The Orgasm Dupe

I know there's probably a lot of posts out there similar to this but after looking at my blush collection a few days ago, I realised they all looked the same! There's obviously a certain colour I gravitate towards and I also prefer shimmer. But I never chose any of these blushes with Nars Orgasm in mind. This is probably why I wasn't so impressed with it when I finally did buy it. I even went onto the Temptalia dupe list to check out what else is similar. I kept seeing Luminous by Milani popping up, and this just happens to be the only Milani blush I own! I've also heard that Rose Gold by Sleek is supposed to be a good dupe too which I was going to buy a few months back but it was out of stock, it would probably be a waste of money for me to buy it now. Although it's a great alternative if you don't want to splash out the money for Nars which, I wouldn't recommend for this colour simply because there are SO many around. 

So the dupe's that I've found in my own collection are:

Milani Luminous blush

This blush is very similar to Orgasm but the finish is quite different, where as Orgasm has a pink blush with gold shimmer particles the gold in luminous is much more subtle and has no particles, the two colours blend together. It's much less glittery and the colour has more orange undertones.

Benefit Bella Bamba

I love Bella Bamba because it is such a pigmented colour and has such a soft texture which I love. The shimmer particles in this are a little more subtle than that of orgasm and while it has a slight golden glow it's not as obvious. It seems pinker in colour too.

Philosophy Healthy/Happy duo 

While this colour may look similar in the pan it's much different when swatched, I would say this is more of a burnt orange shade. This doesn't have shimmer particles in it, it's much more of a sheer subtle sheen, more similar to milani luminous than orgasm

 Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Glisten

I would say this colour is just a tad darker pink than orgasm, the finish is very similar with less gold. Again with the shimmer particles, although they can be seen up close they are much less obvious.

Too Faced Who's Your Poppy? blush which I got in a duo with last year's holiday collection

This is the most similar from all the blushes, looks exactly the same when swatched. The same pink tone and the same finish with the right amount of gold shimmer. Although this has the same texture as Bella Bamba the finish overall is the best dupe for Orgasm.

L-R Orgasm, Luminous, Bella Bamba, Philosophy, Glisten, Who's your poppy?

I really think I need to be a bit more adventurous when picking blush shades from now now on! Any Recommendations? Do you have any good dupes for higher end products?
 

Summer Travels!

Hi Everyone! I hope you're all enjoying the weather we've been having, I'm finally out of hospital (again!) and can finally enjoy it too, even if it is from indoors! 

I hope to be enjoying even more sun this year when I go back to the states! My summer plans for this year are to go back to California to visit the bf again and take a short visit to Vegas. I visited Vegas for the first time last year with my sister and her friend, and had literally the most amazing time ever, it really is like nowhere else I've been. The heat there is sooo hot, when walking down the strip I basically walked in a zig zag line going inside a hotel and back out again because it's too hot outside and too cold inside! I think we're going to be there for 5 days 4 nights and will be there on July 4th! So hopefully I'll get to see some fireworks. It will be my 3rd time celebrating 4th of July in the states, the first being in 1996 and the second last year. 

I'm planning on staying for about 5/6 weeks and leaving around the 20th June, I haven't actually booked my flight yet (eek!) due to all my hospital visits and I need to get the all clear from my doctor so I can fly but all should be okay! 

There's so many thing's I want to do when I get to Vegas that I missed out last time. One of them is the Gondola's at the Venetian hotel, they sell out quite fast so I'm definitely  doing them this time. 

I'd also like to see the Lions at the MGM Grand, they go to bed at 8pm so I'll have to get there earlier. 

I'd love to eat inside the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel, it looks so beautiful and this hotel is one of my top 3. 

Have my Picture taken at the Vegas Sign! I missed this last time as it's not actually walkable or easy to get to but we'll stop off here at the start of our stay. 

Visit the Grand Canyon! I missed this last time too, as the tours they do are all day and I didn't want to spend an entire day there, plus there was so much to do I didn't have the time. We're going to drive there ourselves as the bf went to college in Arizona and knows the place well ;) 

Go to Fremont Street, this is what's known as "old Vegas" where they still have the old machines where they cash out in quarters instead of the vouchers that you hand in for cash.

Get a guitar full of margarita... why not right? lol

Play black jack, after last summer we all came back obsessed with black jack and the guy sitting next to me in one of the casinos helped me learn how it works, I mean the rules are quite straight forward but he taught me how the stats work etc and I ended up winning $300 that night so I'm hoping I can do it again!

The hotel we'll be staying at will be the Treasure Island which is opposite the Venetian and next to the Mirage, the reason we picked here is because we're not really fussed about where we stay and this weekend is going to be so expensive for most hotels and this one gave us the best deals. It looks like a nice hotel though and has a pirate boat outside.

So that's most of my plans I can think of so far, I'm sure we'll do a few more things here and I'll have some plans for California, we'll probably go take another visit to sprinkle's because that place was amazing and maybe some other thing's around LA and Santa Barbara, here are some of the photos from last summer :)

Don't wear a UCLA tshirt in Vegas unless you wanna get lots of comments from college guys ;)

Checking into Caesars Palace with a margarita in hand, I asked the receptionist if the hotel was pager friendly

The Black Jack pool at Caesars, waiting for the Rod Stewart press conference

Outside the Paris hotel

The pool at Caesar's Palace

Do you have any plans for this summer? Where are you planning on going?

Coastal Scents Camo Quad

A while ago I made an order on the coastal scents website when they had a sale on, I think I spent around $35 in total for 2 palettes and a camo quad. I'd seen these mentioned a lot on youtube and so decided to try one out. I'm always hearing about how certain colours can tone down dark circles and redness on your skin so figured I'd give it a go and see for myself. 


I found it bizarre at first that there was even such thing as a green concealer, it didn't make any sense to me why you would plaster green on your face, I eventually found out that green helps conceal any redness in your skin. I haven't really heard very much about what the other colours do? I have seen several products that look similar to this, like the ELF powder which is supposed to even out your skin tone by swirling your brush into all the colours and I thought what a great idea. 


If I'm honest it felt weird putting these colours on my face, I always put concealer on before my foundation anyways but with these you'd definitely have to! I only really tried the green where there was red and sheered it out before putting my foundation over the top. I don't know whether I was doing it right or not but even after my foundation the green was still visible. I don't feel like it evened my skin tone out or that it concealed the red, it just made my face green! I find that using my regular concealer does a much better job at evening out my skin than this ever would. For me I feel like this is one of those products that in theory should work but doesn't when actually applied. I would love to know if anybody has had success with something like this. I've tried it out and now know it's not for me, unless there is some secret way of applying it in which case I'd give it a go.


Do you own any green/coloured concealers?

Wednesday Wishlist & Update

As some of you may or may not know, I went into hospital yesterday for ear surgery and was discharged this morning, I'm so glad to finally be home in my own bed! So naturally the first thing I do is blog! lol I'm gonna have quite a bit of time on my hands these next few days as I'm not allowed to go many places, so hopefully I can make up for my week away from blogging :) To cheer myself up from the pain I've been browsing/buying some products, good excuse right? Here's what's on my (get well?) wishlist.

1: Amaranthine Perfume, first off I think the name of this is just beautiful! I love Penhaligon's as a brand and first smelled this perfume when it released in 2009 in their Covent Garden store. Have wanted to buy it ever since, maybe one day soon :) This available from their stores and website.

2: Especially Escada Perfume, I smelled this in Debenhams a few months back and fell in love with the smell, I held off buying it at the time though. Let's see who I can convince to buy it for me to get better ;)

3: Paul and Joe Midsummer Night's collection shimmering pressed powder. I love Paul & Joe cosmetics and their packaging I think is just flawless, I love anything to do with fairy's in general and love a midsummer night's dream so when I heard about this collection I knew I'd fall in love! As far as I know you can buy this at Fenwick on Bond Street, have not seen it on ASOS along with the rest of the collection, unless it sold out? I hope not!

4. Les Merveilleuses de Laduree, I'd only recently discovered that Laduree had a makeup range unfortunately it is currently only available in Japan as it's manufactured by a Japanese brand. I think you might be about to buy from their website and get it shipped internationally but I'm not sure and would assume it would cost quite a bit. I've also heard this could be available around Autumn time in Europe, I really hope so! In the mean time I guess I'll just have to stare and wish!

Winner of my giveaway!

Just posting to announce the winner of my 100 follower giveaway, thank you all so much for entering and I wish I could give something to every one of you! Hopefully in the future I can reward my readers with more goodies :) So the winner is....

Charbucks!!! (Charlotte)

Well done on winning my first giveaway! I will contact the winner also in case you don't see this post :) I will hopefully send it out sometime before Tuesday! Congrats!

NOTD: Pink Friday

This was part of the Nicki Minaj Collection, I have 3 of the polishes from this collection but I think this one is by far my favourite. I think this is a great for summer and would look good with a tan. I really love pastel colours and think this would look great with a mint green colour or with some glitter over the top!

Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Glisten

Tarte's Amazonian 12 hour Clay blushes have caught my eye for a few years now but it wasn't until I was in the states this year that I remembered to pick one up. They are pricey at $24 each but I think that is the average for high end blushes. Tarte is a brand that is all about using natural ingredients and this is something I always love about products, as well as being cruelty free! This shade was released as part of their spring collection and they hadn't yet released any shimmer blushes within this range until now. Being a lover of shimmer blushes rather than matte, I went for this one. The only thing I didn't like whilst looking at this in Sephora was that they didn't have a tester for it so I didn't get to swatch it before buying. The packaging it comes in reflects the shade inside, and this had a shimmery case so I knew it was a shimmer blush. I usually stick to the same shade when trying out blushes and this is a pretty common shade, but I would love to try some of their other shades. Maybe something a bit more purple based.


Does this blush last 12 hours? Well from what I've noticed, yes it does. I can go out knowing that this is going to stay on for a long time, I don't really need a 12 hour blush, anything from 6 to 8 usually does me for every day but this is something I'd probably wear of a night when in a bar or club as that's when my makeup starts to wear off. So far I love this blush and it is very smooth and easy to blend onto the cheeks. 


Have you tried any Tarte products?

Ravishing On Rodeo Drive

This is my first ever Stila palette, I picked this up at Nordstrom Rack for $10 which I thought was an amazing price. I hadn't realised that Stila do a lot of palettes similar to this just for $10/£10. I've always liked the look of their convertible lip and cheek colours too but as I'm not too confident with cream blushes I've never purchased so this was a great way for me to try one as well as their eyeshadows. The cheek colour isn't what I would usually go for but I think that's a good thing because I always stick to the same colour range and never seem to venture into other shades. 


I love the formula of the eyeshadows, they are so soft and smooth and really easy to apply. I hate having to work with anything chalky or that has a lot of fall out. The eyeshadow colours in this palette are so pretty, I gravitate towards mostly browns but this palette puts together some nice shades which compliment each other without going over the top. You can easily create an every day look with this and add a pop of colour too. 


The convertible colour has an orange undertone to it and is quite sheer on the cheeks which gives a nice natural flush, can also be layered with a powder blush for a bolder colour. I love this palette as I think it is great for travelling and quite compact. I think I will be purchasing more of these in the future.


Stila Cosmetics are available from www.stilacosmetics.com and www.stila.co.uk

Do you own any of Stila's travel palettes?