Ruby & Millie Bargains!

Wondering around Huddersfield feeling a tad dejected.  I literally had £15 left in my secret stash of cash which I keep for emergency make up purchases.  Even by my standards £15 is not a whole heap and everything I wanted was way more.  

Em and I wondered into Boots just on the off chance and look what I found!

Ruby & Millie bargains!! These were reduced to £1.81 each - an eye shadow compact in the gold case and a lip gloss one in the red.

Really nice neutral collection - the light brown in the top right section really caught my eye as the UD Naked palette doesn't have a pale brown/taupe with subtle shimmer, the 2 palest browns are in that palette are matte.

Swatched in shade, clockwise from the white

Same order, in the sun - clipped the white a tad!

The shadows are gorgeous! soft and buttery, well pigmented and with light shimmer and no fall out, I am made up with them.

The lipglosses are a nice range of colours too.

Swatched in shade, clockwise from the red

Swatched in sunlight, same order

 The glosses aren't as strongly pigmented as the shadows but I think for glosses the colour pay off is pretty good.  They have a really nice balm like texture, rather than gloopy sticky gloss with no taste or smell.  I was really pleased to pick these up for for under four quid even if the glosses aren't pristine - should have been more careful and nabbed one of the still sealed kits, didn't think about it in my haste to grab one!

In addition I got one of their eye liner brushes for 83p - I already have one which I use daily to tight line using shadow, its a straight brush and is fantastic for tight lining, pleased to have a spare just in case!  Resisted the £1 foundation brush as I already have one of those too!

I also got a GORGEOUS lipstick - but saving that for a later post!

Whats everyone been up to this weekend, anyone else nabbed a bargain?

Revlon Super Lustrous lipgloss - Pink Pop

Holding my hands up to my make-up purchases this weekend being totally driven by 2 days of sunshine; first orange nail varnish and now this:

I had admired (lusted after) a very similar shade in the Chanel glosses last time I was having a play but wasn't sure that I could carry off a bright pink gloss and didn't want to spend twenty odd quid only to find out that I couldn't.  So the Revlon was an affordable alternative.

Actually on the lips it isn't so opaque that its scary, it sheers out enough to just give a nice hit of colour.  For a gloss it is surprisingly comfortable to wear too, I haven't found it particularly sticky which is a benefit, although I did have the whole hair/gloss thing going on in the Co-op car park when a particularly strong gust glued the two together, I am so cool.

Having decided that bright is the way to go I was very very very tempted by the Revlon Super Lustrous gloss in Coral Reef.  It's orange.  Lip smackingly orange.  Did mention to my very beloved daughter that I had considered an orange lip gloss and without pausing for thought she said "if you buy it I will disown you, you are waay to old for orange gloss".  Never one to hold back.  Bitch was right about nude lips so I guess I had better listen.

Revlon Super Lustrous lipgloss costs £6.99 and is on the Boots site here
Just googled Coral Reef and had a look at images, looking at the swatches it does seem that the vast majority that bought Pink Pop also bought Coral Reef.  Clearly they don't live with the self-appointed arbiter of age appropriate lip colour like I have to! A lot of them did also appear to be about 19. 

NARS Velvet Lipgloss pencils

Last weekend Em and I went to Leeds with the intention of buying only make up and had a great time.  She was treated like dirt by the SA on the MAC counter, without which humiliation no cosmetics shopping trip is really complete.  Lose the attitude, it maybe MAC, you maybe beautiful but the contempt? UGLY.

Wanted to check out NARS Sheer Glow as had read so much about it and can confirm that it is neither sheer nor especially glowy.  Lovely though I would imagine.  The 2 SA's on the NARS counter in Harvey Nichols in Leeds are officially the nicest make up SA's ever.  We chatted for ages, they were really interested in the whole blogging thang and kept hauling new stuff not yet on the counter out from underneath it to show me!  There is a hot hot hot pink gloss due out soon, very opaque and an incredible colour for the young and firm of pout.  Think it might be these actually just debuting only on the NARS site
http://www.narscosmetics.co.uk/the-latest/spring-2011/perfect-match-lip-gloss.html  
And some lovely lip gloss pencils.  

