Hey Beauties!

NARS Cosmetics will be launching a series of Eye Paints quite similar to the MAC Paint Pots this coming autumn. They will be available in 10 different shades which can be used either as an eyeshadow or base and as an Eyeliner. The formula is said to be long lasting giving around 8 hours wear

They will be avaliable from the 15th of October on NARS Counters as well as online at narscosmetics.co.uk costing around £18.50 each

I am particularly looking forward to the colour Transvaal which is a grey tone i think that would look great for this season using this with a powder on top to smoke out the edges to give a really deep sultry look





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Hey Beauties!

Back in July i had the pleasure of trying out the Concoction Shampoo* and i was playing on doing a review then but i thought i should try out the shampoo and condition for a period of time before giving a review. I have finally finished a bottle of the shampoo which had lasted over 2 months with continual use since July its all ive used to wash my hair and im rather sad its ran out now because ive actually found a shampoo that works for me.

When i had first heard about it i had thought it must be a gimmick because how could this be any different from any other shampoo out there which has massive claims but i found that it did what it set out to do and had actually taken place over my beloved Tresemme that i always used to use

Concoctions is an entirely new idea which lets you fully customise the shampoo you want, i opted for the Lemon and Verbena it smells so fresh and clean and does a great job of cleaning my hair as i use a lot of products the best part comes from the 2 "shots" of super serum that you can choose and add to your favourite shampoo i chose Gimme More Moisture and Thermo Straight those are the 2 i thought would work best for me but there are tons for you to choose from like shots for volume or curly hair etc


I really like the idea of these shampoo's because i get to call the shots i get to choose what goes into the shampoo i use because i find a lot of the time on the market its either one or the other you cant choose what you want and i dont think ive ever seen a shampoo that has "Thermo Straight" which helps to protect against heat damage as well as to straighten your hair as you use heat.

The other thing i got to try was the Conditioner which contains Cashmere and White Lily which is the most softening and moisturising conditioner ive ever used. Since i started using Concoctions my hair has been in a better state than its ever been its soft and its doesnt feel like straw and i find its a lot more straight as well i don't know if thats the work of the shampoo but it feels better.

You can purchase the Shampoo for £14 which i know is a lot for a shampoo but i would honestly say that its worth it, The Conditioner is £16 which is a bit more expensive as well but as i said i would happily pay that. Right now the only place you can buy Concoction Shampoo is from Selfridges or online at www.concoction.co.uk





I'm happy to answer any and all questions.

For requests or questions send me a tweet @AndrewJamesBlog
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Hey Beauties!
Autumn is here and that means one thing for us beauty lovers! a makeup change i have to admit that the Autumn/Winter trends have to be my favourite of the year just because i feel makeup gets a lot more expressive and deeper.


To be honest i had never tried this line before apart from what Jayne's Kitsch had shown me. The range is called Autograph by Marks and Spencers you can see why i would never have thought to try it who would think makeup and Marks and Spencers but i found myself pleasantly surprised. This lipstick is a matte formula and im not usually a big matte fan but the texture of these blew me away they are matte but they aren't drying in the slightest they are smooth and super pigmented and don't drag on your lips. The colour is called Mulberry which to me is the perfect shade for the coming season the perfect berry/red ((Mulberry is a dupe of Illamasqua Shard Lipstick))



With matte lipsticks you will always get more wear than you would with any other finish i used this colour on a client last week and they liked it so much they asked me where to get it because it has stayed on through the event and  throughout dinner with only minor touch ups as well so you can tell how good the formula is



The packaging of this lipstick is quite reminiscent of the Chanel Rouge Allure lipstick range with the click top lid where you pull the lipstick out i really love this type of packaging just simple because it exudes class and sophistication. The Autograph lipstick is lighter than the Rouge Allure tube and feels a bit more plasticy but still is quite sturdy




You can get the Autograph Colour Intense Matte Lipstick in Mulberry from Marksandspencer.com or from the Marks and Spencer Beauty Hall for £8.50,

Hey Beauties!

I thought i would review something really fun today that ive had chance to play around with a bit, these are the Colour Xtreme Hair Art Sprays. They come in a range of different shades i have the Green, Pink, Orange, Purple and Blue.

