Blogsale

It took a while, but I've finally posted my blogsale, which you can find along the tabs above, or by clicking the image below.

UPDATE - PRICE REDUCTIONS ACROSS A LOT OF THE ITEMS

Open to offers if you think the prices are too high

Products range from haircare to skincare and cosmetics. I want to add clothes to it too, but I'll do that another time. So for now it's just beauty based.

Brands listed include Lush, Benefit, Dior, Lancome and Estee Lauder, as well as high street brands.
So do check it out! Anything that doesn't sell I'll either be putting on eBay, or donating to Give and Makeup.

If you see anything you want, just leave a comment at the bottom of the blogsale page, and make sure you leave an email address for me to contact you on.

I only take payments through paypal.

MAC Lipstick Review - Snob

The Lipstick

I've been lusting after Snob for a while now, and I'm so glad to finally own it! I know this particular shade is definitely not lacking in reviews, but I thought I'd write one anyway with my own stamp on it!

I'm realy impressed with this colour. I'm happy to say its pretty much how I hoped it would be, if not a little pinker. Its a nice buildable colour, so you can choose to wear it as a subtle colour, or wear it as a bright pink if you wish to be a little bolder.

I have been wearing it daily, and I love it. I think this is a nice versatile shade that would suit most skin tones. Though I wouldn't recommend it if your skin is on the orange side! If you've accidently overdone it on the fake tan, this colour wont be too forgiving.

It has that usual scent MAC lipsticks have, and I love that. The consistency is great too. It pretty much defines what I love about their lipsticks! The only downside is that I've learnt MAC are no longer cruelty free, though I did buy this before I found out. 

Recommended Lipliners

I would recommend using NYX Lipliner Pencils in either Rose or Dolly Pink with this lipstick. 

It depends on  what hue you want this lipstick to take:

-If you want it to be quite a vibrant pink I would recommend Dolly Pink. 

-But if you don't want the colour to be so bold, I'd recommend Rose as its more muted.

I know not everyone uses lip pencils, but I naturally have no colour in my lips, so I always find I need lip pencils to help define them. I thought others like me might find it helpful if I recommended ones that match, and NYX ones are quite inexpensive, so you're not going to break the bank!

I've included swatches of Snob on its own, as well as swatches with these two lip pencils:

Swatches

-The central swatch is Snob on its own.

-The far left swatch is of NYX Lipliner in Dolly Pink, and the swatch next to it is of Snob being used with Dolly Pink.

-The far right swatch is of NYX Lipliner in Rose, and the swatch next to it is a mixture of Snob and Rose.

Snob is a weird one though, as I found it looked different when swatched on my arm, to how it looked on my lips. Though the lip pencil colours still match up very well with it:

Lip Swatches

Above photos of Snob in various lightings so you can get a good idea of its colour.

In these swatches I used Snob alongside NYXs Dolly Pink lip pencil.

You can find NYXs Lipliner Pencils quite easily online, but I saved a lot of money by buying mine in bulk off eBay from an international seller here. Joy offers very fast shipping, despite being far away in the states, and it's amazing value for money. Otherwise, if you're not looking to buy in bulk, you can purchase them from NYXs UK website here.

I hope you found this review helpful. 

I'd love to hear of any other lipsticks you recommend!

1 Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway - CLOSED

Smoky EOTD using MUAs Glamour Days Palette

You may have seen my recent post where I wrote about an MUA haul. I purchased both the Glamour Days and the Glamour Nights palettes, and promised to do a few looks using these. 

I thought I'd get the ball rolling with a smoky eye look using the Glamour Days palette:

The Palette

Aside from the 2 blue eyeshadows, I really like this palette. I love the nudes mixed in with the pinks/purples. 

The plum (top row, 3rd from the left) and the pink (bottom row, 2nd from the left) have to be my favourites from the palette, so I thought this first look should be based around these two colours.

The Look

1 - To begin with I used the light eyeshadow (top left of the palette) as a highlight.

-I then covered my eyelid with the light pink/peach eyeshadow (top row, 3rd from the right).

-Using a pencil brush, I used the pink (bottom row, 2nd from the left) to line my lower lash-line.

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2 -Using the plum eyeshadow (top row, third from the left), I shaded from where the pink eyeshadow finished, and brought it along the crease to contour the eye.

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3 -using the taupe/brown eyeshadow (bottom row, 2nd from the right), and used it in the same way as the plum, to add more depth to the look.

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4 -Using the matte dark brown (bottom row, 3rd from the right), I lightly applied the eyeshadow to the outer corner of my eye (as shown above), and used a blending brush to blend it out around the crease (as shown below).

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5 - I applied a brown liquid eyeliner to both my upper and lower lash-line to create a winged look.

6 -I then used a dark brown kohl eyeliner to line my waterline (shown below)

7 -All that's left to do is to curl the lashes and apply mascara. Then the look is complete!

The Finished Look

I hope you liked this look and tutorial. I personally really like it, and have worn it a few times to university and on a night out. I know you'd probably think it's a bit too much as a day look, but if you apply these a bit lighter it does work. Personally I love wearing eyeshadow in this way even during the day. With this look I'd recommend wearing a muted lip colour, and a lightly applied peach/nude pink blush .

There's definitely more looks you can achieve with this palette, and I plan to do more using this one soon. Though first I think I'll post one using the Glamour Nights palette.

Thoughts on the Palette

I love the way these colours apply. They're very pigmented, and I haven't experienced any fallout from them. 

MUAs palettes are excellent value for money. The texture of these shadows are lovely, and have an almost buttery texture. They're quite similar in texture to Sleeks eyeshadows, though not as messy.

And I love that MUA don't test on animals. 

