Burt's Bees Reviews

So I've been using the things in my Citrus Shower Set this week and feel I've got to know them well enough to review them.

Citrus and Ginger Root Shower Gel

In the bottle this smells gorgeous, however in the shower it all goes wrong. In the shower, it smells identical to our bathroom cleaner. At first, I thought maybe it was because I'd been cleaning and had the smell on my hands,but actually, that's just the way it smells :( It also doesn't lather at all as it contains no Sodium Laurel/Laureth Sulfate -I've used shower gels like this before so I didn't mind,but it means you can't really use a shower puff and end up using quite a lot of product.
♥ ♥ ♥ out of 5
Would I buy it again? Probably not...I got this free and I'm really glad. I would have been quite disappointed if I'd spent money on this.

Orange Essence Facial Cleanser:

I had reservations about this from the outset as I know my skin generally doesn't like cleansers which need to be washed off, however this is 100% natural I thought I'd give it a go.My skin doesn't like this much at all. Iyt left my skin feeling really dry and flakey and didn't really do much to brighten it. I used my normal cleanser on it after (as its quite soothing)and my normal toner and they both removed quite a bit of dirt so I don't even think it cleansed that well. Might work better on a oilier/combination skin I suppose.
♥ ♥ out of 5
Would I buy this again?:No.

Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey and Orange Wax Body Lotion:

I tried to love this, I really did... I just couldn't. The smell is nice I guess.... it's not too sweet which is a frequent complaint of mine when things have honey in. It's left my a bit softer as well.So what do I hate??2 things... 1)Worst bit of packaging design ever- you need to squeeze the bottle to get it out but the bottle is made of very thick unaqueezable plastic*sigh* 2)I've never been left so sticky after putting on moisturiser.Not tacky or greasy feeling but genuinely sticky ... like I'd just rubbed in honey. Freaked me out and takes ages (over an hour) for the stickiness to go away.
♥ out of 5

Honey Lipbalm:

This is ok I guess ....makes my lips softer etc. Not massively keen on the taste and don't think it does as good a job as my Dr Organic Pomegranate Lip Balm.Not awful but nothing to write home about.
♥ ♥ ♥ out of 5
Would I buy it again?Maybe, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Overall, I've been really disappointed with this set which is a shame as I've always loved the sound of Burt's Bees products and love that they're bunny friendly and pretty natural.I know that lots of people love them, and I'd definitely be willing to give other stuff a try,but sadly my experience with this set has been more thana little disappointing.

Have you tried Burt's Bees products?What do you think?

*Disclaimer* I was sent these free as a gift with a magazine subscription. My reviews purely reflect the way the products react with my own skin.

Payday Haulage :)

Hello lovelies :)

Today was payday, hurrah! Obviously, payday=treat time, so here's the little stash I picked up today!

Frontcover Rainbow Eyes Reborn Palette from Boots

 

(This was such an arse of a picture to take... 3 of the baked shadows kept falling out :(...)

I swatched these earlier and they seem so pretty good. Nice range of shades, good pigmentation, some mattes, some shimmers, some solid colours some sheers. The main thing that shocked me about this was the size of it. I mean look - it's as big as my head!! The shadows themselves are a similar size to the Bourjois Little Round Pots!

Some pretty Laura Ashley storage drawers from WHSmiths:

 

 

I think The Husband is getting a bit fed up of make up being left literally all over the spare room from when I've done FOTDs etc, so I bought this pretty storage box for all my make up. Just filled it up and it weighs a tonne :/

Bourjois Minis!:

 

 

(These pictures are soooo bad - I can only apologise and promise that the XD card had been ordered and will be with me soon - thank goodness!) It's official... I'm officially in love with Bourjois mascara again. This is a mini version of Volume Glamour in Ultra Black and I love it! Great definition, intense colour, slight curl, volume and lengthening. Yum. Also got 2 teeny tiny Effet 3D lipglosses in Nudes Rose Mythic and Rose Bahamas.

