Make-Up Academy haul - finally!

Well, it's been a while! Such is the hectic and giddy life of someone that teaches other people how to be accountants. Anyway, I have finally managed to have a little play with the Make-Up Academy haul that arrived a couple of weeks ago....... thank you MUA, for allowing me to haul so many shiny, pretty things while only requesting the paltry sum of £18 from my bank account.

Anyway, let's have a look at what we've got.....

Firstly, the Glamour Days eyeshadow palette. Had my eye on this one for a while - after having had a brilliant experience with the buttery, shimmery goodness that was the Heaven and Earth palette, I was looking forward to trying some slightly more "outre" shades but not so much that I was stepping too far out of my comfort zone.....! The pretty purples and blues in this palette seemed ideal, and to top it off there are a couple of nice neutrals in there too. A good one for travelling, methinks.

Top row

Bottom row - there is a sixth shade on there, I promise...... it's just coincidentally the same colour as my arm!

Amongst the haul I also got some liners, a mixture both for lips and eyes. Again, wasn't expecting much from these, but the Intense Colour liners were creamy, pigmented and quite a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, the Intense Glitter ones were a bit hit and miss, but for 75p each (as it worked out after the discount) one cannot really complain, can one? I also got a liquid liner, which so far seems easy to apply and has a fabulous thin brush, but the pigmentation just feels a bit lacking and can apply a little patchy unless you do a couple of coats. Workable though, definitely.

L-R: Intense Colour - Red Drama, Royal Blue; Intense Glitter - Gold Nugget, Silver Glitter, Pink Glitter

Liquid Liner - shade 5

In a slightly different order in this pic, not sure why!!! L-R: Red Drama, Royal Blue, Silver Glitter, Pink Glitter, Gold Nugget, Liquid Liner in Shade 5 (Black)

Next, some single eyeshadows. Unfortunately, buying sight-unseen has been a bit of a gamble in this case, but I seem to have ended up with some decent colours that will make for some fabulous smoke eye looks. The only one that seems to let them down slightly is the black one, as it is more matte than the others is has a slightly chalkier texture and a less potent finish than the others. It'll do nicely for setting the liquid liner, though!

L-R: Shades 3, 11, 12, 15, 30

Same order as above, this time!  :)

Lastly, a bit of a hodge-podge of other random bits and bobs that fell into the online basket - I have this fantastic ability to justify additional purchases if I know I will be getting a discount on the items; and in this case it really made little to no difference seeing as everything is so inexpensive anyway!!!

Top: Lovehearts lip tints; Bottom: Lipsticks in shades 5 and 6, blush in shade 4

L-R: Lipsticks - Shade 5, shade 6; Blush - Shade 4; Lip Tints - Great Lips, Sweet Kiss, Hot Lips

The surprise in this bunch was the blush. Shade 4 looked almost overwhelmingly dark in the pan (in fact, almost the same as Shade 3 which I have already dismissed as making me look too "David Dickinson"), however when swatched, as you can see, it is a lovely gentle shade of subtle coral. It reminds me enormously of NARS Gilda (if anything, the MUA shade lacks the orange intensity of the NARS which, for cack-hands such as myself, is a Very Good Thing), but for a fraction of the price.

I am ever more wowed with the MUA offerings. Although initially I may have been a bit dismissive of the whole "cheapo makeup" thing, thinking it would only appeal to (and benefit) the lowest common denominators of society (snob? Moi?), consider me suitably chastised - I am genuinely impressed with pretty much everything I have come across so far. For the prices, I don't think you can go far wrong and to be honest, even if you do, what's a pound between friends?

MUA is available in various Superdrug stores, and also on their wesbite.

Did anyone else avail themselves of the superb discount.....?

Jen
x

Clinique Chubby Stick Moisturising Lip Colour Balm

Sometimes, I need to wear lipbalm to soothe my flaky, scabby lips. Those are usually the days when I have an urge to wear lipstick, and unfortunately the two are generally mutually exclusive requirements.

Enter: Clinique Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm.

The colour I own is shade 13 – Mighty Mimosa, which is one of the new shades recently added to the range. According to their website, it is “…….a lip treatment with sheer colour that relieves dry, cracked lips and provides immediate moisturisation. The unique pencil-style applicator provides easy to apply sheer soft lip colour and rolls up for ease of use”.

