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Posts tagged Make Up Academy
FashionistA Fashion Secret Flawless Primer
2
7 years
by Naomi in Face
One product I’ve always struggled with is face primers. I have an allergy to salicylates, and for some reason almost every primer I’ve ever seen or tried has had some form of salicylate in, and has brought me out in red rashy spots – not a good look! I’d just about given up looking for a primer suitable for my skin when, whilst browsing MUA’s online sale, I came across FashionistA’s Fashion Secret Flawless Primer. MUA are currently selling off loads of FashionistA products at heavily discounted prices, and at £3 down from £10 I thought I might as well give this one a go.
Going by aesthetics, this primer isn’t especially exciting. Just a simple grey tube with a wide nozzle which, quite frankly, makes quite a bit of mess as it lets out far more product than you actually need. But as they say, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, and what’s inside this IS special.
Almost every other primer I’ve encountered has had a heavy, creamy consistency, so I was quite surprised to find that this one is a clear, lightweight gel. At first I was a little put off as I expected it to be a bit greasy, like hair gel, but a little goes a long way and it actually glides on perfectly and forms a silky finish which is the perfect base for make up. My skin always feels so soft and smooth when I’m wearing this, which is lovely, but it does leave an odd residue on your hands after application which needs washing off.
In my experience, both liquid and powder foundations apply easily over the top of this primer to create an even, flawless finish, and quite impressively one application keeps your make up in place all day, which for me is the sign of a very good primer! Furthermore, I’ve been using this for over two weeks now and have had no sensitivity to it whatsoever, so this is a great little product for allergy prone skin (although check the ingredients first, obviously!)
Make up over primer.
Without a doubt, FashionistA’s Flawless Primer is worth every penny I paid for it, and I’ll definitely be stocking up before it sells out. It is available online from MUA here, and costs £3 for 30ml.
Will you be trying it?
Naomi x
Bewitchery featured on Superdrug’s Look at Me Blog
7I have something very exciting to share with you today… Bewitchery has been featured on Superdrug’s Look at Me beauty blog!
The article, called ‘Beauty Bloggers We Love: Bewitchery‘, features a little Q&A with myself, including beauty tips and Superdrug product recommendations, as well as a few pictures. Of course, my beloved MUA get a big mention! You can read the feature here.
What do you think of Bewitchery’s feature?
Naomi x
My Top 10 Beauty Products of 2012
6In February 2012, when Bewitchery was born, I decided to broaden my beauty horizons and try as many new products as possible throughout the year, without breaking the bank. In my mission to discover new favourites I came across many products which were less than impressive, but luckily I also found a great deal of fantastic ones, a fair few of which I have used time and time again, and will continue to do so. In this post I will give you a round-up of just a few of the best products I tried for the first time in 2012, linking to my review of each with a little extract of my post, just to give you an idea of why I love it!
1. e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner
“In terms of lasting power, this liner definitely has it. I have been wearing it now since this morning and it still looks as bright as it did when it first went on, and the line is just as clean. I’ve been rubbing my eyes a bit today too and it hasn’t smudged a bit – amazing!”
2. Models Own ‘Disco Mix’
“The absolute best thing about this nail polish is the colour. My favourite colours are purple, turquoise and pink, and ‘Disco Mix’ combines turquoise and pink glitter to create a polish which looks purple at a distance. The glitter colours are SO bright and bold.”
3. MUA Professional Matte Foundation
“One of the things that drew me to this foundation was the fact that it is matte and claims to offer a long-lasting velvet finish. I suffer from an oily T-zone (especially during the summer months) and I don’t like the shine that the oil creates, so I am always looking for ways to minimise the shine. MUA’s Matte Foundation, as you would hope, does give a matte complexion, and it keeps most of the shine at bay.”
4. Hawaiian Tropic After Sun Body Butter
“The body butter itself is fantastically light and creamy and feels so luxurious on the skin. It is absorbed very quickly too, leaving no messy residue. The product contains coconut oil, shea butter and avocado oil to aid with moisturisation, but despite the oil content it isn’t at all greasy. The oils make the butter ‘Intensively hydrating’, and combine to give ’12 hour moisturisation’, and believe me, the softness really does last that long.”
