Makeup Geek Eye Shadows And The Z Palette - My Thoughts

Hello Lovelies

In late 2015 a new brand seemed to be popping up in blogposts a lot, everyone was talking about them and their single pan eyeshadows, that brand was Makeup Geek. Beauty Bay had started to stock Makeup Geek products and Makeup Geek took the blogging world by storm and every blogger and their wife was ordering eyeshadows like no tomorrow. Previously Makeup Geek hadn't been available to buy here in the UK meaning ordering direct from their site which unfortunately meant customs charges, so it was inevitable that when Beauty Bay started to stock Makeup Geek on their site, bloggers far and wide would be ordering them, however, I decided to wait. 

Having been stung by blogger hype many times before, I don't always buy into blogger hype these days and I like to wait until the hype dies down a little, I like to see if people are re purchasing the product or purchasing different shades etc etc. Makeup Geek (MUG) shadows have continued to feature on blogs since their UK launch in late 2015 and are still a hyped product in the blogging world, and after my eldest daughter had built up quite a collection of MUG shadows herself, and I had read lots of blog posts,  I finally did it, I finally gave in to the blogger hype.

When  I was asked what I would like for Christmas 2016, I said I would like to try a couple of the shadows. My daughters clearly don't understand the meaning of "a couple" and now I have nine single pan MUG eyeshadows and a Z Palette to keep them in, which my daughters kindly bought me for Christmas. 

Today I am going to share my thoughts on both the shadows and the Z Palette and let you know if I think they live up to the hype surrounding them. 

My Z Palette

I have the small Z palette in black, it is also available in leopard print and hot pink but I have black, it is made from cardboard and has a magnetic closure and a clear lid with a black outer rim and Z palette written on the right hand bottom corner in gold. 

The Z palette comes with a small bag of magnets and an instructions card explaining how best to take care of the palette. My daughter Alicia assembled my palette and put the Makeup Geek shadows in it, she didn't need to use the magnets as the base of the palette is magnetised so the shadows stay in place. My palette fits 9 single round eyeshadow pans in nicely, so the Makeup Geek shadows fit nicely as would MAC eyeshadow refills or any other round eyshadow refill. 

I like the Z palette, it is handy and the shadows are easy to take in and out, it is securely sealed once closed and hasn't come open in my makeup bag so far, it's a handy little palette and ideal for storing my Makeup Geek eyeshadows. If you want to store a different amount of shadows, the Z palette also comes in other sizes, the mini fits 3 shadows in, the small fits 9 shadows, the medium 15, large fits 27 and the extra large fits 35 shadows, so there are other options depending on the size of your collection, there is also a double sided palette and a mirrored palette, plus many different colours and designs to choose from. You can find the Z palettes on the Beauty Bay website here. 

My Makeup Geek Eyeshadows

I have 9 Makeup Geek eyeshadows, some have a matte finish and some shimmer, all are neutral shades which are perfect for me. My girls chose the shades I have but we had looked at online swatches together and spoke about the shades I liked/disliked but they chose the shades for me and they chose really well, I love neutral shades and I wear a lot of neutral eye makeup looks and am not very adventurous when it comes to colour, I am definitely a neutrals kinda gal.

Makeup Geek single eyeshadow pans are priced at £6.00 (1.8g) and are not tested on animals. 

Top Row

Shimma Shimma - When looking at online swatches and reviews of the MUG shadows, Shimma Shimma had a lot of hype surrounding it and it was often named as a "must have" shade. It is described at a Metallic Champagne shade which is an accurate description, I have to say though I am a little underwhelmed by this shade as I feel it is so over hyped when really it isn't anything special and is very similar to other pale champagne shades I already have in my collection so it is definitely not a "must have" shade in my opinion. 

Bandwagon - Bandwagon has a matte finish and is described as a Dusty Taupe, I like to use Bandwagon as a transition shade, it has a cool undertone and is a lovely shade, I also like to use it in the crease and under my lower lash line, it isn't as pigmented as some of the other shades I own and has quite a lot of fallout, but it is a lovely shade all the same. 

