REVIEW || COLOURPOP EYESHADOWS

Who hasn't been lusting over Colourpop products yet? Not a lot I bet. As soon as I've heard of the brand sometime a year ago I've been wanting to try out their products, and when I finally got my hands on some I was very very happy.

I have written a full review of the Lippie Stix here. So, if you have already seen this post then you'd know that I absolutely love Colourpop lip products but let's talk about their eyeshadows!

I bought a set of 4 for only $18 instead of $20 which is how much they would cost me if I had bought them individually. I love warm tones and all four of these are right up my alley so I was very excited to try them out.

I have the shades (l-r) Jinxie, Elixir, Seeker and Paradox. I must say that Paradox is my favourite as it's a very deep burgundy shade and shows up great on my skin tone - I also tried it on a friend who has a deeper skin tone and it looked great on her!

To say that these are only $5 and the pigment is fantastic and shows up well on deeper skin tones as well as light, these are totally worth the price and YOU NEED IT in your collection!!

I love the packaging of these, the cute little pots look very expensive and are handy to whip out a couple of shades to create a full eye makeup look. I think that these would look great in Alex drawers (so fetch) but I know that many people prefer to have their eyeshadows in palettes rather than singles, but thankfully you can get Colourpop eyeshadow pans to put in a palette! Hooray! The only downside of these coming in pots is that it would be very difficult to depot these and unfortunately these shades aren't available in the single pans yet :(

I will expand my Colourpop eyeshadow collection soon enough, and you'll hear about it all over my social media platforms! - I've been trying really hard to take better pictures and create better content so head over to my Instagram for pretty pics and Twitter for latest post news!

Have you tried any Colourpop products? Have you got a favourite brand for eyeshadows?

Lots of love,

Maya xo

5 EYESHADOW BRUSHES YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE - FOR ONLY £7.99!

I bet you're all wondering what sort of brushes can do the same job as a £19 MAC 217 brush? Well, tune in to hear about a few of my favourites which retail at only £7.99 for 9!

I bought this set with 4 more (face) brushes which cost me £7.99 for the set, however, I've seen just the eyeshadow brush set for just under £5. Of course, the power of how the eyeshadow looks is in the hands of the person applying it, but brushes can speed up the process haha.

I personally love the brush on the far end on the right-hand side the most. It's my ultimate favourite eyeshadow brush and I use it daily without a fail. I've been wanting to get my hands on MAC's 217 for a very long time now but the price has always put me off; now these have gone up by whole £3 which is more than this set of 5 costs?! Absolutely ridiculous if you ask me... (Update 16/02/2021 - I have since bought 2 of the MAC 217 brushes as they are a m a z i n g)

I use the flat brush from this set to either blend out my crease or apply eyeshadow primer with. The pointy one is great for applying dark shadow in the crease as it doesn't let fallout drop everywhere and keeps the shadow in place instead of when using a fluffy brush. The other two - which are slanted, are great for blending shadows together. I personally prefer the 4th one (see the last pic) over the 2nd, but that's a personal preference.

It also depends on which eyeshadows you are using when creating a make-up look. I suggest you try these out with trusty shadows to test these out properly! In this post, you can see my Morphe eyeshadow palette which consists of a mixture of Morphe, NYX, and Makeup Geek shadows. You can read my '4 eyeshadow palettes you need in your life' post here.

*This post contains affiliate links.

Have you tried cheap brushes which you swear by? Have you got any recommendations for good, affordable eyeshadow brushes?

Lots of love,

Maya xo

2017 || APRIL FAVOURITES

April, April, April... What a rollercoaster of emotions you were - just like the weather you brought to us this year! I must say I loved quite a few of the same items this year so it might look like a review - but I promise you they are so worth it.

First up, I've been really enjoying using the Kerastase Voluminifique Spray. I have very thin hair and it's difficult to keep it looking volumised and thick. I've been using this spray after every wash and then blow drying and styling my hair as usual, and I have noticed a change in the volume even after sleeping with my hair down. This is honestly a Holy Grail for me and I highly recommend it to all who haven't been blessed with thick hair.

The Collection Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Eyeliner in Glitz was my first glitter liner from this collection. It makes creating glam cut crease looks so much easier and it's great for those who aren't very good at using loose glitter as it sticks to the eyelid without any extra glitter glue. I try to use these as much as I can, but the turquoise shade is hands down my favourite and will get a lot of use this Summer!

Bell sleeves - my true love this Spring. How beautiful is this top from Topshop though? Not only has it got bell sleeves (which are so in this Spring - read my 'What's fashionable this Spring' post here), but also the oh-so-cute pie crust neckline! This is the top that's in my pictures however, the teal colour seems to be sold out on the website. I know for a fact that I'll be getting some more colours soon!

What have you been loving this April? Other than the hot days of course!

