My Go-To Drugstore Eye Palette

I have been using this palette for a while now, and it's definitely one of my makeup products that I've been wanting to review for a long time. Every time I use it I imagine what I'm going to say in my post. Blogger life, am I right?

It's common knowledge in the beauty blog/vlog world that the Iconic palettes by Makeup Revolution are dupes for the Naked palettes by Urban Decay. This one, Iconic 3, is said to be a dupe for Naked 3. As a blonde gal with semi-pale skin, pink and nude eye shades suit me well so instead of shelling out nearly £40 for Naked 3, I decided to go for the much less costly Iconic 3 as the colours are oh-so similar.

This palette features 12 pink/nude/bronze colours in a clear and black plastic case, with rose-gold lettering and a double-sided sponge 'brush'... That nobody really ever uses.

As you can see in the swatches above, the colours are pigmented for their low price - very impressive! However, I wouldn't say they're as pigmented (once blended out) as some higher-end shadows I've tried. The matte colours are particularly pigmented and I only really reach for the shimmer shades in this palette if I'm looking for a little glow in the inner corner of my eye, for example. The colours are blendable, however if I've packed a lot of product on my eyelid I do get some fallout beneath my eye. There are enough colours to allow you to create a whole eye look with only this palette, which is another reason I love it.

You can pretty much tell by the photos which colours have been loved the most but I'll give you a brief run-down of how I use this palette anyway: firstly, I apply the far left shade all over the lid (over eye-primer) up to the brow, then the 4th shade in from the left all over the lid. I then blend the 7th shade in from the right in the crease to deepen the look, then bring it down to the lower lashline. To finish the shadow look, I mix the 2nd with the 5th in from left and pack it on the inner corner of the eye for some brightening shimmer.

I adore the shades in this eyeshadow palette and for such a small price (£4 from Superdrug), you can't go wrong at all. I'd definitely recommend this palette if you want to experiment with some looks before bumping up to the Naked 3 if you can afford it, but unfortunately I can't compare the 2 as I'm yet to try out Naked 3.

What Makeup Revolution products would you recommend?

Libby

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New In From Zoella Beauty: Jelly and Gelato

Here we are again folks, talking about the Queen of the Internet's beauty brand; but this time it's her brand new range 'Jelly and Gelato'. After being openly impressed with Zoë's 'Sweet Inspirations' products and watching her introduce these beautifully unique products on MoreZoella, I knew I had to try the Jelly and Gelato range. Also, when you look up to somebody so much and appreciate everything that they do obviously you're going to want to try the things that they create.

Once again Zoë has absolutely smashed it with the idea of this range from the packaging and colours to the names and scent. I firstly want to talk about the packaging because I just love it. Young, playful, pastel colours with a pop of metallic gold - 100% aesthetically-pleasing. I particularly adore the Shower Shake with the little straw poking out of the top of the bottle, and the fact that the Body Pudding packaging looks like an ice cream tub. As with other Zoella Beauty ranges, there is a kind of 'no pun intended' vibe shining through with the names of these products... I mean ' Shower Shake', 'Shower Sauce' and 'Gelat'Eau'. LOVE IT. Like Meg Says said in her 'Unboxing' YouTube video, it's like making an ice cream sundae on your body. 

The scent of the range is infused with extracts of elderflower and pomegranate and I would definitely say these are noticeable scents in the products, even though I couldn't quite put my finger on what the range smelt like when I first bought the products... But then I read this description and I was like 'ahhh yes'. I think of fruity sweets when I smell these products but I feel like floral notes are also present. I'm not normally a sweet-scent type of person but I absolutely LOVE this one.

Gelat'Eau Body Mist

This bottle is super pretty and Summery thanks to the pastel peach and blue shades and it looks amazing on my fragrance table next to the Sweet Inspirations body mist. As with all the other Zoella Beauty body mists, it is in a glass bottle but this one is opaque. The bottle is perfect handbag size and - don't judge me when you read this - I love the nozzle on the bottle as it gives a really powerful spray of the liquid and it covers a large surface area when it lands on the area you've sprayed it on (lol). I have been using this body mist every day since I bought it and I only have to re-spray a couple of times throughout the day. So worth the money.

