So, a few weeks ago I was watching a nail tutorial on Youtube (I won't say who it was by but it was a hot mess! Lmao) And this person used a GORGEOUS shade of blue by Illamasqua called Force.

I don't have an Illamasqua store near me, and ordering it online would have cost £16.50, which is FAR too much for one nail polish. So I've been looking for a dupe, and I think I may have found one!

Illamasqua Force *This is NOT my image, I found it on Google*

The dupe I've found is True Blue by Models Own. I LOVE it. And at £5, its quite a bargain!

Excuse my polish-covered cuticles, I was so excited by this colour I applied it quickly.

This polish reaches opacity in one coat by the way, which is wonderful!

Pretty good match huh?

MAC Thrills lipstick - To The Beach collection

Okay, so before I start, I want to say that I LOVE MAC cosmetics. Love love love.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to check out this summers main collection To The Beach. This collection really is pretty, I think the packaging is super cute, the eye and face products have olive green packaging and the lip products have coral/orange packaging. Everything has a sweet little picture of a shell or a starfish or something on it too, super cute.

The colours are pretty much your typical summer colours, bronzey / peachy / greeny / yellowy / pinks.

I only bought 2 items, the infamous Marine Life Highlight Powder, and Thrills lipstick. (I would have got more, but my MAC counter was almost sold out of everything. The only things that were left weren't that nice lol)

So, after a couple of times using Thrills lipstick, my mind is made up. This lipstick SUCKS.

Now don't get me wrong, the colour is gorgeous. A red/copper/peach base with bronze/gold shimmers. However: This is the most drying lipstick I have ever used!!

Normally MAC lipsticks stay moist for about 2-3 hours, and the colour lasts a further 2-3 hours (for me anyway, providing you don't eat or drink lol) but Thrills is different.

First application is okay, no different from any other lipstick really, but within about half an hour, my lips are dry, feel horrible, and all that is actually left on my lips is a sh*t load of the bronze glitter, which just looks ridiculous.

See more pictures below. (My nail polish is Raspberry by Barry M by the way)

This is the 'true' colour of the lipstick, I angled it away from the sun so the shimmers weren't sparkling. Pretty colour no?

Here you can see the shimmers in action

This is a few minutes after application, the colour is nice, but the shimmers are rather distracting

About 20 minutes after application, most of the moisture is gone, shimmers remain.

Then after that it just gets worse. Imagine a dried out sponge with glitter stuck to it.

R.I.P

R.I.P to my poor little MUA eyeshadow No. 4, who passed away during the swatching process of my last post.

I think she must have been cracked before the swatching, because when I bought her, her companion No. 1 was shattered when I got home, I must have been careless with the bag.

See what else I got on that shopping spree here.

The miracle that is MUA

As I'm sure pretty much everyone in the UK has heard, a month or so ago, Superdrug released a new line of £1 make up. Every item in the range (eyeshadows/eyeliners/lipsticks/lipglosses/blushes etc etc) costs one pound sterling.

At first I was naturally sceptical, I am a firm believer that in a lot of cases (not all cases mind you) cheap make up isn't as good as expensive make up.

Imagine my shock, when I swatched these eyeshadows, that these cheap-as-chips products were spectacular quality! I bought 5 eyeshadows, a blush and 2 nail polishes.

(The nail polishes weren't amazing quality, and I thought the brush was too small. The blushes are okay quality)

Since then, I have bought several more items, both for me and for prizes for my YouTube contest. Below are some swatches of the 8 eyeshadows I have and love.

(I didn't use a base to swatch these by the way)

Lets start with my 2 favourites: No. 12 and No. 11

No. 12 (red/brown with a greenish shimmer) is on the left (Similar to MAC Blue Brown pigment)

No. 11 (Mid/deep bronze with dark gold/bronze shimmer) is on the right

No. 10 (Blackened navy with brighter blue shimmers) is on the left

No. 9 (Electric purple/blue) is on the right (Similar to MAC Cornflower pigment, but more purple)

No. 8 (Mid tone green/turquoise, metallic finish) is on the left

No. 2 (Pure metallic white) is on the right

The first 2 colours are No. 4 (Pale lilac/silver, metallic finish) and No. 18 (Matte mid tone lilac)

All the up - close photos of them swatched looked crappy..

L - R

No. 4, No. 18, No. 8, No. 2, No. 9, No. 10, No. 12, No. 11

For the price you pay, these eyeshadows really are amazing. The colour pay off is wonderful, however with the matte one I have (No. 18) the colour pay off isn't very good. Mind you, this is the case with a lot of matte eyeshadows, which is the reason why I have barely any.