September 17, 2018

MORPHE IS COMING TO BIRMINGHAM UK! | NEW STORE

So we all probably know by now Morphe Brushes has officially left BeautyBay! While the break up may seem like it came out of nowhere, earlier July we received the news that Morphe will be opening up their first store in the UK. It's going to be opening October in Westfield Stratford City to be exact. Buttt Morphe isn't stopping at London, THEY'RE OPENING A STORE IN BIRMINGHAM TOO! The store is located in the Bullring shopping mall, on the second floor and opening Autumn 2018, so I'm guessing October or November.

We can expect Morphe to be hitting other major cities too, Manchester maybe you're next!

This is so exciting as a Brum Blogger because often brands tend to forget about other UK cities and everything is normally only in London. We can finally get to try the products in person and hopefully we'll get some of Jeffree Star products stocked too. I need to swatch them palettes to make sure I don't purchase a faulty one *cough at them Jaclyn hill vault palettes* I was unlucky and received a faulty Dark Magic palette, I'll have a post of that coming up soon!

They're also hiring for roles on their website:

And it's been announced it on their Instagram story too!

ARE YOU EXCITED AND WHICH MORPHE CODE ARE YOU GOING TO BE USING?

I'm going for sister James' code of course!

I will be beyond devastated if I can't use any codes in store after all that influencer marketing.

September 12, 2018

OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE - Hong Kong Night Photoshoot | E-Man Photography

During my Hong Kong vacay I met up with my good old friend Ernest. It was supposed to be a casual chill and catch-up but we ended up doing a spontaneous photoshoot when exploring Tsim Sha Tsui. Dammit, I would have made myself look more presentable and extra if I knew in advance! I'm still not comfortable with someone else taking my pictures yet since I'm so used to taking them on my own. No one knows you better than yourself right? Like I know my own angles, poses and settings. Trying different poses definitely did push me out of my comfort zone. I can see that in the photos because I look awkward and i'm not giving off them yasss bitchhh you slaying kinda vibes lol. Ahhh I need to practice more and be more confident! ><

If you like the outcome of the photos, you can check out more of Ernest's photography on his Viewbug. I promise his work is amazing, especially the scenery ones! ^^

www.viewbug.com/member/E-Manphotography

Have you ever done a photoshoot? How do you feel about them? :')

July 22, 2018

Project Pan 101: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW AND HOW TO GET STARTED!

2018 so far has been filled with constant makeup launches every week, it's not only overwhelming to keep up with releases, it also empties our pockets! You may start coming across the two words Project Pan more in the future, so what is it?

July 15, 2018

Schwarzkopf LIVE Colour Urban Metallic Sliver Review

Superdrug £5.49

Silver is the one colour I have a love-hate relationship with, I don't think I've ever managed to have silver hair longer than one month because it gets brassy so quickly!

I've already dyed my hair before with Schwarzkopf's Metallic Silver when it first launched onto the market. I decided to test it out again because the first time I used it, the silver had a blue tint to it, so I want to make sure I didn't a get a faulty or off dye before I blog it. In the picture above you can see the old and new packaging together, the dye's formula is still the same.

Product Info:

The box contains everything in a standard box dye:

Developer
Colour cream
After Treatment
Instruction Leaflet + Gloves

Application:

To use the dye, I simply mixed the developer and colour cream together, then applied the mixture onto clean dry hair for 25 minutes and rinsed it off.

Results: Hair Before Dying

My hair was already bleached platinum blonde, so it's the perfect clean canvas for silver.

Hair After Dying

The colour looks amazing in pictures, it comes off as a neutral silvery-white like the model on the box. However, the colour in real life doesn't match the box 100%. In person, the silver has a blue tint to it, which is very unflattering against my yellow undertone skin. I have to wear a lighter foundation to pull the colour off. The blue does fade after a few washes so you get a nice white silver. After a few more washes, brassiness starts to peak through and makes my hair look greenish! :(

My boyfriend wanted silver hair as well, so I dyed his hair with the leftover silver. He also noticed the blue tint and didn't like the colour until it faded to a neutral silver. Again the colour looks good in pictures though.

A post shared by Nick (@drumachine) on May 26, 2018 at 3:19am PDT

Overall:

If you've read any of my Schwarzkopf dye reviews before you would know I have rateded majority of them pretty positively. The Metallic Silver dye sadly has to be to worst dye I've tried from Schwarzkopf so far. I wish I wasn't so busy with work so that I would have the time to record a video to show you guys the results better.

The colour fades fast, there's not much shine (like it advertised) and the silver has a blue undertone. The dye doesn't damage your hair so kudos to that. I think I'm disappointed because I've haven't experienced weird blue tints and fading to greenish blondes with silver dyes before. You can see what I talking about in this picture.

It happened to both of us, so it's definitely the dye. So sadly I'm going to give this dye a low rating and personally will not recommend it.

Rating: 1.5/5

Have you ever had any weird or disappointing experiences with silver dyes?

June 18, 2018

Carbon Coco Activated Charcoal Tooth Polish Review | Why I stopped using this Insta hyped product

Today we have another Instagram hyped product! Not long ago I reviewed the Coffee Scrub by Bean Body and now it's the Activated Charcoal by Carbon Coco. I'm sure you've probably seen this on your feed from your favourite influencers but does it actually work or should you save your money? Keep reading to find out (and also why I've stopped using this)!

Carbon Coco was super lovely and sent me this a while back to try out otherwise I wouldn't be reviewing it right now because girlllll this kit cost AUD$89.95 (£50.90)! Thank god it's currently half price for AUD$44.95 (£25.43). I don't think I could justify spending so much on charcoal powder, also because I'm quite sceptical towards these kinds of products.

Some quick info for you~

Activated charcoal is oxidised charcoal, designed for medical use; so it's completely safe if you accidentally consume some
Has adhesive properties that can be used to remove external stains to naturally whiten and polish teeth
Can help to reduce gum disease, remove plaque, deodorised and prevent bad breath

The Ultimate Carbon Kit contains:

Activated Charcoal Tooth Polish
Activated Charcoal Toothpaste
Bamboo Bristles Toothbrush

How To Use?

You simply wet the toothbrush, dip it into the charcoal powder, brush your teeth for 2 minutes and rinse it out when you're done. Wa-la~ Here is my demo using it!

A post shared by ☾ MICHELLE CHEUNG (@michellecheungg) on Oct 8, 2017 at 7:51am PDT

Review:

When this arrived, I was super excited, opened it immediately and gave my teeth a good scrub. I didn't have stained teeth to begin with, but hellooo who doesn't want whiter teeth?

The charcoal is orderless and didn't have any taste which is good, imagine if they put a twisted on it and added some flavour to it, yum! It has a gritty feeling when brushing. The powder is MESSY and you can see everywhere thanks to it being pitch black. Be careful when spitting it out after brushing, it will get all over your sink and you'll have to rinse it. Luckily it doesn't stain and washes away easily.

However, it's a pain in the ass to rinse out the charcoal, there's always some gets stuck in your gums because of how fine the charcoal. I like to use the charcoal toothpaste to help get rid the stuck charcoal and for further whitening.

After my first time using it, I could instantly see my teeth were whiter. It wasn't pearly white but it was definitely slightly whiter by a shade. Excited by the results I used the polish for almost a week hoping to get my teeth as white as possible. Ha ha ha this is where things go major downhill.

The more I used it my gums got increasingly sensitive. Carbon Coco hun, this is not what I signed up for. I had to take a break from using it because it started to make my gums bleed. NOT OKAY. I think it's probably because you can't fully rinse away all the charcoal from your gums or the charcoal irritates your gum. I tried it again after getting my gums checked with my dentist (not at a pretty price tag) and my gums started to swell up again after using the charcoal. The bleeding and swelling it caused is why I had to stop using it. Thankfully everything is okay now!

Also the more I used it, I didn't notice my teeth get anymore whiter, I feel like the charcoal only works up to a certain point and stops after whitening a shade or 2. I was so disappointed because I liked it at first but the more I used it, the negatives increased!

Andddd before I forget - I liked the toothbrush, the bristles were fine and soft. I am not a hard toothbrush kinda girl! The toothpaste was okay, I wish it was mintier so that I could get that super fresh feeling afterwards. It's not worth the £15 price tag.

Overall, it works slightly but don't expect to be to looking like Simon Cowell afterwards. Personally, I feel the cons outweigh the pros effects, so I can't and won't recommend this. However, if you're still very keen on trying activated charcoal despite knowing the cons, Superdrug has their own charcoal range and the polish retails for £7.99 that you could try out because investing in a more expensive one.

TL;DR

Pros:

It works, slight whitening up to a shade or 2
100% Natural teeth whitening method, no chemicals involved
Charcoal has no flavour
Toothbrush is good

Cons:

Abrasion can potentially damage your enamel
Results won't be pearly whites
Messy
Can make your gums bleed and swell up

*Disclaimer: complimentary product