Cristina's Beauty Box

I ♥ Makeup I Heart Chocolate Palette - Review, Demo and Giveaway

Monday, January 26, 2015

If by this time you didn't hear about Makeup Revolution, you probably live under a rock. Makeup Revolution took the beauty world by surprise when it launched in spring 2014. First, there has been their regular line, with prices in the same range and MUA (Makeup Academy) and later in the year, the I ♥ Makeup range appeared. In my opinion, the items in the latter one have better quality, but by no means this means that the regular Makeup Revolution range bad. Whatever I tried from the brand so far, it didn't disappoint.

I ♥ Makeup I Heart Chocolate Palette - Review and Demo

I the future, I will probably review more Makeup Revolution/ I ♥ Makeup products, but I wanted to start with my favorite one so far: the I Heart Chocolate palette. I still can't get over the fact that I paid £7.99 for it and the quality is so amazing. Usually, in budget palettes, the matte shades can feel somehow dry and powdery and they don't blend really well, but it's not the case here. All 16 shadows in the I Heart Chocolate Palette are buttery and soft, with great pigmentation and they are easy to blend, without becoming muddy. From those 16 shades, 6 are matte and 10 have a shimmery or metallic finish.

The shadows last really well on my eyelids with a primer ( I never wear eye shadow without a primer) and there is no creasing even after a long day. Now let's move to the swatches, shall we?

Note: You Need Love is a creamy white matte shades, very close to my skin tone, bur it makes a beautiful brow bone highlight.

Note: Meet Chocolate is a light matte pink, which doesn't show up on the swatches, but when applied on the lid, it just brightens up the lid. If you have hooded eyes or deep set eyes, this shade is a great lid shade for you; it will just attract the light and make your eyelid space look bigger.

Good news for all of you who like to follow the color of the year trend: Love torn and What A Way to Go are two shades who fit right in, for the Marsala trend. Some may consider them dark, but in my opinion, they are great translation of Marsala when it comes to eye shadow. If you want a Marsala tutorial using this palette, let me know and I will see what I can do, but for today's demo I have an everyday kind of look using some of my favorite shades: Thank Friday, You Need Love, Meet Chocolate, More! , Endorphins Ready, Pleasure Girl, What a Way to Go.

Overall, I love thid palette and I think I finally found a palette that I bring along when travelling, Usually I bring at least two palette, because there are not enough matte shades in one or the shade range is not to my liking, but the I Heart Chocolate Palette is absolutely perfect for me and I can't recommend it enough. You can buy it on the Makeup Revolution website or Superdrug or you can win one by entering the giveaway below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What is your favorite palette this days?

xoxo
Cristina

The Body Shop HoneyMania Lip Balm

Monday, January 12, 2015

I consider lip balms to be one of my addictions lately because I find myself using them often through the day since I moved. I don't know what got into me when I bought The Body Shop HoneyMania Lip Balm, but I am glad I did,

Honestly, I didn't read any review before buying it, so when I didn't even wait to get home to open it. As I was going out from the shop, I was opening and applying it. A little impatient there? My first thought was "Mmm this smells nice" (read: Nice smell, not overpowering and after application you can't pickany scent.) and the second one "I hate the packaging"( read: If you have long nails and you are trying to apply this with your fingers, some lip balm will definitely get under the nail. )

Now onto serious things! The Body Shop HoneyMania Lip Balm moisturizes the lips nicely without feeling greasy. I use it mostly at night time or during the day, I am at home and not planning to put any lipstick one. Though it doesn't feel greasy, I don't find it suitable to wear under lipstick just because of the long absorption time.

Overall, The Body Shop HoneyMania Lip Balm is really nice to use at night time or when your lips need something more. For £4.00 it also last for awhile - I have it for two months, used it like a mad woman and I still have approximately 35% left. You can buy it in The Body Shop stores or online.

