Friday 21 January 2011

Too Faced Natural Eye Palette

Finally!
I know, it has taken me WAY to long to post a review of this, but I've just never been happy with my pictures up until now, so here we go!

Ok, I'm still not completely pleased with the pictures as I don't have my Photoshop for the moment and have to settle with Paint Shop Pro, but as I'm a snob, I prefer Photoshop. So moving on, this is the Too Faced Natural Eye palette that is one of my must haves. I bought it in the summer in Boots for £23, I believe. And that hurt, trust me, I may have actually winced because usually I don't pay that much for one thing! I know, stingy, right? Oh well, at least I can say I haven't regretted buying this!


So here we have the back, it has a description of what the Too Faced Founder thinks a natural eye makeup is and all that jazz .

So upon first sight, this is a neutral makeup lover's paradise. You have the matte shades, the shimmer ones and then the glitter ones, so basically something for everyone! I have to admit, I don't really use the glitter ones that much, especially not the base as it's just TOO glittery, but more on that later.




The Too Faced eyeshadow palettes have little cards with how to recreate the looks, which is nice as a hint if you're not entirely sure how to go about making looks with these eyeshadows, but it's no in-depth tutorial.

Starting with the day natural eye, this is the matte colours for a very nice subtle look, which I also find useful if you want to try the pin up look.

So the main colour that you're supposed to use all over is a cream shade called Heaven. I think it's leaning on the cool side, as are the rest of the matte shades, which doesn't always suit my skintone, so sometimes it can look a bit odd if I put this on my whole lid (not on it's own, of course!) so I mainly use it on my lid below the crease and as a highlight. It's a really smooth and pigmented shade, so it's a good thing they made it the main shade, I don't know what I'd do if it was as tiny as the others!


And here we have Velvet Revolver and Sexpresso. Also matte shades, I use both of these quite a lot, although more Velvet Revolver to blend in the crease for a nice subtle effect. Sexpresso is supposed to be used as a liner, but I'm not all that keen on using eyeshadows as eyeliners, so I tend to forgo that step. These are also quite pigmented, although when swatched over UD PP, Velvet Revolver gets a lot darker, which is honestly a bit strange, but it makes the colour show up better, which is good.

Next up is the classic natural eye which contains shimmery eyeshadows. Now I have to admit, despite ADORING the colours in this one, I haven't really used them that often. I really love the colour choice, but whenever I reach for the palette, I tend to go for the day look!


So the main shade is called 'Silk Teddy' and is a shimmery champagne shade, except a bit pinker than typical champagne colours. Again, it's really pigmented and smooth, although on the skin, it looks a bit lighter. I've got a couple of shades that MIGHT be dupes for this, but that remains to be seen so bear with me on this one!





Now these shades really make me question why I never use them! Push-up is just beautiful, as is Erotica yet for some reason I've never really used them. Anyway, these are also pigmented, the only tricky thing here is the fall out, and some tiny glitter particles, but then, I've yet to find a glittery eyeshadow that DOESN'T produce fall out!


And finally, the 'Fashion' look. Now if you ask me, the card is a little misleading, as there is no way that that gold is yellow. But then, that's a tiny insignificant detail, so you can all just ignore that!


Nude Beach...unfortunately, my least favourite shades. It's just got so many chunks of glitter and whilst many people will like it, glitter just doesn't tickle my fancy. Aside from that, it's pretty pigmented and has quite big chunks of glitter. As for the colour, it's basically like Silk Teddy but a little cooler.

Honey Pot and Cocoa Puff are still glittery, but don't have as thick chunks of glitter as Nude Beach does. I use Honey Pot quite a lot, but I haven't always used Cocoa Puff, except for the time when I used both the day I did a film and the makeup artist told me the eyes were great and didn't change them. I can't even begin to tell you how rare that is, but then again it was a modern movie whereas most movies that I've done have been set in different eras (even medieval...but I won't get into that, the pictures are horrifying!)
As with the whole palette, these are also quite pigmented, although as with the other two shimmery shades, there is fall out.

Here we have them all swatched without primer. As you can see, they're decently pigmented, although not superbly. And the swatch of Silk Teddy as a whole looks more shimmery than Nude Beach, but you can see that Nude Beach has these glittery chunks there.


And now with UDPP in Eden. First of all, the only shade that wouldn't swatch properly here is Heaven. To see what that one really looks like, the swatches without primer show the colour a bit better. As for the rest of them, well...the picture speaks for itself. Whilst it's a good palette without a primer, the primer really makes the colours pop and in some cases, darker (see Velvet Revolver and Sexpresso).



