Nars x Steven Klein One Shocking Moment Cheek Palette

swatches from L-R; 1. paloma highlight, 2. paloma contour, 3. laguna, 4. robotic, 5. blasphemy,
6. luster & 7 dolce vita.

This post was a long time in the making, apologies, but this palette is still available so it isn't a complete fail.
I actually bought this as soon as it was released in November(?) last year and totally forgot it existed until I was rummaging through my blush drawer. It's definitely a problem when you start forgetting what you own especially when it's something as beautiful as this. Of all the Steven Klein collection this is what stood out to me the most. Of course all of the collection was to die for as it is with every Nars collaboration but for the price, range of products and amount of product you get this ticked every box for me and went straight into my basket and to my front door.


Paloma (Highlight)
A peachy beige with warm undertones and a matte finish. It feels super silky in the pan and swatches powdery but is a lot easier to blend on the face. It highlights the skin beautifully and has rich pigmentation but isn't overpowering. It's just the right balance to brighten the skin without being too intense. It's also somewhat refreshing to have a matte highlight in my collection to illuminate the skin without the shimmer. It wore well at around 7 hours.

Paloma (Contour)
A muted, medium brown with warm undertones. It, again, has rich pigmentation and I'd recommend using a very light hand when applying it. The red tones within this make it difficult to use with my skin tone but applied very faintly I can kind of get away with it, though it won't be replacing my ABH palette any time soon. It's extremely soft in texture but stubborn to blend. It lasted 8 hours on me.

Laguna (Bronzer)
An old favourite and one that you'll find in almost every Nars face palette. A medium brown with a light golden shimmer. It's easy to blend, nicely pigmented and a great addition to anyone's make up collection, we just don't need 50 of them Nars so please stop putting it in all your palettes! It wears fantastically for as long as you want it to, I have never had an issue with this fading throughout any amount of time I've worn it for although the intensity of the shimmer does lessen.

Robotic (Blush)
A light baby pink with cool undertones, a subtle silver shimmer and a mostly satin finish. It blends well but had a tendency to sheer out extremely easily so be wary about over blending. It is buildable though and you can easily add layers without it becoming patchy. It lasted about 6 hours before I noticed it fading.

Blasphemy (Blush)
A medium to dark rosy pink with a sheeny satin finish. The texture of this is noticeably drier and more powdery than the other blush shades. The pigmentation is somewhat lacking in comparison too and takes a bit of work to get the same amount of colour pay off. The finish is beautiful on the skin although somewhat patchy so bare in mind that you'll need to blend this well. It wore for pretty much the same amount of time as the other blush shades at 6 hours.

Luster (Blush)
A medium golden peach shade with strong warm undertones. It's lightly powdery, blends easily and has good pigmentation but isn't as opaque as the other shades. I prefer to use this as a highlight as the gold shimmer within is way too overpowering for me to use as a blush. Again, it lasted 6 hours before fading but the I did notice the peachy toned base colour faded long before the golden shimmer.

Dolce Vita (Blush)
One of my all time favourite Nars products. It's a deep muted plum colour with warm undertones and a satin finish. Just as with the single of this blush this has a smooth, silky texture and is so easy to blend. It has wonderful pigmentation that sticks around for 6-7 hours.



Did you end up getting anything up from this collection? What's your favourite Nars product of all time?

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Bobbi Brown Eyeshadow Palette - Rich Caramel

Swatches from L-R: cream (yes, there is a swatch there. I know it's abysmal I tried I promise), rich caramel, bellini, toasted cinnamon, rich caviar.

Cream - A slight pink toned bone shade with neutral undertones. As you can see from the swatch above it doesn't transfer well if you don't use a brush and becomes powdery the more you work at it. It feels dense and dry in the pan and the pigment pay off is lacking. It has a satin/demi matte finish and lasted 2-3 hours on me.

Rich Caramel - A medium bronzed brown shade with slight cool undertones and a golden, shimmery finish. The shadow is very dense as is the shimmer within it giving a much more understated look, especially for an eyeshadow with this finish. The pigmentation is great and applies beautifully. It lasted well too at around 6 hours.

