A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I don’t go on YouTube much, but I am partial to a bit of Pixiwoo, so when I saw their Basics Big Eyes/Small Eyes video I had to tune in…

This is the first time I’ve ever had a go at following along, I was curious to see if following the tips would have much effect in the hands of an amateur like me.

I think I can safely say that yes, I look rather bug-eyed!  You can compare with some of my other FOTDs here.

The main points for achieving a more open-eyed look were roughly (from memory so I hope I haven’t forgotten too much):

1. Stick to light(er) eyeshadow shades, including the crease colour.

2. Don’t box the eyes in with heavy eyeliner.  A thin line on the top lid with a little flick (my flicks are hidden here by my lashes).

3. A touch of pale eyeliner on the lower waterline. I’ve used white (it was all I had) but it’s a bit stark.  An ivory shade would be better for pale-ys like me.

4. Lashings of mascara or even some false lashes.

5. Highlight the inner corners with a pale eyeshadow.

6. Blend the eyeshadow under the eye a little lower than normal to create the false impression of larger eyes.

I think this is such a useful technique to create doe eyes.  Probably really great for the party season too as it’s calling out for a bit of glitter!  Illamasqua Static anyone?

Looking back over my old FOTDs I think I’m *slowly* getting a little bit better at this whole makeup malarky.  I flippin’ love makeup I do!

Have you tried any looks like this in an attempt to manipulate your features?  Perhaps you do it as part of your everyday routine?  My eyes are a little close together so I’m trying to learn how to execute the perfect eyeliner ‘flick’ which is supposed to make them appear further apart.  I guess the most common “manipulation” is highlighting and contouring skillfully.  Something I’ve yet to master!

I was reading an article over at Marketing Magazine about Dermalogica being rather upset with Boots for stocking their products without permission…

Dermalogica claims that by doing so, Boots could “damage the brand”.  They don’t elaborate exactly how this damage would manifest itself, but with the word “exclusive” written in the same paragraph… it really doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.

Boots are “high street”, Dermalogica are “high end”.  And never the twain shall meet.

Now, I’m no product-snob – though heaven knows I try 😉  I just don’t have the money to indulge.  Perhaps if I didn’t LOVE makeup/skincare/haircare quite so much (thus not needing to try new things ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME) I’d go high-end exclusivly.

Let’s face it, I have aspirations to makeup snobbery.  I don’t know why, I really don’t.  I flippin’ love a good bargain MORE than the next person.

I have a few select luxe pieces in my collection that I would repurchase over and over (hello Dior Capture Totale) but the majority of my collection lies in the low to mid-range price point.

The recent RougeBunnyRouge positive reviews and gushings have done little to dispel my aspirations, although honestly, I’m simultaneously HORRIFIED by their prices (£27 for a liquid eyeliner).  Combine that with waiting lists for Chanel’s latest offering to the Nail Polish world and I’m left feeling a little Jaded myself (no, no need to pardon that pun – I need shooting for that).

What is it that we hope to achieve by putting our money down for the brands that are deemed to be so exclusive?

The ‘exclusive’ E.L.F Complexion Perfection vs. Guerlain Meteorites Powder *removes tongue from cheek*

“Exclusivity” has much to do with cost, the two factors are often intertwined and the lower the cost, the less exclusive the product becomes.  If you do boil it down to this (true or not) how ridiculous does exclusivity become?  If that IS the case, the term should be “exclusively for mugs” because we all know that there are some fabulous cheap(er) purchases to be made.

Is it quality?  I’m sure for some… it is.  I think perhaps I’d understand my aspirations to product-snobbery a little better if I spent time in an environment where I could show off (discretely of course ;)) my latest finds as an extension of my ego in the same way Mr. Smith might drive his new Audi S8 back and forth outside his office window.

I don’t have that excuse (or is it justification!).  I’m self-employed & the only person who sees me for 8 hours of the day is Mr. Lipglossiping and Baby Lipglossiping and they really couldn’t be less impressed by me triumphuntly pulling out my Chantecaille compact.  If anything, I should really make more of a covert operation of it infront of Mr. L…

Am I trying to impress myself perhaps?  Does buying luxe simply place a greater worth in myself?  Do I enjoy the self-indulgence?  Perhaps it’s a bit of all those things.

All I really know is, my bank manager doesn’t like it much.  Now excuse me, I’m off to check out the latest “exclusive” import that is Hourglass Cosmetics whilst doing a fine job (if I do say so myself) of dodging Mr. Lipglossiping.

What are your thoughts on the term “exclusive” when it comes to products?  Is it a term synonymous with quality or sad gits like me hankering after items I can ill-afford to purchase.

No time for proper updates today… glad it’s Wednesday so I can do this instead!

Halloween’s a-coming… and I’ve got my beady eye on the Too Faced Smoky Eye Kit.

I am such a sucker for ‘tutorial’ kits like these, but aside from the ‘novelty’ I think I would get a lot of wear from this throughout the year.

If you ignore the whole ‘smoky’ angle… this is a palette of wearable colours suitable for both day and evening.  However, I wonder if the inclusion of that drawer makes the whole thing a little chunkier than it needs to be – especially with travel and portability in mind.

Are you a fan of Too Faced? I have a couple of the old Quickie Chronicles that I enjoy using, they’re fab for taking on weekends away, talk about space-saving!  I know a lot of people dislike the cardboard packaging so often used by the ‘funkier’ brands.. but I don’t have any concerns as I’ve always found it to stand up well to daily use and carting about.

Too Faced Smoky Eye Kit is available from Boots or online at HQHair and is priced at £22

What’s on your wishlist for Halloween?

My final Urban Decay review now I’ve had a good while to play with the items I was sent.

I received two shades, and my initial reactions to them couldn’t have been more different.

1. Naked

This is a beautiful soft rose shade, that on many complexions would pass as a pinky-nude.  The (vanilla) scent is lovely, although it may be a little overpowering for some.  Application is smooth with a glossy creamy finish.  It’s supposed to be full coverage but I find it a little sheer.  I would put it on a par with MAC’s Lustre formula in terms of pigmentation.

This isn’t the best swatch… it looks more cool toned here than it is in reality.  But it’s a good example of the lovely glossy finish.  I’ve cropped my lips out of a FOTD image below to show a truer representation of the colour.

Lovely, isn’t it!  As you can see, it’s a little too dark on my complexion for me to consider it a nude.

2. Confession

The second lippie up for review is a far vampier affair!

Confession is a deep, dark claret shade that scared the heck out of me when I twisted the tube up!

I looked at it for many minutes wondering what the hell I was gonna look like with such a statement shade.

I needn’t have worried thanks to the semi-sheer formula:

I was surprised to find this quite flattering and wearable, but being the scaredy-cat that I am, ended up pairing it with a nude gloss anyway and I really like the result!

Confession was a bit more fiddly application-wise than Naked.  I found that it had a tendency to appear a little darker in the creases on my lips and more sheer on the smoother surfaces.  This may be visible in the above image (top lip of 1st photo).  I *think* I may have been applying a little too much wondering if I could amp up the pigmentation… but as it’s something that bothered me at the time, into the review it goes!

I was satisfied with the staying-power of both lipsticks and wear was nice and even on the darker shade (no dark rings here!)

Urban Decay Iconic Lipsticks available from Boots and Debenhams, priced at £12

I wanted to share with you a little discovery I made about a month ago on eBay.  I was checking out some of those 88 palettes from China when I came across a seller with a small range of gel eyeliners priced at around £3.80 each inc. p&p.

I bought one in black along with a long handled flat-top kabuki style brush.

Now, I’ll preface this by saying that I didn’t really hold out much hope that the liner would be any good.  This isn’t the first time I’ve bought gel eyeliners off the Bay, and they are mostly non-setting, non-pigmented greasy affairs as if someone has mixed together a splodge of vaseline and a sprinkling of coal dust.

Imagine my suprise when it turned out to be pretty darn decent!

The first photo was taken when it arrived about a month ago… the second a couple of evenings ago.  You can tell I’ve got some use out of it!

It’s a deep dark nicely pigmented black shade with no shimmer or glitter.  Consistency is thin and spreadable (much like MAC fluidline).  So far, so good!

Staying power is actually a little bit TOO good.  This was after several swipes with a wet wipe… I had to resort to cleansing oil in the end.

My only caveat with this gel liner is that whilst it doesn’t budge on the back of my hand… if I apply a thick liner line on my eyelid, I do get a little transfer to the top lid.  However, this is remedied easily with a bit of translucent powder or black eyeshadow.

It’s a rubbish FOTD, but you can clearly see how nicely pigmented this liner is.  Note my hooded eyelid on my left (your right) – that’s where I would experience a bit of transfer if I didn’t set it.  However, that’s quite a thick application of liner for me.  I’ve also used this on the lower lashline and not experienced any smudging whatsoever.

Anyway…. The seller has had a shipment of new colours and I have been assured that they’re the same formula as the black so I have ordered a few different colours which should arrive this week!

After having a little play, I shall let you know how I get on… if it’s favourable, I’ll let you know the name of the seller (if, of course… anyone’s interested).

By the way, the flat top Kabuki was pretty impressive too (very soft, no horrible smell, shed when I washed it – but not too much since)

Love eBay… oh and I still haven’t got an 88 palette… thinking I might get one of the smaller neutral ones instead.  Or maybe I’ll just procrastinate on it forever!

UPDATE: It seems only fair to admit that a month after writing this review, and I’m finding myself reaching for this one daily… perhaps it’s just the colour of the tube rendering me blind to all others in the drawer, or maybe it’s just a bit more awesome than I initially gave it credit for.

Regardless, I thought I’d better revisit this to let any new visitors know that I think I underestimated it a little in my initial review.  It’s a good’un and definitely up there with my other favs!

So, I’d been meaning to try “The Ugly” one for ages, but having 4000 mascaras languishing in my make up collection meant that I had to at least try to be a good girl and not keep buying them until I’d used up a few tubes.

However, I got one of these in my Maybelline goody bag and of course I couldn’t resist trying it out to add to my mascara series.

U.G.L.Y You ain’t go no alibi…

Alright, it’s not THAT bad – but come on, Maybelline do seem to employ an army of Jekyll and Hydes in their packaging design department do they not?

Case in point…

See?!

It’s interesting to note that the well packaged products are the newer ones, so perhaps things are looking up!

Back to The Colossally ugly one for now…

They Say:

Creates 9X the volume, instantly.

• Patented MegaBrush + Collagen Formula plump lashes one by one
• Dramatic Volume with no clumps
• Washable

So basically, it’s got a big brush and it’s volumising… oh and um “washable” whatever that’s supposed to mean?

It’s not bad.  I’m using the Glam Black (00) version and the formula is nice and dark, I agree that it doesn’t clump on my lashes but it’s just not THAT volumising.  It creates decent definition and if anything is more lengthening thanks to that nice deep-coloured formula.

It’s a really nice day-to-day mascara… But I want MORE, MORE VOLUMISING, MORE LASHES!!

This is another solid release from Maybelline, and a great choice for those who like big-boned brushed mascaras – just don’t expect anything too COLOSSAL from it.

Maybelline The Colossal Volum’ Express Mascara is available from Boots, Superdrug et al, priced at around £6.84

That time had come… the moment I’d been dreading for almost 8 months.

It was time to sacrifice the UDPP packaging in the quest for more product.

Thanks to some advice and gentle nudges in the right direction from the lovely girls on Twitter (AbbieandBrian, Lollipop, Ally, cosmetic-candy, melovemakeup, get_lippie, slaphappybeauty & Rhamnousia) I felt a little more confident that I could depot without removing most of my fingers in the process.

Here we go:

The cast of (necessary) characters.  I’m using a Body Shop sample pot – did you know that you can ask for a samples in The Body Shop?

Grab your boyfriend, husband, dad (or someone else you can palm this thankless task onto) and get them to saw straight through the middle.  Make sure you’re using a knife with a serated blade!

Ta-Da! Look at all that product!

Look! That’s enough to keep me going for another month right there!

All scraped out..

Goodness me, that would have gone in the bin if it weren’t for all you lovely bloggers alerting me to the packaging shame that is UDPP

But wait! There’s more! – Get that knife back out and start sawing the bottom of the tube too, ‘cos look!

Yes! Shame on you Urban Decay!

Get every last splodge!

Et Voila! One dead UDPP tube and one very nearly full pot of Primer Potion.

I know, I know… there’s hundreds of these tutorials about now in the blogosphere and on youtube.  I should know, I’ve watched most of them…

Why add to it?  Well… because DESPITE that – I very nearly just binned the UDPP without doing this.  I figured it would be too much hassle, too hard, too whatever other lazy ass excuse I could come up with.

It was fine.  I mean, it was hard work waiting patiently whilst my husband sawed through the middle bit… FASTER *whipcrack* – but he got there in the end.  So, I’m happy to saturate the UDPP depotting tutorial presence on the internet if it helps bully YOU (or your general dogsbody) into making sure you do this when the time comes.

I’m a few days late with this (should be an end of month post) – but here’s what I’ve been loving in September.

Shampoo: Aussie Miracle Moist Shampoo
Conditioner: Aussie Miracle Moist Conditioner
Styling products: Matrix Biolage Smoothing Serum
Shower Gel: Soap & Glory Clean on Me (yes, still – this stuff lasts and lasts!)
Body moisturiser: None – but I need to buy some
Deodorant: Vaseline Aloe Fresh Anti-Perspirant (same as last month)
Fake Tan: None
Cleanser: SKII Facial Treatment Cleansing Oil followed with Virgin Vie Fresh Face Cleansing Foam
Exfoliator: Queen Helene Mint Julep Natural Facial Scrub & Garnier Body Tonic Sugar Scrub (same)
Primer: L’oreal Paris Studio Secrets Smoothing Resurfacing Primer (Not for much longer!)
Foundation brush: Pout Airbrush
Concealer: Grimas Camouflage Concealer
Powder: Art Deco Silk Touch Loose Powder
Blusher: The Body Shop Blush Trio in Cool Dusk
Bronzer: Illamasqua Powder Blusher in Rumour makes a great contour colour for me
Highlighter: Prescriptives, The Illuminator
Eyeshadow base: Art Deco Eye Shadow Base
Eyeshadows: Kryolan Shades Palette in Santiago
Eyeliner: Gosh Velvet Touch on the lower waterline, Infinity Liners on the upper lids
Curler: None
Mascara: Maybelline Colossal Volum’ Express
Lipstick: MAC Hue
Lipgloss: MAC Lipglass Pas de Deux
Nail Colour: Various!

I tag anyone who fancies an end of month recap.  If you do it, link me up!

Exclusive ASOS Paints by Ciate are now available on the ASOS website and I am beyond excited to see them!

Look, they’re cutesy Ciate but with an edgy twist!

Available in 10 ultra glossy celebrity-inspired shades, see below:

ASOS Say:

Paris (Hilton) – Super girly and, like, totally hot!
Chloe (Sevigny) – Avant garde and oh-so-cool
Daisy (Lowe) – Cooler than cool grungy-glam
Gwen (Stefani) – Racy and made to get noticed
Sienna (Miller) – A natural beauty with an earthy edge
Alexa (Chung) – Off-beat, quirky cool
Cheryl (Cole) – Everyone’s favourite – cheerful and (colour) pop-tastic
Katy (Perry) – Flirty forties glamour with a retro vibe
Kate (Moss) – Classic and always on-trend
Victoria (Beckham) – Sexy and vampy with a glossy finish

Sienna, Chloe & Kate are on my must have list!

Available at £6 each from ASOS.

Will you be trying any of these? Which shades are on your list?

I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of BarryM’s polishes.  I know that some people find them not as long lasting as the likes of Nails Inc and O.P.I (out of curiousity, do YOU pronounce it Oh Pee Eye, or Ohpee?) but I simply get equal wear out of these polishes with a fantasticly smooth formula and I can’t argue with that.

I’m on a bit of a “grey” kick at the moment and picked 2 of these shades up in Boots this week:

This is a real true “concrete” grey which I thought would look hideous on my pale pink toned skin.  I was wrong! That never happens! (no it doesn’t).

The photo makes it look slightly darker than it appears in daylight (picture was taken under flash conditions) – but the tone is true to life.  It’s nice and glossy and I’m really enjoying catching some admiring glances at my fingertips whilst out and about.

I am desperate for BarryM to release some more shades!  Duotones anyone? Do you have a favourite BarryM shade?

BarryM is currently on a 3for2 in Boots and these polishes are priced at £2.89 ea or £2.95 from the BarryM website.

I’ve been wanting these Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Shadow Cremes for a while now after swatching “Vintage Violet” at the counter and falling in love with it’s gorgeous metallic finish.

They are fantastic for those days when you just don’t have the time to do a look using multiple shadows… I’ve applied these with both my fingers and a brush and either way they blend so smoothly.  The formula is creamy and highly pigmented, perfect for a quick and easy look!

Estee Lauder say:

Creme eyeshadow delivers intense color that lasts up to 15 hours and goes on fast.

Long-Wear, Stay-True Color
It’s stay-true color at your fingertips with matte to demi-pearl finishes.

• Creamy formula goes on smoothly, blends easily.
• Seamless coverage won’t crease or fade.
• Can be worn alone or layered under powder eyeshadow.

For all skintypes and ideal for mature skin as it minimizes pulling and tugging of the delicate eyelid.

I think the 15hr thing is a bit of an exaggeration.  On my lids (which aren’t at all oily) they last around 7/8 hours before they start to crease a little, but that’s plenty long enough for me and even after they’ve started to crease, it’s not particularly noticeable for a few hours more.

L-R, Top-Bottom: Antique Gold, Silver Star (LE), Precious Jade, Lilac Petals & Vintage Violet.

Are you a fan of Cream Shadows? These are the first I’ve tried so I’d be really keen to hear some more recommendations!

Incase you’re interested, out of the 5 I have, Precious Jade & Antique Gold are stand outs in terms of pigmentation and total gorgeousness!

They currently retail at £14 each.

[starreview tpl=14]