Ornate Beauty

Review: The body shop hemp foot protector

2012-02-22T22:11:00.000Z

The body shop had a 50% off deal on some products a couple of weeks ago, so I took it as an opportunity to not only stock up on my favourite hand cream which is the hemp hand protector, but I also decided to try out some new products. One of the new items that I picked up was the hemp foot protector which I got because I love the hand cream so much. It wasn't a surprise to me that I feel in love with the foot cream too, sometimes I find it hard to really get my feel moisturised, yes tmi, but dry skin is something I know a lot of people have a problem with. I like to use this right after I've take my shower whilst my feet are really soft and I apply a generous amount of it, needless to say my feet feel moisturised and they look it too!

The consistency of this is really thick which I love, you just have to look at it in the tub to see that it's going to be super moisturising. The scent of this product is what I would describe as being 'earthy', If you've used the hand protector is has a similar scent to it, honestly I wasn't a fan of the it, but I'm so used to it now that I don't even notice it anymore.

The price is £10 for 100ml, as I'd ordered it online I was really surprised at the size, it was a lot smaller than I was expecting, but as I did get it half price I was something I could over look.

Verdict?

I really love this product and I will be repurchasing it when this tub done, I'll probably try and stock on when it's next on offer thought. I'm really pleased with the products that I've tried from the hemp line so far and I've got my eye on the other products in their line, though I'm sure I'll be waiting for those to come on offer too :D

Have you tried the hemp foot protector?

Sleek blush by 3: Pink sprint

2012-02-20T23:53:00.000Z

The next blush I have to show you is Pink sprint, It's the one that stood out the most for me and the one I knew I had to have, even though I don't wear pink blush often. However I can see myself reaching for these shades a lot, especially pinktini and pink parfait.

I was glad when I realised I only had one dupe for this, I think I'd be really annoyed if I started to find a slew of dupes in these palettes.

Pink Ice & Santorini

The one dupe that I found was Sleeks Santorini, for those of you who missed out one this limited edition blush that came out with the mediterranean collection, I'm sure this palette will be a must have for you and you'll be getting two other really beautiful shades to boots!

Keep your eyes peeled for the posts on the rest of the palettes :D

Sleek Blush by 3: Sugar

2012-02-19T20:00:00.000Z

Sleek have released 5 new blush palettes, 3 of which I have acquired. I honestly had no clue they were even going to release them, I'm usually on top of the new products that Sleek brings out, but these came out of nowhere, however they were a welcome surprise. I have a thing for sleek blushes, I think I own 11 of them so I was curious to see the colours that where in the new palettes but also I wanted to add them to my collection as these are limited edition. I decided to give each blush its own post as there is a lot of swatching going on and I still need to get my hands on the last 2.

First off we have the Sugar palette, this one in comparison to the ones that I got is more varied and I'll elaborate on that later. It contains 2 matte shades and a shimmery one, which is great for me as I wear matte blushes 95% of the time.

In terms of dupability, Sugar is the one that I found 2 clear dupes for from Sleeks permanent line.

Demerara & Flushed

These two are clearly the same colour, if we're going to be nitpicky then Demerara is a touch darker, but it's all going to look the same once blended out.

Muscovado & Sunrise

Again we have a bang on dupe, the only difference here is the consistency. What I've come to find out so far is that the blushes in the palette are far smoother than the single blushes. Muscovado went on like buttah, Sunrise on the other hand you can clearly see in the pan that it's not smooth.

Turbinado & Sahara

This is the shade that I did not have a dupe for with anything in my whole blush collection, which I'm happy about. In the pan I thought it looked somewhat similar to Sahara, but as you can clearly see they are nowhere near the same. The blush that I think it might be closest to is Sleeks life's a peach, but as I don't own that one yet I can't be sure.

Verdict?

If you already have the dupes that I mentioned you may have probably written this paletter off, which if I wasn't such a blush addict I would too. I mentioned before it's more varied which in my opinion makes it a great paletter to have, why? I actually think this would be perfect for travel. I feel like Sleek should have made a palette that was more random as some of them are in a similar colour family. However with this one you get a pinky berry shade, a shimmery bronzy gold shade that has a very subtle pink to it and a peachy shade, so you a have a few options especially if you're someone who mixes colours.

