Met Gala 2016: My Top 5!

Hey all,

So the Met Gala is on every year in New York, it's basically an art exhibition in the Metropolitian Museum of Art. Every year the theme is different and this year it was 'Fashion in the Age of Technology', so most stars attended wearing some sort of metallic creation. I thought it would be fun to write up a blogpost on my favourite outfits from the night.

Kylie Jenner
The youngest Kardashian sibling, 18, wore this Balmain floor length metallic gown. It could easily have looked over the top, but her simple makeup and hair managed to keep it with a touch of class. Love her or hate her, the girl has an enviable sense of style and from following her on Snapchat I love how she constantly switches up her style with wigs to keep things fun.






















Taylor Swift
I barely recognised Taylor, 26, with her bleached blonde bob but I think it really suits her and goes with her bold metallic Louis Vuitton dress and strappy gladiator heels. I really like it as her whole look is daring and her makeup suited her. She has well and truly made the transformation from country gal to pop's punk princess.

Kendall Jenner
Not to be upstaged, Kylie's older sis Kendall, 20, went for an equally daring outfit. The mosaic print Versace dress is daring enough, add cut outs and you have an outfit that may have looked damn ridiculous on anyone else. Her simple hair and makeup and shoes made sure that the dress was the star attraction. If nothing else, it was nice to see something other than the metallic themed outfits pretty much every other young lass there was wearing.

Emma Watson
No, it wasn't metallic or anything particularly daring, but I'm a sucker for old school sophistication and this Calvin Klein monochrome outfit worn by the Harry Potter star at the event certainty had class by the bucket load. It showed off the 26-year-old's figure to perfection while still being beautifully classy - and albeit, a little bit quirky as it was a wide-legged pantsuit, to fit in with Emma's own personal style - and I loved the long train. Her hair done in old Hollywood waves fitted in perfectly with this look.

Claire Danes

Probably my favourite outfit of the event came courtsey of this actress, who wore this huge silvery blue Zac Posen number. At the event, it looked like something that really wouldn't look out of place in a Disney movie - and what girl doesn't want to feel like a Disney princess? A picture of it in the dark showed that it had another quality to it, that it lights up in the dark... How fricking cool. Serious style envy.

Thanks for reading guys!

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Beauty - Real Techniques Core Collection Review

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Shelly Says So!

Just after finishing my semester one exams a few weeks ago, I decided to treat myself in Superdrug (not that I need much of an excuse to treat myself in Superdrug!) to these Real Techniques make up brushes. I follow a lot of bloggers online, and as a result I have heard so many good things about these brushes from other bloggers, so I decided to give them a go. They cost £20.99 in my local Superdrug, but they'll set you back €29.99 if you live in Ireland.

I bought the Core Collection, which consists of four brushes. From left to right, you have the contour brush, the pointed foundation brush, the detailer brush and the buffing brush. They come in a plastic outer packaging, attatched to a case which can be also used as a stand, which is very handy indeed.

First impressions: they look beautiful.
The gold colour is very pretty and they are super soft to the touch too. But less about the aesthetics and more about the function!

The contour brush, as you may have guessed, is said to be ideal for applying contour on your face. I think the slight precision point at the top of the brush allows the process to go more smoothly and it being super soft and lightweight means it's not an ordeal applying contour.

















The pointed foundation brush is supposed to work best with liquid foundations, which is the usual foundation I wear. I had been using Primark's foundation brush (which I'll review very shortly!), but since I had this, I wanted to try it out. As it's quite a small brush, I found it made the foundation application much more lengthy! Which is fine if you have plenty of time to spare in the mornings but alas, I never do (who even does?).  I wondered whether I was simply using it wrong, so I watched a video on www.realtechniques.com about how to use it. I wasn't, but it did take long and it said it is good for light application of foundation.





This again is completely fine if you're after a natural look but I just personally
prefer a medium layer of foundation. With all of this swiping around it also left so much more tell-tale brush strokes which immediately turned me off. I will say that it does work well to get into precision areas such as side of your nose. I started using it also to apply concealer, which it does work well with.








