Freedom #ProArtist Magnetic Palette

One of my very early blogs was on the Freedom #ProArtist magnetic palette where I looked at three of the eye shadow shades.  Since then I have bought the rest of the shadows and some blushes and highlighter and I thought I would do swatches and some different looks for you.

There are 30 different shades in all, 10 Matte, 10 Colour and 10 Shimmer.  They range from cool to warm tones as well as neutrals and bright colours, so there really is something for everything.  The magnetic palette will set you back £5, its sturdy with a large mirror.  The shadows are £2 each so it is a relatively cheap way to build up a palette of colours you would use as apposed to a set palette where there are always colours you may not be enticed by.  If like me you want to buy all the shades you will need to buy 2 palettes as they won't all fit in one.  

I have organised my palettes in the shade groupings above.  I put the neutrals in one and the brighter colours in the other.  There are a few stand out shades for me Colour 5 and 10 I really like.  Colour 5 is a purple pink shade that has a shimmer to it that really sets off my green eyes.  Similarly Colour 10 is a copper toned shimmery shade that is the perfect shade to add onto a day look for a little sparkly drama for a night out.  In the neutral palette I really love Shimmer 2, this is a bright gold/copper shade that works well on the inner corner.  Also Colour 8 is a shimmery grey, its close to silver without being that bright so is slightly more subtle but still packs a punch.  Finally you can't underestimate Matte 3.  This is a true matte black that is the perfect shade to add some smokiness or smudged liner without too much work.  

I created 6 looks that I will outline below. 

I have tried to do some neutral looks as well as some brights so feel free to jump down to the look that you are drawn to the most or carry on reading for all six.

Look 1

Look 1 is a wearable look for day or night. It is super easy and only uses two colours.  I put S8 over the lid and S7 in the inner corner. I finished this look off with a liquid liner and a brush of mascara.

Look 2

Look 2 is more colourful but still very wearable.  I started by putting C4 all over the lid.  Deepening in the outer corners with M3 and putting S1 in the inner corner.  This was one of my favourite looks that I did from this palette.

Look 3

Look 3 was a look that was slightly out of my comfort zone as although I love to play with colour I usually go with a gradient or a block of colour but I wanted to try this halo effect.  I started out by putting C3 in the outer and inner corners and then blended them together in the crease I then put S1 in the centre of the eye and added C3 to the lower lash line.  I then went in with a blue liquid liner and some mascara and this is the finished look.  While I liked this look there is a lot of effort in blending to make it look effective and I'm not sure I like it more than the others.  I may in the future try this out with other colour combos and see how I go.  I think this would look great with dark purple and pastel pink. 

Look 4

Look 4 is another very wearable look and is again fairly simple to achieve.  I put S4 all over the lid, S2 in the inner corner and blended M5 in the outer corner to deepen it up slightly.  Again it is finished off with some black liner and mascara.

Look 5

Look 5 is a very cool toned look.  It is C8 all over the lid and then M1 blended in the outer corner to deepen.  This look I have done again since as it is super easy and quick but very effective.

Look 6

Look 6 I am torn by.  While I love the reds I'm not sure it worked with my skin tone as it was a little too warm.  I started out with C9 in the crease, M10 over the lid, C10 on the lower half of the lid and then C2 to brighten the inner corner.  I think I needed to spend a little more time on this one just to blend a little better and I think it would have been more effective but that may just be me being picky.

If you want to see a look with the purple shades take a look at my earlier blog here. 

I also bought 2 blush shades a highlighter and a cream contour shade.

The cream contour shade I bought as a primer and that works fairly well but I still prefer my Maybelline Color Tattoo.  The highlight is subtle which is how I like it, I'm not into that stripe of highlighter as I think it accentuates my texture, so I only ever use the less shiny highlighters.  What is nice about this one is that there are no chunks of glitter in it which is sometimes a problem with the high street brands. Blush 2 is pretty and obviously when applying with the brush it doesn't come out that pink. Blush 5 I bought as a bronzer/contour shade because I felt that the contour shades in the collection may have been a little too dark for me.  It works nicely as a bronzer but is a little to orange to work as a contour shade but that's okay because I rarely if ever contour (I just don't have those skills!)

Over all I love this collection.  I think it is well worth the money and is a nice way to treat yourself on the way home from work without spending a fortune.  I would pick up a shade now and again and at £2 a pop it doesn't break the bank.  

As always I hope you found this helpful.  Much loves 

XOXO

W7 Nail Polish - Wear and Review

W7 is a brand that shows up in discount stores around the UK, I have always been tempted by it but never bought it until now.  I went to Cheshire Oaks designer outlet to the Beauty Outlet store and came across the brand again, this time for £1.99 so I thought why not.  I bought four colours in all.  I am on the prowl for a one coat white polish so I got white, I also bought the three colours that I use the most blue, pink and a shimmer shade in purple. 

My go to polish is Barry M simply because it is reasonably priced and it lasts on my nails. I have a few other more high end polishes that i bought for a discount from TK Maxx but for the most part I am all about budget nail polish.  

The W7 polishes are not as high standard as the Barry M polishes and to be honest they don't last as long.  Here is how each colour applied and lasted.

The first shade I used was 106 Purple Rain. The brush is a large flat brush that allows you to cover the nail in less strokes. However the formula is not at all opaque and I had to use three layers to get full coverage.  The problem with this is it that it takes longer to apply and even when leaving ample time in between layers to dry and using a quick dry topcoat the polish had a very thick layer and seemed very easy to smudge.  I would describe the colour as a midnight purple, and while the shade is beautiful its lasting power lets it down.  This one didn't chip in the traditional sense but it did pull back from the tip of the nail despite the fact that I wrapped* the nail with polish when I applied. (*a horizontal swipe of the brush along the top of the edge of the nail to stop the polish shrinking from the edge) 

The second colour I tried was the white polish, similarly to the purple I needed multiple coats to get the shade opaque.  While it took three coats it did go on better and smoother than the purple.  This is not a bright white shade and it seemed to get more cream coloured the longer I wore it.  I don't know whether it was my imagination but it was definitely closer to cream by the time I took it off.  While an off white can be a less intense polish and in most cases more flattering, I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Clueless again recently and I really want a 90s bright white polish which this is not. Barry M does a white called Cotton in the Gelly formula that is quite good and better than this but I am still searching for a solid one coat white polish. 

Shade number three was 17 Flourescent Blue. This was the shade I was initially most excited by but also the shade that disappointed me the most.  I applied three coats of this colour and as you can see from the picture it was still not opaque.  In the flesh the colour has a slight more green in it which makes it very striking from a distance, in fact it was the shade out of the four that I was complemented on the most.  It also lasted the longest.  Another draw back it that it has a traditionally shaped brush which does make the application harder to get even. If this formula was more opaque it would have been my favourite by a mile but I won't be reaching for this bottle as I don't have time to be putting on four layers of colour.  

The best of the bunch was the fourth colour I tried which was 78 Fuchsia.  Now obviously if you are not into pink this is not the colour for you, but as always I love bright colours and this is a pink that doesn't disappoint. However, like the other shades this does not go on opaque and does chip easily.  In fact I picked up a very similar pink from Orly for £3.99 from TK Maxx that is so much better!

From this review you can tell that I wasn't overly impressed with the W7 formula.  I also hear you shouting "BUT IT WAS ONLY £1.99" and you would be right, however the classic Barry M polishes are £2.99 and their Gelly shades are £3.99, all of which are not much more costly and will last longer because you won't have to apply so many coats. While I am always up for a bargain I will relegate these polishes to be used for polka dots in nail art designs as that way I haven't wasted my money.  My advise is if you want a budget nail polish brand go with Barry M.

As Always I hope this was helpful, much love.

XOXO

4 Looks 1 Palette - Maybelline Blushed Nudes

 As promised a while back, today's blog is a more subtle palette, one that most people could get use out of.  There are no wild colours or crazy glitter shades, this is a palette that is much more grown up than I would normally go for.

 The Blushed Nudes Palette from Maybelline retails for £9.99 and can be picked up at most Boots or Superdrug stores.  This is the second palette from Maybelline after their Nudes Palette.  The difference is that the shades are more pink than brown.  

There are 12 shades in all, there are three main colours in varying shades, beige, pink and grey.  There is one matte shade, (top row, second from the right) some shimmers and a few glitters.  The four looks I did are not as strikingly different as I have done with other palettes just because when you use a brush with this palette the colours are very subtle in their differences.

For look 1 I used the four shades on the right.  I started with the matte pink all over the lid and crease.  I then moved over to the top right hand colour and went into the crease. I then took the pale crimson shade (bottom row, second from the right) and tried to pack it on to the lid.  I was most disappointed with this colour as it was my favourite in the swatches but when using a brush it comes out much more pale. I then deepened the outer corner with the charcoal grey colour in the bottom right corner.  

Look 2 was done in much the same way with the middle 4 colours.  This one was a little more sparkly in person as all the shades were either shimmer or glitter shades.  I started out with the pale grey all over the lid and in the crease, this colour is a shimmer shade so added a lovely shine.  I liked the subtle yet shiny nature of this one.  I then went into the crease with the taupe colour (bottom, middle, left) and on the lid with the pink shade.  I then deepened with the dark grey. What doesn't really come through as well as I like is the pop of pink in the middle of the lid, in person this was a little more vibrant.

Look 3 I used the four colours on the left.  I used the magnolia shade all over the lid and crease, went on the lid with the light pink, in the crease with the bronzey pink on the bottom left and deepened with the dark grey. I also went into the inner corner with the magnolia as it had a little bit of glitter in it that popped nicely. 

For look 4 I just used two colours, I used the bronzey pink (bottom row far left) all over the lid, I used a densely packed fluffy eyeshadow brush this time and the colour seemed to go on darker than it did the first time. I then deepened the outer corners with the the pale crimson (bottom row second from the right) again using a more fluffy but densely packed brush on the outer corners.  I think out of the four looks this is my favourite as for me, it stands out.  

This palette blends really well, what it could do with is a few more matte shades to use as transition shades so that your whole lids don't sparkle too much.  While I love sparkle you don't always want it during the day and couple more matte shades would have made this palette the perfect day to night palette.  As it stands at the moment I would recommend this for people who don't want crazy colours but would like a little bit of shimmer.  If you don't like glitter then I'm afraid this isn't the palette for you.  

This will be a palette I will dig out for weddings and christenings and those events where bright purple/green/orange eyeshadow wouldn't be appropriate.  If you are not into the pink, try The Nudes palette.  It is packed full of nudes with few more mattes and some truly beautiful copper shades.  If you want a similar review with that one let me know in the comments below.

As always thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments, hints and tips below

XOXO