Barbara Daly Long Wear Eye Shadows

- Vicki 14 Comments
barbara daly shadows

Cream eyeshadow sticks

I first read about these Barbara Daly Long Wear Eyeshadows on Describe The Sky & being a cream shadow addict, I had to pop to Tesco to get a couple. I bought the colours Shimmer Sand & Shell, both very safe neutral colours, but they’re the sort of shades I will get the most wear from. These were a bargain at £3 each, and I have been thrilled with the quality and colour pay off.

Cream shadow sticks

Barbara Daly Shadow Sticks

I own quite a few cream eyeshadow sticks from brands like Rimmel, Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier and ELF these Barbara Daly ones are on a par with my Bobbi Brown one in terms of quality and how long they last. They’re fantastic quality at a fraction of the cost. I wear both colours I bought alone all over the lid. I apply the product directly to my eyelid and either blend out with my finger or a fluffy blending brush, either method works well. These blend very easily and after a couple of minutes they have dried enough that you won’t be able to blend them & they stay in place for HOURS! Much longer than my Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks

Cream Eyeshadow Swatches

Shell // Shimmer Sand (facing away from the light)

Product Swatch

Shell // Shimmer Sand (facing the light)

Shimmer Sand – This is a very pretty peach/ nude tone with a hint of bronze and a metallic / frosty finish. This really brightens up the eye & helps you look wide awake and fresh. This is so pretty worn all over the lid and the pigmentation is intense & lasts all day long. You can put a primer on beforehand if you have oily lids or if you just want to make extra sure it’s not going to budge. These have a lovely rich creamy texture that as I said is very easy to blend. It’s not overly shimmery so can still be worn during the day, I would say it’s more metallic than shimmery – it’s not glittery at all. I’m seriously impressed with these for £3.

Shell – This is a light pink with a gorgeous yellow toned champagne colour which again is pretty all over the lid or as an inner corner highlight, this colour really adds brightness to the eye & opens it up. These long wear shadow sticks are incredible quality and the packaging is sleek and looks a lot more expensive than £3. They do start to crease a little on me after about 5 hours of wear, but I do have quite crinkly eyelids & I just blend it out with my finger & that does the trick.

If you have access to a larger Tesco that sells Barbara Daly then get yourself down there & grab a couple of these, you won’t be disappointed. I’m heading back to get the darker black shade as I think that will be so good for an easy smokey eye.

P.S Love Makeup in Primark

- Vicki 19 Comments
lippy primark

The big inner city Primark in Liverpool has quite a large selection of makeup from the brand P.S Love and so I thought I would buy a few products and see how they perform. The products I bought ranged in price from £1 to £2.50, so very reasonable in price. I haven’t heard or read much about this line so I bought a selection of products & colours.

Primark Makeup

Primark Lipstick

P.S Matte Long Last Lipstick £1.50 is really pretty & I would say its a pinky nude colour. It applies nicely to the lips & doesn’t feel too dry, It wears quite a long time, but it does wear off evenly after about 2-3 hours & I don’t mind having to reapply. Im sure if unlike me you don’t have the terrible habit of biting your lips this will last considerably longer on you. It does feel a little dry on my lips but I have been told that most matte formulas are a little drying, but it’s nothing that would stop me wearing it. This is the first matte lip product I have tried and I do like it, Im going to pop back in to Primark and get a few more shades. I’m very impressed with the colour & how nice this looks on my lips, it is an easy shade to wear & a perfect daytime colour. I also love the packaging, it looks much more expensive than it was. Also you can see the shade at the bottom & that is very true to the colour it swatches.

Budget Friendly Makeup Primark Lip Crayon

P.S Love Lip Gloss Crayon £1.50 – I’m a chubby lip crayon addict & I thought this nude shade would be a safe bet. Again it’s really nicely packaged and is a twist up so no sharpening needed. I would say its a caramel nude, its quite a glossy finish and applied nicely & evenly to my lips. The colour pay off is OK and it looks nice & natural on the lips. I have been wearing this over some lipsticks too and that works well. On its own its nice for adding a little colour to the lips, I wouldn’t say this lasts a great amount of time but these lip crayons are really easy & effortless to reapply. I would be interested to see if there are other shades & how pigmented they are. This smells really nice too and not minty like a lot of the other brands. This has been in my handbag for the past week & I’ve been really enjoying wearing it.

