Big, bright and brilliant - eye liners from bareMinerals

Good evening!

Firstly, a quick hello to both old and new followers, we are thrilled to now have over 100 followers! Hello to you all!

Today I am going to talk about my new eyeliners I purchased at the Vitality show.

Now as you probably know, we are both big fans of bareMinerals, and I have been using their eyeliner for a few years. When I saw this fab collection of three mini eyeliners I just had to have it!

The three colours that came in the pack were midnight moon, which is a bluey colour, black gold, which is a lighter black with a very subtle hint of gold and black diamond, which is a striking black. See below for swatches.

Left - midnight moon, middle - black gold, right - black diamond

I really like bareMinerals eyeliners. They are easy to apply as they glide straight on to either the bottom or top of the eye, depending on where you like to wear eyeliner. They really show off the eye colour, bringing out the whites of the eye. The colours have light reflective pearl which really glistens when it catches the light, the pictures really don't do the colours justice.

I have very sensitive eyes, and have often had to throw away eyeliners after one use because they have caused irritation, but with the preservative free formula of bareMinerals, I can happily wear these all day with no irritation.

My personal favourite is the midnight blue, as it really picks out the colours of my eyes.

I have tried to capture a better idea of the colour on the two pictures below, where I am wearing midnight blue:

Midnight blue is now my everyday wear eyeliner, and the other two are perfect for throwing into my make-up bag for nights out as they are handbag size.

I bought this set for £14, I have just tried looking for it online, and I cannot find it in stock anywhere, so it may have been a show only item.

What eyeliner do you use, and is it worth me checking out? Have you used  bareMinerals before and what did you think? Let us know by leaving a comment below or on twitter you can find us tweeting as @beautyu

Stay beautiful!

Stace x

The New Neutralizing Primer from bareMinerals!

As the bareMinerals' products rule my make up bag at the moment (and will probably stay for some time – no point in finishing this affair while I enjoy it!) I have to let you on one of my recent purchases and a brand new launch - Prime Time Neutralizing foundation primer.

The new bareMinerals foundation primer - Prime Time Neutralizing foundation primer

To describe it in a few words – "it’s like a primer but it’s not a primer... it’s even better than a primer!" There are a few things that I question about the product: the colour and consistency; but the product itself, once applied, is fantastic! Delivers the results and works great with my skin!

The benefits:

This product works like a primer, even though it doesn’t look and feel like it. Its consistency is more of a lotion, so it takes a bit more of smoothing it onto the skin. Once applied and sunk in, my skin is completely smooth.  And the colour (sorry bareMinerals!) but it looks like a bird poo...  Have a look at the photo below:

Once I pass the stage of looking at it and apply it onto my face it does what it says on the tin! The colour helps to neutralise any redness on my face (spots and blemishes) and the skin feels nourished and ready for my foundation. However, before I apply the foundation, I wait about 3 mins as I think it goes better on once the product is fully absorbed, but don’t get me wrong the product sinks in really quickly leaving that nice smooth feeling – it doesn’t sit on your skin!

Last but no means least are the minerals that this product contains. Also, there is a fresh smell so it’s great to use. I’ve noticed an improvement on my skin when using this product; however, I also use the night treatment so I think it’s a case of all the products working in sync.

Have you been the lucky person to buy this product as a TSV from QVC (see Stace’s post about the TSV)? If so, what do you think about it? If you haven't though, would you buy it? Let us know by leaving a comment below or tweet us @beautyu.

Stay beautiful!

Mags xx

Amazing night treatment!

It’s Monday evening so it’s almost weekend! Ha ha, I’m very positive but this week will go in no time, especially when we’re looking at a nice longer break at Easter!

It took me some time to get myself down to write this review but I didn’t want to rush that one as I really LOVE this product! It’s all about transforming the skin during the sleep and waking up to more healthier and radiant looking me! If you haven’t guessed yet, I’m talking about the bareMinerals Pure Transformation Night Treatment! This product is amazing! 

bareMineral Pure Transformation Night Treatment

The idea of this product is to treat your skin with the proprietary 100% pure RareMinerals ActiveSoil Complex, which can only be used during the night! As we all know the skin rejuvenates best while we rest, and the cell renewal is greater at that time of the night, too! This innovative product helped minimized my opened pores, even out my skin tone and the cell renewal is amazing. If I feel I have a spot coming out and I treat that area with a bit more of this product, the spot is minimized in the morning and heals quicker than in the past!

The use

It’s in a powder consistency and comes in four different colours: Clear, Light, Medium and Tan. As I’m the Medium Beige/Medium Tan foundation lady I decided to go for the medium shade. I did want to look too tanned when in bed, ha ha. The brush that is part of the product is great, too; full and soft  which allows to apply the product without overdoing it! 

