The £1 eyeliner I've fallen in love with.

I'm prone to a bit of eyeliner most days. Those of you who are also eyeliner fanatics will know that once a girl finds it, she never goes back. You'll also know that finding a decently pigmented and smooth eyeliner for £1 is practically unheard of. We've made our way through most of the flimsy eyeliners from Boots which broke off, didn't sharpen, disappeared quickly, smudged and were never quite the colour promised.
That in mind, finding one which ticks most of these boxes and even has a sharpener for £1 left me blown away. 

MUA are an excellent cheapie brand. I love most things they've came out with. I'd love to do a blog post on my current MUA products if you'd fancy it? I'm looking to try more of their stuff.
They seem to just bring it with the pigmentation for such reasonable prices. We're talking £1 here for lipsticks and the alike and £4 for palettes which I reach for constantly. Their intense colour eyeliners are no exception!

I opted for a dark brown given I own far too many black eyeliners and my brown Stila retractable liner dried out (boo). I wasn't really expecting much and I was so pleasantly surprised with this eyeliner. 

As you can see it is smooth to apply and richly pigmented. I would definitely say this is the best value and best quality eyeliner for the price on the highstreet, that's just my humble opinion of course.
 

I'm very picky so the only negative I could comment on was some transfer onto the top of my eyelid towards the end of the day. It was very minimal however and nothing to rant about, I had expected it to disappear long before that!

 It is perfect to apply and smudge out for a smokey effect. When I last used it I did a winged eye look and just ran over the eyeliner with some dark brown eyeshadow to soften things up, I loved it! 

This eyeliner more than gets my seal of approval and I highly recommend you guys give it a try. It's comparable to my Avon Supershock gel eyeliner and similar ones 5x the price. It's worth it just for the sharpener never mind the eyeliner as well. 

Have any of you tried these eyeliners? What are your favourite budget liners? 

Much love, 

                        Natalie x

Empties #1

This is a new type of post for me but I absolutely love reading these kind of posts so I figured why not make it a series? I love the idea of seeing the entire product has been used up and a short, useful review. It just so happened I had a few well loved empty products lying around that I had yet to throw out! 

Here's the lineup:

 left to right: Lush Ro's argan body conditioner, TBS Moroccan Rose perfume, Batiste tropical Dry Shampoo, Liz Earle Moisturizer, L'Oreal Super Liner. 

1. Ro's Argan Body Conditioner

I have the tiniest bit left as you can see here, but nowhere near enough for a full body use. This is the small trail tub that I got as part of a gift recently. It's such an interesting concept that I thought would save time in moisturizing after a shower (..i'm lazy). It's a really great product. It smells like a hundred million roses packed into a little tub - I love the smell. If you like rose scents and turkish delight you'll love it. It did make my skin baby smoothh and I really enjoyed using it. Would I repurchase? maybe some day! I just have no need at the moment. 

2. The Body Shop Moroccan Rose perfume 

I'm noticing a rose-scented theme here.. I love me some roses. This perfume is not your stereotypical 'rose' perfume. It's slightly spicy making it alot more interesting. I initially bought this perfume because it was on sale and then absolutely fell in love with it. I would totally repurchase if I ever see it on sale again. 

3. Batiste Dry Shampoo - tropical

I love dry shampoo, it is just the most convenient product ever and suchhh a quick fix if you have to rush out and your hair is looking a bit worse for wear. It adds a nice boost of volume and absorbs any greasiness you might have going on in the roots (yumm). Aside from the general 'lift' it gives your hair it smells amazing and coconut-y. An immediate transportation to a beach - ahhhhhh. If coconut is not your thing it comes in tons of different scents and it's reasonably priced. Would I repurchase? I'm on my way right now.. 

4. Liz Earle Skin Repair Moisturiser ( normal/combo skin)

This product was seriously lacking in any type of 'wow' factor to be honest. I would probably have needed the version for a dry skin type so that could potentially be what hindered its' ability to impress. It just is very 'meh'. I saw or felt no huge difference and whilst it does the job without many frills it just isn't worth the hefty price tag.. in my opinion. I think it's about £18 or so. I feel I could purchase something more effective cheaper. I won't repurchase anytime soon. 

5. L'Oreal Super Liner Black Lacquer 

I did enjoy using this liquid liner. It was pretty tricky initally but I did get better with it. What annoyed me about this eyeliner though was how it dried out exceptionally quickly during use so you had to dip back in the tube again all  the time. I was impressed with the wear time though and how it did not smudge throughout the day. Overall a generally okay product but I'm looking to try out more 'felt-tip' type liners with perhaps a thinner nib. Would I repurchase? Not anytime soon. I'm looking to broaden my eyeliner horizons. 

So that's everything, let me know if you guys enjoy this kind of post! 

Much love, 

                Natalie xx

Discount store shopping

In the UK we have these bargain stores like B&M, bargain home and poundland etc that occasionally sell discounted makeup. I'm not one to pass up any decent looking cosmetic item that costs £1 so on a recent shopping trip I picked up a few things and it's all good news.

Cue the goods.. 

Left to right: Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Sheerest Cream Blush, Revlon colourstay nail polish, NYC applelicious Glossy Lip Balm, NYC Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil.

As you can see above the blush is the shade 'Beaming'. It's a beautiful natural pink shade and, as the name would suggest, goes on very sheer. I'm probably most impressed with this out of all the things I bought. I didn't even know Sally Hansen made makeup but I'm in love. It creates a really nice natural sheeny effect and generally brightens up the face. 

Here's what it looks like on... 

(I wear my blusher quite high up on the cheeks)

Shades left to right: Sweet Tart, Sorbet and Provence. 

The pencil and applelicious lip balm came in a pack together for £1. The pencil is a dark blue sort of colour and whilst i'm not convinced about its' staying power, it is a nice shade. 

The lip balm is in the shade 'Apple Blueberry Pie'. I loveeee this balm. It smells amazing and proper appley. It has a core of moisture surrounded by the colour and, as you can see from the swatch, is a sheer deep raspberry colour. Almost like the colour of Ribena!

All in all I'm well chuffed with the purchases and so surprised at how much of a bargain it all was! The revlon polishes especially. 

Much love, 

                              Natalie xxx

Azure eyes - beautiful blues

I got bored yesterday and started playing around with a few colours to see what I could come up with.
I was actually staring out the window (visible in the background) so you can see where the inspiration for these colours came from. I am in love with the turquoise-bluey-greeny eyeliner i've used underneath the eye and I feel like it really brings out my blue eyes!

Admittedly it's a very dramatic look and not one for everyday but I think the colours are gorgeous nonetheless.

 so here are the products I used to create this eye look: 

Left to Right: GOSH eyeliner in 'Cool Mint', L'Oreal colour riche le kohl, Too Faced Eye shadow insurance policy palette, L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes Mascara and Rimmel Match Perfection concealer. 

 You'll have to excuse this rather grubby looking palette but the colours inside are striking and bold, not for the faint-hearted, but perfect for adding drama.  I used the bright blue colour 'Skinny Dip' all over the lid and blended it outwards to diffuse the colour.

 

 

Along with the eyeshadow I think this product is the shining glory of this look. The pencil is so creamy and goes on like a dream (again you'll have to excuse it's grubbiness - it was lying in the bottom of a drawer). I think this colour is so unique and I'm glad I re-discovered it. These sorts of colours are also bang on trend this spring so they're a lot more wearable than you might think. 

 

 I used the black liner to tight-line my eye and the concealer to tidy up any possible fallout underneath and to give me a cleaner line where I blended the shadow.

So what do you guys think? What eye looks are you loving currently? 

 Thanks for reading! 

Much Love, 

                     Natalie xxx

HAUL - L'Oreal Paris

 Some naughty purchases in the duty free at the airport - oppsies.

I had some spare Euros to spend on the way home from my recent trip to Berlin so I decided to treat myself!

• Studio Secrets Professional smoothing resurfacing primer
• Rouge Caresse lipsticks
• Volume Million Lashes mascara
• Color Riche Le Khol 

 

Shades Left to Right: 01 Fashionista Pink, 06 Aphrodite Scarlet, 202 Impulsive Fuchsia

The products themselves are quite sheer and the lightest shade looks almost invisible in this photo, I put it down to bad lighting. The colour payoff is good I promise you! They are also extremely comfortable to wear. 

This is in the shade Noir/Black. I'm in love with the wand of this mascara, it gets every lash so well. If you don't like plastic mascara wands however this won't be for you.

 I got the eye pencil in the shade 101 Midnight Black (just your conventional black eyeliner shade) 

It glides on well and holds its' own on the waterline. 

So those were my airport buys, anybody tried any of these? what are your opinions?

Thanks for reading :)

Much Love, 

                     Natalie xxx