Mac Morange Lipstick

Price: £13.50

Availibility: Mac website

Morange is a gorgeous bright, orange, amplified finish lipstick, which can appear a little terrifying as it is so bright in the tube! Convinced I didn't suit this, it has been left neglected in my little lipstick box for months now. I was inspired to give bright lipsticks another go with Summer coming up, and because the ever so lovely Amy from Flawsandall payed me a visit the other day, and was rocking a lovely bright lip! (Girl about town).

Obviously accompanied by that familiar, sweet vanilla scent that Mac lipsticks always have, Morange being an amplified finish is again a winner, as it applies with ease and without tugging, whilst also not being drying one little bit! Did I mention it lasts a long time too?

Now I'm not one to really have my head round this whole warm/cool skintone business 100%, and I didn't think Morange would be my skins cup of tea, but I was amazed to see how well it worked today with my pale skin and blue eyes! Let me tell you if you have blue eyes, try this out, I promise it will make your eyes twinkle!

Do you have Morange? I think it may be my Summer 2012 lipstick!

Hol x

Mac studio fix fluid foundation

Price: £19.50Availibility: Mac website, concession stands in Debenhams, HOF etc.Shade used in pictures: NC 15 Studio fix fluid is something I've used for a number of years now, around 3. It was the first Mac foundation I ever bought, and even though I have a love/hate relationship with it, I'll always turn to it in times of Foundation need!  If you've never used this before, the first thing you will notice upon unscrewing the lid and slapping it on your face is that bloody horrible smell. Trust me, it will repulse you a number of times before you get used to it, but in the end you'll barely notice it. For me, this is a very high coverage foundation, reducing the redness and appearance of spots and blemishes, whilst also covering up any redness on the skin (which I suffer from since I'm such a ghost). This won't be every persons cup of tea, as I turn to this when I feel like I need to mask everything on my face! On my skin, it sets to quite a matte, powdery finish, again, not everyones cup of tea, especially for dry skin sufferers.  This foundation to me can sometimes be quite hard work to apply, it's incredibly thick but I find its not as pleasant to spread around your face for five minutes every morning, I'll always favour how my Wake Me Up applies to the skin over this, but you really can't beat its coverage. Another annoyance is the lack of pump, this can easily be solved by spending £2/3 on a Foundation pump which are available at Mac, a must have for me as you have much more control over the amount. I don't know wether it's just the fact that I'm too lazy to slave over finding another number 1 foundation, or that I'm too comfortable in spending no more than £20 on a foundation, but I honestly, find this is a little too yellow, don't favour the way it applies, nor  am I the biggest fan of its finish, but I've never come across another Foundation that covers as well and stays put for so long! How do you feel about Mac foundations? Love/hate relationship? Hol x

Mac Blush in Style

Described as a "Coral-peach with gold pearl" (Frost finish) Style, is without a doubt my most favourite Blush of all time. It's silky to touch, blends beautifully and is easily buildable to acheive your desired look. Even though it's still only March, people seem to be more excited for Summer than ever, so if you want to embrace the summer season and warm weather already, Style can bring a lovely peachy golden glow to your cheeks.

If overdone this can look a bit orange, and if you're too tanned I also find this Blush gets a bit lost in your tan. I'm not the type of person to pile cheek products on so even a hint of this showing through a tan works wonderfully for me. If you're not swayed by my pictures and don't already own this, I highly recommend swatching this product!

Holly x

Mac Naturally - Redhead Mineralize skinfinish

(Swatch is a little bit of all four colours)

Shockingly, this is my first ever mineralize skinfinish from Mac. I was never that in to them until they seemed to be cropping up more and more in youtube videos I watched and blogposts that I read, but it's taken a while for one to come out that I've wanted! So here it is, Redhead from the Naturally collection ( I think it's a repromote but I'm not sure/can't remember which collection it came out with first!)

It's a lovely golden peachy baked product with 4 different colours to it. Mind you I doubt I will ever use these seperately, I'll probably just swirl my brush around in it. It's gorgeous and velvety to touch and I found that my finger picks up the colour very well. Redhead effortlessly glides across the skin, and feels as light as air when on! If you look really closely at the product in the pan, you can also pick up some golden pink tones. Lovely!

I get the feeling that  overuse of this product could leave you looking a little too shiny, as I will just be using it to dust along the top of my bronzer for highlighing.

