Review: Kiko Makeup Milano Makeup Bag (Midnight Siren Collection 2015)

I saw this make up bag years ago on Kiko ‘s website and decided to get it. I usually don’t buy make up bags from Kiko but this seemed like it was a really different type to the basic style bags they usually have and it seemed elegant and well presented.
 It turns out that it is all three of those things. The bag is imitation leather with a magnetic closure and it has a silver braided clasp which also can be used as a (very large) bracelet.

 Inside, the bag is surprisingly roomy. 

It can hold an iPhone really easily and has a lot of room to spare. I experimented to see how much I could fit in there and this is the result. Insert photo. It can also even fit two full-size Makeup Revolution palletes.
Inside is the Kiko logo and the bracelet that comes with the bag also has the double K Kiko logo printed on it.
The bag makes a perfect make up bag but also is compact and looks good enough for nights out.
I have to say, this is one of the nicest make up bags I have bought and and I am so glad I did. Another bonus is that it packs easily for traveling. 

Verdict: 10/10

Sunday with a Sassy Shopaholic: Kiko Primark and Lidl Haul

Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a great Sunday. This Wednesday, I bought some summer clothes from Primark- 3 pairs of shorts and some trousers.
I’ll upload photos of the rest of the clothes very soon. I also bought s cute pair of summer pyjamas. You can see some photos of what I bought in the gallery for this blog post.
Outfits aren’t complete in my opinion without gorgeous accessories, so I bought these earrings. As we were going towards the changing rooms, I spied a watermelon keyring I couldn’t resist these earrings, either! 

The pearl earrings cost 3.50€ and the black hoops cost 4€. There are burgundy hoops in the same style as these black ones on the website, but I couldn’t find them in the shop. Maybe next time….

I adore eating watermelon in the summer. I’m a fake fur addict too, so the keyringt seemed perfect! 

We thought it was a little expensive for 5€, but my motto is “if you see something you love, get it as you never know when you’ll see it again.” 

I find this especially true of shops like Primark, who are increasingly popular nowadays for their fashion-forward buys at great prices.

Found these cute detangling brushes in Lidl and  bought some new  makeup blending brushes (all €1.99).

I’ve had my eyes on the new range of Smart Lip Palettes by Kiko. They had one that had red tones, one with pink and this one, with a mix of current trendy tones. The palette is called Glam Rock and costs 12.45€. It’s on offer for 9€ (I saw the offer online just days after I went to the shop). All the Kiko palettes are currently on offer.

Looking forward to using it. I’ll review it for you on this blog soon, as well as all the other things I bought this week.

Kiko mascaras have been in my makeup bag for at least the last year off and on. I decided to buy another tube of the building base (second photo) which gives volume, as I love it so much. I also bought a mascara which I haven’t tried, the Luxurious Lashes one in the waterproof formula. Each were 3,95€.

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My Experience of Black Friday Weekend 2016

This weekend my parents were visiting. Despite the cold and rain, we decided to go to the Black Friday sales that were on. I have never been to any Black Friday events before and was excited. I love a bargain! Finances have always been difficult for me, but I really wanted to buy something for Christmas for my sister and nephew. I also wanted an early birthday celebration as my birthday is near Christmas. 
 I wanted to show my parents the Primark flagship store and so we went there. The store was full of people and the lifts were really busy but we made it. On the way, we stopped for a hot chocolate at a café which surprisingly had really good wheelchair access. 

My Primark purchases were a really soft short fleecy dressing gown in dove grey and a pack of really thick black tights to go with a black and white wool skirt I bought earlier in the autumn.
 I looked for another skirt in Primark as well as in Zara and Mango, but they were all pencil skirts which I find uncomfortable or skirts in designs I would never wear. The best surprise I got in Mango was the fact that they had redone the store and put a lift into it. The lift went down to the Mango Outlet which was great because I had never been able to go to that floor before . Mum bought me a really nice terracotta/rust colour tunic blouse which was €17 down from €30.  
 I saw online that Kiko Makeup Milano had a 3 for 3 sale on. Those of you who follow my blog will know that I am a complete Kiko addict and have taken advantage of this offer every time it has been on this year which is so far a couple of times. The other times I used it were online so I wanted to go to the store this time.
 One of the smaller stores was very full of people but luckily there was another one nearby. It was also really busy but the sales assistants were really helpful and got the products that I needed from the display stands. I was really disappointed that the two water shadows that I wanted (205 Chocolate and 223 Eggplant Purple ) were completely out of stock. So were the 3D lip glosses in shades 18, 22 and 21. 
 I ended up buying the lipgloss in shade 20 (Chestnut) and the sales assistant also checked that I liked the colour before I bought it, which I thought was good customer service. Usually, I find that if I need assistance in shops, the shop workers can be quite unhelpful at times.

