Archive for the ‘Mascaras’ Category
The danger of going to Superdrug for painkillers is loading the basket with make-up often not paramount. It doesn’t help that they are positioned just at the entrance and if your branch is anything like my local, half of the huge store is a labyrinth of cosmetics.
One of the items that contributed to my £30 spend in under 5 minutes was Maybelline’s latest mascara, Volum’ Express The Rocket. Normally I don’t flutter my lashes at Maybelline’s mascaras because they’ve never impressed me but I had to try this one after seeing the dramatic results on other blogs.
Maybelline promises “explosive volume in rocket time” and clump-free lashes. The special patented wand has short bristles spaced out to ensure application glides through. I did find some of my lashes stuck together with the wet formula but using the wand to separate them gave me ample time before they dried to a dramatic finish.
It is proper jet black which is how I like my mascaras. As for how it performs? Epic! It makes my lashes appear even longer and thicker particularly after two coats. If I am going to wear mascara, I like it to show since my natural lashes are black any way.
(Apologies for the slight clumping in the pictures, I was lazy in tidying them up!)
I really like this and for £7.99 it’s brilliant value (and you know, I don’t mind spending £20+ on a mascara that performs) – definitely one of my favourite products of the year.
Maybelline’s The Rocket Volum’ Express Mascara in Black usually costs £7.99 but it’s currently on offer for £5.99 in Superdrug. Also available in water-proof.
I am going on holiday to Marrakech soon. It will be 7 days in the (here’s hoping for) scorching north African sun, and I am looking forward to getting my first sun tan in almost 18 months.
One thing I am determined to do is to minimise on my packing with make-up and beauty products for two main reasons: I will be flying by no-frills airline Easyjet who are notoriously difficult with luggage dimensons and weights (total size includes wheels and handles for crying out loud!). Also I want to leave enough room for any potential purchases I will find difficult to resist from the souqs.
I took a heaving bag of make-up on my last getaway and shamefully I didn’t even use two-thirds of the contents. What is it about going away that sends us into a panic that we might need several palettes and lipsticks? It’s a holiday, not a fashion shoot!
So here are the essentials I’ve whittled down to:
- Maybelline’s Volum’ Express The Rocket Mascara – my current favourite mascara (not photographed)
- Illamasqua’s Precision Liner in Abyss
- Illamasqua’s Skin Base (12)
- MAC Pro Longwear Concealer (NW35)
- L’Occitane’s Sublime Beauty Cream – BB Cream in Medium*
- GOSH BB Cream in Warm Beige
- Bourjois cream blusher in Sweet Cherry (04)*
- Nars cream blusher in Maui
- Avon Supershock Gel Liner in black
- Clinique Chubby Stick Intense in Roomiest Rose and Mightiest Marschino*
- Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Crush (005)
- Smashbox Megatint in Punch*
- Bourjois 3D Effet lip glosses in Brun Exotic and Brun Rosé*
- Hourglass Extreme Sheen High Shine Lip Gloss in Icon and Empress
- Elemis Pro-Radiance Illuminating Flash Balm* – doubles up as a primer
- Liz Earle Sheer Gold Shimmer
I have purposely avoided products which need brushes as well as powders, and subsequently I am leaving out the eyeshadows because frankly I can’t be bothered with all that faffing around.
Bourjois’s new collection of cream blushers are not until 15th May but you can read a review and see swatches by Leanne of Do Not Refreeze. Light and slim in packaging, these are perfect for travelling so I’m popping one in the bag.
I am also looking forward to putting L’Occitane’s new BB Cream through its paces and I will be posting a review on it.
All of these fit nicely in my relatively small Bourjois make-up bag*. Honestly my make-up bag before was hand bag size!
Is there anything else I should take? I know I’ve overdone it with the lipwear but the trouble is, I don’t know which ones I will wear (depending on how I feel at the time) so I’m taking a few. Madness. I would love to know if you try to downsize your make-up when you go away or if you take more than what I am packing.
On a separate note, if you’ve been to Marrakech, please let me know your recommendations about what hidden gems I should visit or try. One thing that is an absolute must is a hammam and massage and picking up some argan oil. Can’t wait!
*PR sample
This time last year…
A year (or nearly two in my case) feels like a long time but looking back, it’s gone quickly. Those who have been reading Just Nice Things for at least a couple of years will know the obstacle I had to face in 2011, leading me to stop blogging for a while. (Here’s a little reminder of that.)
I have openly talked about the drastic loss of hair I suffered as a side effect of taking harsh medication, and the sadness and distress it caused to see pretty much half my hair fall out. However, I knew it was just a temporary glitch and I was far more concerned with fighting my illness and recovering from that.
I stopped my treatment towards the end of March last year but I still had to be monitored with regular check-ups and tests, and that it takes up to a year for the drugs to leave the body. It’s also when the healing process began.
This February I was given the all clear and discharged. On Valentine’s Day funnily enough. And I couldn’t be happier. I’m back to my usual self and it’s as if the last 18 months never happened.
But back to the point of this post. This time last year, the above picture is how my hair looked – very thin and whispy. I barely recognise myself when a year prior to this, I looked completely different – I had a huge crop of hair!
Georgia had to cut my hair much shorter to regain its strength and to allow it to grow back healthy so it was like taking a step back to go forward. I wasn’t happy when I had been wanting to grow my hair longer but I agreed with Georgia that this was the way forward.
Yesterday I popped along to The Chapel and four hours later, I left looking like this:
Cleopatra is back!
Now I’ve had a little booster with some human hair extensions by Racoon but only in the sides as that’s where my hair is the weakest. I first tried them in the new year and decided I wanted to keep them (expertly done by Billie).
There is actually a logical explanation behind this and it’s not for vanity alone. Billie advised that by having some extensions added for fullness, they would also take the stress and pressure off my real hair at the sides from when I use straighteners. Think about it – when you run straighteners through your hair, you are pulling at it. My hair at the sides always seems to be particularly weak as a result of such actions.
After two months of wearing extensions, when they were removed we noticed a difference – the hair looked stronger. I have continuously used straighteners but running them over the extensions has meant they have guarded my real hair from damage.
Some friends have told me they aren’t keen on extensions as they ruin real hair. Not if they are applied correctly. These were attached by glue about an inch from the roots, so the new hair has room to grow and become strong and the extensions are completely separate from inflicting any potential damage. I also didn’t experience any hair loss, no headaches and after a day, I forgot they were there.
Although the extensions have been matched perfectly with my real hair, the only giveaway is they are longer in length (so I’ve cheated a bit!) but could you tell if I hadn’t made the revelation?
My real hair has been growing back quickly too; the back alone is sprouting new, healthy hair which I am so chuffed about. I try to use castor oil whenever I can as that stops hair breaking and promotes growth but my use of it is now pretty sporadic. My health bouncing back is most likely the main source of it all.
The extensions are something I don’t intend to keep forever, but they are very addictive and has made managing my hair so much easier. The important thing here is they are doing something positive to my real hair so it feels like a treatment at the same time (albeit an expensive one!)
It is a welcome change to find a salon which is concerned about progressing forward with the needs you may have, and the girls at The Chapel have done exactly this for the last two years with me. They’ve already got ideas in their heads about what they’re going to do to my hair in the summer and for Christmas and do you know what? I can’t wait.
If you’re wondering what products I used here, they are: Illamasqua Skin Base in number 12, NARS blusher in Taj Mahal (face), Maybelline’s Color Tattoo in On And On Bronze, Urban Decay’s Smoked palette, Bourjois’s Eyeshadow pot in number 16, Maybelline’s Rocket Volum’ Express mascara (eyes), and MAC’s Chilli lipstick with Illamasqua’s lip gloss in Drag.
Today beauty blogger Rucksana Hussain is a guest reviewer for Just Nice Things. The Birmingham beauty junkie kindly agreed to try a selection of eye make-up from George at Asda.
Whenever I go to Birmingham, I always call in on Rucksana who is like a little devil sitting on your shoulder, egging you to buy more make-up from Selfridges’ in the Bullring. Her blog Walking in a Beauty Wonderland is one you must add to your list of blogs to follow. Without further ado, let’s see what Rucksana thought of George’s offerings.
I have been keen to try the George make-up range but my local Asda doesn’t stock it annoyingly, so when Sheenie asked me to review some products I jumped at the chance. I was given a selection of 4 single eyeshadows to try, which are a mixture of textures with variable results.
First up is Jellybean, a blue toned lilac. This is the kind of colour I am always attracted to. However I was left a little disappointed with how it performed. I used this all over the lid on top of MAC’s painterly Paint Pot but discovered it wasn’t true to the colour in the pan. It’s very sheer so to get a good depth of colour I had to build it up with a few layers. Jellybean is a shimmer eyeshadow but gritty in texture though it did blend fairly well.
Next up is Yeti, a red toned brown which is a matte eyeshadow. I am always on the search for a good cheap matte eyeshadow and this delivers nicely as it’s well pigmented, smooth and buttery to work with. Yeti blends beautifully and works well for a smokey look.
Panther is my favourite. Firstly I love the name as it reminds me of my black cat. It is a very deep slate grey shade with the same texture as Yeti, and has a silver sparkle. I used Panther in the crease and it looked so pretty and sultry. It also serves well as an eyeliner when used with a damp liner brush.
Snowflake is the final shade I tried. It is a pearly white iridescent shade and rather frosty which is quite apt for its name. I used this as highlighter on the brow bone but found it to be way too stark. It is exactly the same in texture as Jellybean, a shimmer but not smooth and quite gritty. Unfortunately it is the one I’m least fond of out of the 4.
I tried all 4 shades over MAC’s Painterly Paint Pot for around 6 hours. There was a fair amount of fading especially with Jellybean which had lost a lot of its vibrancy but there was no creasing.
Overall the eyeshadows are pretty good quality and the design of the packaging is sturdy and secure fpr £2.50 each so you can’t complain.
The final product from George is Volume Lash, a waterproof mascara. It claims to thicken lashes and add volume. It definitely added volume but didn’t really lengthen them much. It is a dry formula and if too much product is applied it clumps the lashes together. I favour my mascara to add length, volume and to fan out my lashes so they look, full, fluttery and voluptuous. Volume Lash didn’t give fanned out lashes but spiky instead.
Volume Lash comes with the ubiquitous bristle which I prefer over plastic applicators. The other thing that stands out is the yellow packaging, which bears a similar look to Maybelline’s eye-catching Colossal mascara.
All in all, I do like Volume Lash. It is very good value for money at just £3.50 and outperforms some major mascaras I’ve tried that cost more. George really does offer some absolute gems, I just wish it was more accessible in their stores.
George make-up is also available online at www.asda.com.
Rucksana Hussain
*PR samples*
Thank you so much, Rucksana for your honest opinion. Have you tried these or other products from the George range? If so, what do you think of them? Do you have any favourites you could recommend? Let us know your views by commenting below.