The detailer brush is the smallest and skinniest of the brushes in this set, and as you can guess, it is used mainly for precision applications in small areas. It can be used for applying concealer or lipstick for "long lasting shape and definition". However, I began using it in eye makeup to define my eye crease, and I couldn't believe how amazing it was! Definitely my favourite of all these brushes. The quality of this small brush even inspired me to purchase the other Real Techniques set made especially for eye makeup.



The buffing brush apparently works ideally with powder and mineral foundations. Since I have neither to test that theory out on, I decided to rebel slightly and use it for I for applying liquid foundation, and found that I really liked it. It's obviously a lot bigger than the pointed foundation brush so less time consuming. However I tend to go over the application with Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge (review of that product is HERE) to ensure the makeup application turned out flawless. I also used it for applying bronzer and blush, and find it works well then too.


So the question you've all been waiting to be answered: Are these brushes worth the price tag? Although reasonable by other beauty brush standards such as Mac, these are quite expensive. Although my opinion is bound to be controversial, I need to be honest about my review as I don't want my readers to be rushing out buying these, especialy with limited funds. I think that besides from the detailer brush which was ah-mazing, these guys are simply not worth twenty-odd bucks. Fifteen perhaps, but not twenty.

Beauty - W7 In the Nude Review and Look

Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog! :) Happy Friday!

So I was looking through my blog posts Wednesday night and realised it has been a while since I did a makeup tutorial for you guys. Most of my blog posts centre around what I wore but not really much emphasis on the makeup side of things. I really enjoy doing these tutorials, so I decided to do one for you yesterday early in the morning, as usually when I finish university it's dark. Gotta take advantage of that good lighting, yo!

Today's tutorial features a makeup palette I actually have with a while. It is by the British brand W7 and is called 'In the Nude'. If you're wondering whether it's something like you've seen before, you'd be right! W7 have a range of eyeshadow palettes all supposed to be affordable dupes (inexpensive versions) of Urban Decay Naked palettes. This guy is supposed to the dupe for the Naked 3, but they have ones for the Naked 1 and 2, as well as Naked Basics. I've never used any W7 products previous to this but I had heard good things about them.

As you can see below, the packaging is more or less the same and the eyeshadow shades look nearly identical, if not the same.

There is a huge difference in the price however. While the Urban Decay palettes would set you back at least €50 (around thirty pounds), I picked up this In The Nude palette in the summer back home in Ireland for €8.49 (about six pounds). They are widely avaliable here in the UK, somewhat more difficult to source in Ireland though they are avaliable to buy online on Amazon and Ebay. The quality of the W7 palette, contrary to what you may believe, is actually quite reasonable. No, they won't last all day without a primer, but hey, what eyeshadow will?

Before I begin with the tutorial, I'd just like to say that I am by no means a professional. I am currently studying to become an occupational therapist, not a makeup artist. I'm just a normal everyday girl who enjoys playing around with makeup and having fun with the whole process.










 Credit: anzellelew.blogspot.com.


Firstly, this is what I looked like with no makeup on. My skin is relatively good at the moment; I still am prone to redness and horrible dryness but for the most part, I'm happy with it!

1. First step in this tutorial was to prime my skin. My skin is really dry so I used Simple Kind to Skin Light hydrating moisturiser (£4.19/€5, review of that product is HERE). I recently re-bought this product and was a bit disappointed; it has changed the smell ever so slightly and it is slightly odd, really like suncream! Then I used Rimmel Fix and Perfect Primer (£6.99/€8.99, review of that product is HERE). Last week I popped on primer without moisturiser and it left a horrible stinging sensation on my face as my skin was so dry, so I'd really recommend using the moisturiser first. I then applied some Maybelliene Baby Lips (£2.99/€3.99), to my lips to moisturise them, but I use coconut oil a lot to moisturise them too.









2. When that was absorbed into my skin, I applied a thin layer of Rimmel match perfection foundation (£7.99/€9.99, review HERE). If your skin is in relatively good shape, there's no need to apply heaps of foundation, trust me! The brush I used to apply this was Primark's own brand foundation brush, I will be doing a review of these soon. I prefer to wait till all eye makeup is done before setting my makeup so I skipped powder for now.

3. Concealer next. I used two concealers. Rimmel Wake Me Up (£5.49/€6.99, review of that product is HERE) on any redness, and Collection Lasting Perfection (£3.99/€4.75), to highlight the areas under my eyes. Both applied with a Primark beauty concealer brush.

