Love this girl! (gah the dreams of spending up big on US/CAN cosmetics!

Budget's Ahoy! Essence 50's Girl Reloaded

Now I am about to talk about a brand I hold very close to my heart (and for probably one of the stupidest reasons). While I was living in Switzerland it would be fun on the days when I had little to do, to go to the supermarket and check out the weird and wonderful things I could get. Of course living on a student budget didn’t exactly allow for splurges, and there was this brand, terrible advertising which limited itself directly to kids but upon further research with rave reviews.

Essence.

Essence is a German cosmetics brand that is in fact the number one make up brand in Europe (true fact!) …And boy is its cosmetics CCCheap.

I spent hours upon hours of bored days browsing the essence lines because it meant I was able to experiment with all those little make-up trends and fads without the mass whole in my wallet – and from there many memories were born (sigh).

Anyway, got back to Aus and discovered it is here and if possible at all, around the same price range! So, I can’t really help myself but buy something when I come across it.

Last week I saw in good ol’ target (tarjay) a new range called 50’s girl reloaded which is clear knock off of the MAC Hey, Sailor! 2012 range but with a navy and gold instead of a navy and white focus.

I picked up this eye shadow palette (03 COME ON BOARD CAPTAIN!) because on swatching the gold my pupils probably dilated like 90%, I just fell in love.

Other items in the range include: 

 Nail polish

-       01 ahoy! (white)

-       02 back to the 50’s (red)

-       03 I’m a marine girl (navy)

-       04 love me tender (antique gold)

-       05 you’re a heartbreaker (blue/teal)

Dual eye shadow palettes – they’re all variances on blue and gold

-       01 I’m a marine girl (light gold and royal blue)

-       02 you’re a heart breaker (white gold and teal-like blue

-       03 come on board captain (antique gold and navy)
Kohl pencil eyeliners

-       01 you’re a heartbreaker (navy/teal)

-       02 I’m a marine girl (navy)

-       03 love me tender (antique gold)

Translucent loose finishing powder (01 Ahoy!)

Lipstick

- Back to the 50’s (coral red)

- I’m sailing (light peach nude)

- Dual-ended eye shadow brush

 no flash - true to colour

 with flash

 true to colour gold

 true to colour navy

 No flash - shows the pigmentation and colour of the navy shade best

So the gold side I’d probably call a muted, antique almost dirty gold but weirdly still warm with multifaceted very fine milled shimmer. None of the photos really do it justice for its “antiqueness” if that’s what you could call it. The other thing I noticed about this shade is its texture, for a $5 eye shadow set, my gosh that gold is amazing! It is a fine powder with a creamy element to it and oh so soft.

My issue that once a powder is soft it usually means creasing but with my Clinique _____ eye base in 10 Canvas, the shadow lasted around 9 hours without any real noticeable wear.

The blue shade is a true navy with blue fine milled shimmer. I can’t rave about it as much as the gold as, to be honest, it isn’t as good. Don’t get me wrong it is still a pretty good formula but it’s a tad (just a tad) chalkier and that results in a struggle to get an even swatch of colour.

Pro’s

-       Good formula overall – especially for the ridiculously good price

-       For some reason the antique gold shade just makes me want to sail into its colourful goodness

-       Cute packaging

-       No wastage on a crappy eye shadow applicator

-       Decent sized mirror for application

Con’s

-       Gold is not very buildable – your first and second swatch is pretty much it

-       Blue is buildable but can be a tad uneven in application

-       I’m a bit concerned they might depot themselves – the shadows don’t exactly look secure in there. Will just have to keep safe a sound in the makeup drawer.

-       A couple more shades are needed to really create a look with this palette.

Overall I don’t think there is any harm in trying this palette out, it’s so cheap and soooo much better than any of the permanent essence shadow lines and it’s just so damn cute!

 

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer Reveals itself in Coles Australia

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So I know this another Rimmel review and you’re all probably thinking, wow, this chick likes Rimmel she should rename her blog Rimmel, if there was ever a love story like Romeo & Juliet it’s this girl & Rimmel - but really, it’s just because they’ve had so many products released in Australia in the last few weeks that have been put on pedestals in the blogosphere, so naturally when I see them in the shops, I freak out!

Now one product that caught my eye is the Wake Me Up concealer. I don’t really know what it is but I have been obsessed with concealers this year and when I read about them I was like, must.find.now! Unfortunately it was not available anywhere! Like we’re talking the display was there but no stock put in, or the illuminators were where the concealers should have been (the ultimate tease right?!). Anyway, I was in Coles (bless them) and I found it!

So here are some swatches if you’re anything like me and have been itching to find the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer in Australia.

 With flash - true to colour

 Without flash (its a different background - don't worry its not a washout contrast!

 With flash

 This photo was the only one I could get to shoe at least a little, the blended concealer - left of the swatch

 blended with no other make-up on

 After a day wearing Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer - you can see the shimmer in the concealer here

 After a day wearing Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer

Perspectives

I got the shade ivory on a whim as there are no testers available in the supermarket, so I got the lightest colour I could to be safe (always best to have a lighter shade for under the eye) and I must say, it’s a pretty good go-to concealer.

I would say that it’s a medium coverage concealer at most and can’t really be built up too much because of its thin consistency. It’s more like a liquid than a cream which is great for blending – as you can see in the photo above it virtually sinks into the skin – but isn’t so great for significant coverage. On the plus side, it feels light on the skin and is not cakey at all! So if you want that not wearing make-up feel, Wake Me Up concealer is most likely for you

The concealer has really fine shimmer in there like the rest of the range so I wouldn’t recommend using it for blemishes as it’ll just highlight those things right up. For under the eye though, it is pretty damn good. Granted, I don’t really have very dark circles under my eyes, but for the darkness I do have it suits perfectly.

Unfortunately, the shade range leaves a little to be desired. I got the lightest shade available in Coles and significantly hope if its released anywhere else there will be more colours because anybody with a paler skin tone is probably going to have no use with this concealer.

To put it simply, as far as comfort goes, this puppy is fantastic relative to many other concealers I have tried, but if you’re looking for a highly pigmented concealer for really dark under eye concealers I’d probably have to recommend something else (perhaps the Covergirl  and Olay Simply Ageless Corrector if you’re looking for a similar price range). I find the days that I am looking really tired I just use a pink dark spot corrector (loving the Priceline brand Models Prefer one at the moment) with the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer on top and that works a treat.

Worth the hype? In writing it down, I’m not really convinced; but despite that it’s probably not the best concealer in my collection, for some reason I keep reaching for it every day and that’s got to be worth something right???

Much love

Lisa.