Pure Transformation Night Treatment in Medium

To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about putting a powder onto my freshly cleansed skin and lay down in bed. I was dreading the  clogged pores and worrying that my face may look worse in the morning with all the congestion that may built up during the night. However, to my surprise, you can hardly see the powder on as it blends well with your complexion (please, see the photo below – remember, you need to choose the colour closest to your skin tone!) and as you only need a couple of sweeps of the brush all over the face, you hardly feel the product on! 

Benefits

As I mentioned before, the benefits I’ve noticed while using this products are:

• minimised pores,
• even skin tone,
• clearer complexion, and
• fresher and dewier look.

I can also see how this product can work its magic not only by replenishing the skin but by being a good self-esteem boost to all those who can’t face their partners without make up on. As the bareMinerals statement chimes: it’s as good as you can sleep in it! 

Price

I know the price tag isn’t very shopper friendly - £45 for 4,2g even though the product goes a long way. However, if you get the same results as I do, it's worth it! I’d recommend to either look online, on QVC or in Debenhams when they have 10-15% off sale at times. And with the Debenhams’ Beauty Card, you can even get money off the product, when you collect enough points! Worth looking into that peeps!

Let me know if you’ve used this product and what do you think about it? If you haven’t and still have questions and doubts, please, leave a comment or ask on twitter @beautyu.

Stay beautiful!

Mags xx

The Vitality Show 2012 – our beauty paradise!

Today we visited the ‘oh-so-awaited’ Vitality Show at Earls Court 2 and loved every bit of the day! This year’s show exceeded expectations and was so much better than the last one!!

On the door, we’ve received a show planner which comes with a coupon to get a free goody bag when you enter your details! That was a nice touch and there was plenty of ‘free bags’ offers with any magazine purchases. We bought Top Sante, Zest and Healthy. 

We were so excited that the bareMinerals were sponsoring this year’s Show and came with the focus to spend more time at their beauty pod, to learn a few make-up tricks. They were also offering some discounted products with a few exclusives:

Champagne Diamond collection by bareMinerals

I’ve got the Champagne Diamond collection, which I’ll review at a later date. The collection includes: Mineral Veil 3g, Champagne Diamond Radiance 0.85g, Rose Diamond blush, Smoky Diamond eye-liner, Flawless Diamond eyecolor, full size lipgloss in Brilliance and two brushes – all for £36. Stace has got three mini eye-liners, which she’ll review later on, and mascara duo which she’d already loved and reviewed!

The highlight of the day was to meet Sarah Jane Froom and Lee Etheridge from the bareMinerals:

We’ve also watched SJ give a makeunder to a blogger Zoe Griffin from the Live Like a VIP blog! SJ used the Champagne Diamond collection and it was so interesting to see how easy and effortless the products are applied and the final look was amazing!

The only slight disappointment was that there were no bareMinerals samples in the Vitality Show’s free goody bag. As a sponsor of the Show, we thought, it’d be great for any new customers to have a chance to try the products! However, there were plenty of occasions to have a free makeunder at the bareMinerals beauty pod and we hope lots of the new, and also the acquainted, customers took advantage of that!

Other than that, there are plenty of different stands to see. From the beauty products, to healthy foods and fitness. There are lots of different food stands, which we didn’t stray from and munched on some healthy snacks and samples! Lots of those!

We’ve also visited the lovely (but tiny so don’t miss it!) stand of the Juicy Lucy Designs! You can get a goody bag for £10 which is worth over £30! That’s what comes in the lovely canvas bag:

We’ve also came across some Elemis products and couldn’t just walk away, so ended up purchasing that amazing Little Superstar top-to-toe spa treats - all for £20! They’re perfect for those weekend trips away! And they come in that cute pink beauty bag:

Overall we’ve absolutely loved the Vitality Show today! Would definitely recommend you all going, if you can! It’s an amazing experience! It’s like heaven on earth for all the beauty lovers!

Stay beautiful!

Mags & Stace xx

bareMinerals return to radiance

Evening all!

Tomorrow Mags and I are off to the Vitality show in Earls Court, one of my favourite beauty events of the year, and this year, bareMinerals are the lead sponsor! And tying in nicely with that, I have just received my bareMinerals package from QVC containing the TSV from the weekend 'Return to radiance'. Although Mags and I would like to review some of the items in more detail, I couldn't resist giving you all a quick sneak peek as to what was in there!

Pure transformation night treatment

The brand new Prime Time neutralising
foundation primer

Original SPF 15 foundation - this is a full size pot!
Fairly light to allow for a possible Summer tan

SPF concealer in bisque

Maximum coverage concealer brush and
 flawless application brush

Prime Time primer shadow

Natural lipgloss in starfruit

And if that wasn't enough, two sachet
samples of cleanser and moisturiser 

All this was such good value for £39.99 Plus p&p, and I can't wait to start trying all the products! Have you used any of these products before and what did you think?

We will be back at the end of the week letting you know what we thought of the Vitality Show, are you going this weekend? If you are enjoy!

Stay beautiful!

Stace x

bareMinerals on QVC TSV!

