No Money March: The Budget Contouring Palette

I know "strobing" is the latest makeup trend but I still think contouring is the most effective way to chisel out some cheek bones and add dimension to the face. I've seen the more high-end contouring palettes and while they look pretty I just couldn't justify dropping the cash on them since I wasn't sure how much use I'd get out of them. Then I found out NYX had one so I figured I'd have a look at it, and here's what I think.

So the palette is £18 in the UK and it's made up of 8 shades. My breakdown of the functions of those shades breaks down to 3 contouring colours, 1 bronzer, 1 banana-powder type shade, 2 shimmer highlights and 1 matte highlight/light face powder. This is currently available in the UK from Boots, Selfridges, Very.com and FeelUnique.com.

I'm really pale and I find most of these shades workable for my skin. Both of the shimmer highlights are lovely on me, the top left corner "Ice Queen" is a lovely pale pinky shimmer that looks lovely on the cheek bones and "Nectar" (top right) is an orangey peach shimmer that I use as a blush topper but I can see this working well on deeper skin tones as well. The formula on the shimmer highlights is the best in the palette, these are really soft and buttery.

The matte highlight "Soft Light" (second from the left) is slightly more powdery feeling. I use this as an all over face powder but it could work as a highlight on darker skins. "Cream" (the yellow shade) is really interesting because I though it would be too dark to work on my skin but I find it blends out great and really brightens the centre of the face. With it being another matter powder it's not as creamy as the shimmers but it's definitely not what I'd call chalky either.

For the bronze-y shades I find I can only really use the two centre shades. "Tan" (bottom left) is too dark to bronze with and too warm to use as a contour and "Hollow" (bottom right) is just way too dark but the formula is pigmented and blendable on both. "Sculpt" (centre right) is my perfect contour shade and "Toffee" makes a nice pale bronzer.

The packaging isn't the most glam looking and it feels a bit cheap, but it's really functional. It seems to be marketed as a pro product so the clear lid makes sense and the hard plastic is durable so I can see this traveling well. I also like that the pans are removable so if you just wanted to travel with one of two shades you could easily pop them out and put them in another palette.

In terms of bang for your buck, it works out at £2.25 per pan and each of the pans is 2.7g. For value it works out similar to their other bronzing products which run for £8 for 9g. I think these are really reasonably priced for what you get.

I also wanted to make an honourable mention to the Spectrum Collection Tapered Finishing Brush, for budget contouring, this brush is amazing. The pink handle and blue bristles is fun and the tapered cut makes it really easy to apply contour where you want it. It's a lovely soft brush that picks up product well and blends it seamlessly and it's a synthetic brush so its cruelty free.

No Money March: Soap & Glory Archery Brow Putty Dip Pot & Brush

Brows have always been the one area of makeup that I feel like I can never get quite right. I have naturally sparse, mousey brows and I've always dyed my hair darker and in a way that makes my natural brows look borderline non-existent. With that in mind, every time a new high stress brow product launches, I get a bit excited and so I picked up the Soap & Glory Dip Pot & Brush pretty much as soon as I saw it had launched.

So the packaging of this looks very much like a jumbo pen eyeliner packaging, it's quite a thick tube with a pull off cap and initially I thought the product would be in the cap of the packaging. When you pull the cap off there's a clean brush underneath and the product is in a pot that you unscrew from the bottom of the product.

My initial though is that the packaging is a little clumsy. This is essentially a brow pomade type product and it would have been much more practical for them to package it as a pot with a separate brush like other brands have released and I think S&G have packaged it this way to make it look like it's something really different. At £10 full price it's at the same price point as most of Soap & Glory's other brow products and it sits in the upper end of high-street pricing.

Packaging aside its nice. The brush is small enough for you to not overload the brows and the product is dry enough and sheer enough that you don't end up looking like you've sharpie'd on your brows. The shade selection isn't terrible, there's 3 shades to pick from "Love is Blonde", "Brownie Points" and "Dark Chocolate", Soap & Glory's brow products usually only have 2 shade varieties so this is a step in the right direction for them.

With it being a brush that you have to dip into product it's not nearly as quick to apply as a brow pencil but I wouldn't say that it takes so long that it's impractical and the finished result is nice and natural looking. I do think it's missing a spool-y brush to comb through the brows as with the formula being quite waxy I like to comb through the brows both before application to make the shape easier to follow and then again after I've filled them in to blend in any areas that I may have been heavy-handed in.

