Sleek i-Divine Del Mar Volume I Limited Edition Palette- I'm in Love!

I received this palette yesterday and I am soooo impressed with it! I love the shadows- they are super pigmented and the shades are gorgeous- perfect for summer.

It came in this cool box!

As always, the Sleek packaging is robust and looks really nice and the palette contains a mirror.

As I said, the shades are great and really unusual. They go so beautifully together. I applied them with the Mac 237 brush and I was really impressed with the pigmentation, the way they applied and the blendability!

The shades have names and the palette comes with a transparent bit of plastic with the names on it.

I can't emphasise how much I love the colours- really intense but not too crazy, if you know what I mean? I hope there is a volume 2... I will definitely be buying it!

You can buy the palette here: Superdrug link!

Amanda x x x

Sleek i-Divine Acid Palette versus Makeup Revolution Acid Brights Palette!

Hi all

So you may have seen my post a few days ago about the Makeup Revolution Acid Brights Palette. The shades are good, but the pigmentation less so. I heard it is a dupe of the Sleek i-Divine Acid Palette and I thought I'd compare the two!

Makeup Revolution's version is only £4. The packaging looks nice, but has no mirror and is a bit flimsy. I like the long, thin shadows though- they look cool!

The shadows are quite powdery and the matte ones are not very pigmented at all. this is a general problem with mattes, but particularly in this palette! You could use the shadows wet and using a white base will help too.

The Sleek palette feel very sturdy and has a mirror, plus traditional round pans of shadow.

Overall, it is a little smaller than the Makeup Revolution version...

The shadows have a nicer formula and feel smoother and less powdery. they apply better and have better pigmentation, in my opinion.

Here are swatches side by side. The row on the right is Makeup Revolution. You can see that some shades are definitely bolder in the Sleek row of colours! 

Colour wise they are very similar, although the second darkest shade is a shiny dark grey in the Sleek palette and more of a silver in the Makeup Revolution offering. The shimmery light blue has more depth in the Sleek shade, too.

Overall, I would say that it's worth forking out the extra money for the Sleek palette for the better formulation and pigment!

What do you think? Do you have either palette? Or both?

Amanda xx

Soap and Glory 'Archery' Brow Tint and Precision Shaping Pencil

So, I just received this and tried it and I was so excited that I had to do a blog post!

This eyebrow product retails for £9.99 but I got a new one from eBay for around £7.50 so it's worth a look... 

I got the shade Love is Blonde which is great for lighter hair colours.

Basically it has a sort of fine nibbed pen one end and a pencil the other.

My favourite part of this is the pen. The pencil is ok but doesn't beat my all time favourite eyebrow pencil- Powerbrow from the MUA Luxe Range. But the pencil is good and a great shade. People often complain about red tones in brow products- especially blonde ones- and there's none here. The formula is fine too!

Anyway, back to the pen. There's no chance of the dreaded 'slug brow' here. The product is subtly pigmented and the thin brush helps create thin strokes for a more natural look. I love the shade and the way this applies. It's amazing!!!

You're meant to start with the tint pen and then you can create a stronger look with the pencil if you want. I quite liked the pen alone!

Here's the brow I created just with the pen. It was quite a quick and rough first attempt. Also bear in mind I have very light and sparse brows that are actually a weird brown colour, rather than the lovely shade this creates. I'm really impressed!

I highly recommend this :)

Amanda x x x 

Rimmel Colour Rush Balm- Rita Ora

So yesterday I did a post about Rita Ora's nail polish line for Rimmel and I wasn't impressed. However, I also bought the Rita Ora Colour Rush Balm. They are £5.99 each but I got them on offer, so I got two!

I bought the shades 'I Want Candy', a light pink shade and 'Rumour Has It', a pinky red.

Unlike the Rita Ora nail polish, I LOVE these balms. They have a nice vanilla scent and a really unusual but lovely formulation. It lasts well and creates a light sheen on the lips. It feels nice and these have become one of my favourite of these 'chubby stick' style lip products.

Here are the colours on the lips! First, 'I Want Candy':

Them 'Rumour Has It':

Hope this little review has been helpful! I'm planning a video about all the chubby stick lip stuff I have soon, to compare them.

See you all soon!

Buy it here!

Amanda x x x

Rimmel 60 Seconds Rita Ora Nail Polish- Review

Morning everyone!

So today I thought I would let you know what I think of this nail polish from Rimmel and connected somehow to Rita Ora. I never really know how much actual input the celebrity has in these collections, to be honest. 

