A Post about LUSH!

Hello everyone, how was everyone's bank holiday weekend?  Good? Excellent.

I decided to talk today about a couple of things I've tried lately from Lush. Who doesn't love Lush? They're awesome, they're super vegan friendly, their vegan products are clearly labelled and they're not just cruelty free; they're actively fighting against animal testing.

Well the other week I started a new job and on my first day, my boyfriend came home with a bag of Lush treats for me (yeah, he's the bestest!).  He got me 3 bath bombs and a None of Your Beeswax lip balm.  I didn't picture that here but I like it well enough.  It's a bit grainy, like it was last time I bought it, but a look at the ingredients list tells me that the culprit is likely the shea butter.  Despite the graininess, it does still melt onto your lips nicely and does what it says on the tin; it's never gonna be my favourite though.

Onto the bath bombs, because these I LOVE. I usually buy bubble bars; I like the bubbles and I like that you can break them up and use them in 2 or 3 baths, depending on the size.  So it was a nice change to try these.

The first one he got me was the fluffy egg bath bomb. I didn't take a pic of it and the UK site no longer has it but you can see a pic of it HERE.  Basically this had so much pink colourant in it that it dyed my bathtub (and my fingers) pink! EEK.  It came off but I was panicking for a wee minute there.  It smelt really really good too.

Then was the Dragon's Egg, which is a citrusy scented bomb that starts off white but changes to yellow in the middle. It's very very cool watching it change.

The downside is that when it's done it kinda looks like you're sitting in a bath tub full of pee! Albeit, glittery, sweet-smelling pee (like I imagine a unicorn would produce!), but.... yeah, pee!

 

He also got me the Big Blue, which I haven't tried yet but apparently it has seaweed in the middle, so I'm looking forward to that one. It smells really good.

 Something else I bought recently (at VegFest actually) was the Sweetie Pie shower jelly.  This stuff smells REALLY good but erm, it's weird.

It kinda has the texture of that green goo you used to get in a pot that made fart noises and slid down the wall when you chucked it! (Anyone else remember that?)

It's also kinda hard to use.  I struggled to get much lather with it.  So it smells nice, fun gimmick but not something I'd repurchase.

 

While I'm talking about Lush I thought I'd mentions some of their other products, that are staples in my beauty stash.

Godmother Soap

This smells like Snow Fairy (I'll get to that in a minute) but you can get it all year round - win!  I mainly use this to wash my beauty blender and for deep cleaning some of my more dense makeup brushes (like foundation brushes).

Vanillary Solid Perfume

I don't know if they still make it, but Lush used to sell a solid handcream that smelt gorgeous from afar but had this weird nasty herbal smell up close. Smelt a bit like wee! Blarr.  But this has the lovely vanillary (dur) smell of that handcream without the nasty herbal wee smell.  YAY.  Also, this lasts all day!

it's even got real vanilla seeds it... so cool!

Silky Underwear Dusting Powder

I think I've mentioned this before but I love this powder, it smells gorgeous and it's talc free. I use it as I would talc.

T for Toes

This stuff is magical. It really really does work. Sprinkle in your shoes and it stops sweaty smelly shoes later that day!!

 

Snow Fairy

This bottle's old, I stockpiled it a couple of years ago and technically I should've used it by now! But yeah, I used to buy 3 big bottles every year when it was released and make it last as long as possible, as you can only buy it between October and December. Then I discovered Soap & Glory's Sugar Crush shower gel and this kind of got put in a cupboard and forgotten about. Til a few weeks ago when I discovered it (my S&G one ran out). Oh man I love it, it smells AMAZING! I have probably enough as well to last me til they re-release it again. YAY.

I wanted to also mention the latest Charity Pot body lotion/cream, but I couldn't find it to take a pic.  I liked the old version but picked up one of the £1 samples when they changed the recipe/scent. I really loved it so I asked for one for Christmas; they do two sizes as well which is great because last time I got the larger jar and it went off before I could finish it. It smells like Turkish Delight and I love it.


Lastly ... does anyone else find they end up with something like this: a bag of half used bath bombs / soaps / bubble bars? heheh

What's your favourite Lush product? I need ideas of what to try next! ;o)

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON LOVE-LIPSTICK.BLOGSPOT.COM

Wore it Wednesday: B. Creative Art Edition Vol.2 Eye Essentials Night Palette

I got the B. Creative Art Edition Vol.2 Eye Essentials Night Palette (V) for Christmas (phew, that's a gobful!!) and have finally got around to testing it and oooh, it's pretty!

You get a cream eyeshadow and 3 powder shadows, 2 brow powders, a brow wax, a mascara and a couple of naff applicators.  If you want to see what I think of the mascara, check out my recent mascara smackdown post! :)

Eyeshadow colours, clockwise from top left:

Marylebone (cream), Chelsea, Kensington, Knightsbridge.