 3. Eyebrows was the next step. I filled in my eyebrows using my trusty Primark eyebrow kit (review of that is HERE). As you can tell by the packaging, I use it a lot! The brush I used was a double sided eyeshadow brush with a sponge tip, I just don't like these brushes in applying eyeshadow but they work for eyebrows!

4. Now for the star event: the eyeshadows. I applied latte, a nude, neutral colour just under my eyebrows to highlight them, using latte, the first shade on the left of the palette.

Next I applied copper pot, a deeper, vintage pink, all over my eyelid using a fluffy eyeshadow brush, these wooden ones were bought off Ebay. Using this same brush, I applied second colour from left, Angel, a sparkly pink, to my inner eyelid.

Then I applied Alice, a matte pink into my crease using one end of an eyeshadow brush from Primark. How much time and product you use here will really depend on how you defined you wish for your crease to be. I also applied some of Alice on my lower lashline.

I blended Alice out using Marilyn, a pink, yet slightly nude, using another one of my Ebay brushes. It's quite similar to Alice, only difference is it is slightly darker.

I applied Fashionista (a black eyeshadow with red sparkles, just shows up black though), about half way up into my crease, using my Real Techniques 'Detailer Brush' from their core collection set, slightly winging this out to form a shadow eyeliner.

Brushes used in the eye makeup (from left to right):
Slanted fluffy eyeshadow brush and fluffy eyeshadow brush, both from a set on Ebay.
Real Techniques 'Detailer Brush', as part of the 'Core Collection' set.
Double ended eyeshadow brush, Primark.









5. Now to add some extra drama at night time, if you wish you can add some false eyelashes. I decided to use the Revlon Intensifeye volumising eyelashes. I bought these in a multi-pack of four at where I work, Home Bargains, for £1.99. They didn't come with eyelash glue however so I had to use a Primark eyelash glue I found at the bottom of my makeup bag - desperate times cause for desperate measures! I applied these using my Revlon tweezers (bought in Superdrug a few months back, for about a fiver). Don't fear if you've no idea how to apply false eyelashes, I will be writing up a blogpost about application plus which eyelashes I have tried out. I then applied some Essence I <3 Extreme Crazy Volume Mascara (£2.80/€3.49, you can buy Essence in Wilko in the UK btw), to help blend my real eyelashes in with my falsies.























6. Now to finish off the rest of my face! I set my face using Rimmel Stay Matte powder (£3.99/€5.99) and then applied Primark loose powder (£1.50/€2) over areas where I'm prone to oily skin. Both were applied using my fluffy Primark blusher brush.

7. Blusher was next. Make Up Gallery  Blush in Soft Blush 1 (£1/€1.79, see review of this product HERE), again using a Primark makeup brush, but this was from a previous range.

 8. Highlighter used was Makeup Revolution Vivid Baked Highlighter in 'Peach Lights' (£3), using an Ebay contour brush. I only bought this recently and I adore it! So pretty and sparkly, though you'd never think it with my crappy phone camera....

9. Last but not least, lips. I applied Catrice Lasting lipgloss (I think it's called that, the label has disappeared...). It's a pinkish nude which wouldn't distract from the strong eye make up look. I bought this back home in Ireland when I was back for Christmas for about five euro. Catrice is unfortunately not available in the UK (but it really needs to be!). It's available to buy on Ebay, but it's way more expensive on there (sob!).

And there you have it, the finished look! Hope you enjoyed this blogpost tutorial. Any questions, fire away!xxx

Beauty - Review of L'Oréal True Match Foundation

Hey everyone, and welcome back to my blog!

Just before Christmas, I found myself running short of foundation having used up all of my Rimmel Match Perfection one. I've done a review on the Rimmel Match Perfection one  HERE and while I thought it was a natural enough looking foundation, it didn't quite last all day and all night and I suppose I was looking for something a bit more.

Everyone knows how difficult it is to find a foundation that will match your skin tone. It's definitely an ordeal to find one that matches my porcelain Irish skintone exactly, and in many ranges, the lightest shade (Ivory) won't even suffice! I absolutely hate seeing that tell-tale sign of foundation "tide" mark on the neck of a girl, indicating it doesn't completely match her skin tone, but this beauty blunder has happened way too many times to myself than I'd care to remember! Luckily, L'Oréal have come to our aid and following research into skintones of women from around the world, they have developed a foundation with 23 skin-true shades.

