Fresh Sugar Honey Tinted Lip Treatment

I've been a fan of Fresh for years now, however my buying from the brand has dwindled due to availability, in the UK you can now only get the brand from their one London store or by mail order from the same store. The postage seems to vary and I have been hit for some very high postage costs in the past so now I place smaller orders and only when I need "must have" items.
Going by the reviews online I had a feeling that the Sugar Honey lip treatment would be one of these "must haves".
The Sugar honey lip treatment (£14.50) is a tinted version of their best selling sugar lip balm (which I have had and liked in the past). It has a traditional balm texture and has a natural gloss finish.
The pigmentation is a lot more than I was expecting from a tinted lip balm, and it gives a warm dusty peach nude look.
Swatched below, two swipes on the left and blended in on the right,
It has an SPF15 and feels smooth and very moisturising. It has a strong sugary sweet scent.
Ingredients:
I really do like this, it gives comfort, moisture and a natural "wear with anything" colour.

I bought this from the Fresh London store on Marylebone High Street, Tel: 020 7486 4100

MAC Cine-Matics & Packed to go

Enter obligatory what-I-bought-from-MAC's-new-releases-this-month post...

Look In A Box: Girl Next Door (£36.50)
This kit contains 5 full sized products:
#Eyeshadows in Grand Entrance (shimmery peachy champagne) and Smoke & Diamonds (shimmery grey). I've had both these shades in the past, when I had the originals they were in the limited edition Starflash finish but these are a frost finish, as such they aren't quite as creamy/smooth as the originals. I also think both shades are lighter than the previous release.

#Iridescent Powder in Belightful, the peachy gold highlighting powder whilst pretty is not wearable on the cheeks for me as its chocked full of glitter. I do however like it as a wash of colour on the eye lid and using it wet amps it up a bit.
#Cremesheen Glass in Deelightful is a rosy pink, Cremesheen are my preferred formula out of all the MAC lipglosses as they are the least sticky/tacky.
#Zoomlash Mascara in Zoomblack, this seems quite a wet formula, it lengthens a bit and gives a bit of thickness but I find it clumpy and it drags the lashes down.
Swatches L-R:Cremesheen,Grand Entrance, Smoke & Diamonds, Belightful dry swatch, Belightful damp swatch.
Ingredients:

Reel Drama Lip Bag (£27.50)

Reel Drama lipstick is a medium mauve pink and the Cremesheen formula feels a bit heavy, Scenestealer Dazzleglass Creme is a coral with a touch of red and an abundance of glitter and Softwood lipliner is a plummy wine brown. I don’t think any of these colours go together really, I’m not entirely sure why I ordered this, think I was having one of those makeup madness moments.
Ingredients:


6 Warm Smokey Eye Shadow Palette (£29.50)
This is a plain black packaged palette containing: Shroom ( sheer beige, slightly frosty) Naked Lunch (pinky beige frost finish). Tempting (warm, golden bronze lustre finish) Greensmoke (dusty greyed green with gold shimmer lustre finish) Stormy Love (mix of teal and brown in the compact but the teal is less apparent on application, frost finish) Showstopper (this is the dud for me, its a dark, cool-toned matte brown, pigment is poor and it does not apply smoothly).


I wouldn’t say any of these are must haves, but if I were to pick out one it would have to be the eye shadow palette. It gives a very wearable smoky look, you can either go for subtle or dramatic and the colours work extremely well with each other. If we ignore Showstopper, the shades blend well and have good pigmentation.

I bought all these from maccosmetics.co.uk

Welcome back Stila?

Years ago, I think in the year 2002, Stila was my first high end, somewhat exclusive brand I got in to. It was stocked at Liberty of London and SpaceNK, the brand was fresh, pretty, exciting and collectible with a very strong image.
The brand went through a few changes through the years and in my opinion lost a lot of elements which had made me initially adore it. However, such is my soft spot for the brand, when it returned to the UK recently I couldn’t resist picking up some things.
One thing I was sad to see is that the refillable palettes are not stocked at Boots, something which I consider an essential element of the brand, I remember the days on Makeup alley where everyone had at least one refillable Stila palette.

Here's a brief run down on what I bought:
Eye shadow trio in Bella (£13) contains a frosty whitened pink, shimmery deep plummy brown and shimmery bright coral pink.
Whilst these colours aren't the best on me, I can’t fault the formula, the pigmentation is great, they are creamy and smooth and apply and wear well.

I picked up two of the travel palettes (£10 each).
Whilst a great concept its ultimately let down by the quality. The shadows are sheer and don’t blend well nor last long and the cheek products apply a bit patchy. This is not really a complaint though as this quality is reflective of the price so I shouldn't have expected more, personally I’d be happy to pay double the price and have the same quality as in their regular line.

Stunning in Sayulita contains shadows in sheer peachy pink with silver micro glitter, dark cool toned brown, Forest Green, Mauve pink with micro glitter, blushers in dusky peach and peachy champagne
Striking in South Beach contains shadows in sheer silver grey, sparkly blue lavender, black with golden micro glitter and purple, blusher in bright cool toned pink and a terracotta bronzer
I bought two liners; Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in Rock Candy (£14) is a brown with heavy golden sparkle. The liner lasts incredibly well although I do struggle to get a thin line. I do find this a bit uncomfortable and drying, although that is something I experience with a lot of liquid liners. The Smudge stick waterproof eye liner in Lionfish (£14) is a bronzed chocolate brown. It feels very smooth, applies well and really does not budge.