No7 Natural Radiance Highlighter:

 

I don't quite know what the packaging team were thinking when they designed this lid. However, this is a product lots of beauty bloggers have been raving and lemming over, so I decided to join in. I've not yet given it a proper try but my first impressions are that this gives a lovely subtle highlight. It's a very delicate gold colour and I'm really looking forward to giving it a bit more of a try :)

Sleek Ink Pot Eyeliner Gel in Dominatrix (aka Black):

 

Again, I've heard great things about these! I've never tried gel liner (tried liquid and hated it) so I'm up for giving this a go and seeing what happens. It comes with a very cute little brush and from the bit of swatching I did earlier, I think I'm going to really like this. It seems to have brilliant staying power and nice rich pigmentation.

Also got the No7 Eyeshadow Blend and Contour Brush... the only reason I got the Natural Radiance Highlighter is because they're doing the £5 No7 vouchers at Boots again and I got one with my Frontcover set, so when I got another £5 voucher with my Natural Radiance Highlighter I figured that getting this brush for a mere £1 couldn't be a bad thing!

What have you hauled recently? Have you tried any of these products? What do you think?

Eeeek....I made a video

So one of the things that inspired me to get back into make up was spending many hours browsing the youtube make up gurus - Sirvinya, Oxford Jasmine,PixiWoos etc.Anyway, I thought I'd do a wee video to show you my Alice palette and a little tutorial for the look that I did with it today :)



Enjoy! Please do comment/rate and let me know what you think!

Look what else came today!

My lovely Alice in Wonderland Urban Decay Book of Shadows!!!!!!! These pictures are awful as they were taken in our spare bedroom at night with my shoddy webcam, but I just wanted to share the excitement with you all! Also, Debenhams included a sample pot of Bare Minerals foundation in Medium Beige, a mini Kabuki brush (it's so cute) and a voucher for a Bare Minerals Make-Under. I've been wanting to try some mineral foundation, so I'll be giving this a go and letting you know how I get on.

Anyway, on to the terrible pictures :D

  

(This picture does the colours no justice...)

  

  

(See how cute the mini kabuki brush is!)

I've already swatched them all, and my current favourites are Alice, Oraculum, Queen and Curiouser.... saying that though I think I love them all (I'm even finding myself  liking Midnight Tea Party, but I'm sure that will pass when it comes anywhere near my eyes).

Also, I know that there's a lot of people who aren't bothered about this palette as it's just colours renamed in pretty packaging but a)I don't have most of these colours anyway and b)I've loved Alice in Wonderland for as long as I can remember. I know the original Disney film word for word. (I'm a nightmare to watch it with ... I can't help but say them all).

Have you got your Alice palette yet? If not, do you intend to order one?

So much excitement!

This has just arrived in the post:

I got it free with a subscription to Marie Claire ... think I paid about £6 for a 6 month subscription or something. Anyway, it was one of those "This offer is only available for the first 300 subscribers" things, and I  as I subscribed ages ago, I figured I'd missed out, but apparently not!!

The gift set includes full sized products of:
♥ Citrus and Ginger Root Body Wash
♥ Orange Essence Facial
♥ Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey and Orange Wax Body Lotion
♥ Burt's Bees Honey Lip Balm

All the products are incredibly natural (the ones I have range from 97.90-100% natural) and bunny friendly! I've been wanting to try Burt's Bees stuff for ages, so I'm really very excited! A big review post will come on these at some point :)

Also, I can't believe that I've just reached 40 followers. How exciting! I never thought that anyone would pay that much attention to me and my silly waffling so thank you! xx

40 Beauty Questions

*Tagged by Jellyminx Thinks*


SKINCARE
How many times do you wash your face daily? I cleanse morning and night
What skin type do you have? Dry and sensitive with a bit of redness on my nose and cheeks
What is your current facial wash? I use Origins Pure Cream Cleanser
Do you exfoliate? Yes 
What brand do you use? Origins Modern Friction, although I'm thinking of changing
What moisturizer do you use? Origins Have A Nice Day (thinking of changing to Origins A Perfect World) and Origins Night-A-Mins
Do you have freckles? Nope!
Do you use eye cream? Origins Gin-zing (well, I have a tiny sample, when that runs out I'm not sure what it'll be!)
Do you or did you have acne prone skin? Nope :)
Did you ever have to use Pro-activ? Not even sure what that is....