All in all I think it's a decent product. While I have some gripe with the packaging it does work nicely and it's not unreasonably priced. If you're into brow pomades it might be worth checking out.

February Favourites

Another month down and it's been a good one for new discoveries. I have quite a few things to talk about this month so lets get right down to it.

I'll start with one that's possibly a bit obvious: in my post about the new releases to the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani line, I made my feelings towards the Lipsticks in that collection pretty clear (click here if you missed it!). I have gone back and picked up the shade "Rock Steady" (resisting hard on the other shades - surely buying them all is a little extreme?) but it's the shade "Firebird" that really has my heart. It's an awesome deeper bright pink and it's super comfortable and so unique and my other lipsticks have barely had a look in this month. Seriously, love.

With a bold lip I've been going for something a little less in-your-face on the eyes and I've been gravitating to the Love of Colour One and Done Shadow Stick in the shade "Champagne Problems". I got this in my Birchbox this month and LOC is an in-house brand at Birchbox and let me tell you, these shadow sticks aren't messing around. They're £8 each and they're pigmented, long lasting, creamy eyeshadow sticks and you'll be hearing more about this brand in an upcoming post. My only complaint? There's only 2 shades available in the UK right now - LOC, please release more!

Another Birchbox win this month was the Spectrum Collections Tapered Finishing Brush. This brush retails for £7.99 and it's a really lovely brush for contouring the cheek bones. I love that it's so colourful and even though it's only £7.99 full price it feels really sturdy and nicely made. For those of you that want vegan friendly, cruelty free brushes these are also synthetic bristle brushes.

Ive been getting back into using setting sprays. I went off them because the only ones on the market were a bit up there in price and for me they didn't do an awful lot - Ive had the Urban Decay De-Slick Setting Spray in my collection for years. On a recent trip to Boots I saw that the L'Oreal Infallible Fixing Mist had come over to the UK and it was in my basket before you could say "setting spray". I'm still not sure if it's doing much for the longevity of my makeup but it does make my base apply a little nicer as it gives some slip and I've been using it every day since I got it.

And finally? Hair masks. I've not been into hair for ages but I'd been wearing it up off my face a lot for a few weeks and noticed the ends were feeling a bit brittle and not as soft as they normally are. Depending on how much time I have in the shower I've either been reaching for the Swell Ultimate Volume Masque or the Philip Kingsley Elasticizer in the "Geranium & Neroli" scent. I personally prefer the effect of the Philip K option, it's a bit of a faff having to dampen the hair, put the mask in and then leave for 5-10 minutes before shampooing but the effect is great.

The February 2016 Birchbox

I mentioned the fact that I subscribe to Birchbox in a post way back when I started my subscription, and I haven't mentioned them since because on the whole, the quality of the boxes had gotten a bit poor. I was actually considering cancelling my subscription after the disappointment that was my January 2016 box but this month they've really turned it around and it's a box worth trying to get your hands on.

So the theme of the Feb 16 box was "Shine Bright Like A Diamond" and the box itself is super cute with the white and pastel colours and the metallic writing. Like all of the Birchbox offerings, it give you 5 sample products and one "Beauty Bonus" in your little Birchbox drawstring bag.

When I was considering cancelling after the January box, I got an email advertising that the Feb box would include a full size of one of the new LOC Love of Colour One And Done Shadow Sticks and that's what made me hold out for the Feb box. Tati from "Glam Life Guru" on YouTube had been involved with Birchbox LOC Launch in the states and I just had a feeling they'd be great. They let you pick from the two shades available so I picked "Champagne Problems" and it's a beautiful shimmery silvery taupe that's easy to apply and beautiful on the lids.

This month also brought a sample of the Frat Boy Blush from The Balm which seems to have a bit of a cult following these days. It's a beautiful peachy pink blush that's pigmented and has the amazing staying power that I've come to expect from The Balms products. My one gripe with this product is the sample size it such a tiny square that it can be a bit fiddly getting an even layer on your blush brush.

I'm a cleanser addict so the addition of the Korres Milk Proteins 3-in-1 Cleansing Emulsion was nice for me. The sample size is perfect for short trips of traveling and the texture of the cleanser is lovely and creamy on the skin and it's not stripping at all. It's not a cleanser I'd se for makeup removal but for a morning cleanse it seems nice. It's lightly scented and while I' not a fan of the scent, it's not overwhelmingly awful.