5. TanOrganic Sunless Tan
“Though the tan didn’t give my legs an intense colour, it did make them look nicely, naturally tanned and lightly brown, and I am very pleased with the results. There are no orange blotches or dirty looking streaks in sight, and my skin tone looks very even and smooth. The difference is only minor, but it is noticeable, and that is what I wanted so it has done its job well in my opinion.”
6. Montagne Jeunesse Moisturising Lip Balm
“Not one of Montagne Jeunesse’s lip balms contain petroleum jelly, so they aren’t greasy at all. Rather, they are made from 100% natural beeswax and olive oil and are lightly creamy but intensely moisturising. The beeswax forms a protective layer on the lips making them long-lasting, and the olive oil gives them a subtle shine.”
7. Models Own ‘Northern Lights’
“Northern Lights consists of a very fine dusky pink glitter, and is studded with delicate flakes of holographic glitter which shine purple, blue, orange, yellow and green in most lights. Even in the bottle, the varnish is breathtaking, and I have never seen anything quite like it before.”
8. Nivea Express Hydration Primer
“The primer leaves a smooth, non-greasy base on the skin, and since I’ve been using this I have found that my foundation smooths onto my skin far more easily and evenly than usual, without going patchy on any dry bits. The primer keeps my powder and blusher in place too, so on the whole my make up lasts a lot longer, which I think is down to the lack of greasiness.”
9. Bubbles & Butters Crazy for Chocolate Shower Bubbles
“The gel is very creamy and lathers into masses of moisturising bubbles quicker than any other shower gel I have ever used! Because of its impressive lathering abilities, a little goes a long way with these bubbles, so a £2 coin size is enough for your whole body.”
10. Omni Massage Roller & Sports Oil
“The first time I used the roller I asked my mum to help me reach the tense areas on my back, and even though she used it over my clothing I was amazed that the roller was sensitive enough to pick out all the knots in my muscles. We could both feel them ‘crunching’, which sounds horrible but it meant she knew which areas to focus on. The shape and movement of the ball means that any focused pressure is distributed outwards slightly, so the knots can be worked out without any pain or discomfort.”
…and one that I LOVE and am going to review again because I didn’t write much last time…
Sally Hansen Moisturising Polish Remover
“Unlike most nail varnish removers, this Sally Hansen offering smells lovely, almost like a body lotion, and doesn’t sting your eyes or nose with harsh vapours. It removes nail varnish quickly, with minimum effort, so you don’t need to sit for ages rubbing away to no avail!”
What were your favourite products of 2012?
Naomi x
Chocolate Treat Week: Makeup
8
8 years
My third Chocolate Treat Week post is all about make up. Believe it or not, I had to search high and low for chocolate scented and coloured make up products, but I found a couple of great ones in the end. I’ve also created a yummy eyeshadow look to share with you, which uses three different shades of chocolate brown. Enjoy!
For Lips… Palmer’s Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Lip Butter
In my high and low search for chocolate lip products I discovered a myriad of chocolate lip balms, but none of them seemed to cut the mustard as a gloss, rather than just a protective balm. In all honesty I was close to giving up, but then I found this… Palmer’s Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Lip Butter.
The Lip Butter has a lovely creamy formula which feels amazing on the lips. You can tell from how it feels that it is intensely enriching, and because it’s a butter and not a gloss it feels smooth and moisturising rather than sticky. It is also light in colour so doesn’t leave a tint on the lips, but as the packaging states it adds a ‘subtle gloss’, which is what makes it makeup in my eyes. The glossy shine it adds lasts for a long time, and can be worn over lipstick as well as directly on the lips.
The minty chocolate scent of the Lip Butter is absolutely divine. The fact that it is dark chocolate means that it isn’t too sickly sweet, and the freshness of the peppermint gives it a sharp edge. The mint also feels wonderful on the lips as it gives the lip butter a pleasant tingle. Though it doesn’t claim to be a plumping product I think it does have a slight, natural-looking plumping effect, but without the pain that some plumping glosses can cause!
Palmer’s Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Lip Butter definitely does what it says on the tin. It ‘softens & soothes lips’ almost instantly and leaves them feeling protected, but it has a big advantage over most lip balms by adding that ‘subtle gloss’. The Lip Butter is available in lots of high street shops (there’s a list here), and usually retails for about £2.75, which is an excellent price considering it is a gloss AND a protective balm in one.
