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.

Superdrug Detoxifying Dead Sea Mud Mask; Review

You know when you find a product, and you just wonder, 'why have I never found this before?'. Well this little gem is one of those products. 

At least once a week, I love to treat my skin to a good ol' facemask. I picked this facemask up after seeing a few great reviews of it on blogs. I picked it up at the perfect time as my skin was going crazy. Dry patches here, blemishes there, super oily patches everywhere. Before reading Lauryn's review, I was considering splashing out on the clay mask from Origins, but instead I went for this little guy. Clay masks have been raved about by so many bloggers, they're some of the best masks out there for unclogging and deep cleansing the skin. 

I picked this up for £2.59, an absolute bargain! The packaging is so cute and feels quite expensive because of the matte tube. In terms of the smell, you either love it, or you hate it. I personally love it but my mum absolutely hates it. 

When you apply this mask, apart from looking like you've come from another planet, your face tingles slightly. Not a burning tingle, just a 'the facemask is getting to work' tingle. I've noticed that when I have it on, the areas that the impurities and dirt are being drawn out of, stay dark green/brown. I find this strangely fascinating and it just shows that the facemask is doing as promised. 

Superdrug say for you to keep this mask on for 10-15 minutes, or until the mask goes stiff. I like to keep it on for 30 minutes but by the end of those 30 minutes, I can't even move my mouth. My only bug bear with this facemask is that it is really hard to wash off by just splashing water on your face. I tend to use a muslin cloth to remove it as all splashing water onto my face does is partially flood my bathroom.

Once it's been washed off, my face is left a little bit red, and you can see the outlines of where the mask was, but it feels AMAZING. So soft, radiant and I can see that my blemishes have reduced in size, considerably. 

    

I am so happy with this facemask and I will be trying others from the same range as this one has impressed me so much. It literally does everything it says on the tube, and even more!