W7 The Naughty Nine Arabian Nights

Hi there! Today’s post is about an eyeshadow palette – W7 The Naughty Nine Arabian Nights. W7 is a drugstore cosmetics brand from the UK. According to W7, their products are cruelty-free (and they don’t sell in China).

OK, let’s look at the palette now! It has 9 eyeshadows, all of them nude shades. Since 6 of the eyeshadows are lighter shades, I would say the palette is more suited to lighter skin tones.

Let’s start with the first 3 eyeshadows – below. The first shade is a matte, poorly pigmented, chalky pink. It hardly shows up on me. It also doesn’t blend well, but you wouldn’t know it because it’s barely there. The second shade is a pale, shimmery peach. Another barely there shade with respect to its (lack of) pigment. Shade 3 is a matte light coral shade. Just like shade 1, it’s poorly pigmented, it’s barely there and it’s also rather chalky. I’m not a fan of these 3 shades.

Onto the second row below! Eyeshadow number 4 is a pale gold. It’s also far from bursting with pigment, but this one looks nice when I use it as an accent in the inner corners of my eyes. Shade 5 is a light-brown-meets-orange kind of shade. Apologies for the pinkish hue on the left. This is a scar which I thought I’d covered. Oops! However, this eyeshadow is also not great. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too dark and too orangey for the inner corners of my eyes. I also don’t like the colour on my eyelids. Shade number 6 is a light toffee colour. Also matte, and also chalky.

And right below is row 3. No, this photo was not taken in a different setting or with different lighting. It’s just that my arm had a bit of a pink colour after I had removed the eyeshadow from the previous swatches. Alrighty, shade 7 is my favourite of the bunch. It’s a classic shimmery rosey light brown. I like it! Shades 8 and 9 are matte browns. Yes, also chalky and poorly pigmented. Not easy to apply.

This eye palette looked promising but once I started to use it, I found that only 2 eyeshadows are worth my time. I’ll make sure to get some use out of shades 4 and 7 over the next few weeks, but I won’t keep this palette for much longer.

W7 The Naughty Nine Arabian Nights eyeshadow palette is available for about £3. I bought it at a local bargain store (I want to say B&M but it may have been somwehere else).

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

Declutter & Swatches Part 1 – Rimmel, Essence, NYC, Manhattan, Astor, Beauty UK & W7

Hi there! I’m in the process of going through my almost bottomless stash of cosmetics – and will throw out what I don’t want anymore or what has gone off. A few products will be kept. Lots of swatches too – all swatches were done on a well moisturised forearm! OK, let’s take a look!

1 Manhattan X-Treme Last & Shine Lipstick 94P

What a beautiful lipstick! I wish I tried it sooner! I will keep this one and start using it asap!

2 Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick 330 Sloane’s Plum

This lipstick looks almost black. But when applied, it’s a medium plum shade.

3 Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick 860 Auburn Breeze

A reddish brown in the bullet, but a sheer brownish red on skin.

4 Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick 680 Precious Brown

Precious Brown is a bit too pale and too sheer for me.

5 Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick 840 Burgundy Shine

Not a bad colour, but too vampy for me. I’m very pale, and this shade gives me an unwanted goth look.

6 NYC Cityproof Twistable Intense Lip Color 050 Park Slope Peach

Now this is one ugly colour! Binned right away!

7 Astor Rouge Couture 301 Nude Silk

Nude Silk is a beautiful shade. I will keep this one too.

8 Astor Colour Last VIP 344 Classy Red

I like this one! It’s a nice, wearable red. I will keep this one for now.

9 Beauty UK Eye Shadow Palette No. 4 Earth Child

This is what the eyeshadows look like.

Top row swatches – decent shades and pigmentation!

Bottom row swatches… yikes!

This palette will be binned!

10 Essence All About Nude Eyeshadow

Not sure if this is mould (top right), but this eye palette is not only new and unused – it is still sealed! 🤢

And the last two for today… Essence Silky Touch Blush 20 Babydoll. It was my go-to blush until March 2020. But I haven’t touched it since – because I work from home permanently, and whenever I don’t have to be on camera, I don’t bother with make-up. Anyhoo, I’m now saying goodbye to this pretty blush.

I’m also letting this W7 Silky Eyes Bare It All eye compact go. I haven’t touched in since March 2020. I loved the 2 brown shades so much! But it’s goodbye now!

I’m happy that I started to go through my stash. It’s not always easy to let things go, especially when there are hidden gems which I never even tried… but it has to be done. By the way, I’ve also binned about 20 products which I didn’t find swatch-worthy – not too bad!

