Sunday 21 August 2016

ColourPop Haul!





Our prayers have finally been answered, Coloupop are finally delivering to Ireland! Colourpop is an American cosmetics brand based in Los Angeles. what sets this brand apart from the multitude of other brands out there is its low price point & quality products. As a relatively new brand,  Colourpop uses social media as one of  its main marketing tools, using Beauty Bloggers & Social Media Influencers to spread the word. 


Also some people have suggested that Colourpop may in fact be the makers behind Kylie Jenner's hugely popular Kylie Lip Kits, a claim that both camps have strongly denied, saying that they merely share the same factory, but completely different formulas.

The reason why I actually ordered Colourpop on the day that I did was because I was waiting to order some of the Kylie Lip Kits from the Birthday Edition, but they had all sold out within one second... 
So on a whim I logged onto the Colourpop site to have a look at their liquid lipsticks to see if I could get anything similar. At only $6 per lipstick compared to $17 for the Kylie ones, I went a bit mad...



So the one downfall is the shipping cost.... €25 to Ireland. Ouch. So I wouldn't order these products for the price, more for the formulas of the make-up, which in terms of liquid lipsticks, I have definitely found Colourpop to be the best. It's dries to a matte finish which feels odd initially but settles to a comfortable matte feeling.



I also wanted to try some of the Super Shock Eyeshadows, which I have seen mixed reviews about. I decided to order one of the sets so I'd have a few shades which would work together. I ordered the Kathleen Lights collaboration "Where The Light Is" as I would be a regular viewer of her YouTube channel.

Shipping was incredibly fast for an international order, I had my parcel a week to the day that I ordered. I don't even get that with some of my orders from the UK, so almost makes up for the €25 shipping fee. Almost.

Everything in my order was absolutely beautiful, just one problem: They had sent me the wrong eye shadow quad... They'd sent "Where The Night Is" instead of "Where The Light Is" still a beautiful set, but darker than the colours I'd originally wanted. I emailed their customer service, not expecting an answer for a day or two due to time difference etc, but received n answer in less than hour asking me to send them a picture of my delivery docket & a picture of the eye shadows received. They then said that they would send out the correct quad & that I could keep the wrong one. Nice. I have to say that even over email they were incredibly polite & helpful. 



As well as the Ultra Matte Liquid Lips I also picked up a few other bits...



The Super Shock highlighter ($8)is absolutely beautiful, gives an insane highlight, but as the formula is a slightly wet texture I can't work out a good way to apply it, brushes don't seem to apply enough product & applying with fingers doesn't blend it too well, but it's so pretty the search shall continue until I find a suitable method.



The Lippie Pencils (cringe name) are LIFE, for $5 they are much better than my previous  MAC favourite pencils, so smooth & pigmented. Can't figure out how to sharpen though as they're plastic, not wood.



The Super Shock Shadows look beautifully pigmented in the pots, but be aware that the pot colour doesn't necessarily transfer as such to the eyelids, it's a slightly shearer look than when swatched. You are recommended to apply these with your fingers, which doesn't bother me, but some people don't seem to like this. I generally use these shadows if I'm looking for a single wash of colour on the lid, which they work well for.



Monday 1 August 2016

Korean Activated charcoal mask


Traditionally I have always had fairly oily skin growing up. This changed about the time that I turned thirty, as well as moving to a new home which has very hard water. The combination of the two has now turned my skin to dry/dehydrated.

One side effect of my new skin type is that I now have to use heavier products to moisturise my skin, resulting in clogged pores & blackheads on my nose!

I have tried several different masks & pore strips over the last couple months, but all these have done have dried out my skin more without actually removing the blockages. It was during my daily dose of YouTube viewing that I came across a 3 Step Korean Activated Charcoal Mask, which claims to first soften the blockages, drawing them to surface & then removing them via a peel off mask



I ordered this mask on Amazon for approximately €15 & took a week to arrive.

 


So this was my nose before. I started of by thoroughly cleaning & drying the area.



The instructions which come inside the box are much easier to understand than those printed on the back of the box, for example: " Penetrates pores deeply to quickly dissolve accumulated oil & dirty old horny to promote normal metabolism of skin keratin & recupertion of skin"... Enough said.



So step one of the process involves massaging the Deep Pore Sebum Softner into my nose, leaving on for about 5 minutes, rinsing off & then patting dry.



Next step was to smooth the Blackhead Removal Activated Carbon Mask to my nose (I used a cheap flat head make-up brush to ensure even coverage) I let that dry for approx 30 mins & then slowly peeled up from the bottom of the mask to the top.

It was not sore to peel of the mask, just made my eyes water slightly.



After I removed the mask I patted on the Skin Clarifying Pore Treatment Essence which they highly recommend to tighten the pores.



So this was my mask after I peeled it off. My nose felt noticeably smoother with a lot less congestion, especially around the corners of my nose.



Overall I would give this mask 4 out of five. Definitely made athe biggest improvement from any mask I've tried, the only downsides being that there is three different products to use & also that ordering off Amazon means that with the postage cost, the price can add up.