Makeup MAYhem POST 29 - Sleek Blush By "3" Review

Asyou all know I am a lover of Sleek Make Up and, as mentioned previously (Here) I recently ordered the Blush By 3 palette from the Sleek website.

Iusually buy Sleek products from my local Superdrug but as all of the Superdrugstores in my area no longer stocked the Blush By 3 palettes I had to order itonline. This was the first time I had ordered from the Sleek websiteand I was impressed with the service I received - numerous emails toinform me that my order had been received, processed and despatched and thedelivery time was quick which is great for me as I'm so impatient and hateordering online!

Enoughsaid about the website, lets talk about the palette itself...

What Sleek Say...

"Blush by 3 is a trio shade blush palette that takes you effortlessly from day to night! Each palette has 3 ultra pigmented shades to choose from in matte and shimmer shades. Use the matte shades for a subtle day time flush, and add the shimmery shade over the top for a touch of night time glamour!"

 Packaging

 Theblush by 3 comes in the customary sturdy black plastic casing with a goodsized mirror placed on the underside of the lid. I love the feel of Sleekpackaging, for such inexpensive products they always manageto feel robust and well put together as well as looking sleek (pardonthe pun) yet simple. The only downside to the Sleekpackaging for me is the colour. Dont get me wrong, I dont have a problemwith the black packaging visually, I actually think it looks quite chic but itsa nightmare if you keep this in your make up bag because it just ends up caked inmake up!

Qualityof Product

 Sleekproducts are reknowned for their high pigmentation and this palettedoesnt disappoint. The three blushes included in this palette are Crochet a muted matte orange shade, Guipure, a peachy pink with gold shimmer and Chantilly, an opaque red/dark peach. All threeare very pigmented and the mattes dont look dull or flat on the face. Onlya tiny amount of each blush is required due to the high pigmentation, I literally just dab the tip ofmy brush in the blush and find this is ample amount for a nice naturalglow. I would recommend applying with a light hand to achieve a naturalday time look and avoid looking like a ragdoll but you can buildthese colours up to be more intense if required. As the box says "TheBlush by "3" palette has been formulated with intense pigment, yetthe shades can be layered, in order to achieve the required intensity"which I agree with - it literally does what it says on the tin, or box in thiscase!

Affordability

Onceagain, Sleek continue to amaze me with their highly affordable yet high qualityproducts. This palette is priced at just £10.00 which is a complete bargain forthree blushes! I would probably pay up to the £20 mark for thispalette due to the amazing pigmentation and quality of the blushes. Youreally cant go wrong with Sleek products and I urge you to give them a try ifyou havent already, you wont be disappointed!

Other Comments 

Ijust wanted to quickly mention that the Guipure from this palette is said to bea rather good dupe for Nars Orgasm. I have never actually tried Nars Orgasm butI know that it costs £21 which seems extortionate when you can get threegood quality blushes for less than half the price! If you cant getyour hands on the Lace palette but are desperate for the Guipure I wouldrecommend the Rose Gold blush from Sleek's permanent line as this is verysimilar. The Rose Gold blush can be bought from the Sleek Website or any Superdrug store for £4.30.

 OverallI really rate this palette. Infact, theres nothing I dont like about it! The palette also comes in four other shades; Pumpkin, Pink Spirit, Sugar and Flame, soif the Lace palette doesnt tickle your pickle why not give one of these a try?

With Love,

Rachel x

FashionistA Magnetism Nail Lacquer

I am a massive fan of The Saturdays so when I heard that they were endorsing a new type of nail varnish I knew I would have to give it a try. The nail varnish (or lacquer as its called) in question is FashionistA Magnetism and it has been available to buy exclusively from Superdrug stores for a few months now. There are five colours to choose from, one for each member of the band. Each has been named after one of The Saturday’s song titles: First up is Frankie’s Notorious Silver, then we have Mollie’s Purple me Up, Una’s Ego Green, Vanessa has Forever is blue and finally Rochelle’s is called Fired up red. These nail lacquers retail at £6 each and the special magnet that is required to achieve the ‘wave’ look is sold separately for £3 – Not overly cheap but not too expensive either. 17 also have a magnetism nail varnish but unlike the FashionistA version, the magnet is supplied on the lid and is not sold separately which is a much better idea in my opinion. FashionistA claim that the reason behind the lid being sold separately is that they hope to release more magnets in the future that create different patterns on the nail rather than just the wave. This means that when a new magnet is released you can just buy the magnet rather than having to fork out for the nail varnish with the magnet attached which makes sense.

