Good sport is such a pretty palette with lot’s of pretty shades. I just love the color story in it. Green is kind of my thing so every time a palette has a green in it I am drawn to it, but this one also has some nice orange, purples and yellows along with some bomb looking metallic shades. So I played around with them to create these 6 looks. Hope you like them!
Colourpop Good Sport Palette – High Hopes, Hooky, Trophies, Hookedm EBB, Licious, Wild Out.
Certifeye Tropical Wonders – Bonobo.
Makeupgeek Gel Liner – Immortal.
Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade – Medium Brown.
Zoeva Brow Spectrum – Bro30.
L’Oreal Unlimited Mascara.
House Of Lashes – Midnight Luxe.
Maybelline Master Drama Kohl Pencil – Ultra Black.
Kiko Eye Pencil (dark teal).
Zoeva Graphic Brow Fix.
Colourpop Good Sport Palette – Trooper, Hooky, Sista, Reckless, Flow, Wild Out.
Certifeye Tropical Wonders – Bonobo.
Makeupgeek Gel Liner – Immortal.
Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade – Medium Brown.
Zoeva Brow Spectrum – Bro30.
L’Oreal Unlimited Mascara.
House Of Lashes – Midnight Luxe.
Zoeva Graphic Brow Fix.
Maybelline Master Drama Kohl Pencil – Ultra Black.
Colourpop Good Sport Palette – Sista, Flow, Hooky, Licious, Wild Out, Trophies.
Certifeye Tropical Wonders – Bonobo.
Makeupgeek Gel Liner – Immortal.
Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade – Medium Brown.
Zoeva Brow Spectrum – Bro30.
L’Oreal Unlimited Mascara.
Zoeva Graphic Brow Fix.
Hello Gregory Lashes – Athena.
Nyx Faux Whites Inner Eye Brightener – Honeydew.
Colourpop Good Sport Palette – High Hopes, Hooky, Rookie, Reckless, Flow.
Certifeye Tropical Wonders – Bonobo.
Makeupgeek Gel Liner – Immortal.
Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade – Medium Brown.
Zoeva Brow Spectrum – Bro30.
L’Oreal Unlimited Mascara.
Zoeva Graphic Brow Fix.
Hello Gregory Lashes – Athena.
Maybelline Master Drama Kohl Pencil – Ultra Black.
Colourpop Good Sport Palette – Trophies, Hooked, High Hopes, Trooper.
Obsession Love Eyery Shade Palette – Own.
Makeupgeek Gel Liner – Immortal.
Maybelline Master Drama Kohl Pencil – Ultra Black.
House of Lashes – Midnight Luxe.
Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade – Medium Brown.
Zoeva Brow Spectrum – Bro30.
Zoeva Graphic Brow Fix.
L’Oreal Unlimited Mascara.
The Gypsy Shrine Glitter – Chunky Gold.
Nailart Stickers.
Dragon Dust Glitter (Unknown Name)
Colourpop Good Sport Palette- Trooper, Hooky, High Hopes, Reckless, Sista, Wild Out.
Kiko Glamorous Eye Pencil – 412 (Green)
H&M Colour Essence Eye Pencil – Panther.
Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick – You.Better.Work.
House of Lashes – Midnight Luxe.
Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade – Medium Brown.
Zoeva Brow Spectrum – Bro30.
Zoeva Graphic Brow Fix.
L’Oreal Unlimited Mascara.
The review will as usual be the next wednesday, but it will be in the new year! Wish for you all a safe and happy new year. Take care!
I did this blog series last year too, where I do three different blog posts talking about the top 3 affordable brands, top 3 high-end brands and top 3 luxury brands. Since it’s always a lot of fun evaluating favorites I decided to do the same this year.
Today we go through the 3 affordable brands I have been using and loving the most throughout the year. Making this little list was soooo easy this year. I just knew right from the top of my head what the brands would be. So let’s talk some makeup!
My top 3 affordable brands (in no particular order:
1st – Makeup Revolution/Revolution Pro
I group Makeup Revolution and Revolution Pro in once because many people (including me) don’t really know the difference. I think it’s been a couple of years now since my first Makeup Revolution order, and it was not the best success. I mean, some products where OK, some where below average, but I did not find anything that amazed me within the first orders. But lately, since they did their re-branding, I am under the impression that the overall quality has improved a lot! I found several gorgeous highlighters, some everyday staple lipstick and even some quite good eyeshadow palettes. And everything it cheap as chips as well!