I can't wait to pick up some more of these, I know they can be very popular and can literally fly off the shelves, so I'm going to be on the ball with these in future!

Holly x

Mac Naturally: A Perfect Day lipstick

Described on Mac's website as a light neutral pink, A Perfect Day is an amplified finish lipstick, meaning you get great colour payoff from the lipstick, it will pretty much apply to the lips exactly how it looks in the tube. As always by Mac it's a really great, rich formula that glides across your lips.

I went crazy for this colour when I first saw it on Temptalia, I thought it was going to be my perfect pinky nude, however upon buying it and testing it out on myself, I find it difficult to see the pink coming through at all! Maybe it's just my skintone, I always have a hard time getting to grips with this skintone business.

 I swatched a couple of lipsticks next to it on my hand for comparison, and on my skin it appears to be the most similar to Myth! I was really confused as on Christine from Temptalias lovely pictures, You can really tell that it's supposed to belong somewhere in the pink family.

Don't get me wrong I think this is a really pretty colour, I was just a bit put out as I was expecting something else, I hate not living near a Mac counter as it's hard to try before you buy. There was so much hype surrounding this colour I just didn't want to chance it selling out and missing out on something good! If you want to see A Perfect Day in action click here to go to my latest face of the day.

How does A Perfect Day show up on your skintone?

Holly x

FOTD/Teeth/Why I love Max factor masterpiece mascara

Thought I would do a little update on the whitening strips I bought, I've done about 4/5 days of them now. In all honesty, I can't see a whole lot of difference, if anything they've made some teeth whiter than others, but it's not noticable to anyone but myself really. I would say on the whole they are definetely brighter, but not Simon Cowell white ( WHICH I NEED IN MY LIFE ). I'm not expecting to see a miracle and I've decided I'm going to be patient about but I will be a bit dissapointed if they arent noticably whiter after I've done them all! Still have a few left to do and still brushing with Blanx intensive stain removal toothpaste. Full review coming soon :)





As for my FOTD... I'm not going to list a massive number of products, just what I used for the stand out parts (eg. Mascara, Lipstick ) I suppose I'll do a post on my favourite foundations soon :) I will say though that all my eyeshadow is from Naked2! My mascara I use is Max factor masterpiece, and it always will be! It would take something amazing to make me stop using this mascara. It's easily buildable, doesn't clump on my eyelashes, thickens, lengthens, you get the idea, I LOVE this mascara. On my lips I'm wearing Mac's Pink Nouveau. I don't often wear brighter lipsticks through the day, It's usually just Mac's Hue or Angel, but fancied a little something different today!

Have a lovely day,

Love, Hol xxx

MUA Dusk till Dawn palette

The second installment in my mini series of MUA posts sees the fabulous Dusk till Dawn palette being shown in all its glory! This lovely palette is packed full of the most perfect eyeshadows needed to create a light and pretty daytime look, but also holds many darker colours provided to easily transform your day look to a more glamorous evening look. If you wish to know my first impressions and thoughts on the palette itself then you can click here to view my first MUA post about the Starry Night palette.







The first great thing I noticed about this palette in comparison to the Starry Night one, was that there seems to be a much wider range of colours to choose from. The problem I had with Starry Night is that there were maybe just a few too many grays and silvers, I prefer a wider range of colours to create more depth in an eye look. Now, I don't know about you, but I can also spy a few eyeshadows in this palette which in my opinion are very similar to a couple of Mac eyeshadows I have! They may not be direct dupes, but there certainly is a similarity about them. First, the very top right eyeshadow is very close to Mac's famous 'All that glitters'. Second, the eyeshadow directly below it is definetely Mac's 'Black tied'. I swatched and compared Mac's next to MUA's and OH MY GOD. I don't know what Mac have been doing but they certainly need to ditch their formula and pinch MUA's! SO pigmented, sparkly and just lovely! Black tied is one of my all time favourites but this eyeshadow just walks all over it, the blackest black ever with the most gorgeous silver glitter running through it. Perfect. You could also compare the top left hand eyeshadow with Mac's 'Shroom', but I find the finishes to be too different between the shadows.



Top row L-R



Bottom row L-R


This little palette of wonder for £4, I'll say it again £4!
Has anybody else noticed the Black tied comparison? Good eh?!

