MUA Eyeshadow in Matt (Shade 16) - Review and Swatches!

Here comes another review! Today, it is MUA's Eyeshadow in Matt (Shade 16) which I picked up a couple of days ago in Superdrug, they were doing a deal where every MUA product was £1! I only bought this though because I was in a rush and just wanted to try something by MUA, but I have the urge to go back and see what they have to offer.. Must.. Resist..

Anyway! Let's discuss the more important thing, which is this eyeshadow. I chose this one out of the selection available because I was looking for a really plain, matt skin tone/light pink colour, as my eyes are naturally quite red because they are extremely sensitive and are blotchy/dry most of the time, so I wanted something to tone this down.

First of all, for £1, the packaging is okay! It is sealable, and quite compact so it's easy to store. The container is plastic, but, for £1, would you expect anymore?

When I initially swatched this, I was surprised by how dusty and powdery the eyeshadow is, and also how light pink it is! I mean, I know it clearly looks light pink in the pan, but on my finger it is close to white! I have applied this to my eye and it is great as a base for further eyeshadows, as I used this first, then applied some more shimmery, slightly brighter (but still subtle) eyeshadows from Benefit and Topshop, and the other eyeshadows stayed on well and had something to cling onto! 

As you can see from the picture below, it turns out almost white on the skin, which I don't mind, as when I applied this to my eyelid I packed it on so the colour showed up more clearly. I would say this eyeshadow is good as a base and also okay on it's own if you just want a very natural, matte eye (you will have to blend it into your skin though as I find without blending it, it looks a bit odd and a bit too dusty.)

Overall, for the price of £1 (bargain!) I would say it was alright. Not the best eyeshadow in the entire world, I wasn't expecting it to be, but I will be using this as a base for more natural eyeshadow looks as I find it works well as a base, or just on it's own if I don't want to wear a lot of make-up. However, a warning to you, the fall out is quite excessive so you have to be careful when applying this as it does get a little bit messy so make sure to tap any excess off the brush before applying, but once you have cleaned up the eye and blended it it looks fine.

I am thinking of going back into Superdrug though, as I really do want to try out their famous Heaven and Earth palette and also the Pretty Pastels one, I've just been checking out the Superdrug website and the MUA website and both palettes have a lot of colours that I would wear. Furthermore, because of the £1 deal and the fact I've checked out what Superdrug have in this offer, I've been drawn into wanting to buy some blush and lipsticks.. Man I am a sucker for offers! What is your favourite product from MUA?

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you very soon. :)

Hannah, xx

Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder - Review + Swatches

Yesterday after I had my haircut I could not resist not going into Boots and Superdrug! I heard that this powder was amazing from the lovely Tanya Burr and since I have always wanted to get rid of the shine on my face, I thought I would give it a go. It was only £3.99 so I thought, if I didn't like it, then it wouldn't be a major regret as it didn't cost a lot.

I had no idea what shade to pick, as I originally went into Superdrug because I have their beauty card so I get points for every purchase I make, however there were no testers so I didn't want to buy any shade, as I am extremely pale so I need to be sure the shade I buy will match my skin and not make me look either more pale than I already am, or too orange!

I ended up going to Boots and they did have testers so I bought the lightest colour (at least I think it is the lightest colour) which was 001 Translucent, as I think it matched my skin tone best.

As you can see below it is just a plain, matte powder; there is no shimmer or sparkle or anything like that through it, which is good, as I personally don't like having too much shine or shimmer on my face as my face is shiny enough as it goes through stages of being oily in some areas, especially my forehead, nose and cheeks (basically my T zone) and then my eyelids and jaw are usually very dry, and this powder does not accentuate the dry areas and definitely reduces the shine on my face. An added bonus is when you apply this to your skin, it literally just disappears and makes your skin look 10 times better, and it doesn't look over powdery (if that makes sense!)

