Sleek MakeUp Face Form Contouring & Blush Palette 'Light' Review

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

Recently I was up in the Dundrum Shopping Centre having a little browse around and one of the places I stopped into was Boots. The Boots up in Dundrum stocks Sleek MakeUp so I was really excited about going in and having a look at the range. I usually buy my Sleek products online as there isn't a counter near me but I prefer to be able to swatch the products in a store before I buy. That way I can get a better idea of what products might work for me and what ones may not. 

There are always offers on in Boots and the day I ventured in there was a 2 for €14 sticker across all of the Sleek MakeUp range. Depending on what you picked up you could save yourself a good few euro. To give you an idea I could have picked up their 7 piece brush (€16.99) and this contour kit (€13.49) for €14 giving me a saving of....€16.48 pretty decent huh! 

In the end though I picked up the Sleek MakeUp iDivine Storm Eyeshadow palette along with the Face Form Kit, as one of my subscribers over on my YouTube channel wanted to see some more eye makeup looks using the Sleek range. 

If you have been a follower of my blog or YouTube channel for any length of time it probably comes as no surprise that I picked up a face product from the brand. My all time favourite contour kit is Sleek's Face Contour Kit in the shade 'Light'. I reviewed that a few years ago so if you missed that post you can read it here. I'm also a massive fan of their blushes, I've reviewed the ones I own here, so it only seemed fitting to pick up a product that combined my two loves.

The Sleek MakeUp Face Form Contouring & Blush Palette comes in four shades:

• Fair
• Light
• Medium
• Dark

Being that I pretty much already owned the light face form kit, I had intended on picking up the kit in the medium or dark shade. Unfortunately Boots didn't stock the dark shade in the Dundrum store and I changed my mind once I laid eyes on the medium kit. Not because I didn't like that particular kit, that wasn't the case at all it was more so to do with the products included in the kit.

What I mean by that is, in the 'fair' and 'light' kits there is a contour shade, a highlighter, and blush included. While in the 'medium' and 'dark' kits there is a contour shade, a highlighter, and a bronzer included. 

I knew I wouldn't get the full use out of the 'medium' kit because the only time I would wear a bronzer like the one in the kit is when I'm tanned and that is only on special occasions. I pondered for a few minutes over the 'fair' kit but decided in the end to go for 'light' shade. 

The contour and highlight shade are the same products that are in face contour kit 'light' and I'm almost certain the blush in this kit is sold as an individual blush called 'Rose Gold'. I own both of those products which is why I said I pretty much own this face form kit already but despite that I still bought it. I figured it was just handy to have all three products in one palette, perfect for on the go! Plus I would probably have been repurchasing my face contour kit in the next little while anyway so now I don't have to.

The contour shade in this palette is one of the only contour colours that I enjoy wearing on my skin. If you have pale skin it can be hard to find a contouring shade that isn't too warm toned, I find a lot of contour shades can appear quite grubby on paler skin tones. This product is a cool brown and works like a charm. If I want very sculpted cheeks which is usually the case, I take my Sigma Small Contour F05 and apply the product whereas if I wanted to just add a bit of colour to the face I would use it on a larger, less dense brush such as the Sigma Large Angled Contour F40. I've a full video on my favourite face brushes and their uses if you're curious! You can find that here.

The highlight shade is also very flattering on the skin, when the light hits the points where you have applied the product it gives off such a gorgeous glow. It isn't overly glittery it just gives a nice subtle sheen to the skin.

The blush in the palette will suit all skin tones but I think the blush will be the deciding factor for people of whether to buy or not. The blush is a pink/rose shade and has golden shimmery flecks running throughout. If you are not a fan of shimmery blushes then this may be a little off putting. If this is the case I would suggest to only apply the contour shade and the blush, the blush has enough shimmer in it to double up nicely as a highlighter on the cheeks too if you sweep it from the apples of your cheeks back towards your hairline. The blush is very pigmented so pick up a little product, tap off the excess and begin to apply to the cheeks. Keep adding product little by little until you are pleased with the level of intensity.

As you can see from the swatches below each of the three products in the palette are highly pigmented. They are also smooth in texture making them very easy to work with. 

I lightly applied the trio to my skin to give you an idea of how the products perform. I have the contour shade in the hollows of my cheeks, the blusher just off the apples of my cheeks and the highlighter along the tops of my cheekbones. 