When i first got these i was a little skeptical because i mean how could these be any different from anything else out there but i find these are quite different in a sense the Pink and Purple are UV colours which is so much fun! these would be perfect for a club or a gig etc as it would show up really well.
The practicality of these products are alright, when you spray the colour into your hair you are met with this really vibrant bright new colour which sometimes is hard to find in a coloured spray you need to let the colour dry into the hair before touching or it will stain your fingers i found it best to use gloves first. To get even more wear out of it i sprayed the hair with hairspray so it locks in the colour but i did find it transferred a bit which is a bit disappointing as i wouldn't want it to rub off on my clothes but i found the more time it was left to try dry the less it transferred

The best part about Colour Xtreme is they are temporary so you can wash it out of your hair when you don't want it anymore one of the bad parts is that they tend to turn the hair quite crispy if you dont brush through it once dry.



As you can see the colours do look pretty amazing so it would be best for a spur of the moment thing like i said above a night out or a gig i think they are great for on photoshoots as well but you would have to make sure it doesnt transfer onto the clothes
You can buy these from http://www.colourxtreme.co.uk or from Boots for only £2.99 each



I'm happy to answer any and all questions.
For requests or questions send me a tweet @AndrewJamesBlogIf you love my blog, Don't forget to follow me by CLICKING HERE! or following me on Bloglovin'
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Hey Beauties!

Cheeks to me were one of the hardest things to get to grips with, trying not to make it look like clown cheeks and trying to not blend it into oblivion. Since then i had an obsession with cheek colour and was recently sent this gorgeous product from Makeup Atelier. There have been a lot of this type of product been going around lately be it from Makeup Forever, ELF Cosmetics etc but i find that Makeup Atelier does it best.


There is no doubt about it this blush is extremely pigmented and when i say pigmented i mean you need the tiniest pea sized amount of product to get the benefits of this "Liquid" blush. I like the colour of this blush because its so bright it can be used on a number of different skin tones ive used this on clients which have been really porcelain to people who have a deep skin skin tone the key is just to blend and use the right brushes. This shade is called "Brown Orange" but to me its not actually orange at all its more like a sort of deep tea rose colour




The wear time on this blush is really long a it is so pigmented it also has staining properties which i really like. A lot of the time cheek colour tend to fade and rub off throughout the day but if i want to make sure cheek colour lasts on someone i will use this because once you apply it, its not coming off unless you use a good remover it would be perfect for really hot humid areas because you know it wont come off. You could easily get around 8+ hours wear out of this


The packaging on this product is quite similar to every other product like this which is a small clear pump bottle. I do think that the packaging makes it somewhat harder to dispense the product as you have to be really gentle to get the smallest amount of product out of the bottle otherwise you will waste a lot



You can buy the HD Blush from the Makeup Atelier website at makeupatelierparis.co.uk or from Love-Makeup.com for £14 compaired to Makeup Forever HD Blush you are getting more product for your money as the Makeup Forever HD Blush is £22.50

Hey Beauties!

Kiko will be launching this eyeshadow system soon called "Clics" it will be available for purchase on the 25th of September.
I really like the name "Clics" because its like you can click the eyeshadows into a customizable palette but the letters also mean something Composability, Liberty, Innovation, Colour and System Select I just think that is such a great idea. There will be 108 eyeshadows to choose from with a variety of different palettes to contain your eyeshadows, £3.90 for a 3 Palette, £4.90 for a 4 Palette, £9.90 for a 9 Palette and £15.90 for a 24 palette. The eyeshadows themselves will cost £4.90 each which to me that seems like an amazing deal because you will only be spending around £117 for the 24 palette whereas if you were to purchase a MAC palette will be £150 for only 15 eyeshadows.

I really like the amount of different textures you will be able to buy: matte, satin, metallic and pearly, as often with more affordable makeup everything seems to be shimmery but this refreshing to see a full range of textures

You can purchase these palettes from Kiko on the 25th of September at kikocosmetics.co.uk or from Kiko Stores






I'm happy to answer any and all questions.

For requests or questions send me a tweet @AndrewJamesBlog
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Hey Beauties!
I thought i would do another Splurge or Save post today one quite a new product that i have came to love.

Above we have the new Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Brow Mascara which is just like a clear brow gel but these are tinted to match the brow hair, i have Medium Brown and Dark Brown these are just brushed into the brows lightly to fill in any gaps in the hairs and to also sculpt the brows into a specific shape then we have the Bobbi Brown Natural Brow Shaper which is used in the exact same way its tinted as well i have the colours Rich Brown and Mahogany

As you can see the brushes are quite different, i think the type of brush makes a big difference when applying a product like this. Before buying the Maybelline Brow Drama I loved the Bobbi Brown Brow Shaper because i could use it on anyone for any type of type i found it most handy using it on Men when working on photoshoots on set because Men can sometimes have unruly eyebrows and these products just sort them out but now ive tried the Maybelline Brow Drama i actually like this more because of the wand, yes the end of it is a bit weird but it does work really well to get all the brows facing the right way and to give proper shape to them.
The colours for these both match really well i would say this is an almost exact dupe although the Medium Brown isnt as ashy as the Bobbi Brown Rich Brown


The only different as i said is the Bobbi Brown Rich Brown is a bit more ashy but thats really it. In comparison the Bobbi Brown Natural Brow Shaper has 5 different colours from clear to Mahogany a dark ash brown whereas the Maybelline Brow Drama only has 3 shades to choose from but i think in all the Maybelline Brow Drama is a good choice as it comes with 12 ml of product for only £4.99 and does an amazing job at defining and filling the brows and the Bobbi Brown Natural Brow Shaper is £15 for only 4ml of product so you can see thats a really small amount of product. So you are getting more than double the product with Maybelline for more than half the price

As i always say if you can afford the Bobbi Brown then buy that one these posts are just about giving people the facts so they can make up their own minds on which one they want, all of the opinions are what i like personally so dont feel that you have to go with what i say because you might like something i dont etc


I'm happy to answer any and all questions.

For requests or questions send me a tweet @AndrewJamesBlog
If you love my blog, Don't forget to follow me by CLICKING HERE! or following me on Bloglovin'

Thanks for Reading!

Hey Beauties!
I am always on the hunt to find the best foundation and sometimes it surprises me when i try something i never thought i would, its the case with the Ben Nye Media Pro HD Foundation* I didn't think i would like creams because i always had quite not so good experiences with them but these are quite interesting.


This foundation actually really surprised me because it can give really sheer natural coverage or you can build it up and it will still look natural but with coverage, i love the texture of the foundation its really creamy and blends like a dream unlike some other cream foundations which are quite thick and don't really do well on dry skin these look gorgeous! not to mention having 37 different shades to choose from you will definitely find your match





The wear time on these foundations are really good because they won't dry out or slip off while your wearing it i found once you apply it its on and it stays on i got a full days use out of it so around 7/8 hours worth of wear i did set the under eyes with a bit of powder then uses the Urban Decay setting spray.

Hey Beauties!

I was asked to do more of these posts and i actually like doing them because they are fun and they do keep me on the ball with trends.
This season tends to be a bit more out there with weird makeup rather than your time honored traditions which i love but you can take parts from the trends and incorporate it into your look

Firstly i saw a lot of Cat Eyes on the runway this season quite a few shows had their models sporting some quite weird but wonderful variations of the original cat eye (Christian Dior and Jason Wu) You can get this look using Illamasqua Precision Gel Eyeliner in Infinity.






















I saw quite a lot of my favourite kind of makeup really dark and dramatic with lots of deep colours like Blacks, Burgundys and just a lot of quite warm tones on the eyes (Gucci, Elie Saab) Its almost like grunge has made its comeback to the catwalk which i absolutely love! The Daniel Sandler "Scandal at Midnight" Palette would be perfect for this look.


Skin has become really important in the last season to this season ive saw a lot of really glowy luminous skin its said that makeup artists spent 5 times as long on skin as they normally would just to get that really flawless "not made up" finished look Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Foundation will give that gorgeous glowy skin without making you look too made up its great as its light reflectant too. 


As always Brows feature quite heavily in some shows the trend going away from thinner, structured brows to becoming thicker and more defined i think the trend is mostly thanks to Cara Delevingne. I love to use MAC Brow Pencils when filling in brows i often use the colour "Lingering"


Lips were also really big this season it was actually really nice to see they were all about texture from Matte Lips to Glossy and Velvet etc. It was all about different tones of reds i saw Berry tones to read bright letter box reds. You could use Illamasqua Shard, Box, Sangers, Howl and Maneater