Too Faced Shadow Bon Bons Review and Swatches

I have another pretty palette from Too Faced to show you, this time it's the Shadow Bon Bons palette. This one is also a very good value offering. Of course it's not just abut value, it's also the quality that counts. Luckily this is also a great quality palette. Well done Too Faced!

Shadow Bon Bons contains 12 eyeshadows, a trial size Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer and a full size LashGASM mascara. I have to admit, I actually bought this palette for just one of the eyeshadows (and the fact that I got £17 worth of points on my Advantage Card in Boots when I spent £50). I'm happy to say that all the eyeshadows in the palette are actually very nice, with the exception of Nude Beach which has quite bad fallout, although it's a pretty shade. This palette isn't as colourful as the Sweet Indulgences palette, so better for those who prefer neutral looks, but there's still plenty of variety in there. Not just colourwise, but also regarding the finishes, there are matte, metallic and shimmery shades.

Some of the shades in this palette can also be found in the Sweet Indulgences palette (Peach Fuzz and Lovey Dovey) and I'm pretty sure I've come across some of the others before too, but this is such a nice, comprehensive set, and not too bulky to travel with either.

The Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer has a nice golden sheen, so it's great under shimmery shadows. It grabs onto eyeshadows and makes them stay vibrant and creaseless all day long. The LashGASM mascara gives me nice lenght, although not much volume. It has those plastic bristles/spikes I like and the brush is a nice size, not too big at all. The formula is pretty nice too.

All in all, a great set and well worth the £33 price tag. According to Beauty Bay the value of this set is £130. It contains 10.8 g eyeshadows which is £95 value, plus the full size (12 ml) LashGASM mascara £16.50, and the 5 g Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer is an extra £7.50 value, which makes it £119 in my books, but either way, it's great value.

Have you bought anything from Too Faced's holiday collection yet? Or are you waiting for Santa to bring you something nice? Let me know in the comments! Also see if you can guess which one is my favourite shade in this palette? And which one is yours?

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Too Faced Sweet Indulgences Set Review and Swatches

I have always liked Too Faced, especially the special edition pretty palettes, but this year they've really stepped up their game. This is the second palette I've bought from Too Faced recently and this is yet another excellent value, fantastic quality palette.

In this set you get 16 eyeshadows, a full size Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer, 2 bronzers, 2 blushes, a highlighter and a double ended eyeshadow brush/applicator. Too Faced have also thrown in 3 looks cards. The whole lot comes in a double layer tin. The top layer includes the 16 eyeshadows, the bottom layer has everyting else. The top layer is easily removable, can just be lifted out of the tin. It's not portable on its own, but at least you can hold it while applying the eyeshadows, rather than having to hold the whole tin. The bottom layer is also removable, but less easily.

First of all, the eyeshadows are great. Most of them are shimmery or metallic, but there are a few matte/satiny ones. Some of these shades have been included in pretty much every holiday palette Too Faced have done, I recognise a few of the names, but some of them seem new. I can't find this palette on the Too Faced website (I think this might be a Sephora exclusive in the US) and the Beauty Bay website doesn't have much info. Anyway, the eyeshadows included are: In the Buff, Peach Fuzz, Marshmallow, Lovey Dovey, Copper Peony, Teddy Bear, Gum Drop, Malted Milk Ball, Satin Sheets, Nice Stems!, Nice Ash, Cherry Cola, Honeymoon, Pastille, Cop a Teal, Black Sugar. You get 1.6 g of each colour, so that's a total of a whopping 25.6 g of eyeshadow.

I haven't worn them all yet (in fact I've only worn 4), but I have swatched them all (see below) and they all swatched really nicely. The shimmery ones didn't have much fallout (if any) and the matte ones weren't at all powdery. The shades I've worn (Peach Fuzz, Gum Drop, Satin Sheets and Cherry Cola) stayed on my lids all day (with Shadow Insurance underneath, of course) and didn't crease at all. I hade some glitter fallout, I think from Peach Fuzz, but it wasn't too bad and I only noticed it several hours later.

The bronzers are both pretty nice, the exclusive shade is darker, more matte and less pigmented than the Sun Bunny Light Bronzer which is just gorgeous, smooth and pigmented. Another favourite of Too Faced's is La Vie En Rose blush, I'm sure I have it in almost every palette that's come out in the past 2-3 years, but it's a pretty pink slightly shimmery blush, so i don't mind. Papa Don't Peach blush is really nice, more pigmented than La Vie En Rose and has a lovely glow. You also get a small Candlelight Glow highlighter (another palette essential).

