Month: May 2016

Morphe Brushes is an American cosmetics company that has been on the rise in the beauty community for a while now.

I love the brand because they make really high quality make-up but are very affordable due to their no fuss packaging. After seeing rave reviews about their products I opted for an eye shadow palette – Morphe do a range of palettes and every different shade you can think of so rest assured they is something for everyone!

I bought this little guy from Cult Beauty  for £11.95  – which I thought was a very reasonable price. At the time of my order they had free shipping on all Morphe products so I took advantage of that, although I think they’ve ended that deal now. However at the time I write this post, they are giving free shipping on your next order when you sign up to their newsletter – which is worth it in my opinion as I begrudge paying for shipping!

Moving on to the palette review, it was smaller than expected, but I like that as it will be great for travelling. I usually prefer warm tones on my lids as I feel they compliment my brown eyes more – so this palette definitely ticks that box as most of the shades are warm. There is a mixture of beautiful colous – golds, warm browns, a burgundy shade and some rose gold shades. There’s a light champagne colour as well which I think is comparable to MAC’s “Naked Lunch” which is one of my faves. There’s a random cool tones grey/silver thrown in there which I didn’t think I’d use but actually comes in quite handy for doing a darker, smokier look. All the colours are shimmery so bare that in mind, I don’t find it to be much of a problem though.

The pigmentation is fantastic, there are no complaints from me about that. I didn’t need to use an eye shadow primer with the shadows but if I did I know they’d be even brighter. They wear really nicely and stay put throughout the day.

Overall I love this palette, I think it’s beautiful – as you can see from the photo it really stands out and I’m glad it caught my eye on the website.

I hope you enjoyed this mini review – it was fun for me to do & I look forward to doing some more in the future.

~ Lucy

I’m all about making life easier for myself, and as much as I love buying & trying new products, sometime’s it’s nice to use things you’ve already got and experiment with the ways you can use them.

I thought it would be nice to share with you my top 5 make-up hacks, a few tips & tricks I’ve picked up using things you probably have lying around the house already:

Use Baby Powder to “bake” concealer

A fab trick I’ve discovered that requires no more than simply Baby Powder and a sponge! Do you find that your concealer creases and wears off throughout the day? Try this trick. Grab a large amount of powder on a sponge and apply gently to the under-eye – leave to “bake” for 10 minutes then sweep away the excess product with a brush and your concealer will not budge ALL DAY. This is one of my favourite tricks right now – it leaves the under-eye area really soft and smooth, helps to brighten the area and locks it all down. No need for expensive translucent powders now!

Use Nivea Post-shave Balm as a face primer

Founded by youtuber NikkieTutorials – my second beauty hack will keep your make up on all day long. Tried and tested by yours truly, I have to admit – this traditional men’s medicine cabinet product actually makes a great face primer. It allows make up to go on really smoothly, and the glycerin in the ingredients sticks itself to the products you apply after using it and holds onto them all day. It also has great moisturising properties which is amazing news for us dry skin girls. I sometimes use this alone or with other primers I have, give it a go and let me know what you think!

Hairspray to fix down eyebrows

A classic beauty hack – but a friend of mine when I’ve run out of eyebrow gel, or heading on a spontaneous night out with friends. There are a number of ways to use this hack – my two favourite ways are to spray a small amount of hairspray on your finger and gently run it through the brows, or, if you have a bit more time and a few more tools, spray an old spoolie and comb through gently. Bye-bye bushy brows!

Learn to contour using tape

I’ve had a few questions from beautiful ladies recently asking me how they learn to contour. Don’t panic girls – there is a solution. Hudabeauty  came up with a great way of using tape to help you mark out the line for contouring and how to make it look sharp and chiselled. Place the tape from the top of the ear to the corner of your mouth – try not to take the colour past the outside corner of your eye – and gradually start to apply your contour shade of choice. Remove the tape and blend blend blend (using a clean fluffy brush) and voila! Beautifully chiselled cheekbones. If you don’t get it first time, just keep practising! You will get there 🙂

Hand sanitizer to spot clean brushes

A trick I’ve recently discovered for when you don’t have time to wash your brushes and wait for them to dry. Use a bit of hand sanitizer on a cotton pad or towel and gently swirl the brush in – it will quickly kill any bacteria on the brush and will remove most of the dirty product build-up. Not recommended for long-term use as you don’t want to dry your brushes out but I find it a great way to sanitize when you’re in a rush.

That concludes my post for today. I hope you enjoyed reading and that you were able to pick up some good tips. Stay tuned for a beauty hacks:skincare edition post coming up soon.

Until next time!

~ Lucy

I’ve been on the “YouTube scene” for a good 7 years now, and without it I would not be where I am today – being wholeheartedly inspired to pursue my interests by all of the amazing inspirations I subscribe to on a daily basis.