Barcelona Beach - Another matte finish shadow, Barcelona Beach is described as a Cool Toned Soft Brown and is perfect for using as a transition shade and as with Bandwagon, I like to wear it in the crease and under the lower lash line. I get quite a lot of fallout with this shade too, it's a lovely shade and one of my favourite matte shades. 

Swatches

Middle Row

Bake Sale - Described as a Nougat Brown with a matte finish, Bake Sale is one of my favourite shades, it has a warm undertone and is very pigmented, it looks stunning in the crease with a pale shimmery shade on the lid and a darker shade just slightly blended into the outer corner, I then like to pop some of the darker shade and Bake Sale under my lower lash line and blend it out to marry all the shades together and I find it works really well and looks lovely. 

Latte - Latte is another matte shade and is described as a Medium Brown, Latte is a lovely shade but I find it quite powdery and chalky meaning it also has a lot of fallout, it isn't as easy to blend as the other matte shadows I have either and although it is a really pretty shade I don't find myself reaching for it as often as the other matte shadows because of the fallout and the fact it doesn't blend out as well. Latte is very similar to Bake Sale which is a much nicer shade, a lot more pigmented, easier to blend with not as much fallout, so if you like Latte I would say to go for Bake Sale instead, you won't regret it. 

Mocha - Mocha is described as a Deep Matte Brown and is just that, I like to use Mocha to deepen my crease, in the outer corner and under my lower lash line but it does create a lot of fallout. It is a lovely shade and I do like it but it is very powdery, hence the immense fallout. 

Swatches

Bottom Row

Homecoming - Homecoming is stunning, it is described at a Medium Brown With Gold Shimmer and is a really pretty shade, I love to wear it all over the lid and blended out and under my lower lash line as a single shade look, or sometimes I add a deeper brown matte shade to the crease and outer corner to add some depth.

Moondust - Moondust is described as a Metallic Silver Taupe but I have to disagree, I don't see this as taupe at all, to me it is a silvery shade with a green undertone and maybe even some gold shimmer in there too? But definitely not taupe, that said it is a lovely shade and looks really nice on the eyes, it's another shade I like to use as a one shade look. 

Taupe Notch - Taupe Notch is another shimmer shade and is described rather boringly as Taupe, I would say it is taupe with medium brown tones and is a lovely shimmery shade that again I love to wear all over the lid, this is another great shade for a one shade look and also looks stunning with a deeper matte brown in the crease and outer corner. 

Swatches

I am glad I have finally tried Makeup Geek shadows, they are lovely shadows and brilliant for the price, 1.8g of product for £6.00 (foiled £9.25) is a great price and there are so many shades to choose from it is a very hard choice to make. I found browsing the shades on the Makeup Geek website the best thing to do as they have a description of the shade and also a photograph of a swatch too so it saves having to keep googling swatches. 

Overall I really like all the shades in my palette, I can't say which shades are "must haves" because it depends on your taste in finishes and shades but all 9 shades I have are lovely, my only negative would be that there is a lot of fallout with some of the shades, more so than with other shadows I own. I always wear an eye primer with any eyeshadow I wear because I have the oiliest eyelids in the UK so I can't comment on creasing but the shades I have all wear really well and do not fade at all regardless of wear time. 

I think the shadows are great for their price and I will definitely try more shades in the future, I would like to try their duo chrome and foiled shadows too. I'm not sure I quite agree with the hype surrounding Makeup Geek though, they are nice shadows and good for the price but I can't say they blew me away like I'd hoped they would which is a real shame, I won't let it put me off trying other shades in the future though. 

If you would like to try the Makeup Geek shadows you can find them on the Beauty Bay website here and the Z palettes here. 

Have you tried Makeup Geek eyeshadows? Which shades are your favourites? Are there any shades you would recommend I avoid? Chat with me in the comments and let me know. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always 

Zoe x

MAC Mariah Carey Collection Blush And Lipstick - Worth The Hype?