MAKE-UP
What foundation do you use? Lancome Adaptive in 02 Lys Rose and The Body Shop Moisture Foundation in 04
How about concealer? Not really... haven't ever found one I like.Do you know your undertone color? Not a clue. I think neutral to warm but I'm never sure.
What do you think of fake eyelashes? They can look nice on the right people, but they're not really for me.
Did you know that you are suppose to change your mascara every 3 months? Yes of course... doesn't mean I listen though.
What brand of mascara do you use? Currently Lancome Hypnose Waterproof in Black and Collection 2000 Longer Lashes in Intense Black. Neither of them are perfect though. Think I'll go back to Bourjois.
Sephora or MAC? Neither... we have no Sephora and I've never tried MAC
Do you have a MAC Pro-card? No
What makeup tools do you use in make up application? Foundation brush, variety of eyeshadow brushes, really cheap big blusher brush.
Do you use make-up base/primer for the eyes? Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy and Urban Decay Primer Potion
For the face? None, but I'd be interested in trying some. Maybe I need to give some a go.
What is your favorite eyeshadow (color or shade)? Greens... bright, dark, sparkly, matt.
Do you use pencil or liquid eyeliner? Pencil.
How often do you poke your eyes with an eyeliner pencil? Never. 
What do you think of pigment eyeshadows? Loving them! I'm quite new to them but I find them really beautiful
Do you use mineral makeup? Not masses but I'm starting to experiment with it a little more.
What is your favorite lipstick? Never been much of a lipstick person but I recently bought The Body Shop Colourglide Lip Colour in No 48 Soft Peony and think it's beautiful!
How about lipgloss? Again, never been a massive fan as I've generally found them too sticky and icky. 
What is your favorite blush to use? Boots Botanicals in Hollyhock (v. old product)
Do you buy your makeup on ebay? Nope, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't.
Do you like drugstore makeup? Yes
Do you go to CCO's? (cosmetic company outlets) Yes
Did you ever consider taking make-up classes? I would love to, but I can't even come close to being able to afford it.
Are you clumsy in putting on makeup? I don't think so.
Name a makeup crime that you hate? Obviously drawn on eyebrows that are pretending to look natural. 
Do you like colorful shades of makeup (lipstick,eyeshadow) or neutral ones? Both :)
Which celebrity always has great make up? Gonna be honest, I rarely pay attention to anything much celebrity wise.
If you could leave the house using just ONE make up item,what would you use? Lip balm
Could you ever leave the house without any makeup on? Of course! I leave the house wearing make up far less then the days I leave without any.
Do you think you look good even without any makeup on? I don't think I ever look particularly good, but I think I do ok
In your opinion, what is the BEST makeup line? Not sure that I have one to be honest.
What do you think of Makeup? I'm loving it 



And in the interest of pure inquisitiveness, I tag you!

Everyone loves good customer service!

Let me tell you a story. Are we sitting comfortably? Great, I'll begin.

Once upon a time there was a young woman, let's call her Emily, and she and her husband had decided to take a mini break with some friends. Away they trotted, bags packed, full of eager excitement! They arrived at their destenation to find a grand and glorious Georgian vicarage which was on par with a National Trust property. They unpacked their bags and got ready to get into their beds. The room was cold, and they hadn't the energy to light the wood fire. As Emily unpacked her bag, she experienced a great feeling of tragedy. It was all wet! How could this be? And so the hunt for the culprit began ....

To cut a long story short, I went through my bag and discovered that the brand new bottle of Amie Bright Eyes Very Gentle Eye Make Up Remover that I'd bought and reviewed before I went away (as in bought on the Friday, taken away on the Sunday.. it had been in my possession for around 48 hours) and leaked everywhere. I had about a quarter of a bottle left :( Was it because I was clumsy and didn't put the lid on properly? No, I checked every lid before I packed it. Had it exploded due to heavy bags on to of it? Nope, my bag was with me all the time. The issue was its lid.

The lid was one of the split sorts - press one side down and the other pops up and has a hole for the product to come out. Only this had no locking mechanism and required very little pressure to make it move :(

Anyway, my mother brought me up to believe that one person complaining can make life better for a lot of other people in the long run, and not wanting you all to end up with soggy PJs when you go on your holidays, I did just that. The lady who responded to my email was SO lovely. Incredibly sweet and very sincere. Amie have in fact changed the lid of this product to the more standard flip-top lid with a little hole for squeezing out product. Win! It's much nicer. They also went me a little sachet of the Spring Clean mask (get the feeling that might be one of their new products that they're trying to get out there) which I decided to give to my very lovely PA.

Anyway, I believe that good customer service should always be shared. Have you experienced any good customer service recently? What's the best you've ever received?

P.S. I'll update with pictures when I get a new XD card this weekend :D

*Disclaimer* This product wasn't sent to me by PR to review, but by customer services as a replacement for something I bought with my hard earned cash which was faulty.

Amie Spring Clean Cooling Clay Mask Review

My skin profile:
My skin is primarily dry, flaky and sensitive, with a bit of oiliness on my t-zone but not really anything to write home about. I have fairly big pores on the bottom half of my nose and on my cheeks. My skin is naturally a bit dull and grey with redness across my cheeks and nose. It has a tendency to go mental at the slightest thing product wise.

The blurb:

Spring Clean Cooling Clay Mask is a wonderfully refreshing deep-cleansing treatment that draws out deep-seated dirt and impurities while soaking up excess oil. It is excellent for cleansing and helping prevent blemishes. The harmonising natural active fruit and botanical ingredients in Spring Clean work with your skin, not against it.

The key ingredients:
French white clay - absorbs dirt/toxins/impurities and gets rid of excess oil (not sure if it's important that it's French, or if that's just to make it sound a little more sophisticated)
Zinc Oxide - Antibacterial/helps to clear and prevent blemishes
Lime Butter - soothes, softens, tones and helps shrink pores
Organic Peppermint - refreshes, cools, soothes

Initial Impression:
Very cute packaging. This range is aimed at "young skin" - not sure if I count as young, but never mind. Lovely delicate green colour and very fresh smelling. Have to admit, there was something a little off putting about the smell for some reason (I think it smelt a little antiseptic to me on first smell), but having had it on my face, I'd say it's a pleasant fresh and zingy scent.

Application:
Easy to apply, needed 2 biggish pea sized blobs to do my whole face. Smooths on nicely, not left with any uncovered patches, unlike some masks I've used recently (yes I'm looking at you BB Seaweed).

The mask itself:
I'm going to be honest, I was expecting full blown stinging agony. I had visions of trying to find anything nice to say beyond "It smells good". I'm generally a bit unsure about clay based cleansers and things aimed at removing excess oil. Stinging and burning have been common themes for me with these sort of masks *coughOriginsClearImprovementcough*. The mask does tingle slightly whilst it's on, but I think that its definitely more on the side of cooling tingle than stinging. As it dries, it felt a little tight, but again not really uncomfortable.

The result:
So after 10 minutes on and a quick wash off with warm water, what did I think? Wow. I'm really shocked by how much I like this product! My skin looks brighter, feels really, really soft (like, softer than it does with any of my normal "moisturising" creamy masks) and just feels generally clean! It's still got that slight tingle going on, but it's quite nice actually. The oilier bits of my nose seem a little less oily too. It's not made much difference to my pore size, and the blocked pores on the end of my nose aren't much different either, but I never see how any mask is going to sort that sort of thing out. I'm genuinely impressed!

Price: £4.95
Availiable from: According to the Press Release, Boots and next.co.uk, although I just looked on next.co.uk and they don't seem to stock this particular Amie product at the moment.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ out of 5
Would I buy it again: Definitely. It's rare that I find a face mask that actually works with my skin, so this is a keeper.

*This product was sent to me for review purposes by a PR company. However, I promise a 100% genuine review, no thoughts barred* <---- Also, I was genuinely shocked that my little blog got asked to review something by a PR company.

