A Small, Cheap and Cheerful Cosmetics Haul from Holland!

Well hello there, lovelies! How have y'all been Smoochin' this week? Hopefully the weather has been fair to you all and is gracing you all with beautiful sun and blue skies, because that's exactly the weather I have been experiencing this past week! It's wonderful to go outside wearing shorts or a dress, attempting to get a tan out of it all (I'm working on it) and eating an ice cream or frozen yogurt as you enjoy a leisurely stroll around the shops, searching for make-up.

Thing is, this time around I am not walking around my typical English high street looking for the newest make-up on the market. In fact, right now I am in Holland on a 2 week holiday, visiting my friend Sarah and enjoying a different culture and, of course, different cosmetics. Not that there is much of a difference as far as I know, but I have found a few shop treats that are cheap and cheerful for both my wallet and myself, allowing me to splurge a bit on some little make-up trinkets to indulge my obsession and keep the make-up monster at bay for a while. I'm still on the hunt, of course, because I have yet to purchase a piece from either Hema or etos, both of which I have seen but have not found a product from that I want (that and I am not overly fond of the etos eyeshadow quality from the swatches I made, which is a pity because they have a customisable pallet that I really wanted... damn!)

So, here are a few of my purchases from some cheap, cheerful brands that I have found in Holland so far. There isn't much, and sadly there won't be any swatches due to flash being a pain in the rear end, but hopefully you see something you recognise or think looks pretty fun!

I have a bit of a mixed bag of brands, as I have tried to get at least one item from each new brand I come across that I have never seen before, and of all five brands that I have before your very eyes in the image above, the only one I have actually heard of is essence, though really, who doesn't know of essence? So many beauty blogs have raved about that brand, so not to hear of it (or at least, for me) would be rather surprising. So, when I saw the brand, I needed something. ANYTHING!!! So, I purchased a BB Cream.

Because clearly, I need more foundation... well, actually I do, because my current foundation(s) are in the wrong shade now that my face is a little darker. So that purchase is justified!

Anyway, I purchased the all-in-one BB cream in the shade 02 Natural for €3.99, and whilst I have yet to try it, the swatch felt silky smooth to the touch (which I loved) and seemed to be the correct shade (I dearly hope it is!) from what I saw. This is the purchase I am probably the most excited about right now, only because I have yet to try it more than anything, but also because, eep, essence! I have wanted to try this brand for so long!!!

The second item I have yet to try is the Catrice Cosmetics Allround Concealer palette, of which I purchased at around €4, and this was actually my very first make-up purchase here in Holland. I had originally wanted to purchase the etos concealer palette, however the store I was in only had ones that had been messed around with, because there were no seals on them! Arrrgh! Worst nightmare, there. In fact, the Catrice concealer palette doesn't have a seal on it either, nor the essence cosmetics, though thankfully I know what I've bought hasn't been touched (pure, pure make-up, thank goodness) so of course, I decided to ignore etos and go over to the cleaner side of Catrice. No offence, etos.

Anyway, I have been looking for a concealer palette like this for a while, though I don't know what to expect from it; typically me and concealer do not go well together, but I want to give this one a try, mostly for the green and pink concealers. I have stupidly dark circles, and I also have some redness around my chin area that I want to *attempt* to get rid of... so yeah, another justified purchase!!!

The final three products I have bought are ones that I have actually tried, so I actually know what to talk about with them! Two of them are lip products, though one can be counted as a cheek product, and the other a pretty sweet eyeshadow trio, and all were rather beautiful bargain buys, so whilst they aren't exactly justified purchases, they were cheap, therefore they were worth it!

The first that I bought was the Pure Lip & Cheek tint in Dark Pink, which I bought on sale from the store Douglas for only, hold your breath, €1! This product was actually sealed, which delighted me quite a lot, however the colour was not my first choice; I originally hoped to get the light pink colour, but it had been unwrapped and messed around with, so I decided on this colour instead; it was Dark pink, or apricot, and the colour of the apricot version was not going to work on me any time soon, I tell you, so I purchased Dark Pink and damn, I love it! I don't think I could have picked a prettier colour, because it is really lovely!

The colour has a purple undertone in my opinion, and it is very pigmented. It glides on super smoothly and you can build the colour up to create a more intense lip pigment if you so desire. It isn't sticky either, which of course deserves bonus points, though you do need to watch out for how much you use; less is more with this one sometimes, especially if you decide to use it for your cheeks! I highly recommend this as a lip pigment more than anything, only because when I applied it to my cheeks I looked like someone had slapped me multiple times. So, there is that!

Still, one of my favourite products from the cosmetics I have purchased so far! I'm rather chuffed with it!

The other two cosmetics are both from different brands I believe, however I purchased them from the same store, which was actually a discount store so of course, I got them for a pretty cheap price. The Perfect Lipstick in #13 by Fogan Cosmetics was around €1.58 I believe, whilst the Fashion TRENDY eye shadow trio in No 162 was €1.95, and I believe that both are of good quality. The lipstick is a pretty pink colour which does come out sheer, but it is build-able and feels good on the lips. It isn't drying or goopy, though it does have a disgusting smell of bubblegum, and reminds me of those horrible squeezy tubed lipglosses MUA replaced their original line of glosses with. Still, at least the lipstick itself is of nice quality, otherwise I would have been disappointed, but I rather like it; I especially like applying the Pure Lip & Cheek gloss over it, for some reason!

The eye shadow trio is also wonderful, especially the pink colour, which is the entire reason I actually purchased the shadow in the first place; I rarely find a pink that colour, let alone for such a good price, so I decided to get it with the hopes that it would be amazing. I actually like the entire trio of shadows, but the pink is my favourite because it is so pigmented and fun! It makes for a fabulous crease colour, and the orange colour is lovely as a basic lid colour. I used the bronzey-brown in the outer corner of my eye, though you could use it for the crease, but for the quick look I did, I think the three colours work well together and can create a festive look that is different but fun to do, and won't make you look like you've been crying your eyes out for hours! (Oh, pink eyeshadow, why must you make us look like we have suffered?)

So there we go! Those are all of the products I have purchased in Holland so far for myself, though hopefully I will find something from both Hema and etos that I like/want. Luckily I have my eye on the lipsticks from etos, though Hema I have yet to find something to purchase from them (perhaps a lip crayon? One can never have too many of those!), but only time will tell!

Until next time, keep smiling and keep smoochin'! Mwah!

Kel~ xx

Haul or Nuthin': MUA 3-in-1 Contour Pens + Single Eye Shadow

I am not very good at keeping up with these blog posts, am I Lovelies?

So I actually decided to venture outside today and check my local Superdrug for MUA goodies, with the original intention to hopefully buy something from the Undress Me range that has recently come out. Sadly that did not happen, however I did pick up three things that I have either wanted for a while, or wanted to try out recently.

The three things that I did happen to pick up are from the older and original lines that MUA have produced, and they are the 3-in-1 Contour pens in Smoked Plum and Sage, and a single eyeshadow in Shade 8. Now I actually went into Superdrug with the intention of purchasing the 3-in-1 Contour Pen in Smoked Plum, but I was also planning on buying a foundation and a new eye primer from the newer ranges from MUA, however because some of the products do not have seals on them (an issue that is frequent with the cosmetics brand Collection) I had to pass; I do not want to buy something that could have been played around with, and considering the little amount of stock that was left of the Undress Me range, I did not want to risk the few product that may or may not have been tampered with.

I am a bit of a freak, yes, but that is how I am.

I was also planning on picking up a new eye primer; sadly my Superdrug does not seem to stock it (or MUA are planning to pull the primer's plug, who knows?) and the one that was available was from the new line, however there was no seal. Not gonna risk it for a biscuit, thanks.

But yes, I decided to purchase two of the 3-in-1 Contour pens. I picked up Smoked Plum because it is purple, and purple does quite well with me, but the surprise when I bought these two was that I actually liked the colour Sage enough to buy it. I love the colour green, in fact it is one of my favourite colours, however it is also my eye colour; Green does not suit me either, however this is a kind of grayish green colour, and I really wanted to try it out.

In terms of colour payoff, I am pretty happy with what I have got; for £1.50 I can not complain, but both colours are very pretty once you swatch them. I plan to use these both as eyeliners or bases for my eyeshadows because they are not as dark as I thought or hoped they would be, but really, I am not complaining!

My dreaded eye

I decided to try out Sage to see how it would fare on my eyes, actually, and I was pretty impressed; it goes on smoothly, however I did need to build it up a bit for a nicer colour payoff, and it is pretty easy to use. What impressed me the most, though, was that it did not transfer onto my eyelid at all during the short amount of time I wore it, which was about 2-3 hours. I have very oily lids, so I was sure that it would transfer pretty quickly and crease or fade within 30 minutes to an hour (the normal amount of time for cream shadows or liners for me) and considering I did not wear a primer either, I was amazed that it stayed as it was. Hopefully this will last all day, but so far I am indeed impressed!

I also had a play around with both contour pens later on once I had removed my liner and used them as bases, and both seem to work well as basic cream shadows... I still need to play around with them a little more though before I can say much more, but the 3-in-1 Contour Pens are easy to use, nice as eyeliners and seem to work as a good base so far!

Finally, I bought a single eyeshadow in Shade 8. I have actually wanted to buy this shade for a while now, however never seemed to because new collections from various brands kept coming out, so I tended to overlook it, however I managed to finally pick it up and have a little play around with it when I got home, too.

Now I actually do not have a lot of the MUA solo eyeshadows; in fact I now have a total of four, but that's because I generally don't use a lot of colourful eyeshadows, that and some of the colours just do not appeal to me. However I like this colour; it's a nice teal colour, and one I have admired from afar. Why I have admired it from afar, I do not know, because MUA's single eyeshadows are only £1 - I am not exactly killing my bank here! However, there are so many pretty things, and I overlook other things that I have wanted for a while, as I have said.

Anyway, this is a really pretty colour, and also: It is highly pigmented. I kind of forget that these solo eyeshadows are nicely pigmented, to the point that I was actually surprised that colour showed up on my eyelid when I applied it with my flat brush; that's how terribly pigmented the Undress Me Too palette is to me... it makes me think that all MUA eyeshadows need to have a massive amount of build-up before I get a decent amount of colour on my lids.

Tangent done, I really like this colour - it's pretty, and extremely pigmented as I have already said. I've really been liking blue eyeshadows recently, so I hope to include this in a look soon enough! It's too pretty to not use!

And that is pretty much it! It's a small Haul, I know, but I really did not expect to come back with much anyway, just a few things such as one of the contour pens and possibly a new foundation and eye primer. Of course that did not go to plan, and I ended up with a few different things, but I am happy with my purchases; is that not what counts, lovely readers?

Until next time. Toodles!