Friday 25 September 2009

Hi! I'm sorry for the intense lack of updates. I'm going to have an exhibition next month and have to make all the work for it (i am a painter and the curator wanted sculpture from me!) and next week i'm going to have a stall at the Islington Art Fair so i've got to sort out what i'm going to take to that too.

I hopefully will have a moment to make a video tomorrow and have some Face of the Day's to show too.

I am super poor at the moment, so I am not allowed to buy ANYTHING except my train fare to my illustration class in Brighton. The first one was on monday and was so much fun, but very scary. The teacher, Chris Gilvan-Cartwright is a friend of mine and is the nicest, sweetest, most talented guy ever. Seriously you should google him, his paintings are absolutely amazing, and he is a huge childrens book illustrator too. It was very frightening because of my social phobia, i had to introduce myself to the rest of the class and sort of squeaked 'hello' and then nearly cried. And later people had to call out suggestions for something and i was the only person who didn't say anything. Ho hum.

Anyway as i can't buy anything new for some time (unless i manage to sell some paintings! Come on art lovers) I'm going to try to make some '5 of my favourite ____' posts and vids and maybe some reviews of odd items of makeup i have, so i hope that will be interesting.

I also just wanted to say thank you so much to my new followers, it really means a lot that people want to read what i have to say <3

Monday 21 September 2009

Pale Foundations

Sorry, this took so long for me to put up! No excuse, i haven't been busy, just never got around to it!

Firstly here is the video i made about foun dations for pale skin that i have encountered:




Here are swatches of the products mentioned:

no flash:
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flash:
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And blended a little:

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flash:
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from left to right the swatches are:
Kryolan TV paint stick in 1W
Dainty Doll Concealer in Fair
Dainty Doll foundation in Ivory
Dainty Doll foundation in White
Shieido The Makeup fluid founation in I00 Very Light Ivory

I also tried to take a photo with half of my face plain, and the other half with my avon tinted moisturiser applied but you couldn't see any difference!
I swear you can see a distinct improvment in rea life, but the photo just made it all look the same. Maybe it's the lighting in this room, i'll try some time.

Now I thought i'd do a more in depth review of the products i use frequently.

Avon Personal Match Barely The Makeup (in 'light'):
This is a tinted moisturiser and the main item of face makeup I use. It is incredibly sheer, so if you need a good coverage this is not for you. I generally have quite good skin, it's neither too oily nor too dry and i rarely have breakouts. I do have a lot of redness (perhaps a very mild for of rosacea? i'm not sure) from my cheeks to my chin. Sometimes i get very irritated by this and ut a heavier foundation over the top to cover this, but for day to day i generally just stick my avon on to even out my skintone.
One reason i love this is that it is the only 'personal match' product that has ever worked for me. When the boom of 'intelligent shades' and suchlike first appeared i got very excited because i thought i might be ableto get the lightest shade and it would adapt to be as pale and pink as my skintone. Sadly it didn't work and i never found one that would match my skin remotely. I've also tried a lot of tinted moisturisers, and because they are s sheer it doesn't qute matter so much, but they were still too dark and yellow!
This however is brilliant. When you squeeze it out it looks like an ordinary white moisturiser but with a more liquid formula, but if you look closer you see tiny lttle spheres inside, these burst as you blend it onto your face.
As I said the formula is incredibly sheer, it gives you very little coverage, but it really seems to both brighten my skin and even out my complexion. it also does something that's hard to describe, as i seems to both mattify my skin but add a little sheen, almost as if my skin is luminous.
I also love this because it makes my skin feel extremely soft and almost powdery after using it. It has a slight smell i can't describe, but it is not chemically and i quite like it.
Sadly Avon have discontinued this, I don't know why. There aren't any other tinted mosturisers in their range. You can get it on ebay still in quite a few colours (as 'light' is basically colourless i guess it gets more pigmented the darker the shades get) for around a fiver for 30ml. I think it's very good value because the little tube has lasted me for almost half a year.

