Suzie Q Reviews: Flormar Beauty On A Budget

Hey Ladies,

Way back last Summer I attended the relaunch of Flormar into Ireland, a brand known for its nail polishes and inexpensive makeup. Since then Flormar has grown and almost every pharmacy in my local area has a stand and their products have been written about hugely in the Irish blogging community. I want to give you my two cents on the brand and some of their stand out products!

In terms of quality I was blown away by the packaging, pigmentation and price range of these products. I was kindly given all of these products to try and the item I was most excited for was the Eyeshadow palette no 7 Nude Dudes* costing as little as €9.95. As you can see from the swatches the palette contains  5 matte eye shadows that are incredible soft and pigmented. A neutral matte eyeshadow palette is a staple in any makeup bag. I have been using this palette for quite a while and have found myself reaching for it daily over the likes of my more expensive palettes from MAC or Inglot. If you try anything from this range, let it be the eye shadows. 

Bearing in mind it was the Summer when I attended this event and the goody bag contained a bright orange coral lipstick which at this current moment is a tad bit bright for me. It is one of their Revolution Lipstick in Provocative Orange* and it retails at €6.95. I found the Flormar lipsticks to be seriously creamy and definitely long lasting. The lipstick is tapered at the tip on both sides so there is no need for a lip liner when you first buy it  but it will eventually wear down.  The packaging again for me was surprisingly nice quality. I think in the future I would like to try a few more of these lipsticks in more everyday neutral shades to really put them to the test!

Lip gloss wouldn't be a product I would buy myself and especially not in a colour like Backstage* that is a pink blue duo chrome with glitter, it's a tad too much for me. One thing I will say though is that the pigmentation is bomb and the formulation isn't as sticky as traditional lip glosses. At €5.95 it isn't going to break the back but I'm afraid this product isn't for me.

If you watch my YouTube channel you may have seen me haul these products and one thing I really praise Flormar for is quality for money. With their Face And Body Bronzing Powder* you get a tonne of product for €9.95, the photos below really don't show the true size of this product as it is legitimately bigger than my head. It is super soft and is easily to blend, which is ideal. For the paler gals this one won't suit you but if you a gal who prefers their bronzer to their blush you can't pass this value up and it comes in three different shades!

Last but certainly not least is their Jelly Look Nail Enamel in Turquoise Green*. It took me about a week trying to pry into this product as it was sealed so tightly and love nor money was getting it open. Eventually risking mo fiacla I managed to get it open. First off the formulation is easy to apply and the pigmentation is super strong especially in such a bright colour, in the photo below I applied two coats on my acrylic nails. The only downside for me is that I don't like the pointed lid as it makes it a little harder to hold and control the brush but other than that I think Flormar have nail polish covered and with over 1000 nail polishes in their collection and starting at €4.45!

There are a few more products from the Flormar range I want to try such as the Double Radiance Highlighting Primer and the Blush On blushes. You'll be delighted to know that everything in the Flormar range is under €13 so its beauty on a budget! You can find Flormar in most pharmacies nationwide or you can check their stock list here to find your local stand. As mentioned these products were gifted to me but that doesn't hamper my opinion in anyway. I hope you enjoyed this review and if you would like to see more of Flormar on the blog let me know what products you want to see and bob shall be your uncle.

Lipstick Lovin'

Hey Ladies,

I am not one for carrying around a bazillion lip products in my bag because I simply do not use them! I am puzzled when I watch "What's In My Bag?" Youtube videos because every Youtuber has at least five products in there at any one time! There is nothing that annoys me more than stuff rolling around the bottom of my bag it is so disorganinsed, but that is a story for another day. The only time I bring a lipstick with me is when I want to look well polished or it is the key piece to my makeup look that day. I thought I would do a quick post on the lipsticks I go to most often and that end up snuggly warm in one of the assigned side pockets of my bag.

First up is MAC Lustre lipstick in Lovelorn. This is one of my newest lipsticks and it is quickly becoming my favourite so move over Up The Amp! As it is a lustre it is creamy and strongly pigmented so it last for ages and keeps my lips hydrated as I don't have to re-apply every hour! It is a very natural shade but in contrast to my pale skin it looks like a bubble gum pink which gives me a fun lip shade without being too much. I normally pair this with a dark smokey eye to give my eyes all the attention but leave my lips with some colour.

The next product that I regularly use is the Elf Matte Lip Color in Coral. I recently picked this up from the Faces Cosmetics stand in the Pavillions Swords after eye balling it for agggesss! I don't know what it was about this product but I just had to have it. The texture of the lipstick is completely matte so it is quite drying on the lips and the color is something I normally wouldn't go for. Alas, it always seems to be the one lipstick I grab when I am running out the door and I just want a hint of color. I usually use this sparingly as when the color is very opaque it does nothing for my skin tone and washes me out!

 

Last but certainly not least is Revlon Just Bitten LipStain + Balm in Frenzy. This is a nifty little lip product as it is a 2 in 1, apply the stain to clean lips and then apply the balm on top to keep lips soft and ensure the colour stays all day. This is my go to product for when I am wearing a very basic eye/face makeup look, it gives the look more of a polished and put together effect. The color I have chosen is quite dark, especially so in comparison to my pale skin tone so it gives me that "just bitten" colour!

I hope you enjoyed this post! We are back to a regular schedule :)
Love,
S

Inglot Haul

Hey Ladies,
As the final hurdle in my make up course we had to do a photo shoot this weekend. The theme of the photo shoot was Bubblegum and it consisted of very bright colours and as a person who likes neutrals I didn't have any matte bright coloured shadows or anything to suit this look. So, I made a trip to Inglot in the Jervis and picked up a 5 piece palette. The palette retails for 30euro and with my pro discount It cost 24euro.The photo shoot we are doing is centred around bright looks so we each had a specific colour and mine was apple/green.

 These eye shadows are true to colour and are very pigmented for what you pay. The pan size is large too so you get a good while out of these shadows, they are well worth the money you pay for them. I will be posting the final look using these shadows today, so keep an eye out!
Love,
S

Black and White Photo-Shoot

Hey Ladies,
Here is a look I did before Christmas in my course and I think its a great look that could be recreated. This photo shoot was also an exam and we had to do a coloured smoky eye so I chose a purple smoky eye then the photos would be take in black and white! I had more photo graphs that are greater quality and really show how it looked in person but a girl from college has them :(

Hope you enjoy and if you want me to do a tutorial of how to do this look, just leave me a comment.
Love,
S

De-Potting Lipsticks

Hey Ladies,
If you are a budding make-up artist student or do freelance artist this tip may be of great help to you. If like me you bring all your make-up to a job/shoot/class it gets very very heavy and you have a bazillion things in your bag. So, to cut down on some of the un-necessary packaging and to create less of a weight I have de-potted my lipsticks. I bought this little plastic palette from Muji and it only cost around 4euro. I keep two of these in my collection, one for MAC lipsticks and one for other lipsticks like Rimmel, Barry M etc.

 To depot your lipsticks you will need either a butter knife or a spatula, that has been disinfected. You will also need your container that has also been disinfected.

  Begin by cutting into the lipstick with the knife/spatula to remove the top. Once it has come away from the tube, drop the bullet into the container as you will need your spatula.

 Then, if you know MAC lipsticks they always have a load of product in the end of the tube that goes to waste if you don't know its there. So taking your spatula, dig the spatula down a side of the tube, then turn the spatula a little bit to the left to scoop out the product, it should just slide out. Then put it in the container with the rest of the bullet and smooth it down with the spatula.

 If there is any more lipstick left in the tube just scoop it out with your spatula.

 Then once that is done, take a label and write the name of the lipstick under neath the container so you know what it is. My sister is going to get me nice labels printed in work so I just use a piece of masking tape for now until the palette is full.

I find this tip really useful because your lipsticks are kept hygienically in a container that is easily transportable and super easy to clean. I am thinking about melting all of the lipsticks down so they don't move around, if I do I'll do a post on it!

Look out for an up coming post on what to do with those empty MAC containers.

Love,
S