The brush/applicator is alright, I have only tried the brush, I'm not usually a fan of applicators. It's okay, but it doesn't add any value to the palette for me. The full size Shadow Insurance primer is great and I'm happy to own another one. The tube I'm currently using is several years old, yet it's still not empty and hasn't changed consistency one bit. I have now fully converted from Urban Decay Primer Potion.

The tin is a nice idea and could be used for storing other things when you used up all the products, but quite frankly, that's never going to happen, is it? There's no mirror in the lid, and the lid itself is a bit flimsical, mine has changed shape a bit, although still closes fine.

The palette costs £42 which might sound a bit much for some, but according to Beauty Bay it has an actual value of £133. Sephora says $381 value (approx. £236). Either way, it's a great deal. The primer costs £16.50 and a single 1.7 g eyeshadow costs £15, so that adds up to a £241.50 value alone. I think even Sephora has underestimated the value!

That's enough of the maths, let's see some swatches I hear you say! Coming up right after the jump together with lots of product pictures!

Fantastic Lancome Deals At Debenhams!

I was going to blog about the Mac Glamour Daze eyeshadows today, but then I got so excited about the fantastic deal I came across in Debenhams, I just had to share (sorry, Mac swatches coming soon!). I don't know how long these offers last, so I thought I'd let you know quickly, in case you want to take advantage of them.

Today I bought two of the Lancome holiday collection eyeshadows and one of the khol pencils (I will do a proper review on those later) and as a result was given a really nice gift with purchase including a gorgeous make up bag, several skincare samples, a tiny lipstick, a sample size mascara, two make up brushes (which I forgot to photograph, sorry) and because I bought the third product, a full size Bi-Facil make up remover. I won't go into all the details here, but you can see the offer by clicking on this link. According to Debenhams the gift with purchase is worth over £58, although I'm not entirely sure if it includes the extra Bi-Facil, but it doesn't include the make up bag and brushes apparently. A full-size Bi-Facil alone costs £21.

I also purchased the Christmas Beauty Box for £45 (you can only buy this if you buy 2 or more Lancome products, and luckily you still get the gift with purchase, they don't exclude each other) which actually has a value of £165! The eyeshadow palette and blush alone add up to at least £45 and there's also a full size Bi-Facil in here as well as Genifique and Visionnaire samples, 2 tiny lipsticks (one is the same as in the gift with purchase), 2 sample size mascaras, an eye khol, a sample size cream, a sample size cream cleanser and toner, as well as a gorgeous big sparkly gold make up case.

The Christmas Beauty Box is actually a fantastic deal as it costs £75 on the Lancome website, although you can purchase it without buying other products, but to be fair, if you're going to buy something from the holiday collection (and there's plenty to buy from that as it's gorgeous!) or even some staples, you might as well buy it from Debenhams and get it for £30 less!

See lots more pictures after the jump!

My Mac Holiday 2012 Collection(s) Haul

Just a quick post to show you all the goodies I bought from the Mac holiday collections: Glamour Daze and all the other collections with the sets, I've lost count of how many there are actually. I won't have any swatches or reviews today because although I've spend most of my afternoon taking pictures and swatching products, I haven't got around to cropping most of the photos, let alone actually trying on the products.

But for now, here are a few pictures to drool over. I especially love the packaging for the sets, they are so cute. Not sure what I will be using them for yet, but definitely wouldn't want to throw them out, they are too cute. I do remember throwing out last year's massive hanging Christmas decoration globes, but they were nowhere this pretty.

As you can see, I've bought all 3 crushed pigment sets, the coral lipgloss set and the pink brush set. 

From Glamour Daze I bought 5 Extra Dimension eyeshadows, all 3 fluidlines and Everything That Glitters nail polish.

Have you purchased anything from the Mac holiday collections yet? Let me know in the comments.

See more pictures after the jump!