Anyway, I was in my local pharmacy and saw these on offer and LOVED the shades. I really wanted a white nail polish (although I have been told it looks like Tippex) and I love pastel shades for my nails. Pastel colours don't suit me in clothes really, so I take the chance to wear them on my nails!

I chose two shades- 'White Hot Love' and 'Breakfast in Bed'. They are £3.69 each.

I quite like the Pop Art style of the picture of Rita but otherwise the bottles are unremarkable. The shades look matte in the bottle but they do have a slight shimmer to them which might not show up in these photos.

So now let's get down to it. The formulation of these polishes are really poor! They are gloopy and streaky. Compared with the NYC 'In a New York Minute' polishes, they are pretty rubbish. If you can find similar shades in another budget brand go for that instead!

After a couple of coats and some hard work I was able to even these out and they lasted OK (and dried fast) but I really wouldn't recommend them.

Sorry Rita!

Amanda x x

Links:

Buy Rimmel Rita Ora 60 Second Nail Polish here: http://www.superdrug.com/icat/rimmelritaoranails

Buy NYC In a Colour Minute here: http://www.superdrug.com/nyc/nyc-in-a-new-york-colour-minute-east-village-206/invt/575670

Collection 'Does It All' Mascara in Ultra Black Waterproof- Benefit 'They're Real' Dupe?

Good day to you! And I hope you are well. I saw this mascara on a YouTube video, comparing it to the Benefit 'They're Real' mascara. I have 'They're Real' and I do like it, but it is very expensive and I'm really into budget brands. Another of my favourite mascaras is Jordana Best Lash, but this is only available in the US and they have recently changed the formula for the worse... As as result, I am on the look out for something cheap and just as good!

So, along comes this Collection 'Does It All'. I chose waterproof as I like to avoid rain/ tears/ sweat making my make up run! 

I really like the packaging of this mascara and it feels solid and looks nice, especially for a £4.99 mascara. 

When you open the product, you'll see a wand similar to the Benefit 'They're Real' wand. It's rubbery and pretty cool!

The mascara applies well and isn't clumpy. You can apply a couple of coats if you want a more dramatic look, like me!

In comparison to my Jordana Best Lash, I think this could be a contender. And it is definitely a good alternative to the Benefit offering, especially at a fraction of the price!

What's your favourite budget mascara?

Speak soon!

Amanda x x

Makeup Revolution Acid Brights Palette Review

So, I'm one of many bloggers/ YouTubers excited about the new brand Makeup Revolution. They are a budget brand with prices starting from £1, they have lots of dupes and some lovely products. Style and packaging wise, they seems slightly more upmarket than MUA but do have some similar items.

This palette is a dupe for the Sleek palette of a similar name. It also contains similar bright shades to those found in the Urban Decay Electric Palette, which I it's admit I am dying to get my hands on! 

Here's how the palette looks:

There's a mixture of matte and shimmer shades here and I must say the shimmer ones are much more pigmented and apply more easily. This is always true of such shades, but I feel it's particularly the case here. The colours go on much better over a white base like a NYX eye crayon or white primer that sets. 

Here's the swatches in daylight with no base:

Here's the swatches under electric light:

You can see the second, third and tenth shades hardly show up. A primer really helps or you could use them wet. 

I attempted a bright eye look with the palette but realised afterwards I should have packed the colour on more. I used a Jordana eyeshadow stick in white as a base here:

It is pretty but not that dramatic! I prefer the MUA poptastic palette I think...

Overall it's worth grabbing this palette for only £4 as it's quite fun, but I think the Sleek one is probably better! I don't have it but a friend of mine rates it highly... 

Here's the links!

Buy Makeup Revolution Acid Brights Palette here:

http://www.superdrug.com/eye-make-up/makeup-revolution-redemption-palette-acid-brights/invt/979711

Buy MUA poptastic here:

http://www.superdrug.com/mua-professional/mua-eyeshadow-palette-poptastic/invt/267778

Buy Sleek Acid here:

http://www.sleekmakeup.com/acid-i-divine-palett-acid-i-divine-palette

That's all for now!

Amanda x x

Welcome!

So I finally decided to set up a proper blog (in addition to my Tumblr which just has photos and videos from YouTube and Instagram) and I hope you enjoy it!

This is just a welcome post- hope you like the posts I create over the next few weeks and months!

Amanda :) x