Polish round up – Brown and Gold

You may have noticed an increased effort on my part to stop spending recently. It’s going pretty well. The last cosmetics I bought were a little Sleek haul on the 27^th December. If I can get to the end of December without parting with any more pennies it’ll be a big achievement. Long story short I’m focusing on paying off some student debt. Anyhoo boring stuff over, as part of my ‘enjoy what you have’ project I wanted to go through and have a look at what nail polish I already have in an effort to dissuade myself from going out and buying any more similar colours. These are the browns and gold’s I’ve accumulated. First with flash and then without. 

From left to righ we have; Diamond Cosmetics Yukon Gold, Orly Rage, L’Oréal 395, Collection 2000 Foxy, Little Rose (got this in Thailand, no idea what it’s called), OPI Sand In My Suit, Barry M Dusky Mauve, China Glaze Ingrid, Barry M Chocolate Brown, Nails Inc Jermyn Street, Barry M Mushroom, Essie Mink Muffs. 

All of these are 2-3 coats with no top coat. The purple shimmer in Dusky Mauve isn’t as apparent here as it is in real life, trust me it is there really. Some of these colours are very similar too however none are exact dupes of each other. Oh and please excuse the cat fluff in the back ground. That rug was literally washed 24 hours before those pics were taken but madam decided it needed to be fluffy again.  I hope this is useful in comparing some of the more popular brownish shades out there. Any other colours you’d like to see a roundup of? 

*Sadly I bought all of these myself apart from Jermyn Street which was free in a magazine*

Collection 2000 Blush

At £2.99 these are some of the cheapest blushes out there. And they’re cute too! Look at the pretty embossed pattern and the clear case to see it through. Adorable no?


Is it a £2.99 miracle product? No... they are surprisingly well pigmented actually and the shades (I have here 02 Bashful) are nice enough. The problem I have is that you have to bully it into submission to get it to blend at all. I’m surprised I have any cheekbone left by the time I’ve gotten the edge to soften out. This one has an ever so slight satin sheen (hehe alliteration!) and looks really nice once it’s on but it’s an awful lot of work. It's a wamr, reddish pink.

I’ve used worse, more expensive blushes to be fair but when I’m in a rush in the morning I just don’t have time to spend 5 minutes blending my blusher. I won’t be repurchasing for that reason. They are still cute though!

*I bought this myself*

August Go To Products

This is kind of a favourites post (my first actually)only not really. These are the products that have taken a beating in the last month. Not necessarily my favourites but the ones that I’ve been reaching for over everything else. This was kinda tough as I’m still doing my project ‘use everything you’ve got at least once’ so I’ve been wearing totally different looks every day. Nonetheless I’ve found a few products have been plucked from the drawers by default when I wasn’t sure what else to wear.

Max Factor False Lash Effect mascara in waterproof: I love this and will be doing a full review soon. I’ve been picking this up as it is actually the only waterproof mascara I currently own. With the remnants of my hay fever lingering and a pretty stressful month causing a few mini breakdowns the waterproof er... ness has been invaluable.

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in By Candlelight: glowy but never glittery, this is just more suited to day time than many of my other highlighters so it gets used more!

No7 Blush in Honey: It’s a neutral dirty peach that when used lightly looks incredibly natural on me. I tap the flat side of a blush brush on it then bounce it off my cheeks for a barely there flush. Love it!

MAC Eyeshadow in Blanc Type: It doesn’t matter what eye look I’m wearing I use this every day. It’s a matte cream shade that despite being well pigmented does not show up on my pale skin. I use it daily to blend out the edges of my eyeshadow and to correct mistakes. I have a really small lid space so it’s easy for me to over apply shadow making this little eraser invaluable.

UDPP in Sin: I’m a shimmer kind of girl when it comes to shadows. An eye primer that adds more shimmer? Yes please!

MAC Lipstick in Viva Glam Cyndi: I need a backup of this and I can’t wait for the matching lip glass to come out either. It’s my favourite wearable red. I wear this every weekend with a really simple eye and winged liner. In fact this and UDPP Sin with winged liner is about as quick and easy as makeup gets.

Collection 2000 Concealer: I have way too many concealers and they need using up sooner rather than. This is first on my list. It’s actually pretty effective though it doesn’t cover quite as well as I would like. If you try and layer it it does gets cakey but a thin layer will last you all day. The tube seems never ending though... I thought it would be done my now but it just keeps on going! I wish the packaging was see through so I knew how much was left.

Would you like to see more of these kinds of posts? What have you been reaching for throughout August? Let me know in the Comments! Xx

*Everything up there was bought by me with actual money apart from the UDPP Sin which was bought with Boots points*

Collection Overview : Bronzers

Who would have thought that before this year I had never really used bronzer. I’d never even tried contouring! Now I’ve become a little bit of an addict.

MAC MSF in Comfort – Unfortunately this was limited edition as part of the In The Groove collection. it’s a slightly orangey toned matte shade with shimmery gold veining. When swirled together it leans more towards matte but with a slight sheen. 

