Just my face again. I promise for more interesting posts really soon!
Wearing:
Face: Illamasqua Skin Base foundation in 02, ELF Studio HD powder, a blush from Sleek Pumpkin palette (the pink one, can't remember the name)
Eyes: Black mascara, the Me Me Me eyeshadows reviewed here, Illamasqua Medium pencil in Cane.
Lips: Mac Magenta Lip pencil with sleek Glossed over the top (the gloss just has the name on a sticker which I had to remove to use it! From looking on their website I'm pretty sure it's Pump it Up)
I want to do some more interesting, avante garde ish faces but have trouble thinking up ideas. Give me some inspiration or themes and let's see what rubbish I can come up with! :D
I photograph my makeup but then put it up months later and as a result completely forget what I've got on! As is the case here. I do know I'm wearing ELF Studio bottom lash mascara (which is fantastic! Full review to come), Illamasqua Medium pencil in Vow on my water line and Mac Superglass in Totally Bang (over a lip liner that I can't remember).
Sorry for being so crap! I wanted to post anyway because I thought It was a pretty look.
And just to keep myself from getting too vain, here's a picture of Sir Digby attacking me with licks.
A couple of weeks ago Claire and I took a trip to Westfields which at the moment is my favourite place to go shopping. It really reminds me of a peoper huge American mall, has tonnes of shops I really like and it's really spacious and airy so it never seems too crowded (which means I feel less anxious).
I didn't do very interesting makeup as I wanted to get out the house quickly.
Claire wanted to take a picture of my (not particularly interesting) outfit but as we went out to the garden I realised that the burly polish builders working on the house next door (who constantly play really loud Europop from the nineties) were watching us, which explains my expression (I hope).
Our first stop is always at Butlers Chocolate Cafe because it is AMAZING! It does the worlds best hot chocolate and you get a free fancy truffle with every drink.
Drinking a delicious chocolate milkshake and wearing my fake Jeremy Scott sunglasses ( I wanted the real ones but these were £6).
Claire likes her Chai tea.
We shopped for a while and then had lunch. The food court is great, it has loads of choice and healthier items. I got falafel and hummous and Claire had a huge vegetable burrito.
Westfields is absolutely great for a makeup fiend like me. There's regular shops like Superdrug and Boots then higher end brands like Makeup Store, Mac and Inglot (I think it's the only Inglot shop in the UK, but I may be wrong) and Debenhams which has various brands like Chanel, Dior, Urban Decay etc.There's also an OPI shop (which I think is the only place in the UK to get Nicole by OPI polishes), some kind of mineral makeup place and Kiko (which is a great shop with bargain prices and fun colours but seems to always playing really horrible loud club music). There's also Beauty Base which is..odd. Beauty base is like a big discount
perfume place (though some of the discounts are only 5p off RRP) and
then it has some high end makeup brands like Shiseido (which seemed to have no discount) and also really cheap, obscure brands. You can get L.A. Colors there which is great because everythings under £5. And finally (I think, I may have forgotten some shops) a Models Own shop has just opened.
The shop looks cool because it's in the shape of a nail polish bottle!
My experience of the shop however wasn't that great. The staff seemed very nice and friendly but there were a group of about 5 SAs standing in a big group chatting to each other. This meant there were bits of the shop I couldn't access and they continued their conversation even when I was paying for my goods which is a real pet peeve of mine. The stock seemed a little odd, they had hundreds of the nail polishes but they seemed to be arranged by colour, while this might usually be helpful it means if you want something from their collections (I wanted some Beetlejuice colours) you have to go hunting for them all individually. And there were about 4 sections, all of which had the nail polish in a slightly different order (some colours were on all sections, some were only on 1 etc). Models Own has a huge variety of products but the shop only had certain products. Finally the check out system is just weird. Instead of scanning barcodes the SAs are all equipped with tablet computers and have to manually search for the colour you're buying, it seems really inefficient, especially as it took took of them (one to call out the name of the product and the other to find it on the tablet)
On the plus side however you can make your own little gift box of 6 polishes for £20 (on the website you can only get premade selections)
Those are (rather terrible) swatches of the new Models Own Matt Brite lipsticks. from top to bottom:
Flaming Red, Annalise's Pink, Pink Hawaiian and Orangeade.
