Unloved: Charlotte Tilbury

Charlotte Tilbury is probably one of the most lusted after brands, and why wouldn't it be? With the perfect rose gold packaging for a flat lay, metallic outer packaging which makes you just want to have it as an accessory on your make up vanity. 

Since seeing everyone and their cat obsess over Charlotte Tilbury products, I knew it was something I needed to get my hands on. Because why not add to my already over flowing collection of make up that I don't really need. (I seriously need it)

After swooning over the website multiple times, checking the price tags, clicking the X button at the top of my screen trying to muster the courage to click "proceed to payment" on products which were ever so expensive, surely they are worth the hype?

So one day I was scrolling through the website again, knowing I needed to get my hands on some of it. But what one do I chose first? The Wonderglow? The Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette? Or the Matte Revolution Lipsticks? 

I'm one of those people who reads lots of reviews on a product before I purchase it, most of them very trusted reviews from people i've been reading from for a really long time. 

So why wouldn't the products be as amazing as everyone says they are? 

I ordered the Quick and Easy glow kit from her website for a hefty £55, which doesn't seem a lot for what you get within the kit. You're right, you do get 3 full size products and 2 miniature ones. 

I was waiting patiently for this to arrive and I was so so excited when it did, it arrived in the sleek plum box that you see all over Youtube and Instagram, the gorgeous Charlotte Tilbury make up bag and each product beautifully presented in the matching plum boxes. 

The product I was most excited about had to be the Matte Revolution lipstick, i'd been wanting to try one for absolutely ages. When I saw that this shade "Very Victoria" came within the kit I was so excited and guess what? It was full size. Winner.

With its Browney-rosey shade, there was no way I wasn't going to like this, like I said everyone had raved about it right? But on a serious note, where is the pigmentation in this? Where is the longevity and where is the colour? I don't think i've ever been so dissapointed in a lipstick - a matte one too. I was hoping this was going to be the same as my long loved MAC matte lipsticks which are a lot cheaper but my god are they so much better quality.  Since having this, i've never used it for a day out or an event because it simply wont last, you can barely see its even there. 

Moving on, the second product I was so hopeful for is the Colour Chameleon in Amber Haze, everyone and their nan has this product. Everyone and their nan RAVES about this product. So why did I hate it? I adore the colour, I want to love it so so much. It was so chalky and rough on my eyelids, It needed to be creamier and more pigmented. Eye's are so delicate so having a really rough eyeshadow stick put all over your eyelid isn't the most comfortable thing. 

Maybe I got a dodgy one but this did not work for me like it seems to work with everyone else.

Lets talk lashes. Within this kit you are blessed with a mini version of Charlotte's Legendary Lashes mascara, a mascara which should bless you with X13 more volume. For a mascara which should cost usually £25.00 my god does it flake off and end up underneath your eyes instead of your lashes. 

I didn't feel like it added any volume or length, it just made my lashes  slightly darker? Hey, what mascara doesn't do that unless its a clear one. It's a no from me. 

Another product within the kit is the Beach stick in Moon Beach, i've never used a product like this before and I was really excited to give it ago although cream products terrify me. It claims that with one stroke you'll have a dewy & youthful glow. I want to try this a few more times because although the first time I couldn't really tell it was there. I might try this under my foundation next time as when I applied it ontop of my face it swiped off my foundation and I couldn't tell what was product and what was skin, is that a good thing? I don't hate this, i'm going to trial it a few more times before I report back. The colour is absolutely beautiful and does look like a summer glow in a tube, maybe this will work better when i've got a tan? 

Lastly, in the beautiful make up bag you receive a miniature Wonderglow. Probably one of the most sought after products Charlotte sells. I too wanted to believe in the hype that this product makes you glow from within and is a great base for your foundation. I just didn't see it do much for me, which is okay because not all products work for everyone. Yes it made my skin look semi-glowy all over but as soon as I put my foundation on it just dissapeared, I suppose it doesn't claim to extend the longevity of your make up but its always a bonus.

I've never seen a bad review on Charlotte Tilbury which is what made me so excited for the products. So after reviewing these products I knew I had to write about how I felt about them because I had never seen anyone not write these things, which equally made me so nervous that everyone would hate it or think i'm "bashing" the brand/ products. I'm not, they just didn't work for me as they seemed to work for everyone else which I find equally as weird. 

I don't want my blog to be a negative place, but I feel if you don't believe in something - why hide it away if no one else feels the same? 

What are your thoughts on Charlotte Tilbury? Whats your favourite or least used product?

Thanks for reading, 

Lauren xxx

Tanya Burr Collection Review

If you're from the blogging/ youtube world you will no doubt of heard of Tanya Burr. She is one of my favourite vloggers to watch on youtube and I am obsessed with her blog and since then she has come out with a range of new products. 

From false eyelashes and lipgloss to eyeshadow palettes and highlighters, you'll probably find it in Tanya's growing range.

I was so excited when she announced the range was coming out as I knew it was going to be something exciting and everyone wanted a piece of the collection. I was quite late to the bandwagon with these as I think I ordered them about a year after they were released. I'm quite picky when it comes to buying new make up products, it usually takes me quite a while before I take the plunge an order it.

I had picked up a pair of Tanya's lashes from her original collection when they were first released, to be honest I didn't like them that much. I found that they looked so plasticy and false on my eyes, I put that down to not being used to wearing false eyelashes now though. Whereas now I'll be able to wear pretty much anything and try and make them work whether I like them or not, I must give them another try though as they always seem to look gorgeous on Tanya.

I have never been one to like lipgloss but as it was from Tanya's range I somehow thought this would magically make me fall inlove with wearing lipgloss. wrong. I just need to accept that lipgloss is not my thing and never will be my thing. I hate the feeling of it, heaven forbid wearing it on a windy day as my hair will be glued to my face. I do love the look of it though which is annoying.

The one palette I did have my eye on for SUCH a long time was her in her Soft Luxe collection which consisted off two eyeshadow palettes, matte nail polish and liquid lipsticks. 

This was her "Birthday Suit" palette, which was filled with brown neutrals and sparkly chocolate shades. These are my favourite kind of eyeshadows to wear so I knew if I was going to have anything it was going to be this.

I ordered mine from Feel Unique and at the time I think they had some sort of offer on so I picked up the other palette also called "Enchanted Dream" which is still really neutral but just a tad more on the cooler-toned side. 

These palettes are so pigmented and easy to blend it puts some higher end palettes to shame for the price. I love how Tanya has designed her palettes, she's made them look so young and fun.  With the heart shaped mirror and the star detailing on each of the shadows brings something different.

Along with Tanya's staple ranges she also brought out christmas collections. I picked up two palettes from her most recent collection in 2016. 

This palette is called the "Beautifully Defined Palette" it comes with 3 eyeshadows, a bronzer, a highlighter and a face illuminator (not pictured.) 

I love the eyshadows that come within this palette, i've only just noticed its basically a dupe for the Nars duo in Isolde. I have used the highlighter a few times and I think i've used the bronzer only once. I'm quite picky with bronzers and for me this one doesn't stand out enough I don't find it gives me the bronzed look I tend to go for. 

This is the second palette called "Pretty Unstoppable" I managed to pick up in the christmas collection in 2016. The shadows are still beautiful and pigmented and the Tanya Burr shadow formula is amazing. I quite like the blush that comes with this collection and the shimmer is the same as the previous.

One thing I love the most about Tanya Burr Cosmetics is the names she choses for each of the shades/products. It just shows how much time and effort Tanya takes to create these products and it makes it so personal aswell. 

This palette also comes with one of my FAVOURITE Tanya Burr products, a mini matte lipstick in the shade "Martha Moo". I have the full size of this but I think the baby version is so cute. 

Have you tried any of the Tanya Burr Cosmetics range?

Lauren x

Classic Bronze Eyes

Hey loves,

After a very tiring long week at work i'm finally back with another post. I've been constantly reading other posts to make me relax and bring me back to a feeling of zen when I've been home from work.

I've been wanting this NARS eyeshadow duo ever since I've watched Zoella's Autumn Make Up video which she posted about 2 years ago. Since then I've seen so many posts classing it the perfect autumnal eyeshadow, perfect for winter to pair with a berry lip. I don't often like sticking to seasonal trends and only wearing dark lips in the winter time, I like to wear it all year round. 

I have a few NARS products but i've always been very nervous trying them incase they're not as great as some people make them out to be (they're pretty pricey). I recently bought the NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation (which is an absolute mouthful) after wanting to try out NARS Sheer Glow for sooo long! I'll be writing my thoughts on that in a post soon.  I love love love the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencils, the shade "bahama" is still my favourite to this day. 

