A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I bought the Kryolan Supra Color to use as a base for my mineral eyeshadows which tend to apply sheerly without a solid base not to mention the fall out if they don’t have something to sitck to!

It’s basically a black grease paint.  Upon opening, it has a clear layer of grease ontop which I ‘patted’ off with a piece of kitchen roll until I got to the black stuff below!

As you can see by the swatch above, it’s a very deep and pigmented black which applies smoothly.  You can use a brush or your finger to apply, I’ve been using a synthetic flat shadow brush to apply which seems to work really well.

I then pat my mineral/loose eyeshadows ontop of a thin layer of the Supra Color.  The shadows stick really well to the Supra Color with minimal fall out and even more impressively, I’ve discovered that I actually do have some blending ability!  It is SO much easier to blend out eyeshadows over this base than it is over UDPP.

Here’s the finished result:

Unfortunately (and as I mentioned yesterday) my eyeshadows start to crease after a mere 3 hours 🙁  UDPP holds them firm for at least 9 hours on me.

The picture below was taken after 3 hours wear:

What a shame huh?

JoBetterDays & GraceLondon both recommend I try it over a little UDPP.  I’m really hopeful that’ll make the difference because my GOD I don’t want to give up my new-found blending abilities!  Imagine… colour that lasts AND looks fantastic!

Not too much to ask… is it?

…stays in Lon… usually comes home with me in a lovely iconic yellow paper bag 😉

So, I was up in London on Saturday for the wonderful Aussie Project Angel event (more details to come later..) and saw lots of lovely things to add to my stash.

Ok, well I didn’t get *all* these bits in London.. the Stila stuff I ordered a couple of weeks ago and turned up today so thought I’d throw them in.

I went on a bit of a lipstick buying rampage – and had to be physically restrained from buying another Shu one that I had my eye on.

On the left, the unmistakable Lingerie Pink… and on the right, the lovely Shu Rouge Unlimited BG907.

I had no intentions of buying Lingerie Pink until I tried it on out of pure curiousity at the counter.  Instant love.

I first saw the Shu one when I went to the Maybelline Event last month and have lusted after it ever since.

How pretty?! – L-R: Pound Cake, Strawberry Sorbet, Baby Cakes

Kryolan Supra Color Black Greasepaint recommended to me by LondonMUGirl.  First impressions… wonderful to blend eyeshadow over compared to UDPP, but it starts creasing after 3hrs 🙁

L-R: MAC Woodwinked (been on my wishlist a LONG time), Kryolan Matte Highlight (got this by accident after SA put the wrong eyeshadow in my bag… grrr.)

Well, that concludes my first proper “haul” post… hope it wasn’t too dull.  I enjoy reading about everyone else’s newest acquisitions, but everyone is different so apologies if this was a boring read – move along, I’m done now!

Oh, and the Stila can wait ’till the rest of my order turns up 🙂

Since having Leila, I’ve noticed that my eyeslashes have been breaking more often and generally looking a bit sparser than normal.

I’m not in the market for lash growth solutions like li-lash and revitalash, but I do want something that promises to keep them in tip top condition.

Enter Mavala Double Lash:

They say:

Double Lash contains proteins which strengthen, cover and protect the lashes allowing them to become healthy, long and resistant.

To be fair, I’m not holding out much hope, I’m sure it has all to do with post-pregnancy hormones and no amount of proteins is going to alter that.  However, Double Lash is inexpensive and I figured it can’t hurt to try right?

The bottle is huge! It would take me a year to get through that much product!  I’m going to apply it to my lashes (and brows) every night before bed and see if there’s any differences to be seen in 30 days time.

Here’s the obligatory “before” shots:

Mavala Double Lash is available online from FeelUnique priced at £8.25

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.

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]

Wait, how did I miss this?

Seems this gimmick-screaming gem passed me by when it was launched at the beginning of the month.

It works in a simillar way to a printing plate.  Take the roller, roll it back and forward a few times over the foundation and then ROLLER your face with it.  Sexy.

I can’t imagine that it would be easy to achieve even coverage around the eyes or nose without using a brush or your fingers… but until I’ve seen it in person I’ll stop screeching “TIDE-MARKS!” at the picture.

However, I do hope this current trend of novelty innovation passes soon.

L’oreal Paris True Match Roll On Foundation is available from Boots, Superdrug et al. priced at £12.99

Alternatively, for those on a tighter budget… Homebase are doing 3for2 on Dulux at the moment.