Kiko and Duty Free Haul

So I'm home, and back to normality. I'm not sure how I feel about this, I'm having Italy withdrawals and it's not good. School has been absolutely crazy and right now I want nothing more than to go back to Milan and relax. Gah.

Anyhow, as you can probably all tell, I did a little bit of shopping in Kiko and in Duty Free (goodness what a wonderful place it is), and as I know you all love a haul, I'm sharing with you what I bought, which surprisingly wasn't that much. 

Kiko

I made a wishlist of things that I really wanted from Kiko, but after going into stores and swatching them, they just didn't appeal to me anymore. Anyone else ever find that once you see a product in the flesh it doesn't seem so great anymore? Anyhow, my wishlist scuppered, I had a mass swatching spree and I came away with 3 items. Yes, only 3. Feel free to let out gasps of horror. I left a Kiko store with 3 items.

The first things I picked up were 2 of their single eyeshadows in shade '119' and '133'. 

Shade 119 is a shimmery, bronzey brown with a slight green tone to it. It's super pigmented and when I wore this the other day, I noticed that the greens in my eyes really stood out. Ahh, what a beautiful eyeshadow.

Shade 133 is a shimmery brick reddy brown colour and I am in love. There I said it. I am in love, not with a boy, with an eyeshadow. It is INSANELY pigmented, I honestly could not believe how pigmented it was when I tried it. Another reason I picked this up was because I don't own any eyeshadows that have a reddy colour to them and I thought I should step out of my comfort zone and get it, and after the successful swatch, I wasn't exactly going to leave it there was I? 

My last item I picked up from Kiko was a 'Multi-Effect Nail Lacquer'. There was a whole stand of these for €1 each and I loved the look of 'Shade 3' so it pottered to the till with me. Well not literally because it doesn't have legs, but you get my jist. 

Duty Free

I made a wishlist for duty free, but when I arrived, nothing on my wishlist was there *sigh*. But thankfully there were other fabulous deals that lured me in and emptied my purse, sort of. 

Firstly I went into Cath Kidston. It's one of those shops that is just me. I was so tempted to buy everything in sight but my birthday is soon, so I shall wait until then.

The only item I picked up was this makeup bag which has quite possibly the cutest patchwork pattern ever. It's the perfect size for all of my makeup and brushes and it was only £6.50. Absolute bargain in my eyes.

On the plane I made a pretty big splurge and bought 9 lipsticks. Yes, you heard me correctly, 9 lipsticks. 

The 9 lipsticks I got were part of the Revlon Lip Cube and they are the Super Lustrous range. I am doing a full review of this lip cube in the very near future so I won't be going into too much detail but I love all the colours, apart from one. Why must that one have been in there? There are 7 pearl finishes and 2 creme finishes and I'm loving them all so far, apart from 2. But I can find another use for them so the panic is over. It was £38 but considering the lipsticks are almost £8 each it is a very big saving, and a girl can never have too many lipsticks, right?

Kiko Wishlist

As you read this, I'm currently sat in Italy, I bet you're all jealous. I've probably already raided Kiko by the time you've read this, but I thought I would share with you all my Kiko wishlist. Kiko is a brand that I'm sort of familiar with as last year in France I picked up a few lip products. Safe to say, my purse will be sobbing once I've left the shop(s).

1-Kiko Unlimited Stylo

I've been eyeing these lipsticks up on the website for quite a while now and I now have an excuse to get one. They're said to be 'transfer resistant', 'highly pigmented' and 'semi matte' which is basically all I look for in a lipstick. And look how pretty the packaging is.

2- Kiko Colour Shock long lasting eyeshadow

I'm desperate to get my hands on one of these in the shade 'Snappy Brass' as Lily Pebbles was talking about it in a video once and it looked beautiful, and I love cream eyeshadows. I'm obviously not going to get the colour pictured but I'm determined to get the brass shade.

3- Kiko Loose Pigment Eyeshadow

I guess you could say that these are exact dupes for the MAC pigments. The packaging is almost identical and I'm sure the formula is too. Yet again I do not wish to buy the colour pictured but I really want the shade 'Taupe' which is a very close dupe of MAC's 'Tan' pigment, go have a little peek at the swatches on Google to see what I mean. 

4- Kiko Radiant Touch Creamy Highlighting Stick

I love the idea of cream highlighters, and after seeing Lily Pebbles talk about these on her blog (can you tell I love her blog and her videos?), I would love to have one in my possession very soon. 

If any of you have tried any of these products in this post, please let me know what you think of them as even if I've already bought them, I'd still love to know your thoughts! Oh the stresses of scheduled posts. I'll be back on Sunday but until the, ciao.

What's in my Travel Skincare Bag?

If you read my last post, you will know that I'm currently in Italy. This is one of those ever so fancy scheduled posts, I still get confused by them. Today I shall be sharing with you what I've taken with me in my travel skincare bag. I thought whittling down makeup was hard, but then I realised that I had to shrink down my excessive skincare collection to fit into one small bag, what a task that was *wipes brow*.

Cleansers and Face Washes

This was by far the hardest 'category' to cut down. In terms of cleansers I'm only taking one and that is my Simple Kind to Skin Purifying Cleansing Lotion as it does a great job of removing both face and eye makeup and it isn't drying on my skin at all. For face washes I've packed my Soap and Glory Peaches and Clean Purifying Cleanser, as although it's marketed as a cleanser, I use it as a face wash/mask. I've also packed my Simple Kind to Skin Refreshing Facial Wash and my Tea Tree Exfoliating Cream Wash.  

