No7 lipstick in Bare. A good nude for WOC?

I've been looking for a nude lipstick for a long time and it's been a bit difficult as most nudes that are marketed are for women who are about 10 shades lighter than me! I've already made the mistake of buying a few which look completely ridiculous. I guess the trick is not to buy a milky beige/pink colour but a warm brown with pink undertones.

Like this swatch of Bare!

I think this is the perfect nude lipstick for me. It erases my natural lip colour without washing me out and I feel really comfortable wearing it. A great everyday colour.

I have to say that I'm not really impressed with No7 as a brand itself. I bought this with my £5 off voucher but the original RRP is £10. I feel like this is a complete rip off and that No7 makeup is grossly overpriced for what it is. The quality of this is on par with a £1 MUA lipstick I bought a while back. The lipstick goes on thinly and smells waxy and cheap, whilst the packaging is plasticy and really dated.

I wouldn't buy this again, I just hope that I can find the same colour in another brand. Anyone know of anything similar?

Boots Haul

I tried to take full advantage of those £5 off Ruby & Millie/No7 vouchers that Boots were doing last month and ended up with 3 new brushes! I bought two No7 blending brushes (only one is pictured) and an angled eyeshadow/liner brush from Ruby & Millie for £1 each, yay! I also purchased a Rosewater toner by Botanics which I will be reviewing soon.

I bought two lipsticks and a lip pencil from the Natural Collection, which were £1.99 each.

I want to start wearing lipstick and thought I'd ease myself into it and test out what colours I can pull off. I'm not so fond of the lip pencil because I find it's quite hard and my colour choice wasn't so great. I love the lipsticks though. Fig leaf is a nice nude-ish mauve colour but I can only pull it off with a pink toned lipgloss over the top. I really like Rose Bud - it's a pretty wearable pink. Both are "moisture shine" lipsticks so they're not drying at all. I can't comment on longevity because I haven't dared to wear them outside of my house yet. Really need to work on that!

Latest Haul and a competition win

Out of sheer boredom, I made a trip to my local high street just to get out the house. These trips aren't really recommended because you end up buying things on a whim rather than necessity.

I picked up this snazzy Cath Kidson-esque makeup bag from Primark for £1.50 and a few makeup items from Boots and Superdrug.

I got a gel eyeliner from Sleek in Dominatrix (that's black to you and I)and it's been really good so far. It has good consistency and is quite pigmented. It comes with this teeny brush which is absolutely useless as it's hard and gouges the product. It's waterproof which is an added bonus, and it fared well during my weepy viewing of The Time Traveller's Wife yesterday. Here's a little swatch.

See how dark it is? Great stuff! I only have one other Sleek product which is their liquid liner but I really love this brand. I can't wait to get my hands on one of their eyeshadow palettes!

This isn't a High street buy but it arrived in the post the other day. It's "Chinatown" by Nails Inc which is a hot pink with purple pearlised swish. I freaking love it! I'm used to one dimensional matte finishes but this is a whole new level of colour for me. Depending on the light, it changes from a hot pink to a shimmery pink/purple, and has a wonderful gloss finish.

I'm sorry for the photo but I struggled for 15mins with my SLR trying to take a close up (ignore my pinky finger, it's Barry M raspberry). The polish goes on well and even though I hastily applied it for this photo with no base or top coat, it's survived 2 days with no chips so far. This was a freebie from the News of the World offer and costs £10.50 originally, but I would definitely get this again.

This was on offer in Boots for £2.93 and I've been looking for a waterproof MU remover so decided to give this a go. It's oil based and needs to be shaken to mix up the oil and water. It works but it stings my eyes slightly, and it doesn't leave the skin around my eyes feeling soothed as it claims to? Oh well.

Been looking for this for ages! Exaggerate eye definer from Rimmel that has a built in sharpener and smudger. All for the lowly price of £3.91.

It does the job but I would advise against using the smudger. It's made from a rubbery plastic and drags the skin a little.

I had a £5 off voucher on Ruby & Millie and No7 so I bought this blusher from No7 in "Coral Flush".

It looks more like a dusky pink than coral, and although it has a faint golden shimmer to it, it doesn't really show up. The blusher itself is really chalky and there was a lot of fall out when I loaded up my brush. It didn't last long either :( Nevertheless it's a pretty colour and I only paid £3.74. I wouldn't buy this for the full price of £8.74, no way.

And lastly, I won these E45 goodies in a competition that was run by Now magazine. They are from their Endless Moisture range and I was sent one of each product from both their scent free AND lightly fragranced range. These will come in handy for the upcoming winter :)