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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...

 All of the products of theirs that I could locate. There are most likely more, but they're not mentioned in this review.
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.
When I dug it all out to go and photograph it, I was actually pretty surprised by how much I owned! I tend not to buy by brand. I’m fickle and will buy from whoever has the cheapest and most effective product, lol. Before my mum got into routinely buying high end cosmetics (that weren’t Elizabeth Arden) like Urban Decay (recent convert thanks to yours truly) she bought some of these for herself and I. It’s mostly medium to dark skinned women friendly and the quality is alright. The price is even better, though. Haha.
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 lightest shade, followed by the darker one, and then the lip liner and the eyeliner at the bottom.
 The dark brown is actually a mascara.
The darker one on my lips :P
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.

All the colours are really smooth, nice and pigmented.
 Can you see that teeny weeny palette in the background? It doesn't seem to have a name so I'm just calling it the "Six Colour Palette".

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.

 This is the product, sheered out. Look at that sparkle!
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...

 These duo eyeshadows are so adorable, if a tad useless.
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.
Swatches of the products, above and below. You can see that they're quite weak, pigmentation wise.
Just one more product! It's a big one, though.

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.
 It's cute how the palette seems to be split into warmer toned colours and cooler toned ones. Only one colour isn't all that pigmented (I'm not entirely sure if you can even see it in the photo...it's the closest to my elbow).
 Some of the eyeshadows.
 Some more eyeshadows!
 I use the gold ones the most, out of all the colours here. All the colours in this palette are shimmery, by the way. No mattes :P
 So smooth!
 I would generally dislike lip colours in a palette simply because it's usually so impractical to take them around with you, but this palette is an exception. Nice and compact and it shuts very securely so there's no chance of it coming open in a bag.
Some of the (lighter) lipsticks have a frost finish, but it's not all that noticeable or dated looking.

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?

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Nails Inc "Kabaret" and a last look at the collection as a whole.

The last of the Nails Inc Autumn/Winter Collection, and to me, the most disappointing. I'm disappointed that it's disappointing (how many more times should I use that word?) because the colour looked so promising in the bottle. Sadly, that just didn't translate to the nail.

 This first picture has a topcoat with sparse amounts of hexagonal glitter on it. I added this because sometimes the extra gloss provided with a topcoat improves the look of a polish. Unfortunately, this didn't do much for the polish. The blue threads inside failed to effectively transfer that "lit from within" look which I assume Nails Inc were going for, judging by the bottle appereance and some of their previous polishes.
 You might think that the lack of depth in the photo is due to the abscence of natural sunlight but it's not. There's only a marginal difference between the polish viewed under artifical vs. sunlight. I would have taken it outside anyway but this is England. There is no sunlight.
Perhaps I over exaggerated somewhat, haha. But seriously, even at say seven in the morning, you look out of the window and the whole neighbourhood is pitch black. 
This polish just wasn't a winner for me, especially as it went on incredibly weak and pathetic. It needed three coats to reach maximum opacity, and chipped a lot quicker than the other three in this collection.

Overall, I think the collection is a hit. Three out of four is damn good.

Have you guys heard that Nails Inc are starting up the Diet Coke/Free Polish promotions again? I personally detest Coke in all it's forms but will purchase it anyway because some of those shades look lovely. The light pink and the blue in particular. The red is take it or leave it and I don't really like the "Cool Caramel" shade. It's reminiscent of the "London" polish that they were giving away last time which everyone went crazy for. I supposed they'd make good nude polishes if you had a light skintone.

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January Giveaways

 I'll be periodically adding to this list for this month's giveaways, so keep checking back :P

Over at Silence is Loud, there is a thoughtful package of nail art goodies and polishes!

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Giveaway Winner!

Much congratulations to ChaosButterfly! Lucky number 24!

I'm just about to email you now. You have two days to reply with your address or I'll unfortunately have to choose another winner!

Thanks to everyone that entered!

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My Christmas Presents




Late much? 


I haven't seen too many of these, so either it's incredibly tacky or people just don't do them. I'm mildly cautious but OK.


I totally stacked them all up in a box. Some of the stuff in there isn't beauty related so I'm not covering it.
 
A brush roll from Studio! I like most of the brushes, but the gel eyeliner brush is incredibly stiff and scratchy. There's no way that's going near my eyelid.
 Superdrugs did these little gift sets of MUA products for £2 in the run up to Christmas. I already have two out of the three shades, but one had broken. The duochrome one has gone into the giveaway pile and the top shade makes a great highlighter.
 A cosmetics holder/sorter! I'm not sure where this came from, but it's seriously neat.
 I'd asked for this because I have a tonne of old polishes that are too thick to use. The bottle is huge. Hopefully, it'll last me a long time.
 I found it curious that the dropper was bent, though!
Lastly, Boots No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara. I've seen good reviews of this so I have high hopes for it. I think this came with the free eyeshadow palette, back when they were giving out the vouchers, but my mum kept that for herself trololol.


Not pictured are the Sleek palettes (Two Sparkles and an Original). I wanted to buy the Good Girl one but it was all sold out (yes, I did pick out my own presents. Problem? ;D) so I got two Sparkle palettes with the intention of selling one.


What did you guys get for Christmas, if you celebrate it?

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Happy New Year! Giveaway Closed

Hi guys! I'll allow entries up until now as it was my fault for not being here to close it but yeah, from now on the giveaway is closed! I hope everyone's had a good New Year!

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Nails Inc The Thames

Not the most unique of colours, but as usual, application was dreamy.
Wear time was passable. It wasn't as good as the other two polishes from the collection...
I liked the fact that it dried to a nice glossy finish though, sans topcoat.
It's quite a dark grey compared to most others on the market, but it doesn't lean blue or anything which is nice. I haven't swatched it as it's for my giveaway, but it looks close to Barry M Nail Paint in Grey...

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