FOTD 1

This is a semi FOTD I did the other week, it's not really a full FOTD, it's more like an EOTD and LOTD but such is life.

Any CC is welcome, you know I need the help!

Products I used:



Makeup:

Bobbi Brown Long Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink

Bobbi Brown Basics Eye Palette, I used Heather Mauve which is the third shade along from the left

Maybelline The Colossal Mascara

Diamond Kajal

Rimmel Vinyl Lip in Velocity

Tools:

Ruby and Millie Eyeshadow Brush (not pictured but can be found here )

Bobbi Brown Mini Gel Liner Brush

I had had mediocre success with the gel liner in the past, I had finally figured out how to get a straight-ish line going on but could never ever get the flick right on both eyes, on one eye I would get the flick and on the other it would be a thick line just being dragged. I tried to use this kinda brush but it didn't really work out (although I've only used it once so may try again). Anyway, I'm rambling, this day I decided to give my BB brush another bash and I got the exact line I wanted so it turned into a FOTD and here's me showing off my basic skill:

Eye eye captain:



I'm quite impressed with how I managed to get it looking so smooth, usually it's really bumpy and you can tell where I've stopped and started. I've got all my eye products on in all these photos. The Heather Shimmer looks pretty light on my lids compared to how it looks in the pan which is why I was surprised that my every day shade looked so unusual.

Eyes wide shut:


With flash:

Both eyes:


Lip service:

Any tips for improvement, readers?

50p a pop

Hi everyone,

How's everyone doing today? I do hope you're doing good :)

The theme of this message is super cheap makeup. By this I mean actual cheap makeup, not drugstore cheap but dirt, dirt cheap. It's not a big blog post, just a small few liner about cheapo stuff.

I've been out shopping today, well, returning a cardigan and a brush to Primark and I've seen that they have all their makeup on sale for 50p. It was so hard for me to not buy anything but I actually had a good objective view at the colours available in all the products and realised that half would not go with my skin and that of the one colour of eyeshadow I liked, I already the colour and it worked well. Plus, they always have sales on so IF I realise I need the shade, I can just go back and buy it.

The other shop doing cheap makeup which I've been to recently is New Look, now I swatched some of these products in the store and the colour was really nice and bright but as I said before, I'm cutting back, not adding random cheap things which I will never use. Not all the makeup is marked down but it is all the same price.

So ladies, go mad on my behalf!

Also, I hope you UK ladies have taken advantage of the Nails Inc offer which Yinka so very kindly posted on her blog, I was a bit cheeky and ordered one for my flat and one for my parents' house, I can't wait for them to arrive as those polishes are the love, the only ones which don't chip and don't go smudgy regardless of how many coats you put on.

Exterminate! Exterminate! Join me on my quest..

Last post for the weekend I promise! (I still have a FOTD to post up but that will be up during the week/next week).

I had a post about this in my main blog last year, it's about using up everything I have before buying new stuff and I must say I'm coming on leaps and bounds. I saw a thread about this on a forum and was inspired to use up everything of mine before buying new stuff as I had tonnes of body moisturisers, shower gels, shampoos etc.. to use before I really needed new ones. I got all my shampoos out of the way and then realised how many conditioners I have. I have bought only one conditioner since last year and that turned out to be crap for my hair and now I use it to wash my makeup brushes.

I made a list last October time and nearly everything from that list is finished. I went down from having 20 body moisturisers to having only 1 of that stock left. I bought another one as they were on offer but that's by the by.

I'm going to make this post just about everything I have and I will cross it off as I go through it. This year I have made a paper list as well and that will help me write everything down here.

