Mattifying Nail Polish - Review

Changed my layout AGAIN - more subtley this time tho, I messed about with the HTML a bit to make the centre column wider, what do you think??

In my recent post on my ELF Haul I mentioned that I purchased the Matte Finisher ClearNail Polish. This is currently in the sale here for £1. I bought it because I've been lusting after something like this for a while, it seems like such an easy way to freshen up old colours.

It works as a topcoat to change your regular glossy, shiny finish to a matte finish, and comes with built in Vitamin E for strength.

I used it on these nail polishes (I tried to go for a variety of colours):

On one hand, I painted over the colours with the ELF Matte Polish, and with the other hand I used my trusty Seche Vite topcoat. I wasn't sure whether I'd actually see a difference what with using a £1 product, but I'm actually quite happy with the results!

Here they are, pre-mattification (yes, I made that up):

Oh and a quick apology for the state of my nails. I am losing the nail-biting battle. :( :(

And after!

Comparison photos:

It would also look really cute in a French manicure style. Unfortunately my wee bitten nails (sadface) are too short for this right now, so here's how it would look with falsies. I'm using these polishes:

Tragically I have two Chanel Black Satins and I have lost them both so I refuse to buy another - Asda will do!! =p

These were both taken without flash, but at different areas of my room (I have spotlights in my room). The gold has a matte body and a glossy tip, and the black has a glossy body and a matte tip. They actually look more effective in person, I think it's quite an unusual look!

So what do you think? A nice way to add a little something extra to your own polishes? A serious bargain at £1?! Or is the matte look not for you?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

Naked2 EOTD Ideas!!

On my recent OOTD post (click here) some people asked about my eye makeup. I used the Urban Decay Naked2 Palette to create the look, and right now it's pretty much all I use. I thought I'd post up a few quick, easy looks I came up with, all using Naked2.

Top without flash, bottom with flash for all photos.
Look1: Silvery

Shades used: Foxy (highlight), Verve (all over), Pistol (outer V and crease).

Look2: Goldy

Shades used: Foxy (highlight), Bootycall (inner corner), Half Baked (centre of lid), Snakebite (outer V and crease).

Look4: Mixed Metals

Shades used: Foxy (highlight), YDK (all over top lid), Verve (bottom lid), Half Baked (outer corner).


I know I'm no MUA, but the Naked and Naked2 Palettes make it so easy to come up with wearable looks that these only took me about five minutes each of experimentation. The lighting in my room is soooo poor when I come home from work a lot of the photos I took didn't turn out well, I'll try show more when I have better lighting!

What do you think? What is your favourite? Have you tried another combo that you love?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

OOTD - Cat Dress!!

So I've been wanting to show you my cat dress I got for Christmas for a while now. I lovelovelove it. But unfortunately this week I've not been feeling very well and I think taking and posting photos of myself would cause other people a lot of pain in their eyes, so I'm going to recycle an older photo of me wearing it. I also can't bring myself to actually look presentable right now, so here goes:

This was for my friend's birthday, we went old school bowling and then back to hers for cocktails. LOOK how cute this dress is! Lots of little adorable black cats. The cut is also super flattering and it's such a great dress for wearing when it's not a 'night on the town', but you still want to dress up!

You can't see it too good on the above photos, but there are actually little buttons down the front:

This is me wearing it on Christmas Day when I got it! When I tried it on in the shop I actually had the buttons at the back, oops!

It was £14.99 for H&M. Probably one of my favourite dresses ever. It is just SO me.

That's all for today folks, sorry it's a bit of a lazy post. Hopefully back to normal next week when I feel better.

What do you think of my cat dress?? I know you can get other prints in H&M, like rabbits and horses - I think they're all super cute! Would you ever wear animal print like this?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

OOTD - Anime Dress and more!

Thanks to your voting guys, I have changed the name of my blog! I've also changed the layout, I hope you like it! I have a blog button I'd love you to add to your blog if you want to. ^_^

(Link is to the left)

You can also find me now direct at cosmeticskitten.com or thecosmeticskitten.com! <3

I've not done an OOTD in a while!
I bought some things from Sarah at FashionismyH2O in her blog sale. I'm a sucker for anything anime/ manga print, so I got this lovely dress:

It was freeeezing outside and so windy! Also my hair is a bit like a lion's, I washed it last night and then fell in front of the fire, so it dried naturally. Oops.

