50 Followers Give away

I have reached a followers mile stone woo hooo! I'm going to celebrate by having a give away to say thankyou to all the people that read my blog, I really am so chuffed that anyone is bothered about what I have to say, so thankyou!.

I'm giving away a Benefit Sugarbomb blusher and a Benefit velvet eyeshadow in 'leggy'! (the Sugarbomb you will receive will be in the new style of box, the one pictured is the old style...same product, new mirror)

How to enter?

1. You need to be a GFC follower of my blog

2. You need to leave a comment below saying you want to be entered, leaving your GFC name and email address

3. You can get another entry if you tweet about my giveaway, e.g "check out @livdev benefit giveaway at http://confessionsofacosmetic-aholic.blogspot.com/?spref=tw", mention in your comment if you tweet the link.

4. The winner will be picked at random on the 6th September 2011

Good Luck everyone!

Lancome, Hypnose Doll eyes

I don't know if you have noticed but I am going a little bit mascara crazy at the moment. I think it might be because that is the only draw in my organiser that I can still close... so obviously its not full enough. Anyhow I picked up this little sample after Boots did a mascara exchange, I took in a very old, scabby Covergirl mascara and got this shiny new sample. When it first goes on it make my lashes abit, 'spindly' (if thats even a word), just long and coated. It really really lengthens though, but with more layers it makes them 'bushy' although it doesnt build much volume. See for yourself...

As I find with the whole Hypnose range, there is a little bit of rub off under the eyes to begin with, but other than that the hold is pretty good and the lift and curl says all day too.

Unfortunately Boots aren't doing the swap any more but for anyone looking for a new day time mascara I would really recommend this if your after length, curl and separation.

L'oreal One sweep eye shadow

Back in May I blogged about a L'oreal "Gadget" product I was interested in checking out, have a look here. Well surprise surprise, I bought it while I was in America recently and here it is.

Its the L'oreal one sweep eye shadow in 809 "natural for brown eyes".

Here's what L'oreal have to say about it: "Unique applicator applies 3 shades in one sweep to define, colour and highlight eyes." I say.....Bit of a fail! It doesn't really work, the applicator is too stiff and the colours just blend into one. Here is what it looks like on, although looking at this picture it looks like it works slightly better than it looks in the mirror haha!
The thing that saves it how ever is that the colours are beautiful and work really nicely together. They are really soft and metallic, they almost look like creams when swatched (top 3 are the colours separately and below is applied with the applicator.)

I also love the cute little mirror that is packaged inside under the applicator. I will be using these colours again but unfortunatly the applicator will probably go in the bin and out with come the 217!

New lippies

When I first started writing this blog, I took a picture of my whole lipstick collection, fiddled around with the effects on Photoshop and made it into my blog banner......yep, read that again MY WHOLE LIPSTICK COLLECTION. I was a total gloss/balm girl, never really wore lipstick at all. Fast forward to the present....... and this is what my lipstick draw looks like now. It had a growth spurt.And here are 3 newbies about to find their home in this draw. Left to right, Elf all over colour stick in Pink Lemonade, Barry M lip paint in number 147 and Sleek's true colour sheen lipstick in Cherry.
Swatches:
This is 'Cherry' on, its a dark purpley/red although these kinda colours always come out redder in photos. I bought this lipstick to replace one that my sister managed to put in the washing machine! I love these formulas, I raved on about them when they came out. They are my go to range for strong pigmented colours.

Barry M lip paint, great matte peachy/coral. Formula is know for being quite drying, but abit of carmex does the trick although its not as opaque over a balm.
The all over colour stick is probably the first time on this blog I will say that I don't actually like a product. It was silly really, I put down the coral version of this stick saying "I have too many corals" and picked out this frosted pink. Well it turns out the reason I have alot of corals is because I prefer them to pink... rookie mistake and its frosted.... arghhhh what was I thinking. The formula itself is lovely, quite thick so gives good pigment and they smell lovely and fruity. I did have a little play with it on my cheeks (shown below) and this is where I'll use it from now on. Its a nice compact stick though, great for travel and my make an appearance on an up coming camping trip!

Bourjois, Delice De Soleil

Do you sometimes find that your foundation is darker than your neck?

Do you fake tan to the point of tango then realise your foundation doesn't match?

Have you been sun worshipping but with a high SPF on your face (well done you)?

Problem SOLVED!
OMG I freaking love this product. I kinda bought it because it was abit of a gimic and I LOVE gimics but its probably going to be finished soon because I love it so much, I might for the first time in my life buy a back up!

