Beauty - Favourite Eyeshadows - Mac Retrospeck & Woodwinked

Mac Lustre Eye Shadow in Restrospeck & Mac Veluxe Pearl Eye Shadow in Woodwinked 

(£12.00 each)

Thought I'd do a post on my favourite eye shadows.  I was never much of a Mac fan until recently, I always thought that their higher prices couldn't really be justified, especially when there's such a good selection nowadays from a 'drugstore' brands, but after treating myself to these for the first time around a year ago I pretty much use them all the time.  

Retrospeck is a 'Lustre', which I find means it's slightly more glittery/fine in its texture once it's on a brush.  Woodwinked is a 'Veluxe Pearl' and seems to be more blendable and less fine when applying it.  I usually use these colours together, as Restrospeck works really well as a slightly shimmery base and on the inner corners of my eyes, and I use Woodwinked on the outer corners of my eyes and up and out of the eye socket.  I would definitely recommend both of these, especially as they work so well together for a smoky night-time look, and Retrospeck is a good highlighter/base colour for daytime as well. I do still think that Mac's prices are slightly extortionate and I do have some eye shadows from the Look Beauty range which do last just as well/look just as good as some other Mac eye shadows that I own, but as an occasional treat I think it can sometimes be worth paying that little bit extra.  

Hair - Redken All Soft Shampoo and Conditioner

Redken all soft Shampoo (300ml) and Conditioner (250ml) (bought as part of a salon set)

 - available here

Redken's all soft range is designed by dry, brittle hair and with it's recently improved formula, uses IPN (Interlock Protein Network) to "wash away impurities while leaving hair soft, manageable and shiny". Both products contain argan oil to give moisture to the hair (and it also smells amazing).

I've never used a 'salon' brand at home before and was previously using the James Brown Photo Fabulous Volumising Shampoo and Conditioner (which are great products) but I found that after a few months of using the James Brown range, it started to build up having at first left my hair squeaky clean, so I switched to all soft.  My hair was also getting really, really dry and having recently having the ends of hair coloured blonde, my hairdresser recommended using all soft in place of my usual regime. 

I have been really impressed, and my hair is a lot more manageable, shiny and styles a lot easier, where as previously the day I washed my hair was always a fly-away nightmare. The ends of my hair look much better and my hair has a 'swish' that it didn't have before.

To give a realistic review - I do use other products to help with the manageability and shine of my hair: Tigi S Factor Smoothing Lusterizer, Schwarzkopf got2b Guardian Angel heat protection spray and label.m hair polish - but using all soft has made a big difference.

Nailz - Blue Polka Dots

 

Using Rimmel Lycra Pro in 420 Aqua Cool and RevlonNail Enamel in 050 White On White

Beauty - Revlon Lip Butter v LOreal Rouge Caresse

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter, £7.99

L'Oreal Rouge Caresse, £7.99 from Superdrug

I kind of missed the hype around the Revlon Lip Butters when they first came out and accidently came across them while browsing in Superdrug this weekend after reading some good reviews online.  The L'Oreal Rouge Caresse range had been on my radar for a while – but I am a much bigger fan of L’Oreal than Revlon in general. I controlled myself and bought only one of each, but in two very different colours.
 I've wanted to try a really orange coral lipstick for a while, but was put off such an extreme colour as my lips aren't in the best condition most of the time and I thought a lipstick might just look messy if my lips weren't totally chap-free. The moisturising, balm-like texture of a Revlon Lip Butter seemed like the ideal way to try the colour without the unforgiving texture of a 'proper' lipstick. However I was a bit disappointed, after reading some great reviews, at the weird texture of it, that didn't seem to sit well on my lips - the colour seems to slide around and look uneven and a bit odd.  It might be that I just need to spend a bit more time applying it, but I had hoped that it would be as easy to use/apply as a lip balm but with a shot of colour, but it's not the case. After persevering and getting the finish that I wanted it didn't seem to last very long either - 1-2 hours max.

The L'Oreal Rouge Caresse was much better, it gives a super sheeny shot of colour and feels as moisturising as my favourite lip balm - I love! The colour also seemed to last a lot longer as well, I've been wearing it today and have only reapplied once. Due to the softer texture of the product it does seem to go down a lot quicker than a usual lipstick, so I can see myself getting through it quite quickly.  But overall, it's a perfect lip balm/lipstick hybrid!

Nailz - Mix&Match

Tried something a bit different today after being unable to decide what design I wanted!

(left to right): blue with clouds, aqua with black polka dots, coral with black bow, purple with white polka dots and pink with white sundae splat - all using polishes used in previous posts.

Beauty - Maybelline NY Colour Tattoo 24hr Gel Cream Eyeshadows

Maybelline NY Colour Tattoo 24hr Gel Cream Eyeshadows (£4.99 each from Superdrug)

Yes, yes, another one, i hoped right on the bandwagon. I wasn't going to do this review as I know there are already so many out there about these, but after actually falling in love with them I couldn't resist.  

There's been quite a lot of hype about the new Maybelline Colour Tattoo eye shadows and I honestly thought I wouldn't like them, as I've never really liked Maybelline before and found their quality to be a bit poor considering their prices are often in the same bracket as MaxFactor or L'Oreal, which I have always found to produce better quality products. But I really do love these eye shadows.

I bought three (as Maybelline is currently on a 3-for-2 offer in Superdrug) - 05 Eternal Gold, 35 On and on Bronze and 40 Permanent Taupe.  The gold and bronze work great together for a more glitzy smoky eye and the taupe is perfect for daytime or as a liner.

The consistency was what I was most surprised by, although they are described as 'gel cream eye shadows' I expected them to be similar to the other mousse-type products that Maybelline produces, that I have never been a fan of (all air, no product!) - But these are much much more solid that I expected, which is what I like so much about them.  The gel-texture means they blend great without sinking into the lid and losing the colour - on the eyes they look the exact colour they do in the jars (which by the way are much better quality than you'd expect for £4.99 - glass!). The swatches shown were done with just one light stroke, so colour is quickly built up.  The texture of them also makes them really flexible; they can be blended, as with any other cream eyeshadow, but are also stiff enough to use as liners or to create heavier, more dramatic strokes.

I can't really rave much more about them - definitely recommend!