"You're tacky and I hate you."

Ahhh, I love Billy from School of Rock. Whenever I heard or read the word 'samples,' I can't help but giggle. Anyway, this post is about sample baggies, how I store them, bla bla bla.

Previously, I've not really bought that many samples from websites. I bought the big sample set of Evil Shades and while I love all the colours, boy are the baggies a pain in the ass to use. Anyway, a week or so ago I remembered reading somewhere that someone used a pill organiser to depot theirs into...



...and I thought it was an okay idea, and worth a go.

Pros: Can actually see and use all the colours, don't have to faff about in a bag and make a mess, only cost a quid.
Cons: Can't travel with it, as the lids aren't secure and the organiser is sectioned (although I never touch up my eyeshadow anyway), lids are fiddly to open.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. It's full up now I put my She Space stuff in it - I also had the genius idea to put the sticker from the baggie on the lid :| I've actually been using my samples this week so that's good. I can feel happy buying more now that I know they'll be used. But if you did want to use yours up you could make:


-Nail Polish



Hooray for MUA £1 clear polish! This one I made with Hi-Fi Aphrodisiac (sample) and Barry M Old Gold. A bit sheer, but a lovely muted aubergine-y colour with green and gold sparkles. Think it would look better over a black base. Plus it kind of 'gathers' at the cuticles and tips and makes me look a bit grotty. But it's the first polish I ever made, so yay!




For this one I used samples of Evil Shades Suffocation and Hi-Fi's #1 Hit Single. It was really pretty but again, sheer, so here I'm wearing it over Barry M's grey. I got complimented on it by a lady at work and she asked where I got it and was amazed when I told her I made it. If anyone has any tips on how to get these bad boys more opaque I'd love to hear them!

-Lip Gloss





Over Rimmel Jungle Green liner, but it's pretty opaque anyway.

Awesome, huh? This came out exactly as I wanted it in my head. I used my Evil Shades Acolyte and Whooo R U? samples mixed with clear gloss, a touch of some goopy ELF gloss and a Milani Gloss with burgundy glitters in, which you can't see here but look awesome. I think making a green gloss is perfect use for ES pigments, no? Yes, yes, yes, I know you can BUY a green gloss from Evil Shades, but whatever. I just can't bring myself to fork out for one, even though I very nearly bought the new one from Hi-Fi.


Anyway, that's my little bid to actually USE all my make-up. Hooray! Even though to make the gloss and polishes I only use a tiny bit! Oh well. Add than and the fact that today I ordered Hi-Fi's Hallowe'en set (only sample size, sadly) and my boyfriend let me buy some Fyrinnae.... and then put me on a ban for a while... I'm not doing so well. Oh well. I've got...

-Sugar Skulls (Hallowe'en, but an existing shade, methinks.)
-Madame and Eve (Arcane Magic: Hallowe'en)
-Nijiro
-Blue Footed Booby
-Moon Child
-Dinosaur Plushie
-Electro Koi
-Polar Bear
-Equality
-Danse Macabre (Hallowe'en shade)
-Shinigami (thanks Phyrra!)
-Hair Dye lip lustre

... winging their way to me to numb my pain. I can't wait to see Dinosaur Plushie!

xxx

Turtle Beauty's Giveaway and Fall-y Goodness!

Except in Eng-er-land, we call it 'autumn,' innit.

In case you live under a rock, Cydonian of Turtle Beauty is having an awesome giveaway with LA Colours, China Glaze, Essie, Clinque and Maybelline! 'Citing! So go here and enter it thankyou plz, as it ends tomorrow.

Anyway, she asked people to do a fall look for extra entries, so today I finally got round to doing one:







Eyes:
UDPP/Pixie Epoxy
Rimmel kohl liner in Forest Green (lower lashline as a base)
Fyrinnae Damn Paladins (lid)
Fyrinnae Dressed to Kill (upper and lower lashlines, and blended out in the crease)
Hi-Fi Valentine Evenings (crease)

Face:
Mac blush in Springsheen
Sleek Contour Kit in Light

Lips:
Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Devil Horns

I really liked this look. I know people don't think of green as being a very autumnal colour, but I really wanted to paired Dressed to Kill with some coppers or reds at some point, and it has a lot of gold shot through it too. It was a pain in the butt to get to stick, thank god for Pixie Epoxy!






