Party Makeup Look - Glowy Skin and Gold Smokey Eyes

Hi guys, I've mentioned in previous posts that I am a freelance make-up artist, not full time for now - just an odd booking here and there when I get the chance, and I decided I wanted to share some of my work on my blog as well. Hope you like it :)

Products used:

Boots and Superdrug Haul

Hey guys! just a quick post on a few things I picked up from Boots and Superdrug a few days ago.

First off I picked up these two masks from L'Oreal and Garnier from Boots, I've heard alot of good things about them so can't wait to try them out.

I also restocked on my favourite mascara and concealer from Maybelline, I've lost count of how may of these I've gone through over the last year, another favourite I repurchased was the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Warm Beige - this is like my holy grail everyday powder.

Lorac Pro Palette - Review

This palette is an oldie but a goodie, I've had mine for quite a while now and I'd say it's one of my holy grail products, I reach for it on an almost daily basis. It's great for creating an everyday light smokey brown eye look to a really glam going out eye look. My favourite shades from the palette are probably Taupe, Sable, Nude, Gold, Pewter and Garnet.

I've already hit pan on on Taupe and Sable and my palette kinda looks pretty beat up right now because of how much it's been used. Taupe is a great transition shade and I use sable and espresso to really define and darken the crease, and nude is such a great shade to highlight the browbone

Ben Nye Banana Powder - Review

Hey guys! Its been a few days since I last posted on here but I went away to London for the week to get away, see my friends and just chill out for a bit so I didn't really get a chance to write any new posts. But I'm back with another post and today I wanted to review the Ben Nye Banana powder for you guys. I've been using this powder for a few months now and thought why not write a review on it.

Kiko Haul

Hey guys, just a quick post to show you some things I picked up from Kiko a few days ago. I was just walking past my local store when I saw that they had a sale on so I decided to pop in and see if there was anything I might like.

NYX Eyeshadow Base - Review

Hey, guys just a quick review today on the NYX eyeshadow base. I picked this up on a whim a few months ago, I'd been on the hunt for a flesh toned eyeshadow base (other than MAC soft ocre) for a while, so when I saw this in Boots I decided to pick it and give it a try. The product comes in a plastic jar with a screw top lid, which is quite lightweight and doesn't take up much space in my makeup drawers, and you get around 7g/0.25oz of product.

Favourite Drugstore Foundation & Primer - Maybelline Fit Me Matte+Poreless

Hi guys, today's review is on my all time favourite drugstore Foundation and Primer. I've always found it difficult to get a great colour match when it comes to drugstore foundations, back when I was in college I would just grab whatever shade I thought matched me and went with it (not the smartest move to be honest), and let me just say it did not look good. The foundations were never dark enough or they didn't have the right undertones for my complexion and I was always left looking a little grey - I'd then try to fix this by applying bronzer all over my face - it was a mess guys it was actually a mess.

But then I came across the Maybelline Fit Me foundation - the original one - and I think it was the first time I found a drugstore foundation that actually matched my skin! I was in love, this foundation worked pretty well for me at the time because my skin was going through a dry phase - the best thing about this was that it didn't cling to any dry patches and left me skin with a dewy finish. But my skin started changing and became less dry and more oily/combination and I felt that this foundation just wasn't working for me anymore, so I bit the bullet and got colour matched at MAC and bought the Studio Fix Fluid - which has become one of my holy grail foundations and something  I have repurchased multiple times. But I was still on the lookout for another drugstore foundation that matched me as well as the Fit Me.

Favourite Drugstore/Affordable Cream Contour Products

Hi guys, today's post is all about my favourite cream contouring products at the moment. All the products mentioned in this post are all fairly affordable, nothing high end (I will however be doing a post reviewing my favourite high end contouring products at some point so keep an eye out for that).

Kiko Cream Crush Lasting Colour Eyeshadow - Review

Hi guys, today's review is on the Kiko Cream Crush Lasting Colour Eyeshadow in the shade 05. I picked this eyeshadow up on a whim when I first saw it because it was such a pretty shimmery colour and I hadn't really heard much about these eyeshadows so I thought it would be great if I could test it out and review it for you guys.

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Hi guys, just a quick review on the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion sponge today. I've been using this for a few months now and I've found the best way to use this is to run it under cool water and squeeze out the excess then use the damp sponge to blend out my base products - foundation, concealer and cream contour -  I also like using it to bake under my eyes and under my contour to sharpen it up.

Kiko Life in Rio Double Ended Brush - Review

Hey guys. today I'll be reviewing the Kiko Life in Rio Double Ended Brush. When I first saw this brush on the Kiko website I was really intrigued by it as I thought it would be a great brush to contour with as the slight curve to it would really fit into the contours of the face and help give a more chiseled and defined contour. 

The Bodyshop Vitamin E Face Mist - Review

This is the first face mist I have ever used and at first I wasn't too impressed by it because it was too 'wet' and because of this I felt as if it was moving my makeup when I sprayed it on my face and I honestly wasn't too happy about that so I shoved it towards the back of a drawer and forgot all about it. But during a little clear-up session I had, I rediscovered this little bottle and decided to give it another go and I've decided that I do actually quite like it, now that I've figured out the best way to use it, and another great thing is that it has many uses! Read on to find out what I use it for!

Eylure Lashfix Adhesive for False Lashes - Review

So a few weeks back I was browsing the ASOS website for some jeans and after choosing a couple of pairs and adding them to my basket I decided to check out the beauty section which is where I came across the Eylure Lashfix Adhesive for False Lashes and since it was only £2.00 I decided to add it to my basket to test it out. Now I never used to wear false lashes because I just couldn't get them hang of putting them on (I'm getting better at it now) but recently I've been wearing them more often and I don't really like the glue that comes with them so I was glad to have found this

The adhesive comes in a little plastic bottle and you get 6ml of product. the applicator is a little strange and I can't really think of a good way to describe it, but it just looks like a small plastic nib. I apply the adhesive to the band of my false lashes and leave it for about 30 seconds so that it can get tacky. I then I apply it to my eyes using a pair of tweezers.

Zoeva Gel Liner in Black Lace - Review

I'm a huge fan of gel liners and I'm always looking for new brands to try, so when I saw the Cream Eye Liner in Black Lace on the Zoeva website a few weeks ago I decided to buy it and give it a try. 

 On the website it states that this shade is “ Black as the night, a must for purists. Deep, matte black with a hint of blue ” and that it is dramatically intense, long-lasting and water resistant. I was excited to try this as none of the eyeliners I previously owned were actually waterproof and honestly that doesn't really bother me, but I wanted to see if this liner lived up to its claim of being water resistant. And whether it was as intense as it claimed to be.

The product is housed in a glass jar that has a frosted, matte finish and a screw top black lid. The packaging seems really sturdy and doesn't feel like it would break easily. 

Primark - P.S. Beauty Haul

So I finally managed to pick up some pieces from the new Primark P.S. beauty Range and I thought I would show you what I bought! 

|| e.l.f. Maximum Coverage Concealer Review ||

After seeing someone on YouTube using this product and hearing them say how great it was as an under eye concealer I decided to try it out. I picked the shade Tan because I had purchased a stick concealer from e.l.f. in the same shade a while back and I thought that it would be light enough for under the eyes to give a brightening effect.

It comes in a squeezy tube which is great because it means that there's no mess when using it and you don't end up using too much product. Colour wise I felt that it was a bit lighter than the stick concealer but it still worked out great.

It has a thick creamy consistency and is easy to blend. I apply this using the Eco Tools concealer brush, the Real Techniques Deluxe crease brush or a beauty blending sponge, they all work amazingly with this concealer. It covers up my dark circles quite well and has great staying power, it tends to last the whole day if I set it with a powder. However, it does sometimes settle into fine lines under my eyes and crease but not always. Also, on some days when my under eyes are super dark I do have to use another concealer on top of it. But other than that I think that this is a great product and I will definitely be repurchasing it.

I hope this review helped you guys! Thank you so much for reading and let me know what you thought in the comments below :)

|| e.l.f. Baked Blusher - Rich Rose ||

This is another product that I picked up in the e.l.f sale and I've been using it for a couple of weeks now. Again when I added to this to my basket it was not with the intention of using it as a blush, I was hoping it would work as a nice sheer pinkish highlighter.

