Cosmetic Kitten

Millionise: To share

2010-08-26T14:24:00.001+01:00

Magical Valentine Nails

2010-02-13T12:12:00.005Z

I'm not sure if this stays the right side of glittery or crosses over into Bonne-Bell-My-Little-Pony madness. I love it anyway.

O.P.I. Love Will Blossom from the Valentine Glitters 2009 Collection (released in Japan & the UK).

Part One of Purchases Over The Holidays: Benefit Celebutante

2010-02-02T23:41:00.010Z

Hi! Many things have changed in my life.

We've moved to a lovely flat near Peckham Rye park with a view of the South Bank.
I've started temping. And I'm getting like a fairly decent pay as well.
I started getting into Star Trek.

All in all I'm doing much better than I thought I would be last year. I've obtained many, many lovely new things in my life since I last posted and would like to show you. These include a one of those MAC holiday things, a NYX makeup artist set, my first OPI nail polish ever, and an assortment of cheap things, but to start off with I'll post about the Benefit Celebutante palette.

I love it.

I was a bit iffy about buying it because it looks a bit boring and Benefit are kind of gimmicky, so I hassled James to get me it for Christmas but he encouraged me to buy it myself when we were in Boots, and so I did.

It's amazing.

The amazement isn't immediately obvious. At first glance it's another neutral palette.

I love the Dallas blush. It's a very subtle colour.

With flash

Without flash

It's like a natural rosy colour on me.

The eyeshadows are very soft and pigmented. I have become increasingly disillusioned with MAC eyeshadows and after trying these I might be inclined to try out some Benefit ones.

One of them is called Leggy and one Dandy Brandy.

I like the light (I assume a highlight) colour a whole lot. It's brilliant and, most importantly, blendable so it's not starkly white. The brown I can do with or without, it's pretty easily duplicated but I can't deny it's good quality.

LTR: Lady's Choice lipstick (Lana), No Competition lipstick (Betty), I'm with the band lipgloss.

There are two lipsticks associated with the imaginary Benefit archetype personality women, and a lipgloss. I really like the Lady's Choice lipstick which is like a mauvey nude on and not sheer so it shows up on my pigmented lips. The other one is okay too and they're both flattering on me, but it looks kind of ordinary to me? The lipgloss is pigmented and heavily shimmery and has a really sweet kind of artifical scent so is not really my top lipgloss if only because of the weird-ass smell. It's a really familiar smell but I can't quite pinpoint it. It bugs me when I wear it. I need to know what it is.

I like the little double-ended brush: fluff shadow/talent brush. I use both ends for eyeshadow though I guess one end is supposed to be for your lips or something and I find the bristles soft, kinda like a nice, furry cat.

Other things you get are: Benetint and High Beam. I use a faux Benetint by MeMeMe called Pussycat Lip & Cheek Tint (also rose-scented), and honestly I don't find the real Benetint any different.

I have Moon Beam, and I compared it with High Beam:

I have very dry skin. It is winter.

I've used High Beam as a highlight and when you blend it out it's alright, but I like the Moon Beam better. It's less brazenly white on me and has a cute pink sheen (Benefit website says: 'apricot'). I also fear mixing High Beam in with my foundation or moisturiser because it might be too pale and will make me look a bit unearthly, like in LOTR and Cate Blanchett starts to glow? I mean, you'd like to be glowy, but not luminescent.

The plus point is the High Beam in this kit comes with a little doe foot applicator instead.

A huge huge negative for the entire kit is that everything is tiny.

The lipsticks are like a gwp size or something. I can see that this would be a terrific neutral kit for travel and things: it comes in a cute box, instructions, its own brushes, etc. For the price it's a bit weird to purchase little gwp sizes of stuff. The High Beam, Benetint and lipgloss are 2.5ml, the lipsticks 1.2g, the eyeshadows 1.2g, and Dallas is 3.0g. I figured it's okay since I have a nice collection of makeups to choose from and it's a nice way to try out Benefit items. It's just a bit on the expensive side.

I paid RRP for it before Christmas but it's now selling for £20 or something in Boots. It made me a bit sad, but if I'd waited for it to go on sale I wouldn't have been able to use it over Christmas.

Sucker.

2009-11-20T15:35:00.009Z

Some time ago I saw an ad for Avon's Spectracolor lipstick featuring Reese Witherspoon, darling of the direct selling cosmetics universe. It's supposed to give you 7 colours in 1 lipstick, enabling you to carry only a very small purse to the Emmy awards, just like Reese Witherspoon. I talked to a friend about it, who also confessed to having an urge to buy this lipstick after seeing the ad. We're not really huge Avon people and I have only seen Reese Witherspoon in God-awful movies like Sweet Home Alabama (Legally Blonde was kinda good), so it was all a bit odd.

Anyway, I ended up buying that lipstick off Ebay and it's a total lie.

Does this look like seven colours to you?

No. It looks like two, maybe three different shades if I'm being generous.

The pretext for this lipstick is a terrible pretense. Most of the colours are the same, and the dial exists mostly because we're suckers for gimmicks (see: Vibrating Mascara). There's a dial which ostensibly allows you to 'turn up the intensity' but realistically, since the lipstick is much lighter and less pigmented than real lipstick, you have two shades to work with: sheer pink, and sheer purple which, to its credit, if you layer it on does look kind of like what Reese Witherspoon has on in the commercial, if you'd applied it carefully and heavily and used lipliner.

Which is another thing. What are these seven lip products that this chunky plastic monstrosity wishes to replace? I need lip balm and possibly a lipstick or a lipgloss, or for very fancy occasions, a lipliner. Any spare lip products rattling around in my bag remain because I'm lazy. I suggest that most of this lip product handbag clutter that supposedly inflicts women on a regular basis revolves around things that a 7-in-one lipstick and lipgloss can't replace, like lipbalm, lip pencils, and lip brushes. Anyway, why would I take a bulky twisty lipstick with a cap that keeps falling off, when I can pack a flat lip palette that will take up less space. The lipstick itself is huge, far bigger than any normal lipsticks I have. A lipstick, lipgloss and lipliner would take up less space in my bag than this Spectracolor thing does.

The applicator sucks ass too. It's similar to the Too Faced Glamour Gloss applicator except with a weird smooth plastic tip with large perforations instead of a sponge-tip which would make more sense, and feel less cold and hard and cheap on your mouth.

The other colour you see in the swatch is Mary Kay's Apple Berry lipstick.

I'm not really sure why I have it even.

It's apparently Mary Kay's best selling colour, and the colour of choice for "A Kiss of Country", a campaign that country music, battered women and Jewel Kilcher. I got it from Ebay which is apparently what you do to a) buy Mary Kay lipsticks for 1.99, and b) avoid scary Mary Kay ladies.

It's okay. I'd describe it as a very Mary Kay colour, a kind of grown-up colour that is mostly inoffensive but just a little bit in your face.