Definitely one to pick up if you are in the market for an affordable contour kit, you really can't go wrong with this one!

Chat soon :)

Eimear x

Catrice Prime and Fine Pore Refining Anti Shine Base

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

I'm not sure how or why it happens, but I always find that my expensive skincare and makeup items….run out at the same time. I mean it happens every time. Recently I came to the end of my Mally Beauty Mascara, along with my Liz Earle Hot Cloth Cleanser, Smashbox face primer AND my Estée Lauder Double Wear Foundation. As a broke little student I simply cannot afford to replace them all at once, I have to buy….books, you know? Actually if I did replace them all in the one day I'd dread to think what the cost would be. An amount I would probably lose sleep over anyway *sigh*

Instead of repurchasing my €31.50 Smashbox Photo Finish Primer, I decided to raid the chemist to see what was on offer in there. Bargain buys are my favourite buys! I ended up stumbling across this Catrice Prime and Fine Pore Refining Anti Shine Base Face Primer….an utter mouthful to say the least but I thought that'll do pig that'll do. It set me back a mere €4.49 so I knew I wouldn't be too disappointed if I wasn't happy with it. In the case a product doesn't work for me I always just give it to someone I know who would enjoy it, like my aunty or my friend Laura. That way its not a waste of money :)

I was a little surprised when I first squeezed some product out of the tube, to me it looked more like a moisturizer than a face primer. I squeezed out a pea sized amount and began to dot it around my face. Next I noticed the texture, it didn't have that nice silky silicone feel like my beloved Smashbox primer had. I found I had to use quite a bit of product to cover my face and I also had to work quite quickly before the primer set in place. First impressions…meh. I'm not overly fussed. I wasn't happy with the texture of a product, but did it shape up as an effective face primer?

As the title of the product suggest, it aims to minimise pores and provide an anti shine base. Ick the topic of pores, the only place that my pores are quite visible would be on my nose. It hadn't really been a problem until I started using pore strips, I think they were the worst thing to ever happen to my skin. As you can imagine I was hoping this primer would solve my problem. My pores weren't noticeably less visible, if at all. That was the first disappointment. With regard to anti shine, yes I would say my skin had a slightly more mattified appearance with the use of the primer..nothing major though. 

The biggest disappointment for me though was that it resulted in my skin breaking out. Unfortunately the formula just didn't suit my sensitive skin.

Overall I didn't really notice any beneficial difference to my skin when using this primer opposed to using none at all. Unfortunately Catrice but this is a thumbs down from me!

Have you tried out this face primer, or any others from the 'Prime and Fine' range? How did you get on? :)

Eimear x

Inglot Face & Body Sparkling Dust '02'

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

I have been posting makeup tutorials on YouTube since July 2011 and I took up blogging not too long after that. I think by now most of you will have come to the conclusion that I am a massive Inglot fanatic, and, well..I am.

It was the first makeup brand that I had tried out that wasn't from the 'drugstore'. My love for the brand, along with my collection has only ever grown since! Up until the last year or so I had only ever bought the eyeshadows in Inglot using their freedom system. After building various sized eyeshadow palettes I decided to branch out and try some of their other products. 

 I wasn't disappointed :)

My most recent purchase has been their sparkling dust powder which I think will be much loved by all this Summer. The sparkling dusts come in three shades '01', '02' and '03'..pretty straight forward like the rest of the Inglot range. Their products are labelled by number opposed to by names.

I went into the Inglot in Dundrum with the intention of buying the first shade of the sparkling dust. After seeing swatches online I figured this shade would suit my skin tone the best. Unfortunately they couldn't find the tester so I couldn't try it out for myself on the day. I decided not to take a chance on it and I purchased shade '02' instead, which I will keep to use for when I am wearing fake tan.

The packaging is simple and classic, nothing overly fancy! I really like how the bottom of it is clear so you can see the product inside. It makes it so handy to easily pick out the product if you have your makeup stored in drawers.

When you twist the top off you will see that there is a makeup poof inside. Its a nice touch which would be handy for travel purposes but I never really use the powder poofs that come with products. I would be more so inclined to use it if it came with a face powder, but not with a highlighter it gets a little messy application wise.

I was relieved to see that the product comes in a 'shaker style' pot otherwise I probably would have lost half of the product before I even used it. The Inglot face powder just comes with a twist off top so I was assuming it would be like that. Thankfully it wasn't, you have no idea how much face powder I have wasted through stupidity and overall clumsiness. Probably the most disastrous event that resulted in me purchasing a new face powder was when I decided to blow-dry my hair, forgetting I had left the powder on my dresser with the lid off. Imagine a sandstorm…replace sand with powder. 

