Saturday 27 February 2010

Silly silly Lillian

Discussing Lush massage bars with RaeRae ( http://redlipstickblackliner.blogspot.com/ ) i remembered something incredibly stupid i did.
Once when i was younger (probably about 12 so really i was more than old enough to know better!) i found a lush massage bar i my bathroom. It was a chocolate one (here it is! https://lush.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.retro.tpl&product_id=472&category_id=559&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1 ). I didn't understand what a bar of chocolate was doing in the bathroom and felt it, smelled it, and even tested it before realising it was not really chocolate... But it tasted a tiny bit like chocolate and i am so ashamed to tell you i didn't stop biting it for a while! XD
I didn't eat any of it but kept nibbling and then spitting it out because it was so bizarre.
Then I hid it so noone would ever know what i had done.
Oh the shame.

FOTD but not today

I was meant to go out tonight and was in the process of all dolled up but then i had a big panic attack so i'm sitting here with a half-done face (including pink eyebrows :P) feeling sorry for myself. Here's a (slightly rubbish :P) look from a few days ago. I was playing with my new Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows (video review and swatches to come :) ) and came up with a sort of 70sish look.



Face:
Avon tinted moisturiser
ELF studio concealer
Sleek 'The One' powder
Mac Joie-de-vivre Cremeblend blusher

Eyes:
UD Alice and White rabbit shadows (from the Alice BOS)
UD Flipside eyeliner
black mascara (can't remember which one. my favourite, Lancome Oscillation has gone missing X/)

Lips:
Mac Dame Edna Coral Polyp

My bleached eyebrows are growing out and i cant decide whether to rebleach them or let them grow back to their usual brown. Hmmm.

I've got the world's biggest sweet tooth

And here to satisfy my candy cravings is Sugarpill cosmetics!
...Ok that was hella cheesey :P

http://www.sugarpillshop.com/

Yesterday me and Claire's order from Sugarpill arrived (we often buy makeup together so we can get twice as much but pay half each :P) and we were so, so excited i just had to show you as soon as possible. I wore the shadows yesterday (no picture because i did my makeup in a huge rush and it wasn't a very good look, but i did a video so you can see the shadows on me when it's up on youtube :)) and they were fantastic, so so bright and easy to apply and they lasted at least 10 hours without creasing or fading. However as i've only used it the once i don't want to write a proper review yet, but wanted to show you the amazing packaging and colours and give you my first impressions.

We made our order around the 13th of feb, which was a pre-order time, so orders didn't start getting shipped for a while, but as our parcel arrived yesterday it took less than 2 weeks from ordering for it to arrive anyway :) And here is the parcel:

(flap of paper is to cover up our address :P)
Cute huh?
Inside everyting is wrapped in pink tissue paper and arranged beautifully:

Can you see how wonderfully everything fitted together? I don't know if it's a coincidence or on purpose, but all the products slotted together perfectly, so they couldn't move around during shipping. Also there was no waste of a box too big for the products (i'm talking to you here Mac!).

Our order came with some gorgeous free stickers, an invoice with personal note and Amy was amazingly generous and gave us a free full size shadow! :O Claire was really happy because Amy's note mentioned a necklace she bought from Claire once i her note. It's little things like this that make a big difference.



Here is our invoice with our lovely glittery free Sugarpill Stickers (Claire is thinking of putting one on a scratch on her laptop), some business cards and the thank you note.

We picked up all of the pressed eyeshadows, 3 of the loose shadows (+ our free 'sample', a free full size pot of loose shadow) and a pair of her eyelashes. Shiping is free anywhere in the world on orders over $75 and at the time we ordered there was a 15% off sale. Our order came to $105 in total (we paid half each). All the single shadows are $12, the eyelashes are $8 and the eyeshadow palettes are $34.
Just to say incase you're confused, Sugarpill is neither a home-made makeup company, nor repackaged private label cosmetics, it's instead a 'small lab production' meaning that Amy has given her instructions and overseas production on small runs, nstead of owning her own factory like a big makeup company or just putting her own labels on a pre-made product. for more info see Grey's fabulous reviews here http://legothique.com/2010/02/19/sugarpill-a-review/ and here: http://legothique.com/2010/02/23/sugarpill-follow-up/ she knows a lot more about this sort of thing than i do.

