FASHION POST: Simple skinny chic

Top: Topshop

Jeans: Topshop Leigh Skinny Jeans

Shoes: Next

Bag: River Island

I thought I would branch my blog out a bit and dip into fashion and accessories so this is the start of my posts in that direction. My main focus for blog will always be on beauty as I love it too much but I love reading outfit of the day posts on other blogs and decided I would give it a whirl on here too as a little branch off away from beauty. A couple of my favourite fashion/beauty blogs to read are: Llymrs, Viviannadoesmakeup and PeonyLim. I think it's important to find your own way and style with blogging which I am getting used to as I am trying and testing bits out, but I do think I am getting there and the most important thing is I am really enjoying it!!

Anyway onto fashion, I think I have changed my style a lot of the years and when I was younger I don't think I necessarily had much style (sometimes very dodgy), and even now sometimes a couple of style misses occur but I think as I am getting older I am experimenting more and feel a lot more confident when it comes to wearing outfits.

My style at the moment I would say is quite basic, I like skinny jeans and basic t-shirts with flats, but you guys will see we go on :-).

Hope you guys like my outfit and I would love it if you left me a little comment :-)

x

Review: Topshop Nail Polish

Shade: Gone Fishing

Firstly I just love the packaging the the Topshop beauty products it's all spotty and Dalmatian like and just looks very adorable but not in a childlike way! Secondly I love this colour nail polish, it's a fantastic mint green colour which isn't too pastel like but is on the cusp of a pastel shade and looks fantastic on both fingers and toes. What I have found though with this is the nail polish is quite watery to begin with so you do need a couple of coats to get an opaque look, and the brush is quite thin and therefore not as fantastic to apply as say a Nails Inc nail polish.

I do however think that the Topshop nail polish range is fantastic and they have some fabulous colours which are very on trend and are not a bad price point at around £6, so definitely well worth a buy if you haven't already tried them out!

Review: Maybelline Colour Sensational Popsticks

Shade: Citrus Slice

This is one of those products that I saw advertised and thought oooh I have to try one of those, commence the endless search to find it, proceed to try it and then unfortunately becomes a bit of a disappointment!!??

To me this is a gimic product making a lipstick look like a popsicle or an old school push pop (do you remember those!!) and in principle it is a great idea, however with this shade in particular the pay off was not there for me. It is balm/lipstick with a nice shine to it and even though this shade of Citrus Slice is orange to look at, when swatching it on my hand in Boots it actually is a pink shade which was a bit of a "oooh that's interesting" which added to my excitement, however when you try it on the lips the colour pay off is just not there and although it gives a lovely balm/shine texture to the lips, the colour is a barely there pink. Now for some this may be great and don't get me wrong I do like it, but you can get a similar finish from a tinted pot of Vaseline and for the price (just over £7, I think about £7.19, odd number I know!!!) for me for the product was a bit much for what it does, so really the price point for me should be under £5. For the scent of this product it is lovely and does remind me again of push pop's with a mix of citrus and sweetie scents, but if you are not keen on scented products this would not be one to try.

All in all for me it was a slight let down colour wise and price but a nice texture on the lips, however I don't think I would re-purchase it.

Review: Revlon Lip Butters

Shades from left to right:
Creme Brulee - Neutral beige colour
Tutti Frutti - Orange
Sweet Tart - Bright pink
Berry Smoothie - Muted purple/pink

Swatch does not show the colours particularly well.

Hands down I love these lip products!!

I have never been a lipstick person and my lips tend to be something that I always overlook (perhaps because I was self conscious as they are quite large, the older I get though the more I embrace them), and when I did buy products they were more glosses than balms or lipsticks. Over the past couple of years I have started to change and have started buying more lipsticks and experimenting with different colours, and these lip butters are by far my favourite purchases (which is why I have 4 and I would like more of them!!).

These products are a cross between a lipstick and a lip balm, so if you like the colour payoff of a lipstick but the conditioning of a balm Revlon lip butters are the way forward! They are packaged well with the lid having a diamond pattern on them which I am a little OCD with putting them back on correctly :-), they feel fantastic to apply and very conditioning on your lips 9not drying at all) and the colour pigmentation is fantastic considering that they are balm based especially for the brighter colours such as Tutti Frutti and Sweet Tart!! The price is very reasonable as well as they cost £7.99 in Boots and with the offers that sometimes Boots have you may be able to pick them up cheaper.

I have also mentioned these in a couple of my youtube videos which you can find on my channel SBSparkledust

Overall I totally recomend these and are worth investing in whether you like a subtle neutral lip or prefer experimentation with bright colours!

*Star Product* :-)!!

Brush Review: Real Techniques

Blusher Brush

Stippling Brush

Shading Brush

I have really neglected my blogging recently so I thought it was time to get my backside into gear and get some posts done, starting with these fantastic Real techniques Brushes by Samantha Chapman of Pixiwoo! I can't express my love for these brushes too much they are just brilliant and I am desperate to get more of them!

The brushes are made with Taklon Bristles and therefore are 100% cruelty free and are the softest bristles on make-up brushes you will find, just absolutely lovely on your skin, and as they are synthetic absolutely perfect for applying cream products to your skin as well as powder products. The handles come in a colour coded system, bronze/gold for base products, purple for eye products and pink/red for finishing touches which I think is a great idea as it makes them easy to locate in your brush pot.

These brushes are available to buy online and you can find out more about them on the website and also Sam Chapman shows you how to create different looks using the brushes on the website as well which is brilliant if you are new to make-up brushes!

I bought my three brushes from Boots in the MetroCentre and got them as they were 3 for 2 which was an absolute bargain and for the 3 brushes it worked out at around £21 which I didn't think was bad. All brushes I have found fantastic for applying my make-up, the stippling brush gives an absolute flawless finish to your foundation and I have also used it for cream blush, while the blusher brush is perfect for either blusher or contouring, the shading brush is perfect for either concealer or eyeshadow and it has been perfect for applying my Chanel Emerville cream eyeshadow.

All in all fantastic products and I totally recommend them to anyone either starting out with brushes or someone who is wanting to expand their brush collection.

You can also check out my youtube channel at SBSparkleDust where I talk about these brushes in both a haul video and my April favourites :-)!



New Channel on YouTube

I have been totally bad at blogging on here lately because I have been setting up a new YouTube channel as a way to branch out further into the make-up blog/vlog world :-). My channel is mainly for make-up reviews, hauls and a couple of fun videos as well so hopefully you will all like to check it out, if you do my channel is called SBSparkledust. I named it slightly different as I wanted a nod to my blog on here so I added SB to the front but I wanted to differentiate between the two and I like sparkly things so that's where sparkledust came from.

Anyway do please check it out and I have lots of upcoming reviews on my blog here so watch this space as they say :-)!

Tataa for now!

sxx

Review: Maybelline Forever Strong Nail Varnish

Shade: Ceramic Blue

I have been really lax with my blogging of late, but I have been focusing on setting up a youtube channel which is now live and there are a few videos on there so do check them out, my channel is SBSparkleDust :-)!!

Anyway this post is a review of a nail varnish that I bought from Boots the other week in one of my 3 for 2 purchases :-). I got this one and a Revlon nail polish as well as one of the coveted Revlon Lip Butter's which a review will follow on shortly.

I have another Maybelline Forever Strong nail varnish in clear which I have found great for helping my nails to grow (they have been particularly bad recently), so I decided to invest in a colour one and got drawn in by this pretty pastel blue colour.  Pastels and brights are very in for Spring/Summer and I love this blue colour as it is like a pale denim colour and it is not too overbearing in that it would go with quite a lot of outfits which is a bonus. I didn't notice until I started to put it on that it is a tiny bit holographic with a purple tone but it is so subtle that you hardly notice it,

I used two coats on my nails which was all I needed, you could get away with doing one as it is quite thick to apply but I thought for even coverage I would do a second coat. It dries quite quick which is good and I wore this for just under a week and it had barely started to chip which impressed me. I think it comes in for under £5 and for that I think it is well worth checking out if you are wanting to update your nails with a bit of pastel colour for Spring.

Happy nail varnish shopping :-)!