Love, Hol xxx

Top 5 make-up brushes

Here are some of my most favourite brushes out of all the ones that I own, I have mostly Sigma but I'm not a makeup brush snob! I love my elf brushes and I'm also currently looking for some more cheaper brands to try out. I think it's definetely so important to have the correct brushes for the type of look your're trying to acheive, a smokey eye would never work out without some form of fluffy brush! My freinds frequently question how I do my eyeshadow nicely for a night out, and that they can't do it, but I always tell them they could do it if they owned the right brushes! I love to hear how people personally use makeup brushes, I was usually always very stick to the rules only use a conceacler brush for concealer kind of girl, that is until i saw Nic from pixiwoo using a blending brush for concealer, I'm continually trying to look for new and creative ways to use brushes now! :)

Anyway, without further ramble, some brushes and descriptions! Unfortunately I'm not so great when it comes to looking after my brushes, they're looking a little worse for wear however I did just give them a little clean up before I took some pictures!



Sigma F55: My ultimate face brush! I'm such a fan of buffing foundation in with the duo fibre style brushes. This is a great size but I'd really like a bigger one. I also use this for bronzer/blush.

Sigma E25: This shorter handled silver brush was actually a freebie from Sigma, I have two of them! I actually use this for a number of things. One is blending, as it's lovely and fluffy, two, its great for just applying a wash of colour to your eyelids, and lastly, it's not typically domed shaped like your usual blending brushes, it's a lot flatter, so I think its great for blending hard to get to sections like underneath your eye, and a more precise blending brush for the eye crease.

Sigma E35: Probably my number one brush of all time! A domed tapered blending brush. Gets rid of the harsh lines. Soft. Fluffy. AMAZING. Also have another one of these for blending out concealer underneath my eyes. I think everyone should pray to the makeup gods for one of these tonight because you'll soon find out you simply can't live without it!

Mac 263: Since I love to play around with my brows I had to put this in. This is actually the only Mac brush I own! It's really thin and stiff so you can acheive really accurate lines. Also great for winged eyeliner. A must have in your collection!

Elf Studio contour brush: A recent addition to my brush collection but a sure favourite! Perfectly shaped to fit right in to your crease. I love applying a nice dark eyeshadow all the way along my crease with this and then blending it out with my Sigma blending brush. The brush is also quite dense, so you can pack quite a nice amount of eyeshadow if you wish to!

Shockingly I don't have any flat shader style brushes in my little Top 5 but we've all seen them before and been told that they're great for packing colour on to the lid. Personally, I love fluffy brushes, washes of colour and buffing.

What are your favourite brushes/brands?! Any good brands for me to try out?!

Love, Hol xxx

Nail polish picks for a cold and frosty winter :)

I dont know about you but i love my winter nail polishes glittery, metallic, and with a lot of baby pinks and blues, think of when you look at snow and how much it sparkles when the sun shines on it! Of course you have your more tradiotional berry tones and deep greens but i think i might restrict those for xmas day, and in all honesty, i always get sick of seeing any shade of red nail varnish, and i'm not a fan of green nail varnish, except from Barry M's minty green colour!

Now, i know two of these nail varnishes have been blogged about in a previous post but they're two of my favourite, especially for winter, so i had to include them again!



Firstly, Mac's 'uncondtionally fabulous', A perfect winter glitter nail varnish which when looked closely at has circles of glitter which shine a mixture of blues, greens, and very light pinks. Next, Barry M's 'Blue moon', a lovely icy blue colour.



One the left another Barry M varnish, 'Pink iridescent', the glitter in this polish shines very similar to the mac one, making it another sparkly winter polish! Lastly, a Topshop varnish, I really like the forumaly of this, it can be a tiny bit streaky, but personally, it is one of my favourites! You cant go wrong with a silver metalic polish at christmas time!

What are your favourite colours to wear throughout winter?
Love, Hol xxx

Simple icey blue winter nails :)

Instead of going for the more traditionally festive colours like plums, reds, deep greens etc. I opted for more of an icey blue colour, "blue moon" by Barry M to be precise. Since i never want to give removing glitter polish the time of day i simply added a few coats of Macs "unconditionally fabulous" to my ring finger to give it a little something extra. Unfortunatly i think this combo would seem more wintery if it had snowed (which it had this time last year!) as i think of snow and ice when i look at my nails with these varnishes on. Mabey if we all painted out nails snowy themed someone up there would hear us and give us the snow we want! I know it can be a nuisance sometimes but sledging and playing in it for an hour or two until you freeze is fun! :)




If you're thinking about buying this Barry M polish, be prepared to pile on quite a few coats, the first coat is pointless and terrible, the second is better but you can still see parts of your nail, the third coat onwards is much better. The Mac polish is just what you would expect from a glitter based varnish!

What are your favourite holiday looks? :)
Love, Hol xxx

November faves!

Well i know its about 2 or 3 days too early to be posting this but i thought what the hell, a couple of days isn't going to change products i've been using for 28 or so days now! Plus i'm going to be incredibly busy with cakes over the next week or two! So expect to be seeing a few cakes being uploaded by next week, I can't wait to share with you all. Without further chit chat, here are a few of this months favourites! Oh, and for any product i've ever swatched/posted about on my blog before, I've linked it next to the item description :).





St. Moriz instant tan mousse: The infamous alternative to St. Tropez! Being a total whitey all year round even in summer, having a tan in winter benefits me more because my freinds are less likely to have their lovely natural tans..and no im not jealous at all. Mabey a little.

Mac Bronzing powder in Solar Riche: The next best product which helps to acheive a healthy glow. Goes on lightly to begin with unlike some bronzers which leave a horrible orange streak, easily blended and buildable. One of my favourite bronzers. Link.

Barry M nail paint in Mushroom: My go to shade when i don't know what else to wear! Without a doubt one of the best polishes i have ever bought. I don't know why but i tend to be attracted to these ugly colours haha. I think its also perfect for this time of year!

Mac Lipstick in Hue: A gorgeous sheer pink nude. One of Macs most loved i think! Wearable for a pretty day time look, or pair with dramatic eyes. Link.

Nars Copacabana illuminator: One of the best highlighters/illuminators i've ever bought! I usually go for more gold based highlighters, but this is a really really light pink colour, which unfortunately doesn't show well on my camera, I think i need to collect all three of these from Nars! I'm going to do a separate post on this product.

Elf studio tickled pink blush: A lovely sheer pink blush. A must have if you want a suttle rosy glow. Link.

These were just a few products i've been using this month that i picked out to show you. Hope you have all had a lovely November and i guess my next favourites post will be in the new year! Extremely scary to think that.
Love, Hol xxx

Making the most of my Mac palettes

I've finally persuaded myself to destroy one of my precious little mac palettes (by destroy i mean take out the divider) to make the most of the space and fit all of my eyeshadows in to one. I've been fancying getting myself some of those Z palettes but since i bought my mac palettes for my mac eyeshadows i may aswell use them for the mac shadows since i spent money on them.

Some of the eyeshadows i bought from Mac a while back were in the pots before i fitted them in to my palettes so unfortunately they didn't have magents on the bottom of them, so i went out to Staples to get some. They're a little thick so some of my eyeshadows sit up higher than the other ones but until i can find some thin ones they'll do for now.

Also taking out the divider was more difficult than i thought, i was trying not to snap it at all incase i wanted to put it back in in the future but i managed to chip a little bit off it at the corner! Perhaps theres a more efficient way than hacking away with tweezers that i don't know about haha. Never mind, this is just so much more convenient now, i can fit all my eyeshadows i currently own from Mac in once palette.






To see my origional Mac palettes post and which colours i have, click here.

I would love to know what everyone thinks about this way of storing your Mac eyeshadows in the palettes, can you break away from your perfectly organised neutrals palette to mix em all up?!
Love, Hol xxx

Things i've bought from Mac lately..

Just a typical shopping post to show a couple of things i've bought from Mac over the weeks, nothing too special, but you never know you may just see something you really love that you would like to buy for yourself!

Firstly Baby Sparks dazzleglass, a beautiful bubblegummy pink with flecks of glitter that the majority of the time look a gorgeous blue colour I always lean more to lipstick than lipgloss and shockingly this is my first dazzleglass! But i picked wisely because its absoloutly lovely.






Even though its winter now, i'm getting more and more in to bronzers as i go along! Now, i don't think Mac are too famous for their bronzers, infact im waiting for Nars Laguna to arrive which i feel like i've been waiting for forever, but since im on an adventure to find the perfect bronzer for me, i didn't think a Mac one would hurt. I got Mac bronzing powder in Solar Riche, it's a pretty golden brown with a slight hint of shimmer in it and it looks GORGEOUS on. I found that this teamed with a creamy golden highlighter (I used Topshops) gives a healthy golden glow, it makes you look really radiant, and this is coming from someone who is as white as a sheet!





Last of all, another one of my favourite Mac products, their lipsticks! I got Shy Girl, a peachy orange nude (Somewhere in that category hehe!) with a cremesheen finish! I wish i could say that there was a little more to this lipstick, don't get me wrong it is beautiful on but i'm still sort of a bit meh over it. It's not going to be a one that i take much pride in wearing (unlike my beautiful Myth!) Just something ill put in my bag and go with, depending on what colour makeup im wearing! I'm really sorry about the pictures of the lipstick too, my house is extremely poor for light and i'm not so sure that the pictures are true to its colour.





Thats it for now! I hope you enjoyed my little shopping post! For some reason i've really decided i don't like to use the word haul, i'm not sure why i just find it a little bit annoying and sort of..american?! I would love to you what everyone else has been buying lately, it takes me a couple of pictures or a video on an item for me to feel the need to rush out and get it myself!
Love, Hol xxx

Mac Angel lipstick

Angel is something i have been wanting for a long long time! Obviously knowing that its part of what makes Kim K so gorgeous has probably played a major part in me wanting this in the first place, but it's always in peoples must have Mac lipsticks or they're favourites at least. Kim is known to pair it with Nars turkish delight, which looks so gorgeous every time i've seen it on blogs or the internet, i would love to get my hands on it one day!

Usually when you're searching for Mac nude lipsticks, Angel is definetely one of them to come up, personally, i prefer my nudes a little lighter ( A touch of Myth without being too concealer like is my favourite! ) but this for me is definetely one of those colours where it makes your natural lips better?! It is definetely an extremely easy to wear lipstick that you could probably just apply without a mirror, a good one to just throw in your handbag and go with. Even if its not the exact colour i was expecting since i thought it would be a little lighter, i can see me getting a ton of wear out of this, a very sensible lipstick to own :).







I just can't get enough of these famous Mac lipsticks!
Love, Hol xxx

Mac Glitter & Ice!

When i first had a look through the Glitter and Ice collection on Mac, i wasn't really too impressed! First of all, i know usually the little boxes of colour that represent the colour of the product on Mac are usually a little off, but this time i was shocked at how bad they were! I went on Temptalia to check her swatches ( I just KNEW she would have them ;) ) and one of the paint pots "for effect" was literally black, compared to the very light brown shade shown on the Mac website! Annoying!

But anyway, having a new love for paint pots from Mac, i can forgive them for bad swatches since the paint pots from this collection are SO gorgeous. I got two of them, "For Effect" and "Lets skate!". I wasn't a major fan of the colours of glosses or lipsticks in the collection judging by temptalias swatches, and i almost never even consider buying nail varnish from Mac, but "Unconditionally Fabulous" is right up my street! It fits the whole christmas theme perfectly since the varnish itself looks like the inside of a snowglobe after you've shaked it up! So pretty! If you're not a fan of glitter than i'm afraid this one just isn't for you.





Look how gorgeous it is though! It's really difficult to take a good picture of this because every time i look at it in a different room or a different light i see a different colour glitter in it. You do have to apply a couple of coats of it on your nails as it's typically a glitter varnish that spreads the holograms very sparesly on your nails, or even better pick a lovely baby pink/white/whatever takes your fancy and throw a few coats of this on top for a very wintery feel!

Now the paint pots are by far the most gorgeous things i have seen! Againt they are difficult to get a good picture of because whenever you move them you see a different shimmer to what you saw before. "Lets Skate!" is a lovely baby pink with flecks of what i want to say are gold! I can just imagine this would look so pretty by itself on your eye with a little bit of mascara, or i think as a highlighter as it is very similar to my dior pro cheeks that i have! Whatever you want to use it for, its perfect for winter.









"For Effect" is another gorgeous paint pot, a lovely black with silvery running through it. In all honesty, i would love to know people opinions on what colour this actually is, somes it looks black, but as i'm writing this it looks like a very deep navy. Again this would be lovely just put on to your eye by itself, either blended out for a more subtle look, or piled on for intense party eyes (Hey it is party time over the holidays right?). The great thing about this shade is that it is very easily buildable to get a more deeper colour, unlike the the pink shade which doesn't really change at all if you put alot on (But the shimmer it gives is amazing!).

What does everybody think about this collection in general?! Will you be buying anything? Being a glitter lover i was hoping they would maybe include some glitter in this collection, especially with it being called "Glitter and Ice" never mind!
Love, Hol xxx