Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoos

I love love love reading other blogs, and watching various beauty 'guru's on YouTube, but perhaps the only downside to this past time of mine is I'm frequently left with a serious case of blogger envy. What's this you might ask? Well its when any of these bloggers/vloggers write and talk about various products that I would give my left arm to have. So more often than not, when this happens, usually in the case of drugstore items, I just run out to my nearest Boots and pick up said items! (I always kick myself afterwards due to the fact I need NONE of these things, but I usually justify it by saying I don't smoke, I don't drink or go out very much, and we all have our vices right?
This is what happened with what I'm talking about in today's post, the Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoo's. I think it was Orla from Makeupovermind that I first saw talking about these, so I decided I'd give them a go myself! Now I originally only planned on picking up 2 or 3 shades, but then I just kept picking them up whenever I saw a new colour I hadn't tried! Oops! For those of you that don't know what these are or haven't heard of them, they are a cream eyeshadow packed full of colour that literally last for ages once you apply them. Its like they turn to concrete on your eyelids!

Turns out I had another one hidden in another make up bag, that I forgot to put into this picture So altogether I have 8! 

My most used ones pictured below along with swatches are from left to right: On and On Bronze, Pink Gold, and Permanent Taupe. These 3 are the most neutral out of the lot that I own, and I find them so handy for using as a base for other eyeshadow if I'm going out at night, or else if I'm on a day off from work and I just don't want to put a whole lot of effort into my makeup! They can be built up for a stronger colour, or else sheered out for a more natural look. On and On Bronze and Pink Gold are metallic shades, where the Permanent Taupe is more matte, and because of this its slightly harder to work with, but if you work fast when applying it, there should be no problem!

It was at this point that I realised I was missing one, and so my pictures look a bit funny with 3 colours in one, and 5 in the other! But never the less we'll continue! ;) 

The rest of them are ones that I've collected during the summer and haven't got a whole lot of use from yet as you can see that most of them are fairly dark colours bar the gold one. From left to right we have: Light In Purple, Metallic Pomegranate, Everlasting Navy, 24k Gold, and Everlasting Navy. 

I thought the Everlasting Navy would be great for a change from a black smokey eye for a night out, but I'm not great at eye looks so I'll definitely have to practice a fair bit! The Metallic Pomegranate is such a beautiful shade, I kept going into Boots, swatching it on my hand and walking out, and then sighing with regret later that I hadn't bought it! I have a couple of Sleek eyeshadow palettes that have gorgeous burgundy shades in them, so this will be the perfect base for looks with these colours, and they'll last all day! The 24k Gold is a very yellow gold, but its perfect under more neutral colours, or even by itself its really nice, and its also a gorgeous inner corner highlight! Light In Purple is a funny colour, in that it says its purple, but to me its really a blue with a purple shimmer, but it depends which kind of light you look at it in!

 In the US, Maybelline have recently brought out colour pigments in the 24 hour line aswell, so I'm super excited for them to come to Ireland, because if there anything like the cream shadows they will be amazing! These are priced at 7.49 from Boots, but there is still a buy one get one half price offer in there at the moment and online, so its  the perfect chance to try some if you haven't before! 

Thanks for reading, 

Alisha xxx

Summer to Winter Make Up changes

First off apologies for being missing from my blog for the last week, I was away sunning myself in Spain! If you read my last post on Kiko, you'll be pleased to hear I picked up the majority of what was on my wishlist, and I also came across a shop very similar to The Body Shop, so I picked up a couple of perfumes! That was the extent of my beauty shopping really! I was very restrained if I do say so myself!
On to this weeks post though for now! I know we experienced a bit of a 'heatwave' this week, but usually come September, there is a fairly obvious change in the weather, and most people don't realise your make-up routine has to change aswell, along with your wardrobe! My skin seems to get a lot dryer in the winter, so I make sure to drink lots of water and use plenty of moisturisers and hydrating face masks to keep it somewhat hydrated. But on the really fun part, the make up!!
First off, foundation. For the Summer I loved my Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation, and loved the radiant glow it gave, without making me look like I had a ridiculously oily face! For the winter I'm going to be rocking more of a matte look, and the foundation I shall be using is the new Rimmel Stay Matte offering. I've tried this and its lovely! Its not heavy on the skin, which I thought it would be considering its a thick mousse textured foundation. And I don't need powder with it which gives me an extra minute or two in the morning when I'm getting ready for work! It retails for about 7 or 8 euro, and it will last ages because you only need a tiny amount to do the whole face!

