Benefit BADgal BANG! Mascara | First Impressions

Price: £21.50 Available at Benefit FeelUnique Debenhams Boots

First of all before I begin, I just want to say sorry for the lack of posts, November, December and January are busy times for me with work. I hope you all had a wonderful New year's and the first month of 2018 has been a good one.

Now I need to be honest and I have to say that I must of been hiding under a rock when this was release, as I only stumbled onto this while shopping. It looked interesting to me and I really like both the Roller Lash and They're Real mascaras. So I thought I would give it a go and share my thoughts on it with you. 

As a brand overall, Benefit, I find there products always work well for me, I've never come across a product by them that I don't like. A few of there products I consider a holy grail item, so I do have high hopes for this mascara. 

So what does the mascara claim to do? Well apparently it claims to be:

• Smudge-proof 
• Water resistant
• Volumising without weighing down lashes
• 36 hour volume

Apparently Benefit have been working on this mascara for a few years and the gravity-defying formula contains aero particles, which is one of the lightest known materials, is derived from space technology. So I can see where the whole space theme with the advertising and packaging has come from. 

I'm not sure who would want 36 hour volume, as I would worry for whoever would, eyelashes if they wear mascara for that long.

The wand is very flexible, which is designed to reach root to tips, in the corners for both upper and lower lashes. It is quite a large size too but it is easy to use.

(Left: no mascara Right: With Mascara)

The image above shows my eyelashes with no mascara on (Left) and with the BADgal Bang! Mascara on (Right). My lashes are quite short, pretty straight and quite light in colour. 

As you can see you can't deny that the mascara is black, pitch black, which I love. It has lengthened my lashes and made them a little thicker. I love how it looks more on the bottom lashes more than the top. It does feel light and not heavy like some volumising mascaras.

I found this mascara doesn't dry quickly and can get a bit messy if you blink too hard, but it is quite easy to remove. The main downside with this mascara depending on personal preference is that this mascara is clumpy. I personally don't mind a bit of clumpy as it makes my lashes look thicker, but if you hate clumpy mascara then I would stay away from this one.

Final Thoughts 

Overall I like this mascara. Do I prefer it to the Roller Lash and They're real? No I would probably go for one of them if I had a choice out of the three. But it felt comfortable and light on my lashes and covered them really well in the black formula. I really liked how it made my bottom lashes look. 

If you are not a fan of clumpy mascaras then this one is not for you. It is a more expensive mascara for £21.50 but at the time I am writing this FeelUnique are offering 10% off this mascara. If you want to try this but not willing to pay out, you can get a mini version of this for £10.50. 

Have you tried this mascara? Or are you going to test this out? Let me know you thoughts.

Primark PS Master Eye Palette - Mac Dupe?

Price:£6.00 each Available at Primark

If you know me, then you would know that I adore a good eye shadow palette. On a recent trip to Primark, I found these two palettes which from a glance reminded me of some Mac palettes. If these shadows are good enough, a eye shadow palette with 12 shadows for £6.00 is a absolute bargain in my eyes. I also thought they had some really lovely shades that would be great for autumnal looks and some party looks. I have had a play with these palettes and wanted to share my thoughts with you on them.

Palette One

Neither of the palettes have a name, so I am calling this one palette one and the other palette two. The first palette has 3 mattes and 9 shimmers, the shades are more warm, neutral and golden shades. I also love this palette has a matte black shadow, so if you need to darken a look it can be done with the black. The shadows themselves feel quite soft on first touch.

Swatches of the shadows

From the image above you can see that from the swatches they have great pigment especially the shimmer shades. They feel pretty nice as well and not chalky. The real test though is how well do they apply to the eyes and how they look on the eyes.

Above is a look I created with the shadows. I used 6 shades as I tried to use as many shadows as I could and for the look above, so that I can give a fair review on the shadows. The mattes blended quite easily and I didn't used a damp brush when applying the shimmer shades, which I am pretty happy with. Overall I really like palette and how the shadows worked.