This is my FOTD:

Face:
No7 Primer
Jemma Kidd Light as Air Foundation
Nars Orgasm

Lips:
Sleek Lip Paint

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer
Urban Decay Naked2 Palette
Urban Decay 24/7 Liquid Eyeliner
Urban Decay Supercurl Mascara

I also meant to post about this aaaages ago! I won two blog competitions recently, and I just wanna show you what I won. I won a voucher for Ivi Scents from Christine at Makeup, Beauty and Fashion by Christine which is awesome, I've never shopped at Ivi Scents before but it's kinda like Lush so looking forward to ordering some goodies!

I also won a giveaway from Tiffeny at Just Tiffeny. She sent it out just before Christmas so it was all beautifully wrapped like a Christmas present.

So much stuff!! Thank you to both girls!!

What do you think of my anime dress? Do you like cute, quirky clothes or more traditional outfits? And do you like my blog make over?? 

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

My Attempt at Contouring

So I used to be pretty skinny, and my face was skinny too. As I put on weight, my face kind of rounded out. I don't actually mind having a rounder face too much, but I have zero cheekbones (I know they're in there somewhere, they're just very shy) so I thought it might be a good idea to start contouring.

I have been using Benefit 10 for years. It's a staple in my 'going out' make up, it's quite shimmery and bronzy so it's too much for me during the day but so easy to use and effective for night time use. Here's a pic of me from ago ago wearing it:

So you can see there's highlighter just above my cheekbone and bronzer below. Not my best picture obv but it'll do to show you what Benefit 10 looks like on me!

I wanted something that I could use during the day, alongside my normal blusher (Nars Orgasm). After a bit of reading, Sleek seemed like the obvious choice. So I popped along to my local Superdrug and got the last one in 'light'.

Since I'm too shy to do videos, here's a picture step by step of how I poorly attempted contouring!

I apologise in advance for my face. Ugh.

Step One

Create base, but don't apply any blush etc.

Step Two

Pull a ridiculous fish face. Sweep the bronzer over the hollow that's created, I used my Sigma F40 contour brush.

Step 3

Blend it out a little bit. I used my Sigma F30 big powder brush.

Step 4

Use a blusher brush to add the highlighter along your brow bone and blend with your powder brush a wee bit so it's not just two stripes.

Finished Result!

Left - before and right - after

I know, it would have helped if I'd taken both photos at the same angle. But as you can see, this was quite a rushed effort - I still have my jacket on and no lipstick or anything. Ugh.

Overall, I'm not sure it actually makes a difference! Maybe it's something that needs a bit of practice? Or maybe I'm doing it wrong?

So what do you think? Should I just stick to Benefit 10? Have you tried contouring before?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

ELF Haul - some goodies!!

About a week ago I got an ELF haul delivered to me, I only ordered it a few days before so as always their customer service is great.

This is what I received:

Sorry for the poor quality!

Their prices are just too good to refuse, and with free shipping when you spent over a tenner, I was a happy bunny. All of the products above came to £11.45. Amaze.

I got the eyeshadow primer as my UD one I got with the Naked Palette is nearly out and I want to try a cheaper alternative before splashing out on Urban Decay. The blush brush was simply because I was a bit dissapointed in my Sigma one and wanted to try a cheaper version (and also I needed to get my basket to over £10!).

However, you can see the quality of the ELF brush next to my Sigma brush is seriously poor so I doubt I'll be using it.


Their lipsticks are an amazing price, £1.50 each, and I aready own a few so I know that the quality is pretty good for the price. This one is called Gypsy and looks like this:

Left - no flash, right - flash

The brush cleaner was what I was really wanting, it's for daily cleaning of my Sigma brushes. A little spritz on your brush and wipe off and it's decently clean until my weekly wash. Or as least that's what I'm hoping for.

I've tried it on a few brushes and so far so good!

I got this:

.. because I've actually been wanting to try a mattifying nail varnish for ages! Looking forward to using this.

The bronzer/brusher duo I got because I'd heard it was a dupe for Nars Orgasm/Laguna duo.

 Left with flash, right no flash

I don't have Laguna, but here is the blush compared with Orgasm:

ELF left, Nars right. No flash top, with flash bottom.

Seriously don't know who decided they were similar... they're not at all. ELF is a lot brighter and doesn't have the shimmery gold undertones Orgasm has.

Altogether tho, ELF is a pretty awesome place to stock up on cheap, decent quality make up. I know a lot of people love it!

Have you tried ELF? What is your favourite product?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

Naked2 and Naked Comparison Review

I think I have a problem.

Oops.

