This or That | Marc Jacobs #instamarc light filtering contour powder in Mirage V Wet'n'Wild megaglo contouring palette in caramel toffee

Hello everyone! I can't tell you how great it feels to be back to writing a beauty post after the most intense, action packed fortnight ever. But more on that in the monthly catch up post, because today I'm going to be sharing another 'this or that' with you all. These posts were not designed to always compare dupes, the intention is more to look closely at two similar products and decide which is more worth my money and which one I'd purchase again. Having said all that this one in particular is a bit of a dupe and I'm SO happy with what I'm about to share with you all!

So I purchased the Marc Jacobs #Instamarc Light Filtering Contour Powder in Mirage Filter 40 a year and a half ago (look at all that pan!) and I reviewed it in detail here. When I purchased it back in May 2015, Marc Jacobs was only available to purchase from Sephora, however it is now available in Harrods if you're a U.K reader and this particular duo costs £33.00...which is a lot of money, but that's pretty standard for a luxury makeup item. The reason I was so drawn to this duo was the beautiful yellow powder. It works extremely well at brightening up the under eyes, setting concealer and reducing creasing and bringing so much light and balance to the face. I can't imagine my makeup routine without a yellow powder and the Marc Jacobs one works really well because it is very finely milled and doesn't cake up at all. I also see an instant brightening effect which I love! The darker side is one of my favourites too because it is a brilliant grey contour shade and one of the best in my collection. To make things even better, the packaging ticks all the right boxes - the size, the mirror, the sleekness.

Things were going fine and dandy with the Marc Jacobs but then Wet'n'Wild released a VERY similar version, which is clearly heavily inspired am I right?? They also released two different shades too, just like the #instaMarc range. I didn't pick it up right away as I don't like wasting what I already own and I wanted to wait to see what other bloggers and YouTubers had to say about it. Of course from what I saw I was very impressed and convinced, I hopped onto beautyjoint here and purchased it for $5.99 = £4.62! A HUGE difference in price point! Now lets get onto comparing the two and see if which is most worth it.

Packaging:
Of course Marc Jacobs wins hands down, you have a sleeker packaging with a fancy button to open it up. The huge mirror is a big bonus and its also the reason why I tent to slip this into my makeup bag, as I can do my full face makeup using it. You definitely get what you pay for in terms of MJ, however that's not to say that the Wet'n'wild one is of bad quality. Sure its only plastic, but it does the job and I must say its pretty sturdy too! On the back of the wet'n'wild contour duo there is a little guide for how to use the dua, similar to the one which comes in the Marc Jacob kit too.

Amount of product:
If you purchase the Marc Jacobs powder you get 9g of highlight and 9g of contour. The wet'n'wild contains 12.5g of powder altogether, so technically you're getting 50% more product in the MJ one, which I'd expect considering the price.

Yellow powder:
For me it was very important that the wet'n'wild yellow powder was at least almost as good as the #instamarc, as thats the main reason why I purchased the expensive one. To my absolute DELIGHT, both yellow powders perform exactly the same. If I was going to pick any differences I'd say the wet'n'wild one is a tiny bit brighter which works a charm for me. I have tried both powders on at the same time, one under each eye and I've noticed very little difference which made me really happy. Yes the Marc Jacobs is slightly finely milled, but you really can't tell the difference between the two when applied under the eyes and I am so smitten with the cheaper alternative!


Contour powder:
There is a large difference between the contour shades however, with the Marc Jacobs being a lot more of a realistic contour tone. I definitely couldn't achieve a realistic contour with the wet'n'wild one as it is far too warm. I do use it as a bronzer, but I think if the company had just been a little more careful they could have created the perfect duo! I think the contour shade in the other duo from the same line is more of a cool tone, so you could purchase that alongside it, but I personally won't be because I already have enough contour shades in my collection to keep me chiseled.

This or that?
At a sixth of the price I think the wet'n'wild contouring palette in caramel toffee is an absolute must have and as many pros as the #InstaMarc may have - I'd have to pick wet'n'wild as my winner! Although I much prefer the contour shade of the marc jacobs, I have plenty of contour powders in my collection and the yellow highlight powder of the wet'n'wild is just the little bit more pigmented which means it works just that little bit better than the MJ one. The reason why I invested in the Marc Jacobs duo in the first place was because I wanted a really good yellow powder and having found an even better one in a six dollar product leaves me very satisfied indeed!

Have you tried the gem that is the wet'n'wild contouring palette?

