Makeup Revolution Collection!

Anyone who knows me also knows I'm a huge fan of Makeup Revolution, particularly for their eyeshadow palette offerings. The quality of the eyeshadows is spot on, particularly the shimmers. Thanks to the price of them I've been able to afford to buy multiple palettes, which means I tend to reach for them more than my Naked palette, just for the variety. I've also recently bought a few brilliant products from I Heart Makeup range, but I'll talk about those in another post.

A few from my little collection

I'll start with the Redemption Palettes. They're 12 shade palettes, and they're just £4 each! Which is how I justify owning Iconic 1, Iconic 2 and Iconic 3, and will continue using this excuse to justify buying more. The best part is that they're incredible dupes for the Urban Decay Naked Palettes, which are nearer to £40 each. What more could you want? The pigmentation, especially in the shimmer shades, is AMAZING. As with most budget eyeshadow palettes, some of the shades are a bit hit and miss, but honestly I really don't mind at all considering how cheap they are!

Top - Iconic 2, Bottom - Iconic 3

Another dupe that I own is the Iconic Pro palette, a dupe of the Lorac Pro palette and a fraction of the price. This palette also has a nice big mirror in the top, which is great for travelling. It also came with a double ended brush, not those horrendous little foam applicators that I throw out as soon as I spot them. I love the colours in this palette, but I recently dropped it and snapped it in two which left me very upset, but I'm sure I'll end up replacing it at some point, as it's £6 so it doesn't really break the bank. (I also don't have this one with me to photograph but when I get it I'll edit in a photo, sorry!)

One of my more recent eyeshadow palette purchases from Revolution is the Fortune Favours the Brave palette, by BritishBeautyBlogger. This palette deserves a moment of silence while we all admire its magnificence. There are 30 shades, a mix of matte and shimmer, pressed and baked powders and I love it. The pigmentation, range of shades, the marbled effect of some. There's nothing I don't like about it and I will continue to treasure it. It was only £9.99, but I used all my saved up superdrug points and got it for £3.99, which I was obviously ecstatic about, but I'd have happily paid the full price for it as it's 100% worth the money!

I took these photos of the Fortune Favours the Brave palette a while ago, hence the different background. The writing on the front has since worn off unfortunately.

Makeup Revolution are also famous for it's baked highlighters. They're absolutely stunning, and only £3 each! I also purchased the Radiant Lights powder compact in Breathe (£3) the other day, and if I'm honest I thought it was a highlighter, which it can be used for, but I actually have been using it as a face powder. Stay with me here. If you do a heavy swatch, you can see that it can be used as a subtle highlight, but when dusted over my face it set my foundation and left a beautiful natural looking glow that I fell in love with and I've used it every time I've done my makeup since. I did purchase the Pressed Powder a while ago for £2 when I had gone away for the weekend and forgotten my Rimmel one, and actually really liked using it for ages, but I love the radiance that Breathe provides. It's a similar concept to the very sought after and horrendously expensive Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders.

Radiant Lights - Breathe

Another Makeup Revolution product I use every day is the Ultra Sculpt and Contour Kit in Ultra Fair, which I've mentioned before. It's small and travel friendly, and contains both a contour powder and a highlight as well as a pretty light rose gold blush. It's a really simple, quick and easy everyday contour set and I'm a big fan, especially of the highlighter inside. MUR you win with highlighters, congratulations.

Ultra Sculpt and Contour - Fair

I shamefully haven't tried any mascaras from MUR so you'll have to forgive me for that, although I've heard that the Amazing Curl mascara is a cheeky dupe for the Benefit Roller Lash so I might have to give it a go! In terms of eyeliners, I'm very fussy. I have the most sensitive eyes in existence, as soon as I leave the house my eyes water and my eyeliner decides to vacate the premises and instead live all over my entire eyelid, so I'm always on the look out for one that will stay put. Now, I haven't tested this properly yet but I swatched the waterproof liquid eyeliner (£1.50) and it did not budge no matter how much I wet it, so I'm hoping I'm onto a winner here! It's nicely pigmented, but the brush is quite stiff so I don't know how that will affect the application. If felt tip's more your gig, I've heard nothing but praise for the Thick and Thin liner from my friend Megna. She said 'it goes on silky and super pigmented and pretty', and coming from the expert of liquid eyeliners I definitely trust her opinion.

