SWIG 'Naked' Hip Flask

SWIG 'Naked' Hip Flask*: £41 on sale

Ok, ok, I know what you're probably thinking: this is a little out of the realms of my normal blog content! And I admit, it is, but when I was contacted by Daniel from SWIG and I had a look through their website, their premium products piqued my interest and I agreed to receive a hip flask of my choice and give it a test run over the course of a week.

e.l.f. | matte finisher nail polish

 e.l.f. matte finisher nail polish: £2.50

before:

after:

when the matte nail polish craze hit a few months ago, it was something i definitely wanted to jump straight onto the bandwagon with, however i just couldn't bring myself to part with the money to buy my favourite nail polish shades in a matte version as well as a normal, glossy one. before hope was lost, e.l.f. jumped in (once again) to save the day with their more than afforable products, offering this matte finisher for just £2.50. as they'd recently sent out a £10 off voucher and i was placing an order anyway, i decided to throw this into my basket too to see how it fared.

at first i was a little dubious - i just didn't understand how a top coat could mattify the glossy finish of the previous polish? however a few seconds after applying the top coat, i could see the colour starting to 'dry up', and after a couple of minutes i had perfect matte nails! i can't say it's a brilliant top coat for preventing your nails from chipping as i noticed my nails chipped just as quickly as they normally do (but this is something i can never seem to combat, regardless of what brand of nail polish i'm wearing,) but if you're looking for a cheap matte nails option that means you don't have to purchase several matte shades, i would definitely recommend this, particularly if you're happy to top up your nail colour regularly. i find that for the best overall finish it's good to apply a thick couple of layers of your normal nail polish underneath the top coat, because when applied over a thin layer it can wear away the colour underneath, leaving you with patchy, wishy washy looking nails.

overall i'm really impressed with this product, and for £2.50 i'll be tempted to add plenty more of these to my next e.l.f. basket; matte black nails are now my go to option when i'm feeling a little lazy! have you used any other matte top coats and would recommend them? i'd love to hear about some other (preferably cruelty free!) alternatives!

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e.l.f. | eyeshadow palette

 e.l.f. 6 piece eyeshadow palette in natural: £3.75

i've really gotten into wearing eyeshadow as of late because, sometimes, a winged eyeliner is just a little more than i can be bothered to try and perfect first thing on a morning. when i saw that e.l.f. had just released some brand new eyeshadow palettes, i was straight in there to snap up this lovely 'natural' palette, composed of nudes, golds and browns and was excited for my delivery to arrive so i could put the palette to the test.

i'll start first of all by saying that my photographs do not do the colours justice at all. my favourite in this palette is definitely the middle top gold, the colour's really lovely and shimmery and really pigmented, and i just generally find that gold colours suit my skin tone and eye colour. when creating my smoky eye, i go all over my lid with the lightest top left colour, then over again with the middle top gold, apply the top right brown to the outer corners of my eyes and then line the bottom and top of my lash line with the bottom right darkest brown to help to define my eyes and keep things looking somewhat dramatic.

i reviewed a h&m eyeshadow palette a couple of months back, and in comparison to that, this e.l.f. palette definitely trumps it. the colours are much easier to get onto your brush and so require less product for more colour intensity, and i find that the colours stay on your lid a lot longer, losing no colour intensity throughout the day. i've never tried any high end eyeshadow palettes and so can't compare this product to any other that might have miraculous all day staying powers, but for just shy of £4, i'd definitely recommend these palettes. once again, e.l.f. have not failed to impress me.

 

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e.l.f. | £1.50 lipsticks

e.l.f. lipsticks: £1.50

not so long ago i went on a bit of an e.l.f. binge, and in a crazed moment i added several of their lipsticks to my basket and tried to ignore the fact that they were shades i already owned from other brands. lipstick's becoming a slight problem for me at the moment, perhaps some sort of rehab is necessary...

you might remember not so long ago that i posted a little review about one of the body shop colour crush lipsticks, and i'd definitely compare these bargain e.l.f. lipsticks to the likes of that, and they're almost a tenth of the price! when first breaking the lipsticks in, they feel a little stiff and a few coats is needed for colour intensity, but after a couple of uses they become easy to apply and the colour transfers much quicker. on your lips they're extremely moisturising just like the body shop colour crush lipsticks, however they do feel a little heavier, and are slightly more matte, which for me isn't a problem at all because i personally like to feel my lipstick on my lips because you know that when you can no longer feel it, it's time to reapply!

