Nyx Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil Milk Review - is it worth the hype?

Like lots of impulse purchases, I justify it by saying to myself that a lot of other people have said great things about it and told me, me personally (through the internet screen) that I need it and that it will change everything about how I apply my makeup.

I believed that the NYX jumbo pencil really was the missing piece to my makeup bag that would actually enhance every eyeshadow that I had ever purchased by providing such a pure white canvas to show the true vibrancy of every eyeshadow.

This is half true.

I find application of the NYXjumbo pencil in milk a little clumsy, it is a true white no doubt, but it simulates putting tippex on your eyelid and is tricky to get neat as the pencil sort of tugs at the eyelid:

When I try and smooth out the scruffy edges with my fingers to make my tippex eye look less ridiculous, the colour is dilutes by the blending to a milky grey with my skin peeping through:

and if I try to go over it again with the pencil then I have the scruffy edges and go through the whole blendy-to-no-avail process over and over again.

Next, the texture of it when I apply it is kind of tacky, not smooth and matte feeling at all, I expected it to be like Mac paint pots but in a pencil form, I know the the prices between these products are not comparable but I had my expectations because of the amount people went on about this product. The tacky-ness also equals creasing so I would recommend to use a good quality primer or base below the pencil rather than depending on the pencil by itself to avoid creasing mishaps.

Does the pencil make my shadows look brighter and bolder... No. Not enough for me to notice or to persuade me to repurchase the pencil.

Over to you:

Guess which picture (A) or (B) I am wearing just the Milk Jumbo Eyeshadow pencil in as a base, and the other one I am wearing absolutely no base, just eyeshadow
I will tell you which is which at the end!
N.B These photos have only been cropped and labelled, absolutely no effects have been put on them whatsoever!

 I wonder if this is down to one of two things:
1. The base that I having been using to this point 'Painterly' by Mac already does a really good job that using the shadow pencil I do not notice a difference

or

2. The eyeshadows that I use are already of a pretty high quality and pigmentation so to use the shadow pencil would be better suited to colours that do not have a great pay off.
-My issue with this is: If an eyeshadow does not have a good colour pay off then I get into the habit of not reaching for it before throwing it or giving to someone who wants it. I don't like to work hard to get an eyeshadow formula to work with the building, building and building up of colour pigmentation but I do see how the Jumbo eyeshadow pencil could make this whole process easier if you have a lot of drugstore eyeshadows, or a lot of large palettes that tend to neglect pigmentation in the sheer volume of colours.

That's my 2 cents on the pencil, and in my opinion, I'd save your 2 cents for something better.

Answer:
Picture (A) I am wearing the Milk Jumbo Eyshadow Pencil
Picture (B) I am wearing no base of any kind, just eyeshadow

New video makeup tutorial: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette Smoulder Look

Who doesn't love simple great looks at your disposal to whip on time and time again that look just great, are simple and fool proof?

Here is another of those classic looks that use a few colours (dupe-able) to create something striking, it's a simple case of dark colour on the corners of the eyes and the crease, with a paler colour in the center of the eye lid, the real key is blending blending blending, and a little bit of adding the dark colour at a time, it's much harder to 'blend away' dark colours once you've applied too much, so keep a light and gentle hand and take your time at first!

Yesterday my Naked 3 palette showed up, and I got to have a little play around, so my next few tutorials may have a little something on that, I'm also contemplating getting a good quality microphone to begin creating voice overs to some or all of my videos, I'm not too savvy with the editing though, so it may be a step too far for me!?

Starting the week off right!

Here begins the start of the last week at University!

It's a very sad feeling but I still have a final exam to get through tomorrow before I can be completely free.

But here arrived a little magic treat pick-me-up to help set the week off right!

It is the Stila Eyeshadow in shade Kitten.

I'd heard a lot about this beautiful colour an I wasn't disappointed. It's beautiful and wonderfully creamy, maybe a bit too creamy, I'd barely pressed the pan and I've already put a dent in it, you can see it on the far right of the pan in the middle picture.

It's paler than the photos would have you believe, I wouldn't describe it as a gold colour but a cross between cream and champagne.