Smudge Pot Kitten (£13), is a high shimmer, bordering on frosty, peachy pink champagne. It blends nicely, does not feel dry and lasts all day with an eye base. I would say that if I apply too much it makes the area look crepey so it might not be the best option for mature skin.
The all over shimmer powder in kitten (£15) contains a peachy gold with a tiny bit of bronze and a golden pink. Although the shimmer level is high, I do like this used with a light hand on the cheeks and as an eyeshadow wash as it gives a nice warm glow. The texture is very smooth.
Swatched below L-R: Smudge Pot, all over shimmer powder swatched individually and then blended together.

The #9 all over blend brush (£15) is very similar to the MAC 224 although I would say that the MAC feels a touch softer.
I used to have quite a few of the Convertible Colours so I re bought a shade I had previously used up, lillium (£16).
Its a delicate warm pink flush. I don’t really like CC’s on the lips as I find they don’t provide enough moisture. I do however like them on the cheeks, despite the slight tacky feel, as they are very easy to blend in.

The brand is not quite what it once was, I would love if they brought back the cardboard packaged seasonally eyeshadow trios and collectible paint cans (notoriously hard to get in the UK ) and moved away from the more “budget” stance items. Overall the quality is still there for the price bracket so I will pick up things here and there from the brand I just wish we had the old Stila back.

I bought all of these from Boots

Beauty Spotlight Team: Mystery Makeup Bag

This week at The Beauty Spotlight Team, we're taking a look inside Shannon's makeup bag. Although the bag isn't that big, even Shannon was astounded at how much she had packed into it! She was going to edit it down a bit, but that's cheating, right? Let's see what she has hiding in there...

Rouge Bunny Rouge Long Lasting Cream Eyeshadow Collection Round Up

As promised here are all the RBR cream shadows together. I've been singing their praises in every post I have done on them.

Swatches L-R:Velvet Fritillary, Atlas Swallowtail,Brocade Skipper,Chiffon Ringlet, Batiste Grayling

Here are the applicators: L-R:Batiste Grayling, Velvet Fritillary, Atlas Swallowtail,Chiffon Ringlet, Brocade Skipper
On my pale and cool toned skin the colours are as follows:
Batiste Grayling -medium cool grey (some people have found this has a blue cast)
Velvet Fritillary-military green with golden hints
Atlas Swallowtail-nude beige/sand
Chiffon Ringlet-rich chocolate brown with very gentle golden shimmer
Brocade Skipper-cream champagne

For Jane and Meeta here is a quick compare of Chiffon Ringlet on the left and powder shadow in Bejewelled Skylark on the right. Bejewelled Skylark is warmer with different undertones,they are different enough to own both :)

I bought all of these from zuneta.com apart from Chiffon Ringlet, which was sent to me for free.

Rouge Bunny Rouge Long-lasting Cream Eyeshadow Chiffon Ringlet

Chiffon Ringlet (£26) is a rich chocolate brown with a tiny bit of golden shimmer, but on application it looks like a satin finish.
Its the darkest shade out of all the cream shadows on offer.
Generally I’m not a fan of cream shadows so these have been a great discovery; lightweight, comfortable, easy to apply/blend, and long lasting, there is no work involved with these.

Picture below of Chiffon Ringlet on lid and then a touch of Bejewelled Skylark mixed with Fire-Tailed Sunbird in the crease and Fire-Tailed Sunbird again to highlight.
RBR is gaining rapid popularity, its funny to think that back in 2009 when I first started buying RBR it was this little unknown surprise gem, I’m so pleased that the brand continues to impress and delight.

Now I have all 5 shades of the Cream Eyeshadows I’ll do a post soon showing them swatched all together.

Ingredients:


RBR is available from zuneta.com

Disclosure: I was sent this for free.

Estee Lauder Modern Mercury Fall 2011

The show piece of the Modern Mercury Fall collection has to be the Pure Colour Illuminating Powder Gelée (£28).
The colour is very shimmery and mixes champagne, gold, peach and a touch of bronze. Its very pigmented and because of the shimmer level I use this very lightly on the cheeks, on my pale skin it works as a blush and highlighter combined. It also works really well as an eyeshadow.
Swatched below L-R: swatch, blended in, used wet
Undeniably warm, but flattering nevertheless even on my cool toned skin. The texture is interesting, its meant to be a combination of liquid, powder and gel. It blends really well and is long lasting.
Ingredients:
I got the Pure Color Nail Lacquer Metallic Sage (£14) as I'd seen some lovely pictures of this applied, however it just didn't work out for me.
On me the colour is a dark dirty swampy khaki with some golden shimmer.
I find the colour quite dull but its more the formula I’m not keen on. I found it did not apply evenly and was a bit patchy, although it did wear quite well. The fumes was extremely strong during application which I found quite unpleasant.

Nail Polish Ingredients:

Lastly I got the Pure Color Eyeshadow Duo in Platinum (£22.50).
It contains a slightly shimmered white and beautiful metallic silver taupe. This is part of the permanent range of duos here in the UK. I initially dismissed it because of the white of which I have little use for, but it really is worth getting if you like cool toned taupes.
Swatched below, far right is the shades blended together.
Picture below; Powder Gelée on lid, both shades from Platinum duo blended and used lightly in the crease.


I bought all these from John Lewis.