I have a new BFF! The Xtreme Liquid Gel Liners from GOSH and they are awesome!  

Ever since I stopped buying Bourjois, I've been looking for a liquid liner to replace the one I used to love. I've tried a few different ones but so far this is my favourite.

I'm picky. It has to be a nice thin consistency, smooth, a brush I can work with and it has to stay on all day.  This ticks all the boxes for me and it comes in 9 shades, 8 of which are vegan (shade 007 Lavender is the non-vegan one!).

So here's a terrible photo of the packaging

Swatches of the 3 shades I have:

Top - Bottom: Black, Bronze, Royal Blue

Here is the applicator

It's nice and fine so you can draw a thin line with it easily. It's more like a pen type nib than a brush, which I don't normally like, but this one's really flexible and easy to use.

Here's Royal Blue on my eyeball.  I think it's more of a bright cornflower colour than royal blue but either way, it's lovely.

I would definitely recommend picking up one (or more of these). They retail for £5.99 (although Superdrug online has them for £3.99 right now) and you can get them from Superdrug.

There's a list of vegan GOSH items HERE.

Have a great week all.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

10:00

I bought this cute little Cheek Stamp a while ago from SEVENTEEN (CV); it's a big gimmicky and the applicator stamp is a bit pants but it does go on with it (although you'll need to blend it out afterwards) and it's actually a pretty nice, very subtle blush.

I got the colour Blushin' which is a very pale baby pink with a bit of shimmer  This just shows up on my pale skin as a nice flush of pink but deeper skin tones might want to go for one of the darker ones. 

(*SEVENTEEN confirmed to me by email that this product is vegan.)

Outer packaging

Inner packaging

Applicator with some product on

the product itself

I wasn't going to post the swatch because to be honest you can't see the product that well, if at all! I swear it shows up on the cheek, although as I said it's very subtle.

I wouldn't class this as a fail product at all, although it's nothing spectacular. But it's a good shade for days when I'm doing either minimal makeup, or when I don't want much on the cheeks.

There's a few different shades of this available and I will probably pick up a couple more next time I'm in town because Boots are running a 3 for 2 right now! :)

Happy humpday all.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

09:30

It's been a while since I wrote a post about Makeup Geek's vegan options and they've had loads of new stuff released since then. So I wrote to them to ask for an updated list.

They confirmed back the eyeshadows that contain carmine, making them unsuitable for vegans. I also went back to confirm which pigments, foiled eyeshadows and blushes are vegan and they have now updated their vegan page accordingly.

Makeup Geek have said the following products are vegan:

• Regular Eyeshadows, excluding the shades listed below
• Foiled Eyeshadows, excluding the shades listed below
• Pigments (as at this date none contain carmine)
• Gel Liners
• Blushes, excluding the shades listed below
• Makeup brushes

NON-Vegan Items:

• Eyeshadows containing carmine: Bitten, Country Girl, Cupcake, Drama Queen, Mango Tango, Razzleberry, Simply Marlena, Twilight, Unexpected, Unicorn
• Eyeshadow Holiday Bundle, as it contains Bitten & Country Girl
• Starter Kit, as it contains Drama Queen & Unexpected
• Ultimate Palette as it contains Bitten, Country Girl, Drama Queen, Mango Tango, Razzleberry & Unexpected.
• Expansion Kit, as it contains Unicorn & Razzleberry.
• Foiled Eyeshadows containing Carmine: Center Stage & Caitlin Rose
• Lipsticks (beeswax)
• Blushes containing carmine: First Love & Romance

Looks like I'll be ordering some foiled eyeshadows then! :)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

13:47

Hello?  ERM, long time no post! Sorry about that, life kind of got in the way a bit.  But I have a few posts worth of pic saved up for you and so look out for those over the next week or so.  I'm starting with a Face (and outfit) of the day. Well night, technically.  This the makeup I wore for my boyfriend's birthday meal last weekend.

Party makeup season is pretty much here and this kind of fits in well with that. I wanted something glamorous and a bit sparkly too.  So I went for a shimmery smokey eye and classic red lip.  I kept the hair down and with soft waves so it wasn't really the focus.

