September Wishlist

I am the poorest I have been in an awfully long time, all the “yolo” spending I’ve been doing has seemed to catch up with me so until I get paid and save up again I will be doing some serious ogling and with all the new season launches happening at the moment I will be doing an feck load of ogling.

I’ve a mix of things that have been on my radar, some reasonable in price and others I know that the closest I’m going to get to it is touching this screen.

Starting with the Stun Hun mug from Aoife Dooley. You might have seen her illo’s doing the rounds on social media and if you haven’t you need to check them out they’re hilarious. This mug is €11.95 and on the more reasonable side of my budget. There’s more in the collection but the Stun Hun mug is going to be winging its way to me next pay day.

I still don’t think I’m fully over how amazing the Becca X Jaclyn Hill Champagne Pop highlighter is and I think it will be pretty hard for anything that comes across my lap to beat it. However saying all that I really want the new Anastasia Beverly Hills Highlighters. If you’re a regular reader to Beauty Blunders you will know just how much I love this brand and you should bet your bottom dollar that if you’ve seen any of the Kardashians highlight over the last few months they will have been wearing one of the highlighters from the collection. The best thing is that they are now available on CultBeauty at £28 (about €35). This one is still within budget but I’ll have to look at some reviews before I do decide to buy it. How gorge is the packing though, I love the art deco styling.

A new launch from Charlotte Tilbury with her new Magic Foundation available exclusively in Brown Thomas. I love a good full coverage foundation as I have a few scars and redness I like to cover up. I’ve heard some mixed reviews on this one so before I hand over €40 I will be going in to get some samples. I’ve yet to get anything from Charlotte Tilbury, I want an amount of products but unfortunately it’s always been out of my budget.

If you follow me on any of my social media accounts you will know that I’ve had my eye on the Louboutin Lipsticks since the pictures where first released. I bought the Louboutin Rouge varnish last year and at €45 everyone thought I was insane to spend that much and I even used a €20 BTs voucher and still got mad looks for spending that much on a varnish. So when I found out that the lipsticks where going to be £60 which is roughly €90 I really got lambasted for wanting it. Even at €90 I still want it, I know it’s an insane price but when you think about it it’s an awful lot cheaper than a pair of Louboutin shoes so when you think about it that way it’s a bargain (you can see my way of thinking when it comes to justifying buying any beauty products). So I might not get this right away, maybe I’ll wait till Christmas as I usually get a Brown Thomas voucher off someone but we’ll see.

Finally from The Balm we have The Manizer Sisters a trio palette of the Betty Lou-Manizer, Mary Lou-Manizer and the Cindy Lou-Manizer. I haven’t found a site or place that sells it yet but its $28.00, so will probably work out at around €25.00 - €30.00. I keep going to buy the Mary Lou-Manizer but never get round to it but I think I’d prefer to have the little trio pack especially as it will be nearly the same for one as it is for the little trio.

So there you have my list of wants, I’m sure I’ll be adding to it but for the moment I am coveting all of these beauties.

What’s on your radar at the moment??

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Barry M Chisel Cheeks Contour Kit

Contouring isn’t going away any time soon and it seems this summer brands like Smashbox have really stepped up their contouring game with the introduction of their Step by Step Contouring Stick Trio and the Step by Step Contour Kit. So with an abundance of high end contour kits I was happy to find the budget high street end of things aren’t afraid to get involved either.

At the beginning of the summer I purchased the Barry M Chiseled Cheeks Contour Kit, I had been hunting it down for weeks, every time I went to pick one up it was sold out and at €9.49 for a contour kit that looks like an exact double for the Smashbox contour kit you can see why.

For a palette costing €9.49 it is good but compared to the Anastasia Beverly Hills contour powders which I also bought over the summer you do realise that paying a bit extra you will get a better quality powder but as a beginner kit it’s the biz.

The vanilla shade in the palette is a great dupe for the ABH Vanilla powder, I use it to set under my eyes which helps to brighten them up a bit. The middle bronze shade I use to bronze my cheeks (obviously). This shade is probably the colour I use least in the palette though, the bronzer is a bit more on the orangey side which doesn’t suit my complexion at all and it doesn’t blend very well either. The third shade in the palette is the contour shade, a lot like Fawn in the ABH kits, I pop this in the hollows of my cheeks and it’s a great colour to deepen even the chubbiest of cheeks.

I bought some of the ABH contour powders over the summer and sitting them side by side you can see they are very similar.

So if you’re thinking of getting into contouring and don’t want to spend a fortune I’d recommend the Barry M Chisseld Cheeks Contour Kit. While it’s not super amazing it’s definitely great as a starter kit and I’d probably give it a 7/10.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dupes??

Since I first tried Anastasia Beverly Hills brow products I instantly fell in love with them, whether it’s their Brow Powder, Brow Wiz or Dip Brow Pomade, using one of them at a time or sometimes all 3 at once I just love them. They are my Holy Grail brow products but Holy Grail as they are, they are also super expensive so I am always on the lookout for something just as good quality and an acceptable price tag.