Bellini - A warm toned champagne gold shade. It's described as a shimmer wash and I couldn't agree more. The shimmer within it is chunky, noticeably so to touch in the pan, and when applied to the eye  the glitter disperses into more of a glisten rather than an intense shimmer. It works really well to pack it on to the centre of the eye to when you're doing a smoky eye for example or just as a very faint wash of shimmer if worn alone (although I wouldn't really recommend that for us oily eyelid gals). It lasted 4-5 hours.

Toasted Cinnamon - A warm toned copper shade, again described as a shimmer wash. It really is exactly the same as the previous shade just obviously a different colour. This shade worked much better as a stand alone shadow on me because the base colour showed up much better on my skin tone (if you have a darker skin tone than me you'll probably have more luck with these 2 shades as they are going to look a lot bolder on you and have a much richer colour pay off). Applied alone (with a butt tonne of primer) it creates a really "delicate" look, for lack of a better word. It blends beautifully and works easily into a huge array of eye looks. It, again, lasted 4-5 hours on me.

Rich Caviar - A deep brown/black shade with neutral undertones and matte finish. It's extremely finely milled and I had a fair amount of fall out when trying to apply this. The pigmentation is good but takes a little bit of work to get a strong intensity. It lasted 6-7 hours on me.


In my opinion you'll need to wear a primer with all of these shadows whether you have oily eyelids or not, the only shade that I think would fair well on it's own is Rich Caramel. I'm not overly impressed with this palette (especially when I got it at the same time as the Gwen Stefani palette which is pretty tough to beat) but I'm not disappointed to have spent £38 on it either. I'm happy to have this in my collection and to have shades within this palette that I didn't already have.
I do think there are better palettes to spend your money on but if you particularly love the shades then I wouldn't say it's a bad investment.

Have you tried any Bobbi Brown eyeshadows? What did you think of them?

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Lovely Shortbread Stacks

Ingredients:
200g plain flour
80g unsalted butter
80g caster sugar
half a tea spoon vanilla essence & red food colouring
2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder
100g milk chocolate
100g white chocolate


Method:
1. Mix butter and sugar together and beat until smooth.
2 Add flour and combine using your hands.
3. Separate the dough into 2 equal parts and add the vanilla and red food colouring to one half and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the other and mix everything together (I still used my hands for this part but feel free to implement any instrument of your choosing).
4. Cover both pieces of dough in cling-film and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3 (160 degrees).
6. Roll out one piece of your dough and cut into shapes of your choosing (I bought my heart ones from eBay - you can find them here)
7. On a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper pop on your biscuits and put in the oven for 12-15 minutes. When they're done you'll be able to touch them without denting them.
8. Repeat the previous step with your other batch of dough.
9. While your biscuits are cooling it's time to start melting some chocolate and trying desperately hard not to grab a spoon and eat it immediately. You can melt it however you find easiest but I did it the good old fashioned way by putting it in a bowl over a pan of boiling water.
10. When both types of your chocolate are melted leave it to one side (or in the fridge for 5 minutes) to cool slightly so it's more manageable.
11. Use a knife to spread the chocolate over each biscuit and stick it to any other one you want to! I used all 3 sizes of my cookie cutters and made large and mini versions.


Trying to think of something to buy my boyfriend for Valentine's Day is impossible. Both of us are extremely romantically challenged which means it often becomes an issue to think of cute and love themed gifts, but one thing I do know that he loves is food and so where flowers are his fall back, adorable heart shaped biscuits are mine. So whether you want to bake these as your fall back plan, as a cute gift or just to eat 20 delicious biscuits to yourself I thoroughly hope you enjoy them and have a lovely Valentine's Day.


What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

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YSL Poudre Compact Radiance Setting Powder

Another day, another setting powder. As someone who needs setting powders on a daily basis I'm desperately looking for an incredible one. Of all of them I've tried I've only ever loved 2; the Laura Mercier translucent setting powder and the Urban Decay De-slick. As good as they are they leave the face very flat for lack of a better word which is very hard to overcome when using matte products. Of course you can pile on a whole bunch of contour and highlights to bring back your features (or to create new ones) but I think that every great make up day starts with a great base and definitely, a great powder - like this one.

