Zoeva Cocoa Blend Review ♡

Zoeva is a brand that's been talked about a lot lately, I've used a few of their brushes in the past, but after hearing a lot about the palettes I decided to order one.

Back when I bought my makeup brushes from them I think they were only available from the Zoeva website, and as they have to ship them from overseas I ended up paying more for the postage than the actual brushes I bought, they are now available from Beauty Bay, where shipping is free if you spend over £15, but standard shipping is only £1.95 so even if what you choose is less than that it isn't a huge extra cost.

The palettes are about £15.50 depending on which one you get, and I chose the Cocoa Blend palette, the description of the palette says that it was inspired by warm truffle colours, and is free from parabens, mineral oils and fragrance.

The packaging does really remind me of a fancy box of chocolates, it's really lightweight and thin so is easy to travel with, has a magnetic closure but doesn't have a mirror which can be annoying, it's not an issue if you have other products that have mirrors in but usually I use my eyeshadow palette mirrors as they tend to be bigger. The shades also have really cute names, which unfortunately my photos haven't picked up very well.

Inside the palette you get ten shades, and they are all really soft and easy to apply, I do find that some of them have much better pigmentation than others, and one of the biggest issues I have with the palette is that it's the darkest shades that are least pigmented and I struggle to use them to deepen the outer corner of my eye makeup which is why I bought the Urban Decay Oil Slick shadow. 

bitter sweet, sweeter end, warm notes, pure ganache, substitute for love, freshly toasted

Bitter Start- A pale nude shade that isn't very pigmented in swatches but does work nicely on the eyes

Sweeter End- A shimmery duo chrome taupey nude shade

Warm Notes- A gorgeous cranberry shade, quite pigmented and one of my favourite shades

Pure Ganache- A really pretty gold, perfect for brightening up the eyelids

Substitute For Love- A soft brown with a subtle shimmer, not that pigmented but is nice for blending 

Freshly Toasted- A rich mahogany brown, another favourite shade, I don't own anything like this yet

warm notes (again) subtle blend, beans are white freshly toasted (again) infusion, delicate acidity

Subtle Blend- A deep bronze, works really well with the gold and cranberry shade

Beans are White- A deep matte brown, not very pigmented which is quite annoying

Infusion- A dark matte brown with soft gold glitter, quite a soft colour

Delicate Acidity- A sort of purple taupe colour, apparently it's berry toned but I think it's more taupe

Bitter Start, Sweeter End, Warm Notes, Subtle Blend, Beans Are White, Pure Ganache, Substitute for Love, Freshly Toasted, Infusion & Delicate Acidity.

This palette is really good if you like warm eyeshadows, especially if you like to create cranberry/golden eyeshadow looks, I think this would be really nice in the summer, but I would have to use my Urban Decay Oils Slick eyeshadow to darken the look up sometimes.

If you have any more Zoeva makeup recommendations please let me know as I would like to try more of the brand, I hope you enjoyed this review, thankyou for reading♡

Smashbox Step-By-Step Contour Kit Review ♡

Hey, I know it's been a long time (again) since I last posted, and I'm not even going to try and explain, I guess I'm just not great at balancing work and blogging but hopefully I'll get there.

Today I wanted to talk about a new favourite product of mine, the Smashbox Step-By-Step Contour kit. I picked mine up in my local Cosmetic Company Outlet for a little cheaper but it usually costs £35 and can be bought in boots. 

To be honest I picked this up on a complete whim, it was pay day and I just felt like spending a little money and as I work in the same centre as the CCO I got a little extra discount, what better reason to try new products right? The moment I got home I was so excited to play around with the palette and have been obsessed ever since.

The palette includes a contour shade, a bronzer and highlighter, but what I love about all three is that they are all matte and none of them are really unnatural colours so they create a really natural look, originally I didn't know if I'd like a matte highlight but it really does work

With this palette you get a useful guide to contouring, and a brush that can be used with all three shades, while the brush is useful it isn't the best I've used, it's handy to take with you as it's travel friendly and gives a light but build-able colour, the main issue is that I've found it sheds a little which can be irritating. I tend to use other brushes that work better than this one but it's nice that they include it. 

Another thing about this palette is that no packaging is wasted. You have the three shades and a mirror, and a guide that you might be able to peel off the mirror (I have left mine on as it doesn't bother me) The brush comes separately in the box so there are no annoying spaces in the palette, or little compartments that you end up not using, making the palette perfectly slim and travel friendly.

I've spoken for long enough about the packaging so lets move onto the most important part, the product itself. As I mentioned you get three shades, one contour, one bronzer and one highlighter. There is only one shade option for the palette but as they are build-able it will work for many skin tones, including very pale as they are easily blend-able. 

The contour shade is the best I've found yet, it isn't warm or the slightest bit orange and is completely matte, making it perfect for contouring with, I like to build it up into the hollows of my cheeks with the Real Techniques Bold Metals Contour brush and then blend out with the Contour brush from their core collection, then take a little down the sides of my nose and up along the outside of my face in a "3" shape (through my temples and across the forehead) It blends so well and you really can tailor it so suit whatever makeup you're wearing that day.

The bronzer shade is probably the one I use the least, I'm not usually one for bronzing my face but I do use it sometimes with the core collection contour brush to help blend the contour shade into my blush sometimes when I want more warmth. It isn't too orange or muddy and works well with the two other shades. 

The highlight shade was the one I was more cautious of, I don't usually like a matte highlight but I've found that using this under my usual highlighter does help to brighten and add brightness, I use it with my Real Technique Setting brush and also apply down the bridge of my nose but I love it most as a brow bone highlight. While I don't like matte face highlighters I also hate shimmery eyebrow highlights and have never even thought to use something like this, but it's perfect. It helps brighten the entire area, emphasizing eye makeup without drawing attention to stray brow hairs, and makes eyebrows look more put together. It's brilliant!

I'm sorry this review was so long and rambly, I hope it's been interesting at least. I don't think I've tried a product review before so if anyone has any advice please tell me. 

Thankyou so much for reading, I'll try and not leave it too long until the next one.

Glossybox Sept '14-second chances and a little update..

I haven't been subscribed to Glossybox for well over a year, since I had my old blog, and I remember that back then there was a lot of bad reviews of the brand going around, I was never that unimpressed by the boxes that I had but it did get to the point where I couldn't justify getting them as I was on less money and it really was a gamble each month, recently however they seem to have upped their game so I decided to try it out again.