Thank-you for reading ♥

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This or That | Marc Jacobs #instamarc light filtering contour powder in Mirage V Wet'n'Wild megaglo contouring palette in caramel toffee

Hello everyone! I can't tell you how great it feels to be back to writing a beauty post after the most intense, action packed fortnight ever. But more on that in the monthly catch up post, because today I'm going to be sharing another 'this or that' with you all. These posts were not designed to always compare dupes, the intention is more to look closely at two similar products and decide which is more worth my money and which one I'd purchase again. Having said all that this one in particular is a bit of a dupe and I'm SO happy with what I'm about to share with you all!

My 21st Birthday Sephora Haul!

Hello everybody! Today is my 21st Birthday 🎉 And it's becoming a bit of a tradition to treat myself to one Sephora order a year, in my birthday month. Ordering from Sephora is expensive without a doubt, customs, taxes and shipping in total probably cost me around £36! So now you know why it's more of an annual treat haha. Having said that, like I said last year the way I see it is £36 is a lot cheaper than a ticket to America and hotel costs SOOOO I think all in all, although its a splurge it's rather justifiable ;D. Before we get into this haul, I'd just like to apologise for the lack of consistency with these photos, I was getting brave and shooting in RAW mode...this was my first try and some of them didn't quite come out as I had hoped. ANYWAYS, on to the good stuff!

So starting off with two liquid lipsticks that I've had my eye on for AGES, and these are probably the most talked about and most loved liquid lipsticks of all time: Kat Von D's Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks in Lolita and Double Dare ($20.00 - £13.70). I was extremely excited for Lolita of course, which is described as a chestnut rose. It looks like the most gorgeous mauvey rose shade for medium skintones and I am super excited to try it today. I also purchased Double Dare, which came highly recommend by the lovely Jasmine and is described as 'cocoa blush'. It's pretty much a stunning medium muted pink shade and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of it. I was also planning on purchasing the shade Bow N Arrow which is a nude colour, but then I decided to try out a couple of different formulas and if I love these two, I'll place another order and pick it up next year.

 Talking about other formulas, I simply HAD to purchase at least one of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid lipsticks ($20.00 - £13.70) and as the new shades were new to Sephora, a lot of them were out of stock. I did want to purchase at least one of the pink nude shades and if I like this formula, I'll be purchasing those in the future. However another shade which stood out to me, after watching at least 10 swatch videos, was Ashton. On the Sephora site, it is described as a mid-toned yellow brown, however based on swatches I would call it more of a deeper nude shade, with orange undertones. Actually it does kind of remind me of everything nice (reviewed here) which is a shade I adore, so I'm looking forwards to trying Ashton out! The packaging of the ABH liquid lipsticks are so lovely and luxe too.

The final liquid lipstick formula I purchased is the Sephora collection cream lip stain in 13 - Marvellous Mauve ($14.00 - £9.59). I have seen this doing the rounds on YouTube for months now and after a bit of research, I saw this shade is an almost exact dupe for Stila's Patina! This is £6 cheaper, plus its a whole different formula, so I was very excited to pick it up and give it a go. By the way, I haven't included swatches in this post because I plan to review each and every product individually - but I will be doing comparison swatches and the likes when I get around to writing those posts.

 So you probably know that I have become pretty smitten with single eyeshadows, and the concept of creating my own palette! Being a regular YouTube watcher (have I mentioned that already??), ABH shadows are used so often and recommended a lot. It was really hard to settle on which shades I wanted, because initially I thought I'd be able to get a quad for free to hold them in, BUT FOR SOME REASON SEPHORA DOESN'T SHIP THE CARDBOARD/PLASTIC QUAD PACKAGING TO THE UK -_- It's really not a huge deal, it's just a bit frustrating because I understand why they can't ship nail polishes...but packaging for a quad?? Eh. Anyway what made choosing these shades a little easier was I already had the majority of my MUG shadows, so I could kind of see which shades were missing in my palette - as this whole single shadow palette will be my go-to for years to come!

The first shade I decided to go for was Sienna - described as an earth brown. I picked this over morocco, though it was a very close call. I think what helped me decide in the end was literally googling eyeshadow looks with each shade name, and thinking about which ones I could actually see myself using. First impressions are that this is in the same colour family as Cocoa Bear from MUG, which is one of my ultimate favourites!  Peach Sorbet - is described as a metallic sultry rose champagne. I chose it mainly because Katy (Lustrelux) loves this shade, plus I needed a bright pop of colour in my palette, for an intense inner-corner highlight or simply all over the lid. The final shade I purchased was Fawn - described as a neutral olive. I wouldn't quite agree with this description, it's more of a brown and again it's used and recommended so much on YT that I couldn't resist adding to my already pretty extensive collection of neutrals! The ABH shadows are a bit of a splurge, they're $12.00 - £8.22, so they're just a little more expensive than the MUG foiled shadows. Based on the price, of course I have high expectations and I'll be posting reviews for these three shadows separately by the way, as they are more pricey.