In the pan it appears to be a brownish colour with pinky/coral veining and a golden shimmer running through it. When swatched it is not as pigmented as Peachy Cheeky (which I reviewed here)but still gives an amazing glowy pink colour. And I do actually use this as a blush, usually on days when I don't want to add too much to my cheeks or if I'm keeping my make up quite simple. I apply it using the Real Techniques Contour brush or the e.l.f. Studio Blush Brush.

Swatched, not as pigmented as the other blush but still a very pretty colour

I also like to apply it on top of other blushers to give them a little something extra and I then add a highlight to my cheekbones since this shade is not quite as shimmery as Peachy Cheeky. But again this is an amazing shade and something that I use on a regular basis, a great buy and really inexpensive :)

I hope this review helped, let me know what you thought in the comments :)

|| Sleek Matte V2 Palette - Review and Swatches ||

I am a huge fan of Sleek cosmetics and I absolutely love the quality of their eyeshadows and blushes. This was the first palette that I bought from Sleek and since then I have picked up two others in Storm and Vintage Romance and I also plan on picking up the Au Naturel palette and the Oh So Special palette.

The main reason that I bought this palette was because, the other palettes that I had contained mostly shimmers with only a few mattes thrown in, so I was on the hunt for a palette that contained a good amount of matte shades and that's when I came across the V2 palette, it was exactly what I was looking for.

The palette consists of twelve shades all matte, there are a couple of brown shades, a plum shade, some light highlight shades with a few brighter shades like the green and the purple thrown in.

The shadows are very pigmented as you can see from the image below. Most of then are quite easy to blend, with very little fall out. The exceptions being the dark blue shade and the black shade in the top row, these two colours are slightly more chalky and hard to blend and the black does have a lot of fall out.

Other than that this is a great palette which can be used to create some simple everyday looks and also some smokey night out looks. I sometimes use the dark brown shade in the bottom row to fill in my brows and it matches them perfectly.

Finger Swatched

This palette retails at £7.99 and can be purchased from Superdrug, the official Sleek Makeup website who offer international shipping, and I believe that Boots stock them also? though I'm not too sure about that.

I hope this review helped you! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great day! :)

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette | Review +& Swatches

Today I have for you a review on Urban Decay's Naked 2 Palette. The palette consists of 12 eye-shadows, one dual ended eye-shadow brush and a large mirror housed in some very sturdy metal casing. I think the packaging  is amazing, not only does it look great but it will also protect your shadows.

|| Urban Decay Primer Potion - Review ||

Today I have for you a review on the Urban Decay Eye-shadow Primer Potion. Now I have extremely oily eyelids and every type of eye-shadow I have tried will crease on me, and I mean EVERY single type whether it be high end or drugstore.

I bought this primer when I brought my Naked 2 Palette and when I went into the store I didn't actually intend to buy it but the sales woman recommended it and I feel really guilty saying NO when they do that which is why I also own a foundation Primer from M.A.C that I very rarely use  -_- I really need to learn to say no sometimes.

But anyhoo, onto the review. The primer comes in a squeezy tube, which is great because it means that your are able to control how much product you squeeze out and I think the packaging is really cute!

Urban Decay claim that you will 'Get vibrant, crease-free colour that lasts over 24 hours' now I can't tell you whether it makes your eyeshadow last for a full 24hrs since I don't like wearing make-up for that many hours. But what I can say is that one, your shadows will not crease(atleast on mine they won't and that is saying something because my eyelids are crease central) and two it does make your shadows last for quite a long time, I think the longest amount of time that I have worn this is about 14 hours which to me is pretty amazing.

When squeezed out of tube the primer is a creamish sort of colour and once blended on to the lids it dries to a transparent finish. Which may not be great if you want to deepen up your eyeshadows but you could always use a dark gel liner/eyeshadow base for that purpose.

All in all I think this product is pretty great and I'm glad I purchased it because I use it on an everyday basis. I am however on the hunt for something that is just as good but not as expensive. If you guys have any suggestions please leave a comment below xx.

Take care xx

P.s. why don't you go on and follow me on twitter @Rukhsar_Shakoof and Instagram rukhsar_shakoof xx