Xen Tan Review!!!

The following review is for Xen Tan Dark lotion: RRP £25.95 or £17.99 from feelunique.com

Ok, so the reason this took me so long to do was because I thought the best way to do it would be to actually show you the results, and me an avid fake tan wearer I had to wait for my existing tan to come off so that I could get some 'before' pictures.

I'll start by showing you my deathly pale skin so you can get some idea of the difference this stuff makes (excuse my bra, but all my nice bikinis were packed)

BEFORE

not too sure what's going on with my hip but what can you do ay.

AFTER 1 APPLICATION

AFTER 2 APPLICATIONS

SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON

AND FOR THOSE WHO WANT A

MORE DETAILED REVIEW :) ...

Colour

The first time I used this self tanner I thought the colour looked unbelievably unnatural, I felt like I looked really really red. I decided I hated it and vowed never to use it again until people started asking me whether I'd been on holiday or used sunbeds. My mom, dad, boyfriend and close friends all agreed that it was by far the most natural coloured fake tan I had used to date despite how dark it was. I was puzzled by this initially, but after a couple of days I started to get used to the red toned colour and so I began to really like it. Even though I couldn't see it at first, I think that it's the red undertones in this tan that make the colour so natural, I always believed that the green undertones famously used by St Tropez were the way forward. But, when you think about it, who actually goes green in the sun?! If you look at a Caucasian (other races will probably differ) with a really dark natural tan, chances are they have a slight pink/red tinge to the skin (unless they're just completely fried).

Evenness

It's completely even, streak and patch free! No matter how poorly you apply it :)

(except from if you just completely miss a patch out)

Application

Initial application is fine, it's quite thick so you do have to rub a bit to get it to spread and I absolutely love the smell even though its not to everyones taste (almonds and cherries).

But once you've rubbed it in, oh em gee it looks appalling!

Insert picture to that doesn't even begin to show the appallingness that can be witnessed in real life.

The person who said you can use the guide colour as a bronzer and go out tanned straight away, well, they lied. But once you've showered all the horrible patchiness just washes away :)

Durability?

If that's the right word lol, is pretty standard. No fake tan is ever gonna look the same as when you first applied it after about a week. Although I have to say this wore of a lot better than St Tropez and I didn't experience the dreaded snake skin effect, so thumbs up to that. I'd say this maintained its full colour for about 3/4 days and I was completely completely fake tan free after about a week and a half.

So after the longggg wait there it is. This is definitely my new HG fake tan and I would definitely recommend it to all those fake tan obsessives like me :)

xxxx

It's been wayyy tooo lonngggggggggggg!

So basically I haven't even given this a blog a thought for about 2 months now?! Not because I'm not interested anymore I've just been majorly major majorly busy with

1. going on holiday

2. Clearing sixth getting a level results etc.

3. Learning to drive

AND

4. The most exciting thing ever.. starting the media and theatre make up artist course.

I've already learnt soooo many tips and tricks and trade secrets which I can share with you all soon :)

AND one more thing - xen tan review which I was supposed to do before holiday :s oops, is coming up nowww.

xxx

Sunshine blog awards!

I've finally got my first award lol. YAYY. It was passed on by the gorgeous Carmen from CARMEN'S CLOSET. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for passing this on to me, it put a big smile on my face :) Mwah XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rules:

Put the logo on your blog in your post.

Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.

Link the nominees within your post.

Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs.

Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

The people I have chosen are (I chose 10 instead of 12)...

Tuttibeauty

Ava

Lubna

Kat O'Hara

Glam Sam

Hilary

BitterSweetKindaNew

The beautifier

Hershley's Sweet Kiss

*~ ♥ Giddy Princess ♥ ~*

MAC eyeshadow dupes :)

I thought I'd do a post on some mac eyeshadow dupes that I've come across over time. It's so annoying when you buy a brand new mac eyeshadow only to discover when you get home that you already have an eyeshadow that colour.

Most of the dupes I've found have been from Urban Decay and the Sleek storm palette, so if you have the Sleek or one of the Urban Decay palettes, you might not need to buy certain mac eyeshadows because you already have that colour... meaning that you can divert your money to other mac eyeshadows instead. Yayy!

Here are the best ones that I've found.

Mac All That Glitters and UD Chopper: Both have the same amount of shimmer and texture and are equally pigmented. UD Chopper is slightly more orange toned where as Mac All That Glitters is much more neutral with a slight hint of pink. UD Chopper also has silver micro glitter running through it, Mac All That Glitters does not.