Dainty Doll:
This range was brought out by Nicola Roberts from Girl Aloud specifically for pale skins. I've seen a lot of very mixed reviews about this, and mine is much the same.
Firstly about their concealer. I use it a lot, as it is the only concealer i've found that has been the right colour for my skin, it really is a wonderfully pale shade, but it's really not the best concealer. It's good for little blemishes, but i find it quite bad for under my eyes. I have only recently started getting dark circles under my eyes, so they're not terrible, but this concealer is somehow both greasy feeling and very sheer. One layer of this does basically nothing for me. But unfortunately when i try to layer it up, so it's thick enough to actually conceal, it makes me look even paler under my eyes, so i now have white circles instead of dark! Having said that, it is definately the palest concealer i've ever found, and the only one that really works with my skin tone, so i would probably buy it again. It also came in a slightly darker colour ('natural') which might be better for under the eyes, or if yo're sill too pale for ordinary face makeup, but not insanely pale.

The foundation got a lot of mixed reviews, people seemed to either love it or hate it. I personally am on the side of loving it. A lot of criticism comes from the size of the pot you get (for around £12 you get 10.8g of product). I live in London so i got mine from the Jelly Pong Pong shop, where i saw the size of the proucts before i bought them so i knew what i was geting for my money, most peope have got theirs from Asos.com and i can completely understand why they might be dissapointed. Firstly the website didn't show the actual size of the pots and secondly the box the pot comes in is a lot bigger than the pot, it's got a sort of built up 'step' of cardboard at the bottom, and even then the pot is not completely full to the top.
However even in this sall pot you get quite a lot of product. You don't need a lot to cover your face. Howveer as i don't use this particularly regularly i still have plenty of mine, if you were to use it every day then it probably wouldn't last you too long.

Now about the actual product. It comes in 3 colours, i have two, 'white' which is, shockingly, just white and 'Ivory' which is a very very pale pink shade. The other shade is called 'porcelain' and is a yellower, more regular foundation shade and (i think) slightly less pale. It's a mousse formula. I find it's buildable, so it can go from quite sheer to a medium thick coverage and it dries with a slightly owdery, semi matte finish.
I've read a lot of reviews which say it doesn't apply well and ends up patchy. Persoally i've never had this problem. You can't really use a brush with it as the mousse formula is too thick, but i usually prefer using my fingers anyway so it's no problem for me. I do find it clings slightly to any flakes of skin, an effect i find i often get if i use too much powder, it also does the same thing to my eybrows, meaning i definately have to use a brow colour when i wear this foundation.

The colours i have are perfect though. The Ivory is the closest i've ever found to a perfect match for my skin. It's the only foundation i've ever seen which has a really pink colour to it instead of a yellow one and it is pale enough to look perfectly natural on my skin, it doesn't give me even the slightest hint of a tideline at my neck.
The white seems to frighten people. If you apply it very thickly it will indeed come out opaque white, but unlike a lot of other white foundations it is not a thick, white face-covering formula. If you blend it well it turns almost colourless, just adding a slight layer of coverage, almost like a thicker tinted moisturiser. I find i can use this alone and it looks fine, but more often i use it with the Ivory on places where ihave more redness or uneven colouring and it blends perfectly.However if you'e not as pale as me i think the white would make you look chalky.

I'm not sure if this range has been discontinued or not. Some products are still available from Asos.com but not the foundations and theres no information about it on the Jelly Pong Pong website, so i don't know if it's just out of stock or not being made any more. I have heard that it's going to be relaunched with new products soon, so i'll keep you infomed if i hear any more :)


