Huda Beauty Liquid Matte in Bombshell

It's been a little while since I put fingers to keyboard and wrote a blog. Life has been pretty manic, but I thought the Huda Beauty Liquid Matte liquid lipstick would be a great way to jump back into things!

While up in London last weekend I noticed a cheeky new stand in the Harrods beauty hall. Huda Beauty, small in size, but the queue of people sure made up for the lack of floor space devoted to the stand. To be honest, I'm really shocked at quite how small her stand was in the store? I mean, the other products have been a huge success everywhere they have launched, and I see no reason why that wouldn't be the same here in the UK…but that's just my personal opinion.

So anyway after waiting in line for what seemed like forever, it was finally my turn. However, I wasn't actually able to get anywhere near the stand still as it was jam packed so I had to order my lip colour using a little swatch booklet and luckily I already knew the lashes I wanted. The shopping experience wasn't great, so i would highly recommend sitting in the conform of your own homes and ordering directly from cultbeauty.com

On to the product. Let me first give you a little warning before you purchase any of the Huda Beauty Liquid Matte lipsticks…WARNING…if you don't want the rest of your lipstick collection to seem pointless then do not purchase the Huda Beauty range. After just a few uses I'm already so hooked to her Liquid Matte that I just don't know if I can use any other formula!

And here's why. Not only does it seem A-MAZING, the actual formula is so smooth and beautiful. It really is a pleasure to apply this matte lipstick. Unlike other matte lipsticks I've tried, this one isn't that drying and it lasts SO long without flaking or leaving your lips patchy.

It's longevity you ask? Incredible! I applied a layer at 8.30 before jumping into my car to hear to a client meeting, I drank coffee, I drove to another meeting, I had a soft drink and then I had a sandwich for my lunch and the whole time my lip colour stayed in place and looked beautiful. By the end of the day the colour had started to fade a little, but it was still clear I had a lip colour on. I couldn't believe how well it held up! Honestly, I don't know of another brand that can hold this well while looking good and feeling good.

Huda, you have ruined every other brand of liquid lip in the world with your perfect formula.

P.S. they also smell DIVINE! like coconut and holidays :)

DLJ
Xoxo

Juvia's Place : Nubian 2 palette

I swear Nikkie Tutorials literally costs me a fortune in random make up purchases. However, this beautiful palette was on the seemingly 'cost effective' end of the scale!

The Juvia's Place Nubian 2 palette consists of 12 HUGE pans (8 glitter/shimmer and 4 matte) giving you a net wight of 45g, which lets face it, is a lot of product!

On first swatting the palette I was blown away by the glitter/simmer pans, but found that the matte colours didm't seem to have as much pigment. However, once I actually applied it to my eyes, the mattes were also extremely beautiful. All of the colours are creamy and super blendable when on.

Swatch time…as you can see, the glittery / shimmery colours are very bold vs the mattes. I swatches them from left to right, top to bottom.

All in all, you get some pretty impressive colour pay off from these shadows and you get a hell of a lot of product for your money. They are easy to work with and look great on. I would say this would be perfect for someone who is just starting out and wants to get a grip on doing eye looks right up to your pro's like Nikkie and Jaclyn!

Happy blending babes

DLJ

Xoxo

Brow Definer Dupe?

While wandering around my local Boots today, I spotted this little baby in the corner of my eye. Being an Anastasia Beverly Hills lover, I was surprised to see what appeared to be a Brow Definer...in the Soap & Glory range!

Of course, I had to take a closer look and I was quite surprised to see just how similar the ABH Brow Definer and the Soap & Glory Archery Brow Sculpting Crayon & Gel were. At a glance, the only real difference I could see what the fact that the Soap & Glory product comes with a brow gel in the same applicator instead of just a spooly. 

Oh and the other key difference was the price.

ABH Brow Definer : £16
Soap & Glory Archery Brow Sculpting Crayon & Gel : £10

So, £6 isn't a huge difference, but when Boots are doing 'buy 1 get one half price' thats TWO Soap & Glory Archery Brow Sculpting Crayon & Gel's for less than ONE ABH Brow Definer.