And here's a picture of my eye makeup from Friday, it's not the best photo, but it was the best that I got and here I used Heaven and Velvet Revolver in the crease. It makes for a very nice nude look and especially fantastic with liquid liner!

So all in all, if you adore natural matte/shimmery colours , you won't regret buying this. I use it a lot, although I need to start using the shimmery shades a bit more. I've used the day look loads of times and it hasn't hit pan yet, so you get a lot of use out of this :)

And on that note, I'll leave you all. I might be able to update on Wednesday, but that depends on how long it takes me to do my German homework for Thursday! (Why not just do it tomorrow?..Because I'm lazy, that's why:P)



Tuesday 18 January 2011

My NYE's FOTD

Erm, a bit belated much? I know that but as I shan't be posting this Saturday (most likely I won't be) as I shall be going on a day trip to Paris with my family where we will meet up with my uncle who I haven't seen in a few years, so that will be nice!

Anyway, for NYE's I felt like dressing up a little bit, despite not really going out.



So for my eyes, I basically did some shimmery/nude eyeshadows, most likely from the Urban Decay Book of Shadows II and then for my lips, I used L'Oreal's Glam Shine Lipstick Cream, the one that smells SO GOOD!
Excuse the shoddy application, by the way. My lip brush often gets misplaced for a few days at a time.

So here you can see my polka dot dress, which I tried to take a picture of but they didn't end up any good. It's from H&M and I'm not sure whether they're still selling it, but if they are and you like polka dots, you should get it as it's gorgeous! And also, they don't sell it in Luxembourg so teehee, no people running around with the same dress.
The necklace, on the other hand, is also by H&M and HAS been seen on someone else during school. Oh well, you can't have everything exclusively yours!

At least I know no one will have this gorgeous necklace (which I blogged about on Friday)



It's a clearer picture of my essbeevee necklace. Isn't it cute?

Anyway this post is scheduled for Tuesday at 12:00 so at that time, I shall be at school. Fun(!)


Sunday 16 January 2011

Fred Farrugia Pearlized Twinkle Eyeshadow Duo

And here we have the second review of Fred Farrugia's eyeshadow duos. You can view the first one here. This was the first one I bought, because as I was rummaging through the palettes, I stumbled upon this one and my first thought was 'Oh wow, that colour looks like Nars Orgasm!' and I have always thought that Nars Orgasm would be so pretty as an eyeshadow.







Of course, after quickly going over to the Nars counter, I quickly found out that this was a lot paler than Orgasm. Oh well, wouldn't have been much of a dupe anyway, considering how expensive it is!









You can't see the gold shimmer much in this picture, but aren't they pretty? I've always loved the pink/gold combo and in fact, I am later on going to see what Barry M's pink gold looks compared to this one, cause if it is similar, all those who may want this colour can save a fortune and buy a dazzle dust instead.









The funny thing about this duo is..I can't find it online. I've looked on the official FF site and nothing there. Sephora? Nada. It's very peculiar...





Here you can see the colours a little better. So you have the pink/gold combo, which I've already mentioned and then the orange with silver shimmer, which is quite nice as well. They're both colours I love as these colours will make blue eyes pop (which is what I need, trust me!)





This picture is a little bit shoddy and doesn't really do the colour justice. You can see the gold in it though, although in reality, the pink is a bit paler. I adore this one as I have always had a thing for pink and gold and it's just so pretty and I should stop cause this is getting corny. It isn't perfect though, don't get me wrong! As with all shades that have glitter, you have fall out of the if-you-don't-clean-off-properly-you-will-look-like-edward-cullen-on-your-cheeks variety. Ah well, you can't have everything.
Now this is a bit more of an apt photograph. Here you can see it's orange, and it's got a silver highlight although it's not as obvious as the gold with the pink, the silver is a lot subtler in this one. I really like this one, as my other oranges aren't really all that sublte enough for daytime, but thankfully this one is, if applied sparingly!



Left we have without primer, right with UDPP. The orange is far more pigmented than the pink and the primer doesn't really seem to make a lot of difference in the picture, but with staying power and such, it does help the shadows stay on. They're both quite pigmented on their own, which is great and well, should be expected considering how much they retail at.