But not long after reading The Makeup Directory's post on "Picking The Perfect Bronzed Eye" I knew I really needed to add it to my collection.

When I recently travelled to London, I stopped off in Liberty to pick up the NARS eyeshadow duo in "Isolde" but much like the website it was out of stock - I was totally gutted but totally not surprised. I then had another look on the website and it was still not in stock. I then did a little google search and found most places I could pick it up from hadn't got it there either. That was until I stumbled across Look Fantastic which had it in stock, I quickly typed in my bank details and bam it was ordered. I was so impressed that I'd ordered it on the Friday and it was already delivered the following Monday without any extra fee's. Although now I cannot find it on Look Fantastic either which I think means its out of stock! cries.

Isolde is the perfect combination of a good orange yet bronze eyeshadow. With its perfect pigmentation and with it being super easy to blend, this makes for a simple task of completing a bronze smokey eye. A lot of people dislike bronze/neutral eye looks as they run into the risk of it looking like you've been punched in the eye. You could have this looking quite natural or you could go the whole hog and smoke it out until your hearts content.

I'm so glad I purchased this duo, with the classic sleek NARS packaging it really stands out in your make up collection.

Have you tried any of the NARS eyeshadow duos?

Lauren x

Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette

Hey loves,

I've just got back from London after watching the NBA game of the Indiana Pacers vs Denver Nuggets which was amaaaazing. Denver won which happened to be the team I wasn't supporting but all in all it was one of the best nights ever. The atmosphere was incredible, luckily i've been to the States a few times and it honestly felt like I was there. Except, when we stepped out of the O2 Arena, it was freezing cold and heavily snowing so not quite the same.

Whenever I go travelling somewhere I always pack way too heavy with the make up even when i'm there for 1 or 2 nights, I like to have options okay. 

This time though I managed to restrain from packing my entire make up collection and only brought my essentials with me. One of them happening to be my post recent purchase The Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette - for ages this was out of stock on the Cult Beauty website but I signed up to the waiting list and then received the best email saying it had been restocked, of which I Purchased...Immediately. 

With it being priced at £41 I thought is it really going to be worth it? I have quite a few Anastasia products already in my collection which I adore. I did find myself reading lots and lots of reviews (which I do anyway for most things) before I bought this just to make sure that i'd done all the research I could, even though just looking at it alone I could already tell I was going to love these colours. 

The palette comes with 14 shades - 3 metallic and 11 matte. Every shade compliments the other so you can make hundreds of looks from a natural everyday or a warm bold smokey eye. This palette would most likely be put into the "autumn make up look category" but I wear these sorts of colours all year round so its a win win from me.

Knowing that all of my other Anastasia products are super pigmented, I knew this would be no different. I wasn't expecting for it to be as pigmented as it truly is though, one small tap of your brush picks up so much product that you don't want it to go anywhere near your eye. In the fear of not being able to blend it out and then you're stuck with a patch of super dark product trying to think of how you can pull it off. (this has happened to me, it isn't pretty) After tapping off the excess and praying to the make up gods that you're not about to ruin your entire face which has taken about an hour to perfect. The shadows blend so so beautifully that you sit there and wonder what you were ever concerned about in the first place. I then moved onto the metallic shades, I often have a love hate relationship with these types of shades, they often look beautiful in the pan but when you go to put them on your eye there is no colour pay off. Which means I'm often switching between palettes as there isn't a shimmery/metallic colour which is as pigmented as all the mattes (hence the taking every palette I own away when travelling, see there is some form of reason to it). 

You also get a little  dual ended brush in the palette aswell which I haven't used yet as often brushes that come with palettes tend to be quite crappy. However, one end of the brush is super fluffy and looks like it would blend quite well, some reviews have said that they can use the brush to do their eyeshadow which is a plus I guess. I'm just very loyal to my MAC 217 and Zoeva Soft Definer Brush.

I'm so glad I purchased this palette and will definitely become one of my most used in my collection. My one dislike with this palette is the outside packaging, I love the pink covering and its great that it comes with a mirror which is so handy for travelling. As the outside has a velvet feel to it, I can see it picking up dirt quite quickly and easily and its already become scratched and damaged in my suitcase cries.

Apart from that its so so worth the money. Purchase the palette here - https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/anastasia-beverly-hills-modern-renaissance-eye-shadow-palette.html 

Lauren x