Pistachio Chocolate

This is a look that I came up with using my new MUA Artiste Collection palette. The shades I used were Pistachio and Chocolate. I love this colour combination and it reminds me of mint choc chip ice-cream…yum!

I used Pistachio over my lid to just above the crease, and chocolate in my socket and along the outer corner of my lower lash line. This is my favourite way to wear eyeshadow at the moment because I can look like I’m wearing a lot of colour with a small amount of make-up.

I finished off with a brown liquid eyeliner and eyepencil as I felt black would have been too harsh for this look.

I’ve got another look that I created using this palette coming up soon…seems like it’s fast becoming a favourite of mine!

Above: I used Pistachio (1) and Chocolate (2).

Hello Kitty Arrives at Superdrug

Well, hello there Kitty…

I’ve been excited about this make-up launch since I heard about it over a month ago. I do love my ridiculously kitsch make-up.

The Hello Kitty Superdrug range features a selection of lipsticks, nail varnishes, eyeshadows and more in Hello Kitty packaging. I could have bought so much when I first came across the stand, but I limited myself to one lipstick and one nail varnish so that I could see if the make-up was actually any good, or if they were all just about the gimmicky packaging.

I got a lipstick in Betz Believe, a bright coral pink, and a nail varnish in Respect, a glossy navy. I’ve been wearing them for the past week now and I have to say, considering that they both cost less than £5 and have such funky packaging I’m impressed by the quality. The lipstick is creamy and pigmented and lasts about 4 hours on me, and so far the nail varnish, which only required one coat, has gone 4 days without chipping (though a lot of thanks also has to go to my China Glaze top coat).

I’m definitely going to be going back for more lipsticks and nail polishes, and I think they’d also make great gifts for anybody into their cute stuff.

MUA Artiste Collection Palette

This palette was released a couple of weeks ago as part of MUA Professional’s autumn/winter 2012 collection. As any regular readers of this blog will have noticed, I am an eyeshadow addict and lately I’ve been acquiring quite a taste for MUA so I decided to add this to my collection.

The palette contains 6 shimmery shadows with a splatter design (although this is just on the surface of the shadows, quickly wears off and doesn’t affect the colour payoff – but it’s cute to look at while it lasts), two blushes, a contour shade and a highlighter. Altogether the palette contains 17g of product and currently costs £6.

I have been playing around with the palette this weekend and have a couple of looks created from it coming up, but for today I thought I’d just quickly post some swatches of the eyeshadows.

From left to right: Pistachio (very light green), Mocca (v. light fawn), Ice (bright blue), Grape (bright violet), Chocolate (mid-tone metallic brown), Cookie (mid-tone brown)

This palette is a bit of a departure from previous MUA palettes. It contains only 6 eyeshadows compared to 12, but each shadow is larger. The quality is comparable to any other MUA eyeshadows I’ve tried – very good pigmentation, though some of the colours are quite soft and prone to fall-out when applying. The packaging is also cheap but functional – I like the fact that the lids are see-through so you can see the contents at a glance. I find this colour scheme somewhat unusual and disjointed – but for me personally as I only usually wear a maximum of two shades at a time during the week it’s not an issue as it does contain many complimentary duos.

It’s also the first palette to contain face products. I haven’t swatched the blushes or contour and highlighter here but I will mention in upcoming posts when I have used them. The colours are all wearable but I have found them a bit difficult to pick up on my blush brush as the pans are quite small.

Overall this is an excellent buy for £6, though it’s not a make-up bag essential. The colours are nice for a selection of muted daytime looks.

Yellow + Blue

Another quickie EOTD today! I wore this on Sunday – it was quite sunny and I was trying for a colour combo that would bring out the best in my royal blue MUA eyepencil. I don’t often wear yellow eyeshadow but I was actually quite pleased with the result.

Eye make-up:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion
• Yellow from Sleek Glory Palette on eyelid up to crease
• Gold from Shiseido Sea Sunshine* eyeshadow duo blended out from crease to brow
• MUA eyepencil in blue as liner
• Blue from Shiseido Sea Sunshine* eyeshadow duo blended on top of eye pencil
• Body Shop Super Volume mascara in Cobalt Blue*

The products marked with a * are actual long time favourites of mine. The eyeshadow duo is the only Shiseido product that I currently own – I’ve also tried and finished a few of their skincare products – and I have to say that the quality is fantastic. The only reason I’ve never gotten round to trying out any more Shiseido make-up is because it’s comparatively expensive here in the UK and there are always so many other goodies from other brands that I get distracted by!

Silver + Purple Quickie

Just have a super quick eyes of the day post to share today. This weekend I wore a really simple silver and purple combination on my upper lids, finished off with some black mascara and pink blush. I didn’t bother with any make-up on my lower lash line.

I used a cream base – in this instance a Shimmering Eye and Lip Crayon by Barry M which, although it does crease slightly, still holds the colour in place on my lids all day long. It’s actually one of my favourite bases because it’s smooth and creamy to apply and it doesn’t dry my skin out. There’s just minor creasing – which personally I don’t mind, it just leaves the make-up looking a bit lived in.

Above: Accessorize eyeshadow in Ultraviolet, Bourjois little round pot eyeshadow in Argent, BarryM Shimmering Eye and Lip Crayon in shade 6 (violet).

NARS Hanamichi Eyeshadow Palette

I actually got this palette last Christmas, so I’ve now had a good chance to play around with it. I asked for this because it looks like a work of art and I love the Japanese aesthetic. It was actually inspired by Francois Nars’s (the founder of NARS) interest in Japanese culture and Kabuki theatre. Hanamichi is an extra part of the stage in Kabuki theatre whose name means “flower path”, which is given a literal translation in the design of the palette.

The palette contains a whooping 12g of product, and on the face of it the colours make a beautiful combination – a light, shimmery white, an olive gold, and matte cranberry red and black.

As you can see from the swatches, the payoff is quite sheer but it can be built up. I absolutely have to wear them over a primer otherwise I can’t really get them to show up at all. However, I find the colours so difficult to wear in everyday life that I actually only tend to use this palette for the white (just as well that’s makes up most of the palette) when I want a subtle, sheer wash of colour. I also tend to pair it with different eyeshadows rather than use it in combination with the other shades in this palette. I have tried to wear it with the red, but then people have mistaken the red eyeshadow for my eyes being irritated or swollen!!

The palette also comes in its own tie-up pouch and small eyeshadow brush not pictured here. They both sure do look cute, but the pouch is a bit fiddly and time-consuming if you actually intend to use this palette on a regular basis and I have not found the brush to be very useful so I wouldn’t really count either of them as handy extras – they’re more just for show.

Here’s how I put together the white with a mid-tone purple today.

Unfortunately I can’t really be positive about this palette. It’s undeniably beautiful to look at but at £45, unless you have lots of money to spare, you probably won’t want to spend that on an eyeshadow palette with such limited use.

Cold Remedy

I had a cold last week that really zapped my skin. Here’s the photographic evidence. Eek!

Happily I’ve come up with a winning team of dull-skin busting radiance enhancers that can perk up my look in no time.

Above left – right: Illamasqua Cream Blush in Betray; Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer, Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation

This is my current favourite foundation - I’ve had it for a few months now, although I only wear foundation at weekends so I estimate it would last four to six weeks if used everyday. The consistency is quite thick and creamy and it offers medium coverage with a radiant finish.

The other two products are new but I think they’ll be very handy over the coming windswept days, rainy nights and whatever winter decides to throw at me this year!

It just takes a touch of this rosy toned cream blusher to add a healthy flush to cheeks. I use my fingers to apply this then blend out at the edges with a duo-fibre brush.

I don’t actually usually wear concealer but I did feel so zapped after my cold that I felt I needed a bit of extra help to restore some life to my skin so I decided to try this for under my eyes and any other areas where my skin was suffering. It promises full coverage, but it’s actually much thinner than the matching foundation! I’ve been applying two layers to my under eye area and dabbing a small amount on any rough patches or particularly gruesome spots – otherwise I’m generally happy with the coverage I get from my foundation. I don’t know that I would particularly recommend this – I’ll have to use it for a bit longer before I can decide whether there are any particular benefits to using this in addition to foundation or if it’s an unnecessary extra product.

My natural lip colour is very pale, so a bright lipcolour is a quick way to perk my whole face up. Today I opted for a Volume Sensation lipstick by Collection 2000 in shade 4 Plum Perfection. It’s not really volumising, but it does have a shiny finish which always tends to plump things up. I really like the colour though. This is quite a cheap lipstick at £2.99 but it’s pretty good quality for the price. You get a medium coverage, shiny finish that lasts about 3 hours on me.

So, putting all that together, here was the final result today. Ah, much more shiny and happy!