Makeup Revolution Reckless Lipstick

Hi everyone! It's been a really long time since I've posted but I'm back from Australia having had an amazing few months. 

Since I've been back I've began training in beauty therapy. I've almost finished my level 2 and have recently started my level 3. As well as training in basic manicures I also did a Shellac course. Being hugely interested in beauty I feel like I've finally found my calling in life.

Ask anyone who knows me - I am obsessed with red lipstick. I have almost every shade under the sun but I will rarely buy a lipstick under £5. Call me a snob, but I do believe you get what you pay for.

However on the way to meet a friend one day I realised in my rush to get out of the front door having woken up 2 hours late I had left my lipstick on my dresser! So I did the only thing I could think of - I went into Superdrug to purchase yet another red lipstick. I simply could not go the whole day without reapplying when it wore away, and taking it off completely and going without is never an option.

As I was browsing I came across a name I hadn't seen before "Makeup Revolution" which is very similar in pricing to MUA.

Naturally the first thing my eyes went to was the lipstick. More specifically what looked to be a beautiful dark red shade. Just what I have been looking for recently with Autumn and Winter rapidly coming upon us.

The packaging is fairly simple, black with Makeup Revolution written on the side in gold. The end shows what the colour inside should look like. My only issue is that the lid doesn't stay on. I've not had any issues with lipstick covering everything in my bag as of yet but it isn't ideal.

The lipstick itself is a gorgeous colour. I would call this colour a dark red or raspberry and is very pigmented. The picture below is just one layer. The texture is very creamy which means applying it straight to the lips with clean lines is a bit of a challenge. I fully recommend applying this with a lip brush, although I use Barry M's eyebrow brush (£2.99 from Superdrug) as I love the super straight edges you can get with it.

The last of this lipstick is not what you'd expect. While it doesn't last as long as maybe a lipstick from Mac, or even Rimmel, for £1 you get more wear than you'd think though you should expect to have to top it up after eating or drinking. 

Overall, this is a nice purse friendly alternative to your usual drugstore brands and I'd definitely be willing to give more of them a try! 

The Shard/Hard Rock Cafe London

Last night I got taken to The Shard and the Hard Rock Cafe as a going away surprise from my best friend!

The Shard is is an 87 storey building in London, not far from the River Thames, the Gherkin and the Tower of London. The first viewing platform is on the 69th floor, and the second is on the 72nd which is also outdoors (and 800 feet in the air!). You're taken up in elevators that go from the ground floor to the 33rd floor in what feels like about twenty seconds, then into another elevator that does the same. My ears popped badly on the way down!

This was taken on the 69th floor, and the views were amazing. Out of all of the places I've been, London is hands down my favourite. In this picture you can see in the distance Canary Wharf, you can also see Tower Bridge (not London Bridge which a lot of people don't seem to know!) and the building that looks as though it's at an angle just by Tower Bridge is City Hall. 

Next up was the Hard Rock Cafe, somewhere I've always wanted to go but never quite gotten around to. I had at another time read reviews of it online, and they were very mixed but personally I thought it was great!

The waiting time was 45 minutes to an hour, but we were told we could get a drink at the bar while we waited so that's what we did.

This was Eric Clapton's guitar and Toni Iommi's (Black Sabbath) jacket. 

 I'm not completely sure how long we waited, but I don't think it was an hour at all. We were seated in a booth near the back of the restaurant right next to a jacket that belonged to Keith Richards (Rolling Stones)

There was a lot more near us but I didn't want to keep taking pictures while people were eating.

The wait staff were brilliant, and I think they wanted to hug me and Matt when we requested Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin to be played! We ordered Nachos for starters along with a Southern Rock cocktail (with a free glass!) and I ordered Ribs for mains - thinking it'd only be a half rack, nope, full rack! Goes without saying I didn't finish my meal.

Pink cocktail!

Over all it was a great way to say goodbye to my best friend and to my time in England for this year. Both of these are great places to experience, whether you've lived in London all of your life like me, or if you're just visiting. While I can't speak for the prices at The Shard, the Hard Rock Cafe is quite pricey but if you're looking for great service, great music and over all a great experience I'd say just go for it. After all, how often do you get to go to a restaurant and listen to Bruce Springsteen?  

