Review : The Balm, Mary-Lou Manizer aka The Luminzer

I recently won Dee's Sleek and The Balm giveaway, the products were supplied by Beauty Emporium. Massive thanks to you both :) I'd never tried any products by The Balm before so was very excited for these.

Today I am going to share with you my thoughts on Mary-Lou Manzier, aka, The Luminzer.

Packaging

I really like the packaging, it has a Benefit-esque vibe to it which I love. It comes in a nice compact with a handy little mirror.

Product

The product itself glides on effortlessly and smoothly, this is one swipe in natural light. As you can see it has a lovely gold shimmer, but isn't too shimmery to make me afraid.

You can use this as a highlighter, shimmer and eyeshadow making it is a very versatile product.

Longevity

I wore the product alone on my eyes for a working day, to give it the 9-5 test. I was very impressed. As you can see in the photos the product lasted all day with very little creasing, bearing in mind that I used no primer at all and have very oily lids this is quite an achievement.

Would I recommend this product - yes I would. I'm not sure how easily available it is as I won the product and have never come across any products from The Balm before. If you come across this beauty I strongly suggest picking it up. The tin is huge (8.5g of product) so it will last ages.

*Please note, even though I won this product in a giveaway all opinions are my own, I was not asked to blog about my prizes.*

Review : VIVO Costmetics Eyeshadow Trio & Concealer

As I'm sure most of you are already aware VIVO cosmetics have recently launched in Tesco stores. VIVO cosmetics are very reasonably priced high quality make-up, with prices starting from just £1.50 they are certainly worth a try!

They describe their products as being 'alive with colour' and have been called 'the MAC of supermarket make-up brands'.

The lovely Kerry at VIVO agreed to send me some products to review. I received the Trio Eyeshadow Palette in Sugar Plum, the Undereye Roll on Concealer in Light (Shade 1) and a set of false eyelashes in Full On.

Today I am going to be showing you the Undereye Roll on Concealer and the Trio Eyeshadow Palette. I'm not very good when it comes to applying false lashes so have asked my sister to trial these for me...separate review to follow!

Undereye Roll on Concealer in Light £3.59

VIVO say : Hide tired eyes with the latest roller-ball technology. Swipe this roll-on concealer under eyes for instant coverage.

Available in: Light and Medium.

My thoughts : I was pleased when I saw this as the roller ball is the same as my current favourite under eye concealer, the Garnier Caffeine Roll-on, the difference being that the Garnier one costs £10!
The flaw with the roller ball is that the concealer does seem to jam at times, this is nothing that a little shake doesn't resolve.
The big plus of the roller ball is that application feels lovely as the ball is really cold.
This isn't the most pigmented concealer that I have tried but it does brighten the under eye area and the roller ball refreshes the area.
I wouldn't recommend this for someone who has very bad under eye circles, but, if like me you're just looking for a little something to brighten up the eye area I highly recommend this product.

Trio Eyeshadow Palette in Sugar Plum £2.50

natural light

indoors with light on

VIVO say : A collection of 5 stunning eyeshadows to blend for the perfect smoky eye.

Available in: Sugar Plum, Graphite Glamour, Green with Envy, Be-Dazzled and Innocence.

My thoughts : As you can see from the swatches these eyeshadows are very pigmented.
There is no fall out at all.
I love that there is a tutorial on the packaging and I like that you can see the colour of the shadows without opening it up.
These eyeshadows really are lovely to work with and glide on with a buttery texture.
I used this palette on Saturday night, I applied at approximately 6pm and got home at around 2am and it was still going strong!

Below are some looks that I created with the palette...

VIVO also sell individual pearl and matte eyeshadows for £1.50 each, baked shimmer palettes for £6, volume mascara for £2.59, lengthening mascara for £1.50, curve effect mascara for £3, kohl eyeliner pencils for £1.50, liquid liner for £2, eyebrow pencils for £1.50, ultimate brow and eye kit for £5, lipstick for £1.99, diamond sparkle lip gloss for £1.50, shimmer and shine lip gloss for £1.99, brush and highligher duo for £2.39, pressed powder compact for £2.39, mattifying loose powder for £3, radiant boost highlighter for £3.59, highlighter for £5, primer for £6, concealer kit for £5, matte foundation for £2.59, bronzer for £4, baked blush for £4, baked bronzer for £5 - so yeah quite a lot of products for not a lot of dosh!

For me the only downside to VIVO is the fact that they aren't widely available. At the moment their products are only available in selected Tesco stores (full list available on their facebook page). I have enquired and they are currently in talks about selling the products on-line - so fingers crossed!

Disclosure - I was sent these products to review but my opinions are 100% honest.

Review : ELF Duo Eyeshadow Cream Mocha Swirl - 9-5 Test

Hi guys, how are you all?

Today I'm going to be reviewing ELF's Duo Eyeshadow Cream in Mocha Swirl. This is from the £1.50 range.