Palette two

This is the second palette as you can see it has more warmer colours, with pinks, purple and reds. In this palette you get 7 mattes and 5 shimmers, which I actually prefer to the other palette. I like palettes with more matte shades than shimmer shades as I feel you can create more different looks for different occasions. 

Swatches of the shadows

The image above shows my swatches of the palette and as you can see they swatch pretty much the same as the first palette. So hopefully they should work just as well on the eye as the first palette.

Above is the look I created with this second palette and I used 4 - 5 shades for this look. These shadows worked just as well as the first palette and seem to have the same formula, which I expected. I actually like this palette more than the first one as I like the colours more and I feel I will be using it more this Autumn time. 

Final Thoughts

Overall for £6.00 I actually really think this palettes are great. I've bought high end palettes in the past that don't work as well as these. If I am honest I wasn't expecting these palettes to be as good as they were, but I think it just goes to show that the PS beauty range at Primark is improving. I am looking forward to what the Primark brings out in the future in there beauty range and if they bring out more versions of these palettes. 

Will you be buying any of these palettes? If so which one? Let me know in the comments.

Soap & Glory The Mask Force Review

Price: £3.50-£4.00 Available from Soap & Glory and Boots

On a recent trip to Boots, I was just passing by the Soap and Glory stand and I found these facial masks on offer call The Mask Force. I believe they are new to the Soap and Glory skincare range. As I like a good face mask, I decided to get all five and test them out and see if they will do anything for my skin. 

Packaging

Firstly I have to say I love the packaging, I always love Soap and Glory's packaging, the names and how they word directions or descriptions of there products. There packaging and style of all there products has like a 50's vibe which often reminds me of Benefit Cosmetics.

The actual packaging for four of them, is in a like foil package, which is easy to open. The De-clog mask comes in a little pot you just take the foil lid off and comes with a small plastic applicator. 

Puffy Eye-Attack

There was two masks I was excited to try and this one being one of them. I suffer from dark circles under my eyes and this mask claims to reduce the appearance of dark circles and under eye puffiness, brighten skin and infuse moisture. The mask is two eye patches that you simply place onto clean skin under the eye.

I found this made my under eyes feel soft and did slightly brighten my under eye. I would say my under eyes looked fresh. Overall for £3.50 I was happy with how it worked and I would buy this again.

The Fab Pore Pore-Refining Sheet Mask

I suffer from oily skin so my pores do tend to get blocked and my skin breaks out. This mask claims to give clean, shine free looking skin, and a matte complexion. So this mask is saying it is great for those of you who have oily skin like me. The mask is super covered in the product/lotion and has quite a nice smell to it. It is a little fiddly and messy to apply but I was expecting it to be. I would say my face looked clean and fresh after using this mask but I wouldn't say it gave me a matte complexion. 

What A Peeling Purifying Peel Off Mask

This is the other mask I was excited to try. I generally prefer masks you can peel off or clay masks, as I feel they do more for your skin than a sheet mask. This mask claims to smooth, purify, remove blackheads and clean out your pores. The mask comes in two little pots (you only need to use one pot for one mask) and with a small applicator to apply to the skin. I will be honest and say that I do have a large face and I found there was a lot of product in just one pot. They only thing is you can't re use the product if you don't use it. It doesn't have a lid you can take on and off and its a paper one you peel off. I kinda wish this came in a reusable pot or a little squeezable tube, so I wouldn't have to throw out any excess product. 

This one has a smell to it that reminded me of something that I just couldn't put my finger on. The colour of the mask is bright pink and I actually really liked the colour. While the mask is drying you feel it tightening and I found the mask peeled off pretty well. 

My skin felt slightly tighter after use and it felt cleaned. I wouldn't say it removed all my blackheads but it did pull some gunk and stuff out of my pores.