Bourjois Rouge Edition Peche Cosy 03/Revlon Lip Butter 027 & 080

On Saturday I'm off to Australia for a year. England's winter is their summer so I've been attempting to make all of my purchases Summer friendly. 

I've never tried Bourjois lipsticks before, and I never really had any intention to until Boots had a buy one get one half price offer on their products (this was bought alongside a blush for my mum). 

Peche Cosy is a lovely pale peach colour. It's definitely a Spring/Summer colour and one that you could pull off effortlessly everyday, regardless of what you're wearing. 

I find to get any proper colour out of this it takes at least two coats and it doesn't have amazing staying power either so I'd say at £7.99 it might not be the most purse friendly lipstick if you were planning on using it often.

 The other thing I'm not particularly keen on with this particular lipstick is if you have any kind of chapping or dryness on your lips it will show. You definitely need to exfoliate before using this unless it's the look you're going for! 

Boots recently had an offer on Revlon's Colourburst Lip Butters, at 2 for £10 I couldn't turn this down considering normally I'd be paying £7.99 each. 

They have a fairly wide range of these now and I ended up purchasing "Strawberry Shortcake" and "Juicy Papaya". Again these are two really nice colours that would be great for a summers day.

On the right is Juicy Papaya and on the left is Strawberry Shortcake. The packaging on this is really nice.

I am quite impressed at how well the colour of the lid matches the colour of the lipstick! 

The great thing about these is they aren't exactly a lipstick, but aren't really a lip balm. They are somewhere in the middle. If you want a tint you only need to apply one coat, and if you want more of a colour you can just build it up until you're happy. The staying power of these wasn't as terrible as I had expected it to be and they are really nice and moisturising.

On the left is Strawberry Shortcake and on the left is Juicy Papaya.

I'm going to be quite interested to see how these hold up under the Australian Summer heat as I really can see them melting more than regular lipstick does (the Spanish heat wasn't kind to my makeup bag for some reason...).

Do you have a favourite shade from Bourjois or Revlon? Let me know!

Topshop Spilled Milk Nail Varnish

Impulse buying is a terrible habit of mine, and when I was in Topshop recently picking up an online order I found myself browsing the make up section. Ever since I saw Kim Kardashian sporting white nails I've wanted to give the colour a go myself, so was presented the perfect opportunity to not only purchase a white nail varnish for £5, but give the Topshop ones a try. 

I fully expected to have to apply about ten layers to get an opaque colour from this, but was pleasantly surprised to find I only needed to put on three. 

I did try and neaten my nails up around the edges but I'm no nail artist.

I'm completely nuts for anything with polka dots so I added some using Models Own nail art pen in black which cost £6 from Boots. These are great for anybody like myself who isn't fantastic at nail art since they're so easy to use. If you pull the cap off you have a nib great for more intricate designs or polka dots. If you unscrew the cap you'll find a brush which works well for making lines or stripes! They come in a variety of different colours too. For the full range check out the models own website.

I used Elegant Touch Rapid Dry For Nails to speed up the drying process. I highly recommend this product, I bought it for £3.05 from Boots and it really works. This is the first fast dry spray I've tried and it's worth paying for especially if you haven't got ages to wait around.

White nail varnish is great for a bold look, and will look fab in the summer! This has definitely convinced me to try some of the other Topshop nail colours. 

A Few Of My Favourite Things

Hello everyone! So this is my first post, something I always struggle with when starting a new blog.

However I've decided for this one I'm going to start by posting a few of my favourite beauty products, which are really just things I use on a day to day basis.

Urban Decay de-slick make up setting spray

This has been a miracle worker. I love it, and my makeup routine would be wasted without it. In 2012 I made the decision to quit smoking. I was very unwell at the time and the habit was exacerbating the problem. A few side effects came from quitting smoking - things you are never told about when you actually do. In the long run these are minor inconveniences compared to what can actually come from smoking, but nonetheless I was unprepared. My skin became quite oily. Whilst it's nowhere near as bad now as it was at first I still find my makeup can slide a bit if I don't use this. It is what is says on the packaging an oil control make up setting spray, and all you need to do with it is apply your makeup and spray. I can now go a full day without having to reapply my makeup. I may have to do a dab of powder here and there but it's nowhere near the full applications I was having to do before I found this! 

No 7 Beautifully Matte Make Up Base

Essentially all this product is, is a primer that mattifies the skin. It would not be my number one choice for giving your skin a smooth, flawless look however I am a fan of the matte look. 

No 7 Beautifully Matte Foundation

I'm really fussy when it comes to foundations. Like everything else in my makeup collection it has to be matte. I also prefer liquid foundations. This ticks both boxes. When I bought this I was "foundation match made" by the No 7 lady. Just as I thought I was the palest possible shade, and this one is called "calico". I do think this foundation has yellow undertones to it, which is my only real issue with it. All that really means is you just have to make sure you blend it really well. I've found so far it's best applied with a brush, however some time soon I'd like to try one of those egg shaped sponges.

Maybelline Dream Pure BB Cream

Okay, so this isn't matte. BB creams were something I was really skeptical of until I tried one for myself, and I'm really glad I did. This particular BB cream is made for oily skin and has SPF 15 in it so you get bonus sun protection too (even if it isn't enough for someone as pale as me!). The reason I think BB creams are so great is because they are incredibly light - not just in colour but the feel too. There is nothing worse on a hot day than foundation in my opinion, it makes me feel grubby and I just want to take it off as soon as it's on. BB cream is my number one summer go to product. Paired with a light layer of loose powder to set it and a little blush, it gives a lovely natural look.

Urban Decay Naked Flushed

This product has only recently become a favourite of mine and was only discovered in a search for the perfect contouring kit. As someone who lurks beauty blogs and instagram pages on a regular basis I have always wanted to try the Urban Decay naked palettes. After failing to find the "Sleek" contouring kit anywhere (it was sold out every time I went to Superdrug) I found myself looking around the Urban Decay section of Debenhams, and while this palette is £20 compared to £9.99 for the Sleek one it is worth every penny. I am only learning to contour at the moment so I haven't got the art of it down as well as others but even when I do use it, it doesn't look bad. The only downside to this is the blush is super pigmented, so there leaves little room to build up the right colour.

Benefit Brow Zings Brow Shaping Kit

I like nice, sculpted eyebrows and back in 2013 when I decided to bleach my hair I found my Rimmel eyebrow pencil was far too dark to suit the look. So I read a few reviews online of different eyebrow kits and decided to go for this one. I tend to use this product when I have a little more spare time in the morning as using a pencil is just much more convenient for quick eyebrows. This product comes in light, medium and dark and as I had bleach blonde hair at the time I obviously bought the light. Though my hair is now a dark brown I still use this as despite what the shade says it's definitely still dark enough to use. The left side is a wax which you apply using the angled brush the kit comes with, this shapes and defines your eyebrows. The right side is a powder. The booklet calls this a setting powder but I like to apply this first to add colour to my eyebrows and fill out the gaps, then use the wax. This set comes with tweezers but I don't really use them.

Soap and Glory Supercat Liquid Eyeliner Pen

 For as long as I can get my hands on this eyeliner I will never use another one. It is perfect. I am a huge fan of Soap and Glory. The packaging is cute, the names are clever and a majority of the products do exactly what they claim to. My day to day eyeliner has pretty much always been the retro flicks and I've tried a lot of products along the way but nothing has made the look easier to achieve than this. The applicator looks like a felt tip pen which is probably why it's so easy to use and get the exact look you're aiming for. 

Maybelline Great Lash Mascara

This product is proof that you don't have to spend your entire months wages to own a decent mascara. It's priced at a very reasonable £4.99 in Boots and comes in three shades: brown, black and very black. Whenever I buy a mascara I choose the darkest shade possible so it goes without saying I own very black. I like this as you don't have to use a lot to give the effect of long, thick eyelashes. 

And that is all I have for you today! There is one of other product that is an essential to my makeup bag and that is lipstick, but I own so many that it'll be a post all of its own! 

I hope you enjoyed reading this, and if you have any questions about any of the products just ask!