Soap & Glory: Thick & Fast Super Volume Mascara | Review

Sorry for the Awful Photo! I can't take photos of my eyes at all.

First of all, I'm really sorry about the awfulness of the eye photo. I took so many and this was the best that I could get, but hopefully it show how the mascara looks on my lashes.

The Claim:

'This super volume mascara creates amazingly, longer, fuller, fabulous lashes. Featuring SUPERFILL™ False Lash Fillers, SHINE AMPLIFIERS, NOFLAKE24 technology and super-fine no-clumps natural wax film formers. *While we don’t feel it’s ladylike to brag, we’re feeling particularly bullish about our mascara. (And hope after trying it you’ll agree that it’s absolutely marvelous.'

My Thoughts:
In my opinion, this is one of the best highstreet mascaras available on the market right now. Soap & Glory is often known for it's bodycare but it's recent venture into makeup has also been incredibly successful. I never usually think to look at Soap & Glory for makeup, but recently I have found myself loving their products, and I've heard so many good reviews on the rest of their range.

The above photo is me wearing two coats of this mascara, you could possibly do 3 but I think it would start to clump. I've done both the top and the bottom lashes and also haven't curled my lashes. I really like this mascara and love the effect it has on my eyelashes. I'd say it's more of a lengthening mascara but it does add some volume. I think for the price this is great quality and is comparable to some of my favourite high-end mascaras (such as They're Real). I realise the photo is not the best quality in the world (believe me I took tons, but I can't photograph my eyes at all) but hopefully it show you the effect you can achieve with this mascara. I like quite long lashes, but you can definitely create a more natural look if that's what you are looking for.

The brush is pretty big but I don't mind that. I find it easy to coat the lashes and the mascara doesn't flake off and smudge off either.

Availability & Pricing:
Soap & Glory Thick & Fast is priced at £10 and available from Soap & Glory.

Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream | Review

The Claim:

'Burt's Bees' Lemon Butter Cuticle Créme gives your needy nails a helping hand. Nourish and moisturise nails and cuticles with this intensive, natural treatment. A touch of lemon oil makes your nails smell incredibly clean, healthy and beautiful, naturally.'

My Thoughts:
The biggest thing I love about this is the smell. I love all things lemon-scented. It's by far my favourite scent and I love it in my bodycare products. This has a gorgeous lemon smell that is very apparent when you first open the lid. If you hate lemon or scented products, this may put you off. Although the scent is noticeable, I wouldn't say it is at all overpowering. Once applied to the cuticles the scent is only there for a small while, and it's only detectable if you have your hands near your face.

So enough about the smell, does it actually work? In my experience, it really does. I've only ever used liquid lotions for my cuticles before (like OPI Avoplex Oil) but with this cream you can really massage it into the cuticles. It also makes your cuticles feel incredible smooth and soft after using this. I don't suffer from particularly bad cuticles so can't say how this would work on someone with problem cuticles but since using it they have been in a much better condition and less dry.

Availability & Pricing:
Burt's Bees Lemon Cuticle Cream is available from Burt's Bees for £5.99

I really love this cuticle cream and it's become a staple in my nail routine. You get a fair amount for £5.99 and it's a lot cheaper than other cuticle care products out there

Urban Decay Ammo Palette | Review and Swatches

I've had this palette for ages and it was actually one of my first high-end makeup items. I love it, and as you can see I've hit pan on 2 of the shades (Maui Wowie and Polyester Bride). I'd probably have hit pan on Sin if I didn't already had it in the Naked Palette (where I have hit pan on it). I use this palette most days and love the fact that it's got great neutrals for an everyday look, and then slightly more unusual shades too.

Pigmentation:
As you can probably see above, these eyeshadows have great pigmentation. In my own experience, Urban Decay eyeshadows have some of the best pigmentation available. In particular, Smog, Midlew, Last Call and Shattered have great pigmentation. It's a little hard to see Polyester Bride and Sin in the swatches, but this is simply because I am very fair and it's hard to get them to show up on my skintone as they are similar in colour.

Application
I find Urban Decay eyeshadows a pleasure to apply and these are no different. Although the shades are all shimmery, I don't think I suffer fall out with any of them. The only one I'd be more careful with is Oil Slick as the shimmer is more noticeable and the shimmer particles are bigger. However this can be solved by doing eye makeup before foundation, which I'd suggest using when working with black eyeshadow anyway. The eyeshadows are all easy to apply and go on the eye smoothly. They are also easy to blend with other eyeshadows.

Lasting Power

New Ammo 2 Palette Packaging

I always wear my eyeshadow over Urban Decay Primer Potion as I find it makes my eyeshadow stay put all day. This palette comes with a travel-sized Urban Decay Primer Potion, which is a great addition to your makeup collection if you haven't already used this. I find that these eyeshadows last all day on me and there is no creasing in sight.

Packaging:
This is technically the first version of the Ammo palette, with the current edition sometimes being referred to as 'Ammo 2'. However, aside from the packaging and the addition of a small brush and travel-size UDPP, the palette remains the same. The eyeshadows are all exactly the same as in the older version shown here.

Availability and Pricing:
The Urban Decay Ammo Palette is available for £23 from Debenhams.

I really recommend the Ammo Palette, especially to someone who may just be starting to use higher-end makeup. This palette is one of the cheapest higher-end one on the market and contains 10 great shadows that will enable you to create a variety of looks. I love the fact you can use this for neutral day time looks, night time looks and then slightly more creative looks.

Illamasqua Precision Ink in Alchemy | Review

I'm usually a gel eyeliner kinda girl. I always use my trustworthy Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner in Black Ink on my waterline and tightline and generally don't line my top eyelid. However, sometimes I want to line the top lid, and instead of choosing a traditional black, I often opt for Illamasqua's Precision Ink in Alchemy. I've heard from many sources that this eyeliner is practically identical to MAC SuperSlick Eyeliner in Pure Show, personally I don't own this so I can't say for sure.

Colour:

One of the best things about this eyeliner is the colour payoff. As you can see in the swatch, the gold colour is very intense. I find a lot of metallic coloured eyeliners tend to have a liquid with glitter particles suspended in them, meaning that the effect is lots of glitter bits with no sold colour. However, this is a solid gold colour and you do not need to use a lot of coats to achieve this. I believe this is what makes this product worth its pricetag as the colour payoff is some of the best I've seen.

Application:
This is housed in Illamasqua's trade sleek black packaging. Personally, I am a big fan of Illamasqua's packaging as I find it all to look sleek and uniform. However, if you own many of these or a lot of eyeliners, I can see this being a problem when trying to find certain colours.Without opening the eyeliner or looking for the name up close you can't tell this apart from the other eyeliners in Illamasqua's range. Personally I don't own many liquid eyeliners so this isn't a problem for me, but I can see others finding it a hassle.

This has a felt tip type applicator which I find easiest for liquid liner. I'm by no means the best at putting liquid eyeliner on, but I find with this colour it is a bit more forgiving if I do make a mistake.

Lasting Power:
This really stays put. According to Illamasqua this is waterproof, and while I haven't poured a bucket of water over my head to find out, I have find that this stays put whenever I wear it out and I don't need to worry about it smearing all down my face. I don't have oily eyelids but the lasting power on this is very good that I feel like it would last on someone with the most oily eyelids.

Avalibility and Prices: 
Illamasqua's Precision Ink liners are available from Illamasqua for £17.00. This is quite pricey for a liquid eyeliner however I do believe this worth the money. I use this a lot even though its not a 'traditional' eyeliner colour. If you do find this to be a lot, they do have precision inks in more traditional colours which some may get more wear out of.

Would I repurchase?:
I do really like this as I find it lasts well and the colour pay off is excellent. I'd really like to try Illamasqua's liners in 'Abyss' (black) and 'Havoc' (brown) next as I really like this formula.

The Beauty Bucket List

So maybe this should have been the first ever post I made on this blog, considering the title of it is 'Beauty Bucket List'. However, I thought it's better late than never so I've decided to do a post on it now.

I've always loved the idea of bucket lists, I think they really a really great way for people to think about the things they want to do in life and set goals to achieve them. I think having a beauty bucket list is a bit of fun and a great way to think about what products you'd really like to try. I've had a page up on my blog for ages about what's on my beauty bucket list, but I thought I'd do a post about it. Most bucket lists have an end date '30 before 30' or '50 in 50 days', so I'm not sure when to make this for. Maybe 3 years? 1 year isn't long enough considering I'm a student with not much money!

Own a Chanel Lipstick
I've never owned a Chanel product, but to me they always represent the epitome of luxury makeup and I really want to be able to try one of their products. In particular, I really want to try a Chanel lipstick as I've heard so many rave reviews about them.

Own Nars Laguna, Benefit Hoola and Guerlain Terracotta Bronzer
For me, these represent the 'Big 3' when it comes to bronzers. These are the ones I always hear being talked about as the best powder bronzers on the market and as being the ones the ones that you have to try. As of the moment I currently own none of them but would love to own them all and think they would make a great addition to my everyday makeup.

Try Benefit's Best Selling Cheek & Lip Stains
This is another product in the beauty community that is constantly raved about and it's another one that I haven't tried. I really want to try them though as I love lip stains as I hate having to constantly reapply my lipstick during the day, so they are perfect for me.

Own 3 of Nars Best-selling blushes
Whenever you heard the word 'Nars' you automatically associate it with 'blush'. I currently only own one of their blushes (Oasis) but really want to try more, I've heard a lot about their other blushes and it seems the one I have is actually one of the less popular ones.

Do a Huge ELF Haul
The rage these days seems to be getting a large order from ELF as they do good products for very little money. I have never tried anything from ELF but I really want to see if all the hype is justified.

So that's currently what's on my beauty bucket list. Let me know what's on yours or if you have any ideas for what I can add to mine!

#YOLO

My blog is primarily fashion and beauty based (the name kind of gives that away), but sometimes I like to share my thoughts with you. Today I wanted to write about YOLO. #YOLO some people love the message it brings and thinks it shows you shouldn't be afraid to follow your dreams, while others think it is just an excuse for people to do stupid things without thinking of the consequences.

So which side am I on? To be honest with you, as overused #yolo is, I do love the message it has. So many times in my life, I know I've haven't done something that I want to do because I'm scared of what people might think. I'm scared to truly be myself and live my life to the full because of how I might be seen or worries that someone might not like me. And the truth is, why does this matter? Why should you care about what others think as long as you are happy?

Take this blog for instance. I wanted to start up a beauty blog for the longest time. I love beauty and fashion, and also enjoy writing. Also, with the degree I'm doing (I do Law), I don't get a lot of chances to be creative or to write (about anything other than law), so this blog fills that gap. However, for the longest time I put off doing it because I was worried what people might think of me doing. Would they think I wasn't good enough to be telling people which beauty products were good or bad? Would they think I didn't write well? Would people think I was weird for having a blog? Being young, how people see you is seen as so important. Teenage life (and beyond) is all about having as many friends as possible and being seen as 'cool', but what is the point? I remember in school people used to get hung up on how popular they were, like it was the most important thing in the world. And now we've all done a year at university, nobody cares what the people they went to school think about them anymore.

So all those things people may or may not have done while at school because they wanted to be popular was a waste. I can guarantee people will look back with regret wondering what the point of it was, when 2 or 3 years later it was insignificant. And this attitude extends beyond school, people are constantly in fear of how they will be perceived. But the truth is, we do only live once, so we should make the most of it. Do what you want to do and not what you think you should do. In the end, you spend more time regretting not doing the things you wanted than you do regretting the things you did do.

What do you think of #yolo? Do you think it inspires people to be their own person and not worry what others think? Let me know in the comments.

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The Beauty Blogger | TAG

Source

 *I actually wrote this post back in August but completely  forgot about it, I found it in my drafts this morning so decided to put it up*

Hey everyone,

I was tagged by the lovely Hannah from Hannah Hepton to do this tag. She has a lovely blog, you should all go check her out :)

1. Name a beauty routine you barely do

Eyebrows, my main worry is that I'll make my eyebrows look too dark and totally wrong. I find eyebrows are one of those things that if you do wrong, you do them very wrong and it's pretty noticeable. Also, being blonde I find it harder to find anything that would match my eyebrow colour so when I do try to fill them in they look too brown or too ashy. I'm currently trying to fix this by doing my eyebrows more but I still neglect them a bit.

2. Is washing your makeup brushes something you do regularly?

Quite regularly, sometimes though I get so busy I really can't be bothered. I'm good with washing my eye brushes and they are easy to wash and dry quickly. I hate washing my foundation brush and blush brush though, they have so much product in them and it takes forever to get out.

