Japan experience and NOTD

So i'm back sorry it has been such a long time without a post but there has been a lot of processing I have had to do.

On Thursday 10th of March me and my husband boarded our flight to Tokyo for an 8 day holiday, We love Japan and have been before so were really excited to be going back and although we had no firm plans the possibilities were endless. After a 12 hour flight and 1 hour airport transfer we were at the hotel, they let us check in early and I set about unpacking and settling in for the week. We decided on a short nap then a shower and we were off out for some wonderful Japanese food.

We had been napping for about on hour when the room started to shake, my husband looked at me and said "what was that" "were having and earthquake I joked" but then it didn't stop. It got worse and worse the room shook, swayed, rattled and we dropped from the bed to the floor crawling into the door frame of the bathroom not knowing quite what to do. Finally the juddering stopped and only the swaying remained it was like being on a ship in a storm. We decided we should try and see what to do so we staggered out into the hall where the hotel staff told us we should remain in our room.

We could see people pouring on to streets as the aftershocks rolled through we flicked on the news and as the full horror of what had happened began to sink in we realised things were bad. Needless to stay we had a very different holiday until we were finally ordered home by my husbands company a few days early. My respect for the Japanese nation is immense and if anyone reading this can spare some money for the Japanese red cross please help the people who have lost everything other than their dignity.

Right so that is where I have been now on to the nail of the day! With crackle top coats being the main nail story at the moment so I decided to check out Boots 17 Nail Xtras crackle top and I think you will agree it's a corker. It is a very light gold colour and I think it will compliment a lot of different colours, it looks stunning over blues. You have to be extremely sparing with the application to get the crackling effect but it does crackle very nicely.

I have paired it here with a little nail polish I picked up in a family mart in Tokyo. The brand is MFC and the colour is either RS-3 or 07D but I don't read Japanese so I can't be sure. Anyways it's a nice beige pink colour and applied really well.

Direct sunlight

in the shade

Illamasqua - Toxic Nature

So you have probably seen this all over the blogosphere already but it is worth sharing. I wasn't lucky enough to make it too the blogger event on thursday night but the lovely team at Illamasqua invited me round to the flag ship store on Saturday for a sneak peak.

The collection is based around what would happen if nature stuck back and was conceived when Alex Box was stuck like lots of others by the ash cloud last year. It set her cogs in motion as to how we really have no power over mother nature and she can wipe the floor with us whenever she wants.

Aren't the promo images just beautiful, so inspiring. The look is all around distorted proportions with large eyes, slim noses and low cheeks. There is a lot of contouring and playing with shapes and I love it.

To me the crux of the collection seem to be the new matt cream pigments

top row - Bedaub(mint green) Delirium(rose taupe) Mould(grape purple) Hollow(toffee beige)

bottom row - Dab (lilac) Emerge (peach)

The standouts for me were Emerge which makes such a beautiful blush on us pale skinned gals. Bedaub which can be blended out as a colour corrector on red patches and Hollow which is an awesome contour colour. The can be used anywhere and I will definitely purchasing a few of these to play with.

But the fun doesn't end there there are also two lipsticks and glosses and 4 nail colours.

This is Divine the fuchsia pink gloss blended over Atomic the fuchsia violet lipstick. Then flare the neon orange lipstick and finally Glister but I will come to that in a bit. There is also Torture which I forgot to swatch but it matches the lipstick perfectly.

There are five polishes

Purity - peach

Bacterium - pearlescent ash ochre

Radium - lime shimmer

Stagnate - grey mauve

Gamma neon - orange

Below is Bacterium which everyone is going nuts for and I can see why, it applies like a dream as with all of the polishes I have tried from them and it is such a unique colour very mother of pearl/oyster it just catches the light so beautifully I can't stop staring at my fingers.

Under room lights

Natural light

The show stopper for me was Glister the Nude Anti-eyeliner eyeliner. It takes a lot to drag me away from my good old black cat eye so I want to give this a proper review o it's own because it is really something quite special.

I had a wonderful time at Illamasqua and they make you feel so welcome, this brand really is going from strength to strength and it because of their dedication to letting their customers express themselves and constantly challenging themselves to push the boundaries.

So get over there now and start pre-ordering!