Monday 28 February 2011

Tag: Getting to know me

I was tagged by the lovely Jess to do this tag and thought, why not? I like tags so here goes :)



8 TV Shows I watch:
QI
Glee
Take Me Out
Live At The Apollo
Come Fly With Me
Relocation, Relocation (shut up, I like property shows, ok?!)
Top Gear
Criminal Minds
Russell Howard's Good News



8 Favourite Places To Eat:
Any carvery
Fish and chip shop
Subway
Panzarotto (luxembourg place near my school - it's namesake and signature food, a panzarotte is to die for!)
Pizza Hut
McDonalds
Pizzerias
Indian Restaurants





8 Things I look forward to
the day we do our play
doing languages and literature next year (fingers crossed)
next visit to England
eventually getting to see my sister again
going to Paris to improve my French
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2
being 17 in June
Easter Holidays

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:

I went to this lecture about jobs as a hydrologist and toxicologist
I was bored to death at this lecture
I spent 4 hours trying to study for biology
I got quite upset doing this and started crying
I saw my crush briefly in the hallway at school (which doesn't happen often so whenever I see him I'm happy)
I got pissed off about my French test
I got a migraine which I still have
I found my Vaseline Lip Therapy

Things That I Love About Winter
When it's bitterly cold outside and then you go in a warm building/bus and the change in temperature
The snow
Snowdays
Christmas
Darker Lips are trendy
Wearing thick coats and scarves


Things On My Wishlist
Pretty teadresses
Nars Orgasm (come on, who can resist wanting this?)
Decent brogues
Plain black high waisted skirt

Things I'm Passionate About
Film scores. I could discuss any of Hans Zimmer's work for some time.
Makeup, doh.
My opinions (sad truth, I am very opionated)
Theatre
Books
History (I am loving learning about Louis XIV, I know, I'm sad, but it's fascinating!)

Words or Phrases I use a lot
Putain merde alors!
Whassup?!
Oh my god (in a very stupid voice)
C'est pas graaaaaavvvveee
Bloody hell

Things I've learnt from the past
Telling someone how you feel is not always a good idea.
Things do happen that you can't control and you can't always blame yourself for them
Optimism is key
Do your own thing because in the end, even it's hard, it's still much better than being a lemming

8 Places I want to visit
VERSAILLES!!!!!!!!!!
Further north of England than London
Rome
Venice (again)
Paris, more extensively, which I shall be doing
Berlin
Canada
Ireland

Things I want or need
A certain guy whose name shall not be revealed
Good grades in French and German
Some more jewellery
A haircut
Nice hair products
Good skincare products

8 bloggers I'm tagging
So I'm uncreative and lazy at the mo, so I'll tag everyone who reads this and IMPLORE you to do it and post a link so I can be nosy about you, pleaseeee!!

PS The things that happened yesterday happened on Monday. Sad how even this took ages to do


Strictly Fabulous Cosmetics Case 'Latin Palette'


A small FYI, I shall be doing swatches on this in three parts, each time of the different palette. Otherwise, I'll be having a far too photoheavy post and I don't like that. Possibly my OCD tendencies showing up, but I just start eyetwitching at the thought.

Bon, moving on. I got this from my lovely grandparents for Christmas and received it a few days ago as they were on holiday over Christmas. Its RRP was £45, but my nan bought it the week it was on offer and I think it was reduced after Christmas, but I believe Boots aren't selling it anymore. I took the liberty of looking on ebay and there are quite a few people selling it, not sure if they're fakes or not, but if you want to buy this, that would be your best bet.

Upon opening the case, you have the three palettes 'Latin', 'Salsa' and 'Ballroom', all named after the three dances they do in Strictly Come Dancing. Well, at least, I assume they do in Strictly, as I haven't ever really watched the show myself. The case comes with a face brush, eye brush and lip brush that you can find underneath the three layers and it's a good way to use up the empty space.
These brushes are actually quite good. The lip brush sheds a bit, but still does the job and they eyeshadow brush actually gets a lot of product on your eye which is great for a brush that comes with a product as usually they're rubbish.


So then you pull out the three layers so that they're sort of next to eachother yet in a layered way. So this post will be concentrating on the upmost layer, which is the 'Latin' palette, I believe.



This palette consists out of darker shades which are meant for smokey eyes, and bright to dark red lip shades, so altogether a dramatic look, but then, these ARE for the dancefloor, so they have to be dramatic.


So the odd thing with this palette is that the eyeshadow pans are diamondshaped compared to the other two which are circles. First of all, you have silver and dark grey, so your classic smokey and then blue hinting towards purple. The first lip colour is your classic red and orange based, it's bright and hasn't got any shimmer in it. The second red is a bit bluer and has got some shimmer. These are also glossy in a way, which sounds stupid but compared to the very last one, the swatch will show what I mean.

And then you have a blush, which could double as a bronzer as well. It's got some shimmer in it, but it's not too visible, so it's still a bit subtle.


Here we have purples, a green and a brown. So basically with this palette, you can create some dark, bit more dramatic looks paired with bright lips. Again, a nonshimmery (don't want to say matte, cause it's not, really.) cherry red and then a darker red, which is the darkest lip colour in all three palettes.
And now swatches...for the first time in quite some time, I didn't bother with the primer.Yes, I'll still use it creating looks but I felt it wasn't needed for swatching as these were pigmented enough (and it's a double pain, swatching, then swatching with primer).

The eyeshadows are quite crumbly, so I think you might experience fallout with these. They're all quite soft and velvety and the lipglosses are great as well. The first three are quite glossy and sticky looking, although they aren't and the staying power's not bad on these.

As with my Sephora Colourplay palette, I think I'll post looks to go with these, so stay tuned!

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Christian Dior S/S 11 Paris Inspired FOTD

Today, after watching the new Glee episode (by the way, I'm loving Don't You Want Me by Rachel and Blaine at the mo, it's so catchy! I love 80s!) I somehow managed to go onto vogue.co.uk and looking at the S/S 2011 beauty trends ( I know, I'm late, but that's how I roll) and then I was looking at Christian Dior's S/S 2011 backstage pics and I loved the makeup, so I decided to inspire myself. More specifically, I decided to try and imitate these two pictures.



[images: www.vogue.co.uk]


Of course, I know my look is nothing like it but I decided to try the gist of it, so full brows, red lips and green eyes, although the lips aren't matte and my liner is too thick, but oh well. Oh and I tried pinning back my hair to create a full fringe, but that just epically failed, as the picture will show.


Ok, so ignore the blunder that is the fringe. In hindsight, I didn't really look closely at the pictures (in fact, all I did was look quickly then rush upstairs to get working) so it's not exactly spot on, but then it never would be as I'm not a professional makeup artist. Must admit, I love the concept of full brows, although it looks a bit too full on on me! That's why I envy people with lighter hair, they can create full brows so easily and it won't be overbearing on their faces.

And now with the disasterous mock fringe gone.
So the products I used are from the Strictly Come Dancing palette that I got for christmas from my grandparents which I got yesterday as they were away at the time of xmas.


And finally, a picture of me in my new hat that I bought yesterday from H&M :) I'm off to watch Beauty and the Beast: The Ugly Face of Prejudice now, anyone else following it?

Monday 21 February 2011

Sleek Good Girl divine Palette


Yes, I know everyone and their mum has blogged about this and I think as it's limited edition, it might not be sold anymore? Not sure. Anyway, I got this palette for Christmas from my lovely sister who knows how much I love pink and so consequently, bought this for me.
So blingy cover aside, this has the usual ....sleek packaging to it that the other divine palettes have. I love the look of these but in reality, they get dirty real quickly, which my sunset palet will prove to you when I post about that.

So onto the colours...wow. Anyone who adores pink/coral/orange/red or any of that, this palette is for you! Personally, the orange pink ones are the colours I adore the most as well as the raspberry shade.


So what Sleek added to their palettes, starting with this and the Bad Girl one is shade names. I love all the name choices although some of them (Sorbet, Peach Melba and Raspberry Coulis) are making me crave ice cream. Badly.

You don't need me to tell you how pigmented these are without primer. All of them show up quite well, with perhaps the exception of Lychee and Meringue (another one making me hungry and I've just eaten!), although funnily enough, these two showed up better WITHOUT primer.


And here we have them swatched over UDPP in Eden. Perhaps that's why they didn't show up as well, I'll have to try over UD's normal primer potion.

I have to admit, somehow I didn't like the formular of these as much as I like the Sunset palette's formular. For some reason, the Sunset eyeshadows are smoother and softer to the touch. But these eyeshadows are still really easy to blend together so I still like them a lot.



Here's my FOTD from Christmas where I used this palette, as you can see the colours are easily blended and make for a lovely sorbet-ish look.



Here are pics which were taken in the evening, so several hours after applied and as you can see, the colours are a little fainter, but still quite bright. Then again, my lids are a bit greasy, so if you have dry lids, they might not fade as quickly.


Anyone else own this palette and if you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it :)


Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstain in In The Buff

Lately, it seems Maybelline have been upping the ante with their products. On a whole, the newer products, from what I've swatched or bought, seem to be amazing. When I bought my gel eyeliner, I also bought this lipstain and so far, I'm loving it.

This here is Maybelline's Colour (I refuse to leave out the 'u') Sensational Lipstain in In The Buff, which indicates that it's a nude colour. I got this for €7.99 in Germany and spent ages trying to decide which one to get. I ended up choosing In The Buff as I wanted something I could wear to school without getting 'OH MY GOD YOUR MAKEUP IS INSANE!!!' kind of comments.

I love the packaging of this, somehow I adore all of Maybelline's packaging from the mascaras to the lipsticks, just everything!

Like Max Factor's lip tint, this has a felt tip applicator, which is designed to give you a precise, yet at the same time, easy application.

So this is quite sheer but can be easily built up, which the second swatch shows although it doesn't look like, but on the lips, it is. Staying power is about...3-4 hours? I'm not sure, all I know is that I generally reapply in my lunch break at school, which is after four lessons. Although it's supposed to be a nude lipstain, you can build it up to be quite bright, as my following picture shall show :)

I think this is it at its brightest and as you can see, it's a lovely colour and there have been occasions where I've only applied this and nothing else because it adds colour to my face and therefor makes me look a little less 'so tired I'm practically dead'.




Sunday 20 February 2011

Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner

Yes..finally! A couple of weeks ago, I discovered my sleek ink pot gel liner had dried out. Then I stupidly added baby oil to it, which didn't help so I decided, as I was going to Trier anyway, I would buy a Maybelline gel liner. Why not just buy it in Luxembourg? €12.99, no way! Besides, everything is cheaper in DM in germany, so when I went there, I found it for €8.99, so I bought it there.

According to Boots website, you can get it for £7.99 or you can go to Superdrug, and get it for £5.99 as they currently have an offer to get it 2 pounds cheaper.
What I have noticed though on the UK websites is that it only exists in black...whilst in Germany, I had the choice between black, brown and navy. I chose brown as the image shows.

So an image on the side depicts what you have inside which is a brush and the liner itself.


So the eyeliner is in a sturdy pot which looks very neat and professional. It is a tiny bit misleading though as there isn't as much product in it as it would have you believe.

This picture shows what I just said, but despite this, there is still a reasonable amount in there. Also the eyeliner has these lovely little sparkles, that were a bit difficult to capture, but hopefully you can see them. They don't show as much when you have it applied on your eyes, so people who feel the sparkles would make them decide not to get it, have no fear!

It comes with a 'professional' eyeliner brush, which is actually quite decent. You could use this and get decent pay off, but of course, if you prefer a sharper line, you'd be better off using an angled liner brush.

I swatched this with the brush accompagnying it and my own angled liner brush (bottom) and whilst both give the same colour payoff, the angled brush gives a much more precise line. This stays on relatively long, although I think after about 8 hours, you might want to touch it up but still I love it.

As for the consistency, I feel it's a bit more of a cream liner than a gel liner, anyone else agree?



And here's my new practically every day EOTD look with this. One thing you do have to watch out for is that if you have oily lids, it can transfer to your crease a bit, but not as much as a pencil liner would.

So here the sparkles are a bit visible, but generally they're not. All in all this is one of my new favourite products and it's definitely one of Maybelline's better products!

Frontcover easy on the eye HOT

As promised, here's another post! This time it's a palette that I got for Christmas (still have a few things to review that I got actually). Anyway, this here is my first Frontcover product and I've been wanting something of theirs for ages so I was DELIGHTED to have got it as a christmas pressie.

This usually retails for £8.50 in Boots but is currently on offer for £2.12 so if you like the look of this, getting it now would be an absolute bargain!

First things first, I love the packaging. It's sturdy and I love the eye makeup which shows how they used the colours and if you don't know how to use the colours, then it's good inspiration. Of course, there is a small detail that I'm not fond of, but I shall talk about it later.

The palette consists of four pastel colours which are ideal for this upcoming spring (that needs to hurry up as I'm getting tired of the snow!) and a double-ended brush that's not actually as bad as the brushes that usually come with palettes. The palette comes with a flap that is designed to protect the colours, I suppose, but as it isn't removable, it's a bit of a nuisance really. But that small detail aside, I'm still really liking the palette!


And here we have a closer look at the colours, which are all named and it's a small detail, but I love the font that they've used, it sort of gives the palette a small je ne sais quoi and I'm definitely liking it. The colours are called Ultra Pink, Coral Kiss, Iced Lime and River Blue, of which Coral Kiss and Iced Lime just remind me of summer and spring which is making my longing even greater.

Here's a pic of brush, excuse the chipped nail varnish! So the brushes are quite soft and to a certaint extent, useable, but of course, not as good as my usual brushes.


Now for swatches! Here we have some without primer and as you can see, they're quite pigmented and somehow the pink is orangier than it is in real life, probably due to me swatching the orange first, so I guess that shows what a lovely colour you could get if you used both together!


And then finally, with primer. As far as pigmentation goes, there's not much of a difference, just makes it a little more consistent, but it does help it stay longer.

All in all, this is a great palette, especially if you'd go get it at the price that Boots are offering it for and once the sun starts shining more, I'll start using this more often!