Hello beautiful WordPress land, it is time for me to spread my wings and leave! I now have a new home at – http://www.notablebeauty.com
This blog will always exist so you can always refer back to it, there will just be no new content coming through. Unfortunately due to difference versions of WordPress, all my old content wont transfer across to my new space, so I’m basically starting fresh there!
I hope to see you soon at Notable Beauty, you can follow me via BlogLovin’ there!
❤ MJG
I have an obsession with liquid lipsticks, that’s no lie, and I’m always on the hunt to try more. Jeffree Star is new to the market, coming to center stage once the drama of Lime Crime surfaced. Sure he’s been around since the Myspace days but it’s only recently that he’s started making his own line of makeup. I say line of makeup as I’ve heard he’s bringing out eyeshadows this year too! Currently in his collection he’s released 10 colours in his liquid lipstick line with many more to come. I’ve always wanted to try them out and finally a colour with my name all over it was released..
Anna Nicole is the perfect orange red. I adore orange-reds as I think they really suit my skin tone and offset my blue eyes nicely. They are easy to wear at any time of the year and are a nice change to wearing a “standard” red. I purchased mine from an authorised Australian stockist Makeupnet. They are a store in Melbourne that also sells online, they seem to be the fastest in receiving stock when it launches and their customer service is amazing. I highly recommend them!
Now onto what I think about the lipstick. Gosh, where do I start! I know liquid lipsticks are drying, you can’t have something that dries matte and doesn’t dry out your lips. However I honestly felt like I have nothing on my lips at all! I didn’t feel like all the moisture was drawn out or that my lips were cracking, which does happen with some brands. It did wear away from the inside of my mouth after eating and drinking throughout the day, yet I didn’t feel like I needed to touch up at all. My only gripe is that on me the product does transfer. It’s not kiss-proof 😦 This doesn’t bother me too much, my husband usually stays away from kissing my lips when I’m wearing lipstick regardless of it’s staying power.
I think I’ve found a new favourite liquid lipstick and look forward to collecting more colours in the future!
❤ MJG
I love Z-Palettes for their functionality and they’re also great space savers. I don’t have a vanity/beauty desk in my rental, so I’m either doing my makeup in the bathroom or sitting at my computer desk in the study. It’s great to just pick up one item and have multiple choices rather than juggling items in my hands carrying them from one room to another. It’s also perfect for travelling!!
So enter the Z-Palette, for those that don’t know it’s basically an empty magnetised palette that you fill yourself. Whether you depot items yourself or buy them just in their metal tins, you pop a magnetic on the back and it stays where you place it. I already own a large Z-Palette that I have shadows in but I’ve always wanted one for my blushes as well. Well during the last free shipping sale at Lipstick Republic I thought I’d finally buy the XL size and write a post about depotting!
To me depotting is pretty simple, but I did watch a few YouTube tutorials before I attempted it myself. All you need is some form of heating element (I recommend a hair straightener), some prying tools (a knife with a pointed end or a safety pin) and wax paper. The thing I will point out first is make sure you heat the item less than you think it’ll need. It’s best to under heat it, then put it onto the heat source for a few seconds at a time until it’s just warm enough to melt the glue. If you heat it too much you run the risk of the plastic melting, you burning yourself or damaging the makeup item you’re trying to depot.
All makeup items are packaged differently, so it’s best to do some research to find out the best way to remove the outer packaging first. I have a MAC blush here and they’re pretty easy to find the small gap around the edge to stick the knife in to, then it’s just a matter of gently popping it out. You can see it’s still then inside some plastic but the outer is completely removed.
I heat up the straightener then place the wax paper onto it along with the half depotted item. Depending on how much time it needs, I remove it once I think it’s warm enough and the glue is sufficiently melted underneath the metal pan. Then you stick the knife directly in the middle of the plastic underneath and push up. If the glue is heated enough then the pan will remove easily from the plastic. Using the knife gently pry the pan completely from the plastic and quickly attach the magnet as the melted glue will help the magnet to adhere to the bottom. You can also gently heat the outer plastic to remove the sticker to pop on the bottom as well if you want to keep a record of what it is somewhere.
Then just pop it into your palette! Super simple and something crafty I love doing 🙂
❤ MJG
A few friends and I decided to place a combined ColourPop order as it was cheaper for postage. Unfortunately with the dollar being so bad lately, it’s almost impossible to order anything from the USA unless you get someone to help share shipping costs. We were able to split it 5 ways, so postage wasn’t too bad!
So, what did I get?!
Shadows – La La, Bill and Partridge.
Lippie Stix – Westie, Fighter & Pencil and LBB.
Cheeks & Highlighters – Butterfly Beach and Birthday Suit.
(I’m still getting used to the blush & highlighter. With them being a cream/powder hybrid like the eyeshadows I’m trying to work out the best way for application). I’ve done a review on ColourPop before but I cannot stress enough the quality of their products. I’ve never seen anything like it! I’d love to order the entire website in one go, but as I said due to a bad dollar exchange and postage costs, that will never happen. I will continue to expand my collection bit by bit, they are by far becoming one of my favourite cosmetic companies ever! 🙂
❤ MJG
I love winter, the cooler weather works better for my European blood. Plus there’s coats and scarves galore! In my opinion fashion and trends really shine in winter, mainly because I love wearing that season of clothing/trends. The one thing that never seems to shift are winter hues in lipstick, they’re always deep and dark, mainly consisting of reds and plums.