Things I love that I would like to mention is theri highlighters. They have so many good ones but the Highlighter trio and the Radiance highlighter stands out a bit from the crowd in my opinion. They also released some really good lip toppers with their holliday collection, and off course I cannot forget to mention their big big hit, the Conceal & Define concealer!
2nd – Colourpop
Off course I had to mention Colourpop. I thing this is the brand I have purchased the most items from throughout the whole year. Partly because the constantly put out new releases, and partly because they are super affordable with great quality. Most of the things I’ve tried from them I have enjoyed (a few exceptions do exist though).
The one Colourpop product that are closest to my heart is off course their eyeshadow palettes. The quality is unbeatable for the price. Their eyeshadow formula is among my top three formulas, and that’s including every brand I’ve ever tried from the cheapest drugstore to the most high end luxury formulas. Their palettes have become like Pokemons. Gotta catch them all!
3rd – Juvia’s Place
On more brand that offers amazing quality eyeshadows for a low cost is Juvia’s Place. I fell in love with their formula when I tried the Magic palette, and I have made it a mission to collect every single eyeshadow palette since then. I am actually doing pretty good on that mission, and I will soon have them all. This brand does not dissapoint. Not only do they have a killer metallic formula, they also have an amazing price point. The palettes are cheap in the first place, but you find them on sale so often you can get them for even less than a Colourpop palette!
I love their eyeshadow palettes and are also a big fan of their blushes. The packaging is also so quirky and fun! Can’t wait to see what this brand has planned for us in 2019!
If you had to pick one or three favorite affordable brands this past year what would it be? I am curious to know!
I at least am very excited to see what all these three brands have in store for us in 2019.
Liquid lipsticks can be tricky! Especially the ones that dry down matte and transfer proof. If you find a bad one you are left with lips that look more like a grandmas raisin lips than the beautiful pout you wanted to begin with, or your lips can get so dry and sore you cant even wear lip products the next day, or they just crumble apart in a very unflattering way. But, if you are lucky and find a good one you get a comfortable lip color that just last and last and you don’t have to worry a bit about.
I have encountered several bad ones throughout my search for good lippies, but I also found some amazingly good ones, like the Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipsticks or the Smashbox Always On! I would highly recommend any of those if you have trouble finding a liquid lipstick you like. The Dose of Colors liquid lipstick also got quite some rave. So I got curious.
I picked it up in three different shades: Berry Me 2, Talk Is Chic, and Stone. One deep purple berry, one cool-toned red berry shades and one cool-toned nude. The packaging is similar to Jeffree Star, and even the applicator is very similar. It’s one of those doe-foot applicators with a groove that hugs the lip and makes the product easy to apply. The tube is frosted and the cap is silver and white. I like the looks of them.
The formula is super comfortable too. I don’t find these to feel drying. They actually feel very light weight and stay comfortable for hours and hours. The longevity is very good. I have been wearing them for 8 hours without any problems. I love love love Stone! It’s been featured in one of my favorites posts already. Talk is Chic is also a lovely color. I haven’t been using it as much as Stone, but that’s mainly because I wear nudes more often than berries and reds. The deep berry shade Berry Me 2 was the only one that disappointed me a bit. The formula is just not pigmented enough and it’s hard to put on evenly on the lips without it looking streaky. It looks fine if you do two layers, but that also compromise how the lipstick feel. It’s just more light weight and comfy with one coat. I don’t now if this is a general problem with the formula and the deeper shades or if it’s only this one. I will at least prefer to pick up nudes or red toned shades instead because I really love how the other two perform.
I am not convinced these are as good as my beloved Velour Liquid Lipsticks or Always On, but they are not that far away either, at least not Stone and Talk is Chic. I would absolutely be happy to pick of more shades in this formula because it really is lovely and I do get why so many people seem to like them. They may even be good enough to me among my top three!
I stumbled upon this brand just by chance on Instagram, and it seems to be a very small indie brand with a small selection of products. It was something about this palette that made me buy it instantly. I really like the looks of it, and since it was just an unknown brand I happened to stumble upon by chance I was maybe a bit afraid I would forget about it and never see it again. So I took y chances!
The palette is huge! With 30 different eyeshadows both neutral and colorful you have quite a selection to pick from! I do like palettes that offers great options for both neutral and colorful looks alike.
