Halloween EOTD

Happy Halloween! Thisn is the look I sported to Sainsburys this morning. OTT? Yes but I love it if I do say so myself. I've also submitted this as a contest entry over at http://the-beautiful-news.blogspot.com/ . If you don't follow her you should as it's a fab read. Anyway here is my little Halloween look:

Urban Decay Primer Potion as a base
Orange shade from Sleek Sunset palette over the lid (you will note I have a very small lid space so the shape is suprisingly tricky for me!) and under middle of lower lashline
Matte black from Sleek Sunset palette in outer corner and shaped into the wing
Yellow/gold shade from Sleek Sunset palette in inner corner and inner part of lower lash line
Shimmery black shade from Sleek Graphite Palette under lower lash line
ELF Studio cream eyeliner in black along top lash line
Bourjois eyeliner in Noir on water line

Eyelashes were cheap as chips plain ones from eBay. I added the orange/ gold glitter to them myself using a MUA glitter liner (these are amazing by the way, expecially as they only cost £1) in shade 4.
The gem stones are also an eBay bargain from part of a nail art wheel stuck on with Revlon lash glue.

Did you do something different with your makeup for today? If you've posted a look somewhere then do leave me a link below :-) x

Rituals Transparent Loose Face Powder

I’m going through a bit of a loose powder phase at the moment. I used to hate them but somehow the little tub of powder with kabuki brush next to it just looks right on my dressing table. I’ve been using loose powder for a while now to set my makeup in the morning then carrying round pressed powder for touch ups.  I picked this up at Heathrow but you can also check out their website. You get 12g of product for £15.90.

The packaging is a nice, sturdy plastic jar complete with mirror, sifter and powder puff. Personally I don’t like using the puffs but if you do then it’s nice to have. As far as I know it only comes in one shade – transparent. This is a mixed blessing. It’s a pale flesh colour in the pot and does blend away on the back of my hand to nothing. This may be a good option for those of you who find the ELF HD powder looks ashy as it isn’t stark white. On my face though it does sometimes appear to oxidise slightly on my most oily days. It isn’t extreme tango face but it is a little bit annoying. For this reason I probably won’t wear this much over winter but I’ll be very happy to use it next spring/ summer. 

The powder is very soft and finely milled. It takes very little effort to buff it into the skin and does a fab  job of setting my foundation. I haven’t noticed any extreme oil controlling properties but I suppose it doesn’t promise any. As with most loose powders you need very little so it will last you a very long time.

I do like this but I don’t think I’ll repurchase when it eventually runs out simply because I’m so pale. I’m better off with one of those stark white powders that most complain about :p x

*I bought this myself*

October Favourites

Happy Halloween everyone! I love October. It’s all snugly jumpers, deep colours and spicy scents. Here’s what I’ve been making dents in throughout the month:

Mememe Boxed Blush in Rouge – a gorgeous reddish pink with subtle gold shimmer. This is the kind of shade that suits me best and I love blushes with a touch of red in them for getting a ‘just in from the cold’ flush. And it’s less than a tenner, score!

Sleek Storm Palette – This is my favourite of all the Sleek palettes. I have a ridiculous amount of eyeshadow and yet I keep coming back to this when I’m rushing to get ready for work. 

Clinique Super balanced Foundation – My skin doesn’t know what’s happening right now. It’s still oily thanks to my two weeks in the sun but the dry patches associated with the colder weather are starting to appear. This foundation works for all areas. This is the lightest shade (Alabaster) and whilst it’s a perfect match for me in the summer it will probably be a touch dark in the winter so I wanted to get as much use out of it while I still can. 

ELF Studio Cream Eyeliner in Golden Olive – less harsh than black, prettier than brown and office friendly. I’ve already made a fair sized dent in this. 

Benefit Browzings – I find this holds my unruly brows in place far better than even my beloved clear mascara so whenever I have time to use this in the morning I do. Also as I recently dyed my hair darker and redder I’ve been doing a stronger brow and loving it.

No7 Moisture Drench Lipstick in Pink Crush – I actually got this free in one of their gift with purchase sets. I love the formula which is completely none drying and the sheer deep pink shade is a wearable introduction to a slightly berry lip. I’ve been wearing it under...

 Lippie on the bottom, gloss on the top ^

Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Frankly Flirty – I think this has been discontinued unfortunately. I got it at an outlet shop ages ago and haven’t seen it anywhere else. It’s a gorgeous berry shade. In the tube it has micro fine silver glitter but it doesn’t really look shimmery on the lips at all. If you see it snap it up! (Or if it’s not discontinued let me know ;-) 

If you’ve done a monthly favourites post please leave a link in the comments. I love reading them x

*I bought all the above products myself*

A little personal post (non makeup)

My husband and I love animals. We have a menagerie in our little flat. 5 Fish tanks, 2 axolotls, 8 giant African land snails, one cat and up until yesterday 2 bearded dragons. Yesterday morning our 3.5 year old beardie Magenta had a fit and died. We are in shock. She’s never been ill. She was eating fine the previous evening and there were no indications she was ill. She passed away before we had time to get her to the vet. I don’t have a lot else to say except we love you Mags and we miss you. RIP xxx

MAC Viva Glam = Guilt Free Buying

Well, for me anyway. I find the little pang of guilt that comes with buying yet another makeup item disappears once I remind myself that the money is going to charity. I’m a huge fan of the Viva Glam Cyndi lipstick. It’s such a wearable sheer red and I do get tonnes of use out of it so when I saw the corresponding Lipglass at the counter I grabbed it without even swatching it. Look how cute the packaging is!

You get the doe foot applicator which I personally prefer over a brush. The colour is a rich, pigmented, pinky red. Gorgeous! I actually like this by itself rather than over the lipstick. It’s a bit more pink than the lipstick in my opinion and is pigmented enough to give a really strong colour all by itself. As is typical with MAC glosses the texture is somewhat tacky so if you can’t stand sticky glosses avoid. I find that the tackiness gives it pretty impressive staying power, certainly longer than most glosses that I own. 

Personally I’m not into the Gaga colours. The milky baby pinks tend to look awful on me though I have seen them looking fab on others. The Viva Glam Lipglass cost £12 (the lipsticks are £12.50) and it’s a fantastic cause. From the site: 

“For each sale of MAC Viva Glam Lipstick and Lipglass, the full RRP (less VAT) from the sale of this lipstick goes toward helping women, men and kids everywhere affected by HIV and Aids.”

*I bought this myself*

Naughty and Nice!

Ah Sleek. Any thought of a makeup no buy disappears as soon as one of your magic i-Divine palettes pops up. And like the cruel tempters you are you decided to release not one but two brand-spanking-new ones on the same day (yesterday actually). For those of you who don’t know Sleek is a UK drugstore brand who’s crowning glory (in an overall fantastic range) are the i-Divine eyeshadow palettes. They contain 12 shades each and cost £5.99 at the moment. Now don’t panic and think you need to run out and buy both of these right this second. Only the ‘Good Girl’ palette is limited edition. The ‘Bad Girl’ palette is apparently part of the permanent line now. Both come in rather snazzy cardboard packaging but the palette itself has been reverted to the black plastic we used to get before Bohemian and Circus. Personally I prefer the black, it’s easier to keep clean. Here they are:

Good Girl is, unsurprisingly, the gorgeous selection of pinks and corals. I always kicked myself for not getting the Coral Crepe paint pot by MAC. It would have made a great base for some of these shades. All of these have the trade mark Sleek high pigmentation and almost cream like texture. You have two brilliant highlight shades and a bunch of vibrant shades which for the first time in my knowledge have actual names! (Clock wise from top left: Lychee, Meringue, Candy Floss, Lollipop, Pink Punch, Cupcake, Morello, Rasberry Coulis, Papaya, Peach Melba, Pink Grapefruit, Strawberry Sorbet) The only thing missing in my opinion is a really deep crease shade though Morello is pretty dark. Pink isn’t everyone’s cup of tea though and there is an edgier alternative...

Bad Girl is somewhat reminiscent of the Storm palette (permanent) and the Graphite palette (ltd edition and highly sought after). It’s full of darker, moodier colours. Once again you cannot fault the pigmentation. All of these are swatched without a base. I would recommend you use one though. Not because they need extra staying power, they don’t, but because a couple of shades stained my arm whilst swatching! Not badly mind but they took a fair bit of effort to remove. Clockwise from the left we have: Innocence, Gullible, Blade, Gun Metal, Underground, Noir, Rebel, Twilight, Abyss, Obnoxious, Envy, Intoxicated. 

As usual the Sleek palettes represent phenomenal value for money and the i-Divine releases get me more excited than any MAC collection manages to. Yeah, I’m gushing. I really do love these that much! If you haven’t seen already I have done two round up posts of all the previous permanent and limited edition palettes so do check them out X

*I bought these myself*

Ow Ow Ow Ow

You know those big gift sets Estee Lauder come out with? I love those. Last time they were out my mum picked up a couple and I inherited one. It contained this rather lovely looking bottle of Gentle (yeah right) Eye makeup Remover. Bear in mind that a (100ml) bottle of this costs £17 so you’d expect it to be good. 

Erm... no? This stung my eyes like nothing else. I have extremely sensitive skin under my eyes and after desperately trying to use this up sp it wouldn’t go to waste the skin is tight, sore and flaky! My eyes were red more often than not after use.

Did it at least do a good job of removing eye makeup? Nope. It was ok but I wouldn’t use it with waterproof mascara. Or ever actually. After this and another disastrous product I’m now trying to rehabilitate my under eyes. I think I’ve found the right makeup remover (review coming soon) but I also need a seriously good under eye moisturiser. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Sorry I don’t really have anything else to say about this product. It was painful and it sucked. End of.

No7 Freebie

I’m so late to this party everyone else has passed out. On the off chance that you haven’t seen this I’m posting it anyway. At the moment if you buy one of the No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara (normally £12 but use your £5 off voucher!) you get a free eyeshadow palette. Here is the mascara.

I haven’t tried it yet, I’m hoping for that price it’s pretty damn good though! And here is the palette. 

I love these colours. Here they are swatched without a base but a sticky primer makes them pop a fair bit more. I kind of like the fact they are a bit sheer though. They are nice and subtle for an autumnal office look. All four shades are shimmery and the green and burgundy shades are especially beautiful. The compact itself feels sleek and heavy duty with a good sized mirror. I’d happily have paid for this so I’m doubly thrilled to have gotten it for free. 

This offer has been on for a while and I’m not sure when it finishes so if I were you I’d move pretty quickly x

*I bought the mascara myself*

A really nice encounter at a makeup counter (see what I did there?)

I’ve ranted before about a really bad experience with a sales assistant so it’s only fair that when things go well that I mention that as well. The other day I found myself at MAC at Harvey Nic’s in Edinburgh having a wander round. A lovely MUA (I can’t remember her name which is awful of me) asked if I needed any help and we got chatting. I told her about the last time I bought a MAC foundation. It was Studio Fix powder and the MUA matched me to NC20. It looked awful on me. At first I thought it was ok but I caught sight of myself in full daylight and I looked like I had a serious liver condition. It was too dark and far to yellow. I actually gave it away to my sister who is much more yellow toned and darker than me and she loved it. I was left out of pocket and a bit annoyed...

She was horrified! She took one look at me and said that while I was firmly in the neutral camp I would probably find that an NW shade topped with a slightly more yellow powder would fit me best. I didn’t even ask for samples. She asked what kind of foundation I prefer (I liquid medium to full coverage) and started trying out colours and types and handing out the sample jars. She insisted I try the NW15 Studio Fix Fluid and NW20 (they only go down to NW20 in this one) Pro Long Wear for a couple of days to see if they actually worked for me so I didn’t waste money buying something that wasn’t a perfect fit. 

I spotted at another display that the Dr Facilier Truth and Light Magically Cool Liquid Powder did not have a sold out sticker on it. It’s been sold out online for ages and I’d been kicking myself for not getting it in my original Venomous Villains order. She told me that yes it was a fantastic product but to be careful to apply it with a big fluffy brush as it’s only down side was its tendency to ball up when used with a dense brush. Honest and helpful advice about a products bad points? How often does that happen?! I left with my samples, the Dr Facilier powder, the new Viva Glam Cyndi Lipglass and a smile on my face. 

This is a brilliant example of getting it right. She could not have been more helpful and I thrilled with the customer service. I’ll be trying out those foundations and if one fits I’ll be heading back to that very counter to pick one up. Brilliant! X