What I really like about this more than anything, and what I haven't seen a mattifying powder do before, is add radiance. That is truly a big deal (to me at least) to find a powder that keeps oil at bay but still allows your skin to look like skin. It isn't shimmery despite it's radiant properties so you can happily dab this all over your face without looking like a glitterbug and it sets make up beautifully. As for it's longevity, I'd say this lasts around 4 hours. The finish is more of a natural matte/velvet as opposed to stark, true matte like the De-slick for example and I much prefer that. It isn't too powdery in texture and is extremely silky and very finely milled.

YSL is fast becoming my favourite make up brand and I will happily spend extortionate amounts of money on their products. Of all the products I've tried they have yet to let me down. You can have a look at some of the reviews I've done here;

Rouge Pur Couture The Mats 204
Shocking Mascara
Touche Eclat Foundation 

What's your favourite setting powder? Have you tried anything from YSL?

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Fashion Wishlist 002

bag - dress - glasses - skirt - jacket - cami - shirt - boots

Well my no spend January has gone well.. This isn't more of a wishlist than a "here is what I've ordered and is on it's way to my front door as we speak". Fashion in the middle of Winter and Spring is my favourite. I know that it's an incredibly niche window in the fashion world but I love the dark colours, understated prints, that sunglasses are on their way back and, most of all, ankle boots. The boots pictured are from New Look and I love them. I've actually not only bought these ones but also the exact same boots in the navy version. I admittedly have a weakness when it comes to ankle boots but I'm okay with it, the more the merrier right? 

The jacket from River Island is lovely and I can see it being a fan with a whole bunch of people. Not only is this colour gorgeous but it comes in a dark green which I think is incredible. I don't think I have ever seen another jacket like it and can see it being a great statement piece in anyone's wardrobe but easily transferable to an everyday, more casual look. The dress from Topshop I think is equally something you can dress up or down but I just really liked the print. It's simple but still enough to break up the black and as someone who wears black 90% of the time, I appreciate pieces that add some colour.

What's your favourite colour to wear? Are you addicted to ankle boots too?

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Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes Mascara

Mascara, like red lipstick, is something I am truly obsessed with. I'm so picky when it comes to mascara that finding one that ticks every box is like search for a needle in a stack of needles and disappointingly this one is lacking a few ticks. 

This is by no means a bad mascara it just isn't what I'm looking for, but anyway, let me tell you more about it. It has bristle brush that picks up a really even amount of product (as long as you get rid of the excess at the tip) making for a great application. In one coat it adds a lot of length and separation but not much "drama" which is what I'm looking for over anything. It's fairly buildable although did start sticking a few of my lashes together by the second coat. I've worn it a few times and never noticed it flaking but did transfer to my lower lash line even when I hadn't applied it to my lower lashes. It lasts all day not that I can say I've ever used a mascara that hasn't and on paper it is a nice mascara, but to me it isn't anything special. It's just nice. 

Having said all that, mascara is a make up product that is solely based on preference as to whether you like it or not so you could absolutely love this, but in my opinion I would say that there are much better mascaras you could spend £22 on.

Have you tried this? What's your favourite mascara?

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Estee Lauder Pure Color Blush - Blushing Nude

I've been completely loving peach tone blushes at the moment maybe it's just me subconsciously pining for warmer weather but either way they are slowly becoming a large part of my blush collection. This shade misleadingly named Blushing Nude is a peachy/apricot shade with warm undertones and a satin finish. Being heavy handed blushes were something I stayed away from for ages for fear that I would like a pink and shimmery hot mess but since finding fool proof brushes that isn't an issue anymore (I hope). Even if I didn't have brushes to rescue me, over pigmentation wouldn't be a problem with this. I know that some people see that as a fault in the product but I much prefer a blush to be buildable, which it absolutely is, than have it all smack dab on your face in one fell swoop.

It applies beautifully because it's so finely milled and has a smooth, silky texture. However, yes unfortunately there is a however, it is powdery to swatch and to apply. It doesn't make it difficult to apply or to blend but it wasn't something I was expecting from a £23 blush and did hinder my love for it slightly. It doesn't look powdery on the skin though and creates a gorgeous peachy glow without the shimmer. All in all it lasted around 4-5 hours on me before it disappeared into the rest of my make up.

I'm eager to try more Estee Lauder blushes after having a look through the other shades in the collection and enjoying this one so much so please feel free to hit me up with some recommendations if you have any!

What shades of blush do you tend to go for? What's your favourite blush of all time?

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