As you can see, the packaging is quite poor. I was a bit bleh with the fact that it didn't come with a sponge applicator, as it means if I wanted to put more on throughout the day, I would have to bring a separate sponge/brush that didn't fit inside the container, which makes it a hassle to reapply, if I needed too. I am also a bit anxious that it might fall open, as I feel unsure about how secure the container is. Furthermore, it might make a mess if it gets bashed about my bag, if I bring it to Uni for example, it will be in with all my books. The packaging is plastic, which I don't mind, I wouldn't expect anymore for a £4 product.

However, despite the bad packaging, I absolutely love the product. It does exactly what it says which is to control natural shine on your face, and I would definitely recommend this for people with more oily skin, or even people who just need a new powder/prefer a matte finish. The product is extremely cheap considering how high quality it is, and I will be repurchasing this when I run out (even though I only bought it yesterday!) I was also thinking of buying the Stay Matte foundation, but I am unsure as it doesn't have very good reviews online. Has anyone tried it, and if you have, what did you think of it, and if you haven't, what do you think of the foundation?

I hope you all are having a wonderful day, and I will talk to you very soon. :)

Hannah, xx

Fishtail Plait/New Haircut/FOTD 29/08/12!

So.. That title is a long one, and quite a tongue twister too! It's a 3 in 1 blog post today, and I am currently uploading the OOTD that you can see in the pictures below so I will be making a blog post linking it, if you would like to see. :)

I only learnt how to do a fishtail braid yesterday, from Tanya Burr's video (or pix2woo on YouTube) which I will link here, and I have to admit, it is pretty difficult at first! I couldn't do it, I didn't understand where the strands of hair were meant to go but eventually, if you keep practising (I was practising most of the night!) you eventually get into a rhythm and your hands begin to know where to go. I think it is just such a nice change from the classic braid, where you section 3 pieces etc etc, it just has a completely different look to it, you can make it messy or keep it tight and I think it is a very elegant where to style your hair.

I also got my haircut today, it doesn't actually look that different, all I got was my dead ends off my hair, I didn't get any of my layers cut back in because my hair honestly grows back at the speed of light, there is no point! However, I did get a lot off my fringe to make it flow better again, as before it would go curly at the ends which would make it harder to style, as if I straightened it it would stick up all over the place! I also asked to get my fringe thinned a lot, because as I said, my hair grows back very fast therefore my hair is very thick, and I don't want my hair to be heavy on my face as it will just annoy me.

On a side note, I will be changing shampoo and will be doing a blog post on why I am doing this, as the shampoo I am using is, well, basically awful and is kind of pointless in what it aims to achieve. Keep an eye out for that tomorrow!

Head tilt.. LOOK AT HOW FLOWY MY FRINGE IS! Bravo to my hairdresser!

I also thought I would do a FOTD as I really liked my make-up today, I bought some things recently that I tried out today and I LOVE them; those things were MUA's eyeshadow in Matt, Revlon's ColorBust Lip Butter in Strawberry Shortcake and Rimmel's Stay Matte Pressed Powder, and oh my goodness, I am in love with both these products! I will be doing separate reviews on them very soon, probably tomorrow or Friday, so keep an eye out for that also! 

Just a wee cheeky close up of my make-up, my face looks extremely weird here so I apologise but can we just focus on the make-up please!

Make-up I am wearing:

Benefit's Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation in Believe in Me, Ivory

Rimmel's Stay Matte Pressed Powder in 001 Translucent

Mac's Powder Blush in Buff

MUA's Eyeshadow in Matte (Shade 16)

Benefit's Big Beautiful Eyes Kit in the lightest shade

Topshop's Smokey Eye Palette in Tawny in the lightest two colours

Topshop's Kohl Eyeliner Pencil in Saddle

Benefit's Bad Gal Mascara

Revlon's ColorBurst Lip Butter in Strawberry Shortcake

So that is about it for my 3 in 1 blogpost today! I am currently watching the Paralympics and it has inspired me to do a video talking about it, was nearly in tears earlier and the opening ceremony hasn't even finished. All I can say is that the Paralympics are exceptionally inspirational to me. Anyway, I hope you all are having a wonderful day and I will talk to you very soon :)

Hannah, xx

Collective Haul - Reviews and Swatches!