The shape of the actual product was literally the exact same for both products: 

And the ingredients don't differ too much (everything in pink is the same and blue is similar. I'm pretty sure the other ingredients are very similar or have the same properties, but I'm not a chemist, so I can't be sure!)

ABH Brow Definer 
Behenic Acid, Mica, Rhus Succedanea Fruit Wax/Cera, Lanolin, Triethylhexanoin, Sucrose Tetrastearate Triacetate, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Sorbitan Sesquiisostearate, Hydrogen Dimethicone, Caprylyl Glycol, Hexylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopherol, May Contain: (+/-) Iron Oxides (Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499), Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Ferric Ferrocyanide (Ci 77510).
 

Soap & Glory Archery Brow Sculpting Crayon & Gel 
Hydrogenated soybean oil, Hydrogenated coco-glycerides, Hydrogenated vegetable oil, Zinc stearate, Stearic acid, Copernicia cerifera (Carnauba) wax, Polyglyceryl-2 triisostearate, Tocopherol, Caprylyl glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Ascorbyl palmitate, Hexylene glycol, [+/- (May contain) Mica, CI 77891 (Titanium dioxide), CI 77499 (Iron oxides), CI 77492 (Iron oxides), CI 77491 (Iron oxides)]. 

But what about the colour? Well these is a slightly noticeable difference when I swatch the two colours next to each other, it doesn’t appear to be huge, but colour can make a massive difference when you’re doing your brows. Below I swatches ABH Taupe with S&G Brown & Out. 

I'll leave you to be the judge!

DLJ

Xoxo

Chanel Perfection Lumière Foundation

I already have a few Chanel products in my make up collection so I was really excited about trying out the Chanel Perfection Lumière foundation. I have a very oily t-zone and then dry patches on my chin and the rest of my face is pretty dehydrated. So seriously combination skin! Because of this I'm always cautious of purchasing a new foundation without testing it. I was colour matched in store and took a little sashet home to test. 

Whenever I'm about to try a new foundation I always ask to be given the foundation with the most amount of coverage. Even at 25 I still get break outs and have some scaring from past years where I've picked at my skin so I try to stick to a foundation that will attempt to hind my red patches (not because there is anything wrong with spots, but because I feel that when I can see them, other people are starring at them!)

First thoughts :

I could tell straight away that the coverage wasn't going to be enough for me which was fustrating given that I had asked for a full coverage foundation. None the less, I continued with my application in the hope that I could built up to the coverage that I required. I really didn't like the way the foundation was settling on my skin and within just a few hours I started to look patchy, my worst nightmare!! 

I applied the foundation with both a brush and a beauty blended and the application on the day when I used the beauty blended was defiantly better, but not enough that I would want to use this foundation again. 

The colour had heavy pink undertones and I felt like my make up was much more obvious on my skin, which is not good especially if the foundation is going to go patchy. 

I felt like the foundation broke down quicker on the day that I applied it using my brush and stayed intact a little longer on the day that I used the beauty blender. All in all, I was so disappointed with this foundation. I have a few other beauty and make I products from Chanel and have been really impressed with them, but this foundation is defiantly not a keeper. 

DLJ

Xoxo

Bioderma Hydrabio H2O

I've been holding on to this little bottle for some time now. I was really feel torn about testing the Bioderma Hydrabio H2O. On one hand, I already use the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water and seriously love it, but on the other hand, I love a new product!

So after a few months of having this little bottle sat in my 'to try' pile of products, I decided enough is enough. I can't stand it looking at me waiting to be used! This little bottle lasted me just over a week and a half. 

Bioderma claim that their Hydrabio H2O is a 'cleansing and make-up removing water that respects the facility of sensitive skin and stimulates moisture' and states it is the ONLY dermatological micelles water that is 'perfectly compatible with the skin'.

So the first thing I tested? How well it actually removes my make up. I tested this on my normal 'everyday' face of make-up which includes foundation, powder, blusher, mascara, brow product and mascara.

Unless you only wear a super light foundation or BB cream etc, this Bioderma product is not removing your make up. I mean I'll give it some credit, it took off a lot of my actual face products, but didn't budge any of my eye make up and I had to rub pretty hard to shift my brow products too. However, that being said, when I use the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water, use it AFTER I have washed my face and before I apply my moisturiser. With this in mind, for the rest of the week, I simple switched the Bioderma Hydrabio H2O in the place of my Garniner Miceller Cleansing Water, only seems fair. 

