Four New Additions

At the start of the year I found myself in one of those moods where I just wanted to have a massive clear out in terms of my dressing table. I admit I was hoarding an unrealistic amount of skincare that I knew I wouldn't use anymore, and a lot of eye shadow palettes that were sitting away being unloved and unused.

Instead of getting rid of the palettes I don't use anymore, I decided to pass these to people who I knew would use them and love them. Which means I have found room for some of the palettes I'd been keeping my eye on, without feeling guilty for having a ridiculous amount of palettes not being used enough.
The first one I've added to my collection is one that has actually been in the beauty industry for a long time now and it is the Jeffree Star Blood Sugar palette. This is a palette where I just didn't know whether to take the plunge or not, it has a lot of extremely good reviews but I just didn't know if it was worth the price point. Then Christmas rolled around and I thought I would ask for it as a present and now I am the proud owner of a cult classic palette from Jeffree Star Cosmetics.

Another palette that follows a similar colour scheme is the Urban Decay Naked Cherry, and I am a huge fan of Urban Decay shadows anyway and own almost all of the palettes so I felt like this was something that I would eventually pick up even if it wasn't right now. But I love the colours in this palette and until this and Blood Sugar palette entered my collection, I didn't have a huge variety of pink toned palettes that were a formula I liked to use. 
One that I have owned for a couple of months now but haven't had too much of a chance to experiment with is the Morphe James Charles palette, which just caught my eye. I told myself I didn't need it and I wasn't going to buy it but I just couldn't help myself seeing it in person, this palette has everything and I can't wait to start playing around with this and using all the different colours.

The last palette and the newest to the collection is the Sosu x Keilidh Cashell palette which is the perfect palette for a natural eye look, but also has pops of colour for those who want to add this into their looks. The size of the palette is great as well, and I'm excited to start using this and see what I can come up as I have seen so many different looks being created with just this one palette.

A couple of these palettes I have used a few times, a couple of them I have yet to test out but I'm sure I will letting you all know how I get on with them once I've given them a fair test run. Have any of you tried these palettes? Love, hate, gimme your thoughts in the comments!

The MAC Eyeshadow Quad for Beginners

As a self confessed eyeshadow junkie, it's probably only right that I let you know what I consider to be my top eyeshadows from MAC, for the neutral lovers and beginners at least!

All these shadows have been picked so that they can be put into a quad and all used for make up looks, whether it's very natural for everyday or smoked out for a night time look. There is a shadow that can be used all over the lid, one on the crease, one to smoke it out (lightly or heavily) and one for a brow bone highlight!

To begin with I picked Naked Lunch, which is beautiful shimmery pink shade, but don't be put off by it being a pink shade because its more of a minimal pink that when blended with other shades, really doesn't look pink at all! But its a shade that can be used in a complex look or can just be used on its own, which is something that I do quite regularly just because the shimmer makes the shade seem a lot more on the lid, than just the one shade! 

A colour that is coveted by many and is pretty much a staple for your MAC collection is the shade Charcoal Brown which is for some reason the perfect brown, its cool toned, almost muted and just seems to work perfectly in the crease for pretty much any neutral eyeshadow look! And as a crease sahde should be, this is a matte shade and as a matte lover, I can't get enough of this shade!

We then have the shade Vanilla which I use as a highlight shade in the inner corner and on the brow bone, and this is simply because the shade is a very light peachy come ivory shade which holds a lot of reflect which when used a highlight looks very flattering as it tends to catch the light and reflect - as it should! But I also find that when I use a highlighting shade I want something that isn't overly shimmery or glittery especially for everyday use and this shade certainly isn't!

And finally the shade that I use for lightly or heavily smoking out the look is Bronze which is a golden brown, that holds a gold bronze shimmer and again isn't an overly shimmery shade so you can pack it onto the outer part of the lid and add it into the crease without it looking like too much! It's also a nice shade that can be added in with shades like Amber Lights if you feel like branching out from the neutral shades!

Since writing this post, I have fallen in love with the shade Sable, which was mentioned in the previous post, and this shade has been sat in palette for quite a while, and is one that I have been wearing all over the lid because it comes across as more than one colour on the lid! A shade that I'd highly recommend!

Do you have any favourite shades from MAC, or any shades that you've tried and didn't really like? If you own a quad, what shades do you have housed in there?

A Neutral Love

To celebrate the new year, I made a new beauty purchase because whilst many were out spending the last night of the year surrounded by music and alcohol, I spent mine surrounded with fast food aka at work! So why not make an online purchase? I decided that after weeks of having the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette sat in my basket, I would finally take the plunge and buy it, and along with this I also decided to try out a palette by Zoeva, and decided on the Naturally Yours palette which is another neutral palette.. Can you see a trend?

Too Faced is a brand that I have become a lot more aware about during 2014 and I think that this is because it is a brand that blew up in the bloggersphere for whatever reasons but I am so glad I finally took the plunge and made a purchase because I will definitely be buying more from this brand! After reading a lot of reviews about the Chocolate Bar palette, and having it sat in an online basket for ages, I thought the ‘why not?’ This is such a beautiful palette and for those of you who don't know already, yes it smells like chocolate so what more could want?! What I like about this palette is that much like the Naked palettes there's a mix of shimmer and matte shades but due to this palette housing three more shades there is two larger shades for highlighting and also a pop of colour in the palette in terms of the pink, blue and cranberry shades! 

Zoeva is a brand that also made a grand appearance last year in terms of their brushes and I must admit, for the eyes, their brushes are all I seem to use now! But I really wanted to branch into the makeup side of this brand and thought I would do so with a palette.. No surprises over here! But on serious note, if you haven't tried anything from the brand, do so right now because you're missing out! The first thing to note about this palette is that there is a matte white and a matte black which in my opinion is great because I'm someone who prefers matte shades but a white and black always come in handy! And then there are eight neutral shades, some shimmer and some matte and the size of these eyeshadows is larger than the average and so for £15 you really are getting your money's worth with this!

The one major difference with these palettes is their packaging and this is because the Zoeva palette is housed by cardboard with a beautiful pattern on and it and although it is cardboard there is a magnetic closing with this so its not the worst packaging in the world but you can tell that the Too Faced have spent more on theirs! The Chocolate Bar palette is a metal case also with a magnetic closing but this palette is in the shape of a chocolate bar and just feels more expensive and more sturdy in comparison to the Zoeva one.

Both of these palettes have great qualities about them and I would recommend both however the Zoeva palette is a lot more affordable than the Too Faced one so it just depends on what kind of palette you are looking for! I feel that both of these hold a high pigmentation, with Too Faced perhaps being slightly better and more buttery in texture so these are easily blended but the Zoeva eyeshadows are far from difficult to blend and I have been using both of these palettes since they first arrived!

Have any of you tried anything from either of these brands, or wanting to try products from them?