L-R

Marylebone is a soft shimmery peachy brow cream shadow, great as a base

Chelsea is a beautiful shimmery light silver

Kensington is a dark shimmery gunmetal grey 

Knightsbridge is a gorgeous shimmery dark green

here is a quick, super simple look that I did with the palette using Marylebone on the lid as a base. Then I patted Chelsea over the top and used Kensington just to deepen the crease. Unfortunately my camera has washed it out big style. Ignore the mascara smudge on my lid - whoops!

I think this is a fab little palette. I like the mascara, I tried out the lighter brow powder colour and it gives a nice natural finish and the wax tames the strays.  The eyeshadows are all gorgeous too.

This palette is on sale at the moment for £10 in Superdrug stores and online, it's usually £14.99.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON LOVE-LIPSTICK.BLOGSPOT.COM

Friday Favourite: Neve Duochrome Palette

My Friday fave this week is this gorgeous Duochrome Palette from Neve Cosmetics. If you've not heard of them before, Neve are a cruelty free, very vegan friendly, Italian brand. I love their eyeshadows, they are really pigmented and their palettes retail at about £25, but the pans are HUGE.  I don't know if it shows below but you get 10 in a palette, so that's around £2.50 per eyeshadow and each one is 3g.  You can buy refills too. So to put that in perspective, you get 3g for £2.50 (£2.95 if you buy the refils pans). MAC eyeshadows are £10 for 1.5g (and that's just the pan, they are £13 in the plastic case!)

The packaging is beautiful, it's a bit more pinky purple in real life.

The colours

The colours are described on Cocktail Cosmetics, as follows:

1. Acid Rain cold green with reflections gold.
2. Utopia  - dark cobalt blue with pink highlights.
3. Phoenix  -intense heat from the copper-colored glows pink.
4. Chimera  -dark purple with pink highlights and copper crystals.
5. Twilight - intense gray satin bronze.
6. Poison Apple  - fuchsia purple with greenish water
7. Abracadabra  - cerulean blue with shades of light green.
8. Pollen - deep yellow with greenish lime green.
9. Poison - tobacco dark brown with green highlights.
10. Midsummer - ocher yellow with pink highlights.

And here are the swatches

L-R: Acid Rain, Utopia, Phoenix, Chimera, Twilight

Poison Apple, Abracadabra, Pollen, Poison, Midsummer

Ugh, beautiful. Check out Phoenix, that amazing copper! It's soooo gorgeous.

Also, duochromes are fantastic for a dark smokey eye, so I swatched a few of them over a black base (black gel liner)

I got this palette from Cocktail Cosmetics, but it seems to be out of stock right now (I think it's limited edition) but a quick google shows it for sale HERE for £24.95.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON LOVE-LIPSTICK.BLOGSPOT.COM

Milani Cosmetics in the UK

I wasn't planning to put a post up today but, ermmm I'm a wee tad over-excited. It's because the other day, I decided to have a browse on Cocktail Cosmetics and saw that they are now selling Milani! WOO!

I've been hearing people raving about the moisture matte lipsticks for a while and Nikkie Tutorials' youtube vids have been making me want Luminoso Blush* for ages now. So yeah, excited is the right word.

So I made a little order and here's some swatches and my first impressions of the stuff that I got.

Moisture Matte Lipsticks 

Matte Passion

My first impression of these is good. The formula is nice.  I swatched passion on my lips over a bit of lip balm and it went on lovely.  There was a bit of staining when I removed it but that is to be expected with such bright colours.  This looks a bit less orange in the lip swatch than it actually is. It's a proper pillarbox red. 

Matte Diva

Diva I swatched right after removing Passion, without adding lip balm first. And it definitely does cling to the dry bits on my lips, so this formula would appear to apply best with lightly moisturised lips (wipe off excess lip balm though or it'll just slip off).  Diva is GORGEOUS. It's a proper bubblegum/barbie pink, although my lip swatch has washed it out.  The hand swatch above is a bit truer to life.

I'm looking forward to testing these out properly and seeing how they wear.

Baked Eyeshadows 

Copper Excess

Left dry swatch, right damp swatch

 Intermix

 

 Left dry swatch, right damp swatch

The packaging for the baked eyeshadows said you could use them wet or dry, so I swatched them both ways.  I don't think it made much difference on the hand, so I'll try using them wet & dry on the eyes when I get time to trial them.  They're pretty though, Intermix is a bit of a deeper brown in real life.

I got a couple of the Baked Blushes. This is the packaging, you lift up the colour and there is a little mirror and a brush inside.

I was surprised when I received these that they looked so matte, from swatches I've seen online, especially of luminoso, they look super sheer and shimmery!  So I'll be interested to see how they look on the cheeks, blushes never look the same on your hand as they do on your face! :)

Delizioso

Luminoso

It's a bit powdery as you can see, but the colour is pretty!

Not all Milani products are vegan. So to find out what is, just go to the product page on the Milani website and click on the shade, it will then say (vegan) under the shade name if it is. I'm also not 100% convinced that the brushes that come with the product are vegan, so I'll be emailing Milani to double check that.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

*Cocktail didn't have Luminoso blush, I ordered if off Amazon. Naughty, I know!

