A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

As part of my Dior haul, I also purchased the Dior Sparkling Liner in the Xmas ’09 LE Shade Sparkling Purple.

I actually had no intentions to pick this up until I swatched it on the stand… oh my.

It’s a beautifully iridescent purple liner with a brush that ensures a precision fine line.  It’s massively pigmented and perfect for winter.

Look at that… it just glows and reminds me of stained glass.  I’ve been pairing this up with grey shadows on my lids and have worn it once or twice on it’s own with lots of black mascara.

I’m so pleased I picked it up!

I think I paid around £20.  Do you wear coloured liners?  Any preferences or tips on shade selection for a chick with grey/green eyes?

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?

I found another Stellar Showlights Lipstick lurking in my local T.K. Maxx… this time in the shade Ra Ra Red.

I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t the same glitter-bomb affair as the last one… but it still has glamour running through it’s veins.

Love the heavyweight packaging of the old style HR lippies.

These lippies are beautifully sheer yet buildable and I also find them quite moisturising… most of all, I love the shimmer left on the lips.  They give a fantastic illusion of fullness.

More, more… must find more!

This has been on my wishlist for a while (dunno why, I still haven’t used the one I have in Milk yet)…

Anyway… I’m gonna try this out along the waterline to brighten my eyes.  It doesn’t feel quite so creamy as the one I have in white (Milk) which can only be a good thing to increase staying power.

It’s still very pale but has a bit of irridescence and lacks the starkness of Milk.

Will let you know how I get on!

I was eavesdropping on Twitter (as you do) and overheardread VexintheCity tell Cosmetic-Candy that Revlon Pink Pout was a reasonable dupe for MAC Angel.

“No it isn’t!” thinks I… “They’re completely different!”

So off I rush immediately to test out this theory! (as you do)

Left-Right: Pink Pout, Angel

I’m serving up my humble pie at this point….

They are simillar aren’t they?

So I swatch…

*sigh* I don’t like being wrong…

Dupe Alert!

but then… I apply…

L-R: Pink Pout, Angel

Woah there Nelly!  Pink Pout is… well… pink.  MAC Angel is distinctly beige-toned on my lips.

How on earth?

So there ya go.  Revlon’s Pink Pout is a definite dupe for MAC Angel (albeit a matte one) on everybody in the entire universe…

…except for me.

Now, what I want is a Revlon Pink Pout dupe that isn’t a moisture sucking matte… um… don’t say MAC Angel 😉

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?

I’m a big fan of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, they’re multi-use and an absolute must have for travelling.  Fantastically, they’re Suphate-Free and you can use them for washing, laundry, dish washing, cleaning, shampooing and even toothbrushing!  Although I’m not too sure about that last one…

My favourite use for this little bottle of rose-scented magic has to be cleaning my makeup brushes.  You just need the tiniest amount.  I’ve washed my brushes at least 3 times using the bottle above and it’s barely made any impact at all.

It leaves my brushes feeling soft, clean and conditioned, gets out all the crud and all that remains is a gentle rose-scent.  What more can I ask for?

More varieties?  Well… you can have: Peppermint (nice), Eucalyptus (bleh), Almond (yum), Rose (yay), Baby Mild (boring), Citrus (zesty!), Lavender (bleh) and Tea Tree (meh).   Please excuse the childish running commentary that accompanied the variety listing… sometimes I just can’t help myself.

Oh yes, they don’t test on bunny rabbits either.

INGREDIENTS: Water, Saponified Organic Coconut, Organic Palm and Organic Olive Oils (w/Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Essential Oils, Citric Acid, Vitamin E

You like?

I purchase mine from EcoHamster ‘cos they offer free delivery and I like hamsters. £4.95 for 236ml.

I first saw this on Cosmetic-Candy back in July (on my brithday infact – it was meant to be!)

I fell in love with the swatch and have been lusting after it since!  Thanks to a well-timed eBay auction, I was finally able to make it mine:

Packaging is lovely!  The product is housed in a very solid frosted glass jar and it comes with a very useable retractable brush.

I found the shade to be well pigmented with some gorgeous (but not overpowering) sparkles.  It’s a very dark teal and would compliment brown eyes beautifully.

The swatch set to a smudge proof finish very quickly, but unfortunately I did experience transfer on my lids.

I was pleased to be able to add it to my collection, it reminds me of my Infinity Liner in Indigo Blue, but with added sparkle!  If only I could get the dreaded lid transfer to stop though 🙁

I paid around £10 including shipping.  Check eBay & AdamBeauty for stock.

I’ve mentioned these maybe once or twice (or 7 or 8 times)…

When I first tried a GOSH Velvet Touch Liner, I was genuinely amazed at how they performed.  They just work.  They’re creamy and smooth to apply.  Once applied they don’t budge from the waterline on me for around 6 hours and if applied along the lower lashline, they don’t move until I remove my makeup that evening.

They come in an amazing array of colours and each pencil will set you back around a fiver.

I realised a few weeks ago, that since buying these I hadn’t reached for any of my other pencils (and eyeliner is kinda my ‘thing’, so I had a few!).  I ended up giving away, selling or binning my eyeliner stash and am now on the wonderful mission of hunting these down in every shade available.

Have you ever ‘purged’ your stash in such a way?  Now… if only I could do the same for mascaras…

GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liners are priced at £5 each and are available from Superdrug (instore & online).  Don’t forget, there’s a Superdrug 3for2 promotion going on at the moment aswell!

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.

STOP PRESS!: Check out Janice’s review on the Eye Transformer too, her photographs demonstrate the whole ‘smoky eye thing’ better than mine and really give a good idea of what I was trying to explain (lamely!).

http://seekforbeauty.blogspot.com/2009/08/review-elf-studio-eye-transformer.html

The new (to the UK) ELF Eye Transformer is another product that was lurking at the bottom of my goody bag from a recent E.L.F event I attended.  It’s an unusual product, I’ve only ever seen one other like it and I think that it fits in very nicely with the rest of the E.L.F Studio lineup.

It has one main function.  Applied over a dark coloured eyeshadow base, it will have the effect on transforming the base into a new and wonderful shimmering iridescent shade.

Make sense?

Let’s look more closely…

Oh there you go, it says what it does on the back of the box… and for bonus points it gets straight to the point.  Unlike me.

Packaging is identical to the Shimmer Palette, it’s good stuff… solid and sleek.

There are four powder shades: Green, Orange, Pink and Blue.

The powders are quite dusty and I’d recommend giving your brush a quick shake or blow before applying the powder ontop of your base.

First, I laid down 4 black base swatches.  I used a black eye shadow from one of my Sleek Palettes, then I layered each Eye Transformer powder over the base…

Let’s see them in action…

As you can see, from left to right… the powders create green, bronze, purple and blue hues when layered ontop of black bases.  Very pretty and much more interesting than plain old black!

This by itself is pretty cool, but I’ve discovered an even better use for them!

I’m rubbish at true smoky eyes, I look like a panda, I find it hard to blend very strong colours.  It’s a shame then that smokey eyes are *everywhere* at the moment.  Hell, Sleek and GOSH have even brought out palettes in celebration…

Let me demonstrate my crapness…

That’s my best effort!  It’s harrrrrrrrrd!

The variations between the black in the crease and the grey on the lid are obvious to me… I just can’t get a smooth blend when I use black, which is why I usually shy away from the shade, favouring greys and browns for crease colours.

However, let’s go over the whole lot with the blue shade from the Eye Transformer Palette…

What do you think?

It’s not *so* visible in the photo as it was in person, but adding the Eye Transformer shade seems to bring the other shades in harmony with one another.

My blending isn’t the best, and I should have definitely gone over that outer edge with my blending brush.  But focusing on the actual lid, don’t the colours seem to flow better?  Am I imagining things?

Anyway, all I can say is…

The ELF Eye Transformer is not the best quality product in the world… the powders are pretty chalky and dusty.

Having said that, I’m a sucker for novelty products like this and usually a little disappointed when I try them.  But I’m really enjoying using this combined with the Sleek Graphite palette.  They simply work as they’re supposed to, opening up many more opportunities for colour.

What are your thoughts?  Have you tried the ELF Eye Transformer Palette? Want to?

PURE are a brand I know very little about although I’ve spied the mostly black packaging a few times whilst browsing in Boots.

The first products I noticed by the brand were the Kajal sticks, and I was tempted!  But to be honest, as an unknown quantity… I was loathe to part with any money ’till I’d read a bit more about the brand.

Well, of course that never happened… there’s simply too much makeup in the world worthy of spending my hard-earned cash on and something else equally tempting must have slipped into my line of vision and any thoughts of PURE were promptly dropped.

That is, until I was browsing the Debenhams website last week.

PURE was on sale (at 50% off the RRP) and I saw some eyeshadow duos that I liked the look of…

Pretty!

The packaging is sleek, compact and functional… it’s solidly built and nice to use.

I bought: Freedom, Nude Gold and Havana. (L-R)  I paid £4.25 each.

Nude Gold and Havana look somewhat simillar no?

Clockwise from TopLeft – Freedom, Nude Gold, Havana.

Nude Gold looks a little washed out in my swatch, but it’s equally as vibrant as Havana and Freedom.

I’m really pleased with my purchases, the shadows are smooth, well pigmented and contain a beautiful amount of shimmer without being too sparkly.

They last well without a base and blend easily.  There’s not much more you’d want is there?

My only disappointment is the shade selection, I think I’ve already bought all the ones I’d be interested in bar one – the others look pretty samey or just plain odd.

I’ll be much more willing to try the rest of the brand now though!

Are you a PURE fan?  What have you tried?  What do you want to try?