W7 In The Nude Palette Swatches

To keep going with my new idea of matching up videos with blog post, I am going to do a swatch post!

If you haven't seen it already, this weeks video is a Valentine's Day makeup tutorial. In this tutorial I use w7's In The Nude eyeshadow palette. I picked this one because it's full of pinks and soft romantic shades. There is a link to it at the end of this post.

This palette dupes Urban Decay's Naked 3 palette. So without further adieu, here are the swatches! 

These first three were almost pointless to swatch. They are very pale, light shades used best for highlighting or blending. From the left, even though you can't really tell is Latte, Angel and Venice.

Latte is a pale yellow perfect for a base or brow bone highlight. Angel is a shimmery pink champagne colour that is really good on the lid, especially for halo eyeshadow. Venice is a darker nude pink colour. It's also matte which makes it good for a crease shade.

Next up we have some shades you can actually see. These, from the left, are Marilyn, Copper Pot and Sun Kissed. Marilyn is a lighter version of Venice, and leans more towards the pink side. It's also matte. Copper Pot in the pan looks very pink, but when swatched comes out copper. I would call this shade satin. Sun Kissed in the pan looks like what Copper Pot should. It's a shimmery shade and very bronze looking.

This half of the palette is darker than the first half, and make for good crease shades. From the left we have Alice, Bad Manners, and Coffee Cup. Alice is a very mauve, pink, taupe shade and I love using it in my crease. Bad Manners leans towards a more brown shade. It still has pink/warm undertones. Coffee Cup is a pretty explanatory name for this shade. It's almost a true warm brown, just like coffee.

Lastly, we have Mud Slide, Tokyo, and Fashionista. These shades would be best for smokey eyes. Mud Slide looks like a mixture of Bad Manners and Coffee Cup. Tokyo is a darker taupe, with a pink base although in the photo it leans more towards brown. Lastly is Fashionista. In the photo it appears black, but in real life its a dark purple, similar to eggplant.

If you wanna see these colours in action, in this week's video I use this palette to create a summer appropriate Valentine's Day look. Here is the link for that: https://youtu.be/Xjgdw7AK43k

Hope you guys like these swatch posts. I have now completed my w7 palette collection so still have two to swatch if you would like to see them!

Shannen xx

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ModelCo Lipstick Swatches and Review

Not too long ago I got gifted three ModelCo lipsticks. They are the Party Proof Matte Lipsticks. I have got three colours. Disco Fever, Peony and Red Velvet.
Disco Fever is an orange, but quite muted. It also leans a bit more peach than actual true orange.
Peony is a red, but again quite muted. It is also not a true red, being more pink based.
Lastly, we have Red Velvet. This colour is a true red, although a bit darker than most. It's hanging in between neutral red and blue based red.

All of these colours are beautiful and last really well on the lips. The only thing I have to say about them is that they're not matte like stated. Instead I would call them more of a satin finish, maybe even a demi-matte. They still have a bit of shine to them, like you will see in the pictures below. The packaging is well done too. It's nice and simple, with the name of the product on the front. The font is also in the colour of the lipstick, so you don't even have to open the tube to know what colour it is. Another great thing about the packaging is that no matter what way you store it, you're going to know what colour it is because there is a label on the bottom, but the top is see through as well. It's really great. Even though they're not actually matte, they're awesome and they smell great.

 Shannen xx

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W7 In The Buff Pallette Swatches

I bought this palette in a makeup sale a little while ago, I have a video with the haul that these are mentioned it which I'll link below, at $15. A nice cheap palette from a brand I have heard good things about. The first thing that attracted me to this palette was it's likeness for Urban Decay's Naked palettes. This one in particular is a dupe for Naked 2. The colour are pretty much identical. I plan on purchasing the other 2 palletes in this range which are In The Nude and In The Buff: Lightly Toasted. Especially considering how cheap they are and the quality that they are as well. Another awesome thing about w7 is that they don't test on animals! That's a huge deal for me as I'm trying really hard to purchase cruelty free brands.

So as I said, I paid $15 for this palette. I could've got 2 for $25, which I now wish I did. But as I hadn't tried this brand before, I didn't want to spend heaps only to not like it. You get 12 shadows in this palette that range in shades as well as finishes. There are some mattes, some shimmers, and some metallics. It's a nice range to choose from when doing my makeup. As you can tell in the swatches, the quality is incredible. The pigmentation is to die for. They blend really well. Just overall these are great eye shadows. I highly recommend them if you can get your hands on them!