my favourite of the four lipsticks are definitely sociable because the colour's just so intense, and captivating because i find it works quite nicely with my eye colour and skin tone. i found that when the lipsticks arrived the colours looked slightly different to how the swatches appeared online (i expected gypsy to be much darker,) so i'd bare that in mind and perhaps look around some blogs for reviews on a shade if you don't want to commit to the colour unknowingly.

my only problem with these lipsticks is the packaging. not because the text wears away or because it's not the prettiest, but because two of the four lipsticks arrived slightly beaten because the bullets were off centre in the tub and so scraped along the sides of the tub when you twisted them up. of course this is easily fixable and for £1.50, are you really that bothered when the quality is so great for the price?! i know i'm not!

to conclude, i love these lipsticks. i'll definitely be repurchasing more shades at some point when my inner lipstick demon rears its silly head again, and i really won't mind because i'll be getting quality products at a fantastic price. if you still haven't tried elf make up, go and do it. i promise you won't regret it!

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e.l.f. makeup review

a couple of months back i placed a huge order with e.l.f., so i thought i'd do a follow up post talking about the products that most impressed me. as well as the products pictured above, i also purchased a blusher, nail polishes, a zit zapper and a lip exfoliator (that i'd previously used and been impressed with,) however those products haven't impressed me as much as the three pictured.

tone correcting powder in cool: £3.75
i opted for this powder simply because it intrigued me; i'd never seen anything quite like it before and was eager to give it a go. i'm glad i chose this option over a regular powder with a shade such as 'ivory' or 'porcelain' because i find that this powder gives a nice, light finish that adapts to the natural colour of your skin rather than caking and masking your face in the colour of the powder, like other shaded powders that i've tried before have. overall, i'm extremely impressed with the quality of this product and have recently purchased two more to ensure i'm well stocked up for a while.

therapeutic conditioning lip balm in vanilla creme: £1.50
i used one of these up within a couple of months which i found incredible as i've never actually finished a lip balm before, which said two things to me: a) that this product is good, and b) that there's not much of it - i believe both statements to be true. you don't get a lot of product in the tube, but at £1.50, can you really complain? as for the quality, i'm currently using a burt's bees lip balm that i purchased after running out of my e.l.f. lip balm, and i much prefer the e.l.f. lip balm to it. where i find the burt's bees balm to just sit on top of your lips rather than sinking into them, the e.l.f. balm, for me, does the complete opposite and totally moisturises your lips leaving them feeling supple and smooth. i've ordered another 3 of these and feel that this product has definitely become a staple in my makeup bag.

makeup mist & set: £3.75
this is one of those products that you never seem to realise does anything until you stop using it. i stopped using this product for a couple of days to see how it benefited my face and noticed that my makeup was much more prone to caking and fading throughout the day; the foundation around my nose would start to wear away so my pores became more noticeable, and my blusher would fade dramatically. basically, the product does what it states it does and keeps everything nicely in place while providing your face with a little bit of moisture. i'd previously used hairspray to set my face (bad, i know,) so anything would've proved to be a better alternative. i also decided to repurchase this product and probably will continue to do so unless i find something better.

other products
i ordered a blusher in the shade 'twinkle pink', and while i really like the pretty, rose gold sheen it gives to my face, unfortunately the product arrived a little beaten and has since completely fallen apart which makes it a pain to use. the nail polishes i ordered seem standard in that they chip fairly easily, but then again i find it hard to find a nail polish that lasts any longer than an hour on my nails before chipping - maybe i just use my hands too much?! - so i suppose it's hard to give an honest judgement when most nail polishes disappoint me. the zit zapper was also an average product, doing the same job as a previous zit zapper i'd purchased, it just means i now have a cruelty free option.

as well as the repurchases i've mentioned above, in my order i also purchased a lipstick, concealer and makeup brush to try out, so please do let me know if you'd like me to drop by and review them in the near future! to wrap up, all in all, i'm extremely impressed by e.l.f. as the products are generally of a good standard, they're dirt cheap and cruelty free. i'll definitely be heading back to them in the future when i run out of products that i want a cruelty free alternative to.