Bourjois Delice De Poudre – The light neutral shade and medium to light pigmentation mean that this is a good idiot proof bronzer. It’s very difficult to over apply, is matte (which I prefer), and looks and smells like chocolate. The only problem is as I’ve had it for a couple of month it seems to be getting a little hard. £6.99 for 16g.

Collection 2000 Shimmer & Shade in 2 Golden & Gorgeous – this is incredibly frosty so I really only use this on nights out swept over the cheeks for a golden glow. Although it’s gorgeous in the pan and the peach bronze shade is very pretty I just don’t seem to reach for it much. £4.19 for 10g.

Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soft Matte 01 – This came in a palette along with 2 blushes as part of a Christmas set. It’s a slightly warmer tone and more heavily pigmented that the Bourjois one but I adore this for contouring. It blends like a dream and adds a lovely warmth to the skin. You can buy the full sized version of this for £26 for 21g. I’m probably more likely to repurchase this than the others. 

Sleek Contour Kit (the contour side obviously)  in the shade Light – I’d been so curious about this for so long that I finally caved. It’s a totally matte slightly cooler toned brown which makes it perfect for contouring. You really do need a light hand with this. At first I thought it would be too dark for my skin but it’s actually fine as long as you blend well. The highlighter is lovely in this too but I won’t say too much as I have a full review coming up. £6.50 for 14g. 

Left to right: MAC MSF Comfort, Bourjois Delice De Poudre, Collection 2000 Golden and Gorgeous, Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess, Sleek Contour Palette

Clearly I’ve become a bit of a bronzer fiend! I plan on putting a dent in these before buying anything else but when I do I have a Dior bronzer in mine. What are your favourites? X

*All bought by me*

Summer Series – Collection 2000 Love Your Lips

True fact – your lips are covered in skin. Betcha didn’t know that did ya! And skin will burn in the sun without appropriate protection. These lovely glosses come equipped with SPF 20 which is not bad at all and comes at the barginous price of £3.99 for a fairly substantial tube (a good cm longer than MAC Lustre Glass packaging). Here I have shade 6 Adore which is a dusky yellow toned pink.

The gloss itself is pretty pigmented and not overly sticky. Wear is average, I need to reapply quite often but then I do with every gloss. It does have a scent which is kind of sweet. Maybe cherry? It’s not overpowering or sickly sweet though (I’m looking at you NYX...) What caught my eye along with the SPF was the blurb on the tube “contains anti-oxidants, rose hips & mango extract to soothe and hydrate”. It’s no Carmex but by the end of a day wearing this my lips are as soft as they were at the beginning without having to reapply balm as often as I normally do.



Opinion is divided on whether doe foot applicators or lip brushes are best with gloss. My personal preference is a doe foot. I just think I get a more even application. These glosses have a brush but it's not a deal breaker for me.

These glosses are definitely a pretty way to protect your lips from the sun. It’s important that we do. Nobody wants premature aged cat bum lips. Mmm shexy x

Collection 2000 – Shimmer & Shade

These three lovely looking offerings from Collection 2000 cost around £3.99 each. Not bad really for something that looks so pretty in your collection! To my knowledge these are all of the available shades. From left to right we have 2. Golden & Gorgeous, 1. Pink Me Up and 3. Just Peachy. Yes I should have put them in order but I didn’t notice they were numbered till right now...

Anyhoo the flowers are not an overspray. You actually get 3 different colours running all the way through the palettes. They say on the back that they can be swept everywhere for ‘an all over glow’ or used as highlighters and they are pretty multipurpose. I wouldn’t use them all over though unless you want to look like you’ve escaped from the ceiling of a disco. Mmmm shiny. All of these, as the shimmer in the title suggests, are very shimmery.


Forgive the lack of swatches, I couldn’t get them right for love nor money. I’ll start with Just Peachy. This is, unfortunately, the chalkiest and least pigmented of the lot. I tend to use it all swirled together as a pink tinged highlight on my cheek bones. It is almost too difficult to see to bother with though. However even though it’s almost useless it does look lovely in the draw so I’m glad I have it (sad I know).

Pink me up is the one I use most often as a warm toned pink blush. Again it is shimmery so I tend to use it if the rest of my look is entirely matte just to stop everything looking too flat. It lasts pretty well on my skin and blends easily. The formula is much smoother and easier to work with than Just Peachy. If you’re going to get just one this would be my pick.

Finally we have Golden & Gorgeous. To me this is essentially a bronzer though I have used it a couple of times very lightly over my cheeks. I think if I were to use an actual bronzer on a regular basis I would prefer it to be matte which obviously this isn’t. I have actually used it as an eyeshadow with no ill effects and worked well (requires a good primer). The formula is similar to Pink me up though the background colour is a bit chalky.

I’m torn on this one because whilst I concede it is a case of style over substance I’m glad I own them anyway. I can’t help feeling that with the gorgeous design and clear cases I’ve bought three beautiful but fairly useless dressing table knick knacks(the exception being Pink me up of course). If you collect makeup these may appeal but if you are looking for functional items you can use every day I would buy one of the solo blushes from Collection 2000. I have one and it is excellent xxx

Collection 2000 Solo Eyeshadows

I am a fan of Collection 2000. They do some very pretty products for a very cheap price (Can’t remember exactly but definitely a lot less than £5). Yes the quality isn’t the best but for a quick mid week pick me up it certainly does the trick.



