Good afternoon, it's Monday again (already) and today I thought I'd go through what is pretty much my everyday makeup in the summer. I wore this yesterday to go out and I wear pretty much the same for work most days when I need to look neat but have my makeup done in less than 20 minutes!

In summer I don't want to wear a tonne of foundation, so I prefer to go for a light foundation, like my Gosh CC Cream (CV) that you knows I love, or the No 7 Superlight Foundation (CV). Yesterday I went for a BB Cream, this one is from superdrug in shade light (V) and the BB Concealer that goes along with it, also in light (V).

Although these are the lightest shades, they're really a bit too dark for me right now, because I'm pretty pale. So I probably won't wear them again until after I've been on holiday and got a bit of a tan (fingers crossed!).

The concealer doesn't really give much coverage, certainly not enough to cover my under-eye bags! So I generally just use it to highlight a bit, like this...

 

So for under the eyes and to cover the redness on my cheeks I used ELF's Maximum Coverage Concealer in the shade Sand. (V)  I wouldn't say this is full coverage - light to medium more like.

For the rest of the skin I used ELF's HD liquid blush in Superstar (V), SEVENTEEN Skin Wow! Highlighter (CV) and Barry M's Natural Dazzle Bronzer (V).

 Brows I just used a little bit of the GOSH brow pencil in Grey/Brown (CV) to fill in the gaps and then GOSH's clear brow gel to keep them in place (CV).

 I also kept the eyes really simple, I used the lightest matte shade from the MUA Undress Me Too palette (AV) all over the lid and up to the brow. I added a bit of dimension in the crease with the same bronzer I used on my cheeks. I added a quick sick of black liquid liner (Limecrime's Uniliner in Quill- V) and then my favourit Barry M Lash Vegas Fibres mascara (V).

 At the last minute I decided to add some gold on the waterline and used GOSH's Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Antinque Gold (CV).

Lips were a quick dab of Barry M's Loudmouth Gloss in Chatterbox.

 

And that's that!

I quite often change it up a wee bit by using a colour pencil instead of black liquid liner, but aside from that, my makeup is like this most days.

What's your go to products?

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

13:18

I know I know... it's Saturday but I didn't have time to get this up yesterday. So my favourite for this week has been Bronzey eyes!

I need fast makeup in the mornings because I am always running late, after dragging myself out of bed later than I should.

So pretty much every day this week, I've gone for this eye look. Basically I quickly run the Barry M Eyeshadow Pencil (V) in the bronzey shade (EP2) over my lid and then set it with Fiery from the MUA Undress Me Too Palette (AV) - that's the 3rd shade from the right on the top row.

This palette is a dupe of the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, so if you have that, Fiery is the dupe for Chopper. It's pretty close too.

The pencil - I like a lot. They are supposed to be long wearing and waterproof and they do wear well. I put it in the waterline too and it lasted pretty well.  It did crease a wee bit in the socket of my eye, even with a primer, but nothing too bad.

Also please note that not all the eyeshadow pencils are vegan, 4 of them are, the others are not. Take a look at the product ingredients list to see which shades are good to go.

So here's a close up of the eye look. I also used some other shades from the MUA palette: Lavish in the crease (the shade to the right of Fiery) and Shy in the inner corner (the shade to the left of Fiery).  I used Naked (the 1st shade on the left of the top row) on the brow bone. 

For £4, I think the MUA palettes are brilliant alternatives to Urban Decay's offerings which are 10 times the price and also they're owned by L'Oreal, boo sucks to you UD!! haha

Have a good weekend all.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

11:45

So instead of doing a Friday Favourite this week I'm doing a Friday Feature, on the new shades of the Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquers from MUA (AV).  When I saw the picture of these on the facebook page I was really excited because usually, this type of long lasting, matte liquid lipsticks only come in super dark / vibrant colours and I was looking forward to trying something more wearable for the day.

The colours are actually darker than they look in the tubes and I have struggled to get accurate pics of the colours.  They are all slightly brighter than both my hand and lip swatches are showing up on my pc, even though they look about right on my camera. 

From left to right, the shades are Tranquility, Halcyon, Serene & Aflush

The formula of these is tricky, as are all of the products like this that I have tried but with a bit of extra work, they are worth it because they really do last a lot longer than a regular lipstick!

