Sunday 22 May 2011

NOTD ft Elf Matte Finisher Nail Polish

I love matte nail varnish. Unfortunately though they are very hard to come across. Revlon have a few but even those are hard to find. That's why I decided to buy a matte top coat, and with the Elf one being only £1.50 (from www.eyeslipsface.co.uk) there's no excuse not to give it a go! You use this as a top coat, and it transforms a regular glossy nail varnish into a matte finish nail varnish.

Below are some pictures of the nail varnish combination I'm wearing today, using the Elf Matte Finisher Nail Polish as a top coat.

P2 Color Victim Nail Polish in 290 Call Me! (Two Coats)

Elf Matte Finisher Nail Polish (One Coat)

Sally Hansen Miracle Nail Thickener (Used as a base coat - one coat)


I really like the effect this product gives, and it is a much cheaper alternative than buying lots of individual matte nail varnishes.

Do you have this product or any other matte top coat products? What do you think of matte nail varnishes in general?

Thanks for reading!

I'm So Cheap.

I think a lot of the time when we read magazines or watch adverts we are given the impression that the more we spend on beauty products, the better. However, this, in my experience at least, is certainly not always the case.

The majority of my makeup and beauty products are from chemists (drugstores) or inexpensive websites. I do have a few high end / department store products, namely EsteƩ Lauder Double Wear foundation, (which I do love), and my NARS Sheer Glow foundation, (which I do not love, and it smells a little bit like bacon flavoured crisps to me, which is odd). Some MAC, Urban Decay and Benefit.

I certainly can not afford to be buying lots of high end expensive products, and I'm sure a lot of you can't either. And I am here to tell you we don't need to! There are so many fabulous inexpensive products for us to try. And the great thing about spending less, especially if you've never tried it before, is that it isn't a massive waste of money if it isn't the product for you!

So here are my top ten inexpensive products:

1. Baby Wipes

Now these can be found pretty much anywhere that sells beauty products, including supermarkets. They are really cheap, depending on the brand. The one's I'm currently using are Boots Fragrance Free Sensitive Wipes and they were less than £1 for 72 wipes. I bought the sensitive ones because I do have very sensitive skin, I have however used 'normal' baby wipes and these work great for me too. I just think if they are ok for babies, they must be ok for us too! I use these every night to remove my makeup and I love them. I find that quite often with face washes or cleansers my skin can react badly to them but baby wipes make my skin feel clean and they don't make me break out. These ones do say not to use them on the eye area, however I do sometimes use baby wipes to remove my eye makeup too when I'm feeling lazy and can't be bothered to use a separate eye makeup remover. I have very sensitive eyes and I've never had any problems but it's up to you if you want to risk it. You do have to rub a bit more than you would with an actual eye makeup remover though. There are obviously good and bad baby wipes. I've bought some before which were two for £1 from a pound shop and they were awful, really dry and scratchy so now I just use them to clean my hands when I'm putting my makeup on. They were only 50p each so hardly a waste of money!

2. Elf Healthy Glow Bronzing Powder in Luminance
As you can see from this picture, I love this product as I've hit pan ( I bought this in November of last year). There are four different shades, Sun Kissed, Warm Tan, Luminance and Matte Bronze. Luminance is the palest of the four. The colours will suit a wide range of skin tones, but maybe not particularly dark skin. The one I have is a really shimmery, pale golden bronzer and I like to apply this with a big fluffy brush all over my face, building it up for more golden shimmer if its night-time. This was £1.50 ( I know!). Elf (www.eyeslipsface.co.uk) is a brilliant website to check out for inexpensive makeup, I love it. It definitely can be a bit hit and miss but with the products being so affordable, if you get a miss hopefully you won't be too upset about it. They have a whole range of products for £1.50 each, and some more 'expensive' lines (by expensive I'm talking £3.50). Also if you like their Facebook page you'll find out when they have special offers on, which is very regularly, check it out!

3. Rimmel Match Perfection Skin Tone Adapting Concealer 2-in-1 Concealer and Highlighter (Ivory)
This is my very favourite concealer for under my eyes, ever! £5.99 from Boots, I thought I'd got mine from Superdrug but I can't find it on their website. They do sell Rimmel products though and they can quite often be a bit cheaper than Boots so check your local Superdrug to see if they sell this product. Rimmel only make this product in three shades: Ivory, Classic Beige and Soft Beige, but as the title suggests this product is supposed to adapt to your specific skin tone. I doubt this would work for dark skin though. I use Ivory because I do have quite light skin anyway but also I like the concealer under my eyes to be lighter than a concealer on my face as it just brightens things up and makes you look more awake. You don't need a lot of this product for it to do it's job, and because of that it doesn't crease or get into the fine lines under the eyes. Love it!