I have been using this fairly regularly for a good couple of months now, and I must say it is fabulous. Nice and moisturising, with a lovely sheer wash of colour to give the lips a more polished look than just using a plain balm. This shade was one I received as a present for my birthday, and to be honest was not a colour I perhaps would have chosen myself, but I’m glad I got the chance to try it. It is a soft, subtle baby pink with a lovely sheen, and translates to a healthy brightening effect on the lips.

I'll say this for Clinique - they do "classy yet modern" packaging very well

Left: bare lips for reference        Right: Chubby Stick in Mighty Mimosa

 

Clinique is a brand which I have neglected somewhat of late. I used to use their 3-step skincare religiously for a while, until I realised that it just wasn’t doing my skin any favours – and I adore their High Impact mascara. But lip products aren’t something I would ever immediately think to buy from Clinique.

These Chubby Sticks are a tad on the expensive side - £16 for what is essentially a tinted lip balm might seem a bit too rich for some people’s blood – but you get a fair amount of product for the money (3 grams, which is a little bit less than a “normal” twist-up lip balm, which are normally about 4g). A little of this goes a long way – and the colour can be built up into a pretty intense shade if you want, although that would kind of defeat the object.

I can see me getting a few more of these – there are some gorgeous shades available in the range (eight new ones have recently been added), and I currently have my eye on Chunky Cherry, which looks like a pretty, sassy, sheer red, and a great way to wear a little pop of colour without going too far outside my comfort zone. Bountiful Blush looks like it would be the perfect MLBB shade.

Chubby Sticks are available directly through the Clinique website (which currently has an offer on, whereby you buy two Chubby Sticks and get a free “chubby coloured pouch”, whatever that is!).

Have you tried these? What do you think?

Jen

X

Lanolips – the start of a beautiful relationship

As a dry skin sufferer of many years, I find that I can (and do) usually do something about the skin issue on my face, but my lips (although just as dry as the rest of my face) get a bit neglected. I tend to buy whatever lip balm is on offer in Boots, and slick a bit onto my lips whenever I remember (usually causing a chain reaction of lip-balm application amongst the ladies in the office!). But I don’t exfoliate them, and I even occasionally succumb to absent-mindedly peeling off the dry skin whenever I am deep in thought (which admittedly, isn’t very often).

So, to summarise; they are dry, cracked, chapped, and also sometimes (due to over enthusiastic peeling) bleeding and scabby. Lovely.

Enter: Lanolips.

I jumped onto the Lanolips bandwagon fairly recently; after having seen rave reviews of the 101 Ointment by several beauty bloggers that I follow religiously. I less-than-enthusiastically hauled my sizeable corse down to my local Boots and, amazingly, they had some of the ointment in stock. While I was there, I noticed that they had some tinted versions too, and ever the sucker for shiny pretty things, I picked up one of these in the colour Apples.

Wow. Just……….. wow.

After only one day of application of the 101 ointment, my lips were smooth, plump and moisturised – a feeling that lasts even after the ointment has long since worn off/soaked in. It’s a bit of a weird application – there is no applicator attached to the tube itself, just a little hole which dispenses this luscious gorgeousness, so it’s a finger-application job. All to the good though, as it could do with a bit of warming up before putting it onto your gob. This stuff is thick.

The tinted version is not quite as plumping and smoothing, but only compared to the original 101 ointment – it still beats all other tinted lip balms hands down.

Me being me, I then got more, with back-ups – including the colours Mulberry and Rose (Mulberry is a limited edition one that I got free when I ordered from Zuneta.com). They are so good, I even felt inspired to send an email to them to thank them, like the gushing, over-emotional basket case I am. I have added Rhubarb and Dark Honey to my wishlist, too.

Lanolips 101 ointment (15g) is currently available from Boots.com for £11.22 (yeah I know – weird price), while the tinted versions (12.5g) are £8.16.

Onto the pics:

L-R: Mulberry, Apples, Rose

My favourite by a country mile is Mulberry (damn you limited editions!) as the cooler tones turn my lips into slightly plummy-coloured kissable unctuousness.

Has anyone else been converted to the ways of the Lanolips ointment? I'd love to hear your opinions.

Jen

x