Body Pudding

This ice-cream-resembling product is a body cream containing little pink beads (that remind me of ice-cream sprinkles) that melt into your skin when applied and it's just delightful. The cream is so light, fresh, fluffy and fast-absorbent and VERY moisturising at the same time; and it leaves you with super-duuuuper soft skin; literally like a baby's bottom. If you're anything like myself and hate that sticky feeling that most body creams leave you with, this one is perfect for you because, as I mentioned before, it sinks straight into the skin. The scent lingers for a while and the tub is bound to last you a while because you really don't need to apply a lot to your body for it to work. I honestly can't recommend this product enough.

Cream Scrub

I opened the lid of this body scrub and was instantly surprised because it looks like a giant orange lip balm, or a mango sorbet as Zoë said in her video when introducing the range. I used this cream scrub in the shower and if I'm honest I was a teeny bit disappointed because it just didn't do much. It is a formula that I don't think I've ever come across before and it left me feeling quite frustrated because I was sort of just trying to scrub it into my skin to make it do something (such as exfoliate) - it's quite powerless. It's very difficult to describe but I guess you'll have to try it out yourself (I still love you Zoë!!!). However I carried on using it as a normal body wash which worked a treat and left my skin smelling wondrous.

Shower Sauce

I love the name of this body wash because it actually does look like strawberry or raspberry ice cream sauce. I used it in the shower and it works like a regular shower gel; lathers up beautifully and smells delightful. I would recommend to use this with a bath lily to foam the product up, apply it to your legs and then shave.

Shower Shake

And last but by no means least, this shower product is nothing like anything I've ever used before. When squirted out of the bottle, this moisturising body wash looks like a normal moisturising body lotion, so I just knew it was going to work. It is a cute peachy-yellow colour and marvellous for smothering all over your body to ensure your skin feels nourished once out of the shower (it actually did moisturise my skin very well!). It is best smoothed on your body with your hands, as I tried to apply it with my bath lily in attempt to foam the product up to shave my legs, but it just got lost in the centre of the bath lily. Try it out, you'll know what I mean. This scent lasted a long time on my body post-shower and it combines well with the Body Pudding.

Once again, I am blown away by Zoë and her team's ideas and creations, and I will continue to support the brand because it's unique and just absolutely wonderful.

What is your favourite product from the Jelly & Gelato range? And who is as excited as I am for the Zoella Beauty Christmas range?

Libby
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My Favourite Summer Scents Under £30

Summer is absolutely my favourite time of year; closely followed by Spring. Everything changes for the Summer-time - the clothes we wear, the activities we take part in, our mood, and for many of us, our beauty products. In this post I'm going to be talking about this, specifically: scents - my favourite Summer scents... That are also not too expensive.

I have chosen a mixture of sweet, fruity, musky and floral fragrances from 4 different brands. I don't think I have a favourite as they are all so different in many ways, from the type of smell to their intensity to lasting power.

Victoria's Secret Coconut Passion Body Mist 250ml (prices vary, but around £9.)

This is a fragrance mist so it's light, unlike an EDT. Its main scent is coconut but I can definitely smell notes of vanilla which is my favourite to wear therefore I would say I do wear this mist the most out of all the fragrances featured in this post. I love wearing this mist on holiday as it goes with the whole sun-cream, coconut body lotion smell and it's light (as previously mentioned) and summery.

The Body Shop Fuji Green Tea Eau De Cologne 100ml (£20)

I do wear this EDC a lot, but I've currently got the bottle practically up my nose wondering why I don't wear it every. Single. Day. It's nothing like any scent I've ever come across... obviously it's from the Most Unique Scents Award Winner --> The Body Shop. This fragrance is so potent but I really struggle to describe what it actually smells like. It's not very feminine but it's sophisticated, clean, floral, lemony... It's just great. Although the most costly of the 5 products mentioned, it's the most long-lasting therefore definitely worth it.