4. L'Oreal 6 Hour Glam Shine Gloss Brilliance in Oriental Fuschia
This is a gorgeous highly pigmented non-sticky lipgloss, and it really does last a long time, it almost stains the lips. I love it. This particular colour is a deep shimmery pink. I actually got mine free when I spent over a certain amount on L'Oreal products at Boots a few months ago. Under normal circumstances this is £8.69 from Boots and Superdrug. Looking at the L'Oreal website this currently comes in 20 shades.

5. Jordana Eye Primer/Base
cherryculture.com for $1.99, BUT the cheapest shipping, as far as I can see is $10.56. So maybe wait until you have a lot of things you want to order before using this website. I've never used it myself so I don't know a whole lot about it, this information is just from me looking at the website now. There may well be other places to order it from, do your research, or befriend someone in America who can send it to you! Back to the performance of the product. It is really creamy and thick, and gives a fabulous base to my eyeshadow, just as good as UDPP which is a lot more expensive at £13.05 currently at Debenhams. My eyeshadow does crease a little still, in this warmer weather, but it did that with the UDPP, and I do have oily lids.

6. Maybelline Dream Mousse Concealer (Natural)

Just as the Rimmel concealer above is my favourite concealer for under my eyes this is my favourite for my face. I am practically completely out of this and will definitely be re-purchasing it. I just searched for this on both the Boots and the Superdrug website and it's not there! Please don't tell me this has been discontinued! :( I have emailed Maybelline to ask them so I'll add a note to this post when I find out! (I asked a member of staff in Superdrug yesterday and she said she's pretty sure it has been discontinued, so annoying! I've now had an email back from Maybelline and they have confirmed this, they recommended the Dream Touch concealer instead). It's a fab concealer, really easy to blend and gives great coverage. According to the Maybelline website this comes in four shades: Nude beige, Natural, Sand and Rose beige. Again, no colours suitable for dark skin.

7. Elf Brightening Eye Colour Quad (Drama)
Another Elf product! This is another £1.50 product too. These quads come in 18 different varieties. I also have an Elf 32 eyeshadow palette. Like I said above, a lot of Elf's products are hit and miss and this applies to their eyeshadows too. However I would say the majority of the shadows I've tried have been good. They are not the most pigmented ever (compared with Urban Decay for example), but they are nice, especially for such a good price! They have a wide colour range too. I use the matte white from this quad every day as a highlight on my brow bone. It's perfect for me.

8. Accessorize Lip Gloss (Scandal)
Accessorize brought out their makeup range last year I believe and it's sold in Superdrug. This lip gloss is £3 and there are eight shades according to the Superdrug website. I love everything about this product, the packaging is gorgeous, it smells and tastes like butterscotch (yum!), and this particular shade, Scandal, is lovely. It looks like quite a scary hot pink but on the lips it's really wearable and pretty, and not sticky.

9. NYC Sky Rise Lengthening Mascara (Carbon)
NYC products are found at Superdug in the UK which is where I bought this mascara. However looking on their website now it's not there, what's going on! It is on NYC's own website at $1.99. Again I will email Coty (who own NYC) and ask them if it's been discontinued in the UK and add the info to this post when I find out. (Coty advised this product is available from selected Superdrug shops, I also looked in my local Superdrug today and saw it so maybe it's just not available online). Anywho, I love this mascara. When it comes to mascara I definitely prefer length to thickness. I like a thin brush rather than a thick brush. So depending on how you like your mascara's will depend on how you like this one. It has a long thin wand and brush, and really does lengthen and separate the lashes.

10. Maybelline Super Stay 24 Hour foundation (Ivory)
I bought this at either Boots or Superdug, I can't quite remember. As I can't see it on the Superdrug website I'm guessing it was Boots. It's £9.19 from the Boots website and according to the Maybelline website it comes in eight shades, quite a decent range, but again maybe nothing suitable for darker skin. I really like this foundation because it gives me decent coverage without it being too heavy or cakey, and has quite a natural finish. I do sometimes mix this with my EsteĆ© Lauder Double Wear foundation in Desert Beige if I want some extra coverage, and I usually apply it using my Japonesque stippling brush (I will be doing a post on my favourite makeup brushes soon).

These are just ten of a lot of inexpensive products which I love.

Let me know your favourite inexpensive / drugstore products, and thanks for reading!

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Work FOTD - Featuring NYC and P2

Hi Peeps!