Clearly this is a case of reinventing the wheel but this time the new wheel is better than the old one, it has alloys and white walled tyres.  Ok enough with that analogy, that really isnt working! The gloss pencils are lovely - I got to have a play with one and they are more like a sheer lipstick than a sticky shiny gloss.  These are also on the NARS site so not sure how new they are?
 
All you lip product junkies should keep your eyes peeled for these!

Pixi Wakeup kit - review and swatches

Mixed feelings about this if I am being honest. It was a purchase made in desperation, which we all know is never a good idea but the eye shadows were what I was really after so I wasnt too bothered about the glosses and the highlighter blush and bronzer.



On the whole I quite like the eye shadows. I think perhaps the palette is aimed at a younger user - in spite of its creator being nearer my age than 17! All of the shadows are shimmer or glitter not a single matt to be had and I think that really lets this collection down.
Taken outdoors, no flash. First impressions are good; a nice range of colours most of them neutral so pretty much what I was looking for, as a born again eye shadow wearer I am still taking baby steps! I knew immediately that the top 2 rows would be relatively untroubled by me, cant wear pink on my eyes without looking like a rabbit with myximatosis (is that spelt right?). The bottom two rows seemed to be much more what I was looking for.

Top row swatched:

Not exactly fab are they? Much shimmer and dry and clumpy, first impressions were right these ones wont see much in the way of active duty.


Row 2 very similar, not fab colour pay-off and again clumpy and in that first one the glitter/shimmer is chunky in a dry base. Gad am crap at this sort of stuff, hopefully the photos are speaking for me!


Rows 1 and 2 in the palette for comparison.


This is row 3. The very last one, that in this photo looks very dry is one of my 4 faves. It is a bitch for fall out, first time I used it I had a cheek full of dark brown shimmer, stunning look! Have found it best to pat this on with my finger and then blend with a brush so as not to skite it all round my face. Apart from the first one this row of shadows is a wildly different texture to the first 2 rows, all of them are much smoother, although the fifth retains a bit of the clumpy dryness which is a shame.


Row 4 and home to the other 3 faves, which are the first, fourth and fifth. The first is a warm gold shimmer with a nice smooth texture, hallelujah!, fourth is a taupe shimmer again really smooth and the one that I am going to use up first and fifth is a darker taupe with the least shimmer of all. The 2nd and 3rd shadows are also very smooth shimmers in nice shades but more for use as highlighters than colour and there is only so much high shine pale shimmer a girl can use. Especially when that "girl" is 44 with eyelids like an alligator.

Rows 3 and 4 in palette for comparison:


And my fave 4 together clockwise starting with lightest is 1st on row 4, then taupe from 4th row, darker taupe from 4th and finally the darkest is 5th from row 3. Nice but not exactly £27 worth of fabulousness are they?!


So thats the eye shadows. Now for the lip glosses.


Row 1


Row 2

In a word? Pants. Just shocking, sticky and the only ones that do anything are all glittery and orange looking. Vile.

Now for the highlighter, bronzer and blusher.


Highlighter and bronzer


Highlighter and blush


These are clearly not my colours at all and I am very anti applying coloured powder to my face - blush is always cream for me. That said I think these could be wearable on a younger face especially the hightlighters. although they are a bit sparkly for a grown up. All four powders have a lovely silky feel although the bronzer doesn't blend so that could be scary on!

To be completely honest I am not impressed. Pixi is the creation of a make up artist and as such I would have expected a much better palette, the eye shadows are 50% unuseable and because there are no mattes the only option is to create shimmer eyes so not much range really. The shadows that play nice are lovely and that just makes it harder to understand why the others are so clumpy and dry. The glosses are egregiously bad and a real let down if you had bought this palette hoping to use them. Blusher, bronzer and highlighter sort of had to be there to make this a "wake up" palette and whilst I wont use them I think on a younger face they might actually be the stars of the show. So the quest for my hg palette continues. But only until I get my hands on the UD Naked palette and then that quest can happily come to an end. Am going to start saving so I can purchase the minute it appears. Or, if I am truly lucky I might win it from the advent giveaway that Lipglossing was running in the run up to Christmas!!

