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.