Now onto the packaging, which is absolutely stunning. Each product comes in an absolutely gorgeous box, and then the product themselves are in gorgeous custom jars and compacts. And this packaging is really high quality too, the cardboard palettes are really heavy duty, the plastic jars are thick and the logos are printed on, not just stickers.

Firstly the eyelashes



Hee hee!


Nice instructions.


The lashes themselves. These are the 'Dewdrop kisses' lashes and have beautiful little crystals on the hairs. Sugarpill stock another pair of lashes too, a more regular cat-eye pair.

Next the pressed eyeshadows. We bought 2 of the palettes which contain 4 shadows each but cost $34 instead of $48 (single shadows are $12 each) so you're effectively getting a free shadow and $4 off :) Sugarpill offer 9 pressed shadows and the two palettes we got, Sweetheart and Burning heart, had 8 of them!


front of the box


back of the box


Front of the actual palette


back of the palette.


And all the shadows together.
Palette on left is Sweetheart with Dollipop (pink), Afterparty (blue), Midori (green) and Tako (white). Palette on the right is Burning Heart with Flamepoint (orange), Buttercupcake (Yellow), Love + (red) and Poison Plum (purple).

We decided we had to have the last pressed eyeshadow, Bulletproof, which is a matte black. Here is the packaging this came in.


box front


box back


top of the eyeshadow


back of the eyeshadow.

There is another palette, Cold heart which includes bulletproof, Tako, Poison Plum and Afterparty.

Now the Chromalust loose shadows. We bought Asylum, Tiara and Goldilux and we recieved Magpie for free! These jars are BIG for $12. Seriously you don't get a 5 gram jar of shadow, you get 5 grams of shadow!


Here is the Chromalust next to one of my Evil Shades glosses, which is in a 5g jar.


front of box.


Back of box.


The lid of the jar.


The bottom of the jar.


Asylum, Goldilux, Tiara, Magpie.


And finally, the gorgeous swatches!


Top row: Tako, Midori, Dollypop, Afterparty, Magpie, Asylum
Bottom row: Bulletproof, Buttercupcake, Flamepoint, Love+, Tiara, Goldilux.

So i'm going to go and have a big play with these for a while, really test out the formula and i'll be sure to tell you how i get on :)
What do you guys think of it?

Friday 26 February 2010

Updated Giveaways post :)

Here are all the blogger giveaways i'm aware of at the moment :) Good luck ladies!

black nail polish and lipgloss is celebrating reaching 300 followers!:
http://blacknailpolishandlipgloss.blogspot.com/2010/02/300-follower-giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlackNailPolishAndLipGloss+(Black+nail+polish+and+lip+gloss)

Makeupper is giving away some great Mac pigment samples among other things:
http://makeupper.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-first-ever-giveaway.html

Beautyliciouslove is giving away a Mac lipstick and lipglass of your own choice! (very generous!):
http://www.beautyliciouslove.com/2010/02/250-followers-giveaway.html

The London Beauty Review is giving away 2 fab selections of goodies (hurry this ends today!):
http://www.londonbeautyreview.com/2010/02/giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LondonBeautyReview+(The+London+Beauty+Review)

Lady Gray is offering some great toilettries and makeup:
http://www.ladyofthelane.com/2010/02/50-followers-giveaway.html

Charly is celebrating reaching 100 followers and giving away a great Urban Decay set (this ends tomorrow):
http://www.whatcharlythinks.net/2010/01/100-follower-giveaway-d.html

Really beautiful prizes at Pearls and Poodles:
http://pearlsandpoodles.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-pearlie-girlie-giveaway.html

Sweet-themed Nail art contest from nail juice (this is so my kinda thing :P):
http://www.nailjuice.com/2010/01/chocolatey-sweet.html

250 follower giveaway from Laquerized (win some stunning looking H&M polishes):
http://lacquerized.blogspot.com/2010/02/yeah-baby-giveaway-time_20.html

Some great makeup prizes at Rhamnousia's blog:
http://makeuptrialsandtribulations.blogspot.com/2010/02/roll-up-roll-up-girl-giving-away-makeup.html

Get Gawjus is celebrating getting to 500 followers with 3 prizes!:
http://getgawjus.blogspot.com/2010/02/500-follower-giveaway-d.html

Caz is celebrating 250 followers with a prize of makeup, skincare and haircare! (ends tomorrow):
http://thisiscaz.blogspot.com/2010/02/250-follower-giveaway.html

My gal Noobarella is having a really generous giveaway, you can pick your own prize, and it's MAC!
http://secretbeautyblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/100-follower-giveaway-woop-woop.html

Beautiful Emily has got some FAB prizes (want want want):
http://sparkleandshade.blogspot.com/2010/02/something-happier-aka-giveaway-time.html#comments

Romika is giving away some great handcare and nail polishes:
http://romikanails.blogspot.com/2010/02/100-followers-never-thought-of-this.html

Illamasqua are having a great contest, you get to create your own unique nail polish if you win!:
http://illamasqua.blogspot.com/2010/02/dreamt-by-you-created-by-us-worn-by.html

Crystal is giving away 2 very generous Urban Decay prizes:
http://makeupbycrystals.blogspot.com/2010/02/200-reader-appreciation-giveaway.html

Good luck everyone!

Morganas Minerals lip swatches

So i managed to try on every one of my new samples of lip sticks to show you what they look like on my lips. The consistency of a few made it difficult to get a clean application, i think usually this had to do with my having difficulty using the samples (applied them with a lip brush this time around) but a couple had a slightly 'grainy' texture. The majority of them were creamy and absolutely gorgeous. There are so many i want/NEED full tubes of!

Watermelon

This one is beautiful, but the description said it has green sparkles and i could not see any myself.

Violets Kiss

I found this one the hardest to apply evenly, it was just a bit grainy.

Very Cherry

Amazing ever so slightly sparkling true red. Smells delicious.

Valentine

Gorgeous sparkling hot pink.

Spellbound

Another slightly grainy one.

Slime

AMAZING shimmery lime green! So opaque and so creamy!

Silverwitch

Nice metallic silver with a hint of blue.

Serpent

This one i also found difficult to apply, but not as bad as some of the others.

Serenity

One of my favourites, a gorgeous cyan blue.

Rustic

Amazing colour, brown with a green duochrome.

Red Licorice

Beautiful creamy opaque red. Discontinued now.

Raspberry

Lovely slightly muted dark piny red colour. Smells absolutely edible. Discontinued sadly.

Pumpkin

Slightly coppery reddy orange.

Mistress

Dark vampy red.

Medusa

This one is a stunning green with gold, but was a bit dry and not as easy to apply as the rest.

Margerita

This colour is replacing raspberry, it's similar but a bit more muted. I prefer raspberry personally.

Lillian

Lovely bluey lilac shimmer.

Gunmetal Blue

darkish greyish blue.

Glittering Poinsettia

Blood red with gold glitter.

Devilish

An odd greyish/purplish dark red.

Coralines Kiss

Beautiful bright, light coraly orange shimmer.

Blueberry

Deep, rich blue. Beautiful.

Blood

Blood red. I think it's the same as Glittering Poinsettia but without the glitter.

Azalea

Beautiful bright fuschia pink.

So the colours i definately have to get soon are:
Azalea, Coralines Kiss, Glittering Poinsettia, Pumpkin, Lillian (naturally :P), Serenity, Slime, Valentine and Very Cherry.
Ones i love but am not sure i need include Rustic (so gorgeous but i'm not sure brown lipstick suits me, have never worn one before), Blueberry (again it's beautiful but i have a lot of blue lipsticks already) and Watermelon. I also want Raspberry and Metallic Maiden which have been discontinued, but maybe Melissa has some lying around the stock room :P
I absolutely adore these lipsticks and can't wait until i have the money to buy some!

EDIT:
I've recieved comments from a couple of people who have recieved samples and full tubes of colours i found grainy and they've been the same creamy quality as the others (and recieved some samples of ones i found great quality grainy too), so the reason it was hard to apply because they had dried up a little in the baggies, not because of the formula. So if you really like one of the colours but were worried because of my finding it grainy don't worry, the full tubes are apparently all wonderful and not at all dry and grainy :)

Thursday 25 February 2010

Some Lush Reviews

I was feeling a bit low earlier so i had a really long, hot bath and it made me feel a lot better :) I finished a few Lush things i had been trying, so thought i would do some quick reviews.

Mmm Melting Marshmallow Moment


Lush says:
'Slow melting musky marshmallow marvel. MMM melts into a pink, fluffy waterbed of marshmallow and moisturizing cocoa butter. Each Melting Marshmallow Moment is made with marshmallow herb, which produces a sweet, skin-soothing mucilage that was used to make sugar candies for hundreds of years, and marigold, which is equally calming for your skin. Take your time, savour each moment and have as many marshmallows as you like.'

I tried this in my bath today. You pop this in your bath with yourself when it's full and hot and it melts (shocking considering the name :P) into your bath, though i did have to crumble it a little to help it's on it's way. It's a lovely big pink lump, i got 2 uses out of one melt, you could probably get 3 but it would be more cost effective but a bit 'weak' or if you used the whole one in your bath it would be stronger and probably more effective. This smelled delicious, similar to the creamy candy bubble bar, a sort of sweet, slightly fruity, marshmallow scent. It left a tiny bit of white foam on the surface of the water, but didn't colour the water or anything. The water somehow felt 'softer' but as i used a bunch of other stuff on my skin i can't really tell you if the melt had any effect on my skin itself. The smell was nice and strong in the bath but did not linger on my skin (could also be because of all my other soaps and things i used). It was a really nice bath thing, and really relaxing, i would definately buy it myself (this one was a gift from my friend) but i do prefer bubble bars, because bubbles are always fun! One of these is £3.50 which i think is reasonable, especially as you can definately get at least 2 uses out of it (unless you want a really concentrated bath) and it's a really lovely product.

Space Girl


Lush says:
'Here comes a ballistic of astronomical proportions. We were inspired by The Imagined Village's intriguing interpretation of Space Girl from their second album, Empire & Love. It's shaped like Saturn with added space dust for our alien friends, and the refreshing scent of blackcurrant sweeties will make you hungry for your own space adventures. Space Girl is stellar, just remember your blaster and your freezer gun.'

This is a fun product, i love it's flying-saucer shape and it smells amazing. This is a bath bomb, so you pop it in your bath when it's run and it spins around fizzing madly until it disappears into nothingness. It really does smell like blackcurrant sweets with a hint of bergamot, i think it's absolutely delicious, i love sweety-smells. I was a little bit disappointed because when i read the description i thought that when it said it had added 'space dust' it meant it had popping candy in it (space dust used to be a brand of popping candy over here :P ) and it doesn't. The ballistic also has a bit of glitter on the outside, but there isn't enough for it to glitterfy you like their old Fairy Jasmine used to. It does however leave your bath a nice deep greyish purple. I do like bath ballistics as the fizzing is fun but i don't like them as much as Lush's other bath products as the effects (other than colouring the water and the scent) are short lived, whereas the bubble bars and bath melts stay in the water with you. This is £1.85 which i think is pretty reasonable, though you only really get one use out of it. I think all of Lush's bath ballistic are nice luxury items to pamper yourself occaisionally.

Coolaulin conditioner:


Lush says:
'Coconut conditioner for dry, curly or processed hair. Coconuts fresh from the tree are completely different from the ones we find in the west. Their milk is amazingly nutritious and is used for all kinds of tropical beauty and medical treatments; coconut flesh is soft, calming for the body and softening for the scalp and hair. Our Coolaulin conditioner has a load of coconut milk and fresh coconut flesh to make dry, curly and processed hair soft and shiny. Exotic, Eastern essential oils of vetivert and benzoin gum calm irritated scalps. It's been with us for eleven years and is still going strong.'

I purchased just a little 100ml bottle of this for £3.25. I don't really know what to say about this. My hair is dry, processed and curly so this should have been perfect for me. It's not a bad conditioner at all, it left my hair soft and smelling lovely (though to me this doesn't smell like actual coconut, it's sort of nuttier in a way) but really just wasn't all that special. I generally just use regular drugstore brands of shampoos and conditioners (anything not tested on animals, my favourite is Original Source's White Pear and Avocado for reference the price is £1.96 for 250ml) and i really couldn't see or feel any difference after washing my hair with this. It's nice, works fine, nice to know the conditional is handmade with fresh ingredients, organic and smells good, but i really personally don't think the price is justified as, to me, there was no real difference between this and a normal, cheaper conditioner. I Would not buy it again but might try another one of their conditioners.

American Cream Conditioner:


Lush says:
'Double-strength conditioning cocktail. American Cream was inspired by a vision of 1950s US milk bars, bright red-leather-and-chrome, neon-lit cafes, where teenagers would meet and drink frothy, fruity, thick, creamy milkshakes. Our fruity, creamy conditioner is what the girls would have used to make their hair soft and strokeable before going out on a date, dressed up in their bobby socks and circular skirts. The scent of honey, vanilla, strawberries and oranges is so sexy and sweet that dates can't stay away. If your hair gets a bit messed up, American Cream makes it easy to brush through and smooth out again.'

This is much, much the same as the Coolaulin conditioner, a good conditioner but nothing special. However this one smells better to me, though i don't get any fruit scents coming though, to me it smells of vanilla with honey and possibly some sort of wine. This is slightly more expensive at £3.80 100ml. It was nice to try it but i wouldn't repurchase just because i don't think it is worth the money.

Crème Anglaise


Lush says:
'Creme Anglaise is made with some of the finest ingredients available. We've used toning sweet orange oil and moisturising natural butters blended into an almond infusion. An infusion of saffron, the world’s most expensive spice, gives it the authentically golden colour of real Creme Anglaise. This hand and body lotion will lavish a new kind of luxury on your skin and make you proud to be British.'

Now i'm going to be honest from the start. I HATE the smell of this and in no way would have picked it up of my own choice, but i was given a little sample pack the last time i shopped at Lush and a small pot of this was included, so i thought i would wear it to see how it works. Smell is a personal thing, lots of you reading this will probably love the scent but i find it quite horrible. To me it smells like cocoa butter that's gone a bit 'off'. I tried it on and it's a really nice body lotion, it sinks in easily without any greasiness or tackiness and then made my skin feel really silky and soft. It almost felt 'powdery' as if i'd used talcum powder or something. It is a good lotion but i wouldn't say it's amazing, my skin felt nice but very similar to the feeling it takes on after i use any sort of body moisturiser. The smell does linger on my skin quite stongly, if you like the smell this would probably be good, but as i don't like it i wish it didn't :P This stuff is damn pricey at £25 for 220g (probably that expensive Saffron, though oddly mine was just a light creamy shade, not yellow at all) so i would definately suggest, even if you try it in store and like the smell, you ask for a sample to test at home before you buy the sample. The sample i got was enough for my whole body apart from part of my back, but as it came in a sample set you'll probably get a slightly bigger one. I personally would never buy this, even if i liked the smell and the lotion was the most amazing thing i'd ever tried simply because i would never pay £25 for a smallish pot of body lotion. As it is i think the lotion is nice, but nothing special, and i don't like the smell at all.