So, here we go...(it's a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng list)

Shampoos/conditioners
Tresemme heat defence deep conditioner
Tresemme curly hair deep conditioner
Boots lemonbalm deep conditioner
Pantene deep conditioner
Pantene individual deep conditioner
Umberto Gianini overnight conditioner
Mark Hill split end capsules

Face washes/moisturisers
TBS mask
TBS mask

Hair styling bits
Pantene hairspray
Pantene shine spray
KMS paste up spray
KMS paste up spray
Lee Stafford spray
Lee Stafford spray
Loreal tecni art serum
Loreal tecni art leave in conditioner
OSIS slick cream
Botanics heat defence spray
Twisted Sister serum
Twisted Sister serum
Twisted Sister conditioner
Twisted Sister conditioner
Twisted Sister curl spray
Twisted Sister curl spray
Toni and guy hair shots x 6
KMS styling gel


There we go! And I've realised that I've finished quite a bit recently and have just removed them from the list as I can't see how to cross them out.

Here's the list in its original form:

Review: Hauling, hauling, hauling..swatching swatching swatching

I've got the Rawhide theme tune stuck in my head thanks to hearing it on Eastenders and the Simpsons twice in as many weeks.

This is the second of the three entries I will be making this weekend/tonight if I get that bored but I may not even have time for this one as I'm going to see The Shining in 5 minutes :)

Anyway, this has been quite a haulage of a beauty week for me as I have bought not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE items of makeup within the space of two days.

I've bought three Urban Decay shadows from a lovely Specktra-ette (http://www.specktra.net/) and two Prestige mascaras (the ones which form the review that preceded this post. This post focuses mainly on the UD shadows and is like a semi review/swatch of them :)

Here's the haul in its entirety:

Foxy:

Chopper:

Illegal:

Swatch:
L-R: Illegal, Chopper, Foxy.
This is exactly how the colours look in real life.

Illegal is a rosey colour apparently but to me it looks more like chocolate milk and it matches my lids perfectly and I will be using it every day. It looks a bit patchy compared to Chopper but that's because the ring finger is the weakest (which is why we use it for applying TE) but the colour is just as creamy as the other two.

Chopper is SUPER shimmery but there is great gold colour behind it, I wouldn't wear it everyday as it is a bit OTT for that but it's perfect for nights out. Also, to you desi ladies who know how hard it is to find a shadow to match those gorgeous yet pesky desi outfits, GET THIS as it matches perfectly. Nice and glimmery IRL and applies a charm, that's a light swatch and look at the colour pay off.

Foxy has not really been used by me yet and TBH I'm struggling to see where I'd use it, I think I might use it as a highlighter by really buffing it out or take a tight eyeliner brush to it and use it as an eyebright as it is very similar to Benefit's EyeBright pencil.

Repurchase?
Yes, yes and yes again. In conclusion, the eyeshadows are some of the softest I have ever used and would SO buy them again for the following reasons:

• great colour pay off
• very very soft
• WOC friendly
• a little goes a long way
  

Review: Prestige My Biggest Lashes

I've been out and bought yet more mascara bringing my grand total of mascaras up to about 9-10. However, the good news is that this mascara works great and is different to the rest I have. The newest one is Prestige's My Biggest Lashes.

I have found my four HG mascaras, using any of them makes me happy. The Prestige one is one of them, the other three are:

• Boots 360 Lash
• Maybelline's Colossal
• Maybelline's Stiletto

As I said in a previous post I was looking to spend my Boots points and I'm saving adding any colour to my collection until I can figure out what I actually can wear on a daily basis and what suits me so all eyeshadows were off limits. I saw that myface cosmetics had an offer on their makeup, buy 2 for £14 but as nobody I knew had tried it, I stayed away from it and it's good that I did as further enquiry has told me that nobody really likes them. I will say one thing for their blushers though, they are the smoothest blushers I have ever felt :)

Anyway, I'm going off on one which is the norm really..I decided to get MBL with my points and they had two mascaras for £8 which was reasonable enough.

The mascara:
I like things which are out of the norm and a coloured mascara tube for a black mascara is quite out of the norm. The only other one which has this much colour is the Colossal. The bottle (?) is a nice fat shape and the pink and black colouring is appealing enough. Also, the lid fits on properly and there's no funny gap like you get with the Colossal. I tell you, the amount of times I've thought I haven't shut it properly and have had to check..


The brush:
Looks quite similar to the Badgal brush here but IRL they look different, this has less bristles and they aren't as tightly packed as the Badgal. As I said before, I usually check the wand and see how well the mascara will apply and as this looked more like the Colossal and the mascaras that work, I picked it up.


My eye:
All three photos are after two/three coats by which I mean two on the underside and one on the top side. The only issue I had with the mascara was that if you only put one coat in, it will smudge under your eyes. I'm sure you can see the adidas stripes I'm sporting in the second photo? They came from when I only had one coat on but after that it was all good.

I wasn't really convinced with the mascara when I had one coat on but with three, I was blown away! Also, the mascara is quite dry but you can wet it up by adding some Optrex but I find that the thickness gives me nice, sooty lashes which is something I've never had from a mascara before. The mascara does not flake at all which is a huge plus point. I also found that it made me look like I had criss cross fake lashes on which was nice as it was the first mascara which promised the fake lash look and actually delivered.

Repurchase?
Yes, yes and yes again. I think this mascara has overtaken the Colossal in my mind but I have to apply a few coats of it to get that smoky look that I'm in love with but hey, it still gives me something.

Copycat

I saw Yinka's blog and Sara's blog about how many lipsticks/lipglosses they had so I've decided jump on the bandwagon.

I cannot stress enough what a noob to makeup I am and I thought I had quite a few lip products but laying them out and seeing how many I have I realised that I'm not really as bad on lip products as I thought I would be..oh, and I found my TWO HG lip colours, Rimmel's Lip Vinyl in Velocity mixed with clear gloss from 17 and a Smashbox berry shade which is in their palette only so semi yay!

Anywho..here's my collection of glosses/pencils/sticks:

Top Row: Rimmel Vinyl Lip in Velocity (a bit lighter IRL and much nicer on lips), Maybelline Watershine Diamonds in Chocolate Sparkles, Maybelline Fruity Jelly in Raspberry, Maybelline Fruity Jelly in Satsuma, Smashbox lippy in Encore, Smashbox lippy in Toffee, 17 lippy in Chocolate Suede, Natural Collection lipgloss in Strawberry

Row 2: Wet n Wild gloss in Tangerine, Opia lipgloss in clear, Maybelline Fruity Jelly (can't remember flavour), YSL gloss in 3, Boots No7 in Lollipop, Boots No7 in Sherbert

Row 3: Smashbox lipliner

Row 4: Smashbox lip palette 5, Stila Plumping Glaze in Melon Mint, Stila Lip Glaze in Mocha

Row 5: Natural Collection lipliner in Rose

Row 6: Wet n Wild gloss (I forget the flavour), Lancome Juicy Tube in a pinky shade, Boots No7 in Lollipop, Lancome Juicy Tube in Fraise, Natural Collection in Watermelon x 2.

And there we have my collection of lip paints.

The ones I use the most often are:

• Rimmel Vinyl Lip
• Opia clear gloss
• YSL gloss in shade 3 (must remember proper name)
• Smashbox palette in the plummy shade on the bottom left hand corner

Also, I'm looking to sell some of those glosses so if you see anything you like, do let me know and I will see what I can do :)

Hitting pan

I have to say that this is the most satisfying feeling about buying makeup..the fact that the end is near and that you will indeed be repurchasing this product.

The only product I have hit pan on to date is my YSL Palette Pop tester which is very very very full for a tester, I've been using it non stop daily since last May and only now is there a little bit of pan showing but I'm very impressed and will deffo be buying the full product as at £19 from a website and lasting longer than a year it is a grat investment. I think I'm finally understanding why people spend money on higher brands of make up..I've had a YSL lipgloss for a year and I use that all the time and that's nowhere near finishing but I know that I will get there eventually..

I don't know why I get so satisfied from seeing that a makeup product is nearly finished, I've gone through so many moisturisers, shampoos, makeup remover wipes etc.. through the years but have never really been that excited about it.