Starting with Tranquility, which is a lovely light browny nude.  When I was applying this I was thinking ERGH vom. But once it was on I actually really loved it.  This one was the easiest one to work with and went on smoothly and easily first time.

Then Halcyon, which is a bit more of a brick type shade in real life. Again, another one I thought I'd hate but ended up liking. I think though if you have a lot of pink or red in your skin tone, this one wouldn't work for you!

Then we have Aflush, which is quite a lot brighter than I could get it to show in the picture. It's actually a lovely bright pink, not as bright as Criminal which I will talk about below, but very pretty and still a nice bold lip colour.  In fact, my brother's comment about this lipstick after I came downstairs from taking this photo wearing it was 'erm, you know it's that bright right?'. So I think he was unimpressed but I personally love it!

I left Serene for last because this is the one I struggled with the most.  It took 4 separate occasions of me trying to get this on nicely to be able to get this photo, which I'm disappointed about because I really LOVE the colour. Also, as you can see, I smooged my lips together before it was dry and got a bit of transference, as you can see in the pic below! Harrumph!  I've got some tips for working with these colours below, because they are a bit of work.

So basically if you want to try these, make sure you exfoliate your lips if needed and apply some lip balm. But before you apply the lacquer, wipe your lips completely dry. Any oil on the lips will stop them going on smoothly.  Work quickly and don't try to apply too thinly. Just try to get it on as even as possible and perfect the edges with your finger if you smudge it outside the lip line too much.  Don't rub or press your lips together to distribute the product. Keep your lips apart until totally dry otherwise they cake up a bit and look patchy.  If you need to add a bit more to patchy areas, wait until they're fully dry and add a tiny bit more.

With regards to wear, once they are dry they don't transfer onto your glass / hand etc!  I found that after just being out for salsa class with one or 2 drinks with a straw, these lasted pretty well, just a wee bit of a touch up needed...

After wearing it out for dinner and having (fairly oily) Italian food, it didn't fair quite so well. The oil breaks down the product and it wears off quite a bit...

I found that putting a bit of gloss over it makes it a bit more comfy (if you don't like the matte feeling) but anything petroleum based breaks it down pretty quick.

Removal... easy but it'll take more than a quick wipe off on a tissue. I use an eye make up remover to get these off, as it's less harsh on the lips than rubbing it off with a tissue or makeup wipe.

My overall opinion of these is that I like them a lot.  They last a long time with only minimal touch up needed and with a bit of patience, look really good.  I still prefer the Limecrime Velvetines I have which I have found don't need to be touched up at all during a night on the drink (admittedly I haven't tested them on how they last during dinner!)

So that's the new shades. I also have 3 of the older ones so I thought I'd post a swatch of those and also some comparisons to similar shades from other brands that I have.

Top to bottom: Criminal, Funk, Atomic

Some comparisons then:

Left to right: MUA 'Serene' & Makeup Revolution 'What I Believe' and MUA 'Aflush' & Makeup Revolution 'Keep Crying For You'. 

The top two are MUA 'Criminal' (L) and Makeup Revolution 'You Took My Love' (R) - these two are almost identical!

And here is MUA's 'Atomic' (top) and Limecrime's 'Suedeberry' (bottom). Suedeberry is a bit more pinky and lighter and Atomic is a truer orange.

So that's all for this week. Hope you have a fab weekend.

Love & Stuff

Sal xXx

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12:25

Errrr hellerr everyone. Hope you are enjoying your bank holiday weekend?

I decided to make today's blog post about nail polish, to give you some ideas for vegan options. The ones I've picked are (as far as I know) fully vegan polish lines.  This doesn't mean that all their products are.... just the polishes!

Orly
I'm kicking off with Orly, because I am in love with their base & top coats. I was looking for a fast-drying top coat to replace my Seche Vite. I love Seche Vite and it really does dry quick but it stinks and it goes sticky and unusuable sooo fast.  So I tried this one and I love it.  It dries quick and it's lovely & shiny. Because I liked it so much, I bought the rubberised base coat too. Generally regular polish lasts less than 24 hours without chipping on me* but since using this duo, I get a couple of days out of a mani (way WAY longer on toes!); which is pretty good for me.  (*This is the main reason I prefer gel manicures!)