Bright & Beautiful 

I feel sometimes when I feeling a bit run down my skin could do with a boost. This mask claims to brighten dull, tired and stressed-looking complexions. The mask is soaking in the lotion/product so like the pore refining one it can be a little messy applying it. It had quite a nice scent to it and I feel it did brighten my skin. I actually liked this one more than I thought I would. So if you are suffering from dull skin I recommend you give this one a go.

Speed Plump Miracle Moisture

My skin type is more oily than dry I rarely suffered from dry skin. So this mask is not really for my skin type but I did try this one but I will say I didn't really notice any difference apart from my skin feeling soft. I feel I can't give this product a real review based on my skin type. But if you do suffer from dry skin maybe give this mask a go as this mask claims to moisture dry skin and help maintain suppleness. 

This mask is also different from the other sheet masks as it comes in two parts. So you have a part for the top part of your face and one for the bottom part. Also the mask is drenched in the lotion/product just like the other two.

Final Thoughts 

Overall I liked all of these masks and for the price I think they are really reasonable. I think I will purchase the What a Peel Purifying Peel Mask again as well at the Puffy Eye Attack as these two were my favourites. Soap and Glory's skincare range I generally really like and find it works for me majority of the time. One of there products is a holy grail product that I will always continue purchasing. 

Will you be trying any of these masks? If so which ones are you keen to try out?

Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture Palette Review

Price:£42 Available at Anastasia Beverly Hills

Hi everyone, today I wanted to share my thoughts on the new Subculture eye palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills. I've been very excited for this palette and I have been going back to wearing my Modern Renaissance palette, while I've been waiting for this palette to arrive. But will this palette be just as good or better than the popular Modern Renaissance palette? Lets find out.

Packaging 

The palette comes in a cardboard carton in the same colour and design as the palette itself, just like Modern Renaissance. To be honest, the packaging is pretty much the same to the Modern Renaissance, the only difference being the colour and minus the logo on the front. It has a pretty decent mirror on the inside and comes with the same dual end brush as the Modern Renaissance palette. 

The Shadows

There are 14 shadows in the Subculture palette, just like the Modern Renaissance. All the shadows are new apart from the shade Fudge, which I believe you can get as a single shadow. The reason I am excited for this palette is the colours. I mean just look at those colours, it is such a pretty palette and I can see a few looks that can be created with this palette.

The image above shows Modern Renaissance on the left and Subculture on the right. I feel with just looking at both of these palettes, you have more different colour options to create different looks with Subculture than you do with Modern Renaissance.

Swatches

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The image above shows my finger swatches of all the shadows, as you can see they are all very pigmented. The only shadow that you can't really see well was Cube. Cube might apply better on the eye and/or with some fix plus. 

To me, the feel of the shadows don't feel as creamy as compared to the Modern Renaissance shadows but, what matters most is how they look when applied to the eye. 

Application

The image above shows the look I created with the shadows. I used the shades, Edge, New Wave, Axis, Electric, Cube and Rowdy. I wasn't intending to go for a green look but it just sort of happened when I was trying to blend out the harsh lines and obviously yellow and blue make green when mixed together. 

When applying the shadows, I found I had to really try and blend these shadows a lot more than I usually would, to make them even and to remove harsh lines. I found Edge and New Wave kept going patchy after blending them out and had to keep applying more the patchy areas. I used fix plus on Electric and Cube but they didn't turned out as I wanted. Cube I used in the corner of my eye but you can see it as it just didn't work for me as you can't see it. I do like how Electric looks over Axis but I was hoping that the fix plus would give Electric a bit more of a boost when it is not over another shadow.

I found there was a lot of fall out from the shadows, mainly the matte shadows. If I gently touched the shadow with my brush I would get a lot of kick back. I do expect a little kick back with eye shadow but not as much as these did. I felt with all the kick back that it is wasting the product. 

