E.L.F. Aqua Beauty Molten Liquid Eyeshadow - Are they worth the money? Cruelty Free, Cream Eyeshadow, Affordable

So a wee while ago I finally placed an E.L.F. order from the UK site (and mistakenly thought it was coming from inside the UK) and had to patiently wait for the two brushes and two of these eyeshadows to show up. 

**Side note - I'm not going to do a separate review of the brushes, but I got Pointed Powder and Flawless Face Brushes and they are top notch. I love them both. They are maybe a tiny bit smaller than I expected, they're both maybe comparable to the Real Techniques blush brush, but well worth the £7.50 they each cost **

So E.L.F. or Eyes Lips Face are a U.S. based makeup brand, completely cruelty free, and very affordable.  Right now they are available direct from their website (UK or USA), through Superdrug and through some other bigger online retailers. I'm not sure if they're coming into Superdrug stores or not but I hope they do so I can go and swatch and play with things. They only announced they were coming to Superdrug within the past week or so, so if I'd been patient I could have just ordered from their and gained points too. Once they arrived and I'd had about a week to play with them, I decided I really liked them and when I was placing a LuxPlus order decided to pick up the other two colours they had available.

Top to Bottom:  Liquid Gold, Molten Bronze, Rose Gold and Brushed Copper

According to ELF's website "Wash this hydrating liquid eyeshadow over lids for a vibrant, metallic look (and an irresistible cooling effect). The formula is infused with Purified Water and Vitamin E to help hydrate". They retail for £5 each and are available in six shades, I have four of them.

So what do I think about them...

Packaging

They come in these tubes that I keep likening to lip gloss or liquid lipstick, but, in actual fact, are exactly the same as cream concealers. They are plastic but they have a nice amount of weight to them and don't feel cheap at all. I also really like the blue caps, I think they signify the Aqua Beauty range or something.

Application

So these come with a doe-foot wand, exactly the same as cream concealer, and that's what I use to apply them, although I guess you could wipe it on your finger and then apply with your finger tips or a brush. I actually like using the doe-foot, and I didn't think I would. It makes application really quick, which is great as I'm so lazy with makeup in the morning, but its not super precise, especially in the crease area. So if you want to do some super sharp cut crease look, I would recommend dabbing a brush onto the wand and using that instead. 

Top to Bottom:  Liquid Gold, Molten Bronze, Rose Gold and Brushed Copper

How do they wear?

The first time I tried them, not very well. Every time since then they've been amazing though.  

So the first time I wore these I wasn't really sure what I was doing as I hadn't ever used a product like this before, so I wouldn't take my one bad day to mean these are bad. I didn't prime my eyelid, applied a tiny bit of a soft, matte brown coloured powder shadow in my crease, wapped a bit of these on my eyelid and went about my day. That day was really hot and I was incredibly busy, squinting at computer screens and then trying to avoid the sun, and by the end of it my eyelids were a mess. It was creased by about 3pm and I was gutted, luckily I have hooded lids so the bunching up could only really have been seen if I closed my eyes.

Top to Bottom:  Liquid Gold, Molten Bronze, Rose Gold and Brushed Copper

Day two I decided to try again. This time I primed my whole lid with the original Urban Decay primer potion, put in my crease colour and applied the shadow. I then let it set for 10-20 seconds before very gently blending a tiny bit of my crease colour just along the edge of the shadow, to set it fully. 

It did not budge all day. No creasing or fading and it looked amazing. Like I'd put in ten times the effort I had. I've tried this way of applying with the Bronze, Copper and Rose Gold, and it worked really well with all of them. The only reason I've not tried it with the Yellow Gold colour is I'm not sure if I'd like it on me or not. I'm quite cool toned and I'm not sure how it would look. Its also not nearly as opaque as the others and I don't know how many coats it would need to make it really pop.