5 things I'd never use again

So I did a post on my current everyday essentials, which means I guess it's time for those products that I've heard all the hype about, tried them out but have no intention of buying again. Obviously, you might completely disagree with me and that's fine! These are just my opinions. In no particular order:

1. Isle of Eden Products
These are literally all the rage on the Lush forum and there are a fair few people selling them little sample pots on there, so after Christmas I decided to treat myself to some. I think I went for 5 scrubs and 5 bath frostings all in various scents. I have to say, I really don't see what all the fuss is about. The bath frostings are ok.... they all smell really synthetic to me though and I don't find them to be that moisturising. I mean, they're probably more moisturising than just a normal cheap bar of soap, but they're definately not worth the $15.95 per tub in my opinion. Again with the scrubs ... these are meant to be double whipped and apparently "give you the softest skin possible". Really? I found them to be fairly similar to sugar scrubs. If you want a really moisturising body scrub, Origins do an amazing one in their Ginger range. I don't exactly hate Isle of Eden products, I guess I just don't see what all the fuss is about.

2.Collection 2000 Eyeshadows.
I'm gonna do some editing to my haul post at some point. Waste of time, waste of money. These look gorgeously pigmented in the pots. I even did swatches on my hand and a few of them didn't seem too bad. But try to apply these to your eyelids and you'll be left wanting more. Their brightly coloured palette eyeshadows come out weak, pale and nondescript. The gorgeous plummy colour I told you about? It's like a light color wash. I've tried layering. I've tried primer. I'm giving up.

3. Boots Expert Eye Make Up Remover Lotion
I mentioned this briefly in a previous post, but felt it deserved recognition in this little post. This is truely horrible. I sometimes wish I hadn't thrown it away so that I could do a comparison post to show you just how horrible it is. Firstly, I didn't really remove any of my make up. Secondly, and this is the worst bit, it left my eyelids really greasy. The feeling really freaked me out everytime I used it and it made the cotton wool feel almost plasticy. I had to use a tonne of cleanser and toner just to get this off. Urgh. Awful.

4. Clinique 3 Step Programme
Ok, so I'd possibly give this one a try one more time, because I truly want to love it. I've heard a gazillion amazing things about this, and yet all it does to me is wrecks my skin. I'm left red, blotchy, itchy, flaky, sore and super sensitive whenever I try to use this. I've bought this system twice, from two different counters. I've made sure that we've done the whole skin care consultation. But it really does just seem to hate me. Sigh

5. Faith in Nature Shampoo and Condition in Jojoba
I think I've mentioned this before. Again, I've heard amazing things about this range and went for this one because it was a)aimed at dry hair and b)meant to be nourishing. Faith in Nature products are natural and bunny friendly, but sadly, they're not Emily friendly. My scalp is still recovering! I have a fairly sensitive scalp after getting sunburn when I was about 10 (seriously, wear a sunhat people!) and this just wrecked it. It was so intensly itchy that I was actually in pain. Didn't make my hair look great either. Again, I thin this might just be me, as the husband uses it and loves it! It makes his hair look nice to :)

Have you got any products that you think aren't worth their weight in gold? What's been your biggest beauty disappointment recently?

Nooberella's Giveaway

Nooberella is having a giveaway to celebrate getting 100 followers :D You can your choice of a whole host of MAC goodies. Go visit :
http://secretbeautyblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/100-follower-giveaway-woop-woop.html

Recent lovely haul things

Over the last week or so, I've been a lucky girl indeed. Here's what I've been hauling recently (still no pictures, sorry!)


♥ Collection 2000 Glam Crystal Gel Liner in Turquoise - I really love the colour of this, and the liner itself stays for a really long time! The glitter was a bit patchy but I think that's because I was applying it in a bit of a rush.


♥ Collection 2000 Longer Lash Mascara in Intense Black - I've been using Lancome Hypnose since I got married,but it's waterproof and that really annoys me as it makes my lashes slightly clumpy. This is ok as a very basic mascara, but is quite a wet formula if you know what I mean. Not amazing, but not truly awful..


♥ Collection 2000 Colour Intense Solo Eyeshadow in Velvet -  This colour is beautiful. It's a really lovely plummy shimmery redish purple.Yum. Very smooth application and good coolour pay off.


♥ Collection 2000 Pop-tastic! Eye Palette - I got free with the above three Collection 2000 products.The colours are similar to those in the Sleek acid palette,although not as bright or as richly pigmented. I haven't tried this properly yet but from the swatches I did, I think it might be alright.


♥ The Body Shop Colourglide Lip Colour in 48 Soft Peony - I LOVE this! I'm not really a lipcolour girl...it scares me. However, this gives a beautiful soft pink, moisturises nicely and smells like yummy raspberry sweets. Definitely recommend giving this a try.


