So this past month I've bought and been given (it was my birthday!) so many great products, so I wanted to do a post to go over them and give my opinions of the amazing, and the not so amazing products! 

The first product I'm going to review is Smashbox lipstick in Posy Pink:

Oh my god....can I just say I love this lipstick! I would say the finish is similar to the MAC cremesheen lipsticks, very moisturising, still a great colour payoff. It is the ultimate pink-toned nude, goes with literally any look I do and makes my lips feel really nice! The only downside to this lipstick I would say is that I looked recently and the lipstick had actually snapped within the packaging, meaning if I wind it up too much...it snaps off! This was probably down to a drunken accident by one of my friends when we were out, but it's still amazing regardless!

The next product is Smashbox Eyeshadow Trio in Screen Shot:

I love the brown and gold colours in this trio, they go great with my brown eyes! The lighter colour, I could live without, but is still a nice colour, good for transitions or a brow highlight. The gold is more of an antique style old gold, so I tend to put a brighter gold in my inner corner when using this. I used this trio in my gold smokey eye YouTube tutorial, that you can find in my last post! They are really pigmented colours, and you really do only need to use a small amount to get a great result. I would seriously reccomend this trio it is to dieeee for!

Another eye product I got that i loved was the Too Faced Natural Eye Palette:

As I currently work for Too Faced I'll try not to be too biased...but OMG I am in love with this palette!! It's one of our bestsellers and I can really see why! The colours suit everyone, I've used this palette on customers in work of all types, from an eighty year old woman, to a young girl with darker skin, to a middle aged woman who never wears make-up, and they all love it! My favourite colours are the last three, Nude Beach, which is a shimmery, high frost nude, Honey Pot, a true, bright gold and Cocoa Puff, a brown with gold pearl. They all look so great on, but I would really reccomend using the Too Faced Shadow Insurance for the mattes/Candlelight for the shimmers as they really pop, and you need something to grab the glitter! Heaven is the ultimate brow highlight, which I love, and Velvet Revolver is a great transition colour, similar to MAC Wedge/Urban Decay Tease. Again, I used this in my tutorial!

One of my new favourite products is now Too Faced Candlelight Shadow Insurance:

This is one of those products that made me think how have I survived without this! It really is amazing, my eyeshadows look 10x brighter, more vibrant, it grabs all the glitter, shimmer and pigment and makes it stay there for hours and hours. This honestly changed the way my eyeshadow looks are, and lots of people have commented! I love it! One downside I would say, is that it is advertised as 24h wear, but I would say this isn't quite accurate, as I've experienced it coming off after a long day, but it does help it stay on for HOURS longer than my shadow usually would, as I have oily eyelids.

My next product is MAC #266 Angled Brush:

This brush is really amazing! It completely changed the way I do my brows! I used to use some random angled liner brush to do my brows, but it was pretty flimsy, this brush allows me to get a really straight, precise line which makes my brows look so much better! I haven't used it for liner yet, although I intend to when I get the chance! Its a great little brush and anyone looking for an eyebrow brush- get this one!!

Finally, the last product I'm going to mention is the E.L.F Brush Belt:

I got this belt for work, as I hate having my brushes all over the place, it looks really unprofessional when I have a customer and have to rummage through drawers when doing their make up! This is the first ever brush belt I've purchased and I love it! It's easy to adjust, fits all my brushes in and seems to be a great piece for my kit. I don't know too much about brush belts, so over time if I find any problems I'll be sure to mention them, but for now I think this is a great piece that really helps me out!

