Payday Pickings!

Ah Payday!

As a typical 22 year old female I am guilty of living payday like a queen and spending the following 30 days in complete squalor but I think everybody my age feels that when the wages come in they really deserve a little splurge on themselves and as of late I have not splurged. 

So last payday I was going through to Hamilton for a night out and was with my friend Melissa when she decided to go to Superdrug and get her eyebrows tinted for the occasion. 

Naturally whilst she was doing that I ended up browsing and came back laden down with a whole load of stuff but for this post I'm going to focus predominantly on what I got from Make Up Revolution.  

Personally I love Make Up Revolution, I know there's a lot of debate about the number of products they produce that are similar to those by other brands, for example they have their own version of the too faced chocolate palette, but for the price I really like the quality of what you're getting.

I know there are many people out there who seem to almost...frown upon really cheap make up but I see no reason why I cant spend £19 on a high end concealer and then £8 on a whole palette of concealers as long as they do the job and I feel great about myself wearing them.

So I got a few things for myself, some MUA, some Rimmel but the Make Up Revolution products definitely made up the bulk of my purchase so lets concentrate on that. 

I got the blush palette seen in the photo above at Christmas time but had to get another, both of these palettes were £8 in total and I'll admit right away that I freaking LOVE the packaging. It's very sleek and thin which is what I want from my products really because I like to store them all upright and this makes it so much easier. 

The concealer palette is creamy and quite thick, my only gripe is that I wish the colour range was a tad more diverse, I like to have a darker colour to aid in cream contouring but overall for £8 this is an awesome product. 

Same goes for the blush palette, I love that it has some matte shades and some more shinier shades along with a highlight colour. Again for the price you pay it's £1 a blush/concealer which is awesome, I can't complain. 

I also picked up the Benefit Roller Lash Mascara which debuted in my store the day before Payday, it felt good to be one of the early birds buying a new product for once. The review of this product is also in my MARCH posts so go and check that out. This mascara was my biggest purchase of the day and is a great product. 

Now I am a huge eye product fan. In my make up stand the mascara and eyeliner box is the second most jam packed after lipstick and recently I had been loving this Maybeline felt tip liner that could draw really thin lines and then be dragged to make thicker and this liner is similar. 

At either end is a thick felt tip and a thin felt tip and oh my gosh it's my new go-to! Don't be fooled, the eyeliner is very durable and also pigmented. It also goes on like an absolute dream and from now on it will probably be one of my staples. One advantage this has over the Maybeline is that the felt tips are finer whereas the other had a very boxy shape. 

Highlighters weren't products I reached for very often but this one is so pretty. 

Being a girl with a greasy complexion I like most of my face products to be in powder form if possible to help fight shininess and so this is a fantastic product. 

It's very pigmented and very highlighting. My Urban Decay highlighters are probably just a little bit more reflective but again for the price it is a fantastic product.

Finally the matte bronzer, You can't tell from the picture but this is quite a big product which is brilliant for getting your bronzing brush into (I hate it with Hoola when you try and get the brush in and it's bending off the side because the packaging is tiny.) 

Again, this product is a powder and so is great for my skin and I have no complaints about it. If applied properly you get this stunning glow, it's more brown in tone instead of some of the horrible orange bronzers you can come across from the cheaper drug store brands. 

I don't know if I'll stay loyal to the bronzer from this brand purely because with things like bronzers/finishing powders they're so cheap and there's so many you can have access to that I like to have loads of different ones but for now this is what I'm applying in the morning and I really like the bronze glow it gives me. 

After trying all of these products I was starting to wonder why people weren't going mental for the brand. The packaging isn't what I would refer to as cheap or anything either and the only products I would really not buy as the eyeshadow palettes because I don't like the colour combinations and love my Urban Decay Naked palettes. 

I'm not sure if it is because people are so loyal to the higher end brands that they avoid these because they are at some points blatantly copying other brands but I see no reason why they can't try to create more affordable dupes that are more accessible to the mass market.

Judging purely off what I bought this day I will 100% be buying from this brand again, especially the bronzers and blushes it has to offer. I also haven't tried any lip products or mascaras from the brand so next time these will be at the top of my list. 

Get the Look - My Night in Hamilton

So last weekend I went out with a friend to Hamilton which is just outside Glasgow to let my hair down because I haven't actually had a proper night out since the staff Christmas night (Last year!) Honestly I've no idea how that happened, usually I'm out at least once a month. 

So I went all out, me and my friend Melly left work and-because it was payday-ran straight for the shops, I got myself a whole host of new drugstore makeup which I used to create this evening look, there's also some of my trusted higher end products thrown in (to see some of the stuff I bought look at the post in my MARCH folder.)

 It took me 2 hours to do my makeup because I was so keen to look awesome for my first night out of the year and it's been so long since I've done a full face of contouring and all the rest of it. Since I loved this look so much I've decided to share with you what I used to create it. 

Now all of these products are available in the UK and the newer drugstore products I bought were all from Superdrug because Melly decided to go in and get her brows done which lead to me browsing the shelves and ultimately a lot of unplanned purchases.

So here we go! 

First of all I primed my skin with Maybelline 8-in-1 BB cream. I love this primer, it's for oily skin which is great, it stops my skin getting shiny and is really durable plus it doesn't feel cakey. 

My holy grail foundation, honestly the staple to my evening looks, again, super durable and non, cakey on my face. Couldn't rave about this enough so for this sake of keeping this blog post short I'll stop. 

Urban Decay Powder, I like this powder but it's nothing I can't get from a drugstore brand. It keeps my face matte and the only reason I had this particular powder instead of any others is because I like the size of the mirror in it for when I'm out and want to check my make up without having to get up and go to the bathroom. 

My freshly bought Make Up Revolution baked highlighter. One of the best highlighters I own, totally affordable and really pretty on the sin when applied right. Packaging is also tough so I won't need to worry about this smashing on a night out. In the photo I've applied it just under the brows and on the upper cheeks. 

New Make Up Revolution Bronzer. This has been applied all over the face bar under my eyes because I like that area to be paler and more contoured. I didn't use this bronzer to contour my forehead and cheeks though, just as an overall cover to make me look that little bit darker because my double wear is quite a pale shade. 

My Beautiful brows palette. My Go-to eyebrow powder, used this everyday since I got it about a year ago, As you can see after a years use I still have loads left and it comes with stencils that I no longer use and it's own highlighter and application brush. 

Make Up Revolution gel pen liner. Loved using this on my eyes for this occasion, got a really precise line thats to its double end with a thick and thin nib for applying the product to my face. I had a really similar product from Maybelline but this is cheaper and much better to use. 

Roller Lash Mascara by Benefit. There's a review of this on the blog in my MARCH folder so go see that and you'll see why I love this. This particular night was my first ever time wearing it although in the above photo I've applied lashes over them. 

For my eyeshadow I used 3 palettes, the chocolate palette was used for my base, crease. I've lost the sheet that tells you what the colours are so I'll just say top row big eyeshadow for base. Second row 1st shadow for my crease blended upwards and the 1st row, 3rd eyeshadow to deepen the crease. 

My self-made Urban Decay Moondust palette 

The first shadow in the palette was used to take my eye look to a more nighttime look. This was applied all over the lid. 

Urban Decay Lip Liner

My Urban Decay lipstick in Shame which is my go-to lippy for a more vampy/autumnal look 

I ended up taking the black shadow from this palette and using it to deepen the outer V of my eyes after the moondust had been applied 

Finally I contoured my forehead and under my cheeks using this sleek palette which is super cheap but my absolute favourite contouring palette at the moment, as you can see it's been used an absolute tonne. 

So that's how I got the look for my night out in Hamilton, if this is the sort of thing you'd like to see more of let me know. I might even look into filming one of these because its a lot easier than just photographing the photos and telling you what I done, it'd be easier to just show you! 

Mascara Review - Benefit Roller Lash

Woo! Another mascara review! Yes my addiction to all things lash lengthening is still as rife as ever so it's just as well Benefit have decided to grace their counters with a new mascara for me to own!

Now I'll admit when I heard that they were bringing out a new mascara I was totally confused. 'They're Real!' was a huge success. I don't know a single beauty guru on YouTube who didn't review the mascara and it is a personal favourite for myself as well. 

First thing you'll notice about the mascara is the packaging. It's not as sleek looking as 'They're Real!' but it is a really pretty looking canister. The top (I believe) is meant to look like a hair roller to fit in with their campaign describing the mascara as a means of getting flirty, fluttering and curled lashes without the need for actual eyelash curlers themselves. 

Personally I like the packaging, whilst it is slightly bulkier on the lid than 'They're Real' it's easy to hold and apply mascara with plus it totally fits in with Benefit's aesthetic. Most of the products they produce have a quirky theme running through them to help marketing.

I hadn't tried a sample of this before buying it so I had no idea what to expect but the first thing I noticed with this product is that the formula inside the tube feels quite thick. After you apply the mascara you start to understand why this is. The wand curls your lashes and the formula holds the lash at that angle, creating the "no need for an eyelash curler" look. 

Below are photos of my eye before and after applying the mascara so I'll let you judge for yourself! 

Apologies for my eye being slightly red but you get the idea!

I actually love this mascara and probably more than 'They're Real' if I'm being honest with you, if you look at the outer part of my eye in both pictures you can see that the lashes are definitely more curled. I've used this mascara everyday since I got it and I don't find that it can smudge onto my upper eyelid like 'They're Real!' sometimes does and whilst I find it a little hard to get off, it's easier to remove than 'They're Real' as well. Although you can of course use the Benefit 'They're Real' remover and save yourself having any problems removing either of the mascaras.

Overall this is a fantastic addition to the Benefit mascara range. Whilst I was confused at first about why Benefit had decided to add another mascara to their range when their existing products were doing so well it's now clear that this is a product that can stand on it's own and works in a completely different way.

Gonna be hard to top this mascara!!