Review- Mac Paint Pot | Zahra

Hello again everyone :)

Today I thought I might share my opinion on the Mac Paint Pots.

The paint pot i have is called 'Bare Study' and is a really shimmery champagney/pink colour with a hint of glitter. 

I just wanted to see how gold it could go lol.

My first impressions on this were that it's a really wearable colour and the texture feels really nice- very smooth and creamy (easy to blend out with a dense brush or your fingers). With eyeshadow I normally stick some primer onto my eyes beforehand (Urban Decay- Primer Potion 'Original') as I have quite oily eyelids but since I've heard and seen so many people just wacking this on as a base I thought I might give it a try...

I put this on this morning at around 10:30 and you probably can't tell but my eyes don't look all that oily and have a slight shimmery/ coloured look to them.

After 6 hours it had completely worn off and my eyelids just looked the same as they did before- the colour had creased but left flecks of shimmer on the actual lid.

All in all, I think with a primer it might stay put for a bit longer or if your eyes aren't too oily then it might stay. Otherwise the colour and colour payoff is amazing and for a high end brand it's not too expensive (retails for £15.00).

Just wanted to do a little FOTD (face of the day) but LOOK AT THE SUN

FOTD: Skin: Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer- Medium Cool

                       Sleek Blusher- Macaroon

            Eyes: Mac Paint Pot- Bare Study

                       Smashbox Limitless Eyeliner- black

                       Maybelinne 'The Falsies' mascara- black

Anyway... Thanks for reading and I will see you all soon.

Enjoyyy :)

3 Hair Products- Review | Zahra

Hello everyone.

So a few weeks ago I went shopping and bought 2 of the products mentioned in this post- the Tony and Guy 'Casual Sea Salt Texturising Spray'- texture and body and the 'Extreme Hold Hairspray'- gravity defying control. I've been using these since I bought them and they are SO good.

Let me quickly give you an insight story on my hair- naturally my hair is super frizzy and pretty damn curly so I find myself continuously styling it- blowdrying and curling/straightening and I can never make it stay straight for more than 2 days.

Oh hey there!

So this is my hair after I've straightened it- (nice outfit!).  In this I had just put some of the hairspray through my hair- focusing on the ends as they get curly quickest. Sorry for the crappy quality by the way; front phone cameras don't do all that much justice.

This is my hair after putting the salt spray from the middle down to the ends and it just makes such a difference. Instead of my hair being completely flat, it just adds a bit of a beachy- texturised- this took me one hour to do- sort of look. The way i apply it is spraying about 20-30cm away from my hair and then scrunching my hair up and playing around with it. 

The last product was recommended by Zoe (Zoella) and it was in her November favourites and as I quite like the 'big hair' look I decided to try it out. It's the L'Oreal Studio Line 'Volume Supersizing Spray' and it retails for about £3.75 if I recall correctly but WOW! You might not be able to tell from the photo but my hair is like twice as big as it was before and it has a lot more grip and hold in it. If you have hair like me which is really thick and long, you'll know that it weighs down quite a lot therefore leaving the top of your hair quite flat. All I do is simply spray some to the top of my head and ruffle(?) my hair around and this is normally the result (plus I have to just point out that it smells incredible)

My hair the morning after styling

As my hair (like I said) is very curly- I can't really keep super straight for long but this is by far the straightest hair I've woken up with and it hasn't been like this with any other hairspray.

Plus best thing about all these products are that they're under £10!

If you have any hairsprays that you love- pleeaasse leave them down below so I can check them out.

Any-who... Thanks for reading and enjoy :) 

NOTD (nail of the day)

I think I'm obsessed. 

My April Beauty Favourites | Zahra

Hello everyone.

Today I thought I might show you the beauty favourites/ everyday look for me this month.

So my first pick is an eyeshadow from Mac called 'Wood- Winked' which is a really pretty, shimmery gold- great for all over the lid (which is what I've been doing) and is super pigmented. I've also learned (credits to the lovely Tanya Burr) that if you blend it just that little bit extra in your crease it starts to get a bit darker into a browny- taupe shade- perfect if you're too lazy to blend more eyeshadows in like me.

Next up is this eyeliner from L'Oreal- 'Superliner Perfect Slim'. I can't tell you how much of a lifesaver this is. Personally I'm pretty crap at eyeliner- it never turns out even on both sides and making a wing is pretty much impossible with anything else. This on the other hand, because the nib(?) is so thin it's a bit more forgiving than using a liquid or felt tip liner and is able to make super thin/ thick lines really easily. The way I've been doing my eyeliner is going super thin in my inner eye corner, then gradually getting thicker and turning it into a not too dramatic flick.

For the final eye product is the ever so famous Benefit 'They're Real'. Oh man- this is good stuff. I actually had my eye on this for a while but was too scared to spend £19.50 on it- instead I found a 'Whole Lotta Loving' kit from Benefit for about £16.50 I believe (like seriously- that's amazing) and funnily enough it had a miniature version inside so that's a MASSIVE benefit (see what I did there- hahaha. No). Anyway, this mascara is seriously by far the best one I've used (maybe apart from 'The Falsies' from Maybelline)- it separates and lengthens the lashes without making them look spidery and the tip of the wand really helps get into the really hard to reach areas and is great for the bottom lashes.

Lastly, to finish my look is this super pretty lipstick from No7. The colour is 'Classic Rose' which is a vintagey sort of girly pink. It has a matte finish (which I do love in my lipsticks), super pigmented and is just one of those everyday, throw on colours that goes with pretty much anything and suits most skin tones.

Any other favourites that you like? Comment them down below.