If you stop over to our blog regularly you will know that we are both fans of:

a. bareMinerals

b. a good old bargain!

So we have both been waiting patiently for the much anticipated QVC bareMinerals TSV, which launches at midnight tonight. For those of you who aren't familiar with QVC, the TSV, or Today's Special Value is exactly that, a great brand at an amazing price. It is a great chance to try a new brand like bareMinerals for the first time as you get a few items from the range, for a great price.

The content of the TSV is rumoured to be as follows:

bareMinerals 6 piece Return to Radiance Collection with Brushes

• Full size lip gloss
• Full size eye primer (3ml)
• Night treatment (2g)
• Skin primer (30ml)
• Full size foundation in a choice of colours
• Small concealer
• Full coverage face brush
• Concealer brush

Phew! That's a lot, and if you added up what that would retail for separately it would be a lot more than the rumoured price of below £40 (excluding p&p). 

It is also worth noting that the skin primer is a new product which is available for the first time on QVC!

To find out full, exact details of this amazing offer, tune in to QVC from midnight (shows also run throughout Saturday). QVC is found on - Freeview 16, Sky 640, Virgin 740, Freesat 800.

We will definitely be purchasing these and will do full reviews of the products soon!

Stay Beautiful!

Stace & Mags x

All dressed up...

Hope you're having a lovely week! Tonight I wanted to share what I wore on my birthday night out, and I promise this is my last birthday related blog!! Hopefully you read all about Mags' outfit and make-up on Friday night, in Spring has sprung into my wardrobe and make-up

Here's what I wore:

Dress: Marks and Spencer, Bag: Ben Di Lisi
from Debenhams, Flower: H&M,
 Belt: The belt from my wedding dress

Regular readers will know how much I love a bargain, and this was found in the sale for £9 reduced from £65!!! I had wanted a classic black satin dress for a long time, and kept looking in Coast as I like the style there, but found nothing until this came along in Marks and Spencer! I felt it needed pinching in at the waist slightly, and so used the satin belt from my wedding dress, tying a bow in the back, perfect!

And my make-up:

Sparkly eyes for party time and subtle lips

I made my eyes up similar to how I did in this past post using Bourjois products. My foundation was Estee Lauder double wear, and I opted for a subtle lip colour as it was a family occasion and this was also Estee Lauder.

One product I used I wanted to focus on in more detail, was my base product Bare Minerals Bare Vitamins Rev-er Upper.

Bare Minerals Rev-er Upper
retails for about £15 for 68ml

This product is described as a 'multivitamin facial prep'. I use this product when I would normally use a primer, underneath my foundation. It goes on very easily and soaks in quickly, leaving a silky finish to the face, perfect for applying foundation.

The end result is that pores appear non-existent, and fine lines also reduced, allowing you to create a perfect flawless face! It really makes a difference having a decent base under the make-up, and this product always helps to deliver my final, glowing make-up look.

Finally, I just wanted to share with you a couple of photos of Me and Mags on Friday night!

Sharing a cosmopolitan after eating lobster in the Chinese!

A glass of champagne to finish of the evening!

Stay Beautiful!

Stace x

Spring has sprung into my wardrobe and make-up

I hope you all had a nice and relaxing weekend! Looking outside it definitely feels like spring is in the air and I hope the winter will not make an unexpected come back any time soon!

This past Friday night, Stace, her family, my other half and myself, went out to celebrate Stace’s birthday and had lots of fun! As I felt in a mood for spring I decided to put that into action and dress in more springy garment and use more vibrant colours with my make-up.

Here’s what I wore:

Boden dress, H&M jacket, olive tights and Jones Bootmaker grey shoes

Here’s the more spring-like make up (check out the eyes):

My spring/pastel make-up

 

My pastel eyes

The main eye colour I used in my spring make-up was purple, as the pastels are in this season! I’ve worked with two different eye colours – Heart and Sugar Plum – both from bareMinerals:  

bareMinerals eye colours, from left: Sugar Plum and Heart

bareMinerals eye colour swatches, from left: Sugar Plum and Heart

Both of the eye shadows complement each other so it was really easy to work with them. I’m usually not very good with eye colours but this time I think it all worked out great at the end. 

For the base I used the Prime Time Brightening eyelid primer from bareMinerals:

Prime Time Brightening eyelid primer from bareMinerals

 

After that, I used the Heart colour all over the eye lids and blended it well with the golden tones of the primer. Then in the corners of the eye lids I used the Sugar Plum, deeper tone of purple, to bring my beautiful eyes out! To  finish it all off, I used the Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in black ink – check out my previous blog to read more about it!

Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink

To finish up my whole outfit I decided to go for a little lilac colour for my nails! Here it is – my fav Leighton Denny’s Little Thief:

Leighton Denny in Little Thief

The whole outfit put me right into a springy and party mood, and the weather was just a nice little addition to the celebration! 

Hope your wardrobes are getting a bit more colourful with the weather improving outside! 

Be colourful! Stay beautiful!

Mags xx