Review: Rimmel Scandaleyes Shadow Paint Rich Russet

I'm a big, big fan of bronze eye shadows. Nothing's better at making my blue eyes really pop and they somehow manage to be both daytime and evening appropriate at the same time. So when there's a massively hyped up bronzey eye shadow....-ish product, what else am I to do other than go out and buy it?

There was quite a bit of a stir when these first came out, especially regarding this particular shade, "Rich Russet". The formula is creamy, but also quite liquid, so it's applied with a doe foot applicator rather than coming in a pot like most cream shadows. It feels quite wet on the eye lids for about half a minute, after which it dries down and doesn't really move anymore.

I must admit that I wasn't massively blown away by the pigmentation of this. If you blend it while it's still wet it is all too easy to blend away too much, leaving virtually no colour on the eye lids. But if you really pack it on it takes ages to dry and creasing becomes more likely.
Having said that I was pretty impressed by how well this stays put on the eye lids. Primer isn't really necessary and though you can add some powder shadow over the top to improve longevity, it does last most of the day without creasing.

Now, the colour is definitely something to write home about. The gold and silver shimmer in the brown base is so fine and dense that even after the shadow's dried down you get a foil like metallic effect. It makes for sparkly eyes that still look grown up and chic. It's just a shame that it's so difficult to build it up to the same intensity on the eye lids as you can see on the hand swatch. Otherwise it would literally be the perfect product.

But as it is, it's still a great eye shadow, which is easy to apply (you can just blend it out using your fingers if you're in a rush), lasts well all day and is budget friendly to boot.

Memebox #23 Girl's Night Out

Every time I think I'm over beauty boxes, something new pops up that gets me excited about them all over again. Last year, it was Love Me Beauty's "choose your favourite from three menus" concept, but by now I've gotten a little bit bored of the products they have on offer. Just as I cancelled my subscription Memebox pops up with an entirely new idea. Not only are all boxes themed and you simply pick which one you like, without ever having to start a re-occuring subscription, the main selling point is the fact that you get nothing but Korean beauty products. I've been a fan of Asian beauty for a very long time, as it caters to a lot of my beauty needs: pale skin, hooded lids... and don't even get me started on the packaging. Sadly, I wouldn't know where to start most of the time, as there's no chance of me understanding anything on the packaging. In comes Memebox, offering not only edited down sets of Korean products to try, but also a very useful leaflet explaining exactly what everything is and what you're meant to do with it, as well as the chance to buy any products that you like from their shop. How could I say no to that? The box I've got to show you today is box #23, themed "Girl's Night Out".

It came packed to the very brim with make-up and beauty products and took exactly two weeks from placing the order to arrive - not bad, considering it had to travel halfway around the world! I normally do a value breakdown with my beauty box reviews, but I just don't feel that would be very appropriate in this case, as you'd be hard pressed to find any of these items here in the UK. Instead, I'll just give you my first impressions about each item.

1) Kskin | Bulgarian Rose Pheromone Perfume Pink Angel

I usually hate receiving perfumes in beauty boxes, but seeing as this one's a full sized rollerball rather than a dinky little counter sample, I'm happy with the product I received. I got incredibly excited when I saw that it was rose based, but I'm still on the fence about whether I like it or not. There is an initially overwhelming smell of alcohol, but once that's evaporated you're left with a faint, powdery hint of rose. This is going straight in my handbag for perfume application on the go.

2) Forest Story | Water Essence Hair Perfume Soft Soap Fragrance

My eyes lit up a little bit when I read the description of this product. A hair spray that is designed to eliminate all odours (like food or cigarette smoke) from your hair while adding softness and moisture. What a brilliant idea! I think it's safe to say that we all have those days where an extra hour in bed sounds a lot more appealing than getting up, washing and styling our hair and sometimes dry shampoo doesn't quite cut it. I've spritzed a bit of my regular perfume onto my hair before, but I can't imagine all the alcohol in it to be particularly good for my hair. Sadly, the scent of this is insanely overwhelming. Soap fragrance, yes, definitely, but soft it is not - more like a soapy sledgehammer to the face. As my hair is freshly washed I can't comment on its softening properties just yet, but I will try to give it another go on my next bad hair day.

3) A.m.oK cosmetics | N.S.M Soft Moose Waterproof Liquid Line

I think something may have gotten a little lost in translation here... Soft Moose? Surely they meant Mousse... and "Three step cross eyes"?? I really hope I don't get cross eyed from using this, haha! Anyway, the product itself is a soft cream inside a tube with a brush applicator. The brush is meant to make it easy to use it as an eye shadow blended out all over the lid, as well as an eye liner focused on the lash line, but I feel that it is too wide to perform well as a liner. This came in a variety of shades and I feel like I've really lucked out with mine (550 Elegance Purple - see swatches below). It's a gorgeous shimmery bronze with soft purple undertones, which applies incredibly pigmented. From my swatch it seems a bit too creamy to be waterproof and I think I might need to wear a good primer underneath or set it with a powder shadow perhaps, but I really can't wait to give this a go!

4) Secret-Stargirl | S-Style 2set

This is another product that came in lots of different variation and the one I got was 01 Sexy Eye. It's safe to say that these lashes are completely out of my comfort zone and not something I would ever pick up in a store. I think they're a tad think and long and glossy, so are going to look very obviously fake on the eye, but nevertheless I'm willing to give them a go next time I'm on a big night out or something.

5) Croquis | Dual Concealer

This is a double ended product, with dark circle concealer on one end and blemish concealer on the other end. The dark circle side is lighter and peachier in tone and comes with a brush applicator as opposed to the doefoot applicator that comes with the blemish concealer side. Just in case you get as confused as I did, it also has a picture of an eye and a picture of dots to make it clear which side is for which purpose. Upon first inspection I really, really like this product. It applies very creamy and actually quite runny at first, but once you start blending away, you can see that there's a very decent amount of pigmentation in there. I can imagine it being a bit annoying to get something like this if you have a dark skin tone, but for my pale skin this is a perfect match!

6) A.m.oK cosmetics | N.S.M Special Nail Lacquer

Imagine my excitement when I saw that they included not one but two nail polishes in this box! The shades I got are OR206 Juicy Fresh and PP516 Violet Tulip and once more I feel like I've really lucked out with the colours, as they're both shades I'll happily wear. In contrast, I've seen some pretty horrendous glitter shades in other boxes while writing up this review. These two actually make me think Halloween nails, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

7) Kepaclub | Maxi Lip Tint Glow

This lipstick/balm hybrid has got to be my favourite item from the box. The packaging is very reminiscent of Dior lipsticks, albeit with a much cheaper execution. The colour, however, is absolutely stunning. I can't make out which one of the three colour choices I received, but I did noticed that mine seems to be a lot more pigmented than other people's - or perhaps it just shows up better on my light skin? I just realised that I forgot to take a picture of the lipstick bullet (#bloggerfail), but you can see the colour in the swatch image below. It's a beautiful rosy pink and exactly the colour which springs to my mind when I think about Korean make-up. I don't ever want to take it off again.

And as promised, here are all make-up products swatched up.

L-R: N.S.M Soft Moose Waterproof Liquid Line in 550 Elegance Purple // Dual Concealer in 02 // Maxi Lip Tint Glow (shade unknown)

After opening my box I browsed a few other reviews online and was quite stunned to find that they were overwhelmingly negative. While I'm really not a fan of the soapy hair spray scent, I'm really happy with all the other products and I can genuinely see myself using all of them. I think in part I was really lucky with the colours I received, as they're all extremely pretty and very wearable.

I'm quite impressed that there were eight full sized products in my box and they're all exciting brands that I've never heard of. I also really like the fact that I don't have to commit to a subscription, but I can buy as many (or as few) boxes as and when I like. In fact, I'm already rummaging for my credit card to order my next one...

Review: Maybelline Color Tattoo in Permanent Taupe

Remember when these came out and where a huge thing in beauty-blogger-land? It feels like only yesterday, yet these pictures have been sitting on my laptop for months, and even then I was a little late to the party!
Maybelline Color Tattoos were originally hailed as the drugstore dupe for MAC's paint pots, which to this day are still my favourite way of priming my eye lids, making any shadow applied over the top last all day long.

The original colour range was very limited, but nowadays there are 17 shades to choose from (although I believe that 6 of those are currently unavailable in the UK), ranging from muted neutrals to shimmery brights. Even though it's been a while since their release, I still find a majority of colours are pretty much permanently sold out. (That, or perhaps my local drugstores are just really rubbish at restocking.)

One thing I really, really like about these is the packaging, which looks far more expensive than their £4.99 price tag. The glass jar presents itself very nicely and I like the writing at the bottom. The lid sits nice and secure and the product inside is easily accessible.

While I can see the similarities between Color Tattoos and MAC paint pots in the way they translate from cream to powder on the eye lids, I did find that the formula of these is a lot firmer and less creamy, making it a touch more difficult to blend out. Once they're on, however, they really do stay on. I'm not sure if they live up to their 24hr claim, as I don't wear make-up that long (does anyone?), but they certainly last all day on the lids and work even better if you blend a powder eye shadow over the top.

Another way in which these are inferior to their MAC counterparts is the way the colour goes on quite patchy, as you can see in the swatch above. From looking around other blogs I found that this seems to be an issue only with the matte shades, however, with Permanent Taupe being particularly bad. Overall, the colour looks a lot less flattering on the lids than I imagined. I'm sure there are lots of people who can really pull this one off well, but on me it just looks like the very wrong end of 90s heroin chic.

So while I'm not the biggest fan of this particular colour and insist that they're not quite as good as MAC Paint Pots, I still think that this is a great little product and I can definitely see myself picking up a different shade soon - the rose gold one in particular looks absolutely stunning!

Monthly Favourites: May 2014

1) Bourjois Volume 1 Seconde Mascara

Wow, two months in a row my favourites include a Bourjois mascara! I've only just published a review on this one (you can find it here), but if you don't want to go through a lengthy post, then let me just tell you that this is my new favourite drugstore mascara. I think I even prefer it to my trusted Max Factor False Lash Effect! It gives defined, long, fluttery lashes that still look incredibly natural. It's not quite as good as my ultimate holy grail mascara, Benefit's "They're Real!", but at a fraction of a price, this comes a very close second.

2) Pro:Voke Twice A Week Brightening Shampoo & Intensive Treatment Conditioner

I've already featured this shampoo in my favourites once, but it was recently that I purchased the matching conditioner and both together definitely deserve another mention. I've tried a lot of purple shampoos and conditioners to keep my blonde hair from going brassy and no matter the price tag, none of them even come close to these. Not only are they powerful enough to really knock every last bit of yellow out of your hair, they also leave my hair feeling insanely soft and nourished - and they're less than a fiver each!

3) Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Paint in Rich Russet

This is a classic case of "the blogger made me buy it". After seeing so many of my favourite bloggers rave about this eye shadow and this colour in particular, I just couldn't help myself but make a sneaky purchase. While it's not the most amazing eye shadow ever, the neutral colour and its versatility are what makes this a stand-out product for me. It's so easy to blend it into a neutral daytime look or layer it up for a bronzed smokey eye, which makes it the perfect day-to-night product. The fact that it comes in a handy tube and can easily be blended with your fingers makes it perfect for on the go. The formula will also stay on my lids pretty much all day once it's dried down. It's crazy to think how far high street cream shadow formulas have come in the last few years!

4) Super Facialist by Una Brennan Brighten & Refine Facial Scrub

Now, this is a scrub for scrub lovers. When I exfoliate my face, I want to feel like I'm actually doing something and this fits the bill perfectly. The grains are tiny and spread very well, but boy are they effective! Do not use this on dry skin unless you like the feeling of sandpaper on your face. In the shower, however, used on wet skin it's the perfect once or twice weekly deep clean that my face needs.

Monthly Favourites: January 2014

1) Yes Nurse! Hand cream

There's not much to say about this hand cream that I haven't said before (check out my full review of this one here), but it's quite possibly the best hand cream I've ever used. No faffing about with greasy, slimy hands that won't let you touch anything without leaving a snail trail. This sinks in pretty much instantly and protects my hands from the harsh environment. Every winter my hands would get so dry that the skin would crack at the knuckles - now that's a thing of the past. The tube in the picture has been in my handbag for a while, so it's gone a bit manky and it's starting to run low as well, but I can definitely see myself repurchasing this.

2) MAC Cream Colour Base in Hush

I've had this product for ages and it's only recently, when rummaging through my stash, that I rediscovered it. I've not put it down ever since! It's got quite a hard, waxy cream texture, but I find that that makes it perfect for placing a strategic highlight on top of the cheekbones as well as above the lip on the cupid's bow. It works best when blended in with fingers, as I find that brushes struggle to pick up the pigment. I actually reviewed this product on my blog in May two years ago, back when I lived in Germany for a bit and wrote my posts in two languages! Click here for a blast from the past.

3) Bumble and Bumble Thickening Spray

This mini thickening spray came as a freebie with a magazine sometime last autumn I think. The first time I used it I was a tad overzealous and as a result my hair went literally horizontal after blow drying. There's volume and there's too much volume. After that incident I've banished the spray to the back of my unwanted drawer, but something made me dig it out again at the start of the month and give it another go. Turns out, if you're not overgenerous with your application, this is actually a brilliant product that gives me just that little bit of lift to my hair without being at all sticky or drying on the hair. 

4) Maybelline Color Tattoo in Permanent Taupe

Right before Christmas there was a 3 for 2 deal on all Rimmel products on at Boots, and as I was in the market for a new foundation and mascara anyway, I popped this into my basket as well, seeing as I'd heard so many good things about the Color Tattoos from various blogs. Turns out, I can completely understand the hype. The formula is simply brilliant. Nice and creamy and blendable to begin with, it eventually settles into a powder finish that does not budge all day. Permanent Taupe is a little less pigmented and more muted compared to the other shades on offer, but it works amazing with a winged eye liner. I can't wait to get my hands on some of the other colours, including On and On Bronze!