Stila In The Light Palette

Now then, you're probably thinking 'where the heck have you been it's been ages' etc etc. In response to that little voice in your head, I've been on a bit of a blogging break and I took some unplanned time off to rest and recuperate. It feels great to be back though. During the short period of time I've been away it was my birthday and for my birthday I was very kindly treated to the Stila In The Light Eyeshadow Palette *drools*. It is quite possibly the most beautiful palette I've ever seen and after a whole year of lusting after it, I finally got it. I know I know, I'm insanely late onto the bandwagon, so late in fact I think the bandwagon may have left and is now potentially on the moon.

As with most Stila products, the packaging is very minimalistic. It's constructed of (very) sturdy cardboard and is held closed by a strong magnet which is great as I find that some eyeshadow palettes have very weak magnets holding them shut which then results in eyeshadow getting everywhere, Barry M I'm pointing the finger at you. Inside there is a large mirror and a little quote by Sarah Lucero which I think is a lovely touch. It's not everyday your eyeshadow palette has a cute little quote inside. It also comes with a little book filled with eye looks you can create with the shadows in this palette.

I did a bad thing and used this palette before photographing it, ooops.

The Stila In The Light Palette features 10, 0.49oz (in non number terms, that is quite big) eyeshadows that you can use wet or dry. Very unlike the Urban Decay Palettes that focus on either warm or cool toned eyeshadows, this palette provides the best of both worlds. If you didn't start singing the Hannah Montana song there you're lying. Another upside to this palette is that there are 3 different finishes, frost, glitter and matte. What more could you want? Or need?

L-R; Bare, Kitten, Bliss, Sunset, Sandstone.

L-R; Bubbly, Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky, Ebony.

As I'm sure you can see from the above swatches, all the eyeshadows in this palette are insanely pigmented. I cannot fault a single shade. If you wish, you can intensify the colour pay-off even more by using the shadows wet. The eyeshadows are buttery, soft, and they blend like an absolute dream. I did find there to be a minuscule amount of product fallout when I applied the glitter shadows to my eyes but it was nothing major and nothing that a cotton bud or two can't fix. On my rather oily eyelids, without a primer these eyeshadows last a good 5-6 hours before they begin to crease but with a primer I can get a good 8 hours wear out of them. 

The palette also comes with a full sized Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Damsel, a deep, matte brown shade. The eyeliner is retractable so there is no need to have to scrabble about in your makeup drawers for a sharpener every time you need to use it, which I think is great. It smudges out very easily and once it sets, it sets and it's there to stay until you wash it off. I can get a good 8 hours wear out of this on my top lashline and around 5 hours on my waterline. I have insanely watery eyes so this is very very impressive for me. I'm usually lucky to get an hours wear out of eyeliners, any other watery eyed girls out there find this too? 

This is hands down one of the nicest palettes I have ever come across and now that I have this, I don't feel the need to buy any of the Urban Decay Naked palettes at all. Yes I really just said that. It's perfect for every occasion; work/school, parties, meals, basically just everything. The pigmentation gets a good old 5 stars from me and I genuinely could not recommend this palette any more if I tried. This palette is only £25 and considering the eyeliner is worth £19 on it's own, this is a palette that you can't say no too. It's available from Feel Unique, Stila (obviously) and Asos. 

I will be back to my usual posting times as of today so I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you all on Wednesday.

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.

My Daily Makeup

Well hello again. As you can probably already see, today's post is going to be about my daily makeup. This post will be quite long so grab yourself a cup of tea or whatever, and get comfy.

To start off I do my concealer. The concealer I am currently using is the ever famous Collection Lasting Perfection concealer.

I apologise for the state of the tube, all the writing has rubbed off.

I do find that this concealer can cling to dry patches and make them more noticeable and even if I do moisturise, it does still cling. If you have very dry skin, I would avoid this concealer like the plague. 

Please comment below if there are any concealers which give the same amount of coverage as this, but are a bit more hydrating. 

I use this concealer on blemishes and occasionally under my eyes and it does a great job of concealing the blemishes but I do find it to be a bit too thick and cakey for underneath my eyes. 

I have this concealer in Shade 2 'Light'. It is an almost perfect match but my only niggle is that it is rather pink toned, I don't know if that's just me or not?