I really love it and can't wait to use it properly!

New Video! Neutral Weekend!

If there's anything more fun than filming a video once, it's refilming and editing another two times!

I'm just joking
it made me want to rip my own hair out and snap the memory card in half
but thankfully I didn't
and the once time that the video was actually functioning I quickly rushed to get it uploaded before something went wrong again

So although early, but better early than never at all:
Nearly Naked Makeup Tutorial!



Very pretty look that is kind of my 'everyday' look, especially on the days where I'm feeling less colourful.
I use the Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette and a fluffy brush, smaller tipped brush, angled eyeshadow brush and a blending brush but of course you can use dupes of all my tools and eyeshadows.
I hope you enjoy it!

P.S Turn your volume up because my voice was on it's way out when I filmed the first part of this video.

Falling down the rabbit hole...

If I could describe my early halloween night in one word it would be...cold

My goodness I was frozen to the bone, and I wore a cardigan!
I wasn't aware it would be so much walking around from place to place (although I did wear flats thank goodness)

Oh England, why are you so cold and wintery and dark and raining on our fun??

On a brighter note...

I went dressed as Alice in wonderland... it was a recycled costume but oh well, I hopes no one would remember and they didn't seem to.

For makeup I'm wearing my wonderful, new, miraculous, magical and mesmerising Urban Decay Vice palette-uh

I'm wearing Desperation all over the lid, Black market in the crease (blended of course as it's a jet black) Provocateur on the inner corner and a dap with my finger of Armor in the middle of the lid, I love armor it's super duper glittery and halloween-y!!!

I was going for a grey, worn-in look, I didn't want my makeup to look fresh so that the look wasn't so soft and a little more sinister.

What are you wearing for halloween!?

They had sold out of Pumpkin costumes... I was saad

Cotton Candy Makeup Haul

I just thought I'd share with you some new eyeshadows that I got, they are by the brand Fashionista who I have spoken about before (and how I don't like the brand name) and I used their shadows in my Valentines Day makeup tutorial and really enjoyed using their products, so on my search for some new cotton candy pastel shades I ended up back at their stand.
This is what I came home with:

The light pink colour is called Sweet Kiss, the dark pink is called Bliss
The sparkly green is called Meadows and the blue is called Cool Blue

Swatches on my inner arm, I love how bright Bliss and Cool Blue come out, Sweet Kiss seems to have a lot of fall out and was tricky to build up on my arm

This picture summarises why I chose thoses colours, when you blend Sweet Kiss with Bliss and Cool Blue with Meadows, you get these perfect cotton candy shades!

Pinks and Browns ~ Eyeshadow Tutorial

I've been playing around a lot with pinks at the moment, they have a reputation as a difficult colour to wear as eyeshadow, but I love them and find them really versatile making them easy to work with. I've tried pinks with greens, pinks with blues, pinks with whites and now pinks with browns. I think the key to avoid looking like you've got a bruise on your eyelid is to apply the pink slowly, build it up layer by layer. Another thing that makes a big difference is to make sure that you fully line your eyes on the top and lower lashline, otherwise your eyes can get kind of 'lost' and look smaller and maybe even make the eyes look a little tired.

Here's how it went down:
For the eyes-
Painterly Paint pot by MAC
Pale pink, Glamour Girl all over the eyelid by Fashionista
Bright pink, Brave eyeshadow on the outer corner of the eye by Fashionista
Dark brown, Folie along the crease, blended backwards and fowards by MAC
Shade 001 Time Resist White by L'oreal on the brown bone and inner corner of the eye
Brown gel eyeshadow along the top lashline by MAC
Folie by MAC along the lower lashline, so that it's not so harsh and heavy on the eyes
White eyeliner along the waterline - Fascination by MAC
Black Mascara by BareEscentuals

I finished it off with a frosted lip by using a pale pink Lovelorn by MAC and pressing Shade 001 Time Resist White by L'oreal in the centre of my lips and then pressing them together

Acrylic Makeup Drawers

It's a tough job to find makeup storage that is good, accessible, effective, large and sleek looking. I'm yet to find a company that makes really effective long term ways to store cosmetics, I find any storage cases are either not big enough, horrible colours and look clunky on surfaces or make it difficult to actually see what I have.
I'm still searching and still haven't found 'the perfect' way to store my makeup, perhaps it doesn't exist!