The Body Shop Fijian Water Lotus Eau De Toilette 100ml (£15)

I won't go into detail about this one because I wrote about it in my first ever blog post 'The Body Shop Products You Need To Try'. Again, it's a very unique, natural and refreshing fragrance.

Next Paradise Island Body Mist

I'm going to apologise right now because after planning this blog post and taking all the photographs, I've realised that this body mist has been discontinued *cries*. I still love it though so I'm going to talk about it anyway. It's a very exotic scent; on the back of the bottle it says it has notes of mango, pineapple, sandalwood, musk, coconut water and guava. I love the nozzle on this bottle because it gives out a big refreshing spray so I love spraying it on my chest and shoulders on a really hot day. Useful huh.

Zara Woman Fruity EDT 100ml (bought from Zara as a 2-pack with Zara Woman Oriental for around £25.)

The style of this bottle is very aesthetically pleasing; it's simplistic and modern and looks fabulous on my dressing table and the liquid inside is a beautiful pink colour. Somebody told me that this scent is a dupe for Prada Candy - it smells sweet and, as you can probably tell from the name of the product, fruity. It also has notes of rose and a little muskiness. It's a beautifully feminine scent and lasts a long time and I would definitely recommend it.

I would love to hear what your go-to Summer scents are! Chat with me in the comments.

Libby

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Tanya Burr Cosmetics: 'Birthday Suit' Eye Palette

Tanya Burr is another one of my favourite bloggers. I watch her YouTube videos and read her blog posts and they are the ultimate inspo for my life. Recently she uploaded a vlog which included a snippet of her doing her makeup, partly using one of her eye palettes. This reminded me of the fact that I haven't yet checked out any products from her beauty line Tanya Burr Cosmetics. A few days later I went into my local Superdrug and had a nose through the TBC products they still had in stock, and this eyeshadow palette was the one that caught my eye as it's so up my street - the beautiful peachy-pink packaging and enchanting selection of matte and shimmer colours just screamed my name and I knew I had to try it out.

 With nothing less expected from a beauty range by Tanya, the packaging is absolutely delightful. The silver border fits well with the peach cover and the heart-shaped mirror inside is a decent side and adds to the overall feminine look of the palette. I like the way the colours have been named after ingredients/food items, perhaps due to their similarity to baked goods and chocolate. The soft-pink ribbon on the side is also useful for opening the palette (very well thought out). This packaging almost reminds me of a little palette I would've used as a young girl.

This palette definitely fits well into the Soft Luxe Collection as its shades are natural (hence the name 'Birthday Suit') but also so pigmented that they might as well be from MAC, and the appearance of the palette is that of class and high price. I would describe these shades as useful for Spring/Summer because of the peach and champagne hues but Soft Truffle can take it into Winter and Autumn.  These 4 shades go so well together, and I can tell they were carefully selected because if you have this palette, you don't need assistance from any other colours to complete a full eyeshadow look. There's even a very helpful mini-tutorial by Tanya on the bottom of the case, which guides you on where/how to apply the shades if you're not sure where to start. Like I said before, these colours are so pigmented (especially the mattes), buildable (apply a little to your brush then keep adding more colours for a more dramatic look) and very easy to blend. I can't believe this palette is only £5.99!

As you can see in these pictures, I opted for a natural look but you can build up Soft Truffle and Cocoa Sugar if you want to use the palette for a more dramatic look.

How to get this eyeshadow look:

1) Sweep Toast across your lid (this is your base shade).

2) Darken the look by blending Soft Truffle into your crease.

3) Bring Soft Truffle down to your lower lashline.

4) Add shimmer by blending Marzipan from where Toast ends, up to your browbone.

I finished this look off with Soap & Glory Supercat Liquid Eyeliner (and obvs mascara) but you can finish it off however you like: Soft Truffle on your upper lashline, brown pencil liner, or just apply mascara after Step 4 for a super natural eye.

Have you tried any of Tanya's beauty range? What are your faves? I think I'm going to try the nail polishes next.