A single Sleek blushes is 8g and costs £4.30, whereas the Blush Palette contains around 6g, 20g in total for £9.99 which I think is a great deal. As far as I know the palettes will be sold in Superdrug only, so for those of you who are international makeup lovers you'll need to find another way to get your hands on these.

Have you been able to nab one yet?

My new Z palette

2012-02-15T15:29:00.000Z

My La femme blushes finally have a home! I took the plunge and got a Z palette to organise all of the random eye shadows and blushes that were hanging around. I opted for the pro sized mainly because of my OCD ways, I knew with the large size it wouldn't be able to fit 3 La femme blushes in one neat row, I know that sounds crazy, but I can't help it. I may even end up rearranging the palette as I'm not liking that space where a 9th blush should be. I got mine from love makeup for £19.99, they have a couple other palettes sizes, the large and the small size. I foresee myself buying the other sizes in the future, maybe the small size for travel.

Do you own a Z palette?

FOTD: Inglot neutrals

2012-02-05T14:44:00.003Z

This was meant to go up a while ago, but alas I was lazy and couldn't be bothered finish writing it up. This eye combo is one of my favourites from my inglot palette, which btw has been getting so much love from me *pats self on the back*.

EYES

MAC | swiss chocolate

Inglot | D.S 464

Inglot | Pearl 452

ELF | liquid liner

Daniel sandlers | Mascara

FACE

MAC | select cover up concealer

ELF | tone correcting concealer

Sleek | Aruba & sahara blush

LIPS

Gosh | Nougat

Revlon | Nude lustre

La Colors nail polish haul

2012-01-31T12:14:00.000Z

These are part of the beauty products that I bought in this post, but I thought they needed a post of their own as they're pretty :D

You're probably thinking "woah that's a lot of polish to buy in one go" and yes, yes it is, but these were only 99p so I went wild! I even picked up a few glitters polishes as my collection is lacking and these were so sparkly, I was like a moth to a flame. As you can see I haven't swatched any of them, but I'm sure a few of these will crop up my in a NOTD/the polish files post or two. If you live in London you can pick these up from beauty base in Westfield.

Dark Drown | Mauve glaze | Apricot | French nail creme | Raspberry

Cactus | sassy sparkle | Jungle Fever | Glistening purple | treasure island (picked up two by mistake)

have you tried these before?

My brow tutorial

2012-01-30T15:46:00.000Z

So I totally forgot to post this on here, I've gotten a few questions about how I do my eyebrows so here's the tutorial.

Recent Beauty purchases

2012-01-29T19:50:00.003Z

I hate the fact that beauty essentials seem to run out at the same time, it's like some sort of law of universe that I will never understand. I picked up a few essentials and some not so essential items on a recent trip to superdrug and boots, these are just a few of the things I got. When you're a beauty junkie repurchasing items really speaks volumes about it, I stopped testing out new skincare as I'm pretty happy with the routine I have now. All of the skincare items are repurchases, I even have a blog post on the boots No7 cleanser. The only skincare item I haven't tried out was the Nivea lotion, I'm always on the hunt for a really moisturising lotion, and yes I've tried palmers coco butter and I don't like it. Over hyped and under performs.

I really like superdrugs own brand of nail polish remover, however I'm yet to try this formulation. I've been using the acetone formulation lately and my cuticles have bee dry as heck! I usually don't buy these pre-soaked remover pads, but I've been finding that by the time I get back from work I'm too tired to tend to my nails, so I plan on carrying one of these in my bag so I can remove polish on the go and re paint my nails when I get home. I love changing up my polish and lately I've been slacking.

I finally own the sleek 'oh so special' palette, I feel so behind as it came out ages ago but I never had to opportunity to get it, the colours are really wearable so I'm hoping I actually use this palette.

Have you picked up anything recently?

La Femme Blushes

2012-01-25T01:44:00.000Z

Finally I've gotten my grubby mits on some La femme blushes, these are so well talked about and loved and now that I own some I can totally see why! The pigmentation that these blushes have rivals my NARS ones, I might even go as far as say they're even more so. I'm usually over zelous with my blush application, but I have to be super careful with these.

