Recent Purchases

After my last uni exam on Tuesday, I decided to do some retail therapy to try to make me feel better. I was a little disappointed, because I wrote a list of stuff I wanted to buy, but didn't manage to find a lot of the stuff I wanted. :/

H&M
Flamingo Tee - £5

Boots
Arm & Hammer Advanced Whitening Toothpaste - £2.59
Oxy On The Spot - £3.99
Lee Stafford Sea Salt Spray - £5.99

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

Dupe: Benefit Dallas

I know there's a huge craze at the moment for Benefit's Coralista blush, but I thought I'd show some love for Benefit's Dallas blush. I got it as part of "Powder Pop", the old version of "Powderazzi. It is a trio of Benefit's Dandelion, Hoola and Dallas. From Look Fantastic: "Dallas from Benefit is the outdoor glow for the indoor gal! Some say it defies even Mother Nature herself. The perfect combination of bronzer and blush is right here, offering you an enviable natural looking glow."

I haven't used Dallas as much as I could have, since I seemed to always use my Max Factor Flawless Perfection blush in Mulberry instead (Shown by the fact that I've hit pan in the Max Factor, but still have a tonne of Dallas left despite the size difference). I only noticed the similarities between the two blushes recently. I really can't believe I hadn't noticed this before! (I feel a bit dim to be honest.)

Side by side:

With flash - Left: Max Factor Mulberry, Right: Benefit Dallas

In daylight - Left: Max Factor Mulberry, Right: Benefit Dallas

Swatches:

With Flash - Left: Max Factor Mulberry, Right: Benefit Dallas

In daylight - Left: Max Factor Mulberry, Right: Benefit Dallas

Both blushes have a very subtle shimmer to them - I don't normally like shimmery face products, but I really love these because the shimmer isn't obvious. They both have fantastic colour pay off and are buildable. I think the colours are perfect for all year round. In the pictures with flash, Mulberry looks slightly darker than Dallas, but I'd still say that they are a pretty good match. What do you think?

In conclusion, it costs £23.50 for a full size 12g box of Benefit Dallas vs £6.99 for 5g of Max Factor Flawless Perfection Blush in Mulberry. If I've done my maths correctly, it costs £1.96 per gramme of Dallas and £1.40 per gramme of Mulberry - Only a 56p difference! I know which one I'd pick. ;)

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

Review: MUA Lipsticks

When I saw that Superdrug were releasing a £1 make-up range, I was a little sceptical to be honest. When I first saw the range in store, I decided to only pick up an eyeshadow in Shade 1 (Which I really like). I popped into Superdrug recently while I was waiting for the bus and decided to try out a few of the MUA lipsticks.

(Just as a note for people around the Birmingham city centre area, they stock MUA in the Superdrug on Corporation Street and I noticed that they stock it in the Bullring store now too. For a list of stores which stock MUA, take a look here.)

In daylight - Left: Shade 11, Right: Shade 7

What they say: (From Superdrug.com) Make a statement with our show stopping shades.

Price: £1 each

Swatches:

With flash - Left: Shade 11, Right: Shade 7

In daylight - Left: Shade 11, Right: Shade 7

What I think: The packaging feels sturdy and kind of reminds me of NYX round lipsticks. I'm impressed that you get 3.8g of product, while with brands, such as MAC, you only get 3g.

The first things I noticed when I opened the lipstick was the smell, which is kind of sweet and artifical, but not in a bad way (I'm not very good at describing smells...), and that the lipstick had little pits/air bubbles in, which I've never seen before in a lipstick.

The colours of the lipsticks are gorgeous. Shade 7 is a pretty coral colour, with very subtle shimmer, while shade 11 is a bit like a warm-nude-my-lips-but-better colour, since it practically matches my natural lip colour. Both lipsticks are highly pigmented and extremely wearable. The wear is good - It stayed on for ages, even after eating and drinking. The finish has a slight sheen, which I think is really pretty. The formula is nice and creamy, so they apply easily.

I would definitely repurchase these, especially shade 11 because I'm really loving this colour. I honestly have no complaints with these lipsticks. :) Next time I'm in Superdrug, I'm going to take a look at the other colours and maybe pick up some more.

Have any of you tried any of the MUA lipsticks? Do you have any recommendations for other shades to try?

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

Just An Update

This is just a little update about a couple of things.

You may or may not have noticed that I finally put a header up! I was stressed due to exams and needed something to distract me during the England vs. Germany game on Saturday, so I decided to spend some time on Photoshop. I don't know if you can tell but the pictures are of Audrey Hepburn. I can't remember where I found the image now... What do you think? I really like it :)

I've realised a lot of my posts are very 'same-y' (Is that even a word?!), and I'm just going to put my lack of imagination down to my brain being overused for revision/exams, lol. Hopefully now that my uni exams are pretty much over (Only 1 left!), I will be posting about more of a variety of things.

I've decided not to do "Saturday Quotes" every week. I'll just post them every now and again when I find good quotes. I will still be continuing to post pictures for "Picture Tuesday", but I will be making it a fortnightly thing instead of weekly. I'm just making this change, because I feel like the majority of my posts are ending up just being pictures and/or quotes.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a quick thank you to my current followers. It's nice to know that people are reading my blog and (hopefully) enjoying my posts. :)

Just so that this entry isn't text only, I decided to include this photo that I took out of my uni halls window recently. I love summer. :)


I hope you're all well! xoxo, Joy