Inglot Freedom System Eye Shadow Square's- 423, 453, 450

For some reason I had always thought that Inglot products were just sold in the U.S. That was until I took a trip to Westfields in Shepherds Bush, here there is a full Inglot shop/heaven. I immediately ran into the store like the crazed makeup fiend that I am with embarrassed boyfriend in tow & practically drooled over the display of eyeshadows.

Looking at the rainbow selection of eyeshadows I knew I had to create my own freedom palette of shadows & my Mr was lovely enough to treat me to one.  The idea behind the Freedom System is that you choose how many shadows, blushes, lipstick squares etc that you want your palette to hold (selection of palettes ranges for holding 1 to 10), you pick the shades you want & voila, you have your own personal makeup palette that you have created.

I opted for a palette that holds 3 shadows, just to start off & see how I like them (that took ALOT of restraint) I created a palette that I thought would create the perfect berry smokey eye.

Here's what I picked;

423 is a burgundy brown with a pearl finish.

450 is a medium-dark berry shade with a pearl finish.

453 is a bright white with a pearl finish that is by far to softest out of the three.

The formula is very similar to mac, in the sense that they aren't super soft & creamy like stila or urban decay but they're harder & therefore easier to build on the eye.

All shades are very blendable & the shimmer from the pearl effect is extremely fine.

Like I said 453 is definitely the softest shadow & the one I reach for most often, as I love popping this in my tear duct area for a brightening wide eyed effect.

The one thing I must add, is if like me you like to know the names of the shadows you use, then make a note of the shadows number & stick it to the bottom of your chosen palette. Because each shadows name/number is only written on the bottom of the pan & when popped into the palette the number is hidden & the magnets are extremely strong & pretty much impossible to remove.

Inglot is also available in the UK online(here) & U.S (here)

Each individual shadow is £4.50 (link here)

Palettes price range fro £4 to £24 (link here)

Have you tried any Inglot products? What do you recommend?  

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e.l.f Small Tapered Brush

Whilst having a look at my favourite site for purchasing American brand makeup 'beautyjoint.com' I stumbled across the e.l.f 'Small Tapered Brush'. I have never seen this brush on the U.K e.l.f website so decide to pop the brush into my basket to give it a try.

All e.l.f studio line brushes on beautyjoint.com cost just $3.99 which translates into sterling at £2.40....total bargain!

The 'small tapered brush' is made of very soft but densely packed synthetic hairs, that tapper to a soft round point. It's hard to find a perfectly sized small brush, especially with a tapered head, so for the price this brush is amazing.

The simplest way for me to describe this brush is to say that it is a hybrid of Real Techniques 'contour brush' with the same sized brush head but with the tapered end of the Real Techniques 'setting brush'. So with the e.l.f brush your getting the best of both.

I found three uses for this brush.
 First contouring; the tapered tip fits perfectly into the hollows of the cheek & when titling the brush to the side & applied with more pressure it works well at blending the contour.

Highlighting; Apply your powder highlight on the side of the tapered point & it applies highlight seamlessly on the high point of the cheeks, use the tip of the brush for down the nose & Cupid's bow.

Lastly the brush also works fantastically well for setting under eye powder. For those that find the Real Technique 'setting brush' a tad to time consuming with its tiny little head, this e.l.f brush does the job in just a few swipes.

After washing the brush it retains its shape very well & has not shed at all.

This is another fabulous brush by e.l.f's studio line. It's just a shame it's not available here on the UK e.l.f website. If you are interested in trying this brush or any other e.l.f brush I would suggest you check out beautyjoint.com. Even with the shipping (which is well priced) it often works out cheaper than buying for the e.l.f UK site.

Have you tried any of the e.l.f Studio Line brushes?

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Kiko Water Eyeshadow In Shades 200 & 208 - Review & Swatches

This kiko purchase was solely down to the YouTube beauty guru Nikki Tutorials, who said that Kiko Water eyeshadow in 200 was a spot on dupe for macs whisper of guilt. Now 'whisper of guilt' is a Mac Extra Dimension Skin Finish/Highlighter this is like gold dust, the hardest highlighter to come across.
So when in my local Kiko store in Westfield Stratford, I spotted these beauty's and HAD to have them. Out of the 32 luminescent shades available I picked up shade 200 & 208.

Before we go into more detail about the shades I picked, let me quickly explain how the Kiko Water eyeshadows are actually used;

Kiko Water shadows are a soft to the touch shimmery shadow. When used dry they give a soft shimmery metallic finish, that can be easily blended out. Giving the shimmery nature of the shadow there is surprisingly no fall out at all. When applied wet the shadows metallic finish intensifies to a gorgeous, stunning almost wet looking foil on the eye.
 The pattern of the actual eyeshadow itself is absolutely beautiful, they are presented in a three-dimensional shape very similar in effect to the Mac Extra Dimension Skin Finish. Apparently the special ergonomic design of the shadow facilitates product uptake, making the shadow quick and easy to pick up & apply?! Well all I know is they are some serious eye candy for any makeup lover.

Let's talk shades; 200 is a golden peachy champagne shade. That has to be my favourite of the two, but just by a smidge.
208 is a true golden shade, that will look stunning in the summer with a nice tan.

