France Haul: Makeup & Skincare | Kiko, Sephora, Yves Rocher.

Although I personally like to watch/read haul type posts, I know they're not for everyone. That being said, I thought I would lump all the things I purchased on my trip here, because a lot of these are brands and items you can't necessarily get easily in Ireland. I always think it's interesting to see the makeup and skincare bits people pick up when they're abroad and gives me an idea of things I might want to purchase on future trips! I picked up quite a few things from Kiko and included swatches because Kiko is something that's a little easier to get if you live in England or are travelling around Italy, Portugal, France, Spain. In addition to that, I think a haul is the only real way to show you these things... I'd be here for years reviewing everything singularly! ;) You'll all be happy to know that my french makeup vocabulary has improved significantly!

The bottomless pit of makeup and skin care goodness!

FOTD | Blue Lagoon Sunset.

It's been a little while since I did a FOTD on here and I can really only put it down to laziness. I really haven't been wearing that much makeup lately and when I have it's definitely nothing too crazy. I asked a friend of mine to choose a colour scheme for my next look because I was completely out of ideas but knew I wanted to do something bright and summer inspired. Orange and yellow were the chosen shades of the day and this is what I came up with. It's inspired by sunsets with a yellow to orange fade on the lid, purple crease and heavy blue shadow on the bottom. I really like how this turned out for something I did on a whim! I hope it's not too similar to my Neon Jungle/Kiko FOTD I posted on Instagram a few weeks ago... I guess I've just been into my tropical colours because of the weather! I included a quick pictorial/step by step on how to achieve this look, but you could swap it for any bright colours you wanted! Not for everyone, but definitely something fun for a festival or summer night out. Apologies for the hun bun, but the Irish heatwave has made me want to shave my hair off ;) Hope you enjoy!

                                                               
                                                           Products Used:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion - Original
• NYX Jumbo Pencil - Milk (base)
• Inglot Eyeshadows #362 (pink) #370 (yellow) #325 (purple) #322 (blue)
• Kiko Eyeshadow #207 (orange)
• MAC Eyeshadow - Vanilla (brow bone/inner corner highlight)
• Ardel Demi Wispies #120
• Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade - Dark Brown (review here)
• Urban Decay Baked Bronzer - Toasted (discontinued)
• MAC MSF - Soft and Gentle (highlight)
• Nars Blush - Orgasm
• MAC Lipstick(s) - Myth + Creme Cup

Kiko Show and Tell Part 2: Swatches, Reviews - Eyes + FOTD.

This is the second and final part of my Kiko Cosmetics overview post which contains all things related to eyeshadows. This post will (thankfully) be a lot shorter than the first, which looked at face and lips (link here you're curious!) Anyway, I recently saw on their UK website that Kiko were having a big sale and so I would highly recommend you pick up their lipsticks and eyeshadows. I hope these posts are somewhat helpful for those who are maybe going on holidays to a European city this summer and want to pick up a few things from the brand! Let me know if you buy anything while away and if you have any Kiko recommendations, I would love to know!

The Kiko Long Lasting Wet/Dry Eyeshadows are around €8 and are one of the nicest formulas I've ever used. They are pretty much identical to the MAC Extra Dimension formula and have that creamy feel when you swatch them. Kiko offers these in a range of neutrals, brights and jewel tones and they all have incredible shimmer and shine that transfers beautifully onto the eyes. Of course, these can be used wet (with a mixing medium or MAC Fix+) and can also be used dry. They become far more metallic when used wet but my swatches are dry with no primer - they are amazing! First up is #213 which is a deep blackened hunter green with teal and silver glitter running through. Next is #224 a phenomenal periwinkle lilac with violet duochrome and silver shimmer. This is the most unique out of the 3 I have here and Kiko do so many interesting shades in this formula - it reminds me of a galaxy and I love it! Finally is a beautiful Melon pigment-esque #218. This is a peach orange with a yellow gold duochrome. It looks particularly fantastic on blue eyes to make them stand out and would work beautifully as a blush/highlight on dark skintones. I'm obsessed with this sort of colour and love to add it into neutral looks all the time.

I decided to pick up one of the Highly Pigmented Eyeshadows in #111. This is only €2.90 and is a gorgeous mid tone sea green with gold and teal pearl. This is a definite mermaid colour and would look equally gorgeous under a black base for a more jewel toned effect. Their singular eyeshadows are also very pigmented and come in an array of shades with shimmer/pearl, matte and matte with floating glitter finishes.