V05 Give me moisture hot oil review

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Obviously, when I moved to UK I didn't take with me my hair care products so I needed to rebuild my hair care stash. I came across the V05 give me moisture hot oil in Superdrug when I was actually looking for a leave in conditioner. Because there was a 2 for £7 offer on selected V05 products, I decided to pick this product also, and let me spoil it for you: I don't regret it!

The V05 give me moisture hot oil is one of the best pre-shampoo hair treatment I ever used. It claims to quench thirsty hair to lock in moisture and helps strengthen it and it does just that. I used it once a week for the past three weeks and my hair never felt better - it looks and feels healthy and I doesn't break as much while brushing.

Avocado, apricot, grape seed, jojoba and rosemary leaf oils are high on the ingredients list and that just convinced me to buy it. I honestly hate pricey products which claim to have I don't know how many natural oils in them, but when you look at the ingredients, you realize that they are barely there because they are on the bottom of the list. Usually, the V05 give me moisture hot oil is reasonably priced at £4.29 in Superdrug, but the 2 for £7 offer is still on so you migh want to have a look.

Bottom line: I love the V05 give me moisture hot oil treatment because it does what it says and it needs only 1 minute to do it. For such a reasonable price, it's worth give it a try if you hair feels lifeless, brittle and it is prone to breakage,

Makeup wishlist feat. Soap&Glory, NARS and benefit

Thursday, November 13, 2014

As I let you know in my last blog post, I moved to UK. Unfortunately, this meant leaving most of my makeup behind, taking with me only the necessities. That being said, I think you can imagine that at the moment my wishlist is huge, but today I decided to share with you few of the things that I wanted for a long time and weren't available in Finland.

Soap&Glory One Heck of a Blot Powder (£12.00) - I always looking for a mattifying powder and this one has glowing reviews.

NARS Sheer Glow Foundation (£31.00) - I have two foundations with me (Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua and Rimmel Match Perfection), but I am looking for something with a little more coverage.

Soap&Glory Archery 2 in 1 Brow Filling Pencil and Brush (£8.00) - In the past I did not get along so well with brow pencil ( I am more of a eyebrow powder kind of girl), but rumor has it that this eyebrow pencil is a dupe for Anastasia Brow Wiz at half of the price. Who I am to say no to this?

benefit Sweet Tintations Gift Set (£19.50) - I always wanted to try the benefit tints and the balms look intriguing so here I am, wanting this.

benefit cheeky sweet spot box o' blushes set (£29.50) - What beauty addict doesn't dream about the benefit boxed powders? I admit, I am! This set seems like a great value for money and maybe, if I am a good blogger, Santa will bring it to me.

These are few of the things I am lusting at the moment. What is your wishlist and you hope Santa will get you ?

xoxo

Cristina

Moving Countries and General Life Updates

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Hey there strangers :)

So, I totally disappeared more than 2 months ago and there is a simple reason for that: I moved to UK. In a few days, it will be a couple of months since I am here and let me tell you something: the first month was a living hell. It might have been because of the lack of planning or maybe because the little plans we had, changed drastically, but the reality is that it has been hard!

On the bright side though, after 1st of October, everything calmed down and things started to run smoothly. After 2 months, I really like it in here (still unemployed, but at least boyfriend found a job and I know I am on my way there.). A lot of people hate the weather, I just think it's the same amount of rain like in Finland, only the temperatures are higher.

At the moment I have a lot of free time on my hand and I am thinking of getting back to blogging/YouTube. Talking about this, the thing I hate about this moving process is that I couldn't bring with me all my makeup!!! I am still not sure I want it shipped to me, or I will just start to build a new collection....

Anyways, I could talk about the moving process for hours, but I am pretty sure no one wants to read it so I will stop here for now. If by any chance, you want a blog post with tips for moving to UK, just let me know and I will see what I can do :)

That's all for today, I just wanted to give you a little update and let you know that probably you will see more of me here or on YouTube:)

xoxo
Cristina