OMFTW #6

Hello! It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to blog, in fact I’m currently ill in bed with a fever, cold and a sore throat. After sleeping as much as I could I decided to write up the blog post that should have been posted on Sunday. These are as usual the products I’ve picked out from my stash and mini reviews/impressions on each of them. As always let me know how you got on with any of them!

E.L.F HD Powder // Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in Brunette // Sleek Blush-By-3 in Pink Lemonade // Rimmel Kate Moss Lasting Finish Lipstick – 8 // Fashionista Custom Design Eyeshadow Palette

I purchased this powder in my first ever E.L.F haul which was a at least a year and a half ago! I never really used it much because firstly, I’m not a powder kinda girl, my skin is more on the dry side so I simply don’t need to add another layer to my face. Secondly as this is starkly white, it did produce a kind of greyish tone on my skin not a good look. On sunday the 1st of March however, I had a wedding to attend and remembered how when there is an evening event, and its fairly warm my skin can appear quite shiny. So I dug this out and have to say by applying a small amount to my T-zone I’m very happy with how it kept any shininess away and my skin looked good in even flash photography! I did use it very moderately and I did bronze too, just to even out the skin. For it’s price I think this is well worth picking up, but if your skin tone is NC35+ do be aware that it’ll probably give you a grey cast when used a little too much.

I actually tried a lipstick out for near enough a whole week! This colour from the 2012 Kate Moss collection, is a beautiful sophisticated mauvey-pink colour. In the bullet it looks alright, nothing special..however on the lips this sort of pull my makeup together and I love how it lasts a good 5 hours on me. It’s not the MOST moisturising formula ever but I always apply my favourite and most intensive lip balm before hand (reviewed here) and it’s been nice using an actual lipstick again!

For the past week I used mainly just my brow wiz, and adored how QUICK you can fill in the sparse hairs, give the brows some definition and be done. using this pencil takes half the time than using powder/pomade and although my ultimate method of getting full/on point brows is using a bit of everything, I’ve appreciated this pencil AND the perfect sized spoolie very much.

For the cheeks, I decided to dip into Pink Lemonade first from the goodies I had to pick from after my sleek haul! This is the one that I was most dubious about, but as I thought it didn’t disappoint. Whilst I haven’t used the lightest shade much, both the cream and the pink on the right have been adored. I’m still getting used to the texture of cream blush in general, and have to say it hasn’t won me over, powder is still the way forwards in my books, but both colours are lovely and so universal. When I’ve got a bit of F&B on, and paler skin they look pretty, but they also look lovely when I’m using a warmer shade of foundation.

Eye’s wise I decided to pick up my custom Fashionista palette for the first time in a while! After all those hauls, I had finally made myself a palette with just the neutrals, and I’ve loved wearing them again. The first post is HERE and the second is HERE and third is HERE, where swatches, names, links and prices are all available (each shade is available for £2!)

I’m hoping to get back into a schedule of blog posts, but with being ill, preparing for presentations, writing reports and learning to drive, do bear with me! Also a huuuuge thankyou to all my new followers, I hope you enjoy the posts here on The Blushing Giraffe ^_^

OMFTW #6

Hello! It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to blog, in fact I’m currently ill in bed with a fever, cold and a sore throat. After sleeping as much as I could I decided to write up the blog post that should have been posted on Sunday. These are as usual the products I’ve picked out from my stash and mini reviews/impressions on each of them. As always let me know how you got on with any of them!

Review | Fashionista Eyeshadows #3 Chocolate Dream, Bliss, Berry Brown, and Brave

I won’t even talk about how long I’ve had these on my ‘to-blog list’ (which by the way is a list longer than my arm!) So today I' m going to be reviewing the next four shades of shadows from my Fashionista collection, and I hope this post is useful to anyone looking to buy them! To check out the first post where I go into lots of detail about prices, places to buy etc.; click HERE and for the second batch of swatches click HERE

So from the four that I’ll be talking about today, brave is the only matte shade (or as close to a matte as fashionista will venture) and I should point out that my camera kindly made chocolate dream appear silver..it’s far more brown! 

These swatches above were done with only one swipe, and as you can see they packed a punch! I have however used two swipes for the below swatches because you can see the colour a little clearer, but I honestly have no complaints with pigmentation from any of these.

Starting with the two browns from this quad I need to first point out how wrong they've got with the names of both the browns- the darkest brown is no where near a chocolate colour, more like a deep grey with a hint of brown. It's not quite as pigmented as some of the others but this works to my advantage when creating a smoky eye for example as it's easier to blend and build up. It's a nice colour to add to my neutrals palette but I'm not blown away by this one as you can still see little silver speckles in the shadow and it's a shade you could probably find in another palette. Overall i rate this a 3/5 it does it's job well, but it's not stunning. However it will be a shade that I'll end up using quite a lot I can imagine so no regrets for blindly picking this one! (Though I was slightly hoping for a rich matte chocolate colour ._.)

