Welcome to my shopping and beauty blog, featuring mainly make-up and also quirky kitsch stuff that generally has no purpose but that I like anyway, and plenty of random pictures of flowers.
Today I have a slightly different kind of post, which is filled with photos that I took in Scotland when I was back there for a few days this summer. I’m mostly inspired by the colours that I see around me, so I thought I’d share a few of the flowers that I spotted when I went to the beach for a bit of inspiration and relaxation. A bit of colour is always nice in the middle of winter. Enjoy!
I haven’t posted anything for almost a month, mostly because it’s been so dark here in London now that winter’s coming that all my photos look really crummy lol, so I thought that I’d post a picture taken a few months back when it was a bit more bright and summery.
Here I’m modelling yet another pair of cat’s ears (I have four now, I get a kick out of collecting them for some reason – these particular ones were Halloween specials from Accessorize) and some peach and green eyeshadow, probably Snatch and Grafitti by Urban Decay.
Stay tuned for some wintery posts coming up this week!
I’ve been experimenting with neutral eyeshadows a lot more recently but I still like my flashes of colour so this is a great way to combine both. It’s also super-quick to throw together, so perfect for work, when I only leave myself about 5 minutes for getting ready in the mornings!
Here’s what I used to create this look…
I don’t bother with foundation during the week and stick to tinted moisturiser instead to save time. I take out shine down the centre of my face with some powder then whack a light bronzer along my cheekbones (I don’t bother using bronzer to contour and instead just use it to add some colour to my face in the areas the sun would naturally hit first) and a bright blush on my cheeks.
I used Bondai bronzer by Accessorize which I also featured in more detail in my previous post, and my newest MAC blush in Solar Ray (also featured here). There are loads of pictures of it on my blog already but I think it’s really pretty so I’m going to include another one here anyway.
I have oily eyelids so in hot weather I use a silicone based eye primer to make sure my make-up lasts through the working day. The MUA eye primer is a bargain at £2.50 as it works just as well as other much more expensive primers of this type that I’ve tried before.
I can’t cope with more than two shades of eyeshadow for work, it just becomes too complicated for me otherwise. Lately I’ve been using shades 4 & 5 from the top row of the MUA undressed palette – I featured many more pics and details in this post. I use the shimmery brown over my lid to the crease then tuck a bit of the matte brown into the crease with a rounded blending brush.
The hero of this look is in my opinion the amazing green eyeliner – which is now discontinued!! It’s from the range Glam Metallics by Collection 2000 which were such amazing products that I can’t believe that they were unpopular enough to be discontinued. You get a massive 6ml of eyeliner in the packaging – for comparison most of my other eyeliners are under 2ml.
The brush is thin but the consistency is nice and thick, a combination that makes for a very forgiving application. It’s very waterproof and doesn’t budge on me until I remove it at the end of the day with an oil based eye make-up remover.
Finally, when I’m going to work I tend to finish off my look with mascara and a nude lipstick or gloss on the bus. Actually I have developed the really bad habit of carrying about 15 lip products around with me at all times in my handbag – I think I should start concentrating on finishing off a couple to make my load easier to carry! I know some people hate it when they see people doing their make-up on public transport but I say hey, if it gives you an extra 5 min in bed then I’m all for it.
Well, a teeny bit tropical…here’s what happened when I finally cracked out some bronzer and bright eyeshadows.
The green is from the Sleek Monaco palette and is the same shade that I used in my Limeade look a couple of weeks back. The blue is from a random eyeshadow palette that I’ve had for ages but isn’t available anymore, but it’s a very common colour with similar peacock blue shades widely available from many brands.
I’m very pale but I warmed up my skin with a warm toned face powder and a light bronzer from Accessorize. The bronzer is the shade Bondai and the powder is the shade Warm Honey, which is a shade up from the colour I use in the winter. I do recommend these shades if you’re pale but want to warm up your complexion without creating too much of a contrast to your natural skin colour by using shades that are too dark. The lighter shade of the bronzer can also be used on its own as a golden highlighter.
Below from left – right: face powder in warm honey, Bondai light shade, Bondai dark shade, Bondai both shades blended out
I only use face powder down the centre of my face because I wear either blusher or bronzer anyway on my cheeks and temples so they don’t need powder first. Even if you don’t wear anything on the sides of your face just powdering the centre (forehead, nose and chin) means that you mattify those areas whilst the dewy finish on the sides of your face will create natural highlights – plus this is also a great way to make your powder last twice as long as you only need to use half the amount!
Could Boots No. 7 be preparing for a re-branding? They’re currently running a half-price on all make-up special offer. I’m not sure how long it’s going to last though so if you’re passing by a Boots this bank holiday weekend and you’re a fan of the brand then it’s probably worth checking out, as their offers are usually 3-for-2 which involves buying at least two products in order to make a saving.
I decided to take advantage of the offer to grab some pretty lip colours. I bought a Stay Perfect lipstick, a Liplicious glossy balm, and a long lasting Stay Perfect Lip Lacquer lip colour and gloss duo.
