My first Memebox: 10MinuteBox

A month or so ago, I got rather annoyed when the one beauty box I subscribed to seemed to think that tea and notebooks were somehow beauty items. Nope. Cancelling my subscription, I decided to try out  Memebox, which is a Korean beauty box subscription service. Korean cosmetics are known for being super cute and for having great/interesting skincare, which are of course things literally everyone is interested in, no?

Memebox seems to work a little differently to usual boxes - they do have a monthly box, which seems to sell out, and they also have one-off boxes as well. If you go onto their site, there are a variety of boxes available, and you can buy them as a one-off as opposed to a subscription, which I think is great. It’s hard to determine which is the regular monthly box as there are so many to choose from – including themed boxes such as a green tea box and boxes for dudes, and the larger Superboxes – and the website isn’t super explanatory - but I believe it’s the numbered boxes.

Buying boxes gives you points which you can use off of your next order or in the store- this order shipped late, so I was given points to spend, which I immediately put toward another box! They do take a while to ship boxes after they're bought, but you're let know the shipping date and my box was here five days after it actually shipped, which is great as it came from Korea! They're a little more expensive than the average £10-15 beauty box - I believe after conversion into pounds, this was £18.

The box I chose was the 10MinuteBox:

"The hottest Memebox has just arrived! It comes with the most perfect make-love-happen-now beauty products that will get you all polished up for a night you'll never forget!"
The premise of this box was getting ready for a date quickly so I was hoping for makeup items in this box!”

Cute box, no? Let's see what I got - all products are the full sized version:

 

Aromalab EverEssence Designer Fragrance Oil in 8 Women ($34)

I'm not a huge fan of perfume oils or rollerballs, but this is pleasant enough. I don't get the jasmine promised on the box, but I do get a light rosy musk at the start drying to something a little more woody. This will live in my desk drawer at work for a little pick me up during the day but I can’t see it being a staple.

Hope Girl Powdery Body Perfume ($49)

cheers box

HOW cute is this? This is what I got the box for - cute brands that I've never heard of! I'm not sure how useful this product will be - it's a silica-based powder that claims to absorb sweat and keep you feeling fresh, with a subtle scent. Mine is in the scent 'Tropical Lovers' and it's a subtly sweet, coconut-y sort of scent. It’s a light scent, again, pleasant enough. You can apply with the puff in the lid, or unscrew the top to dip a brush in, or to refill. If I don't wind up using this powder – which remains to be seen to be honest! - I'll decant my regular face powder into it because it is so darn cute!

 

Hope Girl Milky Balm Lipstick in Red Burgundy ($24)

Oh, glory, glory! More leopard print! In the form of a burgundy lipstick, nonetheless! I have no qualms here whatsoever – the packaging so right up my alley it’s ridiculous. And as for the lipstick itself? Lovely! Creamy, opaque, not too glossy, no slip and very comfortable. This ticks all the boxes. I’d buy more from the brand. The star item in the box in my opinion!

Secret Romance Hair Essence Lovely 60ml ($39)

 

This is a 'pheromone hair essence that leaves your hair smelling like a sensual rose all day.' It also claims to nourish and increase shine. I can't read the ingredients as they're in Korean, which makes it harder to determine what it might actually do! This is an oily-feeling serum with a light, powdery scent, but I'm not sure it smells of rose - perhaps it's a little masculine smelling?! I can't put my finger on it but I like it. From trying it out quickly, a little goes a long way! I'll be trying this out further to see if I can coax a little love back into my dry ends! I am also totally convinced the pheromones in this will turn my other half into a crazed sex beast.

Laboratory Eyelash ($5)

legit and professional application is definitely not straight from the box with no glue at all, nope nope

These are so cute! And how cheap are lashes out there? Pretty jealous. These are chunky yet still manage to have a thin lash band - so in my eyes, basically pretty perfect. Can't wait to use these properly, they are banging!

So...would I get another Memebox? Ahem.  I already ordered one before this one came, but basically, yes, I'm excited to get the next one! A nice mix of unusual items  - which is the point! – that are all full sized,  good value compared to the price of the box, great customer service, you’re not tied in to buy one each month. Yep, yep, yep. Memebox are doing it right.

Have you tried this box? What's your favourite subscription box?

Spring Green LOTD

I am sick as a dog right now, but also sick of looking like it, so some makeup was much needed! A little pop of colour from the old Sleek Circus palette – which I haven’t touched in ages! – and some fluttery lashes did the trick and perked me up a bit, even if it was only for a duvet day!

