Isn’t it great when you discover one item of makeup that covers a couple of bases on your routine and is very light on your pocket?
Enter I Heart Revolution’s Dragon’s Heart Highlighter. Part of Dragon, one of the brand’s magical lines of products, this highlighter has superior pigmentation and great staying power.
Five intense warm shimmery, but not glittery colours stripes – the light cream, light gold, deep gold, pink and red can be used individually or all together to create a rose gold shimmer suitable for face and eyes.
However, I love using the mixed golds as highlighter and the mixed pinks as a blusher. The effect is gorgeous and so practical to have such beautiful shades – in fact the perfect ones for my skin tone – together in one product.
And the best thing? The price: only £5! I mean… how could you even go wrong with that, but in all honesty, it delivers amazing value for money.
You can explore the Dragon range on the I Heart Revolution site – it includes eye palettes, lipsticks and lipglosses and is luscious with fiery shades!
Also worth checking the other ranges: Unicorns, Mermaids and Angels, each sticking to a colour palette of beautiful magical shades and you’re certain to find a great selection that will not break the bank!
You can buy the I Heart Revolution Dragon’s Heart highlighter, which is vegan and cruelty free, directly from their site or from major retailers nationwide, like Superdrug!
You know the drill, but I’ll say again: this post contains a GIFTED PR sample. This review, however, is based on my experience with the product and reflects my honest opinion on them. Laters!
A little while ago I was introduced to INIKA, an Australian brand that is certified vegan, cruelty free and halal.
Really highly pigmented, naturally water resistant, with light reflecting pigments, it delivers a natural glowy flush to the cheeks. And I know, it is loose but it is not messy as it has a turnable sifter.
The Lip Serum (RRP £17) is certified organic and contains orange essential oils, mandarin extract, vitamin E, jojoba, sunflower and rosehip oils plus sea buckthorn, which is a great healer.
Finally, the Liquid Eyeliner (RRP £19), also certified organic. It is well pigmented, and has a decent durability. I have the black one and for better performance, apply again once the first application has dried.
It’s my go-to phrase when it comes to GOSH launches but it remains the truth: every season there’s at least one item that will stay with me until the next launch – but often longer.
The Chameleon Primer Plus+ Skin Adaptor Anti-Pollution (£14.99) is amazing. If you know GOSH, you know their primers are amazing and this is not different, but with a difference: apart from organic oak extract, it has micro capsules of colour that burst upon application and adapt to most skin tones.
Now, the LumiDrops (£7.99) have been a little fave of mine for quite some time and the latest shades are lush. Rose Gold and just Gold (which I purchased as soon as it launched) are gorgeous.
The Strobe’n Glow Kit (001 Highlight, £12.99) wheel is great: 4 gorgeous shades including a holographic white/purple to satisfy out unicorn dreams.
Then, I add a metallic brown from the fabulous “To party in London” eyeshadow palette (£11.99).
So many people swear by the banana powder and GOSH now has their own. A Banana version of their fabulous Prime’n Set Primer & Mattifying Setting Powder, which I love because it is a fantastic setting/finishing powder, this one also eliminates redness and pinkness.
The Colour Corrector Kit (£11.99) is a pretty compact to cover all you concealer needs with an amazing 5 shades – neutral, yellow (for purple of blue imperfections), green (to neutralise redness), purple (to eliminate yellow undertones) and peach (for brightening the eye area and olive-skin radiance boost).
Having said that, I’ve been giving the GOSH Growth Serum (£16.99), which contains SymPeptide XLASH, a (rather irregular) go. Too early to say if it really works but I’m enjoying it.
Ok, maybe my headline is not entirely true (clickbait alert!) but it does feel like it: e.l.f. is back and in a way it is new, for the first time at Superdrug stores.
I have to start with the Intense Ink Eyeliner in Blackest Black (£4.50). I love a pen liner (bet you never heard me saying that, right?!).
Now, a gem: the Lip Scrub Exfoliator (£4.50). Looking like a lipstick and behaving like one (almost), just circle over the lips, massage gently and rinse to get rid of dry skin and get kissable lips.
The Nude Rose Gold eyeshadow palette (£12.50) is a little joy: super wearable shades, very compact and perfect to carry around for a day to night transformation. Pigmentation is decent and they are super soft and blendable.
The Natural Glow Face Palette (£9) is also a great makeup bag addition. Personally, the highlighter does not shine enough for me, but I’m not the rule.
The handy Baked Highlighter and Blush in Rose Gold (£5) delivers a bit more shimmer on the golden highlight front, it’s not too glittery but also on the discreet side; the blusher is the fave rosey peach shade and again, another addiction to on the go makeup bag.
The Radiant Gel Lip Tint in Dewy Berry (£5) is from their Aqua Beauty collection, and is a stain that intensifies on the lips. It does remind me a bit of lip oils, but not stick and with colour that sticks!
Did anyone say iridescent? Well, believe your eyes, Sleek Makeup has brought out yet another killer highlighter palette, and it comes with some friends. The Distorted Dreams collection carries all the holo vibes.
The creams have a beautiful colour colour shift and opalescence in pink (Anodise), blue (Beam) and green (Refracted). The powders are a quite shimmery, a cool pink with some glittery particles (Blurred Lights) and a tanned gold (Sweet Delusion).
The hashtag GlazedAF could not be more appropriate and only a cool AF brand like Sleek could put it out there.
The Matte Me Metallic Matte Smooth Lip Cream liquid lipsticks are quite amazing – a bit of molten metal for the lips. Sadly, alone, none do much for my complexion, but they are amazing to layer on lipstick, especially at the centre of the mouth!
And there are three shades to choose from: Roman Copper, a warm and deep rusty copper, Rusted Rose, an intense muted pink with purple undertones (Carol really likes this one) and Volcanic, my fave, with that slight beetle wing colour shift between light pink and subtle green. So pretty!
Sleek is bringing the sparkle back. And they don’t it by halves: living proof is their new Rockstars collection, just launched.
Perfect for Christmas and by that I mean all the parties soon to commence, the Rockstars collection has two sides.
On the lighter side, Diamonds in the Rough with a lot of rose, golds, champagnes and peach in their eyeshadow palette, with two rich cream shades; the golden one makes the best highlighter!
All metallic and beautiful, including the gorgeous Scandalous lipstick, a metallic deep red and a highlighting soufflé in pretty shimmery peachy pink, called Pink Opal.
The Superstar lipstick is a metallic shade of deep warm purple with iridescent particles, also present on Scandalous.
The highlighting soufflé here is Smoky Quartz, a gorgeous slightly glittery light gold, perfect for cheekbones but even better for finishing the eyes with an intense shimmer on top of colour.
The bullet on the lipsticks deserves a chapter to itself: faceted, they have a sculpted shape, cut as the jewels they are.
Obviously it’s no surprise I am a huge fan of luminous and colour products for the face. I have a huge selection I actually use regularly, on rotation and I am glad to add those two to it.
As I mentioned before, I thought I was a bit out of the Seventeen range, but discovering it was a joy. And that doesn’t stop.
This little gem got me all excited: the Seventeen Cheek Stamp Blush is cute and handy.
Within this tiny little round box, there is a mirror and a cushion that picks up colour (which is on the lid) when its closed.
It is available in five colours, mine is Stare Struck, a shimmery old rose colour.
You know when you are veeeeeery tired and your eyes barely open? I am guilty as charged of now having enough sleep, staying late on school nights and maybe having the odd cocktail when I should really be in bed.
Usually, I just line my lower waterline, but you can do the upper too for extra openness. And it works a treat.
Eyeshadow base, highlighter, waterliner, concealer…. the soft formula, enriched with natural extracts will ave you covered.
In all honesty, I just don’t use them only when I need to hide the night before, but every time I am focussing on eyes, especially if I have a dark smokey on.
Every season gosh does not fail to impress. They always bring something out that stays with me until their next launch – and beyond.
Decidedly neutral, and very matte, this baby is all you need to keep your eyes in check. And its size means it’s handbag-friendly and the day-to-night transition is easy-peasy!
My second favourite is the Lumi Drops. A lovely highlighter with a tint, this light liquid formula will apply well and stay.
One that is already available (all the others launch in March), the Primer+ Illuminating Skin Perfector is really great.
Their big launch are the lip oils. Rather similar to the Clarins ones, these are the first “drugstore” version of the product. I am not big on lip gloss, but these are not too sticky and offer good moisturisation to lips!
Of course, I couldn’t leave the lipsticks behind. I have a mini arsenal of GOSH lipsticks at home, which come in to play pretty much every week.
Finally, the eyeshadow pencils. Oh, how I love those. I do not joke when I say my beloved Charlotte Tilbury Don’t have that much on them. I have the metallic ones, from a few season ago and this time they brought them out in matte.
2015. What a fabulous year for the blog. I never expected all the amazing things that happened, brands, products and, above all, people I met.
Charlotte Tilbury
Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G Love bite lipstick: usually a finish I don’t go for, a kind of lustre, but oh, boy, this is pretty. An orange red, with a fab sheen, but not too much, and great durability.
And a special mention to my favourite budget highlighter: 
So Many Lovely Things 