Final Thoughts

This is a hard one. I had such high hopes and expectations from this palette I was really hoping it would be just a great as the Modern Renaissance. I love the packaging and the shade selection in this palette but, when applied to the eye, I felt a bit let down. Most of the shadows have good pigmentation, but there is so much fall out and some are patchy and the shadows you need really need to work a lot more than Modern Renaissance. So if you are in a rush I wouldn't use the Subculture palette. 

As a brand, I feel Anastasia Beverly Hills is a brand you can rely on for great quality products. With the Subculture palette I don't know what has happened. I don't know if there was a change in ingredients, formula or if they were manufactured in a different way. 

I am going to try and work with this palette again as I've paid for it and I don't want my money to go to waste. But If you are looking to get either Subculture or Modern Renaissance, I would go with Modern Renaissance as it is a much better palette and it is £1 cheaper than Subculture on there U.K website.

Did any of you get this palette? Did it work for you? Let me know your thoughts on this palette. 

Storybook Cosmetics Wizardry and Witchcraft Eyeshadow Palette Book Review

Price:$52 Available at Storybook Cosmetics

I've been wanting to get my hands on this eye shadow palette ever since it was announced. I missed out on the first time it went on sale but managed to get it the second time around. So I decided to review this palette and to share my thoughts with you all.

So here is a little information about the brand. Storybook Cosmetics products all have a magical and mystical theme to them. As well as this palette, they also have some make up brushes that are inspired by wizard wands and roses. They have some license collabs coming soon involving Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Hunger Games, which I am looking forward too (mainly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
Also I just want to say that I live in the U.K and Storybook is based in the U.S.A. So please bare in mind you may have to pay customs. I was lucky and didn't have to pay any customs this time, but please do remember when you buy from another country you may have extra shipping or custom charges.

Packaging

When the palette arrived it came in this brown velvet bag with the company logo and a bookmark thanking for the purchase with all the company information. I also love that the bookmark goes well with the palette as the actual palette is shaped as a book. 

The actual palette itself, you open it up as a book and inside are the actual shadows with the name of the shadows underneath, which is always a win for me. On the opposite side there is a large decent mirror. Under the mirror there is a quote that says 

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 

I think that is such a lovely touch, I loved that they went that extra mile on the packaging as I feel a lot of brands don't really do this. So far with just looking at the packaging, I can see that they really thought and work hard on creating this palette.  

The Shadows

The shadows are a mix of matte, pearl and metallic shades. I love the colour selection and when I first looked at the palette, I can see a few looks I can create with these shadows. 

(Left to Right: Jinx, Charms, Spellbook, Cauldron, Bewitched, Merlin, Salem, Prophecy, Potions, Cloak, Sorcerer, Broomstick) 

The shadows feel very smooth and creamy, they are very pigmented as you can see from the swatches in the image above. All the shadows are beautiful and Bewtiched, Potions and Sorcerer are the three that really stand out to me. Prophecy you can't see too well as it is a very similar colour to my skin tone but I can still use it as a base colour. I am going to share with you three looks I created with this palette. 

Look One

For this look I used the shades, Prophecy, Charms, Broomstick and Bewitched. All the shadows blended very well. I did use Mac Fix + to apply Bewitched to make it more intense. These shadows are so pigmented that I hardly have to dip my brush into the shadows and found a little goes a long way.

Look Two

The shadows I used for this look were, Prophecy, Sorcerer, Cauldron, Charms and Jinx. I did use Mac Fix + again this time on Jinx in the inner corner. Again the shadows blended beautifully and a little went a long way.

Look Three

For this final look I used the shades: Prophecy, Charms, Potions, Jinx and Cloak. With this look I am getting Slytherin vibes and I didn't plan on it, but I love that. The same as before the shadows blended beautifully and you only need to dip your brush in a tiny bit as the shadows are highly pigmented. I also used Mac Fix + on Jinx again to give it a bit of a boost.

