No 7 Eye Shadow Palette for £10

There are some brilliant sales around at the moment but I have been recovering from a chest infection so I haven't been hitting the shops that much. 

However, I picked up this eye shadow palette from Boots for £10. 

No 7 is well known for their Protect and Perfect range and in recent years their makeup range has expanded. Nail polishes, mascaras, eye shadows and more. 

This rose gold eye shadow palette was £20 reduced to £10 in their up to half price sale recently. 

The palette contains 20 shadows with a mixture of finishes including mattes.

The shadows don't have names but each is numbered, they come from popular palettes already in No 7 collections. 

Shades 1,6 and 10 are from the Cappuccino Trio. Shades 2 and 20 are from the Moonlight Shadows Duo. Shades 3,11 and 15 are from the Night Shadows Quad. Shades 4,7 and 19 are from the Classic Matte Trio. Shades 5,8 and 13 were taken from the Good Earth Trio. Shades 9, 12, 16 and 17 were taken from the Chocolate Fondant Quad. Shade 14 was taken from the Golden Trio. Finally, shade 18 was taken from the Green Glades Quad. 

The colour pay off of all of these shadows is brilliant, each shadow is highly pigmented, the formulation reminds me of Urban Decay shadows. They blend together well which is another bonus.

For £10 I couldn't say no! Have you picked up any bargains in the January sales?

Neon Eyes

I hadn't worn any bright eye makeup for a long, long time. 

So, when a group of us decided to venture into town for a few drinks out came the Sleek Acid palette.

I don't know why, but close up shots of eyeballs make me feel a bit ill.

Anyway, using a plain white as a base, neon green, orange and pink from the Sleek Acid palette and then a glittery blue eyeliner from Collection (formerly Collection 2000)

A bit OTT for some people but I think if you can't go a bit crazy with colours on a night out when can you?

Bright Eyes Burning Like Fire

I haven't done an eye make up post in a while so here we go! This is a look I have been wearing to work recently:

Using my usual base of Maxfactor Smokey Eye Effects (white end) all of the lid then using Models Own loose pigment in Bright Turquoise on the inner corner and Barry M loose pigment in Mushroom on the outer corner and blending in the middle.

Then using this mascara from Maybelline, Illegal Length

Frontcover Micro Rainbow Eyes Powder Collection

After Christmas all the gift sets Boots stock are slashed by half, which means there are lots of bargains to be had. I picked up the Frontcover Micro Rainbow Eyes Powder Collection for £6 which is great. I got some Frontcover pressed eyeshadows last year as well and love the colour payoff and quality. This is what this particular collection looks like.

This collection is handbag/on the go friendly, the pressed eye shadows (there are 9 colours) fit into a gold pouch. 

There is their clear eye liner liquid pen which you use in any of these shadows to transform the shadows into liners.

I really like these colours: these are swatched over my usual Maxfactor white smokey eye effects base:

I am looking forward to playing around with this collection and for the price you can't really grumble. Have you picked up anything good from the January sales this year?

No 7 goodies

This post is long overdue, I picked up a great deal whilst at the October Boots advantage points Christmas event. At that time Boots were also giving those £5 off No 7 vouchers when you spent  over a certain amount. 

There was an offer on a new mascara whereby if you buy that you get an eyeshadow quad. So I used my £5 off voucher to buy the mascara which I think was about £12 full price, so that dropped the amount down to around £7. So not only did I get the mascara cheaper, I also got the quad freebie.

The mascara itself is called Lash Adapt and is meant to give your lashes more volume, I didn't really find this is the case, but it is a good mascara, however, I wouldn't buy this at its full price. I don't feel it is worth £12 as I didn't think it made my lashes look amazing. 

The free eyeshadow quad is lovely though, you get a pearlescent champagne shade, a dark shimmer brown, a lighter shimmer brown, and a deep dark purple/plum toned shadow. This is called Smokey Rose Quad.

Even though the mascara wasn't anything special I am glad I bought it just for the eye shadow, this would be great for everyday office work makeup.

Quick and easy office make up

Recently for work I have been playing around with using different colours over a liquid black eye liner. This time I have been opting for Barry M dazzle dust in lilac. 

After applying my usual base of Maxfactor Smokey eye effects in white I applied Sin by Urban Decay all over by lid. 

Then lined my upper lash line using a Smashbox black liquid eyeliner and waited for it to dry, next I apply the dazzle dust over the top on a damp angled brush.

I like the way having a different shadow over of the black liquid liner can be a quick and simple yet colourful way of jazzing up office (or everyday) makeup. Having a splash of colour makes a refreshing change to having it all over the lid.

Cocktail eyes

Like I said in an earlier post I had a friend come to visit me over the weekend, I took him into town for cocktails. 

This is a pink pussycat, champagne, crushed strawberries and ice.

The second drink, had gin, lime, vodka and something else..... I can't remember what it was called though! It tasted like old fashioned cloudy lemonade with a kick. Very nice!

It had been a while since I had used bright colours on my eyes, so going out for a few drinks was a good excuse. This is the look:

After applying a base of Maxfactor smokey eye effects (I used the white end) I used eyeshadows from the Sleek acid i-divine palette. I used the silvery grey on the outer corner followed by the red-ish purple on the middle of the eye then the brighter blue on the inner corner.
To finish I used a Too Faced glitter eyeliner in Mad Mad Love on the upper lash line, the glitter isn't obvious in the pictures, but does catch the light well. The I used black mascara (Maybelline Falsies) to finish the look.

Blue and purple pastels

Here is an eye shadow look I created using Barry M dazzle dusts in Baby Blue and Lavender.

After applying primer and my usual white base (Maxfactor smokey eye effects) I applied Lavender on the inner corner and Baby Blue on the outer corner. 

I then applied liquid black eye liner on the upper lash line and a generous helping of Maybelline Falsies mascara. Next I applied Eylure Naturalites Volume Plus false lashes. I then curled my lashes so my lashes and the false ones blended together.

BYS freebie

Hope everyone is doing well? As many of you know there seemed to be a bit of an issue with blogger recently. I had created a post for Thursday May 12, it went live, then seemed to vanish. I managed to re-post last night. Did anyone else have problems posting too? I wasn't at home over the weekend so I couldn't check my posts. 

Onwards and upwards and all that! I have a BYS eyeshadow palette which contains 9 shades as well as a liquid silver glitter eye liner and a black and green liner pencil. These are freebies with the latest issue of Top Of The Pops magazine.

Here are swatches of each group of shadows:

Pretty eyes:

Bright eyes:

Party eyes:

The majority of shadows are fairly well pigmented, party eyes being the exception. For some reason these three didn't swatch as well as the rest. I will need to try a make up look with them though to give them a fair go. I really love the look of the green and blue, my favs!

Next up are the liners:

They applied well and didn't drag across my skin

There was also a card showing you how to apply the product:

Not bad for a freebie, the magazine itself cost £2.99 which I wont be keeping because I only bought it for the makeup!