I had heard so many good things about this foundation I was a little apprehensive about it, but decided to pick it up anyways. Retailing at £9.99, it was a bit more expensive than the Rimmel ones I'd usually go for, but I figured I may as well take a chance on it.

After priming with Rimmel primer, I applied a thin layer of this foundation with my Real Techniques Miracle Complexion sponge (review of that product is HERE) and the first thing that struck me about it was how it did indeed match my skintone exactly - hurray! I knew I was onto a winner from that alone.

Surprisingly, there's more goodness from this little guy! It covers up imperfections so well, meaning less concealer is used. And it doesn't look any bit cakey whatsoever.  And it lasts from day to night (9am to midnight).

What more could you ask for?

I think I've found "The One".

My verdict: 10/10 (obviously!).

Beauty - Make Up Gallery Review

Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog!

I was in Poundland a few weeks ago and spotted that they had a range of make up there - Make Up Gallery. Everything was just a pound each (obviously!) so I decided to pick a few things out (sure it was hardly going to put me in debt!), and in the end I picked out four things: pressed powder, blusher, liquid foundation and colour moisture lipstick. For my Irish readers, these are avaliable in Dealz for €1.49 each.

Long Lasting Foundation

This is a liquid foundation that claims to be "natural long lasting". It contains UVA filters which is basically a thin film on the skin which protects it from sun damage (although it's unlikely it'll fufil it's role in the UK until another few months!) and also contains the antioxidant Vitamin E, which plays a role in anti-aging.
I picked up this foundation in the lightest shade - Ivory 1. I tried it out the morning before I headed to work after priming, and then added eyeliner, mascara, all the other bits. It seemed OK at first and I was quite happy. Then I went to the bathroom to get some tissue and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. As  my bathroom had much better light, the foundation appeared super orange. Like Oompa Loompa orange! I couldn't go anywhere obviously looking like that, so had to scrub it all off (including my liquid eyeliner - girls, if you know the struggle you will know how pissed off I was about that!), and applied a more paler fit-to-skintone foundation. Therefore, I've no idea of how this foundation is for wear!

Pressed Powder
As the powder in this range is Translucent, I had no concerns about trying it out. Again, this product contains Vitamin E. It does have a rather strongly perfumed scent to it. Personally I didn't mind it but I know many others will. I was really impressed with this powder, though. I applied it all over, and it helped my makeup stay matte and oil-free all day long, working as well if not better than other high end brands I've tried in the past. Really good buy!

Blusher
This light pink blusher - 'Soft Blush 1' is in a teeny tiny container and like the other products, also contains Vitamin E. It doesn't have a strong scent like the powder. It's not very pigmented, but it does give a very subtle, in-from-the-cold effect, and lasts well.  Another good 'un!

Colour Moisture Lipstick
The lighting in Poundland at the time must have been off  - or else I'm going blind - but when I picked up this lipstick I thought it was black and was slightly excited as I have been meaning to try out a black lippy for quite some time. With a name like 'Black Cherry' you wouldn't blame me for thinking that! However, when I tried it out for a night out over Christmas, I found out that it's really more like a dark berry. I wanted to try it out for the night but I quickly found it doesn't have a great pigment at all - the first coat looks purple, the next application looked just slightly more pigmented. And as it was New Year's Eve, I really didn't want to be stuck in the bathroom re-applying it after every drink, so decided to stick with my Rimmel Lasting Finish lippy.

  

Fashion & Beauty: New Years Celebrations!

Hey everyone, and welcome back to my blog!

Happy new year too. Hope everyone's heads are not too bad after the celebrations last night. Mine is fairly fragile still to be honest, but I'm sure it's nothing a good strong cup of tea can't fix!

The dress I'm wearing is from Boohoo.com, and was actually a Christmas present from one of my best friends Aine. Though truth be told, I regretted eating all the crap I did over Christmas when trying to squeeze into it! Sooo tight! It's fab though.