Then an amazing thing happened, I was in Topshop looking at some glittery brogues when I heard a call of 'Lillian?' and turned to discover Robyn, my fellow Makeup Hero, looking at the same shoes! :D
Topshop wouldn't let us take a photo inside for some reason (they also wouldn't let Claire come in the changing rooms with me which sucked because I wanted her opinion on a dress I was trying) but we took one outside. Robyn is just as beautiful in real life as in her blog and a super funny awesome fellow!
We ended up both buying the aforementioned shoes. Oooh friend, shoe friend!
All in all a good day was had.
My nail polish (and one lipstick) haul is under the cut. I got a few other bits too (mostly tights) but I haven't taken photos of them yet.
This is from when I was about 17 (and fully punked up in my handmade Seditionaries repro shirt and terribly drawn on eyebrows) on my way to a Billy Idol concert. Ahh those were the days.
A few months ago I went out dancing with my friend Xenia, I decided to do a sort of punk/80s gothish look. Just because. I think I looked rather nice!
I can't really remember everything I was wearing. I suspect it was something like this:
Face: Illamasqua Skin Base 02, ELF Studio HD powder, hot pink blush (maybe Stargazer eyeshadow orSugarpill Dollipop)
Eyes: Stargazer florescent eyeshadow in Rose Pink, Sugarpill magentrix, Illamasqua pure pigment in Static, black mascara and liquid liner. Sugarpill Bulletproof on the brows.
Lips: colour from a kryolan lip palette
I need to do more interesting looks like this, I've gotten stuck in a rut of pin-up-ish eyes and bright lipstick.
Most people seem to be 'over' crackle polishes, but not me! I love them, I'm still not over the novelty of watching the little fissures appear in my nails and they're brilliant for livening up a polish I've gotten bored of or hiding smudges/chips/tip wear and stuff. I was really excited when Barry M came out with the 'Croc Nail Effects' polish because it was a new kind of crackle! The idea of it basically is a crackle that looks like crocodile skin, so rounder with smaller gaps. I waited ages to get it because it was never available anywhere near me but recently I picked it up.
Unfortunately I'm a bit disappointed.
When I applied it to the first nail I did it as I would any other crackle, over a completely dry base coat of colour (in this case Barry M Nail Effects Silver Foil). After a few minutes this was my result:
It just wasn't what I was hoping for, there's hardly any cracks and lots of lines that aren't making the round 'croc' shape it's supposed to. Then I read the packaging and iscovered I was applying it wrong, with this it says you're meant to put it over slightly wet polish, so for my next few fingers I applied another coat of the silver, waited about a minute, then applied the croc effects. This was my result:
...Oh dear.
So then for the last nails I tried leaving the base coat for a few minutes, so it was basically dry but not completely:
So these are... about the same as the first one.
Maybe I'm just applying it badly somehow (if anyone has any tips please let me know) but as it is I can't recommend this to people, it's too messy and I just really don't like the effect. Big disappointment. But I'll try it again sometime and will update if I can make it work.
Ok who else hates the new blogger? I absolutely loathe it! I'm sure I'll get used to it but for now it's making me grumpy everytime I log on.
Here's a look I did the other day using my newly purchased (when they had an Easter sale) Illamasqua precision Ink in Scribe. I really like white eyeliner, it's not as classic as black but I still think it's flattering. It's really eyecatching, makes my eyes look super blue and my eyelashes look really long because of the contrast between the black mascara and white liner!
Wearing:
Face: Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in 01, ELF Studio HD powder, Sugarpill Dollipop eyeshadow (worn as blush)
Eyes: Darling Girl Cosmetics eyeshadows in Blitzen and Rudolph, Illamasqua Precision Ink eyeliner in Scribe, Black mascara (can't remember which), Illamasqua medium pencil in Vow
Lips: Conjurers Cosmetics lipstick (made by me :P)
What do you think, would you wear white eyeliner on your upper lids or just stick to the waterline? Do you think I look freakish or awesome?
A little while ago I was contacted by the lovely Joanna from Find Me A Gift who offered to send me one of their makeup gifts to review. I chose this, the Goddess Eye Makeup Gift Box from Me Me Me. Find Me A Gift is an online shop that specialises in all sorts of presents for everyone including lots of silly novelty things as well as luxurious items and days out. Their makeup section isn't extensive but they do have The Balm products which can be hard to find in the UK and some Me Me Me gift sets I've not seen anywhere else.
Anyway as this was sent to me I can't really review the website so I'll just be discussing the Me Me Me set.
The Goddess gift Box comes with an Eye Inspire Baked Eyeshadow Quad, Fat Cat mascara (black), Eye Sweep liquid eyeliner (black), Eye Line pencil eyeliner (in Coal) and a little 'get the look' flyer.
As you can see it's packaged in a simple black box. It did have a little wrapper thing (you can see it in the item link) with the same picture as on the flyer but you have to take it off to open the box and so of course I immediately lost it. It would be nicer to have a more decorative box as it's a gift set but it's not really a big deal. The box is nice and solid and hardy, mae of heavy cardboard and closing with magnets.
The get-the-look flyer wasn't a particularly useful addition. While the look itself is very nice the instructions are a bit lacking. Basically all the steps are the same, just saying to put the colours across the lid and under the lashline without going into detail. Also the colours in the quad aren't labeled with named but the look sheet refers to them ('Cream' is easy to work out but it's hard to tell which colour is meant to be 'Light Gold', 'Bronze' and 'Rich Copper' without being told). But again this isn't a big deal at all, it's easy to think how to use the set because the colours all compliment each other well.
Here is the quad. As you can see it contains 3 complimenting metallic goldy/bronzy colours and a cream which has golden tones too. Sometimes I find baked shadows to be dry and hard to get decent pigmentation from but these were lovely and creamy. The cream colour was ever so slightly chalky but not badly. All the colours are lovely and soft and blendable. But the quad itself is quite small and as all four colours are baked in a pan I found it hard sometimes to get my brush in without picking up more than one colour at a time.
The Eye Line pencil is soft and creamy and a very deep black. I don't tend to use pencil eyeliners except on my waterline (I just prefer liquid liners) so that's how I tested it. It is not smudgeproof but I found it very long lasting. After about 8 hours the colour had faded a little but was still clearly visible.
The Eye Sweep liquid eyeliner is really fantastic! I've tried many pen style eyeliners before and never liked them, they always seem really dry and I often find the colour dries down slightly grey. This one however is lovely. The liquid flows easily out of the tip and you can run it really smoothly across your eyelid. It dries down to a very pigmented black. The felt nib is just the right size, not too big, not too small and you can make both thin and thick lines with it.
Top: Eye Line - Bottom: Eye Sweep (one stroke of each)
Finally the Fat Cat mascara. This was a bit of a let down to be honest. Firstly it smells very very strongly and the smell isn't very pleasant. It's like a very chemically, synthetic orange smell. You don't notice it when you're wearing it thankfully but I found it off putting when I was applying it. It's also a very dry formula, which I find hard to apply properly. And I wasn't very impressed with the look it gives my lashes, I want the biggest, thickest lashes possible and this doesn't give me them. However on the plus side it didn't flake or clump and gave good definition. I'd think this would be a good daytime mascara for people who want natural looking lashes that are just a bit darker and thicker than their naked lashes.
My naked lashes
With 3 coats of the mascara.
You can see it's lengthened my lashes a bit and they're obviously darker but there's very little volumisation (which this mascara specifically boasts) and I'd prefer more length.
Here are some photos of a look I made using everything in the set:
All in all I think this is a really nice gift set. It contains everything you might need for a lovely eye look. I really love the Eye Sweep and the eyeshadow quad has some great complimentary colours. I could imagine making a nice bronze smokey eye with it too. The only disappointment was the mascara, but again it's not terrible and people who like natural looking lashes will probably like it (if they can cope with the smell). I think for £14 this is a great gift set and would be particularly good for someone just getting into makeup as it contains a nice set of basic and essential eye products and the colours aren't too scary or out there.
*I was sent this for review purposes but all thoughts and opinions are my own*
My Mum has fully recovered from her operation, the huge deluge of Birthdays in my family that hits the late march/early april is over and a very stressful meeting to do with my social anxiety has passed. Ahhh I can relax! So I'm hopping back up on the blogging horse and hope to be posting more regularly from now on. I actually have a proper review coming up! (Hopefully tomorrow, I just need to take some swatch shots when the light is nice).
To ease me back in I thought I'd do a tag post because I find them really fun to write. I stole this from Jansara's amazing, fantastic blog. I ain't tagging anyone because I wasn't properly tagged myself, so just do this if you wanna!
1. What Sparked your interest in Makeup and what made you decide to start blogging?
I honestly can't remember what originally drew me to makeup, I just remember being about 8 or 9 and raiding my Mum's makeup stash for lipstick and eyeshadow. I have a vivid memory of jumping up and down on her bed listening to David Bowie, having just slathered my mouth in bright red lipstick and lots of black eyeliner. My guess is that my sister Lydia inspired me to play with it, she was 5 years older than me and had a sort of Britpop/indie/goth look going on (lots of eyeliner, burgundy lipstick, bindis etc) and I idolised and loved her. The first time I can remember going out in public in makeup was to a Christmas school disco. My friend Xenia and I bought some makeup together from Miss Selfridge (who used to have AWESOME makeup!) and wore matching faces with one eye in electric blue mascara and the other in bright green with bright orange lips (I still own that lipstick!).
(Lydia and I circa 1998ish)
As for when I started blogging, again I can't really remember. I started in 2009 just after I'd finished my art degree and think I was quite depressed. I didn't get the results I was hoping for and felt disappointed with myself and let down by my Tutor and I just didn't feel like painting much at that time. But I still needed an outlet for my creativity so wanted to start writing some sort of blog. Since starting to wear makeup I've always been creative with my looks (i.e. not particularly good at it) and loved buying and playing with it so thought it would be a good thing to concentrate on.
2. If you could only use one monochromatic set of colors of eyeshadow what would it be? I.e. only shades of blue.
Probably pink as it's my favourite colour and looks nice with my blue eyes.
3. Do you prefer playing with eyeshadow, lipstick or nail polish?
Lipstick. I just looove lipstick.
4. What do you want to be "when you grow up"?
An artist or illustrator.
(Painting by me)
5. Favorite band/musician?
Sparks they're just the greatest band ever. I could go on for hours about why I love them (drop me an email if you're interested in hearing my babble! :P) but basically this is why:
I also love David Devant and his Spirit Wife, ABC, David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, Kate Bush, Pet Shop Boys, Aqua, Abba, Adam and the Ants, the Smiths and Morrissey, Rammstein, The Beatles, Art Brut, Bruce Springsteen, The Divine Comedy, Pulp, Oingo Boingo and many many many more!
6. Favorite guilty pleasure?
Watching bad bad bad tv (Toddlers and Tiaras, Eastenders, Neighbours, Judge Judy etc). Also chocolate.
7. How do you like to spend your days (you know after you've played with makeup xD)
I paint/draw/sculpt etc, look after the animals, tidy the house, cook, listen to music, watch TV and at the moment I'm making my own makeup!
8. Do you have any pets? If so, names and pictures!
The only pet in the house that is actually mine is Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, my miniature Daschund
but I also look after and love my Mum's dog Minnie, Claire's dog Perry, my sisters 3 ferrets Yetta, Rikku and Feargal, Mum's guinea pig Portia and the communal cats Mr Darcy and Weevil. You're not having photos of all of them because it would take too long!
9. Do you prefer indie companies or cooperate companies to buy your makeup from?
If you'd asked me this 6 months ago I definately would have said indie companies but since then I've been stung by a lot of them and tend to prefer big companies in general. There are of course exceptions and I still love the whole indie makeup thing! In my opinion a good company is a good company regardless of size.
10. The most rewarding thing about blogging for you?
Just interacting with other people, sharing opinions, inspiring each other and just talking to people I wouldn't have met had it not been for the beauty blogging world.
11. Who inspired you?
Mizzworthy, Phyrra and Pixiwoo were the main people I looked at when I started blogging.
