Saturday 31 March 2012

No7 Quick Cover Blemish Stick


Hello! So I'm on Easter break now so hopefully I should be posting more, I'm not quite used to the whole regular blogging thing just yet! In case anybody is interested I went watching Noah and the Whale at the Apollo last night. I wasn't meant to be going but my friend who had a ticket couldn't go as she was ill so she gave me her ticket which was nice. Sadly I got all caught up in the fun of it so I don't have any pictures, but if anyone wants to see some I can try and steal some off someone I went with? 

Anyway I'm babbling aren't I?


I bought my first one of these a few years ago with a number seven voucher because it was the cheapest thing that they sold! ( I didn't know about the brushes then) I know how bad that sounds but I wasn't into makeup much at the time and also didn't really have any money. It's £8 regular price, but whenever I get a voucher I make sure that I pick one up as they become really cheap!
This one's new, I think it's my fourth one? I'm not sure! I loveeeee this, I don't tend to use it very much (if at all) in winter as my skin is dry in winter. But when summer comes and my skin gets oily, this is a must-have! It's specially formulated for spots and oily skin which is why it's a great thing to have. I tried using this on my under eyes and it's useless, but it isn't actually meant for this anyway :)

All in all the only problem I have with his is that they're isn't a version for dry skin and living in England, where it's cold, my skin is dry most of the year. Oh! The colour I have is 02 extra fair ( there isn't an 01) The colour is really great for super pale people like me, however I don't think there's a very good selection of darker colours which is a downside too.

I don't think I have much more to say on this other than it's great, oh and the coverage is good too, you can buy it here or from most Boots.
What's your favourite concealer?
This is all, 
Gemmm xxx

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Rimmel Lating Finish Foundation

Hello gorgeous! I use this product everyday for reasons I shall outline in a minute, I'm going to break up this review a little more than normal as I feel the aspects of this vary a lot and it will be easier to read that way. But first! I know that this particular product is discontinued, I get mine from BnM bargains and it's also available on line. However rather than discontinue this Rimmel released a newer version, the 25 Hour *here*. I've done some research and apparently the differences are extremely minimal!
Coverage/ general look
The coverage of this is medium, I wouldn't say it was anything to shout about but it's certainly nothing to complain about either. I would say the general look of this is better than average for a drugstore foundation, but notthing to rave about!
Colour
The colour range here is abysmal! There are six shades all in all, four of which are different tones for medium skin! This is the lightest colour and you can see below that it's actually pretty dark. I'm paler than NW15 and could not wear this heavily or apply this by stippling.

Lasting
This foundation really does last a long time! I'm not sure about 16 hours but it's definitely the longest lasting drugstore foundation I've ever found, by quite a long way really. This is the reason I wear it everyday as I am still in college and often go to a friends house straight afterwards. I find that most foundations can't hack that time span! I even have some higher end samples that although they are nicer in general, they don't last quite as long!

So there you are, depending on what you want from a foundation this might be amazing for you or rubbish. Also, the price in BnM of this is only £2.49 (I think) which is obviously a great price! Even at the normal £6.99 I still think it's worth it.
What's you everyday foundation?
This is all, 
Gemmm xxx

Thursday 22 March 2012

Extremely quick post!


This is probably what twitter is for, but I'm not very good with keeping up with twitter so here goes!
Since starting this blog I've found I don't know whether it's 'blush' or 'blusher'! I know how weird that might sound but I genuinely don't know which is correct!

If anybody has any idea then please let me know because I feel a bit daft! Also to make up for no pictures, here is a picture of an adorable puppy!


Please let me know! 
Gemmm xxx

ELF Natural Radiance Blusher


 Bonjour!

How are you today? I seriously need to start tidying my room, however I enjoy procrastinating and I thought a blog post would be productive, so here we are!

So this is just my little take on the Natural Radiance ELF blushers. This one is in the colour glow, which looks orange on the website, but I'd say these pictures are more true to the colour. You can see from the packaging that I've had this a while, since around august I think? I suppose that's not that long actually. Anyway I'm babbling.
This blush is actually surprisingly good, it's a pretty colour as shown below. The lasting power isn't immense, but it's certainly on parr with most mid-high street blushers. I define mid-high street as the likes of Rimmel, 17, Maybelline ect.


 It will probably put a lot of people off that there's quite a bit of shimmer in this. Definitely not like, twelve year old girl glitter, but it's certainly there! The shimmer is however gold which is much more flattering than silver/white.

There's got to be a catch? And yes there is, the product is tiny! Which would of course be forgivable if you only need a tiny bit and it was significantly pigmented. But it's probably just a little less pigmented than the average high street blusher. I wanted to show how small it is so I compared it to a British penny for reference.