I’ve been subscribed to New Zealand Beauty Guru Shannon Harris since before I can remember and I’ve watched her grow over the years – from making clubbing make up videos in her bedroom to becoming the CEO of her own cosmetics company. I absolutely love Shannon and she is – and will always remain one of my favorite girls to watch. If you don’t know who she is then you need to check her out.

When I heard that she was collaborating with American cosmetic company BHcosmetics to create her own unique palette I was very excited, as I know Shannon does not scrimp on quality and knows her stuff when it comes to make-up.

The palette is double sided and comes with nine eye-shadows in one side and nine lipstick colors in the other side. 

As you can see from the photo there is a range of mostly neutral shades. There is a nice burnt orange shade, a lovely brown/blue duo-chrome shade and a peach shade that is very similar to “Peach smoothie” by Make Up Geek. I’d have to say that these three shades are my favorite in the palette and a nice warm neutral eye can be created using them together. I also love the champagne color (first row, second column), it’s a great shade for putting all over the lid for a light wash of color or for adding in the inner corner of the eyes to highlight and make the eyes pop.

The pigmentation of the colors is a little varied but overall I am pleased with how the shadows perform. I have used them both with and without an eye-shadow primer and they suit me fine. I would have liked a matte, warm brown to blend into the crease but the peach shade can do this just fine. The first shade is a little chalky but is fine to lay down as a base for the other shadows, although doesn’t pack a great deal of punch as far as color pay-off is concerned, at least for me anyway.  Here is a detailed photo of the eye-shadow swatches…

As far as the lip colors go, of course I would prefer them to be in tubes but to have the range of colors altogether in one palette makes it very good for travelling. Again the shades are hit and miss as far as pigmentation goes, and you don’t get as much product in the pan as I’d like. I can tell that I will be using up the lesser pigmented shades quite quickly.

The formulation of the lipsticks are nice, quite glossy and creamy, best applied with a lip brush in order to get the precision on application. My favorite shades are the three more nude tones, plus there’s a really nice pink which is very bright and bold. The staying power of the colors is good when paired with a lip-liner, not using one would definitely require re-application throughout the day. But that’s OK as the palette comes with a mirror so taking it on the go is easy! (and you could use your fingers to apply, if you wanted to)

Overall I am impressed with the palette and I do find myself reaching for it most days. The packaging is beautiful and I love how compact it is. You can purchase the palette from the BHcosmetics website here for $14.50* (around £10, an absolute steal)

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you have the palette already let me know what you think of it! Until next time…

~ Lucy

*(on sale as I write this post, originally $22.00)

When thinking about what I wanted to write as my first blog post I thought to myself – it’s got to be this month’s Birchbox – which quite a few of you who follow my instagram have probably seen me post about a million times (oops).

In all seriousness I have a complete love affair with Birchbox – the packaging is beyond cute and I love that they are always coming up with new fun designs. This months came with a grey scratch off top so you can make your own patterns, and if you scratch underneath the logo you have a chance to win a luxury holiday; a dream right?

Although I didn’t win the holiday of a lifetime (boo) I still of course got myself some cute beauty samples, here’s a review of my top three products in this month’s box:

Spectrum Wonder Sponge  

Available in pink or lilac (and currently out of stock as I write this) this is a big contender for the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge ~ however in my opinion doesn’t have a scratch on the original Beauty Blender. It has a soft texture and I prefer the teardrop shape to the shape of the RT sponge as I found the wider bottom helps cover a lager surface. It does soak up a lot of product like most make-up sponges do & is a great budget buy at £4.99. I’d give it a 7/10.

Caudalie Vinosource Moisturising Sorbet

A really nice hydrating product that feels lightweight on the skin. It has an almost gel-like consistency meaning its quite soothing on the skin. It has a very clean scent and I find that it’s best applied in the morning, despite Caudalie’s recommendations to use it in the evening as well. I find with having dry skin I need a thicker cream for the evening. However at a price of £23.00 for 40ml of product it’s definitely a beautiful moisturiser for underneath make up & I will be buying a full size. If you’d like to try you can purchase it here.

 Philip Kingsley Polishing Balm

As I have naturally curly hair I am often on the lookout for smoothing anti-frizz haircare products and this one delivers exactly that. I don’t exaggerate when I say you only have to use the smallest amount of this product to achieve silky smooth hair. I prefer to use it on damp hair although the usage instructions does state you can use it on dry hair for an “extra sleek look”. The price for a 75ml tube retails for £18.50 and you can purchase yours from Marks & Spencers or on Look Fantastic with free delivery here

Hope the information was useful and you enjoyed reading. Until next time x