The Most Beautiful Thing I Have Ever Seen: Barry M Teal Review

Okay, tell me honestly...

Is this not the nicest most absolutely beautiful nail polish you have everrrr seen?!?!?!

Ladies and gentlemen, (yes, I know you're out there!) I give you:

Barry M Nail Paint: Teal

£2.99 folks, two pounds ninety nineeee!!

*Warning: If you dislike irrelevant ramblings, scroll down to the larger, bolded words 'actual important information'. 

The words 'carried' and 'away' do not quite cover this...

I'm sorely tempted to insert the angelic heaven music I used in my post celebrating ze shoesies, but let's be serious, nothing else - not even this, is worthy.

Perhaps some relaxing ocean music would be more appropriate...

You know I like to set the scene, in a multi-sensory type way...

I cater to all you see ;)

Now, if the music hasn't sent you all to sleep, (and/or the bathroom) already...I shall continue ;)

Loooooooook.

Oh my god.

It's like the sea.

But not like Scarborough or something, I mean no offence Scarboroughians, but let's face the facts here, the North Sea is hardly the epitome of beauty...

No. 

I'm talking the sea on some Maldives scale of superbness.

The Ocean.

The shimmering Sapphire waters.

I can practically feel its cool warmth on my toes.

Or erm, fingertips, as it may be...

Since the second coat went on, (and the required level of opacity was reached) they've been attracting my gaze like some kind of freakish seductive siren, made from a few chemicals and colourants, trapped in a glass bottle.

If I had three wishes I would wish it to last forever.

Then maybe for a million pounds, but let's save that for another blog post shall we?

I'd also wish for world peace, using my final wish for the greater good - too kind and not at all materialistic, you see ;)

Ahem.

Maybe I should stop rambling and tell you some actual important information?

Firstly, in case the abundance of photos hasn't given the game away; this colour is a striking, shiny turquoise, with a kind of metallic and almost-but-not-quite duo-chrome finish. 

Secondly the application is like a DREEEEAMM! I'm usually semi-incapable of applying a thin, even coat, and almost always end up with a thick, slow drying and sticky mess, before I've reached beyond even the dizzy heights of 'base coat', but not this time.

Seriously - well impressed!

I managed two - yes TWO thin, and pretty much perfectly applied coats, (if I do say so myself) with minimal mess around the cuticles, and no bubbling!

I don't know if this is because my coats were thinner either, but my god this dries fast!

Possibly the fastest drying polish I have used to date, and in my Barry M experience, that's a first.

As far as removing this nail polish went, the greatness just continued; it was easy to remove using just my regular Boots nail polish remover, and left no stains behind on my nails - reeeesult!

I should also probably mention the gold sparkles, (not nearly as easy to remove! In fact a massive painnn) in the form of Barry M Gold Glitter, (partially inspired by Kate from Pretty Little Us, whose nail art capabilities are seemingly endless) I added to the tip of my fourth finger, in a sparkly accent nail type fashion...meant to emulate the sun. 

It's like a holiday on your nails!!

I only put a smidgen of it onto one finger, in an ombre style, so not to detract from the vastness of the sea.

Let's casually forget that in reality the sun is several million times bigger, because when you're on the beach, the sea always looks bigger.

Now going to shut up about suns and seas, I'm beginning to think it's real myself, and that water is going to pour out of my fingers at any second.

Could be useful though, I'm thirsty and massively can't be bothered moving to get a drink...

I would love to say it's also the first polish to make it through one day of Seche Vite wear un-chipped, but it seems, sadly, that nothing will ever conquer that beast.

Proper don't care though.

In conclusion, this polish is perfection.

Barry M is a genius.

And finally, all humans should behold, but beware this nail paint; its beauty may well seduce you all the way to Boots, Superdrug, or other leading stores...

OOTD: What's New Pussycat?

 

You might be aware by now, but I like leopard print.

I also quite like tiger print, cheetah print, zebra print and erm...well anything that may represent an animal.

I like leopard print, (and other wild and animalistic items) draped on me so much, that I genuinely didn't notice I had two different ones on today, in the form of my golden lion necklace, and sheer animal print shirt.

My bad...

Ah well, I'm over it, I still proper like this outfit, it's right up my street.