If you’re an avid reader of Beauty Blunders, you might have also noticed that another brand I love is Makeup Revolution, so when I had seen that they released a new brow pen and brow cream I knew I had to try them and see if they compared in any way to the Brow Wiz and the Dip Brow Pomade.

I’ll start off with the Ultra Aqua brow tint; I had really high hopes for this cream. All the pictures I had seen showed really defined brows so I figured it would be just like the Dipbrow Pomade. While the product is really pigmented it just didn’t have the same effect as the Dipbrow and I would still have to put a pencil through my brows to fill the rest in. I can’t fault the price though £3.00/€3.79 so I can’t be too disappointed with it not coming up to scratch against the Dipbrow.

(Left) Ultra Brow Arch & Shape - More Defined
(Right) Ultra Aqua Brow tint - Less defined

The next brow product I tried was the Dual Ultra Brow Arch and Shape. So this wasn’t an exact match to the ABH Brow Wiz but I did find myself picking it up more than my Brow Wiz. It has a pencil top like the Brow Wizz but it’s waxier which is great for keeping any stray hairs in place, at the other end there is a felt marker tip that gives a faint tint. I don’t really use the felt tip end, I mostly use the pencil end and when I do I always go a bit heavier then needed and comb it out with a spoolie as it removes and excess leaving the perfect amount. While this isn’t exactly like the Brow Wizz it does look more like the Soap and Glory Brow Archery pencil which I also have, but I would say this is so much better and cheaper too at £3.50/€4.42. I think this one will be a repurchase for me; it’s probably one of the best budget pencils I’ve ever used.

So I haven’t found any dupes for my favourite Anastasia Beverly Hills products yet but the search is still on. If you are in the market for a budget friendly brow product that lasts all day then I would really recommend the Makeup Revolution Brow Dual Ultra Arch and Shape.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

January Favourites

I’m so glad January is over, it just felt like it would never end for me. Nothing ever really happens, the weather is always awful and this month I was just so unorganised and had serious writers block that I was barely hitting more than 1 post a week. Luckily I feel like I’ve gotten my blogging mojo back and hopefully you’ll be seeing a more posts up during the week.

The first few weeks of January where pretty slow, I did spend most of it reorganising my makeup which meant coming across a lot of stuff that I hadn’t tried in a while. If you’ve a big enough collection of makeup I’d really recommend it because I’ve started to use products again that I haven’t in a good while. I also got rid of a lot of old makeup that dried up and went out of date.

The last 2 weeks of January I started to get back into blogging and getting really motivated about it. A lot of new products are starting to come out which I get really excited about and I also went to a few product launches too so it’s all given me motivation and a lot of ideas for new posts.

Now that we're over January lets take a look at what i've been loving last month:

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade:

I had been on such a Brow Wiz buzz during December that I neglected most of my other brow products. When I was reorganising my makeup I decided to start using it again. I go through fazes of loving really sculpted brows and then going to a more natural look. At the moment I’m trying something in between and it’s working out so far.

Bunny Cotton Bud Holder:

Back in December I bought this little bunny in boots. You stuff its bum with cotton buds until there’s one popping out. I keep mine on top of my dresser. I’ve also found a new love for cotton buds, they’re so much better for cleaning my makeup and nail varnish off, I don’t think I’ll be buying cotton pads in a long time, they seem so rough compared to the buds. I’m not sure if they still sell it in Boots but they have a version in Tiger for €3.00.

Buxom Hold The Line Liner

I know it’s just a black pencil liner but it’s actually really good. I’ve been using the Urban Decay 24/7 Perversion pencil but after using the Buxom liner the urban decay liner has been put to the back of the drawer. It’s a long wearing waterproof liner that doesn’t smudge or budge throughout the day. It glides on like a gel and is super black and as a contact lens wearer it doesn’t transfer onto the lens which happens an awful lot with the UD liner.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick – Pure Hollywood

I bought 3 of these liquid lipsticks back at the start of January and as the other 2 colours are darker I’ve been wearing Pure Hollywood nonstop as it a gorgeous nude so it’s a bit more wearable during the day. I’m going to try and wear the other colours more but for now Pure Hollywood is my absolute favourite and I think I’ll have to be putting another order in for some more shades. I’ll have a review coming soon on them hence why I’m not giving a lot away.

Kiko Colour Up Long Lasting Eyeshadow

I bought a few of these when I was in London a few weeks ago and am loving the number 10 colour. It’s a pinkie champagne colour. I just wear it on its own for a simple work day makeup look. I glide it on and then buff it in and I’m good to go. I’ve been loving shadow sticks recently as they’re so easy to use and so handy, especially when you’re in a rush in the morning and need to get out the door to catch the bus!

