Urban Decay Naked 3

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette £37.00

Firstly I must apologise, as I promised this post would be up after my last review. What can I say work and life took over for a while, which is no excuse but I found it really difficult to sit down and blog. However, I am not going to try and post at least one post a week. Right that's enough of me trying to justify me being away, onto the review.

The Naked edition continues with the release of Naked 3. This palette introduces 12 never seen before shades, consisting of three mattes and nine shimmers. The shades are lined in a beautiful rose gold metal case, which includes a large mirror.  

Now, this palette is still neutral toned however, rather than the cool or bronze hues this has a rose tint to the shadows. Also, included within the box is a dual ended brush, which I must admit is fairly good. There are also four primer potions in re-sealable pouches, which is also good news. I hate when you receive samples and they say you have enough for a few days worth, however, there is no way of keeping the product fresh and sealed. Well done UD.

Now on to the shades….

Strange - ‘A pale neutral pink matte-satin.’ I like this shade for highlighting or as an all over base colour.

Dust - ‘A pale metallic pink shimmer with iridescent micro-glitter.’ Now I’m not really a fan of this colour. I feel that it is really chunky and creates a glittery mess amount of fallout. This is probably the only colour I will not get much use out of, also the colour payoff is not great on my skin tone.

Burnout - ‘A light pinky-peach satin.’ This would be nice as a all over lid colour, definitely suiting the lighter eyed gals amongst us.

Limit - ‘A light dusty rose matte.’ I like using this shade as my transition colour above the crease. Even though it is fairly light, you do detect the pinky hue on my skin colour.

Buzz - ‘A metallic rose shimmer with silver micro-glitter.’ Again this shade reminds me of Buzz, however, there appears to be more pigment in this colour.

Trick - ‘A light metallic pinky-copper shimmer with tonal micro-sparkle.’ I like this shade, it would be perfect for a night out with a smoked out crease.

Nooner - ‘A medium pinky-brown matte.’ This is probably my second favourite shade of the palette. I use this for my crease colour, its perfect for this area especially when using shimmers on the lid.

Liar - ‘A medium metallic mauve shimmer.’ This is a medium pink/brown tone which is perfect for wearing during the day as an all over lid colour or smoking it out for the evening.

Factory - ‘A pink brown satin.’ I like combining this with Liar and making a smokey look that’s not too in your face.

Mugshot - ‘A metallic taupe shimmer with slight pink shift.’ This has a slight grey hue to the shade which again is perfect for a daytime not too in your face smokey look.

Darkside - ‘A deep taupe-mauve satin.’ This shade is perfect for being used in the outer lid or the crease.

Blackheart - ‘A smokey black matte with rosy red micro-sparkle.’ This is my favourite shade of the bunch.This reminds me of MAC Beauty Marked however, the red sparkle is much more visible with this shade, which I absolutely love.

Overall, I do like this palette however, I feel that I get much more use out of the second half of this palette. Do you need this palette if you own the other Nakeds? I would say, Yes. The reason being is that the shades are different and unlike anything else that I own. Even though Blackheart may be similar to Beauty Marked the colour pay off is much better in this palette.

I would love if UD created a palette consisting of different purples, that would be ideal and work really well with my brown eyes. Maybe one day…..Or if anyone knows a good purple palette please let me know, I would definitely be interested.

NARSissist Eyeshadow Palette

NARSissist Eyeshadow Palette £55.00

When I realised that Nars were releasing a 15 pan eyeshadow palette, I could not contain my excitement. I already own, And God Created The Woman and Ride Up To The Moon palettes, and I love them both.

I did my research and and found the release date. However, I was a little late, everywhere was sold out! Fret not, I happened to be browsing Selfridges one extremely late night and found they had some in stock. I ordered it immediately and not taking any chances I opted for the Click & Collect service, which I must say I’m extremely impressed with.

Once my order was ready for collection, Selfridges sent me an email. Gleefully I collected my order.

Each eyeshadow consists of 1g compared to the 2.2g you would get in a single eyeshadow from Nars. A Single eyeshadow can cost £18.00 however, the palette came in at a whopping £55.00.

The shades are all available to buy from the permanent line apart from one, Bad Behaviour, which I believe was limited edition. All of which are housed in the typical Nars rubbery packaging, I love it, however, some do not as it’s prone to getting dirty. The palette does contain a large mirror which is a bonus. The colours are a mix of warm, cool, mattes and shimmer.

The shades are as follows;

All About Eve

Ashes to Ashe

Fez

Bad Behaviour

Bali

Brousse II

Coconut Grove

Dogon II

Madrague I

Madrague II

Bellissima I

Mekong

Lhasa

Pandora II

Nepal

Apart from already owning Fez, Coconut Grove and Mekong I don’t actually know which names belong to which shades. I don’t know about anyone else, but I would like to know which shades are which. Also once you have thrown the box the palette comes in away, you can’t remember what the shades are.

