NEW: MUA Velvet Lip Lacquer - ENTIRE COLLECTION SWATCHED

MUA LUXE VELVET LIP LACQUER 

Now, I am a lover of high end make up, and have my fair share of expensive products, from Becca, to Kevyn Aucoin, to Eve Lom, Hourglass. I love luxury, despite my very empty pockets, I seem to be able to find a way to own things I really haven't the funds too. 

However, MUA, like Sleek Make Up, are one of those brands that aren't just budget, they're SUPER budget, and despite this, they keep coming up with FANTASTIC products that I opt for time and time again despite owning much pricier alternatives. The velvet lip lacquers are just one example of this. I own matte liquid lipsticks from Lancome, BITE beauty, Stila, Lime Crime and many more. However, when i'm going on a hardcore, sweaty and long night, I always opt for MUA velvet lip lacquers. They're a million times cheaper, and offer much more it seems. How can we complain!?

You may not have heard, and not even I had heard, and I am a total cosmetics geek, so I should have by now, but they have released a few new shades of lip lacquer for the summer. I found them in my local superdrug, which was a surprise given their lack of stocking ANY products that someone would potentially desire, so I snapped them up quick as a flash, and here I am to share them with you!

These are the original shades released last year....

L-R Atomic, Reckless, Funk and Kooky

L-R Kooky, Reckless, Funk and Atomic

Bottom to top - Atomic, Funk, Reckless and Kooky

And here are the NEW ones for summer! STUNNING as the old! 

L-R Criminal, Aflush, Halcyon and Tranquility

L-R Criminal, Aflush, Halcyon and Tranquility

Bottom to top - Criminal, Aflush, Halcyon and Tranquility

Firstly, please excuse my skanky arm. I have had a major allergic reaction and am covered head to toe in hives due to, what seems to be, my hair bleach that I have used on me. This sucks, because I have a full head of blue hair. I'm not sure what my options are but I am ANNOYED.

Secondly, I cannot praise these formulas enough. Not ONE other liquid lip, except for the Stila one, which is five times the price, will stand up in the same way. If you apply a lipliner that is also long wear, like the Sleek Eau La La Liner (£4.99 from boots and superdrug), then apply this on top, you will be able to get through about six hours smudge and budge free. Quite the performance no!?

So I suggest you pick these up QUICK. They always seem to be sold out, so if you find them, make them yours. They are summer and party nights in a tube!

Available from MUA online, and Superdrug exclusively for the paltry sum of £3.00.

Come, dive in, and swim in the delicious waters of MUA lip lacquer! 

REVIEW: Sleek Matte Me - All Shades - Swatches

BACK.

I'm a bit of a grotten mess today, but ima going to to my best to post something worthy of being read for you lovey guys out there.

I am a big fan of the brand Sleek. They bring out fashion focused products of an incredible quality and a really affordable price point. What is not to love!? From the point these were announced I checked the local Superdrug to see if they were nestling on the shelves (whilst also trying to avoid the guy who would say daily 'where is the girl who usually comes with you? She's much prettier than you, because, y'know, I need to feel WORSE about myself right now obvs), and I snapped them up the second I found them.

So, lets get a swatching!

Top to bottom - Petal, Birthday Suit, Party Pink, Rioja Red, Brink Pink, Fandango Purple

L-R - Fandango Purple, Brink Pink, Rioja Red, Party Pink, Birthday Suit, Petal

So, the review! What is it that Sleek have to say about all this matte malarkey?

"Matte Me is a matte finish liquid lipstick that glides on in one smooth application, with no need for a second coat." - sleekmakeup.com

I have to be honest, as much as I love Sleek, the claim is bollocks. I am a massive, MASSIVE Matte lipstick fan, I own every matte lipstick I can get my hands on, so i'm a pretty easy sell and easily pleased when it comes to a long wear liquid matte lip, as you'll see from my posts on the Lime Crime Velveteens, and the Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick. These aren't really in the same league formula, or longevity wise sadly. They barely cover in one swipe, leaving a pretty patchy offering, so if you want it to it totally opaque, you will probably want to fill your lips in with a liner, blot, then swipe it on, twice. It looks great then, but it does also have a reasonably short wear time if you want to drink and eat. 

So, in short, if you're going to go for a budget matte options, I would definitely pick up Rioja Red and Birthday Suit, as they're great colours and a lot cheaper than Stila etc, but don't expect them to be bulletproof. 

Bold brows - My personal obsession, and how to achieve them. Updated.

Audrey. Queen of brow. 

Sorry for my lack of posts. I have been extremely busy beyond belief. I am back now with a bumper brow post as way of apology.

I love brows, I love them so much, they frame a face, change the whole mood of the make up you have on your chops. Done correctly that can visually recall an era. I mean, Siouxsie Sioux's squared severe brow shape added to a look and suddenly it's 1970's punk. A thick bushy brow such as Audrey Hepburns, and you're swanning around like you're in Breakfast and Tiffany's. Brows are powerful. 

Siouxsie Sioux. Severe. 

Given my obsession, I've been through a lot of brow products. Here's a few of my recommendations for you to peruse....