Eyes:
TSS Angels Blush (lid)
TSS Gothic Glamour (crease and lower lashline)
Brown Kryolan AquaColour (liner)
Mac Gesso (highlight)

Face:
Almay Blush in Peach
NYX Mosaic Highlighter

Lips:
High Voltage Lip Candy in Kinky

Ok, so this picture is rank, but you get the point. Orange + brown = win. Plus I didn't have much time for my make-up that morning, and that always mean bright lippie.





Eyes:
Evil Shades Wistful (lid)
Evil Shades Double Barrell (crease and lower lashline)
Sleek matte brown from Bohemian palette (lower lashline)
Evil Shades Nymphette (liner)
Ancient NYC blue-toned shimmer powder for highlight

Face:
Oh, god, I don't know. Blush of some description.

Lips:
Cherry Carmex

In a bid to use my samples more (post coming up) I did a full Evil Shades eye. I'd not used Nymphette before and it's a totally gorgeous liner shade. I guess this is quite neutral and toned down for me, but I really liked it.


Plans for the weekend, peeps? I was going to go out tomorrow but I've been having really pooey dizzy spells so I think that plan is on the back burner. I'm hoping to drag my bloke to Camden to lust after corsets and cyber goth crap and try to persuade him that I really, really, really need high heeled Doc Martens on our next snowboarding trip. Failing that, make cup cakes. Gotta have a plan B.

xxx

Kryolan, TSS and High Voltage Swatches/LOTDs

Due to recent customer service complaints, long order waits, orders going missing and ingredient inconsitencies, I can no longer recommend High Voltage Cosmetics. TSS are no longer in business, but due to losing an order from them, should they ever return I do not recommend them either. Kryolan, however, are still full of win.
I am terrible for swatches, I truly am. I see such beautiful, regularly posted swatches on all your blogs and it makes me ashamed of myself. Anyway, I've got some pretty stuff recently and as my face still looks like total poo I've done some swatches...

First up, the Kryolan 24 Aqua Color Palette:



How awesome is the red and purple?



Some good ol' staple basics...



The almost Tiffany blue and the gold are divine!



The silver is a little less 'solid' that the gold. 099 is a gorgeous deep purple!




Sleek Acid eyeshadows over Kryolan UV AC on top, the shadows alone. I do have troubl with these Sleek mattes (though my others are fine.) Now I just need to find a club or bar near me that has UV lighting so I don't look like a dick dancing round Cyberdog in Camden with these on! I can't wait to use these as bases more, and see if I can use Pixie Epoxy over them, etc. Here's my first look with an AC as a base:






I used The She Space eyeshadows in Rules of Reverence (lid), Can't Hide from Karma (crease) and Harmony in the Heavens (crease) over TK. 2 Aquacolor. Here are the swatches of The She Space pigments so you can see how much that base made a difference:





I'd heard a lot of dodgy things about Heather/The She Space, but when I saw on Robyn's Nest that she was selling off all her old pigments for $1.50 for a full-size (albeit in a bloody baggie) I had to order a few regardless. And I'm glad I did! I had a little shipping query, and Heather was lovely and sorted everything out for me right away. The shipping *was* a little slow, but not the slowest I've had from across the pond, especially considering I'd borked up my address. I'm really happy with these pigments - I loooove Angels Blush and Rules of Reverence. They're all good staple colours and I've ordered a few more.


While I'm on the subject of bargains, I took advantage of the BOGOF sale at High Voltage and placed a teeny weeny order. I was skint, but I'd seen Julissa say soooo many good things about the Heart of Glass Lip Candy that she pretty much forced me to buy it!