Lipgloss love

Never been a huge fan of dense, opaque lipstick, wasn't into gloss either as couldn't be doing with all that gloopy, sticky, slippy yak so tended to stick with sheer lipstick or coloured balms and then, much like the eye shadow thing, I decided that as I am going to be sixty like really soon I only had a few years left in which to experiment and decided to give glosses a go. I now have a frankly awesome collection. Well, five. And the fifth is a vile purple nasty thing I bought for £2.50 in m&s and instantly regretted, if you can actually spend 5 mins regretting a £2.50 spend.



The m&s one is on the end, it makes me look like I have a heart condition. And three of the others are basically the same colour, not exactly adventurous am I?

First up was the Vinyl gloss in snog. Stupid name (if you are 40 odd!), nice gloss not too sticky, tastes fine. Second purchase was the Chanel one. As a careful and sensible traveller with no desire to have to chuck all my make in a bin at an airport I generally stash all make up in my suitcase. So went to Dublin duty free wedged up and ready to spend with no make up to make sure that I didn't inadvertently spend £19 on a Chanel gloss which is a sparklier version of one I already own. Fell totally in love with a Chanel gloss that was perfect in every way and sans sparkle, having decided that maybe sparkle was a bit childish on me. When I was told that the gloss I needed was out of stock I decided not to do the sensible thing and WAIT to get it at home I just bought this one, spur of the moment, no thought at all. When I got home and compared the two I realised they are basically the same thing. I wear the Rimmel one all the time and put the Chanel one in my bag for nights out so that people think I am posh.

The third one is the brighter Rimmel vinyl gloss in foreplay, or shag or something equally purile. It languishes in my back up make up bag as I am not loving it.

Having always known that I couldn't wear nude lips I decided to continue with the boundary pushing and purchased the Bourjois one. Look, no sparkles - I finally managed to by a non sparkly gloss. Of course it is now my absolute go to, wear every day gloss and the only thing I need to change is my lip pencil which is a bit pinky and needs to err more into the brown spectrum. Would show photos of these on my lips but then you would see my 'tache.

Trafford Centre Haul!!

Had a FANTASTIC time with Em at the Trafford Centre, although it is like shopping in hell - I have never shopped anywhere that is hotter, its bloody ridiculous.

Warning - photo heavy post! Got the "grown up" camera out, had great fun and took millions!



Got suede boots - Next microfibre stretchy, giant calf accommodation ones with a wedge heel, MAC Lillicent Blushcreme, having wavered on the Uncommon and than let the SA loose with Lillicent and her foundation/creme blush brush. Loved the colour and the application so I bought the brush too - fck me £25, oops! Does make my very old face look flawless though so it could be worth its weight in gold! But you are all sworn to secrecy, Steve must never know!


(embarrassed cough! - thats the brush, right there! shhhhh!)


business end








Em got a fab handbag, although there was a moment when she thought they hadn't got them and the bottom lip was coming out! Luckily I asked the SA on the MAC counter and she pointed us in the right direction, Em was so relieved she hugged her!





and a lush lip gloss, although secretly think she was happier with the huge yellow Selfridges bag than anything that was in it!






Nice top from Next too that I hadn't planned, Barry M Nail Art crackle from Superdrug and 2 new MUA eyeshadows, a pale green for me and a vivid purple for Em. She bought us tapas for lunch - lush!


I mean please, for a quid, how fab is this?











And then we hit Boots; an hygienic nose and ear trimmer (for Steve, honest injun!) and decided that as a straighten my hair every day now I needed a heat protecting spray, rather than spend a fortune (kept remembering that MAC brush lurking in my bag and breaking out in a cold sweat!) I opted for the Boots Expert heat protection spray and got one of their clarifying shampoos too as once a week I like to lather my hair in something containing masses of SLS and other toxic crap just to make sure its really clean! And with my £5 voucher I got myself the Boots No 7 eye shadow brush, having read this just before I left, great recommendation Fee, thanks!