This spray on bronzer by Bourjois launched as part of the summer collection. Its a fine powder spray that comes in one bronze shade. However it can be layered to make it darker.

I have been wearing this spray on its own and it does give alittle coverage to the face. I apply this at arms length after my foundation but before anything else, I spray it evenly all over the face. Some people have been saying that they blend the product after its applied, but I haven't found I needed to do that. Although if you were wanting to do something fancy like contour with this product you would maybe hold it closer and blend.

I have been using this on my face when I have been fake tanning my body to make everything match, but it can also be used on the body as a wash off tanner.

Here are some swatches, on the left the product is sprayed heavily and on the right of the big strip, it is sprayed lightly as you probably would on the face.
And here is the one sided woman, product on the right, none on the left. I was pretty heavy handed so it showed up in the photo, I'm not actually half Oum Pa Lumpa.

Has anyone else tried this product? What did you think?

Mini e.l.f haul

These are some bits I bought while I was on holiday in the states in June, I cant believe its taken me this long to blog about them. This is my first introduction to the brand e.l.f/eye.lips.face. I had never even seen a product of theirs before but thought I'd give then a chance seen as they are cheap as chips.

I bought the make up mist and set, the studio powder blusher in ticked pink and the studio golden bronzer.

I'll start by mentioning the mist, at first I was abit like "is this actually doing anything?" it made my skin feel fresh but that seemed about it, but today in sight of doing this post I actually tried to pay attention to my make up and how long it lasts, and this does actually work. I sprayed it on after doing my make up with the products I use everyday, noticeably the foundation lasted hours longer than normal. Its also really nice for "dampening" (for lack of a better word) a very matte foundation to make it dewy. The smell is abit horrid and slightly chemically but for a second of spritzing I can get over that. It isn't sticky or anything when applied. Well worth getting if you have a drier skin.

Here are the blusher and the bronzer:Really nice soft formula in both. As you can see from the picture below though (4 bronzer colours on top, blusher below), neither of them have a strong pigment.

The bronzer is very fine and subtle which makes it a really lovely setting powder for all over the face. The shimmer itself is fine too which means its not crazily glittery and the shimmer last all day with the fixing spray over the top. Its perfect for making the skin look alive on a night out or after a night out! I also really love how the blushers are packaged like Nars, they look really expensive.

I wouldn't say that any of these products are a "must have" there are defiantly better products out there but then for the prices they are absolutely amazing quality. Great alternatives to more expensive products such as studio fix, MSF (although I think I actually prefer this bronzer to MSF) or the shimmer bricks and Nars blushers.

Benefit: They're Real

A perk of being a Benefit employee is getting a month preview on all of the products and I have been sooooo excited about receiving this product.... They're Real, the brand new mascara.

I have quite straight, short eye lashes and I like my mascara to make them long, curly and seriously FAT. Which 'conveniently' is what 'They're Real' claims to do. The box says "94% of people tested saw dramatic length and volume, 90% saw base to tip curl, 94% saw visible lift, and 100% saw long wearing results".... so far so good, but does it deliver the goods?

YES, it really does. The mascara has a plastic comb brush, which I usually dislike, I just find them abit rough but I'll put up with that for the results. There is also a ball brush on the end which is amazing for combing through lashes, getting the really small ones, and also curling the lashes if you push them up with it.

And heres the results...BOOM. Super, super length and curl (below is without curling lashes before). The volume does takes a couple of layers to build up. The mascara only comes in jet black for now though. Also it wore amazingly, not a sight of a flake or smudging after this sweaty day in the sunshine.
Can you actually believe the difference in length? Amazing.

Small Miracle

I wanted to try the VO5 Miracle Concentrate after seeing Vivianna, from Vivianna does makeup giving it a rave review. If you have ever seen one of Vivianna's video you can understand why I literally ran out and bought any hair product she recommended!OMG this product is amazing, at first the whole oil on my hair thing had me abit freaked out because come on..... thats kinda why I washed it in the first place. But this formula is so lightweight. I have been putting it on the drier ends when my hair is towel dried and staying away from the scalp. It honestly feels like my split/dry ends have got better, so much easier to brush and less frizzy! I also put it right on the very ends after I have blow dried to make them smoother and shiny. At a tiny £5 I'm so impressed with this product! If like me you have split and dry ends but a pathological fear of the hair dressers, BUY THIS OIL!

Everyone has been banging on about Argan oil and Moroccan oil and this has actually made me consider trying the more expensive oils, any recommendations?