17 magnetized

On Friday I picked up the new 17 magnetized nail varnish in 'Green'. To be honest I was just so fascinated in how it worked I couldn't leave Boots without it.

So you paint the varnish on as normal (I left one coat un-magnetised then applied another), then straight away while its wet hold the magnet (in the lid) over the nail... and this is the finished result...
Pretty cool, I really love it and at £5.99 what a bargain! Only thing I would say is caution if your like me and your varnish normally chips before you open the front door in the morning, because of the art effect, every time it chips you have to completely remove the polish and start again. It does dry super fast which doesn't make it such a pain in the arse.

All of the colours in the range were beautiful jewel colours, perfect for autumn.

Some new eye shadows

I've started wearing eye shadow almost every day recently, I've always BOUGHT eye shadows I've just never really worn them but now is the time! So the new 'eye shadow wearing me' obviously had to go out and buy some more!!! and here they are...

From left to right. Mac Star Violet, Benefit leggy, Benefit Fawn over me, No7 Pewter and No7 Buff.
Swatches, left to right, Star Violet, Fawn over me, leggy, buff and pewter.
Star violet is my first ever Mac shadow, its just the most beautiful metallic burgundy. Although swings alittle pink when its on the eyes too.

Fawn over me, I always use this colour on customer at work so I decided to get it. Its really suits anyone with green or brown eyes, and makes the most amazing base for smokey eyes, or any purple colours. The Benefit powder shadows need a primer because there hold isn't amazing but they are lovely and soft in texture, described as 'Velvet finish'.

Leggy is another great base to build darker colours on top of. It suits blue or lighter eyes better than my darker ones but its really brightening.

Buff and Pewter... I love these cream shadows, they were part of the autumn collection but I hope they bring out more colours because they are amazing value. I got them with my No7 voucher and staff discount so they were like crazy cheap. They stay on so well, seriously all day with no creasing. Buff also makes an amazing primer. Both colours only have a really slight shimmer so they perfect for day time. These colours were limited edition but alot of counter still have them in a draw if you ask them.

I also bought the new Sleek nude palette, but if you need to see another photo of that then you have obviously been living in a cardboard box for a month and don't really need to see it :-P

And the winner is....

I used random.org to select a winner for my '50 followers Benefit give away'..... and the winner is *drum roll*

"DELYTEFUL SPEAKS"!!! woohooo!

I'll email you now and get your Benefit goodies sent out to you asap!

Thank you to everyone who entered and hopefully soon I'll be celebrating 100 :-)

August Favourites

WOW, I've actually been organised enough to do a August favourites when its actually close enough to August for it to be acceptable. So here are the bits that I have been loving this past month, sorry in advance for being a total Benefit whore!

No7 Lipstick in Grace, I think this was from last summers limited edition collection called 'St Tropez'. I love this lipstick so much, I will actually cry when it finishes, god dam you limited editions! Shouldn't really tell you all about it as there is no way you can have it haha but the texture is so silky like a balm, the colour is just the most perfect 'my lips but better' pinky nude colour and if any one can recommend a dupe from the swatch I'll love you forever.

Benefit, They're real mascara. Honestly this really is the best mascara I have ever tried! The lengthening effect is amazing without the lashes looking all spidery. The true test was that naughty me fell asleep with all my makeup on last night, and its so long wearing it was unscathed this morning, no sign of any rub off either! You can see a full review here... http://confessionsofacosmetic-aholic.blogspot.com/2011/08/benefit-theyre-real.html

Benefit Browzings in Medium. If the 23 year old me told the 15 year old me that I would be obsessed with making my eyebrows dark I would have laughed in my face. It was so uncool to have big eyebrows when I was younger, I used to even bleach mine to make them lighter. Browzings is a wax and a powder that you mix together and apply to your brows with a brush. I just prefer it to a pencil, it gives a much stronger look.

Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer. I bought this sample size tinted moisturiser in America because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I really love it, makes my skin look so dewy, the colour is slightly light but nothing abit of bronzer cant fix and it gives really good coverage for a TM. It doesn't last that well but I've never really found a tinted moisturiser that has. I will definitely be buying this full size, even though its crazy expensive.
Benefit, That Gal face primer. I had forgotten how good this product actually is. I have dry skin so silica based primers seem to dry my skin out, this one is a cream base for brightening the skin. It makes my foundation last all day, and its stays looking 'just applied' all day. It really improves long lasting foundations like Double Wear which can dry out during the day. I'd seriously recommend if you have dry skin to try this product.

These are the two brushes I'm obsessed with at the moment. (Top) The stippling brush is some cheapo brand called 'Royal and Langnickel' but I wanted to see if I would use a stipple before I invested. I use it for everything, foundation, cream blusher, powder! I will be purchasing the Mac version very soon.

(Bottom) The contour blush brush from Sephora. I absolutely love the Sephora brushes, I think they could possibly be better than MAC ones (in my opinion). I use this one for contouring bronzer, I apply bronzer to the side of the brush then apply under the cheek bones. I might also get the ELF version of this brush because I've heard other people say they use it for foundation, but I wouldn't want to get oils in my powder brush.

Thank you for reading, What have been your August favourites?

Look at all the empties!!!

Firstly I wanted to say a big welcome to my new followers!

Secondly, this post is going to be all about me showing off, showing off the new me, the new 'product finishing' Liv!

I have been rather skint through August, with 3 big birthdays taking up most of my money, so spending had to be cut down and I've actually be using up things I already have. Which for me is very very rare! So I thought I'd take you through all the products I finished in August, and here they are...All EIGHT of them!
- First up, Protect and perfect intense serum. At the moment I'm totally paranoid about getting wrinkles and even though I'm only 23 my very dry skin is starting to show lines :( booo skin! I know this product is raved about but it actually didn't make any massive improvement, although my wrinkles didn't get any worst I guess. I think its more for firming "loose" skin than getting rid of fine lines because my skin did feel more firm. It feels really lovely and smooth when going on, kind of like a silica based primer. I've started using a different serum that I love much more but more on that another time.

- Then it was the Dream satin liquid from Maybelline, *shivers* god awful foundation haha! I basically saw this was coming to an end and trucked through it even though I don't really like it. It looks lovely and fresh, with good coverage when it first goes on but I find most Maybelline foundations dry out my skin in patches after a few hours (excluding FIT which is amazing) and this one did just that.

- OH the holy grail of cleansers, cleanse and polish by Liz Earle, Totally fab! Just try and stop me from re-buying....nuff said!

- Gee that was quick, eye makeup remover by Benefit, really good, oil free remover with no residue. Although this product has been discontinued, the new "remove it" eye makeup remover (£16.50) is the same with a better smell. I did like this alot and it did a really good job but I'm actually one of the only people in the world that actually prefers an oil based eye makeup remover, if you don't give "remove it" a try!

- Clarins Wake up booster and daily cream from the energizer range (£19.50). I loved both these products, they smell absolutely DIVINE! The toner was really refreshing and cream gave so much hydration for a gel like formula. The only thing about the cream that I didn't like was no anti-aging properties, but as the range is aimed at young skin its obvious why not! I would really recommend this for a younger, normal-dry skin!

- M&S Shea nut body butter. Not a massive fan of this cream, it smelt nice but it felt kind of "sweaty" after you rubbed it in, I really don't know how to explain that in a nice way haha! It didn't soak in quickly and made me feel really hot when it was absorbing!

-Triple performing facial emulsion by Benefit (£19.50). Another lovely cream for younger skin, it really does brighten the skin up too. People actually commented on how good my skin looked when I was using it. I prefer the richer cream in the range but I think this would suit oily to slightly dry skin as it gives really really good hydration. Again it smells really nice, I'm abit obsessed with how products smell.