Primark Eyeliner

P.S Love Eyeliner & Pencil Sharpener 2 Pack £1.oo – I couldn’t resist these colours & have been loving experimenting with brighter colourful eyeliner. You get 2 eyeliners & a clear plastic pencil sharpener in a pack for £1, thats a complete bargain. The two colours in this pack are a teal blue & a baby blue, so very pretty. These are creamy and apply so easily, no pulling at all they just glide on & add a pop of colour. They are very pigmented and that vibrant colour lasts all day. I’m very impressed with these and think they’re great value for money. Perfect if you don’t want to spend a fortune on a bright colour you might not reach for that often.

Primark Eyeliner

Primark PS Love Makeup

P.S Love Felt Eyeliner £1.50 – I Bought this in Black as I love to wear liquid liner & these felt pen style ones are my go to option. However this was the one product that brought my haul back down to earth as I found it to be watery & hard to apply. The pigmentation was poor and it sunk in to all the lines on my eyelid. I would give this a miss, even for £1.50 save your money.

PS Love Black Liquid Liner

Primark Eyeshadows

P.S Love 8 Shade Day Palette £2.50 – This is a really well packaged palette with a big mirror inside, and eight eyeshadows of which 2 are matte and the rest are variations of shimmer / metallic. These are a little hit & miss some of the colours are really pretty but have a lot of fall out whilst other are very chalky and have no colour pay off. As a rule I would say the top row with the slightly more shimmery colours are better quality and wear OK.

If you have time to work with these, wear a primer and build up the colour you can achieve some pretty looks & for £2.50 this very well packaged palette is great for makeup newbies or people like me that are unable to walk past a palette that contains neutral colours.

There is another version of this palette with 8 Night Shades, which I’ve heard is even better and I am tempted to pop back to get that & see how it compares.

PS Love Makeup

Swatches of the bottom row – only one swipe & with no primer

PS Love Palette

Swatches of the top row – one swipe & with no primer.

Primark Nail Polish

P.S Love Nail Polish £1.00 – These have a real Butter London feel to the bottles & my word this pink shade is vibrant. It is a true hot pink neon & dries to a semi matte finish, two coats will give you an opaque colour. I am so impressed with the consistency of this polish & I had it on my nails for 3 days without chipping, I took it off to apply a different colour but It looked great & was very bright. The only downside to this polish is the smell, its very very strong, not once its on your nails but whilst you’re applying it. So if you get a headache from the smell of nail varnish this is a very very strong one.

I was very impressed with all but one of the products I bought, I thought all the products had pretty packaging and it felt and looked more expensive than it was.

The selection in Primark is quite good & if you can get to one that is selling the makeup then pick up a few products – but not the Felt Pen Eyeliner. None of the products have colour names which is a pain, but thats quite common with more budget brands.

Let me know if you have tried anything from the Primark P.S Love makeup range & if there is anything you would recommend I try.

Summer Beauty Favourites 2014

- Vicki 12 Comments

Great Summer Products

These are eight of my favourite Summer beauty products, my most reached for and the things I just can’t live without as the weather gets warmer.

La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Facial SPF 50 £16.50 for 50ml – I have poured out my love for this SPF on my blog quite a few times now & I won’t apologise for it. I have convinced all my family to purchase the one thats best for their skin type (there are 3 options). I have the Anti Shine one & that dries to a Matte velvet finish. I have worn it for the entire month of May & June – in all weathers, rain or shine. Its a fantastic broad spectrum SPF, giving you the highest protection from both UVA & UVB rays. It wears very very well under makeup & doesn’t have that fishy SPF smell that quite a few sun care products have. I love the protection this gives my skin & also the fact that it won’t leave my skin looking greasy or feeling sticky. Its part of my daily skincare routine.

Caudalie Beauty Elixir £9.95 for 30ml – I have a love / hate relationship with this product as I have had a few bottles of this now & I do like it when I have it, although some days the minty scent is a little much for me especially in the morning. I like spritzing this when I feel hot, Its a nice and refreshing, but I think I have come to the conclusion & decision that I just like facial sprays / toners and won’t go out of my way to repurchase this one. So this Caudalie one I do like (its a little pricey) but this product is more included in this Summer Products roundup as more of broader I love facial sprays in the Summer to cool down & keep my makeup / skin feeling refreshed.

Kleenex Shine Absorbing Sheets – I love these & I was sad to hear Kleenex have discontinued them (cries). If you like them too & have a Home Bargain shop near you, they are selling them in there for 29p a pack & you best believe I have stocked up on many many packs. I get very oily in the warm weather & no one likes that look so I carry a pack of these in my bag just to blot away that excess oil throughout the day. These ones are very good & don’t lift off my makeup and I find them to be really absorbent. Each pack has 50 sheets so they’ll last me a good couple of weeks. So handy to have in your bag for those very hot days. I also got some Essence ones at a recent launch event. So I am excited to try those.

By Terry Baume De Rose Lip Balm £38.00 for 10g – This is a mini sample pot & is sadly almost all but gone. This leaves my lips so soft, smooth & hydrated. Its been my day time go to lip treat. My lips have been spoilt & now have a taste of the high life. I’m going to have to do some saving in order to be able to afford the full size of this. It’s worth every penny though, my lips are in such great condition even matte lipsticks have been applying like a dream, thats got to mean its worth the hefty price tag.

Elemis Treat Your Feet Foot Cream £6.00 for 30ml – No one wants dry nasty feet in the Summer. I am all about the sandals & flip flops when its warm, keeping it casual and I have to have my feet looking their best. So I have been using this Elemis Foot Cream from my British Beauty Blogger: The Dream Box & Its been working a treat on moisturising and keeping my feet looking smooth & feeling soft. Its very nourishing and not greasy. I put it on before bed & sleep in some small cotton socks & I have sandal ready feet by morning. This is a Summer must have for sure!

Korres Lip Butter in Wild Rose £8.00 for 6g- I don’t like to wear too much makeup during the day when it is really warm as I always end up feeling like a hot sweaty mess, but I do like to wear something on my lips just to give them a little colour & its helps it to look like I have made more of an effort. These Korres Lip Butters are fantastic, not only are they hydrating but the colour pay off is pretty damn good too. These won’t hang around for hours & hours on your lips but still they will give you a pretty flush of colour & keep your lips moisturised too. There are quite a few colours but this Wild Rose one is a pretty red and is so easy too apply and looks great on. My go to summer lip product, it is always in my handbag.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Colour in Blue Me Away – This is my most used polish for my toes, in the Summer this just looks so pretty and lasts a very very long time. I have got 3 weeks wear from it on my toes without it chipping or needing touched up. It reminds me of swimming pools, just a fantastic vibrant bright blue shade. I always get compliments on the colour & I love it.

dr.Organic Virgin Olive Oil Body Scrub £6.69 for 200ml* – I use scrubs all year round but in the Summer I get my (very white) legs & arms out a little more than usual & I like them to look as smooth & healthy as possible & this Olive Oil Scrub is so nice. It leaves my skin feeling soft & moisturised. Its a nice gentle but effective scrub and I use it daily as it helps to wake me up, get rid off all those dead skin cells and keeps my skin feeling very very smooth.

Let me know if you have been loving any of the products I’ve mentioned & also what your favourite Summer must have products are.

Products that are marked with an * have either been sent to me for my consideration or I’ve received at events. I’m under no obligation to review them on my blog. However if I do, the reviews are 100% my own.

