Glittersniffer

I'm super late to this so the majority of you will probably have read this info somewhere else, but I still thought it was very important to post so the information is available to as many people as possible.
Glittersniffer Cosmetics is a (seemingly freakishly popular) indie mineral makeup company that has been going for a couple of years. I first heard of the company from a blog post of Phyrras where she suspected that some of the colours she had bought were repackaged so rolled my eyes and decided not to buy any pigments from the company. However I did check back on the company now and then as some of their other products (foiling mediums, toilletries etc) intrigued me. Luckilly I never bought anything.

Anyway I didn't hear anything about them and didn't look at their site for a while, until a few days ago when I saw a post on my dashboard and was absolutely horrified by what I found out from subsequent posts:
http://pa1nt3d-pr1nc3ss.blogspot.com/2010/12/glittersniffer-links-of-awesome.html

http://kirafayescorner.blogspot.com/2010/12/glitter-sniffer-closing-for-good.html

I probably can't say anything more than the bloggers I've linked to have already said but here's a breief synopsis of what this company has been up to:

• Repackaging
• Selling non-vegan products while claiming to be an all vegan company
• Taking months to ship orders and not replying to emails
• using money raised for charity to pay her own expenses
• possibly packing and handling products in unsanitary conditions
• and selling items that are not safe for cosmetic use and not disclosing it.

The whole thing is just appalling. Everytime I thought it couldn't get worse something even more terrible would come up!

The are complaints left and right of orders taking months to arrive, or not arriving at all. Or of people having half their order replaced substitutions without notice. Of pigments arriving with chunks where it hasn't been mixed properly, or their lids coming off in transit  making the product spill everywhere.
There are photos on face book of the owner and her employees cutting soap and handling jars of pigment on what appears to just be a kitchen table, without gloves or masks.

The owner Lela admits that she was given money for charity but is spending it on refunds and will have to re-raise the money (I certainly hope she means that the money will be raised from her own pockets, not that she will hold more raffles or drives to get others to contribute the money but i suspect with disgust that she means the latter). This is utterly despicable. If you have been given money for a charity, no matter what the situation is, it is NOT YOURS to spend. It belongs either to the charity or the people who donated it. I can only imagine my fury if I donated money and then discovered it was funding refunds for shoddy, unsafe products, instead of helping the cause it was meant for.

The vegan thing is not cut-and-dry as I have seen comments from her saying (though only when asked directly) that some red shades contain carmine, the ingredients were not disclosed on the site and Glittersniffer claimed to be an entirely vegan friendly company, so many people could have been duped into using non-vegan products because they did not specifically enquire whether they contained carmine.

There's a list as long as my arm of products that are being recalled because they contaim unsafe ingredients. Lela has said that every pigment that was unsafe for eyes was labelled as such, but you can see from the screenshot here that that was not the case. Her the Neon 80s collection, which was not only unsafe for eyes but not suitable for any cosmetic use as it contains soap dyes, not only fails to mention that it shouldn't be used in cosmetic applications but actually suggests using it as as eyeliner, shadow or lipgloss. Also the times Lela did admit that the item she was selling was not safe for use on the eyes and to use it as shadow would be at your own risk she would always follow it up by saying that she and others had used it many times with no harm. While that may be true she should not have said it as it implication is that the product almost definately will do no harm, and could be seen as suggestive that others should follow her example and ignore the silly safety rules.
Finally Lela made a statement about all the problems her company has been having. While it's good that she admitted fault it doesn't excuse anything. Her 'taking a chance' by using soap dyes in cosmetic products appears to have caused several people to develop eye and skin problems. And there's a weird undercurrent of her seeming to blame her customers, people were asking for neons so she was FORCED to sell unsafe items, it's not her fault!

Everyone makes mistakes. But mistake after mistake after mistake? And withholding information about products that could cause people harm is not a trivial matter in the slightest. At best it was an incredible piece of stupidity and at worst it was a deliberate effort to fool people into buying products they would not have if they had known they weren't safe.

Lela's fans are loyal to a frightening degree, to me it's rather upsetting seeing these women who, while probably having all the best intentions, will defend Glittersniffer to the death. 'I've only received 2 out of my 5 orders, and those were full of substitutions, but Glittersniffer is the best makeup brand ever! I don't care about all the money i've lost. Lela knows what she's doing, of COURSE she'd wear gloves at all times. There are photos saying otherwise? Well then Lela MUST have washed her hands, that's as good as wearing sterilised gloves anyway! The products aren't safe for eyes? Well I've used them with no problems, you people who say you've developed pinkeye are talking nonsense, it couldn't have been the makeups fault even though it's not safe? Selling products that aren't meant for cosmetic use at all without a warning? Well Lela admitted it and that took guts so she's a saint!'. It's just weird.

I've also heard that Lela attacked Dominique from but haven't seen it anywhere, I assume comments were deleted. If anyone has any details I'd love to know.

Anyway if anyone has any of the listed unsafe Glittersniffer pigments then I urge you to contact Lela  straight away for a refund, though you might be a while getting one. Apparently when they relaunch all their products will be reformulated to be completely vegan and safe but frankly I would really worry about anyone who could trust them after all that.

Depressingly I have another drama post coming straight up. Boo urns :(

Dermalogica Clean Start Starter Kit review

(I was sent this to review but all thoughts are my own)

A long time ago now I was sent Clean Start by Dermalogica's starter kit to review (also sent their lip balm/gloss which I previously reviewed here ) and am finally getting round to it. My excuse is that I needed a long time to test it out to see how it worked with my skin. And well that's partly truthful, but also I am just rubbish at posting recently :P

Anyway while I am definately still able to review the products I have realised that I was not their demographic at all. It's aimed for teenagers and young adults, which i guess i still am but in the loosest possible sense of the word, but a lot of the products seem designed to counteract oily, acne prone skin. My skin is very dry, never greasy and I get spots now and then but it's so rarely that I really have no need for special skincare.  My point is that while I will review the products the best I can I can't say how well some of these actually work on the problems they are designed for as i do not have these problems.

I was sent the Clean Start Starter Kit, which contains 5 products and the basis of a proper skincare regime. The products are mini sized, each one is 15ml, however I found that they all lasted a long time. Oddly the exfoliator was the first to go because, even though i used it the fewest times a week, I found I had to use a lot to cover my face. That lasted about for about 10 uses, the cleanser I used for about 2 months and it's still going strong as you need so little.