The shirt actually belonged to a friend of mine, and before you suggest it, no I did NOT go raiding her wardrobe in the night in search of something to feed my leopard fetish...she lives too far away for that ;)

Those of you who live closer, beware, it's like I can smell it.

She just said she saw it, unworn in her wardrobe, and thought of me...haha I wonder why?!

I'm pretty sure that the lovely people of Miss Selfridge possibly thought of me in their subconscious too, while designing it.

Despite being unaware of my existence, let's be honest - this was made for me haha.

Needless to say, it has a new home, in my home.

And I am very, very grateful :D

Yeyy!!

Dziękuję moim przyjacielem <3

Anyhoooo, it's now been worn several times during its so far short time in my possession, and given that I was actually going somewhere today, I thought I'd get a few snaps!

Unfortunately, I made that now long time mistake, (I mean, Jeez you'd think I'd have learnt by now!) of wearing a sheer shirt, disco leggings and dolly shoes, and a denim jacket...in the pouring rain.
Freezing for the sake of fashion.

Clever girl I am.

:|

Never mind, my lion necklace is awesome, and will protect me.

The lion is King.

Indeedy, me and my mum ventured over to the Leeds side of life again, this time to the White Rose centre for a few bits and pieces...

Here, I went to MAC for the first time in my life.

I have no excuses for such an absence, so please don't ask...

Shall we just say I made up for lost time, and have at least half the MAC counter on my face right now.

I warn you now, I always suspected I'd love MAC's Mineralise Skin Finish in Soft and Gentle, but ermm...yeah, me and it finally became acquainted today, resulting in the glitter ball you see in the pictures below.

I'm hoping I have enough of it on, that even after I remove my make-up, it will still somehow remain, and be on my cheekbones forever more.

Forever more being until I give in and buy it, of course.

I apologise in advance for the eye strain...

I WILL be a human glitter ball.

I WILL own Soft and Gentle.

And on failing that, I'll just dress up in all this animal print again and 'ROAR' at my bank.

They're sureeee to cough up and let me just buy MAC in its entirety or something, right?

What I wore:

Black vest top: H&M

Animal print blouse: Miss Selfridge via my friend :D

Disco Leggings - Missguided

Dolly Shoes - Primark

Lion Necklace: eBay

Bangles: Various

On my face:

Mascara: Maybelline The Rocket

Eyeshadow: From the HD Brow palette

Eyeliner: L'Oreal Colour Riche Le Smoky

Bronzer: Bourjois Delice de Poudre (chocolate bronzer)

Lips: MAC Ruby Woo

Cheeks: MAc Mineralise Blush 

Cheekbones: MAC MSF Soft and Gentle

& then some.

I'm off, before my other half tries to attack me with a make-up wipe. 

He will be horrified, and most likely send me to POD to help me recover from my new found MAC addiction.

Or better still, let's just hope that my leopard addiction will distract him long enough to not notice.

Purrrrrrrrr...

Seche Vite Top Coat: Review

I'm playing with fire as I write this, seriously.

I've just put coat number two on of an absolutely beautiful nail polish.

And I haven't yet photographed it.

Dun, dun, DUNNNNNNNNNNNN!!

If I smudge it while writing this, I might cry.

My blog posts are few and far between as it is, I can't afford to smudge these nails and wreck a future one!

Anyway, talking of, I'm hoping to finish off said nails with a swish of my little mini 3.6ml bottle of Seche Vite Top Coat today, as I have been doing for the last couple of weeks.

Now I know what you're expecting - a miracle. Quite the same as I was, following a lot of hefty review reading before I took the plunge...

Did I get a miracle? Not quite.

See, the reviews had me eagerly awaiting the ultra shiny, ultra fast drying, and best of all; ultra long lasting, salon perfect nails that Seche Vite has become renowned for.

While I did get an amazing shine, and a pretty fast drying time, I can't honestly put my hand on my heart and say it was any longer lasting than my old Barry M top coat?

Say WHUUUUUUUUUUUUTT?!

I know right? Controversial.

Maybe I got a dud, I don't know?

Ebay, I blame you.

But the truth is that on all three occasions I have used my new 'wonder product' prior to writing this, I had some slight chipping to both hands, within the first day.