 

I've been growing my brows out lately and have been going for a fuller look. They need a bit of grooming, but I'm definitely preferring them this way! A bit more unkempt!

 

Full List of products used:

Face

No 7 Instant Radiance Foundation, shade Warm Ivory - CV

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer, Shade 2 Light - CV

Pixi Brightening Peach Corrector - CV

Soap & Glory Glow All Out - AV 

Barry M Natural Dazzle Bronzer - V

Revolution Blush Palette, Sugar & Spice - AV

Revolution Setting Spray - AV

Eyes

Limecrime Eyeshadow Helper - V

B. Vivid Eyeshadow in Cinnamon - V

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow, Peach Smoothie, Mocha, Corrupt - CV

Makeup Geek Pigment, shade Insomnia - AV**, applied wet

Lightest shimmery shade from the MUA Undress Me Too palette on the inner corner and the lightest matte shade to highlight the brow bone - AV

Makeup Geek Gel Liner, shade Immortal - CV

Barry M Lash Vegas Fibres Mascara

Kiss Lashes, easy lashes??  Applied with Duo Lash Glue - CV

Anastasia Brow Wiz, Ash Blonde - AV

GOSH Clear Brow Gel - CV

Lips

OCC Anti Feather Pencil - V

Limecrime Velvetine, Red Velvet (I am 99% sure that is what is on my lips!) - V 

**I'm not 100% sure that this pigment is vegan, I thought it was when I purchased but now just awaiting confirmation from MUG! If not, a similar look would be acheiveable with a brown shadow on the lid and a pigment with a teal reflect patted on top (for example, Concrete Minerals pigment in Wicked or Sugarpill's Lumi).

 

I also tried to take an outfit shot, it's a bit rubbish I know, but I LOVE this dress. It's by Cameo Rose and I got it in New Look.  The shoes are from a little cheapy shop that has since closed down sadly. But they are super blingy and high and I love them!

IF YOU'RE STILL READING....

It's almost party season guys, so I'm thinking I'm going to do a series of posts of ideas for party makeup, maybe even pic or little video tutorials of the eye makeup!  What do you think, would you like to see something like this and if so, what type of looks do you want tutorials on??  Let me know in the comments below or come chat to me on social media - links to the right! :)

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

14:02

I couldn't pick what I liked most this week, so I cheated and picked two!

Starting with OCC's Grandma Lip Tar (V). I also used the OCC Grandma pencil (V) in this look.  It's freakin. Gorgeous!  I love orange lips and this is the perfect peachy orange. B.E.A.UUUUUtiful.

Second was the liner. I love blue & orange together so instead of blank liner, I used Sugarpill's Royal Sugar Chromalust Shadow (V) mixed with Illamasqua sealing gel.  I didn't like how it just muted the colour and the sparkle when I did this so I patted some more dry Royal Sugar over the liner after I'd applied it wet. That way it was brighter and still sparkly. YAY!

Full Face....

Side shot because I liked how my blush/highlighter looked (it's ELF's HD Blush (V) in Superstar and MeMeMe's Moonbeam highlighter (CV) respectively!)

Not that this pic shows it all that well but look how rad my earrings are! (I love Claires!!)

Have a good weekend all.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

20:03

UPDATE 27 FEBRUARY 2015: PLEASE SEE MY NEW POST DETAILING UP TO DATE LISTING OF VEGAN ITEMS AND CONFIRMATION REGARDING THE PIGMENTS.

UPDATE 05 JULY 2014: Apparently some of the pigments might not be vegan, they don't have carmine but MUG are waiting for confirmation from their lab if the Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate that a few of the colours contain is animal derived or not. I will keep you posted but for now... cross your fingers! :)

My MUG order finally arrived (ordering makeup from the states is a bit of a pain with customs charges and our postal service basically being slow and sucky) but I am very excited to show you some swatches of what I got.

OK first of all, those of you interested in purchasing some MUG stuff (and you won't regret it, I promise), they are a very vegan friendly company.  The lipsticks had beeswax in so were not suitable, but they're not currently producing those.  So the vegan friendly items are:

- Gel Liners
- Pigments (they confirmed none contain carmine, even though ingredients list says 'may contain')
- Eyeshadows, excluding the ones listed below
- Makeup brushes

So re the eyeshadows: I found a list after doing a quick google on another blog and I thought I'd double check it as it was a couple of years old. They confirmed there was just one to add to the list that contained carmine. So as of May, this is the list of the eyeshadows that are NOT vegan due to containing carmine. I have emailed them today to check if any of the new shadows launched last month need to go on this list, so if you're interested in those, check back here real soon, as I'll update this post.

Makeup Geek eyeshadows containing carmine: Bitten, Beaches and Cream, Country Girl, Cupcake, Drama Queen, Mango Tango, Razzleberry, Twilight, Unexpected, Unicorn, and Simply Marlena. (Please see my post dated 27.02.2015, linked above, for updated shade list.)

So let's get on with pics of the stuff that I bought.

Firstly I love the packaging

Here's the pigments I got, clockwise from top left: Insomnia, Utopia & Sweet Dreams.

Swatched on fingers, L-R: Sweet Dreams, Insomnia and Utopia.

In natural light L-R: Sweet Dreams, Utopia & Insomnia.

In artificial light as it shows up the shimmer a bit more.  Insomnia (far right) looks black in the jar but swatches as a beautiful browny/blue duochrome.

  

Utopia is quite a chunky gold glitter and it so beautiful. I'm excited to try this out on Saturday night, when I go out dancing!

Sweet dreams is a gorgeous peachy gold shimmer. This would be gorgeous all over the lid with a flick of black liner for something super pretty but simple with a bold lip!

All 3 of the pigments I got are actually dupes for (or at least very very similar to) MAC pigments. Check out these swatches on the MUG website. Insomnia is very similar to MAC's blue/brown, Utopia is very similar to MAC's Reflects Antique Gold and Sweet Dreams is similar to MAC's Naked pigment.  So if you were looking for cruelty free/vegan dupes for those, now you have it!! :)

Eyeshadows
I haven't swatched them because I didn't buy any exciting colours, I just I bought all rounder colours. By that I mean a couple of blending/transition colours and black. I'm excited for Corrupt because I've heard so many people say it's the blackest, most pigmented black they've ever used.

I also got Cocoa Bear, a warm red-toned brown; Peach Smoothie, a peachy blending shade; Mocha, a dark neutral brown.  I am fairly certain I'll end up ordering loads more of these shadows as I've liked everything I've ever tried from Makeup Geek. I also got the pans rather than pots because I prefer these and just put into my z-palette.

You can buy Makeup Geek from their website.

Well it's my birthday today and so I'm gonna try out one or two of these products when I go out later.  Look out for pics later in the week!

Have a great week all.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

14:18

Hello there, on this absolutely beautiful day!

I thought I'd do a mini review of a couple of products I bought recently from Boots' SEVENTEEN range.  This is basically the younger, trendier (cheaper) sister of No 7 and probably more aimed at consumers in their late teens/early 20s that those in their mid-30s. However, there are a few good products that appear to be vegan and the ones I'm mentioning below, have been confirmed as such by Boots.

Starting with the Tattoo Me Semi Permanent Liner

Not sure about the semi permanent thing but this stuff really does stay on! The consistency reminds me very much of the MAC Liquid Last liners, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is very thick.  I struggled with the brush it came with to get an even line.

So this morning, I used my trusty Louise Young fine liner brush to apply it. This was a bit easier although, as you can see I still didn't manage to get it that great looking (I confess I didn't spend much time on it though, because I was late as usual!).  This stuff dries quick so you don't have much wiggle room to perfect it.

Pros are that it's super black and opaque and it stays on all day. Con is the texture and the brush. If you are not very confident with liquid liner, I'd not recommend this until you feel a bit more comfy with it.

Next up, the Phwoarr Paint Heavy Duty Concealer

This promises to be a heavy duty concealer for covering up dem dark shadows. As you can see from my before pic, I have days when my bags need some serious help.

And this did a pretty good job, I was impressed with it.

However, as I mentined above, this I think is aimed at a younger demographic than me. Because of the fine lines I have under my eyes, creamy products really just crease like hell on me within a few minutes, even when powdered.  This does crease, but if I use it very sparingly it's not too bad.

Also I want to shout out my favourite SEVENTEEN product, that I featured in a recent friday favourite, the Skin Wow Highlighter, which I use almost every day, as it's gorgeous. More info on that here if you're interested.

Hope the sun is shining where you are too!

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

13:18

Double liner!

I do this quite often with all different colours when I want something fun. And in this cade, not too dramatic as I was going for a bright lip.

The gold is Sugarpill's Goldilux pigment mixed with Illamasqua sealing gel. Together these make THE most gorge gold liner. The black is Makeup Geek's Immortal gel liner, my fave.

The lips are Makeup Revolution's Velvet Lacquer in Keep Crying for You, which I love and it stays on all. Night!

Have a fab weekend. I'm off to shake ma booty at salsa!

Love & stuff
Sal xXx

21:26

LIPSTICK! I named the blog after it, so I figure I should write about it.  So this post is dedicated to some vegan lipsticks, in case you were looking for some options.

There's tonnes of vegan lip products out there, lots of them easily available in our drug stores but actual lipSTICKS that are both cruelty free and vegan? Whole different ballgame. But there are options out there and here are a few.

B.
I thought I'd start off with the option you can actually buy on the high street.

Good old Superdrug! Gotta give them so much love for bringing out a fully vegan makeup range that is affordable and doesn't totally blow. Their regular lipsticks are ace, they are nicely pigmented and smooth and have a decent colour range.

L-R: Watermelon, Doll's House

They also do glossy lipsticks, which are not as pigmented but then they're not meant to be, as they're shiny like gloss.

L-R: Flamingo, Raspberry

Lime Crime
I know I know, a lot of people wouldn't touch LC with a 10 foot pole and I get why. But I have to admit that they make some truly awesome vegan makeup products. Their lipsticks, I LOVE them. Look how adorable the packaging is for one - unicorns dammit!  They are also really opaque and they smell like MAC lipsticks, which isn't a bad thing.

L-R: D'Lilac, Geradium, Babette

ELF
Another company you can always rely on for (low-priced) vegan products. There's a bunch of different ELF lippies; my favourite being the moisturising ones, which I did a blog post about HERE if you wanna see swatches.

Then there's the mineral lipsticks, which I think are great also.

L-R: Runway Pink, Party Pink

And then not forgetting the super duper cheap as chips basic lippies, they're just £1.95 each! They smell a bit like sweet crayons which is weird but for the price, they're pretty awesome. Especial Nostalgic which is a gorgeous pinky nude (that I've even seen bloggers describe as a similar colour to Nars' Turkish Delight!). Packaging is pretty naff and cheap looking but for less than 2 quid, can you really complain about that? (No.)

L-R: Fantasy, Classy, Nostalgic, Seductive

Autograph by M&S

You know how much I love Autograph, I've said it before and their lipsticks are vegan and awesome! WOO! They have glossy versions of these too and I really really like them.  The packaging is nice and doesn't look cheap and I like the push in bullet, makes it a bit sturdier in a handbag than a regular lid, in my opinion.

L-R: Nude Pink, Pink Parfait, Very Pink, Raspberry

Too Faced La Cremes
OK these are the most expensive lippies in this post, which is why I only have 2. But omg are they ever freakin gorgeous! The packaging is beautiful, just lovely and the lipstick formula is creamy and glossy and pigmented. GUSH GUSH GUSH, they're great. They're just freakin pricey (£18 each!)

L-R: Juicy Melons, Marshmallow Bunny

Makeup Revolution
New kid on the block,  Makeup Revolution has a couple of vegan options for £1!  Not all of their lipsticks are vegan, check out this post for details of the ones to avoid.

I feel like I should also give a shout-out to OCC's Lip Tars even though they're liquid so not technically a lipstick but they are so damn awesome that you need them in your life. But I have tonnes of them so I think really they need their own post!  Leave me a comment on here or FB/Twitter etc if you want to see that!

Here's to an excellent week!

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

If you enjoyed this post please consider sharing it via the links below or join me on social media via the links to your right! :) 

11:17