My Top Five: US Drugstore Products

I'm writing this post to help out anyone who's wanting to do a swap with someone in the US. I've done several trans-atlantic swaps over the last year or so and I've discovered some great products which I don't want to be without. This list is by no means exhaustive, these are just my personal favourites. 

You've probably seen these products mentioned lots of times before whether on this blog or elsewhere but there's a reason for that; they're great products!

(image from Makeupalley)

1 - Milani Liquif'Eye Metallic Eyeliner Pencils

I think these are brilliant. I have the black and brown but they also come in silver, gold and aqua. These glide on like a dream and their staying power is great, even in the waterline. They are very soft so it's hard to get a very precise line but that's rarely what you want from a pencil liner anyway. 

(image from the Neutrogena website)

2 - Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Make Up

I've been using this foundation since the summer and it's my go to foundation at the moment. The coverage is good - sort of medium, I'd say. They have a great shade range and you can check Temptalia's Foundation Matrix to find your match. It's one of those foundations I think everyone needs to try as it should suit a variety of skin types. I'd avoid it if you have very oily skin, though.

(image from the Cover Girl website)

3 - Cover Girl Lash Blast Volume Mascara

This is my new favourite mascaras. It's the first drugstore mascara I've tried which doesn't smudge or flake. I like how you can get a nice natural, volumized look after one coat and a more dramatic look with two. Again, I think this is one of those products everyone should try at least once. I've tried the standard formula in brown and the waterproof version in very black.

(image from the Milani website)

4 - Milani Baked Blushes

I have these in several shades. My favourites are Rose D'Oro and Luminoso. They are amazing quality and very comparable to MAC Mineralize blushes. They're easy to apply, the shades are very nice and they last quite a long time on the skin. The packaging is a bit naff so if you're a packaging snob, these may not be for you. Some of them have a bit too much chunky glitter for my liking (Corallina, for example). Otherwise, these are lovely blushes and definitely worth a try.

(image from the Wet'n'Wild website)

5 - Wet'n'Wild Palettes

I couldn't talk about US drugstore products and not include these. I really like the trios and the 8-pan palettes. The 6-pan palettes are half matte and I'm not a fan of mattes so that's why they're at the bottom of my list but if you like mattes, they're definitely worth a shot. The shimmer shades in those palettes are nice too. Three of the most popular palettes are Comfort Zone (an 8-pan of neutrals and some greens), Vanity (a 6-pan palette in neutral golds and browns) and Silent Treatment (a trio of cooler toned shades). I will admit that not every shade in every palette is brilliant but the pigmentation of most of these shadows is excellent and definitely comparable to higher end shadows. These palettes should not be missed!

I hope this was helpful to some of you! Let me know what your US drugstore favourites are if you have any!

Stace xx

A Little NYX Haul

A while back Cherryculture.com had 40% off NYX so I picked up a few things I'd been lemming for a while. Shipping is relatively expensive (around $14) but it was still much cheaper to buy it from the US than from a UK seller. This time it took almost a month to get here whereas the last time I ordered, it arrived within a week. 

Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Tea Rose and Natural

Slide On Liner in Golden Bronze and Jewel

Champagne & Caviar Palette

Champagne & Caviar Swatches

I already love the Mega Shine glosses and the Slide On liners so I'm happy with those. Tea Rose could be a bit more pigmented and it's a lot brighter than I thought it would be. Jewel is much more purple toned than I was expecting too. The palette has a nice mix of shades and even includes some mattes which I don't hate! I've not had the chance to use all these products yet but expect a review of the palette at some point in the future!

Do you have any NYX recommendations?

Stace xx

What's in my travel make up bag?

I'm going back home to Northern Ireland for a week today. I thought I'd share with you the make up I'm bringing with me. It's going to be a pretty relaxed affair (I hope...) so I've tried to only bring what I know I'll use. You'll recognise a lot of these products from recent reviews and favourites posts, I'm sure!

