Colour Pop Haul

For a long time I had been dying to try some ColourPop lip products but unfortunately they don't deliver to the UK.** Therefore when we were in Orlando recently I took the opportunity to make an order from the brand!

CoverGirl Katy Kat Matte Review and Swatches

Having long been a fan of CoverGirl Cosmetics we were looking forward to getting our hands on their new collaboration with Katy Perry while we were in the USA last month. CoverGirl are one of our favourite drugstore beauty brands and its such a shame that they are not available in the UK however when we are in the US we always raid the shelves for some new additions to their range.

Bourjois Souffle de Velvet Review

Bourjois is one of our all time favourite affordable makeup brands and whenever we see a new realise from the brand we are all over it! The latest to catch our eye is the Rouge Edition Souffle de Velvet and we selected 05 Fuchsiamallow and 03 VIPeach to try out and review for you all! 

Essence Cosmetics - Review

Essence is a brand that always seems to pass us by. Essence is a budget friendly cosmetic brand that was first launched in Germany in 2002. The owner and developer of the brand wanted to create products that were fun and that offered both affordability and quality. Essence is sold in larger Wilkos stores in the UK, various stores throughout Europe and some Ulta stores in the USA. They have also recently launched in some Target and Loblaws stores in the USA and Canada.

The Big Autumn Makeup Purge

Let us start by saying that yes, we have waaaay too much make up and yes, we are suckers for shiny new products. Because of this we found ourselves in a situation where makeup was spilling out of drawers, cupboards and cabinets and action was needed!

 

Within our home we both own our own make up but we also share nail polishes and some palettes. As Mimi will be getting married and moving to the USA early next year we felt that it was time to sort the makeup stash and get rid of some of those items that hadn't seen the light of day for months or years!

Before the Great Purge!

 

The Lip Products:

 

This was one of the largest collections we had to organise. We started by tipping EVERYTHING out in a pile and started to go through each lip product by type e.g. lipstick, lip gloss, lip balm. Lets put it out there....the pile was ridiculous. We painstakingly sorted through each one and asked ourselves some questions:

1) How old is this product?

2) How long since I wore it?
3) Is it a colour I would wear now?

Once we had asked ourselves these questions it was easier to start throwing things away. If we had not reached for a product in over a year the chances are we would not be reaching for it again. We ended up with swatches all over our hands and arms (tip: keep some make up wipes handy!) Here is our 'before' (hangs head in shame) and 'after': We used the Muji storage drawers to organise the lip products so now they are easy to find and sorted into category.
 



The Lip Product Stash - Before

The Lip Product Stash - After

 

The Nail Polishes:

Another mammoth task! When sorting through our nail polish collection we started with those really old bottles that were beyond redemption. You know the kind; the top is glued on, the polish is thick and gloopy and you last reached for it in 2002! They went the journey first and then we took stock of what was left. We both have a certain colour that we gravitate towards and then we buy the same colour in 20 different brands. For Elle it is the neutral beige/sandy colour and for Mimi it is a soft pink. This MUST stop as it means that we have soooo many nail polishes in almost the same colour. We kept our very favourites -  Essie Sand Tropez and Essie Fiji and a couple of similar shades (don't judge) and the rest went into the 'give away' pile. We then utilised our nail polish stand from Ebay to display the polishes that remained. A still slightly ridiculous but more manageable collection.

The Greens

The 'they're not really all the same shade' neutrals

The Baby Pinks

The Final Result

 
 The Powder Products:

By this we mean the powders/bronzers/blushers etc. We are not really collectors of single eye shadows and any that we have are nicely stored in a MAC or Z Palette so this was an easy edit to make. The other powder products were a different story. We had a lot of pretty old products that needed to be tossed as they were way past their best. We then tidied the remainder into an Ikea box giving us easy access to the products and making us much more likely to use them.



The Powders, Bronzers and Highlighters

The Blush

 The Palettes:

We both love a good eyeshadow palette and have some great ones from Urban Decay, IT Cosmetics, MAC and Revolution. We had nothing that we wanted to lose therefore we tidied the products up and displayed them in an Ikea Godmorgon box for easy access.

