Red Lipstick and Black Liner

FOTD: Pop-art Pin-up

2012-02-12T21:12:00.000Z

The other day I did this fun colourful look to go with the Rosie the Riveter style bandana I had in my hair. Instead of going old-school pin up with neutral eyes I decided to play with a bit of colour on the lids.

EYES
George @ ASDA eye primer
MUA Intense Colour eyeliner in 'Snow White' (lid, as a base)
Living Dead Grrl 'Skip to the End' eyeshadow (lid)
ELF Studio 'Cool Bronzer' (crease)
MUA 'Shade 16' matte eyeshadow (highlight)
Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel liner
Vivo Curve Effect mascara
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer (inner corner, waterline)
Rimmel Professional Brow Pencil 'Dark Brown'

FACE
L'Oreal Studio Secrets Smoothing Primer
Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation #51
Bourjois Healthy Mix concealer #51
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer 'Fair'
Illamasqua 'Emerge' Cream Pigment (cheeks and as a colour corrector under eyes)
Illamasqua 'Hollow' Cream Pigment (contour)
ELF Studio HD powder

LIPS
Rimmel 'Retro' Lasting Finish lipstick

Do you like to play with classic looks? I love pin up looks with a bright colour on the lid- lime green is one of my favourites.

NOTD: Sparkly Mermaid Nails

2012-02-09T18:41:00.001Z

I've been loving my new camera for nail posts even more than for face posts! You just need macro to get pictures of nails, and that is a fact. These are some nails I could have taken pictures of all day. I used Illamasqua 'Raindrops', GOSH 'Rainbow' and ELF's matte topcoat. I love matte flakies!

I love the glitter flakes over a more subdued colour. I want to invest in more flakie polishes! Which are your favourites, and which polishes do you like to layer them over?

FOTD: Purple People Eater

2012-02-08T03:38:00.001Z

I very very rarely wear properly purple lips. Purple-leaning reds and pinks I will wear with abandon. I'll even go for Urban Decay 'Vinyl', a dark mauve-ish colour. But Proper Purple? Nuh-uh. It's about the only makeup thing I find a bit scary.

But today I wore this look, a navy blue smoky eye and a Properly Purple lavender lip. And I even got a compliment on my lipstick! Goes to show...

EYES
George @ ASDA eye primer
Urban Decay 24/7 liner in 'Zero'
Archetype 'Witching Hour' eyeshadow
MUA 'Shade 16' matte eyeshadow
Vivo Curve Effect mascara

FACE
L'Oreal Studio Secrets primer
Bourjois Healthy Mix #51
Kent Touch of Light
ELF All Over Colour Stick 'Pink Lemonade'
ELF Studio HD powder

LIPS
Urban Decay liner 'Asphyxia'
Barry M #129 Lip Paint

FOTD: Channeling Kat Von D

2012-02-04T23:14:00.000Z

This is the makeup I wore in my January Favourites video for The Makeup Heroes.

It's a little bit Kat Von D, with smoky brown eyes and glossy red lips.

EYES
George @ ASDA eye primer
Illamasqua 'Furore' Pure Pigment
Aromaleigh 'Fiddlesticks' Wonderstruck Collection eyeshadow
Aromaleigh 'Tunnel Vision' Wonderstruck Collection eyeshadow
MUA 'Shade 12' pearl eyeshadow
Sleek Bohemian palette- dark brown and black
MUA 'Shade 16' matte eyeshadow
Avon Supershock gel pencil
Vivo Curve Effect mascara
Rimmel Professional Brow Pencil 'Dark Brown'

FACE
Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation #51 Vanille Clair
Bourjois Healthy Mix concealer #51
Darling Girl 'Just Bitten' Sweet Cheeks blush
Vivo 'Cinnamon Glow' baked blush
ELF Studio HD powder

LIPS
Bourjois Rouge Hi-Tech lipstain #82 'Rouge Futuriste'
Illamasqua 'Temper' Intense Lipgloss

January Favourites

2012-02-03T18:57:00.000Z

I made a January Favourites video for The Makeup Heroes!

I'll have a FOTD post up with the makeup I'm wearing in the video soon.

Please check out the other girls' January Favourites videos, and subscribe if you enjoy them :)

Project 10 Pan!

2012-02-01T00:01:00.000Z

I've decided it's high time to clear up some old-ish products that have been languishing away while I get distracted by other newer things. So it's time to Project 10 Pan.

(A Project 10 Pan is where you choose 10 items to use up before you can buy anything new.)

Here's my chosen 10:

1. Good Things Five Minute Facial.
This is okay, I just hate the scent and find it a bit drying. I'll ignore it for other things if I don't commit to using it up.

2. Sleek New Skin Revive foundation.
I hate this so much on my skin. It has a really nice finish, but far too much effort to build up to a heavier coverage on me. Also oxidises so it's a bit too dark to get away with. Might just donate it to be honest, I've only used it 3 times.

3. Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation and concealer.
Only a tiiiny bit of the foundation left- loved it, went off it, bought something new... Having that tiny bit left is just so pointless though. The concealer is nice. I just started using the Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer and forgot about it.

4. Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream.
Also a tiny bit of this left. Like it but find it a bit drying... I've got my eyes on some different ones for this summer!

5. Kent Touch of Light.
YSL Touche Eclat copy-cat. I got it free when I bought some other stuff. I like it, I just never got into the habit of using it.

6. Vivo Curve Effect mascara.
Just blah.

7. Soap and Glory 'The Fab Pore' facial peel.
I actually really like this, I started using it again last week and I think it may be worth a repurchase when the time comes.

8. MUA shade 16
Bought it just as a matte brow highlight, but I've severely neglected it since hitting pan. Time to use it up!

9. Body Shop Liquid Lip colour
Just a sheer sparkly gloss. I never use gloss, I have so many that need using more. Maybe I'll start a gloss series lol.

10. Meow Wild Child blush in 'Hang Up'
Thought this was a bit too shimmery at first, since decanting my sample into this little pot it's much easier to apply properly. Worth a full size, probably.

So there's my list. Have you done a P10P? What makes you neglect a product in your stash?

New Look for Red Lipstick and Black Liner

2012-01-31T00:05:00.001Z

Just a quick post to find out how you all like the new layout.

All my social networks are now linked to by buttons in the sidebar, so check those out!
I've recently joined Pinterest and I am loving it! I'd love to follow more people on there, so leave your usernames in the comments!
If you want an invitation, leave your email :)

You'll also notice I now have buttons for sharing at the bottom of each post... So share, share, share!

Pastel Leopard Nails

2012-01-30T17:59:00.002Z

I did a fun pastel leopard print mani the other night, so I thought I'd share it.

With Flash, freshly applied

Natural light, some dents

Unfortunately it didn't have time to dry completely before I went to bed, so there are some dents... From a distance it still looks cool though!

POLISHES:
Illamasqua 'Wink'
Illamasqua 'Blow'
Accessorize 'Coral Flair' - MUCH less red and much less dark than in the photos, more of an orangey coral.

I just used the end of the polish brush for the yellow dots, and a hairpin for the coral pattern bits. Super easy and quick. Worth a try if you don't want to spend on dotting tools!

Quick EOTD: Pastel Macarons.

2012-01-25T19:49:00.002Z

Just a quick eye look today, pastel colours inspired by macarons and icing.

Illamasqua Cream Pigment in 'Bedaub' (only on outer 2/3 lid)
Fyrinnae 'Electric Stardust' eyeshadow (over 'Bedaub')
Sleek 'Paraguaya' palette- 'Blush' and 'Cameo' (in the crease)
Sleek 'Original' palette- purple (to darken crease)
High Voltage 'Devil's Hair' eyeshadow (inner corner)
Maybelline Lasting Drama gel liner
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara
Rimmel Professional Brow Pencil in 'Dark Brown'

I didn't use a primer with this, except the mint green cream shadow on the lid, so the colours would be washed out and more pastel. Is it Spring yet?

Transformation at Illamasqua Manchester Exchange Sq

2012-01-21T01:25:00.000Z

When I went down to the Illamasqua counter at Selfridges in Manc Exchange Square and got my friend some eyelashes for Christmas, I was offered a free 'transformation' in January. Of course I said yes! I went down there today for my transformation with Paddy.

Here's what happened to my face:

Apologies for that flake on my top lip- I've been poorly recently :(

Products as far as I can remember:
EYES:
SOPHIE pencil
'Lestat' eyeshadow
'Savage' eyeshadow
'Zeitgeist' Pure Pigment
'Furore' Pure Pigment

FACE:
Satin primer
Rich Liquid foundation in 140
Pressed powder
'Ambition' powder blusher
'Furore' Pure Pigment

LIPS:
'Atomic' lipstick
'Please' medium pencil

Thoughts on the experience:
I would totally recommend an Illamasqua transformation. I gave Paddy a free reign to do whatever he liked on my face, and while the result wasn't really far out of my personal comfort zone (although totally out of some's I will admit), it was really interesting to see what someone else would do given the blank canvas of my mush.
The eyeshadow for example- the shadow was pulled up higher in the middle of the eye and accentuated the roundness of my eyes rather than winging out a bit. Something I never do even though I like having a rounded eye shape. Another thing I rarely do is use a lighter colour in the crease than on the lid, having always thought it makes my slightly hooded lids look a bit saggy. Not so here, my friends. I've made a note to experiment. The eyebrows are a very slightly different shape than I usually do them, and I really like that it's given me another brow shape to use.
The blush, pulled down into the contour as a bit of a 2-in-1 is something I've never done and I must admit it suits my face shape and bone structure.
The lips are the most unusual thing for me... I'm so uncreative when it comes to lips, I'm like 'lipstick and GO'. I love the blue pencil in the outer corners. It blends into a true purple shade that is really wearable for me, compared to a full purple lip which isn't hugely flattering.

The counter had a really friendly atmosphere that put me at ease straightaway. While Paddy didn't go into a minutely detailed step by step of what he was doing, I could hear other customers being walked through their transformations in that way so they knew how to recreate it at home. I'd told Paddy I blog and we just nattered (a lot about makeup, a bit about what he was doing, a bit about blogging, a bit about whatever else) while he was doing my makeup, and I was more comfortable with that personally, so he judged that aspect spot-on. If an SA who doesn't know I'm as into makeup as I am goes into depth about using a product and I already know what they're telling me I feel a bit like I'm wasting their time... But I don't want to be all know it all and rude so I let them talk. I did pick up a few tips and ideas that I didn't know or hadn't thought of as they came up in conversation.

I actually left with 2 products that Paddy hadn't used and one that he had, even though I really liked the end result. I just felt like the colours were similar to things I have although I enjoyed seeing them used in a different way. Paddy was really helpful in discussing the other products available and suggesting different ways to use them, and he didn't seem put out that I wanted to look at some things he hadn't used.

Transformations at Illamasqua counters and stores are £30 which is redeemable against products at the end of your makeover. Or you can have a 15 minute express makeover free.
If you're in Manchester, Paddy at Selfridges Exchange Square is really friendly and helpful. If you go in, tell him I sent you!

First YouTube video!

2012-01-19T20:29:00.000Z

So now I'm a Makeup Hero!

This is my intro video for the Makeup Heroes blogger collaboration channel:

Hopefully I'll get better at this videos lark...

While you're at it, check out the other Makeup Heroes:

Wendy
Robyn
Helen
Kathy
Amanda
Priscilla
Heather
Lillian
Jerry

I promise they're all awesome.

Quickie: Chanel Illusion D'Ombre #83 Illusoire

2012-01-17T19:31:00.000Z

Just a quick post on this product as I know these cream shadows have been all over the blogosphere. I've mostly seen Mirifique out of the colour selection though, so I thought some swatches of this one wouldn't go amiss.

SWATCHES

With finger- with included brush flat side- with included brush as liner

This one is a grey-taupe. It has got shimmer/tiny glitter particles in it, but they don't stand out so much against the base as the ones in Mirifique do- they blend into the shadow more and the overall effect is beautiful. As you can see from the swatches, a stiff little brush like the one included makes the shadow a bit lumpy- in fact when I tried to use the brush for an all over smokey eye, I actually got bits flaking off and fall out on my cheeks. Fall out! From a cream shadow! Admittedly, these are very mousse-y, but still. I much prefer a fluffier/denser brush or a finger. Without a primer these are much more prone to fading than creasing on me (although they will a little bit after a while), and over a primer they last pretty well all day. As liner they're good but not as indestructible as a gel liner, so don't expect them to act as one.

I really like this colour for a subtle, twinkly liner, or glam-grunge smokey eye. I've used it here and here.

Overall, an expensive but beautiful Christmas money treat!

Guest Posting at Stay Beautiful!

2012-01-12T00:12:00.000Z

I'm guest posting today at Stay Beautiful while Robyn's on holiday!

Go check it out, and the rest of her blog!

If Brody Dalle wore purple eyeshadow FOTD

2012-01-08T21:31:00.000Z

Inspired by the recent Pixiwoo Brody Dalle tutorial, I decided to go smudgy and smoky with my makeup the other night. Only, it being me, I used purple eyeshadow and went for the full on red lips instead of a bitten stained look.

The purple came out so bright under the flash! In reality it was much more smudged in and darker. And apologies for the bad skin day :(

EYES
George by ASDA primer
ELF Studio HD powder
Illamasqua Cream Pigment in 'Hollow'
Boots No7 Stay Perfect eyeshadow in 'Electric Purple'
Urban Decay 24/7 liner in 'Zero' (waterline with 'Electric Purple' patted on top)
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara

FACE
Missha Perfect Cover BB cream #13
Illamasqua Cream Pigment in 'Hollow'
Bourjois Healthy Mix concealer #51 'Eclat Clair'
ELF Studio HD powder

LIPS
Chanel Rouge Coco in # 'Gabrielle'

Skincare babbles and mini-reviews

2012-01-07T19:22:00.000Z

Now I'm no skincare expert, but as someone with less-than-perfect skin, I've tried a lot and had some successes and some failures. My skin's looking better for the first time in a long time, so I thought I'd do a quick post on what's given me results.

THE PILL

Might not make your skin better- might in fact make it worse. I've come off Microgynon recently and my skin is just so much better. I was getting those deep, really sore spots that don't go away, now when I get a spot it actually comes to a head and heals.

CLEANSING AND TONING

For cleansing and toning I use Boots Botanics Organic Face Soothing Cleansing Balm (£6.63) and Superdrug Essentials Camomile Toner (£1).

The cleanser is a slightly crystallised balm that you warm up in your fingers before smoothing on to your face. I love it. It just dissolves away any dirt and makeup, whilst feeling soothing and luxurious to use. In the past I've found a lot of ranges aimed at blemish prone skin include a foaming cleanser, and they tend to make my face feel tight and stripped. This makes my skin feel clean but comfortable and smooth. In fact since using this (and before this Soap and Glory's hot cloth cleanser) I wouldn't go near my face with a foaming cleanser. Why address skin issues that inflame the skin with a cleanser full of irritants (foaming agents)? It just makes no sense.

As for the toner... It's cheap as chips, has no alcohol in it and does the job.