Brushes

Sephora Bent Eyeliner Brush

E.L.F. Crease Brush

Crown Brush Blending Brush

Revlon Eyeshadow Brush

Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush

Illamasqua Highlighter Brush

Real Techniques Stippling Brush

Blush

NYX Tea Rose Cream Blush

NARS Orgasm

Face

Rimmel Match Perfection Fix & Perfect Pro

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Foundation 

Bobbi Brown Corrector

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer

Eyes

Cosmetics A La Carte Brow Ink in Taupe

MUA Clear Mascara (for brow gel)

Urban Decay Naked Palette

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

17 Wild Metallics Cream Shadow in Wild Nude

Milani Liquif'Eye Eyeliners in Black and Brown

Physicians Formula Glam Eyes Cream Liner Trio for Brown Eyes

BeneFit They're Real Mascara

Lips

Lush Pow Wow Lip Scrub

Vintage Sister Chocolate Orange Lip Balm

L'Oreal HiP Jelly Balm in Ripe

Clinique Superbalm in Rootbeer

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks in Black Cherry and Mink

NARS Lipstick in Honolulu Honey

Do you think this is excessive? What make up do you take with you when you travel?

Stace xx

Weekly Make Up Challenge #2 - Lip Gloss - My Thoughts

This past week I've been wearing a different one of my favourite lip glosses each day. When it comes to gloss I prefer something with a little bit of colour but nothing with lots of pigmentation because I find it ends up all over my face. I'm not a huge fan of very sticky glosses but don't like it if they're very watery either. I realised that I've not been wearing gloss much over the past few months and since it's one of the products that goes off a bit more quickly, I want to get back into using them more often. Here's what I've been wearing:

L-R: NYX, 2true, E.L.F., No7., Estee Lauder

Monday - NYX Mega Shine in Beige - $3.99 (Cherry Culture) or £7 (Love Make Up) for 11ml


I really like these glosses. I have another in Smokey Look and want to get my hands on Natural and Tea Rose at some point! You get so much product for your money. I think Love Make Up keeps pushing up the price of these; I'm pretty sure a month ago they were £4.99. This smells like cherries so may not be for everyone but it doesn't bother me. The wand is pretty big so I find you only need one swipe per use. This shade has no shimmer, which I like and is pretty pigmented. This isn't sticky but does last a good three to four hours on my lips (without eating or drinking).


Tuesday - 2true in Shade 1 - £1.99 


I've had this one for a while. I picked it up along with a two other 2true products because of the 3 for £4.99 deal on 2true in Superdrug. This is a pretty colour on me - it's a nice dusty rose sort of shade. I like the smell - it's a coconut scent. This one is probably the stickiest gloss I'm trying this week so it lasts a bit longer on me. I'd say I get a good five hours out of this. The main issue I have with it is that only a very small amount of product comes out on the wand so I need to dip it back in quite a few times to get enough gloss out.


Wednesday - E.L.F. Mineral in Bare - £3 for 6.5ml


I like this gloss. It's a nice neutral shade and really suits me. It's sticky but not too sticky and the pigmentation is good enough to wear it alone. It looks like a really teeny tube but you actually get more product in this than the Estee Lauder one I used (see below!). Again I found I needed to dip the wand in several times to get enough product out.


Thursday - Poppy King for No 7 in Allure - £11


I think this is a bit expensive sounding for what it is - a drugstore lipgloss. BUT I really like this. The colour is lovely on my olive-ish skin and it lasts pretty well too. It's very creamy feeling and not sticky at all. 


Friday - Estee Lauder Pure Colour Gloss in Electric Cherry - £16 for 6ml


Okay so this is pretty pricey for a gloss but I really like it. It's not sticky at all, which means you do need to reapply quite a lot. Also, the name 'pure colour' is a bit deceptive as this is pretty sheer. It smells pretty strongly of marzipan or something like that. This only lasts an hour or so on me. It's good for topping off red lipsticks but I like it on it's own too. So, not the best value for money but still a decent gloss in my book.


I didn't wear anything other than lip balm over the weekend so only managed five this week! 




Overall...