I have lots of Orly colours too which I like a lot, but most of those colours are in my salon.

Nubar
I researched long and hard when looking for a brand of nailcare products to use in my salon and I settled on Nubar. Not only cruelty free and vegan, but also awesome. Their mani & pedi products smell lovely and Gelicure is just a fantastic gel polish. They have a huge colour range and you can get matching polish usually, if you like your Gelicure colour!

Barry M
Hands-down my favourite 'drugstore' polish brand, if not my favourite in this entire post.. I absolutely love the Gelly polishes but they have a massive range of glitters, regular paints and nail effects like crackle polish (untrendy though it may now be!). Price point wise it's brilliant too.

China Glaze
Massive fan of China Glaze. I really love the polishes and I love their orange scented cuticle oil too; which I really must repurchase asap!! Not too expensive but also not that easy to get hold of; if you have a Sally's near you, you'll likely find some in there, if not you'll have to get them online.  Again, most of my CG polishes are down in the salon but I have some Neons that are fab and I love the polish pictured on the right below (That's Shore Bright, which I featured in a recent Friday Favourite post).

Jessica
A professional salon brand; I've never seen this available to buy in stores, only in Jessica salons. I think they are fantastic polishes with lots of colour choice. (Their Geleration gel polish is also vegan in case you have a Jessica salon near you; I don't know about their mani-pedi products though!) They are a bit pricier than some brands, but they're worth it.

Deborah Lipmann
This is the only DL polish I own; not because there aren't about 7 others that I want but because they retail at £16 each, which I think is FAR too much to pay for a polish. But dang, this is soooo pretty!

ELF
Good old ELF and their awesome veganness! Unfortunately I only own 2 ELF polishes because the 2 I have totally blow! The formula is terrible and really hard to work with.. I hated them, so I never bought more. I keep meaning to try a couple of others and see if I just picked turkeys or if all of them suck. Anyone have good experiences with ELF polishes??

NYX
I've said before that NYX have crappy customer service and they are not willing to take time to find out which of their products are vegan when you ask, so you have to go buy ingredients lists, if possible. So I am not sure about all of their polishes, but according to the PPK list that I have linked to below, the salon forumal polishes are vegan. I like these; they're nothing to write home about though.

MUA
Again, check ingredients lists on these because I only have a couple and they look vegan to me from the ingredients lists.  MUA is super cheap and I like the quake polishes which are basically crackle polishes.

Butter London
Again I only own one. For years I didn't buy any because I HATE the names of these polishes, I mean they're even worse than the stupid names that OPI give their polishes. Trout Pout, Slapper... etc? UGH! But people seem to like them so I bought this one when I was in Leeds. It sucks, it's really sheer and would probably take 5 coats to get a good colour. However, I don't think that's true of all the shades, I think I just picked a bad one. Needless to say I'm not in any rush to spend £12 on another bottle.

Illamasqua

Pricier / high end brand and not as widely available; unless you have a store or counter near you, you'll have to order online. However, Illamasqua do brilliant sales and offer discounts for returning customers on their website. They have loads of colours and so far, I like the formula of the ones I've tried!

OCC

I love OCC! I love that they are totally vegan and cruelty free. I love their pigments, their lip tars.... I really quite like their polishes too. Pool Boy polish was also a recent Friday Favourite of mine - although it does take 3 coats to stop it looking a bit streaky. That mani lasted really quite well!

Models Own

Models Own have a fab colour range, the formula is generally very nice and they're available in Boots, at a decent price point. Win! See that Hed Kandi polish, second from right? GORGEOUS!! So freakin gorgeous. Not sure if it was limited edition but if not, you should buy it because it's the most lovely orange red (it's called Hedonist!)

GOSH

Last but definitely not least, GOSH. I love GOSH, you guys know that and their polishes are pretty freakin ace too. They have a gorgeous holographic polish, pictured left below and it's soooo pretty but it's really really hard to get on without going streaky. I keep trying though because it's gorgeous.

