My First MAC lipstick - Costa Chic Review.

Everyone can remember their firsts: first kiss (Scott R, also my first boyfriend at 14), first club (B-Lo, on Exchange Square, Glasgow. Now called Common, yuck.) and every beauty blogger remembers their firsts too. First time wearing make-up (I was 11 and my mum let me wear eye-shadow and mascara to my last primary school disco), first nail-polish (I was 7 and it was baby pink) and, for me, their first MAC lipstick.

MAC lipsticks have something of a holy grail status within the beauty blogging world. The reason I bought one was a complete (happy) accident. I had bought a lip-liner from ELF which I thought was bright pink, but it turned out to be coral-coloured. My solution to this was to find a lipstick to wear it with (total b-blogger logic here), and I took the opportunity whilst out shopping in Edinburgh in June to have a look round the beauty counters and see if I could find something. First stop was Harvey Nichols, and the first counter I saw was MAC. I produced the lip-liner and swatched it for the lovely doe-eyed assistant, and she near-instantly pulled out Costa Chic.

I had to put the flash on to allow you to appreciate how bright this really is! It is definitely not a shade for the faint of heart. Costa Chic is described by MAC as a "Frosty Light Coral" and this is a pretty accurate description. However I wouldn't say it's too cool-toned, I think it's pitched just right so that all skin tones could wear this. But that's just my humble opinion.

It doesn't show up quite so bright on my hand, but it still stands out. On the lips, it glides on relatively easily, and lasts around 2-3 hours before needing a touch-up, and that's 2-3 including eating and drinking (I road-tested this on a night out).

And this is what it looks like on my lips (apologies for the slightly glazed expression, I'd just finished an 18-hr shift). In person it stands out more, but in this picture it looks quite subtle. Personally I love it! It's so bright and fun, it helps inject a little colour into your life. It's quite a summery shade, but I reckon you could find ways to wear it all year round. If you really like this shade, it costs £14 from MAC stores, counters and their website.

What do you think of MAC lipsticks? Do you have any favourite shades?

Christina xo

Haulosaurus Rex (i.e. When Christina got lots of lovely presents then went mental in Duty Free)

Recently it was my birthday (I had to work through most of it though, bleurgh), and to celebrate, I eventually went out with my nearest and dearest friends and family. And it was amazing! I had steak, wine and lots of catching up with my closest friends :) Birthdays, of course, also mean presents! And I was spoiled. I now have two new gins to try, a gorgeous new handbag, two stylish new canvas shopping bags and many other generous gifts. But the ones I'd most like to share with you are the beauty related ones (naturally.) And I will. In a minute. Because there's more...

I have also just returned from a week in Gran Canaria. Which means passing through the (Glasgow) airport duty free store! And it had just been refurbished with new counters *drools*. Plus once I arrived in Gran Canaria, I managed to grab a few cheeky bargains in a lovely little parfumeria. So would you like the run-down of my mental shopping spree/birthday haul?

 

Ta-Dah! I shall now break down each set of purchases for you:

DUTY FREE

Glasgow's duty free counters have always been pretty extensive (they have Dior, Chanel, OPI, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Ardin, Clarins... you name it really), but since its refurbishment they have added a MAC counter (I literally squeed when I saw this...ask my boyfriend.) So it would have naturally been foolish not to indulge, no? So I picked up Studio Fix Fluid in NW15 (£17.50) and a single eyeshadow in Trax (£10). Trax is described on the MAC site as "Burgundy Plum with Shimmer" - the most gorgeous gold shimmer to be precise. I've recently been pairing it with some gold shades from other palettes, and the result is v.pretty :) Hopefully I will be able to master photographing my face soon so I can show you. The Studio Fix Foundation is so far doing pretty well in my estimations. It keeps me matte for quite a long time (Longer than my Dior Forever foundation) and gives a really good finish. I'll need to compare it to my 17 Miracle Matte foundation though in terms of longevity, but so far, a win!

Next stop was the Chanel counter. As I mentioned in my Wish List post, I've been eyeing up their new matte lip colour, Rouge Allure Velvet. I thought the shade La Fascinante was my dream, but when I went to swatch, I was instantly drawn to another shade, L'Exuberante, which can only be described as a deep bright pink, not fuschia, but a kind-of deep, slightly reddish, pink! I will try and get a review up with pictures soon, but suffice to say, My God, it is beautiful, and well worth the £20.50 I paid for it.

After leaving the check-out at Duty Free, I thought I was content. But alas, I had not banked on Glasgow Airport adding a Rituals store to there arsenal. And having loved their Yogi Flow Shower Foam from my Christmas Glossybox, I popped in to purchase a replacement shower foam, and picked up the matching body spray too. Delicious, luxurious smelling skin, here I come! Also, after that last stop-off, it was off to Gran Canaria with me! And this leads me on to...

HOLIDAY BUYS

One day, my boyfriend Kris and I decided we would get one of the many boats up Gran Canaria's South Coast to take us to the big town of Puerto Rico for some shopping (would not recommend staying there unless you're a typical Bulldog Brit, but like I say, some good shops) and I stumbled across a little parfumeria, where one of the ever-so-slightly-pushy sales assistants kept offering me discounts and "special prices". But there were two items I literally would have been stupid not to pick up: a 30ml bottle of Valentino's Valentina Eau de Parfum (I've seen various prices, but average appears to be £40) for around 36 euros (£29). But my piece de resistance... Getting Guerlain's Sun in the City Illuminating Powder for...37 euros (£30)!!! Not too bad considering the RRP is around £43. I am loving this just as much as my MAC Trax, and they actually pair well together too. I'm looking forward to experimenting further with it too!

BIRTHDAY TREATS

There's a reason I've added this last. One of my other presents was a Boots gift card from Claire (you can read her fabulous blog here) and I have just gotten round to spending (read: splurging) it! Having bought the Guerlain Powder, I realised that I should probably buy some proper brushes to actually use it with (and to do it justice), so after asking around I settled on getting myself some Real Techniques brushes. I bought the Base/Flawless Core collection (£21.99) and the Base/Flawless Powder Brush (£12.99). At the moment, Real Techniques brushes and sets are all on a Buy-1-Get-1-Half-Price offer in Boots, so the powder brush was only £6.50). So a big thank you to Claire! (Brushes are pictured below.)

Next up, my friends Fraser and Sara treated me to a lovely Soap and Glory gift set, which includes: Clean on Me (Shower Gel), Girligo (Moisturising Body Mist), The Righteous Butter (Body Butter), Flake Away (Body Scrub), and Hand Food (Hand Cream. I always love Soap and Glory (I rely on my Flake Away Scrub and their Fab Pore Face Mask), so I'm excited to try these products. Thanks Fraser and thanks Sara!

Last, but by no means least, my lovely brother Andrew bought me a bottle of Paco Rabanne's Lady Million. I had samples of this years ago and loved it, so I was well chuffed to finally get a full-size bottle, so again, thank you so much to my brother!

*Phew* That really is a shit-ton of stuff. I'm not going to be on a very, very strict budget in the run-up to Christmas because 1. It's the run-up to Christmas and 2. Kris and I are saving every penny we can to fund moving back to Glasgow as soon as we humanly can. So no more mental spending for me!

Does anyone have any of the products I've mentioned? Would love to know your thoughts, feelings, tips etc. All feedback is welcomed!

Christina xo

Foolin' around...

On my days off, sometimes I like to have a play with some of my make-up, experimenting with new and old products, all to find out what suits me, what looks good etc...

Today I did have an agenda though. Tomorrow night I'm going out for a work friend's birthday in Edinburgh, so I thought I'd have a play with colour, since I'm going to be wearing a colourful outfit, I thought I could also reflect this on my face. I love blue so I went for blue pencil liner, overlayed with blue glitter eyeliner (both by MUA) , with a pale gold shadow over the majority of the lid, with a little blue at the outer corners (though you can't see this in the pic sadly.) Both eyeshadows came from the Sleek Original Palette, a palette I really like and should use more often! I also lined along the waterline and lower lash line with my MUA blue pencil liner. For the lips, I bought my 1st MAC lippie at the weekend, a gorgeous coral shade, so I thought I'd try this with blue eyes! (P.S. the mascara is a Yves Rocher Sexy Plump sample, with a touch of MAC Zoom Lashes over the top)

Pretty no? I was worried that putting emphasis on both eyes and lips would make me look very heavily made up, but this seems to work :) It also goes with my dress, so that's tomorrow's night out face sorted! Will post a picture of the whole ensemble at some point if you like...

Next experiment: While constructing the above look, I had all my Sleek palettes out, and I realised that I haven't used my PPQ palette very much, so I decided to experiment with some of the matte shades from this palette to see how I got on. (Also while I was playing, Sleek gave me a Follow Friday on Twitter so as a sign of appreciation, I thought I'd have some more fun with their palettes! P.S. Sleek, if you're reading this, I would looooove one of your new Olympic Pride, Honour and Glory palettes, pretty please? :P)

 I kinda suit a smokey eye, yeah? I used the taupe/grey matte, burgundy matte and the black matte (can never remember the shade names) from the Sleek PPQ palette, with a tiny hint of MAC club over the burgundy in the middle of my eye, with Bourjois Kohl in Gris Ingenieux on the waterline and Chanel Illusions D'Ombre in Mirifique as a liner along both lash lines. Apologies for the ghost face BTW, this was the better light for seeing the eyes.

Please let me know what you think! Christina xo

The Mascara Maven

Yeah...

I said a while ago that I wouldn't get drawn into the world of beauty blogging. However, the more make-up I buy, the more I wanna talk about it. Normally, most folks would chat to their gal pals about make-up and their preferences, but I live at least 60 miles away from the rest of my close friends, which makes chatting and playing with make-up a bit tricky! So I figured I'd try blogging about it for a while and see how I go...

The first thing I've noticed is that I have rather a lot of mascara, 12 to be precise (I know that some more seasoned beauty bloggers might think "Is that all?" but it feels like a lot). One of my favourite things about my face is that I have naturally longish lashes, so I like to make a feature of them. So here they all are, in order of price:

L-R: MUA eXtreme Volume Mascara in Brown/Black (£2)
Collection Extreme Coloured Lengthening Mascara in Blue(£2.99)
17 Peep Show in Brown/Black (£4 on offer)
17 Photo Flawless in Black/Copper (£5.99)
No.7 Exceptional Definition in Brown/Black (£7.50 with £5 Voucher)
Max Factor False Lash Effect in Brown/Black (£7.99 with £3 voucher)
L'Oreal False Lash Telescopic in Brown/Black (£10.99)
Benefit They're Real in Black (£11.50 with £7 Debenhams gift card)
Beautee/Relian Mascara in black (with fibres) (around £20 at a Girls Day Out show)

And the samples at the bottom: Max Factor Masterpiece in Black, MAC Zoom Lashes in Black and Lancome Hypnose Drama in Black.

My go-to mascara is usually the Max Factor False Lash effect, but recently I've been trying to use more of my mascaras and I've found a few that work pretty well. The MUA mascara is bargainous at £2 but my only issue with it is that it doesn't put a lot of mascara onto the lashes, but it does create a fair bit of volume, so I tend to use this in conjunction with something else to build up the lashes.
The Beautee/Relian Mascara was something I picked up at a Girls Day out (kinda like a beauty, fashion, chocolate, booze paradise for women) and it's lasted me at least 18 months, which is pretty impressive. You basically paint on the "transplanting gel", i.e. the mascara, then paint on the fibres, then repeat if necessary. It really does give you a false-lash look, with very little fibre fallout. AWESOME!

I have no real major dislikes with any of these TBH. The only let-down I have is the Benefit. They're Real is apparently the No.1 mascara in the U.K., if not the World and it's supposed to give you these amazing falsie-like lashes. Well I may have been applying it wrong, but my lashes ended up looking like Clump-Central. Not cool considering it's normally £18.50. However, I have found that if I use it over another mascara, it does add some good length. 

What mascaras do you guys use? If you want to know my thoughts on any of the other mascaras, just comment and let me know :) Generally let me know what you think of this post, it's my first proper beauty post and I like to get feedback!

Christina xo