Baylis & Harding Body Care

- Vicki 3 Comments

Baylis & Harding

Baylis & Harding are a fantastic purse friendly brand, they have such an extensive range of products but they have excitingly released a new 5 Step Body Care System. The range harnesses the power of Wildflower Botanical Extracts to create formulations that really work & they are designed to work on all skin types as part of a daily body routine (pamper). This is the perfect way to get your body Summer ready, or at least get it looking its best. They kindly sent me two of the steps to try  I have been putting them to the test.

First off the packaging is something different from Baylis & Harding as it is in pretty pastel colours and very eye catching. I like the packaging & the products look pretty sat out in my bathroom.

Great Body 5 step system

Step 1 : Great Body Polish* £4.99 – I think exfoliating your body is such an important step, especially if you’re going to fake tan. It removes all the dead skin to leave your skin feeling smooth and looking great. The exfoliant is tiny pieces of Walnut Shells which are small enough that its not too abrasive but scrubby enough that it gets the job done. This also contains Shea Butter to soften the skin & Coconut Oil to moisturise so your skin won’t feel stripped or dry after using this, it feels smooth and soft. It smells nice too (bonus).

Baylis & Harding Body Care

It also contains Skin Brightening Vitamin B3 & I can’t say that my skin looks brighter but I think its a nice extra ingredient & I’m sure we can all use a little help with keeping our skin looking bright & glowing. Especially in the Summer when we get our legs & arms out a lot more . This has a really nice creamy consistency and is easy to massage in to your arms & legs. I use this in the morning mostly as It wakes up my skin & leaves it feeling prepped for moisturiser.

The packaging is user friendly for the shower & comes in a squeezey tube & the product comes out quite slowly which is good as you don’t waste any. The packaging for the Body Polish is also a pretty pastel yellow shade so thats pretty in my shower.

Great Body Skincare

Step 4 : Body Firming Cream*  £4,99 – I go though body lotions like there is no tomorrow & I love testing new ones out especially if they claim to help sculpt, I can use all the sculpting I can get. This body lotion contains Baylis & Hardings secret weapon (or rather secret blend of ingredients) known as

Acusculpt : A new blend of standardised herbal actives from India, utilising traditional herbal medicine. The combined benefits of the actives help to locally breakdown and remove fat allowing for shaping and firming without irritation or discomfort.

I have to say this lightweight body cream has been so nice to use its easy to massage in to the skin, its absorbed quickly and dries to a velvet finish. No tackiness or greasy feeling at all. I have been using it for over a month, although not daily as I have other creams that I rotate but I have used it a couple of times a week, concentrating on my thighs & I have noticed that they’re looking smoother, and less like chicken skin so much much better than before. Its always hard to say if a cream has helped sculpt or firm your skin but I have been walking more & eating a healthier diet so I think all those things combined with a good body care routine has helped my skin get a little more Summer Ready & look a lot better. I will take that as a success.

The only downside to the Body Firming Cream is that the scent is a little odd, not botanical or sweet I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. All I can tell you is its not as nice as the Body Polish.

Im feeling smooth, hydrated and a little more sculpted so I guess the two products I have tried from this 5 Step Body Care System have done their job. The other 3 steps that are available are,

Step 2 : Body Wash – which is aimed at keeping your body moisturised and conditioned.

Step 3 : Body Lotion – Which is a 48 hour moisturiser that is aimed at reducing skins roughness and protect it from external aggressors.

Step 5 ; Body Mist – this is to sooth, refresh and moisturise the skin.

I think Baylis & Harding have done a great job with this affordable body care range, we are so used to looking after the skin on our faces & even hands that our body can get a little overlooked. I am in a good routine now for looking after my body that I am hoping by the time my holiday comes around I will be looking my best! I will be treating myself to the Body Mist as it sounds perfect for a summer holiday.

Have you tried any products from Baylis & Harding? If so tell me your recomendations.

Products that are marked with an * have either been sent to me for my consideration or I’ve received at events. I’m under no obligation to review them on my blog. However if I do, the reviews are 100% my own.