Honorable mention also goes to Spa Rituals, which are all vegan but again, I only have a few and they're in my salon and Zoya - as above. A lot of people rave about Zoya, I found they chipped really quick but I haven't tried them with my awesomesauce Orly base & top coat yet, so I will have to dig them out!

Anyway, hope that gave you a few ideas and if you want some more brands that are vegan, check out this list on the PPK which is awesome.

Enjoy what's left of your long weekend all!

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

17:41

So recently someone said on the UK Vegans Facebook page that MUA are not cruelty free because they sell in China.  This isn't something I'd heard so I decided to email them and check that they hadn't changed their policies and happily, they do not sell in China! YAY.  Here is their full reply for anyone wondering and also so you can see where any confusion may have come from.

Hi there Sal, Thank you for your email! We can confirm our products are not tested on animals and are 100% cruelty free. Our products are not Vegan or Vegetarian suited as some of the ingredients are derived from sources not accepted by Vegans or Vegetarians. We ship to China to individuals, but we do not sell there in store direct, so therefore no animal testing is done on the items. Thank you for your interest in MUA and I hope this info helps. Kind regards With best regards, MUA Customer Service

Re their comments about not being vegan/veggie friendly - this is their standard response. Some products are vegan, but they are not great at answering queries about it, so you have to go buy ingredients list.

But anyway, hurrah, I don't have to take back those MUA items I just bought after all!

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

17:54

Thought I'd post a quick face of the day for no reason other than I am wearing my favourite eyeliner. Full list of products under the pics.

Eyeball close up!

Horrible lip shot - I suck at taking lip pics! haha.

And look at my earrings! I LOVE them. (From Claire's Accessories)

Full Product List

Face

Neve Flat Perfection Mineral Foundation Light Warm (V)

OCC Conceal Y1 (V)

Sleek Contour Kit Light (CV)

NYX Blush Peach (AV)

Neve Cosmetics Setting Spray

Eyes

MUA Undress Me Too Palette Shades Lavish (crease/transition shade), Reveal (lid), Exposed (outer crease), Shy (upper crease) & Naked (browbone highlight) (AV)

Makeup Geek Gel Liner Fame (CV)

ELF Volumising Mascara Black (V)

Billion Dollar Brows Brow Powder Blonde (AV)

Bilion Dollar Brows Brow Gel (AV)

Lips

ELF Lipstick Nostalgic (V) (just their cheapy £1.95 lippy, I LOVE it!)

GOSH Volume Lip Shine Soft Coral (CV)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Love & Stuff

Sal xXx

12:04

Can you believe it's March already? Well as February is over I can now share my favourites for February.  I've not done one of these posts before on here (I did do a big 2013 beauty favourites post over on my food blog a while back though) but I love reading them on other blogs / watching favourites videos on youtube, so here's mine.

No 7 Instant Radiance Foundation - £12.50 from Boots (CV)

I've been loving this lately for my everyday foundation. It has SPF 15 and it gives a lovely finish. The coverage is not too much so you can still see your skin through it but it evens out any redness etc. Also, I've found it lasts pretty well even without a primer, on my dryish skin.  I like to apply this with a Real Techniques Buffing Brush, as I think that gives the best finish - even better than my beloved Sigma P80!  One thing I would add, this might possibly flash back in flash photography - not 100% sure on that. I need to test it (SPF can do that!)

Eyeko Brow Gel - £18.00 from Eyeko (V)

OK it's pricey but I think it's gonna last ages and it's awesome! It has just a tiny bit of colour so it should suit everyone and just helps keep my brows in place.  I use it over my Anastasia Brow Wiz Pencil. I also have their Skinny Brush mascara which I LOVE as well - I'll be posting about a bunch of vegan mascaras in the next week or so, so stay tuned for that!

MUA Undressed Palette - £4.00 from MUA (or Superdrug) (AV)

So this is basically an awesome £4, vegan dupe of Urban Decay's Naked Palette. (I never bought the original Naked Palette but I did get Naked 2 as a gift before the whole L'Oreal takeover debacle.) I've been reaching for this a lot lately as the colours are great for blending and finishing off all types of looks from neutral to really colourful. The shadows are surprisingly good quality for such a cheap palette.  Also, the good news is if you don't have Naked 2, they have a dupe for that too, called Undress Me Too. Now if only they'd do an Undress Me 3....!  

