Max Factor Masterpiece Glamour Extensions 3-in-1 Volumising Mascara | Review

Last year I went a little crazy buying mascara whenever I could, I’ve calmed down this year though I’m happy to say. I’ve given a lot of the unused ones to friends and have thrown out a lot of the older ones so my collection doesn’t look too chaotic right now.

I usually have 2-3 mascaras on rotation at a time but since getting the Max Factor Glamour Extensions 3-in-1 Volumising Mascara it has literally been the only thing I have used.

Firstly I love the packaging it’s very sleek with black and gold art deco designs on the outside. The wand itself is pure perfection; it’s a plastic want that is tapered at the bottom and larger on top. The bristles are short which I think is key to volumising your lashes as it helps coat and separate.

I’d compare this to the They’re Real mascara from Benefit but ten times better. The length it gives never drops, it doesn’t smudge, it’s pretty water proof but easy to remove and its super black. I’ll also add that it’s gym proof, it’s the only drop of makeup that survives my workouts and no matter how many times I rub my face with the towel my lashes look just as perfect as when I started.

Usually I would have a different mascara for night time but this one is good for day and night and I don’t feel the need to put any falsies on when I wear it. The more layers you put on the more volume you’ll get if you want that falsie look.

This will definitely be a repurchase; I’ve never had a mascara that was so defining, lengthening, volumising, blacker than black and most importantly clump free.

It retails for €13.99 and if you pop into Boots they have a 3for2 on at the moment!

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Brand Focus - Makeup Revolution

I feel like I’ve been talking about Makeup Revolution a lot the last few months but I love the brand and their products so I can’t help but talk about them (a lot!).

Instead of doing a few posts on individual products this post will be a brand focus post. If this works out well I’ll be doing a few posts on different brands such as MAC, Smashbox and NYC.

I have foundation, concealer, highlighter, blusher, eyeliner, mascara and lipstick. I have an eye shadow palette from them but at the time of taking pictures I couldn’t find it but their shadows are really good and I have a previous post done which you can read about them here.

I’m going to start with I didn’t love and leave the best till last.

Firstly we have the foundation and concealer. I bought the foundation as it has a matte finish and with having oily skin this is usually the type of foundation I go for and I bought the concealer as it was a brightening concealer so I use it to highlight my cheeks, nose and forehead. I’m going to be blunt and just say that I didn’t love them, I don’t know if it was just my skin that it didn’t suit or if it was the actual products but they were just not for me. The foundation looked thick when I put it on the back of my hand but as soon as I put it on my skin it went very sheer and dried so quickly that you didn’t have much time to really buff it into the skin and make it look natural. I found that using a damp blender sponge that it helped but it still didn’t look great. It also didn’t last too long being matte although that could just be because of my skin type. When I put the concealer on my face it was a very liquid substance and when blended into my skin it moved the foundation on my face and when I had just perfected the foundation and made it look decent it the concealer just ruined everything.

I suppose I shouldn’t expect much seeing as the foundation and concealer where £2.00 each but I did have a little hope they would have worked out.

The Vivid baked highlight is £3.00 and I bought mine in peach. The only other highlight that I have similar to this is the MAC Mineralise Skin Finish in Soft and Gentle so I’ll compare it to that one. The colours are very similar and it gives a lovely highlight but you do need to put what seems like a lot on just so it’s noticeable.

I have a few of their lipsticks but this is the latest one that I have. I love my vampy colours and this is from their Vamp Collection in the colour 100% Vamp. It’s a perfect colour for Halloween, it’s a dark black wine colour which are my absolute favourites and a bargain at £1.00 and if you don’t like the colour they have a huge range of different ones all for £1.00 so you should find something you like.

The Amazing Eyeliner in Ultra Black is awesome. It’s a super black liquid liner that is so long wearing it could put the They’re Real Liner to shame.  The only problem I have with it is the pointy brush, it’s very stiff and I think with a normal liner brush it would go on much better. This one is another bargain at £1.50.

Everyone needs this blusher; it is so pigmented and such great quality for a blush that costs £1.00. I have mine in Sugar; it’s a warm matte peach and brightens up your cheeks giving such a fresh look. A little goes a long way with this as a lot of pigment comes off on your brush so start off small and you can build it up to your desired colour. Absolutely love this blush and will most definitely be buying more.

Finally my favourite from the bunch is this Amazing Lengths mascara. Only £1.50, this plastic wand will lift and separate your lashes to give wide eyed natural look. It’s also a long wearing formula that lasts from morning till the time you’re taking off your makeup. My star buy and I really recommend it especially for more daytime friendly natural makeup looks.

