Mr Bright Side

♥Some of you may remember a post I did a while ago about my rather out of character purchase of Costa Chic by MAC. I thought I'd just give you a bit of an update on it - I'm in love! I wore it almost every day whilst on holiday in Spain. Since it's quite a bold colour, I'd say it probably suits more tanned skin tones. So being the untannable woman myself, I find it easier to wear it sheer and dab it over some lip balm. I usually pair it with Head Over Heels cream blush by Topshop, they're very similar colours and so go perfectly together!

Any one else crazy for Costa Chic?

xo

Oh so Costa Chic!

I ventured out into Manchester today with my dearest friend Natalia, we were both on a mission to do some serious shopping (my mission was not as accomplished as hers) and lets just say one umbrella between two girls in flood worthy rain was a bad move! We got totally drenched looking for Ryan's Vintage up near Piccadilly, but I did purchase a gorgeous vintage scarf so the day was not all doom and gloom.

I took the opportunity whilst in the city centre to return some empty compacts to MAC in return for a lipstick of choice. This time round, after numerous nudes and pinks, I decided to get a bit adventurous and picked Costa Chic. I know this shade might not be adventurous for some, but for me it's nothing sort of an achievement!







Im not totally won over by it... yet! I'm sure it'll grow on me, especially when the weather starts to act more like Summer than Winter. Hopefully I'll be able to get a FOTD up using it, as today's rain has made me look like I've been dragged through a bush backwards I thought I'd give it a miss until another date.

Think I'm going to snuggle up with a brew and watch the Eurovision now! Hope you all have a good weekend


♥

EOTN: Autumn Eyes

Hey lovelies! ♥


I know i've not done one of these in a while so I decided it was about time!

This look is inspired by Autumn, my favouritetest of seasons :) It's a bronze smokey eye with lots of smoked out liner. It's using most of the products i bought in my recent haul, hope you guys like it!








&hearts'







Products used;

MAC;

Shade stick in Gentle Lentil
E/S in All That Glitters
E/S in Bronze
Pigment in Copper Sparkle
Pigment in Melon
Pigment in Vanilla
Kohl Liner in Smoulder
Fluid Line in Black Track
Opulash Mascara



and then I used a little Barry M kohl liner in no.2 (brown) on the lower water line as well! :)




♥x♥





Check out my tutorial on YouTube of how to get this look!

Oh My MAC!

Evening lovelies!


When I started blogging around a year ago I had very little in the way of makeup but a lot of passion to explore it. I'd spend hours drooling over fellow blogger's makeup collections, hoping that one day I'd have enough money for a huge collection of my own. I set up a little "makeup fund" and have been adding a couple of pounds here and there to it over the last year. Knowing it was coming up to a year since I started, I decided to have a little peak and see where I was up to... and gosh was I surprised! I had amounted a small fortune, albeit a very small fortune. But enough to get my makeup collection under way. Weighing up the fact that it was almost my birthday, and the fact that I hadn't splurged on makeup for a while, I headed straight to the MAC website and went a bit finger clicking crazy!

I did spent a lot, I'll admit. But a lot of the money went on the brushes (MAC brushes are notoriously expensive) and I knew they would be a good investment.

So here it is, my very much one off MAC haul!


♥





♥







Brushes: 150, 168, 190, 138, 217, 219, 213, 242









E/S:Bronse, All that Glitters









Pigments : Melon, Copper Sparkle, Vanilla, Naked









Brow set: Clear









(Excuse the chipped polish in this one!)

Shadestick: Gentle Lentil
Eye kohl: Smoulder
Penultimate Liner: Rapid Black









Powder Blush: Pink Swoon, Blushbaby









Cremesheen Glass: Fashion Whim, Double Dare, Partial pink









Lipstick: Saint Germain, Viva Glam Gaga




&heartsx♥

REVIEW: Mac 187 vs Ruby and Millie stippling brush (video)

I had this requested a few times and i've finally got round to it








Conclusion: Go for the Mac 187 if you have the money, but if not, the Ruby and Millie brush is still good!



Remember, if you ever have any requests just throw em my way :)



xxx

MAC fakes on ebay

In a video i did recently on youtube, i showed off a few things i bought that week. One of these things was a MAC 187 stippling brush. I got mine for around 7 or 8 pounds and it is NOT a fake. This raised some eye brows though, as that is pretty cheap considering its RRP! But it was sold by a private seller (not a shop or power seller), a woman clearing out her makeup collection. She had other MAC products including eye shadows, hello kitty + dame edna shadow palettes, other MAC brushes and blushes. You can suss a seller out by looking at the other items they are selling, if she was selling 20 187's at really low prices, then i'd be suspicious. But every now and again you get ebay novices, people who put expensive items at a 99p starting bid price and people like me will take advantage of it (why not?!) which is why i got it so cheap.



But there are fakes out there and they are gettig closer and closer to the real thing! So i thought i'd share with you a couple of ways to tell if a brush your thinking of bidding on is fake.





1. PACKAGING

Authentic MAC brushes come in a clear plastic sleeves with a bar code printed on the sleeve. Many fake brushes I have seen come in clear plastic sleeves without the bar code. Also, many fake face brushes come with additional hard plastic protectors for the hairs. Real MAC face brushes do not have this additional plastic protector. They come in the simple clear plastic sleeves with bar code.


2. HANDLE

Real MAC brushes come with black wooden handles and the neck (the part that connects the handle to the hair) is silver. Some bad fake brushes will have black plastic necks.


3. LETTERING

Authentic MAC brushes are labeled "MAC ###". ### being the number of the brush. On real brushes, the lettering is printed on the handle and easily rubes off. On most FAKE brushes, the lettering is engraved into the handle and very hard to rub off.


4. BRUSH SETS

Keep in mind that MAC has never offered a set of full sized makeup brushes except until November 2006 called the Pret-a-Porter brush set. The Pret-aPorter set includes 8 full size brushes (187, 190, 129, 213, 224, 266, etc). The set comes with a black satin brush roll. If you see a full size MAC brush set with more than 8 brushes it's fake!


5. THE SELLER

Never buy MAC products from a seller you don't trust! Sellers to watch out for are a) Newly registered sellers with no or little feedback, b) sellers in other countries such as in China and Japan and Singapore (they'll be garanteed fakes) c) sellers selling a lot of other MAC brush sets (you have to wonder where they are getting the endless supply of brush sets). Don't let 100% feedback fool you. Look at the seller's completed listing and see if week after week they list full size MAC brush sets. That's a sign the brushes are fake!


6. PRICE

If the price is too good to be true, it's probably because it is. The best way to avoid buying fake brushes on Ebay is to buy brushes one at a time, instead of in a set. If the seller seems to have an endless supply of brushes and is happily selling them for 50% off of the retail price then thats a sure sign they are fake.


7. PICTURES

If the picture is blurred and doesn't have a close up ask for a close up picture, if the seller refuses to give you one it's FAKE!


some examles of fakes:



Authentic brushes don't come with the brush covers the ones in the middle have




A really bad fake travel size set! The necks should be silver, not black.



Ever seen MAC selling a set this big before? This has got fake written all over it, and again the necks are black and not silver!



I hope this has helped you guys :) remember if your not sure DON'T BID.


xxx

Going over to the pink side...

I'm a nude lipstick girl, always have been but maybe not always will!

i went on a haul recently and got a lipstick from mac when i returned 6 empty items and i got a pink lipstick! yep pink! and i must say i was pleasently suprised.











The shade is Snob. and i really like it!

I think i'll be trying out more pinks from now on but not reds.

reason why...












I look a bit like an 8 year old trying on her mums makeup haha


x