Overall, I know this palette has had mixed reviews however, I really like it. I find that as I’m getting older I am steering towards the more natural non bright eyeshadows. From swatching the shadows they are extremely pigmented and buttery, which will make them easy to blend. I know currently the palette is out of stock everywhere but most sites do give you the option of having an email sent to you once it is back in stock again.

I was a lucky girl when I picked this palette up, as I was also given the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette as a gift. Review coming soon...

My Eyebrows...

Up until late 2009 I never actually use to fill in my brows. Looking back, I can not think why on earth I didn’t  jump on that bandwagon sooner. Filling in the brows can change and bring together a look, accentuating features without being too in your face. My brows are dark brown in colour and fairly sparse. Therefore filling them in made the most amount of difference.

I first used the Estee Lauder automatic brow duo. The lady at the counter suggested I use soft black. I soon realised that using black can look a little harsh making my brows look overdone and dark, verging on scouse brow territory.

I began to use eyeshadow and found that the best colour match is from the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette which is £20.00. The colour I favoured and turned to the most is Faint. This is a taupe type colour with a grey undertone. I didn’t think this would work, but out of all the brow products I’ve used this is probably my favourite. I also recently read Laura’s Blog from buynowbloglater who stated that she read, using a grey eyeshadow is what you need to get good brows. Even though Faint is not completely grey I feel that it definitely does the job if you have dark hair.

Two other firm favourites are Hourglass Brow Sculpting Pencil in Soft Brunette (£26.00) and Tom Ford Brow Sculptor in 03 Chestnut (£34.00). Both pencils are very similar in texture having a waxy yet powdery feel. Both pencils need to be twisted when opened and come out at a slight angle which works well when applying to the brows. Both products also have a spoolie on the other end which is always handy when you need to brush through your brows. However packaging wise I feel that Hourglass is much more luxe.

I always have to set my brows with some sort of brow gel to tame some of those unruly strands that seem to have a mind of their own. My favourite brow gel has to be the Eyeko Brow Gel (£18.00) which is a tinted gel that only comes in one colour. What i love about this brow gel is that the nano brush is so easy to use. Also the formula has conditioning properties promoting a healthy brow.

I have finally reached a stage where I am happy with my brows. Gone are the days where you have either over plucked or threaded to have stick thin brows. I feel the bigger the brow the better it looks, within reason of course.

I’m quite keen to try the Anastasia dipbrow pomade, if anyone has tried this I would love to know your thoughts...

YSL Youth Liberator Foundation

Happy new year and welcome...

So I've recently come back from being away over the christmas break. I spent it in Cyprus where the weather was fantastic.

Now, I am the type of person who really does not understand what it means to pack light. I took two foundations with me, who needs two foundations? Me. One of them was the YSL Youth Liberator foundation.

I hadn't heard much about this foundation until I read Anna’s VDM blog and I was intrigued.  I'm the type of girl who will say to myself, 'right you do not need more foundations, wait until you finish at least one of the many bottles you already have.' Did this work? No it did not.  I love my bases so I decided I would go to Boots and give this a try. The lady at the counter explained that you have a choice of colours and undertones, however I now know there are only seven shades available.

There is B, BR or BD, from what I can understand this relates to your skin undertones.  B is a more neutral based colour, BR is for more pinky/rosey undertones and BD is for more golden/olive undertones. Initially the lady matched me to B70, however this was far too dark and showed up more pink on my skintone. Eventually we settled on BD50 which is a perfect match.

This base has incorporated the Glycanactif complex into it, which is the same ingredient used within the serum YSL released last year. This is meant to help with anti-aging and making the skin more luminous looking. It also has the added bonus of SPF 20. 

The foundation comes in a thick glass bottle. I know that some people don't like travelling with glass bottle products. However, I took this with me to Cyprus and it survived the journey both ways. The lid to the bottle is plastic and the foundation can be applied via the pump attached.

Coverage wise, I would say it's definitely medium to full. I use my Real Techniques expert face brush to buff this in or a damp Beauty blender. One pump usually covers my whole face and neck area. When I first put this on I wasn't taken back. However, give it half an hour to really settle onto the skin and Wow, it looked amazing. I had flawless, even and luminous skin. Once applied I usually set my foundation with Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light and it tends to last for about six to seven hours. I use this foundation as an all round everyday product. It looks equally as good during the day as it does in the evening.

 If you’re in the market for a new foundation I would definitely recommend this one. I purchased mine at boots for £37.00 with the added bonus of receiving points on my advantage card.   

What are your thoughts on this foundation?

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11294167/?claim=sv6dcdvubuf">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Coming soon

Webpage will be up and running in January 2014...