AND WE HAVE MORE EYESHADOWS. Lemme explain okay, hear me out - I know I said I've gone off palettes since the decision to create my own using single shadows, but since this beauty was released months ago I was completely smitten. The Tartelette In Bloom Palette ($45.00 - £30.00) is actually available in the UK, from QVC however it was out of stock for a couple of weeks prior to my order so I decided to pick it up from Sephora instead. This is the second version of their palette, the first one was all matte and it didn't really appeal to me. Especially as a LOT of reviews were not so great, so although I was instantly drawn to the in bloom palette, I was kind of glad I was on my spending ban so I could wait and read reviews for this one. I've not come across any negative reviews myself, and although it was smaller than I expected, I am OVER THE MOON. The pigmentation of the shades are stunning, the formula is creamy and I just can't stop admiring this beauty! I couldn't have designed a more beautiful palette myself, from the outer packaging, to the large mirror, to the range of lights to darks with that gorgeous redish shade - yes Tarte, you did SO GOOD.

I've also had my eye on the Tarte Colored Clay CC Undereye Corrector ($24.00 - £16.43) for a while now. I am all about the salmon coloured correctors, I've tried a couple but I'm yet to find one that ticks all my boxes. First impressions are that the shade I purchased - Medium-Tan is probably going to be near perfect, I'm not so sure about the coverage or formula, but I shall be reviewing it soon along with the concealer I picked up LAST year!

And finally one of the funnest things about ordering from Sephora in your birthday month, is the beauty insider birthday gift! Last year it was two decent sized NARS pencils, which I loved. This year they give you a skincare option and a makeup option. Of course, when I saw it was Marc Jacobs, I picked this - a mini lipstick and a pencil eyeliner. Do excuse the quality of this photo (RAW gone wrong🙄), but I'll be doing a post on this very soon to give y'all my two pennies. Regardless though, its a great perk and a lovely free gift from a very luxury brand.

And that is the end of my birthday haul from Sephora! I feel very blessed to have so much beautiful new makeup to play with and I cannot wait to share these things in more detail with you all ^_^

Thank-you for reading ♥

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My 21st Birthday Sephora Haul!

Hello everybody! Today is my 21st Birthday 🎉 And it's becoming a bit of a tradition to treat myself to one Sephora order a year, in my birthday month. Ordering from Sephora is expensive without a doubt, customs, taxes and shipping in total probably cost me around £36! So now you know why it's more of an annual treat haha. Having said that, like I said last year the way I see it is £36 is a lot cheaper than a ticket to America and hotel costs SOOOO I think all in all, although its a splurge it's rather justifiable ;D. Before we get into this haul, I'd just like to apologise for the lack of consistency with these photos, I was getting brave and shooting in RAW mode...this was my first try and some of them didn't quite come out as I had hoped. ANYWAYS, on to the good stuff!

Review | Marc Jacobs #InstaMarc Light Filtering Contour Powder in Mirage Filter 40

Hello everyone! So I mentioned at the start of the year that I wanted to focus my single reviews on high-end products, because sometimes they can be quite the investment. So today I will be reviewing the Marc Jacobs #Instamarc Light Filtering Contour Powder in Mirage Filter 40 which I purchased from Sephora for $49.00 which is a staggering £34.37! So yaaas, that’s super expensive, it was definitely a moment where I was insanely excited to be placing my first Sephora order and I just bit the bullet and added it to my cart. The really good news for us UK girls is that Marc Jacobs beauty is now available from HARRODS! Which means we don’t have to pay the extra shipping and taxes on anything Marc Jacobs from Sephora - WOOP WOOP - you can actually purchase this very product that I’m reviewing for £33 from here.

The #instamarc light-filtering contour powder, is a very long name and I think it’s both funny and slightly hip that they decided to add a ‘#! There are three shades available: 

Dream Filter for light/cool skintones

Mirage Filter for warm/olive skintones 

Hi-Fi Filter which is more neutral in tone and suitable for darker skintones. 

The actual product itself is HUGE!! As it wasn’t available in the U.K I bought it without seeing it before my very eyes, so when it arrived I was kind of shocked (but in a good way though). The whole palette is larger than the palm of my hand, however it’s also very thin in size, which makes it easy to slot into drawers and bags. To open the palette there’s a little silver button which you press and the lid/top of it lifts up slightly. That is definitely a luxury touch for the price and brand name, and I must admit I enjoy it haha. You get 

It also has a huge mirror inside which is one of my favourite things about it, because it’s so useful for when you’re doing your makeup on the go. I think we’re all been there, when we’re trying to do most of our makeup from a small eyeshadow palette mirror – not a fun experience! So the packaging on the whole gets a thumbs up from me, the powders themselves take up most of the space which is great. I hate it when brands made the pans tiny and waste space. Also included is a plastic sheet which says Marc Jacobs on it, it fits over the powder and protects the mirror from getting dusty. A nice touch, but I’ve ended up taking it out because sometimes it makes the lid harder to close.

