Guest reviewing Clinique Anti-Blemish over at Vex in the City

I trialled Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions Liquid Makeup as a guest reviewer for Vex in the City over the past week or so. If you want to know what I thought, you can see my review here

Illamasqua Nail Polish in Ruthless

I know, I’m a bit late to the Illamasqua party but Illamasqua polish was on my wishlist, so when I saw that this colour was £8.50 on ASOS (and I had a £5 voucher) and they were doing free delivery I went for it!

“Ruthless” is what I’d call a true red – a bright, classic, jelly colour more on the orange side of red than the pink, as I think the first pic shows.

Application was lovely, the formula isn’t too wet or too gloopy and the brush is firm enough for you not to end up with polish everywhere, but not so stiff that it causes drag. I didn’t have a problem with the square lid of the brush when I was painting either, which I've read is a problem for some people - they just remove the square part of the lid and use the smaller bit underneath. It dries in a reasonable amount of time (note to self: find Seche Vite, AWOL since I moved house!) and lasted 2 days on without chipping, this is without a topcoat though since without a fast-drying one available I’m too lazy to put it on.

This pic is after the 2 days and you can see the tip wear, particularly on my index finger - again, I must stress that this is without topcoat.

Diamond Cosmetics Nail Polish in Chainmail Charm (310)

After seeing amazing pics of this polish on a few blogs (which you’ve probably already seen too), I thought I’d give it a go – I bought it for £5 including postage from Funky Nails and it arrived the next day.

When I first started applying it, I was like “hmm.” It seemed very watery, thin and not like it would actually reach any sort of decent pigmentation no matter the number of coats at all. And the glitter just looked silver. After 3 coats I was still a bit disheartened as it looked a bit of a greyish black with lots of fine silver glitter. Um, why in everyone elses pics did it look an amazing multicoloured holo and mine looked like this? But I then found that under bright light – artificial I’m afraid as I live in crappy old grey England – the gorgeous holo effect comes out as you can see in the pics.

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again…WHERE’S THE SUN?!

For £3 plus postage, I can’t argue with this. I’m love black polishes with glitter, and multicoloured glitter? Count me in! I’d definitely buy this again. I used Stickey basecoat and Seche Vite topcoat. The polish lasted 4 sparkly holo days before chipping.

"Women turned to nail polish during the recession"...

...I don't mean that women all over the US were turning into bottles of polish, but they were definately buying them!

According to this piece of research by Kline Group , US nail polish sales grew by 14.3% in 2009 "due to the return of nail color in the fashion world, as well as the shift from nail salons to at-home application as economic instability motivated consumers to forego salon visits. Nail industry marketers also responded well to consumer demand and focused on new launches, offering a wide range of new products to engage the recession-stricken consumer."

Sales of lipsticks and glosses declined by 5.3% and perfumes considerably more. Other toiletries and personal care items (the every day stuff like deodorants, shaving stuff etc) suffered the least.

God if my business degree was about this kind of thing, I'd enjoy writing the damn essays!

Pixi Lip Blush in Youth

I used this product previously a few years ago but I bought “Happiness” and “Love” (pink and red, respectively) and was a bit surprised at how bright the colours were, especially compared to the swatches on Pixi’s website, so didn’t really wear them.

Anyway, I had wanted this for a while but didn’t really want to pay £12 plus postage from their website and hadn’t seen it anywhere else. I was just browsing around Boots one morning on the way to drop some keys off and I noticed they had a Pixi stand, I raced over, swatched a few and came away with this (and paid using my Boots points so essentially this was free – I’m aware that’s not quite true but still…). Just to go off track a minute, has anyone noticed that Boots has gotten way better? I did during this visit, they have Ardell lashes, Pixi, Butter London and loads of other great new stuff I hadn’t seen there before.

Back to the lip blush - it’s a really nice sheer, light pink that gives a hint of colour to my lips (mine are quite pale) so it looks like I’ve got something on but isn’t too OTT like the other colours of this I had. All of the lips blushes are matte and this is no exception. I didn’t realise until just now that a stray hair has stuck itself to my lip in the pic either!

Application is reasonably easy – the nib is like a felt tip pen so you basically just draw on your lips, it’s not hard on the lips or anything though but does feel a bit weird. One thing I will say is there is a bit of a strange smell to this, it isn’t strong, but it smells really vaguely of marker pen. Also, you need to make sure your lips are in tip top condition as this really shows up any dryness, I would imagine the formula might be a bit drying on the lips too if you were wearing it all the time. Pixi Lip Blush is pretty long lasting (maybe 4-6 hours) and because the colour is light, I don’t experience that horrible thing where you eat/drink something and the colour wears off in the middle and leaves you with a gross feathery lipliner look.

To summarise (can you tell I’ve been writing essays a lot at the moment?), I like this product and would buy again, I like it as an everyday lip colour – however I think it’s a little overpriced for what it is so I might look for an alternative. This is much easier and neater to apply than the Bourjois Rouge Hi-Tec lip stains though (between £3-8, depending on where you get them from)

If your Boots doesn’t stock Pixi, these lip blushes are available from http://www.pixibeauty.com/

How nice are these false nails by Urban Rebel!

Midnight Graffiti
Leopard French

Feline French

Boudoir French

Black Lace

Pics all taken from ASOS.com

I just spied these and whilst I'm not generally a false nail wearer, I think these are LOVELY! And they look (to me anyway) like a cheaper version of Minx. And since I can't do konad to save my life...

They're £5 and are available from http://www.missselfridge.com/ and http://www.asos.com/ - there are a few other designs but I wasn't so keen on them.

So, what do you think? Do you wear false nails? Any recommendations for fancy falsies (I'm not keen on the french mani ones, I can do that on my own nails)?

Balm Balm Tea Tree 100% Organic Lipbalm - Review

I got this lipbalm for Christmas but didn’t use it at first because I’d never heard of the brand and was perfectly happy with the Anatomicals balm I was using. I can’t remember why I started to use it all of a sudden actually?

The packaging was pretty unassuming:

My first thought was “hmm, this balm feels hard in the tub” and my next was “oh my god I don’t like the smell”, because let’s face it, tea tree isn’t the nicest smell in the world.

But actually, this is one of the best lipbalms I’ve used, it’s really really moisturising and feels nice and glossy on the lips. It keeps your lips looking nice, and I have now got over my initial reservations about the smell and the hardness in the tube, it melts into the skin on contact like a lovely oil. It also has a lasting moisturising effect, I can reapply it every few hours rather than every 10 minutes and it still works its magic.

It's nice with lipstick over too - it makes more of a sheer wash of colour rather than a strongly pigmented one. I've got it on under my Revlon Colorburst lipstick now and the colour looks really nice, not too heavy for work either.

I wanted to re-purchase when it ran out, but had no clue about the brand. After going to their website (http://www.balmbalm.com/), I then discovered that their products are 100% organic, multi-purpose and certified by the soil association; this isn’t something that I personally think about when buying products but it is nice to know! And yes I realise it says some of that on the tub but what can I say, I'm not the most observant. I also found out from the website that it comes in a frangrance free version as well, hallelujah!

At less than £3, it’s a make up and handbag staple for me! I got mine from Boots if anyone was wondering but it is available from other places too.

Leighton Denny Silver Screen Collection plus some other Leighton Denny polishes (yes, I'm spoilt...)

My mam came down this weekend and brought with her some amazing treats for me, for absolutely no reason. I'm far too spoilt (and lucky) and my mam obviously knows me too well!

Leighton Denny 9 Piece Silver Screen Collection

It includes four polishes (this is the brights collection, it also came in neutrals apparently), a hoof stick, cuticle oil, nail and hand cream, polish remover, base coat, corrector liquid, a brush to do corrections with, a file and some instructions on how to do various things with the polish.

Let's have a closer look at the polishes...

Millionaire is my favourite - it's a gorgeous pinky-lilac shimmer with a gold duochrome. And these polishes LAST. It survived 2 days of moving house on my nails and is still going strong!

And just because, obviously that wasn't more than enough, she also got me three more Leighton Denny polishes. I LOVE these!

Notorious is my favourite out of these three - a really nice turquoise-teal colour that again, lasts really well.

I will get into swatching them hopefully pretty soon - some of these colours really HAVE to be seen on!

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Cloud Nine (white with pale multi glitter)

This is the first China Glaze polish I’ve owned . Cloud Nine is a sheer frosted white with pale multicoloured glitter in it. I struggled to choose between this colour and Kwik Silvr and I kind of wish I’d gone for the latter as the swatches I’ve seen show that Kwik Silver was probably what I wanted (so an excuse to purchase more polishes, yay!)

Whilst I really like the colour from a distance (i.e. where you can’t see the mistakes), the application left a lot to be desired. It managed to be gloopy and patchy at the same time, even when it had seemingly dried, resulting in bald patches on the nails which annoyed me up close. It took 3 coats to achieve the opacity I wanted, and the finish still wasn’t great – there was still also a bit of VNL. It isn’t as white/opaque as it looks in the bottle at all.

It chipped after a few days and almost started to peel off fully once it had chipped. D’oh! For a glitter, it wasn’t that rough, but didn’t feel smooth to the touch (same as most glitters).

Mac Cremesheen Glass in Crème Anglaise (and The Cosmetics Company Store at Cheshire Oaks)

I made such a great discovery last week when I went to Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet for the first time ever (sorry this is going to sound like I’m on this companys payroll and I’m really not) – The Cosmetics Company Store.

OH MY GOD. It’s full of discounted (I assume overstock/discontinued/end of line) cosmetics from brands like Mac, Bobbi Brown, Estee Lauder, Prescriptives, Clinique etc.

The stock is a bit hit and miss and haphazard but if you look there’s some great stuff – don’t be put off by the fact that everything there looks like a well-used tester, if you pick up the product and colour that you like and take it to the counter, you get a brand new fresh one in new packaging from the sales assistant. I nearly didn’t buy anything because I thought you had to buy the manky old used ones!

For example, this Mac Cremesheen Glass in Crème Anglaise that I bought for £9 usually costs £14.50 and is a really nice neutral “my-lips-but-better” colour that lasts pretty well for a gloss. I really wanted a Mac lipstick (see my wishlist) but I didn’t really fancy any of the ones available so I got this instead. It also has a yummy vanilla scent and (I think) it tastes like ricepaper - which is totally fine by me as I really like ricepaper :-)

They had Mac stuff from the Dame Edna and Hello Kitty collections, as well as some of the more staple collections and some stuff I didn’t recognise. I’m not mad into Mac, as I don’t wear eyeshadow (one of Macs strong points I believe) and only really bother with their lashes. But pffft, when it’s discounted…count me in!

There’s also a Revlon store at Cheshire Oaks as well which I stayed in for as long as my boyfriend would let me (aka not very long). And if you go to the Cheshire Oaks website and register, you get a 10% discount card that can be used at selected retailers.

I got it! YSL Elle Limited Edition Collector 2010 Perfume

In my post last week about Pucci Vivara I mentioned a perfume by YSL that I had seen in a few shops whilst I was in town, liked the smell of, liked the packaging and thought I had the name of (YSL Elle) but after looking online hadn't been able to find. With your help I managed to find it and snap it up, yay!

YSL Elle Limited Edition Collector 2010 (90ml)

Mmm, to me it smells like YSL Babydoll crossed with Dior Addict Shine - two of my favourite ever perfumes. I haven't actually smelled the original YSL Elle but I probably should since I suppose it's been the inspiration for this one.

It's very light, sweet and fruity, and like YSL Babydoll has a bit of a grapefruity scent to it. This is again a lovely perfume for summer and basically reminds me of sunshine and cocktails (I don't mean it smells of booze by the way!). Also, how nice is that bottle?! The picture doesn't really do it justice but it looks really striking in real life with the splashes of colour on it.

Why is it I like these "follow-up" perfumes like this one and Dior Addict Shine rather than the original ones (e.g YSL Elle and Dior Addict)?

L'oreal Matt Morphose Souffle Foundation

I’m a bit confused (again) as to why L’oreal have randomly brought out a mousse-type foundation a few years after a lot of other brands did. But never mind, they're the multi-national cosmetics company raking in millions, not me. I’m biased anyway as I don’t really like mousse foundations much.

Can’t really comment on the packaging as this was just a tester but from what I have seen of the packaging it doesn’t look like anything particularly fancy - the colour I had was 140 Beige Natural.

On first try it was as I had expected; very thick, matte, not particularly easy to work with (the fact that when I rubbed it in, it kind of pilled into little balls and flaked wasn’t great) and pretty heavy coverage. I didn’t think the finish was very natural at all but in fairness the shade was a little too dark for me so that may have contributed to this.

Don’t think I’ll be buying the actual full size of this…

Emilio Pucci Vivara Perfume

My usual Dior Addict Shine was about to run out and I needed a new perfume - so when I spotted this in Space NK, I had to have it:It's called Vivara and is by Emilo Pucci.

Now I am OBSESSED with Pucci prints (I've actually gone into House of Fraser just to ogle £200 Pucci scarves I have no budget to buy) so if I'm honest it was all about the packaging for me. I quite like the smell but it is a lot more heavy and "grown up" than I usually wear.

I'm normally a fan of sweet, fruity perfumes (Britney Spears Fantasy, anything by Escada etc) so this mix of amaretto, jasmine and patchiouli is quite different to my usual scent.

However, today when I was in Debenhams I spotted a YSL perfume that I loved the look and smell of (it was very sweet and citrusy, not a million miles away from Dior Addict Shine actually) - I think it was called Elle but when I've googled it, the packaging is nothing like the one I saw in store, it looked like it had paint splashes on it? I saw it in another perfume shop too so I haven't just dreamed it up. I'm confused!

What's your favourite perfume? Or your favourite "type" of perfume?

L'oreal NutriSummer Mist and Face Tanner Review

As a huge fan of the Loreal NutriSummer Gradual Moisturiser, I saw that they had a face moisturiser and a tanning spray and had to try them. I bought them a while ago but haven’t used them yet, I’m such a lazy tanner I either pay to have a spray tan or don’t bother. But I’m on an economy drive at the moment, and the weather is so crap, might as well cheer myself up with tannage!

L’Oreal NutriSummer mist

£8.99 for 150ml (slightly more expensive than the moisturiser which is £8.99 for 200ml)

Aerosol spray tanning liquid. Instructions were very good – clear and exact, even down to what order to apply it to your body parts. However, this doesn’t give that lovely moisturising feel that comes with the gradual moisturiser and as the liquid is clear it’s hard to tell if you’re applying it evenly or missing places out, particularly as you’re instructed that if the skin feels wet, you’re applying it too closely. The tan dried very quickly and left no residue on the skin, which I like.

It smelled strange – not fake tannish, but not a great smell. I applied this before bedtime and come the time to get up it did have that faint biscuity smell that comes with fake tan.
With the moisturiser, I usually have to build it up over a few days anyway so this was no surprise that it took two applications of tan to get the desired colour – not really really dark but not unnoticeable either. However, as I had predicted, because the tan is a clear liquid it was extremely patchy on my arms where I had missed huge patches without realising (I THOUGHT I’d sprayed carefully and evenly) so I had to wear a long sleeved dress to go out in! I’m not sure how long it actually took to develop as I left it overnight. The colour lasted about 3 days before I noticed patchiness where the tan was coming off.

I don’t think I’d buy this again,I’ll stick to my usual NutriSummer moisturiser, I find it easier to work with, even if I do have to get someone to help me do my back! The spray is really good for doing if you’re in a hurry because of the quick dry time and the colour is just like the moisturiser one but it’s too easy to miss areas - which isn’t as bad with the moisturiser, though it’s clear it at least looks “wet” on your skin so you know where it is, even if I have to dry out for an extra 5 minutes.

Also, even though it’s a really fine mist that comes from the bottle, I felt a bit like I was spraying for ages and after two full body applications it feels a bit empty, so I don’t know how many tans it would actually last, especially when building the colour up. I may update!

L’Oreal NutriSummer 24 Hour Moisturising Lotion Face

£7.99 for 50ml

Again, instructions very good and clear. Strangely, the smell of this was quite nice, like peach yoghurt – this did smell “biscuity” by the morning though. Application very easy and straightforward, to be used in place of your moisturiser basically. Again, dried quickly and left no residue on my skin. Previously I’ve used the body moisturiser on my face (naughty I know) and it seems to cause me to breakout, this didn’t.

The colour was fine and had applied well, it’s slightly lighter than the body tan but I think this is probably the general idea. I’d probably buy this again in conjunction with the 24 hours gradual tanner as it gives the colour, is a similar formula to the tan but doesn’t make me break out. It also contains SPF 15 which I think is a must-have for facial products. Yay!

I also noticed that NutriSummer products are on offer at Boots at the moment (cheaper than what I paid for them and have stated in this review, d’oh!), so head on down!

My favourite Bourjois products

I always repurchase these, they’re my failsafes!

Bourjois Liner Feutre in Black

A liquid liner with felt tip applicator that lasts for ages and goes on very neatly and straight, you can make the line thick or thin easily too, and it’s not too expensive. This is my favourite liquid liner by far.

Bourjois Rouge Hi-Tech
A sheer, water-based lipstain that lasts for quite a while. It gives a wash of colour and doesn’t just come off straight away, it has quite a matte finish so probably not for glossy girls! For the price, the length of time it lasts and the range of colours, I think they’re an amazing buy. I’ve also seen them on another blog used as cheek stain and it looked pretty good when I tried it. I have a pink, a coral and an orange – annoyingly, the names aren’t on them now that they’re not in their packaging, though after a bit of researching I think they’re Cyber Cassis, Rose Pixel and Rouge Futuriste. Orange lips are meant to be in so I’ll be wearing that one!

What's your favourite Bourjois product? What do you think of the brand in general?

OPI Nail Laquer in Teal The Cows Come Home

Since falling in love with Givenchy Vernis Please Bleu, and having my heart broken when I realised it didn’t come out until May, I decided to look for an alternative to it and stumbled upon OPI Teal The Cows Come Home. And I think that, from the pictures I’ve seen of Givenchy it looks pretty similar! It’s a lovely bright turquoise with a slight sprinkling of fine silver (?) glitter in it, giving it an almost-metallic look, you know that type of polish that OPI do really well. The pics here are of three coats, no top coat – after two coats there was still VNL but other than that, no application problems. The only thing I didn’t like was the smell, it almost smelled like burnt hair or plastic, not a smell I’ve ever come across in an OPI polish before?

In some pics I’ve seen of this it had a greeny tinge and it can look like that in dim lighting. A bit of sunlight though and it really pops a bright blue. The polish lasted 3 days before the dreaded tipwear began. All in all I really like this polish and can’t wait for summer in the vain hope that it will be sunny and bring the colour out!

Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Fuschia

After seeing a blog post about these lipsticks on BritishBeautyBlogger, I wanted it solely based on the packaging. It’s black and looks quilted. I have a weird thing for quilted things so to combine lippy and quilting, phew I’m almost in heaven. And it has Revlon embossed onto the actually coloured part of the lipstick, bit fancy isn’t it?

Sorry, though it’s another bright pink lipstick! It doesn’t look much different to the Barry M colour (possibly a little more blue/purple based?) but feels much nicer once on and during application, the formulation is much more shiny and creamy and feels like it’s gliding onto lips smoothly rather than drying them out. Putting the Barry M pics side by side with the Revlon, they look SO similar! I expected the colour to be a bit more diluted than it was but it’s actually pretty pigmented. I think the sheeny finish with this gloss makes it a bit less in your face in person– I feel like I could wear this in the day more easily than Barry M.

For a creamy lippy, the transfer actually wasn’t too bad – I still had some lipstick on after eating, drinking etc though it was a bit faded. It stay on from about 8am-12pm which I don’t think is bad given how moisturising it feels. I like like like. The only thing that made me go “hmm?” about this lippy is that it has no real smell/taste to speak of – it just smells faintly..waxy? Creamy? And I can’t really like it less because of that, there’s no smell or issue there to make me not like it, I just thought it was a bit weird?

These haven’t been released in the UK just yet, I don’t think but I believe they’re on their way. And I’ll be stocking up!!

How cute are these make up bags by Miss Budd?

Aren't they gorgeous? I found them in the beauty section of ASOS.com (picture courtesy of ASOS.com) for £25, by London designer Miss Budd. I want!

http://www.missbudd.com/
http://www.asos.com/

Say hello to Shellac!

I've just copied this from the press release on their site (here: http://www.sweetsquared.com/News/say-hello-to-shellac) - from reading this and All Lacquered Up (who actually tried Shellac) it seems to be similar to natural nail overlays or gel nails without being a nightmare to remove or damaging your nails during application or removal. I'm interested to try this, but even more interested to see the colour range to see if there's any I actually would want to wear for 14 days plus!

CND (Creative Nail Design), the leader in professional nail, hand and foot beauty, is proud to introduce the first hybrid nail color after nearly five years of development in its state-of-the-art laboratory. Now you can say good-bye to chips, smudges, and dry time and say hello to Shellac™ Hybrid Nail Color! This revolutionary product applies like polish, wears flawlessly for 14 days of high gloss shine, and is removed in minutes.

Shellac paints on like polish - base coat, color, top coat - and is cured in a UV light so there is zero dry time. The colors are hypo-allergenic, and "3-Free" - no formaldehyde, toluene or DBP. Shellac will launch in a range of 12 varieties of shades, from pretty French pinks and whites, to siren red and rich darks. The formula is thin and flexible like polish, so it not only looks natural, it provides strong natural nail protection with a resilient mirror finish that resists dullness and chipping, even during the most rigorous activities.

As amazing as Shellac is on, removal is just as satisfying! No soaking, drilling or filing is necessary. Nails are wrapped in individual Shellac Remover Wraps -integrated cotton pads that limit finger and skin exposure to acetone by keeping it pinpointed on just the nail. Ten minutes of time in exchange for two weeks of perfect color is all it takes. Say good-bye to manicure frustration and hello to pure manicure satisfaction.

Shellac is a professional salon service launching globally in May 2010.

Pop Beauty Blush Cake in Pretty In Pink

I’ve been using this for a while (as you may be able to tell by the fact that foundation/concealer on the lid, a sure sign of being carried around in my make up bag for a while!). It’s lasted me ages and there’s still loads left!

I bought it online after seeing it in a magazine without actually having any real idea of what it might be like. Luckily, I really like it – it looks a bit scary in the packaging, very bright with glitter, but it actually looks a nice natural flush on my skintone when applied sparingly and it actually isn’t all that glittery. If you are a bit heavy handed though, then prepare to look very pink/red.

I bought mine for about £5 all in from Ebay but I think it retails at somewhere more like £10 in the shops?

I bought some stuff from Lush...it smells GOOD!

People seem to go crazy for Lush and I don’t really get why – yes it smells nice and looks pretty but it is actually quite expensive for what it is, markets itself as natural when it contains plenty of chemicals and some of it has a fairly short shelf life (yes fresh facemask, I MEAN YOU!). But saying all this, I’m always pleased if I get it for a gift or treat myself very occasionally….

So, at the top we’ve got:

Honey Trap Lip Balm
This stuff is LOVELY, it has a very sweet scent with a hint of mintiness and definitely moisturises. Apparently it’s vanilla, white chocolate and honey..mmmmmmmmm! The sweet smell of it is quite strong, whenever I use it at work the woman on the desk next to mine ( a good 5 feet away) sniffs the air and says "I just got a whiff of something really sweet-oh have you got your lipbalm out again?"

From left to right underneath we now have:

Butterball
Cocoa butter, sweet musk and vanilla bathbomb that smells fresh but sweet at the same time. Mmmm again!

Flosty Gritter
Lavender, sweet vanilla and sparkly pink bubblebar…what more do you want?! Thankfully, the glitter doesn’t stick too much, it leaves your skin feeling really soft and it turns your bathwater a nice light pink. I always buy this when I’m buying stuff from Lush.

Candy Fluff
An egg ballistic that smells like candy floss and has a lickle flower in the top. Aah! I think this is probably just out for Easter which is a shame because it smells so nice and made my skin feel silky.

We went to look for a Mothers Day present for my boyfriends mam and found that if he bought a Mothers Day gift box he got a free goodie bag too, sadly he’s giving the goodie bag to his mam as well. BOOO!

There’s also a Mothers Day Tea Party thing happening at Lush on Sunday:

False Lash Battle! Illamasqua vs. Mac vs. Models Own

Since I'm addicted to false lashes, I thought I'd do a bit of a compare and contrast on a few to see what I thought. I usually use the Mac ones in here but I thought I'd branch out.

First up...

Illamasqua (Dramatic - 017)

These were £12 and came with glue included. The blurb reads: “Long sweeping handmade lashes to widen the eyes” and in the packaging (which was also very pretty and dramatic), they looked lovely! Lashes could be stored after further use in this packaging.

Application of these was really difficult! The actual band the lashes are attached to is really thick and inflexible so trying to shape it to your lash line and make sure both corners stick isn’t easy.

However, I REALLY like the look of these lashes on, they were feathery and natural looking without looking too long or thin. The glue that it came with was your standard small bottle of lash glue (the same as with Models Own), nothing special.

They did stay on well and were pretty easy to remove though. You could use them again after removal.

I wasn’t hugely impressed with these – they looked nice but felt heavy, the lash glue was nothing impressive and they were hard to apply. For the price I would expect better but I suppose the premium price is because they’re handmade. I'd give them a 7 out of 10.

Next up....

Mac (7)

These cost £8.50 and don't include glue. The glue I used was Duo glue which is fabulous stuff but costs a futher £8ish for 14g, which does get you a lot of uses. It smells absolutely disgusting though! Blurb for these is "natural length, everyday glamorous". If only my lashes were this long naturally!

Like the packaging on these, typical Mac and good for storing your lashes after wear too (unlike cardboard containers.)

Easy to apply, lash band is invisible and easy to flex so not too blatant if it’s not perfect. They give a really nice wide-eyed look that doesn’t look too false and they don’t feel stiff or plastic.

These are my typical go-to false lashes for a night out, I love them, they suit me and using the Duo glue from Mac means they stay on all night and can be re-used if you take them off carefully.

Sorry lashes though, I think I’m going to have to mark you down for being £8.50 without any glue even though you can wear them again and again……..

I’ve repurchased these a lot and would again! I give 8.5 out of 10

And last, but not least (well, maybe)....

Models Own (Fashion Flare Lash 18)

These cost £5 and came with glue included.

Packaging was ok, nothing amazing, pretty similar to a lot of lashes on the high street.

Reasonably easy to apply, though these had the opposite problem to the Illamasqua lashes, the band was almost too flexible and it was hard to get the lashes to stay still/in one place during application. Once they were on I really didn't like them - they were very long and plastic/false looking. They stayed on ok (shame) and were easily removed.

Not worth buying in my opinion, for £5 you're probably better off buying some from the high street or off Ebay. I wouldn't repurchase. I give them 5 out of 10.

So, the winner is Mac, the eyelashes I buy again and again and again...why did I think I could do better?!