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. 
 

Max Factor Whipped Creme Foundation First Impression

I found this foundation on offer at Tesco for £7.99. I do tend to find Max Factor Foundations a really good colour match for my skin and they tend to sit quite nicely on my oily skin too so I thought I'd give it a go. 

I picked up the shade Light Ivory. The product is in a sturdy glass jar and contains 18ml of product. You only need a small amount as a little goes quite a long way so I can see this lasting me a while.

The texture is quite thick, not to dissimilar from whipped cream funnily enough and it doesn't really have any scent to it whatsoever.

If your looking for a full coverage foundation then I don't think this will be for you, I would say its definitely more on the medium side, if you have any acne, acne scarring or redness you will need  some concealer, I have a few small blemishes at the moment and I could still see them after 2 thin layers of foundation.

 Here is the foundation after being blended out on my skin. I used the Real Techniques Buffing Brush. It blended nicely worked well for my oily skin. It also didn't accentuate my humongous pores which is a major bonus for me!

I didn't need to powder and it lasted around 5-6 hours before starting to wear off. 

Overall I'm quite happy with the foundation, its by no means the best I have ever tried but its certainly not the worst. I can see me using this on good skin days when I don't need too much coverage and I don't want to powder throughout the day which is something I hate having to do. 

Thanks for reading, have you tried this foundation yet?

Top 10 under £10

This actually took me alot longer than I expected. I didn't want to just grab things that I thought were OK, I wanted to write about products  that I think are amazing and that I would happily pay twice the price or more for.

Excuse the disgusting finger marks on the palette, I did wipe it down but it wont get clean :-)

These are in no particular order.

No specific palette just the Sleek palettes in general. I have 4 or 5 and I love them. I find myself reaching for the Au Naturel palette more than my Naked 2. The shadows are really pigmented, theres a good mix of matts and shimmers and they blend really well. The packaging is quite nice too. Simple and not tacky which you can sometimes get with lower priced palettes. You can find these palettes at Superdrug for a very affordable £7.99 for 12 shadows. You can find the Au Naturel Palette here on the Superdrug website.

This eyeliner is so soft, it doesn't tug on your eyes at all. Its long lasting and super black. The only thing I dislike is the sharpener in the lid, its pretty crap but I own a pencil sharpener so no issues with that. This is available for £5 from Boots, you can find this here on their website. 

 

This is a product I would happily pay three times the price for. I absolutely love it! I use it to wash my make up brushes. It gets rid of every last bit of make up, leaves my brushes feeling super soft and smelling really clean which I love. I used to use the Mac brush cleaner and it was OK, it did its job I suppose  but I never felt that my brushes were as clean as I wanted them to be. With this its super quick and easy but  my brushes feel so clean. It comes in quite a few different scents, I chose Eucalyptus, you can find these here at Feel Unique for £5.49.

This does exactly as it says on the tin. I use it mainly to remove my eye make up which most of the time is a right bugger to get off, I stick this on my face whilst brushing my teeth and by the time I'm finished my make up just rinses off ready for my usual skincare routine. Normal price is £7.99 but this is currently on offer here at Superdrug for £3.98

 

I wasn't taken in my the BB bronzer claim, I'm not even too sure how that works to be honest. However I did fancy trying a bit of a cream bronzer and I'd heard that this could be sheered out to work on the palest of skins. When blended well it gives a suitable bronzed look that is just enough to give you that healthy sunkissed look. Available at Superdrug here for £9.99

 

I've only discovered this recently but I am already in love and planning on picking up another whilst they are on offer at Boots. Its really good coverage for a BB cream, it leaves a natural looking finish, not too dewy but certainly not matt, and it definitely controls my oily skin, even on my nose which is usually a nightmare by lunchtime. Available for £6.66 from Boots here

Real Techniques, the name speaks for itself really. I have near enough ever brush they have released so far but this is my favourite, so much so that I actually have three so I know I will always have a clean one (although that's never a problem after discovering Dr Bronners), these come in just under the £10 at £9.99 but Boots sometimes do special offers on these like buy one get one half price. I find this applies my foundation perfectly every time. You can pick these up from Boots here

Again not so much specific colours just these 2 products in general. I really do like Revlon Lip products. This is the Revlon ColorBurst Lipgloss (shade above is Adorned) and the Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick (shade above is Wild Orchid) I have to say that I do adore both of these colours. I'll pop some cheeky swatches below. These are £7.99 for the gloss and £7.49 for the lipstick. Again Superdrug and Boots usually do offers on Revlon, at the moment its 2 for £10 on nail, lip and mascara at Boots.