Hello Lovelies 

I have been buying MAC makeup for 20 years now, maybe a little longer and I still look forward to their new collections, I am not always blown away by them all but one of the collections I could not wait to launch last year was the MAC Mariah Carey collection which launched online 8th December 2016 and in stores 15th December 2016 here in the UK and what a beautiful collection it was. 

The collection included 2 eyeshadow quads, 4 lipsticks, 2 pro longwear lip pencils, 2 blushers, 4 lip glasses, a liquid eyeliner, 2 sets of false lashes, an extra dimension skin finish, loose body powder, a 183 body brush and a 239 eyeshadow brush so it was quite a large collection. The packaging was absolute perfection and I think is what drew people in to wanting it, it was silver sparkly and champagne gold and who doesn't love a bit of sparkle? 

Although I adored the collection and most of the products, the only products that really drew me in were the lipsticks and the blushers, I love blush and I love lipstick so it was a no brainer that they would be the products I liked the most. My daughters had told me not to buy any of the collection as they wanted to buy me something from the collection for Christmas so I did as I was told and didn't pick anything up which was hard when I kept seeing photographs of everyones purchases on Instagram.

However when Christmas day arrived, I was absolutely thrilled to find my girls had bought me one of the lipsticks and one of the blushers. I have been using both for the last few weeks and thought I would share my thoughts on what has to be one of the most hyped MAC collections of all time and let you know if I think it is worth the hype that surrounded it.

MAC Mariah Carey Sweet Sweet Fantasy Blush

The packaging of the blush is absolutely stunning, even the box is nice! The box is champagne gold and silver sparkly with the Mariah signature and MAC Mariah Carey inscribed on it. The actual blush packaging is pretty but I would have preferred it to be silver sparkly instead of champagne gold, it is still beautiful though. The blush has champagne gold packaging with a clear lid with the same Mariah signature and MAC Mariah written on it in gold. 

The Sweet Sweet Fantasy blush is a gorgeous bright pinky coral shade with a semi matte finish, it has a very subtle sheen which looks absolutely beautiful on the skin. The blush applies effortlessly without fallout and isn't powdery at all, it wears extremely well,  I have worn it for over 8 hours and not experienced any fading at all.

The blush is very pigmented so I use a light hand when applying it, it looks lovely on the skin and doesn't accentuate any pores, I love the semi matte finish, I have chosen to wear matte blush for a long time over other finishes as I felt I preferred them, but this semi matte finish is absolutely stunning and has just the right amount of sheen for me and has definitely changed my mind on wearing a matte blush over other finishes.

MAC Mariah Lipstick in Dahhlinggg!

The packaging of the lipstick in Dahhlinggg! has to be the nicest lipstick packaging in my whole collection, it is stunning, the box is again champagne gold with silver sparkle and the same signature and writing as the blush, but the actual lipstick packaging is pure silver sparkle with a champagne gold insert and the mariah signature on it, the lipstick bullet has a butterfly embossed on it and is extremely pretty. 

Dahhlinggg! is a cremesheen finish meaning it is moisturising with a slightly glossy finish, MAC cremesheen isn't my favourite finish but it is nice and moisturising and lasts well on me. Dahhlinggg is a peachy pink shade with warm undertones and is very pale, it has a semi-opaque finish and is buildable, I wore the lipstick for 4 hours before having to re apply. 

Dahhlinggg! is very pale and is a tad too pale for my complexion so I have been wearing it with a nude/pink lip liner underneath, my 2 favourite lip liners to wear with it are MAC Soar and Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk, they both compliment the lipstick really well and look lovely worn underneath the lipstick, all over the lip. Dahhlinggg! feels lovely on the lips and is nice and moisturising, it doesn't bleed or feather at all and wears away nicely too. 

Overall Thoughts & Is the collection worth the hype?

I absolutely adore the packaging of both the blush and the lipstick, I would as I said have preferred it if the blush had had the same sparkly packaging as the lipstick, but the champagne gold is still very pretty, I have kept the products in their boxes too and they look so pretty in my collection.