-You can probably see from my increase in 'DIY beauty' posts that I'm a bit more conscious when it comes to products I use. And whilst I cant say their ingredients are that great for you, at least your conscience can be clear. 

Though one thing I don't like is that they use palm oil in their ingredients. Its not bad for you, but it is for the rainforests, and usually I try to avoid products that contain this ingredient. Aside from that, I can't find fault in these palettes!

What are your thoughts on MUAs palettes? I'd love to hear recommendations.

Let me know if there's a particular colour in this palette you'd like me to use in a future eye look.

I mentioned before I have a slight hatred towards blue shadows, but I'm up for the challenge if you'd like to see a look using them!

Not Just Skin Deeps New Look

If you've visited my blog in the past week or so, you may have noticed it looking a little different. I've been slowly adding new things to it, and I have finally got it looking the way I want it!

I thought I'd fill you all in on what's changed, as I personally love these kinds of posts. I think it's lovely to see how a blog has evolved over time, and how far its come. I'm labelling this post as 'Blog Evolution', so this and any future changes will be altogether in one place.

In case you've already forgotten (or this is your first time here), here is the 'Before'

As you can see it was pretty bland, and I really wasn't happy with it. It really didn't reflect my personality - or any kind of personality for that matter!

I loved parts of the header (I thought the birds and the crowns were lovely, and I quite liked the colour scheme), but the text on it didn't work and it just seemed a bit dull and rectangular, especially with the huge expanse of white background.

The social media buttons I used were from a free website, and were the closest thing I could find to what I wanted. But all together it was too miss-matched, and the whole layout looked very cluttered - even though I had hardly anything in the sidebar.

I forgot to keep the favicon in the screenshot, but it was basically a small fuchsia flower. Cute, but completely irrelevant to my blog or layout!

'After'

The first thing I changed was my header, as I'd been using the previous one since my very first day blogging!
I wanted to keep parts of the old header within the new one, so I just kind of re-vamped it and made it a lot cleaner. I'm really proud of how it looks now.

However, that's as far as my 'expertise' went, so I asked Gemma from Little Tiny Pieces to design a new background, favicon, and social media buttons. She was very helpful the whole way through, and the background she came up with is perfect! Being light, it has a nice crisp feel to it, but the texture of the lace just makes this blog look a bit more 'complete', and not so....lonely.

I really like the social media buttons too - they're so much better than what I had in mind. The same goes for the favicon! I love that she used the crown from my header.

The background has also been continued onto my Twitter Page:

And the header is on my Business Cards:

I am so happy with everything now, and really grateful to Gemma for all her help. The only thing that needs changing now is that awful photo of me! Sadly the camera is not my friend.

Gemma also has an etsy shop where she sells pre-made headers, social media buttons etc, so if you're thinking about re-vamping your blog, you should definitely check it out.

I hope you like the new look!

P.S. - On an even happier note 'Not Just Skin Deep' turns 1 this friday, and it reached 200 followers over the weekend! Perfect excuse for a giveaway? ;) 

MUA Haul with Swatches

It's been a while since I've posted a haul, so I though I'd share with you a recent one!

Unfortunately, whilst my local Superdrug sells the MUA Pro range, it is often out of stock of the products I really want. Then I found out that MUA have their own website you can order from. This was quite a dangerous discovery as, sure enough, I made my first order straight away..

Here is a close up of what I got:

MUA Palettes

I purchased both the Glamour Days, and Glamour Nights palettes for the simple reason that I didn't own them yet, and I really wished that I did! Plus they had an offer of £1 off their palettes (they made me do it!) I will do another more in-depth post with swatches and eye looks based on these two palettes soon. 

-I'm also hoping these palettes will help me conquer my fear/hatred of blue eyeshadow!

Despite the 2/3 blue eyeshadows lurking in there, I can see these creating some really lovely looks. 

-I've already fallen for their Heaven and Earth palette!

£1 Lipsticks

L-R 8,14,15,16

I previously owned all of their lipsticks, apart from number 8. This one had eluded me for months as it seemed to always be out of stock! 

But whilst I was browsing the website for it I found they had brought out 3 more shade! With a £1 price tag I bought them all, and am very happy to have them in my collection. I'm really getting into corals at the moment, and really recommend these!

I have some more in-depth post coming up with all the MUA lip swatches, which will include swatches on LIPS not just my arm (though sadly my lips naturally have no colour in them so these colours wont look much different).

MUA Love Hearts Lip Balms

I know their Love Hearts collection has been reviewed everywhere, but I have to admit the packaging is lovely - I couldn't resist! 

As you can see I bought the lip balms in the colours Sweet Kiss, Sugar Lips and Hot Lips. I went for these as I felt these would have better colour pay-off than the others.

Sugar Lips is a very faint pink which just about shows up on my pale skin, and adds a nice subtle colour to my very pale lips. Though I'm not sure how this will show up on 'normal' coloured lips.

Though I think this would add a nice sheen and tone if applied on top of different lipsticks. I always love layering different colours to get unique looks.

Hot Lips has the best colour pay-off out of the three by far, and is perfect to add a natural colour to lips that are as pale as mine. I think something like this would be a good product to try if you're not too confident yet with bolder lip colours.

Finally, Sweet Kiss is a sweet pinky nude. I can't see it showing up on the lips that much, but again it would still add a nice subtle colour to them.

For all three I would recommend playing around with mixing these with lipsticks. You could achieve some nice unique colour combinations depending on what colour lipstick you apply these on top of. 

I haven't used these enough to say how they work as a lip balm, but as a lip gloss these work perfectly for me!

What are your thoughts on MUA? Personally I love this brand. Its so affordable, and perfect if you're just getting into make up. You can experiment with different colours without breaking the bank!