The metallic heels (that you can't see in this photo - grr!) are Penneys, I've mentioned them before in many other previous blog posts, I got them in the summer sale in June reduced to €7 from €16, I wear them so often I feel like they're an extension of myself!

The tan I'm wearing is Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs. This was my second time trying it out, but I'm not going to say too much about it here as I will be writing up a review of this tan very soon.

For makeup, I moisturised with Simple Kind To Skin Light hydrating moisturiser. I've written a review of this product plus some skin care tips HERE. The foundation I used was L'Oréal True Match foundation (review of that is to come), applied with Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge (review of that is HERE). For eyes I kept things very simple. I used the Make Up Revolution 'Flawless' eyeshadow palette (details of this eyeshadow are on my previous blogpost ), sweeping 'Medal' over the lid, 'Copper Shimmer' in the crease and 'Gold Digger' on the inner eyelid. I applied New York Color liquid eyeliner on my upper eyelid (review HERE), before applying Primark eyelashes in 'Sultry'. I set my makeup using Rimmel Stay Matte powder. Blusher used was Make up  Gallery blush, bought in Poundland. Highlighter used was an Essence one, but it's part of a limited edition Cinderella range so unfortunately it's no longer avaliable.

Lipstick used was Rimmel Lasting Finish in 'Starry Eyed'. I absolutely adore this lipstick; it's a dark plum shade and it lasts for ages too!

 Hope you enjoyed this blogpost - any questions, fire away! xx

Products used:

Simple Kind To Skin Light Hydrating Moisturiser, €5/£3.70.

L'Oréal True Match Foundation in 'Ivory', €13.55/£9.99.

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge, €7.99/£6.99.

Make Up Revolution Eyeshadow Palette in 'Flawless', £8.

New York Color Liquid Eyeliner, €2.40/£1.99.

Primark false eyelashes in 'Sultry', €1.50/£1

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in '001 Transparent', €5.99/£3.99.

Make Up Gallery Blush in 'Soft Blush 1', €1.49/£1.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in 'Starry Eyed', €5.50/£4.99.

Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs in 'Light Glow', €13.99/£9.99.

Fashion and Beauty - Christmas Day!

So after the visit to Mass, the unwrapping of presents from Santy, and falling into a food coma after the dinner, I took some time out and decided to write up a blogpost about what I was wearing today for the special occasion. I like to lay round in my trackie and hoodie as much as any other girl, but Christmas only comes round once a year so I like to make some effort for the day.

The tunic dress I'm wearing is from Penneys (Primark) and cost €14 (£10.33). I bought it Sunday afternoon after arriving in Ireland for Christmas. I really like the berry shade of it; this colour is always associated with the festive season so I felt like it was perfect! It actually has sheer sleeves, but to keep nice and toasty during the winter day I popped a long sleeved black top underneath it.
These long sleeved black tops are basic, and they're an essential part of my winter wardrobe, and only cheap as chips too, so I'd definitely recommend to invest.

The black tights were basic ones from Penneys, also bought on Sunday. I got three pairs for €6.

The scarf was also Penneys, it belongs to my sister though so I don't know the price, sorry! I'd imagine it would cost no more than a tenner. Many of my scarves are summery and light, and this is a nice thick one, so perfect for winter.

The boots are Shoe Zone, they have a slight heel on them. I bought them the first weekend I arrived in England as a birthday present to myself (I'm awful good to myself!). They were £20.

The coat is Penneys, but I bought it two years ago so I cannot for the life of me remember the price of it! I really like it as it comes out slightly at the hips and is super warm too!

Before applying makeup, I moisturised my face and neck using my trusty Simple Kind to Skin Light Hydrating Moisturiser and waited a few moments for it to absorb. My skin is super duper dry at the moment, so I applied it in a thin layer three times. FYI, I've done a blogpost on caring for dry skin, which you can check out HERE.

Foundation I used was L'Oréal True Match foundation in Ivory (the lightest shade in the range). I decided to try out this foundation about two weeks ago as I have heard it being hailed as the 'holy grail' of foundations. I'm not going to say too much  about it here as I am planning on doing a seperate blogpost all about it in the coming weeks. The concealer I used was Rimmel Wake Me Up (review of that product is HERE) under my eyes and on blemishes, before setting it with Rimmel Stay Matte translucent powder.