The Paletts

 
The Conclusion

A sort out was most definitely long overdue and it was amazing to find some little hidden treasures that we had forgotten about! Since we purged we have started to use some products that had been relegated to the back of the cupboard and have a new found love for them! The IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Palette has been brought out of retirement and Elle has been using it daily since its rediscovery.

We have also pulled out some great forgotten about lip options and brought them back into circulation such as Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipstick in Rose Tweed and Bare Minerals Marvellous Moxie Lipstick in Speak Your Mind.

Have you ever had a giant makeup purge? Did you find any old favourites? We would love to hear about your rediscoveries in the comments below!
 

USA Beauty Haul - Sephora and Ulta

While we were holidaying in Florida during August we could not resist a trip to the beauty stores (lets be honest we made about 5 trips but who's counting!) We always like to check out the products that are US exclusives or difficult to come by in the UK and we got our hands on some treasures!

Lets start with Sephora (also known as the Mother Ship!). Our first trip to Sephora was at our favourite Orlando shopping destination, Mall at Millenia, where we picked up some of the excellent Sephora brand make up brushes. We have tried some of these brushes in the past, I own a crease brush and a blending brush, but we had not tried the Pro Brushes nor the Value Sets so we were interested to take a look at what was on offer. I had the Sephora Small Pro Stippling Brush on my must have list and snapped up one of those up along with the Pro Tapered Crease Brush which is amazing for a precise crease shadow application. Another must purchase was the legendary Beauty Blender. Now I realise I am a little late to the party on this one and I know it is available in the UK but it's sooo much cheaper in the US and for this reason I thought it was time I gave it a whirl. After 3 weeks use I can safely say that it has changed my foundation/concealer life! I am loving it for blending foundation, CC cream, tinted moisturiser, under eye concealer - you name it! I also picked up a new Beautyblender Solid Cleaner as Mimi said I used all of her last one (!). Another potentially life changing item was then secured - the Anastacia Brow Wiz. Until tragedy struck! On the flight home the holy grail item was safely packed in my make up bag in my case however when I got home I noticed that it has somehow snapped in half during the journey. I see a repurchase on the horizon.

I really wanted to try one of the Fresh Sugar scents and after smelling all of them settled on Fresh Sugar Lemon which is a lovely blend of their traditional sugar sent with lemons thrown in. I love it! Finally, when approaching the cash register and making my way through the aisle of temptation I grabbed hold of the Elizabeth and James Nirvana perfume duo and the cute Sephora TSA Approved Travel Bag to use on the flight home.

Next it was off to Ulta where I stocked up on my favourite L'Oreal Color Riche Balms which I now own in every colour with duplicates of my top two! I was very restrained in Ulta and only picked up a couple other items including the NYX Skinny Mascara that I wanted to try as a bottom lash mascara. So far so good! (lets be honest here, I bought two!) Of course it wouldn't be a trip to Ulta without throwing in a few - okay SIX - nail polishes into the mix! I love these L'Oreal nail polishes and Essie is our favourite nail polish brand so we had to get our hands on some new shades.

Special mention to the Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous Foundation. I have seen some Beauty YouTubers praising this product and it is so affordable I thought I would give it a try. It is now my daily go-to foundation and I wish I had picked up a spare!

Since having LVL Enhance lash treatment I have steered away from waterproof mascaras. Therefore, when the new Covergirl Super Sizer Mascara caught my eye I was tempted to give it a whirl. You are supposed to 'twist' the brush as you apply at but that seems a bit weird to me so I have stuck to the traditional application method! The fine wand grabs hold of and makes all of your lashes stand out and it holds a curl nicely. So far, so good!

Usually when we travel to the US we find lots of things that are not available in the UK however I think that the UK beauty market is getting much better and we seem to be able to get our hands on most things and most brands that they have in the US with a few minor exceptions. This meant that I did not purchase nearly as much as usual - good for my bank balance!

Look out for our Bath and Body Works haul coming soon!

Have you tried any of the above mentioned products? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Elle x