Review | MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquers + Lime Crime Dupes.

Another day another dupe. I'm back with more matte liquid lipsticks (I know, I have a slight problem). This time, from the very affordable brand Make Up Academy. If you missed my last matte liquid lipstick post, I reviewed the Sleek Matte Me colours and found a brilliant dupe for Lime Crime's Utopia Velvetine. I had heard so much about the MUA ones and picked up a few on a trip to Superdrug in the hopes of finding some more Velvetine dupes, and in general, some decent lip products. Here's how I got on!

L-R: Halcyon, Funk, Reckless, Kooky.

Monthly Favourites | January 2015.

I could sit here and type all day about how crap of a month January is, but I'd rather show you all some nice lipsticks and eyeshadows I enjoyed over the last few weeks. With yesterday being the official first day of Spring, it means I can start to bust out all my peaches and pastel shades, even if the weather is still very much in winter. I'm excited for all the peach. PEACH EVERYTHING.

Review | Real Techniques Bold Metals.

Makeup brushes are one of the most important things when it comes to makeup and beauty - what's the point in buying a beautiful foundation if you don't have the right tools to apply it? I'm not saying you need the most expensive brushes *cough eBay bargains here* but having a couple of different ones will definitely perfect your makeup application. So, we all know I'm a fan of makeup brushes... I'm also a fan of rose gold. Everyone and their mammy knows about the Pixiwoo sisters and Real Techniques brushes (yano, those ones... affordable, sold in Boots/Ulta, weird coloured handles?). Now, I actually only own one from their regular line (if you were curious, it's the expert face brush), which I love but have decided to pass up on buying any more because I see so many dupes on eBay which I'll eventually get around to buying.

Before I get into the actual brush I'm reviewing, I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents regarding the range itself, and the prices. If you know of Real Techniques you may also know that the blogging community went into mini cardiac arrest when they saw the release of the beautifully luxurious Bold Metals collection - 7 brushes in total; 2 gold, 2 rose gold, and 3 silver. I can't deny, they are beautiful looking brushes. Then, that mini cardiac arrest went into full blown heart failure when people saw the pricing. I won't get into all of the brushes individually with pricing, because I only have one here to review for ye today, but they are all significantly more expensive than the regular RT range. The Pixiwoo sisters have done a video stating that this is their premium line, understandably not for everyone but a more luxurious and higher quality brush which will of course, cost more to make (and thus buy). I get it, I don't LOVE the pricing but I understand. I was definitely iffy at first when I saw the prices, but I'm of the opinion that if the quality is on par with the price, then I have no problem spending my own money on it. The annoying thing is, and the difference between actual high-end brands and RT's "high-end" brushes is that you can actually feel a MAC brush for yourself and decide if it is worth it. With the Bold Metals, they're trapped in bullet-proof plastic so it's a bit more risky.

Review/Lime Crime Velvetine Dupes | Sleek Matte Me Lip Creams + YouTube Announcement!

Hi guys! Long time no see/blog… as per usual, right? WRONG! (ish). If you don’t follow me on Twitter and Instagram (which you definitely should, just sayin’) I recently ventured into the world of… YouTube! Yes, I know… WHOWHATWHEREWHENWHY?! I have one makeup tutorial uploaded on there already so make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe while you’re there. If you’d like to see more from me on the Tube of You, simply tell me whatcha wanna seeeee! It’s all baby steps for me, so be patient with me, please and thank you! Now that that’s over and done with… I’m sure you’re all here for the lip products, right?!

Sleek "Matte Me" Ultra smooth matte lip cream. 

2014 Makeup Favourites!

I know, I am the worst. Your eyes are not deceiving you. I am, in fact, writing a blog post after another hiatus. Not the best start to 2015 but I want this year to be a good one for my blog. As I'm writing this at midnight, I just reached 100 followers on Bloglovin'... wow! I know that number isn't anything significant to a lot of bloggers, even bloggers who haven't been doing it that long but let me tell you that is huge for me - massive! Of course figures aren't the most important thing to me personally as a blogger, but I never thought more than maybe 2 or 3 people would ever even want to read my blog, let alone comment on them or say they've found them helpful. But, as long as 1 person is reading, I'm happy to write! All I really wanted to say was thank you all so much!
I'm rambling on horribly, I do apologize... HAPPY 2015! Here were the stand out products of 2014 for me, makeup wise (if it were just beauty, I'd be here all year and well into 2016!). These are solely products I discovered in 2014. I'll admit, it was actually hard to find, even remember products I used at the start of the year, most of these are Summer and on wards discoveries but firm favourites nonetheless! It was hard to narrow it down, but I'm pretty happy with this list of game changers.

Bargain Synthetic Kabuki Brushes | Sigma/Zoeva Dupes.