Amazing Eyeliner Waterproof - Black

Lastly, on a whim I added one of the #LIPHUG lipsticks to my online basket in the shade 'Still missing my baby' which is a deep plum shade, and cost £2.50. It's beautiful, glossy and super moisturising. The shape of the bullet makes it a little hard to apply accurately but I think with the help of a lip liner it'd be a winning lip for the cooler months.

#LIPHUG - Still Missing My Baby

Still Missing My Baby
Top - One Swipe
Bottom - Several Swipes

If you haven't tried anything from Makeup Revolution before I sincerely encourage you to do so, for the price of the products you really can't go wrong! I've heard on the grapevine that there are some really exciting products coming soon so look forward to those, I know I am!

Have you tried any Makeup Revolution products that you'd recommend?

Paige x

How To Use: Sleek Cream Contour Kit

After I posted the Sleek cream contour palette review, people requested that I do a little 'how to' post, with pictures of me applying it. Now, I'm definitely not a pro when it comes to applying my makeup. Neither am I 100% confident in my skills. However I thought I'd be brave and give it a go! 

Some of the products I used for this look, and a treat for editing!

I both cleansed and exfoliated my face, using the B. Men Charcoal Face Scrub from Superdrug, which is technically my boyfriend's but I wanted a nice deep cleanse and it was the best I had to hand. The product itself is branded as a man's face scrub but lets be honest, it's just a decent charcoal scrub, who cares who it's meant to be for. I then applied my Olay Hydration and Radiant Glow moisturiser, which is a nice light moisturiser for summer as it contains SPF 15 and adds some radiance to my skin. 

After I'd given time for that to sink into my skin, I applied my base products. I used the Primark Miracle primer (of course), and then my X-ceptional Wear Makeup Foundation from GOSH, which is good for a light, sheer base (even though you can build it up), and then applied the Maybelline Eraser Eye concealer on my blemishes. 

This is my face with only the base products applied

 I then went in with the contour kit, following the guide that they supply with each palette.

It says on the sheet to use an angled contour brush. I do own the Real Techniques contour brush but I find it a little too large as my face is quite small, so as I said in the last post I use a MAC angled flat foundation brush, which is MAC 193. 

Cream Contours when initially applied

As you can see, my lines and shames really aren't that neat at all, but once you've blended them it doesn't matter. You really don't have to be a pro to apply these! If I can, anyone can.

Cream Contour after blending

I blended all the shades using a damp beauty blender, starting with the light shades and working into the darker shades.

Here I've set the creams with powder

After this, I applied the GOSH Velvet Touch prime 'n' set loose powder over my highlighted areas, and applied a Makeup Revolution contour powder over the top of the cream to set it all in place. I then went ahead and did my eye makeup (taking photos of my eyebrows in the state they were in was almost traumatising). While I did this, the translucent powder worked to both set and lighten the cream highlight. Once the rest of my makeup was done, I brushed away the setting powder and 

applied some blush and my MAC mineralize skinfinish in Lightscapade as a highlight. 

The finished look

This was the finished look! I think it really slims my face, and I just like how it looks. It's a bit nerve wracking to post photos of me actually using the products and I was a little hesitant to post this one, but hopefully you all enjoy it! 

Would you try the cream contouring kit? Let me know if you have and how you found it. 

Paige x

GOSH cosmetics

I don't often see much hype around the GOSH products, but working in a store that sells them means I've had a chance to fiddle around with the testers, and I really liked the look of the lipsticks, particularly the matte ones. Somehow, I ended up with 3 lipsticks, a lipliner, a setting powder, and some foundation, and having tried them all I knew I'd want to blog about them. When I bought them there was an amazing offer of £2 off all products, which has since ended. They're now buy 1 get 1 half price in Superdrug though.