 

Finally is the Philip Kinglsey shampoo and conditioner, these are the travel sizes so below £7.00 each. I've been using these for a few weeks and I am loving them, I've been using the Elastisizer as well but have tried these a few times without just so I can see the effect of these on their own and they leave my hair so unbelievable shiny and soft. Definitely worth the price of £5 to try a sample but I think most would be going on to purchase the full size as I will, they are truly amazing. You can get these at Feel Unique here (conditioner) and here (shampoo)

Hope you enjoyed my top 10 product under £10, have you tried any of these? Would they be in your top 10?

Holiday Snaps

Not beauty related but I thought I'd share some holiday photos. We spent 4 nights in a lodge at Ashlea Pools Country Park and we had a fantastic time.

We used it as a base for us to explore the area and go on some fun days out for the kids.

Setting of, Ipads at the ready. It was only a 2 hour drive but my kids get bored very quickly so we need to make sure we have plenty to keep them entertained.

Here was the outside of the lodge.

And a few pictures from the inside.

Lounge area

Kiddies bedroom

Our bedroom

Kids stood on the hot tub, this was definitely their favourite thing about the lodge

Kids in the hot tub

These are just a couple of pics of our days out.

Funfair at West Midlands Safari Park

Here is my eldest looking like he is having a great time and my youngest looking ready to throw up

 We also went to Ludlow which was an adorable little town, we went for a walk round the castle and surprisingly the kids had a really good time!

We also did a few hours at Cadburys world, the kids wrote their names in chocolate

Cadburys also made these for the Royal Baby, so cute and made completely of Cadburys chocolate. Amazing!

We had an amazing time and I would definitely recommend Ashlea Pools for a relaxing break, we will be looking at going away again next year. 

Now I'm back and can get back to spending more blog posts to follow.

Are you going or have you been anywhere this summer?

July Haul

Hi all,

This is a collective haul of things I have picked up since getting paid so pretty much throughout July. I'm going away a week on Monday, only in this country but we still want plenty of spending money so no more buying until our return. 
Most of the items are budget friendly but there is one that was a bit of a splurge for me. 

I've tried my best to separate them into their own categories. So lets get started

First up we have essentials, I picked up these Sure deodorants from Boots, they were half price and around £1.57 each. I've tried the white and purple one before and really like it so I thought I'd give the black one a go too.

I also picked up one of the Natural Collection Body Sprays, these are only £2 and thought it would be nice to pop into my bag for work and this Ice Musk one is quite lovely. I remember use these in high school so it brings back some nice memories.

On the subject of essentials I spotted these, I have another Balmi lip balm but its the round one and I was intrigued to see the shape of the actual balm on these cube shaped ones. If you too are curious keep scrolling!

The No7 products are the BB Lips in Blush Coral and the High Shine Gloss in Tangerine Twist. These are £8.50 each and are both SPF 15.

Exciting stuff or what? The new shape of these is this conical shape. I've tried the mint one, its not that great. It does tingle but its not that minty which I would have liked, here's hoping the strawberry one is better.


I don't really need any body stuff so just picked up these two, its a Soap and Glory scrub of your life mini, just for me to take away with me. These are about £2.50 at Boots. The sachet is a 2 part foot buffer and butter. With the weather being as it is the old feet are constantly out so we need to get them in tip top condition. This was 79p from Home Bargains.

I didn't even realise until I went to pay that because I got 2 products I got a free gift which was a nice surprise. Its a rather cute and summery plastic make up bag, its actually a really good size and I think I'll be taking it away with me. All my bags are fabric so are a nightmare to clean if something leaks whilst your travelling but this will be a quick wipe down.

As an added bonus the bag actually contained some No7 products too. 

Now I'm no too sure on the eyeshadow but everything else I will definitely use. There is a 10ml primer, a 10ml tinted moisturiser, an eyeshadow, a travel sized mascara and a full size lipgloss in Coral Kiss. I'm not usually a fan of the No7 GWP but I think this one is great and considering I only spent £17 for all this I think its a bargain. 

I've been looking for a good primer for a while and spotted this Dr Jart one in Boots, I really like the BB creams from this brand so I decided to give the primer a go. Its £18 from Boots and I will be doing a review on this shortly as this is one of the first things I bought and I've been using it everyday.