First up we have Buff, Camel and Sand. Buff is a matte yellow white shade that's excellent for brow bone highlighting. Camel is a metallic bronze shade. Sand is a warm white shade that's also a good highlight.

Here we have Dust, Chocolate and Topaz. Dust is a more brown version of Camel. Chocolate is a warm taupe matte shade. This one is my favourite in this palette. The last one, Topaz is a very brown bronze shade, also a metallic/shimmery type of shade.

The next three are all semi matte, satin shades. Theres Earth, which is a browner version of Chocolate. Storm is a dark grey with a olive undertone. Lastly there's Silk, which is a beautiful Champagne colour.

The last three swatches are Wave, Thunder and Onyx. Wave is the darkest brown in the palette, but still quite similar to Earth and Topaz. Thunder and Onyx are the darkest colours in the whole palette, but both are beautiful. Thunder is the love child of Onyx and Storm, but with brown undertones, Whereas Onyx is just a straight up matte black shade. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know if you've tried any of these palettes, and what you think of them!

Shannen xx

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Battle of the Cruelty Free Eyebrow Products

As a strong lover of all things makeup, I am trying to build my collection in a cruelty free way. This can be quite difficult as there is limited products to choose from in New Zealand. It's also quite difficult to know who is actually cruelty free, because some sites are not very reliable. So here I am bringing you a post that will help you bring a decent cruelty free brand.

First topic of this maybe ongoing series is eyebrow products. Now we all know that eyebrows are important, they frame the face. So we need good products that will do that, and last.

The first product is a well known brand called E.L.F. I picked mine up from K-mart for $10 and it's in the colour Ash Blonde. This will also be well known as Shaaanxo uses it a lot in her videos. E.L.F. is a famous cruelty free brand, as well as being super affordable.

The second product is Australis Eyebrow pencil. This was about $12 I think, and is also from K-mart. Mine is in Blonde. This is much warmer than the E.L.F. product, but is really nice and easy for me to use if I'm in a rush.

The last product is W7 Brow Twister in Hazel Blonde. I got this from a makeup sale and I technically paid $5 for it. It was part of a 2 for $10 deal. This is my most recent purchase and is also the darkest out of the 3. I wasn't too sure about the status of cruelty free -ness on this brand. I had to do extensive research to find it out, and thankfully it is. It's also a UK brand, which I've been told has very strict rules and regulations on animal testing making it very difficult to actually test on animals.

At the moment, my W7 brow pencil is my favourite. Its not as quick and easy as my Australis pencil, but it doesn't take as long to do my brows if I used E.L.F. and a brush. I use E.L.F. when I have heaps of time to focus on really stencilling my brows on. E.L.F is definitely the perfect match for my brows, but I'm really enjoying the darkness of W7 right now. It might have something to do with me growing my hair out so my natural hair colour appears darker in comparison to the bleach, but I'm not really sure. Australis is too warm for my hair colour in general, but just to chuck it on lightly in a rush does the job, so I'm not going to complain.

If you have any of these products, let me know how you like them. Or if you buy one of them after reading this, let time know how they work for you.

Don't forget to check out my links listed below. If you have any idea how I can get all my links and social media to match my Instagram username, let me know. I've been trying to get them all to match for ages!

Shannen xx

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Matte Lip Creams; Swatches and Comparisons

At the moment, in the makeup world, there has been an insurgence of lip creams, glosses and stains. These are really good if you want a bright opaque colour, but don't like to reapply every hour or so. They are a great way to finish off any outfit, by either making it a stand out point, or matching it to an aspect of your outfit.

I have 3 Australis Velour Lips and 2 Lime Crime Velvetines that I am going to swatch and compare for you today. In my personal opinion, Velour Lips are a cheaper alternative to Velvetines, as they retail for about $15 whereas Velvetines are about $30.

Both brands are great if you are trying to abstain from purchasing cruel products, as they are both against animal testing. I'm not sure if either brand is completely vegan, but at least they are one step closer to being vegan.

I'm going to swatch Lime Crime first, as I only have 2. I also find that Velvetines are a much thinner formula than Australis. With every swatch, I'm going to include a photo with flash, and without so that you can get a better idea of what the colours look like.

The first colour is Utopia. It is a bright purple colour with pink, or warm, undertones. This formula is quite thin and I find two coats is perfect.

With Flash

Without Flash

The next colour is Wicked. Wicked is a dark, vampy red. This is thicker in formula than Utopia and only requires one good coat.

