Mastering Your Makeup: August 2014

New W7 Products...2 posts combined into 1 :)

Heya All, (I suppose that should read Hey Y’all because I totally put on an accent reading this!)

Anyway…. We all know I am a huge budget brand lover and a firm fave for me to try is the W7 brand.

I have been very lucky to have received many of the W7 products to review for you guys and here is my latest review of new products. Some I was sent ages ago and then I was treated to a few more products last week so I have included them all in this post...

First up is a product I have been trying for a few weeks now and that is the W7 In The Nude palette. I have been told this is a dupe for the Naked palette which I have and don't use all that often anymore. I am only now getting more comfortable with shadows so it’s deffo going to be used. The In The Nude palette and the Naked palette and similar I’d agree.

So with the In The Nude palette there are both matte shadows and shimmer shadows so it’s a great investment if you want to practice with not as much cost as investing in the Urban Decay equivalent.

I think quality wise, it is absolutely worth the value. If you don't have the Naked palette then you absolutely should invest in this. It has a great range of colours and you will be able to bring it away with you and not have to worry about it breaking as it doesn't cost the earth. It’s great that for a product designed similar to the UD Naked palette, the quality is almost just as good.

This is the 2^nd palette from the W7 range but the only one that I have and I really like it. I took it to Belfast with me on a recent night away and loved the look I created with it.

Here is me wearing the In The Nude palette:

The second product I have just tried from this range is the W7 Brow Bar-Brow Kit.
This is a four colour shadow quad stencil kit for your brows and I am colour three in this palette. I am on the fence about shadow quads lately. My brow colour has been the same and will be the same for the next few years so I don't tend to need three other colours. I think for a budget product, this is a good idea to get as shadows are easy enough to use if you are starting out with filling in your brows. The little brush that comes inside the palette can fray outwards a little, but this can be totally managed by holding the brush lightly and only use a little product at a time. For lasting power, the palette is great and I didn't notice much fall out at all from the application. I like that this little quad also comes with an extra brush for taming the brows, sometimes this is exactly the brush you need after applying shadow so top marks to W7 for sticking that into the set.

The third product in today's post is the Catwalk Face Shaper- Contour Cream Set.
I will not lie... I have been absolutely dreading trying to use this product, I seem to be a disaster when it comes to blending in cream contour products and I'm afraid this was no different. I found for my own skin type, the darker colour is too dark when I have no tan on and it seemed to move my foundation when I had darker makeup on. I also didn't really like the highlighter in this, I have taken a swatch here on my arm and you can't really see it through the camera. I'm afraid this product for me gets the thumbs down, just for my own skin and ability. I was very excited when I thought this product was powder but I'm afraid me and creams do not go so I wont be using this again. If any of you have used this and liked it please let me know some tips.

Lastly a lippy product for you all! This is the Full Time Lip Colour-24/7 Lipstick
This was a strange one for me, I am not a lip gloss girl, I am deffo more of a lipstick so the directions for this are to apply the red colour first, leave it dry and then apply the gloss. It's an ok product but just not for me. I think if you like stains you'll enjoy this but the consistency wasn't for my personal taste.

The first of the new products to arrive at my door last week was the Candy Blush- Blusher This is a super cute light pink powder blush, perfect if you just want to add a little colour onto your cheeks. It's cheap and cheerful, a light enough colour for anyone who is not a huge blush fan so it's a good starter blush.

I am going to do the final two products together as I think they are extremely similar, they are both eyeshadow palettes and they are the ...Celebrity Secrets- Eyeshadow Quad &
Angel Eyes- Eyeshadow Palette The Quad is quite good as it comes with numbers of which shadow should be applied and the Angel eyes, the colours look so so pigmented. I don't want to be a negative nelly here but shadows are a hard buy. You have seen from above I loved the 'In the Nude' palette, I regularly use it but I think again with these smaller palettes, the quality just isn't up there for me. I found trying to do swatches of the colours difficult enough as they are quite powdery. Over the last week I have created looks using both palettes and I like the Angel Eyes palette better. For me, I think the colours are more to my taste and applying them was easier. I would recommend angel eyes over the quad.

Angel Eyes

Celebrity Secrets

I'm sorry to say that this post wasn't a total glowing review of the new W7 products but sometimes for me, I think brands created too much stuff and they can have such hit and miss products. On the whole, I think W7 is a brilliant brand, they have fab mascaras, I like the HD Foundation, the lipsticks are nice not to mention the two bigger palettes are fantastic. I did even see online there is a night shade palette coming out so I will own that and I would bet it will be awesome.

Somethings things wont be to your taste but thankfully W7 have such good value you can pass it on to a friend or little sister if you have one and not feel too guilty for not liking it. It's great to have a brand so reasonable, you can take your time testing things out and finding especially colour wise what you like and what suits you.