Stila Seeing Stars Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner Set

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of days, but I've been very busy with my children. On Wednesday we spent the day preparing for Halloween, carved 4 pumpkins, decorated the house and I even did my first ever face painting. Today's been more about shopping, food as well as make up, I went to the Boots Points Event and to the Mac counter to pick up some of the new products from the holiday collection. Incidentally, I'm really behind with taking pictures and swatching, so there may be a small gap in posting, but normal service should resume come Tuesday.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired now, so this is going to be a very quick look at one of Stila's holiday offerings. What we have here is a set of 5 full size Smudge Sticks.

I just love great value sets and this is definitely one of those. You get £65 worth of eyeliners for £25. What's not to like? Smudge Sticks are very good eyeliners,they are waterproof and smudge-proof, they last for hours even on my waterline.

In this set you get Stargazer (black with gold and silver pearl), Angelfish (metallic pewter), Tetra (deep shimmery purple), Moray (golden olive shimmer) and Oscar Fish (warm brown with gold pearl). I believe that out of the 4 only Oscar Fish is limited edition, I only owned Tetra and Moray, so even that way it was worth buying as individually they cost £13 each. I can only see Moray listed on the Stila website, my Tetra came with one of the palettes, so I don't actually know if you can buy Stargazer or Angekfish separately. Maybe in the US?

My only criticism of Smudge Sticks is that you get very little for your money. While Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners contain 1.2 g, these Stila ones only contain 0.28 g each! However, these come in a plastic pencil and instead of sharpening them, you just twist them up as and when you need to. So I gues you save quite a bit that you would lose with sharpening, but I still think these could contain more product.

Other than that, Stila Smudge Sticks are great eyeliners and this set is certainly worth getting if you like them and don't already own many of the shades.

See more pictures after the jump!

Urban Decay Smoked 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set Review and Swatches

This is the second 24/7 eyeliner pencil set Urban Decay has released for the holiday, and even though it's not as exciting/great value as the Ocho Loco set, I thought I'd show it to you, because this is also a good one and still very good value.

This set is supposed to complement the Smoked Palette released earlier this year, which I didn't buy, but you don't need that of course, you will still enjoy this set if you like dark, smoky colours.

The set contains 6 travel size 24/7 glide-on eye pencils and they come in a variety of colours and finishes. You have Uzi which is a dark shimmery grey, Zero, a black, Demolition, a cool toned matte dark brown, Smog, a light metallic brown, Empire, a dark aubergine with satin finish and Mainline, a dark matte teal. Out of the 6 shades 2 are permanent (Zero and Demolition), 2 have been included in other sets (Uzi and Empire) and 2 are brand new (Smog and Mainline). I only owned Uzi and Zero, I wasn't even aware that Demolition was permanent.

It's a lovely set with really nice colours, my favourites are definitely Empire and Mainline, but I also really like and regularly use Uzi. Demolition doesn't seem that pigmented to me and Smog is a little light to be referred to as a smoky colour, but it's still nice. If you don't have these colours yet, this set would be a great one to buy.

The eyeliners are 0.8 g each which is 2/3 of full size and the set retails at £26, but it's actually worth £52 based on the price of the full sized pencils (£13). So it's still a great value and it also means that you don't have to commit to buying full sized products, because let's face it, who can get through eyeliners quickly enough anyway?

All in all, I would happily recommend this set especially as Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencils are one of my favourite eyeliners.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Urban Decay Ocho Loco 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set Review and Swatches

Another lovely set this holiday season (yes, I know it's only mid-October, but you know make up collections are always a season ahead) from Urban Decay is the Ocho Loco 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set. Similar to last year's 15 Year Anniversary set, this set also contains full size 24/7 eyeliners in a variety of shades and finishes, both existing colours and some exclusive ones.

24/7 eye pencils are one of my favourite eyeliners, they are creamy and easy to use, but they set quickly and don't smudge. I find they don't last for very long on my waterline, but on my lashline they last for several hours. They also have such a brilliant selection of colours, they always come out with new ones and you often get these great value sets too. I have so many 24/7 eye pencils, I have now lost count. I use them every day and they last for a long time. I think I've only finished 3 of them over the last 3-4 years and those were the tiny travel sizes (0.5 g I think).

Ocho Loco set contains 8 full size (1.2 g) 24/7 eye pencils, including 4 existing shades: Perversion, a matte very dark black, Rockstar, one of my favourites: a lovely aubergine colour, Stash, an antique gold shade, Junkie, a teal with gold shimmer, as well as 4 new colours. Actually, Junkie is new to the UK, it was part of a 5 colour travel set, but only in the US, although I did get it through eBay of course.