With Flash

Without Flash

The first Australis colour is called Rio'D. It's a very bright, even neon, orange. I find that the formula for these are very thick, and can be quite drying.

No Flash

With Flash

Second is called Ma-Li-Boo. This colour is a very bright pink. Its quite a true pink in my opinion, as I can't see it swaying towards warmer or cooler tones.

With Flash

Without Flash

Lastly, we have Ny-Cee. This is a real 50s pin-up kind of red. A lighter version to Lime Crime's Wicked. It's definitely blue based rather than orange.

With Flash

Without Flash

I hope this post helped you out with the different matte lip products you can get. This is just comparing two different brands, but there are countless more out there on the market. If you liked this post, let me know and I can see what other lip swatches and comparisons I can do.

Shannen xx
Photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used
PicMonkey.com used to edit photos

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China Glaze Nail Polish Swatches and Impression

From L-R: White On White, Liquid Leather, Platinum Silver, Nova, Bridezilla

Now I think nail polish is the perfect accessory to finish of any outfit and because of this, nail polish has a small spot in my heart. I have a very large collection of nail polish, sadly hidden away in a massive hat box.

For christmas, I added to this collection. I received 5 colours from a China Glaze range that I now forget the name of. They are a white, black, sheer pink, silver and a glitter. All of these colours are amazing. The silver is crazy opaque and you only really need one coat of it. The white is also super opaque too, but two coats is needed for this to make it super white. The pink is nice and sheer, which is great when I don't really want much on my nails. It has a slight glitter reflect in it which is amazing. The glitter is a silver sparkle which coats the nails in so much glitter it's basically opaque. I paired this with the silver polish underneath, but I don't think it's even necessary.

First up we have Liquid Leather. This colour was super opaque after about 3 coats. It's also super shiny. This was taken without a top coat on.

Secondly is Bridezilla. As you can see, it's a very sheer shade that only adds a slight hint of colour and sparkle.

This is my favourite shade in the collection. Platinum Silver was opaque after the first coat but you see it here with two coats.

This last one shows both White on White and Nova. I did this because I never wore the glitter on it's own. The white was fully opaque after two coats. Nova was on top of Platinum Silver and has two coats of glitter.

Hope you enjoyed this!

If you did like it, let me know below!

Also, let me know if you wanna see more of this type of posts (:

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

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Birthday Lookbook and Swatches

Welcome to my first LookBook! For those of you who don't know what a LookBook is, it's basically a compilation of outfits that all come under a certain theme. Like sometimes you'll see a black and white LookBook, where all the clothes are black or white. Or maybe you'll see seasonal ones for summer, winter, spring or autumn. But in this case, my LookBook is a compilation of outfits put together from clothes I bought while in Wellington shopping for my birthday.

In the first picture I am wearing a t-shirt dress I got from ValleyGirl. I paired it with black socks and a taupe pair of ankle boots I got from Dotti. I wore my hair down and straight just to make it a bit more casual. Also it was a semi warm day so I skipped on tights and just threw on a black cardigan. 

In the middle picture, I'm wearing the dress I picked up form Mirrou. This day was colder so I wore the boots I got from Glassons, a pair of tights I picked up at the same time and my camp jacket from JayJays. I also threw on a cream scarf just to lighten up the dark tones a bit. To add a bit of a girly touch, I clipped my hair back in a half up half down style.

In the last picture, I wore this outfit out to my birthday dinner. The t-shirt dress I got from ValleyGirl along with the first one. I wore tights that I grabbed from Equip as part of a 3 for $10 deal and I just chucked on my creepers to add a bit of an edge. With my hair I just clipped back my fringe. I threw on a black cardigan as it was night and cold outside.

From my second half of my trip, I picked up a lot of make up. I've swatched here what I think is worthy of showing off the colours. In other words I didn't bother to show my foundation and concealer as you wouldn't be able to see them anyways.

Lime Crime Velvetine's go on like a lip gloss and dry matte. There is no need for a lip liner (or so the packaging says). I found this amazing to wear all day. I didn't need to reapply once, even after eating and drinking. It stuck on hard. Which also made it a bit hard to get off, but they do say on the packaging to use a certain type of makeup remover. I got the shade "Wicked" which is a very dark vampy red. Beautiful!

MAC's lipsticks in "Candy Yum Yum" and "Heroine" were eye catchers for me. They're bright, vibrant, last a long time and are matte also. And my god, do MAC lipsticks smell amazing. They smell like a vanilla cake batter or cookie dough. It's incredible. Heroine isn't showing up as true to colour. It's a much more pale, but vibrant purple. Candy Yum Yum is a bright true pink.

Nars blush in "Orgasm" is used by almost everyone. A lot of the gurus I watch on YouTube have it and rave about it. So I decided to give it a shot. And it's amazing. I don't even bother using a highlighter anymore when I use this. Its the perfect peach and its so shimmery (which I love) that it replaces my ELF facial whip. The colour is perfect for pale skin like I have. It's not too much but it still stands out in a subtle way.

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

Something near and dear to me...

Today I am going to write about something I've struggled with for years, basically ever since puberty hit. And that issue is acne. More specifically makeup that doesn't aggravate or cause breakouts. I hope that this post will be useful to my readers of all ages. It doesn't just cover acne prone skin, but also skin that's sensitive.

I've got three products that I find brilliant for my skin, and I have very acne prone skin. Those three products are CoverGirl Clean Sensitive powder, CoverGirl Clean Senstive liquid foundation and ELF's Acne Fighting powder. I'm going to write a quick, mini review about each product. How they felt, lasted and treated my skin. 

First off is my long lasting and seemingly never ending CoverGirl powder. I wear makeup pretty much every day and this powder has lasted me months and months. My colour in this powder is buff beige, and I'm really pale. Along with my acne, I think my skin might be a little sensitive (probably caused by the acne). I found this powder was perfectly light, perfect match, and didn't aggravate any existing breakouts. If a product is to heavy on my skin my face can get quite aggravated and itchy, but I haven't found this happening with this powder. And, yes I know that this powder is reaching the end, but I'm squeezing as much as I can out of it. 

Now the liquid foundation that matches this powder is also never ending, although I do only use it as light coverage  because I didn't want my acne suffocating under makeup every day. I wear ivory in this foundation and it's perfect in winter, but slightly too light in the summer. Again, it's great for my skin. It lets my skin breathe and doesn't aggravate my skin. I would definitely repurchase these, but I'm wanting to change over completely to cruelty free makeup. Looking on both the CoverGirl and PETA website, I can't tell if they do test on animals or not, so until there is confirmation I won't repurchase these two products again. 

Now for a cruelty free option, I have ELF's acne fighting powder. This powder contains salicylic acid which is great for fighting acne. This powder helps keep your skin matte and shine free so will probably be good for oily skin as well. I'm in the lightest shade that you can get it. I can't quite recall what it is, probably light or fair. You can buy ELF either online or at kmart. 

I haven't got it, but there is also an ELF foundation that's also acne fighting and contains salicylic acid. I've seen a few reviews on this and it looks really good, so I can't wait to purchase it. I've not seen it at kmart so online will probably be your best bet. 

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

Lipstick Collection!

Now I know that my collection of 15 lipsticks isn't a very large collection, but it is my favourite type of makeup, so I tend to buy more lipstick than anything else. I always thought that reds were my favourite colour of lipstick, but now that I've gone through all of my colours, I can now see that I seem to gravitate towards oranges. I honestly would never have picked up on that ever. 

I feel that lipstick really completes my look. Whether I have minimal make up or I've gone all out an have my winged eyeliner done too. Even if I'm having a low self esteem day, putting lipstick on makes my day a little bit brighter and bearable. 

Lipstick adds a little bit of fun to any look, and makes you stand out just that little bit more. Because I have blue hair, any colour will go, but when I had pink hair, I found it much harder to wear lipstick because pinks were out of the question in my opinion, otherwise I would be overloading on the pink. Reds were also out as I felt it was too much from one colour family. So while I had pink hair, I didn't wear lipstick much, and I felt like I wasn't putting any effort into how I looked. Once I went back to natural hair, my love for lipstick grew even more and that was when my collection really grew. I could rock any colour I wanted and it wouldn't clash with my hair. It didn't help that my beloved loves it when I wear lipstick, so I bought more so I had a greater variety to pick from and not just a couple to alternate between.

The furtherest left picture, going down, I have Jordana Cherry, Lush A Million Kisses, Revlon Colourstay Ultimate Top Tomatoe and a random freebie that my friend gave me.

The middle left picture I have, going down, BYS Duo in Kiss Me Coral, Collection Passionfruit, Collection Mango Tango, Nutrimetics Flame and Australis Velourlips Rio'd.

Middle right I have, Collection Sweet Tart, BYS I Don't Pink So and BYS Flirty Fuchsia.

Lastly, on the very right I've got, BYS Baby Doll, BYS Cranberry Red and Australis ColourInject Grunge.

Hope you enjoyed!

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

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