The kit arrived packaged in a half clear half foil resealable pouch and also included 2 leaflets about the brand. I also recieved a lot of little sample sachets, I'm not sure if this is because it was sent to me for review or if everyone gets them. I really like the products packaging, with it's bold colours on a stark white background it's sort of pop-art-ish.

The Starter Kit costs £22.50 which I think is a fair price for the amount you get. It lasted me for at least 2 months, which seems good for a starter kit, you can easily see if the products are right for you. Though of course if you don't like the products then £22.50 is very pricey.

Wash Off cleanser

I really liked this cleanser. It's quite a thick gel and you only need a tiny bit, it lathers up beautifully. The gel smells slightly medicinal but not horrible. It's herbal, I can definately get lemongrass but not sure what the rest of the smell is. It's quite nice but not my favourite scent. Anyway it doesn't linger at all after I wash it off. I found it removed makeup well, though not all of my mascara. It left my skin feeling clean and refreshed and ever so slightly tingly, but it did not make my skin feel dry or tight and did not at all sting my very sensitive eyes. Very nice face wash, but it doesn't quite beat my holy grail Body Shop Passionfruit cleanser.
The full size is £14.30 for 180ml

All Over Clear toner

I really can't give a long review for this because I can't for any toner. I sometimes use toner (when I'm being good with my skincare routine anyway) and find it refreshing and, perhaps psychologically, feel it makes my skin feel more clean than if i used cleanser alone. However I have never found a toner that really makes any difference to my skin. I like the feel of it but it doesn't do anything to me. And this toner is no different. The smell is not exactly the same as the cleanser but very similar, herbal and slightly clinical and 'clean' smelling. The smell really does make it feel more refreshing. It comes in a spray bottle, which is nice for spritzing all over your face, however I prefer to wipe my toner over my face to remove the last bits of my makeup. The formula itself is no better or worse than any other toner I've tried, but I prefer my (sadly discontinued) Boots Original Formula Rose toner purely because I like the rose smell better and it has gorgeous vintage style packagaing. If you prefer a more medicinal scent and like a spray bottle then this is a damn fine toner.
The full size is £12.30 for 120ml

Ready Set Scrub exfoliator

This is an interesting product as you can use it as both a masque and a regular exfoliator. Or at least in theory it's both. I have very sensitive skin in that lots of products cause my face to have what I can only assume is a very mild allergic reaction. It starts to tingle and then it gets worse and worse until it is stinging and horribly painful. This exfoliator set off this reaction but only mildly. Basically if i use it as just an exfoliator, i.e. I put it on, massage it a bit and then wash it off, it's fine, it does tingle a bit, but no pain. But if I leave it on to use as a masque it started to sting and become painful. So I can't tell you how effective it is as a masque. As an exfoliator however it is fine. Again it has the same lemongrassy smell. It has the consistency of a clay masque but with tiny tiny grains. Because of this slightly dry, clayish consistency I had to apply quite a lot in order to cover my face. I found it quite gentle as an actual exfoliator, probably because it is meant to be kept on your face for extended periods as a masque. It left my skin feeling very cool and tingly and I don't know if that's due to my sensitive skin or if it does that for everyone. However it made my skin feel cleaner and got rid of dry, flaky patches of skin i had without making my face feel dry or tight. If you have very sensitive skin I'd avoid this just in case you have the same reaction as I did, if not then I think this is a good product anyway and would be even better if you could use it as a masque too.
One thing I did find odd was the the tube suggests you use this 3-5 times a week, which seems very excessive for an exfoliator to me. I generally use a scrub 2-3 times a week, and as this one irritated my skin I definately would not have used it more. People without my sensitivity might not have the problem but I still think there is no need to use a scrub 5 times a week.
Full size is £14.30 for 75ml

Bedtime for Breakouts nighttime treatment

I used this every night for about a week and then gave up on it. I didn't notice any difference at all. But then I wouldn't as I don't tend to get breakouts anyway. So I really can't review this at all, it didn't do anything for me but it's not designed for me. It's a quite runny gel with the same sort of herbal, medicinal smell as the other products, but it's not noticable once it's on the face. I found I had to use quite a bit of this to cover my whole face as it seemed to 'set' on my skin quite quickly.
Full size is £14.30 for 60ml


Welcome Matte Spf 15 moisturiser

This is the one product I haven't used very much. I tried it a couple of times but didn't like it. It made my face feel a little tight, not terrible but not pleasant. Other than that I didn't get anything out of this, it didn't feel moisturising or hydrating to me. However as I have dry skin I am used to rich moisturisers and I have no need to mattify my skin. I actually was excited about this when I first heard about it, but I was being stupid. I love a matte look to my foundation (I don't understand why anyone would want to look dewy) and somehow managed to confuse myself that this would sort of give me the same look. But of course it doesn't as this is just a moisturiser, but one that meant to help combat oily skin.
The full size moisturiser costs £15.35 for 60ml

So as you can see I had a mixed bag with these products. I liked the cleanser and toner a lot, although they are not my favourites, but the moisturiser and nightime treatment did absolutely nothing for me. However I cannot say at all that this is because they are bad products simply because they are designed for a completely different skin type from me. Overall I would say that if you have oily or spotprone skin these are definatley worth a try but if not, while most of the products are still good, you would not get the best out of them and could do better. I also would not say the products are overpriced but they are expensive, especially when they're aimed at teenagers who obviously do not have as much disposable income.

I've just seen this post at British Beauty Blogger which brings up some slightly questionable tactics of the company. I don't know enough about it to comment, if true it's slightly dodgy. But I must say the people who contacted me were very nice and personable so I'm not going to complain about something I don't know anything about.

A couple of bath and body reviews

First i just want to apologise to anyone who has sent me an email in the last couple of months. Since I put my email on my blog for all to see i am getting a lot more spam than i used to, and because of that my spam filter has gone crazy and basically any email address that has not sent something to me a few times before will be designated as spam. I've tried my best to go through my junk filter as often as possible to check their aren't real emails in there but some may have been missed and got deleted. And umm... the ones i have saved... yeah i haven't replied to them. As i've been away from my blog and generally a bit frazzled and weird these last few months, I've kept meaning to reply but have been putting it off. Because I SUCK. So i am really, really sorry. Over the next week I will be replying to all the emails i saved from the junk filter. So if you wrote something important or just really wanted a reply and don't get one soon send me another one, or a tweet or whatever. Just smack me into gear basically! :P
I really cannot stress strongly enough how bad i feel and how sorry i am for having let those of you who took the time to write to me down. It means so much to me that people read my blog and am interested in what i have to say and i am very ashamed of myself.

Anyway onto some reviews!

Lush I should Coco soap

I can't actually give you details for this as it seems to have been discontinued. And good riddance I say!
To me, while i love Lush as a company, their products are very hit or miss. When they get it right they get it REALLY right, but when they get it wrong well...This is probably the worst soap I've ever tried, it's just plain rubbish! Ok it has one positive thing in that it smells delicious, like a real slab of coconut ice. However smelling great is a useless trait when you can't actually use the soap! The problem with this is that, while on first appearances it just seems like a bar of soap with a nice decorative layer of coloured dessicated coconut, in actual fact the entire bar is absolutely filled with it. At first I thought maybe this would add some sort of exfoliating effect, but no, the coconut shreds just get soggy, flake away from the bar, clung to parts of my body (especially a certain patch of hair, which was deeply unpleasant let me tell you!) and eventually clogged up my plughole. After a while I actually had to give up using this soap because it seemed like their was no soap actually left and i was just rubbing my body with a big clump of shredded coconut, no lather, no cleansing, nothing. Also when there actually was some soap at the beginning not only did it leave my skin feeling rather dry, it left a horrible whitish scum on the surface of my bath water. Just yuck!

Lush Amandopando Bubble Bar:

I really like Lush Bubble Bars. You just crumble them into your running bath water and you get tonnes of lovely, fragrant bubbles that last for absolutely ages. This one is no exception. As it's white it doesn't colour your bath, personally i like a coloured bath but it's fine to have a clear one too and I know some people really hate bathing in coloured water, so this is good for them! I love the scent, it's supposed to be lemon and rose but to me i didn't get any of the lemon, just pure, delicious rose. The rose scent is perfect to me, smells just like i'd grabbed a bloom and given it a huge sniff (which i love to do in rose-season. I get lots of funny looks from people!). The bar has a little dried rose bud embedded in the centre which is a nice touch. Each bar is £2.95 and you can get at least 2 uses out of it (I got 3 and still had a bath tub full of bubbles) so while it's not cheap it's great for an occaisional treat! Lovely stuff.

Lush So White Bubbling Bath Ballistic:

Hmm I've said before that i find Lush products hit-or-miss but this one is sort of 'blah' for me. I love the scent, a lovely soft, candyish green apple scent but otherwise it doesn't really work for me. It's meant to be a mix of a bath ballistic and a bubble bar, so a fizzing ball that also creates bubbles, however to me it's like the worst of both worlds. It doesn't fizz as much as a normal ballistic, so it isn't as fun in that sense, and while it does make some bubbles, they're nowhere near as big or plentiful as those from a normal bubble bar. It's not a bad product at all, but not amazing. Not sure if i'd buy this again as while i really like the smell i just felt the effects weren't as good as a normal Lush bathtime treat. They're £1.80 each, which seems alright pricing.

Soap and Glory Clean On Me shower gel

I got this as part of a Soap and Glory gift set last year. I don't really know how much I can say about a shower gel, but it's really very good in my opinion! It's a creamy white gel which lathers really nicely (works very well with exfoliating gloves) and smells lovely. I don't really know how to describe the smell, it's similar to their classic pink scent (which i adore) but not the same, it's sort of fruity and floral at the same time, and definately has bergamot, it's yummy. Now it says it comes with 'built in body lotion' which is a bit of an exaggeration however after use my skin is a lot softer! Not the same as using a separate moisturiser, but it really is noticeably softer. You get 500ml for about a fiver (though Soap and Glory is often on 3 for 2 at Boots) and this stuff lasts forever, I've been using it for at least a year and still have about half the bottle left!


The Body Shop Passion Fruit Cleanser


Oh boy i adore this stuff. It is just amazing. Firstly it cleanses brilliantly, it removes all my makeup easily, even mascara. Also i have very sensitive eyes and this doesn't hurt them at all (well it might if i were to wipe it directly onto my open eyes, but i'm not quite that stupid). It leaves my skin feeling clean and refreshed, not tight at all, though not overly moisturised. And the smell, oh god it's so amazing! It smells exactly like a real passionfruit, tropical and delectable and fresh and just lovely. You get 250ml for £3.99 and again it lasts for ever. I started using it around the beginning of the year and am barely a third of the way through the bottle. This is because you only need to use a tiny blob of it, it lathers brilliantly and easily cleanses the whole face. My Holy Grail cleanser, I'm happy to try others but it would be absolutely amazing to be better than this to me.

Tangle Teezer Review

 (apologies for my absence, back to normal hopefully now :) )

I bought the Tangle Teezer on a whim one day when they was some sort of promotion in Boots where you got extra Advantage points if you bought a certain amount (i love me them points! Will i ever use them?).  I'd heard the claims it makes before but had laughed it off, especially after i got it out of the pack and saw it for myself. Not only does the ergonomic design look more like something used to groom horses than a human hair brush (though a horses hair is probably in better condition to mine...) but the bristles don't look special at all! It's hard to get a picture that will really show it (so i haven't even bothered to try and show you) but it just looks like a regular set of plastic bristles with a shorter set in between each row, really nothing special. So while i needed a new hairbrush and was sure it would work well I didn't believe it would be all that spectacular or different from a regular brush.

Oh how wrong i was! This probably will sound like I'm being paid by Tangle Teezer (I am not, bought it myself and have never been in contact with anyone vaguely related to the company as far as i know) but i can honestly say it is head and shoulders above any hairbrush or comb i have ever used.

If you can't tell from photos, my hair is a sort of straw-like, Scarecrow-esque, brittly, frizzy lump on my head (though going ginger has calmed it a little) and that's the way i like it... most of the time. I abuse it quite a bit, backcombing and hairspraying it to death and of course it had previously been bleached to almost white. Anyway because of this combing or brushing my hair was to be avoided at all costs if i didn't want to be reduced to tears and possibly break the comb. My hair was so full of tangles it could take me a good 1/4 of an hour to just comb out the tangles, which of course damaged my hair more. But this thing, this miraculous lump of plastic is a complete Godsend.

As i said before i wasn't really expecting much from it when i first used it. And to be honest the first try i wasn't that impressed, it got through all the knots and tangles well, but i had actually forgotten how hard it was to usually comb my hair. The next time i used a regular comb and after a while of pulling and wincing i decided to give the Tangle Teezer another go. To my amazement it just glided through my hair, somehow detangling effortlessly and leaving my hair all sleek and knot-free! Usually when i combed my hair i would end up actually pulling out a big knot of hair, but this thing actually seems to be able to detangle it completely, so i end up losing a lot less hair.

As a result of this my hair is sleeker and a lot easier to style. It also claims to help with split ends and to encourage growth, i haven't really seen any evidence of this yet but i haven't been using it for long enough to really see any benefits yet (if there are any). To be honest I think any powers it might have on a normal scalp will be negated by my zombie hair. But still i am so so happy that i can finally brush my hair easily and with little to no pain. It just makes life easier!
Tangle Teezer costs around a tenner and you can get it online, at Asos or at Boots and possibly other places. Personally while at first I was a little dubious that a hairbrush could be worth 10 quid (i know you can get much more expensive hairbrushes, but to me that's just crazy) but now i think it's a fine price to pay and I couldn't really cope without one. In fact I'm going to buy a back-up because i tend to lose things so often :P
If you don't have any problems with your hair tangling then I can't say if it's worth it, but if you have any tangles or knots then i think it's well worth it!

Models Own Overall Review

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, my photos for posts i was planning are on Claire's laptop which has died :( Hopefully will be fixed soon. I don't like using the desktop computer for the pathetic reason that the chair you sit at is hard and hurts my back. I've also been busy painting and watching rubbish/amazing films (Phantom of the Paradise and Can't Stop The Music are the latest ones) I've also been writing posts for my other blog (http://lillian-low.blogspot.com/) so if you're interested in my rather rubbish musings on music, films and various other bits (for instance i'm writing a hideously long essay on the similarities between painting and magic for no apparent reason) you should take a look.

Anyway Models Own is a brand i have mixed feelings about. Why mixed? Well I really, really like all the products of theirs I've tried. But the brand have managed to piss me off on two occaisions. Firstly they have a facebook album where fans can send in photos to be shared and someone from the brand (I assume, why would someone not affiliated with the brand do it?) nicked some of my photos of my nail polish stash i posted and posted them without asking and without credit. Which left a bitter taste in my mouth. Taking photos from anywhere and reposting them without credit is a bit rubbish, however in this case i feel it was worse as they were basically using my photo to advertise their product, which was not what it was originally intended to do. Also as the photo doesn't show up if you google 'Models Own polish' or anything similar i assume they got it directly from my blog. In which case why not just drop me a line and ask permission? It just seemed unprofessional to me. They did however apologise and remove them after i bitched about it on twitter :P
The other reason is their recent 50% off sale. It was to celebrate them getting something like 10000 likes on facebook and ran for a week. Sounds great right? However throughout that week i tried repeatedly (at least once a day) to log on to place what would have been a very sizable order and each time i was unable to buy. I'd get to various stages, sometimes up to where i would pay and then the site would crash. Most of the time i just couldn't get onto the site in the first place. On the last day of the sale i was logging on every hour or so but never managed to make my order. And i was not alone, their facebook page was awash with complaints from people who could not log on, could not pay, had accidentally made 2 orders because they didn't think the first one had gone through. It just annoyed me a lot that nothing was done for the people who left out, except saying 'sorry, lots of people managed to get orders though'. I understand that sales have to end at some point, but when the reason people have been unable to partake is the fault of the company (in this case by not getting their website bandwidth or whatever it is ready for the obvious surge of customers) it seems unfair to me.

But as i said i do love their products. Their nail polishes in particular are pretty great. They come in about 15 million colours (ok actually 80) including some nice unsual ones like Disco Mix which is made of small purple, pink and blue glitter and lots of lovely glitters and shimmers and neons. I find they go on needing about 2-3 coats but dry really quickly and last nicely. The lipsticks are great, highly pigmented, long lasting and non-drying, they don't come in many colours but the ones they do have are refreshingly interesting, reds, neon pinks, dark purples and then nudes and pale colours as well. I really like the lipglosses too, the pigmentation depends on what colour you get, the 2 i have, Tangerine and Fuschia-Full are really pigmented, giving the same sort of look as a lipstick but shiney and wet-looking. They do feel sticky on my lips but not overly so and somehow it's sticky in a way that seems to help it stay on my lips, making it quite long lasting (for a gloss anyway). And i love their tinted lip balms, which have the same basic pigmentation as the lip glosses but feel silky and help moisturise my lips.Basically everything £5 which isn't exactly cheap but not at all expensive and besides there's always money off the nail polishes if you buy 3 or more on their website. They also do lots of products i haven't tried, false eyelashes, cheek and lip tint, brushes, powder and pressed eyeshadows. mascara, pencil eyeliners and blushers (which i've seen wonderful reviews of) and everything looks really good.

So... yeah this is an odd review. I really like all of their products that i've tried, they seem very high quality and are definately worth the price. But i don't really want to buy from them again, and i'm ok with that, which makes me think that nothing they make can be that special, or i'd be more upset about it.

Am I the only person who hates glass nail files? And a favour

Thank you to everyone who commented on my entries for the Illamasqua contest (will reply to all of them soon) I had a lot of fun doing them. Everyone should look through the other entries because lots of them are absolutely stunning (no chance of me winning, some of those looks have me blown completely out of the water! I'm not putting my stuff down but jesus christ some people are talented!)

Anyway glass nail files. I hear so many people spouting the gospel of glass and crystal nail files but i just can't get them to work for me! I've bought two and while one of the great advantages of them is that they are supposed to never wear out mine seem to have completely dulled! No matter how hard or softly I run my fingers across the surface absolutely nothing happens! In fact at first both the files i bought worked but after my only using them once the surface texture changed (now it feels like there is no grit) and they just do nothing. No filing at all! It's very frustrating. They are 2 different brands and so i don't think they could both be faulty. Oh and i've tried washing them and it makes no difference. Anyway if anyone has somne tips on using them i would be really grateful. If not i'm going back to cheap emery boards.

Now as for the favour...Ho boy i am not going to enjoy writing this!
On saturday i went out and got drunk. Way too drunk. Completely smashed. I will never ever drink that much again because it was horrible! Anyway in the awful blur that was the night i managed to lose my brand new, not available in the UK MUFE lipstick that i bought in Paris. So i was wondering if anyone in the US would either pick it up for me and i'll paypal you the money, or would like to do a swap and i can get some nice UK only brands in exchange? I would be most grateful. Leave me a comment if you wouldn't mind (wouldn't be straight awy though as i am poor right this minute) :)

Illamasqua Contest entry 4 - Galatea

The idea for this character came again from the idea of someone searching for the secret to life itself. I started thinking about Pygmalion and his statue and the idea came from there. The makeup was my attempt to look like I was made of marble but uhh it didn't work so well (i think i look more like the moon) and then do a sort of normal face of makeup over it, as if it was my actual skin.

Galatea was created by Pygmalion, who pined and lusted after her, even though she was just a marble statue. He prayed to the Gods and eventually Cupid granted his wish and brought her to life. The sculpter was delighted. However Galatea was not. She had no love for Pygmalion, she did not know him at all, but he forced her to marry him, saying that without him she wouldn't have life at all. He treated her as his property, forgetting that she was now her own person. Eventually Galatea could not take it anymore and ran away.
She still has the look of cold stone but is a real woman, with a kind heart and sweet nature.

 

 

More under the cut :)

Illamasqua contest entry 3 - The Spirit Wife

When i saw the cast of characters that had gathered for the other-worldly banquet i was surprised at something. There are a lot of classic supernatural beasts, a fairy, an angel, a werewolf-type creature and a vampire, but no ghosty! So i thought i'd come up with a ghost character. The inspiration for the story comes from a hideously nerdish source. One of my favourite bands is David Devant and his Spirit Wife, who are a band who (at least used to) run under the concept of the lead singer being the spiritual vessel for David Devant, arguably Britain's greatest ever magician. And umm.. well I never really understood the spirit wife part of the story. In old gigs Madame Devant (AKA a nighty on a stick) would appear but i never heard what her story was. So anyway my story was based on his idea. Makeup wise the inspiration just came from just trying to look a bit ghostly and dead :)

When she was alive the Spirit Wife deeply loved her husband, one of the greatest magicians of the age. They did everything together and she even served as his assistant. One day they displayed their famous bullet catch trick they had performed it together hundreds of times but unfortunately by some freak co-incidence it went wrong somehow and she was killed. Husband and wife both pined for the other on the different plains. Finally she managed to find a way to appear before her love but he was terrified to see her in her undead state. So she now searches for a way to return her life to her so she can return to her love.

 

 

Couple more under the cut :)

Illamasqua contest entry 2 - Midas' Daughter

My inspiration for this came from the idea that the characters at the Art of Darkness dinner were searching for the secret of the elixir of life and the colours of the collection reminded me of alchemy which was the ancient theory of how to turn base metals into gold. In turn this reminded me of the story of King Midas and my idea came from there. The inspiration for the actual makeup look came from a few sources, firstly i remembered a look from some horror film where they had large cartoony veins drawn in black (can't remember which film and i couldn't find pictured on google so i had no source to look at) which i wanted to do but in gold. I also wanted the look to be sort of regal and that reminded me of a makeup look i love, Dave Stewarts in the Eurythmics 'There must be an Angel' video, where he plays a sort of playing card/rococo king with exreme contouring and gold eyeshadow.

The story of King Midas goes as follows:
In Ancient Greece there was once a great king named Midas. He was a good king but obsessed with wealth and loved gold above everything, including his one daughter Marigold. One day Bacchus came and after Midas showed him fine hospitality Bacchus agreed to grant Midas one wish. Midas wished for everything he touched to turn to gold. At first Midas was delighted by his new golden touch bu he soon saw the downside. He tried to drink and the water turned to gold, he tried to eat and the food turned to gold as soon as it touched his tongue. Worst of all when little Marigold came to see him Midas kissed her. Instantly all life left her and she was nothing but a golden statue. Midas cried and begged Bacchus to remove his curse. Luckilly Bacchus kindly agreed and told Midas how to cure himself. Firstly Midas washed his hands in  a river that ran near his house. He then collected some of the water in a pitcher and took it home. When he sprinkled the water on Marigold she returned to life. Midas was so delighted to be free of the dreadful golden touch that he returned everything in the house to it's original state and never lusted for money or gold again.

However I wondered what would happen if that is not where the story ended.

Midas' daughter has been searching for the banquet for a long time, desperate for the knowledge and help the gatherers might be able to grant her. Her father's stupidity has left her cursed. While once she was flesh and blood she is now slowly but surely returning to the gold that Midas lusted for. Gold dust now runs through her veins. She needs to find a solution to restore her humanity, but is it already too late? Sadly her emotions too are becoming as hard and cold as the yellow metal her body is reverting to.

 

 

More under the cut :)

Stupid dog!

My puppy, Sir Digby Chicken Caesar is in disgrace.
He has a habit of chewing cardboard. Often he'll find my nice high-end-makeup-cardboard-boxes and chew them up but i don't mind so much because i usually end up just throwing them away. However today he found the box of my new Illamasqua liquid eyeliner and chewed it up. Unfortunately the eyeliner was still inside and his sharp little doggy fangs broke through :(
At the moment it's still useable as the stuff that seeped out of the hole has stuck to the cardboard so i can still get some, but i think it will evaporate soon.
I only got to use it once and it was so so great! It was the 'Alchemy' colour which is basically liquid gold and it was so long lasting and great. GRAGH! I got it from Asos where it was on sale for £10 for ust one or two days, now it's back at full price.
Stupid dog! It's time for a weenie roast!
Grumble grumble.

Illamasqua Contest - Wild Thing

So here's my first entry for the Illamasqua contest. I was inspired by tribal face-painting (particularly traditional African paint) and my friend Liselotte Eriksson. Liselotte is an amazing artist who is quite famous for her faerie paintings and amazing photographs. Recently Lisis had an exhibition called Mad Dog which featured her and her friends as sort of feral, crazy wild people (or that's how i saw it anyway, i may be totally wrong) which i found very beautiful and inspired this look. You can see some of her photos here.

This faerie is not the sweet, ethereal kind that you might read about in books, she does not fly or sprinkle fairy dust or grant wishes. This is a wild, almost crazed and entirely uncivilised creature who others should be wary of. She plays by her own set of rules and will cheat, trick or attack to get what she wants. She's an umcomplicated, base creature who is fueled mainly by instincts and wants. She is not interested in making friends or helping people, unless there's something in it for her.

 

A million more photos (and how i did the look) under the cut :)

Amazing Contest

Hullo everyone! I'm home from holiday now (it was fantastic, post will be coming up on one of my blogs after i've sorted out the 500+ photos) but unfortunately have caught a nasty bug :( poor Claire had it from about our first day of holiday and i caught it near the end. I either have it worse or just make a lot more fuss than her :P
Anyway being ill may be a good thing for my blog cause all i have the energy to do is sit around eating tomato soup and toast and watching telly in my pyjamas (so basically like always, but i have an excuse to not actually get on with anything important) so will hopefully get some posts done :)

A lot of people who read my blog probably found it through Mizz Worthy's Illamasqua contests. In fact some of my very first posts were entries to the Heroes and Villains contest around the end of last year (they were pretty much all terrible!). Since then I have entered several looks for each of the two contests there have been since and have been lucky enough to come in second place both times!
Well there's a new contest and it's bigger and better than ever!

http://www.mizzworthy.com/2010/09/illamasqua-contest-mystery-guest.html

The prize is just amazing - the entire Art Of Darkness collection plus an intensive 2-day makeup course.

Anyway this is super late so i am sorry but hopefully you will still be able to enter!

I have quite a few ideas and will be entering any that turn out well. However this time I am pretty sure i will not come anywhere close to winning. The scope of this contest is just too big, so many amazing, talented people entering I don't think my ideas and ability will stand a chance. Also I guess i wouldn't be fair if i did win seeing as I've come in second twice already. But it will be fun and i hope you will enjoy my looks :)

Speaking of the Art of Darkness collection, i do still have a write up of the bloggers event coming and i am sorry about the delay!

Long and Winding post

 Under the cut is a lot of whinging including  reasons for my lack of posting and commenting.

(also i tried to upload some photos for a post today. Blogger seems to have changed the uploader and it doesn't work at all for me, anyone else having this problem)

Sugarpill swatches

I'm so so excited that Sugarpill has just released a whole new bunch of new Chroma-lusts (Claire is a bit obsessed with Sugarpill and is planning on buying them all!), they look beautiful. But i realised that i never posted swatches of our second Sugarpill haul (actually just Claire's haul but she bought them for us to share because she is lovely).

 

I was trying to show just how full the pots are in this photo. I failed. Anyway as I've probably said before, Sugarpill Chromalusts' are measured by weight, being 5g (of product, not jars) each, and as there's different ingredients that means in some the jars are more full than others as they take up more space. Anyway you cannot see but Royal Sugar was absolutely full to the top, i mean the absolute brim. And that's great as it's my favourite colour! Hysteric had the least in the pot, but god knows you still get enough!

 

Blah my swatches look rubbiush! In real life they are so so much brighter and the contrasting coloured sparkles are more pronounced. Blah, maybe i'll do some better ones.

Anyway left to right:

Absinthe, Hysteric, Royal Sugar, Junebug, Lumi, Starling, Decora

The only one i've actually used so far (i have way way too much makeup) is Royal Sugar (you can see a look using it here) which is absolutely amazing. But the others are so beautiful as well. Hysteric and Decora have green sparkles, which instantly makes them awesome.

(here is my previous sugarpill post with swatches)

Hi Everyone

New post is coming right up, but i just wanted to ask everyone to check out my awesome new banner!
My incredibly talented girlfriend made it :)
And i think the cartoon-me looks more like me than most photos! :D

Outfit from long long ago

This was from agggeesss ago! I can't even remember where i was going. It was somewhere though, a rare occasion where i left the house!

 

 

I love this outfit, the Dodo playsuit (which Claire made, including designing the fabric <3) is just beautiful. However looking at these photos all i can see is the fold of fabric emanating from my crotch :P

Cardi: was a present years ago

playsuit: made by Claire

tights: dunno, they're just blue though so probably widely available.

Shoes: Ancient from Office

  

I can't remember my makeup, which is annoying as i actually wore eyeshadow and proper stuff for once! I'm pretty sure my lipstick is by Inglot, but i don't know what it's name was and i THINK my eyeshadow is from Hi Fi's Labyrinth collection but i don't know which one. Slugs and snails perhaps? 

Tomorrow i'm going to my first bloggers event for Illamasqua's Art of Darkness collection. I'm very excited but absolutely terrified. I'm worried i will chicken out of going. A sneaky vodka before i leave may be neccessary (drinking at 3 in the afternoon? I'm a winner!).

After that I'm going to see Glam Chops, which is a 70s style glam-rock band with my friend Mikey from DDAHSW and Eddie Argos from Art Brut (who i adore but am too scared to say hello too).

So i need to find 2 absolutely fantastic outfits! This might be hard because i'm a bit fat for everything at the moment :(

And because i thought i looked quite beautiful in these photos (this probably sounds super vain, but i generally think i look rubbish so it balances it out) heres some more of my big ol' face:

A real pet hate of mine

 

 

You see that orangey blob on my arm? The one that's not really anywhere close to my skintone?

Well that is Rimmel's Match Perfection Foundation. It claims to 'Adapt to skin tone & texture. Perfectly flawless finish. SMART-TONE TM technology adapts to the colour and texture of skin.'

Hmm... Yeah, that's really adapted to my skin tone well! I would also like to point out that i tried Ivory, the lightest shade this is available in. So it wasn't like I tried a really dark foundation and expected it to adapt.

The annoying this is that if this sort of worked it would be amazing. It's really hard to find foundation in my shade (a problem I'm sure a lot of people have) so this gimmick would be amazing. But i have never ever found one that worked. And i have tried a lot! I guess it's just not possible for foundation to actually adapt to the colour of the skin it's on, but so many claim to!
 

IT'S ANNOYING I TELL YOU!

Clean Start Smart Mouth Lip Shine

(I was sent this to review but all thoughts are my own)

 

The lovely people at Dermalogica were kind enough to send me a sample kit of their Clean Start range. The rest is skincare and I haven't been using it for long enough to review yet.

I get very dry lips, I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's the constant lipstick wearing or the fact that i suffer from dry skin on the rest of my face but anyway the reason isn't important (so why am i discussing it?... dunno!). However I am not one of those people who applies lipbalm religiously. I tend to just apply it before bed everyday, or, if my lips are very chapped and sore, every now and then. My most used balm is Vaseline. Now i know some people swear by it and some despise it. I quite like it personally but the main reason i use it is that i can get a big pot for cheap and just keep it on my bedside table, it will last me months if not years and i don't need to worry about buying more balm. Of course I have tried other balms though, various brands through the years and, while some have worked better than others I've never found one I liked enough tokeep coming back to, apart from the Vaseline.

And then I tried this one.

I can honestly say that this is the best lip balm I've ever tried! I like so so much about it, but the main thing is that i honestly believe this helped cure my chapped lips practically overnight.

A while back, when I recieved this, I had awfully saw lips. Red and painful and chapped to the point that they were very near bleeding. I got this, put it on and my mouth instantlly felt soothed. I was pleased but didn't much more. But i kept putting it on and the next day i woke up and, while my lips were still a bit sore, they felt so, so much better and all the flaking skin was gone and healed. I was amazed. And then by the next day my lips weren't even sore again! Of course this could have been a coincidence, maybe my lips were just healing up anyway, but I reckon it's more likely it was the balm. 

I haven't had such sore lips since, but using this makes my lips feel softer, smoother and hydrated. 

Another great thing about it is the scent. It smells amazing! It'sweet, sort of candy-ish. to me it smells like a mixture of orange and vanilla (what i believe some people call 'creamsicle') It's not overpowering but not weak either, it's just about right. It doesn't have flvour though, just  a sweetness about it. 

However one slight problem I have with it is that although the scent isn't really strong it's still strong enough that I can't wear it at night, but that's just a little niggle.

The packaging isn't very exciting or cute or unusual but i like it anyway. The actual design is nice, quite straight forward and clean, with instructions and information on the back. The colour scheme of two oranges, black and white is nice and vibrant and sort of Pop-art-ish. And the uhh 'delivery system' for the balm is a small, plastic applicator thing with 4 small holes. You have to squeeze quite hard to get the product out, but to me this seems like a good thing as it means it would be unlikely to leak anywhere.

The actual balm is a liquid, basically the same consistency as a lip gloss. And that leads me onto the fact that this balm is designed to be a lip gloss as well. Now I don't really wear clear lipgloss (apart from on top of lipstick, and i haven't tried using this like that yet, but i will try to remember!) but I have seen it on my lips obviously. While it doesn't give you a super-plastic-like shine like some glosses it does give your lips a nice glossy shine and a juicy, wet look. 

So this has basically been enirely positive so far! But here comes quite a big negative: The price. This currently retails at £8.20 for 10ml. Now I've been using this for a while and there seems to still be lots left (as the packaging is opaque i can't actually tell) but I don't know how long it will last. And, well £8 is a LOT for a lip balm in my opinion. And so i don't know if i would actually purchase this myself. I love it, like i said it's the best lip balm i've owned, but i don't know if i could bring myself to spend that much on one lip balm when i could get 225g of Vaseline for £2.25 or a tub of Carmex for £2.50 (i haven't actually tried Carmex myself but i've heard from a tonne of sources that it is the holy grail of lip balms).

The Smart Mouth Lip Shine has the added advantage of acting as a lip gloss as well. If you wear a lot of clear gloss then i would highly recommend it as it will act as your gloss but heal your lips too. However as i said before I don't wear gloss that much.

So in summary: this is a fantatic product and if you can afford it I would highly recommend it, but it does seem too pricey to me.

I'm back!

Hi Everyone!
Sorry for the hiatus, as I said my internet connection died. I also have recently been making a concious effort to spend less time on the computer. I'm not going to go into it here but i've been having a really bad creative block recently and while i wouldn't say it is to blame, being on the computer so much is not helping as it distracts me from painting or sewing or anything. Don't worry, I still love blogging as much as ever but i need to get my priorities in order and my art has to come first. Unfortunately this might mean that i can't read all of my dashboard every day and comment on practically every post like I used to. I hope everyone understands and I am sorry.

Anyway here's a nice outfit of mine.

 

I look very awkward, I think i was feeling a bit uncomfortable but the outfits's nice!

Bunny top: Miss Selfridge. This is one of my favourite pieces of clothing. It's meant to be worn very very loose but i hate that style on me. I'm wearing a size 10, imagine what the 16 (i generally wear a 16/18 on top) would be like on me!
Shorts: Miss Selfridge. They have a big bow at the top.
Tights: Can't remember, they were cheap though.
Shoes: very old (and a bit broken) from Office.
Necklace: Tatty Devine (bought in sale for cheaps :D)
Badge and hairbow: Heidi Seeker (badge was customisable but not available anymore)

I can't remember what my makeup was but it's pretty basic, red lips, lots of blush, orangeish eyeshadow on my brows.

This Is England is on. It's a fantastic film. Combo is terrifying.

Quick note

\Hi everyone
the internet has died at my house (i'm being sneaky at work now) and i don't know when we'll get it back so i won't be around for a little while.
Speak to you soon!
x

Doing Claire's Makeup

Claire wanted me to do her makeup. Oh boy was it stressful! I don't think i've ever done someone elses makeup before and i am not very good at it! Though she didn't help, she kept having laughing fits and thrashing around. I originally was going to do a semi complicated eye look but after nearly having a nervous breakdown i wiped it off and went for something much more simple.
Claire wanted a regal look to go with her new crown:

  

The ferret princess is better than the unicorn queen, that bizyotch don't even have no proper crown!

Claire is wearing:

Face: UD surreal skin cream foundation in Illusion, avon face powder, Illamasqua powder blusher in Sin

Eyes: BFTE Lace (on browbone and inner corner) and Sugarpill Goldilux Chromalust on lid, black mascara

Lips: NYX round lipstick in Black Cherry

Anyway even though it was stressful Claire really loved it, she said she felt beautiful afterwards so i will do it again and who knows, maybe i will get better!
However, occaisionally (presumably because i do lots of over the top 'out there' looks quite well on myself) people say i should be a makeup artist. Umm... no! It was so, so difficult to even achieve this look! :P

I then did my makeup in the design i had originally been trying for with Claire before i had to resort to a very simple one colour plus highlight eye look.

 

 

Face: UD surreal skin cream foundation in Illusion, avon face powder, Illamasqua powder blusher in Sin

 Eyes: BFTE Lace (on browbone and inner corner), Sugarpill Goldilux Chromalust used very sheerly over Lace and used wet as liner on upper lid line and on waterliner, Royal Sugar on lid, black mascara

Lips: Well i thought i used the same lipstick as on Claire but it looks different :/

In other news there are too many great things I want to buy at the moment :( For the first time in ages  actually want some Mac stuff (Dare to Wear lipglasses), Models Own are having an amazing 50% off sale, Illamasqua are coming out with their new collection (anyone know if the bloggers event is happening? I got an email saying it might be in August but nothing since then so i assume it's not happening anymore), Cherry culture are having their 20% off sale etc etc 

But i am going on holiday soon and also owe my mum money so i can't afford to get anything and this makes me very sad.

Goddess of nails

Hi everyone
once again i'm sorry for not posting in a while (God this is getting to be a recurring theme!)
I've been having a bit of a stressful time at the moment. I may have mentioned a while ago that i was very happy to have got a few pieces of my work into an exhibition at a (rather highly thought of) local commercial gallery. It was due to open a few weeks ago no-one got in contact with me and because i am so shy i didn't ask and I thought i had missed the private view, which made me sad. Anyway i finally emailed them about it and recieved no reply. Then about a week ago the gallery seemed to shut down, we assumed this was because the show was being put up and i was relieved. But low, a huge 'TO LET' sign has been put up. I've emailed everyone at the gallery whose address i had but haven't got any reply.
So obviously my work won't be exhibited and while that is disappointing i don't really care now because i am just so panicked about getting my paintings back! It's terrifying that no-one will reply to me and tell me when i can pick up my stuff!
I've also been trying my hand at making gloves (ho ho ho i am making a pun) and god it's awful! The pattern is so so tricky (partly because you use just a 3mm seam allowance and partly because of the insane gusset things between the fingers) and i don't even know if they'll fit when they're finished. Grump!
Anyway that's what's been going on.

A while back Cherry Culture were having a 20% off (which actually they are again at the moment! Use code B2S20 until tuesday sadly i cannot afford to get anything) and i picked up a huge amount of nail polishes :) One of which was this:

LA colors Goddess

 

This is a lovely muted slightly nude toned gold with tiny and large silver holographic glitter.

It's lovely and i know i'll where it on it's own at some point, but I just wasn't feeling it. I needed more bling!

So i popped on a thin layer of my gold holo glitter franken and then some silver large square glitter (Essence nail twins but i don't know the name!)

 

Ta daa!! Much more tacky :)

What's on your nails at the moment?

Clowny Clown Clown

Saturday was David Bowie night at my favourite club, Feeling Gloomy. Bowie is one of my heroes, he's one of he biggest ponces ever to break onto the music scene. Anyway i dressed as a Pierrot ala Ashes to Ashes.

Makeup isn't that great as i was a little tipsy before i started it (and it would have looked a lot better if i had gotten around to bleaching my eyebrows, grr). Also i couldn't get any good photos of it, i did the old 'use blush to pretend one has cheekbones' trick :P

Face: Gosh foundation in Porcelain, Screenface White translucent powder, Illamasqua Powder blush in Sin
Eyes: Mac Gesso eyeshadow, Black Kryolan Aqua colour, Black mascara
Lips: Mac Russian Red

I'm sorry i still haven't replied to comments. I was away from blogger for a few days and then it took me another few days to get completely caught up on all of the entries i missed. I read absolutely every entry of the people i follow, i might not comment on them all but i will have read them all :) (by the way if you have a blog and would like me to follow please leave me a link. I can't promise i will follow because im already following about 290 blogs and you're only allowed 300 but i will look)


I need to do some reviews! Reviews are possibly my favourite thing to do on my blog but they also take the most time and effort and i've been too busy lately :( But i really am not pleased looking at my blogs front page and seeing only pictures of my big ol' face and grumpy rants.

Anyway here is a list of posts i have coming up (though it may take some time)
Haus Of Gloi review
Eccentric Cosmetics Review (this one is done but i need to do swatches and have managed to lost the products D: i know they're in the room but where??)
Second Sugarpill swatches and review
Bodyshop, Lush and Avon toilletry reviews
BFTE blush and eyeshadow reviews
And more

Also there has been a lot of ridiculous, sneaky, nasty stuff comitted by that damn Citrus Crook (you know who i mean) lately. I don't know if i should post it though. Is anyone still interested in her absolute ludicrousness? I know i still find it amazing, funny and just unbelievable but other people might think i am just petty and bitchy (which of course i am but i don't have to make anything up about her, it's amazing what she gets up to).

An experiment - Making Perfume

I was researching bath and beauty recipes when i stumbled upon a very simple recipe for making flower perfume. I was a bit suspicious of it as it seemed far to simple to work properly and used only water whereas i know from my vast knowledge of perfumerie (watching Perfume: story of a murderer once) you generally need oil for it to work, however the recipe said it would only last a month so i figured that the water might work for that short amount of time. Also i really wanted it to work because i have been desperate for years for a Buddlea (or Butterfly Bush) perfume. To me there is nothing nicer than the smell of Buddlea and i have been so happy on the recent mild summers night walking up my drive smelling the amazing wafts of the Buddlea scent that pass over me, or just grabbing the nearest flower and huffing it's great honeyish goodness. Anyway i have searched thoroughly (or googled it) and i cannot find anyone who makes a Buddlea perfume, essential oil, fragrance oil or anything similar so it seems my only resort is to make my own.
So here is the recipe i followed.

Step 1: Gather your flowers. You want about a cupful. 

(I am using Buddlea obviously but it should work with any flowers you like)

 

Step 2:  Chop your flowers up a bit.

(As buddlea flowers are so small i only did it a bit, if you're using something with big petals you'll probably want to chop it up small)

 

Step 3: Line a bowl with a piece of muslin, you need part of the fabric to hang over the bowls edges. Pop your flowers into the fabric lined bowl and add about a cup and a half of water. Make sure the flowers are covered in water. Cover and leave overnight.

(I didn't have any muslin so i just used a tea towel, works fine but may stain your towel so don't use a nice one!) 

 

Step 4: In the morning pull the muslin full of flowers out gently, squeezing it into the bowl.

(at this point everything was looking good, the water smelled a LOT like Buddlea flowers)

 

Step 5: Put the flower-water into a stainless steel pan and simmer until it's very reduced and only about a teaspoon of liquid remains

(i was a bit frightened so i simmered it very gently. It took about 10 minutes to be reduced as much as it should be)

 

Step 5: Done! Pop your perfume in a container.

(Proper perfume containers should be coloured brown or blue or something to stop the light hurting it, but as this was only meant to last a month anyway i figured it didn't matter)

So did it work? 

... No :(

It was all going so well until it came to cooking the water. While i stirred it often and only simmered gently (so I know it didn't burn) the nice gently scented water at the beginning morphed into something that smelled of peppermint tea in the end :( 

I don't know if i did something wrong or the recipe just doesn't work very well or Buddlea doesn't want to make proper perfume (which would make sense seeing as noone makes it).

But anyway it was a fun thing to try! I felt like a little kid again making potions :)

Now i've found another recipe online that uses oil and sounds more 'proper'. Unfortunately the flowers of the Buddlea Bushes in my garden are drying up so it will have to wait until next year.

Oh well!
If anyone else decides to try this (it is fun!) tell me how it goes. Or has anyone successfully made a perfume before?