The new colours are very nice too, Mushroom is a metallic taupe pewter, Hustle is a medium brown (reminds me of Bourbon, although I didn't compare them side-by-side), Psychedelic Sister is a bright purple shimmer and LSD is a navy with bright turquoise shimmer - possibly my favourite!

You also get a double barrelled pencil sharpener with the set. This set, while still a great value, is less good value than the 15 Year Anniversary set was. This one costs £40 for 8 full size (1.2 g) pencils plus the sharpener, giving you a £104 value for your money (8 x £13) excluding the sharpener. The Anniversary set was £60 for 15 full size pencils which was AMAZING value! But let's not grumble, this is still great, even if you already own some of the existing shades (plus let's face it, you can't have enough of Perversion or Rockstar anyway), you still get 4 brand new exclusive shades for less than the price of 3!

This is limited edition, so if you want it, be quick. You can be sure it won't be available for long. You can buy Urban Decay from Debenhams, House of Fraser, Beauty Bay and Lookfantastic in the UK, but I can't see this set on the latter two websites.

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Bellapierre Cosmetics 9 Stack Shimmer Kit in Pandera Review and Swatches

On a recent trip to TKMaxx I found this kit for under half the original retail price, so of course I had to get it. I have already reviewed another one of these in the colour Fabulous so I won't repeat everything I've said there, if you want more info, please click here.

What you get in a kit is basically 9 little pots of pigment, 2 eyeshadow brushes, an eyeshadow base, a clear lipgloss and an instruction CD. The pigments come in a stack which is pretty cool, although due to the nature of it, can only be carried around as one piece. 

Unlike Fabulous which has lighter, bright colours, Pandera has a darker, smokier colour mix. It also doesn't include any glitters, whereas Fabulous has two glitters in it. The pigments are still very shimmery, but I find that the shimmer doesn't show up that much on the eyes, so they are definitely very wearable. I only got around to wearing a couple of shades, namely the light pinky beige and the medium brown shade (middle of top rown and right one in the middle row - see in pictures below), but they were both very smooth and easy to apply and blend. They stayed on my lids without fading or creasing for 12 hours.

These stacks retails for £59.99, but this set was only £24.99 in TKMaxx. However, I did notice, 6 months ago the same set in different colour cost only £19.99. Still a good deal, but it seems even TKMaxx is getting more expensive! Anyway, I'm happy to pay 25 quid for this, but I do feel that 60 would be way too much. Thank Crunchie for TKMaxx, eh? 

See more pictures including swatches and the look I did with some of the pigments after the jump!

Bellapierre Cosmetics 9 Stack Shimmer Kit Review and Swatches

I'd been planning on reviewing this kit for ages, but other things always got in the way, but finally, here it is. I bought this set in TKMaxx a while ago (February), but this is also available from BeautyBay and House of Fraser. I had actually spotted this on the House of Fraser website and loved the colourful stacks, but at £59.99 I just couldn't justify buying it, especially as I'd never actually heard of the brand before. So I was really happy to see it for just £19.99 in TKMaxx and of course snapped it up straight away.

In fact I believe you only get the actual 9 colour shimmer powder stacks for £59.99 whereas this kit also includes an eyeshadow base, two brushes and a clear lipgloss. So yeah, bit of a bargain really. I got the colour Fabulous which is a nice mix of shimmery bright colours. The stack includes two small pots of glitter, one red and one copper, and 7 pots of shimmer powder pigment. The glitter is very fine, but of course still chunkier than the pigments which are really nice and fine. The base included with the kit is slightly sticky and does a good job of holding on to the pigment, giving a creaseless result for several hours (in fact I had no creasing or fading for about 12 hours or so). You can also mix the pigments with the clear gloss and create a lipgloss, although most of the colours in this stack wouldn't be my ideal lipgloss colours. The brushes are okay, a slanted eyeliner brush and an eyeshadow brush are included in this kit. You get 15.75 g of pigment in this kit which is a good amount, making each pot just under 2 g each.

All in all, I really like the pigments, but I would not pay £59.99 for this. It's nice, but not 60 quid nice. However, for £19.99 it's really great and I wish I could pick up more colours (I especially like Iris and Astrid), but sadly due to TKMaxx's nature, they're not available there anymore.

Have you tried anything from Bellapierre? How do you like it?

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!