Germany 2012 – The Rest!

So here it is, only 4 months after my trip – a post on all the beauty goodies that I picked up when I was in Hamburg way back in Dec!

P2 Moisturizing Ultra Gel (cuticle conditioner) and Base + Care Coat.

P2 is a German drugstore own brand that have some great products at amazing prices. Both these products cost around EUR2 each and this is actually the second bottle of the base coat that I’ve bought. I bought my first one a few years ago and thought it was so good that I used it all up, so I was very happy that I had an opportunity to restock.

I haven’t actually used the Moisturizing Ultra Gel that much yet although I should because the reason that I bought it is that I suffer from dry cuticles. So I just have to hope that it lives up to its claim of being “intensiv feuchtigkeitsspendend” (intensely moisturising). I love how it looks in the bottle too with its tiny floating vitamin E dispensing red beads.

I discovered a new brand of nail polish on this trip in a pharmacists (or drugstore, if you prefer!) called Budni. The Blackbird line of nail polishes costs EUR2.49 per bottle and is shelved in displays that look like birdhouses – cute! I’ve worn both these colours several times now and can heartily recommend them. You can see my swatches of the chocolate brown I Need You here and my swatches of the Azure blue Free As A Bird here.

I also picked up a couple of random items from some limited edition autumn/winter collections: a peachy coloured cream blush by the brand Catrice in the shade Rose’s Wood (Siberian Call collection) and a silver lipgloss again by P2 (Keep the Secret collection).

The lipgloss is amazing; it’s really thick and pigmented and can be worn either as a very sheer layer to add a subtle glow to the lips or in a thicker layer as in my swatch above for opaque coverage. Definitely my kind of lipgloss.

The blush was a bit of an impulse buy as I’m not usually a fan of drugstore cream blushes but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the longevity of this one so far and I’ve discovered that the subtle shade is the perfect way to add a touch of colour to cheeks without overwhelming the face if worn with stronger eye or lip looks.

Next up, my personal beauty obsession – eye make-up! I bought: 3 powder eyeshadows, 2 eyeshadow bases, an eyeshadow stick and a mascara. Phew!

Above: Emporio Armani Eyes to Kill eyeshadow in shade 1 Blast of Blue (reduced from EUR30 to EUR15, hurray! Purchased at the Gaensemarkt Parfumerie, Hamburg)

Catrice Instensif’Eye Wet and Dry eyeshadow in 050 Lunch at Tiffany’s, around EUR4

Essence Home Sweet Home LE collection eyeshadow in 02 Light the Fire, Place! ca. EUR2

I do like the shade but I have to admit that I mainly picked this up because of the super cute knitted pattern!

Above, left to right: Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill in Blast of Blue, Catrice Intesif’Eye in Lunch at Tiffany’s, Essence eyeshadow in Light the Fire, Place!

My favourite shadow is the Catrice one; it’s wonderfully pigmented and easy to apply and blend, and it’s such an easy colour to wear. I got plenty of wear out of it through the winter, but I haven’t worn it so much lately as my attention has turned to brighter colours for spring and summer.

I haven’t actually worn the Armani (above) much at all, despite it being a lovely colour, because it’s very deep and intense and more an evening/night time colour for me and I haven’t gone out that much lately. I am going to make more effort to wear it though as it is definitely one of the most expensive single eyeshadows I own, yet somehow it still seemed to be an absolute bargain as I bought it as it was half price!

Above: Astor Volume Diva Black Velvet Mascara (ca EUR10), P2 Smokey Eye Stylist automatic cream eyeshadow stick (ca EUR3)

Again I did just buy this mascara for the beautiful packaging (but in my defence, I also had happy memories of good Astor mascaras that I owned when I lived in Germany years ago). The metallic-effect lid has beautiful "carvings” of roses in it.

I almost like this mascara – the packaging is beautiful and it comes with just the kind of wand that works well on my stubby lashes – a sparse, narrow wand that simply dumps loads of product onto the lashes for a nice volumising effect, but unfortunately this mascara smudges on me, so it’s never going to make it into my favourites.

I don’t even know why I bought this eyeshadow stick, but it found itself into my shopping basket all the same. I think I must have gotten to the point where I was just grabbing products! I do use eyeshadow sticks and pencils but they’re usually in light colours, and I use them as eyeshadow bases. I also use this as an eyeshadow base, so I can’t really testify as to how it holds up when worn on its own, but it does do a nice job of keeping my eyeshadow in place so I have no complaints. It also works well as an eyeliner – you can create a very thick line or use the in-built sharpener (pull the silver end off the pencil) to create a fine point to draw thinner lines. Oh and I should mention that it has a lovely creamy consistency so it doesn’t drag across the lids as you apply it at all.

And finally, the last two products of my somewhat random selection are two eyeshadow bases, again both by the brand P2.

Keep the Secret was a limited edition collection from Autumn 2012 – the silver lipgloss pictured above was also from this collection. Unfortunately the best thing about the Desirable Eye Base is the rather solid feeling glass packaging, as I’ve found it to be a bit of a flop as far as being an eyeshadow base is concerned. It reminds me a lot of Maybelline dream mousse foundation in both its colour and consistency, and didn’t seem to make any difference to the longevity of my eye make-up at all, which was sliding around all over my lids after just a few hours when I tried it over this.

