A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Since reading this post from BritishBeautyBlogger, my heart has been beating nineteen to the dozen and a few hours later, shows no signs of slowing down.

Check out what Urban Decay has in store for us this March (US Release: 28th December – lucky so and so’s)…

Introducing, The Urban Decay Alice In Wonderland Palette.  Timed to coincide with the new Tim Burton film of the same name.

Do we recognise any of those 16 re-named colours?  I’m completely in love with it, but wonder just how many of those shades I already own…

There’s only 2000 set to be released in the UK, so it’s gonna be a challenge to nab one.

What are your thoughts? Will you be getting one?

So, you’ve seen the FOTD but not the palette… I got that ordering all arse about face didn’t I?  Although, you couldn’t actually see the shadows in the FOTD anywayyyy… but I digress…

Here she is!

I’m not a fan of these silly velvet pouches… I dunno why, but to me… they cheapen the product.  Makes me think of a tacky ornament that you pick up in the pound shop at Christmas for an Aunty that you don’t like very much.  Yeah, I don’t know how the hell I got from Dior to pound shop tat in one fell swoop either.

The casing on the other hand is pure luxe.  Love that midnight blue… just beautiful!

It’s a very cool toned palette, which suits me perfectly!  I’m loving the combination of totally wearable shades… gawjus!

As you can see from the swatches… this is one heavily pigmented palette.  The shade difference between the silvery taupes are perfect and the purple is a fabulous nod to the festive season.  The finishes are all metallic/shimmer and blend like buttah.

The palette is LE but there was still plenty of stock in the Boots I bought this from last week.  I paid £36 (well, I didn’t ‘cos I used my Advantage Card… but, I woulda done if…. oh you know what I mean!).

Do you like? Is it a bit cool toned for you?

Here’s that FOTD I promised showing the GOSH Smoky Eyes Palette I was sent.

Remember the one?

No, sorry not that one… I meant this one…

*alright, stop bitching about their crap stock imagery already*

Anyway, I was semi pleased that it wasn’t hugely pigmented as I find the Sleek MakeUP Graphite palette so hard to work with.  Although I was unsure if I would get much payoff from that light grey (2nd from right) at all…

And I was right! (which makes a change).

I do really like this for a non-overpowering smoky eye.  It feels more grown up, more genteel and sophisticated than the Sleek Graphite Palette.  Unfortunately, I got nothing from that pale grey shade at all.  I applied it in the crease and blended upwards but you just wouldn’t be able to tell.

I hereby class this a “nearly” palette… “nearly” good, but no cigar.

I was very excited to see the promo image for this latest GOSH collection which has been out for a little while now.

The eyeshadow palette in particular caught my eye:

*sigh* Such beautiful taupes…

Unfortunately for me, the stock image looks nothing like the product.  Way to go Mr. GOSH product photographer/retoucher.

This is what the palette really looks like:

Black to White… hey, where did my lovely taupes go?

I can’t really bitch too much – I was sent this by the nice people at GOSH.

Well I can bitch, ‘cos that’s what I do when I don’t like something… so yeah… where the hell was I?

Oh yes, it’s often helpful if the promo images reflect the actual product, don’t you think?

Let’s have a look at the packaging and see if the palette can redeem itself.

Oooh, a tutorial.  I’m a sucker for these and always happy to receive some inspiration and direction!

This is really nice, sturdy casing… good job!

2 eyeshadow applicators and a big mirror… all good stuff.

How about the actual shadows themselves?

Disappointing really…

They feel chalky and they’re simillar to Sleek shadows in as much as they’re quite soft and crumbly.  Shadow dust will fly everywhere when picking up the colour with a brush.

That’s where the Sleek comparison ends.  Unlike Sleek these give very little payoff in terms of colour.  Wanna see?

That third grey from the left is a real bastard to get much out of. *swipe, swipe, swipe*.

Having said that… hand on my heart, I don’t mind at all in this instance.  I usually err on the side of heavy-handedness when it comes to applying eye shadows and with a palette of this nature, my looks usually end up all black and not much else.

The Sleek Graphite palette is a real bugger for this as it’s *so* pigmented I generally look like I have a pair of black eyes after using it.  This, on the other hand gives me the chance to build up the colour and stop short of Panda.

However, for most… I’m sure that this lack of pigmentation is not a good thing.  And if it were a palette of different shades, I’d most likely agree with you.

One more thing I will say though, is that it does state that you can use these eyeshadows wet… I shall give it a go and be back with a FOTD, you never know… it could be amazing – eternal optimist that I am!

I’ve heard great things about the nail polishes from this collection.  In general, I find GOSH Nail polishes to be *awesome* but I’m still dipping my big toe into the world of glitter polishes and don’t need another black so didn’t pick either of these up.

The Gosh Bright n’ Black Collection is available to buy from Superdrug and the eyeshadow palette is priced at £8.99

How have you been finding the collection?  Have you tried any other GOSH eyeshadows?

Screw my schedule, let’s have some eye candy!

The shadows are huge!  So although it’s expensive… you do get a lot of product for your money.

Here’s some individual shots of each pan…

Finally, check out the rich pigmentation in some skin swatches…

I am completely in love with this palette and would happily go so far as to say that it’s my favourite thing I’ve bought all year!  Which is quite an accolade considering it’s mid-November…

Introducing Sleek’s new Sunset Palette, I would link you to the website.. but I can’t find the palette on there… infact, the website seems to be thoroughly out of date.  And just how long does it take to build an online shop?

Anyway…

I had absolutely no intention of buying this.  I’m a cool toned kinda girl, especially at the moment… I’m all about the greys, mauves and silvers.

However, whilst buying the Graphite palette… I couldn’t resist a sneak peek inside this one too.  Oh my!

I will probably never wear the blue or the bright orange (I know, I know – they’re the bestest ones)… but they’re just not me!  The others are deliciously wearable metallic shades that will be put into use immediately!

Absolute stand out shades for me are: Top 2nd from left (cranberry colour), bottom far left, bottom 2nd from left and bottom 3rd from right.  If you’re a neutrals girl the palette is easily worth the cost for those 4 shades alone.  Although the cranberry shade looks bright, (and it is..) it blends out smoothly making a gorgeous subtle crease colour.

I’m very happy with this palette, and delighted that it’s made it into the permanent collection – good job Sleek!

This is Sleek’s latest addition to their highly popular palette family.

It’s basically an all-in-one smokey eye kit.  Two highlight shades and variations of blacks/greys with a purple (or 2) thrown in.

Texture wise, they’re the same creamy, slightly crumbly but highly pigmented shadows that we’ve come to know and love from Sleek.

I wish, wish, wish that the shades between the highlights and the first grey were more graduated.  There seems to be an awfully big jump from those first two shades into what (for me) is crease colour territory.

As I don’t generally wear dark shades on my lids, this palette ultimately consists of 10 crease colours.

If you count, left-right… top-bottom… 4 & 5 are too simillar as are 7 & 8 and even 11 & 12 which is such a shame, because this is a wonderful palette idea from a company that produce great shadows for a great price but honestly, I think it’s a “could have done better”.

I’ll get lots use out of it, and for less than £5 it’s definitely not something I’d ever regret buying, I’m just sad thinking about how good it could have been.

It’s Limited Edition, and from experience these palettes sell out quicker than a Bon Jovi concert, so get down Superdrug quick!

Further to my previous post, I’ve had a couple of requests for swatches… so here they are (in all their glory!)

Hope that’s useful!

I know this is no lady-like way to start a post but… I think I might have done a little wee when this unexpected treat landed on my doormat.

I’d been waiting for a new-style UDPP tube from the PR agency to hack to pieces and over analyse for you all, but none of you would believe me if I said that I was disappointed to find this inside the parcel instead.  Mainly ‘cos I’d be lying.

If you haven’t bought yours yet… why not?  Let’s have a little group unveiling…

B-E-A-UTIFUL.

I am going to get so many different looks out of this one palette, the shadows are smooth like buttah (bar the ‘orrible MCRA) and heavily pigmented.

The wand in the mini UDPP is one of the new-fangled angled (I’m a poet) ones.  So it’ll be interesting to see how it gets into the nooks and crannies of the (still) rather daftly shaped bottle (stick it in a squeezy tube already!)

I love that they’ve included a brown liner pencil as some of the shades in the palette are crying out to be paired up with a softer line than black would give.  I know a lot of you are huge fans of these Urban Decay 24/7 pencils… but I’ll be honest and say that for the difference in price, I still prefer my GOSH Velvet Touch ones which seem to last equally as long on my eyes before admitting defeat and morphing into eye bogies.

The substantial mirror in the lid is very useful and ensures that these will be the only shadows I take along with me when I visit the in-laws over Christmas.  The “book of looks” is a slightly superfluous but glamourous addition that gives a nice focus for the shadows.  It’s more of a “look what we can do” rather than “look what we can help you do” affair, but it does link to a URL which claims to help you learn how to create the looks featured in the book.

I’ll be doing some individual swatches but I wanted to get my initial thoughts on this palette “out there” before it became impossible to find.  My local Boots only had 3 left in stock on Saturday.

I have another one coming (which my friend has already decided will now be her Xmas present from me) as I already had one on order from Debenhams when this showed up (it’s like waiting for a bus eh?)… I paid £24.30 inc. p&p, if you want to know how I got it for that price let me know and I’ll post the codes I used in the comment area, otherwise I’m a bit too lazy to re-find them.

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?

So, after reading this kind comment from Ceona on my last FOTD post:

I love this palette and the way you’ve used it. So tempted to get one myself. I’m not sure about that blue though, how would you use it with the other colours? I am stuck in a brown/bronze/gold eyeshadow rut.

I realised that I too was mostly stuck in a bronze/gold shadow rut… but I’m loving it and don’t wanna leave, especially now Autumn is drawing near with all it’s bronzey shades! So, instead I thought I’d spice it up a little by using the blue in the palette foiled (wet) as a liner.

I *think* it works, although I’d probably use the same gold on the lower lashline as I did on the lids next time.

Used:

Kryolan Shades Palette in Santiago

Hope the shadows aren’t too distracting, I did this quite late at night and had to use my (bounced) flash to light my face.

Happy roast dinner day! (although I’ve got baked potato, so I dunno why I’m getting all excited..)

This is a really soft wearable palette – not massively pigmented but with just the right amount of shimmer.  I particularly like the cream blush which is ultra blendable and not too sticky.

The lip glosses were not pigmented enough for me to be honest, as you can see they added more of a shine to my lips rather than any actual colour.  The eyeshadows are soft and shimmery, again – not highly pigmented, but not so subtle that you have to pack the colour on.

I’m also wearing Blinc Mascara and Stargazer Cake Eyeliner in Brown (which I’m currently loving considering it’s price – full review coming soon!).

The eyeshadow shades are perfect for wearing to work, the highlighter shade (bottom right) is particularly nice, as is the brighter pink to it’s left.  The darkest shade in the middle of the palette is one that could have easily done with being a little more pigmented.  All colours were easily blendable ontop of UDPP.  I didn’t use the top 2 colours in the FOTD.  The pink is actually a little more saturated in real life than it is in the FOTD photos which aren’t quite doing that particular shade justice.

I didn’t use the concealer (bottom right) or the darker brown gloss (top right).  The cream blush (bottom left) looks brighter in the palette than it does on the skin, it’s a coral type colour.  I initially just applied the top left bright pink lip gloss – but added the middle one aswell when I wasn’t getting ANY colour payoff from it.  I still didn’t achieve any pigmentation to speak of after adding the second colour.  Disappointing really.

Overall, I’m pleased with this palette.  My first impressions from yesterday confirm that there’s nothing earth shattering contained within.  But it’s a completely wearable ensemble that would particularly flatter paler skin tones to create a subtle but fresh daytime look.  I’d definitely recommend everything bar the lip glosses, which seem to be a waste of space.  The packaging is cheap looking but very cute, and totally portable – complete with mirror, you could quite happily cart this around in your handbag for any touch ups.

[starreview tpl=14]