The box also includes a full sized Spectrum Collections Tapered Powder Brush. I personally hadn't heard of the brand before but my sister uses some of these brushes and loves them. The coloured handles and bristles are fun but it's a good quality, sturdy brush and the bristles are nice and soft. The shape is also perfect for contouring products, it's like a slightly denser version of the Charlotte Tilbury Powder and Sculpt Brush.

This months beauty bonus was a single use of the Derm Eyes Makeup Remover Wipes. These claim to be for sensitive eyes and delicate eyelids and they're safe for contact lens users. I must admit, with them being a single use I haven't tried them yet as they seem ideal for an overnight trip so I'm saving them but they do seem interesting and if they work I will definitely have to report back.

And finally, the one thing I wasn't so excited about, but these days is it really a birchbox if it doesn't contain some sort of body cream? I'm sure the Ayres Body Butter in "Patagonia" is lovely, the scent seems pleasant, but seriously Birchbox, enough body creams.

But all in all, a solid box. If by some stroke of luck Birchbox are reading this: More boxes like this one in future please!

The Friday Review: A TMI Post - My Thoughts On The Braun Epil Silk 9

So in this review post, we're going to get maybe a little bit more personal than normal, we're talking hair removal, my experience with hair removal and one hair removal device in particular: the Braun Epil Silk 9. This device is the first time I've tried epilating but previously I've used electric razors and waxing for my legs and manual razors for everywhere else. So with that introduction out of the way: here we go.

So I heard Lily Pebbles talk about this razor in one of her videos a while back and I picked it up for £120 from Boots on sale, the RRP of this product is around £170 depending on the retailer. I'd been waxing my legs and shaving my under arms for years and I was having problems with both of these methods, For waxing, I hated having to wait for the hair to grow back and to get an appointment when I was only getting 1 week out of 4 where my legs were actually smooth. With my underarms, because I was shaving they grew back quickly and I was finding myself having to do them every day because of regrowth and it was becoming a bit of a chore. (For review purposes, these are the areas I've been trialling the Epil Silk 9 and I still use other methods in other areas).

My experience with the Epil Silk 9 has been great. On my legs it's no more painful that waxing and I can maintain it myself on a weekly basis. While it is quite painful on the underarms, it's dealt with my regrowth issues and I can now epilate them once every 2-3 weeks and shave between and I'm finding it much more manageable and the hair has become much thinner over just a couple of months use. I wouldn't use this on my bikini line just because of the pain issue but if your pain tolerance is higher than mine that might be an option for you.

The Epil Silk 9 comes with 2 other attachments as well, an electric razor head and an exfoliating body brush. The electric razor head is great, works just as well as any other electric razor and this might be a better thing to use if you're finding the epilating too painful in some areas. However I found the exfoliating body brush to be a bit of a let down. The motor doesn't do much to power the brush and it just vibrates slightly on the skin and for me personally, I find a standard body scrub to be much more effective.

August Favourites

It's favourites time again, I swear, these posts come around way too fast, I can't believe summer is almost over (especially since we haven't really seen a single day of sunshine here in Manchester). It's a bit of a weird bunch this month and not much on the affordable end of things, but never fear, the high-street posts are coming! So here's my favourites from August:

Firstly, I'd not used many eyebrow gels so I was excited to try the Anastasia Clear Brow Gel and it's really nice. I don't have particularly unruly brows, they're quite good and stay where they should be but I always notice the colour I put through them when I do my makeup fades throughout the day and this gel seems to have helped my other products last a little longer in my brows.

Another high-end make-up favourite this month has been the Esteé Lauder Double Wear Light Foundation. I have combination skin and my make-up generally breaks down pretty quickly in my t-zone where I get a bit oily and I've fallen out with my Revlon Colourstay Foundation because it's just been looking a bit heavy lately. The Esteé Lauder has been really nice because it's a relatively light coverage and it doesn't feel too heavy on the skin but it sticks around for a really long time, especially when set with a powder.

I've also been loving the Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel this month, it's really similar to the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel in texture but without the rose scent so if that was something you didn't like about the Oskia you might want to try the Clarins. I've had a mini bottle for ages but just took the plunge and picked up the full size (because if there's anything I need in life, it's another cleanser).

The final two things this month are a couple of products that I've really enjoyed using together: the Maybelline Master Sculpt contouring product and the Charlotte Tilbury Powder and Sculpt Brush, which I've been eying up for months now. The Maybelline is nice because I have really pale skin and a good contour shade is something that I've really struggled to find but this one is cool enough to use as a contour and comes in a light enough shade that it doesn't look crazy on me and the Charlotte Tilbury brush makes it really easy to place the product in the right place.