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON LOVE-LIPSTICK.BLOGSPOT.COM

Party Makeup Season has begun!

Hello?  ERM, long time no post! Sorry about that, life kind of got in the way a bit.  But I have a few posts worth of pic saved up for you and so look out for those over the next week or so.  I'm starting with a Face (and outfit) of the day. Well night, technically.  This the makeup I wore for my boyfriend's birthday meal last weekend.

Party makeup season is pretty much here and this kind of fits in well with that. I wanted something glamorous and a bit sparkly too.  So I went for a shimmery smokey eye and classic red lip.  I kept the hair down and with soft waves so it wasn't really the focus.

 

I've been growing my brows out lately and have been going for a fuller look. They need a bit of grooming, but I'm definitely preferring them this way! A bit more unkempt!

 

Full List of products used:

Face

No 7 Instant Radiance Foundation, shade Warm Ivory - CV

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer, Shade 2 Light - CV

Pixi Brightening Peach Corrector - CV

Soap & Glory Glow All Out - AV 

Barry M Natural Dazzle Bronzer - V

Revolution Blush Palette, Sugar & Spice - AV

Revolution Setting Spray - AV

Eyes

Limecrime Eyeshadow Helper - V

B. Vivid Eyeshadow in Cinnamon - V

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow, Peach Smoothie, Mocha, Corrupt - CV

Makeup Geek Pigment, shade Insomnia - AV**, applied wet

Lightest shimmery shade from the MUA Undress Me Too palette on the inner corner and the lightest matte shade to highlight the brow bone - AV

Makeup Geek Gel Liner, shade Immortal - CV

Barry M Lash Vegas Fibres Mascara

Kiss Lashes, easy lashes??  Applied with Duo Lash Glue - CV

Anastasia Brow Wiz, Ash Blonde - AV

GOSH Clear Brow Gel - CV

Lips

OCC Anti Feather Pencil - V

Limecrime Velvetine, Red Velvet (I am 99% sure that is what is on my lips!) - V 

**I'm not 100% sure that this pigment is vegan, I thought it was when I purchased but now just awaiting confirmation from MUG! If not, a similar look would be acheiveable with a brown shadow on the lid and a pigment with a teal reflect patted on top (for example, Concrete Minerals pigment in Wicked or Sugarpill's Lumi).

 

I also tried to take an outfit shot, it's a bit rubbish I know, but I LOVE this dress. It's by Cameo Rose and I got it in New Look.  The shoes are from a little cheapy shop that has since closed down sadly. But they are super blingy and high and I love them!

IF YOU'RE STILL READING....

It's almost party season guys, so I'm thinking I'm going to do a series of posts of ideas for party makeup, maybe even pic or little video tutorials of the eye makeup!  What do you think, would you like to see something like this and if so, what type of looks do you want tutorials on??  Let me know in the comments below or come chat to me on social media - links to the right! :)

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON LOVE-LIPSTICK.BLOGSPOT.COM

Concrete Minerals Sugar and Spice Collection

Over on my other blog, I'm participating in Vegan Month of Food (or MoFo for short) and so I feel I've been neglecting the makeup a bit. So to make up for it, here's a quick swatchfest of my latest purchases from Concrete Minerals.

You can buy Concrete Mineral in the UK from CutECOsmetics, however they still have the old primer in stock, which isn't vegan. The official site has the reformulated primer and everything on there is now vegan so I decided to order from there.  The shipping was free because I spent over $50 and it arrived quickly and with no customs charges!! Win.

My main reason for the order was this; the Sugar & Spice collection. Look how stinkin adorable that packaging is!!

The inside: you get 4 loose shadows and a sexy lips tint.

The colours includes are Brat, Wicked, Rocked & Lolita and the Lip Tint shade is Tease

Swatch Fest

Starting with the lip tint

Rocked

It looks like a pale orangey yellow in the pot

It was hard to get a swatch of this but it's a lovely sparkly peachy shade

Brat 

A lovely hot pink

Lolita 

a sparkly steely grey

In the pot this one looked the most 'eh' to me, but it's beautiful!

Wicked 

an absolutely goregeous sparkly, lavender grey

The artificial light pic shows up the shimmer a little bit better

As I mentioned before I also ordered the primer and I got two more shadows as well

I got one of the Pro Matte shadows in Ember and White Rabbit shadow

White Rabbit 

A stunning sparkly white which looks amazing on the inner corner to add some shpangle!

Ember 

A matte darker orange. I thought it would be more neon when I ordered it but it's more of a brick orange. It's lovely and will be perfect for autumn!

Concrete always send you a couple of samples too and I got Storm (left) & Lolita (right)

Storm (top) is a beautiful dark gun metal grey and Lolita (bottom) looks olive green in the bag but is a grey colour with a sparkly flash of the green. Both are lovely.

Keep an eye out later in the week for a look using some of these shadows!

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx