A few months ago when I commented on a post by the lovely Beauty's Bad Habit about the Fairy Hobmother, I was more than a little sceptical...who gives out things for free nowadays? No one.
Imagine my surprise when I was contacted recently by the mythical godmother herself. I recieved a very nice Amazon gift voucher (ironically, on the same day we bought and recieved a new washing machine from Appliances Online) and subsequently forgot to post about it, because I'm cool like that. Fail...in my defence, school has been all over the place.
Better late than never, right? So if you comment below, there is a chance that the Fairy Hobmother might grant you a wish, too!
Showing posts with label pimp post. Show all posts
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Fairy Hobmother?
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Pretty Pink Pimp Post
Pretty Pink are a brand that you can buy primarily at Argos. They seem to be aimed at young girls, but I quite like the fact that you can get loads of cheap eyeshadows/lipsticks/glosses in a set.
I own this set: (no affliate links on my blog)
and this set:
I reach for the former really often, and the latter not so much. Sorry, these don't seem to be named so I'll be referring to them as the "heart shaped case" and the "square case" in this post.
Just to be awkward, I'm going to start with the square case!
It has a nice selection of good sized eyeshadows (sixteen, to be precise) which are nicely pigmented but have a slightly more silky yet powdery texture compared to the ones in the heart palette (am I making any sense? Most likely not) and these have a tendency to blend away into a slightly pigmented white base colour if overblended which is not cool. These do kick up some large chunks off shadow during application and are a tad chalky, though still better than mattes from some other companies.
I personally prefer the darker colours when I'm creating looks. The lighter ones generally just look like white when I wear them.
The browns are quite close to my skin tone, which makes them hard to see, so I swatched them on a bit of paper for you guys.
This top tray folds out to reveal a second layer which includes blushes, a face powder, a lip and eye liner, lip colours, a mascara and some applicators.
The blushes aren't bad, but I don't use them. They're just not colours I like, and the lack of portability with this palette means that I can't perform a midday touchup in the school loos when these inevitably wear off during the day. As you can see, the last two are a bit pants, swatch wise. Plus these are rather small in size, which make them hard to apply with the poxy brush included.
The "face powder" is just a universally flattering, am I right light cream, slightly yellow toned colour. Companies don't care about diversity when it comes to impressionable young girls huh? Condition them young...anyway.
The mascara is worse than useless. It's just thickened gloop with black food colouring added that sits on your eyelashes and does. not. dry. It feels disgusting. Urgh. It's one of those things you have to try to believe, so go to your kitchen and liberally apply a mixture of oil and syrup to your eyelashes. You get the idea. But the eye and lip liners are actually pretty decent! Nothing bad to say about those.
The lip colours in this palette are meh, I prefer the ones in the heart one, but they're a cute cross between glosses and lipsticks and I like them. These ones aren't particularly pigmented - again, the ones in the heart palette are better. Applicators are the usual story. Whether high end or low end, companies just don't bother with creating useful brushes - the lip brush in this is weak.
Now, the heart palette. This is the one I got first, and the one I use the most!
The eyeshadows in this are much more to my taste, the colour range is more varied and interesting. As you can see, some of the shadows in here have got a lot of love from me!
Again, I don't use the blushes. Boring as hell. This came with a blush brush which is crap for blending but OK for packing the colour on. It's scratchy, though.
The pressed powder came with a puff which was rubbish so I binned it. I don't use the pressed powder either :P Same shade as last time.
I love love LOVE the lip colours. They are exactly what I need for a nude lip for school, a lot are very brown which I'm sure lighter skinned people probably won't like but I LOVE because it's a pain in the arse for me to find anything remotely nude. Anything. So yes, woot. Probably unintentional, but woot anyway.
The top of the heart flips open to reveal some sponge applicators, some cream eyeshadows (that's what they're labelled as on the website, four cream eyeshadows, but not many people aside from hardcore bright colour junkies like myself tend to have use for a bright red cream base - two, in fact) a shite mascara (BINNED) a "lip oil" (which is just a clear lip gloss) a sharpener and two nail polishes, the lilac of which you can view in my very first post.
Ultimately, while there are some serious duds (the mascara, for one. God.) it's a pretty good value set, and the are more available (for example, there is one just choc full of eyeshadow). I think the range is worth a look. What do you guys think? Does this make you want to investigate Pretty Pink?
Also, check out my title! I got like a million "P's" in there...aren't I cool? :P
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Active Cosmetics Pimp Post
Why is it called a Pimp Post? Because they're a brand that don't seem to be very well covered in the beauty blogging world. So I guess you could say I'm "pimping" out their better products to you, lol.
Questionable terminology aside, moving on...
Active Cosmetics are a brand I’d used before I even got into cosmetic blogging. As far as I’m aware, you can sometimes find their products at other stores or on the web, but I usually just purchase mine from TJ Hughes as it’s easier and more convenient. It’d probably be very hard for international girls to find. They make products under two names. The core line is just called “Active Cosmetics” but they have a sort of summer specific range called “Sun-Kissed” and this seems to sell better and have more products than the core line, which is weird. Meh.
The Lip Glosses
I’m not a big fan of lip glosses to begin with and the moment you pull the wand out of these you get this huge whiff of chemically induced faux fruity sweetness. That was a huge /do not want/ for me and I’m not even particularly sensitive to scented lip products. Even after you’ve applied the product, you can still smell it. Gross. They leave your lips quite dry as well. The colour of the darker gloss was quite nice but I felt the lighter one (which was a sort of 80s frosty pearl colour) was pretty unflattering. I’m not sure if you can buy these separately. I think these came in the Sunkissed set. I definitely wouldn’t buy these on their own.
The Ten Colour Palette
Yes, this palette has four colours missing. I think I used the white shade on the right hand corner in a tutorial for making nail polish out of eyeshadow. I don’t know what’s happened to the other three…
It’s a decently pigmented palette. It did have one of those overly useless applicators which naturally went straight in the bin. Underneath the applicator holder is a mirror which I again appreciated even though it wasn’t of much help being the tiny size that it was. I like the nice champagne shade (at the top, the very first eyeshadow). Actually, saying that, it’s a very wearable palette. If I was into neutrals, I’d get a great deal of use out of this. As it stands now, this is mostly a palette of highlights for me. Still, I would purchase this on it’s own.
The Mini Six Colour Palette
This is tiny! It’s actually quite cute. I personally can’t really see myself using any of the colours in it, but they’re pigmented enough.
The Lip Liner & Eye Liner
The eyeliner is brown. It’s pretty unremarkable to be honest. Sharpens badly, which is my pet peeve when it comes to pencils. You end up with half of the product all over the sharpener blades. Not cool.
I use the lip liner a lot more. It’s a subtle colour which I wear to school sheered out over some balm. It sharpens quite terribly as well, though.
The Mascara
It was a dark brown colour, which was quite cool. The wand was standard, if a bit smaller than normal. I personally didn’t rate the formula, it was too dry and thick for me. Having said that I have had it for a while, so perhaps that was the problem.
The Bronzer/Face Powder
On the back of the container for the Bronzer/Face Powder hybrid, it calls it a face powder and I mentally went “Hell nah”. Seriously, this is sparkle city. I would look in the eyes and laugh in the face of anyone who actually applied this all over their face. Actually, I’m laughing now at the mental image.
It’s gorgeous, though, with plenty of product. I personally like using this as a highlighter, as an eyeshadow, or on my legs if I’m wearing shorts. The brush included is pretty useless but aren’t they all? It comes with a handy mirror, too, which I appreciated.
The product with just one swipe of the finger. Impressive...
The Duo Shadows
Three of these came in a little Sunkissed set. I think they’re adorable, functionality aside. I have a thing for cute little eyeshadows in pots, lol.
The colours compliment each other and I like the pattern stamped on the surface. I find that they’re not as pigmented as their paletted cousins, however.
The Lip & Eye Palette
I love this. It actually came with a mirror but I’ve discarded that as it was too much of a hassle. The lip colours last for a reasonably long time and are quite opaque. I love that you get so much choice within one palette, lip wise. As you can see, I’ve used the last shade a lot! It doesn’t come with a lip brush but the pans are wide enough that you can easily use your fingers if caught without one. The eye colours are great as well. There’s a bit of fallout but nothing unbearable, and there’s a wide range of well pigmented colours. I actually want to get a back up of this, so next time I’m in TJ Hughes I’ll keep a lookout for it! A lot of the colours don’t show up that well as they’re quite close to my skin tone, but I assure you that they are pigmented.
I actually quite like this brand, though availability is limited and the product range is quite narrow. They do good products for a really cheap price. If you live in the UK and have access to the brand at TJ Hughes, perhaps you should check it out. Or if you already have, what do you think about it?
