Beauty on a budget from Poundland!

Hello ladies. Today's post is on high street make up items found in budget stores such as poundland.
Often poundland will sell discontinued items as featured in this post.

Here are a few things I have accumulated over time from poundland.

Rimmel eyeshadow quad, blush in bronze, red nail polish, eyelashes are not Rimmel

Cherry Desirable revlon renewist lipstick

Fresh Watermelon renewist revlon lipstick

Pretty in Pink renewist revlon lipstick

Rimmel space dust aurora glitter nail polish

The eyelashes were surprisingly good. They are more for length than for volume and stay put during the night when I used my duo lash adhesive.
The lipsticks are moisturising and quite pigmented.

Selfridges and Primark Winter Haul 2014/2015

Happy new year guys! Hope you are all doing well.
This post features some of the goodies we purchased in the December/January sales. The primark items were bought in store while the Selfridges items were purchased online.

Primark beaded evening bag £10. Lovely and sparkly, costs over £25 in the other shops!

Primark mid length zip detail dress £13. This dress is actually bottle green but turned out black in the pictures. Will post another pic once worn. It is so smart, stylish and knee length at the front and slightly longer at the back. It has small slits at the side.

Primark tartan dress £5 reduced from £10. Also featured - 2 pack gloves for £1 and slimming leggings £4. I wear the dress around the house or at night, it is 100% cotton and ideal for these cold winter nights.

Selfridges haul. Look how protectively packaged each item is.

Fragrance lab perfumes in 248 and 249. £10 reduced from £45. One is musky with bergamont, the other is fresh/powdery. I think it's best to smell before you buy. The nail polish is azature red diamond nail polish. It was £3 reduced from £17. BARGAIN!

This sparkly azature nail polish in red contains a real black diamond!

E.L.F Haul (Pic heavy)!

Hey, this post has been long awaited and has been delayed due to me being away recently to Umrah! (Post a comment if you want to share a post on Umrah).

So a little while ago, e.l.f (Eyes, Lips, Face cosmetics) had a half price offer if you spent a certain amount. I purchased the following products and am pleased with them so far.

e.l.f. Contouring blush and bronzing duo in St Lucia - love the creamy texture of this duo. You can achieve a really pretty look with a bit of blending!

e.l.f St Lucia on hand

e.l.f. St Lucia cream Blush and Contour duo - gorgeous coral blush colour

e.l.f HD Blush in (l-r) Headliner, Superstar and Diva

e.l.f HD blush Headliner, Superstar and Diva on hand - as you can see these are super pigmented and range from peachy tomes to bright vivid pink

e.l.f HD blush Headliner, Superstar and Diva shades - can use these on your lips too! The only thing is that it dispenses (yup that's right it comes with a hygienic dispensing pump) quite a bit of product so you do end up wasting a bit - this is made up for by the low price of the actual product :p

e.l.f Studio Blush in Candid Coral

e.l.f studio blush in candid coral - looks very pale on skin and would be nice as a gold shimmery highlighter

e.l.f candid coral studio blush...more pale gold with glittery flecks

e.l.f studio HD powder - corrective yellow for red skin, I only got this because they ran out of the original one but when I used it, it gave my skin a soft focus look. Great on top of makeup to pull your look together and finish it off. Caution - this product tends to spill all over the outside of the pot as you can see from the picture.

e.l.f stipple and contour brush - good quality for the low price I paid

e.l.f shine eraser blotting paper and eyeshadow brushes - the blotting paper has green tea extract and mops up excess sebum from the face

e.l.f make up brushes - as a tip, I would stick to the Studio range, they may cost a little more but will be worth it.

e.l.f studio stipple and contour brushes

e.l.f Studio contour, studio stipple and tools eyeshadow/blending brushes. All of the brushes are super soft.

Hope you enjoyed this post and read the little comments below the pics. ELF nearly always have some sort of offer on. Do you guys swear by any elf products?

Just came across this bad boy of an eyeshadow palette on the elf website. 100 colours for £15. The nudes on the left of the palette plus the pinks in the 5th row are really pretty.

Falsh lashes in a bottle! Divaderme Lash Extender review

I recently purchased Divaderme Lash Extender after hearing about it from groupon. I did some research and found that it is a tube of brush on fibres designed to go on wet lashes (i.e. that have just been applied with mascara) which they cling onto. This is then sealed with another coat of mascara creating a false lash effect.

Divaderme lash extender

I used an Avon mascara with this and they recommend that you use a "wet" mascara so that the fibres can cling on easily. A tip I found for getting waxy mascaras to become runny again is to put your tube of mascara in a basin of hot water for a few minutes.

Once you have applied a coat of mascara, immediately apply the fibres to your lashes...you can concentrate on the roots for volume or ends for length. It's best to have the lash extender tube already opened and the wand on a piece of tissue so it's ready to use straight upon applying mascara. To avoid fall out, place a  piece of tissue under your eye area and LOOK DOWN! You don't want to get fibres in your eyes (although, you can easily blink them out).
After you have applied the fibres, put on one more coat of mascara to seal the fibres in place. Then repeat with next set of eyelashes.

I found that if you apply many coats of mascara in between applying the fibres, then you can end up with spidery eyelashes, so it's best not to go overboard with the mascara or use a separating mascara.
You do end up with longer lashes so I would definitley recommend this product as it is cheap and can bring out the shortest of lashes and makes good use for any mascaras that you have lying around that you don't really use/feel is not that good.
I did experience a bit of fall out, but then again I did use a mascara that wasn't runny so maybe that was why. You can just brush them away anyway.

Here are my pictures just for you!

Bare lashes before Divadereme lash extender and any mascara

Lashes after Divaderme lash extender applied in between coats of mascara

Before (right) and after (left) Divaderme lash extender

Avon Haul + Mini Argan Shampoo review

Here's my Avon Spring Haul (which I was supposed to put up a few weeks ago but the pic wouldn't upload).

Clockwise from left: Glazewear lip shine in Pink Watermelon;
Advance Techniques Moroccan Argan Oil Shampoo;
Speed Dry Nail Polish in Mambo Melon;
Hydrate and Grow Nail Conditioner;
Nail Art Tool (brush and pin double ended - as seen on top of the catalogue);
Blemish Mark Treatment (in roller ball form, containing glycolic and salicylic acid).

I have used the shampoo and it feels really silky lathering up and your hair feels soft once dry too. Would purchase again. I got it for £1.40 for 400ml.

Henna Nail Art

Salaam, I came across henna nail art whilst on youtube a little while ago. Normally you see women with their nails block covered in henna, but this lady (Robinmoses) shows how you can apply intricate designs on nails! She used a paint brush to apply the designs and the only downside is that you need a very steady hand!

Here are some pictures I found:

You could stick to a simple design on just one nail. Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUpGVO95akNUys28D2cfUbxsYLXarIvwYjj80GCmrRDMWqsAG81z83MyIPXVf4Bmpzj6MP6l42CE5b1bXkBnOqBd5ErjSscyAiLYSJ5vcNuzjq0HUgoVIVdqH8SCft0kZN0FEh8ljNj90D/s1600/4_26_11+1.JPG

Source: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7178/6781516462_c9ea56caa2_m.jpg

Source: http://www.chilimili.com/henna-inspired-nail-art.htm

Source: http://www.style-den.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Nail-Art-Designs-For-Long-Nails-2.jpg

What do you think? Would you give it a go?

Mini MUA Haul

Last month Make Up Academy (MUA) had 30% off off their items online to celebrate reaching 30,000 FB followers (or something like that).

Anyhoo, I purchased a few things as can be seen from the pics.

Clockwise from left: MUA  Mystical Glitter Nail Polish in Starfish & Jellyfish, Undressed Eyeshadow palette, 2 x Extreme Felt Liners, Extreme Curl Mascara.

You can see the glitter in the Mystical Glitter Nail polish a little better.

I read that the undressed palette is a very good dupe of Urban Decay's Naked palette and the only main difference being the price so I can't wait to test this out.

So how much did this all cost after the 30% off? Under a tenner! (£9.75 to be precise).

Are you a MUA fan? What are your must haves?

Freebies (3) Benefit InStyle Mag + Eid Souk 2012

As-salaamu alaykum readers!

This seemed too good an offer for me not to post - The November issue of Instyle magazine (featuring Naomi Harris) contains a free Benefit gift. You can choose from Sunbeam, a golden bronze complexion highlighter; Cha Cha Tint, (mango tinted lip and cheek stain) or; Benetint; (original rose-tinted stain).

This offer is not to be missed if you are make up junkies/benefit fans as for £3.80 or £2.50 from Tesco, you can get a deluxe 4ml sized version of these products which would otherwise cost between £8-10 each for this size or between £18.50-£24.50 for the full size which is 12.5ml-13ml. Do the math!
I have managed to get the Cha Cha Tint and Benetint, but not seen Sunbeam yet.

Review of Benefit Cha Cha Tint:
The cha cha tint is a peach/coral shade which is flattering on warm skin tones.  It can be worn under or over foundation and you can build up the colour. It doesn't dry too quickly so you don't have to rush madly to blend it once it's on your skin. I would recommend it to anyone.

Free 4ml size Benefit Benetint, Cha cha tinit or Sunbeam in November 2012 issue of Instyle Magazine.

Oh yeah, before I forget, I attended the Eid Souk 2012 held in Waterlily banqueting suite in E1. Errm, it wasn't as good as last year namely because the suite wasn't being enough/there weren't as many stalls as last year which was held in Tobacco Docks (Wapping). There was nothing new on offer and you were lucky to get a look in as it was a little cramped. Anyhoo, that's my view on it. Don't know if anyone else went and what they made of it? Do let me know.

Nail Art - Leopard

I completed this leopard effect look using Nail Inc's Coral as a base, along with Gabrini's Multivitamin Nail Art polishes which have a fine brush. I used no 4 (gold) for the spots and 12 (black) for the outline. It was really easy to do however, the Gabrini polishes tend to get gloopy as you work your way across your nails especially the gold one.

Coral, gold and black leopard nail art using Gabrini Multivitamin Nail Art polish in 4 and 12, and Nails inc Coral.

Nail Art - Gold Pen

Salaams,

I used a gold nail art polish that has a skinny brush and only cost £1 over Nails Inc New York.

The first design is 3 diagonal lines with dots added to the thumb, and the second design has curves going along the nail.

Nail Art - Flowers

As the post title says. Excuse the jagged edges.