It's a kind of metallic berry-orange-red and I mean, it's okay. It looks like it's an attractive colour on camera so maybe I'd wear it if I needed a photo taken. Otherwise I'd wear this colour to work or an official worky thing or a (large) family dinner or something, but not for fun. No. Not fun.

Collection 2000 BMX Bandit

2009-10-26T10:18:00.004Z

One layer of Collection 2000 BMX Bandit. It's so much better than Barry M nail polishes which are more expensive and go on watery and streaky. This applies easily and covers well with one coat, dries quickly, and is the prettiest periwinkle blue. I think it actually might be the colour of my Periwinkle Crayola crayon I liked when I was little. Total win.

BMX Bandit is part of the Collection 2000 Hot Looks nail polish which includes 80s colour names like Button Moon (weirdly a blue-green not yellow),and Dynasty (lilac). They're like less than 2 quid each but are often discounted at 2 for £3 or something like that.

Cargo in Boots

2009-10-26T09:15:00.009Z

I am fond of the Cargo blush, even though I only ever had one and my husband hated the colour passionately (The Big Easy blush, kind of glow-in-the-dark on me).

There was a time when you could only get Cargo at selected large Sainsburys around the country. In Central London you could get it from the Gloucester Road Sainsburys, and you could only choose from a limited range of Cargo products. Now an even more limited range of Cargo products are available right in Boots, namely the Lash Activator they're advertising in Grazia, and this 7 in 7 kit that gives you 7 Cargo products (individual products not sold in Boots, but possibly available in a Cargo-carrying Sainsburys some distance away) and it's £35.

Contents:
Cargo OneBase foundation in 02 (Light medium) - the 7 in 7 kits available in American Sephora comes in three different kits with different colours, but I think Boots has a different kit with only has the Light medium foundation.
Essential palette in warm neutral - each strip is labelled with where you should apply it.
LashActivator
BeachBlush
Black eye pencil
Lipliner in a 'neutral rose'
Lipgloss with 'Timestrip' in a 'shimmering dusty rose'. Timestrip is a little window in the lipgloss cap that turns red. When it's totally red it's time for you to throw out your gloss. Apparently this lasts nine months.

The kit contains the traditional default neutral colours in kits. Good for Christmas. Possibly excellent for Christmas, since everything's full-size and you could technically separate the items and repackage them for different people.

The Timestrip lipgloss is kind of gimmicky (like many things in Cargo: blu-ray, Timestrip, plantlove), but it's things like it that make me feel all old school and frugal, and only have two or three lipglosses at a time, and throw them out every year in an organised way. The downside to the Timestrip gloss would be the guilt you feel when tossing out a relatively new, not inexpensive gloss when you know you've got years of gloss in your kit. Giant Juicy Tubes and tubs of tinted lip conditioner.

This article says to keep lipstick only a year, and cream blush even less.

Maybe it's time they started making smaller (and proportionately cheaper) tubes of lipgloss and lipstick, and especially mascara. Tubes one person could actually use up. I like those small gwp mascaras from Estee Lauder or whatever because I change mascara every three months, which is apparently what you should do. My current favourite mascara is Benefit Bad Gal Lash, and I sure as hell won't buy a full size every three months.

It's great though. It's great. I like the big bristly brush

Alternatively, I (and you) could pare down our more perishable/non-powder cosmetics to the most basic, bearing in mind that most colours could be mixed. And we don't really need 10 shades of pinky-peach lipstick in our collection.

Urban Decay Gash

2009-10-11T19:30:00.001+01:00

,I've still been hunting for a good dark red lipstick. I've always liked Urban Decay and hopped by their counter to try some on. I used to have the Gash lipgunk but it made me look like a tranny - just not a good look for me - so I tried the Gash lipstick and lipliner, which look kind of different.

Gash looks like a true red rather than the deep blood red I wanted, and the 24/7 lip pencil looks purple. I'm glad I didn't get them both off the internet. I could use the lipliner with the old UD pleather pencils in Rubber and Perversion but it's too cool toned to give that blood red look I want.

Illamasqua Dixie cream blush

2009-10-09T20:57:00.006+01:00

My mama came over last week for my graduation. We went to lovely places like The Laden Showroom, Absolute Vintage, and Selfridges.

I bought Illamasqua's Dixie cream blush from Selfridges. I was debating between that and Rude, and my mama decided that Dixie looks more natural on my skin.

I personally prefer cream blushes to powder. I have a harder time blending in powder to achieve a natural look (it seems to sit on my skin more), and cream blushes are more convenient to carry around with me since I don't need a brush.

Dixie is supposed to be a peachy-pink but looks much more pink on me. My skin seems to suck the warm tones out of colours.

The texture is a lot wetter and more slippery to apply than Nars cream blushes. Nars' is definitely less oily but Illamasqua's is sheerer and easier to blend due to its texture. I find that Nars lasts longer on my skin. I dislike the texture of MAC blushcremes which are hard yet kind of greasy, so Illamasqua outshines MAC.

The prices for MAC and Illamasqua cream blushes here are the same at £16, but for 6g vs 4g. Nars is also cheaper than Illamasqua at £18 for 5.5g.

MAC and Nars cream blushes are both cheaper than Illamasqua, at £16 for 6g and £18g for 5.5g, vs £16 for 4g. I like both, but prefer the drier texture of a Nars cream blush myself. I'd say it's a matter of personal preference.

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection foundation vs Rimmel Lasting Finish 16 Hour Foundation

2009-10-03T23:35:00.004+01:00

Both Collection 2000 and Rimmel have come up with a foundation that's supposed to last sixteen hours. They both come in pretty limited shades. The darkest shade that Collection 2000 offers is too light for me, while the darkest Rimmel shade just matches me. To put things in perspective, I wear a Bobbi Brown foundation in Honey.

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Foundation in Honey (top) and Rimmel Lasting Finish 16 Hour Foundation in Natural Beige (bottom).

I ended up with Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse foundation in Sun Bronze - I don't know what the equivalent American shade is. The October issue of British Cosmopolitan mag (Cosmo's Beauty Awards issue) claims that Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse is the Ultimate Foundation, but they also claim that Great Lash is the Ultimate Mascara, so I don't know. I'll be test driving this foundation for a while.

Barry M blusher swatches

2009-09-25T17:41:00.005+01:00

ltr: pink orchid, rose, strawberry, raspberry, apricot, terracotta

Since I'm ~~unemployed~~ newly graduated, today I had nothing much to do except some housework and browse job sites, so I walked into Superdrug and swatched all the Barry M blushers.

They're new in. It's taken Barry M forever to come up with blushers, but these look pretty good. They go for £4.50 each in Superdrug and are highly pigmented. Like most other Barry M products the blushers address your basic need, ie. to put colour on your face, so all the blushers look pretty matte and not shimmery, which is good I guess. I know people are turned off by shimmer in blushers sometimes because they're more mature and have strict job roles, etc. I know that the Barry M website describes them as sheer, and I reckon they could be applied sheerlyw, but they're pretty bright. You'll have to be careful to not go overboard with them.

My favourite out of the lot is Strawberry. It looks like a cute reddish pink on my skin and I'd buy it, except I've got quite a few blushers I don't use regularly and I feel a bit guilty buying more, especially when I'm not in education employment or training.

Apricot looks a vivid orange in the pan rather than apricot - I've never used any blushers that are quite so brazenly orange but I must admit I like it. It looks like it could give a really good burnt flush if used right. I'd like to see someone do a comparison between Apricot and the ever popular orange blush Nars Exhibit A.

The Terracotta: I thought it looked brown in the pan but it looks kind of mauvey/mauvey-brown on me. If you're ordering it off the internet and you think it's brown, well, it ain't. Maybe it'll look browner if you're fairer or have a cool skintone or something. I don't know. It's my second favourite and the most subtle of the lot.

I'd say all the colours look good on darker skin except for Pink Orchid, which looks a bit chalky and purply on me. It shows up easily, just looks a bit weird.

Jewel Kilcher: her makeup, and a Jewel-inspired FOTD

2009-09-24T20:25:00.009+01:00

Remember Jewel Kilcher? Way back in the 90's she sang Foolish Games and yodelled, and hooked up with a rodeo cowboy. She's still in country music or something. Apparently she's writing for her new country album, and talked with AOL about clothes and makeup. In summary, she uses YSL Mascara, Armani foundation, MAC Brit Wit blushcreme and Midtone Sepia CCB, and Blinc Kiss Me eyeliner.

I know about this from a twitter post by James McMurtry. He sings country songs and is really rather good but not that popular it seems. He does gigs in London from time to time, I meant to see him the last time he was here but haven't yet.

To celebrate this rediscovery of Jewel I'm doing a Jewel-inspired FOTD.

It's a bit much so I toned it down. I also don't have bright pink blush or that lipstick - I'm a bit afraid of bright colours, this makeup blog thing is kinda helping me with that.

What I used:

Eyes: Rimmel eyeliner and Benefit Bad Gal Lash, MAC Waternymph eyeshadow, the purple colour from the Sleek Originals palette, Bourjois Ombre Stretch in Violet Profond.
Cheeks: MAC X-Rocks
Lips: MAC Craving lipstick

I am back!

2009-09-23T15:53:00.013+01:00

I disappeared!

I've been doing my dissertation etc. etc. and now I'm finally done with university and graduating on the 30th with an MSc in Pharmacognosy. Yes I chose a relatively specific and obscure course ("Sounds like alchemy," someone said to me) but I have an undergrad degree in biology and my dissertation project was on natural antimicrobials, so I hope I have a good chance of getting a job. So far I've applied to a microbiologist job and a job testing pee for drugs, I have a somewhat good feeling about the pee job. I feel that testing pee for drugs is within the range of my skillz.

Anyway. I did watch the final episode of True Blood but because of all the above dissertation etc. I haven't made any screencaps yet. The ending felt a bit anticlimactic, I'm not all thrilled and eagerly anticipating the next season like I did with Supernatural and Bones (Supernatural and Bones!) but it was alright. I did try to do a lipstick look like in the True Blood poster though, but failed desperately.

I have huge fucking teeth yall.

I used a Jordana lipliner in Silver Lilac but everything still bled desperately, I think I really do need a decent quality red lip liner. Like I'll pick up a Barry M one or something.

Looking at that picture, there's obviously a darker liner around the mouth. I tried to do that with an Urban Decay pleather pencil in Rubber, and put gloss over the top. I recommend a squeezy gloss or to put it on your fingers first. That red rubs off on the applicator. You can also see the pink 'the inside of my lips' bit on my bottom lip - I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem. It's just a different type of cell or something I'm not quite sure, but it's wet and lipstick doesn't stick to it. And it's on the inside but it shows when you talk or open your mouth.

I used Urban Decay Pleather Pencil in Rubber as a base and as a kind of liner. This is old school stuff. You can probably find it on Ebay still or discount cosmetics outlets but I wouldn't bother. The main draw is that it's like a huge pencil and theoretically you could line your lips with it and colour them in, but it's slippery - I'd say more slippery than MAC Frost formula lipsticks so it slides everywhere. I used to be into gothness and, by association, pleather and Urban Decay (though they seem to have a way more cheerful and girly image now), so I still keep them around.

MAC Red lipstick over that. This is a new acquisition. I love this lipstick. It's less orange than Barry M Fire Engine Red but applies more of a true red on me than the other red lipsticks I have. It's also the first Satin formula lipstick I have, I've only tried Frost and Amplified finishes, and this feels 'wetter' than both of them.

I've compared it to the Prestige Velvet lipstick because I seem to have lost my So Scarlet lipstick. The last time I used it was when I went to a concert. I know I brought it back so it must be somewhere in the room, maybe under the bed or in a bag or something.

The gloss I used is something I bought when I went to Tokyo for my honeymoon. It's called 'Curvy Lip Silicone' and is made by Sony CP. I thought Sony made TVs and shit, but it seems in Japan they make makeup as well. There are a few colours available but I chose the clear one as the most versatile. It goes on shiny but feels really really sticky, stickier than Juicy Tubes.

This is one of my most treasured makeuppy things, because it is from Japan and applies with a LITTLE SPATULA! I'm a sucker for gimmicks.

I still have a few ideas about that True Blood red vampire poster opening sequence lipstick though. I possibly need a more burgundy/blood red colour, which I don't possess. Everything I have seems to be much darker or much pinker. I'll give it a go again.

Red lipstick day one: Revlon Sinnamon lipstick

2009-09-07T12:47:00.004+01:00

Red lipstick day one: I used Revlon's Crushed Velvet Lip Creme in Sinnamon. In summary: it's a red lipstick, except the outside's covered in silver glitter that are essentially irrelevant to the actual lipstick. This looks like a light pink on the Revlon website but they lie. It's a dark brownish red. Hell it's that colour in the tube. Seriously, the person who decided to put up a light pink swatch on that website must've been trippin.

And I don't think it's still on sale either. You can just get to the Revlon page surreptitiously, from google.

Other things I'm using: Victoria's Secret Mosaic blush in Godess, MAC studiofinish concealer in NW35, Rimmel eyeliner. The nail polish is NYC long-wearing nail enamel in Skin Tight Denim Creme.

New In Shops Post: Barry M Blushers and Self-Challenge

2009-09-06T15:42:00.006+01:00

Barry M finally has blushers. I always thought they weren't making any because they expected you to use that damn dazzle dust as a generic coloured powder for just everything. They're priced at £4.50 each, like the dazzle dusts and much cheaper than their bronzer (which is supposed to be similar to Nars Laguna, I have neither so I can't talk about that). They're available in six colours, all of which look really bright on their website. Barry M stuff is generally good and well-pigmented so I have great hopes for these blushers. I haven't seen them in my local Superdrug yet but I'll update you when I do. I kind of like the look of the raspberry one and will be trying it out when I see it.

I'm wearing that Barry M red lipstick again today. I've decided to face my fear and wear red lipstick for the whole of next week. This will also prompt me to use red lipstick in different looks, not just with neutral eyeshadow and black eyeliner. Yay!

Barry M Pillar Box Red

2009-09-04T14:01:00.009+01:00

I said yesterday that I thought I should get a true red lipstick and, well, I work fast. I got Barry M's Pillar Box Red lip paint as recommended by Glamour and Look.

Barry M products don't actually have names on the label, this is #121.

The name is accurate, it's actually pillar-box, Royal Mail red.

The good news is it isn't shiny. I don't like shiny bright red lips, I think it makes me look like I've eaten something in sticky red sauce, like BBQ ribs or something. It also controllable and doesn't go on like a bright wild red immediately, I've got like about three coats on in the picture so it looks like an actual bright red.

I'm still not that fond of the texture of Barry M lip paints. This lipstick doesn't seem to dry out my lips, but I don't know. Possibly I'm just used to lipglosses and sheer, moisturising lipsticks so the lip paints feel drier and more powdery. It just goes on less smoothly than my other lipsticks, it's a personal thing.

It might be a smidge too orange on me too. I'll have to do up a whole face with the new lipstick to see how it goes, or if I'll have to mix it with a darker red before I can go out. It's an affordable price though which is good if you're just trying out a colour or it's a colour you won't use often. I sometimes wish that lipsticks came in tiny tiny tubes, especially in colours like fuchsia and red and things so you could buy the amount you'd reasonably need.

Bright red is a difficult colour. I have fairly full pouty lips ('like a little heart', said my husband), and fear walking around with the wrong red lipstick on and looking like a horrible racist 1920s caricature. Kind of like this:

Yeah that's right. I said it. I'm not sure if other people feel this way but don't say it, or I'm just fucked in the head. It's partly why I find dark red lipstick and sheer red stains more comfortable to wear. I especially have this problem with glossy red lips. To be fair, it might just be because bright red is just so, well, bright. It's kind of an out-there colour. If I were a white girl I'd probably be just as terrified of looking like a clown.

Red lipstick does bleed if you aren't careful.

But don't be insecure. I see girls of all types and colours wearing bold red lipstick and looking great. I definitely do need to sit down and create a whole retro look (foundation, etc.) to be able to wear that lipstick and be comfortable with it. It's just a thing that I need to wrap my mind around.

In the same vein...

2009-09-04T01:35:00.006+01:00

... those of you looking to recreate Sophie-Ann's hair might like these livejournal communities:

diyretrohair
vintagehair

I'm personally fond of the 50s look and I do it sometimes when I have loads of free time (not now). I've been to Miss Betty's Beauty Parlor on Carnaby Street and she's simply amazing, it's just that it cost me fifty quid.

True Blood inspired makeup

2009-09-03T17:52:00.005+01:00

Short post before I go out. I know I said I'd use the MAC Prom palette today but I felt a bit sexy and decided to do Sophie-Ann inspired makeup. I used these on my eyes: black Rimmel eyeliner, MAC Boot Black liquid eyeliner, Benefit Moon Beam for highlighting, Urban Decay Strip (this works for me but I don't know if it'll work if you're fairer, I've watched the episode again and her eyeshadow might possibly be a light, faintly green or blue shade, so Aquavert might work well though it's too white on me), and Benefit Bad Gal Lash. I used the Dr Pepper lipbalm and MAC So Scarlet lipstick on my lips. I don't have a matching lipliner to use with red lipstick though I should so I just put it on very carefully. I also used my Boots Natural Collection tinted moisturiser today, MAC concealer in NW35, and MeMeMe Pussycat Lip & Cheek Tint.

I decided I need a true red lipstick though. It achieves looks no other shade of red can. Possibly I'd just not got the right shade of retro red before.

MAC Rock It! Prom Palette

2009-09-02T14:32:00.006+01:00

One of my favourite makeuppy things is my MAC Rock It! palette. It's the prom palette from I think 2004, and is mostly pink glitter. I used it today, and I'm going to use it again tomorrow since I'm going on a sort of 'date' with my husband. I'd say this is a really sweet palette for a date, for prom (like it was meant for), or for raving/clubbing, or for school. I remember really really wanting it when i was 19 but didn't want to pay full retail price for it. I forgot all about it until I saw it on livejournal recently for much cheaper so I was like, yeah, that's cool, I want that. I still wouldn't pay full retail price for it even though I love it to bits, it's one of those things that's just all lovely and girly, kind of like My Little Pony and tutus and rainbows, but it's seriously more My First Makeup Kit than other palettes you could get for a comparable price.

Pink glitter case!

That said the shades are rather lovely. The glitter cream (Rock It) is apparently comparable to the Playmate Pink glitter cream. The pink shows up on me as a highlighty kind of sheen but the glitter is large. This is like rave glitter, people. Personally I don't think it's similar to a cream colour base, it's much much drier but in a way that's good since I find the ccbs pretty oily. I use it on my cheekbones though I don't advise it for your day job, but I've also used it on my eyelids without going blind and, y'know, it just shows up as chunky glitter. It reminds me of a stack of glitter creams I got when I was 18. They were like cheap drugstore schoolgirl makeup but were similar, except they were a bit creamier. Those were awesome.

The last gloss (Up The Beat) is pretty much just sheer on me though it looks peachish in the pan, but the first and second are rather good. The first is a cute shimmery baby pink (Pretty Fab), and the second is a light berry pink (Berry Rush). They're all pretty but standard glosses.

Today I used Pretty Fab, the glitter cream on my cheekbones and eyelids, and Stila All Over Shimmer liquid in #6, Barry M Candy dazzle dust (#58), MAC Beauty Marked, MAC Boot Black liquid eyeliner, and my new mascara for September, Benefit Bad Gal Lash on eyes.

I'm not sure if you can see the glitter on my cheeks. I think you can.

I wanted a light pink eyeshadow and at first wanted Ice Pink or Pale Pink dazzle dusts, but when I tried them on in the shop they showed up too white on me. Candy is a really good light pink for darker skintones. I haven't got another pink like it but it looks like it should be a fairly common shade. I'm extremely fond of it.

True Blood Makeup: eps 9-11, and red lipstick.

2009-09-01T18:00:00.011+01:00

Yeah I do owe you all some True Blood screencaps. The True Blood makeup has just been so boring until the latest episode.

I swear that girl gets more and more like Dita Von Teese every time I see her.

It looks like she's got some blue-ish silvery eyeshadow on (Urban Decay Strip is very good) but I might just be making that shit up, and this fancy powder compact. I don't have a nice powder compact like that and have no clue what it is. YSL? It's a little gold box.

Nah I don't think it's that, but, y'know, it's pretty fancy all the same. Now I have perspective enough to know I don't need it since I'm not really into the whole powder thing and I've already got a powder, but, y'know. If I were the Queen of Louisiana I'd buy that shit. It's got a heart in it! Aww.

