Huge Makeup Geek Haul & Swatches

For absolutely ages, I have been wanting new Makeup Geek products to add to my collection, so when I first heard about the foiled shadows back in mid 2015 I just had to get my hands on a few, and maaaaybe pick up a couple of new shadows too. I already own quite a lot of Makeup Geek shadows and a few of the pigments too, but I'd seen Jaclyn Hill raving about the blushes and a crazy amount of other YouTubers/Bloggers loving the brushes too so this meant I had to add a couple of them to my basket as well, I couldn't resist!

However, I placed an order off the Makeup Geek website whilst I was on holiday in Florida, expecting them to turn up whilst I was able to collect them... they only turned up on our last day when we were checking in at the airport. Nightmare! In the end, I had them posted home to the UK, and I received them a couple of days ago. Shipping cost a fortune and it took about 2 weeks after I paid for the post and packaging at the beginning of January, so that's my lesson learnt.

My first thoughts when it comes to the brushes are that they are absolutely amazing quality in every single way. The brush hairs are soft and fluffy, a great shape, and high quality. The ferrules and handles are also extremely high quality and the length of the handles aren't too short or too long and feel very comfortable to hold. However, the Rounded Blush brush seems to be a bit too small for a blusher brush in my opinion but perfect for contouring so I think it will end up being used for that rather than blush.

Foundation Stippling Brush & Rounded Blush Brush

In total, I bought 12 of their eyeshadows, 5 of which being the new foiled eyeshadows and the rest just from their regular line of shadows, 2 blushes, 2 brushes and a large Z-Palette. As I haven't actually used them in any looks yet, just swatched them, there is only one product that I was slightly disappointed in and the rest are amazingly creamy, smooth and pigmented! And for the price point, you really can't go wrong with these Makeup Geek products. I will be linking the products to the Beauty Bay website, as they have just started to be sold on that website in the past couple of months, so if you're from the UK, this is great news! 

Blushes in Spellbound & Romance

Foiled shadows in (L-R) Fortune Teller, Center Stage, Steampunk, Grandstand & Flame Thrower

Eyeshadows in (L-R) Razzlebury, Beaches & Cream, Chickadee, Frappe, Cherry Cola, Bitten & Corrupt

Now that the shadows are being sold on Beauty Bay, I will definitely be purchasing more to add to my collection in the future! What are your favourite Makeup Geek products??

Anastasia Beverly Hills Illuminators: Peach Nectar & Riviera Swatches and Review

Riviera & Peach Nectar - £28

Finally I have my hands on some of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Illuminators. For months and months I have been lusting over these as I scrolled down Instagram and saw everyone and their mother posting about how great they are. They were not wrong! 

My boyfriend was kind enough to gift me one of the highlighters (Riviera) for Christmas and I was absolutely over the moon because as far as I was concerned they were pretty much out of stock of all of the shades everywhere, so you can imagine the joy when I opened this lovely gift. I first set my eyes on them when I last visited Florida, and it was by total accident. We were wandering around the beauty department in Macy's, well I was dragging my boyfriend around, and there they were. I obviously loved them all but these two shades stood out to me as they were completely different to any other highlighters I'd ever seen. However, at this point of the holiday I was scraping the barrel when it came to dollars so, unfortunately, had to pass on purchasing one of these beauties. 

Riviera is a gorgeous rose gold shade and is unlike any other highlighter I've ever seen before, and the same applies to Peach Nectar which is a gorgeous peach (duh) shade with a lovely warmth to it. They both glow like nothing else but still aren't too much to the point of them looking like a giant stripe on the top of your cheekbones. Riviera is great on its own or as a blush topper whereas I find, with my skin tone, that Peach Nectar would mostly just be a blush topper. Though, when I go on holiday and have nice, bronzey skin, this would work on its own too. But it is definitely for a dark skin tone. Think more NC37 and onwards in MAC terms. 

All in all, I love them and cannot wait until Beauty Bay have So Hollywood and Starlight in stock as I will 100% be getting those to add to my collection! Which ABH Illuminator shade is your favourite? 

Let's begin...

Hey! This is my first ever post on my new blog; Makeup & Sammie. I thought I would start it off with a bit of a intro into who I actually am...

WHO
My full name is Samantha Warburton, but I definitely prefer Sammie. I'm 21 years old and I currently reside in Lancashire in the North West of England. 

WHAT
In short, I used to do a bit of blogging a few years back when I was still in Sixth Form. However, that took up all my spare time and that blog sort of left the picture. But now I have a new job at MAC Cosmetics and I have a lot more free time along side that and freelancing. I am an absolute addict of everything beauty related; makeup, skincare, brushes etc etc so I thought what better way to express this love than with a blog! 

WHEN
This blog was started on the Monday 18th January 2016. I thought it could be one of my new years resolutions to start writing a blog and see where I can take it within the next year.