Mac Brow Pencil in Stud

This pencil is awesome. It's a proper dark brown, unlike many pencils you buy which give you a feint mucky brown shade, this means business. It's slim, leaves opaque coverage, and is extremely easy to use. You can either just use it to fill in those few extra hairs you need to balance your brow, or go for a full on brow assault. I would say out of all the brow pencils i've used, this is, by far, the very very best.

This can be purchased direct from the Mac website for £12.50

Mac Fluidline Brow Gelcreme

You know, Mac really get on my tits sometimes, as i've mentioned in posts before, they release something INCREDIBLE, something you've yearned for, and you get hold of it, and then suddenly, it's sold out in three days and you can never have it again despite it having become part of your daily routine and thus, essential, you're not allowed to own it again. Oh no. Why on earth would they want you to buy more of their products that you adore? 

Regardless of this, this product is AMAZING and the ultimate brow product I own, and as I said before, I own a lot. I use this when I want to create a sharp dramatic brow, using a Mac 266 Small Angle Brush which is dense and stiff enough to make it easy as lovely pie. 

If you can find this instore, snap it up, as it's sold out online, but cost £14.00 and is worth every penny

Sleek Brow Kit in Extra Dark

This kit is amazing. I promise you. Sleek is a brand I adore anyway, I have lots of high end products, but daily I keep going for their products over the more expensive ones. Why? They are bloody good thats why! Highly pigmented, long lasting and they perform, what more could you want? This brow kit consists of a wax to fill and fix your brows in place, as well as priming them for the next step, which is a very pigmented, dense powder to fully fill them in, which sticks to the wax, leaving you free to do what you're doing and not worry about fading or smudging. Pretty nifty no? 

Whats also amazing is the price. SO CHEAP! If you want to indulge you can order this direct from the website here or pop into your local Superdrug and pick it up for a stunning £8.50. It lasts forever too!

Illamasqua Brow Cake

Good old Illamasqua. I love this brand so much. They basically create anything that you couldn't imagine any other brand having the guts to put on general sale. If you want to create a Siouxsie Sioux brow like above, these are the brow products you want to get your hands on. Just mix some water with this powder above and create a paste to paint on a brilliantly extreme brow. The world is your brow shaped oyster! If you want a brow that is industrial strength, just mix the cake with their famous sealing gel £12.50, and you'll be rain, sweat and weatherproof until you remove it. Ace no?

You can pick this up direct from the website or from Debenhams for £15.

Awesome. 

Now, how to do it. Well, I don't think anything I could ramble could ever beat the genius of my make up hero, Gossmakeupartist, giving us two amazing tips. This first video changed my make up life!!!

Gossmakeupartist - How to use brows to make your nose look slimmer.

Gossmakeupartist - How to get the perfect brow.

Dive in, enjoy, honestly I couldn't vouch for a better make up artist to explain techniques than Goss, he's incredible. 

Pixiwoo - How to fill in brows

The above video is fantastic, and for the girl that loves a signature iconic brow, so Nik from Pixiwoo, my other favourite you tube MUA, takes you through how to achieve the aforementioned Audrey Hepburn as well as Elizabeth Taylor, Linda Evangelista and more natural shaped brows. Also, because Nik is awesome, she also explains how to achieve a natural looking brow for when you're suffering from alopecia or hair loss through cancer treatments. I personally love doing the Audrey brow. Give it a go if you fancy, whats to lose?? If you think you look like a twat, take it off. Thats the great thing about make up, if you look a twat, which I frequently do, you can just whip out a washcloth! 

Happy forehead scrawling girls! 

Review - Stila Stay All Day Lipstick - Shade Fiery 01

If there's one thing i'm a massive fan of, it's a matte lip. It's not that i'm a hater of a glossy lip, but there's something so classic about a matte, flat colour on a lip, almost cartoonish depending on the shade. I know a lot of girls get upset about matte colours being drying, but I don't give a toss frankly. It looks cool, and thats what Neutrogena Intense Repair Lip Balm is for. Just slather some on and give your lips and exfoliate girls, and hey presto, the world didn't end!

So, onto my latest lip crush.....

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Fiery

I have always had problems with red lipstick. Normally pale girls look great with red lips, but such is my skin tone and odd colouring, as i'm pale, but pinky in the face, a yellowy around my neck, very dark brown of hair (naturally, but it's pink right now) and pale blue eyes, oh, and super yellow teeth because of smoking like a trooper from the age of 11 till I was 22. It's a confusing palette for some reason so many red lipsticks look awful on me. However, this guy, he's my mothereffing HERO. 

Fiery, swatched. Just now.

This behaves much like the last Stila Liquid Lipstick I reviewed, it's a massively pigmented formula, which covers completely in one swipe, and takes about three minutes to dry down completely. It leaves a beautiful, velvety finish, completely matte, and pretty long lasting. The manufacturer, Mr Stila, says it should last six hours through hell and high water. This isn't quite true, but if you're just going out, having a drink and a bite to eat, it'll see you through zero problems. If you're going for a full on snog, it's going to move a little. You'll continue to look good, but your kissing partner is going to be a little red around the mouth. Ahem. Still, who cares, as long as you're looking good! 

