Miss A Mini Haul! (and review?)~

Being as poor as I am, I don’t get to shop all that often. So instead I choose to live vicariously through others on YouTube posting their many haul videos and THUS, I discovered the gem that is shopmissa.com!

(sorry for the rubbish glare in the pic, but i really wanted to show off what little packaging i had left and there is next-to-no lighting in my room so flash was sadly a must!)

The real treasure about Miss A (particularly if you live in the US) is that everything, and I mean everything (well, sort of…) is $1! Oh my gah WHAT!? But that’s not all! According to the many review videos I have watched, the products, despite their unbelievable price point, are pretty damn decent too! Can this be true?! I decided to make a little purchase to find out for myself!

As you can see I only bought 5 items totalling at $5 (roughly £3.90) and at a glance they all look pretty promising…

AOA Scrubby Facial Cleansing Pad - $1 - available from Miss A (also available in other colours!)

AOA Brush Cleaning Egg - $1 - available from Miss A (also available in other colours!

AOA Hand Mirror - $1 - available from Miss A

While I haven't fully utilised these yet, I can say from at least playing around with the ‘tools’ (and by playing i mean touching and rubbing them…), the quality is really quite amazing for being so cheap - the hand mirror in particular - and while I have yet to use the face scrubby or the brush cleaner I have poked at more expensive equivalents in shops and these feel pretty darn comparable to those, especially the brush cleaner. One thing for sure is that they don't feel cheap.

AOA Wonder Metal Liquid Lipstick (in ‘Sleek’) - $1 - available from Miss A

AOA Wonder Matte Liquid Lipstick (in ‘Tease’) - $1 - available from Miss A

These beauties, however, I have already used and tested and they are the BOMB! Lame I used that terminology, but seriously, they’re great! I’m really sad I only bought two (and i will elaborate on why in a bit) but am really quite happy with the ones I did get so far. 

The metallic one is the slightly less awesome of the two, as it requires a little bit of work to get the coverage full and even, but is still a great colour, very metallic and does dry down completely matte! The other one however… ugh! I love it so much! The colour is absolutely gorgeous and despite looking more pink in the tube, once it fully dries down is more purplish in colour, which is right up my alley! The pigmentation and coverage is great, really easy to work with and again, this dries down matte and is completely budge-proof.

All in all, Miss A is one heck of a remarkable discovery and I am so happy to have found it! Not only are their products pretty darn decent*, but there’s tons of them too! From socks to hair accessories to brushes to individual eyeshadows, they have them all!

Now for the boring (but important) bit of this post. The reason I only bought 5 things, despite them all being so cheap and there being soooo much to choose from, is because of shipping. Miss A’s international shipping is a flat rate of £9.95, which is pretty fair for something coming from the US. But then there’s customs and sadly, the limit before having to pay customs (which in my experience so far has totalled in at between £8 and £25) is currently £15. However, that being said, I honestly don’t mind making a few small orders of just under £15 just avoid potentially painful and unpredictable customs charges, as in the end the value of everything, including postage, is still a really decent price. So yeah, just a bit of a warning for those of you looking into doing a bit of a shop with Miss A!

And on that note, I shall end this post! Hope you liked it and see you in like 4 months time when I next post! xD

Philippa. x

*Miss A carries their own brands AOA and a2o, as well as other brands like Elf, Kleancolor, LA Color, Beauty Treats, etc. Obviously the quality of the products will vary from brand to brand, but I only purchased from the AOA line, so my comments on how AMAZING everything is is, for now, exclusive to that line.

Let's Talk... Eyeshadow Palettes!~

Welcome to a new segment of my blog! For the life of me I’ve been struggling to maintain this thing and figured doing ‘Let’s Talk’ posts will help push me to write about stuff without necessarily needing to go pestering poor Ama for shoots or spending money for hauls!

So this is gonna be like a review-not-review where I basically talk about products I have…? Not really sure what else to say, but maybe it’ll inform you a little bit more about me, my spending habits, and maybe even give you ideas of stuff you might potentially like? Anywho…

Anyone who knows me well will know that lately I have been extra obsessed with eyeshadow palettes. Currently -and rather sadly- I only own a few, but I definitely have my eye on more, so watch this space I guess!?!*

For now, though, we’ll just talk about the ones I do have and I’ll give a little run down on value, quality, etc., and some swatches, so yeah, like I said, kind of like a review-but-not-review.

I’ll start with the cheaper palettes first; here we have Makeup Revolution’s ‘Iconic 3’ palette:

Makeup Revolution Redemption Palette (in Iconic 3) - £4 - available from TAM Beauty or Superdrug

Apparently this is a dupe for Urban Decay’s Naked 3 palette, but what do I know? Visually, I guess you could say they are pretty similar, but I’ve never tried Urban Decay eyeshadows beyond swatching, so meh, guess you gotta go find out yourself? Regardless, this palette is a steal at £4 and the quality is pretty amazing for such a low price! Definitely one of my favourite colour selections with its pinks and browns, very romantic!

Also from Makeup Revolution, I have the ‘Give Them Nightmares’ palette:

Makeup Revolution Salvation Palette (in Give Them Nightmares) - £6 (currently on sale for £4!) - available from TAM Beauty

Value-for-money-wise, the Salvation palettes appear to be on top; a lot of shades for very little money. However, the quality does stumble and vary a little because of that, though not in an overly disappointing way. Most shimmers are amazingly pigmented, most mattes are a little sheer and there can be a fair bit of fallout, but like I said, price-wise, it’s all good. And as for this palette in particular, the colour selection is just soooo me and soooo Halloween! So awesome!!

Next up, we have a palette from Sleek:

Sleek Makeup i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette (in Bad Girl) - £8.99 - available from Sleek or Boots

This is the ‘Bad Girl’ palette and just like with the previous palette, the colour selection for this is just on point! Very, very me, or at least how I like to see myself, but that’s neither here nor there! Sleek eyeshadows, as far as I know from endless swatching, are some of the better quality eyeshadows available from the ‘drugstore’ and it’s definitely a brand I see myself buying more from in the future.** This palette definitely does it's brand justice with the colours all being super pigmented and easy to blend. The only ‘eh’ I’d have to say, is that the amount of shimmer is insaaaane and it goes everywhere, though maybe that’s not really a bad thing…? Still LOVING it though!!

Now for my newest palette, which is the ‘Northern Lights’ palette from Cargo:

Cargo Cosmetics Eyeshadow Palette (in Northern Lights) - £35 - (no longer available)

This palette, I had to buy off Depop, as it’s actually from their 2014 holiday collection. However, I love the theme of this palette and upon finding it at a bargain price, just had to have it! The colour selection is not really one I’d normally go for, but there are definitely some colours I’m glad to now have within my reach. Despite the higher pricing, I don’t really feel like this blows my mind with how much better it is than my cheaper palettes, because really, it’s okay, but not phenomenal. I dunno, maybe I just need to play around with it more? We’ll see…

And lastly, my precious baby, my Tartelette In Bloom palette!

Tarte Tartelette In Bloom (Tartelette 2) palette - £35.40 - available from QVC

I mentioned this in my recent beauty haul post, and now that I have actually played around with it a bit can happily report that this thing is LIFE. It is the perfect everyday palette for me and I am just sooooo chuffed that this wasn’t a waste of money! Definitely worth the price; the quality is great and the colours are wonderful for so many different looks and skin tones… and did I mention it smells great too?!? I love this so much! <3

So those are all my palettes (so far, ehem…); I don’t know what it is about eyeshadow palettes, but I just can’t stop wanting more! I’m becoming somewhat an addict, I think… oh dear!

Hope you enjoyed reading my first ‘Let’s Talk’ post (sorry it was a little wordy!) and I hope you’ll be looking forward to future ones!

Philippa. x

*zoeva palettes! lusting after them, will definitely be adding them to the collection soon! and the kat von d ones! particularly metal/matte and innerstellar, such beautiful shades! so much want!!

**i know they’re hard to find now, at least in-stores, but check out sleek’s ‘goodnight sweetheart’ palette! that thing is soooo gorgeous!!

MUA Nail Polish review - pastels edition!~

I've got to say, cheap as I am, I am not a huge fan of MUA. I once bought their eyeliner pen and mascara and the quality was so bad that I swore never to buy their products again. However, being as poor as I am, I decided to give them one last chance, especially as I've suddenly become quite desperate to try out this season's hottest craze - pastels.

 MUA Nail Polish in 'Pistachio Ice Cream' and 'Frozen Yoghurt' - £1 each

I've been lusting after all things mint and lilac recently and £1 each from Superdrug, I was hardly worried about breaking the bank with these, even if they turned out to be totally crap. Thankfully, however, MUA's nail products appear to be an improvement over their eye products. The application isn't all that great, but after 2 coats this super cheap nail polish looks like any other nail polish out there, so at least that's good. I haven't tried on the 'Frozen Yoghurt' shade yet, but I must say I'm quite happy with how 'Pistachio Ice Cream' turned out.

There's also a fair selection of colours to choose from, so previous qualms aside I might even be tempted to buy a couple more shades in the future...

Okay, I realise that this is probably really confusing given what I just said a few sentences ago, but the picture directly above this text is NOT of the MUA 'Frozen Yoghurt' shade, but actually Barry M's 'Berry Ice Cream' shade. My friend bought this when I bought the MUA nail polishes and I really wanted to try it out, so yeah, there you have it. It's a cute shade and the application is quite decent (still doesn't beat KIKO though), but I've gotta say, even though it's £1.99 more expensive than the MUA nail polishes you really can't tell the difference. Amazing!

Well, I guess that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get an OOTD post up soon rather than a bunch of wishlists and nail posts like I've been doing recently, but until then, I suppose!



-Philippa. x
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PS.: sorry about all the funny lighting. i tried to get a consistent colouring for the nail polish, but it just wasn't happening. =/ 

Everyone's a critic... (reviews!)~

I need to stop, seriously. I have spent WAY too much money recently, and on stuff I really don't need more of. Like today, for example, I bought even MORE eyeliner and mascara, despite having already bought like £15 worth about 3 months ago. Anyways, I'd figure I'd put the unnecessary purchasing to good use and make a review of what I got, so here it is.

#1 - MUA Extreme Felt Eyeliner - £2

#2 - Collection 2000 Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Liner - £2.99

#3 - Beauty UK Lash-fx Extreme Volume Length + Lift Mascara - £2.49

#4 - Miss Sporty Lash Curving Mascara - £1.99

I'll start with the mascaras. I've tried both of them, granted, only for about 2 hours, but they both seem to be doing fine. In terms of application, I found the Miss Sporty mascara to be easier to use, but honestly, there wasn't much more of an issue with the Beauty UK one, so I'm just being nit-picky. There isn't a huge amount of difference in terms of visual lash length with either of them, but it's at least noticeable that mascara's on, so not bad for the price I say. On a side note though, I would recommend the Miss Sporty Lash Building Mascara, as it does have more of an effect on lash length and is still really affordable!

Now to the eyeliners. Because of my ridiculously folded lids, it's essential I get good quality eyeliner, otherwise the smudging is just hideous. BUT, at the same time, I'm on a tight budget, so yeah, not always easy to find quality at cheap prices... anyway, I'm not a huge fan of liquid eyeliner, so felt pen eyeliners for me are a huge relief where that's concerned. I've only tried one before from Rimmel (I think), and it was amazing, but so tiny and so expensive, so I figured I'd give the cheaper brands a shot, and here's what they look like on:

The first one is the one from MUA and I've got to say, it really reflected the cheap price in terms of its quality. I applied 5 strokes in this photo, by the way. It looks really watered down and doesn't really show up, so honestly, I would not recommend this eyeliner. Or their mascara either - the brush has bristles falling off! The Collection 2000 one is really good; it is bold after a single stroke, unlike the MUA one, and dries really quickly, so my lids don't have the smudging issue. Woo. Also it doesn't fade or come off too easily, so I think it could potentially last quite a while, though the claimed 24 hours is debatable.

Right, enough make-up, on to music. Uh oh. Okay, so, I've been debating with myself a bit as to whether or not I should even bother with this review, but I figure, eh, might as well. As many who know me even vaguely will know, one of my favourite bands of ever is a UK band called Elliot Minor. Sadly, however, they are on hiatus, or so we can assume / hope from their lack of activity for the last 2 years. Since then, drummer Dan Hetherton has already gone on to form a new band called 'The Dead Famous', but that's not who I'm going to be reviewing today. Instead, I will be talking about singer Alex Davies' newly unveiled project, 'Spirits'.

As you can see from the vandalized image above Spirits is made up of 3 members: (L-R) Bob, Alex, and Dan. On their Facebook page (click the image for the link) they cite their influences as being Queens of the Stone Age, Biffy Clyro, and Foo Fighters, to name a few. So, really quite different from Alex's previous band. Now, I really shouldn't do this, but I'm afraid it's going to get a little subjective here. I listened to a song of theirs called 'Sweet Dynamite' which they offer as a free download on their Facebook page via PledgeMusic, and I've got to say, I don't really like it. Okay, so I know I'm talking from an Elliot Minor fan point of view, but knowing the potential this band could have with Alex as their songwriter, it's really not that great. I played the track earlier to my brother, someone also familiar with Alex's earlier work, and he too was not impressed. "There's not even a guitar solo!", he stated, and that really does sum up the whole song. The verse doesn't really suit Alex's vocal aesthetic, the chorus is bland, the bridge is feeble and the overall content of the song is way too simple.

I realise that they're not going for an Elliot Minor-esque sound, but I'm quite familiar with the bands they list as their influences and even then they're lacking. They're lacking the Foo Fighter power, the Biffy Clyro drama and the uniqueness of Muse. Then again, I'm basing all of this on one 3+ minute song, so I may be proven wrong in time, but sadly, for now, I'm just not feeling it. I do, however, have hope, even if only because I know what Alex can do; that song ('All My Life') he wrote for 'Clement Marfo & The Frontline', though not really my thing, was extremely well written and well executed, so I guess I was kind of hoping he'd be able to pull out that same magic for his own band. Well, as I said before, I guess we'll just have to see as they release more stuff in the future.

Phew! That was long. Anyway, before I go, just wanted to quickly show off my new Motel Rocks banner and maybe even hint a little something to you... *hint hint*

-Philippa. x
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http://ohmymeowy.tumblr.com
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PS.: Spirits' debut album will be available to pre-order via PledgeMusic on 1st February '13
PPS.: Not being mean and slating the band btw, just sharing my opinion! I totally urge you to go and check them out - the song is actually quite catchy (just not my thing...)!

Preston / London haul~

Not quite sure how this happened, but somehow I ended up spending most of my weekend shopping. Huh. Thankfully I didn't spend too much - I'd say somewhere just under the £40 mark (*cries*). But yeah, it all started out of boredom whilst wandering around Preston town center, and then a couple of days later moved onto London, where sadly, my pocket suffered the most, but oh well, all in the name of fashion I suppose... xD

So here's (for the most part) what I got:

Hello Kitty necklace - £2.50 (3 for £5 sale!) - Claire's Accessories

Hedgehog make-up pouch - £3 (3 for £5 sale!) - Claire's Accessories

Lollipop socks - free, early birthday pressie from Annie! - Topshop

Green tights - £1 - Topshop

Starry fishnet tights - £4 (3 for £5 sale!) - Claire's Accessories

Knitted ears hat - £3 - Topshop

'Cheeky Budha' teddy scarf/hat - £6 - Fusion Boutique

'Oh My Love' purple hi-low skirt - £10 - Topshop

I actually bought more stuff than this throughout the weekend, but as I haven't been home for 3 days and most of the other stuff was just gifts for Annie - who I already saw and gave them to earlier - I wasn't able to take pictures to show them off, so yeah... overall I'd say I got quite a bargain on my stuff, and everything was bought on sale, so woo, go me and my super awesome bargain hunting awesomeness! ^^

-Philippa. x
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