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!