Thanks for stopping by! x

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Makeup Revolution London Lip Hug Love Can Set You Free, Essence XXXL Longlasting Lipgloss 2 Coral Delight, W7 Silky Eyes Bare It All

Hi there! Today’s post is about a number of products I’m using at the moment. Initially I wanted to do individual reviews, but then I decided to do 1 post. 😎 Alrighty, let’s take a closer look at the goodies…

The first item is one of the most wonderful lipsticks I’ve ever had – Makeup Revolution London Lip Hug Love Can Set You Free. Oh! My! God! This lipstick has the most amazing colour – it’s a nude shade that’s both rosey and brownish. I can’t get enough of this beautiful and timeless lip colour! I also love the formula – I think the name “Lip Hug” fits perfectly. 11 STARS!

Up next is this Essence XXXL Longlasting Lipgloss. The shade is 2 Coral Delight. This lipgloss promises a longlasting mirror shine look – and it delivers! I don’t normally go for coral lip colours, but this gloss was on sale for £1, so I bought it (+another shade). I enjoy using this lipgloss (i’s almost used up) because I like the sweet vanilla flavour, and the shimmery sheer coral shade suits me surprisingly well!

Item number 3 is this W7 Silky Eyes Bare It All eyeshadow palette which I started to use in early August. I’ve used this eye palette almost every day, and I’m very happy with it!

As you can see in the swatch below, the brown shade in the top right corner is shimmery, and the brown shade in the top left corner is matte. I like them both, but the brown shimmer is my favourite. I use it most days, and I apply it all over my lid. It goes very well with my green eyes.

The lighter shades are pretty much highlighter shades, and I use them as inner corner highlights. I love the light sand shade which blends beautifully into the brown eyeshadows, and the pale pink looks nice too. I’m not too keen on the cream shade though – I’ve never liked white-to-cream frosty shimmer shades. I never knew what to do with them because they don’t suit me.

Anyhoo… I do like W7’s Bare It All palette! And I can see myself finishing 3 of the 5 pans (shimmery brown, matte brown, sand). It won’t happen any time soon, though!

Have you tried any of these products? Or would you like to try them? Feel free to comment, and thanks for stopping by!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – W7 Lava Flow / Nail Art Challenge #31 Recreate A Favourite – Glitter

Hi there! Today’s Nail Of The Day post is a special post. It’s about the final mani I did for the 31 Days Nail Art Challenge.

This mani is for challenge #31 Recreate A Favourite. Yes, I’ve already done challenge #31 twice, but I said I would do another glitter mani – and here it is!

For this mani I painted my nails with W7 Lava Flow (2 coats), an off-white polish that’s packed with red and blue hex glitter. I love this polish! It’s so cute!

However, this glitter polish feels quite rough, so I had to slather it in top coat.

And this is already it! This is the simplest mani I’ve done in years! 🙂

How do you like this glitter polish? Feel free to comment if want to. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Pueen, Rimmel, Revlon, W7, Orly & Filthy Gorgeous / Nail Art Challenge #21 Inspired By A Colour

Hi there! Today’s post is another Nail Of The Day post. And this mani is another one that counts towards the 31 Days Nail Art Challenge.

So today’s mani is my entry for challenge #21 Inspired By A Colour. Obviously, this colour is blue. 🙂

I painted my thumb, middle finger and pinky with Rimmel 60 Seconds 231 Blue Eyed Girl (2 coats).

And I painted my index and ring fingers with Rimmel Salon Pro 636 Hooray Henry (2 coats).

Then I applied one coat of W7 96 Mosaic to my accent nail (ring finger).

The images I stamped on are from Pueen’s 72 plate (which is part of Pueen’s Stamping Buffet collection).

And I used the following nail polishes to stamp on the images:
– Orly Snowcone (pinky and thumb),
– Revlon Brilliant Strength 110 Hypnotize (middle finger),
– Filthy Gorgeous Midnight (index finger)

I think this mani turned out great. I like the colours that I picked, I love the glitter accent, and I think the images are almost perfect. Do you agree? Feel free to tell me what you think. And thanks for stopping by!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

W7 10 Out Of 10 Browns Eyeshadow Palette

Hi there! Today’s post is about the W7 10 out of 10 palette. It’s another nude/brown palette but isn’t it pretty? I bought it at least half a year ago but didn’t use it until now because had my Sleek Au Naturel palette to play with. 🙂 Anyway, now on to the review.

This palette contains 10 eyeshadows – 3 mattes and 7 shimmers. Shades 1, 2 and 5 are matte, the other shades are shimmers. Shades 4 and 10 are borderline glittery (unfortunately the glitter is invisible in the swatch).

The matte shades could be more pigmented – they’re not bad, but I’ve had better matte eyeshadows. The shimmery ones are buttery and soft – great quality!

I would recommend this palette to everyone who loves a cheap nude palette. I bought my W7 10 out of 10 palette for under £4 which is good value. W7 cosmetics are available at Savers drugstores, some Peacock’s stores, independent drugstores and – of course – online.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde