Maybelline Mono Eyeshadow Review

I very rarely buy powder eyeshadows from cheaper brands, they are one product by far that I feel like you get what you pay for and I've yet to come across some that have really wowed me or come close to the quality of higher end brands like Urban Decay or Mac which are the ones I tend to reach for on a daily basis.

I don't think I've bought a Maybelline eyeshadow since I was a teenager and I'm very sad to say that was a hell of a long time ago now. From what I remember their eyeshadows were pretty useless, little pigmentation and very powdery so I've always avoided them whenever I've been shopping in Boots or Superdrug.

Whilst browsing in Boots recently I spotted a new product that really caught my eye (review on this to come shortly), they were also doing 3 for 2 on Maybelline and not being one to miss out on a deal I had a look around to see what other items they had to offer.

I wanted to pick something that I've never tried from them before and not go for the usual colour tattoos or lipglosses like I normally do,  I spotted the mono eyeshadows, not really thinking anything of them I had a quick swatch of naked beige and to my complete surprise it was an absolutely gorgeous colour and was really pigmented. It certainly wouldn't have looked out of place in one of the Naked palettes.

I then went on to try the Chocolate Chic, which was a dark chocolate brown and again the pigmentation was really good, the colour is nothing special just an everyday standard brown, but a very useful colour so I picked up one of each.

I'm so impressed with the quality of these, at only £4.09 each (or £2.73 if you were to buy them on the 3 for 2 offer) these are great little neutrals for everyday wear.

 I've found myself reaching for naked beige every morning for the last couple of days, its a really easy to wear colour that brightens up your eye area making you look awake, even when you may not feel it.

I've found them to last on my lids for around 2-3 hours without a primer, however due to my oily lids this is the case with most powder shadows. With a primer I found that they would stay for a good 6-7 hours before starting to fade. 

Overall I would definitely recommend these to anyone who wears neutral colours on their eyes. I own quite a few neutral palettes and shadows and am happy to say these make a nice addition to my collection. I've seen a couple of other colours online but they didn't have these in my local Boots but I will definitely be picking up a few more when I'm in one of the larger stores. 
 

Pixi Early Bird Kit Review

Firstly I will start of by saying that I love Pixi make up, everything I have ever used from this brand have always been amazing, from the packaging to the quality of the product. I have never had a bad word to say. I was really hoping my review on this product would be the same, unfortunately not this time.

 

This is the Early Bird kit, I picked it up from Boots, it retails for £16 but has a value of £64 if you look at everything individually.

I thought the packaging was so cute and as I've always loved their make up I thought it was definitely a good investment.

 

Its really sweet and girly packaging and when I opened it up I wasn't initially disappointed with what I saw, you'll see what I mean with the next picture.

This looked like a whole lotta happiness in one small palette. It contains 3 blushers, 2 bronzers, 1 highlighter, 4 eyebase powders and 16 eyeshadows. That in my opinion is a serious bargain for £16.

However after looking a little more closely I didn't feel that the palette was of such good quality that I am used to with Pixi products, the pans were loose from the palettes and were lifting out of the palette for starters which slightly disappointed me. 

I overlooked this and just tried to push them all back in being careful not to break the powders, this helped slightly.

The blushers, such pretty colours and I love the printing on them

The eyeshadows and eyeshadow base colours (central) you can see slightly what I mean about the pans here.

Bronzers and highlighter again lovely colours and printing on the product, I really like that they do pay attention to small details.

Now, here is what let the product down, possibly the most important thing, the pigmentation. Some of them are as usual really good quality and have excellent pigmentation but others are just not good at all. Some of then I couldn't get anything from them at all and others were just picking up glitter and no colour. Here are a few swatches of the better colours.

I attempted the lesser quality ones but I was essentially just photographing my arm and that seemed rather pointless.

The reason I am being quite negative on this product is, although £16 for a palette containing so many products from Pixi is quite cheap, there are lots of other brands out there that offer cheaper products that are much better quality than the duff ones in this palette. 

Would I buy it again? No, sadly not but this hasn't put me off Pixi as a brand and I will still be checking them out on my next Boots visit.

Have you tried this palette yet, or any product from Pixi?

ELF Haul

ELF have recently done a 48% off sale and as I'm never one to pass up on a bargain I decided to put in a little order. I ordered either Tuesday or Wednesday morning and it came on Saturday, super quick considering how many orders must have been placed during the sale.

As usual it arrived well packaged, in perfect condition and with everything included.