Yep, thats how things went down.

The sparkling dust is labelled as a multi use product, for use on the face, body and eyes. The sparkling dust is a highly pigmented highlighting powder as you can see from the picture above! It looks gorgeous applied to the high points of the face such as the tops of the cheek bones, down the centre of the nose and to the tip of the cupids bow. It gives such a gorgeous healthy golden glow to the skin. As it is so pigmented its really easy to go over board, so pick up a little product at a time and use a light hand.

I have also used it on the eyes as a loose pigment to give a subtle shimmer to the eyes. For a more intense eye makeup look try mixing it with Inglots duraline, the combination is a match made in heaven!

I even tried mixing a little in with my foundation to give my skin a dewy glow, which is a preferred way by most when wearing foundation coming into the Summer. That look is personally not for me, i'll forever be rocking the matte look for life haha! 

The product retails at €18 and if you hold an Inglot pro card it'll be cheaper again. Overall not a bad price in my opinion for the product. Its multi use and a little goes on a long way. I can't fault it!

What are your favourite highlighters?

I'm still on the hunt for the perfect face highlighter!

Eimear x

Boldly Bare: Natural Everyday Makeup

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

As you all know I love my colourful makeup looks however its not everyday that I have the time to create such elaborate looks.

I don't opt for natural makeup often but when I do it will look something like this! Its not "no makeup, makeup" I still like to define certain features but its very minimal for me!

Products Used

Face:

Smashbox Photo Finish Oil Free Foundation Primer

Avon Ideal Flawless Foundation 'Ivory'

Mally Beauty Cancelation Conditioning Concealer 'Fair'

Blank Canvas Cosmetics Contour Palette #1

Inglot Pressed Powder 21

Mally Beauty Luminizer 'Heavenly'

Eyes

Benefit Bad Gal Lash Mascara

Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil 001 Dark Brown

Lips

Smashbox Lip Enhancing Gloss True Colour 'Attitude'

Cinema Secrets Ultimate Lipliner 'Spice'

If you want to see how I created this look just click the play button below!

Thanks for tuning in :)

Eimear x

Sleek MakeUP Face Contour Kit 'Light' Review

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

Long time know chat!

Finally my exams are out of the way so I can focus all my attention on blogging and filming makeup tutorials...yaaaay!

Today I have for you all a review of the Sleek Contour Kit in the shade 'Light'.

As most of you all know by now I could pass as a Twilight extra, so I need a contour shade that isn't too dark against my ghostly skin.

(Highlighter: Pressed Powder 19. Bronzer: Pressed Powder 21)

I have used the exact same bronzer and highlighter combination since around October 2011, which is quite evident based on the picture above!

Once I find a product I like and that works for me, I use it religiously. I'm not too open to change but I'm getting better at putting new products to the test.

A couple of months ago I decided to venture outside the comfort zone and step away from my beloved Inglot highlighter and bronzer duo and try the much hyped up Sleek Contour Kit. 

Once I removed the packaging and revealed the palette I noticed the design was almost identical to that of the eyeshadow palettes. I adore the packaging.

Simple, sleek and sturdy!

The palette is compact and it comes with a decent size mirror making it ideal for travel.

As I mentioned above, I picked up the kit in the shade 'Light'. Sleek MakeUP also offer this product in the shades 'Medium' and 'Dark'.

The kit includes a matte brown contour shade and a pearlescent highlighter shade.

The first thing I noticed with the kit was that the contour shade is larger than the highlighter shade, opposed to a 50/50 split.

I was happy to see this as although I use both on a daily basis, I find I use up my contour shade quicker as you might have noticed in the picture of the Inglot palette above.

I am extremely impressed with this kit!

The contour shade is perfect for us paler ladies, it isn't orange and doesn't give a mucky appearance to the skin which I find to often be the case with bronzers.

Using my Sigma F05 Small Contour Brush I sweep the contour shade along the hollows of my cheeks, from time to time followed by the jawline and temples.

I then use my Blank Canvas Cosmetics F15 Small Contour/Highlighter Brush to highlight the areas of my face where the light would naturally hit. I prefer to use this brush as it tapered allowing me to glide the product over the high points of my face with ease. I generally tend to highlight down the centre of my nose, the tops of my cheeks and above my cupids bow. I have found that the highlight shade also acts as a gorgeous brow bone highlight!