 You couldn't even fit two pennies across. I realise the reference is probably not helpful to those of you oversees and I apologise. A penny is just a little bit smaller than a 5 cent in Euros, I also believe it's about the same size as a dime, but I haven't seen a dime so I could be wrong!( If anyone knows any other size equvilants let me know!) Hopefully one of these will give you this picture of how small it is. Obviously this isn't an incredible set back when the product is so cheap but I thought I would let you know!
 To conclude, you can see from the pictures that I haven't used very much of this. It's not that I dislike this product, as I do think it's nice and don't regret buying it. However I own blushes that I prefer so this tends to take a back seat. 
Have you tried this? What's your favourite blush? Let me know!
This is all,
Gemmm xxx


















Sunday 18 March 2012

Collection 2000 Cream Puff


So this is a product that I had basically heard nothing about, I hadn't even taken any notice of it instore. That is until it popped up on this blog, I can't find the exact post but basically it's meant to be moisturising and very pretty so I thought I would give it a go.
I'm so glad that I bought this! It only costs £2.99 so  it doesn't break the bank. It's a really obscure product, but it a good way! It's like a lovely cream and it just feels very pleasant to wear. It's very light and glides on like a dream. I have the colour Fairycake and the colour is actually a really nice pink, just a little brighter than in the tube.

I apologise but I seem to have forgotten to take a swatch picture of this, but you could always try one on your hand next time you near a Collection 2000 counter. I fully recommend buying this, it can be worn on it's own or with another lipstick so add a bit more colour. Oh! And the best thing of all? It smells like cake!

Have you tried this? Let me know!
This is all, 
Gemmm xxx

Saturday 17 March 2012

Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner

This is possibly the most hyped high street product of the past year so when I bought this i was expecting great things! *here*

I have a real love hate relationship with this product. Althought saying that, you can see how much I've used, I use it about half the time and I love having a lined eye as I think it looks super pretty. 

So why do I have such an odd relationship with this?
I feel like this product can't make up it's mind on whether to be good or not. Some days it will slip right of, be smudgy and I will be really annoyed. Whereas other days it stays on completely perfectly and looks amazing! I feel like whenever I tell someone it's great, it starts being bad, and whenever I tell someone it's bad it starts being great!
I've figured out where I've been going wrong though, basically applying this to naked eyelids is a bad idea! It just slips off. I don't wear eyeshadow everyday, so when I wear this I first set the eyelid with a translucent powder. 
I've got applying this down to a fine art, I find it so easy to do now and I was a train wreck when I first started! I've used endless amounts of brushes to apply this and the one I use depends purely on what's close and what mood I'm in. I don't have the brush that comes with it as they had all been nicked out the packet! So I managed to get a discount and got 10% off so it was £5.40. Oh, whilst I remember I'd recomend buying this from Asda instead of boots as it's on £6!

Is this a good eyeliner? When applied properly there's no doubt that it is a good eyeliner, it can last all day and is pretty dark too.
Is it worth the hype? In my opinion that's a no. I'm constructing a birthday list at the moment and I'm thinking of investing in a Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner!
Okay, so I have no idea why as I'm almost certian this isn't disconinued but I can't find a link online to this, sorry guys!
Would anyone like a tutorial on how I apply this? Had anybody tried a Bobbi Brown eyeliner? Let me know!
This is all, 
Gemmm xxx

Friday 16 March 2012

Leopard Print Nail Art

I apologise for my absence this week, I haven't had access to a camera which makes the blogging thing difficult. So hopefully I should be able to get a good few posts up this weekend to make up for it, plus my first ever nail post! I really should be more consistent rather than doing nothing for a week and three posts in a day.
Anyway, I did my nails the other day and thought that they were photo worthy. I used three coats of Models Own Pink Punch. This is a lovely polish but it's quite hard to photograph so it tends to look different between cameras. This is literally the fastest drying nail varnish I have ever owned, I think it's because it's quite thin. By the time I had done both hands, the first nail was ready for a second coat!
Please bear in mind that these nails are two days old at this point and I think they still look fresh and nice. I did the leopard print using my Models Own WAH nail art pen, I've tried cheaper pens but this is by far the best around.
I'd heard a lot of good things about this before I bought it and I can pretty honestly say that it's worth the hype. Don't you love it when a product lives up to your expectations!
These are the nails close up in a slightly better light to show the colour better. They were so easy to do, it's worth trying because I honestly thought they would be a disaster, but I'm quite happy with them. Oh, I almost forgot, I topped the nails with a coat of 17 clear nail varnish (which for some reason I can't find on the website), it's only £2.99 and is just a great top coat!

