EOTD: e.l.f 100 Palette, Muted Olive #D1

I know this should really be a FOTD but I'm calling in ugly. I just could not get a photo of myself that I was satisfied with so I'm afraid it's just the eye you're getting!
So as most of you know I recently spent a long time swatching all the shades in my e.l.f eyeshadow palette to check out the pigmentation and quality (surprisingly good!) I've since had a request from the lovely Naomi to try and work with the palette to create a few day looks. I decided to make myself a mini challenge to eventually get 100 looks out of it. Ideally it'll be 50 day looks and 50 night looks, but it might change, who knows?! I'm not going to set myself a time constraint because I don't want to get stressed and quit when I miss dates like I did with my last challenge. So this is just an ongoing, fun, little experiment! No pressure. I'll mark them with a number e.g. #D1 = my first day look, #N1 = my first night look. It might even be a couple of years before I finish. Who knows. All part of the fun right?

So for my first look I decided to work with some ashy, military grey/greens.

I used shade 7 over the lid, 6 over the outer third, 1 in the crease and over the e.l.f eyebrightening liner in Black, and 9 as a highlight. It's not immediately obvious from the pan, but 9 has the most amazing gold shimmer to it and it really added a pretty highlight to the look. Mascara is The Body Shop Super Volume Mascara in Black (I only have one open at a time. I know you must be bored to death of it!)

I made sure to really blend out all of the shadows to create a subtle look. The shades seemed to really enhance the grey tones in my eyes which I actually loved! I definitely recommend clicking the image to get a better look at the shimmer, it's so pretty. This look made a nice base for a bold lip and I wore this with the Revlon Balm Stain in Crush. A highly successful first outing with this palette in my opinion!

I hope you like this look. What do you think to my little challenge? Are there any particular colours you'd really like to see in the next EOTD?

Lauren

Review and Swatching Marathon: Soap and Glory Wowed Mouth

On Boxing Day I was one of the mental people that went out in search of bargains. One such bargain that I managed to grab from under a dithering woman's gaze was the Soap and Glory Wowed Mouth Palette. Originally £12, it went down to £6 post Christmas at Boots and can still be found if you really wanted it. The amazing thing about this palette is that it contains all six colours from Soap and Glory's Super-Colour Fabulipstick Satin Finish lipsticks, so it is essentially your own little tester stand! You only get 1g of each colour but to be honest, the formulas are gorgeously creamy and thick and you don't need a lot of the product to coat your lips. I know that the amount I have now will certainly last me a while, and then I can purchase my favourite (possibly favourites...) in a full lipstick.

The product comes in a sturdy cardboard case with a magnetic fastening. The packaging is classic Soap and Glory, vintage, fun and girly. It also includes a large mirror and double-ended synthetic bristle lip brush which I've found to be very functional. I actually applied every colour using this lip brush and the only negative I have is that the bristles can be a bit sharp if you catch your lip on the edge. Other than that, it does the job very well! I've never used a lip brush before and but I really liked the effect this one gave me. It also cleans very well and dries quickly without losing bristles or bleeding.

Here's a picture of my bare lips so you know what I was working with:

Pale squidgy pink. I don't have much pigmentation at all. Hello blank canvas!

 Naked Beige

 Guava Rama

 Red My Lips

 The Missing Pink

 Perfect Day

Man Trap

Soap and Glory say: Featuring ULTIMELT™ lip shine & shaping technology, 3-D PLUMP™ peptide complex, Shea Butter, Monoi Butter & Vitamin E. Hyaluronic acid and Ceramide 2 (for aging repair and visible wrinkle reduction) help to give a soft, smooth, dewy, plump colour-fill pout.

I actually like every single colour! I had no idea how the shades would look on my skin but they translated very well from what you see in the palette. Word of warning though, they look absolutely nothing like the swatches on the Soap and Glory website! The colours are actually fairly similar but there's enough variation to keep me entertained. I absolutely adore Naked Beige and The Missing Pink as soft neutrals. I can see these being ideal for things like job interviews (which hopefully I will be seeing at some point!) and just as general daytime lipsticks. The only negative for me colour wise is that Red My Lips was a tad too brown for my complexion but I think it would look gorgeous on a multitude of other skin tones.

Wear time was quite good, around 3-4 hours. I have discovered so far that they transfer onto cocktail glasses and handsome men so there's a high chance they transfer onto everything else. Blotting and powdering would help combat this. Formula wise, as said before, they are all thick and creamy and gorgeous. I can't fault them really. The satin finish means that you do get a slight shine which I find very flattering. I haven't noticed any "plumping" but I have fairly full lips anyway so I'm not the best person to test! I can however say that this comes with none of the strange tingling of the Sexy Mother Pucker lip glosses.

I am utterly in love with this product and I think it's fantastic that I have the chance to try out every colour in the range. Can you imagine if other companies had palettes like this? A full set of MAC lipsticks in 1g portions... I dream of the day.

Have you tried any of the Soap and Glory cosmetics? Which is your favourite product?

Lauren

If you liked this, please go and check it out on Naomi's Blog (I will have a link up as soon as she's posted it) and vote for me in the upcoming competition! Details can be found on her page.