Toner and Moisturisers

In terms of toner I'm taking my good ol' Simple Kind to Skin Soothing Facial Toner as it's what I've used for years, and it does the job perfectly. I'm taking a few moisturisers but I do need them all as the sun does dry out my skin, so I end up with oily skin that is dry at the same time, confusing. I've packed my Simple Kind to Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser, my mini No7 Protect and Perfect Night Cream and my mini No7 Protect and Perfect Day Cream as it has SPF 25 and I want to keep my skin protected from the sun.

Treatments

Having super duper oily skin means that I do get my fair share of spots and blackheads so I'm taking as many treatments as possible with me to keep my skin healthy and spot free whilst I'm away. The first item that is a must in my bag is the La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo +. This is just a miracle in a tube and if you want to read my full thoughts on it, I have a review here. I'm also taking my beloved Witch Blemish Stick (review here), a bottle of tea tree oil and the Neutrogena Visibly Clear Spot Treatment.

So there you have it, my 'whittled down' skincare that I'm taking with me to Italy. I'll have already taken it by the time this post goes up though, ah the confusion of scheduled posts.

What's in my Travel Makeup bag?

As some of you may know, on Saturday I'm going away to Italy for a week. Of course this means that I must let you all know what makeup items I'm taking with me, it's only right.

Makeup bag- Primark

Face

For my face I've only packed the bare minimum. For powder I've packed the Maybelline Matte Maker Pressed Powder, for concealer I've packed the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer and to add a bit of a glow to my cheekbones (who doesn't want that) I've packed the MUA Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder.

Eyes/brows

I've tried to pack the bare minimum for my eyes and brows but it's very difficult to choose, any eye makeup obsessive will understand me. To line my eyes I've packed my holy grail (yes I said it, it is my holy grail) Collection Extreme 24hr Felt Tip Liner. I had some difficulty choosing between all of my mascaras (I have far too many) so I ended up deciding on two, the Maybelline Colossal Volum' Express Mascara and the MUA Mega Volume Mascara. To add a bit of colour to my eyes I've chosen to take my Maybelline Colour Tattoo in 'On and On Bronze' as it's really versatile and easy to use. For my brows I'm taking the MUA Intense Colour Eyeliner in 'Rich Brown' and even though it's an eyeliner, I have incredibly dark brows and this is the only pencil that matches, or comes anywhere close for that matter (oh the joys of having dark hair). To set my brows I've taken my MUA Clear Mascara, that isn't so clear anymore. I should probably buy a new one, it looks pretty gross. Finally to curl my little lashes I'm taking my cheap and cheerful Primark Eyelash Curlers as they do the job perfectly.

Lips

This was by far the hardest decision to make. It took me almost half an hour to choose 2 lip products. Knowing me though, by the time this post is up I'll have probably changed my mind again, sigh. The two lip products I've chosen are my MUA Power Pout in 'Runway' and Collection Cream Puff in 'Cotton Candy' (review here).

Brushes

For brushes I've cut it right down, I'm just taking the basics and the ones I will definitely need. For my eyes I'm taking the Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush as it's my favourite brush for blending out cream shadows.  For my face I'm taking my Real Techniques Contour Brush for applying highlighter, my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush for blending in concealer and my Real Techniques Powder Brush for, you guessed it, putting on powder.

As you can see I have tried to cut the amount of makeup I take with me down, but being a beauty junkie it's pretty hard. 

I'll be back again, as usual, on Sunday with 'What's In My Travel Skincare Bag' which will be scheduled (ooh er, how fancy) but I will have WiFi in Italy so I will be able to reply to comments in the evenings. I'll probably be a bit quiet on the social media side of things though.

Collection Cream Puff Lip Creams

There are so many hidden gems in the drugstore that you sometimes come across and just think 'wow'. It's a great moment, a very great moment indeed which is why I am telling you all about these little gems, the Collection Cream Puff Lip Creams. Far too many food names are coming up here, I'm hungry now.

The two shades I have are 'Fairy Cake', a quite orange toned coral pink, and 'Cotton Candy', a blue toned-powder pink. I bought Cotton Candy first and I loved it so much that less than a week later I accidentally found 'Fairy Cake' in my shopping basket. Now that is when you know I love a product, I buy two in the same week. 

 What I really love about the Cream Puffs is that they are matte, and matte is hands down my favourite finish of lip product. Although they are matte, they are not drying in the slightest but in fact they are incredibly moisturising. My lips always feel so soft after wearing these and I don't ever feel like I have snakeskin instead of lips. In terms of lasting power, they last a good 4-5 hours on my lips which I'd say is pretty good going, even after several cups of fruit tea and far too many bourbons. 

A lot of matte products out there can smell plastic-y and horrid, but these smell like their names. Cotton Candy smells of, you guessed it, cotton candy (candy floss) and Fairy Cake, you guessed it again, smells of fairy cakes. 

For £2.99 you really can't go wrong with these. My ONLY gripe is that there is a very limited shade range, and these are the only 2 shades that I actually liked the look of. Indirect to Collection; please bring out more shades (a classic red and a deep berry shade would be lovely).

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend and I'll be back (as usual) on Wednesday with a shiny new post.