Guess who got sucked into various offers, for example 3 for 2 on Maybelline?! Oh wait, that was me.. I am such a sucker for good offers! Anyway, the past week I have been shopping a lot, both with my family and on my own, and I have been picking up a lot of make-up for me recently, I feel I have turned a new leaf and am now starting to experiment and step into the make-up world, finally!

The first thing(s) I should mention.. Aren't exactly make-up, but they are nail polishes;

Left; Chica Boom Boom (H&M) (£3)
Centre; Dazzle (Crackle Nails - Tophop) (£5)
Right; Parma Violet (Topshop) (£5)

Chica Boom Boom is actually a bright neon orange, my camera is not giving the colour justice. I've wanted a bright orange nail polish for what seems like a very long time, I don't actually have an orange nail polish at all, and since it's summer I thought why not? I also got a bit of a tan this year (this is surprising yes, I hardly ever get a tan, I am horribly pale) so I feel like the bright neon orange won't look as drastic against my skin.

Dazzle is not actually for me, it is for my friend Leanne, as it is her 18th next week (I know she won't see this so it's fine) and since her favourite colours seem to be purple and gold, when I saw this in Topshop it was like a blessing! It's the most beautiful dark purple, but not super dark, just.. Oh you can see it in the picture! Anyway, it has gold glitter through the purple, which I'm sure she will love!

Parma Violet is again a nail polish for me, and again, I have wanted a violet nail varnish for SO LONG! All the purple nail polishes I have are either super dark or kind of.. Medium tone? Does that even make sense? Probably not.. But when I saw this colour I knew I had to buy it, it just looks the most gorgeous pastel light violet colour I've seen (that was A LOT of words to describe a colour) and it had to be mine. Onto make-up now..

Smokey Eye Palette from Topshop - Tawny. (£12)

I love the fact it comes with a little "how to" booklet; for people who are inexperienced with make-up, it really does help them out. Good job Topshop!

From right to left: The first colour is a pink, champagne colour, it is very shimmery and I would use this as an everyday colour, just to sweep it all over the lid and give my eyes a base/some shimmer. The second colour is a shimmery bronze, which is my personal favourite out of the 4. It looks SO NICE on the lid, you can use this to line your upper lash line and also take it down to the lower lashline and I think it would compliment everyone. The third colour is again a lovely eyeshadow, I love how it is brown but it has gold shimmer throughout it, it looks lovely through the crease and gives your eyes definition. The final dark shimmery brown really makes the eyes smokey, as using this in the outer corner and blending will really make you look sex-aaaay!

So, as you can probably tell.. I got some eyeshadow from Topshop! I got the Smokey Eye Palette in Tawny, and there was another one but it was darker and more grey/purple toned, I'm sure that was called Smouldering. The shadows are quite shimmery which I like, and they all compliment each other beautifully; the reason I got Tawny was because the bronzy colours look nicer to me, and I think they actually will look nicer on me, I feel because I'm pale it will work better? Correct me if I am wrong though! But yes, I love the colours, especially the bronze colour, (the one on my middle finger in the photo.)

Maybelline Colour Tattoo 24hr - 05 Enternal Gold. (£4.99)

Also, congrats to Maybelline on the packaging - I love it! It's so sturdy and looks so fancy and elegant, I love the little glass pot loads!

I saw this yesterday in Superdrug (when I got sucked in with the 3 for 2 offer), and there was only one or two left, and I knew I had to get it; it is the most shimmery, creamy eyeshadow I have ever put on my eyelid (now, I haven't put a lot on so I think this is good, however, other people may think differently). I really do love this colour, I think with a liquid black liner (coming up soon!) and red lips, it will look perfect, it's an easy everyday eyeshadow that you can just whack on, but at the same time you can dress it up too.

Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Eyeliner - Black. (£5.99)

I can see why Maybelline called it "Master Precise", with this bad boy of a felt tip, even the shakiest of hands could manage a straight line

What really drew me to this product was, not only did I really need to buy a liquid liner, but the fact that it was a felt tip liner, making it a billion times easier to put on. I even tried it out last night to see if it really did make a difference, and holy moly, my liner was close to perfect first time! I was so impressed with this product, application is easy, and the blackness of the liner is pretty good also, hopefully it doesn't dry up quick or anything, but so far, fingers crossed!

Topshop Kohl Eyeliner - Saddle. (£4)

Ever since watching the beauty girls and guys on YouTube I have desperately wanted a brown eyeliner for so long! Whenever they use one I always think "Holy moly, black eyeliner is so harsh compared to the subtleness of a brown eyeliner, why do I not have one?!" and whilst I was in Topshop a couple of days ago, I saw a brown eyeliner and thought why not? I may as well give it a go! And I LOVE it! It is very build-able, it starts off very subtle, so it would be nice on the waterline but on the top lashes you can build it up so it is an obvious brown line, but still subtle compared to a black eyeliner I think!

Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick - 422 Coral Tonic. (£7.19)

Again, I loooove the packaging! It is such a classy lipstick, with the shiny see-through red lid and the simple but elegant silver packaging, it makes it look like it's worth more than you paid for - a good quality to have!

The last (but certainly not least) make-up shopping splurge was to this gorgeous coral lipstick by Maybelline. I had been looking for a coral lipstick for a while, as I only have a red lipstick and I was kind of getting bored of wearing the same lipstick over and over again, and although there probably isn't as much difference between the lipsticks as I had originally wanted there to be, it is less bold than the red one and it makes a change, which I like. It is again, build-able, you can put it on lightly but you can certainly build it up to make it as bold as any red lipstick would be.

I also then bought a pair of jeans and a t-shirt from Topshop;

Topshop's Moustache Tee by Tee and Cake - £20

So cute! Aaaaah!

Love the "wrapped up" detail at the sleeves, it just makes the t-shirt for me.

I have been obsessed with moustaches and anything moustachical recently, from necklaces to now a t-shirt! I was actually leaving Topshop after buying the jeans below and continued shopping, but I had to go back and buy it, I couldn't resist! It is such a cute top and you can pair it with anything, from jeans and a blazer (to spruce things up) or wear it casual with a skirt.

Topshop MOTO Super Soft Skinny Leigh Jeans in Indigo - £38

One of the reasons I fell in love with these jeans is this ankle detail, I love this look right now and have been doing this to jeans which don't already have this detail, I think it just instantly changes the style of your outfit and makes it a bit more classy.

Finally.. The jeans! I absolutely adore these jeans and I am so glad I bought them, as you can tell by the title they are seriously SO super soft, which I love. I have been obsessed with jeggings for the past year and have been wearing the same 3 pairs constantly, and they have done their time; one has two holes near the crotch and I cannot let them go! I really wanted a new pair of jeans, but jeans for me are usually not as comfy and they don't stretch as easily as jeggings, but these jeans proved me wrong! They are easy to put on, extremely comfortable, go with anything and everything and are so soft, it's like I am wearing jeggings - good buy!

So after that super long blogpost, I am done! This is everything I bought over the past week, I love it all and I hope you enjoyed reading this (sorry if it was a bit longwinded) but yeah. Have a lovely day and I will talk to you very soon. :)

Hannah, xx

Messy Natural Hair + Coral Lips - 28/08/12

Hello there everyone! I hope you are all having a lovely Tuesday, I am currently just home from work and I took these photos earlier on as I was really happy with the way my hair sat and my make-up today.

Hair:

 This is actually my natural hair, it never used to curl like this but now it's progressively getting more and more curly by the day (well, by the day I mean everytime I wash it.) I've hardly straightened my hair this summer because I've fallen in love with this kind of hairstyle, it's just messy curls that look nice with anything. I basically wash my hair, get out of the shower and wrap a towel round my hair for around an hour, I then take the towel out of my hair and let it airdry and viola - messy curls! I also like to scrunch the curls up and if there are any sticky out bits etc I will curl them using my GHD's back into place. 