Here are my current pan hitters:

The YSL:
The one which is sold as a proper piece and is not a tester says "LOVE" down the right hand side of the brown flower so hopefully it works just as well as I will buy this again, if a tester can last this long then the other must last flipping ages as I assume they are different sizes.

Here's the back so you know it's official:

The Dr Feelgood which has sadly turned to mush :( :



So my question to you ladies is, what was the first product you ever hit pan on and did you repurchase? If you dislike a product do you carry on using it until it's finished or do you chuck it to the back of your cupboard? I find some way to use it up because I hate waste

Urban Decay, white pencil bases, Boots points

Two blog entries in as many days..this is what happens when I'm left to my own devices..

Here's what's on the the menu for today:

• Boots points
• White eyeliner
• UD price increase

I have saved up about £19 worth of Boots points and have been scouring the website finding something to buy but alas, I have seen nothing I like. I want to buy a high end good as if it turns out crap then at least I haven't wasted hard cash on it. Luckily I'm near a big Boots so can check the stuff out tomorrow.

Years ago I was very conscious of having small ratfink eyes and bought a million and one white eyeliners to make them look bigger. I don't know what I was expecting but I suppose I was naive and expected my eyes to turn into doe eyes overnight..this obviously wasn't the case. Fast forward a good few years and I realise I can use white pencil as a base. The most expensive white pencil I bought was a No7 one from Boots which is ok-ish but not the best. I also had a 17 one from Boots which was super cheap but gives me a really bright white base and is super easy to blend. I used that under a colour yesterday and it really made the colour stand out, I looked a bit stupid with it that bright so had to blend another in but will deffo be using it when using my Sleek Acid palette.

Urban Decay provide me with one of my HG products which is UDPP (the primer potion) and I have loved this ever since I spent points on it last time and it is no where near finished. Imagine my shock today when I saw it priced at £11 on the Boots website. Things are meant to be cheaper after the VAT decrease but it seems to me that Boots are pulling a fast one, either keeping their prices as the tags show (i.e. the pre-reduction rate) or raising prices so that we pay as much, if not more than we paid under the 17.5% tax rate. Hmm..I shall have to go to Debenhams instead.

My Stila "haul"

I went to the Stila sample sale the other day and it was great, stuff was greatly reduced and I cam away with a few bargains. The only thing I'm a bit sad about is the fact that I should have taken more money with me :( I could have gotten so much more but I think I did OK considering the fact that I only spent £37.

So, here's what I got:

• Lip glaze in mocha
• Plumping lip glaze in melon mint
• Smudge pot in black
• Smudge pot in jade
• Smudge pot in purple
• Eyeliner in topaz
• Eyeliner in purple
  
• Pigment in the most perfect copper colour
  
• Highlighter in white

If I had taken more money I would have bought some brushes but my current Ruby and Millie brushes do me ok and I think it's time I bought a MAC brush and so will be picking one up really soon :)

I really wanted to pick up a convertible colour but they only had gladiola and poppy, one which was too orange and one which was too red for desi skin. They had peony but it had been swatched like mad and the case was scratched, plus it was boxless. If it wasn't swatched I would have bought it. I also regret not buying a smudge pot in bronze but oh well, I can always pick it up when I go to America.

So..here's my haul in photo format:
Row 1: Smudgepot in purple, copper pigment, highlighter
Row 2: Lipglaze in mocha
Row 3: Plumping lipglaze in melon mint
Row 4: Eye pencil in topaz
Row 5: Eye pencil in purple (can't remember exact name and am too lazy to check)
Row 6: Palette in noir, smudgepot in black, smudgepot in jade

The highlighter, pigment and smudgepot:
The smudgepot in purple was my steal of the day, it was unboxed and so was only £1.50 (as were the pigment and the highlighter).

I picked up a gift box which I also regret putting back as it had two eyeshadows (including the infamous kitten), a lipglaze and some mascara but ho hum..such is life.

Outside of the palette (all nice and furry aka velvety) and two of the smudgepots:

Inside the palette: