Empty! Botanics Soothing Eye Make Up Remover

Hola! Yet another one you are bound to have seen or heard of before ladies, this Botanics eye makeup remover has been blogged about to kingdom come. So I thought I’d do something a teensy weensy bit different.

I finished this up yesterday having used it pretty much daily since early January. For the bargain price of £3.05 this is pretty amazing and it was only when I thought about when I started using this that I realised it was that long.

So for your £3.05 you get 150ml of dual phase eye makeup remover.

They say ‘This cleanser effortlessly removes eye make up – even waterproof mascara – while also comforting and soothing the eye area.’

So firstly I should say that I don’t wear waterproof mascara and won’t unless I’m on holiday. All the ones I have tried make my lashes feel like straw but sticky at the same time – not good. However this removed my makeup pretty well. I tip the bottle up against a cotton pad maybe 5-6 times for each eye, hold it against my eye for around 15 seconds, then I can wiggle the pad a bit, fold it in half and take the mascara off from underneath my eye et voila! I found with some products this made a bit of a grey smudge around my face but this was only my proper long wear products like Bobbi Brown’s gel eyeliner. Nothing that can’t be solved with another dab and swipe of remover.

So to show how it holds up to other removers I’m going to do a little comparison over the next few weeks. The next few removers I have are minis so I’ll go through them in no time.

The stripes are L-R Collection 2000’s Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Liner in Teal, Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero and Bobbi Brown’s Gel Eyeliner in Granite Ink. All are one swipe.

This is after one swipe of the Botanics remover on a cotton pad, amount as above.

You can see after 2 swipes, and I mean swipes, the UD and BB liners are all but gone! My skin looks shiny but this is just the residue from this remover.

These are basically the same, the Collection 2000 liner stayed on for like another 2 days! No getting rid of that one! However it removed the other two supposed long lasting liners with ease and I have had to scrub before to remove these liners so it gets a thumbs up in terms of removal power.

The only thing that may be a potential bugbear to some is the oily residue. This is just what happens when using an oil-based remover but at first I found this much oilier than the Lacura remover I had. However as I continued to use this I found it bothered me less and did leave my eye area feeling moisturised. As for soothed, I don’t know. I don’t have sensitive skin so there isn’t much to soothe but in so far as you don’t have to scrub to remove your mascara I suppose this is soothing….?

As I said I have a few more removers to use up, if nothing else manages to catch my eye this may well earn itself a repurchase, after all for £3.05 this is a bit of a bargain! Available from Boots.

Anyways stay tuned for the rest of the series…..

Do you have any recommendations for eye makeup removers? I have a few to get through but I’m always on the lookout for more.

NEW! Sleek Avoir La Pêche Collection

This is just a quickie first look! I was gandering around my local usually crap Superdrug last night and spotted this new collection consisting of a new eyeshadow palette, Pout Polish and a blusher which sadly wasn’t in stock but I am going back later to check! This is totally up my street!

This is the Paraguaya palette. Cute packaging hey? Normally I’m not wowed by packaging but this is really cute and it’s metallicy, something different from the norm.

Top Row Swatches:

No Flash then with Flash

Bottom Row Swatches:

There are more matte shades than in previous Sleek palettes as far as I know, though I don’t have them all. In fact I’ve been half heartedly hunting for the Safari palette to no avail.

The other goodie I picked up is this Pout Polish. I’ve done a post before on the other ones I own and this one looks beautiful, this is Sugar May.

Again pretty packaging!

Again like my other Pout Polishes this is subtle

Still it gives a hint of peachy goodness!

Neither of these are showing on the Sleek website at the moment but palettes retail at £6.49 and Pout Polishes at £4.30. I can’t remember the name of the blush but it looked absolutely beautiful, I’ll be absolutely gutted if I miss it!

What do you think? I wish Sleek was consistently stocked near me, I know I can get stuff from the website but it annoys me having to pay shipping when there is two stands local to me of which neither are properly stocked!

Lashes part IV: Prestige My Biggest Lashes

Hi guys! I hope you are having a good week…..

This is one of my favourite mascaras ever, I’ve repurchased at least 4 times! I know some stuff from Prestige has been given props, like the mascaras, eyeliners and I have one of their mineral bronzers I use as highlighters. As much as I love everything I’ve tried from this brand they have much more to offer that I never seem to give a second look at.

This picture is pretty crap, I spent ages chasing the light around the room and this is the best I got, the tube is actually a pretty bright pink. Nothing particularly special but functional enough and this has been chucked in many a handbag without so much as a crack.

The brush is bigger than My Blackest Lashes but smaller than Collection 2000’s Big Fake. I know some people have difficulty with large brushes but I don’t feel afraid to wield this one near my eyes and I am one clumsy mofo.

Bare Lashes

Some pictures really didn’t demonstrate the length I get from this so I took a few pictures that I think shows it best.

Ha from slightly underneath hence crazy expression!

This is one coat without my lashes curled. This looks seriously awesome with a couple of layers on curled lashes for a night out. I didn’t add another coat but it doesn’t clump if you do.

This is £6.49 on the Boots website, cheaper than many chemist/pharmacy/I’m still trying not to say drugstore brands over here and it outperforms all that I’ve tried. Would I repurchase? Definitely, I already have and unless I find something magical in the few I’ve got to try yet, I will.

Also, hygiene freaks may find this grubby…..I got one of these when I was in New York as the mascara I took was crap. I carried on using it as it didn’t dry out and I ended up chucking it out after 4 months when I realised that was how long I had been using it! It wasn’t dried out or anything though, awesome!

Have you tried any Prestige mascaras? I feel I should try more from the brand as I really do love everything I have used, next stop their eyeliners!

