Neon lips

I really like bright lipsticks, but I often find that ones that look like they're bright end up bieng oddly pale and pastel-ish on my dark lips. The best colour I've ever found is the 106 (Neon red) from Stargazer, which is a colour I can get in nail polish but not in lipstick from anywhere else! It's basically a pinkish red with a bright neon look. My problem with it is that I hate the texture of stargazer lipstick. It's like sand and even with lip balm over the top I find it uncomfortable, so I took to the internet to look for other neon reds.

 I didn't find much. I'm waiting for a Limecrime lipstick to arrive in 'Retrofuturist', and I have my fingers crossed that it may be a similar colour to the stargazer one, but in terms of Neon lippys, the only full-on neon ones I could find were by a company called 'Janet'. I ordered the red first to see what the texture was like....

I was concerned that they may actually be the same lipsticks as Stargazer, but under a different name, but they're actually a much nicer texture. They're less gritty, more balmy. I'm not saying they're the best quality lipsticks in the world, but they're similar to (for example) Miss Sporty lipsticks. They're not gloss, or matte, they're somewhere inbetween. they have a bit of a shine basically, but they're flat colour (no glitter here!). I liked the Neon Red enough to order the Orange, Pink and Magenta colours too. The Neon red is almost a deep red-orange on me, it's hard to get pictures that show the true Neon brightness of these, but trust me, they're bright!

The orange issuper bright, you could see me from a mile off! How very on-trend!

 The pink is seriously neon - almost glow in the dark even thought it's not dark!

The Magenta lippy is great for me, because I've really been struggling to find a magenta that doesn't make me look weird! They always come out to pale and powdery on me, but this one is a good colour and texture but is still super bright.

You can find these on ebay if you search for 'Janet lipstick', they also have a acid yellow, purple, green and blue version, and you can get them for around £2.50. If you like obnoxious lipsticks then you might like these!

The Revolution will be Blogevised

Yeah yeah, I'll name my posts what I want okay?!

Leah did a great post about a new make up brand called 'Revolution', and I knew I had to try it. Like Leah I love MUA makeup, so the thought that this sister brand (or however you'd describe it!) would be equally cheap but with a more diverse range of colours was very exciting!

The first things that caught my eye were the highlighting powders. I LOVE highlighters, not because I want to attempt any kind of shaping or (the new trend for painting your imaginary face on as if your a Madame Tussauds wax work) contouring, but because I don't like to have a matte face. I don't use normal powder, I use highlighters all over to set my foundation and give me a dewy look. Aren't these attractive?! What a lovely shape!

I use MUA 'undress your skin' as my everyday powder and I love it, but I have been wanting something a little less pink. I ordered the golden highlighter straight away, and then ummed and ahhhed about the peach one for a while.... It's very similar to the MUA highlighter, but I decided to try it anyway.... at £3 a pop I didn't have much to loose!

I like the colour and texture of both of these very much. The peach is still pink in tone, but I think it is a tiny bit more peachy and a little bit more subtle than the MUA version. It's my new daily powder! The gold is quite intense (It'll be good for eyeshadow) and the colour is delicious. I'll swap over to this powder when my skin starts to darken over summer and I want golden brown tones rather than pink. Over all I really like these powders, I highly recommend them!

The scandalous lipstick collection consists of 5 intense colours. I went for the orange one (called 'Vice') and at £1 a pop they're a decent lipstick. Unsurprisingly they're similar to the £1 MUA lipsticks - quite creamy with a medium/high coverage that isn't too shiny. This is actually a proper orange colour. If you've been searching for a true orange then this is worth a try, you need two layers for perfect coverage and the colour is lovely!

I was really excited about the #happy lips Amazing Care collection. I like intense colours, but I don't want my lips to dry out or feel like they are covered in sand! I love coloured balms, so I thought I'd be on safe ground with these. Firstly the boxes made my heat sing because they are rose gold. I won't tell you again how much I love anything that is rose gold, but they looked lovely, and the lipstick packaging is lovely too. They look impressive with the colour through the centre and the argon oil conditioning balm as an outer layer, and only £3 each.

Lets talk about the colours. Obviously I had to try the red.... that's my bread and butter, but I wanted to be able to show you some swatches so I also got love a hug (silly name!) and love pink. I knew electric love and nude would be too pale on my dark lips, so these seemed sensible to me. The red is a good old fashioned shade, the pink is a nice fuchsia pink, and 'a hug' (see doesn't work does it?!) is a sort of coral tinted rosy pink. They're all very nice, very wearable colours. You get a good pop of colour but obviously they're not particularly intense. As you can see they go on quite glossy. I'd say they are somewhere between creamy and greasy at first, then they start to feel like a balm over time, and my lips felt nice throughout the day.

There are a few problems with these though.... I don't like the taste for one thing. I guess it's the argan oil, it just tastes a bit gross, but it's only noticeable if you really lick your lips. The main issue I have though is that the colour in the core wears down much quicker than the outer layer, and within the space of a day I was already having to apply a lot of pressure to get the colour on my lips rather than just the argan oil balm. I think I will actually have to slice off the top layer after a few days wear. I'd say that this was quite a major design flaw. I think these would be a much better product if the core was much larger and the glossy balm was just a thin layer, otherwise in the long run you'd be better just getting one of the millions of moisturising coloured balms / tints available from other brands, because you get the same kind of coverage and gloss, but you don't have to apply the wand at strange angels to get the colour on your lips!

Over all I have to say that Revolution are off to a pretty good start and I feel sure that I'll shop with them again, particularly if I can actually test things out in Superdrug (the joy!). The highlighting powders really are lovely, and you'd pay a lot more for this kind of product from other make up brands, Mac charge £22 for theirs! I'd love to see how the purple toned powder (called 'pink' lights) looks when on the skin - I avoid purple at all costs, but I think it would look amazing on darker skin-tones! Being on a budget at the moment stopped me from going overboard, but I think the eye foils and bronzers look awesome, as does the Kajal. I'd really like to try out their 'the one foundation', but I've sworn never to buy foundation online again because the shades are never right, that's something I will certainly need to test out in store.... next month maybe!

£68-£18.95 = £49.05 left to spend!

Elf mineral make up review

I've been wanting to try some mineral foundation for ages - not sure why, it just seemed like a nice Idea! I like a semi sheer foundation, I've never been a fan of the thick stuff that feels like a mask, but I have quite good skin generally speaking so I don't need thick makeup. I've used all kinds of foundation over the years but unfortunately for my bank balance I've landed on Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Éclat Illuminating Foundation. This is a particularly expensive item because as I get older I've found that my skin colour changes throughout the year much more than it used to, and my face is at least one shade darker during the summer months so I have two foundations that I use, with the option of mixing them throughout the year.

 I've seen lots of bloggers wearing e.l.f makeup, and when I realised they sold mineral foundation for £5 per pot, and were offering £10 off a £20+ spend (amazing!) I thought I'd try some. To give you an idea about my skin tone I wear YSL Beige Rose 40 in the winter and Beige Rose 50 in the summer. I'm not exactly olive skined, but I'm also not as pale skined as I was a few years ago & am now able to tan slightly (which just didn't happen until a couple of years ago!) so I'm sort of a hint of olive with a pink overtone.

This lot (plus the brush) was what I went for. I have to say that I was a bit surprised by the colours of the foundations. They are far less pink as well as darker in real life than they look on the site. It's so important to have a reliable colour chart of your buying this sort of thing online so I was a bit annoyed! Anyway, I compared them to my YSL's before opening them and they weren't a million miles off so I tested them out. Additionally the 'sheer' booster powder is so pink that I figured it might balance out the yellowness of the foundations! I chose the eye brightener deliberately because it's quite yellow, and my under eye circles are normally dark with a bluish / purple tone so I was hoping that would balance them out!

Here is my face! I have to say that my camera (as it turns out!) is not really up to daylight close ups. My skin is a bit more blotchy and ruddy than this, particularly with the winds we've had recently! Anyway, it's the best I have so lets get to it! I had just showered, moisturised (blue Nivia forever!) and I've got a bit of Garnier tinted caffeine eye roll on under my eyes. Ready to go!

I used a kabui brush to apply the foundation, this one is from MUA (£5)

This is the beige foundation (£5) and it's a little bit darker than my skin but not too disturbing. As much as I appreciate bieng able to pay just a fiver for a small pot of foundation (to try), the size does make this a bit fiddly to use. The brush is bigger than the lid so it goes everywhere, and takes quite a long time to apply because you have to keep going back. I think this would be much easier to use if it were the size of the booster!

Foundation done (eventually!) and it's quite a nice sheer coverage. I think to get thick coverage you'd either have to have quite greasy skin or use tons of this! 

My stupid camera decided to change it's white balance slightly in this shot (argh!) but I then added the eye brightener (£3.50) under my eyes all over my eye bags. It's hard to see but this actually worked rather well, I think it might be my favourite item in this order! As you can see it's a bit darker and more yellow than my normal skin tone, so on goes the Mineral booser....

This is the last of the e.l.f products I tried. The pinkness of the mineral booster certainly equalled out the yellow of the foundation a bit. The idea of this powder is to 'absorb oil and minimises the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines and pores for a beautiful even finish' which it sort of does. I have to say that I'm always a bit freaked out by very matte skin though, so for me this over all look was just tooooo powdery and needed a touch of sheen!

MUA undress your skin highlighter to the rescue! I love this stuff, but it may be too frosted for some peoples liking!

Ahhh that's better! I like to be a bit shiny - not glittery, just a subtle sheen!

I finished my make up with my normal favorites and this is the final look. 

Gosh bronzing shimmer powder (002 pink) on my cheeks (I normally use this all over my face and MUA 1D 'oh my blush' on the apple of my cheeks fyi).

My everyday mascara nowadays is Gosh growth mascara. Not because I like the texture or brush (I don't, I much prefer Max Factor masterpiece mascara!) but because it actually works and has improved my eyelashes loads since I got it! L'Oreal superliner (the original) which in my humble opinion is the easiest liquid liner to use and can do both thin & fat lines. Then a nice sheer slick of lip colour in the form of my beloved NYC appleicious glossy lip balm in 'big apple red'. I have so much love for the appleicious balms, I've got 5 of them!

The final apperance is nice I think, but in all honesty there is no way that this foundation is going to replace my YSL liquid one. It's a bit a pain in the bum to use and I know i'd make such a mess using all this powder first thing in the morning! I also think that my skin is too dry for powder foundation to really work well on. I just feel like I'm wearing so much more make up than usual, but have ended up with the same effect as normal, albeit a little drier! I think this would be much better for ladies with greasy skin. Having said all that I think it will come into it's own when I have posh functions and need a more matte, polished look & have time to take a while applying thick layers. I also think it'll be good in summer when I don't want to slather my face with liquids. I wear less make up in the summer months so a thin layer of this on a hot day with just a bit of mascara will be great I think, plus lets just say it, this will cope better with my sweaty face than a liquid foundation I think!. The booster powder will be handy when I need to tone down shine or to even out the yellowness of the foundations. I think the product I'll use most will be the eye brigthener, which for everyday use I'd just put a thin layer of right on top of my under eye concealer (flips between Garnier caffeine roll on and YSL touche eclat fyi!) and leave it at that, because as you can see from the picture above, too much powder tends to emphasise the plump bags I always have under my plump eyes!

Plump Parsnip out!

Red or dead

My love affair with Red lipstick has been a long one, but recently I realised that most of my favourite red lipsticks are very drying. Generally I wear tinted balms because I hate having dry lips, but sometimes I want an intense colour, so I've been buying buying buying! I've been taking advantage of the Superdrug 3 for 2 mix & match deal (across loads of makeup brands, it's very good!) so here are some of my purchases....

 I had a lovely matte red lipstick from Dior (velvet rather than matte really) but the perfume in Dior make-up makes me feel sick so I got rid. I got the £1 MUA matte red lippy to try, along with the matte nude. As it was 3 for 2 I also lost my mind and got this super frosted coral colour from the MUA One Direction range.... basically it is just like one I had when I was first allowed to wear make-up. I remember it very clearly, it was from Avon, it was from a Christmas range, it had a white case and there was a icy ridge shape around the base of the actual lipstick. I adored it, even though I never wore it out!

 I love the Red matte, for £1 it's a bargain and I like the clean white packaging too! The nude is a bit too light for me (they always are!) but I think it might come in handy as a base for other colours or gloss. I have no idea when I'm ever going to wear the coral one.... it has the look and texture of an old ladies lipstick, but it still love it!

It's hard to show the colours 100% accurately, but you get the gist I hope! The fact the 1D lipstick is called 'I want Liam' makes me sick.... I might not have bought it had i realised. Just for the record, I don't 'want' any of the children in One Direction!

 I've got a couple of things from Miss Sporty (dunno what's sporty about their make-up but whatever!) and I've never been blown away by their lip products until I found these. I've got a couple of 'perfect colour' lipsticks (plain blue tubes) and the texture is not great in my opinion; a tad dry, but these new lipsticks (annoyingly also called 'perfect colour') have a better texture, a much more extensive range of colours (including black) and nicer packaging than their predecessors. It seems that they're so new that even the Miss Sporty website doesn't have them yet! Luckily for me Superdrug have them in store and online, so at £2.59 each I had fun trying them all out!

I'm loving the cheap and cheerful packaging with the little windows making them easy to find in my makeup drawers, but I wish Superdrug would stop using sticker alarms that destroy the packaging; so much sticky shit all over them, it's totally ruined the tubes! Anyway, back to the bit inside the tube....It's hard to show the subtle differences between the tones but wowzers they have a good range of reds!

I'm not sure how to describe the texture? It feels moisturising and has a bit of a sheen when first applied, but isn't too glossy and dries into a more matte look. It's almost 100% flat colour, not at all frosted thank goodness! I think a lipliner would be helpful with them for a really polished look. I always think Miss Sporty lipsticks and balms have a watermelon candy smell & taste...not sure if that is the aim, but that's how it comes across to me.... I much prefer fruit to powdery or floral scents!

Again it's tricky to get a 100% accurate image of the colours, but I'll describe them in my own particular makup (well... food!) language and hope that you get it! On Fire is a bright orange toned scarlet. It's the sheerest of the batch, but looks juicy and sexy on.... blood orange! Malaga is what I think of as a classic Hollywood red; bright, rich and luscious with a bit of fire..... strawberry! High Red is what I would describe as a burlesque red, deep and sultry..... red cherry!. Sweet Berry is almost pink, but still works as a beautiful berry red.... raspberry!

Looks like I'll will be wearing lots of red lippy this autumn / winter. To top all this off Ms Danielle Vanier has reviewed one of the best looking reds I've seen in years - Clarins Red, which I now want of course!

Wardrobe weekly

Monday

 Time for coats again. Oh well, summer couldn't last forever could it?

 I just wanted to wear heels for some reason. Big mistake, even these comfy court shoes can't cope with my journey to & from work plus a whole day of running around. I just have to accept that now I live in South London (as opposed to North) I will have to be one of those people who wears comfy shoes to work and takes her heels in a bag :(

 On the upside they are fabulous aren't they? I loved this outift. I wasn't sure about this skirt when I first got it, but the trick is to wear it as if it's high waisted, and then the curves hit me in the right places!

 T-shirt 20 - Primark

Earrings - H&M

Skirt 2xl - Domino Dollhouse

leggings - Primark

Shoes - Clarks Originals

Coat 22 - New Look Inspire 
Jade domed ring - ebay

Tuesday

 People went nuts for this dress. Funny really because as much as I like it I think some of my other outfits are much more impressive, but I am a fan of the garish so what do I know?! Simply be retweeted my picture of it and I gained 14 new followers, a couple of whom went straight online and bought the dress for themselves!

Dress 24 - Simply Be via Crazy Clearance

Necklace - Hawaii via my mum's friend!

Ring - Dorothy Perkins

Leggings - H&M

Booties - Primark

 I went a bit nuts in H&M accessories section as well as superdrug on the way home. Love the Max factor colour elixir's. Also really loving the GOSH bronzer which isn't too dark and has a proper pink tone to it. I've been using it everyday.

Scary picture!

I've been using the GOSH growth serum on my eyelashes (which are sadly short, stumpy and patchy after years of eyelash curling) and brows (thinner than I'd like from accidental over plucking!) and it really seems to be working. I find it hard to remember to put it on every night though so I decided to get the growth mascara too. Not overly enamoured with the texture of it... it's a bit gloopy, but I'm super fussy about mascara because I like natural looking lashes.

Wednesday

My best mate came to work to visit me today with her tiny wee daughter, and I always like to dress up when I see her. She loves anything even slightly Art Nouveau, and I always think the pattern on this dress is very nouveau-ish. She loved it!

Dress 22 - Anna Scholz Black Label

Earrings - H&M

Leggings 20 - Primark

Shoes - Brako via TKMaxx

Thursday

Errrrr.... is this autumn? It feels more like I've been plunged straight into the bleak mid winter, except it's not cold enough to wear my big coats and wooly hats yet. I hate it when it rains all the time but is still quite mild, dressing for this weather sucks.... sweaty and damp on my journey too & from work :(

Super casual today. Couldn't really be arsed, didn't want to get out of bed!

Top 18 - Primark

Jeans 22 - Dorothy Perkins

Floral booties - Everything £5 store in butterfly walk (Camberwell Green!)

Friday

I was a tad more cheerful on Friday, because it was Friday, and I knew I was going to do a mini Primark run after work, which also meant I could have a Burger King - I hardly ever see Burger Kings any more so this was a genuinely exciting night for me (I'm not an exciting or cool person... in case you thought I was!)

Dress 24 - Clements Ribeiro Swan for Evans

Leggings XL - H&M (bought earlier in the week, they've changed them and they kept riding down, gonna have to sew up the waist... not impressed, but at least they're long enough this time!)

Shoes - Cancer research charity shop

Ring - Ziska

Saturday

We weren't supposed to go out yesterday, but a sad case of frozen pork mince obviously being off when defrosted meant we had to venture outside for sustenance......

Emergency date night requires a good outfit! I normally wear this dress for formal occasions, but I really wanted to wear it yesterday ('twas on my mind because I mentioned it in my last post!) so I did my 'dress it down' trick, which basically means wear it with boots and a long baggy cardigan! I also quite like to have a bit of sock showing, particularly if they match my ensemble... makes it look kind of wintery I think!

 We tried the Columbian restaurant Restaurante Santafereno in Brixton Village (it was full of Colombians which I took to be a good sign!). We plumped for the Bandeja Paisa which is the Columbian national dish, it came with pretty much everything on the menu so it seemed like a good way to get a flavour of the cuisine. This is what we left so you can imagine how gargantuan the meals were! Phew! It sort of felt like we were eating a crazy breakfast platter 'cause of the egg, sausage & beans but the addition of plantain and rice took it to the next level. Not to be attempted unless extremely hungry! Probably should have taken the pictures before eating a huge meal, but you know how round I am so who cares?!

Dress 22 - Marks and Spencers

Cardi 24 - New Look Inspire

Leggings 20 - Primark (these are the £3 ones I got on Friday night and I'm super impressed with them. Going back to get more so I can replace all my old shit ones!)

Boots - Primark (from last year, but they have the same boots in black this year... might have to get them 'cause these go with everything!)

Sunday

I was just housewifing on today, not much else really. Went for a simple outfit (with my slippers!)

Top - Primark

 Plazzo trousers 28 (FFS!) - H&M+

Slippers - Primark

Guys I've updated my blog shop with some amazing stuff so if you fancy shopping in my wardrobe you can check it out here!