Mac Wedge and Taupe from Sleek Storm: Both of these are very light matte taupe colours. Even though they are very similar, I would say mac Wedge is a more 'true taupe' as the sleek one has much stronger yellow tones.

Mac Shimmermoss and UD Shattered: Not only are the names similar but the eyeshadows are too. They are practically identical, it is only when you look closely that you notice that UD Shattered has slightly more green in it and Shimmermoss is slightly 'duller'.

Mac Carbon and black from Sleek Storm: Both black, both matte, but mac Carbon is slightly more pigmented.

Mac Dazzlelight and Pale cream from Sleek Storm: These two shadows are pale shimmery cream/white colours. Mac Dazzlelight has much stronger yellow yellow/gold undertones but they both appear off white/cream when applied to the eye. Mac Dazzlelight is a lot more pigmented.

Mac espresso, matte brown from sleek, and brown from L'oreal HIP duo bustling: All of these mid browns are the same tone, very neutral with a slight taupiness to them. Mac espresso and the sleek brown are very very similar, the only differences being the fact that mac is again more pigmented and sleek has slight red undertones to it making it a teeny tiny bit more orange. The brown from the HIP duo is not nearly as pigmented as the mac and sleek ones and has a slight gold shimmer in it giving the eyeshadow an overall gold sheen.

Mac Woodwinked, UD Nylon and UD YDK: Mac Woodwinked is definitely the most gold toned out of all of these shadows even though the other two have a gold sheen as well. UD Nylon is much more neutral than the mac one as it doesn't have such strong brown undertones and is more of a beige gold than a brown gold. UD YDK is the same hue as mac Woodwinked but it is darker in shade as it has significantly more brown in it. UD Nylon, UD YDK, mixed together would create a very similar colour to woodwinked, but slightly less gold toned.

MAC Beautiful Iris, UD Asphyxia and UD Ecstacy: Mac Beautiful Iris is a true lilac/lavender, it is cool toned with a white shimmer to it. UD asphyxia is a lot warmer due to the pink undertones but it still has a blue shift in certain lighting. UD Ecstacy is the same cool tone as Beautiful iris but it is a shade or two darker making it appear more purple as opposed to lilac.

Hope this helped!

Grace xxx

Haul time!

Just another boring little post with a few pictures of what I picked up.

Barry M nail paints in Gold and Tangerine £2.95 each or 2 for £5 from superdrug: I love Barry M nail paints, they're pretty chip resistant and there's such an amazing range of colours. The gold one is just your bog standard gold and I only really purchased it because I wanted tangerine and felt I should take advantage of the two for £5 offer ;) Tangerine is gorgeous, really bright and summery, it's a bit different from normal orange nail polishes because of the shimmer.

Sleek Storm i-Divine eyeshadow palette £5.99: I'm a bit slow of the mark with regards to the sleek eyeshadow palettes and I'm gonna admit it, I was a bit of a snob. I've always thought that good pigmented eye shadows have to be expensive i.e. mac. And eye shadow palettes like the sleek ones = the play make up I used to smear all over my face as a little girl. BUT... this palette has totally changed that snobbish and pre-judgemental opinion and I can honestly say I ♥ it. All the colours are so pigmented and easy to blend. It compromises of 3 matte shadows and 9 shimmers which I would compare to macs veluxe pearl formula.

(lol at my reflection)

Told you it was a little post :)

Xen Tan review update.

Ok, so as promised I'm working on a xen tan review, it's just taking me a little longer than expected. Basically, I was so excited when I got it in the post, I slapped it on and completely forgot to take some before pictures of my super pasty skin. One and a half weeks later I'm still brown (sort of) so the before pics are still on the waiting list. I know I could of done the review without the before and afters but I think you can only really see how good something is if you can actually see the difference its made. If that makes sense :S

Anyway, the top and bottom of this post was to say that I haven't forgot about the xen tan review, its on its wayyyy!

♥

Just a little something that made me laugh.

So last week some time I decided I needed to wash and deep condition my hair extensions, after about 10 minutes I was bored of waiting for them to dry but I didn't want to use any unnecessary heat. And then that's when my mom came up with the suggestion

'Why don't you hang them on the washing line'

So because it was one of those extremely rare sunny days that us English never see, that's exactly what I did. And the best thing... It worked a treat!