Now for using these shadows as a highlighter like I've heard suggested by other bloggers & vloggers, I'm not convinced. On the eyes the shimmer looks no where near chunky, but when on the cheek the formula looks completely different. It looks too patchy & glittery for my liking, so these Water eyeshadows will be used as just that, an eyeshadow.

For anyone looking for an opaque glisten for there eyes I highly suggest these shadows.

£8.90 from Kiko stores & £5.90 on there online sale right now.

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Anastasia Beverly Hills 'Brow Wiz' In Brunette

Anastasia Soare or 'Anastasia Beverly Hills' as she is better known, is the queen of the brow. She has worked her magic on the eyebrows of the rich & famous for years, with clients including Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, Naomi Campbell, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna. The list of celebrities wanting there brows perfected by the master herself is endless.

left brow with Brow Wiz - Right brow is clean of product.

Anastasia recently released her own range of eyebrow grooming products for the general public & they have been a massive hit. 

The first product I wanted to try out was the Brow Wiz. A double ended brow product with a retractable eyebrow pencil at one end & a spooly at the other, as the pencil is retractable it saves product & doesn't need sharpening. Both ends come with a cap, which is really handy as it stops dirt & fluff sticking to the spooly & transferring to the brows.

The retractable pencil is amazingly thin, so it's perfect for small detailed work & lightly drawing in fine hair strokes in sparse areas of the brow.  There are six shades available in the Brow Wiz, I own Brunette which is an absolute spot on match for my hair colour, it contains the right amount of cool ashy tones to make my brows look natural. 

The spooly is so neat and thin (the neatest spooly I've come across) that it brushes through the brow hair without moving the product. Although with a firmer grip, the product can easily be dispersed over the brow. 

The staying power of the Brow Wiz is fantastic. When set, it does not smudge or move around & lasts me near enough all day, with a slight fade towards the evening.

The packaging is very sleek, thin & light weight making for an easy application. 

All in all the Brow Wiz is a fantastic brow product & I can't wait to try more from Anastasia's collection. 

Available in the UK from;

cultbeauty.co.uk £15.50

net-a-porter.com £16

Have you tried any Anastasia products?

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19

Mac 224 Tapered Blending Brush

I'd had my eyes set on the mac 224 tapered blending brush for a while. I'd heard so many rave reviews that being the eyeshadow blending fanatic that I am, I had to own this brush.

The brush is made of soft black fibres that taper to a dome shape. With the classic Mac hand made black wooden handle & nickel plated brass ferrule.

The 224 works a dream for blending out eyeshadows. With more pressure added to the ferrule the wider the fibres spread giving a wide soft blend. Also with a light hand it can be used for a more precise controlled application. Although for smaller eyes this may not be the best brush as it is quite broad.

If blending has ever been a problem for you the 224 will certainly help you out, it practically does the blending for you. Not only is the 224 amazing for blending eyeshadow, it also works well for the application and blending of concealer.

My one and only down point would have to the fibres shedding. Not even particularly when washing the brush does it lose fibres but just through daily use (I must add it washes & dries beautifully back into shape). I use the 224 brush everyday & roughly around every other use I will lose a few bristles. With that being said I don't notice any loss in density of the brush when the fibres fall out. All but one mac brush I own shed, so this really isn't a surprise to me or many other mac fans. Oh and the price £22.50 is pretty hefty, but I do have to admit it's worth every penny & I would repurchase.

If you don't have or don't want to spend £22.50 on a blending brush, the closest cheaper alternative I have come across is the Crown Brush C433 pro blending fluff brush. The main difference is this brush has white goat hair & is slightly more narrow so it doesn't achieve the exact same effect, but the idea of the brush is similar.

Whats your go to blending brush? 

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10

Rimmel London Moisture Renew Lipstick's

I think the majority of us would say that Rimmel tend to produce the best lipsticks on the high street. So when I heard that Rimmel had reformulated the Moisture Renew collection & added a few new shades making the collection 10 lipsticks strong, I was very excited.

The collection ranges from neutrals, brights & a few dark vampy colours. I was lucky enough to try out six of the shades, that I will quickly run you through now;

705 Let's Get Naked - Opaque peachy nude. This is one of my most used shades out of the collection, as it's such an easy shade to wear.

220 Heather Shimmer - buildable brownie toned nude.  It's worth noting that apart from this shades name, it contains absolutely no shimmer.

130 Oxford Street Fuchsia - A classic opaque barbie pink. I really do love this shade & can't wait to wear it in the summer.

180 Vintage Pink - A darker maroon pink. Another beautiful wearable shade.

210  Fancy - Sheer light pink, with silver sparkly glitter. My least favourite shade of the bunch, if it wasn't for the very noticeable silver sparkly reflects I would probably get a lot of wear out of this shade.

380 - Dark Night Waterl-oops! - Yes that is really the name of this shade, very peculiar.   Very dark purple berry shade, that is Oh so gorgeous! Due to the darkness of the shade it does leave a stain on the lips.

All shades are very rich, glossy & opaque, bar shade 210 fancy-with its sheer coverage & sparkle . They all apply smoothly to the lip & are easily blended leaving the lips feeling moisturised.The staying power is pretty good for a moisturising lipie but due to the glossy finish the lasting power isn't the best when it comes to eating & drinking.

They do have a fairly strong floral scent, that does translate to the lip but soon fades away. I personally quite like the scent but could see how it might put some people off!

Have you tried the new Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick?

Whats your fave Rimmel Lipie?

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