Libby

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Reading Festival: Dos and Don'ts

It's almost June, which means Festival Season is fast approaching (if not already begun), so I thought I'd share with you a few tips that enhanced my Reading Festival experience last year. Most of these tips are general to all festivals, so whatever one you are attending, this post is definitely worth a read.

DO: Watch new bands. My friends and I discovered The Wombats for the very first time at Reading and we're now obsessed with them. This leads on to my next tip...

DO: Download the app. The Reading Fest app helped us so much over the weekend and I think it was free, compared to £15 for the guide lanyard. Make sure you check which acts clash with each other so you can plan ahead, and which new artists you'd like to watch if you feel like getting into some new music.

DON'T: Pack heavy. This is something I will be doing much different the next time I attend a festival. Chances are, you'll be walking for at least 45 minutes from where you park or get dropped off to where you decide to camp, so you want to pack light. I'd recommend a pair of trainers, wellies, 1 pair of shorts, 2 t-shirts, 1 playsuit, 1 jumper and 1 rain-jacket. As well as underwear and your beauty bits/toiletries (I didn't take any makeup but it's personal preference). A complete regret of ours was packing lots of food because by the end of the weekend we were fed up of eating dry food that we felt we had to eat because we brought it with us. Also it was such a hassle to carry to the campsite. There's a Tesco Extra about a 25 minute walk away so I'd recommend just getting all your food there once you've set up your tent. 

DO: Take toilet roll. We took a pack of 20 and ended up giving them to strangers because not a lot of people thought of it, funnily enough. And the campsite shop sold out fairly quickly. I don't know what we would've done without it.

DO: Make friends with surrounding campers. We had a little community of friends around us and we would hang out at night if we were at our tents.

DO: Take battery-powered fairy lights and hang them up in your tent. This spread light around our tent instead of using a torch which just lit up things in one direction. Lanterns are a good idea too but, let's face it, fairy lights are prettier.

DO: Take a pillow. It's often forgotten but definitely necessary.

DO: Take insect repellent for your tent.

DON'T: Bother with a portable charger. You can buy one there for around £20 and when it runs out you can take it back and they give you a fully charged one. You can do this as many times as you like, and at the end of the weekend it's yours to take home and re-use

DO: Practice putting your tent up before you go. We practised a few days beforehand and it took about 2 hours, compared to only about half an hour when we got there. In the dark. And the pouring rain. Imagine if we hadn't practised.

DO: Take and apply sun-cream.

I can honestly say that Reading Festival was one of the best experiences of my life, and I can't wait to go again in the future. I would totally recommend this festival to everybody, even if you're only drawn to a few acts in the line-up, as the music was only a fraction of the fun.

Are you going to any festivals this year or have been in the past? What are your tips?

Libby

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MAC Pro Longwear Paint Pot

I am super excited to write this post not only because I love this product so much but also because I just purchased a new camera so my pictures look 1000000x cooler, in my opinion.

I haven't explored MAC in depth - I've only ever bought 3 products from them, but each of these I deeply love so I feel intrigued about the rest of their makeup range.

I purchased this eye primer about 2 years ago and used it on-and-off, but for the past year or so I've applied it almost every day as an eyeshadow primer. This is the only eye primer I've ever used but I'm so scared to try a new one just because it is SO GOOD and so I'll be a tough critic towards future eye primers that come my way.

I apply it with my finger (I've tried using a brush and it just makes the bristles stick together and doesn't blend well) all over my lid and set it with a nude/pastel yellow shadow, then apply my chosen shadow look for the day on top. The shade that I bought is Painterly which is such a pleasant shade for an eyeshadow base as I've tried it with so many different shadow colours (brown, orange, pink, nude) and it just goes so well with all of them. I sometimes even wear it on its own for a subtle colour to my eye if I want to go for a 'natural, no makeup, makeup' look. 

