Review of ELF's Mineral Eyeshadow Primer

This review is for ELF's Mineral Eyeshadow Primer, a product I initially disliked but now I love! This is currently £3 on the ELF website.

For me, an eyeshadow primer is essential, I wear eyeshadow everyday and without a primer my eyelids get oily and the shadow starts disappearing after only a couple of hours. Before buying this I used Urban Decay's Primer Potion which I still love, I don't love the price though so I thought I'd give this a go!

The packaging is nowhere near as nice as the Urban Decay but that's not a problem when the product cost £3, however after only trying this a couple of times, the black case that should be attached to the white part at the top of my bottle cracked and came off :-( I do have a tendency to over-tighten things to make sure they're shut so maybe it was my fault, the white part still has the screw mechanism though so the tube is still sealed, it's just a bit more fiddly to open.

The applicator was nothing unusual and easy to use:

Packaging issues aside when I first used this primer I found it was more watery/runny than the Urban Decay one but similar in colour (skin-tone-ish). When I tried it out, it took longer to dry but once it had done so my eyeshadow went on fine and definitely didn't crease as fast as without a primer but would not last the whole day like they would with UDPP.

As it wasn't working great for me I decided this would be a back up and left it aside for a few months. Eventually my Primer Potion ran out and because I didn't have time to go out and get a new one straight away, I went and opened this up, and to my amazement it actually worked to keep my eyeshadow in place all day! I think it has dried up a little since when I purchased it and I think this may be the reason why it's working as well as UDPP for me now! Since then I've been using this daily and would buy it again, though I may have to let it dry up a bit first which is bizarre!

This is ELF's mineral primer version, I see they do an ordinary eyeshadow primer for only £1.50 so I think I will try this out too next time to see how it goes! This is absolutely worth the money even if the handle does crack off.

Thanks for looking :-)

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Review of Sleek's Dip-it Eyeliner

This is a review of a product I do not like and would not repurchase, it is Sleek's "Dip-it eyeliner" and the one I own is in black. This is currently listed at £3.49 on Superdrug's website.

The packaging looks quite nice and you get 4ml of product which is good as my preferred eyeliner (The Body shop's Liquid Eyeliner) is more expensive and only contains 2.5ml of product.

The tip is a stiff pointed type which tapers to a very thin end if you like this (I apply thick eyeliner daily so I don't mind fatter nibs :-P).

When initially applied I find this quite runny and wet (like a liquid I guess haha) and it takes longer than my Body Shop one to dry which is a bad point. When it (eventually) dries, it does so with a matte finish which is a must for me! The colour is quite intense which is good, however I find the thin tip and watery consistency quite fiddly and often have to go over to achieve the shape I want and when doing so I find this starts lifting off in areas and going patchy (again I don't have this issue with the Body Shop one).

The main problem I have with this eyeliner though is that it actually stings my eyelids when I'm applying it and almost feels a little tight on my skin when it dries! The only other time I've experienced this is when using cheap no-brand glitter eyeliners, so I was quite shocked when I first tried this as I love many other Sleek products and have never found them disappointing. I really don't have sensitive eyes/skin generally so I'm not sure what it is about this product but it's definitely not for me (why I don't just chuck it out is anyone's guess).

To sum up, even if this eyeliner didn't irritate my eyelids, I would not repurchase or recommend due to it's consistency and excessive drying time, I'm pretty sure a better liquid liner could be found at a similar price. (I do however love Sleek's gel liner in black!)

Thanks for reading! :-)

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Review of Boots expert instant matte

Hmm I've completely forgotten how to use this site, but will try my best with some reviews of things I do/don't like, hopefully in order to help people considering purchasing them!

This review is for Boots "expert instant matte" which I obviously purchased in Boots but can't recall the price, when I bought it there was an offer on the Boots expert range but it costs under £4 I'm pretty sure of that, some of this range is currently on an "any two for £4" offer and this may have been the same offer when I got it!

This is a cute little 15ml bottle and to use you basically shake the bottle and dab the liquid onto your face in the desired area. The product itself is very very watery in consistency, it looks like water with white powdery particles floating in it, so I find it easiest to cup my hand an tip a little bit in, then use a make-up sponge to dab it onto my face.