Stay Perfect lipstick in 55 Glace
This is a long-lasting lipstick with a dreamy creamy consistency (my favourite kind). I haven’t found it to be drying on my lips at all and in fact find it very comfortable to wear. This lasts a good four to six hours on me, depending on how much I eat and drink.
Liplicious Moisturising Balm SPF 15 in Purple Liquorice
I actually quite like this packaging – a squeezy plastic tube with a hard applicator. The main reason I like it is because you get a massive 12ml of product because there’s no space taken up by an internal brush/doe foot applicator.
The colour looks very deep and intense in the packaging but in fact it’s a clear gloss with shiny purple and gold particles shot through. The coverage is very sheer and it adds a gentle, unobtrusive shine on the lips. The consistency is smooth and moisturising so another hit with me, although not quite as long lasting as a lip gloss.
Stay Perfect Lip Lacquer in 30 Sugar Mauve
The No. 7 lipstain/lipgloss duos are my favourites of this type of product that I’ve tried and this is in fact my third one. The lipstain does not budge once it’s on until you decide you want to remove it with make-up remover but it’s also surprisingly comfortable to wear. Again I don’t find it to be drying unlike some other long lasting lip products I’ve tried. The gloss can also be worn alone and is a top-quality sticky lipgloss (I prefer sticky lipglosses as I find them longer lasting than smooth, light glosses) and comes with an excellent brush applicator.
I must be into my mauves at the moment as you can see from the swatches below that the lipstick and lipstain are very similar shades. That’s fine though as I’m sure I’ll get plenty of use out of all of these.
Above left – right: Stay Perfect lipstick in 55 Glace; Liplicious Moisturising Balm SPF 15 in Purple Liquorice; Stay Perfect Lip Lacquer in 30 Sugar Mauve
I truly believe that Accessorize is one of the most underrated high street make-up brands amongst beauty bloggers. It’s really one of my favourite brands and I usually have to stop myself from buying all their new season products in one go, but I see hardly any coverage in the blogs I read.
Superdrug are currently running a special half-price promotion on these shadows so you can pick them up for less than £3 each for 4.5g of shadow– which given their quality is an amazing bargain. I have nearly all of the current shades so I figured that now was as good a time as any to post swatches of all the ones I have in one post.
As an additional cute touch, all of the shades are named after ancient goddesses. All of the below swatches were done dry.
Shade 11 – Aphrodite (Greek goddess of love) – bright white and red-tinged glittery black
16 – Freya (Norse goddess of love/fertility) – a light bright gold and gold-tinged copper
14 Venus (Roman goddess of love) - a deep purple and beautiful unusual pink-tinged silver.
15 – Zoria (Slavic goddess of beauty) – bright light gold and turquoise
4 – Break Up (I think this shadow must actually have been from the previous collection but I decided to include it as I had already had the photos anyway) – white gold and light golden green
I love how the complexity of the beautiful patterns in the pan is translated when the shadow is applied to the skin, with unexpected streaks of colour and texture. Every single one of these shades is smooth, pigmented and blendable. At less than £3 a pop, I say grab ‘em while you can!
Phew, it sure has been hot in London this weekend! There was no option but to go for cool colours all over my face today.
I used some old favourites and some new products. It’s a pretty uncomplicated look but I think the result is still quite striking and cute.
First up I swept a shimmery lilac all over my lids then applied a turquoise gel eyeliner. The eyeshadow was a mixture of the two lightest shades from my new Look Beauty Triple Hit eyeshadow trio in Party Fever and the eyeliner was one of the new MUA gel eyeliners in the shade Tribe. The product comes with an integrated brush in the lid – you just have to remove the protective sticker and click it together.
This eyeshadow feels absolutely massive in its packaging and you do get a generous 10g for £7.50. The eyeshadows are quite smooth and pigmented and easy to apply and blend. My only slight bugbear is that all the shades are shimmery – very shimmery – so you do end up with a very shiny and reflective result if you decide to use all the shades together to create a smokey eye. I can see myself using these shades individually or blended together as one colour to create a wash of block colour across my lids.
The gel eyeliner is a lovely colour and I quite like the fact that they have kept the packaging small and the price low (£3) as gel eyeliners have a habit of drying out long before you manage to use them all up. The consistency is soft and creamy and it’s very forgiving when you apply it so it’s perfect for beginners. It’s also long-lasting and easily lasts all day on me.The integrated brush is actually quite good too, even though the tip of mine was a bit bent.
I actually bought another shade of this eyeliner at the same time although I’m not wearing it in the photo above. It’s a lovely sparkling grey in the shade Fairground. It has the same consistency and longevity as Tribe so I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re interested in gel eyeliners.
I used some blue mascara today as I wanted something more colourful than black. I used the Body Shop super volume mascara which I think is fantastic and a product that I definitely don’t use as much as I should.
In keeping with my cool theme I went for this cool toned pink blush in the shade Sakura by MAC. It was a limited edition from spring 2012 and a shade that I usually reserve for spring but it seemed to go well with the cool tones I used on my eyes. I’ve featured it several times on my blog already and you can click on the “MAC” label in my side bar to read the other entries.