Thank you and enjoyyy :) 

Review: Essie polishes | Ayesha

Hello all,

I am currently building a small army of nail polishes at the moment, my favourites being Essie and Barry M. I also bought 2 Chanel nail polishes which are lovely and a great luxury item, but if I were to compare them to Essie, then I would say Essie trumps! Here are the reasons why.

1. There is a gorgeous array of colours.

2. They apply really, really easily. The last time I applied their polish, I painted each nail in 3 strokes and that was it (side, middle, then the other side). I feel this is due to the extra wide brush:

3. They are quite opaque even with one coating, but 2 makes them super-opaque. 

4. They have some really cute names like 'Chubby Cheeks', which makes me think of a baby pink but it's actually a hot orangey-red!

5. Applied with a good top coat, they don't chip until maybe day 3 or 4. (However, I think this could also depend on how good your top coat is). 

If only Barry M did extra-wide brushes, I would stop buying everything else and just get Barry M. Thank you for wide brushes, Essie!

There is no reason for this second photo; only that I wanted to show you my new globe necklace I got from Urban Outfitters yesterday. There is a tiny map inside. That is all I need to say.

More soon!

Mini shopping haul and review | Zahra

Hello again :)

Once again my sister and I decided to go shopping. Yes, two days in a row. It's the holidays! 

We ventured into Boots so me being me, decided to swatch almost every lip colour there until I thought 'a Revlon Lip Butter would be nice'. Seeing as I don't actually own any I thought I might as well purchase one.  The colour I got is called 'Tutti Frutti'-  it looks like a bright orange in the tube, but when you apply it, it turns into a sort of orangey - coral mesh. My initial thoughts were that I wish it was slightly cheaper (they retail for £7.99) but they are long-lasting and give your lips a nice stain and sheen. It smells really nice too (like Body Shop's shea butter)- not something I generally look for in a lip product but I guess that's a plus right? So far I've found it to be very hydrating and a brilliant colour payoff and I'm excited to buy a lot more. My sister purchased a Barry M lip crayon - the new Gelly Hi-Shine one in Alpha (the bright red with orange undertones), so if you would like her to do a review/swatch of that then comment below :).

I then wondered off into the land of hair products and shower gels and saw that Boots had a 3 for 2 on nearly all hair products so I decided to get these 2. My sister got herself a mini conditioner. My first impressions on these are that they smell nice and I've heard good things about the sea salt spray so I have high hopes for these... (I'll try not to sing Muse). Review to come soon! 

What are some of your favourite drugstore purchases?

Macaron mishaps | Ayesha

Afternoon lovelies! 

So this week I made two batches of macarons. (The French sandwich-looking variety, not macaroons as in coconut macaroons). This is what they should have looked like:

Image from Laduree

In actual fact, this is how they turned out:

Attempt 1 - with my friend Katie

It was a very intense afternoon when my sister and I decided to bake some. After one failed attempt with my friend (where it failed in the presentation department but not in taste), here is the blow-by-blow account of the second attempt with Zahra;

• We started at 1.45pm.
• We forgot to keep some egg whites separate as the recipe instructed.
• We made double the mixture just so we could keep some egg whites separate.
• We added red and yellow food colouring in the hope that they would turn out orange. We poured, then poured some more. The mixture turned a very pale mint green. Perplexed expressions were exchanged. We added more yellow. It turned the colour of dough. Not impressive. New, perhaps in-date food colouring needs to be purchased.
• At 3.30pm we finally put them in the oven.
• We finished at 4.30pm.

No wonder macarons are expensive at £30 or so for a box of 12. I would charge more just for the sheer amount of hard work that has to go into making them! This is how they turned out:

Attempt 2

Nevertheless, if I had another afternoon free then I would make them again, but using a completely different recipe to BBC Food (or at least... follow the recipe exactly...) because the taste was worth it. 

Until next time!

Shopping shenaginans and collections | Zahra

Hello everyone :)

Today my sister and I decided to go out shopping into town. Obviously I picked up a few things whilst I was there and added a couple of things to my collection...oops!

  

'Lotus Flower'- this Lip Cream was free if you spent over £15 on Topshop Makeup so I had to-take advantage of that. It's a dark pinky - purple colour that is VERY long-lasting and the 

name is adorable.

 'Wicked'. This lipstick is very similar to 'Lotus Flower' and a brilliant dupe for Mac's 'Rebel'. Don't be fooled by the brown colour in the tube - it comes out as a dark, maroonish pink. This is a 'velvet matte finish' and is super-pigmented, so if you're looking for a cheaper alternative to Rebel then I would definitely recommend this one! 

 'Satin'. This lipstick is nice if you don't want to go for the whole hog of wearing a red lipstick- it has quite a sheer colour that can be intensified with added glitter. If you're scared of wearing a true red then this is perfect although this lipstick was limited edition about a year ago but if you can get your hands on something similar then i definitely recommend  you do.

 'All about me'. This lipstick says it all in the name- it's a bright, bright bubblegum pink, similar to Mac's 'Candy Yum Yum' but is less blue-toned. It gives the illusion of whiter teeth so if you're like me and you're teeth aren't the... 'fairest of them all' then this will aid you in making them really stand out.

 

 'Infrared'. A few weeks ago I was on the hunt for a nude lipstick so I wondered into Topshop and saw this. It instantly drew me in as orange is one of my favourite colours (meaning that I failed my nude lipstick quest), plus it's just a really nice spring colour and at £8 you can't really go wrong. 

Lastly we went to Superdrug purely to go to the Sleek counter. I was hoping to get the contour kit but that was out of stock in all shades which was a shame, so instead of that I decided to get this blush trio called 'Pink Lemonade'. All of these shades are highly, highly pigmented and I really couldn't resist the name. (Excuse the nice finger mark in 'macaroon'... I got a bit carried away...).

Enjoy and happy shopping!