So above, i've teamed it with my beloved Sleek Eau La La Liner in Raisin (£6.99 Superdrug), which is a great dupe for Mac Currant . Then all I have to do is swipe, clean up (which I neglected to do above, clearly) and go. I can just touch up through the night if I need to, and everyone is a red lips winner! 

You can purchase Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Fiery from ASOS  or direct from Stila UK for £15

Sleek Make Up False Lashes...and my thoughts of falsies

So this happened a little while ago, but I only just started writing this blog guy recently so I didn't mention it. Sleek have started, in their wisdom, to add to their arsenal of low priced BRILLIANTLY performing products some false lashes, which I will be showing you below.

I have a weird relationship with false lashes. I basically only wear them when I do my own club. Never, ever anywhere else. No matter how big or special the gig, no lashes will be worn, but if I do my own night without, I feel naked and piggy eyed, and I shy from the camera, I truly become 'photosensitive' (ba doom tish).

I started with Mac side lashes, in my less expressive times, and progressed to using Girls Aloud Cheryl lashes every single week, to the point that I had piles of used ones stuff in drawers with the idea i'd reuse them. I never did. Then eyelure decided to be EVIL and discontinued the Cheryl's, replacing them with some wispy nonsense, and a nation of girls who liked cheap plasticy lashes wept together. For a while I used Sarah, and she was okay, but lacked in comparison. Then I found, with glee, that Hed Kandi, for some god forsaken reason, had moved into false lashes, and were doing a pair called Disco Heaven which were perfect for a wide eyed, Twiggy/Jean Shrimpton-esque babydoll mod look. Then, yep, eyelure decided to break my heart AGAIN. and discontinued these. Seems odd when they're happily churning out tons of really rather lame Katy Perry coloured lashes that look so unflattering!

So, to stop rambling, Sleek Make Up have decided to get in on the lashes game. Paying homage to feline beauty, which makes sense given the popularity of the 'cat eye liner' flick right now, there are eight different sets of lashes called Bengal, Burmilla, Persian, Ragdoll, Russian Blue, Savannah, Siamese and Sphynx. See image below....

Click to enlarge image

I myself invested in Bengal and Russian Blue, which are pretty similar to the Disco Heaven and Cheryl lashes I was mourning so. There's only one downside......the price. They are much more expensive than I would have ever expected from Sleek, especially as these aren't real human hair or anything approaching that. The most i'd paid before for lashes was £5, but these come in at £7 PLUS postage, as they're not available in Superdrug yet. However, the designs were spot on, so I couldn't say no! 

Bengal

Russian Blue

So i'm a big fan. If you would like to join me in the fanclub, you can purchase these direct from the wesbite here for £7 plus postage. 

Review - Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick = MY FAVOURITE NEW LIPSTICK

Ladies and gentleman, I am in love. I thought i'd been in love before, but this is the real thing, for I have met Stila Stay All Day Lipstick in the shade of Fiore. I am a creature of habit when it comes to lipsticks, for years I went for the nineties-esque nude, which involved either using Urban Decay Naked 24/7 Lip Pencil (the best nude EVER) with Nars Pure Matte Lipstick in Tonkin (again, the best nude shade EVER). It basically makes your lips look massive and is universally flattering. I lacked in confidence to go for brights unless I was slim, and slim is a thing of my past, sadly, so I ignored them for a while.

However, in a brief sojourn in my life on one of those internet forums about make up when I was particularly looking for various reasons to avoid a real life (ha) I was introduced to my favourite of all time lipsticks, Cherries in the Snow by Revlon, which is the perfect balance between pink and red. However, if I want it to last all night, it takes ten straight minutes of lipliner, blot, powder, lipstick, blot, liner, powder, lipstick, blot blot blot blot, and then lipcote, and I want it to be matte not lustrous.

Who has that time!? Also, I know people say that reapplication is joyful, but when people are taking photos of you all the time, you don't always want that shot of you looking like a scruffy lush with patchy red pink lips....so I want something that'll LAST.....

However, move over guys, for my BFF for nights out FOREVER is going to be Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Fiore. See BELOW.

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in shade Fiore

Swatched on my delightfully pale wrist

On my lips. Please don't be mean about my face! It's for info purposes only....

So as you can see, it's beautifully matte, and i've teamed it here with my most favourite lip pencil of all time, Sleek Eau La La Liner in Dragon Fruit. Those Sleek pencils are amazing, although I go through at least four a month because they ALWAYS break, they're actually so cheap it doesn't matter (that much). This picture of my big wide face was taken after two hours, plus having eaten dinner and drunk many glasses of lucozade and diet cola (it's what I do when i've got a migraine). Pretty good no??

So if you're looking for a fantastically electric pink, that will stay on for ages, be properly matte, not pretend (Models One Super Matte Brights i'm looking at YOU!) matte, BUY THIS NOW.

I bought this, with my own money, as always, from the Stila website HERE for £15

Sleek Eau La La pencil in Dragon Fruit was purchased from Superdrug for £4.99, but you can also get it from the website direct HERE.

Go forth. Enjoy some perfection.