Next up is my favourite of this group berry brown. I swatches this on my arm and couldn't stop admiring it, honestly it's stunning but again the name is very misleading (ain't no berry here yo!) it is best described as a deeper copper shade, with some of the softest and creamiest formulation I have come across. You only need one swipe for stunning pigmentation and it's the kind of shade that would complement brown, green and blue eyes a real shade that everyone should own and one of my most favourite shadows from my fashionista collection. The subtle yet gorgeous gold undertone looks soo very pretty and its definitely one that I'll be introducing to my daily makeup! I rate this one 5/5 in terms of colour, pigmentation, ease of blending and versatility!

Bliss which is shade 27 is by far my least favourite shade. It's a frosty pink which in all honesty will get little use from me. As mentioned several times the little squares they give for swatches are extremely hard to judge by, and I'd have left this one is seeing them in store, however if you're looking for a shimmery  pink shade then this is the one for you! The more you build it up the more pink comes through but I still find due to its silver under/overtones that it's a tough one to get a lot of use out of and ultimately that's what everyone wants from their makeup so I'd have to score this for me personally a 1.5 (no complaints on the formula at all I have I add and it's one of the creamier ones- think urban decay quality)

And finally we have brave a name which they have actually got right because it is a the brightest mattest pink eyeshadow I own! Not quite as creamy as the others but this is completely expected as it's the most mattest shade I own from the fashionista range and I'm impressed! I wish there was some distinction on the site between the mattes, shimmer and pearlescent shades as I'd love to get my mits on more of the mattes but alas no such luck... Anyways it is a stunning pink shade, which I feel is comparable to higher end brands because of its pigmentation, without a primer or a base this goes on so bright and although I won't get a ton of use out of such a bright colour I don't regret picking this up because it could be mighty useful in the future (think Asian wedding and bright bright colours) I rate this a 3.5/5

bottom line is: to any girl out there who applies eyeshadow ever, you’re missing out big time if you don’t go ahead and make yourself on of these palettes, the price and QUALITY is phenomenal for drugstore!! The shadows are £1.65 each and the palettes are super affordable too – do check out my first two fashionista posts for more colours and a fuller overview :)

Review | Fashionista Eyeshadows #3 Chocolate Dream, Bliss, Berry Brown, and Brave

I won’t even talk about how long I’ve had these on my ‘to-blog list’ (which by the way is a list longer than my arm!) So today I' m going to be reviewing the next four shades of shadows from my Fashionista collection, and I hope this post is useful to anyone looking to buy them! To check out the first post where I go into lots of detail about prices, places to buy etc.; click HERE and for the second batch of swatches click HERE

Review | Fashionista eyeshadows #2 [Nude Glimmer, Private Fitting, Sweet Kiss and Radiant]

Hello lovlies!

I have finally got round to swatching part 2 of my fashionista series. Part one (which you can check out here) was a h-i-t with the most viewed post on my whole blog! proving that numerous attempts at taking pictures of swatches in 50 different light settings were all worth it because people found it useful – yay ^.^

I won’t be uber repetitive in this post so if you want to read about Fashionista, MUA, prices etc; then HERE ya go. I must say I was less enthusiastic about this bunch than the first (maybe because generally the colours of lighter/sheer and have different finishes) But after playing around with them for a few days I’m still loving fashionista and I’m convinced that with the amount of product (2.5g) you get these babies will last me ages – yaaaay -

left-right: Private Fitting, Nude Glamour, Radiant and Sweet Kiss

Starting with Nude Glimmer it’s a shade that reminds me a little of The Balms highlighter (Mary-Lou) which I absolutely adore and will never need another highlighter ever (or perhaps I should blame that product for my adoration of the art of highlighting??)

It is a ‘go-to’ highlighting shade’ with a hint of gold in it, which I find compliments medium skin tones in such a wonderful way. It the sheerest of the four, the perfect highlighter shade for inner corner and the brow bone. Although a matte highlight looks gorgeous for under the brow, this has just the right amount of shimmer in it to give the whole eye look a boost, whilst not making the brow bone area the centre of attention like some other sparkly shades.

