Liquid -MAC - Studio Sculpt SPF 15 Foundation
Parisa909 1/26/2013 5:45:00 AM
The consistency of Studio Sculpt is unlike any other foundation I’ve ever tried – it’s gel-based so it’s thicker than my Estee Lauder Double Wear, and you only need around a 10p sized blob to cover your entire face. Coverage wise, it really does deliver a medium-full coverage on the skin, yet unlike Estee Lauder Maximum Cover, the finish isn’t totally matte, it’s more of a satin-glow, which I suspect is where the ‘hydrating’ part of the description comes into play. It covers all of my blemishes, redness and problem areas, but it never feels heavy or as though it’s sitting on top of my skin. Drier skinned ladies will appreciate the fact that it does not cling or emphasise dry patches in the slightest. I have a slightly dry area under my bottom lip and am pleased to report that no flakes were visible – bonus! However, it does not keep my oily skin at bay all day long, around 6 hours later it slides around my t-zone and wears off my nose. Compared to Estee Lauder Double Wear, Studio Sculpt is long-wearing, but not to the extent that Double Wear or Maximum Cover is. I actually don’t think anything comes close to beating those foundations! Having said that, it does say pretty fresh for around 6-8 hours on it’s own, but if you wear powder over the top, you can easily extend it’s longevity for a couple more hours.
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Lipstick -MAC - Viva Glam Nicki
Parisa909 1/26/2013 5:39:00 AM
I do love my bright lipsticks, and Viva Glam Nicki certainly does not disappoint! It’s a vibrant yellow-toned pink that includes elements of coral. As it’s a Satin formula, it’s very opaque – one swipe and your lips are fully coloured! Texture wise, it feels rich and creamy on the lips, no dragging. f course you can just grab a lip brush and gently pat it on, to give you a pop of toned-down colour. With Satin lipsticks I find that they can be quite drying and this one is no exception, but a slick of lip balm underneath helps the lipstick glide on smoothly and not settle into fine lines.I’m really in two minds about Viva Glam Nicki. I love the shade and the brightness of it, I’m just not sure if it suits me or not. Maybe because most of my pink lipsticks are cool-toned? I’ve found it makes my teeth look yellow, so that’s obviously a massive downside! I like how it warms up my face and I think it will really suits olive and darker skin tones beautifully. As to longevity, I find it lasts for a good 3-4 hours without touching up, maybe less after eating or drinking.
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Lipstick -MAC - speed dial cremesheen
Parisa909 1/26/2013 5:36:00 AM
It’s a blue-based candy-bubblegum pink lipstick with a golden sheen and a cremesheen finish. I’ll be totally honest and say that it doesn’t wow me at all, I just look at it and think ‘blah’. The pigmentation is decent – not as good as the Amplified Creme or Matte finishes, and I find it makes my lips look very wet. I need quite a few swipes of it on my lips to get full-coverage, and it’s not a unique shade, in fact it has many similarities with my other pinks - it’s so incredibly alike to Chatterbox and Please Me, and in real-life it looks very much like Pink Nouveau. Definitely not a special or ‘must-have’ lipstick as MAC offer better ones with longer lasting power and it’s just far too alike to my other lipsticks. I will say that it is very wearable, and you could definitely wear this during the day. So yes, I do regret purchasing it and will probably give it to my mother.
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Polishes -OPI - Nailpolish in Venus di Violet
Parisa909 1/26/2013 5:28:00 AM
Such a stunning, gorgeous lavender-pink duochrome with flashes of hot pink. I love wearing this when I don’t what to wear – it’s a perfect sophisticated neutral with a kick! It has an iridescent finish on the nails and in the light I really notice the flashes of hot pink which make it such an interesting polish. I used it a couple of weeks ago for a stiletto-nail look and got loads of compliments!
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Polishes -OPI - Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous
Parisa909 1/26/2013 5:26:00 AM
I was after a grey-black nail polish and this one by OPI caught my eye immediately. It’s a gorgeous gun-metal shade with glitter thrown into the mix. Not quite grey, not quite black, but that’s definitely what I was looking for. It definitely requires two coats for maximum opaqueness, and the end result is a stunning black-grey with shimmering glitter. The glitter doesn’t feel chunky, it feels smooth. A nice twist on basic black.
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Bronzers -BeneFit Cosmetics - HOOLA
Parisa909 1/26/2013 5:19:00 AM
Too cool-toned for me. Probably because my skin is so yellow, but when I wear this it looks almost grey on my cheeks. Even when used to contour with I still feel that there's something 'off' with my face. There is absolutely no hint of orange, shimmer or sparkle. The texture of the powder is lovely, very smooth to apply, strong pigmentation and blends well onto the cheeks, providing you start off using a little bronzer at a time and then adding more if needed. I won't repurchase.
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Bronzers -MAC - Bronzer in Golden
Parisa909 1/26/2013 5:13:00 AM
This has been my bronzer of choice for the past couple of weeks. By no means is it perfect, the texture is a little chalky and I do have to really swirl my brush in the pan a couple of times to pick up some colour, but essentially, I love the 'golden' shade. It's actually impossible to over-apply this bronzer, which is great because sometimes I have a tendency to get a bit slap-happy with my brush. There is no orange to the bronzer whatsoever, you won't look dirty or muddy at all. It's not matte, there are some sparkles, but since I wear another blush over the top it doesn't matter to me. I apply it to my cheeks and tip of my nose for that sunkissed look. If you're super fair-skinned, I think you'd like this, it just about shows up on my NC25 skintone, so anyone NC30 or more, don't get this bronzer.
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Bronzers -NARS - Casino
Parisa909 1/26/2013 4:59:00 AM
For years I used to think that, even though my skintone is NC25, the naturally olive tones in my skin meant that I could get away with wearing the darker bronzer shades. I now realise this definitely isn't the case! Anyways, as the darker sister of the infamous 'Laguna', Casino is a true brown shade of bronzer with a red undertone. To look at it in the pan you can definitely see how warm based it is. I only need one swipe of colour to achieve a bronze hue on my cheeks nose and forehead. There is also a smidge of shimmer contained in the powder but it really is barely noticeable because it is so fine, instead it’s more a matte sheen. If you have olive skin and darker and can't get Laguna to show up, you might like Casino. The quality of the powder is excellent too, very smooth and easy to apply on the cheeks. Now, I do like Casino… but only when I'm more tanned. Using it on my regular skintome makes me look dirty and a little bit burnt! It's incredibly easy to apply too much and go overboard. It is a superb quality bronzer but not for me.
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Eyeliner -MAC - Fluidline-Rich Ground
Parisa909 1/26/2013 4:48:00 AM
I like to have many colour options available to me when I find a product that really works well for me. After having such good results with Blacktrack fluidline, I decided to purchase Rich Ground. It performs just as well as Blacktrack, smooth consistency and lasts all day both on upper lashline and waterline. It's not your average brown shade - it has a metallic sheen and is more of a coppery-bronze brown. Can be paired with brown or green eyeshadows, but don't just take my word for it, try it!
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Eyeliner -MAC - Fluidline Eye-Liner Gel in Blacktrack
Parisa909 1/26/2013 4:43:00 AM
Great gel liner. Lovely, smooth consistency, applies nicely to my upper lashline with no dragging. I have oily lids and it doesn't move or crumble all day. Once applied, it needs a minute to dry or it will transfer. I love that I can apply it to my waterline with no stinging and it stays put on there all day, so much better than traditional kohl liners. It's not the blackest gel liner, but you can make it more blacker by going over it. Had mine over 6 months and no drying out or changes in texture.
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Lotions/ Creams -Palmers - Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula
Parisa909 1/26/2013 4:26:00 AM
Without a doubt the best body moisturiser I have ever tried. I’ve been using it since I was 14, when I was going through a traumatic period in my life where I gained some horrifically ugly purple stretch marks on my breasts and back of my legs, and was recommended to use cocoa butter by a lot of people. I’ve been using it ever since, it really did get rid of those awful marks and intensely moisturises my skin like nothing else, thanks to it’s thick but spreadable consistency. It has the most gorgeously sweet almost chocolatey scent, it’s such a treat to use this after showering. I’ve experimented with a lot of different body moisturisers over the years and with the exception of Dove Summer Glow, always return to my Palmers. I’ve used most of the other variants, such as the Olive butter, the unscented butter and the Alpha-Hydroxy and whilst they’re all brilliant, I still love the original the best, maybe because the scent is so comforting! Tip – if you find your cocoa butter is hard to squeeze out of the container, leave it on the radiator or heat it up for a couple of seconds – it quickly melts so you can use up what’s left!
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Makeup Brushes -MAC - 266 Thin Small Angle (Synthetic hair)
Parisa909 1/26/2013 4:24:00 AM
I use the 266 for filling in my brows, it’s both razor thin and has an angled tip which makes it efficient for eyebrows. I used the 266 everyday with my Benefit Brow-Zings kit but now I use with my MUFE Aqua Brow. It’s so precise at tracing my natural eyebrow shape and applying the brow powder exactly where I need it to be, especially when I want to extend my natural tail-end.
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Eyeliner -Estee Lauder - Double Wear Zero-Smudge Liquid Eye Liner 
Parisa909 1/26/2013 4:19:00 AM
Terrible product. Considering it's part of the magnificent Double Wear line of products, it's downright diabolical! I purchased this in the brown shade and rarely do I throw away items after a few uses but with this piece of crap I had to. The formula was so runny and watery, despite me shaking the bottle several times the awful felt-tip applicator barely had any product on it. The pigmentation was so weak I had to run it over several times to get any sort of opaqueness. Save your money and purchase Liquidlast or Superslick liner.
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Eyeliner -Bobbi Brown - Violet Ink Long-Wear Gel Liner
Parisa909 1/26/2013 4:14:00 AM
I've been hunting for a nice violet gel liner for a while to compliment my everyday eyeshadow look of MAC Trax and Urban Decay Sin. Lots of online research led me to buy Violet Ink from Bobbi Brown. I'm not impressed with the formula, compared to YSL's and MAC's gel liners it's not as smooth to work with, and not as pigmented either. The Violet shade is actually bordering on purple-black, which isn't what I wanted. I also found it hard to apply to my waterline, which I never have trouble doing with YSL or MAC fluidlines. It's not matte, nor shimmer, I'd say it has a Satin finish. Wouldn't repurchase.
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Eye Shadow -MAC - Trax
Parisa909 1/26/2013 3:14:00 AM
Trax is a plummy-purple with gold glitter specks. Very similar the plum shade in the NARS 'Habanera' duo. It's one of my all-time favourite MAC eyeshadows and I wear it nearly every single day all over my lid and blended into my crease with Urban Decay 'Sin' in my inner corners. Now, I have to be honest and say the pigmentation isn't outstanding - sometimes I really have to pack it on my lids with my 239 brush, which can be an annoyance. But, I'm willing to forgive that aspect because I just love the colour and sparkle of Trax so much. If you have very dark brown eyes, it's well worth a look!
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