But here's a little something that helps..

I spotted it in stationer Rymans, I often find that stationers are the best for cosmetic storage, that and sometimes homeware storage places like IKEA.
This acrylic drawer set was in a larger size but it was a little too large so I thought I would use it to store my odds and ends that are more peculiar in terms of size so that they finally have a 'place'

 In the bottom drawer I have my concealer, Fluid eyeliner, a pore concealer and paintpots go in here too

In the middle I can stash my mascaras, I have a mascara sized eye primer in there too and some of my larger lipglosses

In the top I've kept my clear lidded vegan eyeshadows from Madison Street Beauty because I felt they looked so pretty all together, and in the top drawer they can be seen all the time!

This acrylic drawer case was a little over £10 all in all!

Minty-Melt-at-the-knees Makeup Day!

This was me today!

Using my delights from Madison street Beauty a vegan makeup brand from etsy.com

I use the same colours as in my mermaid makeup tutorial which you can read here except I maximised the amount of shade Mermaid used to give a more 'blue hue' rather than green and used less of the Sea Foam which is more of a greenish colour.

I made the lips a whole lot paler than I usually do to fit with the whole 'pastel' I was going for. I used Lovelorn lipstick from MAC and dabbed on with my finger over my lips a white eyeshadow, if you do it super lightly and then press your lips together it looks like a new and updated lipstick shade!

On my legs are minty jeans from H&M and top is years old something like four maybe even five years old from a Next outlet store!

Me likey when fashion comes back around and you still have your clothing from the first rotation of it!

Mermaid Makeup - Wearable!

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know I have a secret love affair with pastels but especially mint! Spearmint, peppermint, and any kind of bluey-greeny pale mint colour!
Yesterday I went for the mermaid-y look, if you fancy trying out the hair then check yesterdays post! For the makeup, keep reading!

~Insert artsy eye makeup photos~ (too bad I'm not a photo editing whizz and they look like home snaps)

Here's how it went down:
For the eyes-
Painterly Pain pot by MAC
Sea foam eyeshadow all over the eyelid by Madison Street Beauty (MSB)
Tiffany blue eyeshadow on the outer corner of the eye by MSB
Mermaid eyeshadown along the crease, blended backwards and fowards by MSB
Folie eyeshadow on the outer half of the crease and feathered out so that you can still see the Mermaid blue eyeshadow underneth- Folie is by MAC
Shade 001 Time Resist White by L'oreal on the brown bone and inner corner of the eye
Brown gel eyeshadow along the top lashline by MAC
Folie by MAC along the lower lashline, so that it's not so harsh and heavy on the eyes
White eyeliner along the waterline - Fascination by MAC
Black Mascara by BareEscentuals

For the face-
Bare Escentuals face primer
Avon Cream to powder foundation
Bobbi Brown Bronzing Brick underneth the cheekbones
Well Dressed by MAC blusher along the cheek bones
Snowglobe highlighter by MAC along the cheekbones and down the center of the nose
Eyebrow pencil shade Lingering by MAC

For the lips-
Lovelorn by MAC
Shade 001 Time Resist White by L'oreal dabbed ont he centre of the lips
Barbie from Avon clear gel lipgloss with glitter in it!

Then we're all finished! Don't forget, if you like the look of the mermaid hair then read yesterdays post named 'Hello Kitty Curls' for a breakdown of how to do that, it's super easy!

How to do makeup VEGAN STYLE

So I had a little trawl through my eyeshadows and realised that I was lacking fresh spring time colours, mostly I have a lot of pressed colours that have dark undertones or perfect for a smokey eye, but nothing that was really zingy and fresh.So my port of call for inspiration was Etsy, which is a frequent port of call of mine for the last year or so. I was amazed to come across a huge range of vegan makeup, made in a little studio, one at a time.

