A quick wee share...

One of my friends, Emily posted this link on my Facebook wall, and I thought it was a really interesting article! So I wanted to share it with you guys :) enjoy!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/9-high-end-makeup-dupes-that-could-save-you-lots-o

Christina xo

No.7 Summer of Dreams Bronzer.

I cannot believe I am about to review a bronzer. Here's why: I look like this... 

i.e. I am extremely pale and red-headed, and I've always felt that your skin colour should not be the same as your hair colour (too much orange...) so I generally steered clear of bronzer for fear of getting it wrong. Until now...

I was in my local Boots when I spied No.7's new bronzer, Summer of Dreams. Already it sounded promising. I waited a few weeks til I was at home in Glasgow and visited Boots to purchase it. I am so glad I did because it is fabulous!

 

It's so lovely-looking, no? It retails at £13 (I paid £8 with what my friend Claire calls No.7's "£5 vouchers of temptation") and to me it's worth every penny. The lower picture shows it's a fairly pale bronzer, but the colour is very warm, with only a slight hint of shimmer (Though be warned, when I first purchased this there was a shimmer pattern over the top for aesthetics, so with your first swatch you won't pick up much colour, just shimmer. After this it's fine though.). I would best describe this shade as a pale terracotta (There's only 1 shade though, so this might not suit everyone). When worn, it warms up my complexion without being too noticeable, it just looks like I've seen a little sun. When I use it with my baby kabuki, it  doesn't kick up much loose powder, and I don't need very much to warm up my face, so there's very little wasteage. I suspect this will be enough bronzer to last me a long time, and I'm very happy that it's this one. It successfully manages to bronze my face without making it look orange and unnatural. Score!

Christina xo

PS. Sorry there's no picture of this on my face, I couldn't really get it so you could compare the difference. Trust me, it looks pretty good :)

You just kissed a Boom Boom baby...

Apologies for the snappy title! I'm gonna write a review of MUA's Lip Booms, and when I explained what they were and showed them to my boyfriend, his response was: "Haha! Boom boom!" (Because I have 2, for further explanation as to why we find this funny, see here )

There's been a lot of hype on the web over MUA's collaboration with pop singer Alexandra Burke, Lip Booms, and a lot of folk have been raving over them. I now have 2, so I figured I would tell you lovely people what all the hype is about...

The snappily titled Lip Booms come in 8 shades, ranging from neutrals to bright, vivacious reds and deep plummy shades. Each Lip Boom is doubled-ended: one end being a matte lipstick and the other is a glittery highlighting gloss, and the concept behind this is that you can wear these 4 ways, according to MUA's webstore:

"1. Lipstick alone for a matte look.
2. Lipstick with highlighter applied just to the centre of your lips to create a full volume illusion.
3. Lipstick with highlighter all over for a super-glossy look.
4. Highlighter alone for a sheer pearl finish."

On the left we have "It's a Situation" (all the shades are named after sayings that Alexandra Burke reportedly utters... judge this as you will) and on the right is "Doin' Good." "It's a Situation" is an utterly fabulous shade of plum with a tad of reddy-pink thrown in, with a matching highlighting gloss, and "Doin' Good" is a lovely neutral pink shade. Below I have swatched each shade:

Sorry the light's not great! (N.B. I was gonna show you guys what they look like on, but the lighting throughout my flat was just not playing ball. In the flesh both shades look grand, "It's A Situation" looks incredibly goth-tastic and dramatic on me in particular!) 

My only gripe with these is the gloss. It has a lovely vanilla scent, but it's more glittery than highlighting, and when I say glittery I mean gritty. Used sparingly to highlight the cupid bow, it's not so bad but if you want to use it all over the lip I'd be careful. Having said that, the lippy end is so lovely on its own I just tend to use it without the gloss. The lipstick lasts well, and I found I could go a good 2/3 hours between re-applications. For £3 (currently on 2 for £4 from Superdrug and muastore.co.uk) you get plenty of product, and some rather fabulous colours to choose from.

In summary, fab, longish-lasting lippy, shame about the gritty gloss! Still bargainous though...

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

A little bit about me...

I've had this blog a little while, and I'm horrendously bad at remembering to blog. What'll happen is this: I'll think of something I want to talk about (while I'm out at work or on the town usually) and by the time I sit myself down to write it, all my witty observations have gone *poof* into oblivion. So I thought I'd try and start afresh, and begin by telling folk a bit about myself by way of an introduction.

Name: Christina
Age: 23
Lives: Kirkcaldy, Fife. I'm originally from Glasgow, but I moved up around 8 months ago.
Relationships: I'm living with my boyfriend Kris. He's pretty awesome.
Favourite foods: Pizza, steak, bacon. All the stuff that's terrible for you really :P
Least favourite foods: Cucumber (unless it's in my G & T), some fruits.
Job: Support worker for Scottish Autism. Go read their blog here.

And now for a general list of my favourite things:

Going to gigs
Taking photos
Baking
Trying new drinks (particularly gins and vodkas, but not fussy haha!)
Playing with make-up, particularly eye make-up.
Pretty vintage dresses.
Playing RPGs on the Xbox, right now I'm engrossed in the Mass Effect trilogy. Another favourite is Red Dead Redemption.
Batman.
Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Gossip Girl.
Reading Charlie Brooker. He makes me laugh so hard at the world.
Tapas food.
Spanish culture in general, I love going there on holiday!

So there ya go, that's a little bit of info about myself. Anything else you wish to know? Is there anything in particular folk want me to write about? Open to suggestions :) x

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down etc etc.

Hey hey hey!

I was just wondering what everyone else gets up to on their days off from work? I'm off today, and so far the most I've done is make some cakes and play a whole lotta Mass Effect 2. Am I the only person who is this lazy? My job can be pretty hard-going at times, but I sometimes feel like I should do more with my days off...

Speaking of making cakes, what's everyone's favourite cake recipes? Recently I've started making blueberry muffins, and my god they are excellent! It's a Hummingbird bakery recipe, and it's actually fairly easy to follow. I've also recently acquired Mary Berry's baking book, and I can't WAIT to try out some of the fab recipes I've seen :)

And what do folk have planned for the weekend? I'm going to be working 3 shifts in the space of 2 days, then after I finish work on Sunday, I'm going out for steaks with Kris as a treat for said shifts. Yum yum yum!

:) xx

So I totes need to post more often...

I am terrible for remembering to use this, but I am going to make a concerted effort to remember from now on, and also to make my posts at least moderately enjoyable to read, so on that note...

I guested on my friend Claire's blog today! I reviewed 17's Miracle Matte foundation for her a few weeks ago after I went on my Boots spree, so go forth and enjoy!

Speaking of Boots sprees, I went on a mini Max Factor one (Oooooops!), I bought myself another Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara (I went for the purple Fusion version this time), then because Boots are giving away a free gift if you spend £15 on Max Factor, I bought myself a neutral Eye trio of theirs which I will mainly use on my brows. The free gift itself is pretty cute, you get two nail polishes (Disco Pink and a fuschia purple shade), a sample of Masterpiece Mascara and a mini black kohl pencil PLUS a £3 off voucher for future Max Factor purchases. Not too shabby eh?



In other news, drama seems to be following me around. My friend's just broken up with someone, and having been friends with them both, Kris (my boyfriend) and I seem to have been dragged into the middle of it. Break-ups are tough enough, without dragging others into it and trying to play people off against your ex. Quick question: are we truly capable of having amicable relationships with our exes?

Hope everyone's having a good week so far!