I also saw these Garnier Moisturisers in Boots, they were buy one get one free and £5.99 each. I went for the gel formula for dull skin and the lotion for normal skin. I've tried both and so far I am loving the lotion! A review to some on this one shortly too.
I wont go too far into details about the last item, the Nivea BB cream. I really do not know what I was expecting with this, lets just say the effectiveness if reflected in the price. This cost £3.99 from Tesco.

I needed a cheap waterproof mascara for work, Mayebelline was on 3 for 2 at Boots and I wanted two products from their line anyway so I figured what could be cheaper than free right? This is the Great Lash mascara in black and it cost £4.99. I have seen some people rave about this mascara so I thought it was worth a shot. The two items that I was purchasing anyway were the 24 hour color tattoos in Metallic Pomegranate and Pink Gold. These were £4.99 each, so these two plus a mascara for under a tenner. I think that's a good buy!
I also watched a video on Youtube, I didn't catch her name unfortunately so I can't tell you who she was but the Miss Sporty Mascara was in a favourites video of hers. It was £3.49 and is called Lash Millionaire,its an all in one and claims to give you rich volume, breathtaking length and virtually perfect lash separation. These are some pretty strong claims for a mascara under a fiver so we shall see how this stands up. 
Finally was just a mascara from Max Factor, I do like most of their mascaras and this was on offer for £4.99, its the Wild Mega Volume mascara in black I haven't tried it yet but I'll do a review as soon as I have given it a test run.

Last but not least was my cheeky splurge purchase. I've wanted this since getting a sample in a Glossybox about a year ago but just never bothered to order it. I've been looking in various places at hair masks and treatments and decided to just take the plunge.

I'm pretty sure everyone will either know or will already have the Philip Kinglsey Elastisizer, I absolutely fell in love with this and I was gutted when my sample ran out. Always one for a bit of a bargain I spotted that the 1000ml bottle was much better value than the smaller sizes so I opted for that one. You can find this here on the Feel Unique website. This bottle is £62.90 but the value is £107. Bargain. I've never tried any of his other products so I got some of the sample sizes of the shampoo and conditioner to try before committing to a bigger size. These are £5.05 each on Feel Unique for 75ml and they are actually a really good size to try before splashing out on the bigger sizes or just to take on holiday with you. 

I hope you liked my little haul, if there is anything here you would specifically like to see a review on please comment below.

I'm Baaaack

I've been away from my blog for a while due to being incredibly busy but I'm back now and ready to get back into the swing of things. I thought I would start of with a little haul as I popped to the Trafford Centre last night.

First of all I went into Home Bargains and picked up some Vie products. I saw these the other day and picked up one of the Future Focus Age Prevention Day Lotion and the Above and Beyond Anti Ageing Elixirs, they were only 99p each so I thought they were worth a try. I've been using them for just short of a week and the day lotion especially is really good and left my skin feeling moisturised and soft and most of all no reactions so I went back and grabbed a couple more, they had absolutely loads of these on the shelves.

I also picked up the eye brightener, its just a light coloured eyeliner but again this was only 99p so I thought I would try it.

Next I actually went into the Trafford Centre, I went into Debenhams first and spotted these. I looked at these last year when they were full price at £29, I was really tempted to buy one but the urge to buy make up instead overtook and I ended up getting the Naked 2 palette instead. I'm glad I didn't now as they had a whopping 70% off them and now are only £8.70. Bargain or what? I picked up 2, I've tried this brand before and really like their products and again no reactions to my skin.

 

The Cleansing Facial Wash alone is £8.85 on the Debenhams website. The breakdown of the prices of these are

Cleansing Facial Wash - £8.85
Rich Moisturizer - £7.75
Mild Exfoliator- £7.75
Super Night Cream - £8.30
Algimud Face Mask £3.85 (I couldn't find this on the Debenhams website but it is this price on Holland & Barrett)
Total cost if bought separately - £36.50
I think I got a total bargain for £8.70 and I would definitely recommend having a look at your local Debenhams if you like products like this as they are really good products.

Finally I went into Boots as they currently have a 3 for 2 offer on make up and accessories.

I got the Revlon Photoready foundation in shell, the Real Techniques shading brush and a Revlon Lipgloss in Bellini. I haven't tried the foundation or the brush yet but I have tried the lipgloss. I love the colour and the fact it isn't sticky but the smell is vile. If your ever looking at these glosses I would say have a sniff of them first as I think alot of people may be put off by this, especially as it will be right under your nose when you wear it. 
The total cost for these items was £20.98

I'm pretty happy with my purchases, and I can't wait to try out the Revlon foundation. I've heard mixed reviews on this one so I will put a review up once I've given it a good go.

Have you found any bargains recently?