I genuinely had an 'aw helllllll no' moment when I gazed down at my nails and my eyes registered the unwanted white bits peeking up at me.

Trust me, there was almost some 'Z' shape clicking action going on.

Let's be thankful I thought twice about that one.

I did two, three day tests, to see how it lasted.
I used different types of polish: one Barry M, and one No7, just to be sure the type of polish wasn't affecting my results.

I applied both in the evening, almost gassing myself with the same smell, (seriously, it stinks to high heaven!) using the same number of coats, the same base coat, did similar things on the days I wore the colours for, (work, washing up x 2742469440, gym) and took the photo's at the same stage of wear before giving in to the chip-age and removing it.

Check me out man, changing one variable, and reducing the risk of extraneous variables...blates listened well to my Science teachers in high school.
 Boom
Get me a 'GEEK' t-shirt and I'm sorted.

Sadly however, I noticed the chips ate the same stage too.

Day 1: Barry M Raspberry

Day 3: Barry M Raspberry

Day 1: No7 Siren

Day 3: No7 Siren

You can see from the pictures that the No7 nail polish doesn't look quite as bad, but sadly my right hand was worse, as was my little finger nail before it broke haha...
Who knows, maybe my poor-ish results are partially down to the use of relatively cheap polishes underneath, (not that No7 is cheap, but I'm not it's biggest fan, formula wise) or perhaps I'm just a bit naff at applying polish - I do wonder sometimes.
Orrrrr, maybe my expectations were just too high?
I have a bunch of unanswered questions!

I do however LOVEEEEE it's shiny finish, and it does dry quickly - definitely not 'rock hard' in the one minute several reviews were claiming, but faster than others; I would say touch dry within three, and completely dry within fifteen, which is still impressive! The brush is nice and wide too, and covers a lot of ground in one swipe...so it's not all bad :).

It has to be said though, to say I was looking for a top coat to make my polish last longer, I was slightly disappointed.
I will persevere, and to be honest - given that I've never heard of a better one, I will probably repurchase a full size one, (preferably cheaply on eBay or Amazon somewhere haha) but until then I'm just hoping that the rest of my little mini bottle offers a little more success...

I'm about to put it on now, over my pretty new polish, which THANK GODDDD has survived the typing unscathed, yeyyy!!

Please, keep your fingers crossed for me!!


***

Oh my god, this new other colour I've put on MUST be nice - my brother just commented on it!
Major shocked face!

...coming soon ;)

Gold.

I'm sorely tempted to have a Spandau Ballet moment right here, but that would totes go against my Hip Hop loving self and will more than likely give my mum, (and most avid reader) wayyyy too much false satisfaction...

I can't even think off the top of my head about another song involving 'gold'?

Please help, seriously, I mean it's now stuck in my head and I'm more or less sat here swaying to the sweet vibes of 1983.

Eugh.

Ridding my head of these lyrics is naaaat going to be easy, I'll tell you now.

I'm about to write a whole post on gold.

Gold necklaces. Gold rings. Gold bracelets.

You name it.

Actually not the rings, didn't buy any of those recently...

I am obsessed with gold.

I mean don't get me wrong, I love a bit of rose gold - but just a bit, and I can appreciate silver on other people, but it's not for me, I just crave the warm, sunny tones of the Summer which only a ton of golden jewellery can bring.

I've been waiting for some kind of trend to break me from my golden addiction for oh - only about seven years now, but still, nothing has happened.

I have to say, these days that's not so bad, but Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus did I look chavvy back in the day?!

No-one thought to tell me that wearing multiple gold rings, bracelets and chains at a time didn't look good.

Or maybe they did, and I didn't 'hear' them. 

On that note, I bring you multiple gold bracelets and chains, which have come to live in my little jewellery bowl in the last three or four months - hopefully I can style them a little better these days...

First is a necklace which my other half insists is still chavvy.

I disagree, what does he know about style ey? Plus, it was about £3 in Primark and let's be honest, at that price for the amount of golden fakery going on here, nobody but him is complaining.

These two necklaces also hail from good old Primark, I love a good bit of symbolism and a good triangle, so they just, you know 'fell' into my big blue basket.

I initially bought the triangular earrings pictured with the necklace below, to go together 'cos I'm a matchy-matchy mo'-fo', (and also a poet, it seems) but take it from me, one second on and I decided that really was a baaad idea. 

Wayyy too many three-sided shapes in one place, even for me.

That meant I'd bought a pair of earrings for no reason, and have subsequently reached saturation point in my earring box.

Such a shame ;)

Next is another Primark item, and one of those really cool and unique bracelet/ring things (honestly, do they have a special name?). It has a tiny jewelled cross and looks so pretty and delicate on, (when it's not decided to turn itself the wrong way!) and I would have loved to put on to picture, had my nails not been on day four of a Seche Vite test and looking a bit worse for wear. 

Believe it or not, I have worn these in one of my last outfit posts here, and forgot to take a picture.

If I had I could have avoided all sad Seche Vite hand problems, and you could have witnessed the prettiness...but I'm really not that clever.

This last item will help though - I am in obligatory blogger territory, and therefore bought this bad boy:

Yes, yes, I knowwww, trés typique.

But it's gold, and fierce, and it was LESS THAN FIVE FLIPPIN' QUID ON EBAY yeahh man.

Seriously, you go get one of these right now, let's just all have them.

Not just bloggers, but like, everyone.

We can rock the golden lion together.

And sway to the song still singing away to itself in my head.

God my mum will love this.

I can imagine the excited text right now...

Must.Stop.Swaying.And.Find.Alternative.

Nah, still sat swaying. 

An Outfit A Month Under £30 #1

Ooooh what's this?

A new monthly fashion feature on my blog?

Why yes, it is!!

I've decided that because I'm constantly skint and lacking in any kind of shopping ability these days, (ask my mum, seriously, it's painful!) for fear of over-spending on luxurious items that I can't, can't, CAN'T have - I need some sort of system.

By luxurious, I mean anything above Primark.

Or at the moment, Primark itself.

After lot's of deliberation, (and price changing, ahem) my new system was born...

In the form of some pretty hefty and awesome budgeting, which believe it or not I'm much better at than I am shopping, I am now allowing myself up to £30 a month to spend on clothes.

YEYYY!!

Gone will be the inevitable and unnecessary guilt trip after spending £6.50 on something I know will be a staple.

 Gone will be the endless hours, staring sullenly into the abyss, (my wardrobe) with naff all to wear apart from a Winter jumper from Primarni circa 2011 - the date of my last decent shop.

Winter jumpers in Spring are just not on. 

Gone will be the endless 'add to basket' then X clicking sessions.

For once a month, the 'check out items' step will come between my basket and that big old red X.

I must add, my abyss/wardrobe is still full to bursting, but I am a girl and you know how it is... 

ANYYYYYYHOOO...

On to my faaaaabulous outfit, which I absolutely love and adore.

Missguided you lickly beauties - you have saved my day, (and wardrobe sanity) yet again!

Mint Midi Skirt - Missguided £9.99

Monochrome Crop Top - Missguided £7.99

Necklace - Primark £3 (I think!)

Total = £20.98

£10 under budget YEAHHH MAN!!

(Yeah erm, technically I'm not £10 under budget.

My shoes were £29.99, taking me £20 over budget...but seeing as they are not just ANY shoes, they are my heaven shoesies, straight from heaven Zara, they don't count.

Toooootally don't count, like, at all...

I'm not counting them.)

So anyway, this outfit served me well for a friend's birthday evening out in Leeds - my midriff was only a little chilly, (thankfully I did take a jacket!) and my feet were only a little sore*, especially after some of my best speedy rain-drop avoidance walking.

:|

I'm thinking both the skirt, and the top, aside from being very on trend in both colour and style for this season, will also be versatile; I can almost FEEEEEL the textures of the other imaginary outfit combinations I will pair them both with.

They're hardly for everyday wear, but they're nice, and I like nice clothes.

The layered gold necklace adds a touch of glamour. It wasn't really necessary, what with such a busy print on the top half, but it incorporated the golden heel of my shoesies nicely ;)

On my face I had my usual eye make-up and face make-up, although PRAISE THE LAWDDDD you can actually see my MUA Shimmerkisses Highlighter in this light - I mean good godddd in all of a week I failed to photograph this in any light, at multiple times of day, brushing blinding amounts of the stuff onto my cheekbones to no avail...and yet a week later I get this photo without even trying?

I like it.

Also note, I referred to it as highlighter up there.

In yo' face, MUA.

I'm also wearing Rimmel - Coral Queen on my lips, which I love for Spring, and in contrast to the mint skirt. It looks oddly pink in these photo's, in fact to be honest it looked oddly pink on the day.

Can't really explain that. It's never looked pink on me before? 

Either way I like it, but seriously you can barely go thirty minutes without some re-application going on.

I also had my HD Brows done just before this very day, so let's just hope that my shexxxxi new eyebrows distracted from any lipstick absence issues there may have been...

So yes, I will leave you all there, with another cheeky little pledge at the old Cosmo Blog Award Nominations.

As my blog is still a baba, I qualify for Best New Beauty Blog, along with Best New Fashion Blog...although as I've said before, there are girls out there with a gazillion times better and more unique fashion sense, that fully deserve that fashion nom over one-outfit-a-month me, so I would think I'm more of a Beauty Blog nomination kind of girl :)

Also as I said before, there are a ton of more amazing beauty bloggers out there...but a girl's gotta try maynn!

Hell, just nominate me for the lot, I'm sure I can fit a bit of every category in there somewhere :p

Cheeky Cheeky.

Goodnight peeps.

*I believe amputation would have been less painful. Totally worth it.

Life in High Definition: HD Brows Review

That's right folks, the now famous left beast, (eyebrow) has been...TAMED.

Along with its sidekick, and slightly smaller companion.

The right eyebrow.

It's been years since I've had pretty much any eyebrows to speak of.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I never plucked them into absolute oblivion, just erm...perhaps into the path of a small tornado on a precise, but unnecessary path of excessive destruction, rather than a hurricane, devastating everything in a several hundred mile radius.

I was fed up. 

I kept seeing pictures of very famous, and very beautiful people, with their amazing, thick, and defined eyebrows, and wondering how ever did they do that?

I mean, they didn't even look 'drawn on', they looked natural...

I wanted in on the secret.

Surely they weren't born with it? 

('Maybe it's Maybell' - erm no, it's not. Soz Maybelline)

One thing kept cropping up on the internet, TV, YouTube - you name it, everyone was on about HD Brows.

I liked them, and I wanted them...

And now, ladies and gents...I have got them!!

After a good six weeks of tweezer abandonment, (no kidding, it's been tough!) I finally had enough hair to justify having some of it whipped right back off. 

My eyebrows had descended into, well...I would say chaos, but I kind of can't?

A mini squabble might be more appropriate.

Patchy, and a little misshapen.

But it was enough.

Under my make-up, (which let me tell you becomes very difficult to do when your eyebrow shape vanishes!) laid something that looked a little like this...

I know right? It's bad.

:|

That's the famous left one right there!!

Ready to be HD'd.

It complied, and hadn't yet walked off my face.

Yes people - you're all safe now :D

Off I popped to see my Fairy Lash Mother, and Huddersfield beauty therapist and MUA extraordinaire Rachel Brooker, (who was responsible for giving me these bad boys - my LVL Lashes, a few months ago), ready and raring to go...

HD Brows takes around an hour, and there is a lot involved! 

You name it - it is done.

Threading, tweezing, tinting, and then some.

I'm going to take you through the process as best I can, with a few pictures to boot (can I get an 'ooooh'?).

:)

I'm going to put my 'professional' blogger head on now for this next bit, and explain it properly...

1. First of all, was an in depth consultation. Rachel took me through what she was going to do, (using all the exciting looking things in the picture above) and discussed with me what I wanted in regards to colour, shape, and thickness. I like my brows to be fairly defined and angular, (exactly the opposite of their natural state) . Rachel told me she would mix the dyes to match my hair colour, and told me which powders she would be using to fill in any gaps I still had at the end. Hair growth is also assessed, and it is explained that some areas may need to be enhanced with make up if the hair won't grow or hasn't yet grown in a certain area.

2. The brows and surrounding hairs are tinted to the correct colour - the surrounding hairs are tinted along with the main brows in order to pick up any extra hairs which may help build the shape you later want. This is quite a strong dye, and so will last longer than a normal brow tint.

3. This is the technical bit, (and it's pretty cool) the brows are measured and marked to find the correct starting, ending, and highest point, and whether the brows are the same height. 

4.  A thin line of wax is marked all the way around the brows, to remove any unwanted hairs, and begin to create the desired shape. I can not stress how pain free this bit was - I've never had anything waxed and didn't know what to expect. By the time I'd braced myself for the pain, it was done! Sure my eyes watered a little bit, but that's nothing unusual for me, to be honest.

5. The area's above and below the brows are threaded in order to blend the waxed area into the rest of the face. I helped out a little with this bit, just by pulling the skin on my forehead, and then my eyelid tighter, making the threading easier. My hands were sanitised for this too - every little thing is catered for. :)

6. Any remaining unwanted hairs were tweezed, and any extra long hairs were trimmed to make the perfect shape.

7. Mineral powder is applied around the brows to soothe the area, and take away any redness left from the waxing.

8.  A brow pencil is used to etch a fine line around the edge of the brows, to add definition and give a clean finish. Powder is used to fill in any sparse areas or gaps, evening out the colour. This is done in tiny strokes which emulate hair, again making your brows look extra natural.

Onto the exciting part; the finished result!!

I feel as though this - the big reveal - should be done with dramatic music, in an X Factor judges entrance style...but I'll resist.

It is however, that good!

*Photo's courtesy of Rachel Brooker

I am over the moon with the finished result! I just can't believe how natural they look! As much as I've always been 'okay' at doing my eyebrows myself, these are on another level.

They are more true to my own natural brow shape than anything I've 'created' myself previously, while still being EXACTLY what I had envisioned!! 

If anything, the best part is how they look without make up:

That's the left eyebrow, before it's de-beastification, and after. The 'after' picture was taken at home, (hence the different/dodgy lighting) once I'd removed the pencil and powder enhancing it, and honestly, it's like someone else's eyebrow! In fact it pretty much looks exactly the same as it does with the extra help.

Ladies and gentleman - I HAVE GOT REAL, NATURAL LOOKING EYEBROWS!

I'm chuffed to bits!!

I've had a go at doing them myself since and found it mega easy, given that I'm no professional, I have to say that doing my brows has just become a whole lot easier, and now takes a million times less product - oh yes indeedy, I'm saying goodbye to drawn on looking eyebrows right now this second.

I now have a decent base to use my gorgeous HD Brow palette on - I honestly felt my little beasties weren't worthy of its wonders before...however god did I rely on it to keep them under control!?!

I can't speak about the pricing of this in other salons, but if you're in Huddersfield, (or even if you're not and fancy a road trip huh?) I highly recommend my Fairy Lash Mother, Rachel Brooker, who I can't thank enough for my beautiful and totally un-beastified brows!!

I will be back.

Oh, and the treatment costs £25...say no more <3

Rachel is based in the Marsh area of Huddersfield at her very own in-house Beauty Room, and is a Master Stylist and Elite trainer for HD Brows. Rachel also does various treatments from shellac, to waxing, LVL Lashes, and make-up for various occasions.

To book an appointment, you can contact Rachel directly on 07990525258.

Or visit her website: http://www.beautybrowsmakeup.co.uk/ for more details and information on where to find her.

What HD Brows Ltd says:

A great video from Pixiwoo, where Nic gets the HD Brow treatment, and is just as happy as I am!

Now you can all breathe a huuuge sigh of relief, knowing my left eyebrow (or my right for that matter) won't be knocking on any doors or windows in the middle of the night...

We, are all safe...for now ;)

A Shimmerkisses Sparkle: MUA Bronzer Review

Meh.

Mehhhhhh.

You know that little noise you have to make when you quite like something, but not enough to say an actual word, because of course when something is 'distinctly average', you just can't even be bothered to acknowledge it with spoken words, and revert to a pre-historic, Neanderthal state?

Yeah, you know...

In that case let me introduce you to the MUA Shimmerkisses Bronzer, which, being just £3, savvy non-spender moi, was drawn to like some sort of crazed make-up mad moth to an extremely sparkly flame.

Wonder if the endless moths in my house will feel the same...

Maybe I could turn this bronzer into a shimmery Venus Fly Trap and squish the little monsters into make-up mush* muhahaha...

Screw the product. 

Moth Massacre is my thing.

So, me being the human mapgie/moth/pirate, (yep, defo Pirate, miles cooler...) that I am, saw this on the shelves of a strangely small Superdrug in Leeds, where I was actually hunting down this, and fully intending to make use of the 3 for 2 offer it came with.

However, it wasn't meant to be...

Instead, I started to search for alternatives, and the 'Shimmerkisses' stood out to me, firstly, for the beautifully embossed, sparkly quad-colour product, and secondly, for the pretty oddly designed packaging it was visible through - compared to the usual simple, professional looking black/white that MUA products come in.

The glittery, purple lips proper give me the Claire's make-up-for-twelve-year-old's vibe.

Unusual...

Maybe MUA should be renamed 'MEH', for one product only... 

Anyhow, I decided for £3, what the hell, MUA normally put out fantastic products, and who was to say that a stupid purple glittery motif would make this any different?!

I'm glad, (mostly) that I made that decision.

The four separate colours -as they appear in the tin, so to speak...

Swirled together - unblended

Swirled together - blended

Before I even applied this to my face, I decided to swatch the colours separately, and concluded they'd make pretty nice eyeshadows! Or at least the darker and more golden one's would...

On swirling them together, I made another conclusion - this is NOT a bronzer!!

MUA, really? This product is pale as, and shimmery - why have you stuck the word 'bronzer' on the front?! 

WHYYYY?!

My gripes with this packaging never end...

Yes, the colours are on the warm and bronze-side, but when blended they come out a pale, champagne colour and probably couldn't even bronze up a blumin' polar bear*!!

The back of the packaging tells you it's purpose is 'highlighting', even - it just happens to come in bronze-esque Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick/Dior Amber Diamond type shades.

As far as using the actual product AS A HIGHLIGHTER goes, I actually like it.

I muchhhhh prefer it to the Sleek Contour Kit's highlighter, which recently left me with two very attractive white stripes on my face from camera flashback.

I swear I only put a tiny bit on, too...

Awkward.

It's much less white looking than the Sleek one, so more natural and perfect for the time of year. It also doesn't look like you've shoved a load of glitter on your face; when you can see the little flecks, they're minuscule. 

I took literally like a hundred photo's this week, on various days, from various angles, in various rooms of my house, in the car, (other half nearly kicked me out at the traffic lights, apparently I was being 'embarrassing') flash on, flash off.

You name it, I did it.

I even swept it on the tops of my cheekbones in an overly exaggerated form by about day four, desperate for SOMETHING.

Yep. I walked around for an entire day glowing like a glitter ball getting attacked by a golden glow stick.

Not sure anyone noticed?

Maybe it's not as noticeable as I thought...

Or maybe, Holly, they were just too nice to say anything...

The best I could come up with were these two, one, sat in the car with the flash on - I had a tiny bit of the lightest colour on my brow bone also, (which, PRAISE THE LAWWWD, you can see!) but don't look too close, I'm now extremely close to HD Brow Day and my left eyebrow is even closer to caterpillar status.

All readers beware, it can't promise it's not going to grow out of your screen right now.

Or in the night...

Midnight...

*Makes immediate plans to trap it, moth style, under the lid of this product, should things get nasty*

The second photo is an extreme close-up, and the best the beautiful sunshine could pick it up that day! I promise you can actually see it more without the obstructions an iPhone camera brings you...

I have to say, I'm glad I got it, even if it isn't the best and most amazing thing I've ever put on my face, it doesn't add anything to my cheekbones unless I'm in exact lighting shall we say, and it isn't going to quench my desire to own a MAC Mineralise Skin Finish, or Dior Amber Diamond...

Most importantly though, it isn't going to break the bank, and for that reason, I am happy :)

It is though, just, 'meh'.

*I do not advocate trying this, and I'm not that cruel, really...





OOOH by the way, I forgot to add...
You know me, I like to be a little cheeky now and then, and I'd just LOOOOVE it if any of you wanted to nominate me for the Cosmo Blog Awards :D

My blog is under a year old so I also qualify for the Next Newcomer Award yey :)

Not entirely sure whether I count as new beauty or fashion blogger, seeing as I do both, but I'd say beauty - because there are so many bloggers out there with better and more unique style than me.

Equally, there are better beauty bloggers, but a girl's gotta try man!

Anyhoo, it would make my day :)

 You can vote here :)