Salon Update

So, we have had the salon for around two months now and this is how it originally looked! It still looks pretty much the same to be honest, as it was nicely decorated and kitted out with most of the things we needed, we just wanted to make it a bit more homely.

I have moved my makeup in, and that's pretty much all I need, I'm using these drawers which I got from Amazon at the moment, but I'll have to replace them as I thought I would be clever and take the entire thing with me on a mobile job but ended up breaking them - not so clever! Next time I'll be less lazy and pack up the Zuca bag instead! Julie also has a set of these drawers for her kit, but hers are white because she's much better at being a grown up than I am.

The acrylic stand on the top has lipsticks, lip and eye pencils, concealers and lip stains in. The drawers are full of everything else I need - palettes, foundations, single shadows, hair clips, cotton pads etc.. And of course, my Makeup Forever brush cleaner is on the top of the drawers, I love this for when I need to clean off my brushes very quickly in between colours.

You can just see our little fire in the corner of this picture, there's no heating in the room so we have this to keep us - and you - warm!

Our waiting chair - we get SO many comments about this, and it really is beautiful! I think we are going to get a little magazine rack to go next to it so people can have a read while they're waiting.

Julie's beauty bed and nail station - she offers brow and lash treatments, gel polish, pedicures, waxing and more! We've also brought a little mirror in, and the clutter on the back shelves has gone now.

Child labour is cheap but they don't get much done! This is my boys helping us to clean up. They weren't very helpful at all, surprisingly.

Here's Julie performing HD brows on a client, we are so excited to have people coming through our doors and can't wait to meet more of you! We will be expanding our services over the coming months too, so keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram pages for updates!

If you want to be our friend, you can find us here:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emmasparklesmakeup (me) www.facebook.com/thepaintedladybeautyparlour

Instagram: www.instagram,com/emma.sparkles (me) www.instagram.com/thepaintedladyparlour

Snapchat: emmasparkles67 (me)

Review - Sugarpill Pro Palette

FINALLY Sugarpill have released a pro palette that is available outside of trade shows! I had always wanted the original pro palette, but couldn't get hold of it. So the news that they were releasing a pro palette that was not only pink, but totally customisable made me feel all warm and happy inside!

Sugarpill's original pro palette was black, and contained the 3 Addicted to Pretty eyeshadow quads - Burning Heart, Heartbreaker and Sweetheart. 

The new palette is white in colour with the Sugarpill logo in huge pink and green lettering. It's incredibly girly and looks so pretty! The palette arrived in a matching sleeve and is HUGE!

Unlike a Zpalette, which I usually keep my single and depotted shadows in, this palette has 12 pans for you to fit your shadows in, rather than the usual magnetic open space on the Zpalette. I love the way both palettes look to be honest, and I don't have a preference when it comes to having pans in my magnetic palette or not.

The only drawback to this palette is the size. Personally, I love a large makeup item, I feel like I'm getting more for my money! But it could definitely be problematic for travelling. I keep my Kat Von D Metal Matte palette at home rather than in my kit due to it's size, and I'm unsure yet whether I will use this Sugarpill palette for work. I may swap it out for the Urban Decay Electric palette I keep at home, that way I have bright shadows in the salon and for my own use! 

Here's the Sugarpill palette compared to the Metal Matte, as you cans see it's slightly smaller in width but it's a little longer, so around the same size if you want a comparison for storage purposes! 

There are 12 magnetic pans to keep your shadows in, they are really easy to pop in and out, but very secure once they're in - I use a spatula to release the pans from the palette if I want to change the layout. 

My biggest problem was choosing which shadows to put in it! There are 12 spaces, but I have 14 Sugarpill pans. Obviously now I need to get another palette and 10 more pans to fit inside!

I depotted my Heartbreaker and Sparkle Baby palettes, as well as depotting some single pans to fit inside. I decided to leave out Frostine as there was way too much purple going on in here, and this is what I ended up with:

Isn't that just one of the most glorious things you've ever seen?!

The pro pans retail for $10 each on the Sugarpill website, or £7.95 on Love-Makeup in the UK. Sugarpill sell the palette for $20, but you get it for free if you buy 12 pans. I believe that Love-Makeup are offering the same deal at the moment, but if you just want the palette on it's own, it's £15.95, almost exactly the same price as a Zpalette.

The pan sizes of these shadows are crazy! They are absolutely gigantic, 3.5 grams, in comparison to Makeup Geek's 1.8 grams (£6 per pan) or Mac's 1.5 grams (£10 per pan) and the pigmentation of Sugarpill shadows is absolutely incomparable in my opinion. They're just not the brand to go to if you like to stick to neutrals!

Sugarpill Hotsy Totsy compared with Makeup Geek Brownie Points. You can see the size difference here, in my opinion if you love bright colours then there is no better brand for eyeshadow than Sugarpill. You do sometimes have to wait for certain products and colours to be in stock, but keep in mind that this is a small business and there will be wait times on occasion. I can never seem to catch their loose eyeshadow in Lumi in stock!

I definitely think that this palette is worth investing in, particularly if you buy the 12 pans and get the palette free. It's also great if you have some Sugarpill singles or palettes that you want to depot for storage space. It's definitely something I'll be looking at getting another of in the future!

ELF Cosmetics - Sale Haul and Review

I've heard a lot about e.l.f over the past year or so, mainly that they make great products at an affordable price (I mean, come on, Kathleen Lights uses their stuff, they must be OK right?) but the makeup snob in me never really wanted to try the brand. I'm all about packaging and e.l.f. don't cater to the packaging obsessed. Their packaging is very simple and quite sleek, usually plain black and white with the logo on, It's not terrible, by any means, but it's not covered in glitter, unicorns and drag queens so it doesn't cater to my taste.

Anyway, I had a quick look at their sale after Christmas and decided to give them a try. The sale at e.l.f. was INCREDIBLE, products from just 30p! I was sure they'd all be terrible but at that price I thought I'd give them a go.

I purchased the Day to Night Smoky Eye Set, Lash Love Set, Sparkling Eyes 5 Piece Eyeliner set, HD Blush in shade Superstar, Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Raspberry and the standard lipstick in Posh. All of these items, including postage came to £9.75. Shipping took around two weeks and there were no customs charges on delivery, which is always good! My order also came with a free sample of their Illuminating Eye Cream.

Lash Love Set