Had the swatches been anywhere near good online, I probably wouldn't have picked this shade up, because in all honesty its very very dupable. I do like that it has a touch of gold about it and probably the best part about it is it’s versatility. Other than that Nude Glimmer isn’t anything too spectacular, just a safe highlighting/inner-corner shade. Overall rating :3.5/5

The first thing I think of when trying to describe Private Fitting is GLITTER GLITTER GLITTER. It literally is one of the most glittery eyeshadows I’ve come across. In the pictures I’ve already posted you can see a lot of white streaks throughout it and when sweeping your finger/brush through the shadow this really comes through. I found that the only way to use this colour to it’s full effectiveness is with a base (especially the Maybelline colour tattoo in Eternal Gold) Because it is so crazy glittery, it’s not the best shade to base an eye look around, but it looks gorgeous added onto a flatter (more matte) look. Due to it’s glitteryness I might as well add there is a ton of fallout, so tapping that brush before applying is essential! It also looks amazing with the colour tattoo in ‘on and on’ bronze (picture on my instagram if you’re interested ^_^) Overall rating: 3/5

Sweet Kiss is very similar to NG (much to my disappointment) however it is more silver toned. It has a slight hint of pink which the camera has not picked up. Again a lovely highlighter shade, I’d rather have NG on my cheekbones than this though, but it would also work perfectly fine as an all over face highlighter too. It is slightly more sheer than the above which gives it a pretty sheen-ish look (not over the top in-ya-face y’know?). I’m afraid I don’t have a head to say about this, I would have loved for this to be matte but, it is what it is and if you have a similar shade I probably would advise against getting it. Overall rating: 3

Radiant is the most beautiful shadow of the bunch. Its a double take shadow, essentially it is a baked shadow which is also limited edition. The two colours complement each other perfectly, purple and rustic/bronzy gold. The purple addition is only minor when swatched however, and it makes a gorgeous gold colour, especially for brown eyes! I prefer this shade to ‘exclusive collection’ and it’s safe to say from these four, this colour is my favourite. There are very small speckles of glitter in this shade too,  not as noticeable as private fitting, a lot more subtle than Private Fitting. It looks beautiful in the crease, adding some subtle glamour and I can imagine it would make an amazing base for a smoky eye (especially with a wet brush). Overall rating: 4

Again a bunch of glittery/shimmery shades (no mattes in my swatches thusfar!) Although I am a little disappointed at the similarity of SK and NG they’re both very versatile and I’m sure at least one of them will come in handy if I’m making a palette for travelling. Used with a base these shadows appears a lot more vivid and of course last longer. If you want further details on these shadows then do visit part one (linked above) as this was mainly just for swatches ^_^

What are you experiences with Fashionista shadows?

Review | Fashionista eyeshadows #2 [Nude Glimmer, Private Fitting, Sweet Kiss and Radiant]

Hello lovlies!

I have finally got round to swatching part 2 of my fashionista series. Part one (which you can check out here) was a h-i-t with the most viewed post on my whole blog! proving that numerous attempts at taking pictures of swatches in 50 different light settings were all worth it because people found it useful – yay ^.^

Review | Fashionista eyeshadows #1 [earth star, exclusive collection, gold rush, subtle glamour]

Let the eyeshadow swatching begin! If you read this post you’ll know I was pretty impressed with Fashionista eyeshadows. For a high-street brand they’ve packed a punch with these shadows in a very generous amount (2.5g)

The first four I’ll start with are earth star, exclusive collection, gold rush and subtle glamour.

I popped these in my online basket with no idea what to expect from the shades, (and we all know a lot of websites stick the most random colours as the swatches!) Thankfully I wasn’t the least bit disappointed with what I did pick out. These four are all shimmery/have a sheen and can be built up with ease.

I’ll start by talking about the shadows and then moving onto swatches of the colours. There are two different ‘categories’ of shadows the DOUBLE TAKE BAKED EYESHADOW and the standard eyeshadow. I don’t have a big experience of baked products (e.l.f is as good as it gets in my collection so far) but I’m thoroughly impressed so far. They have the most beautiful colours swirled together, as you can see from exclusive collection there's bits of white in there which is perfect for inner corner highlighting, whereas parts of the other shades in the pan could  be used for all over the lid/transition shade/crease colour. So the baked eyeshadows are firstly very versatile. When I opened them up, I nervously swiped my finger across them hoping the pigmentation would be adequate and was shocked to find my finger in an opaque layer of gorgeous colour – pigmented? YES YES YES. Honestly I was overjoyed, I payed £1.65 and got 2.5g of eyeshadow that not only is in the ‘a little goes a long way’ category but also will last for ages ^_^

The only disadvantage of the double take it that it is noticeably more ‘messy’ so to speak, in comparison to the normal shadows, which stayed firmly put in their pans. The DTE (especially exclusive collection) had flecks here and there around it. Not a major problem, but probably better to do eye makeup before base makeup when applying these. The idea of the double take range is they change the shades with the seasons, so they are essentially limited edition.