Em spotted a stand with Britney Spears Circus on it for £10 instead of £20 with one bottle left, not for long though ...... yoink....!



I love spending time with my baby girl, how lucky am I that she is a shopping maniac who is more into make up than me, bless her!

Little bit of weekend cheer!

No 7 Speed dry in Blackberry, Rimmel Vinyl (sad but true; I prefer these to my new Chanel) in Lovesick and freebie L'Occitane shea butter hand cream, could be me but has a bit of a baby poo niff to it. Yea, your right it probably is me. Gave up trying to upload the rotated image from Photobucket, cba trying any more.


Post update - that photo was the other way round yesterday evening. Not the right way up but horizontal to the left, now its horizontal to the right. Or was that wine stronger than I thought??!

Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in snog

This might not have been an essential if I am being completely honest. But what is a life without treats? It's lovely actually, have only recently got into gloss as have sort of thought I was a bit old for gloopy slippy lips. Have now decided that as everything is crashing out at a rate of knots I might as well make the most of what youthfulness I have left to me and so I am glossing whilst I still can! Snog, hilarious name for a lip gloss on a 44 year old, although not as chuckle making as the daughters MAC in morning glory, its a sort of pearly pink and I think I'll leave that right there! So anyway Snog is a rose cream, I guess, its not pink as in girly pink, warmer than that so rose covers it. Its not sparkly which I do really think I am too old for, just has a bit of a shimmer and its not sticky which is great. Not discernible taste, unlike the MAC ones which are lush and taste of vanilla ice cream, I might treat myself one day, just for the taste!

Swatched on my hand in sunlight.


And rather more attractively, in the tube!

Holiday Haul - part 2 Clarins

Duty free 5am, what else are you going to do but shop! Had cleared a purchase of Clarins Multiactive day cream with his nibs; I have tried all sorts and always end up coming back to Clarins for moisturiser, I know its high end but having used a splash of their sensitive skin toner, a squirt of body shop sensitive skin serum and a bit of eye cream I really only need a smidge of this to make my skin feel, and smell, fantastic!


I was having a peruse then as I have used nearly all my Eau Dynamisant, which is my absolute go to fragrance, year after year - its fresh, clean, crisp and makes me feel happy. The Clarins lady who was testament to the power of their products, 5am she's at work and looks fresh as a daisy, pointed out that the Eau Dynamisant was £22 on its own or £23.95 with a body lotion. Bargain, no decision to be made!


And then because I had now spent over £50 I qualified for this

which contained these

Result! I love the Clarins hand cream (although now thanks to Nikki's Nails it has a rival, more of that later!) the moisturising mask is lovely but at £30 for a full sized tube I would be hard pushed to justify a purchase, although when Em's skin dried out really badly on hols and I gave her a mini facial - she is SOOO blessed to have me for her mum! she loved this and did suggest splitting the price of a tube, so maybe. The lip gloss isn't my sort of thing ordinarily but this was lovely on holiday and whilst I probably wont use it much in real life I will hang on to it for a bit longer as it adds a nice non-sticky shine to my usual Dior lip serum stuff.

Back from hols

But nothing to report. The major downside of being broke is that I don't have money for lovely shiny goodies. I suppose I could blog about my duty free purchases - I got Clarins Multi Active cream, as a purchase that I had told Steve I was going to make and so did on my card and then a sneaky replacement of my Eau Dynamisant!! It was £22 for a bottle on its own or £23.95 for the spray and a free body lotion - you know which one I went for! And my hols got off to a flying start because having spent that much I got a free little make up bag with a mascara, lip gloss, face mask and hand cream. Ok so now I have to take photos of my haul and they can be my first post hol blog post.

Photos coming up v soon.

Am still on a mission for a pale lilac nail varnish too btw so maybe I can shake out all my pockets for enough shrapnel to get one in Leeds on Saturday!