After using the Bioderma Hydrabio H2O for just over a week, morning and night in place of my Garniner, these were my thoughts...

Although the Bioderma Hydrabio H2O smells absolutely incredible (the smell to me, is just like how clean fresh air is on a summers day, yeh imagine that every day on your face lol) it wasn't enough for me to want to stop using my Garniner Miceller Cleansing Water.

Price was, the Bioderma Hydrabio H2O comes in two different sizes 100ml (£5.00) and 250ml (£10.50) vs the Garniner Miceller Cleansing Water 400ml (£4.99). Which is quite a difference.

Personally, I didn't feel that my skin benefited at all from switching over to the Bioderma Hydrabio H2O and so for that reason that I won't be switching from Garniner Miceller Cleansing Water.

DLJ

Xoxo 

Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip in Bumble

The first things I want to get off my chest with Colourpop is ... SORT OUT POSTAGE TO THE UK!!! This brand is all over my Instagram newsfeed ALL the time and yet they are still not doing international postage, what is that all about Colourpop?! I mean really, come on.

Anyway, now that little rant is over, lets move on to the product. I was desperate to get my hands one of these lip shades as they have literally rocketed recently. I was a little bit apprehensive to order a lip colour on line without trying a swatch first in store as I am so pale and have to be really careful with my choice of lip colours or I look a little bit dead. However, I feel like I've seen pretty much every Ultra Matte Lip colour on every skin type through the power of Instagram and because Colourpop have the most amazing swatches on their website…

I decided on Bumble as it is a warm terracotta and I find that my skin tone suits these colourings. Having used a few matte lip colours in the past, I was aware that the Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip may leave my lips feeling dried out and crumbly. However, I was really pleasantly surprised with the formula. 

I have tried a few matte lip colours and I have to say, none of them have been this creamy! Normally, I find that when you wear a matte lip colour, you can feel that your wearing a lip colour and I hate that. The Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip on the other hand sits so nicely so I don't feel it at all. It also lasts for AGES. I wore this out to dinner a few weeks ago and I wasn't left with patchy bits of lippy here and there (although I did get a little bit of transfer from my bottom lip onto my chin but then I was eating a huge burger, so I mean what can you expect?!)

So we know the formula is amazing, but what about the price? You'd expect to pay a fortune for this given that it's so good right? Well you're wrong. These beautiful lip Ultra Matte Lip colours are just $6 (around £4) each!! What is there not to like?! Other than the fact that you can't ship to the UK....Oh Colourpop it was all going so well until I remembered that huge bummer. So if you're off to the state or have someone who will order for you and send them over the 'pond', do it!!

DLJ

Xoxo

Urban Decay Electric Palette

This palette had been on my wish list for a good year or so before I finally took the plunge. I had been eyeing up these beautiful bold colours but always deciding not to order as I was worried I would end up never using the colours. Then, around a month ago, JustJodes advertised the palette as brand new on her depop with a lovely little discount vs the high street value. I um'ed and ah'ed as to if I should buy it or not, then with my phone in one hand and a glass of white wine in another, I decided to just go for it! And ohhhh myyyy am I glad I did!

I LOVE this palette so much, it may even be my favourite palette?! Can you believe I almost missed out on what may now be my favourite palette of a little fear of not using the colours?? Insanity. 

First things first, can we please take a moment to appreciate the packaging?! Isn't it so beautiful? And the thing I really like is that you don't loose the beautiful design once you take the palette out of the box. I really dislike it when companies design really beautiful packaging for the outside of the product then when you go inside the product it's is plain and boring. The theme packaging runs throughout with this product and this really pleases my OCD. 

Once your past the beautiful packaging you will find 10 insanely pigmented and creamy colours. Across the 10 shades are three different textures : matte, satin & shimmer , all of which are actually blendable. 

And the swatches live up to your expectations! 

                

                 (Two different lights) 

And how do they look on you ask? Oh my, they are even better! Hands down my favourite palette EVER! And surprisingly transferable to every day looks 

DLJ 

Xoxo