Russian Doll Make-Up

Ah, perhaps I should clarify the title of this post - this isn’t about how to do your make-up to look like a Russian doll (although that would make for quite an interesting post now that I think about it…) but rather about a super cute make-up palette that I picked up in TK Maxx on Friday that’s shaped like a Russian doll.  I love Russian doll paraphernalia, although bizarrely enough I don’t own an actual Russian doll!  Anyway I saw this and just had to have it.

The palette is called the Puposka and it’s by the Italian cosmetics brand Pupa.  There are various designs of this palette available and mine is called Burlesque Dreams.  While they’re not widely available in the UK you can still purchase their products easily enough online.  The price sticker says RRP £13 but I paid only £7.99.  I think this approximately reflects the prices that you would pay for Pupa online as well.

Above: this tiny doll charm is attached to one of the side compartments.

This palette is so much fun.  It would be the worst gift ever for somebody who loves elegant sophistication, but it’s perfect for big kids or lovers of all things kitsch like me!  There are two compartments that you slide out from the sides of the doll, and you can swing the plastic face upwards to reveal a tiny mirror that’s unfortunately much too tiny to be useful.  It would have been nice to have a lipstick stashed there.

There are four eyeshadows; two shimmery shades perfect for highlighting and two darker glittery shades.  There are also four sheer lipglosses.  The eyeshadows are embossed with dolls and doll faces – again, super cute!

The pigmentation of the shadows was mediocre to poor with the shimmery shadows giving the best colour payoff and the green the worst (2nd from left in pic below), while the lipglosses were very sheer but still glossy enough to be useable.  The glosses provided wouldn’t last long if you were using them regularly though as the portions are so small.

I couldn’t wait to dive into that deep purple eyeshadow and, given the name of the palette, I went for a full on dark glittery eye.

I managed to get OK colour pay off by using a glittery eye crayon as a base.  I also like using pencils as bases when there’s a particular shape I want to create with my make-up as it then becomes as easy as drawing it on.  I just dabbed the purple on top of the base I’d drawn on with quite a small eyeshadow brush then blended a shimmery lilac over the edges.  Unfortunately the camera didn’t quite manage to capture just how super glittery the finished look was, although that was more thanks to the glittery base than the eyeshadow (which is also glittery).  I’ve been wearing this look for 6h now and it’s just started to crease a tiny bit but it’s most definitely still there.

This palette’s definitely not for serious make-up lovers but if you’re stuck for a present to get somebody who loves kitsch tat (that sounds like I’m being ironic in a nasty way but that actually describes my own tastes pretty accurately ha ha!) then this might be worth a look.

Vintage Inspired Accessories from Oasis

I went shopping in Covent Garden on Sunday and picked up some cute vintage-inspired accessories from Oasis that were on sale.  Here’s my Babushka cushion helping me to model some of them for this post.  I picked up a necklace with a fabric flower corsage for £8 and matching flowery headband for £4.

I do love a nice string of pearls, and this one’s even more versatile than normal pearls (I like them because I think they’re easy to both dress up and dress down) as the corsage on the flower is actually a removable brooch so you can wear the pieces separately or together.  It’s a nice idea that I might try out with some other necklace/brooch combos.

Here’s a closer look at the headband as modelled by Babushka and me.  It’s an accessory that’s both practical and cute as it’s good for keeping my short hair out of my eyes!

I was feeling the vintage vibe so I picked up this statement ring too which was half-price at £5.  It’s huge, looks like a mini work of art, and I think it goes nicely with my grey nail varnish in this shot – what more could a girl ask for?

Babushka treats from Sass and Belle

For some reason I really like the visual theme of Russian Dolls - don't ask me why, I just think they're really cute. Funnily enough even though I'm often drawn to items with Russian Doll images on them I don't actually own any Russian Dolls...hmm.

Anyway after ballet class last week I was walking through Covent Garden with a friend and we popped into the Aladdin's Cave of kitsch that is Sass & Belle. It's a great place to spend a tenner on a quirky gift, or on cute stuff that you don't actually need but find amusing if you're in that kind of shopping mood. On this occassion I got two things and actually left with change from a tenner because they were both on sale. I got some babushka bunting for £2.99 and a little babushka bag for £4.99.


I hang this up in my kitchen to brighten up my wall.




Here's the bag next to my Blackberry to give an idea of the size.


So what will I be using my babushka bag for? Hmm...

Storing make-up in I think! It's a nice size for a travel make-up bag. Here you can see I've already stuffed it with some of my new season favourites from the Accessorize make-up range that came out in Autumn last year. I really like this range so I've got quite a few items from it and I'll try to do some posts on some of the pieces soon.