NOTD–China Glaze Ruby Deer

Bounjour my pretties how are you doing? I hope your weeks are going ok! I am loving the hint of sunshine that has been occurring, summer is getting closer! I need to get on the diet wagon, I’d like to lose a stone and a half by August when I’m off on my holidays!

This manicure is a classic example of what happens if you paint your nails in low lighting.

This is two coats, it was very very glossy so I didn’t use a top coat. So. I painted my nails one evening in my living room which has crap light. This polish appeared opaque at one coat but I used two for luck. Bah, should have had a closer look as it was patchy as hell, especially in daylight!

It’s a bit messy, this was the morning after. I couldn’t photograph the patchiness properly but it looked pretty awful, I couldn’t wait to get it off!

This was from the Christmas 2010 collection I think, I got it in a set at Sally’s along with a stuffed reindeer that is the bunny’s new bud and a darker burgundy red shimmer that I can’t remember the name of and looks shimmery brown on my nails. Vom!

In all, I don’t love this polish. Maybe with two thicker coats it would be fully opaque? I don’t know. What I do know is I rarely wear red as it makes me feel like a hooker so I doubt I will wear this again, maybe for a night out or something but it’s a bit crazy for me for everyday. Give me a bright blue or green any day! There’s just something about red that makes me run for the hills!

Do you have any recommendations for a red that would look classy and not like I’m trying to solicit myself? I have no idea about whether colours are warm/cool toned the majority of the time, I barely know if I’m warm or cool toned!

My Cream Blushes

Again with the crap titles!

I’ve been feeling a bit better about my skin the last few weeks and with that wearing foundation with less coverage. With that I’ve been using cream blushes for a bit of a ‘glow’. Considering not that long ago had maybe three blushers I’ve been on somewhat of a bender. Not bragging or owt, just for me I’ve been on one so I thought I’d show you my (very modest compared to some) cream blusher collection.

See, relatively tiny! I thought I had more than this, seems the majority of my collection is powder!

First up, the Topshop cream blush in Flush

This is one of the first cream blushes I purchased and it is a fave, it looks a little full on but when on it gives a pretty ‘flush’ (gah!) that isn’t OTT. I apply all my cream blushes with a stipple brush to avoid going wild with the colour but I did take this with me on placement and apply with my fingers. I have read some people have issues with the longevity of these blushes but I have no issues. £6 from Topshop.

NYX cream blush in Glow

I got this in a order from US eBay along with most of the round lipsticks and a few eyeshadows last year. Again I really like this, it is by far the creamiest of the lot though, when I dipped my finger in for a swatch I practically lost it! It looks pretty intense in the pan but on it is nice and subtle though if applying with fingers use caution! Less is more! Available from the UK NYX site for £9.95, I think I paid around £5-6 from eBay.

Stila Convertible Color in Fuchsia

I haven’t use this one much as it is a fairly recent purchase from a blog sale. Stila is no longer available in the UK (boo!) and I had been scouring the internet for one of these at a reasonable price in a colour I wanted. Again, less is more!

Topshop cream blush in Neon Rose

Again this is a fairly recent purchase. It is much more peachier than Flush. It is beautiful and as with Flush I have no issues with the longevity. In fact for £6 I think these blushes are a steal! I would love to get more, next time I have a few spare pounds (unlikely giving I’m saving up to move out) I may purchase a few of the others that didn’t catch my eye at first. £6 from Topshop.

Finally, MAC Blushcreme in Ladyblush

This was a impulse buy that I spied when queuing to buy something else at the MAC counter. I don’t regret it, it is very pretty. I know that MAC are phasing these out in favour of the Cremeblend formulation but this still appears on the website described as '’demure cool pink flush’ which I’d say is right. This shade is available in the new formulation with the same name but described as ‘warm neutral coral’ so maybe it isn’t the same after all?! Would be interesting to compare. This is £17 available from MAC.

Swatches…

These are all swatched heavily to show the colour, when on the cheek they create a sheer natural (as in not overly I’mwearingblusher-y) wash of colour especially if applied with a stipple brush as I do.

The cheapest of these are the Topshop ones and they are also the ones I use the most. For £6 I think these are great value for money – 2g less of product than MAC for almost a third of the price. If you are new to cream blushers than give these a go!

Have you tried any of these? Or do you have any other cream blush recommendations? I’m going to have a massive list by the time I’ve used up ten products!

Swatches–My NYX Eyeshadows

OK ladies I’m trying to set myself a little challenge. In a bid to keep myself from buying more stuff which is being semi/not really successful I am trying to rediscover products I already have. I wear eyeshadow pretty much every day, my lids can get red especially when I’m tired so I normally chuck some on to cover it. However I either grab one of my old trusties like Wet n Wild Fine Wine, or a palette like Urban Decay’s Naked. So I hauled these out of my single eyeshadow stack and decided I’m going to wear at least one of these every day for a week.

They aren’t particularly adventurous swatches, you can clearly see what kind of colour I like!

I wish I was more confident with colour! As I’m pale and have green eyes I’m never sure what will suit me! I also am prone to redness sometimes, depending on the weather and some products so I don’t want to exacerbate this.

Anyway, first up is 122 Morocco

58A Peach Bronze

148 Daisy

10 Champagne

18 Sahara

50A Skin Tight

I added the number of each eyeshadow as when I got mine from US eBay I had to include it with my order and there was few websites that showed them! It took a lot of research to choose these which is probably why I stuck with my favourite kind of shades.

As far as I can tell NYX does not test on animals.

I paid around £2-3 each for each of these from US eBay.

Have you used NYX eyeshadows? I like that they have finally started a UK website but I do not like the hike in prices. If I have any spare cash anytime soon and decide to order some more NYX I will continue to use eBay.

Do you have any recommendations for shades?