For Eyes… MUA Malt Chocolate Intense Glitter Eyeliner
MUA’s Malt Chocolate Intense Glitter Eyeliner is another quality MUA product. Like all of their glitter liners it costs just £1, which is outstanding value as there’s even a pencil sharpener incorporated into the lid! The eyeliner is very creamy so it applies like a dream to both your waterlines and your upper and lower lash lines without pulling the skin at all. The glitter is very fine too, so it adds a lovely shimmer without causing any irritation or heaviness on the eye.
Malt Chocolate is a pretty, highly pigmented shade with a bronze tinge to it, which gives it that ‘intense colour finish’ – far from the dull, uninspiring look of most brown eyeliners! What I like about this liner is that, once it dries, it doesn’t smudge and it lasts a good long while before it comes off, keeping its bold colour for the duration of wear.
The eyeliner is also impressively versatile. MUA state that it can be worn all over the eyelid, as a lip liner or as an all-over lip colour as well as an eyeliner, and due to its creaminess I think it would make a great lip product as it wouldn’t be drying at all. What a fab thing to throw into your suitcase for a holiday or into your clutch on a night out!
If you’d like to try any of MUA’s Glitter Intense Eyeliners they are available in Superdrug stores or online here.
Create the Look… Triple Chocolate Eyes
The above look was created using three different shades of chocolate coloured eyeshadow. MUA’s Chocolate Box Trio Eyeshadow would be perfect for this, but I actually used their Immaculate Collection Palette. All you need to use to copy this look is a white chocolate shade as a highlighter, a milk chocolate shade as your main colour, and a dark chocolate shade for shadows and creases. The shades I used from the Immaculate Collection were these…
- White Chocolate: Shade 12
- Milk Chocolate: Shade 23
- Dark Chocolate: Shade 21
And here’s how you get the look:
- Prepare your eyelids right up to the brow bone with your preferred eye primer.
- Apply your milk chocolate shade to your eyelid using a flat eyeshadow brush, from corner to corner and up to the crease.
- Using another flat eyeshadow brush sweep your white chocolate shade above the milk chocolate shade, up to the brown bone.
- Using a shading brush, apply the dark chocolate shade along the crease of your eye, thickening the line at the outer corner and taking it down to the corner of your lashes.
- Blend the dark chocolate shade into the edge of the milk chocolate shade with a clean eyeshadow brush.
- Using a fine brush, apply a small amount of the white chocolate shade to the inside corner of your eye and a third of the way under your lower lash line. Fill in the rest of your lower lash line with the dark chocolate shade.
- Brush any loose eyeshadow from your face using a clean brush and finish with a generous coat of your favourite mascara, preferably brown.
The Last Rolo…
The Last Rolo is where I hand over the last few words of each Chocolate Treat Week blog post to another blogger. In the run up to Chocolate Treat Week I asked five of my favourite bloggers a couple of questions about their favourite chocolate treats, and today’s answers come from Claire of Nocturnal Beauty.
Can you recommend any chocolate scented, flavoured or themed beauty/fashion products?
I can definitely recommend the Whipstick lip balm from Lush. It’s my by far my favourite chocolate scented product that I’ve tried. It smells just like chocolate orange, and it isn’t overly sickly or too sweet, it smells absolutely divine. I do catch myself smelling the tin quite a lot! It feels lovely too and leaves a bit of a brown tint to the lips. It’s perfect for anybody who loves chocolate!
What is your favourite chocolate treat to eat, and why?
My favourite chocolate treat to eat is probably chocolate cake. I eat far too much cake and it’s a wonder I have any teeth left. I also make some seriously good chocolate fudge!
Thanks for reading today’s Chocolate Treat Week installment! Please check back tomorrow for a post all about chocolate themed nails, featuring some new nail art!
Naomi x
NOTD: MUA Frozen Yoghurt
8
8 years
by Naomi in Nails
Earlier this month MUA released quite a few new make up products, including two nail varnish shades – Frozen Yoghurt and All Nude. As soon as I saw the swatches of Frozen Yoghurt on MUA’s Facebook page I couldn’t wait to try it, but it didn’t actually appear in my local Superdrug store until late last week! I must have visited Superdrug about ten times over the last few weeks to see if they had it, so when it was finally in stock I was a very happy bunny indeed.