Image Skincare Ormedic Balancing Lip Enhancement Complex

I got this in the December Chic Treat Club box and use it every night going to bed. It’s a really hydrating balm that plumps up your lips and smooths out your fine lines and contours of your lips. I haven’t really notice it plumping but my lips have been so smooth and this is probably the first winter in years where I haven’t had any horrible chapped lips. I think this is €23 so I don’t know yet if it will be a repurchase but I’ve been using it pretty much every night since I got it and there is still quite a lot of product in the tube so if it does last a bit longer it might justify spending that much on a lip balm.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

My Current Brow Routine and Obsession

I have a major love for eyebrows. For me there’s no point in having amazing makeup if you’re not going to bring your eyebrows into the mix.

I love getting my eyebrows done; I get them threaded every 4-6 weeks in Elysian Brown on South William Street. They are a bit pricey but from experiencing other cheaper salons that do threading they really are worth the money. For years I was going to BT2 in Dundrum to get them done, the girl there was amazing and always threw in a free head massage, unfortunately she ended up getting deported which left me in limbo and with butchered eyebrows for a few months before I found the holy grail of eyebrow threading  in Elysian Brows. It was a real first world problem but eyebrows really frame the face and for me even if I don’t have any proper makeup on as long as my brows are lovely and groomed then I can get away with having no makeup out in public.

I used to get my brows tinted but after getting my hair blonder I stopped doing that, I also fill in my brows so that does any darkening up I need. Before I went to America I was using just any light brown pencil to fill them in and the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow powder.

I love the Anastasia Beverly Hills brow products, at the moment you can only buy them in Elysian Brows in Dublin or you can buy them online. I waited to buy more of their brow products when I was in the States, I headed straight to Sephora when I got their and picked up the Dipbrow Pomade and the Brow Wizz brow pencil.

I have the Brow Wizz in Soft Brown and Dark Brown. I bought the Soft brown and the Dark Brown was in one of my Sephora Favourites boxes. I use the Dark Brown to draw in the ends of my brows and to get a sculpted shape between the middle of my eye to the end of the brow. The Soft brown is used to fill in the front of my brows and shape everything up that end. If I used the Dark Brown all over my brows it would probably look a bit Scouse brow but by using the colours at either end make it a lot more natural looking. This is all I do now for my daily brow routine like going to work or just a Saturday afternoon.

Too step my routine up for night time or just to make them even more sculpted I do the same routine with the Brow Wizz but I add in the Dipbrow Pomade just to make them more defined. I have a dual ended spooly that I bought from Crown Brush which has a little angled brush at the end which I use to apply the pomade. Again I mostly apply it towards the end of the brow but if you really want that HD Brow look then you can apply it at the start of the brow. When I have all that done I take a little bit of concealer and just clean everything up, doing this really highlights the brow and really defines it.

Above: Brows shaped with Dip Brow Pomade and Brow Wizz.
Below: Natural brow with no product.

So I have a bit of a brow obsession, I’m very particular about who does my brows and what goes on them but having such bushy brows that grow pretty quickly and crazily it’s one thing that I need to have perfect.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I’m not the only one out there with the love of brows!

Love Sarah xoxo

Soap and glory Archery Brow Tint & Precision Pencil

I love eyebrows, there’s nothing more satisfying for me than perfect eyebrows. I get some serious brow envy sometimes especially looking at the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Jaclyn Hill or Kim Kardashian, their eyebrows are the most amazing perfect things I’ve ever seen.

For my brows I usually use a pencil, I’ve no particular brand I use, but I have the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo which I love and if I don’t use the powder I use one of the MAC shadows I have in my palette.

So the point of this post is to tell you about the new brow product in my life, the Soap and Glory Archery brow pencil.

This is a duo pen, on one end is a twist up pencil to shape the brow and on the other is felt pen to tint and fill in the brow. It only comes in two colours, either Love is Blonde or Brownie Points. Even though I’m blonde I have dark brows so I got the pen in Brownie Points.

Before and After

The felt part of the pen I love, usually I just fill in my brows with a pencil, which can be a bit harsh on your brows and depending on what pencil I’ve used it’s taken a hair or two as it filled them in so I love how the felt pen isn’t harsh. It’s also super quick and easy at filling them in.  The only thing that annoyed me about the felt part was that it dried out sometimes and you had to turn it upside down to get the tint to go back to the top.

The pencil part I didn’t totally love, it crumbled a lot. If you don’t have the pencil twisted back into the pen then the lid cracks it which really annoyed me and you think I would have learnt my lesson the first or second time that I did it but I’ve kept doing it so I’m sure I’ve lost a lot of product because of that.

The pencil cost €13.00, which I think is slightly more expensive than it should be but that could just be because I only loved half of it. It could also be in more colours, having only 2 in the range meant I had to go with the darker shade and sometimes my brows can look very dark after applying it.

So I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it! My brows actually looked well when I used it so I suppose it wasn’t all bad but I don’t think I’ll be buying it again as I’ve been waiting till America to get the Anastasia Brow Wiz and Dipbrow Pomade, even though I can get them at Elysian Brow in town but I think it’s cheaper in the States.

So have you tried Archery? Let me know what you thought of it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo