Max Factor Creme Puff Blush Review!

Max Factor has released some new blushes recently, the Creme Puff Blushes. There are six shades to choose from, catering to every skin tone. I was sent three to try out: Nude Mauve, Alluring Rose and Gorgeous Berries.

The first thing I want to mention is that all three of these are really pigmented. You only need to pick up a little bit of the product to get a beautiful result. They're all really build-able too, and blend super easily (living up the Max Factor's claim!). 

Nude Mauve

Nude Mauve is the lightest of the three shades that I have. It's a little hard to see on my skin tone, but it gives such a beautiful, subtle natural bit of colour to my face and is perfect for days when I'm going for a more natural look. 

Alluring Rose

Alluring Rose, which is my favourite of the three, is really great for a light contour or for warming up your face a little. It also has a bit of shimmer in it, which I only noticed showing up when my friend asked me what I was using to highlight my cheekbones (I'd used a different brush to apply it that day). 

Gorgeous Berries

Gorgeous Berries is the darkest shade of the whole range. It's the most pigmented out of the three I have, and should be used with a really light hand otherwise you'd end up looking ridiculous. When it is applied lightly, it gives a really lovely touch of colour to the cheeks.

Gorgeous Berries (Left), Alluring Rose (Centre), Nude Mauve (Right)

Alluring Rose and Nude Mauve look a bit orangey on my hand in the swatch above, but they don't look as orange on my cheeks (thankfully!)

A lot of people have compared these to the Hourglass Ambient Lighting blushes, and while I can see that they look similar, I don't own any of the Hourglass blushes so I can't compare them myself. All I can say is that these are amazing, and well worth trying out! They're €11.49 each, and if you're looking to try more than one, I'd suggest waiting until there's a 3 for 2 offer on.

February Favourites 2015

Anyone else feel like February dragged on for ages? Maybe it’s because it was a really busy month for me. Anyway, I have a few favourite products here that I’ve been using like crazy over the last month and I thought I’d share them!

First favourite has been the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette. I bought this back in December from Debenhams and it’s been my go to palette this past month. The colours are so beautiful, they’re really smooth and pigmented, easy to blend, and they smell like chocolate! It’s every chocolate lovers dream!

If you haven’t heard about the new Benefit Roller Lash Mascara by now, you must be living under a rock since everyone and their mother seems to have blogged about it. I got a sample of it in Elle at the beginning of the month, and I really like it. I was a bit on the fence about it at the beginning, but started to like it more and more each time I used it. It gives really nice length to the lashes and holds a curl nicely. I’m seriously considering getting the full size soon despite having a good few unopened mascaras at home already!

For days when I wasn’t feeling like spending too much time on my eyeshadow, I’d pop on some of Max Factor’s Excess Shimmer Shadow in Bronze. This stuff is pretty great, the quality is amazing and the little pot will last you ages as a little goes a long way with this. I’m going to pick up another shade the next time there’s a 3 for 2 on Max Factor products!

My favourite perfume this month has been Saphir’s Vida de Saphir, which I received in a goody bag at an event I attended (I blogged about it here). It’s a dupe for Vie Est Belle Lancome, and it smells amazing!

A favourite lip product this month has been the Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream in Copenhagen. I posted a full review of it just last week, so if you want to check that out just click here!

Last of all, I’ve really been loving the Garnier Micellar Water this past month. I meant to try this out ages ago, but never really got around to it until recently, and I wish I’d got it sooner! It makes taking of my makeup so much faster and easier, and has completely gotten me out of the bad habit of sleeping with my makeup on every so often!

Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream Copenhagen Review

Another Nyx product I had lusted after for months before finally being able to get my hands on it was the Soft Matte Lip Cream in the shade Copenhagen. I had forgotten to put this down on my list, but when in Ulta one day, my sister asked me if the Soft Matte Lip Creams were any good, and I remembered that I needed Copenhagen. So into the basket it went.

This is just such a me lippie: it's dark, it's red-ish, and  it's matte. It's pigmented, long wearing and not too drying (although it does get a bit drying as the day goes on, but it's bearable). The formula is nice too, but it does go on a little bit uneven, and you need to add a second layer to make it even. For best results, you need to use a lip liner underneath, and I use Mac Nightmoth. It goes perfectly with Copenhagen.

I really love this product, and wish I had picked up a few more shades while I could. Transylvania is one that I really wish I had picked up, it looks gorgeous!

These aren't available in Ireland yet, unfortunately, but you can pick them up on Amazon for around £5.

