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ClaireDecember 11, 2013

The Best Smokey Eye Palettes for Under £20

Hello hooligans,

There’s nothing more exciting to me than a smokey eye palette. Apart from maybe biscuits and a nice cup of tea. And potentially when there is a new Catfish episode on. But you know…smokey eyes are definitely up there.

I’ve collected quite a few palettes over the years, but these are the ones that I am regularly using at the moment. As regular readers of our blog will probably know, we’re quite the keen beans for cheap and cheerful makeup. Sometimes cheaper brands can be a bit more of a miss than hit, but when you find the gems – they’re definitely worth spending your pennies on (and I mean pennies in the literal sense).

Aaaaanywhoo, these are what I think are the best smokey eye palettes for under £20. If you accidentally have spent all of your money on mince pies and Chrizzy pressies for ungrateful rellies (shortening words, all the cool kids are doing it), then you may want to continue reading. And for under £20…you may as well just buy them all and treat your eyelids to a smokin’ good time.

The Bodyshop Smoky Eye Palette – £15.00

The Bodyshop makeup is genuinely really good quality and everything that I’ve owned has been top notch. This palette is my favourite of these four and it’s my go-to for when I go out and pardy. It comes in four shades, with one gold cream shadow. What I like most is that the darkest shade is matte – I’m not a big fan of looking like a disco ball on every occasion. Even the shimmer shades are quite subtle and the pigmentation is excellent and the staying power is fabulous. The palette also comes with brushes, but typically I have lost them both. Whoops.

Bourjois Smokey Eyes Trio – £7.99

This little palette has loads of brilliant reviews and I actually received it as a part of the EXCELLENT free gift that I blogged about here. This one is in Gris Dandy and has three lovely gun metal silvery shades. I’m usually not a big fan of silver based smokey eye colours because browns tend to suit my complexion better, but this one is worth making a compromise for. The pigmentation is brilliant and it has amazing staying power. My only criticism of it is that it doesn’t include a highlighter shade, which I like to have in a palette.

Elf Natural Beauty Book – £6.00

If you can get over the sheer size of this palette, it’s actually very good. They did not lie when they said it was a book, I can tell you that chums. It’s not entirely necessary…they do have some fun information about how to apply the eyeshadow, but let’s all be honest. Anyone with fingers and/or hands can apply a smokey eye. It also comes with an eye primer, which I don’t have anything to say about really. It’s ok, but I wouldn’t say it’s anything too special. The brushes were a bit crap too, but palette brushes tend to be a bit pointless. The pigmentation is good and I particularly like the shade range. It’s a good one for daytime!

Collection Smokey Eye Palette – £4.19

I did a full review on this palette, which you can read all about here. This is a great little palette, particularly if you’re just foraying into smokey eye territory and don’t want to commit to a more expensive eyeshadow kit. There’s a good shade selection and the pigmentation is really good for what you pay.

SO CHUMS. If you are a poverty stricken human being or simply just want to add to your makeup collection without spending too many dollar bills, you may find these a bit exciting. I really like them and my fave would look WUBBISH without spreading these on my eyeballs (by that I mean eyelids. I’m not mad).

What’s your favourite smokey eye palette? Have you tried any of these?

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ClaireNovember 4, 2013

How Much Is My Face Worth?

G’day mates. Today we’re finally getting round to doing the blogger favourite ‘How Much Is My Face Worth?’ post. We both love reading these posts, and are usually left gawping at how much people’s everyday makeup actually costs, and bloggers are usually pretty surprised themselves to find that their collections often add up to as much as £100 or £200. I’m pretty sure that mine is going to be nowhere near this, but you never really know (well actually, I do because I’ve already worked it out. But let’s not ruin the suspense).

Seventeen Stay Time Primer: £5.49
Sleek Be Beautiful Blemish Balm: £8.99
Seventeen Phwoarr Paint: £5.49
Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer: £3.99
E.L.F. Contouring Kit: £3.75
Barry M Lash Vegas Mascara: £6.49
Barry M Natural Glow Eyeshadow Palette: £6.49
Collection Felt Tip Liner: £2.99
Maybelline Eye Studio Master Shape Brow: £2.99

Total: £46.68

This surely has to be in the running for one of the cheapest HMIMFW ever? My everyday makeup actually changes at least monthly and there will have been times when the total would have been a fair bit more, but my current love affair with super cheap and cheerful brands such as Collection and Seventeen means that my total price is driven right down.

I have to admit that I’m torn between feeling like a total pikey and actually feeling pretty relieved that if disaster were ever to strike and I were to lose my everyday makeup bag (possible reasons for this: leaving it on a bus, being mugged by criminals with a penchant for eyeliner, zombie apocalypse, etc) then it really wouldn’t be too much of a hardship to replace.

Have any of you done this tag? Leave your links in the comments below!

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ClaireJune 24, 2013

E.l.f. Contouring Kit: Review

I’ve mentioned a few times in this blog how one of the main beauty techniques I’m interested in developing my skills in is contouring. I dabbled in it a bit, just by using my bronzer and blusher but was keen to see what else could be done. So as part of our E.l.f haul last week, I couldn’t resist trying out their contouring kit. For under £4, how could I say no?

I chose the ‘St Lucia’ shade, which I think is the lightest shade in the range – but I was a bit worried about the bronzer being too light on days that I’ve fake tanned and am sporting a touch of Orangeface (which is a technical term, just in case you were wondering). What I didn’t like about the look of this kit in comparison to ones from other companies like Sleek was the fact that it’s more of a bronzer-blusher duo as opposed to a bronzer-highlighter. I did wonder whether it would look any different to what I currently do, so also ordered a highlighter with the intention of maybe incorporating that too.

Contouring Kit / ‘Spotlight’ Colour Stick

So, what do I make of it? The contouring kit itself is good quality. I like the packaging, and the mirror inside the compact is a nice touch .I needn’t have worried about it being too light, the bronzer is quite dark. The colours are really pigmented too, particularly in the bronzer. This means that less is definitely more – the first time I applied it, I ended up with way too much product and looked like I was trying to do army camo down my cheeks. Less Kardashian, more Rambo. Mistake.

The blush is a bit less intense and once I applied it I was left feeling a bit like it didn’t add a great deal to the look. So this is where the highlighter came into play. I applied this across the top of my cheekbones and it had a much better effect with the bronzer. I actually ended up being quite in love with this product and might do a full post on how to use it once I’ve mastered the art myself.

The contouring kit IS good, but like I said – it wasn’t a huge difference to what I was already achieving myself with my bronzer and blusher. So it’s a nice product if you’re new to contouring, but not one that’s really going to change your life (some people might say no makeup product can change your life; to these idiots I say ‘SHUT UP, YOUR PRIORITIES ARE WRONG AND YOUR PARENTS DON’T LOVE YOU’)

Have you tried this product? What are your fave contouring kits?