Make-up today:

Benefit's Big Beautiful Eyes (an eye contour kit) in the pink champagne eyeshadow
Topshop's Smokey Eye Palette in Tawny in the pink shimmery eyeshadow
Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Eyeliner in Black
Topshop's Kohl Eyeliner in Saddle
Benefit's Bad Gal Lash Mascara
Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in 422 Coral Tonic

How I applied it:

I took the Topshop Tawny palette, and with the lightest pink shimmery shade I sweeped it all over my lids. I then took the pink champagne colour from the Benefit eye contour kit and pushed that on top of the Topshop eyeshadow, to give it a real pink shimmery look. Then, using the Maybelline liquid eyeliner, I simply drew a line close to the top of my upper lash line, gradually making it thicker to the outer corner and then flicked it out. I used Topshop's Kohl Eyeliner in Saddle on my waterline, to make the eyelid really stand out, and applied Benefit's Bad Gal Lash to both my upper and lower lashes. I finally applied the Maybelline lipstick, and viola, that is my make-up for the day!

So that is pretty much it for my face, or FOTD, I hope this was interesting to read and have a lovely day wherever you may be. :)

Hannah, xx

Hair of the Day 27/08/12 - Rope braid and side plait!

Hello everyone, I know earlier on I posted a NOTD but I could not resist to post what I'm going to call Hair of the Day, or HOTD for short (I don't know if people call it that but there we go.) This hairstyle is so easy to do, it literally takes about 3 minutes and it will look lovely with any sort of hairstyle, whether you have short hair, long hair, or any sort of fringe/no fringe at all. I obviously have very long hair, it's also quite thick which helps with the plait, and I do have quite a short fringe with a lot of layers but because I do the rope braid quite tight, it keeps all the layers hidden, and even if some do stick out and show, it doesn't have to be perfect, you can mess it up and it'll look just as nice as if you have it super precise!

So as you can see I pulled all the hair from my left side of my head and brought it all over to the right, which is also the way my fringe goes back, so it makes it look neater, and symmetrical, if that makes sense?

I have no idea why my hair is a different colour in this photo to all the others, it must have been the lighting as I do not edit my pictures! This shows how I securely fasten my rope braid, as I take two curby grips and cross them over each other to make an X;  it makes it harder for them to move/fall out and I also think it looks nicer!

You may also be wondering - "Hannah, how do you do a rope braid?!" Well, the way I do it is I split my fringe apart, and since I have a short fringe that gets longer from the left to the right side of my face, I kind of split it so most of my fringe is with the short side (left) and the longest bits of my fringe is at the other side. Then, I simply take the two pieces of my fringe, pull them over to the right side and start looping them round each other. Since I have a short fringe I usually wrap the right side (the longer pieces) over the left side (shorter pieces) as this secures the shorter pieces as they are now under the longer pieces of hair, so they are less likely to fall out. I then simply keep wrapping/looping them round each other until I am close to the end of my fringe, and then fasten them with two curby grips in the shape of an X and viola, you have a rope braid (I really hope this makes sense, comment if you want me to make a video of it and I will!)

Here is my plait, I know what you are thinking.. "Holy crap her hair is long!" This is just a classic plait that I can easily throw my hair into, it takes next to no time at all and it suits all occasions, you can have your hair like this for fancy or casual days! It's a great hairstyle if you are in a rush, for example late for work or school, or if your hair is a bit dirty (like mine is in these photos, it is second day hair) then it still looks brand new. To do this plait I simple bring all my hair over to one side (the right side for me), split my hair into 3 sections and I usually take the piece that is at the back of my head (which, in my case would be the piece on the left) and wrap it round the middle piece of hair. I then take the right piece of hair and wrap that round the new middle piece of hair, and continue this process until I get to the bottom of my hair, and I then secure it with a hair bobble. As you can see, I do have layers in my hair so some bits may stick out/fall out throughout the day (my plait has been perfect all day, but it is now 11.30pm so only having one piece of hair sticking out is pretty good!) but you can mess the plait up easily and take some layers out to give it the messy effect; again, like the rope braid, it does not need to be perfect. Experiment with it, you never know what you might like! 