Final Thoughts

I LOVE this palette. I have no faults or anything negative to say about this palette. So much thought and hard work has gone into this palette and you can tell just by looking at it. The packaging is just brilliant and the shadows are so highly pigmented and blend so beautifully, that they are just a dream. There must be some actual real magic put into these shadows because of how wonderful they are. I highly recommend this palette to anyone. I really cannot wait for there next palette and I really want to try there brushes now. 

Testing Flower Eye Liner

Festival season has finally arrived! I find festival season is a great time to to experiment and take your makeup game to the next level. While going through Instagram, I found cute flower eyeliner looks I thought would be great for a festival look or even just for a cute spring/summer time look. 

I decided to try the flower eyeliner look for myself and share them with you. I will share what products I used for each look and share how easy the looks were to create for myself, just in case you would like to try them out for yourself. I have four looks to share but you can be as creative/experimental as you want, which is what I love about this.

Look One 

Products used:

• NYX Vivid Brights Liner in the shades Violet, Sapphire, Envy and Halo
• NYX White Liquid Liner

This is the first look and the easiest. With this look, you create the flowers to be the actual eyeliner. You can start in the inner corner of the eye or from the middle it is totally up to you. They start small in size and then get bigger and then smaller as it goes into the flick. I just created crosses and then put a dot in the middle to create the flowers to make it easier for myself and added some green lines for leaves. I also found that this was the quickest look of all four.

Look Two

Products used:

• NYX Vivid Brights Liner in the shades Fire, Petal, Halo and Envy
• NYX White Liquid Liner

With this look I tried to create Roses into the flower liner. I also brought the flowers down onto the lower lash line. This one was a little bit more difficult than the first look but it was still pretty easy to do. To create the rose, I just put a rough circle shape, as roses are not a perfect circle shape and then added some white lines to make it look like the petals of a rose. I added more leaves to this look just to break up the pink and red. 

Look Three

Products used:

• NYX Vivid Brights Liner in the shades Fire, Envy and Halo
• NYX White Liquid Liner
• Collection Glam Crystals Gel Eyeliner in the shade Le Freak 5 
• Kat Von D Tattoo Liner Liquid Eyeliner in the shade Trooper

This third look I have the traditional wing liner and added flowers round the liner for something a bit different. I tried to add some glitter using the Collection Glam Crystals Gel Eyeliner but it didn't turn out how I hoped and the Collection Liner looks more like a green blob than a flower. But I think the little flowers look cute, to create them I just did 5 dots of one colour and then one dot for the centre. Also if you are not sure where to go with just drawing flowers as eye liner, having the wing eye liner there helps as a guide on where to put the flowers.

Look Four

Products used:

• NYX Vivid Brights Liner in the shades Delight, Halo and Envy
• NYX White Liquid Liner
• Kat Von D Tattoo Liquid Eyeliner in the shade Trooper

This is the final look and my favourite, as I think its cute and simple. For this, it does help if you have a steady hand and a bit more time to spare to keep it neat. I have the traditional wing liner from the inner corner and made this liner a bit thicker than the third look. I added a vine that wraps itself around the wing liner with flowers coming off it. You can do any sort of flowers for this so you can make it as simple as you want. If you go over the wing liner with the green vine you can easily neaten it up with the black liner by going over the mistake.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I found the flower eyeliner cute and not too difficult to create. It can be a bit time consuming depending on what sort of look you are creating. I will defiantly be experiment with flower eye liner more for the summer and festivals. 
Will any of you be trying flower eyeliner for the summer? If you do, I would love to see the looks you create, you can share them with me on Instagram if you wish too. 

Urban Decay Naked Palette £4 Dupe!?!?!

Hi everyone, recently I discovered a few news articles on a palette that is a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Palette and only cost £4 from Primark. If you follow me on Instagram you will know that I recently bought the Naked Palette. So I wanted to see if what the news articles are saying are true and find a good dupe for the Naked Palette for those of you, who maybe can't afford the Urban Decay palette or just looking for a good bargain.

