Quickie Review: Rimmel ‘Kate’ Waterproof Gel Eyeliner in Emerald

Rimmel have added some new items to their Kate Moss line this time we’re being treated to some eye makeup. The gel liner in ‘Emerald’ immediately caught my eye – I’ve always loved green liner and in my early twenties, green glitter eyeliner was a staple look of mine. The outer packaging looks very similar to the Maybelline gel liners too, so I was interested to see how they compare.



Very similar to the Maybelline, no?

Like the Maybelline one, this also comes with a brush. Sadly, the brush isn’t as nice as the Maybelline one at all, though it looks very similar. It’s hard to achieve a fine line with the Maybelline one but it is possible and I actually quite rate them, especially for lipstick and spot concealing. I really struggled with the Rimmel one, as you’ll see below.

The liner itself is the main event though. Unlike a lot of other high end and ever drugstore gel liners, the Rimmel comes in a cheaper looking plastic pot, with Kate’s signature on the top. I don’t really care about the packaging of an eyeliner looks wise, but in my experience products like this that are in glass jars simply last longer and don’t dry out as fast. It’s a shame considering that other liners at the same price point do have glass jars.

‘Emerald’ is a slightly misleading colour – this is a blackened green. I was expecting from the picture on the packaging for it to be a green matte, and this has a good amount of shimmer. Expectations aside, this is still a bloody gorgeous colour and very wearable! I’m excited to have a pretty liner I can pull off at work. The downside is, as with a lot of more shimmery gel liners, that you do sacrifice full opacity and you may have to go over areas once or twice to prevent patchiness – this is pretty opaque but not 100%.



A very quick application with the brush – the brush is just not great, folks. However, the liner applied smoothly, gliding across the lid really nicely, and it sets fast – this isn’t going anywhere anytime soon! I have to touch up a few tiny places where it looked less opaque, but


While this isn’t a totally perfect liner, it’s very pretty and not a purchase I regret one bit! ’Emerald’ costs £6.99 and is available from Boots and Superdrug.

Who makes your favourite gel eyeliners?

LOTD with Illamasqua Static

The good thing about the Illamasqua sale is that if there’s an item you want, chances are it’ll get reduced even further at the end of the sale. Being a total tightwad, I waited until what I wanted - their gorgeous purple-pink-blue iridescent pigment Static and the white liquid liner, Scribe – went down to peanuts and snapped them up.



 


Eyes: Black from Sleek Acid Palette, browns from MUA Undress Me Too. White liner is Scribe from Illamasqua, purple pigment in inner corners is Illamasqua Static applied wet. Waterline is lined with Kiko Long-lasting eyeshadow stick
Lips: Lord and Berry lipstick in Glazed Pink
Cheeks: Highlighter from Barry M Natural Glow palette (crap eyeshadows, lovely highlighter), Kiko blush in Active Mauve
Face: Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer, L’oreal Eau de Teint.


Nothing overly special look-wide, but you can’t beat a smoky eye in my opinion!

I can’t believe I waited so long to try Scribe – this formula is amazing! Seriously will not budge. I can’t wait to use this in a more full-on look – white eyeliner is cool as hell. Static is pretty cool too – it’s like a pink version of Sugarpill Lumi! If you like strong iridescence, you’ll love this.

How do you like to add a twist to your smokey eye?

Do I Need to Buy Different Makeup For Halloween?

Halloween is just around the corner and if you're like me, you'll want to have both an awesome costume and not spend any money. Sadly these hardly ever go hand in hand, but luckily for beauty bloggers, MUAs and makeup geeks, we have a lot of makeup at our disposal which can really help when Halloween or other fancy dress occasions come around. While I would never discourage people from buying funky special effects and theatrical makeup, it's not easy to get hold of good quality stuff and just isn't something most people are going to uses. This post is going is about what makeup is worth buying for very casual SFX use and what you can use that you probably already have.

 

White foundation: White foundation is *so* handy to have for Halloween! It can be hard to find, especially at this time of year, but Illamasqua and larger Barry M stands in the UK both carry them, and brands like Kryolan and Ben Nye both have them available online to buy fairly cheaply. A white foundation can be mixed with so many things - it can be mixed with other foundation colours to change them, or used all over the face or body as to create a blank canvas to allow you to colour your skin. To an extent, it can be mixed with loose pigments as well. Foundation is worth getting as opposed to greasepaint or facepaint as you can use it after Halloween is over - mix a little to lighten your usual foundation and you've got yourself a darn good highlighter! If you're planning on doing this, try and get the type of foundation you normally use, i.e, cream or liquid. I really dislike the nasty cheap cream makeup you get at Halloween – it smells bad, it doesn’t apply well, you can’t store it or use it more than once due to the packaging and it’s almost certainly worse for your skin than your usual makeup.

