Blog's 1st Birthday and Giveaway! - CLOSED

Hi all!

(PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE POST BEFORE ENTERING)

1st August was the 1st birthday of my beauty blog. It went from Beauty Blogging Away to The Beauty Chat to what is now Navilicious Beauty. This name is final! It was inspired by my lovely friend Paige who can be found on her Youtube/Twitter/Blog.

I've learnt a lot about blogging and people in general since I begun an active social media profile, some good and some bad. The best thing I have picked up though are a lot of fellow blogging friends, some beauty bloggers and other bloggers, blogging about whatever takes their fancy or their everyday lives. I won't go into it too much, but I really enjoy blogging and writing and I'm glad to have picked up some amazing followers in the year I have been blogging. Thank you very much for your follow and your support on my blog.

To say a better thank you I decided to hold a giveaway in celebration of one year on the blogosphere, I will be giving away Sleek's Meditteranean Collection. You can find reviews of all the products here.

So one lucky winner will win the following, a Monaco Palette, Santorini Blush and Monte Carlo Pout Polish, there will also be some small 2nd and 3rd prizes (all bought by myself - 2nd/3rd prizes may be GWPs). Here's how to enter:

Rules:
1. You must be a follower of my blog via Google Friend Connect
2. You must be 18+ or have your parent's permission if you are younger

To enter:
- Please leave a comment telling me what your favourite thing about reading blogs or blogging is - for 1 entry
- And/Or tweet this giveaway, (you must be a follower on twitter for this entry to count!) - for 1 entry
Tweet: "Follow @nav_beauty and RT this to enter Navilicious Beauty's 1st Birthday Giveaway! Details here: http://goo.gl/HFRFL"

You can enter as many times as you like but please leave a comment each time, if you enter on Twitter please leave your twitter name in one of your comments. Also please check back on Thursday 22nd September to see if you have won. I will not be sending an email to the winner as I'd like to think they read my blog so will have read the post to see if they have won. If I do not hear from the winner within 48hours of posting, another winner will be selected using random.org. Giveaway closes at 10pm BST on Wednesday 21st September and is open internationally. Any invalid entries will be excluded at my own discretion.

Sleek Makeup Mediterranean Collection Round-Up

Here you can find all my reviews for the Sleek Mediterranean Collection - just click on the product name below:

- Monaco Eyeshadow Palette
- Santorini Blush
- Monte Carlo Pout Polish

Thank you for reading :)

Review: Sleek Makeup LE Mediterranean Collection - Monaco Eyeshadow Palette

The Limited Edition Monaco eyeshadow palette by Sleek is a summer-orientated, fun, versatile palette - although probably not for nude/natural looks. Containing 12 well pigmented mineral-based eyeshadows this palette does not disappoint. There are 7 matte shades and 5 shimmer shades, also included is the double ended sponge applicator and a large mirror opposite to the eyeshadows. It cost £6.49 from Superdrug. I really like the packaging, it's a very slim compact palette with the simplest and functional design.

Top Row (L-R):

Bamboo is a matte light cream shade, perfect as a highlighter.
Aquamarine is a matte aqua shade, in-between green and blue, leaning more towards a light teal-green
Midnight Garden is a matte deep navy with slight purple undertones
Sunset is a rusty dark red-orange shimmer shade
Washed Ashore is peach shimmer
Magenta Madness is a bright magenta matte shade

Bottom Row (L-R):

Summer Breeze is a very light turquoise matte shade
Sand Walker is a light taupe-brown matte shade
Kiwi Zest is a bright lime green shimmer
Lotus Flower is a lilac shimmer
Humming Bird is a turquoise shimmer
Moors Treasure is a dark matte red-brown shade

All shades are well pigmented and wear well. I would recommend using an eyeshadow primer or base to increase the longevity of wear, as some shades crease after 4 hours of wear. In terms of application, I found all shades easy to pick up on the brush and apply, the lighter matte shades sometimes needed another dip to pick up the amount of product I wanted, like Bamboo, Sandwalker and Summer Breeze. I also found the lighter matte shades to be a little chalky but I think all matte eyeshadows have that slight issue.

The texture of all shades is generally soft and average, nothing amazing but nothing terrible either. Application was generally a breeze aside from the dusting of the eyeshadows when picking up product. I wouldn't repurchase this only because I'd never finish the entire palette!

To see a bright summer look with this palette by my friend Paige please click here.

Product: 9/10

Pigmentation: 8.5/10

Texture/Formula: 8/10

Wear: 8/10

Packaging: 4/5
Application: 4/5
Repurchase: No

Overall: 8.3/10

This new rating system is to provide a quick snapshot of my experiences with the product. The product itself, the level of pigmentation in comparison to how pigmented it should be, the texture and/or formula of the product. Wear is a rating of how long and well the item stays on, packaging and application are also reviewed. The repurchase line is whether I would repurchase the item again or not. Overall shows the average scoring of the product out of 10.

Review: Sleek Makeup LE Mediterranean Collection - Santorini Blush

This is the blush from Sleek's Limited Edition Mediterranean Collection which was released this summer. To read an overview post please click here. It cost £4.29 for 8g from Superdrug and is an amazing blush for summer - I really like it as you can already tell...

