Friday 18 March 2011

Possible hiatus

Things might be a bit quiet around here for a while. I've had a very rough couple of days and don't know when I will be up to posting properly. If you want to know more you can read here but it is rather long and miserable so don't feel you have to!
Sorry everyone.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Illamasqua Toxic Nature Nail Polish in Gamma

Disclaimer: this was given to me as a gift for attending a blogging event, but all thoughts are my own.

I love this nail polish a lot. It is hideously, eye-wateringly bright neon orange. Seriously, it's the most bright orange polish I've ever seen, it's so much more eye-searing than in the photos, it looks like a high-vis jacket or something!



The formula is great, it's very smooth and creamy and opaque in 2 coats (I did 3 because i stuffed up a couple of nails). Usually neon polishes dry matte but these were sort of semi-matte and rubbery, like the Orly Plastix polishes I think. I liked it a lot! I didn't put on a top coat because I wanted to show the finish (don't know if I succeeded). I wore it for 3 days without top coat and oddly there was no tip wear at all but it did start to chip. I've never for a polish that doesn't chip without a top coat though. I'll try it with one and see how it lasts then.
Also I think there must be some sort of fluorescent in it, we have these blue fairy lights up and when I got near my fingernails just glowed amazingly!



What do you think? Bright enough for you?

Sunday 13 March 2011

FOTD

Here's quite an old FOTD, but for once i can remember most of what I was wearing! Yay! 



Here my Paris Hilton eye is particularly strong!

Wearing:
Face: don't remember. Probably Avon tinted moisturiser and some powder, Possibly Sleek Flamingo blush
Eyes: Inglot shadows. They were a prize in a giveaway and come in a freedom palette so i don't actually know the names, one is black with tiny gold shimmer/glitter and the other is a very light gold.
Lips: Barry M Mandarin Lip Lacquer

Not very complicated, but still more than my very lazy lipstick-and-mascara-alone looks that i do the majority of the time :P

Saturday 12 March 2011

Swatcharama - Illamasqua Lipsticks (with mini review)

 Here are swatches of all my Illamasqua lipsticks. I can't actually do a review of them as a whole because oddly basically every lippie I have applies or feels different on me. I'm not sure if they're different due to the different pigments, or maybe I got a few dodgy ones. Either way I can't either recommend or reject these because each colour is different! I've done a small mini review of the product under each colour.  They retail for £15.50 which is a little steep even for the good ones but incredibly disappointing for the bad.

 Blaze:

  
Blaze is a lovely brightish red based orange, it's a little dry to apply but not drying. It applies nicely, smoothly and creamily despite it's dryness.

Inspirational Interview

A while ago I was interviewed by the lovely Emily from Sparkle and Shade and it's come out today! If you ever wanted to know what I'd take with me to a desert island,  what I like to eat or how i spend the majority of my time please take a look here :)
Also if you're not following Emily you should because her blog is great!

Friday 11 March 2011

Japan

I'm sure noone needs to be told about the absolutely horrible natural disaster that has occurred in Japan in the last day. To anyone who has family or loved ones in Japan my thoughts, and I'm sure everyone else reading this, are with you and I hope with all my heart nothing bad will happen.
I found out the best place to donate to help is here or here if you're in the US (not sure where's best if you're international) but here seems legitimate too.
Also I was going to have a blog sale soon anyway but will be getting it up as soon as possible so I can donate a portion of the profits to the disaster fund.
Thanks for reading everyone.

Illamasqua Toxic Nature Blogging Event

So you've probably seen a lot of posts about the Illamasqua Blogger events held early last week, but this one is different? Why? Because I was too much of a feeble wimp to go to the main one. Again if you don't know, I have Social phobia/social anxiety disorder which basically means I'm shy to the point of being ill in social situations. I went to the Art of Darkness event last Autumn, and while the event was really great it was just too much for me and I felt very ovewhelmed and ill, so I originally was going to say I couldn't attend this one but then i saw they were holding much smaller 'intimate' events on saturday. I thought that I could probably cope with that, or if not I'd know once and for all that I am just unable to attend any blogging events.

So last saturday I set off for the 1 o clock event. And it turned out to be VERY intimate indeed. I was the only blogger that turned up for the session! So that was a little awkward, not only because i felt a bit stressed having all the focus being on me but I also felt a bit bad for Alex and Hayley that they had to do all the spiel for just little old me!  And even though I had a couple of sneaky drinks for dutch courage (yes yes I know, drinking before noon, oh it's a slippery slope!) I was still stupidly shy and very quiet and awkward. But anyway they were both lovely, very kind and friendly and welcoming.

This event was held at Illamasqua's Flagship store near Oxford Street. I got there at 1 on the dot and it was running a little late (possibly waiting for the other bloggers who were supposed to come), so I played around with their regular line before I was called into the special area. I've heard great things about their foundation range so I always try and match my skin. Irritatingly in the liquid and cream formulas the lightest 'normal' shade (i.e. not just white) is ever so slightly too light and yellow for me and the next one up, 120, is far far too dark and again yellow (I have the pinkest skin in the world!). Buuuut while playing i discovered that 120 actually is the perfect match for me in powder form, so I might have to try that at a later stage! 

rich liquid foundation in 120 and 115 unblended:


Blended:



Powder Foundation in 120 blended:


So anyway i was called into this cordoned off part at the back of the shop, where the makeup lessons take place usually. Hayley and Alex were very friendly, offered me drinks and just honestly treated me like I was a friend or something. Though of course I couldn't totally relax due to my illness, but they did put me at ease a little, which is saying a lot! The actual event was very informal and casual, they basically talked me through the thoughts behind the collection, demonstrated all the products and then just let me play about with everything.

So the idea for the collection came from the experience Alex Box (Illamasqua's creative director) had last year. She was left stranded away from home when that evil ash cloud brought air travel to a standstill. This led to thoughts about how while we humans think we're in charge, because of all our technical advances, a natural phenomenon can come along and take away all that control (quite horrible considering what has happened in the last 24 hours but I shan't go into that now). So the inspiration for the collection came from a fantasty future where nature has 'fought back', becoming toxic or noxious. The shades are a mixture of bright, neon, radioactive colours and contrasting dirty, murky, sludgy colours. (This may sound incredibly crass but it sort of reminded me of the baddies from Captain Planet... Yes I am very stupid). The murkier shades aren't just dull though, they're complex, unusual mixes of colours. These shades were inspired by mixing colours of paint and this was fascinating to me. As an artist myself there have been many times when I've stared at the changing colours of my brush-cleaning water, watching it turn from a bright colour into a swirling mix of colours becoming murkier and murkier in shades you've never seen before.

Now I know that if you're a follower of beauty blogs in general you'll have seen these images over and over again I cannot help but share myself because they are just so amazing, truly artistic and I find myself staring at them for ages just taking it all in. You can really see the inspiration behind the beautiful looks, the models hair has changed colour from the toxicity of the planet, their faces are mutating creating new shapes of their lips and eyes, and bright, unnatural colours are creeping into their features. But they still look beautiful. Let's take a look at my favourites:





And this video to do with the collection was just released:



So now onto the products. First, possibly the most items in the collection, the brand new Cream Pigments. These come in 6 colours and are made to be truly multi purpose. They dry to a matte finish, are blendable but highly pigmented, crease and water resistant and can be used on face, lips, eyes and some applications I never even would have thought of! For instance the little streaks of contrasting colours in the models hair were done with these cream pigments (anyone remember the 90s craze for hair mascara? God knows I do. I often turned up to school discos with little blue streaks in my hair ahhh yeah. But this is a lot prettier and classier) and apparently the mint coloured pigment can be used as a colour corrector to get rid of red tones.
Swatches:


From left to right:
Mould, Delirium, Hollow, Emerge, Dab, Bedaub. Delirium and Emerge are only available in the EU.

And here they are blended out.