 

Eyeshadows used over a white base to create a fantasy look. (Yes, I know it’s pink.)

Matte eyeshadows: See above. It may take a little longer than using cream makeup, but blanking out your face and using shadows means that most of us won't be spending money on expensive theatre makeup and you avoid those god-awful cream palettes that pop in in costume shops. A good neutral palette can be really helpful at Halloween - a couple of deep browns, a black, a cream or white and a grey can be really helpful for creating undead or dirty looks or aged makeup. A matte plum, red and yellow can also be useful for bloodied or bruised looks. Always, always go with matte if you can - shimmery shadows don't tend to go well with spooky makeup, and shimmery makeup in photography can both look gritty and contribute to the makeup looking washed out.

Setting powder: If you're creating any looks with cream based products or even with just more makeup that you're used to, a translucent setting powder . For purposes of costume makeup, any old setting powder will do. Pressing a larger amount than usual over the makeup with a puff and then brushing the excess off will keep your makeup good n' fixed.

Using a felt liner pen to sketch out villainous eyebrows!

Felt tip liner pen: Seriously, these are great for everything. Liner, obviously. Drawing fangs, stitches, 'cracks' for creepy dolly looks. Freckles, eyebrows, 'shadows' for pop-art makeup, widows peak hairlines for Dracula, KISS makeup... everything. Plus they're cheap and intuitive to use.

 

Using eyeliners to sketch out a zombie jaw.

Cheap lipsticks and eyeliners: Or even your more expensive lipsticks and eyeliners, this one is really about thinking outside of the makeup box. Eyeliners easily double up as lip colours or to draw designs on the face - your black eyeliner will save you from buying a black lipstick you'll never use again! Lipsticks can be used in place of cream paints or to colour eyebrows.  Just bear in mind the textures of what you're using if and whether that will need to be set, as well as whether what you're using is eye or lip safe. Eyeliners easily double up as lip colours, lipsticks can be used in place of cream makeup, cream eyeshadows can be used all over the face, blah blah blah blah. I would add to do a patch test of your usual makeup to see if it stains – something that might not stain your lips may stay a different texture of skin, for example, so do a wee test!

Mascara: Mascaras are great for drawing beards, moustaches and darkening eyebrows. If you're a girl going a a dude, or a guy going as a pirate or someone who needs an odd beard shape, your mascara will really work wonders. Wipe the excess off your brush and dab it sideways gently on the face to get stubble.

Sponges: Sponges might seem obvious, but ripping and tearing the surface of the sponge can be really useful for creating mottled, gross effects on the skin.

A translucent setting powder and some lipliners that I use often for regular makeup lined up with some special effects goodies…

If you buy *one* thing from a special effects store or brand, some good fake blood will really be worth it and can be got fairly cheaply – I love Ben Nye's Fresh Scab/Thick Blood. Please, please steer clear of the cheap, 99p fancy-dress shop blood - it looks horribly fake and can really cheapen an otherwise good look. If you do get this, get a couple of tubes and try play with adding coffee grounds or pigments to get a more realistic, less syrupy-looking effect. It *will* look better than neon cheap blood, I promise! Another thing I see a lot at Halloween that is really awful is crappy ‘scar putty,’ often in kits with aforementioned crappy cream makeup, that mostly just falls off or  ends up looking like blobs of chewing gum on the face. If you need something to add texture, or to create scars or zombie flesh, buy a small cheap bottle of liquid latex from eBay or Amazon and play layering that with toilet paper and other textured stuff you might have lying around like cereal (srsly, porridge oats can be awesome!) Something that is even more fool proof but a little more expensive is a substance called rigid collodion, also available from SFX makeup retails. Please read up on this before using as it’s NOT something you want to get near your eyes, but it’s basically a liquid you paint on your skin and as it dries, it contracts and creates a puckered scar-like effect which you can then apply makeup over to look like really realistic scars!

While this post  may seem obvious to most of you, I've told so many of my friends that they don't actually need to buy all that much, or if they do, to buy something they will actually use again that I thought it was worth writing!

What are you going as for Halloween? *Be prepared* for my costume!

Ginger Drag

I had a wig and nothing to do, you know how it goes.

Eyes: MUA Undress Me Too Palette, Jesses Girl gold pigment, Maybelline gel liners in Black and Brown (brows), cheap lashes from discount shop.
Foundation: Illamasqua and Avon Concealers, Revlon Nearly Naked to blend, Jessies girl pigment to highlight, MUA blush, stage powder to set.
Lips: Brown from MUA Undress Me Too Palette, Sleek Eau La La Liner in Melba, L.A Colours lipliner in red, Rimmel Apocalips in Siren
Wig: Anabelles Wigs. Earrings, Primark.

 

I still can’t get the hang of using Pears soap to cover brows, I just feel like if I want to add more it messes it up underneath and I can’t get it to look smooth. Anyway, I did this really quickly because I was bored and probably could have done a much much better job, especially on the eyes, but whatever. Do what I want. I like the fact everything is pretty neutral and still looks really out there!

Quickie Review: Born Pretty Store Stick On Eyeliner

Applique makeup and nails still don’t seem to be going anywhere, so I thought I’d give these eyeliners from the Born Pretty Store a whirl. The first time I recall seeing stick on eyeliners was the Dior Velvet Eyes back in 2011 and I thought they were pretty interesting, although stupidly expensive. I received these for review, but if you’re interested in trying this sort of thing they’re only a couple of bucks which is cheaper than the ones I’ve seen in Boots, Topshop, etc.

I liked that you got a bunch of styles. As I was pretty sure I was going to screw them up having a few options was welcome!

Aaaw yeah, drying laundry!

You have to cut as close to the bottom on the design as you can, and if there are any gaps underneath after application you can fill them in with a touch of liquid liner. I don’t really feel that this is a universal product that is going to fit everyone, and there’s not much space to work with in terms of reshaping them for your eyes. Also, if they don’t fit your eye shape, they could crease in funny places and basically look a bit odd.

Here I’m wearing the ones second down in the packet – a kind of funky, inverted shape with a glossy finish, which was my favourite part about them. I found this one easy to apply because it had a sharp corner on the outside edge, which made it really easy to line it up on both my eyes. I found the swooping versions with no corners really hard to line up and basically gave up on those ones. Other than that, it’s just a case of wetting the transfer with water and leaving it to peel off, like a regular transfer tattoo. You really do have to get them soaking and make sure you wait the recommended amount of time – nothing worse than not waiting long enough and pulling off the corner or messing it up! A lot of transfers say to apply to clean skin, but I don’t have a problem applying them over makeup – just be sure not to rub at all during the process.

 

While the product itself is fine – it  looks pretty good! – I kind of feel they’re inherently flawed in that if you don’t have a steady enough hand to do funky liner, you probably don’t have a steady enough hand to cut these neatly! They are a bugger to remove as well, which is a bit of a swings and roundabouts situation – they’re not going anywhere, which is great for a festival or a sweaty gig, but kind of annoying for just a regular night out. It look a lot of work with an oil-based remover to get it off and that’s not something I want to put my eyes through all the time. So I’m kind of torn on these – they’re a funky novelty but I don’t like them nearly as much as the eye tattoos I tried out before.

 

Stick on makeup –  yay or nay?

Quickie Review: MUA 3 in 1 Extreme Contour Liner

The MUA Extreme Contour liners were recently released with new, funky shades to compliment the existing black shade (perhaps there was also a brown previously?) so I grabbed a few to try out. The liners have a really interesting flat rectangular nib, which supposedly allows you to draw a thin, thick and medium line by angling the tip.

 

 

At £1.50 (you get 0.4g) I grabbed a few shades to try – Smoked Plum (Shade 6), Sage (Shade 7), Fresh Mint (Shade 3), and Gun Metal (shade 8).

Fresh Mint.

Gun Metal.

Sage.

Smoked Plum.

All these swatches are with the holding the nib horizontally and then swiping, then vertically, and then on the edge to get the thinnest line. These are sold as a ‘shadow liner,’ so as you’d expect, the product is very soft. This is both a blessing and a curse - these babies will *not* tug on your lids at all (great for those who are wrinkle-panickers, like myself!) but I would totally recommend setting them with a powder as they don’t dry down, so are liable to smudge and crease. Being soft and a twist-up pencil, you can’t sharpen them, so I’m not sure that the 3-in-1 thing will last very long once you’ve blunted the sides by drawing the thin line.

The pigmentation is average, but not super fantastic. The brown and auburn which I swatched in store were much better pigmented than these shades. Gun Metal is my favourite colour of the three – a beautiful soft grey with tiny blue sparks (which obviously eluded capture!) with Smoked Plum a close second. I was quite disappointed in Sage – it just reads grey to me and not green. I can see myself using Fresh Mint as a base quite often. The packaging is sturdy and the retractable mechanism works and doesn’t stick, which is a concern sometimes with cheap retractable pencils.

 

Gun Metal as a liner, no primer/base.

Gun Metal as a base – the adhesion is pretty nice.

Smoked Plum on the upper lid and Fresh Mint on the lower – Seeing if they’re any nice for creating a wing. Probably not.

 

Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about these. For £1.50 you can’t go too wrong, I love Gun Metal and I’m possibly seeing potential for creating cut-crease looks, but initially I’m not wowed.

What are your favourite liners?

FashionistA Fashion Secret Gel Liners

If I see a new brand in Superdrug, I have to get something from them. It’s like a compulsion. Last week I saw FashionistA had arrived in my local store – they have a customisable palette system with seemingly a good range of blushes, which excites me (all sold out though! Waah!) but I also was drawn to these liners:

How weird is that packaging for a gel liner? Very strange indeed! I’m not sure the shape is so great – they’re very deep which I can see causing issues with messy brushes once you’ve used a good amount of the product. The cap screws off to reveal the liner and has a brush in the handle. The brush I’m not 100% sold on – it’s nice for smudging and applying over a large area but it’s not *quite* stiff enough for a good cat eye. Not bad for on the go touch-ups though, and if it’s too short for you, you can flip it over and stick it in the cap which is nice and gives you a bit more control.

Anyway, let’s see the product!

Style (top) is a black with lots of green and blue sparkles. Dressed Down Cool (bottom) is a brown with lots of pink sparkles. Both are so pretty! I did swatch Dressed Down Cool a little thicker than Style but they’re pretty equal in pigmentation and texture.

‘Style’ on the top lashline and smudged under the bottom lashline.

‘Style’ as a base all over the lid (under Sugarpill Lumi.).

‘’ on the upper lashlines and smudged underneath in both photos.  If you enlarge that last one you can really see the pink sparkles.

When I first swatched these, I immediately thought they were cream shadows – very creamy for a ‘gel’ liner, and they took a while to set compared to other gels. When I wore Style on the lid alone, it creased really quickly, so these certainly need a primer if you want to wear it as an eyeshadow base. With a primer, however, they last all day with no creasing at all, so these could easily be a contender for NYX Jumbo Pencils for me! Bring out a white please, FashionistA!  I did find that you need to be a bit on the careful side when creating a wing with these as they don’t dry very fast, but on the plus side that means they’re nice for smudging as you don’t have to be super quick. So swings and roundabouts for application – if you have really heavy lids and find colour transfers onto your upper lid, I’d go careful with these,

Sadly the names of all the liners are on the safety label which covers the lid, so take note of them if you’re a forgetful so and so like me, as the names aren’t on the Superdrug website yet either!

Speaking of Superdrug, I went and swatched a few others in the shop! Cheeky! The gold and black look lovely, but sadly the purples and teals aren’t as pigmented  or opaque as I would have liked for a gel liner. Still decent enough as a cream shadow or a base though, I suppose, but still.

So yes, a few oddities, especially with the packaging, but at £6 each I think I’ll be back for a few more! The black and gold are on my list.

Swatches, review and LOTD: Sleek ‘The Berry Collection’

The Berry Collection is Sleeks Christmas Offering this year. While I’m always excited for a new Sleek blush (they’re fantastic, bright and dead cheap) I will admit that I was initially upset at the lack of a brand new, sparkly palette for Christmas, especially as last years Sparkle palette was so pretty.  While I wouldn’t say I followed seasonal trends at all, I’m a sparkle fiend so Christmas is a good time for me). At a glance, this makes no sense whatsoever as a Christmas collection – the kit contains a reddish brown blush, a deep wine matte lipstick and an almost identical colour kohl pencil. Red eyeliner? Matte stuff, at Christmas? Colours most paler skin tones would run a mile at? But that *is* just at a glance.

 

From left to right: Eye Kohl in Mossberry, smudged, and Eye Kohl in Mossberry applied heavily. True Colour matte lipstick in Cranberry. Blush in Fenberry blended out and applied heavily. I have no idea what a fen or mossberry is.

The packaging is Sleeks standard, er, sleek matte black affair. The last few limited edition collection have had fancy images on the packaging – these just have simple red foil writing (apart from the lipstick) which I think is jolly nice.

True Colour Lipstick in Cranberry, in unnatural and natural light.

Eye Kohl Pencil in Mossberry.

FOTD with the whole set! Really liking the blush on.

You know what? Props to Sleek for flying in the face of sparkly, spangly glossy Christmas tradition, because this set is epic, and I’ll tell thee for why. One, I *love* monochromatic looks. Love, love, love.  Two, it’s actually a fabulous colour palette for a winter collection. The only thing that is a little negative – and to be honest it’s more of a worry for them than me – is that the reddish eye pencil will almost certainly put a lot people off, and that I wish the kohl was a tad softer.

The whole kit costs £9.99 from Superdrug, saving you a few squid on the individual items. Overall, I love this set from Sleek and I really love that they broke the mould with this Christmas collection!

 

What do you think of ‘seasonal’ makeup? Do you change your colour palette when it gets warmer/colder?

Bargain Time: Makeup Academy Intense Glitter Intense Colour liners

Make Up Academy have stolen my heart, again the dastardly imps. I'm skint at the moment and the fact I can grab pretty things for £1 keeps my cravings sated and stops me splurging in Superdrug so I can have nice indie hauls, etc.

Anyway, I saw the Intense Colour and Intense Glitter pencils in my local Superdrug today on one of the very same 'Argh, I have no money but want stuff' trips, and grabbed a couple to try. Wowza!




L-R:
Intense Glitter: Malt Chocolate
Intense Colour: Forest Green
Intense Colour: Bright Orange

The thinner liner is one stroke and the patch is layered. So basically, they're one-swipe babies. The Forest Green is more metallic in real life. Needless to say, I am going to buy the rest of the range tomorrow - look at the pigmentation! I think they had about ten colours, including a nice looking lilac. I chose the stupid colour I'll never wear- I can't believe I got a gorgeous orange liner for £1, though! Barry M has bright matte colours and they are pretty sucky so I never thought I would find one. I thought at first Malt Chocolate was an Urban Decay Bourbon Dupe, which it isn't, and got all excited.


Left: Makeup Academy Malt Chocolate
Right: Urban Decay Bourbon

The glitter stands out more in Malt Chocolate, which is more of a rusty, red-based brown that UD Bourbon which ironically is more of a chocolate colour. The glitter and finishes are similar - the MUA pencil isn't as soft as the UD, but they're both very smudge-able.

The pencils also have a built-in sharpener and they're labelled with their names, ingredients, use by dates, etc, as well. I really like that they have names, even if they are lame ones. It's so much handier than Shade 5 or Shade 12, which is the system for their other products. I'm also impressed at the range of finishes for such a budget brand - matte, glitter and metallic!

I haven't worn them yet - I'm literally vomiting this review out because I was so excited when I swatched them. If they wear as well as they look, then I'll be very happy indeed, but seriously, I'm thinking they're too good to be true right now! Stay tuned for an EOTD!

Pokemon nails and more bargains!

Heathers Shiro Cosmetics review got me thinking that I should do some more Pokemon nails....(and watch about 10,000 of the old episodes online...) so I did!





Bulbasaur! Yay :)



And Jigglypuff! When my boyfriend saw them, he asked if I used stencils, so I guess that means they're good! I couldn't get a good picture of Jigglypuff though. Also... I hate Seche Vite. My polish is chipping in like, half a day. Not impressed.

Anyway, Primark, which is a budget clothing store in the UK has a make-up range which is blatantly ripping off Benefit - on the surface, at least.



Benefit 10 on the right, Primark 'The Happy Couple' on the left. I love Benefit 10 and its the only Benefit powder I've actually used so much I've repurchased it. The pink side is a lovely highlighter and the brown is a really nice bronzer with no orangeyness to it whatsoever, and its not too dark for a pasty-faced ginger like me. But its also about £23. So when I saw this Primark 'dupe' I picked it up because it was £2.50. Both have ten grams, just one costs ten times more than the other.



Benefit on the top, Primark on the bottom. Toootally different - and thats because they actually are. 10 is a bronzer/highlighter and The Happy Couple is a blush/bronzer. I don't use the bronzer of Happy Couple on its own because its a little too orangey, but mixed together with the blush, its great. I really like the blush on its own, too.

Happy Couple really is an excellent product. I still love 10, mostly because it lasts all day and its the only shimmery powder highlighter I have - I see no reason to buy another one (although my NYX Pearl Mania in Pearl is a pretty close dupe, but more shimmery). The Primark doesn't last as long but for the money, you'll be really surprised. Its just not a Benefit dupe - just a rip off of Benefits pop-art/retro packaging. The Primark brush is super soft, which is surprising, but it does nothing. I know some people hate, but I actually really like the Benefit box brushes - they're nice and dense and pretty soft.

And lastly, I bought some Rimmel pencils for about £1 each in my local beauty supply:



Loveable Lilac, Forest Green (omg!) and Cool Blue. I've always used Rimmel kohl pencils and while they suck a bit on the waterline, they're pretty darn good for the price.

Thats all kids! I'm off to read Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual which I got in the post today. Mmmm, I love that new book smell!

x