W7 - Budget but brilliant!

If you had read my earlier post on how I struggle to get on with face powders (here) then you will know that my skin can be a bit of a pain for finding powders that have that 'you but better' effect. I want a powder that looks natural but also gives a good coverage. Then I came across this little beauty from W7 - W7 Sheer Loose Powder.

As you can see from the photos, the powder comes in a screw-top plastic pot that has holes in so you can dispense a small amount of product to pick up with the brush so it doesn't get too messy! I would suggest being sparing with it on your brush as it does have really good coverage and when I first tried it I thought it would be a bit rubbish and require loads to get any coverage and ended up looking slightly mental, so less is more!

It does come with a brush but I personally don't think it is that brilliant. The bristles are a bit stiff and not particularly soft and it doesn't seem to pick up the product brilliantly well so I prefer to use my Real Techniques Multi-Task brush to apply this. It is so simple to sweep over the face and blend across.

You can see from the pictures of it brushed on my hand that it gives a very soft appearance to the skin and goes far to cover imperfections such as those fine lines. I really do think it is a very good product and use it a lot. Especially seeing as I know it will be very cheap to replace!

W7 is a brand that is often stocked in Next (I bought my Urban Decay palette dupe by W7 from Next) but is also available on websites such as Fragrance Direct. They do some really good dupes of high-end products such as Benefit boxed blushers and OPI polishes. Ok, they aren't of quite the same quality as the high-end counterparts but they are very good for the teeny price you are paying for them. I would definitely recommend giving some of their products a try.

Urban Decay Dupe - Next

I have been keeping my eye out for dupes again this weekend, and it seems that Next has come up a winner again! I found this eye shadow palette in Next and it is a perfect dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Palette (the first one) - and is only £7!!!. It is from the brand W7 and is called In the Buff Natural Nudes.

This palette, like the Urban Decay palette, is comprised of both matte and shimmer shades but mainly shimmer. It also includes a double-ended applicator, in much the same way as the Urban Decay version.

The pigmentation is actually really brilliant, I wasn't expecting great things from such a small price tag but I was very impressed. The shimmers show up much better than the mattes on the skin, the first colour on the left of the palette does not show at all on my skin but apart from that all the others are great. I'm also not majorly impressed by the applicator brush but I prefer to use my own brushes anyway.

The eyeshadows themselves are easy to apply, blend and build up to create whatever style you're after. The texture is nice and soft mainly, one of the matte's feels slightly on the chalky side but I find a lot of matte shadows are similar. There is slight fall out but nothing too extreme, nothing a face wipe couldn't fix!

All-in-all, I am very glad I found this palette as I have been lusting after the Urban Decay Naked Palette for a while. Now I have one that's incredibly similar for a mere fraction of the price. It seems like Next are the place to go for dupes at the moment, I also bought myself a big bottle of Sparkle!!

Have you tried any of the make-up from Next? Are there any dupes from there that you like to use? All comments are more than welcome!

Watefall Nail Art

I had been looking for more nail art inspiration and came across so many different designs on Nailasaurus 's blog (you really should give it a look, so many gorgeous designs with good, clear tutorials!). The one that I liked the most, and thought I stood a chance of being able to do being such a novice myself, was the Waterfall Nails design. So my boyfriend's mum kindly decided to let me practice on her hands, and I was so happy with the results (luckily I think she was too!).

And this is all I used:

So, first of all I applied the base coat and once dried, covered the whole nail in a pale pink - 19 Baby Pink from W7. Once this had dried I started creating the 'waterfall lines'. To do this I picked 4 colours and applied them from the cuticle end of the nail with a skinny, tapered brush and slowly drew the line towards the end of the nail, gently lifting the brush so that the line tapered to a point before reaching the end. I picked the colours Lilac from London Girl, Rendezvous from Seche, 319 Foil from Barry M and 66 Matte White from Barry M. Once they were all done and dried I applied a clear top coat to seal the colour and make them last longer.

The overall effect looked lovely! I will definitely be trying this look on my own nails in the near future :)