Wednesday 28 October 2015

Mid week last minute Halloween ideas

Hello!

I feel like I shouldn't be talking about this because I am not really one for Halloween, but since it's on Saturday, I thought I would just pop up a few ideas from previous Halloweens.



Last year I did this super simple sugar skull look. This was one of the hardest things I did because I'm super bad at art... It's quite good for a last minute look however as you can just use white face paint and eyeliner. 

The previous year I did a cat look. again, super simple, Just use eyeliner. I can't find a picture anywhere however... But there are tons of tutorials for a cat.


This year I'm not sure. I think I'm just going to look on YouTube and find something, or I may not even bother. I feel like it's a lot of work and I'm not planning to go to a party so... we'll see. If you want to see a halloween look from me, check out my instagram as I'll post anything I do there.


Let me know in the comments what you're doing for Halloween! Also,I changed around the colours and stuff of my blog. Recently I've been loving turquoise and mint with gray and copper/rose gold accents, but I'm not sure how I feel about it with my blog. 

Let me know what you think in the comments!
Signing off now,

Dusty Foxes 

Sunday 25 October 2015

Review: Tarte 7 Piece High-Performance Naturals Collection (picture heavy)


Hi guys,

So I picked this up a while ago when there was a promotion on QVC where the set was just under £40 instead of £51 as it is now. Of course that is a lot of money either way, but I think that the set is quite good value for money - especially as Tarte as a brand is not cheap!



In this set you will get "a full-coverage airbrush foundation with an airbuki brush, silk Amazonian clay eyeliner, lights, camera, lashes 4-in-1 mascara, coconut oil lipstick, a double-ended eyeshadow brush, and a palette with a full-sized Amazonian clay blusher and six eyeshadows, plus a limed edition make-up bag. "- From QVC's site. 

On QVC UK, the shade range for the foundation is very limited, with only 6 shades being available from the range. Sephora has 16 shades on their website, so as you can imagine, 6 shades is definitely not as many as there could be. However, I was able to find a match on the site for my skin tone. It is slightly darker than the one I bought a while ago from Sephora, but it suits my skin more when I have a bit more of a tan. I think if you can find your shade, this would be a good starter kit from Tarte as the price is very good for what you get.




First thing I pulled out was this funky looking brush. This is the Rule Bender double ended eyeshadow brush. I personally do not like double ended brushes as I find them really hard to store/display, but it's a decent brush. It features a fluffy flat side (straight side) and a blending crease side (bent part). The bend in the brush is supposed to make it easier to blend eyeshadow, but to be honest, I don't really see much difference in the application. If anything, I find it more confusing as I am used to my straight brushes. I am going to play with it a bit more and see how I feel as so far I have not actually used it that much.


Next thing I pulled out was the Lights, Camera, Flashes mascara. As I am currently trying to use up some other mascaras, this has been added to my stash to try in the future. However, it is a much raved about product so I'm excited to try it.





Next was the Silk Amazonian Clay Eyeliner in Black Brown. This eyeliner is in a lovely dark brown shade and is a retractable pencil, so no bothersome sharpening. The eyeliner itself is quite short and thin, and the other side features a smudger which is quite hard but not too hard. This eyeliner however.... it was love at first swatch. It glides on so incredibly smoothly, and is so soft and creamy. I love the formulation. Unfortunately, I can't find the exact same product online, so I think it may be a set exclusive, but I am definitely intrigued by Tarte eyeliners now. I have not really tested for longevity as I keep forgetting to check my liner before taking off my makeup, so I've been a bad beauty blogger.




This is the Coconut Oil Lipstick in the shade Primrose. I expected a more nudey type pink, but this is quite a deep colour, more berry than red, but still nude enough for everyday. I think this is a great shade to include in the kit as I can see it looking beautiful on many skintones. The formula is very smooth and almost glossy, which I think is the oil component. I have not tested the longevity of this either as I have not been wearing lipstick lately, but I think in the coming months I will be doing that. A slight disappointment is that it did not smell like coconut, but that's a minor issue.


swatches








 This is the foundation. I did actually open it, but I seem to have forgotten to take a picture of the mesh part. However, I did do a mini review on the shade I originally had which was fair-light neutral which can be seen here. But in summary, I love this foundation formula, its lightweight but full coverage and makes my skin look airbrushed. This is the only reason that I bought this set, because if I do not love the foundation this much, I would not have bought another of it. So I think that speaks for itself. I do wish QVC carried more colours though, and sold it without the brush as I already have 2 with the addition of the one in this kit. However, I still have a quite a lot of this foundation left so I'll worry about replacing it when time comes.




Finally the crowning jewel of the kit in my eyes. The palette. It is a lovely palette, with the gold exterior and the large mirror inside, but it gets dirtier than anything else I have ever seen. I pretty much just looked at it and there was smudges. Ok that's a joke, but honestly, this packaging looks nice but is so impractical in terms of keeping fingerprints off. I had to wipe it then slowly push it into place with a cotton bud in order to take a picture and somehow it still ended up smudged! However, I can forgive it that because the inside is brilliant. There are 6 eyeshadow shades and one blush shade. The blush is a full size blush and is in the shade Insightful. It is the middle swatch. The eyeshadows are Golden Opportunity, Sienna the Future, Like You a Latte (bottom 3 swatches going up), Highlight of My Day, Cream of the Crop and Mauve Mountain (top 3 swatches). They are all really pretty and smooth and blendable. I would say that Cream of the Crop is the shade I have the most trouble with getting to show as it is a nude colour. Personally, I prefer the left side of the palette as I'm enjoying bronzey tones recently, but I think that its a good palette, especially if you're starting out with makeup.


Overall, I think this palette is quite a good deal and has a large range of products. Besides an eyebrow product, this kit would be all I need to take for holiday (except for the part where I want options and bring a huge ton of products). I think even at £51, it is an okay price for what you get and is definitely recommended by me. This product is available at QVC UK.

What do you think of the product? Also, let me know if the post was too long, or if you do like long posts like this? Let me know your thoughts on anything you like in the comments below. I will be replying to them a bit late as I'm staying with a friend this weekend, but I will definitely reply when I get them.

Signing off now,

Dusty Foxes


Sunday 18 October 2015

Review: Rimmel Scandal Eyes Eye Shadow Paint 006 Rich Russet

Hi everyone!

Today I'm going to be sharing my review on the Rimmel Scandal Eyes Eye Shadow Paint which I have in the shade 006 Rich Russet. This is a liquid eyeshadow which I bought because I heard about it on YouTube... like 90% of my makeup.

Inside the tube, there is this doe foot applicator, which you can use to place the product on the eyelids. Personally, I like to use this to place it in the middle to outer half of my lid, but keeping it close to the lash line. Then I blend the product out with a small duo fibre brush. My favourite one for this is from Real Techniques.I like to keep the product close to the lash line when placing it because when I blend it, it doesn't go too high. Also, I like the way the colour is darker where I originally placed the product because then it looks like there's shading and stuff like that when I didn't even spend 2 minutes applying it. 


Here is the product swatched. The bottom one is how it looks directly from the tube and the top one is when it's been blended out with my finger. I personally really like the bronze colour and I think it's a really easy colour to wear.

Here is the same swatch, but taken in sunlight. I just wanted to show that the product does have a bit of a glitter to it, but because of the liquid formula, it doesn't fall down and stays nicely in place.

I would also like to mention that this does set very quickly, so I recommend doing one eye and then the other. Also, this product is really good as a base for other shadows, but I personally like using it on it's own for a quick makeup look most of the time.

Have you tried this or any other liquid eyeshadows before? Let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Signing off now

Dusty Foxes

Sunday 11 October 2015

Review: Unii Palette

Hello everyone!

I posted yesterday about why I haven't been posting and if you're in the mood for my excuses... well you can check that out.

Anyway, today I'd like to (finally) share my review of the UNII palettes that I own. I've mentioned them before in various other posts such as my Project 10 pan posts and my Build your own palette post.





The packaging of the actual product may have changed in the 2 or so years I've owned this, but when I bought mine, it had a sleeve with the colour of the palette and inside that was the box. I would recommend reading the sleeves and the back of the box as they give some advice on depotting and so on. If you're new to depotting, I recommend looking up tutorials on YouTube as that's how I learnt how to depot. Also, practice first on something you won't mind cracking or breaking (and keep some rubbing alcohol on hand to fix it if you need to!).




When you open the palette, there will be a magnetic sheet inside as well as a little movable thumb grip. You can move the thumb grip so that when you're doing your makeup you can hold onto the palette without sticking a finger into the product or you can take it out to maximise the space. The palette itself is quite heavy, but I like that it is plastic and quite sturdy. I also like the big mirror included so you can do your makeup easily.


Here is an example of what I can fit into a single palette. These are some of my favourite eyeshadows from the MUA palettes and I like the fact that I can customise them to have my favourites instead of having to look for each shade.


For travelling, I would recommend placing a sheet of kitchen roll over the shadows as shown above as it will help prevent the makeup from smashing every where and making a mess. It'll also help keep the mirror clean from dust and makeup so you can see yourself clearly when doing your makeup

Here is one of the white palettes that I have my Soap & Glory makeup in. I had one of the Christmas sets a few years back and I depotted them because they were in a plastic thing and I didn't like how bulky that was and also this way it would fit into my makeup drawers.


Anyway, I hope this review was useful, As I mentioned in my previous post, I've kind of forgotten how to blog,  so if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below and I will get back to you ASAP.

Also, I can no longer find them for the UK, so I'm sorry about that.

Signing off now,

Dusty Foxes

Saturday 10 October 2015

Update and excuses

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I thought I'd pop it up here because I haven't blogged the whole summer and I've forgotten how this blogging thing really works.

I've basically been making excuses for not blogging and not being active on social media since before my exams in May... So it's been a long time since then and I feel like I could've done something to prevent the hiatus. I accept responsibility for the fact that I haven't been around for ages, but I figured I'll put down all the excuses anyway, because as much as I would like to say that it's reasons why I haven't blogged, in reality, it's all excuses. Feel free to scold me and tell me off in the comments section!

Basically, I've been busy with life. I had exams, went on holidays, had no internet for months, broke my laptop screen and been lazy. I definitely could have made more effort, but I just had no inspiration. I haven't worn makeup in months as well, but since I've moved into my new place, I've been making the effort to try to wear it and I've been loving it. So I have some ideas for blog posts and I'm very excited to be back!

I'm definitely making more effort to schedule blog posts earlier so hopefully things like a 4 month long hiatus will not happen again, but as I am in university and very busy, I can make no promises.

Thank you so much to all of you who have stuck around all this time, and welcome to any new readers.

There will be a new post tomorrow at 10:00 am UK time, I'm going to write it now after posting this up so look out for that. I'm excited to share!

Signing off now,

Dusty Foxes