Birthday Beauty Haul 2013................

March is always one of my favorite months of the year, one of the reasons is its my birthday.

Being the makeup addict that I am, one of the first things I like to buy from any money I may get is makeup, lol, now there's a surprise!!

This year has been no exception, there were a few items I had my eye on.

I am so excited to of finally go the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette, I love it :)

Hope you all have a fab day, thank you as always for watching!!

Mwah

Topshop Highlighter in Cresent Moon.......

If you watch my videos on Youtube, you will of seen this product pop up in my favourites a few times. 

Crescent Moon from Topshop is a beautiful champagne toned highlighter that is super soft to touch and feels like silk.

Crescent Moon

I featured this in my top highlighter picks as it is super versatile and suits a wide range of skin tones. 

 I really love this shade when I am a lil bit tanned, it gives a beautiful glow to the skin with no ash tones.

Left swatch, Right blended out.

The tone of the powder reminds me of Soft and Gentle MSF from MAC with maybe just a tiny bit more of a pink hint.

It costs £10 from Topshop, a bargain for such a beautiful quality powder.

Have you tried this highlight? What other Topshop products do you love??

Mwah

My Top 5 Highlighter picks.......

As with many of the beauty Obsessed, although I have more than one of most makeup items, I tend to stick to the same few. 

I wanted to share with you my top 5 picks, the ones that I use and go back to the most powder Highlighters.

I thought that to pick just 5 would be a hard task, I found it surprisingly easy tho. 

Seems I really do have my firm favorites.

1. Elizabeth Arden Rose Illumination

2. MAC Soft & Gentle

3. Dior Amber Diamonds

4. Top Shop Crescent Moon

5. Sleek Face Form Palette in Light

So these are the 5 I reach for most ( At the moment, I don't deny it may change)

What do you think? What are your favorites?

Mwah

Highend lipsticks, Drugstore dupes......

Today I have part two of my Dupe series to share with you, and its the turn of Lipstick!!

This is something I really enjoyed doing, as a bit of a lipstick whore, It didn't surprise me how many dupes I have of colors. I also discovered a couple of shades that seem to be favorites, lol, did someone mention Angel??? lol.

I have posted both the video I recorded and the photos of the swatches below, with a full list of all the colors I mention.

Top to Bottom, L To R

Mac Girl About Town---------Topshop All About Me

MAC Impassioned-------Models Own Pink Hawaiian 

MAC Naught Saute------Revlon Just Bitten KLS in Cherish 

YSL Lingerie Pink (No7)-------NYX Round Lipstick in Strawberry Milk

MAC Costa Chic------Topshop Oh Laa Laa

MUA No 16 Necta---NARS Barbarella---Sleek Barely There

Top to Bottom, L to R

Maybelline Coral Tonic---MAC Watch Me Simmer---Illamasqua Over---Topshop Confession

Across the top

MAC Angel

L to R

Me Me Me China Rose/Selena shade 5

Revlon Pink Pout 

Maybelline Born Wit It

Topshop Secret Admirer

What do you think of the dupes that I found?

Do you have any dupe recommendations?


Mwah

Pop from Topshop...............

Having recently fallen in love with Topshop make up, I couldn't resist picking up this cute little powder blush.
Last year I tried out the cream blushes but my love hate relationship ( I love them, they hate me!!!) meant that it was a short lived affair.

Hopefully I will have better luck with Pop from Topshop.

Pop is a peach matte powder blush that doesn't come across chalky at all and has fantastic pigment.

The texture of this blush is soft and silky and feels far more expensive than the £6.00 price tag suggests.

I think this is a shade that will suit all skin tones, it is very buildable giving you everything from a suitable to a bold finish on the cheeks.

I have only used this blush a couple of times and I love it already. It hasn't oxidised on my skin and leaves me with a healthy glow.

Plus its delicious for the summer we will hopefully get?!?!

Mwah

Some Top Shop Loveliness............

You may remember my recent love affair with the Topshop lip products that I showed you a little while ago.
Today I am sharing with you a few others that I have picked up over the last few weeks, 3 lippys and a polish.

Ice Crush

First up the polish, this is Ice Crush. Its a clear base packed full of halo glitter and larger hex glitter. Its so pretty, I love it. (I actually have this on my nails over Essies Absolutly Shore, love it!! I tweeted a picture if you want to see.)

I now have two of the Topshop glitter polishes and so far I am really impressed with them both.

Next the Lipsticks....

Charmed (Sisters of the new moon collection), Confession and All About Me.

Charmed is a peach shade, leaning towards a soft orange. It has a velvet finish to it. This colour is bang on trend for this summer

Confession  is a hot coral pink, it reminds me of a more sutile Impassioned from MAC, this is another velvet finish lipstick.

All About Me is a fuschia magenta pink. Of the 3 I think its my favourite, I just love this colour. It is a matte finish that I feel is very moisturising.

L To R

Charmed, Confession, All About Me

Have you tried any of the Topshop makeup range? Are you a fan of there lipsticks too?

What colours do you think I should try next?

My Top Lipsticks for Summer 2012.............

This summer I am loving bright & bold Lipsticks.

I decided to do a post and a video on my top 5, in the end I choose 7. As I see it tho, that's one for each day of the week.....

My 7 choices are

• Maybelline Coloursensation Coral Tonic
• L'Oreal Caresse Aphrodite Scarlet
• Topshop Oh La La
• Topshop All About Me
• MAC Vegas Volt
• MAC Impassioned
• MAC Girl About Town

To see why I chose each colour and see swatches, You can watch my video.

What colours are you loving this summer???

Mwah 

Battle of the coral lipsticks...................

Last week I posted a little Topshop haul with a couple of lip products. 

One of the Lipsticks I picked up was Ohh La La, a bright coral with a matte finish.

When I wore this lipstick for work over the weekend, I noticed that it similar to a couple of my very favourite MAC lippy's.

The Lipsticks in question are the Limited Edition Ever Hip, a cremesheen finish and Costa Chic a frost.

In the bullet they all look very very similar, if not the same.

When I swatched them all against one another, I was happy to see that although small, they are all actually different.

Ever Hip is a true peach shade, slightly muted. It also has a slight sheen.

Ohh La La is the brightest of the bunch. A orange toned coral, no pink at all in this one. It has a beautiful matte velvet finish.

Costa Chic is the most pinkie of the three. A pink toned coral with a slight shimmer and of course the frost finish. 

I hope that you can all see on your screens the difference that I can see in real life. 

I have no doubt tho that Ohh La La is the truest orange/coral. 

For some I know that having these 3 colours and so similar is excessive, and I must admit, they are right. As a true make up junkie and lover I am pleased that they are in my collection.

What do you think of these three?

Mwah

OPI Teenage Dream vs Topshop Adrenalin, a dupe, what do you think??.........

I picked up a new Topshop polish today (Click here for the post) and wanted to share a swatch with you as in the shop it really reminded me of the OPI Katy Perry polish in Teenage Dream. 

So here we are the two polishes side by side....

L To R

Teenage Dream and Adrenalin 

When I got them together I saw straight away that Teenage Dream has more of a pale pink tone to it. The Halo glitter is also larger and more dense in the Adrenalin.

With Flash

Natural Light

As you can see from the swatches, although they are very similar they are also quite different.

The swatches are 3 coats of each. The Topshop polish is much more opaque, the glitter much more dense, there is also more halo in the Adrenalin. I think this is what gives it almost a slightly more lilac tone to the polish.

Dare I say I think I actually prefer the Adrenalin, and that is a bold statement for me to make as Teenage dream has been a favourite for me since it launched last year. I think this is what I wanted it to look like.

What do you think???

Very nearly a dupe???

Mwah

Some Topshop Goodies.............

Having read a lot of very good things about Topshops range of cosmetics, especially there lipsticks.

Because of this I picked up a couple of there Lip products and a nail polish today

How could I resist this bottle of sparkly heaven?? Its called Adrenalin. Its a clear base with micro pinky lilac, holographic micro glitter and large holo hex. Gorgeous.

Next up I chose Ohh La La a matte finish tangerine lipstick, it feels lovely and creamy, I cant wait to try this one out.

And lastly I picked up one of there Lip Sticks, a jumbo Lip pencil. I will use this as a lippy and as a liner. Again the texture is soft and glides on. These pencils are super pigmented and after I swatched them in store, proved to have great staying power on my hand :)

L To R

Ohh La La and Clueless

What colours do you recommend from Topshop??

Think I have found a new addiction lol.

Mwah

Topshop jewellery and makeup, a mini Haul :))........

I don't really venture into Topshop very much but recently Ive been hearing alot of good things about their Makeup range. As i was passing today i decided to pop in and check out the range for myself.

I must say i think the packaging is super cute, i love the Polka dots :))

I swatched a few eye shadows, lipsticks and highlighters, but in the end i decided on two of the cream blushes (£6.00) and the Multi stick (£10.00) that can be used on the cheeks, body or Lips.

I have tried out the Multi stick and it gives a lovely glow to the skin.

My main reason for trying the blush was the texture. I like the look of cream blush but i don't seem to be able to find any that don't just slide of my skin. I'm hoping these will be good for me as they blend to an almost powder finish.

The colours i got are L to R

Pinch, Head over heels and Luminescence.

While i was in there i notice a sale on some of the jewellery, there were some great reductions.

These earrings were all £2.50 reduced from £8.50 :)) So it works out that all 3 only cost £7.50, less than one pair at full price..

Again these were £2.50 each reduced from £8.50 and £10.00

And then this, a sweet cherry necklace, £2.50 reduced from £8.50.

I'm really pleased with my lil bargains....

Have you found anything good in the sales??

Mwah

Maria xxxxx