First Anniversary Giveaway Winner!
Hi everyone,
It’s time to announce the winner of Beautiful With Brains First Anniversary Giveaway! I took all the entries from your comments, subscribers, twitter and blog posts about the competition to pick a random winner. So, without further ado:
Congratulations to Veedee! Enjoy!
A big thank you to everyone who took the time to enter!
First Blog Anniversary and Giveaway!
Today, Beautiful With Brains turns one!
I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for a year already! It’s been such an amazing year and I got to know so many great people and beauty bloggers, who I consider to be friends.
I’m really grateful to all of you who visit my blog, read and comment. It really means a lot to me and it’s very appreciated! This blog wouldn’t be the same without you and I hope you’ll continue to visit as BWB grows.
To celebrate this occasion, and to show you guys my appreciation, I have a giveaway for you all:
THE PRIZE:
Barry M Dazzle Dust #1 Ice Pink
Barry M Fine Glitter Dust in #6 Aqua
Deborah Light Creator Shine & Volume lipstick #7
Deborah Lipliner #198
Eyeko Magic Liquid Eyeliner
Labello Star Fruits Cherry Lip Balm
Labello Care Gloss and Shine in Pink
MAC Deep Blue Green pigment from Hello Kitty Collection (sample)
Pupa Luminys Baked Blush #1 featuring pink and white shades
HOW TO ENTER:
1. Leave a comment in this post about anything at all: why you want to win, what was the best birthday present you got, what was the last movie you saw, anything you want.
To increase your chances of winning:
2. Subscribe to my feed via email (if you’re already a subscriber you’re automatically entered)
3. Follow me on twitter (Let me know your twitter username in the comments)
4. Post about this giveaway on your blog, if you have one. Just a link to the post would be enough. Let me know the link in the comments or write me an email at beautifulwithbrains[at]gmail[dot]com.
The contest is open to all readers, I will ship worldwide!
Contest ends on 30th June 2009 at 11:59 PM PST. A winner will be chosen randomly and announced on 2nd July.
Good luck!
Product Review: Eyeko Fat Balm
Name: Fat Balm
Brand: Eyeko
Size: 3.5g
Price: £3.99 at Superdrug
From Eyeko’s website:
Berry-liscious tints with light reflecting particles and added moisture for softer, sexier lips. Smooth on to cheeks too for a fruity flush. Available in 3 sheer shades.
What I liked:
- moisturizes
- gives a nice hint of color to lips and cheeks
- the fragrance
- the packaging
- the price
What I didn’t like:
- the size
Eyeko Fat Balm is available in 3 shades: strawberry, rasberry and minty. I purchased the strawberry one. The color looks dark red with silver shimmers in the tube, but, once applied, it gives your lips and cheeks just a hint of pinky red tint and the shimmers are barely visible. It provides a nice sheen rather than a shimmery effect. It’s a very pretty, natural and wearable color. And while I usually prefer fragrance-free products, this has a delicious and very appealing scent! It smells like strawberry but isn’t too sweet.
This balm glides on smoothly, is very moisturizing and leaves my lips soft and supple. I also tried it on my cheeks and it gave me a lovely natural flushed look. A little goes a long way when applied as a blush, although it is a bit sticky and you need to be quick to blend it. It lasts longer than most lip balms, so you don’t need to reapply it often. However, when used as a blush, the color fades quicker and you need to do several touch-ups throughout the day.
However, the fat balm is very fat and thus doesn’t fit into my lips properly so I often go out of line when applying it. Also, there isn’t a lot of product in the tube, just about a half-inch.
The packaging is absolutely adorable! In fact, it is so cute that I can’t help to keep it in its box! The tube is pink, fat and easy to carry around.
The product contains a lot of emollient ingredients that smooth and soften skin and lips and prevent water loss such as jojoba oil, isopropyl myristate and castor oil. This last ingredients can have a slightly sticky feeling on skin. The balm also contains waxes, like candelilla wax and beeswax, that not only have emollient properties, but also give form and structure to the product.
This balm is very affordable and the price changes depending on where you buy it. I got mine in Superdrug in London for £3.99 ($5.71), but you can also purchase it on the eyeko website for £5 ($7.15). Eyeko offers free shipping worldwide!
Summary:
Overall, this is really a great product that I will definitely repurchase. It moisturizes and softens lips and gives a nice natural pinky/reddish tint. The packaging is very cute and the fragrance is so yummy! My only complaint is the size. I wish it was sligtly slimmer so it would fit my lips better and that it contained a bit more product as, being addicted to lip balms, it doesn’t take me long to finish them.
Rating: 4/5
Disclaimer: the item was purchased by me for both personal and review purposes. The review is based on my own personal and honest experience with the product. For more information, please see my disclaimer.My London Haul + Other Goodies
As I promised yesterday, here is my London haul. I bought a lot of products from drugstore brands like Gosh, Sleek and Barry M (I love their dazzle dusts and they’re a steal at £4.50 each). I’ve also finally bought my first mineral makeup foundation. Believe it or not, the mineral makeup craze hasn’t really reached Italy yet. Very few brands sell their mineral lines here and most of them can only be found in a few big cities. Luckily, things seem to be changing and MU is becoming more available everywhere, but it still a very slow process. Anyway, here’s what I bought:
Barry M Dazzle Dust in Aqua
Barry M Dazzle Dust in Lime
Barry M Dazzle Dust in Orange
Barry M Dazzle Dust in Yellow
Barry M Eyeliner pen in Kingfisher Blue
Barry M Glitter Dust in Aqua (I bought this by mistake. My boyfriend kept rushing me and I picked up the wrong pot. Unfortunately, I only realised the mistake when I got back home but, oh well, it’s still a beautiful color)
Benefit Erase Pasta no.1 fair
Bourjois Blush no.34 Rose D’Or
Eyeko Magic Liquid Eyeliner
Eyeko Strawberry Fat Balm
Gosh Effect Powder in Pineapple
Gosh Lipstick in Velvet Touch
Gosh Quattro Eyeshadow in Toucan
MAC Lipglass in Frozen Dream
Sleek Divine Chaos Eyeshadow palette
Sleek Eye Dust in Jet Set
Sleek Glo Face & Body Highlighter in Peach Shimmer
The Little Pink Tin SPF 15
The Body Shop Nature’s Minerals Foundation SPF25 shade 01
The Body Shop Nature’s Minerals Foundation brush
The SA at one of the Superdrugs shops I visited also gave me some samples of Kate Moss Velvet Hour fragrance. Overall, I’m really happy with my haul. I’ve bought most of the stuff I wanted but ecotools brushes. I couldn’t find them anywhere even though I thought I’d read somewhere that they were available in some Superdrugs and Tesco stores but the ones I visited didn’t have them.
Before I left for London, I received a package from Anastasia from Ball Of String. She said there was a 3 for 2 offer on dazzle dusts and offered to buy and ship stuff to me. I also got a Sleek palette, which I was really lemming after reading her raving review about it. Thanks a lot, Ana! Here’s what she sent me:
Barry M Dazzle Dust in Cherry Red
Barry M Dazzle Dust in Grey
Barry M Dazzle Dust in Ice Pink
Barry M Dazzle Dusts in Khaki
Barry M Dazzle Dusts in Pink Shimmer
Barry M Fine Glitter Dust in Black Purple
Sleek Divine Palette The Original
Finally, here are some stuff from my boyfriend:
Paul & Joe Disney Face Color B
Pupa Beauty Bijoux makeup kit
The Pupa palette was a Christmas present. Pupa is one of my fave brands and I’ve been using their palettes since I started wearing makeup in high school. They’re great quality and have the cutest packagings. The Paul & Joe face powder was a present for our 7th anniversary which was yesterday. I really wanted something from their Disney Collection but P&J isn’t available here so when we saw the collection at Harrods, he decided to buy me something from it. Wasn’t that sweet? There was a 50% sale on most P&J items as well as discounts on other brands but unfortunately I didn’t have enough money with me that day, so I couldn’t take advantage of the sales. I’m still kicking myself for it.
Product Review: Eyeko Eye Beauty Eye Shadows
Name: Eye Beauty Eye Shadows
Brand: Eyeko
Price: £5.00
From Eyeko’s webiste:
With a selection of five complimentary shades per tin, mix and match your beauty moves to suit your mood.
Sexy Eyes: Enhance your natural beauty with subtle shades of burnished bronze, peach, rose and khaki for a sexy smoulder.
What I liked:
- lasts all day (if used with a primer)
- the packaging
- the price
What I didn’t like:
- not very pigmented
- flaky texture
Eyeko Eye Beauty eyeshadows are available in 3 different combinations: Cool Eyes (greys, dark blue and purple shades), Pretty Eyes (pastel pinks, lilac and white) and Sexy Eyes (subtle peach, bronze, khaki and pink). Each of them contains 5 strips of eyeshadow colors. I was very undecided which one of them to get but in the end, I chose Sexy Eyes.
The colors look beautiful in the tin. They are very soft and sheer and slightly shimmery. However, they aren’t very pigmented at all! I’ve had to apply quite a lot of product to make it show on my skin and I’m really pale! The texture isn’t very good either, it’s flaky. They’re quite easy to blend though and the colors last all day, but only if you use a primer.
I was very disappointed by the texture and color payoff. I would only recommend this to teenagers who aren’t allowed to wear a lot of makeup or women who like the barely-there makeup look. Otherwise, stay clear of it.
The packaging, instead, is super cute! The round tin isn’t neither too big nor too small. It’s the perfect size to carry in your handbag and looks very girly and pretty.
Summary:
Overall, I was very disappointed by these shadows. The colors in the tin look beautiful, but they hardly show off at all. They are very subtle and not pigmented. The colors last all day only if you use a primer. The packaging, however, is adorable.
Rating: 2/5
Disclaimer: the item was purchased by me for both personal and review purposes. The review is based on my own personal and honest experience with the product. For more information, please see my disclaimer.