Once on the face it doesn't look powdery or dry my skin out (although my skin is very oily). It also doesn't completely mattify my skin however, but definitely improves it and just leaves more of a natural shine to my skin rather than a greasy look! I apply this before foundation and it tends to help my skin for a good few hours however if you wanted to keep the more matte look later in the day you would probably need to reapply (the tiny bottle is a great size for a make-up bag though!). I use this on my T-zone and cheeks, not much is needed so I think this shall last me some time which is good. I switch between liquid and mineral foundations and have no problem applying either after using the instant matte.

All in all I would buy this again, it's cheap, it's not a miracle cure for shininess but it does make an improvement and is easy enough to carry around to reapply if desired.

Thanks for reading :-)

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Review of the Soap & Glory Glow Job Daily Radiance Moisture Lotion

Hello, so far the reviews I have posted have been about some of my most favourite products, the ones I would absolutely re-purchase, this one is different, I don't really dislike this moisturiser, I just wouldn't want to buy it again. The product in question is the Soap & Glory "Glow Job Daily Radiance Moisture Lotion" which currently costs £5.33 on the Boots website although it says the price was £8 and there seems to be an offer on, I can't recall how much I paid for it, it's a 75ml tube with a stated shelf-life of 12 months.


The packaging is cute like all the Soap & Glory range. This is basically a tinted moisturiser, but the gimmick here is the "built-in micro-bronzer beads". The instructions on the tube tell you to "Squeeze a pea size amount of Soap & Glory Glow Job Daily Radiance Moisture Lotion onto your finger tips, then rub together to release the bronze from inside the beads and blend. Apply to your face in upward circular motions, then just get up and GLOW!". So here's what the product looks like when you first squeeze some out:


At the bottom of the blob, that white ball is one of the micro-beads. The lotion does have quite a bit of scent to it, which I always thought was orangey and having just looked on the Boots website it states that this contains sweet orange peel oil so it's confirmed, it's not particularly unpleasant just not to my taste. I don't really notice the smell from it after it's applied though. I found the best way to break the little beads is to squirt the lotion into the palm of one hand and then rub it around a bit with the fingertips of my other hand, this is what it starts to look like:

As you can see it looks quite messy with bits of half broken beads and the bronzer very unevenly mixed, when it's at this stage a generally dot it around my face and then rub it in really well to get an even coverage. The beads break up quite easily at this stage and disappear. The bronzing colour looks quite dark in comparison to my skin tone but it blends in okay, when I use this moisturiser I generally wear mineral foundation over the top, it's not the most amazing base, I'd say it would be the same as any moisturiser out there, the colour from this product is not that intense. As for it's moisturising properties it works fine, but I don't have any issues with dry skin so I find any moisturiser is good for me.

It's a fun lotion to try out, however it just seems like a bit too much hassle for not that great results, an ordinary tinted moisturiser than can be applied straight to the face would work just as well. The bronzing colour doesn't make an awful lot of difference once it's been rubbed in and it doesn't seem to have any SPF in it which is a shame, the Philosophy tinted moisturiser I've tried had SPF15 which I thought is a nice bonus! At the price of this moisturiser (whether that's £5-ish or £8) I would much rather buy a tinted one that gives some heavier coverage and acts as a better base, so although I will continue to use it up, I would not consider buying it again.

Thanks for looking :-)

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Review of The Body Shop liquid eyeliner.....

Hello, this is my thoughts about my favourite liquid eyeliner, it's in black and it's from The Body Shop. It's just called "liquid eyeliner" plain and simple really! It currently costs £8.50 according to their website, so it's not the cheapest of liners, but definitely the best I have tried so far.You get 2.5ml and the product is labelled as having a 6 month shelf-life (although I have kept it past that, it hadn't occurred to me until now to even check!).


The nib (if that's what you would refer to it as?) is the stiff felt kind, I like this because it means I get better control when applying it. It's also quite fat compared to other brands I have tried, again this works out well for myself because I apply quite a thick line! The handle is tapered, and also long enough that you can hold it like you would a pen which makes life easier.


Hopefully you can see from the image above that the colour is very intense, and also matte, some other liquid liners I have tested in shops seemed to dry with a shiny finish on them which I find a bit odd. The Body Shop website claims that this is water resistant, that's not the case in my experience, this will run fairly easy in contact with water, otherwise it does stay in place all day. The website also details some beneficial ingredients apparently contained in the eyeliner, these are Marula Oil and Vitamin E, I can't tell you if they are doing anything to improve my eyelids but I can say the product has never irritated or dried them out. There seems to be a lot of positive reviews about this on the website, so it must be popular which I'm pleased with because I'd be really disappointed if they discontinued it.