So overall that's some of my favourite new products! Some other great ones I didn't mention are MAC Diva Lipstick- a great, gorgeous deep, dark red lipstick. MAC Soft and Gentle- my new go-to highlight, I love it and can't believe I waited so long to get it! E.L.F Natural Nymph Lipstick- A true nude shade, I use this to neutralise my lips before applying a lipstick, finally Too Faced Perfect Lips Liner in Perfect Nude- as the tube says "The only lip liner you'll ever need", this is so true! Love <3

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Although I don't post a lot of looks on here, I post looks and products used on Instagram almost everyday! So if you like, follow me at @melanieeetaylor :-)

Rihanna for M.A.C

I love M.A.C and recently found out Rihanna is doing a collection for them for 2013! One of the products I am most excited for is RiRi Woo, a red lipstick similar to Ruby Woo (apparently one of R's favourite lipsticks). Here is Rihanna previewing the lipstick:

This is such a great colour! Everyone loves a bright red lip and this one is so pretty. The lipstick is 1 of 3 launching this summer along with a range of other products. M.A.C previewed some of the other products in this range too, I think the packaging is so cute!

Rihanna's make up is always really striking and gorgeous, so I can't wait for these products to come out!

Green and Blue Smokey Eye

Green and Blue Smokey Eye

Here is a recent look I did- it's a smokey eye look with blues and greens! For this I used an 80 colour eyeshadow palette and played around with lots of different blue and green shades to create this, would be nice on a night out or something similar! This was challenging for me to do- I'm not usually a big wearer of brights, but it was actually really fun!

I started with a MAC Paint Pot in Painterly, then applied a white eye shadow from lid to brow as a base, and to make the colours really pop. I started in the crease with a MAC #224 brush with a light green colour, then applied a bright blue slightly below this in the crease too. I put a light, baby blue all over the lid and inner corner, then applied electric blue all over the lid and blended outwards and upwards. I blended with more green and used navy and a bit of black in the outer v to add the 'smokey' effect to the eye.

I finished with lashes, eyeliner and mascara! This was a fun look to do.

Neutral Smokey Eye Look

Neutral Smokey Eye Look

Here is a neutral smokey eye look I created on my sister (girl in the pictures, please excuse her eyebrows haha) with some steps on how you could get a similar sort of look! I used MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC25 with a MAC #187 with a little of MAC's Select Moisturecover under the eyes. I set with a small amount of MAC Blot Powder in Medium. For the eyes I used MAC's Painterly Paint Pot, a MAC #239 and applied Naked Lunch all over the lid, and slightly on the inner v/tear duct. I used Espresso in the crease, Wedge to blend out (with #217 and #224), and defined the outer v with Black Tied. I also took a little of Black Tied into the lower lashline with a #219. I went over the brows with MAC Eye Brows in Lingering, a great, versatile eyepencil, but sadly runs out very fast :( .I finished the look with E.L.F mascara, only needed a small amount as her lashes are already really long!

Here is the finished look!

MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow Review

MAC Mineralize Eyeshadows

Hi everyone!
I bought the MAC Mineralize eyeshadows in Gilt by Association and Young Punk a while back, wanted to review them, but just never got round to it! Here are the shadows:

Mineralize eyeshadows are baked and can be applied wet or dry, both giving different results. These colours look so great in the pot! I chose these hoping I could create some smoky eyes with them and was really impressed at how they looked in the packaging. Swatched on my finger they look like this:

I would describe Gilt by Association as a kind of antique/old gold, with slight olive tones in it, occasionally with streaks of very dark gold or black. Young punk I would describe as a very vibrant purple with very dark tones. Both have a slight glitter in them, which I love. However, these are the two colours swatched on my arm with a MAC #239 brush:

As you can see the colours don't come out as great as they look in the packaging! This colour payoff was achieved after only a few sweeps though, so I guess layering it on would give you a great look! My fave is easily Gilt by Association, just because I can see myself wearing it in so many ways, and it's a much more versatile colour. I do love purple smokey eyes though so Young Punk does come in handy for those looks. One of my favourite looks to do with G.B.A is a bronze/gold smokey eye with G.B.A swept across the crease to intensify the look- the black goes really cool with it!

Sadly, I think I've used Gilt by Association about 5/6 times and Young Punk about once! I usually just reach for my MAC Pro Pallette and completely forget about the loose eyeshadows I have...so overall only buy these products if you know you're going to be using them a lot because for £16.50 they're not the cheapest about!