3. How long will you last with chip nails? 

It really depends, if I'm just chilling in the house then I won't care and will let them get as chipped as possible. If I'm seeing friends or going for a night out I always repaint them to make sure they are chipped, nothing worse than really chipped nail polish.

4. How long do you put off buying/replacing a beauty or nail polish product even if you need it? (i.e. top coat, foundation and so on)

 It depends on if I can afford it at the time. For example, my Urban Decay Setting Spray has currently run out and it used to be a staple in my daily routine, however it's on the pricier side so I haven't been able to replace it yet. However, I always make sure I replace foundation/mascara etc straight away, whether it be a repurchase or a new buy.

5. What’s your worst beauty habit?

Biting my nails, I don't even realise I'm doing it and my nails are so weak because of it. I'm not so bad at doing it anymore, but my nails are already so weak they just break so easily.

6. Name something non beauty related you put off doing all of the time. 

Laundry, it's boring and it takes ages. I'm lucky in that I have quite a lot of clothes so I just wear all my clothes until I have nothing left and have to do the washing.

7. When going out somewhere, do you leave getting ready until the last minute or not?

Nope, unless it's a spur on the moment thing. I generally take about an hour and a half to get ready (washing and drying my hair takes up a lot of that) so make sure to start getting ready with enough time to spare, I hate rushing.

8. Can you commit to spending bans? 

I've never been on a spending ban but I have to budget because of my student loan so can't buy anywhere near what I would like to.

9. How organised are your makeup and nail polish collections? 

Not at all, it's actually pretty bad how unorganised it is. My nails varnish is kinda organised, it's all stood up in a drawer. My makeup is all over the place, because I use it so often and am always rumaging through it I never see the point in tidying it up because it just gets messy again.

10. What is the longest time you’ve gone without writing a blog post? 

I'm a big scheduler, in fact during the summer I managed to create 3 months worth of scheduled posts. Because of this the longest I've gone without having a blog post being posted is 3 days, but I have gone slightly longer without writing one.

I tag:

Carly from SmileLoveSpend
Becki from Becki, Bows and Beauty
Abi from A Floral Crown

How Much is your Face Worth? | Tag

Base
Illamasqua Matt Primer - £22.50 // Revlon Colourstay Foundation in 110 Ivory - £12.49 // GOSH Clickn' Conceal in 01 Light - £6.99 // Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in 01 Fair - £4.19 // Illamasqua Translucent Powder - £23

= £69.17

Eyes
Urban Decay Primer Potion - £15 // Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Sin - £14 // Stila Eyeshadow in Notting Hill -£13 // Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Virgin -£14 // MUA Eyebrow Pencil in Blonde - £1 // Benefit Magic Ink Liquid Eyeliner - £15.50 // Sleek Ink Pot in Dominatrix -£5.49 // Soap & Glory Thick & Fast Mascara -£10

= £87.99

Cheeks
Sleek Contour Kit in Light £6.49 // Sleek Blush in Candy Floss - £9.99 (in Sleek Blush by 3 in Sweet Cheeks)

= £16.48

Lips
Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Rendezvous - £7.99 // Clinique Long Last Glosswear SP15 Lipgloss in Air Kiss - £16

= £23.99

Total = £197.63

So I've seen this tag floating around the internet for a while and decided that I would like to do it just to see exactly how much money I was spending on makeup. I did my everyday routine using the products I most often reach for, I didn't try and use cheaper/pricier products in order to skew the results.

I think compared to a lot of tags that I've seen my total isn't too bad at all, and I have got a mix of both high end and highstreet products. The most expensive things I use are the Illamasqua Setting Powder and their Matt Primer. The products I've been using recently have been on the cheaper side as I'm starting to see little difference between high end and low end products. For example, usually my foundation is £30+ but I've been using Revlon Colourstay recently and have really loved it.

There are also certain products I've run out of that I need to repurchase that would usually be included in my makeup. For example, my Urban Decay Setting Spray which is one of my Holy Grail products. I've also been using Sleek for blushes, contour and highlighting recently instead of higher end brands.

I hope you found this interesting, if you've done this tag I'd love to see a link to it in the comments below!