And a word about illamasqua foundations:
I'm quite sad about these to be honest. I was so excited looking at swatches on the website, thinking maybe i'd finally be able to have my pick of foundation formulas (powder, cream, light and rich liquid) that would suit my skin. Sadly when i went to a counter and tested them there in't one anywhere near my skin tone. The closst match was one the second palest, which is basically pure white but with a hint of pink. This was really to light for me sadly, but the next shade jumps to being far too dark for me, and still not the right shade for my skin. The woman at the counter was really lovely and helpful and did manage to match my skin with a blend of 3 light liquid foundation. The finished product looked lovely, my skin was evened out and flawless, with the red in my cheeks taken away, but not looking too pale or colourless. But as the foundations cost £20 it would mean i'd need to spend £60 to be able to get the right match, yes i would get 3 times as much foundation, but still i really can't afford £60 on face makeup :( I must say i'm a bit disappointed, because i was so pleaed to see a foundation range of such colours (its wonderful how many good shades they have for dark skin particularly) but to me the shades for caucasion skin are pretty much the same as MAC or other ranges. I'd heard some people saying they were sually the palest shade of foundation but in Illamasqua came up about the 5th or 6th palest, but for me they're still too dark, or unwearable unless i wanted a very gothic white-face.

I'm really sorry if i've made a lot of spelling mistakes in this, i'm on my new computer and it has a really sensitive laptop that keeps omitting letters.
if anyone knows any other very pale foundations that i haven't mentioned i would love to hear about them!

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Yesterdays Face of the Day and Outfit of the Day

Yesterday i went out for birthday drinks for my friend Ritchie. It was good, but i wasvery nervous because i'd not met any of his other friends. I ended up getting quite drunk, but still not very confident. So it was lovely to see Ritchie, but otherwise a very stressful night. Ho hum.

I liked my outfit, so i thought i'd do an OOTD :)

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Top from Primark
Skirt from River Island
Tights from Dunnes
Shoes from Office
Rat necklace from Topshop
Hair bow from Claire's Accesories.

and FOTD

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Avon personal match barely there tinted moisturiser in 'Light'
Dainty Doll concealer in 'Fair'
Illamasqua loose powder in 'LP005'
Illamasqua powder blush in 'Nymph'
Mac eyebrow pencil in 'Fling'
Mac eyeshadow in 'Gesso'
Mad Minerals pigment in 'Pizazz' and 'New Love'
Illamasqua illuminator in 'Odyssey'
Illamasqua intense lip gloss in 'Temper'
And i'm afraid i've forgotten what mascara i used, as i just grabbed one quickly.

Monday 14 September 2009

Lancome Oscillation Mascara

This is my all-time favourite mascara. I've never had one that has made my eyelashes look so long and separated so well. To me this is the mascara that has taken me closest to looking like i'm wearing false eyelashes.
Now the whole point of this mascara is that it vibrates (apprently up to 7000 micro-oscillations a second, whatever that means) but, as i've never used a high-end mascara before, i can't really tell you how much of the result is down to the vibrations. However I have used it with the vibration turned off and I think the buzzing helps get rid of any clumps and gets into every single lash, making the all well defined and making it look like you've got a tonne of lashes.
I really like the brush itself, it's small which helps me get into the inner corner an lower lashes without trouble. The vibration is controlled by a switch at the top, a slight irritance is that you have to keep your finger on the button to keep it vibrating, personally i'd rather press it on and then press again to turn it off. A plus is that the battery is replacable, so should it run out you can just buy a new one, and it should be fine until you decide to throw it out, but i doubt you will need to. I had one of these that lasted half a year before the buzzing even started to slow down, i threw it away for hygiene reasons, but the formula was still fine!

Anyway here's some before and after shots. I used one coat of mascara with no eyelash curler.

Before, with flash:
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Before without flash:
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After with flash:
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After without flash (sorry it's a bit blurry):
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It's a bit expensive, seeing as you can only really use a masara for 6 months (retail price is around £28 but you can get it on ebay or elsewhere on the net for cheaper) but personally i think i can cope with it seeing as it's only a twce a year purchase, as long as i stop trying new mascaras!

I'd love to try the new Maybelline Pulse Perfection to see how it compares, but as it's £15 I can't really afford it when i've got this one and some other sample sizes to use.

If you've used this then i'd love to hear you opinions on it.

My first video



Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Bit of a rant

There's a programme on about people with albinism. When i was younger i used to be a bit obsessed with albino people because i thought they looked so beautiful, and i'm just very interested in genetics and things like that. It's incredibly depressing though, because everyone on it just seems to have got so much abuse. Called freaks and things and even physically attacked.

While it is completely unacceptable for people to be cruel for any reason in a way i can understand why people might make fun of me for wearing what i do, because i have chosen to look this way. But when it comes to the colour of someone's skin or height or something they have nothing to do with it just completely baffles me how they could feel anger or mock someone. Maybe i'm naive or something but to me it just doesn't make any sense.
I guess there are just a load of horrible people in the world.

Also apparently people are just stupid, a black woman had some albino children and security guards wouldn't let her pick them up from school because he didn't believe they were hers. But albino people don't look like 'normal' white people! And black albino people look pretty different from white albino people.

Though i guess in a way i'm not clean as snow, as i am watching this programme because i'm interested in them. In my defense though it's because i'm interested and attracted, not because of a 'freak show' factor. There's a kid who said he put some tan on his arm and felt 'normal' and that just made me hurt. There is no such thing as normal, and even if there was it should e judged on personality, not on the way you look.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

I was going to head into town today and go see the new Dystopia collection at Selfridges. Unfortunately for some reason my body decided that i needed to suffer for some reason and despite going to bed around midnight, i didn't manage to properly get to sleep until about 6 in the morning D:
So i'm shattered. In a way it's sensible because i'm now going to spend the day working on my current exhibition pieces.
But i'm also going to make some videos and blog posts too hopefully :)

Also i've realised that i'm usually too nervous and shy to leave comments on peoples blogs. I'm going to try very hard to get the courage to say hello to some people.

Monday 7 September 2009

Boots Original Beauty Formula

On the way home from Ireland I had to avoid the duty free section as I tried Touche Eclat for the first time and got a bit obsessed, but i knew i could get it cheaper off ebay or something.
So to get away I went into Boots just to look and the cheaper makeup available, didn't get anything but a new range of Skincare caught my eye.

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I got the Skin Tonic and Cold Cream. I've only used these twice, but here is my firs review.
Firstly the sole reason i bought these were because of how insanely beautiful it looks! There is a whole range available, all in matching packaging, but with different coloured boxes. And here is what is inside:

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Absolutely stunning! (sorry about the bad photos, the camera i used was about to run out of batteries)

Anyway, i'm so glad i got these, the products are as great inside as out! The Cold cream managed to wipe off nearly every trace of makeup i had on yesterday, including thick liquid eyeliner (I did have to use a bit of cleansing oil to get rid off the last bits of my mascara) and left my skin feeling wonderfully soft. You apply it with your fingers and then use tissues or cotton wool to wipe it off, which is perfect for me (i have a phobia of going underwater and really dislike getting water in my nose or eyes). It is thick and heavy, if you don't like greasy products on your skin it is not for you, but personally i have no problem with it. As i bought the toner as well i simply use that to wipe away the last traces of the cleanser. The toner leaves my skin feeling nicely refreshed and clean. Both products smell lovely, they have a rose scent, it's very natural and not overpowering at all, but of course the fragrance won't be to everyone's taste.

I'm really pleased, I'm not picky with skin products, usually i'll just use whatever is hanging around and i bought these because of how nice they would look on my vanity table but they're so far doing a really lovely job.

I've never been brilliant at keeping to a skincare regime, in fact really i'm quite shameful. Up until recently i've only washed my face when i'm in the bath, and only used cleansers to get rid of heavy makeup. But recently i've decided I need to start taking better care of my skin and cleansing or at the very least moisturing twice a day.
I'll maybe do a follow up review of these after i've been using them for a couple of weeks. Also my girlfriend just bought 'the wave' which i'm excited to try.

Edit: forgot to say, i put the cold cream directly onto my (thankfully closed) eyes by accident, but it didn't hurt at all! Extremely gentle stuff.

Today's Face of the day

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Wearing:
Dainty Doll Concealer in Fair
Avon Personal Match Mineral Powder in Ivory
Mac Frankly Scarlet blush
Jelly Pong Pong Cherry Pie eyeshadow palette
Lancome Oscillation Mascara
Mac Cherry Lip pencil
Too Faced Borderline
Mac Dame Edna Kanga-Rouge lipstick
Barry M lipgloss in Cherry glitter

And sorry, my hair is an absolute state!

First Face Of the Day

Actually this is what i looked like yesterday, but my first Face of the Day :)

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I was quite pleased with this look as i'd been out dancing the night before and didn't take my eye makeup off before bed, or indeed when i got up! So i went for thick eyeliner to cover the smudgy panda eyes look i had going on.

Wearing:
Mac brow pencil in Fling
Avon Personal March Barely There Makeup in Light
Rimmel Glam Eyes eyeliner.
Kryolan eyeshadow in Frambosia used as Blusher
Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Petulant (this is a lot brighter than it looks here, the lighting washed it out a bit)
Illamasqua Illuminator in Odyssey.

Saturday 5 September 2009

Going Up and Down

I'm finally doing my roots. The bleach is really really stinging though. But it's worth it, i can't feel groomed at all with such scruffy hair. Soon i'll be a curly platinum haired beauty once more.

Up:
Old Betty Boop and Bimbo cartoons (particularly with Cab Calloway)
Going to Pestival later (www.pestival.org)
buying and trying new skincare products
Illamasqua Intense Lip glosses (review to come shortly)
Being less in debt than i thought i was
Being back home :)

Down:
The intense stinging of this bleach!
Still being quite badly in debt
An art gallery not getting back to me about an exhibition they asked me to take part in
My flabby stomach
Not having any insect themed clothes for Pestival

Thursday 3 September 2009

Mizz Worthy's Super Heroes Contest - this time a good guy!

My Fourth and (probably) final Entry!

This time, the Super Heroine Silk Spectre I from The Watchmen

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The Silk Spectre was one of the original 'minutemen' a group of 'costumed heroes'. She was seen as an action-hero pin-up girl and there were villains who didn't mind being caught by her!
The Silk Spectre was a hero in the 40s, and is shown as having classic pin-up style of makeup. I decided to go for this style, but add in the colours of her costume, yellow and black. I wanted a look that was oxymoronically both retro and modern. The look had to be glamourous and not too over-the-top due to her sexy symbol status.

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My eyebrows were a bit darker in real life than they look here, the flash made the black pencil look brown.

I used:
Avon personal match Tinted Moisturiser in Light
Dainty Doll Concealer in Fair
Mac Blot Powder in Light
Illamasqua illuminator in Odyssey
Mac Frankly Scarlet Blusher
Too Faced Liquif-Eye Shadow collection (i used Oscar and 1/2 Steel Magnolias)
Rimmel Glam eyes liquid eyeliner in black
Lancome Oscillation Mascara in black
Kryolan Aqua colour in black
Avon brow glimmerstick in Black
and a black rhinestone for a beauty mark.

And i think that's it for now!
Tomorrow i'm travelling back home, after that i'm going to show off all my lovely purchases :)

Mizz Worthy's Super Heroes and Villains Contest, entry 3

This time I'm Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker!
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The Joker is usually played as a completely insane psychopath. He has the appearance of a clown, due to falling into a vat of chemicals which bleached his skin, contorting his face into a constant smile and turning his hair green.
My inspiration came from the fact that, until Heath Ledger's amazing performance, the Joker is portrayed as an incredibly dapper man, groomed and polished. So i wanted to make a feminine style which looked groomed, but hinted at something sinister. I also went with his usual colour scheme of green, red and purple.

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I used Illamasqua Illuminator in Odyssey all over my face to make it pale and shimmering. Then i lightly contoured and lined part of my face with a green eyeshadow from H&M. I used Mac powder blush in Frankly Scarlet, extending it to my temples. I drew a smile over my natural lip shape and filled it in with Illamasqua Intense Lip Gloss in Fierce. I used Opia green glittery eyeliner and Opia green mascara on my lashes and eyebrows.

Mizz Worthy's Super Heroes and Villains contest entry 2

This time i chose another Batman Villain, The Riddler!

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The Riddler is a very flamboyant villain, obsessed with puzzles. He taunts Batman and the police by sending them complex clues and riddles hinting at his next crime.

My main inspiration came from Jim Carrey's portrayal of The Riddler in Batman Forever, i loved how over-the-top he was. While most of the Riddlers designs from the comic and TV series has him in green accented with purple, i loved the shocking pinky-orange of his hair.
My idea was to create a sort of mask made out of questions marks, with a green face and orange details. I didn't manage to do this one as well as i was hoping, but i was pleased with how symmetrical i got the question marks.

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and sticking my tongue out at a poodle:
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Here is what i used.
Ben Nye Magicake Aqua Paint in Lime Green
Dainty Doll concealer
a Green H&M eyeshadow
A green from Mad Minerals (the name has rubbed off)
a Black Avon eyebrow pencil
Kryolan Aqua Colour in Black
An orange claire's accessories liquid eyeliner on the eyelashes and bottom lip
A little bit of Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Petulant.

Mizz Worthy's Super Heroes and Villains contest

So here's the first makeup look of mine to be shown in this blog!
I decided it would be a really good starting point for my makeup experiments to enter this competition.

So, here's the villain i took my inspiration from, Batman's enemy Two-Face.

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Once Two-Face was Harvey Dent, the DA of Gotham and Batman's Ally. Then he suffered a horrible accident where one side of his face was covered in acid and completely disfigured. He went insane and decided to base his answer to all decisions on the flip of a special two-headed coin (one side is disfigured with a scratch). Two-Face is still able to do good if the coin tells him to, but has no hesitation to do evil if it lands scratched face up.

Originally i was going to try going really over the top, like his makeup in both the Batman films he's appeared in, but then i got thinking about how his face got disfigured: acid. This made me think of some horrible pictures i'd seen where those acid peels people can get to improve their skin has gone wrong. So i decided to base my makeup around a modern, female Two-Face. One side is a pretty, 'everyday' look, the other a terrible, damaged face. Please excuse my very out of character pajamas.

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I'm on holiday at the moment, so i'm really limited to what makeup i can wear. Unfortunately i didn't bring my foundation, so i couldn't make the 'pretty' side as groomed looking as i wanted.

On the 'ugly' side i used:
pva glue to create the peeling skin
Mac blush in Frankly Scarlet to create redness over various parts of the skin.
Mac Blot powder in Light
Lancome Oscillation mascara in black (i then pinched the eyelashes together to make them very clumped)
and Too-Faced (how apt!) Liquif-eye shadow collection to make the under eye shadows (i used 3 colours, a greenish brown, a purple and a blue, none of them have names as they are exclusive to the collection)

For the 'pretty' side i used:

Illamasqua illuminator in Odyssey on the brow bone and cheek bone
Dainty Doll Concealer in Fair
Avon Personal March tinted moisturiser in Light
Kryolan blush/eyeshadow (i've forgotten which it is actually meant to be!) in Frambosia as a blush
Mac Dame Edna powder highlighter in Spectacle all over the face
The Too-faced blue and purple eyeshadows again
Mac Eyebrow pencil in Fling
Lancome Oscillation mascara in black
No 17 lipstick in Electric Pearl
Mac Dazzle Glass in Via Veneto

I doubt i'll win, as there are some amazing looks, but it was so much fun! I'm seriously debating entering a whole series of villains now.

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Ups and Downs

Ups:
Going to illamasqua very soon! I'm so excited.
Claire's Mum's bathroom. It's full to bursting with every skincare product imaginable, and i get to use them all!
Hartleys pots of jelly. The only vegetarian jelly i've ever tried that is actually tasty!
Sketching Ben and Perry (the dogs)
Taking good care of my skin.
Always having painted nails.

Downs:

I had a cold sore last week and used zovirax to get rid of it. It did it's job, but gave me a rash all around my lip :(
Having lost my bag of duty free somewhere in Claire's room.
Started biting my cuticles again.
The constant rain showers over here! I want to go on nice long walks in the country, but it's just too wet.