Sweet Sweet Fantasy blush is absolutely stunning and the shade is right up my street, I love bright coral/pink shades and this is perfect and I adore the semi matte finish, it is beautiful and a shade I can wear all year round, that looks lovely with many different eye and lip combinations. 

Dahhlinggg! although a little too pale for me when worn alone, may look better when I am tanned in the summer, but it does look beautiful when worn over a deeper nude/pink liner as I have been choosing to wear it, it feels lovely on the lips and doesn't bleed or feather at all and feels moisturising and very comfortable to wear. 

I really love both the blush and the lipstick and know I will get a lot of wear out of them, I definitely think both products are worth the hype, the packaging is absolutely stunning and both are beautiful products that can be worn all year round and look lovely with many different makeup looks. 

Sometimes with limited edition products, especially ones with stunning packaging, the products aren't always wearable or very good for that matter but these are both extremely wearable and excellent products, my favourite of the two is most definitely the blush but I love both products and am extremely happy to have them in my collection. 

Sometimes MAC re launch products into other collections or they add them into their permanent line and if that is the case with Sweet Sweet Fantasy and Dahhlinggg! I would highly recommend picking them up and if you do happen to see them in the stunning Mariah packaging, snap them up! 

Debenhams do have a couple of products still available from the MAC Mariah Carey collection, if you would like to check them out, you can do so via this link. 

Did you pick anything up from the MAC Mariah Carey collection? Do you think it's worth the hype? Chat with me in the comments and let me know. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always

Zoe x

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Milani Rose Powder Blush In 08 Tea Rose

Hello Lovelies

You may already know this, but I am a bit of a blush fiend, I love blush which is funny because only a few years ago I wouldn't ever wear it, I have a very pink undertone to my skin and I always thought that wearing blush would make me look even more pink, giving me that just slapped look, so I shied away from it until only a few years ago when I realised that wearing foundation and concealer actually gave me a nice blank canvas and although I do have a pink tone to my skin, blush actually looks nice and doesn't make me look like I've been slapped. 

For Christmas one of my lovely friends bought me the Milani Rose Powder Blush in the shade Tea Rose 08, she knows how much I love blush and this shade is right up my street, it is perfect for me. I have seen the Milani Rose Powder Blushes on blog posts and always thought they looked stunning so I was so thrilled to receive my own and it is absolutely beautiful. 

The packaging of the blush is lovely, it comes in a pretty gold compact with a clear lid with the Milani logo and "powder blush" in gold. 

On the back of the compact is the name and number of the blush and the ingredients. 

The lid of the compact is transparent so the blush is clearly visible through the lid but once you open the compact you can see how stunning the blush actually is, it is absolutely beautiful. 

The blush has a raised floral design and is very pretty indeed, it is so pretty I worried that as soon as I began using the blush the pattern would wear down but so far it hasn't and I have used it quite a few times. 

Tea Rose is a beautiful soft pink shade with cool undertones and has a matte finish, matte blushers are my favourite blush finish, I like to wear a matte blush and then highlight on the tops of my cheekbones and this blush is perfect, it is the perfect shade for me and I love that it's matte and it is also extremely pigmented so a light hand is most definitely needed when applying the blush. 

The blush applies well, I use a light hand as it is very pigmented, the blush has quite a powdery texture but isn't chalky at all it feels lovely and smooth on my skin and lasts really all day without fading. There is a massive 17g of product in the blush which is a brilliant amount, for comparison purposes a standard MAC blush contains 6g of product, so the Milani blush contains an impressive amount of product. 

The Milani Tea Rose blush is absolutely stunning and I adore it,  not only is it aesthetically pleasing but it is beautiful on the skin too and compliments many different makeup looks and lip shades, it is a blush I can wear all year round and one I know is going to get a lot of wear since I have worn it so much already. 