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pixi | large lash mascara

pixi 'large lash mascara': £12.50

before:

after:

my benefit they're real mascara has been on its last legs for a while now, and although i really like it, unfortunately benefit sell in china which means they test their products on animals, which means i'll no longer be throwing my money in their direction anymore.

while browsing the asos website yesterday, i stumbled across a makeup brand called 'pixi'. i remembered seeing a product by the same brand reviewed on a blog before, so i figured i'd do a little bit of research and was delighted to find out that pixi are a cruelty free brand, and so took advantage of my 10% student discount and asos next day delivery.

this 'review' is perhaps a little hasty - i highlight review because it's more of a first impressions post - seeing as i've only used the product once so far, but i was incredibly impressed with the results and just had to throw my two cents out there into the blogosphere. i'm not a total beauty blog trawler so i could be missing out obvious blogs that i just don't follow, but i've never seen this product reviewed before, and can only ever recall seeing one review on the brand pixi in general.

on first impressions i was a bit dubious due to the brush shape - it's very similar to the rimmel scandaleyes brush and that is, hands down, the most useless mascara i've ever used - but i pressed on anyway and was delighted to find that the mascara did everything that benefit's they're real did, minus the gloopy mess that i find you get with they're real which means it's easy to end up with blobs of mascara on your eyelid if you're not careful. the only difference between the two mascaras is that pixi's large lash doesn't leave your lashes feeling as full and gives a more subtle look - still extremely striking, though! i think this mascara's perfect for the daytime for achieving lash definition and length, and with an extra coat applied it'd provide just the right amount of volume for more of an evening look. i'd babble on, but i'm pretty sure the pictures can do the rest of the talking!

overall, i'm very impressed with this mascara and would more than happily pay the money again to repurchase it. have you ever tried any pixi products?

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the body shop | colour crush lipstick

 the body shop colour crush lipstick, shade 225 'blushing pink': £10

i'd been looking for a bright, girly shade of lipstick to add to my extensive collection of dark red and coral lipsticks and found my solution in the body shop. i'll admit, £10 is pricey for a lipstick, however i purchased this within my birthday month and so got £5 off for that reason, and on top of that i got an extra 10% off the original price with my loyalty card, meaning i snapped this up for just £4, which is a bargain in anyone's eyes, i'm sure.

the packaging isn't great on the eyes, i'll admit, but the quality of the lipstick makes up for that. it's highly pigmented and applies beautifully while being highly moisturising, meaning you get a brilliant wash of colour without the unattractive cracks in your lips that a lot of pigmented but matt lipsticks leave behind. as for wear time, i'd say this is a pretty bog standard lipstick in that it'll last a few hours before it starts to wear off, unless of course you've eaten something, and in that case you'll need to reapply sooner. i've never encountered a 'miracle' lipstick that seems to last the day - which is probably because i never want to fork out for one - however i have tried really naff lipsticks before that rub away at the slightest bit of contact (from experience, mua lipsticks are bad for this,) so in comparison to these cheap lipsticks, the body shop lipsticks are definitely worth paying a little more for. i'd probably compare these lipsticks to the likes of the rimmel lipsticks that i've tried in the past and loved, however rimmel are sadly not cruelty free so i kind of don't want to be throwing my money in that direction anymore. all in all, i'd probably repurchase a body shop lipstick, even at the price of £10.

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h&m | eyeshadow palette

h&m eyeshadow palette, 'biscotti dreams': £2.99

i'd eyed up the h&m eyeshadow palettes every time i'd stepped foot inside a store for a fair few months, and after doing a little bit of research and discovering that h&m's cosmetics are cruelty free, i decided to head back to my local store and pick a palette up.

i opted for the 'biscotti dreams' palette which features three nude brown shades and a cream as i like a fairly subtle, nonchalant looking smoky eye. i like smoky eyes because while looking effortlessly grungy, colours such as browns help to make the green in my eyes really pop (good god, i really do sound like a beauty blogger now, don't i?) and i think from now on i may retire my felt tip liner for a while and trade a pristine catflick for this more effortless (see also: lazy) approach.

admittedly, the eyeshadows do somewhat rub off throughout the day with the darkest colours appearing lighter when you've done your 9 - 5 at uni, however they don't rub off around or under the eye at all so there's never any mess to tidy up; it's just a case of reapplying if you're busy in the evening! at just £2.99 i'm definitely not complaining, and i'm also debating going back to buy a couple more eyeshadow palettes as there were also palettes featuring greys, blacks and pinks that i was fairly intrigued by.

have you used h&m cosmetics before? if not, will you now be having a browse yourself?

 

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products i love: illustrated

hello again! something a little different from my normal content once again today, this time as an illustrated list of products i've been loving as of late! i read a fair few beauty blogs and would like to think i take a certain amount of pride in my appearance, which then leads to fairly frequent purchases of beauty products on my behalf. i figured that because beauty blogs sit within my interests and a lot of my readers are interested in beauty/run beauty blogs themselves, why not throw a little bit of beauty content into my blog so long as it still relates back to illustration somehow?

my solution was to simply illustrate the products it was that i was going to talk about. not the most creative solution, i'll admit, but it works and drawing from real life objects was somewhat fun for me as it's something i haven't done since gcse art (quite some time ago now, that was...) so, without further ado, i'll begin my reviews of the products!

1: schwarzkopf got2b 2 sexy big volume push up hairspray

wow, i never realised how much of a mouthful the product name is to say out loud. for years i'd been in search of a hairspray that would give my hair volume without making it sticky or matted, and it was only this year that i finally found my perfect product: this hairspray! the formula is slightly drying so it's probably best to use the product sparingly, however not much is needed for an instant boost and it does exactly what i want it to by creating volume without making your hair sticky; it also smells absolutely wonderful. i cannot rave about this product enough, it's fantastic. a massive 10/10 from me.

2: e.l.f. lip exfoliator

since using this product, i've wondered how the hell i ever lived without it. applying lipstick is now a much more pleasant experience as there's none of the gross cracking and flaking that would've previously occurred on days where my lips were looking a little less than perfect. i apply this morning and night followed by blistex relief cream to ensure that my lips are well moisturised after being exfoliated, and since starting this routine my lips have been consistently soft and crack free. lovely.

3: simple pore minimising toning cleanser

i've been using this product for about six months now, and although i'm still prone to the occasional breakout, i find that my nose and chin now have considerably less blackheads on them, which can only be a good thing. it's not a miracle product by any means, but it definitely does what it says on the, er, bottle.

4: aussie miracle hair insurance leave-in conditioner

i've also been using this product for about half a year now and love it just as much as the schwarzkopf hairspray. i spray it on wet hair and it detangles all the mess for me while leaving my hair gorgeously soft and shiny once my hair's dried. i repurchased it as soon as i ran out of my first bottle while also stocking up with another three. it's now become a hair care essential for me; a fabulous product with a fabulous scent (like all the aussie products, swoon.)

5: harajuku lovers sunshine cuties: love perfume

this product i'm not particularly mentioning for its scent (which is a lovely, summery, coconut smell,) but more for its appearance. it's the cutest perfume bottle i've ever laid eyes on, so much so that after owning this minute amount of perfume for two years, i've only just brought myself to finish the bottle for fear of the empty being thrown away against my will. i now have this bottle and another empty harajuku bottle stashed away ready to be taken to uni to be used as some sort of ornament. there's no point wasting so much cute, i figured!

6: nivea oil free moisturising day cream for oily and combination skin

for so long i suffered with the problem of skin that was dry but also greasy, which made absolutely no sense to me. after reading blogs and discovering that it was a light moisturiser that i needed as i had combination skin, i headed to boots and picked this up. since purchasing it i've never gone back. i found that it cleared up my problem pretty much instantly and it now continues to leave my dry areas moisturised without leaving the rest of my face greasy - perfect! i cannot fault this product at all and would highly recommend trying it out if you also have combination or oily skin.

7: rimmel moisture renew lipstick in 180 vintage pink 

i'd heard a lot on beauty blogs about 'your colour but better' lipsticks, and after a lot of searching, i finally found mine in this colour. it's a bit of a strange one with it being a dark pink/purple kind of colour, but it's so subtle and flattering on me and doesn't wash me out like a lot of other pink lipsticks i've previously tried. the formula's also really moisturising on your lips so you never get that awful cracked look when applying it. it's a lovely lipstick that i'll definitely be repurchasing when it eventually runs out.

so, there are my product illustrations and reviews! i think more than anything i just wanted somewhere to ramble on about how impressed i've been with these products, but if it helps you out somewhat or inspires you to try a new product, brilliant! i know there are a lot of bloggers i'd like to personally thank for prompting me to go to boots and pick up some of the items that i've grown to love. if you have any comments on this kind of blog content, please feel free to let me know in a comment. i'd be interested to hear other people's experiences with these products or just to find out if you find this kind of post on my blog interesting at all!

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