Nyx Butter Lipsticks Review

I mentioned these in my America haul a few weeks ago, and today I finally have a review for you on the Nyx Butter Lipsticks. These have been raved about on YouTube, so I'd been dying to get my hands on them for months, and finally got three while I was in Orlando (they're not yet available here).

Nyx Butter Lipstick in 'Hunk'

I picked up the shades Razzle, Hunk and Licorice. Razzle was one that I did not like at all, it didn't suit me whatsoever and kinda washed me out. I think this would fare better on fairer skin tones. I loved Hunk and Licorice though, the colours were right down my alley and suited my skin tone nicely.

Nyx Butter Lipstick in 'Razzle'

The three lipsticks had the same formula and performance: they glided on so smooth (no tugging, yay!), were super pigmented, left a slightly glossy finish, and were long lasting. I had Licorice on from 10am on Monday until around 6 (it came off in the shower), it survived lunch and lots of glasses of water with only a tiny bit of fading around the inner parts of my lips.

Nyx Butter Lipstick in 'Licorice'

All in all, I quite like these lipsticks, but they don't live up to the hype. They're good, but I don't find them ground-breaking or anything. I wish Razzle didn't look so weird on me, because it's actually a really pretty colour!

Saphir, GOSH & iClothing SS15 Event!

Hey guys!

I was invited to the SS15 Preview with Saphir Perfume, GOSH Cosmetics and iClothing, which took place last Wednesday. I had some time between classes, so I popped in for around an hour to have a look around.

I started off with Saphir Perfume. I've seen this brand in my local pharmacy, but wouldn't really have noticed it if I hadn't received an invite to the event a few days prior. I didn't know a lot about the brand, but I talked to Catherine from Saphir for a while and she told me all about them. Saphir is a Spanish brand, that sells perfumes that are dupes for some of our favourite designer fragrances, but at a fraction of the price, using almost 100% the same ingredients. They have 70 different scents, and even provided a dupe list. For example, in my goodie bag I received Rich Woman, which is a dupe for Paco Robanne's Lady Million, Vida de Saphir, a dupe for Vie Est Belle Lancome, and Black Femme, which dupes Armani Code. I also got Armonia Black, which dupes Armani Code for men, which I will be giving to my dad. Each 30ml bottle only costs €7.99, which is an absolute steal! For a full list of stockists, go here.

I had a look at GOSH next, and had a chat with their makeup artist Judy, who showed me some of their newer products. They have some lovely colourful eyeshadow palettes coming out, a new BB cream, and some new powders. Judy let me try some of the prime 'n set powder out on my hand, and I was amazed at how silky smooth it made my skin feel. Luckily, there was one in my goodie bag so I can have a play around with it!

Speaking of the goodie bag, I got some really lovely products that I can't wait to try out. The nail polish is just gorgeous, I love glitters so much! I thought the lip lacquer was a nail polish too, and am really only noticing now that it is in fact a lip product. The mascara is something I'm especially excited to try out, as it is a growth mascara and promises to deliver results in two weeks! I'm going to start trying this out from today, I'll let you know how I get on in two weeks!

Lastly, I had a peek at iClothing. They had some really lovely, colourful pieces on display, but the highlight were the necklaces, which were so gorgeous! While I was there, there were only two on display, but I saw some photos of different ones that other bloggers had put up from later on in the day. iClothing generously gave provided a necklace in each of their goodie bags, as well as a discount code (which I will be using to get another necklace, the bird ones are just too pretty!).


Sadly, I had to leave after an hour to go back to college, but I had a great time at the event, and really enjoyed talking to Sarah and Catherine from Saphir, Judy from GOSH, and Fiona from iClothing, and having a look at all the pretty new things each brand has in store for SS15!

American Beauty Haul Part 2: Drugstore!

Hey guys! As promised, here is the drugstore edition of my America haul! If you missed it, you can find the high end edition here.

Like with the high end products, I haven't used most of these yet, as I wanted to come home and take proper photos and stuff first.

I've spoken about the Physicians Formula Mineral Powder Before (review here), and mentioned in one of my posts that I'm just about hitting pan on it, so I picked up two of these in Ulta. I was just going to get one, but some of the Physicians Formula products were going through the scanner and showing really low prices (around $2.50!) so the sales assistant took me back to the stand and told me to pick some more stuff and get the stuff that was going through cheap! In the end I picked up two of these powders, my sister picked up one too, and I picked up the Happy Booster Blush as well.

The Milani Baked Blushes are apparently brilliant, I'd been hearing about them for months on YouTube, and the most recommended shade was always Luminoso, so I picked that up in Walgreens one night. 