I find that the amount I get by dipping my brush into these blushes is enough for both of my cheeks, I usually have to shake some product off. I think what has everyone going nuts over these is the price point, one of these will set you back a whooping £2.99, which honestly can't be beaten in my book. I can't wait to add more of these to my collection!

I got mine fron Genie cosmetics but you can also get them on love makeup, for the most part both sites stock the same colours, but there are some colours that one site might have whilst the other doesn't.

Cinnabar | Sienna | Redwood | Russet
Mauve | Magenta | Rose chiffon

Have you tried La femme blushes?

The Hunger games inspired makeup series: District 2

2012-01-20T01:34:00.000Z

EYES

2 faced | shadow insurance

MAC | Swiss Chocolate

MAC | Embark

the rest of the eyeshadows were from the 88 warm palette
ELF | liquid liner
ELF | natural lashes

FACE

Sleek makeup | contour kit
la femme | cinnabar

Concealed and powdered with MAC select cover up and MSF natural

in dark

LIPS

H&M | Don't make me blush

Sleek makeup | peaches and cream

Revlon | peach petal

my go to blush combo

2012-01-04T23:25:00.000Z

Sleek Makeups Sahara & Aruba

I always seem to be reaching for these blushes, I think it has something to do me trying to be more adventurous with my eye looks, which means I'm usually more neutral with what I plop on my cheeks. I love that these two just work so well together and warm up my face, without being too out there. I'll have a FOTD coming up on this look soon :)

My Inglot palette

2012-01-02T20:56:00.001Z

I remember hearing so much about Inglot eyeshadows on both youtube and on many, many blogs a while back, so of course I went out and got myself some! I've had my palette for almost a year now and as much as I love the quality of these shadows, I just didn't find myself reaching for them as much as my mac ones. I'm a matte lover, and when I purchased my palette Inglot's selection was poor, but they've since released a slew of matte shades. I plan on going to IMATS next month so hopefully I'll be picking up another palette or two consisting of a truck load of matte shades.

As I've been forcing myself to dig into my collection of non matte shades, my palette has been shown so much love, I use it every time I put on eyeshadow now!

I have only one matte shade, and as you can see it has seen better days, I was moving around the colours in my palette, but when I came to moving this shade it began to crumble :(

Other than that these are great quality for the price. They are very pigmented and go on very smoothly and as I mentioned I will be picking up more. Quick note that 494 shade is actually purple, but it's an odd one as once you blend it out it does start to look navy.

If I remember correctly the palette cost £54

Pearl 423 | Pearl 421 | D.S 464 | Pearl 450 | Matte 366

Pearl 452 | AMC shine 12 | AMC shine 34 | D.S 494 | Pearl 413

Do you own any Inglot shadows?

FOTD: golden cranberries

2011-12-18T15:53:00.002Z

I've totally embraced shimmery eyeshadow, I don't really go for all matte eye looks anymore which is good as my shadow collection will get more love and I can stop using up my beloved tete-a-tint. So here was my super simple FOTD from last week, yep I'm a lazy blogger, what can I say. I went over to a friends place for a girls night in, so I went for something simple.

EYES

MAC | Amber lights

Inglot | 450 pearl

Rimmel | Day to night mascara

ELF | liquid liner

FACE

Sleek makeup | sahara and aruba blush

MAC | Select cover up concealer

ELF | tone correcting concealer in spice

LIPS

MAC | jubilee

Revlon | nude lustre lipgloss

Review: Boots No7 radiance boosting hot cloth cleanser

2011-12-10T14:11:00.000Z

Product claims:

"The combination of this rich, indulgent cleanser and the gentle exfoliating muslin cloth whisks away dead skin cells and daily grime whilst stimulating circulation, leaving your skin deeply clean,

soft and radiant"