I have higher hopes for the P2 Perfect Eyes! base which has somewhat simpler packaging but a plethora of positive reviews on the blogosphere already. However, I’m yet to give it a thorough road test myself. It’s part of the permanent collection though so I should definitely test it out before my next trip to Germany so that I know whether I need to restock or not!

What I Got up to this Weekend

My friends and I do love getting dressed up and stopping over at each other’s houses for a spot of afternoon tea. Here I have to confess that we were indulging in a spot of gossip when we were caught in the act by an unexpected visitor entering our drawing room…

Only joking :) This is a shot of me and my friend dressed up as Victorian ladies at the History Studios in the Trocadero, Piccadilly Circus. This is actually the second time we’ve been there for a photoshoot because we found it so much fun the first time when we dressed up as Tudor ladies. (I don’t have any scanned images from that shoot unfortunately). It’s a fantastic treat if you love the idea of dressing up and having a professional take your photos. The staff are all very friendly and helpful so I definitely recommend the experience.

Victorian ladies generally didn’t wear much if any make-up as it was somewhat frowned on at the time. What they lacked in cosmetics though they definitely made up for with their wonderful accessories and elaborate clothing. My friend and I both loved the hats and I definitely think it’s a shame that they’ve fallen so much out of fashion these days. You don’t really need to wear any make-up for these shoots as the images are light and colour corrected afterwards but we decided to wear a teeny bit of pink lipstick in our photos. I think it matched our outfits perfectly.

First Christmas Make-up of 2012

I was invited to a tree-trimming evening last week at a friend’s and I figured that I might as well do some party make-up. I like to take advantage of any excuse to whack excessive glitter all over my face :)

As a disclaimer, the lousy winter light has been killing my photos lately. Here I had to take photos under artificial lighting with a flash so they’re quite orange and shiny. Just the kind of flattering finish I love lol.

I used eyeshadows from my Accessorize You are Everything palette (silver and purple on the upper lid) and the turquoise from my MUA Dusk till Dawn palette on my lower lash line. Incidentally I’m not wearing any mascara in these photos – my eyes tend to water when I go out in the cold and I didn’t want to end up with mascara running all down my face by the time I got to my friend’s, but I don’t think this look misses mascara too much because I’m wearing so much eyeliner that the lashline stands out anyway.

Both of these palettes are fantastic for creating simple but striking looks as they contain a really good range of well-pigmented colours. Oh and did I mention that you can pick up both of these from selected Superdrugs and go home with change from £15? Definitely worth checking out if you like your bargain eyeshadows.

Glamour Daze–What I Bought Part I

This is Part I because I’ve been pacing myself with this massive collection and will probably pick up one of the crushed pigment sets too and feature that when it arrives.

Glamour Daze is the Holiday 2012 collection from MAC and as such is HUGE and if you like MAC then there’s probably something to tickle your fancy. As for myself, well, as a massive eyeshadow fiend it was no surprise that my first order consisted of two Extra Dimension eyeshadows and a Fluidline, all of which are limited edition shades.

Above: Glamour Daze Extra Dimension Eye Shadow in Stolen Moment (left) and Divine Blue (right)

Below: Glamour Daze Fluidline in Catch My Eye

I really like the fluidline and think it’s the perfect wintery colour – a cool, shimmery silver. I’ve worn it a few times already and think it’s the perfect compliment to light, shimmery eyeshadows. Today I wore it with Urban Decay’s Uzi, a mega-glittery silvery white shade. It’s very easy to apply with a short, stiff brush and lasted on me all day.

Unfortunately I’ve found the eyeshadows to be more problematic, but first up before I go into details here’s a swatch of the shades on my arm.

Left – right: Divine Blue, Stolen Moment

To me, Divine Blue just doesn’t live up to the promise of the colour in the pan. I also struggled to apply it on my eyes. This shadow works best with a stiff flat shading brush. This is a plus if you like your shadows to be sheer but buildable, but I have to say that I was expecting better colour pay off.

Then there’s the problem of the price. These shadows currently cost £16.50 in the UK for a measley 1.3g. I’m sorry to say that 1) that is not enough for a single eyeshadow and I would expect at least 1.5g (which is the weight of normal MAC single shadows) and 2) that is simply over-priced for what you get.

In the original release of Extra Dimension shadows back in spring this year you got 2g of shadow for the same price. I’ve done some comparison photos for reference but as a matter of pure percentages that represents a 35% size reduction and consequently price increase.

Now I usually don’t hit pan on eyeshadows in any case and I tend to buy them because I want the colour, so that in itself was not enough to put me off purchasing some of the shadows from this new collection. However, these shades turned out to be so ordinary and unexceptional that I was really disappointed by them, and I’m really glad that I only bought two. I definitely won’t be buying any other Extra Dimension shadows from the Glamour Daze collection and if they are ever re-released in the future I won’t be buying them if they are priced like this again.

