Superdrug Haul - featuring Makeup Revolution, Barry M and Maybelline!

I've been keeping my eyes peeled and waiting for my local Superdrug to bring out their Makeup Revolution stands, so I was pretty excited when I popped in last week and spotted some of newer I ♥ Makeup palettes and lipsticks. Obviously, I couldn't just walk out without having a quick look at the Barry M stands as well...

 

I've liked the look of the Aquarium polishes for ages but hadn't thought to buy any. Mermaid and Pacific jumped out at me straight away, I'm such a sucker for blue polishes. Pacific has a gorgeous metallic sheen to it, and Mermaid contains shiny gold, green and blue particles. I can't wait to try it out as a top coat for some of my other polishes!

I also spotted some of the new Maybelline Baby Lips Electro shades. I went for Strike a Rose which adds a bright pink tint to my lips, and smells like sour skittles. I haven't tried on for long enough to see how moisturising it is, but it definitely feels comfortable on my lips.

After seeing some reviews of Colour Overdose from I ♥ Makeup on various blogs, I knew I was going to have to add it to my collection at some point! It's a really vibrant coral-red, and I love it! I wasn't sure it would suit me at first but now I'm head over heels for it. Just make sure your lips are well hydrated beforehand though, these lipsticks cling to any dry patches!

I also couldn't resist picking up the I ♥ Makeup I am in Love palette, I think these are a really clever idea. You've got six eyeshadows, 2 mattes and 4 shimmers, and a lipstick all in a nifty little palette with a mirror.

The top row of shadows are lighter pinks, the darker shimmery pink is just beautiful.

And here we have the bottom row, the darker shadow has little bits of purpley glitter in it but I couldn't catch it very well. I really like that matte pink as well, it's got much more pigmentation to it than some of the mattes in Makeup Revolution's other palettes.

Unfortunately, the lipstick lets the palette down a little bit. It's a very pale pink and it really washes me out so I probably won't be using it. If it had just been a little bit darker it would have been perfect!

Now that I know Makeup Revolution have a stand in my local Superdrug I'll definitely be popping in more often!

Make Up Revolution Haul

Make Up Revolution is a new brand which has been all over some of my favourite blogs recently, so I couldn't resist seeing what all the fuss was about! 

First on my list, was always going to be the Iconic 3 palette. I think we can all guess which well known brand this palette is duping, but I can afford this £4 price tag a lot easier than the £37 for the original! I can't do a comparison on how the shades match up to the original, but what I do know is that these shades are gorgeous. I love a shimmery eyeshadow, and this palette is packed with them, as well as some lovely matte shades. I've swatched them below for your viewing pleasure, and so that I could get a feel for the texture of the shadows. I've had to number the lighter shades as they were almost invisible on my pale skin, but I'm in love nonetheless. This is a gorgeous palette, and I've already used it to create a couple of looks for work and going out in the evening, it's really very versatile.

I also picked up two baked blushers. For £2.50 each, you get a fantastic pop of colour with a hint of shimmer. These will probably be going with me on holiday to Corfu next month, as I think they'd look great with slightly tanned (if I'm lucky) holiday skin! I picked up Loved Me the Best and All I Think About is You. Loved Me the Best is more of a peachy red which is a colour I've really been enjoying this spring. It seems to really suit my skintone. All I Think About is You is more candy pink, but with some peach undertones thrown in. I'm in love with both of them! 

I was intrigued by the Amazing Care Lipsticks, the layer of Argan oil surrounding the inner layer of colour to provide hydration sounds like my ideal product! I went for Love Pink as on the website it looks like quite a natural pink colour, but in person it's quite bright! I was interested to see how these applied, and I did get in a little bit of a mess on my first go as the colour sort of smudged onto the outer layer, but once I'd got the hang of it, it was quite easy. These are incredibly comfortable to wear, they don't feel sticky or gloopy like a gloss, and they don't really feel like a lipstick either. I'd definitely recommend!

Finally, I couldn't leave the site without picking up a nail polish, especially at only £1 each. I picked a lovely dusky pink, called Never Enough. The formula seems fairly standard, I did find that the polish seemed to take quite a long time to dry, but a quick drying top coat would fix that. I applied two coats as I would normally. 

I am super impressed by Make Up Revolution. I've picked up some absolute bargain products which aren't lacking in quality at all, and I can't wait to see where this brand is going to go! I can definitely see myself going back for the other Iconic palettes, and the baked blushes are amazing. 


Have you picked up anything from Make Up Revolution yet?


 

Benefit Haul

I was lucky enough to get some lovely spending money around my birthday, so naturally I decided that I would pick up some new Benefit goodies to play with. I'd seen a few reviews floating around for these cute lip glosses and eyeshadows, and I absolutely couldn't resist.

Firstly, I will never get over how gorgeous Benefit's packaging is. I love the 'Gatsby' feel that these little boxes have, and I'm definitely not throwing them away. They're currently making my dressing table look super pretty.

The first product I picked up was the Longwear Powder Shadow in 'Thanks a Latte'. This is a gorgeous shimmery brown, and comes in a cute plastic pot. The pot itself feels quite sturdy for plastic, but I still probably wouldn't want to just chuck it in my bag. Below I have a couple of swatches, just to give you some idea of the colour on the skin. The darker swatch is how I wear the shadow, as I find that it just needs building up slightly to get a stronger hit of colour. The shadow is incredibly smooth to apply, and there is very little fall out. I used this one without a primer, and found that it lasted most of the day which is pretty impressive as I apply my make up at about 6am and by 5pm it was still hanging in there.

I also decided to pick up one of the creaseless cream shadows. The shade that I've picked is much darker than I thought it would be (the woes of ordering online), but it's still a shade that I can use. This shade is 'Holy Smokes', and I absolutely love the glass lid on the pot this is in! When applied the shadow is almost liquid in texture, so I would definitely recommend a primer for these if you want it to hang around. I used the 'Stay Don't Stray' primer from the March Birchbox and found that the eyeshadow applied very smoothly, and was held in place for the majority of the day. There wasn't any creasing either.

I also picked up this adorable lip gloss in 'Fauxmance'. This colour is described on the Benefit website as being a 'soft berry' and I would definitely agree with that. It applies like a dream, and doesn't feel at all sticky on my lips. This is definitely going to become a firm favourite and I can easily see myself getting a few different shades from this range.

Finally, I decided to pick up one of Benefit's famous blushes. I absolutely love Rockateur, so I decided to try and get something with a similar peachy hue. Coralista definitely fit the bill! This is a gorgeous peach blush with a slight shimmer to it. I also really love the cute little brushes included, I think they work really well with the product and they feel like really good quality too. The blush itself looks great when it's applied, I would say that it is definitely more pigmented than Rockateur. I might have gone a bit crazy with it initially, you really don't need to apply an awful lot to get a lovely rosy cheeked look!

So that's my haul! Have you tried any of these Benefit goodies?

Interview Haul

So the exciting news I mentioned last week is that I have a new job! I'm really pleased, but also quite sad to be leaving my current job as I've worked there longer than I have anywhere else. When I found out I'd got an interview I was quite stressed as I knew I didn't have anything remotely smart enough to wear! Luckily, this month was one of the council tax break months, so I had some spare cash to go shopping for an outfit.

The first item on my shopping list was a dress. I knew I wanted something with a pencil silhouette as this suits my figure best, and I spotted this dress in Dorothy Perkins for £25. I tried it on and it fit like a glove, so that was easily sorted! I was so pleased to get it for such a reasonable price too, I had been expecting to shell out £50+ for a decent dress.

 

I wasn't sure whether to get a smart cardigan or a blazer to go with the dress. I tried on quite a few blazers in different shops, but I have to wear the petites as I'm really short and I found that most of them made my shoulders look ridiculous! After much online searching I spotted these cardigans on the H&M website. Originally I was going to get the pink, but when I went into my local store I saw that they had this lovely cream design which was perfect with my dress. One thing I would say about these though, is that they run large. I would normally buy a medium in H&M, but I bought a small because the mediums looked baggy. When I got home I realised that the small was still too baggy, so I washed and dried it, and luckily it shrank just enough to be better fitting!

 

 

As for accessories, I knew I would need a smart handbag. Normally I carry everything around in a satchel, but I figured something more smart would be needed for an interview! Accessorize came to my rescue with this cute handbag. For £29, this was a bargain. It's a bag that I will get loads of use out of, and it's roomy enough to carry around all of my essentials and more. I could almost fit my certificates folder into it as well, it was only just too small.

 

The final item on my list was shoes. I knew I was going to get them from Clarks, I just wasn't sure what style I wanted. In the end it was between these gorgeous heels or these sensible brogues. I tried both pairs on and I think I would have probably managed alright with the heels, but I'm far more at home in flats and I already own a pair of these brogues in a snazzy black and white pattern. They're super comfortable, and they last for ages. 

 

So that's my interview haul! I'm really pleased with the things that I got as I will definitely use them all again in my new job, and I also think I managed to get some really good bargains. The dress and the cardigan definitely saved me a fortune, buying a full suit would have been super expensive!

What do you think of my interview haul? Would you prefer to wear a suit or something a bit less formal? 

 

MUA Haul

Ahh payday! I love to get myself a few little treats when I get paid, and this week I decided to pop into Superdrug to see what I could bag! 

 

Superdrug were offering a free colourblast eyeshadow when you spent £6 on MUA, which was all the excuse I needed to pick up a couple of things I'd been itching to try out! 

I've wanted to give the Velvet Lip Lacquers a go ever since they came out last year, but having seen how pigmented they were, I was little bit scared of them! I decided to pick up the shade 'Reckless'. This is a gorgeous deep red and I can confirm that it is definitely not for the fainthearted! I found it quite difficult to apply mainly because I went a tiny bit over my lipline on my top lip, and then had to work quite hard to remove the staining where I'd gone wrong. These have got some serious staying power and are not easy to remove once they've dried! They're available here for £3 each.

 

I can't resist a MUA palette, and my collection was missing the Undressed Palette. This is a lovely collection of neutral shades, and I'm super impressed by the pigmentation as always!

You've got a great mix of matte and shimmer shades here, but obviously the shimmers are my faves. Here's the top layer of the palette swatched. 

 

Pretty pretty! The top matte shade is barely visible, but I am entirely about those shimmers. That copper shade at the bottom is just begging to be used!

 This is the bottom layer of the palette, and it's definitely my favourite! All of those shimmery brown shades are gorgeous, and the silvery grey at the bottom is fantastic. This palette is currently sold out on MUA's website, but I'd recommend checking your local Superdrug. This retails for £4.

And finally, the freebie! This is a Colourblast eye shadow tint in 'Bring it Back'. I've tried a few other eyeshadow crayons before and not really enjoyed them. I find that they smudge incredibly easy, and very often don't last a whole day. MUA's products have never disappointed me with their staying power though, so I'm interested to see whether this will change my mind! Here, I've swatched it twice, and in the bottom swatch I've blended it a bit to get an idea of what it might look like on the eyelid. It's quite subtle even though it has some glitter to it. Colourblast eyeshadow tints are available here for £2 each.

Overall I'm super pleased with my haul! I love that these products came to just £7, and I didn't lose out on quality at all. I'd love to see some new products from MUA soon though, I want some more palettes to hoard!