New York Color Metro Quartet in South Street Seaport

First of all BIG apologies for my absence again. School is making me busier than ever and it's only going to escalate next week as I'm joining a couple of clubs and I'm doing babysitting, so I guess I'll only be able to post at weekends :(

And next, YAY more followers :) Thank you all so much, my giveaway is overdue but I need to earn some money before I can buy the stuff, but rest assured by next Saturday I should have the goodies!

Anyway, on to my life in general, this week I've been spending more time on my appearance for school, if you want you can guess why...;) so today I decided to review one of my smaller palettes that I really don't use enough.

New York Color...ah I feel a bit of a connection with this brand as back in April I got a free makeover in Superdrug and went and bought nearly all the products they used on me.


Ignore the awkwardly overplucked eyebrow, that bothered me for ages. I felt really happy when I had that makeover cause the MUA said I had a 'flawless complexion' and compliments just make me happy :)

One of said products is their Metro Quartet in South Street Seaport, which is a very neutral look ideal for blue eyes (that being said, it's not limited to that colour!)



It's diddy, this is so it'll fit perfectly in your handbag if you're worrying you might need to touch up your eyeshadow.



Very handy with this are the instructions so that if (like me) you forget from time to time where what goes, this'll help.




As for the product itself, in terms of quality, you definitely need a good primer with this stuff. The two browns above were heavily swatched over UDPP and are still a bit iffy, so primer's a must. Otherwise, the colour pay-off is quite nice, although I must admit I'm not going to put the pinky colour all over my lid.

So I tried to recreate the look that the makeup artist did on me, but I didn't quite get it, so I just followed the instructions on the palette.


(I'm using my smaller camera and I must admit, it's a lot better for close ups!) A side note, my eyebrow pencil's faded a bit since I applied it so my eyebrows look a bit odd. And as for my lashes, I'm very pleased with how they look here.

I also used my N.Y.C. liquid eyeliner and it was a little messy, but I'm pleased with the flick.



So there you have it, I actually managed to get a nice look with this palette, not like the last time I tried using it. I'm not sure of the price anymore, but it was cheap so if you like the look of it, go ahead and get it as it is worth it with primer :)

A couple of EOTDs!

I'm back! Well, officially, I am back. And I'm freezing, cause my house is always incredibly cold when we get back from a summer holiday.

So I have a few Eye of the Days for you from my holiday.

The first one is an attempt at a red smokey eye, as I cannot pull off a black one to save my life! A black one would just be overkill, what with black eyebrows and black hair. So using my Sleek sunset palette, I created this...




I am really sorry about the photo quality, my camera is acting mediocre at the moment and it's really frustrating me! First of all, they're blurred with the flash and then without flash, I look like a vampire, I'm so pale (I don't sparkle though thank god). And now with my eyes shut, so you can see it more clearly. The blending out isn't spectacular because I only got my new brush set today (and I love it!).


And then on my last night in the South of France, I did a green look using my Sephora Five-in-One Palette, which I still need to review :P And in both looks, I used Sleek's Gel Liner, which I'm loving!


Sorry the cropping is a bit weird, I couldn't do a full face shot as my lips were awfully swollen from being sick and all the wind in Italy.




O.O I look like a corpse there, my god, the settings on my camera are crazy.




That stray hair on my eyebrow is REALLY bugging me on this picture...

And now for something a little bit random. In my local supermarket, you can give your loose change and get a ovucher in return. How much money do you guys think is in these bags?

Just a little fun thing I thought I'd do and I'll let you know tomorrow how much it is! :)
xx

MNY Maybelline, oh how I'm torn with you... + FOTD

So, on saturday, I went to Saarbrücken (simply because it's the closest place to Luxembourg with Starbucks haha) and whilst I was there, I went to check out the new MNY range, which is a 'daughter' range of Maybelline, which currently only exists in central Europe.

Apparantly, the range is going to appear exclusively in Superdrug later on this year (according to MakeUpSavvy) so I suppose this could be a bit like a heads up for all the Brits.

Anyway, the display is actually a lot smaller than I expected it to be, from the pictures you'd think it's a big stand, but in reality it's only half a stand. Although some people seem to find the packaging tacky, I quite like it, although that might be all the colours screaming out at me.


Misleading, isn't it?

Surprisingly, I didn't buy any of their more colourful stuff, I bought two nude shades and a liquid blush which was the last in their 1€ Bye Bye Section. Unfortunately, I forgot to check which shades I've bought, but I'll go edit this tomorrow after I have a look :)




First of all, the darker of the two. It's a pinky/beige shimmery eyeshadow, which has similarities to UD's Sellout from their Book of Shadows II, although this one is a little darker. So first impression's not bad, I'm quite pleased, but then, I notice this.



A scratch. Right down the middle of the lid. Naty impressed? No, not at all. Ok, I get it. It cost 1.95€, but still! My MUA eyeshadows are in perfect condition and they cost even less! So yeah, packaging gets a minus point.




As you can see from the swatch, it's quite pigmented and not too shimmery, so I am still content. This is the kind of shade that I like because it's simple enough to go on its own or with a flick of liquid liner. It is quite similar to UD's Sellout, so for people wanting a cheaper alternative, this is ideal, even if it's not exactly a dupe.




Next up is a lighter shade, which is quite handy as a highlighter, as it's cream bordering on white.