I treated myself to Frankie’s Notorious Silver (Which is more of a grey in my opinion) and Mollie’s Purple me Up.

“Created with The Saturdays by FashionistA, bring your nails to life with Magnetism Nail Lacquer!”

Ease of use – These nail lacquers are extremely easy to apply. They go on quite thick so only one coat is required if wearing alone. The instructions on the box are very clear and easy to follow – Apply one coat of nail lacquer, leave to dry, apply second coat of nail lacquer, hold magnet over nail before second coat dries et voila! I did find that if I just held the magnet in place it didn’t cover my whole nail meaning that only half of my nail had the wavy pattern on it. To solve this I just rock the magnet from one side of my nail to the other and then slowly move it up my nail (obviously without touching the nail!) to make sure that the whole nail is wavy.

Affordability – As mentioned above, these nail lacquers are £6 each and the magnet is £3. I think this is quite a reasonable price, however the 17 version is only £5.99 and the magnet is included. I don’t mind paying £6 a bottle for the Magnetism Nail Lacquer but I imagine that FashionistA will be getting a fair bit of competition from 17 as I can’t see people paying £9 for one bottle of FashionistA Magnetism nail lacquer and the magnet when they can buy the 17 [name] which includes the magnet for just £5.99. I think this is where the power of The Saturdays comes in. FashionistA have been very clever by enlisting The Sats to endorse this product – It’s the only thing that made me buy it and I dare say I’m not the only one! A very clever marketing tool.

Value for money – As these Nail Lacquers apply so thickly and not much product is needed to cover the nail I envisage these two bottles lasting me a very long time which justifies the £6 price tag.

Quality of product – I hate to say it but I am quite disappointed with the quality of this product. I had such high hopes for it and I do love the look it achieves but it just doesn’t last on my nails long enough. Without a top coat it chipped after just one day and with a top coat it chipped after two days. Usually I would just go over the chips and cover them but because of the wave pattern this is not possible which means completely re-painting the nail again which is a pain!

Packaging – The packaging of this product is simple yet effective. Each box has a picture of a Saturdays member wearing the nail lacquer that is relevant to them and their signature/autograph has been embossed into the box in silver text. Clear instructions and images showing how to apply the product have been printed on one side of the box and on the other side is a picture of the effect that the magnet creates. On the back of the box there is a picture of all five of The Saturdays and ‘swatches’ of their Nail Lacquer shades above them.

I can only apologise for the rubbish swatch photo! Its just so hard to photograph the effect!

Overall I love this product. The two colours I picked up are lovely and I wouldn’t mind adding the other three to my collection! The only negative is the longevity of the product, it just doesn’t last long enough which is a real shame as it could have scored top marks from me if it just lasted that little bit longer!

Have you tried FashionistA Magnetism Nail Lacquer yet? What were your thoughts?

With Love,

Rachel x

Maybelline Haul

I’ve got another Haul for you lucky people today! It seems to be all I am posting lately, hauls. Its not because I’ve been on a mad splurge but I seem to have accumulated quite a few things over the past few weeks and with Christmas and everything else I just haven’t gotten round to posting about any of it! Fingers crossed there will just be a few more haul posts then I can get on to posting about other things before you all get bored!

Please accept my apologies for the poor quality of images used in this post. Believe it or not these pictures were taken at one o'clock in the afternoon but as per usual in not so sunny England the sky was dull and dreary and light was limited so this is the best I could get.

My sister recently purchased the Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid foundation and, after giving it a quick try and really liking it, I decided I needed it in my life. Superdrug were doing a 3 for 2 offer on all Maybelline products so it seemed silly to just buy the foundation.

