Pink Glitter Half Cut Crease - Full Product Breakdown

Hey guys, so I posted this look on my Instagram (@rukh_shak), and I decided to do a blogpost on it, just giving a breakdown on all the products I used to create the look. Enjoy!

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:

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

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).

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish - Cheeky Bronze

Hi, today's post is a review on the MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Cheeky Bronze. The MAC MSFs are probably one of my favourite products from the brand - Soft and Gentle being one of my most used and loved of them all (review of this will be up soon as well, hopefully).

Cheeky Bronze is a lovely warm golden shade that suits a wide range of skintones. I love applying a light layer of this all over my face to give a subtle healthy looking glow to the skin. I also love using this as a blush when I want to go for a really bronzey sunkissed look. I always say start off with a light layer and slowly build the colour up to prevent it from looking cakey or patchy.

Essence Cosmetics £10 Makeup look

So the lovely ladies over at Flipside PR set me a challenge to create a makeup look for £10 using Essence products and I happily accepted. I'm a regular user of essence products and their Lashes Go Wild Mascara is a firm favourite, I use it everyday and I'm now running out, but whenever I go to pick up a new one it's always out of stock, which just goes to show I'm not the only one who thinks it's amazing! Their lipliners and blushers are also firm favourites (I've got quite a few reviews coming up so keep your eyes open for those) and everything is so affordable - which is great if you're just starting out with makeup/you're on a budget.

 Now I did want to do my whole face using essence products but unfortunately their foundations are slightly too light for my skintone, so I stuck to my regular foundation, but everything else I used is from Essence.

All the products I used are pictured below and my total came to £10.64, which is great in my opinion because these days even buying just one mascara from a drugstore brand could cost you £10+, so being able to get six products for a little over that amount is amazing!

Essence Cosmetics UK Launch

So as some of may have heard Essence Cosmetics has recently launched in the UK. I was invited to the launch event but unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, however, the lovely people over at Flipside PR were kind enough to send me a few products to try out. I am super excited to try all of these things out especially the lipstick and the eyeliner.

The anti-spot foundation was too light for me so I gave it to my younger sister since it matched her better, but I've kept all the other products for myself and will be reviewing them for you all soon. I think I might to a Brand focus type tutorial so that you can see the products in action, I'll have to use a different foundation obviously, but I'm sure everything else will work great! I'm super excited to see how these products apply!

Natural Collection Lipstick - Raspberry

I purchased my first tube of the Natural Collection Lipstick in the shade Raspberry when I was 16 years old and I instantly fell in love. Since then I have gone through three tubes of this lipstick and I recently purchased my fourth, so I decided I would review this shade for you and let you know why I used to love it so much and also why I've recently fallen back in love with it.

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! 

Q Beauty Brushes Review

I popped into Bodycare last week since I needed to pick up a few essentials and I decided to have a look at their make-up section which is where I saw these brushes. I regularly visit Bodycare and I had never seen these brushes before so I quickly grabbed up two of the eye brushes to test out and see if they were any good.

|| 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

|| Clinique Superbalanced Foundation Review ||

Today I have for you a review on the Clinique Superbalanced foundation. This foundation has a medium to full coverage. I like the fact that it's buildable I can go as light or as heavy as I want and it doesn't make me look cakey, it also doesn't feel heavy on the face. Once I've applied it and let it set it drys so a slightly matte finish and I don't usually have to powder my face when I use this which I think is amazing since my t-zone can get very oily during the day.

This could have been the PERFECT foundation for me but, it does have one downside and that is; it makes me look really ashy/grey :( I can work around this by mixing in my M.A.C foundation, but it's not something I want to do everyday. If Clinique would expand their shade range for this foundation maybe something that is more warm I would definitely repurchase because I love the finish it gives.

Have you guys tried this? If you have what did you think of it?

Maybelline 24hr Color Tattoos

I am a little bit late on the band wagon with these since most beauty bloggers will have written about them in some way already. But I thought I'd add my two cents and tell you my opinion on these color tattoos.

 

Maybelline market these color tattoos as having a 24hr water resistant wear. One thing I can say about these is that their lasting power is amazing! Now I haven't worn these for a full 24 hrs since I don't usually keep my make up on for that long (and I doubt that any one else does either), the longest amount of time I have worn these is 14hrs (from 7am to 9pm - when I wake up and get ready for uni to when I get back at the end of the day) and I didn't experience any budging, creasing, fading or smudging thorughout the day - and my eyelids do get very oily so I was extremely pleased with how well these lasted.

The texture of these is really smooth and creamy and they glide on to the eyelids; can be applied with your fingertips or with a synthetic eyeshadow brush. The shades are very opaque and don't need much building up. I have had mine for quite a few months and they haven't dried up on me yet!

Uses: they can be used alone as an eyeshadow for a quick and simple look if you're running low on time or as a base for your powder eyeshadows to stick to and make them last longer. I have read in some beauty blogs that they can also be used as a cream eyeliner; now I haven't tried this out myself but it might be something you guys might want to try. When using these as an eyeshadow base one thing i would say is that if you want smooth blended edges then work with one eye at a time since they do dry quite quickly.

They come packaged in a heavy glass jar with a black screw on lid. The packaging is hefty and doesn't feel or look cheap. However, you do have to be careful when travelling with these since they are at risk of breaking.

 On and On Bronze

Permanent Taupe

Pink gold