There was one thing in particular that I really wanted to order from ELF and was my main reason for putting an order in, this item was the brow stencils. I was chatting to a friend at work who mentioned these and I really wanted to give them a go, they were only £1.50 (78p after the discount) for 4 different shaped stencils. I can't use all of them due to the shape of my brows but there are two that I should be fine with.

So after popping these into my basket I then ended up with this

All for only £35 delivered, bargain in my opinion. I've had a quick go of everything apart from the mascaras and nothing has disappointed. A few items are repurchases such as the brushes but everything else was new to me.

I've broken them down into sections, first up is brushes

L-R Concealer brush, blending eye brush, angled eyeliner brush, eyeshadow brush, lip defining brush and Kabuki brush

All the white brushes are part of the essentials line and are £1.50 each, the angled liner brush is part of the studio line and is £3.75 and the Kabuki brush is also part of the studio line and is £6.00. I already have all of these brushes apart from the Kabuki brush and they are really good quality, especially the angled liner brush, I can't be without this now and its the only brush I use for applying my eyeliner. 

Next up we have eye products

L-R Jumbo Eyeshadow Stick (Little Miss Thing), Lengthening & Defining Mascara (Black),  Regular & Waterproof Mascara Duo (black),  Jumbo Eyeshadow Stick (Turkish Coffee), Jumbo Eyeshadow Stick ( Check Me Out), Mineral Eyeliner (Coffee) and Pressed Mineral Eyeshadow (Bridal Party)

The Jumbo Eyeshadow Sticks are £2.50 each and are great, I've given them a little go and I find them so much easier to use than the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils, they crease so badly on my lids but these are fab, even without a primer. The mascaras are both £1.50 but I haven't tried these as of yet because of the sheer amount of mascaras I have on the go at the moment. The eyeliner was £3.00, I swatched it on the back of my hand and it seems nicely pigmented and quite creamy and smooth so hopefully it wont tug when putting it on my eyes. The mineral eyeshadow was £3.50, its a really pretty white. I used it as a brow highlighter today and it worked perfectly fine for what I wanted.

Here we have a few lip products

L-R Luscious Liquid Lipstick (Baby Lips), Long Wear Lipliner (Natural Blush), Luscious Liquid Lipstick (Pink Lemonade), Long Wear Lipliner (Mauve Luxe) and Lipstick (Classy)

All of the lip products were £1.50 each. The liquid lipsticks are amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on some more. Baby Lips is definitely my favourite and I'll be popping a few more in my basket on my next order so I have plenty of backups. 

Finally we have the face products

Top Row L-R HD Blush (Superstar), HD Blush (Showstopper) Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder (Turks & Caicos) , Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder (Antigua)
Bottom Row L-R Maximum Coverage Concealer (Porcelain), Contouring Blush & Bronzing Cream (St. Lucia) and Healthy Glow Bronzing Powder (Luminance)

Everything here was £3.75 apart from the bronzing powder which was £1.50. I swatched the HD blushes and they are amazingly pigmented, I definitely going to need some practise with these, I put the tiniest amount on the back of my hand and blended it out and it covered the whole of my hand! I used the pink blush from the Antigua duo today when we went out for tea and its lovely, its really pigmented and really flattering, I had some concerns of it looking slightly clownish but it was just a really nice flush of pink when blended out. You can build it up to a more intense colour if thats what you like but I only used a tiny amount.

So that was my ELF haul, not bad for £35 I don't think. You can buy ELF from here if your in the UK or here if your in the US. If you have never tried ELF before I definitely recommend it, if you like them on Facebook they are always doing various offers and promotions so its worth keeping an eye out if your wanting to put in an order. They also have great customer service as well and have always got back to me really quickly if I have had any problems with anything, they are super friendly too!

I'll be doing full reviews on individual items once I have given them a good go but if there is anything above that you would specifically like a review or swatches of please comment below and I'll get one posted for you.

Thanks for reading!

New CID Cosmetics Review

I recently spotted this brand on a couple of peoples blogs and also on the QVC website. I never really paid much attention to them because no stores near me stock them and I do like to test a brand before purchasing when possible. I needed a new translucent powder and spotted on this on the QVC website for £17.52 + £3.95 postage and it came with a brush so I thought it would  be a great way to try out the brand.

I received the product really quickly and I was really excited to try it, I applied the powder with the brush supplied after my foundation and immediately I really disliked it. It didn't mattify my skin it just wasn't very good at all. However I think this was down to the brush, the brush has rave reviews on the website but I found it to be really difficult to work with. Its a beautiful brush and its so so soft  but I just didn't think it does anything for the product. I've used the powder with my normal brushes and its so much better. It does what it says on the tin, its a translucent powder. It mattifies my skin and leaves a nice finish. Although I don't think its worth the price. I have found other much cheaper powders to be just as effective. This one for example in my opinion is just as good. 