♥ The Body Shop Moisture Foundation in 04 - I've been looking for a new foundation for a while, as I got the Lancome one for my wedding (see a theme emerging??) and had a bit more of a tan. This is a perfect match for my skincare, applies really smoothly and evenly and doesn't look patchy on my dried bits. The combination of this and the Lip Colour probably means that The Body Shop is going to be getting a lot more of my money in the next few months!!!


I also got a huuuge Fyrinnae haul on Thursday and ordered my Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Palette but I'll save those for another post :)


What have you hauled recently? Have you tried any of The Body Shop's make up? What did you think?

Favourite Everyday Products

So I was in the shower this morning, and I was trying to think of do-able blog posts whilst I wait for my XD card. I figured one very simple post would be to share my current favourite "everyday" products... the bare essentials that get used even when there's not really time to do much beyond the basics:
Shower Gel: Dove Cucumber and Green Tea or The Body Shop Neroli Jasmine
Shampoo: Lush Daddyo
Conditioner: Lush Jungle
Lip Balm: Dr Organic Pomegrante Lip Balm
Mascara: Lancome Hypnose in Black (although I picked up Collection 2000's Longer Lash Mascara in Intense Black the other day so I'm not really using my Lancome)
Skincare: The epic list of Origins I posted a while ago and the Amie Eye Make Up Remover
Deodorant: Nivea Double Effect 24hr

What are your everyday essentials?

I'm back!!

Hello lovelies, I'm back :)

Me and The Husband have had an amazing little holiday and I'm feeling very refreshed indeed. We stayed with our friend at her parent's house which is massive... think National Trust property and you're pretty much there. We were given the entire top floor to ourselves, which included (amongst other things) our gorgeous bedroom complete with log fire and view out into the countryside and a room next door with a beautiful antique grand piano. Lush! Anyway, we spent lots of time just relaxing, walking the dogs through muddy fields and shopping in the charity shops of very affluent towns (which basically equals some amazing bargains!).

I didn't take much with me make up wise, as I tend to not wear too much make up when I'm away, but here are a couple of looks that I did with my Sleek Storm palette.....


Scratch that ... there will be no pictures of my holiday make up or of my holiday full stop :( I put my XD card into my laptop to get the pictures and nothing happened, then put the card back into my camera and we have a full blown scrambled XD card :( It won't reformat and all the pictures are gone :( Gutted.

Green Wing aka The Anti Valentines FOTD

So around this time of year there seems to be a lot of pretty delicate first date looks. This is not one of those looks. This is a look of deep and dramatic greens using two of my favourite Fyrinnae colours - Dragonskin and We're All Mad Here, and also the Arcane Magic Colour Mystic. Enjoy :) Also, it's really flipping sunny in York today which has made taking pictures an utter nightmare! This is the best I could do... stupid spring *grumbles*

Face:
Lancome Adaptive Liquid Foundation in 02 Lys Rose
Bourjois Blus in 95 Rose de Jaspe (apples of my cheeks)

Lancome Blush Subtil in Bronze Glow(hollow of my cheeks for a bit of contouring)

Benefit Dandelion (quick sweep across my cheekbones to brighten it all up)

Benefit High Beam (two dots on apples of cheeks and blended with fingers)

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy (lid and lower lashline)

Fyrinnae Dragonskin all over lid + outer 1/4 of lower lashline (short flat blending brush + very thin eyeliner brush)

Fyrinnae We're All Mad Here inner 1/3 blended over Dragonskin +lower lashline (normal blending brush + very thin eyeliner brush)

Fyrinnae Arcane Magic: Mystic crease, outer 1/3 of upper lashline and winged out (thinner normal eyeshadow brush and contour/shader brush for blending)

Sleek Storm Palette Colour 2 (2nd in on top line) brow bone and blended in (contour/shader brush)

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Pencils in Zero tightliner on upper waterline and upper lashline going out to wing (blended with mini angled liner brush)

Lancome Hypnose Waterproof Mascara in 01 Black

Rimmel Professional Eyebrow Pencil in 004 Black Brown 

 

 Lips:

Lips:

Benefit Her Glossiness in Who Are You Wearing (bright pink)

 

And some shots to show how gorgeously complex Fyrinnae colours really are (and to show you how much better my blending is!!*proud*)

 

  

  

 See how the light has made my skin look a bizarre orangey shade in the first two eye shots?! Odd. Anyway, I'll finish this blog with a question for you dear reader - these are my current favourite Fyrinnae eyeshadows, what are yours? And if you've not used Fyrinnae yet, why not tell me what your other favourite eyeshadows are at the moment? :)

 

Friday Haul

I've been off work sick for the last few days (which is one of the things that saw me finally starting a beauty blog), so when I went into town, I was swatching my way through Boots and Superdrug like a woman posessed! Anyway, in the end I was reasonably restrained (read as "I was too scared to buy all the pretty lipsticks I saw because I'm convinced I never look good in lip colour") and ended up with this tiny haul from Superdrug:

 

Left to right: Revlon Contour/Shader Brush, Rimmel Professional Eyebrow Pencil in 004 Black Brown, Sleek Palette in Storm and Amie Bright Eyes Very Gentle Eye Make-up Remover.

Shader Brush:

I've been eyeing this up for a few weeks as I've never had a brush like this before - just the fairly bog standard flat ones. So far, I'm not quite sure what I think about it - it's been shedding a fair bit and the brush itself seems really big (I have quite a small distance from crease to brow and this basically seems to fill it!). However, I also know that I probably just need to practice a bit more so I'm not going to discount it just yet!

Eyebrow Pencil:

As you'll have noticed, I have hideous eyebrows. I have spent my entire life hating them. My right eyebrow hair doesn't grow across like normal people's ... it grows up. Like Patrick Moore's. Only sparser. I'd look like a silly mare if I got rid of them all together (Polish/Spanish blood in me = strong brow looks best), so I invested in this nifty little pencil. The thing that sold it to me? It has an eyebrow brush as part of the lid. Genius! I am loving this! Used in in my most recent FOTD (see below) and I think it makes a fair bit of difference. I'm probably a bit crap at applying it but hey ho!

Sleek Storm Palette:

I've watch a gazillion youtube videos and read an abundance of blogs about Sleek so I took the plunge and went for the Storm. I was going to go for sunset, but I a)chickened out and b)wanted to add a few more neutrals to my collection (I have a rainbow of colours on their way from Fyrinnae and I'm planning on getting the Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows when it comes out). Still need to play with this but so far I love it :) [ETA: Even the lighter colours seem well pigmented and the FOTD I did using mainly this palette (see below) lasted out all day/night until bed at midnight! Very impressed.]

 

 

  

Amie Eye make-up Remover:

Yum! Something none greasy, nice to bunnies (I know, I know, I'm a bad lady for buying Rimmel Eyebrow Pencils) and in pretty packaging. Oh, and it works!! I got this to replace my quite honestly horrendous Boots Expert Sensitive Gentle Eye Make Up Remover Lotion which a)didn't remove my eye make up and b)required an excessive amount of cleansing to get rid of the oil slick it left behind. This, however, works like a dream ,so thank you to Get Lippie and Oxford Jasmine for their reviews of this as they convinced me to give eye makeup remover another chance :)

FOTD Blue Grey like a Persian Cat

So firstly let me start off this post by saying a very big thank you to the lovely Fyrinnae peeps for giving my little blog a mention - it was very kind and super exciting to wake up and find that a)I had 6 more followers than when I went to sleep and b)I had people from about a gazzillion countries paying me a visit! It made me super hyper all morning :) Also, please feel free to say hello and drop me some comments as I'd love to get to know more of you xx

So today's FOTD turned out (once again) nothing like I thought it would! This was partially due to using my new contour brush (more of that in my next post) - it picked up a heck of a lot more shadow than I was expecting and I discovered that people really aren't lying when they say that the Sleek palettes are heavily pigmented! Anyway, enough waffle, onto the pictures.

 

(This is the only half decent photo of my face from this morning.... stupid face refusing to look nice)

Face:
Lancome Adaptive Liquid Foundation in 02 Lys Rose
Botanics Cheek Colour in 15 Hollyhock (apples of my cheeks)
Ruby and Millie Cheeky Colour in Beige 80 (hollow of my cheeks for a bit of contouring)

Benefit Dandelion (quick sweep across my cheekbones to brighten it all up)

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Sleek Storm Palette Colour 1 (1st on top line - shimmery beige) all over lids and up to brow bone (blending brush)

Urban Decay Gunmetal from Books of Shadows Vol 2 across out 3/4 of lid + blended (blending brush)

Sleek Storm Palette Colour 8 (2nd on bottom line - deep navy blue shimmer) on crease and outer 1/4 of lid + blended (contour brush)

Sleek Storm Palette Colour 4 (4th on to line - shimmery dark gold) inner corner (contour brush)

Lancome Hypnose Waterproof Mascara in 01 Black

Rimmel Professional Eyebrow Pencil in 004 Black Brown

Lips:

Benefit Her Glossiness in Who Are You Wearing (bright pink)

And some eye shots:

  

  

 

Fyrinnae Swatches + cheeky little Fyrinnae bright eye look

As I mentioned in a post yesterday, one of the companies who got me back into the realms of fun make up are the ever wonderful Fyrinnae who I discovered via the Lush Forum. Fyrinnae make gorgeous, cruelty free make up and their eyeshadows are to die for. Below are swatches from my first ever haul from them (all swatched dry over Pixie Epoxy):

The bottom two of the third row from the left are Samhain Spirits and Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat (I've just realised that they're not really that readable - sorry!). My favourites are probably We're All Mad Here (beautiful sparkly acid green), Stormbringer (from the Arcane Magic Collection - a gorgeous blue grey which this photo doesn't quite do justice!) and Dragonwing (the perfect deep green in my opinion). All have amazing colour payoff and I find that I get very little fallout. These are beautifully complex colours that really need to be seen in the flesh to be really enjoyed :)

These retail for $1.75 for samples to $5.95 for the full size 3g pot. Samples come in little plastic pots and range from 1/8 (for Arcane Magics) to 1/4 of a teaspoon (for normal eyeshadows). Delivery is $3.50 for international orders under $20 and free for those over $20 (and trust me, that's really not hard to acheive!). The wonderful Fyrinnae guys were also kind enough to include a couple of samples (Polar Bear and Samhain Spirits) and they make a concious effort to choose sample colours that complement your purchase :)

As a teeny bonus, I thought I'd pop in a bright eye look I did the other day using Pixie Epoxy, We're All Mad Here and Geek Glam on the lids, Shingami on the crease and the lower lashline and a dab of Polar Bear in the inner corner. These pictures weren't really taken for blogging purposes but I figured I'd share. Looking at them now, I really wish I had the crease brush that I bought today when I did this look - it could do with just a little more blending :)

 

 

Also, Fresco Phyrra has an indie spotlight with one of the owners of Fyrinnae here.

FOTD - Robotic Neutral

Ok, so here's my first FOTD. It was meant to be a fairly subtle, neutral look but it turned into a bit more of a roboticy, metallic look instead which is fine!

 

 

Face:
Lancome Adaptive Liquid Foundation in 02 Lys Rose
Botanics Cheek Colour in 15 Hollyhock (apples of my cheeks)
Ruby and Millie Cheeky Colour in Beige 80 (hollow of my cheeks for a bit of contouring)

Eyes:
Urban Decay Sphynx over lid and blended up to just below brow bone (blending brush)
Urban Decay Sellout over central third of lid and slightly blended (blending brush)
Urban Decay Mushroom in crease and outer third, blended into middle third and up into brow bone (also used on outer third of lower lash line (mini crease brush + mini angled liner brush)
[All above eyeshadows from Book of Shadows Volume 2]
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on eye pencils in Corrupt on upper lashline (blended with mini angled liner brush)
Lancome Hypnose Waterproof Mascara in 01 Black


Lips:
Victoria Jackson Silk Lip Colour Kit in 05


Some glamour shots of just the eyes:

 

  

 

What do you think? It's quite a while since I posted up pictures of me in make up, so do be gentle! Also I apologise for my shoddy camera quality ... it seems to not really know if it's coming or going at the moment! I also apologise for my eyebrows ... they are made of evil stuff :(