Next up is blusher. I'm a huge blush fan and I think its the one make up item that I keep buying it and buying it even though I don't need it! But I cant help it! For the summer I was loving bright pinks and corals, and especially cream blush, but for the colder months I picked up this newbie to my collection from Kiko! Its one of there Soft Touch Blushes, and it comes in an amount of colours, like everything else they do, and as soon as I saw it I knew it would be the perfect winter colour! I think it was 8.99 or in and around that, so not too bad at all! I could have spent all day in the store, they had so much to choose from and all at great prices too! 

On to eyes next, and I tend to stick with neutrals for both day and night time looks, as there just easier to work with I find, but with the change in the weather I'm going to try and step out of my comfort zone and try some deeper colours. I'm starting off nice and easy with these new colours from Maybelline in there 24 hour Colour Tattoo's, Everlasting Nave and Metallic Pomegranate. As you can see from the picture they haven't been used yet, as I haven't been sure how to make these work for me, but I'm going to give them a go over the weekend, so hopefully with a bit of practice I'll figure it out! 

And lastly onto the lips! Again, I've gathered a massive amount of lip products, with the same few getting usage on a daily or weekly basis. Because of this I'm trying to 'shop my stash' rather than running out buying more colours for the season, and the first one I thought would be perfect is this lip butter from Revlon is 'Rasberry Pie'. Its a gorgeous berry shade, that isn't too dark, and because its a lip butter rather than a lipstick, its easier to work with! The colour is still very buildable if your someone who doesn't do subtle! ;) I think this was around 10 or 11 euro, but they tend to be on 3 for 2 or buy one get one half price in Boots, so it may be worth a look! ;)

So what changes will you lovely folks make to your make up bags for the winter?

Thanks for reading,

Alisha xx

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My holiday make up!

So I may have mentioned once or twice that I'm heading away to Spain on Monday for a couple of days! (I'm excited, can you tell?) For the first time EVER, I'm trying to be sensible with what I bring, and so have thought long and hard, (for possibly 5 minutes), about what I'll bring. So these babies are the ones that  have made the final cut!

So the first and probably most important thing I packed was my suncream!This is Boots own 'Soltan' brand, and its factor 50, which I need because of my red hair and pale skin, and some after sun!
Then in my little clear bag, I have some miniature shower gel and body lotion from 'The Sanctuary', which are only 75mls, so are perfect for bringing for a few days, some shampoo and conditioner which I decanted into some clear bottles, and some face cleanser and a razor. I will also bring some moisturiser aswell,  I just don't want to pack it away until I've used it after I take off my make up!
Which then leads me on to the real good stuff, and the bits I love to see when people do these kinds of posts, the make up! I had already decided that base wise I was packing light, because I don't want a heavy base, and it wouldn't last on me anyway in the heat! So here's what I opted for!

I decided to go for my Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream, as really there's no point bringing anything heavier, as I don't like heavy bases on my skin when its hot and sticky! I haven't actually used this yet, but I've heard its great! Then for blush I opted for my MUA cream blush in the shade Dolly. This blush is a lovely natural colour which gives a nice glow to the cheeks, and is very neutral so can be worn with a lot of different looks. I'm also bringing the new Stay Blushed cheek tint from Rimmel. This is a blush but obviously in a tint form, so I figured this would be nice for holidays as its nice and cooling and I wouldn't have to worry about it melting off! For concealer, I've chosen my Maybelline Fit Me concealer in the shade 15, and this is perfect for blemishes and the under eye area, and I also could have sworn I put my Maybelline The Eraser under eye concealer in this picture too, but it seems to have vanished, or else I'm losing my marbles!

Ah, now I see where it went.. My apologies! I put it in with my eye make up! So for my eyes I've decided to go with a neutral enough look, as I've decided to go with bright lips for the night time instead. So I've brought this little palette by French Connection that I got at Christmas. It has a range of colours from dark to light, so if I did want to do a more dramatic eye look I can. I'll more than likely bring my NYX eyelid primer aswell to make sure the shadows last the night.
For mascara I've opted for this Scandalise one from Rimmel. I'm not a big mascara lover, I do
 wear it every day, but to me a mascara is a mascara, so they all tend to do the same thing!

And then on to the lips! The first thing I knew I had to bring was a lip balm because more than likely my lips will dry out in the sun, so I've chosen this one from NYC. And I've also opted for 3 lipsticks, which are all in various shades of pink! The first one is 101 from the Kate Moss collection for Rimmel, which is matte, so I'll definitely need the lip balm with that one. The next one is one of the Maybelline Colour Sensational lipsticks in Fuchsia Flash (I think), and then lastly is this one again from the Kate Moss collection for Rimmel in 20, which I'd been mad to get!! I havent used it yet so I cant wait to see what its like!
So I hope you found it somewhat interesting or helpful,

Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

Kiko Wishlist

So I'm off on my holidays next week and I cannot wait! I'm heading to Torravieja which is just outside Alicante in Spain and there is apparently a mahoosive shopping centre not too far away from where we're staying! So me being me, of course I had to do a bit of research! The shopping centre is called 'La Zenia Boulevard', and is home to one of best friends Primark!! So of course I will be stopping off there for a look, in fairness it would be really rude not to, wouldn't it?
But the shop that excites me most is Kiko! Turns out there is a Kiko store in the shopping centre too, so I've been looking online to see what might catch my eye when I get there, because otherwise I'll get too excited and buy loads more than I probably should!
If your not familiar with Kiko, it's an Italian professional cosmetics brand which offers amazing quality products for really reasonable prices!

So first on my list is some of there loose pigments. Mac do probably the most well known pigments in the beauty world, but these ones from Kiko only cost 5.90! (euro) I'm loving the look of the neutral colours, which are number 1 Nude Beige, 10 Light Taupe, and finally 18 White Gold!

I am a complete and utter blush fanatic, at one stage I had 11 blushes in my everyday make up bag! Which is a bit extreme really considering there's only 7 days in the week, and I tend to wear the same one every day anyway!  Lately I've been really getting into cream blushes and this Velvet Blush Stick looks lovely! There's a shade called 'Verve Peony' that looks like it'll be a really nice colour for Winter, a slightly dark pink! Its 7.90 so its not a bad price either! 

Everyone seems to rant and rave about MAC's 'Fix Plus Spray' for keeping there make up in place and for freshening it up during the day. I'm yet to try that, but this Make Up Fixer looks like a nice alternative at an even nicer price! Its 7.90 and its got rave reviews on there website, so fingers crossed! 

There Smart Lipsticks look absolutely amazeballs! At 3.90 they're a fantastic price, but I have a serious problem in that there's so many different colours that I'm going to have a serious task trying to choose which colour to go for! I'm looking a nice plum shade for autumn/winter, so I think I'll have to just try them out in the store! 

I've had a quick look at the make up brushes also, and the prices are really good! I havent really seen anything that's jumped out at me in the line of brushes though, but I may check out the eye brushes when I get there! 

So that's really a round up of what I'm hoping to pick up when I get there, but to be honest I'll probably come out with twice as much! That is if my boyfriend will have enough patience to let me go in after I've raided Primark! ;)

Thanks for reading,

Alisha xxx

New Irish Beauty Subscription service!

How exciting is this! For the first time ever there will be an Irish Beauty Box subscription service! Unless you've been living under a rock, or just don't like beauty, (if so then why are you here??) you'll have heard of the numerous beauty box services, the most popular one being Glossybox. These services involve signing up and paying a monthly fee, and in return you get a box full of beautylicious goodies sent to your front door! With Glossybox it tends to be higher end brands, and it varies between full size and samples, but in every box there is always at least one full size! There isn't a whole lot of information available yet on the Irish service, bar the name, which is Chic Treat Club.
https://www.facebook.com/ChicTreatClub?directed_target_id=0 This is the link to there Facebook page so head on over there to give them a like and be kept up to date with the info about what brands will be included, and when the service will be available! Or alternatively head over to there website and leave your email address to be one of the first to know! http://chictreatclub.com/
I am so excited as I've never subscribed to any of these before, and considering its Irish, I for one will be jumping at the service! Hopefully there will be some interesting and hard to get brands included!

Thanks for reading,

Alisha

My 5 favourite perfumes

One thing I love almost as much as make up is perfume. I have to say I tend to be a bit of a perfume hoarder. I buy them after one sniff in the shop, and more often than not that's it. They sit there collecting dust because my favourite ones are obviously the ones I reach for on a daily basis. I'm a real girly girl when it comes to scents, and I tend to choose sweeter scents over anything more musky or floral. So, on to the chosen ones!

So from left to right: CK 'IN2U', Roger and Gallet 'Fleur de Figuier', Kate Moss 'Kate', 'L'Imperatrice' by D&G, and L'Occitane's 'Mulberry and Mure'.
All these perfumes smell absolutely divine and I honestly don't think if you asked me to pick just one that I would be able! There all very sweet scents, but they all smell totally different!

So first up is a perfume from Calvin Klein 'IN2U'. Am I the only one who finds the name really weird? I'm useless at describing perfumes so I had to take to the Internet to find the notes etc, to make it look I know something about what I'm talking about.
So the top notes in this are 'Pink grapefruit fizz (fizz in a perfume, how cool is that!!), Sicilian bergamot, and  red currant leaves.
The middle notes are sugar orchid and white cactus.
And the dry notes are Neon amber, vanilla soufflé, and red cedar.
I'm actually wearing this perfume while I'm writing this, and now that I've seen the notes that are in it I can relate to most of them. There's a definite kick to it, which I assume is the 'pink grapefruit fizz', but at the same time its nice and fresh, which again I would assume is the Bergamot. The vanilla is also fairly obvious too, but not in a sickly way. I love love love this perfume, and its great for both daytime and nighttime also. I'm happy to wear this all day to work, but if I was going on a night out and didn't want a heavy perfume this would be the first one I'd reach for. Price wise for this size bottle, (150mls,) it tends to be about 60 euro I think, but I was in Dublin and picked this up in a pharmacy which I think was Mccabes for 30! Bargainous! 

The next on my list of smellies I love is this scent by Roger and Gallet. Fleur de Figuier.This was much raved about in the 'blogosphere' when it came out first, and when I finally got to smell it for myself I understood why! From the name, I thought it was going to just smell like Figs. If the truth be told I don't even know what Figs smell like, but I just had an opinion that it was going to be too strong for me! Its a gorgeous scent, with the  notes consisting of Mandarin, Caraway seeds, Fig leaves, Grapefruit, Cedar, and Fig Milk and Pulp. This is a sweet scent, but not overly sweet as it has the grapefruit and mandarin in it to give it a bit of a citrusy kick. This is perfect for morning time showers, especially if like me, you love your bed and have difficulty getting up in the morning! Its just a nice fresh scent. My only downfall with this perfume is it doesn't last too long, but I purchased the body lotion to give it a bit more longevity and it does the job! This perfume was 39.95 for a 100ml bottle, and the body lotion was 14.95 if I recall correctly, and I got a free bag when I bought them. Roger and Gallet is a brand that's found in selected pharmacies across the country.

This one was given to me by a family friend to try when it first came out and I loved it, but then it disappeared of my radar for a while, but its firmly back in its place now! Kate Moss has brought out a few more fragrances since this one, but I have to say this is definitely my favourite. This is more on the musky side rather than sweet, but its still not too heavy and that's why I like it.Some of the notes in this are forget-me-not, pink peppercorns, orange blossom, and then more floral notes like magnolia, peony and rose petals. It also contains notes of sandalwood and musk, which is obvious when worn. Its on Boots website for 23.95 for 30mls. I'm sure they do larger sizes, and its available nationwide in most other local pharmacies aswell.

L'Imperatrice by D&G as you can see is very well loved! Its one I've picked up repeatedly on holidays because is so much cheaper in Lanzarote, but I don't know what I'll do when this one runs out! To me this is my 'grown up' perfume. Its a real womanly scent, but again, its not strong, which as you can see from this post is a reoccurring theme with my taste in perfume! It contains notes of rhubarb, red currants and muskier notes of sandalwood and grapefruit wood. The one thing I dislike about this is its so expensive! Its 67 euro for a 100ml bottle, and I know compared to Chanel perfumes its not too bad, but I just wouldn't pay that much money for a perfume for myself.Maybe I'll have to drop some hints to people for Christmas! ;)

OK I have to admit I didn't purchase this one myself either. What I did do is drop copious hints to my boyfriend in the weeks leading up to my birthday in the hope he'd pick up on them. And, it worked! This is an offering from L'Occitane, and it is divine! This perfume is part of the recent 'Grasse' collection, which was named after the city of Grasse in Provence.When reading about it on line, I thought it was going to be a real floral scent, judging by the Magnolia in the name, but its not! The top notes are bergamot and blackberry, which is the main scent I get from this, and the middle notes are magnolia and rose, but I cant really smell either. To me its just a real fruity, fresh smell! This is another one that lasts all day, and I've gotten so many compliments on it! I got this in a set with a shower gel and a body milk, so if you really want to make the scent last its great to be able to use the 3 together. I tend to keep the shower gel and body milk for special occasions, because they are so expensive, so I tend to use them as a real treat. The set was in and around 70 euro for the lot, which isn't too bad. If you have any interest in L'occitane's other products, try the Verbena range, its beautiful! Although if you don't like lemon or really zingy smells, then it may not be for you!
So that's my round up of my favourite perfume's! I do have lots more, but these are the ones I really do reach for on a regular basis!

Thanks for reading,

Alisha xxx