What really drew me to pick this palette up, was the simple fact that it contains a highlight shade and a contour shade which looked like they went together very well. Mirage filter is the perfect one for medium skintones, it contains a wonderful yellow shade and a great contour shade which has the most perfect mix of brown and grey. In the pan the highlight shade looks super intensely yellow, however when it’s actually applied on the undereyes it doesn't look as yellow. It does a decent job of brightening up the area. The powder itself is extremely smooth, because the texture is very very fine. This means that when dabbing the brush into the pan it does kick up a bit of powder – not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world for me to be honest because I’ll just go back in with the brush, pick up the excess and continue to set! 

I like using the yellow powder over all the area’s which I highlight, so the chin, center of the forehead down my nose too. Now the reason I’m not head over heels with this, is because I find that although the yellow shade does brighten…it’s just not as good of a setting powder as the Kat Von D Shade and Light contour kit (review) yellow shade. I find that unless I really layer this powder up at least twice, my concealer will crease a little under the eyes within 20 minutes. Whilst I do have annoying fine lines under my eyes, there are powders which stop this from happening and this Marc Jacobs one struggles a little! 

The contour shade on the other hand is one of my absolute favourites, there aren’t many shades in my collection which match up to this. It strikes a wonderful balance between brown and grey, meaning it can really achieve a subtle daytime friendly contour with little effort. I love contouring and it makes such a huge difference when you don’t contour with a deeper colour and take a photo. HOWEVER sometimes when you’re like me and you’re in a rush to do your makeup in the morning, grabbing a contour brush means walking around with two kinda harsh stripes on the face, which is never a good look EVER. So this powder really sculpts the cheeks and the nose in such a natural way that I feel like my features actually look slimmer. It is similar to benefit’s hoola, but even better. For the daytime I use a tiny bit and it does the job, for a special occasion or night out I build it up a little and it still looks wonderful!

The swatches aren’t great, they certainly don’t do it justice but I shall have some #MOTDs on my IG in the next few weeks so hopefully you can see what they look like better on my skin.

 Round up!

Rating: 8

Pros:  😃It has a huge mirror making it great for traveling. 

You get two core shades, one for highlight and one for contour which is all most people need (and want). 

The quality of the powder is wonderful, very smooth and creamy with buildable coverage. The powders literally melt into the skin, they don’t sit ontop, it doesn’t look cakey and best of all both sides of the powders look very natural and not harsh in any way. 

 I feel like this particular duo will suit a variety of skintones and in general most skintones are covered across the three options available. 

The contour shade is the BEST. It creates believable definition which you can intensify or simply apply a little. I have never had a muddy or dirty looking contour when using this and because the formula is so smooth, it blends like a dream, meaning no harsh stripes either!  

Although this is a pricy duo, you get a LOT of product, its 18g in total I believe! So it’ll last me quite a long time. I have had this since the start of June 2015 and I’ve used it quite frequently without hitting pan yet. 

Cons: 🙁the highlight shade, which is the main reason why I was so excited for this, just didn’t meet my expectations. I have to layer it up for it to not crease, which isn’t too much of a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but when you think about the price it’s not the best!

Repurchase? Like I said I’ll have this duo for a while because it is so large, however I don’t think I’ll be rushing to repurchase when I do finish it. The Kat Von D shade and light kit for me is more versatile as it has bronzers and lighter/darker highlighting shades as well as a great contour shade and it costs slightly less.

You’ll like this if: You don’t need a particularly strong powder to set your undereyes, if you don’t have creases under your eyes, if you’re not big on the highlight and contouring trend but want a product which contains the two basic and essential shades, if you’re looking for the perfect contour colour and don’t want to purchase a large 6 pan kit.

Overall: I really enjoy how finely milled this is and I find the yellow shade does brighten and slightly blur/airbrush the skin which is so lovely! The contour side is perfection, they did very well with this colour and it's my go-to. I'm really glad I picked this up back in May, although it didn't quite meet my expectations, it's a great addition to my collection and I am enjoying using it! Plus it looks oh so chic on my dressing table (not that this is a deciding factor when spending so much money one one item haha). 

Have you tried this duo? What is your favourite contouring product?

Thank-you for reading ♥