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.

Downsizing with DVD Palettes

Check out my latest stack of new eyeshadow palettes!

Well, sort of new. This week I got all crafty with most of my huge boxed palettes and depotted a ton of eyeshadows into DVD cases. There are empty palettes available that you can buy for this purpose; the one that springs to mind is the Z Palette which is available in the UK from the website Love Make Up, but they are quite expensive with prices starting at £9 (and going up to £16+ for a palette this size) and since I had a boxful of empty DVD cases anyway I thought I really ought to use them instead of spending a ton on expensive palettes.

My boyfriend was kind of impressed and shocked in equal measure when I showed him what I’d created ha ha. He was impressed by the idea – which unfortunately I can’t take credit for as it’s a well-covered topic on YouTube, where I first saw it, but shocked that I would want to get rid of all the cool packaging. However I had to depot one of my Urban Decay Book of Shadows as one of the shadows had gone bad so I had to get rid of it and also ideally re-house the others at the same time, and I was so pleased with the results that I decided to depot my Book of Shadows IV at the same time. The shadows just weren’t getting the attention they deserved at all because I never have time to deal with the unwieldy packaging in the mornings.

This palette contains the entire contents of my Urban Decay Book of Shadows II and IV.

As that was my first ever attempt at depotting I did crack and chip a few of the shadows, but the result is still honestly better than the set-up I had before, whereby the massive palettes had just ended up being stored out of sight and out of mind in a corner. You can see that all of the shadows have hardly been touched even though I’ve had the BoS II for about three years (!!) and the BoS IV for one year. Now they’re so accessible I use them much more.

I also went and depotted my massive Front Cover palettes. By this time I had done a bit more research and I used the oven-method as described in this YouTube video by Gossmakeupartist. It’s very simple and effective but you must pay attention and be careful when you do this as high temperatures are involved and you could easily burn yourself.

As well as empty cases to house the shadows in you’ll also need a tool to prise the eyeshadows out with and glue to stick them down into the new cases with. I used some nail scissors and an all purpose glue by UHU.

Here’s an example of how much space one DVD palette can save. This palette contains all the eyeshadows that were housed in this massive case.

I just wrote the names of the shadows on a piece of notepaper and stuck it to the front of the DVD case.

I also depotted some larger domed baked shadows. These are a bit higher than shadows in flat pans so they did suffer a small amount of indentation from the opposite side of the case, but again I would much rather have them in this much more accessible format and slightly dented than have them lying neglected in their original packaging.

I also created a DVD lipgloss palette which I think looks quite cool :) I just depotted these by prising them out of the cases with the nail scissors as they are cream products and would have melted and things might have become a little messy if I had heated them in the oven.

What do you think about depotting shadows into cases? Do you love your original packaging too much, or does it just sit around a bit neglected like mine did?

Autumn Glam Look

I do love the weather in London in the autumn; we’ve finally gotten rid of the sticky muggy humidity of the end of summer and the air has taken on an invigorating crispness that’s not yet too cold.

I’ve called this look “autumn glam” as it involves more than two shades of eyeshadow, which counts as glamourous for me. PLUS I even threw in some eyeliner and some eyeshadow along my lower lash line – which is really counts as going all out for me!

I’m wearing Illamasqua cream blush in betray – it’s quite a scary looking dark berry/rose shade in the pan but it blends out beautifully. I like applying with either a brush or my fingers then blending out the edges with a damp duo fibre stippling brush.

 

My eye make-up was mostly by Urban Decay (the shadows were all from my Book of Shadows IV). These colours are so typically autumn though that loads of brands have similar shades available, especially at the moment.

Anyhow this is what I used:

• a light glittery gold highlight on the inner corners (Midnight Cowgirl)
• matt vanilla shaded highlight just underneath my brows (Skimp)
• medium gold across the lid (Baked)
• a dark blackish green as my smoky colour in my outer corner and along the lower lash line (Cobra)
• a very thin slick of brown eyeliner (24/7 Waterproof liner in Smog)

The Urban Decay 24/7 liner has definitely grown on me since I first got it; at first I thought they were a bit fiddly to use as they have the thinnest brush of any liquid liner I’ve ever tried but now I actually think they’re one of the easiest liquid liners to apply as the brush is quite short and stiff so you just need to rest it on top of your lashes and use them as a guide to get a perfect line. You can see in the photos above how fine a line you can achieve with them, which is good for me as I have such narrow eyelids – so they’re worth checking out if you like a fine line.

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.

Products I Would Not Buy Again–Autumn 2012 Edition

I really like the idea of this kind of post so I’ve called this the Autumn 2012 Edition hoping that I can make this a regular feature. While of course I love reading about products that other people really enjoy using it’s also useful to hear about products that are best avoided – it helps save so much disappointment and money too!

So without further ado, here is my current tray of shame. Some of these products are awful, and some I just don’t like. You can click on this pic for a larger view.

1. Nivea Visage pure and natural cleansing lotion – this product claims “95% of natural origin” but, if that’s true, then I’m afraid their scientists spent too long focusing on ingredients and not enough time on coming up with a product that actually removes make-up. It’s rubbish. I wear eye make-up nearly every day and I need a reliable eye make-up remover. This unfortunately is not one. I won’t be buying this again.
2. Illamasqua Base Coat – this is one of the only Illamasqua products I’ve tried that I don’t like. It’s very runny and while that makes it quick-drying I just feel that it doesn’t offer enough protection to my nails as I still quite often suffer from staining from coloured varnishes when I wear this base coat underneath.
3. Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain and Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm – I know that loads of people love these, but I really hate them both. The balm stain is so hard and waxy that I end up having to rub so hard for any colour payoff that it hurts! The Just Bitten Lipstain is a felt-tip style lipstain with a tiny waxy balm at the other end. It takes ages to apply because it dispenses colour so unevenly and to be frank it’s still impossible to get even coverage no matter how long you spend trying to apply the thing. I definitely won’t be buying either of these again.
4. Accessorize Diamond Lipgloss – I love most Accessorize products that I’ve tried but even though these lipglosses look gorgeous in the tube, you have to apply a huge dollop to get close to the same effect on the lips and they just don’t last. It’s a shame as the colours are gorgeous and they do look so pretty.
5. Collection 2000 Cream Puff – again this is a product that’s been raved about by so many beauty bloggers and vloggers and it does have a lovely texture and colour – but I just can’t get it to last on my lips. It lasts a couple of hours on me max. Maybe I talk too much or drink too much coffee or something, but in any case I prefer my lip colours to hang around for just a little bit longer.
6. MAC Shadestick – these used to be part of MAC’s permanent collection but they were discontinued a couple of years ago and now just make occasional appearances in limited edition collections. I was curious to give one a try as I do like eyeshadow sticks, but once I got my hands on this I soon realised why they had been discontinued. It feels like such an old-fashioned product, like the kind of eyeshadow stick that was on the market 10 years ago. The packaging feels cheap and plasticky, and the product only fills the top 1/3 of the pen. It dries out quickly so you have to be very careful about retracting the shadow and clicking the lid on tightly after each use. Unlike the best modern eyeshadow sticks which are smooth and creamy it’s also so horribly hard that it is actually painful to apply as it tugs so much on the skin, and you have to press quite hard to get any colour payoff. Yuck. Definitely not a product that I’ll be buying again.
7. Urban Decay Glitter Eyeshadows – this used to be my favourite eyeshadow – this particular shade is Midnight Cowboy, but I have the same problem with every single Urban Decay eyeshadow that contains any glitter. They suffer from terrible, terrible fallout that begins during application and then continues on throughout the day. When I was younger I didn’t mind having glitter all over my cheeks – just doubled up as an extra highlighter – but now I’m over that stage and I really prefer to keep my glitter where I originally apply it. My favourite glittery eyeshadows are the amazing Blingtones by Myface Cosmetics – super glittery effect, without any glitter! Does that sound confusing? Check out their website (linked in previous sentence) for more info.
8. 17 Wild Metallic Cream Eyeshadows – these are yet another product that seems to be beloved by all in the online beauty community except for me! I really don’t get the hype over these. I bought 3 as I’d read such great reviews of them and there was a 3-for-2 offer on at the time and they looked OK when I tested them on the back of my hand, but the colour just ends up faded and uneven on my eyes and creases like mad. Not only will I not be buying these ever again, I’ll probably end up throwing these in the bin as I just can’t think of any way to get any use out of them.
9. Rimmel Glam’Eyes HD Eyeshadows – these look really cute with their Union Jack designs, but they’re totally impractical and the quality is quite poor. It’s very difficult to load a brush with the eyeshadows due to the design and the texture is super-soft and crumbly so eyeshadow just gets everywhere when you try to pick it up on an applicator from the packaging. The colour payoff is poor too. I consider this to be more of a novelty product than useful make-up. I mean, they’re nice to look at, but ultimately that’s not really what I buy make-up for – I want to be able to wear it on my face! At £5.99 each they’re not cheap either.
10. Bourjois Little Round Pot Eyeshadow – the colour payoff of these is just terrible. I loved the colour of this eyeshadow but in order to get decent colour payoff I had to scrape the surface of the eyeshadow and apply the resulting loose powder with a damp brush – waaaay too much hassle for an eyeshadow that should be producing good results straight from the pan.
11. Stila novelty eyeshadow palette – it’s a bit of a shame as some of these colours are quite nice, but the design of this palette is so impractical. Some of the segments are so small that you have to use a pencil brush to pick any product up. While some of the colours have good colour payoff, many of the matte shades were quite sheer and chalky so I was really disappointed with this. This palette came out last year and I know they have released similar palettes this year with a snowflake design, but I’ll be steering clear.

Well I had fun compiling this list and I hope it was useful or interesting too. I will try to do another edition in late winter or early spring.

Hello Kitty Lipstick in Baby Doll

This is my 2nd lipstick from the Superdrug Hello Kitty make-up range. I really liked the first one I purchased in Betz Believe so I picked up another one when I was in Superdrug the other day. They’re currently retailing for £3.99.

You’re really going to hate this if you dislike really loud, excessive packaging and/or Hello Kitty. Otherwise, you’re in for a treat! :)

I think it’s quite difficult to get a good idea of the shades from the colour representation of the kitty-shaped lids, but fortunately you can just take the lid off and have a peep before you buy them. (Probably not the most hygienic way to show case lipstick, but at least you get to see before you buy I guess).

On my lips this colour comes up as a very sheer, shimmery peach. I love it. It’s also very moisturising so I’m going to get a lot of use out of this both wearing it to work and for evenings out when I want a nude lip to pair with more intense eye make-up. It’s not very long lasting, but I’m not that bothered by light shades fading away. I only get upset when dark lip colours fade away leaving an awful dark lip line and my pale nude lips in the centre, ugh.

Gemini MUA Manicure

MUA recently launched a range of five different colour-combos of micro-beads for nails called Nail Constellations. I ordered a couple of shades online as I was finding it difficult to track them down in any Superdrug stores and the other day I experimented with giving myself a manicure using the lilac/peach/green shade Gemini.

Above: the beads look like cake sprinkles in the bottle – but will they make my nails look just as yummy?

I chose a light purple colour to use as my base shade. The base shade will peep through the beads and especially when they start to fall off so you should choose a colour bearing this in mind.

The first time you use the Nail Constellations you have to remove the plastic top of the bottle and remove the safety sticker. This is actually a bit of a delicate task and there will be some spillage no matter how careful you are so choose your location carefully!

The beads were surprisingly easy to apply. I painted all my nails with one coat of nail varnish. I then painted quite a thick second coat on my thumb nail and immediately poured the micro-beads over my nail. I did this over a rectangular piece of plastic packaging to catch all the spillage. The beads stuck to my nail quite well and there wasn’t actually as much spillage as I was expecting. The top of the bead container is quite narrow so only a few beads are dispensed at a time. I did have to keep tipping it upright then upside down again to maintain the flow of beads. When I was happy with the coverage on my thumb nail I gently used the pad of my index finger on my other hand to very gently press the beads down into the nail varnish. I then repeated with my ring finger then painted all my other nails with a second coat of purple.

I only painted the tip of my beaded nails with topcoat, as the colour of the beads is soluble and fades when they come into contact with top coat.

I then simply took the top off the bead container and held it upside down inside the bottle to use as a funnel that I poured the excess beads that I had caught in my rectangular plastic container back into.

I was really pleased with the results; I think my beaded manicure looks really cute. Unfortunately it’s not a long-lasting finish and many beads fell off within a few hours, and nearly all of them were gone by the following morning. I would definitely use topcoat over the whole nail next time and not just the tips in spite of the slight fading in colour as the remaining beads had faded a lot by next day anyway. I had heard before that this kind of manicure only lasts for a couple of days so I wasn’t too disappointed. I will definitely do this again next time I’m going out to meet my friends as I know they will love it when they see it – we are all big fans of cake and my nails look like they’re covered in sprinkles!