Teeny Tiny Haul, MUA Make Up & A Mac Dupe

Hello my little sweeties,

I've got a really small haul for you, as you may or may not know, I have been saving for my holiday next month, and therefore shouldn't be spending any money. However, yesterday I was really bored, and what do I do when I get bored? Get cravings to go shopping.

So I popped into Superdrug and picked up these three items:

Revlon lipgloss in Peach Petal, which is gorgeous and smells fan-tab-ulous! And from the much talked about Makeup Academy £1 range, I got two items to test out - nail polish in shade 4, a coral and an eyeshadow in shade 11 Pearl. So far, I can confirm I will be going back for more of these products, and here's why...

With flash:

Without flash:

And here's the dupe alert!

MAC Satin Taupe & MUA Shade 11

Top: MAC

Bottom: MUA

The MUA eyeshadow is just gorgeous, I love the pearly sheen to it and for the bargain price of £1 its an amazingly high quality, highly pigmented shadow. Massive thumbs up! I'm going to be picking a few more shadows up sometime in the near future, so look out for that.


Onto the nail polish, yes it is a very small bottle, but again for the price, you can't really complain, this is how it came out with two coats:

Natural light by the window:

Without flash:

IRL it is much more coral than it shows up here, but never the less, it is a great polish.

Finally I thought I'd just throw in the fact that Faith have gone into Administration, if you didn't already know, so all their stores are closing down, this saddens me. However it does mean massive clearance sales, as I had been on the look out for a small white bag for my hols, I picked this up, reduced to £14.40

Loves,

Primers

I have oily skin and I hate it. I've always relied on powders to mattify my skin. Powder before foundation, powder after foundation, powder top ups. A kabuki brush is my best friend, something I always have in my bag just to give a quick brush and instantly take away any shine I may have.

But recently I've been trying out primers, these are the three I have:

I started out with Smashbox Photo Finish Light (middle primer), I got this for free when I was working at Reveal Magazine, so I thought I would give it a go. It claims that it is perfect for oily, acne prone or sensitive skin, this oil free, 60% water based primer refreshes on contact while oil absorbers provide a smooth matte finish all day. 

This primer isn't too thick, and it does instantly mattify my face, however I'm still having to use powder with it, I don't know if that is because of the foundation I use? Also I gave up using this, because I had a break out whilst I was.

The next primer I tried was the No. 7 Shine Free Make-Up Base (left). I never normally use No. 7 products because they are over priced, but I had a £5 voucher, so I think I only paid another fiver for this. By the way ignore the weirdness on the picture of this primer, there was in incident with a straightener. On the front of this product it states that it stops shine for a matte finish. And on the back...Keep shiny skin under control all day long,  with this mattifying oil-free base. This base isn't as silky as the smashbox, and sometimes when I rub it into my face I get little white lumps of product build up that I have to brush away. Also I find that foundation doesn't really go well on top of it. It's really hard to explain, but there are always problems with my foundation when I use this especially on my nose. I wouldn't purchase this again.

Lastly there is the GOSH Velvet Touch, I happened to notice in Superdrug today that this product had £4 off until Tuesday (27th), reducing it to £8 something, so I thought why not try it? The packaging says that it's a perfect base for all make up. It fills in fine lines and deep pores in the skin creating a uniform, matte and silky soft surface, enabling the easy and smooth application of foundation. This comes with a pump applicator (as does Smashbox), but unlike the other two is clear, not white. I've just tried it out on my hand and it feels really silky, but seems to take a while to blend. 

I'm going out tonight, so it's the perfect time to test this product, I'll let you all know how it goes my lovlies! 

What are your favourite primers? Recommendations welcome.

On a completely different note, I got a cover for my MacBook the other day and it's PINK! Everyone keeps asking me if I got a new laptop, I love it! 

Loves,

Maybelline, Barry M, GOSH, Mac & Nails

This haul is over a week old, but this is the first chance I'm getting to post it up now because I'm not too well today. I'm in bed with my laptop, Jeremy Kyle on the TV and Marie Claire by my side, which has a free 100ml bottle of James Brown hair mask, by the way. 

I'll start with the drugstore buys. I went to Superdrug because I knew they were doing a 3 for 2 on GOSH items, as I'd seen them the week before, but my boyfriend wouldn't let me spend on my credit card! But seeing as I got paid the week after, he let me! I was after a nail polish, I got Frou Frou, its a gorgeous metallic pink, I also got two eyeshadows, in beige and grey brown, which look really nice together for an everyday eye. I then needed to get some foundation, recently I've been using Dream Satin Liquid by Maybelline, and they were on a 3 for 2 as well, so I two bottles and my fave mascara of the moment, the lash stiletto. Along with the 3 for 2 if you bought three products, you got a free makeup bag with three free brushes in it, worth £9.99, so lots of freebies there. Finally, I got a pack of my usual french tip nails. 

When I saw some reviews of the new Barry M nail paint in Pink Flamingo, I knew I had to have it, and of course I couldn't just order one thing off the website, so I got another nail paint, in Bright Pink and three lip paints in 100 Baby Pink, 146 Dolly Pink and 140 Pink Sparkle. I haven't really tested them out much yet, but I think they are going to need to be mixed with a nude lippy as they are a bit bright for me. 

Finally, I got a few things from ebay, a MAC blush, it doesn't have a colour on it, but it is a very peachy pink with a subtle shimmer and also a Konad kit, with two polishes and one stencil. I've tried practicing with the Konad, but find it a little tricky. I'm sure practice will make perfect though. Fingers crossed. 

Thats all for now :)

Loves,

xoxox