I also know that Rose Gold and Brushed Copper look sheer in those swatches but they were done with only one coat and they do layer really nicely. Two layers of rose gold on the lid and then some really black winged liner looks amazing. I've tried liners from both ends of the spectrum over them too, Collection and Illamasqua and both applied fine and lasted amazingly, although the Illamasqua Precision Ink liner looked far better over the top (precise liquid verses clunky felt tip though).

Final thoughts

So overall I would give these a 8 out of 10, with there best points being their longevity, how easy they are to apply and the value for money. Probably the worst points are that the lighter colours are a little sheer, and that there's not a great color selection (the four "molten metals", a dark grey and a lilac). I would love to see a dark bottle green and navy blue in the same formulas as the bronze one, that would be so nice.

I would happily recommend these to anyone looking for a gorgeous, easy to apply, eyeshadow that packs a punch.

xoxo Scruffy

Revolution Vivid Baked Highlighters in Pink Lights and Peach Lights - Cruelty Free Drugstore Makeup

Do not try and highlight with a brush like this unless you want to look crazy... Its just so pretty and silver I wanted to show it off.

 At the end of December I picked up these two baked highlighters from Revolution London through LuxPlus ( 'cause no one was having any luck with the TAM Beauty website over Christmas). I really enjoy peachy pink highlights and had religiously used the MUA pink highlighter for several months before getting these.

So on the left we have Pink Lights and on the right Peach Lights. As you can see I've really been playing with these and I've rubbed off some of the less indented design on the Peach one.

These retail for £3 on the Revolution and Superdrug website in the UK and $6 at Ulta in the States, though I'm not 100% sure all the colours are available. You get 7.5 grams of product in each, so you get a lot of product for your money. The packaging is really sturdy but it is a little cheap looking and feeling. I also really hate it when baked products come with unnecessary domed packaging. It just means I can't stack them and that's a big issue as my storage is a little limited.

OK so they miraculously switched sides in the photo above (the makeup pixies did it, honest...?!) but as you can see the formula isn't consistent. Peach lights is a bit smoother and more finely milled than pink lights, which has some clunky glittery fallout from it. I prefer peach lights and the fallout is the reason I haven't really played around with it much.  They are both beautiful and can be built up to be really intense if that's your thing, I am personally more a fan of a subtle healthy glow though.

Both highlighters have a very frosty silvery sheen to them, as a pale girl from a cold climate that suits me fine. I mean look at my wrist, its almost as white as the background. These probably wouldn't suit anyone with a skin tone that much deeper than mine, though I do think they have a gold, a bronze and a rose gold one that would probably look lovely on deeper skin tones.

And this is the above two swatches blended out. I did my best to not smudge them into each other but as I hadn't set the finger swipes out intending to blend out (I like the live dangerously and go with the swatch flow). It was a little bit difficult. Far more of the Pink Lights base colour shows once its blended, its really clear on the other edge of my hand where that highlight stops. Peach Lights doesn't do this as much, but that might be due to the peachy tone being closer to my skin colour than the pink one. Both shades do end up a little sparkly, but if you apply with a light hand, and aren't packing them on like I was for the swatches, they can give a really nice, subtle, glowy highlight.

Would I recommend them?

Overall, its a big, fat yes from me. They are a little glittery, and the pink one has some fallout, but they are £3 for 7.5 grams of products (which will last you forever) and the peach one is so pretty. 

If you are wanting something pink and highlighty, but not glittery at all, my current favourite for subtle days in the Revolution Strobe Highlighter in Moon Glow Lights. Its just a lovely, subtle powder, that catches the light in the most beautifully natural way. 

Thats all for now duckies.

XOXO Scruffy

Enquiry? Message me ascruffyduck@gmail.com

Other Revolution posts...

Review: Blush Queen Palette

Review: Unicorn Unite Lipstick Collection

Review: Solo Blush Collection

Primark Matte Liquid Lipsticks. Worth the money?

Why can't I leave Primark without picking up make-up these days?...Arghh

Any way, at the till on a recent visit I clocked some of the PS. Super Matte Liquid Lipsticks in the weird fishbowl things they have next to the queue. So obviously I ended up buying all three shades that were there.