So yes, I bought Urban Decay Naked2 after I already had two of the original Urban Decay Naked palettes. However, my kind sister is going to buy one of them off me so thank you Alie!! =p

As you can see, I caved. I bought the Naked2 online pretty much as soon as I could. I loved Naked so much, and I'd seen swatches on American blogs, that I knew I HAD to have it. And, don't get me wrong, I love it. I looove the shimmery eyeshadows (I know people wanted more mattes but I'm a sucker for shimmer) and the way they feel, blend and last. But I couldn't help feeling like a LOT of the colours are super similar to Naked.

I know you guys have probably read a hundred of these reviews already, so I'm not going to go into depth. You know it comes with a decent eye brush (shading and blending) and the most pathetic size of lipgloss ever.

The colours are as follows:

And yes, I did cut out the last shade (a matte black called Blackout). Don't ask me why.

And here's the customary swatches:

click to enlarge

In natural light (i.e. outside)

Inside, no flash

Inside with flash

So it's all very beautiful, especially Verve (a lilacy shimmer) and YDK (a delicious bronze). As you can see, Foxy barely shows up on my skin at all, no matter how hard I tried. However, I was glancing at my orginial Naked Palette and noticed some distinct similaries.

Naked top, Naked2 bottom.

Here is my opinion of which colours are similiar. Now bare in mind the only duplicated shade is Half Baked, but I do feel the following shades are very close in colour.

The top row is the swatches of Naked2 I had already done, underneath are the shades from the original palette which I feel are closest in colour to them (some have no comparison).

Here's more specific pictures:

No flash

Flash

Again, the top row is Naked2 and bottom row is original Naked.

a) Bootycall (N2) and Virgin (N)
b) Tease (N2) and Naked (N)
c) Snakebite (N2) and Smog (N)
d) YDK (N2) and Toasted (N)
e) Busted (N2) and Hustle (N)
f) Blackout (N2) and Creep (N)

As mentioned, none of the shades are identical, but as six of the shades are quite comprable, and one is a duplicate, it means only 5 of the 12 shades are completely unique to Naked2.

My conclusion is that if you didn't buy the original Naked and want to try out the gorgeous (and they ARE gorgeous) shades in Naked2, go for it! If you already have Naked and like it but wouldn't repurchase it, don't bother with Naked2. However if, like me, you LOVED Naked and more of the same is not a bad thing, then invest!!

What do you think guys? Are the shades too similar? Will you be buying it? Are you fed up of Naked2 posts already?!

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

Jemma Kidd Light as Air Foundation - Review

Please remember to vote on my blog name change in the poll to the left, it's very close just now which isn't helping me lol! My sister suggested The Beauty Kitten rather than just Cosmetics as it's more general, but I'm a sucker for alliteration! What do you guys think? Help! :(

I recently took advantage of the Feel Unique sale that was on and spent some of my Christmas money on Jemma Kidd Light as Air Foundation. It's normally £25 but was £20 in the sale. This is my first high end-ish foundation, I have been using BB creams for quite a while now and before that it was Bourjois Healthy Mix.

It comes in a lovely, simple box and the actual foundation is in a tube.

I've heard people complaining about the tube as it gets messy, my main concern is that a lot of the tube seems to be air when I squeeze it. At least in a clear glass bottle you can see what's actually inside! Otherwise, the packaging seems fine to me.

I chose shade 02 Light, as even with a tan, I'm not the darkest gal around. I applied it with my new Sigma F50 stippling brush. It blended easily, and provided light to medium coverage. It did nothing for under my eyes, so I've applied a tiny bit of concealer for the photos.

I'm a total foundation novice, so what do you think?
Apologies for both my scary face and the backgrounds for these photos!

Without flash

With flash

And with a full face of makeup in natural light (i.e. the conservatory):

Without flash

With flash

So far, I'm happy with the foundation. I feel like it's given me decent, even coverage and blends in well with my skintone although I'm not sure if it's slightly orange on me - maybe an even lighter shade would have been better??

 However, there is one thing I LOVE about this product - the finish is so nice and soft, almost powdery, that I don't need to use any powder on top! Now I usually have to dust powder on every single day, especially with my BB creams. With this foundation, there's no need for that - AND it still makes my skin look dewy and fresh in the right places!

I'm still not sure if it's worth the regular £25 price tag, but I'm gonna make it my daily base and hopefully I'll fall in love!!

P.S. - I'm number eight in Bloglovin's Up and Coming Beauty Bloggers! How cool is that?? You can go here to see this little blog in all it's glory!

Have you tried this foundation? What did you think? What's your favourite foundation recommendation?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