Too Faced Shadow Bon Bons

I’d never tried any make-up by Too Faced before but this eyeshadow palette just sounded too delicious to resist, with its sugary treat inspired shades and names. I bought this from the Boots at Piccadilly Circus for £33.

The palette, which is covered in a lilac velvet effect flocked material with golden cursive writing, is reminiscent of favourite childhood fairytale books. It’s quite a recent release, having come out as part of Too Faced’s Love Sweet Love Christmas 2012 collection.

Above: there is a novelty mirror in the lid which is useable but due to the size of the palette I usually just use another, smaller mirror when applying these shadows.

Above: the palette contains twelve eyeshadows (0.9g each), a mini primer and a full sized mascara. You can click on the photo above for a larger image.

I got some nice photos of the swatches I did on my arm so I’ve included a few shots from different angles.

I haven’t tried all of these shades on my eyes yet as I’ve been using Cut the Cake, Framboise and Candy Rose so much since I got this palette but I did notice when I was swatching the shades on my arm that all of the shadows just glided on with a lovely smooth consistency. As I say though my current favourites though are Cut the Cake and Framboise which create a lovely daytime look with just the kind of intensity that I like at the moment.

Above: You can click on this pic for a larger image. I love the colour scheme - I think it’s really well put-together.

Above, top row of palette: Vanilla, Cut the Cake, Framboise, Coffee Bean

Above, medium row of palette: Peach Fuzz, Hot Cocoa, Candy Rose, Lovey Dovey

Above: bottom row of palette + primer: Naked Beach, Cinnamon Sugar, Marzipan, Liquorice Latte, Shadow Insurance Candlelight

I’d never tried Shadow Insurance primer before I got this one and I have to say that I do like it as a primer. The only problem I have with this one is that it’s a little bit too shimmery and I find that I have to be quite careful when I apply it as it can look a bit funny if it peeps out around the edges of the eyeshadow that I’m wearing. It works very well as a highlighter but again it just takes a teeny bit of care in application.

The tube of this mini-primer dispenses the teeniest amount of product which should cut down any wastage from accidentally over-squeezing. I’ve included a shot of the tip of the packaging held next to my little finger nail to give some idea of just how fine it is.

The Lashgasm mascara which is included is quite good; it’s very black and lasts well throughout the day. The wand is a spiky plastic applicator so if you like that kind (I do) then this should suit you quite well.

All in all I really like this palette and even though the colours aren’t as bright as the usual palettes that I’m drawn to I think I’ll get a lot of use out of it over the autumn and winter.

Accessorize Baked Eyeshadow Trio

This is a Christmas gift set that I decided to gift to myself! I’m a big fan of Accessorize make-up already and these colours were gorgeous and a total bargain at £3.99 when I bought them in Superdrug. They’ve since gone up to £5.99 but are part of a 3-for-2 on gifts promotion that’s going to be running for the next several weeks.

right to left: Molten Copper, Golden Caramel, Cosmic Rays

The eyeshadows contain a mixture of shades swirled together in beautiful patterns. I can’t decide if my favourite is Golden Caramel, which looks like the surface of a planet, or Cosmic Rays, which looks like a semi-precious mineral.

left to right: Molten Copper, Golden Caramel, Cosmic Rays

The quality of these shadows is fantastic. They can be applied wet or dry but to be honest I find them so pigmented that I find that they provide an intense finish even when applied dry. Just one word of warning – Cosmic Rays contains a lot of glitter and I did end up with quite a lot of fall out across my face when I applied it. I just tidied up by dusting some powder over my face lightly with a powder brush.

Cosmic Rays is just the kind of shade I like when I want a more intense look – it’s dark, but not black, and it’s quite a complex and interesting shade. To me the way the gold mixes in makes it looks like a blackened green or blue on the skin.

China Glaze All That Glitters

I just can’t resist a good dash of glitter… that is how I ended up walking past Sally’s Hair and Beauty one minute, and coming out with SEVEN new nail polishes five minutes later – eek!

I got two sets from China Glaze, one a Ho Ho Ho trio (£12.99) which I’ll write a post on later and the All That Glitters set of 4 mini colours (£9.99). Full size China Glaze polishes are 14ml and each of the minis are 9.6ml which is actually a perfect size for me as I never manage to use up nail varnishes before they start going gloopy.

I love all of these colours and I’m definitely going to get a lot of use out of all of them this autumn and winter. Today I started off by trying out Glitter All The Way, a gorgeous dark, cool toned multi-coloured glitter containing indigo, gold, green and red. Here I’m wearing two coats plus a top coat.

I’d say that with two coats the coverage is pretty much opaque, so there’s no need for a coloured base underneath – although there were a few tiny gaps here and there, but they’re really not noticeable from a short distance. The glitter particles lie nice and flat on the nail and with a top coat the finish isn’t rough at all.

I’ll update this post with nail shots of the other shades as I wear them.

03/11/2012

Here’s the first update! Champagne Kisses is a gorgeous beige glitter, containing so much shimmer it’s bordering on holographic. The finish is a bit gritty due to all the glitter but the finish is good – I went 2 days before I got some minor chipping, but I could definitely wear this for 4 to 7 days before needing to redo my nails.