I'm baaaaaccckkkk - recent make up looks

A.K.A - fun with palettes. I know I have been rubbish, I have been swamped at work and blogging has been the last thing on my mind but I have been reading and buying (new No7 collection). So I am up to date with the news and all that. How excited am I about the new Illamasqua store? Not only is it right across the road from PlayLounge my fav store in the while world but it means I can finally go and check out their makeup without having to brave Selfridges.

So Anyways on to some looks, I am a girl who loves (in a oh my god I have to have it kinda way) a good palette and one of these days I will treat you to a run through of my wildly varied collection but for now I am going to focus on 3 looks I have been rinsing and repeating over the last few weeks.

Look 1

This is the front cover palette in "cool eyes" and I have to say I love these shadows. They are so pigmented and buttery the just glide on and blend really really well. They also have a lovely iridescence to them with them, they are not out and out shimmer but they do catch the light beautifully. They give you a very subtle and wake look which makes then great for the office, the only down side is the brush it picks up colour and blends well but it is a little on the coarse side.

This is glisten all over the lower and upper lid and a little of honey just to define the crease and outer corner. Then butterum underneath the lower lash line.

Look 2

As you know when it comes to shadow palettes my heart lies with Guerlain and I am a complete and utter sucker for their limited editions, the packaging, the colour combinations and even the sponge applicators are a joy to work with. This look is a combination of two palettes Mysterious Butterfly (I wore this on my wedding day) and Cherry Blossom I would say the overall themes are lilac and mauve respectively but in mysterious butterfly you get white, dusky pink, lilac and a plum all in shimmer. In cherry blossom you get the same white, a deep plum satin, true purple matte and a baby pink shimmer.

This is the white along the brow, true purple all over the lid then blended with the baby pink on the inner lid and deep plum on the outer corner and crease. I did use a tiny amount of the lilac as a highlight right in the middle of the lid. Then just some simple black eyeliner, possibly my favourite makeup colours an look on me.

* just as a wee side note check out the old hair and look how long it has got, I got it chopped this week so I will post some new pics.

Look 3

This was a bit of an experiment as I mentioned before I bought some bits from the new collection at boots no7, there is exceptional definition mascara, smokey liner, shadow palette, matte top coat for nails and a couple of lipsticks. As I am all about the eyes you can guess what I went for so here is me wearing the smokey eyeliner which is ridiculosly easy to apply the mascara which is really lovely it has lash conditioners also so lave you lashes beautiful and the orange (is it really orange, copper maybe) and green from the palette. The palette is blue, green, purple a orange is lovely chrome/jewel colours perfect for Autumn.

So that makes us, what, 98 posts now so only 1 away from the big 100th post give away which one lucky reader will win.

Sunday project Mac/Urban Decay

So you know my love for all things eyeshadow and in my opinion no company does better eyeshadow than Urban Decay. The only thing I struggle with is the packaging, I have a lot of makeup and I mean a lot! so space is something of an issue for me. Now don't get me wrong I love the palettes that urban decay make and I guess the smaller ones are not too bad but the book of shadows is huge, far bigger than it needs to be. I also don't keep my eyeliners and primer potion with the shadows as I tend to use a mix of everything.

So off I trundled to Mac in Selfridges this afternoon to pick up one of their empty palettes, I paid £11 which isn't too bad and I am impressed with the quality. If you were filling it with MAC shadows then it would still be a nice palette but still not exactly space saving I guess. I had other designs for it! As soon as I got home I promptly snapped out the circle holder part to be left with a blank slate and then I set about destroying the Urban Decays. I have Book of Shadows 2, Ammo and Preen (which is the same as Show Pony I think) and since they are all made of cardboard and paper they were time consuming but fairly easy to pull apart.

Once I had all the shadows out I used Sticky Dots by Bostick to secure all of the shadows into the palette (i used the ones marked re-useable so I could get them out again if I ever wanted too. I also scavenged a couple of the mirrors to stick inside the lid and this is what I am left with, I even have space for a few more shadows in there depending on what they bring out in the future.

What do you think? Are you fussy about packaging or are you a space saving obsessive like me?

PURE cosmetics

I guess this post is a little redundant now the brand is discontinued but you can still pick it up on places like ASOS so if you get the chance I would recommend it. Anyways I got this haul ages ago and it was at super knock down prices, we are talking about £1 per item here, so I thought it was worth a go.

I had seen this brand in Boots and really liked the packaging and colours but always felt that it was a little expensive which is why I never picked it up before. I ravaged the stand and here is what I got.

shadow duos in smokey and emerald

high coverage lip gloss in angels wings

the black Kohl liner

nails polishes in bright blue and bright pink

diamond lip gloss

the first thing I tried was the blue nail polish and I have to say the formulation was great but I think this is the only shade I have ever found too bright for me but like I say formulation and wear time was fantastic.

bright blue

Next I tried the lip gloss, the fact it said it was high coverage apealled to me as I have quite pigmented lips so nudes don't tend to show up to well on me. This was lovely shimmery and did blank out my natural pinkness.

angel wings

The eyeshadows I have to say are amazing, buttery, blendable, shimmery and very highly pigmented. I used these with UDPP and the went all day without creasing or moving but I did get the tiniest amount of fallout from the green.

smokey

emerald

I haven't tried the kohl yet and the pink polish and crystal lip gloss are going into me 100th post give away which should be coming up sometime soon so stay tuned for that!

MUA - the Superdrug £1 brand

OK so unless you have been hiding under a rock of late you will have realised the Superdrug have launched a range of makeup where every item costs only £1. The brand is called MUA (make up academy) and has a pretty comprehensive range of products including mascaras, lip and eye products. I happened to be passing Superdrug on Thursday and I couldn't help checking it out, there were some pretty colours but nothing spoke to me. I was passing by again at the weekend and my curiosity got the better of me I had to give it a try. Of course the colours I had been interested in has sold out but I did pick up 3 items. Eye shadows in shades 18 and 13 and a nail polish in shade 12.

with flash

natural light

My expectations were not high and the packaging reinforced that, very plastic fantastic and the nail polish is tiny but the shadows are a good size. Nails being my passion I couldn't wait to try out shade 12 and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, of course the bottle felt like something you get off the front of a magazine when you were 12 but the brush was not at all bad and it really did go on rather nicely. The consistency is similar to Bourjois and the shade I picked seemed to be very pigmented so base, 2 coats of colour and my seche vite and this nail colour could have been by anyone. I had it on for 2 days and it wore well with no chipping and hardly any tip wear so I can say I will definitely be trying out the other shades in the range.

on to the eyeshadows, this is the look I did

I have to say the colours are great I love the shades and the pigmentation is not at all bad but we have seen some very good budget brands recently (NYX & Sleek) so we have been kind of spoiled. The lasting power of these shade was phenomenal it stayed in place with absolutely no budging till I took it off tonight and we are talking no fall out or creasing here. This I think is what my main problem was this morning, I used my UDPP as usual and I could just not get them to blend, the seem to stick fast which made the application a chore. The end result is nice don't get me wrong but working with them was a challenge, it would not put my off buying more I just think I have to work out a better way of using them.

Have you tried anything from the range? What did you think?

L'oreal - 180 purple obsession

If ever a coloured was named for me then this is it, I was over at the L'oreal website the other day checking out what the fuss about youth code was when I spotted a gorgeous promotional shot of the beautiful Evangeline Lilly sporting some intense blue/purple eyes.

That's it I though I HAVE to have that colour, so off I trotted to Boots and looked for the colour (180 purple obsession) I picked it up and though hang on that can't be right this is most definitely a pink/purple. As I turned it in the light I could See it was shot through with a slight blue tinge but not what I was expecting.

In reality this is a far more accurate shot of the shade.

(sorry about the tiny picture)

This is my take on the look and boy does this stuff have some staying power I really like the look and might grab some more colours from the range sometime soon.

Lonely haul

Ok so I really shouldn't be left on my own, the hubby is away on business and I hate it when he is gone so to ease the pain I popped into boots/superdrug for a little retail therapy to take my mind off things. I haven't bought in ages due to trying to do the 10 pan project ( I am actually getting on really well with some of the products ) but I just couldn't help myself.

Heres what I got

The new Bourjois 1001 lashes in black quartz (nearly finished my doll eyes)

Revlon 3 for 2 at boots Creme illuminance eyeshadow in 01 wild orchid, super lustrous lipgloss in lilac pastelle and firecracker.

From super drug some of their mini eyeshadow powders.

1001 Lashes

naked eye - my lashes aren't too bad on their own

With 1001 lashes, I love this the brush really grabs the lashes and coats them individually. It isn't very thickening but it does lengthen nicely and I love the natural looking finish.

Mini bourjois swatches

really hard to capture with the camera as they are quite sparkly. Top to bottom it's 15, 11 and 12.

Revlon lip glosses

Lilac Pastelle

Firecracker