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!

The 7 Sins of Beauty :P

My friend Claire at Eyeling Obsessions posted this little quiz this morning, so I thought I'd also give it a go :)

TAG QUESTIONS:

1. GREED: What is your most inexpensive beauty item? What is your most expensive?
I recently bought 2 glitter eyeliners from Collection 2000 and 2 single eyeshadows on clearance for a total of £2. So at 50p each, they're my cheapest items :)

2. WRATH: What beauty products do you have a love/hate relationship with? What product has been the hardest to get?

My Blink and Go eye palette. Love the colours, love the eyeshadows themselves, but I hate that I can't really use them as much as I'd like. As for the hardest to get, probably a full size version of the Cargo Lip Gloss. I still haven't found it anywhere in the U.K.! I have the Tokyo shade from my Christmas Glossybox, but I'd love a full one.

3. GLUTTONY: What are your most delicious beauty products?

Probably my new Body Shop Lip Balm with Mango and Peach. Om nom nom!

4. SLOTH: What beauty product do you neglect, due to laziness?

Lipstick. It's mainly because I feel too dressy with it on, and I don't have many occasions that warrant its use. I do love wearing it when I can though :)

5. PRIDE: What beauty product gives you the most self confidence?

Mascara. I'm rather proud of my eyes and eyelashes, so I do like to show them off a bit!

6. LUST: What attributes do you find most attractive in the opposite sex?

  I don't understand what make-up has to do with this but I'll bite. A good sense of humour mostly, you'd need one to put up with me :P that and nice eyes!

7. ENVY: What items would you most like to receive as a gift?

Oooooh probably some Chanel Lip Glass/Lip Lacquer/Lip paint/whatever the hell it's called in Dragon. The v.generous Claire let me try it recently and it is awesome! It is also £25, so not quite in my price range at the moment. Maybe next month after I've been paid....

It's just slush, ye ken?

Morning folks! Awake at the arse-crack of dawn as usual, so while the boy is sleeping, I thought I'd do a bit of blogging :) Just to address the current weather situation, there's no snow in Kirkcaldy where I live, just lots of ice. Makes going to the shops that little bit more life-threatening. There is some snow inland, in towns like Lochgelly whereI work, but it's just slush now, ye ken? :P

About work, so far so good. Still doing lots of reading, but now I actually get to see the people I am working with and I'm now understanding the majority of the aforementioned reading. Pretty chuffed with the job so far :)

Make-up news: I'm desperately trying to avoid swaying into beauty blogger territory. Many reasons for this, top 3 being: 1. I can't afford to buy a lot of make-up all the time (I did yesterday but I'll get to that later). 2. I am absolutely terrible at remembering to post on my blog as it is, I would definitely not be able to keep up with all the new make-up that is released on an almost daily basis. and 3. There are already so many brilliant beauty blogs out there, I doubt I'd really be doing anything brilliantly different!

Yes, so I bought a shit-ton of make-up yesterday. Reason being that in 2-3 weeks time I will be attending the premiere of my friend's film (www.nightisday.net) and even though it's only in Glasgow's CCA, I still want to make sure I look Hollywood Glamorous! Got the dress and shoes sorted, so now onto make-up.

I ended up buying 17 Miracle Matte Foundation, 17 Eye Trio in Vengence (They spelt it wrong on the pack! Why yes I am a spelling Nazi...) and 17 Photo Flawless Lashes mascara, just 'cause it apparently has copper flashes in it, and I'm curious. After the 3 for 2, bought Rimmel's Stay Matte Powder in the hope it will help with my shiny nose (Don't wanna blind the paps at the premiere now do I?), then I managed to score 2 eyeshadows and 2 glitter eyeliners for £2 on clearance. Yaaaaas! Doesn't even matter if they're crap, they were only 2 quid. Incidentally the glitter liners are ones I've used before and they are actually pretty awesome, so ultra bargains there.

So yeah, that's pretty much what I've been up to. Will hopefully remember to update this more often now (Pahahahahaha)

xoxo