This is from when I was about 17 (and fully punked up in my handmade Seditionaries repro shirt and terribly drawn on eyebrows) on my way to a Billy Idol concert. Ahh those were the days.
A few months ago I went out dancing with my friend Xenia, I decided to do a sort of punk/80s gothish look. Just because. I think I looked rather nice!
I can't really remember everything I was wearing. I suspect it was something like this:
Face: Illamasqua Skin Base 02, ELF Studio HD powder, hot pink blush (maybe Stargazer eyeshadow orSugarpill Dollipop)
Eyes: Stargazer florescent eyeshadow in Rose Pink, Sugarpill magentrix, Illamasqua pure pigment in Static, black mascara and liquid liner. Sugarpill Bulletproof on the brows.
Lips: colour from a kryolan lip palette
I need to do more interesting looks like this, I've gotten stuck in a rut of pin-up-ish eyes and bright lipstick.
Most people seem to be 'over' crackle polishes, but not me! I love them, I'm still not over the novelty of watching the little fissures appear in my nails and they're brilliant for livening up a polish I've gotten bored of or hiding smudges/chips/tip wear and stuff. I was really excited when Barry M came out with the 'Croc Nail Effects' polish because it was a new kind of crackle! The idea of it basically is a crackle that looks like crocodile skin, so rounder with smaller gaps. I waited ages to get it because it was never available anywhere near me but recently I picked it up.
Unfortunately I'm a bit disappointed.
When I applied it to the first nail I did it as I would any other crackle, over a completely dry base coat of colour (in this case Barry M Nail Effects Silver Foil). After a few minutes this was my result:
It just wasn't what I was hoping for, there's hardly any cracks and lots of lines that aren't making the round 'croc' shape it's supposed to. Then I read the packaging and iscovered I was applying it wrong, with this it says you're meant to put it over slightly wet polish, so for my next few fingers I applied another coat of the silver, waited about a minute, then applied the croc effects. This was my result:
...Oh dear.
So then for the last nails I tried leaving the base coat for a few minutes, so it was basically dry but not completely:
So these are... about the same as the first one.
Maybe I'm just applying it badly somehow (if anyone has any tips please let me know) but as it is I can't recommend this to people, it's too messy and I just really don't like the effect. Big disappointment. But I'll try it again sometime and will update if I can make it work.
Ok who else hates the new blogger? I absolutely loathe it! I'm sure I'll get used to it but for now it's making me grumpy everytime I log on.
Here's a look I did the other day using my newly purchased (when they had an Easter sale) Illamasqua precision Ink in Scribe. I really like white eyeliner, it's not as classic as black but I still think it's flattering. It's really eyecatching, makes my eyes look super blue and my eyelashes look really long because of the contrast between the black mascara and white liner!
Wearing:
Face: Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in 01, ELF Studio HD powder, Sugarpill Dollipop eyeshadow (worn as blush)
Eyes: Darling Girl Cosmetics eyeshadows in Blitzen and Rudolph, Illamasqua Precision Ink eyeliner in Scribe, Black mascara (can't remember which), Illamasqua medium pencil in Vow
Lips: Conjurers Cosmetics lipstick (made by me :P)
What do you think, would you wear white eyeliner on your upper lids or just stick to the waterline? Do you think I look freakish or awesome?
A little while ago I was contacted by the lovely Joanna from Find Me A Gift who offered to send me one of their makeup gifts to review. I chose this, the Goddess Eye Makeup Gift Box from Me Me Me. Find Me A Gift is an online shop that specialises in all sorts of presents for everyone including lots of silly novelty things as well as luxurious items and days out. Their makeup section isn't extensive but they do have The Balm products which can be hard to find in the UK and some Me Me Me gift sets I've not seen anywhere else.
Anyway as this was sent to me I can't really review the website so I'll just be discussing the Me Me Me set.
The Goddess gift Box comes with an Eye Inspire Baked Eyeshadow Quad, Fat Cat mascara (black), Eye Sweep liquid eyeliner (black), Eye Line pencil eyeliner (in Coal) and a little 'get the look' flyer.
As you can see it's packaged in a simple black box. It did have a little wrapper thing (you can see it in the item link) with the same picture as on the flyer but you have to take it off to open the box and so of course I immediately lost it. It would be nicer to have a more decorative box as it's a gift set but it's not really a big deal. The box is nice and solid and hardy, mae of heavy cardboard and closing with magnets.
The get-the-look flyer wasn't a particularly useful addition. While the look itself is very nice the instructions are a bit lacking. Basically all the steps are the same, just saying to put the colours across the lid and under the lashline without going into detail. Also the colours in the quad aren't labeled with named but the look sheet refers to them ('Cream' is easy to work out but it's hard to tell which colour is meant to be 'Light Gold', 'Bronze' and 'Rich Copper' without being told). But again this isn't a big deal at all, it's easy to think how to use the set because the colours all compliment each other well.
Here is the quad. As you can see it contains 3 complimenting metallic goldy/bronzy colours and a cream which has golden tones too. Sometimes I find baked shadows to be dry and hard to get decent pigmentation from but these were lovely and creamy. The cream colour was ever so slightly chalky but not badly. All the colours are lovely and soft and blendable. But the quad itself is quite small and as all four colours are baked in a pan I found it hard sometimes to get my brush in without picking up more than one colour at a time.
The Eye Line pencil is soft and creamy and a very deep black. I don't tend to use pencil eyeliners except on my waterline (I just prefer liquid liners) so that's how I tested it. It is not smudgeproof but I found it very long lasting. After about 8 hours the colour had faded a little but was still clearly visible.
The Eye Sweep liquid eyeliner is really fantastic! I've tried many pen style eyeliners before and never liked them, they always seem really dry and I often find the colour dries down slightly grey. This one however is lovely. The liquid flows easily out of the tip and you can run it really smoothly across your eyelid. It dries down to a very pigmented black. The felt nib is just the right size, not too big, not too small and you can make both thin and thick lines with it.
Top: Eye Line - Bottom: Eye Sweep (one stroke of each)
Finally the Fat Cat mascara. This was a bit of a let down to be honest. Firstly it smells very very strongly and the smell isn't very pleasant. It's like a very chemically, synthetic orange smell. You don't notice it when you're wearing it thankfully but I found it off putting when I was applying it. It's also a very dry formula, which I find hard to apply properly. And I wasn't very impressed with the look it gives my lashes, I want the biggest, thickest lashes possible and this doesn't give me them. However on the plus side it didn't flake or clump and gave good definition. I'd think this would be a good daytime mascara for people who want natural looking lashes that are just a bit darker and thicker than their naked lashes.
My naked lashes
With 3 coats of the mascara.
You can see it's lengthened my lashes a bit and they're obviously darker but there's very little volumisation (which this mascara specifically boasts) and I'd prefer more length.
Here are some photos of a look I made using everything in the set:
All in all I think this is a really nice gift set. It contains everything you might need for a lovely eye look. I really love the Eye Sweep and the eyeshadow quad has some great complimentary colours. I could imagine making a nice bronze smokey eye with it too. The only disappointment was the mascara, but again it's not terrible and people who like natural looking lashes will probably like it (if they can cope with the smell). I think for £14 this is a great gift set and would be particularly good for someone just getting into makeup as it contains a nice set of basic and essential eye products and the colours aren't too scary or out there.
*I was sent this for review purposes but all thoughts and opinions are my own*
My Mum has fully recovered from her operation, the huge deluge of Birthdays in my family that hits the late march/early april is over and a very stressful meeting to do with my social anxiety has passed. Ahhh I can relax! So I'm hopping back up on the blogging horse and hope to be posting more regularly from now on. I actually have a proper review coming up! (Hopefully tomorrow, I just need to take some swatch shots when the light is nice).
To ease me back in I thought I'd do a tag post because I find them really fun to write. I stole this from Jansara's amazing, fantastic blog. I ain't tagging anyone because I wasn't properly tagged myself, so just do this if you wanna!
1. What Sparked your interest in Makeup and what made you decide to start blogging?
I honestly can't remember what originally drew me to makeup, I just remember being about 8 or 9 and raiding my Mum's makeup stash for lipstick and eyeshadow. I have a vivid memory of jumping up and down on her bed listening to David Bowie, having just slathered my mouth in bright red lipstick and lots of black eyeliner. My guess is that my sister Lydia inspired me to play with it, she was 5 years older than me and had a sort of Britpop/indie/goth look going on (lots of eyeliner, burgundy lipstick, bindis etc) and I idolised and loved her. The first time I can remember going out in public in makeup was to a Christmas school disco. My friend Xenia and I bought some makeup together from Miss Selfridge (who used to have AWESOME makeup!) and wore matching faces with one eye in electric blue mascara and the other in bright green with bright orange lips (I still own that lipstick!).
(Lydia and I circa 1998ish)
As for when I started blogging, again I can't really remember. I started in 2009 just after I'd finished my art degree and think I was quite depressed. I didn't get the results I was hoping for and felt disappointed with myself and let down by my Tutor and I just didn't feel like painting much at that time. But I still needed an outlet for my creativity so wanted to start writing some sort of blog. Since starting to wear makeup I've always been creative with my looks (i.e. not particularly good at it) and loved buying and playing with it so thought it would be a good thing to concentrate on.
2. If you could only use one monochromatic set of colors of eyeshadow what would it be? I.e. only shades of blue.
Probably pink as it's my favourite colour and looks nice with my blue eyes.
3. Do you prefer playing with eyeshadow, lipstick or nail polish?
Lipstick. I just looove lipstick.
4. What do you want to be "when you grow up"?
An artist or illustrator.
(Painting by me)
5. Favorite band/musician?
Sparks they're just the greatest band ever. I could go on for hours about why I love them (drop me an email if you're interested in hearing my babble! :P) but basically this is why:
I also love David Devant and his Spirit Wife, ABC, David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, Kate Bush, Pet Shop Boys, Aqua, Abba, Adam and the Ants, the Smiths and Morrissey, Rammstein, The Beatles, Art Brut, Bruce Springsteen, The Divine Comedy, Pulp, Oingo Boingo and many many many more!
6. Favorite guilty pleasure?
Watching bad bad bad tv (Toddlers and Tiaras, Eastenders, Neighbours, Judge Judy etc). Also chocolate.
7. How do you like to spend your days (you know after you've played with makeup xD)
I paint/draw/sculpt etc, look after the animals, tidy the house, cook, listen to music, watch TV and at the moment I'm making my own makeup!
8. Do you have any pets? If so, names and pictures!
The only pet in the house that is actually mine is Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, my miniature Daschund
but I also look after and love my Mum's dog Minnie, Claire's dog Perry, my sisters 3 ferrets Yetta, Rikku and Feargal, Mum's guinea pig Portia and the communal cats Mr Darcy and Weevil. You're not having photos of all of them because it would take too long!
9. Do you prefer indie companies or cooperate companies to buy your makeup from?
If you'd asked me this 6 months ago I definately would have said indie companies but since then I've been stung by a lot of them and tend to prefer big companies in general. There are of course exceptions and I still love the whole indie makeup thing! In my opinion a good company is a good company regardless of size.
10. The most rewarding thing about blogging for you?
Just interacting with other people, sharing opinions, inspiring each other and just talking to people I wouldn't have met had it not been for the beauty blogging world.
11. Who inspired you?
Mizzworthy, Phyrra and Pixiwoo were the main people I looked at when I started blogging.
So it's Easter. I have another bloody cold but it's not stopping me eating my weight (which is weighty) in chocolate, for it is the law.
I've been trying to get some looks done with products I need to review but unfortunately I have a giant, foul spot right next to my mouth, which is also chapped and red and sore from the cold (also my nose is all dry and flaky) so I look like I have some horrible disease. Niccceee.
Instead here's a look from a couple of weeks ago when I went to my friend Mikey's art exhibition (Bonus fun story: It was at the university he teaches it but he gave us the wrong name of the gallery and no indication of what building it was in. Claire and I wandered around the campus aimlessly with her asking students for directions to a gallery that didn't exist and me becoming more and more anxious. Then when we finally found it we appeared to be the only people who turned up who weren't students at the college. Oh the embarrassment. But then we had a nice time chatting with him). The look has absolutely nothing to do with Easter and I can't remember what I was wearing (except Inglot gel eyeliner in 79) so sue me! :P
Return of the funny face!
Now I love this outfit, I think it's so cute. But it's probably one of the least flattering things I could wear. The shorts fit me fine but really emphasize my belly and the top is both too small (at the tits where it gapes) and too big (at the waist which billows out makes me look less curvy than I actually am) But I don't care, I love my poodle top! It makes me feel like a 50s bad girl :D
Top: H by Henry Holland
Shorts: Primark
Tights: Basic black ones from anywhere.
Boots: Dr Martens
Hope you had either a spiritually fulfilling holiday or a happy secular celebration or chocolate or just a nice sunday wherever you are :)
To say that my Mum is fine and dandy. I'm keeping her entertained with DVDs and fully stocked with cups of tea. I'm still worried of course 'cause she's my Mummy but everything should be fine now :)
Have another old photo, this time I'm about 9 and going to see Rocky Horror with my family and best friend of the time.
left to right:
My sister Lydia, my Mum, my sister Laura, Me, my friend Natasha.