Kiko offer a 'Clics' system with their Infinity Eyeshadows (€5.90) whereby you buy a single pan eyeshadow and you can fit them into custom palettes of different sizes (when I was there I saw a single case, a trio which I bought 2 of, a quad and a 9 pan palette) These come free when you buy the eyeshadows and you can choose what colours go where in the palettes which is very handy for travel or even professionals. Again, the number system is rather annoying but not a huge deal. Like I did with Inglot,  I decided to try out their coloured shadows first because my thinking behind it is, if their bright shades are good then their neutrals are probably pretty good too! I wasn't wrong - these eyeshadows are great for the price and really remind me of inglot in terms of texture/finishes and the overall concept. When I looked back at my palettes to swatch them, I realised I got mostly matte shades which I prefer to wear.

The texture of their mattes is great - not chalky with the only exception being #253 the blue/purple (blurple?) on the bottom centre but even then, it is still great as far as mattes go.
I picked up a matte jungle green/turquoise colour with gold glitter (#264) Inglot have a similar texture and just like the Inglot ones, this shade applies mostly matte (especially when buffed into the crease) but with a sticky base and dense packing brush, you could definitely make the gold glitter more visible.
Similarly in texture, #260 is a true matte lime green with gold glitter. Its so hard to come by a colour like this with such good pigmentation.
Straight up bright matte orange eyeshadow is something I never wear so I decided to pick this shade up (#207) with a tropical look in mind for a future FOTD post. This kind of orange is a hard colour to come by in terms of eyeshadow and it's even harder to get one this opaque... it wasn't chalky at all!
#243 is a reddish brown/burgundy with gold shimmer (no glitter!) and is a very Sketch (MAC) toned colour that I always gravitate towards. The texture is, of course, beautiful and this shade would work well on a lot of people. You can easily use this in the crease in any neutral look and it just gives it something more than just boring old brown.
Finally, is probably the least exciting shade in the palette. Kiko have a lot of neutrals in mattes and shimmer so you could easily make up a small neutral toned palette for travel. #239 is a very cool toned brown - almost a grey taupe and would make a great crease colour for any cool toned neutral eye. The ashy cool tone would make it also work well as a brow shade which is the main reason I bought it!
Overall, I'm extremely happy with all of their eyeshadows and would highly recommend them to anyone who was looking for brights or neutrals!

Neon Jungle | FOTD using some Kiko shadows.

You can purchase Kiko online at http://www.kikocosmetics.co.uk/ and search for your nearest Kiko location. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram, (both are @DrnkTxtRmeo_) to keep up to date with future posts and all things makeup/beauty related! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed :)

Kiko Show and Tell Part 1: Swatches, Reviews - Brushes/Face/Lips.

I'd seen this brand a few times in a friend's makeup bag a few years ago and was informed that it was a brand she had purchased whilst in Portugal the summer before. I thought they seemed nice, but never actively went searching for any of their products. I found out that Kiko is an Italian brand and is really only readily available in the likes of Italy, France, Spain, Germany etc. Fast forward about a year later and my friend in France was raving about their nail polishes. We decided to track down the Kiko shop along the Champs Élysées but couldn't find it anywhere. It was like it had disappeared off the face of the earth, I was so disappointed! A few months later, she sent me one of their polishes to try and I fell in love. The formula was great (I talk about it a little more here) and I was so eager to try more of their products! When I went to Rome earlier this month, a lightbulb appeared above my head that since it's an Italian brand, there had to be a Kiko somewhere near us. Surely enough, with the help of my boyfriend's Google Maps, we found 8 in Rome alone! We looked for the nearest one but couldn't find it anywhere on the street it brought us to (it actually said that Kiko was in the national museum...) I thought this was Paris all over again and that Kiko and me just weren't meant to be. However, we soon found another store nearby and I was set free like Augustus Gloop in a sweet shop. I suppose you could say I was a little (very) excited... I hadn't heard much about the brand other than a few friend's recommendations and so I spent my time looking at everything and swatching products (I may or may not have made 2-3 trips to 2 different Kiko shops).

With that all out of the way, I wanted to do a big show and tell type post telling you a bit about all of the products I bought - from face to lips to eyes and even brushes. Its going to be a general overview of the brand with my opinions on these products now that I've had some time to play with them. I was halfway through this post and saw how long it was (sorry!) and so I decided to do this post on everything for the face and lips, and then follow this post up later in the week with the eyeshadows. One thing to keep in mind about Kiko is that their stuff is very affordable for the quality. The most expensive thing I bought was the brush at about 12 euro. Most of their foundations are in around that price point with their lipsticks and eyeshadows ranging from €3-8. They also do a whole host of skincare that I didn't get a chance to look at and they have an amazing range of nail polishes in some amazing colours and finishes. I decided to pass on the nail polishes this time because I plan on picking some up when I go to France in August! The only annoying thing about Kiko is the fact that their products go by numbers and not names, similar to Inglot. This may not seem like a massive problem (and it isn't, in the grand scheme of things) but it makes colours of eyeshadows/lipsticks very hard to remember and means you could easily pick up a second one of the same lipstick/eyeshadow by accident.