I'm not going to beat about the bush here, I love this stuff! I bought it as an alternate to the ever loved Liz Earle hot cloth cleanser, I wanted to see if adding a cleanser like this to my beauty routine would be for me. In my excitement to try this out I totally forgot to wait for the No7 £5 off vouchers *d'oh* I'm probably one of the only people in the world to pay full price for a No7 product. But it's still a good deal when you weight it up against its Liz Earle counterpart. The LE cleanser is £13.75 for 100ml and £24.50 for 200ml (with muslin cloth) and for the No7 cleansers its £10 for 200ml (with muslin cloth), so you can see why I went for the No7 offering first.The Cleanser has a very thick consistency, I usually use 1 pump for when I've not used foundation/powder and 1 1/2 for days when I have. I actually look forward to using this as its like a nice litte treat every time I use it, it feels so moisturising!

As you can see I've used a fair amount, but this stuff lasts forever, I bought this bottle I think in July and its still going strong. Now granted I don't use this everyday, I used to, but now I use this every time my skin is playing up or when I want to give it a good clean.

The cleanser comes with a muslin cloth and I also purchased a pack of 3 when I bought this one. The cloths are ok, not that soft though so I may look into some from another brand.

Verdict

All in all I am very happy with this product! I can honestly say that it keeps my spots at bay and has helped me through some tricky break outs. I really think this product has something to do with the fact that I barely get any blemishes on my cheeks anymore, which was a big issue for me. I'm thinking this my have HG statuts! I highly doubt I'll be trying the LE cleanser now that I have one I love :D

Have you tried a hot cloth cleanser?

Haul | ELF

2011-12-04T17:32:00.001Z

Studio gel liner | Tone correcting concealer in spice

Studio powder brush | concealer brush

Mango madness | Gum pink | Lilac | plum | rosy raisin

I love me a bit of ELF, I can always get a lot with feeling guilty about how much I'm spending and with ELF doing 40% how could I resist? Some of the things I picked up were re-stock items and the rest were things I'd had my eye on.

Getting my nails into good health

2011-12-01T00:00:00.000Z

I'm pretty much at my wits end trying to get my nails healthy. My nails started peeling 2 years ago out of the blue and ever since then I've been pulling my hair out trying to get them to stop. I recently purchased Nail tek Foudation II and Biotin. I was using another nail tek line but I'm pretty sure it was not the right one for my nails, obviously as they're still peeling. This is the one that MissChevious from youtube uses and it was from her that I found out about nail tek. She has the same peeling problem and says this is the only thing that stops her nails from peeling.

Biotin is known for helping to promote nail and hair growth, the one I bought was 5000mcg which I plan on taking once a week. Some people complain that biotin breaks them out, so fingers crossed I don't have this problem, I've got 99 of them and I don't need my skin to be one ( I couldn't resist). I've not been wearing polish for a over a month now, I only wore some recently for my graduation and went straight back to naken nailness so they've been breathing. I'm ready to start my new nail reggie, so lets hope I have longer stronger nails in a few weeks time!

Both products were purchased from amazon
Biotin- £4.99 with shipping
Nail tek Foundation II - £12.50 (however I found another
amazon seller selling it for less than half the price of what I paid for mine!)

Panem makeup series: District 1

2011-11-29T00:24:00.001Z

My love for The hunger games has now reached new heights. I don't even think I can explain how much I love these books, so I won't try to as I'm sure I'll just end up sounding like an obsessed mad woman. I'm bursting full of Ideas of what to do for the other districts, I hope you all enjoy the new series!

EYES

two faced | shadow insurance

ELF | Cream shadow duo in

MAC | Swiss Chocolate

120 palette

Inlgot | D.S 494

Inlgot | AMC shine 34

Wet n wild | Khole pencil

MAC | MSF natural in Dark

Rimmel | day to night mascara

Lashes form ebay

FACE

Illsamasqua | Sin blush

LIPS

Gosh | 122 nougat

sephora | gloss #25

Shopping my stash # 1

2011-11-23T20:41:00.000Z

Since I've moved I've been having a really hard time trying to figure out lighting for product pics so I sort of gave up in the end when I was taking these pictures, I found myself getting rather annoyed.

My storm palette met my floor and as you can see the meeting didn't end too well I lost a couple of shadows plus shattered my mirror! I was so annoyed as it happened right after I finished filming the video :(

(I was supposed to reshoot these pics as I forgot to add in the sephora lipstick, but it's safe to say I'm just to lazy to do so...oh dear)

Current 5 fav: eyeshadow

2011-11-12T12:50:00.001Z

My current 5 fav series continues, if you haven't seen my fav blushes the click here. As you can seen my favs are all neutrals as that's what I've been into at the moment.

The Polish files: ELF's Mint

2011-11-05T17:24:00.001Z

Hey everyone, just a quick note, I've been without internet for over 2 weeks now so I've not been able to update :( I'm using the wifi from my phone which is not all that reliable, but I should be getting internet within the next few days.
Anywho I'd taken these pictures ages ago and rediscovered them on my hard drive. This shade is so pretty! its a mint green which I know has been a very popular nail polish shade for a while now. As much as I like the colour I find ELF polishes do chip quickly and they take a couple of coats to get them opaque.

Review: Seche Vite fast dry top coat

2011-10-15T16:12:00.001+01:00

Seche Vite is probably the most talked about top coat, I kept hearing about how quickly it dried and how its made polish last on the the nails. Of course after hearing all the great claims I had to get my hands on some. I've been using Seche vite top coat for months now and its a product that I have a love hate relationship with.
This stuff dries to the touch within a couple of minutes which I love, I paint my nails so often that I really don't have the patience to be hanging around in the hopes I don't ruin my manicure. It also leaves my nails with such a beautiful shine, sometimes I can't help but admire how purdy they look lol

However this product has its faults, and a big one its that it begins to get gloopy when you're only half way through the product! This bottle is my second, I bought it after I thought the one I had was no longer useable. There is a way to fix the problem, which is to purchase Seche restore a special thinner for the product.

Another fault for me is I sort of think that at times this top coat causes polish to come off, counter product i know. It never really chips, it just peels off my nails, and from reading reviews I know I'm not the only one who has this problem. But thats not all, the top coat also has a tendency to shrink, pulling the polish with it which makes it look like my nails are growing at the speed of light and wearing at the tip, its really odd.

Veridict? I love this top coat, I continue to use it because it dries super quickly and makes my manicure look real nice and glossy, the peeling and shrinking can be annoying but I can over look them as I change my polish often. However I am on the hunt for a good top coat that is easier for me to purchase and dries just as quickly.
I think its important to add that there's a warning on the bottle that has people worried when they discover it.

"This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm."

When I first read this I was surprised, but I read up a bit on the warning and I'n not as bothered by it but I do think I'm going to look for a replacement soon. Its one of those things that you have to look into yourself and decide on whether you still want to use the product.
I purchase both the top coat and restore from amazon for around £5.

What's your favourite top coat?

A dupe for Illamasquas blush in Sin?

2011-10-01T17:59:00.000+01:00

It's safe to say I'm a bit of a blush addict, so I try not to get dupes, we don't want anything going unloved now :) My Illamasqua Sin was a present from a friend of mine that I received a good while ago, after I took a good look, I saw a big resemblance to my Topshop cream to powder blush in crushed berry. After some comparing here's what I found.

Illamaqaua-left | Topshop right

Its clear to see that the topshop blush has far more of a pink to it, whilst the Illamasqua blush is more purple. This is a big contrast to how they look in the pan as they look near identical. Now you can see that once blended out, the differences become less apparent, however they are still noticeable.

Verdict? I'd say crushed berry was quite close to sin but not an exact dupe, which is great for me as now I know I don't have multiples of one colour. Crushed berry is the purse friendly option because topshop blushes retail at £6.00, and Illamasquas offerings are on the high end side retailing at £16.50. Both colours are great but I do love sin a bit more, from the above swatch its clear to see how pigmented it is, which helps it to last a good few hours on my face.
However both are great to have in your collection.

My mac lipstick collection

2011-09-21T17:34:00.003+01:00

I wanted to do a post on all my mac lippies as I knew that it would be helpful to those of you who are searching for swatches, or even maybe if you are looking to purchase a new mac lipstick but you don't know what to buy. As I had so many to swatch I made two videos, so I've done a video on my nude shades and one on my more colourful ones.
Did you see any lipsticks that you might want to purchase?

My concealers

2011-09-14T15:35:00.000+01:00

Now I've not tried a ton of concealers, the ones you see here are pretty all that I have ventured to give a go. However I really love the ones that I have and thought I'd share them with you all :)

The first one is the Mac studio finish concealer (NC50) which is pretty full coverage, so It's great for hiding all my annoying blemishes and cleaning up round my brows. I initilly bought it as an undereye concealer but I found to be just too heavy for that task. As you can see its well loved and I'm very close to hitting pan!
Mac Select cover-up (NC50) does a great job of concealing under my eyes, I'd say its medium converage so its not too heavy and blends in like a dream.

I use these two Eyes lips face (E.L.F) products to lighten under my eyes. I add the E.L.F tone correcting concealer (Medium) to my select cover up as it lightens it up really well. You really can't use this on its own as you will look ashy, and we all know that's never a good look. The same goes for the E.L.F mineral concealer (Warm), this I don't use as much, when I want super light kim K looking under eyes then I'll reach for it. I use it with a big fluffy blending brush and pat it under my eyes. Be warned though, as a little goes a long way with this stuff!
Have you tried any of these? What are your go to concealers?

Greener pastures makeup tutorial

2011-09-12T11:30:00.002+01:00

One of my subscribers had requested this green and yellow look. These aren't colours that I would usually choose to use, however I enjoyed the challenge :)

Lipstick and blush

2011-09-11T14:12:00.000+01:00

I've had these images on my laptop for a while now, I wanted to make a beauty tab for my fashion blog so I took a bunch of photos of some of my lipsticks and blushes. I actually ended up using some of these picture for my header if you look closely:). So I'm clearing out some of my files and thought it would be a great idea to post these pics here before they're deleted.

The polish files: Barry M peach Melba

2011-09-06T13:44:00.000+01:00

{image taken with flash}

If you don't have this colour in your collection, then you need it asap, it's too pretty to not own! Its a beautiful peach colour that honestly suits everyone I've seen wear it. The formulation is a bit runny, but that's the case with a lot of barry Ms lighter more pastel shades, it takes a bit of working with but the end result is worth it.
What do you think of this shade?

Last Rays of Sun makeup tutorial

2011-09-03T17:25:00.002+01:00

I've had this tutorial on my video to do list for a while now, as soon as I received the Illamasqua pigment in one of my glossyboxes, I had in my head the look I wanted. Let me know what you all think :)

Current 5 fav | Blushes

2011-09-03T00:45:00.000+01:00

My current 5 favs is a series I started on my youtube channel, that I plan to update on the blog only. I basically talk about 5 products from a specific catagory that I've been loving. The first video in this series was about nail polish, and now I'm on to blushes, which are one of my big makeup weakness'.

I've put the video below as I talk in more detail on each individual blush.

1. Santorini

2. Sunrise

3. Pan tao

(1-3 are all sleek makeup)

4. Illamasqua | tweak

5. NARS | Exhibit A

Barry M's Pink flamingo

2011-08-31T20:38:00.000+01:00

Today I painted my nails with Barry M's pink flamingo, this shade is one that I've recently been reaching for often. Its a beautiful pinky coral shade that really pops, as you might already be able to tell :) Mine was getting a bit gloopy, however a few drops of polish thinner sorted that problem out right away.

Weleda pomergranate regenerating body oil

2011-08-31T14:45:00.002+01:00

I received this body Oil in one of my glossyboxes. now I'm more of a lotion kinda girl, so I didn't think I would get much use out of this product however since receiving it I haven't stopped using it! yes its an oils, but it doesn't leave the skin feeling greasy as it absorbs very quickly and leaves it feeling really soft. The scent is lush and not at all overpowering, I'm not a fan of strong scented products so I love the subtle scent it left behind on my skin. This one bottle has lasted me around 2 months which I think is reasonable as I slather a lot on. would I repurchase, no, at £19.95 I'm sure I can get the same results from a product doing the same thing.

Have you tired a body oil before?

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