These three have been part of my collection for a while as you can probably tell from the gouges in them. Here we have Velvet (rich reddish burgundy with gold tones), Temptation (mid toned blue) and Sea breeze (greenish aqua with warm gold tones). All of these have shimmer and all of them lean towards warm tones. The back of the packet says lasts up to 8 hours and is crease resistant. Er no? Not on their own anyway but then most eyeshadows aren’t with me. With a good primer they do last though and Velvet is one of my go to colours for my outer corner on a work day with a gold colour across my lid. Just really do make sure you have used a decent primer or they do tend to fade.

The swatches are in the same order (Velvet, Temptation and Sea Breeze from left to right). They are highly pigmented and not at all chalky however they lack the smooth buttery texture of higher end shadows. For the money though and the colours I think Collection 2000 have once again provided us with a good product at a more than reasonable price. I would gladly purchase more!

Is it just me or are a lot of drugstore brands upping the ante on eyeshadow quality? I used to firmly believe that if you wanted decent eyeshadow you would have to fork out for higher end stuff but recently I’m being pleasantly surprised by a few brands. What do you folks think, is it high end all the way for you or do drugstore bargains hold a place in your heart?

DIY China Glaze Fortune Teller

Firstly I’d like to say sorry to those who are sick of me waffling on about polish, I promise my next few posts will be about actual makeup. I’ve just been on a bit of a polish kick lately as I’m still trying to grow my nails so I have to paint them every two days to stop me chewing. Yes I am disgusting and bite my nails. I never claimed to be ladylike.

I have been craving Fortune Teller since it came out but was never able to get my grubby little mitts on a bottle. If you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it matte Google Scrangie China Glaze (I covet her nails!) I read somewhere that you could use Gosh Rainbow flakies to create a dupe. I don’t remember where I saw this so if it was your blog sorry! Just comment below and I will edit the post to give you full credit for the idea. So here is my attempt using a random black polish (think it was Collection 2000), Gosh Rainbow and Essie Matte About You. I show it here without the matte top coat first then in all its mattified lusciousness.




Now I don’t have the actual fortune Teller to compare it to but from the photos I’d say that’s a pretty darn good dupe! Rainbow does flash iridescent yellow in certain lights, I don’t know if FT does that but I like it anyway. The matte top coat takes a special looking mani to new ethereal looking heights. Come Autumn I will probably be wearing this combo ever day. In fact I’m considering buying another bottle of Rainbow just in case I run out. Is that weird? I know some of you fellow polish junkies out there will understand.

So anyone out there have the actual Fortune Teller? How does this combination compare? I think I probably put a touch too much glitter on and I *think* the chunks are bigger here. Thoughts? Comments? Opinions?

*P.S. I just wanted to quickly say thanks to everyone following my blog. It really means a lot to me! I’ve almost hit 30 :-D As I’ve said when I hit 50 I will be doing a giveaway so fingers crossed we get there soon so we can have some giveaway fun xxx

Chalk board nails

I was asked recently by the lovely Simpleelegance http://simpleelegance27.blogspot.com/ if I knew of any flat black mattes as she was concerned about shelling out for expensive products like MAC just to find she got bored of them. My answer to this is why bother buying new polish you might not like when you can turn your current polish matte with just a top coat? There are a myriad of matte top coats out there and my personal favourite is Essie Matte About You. Yes you have to fork out for the top coat but in the long run this means you have as much matte polish as you want. I painted a nail (fake obviously) with a cheapy black – Collection 2000 Maxiflex polish in 87 Ebony and topped it off with Matte About you. I was rather pleased with the result! The finish it more lumpy on the plastic nail than on my real ones but you really don’t want to see mine at the moment...

Collection 2000 Love Your Lips Gloss

I’ve already swatched Adore on here but having added 3 more to my collection I thought I’d go ahead and swatch the lot. These are some of my favourite budget lip glosses. They aren’t sticky, cost only £4.19 and have SPF20. From left to right we have Honey Bunch (sheer orange coral with yellow/ orange sparkles), Passion (sheer hot blue pink), Adore (creamy/ more opaque neutral pink) and Delight (creamy/ more opaque neutral beige with fine yellow/ green shimmer). 

These have a small brush applicator which is ok actually, you don’t end up over applying. They all have a very sweet smells and actually taste very sweet too. The glitter in Honey Bunch and Delight is slightly gritty on the lips but it’s not unbearable. Because of the smooth texture they don’t last long on me but then I do seem to eat lipgloss. Honey Bunch and Passion are very sheer. On the lips they just leave a hint of colour whereas Adore and Delight are much more pigmented. 

I believe (though I might be wrong) that there are only two other shades making the range quite limited though I find all of them to be very wearable. You can often get these on offer in Boots and Superdrug. If you hate sweet candy scents in your lip products you won’t like these (I’m not a huge fan but it’s bearable) but if you like non sticky gloss at a budget price you could do a lot worse. And thanks to the SPF20 I got a huge amount of use from these on holiday! X

*I bought these myself with my own pennies*