High Voltage Heart of Glass



High Voltage Kinky

Thanks Julissa - I loooooove these and owe you a cookie! The formula between them is slightly different - Kinky seems a lot less creamy, and I had to heat it up a bit before I could get it to go on nicely - you can see a bit that it looks like I've been eating beans - I had to use my finger as I couldn't get a brush to go through it. I haven't worn Kinky properly yet, but omg, Heart of Glass ROCKS. It lasts sooooo long, is really light wearing, fades really nicely so you get an even stain. If Kinky does the same I'll be so happy that I've finally found an orange that doesn't break the bank or look dirty on my lips. I also got one eyeshadow, StarBreaker, and a blush in Need for Speed, but no swatchies of them because my lighting was tres poo. Definitely ordering from High Voltage again - the Crazy for You Lip Whip is calling my name! Customer service was awesome, too.


Bought anything pretty lately, my loves? What are people getting from Hallowe'en collections - I've got my eye on HiFi's Hallowe'en collection, especially the Monster Mash lippie! I don't know if I'm going to get it but I'm def getting the shadows. I'm also really excited about the new blushes Sleek have coming out!


No snogs, I have cooties,

Robyn x

Where the magic happens...

...Sort of.

I'm always in awe whenever people write collection posts, or show their set up. Most people's look so beautiful and professional, and their collections are huge! My 'station' is none of these things, however, I am fond of it. Seeing as this week has been a massive fail blog-wise, due to my being pretty sick (big red nose, puffy eyes, the lot, so no LOTDs), having no batteries for my camera and great big massive cuts on my fingers (so no nail posts), I thought I'd show you guys my little 'station!'





Aaaaaw. When we moved into our flat, we had to adopt a lot of furniture. Eventually we bought more, and I adopted this computer desk for all my pretties :D It was only meant to be temporary, but it's working pretty well for me. On top I have my palettes, tools, beauty essentials, liners, etc. On the sliding drawer I have compartments for (L-R) my blushes, highlighters etc, my indie eyeshadow, my Barry M eyeshadow, miscellaneous eye crap, lipglosses and balms and lipsticks. Underneath on the right I have a box with my straighteners, curling tongs, etc, my makeup books, a box with my false lashes, cotton buds/balls/baby wipes. On the other side is my spare stuff, travel bags, etc.



This looks like a 'Spot The Geekery' game - Hello Kitty, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Little Mermaid, Star Wars! I really am a child - and a possibly gender confused one at that. Under my mirror are my Sleek Palettes, a box of eBay glitter, my 120 palette, my 66 lip palette, my Aqua Colors and Greasepaints, and a pill organiser that I depot my samples into. (Oh, and yes, that is a boot reflected in my mirror. We've got damp in our shoe cupboard and my lovely boyfriend had to clean about a million pairs of shoes.)




Though I love the elegant brush holders people make from beads and vases, it just isn't me. What is me is a Darth Vader mug and a Mickey Mouse organiser. I really need something bigger than both of these as finding the right brush can be a pain in the arse and I don't have room to keep all my cream eyeshadow pencils, Gosh art liners, etc, in the Mickey holder. The Jessica Rabbit shotglass was a present a week or so ago from my mum and dad who grabbed it for me along with loads of other cool stuff from Disney World. Now I have loads of Aqua Colors, I have something pretty to put water in when I used them.

The light isn't the best here, but seeing as I can't find decent lighting in my price range at the moment (or more realistically, my boyfriend won't take me to Ikea which I think is entirely sensible) it does me pretty well. The windowsill gives me lots of room for my pretty shiny things, too!



All my funky jewellery lives here, my fancy stuff gets hidden away...




...my million and one hairbows live in a heart-shaped basket...



...Ariel and Jessica Rabbit pins adorn my mirror, and much more crap besides.


So yeah, not the biggest collection in the world, but not bad seeing as I started from scratch, almost, a little more than a year ago. I left a lot of stuff in the UK with my sister when I went to Canada for a year, where I didn't really wear much make-up because I was snowboarding almost every day for about eight months. When I got back I recovered some of what I'd left and had to start again! Seeing as I still have conceivably more than I will ever use, I can't really complain.

I'd love to see where you girls work, and if you haven't posted a collection post, that too. I really think it's interesting to see how much/what make-up people have when you see what they do with it all the time.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend ladies. I'm off to have a Lemsip and then I'm making me and the man a salmon and couscous nom to eat infront of the Inbetweeners... Yea, I'm rock and roll :P xxx

What's that stuff you use to like, paint stuff with?

Oh yeah. Paint.

I have problems using nail polish for nail art. My mum got me a set of the dual-ended pen/striper tip polishes for Christmas last year, and while I do like them a lot - for creating larger shapes such as my poodles and Pikachu nails, polka dots, etc - the pen nibs are a little large for detail work. I bought a set of nail art brushes off eBay a while ago and ruined half of them before I realised that you can't get polish off of them. Also, I find that, even with Seche Vite (which I hate but I don't have another top coat atm) that polish often smudges when you apply a top coat.

So I though I'd dig some acrylics out and see what I could do!







Base Coat - Barry M Red Black
Flowers - black and white acrylic

So sorry about my manky hands. They're so chapped and dry at the moment - I really need a better hand cream!

Anyway, I tried to do the one-stroke thing... Didn't come out so great but I can see where I went wrong. One-stroke is basically where you have one colour on one side of the brush, one on the other and this creates a gradient sort of effect. Anyway, the acrylics were really easy to use on my nails! The best thing is that acrylics dry super fast, and if you have any whoopsies, you can clean it up with water!





Base Coat - Barry M Matte White
Writing - acrylic for the black writing, LA Colors Perfect Sunset for the orange.

Just a fun manicure! I love Paramore! The video for Misery Business came on telly the other day and right away I realised I should do the album cover. Writing 'Riot' a hundred million times really makes it look like gibberish! I'm glad I didn't do this with nail polish as it would have taken aaaaaages to dry and I'd have smudged it. It doesn't look so great up against the album cover but my friends liked it and that'll do for me!

I was planning on having a couple more manicures to show you guys but I have a massive cut on my finger and I didn't want to subject myself to the agony of inevitably getting polish remover in the cut. Anyway - big thumbs up to using acrylic. There are cons to it - most of us will probably want to use the different colours and finishes of the polishes we have being the main one.

What craft items find their way into your beauty routine?

Darkness! Colour! Haul!

First, some looks for you all. Then, a super awesome present from my friend!


After all my pin-up looks, even though I think I do suit less eyeshadow heavy looks, I've been gagging to do some darker, heavier shadow looks!


I had a whole bunch of glitter staring me in the face one morning...




... so I thought I would use it! Sleek black over NYX JEP in Black Bean with red glitter off of eBay. My boyfriend said this was 'pretty,' bless him! Paired this with some random Revlon neutral lippie.




I was desperate to use Hi-Fi Valentine Evenings as a lid colour, and I paired it with UD Bourbon, a shimmery deep brown from Sleek and a silver-grey from Makeup Academy. I wish I'd used black instead of grey, as VE is a bit 'woah' on its own. I think I probably wore this with Devil Horns lip lustre.







Playing with Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy... a quick look using Evil Shades Devil's Bonfire and Fyrinnae Crimson Ghost, with Hi-Fi Mornings of Gold to Highlight and on the lower lashline. Paired this with Boots Natural Collection lipstick in Rosebud, which I still think is an *amazing* lipstick for less than two squid.





I hadn't played with one of my favourite colour combos, purple and orange, for a long, long time! I used Gosh Effect powder in Pineapple (gold), Barry M orange, and Hi-Fi Another Day Another Drama with a touch of Fyrinnae Wicked. My liner sucked but it felt good to be colourful again! Paired with Barry M lip gloss wand in Toffee.





I hadn't used my Sleek Bohemian palette lately, and I saw a girl on the Sleek Facebook page make a gorgeous dark look with it, so I took the matte and sparkly cranberry-ish shades and paired them with Evil Shades Double Barrel. This didn't photograph well but I really liked it! Wore it with BM 'Toffee' again - I'm running dangerously low on this gloss, it may be only the second gloss I repurchase ever!


Anyway, now for my present! My friend Sorrell, who I work with, used to do some sort of fashion styling course, and left because it was a bit hair- and makeup -centric for her. Anyway, that worked out well for me because she bequeathed me with these bad boys:




-Double-stack Kryolan Supra and Aqua Color palettes!
-Dermacover concealer palette
-Screenface foundation palette
-Setting Powder
-Kryolan cake mascara trio
-Some pouffes and disposable spoolies n' shit


Sweeeeeet, right? The Aqua Color palette has basic, UV AND metallic shades, and the Supra colour has one tray of blues, reds, yellows, etc, and one of skin tone shades. I am so happy with these palettes, they've barely been used, either. I am soooooo stoooooked - Sorrell, if you're reading this, I am still making pterodactyl noises! I can't wait to play and explore with these so I can ensure they went to a good home!

Well, have a good weekend, guys! I'm visiting my mutti and vati and then I have a friends leaving do, which I'm sure will be hellish!

xoxo

More like FyriYAY! Fyrinnae haul, swatches and LOTDs

My first Fyrinnae order came this week! Yippee! I was super excited to get it, especially seeing as I wasn't expecting it for a good week or so yet. Everything was really well wrapped - in skully paper! Sweeeeet!



I got:

-2x Pixie Epoxy Samples
-Lip Lustres in Shangri-La, Devil Horns, Lolli-pop Pop, Visual Kei and Ultra Phantom
-Charm Blush Sample
-Mini Eyeshadows in Damn Paladins, Selkie Skin, Dressed to Kill, Crimson Ghost, Meerkat, Wicked, Rapunzel Had Extensions and Digital Faerie
-...and a free sample of Herbivore eyeshadow, which I was considering buying anyway! Yay!

Swatchies:



Damn Paladins, Selkie Skin, Rapunzel had Extensions, Crimson Ghost



Meerkat, Wicked, Digital Faerie, Dressed to Kill



Herbivore eyeshadow, Glow Blush in 'Charm.'




Crimson Ghost over a black base.




Meerkat Mini on the left, free sample size of Herbivore on the right. Not bad!

Um. OMG, DIGITAL FAERIE. Thankyou so much to everyone who told me to get this! Wicked is in the same family as my beloved Barry M no 98, and Rapunzel had Extensions is just as gorgeous and girly as I'd hoped. I love all of these, although I wish that I hadn't got Damn Paladins AND Selkie Skin, as they're so similar. I guess one will go in a giveaway or something.



Shangri-La, Lollipop-Pop, Ultra Phantom, Visual Kei, Devil Horns.



Ultra Phantom alone...



...And the reason I bought Ultra Phantom.... to wear over Viva Glam Gaga!!! It looks great over hot pinks too!



Devil Horns - I think this is my favourite of the bunch!


I did take photos of all the lustres on my lips, and I've worn them all except Visual Kei, but I can't tell the difference between Lollipop-Pop, Visual Kei and Shangri-La on my pictures and I figure a lot of people have these anyway. I am seriously in love with these, though. The formula feels lovely and soft and almost buttery, they're really light and long-wearing and I don't find them to be very dry at all - they're almost mousse-y. I can't see the colour changing properties in Devil Horns at all, though, and only a little in Ultra Phantom - you can see the pink in the swatches on my arm, but mostly its a baby blue reflect. I guess alone, the pink doesn't come through on the lips.

And now some looks! Hoorah!







Eyes:
Damn Paladins (lid)
Dressed to Kill (crease)
Selkie Skin (outer crease)
Sleek Black (a little in the crease)
Wicked (lower lashline and liner)
Herbivore (inner lower lashline)

Lips:
Devil Horns Lip Lustre







Eyes:
Meerkat (lid)
Wicked (crease and outer lower lashline)
Herbivore (inner lower lashline)
Hi-Fi Between the Stars (highlight)

Lips:
Shangri-La Lip Lustre






Eyes:
Rapunzel Had Extensions (lid)
Crimson Ghost (crease)
Digital Faerie (liner)

Lips:
Not pictured, but Lollipop-Pop Lip Lustre



So... all in all, I'm in love, as I knew I would be! The black Lip Lustre is on my list next, for sure. I'd appreciate suggestions that'd go with what I've already got, too!


Have a great weekend, darlings!