A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

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

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

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

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

I’m so pleased I picked it up!

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

A few weeks ago, Cherry Culture tempted me with another 20% off sale (I think it was 20%, I can’t remember exactly)… anyway, my goodies arrived at the end of last week, packaged impeccably (as always).

Here’s what I got this time:

~ NYX Round Lip Glosses in: Ballerina Pink, Doll Pink and Whipped
~ NYX Round Lipsticks in: Electra, B52, Power, Paris and Snow White
~ Milani Blush in Luminous (supposed Orgasm dupe)
~ NYX Single Eyeshadow in: Dune, Herb, Sparkle Cedar and Golden Bronze
~ NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Cottage Cheese

Reviews, swatches etc coming up shortly but this little lot set me back £26 inc. postage (not bad huh?)

Have you been partaking in any hauls in the run up to Christmas or are you being good and spending your money on presents for other people?

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

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

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

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

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

Pretty!

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

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

Nude Gold and Havana look somewhat simillar no?

Clockwise from TopLeft – Freedom, Nude Gold, Havana.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Heather over at The She Space/About Face Cosmetics had a blowout sale in honour of turning the big 4-0! (Happy Birthday!)

How could I not take advantage with full size eyeshadow pigments reduced down to $2.50 each?

I went for mainly wintery shades that work well on my cool skin:

Aren’t they beautiful?

Stand out shades are: Female Soldiers…, Inspired Meltdown, Anybody Seen Erin, Touched By Truth.

Those 4 blow me away by how achingly beautiful and unique they are.

Driven by Instinct was described as a “smoky purple shimmer” but unfortunately, it just looks blue on my skin.  A lovely shade nonetheless, but blues don’t really suit me.

Shipping time from The She Space is *always* slowwww.  I ordered on 20th October and it took very nearly a full month to arrive.

Are you into your pigments?  I’m hoping to press these when my pans arrive from Hong Kong – I don’t know how they’ll turn out, but I’ll share my method and results!

The She Space Holiday sale has now kicked in and full size pigments are reduced to $3.50 each from $4.50.

Have a great Monday xx

You’ve already seen the lipsticks from my Cherry Culture NYX haul…

Now it’s time for the eye shadows!

I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I’d heard such good things that I didn’t think I’d be disappointed but I wasn’t prepared to be quite so delighted either!

I stuck to what I consider to be great Autumn/Winter shades for me… Purples, Plums, Golds and Greys.  I was tempted by some brighter more Spring-like shades… but I’ll save them for my next haul 😉

Here’s the swatches (applied dry over UDPP):

My favourites are Eggplant, Golden, Champage and Charcoal…

Rust is an amazingly pigmented shade… it’s a touch too red for my taste but I’ve got it coming up in my next FOTD so you’ll get a clearer idea of how it looks on the eye.

I read up on a few forums about Champagne, and it was often suggested as a nice highlight.  Damn my paleness ‘cos it’s too dark to use as a highlight for me… it will be a gorgeous shade for a quick wash of colour though – still pleased I bought it.

Red Bean Pie looked fantastic on the site and doesn’t disappoint in real life.  It’s basically Eggplant but with more plummy/red tones to it.

Eggplant is gorgeously metallic, it’s simillar to Red Bean Pie, but a little more purpley.

I never use black in the crease, it’s just too harsh for my skintone so I’m always on the lookout for nice greys and Charcoal is the loveliest crease colour for me.  I’m very happy I chose it.

Last but by no means least is Golden – stunning… proper metallic, highly pigmented.. just beautiful!

I’m not disappointed by a single shadow.

I also bought this little beauty…

The much talked about Jumbo Pencil in Milk which is the creamiest, brightest white ever!  I know that it’s most often used as a base… but with my creasey creasey eyelids I’m actually gonna attempt to put it to work as an under the brow highlighter!  I’ll let you know how it fares…

Can I get a little feedback on my swatches?  I’m not particularly confident with swatching… I think they’re pretty colour accurate…  Let me know if you ever want a particular shade of anything I swatch incorporated into a FOTD, sometimes things just look different in a swatch than when put into context on the face – or maybe that’s just me?

I bought 4 more NYX Round Lipsticks to add to my collection…

Tea Rose: Medium/Dark Rosey Pink

Strawberry Milk: As the name suggests, very pale milky pink

Thalia: Medium/Dark Nude

Indian Pink: Medium Pink with Gold flashes

Wear on these aren’t fantastic, they don’t last much after a cup of tea, but they’re so easy to  reapply and very well pigmented for the price.

And finally… Nyx Round Lipgloss in Sorbet. Non-sticky, fairly sheer with a subtle hint of sparkle.

I’m really pleased with the lip products… my favourite is Thalia or Tea Rose.  I adore Indian Pink, it’s so unusual but it’s a little warm toned against my skin.  Strawberry Milk is gorgeous too, but I need to find a way to wear it that doesn’t remind me of Magda from There’s Something About Mary.

What are your favourite NYX Round Lipsticks?

Well, the general consensus from the bods paid to know about these things is that lightning really does strike twice.

With this in mind, after my previous experiences trying to get my hands on some NYX products from across the pond you can imagine my slight hesitation when I heard about a Cherry Culture 20% off code a few weeks ago.