Next up I have the pressed powder in extra light, I love the packaging and I love that it has a little light on it. Its so cute! This retails for £24.00, again it does what it says on the tin. Theres not alot to say about it really. It does mattify my skin and eliminates any shiny areas on my face it is a very light coverage. I like the powder but don't think I would purchase it again at the price. Some much cheaper alternatives that are just as good in my opinion are the Rimmel Stay Matte priced at £3.99, the 17 pressed powder priced at £3.42 and the MUA pressed powder priced at £1.00, I love this powder and think its a bargain at only £1.00.

I picked up the Look Book palette from TK Maxx for about £7.99, it looks really nice but its a fingerprint magnet. It contains 4 neutral coloured eyeshadows, 2 lipsticks, a blush and a highlighter (it also has 2 of the rubbish applicators you usually get with palettes that are really not worth mentioning) The highlighter is beautiful as are the eyeshadows, they are so incredibly pigmented and give a gorgeous finish. The blush is slightly less pigmented but for me thats great as I am really heavy handed when applying blushes and its much easier to add more if you haven't put enough on than take some away when you have applied to much and look like a clown. The lipsticks are very sheer, they look fairly bright in the palette but just leave a very nice tint of colour and a sheen to your lips, again perfect for me as I haven't quite got round to rocking the bright lipsticks yet, I'm such a wuss!

 3 down, 2 to go. The I-Shimmer, a double ended highlighter with brush. The shade is marshmallow and its so nice. Its a lovely colour and I love that it has a brush on the end, its so handy and I think its much better than blending with your fingers which I always end up doing with other stick highlighters. This retails for £18.50 and is so worth it. I would purchase more but after looking at the other colours the marshmallow is the best for me but I will be repurchasing once this runs out. Love it so much. A cheaper alternative would be the ELF all over colour stick in either spotlight or toasted and these are priced at £1.50. I have tried these and they are good but I personally prefer the New CID.

Finally we have a lip product, its the i-gloss, light up lip gloss with mirror in baby doll. These retail at £16.00 on the website. This is alot more than I would normally spend on a lip gloss I will be honest. Its very glossy, a gorgeous colour and its not sticky at all and lasts a while before you need to apply but unfortunately I would not pay the full price of these or the £4.99 I snagged this for at TK Maxx. I'm not really  a gloss fan usually I just thought the name was quite cute, I'm more of a tinted lip balm kinda girl so will be sticking to my Revlon Just Bitten Balm Stain which I am in love with at the moment.

Hope you enjoyed my little review. If you have tried any New CID cosmetics that you have thought were worth the quite hefty price tag please comment below I would love to try something on someone elses recommendation.

Topshop Constellation Eye Palette

I've never really got into the whole Topshop make up range. I've had one or two items but never been overly impressed with them. I recently got the Constellation Palette that they do and I have to say I'm rather impressed. It retails for £12 and can be found here on their website. Its a really nice smokey eye kit and would be great for Christmas.

Here is the palette, I love the packaging. Its really sturdy and feels like it would hold up if you popped it in your hand bag. It includes a mirror and an applicator.

Here is what it says on the back of the packaging.

The palette includes a very glittery black, a dark  glittery silver, a shimmery pink and shimmery light silver. As you can see the palette doesn't include any matt shades but who doesn't want a bit of glitter at Christmas? 

Now, it isn't the most pigmented of palettes, the swatches below took quite a bit of building up to get the colours as close to the pan as possible. The only shade that didn't quite get there was the black but I don't think that is really an issue if you are wanting to do a subtle smokey eye. All the other colours are lovely and really soft to work with and they don't create a lot of fallout which is really good, I hate having little speckles of shadow on my cheeks.

I think this is a really good palette, the packaging is cute, the colours are nice and do blend nicely and the price is not too bad. However I do think there are other products on the market that are as good or better than this palette for less money. 2  that spring to mind are the MUA Pro Glamour Nights Eyeshadow Palette 
This is only £4 and has 12 shades, definitely good value for money as these shadows are so pigmented, although I would recommend a good primer with them, the second palette is the Sleek Bad Girl Palette 
This retails for around £7.99 and again has 12 very pigmented shades, there is also the storm palette which would be a good alternative that retails for the same price. I love Sleek palettes and reach for my Au Naturel palette alot more than I do my Urban Decay Naked 2.

Have you tried any of the Topshop make up range yet?