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LOTD with Melt Spacecake and MAC Glitter and Ice Cool Palette

All in all, this look is not as nice as I wanted it to be as I was trying some new products and totally buggered it up, but I really wanted to show off this rather gorgeous lipstick!

 

 

 

Eyes: Shadows are all MAC Glitter and Ice cool palette, Morgana Cryptoria Silver Holo Glitter on the lid
Cheeks: Too Faced Chocolate…something, I don’t fucking know
Lips: Melt Cosmetics Spacecake

 

 

I participated in a Halloween makeup swap, and my swap partner Channy sent me some wonderful items, including the glitter and eyeshadows seen here. I mean seriously, a MAC palette from the Glitter and Ice collection? This is a bloody gorgeous palette, and you can still pick it up on eBay and so on for not-too-silly prices - the purple and blue shades are just gorgeous. Thank you Channy! She also sent me some really nice Australian items that I'll be talking about soon.

 The reason I buggered this look up is that I was doing an intricate swoopy cut-crease sort of thing, and then I tried to adhere the glitter she sent me using Lit Clearly Liquid base…. I’d not use it before and it messed up all my liner and all my crease work. It’s an amazing adhesive (I'll be reviewing it soon) but I really needed to learn how to use it before attempting something so fancy with it! So please excuse the dissapointing eye makeup, heehee!

 

 

But let’s talk about that lipstick. GREY LIPSTICK, SCHWEEDHEART. I’d seen a lot of love for Melt on Instagram and on a total whim picked up a couple of shades, including this lovely, Spacecake. If you want I’ll do a review on the two shades I picked, but for now, bask in it’s matte grey creme glory.

 

 

What do you think of grey lipstick? Yea? Nay? Really nay?

My Favourite e.l.f Makeup Brushes!

 As a makeup nerd, a reasonably sized brush collection is so helpful to have, but can easily start costing you a hefty amount! Enter budget brands...

 

 E.l.f, like a lot of cheaper brands, can be pretty hit or miss sometimes, but luckily I've found they really do have a few winners in their brush range and some of these are in amongst my most used
brushes!

 

The black brushes are from the 'Studio' line, which is e.l.f's more expensive range and all cost £3.50 each. The white brushes are from their regular line and all cost £1.50 each. The Studio line are synthetic Taklon bristles. No information is listed for the regular line, but I believe they are synthetic also.

 

L-R: Powder Brush, Eyeshadow Brush, Blush Brush, Eyeshadow "C" Brush

Powder Brush, £3.50

 

This is a really interesting little gem. It's basically a flat-top kabuki brush on a long handle - it's very dense and lovely and soft. I love this brush for setting my makeup with powder, especially on a shoot or for a design with greasepaints or facepaints. It's perhaps a little large for working liquid foundations into the face and it's flat shape means it's a little harder to get all into all the nooks and crannies, but if you're not sure if buffing is for you, this isn't a badly priced brush to experiment with! I imagine it would work really well with mineral makeup too. I've never used another kabuki brush as I love this one so much - the handle makes it much more appealing to me - but be warned that as it's so dense it sometimes takes a bit of effort to wash!

 

Eyeshadow Brush, £1.50

This brush is only £1.50. ONE MEASLY POUND FIDDY. And I absolutely love, love, love this brush. It's a great shape and density for placing eyeshadow on the lid and it's just fluffy enough on the edges to softly blend the colour out. It's not a blending brush and you won't be able to create a super-soft, complex look with it, but if you're in a rush or just want to apply one shadow, this will soften
out that harsh edge for you in no time. I really like this brush for beginners and have given it to friends and clients to practise with, and always take one with me when I'm travelling - I think I have 6 or 7 of these! They're not the most handsome of brushes (the white handles can get a little grubby) and they're not super soft -they're not harsh or scratchy at all but you're not going to swoon over the softness. The price is a bonus, I have to say - when e.l.f have their 50% off sales I always stock up - you can't beat a good, basic brush for 75p!

 

Sadly I have to add that I don't rate the rest of the £1.50 line I've tried, although I've not tried all of them.

 

 

Blush Brush, £3.50

This is my favourite blush brush! It's a slightly flattened, pointed shape which makes it really versatile as the tip is quite small and slim, meaning it's great for contouring or highlighting with powders as well as traditional blush application. Because it's so multi-purpose, I really like taking a couple of these with me in my kit. While the smaller size makes it good for small faces and prominent cheekbones, it's still great for blending colour out on the cheeks and is lovely and soft. If you're a fan of indie makeup, this brush is a nice size for dipping in to small blush containers without making a mess, too!

