Review: Morphe Jaclyn Hill Palette (Bling Boss)

                This beauty is the first Morphe Palette I've ever bought and now 
                reviewed. I've heard mixed reviews on their brand as a whole, but I 
                wanted to try this palette out and come to my own conclusion. The first 
                thing I noticed when I opened the box is some bubble wrap protecting 
                the eyeshadow palette inside. This is the only palette I've bought that 
                had this protective feature which I really appreciate.
      

            The packaging in clean and simple. Making it even more affordable
            and appealing to newbies trying out Morphe products. Despite it's
            super affordable price it has a decent sized mirror, and the matte
            silver packaging makes the ten shades inside pop even more.
      

            There are four matte shades, four shimmer shades and two foiled 
            shades. As for blending, the shimmer and foiled shades blend beautifully. 
            Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for some of the matte shades like 
            'Rockstar'. As you can see from my swatches, it went on chunky and 
            took 8 swatches to get to the point you see in the photo! It's such a 
            pretty shade but the formula seems so different from the others. 
            However, I'd say my favorite shades are 'Gem', 'Ballsy' and 
            'Berry Treasure'.

Amazing pigment; Gem blended out very well

You can see where 'Rockstar' was not blending out

            Would I recommend this eyeshadow palette?

            I would for those on a budget who want some glam in their life, 
            and with patience when it comes to carefully blending out a couple 
            difficult shades.

Review of Sleek Makeup Solstice Highlight Palette

      When I first heard about the this highlighting palette I knew I needed to try it 

       out for myself. The reviews I came across seemed almost too good for such an 

       affordable palette ($15-40 AUD depending on the seller). They are pretty hard to
       find in Australia so I ordered it from the UK and waited a little over 2 weeks to
       receive it. 

      The packaging is very nice, and almost reminds me of some Tarte Palettes I've

      come across. The amount of product you get in this palette seems very generous.

      I don't think I'll be using the type of brush provided as I have some decent highlight
      brushes to apply it with, but it is nice to have a brush provided either way. 

With Flash 

Without Flash

      As you can see from the swatches above and swipes with my finger 

      below it is fairly pigmented. Each shade is stunning and unique in its
      own way. I knew that this little palette had good reviews, but it is incredible
      value for the price. I've seen Too Faced highlighters with less pigmentation
      than this amazing little palette. For 1,2 & 4 I swiped three times to get the
      swatch above. For 3 It is thicker and more of a cream texture so it took
      between 1-2 swipes to the swatch above. 

      Any doubts about this product have certainly been put to rest as far as
      I am concerned. I am still blown away by how amazing these four shades
      look after being thoroughly swatched. I can't argue with the overall quality  
      in this product in any way. I'd love to hear from anyone who has used this
      palette and what your experience with it has been like.

Colourpop Matte Lip Gloss Tried and Tested

I didn't know exactly what to expect when I bought Colourpop lip products
having never used them in the past. There are so many beauty gurus who
have used their products, and I wanted to test them out thoroughly myself. 
I picked two colours that I wanted to add to my collection.


Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip In Lumiere 2

This was the first colour I picked to try from Colourpop's Ultra Matte
Lip range. One of the reasons I chose it was because it is also
recommended as a dupe for Kylie Cosmetics Dolce K liquid lipstick.

This colour took a few minutes to fully dry and become matte without

transferring or smudging. The image above is a bit lighter than the
actual shade as you can see from my photos below. 

Wearing Lumiere 2

Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip In Teeny Tiny

A helpful tip on spotting fake Colourpop lip gloss would be the lack of

bright lime green on the inside of the packing (not pictured). There are

so many fakes online I encourage you to do your research like I did to

be able to weed out which ones are not the real thing. 

Wearing Teeny Tiny 

The second colour I wanted to try is Colourpop's Teeny Tiny. This
was a suggested dupe of Kylie Cosmetics Dolce K liquid lipstick.

This colour dried fairly quicker than Lumiere 2, not sure exactly why

that would be. This colour is so bold and deep. I was worried it would
be too dark for me when it arrived but after drying I was happy to pair
it with cool-toned earthy colours.  

Immediately after swatching

24 hours after swatching

I wanted to put this swatch through a 24 hour wear test on my hand

to see how much it faded. As you can see above, even after washing
my hands several times and sleeping with it on it it's staying power is
impressive. The only problem I ran into is when you eat oily foods  it
will remove the lip gloss fairly easily. All in all these have become my
favourite long-lasting lip glosses. 

Making My Own Pressed Glitter Palette

I'm sure many of you are familiar with pressed glitter palettes 
and single pans. If you're in the beauty community and you love 
DIY projects this is a must for you! I have read several different
methods of making your own Pressed Glitters

To be clear this is the how I made my pressed glitters, and I don't 
consider this a tutorial. I am simply documenting my first experience
making them. 

I had ordered a mixing tray and batch of isopropyl alcohol for this DIY,
and it was lost in the mail during my move/change of address. 

Therefore, I had to improvise on a couple things.

As you can see I'm using cupcake wrappers instead of a mixing tray
to mix the glitter together to make the specific colour that I want. I
have my palette, empty pans, mixing bowl, syringe (no needle
necessary), Coconut Oil, Aloe Vera Gel, Assorted glitter, tooth picks
and a Citrus note based Perfume (80% Alcohol). 

I mixed the Coconut Oil, Aloe Vera Gel and 80% Alcohol together by
using the syringe to suck it up and plunge it repeatedly until the solution
is a cloudy colour.

These are the three colours I used to make 'Unicorn Horn'

Colour combination: Matte white, Shimmery white and baby

pink iridescent sparkle. I ended up adding a larger amount 

than pictured, but it was easy to mix together with enough
of the solution (I filled the pan with solution before hand). 

I filled the syringe pretty much around the '1' mark but I added a
few drops while mixing if the glitter seemed a bit clumpy/dry. I put the pans in the palette, and the palette went into the refrigerator
for 24 hours. 

Here are the results

Here are all the finished pans inside the palette. After fully drying they are even more
vibrant than in the single pan photos above. Swatches on the right were done after the
24 hour drying period.

I was very pleased with the results. It is much easier than I originally thought
it would be. The biggest issue you might have is the glittery mess that is left
over. If you intend to try this, I would highly recommend that you wait the

24 hours for your pressed glitters to fully dry. Some of mine dried quicker
and some were still moist. Either way, I am glad to have to have successfully
my own palette.