I got the foundation in the same shade as my sister, Ivory. I have quite pale skin and often find it difficult to find a foundation that isn’t too orange toned or dark for me but this shade is perfect. It doesn’t even look like I’m wearing foundation which is what I love about it.

I also bought the Super Stay 24 hour concealer in light/beige (shade 2). I wont talk any more about this product just yet because I want to do a concealer comparison post in the next few weeks.

As I had bought two items my third was free. I decided to try a lipstick as I don’t usually buy or wear lipsticks and wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. I wanted to start with a nude shade so picked up this nude shade (I dont have the name to hand but will add a comment below once I know the name) I’m not too sure on the colour yet but will go into more detail when I write a review.

That’s it for this haul. Short and sweet :)

Do you use any Maybelline products? What’s your favourite?

With Love,

Rachel x

Mini Nail Varnish Haul.

I went shopping last Sunday and picked up a few goodies of the nail varnish variety for myself so here is a quick haul, just for you...

Barry M Nail Paints - Superdrug.

As I said in my Sleek Storm Palette Review, I am useless at applying eye shadow. Another thing I'm useless at is painting my nails... So, what did I decide to buy on a recent shopping trip with my Mum? Not one, not two but three Barry M Nail Paints. Well, technically I bought two as one was free (more on that later).

The first shade I bought was Grey (293). I've had my eye on this colour for a while as I aren't usually a fan of bright nails and prefer the understated, subtle shades (I really want to try Mushroom and Dusky Mauve next). My sister painted my nails with the Grey the night before my shopping trip and I loved it so much I had to have it for myself. My sister also applied the Barry M pink crackle over the top of the grey and the two went together really well. I did contemplate actually buying the pink crackle when I bought the Grey but decided that if I wanted to recreate the look my sister had done for me I could just borrow her pink crackle so decided against it. Maybe I will eventually buy it though as I cant keep 'borrowing' nail varnish from my fourteen year old sister...

Although I decided against the pink crackle, I did want one of the crackle colours. My sister already has the pink and blue so it seemed pointless buying any of those. I thought the black was a bit dull and if I were to wear it with the Grey it would just be too dark and dreary. I contemplated white but quickly decided that this would probably look like I had just applied Tippex to my nails... (I could be wrong though so if you have tried the white crackle please share your thoughts!) Then I clapped eyes on the purple crackle. Purple is my favouritest colour EVER and I quickly snapped it up. It did look a teeny bit dark in the bottle but I thought it would look amazing if put with the right colour.

As I had spent over £6 on Barry M products I received a free gift which was the Lilac Foil Effects (142). This isn't a colour I would usually buy but it is very pretty and cute. I didn't quite understand the whole 'foil' thing as it didn't really seem like a 'new, ground-breaking thing' to me as the advertising and bottle suggested. Metallic nail varnishes have been around for a loooong time and I couldn't quite work out what made this product so different, until I applied it... I will write a review on this over the next few days, but for now, let's just say I LOVE it! Receiving the Lilac Foil as a free gift made my choice of crackle perfect as the Lilac Foil and purple crackle look scrumptious together.

Collection 2000 Nail Varnish - Wilkinsons.

As well as picking up the three Barry M Nail Paints, I also treated myself to a bottle of Collection 2000's Buried Treasure. I was actually looking for a Rose Gold nail varnish as I have seen this on a few blogs and you tube videos but I couldn't find any [insert sad face here]. Buried Treasure was the closest thing I could find to Rose Gold but it is more of a creamy gold than a pinky gold - in fact, it is nothing like Rose Gold but I was adamant that I would be taking a gold shade nail varnish home with me and Buried Treasure was the nicest one I could find! I haven't actually used this yet but I have done a quick swatch on paper and I absolutely love the colour.

All About Face Nail Varnish - Tesco!

As said above, I had a mad search for Rose Gold nail varnish and, despite searching high and low, I just could not find any. After our frenzied dash around our local shopping centre, we rushed to Tesco (it was half past three on a Sunday may I add, and the shop was shutting in half an hour!) and while my Mum was looking for a Christmassy DVD I scoured the make up aisle - Or I would have done if they hadn't put those silly shutters down over all of the popular branded make up! This left me with the cheapo stuff to look at, and, I have to say, I didn't hold out much hope! I checked the 99p nail varnishes first but they didn't have anything even remotely like Rose Gold so I turned my search to the £1.49 nail varnishes (Last of the big spenders!) and actually found a shade quite similar to Rose Gold (Please note, I use the words 'quite similar' very loosely as it doesn't really resemble Rose Gold at all but at this point I was desperate and I think if somebody had presented me with a lime green nail varnish I would have said it was similar to Rose Gold and rushed to the checkout with it...). It was by 'All About Face' which I thought was a rather iffy brand name for nail varnish as you don't apply nail varnish to your face... Anywhoo, the shade is Fudge which I think is about as relevant as the brand name as it looks nothing like fudge! And even though its not really anything like Rose Gold I likes it and I'm happy that I added it to my (slowly growing) collection :)



Upper Swatch - Fudge & Lower Swatch - Buried Treasure



I thought both the Fudge and Buried Treasure were both nice festive-y (is that even a word?) colours and aren't too tacky, which golds (in my opinion) usually tend to be. 


So there you go, five new nail varnishes added to my collection in the space of two hours! Now just to practice actually painting my nails without making it look like I've been dipping my fingers in paint...

I'm going to do a review of the Barry M Nail Paints and Crackle next so watch this space for that!

With Love,

Rachel x 

Sleek Storm Palette Review

The Sleek Storm Palette is another purchase I made on the strength of reviews. Every review I read couldnt recommend it enough and, I have to say, I completely agree...

Sleek Storm Palette

Affordability - ♥♥♥♥♥

Vaule for money - ♥♥♥♥♥

Quality of product - ♥♥♥♥♥

Ease of use - ♥♥♥♥♥

Packaging - ♥♥♥♥♥

Affordability - The Sleek Storm palette is currently £6.49 from both Superdrug and the Sleek website. I think this is an absolutely amazing price for this product and wouldn't be surprised if the price does start to creep up now that the range is gaining popularity. I would pay up to around £10 for this palette as I think the quality is worth much more than £6.49! (Not that I'm complaining about the cheap price or anything - I likes cheap!).

Value for money - I have had this palette for around four months now and there are no major visible signs of use yet! Other than that fact that some of my favourite colours don't have the 'waffle' like pattern on top anymore but other than that you would think it was still an un-used palette. A little bit goes a loooong way as the eye shadows are so blendable and easy to work with which makes this palette even more amazing.

Quality of product - First of all, let me explain that I am usually absolutely useless when it comes to applying eye shadow - I end up with fall out all over my cheeks and smudges of eye shadow all around my eyes! I bought the Sleek Storm palette after watching a few tutorial videos on YouTube (ALBMakeup) which made application of these eye shadows look so easy and effortless and the results were great. I was extremely tempted to purchase more than one of the palettes when I saw how cheap they were but managed to stop myself until I had tried the Storm Palette. I really cannot fault the quality of these eye shadows - they are extremely pigmented and fool proof to use and I just love everything about them! The best thing for me about this palette is, with the exception of one or two, I will use every single shade which doesn't happen very often as I'm such a fussy bugger!

Ease of use - As mentioned above, I am usually useless at applying eye shadow. The first time I used the Sleek Storm palette I followed a tutorial video on YouTube and was amazed when I had finished and the result actually looked the same (or very similar at least!) as the video! I have tried following eye make up tutorials before using various other eye shadows and have not once managed to achieve an even remotely decent look! These eye shadows are so pigmented and blendable which makes them super easy to use. I honestly can not recommend this palette enough, I love every thing about it and always get compliments when I use it!

Packaging - I really love the packaging for this product. The palette itself looks sophisticated and tidy and I absolutely love the large mirror in the lid. The only criticism I have is that the box in which the palette comes in is utterly needless and is just a waste of time really!

Overall I really can't knock the Sleek Storm palette. It has become a firm favourite make-up item of mine and is always the thing I reach for when I want to create a new eye look (I even used this palette for my Halloween make up!). If you haven't given the Sleek palettes a try yet, get out and get yours now! You wont regret it!

Links - Sleek Storm Palette @ Superdrug

                 Sleek Make Up