 

 Eyeshadow "C" Brush, £.3.50

A similar shape to the eyeshadow brush before, but a bit more curved, larger, and with much stiffer, less fluffy bristles. The idea of this brush is that the 'C' shape fits in nicely on the outer corner of your eye, giving you a nice neat application. Now, this greatly depends on your eye size and shape (it's a fairly large brush) as well as the look you want, but that aside, this is a really great brush for packing on eyeshadow. Again, I have several of these and love using them.

 

The reason I've added two pretty similar eyeshadow brushes in here is that I find it *so* difficult to find good, reasonably priced, simple eyeshadow brushes for just laying down eyeshadow, especially in UK drugstores. If you're stuck between the two, I'd probably say go for the £1.50 - it picks up loose eyeshadow a little better and as it's smaller it's more likely to fit your eye.

 

 

I have at *least* two of all these brushes, and have some of them for several years and they're all doing really well! While my brushes don't get as much use as a full-time makeup artist (I work on shoots and clients on the side of my full-time job) they get a LOT of use and I wash pretty much all of my brushes at least every ten days or so, so these are well tested! With the exception of
a *slightly* wobbly ferrule on my oldest of the flat-top brushes, I have never had a single issue with them - no shedding, they don't seem to get dented or scratched up and they stay lovely and soft while keeping thier shape. There are some brushes that e.l.f make that I don't rate at all, and others that I like a lot too, but these ones here? Full on love, regardless of the price point.

If you're in the U.K, you can pick these up at www.eyeslipsface.co.uk

LOTD and Swatches: Etude House Minnie Touch Highlighter and Minnie in The Nails Polishes!

It’s taken me a long time to really dip my toe into the beautiful waters of Asian cosmetics – I’ve bought a few bits and bobs here and there but between the total cuteness of some Korean brands and the exciting luxury of some Japanese brands I’ve mostly tried to stay away. However, as a Disney fan, this adorable collection really caught my eye and I had to get a couple of items! From the packaging, this looks to be an official collaboration with Disney. As well as the polishes and highlighter I’ll show here, there’s also a blush, loose glitters, two lipsticks and some false lashes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First up is the Minnie Touch Highlighter. Isn’t this beyond adorable?

 

 

 

Face: Missha Signature Wrinkle Filler BB Cream, Illamasqua Loose Powder.
Cheeks: Etude House Minnie Touch Highlighter, Etude House Cherry Tint (pink)
Lips: Etude House Cherry Tint (pink)
Eyes: Darling Girl Spectral Shift in Ramblin’ Rose, MAC Just Before Dawn , Etude Houe Minnie Touch Highlighter

 

 

It’s SO hard to capture this in photos (and swatches where I could only capture it as white), but with all the shades swirled together, it’s a very iridescent, smooth cool pink highlighter. If you’ve tried the MUA Undress Your Skin highlighter or like the sort of shade of MAC Strobe Cream then you’ll really like this. It’s very smooth to apply with no chunky glitter or shimmer particles, and a little goes a long way although it's pretty buildable.

 

 

It’s quite a soft powder, so I don’t think that the lovely Minnie embossing on the powder is going to last very long, but the compact itself is so adorable I really don’t mind. I’m debating whether to get the blush or not as it has a different drawing on it, and the cute drawing style is what really drew me to this this product.

 

 

This powder was approximately £10 from this eBay shop, which has free shipping and they threw in some lovely samples as well.

 

 

 

I also checked out the polishes from the range – they have two gel colour polishes, and four glitters. Two of the glitters have the shape of Minnie’s bow in the polish, but the ones I chose have the shape of her (or rather Mickey’s) head as I didn’t think the bow shaped glitters were that obvious. I love the Mickey Mouse symbol so couldn’t resist! I got shades #3 Minnie White Face and the rather awfully named #6 Minnie Black Face.

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, the packaging is absolutely adorable. The sticker sealing the lids down is Mickey shapes, and they have have the Etude House logo moulded into the tops of the caps, which again have the Mickey motif on.

 

 

The polishes themselves were a bit of a pain the butt to apply – I had to fish for the face shaped pieces of glitter in both shades and the shade with the black Mickey glitter I had to place the glitter on. The one with the white faces was much better and seems to have a lot more glitter – large and small pink and white matt hex glitters with square copper glitters, small pink tinsels and some shimmer as well as the matte white Mickey face. The one with the black Mickey faces in has small and large pink and white matte hex glitters and small black matte hex glitters in. The base polish is really glossy with both of these, and while they were a pain the butt to apply, they’re just beyond cute and I don’t find the large pieces are too large to sit flush on the nail which is great!  If you want an alternative to polishes, there are also some loose glitters in the range that are shaped like Minnies and bows for around £3 each.

 

 

I got these from the same Korean eBay seller for about £3.37.

 

 

 

 

I also got a few free samples – I’m wearing the BB cream in the photo above (thankfully it was an ok match!) as well as the pink cherry tint. I love getting samples from eBay seller, especially when they’re brands I’ve never heard of, let alone tried! I've got three uses out of the BB cream and have fallen in love with it... D'Oh! I also quite like the Cherry Tints - they smell like strawberry laces! I'll have to update you all on what on earth 'the smim' is though!

 

 

Will you try any of this range? Are you a Disney freak like me?

Quickie Review: VIVO Matte Lipsticks

Last but not least in my VIVO-rama are their matte lipsticks! I love a matte lipstick so when VIVO sent me three shades to try I ripped the tops off and got swatching! I really like the packaging for these – the tubes taper off to one side instead of being a normal round tube. I like little quirks like this, as it makes it easier to find colours I want in my carefully organised storage system massive bucket of lipsticks.

‘Pink Sweetie’

‘Tangtastic’

‘Pucker Red’

L-R: Pink Sweetie, Tangtastic, Pucker Red. Eyes are VIVO Dreamy Palette.

 

Surprisingly, I really, really like Pink Sweetie! It’s not a colour family I ever really reach for, but I do like it and think it would suit a 60’s look wonderfully and I can see myself using Tangtastic for ombre lips using other orange or red colours or with a really sparkly gloss over the top, or for work. If you get one out of the bunch though, it’s gotta be Pucker Red! It’s a gorgeous classic shade and I think it’d suit a whole bunch of skintones. Something about it reminds me of how your lips look when you’ve eaten ice lollies.

The formula of these is kind of strange for matte lipsticks – they are indeed matte but unlike a lot of other matte formulas, they’re quite thin. I think this is a good thing – a lot of matte lipsticks can feel clumpy and drag on the lips but these don’t. They’re not super matte like some other lipsticks can be either, which depending on your preferences could be good or bad. I’m just happy there are such things as comfortable, pigmented matte lipsticks available for a couple of squids.

 

Personally I hope the shade range expands (there’s also a bright pink in the range) but if you’re after a gorgeous red for party season (and fancy a fair whack of change from a tenner to boot!) these are available from VIVO for £1.99.

 

As always where products are sent to me, opinions are my own.

Quickie Review and Swatches: Darling Girl Spectral Shifts

Darling Girl is a wonderful indie company with a huge range of amazing shadows and blushes – genuinely something for everyone! In my last order from them I got several of their ‘Spectral Shifts’:

“Spectral Shifts are silky, sheer, iridescent, multipurpose shades that can be used as eye shadow, face highlighters, or depending on your complexion, blush.  Don't let the colors fool you -- the shift makes them very wearable.”

I have to say that the description is spot on – these are super soft, finely milled shades with a beautiful lit-from-within look to them. Where they’re so fine, you can pack them on or use them as a soft wash, and they work really well layered other other products like eyeliners and eyeshadow.

 

L-R: Razzles, Mystique, April Showers, Ramblin’ Rose, Double Bubble.

My swatches are pretty poor compared to the ones on the site which show up the shifts beautifully, but I hope you can tell how pretty they are! Originally I wanted to get more pinky-peach colours so I could use them as highlighters but ended up falling in love with a couple of blue colours. Razzles is a really interesting periwinkle  colour with a reddish shift – I’m keen to use this in a smokey eye soon. Mystique is made up of soft cotton candy blue with a pink shift and is the most adorable colour – it layers over blues really well. April Showers looks lovely on the lid – very subtle indeed on it’s own but adds a little somethin’ somethin’ I really quite enjoy! Ramblin’ Rose is the one I would tell everyone to go buy – a dove grey colour with a reddish-pink shift, it’s an absolutely stunning eyeshadow – but Double Bubble is my absolute favourite – it’s so cheerful!

Here I’m wearing Mystique as an all-over cheek highlight for a ghostly sort of look. It’s not an everyday look by any means of course, but shows off the subtle glow you’ll get from the Spectral shifts.

This wonderful display of makeup artistry sis what happens when you do your makeup on the tube. Mascara splodges aside, I’m a bit in love with way April Showers looks on the lid. So subtle and yet so pretty! It reminds me of a softer, girlier version of one of my favourite Fyrinnae shades, Damn Paladins.

Available at darlinggirlcosmetics.com, a petit jar of these – which goes a long way! - will set you back a staggeringly measly $2.50!

Have you tried Darling Girl? What are your favourite highlighters?

Quickie Review: L’Oreal Nude Magique Eau De Teint Foundation in 110 Warm Ivory

 

 

I picked this up on a total whim during Superdrug’s 3-for-2 extravaganza. I was picking up my favourite and much repurchased Revlon Colorstay when I spotted this on the shelves and, remembering rave reviews from US bloggers (why is the US version of something never in French, by the way?) I spent about 15 minutes trying to work out which matched me best in the crappy shop lighting. I eventually settled on 110 Warm Ivory, which is a touch too warm on my face but Porcelain was much too pale for me, and skipped off home to try it. I don’t usually wear L’Oreal foundations but understand they’ve changed their colour naming/numbering system for this line.

  This foundation probably isn’t something I should have picked up at all – it’s a silicone based foundation and alcohol is way up there on the ingredients list. I have combination/dry skin, so that’s not the best combo, but bollocks to it, I wanted to try it! The promise of lightweight, lovely matte-ness swayed me and it sounded perfect for work.

 

 

 

L’oreal claim this is their ‘lightest foundation ever,’ a ‘fresh feel foundation with weightless bare perfection.’ Sounds good, huh? The bottle says to shake it up well and tip on to your finger, presumably suggesting this applies best with your hands. I went right ahead and tried it on. As you can see, it’s very watery and spreads very smoothly in a thin layer over the skin – it’s a very odd formula!

 

 

 

 

As it felt so thin, I wasn’t expecting anything at all when I looked in the mirror properly and I was bloody impressed with the finish! It looked matte but not flat on the skin, and while still fairly sheer, I was able to build it up a little over some blemishes. As you can see, I could do with some concealer still but trust me, the redness on the side of my nose and chin were pretty honking in real life. I applied a couple of layers of the foundation over the top, and considering how thin it is I was very impressed with the coverage I got without it looking cakey.

 

 

Due to the silicone texture and the long wearing claims I’d read about, the first day I tried it I went a little overboard with my moisturizing routine. I applied it at 6.00am and by 11.00am that morning, the foundation had completely separated on my nose and chin so by lunchtime, I more than needed to top those areas. Luckily reapplication is pretty quick! The next day I toned down my morning moisturizing routine and  I found it lasted much more nicely, needing a little love mid-afternoon and then sticking around for a meal in a pretty hot restaurant. I don’t like to powder over this, preferring to blot instead as I find powder makes it look a bit too matte. I do find, like most matte foundations, that it clings to my dry areas, but I've not found many foundations that don't do this and I don't find it feels drying on my skin at all.

 

I found this foundation to be a little expensive. Not as a foundation itself, but compared to other high street options of similar quality it is. At £9.99 for 20ml, it’s more expensive per ml than their True Match or Infallible ranges. I suppose if it’s really right for you a couple of quid isn’t that much, but still, for a lot of people that’s going to be something worth considering and if this hadn’t had been on offer I probably wouldn’t have bothered.

While I found this formula really interesting, for me this isn’t a perfect foundation. If you’ve got very dry skin, this will cling to your dry patches and you may not find the silicone-y feel comfortable. If you have very oily skin, I don’t think it’s going to stick around. If you’re somewhere in-between and like a light feeling coverage, it may be worth checking it out. I have to say I’ve gone back to Colorstay day to day, but what I absolutely LOVE this foundation for is under my eyes. For some reason, possibly the silicone formula, it just doesn’t budge. It’s not the best coverage in the world, but look at the difference in the above photos. I'll take that over cakey, creasy under-eye concealer any day!

Have you tried this foundation? What do you wear day-to-day?