I don't have any hits or misses as such because I like all of these glosses. The NYX is definitely the best value for money if you can get it in the US. The Estee Lauder is a nice gloss for a treat. 

Do you own any of these? What do you think?

Stace xx

PS - I'm sorry I don't have more photos - my "lovely" boyfriend spilt coke all over my laptop and now I'm using his which has some weird operating system which I can't figure out how to rotate photos on...EEP! 

US Swap Haul!

I did a post way back in July about a swap I did with a lovely girl from Makeupalley. It went really well so we decided we'd do another and I just got my package! Once again she went overboard with really thoughtful extras. She's a very sweet girl (I hope she's reading this and blushing!). I sent her a list of things I was looking for but told me to just send a random selection of products on that list and not to tell me what they were. It felt a bit as though Make Up Santa had been!

Face:

Hard Candy Sheer Envy Primer

Milani Baked Bronzer in Soleil

Sonia Kashuk Creme Blush in Rosey

Lips:

NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Smokey Look

Palladio Herbal Tinted Lip Balms in Orange and Rosey (I've heard EmilyNoel83 rave about these on YT)

EOS Lip Spheres in Strawberry Sorbet and Sweet Mint (this one smells delicious even in the wrapper!)

Eyes:

Milani Liquif'Eye Eyeliners in Black and Brown

CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara in Brown

Wet'n'Wild 8 Pan Palette in Petal Pusher

Sonia Kashuk Synthetic Flat Top Multipurpose Brush

Bath & Body Works Pocket Bacs in Sour Drop, Vampire Blood, Guava Grapefruit, Passionfruit Colada and Jelly Jam Donut

I was going to open everything to swatch it and show you all but I've been trying really hard not to open things unless I'm going to use them. I have a drawer of new things just now so when I feel the urge to shop, I go and look in there! Some of these items are things I will be trying soon but others may take me a while to get too. Let me know if there's anything you'd really like to see a review on or swatches of and I'll happily oblige.

I hope she gets my parcel soon!

Stace xx

Review & Swatches: NYX Round Lipsticks

Snow White

Ulysses

Doll (sorry this is a bit blurry!)

B52

Tea Rose

L - R: Snow White, Ulysses, Doll, B52, Tea Rose

I love these lipsticks....that's pretty much my review. They're cheap as chips, so easy to apply and the staying power of the darker shades is brilliant. I think everyone should own a few of these lipsticks! I love all of the shades I've swatched above; particularly Doll and Snow White.

The only criticism I have regarding this line of lipsticks is how vastly misrepresented the shades are on  the sites that sell them. I've bought other shades in this range and they've not been anything near what I expected - either because they're shown as having a cream finish but turn out to be frosty or because they're shown as red and end up being dark brown or something. They really could improve on that! 

Their shade range is huge but I've yet to find a good nude shade and a nice peach/orange type colour which isn't frosty. 

Do you own any of these?

Stace xx

Haul & Swatches: NYX Order from Cherryculture.com

I placed an order on Cherryculture.com for some NYX sale items recently. I paid $41 (£25) in total, including postage which was around $14 (£8.50). It was worth the extra postage, though as everything worked out a lot cheaper than if I'd bought it from a UK stockist such as Cocktailcosmetics.co.uk. I've found the prices of NYX items in the UK have gone up by a lot as the companies selling them seem to have realised that they're pretty popular! I've done a price comparison for you in this post. 


Here's what I picked up!

Rouge Cream Blush in Glow & Orange

Glow

Orange

Cherryculture Price: $4.75 (£2.90) each

Cocktail Cosmetics Price: £7.95 each

Round Lipsticks in Rose & Peach Belini 

Cherryculture Price: $1.99 (£1.20) each

Cocktailcosmetics Price: £3.50 each

Round Lipgloss in Apricot, Cafe Latte & Peach

Cherryculture Price: $1.75 (£1.07) each

Cocktailcosmetics Price: £2.95 each

Mega Shine Lipgloss in Beige

Cherryculture Price: $3.75 (£2.28) 

Cocktailcosmetics Price: £4.95

Soft Matte Lip Cream in Amsterdam

Cherryculture Price: $4.50 (£2.75) 

Cocktailcosmetics Price: £4.95

The items were packaged very well and arrived within a week. Cherryculture also have a rewards system whereby you build up points which eventually become vouchers for money off. I'm quite a bit off getting a voucher but I still thought it was a nice touch! 