The fact that the foundation and concealer where a disaster for me I still love Makeup Revolution they a fantastic inexpensive makeup company that keep their collections up to date and are always adding new lines so there’s always an excuse to buy more. You can find out more on their website and if you’re in Dublin, the Superdrug in the Omni Centre in Santry have a stand but keep an eye out as they are rolling out more soon.

I haven’t been paid or sent any of these items I just love their products hope that you’ll love them too.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Benefit They're Real Trio | Review

While I love mascara I don’t always think you need to have the most expensive one in your makeup bag to give you the best results and I always told myself that I didn’t need the Benefit They’re Real mascara but when I was in the airport and saw it in a little bundle with the new Push Up Liner and the Remover I couldn’t resist buying it.

Now this was supposed to be a big They’re Real post with the liner and remover but I’ve mislaid the eyeliner. It’s in my room somewhere but it’s such a mess I just can’t find it right now so do look forward to that post in the next week or so. I’m an actual disaster sometimes when it comes to losing things.

Anyhow since buying the mascara it has been one of two mascaras that

I have been wearing over the last two months and has definitely gone into my top 5 favourite mascaras.

I’ll start with the packaging and the wand. I love the sleek mirrored exterior and just like other benefit products it does have that retro/vintage design. The wand is something else, it’s plastic with bristles all over including the top. Having so many bristles means that you don’t get any clumps, which is hard to come by when you have such a volumising mascara.

The formula is extremely black and with one swipe you get instant volume but giving it 2 to 3 coats really pumps it up, doubling them in size. The tip of the wand has added bristles so it means you can get every lash, top and bottom.

This is such a long lasting mascara and doesn’t lose volume throughout the day. Which is a good and bad thing as the only problem I have with it is that it’s too long lasting. It’s an absolute bitch to take it off and even using the new They’re Real Remover you don’t get it fully off. I’ve also fallen asleep with it on and you don’t wake up looking like a panda, in fact I think my lashes looked better, whatever way I slept on the pillow seemed to curl them. Saying all that I obviously wouldn’t recommend falling asleep with makeup on, I was very bold that night.

At €26.00 it is pretty expensive for a mascara and I probably wouldn’t have bought it if it wasn’t in a bundle with the new Push Up liner and remover, but I’m pretty happy that I now have it in my collection. If you do want it but don’t want to spend the money the Bourjois 1 Seconde Volume mascara is a great cheaper alternative to it.

As a mascara it really does live up to all the hype which is refreshing to see a product do what it actually claims to, definitely a 9/10 product.

What do you guys think? Is it worth it? Do you love it or hate it? I’d love to hear what you think!

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Seventeen Falsifeye HD Mascara Review

Seventeen is not a brand that I wouldn’t usually buy, and truth be told I don’t think I’ve bought anything from them since I was a teenager all those years ago. However saying that when I saw the new Falsifeye HD Mascara it caught my eye for looking that bit more mature and unlike some mascaras from brands like Seventeen it looked like it would actually do what it claims to.

At first I wasn’t too impressed by it but I think that’s because it didn’t stand out from any of the other mascaras that I had tried out over the last few months. I convinced myself though that it was good but it was just living up to the same levels as the other mascaras.

When I bought it I didn’t realise that I had bought it in the brown/black colour which could have been one of the reasons why I wasn’t completely impressed as I’m sure if it was in the black it would have made my lashes stand out even more. The brown/black colour just made my lashes look the same as my natural colour but with better definition.

From the blurb on the box and online it says that it doesn’t clump which it doesn’t, the comb is plastic and combs through your lashes separating them completely. It says that users found more definition but compared to other mascaras I have used recently I think it has just about the same if not a little less definition then the likes of Bourjois 1 Seconde Mascara. 92% say it was long lasting which I would agree, it stays put all day, doesn’t smudge and when wet it didn’t leave too much of a panda eye. Finally and the statements that I don’t agree with is that it lifts and curls and thickens lashes, basically it didn’t do any of that for me. I have straight lashes that rarely curl even with using an eyelash curler so could say that’s more my problem then the mascaras but I definitely didn’t see thickness, I have other mascaras that give me a lot more thickness than this one.

I can’t say that I hate this mascara, it is quite good but it just didn’t live up to my previous buys who proclaim the same sort of volume. As I said it is good, I used it pretty much every day since I bought it. It’s a very good mascara for just throwing on for work and it helped me brighten up my eyes giving them a more natural look.

I bought this just as it came out and was €5.98 but it’s now €8.89 which makes it a good mascara for the price but I think I’m still so in love with my Bourjois 1 Seconde Volume mascara that it really had to live up to all the expectations I had for it to be amazing and it just didn’t.

So I really could take it or leave but if you’ve bought it let me know your own thoughts on it as I’m really on the fence about this one and would love to know how you found it.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Bourjois Volume 1 Seconde - The Best Low Cost Mascara on the Market!

I love my mascaras, the more volume they give the better.

I had second thoughts about buying this mascara as I thought I didn’t need it (eh yea that didn’t last long, when do I not need a bright shiny new mascara) but after reading numerous reviews I decided to give it a go, I think I also got it for free when I was on a 3 for 2 Raid in Boots.

Firstly the packaging is awesome; it’s so sleek and shiny and gives it a look that it costs a few bucks. Then we have the wand which is really really good, I usually prefer the regular bristles you get on wands rather than plastic ones but this plastic wand has definitely won me over. I put my love of it down to its uniqueness; the wand is patented and comes with teeny tiny balls in between the bristles giving you an “instant 360° Volume”.

The Volume 1 Seconde Mascara not only instantly volumises but makes your lashes separate thanks to its bristles and little balls (minds out of the gutters ladies). The formula is also a one of the blackest blacks I have seen in a drugstore brand.

This is a long lasting mascara also, the blurb on the website says that it gives up to 16hrs hold with the waterproof offering 24hrs, and I can definitely agree with them as I put my makeup on around 7 in the morning and by 11 at night when I’m taking my makeup off it is still looking as fresh as when I put it on and after going to 2 concerts in the last week and a half where I was drenched by torrential rain it does last in all weathers. That being said I probably wouldn’t want to be jumping into any pools with it on and giving it a good wetting just in case!

Sorry for the droopy eyes, I wasn't long out of bed

It does say easy to remove but it does take a bit more effort than other mascaras that I have used in the past so that would be the only fault that I would have with it. I can only imagine what the waterproof one is like if I have a bit of trouble with the regular one.

This has to get a 9½/10 for me and that’s just me being picky for not coming off as easy as it says it would!

The Bourjois Volume 1 Seconde Mascara is a big hit with myself and I have been wearing it nearly every day since I started using it. It will only set you back €12.99 and let me tell you it’s worth every penny!!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Love Sarah xoxo

March favourites

Hey Guys, I've been sorely lacking in the posts recently, it’s been a hectic week or so and hopefully I’ll be able to put up one or two posts extra this week.

So these are my March favourites, some of these products I purchased in February but I got the full use out of them for the whole of March and looking back over them they are all super affordable, I don't think I spent more than €10 on each of the products.

Starting off we have the Schwarzkopf Essence Ultime shampoo and conditioner created by Claudia Schiffer. They have a few different types of shampoos in this range; I got mine in Diamond Color which is for coloured and highlighted hair. Firstly it smells amazing, I can't put my finger on it but its noting like I've had in other hair products so that's bonus number one. The shampoo lathers so much, I also think that if it doesn’t lather then it’s not a proper shampoo, usually if I have one that doesn’t lather my hair always gets greasier quicker.

Now for my favourite part of this pair is the fact that it makes your hair super soft and it doesn’t knot at all. The knots just fall out even before you've put a comb through your hair.

I chose the shampoo and conditioner as over the years I’ve gone from blonde to brown to Cheryl Cole red to brown and back to blonde so my hair has been pretty damaged over the years and also with winter and being around heaters all the time my hair has dried out big time but the Essence Ultime shampoo and conditioner has brought life into my locks. I definitely recommend it if you have coloured hair.

This is my surprise favourite of the month which is the Rimmel BB cream matte foundation. I bought this in a 3 for 2 offer at Boots with a few other Rimmel products including their Stay Matte mouse foundation. I first tried the Stay Matte foundation and I really didn’t like it, you can see my review on that in one of my previous posts. But this foundation is really good, I’m not sure if the BB cream has any effect on the skin and it isn’t the most mattifying of foundations and they do have only 3 colours to choose from but apart from that I have fallen in love with it and have been using this foundation more than my MAC and the way my skin has been recently it's looking a lot nicer on my skin than the MAC has been. After using it for the month and getting to know it, I found that applying it with my fingers rather than using my brushes makes the application much better. The light colour is a shade or too darker than my pale Irish skin but I’ve managed to make it work for me with a super amount of blending.

Now I have the oiliest skin in the world and hate to have even a little bit of shine and at the beginning of using the foundation I was touching my skin up with powder a lot but after buying a mattifying powder it has worked perfectly with the foundation. The foundation does last throughout the day and it doesn’t dry out the skin I suppose that’s part of the BB cream in it. It’s a great little foundation, although it isn’t properly matte but I’ve found a way for it to work for me. It’s super cheap and great for days when you don’t want to waste the good stuff.

Just to add on, it’s a sheer makeup and not too buildable and it’s not the best if you want to contour with powders but as long as you just wear it as a normal makeup with a simple bit of blush then your good to go!

I was out one night and had forgotten to powder my face so I asked a friend if she had any, she handed me an Essence loose powder and after hours of dancing my skin was perfect. I was on a mission I went to every Penny's possible but they didn’t have it, but I kept seeing the same one only in a compact. I gave up and bought the compact. It works the exact same though, its translucent powder and really mattes the skin for hours. 

My final makeup March favourite is the Scandaleyes Rockin' Curves from Rimmel, I've done a blog post already on this one so you can read more of it on their. This was only launched a month or so ago but it has taken precedence over my other mascaras this month. What I love about this is the wand, it's a curved wand which I had never seen before and in one swipe it gets every lash and the tip gets every little bottom lash. It doesn’t clump and it stays on all day without losing any height. 

So this isn’t anything to do with makeup but I am in love with these two songs. All of me by John Legend and Magic by Coldplay, both of them are constantly on replay the last few weeks. I usually don't love Coldplay but I love this one and listening to John Legend got me listening to his Love in the Future album. I hope he comes to Dublin this year!

Only a small bit of March Favourites but I haven’t been allowed to spend that much this month.

Thanks for reading

Love Sarah xoxo

Rimmel Scandaleyes Rockin' Curves Mascara | Review

The new mascara love of my life!! 

This is the latest in the Scandaleyes collection for Rimmel and boy is it a goody. It's a bargain at only €7.65 (I got mine in Boots). Everything about this mascara ticked the boxes for me and then some. 

Firstly the packaging has a textured snake skin effect which I've never seen before, not on a drugstore product anyway, and the tubes are in the same shape as the other Scandaleyes products.

When it comes to the wand it's AWESOME!!!! It's a curved wand, my first mascara with a curved wand ever and I don't know how I've survived without one. When I first tried it I was a bit like "Whoa what’s going on here", but I soon got the hang of it. One swipe of the wand and it gets literally every single lash; usually I’ll have to go from one side of my lashes to the other to get the same amount of coverage but not with this beauty as it perfectly hugs the lash line to get maximum coverage. I've only in the last year started putting mascara on my bottom lashes and the tip of the wand is amazing for getting at those little ones, whether it's made for it or not the tip is absolutely perfect for bottom lashes.

Now I don't know if it's the wand or if it's the mascara in the tube but there are no clumps what so ever, like none at all!! Each lash is separated perfectly and gives great volume too. It's also great long wearing mascara, by the time I’m going to bed I’m usually a hot panda looking mess but not anymore as my eyes look just as good as they did when I first put it on. As you can see in the photo's below it looks like I just put a fresh coat on, but this is just before I went to bed after a good 15 hours of wear!

After 15 hours of wear

This is so far is my star buy of the year, definitely in my February Favourites and I have a feeling I'll be buying this one again! I've finally found a product that does what it promise in their description. So do yourself a favour, get out there and buy this mascara, you will be thanking me when you do.

Before (No make up at all)

After (Full face of makeup)

Enjoy your day!

Love Sarah xoxo

NYC Big Bold Volume Vs Yves Saint Laurent Babydoll

Can you tell the difference?

I'm a sucker for makeup dupes; any way I can get the same result from a cheaper product than spending a fortune on a high end one is always a good thing!

Both of these I bought after seeing reviews from other bloggers - So Sue Me and Casey Holmes.

 I bought the YSL Babydoll during the sales in Debenhams for €32.50 which came with a small bottle of YSL Instant Eye Makeup Remover. When I watched Casey Holmes on YouTube test it out I knew I had to have it. When I used it first the results where instantaneous, the wand is so fine and doesn't have that much product on it, so I didn't think it was going to do much but the lashes became separated, coated evenly and  gave huge amount of volume. It lasts all day as well so you won't be needing to top it up later in the day and when it comes to taking it off you'll need industrial grade eye makeup remover (No joke this stuff isn't budging).

I'm an avid reader of the So Sue Me blog and when I saw her rave about the NYC Big Bold Volume Mascara I just had to see what all the fuss was about. I bought mine in Pennys, I think you can get it in some chemists also. This was a lot cheaper than the YSL mascara coming in at only €3.49. The wand is very similar to the Babydoll wand but holds more product. It can get a bit clumpy on application but going over your lashes a few times helps make them more separated.  

YSL Babydoll (left), NYC Big Bold (right) 

After using both mascaras for a few weeks I noted that they both gave very similar results, so one day I wore both mascaras, one on each eye. Honestly I couldn't really tell the difference and half way through the day I completely forgot which one was which. 

I did a little survey as well and asked all my friends could they tell the difference and the results were pretty much split down the middle.

I did get better compliments on the lashes that had the YSL on them though, with some people saying that I looked like I had false lashes on.

Overall I preferred the NYC mascara, I probably won't be buying the YSL again unless it's on offer and really it's purely for the fact that I get pretty much the exact same result from the NYC than the YSL for a fraction of the cost.

Love Sarah xoxo