If you're into beauty or have watched a single Jaclyn Hill video, I'm sure most girls know about the synthetic kabuki craze. In fact, I'm sure some of you even own one or two! I love these kind of brushes, and have been using various different ones from Sephora, ELF and Real Techniques for ages. Sigma, Blank Canvas, Zoeva, Sedona Lace and plenty of online brush brands came out with a series of different shaped kabuki brushes (for both the face and the eyes). Although a lot of Sigma brushes are certainly cheaper than MAC, they're still bloody expensive - especially for their synthetic kabuki brushes. All of the kabuki brushes that these online brands have to offer are always the same, just with Sigma or Sedona lace on the handle. They generally consist of; a flat top kabuki, a founded one, an angled one and a tapered brush with matching smaller brushes for the eyes.

FOTD | Comfort Zone Smokey Eye (Wet n Wild Tutorial)

I bought the Wet n Wild Comfort Zone palette (along with their Petal Pusher one) AGES ago, when I first saw they had come to Ireland. I swatched the shadows briefly, thought they were gorgeous and typical me stuck them at the back of a drawer never to be seen again. I recently saw someone mention Club eyeshadow by MAC in a tutorial and remembered Wet n Wild having an exact dupe of Club in the Comfort Zone palette. Club, and the definer shade in this palette are warm brown shadows with a blue/green shift which looks amazing when it hits the light at different angles. Club is easily one of MAC's best selling shadows - but I actually prefer the Wet n Wild one! It's more pigmented, shows up more "blue" and you can get the entire Wet n Wild palette (10 shadows) for about €6... a fraction of the price of a single mediocre MAC one! 

Anyway, dupes aside, I wanted to use this palette because I haven't featured any Wet n Wild shadows on my blog so far, I love them almost as much as their lipsticks! I think this is a great shade if you, ironically, want to get out of your comfort zone just a teeeeny bit. The palette itself is mostly neutral, with the blue/brown shade and a few olive greens. I think the blue/brown shade is such a fantastic way to wear colour if you're a neutral girl at heart. So, to truly bust out of the comfort zone, I used it in a smokey eye tutorial, taking you through all the steps to create this look which I think would be perfect for Christmas parties coming up! This look is really easy to create, keeping the dark shades on the inner/outer corners and using the blue/brown colour in the centre and lower lash-line. I used lashes for maximum impact, but they're always an option! Keeping it easy, I opted for no winged liner which means there's no excuse not to try this look for your next night out! When using such dark shades, I'd definitely recommend using a sticky base/primer and doing your foundation last! Finally, I kept the cheeks warm and peachy with some peach nude lips. Hope you guys enjoy! :)

FOTD | Airborne Unicorn.

So I'm finally back with a FOTD on my blog! I knew when my Lime Crime lipstick arrived that I wanted to do an all out purple look on both the eyes and lips. I was also really inspired by my friend's purple winged eyes at a gig we went to recently and decided to recreate my own version! This was done on a complete whim, at 5am because I had recently just bought a new light up mirror and could actually take semi-decent pictures with that as my light source! I included glitter in the inner corners, which is a PAIN to photograph (my crappy camera doesn't do it justice!) but you could also do a shimmery silver shadow instead. And, of course, if the eyes and lips are too much, you could opt for a neutral eye or lip and tailor it to suit you! Nonetheless, I wanted to do something quite bright and fun, since I haven't done my makeup for my blog in a while. I think the eyes would be perfect to wear to any parties or nights out over the next few weeks! Hope you guys enjoy! :)

  

Bloggers Christmas Tag + Galway Christmas Market.

Hi, my name is Grace and I used to blog on here about makeup type stuff that interested me. I've been so crap at blogging lately and I really have to apologise! I will absolutely be blogging more regularly this month and into January. I have SO many blog post ideas that I want to get done, but just haven't found the time yet. I'm super active on Twitter and Instagram so if you want to see some mini makeup hauls, sneak peaks of whats to come on the blog and other things in between my (sporadic) posts, then follow me on there! Last week I was tagged by Mary over at Miss Lucas to do the Christmas tag (make sure you check out her post, too!). I've been super busy with end of semester assignments and exams coming up but with today being the 1st of December, I thought it was appropriate to do the Christmas tag! I think non-beauty tags are a really good way to get to know someone a little bit more. I'm obsessed with Winter and especially Christmas. I mean, obsesssssed. Don't forget to comment below telling me your favourite Christmas movie, your favourite thing about Christmas in general aaaaand because this is a beauty blog, tell me your favourite Christmas makeup item; a glitter liner or a bright red lipstick, perhaps? :)

Galway Christmas Market, 2013.

Christmas Jumper - Topshop. Lips - MAC Cherry lipliner + Viva Glam Rihanna I.