The normal eyeshadow range has pigmentation just as rich as the double take ones, and these shades are in their permanent collection. They have a subtle but ever so gorgeous sheen to them.  I’d describe the texture of the shadows as smooth and creamy. They do remind me a little bit of the Urban Decay shadows – always a good thing right? Meaning they’re extremely blendable and easy to work with.

left – right: exclusive collection, earth star, subtle glamour and gold rush

How utterly beautiful are these shadows???

  

Exclusive Collection is a beautiful copper shade with small specks of gold running through it(or silver if you swipe your brush through the white areas). This is also the shade that has the most distinctive colours running through it, copper, dark brown, white and yellow. Used alone or blended together they make a beautiful shade. I find it brings out brown eyes really nicely, but I can imagine it would make blue eyes pop.

Gold Rush is a d brown colour with a slight hint of khaki. It has no noticeable glitter particles as in exclusive collection. This shade is perfect for in the crease to add a little bit of definition and shimmer. Despite the name being gold rush, there isn’t much gold too it, however it would accompany a gold shadow (or even exclusive collection) perfectly and if you were to just use these two shadows on your eyelids, it would look divine.

Note- I ALWAYS wear eyeshadows with a base, either the NYX MILK or concealer which intensifies the colour, and makes it even more vibrant. (these swatches are just on skin)

Subtle Glamour is a cold toned grey with a hint of brown, essentially a mushroomish shade. I have loved using this instead of eyeliner on the water line as its dark enough to add definition and depth, but not as harsh or over-bearing as black kohl can look when lining the eyes. I think this colour would work well with a warm and a cold smoky eye and as you can see from the swatch above in the sunlight has a silver tone look about it. I don’t normally go for colder neutrals as I have warm eyes, but again it is very versatile so hopefully will be used as often as the others.

Earth Star is the warmest and indeed brownest shade I own. I love pairing this up with a lighter colour in the outer corner for a soft daytime look, or even using this as a transition colour as it’s not too dark or light. It has the same subtle sheen that all the shadows have and again not any glitter particles which the baked double take shadows have, but that is what makes this more suitable for blending out as well as a base colour.

One of the best things about these palettes are the huuuuuuge mirror! Great for travelling ^_^

You can purchase all the shadows from here currently at £1.65 each, usually £4 and you can get all of the above (four shadows/blushers/bronzers and a palette) for a fantastic seven pounds.

I hope you found this useful, deciding how to swatch them was a challenge and a half, but I’m getting there slowly haha

Iqra x

To see PART 2 (four more swatches!) click here

Review | Fashionista eyeshadows #1 [earth star, exclusive collection, gold rush, subtle glamour]

Let the eyeshadow swatching begin! If you read this post you’ll know I was pretty impressed with Fashionista eyeshadows. For a high-street brand they’ve packed a punch with these shadows in a very generous amount (2.5g)

The first four I’ll start with are earth star, exclusive collection, gold rush and subtle glamour.

Fashionista Custom Design Palette

Hi guys!

The more I blog the more you’ll get to know that the two products I could continue collecting for ever and ever are blushes and eye shadows ^_^

Fashionista is a brand I never really looked into when going into Superdrug, but since MUA has partnered with them and they had an awesome sale on I thought it was the perfect way to try it out! I ordered two custom design palettes, a white one with six slots and a black four-piece slot, two bronzers, three blushers and four eye shadows. (there was another blusher but it was sold out when they went to collect and package so hey ho)

Instead of bombarding you with a ton of pictures I just wanted to show the palette and concept which I think is pretty awesome! So the black palette has fashionista written all over it as you can see, and it also has a extremely useful large mirror in the lid, which is awesome for travelling.

The palette is sturdy, the surface is pretty reflective and the clasp/latch thing is kinda tough to open at times.

The blushers and eyeshadows are the same size, a decent and rather generous 2.5g of product. They’re sold in single pans as shown above and the shadows/blushers can be popped out and placed in any order in the larger palettes. They are usually £4 each but currently £1.65 on the MUA website (a total steal!) The current deal is a palette and four shadows/blushers for £7 or a larger palette with 6 blushers/shadows for a tenner!

Mix and match palettes are nothing new to the beauty world, but the awesome thing about these particular ones are that once you flip over the palette, you can see the product name on the back. This is particularly useful for the MUA’s out there, but also useful for us regular girls who like to collect a good quality and excellent priced bargain too ;D

I had no idea what to expect from the shades, pigmentation etc. etc. but I was pleasantly surprised and ordered another few shadows a week later. I’m going to be splitting the other up into separate posts, but I have high hopes for these and they’re a welcome addition to my average shadow collection so far ^_^ (oh and they ship internationally too, so check out the link below if you’re interested)

MUA/FASHIONISTA PALETTES

Iqra x