If you would like to purchase the Milani Tea Rose blush or one of the other available shades of the Rose Powder blushers, you can find them on the Beauty Bay website HERE priced at £9.00 (17g). 

Have you tried the Milani Rose Powder blush in the shade Tea Rose, or any of the other shades? Are there any other Milani products you would recommend for me to try? Let me know in the comments section below. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always

Zoe x 

No Worries Journal

Hello Lovelies,

I am a born worrier, one of my 2016 goals that I completely failed at was to worry less.  I worry about every single eventuality there is, I have been a worrier for as long as I can remember but in recent years having been diagnosed with depression and anxiety my worrying has gone to a whole new level and at the moment because of some awful things that myself and also my family went through in the later months of 2015 and earlier months of 2016 my anxiety is at an all time high which means my worrying is affected and is bordering on ridiculous, I know it's not right but can't seem to stop worrying and it is affecting me and I need to try and stop worrying so much. 

Unfortunately my daughters are also worriers, Cole has Aspergers Syndrome so she has very black and white thinking but she also obsesses about things, so she worries about things such as the house falling down because the roof is leaking, I can always speak to Cole and rationalise things with her and she is fine then but my youngest daughter is more like me in that she will worry about something and the worrying can take over and she won't think rationally at all about things. 

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I saw a book on the ASOS website called No Worries, the title instantly drew me in so I clicked on the image to find out more about the book. 

No Worries is a journal and is ideal for people like myself and my daughters who worry a lot, when I'd read into the book I thought it would be perfect for myself and Lissy, not so much for Cole, it isn't really something she would be interested in. I told Lissy about the book and said I was going to pick it up for us both, but unfortunately it was out of stock and stayed that way for a while. Lissy has access to a book store through her university and they had it in stock so she surprised me by buying me a copy, she also bought herself one. 

No Worries is a brilliant book and something I wanted to share on my blog because I feel it could help a lot of people like me who worry a lot. 

No Worries is a journal, a book you fill in, the book also has lots of inspirational quotes throughout  which I have found really helpful, a couple of my favourite quotes from the book are "worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere" and "my life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened" the second quote is most definitely me! 

Aside from the quotes the purpose of the No Worries journal is to break the habit of replaying negative outcomes in your mind, there are steps to follow and sections to fill in. 

Each page has steps to follow and both the right hand page and left hand page work together, on the right hand page at the top is a space for the date, it is blank for you to fill in and just says "Today" and then has gaps for the day, month and year. 

Under the date it says "This is my worry": and then there are a few lines for you to write your worry, under than it says "Can I do something about it?" and then there is a "Yes" and "No" section, under the "Yes" section there are arrows and spaces to write and it says "Here's my plan" so you can write what you aim to do about the worry and where it says "No" it says "Time to move on and check back later" 

Then on the right hand side of the page it says at the top "Checking back after - Days - Weeks - Months" and there is a space to write how many days/weeks/months. Then under that is says "What happened" and there is a few lines to explain what happened, then under that space it says "How I feel now" and again a space to write how your feeling. Next there is "No longer a worry? Tear off the tab" and an arrow pointing to the corner of the book which has a tear off corner in pink and says "worry corner" on it.

I absolutely love the concept of this journal and I am really hoping it can help both me and Lissy with our worrying. It is a great book, easy to fill in and something that isn't too time consuming and can be done in a couple of minutes and it will be so good to be able to tear the worry corners off too if and when my worries are sorted out. 

I will of course come back and let you know how I am getting on with the book and if it has helped me but I am hoping that if/when I start to see that some corners have been torn off, it will help me not to worry so much. 

If you would like to purchase the No Worries journal for yourself or for a friend/relative, you can find it HERE on the ASOS website priced at £9.99 or HERE on the WHSmith website priced at £9.20 or HERE on the Amazon website priced at £9.99. 

Do you or a friend/relative of yours worry a lot? What do you think of the No Worries journal, is it something you would buy to help yourself or a friend/relative? Do you have this journal and has it helped you? Please chat with me in the comments and let me know. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always 

Zoe x