L'OREAL PARIS PARADISE MASCARA REVIEW

I've finally found a drugstore mascara that I will rave about. Yes I am writing a positive first impressions which on this blog are few and far between. I mean there aren't very many terrible ones but usually I find they are mediocre products. This however is the exception. It isn't often I am bowled over by drugstore products and particularly not mascaras but I want to shout from the roof tops how much I love this product.

 I bought this because people were saying it's a dupe for Too Faced's Better Than Sex mascara, which is my holy grail. I'm not going to beat around the bush this is a very good comparison to that product. Down to the consistency and the brush type it is very similar. like BTS the formulation is very dry, which I find great for really layering up and coating every lash. I feel this mascara lifts, lengthens whilst keeping volume and thickness which is everything I look for in a mascara. I love wispy full lashes and I think this does a great job of achieving that. The only slight difference that I have noticed is that this mascara's tube doesn't control the amount of product dispersed onto the spoolie as well as BTS meaning that excess product could cause clumping. So I would just be careful to wipe off excess and build layers slowly.

Overall worth the £11.99 I bought it for. I will most certainly be repurchasing this, but I don't think I am quite finished with Too Faced's either. They will both have to share their position until I can pick a clear winner.

WONDER WING FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I'm going to keep this short, sweet and straight to the point. I don't rate this product at all. For those who haven't seen this floating about yet this is Rimmel's Wonder Wing liner. Basically it's a liner that is shaped with a flat triangular edge that when stamped down supposedly leaves a perfect wing; to which you would then use the pointed edge to fill in the rest on the lid. Sounds pretty good in theory, in practise not so much. I had my suspicions that this was going to fall under the gimmicky category and I'm afraid my gut is never wrong. In my opinion the wing is too short and stumpy not exactly the on fleek, sharp enough to cut a bitch liner we are used to. That can be rectified if you use the thinner end to elongate the wing and create a sharper edge. I can work with it's shape and I get that the overall concept is helpful if you don't have a steady hand, what i struggle with the most is the consistency and colour of this product.

 When using a new eyeliner I always compare it to my Kat Von D liner because that's the standard I consider a kick ass product. This Wonder Wing falls seriously short of my standards, purely because it is lacking pigmentation and it's oily. I was honestly rather shocked at the colour pay off it wasn't very strong and because of the oily texture almost transparent in some areas. Obviously jet black eyeliner is a preference but patchy coverage is not ideal for anyone. It's something you have to layer to get good pay off and in my opinion all though the stamp is a cute idea it's just not handy enough to warrant the extra effort applying those layers. This product cost me £5.99 which is £10 cheaper than Kat Von D's tattoo liner, but trust me when I say it's an extra £10 well spent. This Wonder Wing requires that much layering that you will certainly run out so much quicker. I have had my Kat Von D liner for a year and its still going strong.

If you are truly terrible at winged liner you may benefit from this stamp aspect as a rough guide to fill in with another liner but if your capable of doing it yourself there are better options out there.

WONDER'FULLY REAL FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

If you've wandered past a Rimmel stand in the last few days you'd be hard pushed to ignore the bright pink packaging of the Wonder'fully Real Mascara. My mascara collection is rather highend but back in the day I loved drugstore mascara and I'm trying to rekindle that love. I have included an image below of before an after. 

My natural lashes are not short my any means and there is a generous amount of them however they do need a lift. People have different needs from a mascara, mine are usually something that gives volume and keeps fullness. I feel like this mascara did a good job of lifting my lashes and elongating them. However I do feel like this mascara has the potential to get a little spidery, purely because it separates the lashes so much. The wand of the mascara is very short and plastic so it is made to coat every lash. I love how it looks in my outer corner but there are parts where I feel they're looking a little clumpy or a little spidery. Another aspect I'm not fond of is the consistency I prefer a more dry formulation, this is very watery. This can be problematic for me as I have oily skin, which often causes mascara transfer on my brow bone or eyelid. The wetter the formulae the more often I see this occur. So that's just a side note for my oily girls.

This review is sounding a little negative and that's really not my intention because I don't think it is at all a bad mascara. It simply isn't to my taste. I regularly use Better than Sex by Too Faced purely because of formulation and I feel it works best for my eyelashes. This mascara is polar opposite to that which doesn't make it bad it just makes it different. For £6.99 I don't think its a bad buy, especially if your looking for something that lengthens and separates. I won't be discarding it or passing it on, I will continue to use it and match it up with my other mascaras in attempt make it work for me. Who knows in a few weeks when the formulation has dried out a bit I may even love this mascara.

JULYS MAKEUP HAUL

I'm a little late on posting this seen as though we are basically at the end of august, but don't let my poor organisation skills detract from the beautiful items that I purchased. This month we have a little bit of drug store and little high end. Brands include, Rimmel, Becca, Too Faced and Marc Jacobs. I want to kick start this review with the drugstore items and one of my favourite affordable brands Rimmel. I've seen the Kate Rimmel sculpting palette in stores for a while now but for one reason or another I never got around to buying it. That is obviously until now. I've been wearing this to work for pretty much a week solid. I really love the bronzer and I find the blush compliments it very well. I'm not too fussed on the highlight I find it a little weak for my tastes and it's a little light for my complexion. The major criticism of this palette would be the size. I wish that it was bigger, I really want to swirl a big fluffy blush in that bronzer with out dipping into the other two pans. However so far so good.