The packaging is cardboard but it feels very heavy and robust. And inside you get a gigantic mirror you could easily to a full face of makeup with. The design is simple and white with a lady that I assume represents an Aztec princess on the front. The cardboard has a glossy finish that makes it easy to keep clean even though it’s white. On the back you get the ingredients list, and two pieces of information that might be important to you. One, It’s cruelty free. Two, it’s paraben free.
I was very excited to see the quality of this. I had heard absolutely nothing about it, and the brand in general was unfamiliar to me. So I had no idea what to expect. The colors really spoke to me so I took a chance. I took the palette and started off with the grass green matte and blended it out in the crease and I was blown away both bu how pigmented the shadow was, but also how easy it was to blend! The matte green is a phenomenal matte!
I actually think that the mattes overall are good. They are not all as great as the green. I didn’t at all find any bad ones, but there was a difference in performance on the very good ones and say the purple and reds. Those work satisfactory too, but they need a bit more work as these kind of colors usually do. The purple could get a bit patchy and needed careful blending and layering to look good, but that was also the trickiest shade to work with. The matte blue swatch terribly, but I was happy about how it worked on the eyes. It looked more pigmented on the eyes than what it did on my arm swatch.
There was a bit difference among the metallic shades too. Some of them where you know, normal. Good, works well and has a nice shine to them. But some of the shades were absolutely insane! The gold shade is almost like a cream, and so intensely pigmented and foiled it completely blew my mind. I have to say, this shade and the matte green makes the palette worth the money on their own. That gold is just out of this world. I have countless golds, but I don’t have any other that are this intensely pigmented with such a nice foiled finish. It almost doesn’t look like a powder. It makes me a bit sad that they don’t have more shades like this. There are plenty of other fantastic metallics in this palette, I mean just look at the metallic blue and the stunning metallic browns. Those are really good, but that gold……is mind-blowing!
I think overall the quality is solid. I didn’t really have any issues with it quality wide other than the purple and reds need a bit of extra work to look perfect. These shades also stain the lids quite extensively though. So if you don’t like that then there is a potential issue because I found that the stain lasted for quite some time. I could still see it the next day even after makeup remover, shower, sleep and exercise.
But the amazing quality of the foiled gold and the matte green makes me feel like there is unused potential here. Because even though the rest of the metallics are pretty and of good quality, they are no where near the gold. I felt the same way about the mattes. They were good, but the green was just next level. I would have loved to see a palette filled with shades with those two formulas. That would be the palette of the year for sure! I am still happy with how this palette works though. I just feel like they really nailed the formula with a few of the shades that make the others pale a but in comparison even though the rest of the shades are good too.
I do love that you get such a large variety. I am a big fan of palettes that has a good selection of both neutral and colorful instead of having just a pop of color. It#s really hard to do anything fun with just a pop, and it#s nice having the option to go neutral as well, so I think this palette did that very well because you have about half and half with colors and neutrals. I also really like that there is a good variety and you on#t get many repetitive shades. The only two shades I found that were a bit too similar was “Metxtli” and “Montezuma” *the two reds. You can tell them apart in the pan, but I found it very hard to see a difference between those two on the eyes. But the rest of the shades have a nice variety to them.
In the end testing out this palette from a completely unknown brand ended up being a good thing. I really do like the quality, and I really do like all the looks I could do with it. I like the variety and color selection and I absolutely love love love the gold and green! The only downside is that they are so good I want more of them! If this brand release a foiled eyeshadow palette I would buy it in a heartbeat!
Remember that you can also find me and keep updated on my latest post on Instagram.
If you call something Supreme Highlighter it better be good even though it only cost 5£. I picked up one of the supreme highlighter trios in the shade “Metal” which has a champagne, a light gold and a bronze gold shade. Thy do have the palettes in a few different color options as well but this was the one that swayed me.
I have usually been lucky with highlighters from Makeup Revolution so this one from Revolution Pro I had high hopes for. And this one did not disappoint. The swatch was like butter and just went on and on with rich pigment. There is no glitter in this, just a metallic sheen.
