AUTUMNAL FASHION INSPO.

Everyone is complaining about how crap the summer has been ,and all I can think is Autumn is nearly here! Time for long boots, skirts and scarves. It's been a while since I purchased this outfit so I've attempted to link similar clothing items below. Hope you like this outfit choice as much as me. Ps just because its cold doesn't mean that you have to put the skirts back in the wardrobe. 

Steal My Style

Similar skirt http://www.next.co.uk/g265000s3#175300 

Similar boots http://www.asos.com/

Similar White long sleeved top http://www.asos.com/

 Similar Tartan scarf http://www.asos.com/asos/asos-long-woven-tartan-scarf-with-tassels

PROBABLY THE 100TH REVIEW OF NAKED HEAT YOU'VE SEEN THIS MONTH.

I bloody well caved, it's just too darn pretty. God knows I don't need another warm toned eyeshadow palette, god knows my bank account was practically begging me not to buy it but god also knows that common sense is no match for beautiful packaging. The heart wants what the heart wants.

Just look at it. Isn't it the most satisfying colour scheme. It's such a great mixture of mattes and shimmers and there's a good range of colours here, from transitions to lid shades. I have to say in the past I haven't always been the greatest fan of UD shadows in particular the mattes. I don't think they are terrible by any means, just powdery. The shimmers I always find so buttery and pigmented they definitely have them down to an art. I even think that they have improved in quality from their prior palettes. Regardless of how I feel towards the texture what always brings me back to UD is the colour range. They always create great palettes that can create a multitude of looks, which is so handy that you don't have to dip into loads of different palettes. Not saying that I won't because I love to mix and match but when travelling its a big bonus. The packaging is clearly FIRE, I love it so much more than the previous tin packaging, it will wear so much better.

Let's talk about stand out shades for me. I'm ranking ember (very last shade)  No1 based on the fact that the pigmentation is out of this world and I probably use bronzey shades the most, so this will be most wearable for me. I have to mention dirty talk because of its sheer beauty even though I don't think its a shade I will use very regularly. It's such an intense rose gold colour and that alone makes it a stand out shade. I'm going to mix it up and go with a matte and I choose Low Blow because I really like its orangey undertone. It remind me a lot of sable from MAC and I've lived for that shade for years so its no surprise it's one of my favourites. Ashes is the darkest shade in the palette and I struggled a little with the pay off on this one, I bloody love the colour but my swatch required multiple dips into the pan. Which is a shame because if the consistency was correct this shade would be up there for me. The only shade I feel is a bit of a flop is ounce, it doesn't show up on my skin, it's far too light. I honestly thought it was a matte shade because the reflects are so subtle. I just think if they were going to have it this pale then keep it matte as a blending out and correcting shade. But if they wanted a shimmer they should have went whole hogg and gave us a blinding highlight, think kitten by stilla. However its neither nor, it's in limbo between both of those concepts and that to me makes it a little useless.

My camera really didn't want to focus of these swatches so please bare with the crappy photo. Hope you found this first impressions useful and keep your eyes peeled for an eye look coming up soon!

SUMPTUOUS OLIVE

I despise doing makeup shots on myself because I am so UN photogenic. The world of selfies has left me incapable of taking a photo when I can't see my own reflection. Also it's never that great to see yourself in high definition. 

Autumn is coming and everyone is going mad for cranberry and purple shades. My first port of call at this time of year is a good green toned shadow. I personally think that MAC's sumptuous olive is a very underrated eyeshadow. It's a beautiful olive shade with a golden sheen that's perfect for anyone apprehensive of the green eyeshadow. Paired with a cranberry coloured lip (just to keep the with drawls at bay) it is the most perfect autumn makeup. Of course if you are here for Instagram makeup with huge winged liner, braided brows (seriously wtf) and bat lashes you've come to the wrong place. I'm about wearing makeup not makeup wearing you. This isn't a tremendously hard eye makeup look nor is it bold or out there. It's wearable. Meaning it's something you can actually wear on a day to day without looking like your trying to hard, that will compliment your eyes. I'll stop with the ranting now.

It's a very simple eye combo. The crease was layered with soft browns gradually getting darker the further down from the actual crease. The lid was patted with sumptuous olive. The outer corner and under eye were darkened with a dark brown shade. I don't think its necessary to say the shades that went into the crease and outer corner work because there are a million browns by many brands that you could dupe mine with. Use the ones you like. Unlike sumptuous olive which is a pretty unique colour. I finish with lashings of better than sex mascara. If you want to be a little more glam feel free to add a wing and a black kohl to the water line.  Hope this has given you some olive inspiration and I'd love to know what you think of the shadow. 

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!