Sunday 23 December 2012

Yesterday, I went to a Christmas meal at my grandma's wearing the playsuit above.
It comes in wine red or black, however I believe both are now sold out (boo, I wanted the red). Although it is an extortionate amount of money for such a small piece, I do love how it looks.
My complaints would be about the back of the piece, which I have not shown here. It has the most awkward way of being put on and taken off, including two separate clasps on the mid and high back (which I am awful at explaining) as well as a zip on the shorts. This trio makes it almost impossible to go to the toilet/get dressed/get undressed on your own (as if normal playsuits weren't hair enough)! I'm considering sewing some elastic into the back so I can slip it on and off instead.

Oh well, beauty is pain and all that.

Clara xx

Sunday 9 September 2012

Giveaway on my youtube channel!

I finally reached 1000 subscribers on my youtube channel and I'm doing a giveaway to celebrate :D



To some people 1000 subscribers isn't a lot but I think it's a crazy amount, that's just the amount who have accounts and are subscribed, there are still people who watch me without accounts/being subscribed! And 1000 people is so many, like I can't imagine 1000 individual people being sat behind their computer screens, watching a couple of my videos and actually wanting to see more on a regular basis. Of course every so often I get a nasty comment or whatever, but I get so, so many people saying positive things or even saying I'm their favourite youtuber (which is insane!) The majority of my subscribers are so sweet and I just wanted to give them the opportunity to get something in return to them being so lovely and supporting me.
I hope it all goes to plan and that whoever wins replies/is an actual viewer of mine/can give me their address and that the package arrives to them safely. I don't think I've ever been so worried about sending something in the post.

Anyway, if you don't know me and are randomly seeing this, hello! If you'd like to enter I'd appreciate you watching a couple of my videos and actually WANTING to be subscribed to me rather than just do it to win a prize, simply because I paid for everything myself, put a lot of time and effort into choosing the prizes and really want someone who actually enjoys and supports my videos to win.

Clara xx


Tuesday 14 August 2012

MUA Undressed Palette Vs. Urban Decay Naked Palette

Recently I've been looking up products and things to feature in my giveaway on my youtube channel in the near future. As a result of this I found the MUA Undressed Palette, which was cheap (£3 at the time of purchase, £4 usually, bought here) which I've seen great reviews on so decided to try myself as well as get one to giveaway. 

It wasn't until I had used the palette one or two times when I realised the similarity between Shade 3 and Naked by UD. I then continued to see the similarity between Shade 1 and Virgin as well as Shade 2 and Sin before I decided to get my UD Naked Palette out to have a look.

Side by side I realise just how similar the colours are:

I didn't really know how to feel about this, the fact the colours are basically identical and even in the same order, except one palette is £36, the other £4. Although I might add, the UDNP also comes with a Good Karma Shadow Brush (originally it came with a double ended 24/7 liner pencil) and a mini Primer Potion. The MUA Undressed Palette comes with a double ended sponge brush.

Before I had even noticed the similarity between the two, I noticed how creamy and well pigmented the MUA Undressed Palette is. I decided to do swatches to see if there was any significant difference:

I'd firstly like to apologise for the quality of the photo, I understand it's not the clearest of all but it's the best I could do.

Side by side and doing the swatches straight after each other, I definitely feel like the UDNP colours are more pigmented, slightly creamier and easier to swatch, however that doesn't mean the MUAUP is much below it. You can easily build up the colours and for £32 difference that's not something I mind doing.
The colours are also pretty much the same, perhaps Shade 6 is a little yellower than Half Baked, and Shade 11 is a bit bluer than Creep, but from what I can tell they are basically the same palette in difference containers.

Don't get me wrong, I don't regret buying the Naked Palette, I bought mine well over a year ago, have loved it ever since and have used it almost daily. I just feel like 'drugstore' standards are getting so high recently that I don't know if I'll need to purchase something high end again.

You can purchase the MUA Undressed Palette here
And the Urban Decay Naked Palette here.

Clara xx

Saturday 10 March 2012

Color trend kiss 'n' go lipstick swatches and short review

I saw in the Avon Catalogue that they had a "buy one get two free" offer on these color trend lipsticks, resulting in me buying six for £7 (£3.50 for one). Since buying these I think they have discontinued berry pink, so I do apologise. I'm not a massive lipstick wearer but I still really love them.
Firstly the packaging, nothing spectacular, quite cheap looking, plain and simple.

In these arm swatches below, I have only swiped once however I have found that these lipsticks are easily buildable, which you will see in my lip swatches.
I find the formula in all of these are really nice, all moisturising and not dry at all.

