shadow is very good quality and stays put once applied, even without the use of a primer – which is much better than many others that I have tried previously.  It’s also easy to apply, it blends well and I find it doesn’t dust all over my face when applying like some other shadows have been prone to doing. It has also never caused any irritation with my eyes, and although they’re not particularly sensitive to most things, this is still a plus for me.

It has become a regularly used product in my makeup bag, both when on the move and at home and I would have no hesitation to replace it when the time comes, either with the same set or with the individual colours contained in the set (if the set is no longer available to buy). The set costs £22.50, although I am sure it could be found cheaper if you were to shop around but it’s worth every penny, even at full price.