For eyes, I decided to use a combination of gold and brown eyeshadows to complement the berry in my dress. I used the eyeshadows in the Make Up Revolution Flawless palette. I bought this palette, containing 32 eyeshadows, in Superdrug last month. Correct me if I'm wrong, but sadly, I don't think Make Up Revolution is avaliable in Ireland. I applied 'Medal' all over my lid and up to my browbone. I then applied 'Copper Shimmer' in the crease. Then I applied a small amount of 'Molton Chocolate' where my eyeliner 'flick' would go from. Then I applied 'Gold Digger' at the inner eye. I then used Essence Liquid Ink Liquid eyeliner on the inner eyelid and flicked out to create winged eyeliner effect. I applied a tiny amount of Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Pencil on my waterline, going about half way across. I find that on my small hooded eyes, black kohl eyeliner makes them appear even smaller, so it's used sparingly with me!

The blusher I used was Make Up Gallery Blusher in 'Soft Blush 1'. Make Up Gallery is actually a range of makeup from Poundland, would you believe! In Ireland this range is avaliable in Dealz. I've been trying out this guy plus a few other products for the past few weeks so that is another post I am looking forward to showing you all. I filled in my eyebrows using Primark eyebrow kit.

I was trying to find a lipstick to suit my eye makeup and dress, and I felt red didn't match either of them, so I stole my mum's Essence lipstick in the shade '04 On the Catwalk'. Mum loves this lipstick and after wearing it for the whole day today, I can see why! I've never used any of Essence lipsticks before but I may have to invest after today! This and the liquid eyeliner I mentioned above are widely avaliable in Ireland, from Penneys to several pharmacies, but the only place where Essence is avaliable in the UK is Wilko.






















                                                             Product List and Prices:

Simple Kind to Skin Light Hydrating Moisturiser, €5/£3.70.
L'Oréal True Match Foundation in 'Ivory', £9.99/€13.55.
Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer in '040 Soft Beige', £5.49/€6.99.
Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in '001 Transparent', £3.99/€5.99.
Make Up Gallery Feeling Blush Blusher in 'Soft Blush 1', £1/€1.49.
Make Up Revolution Ultra Eyeshadow Palette in 'Flawless', £8.
Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Liner Pencil in '061 Jet Black', £2.99.
Essence Liquid Ink Liquid Eyeliner in 'Black', €2.49.
Essence Lipstick in '04 On The Catwalk' (think its around €3/£2).
Primark Eyebrow Kit, £1/€2.


Hope you enjoyed this post! Any questions, don't be shy! xx

Beauty - Superdrug Haul featuring Collection, Make Up Academy, Make Up Revolution & Beauty UK

Hi everyone!

I popped into Superdrug a few weeks ago and got a few make up related things there. As I'm primarily a budget blogger, I decided to try out some of the budget brands that were there. Some of these brands I'll mention Irish readers may not know about, I'm not sure are they available in Ireland as well as in the UK.

Collection Lasting Perfection 16 Hour Ultimate Wear Foundation
I couldn't bring liquids on the plane over here so that unfortunately meant that my Rimmel Match Perfection foundation I'd usually wear for day time (see review of that product HERE), was left behind in my bedroom in Ireland (sob!). So obviously the most essential piece of makeup I needed to buy was a new foundation. (the other make up I bought that I'm going to discuss in this blogpost was purely me being distracted quite easily in Superdrug!). I decided to try out the brand Collection as I had never used it before and I'm always open to trying out new brands. Collection is a British produced brand but is available in Boots in Ireland as well as here in the UK (though for some reason I had never tried any of the brand out while in Ireland). This foundation claims to last for 16 hours, provide 'flawless coverage' and 'minimize imperfections'. The packaging says it contains SPF 20 which is always good to have (even in British rainy weather!) and claims to be oil free also. I tried this out the next day after I bought it. To test the lasting power of it, I tried it out with very little setting powder. My skin is usually not very oily, but after just a few hours of wearing this foundation I saw that it had become particulary oily. I have tried to use it with quite a bit of powder but I just don't like applying too much powder - I think it looks a bit cakey - but with this foundation I felt like I had to.
Another thing I really disliked about this product was the shading. Even though Ivory is the perfect shade for me throughout pretty much every make-up range, this foundation in Ivory looked more than a little orange on my face. I try not to buy the lightest shade in any foundation, because it tends to make me look drained and washed out more than I look at the minute, but with this one really had to because I was walking around uni looking like one of the Oompa Loompas from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Even so whilst wearing the Porcelain shade, it still ended up slightly orange on my face, which means I can no longer use the two foundations I shelled out over £13 for altogether - ugh! I don't know is this related to stress or what I'm eating, but I did notice while I was wearing this that I kept breaking out in new blemishes every single day!
I am keen to try out the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer  though - it's nearly always out of stock here and it's meant to amazing, so when that comes back into stock I'll have to buy it and chat a bit about it! But as for this foundation - it's a definite no no for me!