ELF High Definition Undereye Setting Powder - £3.95 from ELF (V).

OK so when I first got this after seeing a few youtubers rave about it, I thought it was rubbish. It looks super glittery in the pot and I am not a fan of glitter around the eyes because I have loads of fine lines there!  But I gave it another go and I've really grown to love it. Yes it is a bit glittery but not in a tradition BAM! Glitter kind of way. The sparkles just make your undereye area look brightened and it it's very fine, so it doesn't crease or go cakey. LOVE! I like to apply this with my Real Techniques Setting Brush.

Too Faced La Creme Lipstick - £18 from Beauty Bay (although they're currently showing as £16.20 with free delivery!!) (CV)

I got 2 of these when I was in London (in Debenhams) a while ago and as they were £18 I restrained myself to 2, even though they were a few more that I liked. I love the formula of these and the shine and the packaging - gorgeous. My favourite is Juicy Melons, pictured below, which is a gorgeous corally colour. I also got Marshmallow Bunny which is a lovely baby pink. I will definitely be picking up more of these in the future.

GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliners - £4.99 from Superdrug (CV)

So I posted the recently published GOSH vegan list in my last post and I couldn't wait to try some stuff out. I bought the Renaissance Gold liner first because I love gold in the waterline and I LOVE it. It's really pigmented and very creamy and because they're waterproof they last. I've been looking for a replacement for my NYX Gold Slide on liner because I've been asking them for almost 3 months about what colours are vegan and they just ignore emails, tweets, facebook messages..... bad customer services, NYX! BAD! Anyway I digress.  These liners are great, so I picked up 2 more in Superdrug the other day, because they had an offer on GOSH eye products (2 for a tenner).

Here's a swatch of the ones I have. L-R are Purple Stain, I Sea You and Renaissance Gold. Gorgeous right, definitely gonna have to get more!

Autograph Perfume in Inspire - Full size is 100ml and £16 from Marks and Spencer (CV)

I only have the baby 10ml bottle of this and that was a fiver. I like that you can buy just a purse sized amount of most of M&S' perfumes because sometimes smelling it in store isn't enough; you need to wear it for a few days. And after wearing this for a week or so I definitely will buy the full-size one. It's lovely.  I suck at describing perfumes, so I won't try and instead will cut/paste what M&S say about it:
This modern women's fragrance comes in a contemporary styled bottle. This scintillating fragrance combines top notes of pepper and purple freesia accords. In the middle white heliotrope and jasmine accords go beautifully with hibiscus blossom and rose. Precious cedarwood and sandalwood create a delicate base fragrance, which expresses the essence of feminine beauty

Yeah I know, a bit wanky! But fragrance descriptions usually are. It's lovely anyway. 

Merumaya Melting Cleansing Balm - £14.50 from Merumaya. (AV)

I saw this on a few blogs and was interested as I like the idea of a cleansing balm, but usually they are ridiculously over-priced and not vegan. So when I saw this one was £14.50, had good reviews and checked the ingredients and didn't see anything that appears to be animal based, I decided to give it a go and I love it.  I debated whether or not to include this in my favourites as I've only had it a week or so and skincare products need to be tested a good few weeks. But I love how it melts off all my makeup, including eyeliner, it smells nice and it leaves my skin feeling really clean and very soft. I use a different cleanser in the morning, this one is my current night-time cleanser to remove all that makeup.

Naked Bodycare Rescue Reparing Hair Treatment - £7.99 from Naked (or Boots) (V)

Yes yes I know the picture is a completely different product, to the one linked above, but the tub is the same and I binned the empty Rescue pot before taking a pic as I totally finished it.  The one pictured, I'm not sure they still make it, it's been in our cupboard a while so once I've used it I'll be buying another Rescue Treatment.  But anyway, I try not to wash my hair more than 1-2 times a week as it's colour treated and it just gets even more dry! So I like this to really condition the ends of my hair. It smells lovely and unlike some other 'natural' conditioners, it actually works on my dry hair!  I also love Naked's shampoos and just bought a new one, so maybe that'll be in next month's faves if I like it!

That's all for my February Favourites.  What's been your favourite products this month?

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

11:09