The other rimmel product I purchased is the Insta Duo Contour stick. I pretty much bought this for the dark cream contour shade, as I like the shape of the product. I think it will be perfect for precise contouring for example the nose. I'm a little bit blah about the highlight I wish it was just a lighter almost concealer shade instead of shimmery. I can't go into great detail as I haven't got around to trying it out yet. Before you get mardy I've been at work all week and I'm not about to contour for work. Ain't nobody got time for that.

My obsession at the moment is this Marc Jacobs High-Shine lip lacquer in the shade skin deep. It's a beautiful mauve barely there shade. I have had so many compliments about this when I've worn it. I love everything about this product from its applicator and packaging to its shade and consistency. Just a word of warning it's pretty pricey for a lipgloss I paid around $28 in Sephora. In my opinion worth every penny but I know that it is an ridiculous amount to pay for a lip product.

Another sephora purchase was a travel size Becca shimmering skin perfecter. I have been enjoying this product and its pretty but it reminds me of a lot of other liquid highlights that I own. I think considering Becca is usually hard to come by in the UK there are other equally as good alternative with similar colours and pay offs. For example this reminds me of Stilla's liquid highlight and Nars 413 illuminator. Verdict pretty but not revolutionary. However anyone wanting to purchase Cult beauty do stock Becca.

Saved the best for last. This is a repurchase of Too Faced's Better than sex mascara. I have the full sized and the water proof version of this but every time I come back to the travel sized one. I don't know why I just prefer the dainty brush. This mascara separates, lifts and adds volume to my lashes. It is honestly my holy grail, I have fallen in love with this product. Finding another mascara to knock it off its top position is going to be a hard task. So the conclusion of this post is if you are going to buy any of these the two stand out pieces are Too Faced's better than sex and the Marc Jacobs gloss! It's not often I find products that I flat out love and recommend whole heatedly so you know they have to be good!

THE COLOURFUL SIDE OF LONDON

I had to do a second post on my London trip because I love the edgy boho side of the city and I just wanted to share these photos with you. We had a wander down a tunnel filled with graffiti near Waterloo and I just couldn't resist the photo opportunity. I do love colourful graffiti and it's always a great backdrop for photos. Lord knows if I lived closer this would be one of my daily spots for fashion photography. After the quick photoshoot we got the tube to Camden town, had a mooch around the market and wandered around for ages trying to decided which delicious food to eat. I ended up having Pulled pork noodles which were scrummy. We did a little light shopping and I took a million photos, so here's some of the photos that made the cut.

LONDON IN A DAY

I've been to London once before but  I didn't do any of the touristy things, we went purely for the shopping. This time around I tried to crush in as much as I could into six hours, obviously I haven't even began to scratch the surface. London has so many different personalities, it can shift from classy to hippy in a tube stop. I have to say I'm partial to either. We started off in Paddington station and pretty much got around by tube. I really hate the tube but it is essential for travel around London especially if you are in a hurry. We had a little walk around Leister square and then moved on to Covent Garden where we had lunch. I only had a chicken and bacon sandwich but look how yummy it looks. So if you are in Covent garden I recommend Davy's wine merchants. I managed to cram in Leister square, china town, Covent garden,Trafalgar square, Westminster and Camden. It was a rush and my feet are very sore but I had such a lovely day. I'm just going to leave it as that and pop my photos in.

BLISSFUL BIBURY

The next destination on my adventure in the south is Bibury, which is a very picturesque village in Gloucestershire. It's part of the national trust and I'm pretty sure its clear as to why. So we arrived here at about two in the afternoon and after the discovery I had forgotten my sd card we did a quick u-turn and went to Cirencester in search of a store. It wouldn't be a day in my life if there was not some small kind of disaster. Usually I wouldn't be too upset about that kind of small mishap but I couldn't bare the thought of not photographing this amazing place. It reminds me of the hobbit, just because everything is so small and quaint. The shot above and below is of Arlington Row, these were built in 1380  but converted into weavers cottages in the 17th century. Its one of the most photographed scenes in the Cotswold's and its not hard to see why. 

The weather has been really lovely today, we've been really lucky the entire trip the only time it has rained has been during the night. We  made the most of the sun and had a little stroll around the town,  we even went to the trout farm. I wasn't too sure on feeding the trouts, they swarm as soon as food hits the water. They were thrashing all over the place, it reminded me a bit of piranhas. I'm not sure what would happen if you fell in... bares even thinking about! The farm itself was very pretty to walk around full of nice plants and trees, I enjoyed that a lot more than the terrifying trout. 

If anyone is curious my top and jeans are from misguided. Not trying to turn this into a fashion post but I bloody love this top. It was twenty Two quid and I'll link it here. 

Back to the place itself, I had a quick look around the grounds of the local church purely because this cute little sign caught my attention. For some reason It had me singing 'were going to the chapel and we're gonna get married' over and over in my brain. My brain works in weird ways. This was actually the gates to the grave yard, which was beautifully kept, its really odd to say but there is something so peaceful about a grave yard... well during the daylight anyway.

The church was lovely from the outside and was right next to a very quaint school. I love this path way with the roses either side, when they are in full bloom its would be magical. I'm getting serious wedding vibes from this place. Don't panic Nath not my own. I think I've fallen in love with this little village, it seems like the most perfect place on earth. Every ones house is beautiful, the gardens are taken care off and there's not one piece of litter in sight. It almost doesn't seem like a real place or that anyone would live here. One things for certain I am eternally jealous of those that do.