I have found that the contour kit enhances my features giving definition and structure to my face with ease!

I absolutely adore this product and would recommend it to anyone who struggles to find a contour shade for pale skin. Its an absolute gem!

I picked mine up from Cloud10Beauty.com for only €9.95, another bargain buy for Eimear! :)

Here's to the next year and a half together ♥

Have you tried the contour kit?

What are your thoughts? :)

Eimear x

Lush Haul: Face masks, Shampoo Bars and more!

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

I would consider myself quite an organised person with regard to many things in life however, Christmas shopping this year was a disaster.

I left absolutely everything until the last minute. 

Instead of my usual trip to Dublin on Christmas Eve to soak up the festive atmosphere, I was running around like a headless chicken present shopping.

Thankfully I got all my bits and bobs sorted in just a couple of hours. 

Before leaving I took my usual trip into Lush.

To put it lightly, the place was jam packed. Clearly I was not the only one who left the Christmas shopping until the last minute...pheeew!

I've had a few items on my list for a while that I have wanted to try out and now I was finally getting round to it.

 The first thing I needed was a good ol face mask. At the time I had been trying out a new skin care routine and to say the cleanser broke my skin out was an understatement, my skin was fried.

I had no idea what I was looking for with regard to face masks or what would suit my extremely sensitive skin.

 I decided to seek the advice of a member of staff.

The girl that helped me find the perfect face mask her name was Eimear too :)

She was extremely helpful and she actually stayed with me and helped me for the remainder of time that I spent in Lush!

Eimear decided that the Cosmetic Warrior Face Mask would be ideal for my highly sensitive skin. This face mask will suit anyone with sensitive skin who is prone to breakouts. I've used it about 4 or 5 times already and its amazing.

The next product I wanted needed to try out was a bath bomb. 

I have used these in the past and they are divine. The one I used previously had gorgeous pettles in it!

Due to stress I suffer from quite bad eczema so again, I needed a product that would not irritate my skin or a product that wouldn't cause a breakout.

The bath bomb Eimear recommended was the Butterball Bath Bomb.

This bath bomb is filled with chunks of creamy cocoa butter which is ideal for rehydrating dry skin. I've since used this also and it left my skin feeling so silky and soft..review coming soon!

Next I decided my lips were in need of some TLC.

As you can probably guess, yes I suffer from very dry and chapped lips.

Everytime I've been in Lush paying for items at the counter I've been tempted by the lip scrubs and I decided today was the day to get one.

It was a toss up between the mint and bubblegum flavour scrubs but in the end I went for the bubblegum.

I rub the bubblegum lip scrub over my lips and this gently exfoliates them removing any dry skin I may have. Its literally good enough to eat and because its all natural you can lick away the excess, the part I look forward to most!

I use the scrub if I am going to be applying a matte lipstick as dry skin and matte lipstick just don't mix well! This pretty pink pot is a life saver :)

Shampoo bars are something that I am just boggled by so picking up one was an absolute must.

I have been using a Rockaholic Shampoo Bar for a couple of months now and this is due to hearing so much about the Lush Shampoo Bars. 

I was very surprised that the bar actually made my hair silky and shiney so while I was in Lush I thought I'd try out one of their bars.

I have very long hair....bum long so sometimes it can be quite hard to manage.

Because it is so long it is quite flat and knots easily. I also have to unfortunately wash my hair daily as it gets quite oily...pity it cannot be more like my skin ha!

This is why I picked up the shampoo bar Seanik.

Lush describe it to:

'Soften tangled locks and add oceans of shine with this mineral-rich, sea salt volumizing shampoo. Like a trip to a blue lagoon, Seanik is made with the best ingredients from the sea; softening Irish moss seaweed, and Japanese nori seaweed to make your hair soft as silk from root to tips, and sea salt to give body and volume to hair that’s fallen flat.'

and that is good enough for me!

Lastly I just had to pick this up, even for the packaging alone!

Its so cute and an absolute bargain buy at €8.95.

I have yet to open this one (can't bear to rip the packaging)

when I do I'll let you know my thoughts! :)

What are your favourite Lush products?

I'd love to hear so I can pick up some new ones :)

Eimear x

Wicked: Elphaba Makeup Tutorial

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

So the countdown begins...it is now officially 8 days until Halloween! 