 

Eyes: Barry M Kohl liner in brown. Neutrals from MUA Undress Me Too Palette. Green from Sleek Circus Palette (discontinued)
Lips: L’Oreal Extraordinaire lipgloss in Nude Vibrato. Brows, Kiko. Lashes, Vintage Lash Company Gracie.
FACE: MAC Face and Body, Rimmel Stay Matte powder, Collection2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer
Cheeks: MAC Buff, Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter

I do miss wearing colour! I need to do a proper, all-out bright look soon!

Are you looking forward to the warmer weather? What are your favourite colours to wear in Spring?

Jessica…Dragit? Drag makeup experiment

Netflix added RuPaul’s Drag Race a week or so ago, so naturally I’ve been doing nothing else except watching that! I am absolutely fascinated with drag makeup, and even though I’m, you know, an actual girl, I kind of love doing it. It’s certainly a challenge to do and there’s a *ton* of stuff you can learn from doing it, so I kind of see it as a worthwhile waste of a couple hours!

I apologise for the nasty picture quality , but it’s dark and dingy here constantly, and I have a new camera I don’t know how to use yet. Score!

I went more old school, comedy drag than sexy drag which was fun to do!However, let’s just say there are a lot of things I’d try differently next time! I like how the false brows worked out, but I really need to suck it up and try to cover my own brows properly instead of finding creative ways to draw over them as this didn’t work out so well.  I like how the cheeks worked out (low contour inspired by Divine yo) but I can’t for the life of me work out that frigging nose thing all the queens do at the moment. Boo!

 

Next time I try this I’m not going to be scared like I have been, and I'm really going to pile that face on and let it bake! I just physically can't bring myself to apply that much makeup...yet!

I used a whole bunch of crap for this, but if you’re gagging on my eleganza and need to know what I’m wearing please just say and I'll let you know.

Creepy Princess

I don’t really know where I was going with this one… I had a vague idea  a while ago of a dusty, crusty old looking demon queen or princess with some sort of carving on her head and wanted to give it a go. I guess that idea doesn’t really make sense as an old, dead demon queen probably wouldn’t have a fresh or scabbed carving on her face, more of a scar, but I wanted to play with some SFX bits and bobs and this is what I came up with:

Closeups of the greasy, bloodied eye, crusty dried blood lips, dusty-looking skin and scarred marking on the forehead. The lips were really easy to do and so was the skin. I just pursed my lips super tightly and applied colour over them. For the skin, I didn’t do a base as I normally would, just contoured and highlighted some areas, darkened my eye bags and tapped powder in random areas for a dusty look.

This is pretty much all I used apart from a black and red eyeshadow from Sugarpill – Just a MAC pencil, some blood, powder, rigid collodion for the scar on the forehead and my PAM Medium Petite Concealer Palette.

Some things I like (fake blood on the eyelashes? I think I probably a genius) and some things I don’t (should have done something more with the nose/contouring perhaps) but it was fun to do, especially as it was a really sunny day outside and I did something so anti-summer!


I’ve also just been thinking that my use of the upside-down star might not actually be cool but I just needed a short-hand for “evil,” and that’s what came to mind.

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!

One look, three lipsticks

Howdy, y’all! I felt the need to wear a fair bit of makeup this weekend. I’d just got back from a week away, and I don’t tend to wear much makeup at all – if any! – on holiday, I just normally fill in my brows a little and add a thin coat of mascara. So I was gagging to wear a ton of slap! I’d bought some enormous lashes a while ago and wanted to wear them so I went for something a bit glam. (I know it’s pointless when my hair is so awful – that’s what a week of massive chlorine doses/pigtails will do to your hair!)

Eyes: MUA Undress Me Too palette. Urban Decay Perversion and Collection2000 Extreme Felt Tip Liner pen. Candy Kitten Glamourous Lashes in Gigi Belle.
Cheeks: Sleek Contour Kit in Light – contour. MUA blush in Shade 4 – blush. MUA Undress Your Skin Highlight – highlight.
Lips: Barry M Red – lip pencil. Sleek Vixen – lipstick.

While I love a red lip, I really like wearing this type of eye makeup on a long day because it’s so easy to change your look just by swapping your lip colour…

LA Colors Pink Parfait lipliner. MAC Sheen Supreme in Insanely It!

… perhaps to a girly pink….

LA Colors Nectar lipliner, Maybelline Captivating Coral gloss.

…. or to my favourite, a kick ass orange!

Do you ever do an eye look with a view to change the lip colour later?

Bat Romance

Another day, another time when I don’t stop and think to myself, “You know what colours you can’t blend nicely together? Yellow and black! Stay away from those!” So, there’s that, but also, BATMAN.

 

Black and white from Sleek Circus, blue from 120 palette. Sugarpill Buttercupcake. Collection2000 24/7 Extreme Pen liner. Inglot AMC Gel liner (yellow.) Eyelure Girls Aloud Festival Lashes (Cheryl)

I REALLY like these lashes – they have gold fleck on the top – but I kept looking at it and thinking I had yellow fallout on them! Overall, a cool idea but not very well executed on my part. Add a black lip and a cape and you’ve got an easy Hallowe’en look, though! SPEAKING of Hallowe’en, I really need to pull a costume out of my arse for tonight and I think I’m going to resort to something cliché and ‘sexy’ as my big costume night is next week and it’s not ready yet! Off to the shops I go…

Labyrinth Mini Series Part 6: The Fireys

“GOOD TIMES, BAAAAAAD FOOOOOD!”

Not gonna lie, the Fireys creeped me out when I was a kid. Also, cheers for taking up a song space in which David Bowie could have been singing. With that in mind, I um… glued a bunch of stuff to my face?

Products: Lid and brows, Sugarpill Burning Heart Palette, Rimmel Brow Pencil in Dark Brown. Liner, Sugarpill Love+ and Elf Lock And Seal (Love+ scraped off with back of brush and mixed on back of hand so it didn’t ruin the pain). Inner corner, Sugarpill Tiara, white from Sleek Circus palette. “Feathers” from a pair of lashes, flakies are nail supplies from eBay.

Hmmm, not too sure of this one. It looks more like my eye is ready for Mardi Gras than looking anything like a Jim Henson character! I think I took the “fire” part a bit too literally. I should have also taken the fluffy parts down along to the end of the brow but it was a pain in the ass and they weren’t standing up. Ah well, any excuse to use Sugarpill Flamepoint, I suppose!

Sugarpill and Illamasqua Mermaid Look and Paperself Giveaway!

Oooooh, I really need to learn how to take better photos! This looked so much better in real life, but ain’t that always the way? I did not want to take this look off – so SHINY!

Eyes: LA Colours Jumbo Eye Pencil in, Sugarpill Lumi, Sugarpill Darling, Sugarpill Royal Sugar, Elf Lock and Seal, Collection2000 Extreme Coloured Mascara in Teal, flat back pearls from eBay, Paperself lashes
Cheeks: Illamasqua Powder Eyeshadow in “Maybe?”, Sugarpill Lumi
Lips: Illamasqua Apocalips, Sugarpill Lumi, clear Inglot Sleeks gloss.

I think these are my favourite eyebrows ever. Mmmm, teal. I was feeling in the mood to use some Sugarpill today, as I thought they’re the perfect company for a mermaid look! Sugarpill Darling is one of those Goldilocks colours that's pretty simple, but  just right!

Aren’t these lashes AMAZING? My sister got me them for my birthday, and I finally got round to using them.  If you’ve not heard of Paperself lashes before, they’re laser-cut eyelashes made out of paper and they have some beautifully wierd and wonderful versions! I cut mine down because they were really really long, so I have some cute fish half-lashes for another time – even though the box says “suggested for single use only,” you’ll get at least two uses straight from the packet. I did manage to take them off carefully and I’ll get another use of them for sure, but I think if I screwed up the lashband, I could cut off the fish parts and stick them to some other lashes if I really wanted! If you want to use them a few times, I'd recommend not wearing them over shadow, as it's hard to peel the glue/shadow combination off the lashbands without them breaking. Also, you obviously can't clean them afterwards, so it's up to you if you even *want* to re-use them.

You can see how long they are here, it’s ridiculous!

Aaaaaand now for the ‘citing part. I have one pair of these gorgeous Paperself The Broken Hearts – Secret Treasures “Under The Sea” lashes to give away! All you have to do is be a CURRENT GFC follower – don’t take the piss or I’ll get Liam Neeson on your arse - and leave me a lovely comment about anything you like and I'll contact you if you win. Simples!  Open to all y’all lovely people worldwide, closes next Thursday.