I’ve taken some photos of my favourite winter hue lipsticks in my current collection for you.
I prefer to wear minimal makeup with darker lipsticks, unless it’s a big event. I find heavy makeup either takes the attention away from the lipstick or I look too over-done.
I can see my winter hue lipstick collection growing this year, what do you recommend?
❤ MJG
And no it’s not just another setting spray, it does more than that! Sure it may just look like water in a fancy bottle and cost a lot of money, but trust me when I say it’s worth it.
MAC Prep + Prime Fix+ is a multi-tasker. You can spray it on your face before foundation to hydrate your skin and prep it for primer or you can go straight to foundation. You can also spray it onto your foundation brush or sponge to help thin out your foundation when applying it to your face. It’s sold mainly as a setting spray, to help remove the ‘just powdered’ look to your face. Most importantly, or what I use it for the most is intensifying eyeshadows and bringing out their true colours.
Above is a MAC eyeshadow called Amber Lights, they describe it as a “Golden peachy-brown with golden shimmer”. I purchased it on a whim years ago without swatching it first, which in my mind was a mistake as when it arrived I found it lacked pigment. However, you can see to the right of the picture once you spray Fix+ onto your brush it really brings out the true colour of the eyeshadow.
I own quite a few shadows that aren’t super pigmented, sometimes I love that and sometimes I want it to go WHAM in my face with pigment. Here’s where Fix+ saves the day 🙂
❤ MJG
What do I say about the beautiful creation that is the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Bronzer in Light. Let’s start with a quote directly from the Hourglass website – “Ambient Lighting Bronzer fuses the illuminating effects of Photoluminescent Technology with bronze pigments to deliver a natural, sun-kissed glow while exhibiting depth and dimension. The sheer, airy formula sweeps on softly for a healthy-looking, radiant finish to the skin.”
I have never read a truer quote in all my life, this product is everything it speaks about and more. The first time I wore this, I had everyone including people in the street tell me how nice my skin looked. How healthy, youthful and fresh it appeared. I honestly felt like I looked like I had spent a week in the Bahamas getting massages all day long. Healthy, glowing and youthful, yes please. The above photo has two swatches, the left is it blended into my skin and the right being a dark swatch of the product itself.
I have to say, most of the swatches on the internet are horrible. They seem orangey and glittery, and some say you can’t tell a difference between the shades. Between you and me, the shades were incredibly different when I swatched them! The Luminous Bronze Light is a beautiful pale sunny glow whereas the Radiant Bronze Light was a deeper sunset glow. It really depends on the strength of bronzer you like, I prefer a subtle glow hence why I went for the Luminous Bronze Light.
I am loving this so much right now I’ve made it a permanent feature in my everyday routine. I just can’t get enough 🙂
Have you tried this yet?
❤ MJG
New series starting on MJGBeauty today! I’m going to do mini reviews on products that have had large hype and disappointed me/not lived up to their hype in my eyes.
First up are the LA Girl Glide Gel Eyeliners. Straight up, on your actual eye these have no pigmentation and do not last. Swatched on the back of my hand, they look amazing. I purchased them after the recommendation from Kathleen Lights, unfortunately to me they aren’t that great.
The colours I chose are very pretty and I really wish they worked out for me. I’m going to hold onto them for now, I could use them for fancy dress or playing around.
Have you tried these? What were your opinion of them?
❤ MJG
Here is part 2 of my 2 part series about my favourite drugstore makeup items. I reaaaalllly hate how different products/colours are released in different countries either at different times or not at all. We’ve all heard me harp on about this in numerous posts before, so I’ll cut it short there. In this list are items you CAN find in Australia, but I’m in love with colours you can only find in the USA. So, let’s get on to it!
What are some of your favourite USA drugstore items?
❤ MJG
This is one of the most talked about, hyped up primers on the market, the Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer. Every blog I read, their mum and cat loves this primer. So what makes it so great that your uncle is boasting about it?
It’s a super lightweight primer that turns your skin into a smooth and silky canvas. It conceals redness, minimises pores, fine lines and wrinkles. The two reasons why I was drawn to it is it’s SPF 15 content and it states it repels water. I specifically was looking for a daytime primer that contained SPF for the days where I knew I’d forget to add sunscreen in to my routine (pretty much everyday), also the appeal of it repelling water made me feel like it was going to help my makeup stay on my face longer.
It’s suuuuper expensive, like golly gosh expensive. I purchased the 10ml small pump bottle from Mecca Maxima to just try out. It was $25!!! That is the most I’ve ever spent on a primer before, if we’re talking cost to volume price. So does it live up to it’s hype in my mind?
Right now with my current skin, it does nothing for me. It doesn’t conceal my redness, minimise my pores etc. The SPF content has proved to work, no sunburn for me! I cant comment on it making my makeup last longer, as currently my skin was changed from oily/combo to dry/normal/dragon flakes (update on my acne story soon!). I think if I were to go back to my oily skin, it would be perfect. I feel like it does dry out my skin a bit once applied, so I’d say it gives you a demi matte canvas.
Will I be purchasing this full-sized? Unfortunately not, but I’m glad I did give it a try! Have you tried this? Love it or not?
❤ MJG
MJG Beauty 