Collection Fast Stroke Liquid Eyeliner

I couldn't find my usual liquid eyeliner - Essence Liquid Eyeliner - when I first moved to the UK due to the amount of bags and clothes I was trying to sort out, so I bought this one, which is also by the Collection brand I've mentioned above. This eyeliner is a bit of a strange one. It does have quite a sharp point to allow for better definition and precision which is great if you're desiring a really defined cat eye liner effect, but I just found that when I was applying it, it was a bit too sharp and slightly sore on my sensitive eyelid. I'd much prefer a brush tip like with the Essence one (which I eventually did find by the way!) that is softer which doesn't irritate the delicate eyelid skin as much. Once on though, the lasting time for this eyeliner is average really - it doesn't last too well with watering eyes and smudges before the day is out. It set me back £2.99.


Make Up Academy Mega Volume Mascara

Make Up Academy is a mega affordable brand here but unfortunately for my lovely Irish readers this budget makeup brand is only available in the UK (soz!). The makeup stand in Superdrug caught my eye as much of their products only cost about a pound each, which is enough to make even the most hard-pressed for cash student stop and have an auld look! Because of the cheap price, the packaging is understandably very basic - all plastic and looks like it would break quite easily. However, I picked up this mascara, at just £3 I figured I hadn't much to lose. This mascara has a good brush size, with tiny bristles which ensure that every lash is coated. It wears off within a few hours, which means it won't win any beauty awards anytime soon, but is still a good day time mascara for a very subtle makeup look. I would advise to layer a few coats of mascara if you're after a noticeable effect at all, i.e. apply a coat, wait for it to dry and then add another or another if you want, depending on how dramatic you want to go, but do note that you won't get the false lash effect with this guy.
 


Make Up Academy Translucent Pressed Powder.

This is literally the worst ever powder I have ever tried! I applied a small amount the first day I used it to see what it was like but combined with the Collection foundation above, it made my face look like a good place to fry an egg on! I applied a bit more the next day but it just made my face look super cakey and I hate the look of cakey powder on my face and even though with a lot applied it doesn't seem to fufil it's role of setting foundation all that well! I did only pay £1 for it so really wasn't expecting much but my Primark Loose powder was €2.50 (which isn't too much more expensive when you convert it into pounds - £1.43), and that to me was a far better product.




Makeup Revolution Focus and Fix Liquid Concealer

Makeup Revolution is another budget British makeup brand that I was interested in trying out. This concealer was affordable at £2 so I said I may as well give it a go. I thought this concealer was only just all right. It's nothing too amazing, quite average really. I found that I had to add a lot of product to get it to even have any effect in covering up my dark circles (and compared to other times in my life, my dark circles at the moment aren't even that bad). As for trying to conceal spots, I felt a foundation worked much better.  Having said that though, Make up Revolution is a brand that I really want to try out more over the coming months. Their eyeshadow palettes are dupes for the Urban Decay Naked palettes, and are only £4, which truth be told was what really attracted me to the brand!

Beauty UK Lipstick

This is a budget beauty brand but as you may have guessed by the name, is only avaliable in the UK. I got it in the shade 'Passion', which is this beautiful pink shade as you can see and applies very smoothly to the lips and has a peppermint smell. It does last if you don't eat or drink anything, so you would need to constantly reapply. By the end of the day it turns to a pink liptint which I actually found to be a lot more wearable so it doesn't vanish completely. It does normally retail at £3.20, but I got it for a reduced price of a pound.



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