As you can probably see from the prices, buying from a UK site is definitely a lot more expensive. Here are the shipping prices and grand totals:

Cherryculture Shipping: $14 (£8.50) 

(this will vary depending on the size of your order and the delivery method you choose - I chose the cheapest)

Cocktailcosmetics Shipping: £3.25 for Royal Mail Recorded in the UK

(for Next Day delivery it's £6.45 and £7.50 for the rest of Europe)

Cherryculture Grand Total: £24.94

Cocktailcosmetics Grand Total: £44.90

I think if you're looking for some NYX products and you're not in the US, try ordering from Cherryculture.com. It's best to wait until you can do one big order or maybe order together with a friend to make the higher postage worth it. Also, watch out for their sales.

I hope this was useful!

Stace xx

American Swap Goodies & Swatches!

I just got back from a trip back home to Northern Ireland and waiting for me was a huge box of goodies from the lovely Michele. She's from the US and we arranged to do a swap. I sent her some UK things she was after and she sent me things from the US that we can't get here. She was really generous and sent lots of cute extras (including some cute little toys for our cat!). The whole experience was great and I'm sure we'll swap again in the future! 


So, to the fun bit! Here are some photos and swatches of what I received:

Bath & Body Works Pocket Bacs

I love these! They all smell amazing and the formula of these anti bacterial gels isn't as drying as other similar products.

Corallina

Rose D'Oro

L-R: Corallina, Rose D'Oro

L-R: Rose D'Oro, Corallina

L-R: Rose D'Oro, Corallina

Milani Baked Blushes in Rose D'Oro & Corallina

I've been lemming these ever since I swapped for another blush in this range called Luminoso. The pigmentation is lovely! I think Rose D'Oro is my new favourite. 

Milani HD Advanced Concealer in Medium

I've been wanting to try this for a long time too after hearing some good reviews on YouTube. I think I'll only be using this as an under eye concealer as it's quite pink-toned so it wouldn't work on my yellow-toned skin. It's a nice texture though. I've only tried it once and it worked pretty well - I do prefer concealers with a more liquid texture for the under eye texture so this is great as it covers well but doesn't look cakey.

Honeysuckle Honeydew

Top L-R: Honeysuckle Honeydew, Lemon Drop

Bottom L-R: Lemon Drop, Summer Fruit

Summer Fruit

EOS Lip Balms

I love these! The Lemon Drop is my favourite so I'm glad I have two of them! They are easy to apply and pretty moisturizing. I love the packaging!

NYC Blushable Creme Stick in South St Sea Shell

I initially wasn't going to request this but now I'm so glad I did! It's a lovely colour and the texture is really nice. It's easy to apply and dries down to a powder finish so it's not sticky at all.

NYX Soft Matte Cream in San Paulo

This was another product I was unsure of but I really like it! The colour is nothing like how it's shown on the NYX site but that's what I love most about it: it's a vibrant deep pink. The texture is also much nicer than I expected. It feels like velvet and lasts forever. I tried putting a gloss on top too and that didn't effect the product already on my lips. I want more of these now!

Cover Girl Lash Blast Volume Waterproof in Very Black

I can't wait to try this once I've gotten through all the other open mascaras I have! I've heard good things. I'm sure there will be a review in the future!

NYX Round Lipstick in Tea Rose

I used to own this but swapped it away and then regretted it! I love these lipsticks and this colour is very pretty. It's a nice natural looking lipstick which goes well with lots of different looks.

That's everything! As I said, she sent lots of lovely extras too.

Have you done any swapping recently? Do you have any recommendations for great US drugstore products?

Stace xx