But, it's happened again! Another crack! You might think that I'm very careless, but trust me, the bag didn't even fall on the floor, so this is really making me unhappy, because both my eyeshadows have got poor quality packaging, so it's obviously not just a one off.




To make things worse, THAT happened today. The lid broke off. Yeah, I managed to get it back on, but it just makes me a little bit more pissed off.

Now, on to the swatch...



So again, very well pigmented, not too much shimmer and it's a pretty colour. The quality of the actual products is excellent, just the packaging is a let down.



And now, just a little comparison to UD's Sellout (left). Ok, they're different shades, but the pigmentation and texture is quite similar, as you can see.

Next up is their liquid blush, which I got for 1€ in their 'Bye Bye' section.




Again, packaging is quite adorable and relatively simple.




A lot of product comes out if you squeeze too hard and with this stuff, less is more, so you have to be careful with that.




There you have it from the tube, then blended out, which still shows up remarkably well. If I had Benefit's Benetint, I would compare the two, but alas, my budget won't let me buy it and if you can get cheaper alternatives, I don't see why I'd want to. (Benefit is incredibly overpriced, in my opinion. Yes, the packaging is cute, but still..no)

So there you have it! A little preview of MNY's range and I have to confess, I have mixed feelings. The packaging thing really irks me, but the quality is still quite reasonable, so I'm gonna have to say, it is still worth the small price you pay.

And now for my EOTD, which was done using Sephora's Five-in-One palette (which I have yet to review)

I quite fancied something a little more colourful than my nude looks these past few days, and I'm quite pleased with this look.




Next up is a picture of my face, where you can see the liquid blush on my cheeks, more prominently, my left cheek.



So that's all from me for today, I might update tomorrow if I have the time, I'm going on holiday on friday, so I'm gonna be busy packing and stuff! Night, night :)

Eyebrows, such pesky things...

Until recently, I never really cared much about my eyebrows. Ok, yeah, I pluck 'em, but filling them in? Neatening them? Never. Until I read this post by the marvelous Beauty's Bad Habit
(love that blog, it's amazing!) and realised :'Oh, my eyebrows are crazy and untamed. I better get them sorted out'.

See that's where my problem is. I can't just buy an eyeliner pencil. Black? I'll look like a transvestite. So in reality, I have no clue what to buy.

Anyway, here's a picture of my untamed and completely make up free eyebrow.



Urgh, nasty, isn't it?

So last week, I went into Sephora with €30 and was immediately asked by a MUA standing near the Benefit and Urban Decay stuff whether I needed help, which I did. I said I did and that I wanted some eyebrow powder which would make my eyebrows look natural and not wayy too dramatic. So she immediately showed me the Benefit Brow-zings and then ent and looked for an angled brush so she could show me how to apply it (turns out someone had stolen one from the tester's box). Then she showed me how to use it and she made my eyebrows look quite good so I decided to buy it.

€29. Pricey stuff, but I suppose in the long run, it's worth it. And the Make Up Alley reviews of it seem impressive, so I'm happy.

Now this is how I've decided to do my brows, after some experimenting over the last week.



As the picture's slightly blurred, I've decided I'll just post a pic of my look today, where you can see my eyebrow more clearly.



Today I used Too Faced's Natural Eye Palette doing the Day look, which I really really loove :D

And now for yesterday's look, which is actually a recreation of this lovely look I saw in a very old Sugar magazine I used to have lying around, which I still remembered (at least the basics I remembered)



Yeah, you can see a bit of the fallout on my cheek there, whoopsy. I used Barry M Peony, Sleek Ink Pot and Collection 2000 Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Liner in Retro Chic.


So that's all from me today, it's getting late and I'm getting tired :) Night night

Sleek Divine Sunset Palette and Ink Pot Gel Eyeliner plus Eye of the Day

So here's my review of the Sleek Divine Sunset Palette, which I bought back in England two weeks ago. And, as I used it for my look today, I've decided to include pictures of that :) I've also got the Ink Pot Gel Eyeliner from Sleek, which I'm reviewing as well, but I didn't use it in my EOTD.


Argh, that mirror is a mess. I just attract mess like food attracts bees. Anyway, the colours are just WOW. If you have blue eyes, using any of these colours is bound to make your eyes pop, although watch out with the blue eyeshadow, blue's tricky to pull off, isn't it? The pgmentation of these are great as well, which is what Sleek's well known for, especially being as cheap as they are, with the palettes only being £5.99.

The gel eyeliner cost about £2.99, I'm not completely sure about the price, all I know it was two pounds something. I checked on their site and it says it's €8, which is a crazy exchange rate, considering the small amount I paid for it in England. Anyway, I haven't used it much, so I can't say if it's brilliant or not, but it does seem quite good. Apparantly you can use it as eyeshadow as well, but I haven't got round to that yet.



So you can see the colours are pretty awesome, very pigmented and just downright gorgeous. I have to say though, I'm not all that keen on applicatior that comes with the palette, as it's a little stiff and I prefer my usual brushes to the sponge ones.

And now for my look, I used the coppery bronze colours third from the left and the bottom left one.



Ok, the lighting might look peculiar, but this picture actually showed the different colours off better than the other pictures that I took. And I tried my hand at filling in m yeyebrows, I'm not so sure about it, so I think I'll visit Sephora and bother one of their MUA for help.



See? That picture's far too yellowy.




And there you can see my filled in eyebrows, which are quite dramatic and heavy, so I thought I'd forgo them afterall today.

So anyway, I'm off now, but I'll try and post again later on today!