Frozen Yoghurt and All Nude are the first two basic MUA nail varnishes to have proper names, rather than just being called ‘Shade _’, and like the rest of the range they cost £1 each, which is amazing value.
Frozen Yoghurt has a creamy formula which applies extremely smoothly. I applied two coats of the varnish which gave completely opaque and even coverage, and it dried impressively quickly too. I only had to leave a couple of minutes between applying each coat and the top coat, and within ten minutes my nails were dry to the touch. If you’re a regular Bewitchery reader you will know that I often make the mistake of painting my nails before bed, which usually results in fabric imprints from my sheets on my nails the next morning. Well, I painted my nails before bed again but, miraculously, I woke up with perfectly smooth nails and no imprints! That, for me, suggests quality.
Here is what the varnish looks like on, in natural light…
Frozen Yoghurt is a very rich, beautiful shade with a creme finish. It is a very unusual shade of purple, which has a strong blue tinge to it – I can only describe it as a dark lavender colour. I think it’s quite feminine and delicate, but at the same time very striking and bold.
My only issue with this nail varnish is that it seemed to chip quite easily at the tips. Less than a day after applying the varnish there was obvious wear along the tops of my nails, which soon turned into slightly bigger chips. To be fair, I had been cleaning and mowing the lawn that day, but I’ve done the same whilst wearing other varnishes which have lasted longer.
All in all, I think this varnish is great. In terms of the formula and shade it is a definite winner in my eyes, it’s just a shame about the chipping! At £1 you can’t really complain though, and I can’t wait to incorporate this colour into some nail art.
Naomi x
MUA Professional Matte Foundation in ‘Soft Sand’
11
8 years
by Naomi in Face
A couple of weeks ago I ran out of my usual Avon foundation and I realised that I didn’t have any spare in my make up drawer. Since my Avon delivery was a little way off, I nipped in to town to pick up a cheap foundation to use in the mean time. I headed straight for the MUA stand in Superdrug as I’d been wanting to try their Professional Matte Foundation for a while, and I picked it up in Shade 1, ‘Soft Sand’, for £2.
‘Soft Sand’ is a light, natural shade which would suit most fair skin tones, but there are three other shades in the range for medium and dark skin tones.
The tube states that the foundation has ‘A creamy texture that blends beautifully for that perfect velvet finish and long-lasting matte complexion’. Though the foundation is creamy, it is also a lot thicker than I’m used to. At first I was worried that it would look caked on because of its consistency, but it does in fact blend beautifully to give amazing coverage. I took some photos to demonstrate how well it covers…
The top photo shows a small burn scar on my left wrist which has left a pinky-brown area of discolouration on my skin. The bottom photo shows the same area after being covered with a small amount of MUA’s Matte Foundation. As you can see, the foundation is a very good colour match to my skin tone, and the scar is hardly visible at all. If you ask me, that’s impressive for a £2 product! The foundation gives the same coverage on any blemishes on the face, and it even covered my sunburnt nose this morning. The coverage lasts a while too, a good 5 hours or so before any touch-ups are needed, which is fair for a budget foundation but in an ideal world I’d like it to last a little longer.
One of the things that drew me to this foundation was the fact that it is matte and claims to offer a long-lasting velvet finish. I suffer from an oily T-zone (especially during the summer months) and I don’t like the shine that the oil creates, so I am always looking for ways to minimise the shine. MUA’s Matte Foundation, as you would hope, does give a matte complexion, and it keeps most of the shine at bay. I wear powder on top of my foundation which often needs reapplying throughout the day over the oily areas, but I only need to reapply it once whilst wearing MUA’s Matte which is a definite improvement.
Overall, I think this is a great product. For £2, the quality is fantastic and it does what it says on the bottle. I will definitely be repurchasing this – once again MUA save the day!
Naomi x
NEW MUA Gel Eyeliner in ‘Tribe’
22
8 years
by Naomi in Eyes
Last week, my favourite budget beauty brand – MUA – added various new items of bargain make up to their already impressive range, including Every Lash mascara, the Going For Gold palette and four gel eyeliners. I am a fan of MUA on Facebook and they’re very good at updating their fans about offers and new releases, so I always know in advance when something exciting is going to happen. So, on launch day, I rushed off to Superdrug to pick up this new Gel Eyeliner in the very vibrant shade of ‘Tribe’. I had been after a bluey gel eyeliner for a while so I was extremely pleased when MUA revealed this shade!
The eyeliner comes in a little pot with a brush which clicks into the lid. When I first opened the product I was wowed by how stunning the colour is. The top image of the gel doesn’t really show the true shade, but the bottom one does… It’s a gorgeous turquoise colour with a slight shimmer to it – just what I was after 
I’ll admit, I didn’t have very high expectations of the brush as every other free brush I’ve had with gel liners have been, quite frankly, rubbish. However, I should know by now not to judge MUA by the standards of other budget companies as they really are a cut above the rest, and I will go as far to say that their gel eyeliner brush is the best that I own. The bristles are very soft but they keep their shape, and since this product is so creamy, it glides on like a dream!
The creaminess of the gel and the shape of the brush make it very easy to create a smooth, neat line above the top lashline. The brush is narrow as well so you can easily draw delicate flicks on the outer corners without any mess. The product dries quickly too, so you can build up layers of colour in no time for a bolder, brighter look. Here is how I wore ‘Tribe’ yesterday. I usually try to steer clear of blue eye make up as my eyes are blue and colour matching can make them look grey, but I don’t think this looks too bad.
I can safely say that MUA’s Gel Eyeliner is also extremely long lasting. e.l.f.’s gel liner often needs reapplying after a few hours to keep it looking solid, as does Avon’s, but this one lasted a good 14 hours without smudging or losing its boldness. I didn’t reapply it once throughout the whole day, and it looked exactly the same when I took it off as it did when I put it on – AMAZING. You’d expect it to be difficult to remove after lasting so long without budging, but it really isn’t – it comes off as easy as anything with a bit of eye make up remover.
All in all, I am SO impressed with this product and I want to collect the whole range eventually. I use black gel eyeliner more often than any other colour so I think that will be next on my list, and it will most likely replace the black gel liner that I already use! Each gel eyeliner in this range costs just £3 from Superdrug, which is an absolute bargain. I hardly made a dent in the product after swatching and applying this and I can tell it will last for ages. I really can’t recommend this highly enough! I can’t wait to combine it with other colours to create exciting new looks.
Naomi x
*This product was purchased with my own money and this is an honest review. I am in no way affiliated with MUA or Superdrug*
NOTD: MUA Nail Varnish in ‘Shade 5′
3
8 years
by Naomi in Nails
This afternoon I went to Superdrug to repurchase some essential make up items from MUA, and was pleased to see that Superdrug were running a 3 for 2 offer on all make up! I’m a sucker for nail varnish so of course, as my freebie, I had to add another MUA shade to my collection. The shade I went for is ‘Shade 5′, and it retails for £1.
I usually only wear dark or bright nail colours, but more and more lately I’ve been eyeing up the pastel shades that are popular this season, which is why I went for a pale shade for a change. I’ve been trying to think of a way to describe the colour and I’d say it’s a bluey shade of mint green, yet my mum insists it’s more like jade, so I’ll let you make your own mind up! I guess it depends on how many coats you apply really. Either way, it’s a really pretty colour and perfect for Spring/Summer.
I have reviewed a couple of MUA nail varnishes before and I have always been impressed with the application, but this varnish seemed a lot runnier than the others. After one coat you could hardly tell that I was wearing any nail varnish and it took another two coats (three on some nails) to create a completely opaque look. Also, I know the swatches aren’t the neatest anyway, but there was some bubbling on a couple of my nails under the varnish. I’m not sure whether that’s because I was in a rush when applying the varnish or because of a problem with the varnish itself, but it doesn’t look very good!
At first I thought the nail varnish had dried quite quickly as the initial tackiness didn’t last for very long, but THREE HOURS later the varnish smudged when I moved some boxes. Three hours is a looong time for a varnish to still not be fully dry so I wasn’t very happy about that. I hate having chipped and smudged nails as well so I’m going to have to neaten them up later which is annoying!
Overall, I adore the colour of this varnish so I’ll definitely be using it a lot, but I’m disappointed with the consistency of it and the amount of time it takes to dry. Still, for £1 it’s not breaking the bank so it’s definitely worth the money.
Naomi x
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