I never really thought about small, independant makeup companies before but it's so super important to support people trying to make it, especially if there products are great!

So I came across Madison Street Beauty's Etsy store:

I was enchanted mostly by the beautiful blue hazes (and some delicious names) and got a little carried away in my buying, but I could justify it for three reasons.
1. They were having a 60% off sale
2. They had incredible reviews
3. Makeup that is cruelty free and naturally coloured with NO chemicals is a beautiful break for the skin, especially delicate eye are

So here's what I got:

The quality of them is lovely, they're just messy (as are all loose powders) I love Sea Foam and Mermaid the most, I want to do a gorgeous blue look with these and a soft brown in the crease, I think that would look so spring time and dreamy!

The great thing is that because you don't get to see and test the product they include swatches in the pictures, so here's the swatches of the ones that I got!

Electric Periwinkle

Enchanted Forest

Mermaid

Opal

Seafoam

Shamrock

Stardust

Tiffany Blue

Important details:
-They sell blushers and highlighters and chap sticks too
-An eyeshdow is normally £3.35 but in the 60% off sale I paid £1.30 eeek!
-The 60% off sale finishes today!!!
-If you miss it, here is a coupon code to get 20% off all year round, from my heart to yours! (Well, more like Madison Street Beauty's heart to yours)
TY2BAR (you can't combine it with the 60% off sale for 80% off unfortunately

First bloom of Spring!

I'm very relieved to be able to finally upload my first makeup tutorial for spring.
It's very beautiful and understated- and blue is one of the freshest colours that there is (except for maybe a lime green)
So we most definately should put it on our eyes to signify the new season.

I especially love this look for the afternoon/evening- garden parties and Spring Flings and all other shenanigans that one might get up to on Spring nights!



Let me know if you'll 'dare to wear' a blue eye this Spring- even if you wear blue all the time!

Highstreet store haul- Valentines goodies & makeup!

I love the makeup counters, they're the like the candy stores of my teen years just rows and rows of little clear pots and art supplies to dust and blend all over our face to transform us into anything we desire.

These are the fun things that I got today, the 4 empty containers were pans that I slotted into the pallette already, the brand is 'Fashionista' (I think the name is awful too) but the shadows are fantastic and only £4 each

The light mint colour is Green guild

The dark glittery green is Envy

The light pink is Glamour girl

The hot pink (my favourite) is Brave

I love them, I used them in my Valentines day makeup tutorial which I'll post here too once it's edited and up.

The pallette came free when you buy four eyeshadows in one go, and they sell them in black or cherry red, I preferrred the black because it matched the other colours of my makeup packaging

I then got Barry M black crackle nail polish, I've never tried it and if i like the quality I might get a candy pink and white one too, I got it kinda as a test run because I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was around £3 or £4

The little pot below the nail polish is a Maybelline eyeshadow duo in shade Shiny Nude, they had a lot of colours, and this is the first marble eyeshadow I bought, this colour stuck out to me because the marble side comes out as a really pretty coral colour, it's really fun.

The pot of foundation from Boots is from Natural Collection which is the cheapest makeup brand that I have ever known! All of this foundation was £1.99! You best bet my eyes bulged out of my head when I saw that, I thought it might be good to use in videos if it's of a good quality since pretty much everyone can afford that.

Below that is Loreal Color Infaillable in shade 001 Time Resist White
I thought it might make an awesome highlight colour because it's so shimmery

BONUS GOODIES:
I saw some super stinkin' sweet valentines goodies for-me! We've got to show ourselves some love right?!
I got this two peas in a pod super duper cute fabric keyring, it's so soft though I can see it getting grubby pretty fast attached to my keys, the best part is it was £1.50 from Sainsbury's!
Then I got this beautiful polka dot fabric bunting, it's 1.5m of heart shaped adorability. My walls are white so I'm decided between putting it there or wrapping it around my bed, it was £3 or £3.50 I can't remember, also from Saisbury's

We all need to give our rooms a lil' love!

Here's the accompnaying video to my haul!:




Happy almost Valentines day!!!