Ther packaging is very sleek, as per usual and is very pretty with the addition of the Mediterranean artwork. It includes a mirror on the opposite side of the blush which I love with all Sleek blushes, sometimes I forget my mirror in another bag or at home and having a mirror about is so useful. The pigmentation on this blush is very high, one swipe results in a very pigmented swatch, so very little is required for both cheeks. The texture is soft and blendable, which I think is an absolute neccessity due to the pigmentation! The blush wears on me without fading for at least 8 hours. A lovely rosy bright pink colour is remains on my cheeks throughout the day, blended well it appears very natural. I use a blush brush, either from Mac or ELF and both work well for ease of application.


Swipe on left, blended swatch on right.

As long as you're not put off by the very bright colour I do think you'll find this to be a lovely blush for summer - even though I don't feel it visited us here this year...I wouldn't repurchase this simply because I don't think I'll ever finish it! In terms of value you do receive a lot of good quality product for a relatively low price, another thing I'm happy with!

Product: 8.5/10

Pigmentation: 8.5/10

Texture/Formula: 8/10

Wear: 8/10

Packaging: 4/5
Application: 4/5
Repurchase: No

Overall: 8.2/10

This new rating system is to provide a quick snapshot of my experiences with the product. The product itself, the level of pigmentation in comparison to how pigmented it should be, the texture and/or formula of the product. Wear is a rating of how long and well the item stays on, packaging and application are also reviewed. The repurchase line is whether I would repurchase the item again or not. Overall shows the average scoring of the product out of 10.

Amarya Beauty

Amarya Beauty are a company providing natural and organic products online, in their shop and in their salon. They recently released a beauty box which I promptly signed up for! I really like the idea of organic and natural beauty products, so I'm glad I found them (special thanks to Madame Gourmand there!) On Twitter they held a competition and I was lucky enough to be sent a mini goody bag of samples! They were also kind enough to include a special code for the readers of Navilicious Beauty giving you a discount of a whopping 20% off anything* from their online store! - http://www.amarya.co.uk/

I've used most of the sachets up and I'm going to write a mini-review of each - more like a first impressions because of the size of the sachets and limited use of each. So onto the code...(clicking on it will take you directly to their website).

NBTW20

* not applicable to vouchers, treatments or the Amarya Beauty Box

Valid until Midnight Wednesday 31st August 2011.

I'm so very grateful to Amarya Beauty for the code and the lovely samples! Thank you! Please go and enjoy surfing their website and I hope you'll take advantage of the 20% off discount code!

Boudoir Privé - August 2011

I received my Boudoir Privé Beauty Box and I really liked it. I haven't included many pictures because I don't really like very image-heavy posts. It included the luxury samples as promised, and in different categories - makeup, haircare, bodycare, skincare, lifestyle and fragrance. It arrived with a lovely, very thoughtful handwritten card by the Founder of Boudoir Privé - Thérèse and a highly informative leaflet providing details about each sample included.

Here's what was included in my box:

- Sachajuan Hair Conditioner (100ml - £10)

- Jane Iredale PureLash Extender and Conditioner (small sample - full size 89ml RRP £13)

- Babor HSR Lifting Extra Firming Cream (small sample - full size 50ml RRP £82)

- Etat Libre D'Orange Archives 69 and Rien (1.5ml each - full sizes respectively 50ml £74 and £52.50)

- Olavie Antioxidant Body Butter (small bottle - full size RRP £43.55)

- Bloom Green Tea and White Tea Duo (sample each - full size pack of 10 RRP £4)

I haven't tried everything yet but I am happy with the box overall. I feel like this particular box is aimed at an older audience, I gave the Babor cream to an older lady, the tea I think is a nice touch, whether you drink tea, despise it or enjoy it once in a while. I found the PureLash Extender and Conditioner to be very lengthening to my lashes however I don't think it is a deluxe sample - especially as the full size is 89ml! The packaging of the Etat Libre D'Orange perfumes slightly annoyed me because of the explicit sexual image on the Archives 69 sample but they do smell nice once applied. I have heard of Sachajuan before but I haven't ever tried any of their products so am glad that their hair conditioner was included. Finally, the Olavie body butter I think is amazing, I'd never heard of the brand before this box though.

Overall: I think this is a good box with a value above the £10 paid for the P and P, the box and the products inside. It was personalised which I loved, the customer service and interaction from the company is brilliant and efficient. Before making a hard and fast decision I would deem it wise to experience a few more of their boxes. I give this month's box a 7/10.

What did you think of this month's box? Will you be subscribing?

My Makeup Collection!

Hi!

I've decided to post my collection on here, I really like reading these type of posts and watching them on Youtube and wanted to share mine too. I do think it's huge, and that's my opinion, I don't use makeup everyday, mainly due to the fact that I'm always lacking time and/or too tired, hence why I don't feel my makeup skills are too great either!

I will post more than one post in this series because of the dynamics of a blog post in comparison to a YouTube video, and it will be much clearer and better overall to post several times. The posts will be in the following order:

1) Overview
2) Eyes
3) Face
4) Lips
5) Brushes/Tools
6) Nails
7) Extras/Makeup Bags/Any Forgets

I will aim to take pictures/edit them/write the posts by the end of the first week of August because I am very limited in leisure time for this week! I also have a vast skincare collection, and a large bodycare collection, if you'd like to see those as posts as well please let me know! Or any other types of posts, like what's in my makeup bag, etc.

Thank you for reading!

Please post your makeup collection posts/videos below so all readers and I can check them out! :)