Now the obvious: retro-red lips. Yeah there'll be a MAC lipstick you can wear that'll look like that, MAC Red, Ruby Woo, or something, but red is a pretty common colour and I'm sure you'll be able to find an equivalent shade fairly easily. I've used one from Revlon to good effect, it just made me look like a transvestite hooker. This shade of red just ain't for me. Everyone's got a shade of red they think they look the hottest in, but if you're looking for a red like Sophie-Ann's don't get So Scarlet.

Of course I had to put on a red lipstick after the episode and I put on some So Scarlet - it's the red I've committed myself to and it's a kickin' red, but it's nothing like that. It's nothing like Hadley's red lipstick neither (see below). It's way pinker and more cool-toned. It's LE as well, but if you want it you shouldn't be like trawling the internet looking for it. I swatched my red lipsticks and found that my cheap li'l Prestige lipstick is extremely similar to So Scarlet. Prestige lipsticks are alright as well. I find the MAC creamier but So Scarlet is the Amplified formula. I'd say Prestige is just a bit drier than that, and I much prefer the Prestige lipstick over Barry M, which I find a bit powdery. I know Barry M is pretty popular but they don't have a great range of lipstick colours, and no lipstick should feel kind of dry and powdery. The Prestige lipstick colour is a bit sheerer and a tiny bit pinkier than So Scarlet, but when you layer it on your lips they look extremely similar. Hell, they look extremely similar in the tube.

That being said I still have both. I use the MAC for specialer events, like going somewhere kind of posh or a birthday. I guess I'm just attracted to the same colours, over and over again.

Hadley has a warmer brickier shade of red on. It reminds me of an old lipstick I had. It was Nars Spanish Red and was a wonderful self-treat that was way beyond my student budget, until it melted in my drawer into a pool of expensive wax and carmine. Alas. That lipstick was the bomb, I'll get it again when I'm making a good taxable salary. Employ me! Yes.

Nobody else had very noteworthy makeup, except Hoyt's Mama:

she's matched her lips to her earrings to her clothes,

and has gone and glued scary dead spiders on her eyes,

and the Fangtasia White Trash Daytime Guard lady,

who I swear to God is using MAC's Bare Truth lipglass,

but I'll run through their faces anyway from episodes 9 and 10 in a brief montage. They're pretty much all wearing what they've all been wearing most of the season.

Apparently there are only one or two more episodes until the end of the season? Bizarre happenings have occurred in Bon Temps that weren't in the books. Alan Ball has taken the characters and now they inhabit a strange, sexual, Spanish-Moss-draped world with liberal definitions of maenads.

Oh no I haven't posted in some time.

2009-08-28T10:47:00.004+01:00

I haven't posted in a real long time. It's been my last week in the lab and things have been crazy, but things are simmering down now. I haven't put on any fancy makeup since last weekend.

I tried to do a light blueish eye, using Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse eyeshadow in Heavenly Blue, Lancome Color Design eyeshadow in Personal Style (I got this in a swap, I think it's one of the American colours), and Urban Decay eyeshadow in Goddess. I also used an eyeliner and mascara, etc. etc. the same ones I've been using all along.

Here's a better swatch of UD Goddess. One layer just don't seem to cut it.

UD Goddess is a great great colour, I just used a bit in the outer corners. It's a dark shimmery blue and is good for blue or green eye looks when you want to keep it light and not use, like, black. The Lancome eyeshadow feels extremely soft, but is unfortunately mostly sheer with shimmer. If you're going to spread it out it becomes pretty much translucent except for small metallic shimmer, and you'll definitely need more than one layer. It's a pity because it's a very pretty light cyan-ish colour, although the shimmer might be a bit too much for some people.

The worst eyeshadow is the Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse. I just hate the texture of this. It feels kind of like mousse, but drier, kind of like, remember when you played with Play-Doh, and you've rolled it a bit too much that it's kind of dry and crumbly - that's what it's like. And maybe most things can be described with Play-Doh analogies.

It's hard to control the amount of mousse eyeshadow you pick up since it clumps together and then it's hard to manipulate, since it crumbles away easily. I use my fingers to apply it and I always seem to apply this unevenly, so I give up. It's okay if I've got plenty of time to spend on eye crumblings, or I just want a sheer layer of one colour on my lid. The colour magically vanishes from my lids anyway, leaving, yes, sparkles! It's nowhere near adult-appropriate shimmer neither, it's more like sparkly magical fairy dust glitter, glitter that's free - it roams around your face of its own free will. That's the kind of glitter it is. The upsides are: a) it's cheap, and b) it's a very nice colour, more on the periwinkle side, but then I'm partial to light shimmery blues.

Hot Day Shimmerbuds

2009-08-19T17:54:00.017+01:00

It's a really hot day. I've been listening to the blues. The blues sound better when it's hot.

I did a pastel eye look today. Pastel is also good for hot days.

Not blended very well I'm afraid, but there you go.

I used MAC X-Rocks blush here. It's a shimmery mauve and is exceedingly pretty, except for the neon orange case. I tried to swatch it but it didn't show up well on camera.

Here's what one layer looks like on my skin. Subtle, yet shimmery and all kinds of wonderful. I don't use MAC foundation so don't know what shadeI am, now it's summer I'm guessing I'm NC45 or something, but if you're a brown girl around my colour, X-Rocks is definitely for you.

Sadly I don't think it's sold in MAC stores anymore. I heard that it's similar to Nars Lovejoy. Someone else has compared them here.

I also used MAC C-Thru lipglass. My husband says he likes my lipstick, it's very shiny. I've read some forum posts about how it might be too pale on darker skin, you need to use a lip liner, etc. etc. I do no such thing. It's lipgloss, it ain't that complicated. I just put it on The only thing is you have to remember to keep it sheer. Too much will look like - let's be honest and adult here - cum. I think that's the point of it. Anyhow,

The unpopular makeup I'm using is The Body Shop Shimmer Buds eyeshadow duo in Peach Blossom and Blue Iris from their Spring 2008 collection. It's a light peach and pastel blue duo with pictures of flowers embossed. I got it on sale. I also have the grey and green one.

For a highlight I used Bourjois Ombre Stretch eyeshadow in Maxi Blanc. It's not that popular either but it's good for a base and highlight. It's a yellowish white so it's not stark white against your skin. It's not chalky (see picture below). I have a few of these Ombre Stretches from when I interned at the magazine, and they all come in a case with a good-sized mirror and a soft, very useful eyeshadow brush.

LTR: Bourjois Maxi Blanc, The Body Shop Peach Blossom and Blue Iris.

I wouldn't buy it at RRP, or go out of my way to get one, but it's kind of nice now I've got it. It looks like a copper and pastel blue in the case but it goes on a much lighter shimmery blue and peach, as the names suggest. The blue is a very powdery blue, and while it looks fairly pretty and chilled on me it would probably look better on someone much fairer.