I've always heard great things about the Elf Kabuki Brush and the Elf eye brushes, so I picked up the kabuki and a crease brush. The kabuki brush is so incredibly soft! 

I heard about the Jordana Easyliners for Lips through Allura Beauty on YouTube a few months back, and I really loved the look of the brown shades. I used one of these while I was in America (can't remember which one!), underneath a pink toned nude lipstick to tone down the pink a bit. The quality of these are so good, and they're super cheap at only around $2 each! I got the shades Coco Loco and Cabernet. 

Just a few eye products that I've heard great things about (I know, I keep saying that for everything!), I picked up the Elf Eye Primer ($1!), the Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in White, the Milani Liquid Eye Liquid-Like Eye Liner Pencil, the Physicians Formula Eye Booster 2-in-1 Lash Boosting Eyeliner + Serum (what a mouthful!) and some Ardell Lashes.

The Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipsticks launched in the States a few months ago, and for some reason still haven't made their way over to us yet, so I picked one up in the shade Touch Of Spice. Even though Nyx landed on our shores last year, there a some things that haven't made their way over (or at least not in any store near me). The Butter Lipsticks aren't yet available here, so I picked up three, in the shades Hunk, Licorice and Razzle. I don't recall ever seeing the Soft Matte Lip Creams either, so I picked up one in the shade Copenhagen. Lastly, I picked up a Wet n Wild Megalast Lipstick in the shade Mochalicious, which I think is a new shade.

Marshalls is great for cheap Essie and OPI polishes (and designer clothes and shoes too!), and I picked up the OPI Peanuts set for only $6 and an Essie polish for around $5! From Ulta, I got some really unique Sally Hansen glitters, they are so pretty and I don't have anything like them in my collection so I had to have them!  I got one of the Fergie Wet n Wild polishes for around $1 in Walgreens, I loved the chunkier gold glitter pieces in it. Lastly, I got the Sally Hansen Salon Gel Polish top coat, not realising you needed one of those gel lamps to use it. I mistakenly thought it was part of their Miracle Gel line, because I'd heard they'd released a top coat in that line and I just didn't read the packaging until I got home. Silly me!

That's all of the drugstore products I picked up in America! I will be testing these out over the next few weeks, and will have reviews up soon!

American Beauty Haul Part 1: High End Makeup

Hey guys!

As some of you may know, I was in Orlando for two weeks with my family. We had a great time, and to be honest I'd love nothing more to still be there! I've a few of photos up on my instragram of our visit to Disney World and Universal Studios too, if anyone wants a look.

So, when we weren't visiting a theme park, we were out shopping. I had been making a list of beauty products I wanted to buy during our trip since we booked the flights back in June/July. Most were from drugstore brands, but I had a few high end products in the list too. I haven't tried any of these out just yet (except for Mac Heroine), but I'll have reviews of stuff up as soon as I have tested them out!

The very first thing I picked up was this Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Blushing Bride. I've been hearing about how great this line of blushes is for months and months, and there was no way I was leaving Sephora without picking one up.

I also picked up the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper that first trip to Sephora as it was, again, something I'd heard being raved about so much.

The next day, we went back to Mall at Millenia and I got to spend longer in Sephora, just looking around at everything. I had planned to get the Sephora Airbrush Foundation too, and so I got matched and picked up the shade Fawn. I did try this one out in the store when I got matched, and I loved the look and feel of it!

I'm still a huge nail polish junkie, and whenever I saw anyone using or raving about the Sephora Formula X polishes, it just used to torture me! I had planned to by the kit, the System, but when I was in the store, I just kinda thought it seemed gimmicky, so I just picked up a single polish instead, which was on sale for $6 (usually they cost $12.50). I got another one in Marshalls too, for $5!

I picked up two of the Two Faced Melted Lipsticks, in the shades Melted Berry and Melted Violet.

I hadn't planned to buy anything from Mac, as I was going to buy what I wanted in Dublin Airport, but Heroine was sold out and the lady at the Mac counter in the airport told me that the Nightmoth pencil was being discontinued. Whenever I mentioned this in the Mac stores in Orlando, I'd be greeted with panic at first, but then assurance that it's not being discontinued. I ended up buying both Heroine and Nightmoth because they worked out a little cheaper than buying from here.

I only bought one high end product on impulse (achievement!), which was the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Stalker. My sister was buying one and told me they were great, and that I should pick one up too.

That's all of the higher end stuff I picked up. I bought so many more drugstore products, so stay tuned for that post, coming on Thursday!