I was obviously mainlining a dose of bravado when, with VISA in hand I started gaily adding items to my virtual basket until I was reminded of a). the import tax threshold and b). my overflowing makeup storage in the spare room.

Reluctantly, I pared down my overenthusiastic initial selection to items that (by this time) I’d decided I couldn’t physically live without.

The NYX prices on Cherry Culture aren’t the cheapest out there – but the 20% code sweetened the deal and I was happy that their stock list appeared to be current and up to date.

Fast forward 2 weeks later and my parcel landed on the doormat with a satisfying heavyweight thud, immediately reassuring me of a job haul well done.

Pulling apart the jiffy bag, I was pleased to see that all my items I’d ordered had been wrapped securely for the long journey across the Atlantic.  No casualties this time.

I ordered:

6 NYX Eyeshadows

1 NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil

4 NYX Round Lipsticks

1 NYX Round Lipgloss

See! I told you I was restrained!  It actually barely qualifies for ‘haul’ status!

I’m happy to recommend Cherry Culture as a distributor of NYX products to the UK.  I haven’t had need to make use of their CS team yet, and for me, this is what makes or breaks a company – but I’m pleased with the service so far!

…stays in Lon… usually comes home with me in a lovely iconic yellow paper bag 😉

So, I was up in London on Saturday for the wonderful Aussie Project Angel event (more details to come later..) and saw lots of lovely things to add to my stash.

Ok, well I didn’t get *all* these bits in London.. the Stila stuff I ordered a couple of weeks ago and turned up today so thought I’d throw them in.

I went on a bit of a lipstick buying rampage – and had to be physically restrained from buying another Shu one that I had my eye on.

On the left, the unmistakable Lingerie Pink… and on the right, the lovely Shu Rouge Unlimited BG907.

I had no intentions of buying Lingerie Pink until I tried it on out of pure curiousity at the counter.  Instant love.

I first saw the Shu one when I went to the Maybelline Event last month and have lusted after it ever since.

How pretty?! – L-R: Pound Cake, Strawberry Sorbet, Baby Cakes

Kryolan Supra Color Black Greasepaint recommended to me by LondonMUGirl.  First impressions… wonderful to blend eyeshadow over compared to UDPP, but it starts creasing after 3hrs 🙁

L-R: MAC Woodwinked (been on my wishlist a LONG time), Kryolan Matte Highlight (got this by accident after SA put the wrong eyeshadow in my bag… grrr.)

Well, that concludes my first proper “haul” post… hope it wasn’t too dull.  I enjoy reading about everyone else’s newest acquisitions, but everyone is different so apologies if this was a boring read – move along, I’m done now!

Oh, and the Stila can wait ’till the rest of my order turns up 🙂

I don’t know about Face Stockholm, but I was intrigued when I saw these in the sale at HQHair and couldn’t resist adding them to my basket.

These were a wee bit of an impulse buy for me… a cream blush (shade Tokyo) and a silver highlighter (shade Glamour).

Hmmm… not really sure what to make of them!  The cream blush has a nice consistency and blends smoothly, but the colour is a litle warm and brown toned for me – I just can’t see it working.  Future blog sale material perhaps.

The silver highlighter reminds me a little of Illamasqua’s new liquid metal Phenomena so at least I’m on trend for once… it’s pretty… only thing is, what the hell do I do with it? 

Damn my “see a bargain, snap it up” mentality!

Any ideas of how I might rock the silver?  Perhaps try it as a cream eyeliner? I’d need to get it to spread very finely for it to work for me as a highlighter I think.

I am very lazy with my makeup application.  I rarely apply more than one colour to my eyelids. I never bother with things like lip liners (despite owning many).  I rarely contour (it scares me) and most of the time I can’t be arsed with highlighting either.

And I call myself a makeup fanatic? *hangs head in shame*

This week, I will endeavour to make more of an effort.  What’s the point of having all these lovely products if I don’t use them?  So, amongst other makeup resolutions, this week I will be ditching my taupe-y eyeshadows and may even attempt blue again *eek*

I also have a confession… I don’t own a blending brush.  There, I said it.  Disown me if you like – just don’t tell me that you could ‘like, totally already tell from your FOTD shots’ or I might have to find a dark corner to sob in.

look, my skillz are awesum!

Anyway, I know that the pinnacle of blending brushes involves the MAC 32174893 *bleh, I can’t remember numbers* – I know what one I’m talking about.  However, funds aren’t gonna stretch this month… so please recommend me a relative cheapie that I could cut my teeth on.  I’ve heard some good things about a Boots No7 one and also a Revlon one I think?

Further to my post on the Debenhams sale, I nabbed a few colours.

Hello lovelies!  There’s 4 absolute stand out shades for me in this little lot, namely:

Sweety (Bubblegum Pink)
Velvet (Warm Taupe)
Lyric (Off-White v.pale coffee shade)
Miami (Dusky pink with lilac flashes)

Hmm, I think you can probably expect some NOTD posts coming up!

…popped my NARS cherry – hoorah!

Angelika is such a beautiful true pink, often described as bubblegum… but it shows up slightly softer on my skin (or perhaps I’m being majorly cautious with the application!)  Either way, I love it – the perfect pink with just the right amount of silver sparkle.

What are your favourite NARS blushes?