I've read terrible reviews of this eyeshadow and I can't say that I understand them. I concede that the texture is kind of odd, when you touch it it feels a bit strange and hard but the colour picks up easily and applies smoothly. I don't understand complaints that these aren't pigmented. Those swatches on my arm are one layer of eyeshadow and I'm brown. I can see that the colours are a peach and a light blue without packing it on. I can use it as a sheer wash on my eyelid, as I do today. Sure, it doesn't scream I AM PEACH! at you but that's kind of the point of it. It's a soft girly eyeshadow, I mean, hell, it's even got these little flowers embossed in it. It's more of a picnic eyeshadow, like something you'd wear with gingham and white sandals and things, rather than an eyeshadow for clubbing or sexiness. It's like church makeup.

I concur it's not the very best of eyeshadows, like, yeah, it fades after a while, and sure, it ain't the brightest colours as well, and it's got a lame name (shimmerbuds), but man, it's alright. I like having a little cute eyeshadow duo with sheer, pretty colours that work well together, that I can pop into my handbag.

Glitter Nails

2009-08-14T13:36:00.008+01:00

It's my birthday tomorrow! So I painted my nails a suitably special colour.

Sally Hansen nail polish in Perfect Cherry. I bought it from the pound shop some time back and it doesn't actually wear very well, only about three days (bearing in mind I do wash my hands several times a day) but it looks really hot. Sometimes my Poundland has some good stuff in it, but usually it just has the Revlon Vital Radiance stuff and some not very exciting Rimmel stuff.

I painted over it with another polish I got from the pound shop. It's a Revlon colour called Hot Roxx, which is a very very sheer purplish pink with loads of purple and hot pink glitter. It's no good on its own because it needs a few coats, but it's good on top of other polishes, especially black, purple, and red. I normally use it as a pinkifying glitter topcoat. I can't find it on the actual revlon website and when I google it I find one review and a bunch of what I reckon are Polish pages, so I'm guessing it's from Revlon Poland, but maybe it isn't.

On top of Perfect Cherry:

I'm not very good at applying nail polish.

I also painted my toes. I have long, not very nice toes, and at some point I also injured my big toe and it's mended a bit wonky, but here's a picture of them anyway:

Judge not the feet.

I used a Rimmel 60 seconds nail polish in Pompous, and the Revlon Hot Roxx thing. Pompous is a dark purple with loads of glitter. I'm actually quite fond of these Rimmel 60 seconds nail polishes. They aren't thin and watery and apply easily, and last a decent time (about a week) - better than the Sally Hansen above. The best thing is they come in loads of colours and are cheap, and not only that, Rimmel stuff is often on offer in Superdrug, so you can get 3 colours for the price of 2.

Too Faced Rebel Yell

2009-08-13T07:40:00.012+01:00

Yesterday I went to see Hamlet with Jude Law. It was extremely awesome and way more exciting than you'd think a Shakespearean play would be. Better than the movie (I speak of the one with Mel Gibson). I went after I finished work and so put on easy 'going-out' makeup. I had on UD Strip eyeshadow and Too Faced Glamour Gloss in Rebel Yell (now 'vintage' and $13.50 on their website). Too Faced described Rebel Yell as a raspberry sorbet: that translates to a very nice deep pink. I'm not extremely fond of the little sponge applicator, it reminds me of, y'know, Play-Doh? and you have little things that you push and the Play-Doh comes out at the other end in like, these long shapes?

I want to play with Play-Doh now.

The Glamour Gloss has a little sponge top with holes in it, and you twist the bottom and the gloss comes out through the holes. Sometimes it takes a while to come out.

The good news is, although quite a bit comes out at a time, the next few times you use the gloss you don't have to twist it as the sponge tip is full of gloss. I understand the logic - it's supposed to apply like a lipstick says the website - but hey surprise, a sponge tip doesn't equate to lipstick-like application and the twisty thing takes some time to push up the gloss. I'd have preferred a squeezy tube or one of the normal wand applicator things, especially since the applicator deposits more lipgloss than I'd like and I have to sheer it out with my fingers anyway.

The actual gloss bit I like. It's not the shiniest gloss, but it's thin and unsticky and comfortable to wear, and it lasts a good amount of time. It does rub off initially when you drink and such, but the colour sort of stains your mouth for some time after. I'm not sure if it's because I got a dark colour or that's just how the gloss is.

Too Faced doesn't nearly get enough love as it should. To be fair I do consider the line expensive, and only have this and the eyeshadow duo in Steel Magnolias (both 'vintage' now), but I find them to be of good quality and really like them a whole lot.

As mentioned, UD Strip eyeshadow, Too Faced Rebel Yell, and MAC blushcreme in Cheery.

Strip is like a straight-up silver without the glitter that Uzi has. When I bought it I somehow imagined that it was a darker slate-grey, I'm not sure why, but it's a shimmery blue-ish silver.

Swatches:

True Blood makeup

2009-08-12T07:52:00.008+01:00

True Blood season 2 episode 8 - sweet Jesus. What's up with those cowboy vampires. What's up with TV Jesus Godric being so entirely different to book paedophile Godric? (I'm pretty sure he's going to blow up in the next episode, by the way.) And more importantly, what's up with Bon Temps? Is the rest of the country filled with Greek mythological figures and stock horror movie characters and fucked-up murders as well or is Bon Temps just some crazy supernatural hotspot?

Sookie had some kind of pretty pink lipstick on:

Jessica's lipstick was a corally light pink similar to her bra. I think they've used a colour like this on her before:

Yep, in episode five her lips are corally pink like her blouse.

She had cute little white wedges on this week.

I'll miss Sarah Newlin and her sweet little chirpy crazy pageant queen self.

They've put a shiny light eyeshadow and a shiny lipstick on for her to shoot paintballs at people. Clinique's Extreme Pink looks a bit like that on me, though you can never really tell with screencaps. She has a really really nice peachy blush on.

I like Lorena's locked-in-a-room look better than her glam catfight one:

Nude lips and black eyeliner.

I know she's a vampire and is supposed to be pale and all that, but her blush is too stark here for my liking. I like how matte, defined, and retro the lips are though.

Maryann cooked Daphne's HEART, which is pretty fucked up. What does she want from Tara? I can't figure it out. She's got some generic smokey purple eyeshadow look and a browney-pink lipstick.

Lafayette comes through with more interesting eyeshadow than the ladies. Last week he was seen applying makeup in the ladies' with what is possibly a Smashbox brush:

Sunday he had on like a light gold eyeshadow over a slatey grey/black colour. Lafayette is fly.

UD Asphyxia

2009-08-10T16:48:00.003+01:00

Urban Decay's Asphyxia is one of the prettiest duochrome colours around - it's a shimmery lavender and light blue.
Today I used: Estee Lauder Ivory Box, UD Asphyxia and Goddess. Rimmel eyeliner, L'oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara.

Nails Inc Jermyn Street

2009-08-07T19:50:00.012+01:00

I'm not a huge nail person. I have possibly about ten nail polishes max. Sometimes I wear the same colour on my fingers and toes, usually because I'm lazy, and I wear shoes. Apparently this is either tacky or outmoded, for reasons I haven't discerned or just don't have the good taste to grasp - these explanations seem to usually involve twinsets and pumps with sensible heels not being cool, and the holy eighties terror of wearing denim with denim. I know it's a major nail rule to just not match. I just flaunt this rule flagrantly.

I've never had acrylic wraps or little flowers or any of that fancy nail stuff, although sometimes I feel I'd like to. I just need short nails since I need to work with bacteria and things in my course (although I wear gloves), and I cook and scrub dishes etc. etc. and do many things that will either destroy my polish or will make me paranoid that strange things will get stuck under my long nails.

So Fabulous mag had a Nails Inc offer, where you pick from a choice of full-sized Nails Inc polishes and pay £1 or something for shipping. I picked Jermyn Street because I wanted a professional-looking colour for interviews and suchlike. They mailed it to me and I reckon I received it some time late last week.

Jermyn Street is a new colour for Fall and is described on their website as a soft taupe. It came out darker than expected and I reckon it's a bit purplish and just that little bit edgy (for a taupe) on me. You can buy it for £10.50 from nailsinc.com.

MAC Graphic Garden brush sets

2009-08-07T08:09:00.007+01:00

Okay, Graphic Garden has come out in the UK and I do want something from it - haven't wanted anything in a while since Sugarsweet (I got Aquavert). I know this collection hasn't interested lots of people but I reckon it's a good one for the average person who doesn't really have lots of makeup. There's a neutral-pink everyday eyeshadow palette and a brighter going-out one, and there's a softer everyday lip bag and a darker lip bag for going-out as well. I haven't got any good brushes and I do want the 187 brush except I can't justify spending that kind of money on a single makeup tool, but a set - a set should be okay. It comes down to less than ten quid for a brush. I heard that the brushes in the sets are of lower quality than the full size ones but I'm not a professional makeup artist and it'll probably be all the same to me anyway.

I can't decide which brush set is better. The Shape-and-Define brush set with the 187SE duo-fibre brush, the 168SE contour brush, a concealer brush (194SE) and two eyeshadow brushes. I could presumably use the 212SE flat definer brush for eyeliner and the 275SE as a sort of all-purpose eyeshadow thing, but if I get this I mainly want it for the 187 brush. The Define-and-Blend set seems to be more basic - it has a blush brush (129SE), a foundation brush (190SE), an eyeliner brush (209SE), a 'pencil' brush (219SE) and an eyeshadow shader brush (252SE). At first glance the second set seems more useful since it has the multi-purpose 129 brush and I don't need a concealer brush at all, and I could use the pencil brush in the Define-and-Blend set for concealer anyway. The 187 and 168 brushes are supposed to be good for pigmented blushes though and I have difficulty applying blush lightly sometimes. I guess when all the brushes are considered the Define-and-Blend set seems to make more sense for beginners like me.

True Blood makeup.

2009-08-06T19:00:00.022+01:00

I love True Blood and Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries. Sure they're not Pulitzer Prize-winning novels and aren't Anne Rice neither (which is not necessarily a bad thing), but they're addictive little mysteries with a protagonist who's keepin' it real and worries about health insurance and Jesus while being mixed up in supernatural political conflicts and skirmishes.

In the tv show Sookie Stackhouse is way more annoying, Jason is a far more major character and they're straying further from the books but hey, I'm not complaining. I actually like the Maryann plot line though she ain't exactly the kind of maenad the ancient Greeks had in mind, and the main men characters are extremely hot, and often topless. I weirdly really like Sarah Newlin. Cute as a button.

She has cute little earrings and an awesome pink lipstick. It's bright but not obnoxious. I used to have a Bourjois lipgloss that was about that shade of pink (I think it was Rose Atomic, can't be sure) but it's gone now and they don't make it anymore.

Her bra is cute too.

It's white and lacy with a little pink bow in the centre. Why she always so cute and so crazy?

I love Jason's wtf face when she unleashes all her crazy love on him.

In Lorena's flashback she has odd Chola eyebrows. They kind of make her look like an evil clown.

Maybe everyone had eyebrows like that in 30s though. She has a very matte face-base, kind of pinkish cheeks, orangey/coppery-red matte lips and she appears to have on a matte grey/black smoky eyeshadow? I haven't got a lip colour like hers though and I feel its loss, warm-red seems like a pretty essential shade.

Tara has a nice blush on here. She often has really good naturalish makeup on.

It's hard to tell from screencaps but Sookie does look like she has some lavender eyeshadow on. Screencap looks kind of orgasmic.

Arlene's has a strangely enchanting lipstick. It almost looks unreal in this screencap, kind of like MAC Pink Fish lip conditioner but cooler and shinier. Possibly MAC Snob with a gloss? Arlene's more endearing on the show than in the book, bless her.

I can't wait for the next episode. Orgies! Evangelical Christians! Vamp-ahrs!

EOTD:

UD Sin as highlight and base, UD Gash on lid, MAC Beauty Marked for crease and the outer corner. Rimmel eyeliner, L'oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara.

Sleek Original palette and cheapness

2009-08-03T13:27:00.021+01:00

Sleek is a line of cosmetics for women of colour (it has a great range of foundation shades) and you can find it in Superdrug. They've got a few palettes out, there's a Storm palette that I might just get because of the wonderful neutrals, and there was a neon Acid palette out that was sold out really quicklyI think they've got a new one out but I haven't seen it in shops yet. From DvoraDivine's swatches it looks like it has some similar colours to the original palette. I have that one and today I've used some colours from it. I've read a lot of good reviews about this palette and I concur that it's amazing for £4.99. Depending on how posh you are that's about how much dinner costs.

I flipped the swatch pictures around to line up with the colours in the palette. The colours are pretty and pigmented though a few colours look the same on me: the second and third on the bottom row, and the fifth (bottom row) reminds me of MAC retrospeck in that it looked like gold glitter on me. When applied sheerly the third pink looks yellow on me when I use it on my lid, I have to apply more than one layer for the pink to show up and I really prefer sheerer eye makeup. It also looks like the copper colour doesn't really show up on me but it actually does show up copper and metallicky in real life, I'm just a similar colour to copper, but a bit less shiny and orange.

No I didn't use a primer, I don't have a primer. It's generally not a problem with me since the eyeshadows I have show up well without a primer, or with just a light-coloured base shadow, including these, so I'm pretty much cool with not using a primer. Maybe I'll get one in time, like when I get a proper job with some proper taxable disposable income, but I'm pretty sure lots of women don't use eyeshadow primers and use lipstick on their cheeks and all I say they're just fine the way they are. I also have a philosophy with more expensive eyeshadows (read: more expensive than, say, Rimmel - MAC is pretty much the top end of what I'm willing to spend): if I'm spending that much on a bit of makeup it'd better work well without extra effort and expense.

I heard that if you put concealer on your lid it also works, but I'm kind of paranoid about doing that often. I don't think concealer was formulated to go on your eyelids. I've got a white shimmery Miss Sporty cream eyeshadow though which I sometimes use and works pretty well for sticking eyeshadows. That's like £1.95. Bonus.

Another thing is that I personally feel that all the colours are quite glittery except the black which they had the good sense to make matte.

Sure it looks pretty but I'd apply just one of the colours on top of a more subdued base for more everyday makeup, if only because I'm just that bit more boring than your average Superdrug shopper. That said, this is a great I don't find the colours chalky and I'm especially fond of the purple, it's a great purple. I haven't got any mid-greens like the one in this palette either, which will come in useful. but I'm going to use this as a going-out palette since it has a huge mirror and all the different colours together and it's all shiny and glittery and pretty and most importantly fits in my handbag. I don't know how small your hand bag is though, some women have the very tiny wristlet-handbags that won't fit a chihuahua in.

What I used today:

Eyes:
Sleek eyeshadow palette bottom row: colours 1, 3, 5.
Rimmel twisty eyeliner.
L'oreal mascara with the little ball instead of a wand. This mascara, I'd like it better if it had a better, less wet formula. I like rolling the little ball around but the mascara clumps a bit, and is a bit wet.

Face:
Boots Natural Collection foundation in Walnut. This is the darkest colour in the Boots Natural Collection and it ain't really that dark - I use Bobbi Brown stick foundation in honey so it's probably equivalent to that except it's less yellow and sheerer, obviously. It's a shame there aren't more colours because it's only £1.95 and doesn't break me out. Sometimes I have terrible-looking skin but I don't want to use a massive heavy stick foundation. That's for special events like weddings and celebrations - things involving distant relatives and photography.
Superdrug MeMeMe Pussycat lip & cheek tint (Benetint knock-off).
MAC studiofinish concealer in NW35.

Lips:
C.O. Bigelow lip balm.
MAC Sandy B lipstick.

short skincare post

2009-07-30T19:01:00.011+01:00

Status: knackered.

My skin is particularly terrible right now and I noticed little lines under my eyes - I haven't been moisturising my undereye area and have generally gotten careless about my skin since about September when my new course started. So I've got two new things: a night cream and an eye cream.

The Boots Botanics 'Eye and Lip Correction Serum' promises results in 4 weeks on the tube. It ain't exactly cheap at £8.80 and has all sorts of things including horse chestnut. I have faith in the Botanics products in general but I'm doing a pharmacognosy course and am probably biased in favour of Things With Plants. I'll be testing this over 4 weeks and I'll review it at the end.

The other thing I got is the Superdrug Vitamin E night cream because I thought I should start using one, and vit E will apparently reduce acne scars and stop lines forming, and I'm running out of money and it's less than three quid. I was going to get their Vit E oil but the top ingredient's mineral oil so I decided not to in case it broke me out further. I was thinking of making my own vit C serum but then realised I didn't have ascorbic acid or glycerin or anything else. I might get some vit C tablets and make a mask though. Or if I have some money at the end of the month I might get The Body Shop's vit C mask (it's got a fancier name) because it peels off, and that's fun.

Vit C Tablet Mask Recipe

Materials:
vit C tablets (a small box in Superdrug is about 90p or something)
warm water

Methods:
Smush together and put on your face until dry
Wash off or wipe with a cotton pad/cloth/etc.

makeup that's not actually like all totally awesome like everyone says it is

2009-07-29T15:43:00.002+01:00

Some makeup is overly glorified without being superfabulous, eg. Maybelline Great Lash, which is universally praised in beauty magazines yearly but is generally known to be mediocre. I mean, it's not terrible. It's not really wet, it doesn't glop or nothing. It's just okay. It doesn't really lengthen or volumise or anything, possibly it makes your lashes black for like blonde people or something, possibly it makes your lashes a tiny bit thicker by coating them. It gives a slightly nicer than natural look which is, you know, nice, I mean, it's okay. It's just not superfabulously amazing that it deserves to be plugged again and again.

I mean, It's not even like a Maybelline advertising scam or nothing because they make better mascaras. Almost every other mascara they make is better including the one where you have to put the white bit on and then the black bit and if you don't put in the effort to let the white bit dry and then coat it properly with the black bit, bits of your eyelashes will be white. I'll tell you what this Maybelline Great Lash thing is: it's a conspiracy. I bet it's some kind of hideous social experiment by behavioural psychologists in which they attempt to convince women to buy a product that they (the women, also the military-industrial-cosmetics-marketing complex) know is just mediocre, just to see if they can. I bet you Maybelline Great Lash isn't America's #1 mascara, and those Cosmopolitan magazine beauty editors don't actually really love it and buy it and use it daily. They're magazine beauty editors, they're using some freebie mascara they got to review - trust me, I interned at a beauty mag for a month after university. There's just all this fabulous press about it and, even though you've tried this mascara once, and you probably didn't hate it but you just didn't want to buy it again, when you read about how awesome Maybelline Great Lash is supposed to be it just kind of makes you want to give it another go doesn't it. You start thinking: maybe you used it wrong and you had to zigzag your brush, or comb your lashes before or after with a comb or something, and maybe you're right, but Maybelline also makes like ten other mascaras that don't require all that effort to look a whole lot better.

Maybelline Great Lash sure don't look like that on me.

Some MAC eyeshadow shades are totally overhyped as well, and I'm not really ashamed to say that I was swept up in the Parrot euphoria. I wasn't into bright makeup the first time Parrot came out (I'd just started earning my own spending money and was buying essentials...like lipgloss and suchlike) and I just kept hearing about this eyeshadow again and again and again for years: parrot parrot parrot parrot parrot. There were people getting all excited because this one eyeshadow kind of looked like Parrot and then someone swatched it and then it was like, oh no, it's not a real dupe! Parrot's that tiny bit more blue! People were layering eyeshadows on top of each other to try to recreate Parrot, people with far too much money and time were buying Parrot for like a million dollars on American Ebay, etc. etc. And then Parrot came out again and everyone went crazy before they realised Parrot was just, you know, a nice blue-green eyeshadow and in their quest for the perfect blue-green eyeshadow they'd actually found a better one some time ago. And that was the end of Parrot. I wanted to buy Parrot when it came out in the MAC Originals collection and it was sold out - I always underestimate the amount of initiative people will take to buy a MAC eyeshadow - but I recently bought Parrot cheaply on livejournal. It's actually a pretty nice teal, but kind of like Barack Obama, it's kinda sorta good, yeah, it just ain't the second coming of Martin Luther King.

It's next to Aquavert which I'm not that sure about.

Yeah, Parrot totally rocks my world.

Hello.

2009-07-29T15:39:00.000+01:00

Hello World.

This is my makeup blog.