This concealer has a doe foot applicator which some people may find unhygenic because you're dabbing it onto blemishes and under your eyes but I think it works just fine and I haven't experienced any problems at all.

Next I do my eyeliner. The eyeliner I use is Collection Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Liner. I love this eyeliner so much. It's waterproof, stays on all day, comes off really easily and never smudges.

As the name suggests, it is a felt tip liner. I prefer this type of eyeliner as I feel as though you have a lot more control over the thickness of the line etc. 

This eyeliner is incredibly pigmented and is super black and glossy, exactly how I like liquid liner to be. I'd recommend this to anyone that wishes to start using liquid eyeliner as it is easy to use and affordable.

Next, while waiting for my eyeliner to completely dry (even though it is fast drying, I like to be sure), I do my eyebrows. I use an eye shadow from the MUA Undress Me Too palette as it is a perfect colour match to my brows.

I use the shade 'Lavish' which is an ashy brown sort of colour. It's not the most pigmented but it does the job fine. I apply this to my brows using an angled brush.

To set my brows I use my MUA Clear Mascara.

This is perfect for setting your brows as it doesn't leave a white flaky film (as some clear mascara's have done for me in the past) and it's super duper cheap at only £1. This keeps my brows in place all day and is definitely my new 'go to' brow gel.

Once I've done my brows I move onto my eyelashes. Firstly I curl them using my Superdrug Eyelash Curlers.

  

These were actually a 2 minute purchase as I needed a new pair and I had a bus to catch in 5 minutes so I ran into Superdrug and grabbed these. These do the job and curl your lashes nicely but I will be looking into a better pair for the future as there are many others in the market. I would however recommend these to anyone who is just starting out with makeup because they are cheap, and do a good job.

After curling my lashes I then apply mascara to both my top and bottom lashes. This past week I have been using my new Scandal Eyes Flex mascara that I featured in my 'Makeup Haul' post last week.

I have been absolutely loving this mascara. It makes my lashes look absolutely huge without making them clumpy or stiff. The brush is massive but delivers such incredible results. Look out for a full review of this mascara coming soon.

When I've finished my eyes, I then move on to my lips. I always apply a lip balm before applying lipstick as I like to make sure my lips are always hydrated, even if it is a hydrating lipstick. At the moment I have been using my Burts Bee's Beeswax Lip Balm.

This lip balm is a lovely creamy consistency and it sort of melts onto your lips. It smells incredible, a nice minty smell and when it's on your lips, you can feel it tingling. I have a strong feeling that this will be a staple item in my makeup bag this winter.

Over the top of my lip balm I apply a lipstick. The lip colour I choose to wear usually depends on what sort of mood I'm in, but this past week I've been swapping between 2.

The first one I've been wearing is my Rimmel Colour Rush Colour Balm in the shade 'On Fire'. This is another new purchase that I have been absolutely loving. 

I just absolutely love this shade and I think I will continue to love it all year round as I feel as though it is an 'all seasons' lip colour. These are so moisturizing and so pigmented and I just can't express my love for them. They also smell AH-MAZING. Watch out for a full review coming soon.

The other lip colour I have been swapping my Rimmel Colour Rush Colour Balm with is my Kiko Smart Lipstick in Shade 905 'Coral Red'. 

I love this lipstick. It's so creamy and pigmented and it doesn't dry out your lips at all. 

This colour is a light orangey-red with gold glitter through it. It looks so nice on the lips and out of the few Kiko lipsticks I have, this one is definitely my favourite. It is also very natural on the lips and is not too over the top.

Finally to finish my whole face off, I powder using my Rimmel Stay Matte Powder. This is yet again another new purchase, but I still haven't made up my mind on what I think of this. It definitely doesn't keep me matte all day, 4 hours max. The hunt for the perfect mattifying powder continues. If anyone has any suggestions on a good mattifying powder that WILL keep me matte all day, please leave a comment below.

I have this in Shade '001 Transparent' as I do not wish for any colour pay off, just something to mattify my skin.   

Now, that is my whole face of makeup finished. A lot of you may be wondering why I don't wear foundation, truth is, I just feel like I don't need to wear it so that is why I leave it out. Also I do wear more makeup than this for special events etc but this is just my daily makeup that I wear to school.

I really hope that this post has been helpful and may encourage you to try some new products.