Nice simple packaging. I like the clear lid which means that you can see the product at a glance.

As you can see the swatches appear to be quite pigmented.

8:30 am

However, this is what happened when applied to my eyes. I do have oily lids so maybe that is the reason, but it would hardly transfer. I had to build it up A LOT to get this result.

5:30 pm

Hello serious creasing! Unfortunately I cannot get on with this at all. As I said above I do have greasy lids so maybe this is why. If it wasn't for the creasing I think that these would make a good base for powder eyeshadows.

ELF say : "Express yourse.l.f. with the easy to blend, crease resistant, creamy duo eye shadow colors. Each gorgeous shade can be worn alone or together for a dramatic effect. The soft-blending formula can also be layered under powder eye shadow to set the color in and keep it lasting vibrant all day."

I say : The crease resistant claim really wasn't true in my case, but I'm yet to find a cream eyeshadow that doesn't crease on me, I think me and my oily lids need to take the hint and stay away from cream! As for the 'wearing alone for a dramatic effect' I'm not convinced! I think these would be better suited to be 'layered under powder eyeshadow'.

I am disapointed as this is the first ELF product that I haven't been happy with, but I can't help but think that all of the problems are down to my oily lids.

Have you tried these yet? What did you think of them?

You can buy the eyeshadows here, they cost £1.50 for 3g and come in a variety of colours.

Rouge Bunny Rouge Goody Bag

A while back I was lucky enough to win a Rouge Bunny Rouge goody bag via GlossyBox's Twitter. I was very excited to receive this as I loved the Rouge Bunny Rouge lipgloss that I received in my June GlossyBox.

My goodies arrived packaged in the normal GlossyBox outer packaging, which confused me somewhat as I hadn't long received my GlossyBox, I opened it to reveal the Rouge Bunny Rouge bag along with a lovely card from GlossyBox congratulating me.

Inside my goody bag I had a Decadent Duo in Flamenco Duende and a Long Lasting Eyeshadow in Unforgettable Oriole.

The eye shadow is described as a Delicate, metallic, white gold. Perfect as a highlighting eye shadow or full on dazzle effect for the evening.

As you can see the eye shadow is a lovely golden colour. This is very pigmented and as with all Rouge Bunny Rouge products the packaging is to die for! I don't want to use it because I don't want to ruin it!

You can buy it from Zuneta for £22.00.

This decadent duo is described as Creamy, sheerest, delicate honey-peach-beige lipgloss, with a hint of glitter paired with a silky, delicate illuminating tawny liquid blush.

As expected this lipgloss is gorgeous! I'm not so sure on the blush yet, I'm not really a fan of liquid blushers to be honest so can't really comment fairly on this. I will continue to play around with it as I can see that it does have a lot of potential.

You can buy this from Zuneta for £28.00.

Overall I adore Rouge Bunny Rouge products, being on the tight budget that I am I will not be repurchasing these products. If there was an amazing offer for Rouge Bunny Rouge, for say 75% off, then I would rush out and buy it all!! As that is highly unlikely I will continue to admire the gorgeous packaging of these products and use them for special occasions.

Thank you so much GlossyBox and Rouge Bunny Rouge for holding this giveaway and for picking me as a winner!

please note that even though I didn't pay for these products I was never asked to blog about them, I decided to share them with you as I genuinely do like the products. The views expressed are my own, personal views.

ELF 32 Piece Eyeshadow Palette in Everyday Basics

When ELF were running the 50% discount I decided to pick up one of their 32 piece eyeshadow palettes, I didn't think it would be great, but its £9 full price so with the discount I paid £4.50 - which meant I couldn't leave it there!

The packaging...

The packaging is okay, nothing special but its nice and sleek. I like the clear bit that gives you a little preview as to what is inside. The applicator looks a little lost! Its not the easiest to open, this is one of those annoying palettes that you dread trying to open when you've painted your nails earlier in the day, just me?

Top row...

There are some nice colours in this row, some a lot more pigmented than others.

Second Row...

Some nice colours again, but I did find the end four quite chalky in this row.

Third row...

This is my favourite row by far as these are the type of colours I wear more often, I also think that this row of colours is a lot more pigmented than the others. Don't get me wrong, there are still some weak colours in this row as I'm sure you can see by the pictures, but the first two silver shades have won me over!

Fourth Row...

This is the worse lot of colours for me. It was a real struggle to get the camera to pick the first two swatches up, on the main photo you can hardly see the first swatch.

Verdict...


This is a very mixed palette. Some of the colours are gorgeous and have great colour pay off, then some of them are very weak, however the palette does only costs £9! I would recommend this palette exactly for the reason that ELF have branded it, as an everyday basics palette. This is a nice, affordable palette that is great for creating quick, basic daytime looks. I will get a lot of use out of the browns and silvers and am personally looking forward to creating some various looks with it. I also think (hope)  that a lot of these colours will work better with a primer.