The foundation I bought was the X-ceptional Wear Makeup foundation, in the shade 12 - Natural. It claims to be 'a soft and creamy make-up that gives the skin a very lasting and even matt glow', and I have to say having worn this for a few days I wholeheartedly agree that it does exactly that. It applies so smoothly, and it really does last for hours. I applied it in the morning, and by the time I'd gotten home from work it was still pretty flawless. It doesn't dry completely matte, which I actually liked, but with a little dusting of powder it is completely matte, without being dull. It's light-medium coverage I'd say, slightly buildable but it doesn't give that fake foundation skin effect that some foundations do when you build them up. I really do like this foundation, I'm only disappointed with myself for buying it in my natural shade just before I applied fake tan, which makes it slightly too light now! It's £7.99, which is a pretty decent price for the quality. As with most drugstore foundations though, the shade range isn't great.

X-Ceptional Wear Foundation - 12 Natural, £7.99

Another product from GOSH that I've actually had for a while is the Velvet Touch Primer & Setting Powder, which is £10.99. This is more than I'd usually spend on a setting powder but I was in the market for a dupe of the Laura Mercier one (I haven't yet tried it but I know it's a holy grail setting powder), and I thought that with it being translucent (it's a very finely milled white powder in the pot) that it would be worth the slight splurge, and I was right. It sets any of my foundations to a smooth, matte finish beautifully, and does improve the longevity of my foundation. I've experimented with using it for baking too, which I quite liked. It doesn't leave an orange tint either like some budget loose setting powders (I'm looking at you, Collection) so it's great for pale skin too. I wouldn't call this a budget loose powder but I'd say it's worth the money and I would repurchase. I haven't used it as a primer because my skin's too dry, but I've been told for oily skin it works really well at creating a matte base to keep oil at bay under foundation.

Prime 'n' set Velvet Touch Primer and Setting Powder - Translucent (£10.99)

Now onto my favourite product to talk about ever. Lipsticks. The GOSH lipsticks were an incredible find, and I know I'll end up buying countless more. I currently own 3 shades of the lipsticks (2 matte and one velvet) and 2 of the lipliners (only one of which I had available for swatching as the other was borrowed). I'll start with the lipliners. I have the shades Antique Rose and Nougat Crisp, and let me tell you, for someone who isn't that fussed when it comes to lip liners usually, I can't get enough of these. They're a total dream to apply; they're so smooth, non drying and beautifully pigmented. I find my lipsticks apply so nicely over the top because they don't budge. Speaking of: 

Velvet Touch lipsticks and Lipliner

Just take a minute to appreciate how sleek and suave the packaging of the lipstick is. Look at them. £6.99! None of that cheap flimsy plastic packaging here. They look far more expensive than they are in my opinion. Don't even get me started on the quality of the product itself. They apply beautifully, they're long lasting (the matte ones in particular), the colours are gorgeous. I'm in love with these lipsticks and I have absolutely no shame about it. I've recommended them to several of my friends who have all agreed that they're incredible. The 3 shades I have are 003 Antique (matte), 010 Smoothie (matte) and 160 Delicious (satin). I could talk about these all day long, but you should definitely go out and get some of these. They're my go to every day lipsticks now. 

Swatches top to bottom - Velvet Touch Lip liner in Antique Rose, Velvet Touch Lipsticks in 003 Antique, 010 Smoothie and 160 Delicious (featuring a half painted nail, well done Jabba)

They're so pigmented, I can't get enough. The shade range for these is incredible, they cater for every desire. 

By the way I'm talking about these products you'd think I was sponsored, but in reality I'm just giving these products the appreciation they deserve. Not only is the quality amazing and the prices decent, but they're cruelty free. Some of their products are vegan friendly, and there is a pdf list of those which are so you can make sure, and I'll link it here: GOSH Vegan Products List. 

I hope you enjoyed this installment of me prattling on about makeup. 

I'll see you again soon!