I'm all for anything that increases the staying-power of my makeup and this producct definitely does this. It keeps my eye makeup in place for at least 8 hours, and even after 10 hours it's still clinging on. I did trial this against using no primer at all (just a nude base shadow) and using concealer as primer, and neither of these methods worked as well. I also noticed that shadows applied on top of the Paint Pot were more pigmented than applied over just a nude powdered shadow, or concealer.

Not even the price of this MAC product makes me go bleurgh, as for £16 from MAC's official website, it will last you a hefty amount of time.

Can you recommend any amazing eyeshadow primers that might measure up to this one?

P.S. If any of you reading this has a Canon DSLR and is willing to give advice and tips on the buttons/settings, I would greatly appreciate it if you contacted me (info on 'Contact' page). Thanks!

Libby

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Zoella Beauty: Sweet Inspirations

If you're reading this, chances are you already know who Zoella is. If you don't, she's a beauty YouTuber and blogger who now has her own beauty and lifestyle product range. I've been watching Zoë's videos and reading her blog for about 4 years now and I love her taste in makeup/beauty and her attitude towards life.

I'm going to be honest with you; when I first saw the release of her Classic Collection I thought it was more suitable for her younger audience as I think it is based around fruity and young scents and therefore I wasn't sure whether to buy it myself or not. Then the update to the Classic Collection came along which I started to warm to a bit more, and now we have the Sweet Inspirations Collection which I think is the most Zoë out of all the collections, which made me want to buy it because I consider Zoë and myself quite similar in terms of makeup, skincare and general beauty product choice. I love Zoë and I'm so proud of her for releasing this amazing range of products.

I only bought 2 out of the 8 products from this collection as I wanted to try them out first before going all out but I love them so much I will definitely be going back to get the rest... And to re-purchase these ones once they run out. Hehe.

Firstly, let's talk about the packaging. Words that have been circulating in blogger reviews and Zoë's videos herself are 'French pâtisserie', '1920s' and 'sweetshop decor' and these are words I would definitely use to describe the beautiful packaging. The 'Bath Latte' is designed like a milk bottle, with a metallic gold lid and divine pastel blue and metallic gold wrapping and the product inside even looks like milk. It all fits together so perfectly and I can already tell this collection was so well thought out. 'Le Fizz' is a fizz-bar that is clearly inspired by a chocolate bar. The packaging is also metallic gold with some pastel pink and the actual bar comes in little cubes like a bar of chocolate.

I would describe the main scent of these products as sweet, milky and even slightly musky. The fizz-bar is described as 'macaron scented' and it is definitely sweeter than the Bath Latte which is 'enriched with nourishing sweet almond, cacao and honey'. You can wear this scent all year-round because even though it fits perfectly into Summer thanks to its sweetness and its similarity to a moisturiser you would use on holiday, it's also slightly musky - perfect for Winter. You definitely have to go to your nearest Superdrug to have a sniff of this because my adjectives don't do the scent justice. 

To see if the actual use of these products was as beautiful as their appearance, I ran a bath and tried them out. When the bath had finished running, I turned off the tap and put 3 fizz cubes in (the recommendation is 4 but it comes in rows of 3 and I didn't want to be left with an odd amount at the end). They fizzed a lot for their size, and left the water smelling splendid. These would be perfect for a calming pamper night when you don't want any huge bubbles, just a nice-smelling, relaxing bath. However, I did want some bubbles and was desperate to try out the Bath Latte so I went ahead and turned the tap back on and poured some under the running water and the result was divine: big, fluffly, nourishing bubbles that left my skin feeling super soft. When I got out of the bath, dried myself off and got my smoooooth body into some PJs, the scent lingered for a while which is great as it shows you're definitely getting your money's worth.

These products are so up my street and I honestly can't recommend them enough. They're perfect for a pamper night or a gift for your best friend, and they're not pricey at all (Bath Latte, £6; Le Fizz, £5.50). I can tell Zoë had a lot of input into their creation as they're so her - elegant, girly, sweet and beautiful and I'm so excited to return to Superdrug soon to spend my pennies on more Zoella Beauty products and also see what else they release in the future!

What's your favourite Zoella Beauty product? 

Libby

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