They all look absolutely gorgeous on the skin. They are pretty intense, but you can off course tone them down with a light hand. One thing I really like is that there is absolutely no glitter or shimmer. It’s just a metallic sheen that is super reflective and I think these kind of highlighters are the most flattering on the skin. If you want to get the idea then think about Maybelline Master Chrome that has a very similar finish, but these one from Revolution Pro actually swatch and apply even more intense. They are THAT metallic. Now, this may start to sound a bit too much for some, but again, a light hand makes it much less scary. If you want to apply a subtle highlighter without having to be overly careful then this is not for you though. This is for the glow queens!
I am actually absolutely in awe about how rich, smooth, reflective and beautiful these highlighters are without having a trace of shimmer in them. I think I need to pick up some of the other shades because this must be one of the better highlighter formulas in my collection (and I am probably over 150 highlighters at the moment so that says something). I am just so impressed!
The packaging is simple with a plastic palette with a clear lid, but the powders themselves has a beautiful wave imprint. Not the most luxurious packaging but hey, you get 3 stunning highlighters with a bomb formula for only 5£. It’s an absolute steal!
If good and cheap is your thing, then I think you can like this. I am in love and need to get some more shades for sure!
Big colorful palette, means big blog post with many colorful looks. But not just colors though because this palette has a nice mixture of everything.
Did you ever hear about GLF Cosmetics before? I had never until I just stumbled upon them on Instagram and decided to give them a try. I will just pop in a picture of the palette here so you can see what I am working with!
Look at all the pretty colors!
Lot of pretty shades right? Everything you could want of both neutrals and colors. So these are the looks I came up with. I hope you like them and as usual I will post a review of this on Wednesday!
So this post will be a bit different from the regular reviews and makeup look posts I write. I wanted to share some thoughts about things I’ve learned about makeup since I started my Instagram account two years ago, because I have really picked up so many things I was not even aware about before I got started. So I hope you can enjoy this post about my personal experiences with having a makeup account even though it’s a bit different than my usual content. Please feel free to share your own opinions and what you have learned in the comments. I love to know your experience as well!
First thing I learned – I was not “the shit”. But lets just take it from the beginning. When I started my Instagram page almost two years ago, I thought I was good with makeup. It must be because I don’t have very many makeup lovers in my real life, and I don’t really know that many people who wear enough of makeup to even evaluate their skill set. So I thought I was “the shit” since I could do a basic brown smoky eyes and a winged liner, and that I was quite above average (if is so silly looking back at it). I created my account and quickly realized that in stead of being “the shit” I was rather shitty. My skills would be slightly below average at best. I mean, all my old posts are still there (they make me cringe so I kind of want to get rid of them, but you know, it’s fun to see progress). In short words. I quickly realized that I had no reason to feel good about my skills. There are tons of amazing artist on Instagram, and I was not one of them. Not even close! But the great thing is that there will always be tons of inspiration to get from all those amazing talents out there!
This is one of the first looks I ever posted on my Instagram page two years ago. As you can probably tell there are not much skill involved in this picture. Everything for my liner, to my eyeshadow use, brows and even how to take a picture of makeup is pretty basic. Right now I can’t really understand how I could think this was even good enough to be posted, but at that time I was actually very happy with the look. We all start somewhere right?This is one of my more recent looks, but I am using similar colors to the ones in the picture above. I think both the intensity of the look, how it photographs and how I do my brows have changed a lot. Not only because you approve after a lot of practice but also because you learn what look better in photos.
Second thing – Practice makes perfect, but you have to practice…A lot! I have actually been close to giving up so many times. There was no reason for me to post makeup pictures when they are not even close to being as good as the stuff I see other people post. I saw so many stunning looks that I could not possibly recreate and it made me feel bad. Bad and with a severe lack of talent and skills. Maybe my ego was hurt a bit since realizing I was not “the shit” was still freshly in mind. But you know, I kept going. And you know, when you just keep doing it you get better. And I got a bit better, slowly but surely. One thing I also noticed was that many people who I had followed from the beginning who had, lets be honest, quite mediocre skills much like myself, suddenly became better! And quickly too! It was so inspiring to see how others just grew. I started to see a bit of progress in my own photos as well.
But saying “practice makes perfect” is easy. Actually realizing how much practice it takes is another thing. It took me two years to go from the first to the second photo above. But we are speaking two years of doing everyday makeup every single day, and creative or more dramatic makeup 3-7 times a week. That is two years of doing my makeup more than once a day several times a week in two years (OK, I had some time “off” here and there but you get the picture). I am not saying it does have to take that long, you could be a creative wonder child and get the same progress in two months, but for most of us I think it takes more practice and work than most people realize. With that said, I don’t think you need some special skills to be able to do it. Everyone can be great at makeup with practice! I still have a lot to learn, and I personally hope one day to be able to match some of the makeup accounts I look up too. I have a long way to go still, but just to keep on practicing and have fun along the way is key (still realizing I am not “the shit”). It’s a constantly ongoing process, but every single one of us who do makeup looks will inevitable become better and better. Luckily!
I think this looks shows the importance of blending. The intensity of the looks is a bit improved from the first picture, but there is still a long way to go, especially in blending. As you can probably tell the shadows are not very well blended in the crease, and the transition between the colors could for sure be better. This probably looked just fine in real life, but the camera will pick up bad blending much better than your eyes. I did use MAC eyeshadows for this look, so the problem is not bad eyeshadows but bad work.This look is about two months old, but it shows that blending has improved even though not perfect still. I’ve also learned that for the shadows on the lower lash line to really show well up in pictures they need to be used further down and not just right below the lash line. Again, the brows are very different and more intense than they were in the beginning.
Third thing – Blending! I thought I knew blending before I started taking photos for Instagram. I didn’t. Because when you do makeup you intend of taking a picture of, it may very well look blended in the mirror, but I can assure you, your camera will see EVERY imperfections you make. I actually learned what blending really meant from taking Instagram photos. After taking many failed photos where I realized my blending was terrible I think I got more of a trained eye myself to judge if the blending was as good as the mirror told me or if it needed more. Most of all I learned how much effort it really takes to blend out colors, even the eyeshadows that are easy to blend. The blend can’t jut look good in real life if you want it to look good in pictures. It must be perfect!
Forth thing – People are amazingly supportive! Honestly, I came into this community expecting hate comments to be “normal”. Because you know, these bigger influencers often talk about how to deal with hate comments and stuff like that. So I thought I would be a victim to quite vicious “constructive criticism” on a regular basis and was prepared for that. Two years into it, I have yet to get anything resembling hate comments on my Instagram. I realize that with 20 000 followers I am still very very small, and I just don’t reach as many assholes as the big influencers do, but still the amount of love and support is so overwhelming. Even in the beginning, when my pictures was (honestly) shit, people left the loveliest most encouraging feedback. That is the main big reason why I am still around. Yes, my love for makeup has also a lot to do with it, but I would not have lasted more than a few months into it unless it was for YOU! The followers, the readers, the commenters. I am so grateful for every single one of you who left a nice comment or clicked the like or follow button on my blog or Instagram. Sounds so cheesy, but you know, it’s a cliche for a reason. You are the reason why I stuck around on Instagram long enough to create this blog, and you are the reason why I keep putting out post every day. So thank you so much, for keeping the boat floating!
This one is a bit more than a year ago. Again we see the problem with not blending enough and that the brows look a bit pale.This look is more recent, but I was going for a similar look as the one above. Here you see much better blending and I’ve done a better job in showing off the color and making it more dramatic by bringing the color further up. Especially with smoky eyes it’s important to bring the colors high enough for that smoked out effect because it will look less dramatic in pictures than in real life, so don’t be afraid to bring the colors high up especially for smoky looks!
Fifth thing – If you want it to show up, it better be dramatic! I do my brows completely different on the looks I intend on taking pictures of for Instagram, than I do in real life say for work. I prefer natural brows, which look great in real life, but when you add lighting and a camera much of those natural brows will disappear. The same with makeup. The colors will look less intense, the eyeshadow will look less dramatic, and that wing will look teny tiny even if it looks great in real life. One of the tricks I found helpful when doing looks for Instagram was to add some drama. Off course, there is nothing at all wrong in showcasing a gorgeous natural look, but if you want to do something bold and colorful you have to make sure it is even more bold and colorful in real life. So when I do a look I intend on taking a picture of I make sure I make those brows extra bold, that I blend that shadow up just a bit more than I usually would, and that I make my wing longer and thicker.
Two years into it I am grateful for everything I’ve learned, but mostly for all the inspiration I’ve got form all the amazing artist out there. I would absolutely not be anywhere where I am now without having Instagram constantly pushing me to try to do better. The level of makeup art on Instagram is incredibly high, and I hope to be able to continue to grow and improve, hoping to one day be comparable (at least a bit) to those artist I admire and look up to.
And since we are talking about Instagram don’t forget to give my page a visit!