Let me know if you would like to see a tutorial on this, or any other nail art ideas for me to try,
This is all,
Gemmm xxx

Sunday 11 March 2012

A Few Wish List Items

It isn't my birthday for more than two months yet, but I like to think making wish lists early is organised right? I distinctly remember me and my brother making Christmas lists on boxing day! So these are just a few ( nothing close to all) makeup items I'd like to try out that are actually a plausible price to receive as gifts.
17 Peep Show Mascara/ Max Factor Lasting Lip Tint/ TopShop Nail Art Pen
Models Own Glitter Polishes/ Maybelline Dream Soft Blush/ Bobbi Brown Gel liner

Just to be clear I haven't tried any of these products, they are just things I have heard great things about. Well actually I have the black glitter Models Own nail varnish (Mixed Up) and I adore it *here*. I have also tried on some of the Bobbi Brown eyeliner in Selfridges, which is why I am now lusting after it!
What are you wish list items? Let me know
This is all, 
Gemmm xxx

Friday 9 March 2012

ELF Professional Eye Shadow Brush

I put off this review for a while purely because I thought I had already done it! But a quick look at my blog and I realised that I hadn't so here it is.
I have tried a few brushes from the £1.50 (UK) range and sadly I haven't been bowled over by any, that is however with the exception of this one. Now it's no secret to anyone who spends any time reading/watching blogs that this is considered to be the best brush available for the price. Well, I'm happy to inform you that in my humble opinion this is actually worth the hype.
It's just a wonderfully dense brush that couldn't be more perfect for packing on colour, I use it pretty much every time I do eye makeup and it hasn't missed a beat. It doesn't even shed, unlike certain other ELF brushes. *cough* concealer brush *cough*. This has been washed a lot and it's just as perfect as when it was first bought. But of course the best thing of all is that it is a mere £1.50 here in England, it's even cheaper else where in the world.
Have you tried this brush, is it worth the hype? Let me know!
This is all,
Gemmm xxx

Thursday 8 March 2012

Beautylish

So I got directed to this incredible website yesterday, it's a whole website dedicated to blogging/vlogging on beauty. I'm not sure how popular it is but I hadn't heard of it since yesterday so I thought it might be good to let people know about it.



These are just a very small sample of the pictures on the site, it's great if you want to something a bit different and need some inspiration.
Let me know what you think of this site and if you've used it before

This is all,
Gemmm xxx

P.S I think I'm in love with the nails on the middle left

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Body Shop Love Gloss


Body Shop are really famous for the Body Butters ( of which I own about ten), however the makeup really isn't spoken about very much. I had my Makeup done there (for free!) and at the time the deal was buy any two makeup items and receive a  free Mascara ( worth £10), so I buckled and chose this gloss and a foundation brush. This shade is definitely still sold by Body Shop ( at least it was as of last week ), but for some reason they don't have it on the website, but should you want to look for other colours then 'clicky'.
I love both he packaging and applicator of this product, it looks very high end and it's one of those products that you would be proud to have in your makeup bag. As for the look of the product on the lips, it looks beautiful, very shimmery but not cheap looking, it's also a very flattering shade that would compliment most skin tones, it's not very pigmented at all, but I don't think it's supposed to be.
I feel like I'm insulting the product by using this picture as it doesn't even come close to showing how pretty the product is. Just for clarification the gold colour is an eyeliner swatch for a different review. The shimmery pink in the middle is this lip gloss.
I'm so disappointed with the picture as I feel like the look of the product is it's main redeeming feature. It feels very sticky on the lips and you can even feel the little specks of glitter when you pres your lips together, which isn't awfully pleasant. However if you leave your lips alone it will last as long as you would expect a £10 lip gloss to last.

All in all, I do love the look of this whenever I wear it, but saying that I don't wear it very often because a) It's too expensive for everyday wear and b) I have to be in a mood where the feel of it won't bother me. I should really point out that this is my most expensive lip product to date and it's sadly, despite the prettiness it is not my favourite. In hindsight I really wish I had bought the Blusher ( Shade Petal), which looks terrifying in the pan but was actually beautiful.
Please do let me know if there are any products you'd like me to review,
This is all,
Gemmm xxx



Tuesday 6 March 2012

Ancient Collection 2000 Mini Palettes

So who remembers when Collection 2000 packaging looked like this? It's certainly been a while, which really put me off buying this little trio at first as it's just such an old product. I found this in Poundworld and it came with a little nail varnish as well.So I figured that old doesn't necessarily mean bad and that even if it was awful for a pound I might as well give it a go.


I was shocked at how much I like this! As you can see the lighter colours are a tiny bit shimmery, but certainly not too much for everyday wear. The darker colour is quite matte which I prefer as I only really use dark colours in my crease or outer-v.

(Apologies for the random blue line the camera decided to add in)
I forgot to mention that this palette is in Sin City. Anyway, you can see that the colours are well pigmented, particularly the centre colour, they also last really well too. This is the perfect palette for just throwing in your bag before a sleepover and knowing the next day you can still do something pretty with your eye makeup if you want to. 
I actually have two of these as Poundworld have started selling these in sets of two, and I wanted the other trio that came with it, so I ended up with a second one. If you can manage to snap these up at Poundworld then you'll only really be paying 50p for them, which sounds really great! But it does kind of occur to me that even before this was discontinued, it was probably only around £3 anyway, so the saving is good but not incredible.
If you can't find this in your local Poundworls( they have like, loads in mine ) then you can buy it from Amazon here for £1.82, or alternatively there are quite a lot of people selling these on eBay.
Please do let me know if there are any products you'd like me to review,

This is all,
Gemmm xxx