Really hope you enjoyed this post and as always you can catch me on my Facebook Page HERE

Emma x

08:06:00
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Make-Up Atelier Paris Goodies for review!

21:25:00
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Thursday Tanning Series- Week 7 Vita Liberata Phenomenal Medium

Happy Thursday All!!

I don’t know about you, but I am delighted it’s Thursday as for me its… PAYDAY!! 5 long weeks have passed and I can now afford my bills again, although I now have to save for my trip to London to visit my little sister but it’s not a shopping trip so need to very good.

Anyway back to our bronzing business… I had left this tan on the shelf until I had another special occasion so I was really excited to try it as I see the brand Vita Liberata coming up everywhere.

The lovely Aideen sent me the Phenomenal Mousse Tan in medium to try along with a lovely mitt. I have to say getting the mitt with the tan has just been magic so I can see how much product stays on the mitt as well as making sure I get a clean application. You can check out the entire Vita Liberata range on Facebook HERE and the website HERE.

So what is the Phenomenal Tan all about…

(www.vitaliberata.ie)

“For the longest lasting, super fast drying natural tan result - perfect for normal, combination and oily skin types.

Lasts up to 4 times longer than regular tans
Incredibly easy to apply even for the novice tanner
Super fast drying so you can redress immediately
Contains Odour Remove™ for zero smell
Certified organic botanicals and Moisture Lock™ guarantee a perfect fade back to nothing” (www.vitaliberata.ie)

This tan is a whopping €46.50 to buy off the Vita Liberata website so let’s see how I got on…

Ok so I had a family event on Saturday last so I began my tanning applications on Friday. I had exfoliated during the week, getting all my old tan off, kept my skin nice and moisturised so I felt I was all prepped for this tan.

The mousse has a beautiful guide colour application so as always I loved this so I could make sure I was all covered. I went for a full body tan and used about 2 pumps for each arm/shoulder area. I used 3 pumps to get my legs covered and I think my mum used two pumps to get my back covered.

Here are my pale legs, tanned legs and tanned arm...

When they say the tan is odourless they are absolutely telling the truth, no coffee or toffee smell off me, I woke up and had a lovely glow on my skin. I had read on my tan box that for a darker tan you can apply up to three layers, showering between and I thought this was a little strange but here is where my tanning story takes a turn.

I like an eegit, booked myself in for a facial Saturday morning, I was a fabulous golden bronze and loving my colour, when I forgot I was getting a should, neck and chest massage as part of my facial, all my lovely tan mixed with the massage oil and came off so I was in an absolute panic showering and trying to fix it before the party. Lucky for me and thanks to Vita Liberata for making such a wonderful tan, after my shower I applied another layer and by that evening, I had a stunning colour which so many of the family commented on.

Here is a pic of me all done up for the party and you can see I am literally a bronzed goddess (even if I do say so myself)

I really don’t have any bad points about the tan, I loved it so much, the non-smell, the colour guide, the results and the wear off has been fantastic!!!

I think I just learned from this experience that if you get a tan in medium and are quite on the pale side like me, you cannot expect to be as dark as you would with a darker tan. Now many of you reading this will think, DUH Emma, but seriously I wanted to wait and use this tan for a special occasion as it was one of the most expensive tans I was sent, I wanted a real treat and that is what I got but because my dress was a light colour I wanted to be really dark and I ended up using three layers of the tan (a lot of product) just to achieve that look.

With one layer, I lost my pale look and was really happy if it was for a daytime kind of tan but I still felt too pale to go to the party. As the tan is so expensive, please be careful when you buy a shade, if you want a darker tan, use a dark colour, if you want a soft glow… match to your skin tone naturally. The next tan from Vita Liberata which I hope to try and have seen everywhere is the Naked Collection Mousse in Dark. I think this could be a go to for winter nights out for me, I have read fab reviews and I think if the Phenomenal is anything to go by, it will be fantastic.

I know people ask questions about tans for weddings and I would absolutely recommend the Phenomenal in Medium if you have my colour skin. I had a pink dress on with white undies and I had no run off from the tan. I moisturised every day after my showers and the tan has faded gradually, no dirty marks on my hands/elbows. I have slowly gone back to my pasty white self since the weekend and that is such a welcomed feature for me as I have struggled to get some tans off me.

This is absolutely a luxury product but for me one I would give the thumbs up to and recommend to my readers. Budget products are of course a main feature of my blog but I think sometimes with an occasion very important to you it’s a very wise decision to invest in a product you feel safe and comfortable with and sometimes with tan, less is actually more we don't want to be orange (well I don't) but I love a good bronzing!

Be sure to check out the Vita Liberata website for all the information on the tan range and also a list of stockists. I think it is fantastic they have small videos about the tan and I also noticed today on the facebook page as it's pay day they have 30% off tans, who doesn't love a discount!!

If you have any questions, as always feel free to mail me through my Facebook Blog page HERE

Emma x

12:42:00
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W7 Skincare... Your chance to review products for me?!

16:16:00
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Tuesday Brush Series... Let's talk Foundation!!

Hi Beauties,

And welcome to the start of my new weekly brush series!

The biggest learning for me since starting the blog is finding the right tools. To be fair it is absolutely essential to have good brushes that you are comfortable with. Now before we get into the series, I want to make something really clear…. ‘Good’ brushes to not always mean ‘Expensive’ brushes. I know from experience, building a good makeup kit is expensive and we have all fallen into the trap of buying really expensive products, thinking they’ll have to be amazing and then they don’t suit us at all so this series will include all brushes I own myself and actually use.

Many of the brushes in this series I will have bought myself and on the off chance they were sent to me, they will have only made this series because I actually like them enough to use them in my daily/evening makeup routine.

So I feel it is only fitting that we start at the beginning of this series with the base brush or the ‘Foundation’ brush as you will all know it.

I don’t tend to use my fingers at all for foundation but for primer I do. I usually leave my moisturiser on my skin for a least 5-8mins before I’ll add my primer which I will put onto my face with my fingers.

So there are different types of foundation brushes and for me, it will depend on what foundation I am using on the day.

My ‘go to’ foundation brush at the minute is the Blank Canvas F20 brush which I currently have 2 of! I like this brush no.1 because it comes in pink LOL but also because it seems to work with almost every foundation I own. The F20 is part of the ‘HD’ collection from Blank Canvas and retails at €13.99. “The F20 Flat Buffer is made of short, dense synthetic fibres ideal for liquid, cream or powder products.” (www.blankcanvascosmetics.com)

Using a light hand and circular movements, you can buff on your foundation for a flawless finish. I like this brush because it is soft so your foundation moves onto your face rather than streaks on or paints on. I find with a lighter consistency makeup, place the product on your hand first, dip your brush in and then you can build up the foundation little by little to get your desired look.

The brush is also very easy to clean. I like to ‘wash and go’ with surgical spirits and then once a week do a ‘deep cleanse’ which means I use Johnsons baby shampoo to work out the left over foundation and then leave my brushes resting on the edge of a towel moulded back into their correct shape.

An old fave of mine since starting to look into makeup is the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush. This orange beauty retails on Cloud10 Beauty for €11.99 and if you don’t like online shopping you can also purchase it from Boots.

This brush is slightly thicker and stiffer than the BCC F20 brush so sometimes I like to use this for my thicker foundations such as the MAC Studio Fix foundation which I find needs to be worked into the skin more.

This is a great starter brush and is good for most foundations although I do find it harder for the lighter consistency foundations as it has a rounded head, sometimes the product can run off if you try apply it directly onto the brush. (Using your hand or a palette is always a great habit to get into)

For a lighter/day look makeup I sometimes like to buff my Glo Minerals Tinted Moisturiser onto my skin using another brush from Blank Canvas Cosmetics. This brush is called the F26 which is the Mini Flat Buffer Brush which is also from the HD Collection. This brush will set you back €10.99 on the website. “This brush is made of short, dense synthetic fibres ideal for liquid, cream or powder products. Stipple or buff your foundation onto your face with this super soft brush and notice the difference to your application.” (www.blankcanvascosmetics.com)

I really like this brush for my foundation as I said when I want it lighter. I used to be big user of the flat foundation brush and trying to buff it out then using a Duo Fibre brush but now I feel my technique of buffing is improving so I tend to keep my flatter brushes for more intimate work like applying concealer which we will look at next week.

The final foundation brush I want to talk to you about is a brush I received to review a few months back, tried it out, put it back in the holder and didn’t touch it for weeks on end but then one day decided to test it out and now it is in my makeup bag I bring with me to work for touch ups during the day if I need them… this brush is the Nima Brush Flat Head Kabuki Brush. This brush is actually quite similar to the F20 and retails online at €18.00. You can buy them online HERE. Nima Brush is another Irish company (so is Blank Canvas Cosmetics) and I am all in favour of supporting quality home brands so if you haven’t checked out either company please do.

I like the buffing technique as I said above so again this Kabuki brush is perfect for working in product into the skin and I find with applying makeup this way, I use less foundation as a good Kabuki brush really helps spread the foundation so you get more value out of the bottle.

I don’t want to bombard you all with a load of brushes and I wanted this series to be about what I actually use at the moment. Like many MUA’s (Woohoo now I’m qualified I can say that) we tend to find new brushes, test out brands and get comfortable so for me at the moment, these 4 brushes are what I use on my face.

If you have any questions on these brushes or any foundation brushes in general then please feel free to contact me on my Facebook blog page, I really want this series to be as informative and as interactive as possible so even if you have a ‘go to’ foundation brush I should try, let me know and of course I will try and buy it :)