Have you all decided what you are dressing up as? I've really left things until last minute this year, so if your like me this tutorial might help you out.

I was contacted by Waverley Academy a college I previously studied makeup at, to do a tutorial for their website. I had this look in the back of my mind for awhile and I decided this would be the one I would use for the website. 
Anyone at any level can create this look with ease, its quite simple to do and the finished look in my opinion looks amazing.
After doing some research on the makeup I couldn't decide which look I wanted to do, both looks were gorgeous!. I finally decided to just do both, the Broadway rendition and also the promotional poster makeup. All it takes is a quick change of lip colour!

My Interpretation

Products Used

Inglot Matte 384 

Inglot Amc 63 

Mally Beauty Volumizing Mascara

Smiffy's Aqua Based Body and Face Paint 

Collection 2000 Dazzle Me pigment in 'Pixie'  

Sleek Ultra Mattes V2 Darks Palette

Rimmel London Soft Kohl Eyeliner 'Jungle Green'

Bourjois Levres Contour Lip Pencil 'Rouge'

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick '170 Alarm'

If you would like to see how I created this look, just hit the play button on the video below.

Thanks a million for tuning in, really appreciate it!

I'll talk to you all soon.

Eimear x

Skull Fantasy Makeup | Collab. with Sonorona

Hey Everyone :)

Hope you all are well!

October is upon us so I am really getting into the Halloween spirit now! Todays Halloween makeup tutorial is actually a collaboration video with another beauty guru Maria, and her channel name is Sonorona. Myself and Maria decided that we wanted to do a skull makeup look, we wanted to do a sugar skull style look but we still wanted to keep the skull scary. Maria did this by adding patterns to her forehead and chin, typical of a sugarskull while using a colourful headband to add a colourful aspect to the look. I on the other hand was torn between the two, literally! I then decided that I would do half and half, the right side of my face inspired by a sugar skull and the left a scary skull.

Products Used:

• Rimmel Special Eyes Eyeliner Pencil '164 Hurricane Grey'
• Classic Colours Snazaroo 18ml 'Black'
• Inglot Gel Eyeliner Amc 77
• Inglot Duraline
• Classic Colours Snazaroo 18ml 'White'
• Blank Canvas Cosmetics 6 Powder Blush Contour Palette
• Inglot Amc 63 (Black Eyeshadow)
• Nyx Jumbo Pencil 'Milk'
• Coloured Sequins 'Blue' and 'Turquoise'
• Duo Lash Glue
• Stargazer 105 Eye Dust
• Collection 2000 Glam Metallics Eyeliner 'Punk 5' (Blue)
• Collection 2000 Glam Metallics Eyeliner 'Vinyl 1' (Silver)
• Collection 2000 Glam Metallics Eyeliner 'Grunge 6' (Green)
• Rimmel Exaggerate Eyeliner '001 Black'
• Inglot Matte 384 (Green Eyeshadow)

Here is Maria's look! 

If you would like to see how Maria created her interpretation, I have a tutorial on the look linked below with a link to Maria's makeup look. Be sure to check her out on Youtube she is extremely talented and an absolute joy to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Sonorona

Thanks for tuning in :)

I'll talk to you all again soon!

Eimear x

Halloween Tutorial: Burnt Face

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

So it is coming up to my favourite time of year....Halloween. I absolutely love dressing up for Halloween, I literally nearly always have my costume planned out a year in advance ha!

I have been really looking forward to starting my Halloween tutorials on my Youtube channel. I have a few very exciting tutorials to come!

My first look of 2012 is a burnt/charred face makeup look. Its quick and easy and also very affordable. Its great if you don't want to go all out dressing up for Halloween, something like this is going to look brilliant and it will also look like you took alot of time creating it. You can't go wrong with this look, the messier the better in my opinion!

Products Used:

• Human+Kinda All In One Day+Night Cream
• 3 sheets of Toilet Paper
• Snazaroo Spirit Gum: 

You can also use Liquid Latex or a Soluble Glue stick

• Avon Ideal Flawless Foundation "Ivory"
• Snazaroo Theatre Blood
• Inglot Matte 325 (Purple)
• Inglot Amc 63 (Black)

If you did not come from my Youtube channel, I have a step by step tutorial on how I created this look.
Just click the play button below :)

Thanks a million for tuning in guys!

I'll see you in my next post/video :)

Eimear x