So all in all, I really like these, they're both subtle enough for daytime and the colour choices are just gorgeous! I'm sorry if the last bit seemed a bit rushed, I just want to publish this as I won't have time on Saturday, as I've already said, I shall be in Paris! :D xx





Saturday 15 January 2011

Fred Farrugia Pearlized Cream Eyeshadow Duo

Last week, I was browsing the (very pitiful, I might add) sales in Sephora and despite there not being much choice, I managed to stuble upon these Fred Farrugia palettes.

Now as you can tell by the sticker on one of the palettes, €26,90 is way out of my range, especially for only TWO eyeshadows. So whilst I've always looked at the Fred Farrugia stuff, I've never been tempted to buy any, until I saw the many palettes they had in the sales.

From my research, it seems Fred Farrugia is a brand all about a modern, easily portable concept, which they do by having the eyeshadows/lipsticks/etc in detachable palettes which you can stick in a compact and stack them. I'm not the best at describing, so I'll just show you a promo picture of how it works.



See what I mean?

Ok, so moving on, I bought the pink/orange one first and then my mum bought me the violet/khaki one, which was very generous and nice of her!


Starting with this palette, which I actually realised was cream eyeshadows only once I'd bought it. Whoops! So I'll be reviewing this duo in this post, and the next one will be in another post, cause otherwise it'll be far too picture heavy!


So this is the Pearlized Cream Eyeshadow Duo in shade 02, according to Sephora, this is Violet/Grey, but to me, it looks more of a khaki than a grey to me, so I'll just refer to it as khaki.
[That is a case 'Well, it says that, but I think this and I am blatantly right so I will do as I think!' This is my frequently used logic in tests at school]


[violet? I'll give 'em that. But Grey?! Nuh uh!]

I've already swatched these, as one can tell. It doesn't look neat but I just can't resist!



I'll start with Violet. It looks a bit on the burgundy side in the pan, which is slightly misleading, as when swatched, it seems more violet and therein, true to its name. It's got tiny little sparkles, that aren't all that visible when you have this on your eye, unless you're looking really closely. This colour feels ideal for Autumn, unfortunately, I'm a few months too late for that. But as I don't really pay attention to the trends that much (same with clothes, summery stuff in winter FTW!), I will still wear it.


See? That is not grey! So this one is quite shimmery when swatched, a lot more so than Violet. Despite being all shimmery, it's also very subtle so if you wanted a toned down look yet not a complete nude look, this would be quite ideal.



So on the left, you have them swatched on bare skin and on the right, over UDPP in Eden (that's why my skin looks yellow there). The pigmentation isn't the best I've seen, as they need quite a few swipes, but then what doesn't? UDPP does make a difference, as you can tell here, but unfortunately, it is not perfect and doesn't prevent creasing, which unfortunately is what happens with these eyeshadows. I do like them, the colours are gorgeous, the creasing is just a shame.

So that leaves me with this finished, I'll try and review the other palette later on today, but as always, can't guarantee that. And on that note, has anyone else tried Fred Farrugia? If you have what and what were your thoughts on it? And another question (feels like an essay here, sorry..) Is there a primer to stop creams creasing that anyone could recommend?



Amazing Mac Giveaway!

Just a quick post to let you know that Highlight your beauty, Open your heart is doing a giveaway here where you can win FIVE MAC lipsticks of your choice!






Friday 14 January 2011

New Necklace!

Bonjour, mes petites poules!


So lately I have developeda habit of loving jewellery, which is quite odd as I have never really been a jewellery person. But after discovering some gorgeous handmade jewellery sites on etsy.com and bigcartel.com, a couple of weeks ago, I ordered a few necklaces from assorted sites and my first one arrived today!






Ok, the picture is not the best, being a webcame pic but you can see the necklace, which is the Oh, to be in England necklace from Ess Bee Vee's etsy shop.


I will be posting better quality pictures once I get different batteries for my camera so that you can all see the necklace clearer, it's gorgeous and lovely and I'm running out of adjectifs to describe it, but I think quaint is quite apt!


Other pics from her shop would be the Lovely Bones necklace, O Swallows flying from the golden woods and the lovely lovely locket love, you could use a little of locket. She's having a sale at the moment, so go check her site out!


On another note, I have decided to make it my mission to convince some of my teachers to do a field trip to the Chateau de Versailles. We have been covering it in History (doing Louis XIV, le roi de soleil!) and Art History, and I just think the place looks stunning! I am a bit of a history geek, especially French history, it's absolutely fascinating and I'd just love to spend a day losing myself in the gardens and the castle, just exploring.


This panorama 360 view of the Hall of Mirrors is making me want to go even more so, as I think that room is just stunning and to see it in reality would probably gobsmack me.




(picture from google search)

So I would love to go there and hopefully, with a few well placed points, I might just be able (with the help of my classmates, obviously) to convince some of the teachers and make a trip to Versailles a reality.


Wednesday 12 January 2011

Barry M and No7 Lipglosses

Well, hello there!

This is a very rare thing for me to be updating on a Monday night (ok, I can't finish this in 10 minutes, so probably Tuesday/Wednesday), but as I didn't update this weekend (has not been a fantastic one, that's all I'll give it), I felt compelled to update tonight.

I really need to stop using words that you generally use for essays in stuff like this, it makes people laugh when I use them in sentences and then that makes me, in turn, feel stupid.


So now it is Wednesday and I still haven't updated. I feel awful and I know that if you made a pie chart of my blog, 25% would be apologies and that. Theoretically, I have plenty of time, but it just goes away so quickly and then I realise I have no time to get on the computer. Ok, so moving on...

This post was originally going to be just the two Barry M lipglosses I acquired over the holidays, but then I realised I hadn't actually mentioned my No7 lipgloss in the previous lipgloss post, so I added that to it.


Soo...the first lipgloss is Barry M's Lipgloss Wand in Cherry Glitter was a Christmas present from Steph, the second was a Christmas present from the year before from my granny and has no shade name on it, so after a bit of investigating *coughgooglingcough*, I discovered that it is No 7's High Shine Lipgloss in Dream and then thirdly, we have Barry M's Lipgloss Wand in LE4, I believe, which was a limited edition Spend £6 pounds and get this LE lipgloss for free! in Boots.



First up is the Barry M Lip Gloss Wand in Cherry Glitter. I feel a bit stupid describing this, as the name is spot on. It's cherry red and full of glitter, but the glitter is not silverish glitter that you get in most glittery glosses, but RED glitter. Which is pretty and makes me feel like staring at it for hours on end going 'prettyyyy...' and acting like my sister in front of the Chanel counter. I jest, dani, I jest. (No seriously, she is like that.)



So the tube itself is actually quite misleading. One would think that it would be chock a block full of big glitter pieces, but as the photo shows, they're quite diddy. As usual, it's a typical lip gloss applicator, nothing special but it does the job. Another thing about this lip gloss is THE SMELL! Oh my god, it's definitely cherries and it makes me feel so hungry and just smells so good *drools*



I have swatches of all three lipglosses towards the end of the post, but as I like seeing lip swatches myself, here's one of me wearing the lip gloss.


And I'm actually wearing my glasses here, don't I look sexy?(!)

Excuse the bit of a silly pout, I'm not entirely sure why I was doing that. Anyway, it's quite a cool toned lipgloss and the glitter is a lot subtler than you think, so if the glitter puts you off this lip gloss, don't worry, because it's not that bad! You do have to watch out to apply it evenly, as it can be rather patchy, but that gets sorted out pretty quickly.

Next up is No 7 High Shine lip gloss in Dream. This is more of a shimmery nude gloss with a few sparkles.

So again, another standard applicator. This hasn't really got a scent, which isn't necessarily a bad thing of course, as sometimes lipglosses without scents can be a nice change.


So, another geeky pic from me. Here you can see that, despite looking quite thick and pigmented, it still shows your lip colour and just gives it more of a shine and nude gloss look. Well, duh, considering it's a nude gloss..





Last but not least, we have the Barry M Lip Gloss Wand in LE4, which was a LE lip gloss that you could get free in Boots if you spent £6 or over. I'm not sure if it's still going on, but it if is, it's certainly a great deal, as this is a lovely colour. It's quite unfortunate that this isn't in the permanent line.

Same as the previous one, this also has a standard applicator and funnily enough, also smells of cherries, although not quite as much as the other one. This is more of a sheer red, which is subtle to begin with, but can be built up if you want a bit more of a bold look, although it's not way out there, as it is just a gloss. It's quite decently pigmented and isn't patchy, unlike Cherry Glitter. I suspect that has something to do with the glitter, though. (Thanks, Sherlock!)



Here it's quite red on my lips, but it still has that sheer quality. The photo doesn't really do it justice, it's a lot redder in reality!



Et finalement, the swatches! From left in the order I reviewed them, the first two look a lot more glittery/shimmery than they are on the lips, so I suppose it's just as well I posted the pics with them all on my lips. These are all glosses that I really like, especially the Barry M ones and I would definitely recommend all of them!

So there you have it, a post that took a few days to come out. I hope you all like it and as I'm getting into lipgloss a bit more now, if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know!