So, after all that explaining, this is the rope braid and side plait! I absolutely LOVE this combination, and wear it together frequently. However, sometimes I do only do one or the other, for example I will put my fringe up in a rope braid but leave my hair curly (this is a especially beautiful combination) or straight, or I put my hair into a side braid but leave my fringe down; it all depends on how you style it and what you like.

Anyway, I hope you found this HOTD interesting and usual, and maybe you learnt something from this, I don't know, I can't tell if my explaining is good or not, it would be so much easier to make a video! If you would like to see a video, please leave a comment below as I have officially started making videos, which you can see if you click here and, yeah, I hope you are all having a wonderful day/evening/afternoon/morning (depending where you are from) and I will speak to you all every soon! :)

Hannah, xx

NOTD #1 - Topshop Parma Violet

Hello everyone! I have recently been a little bit of a shopaholic and have been buying everything and anything, from nail polishes to jeans! (blog post coming soon about what I bought!) On my shopping spree, I ended up buying 3 nail polishes (one is for my friend though so really only two for me) so today I decided enough was enough, I took off my hot pink sparkly nail polish and decided to choose Parma Violet by Topshop.

Parma Violet Nail Polish by Topshop - £5

Look how glossy it is - Aaaaah!

4 coats, natural light

At first when I applied Parma Violet, it was very sheer, so immediately I was like oh no please.. But I was persistent, and applied about 4 coats and it turns out to be the most glossiest polish I own, I will still put a top coat on it though but I don't really need it. The colour pay off is beautiful, it's the exact same shade as the bottle colour, as some previous nail polishes (not with Topshop) have been one colour in the bottle and another when you apply it to your nails, and I was thinking "eh what is this trickery?!" but not with Parma Violet! I have always wanted a pastel lilac nail polish and when I saw this I knew I had to get it -  it is definitely worth the fiver. Overall I am extremely impressed with this, I will definitely be buying more Topshop nail polishes next time I'm in, and will be reviewing them as I have done with this one.

Hope you all have a wonderful day! :)

Hannah, xx

Awkward introductions

Oh, how awkward they are. Hello there, person reading this off their computer screen, my name is Hannah. I've been inspired to do a blog for a very long time now and also start a YouTube channel, which I have done, and I am hoping to post my first video tomorrow, which will be similar to this blog post. An awkward introduction.

I suppose it would be nice of me to tell you some things about myself, as when I read or watch someone, I always wonder things about them, like how old they are, where they live, you know, the usual (hopefully, I don't want to look like a stalker!) stuff. So...

My name is Hannah, as you already know. I am 17 years old, and live in a small town on the west coast of Scotland, however, my accent sounds like I'm from the east coast, which makes me sound posh in my town/area.. Which again, is awkward. I seem like an awkward person, don't I? I've just finished school, and I am now going to University to study Psychology, as I've found a passion for it within myself in the last couple of years. For hobbies, well, sports, I only do one; freestyle martial arts. I am a brown belt, 3 away from black, which I can say is pretty impressive, and if you told me I was a brown belt 4 years ago I would have laughed and said "No way, you have GOT to be joking me!"

You may also be wondering, well Hannah, what on Earth are is going to be on your blog? Good question! My blog is going to be posts about my life, about the things I do and the things I think about, but also I will be doing posts on make-up, beauty, fashion etc, as I would really like to get into that kind of field and find it interesting to read about, and watch on YouTube. So now you know!

I hope that this wasn't too awkward, but basically, what this post was meant to say was hello, welcome to my blog, I hope you like what I post, and have a wonderful day! :)