This goes for any shop. A couple of weeks ago, I saw that Kiko had bought out a range of eyeshadows for just €2.50. This is called the Smart Eyeshadow range. I looked through the colours online before going to the store, and automatically loved shade number 23, Metallic Jeans Blue. 

I am always in need of really dark deep chocolate browns, so I found shade number 4 Metallic Cocoa was just what I was looking for. 

My fingernails seem pretty weak so I was looking for a strengthener and bought the Longer and Stronger Base Coat. 

I also finally bought the water shadows in shade 203 (Burgundy) and 204 (Plum) that I wanted!

 

At the drugstore, I bought the Oil Control Makeup Fixing Spray by Makeup Revolution and Wet and Wild’s glitter eyeshadows in Brass and. I am really glad that we went to the shops despite the rain and cold and I’m especially happy with the fact that I was able to buy the gifts I wanted as well as everything else I bought.
 On Saturday, we ate at Gino’s, my favourite Italian restaurant which is part of a chain. I decided to have the pizza bread and lasagne. 

We went to the cinema afterwards to see Fantastic Animals and Where to Find them. All through November, the Harry Potter films had been on TV at the weekends and I was really wanting to see the new J.K. Rowling Film. I will review it on this blog soon. The cinema had really great wheelchair spaces with a lot of room. It was mum and dad’s first time watching a film in Spanish. Alfredo and I had been to the same cinema on August 23 2016 to see Star Trek Beyond. 
Sunday was a relaxing day in our apartment. We took some photographs (see below) 

 and had pizza and salad before mum and dad flew home in the evening.
All in all, I really enjoyed my Black Friday weekend ( apart from the weather of course!) Here we are braving the rain and cold. We even saw a Christmas tree and decorations. 

I am really looking forward to swatching and reviewing  my new products for you which I will do very soon.

At the time this post was written, some of the products I mentioned were  and others were not stocked online. To guarantee that you can get them, first check the website in your country before going to the store.
  

Review: Kiko Cream Crush Eyeshadow in 05 Silver Rose

This eyeshadow goes on really well and it has a very light, creamy formula. I love the colour, which is silvery pale pink and it has great pigmentation. I am really glad I bought this colour. Pictures are of the shadow without primer. 

I didn’t apply primer before the shadow as the primer I currently use (HEMA Eyeshadow Primer) is very shimmery, and as the shadow, like other cream shadows I have tried, already has a high shimmer, I thought the shadow would be better on its own, and I was right. I may use a primer with this shadow if I can find one that doesn’t have shimmer.  The packaging is very simple, with a glass pot and  black lid which has the Kiko logo on it.  

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Verdict: 10 out of 10

Sunday with a Sassy Shopaholic: Etude House, Freedom Makeup London I Heart Makeup and Kiko online spree

Hi everyone, I hope you are well! Before I say anything else, I want to wish my mum a very happy birthday. 

This week was a busy week for online shopping. I ordered a product that I have wanted for months, the Sweet Cupcake Eyes Eyeshadow by Corean Brand Etude House.

 I also decided to finally buy some I Heart Makeup Lip Lavas after mulling it over for ages as to which colour to choose and then seeing some amazing reviews of those on YouTube. I bought Shockwave

 and Forgiven.

 I also bought the Bare Lipstick Collection by Freedom Makeup London. 

I wanted the Far Away Galaxy lipstick set and the Pink one too, but they are sold out online. Freedom Makeup London is not available in my local drugstore which is annoying, seeing as I Heart Makeup and Makeup Revolution are, and they are all under the TAM Beauty label. I will just have to look somewhere else, or order them on the TAM Beauty site, that will be another time though (not too long I hope) – I have spent quite a lot on makeup/ toiletries this week. My drugstore sometimes takes awhile to email to say that items are back in stock in the online store. In the case of Makeup Revolution, I have often gone to the physical store and found products there that were sold out online, or just ordered from the Makeup Revolution official site way before the drugstore emailed to say the item was in stock again. In some cases I am still waiting for the emails… I’m still waiting for my TAM Beauty order, brushes, a limited edition eyeshadow palette and a Freedom Makeup highlighter palette. 

Yesterday , I looked on the Kiko Milano website and saw that there was an offer for six products for the price of three! I haven’t been checking my emails recently because I have been so busy but I am really glad to have got this offer in time. It is only on until midnight tonight and includes all the products on the website.
Earlier this year, I bought the empty eyeshadow palette with separate eyeshadows, and really like how the shadows look on, either wet or dry. The only downside of the palette is that the sponges on the applicator did not last me long at all. I was able to replace the applicator with a spare I already had. The eyeshadows themselves are really good quality and apply and blend well. When I saw this offer, I couldn’t resist stocking up on 4 more. 

The shades of this product that I bought are: 64 Pearly Dark Wisteria, 81 Matte Antique Brass 82 Satin Iridescent Grey and 91 Metallic Deep Gold. 
 I also bought a product that I was waiting for for awhile because every time I looked on the website recently it was sold out, and that is Cream Crush Lasting Colour Eyeshadow in 05 Pearly Silver Rose.

 I really like the new Neo Noir collection and needed a makeup bag, so I decided to treat myself to the Neo Noir Pochette.

 I loved the colour of the Chrome Intense Nail Lacquer in 01 Classic Rosy Taupe,and so bought that.

 Neo Noir is a Limited Edition Collection, so if you do buy it just be aware of that, although, from my experience, “limited edition” Kiko collections tend to stick around instore and online for at least a few months. The bag seemed very classic and chic to me, with its vintage look leather. 

 Finally, I bought the Kiko Nail Lacquer in shade 226, Rouge Noir. 

I find a shade like this is perfect for the cooler months of the year or some added night time glam.       

Appologies for the small pictures, click on them and they should come up bigger. As always, I will do a more indepth review when the products arrive. Enjoy your Sunday! 

Other news this week

This week, I have been busy with my online courses and also getting through my first Advance Review Copy (ARC). There is a great offer on mascaras at Kiko at the moment – any mascara for 3.90 (in store and online). I have been really wanting to try the 30 day treatment mascaras (day and night treatment ) and so this is my chance. I bought both of those mascaras. Those of you who shop regularly at Kiko will know that the mascaras range in price from 5.90 to 8.90, so the offer price isn’t bad. I bought the 30 day treatment Mascara for day and the same product for nighttime. I also bought the volume building mascara.

Sunday with a Sassy Shopaholic : This Week's Buys and Surprise News

This time yesterday I was into my 7th attempt at the Dewey’s Readathon. It runs for 24 hours but I never stay up that long because I need my beauty sleep and also because I can’t because my partner works the morning shift at weekends. By the time I’d finished yesterday I was quite grateful to be in bed, and woke up early this morning to get some reading in. In total, I finished 13 books which were read to me on my kindle iPad reading app. I bought some ebooks yesterday and they were my week’s purchase. I loved reading the Babysitters Club books by Ann M. Martin as a teen and started collecting them. I thought I’d collected quite a lot but realised during the challenge that I haven’t really read very many of them after all. There are over 100! I also bought and read Sweet Valley Confidential and The Sweet Life, which is part 1 of an e serial. Both books are by Francine Pascal. I bought the novelisation of Star Trek Into Darkness as I saw the film on TV yesterday. I downloaded all the ebooks from Amazon. On Thursday I saw that a Primark flagship store has opened not far from our flat and so Alfredo and I are hopefully going to have a look there this week. Also, Lild’s makeup range is on promotion from tomorrow, and I signed up online with Kiko Makeup Milano and here are a few things I want from there… I’ll keep you posted as to what bargains I find!