Hope you're all having a smashing week! I know I haven't written a blog post in forever but I really want to get back into it. So, I thought I'd ease myself in with a quick post about the makeup I wore to work today!

(Contain yourselves, I know it's pretty exciting!)

Quick side note, my x on my keyboard is sticking, which is weird....

Anywho... back to my FOTD (that stands for face of the day, if you didn't already know!). I always find it interesting to know what makeup people wear day to day, to work etc, so thought maybe some of you might find it interesting too! Whether it be out of pure nosy-ness (is that a word?) or to get some inspiration, I hope you enjoy!

The photos aren't the best quality but I'm hoping to invest in a camera that focuses soon so the quality should improve, bear with me!


This is the NYC Metro Quartet in 815A 'The Best of Broadway'. I used the bottom right shade all over my lid, the far left shade on the outer half of my lid and in the crease, and the top right shade in the outer corner just to deepen it up and add some more dimension. These shadows aren't the most pigmented ever but they are pigmented enough, if that makes sense! Great for a neutral look and for work, hence why I chose to wear them today! NYC is a pretty inexpensive brand, I believe I bought this at Superdrug. Checking on Superdrug's website now, these are currently £2.99 reduced from £4.09 so get yours quick if you want one extra cheap!







(Do you like my attractive blue/grey carpet background here? Stylish I know...)
Ok, so this is what I used on my lower waterline. This is the Milani Liquif'eye Metallic Eye Liner Pencil in Black and it is the best eyeliner ever! I am in love with this product at the moment and have been wearing it pretty much every day since I got it. In fact I didn't wear any black eyeliner on Monday this week and I felt like I looked really weird! I'm just so used to wearing it now that it's become a necessity! This is the creamiest and most pigmented liner I've ever tried, way better than the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Zero, which is just ok to me, but some people love. It is quite smudgy though (the Milani, in case anyone's confused at this point) and can transfer but I can put up with that when it's just so darn black, love it! I was actually sent this by a friend of mine who lives in America. I have seen very few Milani products in the UK so I'm not sure where or if us Brits can get one of these. Sorry!


These are the two blushers I used. The top one is the 2True Cheek 'n' Lip Tint, it doesn't appear to have a shade name or number, it just says 'Rose tinted stain for lips and cheeks'. When I first bought this product I did not like it. However I was simply using it wrong. It comes with a brush applicator attached to the lid (like a nail varnish), and I simply dotted the product onto my cheeks with the brush and then proceeded to try and blend it with my fingers. Because this is a stain it dried pretty fast, too fast to apply it using this method, so I was left with spotty, blotchy cheeks, never a good look. I now know the best way to work with this is to put the lid with the brush to one side, put my finger over the bottle opening, and tip! You then have a good amount of product on your finger and can then go ahead and apply this to the cheeks! I used about three 'tips', and used a kind of patting motion to blend it in. I didn't rub it in as I didn't want to rub away my foundation! You will get stained fingers applying it in this way but it washed off pretty easily. As a result of this method I now love this product, it's a gorgeous colour and it will last all day, even with my oily skin. (£1.99 from Superdrug).


The second blush I used was a powder blush from Elf called 'Glow'. I just applied this on top with a blush brush. (Apparently this is a good dupe for NARS Orgasm, I've never tried that so I couldn't confirm or deny, this is £1.50 from www.eyelipsface.co.uk).



P2 Ko Lipstick swatch


Next Pour Femme Couture Moisturising Lip Gloss (top), and P2 Ko Lipstick (bottom)







These are the items I used on my lips! P2 lipstick in Ko (the 'o' in Ko actually has an umlaut over it but I don't know how to type one of those!). P2 is a German brand and this was sent to me by a friend of mine in Germany, I'm pretty sure they don't sell these products in any other country. If you can get your hands on them though I would highly recommend them, they are some of the creamiest lipsticks, evah! (I can spell, I was just saying it in a southern accent, obvs...). Highly pigmented, and really moisturising, I love these lipsticks.

The lipgloss was given to me one Christmas as a gift set of smellies, it's from Next and is a very light shimmery pink.

I applied both of these products with my fingers as the lipstick is a bit too full on for work when applied straight from the tube, I also didn't want to get lipstick on my lipgloss applicator so I applied that with my fingers too (just to the centre of my lips to create the illusion of fuller lips).




And this is the finished look!

Hope you found this interesting/helpful/informative? Let me know what you think of the completed look and/or any of the products I used, and thanks for reading! :)

PS Check out my YouTube channel for a video of me creating this makeup look, coming soon! (www.youtube.com/librakitten16)