Wonders of Beauty

100 Followers Giveaway (CLOSED)..♥

As you can tell from the title, I have reached 100 followers WOOHOO!

I know 100 followers isn't a lot but it means so much to me that there are 100 people out there who read my blog. I put so much effort into my blog and make sure things such as picture quality is of a good standard for you all to look at therefore I appreciate every single one of you beauts who actually take time out to view what I have posted.

I am also very grateful for those of you who leave lovely comments for me to read. I get so excited when I see that you're all commenting on my posts. It's nice to know you're actually interested in what I am posting :)

Anyway to show my appreciation, I am having a giveaway.
The winner will get to choose a MAC Lipstick of THEIR choice.
Obviously the lipstick will be brand new as I will purchase one for you.
Click Here to see the shade choices you have!

As with all giveaways there are rules which you are required to follow in order to be a contestant:

For 1 Entry:

♥ You must be publicly following my blog through Google Friend Connect
♥ Tell me what your favourite types of posts are/What you want to see more
♥ When commenting below, strictly one comment per person please

For additional entries:
(You cannot earn additional entries if you do not follow the rules above)

♥ Follow me on twitter, tweet about my giveaway and link it back to my blog and twitter (@Wonders_Beauty) - 3 Extra Entries
♥ Write a post on your blog telling everyone about the giveaway (please be sure to link back to this post)- 4 Extra Entries

When commenting below, please be sure to leave

- Your Google Friend Connect name
- Twitter name (for those wanting additional entries)
- If you have made a post about my giveaway then the link to the post
- Your favourite type of post/What you want to see more
- Email address so I can contact you if you're the lucky winner

Please be aware that I will not be responsible for any losses or damages once the item has been posted out

This giveaway is opened internationally and ends 30th November 2011 at Midnight (GMT)

Good Luck!

Once again I would like to thank you all for reading. Hopefully I can start blogging again properly next week. In case you don't follow me on twitter, I haven't blogged this week because my memory card adapter is broken and I have lost all my images including pictures for my eyebrow tutorial :(
I should be getting another one soon so please be patient with me :)

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Giveaway - 19:58

I Have 100 Followers..Win A FREE MAC Lipstick!! :) (CLOSED)

100 Followers Giveaway (CLOSED).. ♥ As you can tell from the title, I have reached 100 followers WOOHOO ! I know 100 followers isn'...

What's New: Sigma, MAC and Love-makeup.co.uk..♥

I guess it's that time again where I show you what's new! These items were purchased over the past week or so. As usual I strolled into MAC and couldn't resist temptation. I feel like every time I walk in there, I must leave with something or it doesn't feel right.
I also ordered a couple of things from www.love-makeup.co.uk. For those of you unaware of this site make sure you click the links within this post!

Sigma F05 Small Contour Brush

"A rounded dome brush for contouring and face blending, useful for powder setting after the laydown of concealer under the eyes to avoid movement of product."

I bought this contour brush to be used with my Sleek Contour Face Kit. I've found that the brushes I was using previously were not giving me enough precision when contouring my face. This brush also works lovely for applying blush. Because it is small you can really apply your blush precisely where you want it.
I believe this brush is multi-purpose and can be used for more than just contouring therefore making it good value for money.
Since my last Sigma brush purchase, they have modified the look of their brushes slightly. The handles are now glossy as opposed to matte and the Sigma logo is a bit bigger.
Call me late if they changed this a while ago, I just haven't purchased a Sigma brush in so long.

Price: £11.99
Purchase Online: Love-Makeup

♥

MAC Mineralize Blush in Love Joy
"Baked minerals refined into a powder formula to provide exceptionally sheer and lightweight application. Colour builds lightly, layer after layer, without heavy coverage. Veils and enhances the cheekbones with a luminous, pearlized shimmer"

Swatch

This beautiful mineralize blush was purchased mainly because I don't own one. I've used it a few times now but I mainly use it to highlight my cheekbones. I love that it isn't too glittery and can be applied for that subtle glow. The blush is currently available in 6 shades but this one in particular is in the permanent range.

Price: £19.00
Purchase Online: http://www.maccosmetics.co.uk

♥

Makeup Blending Sponge
"Latex free makeup blending sponge. Use the pointed end for blending in around the nose and under the eyes and the rounded end for the rest of the face. Wet and squeeze out excess water before using, when wet the sponge will swell up in size. Wash with mild shampoo after every use to prevent bacteria building."

I know I've only just recently purchased this but I am in loveeee!
I've dashed my Sigma F80 brush somewhere and have just been using this everyday without fail. I never thought my F80 brush would get replaced but I think this may have taken its place.
This sponge gives you a flawless and airbrushed finish. At first I was a bit unsure because you're meant to use it damp and I wasn't too sure how a damp sponge would feel when applying foundation and powder but I must say I think this is the best tool I've used to apply my makeup.
I use this sponge for everything apart from blush (I am still yet to try that) and it's perfect. Believe me it can also be used damp with powders as I use it to apply my Mineralize Skinfinish Natural.
During application, I use the pointed end for my under-eye concealer and the rounded side for the rest of my face.
I think everyone should try using this sponge. I'm sure you will be amazed and it retails at such an affordable price compared to the "Beauty Blender" which is around £15!

Price: £3.99 (you cannot go wrong)
Purchase Online: http://www.love-makeup.co.uk

♥

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Dark
"A luxurious domed face powder with minerals, slowly baked to provide a dimensional yet natural-matte finish. Provides perfect low coverage. Use to set and fix foundation or as a
touch-up throughout the day."

This product is just a repurchase. I dust on this powder after applying my foundation. I feel that it gives off a lovely finish and a glow to your skin whilst looking matte. I'm not sure that I can live without it!
I believe it can be either worn alone or with a foundation. It does have a hint of coverage.

Price: £18.50
Purchase Online: http://www.maccosmetics.co.uk

♥

MAC Eye Brows in Spiked
"Self-propelling, self-sharpening, brow defining. Confidently adds what you need: shape, colour, density in one streamlined tool. Like a pen, creates its own just-right point. Provides definition, shape, deepens/fills in colour. Creates striking arches. Easy to tote around. No sharpener needed."

I don't know if you've noticed but I usually used the MAC Eye Brows in Stud. For some reason it has been out of stock in my local MAC for weeks. I was told that it may not even come in for a while.

At the time I desperately needed an eye brow pencil as I don't go a day without filling them in. I was going to try the Clinique Superfine Liner but once again their darkest shade was out of stock. Personally I like my eyebrows really dark because I like them to stand out so I was in quite a dilemma. Eventually I went back to MAC and opted for the shade Spiked which is the shade just before Stud but obviously not as dark. Having used it a few times I guess it's not too bad and I can make do with it until Stud returns :)

Price: £11.50
Purchase Online: www.maccosmetics.co.uk

Have you made any purchases lately?

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Blush - 16:16

What's New: Sigma, MAC and Love-makeup.co.uk

What's New: Sigma, MAC and Love-makeup.co.uk.. ♥ I guess it's that time again where I show you what's new! These items were pu...

- 11:58

Update and I need your help!

Hey beauties I know it's been a while since you've heard from me and I am sorry for the lack of posts. I have just been really busy ...

Review: MAC Iridescent Loose Powder in Golden Bronze..♥

"Iridescent Powder is a finely milled mixture of Mica and pigments which gives the skin a beautiful sheen. It can be used on its own or mixed into other products like foundations or moisturisers to enhance their iridescent qualities. Designed to apply easily and uniformly without streaking and caking, it blends beautifully and can be applied on bare skin or over foundation. Because it's so concentrated it should be used sparingly at first. Apply Iridescent Powder with #129 Powder/Blush Brush for the desired effect."

Hey beauties!

Though this product isn't new or anything, I wanted to share it with you all as some of you may have never come across it before. It is the MAC Iridescent Loose Powder which I own in Golden Bronze. I would describe this as a multipurpose product as I believe you can find many different uses for it. Before discovering this product through a YouTube video, I had never heard of it and I'm not too sure why.

MAC Iridescent Loose Powder is available on the MAC website in two different colours: Golden Bronze (Golden brown with bronze shimmer) and Silver Dusk (Pinky beige with silver shimmer).

I currently only own it in Golden Bronze and to be honest, I've never seen the Silver Dusk one as I ordered my Golden Bronze online from the MAC website. I decided to buy the Golden Bronze based on what I had seen in a YouTube video and I actually took no interest in trying to find out what Silver Dusk looked like as I assumed from the description on the website that it would not complement my skin tone.

This product can be used for a number of things but personally I use it as a highlighter using my Sigma Tapered Highligher Brush.

Like the MAC description says, it can be mixed in with your foundation to enhance their iridescent qualities. I haven't quite tried this yet because I am scared as the product is quite shimmery.

Other uses that people have discovered:

Highlighting their brow bones

Mixing it with their lipgloss/lip balm

Mixing it with Studio Fix+ in order to be used as a body shimmer

Because this is a loose powder, I find it can be quite messy at times and there has been times where I have wasted product because of this.

I think MAC released a pressed powder form called Belightful which was a limited edition product but it appears again in their new "Packed To Go" face kits.

You can buy this product for £17.50 from MAC. You get 12g of product for this price which I think is reasonable because it is very shimmery and concentrated so you only need a small amount of product. A little really does go a long way with these iridescent powders so it should last for years!

Does anyone own any of the MAC Iridescent Powders?

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Highlighter - 13:00

Review: MAC Iridescent Loose Powder in Golden Bronze

Review: MAC Iridescent Loose Powder in Golden Bronze.. ♥ "Iridescent Powder is a finely milled mixture of Mica and pigments which gi...

Review: MAC Matchmaster SPF 15 Foundation..♥

As you are all probably aware, I went to get a sample of MAC's most recent foundation some time last month from my local counter. I have worn it a few times now and I think I'm ready to give it my own personal review.

Though I have tried a range of MAC foundations, I've never really found one that I would say I loved. They had spent quite a while developing the technology for this foundation so I thought I'd try it out.

"With our all races credo, we’re redefined what a perfect match should be with new Matchmaster Foundation SPF 15 technology, using translucent pigments to create a formula that enables a fully personalized finish influenced by the subtleties of your own skin tone. Adding to Matchmaster’s true-to-life appeal is its moisturizing demi-matte finish, medium buildable coverage, and line-reducing soft focus powders. Add the fact that this formula reduces excess shine-creating oil, and who could resist?"

Coverage:
As described by MAC, I would agree that this foundation has a medium coverage but I would say it was more on the lighter side of a medium coverage. If you are somebody who likes a full coverage and would like to cover imperfections such as scars, blemishes or hyperpigmentation, you may find that the coverage of this foundation isn't enough for you. Though it may cover some blemishes to a certain extent, I don't think it will cover everything.
I found that when using Matchmaster some of your natural skin does tend to show through which is expected as it is only a medium coverage foundation. Because it isn't too heavy, it looks very skin-like. It is great for those who maybe just want to even out their skin-tone but still want a natural look.

Finish:
This foundation has a very natural demi-matte finish but I usually finish my face using a powder. It can definitely be worn without a powder to sustain the demi-matte finish.

Texture:
One thing I will credit this foundation for is the texture. It is liquid and has a lovely texture which is very blendable. I've never had a problem with blending this foundation into my skin. Once applied, it looks very smooth as well.
The texture is a bit thicker than some foundations that I currently own but this isn't a problem once applied.

Staying Power:

I have worn this foundation for up to 10hrs and as with all my other foundations, it seemed to stay on my face pretty well. My only problem is that I found myself looking shiny after around 5hrs and would need to touch up a bit to keep my makeup looking fresh. When used with the Laura Mercier Invisible Loose Powder, I found that it took longer before I needed to touch up and looked good for about maybe 7hrs.
I like my makeup looking fresh for the majority of the day and this foundation just didn't do that for me. I hate shine and having to touch up during the day so I'm not too sure about MAC's claim that this foundation "reduces excess shine-creating oil"

Colour Range:
This foundation comes in 14 different shades. 1.0 being the palest and 10.0 being the darkest. The shades have been labelled differently to MAC's original labelling system.

Below is a rough conversion of shade numbers:

♥ 1.0 - NC15

♥ 1.5 - NW15

♥ 2.0 - NC20/NC25/NW20

♥ 3.0 - NC30

♥ 4.0 - NC35/NC37/NW30

♥ 5.0 - NC40/NC41/NC42

♥ 6.0 - NW33/NW35/NC44

♥ 7.0 - NW40/NW43/NC45

♥ 7.5 - NC50/NC55

♥ 8.0 - NW44/NW45

♥ 8.5 - NW46/NW47

♥ 9.0 - NW48

♥ 9.5 - NW50/NW55

♥ 10.0 - NW58/NW60

All the shades in Matchmaster have a neutral undertone.

I normally use NC50 throughout the MAC ranges and though MAC claims that with this new technology, the foundation shade should adjust to your skin tone, I didn't find 7.5 was a perfect match for me when the foundation was originally applied but I guess throughout the day, it did adjust ever so slightly though the match still wasn't fantastic.

7.0 was too light and 8.0 was too dark.

Price:
This foundation is £24.50 and costs more than most MAC foundations. In comparison to their Studio Fix Fluid (which is £19.50), the Matchmaster costs more because you get 35ml worth of product and Studio Fix Fluid has only 30ml of product.

Availability:
This foundation is available from any MAC counter or anywhere that stocks MAC products such as Debenhams (online).
Click Here to purchase it from the MAC website.

Overall Thoughts:
To be quite honest, I was expecting much more from this foundation and I don't know why. I think because I was so desperate to find a foundation in MAC that I loved, I was hoping that Matchmaster would be the one. Don't get me wrong, this foundation is still lovely but I am not blown away to the extent where I'd rush out to purchase it. There really isn't anything that it does for me, that most of my other foundations can't.
The claim that it adjusts to your skin tone may work better for others but I didn't find it great. All in all I was quite disappointed with this foundation because I had such high hopes and expectations from it.
As far as I am aware, it didn't make me break out or anything but my friend who got a sample at the same time that I did, suffered from break outs and therefore stopped using it.
For now, I don't think that I'll be purchasing this foundation but I will continue using the samples (me being cheeky, I got two) that I got from the counter until they run out.

Here I am wearing MAC Matchmaster 7.5

Click Here to see my FOTD using Matchmaster

Did anyone buy the MAC Matchmaster foundation or have gone to get a sample?

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Foundation - 17:34

Review: MAC Matchmaster SPF 15 Foundation

Review: MAC Matchmaster SPF 15 Foundation.. ♥ As you are all probably aware, I went to get a sample of MAC's most recent foundation s...

Lipstick Diary - 15:43

Lipstick Diary | Using MAC Ruby Woo Lipstick

Hey beauts! When I made a post about buying MAC Ruby Woo lipstick ( click here if you don't remember), I received a ...

What's New: Laura Mercier Invisible Loose Setting Powder and Face Atelier Ultra Foundation..♥

Hey beauts!

Another post to show you the new additions to my life.

Laura Mercier Invisible Loose Setting Powder - Universal

Click to enlarge

Over the weekend, I popped into Fenwick as I usually do but this time I was considering whether or not to purchase the MAC Prep + Prime Transparent Finishing Pressed Powder but before doing so, I went over to the other counters first just to have a look around. I then ended up looking at Laura Mercier products (which I very rarely do). I came across the "Invisible Loose Setting Powder" which according to my friend is much better than the MAC Prep + Prime Transparent Finishing Pressed Powder. After I was told the Laura Mercier powder was £29 I was very reluctant to even ask the lady at the counter to give me a demo. As usual, I gave in and eventually jumped right into her chair to see the miracles that this powder was going to perform.

Apparently people have been raving about this product. I don't know why I've never stumbled across it until now. It left my makeup with a beautiful and professional finish. I can't wait to continue using this product and give you all a full review!

Face Atelier Ultra Foundation - #10 Cocoa

Now as for this product, I purchased it probably over two weeks ago and it actually arrived with the Zero Plus sample (click here to see the post). If you remember, I wasn't able to find a match with this foundation so I was sent a sample of Zero Plus. I still haven't had time to try out Zero Plus so I don't know whether it is a good match or not.

Anyway, remember when I mixed my Face Atelier Ultra #10 Cocoa sample with my Estee Lauder Double Wear in Truffle? (OK if you don't just click here for a reminder) Well, I really loved the finish of that mix. The Estee Lauder foundation was also too dark for me so #10 Cocoa improved the colour match. Though the colour match is not exact (as you can probably tell from the picture), it is just about manageable as I can never get a perfect colour match in any foundation anyway =/

I feel like when these foundations are mixed, I get the positive qualities of both foundations and I will continue to use the two until something better comes along.

The foundation was £34 and was bought from Coco Beau

Hope you had a lovely weekend

Face Atelier - 23:01