I have been using this eyeliner for about 3 or 4 years now and I still love it. The price does seem a bit dear for what it is but I would say that it lasts me around 8 months (maybe a bit more) so it works out alright considering I wear this pretty much everyday. The only issue I have with the eyeliner is that sometimes I find it really tricky to open, the handle is a shiny plastic and especially if you have a bit of moisturiser for example on your hands then it can take me forever to get into it (not good when you're in a rush in the morning!), this is probably just me though to be fair I can be quite feeble at times. All in all I will probably be buying this product as long as I want to keep wearing liquid eyeliner.

Thanks for reading :-)

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Review of the Sleek Ink Pot eyeliner gel in "Dominatrix"

Hello, I currently have two favourite eyeliners, both black, one is a liquid liner (which I will review later) and the other is a gel eyeliner by Sleek. Sleek's range of gel liners are called "ink pots" and I think they cost around £3 at Superdrug. This is the one I own:


Their black liner is called "Dominatrix" and you get 4g in a pot. The packaging states it has a shelf life of 12 months, however, I personally found it started to dry out after a few months, I've seen other people comment on this too, for me it wasn't much of an issue, I simply dipped my eyeliner brush in the teensiest amount of baby oil and then picked up the product and worked it into the lid, this brought it back to life so to speak.

The ink pot comes with a brush:


It's not the worst quality brush in the world, however, it is quite tricky to use unless you have hands the size of Barbie's as it's tiny! So I don't use this brush (yet I have kept it "just incase" haha) but I guess it's always nice for them to give you something to apply it with. The product itself goes on easier if you have sorta "warmed it up" a bit, by which I mean that I get a bit on my brush and swirl it around it the lid, I find that this softens the gel so that it glides on smoother. The colour is quite intense which I like and it stays put all day for me, although I tend to set it by pressing a bit of black eyeshadow into it, but I think part of the reason I also do this is to use up all the black eyeshadows I have in my many Sleek palettes (I think there's a black shadow in each one)!

Here is the liner tested on my hand:


This liner is great for getting right into the corners of the lower lash line (and staying there!) so most days I wear liquid liner above my top lashes, and this on the lower. I did find this tricky to remove with ordinary make-up removers as it's quite stubborn (which is good because it means it stays in place all day) but it comes off no problem with baby oil, so an oily cleanser may work well on this.

In summary, this is a great, cheap gel eyeliner, although it does have issues with drying out, I can't compare it to a more expensive brand because this is the only one I have tried. I have been using this almost a year now and although I have reached the bottom of the pot in one area there is still a lot left (bearing in mind I wear heavy eyeliner everyday). I will definitely be buying this again.

Thanks for reading :-)

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Review of the Bourjois Liner Effect Mascara

Hello, I am carrying on the theme of products that I really love and this one is currently my favourite mascara, it's the Bourjois "Liner Effect" Mascara, and this is what it looks like:


You can probably see the tube looks a bit bashed but I use this daily so it's bound to with me. This is currently priced at about £8.99 I think, for a 10ml tube.

Here's a look at the brush:


As you can probably tell from the photo, it's one of those mascaras with the plasticy (or rubbery I'm not sure!) brush. The unique thing about this mascara is that the bristles are long on one side but short on the other, that's all to with the "liner effect" qualities. Once you have used the long bristles to comb through your lashes, you are supposed to use the short ones at the base of the lashes for the liner effect. As far as that goes, there is no advice on the packaging as to how you should go about this, and the one attempt I had failed miserably, it just went onto my lid and was a complete mess, so that whole gimmick didn't really work for myself. However the long bristles are fantastic at separating and lengthening my lashes, they don't add much volume however.

There are a couple of downsides to this mascara, one is the sharpness of the bristles, they are virtually like needles!! I think it's this sharpness that allows them to separate my lashes so well but honestly, get this a little to close to your eye and ouch! The other issue I have with it is that although it coats the lashes well and is a really nice dark black (it says it's enriched with khol so perhaps that' why), once applied, it remains wet for a considerable length of time, meaning that if you shut your eyes or open them too, wide you end up with transfer onto your skin. Saying that once it's dry there is no flaking or smearing like I have encountered with other mascaras.

In summary, I love this mascara because the length it adds to my lashes is really quite dramatic and it doesn't clump them together, you just have to take care when applying so you don't hurt yourself with the razor sharp bristles and give it plenty of time to dry. This has been my favourite mascara for the past year now.

Thanks for looking, hope it was helpful :-)

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