Urban Decay Naked Palette

Price:£39.50 Available at: Urban Decay, Debenhams, Feel Unique, John Lewis & House Of Fraser

This palette has revolutionised neutrals. I feel if you are a true makeup fan or collector you either have or had this palette. It has a velvet case and comes with a mirror and a duo end brush. There are 12 shades that are a mixture of matte, satin, shimmer and sparkle textures. 

Primark PS Bronze Shadow and Shade Palette

Price:£4 Available at: Primark

This is the palette the news has been talking about. I won't say much about the palette here but more when I am comparing it the the Naked Palette. This palette only has 10 shades in a mixture of matte and shimmer. It comes in matte and metallic cardboard packaging with no mirror or brush. 

Packaging and Layout

As you can see from the image above, they have very similar layout and packaging. The shadows in the Bronze Palette are longer than the Naked Palette, but there are less of them (Naked has 12 shadows and Bronze has 10 shadows) and the Naked Palette is thicker than the Bronze Palette. The Bronze Palette doesn't have a mirror nor brush. They both have the name of the palette inside that is pretty large font. The Naked Palette has the names of the shadows underneath the actual shadow which I actually like unlike the Bronze Palette which comes on a plastic sheet protecting the shadows that you can throw away. 
The outside packaging of the Naked Palette has a velvet coat which I don't mind but I know some people won't like. The Bronze Palette has just a sort of matte/metallic coat, which I again I don't mind, especially for the price. 

Swatches and Textures

The image above shows the swatches of both palettes and as you can see both palettes swatched really well. The Naked Palette I think was a tiny bit more pigmented but the Bronze Palette has actually impressed me with the swatches especially for £4. 

The Naked Palette as many of you may know, the shadows feel so smooth and creamy when you swatch them. But what of the Bronze Palette? The Bronze Palette is pretty smooth and a bit creamy but not quite like the Naked Palette I must admit. I would say the shimmer shades are a bit more smoother than the mattes in the Bronze Palette. 

The shades from both palettes I can see several looks that can be created. The only thing I'm not sure about is the blue in the Bronze Palette, it just seems a bit odd for that shade of blue in a palette that is called Bronze to me.

Application 

The image above shows two similar I looks I created using both palettes. 

For the Naked Palette look I used the shades:

• Buck
• Naked
• Half Baked
• Creep
• Sin

For the Bronze Palette look I used the shades:

• Day Trip
• Desert Dream
• Sunseeker
• Charcoal
• White Sands

I tried to use the shades that looked very similar in both palettes to give them a fair test and as you can see they both applied very similar. The Bronze Palette has a more of a bronze/orange tone whereas the Naked Palette has more of a golden tone. They both give a great look and have good pigmentation. The Bronze Palette needed a little bit more work when blending. But for this look I actually like the colour of the Bronze Palette more as I think they go better with my eye colour.

The only issue I had with this was the fallout from the Bronze Palette, there was so much of it, so just be careful if you get this palette when you use it.

Other Information

Both palettes use similar ingredients and both have a 24 month expiration date. The Bronze Palette shadows weigh 2g and the Naked Palette shadows weigh 1.3g so you are getting more of each shade in the Bronze Palette but you do get two extra shades in the Naked Palette. 

Final Thoughts

Well I have to say the Bronze Palette is a pretty good dupe for the Naked Palette. I would say the News articles are true. If you are saving money or can't afford the Naked Palette I highly recommend you get the Bronze Palette. The only main issue I had with the Bronze Palette was how much fallout you get. For £4 it is a absolute bargain, and you save yourself £35.50! It's not 100% exactly like the Naked palette but it comes pretty close.  

I also have to say Primark are really stepping up with there makeup range this year, I can't wait to see what I will get my hands on next to share with you all.