Swatches on arm:


Swatches on lips:







Clara xx


Saturday 28 January 2012

Rimmel London Wake Me Up Foundation First Impressions/Review

 
So I saw this foundation on an advert on TV the other day and thought it looked interesting, then today I went into Tesco and it was there for £5.99 when the normal price will be £7.99 so I decided to get it.
I'm not a massive foundation fan, I don't like the feeling of stuff all over my face, my skin isn't too bad anyway so I don't really need it day-to-day and my face quite sensitive so if I use the wrong products my face is spot city. Nonetheless, I don't have many foundations and I wanted to experiment a bit.

Packaging
Firstly the packaging: I like it. I think it looks sleek, kind of like a perfume bottle, I like how the glass goes in and I think 30ml is a good amount. The bright orange lid with the signature Rimmel London crown has a slight glitter at certain angles (which you can kind of see in the first picture) and reminds me of citrus fruits, which wakes me up (and matches the name ha so cheesy.)
 It has a pump, which I like. I know a lot of foundations are ones you pour, and personally I'm very messy and I know that I would just waste loads and get it everywhere if I had a pour one. This way you can get a good size amount out neatly. My only concern with this would be when I reach near the end and I might be wasting product by not being able to get it out - but I may just twist the pump off completely if I get to that point and I'm desperate.

Application

To apply the foundation I used by Sigma F84 Angled Top Kabuki and went into the dents of my face (such as the sides of my nose) with my Sigma P82 Precision Round brush.
For the purpose of this review, I didn't use concealer so I could see how much coverage it has on its own - I think it's light to medium coverage, more medium. I'm using the colour 200 Soft Beige, which is slightly too dark for me but with summer coming up I think it's a good shade (and it was the lightest shade in the shop.) I also noticed, both when I put a bit on my arm in the shop and applied it on my face, the foundation almost changes colour to suit your skin tone. It's not a feature it says it has, but I feel like when I put it on I was a bit like "woah" but after a bit of blending it looked much better. I like how it applies and I like the consistency. It's not runny at all but it's not too thick. One of the first things I noticed when I put it on my skin was the smell, it has a light fragrance, which I like, but you also have to be careful when applying fragrance products to the skin, especially the face. One blended, the smell goes away. It claims to wake up your skin and give it a "radiant glow and a flawless natural-looking finish". Now, I applied this at 3 in the afternoon so I was already pretty awake, but I definitely think it looks natural and glowy. I'm not so sure about flawless however I think you could easily build it up to have a higher coverage, and it did a pretty good job given that I haven't applied concealer.
I personally have oily skin and avoid "dewy" finishes, but I do think this looks "glowy" and feels light and moisturising on my skin.
To set the foundation I used my Rimmel London Stay Matte Pressed Powder with my Sigma F30 Large Powder brush. I applied this lightly just to set it, rather than give more coverage.
In the picture above, the picture with flash is actually more accurate to the colour the foundation actually is, however this foundation is SPF 15, meaning you have to be careful around flash photography.
I do like that it has SPF in it, especially for everyday use because the face on your skin is delicate and sensitive however if you were to use this somewhere with flash photography it can make your face appear white. This isn't so much specific to the foundation itself, just general knowledge which should be considered.


Overall, from what I can tell so far, I like this foundation. It feels light and moisturising on my skin and gives a nice natural finish.
Once trying this out a few times I'll come back to this review and write an end verdict.

Clara xx

Tuesday 24 January 2012

H&M Vanity Fair Eyeshadows Review

So I've been eyeing H&M make-up for quite some time but never really found a reason to buy it, especially because a lot of it is bright colours and I mostly wear neutrals. However looking in the January sales I saw that this palette had gone down from £6 to £3 so I thought, go on then!
I'd firstly like to apologise for the fact the pictures of the palette are not from when it was completely untouched as I couldn't find my camera when I first bought it however I have hardly made a dent and it doesn't make much of a difference.

So this is what it looks like and the first thing I notice are the shell like patterns in the shadows. I think this is a really nice, simple effect which distract you from the kind of cheap looking packaging.
It comes with two double ended sponge brushes, which personally I won't be using, but I think are useful for people first coming into make-up, especially with the cheap price.
 I think the colour range itself is good, it has a couple of neutrals and a couple of colours, all quite subtle and with a hint of glitter/shimmer.
Without Flash
With Flash
Swatches!
Without flash
With flash

I think the colours themselves have good colour pay off overall, especially the dark navy (#9). 
The worst colour pay offs I would say are the white (#1) and the lilac (#10) although they are both light colours. I think I can live with the white being not overly pigmented though, as I would use this as a highlight in my inner corner of the eye and below my brow bone to bright a subtle amount of light to my eyes.
The formulation is good but I think the pinker shades (#5, #6 and #10) are a bit more powdery than the rest, nothing a bit of blending couldn't beat though.
My favourites are probably #4, which is a lovely orangey gold, #7, which is a beautiful sea green and #8 which is a bright ocean blue.
For everyday wear though, #1, #2 and #3 are all great.

Overall I think that this is a good palette for £3-£6.
I do think I will be trying other H&M make-up products.

Clara xx