The cost only £2 each, which makes them the cheapest of the cheap where liquid lipsticks are concerned. But were they worth the money?...

Left to Right: Nude, Kendall and Purple

The ones they had were Nude, although the bottom of it says Kim, (whats that all about?), Kendall which is a nice mauve greige colour and Purple, which is really red and not purple at all. Well done on that name Primark.

The tubes feel pretty cheap to be honest. I own a lot (I mean a crap load) of liquid lipstick and packaging wise, these are by far the nastiest. Its made worse as the tubes are square and when you screw the lids back on it doesn't line up properly. Huge pet hate of mine.

That being said, the colours are so pretty.

The formula is OK. Its definitely better on the two lighter shades than the red. The red is slightly drier and doesn't apply nearly as well. It feels like you're wiping the same product around rather than actually applying it smoothly. However, once I was able to apply it, I was impressed by the colour. Its still not purple though. They dried down nicely as well which I was surprised about.

Once I was confirmed they weren't going to stain the heck out my face I decided to try a couple. The nude is just a nude so I didn't play with that.

Now, full disclaimer. These photos are not cute. Focus on the lips please.

Here's Kendall. Its a lot like Ghoulish by LA Splash but feels a bit more comfortable. At this point I'm pretty impressed.

And Purple is... Still not purple. It is a nice dark red. I did have the same problem applying it as I had swatching it. Once it was on I loved it though.

So does it pass the wear-ability test.

First drink, small amount of smudge and fall out but no where near as bad as I expected. Also this was all that came off throughout my whole cuppa, so its performing better than some liquid lipsticks that cost 5x as much.

And after dinner it was still going strong.

Sorry 'bout the sparkle. Swatched something glitterbomby and its gone everywhere.

OK so there's a little flaking and fading round the centre but it performed so well. My dinner wasn't particularly oily, and they're known for stripping liquid lipsticks off. But I'm still so impressed. I mean, how good is that?

Removing the lipstick was a bit of a pain, but no more than some of the other long wear lipsticks I own. I learned a while ago that if you rub a lip balm (I have a cheap Nivea one) over the lipstick and let it soak in for a couple of minutes, usually they will just wipe off with a soft cloth or facial wipe. This worked a treat and within seconds I was lipstick free.

To summarize, I'd give these lipsticks a 8 out of 10. The pigmentation is great, and they seem to last a crazy long time. My only reservation is the application of them, the doe-foot is one of the weird long ones and the formula is a bit hard to work with but once applied they're great.

Definitely worth the money.

First Impressions - Technic Colour Max Baked Eyeshadow Palette

I love a bargain, and theres a couple of brands I've been curious about for a while. Technic is one of them and after doing some research, it looked as though the parent company Badgequo do not test on animals.

They're webiste is a little confusing, however I went to a couple of cruelty free blogs I trust, and they said they were fine, so I've basically bought these on faith. I'm comfortable with that, however if you need something more concrete please don't make word for it.

There are four palettes in the range. I picked up two of them, the blue and silver one and the red and copper one. There is also a pink and purple and red and blue one. Neither of those ones grabbed my attention and I actually found the red and blue one a bit weird. They were £2.99 each and these two are so pretty.

The packaging is a nice and sturdy plastic with black and silver detailing. I like that its not a solid colour and you can see what you're reaching for as well. I can count the number of times of times I've reached for the wrong thing in the morning and ended up with some highly questionable looks. You get 2 grams of each colour, which is quite a lot of product. They do have a smell, its not strong or overpowering, its familiar though but I can't place it.

Now on to some swatchy swatches...

Blue Palette.

And Red Palette.

See what I mean when I say they are so pretty. They are a tiny bit powdery, so once I'd swatched them their was some loose pigment round the edges. However at less the 40 pence a shadow I'm not going cry over a tiny bit of fall out. 

Due to my work schedule, I've not been wearing a lot of makeup (specifically eyeshadows and winged liner) cause lets be honest, I would rather have the extra ten minutes in bed. First occasion I get though, I will give these a proper test run on my peepers and report back.

Have you tried any Technic makeup? If so what did you think?

xo Scruffy

PS. Check out my new sunnies (And please ignore my skin, hair, double chin and lack of make-up. I've been starting work at 7am and sleep is more important than concealer right now). Picked these up recently and I'm in love. Can't wait to get away on my holidays so I have an excuse to wear them.

Primark Beauty Haul - First Impressions

So on Sunday, which is now three days ago and I started typing this up the day I bought it. I've been busy trying to sell half my wardrobe on eBay and lumbered with technical problems. Anyway thats changing the subject. I discovered something amazing. All of Primarks PS. range is completely cruelty free, and it is cheap as chips.

 So heres what I got.

 

Nothing I bought cost more £2.50, which I though was great, however I couldn't get everything I wanted as the displays were nothing short of disgusting. Full of busted packaging and smashed powder over everything. It took me maybe 5 minutes to find 2 lipliners in the very large display that weren't opened. I wanted a couple of the lipsticks but I couldn't find any I liked that hadn't been opened and rubbed all over who knows what *boke*

 9 Shade Eyeshadow Palette £2.50

This really didn't impress me. The packaging was nice and chic however the pigmentation was pretty crap and they were so chalky and powdery. Also most of them look the same. Can't see me ever using it.

 Bronze 3pk Nail Polish £2.50

There's are really pretty. I've been rocking the copper tone on the left for 3 days now and its just beginning to chip. It doesn't dry hard as quickly as I'd like but for under £1 a bottle and colours that are this gorgeous, I can deal with it.

 Liquid Foundation in Ivory £2.50

Yicks, I hate full foundation. Hardly ever wear it. Maybe I should as my skin is constantly crapy, but I can't do it. I hate things that feel heavy and sticky and hot on my skin. I walk over a mile in my newly applied makeup to work before anyone even sees me in it. I've not put it on my face yet as my skin has been really sore and aggrivated lately and I don't want to risk making it worse. The colour looks like it would be the one closest to my skin and I will definetly give it a shot and let you know what I think .

Lipliners in Light Pink and Nude £1 each

I'd heard great things about these so I was annoyed when I could only get two that werent all funked up and ruined. I was needing more wearable lipliner colours so these were a good shout. They are really pretty good and I will be looking into getting some more of these. The nude one goes really well with my favourite work lipstick (NYX Butter lipstick in Pops). Winner.

Smudge Liner in Black £1

I haven't played with this much yet but it seems very nice. Very black, can make a sharp line but when smudged it can be softened to a nice smokey glow. Will use this some more and report back in.

Two Pack Eyeliner in White and Natural £1

Two eyeliners for £1, yes please. I was really unsure about these but once I swatched them on my hand I was sold. The white is super bright and the natural one is different to anything I already own. Not waterline tested them yet but again will test some more and file my report with you.

Items I didnt photograph

Loose face powder £2.00

It's loose powder, didn't know how to photograph it, didn't know why you would want me to. Its nice enough, rivals some drug store stuff. Holes are a bit big in the packaging but nothing disasterous.

Perfume stick in Fuchsia £2.00

Solid perfume in a pencil stick. It smells nice, not super strong but thats not bad. The pencil means you don't need to get it all over your fingers and the clear wax is great as you don't end up with a coloured streak on your neck or arms if it doesn't get rubbed in right. Now it lives in my handbag.

Texture Spray £2 (or £2.50, I can't remember)

They make haircare so I might as well try it.  It smells nice and helps beachify my hair. Like it

All in all I'm impressed, even if the displays were gross. I'm probably not going to rush back for more anytime soon (although they are launching a "pro" range which I might need to checkout).

Tried any Primark Beauty, let me know what you think.

xo Scruffy