Lots of love,

Maya xo

HOW I FACE MY FASHION FEARS - TRY-DAY FRIDAY - IT'S OKAY TO STEP OUT YOUR COMFORT ZONE

It feels like forever since I last spoke about fashion - I'm very sorry about that as I know how much you love these kinds of posts. I promise I'll do more of those from now on! It's just hard to find the time for photo shoots and the right kind of person to take them! Once I'm done with my 2nd year at uni I will focus 100% on blogging so I hope you're all as excited as I am!

*Jumper, Mom Jeans, and Choker are from Primark

The idea behind this post is to share with you my fashion fears, and believe it or not there are quite a few... For example, I find it very difficult to have my arms and shoulders out because of my post-acne scars, but since being challenged by Dia&Co to step out my comfort zone and try something different this Friday, I wanted to show everyone that we all have our own insecurities even though we might seem confident.

Many people (including myself), feel like they can't wear a certain outfit because of their insecurities. I personally don't feel like I can pull a maxi dress off because of my height - I'm only 5ft3". But why does it actually bother me? I've been put down by people I used to call my 'friends' and I guess it stuck around with me that I'm 'small and tubby', but being a size 8-10 I know it isn't true.

*Leotard - H&M, Bra - Pink at Victoria's Secret

The company Dia&Co specialise in 14+ size clothing where they send you a Dia Box that's styled up by one of the team members and if you don't like something you can exchange it for something else - the great thing about this company is that you don't have to pay until you decide which items you'd like to keep! Erm, sign me up now, please!! I'd love for something like this to be available for petite girls like me!

*Loafers - H&M

How many times have you felt like you can't wear something because of your own insecurities or having other people's thoughts on your mind? Well, hear me out now, stuff them! Who cares what they think? If they think negatively then it shows that they're insecure about themselves, but I can guarantee you will receive a lot of compliments if you wear that floral skirt or those pointy kitten heels - trust me! Us women should empower one another instead of bringing each other down, so I say rock that outfit girl and make sure you pay others compliments too because it will make you feel good knowing that your little gesture could have made someone's day!

I now challenge all of you, my lovely readers, to rock the outfit you've been wanting to for ages but never got 'the chance' to wear ;)

*This post isn't sponsored and all opinions are my own. I was asked to share my fashion fears by the brand and decided to mention them independently. 

Lots of love,

Maya xo

REVIEW || S+ BY RESMED - HOW TO GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP (AD)

So, I bet you're all wondering 'How can I get a good nights' sleep?' well, listen up folks because I think I found a solution!

I was recently sent a monitoring advice called S+ by ResMed which has been designed to detect your breathing and monitor your sleep cycle.

I couldn't wait to try my S+ out and when it finally came I opened it up straight away. I went through the instructions with Kieran as we both suffer from sleep deprivation (his is much worse than mine so I thought it'd be best for him to try it out and see if it made any changes).

We set the monitor up next to our bed pointing towards Kieran's chest so it can monitor his breathing and movement. It has two charger ports so you can charge your tracking device (you have to download the app to see results) as well as turning on the S+ by ResMed.

It didn't come packaged quite like this, but I do try to keep it in the box as it is a valuable product to both myself and Kieran. The cable is long but I feel like it would benefit from being slightly longer as I do have to use an extension lead to place it comfortably near our bed (sucks not having closer plug sockets).

This is what the app looks like when you open it up. I have already registered and got Kieran to answer a short(ish) quiz about his sleeping habits, such as if he sleeps with the light on or if he watches the telly before bed.

As you can see, the S+ is a small monitoring device which (to me) is quite stylish. I would easily keep it out the box and store it on my bedside table but with my OCD I prefer to keep it in the box ha ha.

Here you can see one of the nights when we used the product and Kieran's sleep score was quite high, bearing in mind he only slept for 6.5 hours. The recommended amount of sleep a person our age should get is 8-9 hours so you can only imagine how tired he felt when he got up that morning!

Here you can see the tracking of Kieran's sleep. It's hard to get a good nights' sleep being a student and living in a noisy accommodation!

The quality of your sleep also depends on your mental health, so if you suffer from anxiety then it's likely your sleep won't be as good as it should be. If you do suffer from anxiety and find it hard to sleep then I suggest listening to calming music/sounds or meditating before bed.

Here you can see that my details are included on the app which I had done to protect Kieran's privacy however, he filled out the survey and information (such as weight etc).

Overall, I think this device is great for monitoring sleep cycles and try to overcome insomnia as well as learn to get better sleep. It's very handy and doesn't take up too much room. Kieran has mentioned that he feels slightly better about his sleep knowing what it is that wakes him up throughout the night and how to improve, therefore we both think that S+ by ResMed is a great investment to those who suffer with sleep deprivation.
The only issues I have with this is that you need to use wifi overnight which drains battery (it is suggested you charge the device your app is installed on using the same port the S+ is connected to), and also it would have been useful if it monitored both of our sleep cycles rather than just one person's at a time.

You can buy the S+ by ResMed here.

*This post includes PR samples.

Do you struggle with sleep? Have you got any helpful tips on how to get better quality sleep?

Lots of love,

Maya xo