EXFOLIATION

Is a bit of a question mark at the moment. I've just ran out of Soap and Glory's 'Scrub Your Nose in It' and while it's a really effective exfoliator, I started to feel that the menthol-ness of it was a bit much by the end of the tube. So now I'm on a hunt for a new one.

MOISTURISATION

Recently I invested in some of the Vichy Normaderm line, picking up the Normaderm Tri-Active Anti-Imperfection Hydrating Care (£11.74) and the Normaderm Night Crono-Active Pore Refining Care (£12.77).

The day cream is fine, but I probably won't repurchase it- it claims to be mattifying but isn't hugely, and has a tendency to 'pill', which irritates me.

The night cream however, is love. It, strangely, does mattify (you'd think it'd be the night cream that didn't, since you don't have to be matte at night), and leaves my skin feeling velvety and soft and lovely. Although the day cream is a bit 'meh' for me, these two have really made a difference to my skin.

What I am looking for in terms of moisturisation is a good eye cream, as the fine lines under my eyes are starting to be quite noticeable.

MASKS

I looooove doing masks (and so does the boyfriend... shhhhhh). I do one about every 3 days. At the moment in my arsenal I have Superdrug Aloe Vera Mud Mask (£2.59), GoodThings Five Minute Facial Mask (£5.99) and Soap and Glory 'The Fab Pore' Facial Peel (£8).

The GoodThings mask I probably won't be repurchasing. I don't regret spending the £3.99 while it was on offer and I'll use it up, but I find it a little drying and although I usually don't mind scents in products at all, really strongly perfumed. If your skin is more oily than mine, you'll probably enjoy it. I found the strong artificial smell really strange from a company that promotes itself as a 'free from' company- scents can be irritating to sensitive skins.

The Superdrug mask is just so good, especially given the price. You get a lot of product for your money, it draws out impurities without drying out the skin and leaves the skin feeling smooth and balanced. A total winner.

The Soap and Glory mask I do really like, but I'm not sure about a repurchase at the moment. I like that it isn't a traditional type clay mask that hardens, and I like how it makes my skin feel. It's good... But I keep thinking "is it £8 good?".

Wow. I put a lot of stuff on my face. I'd love some recommendations for a good, gentle exfoliator and an eye cream if you have any, though! :D

Colour Injection FOTD

2012-01-05T18:25:00.000Z

I felt like playing with colours today, my boyfriend moved the room around so the table and chair is in front of the window, and has become my all in one uni workspace- makeup vanity- blogging space. So I decided to do something a bit more elaborate than I have lately since I now have somewhere comfy to sit where there's good light.

And colour just makes me feel better in this post-Christmas-pre-Spring dearth.

NATURAL LIGHT

WITH FLASH

Not super flattering but you can actually see the blue flash in the gloss :)

EYES
George by ASDA primer
Illamasqua Cream Pigment in 'Hollow' (inner 1/3- 1/2)
Darling Girl Spectral Shift in 'Will-O Wisp' (inner 1/3- 1/2)
Darling Girl eyeshadow in 'Pretty Plasma' (outer 1/3- 1/2)
Sleek Bohemian palette -ochre (base shadow for crease) -maroon (crease) -black (crease)
Barry M black liquid liner
MUA Intense Colour eyeliner in 'Snow White'
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara

FACE
L'Oreal Studio Secrets Resurfacing Primer
Soap and Glory Show Good Face foundation in 'The Fairest of them All'
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer in 'Fair'
Illamasqua Cream Pigment in 'Hollow'
ELF Studio cream blush in 'Tease'
ELF Studio HD Powder

LIPS
NYX Round Lip Gloss in 'Kiss'

Anyone else feeling colour to cheer up their January face?

Grey January Day FOTD

2012-01-04T23:06:00.001Z

Just an eye look I did with my new Chanel Illusion d'Ombre, to go nowhere in particular. All my full face photos came out diabolical, apparently I have lost the ability to flatter my face with a camera. Jeeeeez.

Natural light

Flash

EYES (in this order)
George by ASDA primer
Chanel Illusion d'Ombre in #83 'Illusoire' (outer V and crease)
Barry M Dazzle Dust in #89 'Oyster Grey'
Barry M black liquid liner
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara
Rimmel brow pencil in 'Dark Brown'

FACE
Revlon Photoready foundation in 02 'Vanilla'
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer in 'Fair'
Illamasqua cream pigment in 'Hollow'
Accessorize merged blush in 'Pretty Pink'
ELF HD powder

LIPS
Collection 2000 Cream Puff lip cream in 'Fairy Cake' (less blue and bright than shown)

Bloglovin'

2012-01-01T20:12:00.000Z

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Just a heads up to say that you can now follow with Bloglovin'!

New Year's Day Brunch

2012-01-01T19:30:00.000Z

Happy New Year!

Last night we just stayed in watching films and getting merry. Going into the city centre just seemed like too much effort. This morning I wasn't properly hungover but I was feeling a bit dehydrated and under the weather, so I did a simple FOTD for our NYD brunch focusing on perking up my skin.

My hair's this colour now!

I knew that mascara smudge was there all along. I was just too lazy to fix it.

EYES
George eye primer
Sleek Bohemian palette- ivory and black
Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in #83 'Illusoire'
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara

FACE
MeMeMe Beat the Blues highlighter
MeMeMe Poppy Tint cheek stain
Soap and Glory Show Good Face foundation in 'The Fairest of them All'
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer in '01 Fair'
ELF All Over Colour Stick in 'Pink Lemonade'
ELF HD powder
Rimmel brow pencil in 'Dark Brown'

LIPS
MeMeMe Poppy Tint
ELF 'Pink Lemonade'

Did everyone have a lovely New Year's? I hope 2012 is a brilliant year for you all.

Illamasqua Sale Goodies

2011-12-31T17:38:00.000Z

Hiyaaaaa. Just wanted to post some quick pics/swatches of some Illamasqua stuff I got in the sale before it finishes. The Christmas gift sets are also on sale at Selfridges (although not all are available online) so if you were eyeing them up for yourself before Christmas, maybe it's time to treat yourself.

Yesterday was Manc bloggers meet up. I had a really lovely day, I've never met other beauty bloggers before and I'd definitely say yes to doing it again! Everyone was so friendly. Although now my bank account is cross because they encouraged me into a Chanel purchase lol.

Here's some links to check out:
Lily- Beauty's Bad Habit
Maria- Beauty for the Win
Lodz- The Blogging Bloke
Danielle- A Blog from Blackpool
Pixie and Matt- EyesLipsandNails

Anyway, on with the main purpose of this post... Delicious goodies!

May have gone a bit mad...

I ordered a couple of pairs of false lashes for £5 a pair, definitely worth a look if you love your lashes because you'll pay £5 for high st lashes these days.

#19 lashes

#21 lashes

I also picked up some nail polishes, but I havn't had a chance to swatch them on my fingers yet.

Smash- £5

HULK SMASH green.

Raindrops, Blow, Caress, Wink- £7.50 each.

Caress

Baby blue

Blow

Custard yellow

Wink

Lilac

Raindrops

Pale blue-grey with glass flecks

The last thing to show you is lip products. I picked up two lipsticks (and was tempted by a third) and one intense lipgloss.

Intense Lipgloss in Temper- £7.50

More orange-red than it looks here. Juicy looking.

Lipsticks in Sangers and Drench- £7.50

Sangers

Blue based red

Drench

Very pink red

Altogether now

Sangers, Drench, Temper

I hope this was helpful to anyone thinking about ordering from the Illamasqua sale! I'm going to try and do a comparison between Sangers and some of my other reds, because someone isn't sure if she needs another red. (She does). Hopefully soon there'll be some sunlight? I live in hope.

NB: these pictures are brightened slightly for better colour accuracy. On my monitor they are now closer to the real thing. I made the decision to do this rather than wait for some sunlight, so that you could read this before the sale ends.

Review: Soap and Glory Super-colour fabulipstick

2011-12-29T12:57:00.000Z

I picked up one of Soap and Glory's lipsticks when I got their foundation and concealer, because it was 3 for 2 and they'd run out of the eyeliner. Retailing at £9 each, these are definitely on the more pricey side of the high st ranges.

The lipstick is heavy, which always feels more high quality. I really like the packaging. The shiny black tube with bold pink writing keeps with Soap and Glory's quirky aesthetic without looking gaudy or like it's aimed at teenagers. The little touches, like the S&G stamped into the lipstick bullet or (not pictured) the matte black Soap and Glory logo printed on the lower half of the tube smack of high end branding rather than high st.

I got 'Perfect Day', a my-lips-but-better type colour:

Per Soap and Glory's website, they claim:

Featuring ULTIMELT™ lip shine & shaping technology, 3-D PLUMP™ peptide complex, Shea Butter, Monoi Butter & Vitamin E. Hyaluronic acid and Ceramide 2 (for aging repair and visible wrinkle reduction) help to give a soft, smooth, dewy, plump colour-fill pout.

When you first apply the lipstick, it feels like quite a heavy formula and it's opaque in one go. It feels very creamy and coats the lips. As it wears, however, it seems to melt into the lips and doesn't feel as heavy or noticeable. It's got that MAC lipstick vanilla scent, which is unnoticeable once you've applied.

Soap and Glory are promoting this as a moisturising lipstick and that it certainly is. While it doesn't feel balmy per se, it definitely doesn't dry the lips out at all. I forgot balm the other day and this lipstick felt quite soothing to my slightly wind-chapped lips. Does it fill out wrinkles in the lips? I'm not so sure. I'm really the wrong demographic to test that claim out, being a mere 21.

In terms of wear, it's quite good. I'd say 4 hours, less if you have a meal or lots of drinks. It won't last all day, but it doesn't claim to. However, when the formula is this creamy and moisturising, top-ups aren't a problem. It doesn't do that thing some lipsticks do where they dry out your lips a bit and then gather in the flakes that have developed, meaning you have to remove and start again on about the 3rd reapplication.

For a visual, here's the lipstick freshly applied:

And here it is after eating soup and drinking tea:

Hopefully you can see that it's sliiightly worn away in the middle. Overall a pretty good performance.

So far, so good. What's not so exciting is the range of colours. There's only 3; a dark nude, a wearable red and this one. I really hope they bring out more as the formula is so lovely. Maybe a Soap and Glory packaging pink?!

Where: Boots

How much: £9

You'll like: for an work friendly lipstick you can wear everyday without turning into flake city.

You won't like: if you only like your lipsticks bold.

Bottom line: super formula, now bring out more colours!

Glorious High-Definition

2011-12-28T12:51:00.001Z

Hope everyone's had a lovely Christmas if they celebrate it, and if not I hope you've enjoyed the Bank Holidays and time off that Christmas bestows upon most. I've been mostly vegetating on the sofa eating cheese.

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, I have a new camera! It's a FujiFilm S2960 and I love it. Boyfriend bought it me for Christmas, isn't he the best?!
Here's the first FOTD post with 'Glorious High-Definition', a look that I wore yesterday for a healthy ramble through the countryside to counteract all that Christmas food.

WITH FLASH

NATURAL LIGHT

EYES
George eye primer
Translucent powder
Illamasqua Cream Pigment in 'Hollow'
Fyrinnae 'Sugar Skulls' eyeshadow
ELF Cool Bronzer
Barry M black liquid eyeliner
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara

FACE
Soap and Glory Show Good Face foundation in 'The Fairest of them All'
Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer in 'Light'
ELF Studio blush in 'Blushing Rose'
Illamasqua Cream Pigment in 'Hollow'
ELF Studio HD powder

LIPS
Soap and Glory Super-colour-fabu-lipstick in 'Perfect Day'

I still havn't worked out all of the settings on my camera yet, but I'm already loving how much clearer my photos are. Any tips for a newb?

Current Wish List

2011-11-28T15:21:00.001Z

I've bought quite a few things recently, but yes, I want more. The life of a product addict...
Not necessarily a 'wishing for but I can only dream' list, more of a 'things on my radar' list.

MAKEUP

Tiny photos from Boots.com

Soap and Glory Show Good Face foundation and Kick Ass Concealer

When I heard that Soap and Glory were bringing out a makeup line, I thought it would be a line for quirky packaged bright but not complex colours, and one I wouldn't necessarily go back to again and again. However, after seeing the line, I've changed my mind Soap and Glory have really focused on the basic, every day colours you'd expect to find in most people's arsenal. I swatched the foundation and concealer in Boots and I was surprised by how nice they seem- Show Good Face actually has a very pale shade that is yellow enough for me, which always gets me excited. Kick Ass concealer seems seriously heavy-duty, and it's the first Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer-type concealer that's been in my price range.
Soap and Glory is on 3 for 2 on Boots website, so I might also pick up Supercat liner.

Picture from Chanel.com

Chanel Rouge Allure Laque in Dragon

More of a dream wish list item than one I'm going to buy soon... When I heard that Chanel were discontinuing the beautiful Dragon, I thought 'I MUST GET IT BEFORE IT'S GONE'. A swatch instore has only strengthened my resolve. But seriously, why would you make this unavailable to people?!

Image from Perfectly Polished ... Best swatch I've seen of this lovely colour!

Revlon Top Speed Nail Enamel in Cloud
I saw this in the shop, and now I can't get it out of my head. I have issues. Revlon have another shade I like in this colour family, I think it's called Hazy.

SKINCARE

Photo from Origins.co.uk

Origins Super Spot Remover
Not the most glamourous wish list item... But I read a review saying this stuff actually helps with even those really deep, painful spots that never seem to come to a head. If that's true for my skin, this is worth the £12 as my face has been so sore recently. No like. Never been one for spot treatment gels/sticks as they've never done anything for me, but we'll see.

From CheapSmells.com

Decleor Phytopeel Exfoliating Cream
Soon I'll be on the lookout for a new exfoliator as mine is running out. This one sounds peel-y and good. Bit expensive though, so I'll probably get something a touch cheaper. Recommendations?

From Superdrug.com

Good Things Five Minute Facial Mask
I've only heard... good things... about Good Things, and this mask sounds lovely for reducing redness and dullness rather than deep cleaning and purifying. And only £3.99 at Superdrug! Think I will treat myself.

From Superdrug.com

Superdrug Mud Therapy Deep Cleansing and Aloe Vera Deep Cleansing Masks
I'd probably just get one of these, but I don't know which one. Both sound great for deep cleaning the skin and ridding it of impurities.

PERFUMES

From ThePerfumeShop.com

PRADA 'Candy'
Had a little sniff and like this a lot. Very creamy and sweet but not too sweet. Very almondy to my nose though, and I do wonder if it'd be a bit too nutty on my skin, but I was wearing perfume so I couldn't sneak a tester spritz on to my wrist to see how it was with my chemistry.

From LuckyScent.com

Keiko Mecheri 'Loukhoum'
This is a cheat, I've ordered samples of all three of these and I can't wait to smell them. I mean seriously, the write up:

"A deliriously sweet and addictive fragrance inspired by the Turkish delicacy rahat loukhoum-- a confection of rose petal jam, noor dates and white almonds. Luxurious and dreamy, conjuring up visions of flying carpets, rose-colored clouds and opulent palaces. Rich vanilla and precious woods ease into a soft, powdery drydown that is hypnotically soothing. Warning: this fragrance is habit-forming. " (LuckyScent.com)

Rahat Loukhoum is one of the names for Turkish Delight, by the way- in my opinion one of the most delicious things ever to grace the planet. So no, I wouldn't say no to Rahat Loukoum by Serge Lutens, either.

From ThePerfumeShop.com

Vivienne Westwood 'Naughty Alice'
My mum and I tend to suit the same perfumes, with a few exceptions. She tried this on in London, and to be honest I didn't understand the name- it didn't smell very 'naughty', in fact it had a very soothing smell. To me, it invoked old paper and books. I don't know where this is coming from! It might be a case of 'phantom note'... Maybe it's the rose heart note. But to me, it has a definite 'papery' vibe. My ma knew what I meant though so I can't be going completely mad.

From Sephora.com

Kate Walsh 'Boyfriend'
Keep reading good reviews of this. I don't even know how to get it in the UK! Damn.

I think that's about everything! I am a covetous thing, aren't I? I do hope Father Christmas is reading this...

What have you all got your beadies on lately?!

Ch- Ch- Changes

2011-11-26T03:53:00.000Z

I know I've been out of the loop and not blogging. There was a (very) last minute move to Manchester and I didn't get the internet for ages.

Since I've been away for so long, I thought I'd make some changes in the type of stuff that goes on here. I'm also planning on obtaining a semi-decent camera, as the Post Office have still not paid out for the one they lost in the post (swines).

So, just a quick one to ask- what would YOU like to see?

Quickie Review: Superdrug Retractable Lip Brush

2011-09-16T20:39:00.000+01:00

By popular request (by Liloo!)

I said in my Pout Paints post that a retractable lip brush was pretty much a must with those bad boys, and this one is my favourite at the moment. It isn't on the Superdrug website, but it cost me in between £2.50 and £3.

Closed

Take the lid off and instead of a twist-up motion, you put the lid on the bottom and push up the little ball you can juuuuust see.

And voila, the brush pops up!

Both sides of the brush- as you can see you can get a fine line with the tip.

It has a fair amount of flexibility, but with firmness- no splaying or anything.

All in all, this is a fab little brush for chucking in your bag when you're using a liquid lip colour or a dark/bright colour you need a brush with. The brush itself is good quality, and the push up rather than twist up means I'm not too nervous about washing it and accidentally getting water into the mechanism.

All in all, more than worth the money I paid for it. A handbag essential!

Review: George Eye Primer

2011-09-14T19:30:00.000+01:00

Hello troublemakers! I was on the search for a new eye primer and was really hoping to find an affordable option, rather than shelling out silly money on Urban Decay or Too Faced. I asked on Twitter about cheaper eye primers, and ASDA's new one was mentioned. I was despairing though because my local ASDA didn't have it! A week of pulling my hair out at a lack of eye primer and it had arrived in my local store though, so patience was a virtue that saved me a chuck of money. Usually it's £3.50 but I picked it up on offer for £2.50.

The packaging is slightly pearlescent, which is a nice touch, but it's pretty basic. Who needs fancy packaging on a product you're never going to whip out in public though? It'll look respectable enough in your stash, and most importantly, it's practical. It's a needle-nose a la TSFI and Sleek Pout Paints.

Half-blended

The primer itself is a pale flesh colour. When you start to blend it in, it acts like a more mousse-y substance than it first appears to be. It almost looks lumpy as you're rubbing it in, but as soon as it's blended into the skin it feels smooth and almost silicone-y. I didn't think it'd have a whole lot of grip on shadows as it feels very smooth and velvety. However, it does actually improve the appearance of shadows and 'hold' on to them.

Some examples from the Sleek 'Curaco' palette

Right: no primer, left: primer

As you can see, the primer increases the vibrancy of the matte blue, yellow and purple shadows. I was impressed with how the yellow appeared on top of the primer. The green shimmery shadow's sheen is a bit more apparent with the primer underneath, too, but I couldn't get it with my camera. Shadows blend pretty easily on top of the primer too.

As far as creasing goes, I've been testing this fairly thoroughly and I havn't noticed any creasing whatsoever. I can wear cream products on top of it and greatly extend how long they'll stay un-creased.

Where: ASDA
How much: £3.50 normally.
You'll like: if you're after an affordable eye primer.
You won't like: you only won't like it if the formula doesn't suit you, I guess.
Bottom line: well worth £3.50... Could save shadow addicts some serious moolah.

Sleek Saturday: Paraguaya palette

2011-09-10T20:00:00.000+01:00

Another week, another Sleek Saturday!

This week I've chosen the Avoir La Peche Paraguaya palette, which I was really excited about when I heard about it, but not too thrilled with once I got my hands on. The matte peaches are a bit chalky and... well, just a bit rubbish. But I decided to try and use it for a 60s-feel cut crease look.

I used 'Redstone' all over the lid, 'Bittersweet' and 'Stone' in the crease, a little 'Redstone' to transition between the crease and highlight, and 'Sandstone' as a highlight. I also used Avon Supershock liner.

On my cheeks I used a smidge of ELF Studio 'Candid Coral' and on my lips is Barry M Lip Paint #147 'Peachy Pink'.

Don't forget to check in with Liloo for a roundup of this week's Sleek Saturday!

Sleek Saturday with Liloo: Sparkle Palette

2011-08-27T20:00:00.001+01:00

It's Sleek Saturday again! Go to Le Petit Jardin de Liloo for a round up of who's participating this week!

I decided upon the Sparkle palette- a lot of people aren't so fond of this one, but the shadows themselves are lovely. Usually I use it as a smokey eye palette, using the darker shades over a black base to bring out the sparkly sparklyness. I wanted to try and use it for a more daytime use today, though.

I used the strange grey shade next to the red, the delightfully named Dream Maker, all over the lid except the inner corner, where I used the bright silver, Tinsel. I just blended Dream Maker into the crease for a simple smoky eye. On my cheeks I have ELF All Over Colour Stick in Pink Lemonade and Illamasqua Illuminator in Fondle. I used NYX Round Gloss in Kiss.

Looking forward to see what everyone else does this Sleek Saturday!

Eyejazzles

2011-08-25T17:37:00.000+01:00

Last night I decided to wear some rhinestones on my eyes... Cue my friend's comment: "I like your... eyejazzles." (if you've not guessed, she was referencing the Vajazzle)

I also decided to get out my samples that I never use, so overall it was a more exciting makeup day than usual.

I did try to pull the shape of the crease shadow up into a winged shape, unfortunately you can't really see it in my awful photos.

EYES:
Archetype 'Venus Fly Trap' (inner lid) (brighter than it appears here)
Aromaleigh 'Tunnel Vision' (outer lid, crease)
MAC 'Semi-Precious Pearl' MSF (under lower lashline)
Avon Supershock Gel Liner
Rhinestones from eBay

CHEEKS:
MAC 'Semi-Precious Pearl' MSF

LIPS:
ELF All Over Colour Stick in Golden Peach
Victoria Jackson mini gloss in a shimmery nude

Oh and on my face is the too-dark Illamasqua Skin Base. Am undecided on repurchase in lighter colour.

Retro hair: Victory Roll

2011-08-23T22:42:00.000+01:00

Alternative title: It is difficult to take photos of your own hair.

The other day I decided that I wanted to have my hair off my face... So I pulled it into a single Victory Roll.

To do this I just pulled it into a quiff, backcombed the roots a little bit, then rolled the end of the quiff in to a roll pinned it. A single roll like this is pretty easy to do with a fringe, but definitely easier with a bit of backcombing and on day or two day old hair. It's less authentic than two rolls, but easier and, I think, more modern looking.

Look: Laquered lips

2011-08-18T00:30:00.000+01:00

Just a quick one, I promised Wendy pink glittery lips but I changed my mind last minute and went for shimmery orange-red lips.

EYES:
Shimmery white from Sleek 'Curaco' palette
Matte brown-grey from Sleek 'Paraguaya' palette
Avon Supershock gel eyeliner
Falsies I've taken out of the box so I forget which ones they are
Rimmel Black Brown eyebrow pencil

CHEEKS:
Accessorize Merged Blush 'Pretty Pink'

LIPS:
Barry M Lip Laquer Crayon 'Manderin'

Sleek Saturday with Liloo: Bad Girl Palette

2011-08-13T20:00:00.000+01:00

Yay it's Sleek Saturday again! I was dead chuffed when Liloo asked me to participate, and I chose the Bad Girl palette- it's very popular but I never use mine.

Here's what I came up with, a silver/grey smoky thing with glitter liner:

I used the darkest grey as liner and in the outer corner, the lightest silver on the middle lid and the white on the inner corner. The glitter liner is Collection 2000 'Hustle'. On my lips is MAC 'Summer Showers' and I did a perky pink cheek with NYC Mosaic 'Pink Glow' and Accessorize 'Pretty Pink'.

I'm glad I managed to make a departure from the dark dark smoky eyes that the Bad Girl palette is best known for. I can't wait to see Liloo's look, remember to check out her blog here. Thanks Liloo for asking me to join in with Sleek Saturdays!

Like being a kid again: Sleek Pout Paints

2011-08-12T17:24:00.000+01:00

So I got my grubby little mitts on some Sleek Pout Paints while they were still 3 for 2 at Superdrug. I picked up Milkshake, a warm toned bright pink, and Peekabloo and Cloud 9, the blue and white. Now I want them all! Mixing up your own colours is so much fun, and they're much better priced than OCC Lip Tars for me. I wonder if one could even mix Lip Tars with Pout Paints if you picked up some of those?! The possibilities are endless *squeal*

Anyway, here's Milkshake by itself:

And some of the colours I mixed up:

Milkshake + Cloud 9

Milkshake + Cloud 9 + Peekabloo

Milkshake + Peekabloo

Playing around

While I realise that faffing about mixing colours isn't for everyone, I think the Pout Paints are pretty good as lipsticks alone. A retractable lip brush is a must- I really like Superdrug's own one, which is cheap but surprisingly good.

High Voltage Cosmetics.

2011-08-07T16:03:00.000+01:00

I regret to inform my followers that I can no longer recommend High Voltage Cosmetics.

My order is one of the ones that has gone missing and Jasmine has gone completely incognito. All of the known email addresses for High Voltage don't exist anymore. Because I trusted Jasmine and thought my order had been posted, I let it get beyond 45 days and now I cannot file a PayPal dispute. It looks like I won't get my money back.

What really upsets me is that I honestly did trust Jasmine. I often had conversations with her through Twitter, had successful transactions with her before and she was often recommended. By lying about sending orders out, Jasmine has broken that trust. I wish she'd just been honest, shut up shop for a little bit and said 'guys I'm not coping with working very well at the moment, High Voltage will be on a go slow'. Everyone would have rallied round her. Instead there's this ugly drama.

I don't want this to happen to anybody else. And if Jasmine manages to get her business back on track, I certainly won't be buying any of her products and I can't ever consider her a friend again.

Review: Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream

2011-08-03T19:01:00.000+01:00

I'm back... With a scary scary post: reviewing my first BB cream. You know what this means... BARE FACE. *rocks back and forth* oh god oh god oh god.

I heard good things about Missha's Perfect Cover BB cream, and they do a super pale shade, #13.So I picked a 20ml tube up from eBay seller Rubyruby79 for £6.69. It arrived super quickly and seems to be genuine so it was a pretty good eBay experience.

This smaller tube doesn't have a pump like the bigger ones, instead it has a little nozzle.

The texture is thicker than most foundations, and the shade is very pale. A little bit too pale for my hand, but my bod is darker than my face.

You can see the texture from where it's started to run down my hand a bit:

Blended:

Here's what the BB cream has to deal with... The before:

I apply Missha Perfect Cover with my fingers, usually using circular motions to blend. I only use the amount shown above for my entire face, and it blends in pretty easily. This is the coverage I get with just the BB cream:

While it does cover up a lot, major blemishes and discolourations need some concealer. After concealer, blush, powder and the rest of my makeup, this is the final result:

And with new hair!

My neck can be quite yellow toned and has some darker patches, but I'm happier with how it matches in real life than in these photos- the dark patches on my neck have been exaggerated and light bounced back by the high SPF in the BB cream. You can see (sort of) in the before photo how my neck patches contrast with my face.

Overall, I really like this BB cream. It has a high SPF of 42 and provides a much higher coverage than tinted moisturiser whilst being a lighter coverage option for summer. For most people, this would be enough with no concealer- as you can see I have pretty problem skin.

Where: eBay

How much: varied depending on seller and currency conversions- mine was £6.69

You'll like: if you want more than a tinted moisturiser, but less than a foundation with high SPF

You won't like: if you only need very low coverage, if you don't match the limited shades

Bottom line: probably a good first foray into BB creams

Review: Urban Decay Lipsticks

2011-06-06T07:31:00.000+01:00

I told you I had more lipsticks in the works. That's cause it's been Lipstick Central here recently. I can't seem to stop buying them.

I picked up 4 Urban Decay lipsticks from Fragrance Direct for the bargainous price of £3.99. I noticed they had one of Phyrra's favourites, Jilted, so I had to- love the colour on her.

Personally I love the packaging. They feel weighty and expensive, I love the little dagger detail and I havn't been stabbed by it yet... I love details like that on lipsticks as it's something you'll actually pull out of a handbag and reapply.

Here's the colours:

JILTED

You can see the blueish shift in this in the first picture, which makes this pink lean purple. In the closeup you can see how pink it is. It's a beautiful colour, a really nice statement lip.

TRAINWRECK

Like Jilted, but more purple and muted with no shift. I thought these were too close in colour, but when worn they are completely different in effect.

VINYL

An interesting colour, a deep purple with shimmers/glitters. In the closeup you can see the shimmer. The lipstick looks gritty in the tube but doesn't feel it on the lips.

BUZZKILL

This looks deceptively light in the swatches, it's my-lips-but-darker-and-a-touch-plummier. Very smooth texture, no shimmer at all.

Jilted, Trainwreck, Vinyl, Buzzkill

Now we come to a conundrum. I love the texture of these lipsticks. They feel very smooth and luxurious on the lips, nourishing and balmy. However, they smell awful. On the Debenhams website Urban Decay describe the scent as 'creme caramel', and some bloggers noted a smell but nothing overpowering. To me these smell strongly of liquorice allsorts- and I hate liquorice allsorts! I wonder if since they're from a discount site they've gone off a bit? Or maybe I'm just sensitive to the scent they've used? I'm not usually bothered by smells in products! I don't know what to do: common sense says if something's off, don't use it... But I've only just bought these and in fairness I've never smelt a 'fresh' UD lipstick to compare. Given that the formula still feels fab and when lippies go off they tend to smell crayony (not a hint), I'll probably carry on wearing these. I'll definitely have trouble pushing past the smell though... Yuck.

Where: Fragrance Direct, Cheap Smells, Debenhams
How much: £3.99, from £4.85, £13.00 respectively
You'll like: if you like liquorice, if you like off the wall packaging, if you love a quality lipstick (everyone then...)
You won't like: if the smell isn't unique to just my 4 and you hate liquorice or strong fragrances
Bottom line: I'd love to love these, but I can't get over the smell... Anyone else notice it?!

FOTD: Coral and Turquoise

2011-05-29T18:49:00.000+01:00

This eyeshadow look was in my head for a while, but I only got a chance to do it once I was wearing the appropriate outfit. I like the way it turned out!

EYES
UDPP Eden
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Meow Wild Child 'bt dubs' (inner lid)
The Mineralista 'Chilli Berry' (outer lid)
Matte shade 2-3 shades darker than my skintone (crease)
Sleek Eye Dust 'Jet Set'
Avon SuperShock liner
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara

CHEEKS
Meow Wild Child blush 'Hang Up'

LIPS
Body Shop Love Gloss #18 'Tropical Pink'

Guest Blogging at Turtle Beauty

2011-05-27T22:42:00.000+01:00

Hola chicas!

I've written a guest blog for Wendy at Turtle Beauty. You can find it here. If you don't read her blog already, you should! Get to it ;)

Red lipstick and black liner #2

2011-05-22T20:37:00.001+01:00

Or, red lipstick and excessive amounts of black liner.

EYES
UDPP Eden
Matte skin tone shadow (I forget which)
Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Liner
Collection 2000 Big Fake Lash
Brows lightly filled with Rimmel Brow Pencil

CHEEKS
Accessorize 'Pretty Pink' Merged Blush

LIPS
Rimmel 1000 Kisses lipliner 'Red Dynamite'
Chanel Rouge Coco #19 'Gabrielle'

Quickie Review: Bourjois Docteur Glamour Lipstick

2011-05-22T03:18:00.001+01:00

Who likes lipstick? Good because I've got a few more lipstick centric posts coming up.

This is just a quickie as these are discontinued. You can still get them online at Fragrance Direct and various other discount sites so I thought it was worth a quick post. I picked up 3 of these: #17 Rose requinque, #16 Lilas ausculte and #15 Fuchsia o bobo.

The packaging on these is super cute. I love how the tube is the same colour as the lipstick (or close enough) so you can identify it at a glance.

Swatches!

#17 Rose requinque

#16 Lilas ausculte

#15 Fuchsia o bobo

L- R: As before, first swatch one swipe, second swatch 2-3 swipes

I wouldn't describe these as terribly sheer, but neither are they very pigmented. They go on shiny but not 'glossy' like you would get from... a gloss. The colour can be built up or worn more subtly. For me, these are good 'throw on and go' lipsticks as they fade evenly and are easy to reapply with no faffing about with lipliners and such. They have probably slightly shorter than average wear, but as they fade so nicely and are such a doddle to reapply I don't take issue. The only one I have some issues with is #17 as my lips have to be in better condition to wear that one- it's a bit of a flake-clinger.

Overall, a good option for the cash-strapped who would like to indulge in the sheer-and-shiny lipstick trend. Not exactly a perfect dupe for Dior Addict, Chanel Rouge Coco Shine et al, but also not £20+ apiece.

In which I look a bit like a blow up doll

2011-05-14T16:24:00.000+01:00

Hahaha no not like that.

I thought I'd play with my makeup and do the kind of makeup I sometimes like to do when I go out in the evenings, because more often than not I've had no light to photograph evening makeup. I even included false lashes.

I couldn't help the blowup doll face in this makeup.

EYES
UDPP Eden
Sleek Paraguaya palette 'Bittersweet' (crease, outer v)
No name white shadow (lid)
Collection 2000 Glam Crystals glitter liner 'Hustle' (lid)
White Fairy Dust glitter (lid)
MUA black liner (upper lashline)
Beauty Care false lashes
My eyebrows are a mixture- ended up really dark because my brow pencil went mad. I think it got too warm or something? Or I need a new one. I change my hair too often to stick to one. Thinking of going pretty dark soon, think this one will be too light anyway. Better learn how to get a naturalish look with shadows.

CHEEKS
Bourjois Little Round Pot 'Lilas D'Or'

LIPS
PURE lipstick #73 'Red'

I'll bring out the Flapper in you: 20s inspired

2011-05-12T15:49:00.000+01:00

Hola! I've got a new computer cable so I'm BACK... Again. The fates have been conspiring against me recently in terms of blogging. However, we push on.

I cut my hair a couple of weeks ago and dyed it, and once I was done it reminded me of a 20s-style bob. So I did a red 20s inspired (NOT authentic) look.

EYES
UDPP Eden
High Voltage Cosmetics 'Last Kiss'
BYS white eyeliner
Accidental black smudged on lower lashline... Didn't clean my brush off... *shame*
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara

LIPS
MUA Shade 1

Review: ELF Eye Transformer Palette

2011-04-21T03:25:00.001+01:00

Now, if you're like me, you like a bit of novelty in your products occasionally. No? Well keep reading because this gimmick is actually quite good.

Upon hearing the theory behind this palette, I thought it would be one of those things that you experiment with upon its arrival- then go back to using your deep jewel toned shadows when you realise layering is too much of a faff. Then I saw swatches and realised that the duochromes in these give a completely different look layered over black than a single shadow can really provide. And like I said, I like a good gimmick. So for £3.50 I thought I'd pick one up.

So you get 4 pastel shadows with a shine to them. You also get a little brush... And I can't believe I'm saying this, but don't throw that away! It's of absolutely fine quality to actually use- it's lovely and soft, with a 'c' shape to it which doesn't splay horribly. A miniature marvel. It can be used to pack these shadows on to eyeliner, avoiding the rest of the lid, or for smudging and detailed work with other shadows and eyeliners. I was so impressed when I got the palette with the brush alone- ELF has really put other cheap companies and their sponge applicators or scratchy, splaying messes claiming to be brushes to shame.

So the eyeshadows themselves... Here are some swatches to start you off:

Over Pixie Epoxy to get them to show on camera.

Over a black base (L'Oreal HIP Crayon 'Perfectionist')

Here's where their versatility comes into play. Over a normal primer, these are very pale washes of shimmery colour- those swatches aren't included as they won't show up on camera. Over Pixie Epoxy, the duochrome is obviously intensified and they become very pretty lid colours. Over a black base, you get a rich jeweltoned colour which is bright but blackened at the same time. Very pretty! I like all of the colours, but especially the blue and gold. The blue has a touch of violet in it to my eye, and the gold is a strange gold-bronze hybrid. The shadows are smooth and soft, which does lead to a little bit of dust coming off when you use your brush on them. They're not nearly the worst I've encountered for this though.

So they're pretty versatile on our eyes, but still not necessarily something you'd reach for often. But we havn't got to my favourite (and impossible to photograph, so excuse me) use for this palette- as a highlight palette. The gold and pink are obvious choices for brow and face highlighting, but I also love the blue for this purpose. I use a fluffy eyeshadow brush (think 224-type) and dust the shadows along the very top of my cheekbones and under my brow bone. The effect is the same as using them on the eyes with a standard primer (foundation gives a touch of adhesion compared to bare skin) and while it may be underwhelming on the eyes, the shimmery effect is just perfect for highlighting- there's no obnoxious sparkle, they blend in well with the other products on your face and the duochrome-ness of the shadows makes them 'glow' rather than frost or overt shimmer.

I havn't tried the green for highlighting yet but I don't rule it out. The gold is perfect for summer, especially with the odd bronze-ness it seems to have, and the pink sits perfectly on top of a pink blush for a dainty look. The blue takes the blue iridescence that BeneFit's 'High Beam' and its imitators have and kicks it up a notch. It's surprisingly flattering.

So yes. Not a bad word from me. What I thought would be a gimmick has turned out to be a product I reach for almost everyday.

Where: ELF
How much: £3.50
You'll like: if you're into highlighting, or enjoy novel products
You won't like: if you've got enough gold/pink highlighters and wouldn't use the blue/green
Bottom line: try it; you'll probably get some use out of it (even if not its intended use!)

(Like the new summary system?)

FOTD: Sleek Paraguaya Palette

2011-04-15T20:27:00.000+01:00

I wanted to do a look with the new (ish) Paraguaya palette. I found the mattes in this palette to be chalkier than other mattes from Sleek, especially the Bohemian palette... Probably because they're so pale. I used all mattes in this look though.
I used the pinks and browns in the palette, rather than going uber-peach with it, and did this 60s- inspired eye with it.

EYES:
Sleek Paraguaya palette-
'Sandstone' (inner corner)
'Blush' (lid)
'Cameo' (outer lid)
'Bittersweet' (lightly in the crease)
'Stone' (liner)
E.L.F. Eye transformer palette- pink (highlight)
Eyeko Grafitti liner (upper lashline, very close to the lashes)
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara

CHEEKS:
Accessorize merged blush in 'Pretty Pink'

LIPS:
Barry M Lip Paint in 129 'Palest Lavender'

EOTD: Friends Are Electric

2011-04-14T20:21:00.000+01:00

Quick EOTD for you... I tweeted for some ideas for a look for a night out and the lovely Lorraine and Wendy gave me a few, so I managed to snap a quick picture of my eye just to show them what became of it!

Products:
Wet n Wild Snow Sprite palette- pale minty green (inner corner and lower lashline)
Urban Decay 'Sin' eyeshadow (lid)
Sleek Original palette- bronze (crease)
Avon Supershock gel liner in black
Wet n Wild Snow Sprite palette- vivid lime green (outer lower lashline, following wing)
Boots 17 Wild Curls mascara
Eyelure 'Song' Bollywood lashes (these are mini lashes, you get 5 different colours)

I really liked this look! I'll have to put out SOS inspiration calls out on Twitter more often ;)
On my cheeks was E.L.F. All Over Colour Stick in 'Golden Peach', with Meow Wild Child blush in 'Hang Up' on top, and while I wanted to use VG Cyndi, we were out for a meal so I went with Fyrinnae 'Meloncholy' instead.
The meal was nice, but the service was just average. The night was lovely though.

Vintage beauty: 60s red enamelled compact

2011-04-12T13:23:00.000+01:00

Another day, another compact! The last in my meagre collection. I posted about my Lipview here if you're interested in that, though.
This is the first compact I bought, a Margaret Rose enamelled compact in bright red with a gold star emblazoned on the front:

That's the original powder guard in there, and I have the original sponge. No powder in it though. I'm going to take it to Superdrug and measure it against modern powder pans to see if I can get a pressed one to fit!

I got this little beauty from Stardust Vintage, who have all sorts of vintage things and a wide selection of compacts as well as free postage to the UK. From my experience, I'd recommend them.

If you're interested in vintage beauty items, I've just noticed Lisa Eldridge has picked up the subject on her YouTube channel, and she has some pretty special items:

I'll be interested to see what else she has in her collection... Totally envious.

I promise that's it for the vintage... For now.

Vintage beauty: 50s lucite compact

2011-04-11T14:08:00.000+01:00

I bought this little beauty on Etsy a little while back, but I've only just got round to cleaning it and taking photos of it.

Squeeeeeee glittery and pink and pretty! It's really stunning in the sunlight, it has a mixture of glitters suspended in the lucite. I'm not a pink girl but it was a must have. It was pretty cheap too, as the seller hadn't cleaned it themselves.
Unfortunately I couldn't find a powder pan wide enough to fit it, as it's rectangular, but I've improvised with a depotted MUA powder and a bit of white tac to keep it in...

It'll have to do for now....

Any vintage beauty accessory lovers? My collection of compacts is small at only 2, but I love the elegance of them. I have some pics of my other one too show soon too :)

Quickie Review: E.L.F. All Over Colour Stick

2011-04-06T20:00:00.001+01:00

With my hugemongous (real word) E.L.F. haul last month, I picked up this little goodie, in the colour 'Golden Peach':

I must admit, I picked it up mostly out of curiosity, since I've been wanting to get into cream blushes more since getting a Topshop cream blush for Christmas. And it was only £1.50!

The packaging, to me, doesn't look cheap. Sure it's not the gorgeous packaging of high end brands but I don't think it says 'I cost £1.50!' to anybody. It's a simple pearlised white twist up tube with silver writing and a clear cap. Nothing gaudy, functional and stylish.

The product itself is a touch hard and it benefits from being warmed up on the skin for a little bit. It's not overly so, though, and is perfectly usable without warming it first, which is how I use it all the time because I'm lazy. The colour is a lovely peach with a pretty noticable golden frost. Where I tend to use blush, on the backs of my cheeks, this is pretty OK and can serve as a highlight and blush, but I wouldn't recommend using this on the apples if you have issues with your pores- the frostiness is not going to go well for you. It also limits this All Over Colour Stick's use to cheeks and eyes (it does crease but lasts surprisingly long) as its frosty finish just does not sit well on the lips.
One other thing to note is that this doesn't have a cream-to-powder finish so it can stay a little sticky to touch for a while. I use a smidge of powder over it for that reason, but it might not bother you, especially if you don't touch your face a lot. Also if you try and build up the colour a lot, it will sit in a pretty thick layer on your face that you can feel a bit. It does blend into foundation nicely, so you don't get obnoxious 80s stripe blush.

Overall, a nice cream blush for the price, and I'm interested in the other colours. It's not going to rival more expensive brands in quality (the Topshop blush for example is lots softer) but it is a very pretty colour which you don't have to work very hard to get to look nice- swipe, blend, go. Worth a try if you're picking up some E.L.F

Quickie Review: Andrea Fulerton Nail Tattoos

2011-04-05T22:04:00.000+01:00

Our internet is back so I can post! Hooray! Let me tell you, it was a bloody nightmare sorting that out. First, my housemate phoned BT, they said there was a fault on the line... Fairly efficiently, for BT, they got that fixed- but still no internet. So I rang up Virgin (our provider) and they basically made us do various things on my computer til deciding they needed to speak to the account holder- my housemate. Then it took my housemate days to actually ring up Virgin, at which point they said it was some kind of mad national fault thing (which they could have told me surely?!) and it'd be fixed within 24 hours... Some 48 hours later- internet! Hurrah! What a faff that was.

So, I have a quick review of the Andrea Fulerton Nail Tattoos for you.
I picked up 3 of the designs- I got the chains, the skulls and cross bones (cute!) and the locks and keys. For the sake of the review I shall be showing you the chains:

Unlike the others in the range, which you just place and stick, you need to trim these down to fit your nail. It can be a little bit fiddly, but not overly difficult, and once they're trimmed you just put them in place and stick them down. You don't really get a lot of sticker for your money, but they are nice quality.

I did some accent nails using the big chains:

Yes, you may have noticed from these pictures that my thumbs are different sizes, no I don't know why...

Anyway, the Nail Tattoos look good on the nail, the clear border around the design is pretty undetectable and the design doesn't start to look tarnished until a good 4 days in, and after that you can still get a bit of wear out of them.

Overall, I'd recommend them if you spot them in your local Superdrug. Although you don't get a huge quantity for your money, I do think these are pretty quality and I like the designs too. I'd love to see more colours other than silver though... But worth it for a £2 treat to yourself.

I'm not dead...

2011-03-24T01:24:00.000Z

.... But our internet connection is. Apparently there's a fault on our phone line, or something. It should be fixed by the 28th apparently but you know what BT are like.

I'll be back properly soon lovelies!

In the mean time: Revlon have discontinued my colour of PhotoReady :( I'd love to hear from any of you who are '02 Vanilla' in PhotoReady- what other foundations have you found that suit you? If you've never used PhotoReady but you have a recommendation for my super pale self, shoot away too!

FYI: I have a very pale olivey complexion- think yellow tones verging on green. This description of the shade 'Golden Marble' by Terra Firma is me, only I'm really pale!: "For medium olive skin tones. Your skin is yellow but has a "green" undertone. You tan easily and rarely burn." Anything too pink looks ridiculous on me, and I tend to go for foundations more neutral than my skintone (not hard) to neutralise occasional sallowness.

Quickie Review: Super Smoocher for Lip Balms

2011-03-10T04:12:00.000Z

Just a quickie today. I've really lost my blogging motivation recently so I thought I'd ease myself back in with a quick review for you.

Lip balms from SuperSmoocher.com:

I picked up 4 lip balms from SuperSmoocher, the site that does natural organic type lip products. They have free postage in the UK which is almost guaranteed to make me buy something. I bought 2 Hurraw! balms, in Black Cherry (tinted) and Lime, a Badger Balm in Lavender and Orange and a Crazy Rumors balm in Spiced Chai.

First up the Hurraw! balms. These are vegan, so contain no beeswax. They do feel different to if you're used to beeswax-based balms, more 'melty' and slicker on the lips. They don't feel overly greasy to me, though. I really like the packaging on these, it's bold and stands out.
The Black Cherry one has a red tint, which on my lips is only slight. If you have less pigmented lips it will make a bigger impact. My boyfriend could see it though so it's not invisible. It also smells divine. The Lime one has no tint, but much the same consistency. I love love love the lime scent, it smells of pure lime oil, nothing artificial just zingy and delicious. With both of them I feel like there's less taste than smell, even though they are 'flavours'.

Hurraw! balms come in 15 different flavours and they're £3.45 on the SuperSmoocher site.

The Badger Balm I definitely bought for the scent/ flavour. I really like lavender things, and lavender mixed with orange sounded unusual and delicious. It didn't disappoint, I love the smell. The Badger Balms are not vegan and have beeswax in them. The consistency is very similar to a Burt's Bees balm. I actually really like beeswax based balms for wearing under lipstick, I feel like I can blot some of it off and still have a kind of barrier between my lips and the lipstick, keeping them more moisturised. I like the label, it's quirky and cool, but mine came stuck on a bit too high, so I've had to fold it under the cap.

Badger Balms come in 8 stick varieties at £2.45, they also do lip and body balms in a tin for £3.99.

The Crazy Rumors balm... I love chai lattes. I was hoping for a similar flavour, but this has wayyy too much cinnamon. I can take it in small amounts but too much and I get an awful headache. So I had to wipe it off after about 2 minutes. I can tell you though that on my one and only use I found the consistency closer to a beeswax balm like Burt's or Badger than the Hurraw! balms, even though it's vegan. If you're looking for a vegan balm without the 'greasy' feel these may well be a hit with you! I gave it to my friend who is also a balm addict and it's been in her handbag since so it must be doing something right with her too. I'd definitely try different flavours from the brand as I loved the feel on applying it once, just the smell didn't agree with me.

Crazy Rumors are available in 28 (yes something for everyone... of course I pick one I don't like) flavours and they're £3.45 at SuperSmoocher.

My package was sent and received pretty quickly, and I didn't have any customer service issues or whatnot. The balms were cutely wrapped in tissue with little heart confettis, which was nice. Overall I'd recommend SuperSmoocher, especially if you know a lip balm addict: chances are you'll find the flavour they've always been looking for.

Bright Pastels FOTD

2011-02-18T17:11:00.001Z

A FOTD that's hoping for Spring!

EYES
Homemade primer
LA Colors 'Tease' palette- shimmery yellow (lid)
Collection 2000 'Poptastic' palette- bright matte yellow (crease)
Unnamed white shadow (highlight)
Sleek Ink Pot 'Dominatrix'
BYS liner- white (waterline)
Lash Accelerator mascara

CHEEKS
NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder 'Rose Glow'
Accessorize Merged Blush 'Pretty Pink'

LIPS
High Voltage Lip Whip 'Just a Girl'

Review: Concrete Minerals

2011-02-18T11:06:00.000Z

An absolute age ago I purchased the 'Youtube Guru and Blogger love' set from Concrete Minerals. So obviously, I owe them a review! I got my set on my return from Christmas holidays at my ma's and I was waiting on the new camera to do the review but then I thought 'this is getting ridiculous', and got guilt for not doing the review yet. So here we are.

I was impressed at how my order arrived from Concrete. My 4 jars were inside a plastic baggie to stop them moving in transit, and that was wrapped in pink tissue paper (which I used to wrap someone's birthday present... Recycle guys! Lol). Included was a little note from the shop's owner, Em, and a card with instructions on how best to use the shadows. I thought this was a neat touch, perfect for beginners.

Concrete are based on Etsy at the moment, and the shop is well branded in my opinion. You can find Concrete Minerals here. I like that there are little themed sets, for example the Alice set (squee!) and that there are deals to be had (buy 4 for $14.99 for example). The shop also has handy-dandy eye swatches, which I think is useful. So thumbs up all round for the shop, I think it's presented really well.

I got to pick four colours, and I chose Smut, Harlequin, Strobelight and Sabotage.

Here they are:

(Swatches over UDPP)

Top: Smut, Sabotage

Bottom: Harlequin, Strobelight

SMUT
Concrete says: "dirty silver w/ pink-purple undertones"
I say: this is a purple with, indeed, a dirty silver base. The purple shine is very apparent and pretty.

SABOTAGE
Concrete says: "black w/ pink sparkle and sheen"
I say: for a black based mineral shade, this has less fallout issues than others I've tried. The purpley pink sparkle shows up even over a normal primer rather than PE.

I tried to capture the sparklies:

I pretty much failed at that. You can see, though, that it's not just black!

HARLEQUIN
Concrete says: "olive green w/ gold undertones"
I say: this is a mossy olive green with very pretty gold flashes. Makes a lovely light smoky eye on its own.

STROBELIGHT
Concrete says: "chrome silvery-blue"
I say: a pretty icy silver blue, with lovely sparkle.

Again, tried to get the sparkles:

All of these shadows blend well, and wear all day over a primer for me. The colours are all unique, and although I have some close shadows in my collection, none the same. For example 'Hellooo Brian' from Living Dead Grrl is pretty close to Smut, but Smut is dirtier without being muddy. I was really impressed with how well the sparkle in Sabotage shows up; black shades like these can be a pain.

Overall, these shadows fill all the criteria I've come to expect from mineral shadows and I'm duly impressed. I would definitely purchase again.

Concrete offers 4 'deluxe' (ie large in a jar) samples for $9.99, but no cheap sample baggies of individual colours. Their shadows are competitively priced at $5.99 each for10 gram container full. My full size High Voltage shadows (ooo coming soooooon) are in 5 gram jars full and that is a LOT of shadow, so I think that's a cracking deal.

Packaging- look and feel- 4/5 nicely packaged parcel, jars have plain black lids with a info sticker on the bottom of the jar.
Packaging- functionality- 4/5 loads of info on the sticker: ingredients, weight, shadow name.
Product quality- 4/5 as I've come to expect from good Indie brands!
Price point- 3/5 good value but some may be turned off by comparatively expensive samples.
Overall- 4/5 nice, unique shadows that I would definitely recommend.

Have you tried Concrete? Any colours catch your eye? I like the look of Lolita, Detox, Deviant and the Alice Collection.

Blogger collab: Favourite Red and Orange eyeshadows

2011-02-17T00:41:00.001Z

[A word about the photos in this post. Photos are STILL with my phone. I've been waiting for ages for sun to be able to swatch the most accurately I possibly can. We have had some issues getting my camera; basically, to cut a long story short it seems like Royal Mail has 'misplaced' it. I'm not so sure the man my boyfriend bought it off used the right type of postal method for something that expensive though so I'm not sure what's going to happen with getting my camera delivered / getting loverboy's money back. So bear with me. Terrible photos for a bit longer :( ]

Eyeshadows! Swatches! Bloggers working together in harmony! That's pretty much the crack. I chose reds and oranges to complete the rainbow...

LiAnne from Sparklecrack Central looked at yellows.

Wendy at Turtle Beauty showed us some purple goodness.

Jade at Jade Goes With Everything was in charge of black/grey/silvers.

Robyn at Stay Beautiful swatched some awesome greens.

Kimmie at KimmieKarmaLove picked out some pretty blues.

And so we come to my favourite orange and red eyeshadows, starting with orange:

(Swatches are L-R over Pixie Epoxy, then over UDPP)

ORANGES.

Archetype 'Feathered Serpent'

Somewhere in between an orange and a gold, very sparkly.

Aromaleigh 'Incendio'

From the Spells! collection, a pale peachy orange with purple sparkles that make the PE swatch look darker.

Discontinued.

Fyrinnae 'Pyromantic Erotica'

aka 'The Orange Arcane Magic'... all sorts of pretty shifts.

Hallowe'en oranges: T-B High Voltage 'Trick O' Treat' and Evil Shades 'Otherworldly'

Pumpkin oranges. 'Trick O' Treat' is less dirty and more orange than it is here, but 'Otherworldly' is still brighter.

Both discontinued.

Meow Wild Child Collection 'OMG'

Bright orange with shimmers.

Sleek Acid palette orange

Matte neon orange. First swatch over white eyeliner rather than Pixie Epoxy.

The Mineralista 'Mango Tangelo'

Brighter than 'OMG', shimmery bright light orange.

Discontinued.

REDS.

Aromaleigh 'Pass the Tarts'

From the Wonderstruck collection, a rich, jammy red with multi shimmer.

Discontinued.

Evil Shades 'All Hallow's Night'

A deep blackened red with a coppery shift.

Discontinued.

Fyrinnae 'Velvet Vampire'

aka 'The Red Arcane Magic' less obviously red than 'Pyromantic Erotica' is orange.

High Voltage 'Little Red Cap'

Mid-toned red with gold shift / shimmer.

High Voltage 'Bloody Mary'

The last swatch so bad light: not as dark as this, but a very plummy deep red with red sparkle.

Discontinued.

Sleek Sparkle palette 'Cranberry'

A little disappointing over just primer, comes to life over a sticky base to become a pink-leaning bright red shot through with silver shimmer. Worth the faff of a sticky base to get results.

Discontinued.

Sorry so many of the shades are discontinued. As you can imagine, the best time of year if you're into reds and oranges is Hallowe'en so a few are from Hallowe'en collections, others just unfortunate.

See anything you like? Have some other favourites I don't own?

Stockists:

Archetype [I'd research them before ordering, I was gifted mine so havn't ordered. They have been known to have issues though.]

Sleek MakeUP also available in Superdrug shops and superdrug.com [I buy ALL my Sleek in a Superdrug shop. People have had issues ordering online, and it's worth looking all that up before buying. Also it can be cheaper for someone to CP Sleek for you as their postage is extortionate imo.]

'Better get down Threshers, do the weekly shop'

2011-01-25T00:33:00.001Z

(The title is one of my favourite Marsha quotes from 'Spaced', in case you don't watch it)

So here is a look using one of my new shadows from Living Dead Grrrl. I havn't reviewed them yet, there hasn't been enough sunlight to get good swatches with my phone camera, so reviews that involve swatching are off until there is a) sun or b) new camera. The trials of being a beauty blogger in winter!

Anyway, I used 'Hellooo Brian' by Living Dead Grrrl, which is such a Marsha colour (but still pretty lol), and greens from the Wet n Wild Snow Sprite palette that they released over the holidays. How did I aquire such an item you ask? Well someone awesome sent it to me for Christmas along with some other goodies. Thank you Wendy!

Eyes
Living Dead Grrrl 'Hellooo Brian' (lid)
Wet n Wild Snow Sprite palette- lime (crease) - dark green (outer v, underneath lower lashline)
Miss Sporty 'Eternity' (highlight)
MUA liquid liner in black (upper lashline)
Rimmel Lash Accelerator

Cheeks
Accessorize Merged Blush 'Pretty Pink' (need to stop using this every. single. day.)

Lips
That is either Vaseline Rosy Lips... or some gloss? Je ne sais quoi.

What do people think about eye photos from the side? I kind of prefer them but I'm not sure.

Oh yeah, my lower lashline shape was totally inspired by prettybottles.

Review: Epically Epic Soap Co.

2011-01-23T15:30:00.000Z

I ordered from Epically Epic an absolute age ago. But I was using one of my products from them today and I thought 'oh wait I havn't reviewed these!' so I thought sod it I would.

Epically Epic Soap is on Etsy, and we all know how Etsy works and how easy it is to order on there. The shop is well laid out and easy to navigate. I placed my order on 28/10 and received it quite quickly from America. I bought two things: the now-infamous I Love Lychee in roll on scent form and a Yellow Cake solid lotion.

How cute is the packaging?! The presentation of Epically Epic's products is impeccable. On the bottom of the solid lotion tin is a sticker with some of the uses for it, and the ingredients, and the roll on perfume has the ingredients printed on the sticker. Both also have the web address on them, so if you whip these out in public then you can direct people to get their own. Clever marketing :p

The I Love Lychee perfume roll on

The scent of this is amazing. I do love lychees, and you can smell them instantly, as well as a slightly floral sweetness that becomes more prominent as the product settles. The end result is like a slightly floral lychee candy, which is just lovely. My boyfriend said he wanted to eat me when I wore this! My only complaint is that the oil stays 'wet' for perhaps longer than I would like, but the ingredients list moisturising oils (jojoba and sweet almond) and vitamin E so once it does sink into the skin it's doing some good. This is quite long lasting on me, and most of the time I'm reapplying not because I need to but because I want to smell it again!

The Yellow Cake many purpose solid lotion

I love the smell of this. It's less in your face than I Love Lychee, it's the exact smell of a lemon cake. It's got vanilla, something inexplicably cakey and a delicate lemon note that doesn't overpower with zestiness. The sticker on the back suggests that you can use it as hand cream, body lotion, cuticle butter and solid perfume. I've used it as a solid perfume and it lasted reasonably but as it's a solid lotion disappears into the skin to do moisturising things and therefore disappears after a bit. The scent stays true to how it smells in the tin when it's on my skin. I daresay this formula would work well under a perfume to make it last longer, either with the matching perfume oil or with other fragrances to mix and come up with a new unique smell.

I've used it also as a cuticle butter and hand cream, and on my elbows. I doubt I'd use it as an all over body butter, as you have to melt it on to your fingers to apply and it would be effort for the whole body, but on dry patches it's a winner. It is different from usual creams, you melt the product on to your fingers and it feels drier on the skin than lotion (obviously). It feels somewhere in between a dry body oil and a cream. It does moisturise just as well as normal body lotions though, and kind of stays on the skin without being sticky or slippery, kind of like a barrier for your skin.

It's quite easy to melt on to your fingers, and you won't usually get too much. The dent in mine was caused by me talking to my friend whilst getting a bit of solid lotion and not noticing how much I'd melted it. Ooops. I just put the extra on my elbows. The tin is really handy for keeping in my handbag, I prefer it to squeezy tubes of hand cream as I worry they'll go everywhere. The lid of the tin stays on but isn't difficult to remove like Vaseline tin lids used to be! So overall I'm really pleased with this product; the format feels different at first but is actually very practical.

Packaging- look and feel- 5/5 cute!
Packaging- functionality- 5/5 really useful tin and standard roll on goodness
Product quality- 4/5 really pleased with these two, except the quibble about the roll on drying time
Price point- 4/5 good value, £5.13 for the roll on and £4.17 for the lotion + reasonable p&p
Overall- 4/5 would really recommend Epically Epic

Gone Witchin'

2011-01-19T19:51:00.000Z

Soo I got round to doing a look (for t'blog) with Evil Shades 'Witching' from their Hallowe'en collection. I paired it with taupey shades as I thought turquoise and taupe would be an interesting colour combination.

Mobile phone pictures STILL, sorry. No camera as yet. I'm starting to think the postman is a thief! *suspicious eyes*

Eyes:
Homemade primer
Evil Shades 'Witching' (lid, lower lashline)
Living Dead Grrrl 'Skip to the End' (inner corner)
Fyrinnae 'Te Amo' (crease, lower lashline)
Urban Decay 'Mushroom' (to darken crease, outer corner, lower lashline)
GOSH liquid liner 'Black Star'
Rimmel Lash Accelerator

Cheeks:
Accessorize Merged Blush 'Pretty Pink'

Lips:
Nude Victoria Jackson mini gloss

Best of 2010

2011-01-17T07:52:00.000Z

I don't often do 'Best of' posts, but I thought since it's still January I would.

The lack of blogging is getting to me and my new camera is still in the post. I am impatient so this irks me beyond belief. When it gets here I have about ten million things to blog, though... So happy days. Anyway, I thought this would be a good one to do while I was still waiting.

These are all products that were new to me in 2010, I have some long-time favourites that won't be mentioned.

FACE.
Best primer: Lanacane Anti-Chafing gel.
Best foundation: Revlon PhotoReady 'Vanilla'.
Best cheek product: Accessorize Merged Blush 'Pretty Pink', Meow Taboo Blush 'Fetish' and Topshop Cream Blush 'Crushed Berry'
Best brushes: QVS foundation brush and 'The Airbrush' duo fibre brush.

Honourable mentions: NYC Mosaic Face Powder, Meow Taboo Blush 'Exposure'.

EYES.
Best eye primer: Homemade and Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy (although not a primer)
Best eyeshadows: Sleek i-Divine palettes, Fyrinnae loose shadows, Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book Of Shadows
Best eyeliner: Sleek Ink Pot 'Dominatrix', Eyeko Grafitti Liners.
Best mascara: Chanel Inimitable (only had a sample though), Boots 17 Wild Curls 'Wildest Black'
Best brushes: Vital Radience brow brush (a discontinued £land find, but a handy little brush)

Honourable mentions: High Voltage eyeshadows, Body Shop mascaras, GOSH liquid liner, Collection 2000 Glam Crystals glitter liner, MUA liquid liner, Evil Shades shadows, especially 'Eerie'.

LIPS.
Best lipliner: BYS lipliners.
Best lipsticks: Chanel Rouge Coco no 19 'Gabrielle', Rimmel Lipsticks, Barry M Lip Laquer Crayon 'Mandarin', Fyrinnae Lip Lustre 'Meloncholy'.
Best lipgloss: Body Shop lipglosses.
Best balm: Burt's Bees Pomegranate, Vaseline Rosy Lips.

Honourable mentions: Revlon lipsticks, MUA lipstick, Evil Shades lipgloss (I LOST MINE IN A TAXI WAAAAAAAAAAH. Am heartbroken. Only got to use it 3 times.)

NAILS.
Best nail polish: Accessorize nail polishes, Barry M 'Dusky Mauve', GOSH 'Rainbow'.
Best topcoat: Barry M topcoat & basecoat

Honourable mentions: Essie 'Matte About You', Barry M 'Berry Ice Cream', Evil Shades 'Haunting'.

Tutorial: Space Age

2010-12-03T02:05:00.000Z

Yay! I actually gave this look a name!

These past two days I've been looking at cameras to decide which one to buy with my Christmas money. I actually can't wait to be able to take good photos! Now I've looked at the types of camera I want, my phone pictures make me even more sad than they did before. I'm looking at 'bridge cameras' specifically the Fujifilm S2800 HD. Anybody with any experience with this type of camera? Any tips to share?

Anyway, this is the look:

The colour shift towards blue in the eyeshadow colours is what inspired the name! I really liked this look :)

Step-by-step photos are under the jump!

STEP ONE

Over your primer, apply a pale shimmery cream shadow, or a pale cream liner, to the lid.

STEP TWO

In the inner corner of the eye apply Evil Shades' 'Eerie' (white w/ multicoloured shimmer w/ predominately blue shift), and bring it on to the tearduct.

STEP THREE

On the centre of the lid apply Fyrinnae's 'Electric Stardust (mint green Arcane Magic), and blend with Eerie.

STEP FOUR

Apply GOSH Effects Powder 'Butterfly' (mid purple w/ blue shift) to the crease and very outer lid, joining them in a V as shown. Notice the gap in the outer lid between 'Electric Stardust' and 'Butterfly'.

STEP FIVE

Fill in the little gap at the outer lid, bringing 'Electric Stardust' over, blending it lightly into 'Butterfly' and a bit beyond to create a subtle double wing. Blend 'Electric Stardust' into 'Butterfly' in the crease.

STEP SIX

Blend the uppermost edge of 'Butterfly' so there is no harsh line, using a sheer matte white as the highlight shade.

STEP SEVEN

Appy a thin line of GOSH Liquid Liner 'Black Star' (black with silver shimmer) and add a very small wing.

STEP EIGHT

In the waterline apply a Barry M kohl 11 silver pencil (or a white one) and apply silver eyeshadow (Sleek Bad Girl 'Blade') over the top for longevity (and so that it's silver if you use white obviously). Under the lashline apply 'Electric Stardust', with a slightly darker silver than you've used in the waterline at the very outer corner (Sleek Bad Girl 'Gun Metal').

STEP NINE.

To finish the face I used Meow Taboo blush in 'Fetish' (mauve/plum w/shimmer) and filled in my brows with Rimmel Dark Brown brow pencil and then matte grey shadow. On the lips is Body Shop Liquid Lip Colour 15 ( sheer pale mauve w/ multicolour shimmer). And mascara obviously!

World AIDS Day

2010-12-01T21:20:00.000Z

Today, apart from being OMGTHEFIRSTDAYWEGETTOOPENADOORINTHEADVENTCALENDAR, which I've heard about non-stop on Facebook, is World AIDS Day. The ribbon for AIDS is red, so I wore red today in honour of the occasion.

I would really recommend that everyone read Andrea's post about it here: World AIDS Day A Personal Story... It's really touching.
Here's my makeup for the day:

Eyes:
UDPP Eden
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Sleek Sparkle palette 'Cranberry' (inner corner)
The Mineralista 'Steel' (outer lid)
Sleek Sparkle palette 'Tinsel' (crease)
Miss Sporty 'Eternity' (highlight)
GOSH liquid liner 'Black Star'

Cheeks:
Meow Wild Child blush 'Snarky' (such a lovely 'just in from the cold' flush, shame it didn't pick up on camera)

Lips:
Avon red lipstick, dabbed on to create a stain.
I should have used Viva Glam Cyndi, what with it being WAD.

Review: Accessorize Merged Blush

2010-12-01T03:09:00.000Z

Hello hello hello! I finally bring you a review! I've been wanting to put a couple up, but we've had such awful light for swatching... As you may have heard, Britain is in the first stages of Snow Meltdown. For some reason it takes no more than 2 flakes of snow before public services in Britain are severely comprimised! It's frustrating.

Anyway, I picked up this lovely little thing the other day, and thought I'd give it a review for you :)

Accessorize Merged Blush- Pretty Pink

The packaging on it is cute and functional. I did have a photo of it open, but it got deleted by accident. Oops. You can see the pretty veining through the lid though- it has lilac and pale gold running through it, but it's mostly pink.

The colour is a pretty pale peachy-pink (try saying that fast after a couple of gins), which I've swatched heavily with my finger on the left, and as I would on the cheeks with a blush brush on the right. Yes, there is a swatch on the right! Don't blink or you'll miss it. As you can see from the light catching the swatch, it's pretty metallic-y and glowy, which might be a bit much for some people... It does mean that this would function nicely as a highlighter on the less ghostly than me, or at least I think so.

Here it is on the cheeks. Given the nothing-ness of the brush swatch above, I was thinking I'd have to pile it on, but it actually comes up brighter on the cheeks; it must adhere to my foundation better than my skin. It's an easy colour to wear, since it's so pale it doesn't compete with heavy eye or lip makeup, but does provide you with a pretty glowy look. The texture is soft and lovely, not at all hard like some baked products. Quite a bit of product lifts off when you sweep your brush over it, but I've found that little dabs rather than big sweeps solves this problem entirely, and to be honest it's just the price you pay for such a nicely textured product a lot of the time. Wear time on the cheeks was pretty standard... I expected it to fade a bit quicker than brighter colours as it's so pale, but it stood up well.

Given the comparison that Charlotte of Lipglossiping made with MAC Moon River MSF, I was wondering how comparable the two are. Compared to my Redhead MSF (I have been wearing that a lot lately, as well...), I'd say the texture is definitely comparable, but the shimmer is less in your face than the MSF. Obviously the biggest draw of MSFs for a lot of people is the versatility: some people use them all over the face, some as highlighters, some as blush etc. I have tried this all over with a duo-fibre brush and the effect was pretty nice; I still used my normal powder lightly over the top to set everything, but this gave a pretty glow and I think it toned down the sallowness my skin can sometimes take on after a very late night with its pretty pinkness! So yes, this is definitely a versatile product, and if multi-tasking MSFs are your bag, I'd say to pick up this colour. The other colours in the rage are less multi-task friendly from what I have seen of them.

Packaging- look and feel- 4/5 pretty and I like how chunky it is.
Packaging- functionality- 4/5
Product quality- 4/5 very soft and lovely.
Price point- 3/5 lots and lots cheaper than MAC, but on my student budget £5 is a definite treat.
Overall- 4/5 I'm quite enamoured of this little blusher!

Sometimes beauty bloggers have to say important things.

2010-11-22T01:28:00.000Z

I refer you to Ana of Lipsticks and Lightsabers.

http://www.lipsticksandlightsabers.com/2010/11/tdor-does-sound-like-trogdor-minus.html

She's written a beautiful and touching post on Transgender Remembrance Day, I urge you all to read it.

I'm so behind.

2010-11-09T23:48:00.000Z

On blog posts. I'm sorry guys! I was having a bit of a shocking time a couple of weeks back and then my boy came to stay, so obviously I got distracted *teehee*. I have a few reviews/swatches to crack out, as my Evil Shades shadows and Fyrinnae shadows arrived and I got myself a Sleek Bad Girl palette from Superdrug. I'm so in two minds about Good Girl. I quite like the idea that I could use it as blush/highlighter as well as eyeshadow, but I'm just not that pink. And they've gone up to £5.99 now... Siiigh. I don't know. Think I'll skip it. Really regretting not getting Circus though!

Anyway, here is some FOTD catch up!

Eyes:
UDPP Eden
High Voltage 'Ghost Town' (lid, inner corner)
Sleek Acid palette- neon pink (crease), matte purple (outer V)
Collection 2000 Poptastic palette- pink (to transition between neon pink and purple)
Body Shop matte eyeshadow no 12 (to blend out pink)
Miss Sporty 'Eternity' (highlight shade)
Eyeko Grafitti liner in purple
I want to say Chanel Inimitable mascara

Cheeks:
NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Pink Cheek Glow

POW! Short hair!

One of the first looks I've done with my newwww goodies! The lighting was so overcast, I really need to get a new camera with macro *scribbles Christmas list*
It's HV's 'Snow Ball Fight' in my crease, and the gold sparkle showed up so beautifully in the crease itself, and got blended away above it, I'm so sad my stupid phone camera didn't pick up the effect in this lighting.

Eyes:
UDPP Eden
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Fyrinnae 'Te Amo' (inner lid)
Evil Shades 'Samhain' (outer lid)
High Voltage 'Snow Ball Fight' (crease, blended upwards)
Body Shop matte eyeshadow no 12 (to blend crease)
Miss Sporty 'Eternity' (highlight shade)
Avon Colorworks purple liquid liner
Wet n Wild cream eyeliner in Aubergine (waterline)
No 7 Extreme Lengths mascara

Cheeks:
Meow Taboo blush in Exposure

My skin is currently rebelling at the change in seasons. Anyone else having this problem? I'm off to exfloliate and then drown myself in moisturiser :(

Oh and Hallowe'en pics to come when my friend puts them on Facebook...

Review: High Voltage Cosmetics.

2010-10-26T04:05:00.000+01:00

The other week I made my first High Voltage order after having chatted to the owner, Jasmine, on Twitter on and off for a while. It's a company that had been on my 'to try' list for a while, but I'd never got round to it, despite quite frequent deals and sales. Anyway, I decided I must own their Hallowe'en collections so I purchased two full sample sets.

I was juggling money and how much I could spend on makeup out of my loan, so I @replied Jasmine on Twitter about shipping before I ordered and got a very prompt and coherent reply outlining their shipping prices for sample orders. It turned out that the Hallowe'en collection has free shipping, so I was really pleased, but their shipping prices for normal orders are more than reasonable. Overseas customers tend to get stung so this really impressed me.

What else impressed me is that my shipping confirmation came through THE NEXT DAY. Holy moly. This is one efficient lady! I know that it's practically impossible for most small companies to ship this quickly, so I don't want to make out that these are my expectations, but credit where credit's due.

My order came in a simple bubble mailer, but Jasmine had added Hallowe'en stickers, and put my samples inside a little Hallowe'en ziplock bag, which made me smile:

So here's my order, including 3 free samples and little Hallowe'en foamy stickers (can you tell I LOVE Hallowe'en?!) that Jasmine sweetly included. There was also a little note from Jasmine (on Hallowe'en paper with another sticker... Hmm I think someone else likes Hallowe'en too):

Top row; Hallowe'en collections. Bottom row; free samples.

It's worth noting that the labels all have ingredients listed, which collection the shadow is from, and the name of the shadow. The shadow names are also in a different font depending on their collection, which I think is nice attention to detail.

Time for swatches! All over just UDPP.

L-R top row: Ghost Town, Witch's Brew, Swamp Thing, Bloody Mary, Graveyard Dirt, Vampire's Kiss

L-R bottom row: Trick O' Treat, Zombie Chic, Tombstone

All of these are fairly colour accurate, except Bloody Mary, which is slightly redder (but still plummy) and Trick O' Treat, which doesn't have quite as much of a brown cast to it. The pictures are from different angles as the sun was out in full force and the sparkles in these shades were gleaming! Obviously, like all sparkle, it was a bit camera shy though.

Free shades:

L-R: Snowball Fight (Winter Wonder Collection), Never Give Up (Awareness 2010 Collection), Beauty (Awareness 2010)

These are all fairly colour accurate too (monitor settings permitting), except that Beauty has a sparkle to it that was very shy of the camera.

I didn't use Pixie Epoxy in my swatches because, frankly, I like a shadow that performs well without it. I know PE will do magical things to some of these shades, but just look at how well the sparkle has stuck to a standard primer. I really like this aspect because sometimes I like to mix my mattes and sparkly shades in one mixed texture look and I don't like the faff of having to limit PE to one area of my eye. Also I just don't think you should have to buy an additional product to make a shadow work. So I'm pleased to report that these shadows go on opaque and as sparkly as they look on the brush over a standard primer.

I have done some looks with these and the wear is good over a primer. I noticed no fading or creasing by bedtime. I tend to expect this of all eyeshadows, and these come up to standard.

Go under the jump for a breakdown of the colours.

In the order I swatched them:

Ghost Town
HV says: 'White based pearl with a SLIGHT green glow'
I say: This does have some sparkle to it, but when used on the eye, it all kind of blends into the shadow to create a nearly-matte sheen. 'Glow' is the right word, the colour is almost like the colour glow in the dark items have... Only in the day. On the eye it is very definitely green and not white, despite being VERY pale, so it ticks my mint-green boxes.

Witch's Brew
HV says: 'Deep grey/sapphire with shimmers'
I say: This is an interesting colour. It's like a greyed blue with a black base. I'm quite looking forward to using it with PE to bring out the colour more, although as you can see above it does well on its own. Reminds me of 'Sabbath' from the UD Black Palette, but more complex.

Swamp Thing
HV says: 'Deep Hunter Green with slight green sheen-satin finish'
I say: This is very much a deep green with a brighter green shimmer that kind of 'sits' on top (I know that's not what it's actually doing, but that's how it looks to the easily fooled human eye), giving the shade dimension and depth. Like 'Libertine' from UD Black, but less blackened.

Bloody Mary
HV says: 'Blue based red with gold sparkles and shimmers'
I say: This is very obviously a blue based colour, it's very plummy and luxurious. The sparkles come across really well. It is a very purple red, and I think it'd be a good colour for people that aren't sure about properly red-red eyeshadow.

Graveyard Dirt
HV says: 'Golden brown with golden sparkles and shimmers'
I say: This is actually one colour I'm not sure how I'm going to wear. I liked enough colours to just order the full sets of samples, but this wasn't one I was immediately drawn to. I just don't do brown very often. That being said, the sparkles really show up well and it is a nice shade. Maybe it'll convert me to browns!

Vampire's Kiss
HV says: 'Deep satin-y purple with slight shimmers'
I say: This is indeed a lovely purple. I like a good purple, me. This does have shimmer, but less obvious sparkle than Graveyard Dirt or Bloody Mary. It is satiny and sheeny, with kind of a 'plush' finish.

Trick O' Treat
HV says: 'Creamy orange with pearl effects'
I say: This is an obnoxiously orange eyeshadow. Which is what I like from an orange eyeshadow. None of this 'I'm sorry I'm so orange' BS. The shimmer in this is golden and it has a gloriously pumpkin-y tone.

Zombie Chic
HV says: 'Medium lime green with subtle golden sparkles'
I say: This is one of those odd greens. Not quite limey enough to be 'lime', a bit too limey to be a bright or grass green. I mean that as a good thing. It's bright and cheerful and the golden sparkle in it is lovely, and as with the others, adheres to a primer well.

Tombstone
HV says: 'Light grey with silvery pearl sheen'
I say: This is a shadow that bridges the gap between grey and silver. Not metallic or shiny enough to be silver, not matte or dark enough to be a shimmery grey. Again I mean this as a good thing. It's quite delicate and subtle, but really interesting to the eye too.

Snowball Fight
HV says: 'Magenta swirling in a wonderland of pearl and gold sparkles'
I say: I would describe this as a dusty magenta, or a dusty purple. The base colour is a bit darker than you expect, but it contrasts beautifully with the golden sparkle. The gold sparkle in this is really almost a duochrome, and it's really really pretty.

*Awareness 2010 Collection: 10% of each sale is donated to Susan G Komen for the cure, and each one represents a different type of cancer in tribute to survivors and sufferers of cancer, as well as those it's taken.
I would urge you to take a look and grab the colours that interest you as it's a good cause.*

Never Give Up
HV says: 'Represents Colon Cancer. Dark pearl brown'
I say: This is a dark brown with a sheen that comes across as almost silver, it's a really interesting colour.

Beauty
HV says: 'Represents Mesothelioma. A pearly cobalt blue'
I say: I think the pearl in this is more sparkle than pearl, but at any rate it's a very clear and bright blue with silver shot through it. Very pretty.

Phew. So that's all the colours. HV's colour descriptions are fairly short and to the point, but pretty accurate. The website swatches show the shadows in their jars as well as swatched on skin, and I think they're good swatches. The website is easy to navigate and eyecatching, and offers options to buy full sizes and sets of both samples and full sizes in a drop down menu showing the price of each. Samples of the collections are only available in sets I think. At the moment the Hallowe'en Collections are $5 for a sample set of Collection 1 ($20 full size set) and $4 for a sample set of Collection 2 ($15 full size set). The full size shadows are $5 each. I think the prices are pretty reasonable and standard for indie makeup companies. Certainly you're getting a really good product so I think HV is good value for money.

I also found that shopping from High Voltage was a pleasure, Jasmine is really very helpful and the extra attention put into the order made me feel like a valued customer. Bear in mind my order was only around £7 and some pence so by no means did Jasmine make a lot of money from me, but she still put the effort in. That's the kind of thing that will bring me back to a company, especially when so many indie companies are producing excellent products.

To finish, apologies that this review was no negatives at all, but I'm not really sorry because that means my money was well spent. I'm looking forward to trying Jasmine's other products when I have some spare cash.

High Voltage Cosmetics available from: http://hvcosmetics.zxq.net/

Spirit Day

2010-10-22T01:54:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was LGBT Spirit Day, in rememberence of the recent suicides of gay teens who had been bullied because of their sexuality. I have to say that there was a disappointing lack of purple around my campus yesterday, but then I think the NOH8 campaign is more well known in America.

Anyway, here is my purple Spirit Day look:

Eyes:
UDPP 'Eden'
The Mineralista 'Berry Punch' (lid)
GOSH Effects Powder 'Butterfly' (crease)
Barry M Dazzle Dust 31 (between crease shade and highlight shade, also inner corner)
Fyrinnae 'Parental Advisory' (outer corner, smudgey waterline)
Miss Sporty 'Eternity'
Eyeko Grafitti Liner in purple (upper lashline)
2True glitter liner No 4 (upper lashline)
Urban Decay pencil liner 'Asphyxia' (lower lashline)
Chanel Inimitable Mascara

Cheeks:
Meow Taboo Blush 'Fetish'

Lips:
GOSH Lipgloss no 0077

I did actually wear purple clothes, too... Just after I'd finished this.

Two's company

2010-10-19T23:20:00.001+01:00

Two looks I've worn recently for you! One is mega colourful eyes and the other is dark autumn lips....
One:

Two:

I have to say that you get more people looking at you conspicuously if you're wearing colour on your lips than on your eyes. Maybe that's just because of my glasses though. Stuff under the jump...

Eyes:

Fyrinnae 'We're All Mad Here' (lid)

Archetype 'Venus Fly Trap' (outer lid)

Fyrinnae 'Cheshire Cat Grin' (crease, under lower lashline)

Urban Decay Black Palette 'Sabbath' (outer crease, waterline)

Miss Sporty 'Eternity' (highlight)

Eyeko Grafitti Liner in blue

No7 Extreme Lengths mascara

Eyes:

Urban Decay Alice In Wonderland BOS 'Drink Me, Eat Me' (lid, waterline)

Body Shop Eye Colour Matte No 12 (crease)

Collection 2000 trio 'Whispers' cream shade (highlight)

Cheeks:

Meow Taboo blush in Exposure

Lips:

Some random Face:UK hot wheels thing I'm never using again cause it was super patchy. I like the colour though, anyone know of a lipstick close?

Finally have internet...

2010-10-10T18:10:00.000+01:00

... But it's not very good. I shall try anyway! Here are some looks from while I've been away!

Brights/pastels using the 88 palette:

Green/Purple cut crease using a whole buncha things including Barry M and Fyrinnae:

Hair post-pincurling, out of its scarf:

I'll be back soon with proper posts lovelies!

Guest blogging...

2010-09-07T17:48:00.000+01:00

Over at Wendy's (Cydonian) blog today!

Go look see!

http://cydonianmakeup.blogspot.com/

Menage a trois...

2010-08-25T23:18:00.000+01:00

Don't get too excited. This post is only called that because I have three looks to show you! I think I'm gonna get on with some reviews soon, I've been a bit look-heavy lately and I do need to tell you about some things that have been rocking my world :)

However, I do have an exam next week that it's kind of imperitive that I pass so please bear with me while I sort out that fuss.

Okay... Looks!

This is what I wore to my Dad's wedding Sunday before last...

Here's what I wore last Sunday when I went out with the aforementioned father for birthday-celebration dinner (proof that purple + khaki doesn't always equal bruising)...

Oooh and I took a photo of my outfit!

That's my sister's room in the background... It never happened.

Top (over white vest top)- Red Herring

Jeans- Primark

Shoes- New Look

And finally, just a daytime look from the other day...

Yes weird contortion of mouth. You love it.

Enough pictures on the front page! The usual junk for all three looks underneath the jump...

Face:
Lanacane Anti-Chafing gel as primer
L'Oreal True Match foundation
Physician's Formula Healthy Wear SPF 50 powder (the sun actually held out for the wedding! Hurrah!)
I'm not sure which blush, I think Meow's Taboo blush in Exposure as it has become a recent favourite of mine...

Eyes:
Homemade primer
Wet n Wild Eye Expressions palette- Lilac Shimmer (lid)
NYC Smooth Skin translucent powder- dusted on top of the cream shadow
Barry M Dazzle Dust in Oyster Grey (crease)
Miss Sporty eyeshadow in Eternity (highlight)
Eyeko Grafitti liner in black
No 7 Extreme Lengths mascara

Lips:
Rimmel Colour Show Off lipstick in Kiss Me (dabbed on in the pictures, I wapped a bit more on later)

Face:
L'Oreal True Match foundation
Meow Taboo blush in Fetish
NYC Smooth Skin Loose Powder in translucent

Eyes:
Homemade primer
Fyrinnae Arcane Magic- Healer's Touch (inner corner)
Urban Decay Alice BOS- Underland (lid)
No 7 Stay Perfect eyeshadow in Khaki (outer corner, crease, lower lashline)
Barry M Fine Glitter Dust no 23 to line upper lashline, over Pixie Epoxy
PURE Kajal liner in black (waterlines)
No 7 Extreme Lengths mascara

Lips:
Just some balm...

Healer's Touch and Underland blend sooo beautifully together, I hate that the camera didn't pick up the effect, it was kinda... Glowy :)

Yeah so I only posted this look for the lips... THE LIPS. Mmm gorgeous combo.

Face:
L'Oreal True Match foundation
NYC Mosaic Face Powder in Pink Cheek Glow
Physician's Formula Healthy Wear SPF 50 powder

Eyes:
Homemade primer
Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy
LA Colors Tease palette- pink and orange (lid and crease respectively)
Miss Sporty shadow in Eternity (highlight)
PURE Kajal liner (waterlines)
No 7 Extreme Lengths mascara

Lips:
BYS lip liner in French Pink
Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Meloncholy

Phew. Well that was pic heavy... I think I'm up to date now though ;)

I need a notepad...

2010-08-21T00:39:00.000+01:00

Because I've completely forgotten what I used for these looks. Oops. Apologies also, I've been a bad blogger lately... I've had no time to myself :/ I have been taking photos though and I have an upcoming look that I wore to my dad's wedding :)

It was my birthday yesterday too! I went out, but the big party on down isn't until tomorrow so you'll get to see makeup from then :)

This look I really liked-

I was just going to the carnival that day- I should iterate that the local 'carnival' isn't really a carnival at all, just a sad procession of floats through the harbour. It's a bit poo. I used MAC Viva Glam Cyndi on the lips, and Goddess of Destruction and Dawnlight by Archetype on my eyes.

I also did this gold and blue look-

I absolutely loved how the gold looked in my waterline. It's Oraculum from the Alice in Wonderland palette. Yes yes I used an eyeshadow on the waterline... Don't try this at home kids. Or do, just don't blame me if your eye gets upset :p The blue is Cheshire Cat Grin by Fyrinnae. Its so uber sparkly and pretty, I always forget until I use it. This isn't even over Pixie Epoxy! Love love love.

How is everyone? I've been catching up on blog reading today, because I was about 2 weeks behind, but I didn't have time to comment on things. Have some collective love here because you're all gorgous as usual.

You can call me Edie, if you like.

2010-08-04T21:46:00.001+01:00

I was going to take a photo of the outfit that went with this outfit, but it's in the laundry and I keep forgetting so I'll have to do a photo of it with a different look lol! I always forget to take outfit photos, what a failure...

Sorry I've been so absent. It's been hectic at home, it's a completely different routine to when I'm at uni. Crazy days.

Anyway, I wore this look to go out drinking :)

I shall call it 'Das Uber 60s Liner Look'. My sister was perplexed by my liner crease, I said to her 'it's a 60s thing' but she still didn't get it. Never mind, my best friend and her mum loved it.

You know what's under the jump by now...

Face:
L'Oreal True Match foundation
NYC Smooth Skin Loose Powder in translucent
NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Pink Cheek Glow (just a little little bit)

Eyes:
Homemade primer
L'Oreal HiP Colour Rich Cream Crayon in Perfectionist (as a base underneath the shadow)
Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows- White Rabbit (all over the lid, into the crease)
Miss Sporty shadow in Eternity (highlight)
Eyeko Gaffiti liner in black (err, all of the liner, including the crease)
BYS pencil liner in white, with White Rabbit on top to set (waterline)
No 7 Extreme Lengths mascara
Body Shop Big and Curvy mascara

Lips:
No-name pale pink lipstick, over foundation base

I love wearing super retro looks out. I'm now going to listen to the 'Boat that Rocked' soundtrack :D

Some important things, some not so important things.

2010-07-24T19:09:00.000+01:00

I've put a link to the MAC/Rodarte petition in the sidebar. Like everyone else I'm appalled at the whole situation, but I'd rather focus on what we can do about it rather than my opinions on it. I'll post any useful links I find for charities helping the women of Juarez and victims of bordertown violence, but there seems to be a lot of factors preventing useful aid being given by organisations. Liloo/Tsunimee's list of bloggers that have covered the issue is here- an invaluable resource if you've been under a rock and missed it all. MizzWorthy's post does a very good job of explaining the issues surrounding the collection as well.

The violence in places like Juarez is a really important issue and I'm proud to see so many bloggers raising awareness. I'll keep a weather eye on the situation and do my best to inform you about ways that you can help women in Juarez and other bordertowns. I'll certainly be looking out for 'made in Mexico' and trying my best to avoid it as a start.

Ok. Less important things.

My makeup from yesterday!

I used Oraculum from the Alice BOS, which is a dark goldy colour, and it make my eyes look insane! It didn't really bring out the blue or the green, but they looked mental! The pictures don't really show it, but I'll definitely be using this colour with black again, since it didn't seem to happen when I used it with other colours.

I used a lipstain on my lips, and then decided they were too red and couldn't get it off. What a failure.
The usual under the jump :)

Face:

Lanacane Anti-Chafing Gel as primer

L'Oreal True Match foundation

NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Pink Cheek Glow

NYC Smooth Skin translucent powder

Eyes:

Homemade primer

Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows- Oraculum (lid)

88 palette- black (crease, along lashlines)

Miss Sporty eyeshadow in Eternity (highlight)

PURE Kajal liner (waterlines)

Body Shop Big and Curvy mascara

I've forgotten the name of the stain and I'm at my dad's so if you really have to know leave a comment :P

Tutorial- super simple smoky blue.

2010-07-21T22:48:00.000+01:00

I took some step by step photos of a really simple smoky blue look!

Here's a sneaky peek:

Haha blurry! Tutorial under the jump...

First, prime your lids and draw on big 60s style liner with a black base of your choice, like a gel liner or a jumbo pencil or whatever (L'Oreal HiP Colour Rich Cream Crayon in Perfectionist). It doesn't have to be perfect.

Add whatever your usual highlight shade is under the brow and a shadow close to your skin tone in the crease. Blend the two together.

Add a sheer sparkly pinky lilac (Archetype Lisa's Busted Camaro) in the crease, to blend the blue into.

Over the entire lid, including the black base, use a bright blue shadow (LA Colours Tease palette).

Blend this blue up into the crease colours. (In the pic it looks like the blue is lighter, but it's just a funny angle sorry)

Over the lid, add a sparkly navy blue (Archetype Witching Hour). This will blend the black base and bright blue together better as well as making the lid darker.

Line the upper lashline with navy blue liquid liner (Eyeko Graffiti liner in blue).

Line the waterline with a dark blue pencil or gel liner (Avon pencil play liner in blue), and add mascara.

Since I didn't want the look to be super 80s (despite my love for the super 80sness...), I kept the lips neutral and the blush fairly so as well. I wanted just glowy cheeks. I also left my brows au natural. Et voila...

As I was doing this look the sky was getting cloudier and cloudier... And so the pics were getting worse and worse. I'd started so I decided to carry on though. Sod you, weather. I hope you enjoyed it though! I think soon I'll do one for my standard no-time-but-got-to-go-out-drinking smoky look which is even simpler than this one!

Oooh an OOTD!

2010-07-14T00:48:00.000+01:00

My sister has a full length mirror, so now I can take outfit pictures! Yay!

Yesterday's outfit- checked dress and leggings.

I also took pictures of my makeup!

I look goofy but I like the shape of my lips :)
The downwards turn in the temperature meant I felt like a bit of a darker look. There was clouds and thunder and rain!
Products and other things under the jump!

Face:

L'Oreal True Match foundation in N1 Ivory

NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Pink Cheek Glow

Physician's Formula Healthy Wear powder foundation in translucent light

Eyes:

Homemade primer

Sleek Bohemian palette- nude (lid), olive (crease), black (crease), cream (highlight)

Miss Sporty Mini Me eyeliner in Eucalyptus

Eyeko Graffiti liner in black

Body Shop Big and Curvy mascara

Lips:

Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Type A

Dark lips in the summer- yay or nay?

Alice step-by-step.

2010-07-10T16:49:00.001+01:00

I did a tutorial using the Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows. I did a few tutorials when I started my blog and I havn't since. I quite like doing them, even if most of my followers are brill at makeup and don't need them :P

Here's the look:

Go under the jump for the step-by-step!

First prime the eyelid with a primer and Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy. Then apply Wonderland/ Maui Wowie (greeny-old gold) all over the lid and into as well as just above the crease.

Put Mushroom (dark taupe) into the crease and blend.

Use Miss Sporty eyeshadow in Eternity (sheer matte white) as a highlight, and blend Wonderland and Mushroom with it, so there is no harsh line.

Add Alice/ Flash (bright electric blue) to the outer corner, and a tiny bit into the crease.

Blend so that there's only a hint of blue.

Use Flipside 24/7 liner (bright turquoise) along the upper lashline, keeping it nice and smudgey.

Line the upper lashline with Eyeko Graffiti liner in blue (dark blue) thinly so that there's a double lined effect. Wing it out.

Use Meow Carribean blush in Soka (baby pink) on the cheekbones.

Add NYC Ultra Last Lipcolour in 407B (pink with gold sheen) and mascara.... Done!

I hope you enjoyed it :)

I'm really craving 60s looks right now.

2010-07-09T18:27:00.000+01:00

I keep seeing them everywhere, and now I craaave 60s looks. I did some mega liner yesterday to ease my 60s addled brain.
... Well, I actually used an Archetype shadow as a liner, over Pixie Epoxy :)

I don't know why Viva Glam Cyndi looks purple on my lips in this photo... Bizarro. I just got a BlackBerry and I'm rubbish at taking photos of myself on it! It has the same amount of megapixels as my old phone, but it's kind of better quality as well? I dunno. I'll get used to it.

The uuuusual under the jump.

Face:
Lanacane Anti Chafing Gel as primer
Miss Sporty So Clear concealer
L'Oreal True Match Foundation in N1 Ivory
NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Rose Glow
NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Pink Cheek Glow

Eyes:
Homemade primer
Sleek Bohemian palette- nude on the lid and cream as highlight
Pixie Epoxy- used with a liner brush
Archetype shadow in Spook- pressed over Pixie Epoxy
Body Shop Big and Curvy mascara

Lips:
MAC Viva Glam Cyndi (blotted)

Simple, but I got complimented on it :D

Review: Milani Infinite Liquid Eyeliner

2010-07-07T17:11:00.000+01:00

First of all... Wow, 99 followers! That's completely mad! Thank you so much guys and welcome to new followers :)

Today I'm reviewing one of the products that Heather sent me: the Milani Infinite Liquid Eyeliner. She sent me the colour Infinite, which is the blue one.

I think the packaging is nice. If you're used to high end cosmetics, it'll probably look cheap to you, because of the slightly dated Milani logos and stuff (which I actually love) but it's sturdily built and the gold doesn't scratch off easily, so it won't look tatty quickly. (sidenote- the red is rubbing off the MAC logo on my Viva Glam Cyndi, grrrr.)

It comes with a brush applicator, rather than a spongey type one, and I have to admit that usually I hate these. I know some people prefer them, and I must admit that this one is a bit shorter than others I've encountered so I'm definitely getting used to it. I've found that it's easier to use with a bit less liner on the brush- as you can see it comes out of the tube pretty loaded with the liner.

The texture of this liner reminds me a lot of GOSH Extreme Art liners- it's a viscous liquid, and very thick compared to the standard liquid liner. The GOSH liners are well known for being very long lasting so it's not surprising that the Milani one is similar! I don't find that the thickness in texture makes it particularly difficult to use, I just have to use it differently to standard liquid liners. The texture is probably why I'm getting on with a brush-style applicator as well, to be honest. It's very easy to build up a very thick layer of liner that will crack, leaving you with crazy-paving eyeliner! You just have to go easy with it, I got used to it by the second go.

The colour is insane! A true electric blue. It's beautiful. I much prefer this over my other electric blue liner, which is less 'electric' and doesn't have as nice a shine to it. The Milani liner isn't really shimmery as such, but it does have a definite shine- it's almost glossy.

It claims to have 24 hour wear, and I can tell you that this stuff STAYS ON. You do have to wait for it to dry down for a second, but once it's dry it's pretty much not moving. It's been sweltering here and I've had no smudging or flaking; even when I put too thick a layer on and had the 'cracked' effect, the cracked bits didn't flake off. The wear is really impressive. I did the swatch yesterday and tried to get it off before it dried, but I still have a dinky blue smudge on my arm, where part of it had dried and just wouldn't come off with soap! You'll need an oil-based makeup remover. I don't have one and I must admit that getting this stuff off is a struggle. You have to be very gentle (because it's your eye), but persistent. It didn't stain my eyelid though, even if it was a bit difficult to remove!

Overall, it's a really lovely liner and I'd definitely pick one up if you're in the US. If you're in the UK the equivalent is probably the GOSH Extreme Art liners, but if you can get the Milani one cheaper by getting one sent to you, then do it.

Packaging- look and feel- 4/5 I like it anyway.
Packaging- functionality- 3/5 you do have to make sure you wipe some of the liner off the brush.
Product Quality- 5/5 really love it.
Price Point- I don't really want to comment 'cause got it in a swap...
Overall- 4/5 a bit brill :)

Exciting pretty American things! And my ol' mug again ;)

2010-06-29T22:20:00.000+01:00

Sooo Heather (from Eyeconic- yes you want to click that link) and I did a swap! I got my goodies last week, but she doesn't seem to have got hers yet which is distressing... I hope the post office havn't lost it, because if they have I will have a fit! I don't have the money to replace the pretties :(

Anywayyyy. To things of beauty!

She got me many pretties!
There's:
- Milani Infinite liquid eyeliner in Infinite (electric blue)
- L'Oreal HiP duo in Charming (sparkly white and deep purple)
- Wet and Wild Mega Eyes Creme Liner in Aubergine (deep purple)
- L.A. Colors eyeshadow palette in Tease (bright yellow, orange, pink, blue and green)
- L'Oreal HiP Colour Rich Cream Crayon in Perfectionist (black)
- Wet and Wild Eye Expressions cream palette in Abstract Art
- A whole bunch of Archetype samples and a couple of Meow samples in a pretty bag
- Milani Buzz Worthy lipgloss in Busy Bee (gold sparklies!)
- Physician's Formula Healthy Wear tinted moisturiser in Ivory to Fair
- Physician's Formula Healthy Wear powder foundation in Translucent light

Thanks Heather! I'm loving playing with new brands, it's really interesting to see how even the packaging is different haha... Reviews to follow for you lovely lot.

In today's FOTD I used some of my swap stuff, and it was a very simple look. I used orange and navy together which sounds hideous but bear with me...

Stupid face but I couldn't resist putting it up anyway.

See not so bad huh? I also used a trick I picked up from Lisa Eldridge, using the lipstick I was wearing as cream blush. I'll admit that her video isn't the first time I'd heard of it being done, but it did convince me to try it because she showed how subtle and easy to pull off it can be. I'll put the vid at the end of the post.
Under the jump for closeups and that...

Again, stupid face (dork!) BUT LOOK AT HOW SHINY THE EYESHADOW IS!

Face:
Lanacane Anti Chafing Gel as primer
Miss Sporty So Clear concealer
Physician's Formula Healthy Wear powder foundation in Translucent Light
Rimmel Colour Show Off lipstick in Kiss Me as blush

Eyes:
Homemade primer
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Archetype shadow in Feathered Serpent (lid)
L'Oreal HiP duo in Charming- white shade (crease)
Miss Sporty shadow in Eternity (highlight)
Eyeko Graffiti liner in blue

Lips:
Rimmel Colour Show Off lipstick in Kiss Me

Have you lot been trying new things?!

Here's the video from Lisa:

Bright pink lips!

2010-06-27T23:33:00.000+01:00

I have some reviews coming soon... You know what that means? I have new goodies to play with :D
Me and Heather did a swap, I'll post about it soon. She sent me such lovely things, and so I decided to have a play with some of them...

I did a simple look with bold pink lips and pin-up inspired liner.

Closeups and that under the jump!

Face:
Physician's Formula Healthy Wear tinted moisturiser
Physician's Formula Healthy Wear powder foundation in Translucent Light
Wet and Wild MegaGlo Illuminator in Rose (from the Eye Expressions palette in Abstract Art)
Meow Carribbean Blush in Soka

Eyes:
Homemade primer
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Archetype shadow in Goddess of Destruction (lid)
Archetype shadow in Venus Fly Trap (crease)
Collection 2000 Trio in Whispers- shimmery cream (highlight and on top of Pixie Epoxy under the lower lashline)
Wet and Wild creme liner in Aubergine
Body Shop Big and Curvy mascara

Lips:
BYS liner in French Pink
17 Shine On lipstick in Port (I think, I'll check it later...)

I messed up my liner a bit, which is annoying. I decided to post it anyway though haha! My undereye bags look pretty bad with just tinted moisturiser and a pretty sheer powder foundation, but I'm really appreciating having less on my face during summer. Glasses wearers get to hide their eyebags with their frames though so I'm not as bothered about it as I thought I'd be.

In other news, I went out last night and now I have a blister about an inch wide on my heel... Owwwwie! I forgot those shoes do that to me- they're fine with tights so I just need to bear that in mind! Another upcoming post is the shoes tag that other people did a couple of weeks back :D

Awards! blush

2010-06-25T16:09:00.000+01:00

I've been given two awards!

Robyn from Stay Beautiful (yes, go check her out if you don't already follow) gave me an award aaaaaages ago, just before I popped off for my little break. Thank you lovely!

So I have to tag 4 people to get this award!

SilhouetteScreams - love this girls looks, she comes up with fabby colour combos...

Julissa at Rebellious Makeup - I will enter her contest soon! Love Julissa's style.

Sara at Pigments and Pearls - relatively new blog, but she does some brill LOTDs.

KittensMittens at Painted - always stunning looks, and she makes me laugh :D

The second award I got was from Cydonian at Turtle Beauty (also fab, marrying a Brit so she clearly has good tastes lol)... Thanks! I would have tagged her for the first award if it didn't seem pointless just passing awards back and forth. No doubt I will in the future ;)

The rules for this one:

1. Thank the person that gave you award... I have manners so I didn't have to be told ;)

2. Copy the award and put it on the blog...

3. List 3 things you love about yourself.

4. Post a picture you love.

5. Tag 5 people to pass the award on to.

Three things I love about myself:

1. I'd like to think that I'm a good friend so if I'm succeeding at that then that's definitely one.

2. My hair- it's so thick and literally never gets split ends. I've not had it cut since last May and I've bleached it twice since then and still no split ends! Crazy...

3. I love that I have a really strong sense of who I am.

Photo I love:

I don't want to post photos of my friends and fam without their permission, so here's a photo of my cat that sums up why I love him...

Tag 5 people:

Jonna at Nukleopatra - she's so creative :D

Heather at Eyeconic - gorgeous girl, gorgeous EOTDs and a really fair reviewer as well.

Beauty's Bad Habit - love her bold looks.

Rebecca at Panda Does Makeup - she's not deleting her makeup blog! Yay!

MatthewLX at My Makeup, My Rules - just started following this new blog but love it thus far.