Mould is more purple than it looks here and Hollow is a light brown shade, it looks slightly green here. I have a ridiculous reason I don't like Mould, the colour is beautiful but I couldn't stand to use it myself because of the name. I have a phobia of mould and just thinking about it makes me feel sick :P 

The cream pigments can also be used as an eyeshadow base. Here is Mould with a blue eyeshadow on top (don't know the name of the shadow):


Left - Shadow over Mould, Right - Shadow alone. 
There are 2 new lipsticks released:

Top - Flare, Bottom - Atomic
(a review of Illamasqua lipsticks and lip swatches will be coming up soon)

And 2 corresponding sheer glosses are in the collection, but they have been available previously from the main collection:


Top - Torture, Bottom - Divine

And here they are over the top of the lipsticks:


 You can see my review of the sheer glosses (and lip swatches of Divine) here

A new shade of Illamasquas Precision Ink liquid eyeliners is available in the same amazing formula. I ADORE these eyeliners, remind me to do a proper review! The new shade is called Glister and it is STUNNING. A lovely taupery nude shade with amazing pink shimmery glitter shot through. It's not always obvious, it depends on the light, and it's just gorgeous.


Then there are 5 nail polishes, Illamasqua's polish formula is just wonderful.

Left to Right: Bacterium, Stagnate, Radium, Purity, Gamma. Purity looks a bit nude here, in real life it's a stunning bright, light pink peach, I'd describe it as a 'melon' colour.
Now I did also take some nail polish swatches on paper, but of course those went missing instantly. Luckilly there are already tonnes of great proper nail swatches up on the web. Here are some good ones of all the polishes, plus some swatches of other products.

And finally These are the Toxic claws, amazing fake thumb nails with a unique shape (they remind me of beetles). I was told you can actually paint these with whatever polish you like and it won't damage them:



I got 3 products in my goodie bag and before I left Hayley and Alex insisted I look through and check I wanted what I was given, which was great! I did end up swapping 2 pieces, originally I had Emerge cream pigment, which I kept but I switched Bacterium nail polish and Hollow cream pigment, Alex and Hayley gave me Gamma nail polish and Atomic lipstick instead. I figured that it would be more interesting to try 3 different products from the line (instead of 2 of the cream pigments) and with the nail polish, while Bacterium is gorgeous (and if I get some money I may well buy it in the future) Gamma was really just one that had caught my eye from the beginning. And I will always favour the ridiculous (eyesearing neon orange) over the sublime (subtle duochrome taupe).Also in my goodie bag were leaflets and brochures of information, a little palette (would be good for the cream pigments if you have more than one, as I don't I am excited to try mixing lip tars with it!) and an envelope containing a fiver to cover my travel costs (also there was 5p in my bag but I assume that just fell in there).  Before I left they also said they'd spoken to the store manager and I was given a 20% discount for anything I bought on the day. However I didn't get anything because I am strapped for cash at the moment, and to be honest I was so excited about the new collection that I was blinded to the old products! But the fact that they pay for my travel and offered a discount really shows something about how much Illamasqua care about bloggers. Of course bloggers events work both ways, bloggers get to attend the event and get free products and the brands get free publicity from the resulting blog posts. However Illamasqua really go above and beyond, actually paying for travel costs is something (as far as I know) no other brand does and it made me feel so so special and like my presence at the event was important and I was truly cared about.

Goodie bag:

 




Gamma, Emerge, Atomic.

The Toxic Nature Collection is available now! My favourite pieces (apart from what I recieved as presents, which I will review in depth later) were the cream pigments in Bedaub and Dab the precision ink in Glister, lipstick in Flare, the Toxic claws and nail polishes in Bacterium, Purity and Radium.

One thing I love about Illamasqua collections is that they last for AGGGESSSS! Some pieces will end out being limited but others become permanant (for instance the 4 colour palettes from the Dystopia collection have disappeared, but you can still get the lipglosses, lipsticks, nail polishes and single shadows). This is great for me because I am pretty poor at the moment and I can't afford any of my wishes from the collection right now, but I know that when I have the money they'll still be around. It also means that you can take your time to decide what you want, check reviews, swatch and think about it. This differs from, say, Mac collections in that the majority are very limited and sell out super quickly, so you have to make a snap decision which can lead to purchases you regret buying or products you regret not buying. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has snapped up a lot of pieces from one of those collections and later realised I own dupes or was just caught up in hype.

It's an absolutely stunning collection and I feel so priveleged to have been among the first to get to play with it! Thanks so much to Alex and Hayley and all of Illamasqua for putting together the events. Reviews of the products I recieved witll be up soon :)

Saturday 5 March 2011

Early March favourites video

Hi everyone! Some of you already know this, but I've started making videos for my youtube channel again. My channel is here so please give it a look and subscribe if you want to see more :)
This is my most recent videos about a few of my recent favourite products:



Videos are really fun to make but boy is my double chin noticable!
If there's anything you'd like to see a video of let me know! :)

Swatcharama - Nars Lip Products

 Today I have some swatches of Nars lip products for you! Hope you enjoy!
Also I added a new Barry M lip pencil to this page, I'd lost it until today.

Nars Gloss in Chandernagor.  This is discontinued (I think, it's not on the website) and I'm actually assuming it's just a gloss because it says nowhere on the packaging! It's a bit like a lip stain in that you get these brush strokes of pigment but it is also very thick and pigmented. It's not sticky like a gloss, it's more satin like a stain, but again it doesn't really 'stain' the lips, it puts on a layer of product. Anyway it's a pretty colour :P
Edit: I searched for Chandernagor and it turns out it's a 'lip stain gloss' which must be a whole discontinued range of lip products. I'm smug because it turns out my wittering on about it being half a gloss and half a stain was right! :P

A few more under the cut :)

Thursday 3 March 2011

Glittersniffer AKA The most disgusting excuse for a makeup brand (or indeed any business) I've ever heard of

Oh God, I've not been posting about this hideous trainwreck of a makeup brand much (I did one post  here) because there is just so so much horrible stuff coming out every day that it's been practically impossible to write it all down! I'm not going into full detail about everything because again there's just too much and it's just too depressing for me to write, but here are some links if you want to know more:
http://www.lipsticksandlightsabers.com/2011/02/please-go-directly-to-jail-part-1.html
http://glittersniffercomplaints.blogspot.com/
http://pa1nt3d-pr1nc3ss.blogspot.com/2010/12/glittersniffer-links-of-awesome.html
http://kirafayescorner.blogspot.com/2010/12/glitter-sniffer-closing-for-good.html
http://phyrra.net/2010/12/glittersniffer-gone.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/GlitterSniffer-Complaints/170925616276956
http://news.michiganradio.org/post/health-and-safety-concerns-surround-glittersniffer-cosmetics
And here's a list of pigments and the various problems with them:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=0AmHQNrWJXwC8dDlYTW1fclNGaldNbjdVWkV2aGZJa0E&hl=en&authkey=CN6HltkD

Here's a list of all the crazy awful hideous stuff that this company did:
  • Repackaging pigments and selling them as hand blended colours
  • Selling non-vegan products while claiming to be an all vegan company
  • Taking months to ship orders
  • Numerous orders arriving with the wrong items/faulty items/spillages/colours being completely different from batch to batch.
  • Not replying to emails, and admitting that they often just deleted them without reading
  • Admitting to deleting anything not positive from the fan page
  • Using money raised for charity to pay their own expenses (also saying they wouldn't be donating what they said because the girl the money was being raised for said some negative things on a private facebook page)
  • Packing and handling products in unsanitary conditions (without gloves, cutting soap on a table with a kitchen knife)
  • Selling items that are not safe for cosmetic use and not disclosing it.
  • Refusing to allow certain people to use their giftcards
  • Refusing to refund certain people
  • Leaving a phone message to a customer (who voiced anger at glittersniffer) stating 'I have your motherfucking address you cunt'
  • The companies paypal account has been frozen due to so many refunds being requested. Paypal have stated that Glittersniffer could still put money into the account in order to pay the refunds. Glittersniffer have said they were told nothing could be done for 180 days, so very few/no refunds are being given out.
  • Glittersniffer stated that all old stock would be thrown out, instead it was sold.
  • Glittersniffer stated that all recalled pigments sent back to them would be destroyed, instead a vast number of them were given to a friend.
  • Claiming that there is no proof that eye injuries sustained after using the products are due to the products, despite admitting that some items used in the products were not safe for cosmetic use.
  • Threatening to leak anonymous peoples names
  • Contacting the owner of the Glittersniffer Complaints blog at her work email (which was not disclosed anywhere, so must have been searched for)
  • Losing track of how much money she owed to charity.
  • Sending threatening and harassing text messages
  • Employing people only known through her fan page to go through emails recording addresses and other personal 
  • Selling items without ingredients or other FDA labelling requirements
Am I missing anything? Depressingly it's quite possible that I've missed a lot of stuff.


One thing that really, really angers me is that Lela has claimed that all these horrible things she did were done because she has an anxiety disorder.
 There's still a huge stigma surrounding mental illness, people often think that people with any sort of mental problem might cause them harm, and blaming all the hideous things she's done on some anxiety disorder just reinforces these ideas. I have an anxiety disorder and of course it affects me, but it doesn't turn me into someone who would knowingly cause harm, ignore peoples feelings and problems, threaten, steal or cheat people. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe mental illness is a contributing factor, but if you are so ill that you end up treating people as badly as she has then you should not be in business until you've sorted yourself out.

This is genuinely the most disgusting brand I have ever heard about. They've written the book for what NOT to do in a business. Not only is their customer service absolutely shocking (and illegal in some cases such as using charity to fund refunds and refusing to refund recalled products) but they have actually made people ill. Of course there is very little anyone can do to prove that eye injuries were caused by the products but no matter what Lela or her glittermob can say it's pretty damn obvious! If one person claimed the products caused injury you could easily dismiss it. If 2 or 3 people claimed it you could still think it was a coincidence. But so so many people are coming out saying that they've had eye problems since using the products and even more who have just said that the products burn on contact with the skin. And when that's combined with the proof that Glittersniffer packaged without gloves and the admission that they sold soap dyes that aren't even approved for cosmetic use at all as eye products surely makes the thought that people would be hurt by using the products not even plausible but probable?

The owner of the Glittersniffer Complaints blog has stated that all she wants is for Glittersniffer to learn from their mistakes, move on and treat people better but I completely disagree. To me there is no question that this company should be shut down, but in my opinion they deserve to be taken to court! They need to face the consequences for these actions. People make mistakes of course, but this is mistake after mistake after mistake which have been illegal and actually caused people harm. The company are thieves and liars and have shown absolutely no signs of changing their behaviour seeing as they continue to refuse refunds, ignore emails, go back on their word, threaten and harass people etc etc


I have never ever said this about any makeup company before but please, please do not buy from this company. Even if you don't care that your money would be supporting them, even if you don't care about what they've done in the past just think about your eyesight. If I knew there was even the tiniest iota of a chance that it could remotely harm my eyes I wouldn't trust it and with this company there is a HUGE chance of it happening. If you have old Glittersniffer cosmetics and are unhappy to use them anymore (which is very sensible) there is someone on the Glittersniffer Complaints facebook page who will take them off your hands to use as art supplies.

Stay tuned for a similar post about Orglamix. Ohh the misery.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Swatcharama - Evil Shades Lip Gloss

Here are my swatches for Evil Shades 3 sorts of glosses, Wicked gloss, Hardcore Lips and Liquid Sin.

 Hard Core Lips: 

Just Like Candy


Tuesday 1 March 2011

Swatcharama - Evil Shades Lipsticks

Here are the lip swatches of all the Evil Shades Deviant Lipsticks I own.

Ardour 


Evil Shades Haul, Swatches and mini review

Just after christmas Evil Shades had a sale (I have completely forgotten how much, 20% perhaps?) so I decided to get some bits I hadn't tried before, and some I had tried before and liked :) Now I haven't worn the majority of these long enough to do a proper review, so this is just my initial thoughts.

Ok so i ordered on the first of january and I recieved my order in just over 2 weeks, which is pretty much the standard for shipping from America. It came in a standard bubble mailer, then wrapped in a pink plastic bag and sealed with the cute sticker :)


  

Here is everything I bought! :) 
2 Hardcore Lips in Just Like Candy and Doom
2 Deviant Lipsticks in Stiletto and Bane
Foiling/Wetlining Liquid
Eyeshadow primer in Noir
Bewitching Cuticle Balm sample and Indulge Cuticle Creme sample
4 lipstick samples in Cursed Beauty, Devoted, Hell Froze Over and Obscurity
3 Blush samples in Back Talk, Burlesque and Love Bites
And I got a free sample of Lucia eye shadow :)
All of this, including international shipping cost $40.91 (£25.15) which is fantastic. In fact the shipping only cost me $4.25 (£2.61) which is less than most UK sellers charge! 

More photos, swatches and thoughts under the cut.