All Filler No Killer

Happy Easter! I hope you had either a fulfilling spiritual experience, a happy secular celebration of chocolate and bunnies or indeed just a nice relaxing saturday :)
This is another filler post I'm afraid. Basically I want you to do all the hard work for me!
I have a tonne of things to swatch or review that have been waiting for over a month now.  I can't decide what to work on first!

So help me out, tell me what you are most interested in seeing out of:
a review of Illamasqua Cream pigment
Shiro swatches and review
Hi Voltage cosmetics swatches and review
A new Evil Shades haul
Blog sale/CP/ various bits haul
A trip to Brighton

Or none of the above :P

Oh and by the way, thank you all for voting in my last poll. The winner was Morgana Minerals new lipsticks with Shiro coming a close second. I bought from Shiro first as I hadn't tried anything of theirs before, whereas I already have quite a bit from Morgana. I was planning on getting a sample set of all the new lipsticks to try but unfortunately soon after I made that poll a lot of bad stuff has happened financially and I can't afford to buy that (or indeed any makeup) anytime soon :( I'm sorry to anyone who is disappointed and I will get them as soon as I have any sort of income again!

Sorry again for the delay in 'proper' posts, my cold is finally leaving and i'm not too busy in the coming week so a review of Brazen cosmetics and a new swatcharama should be up in the next couple of days as well as lots more of my big ol' face :)

Lillian Low and her big stupid lipstick wearing face

I have tonnes of proper reviews and swatches and hauls to post. But they'll have to wait for another day, today I was too busy stuffing my face with orange Lindor and watching episode after episode of Come Dine with Me. So all you get is my big ol' face.

I'm wearing High Voltage eyebrow powder in Redhead, some black mascara and Illamasqua Atomic lipstick, but other than that your guess is as good as mine!
Sorry for the boring post. Hopefully I'll have a review up tomorrow but I still have a terrible cold and it's making me want to just lie around the house whinging and avoiding anything that could be even the slightest bit productive. If worst comes to the worst I've got more pictures of my face to post!

..Whoa

Ok. Really sorry, I never meant to go this long without posting! Not going to go into the whys and wherefores, so instead I'm going to post some amusing pictures (well they're amusing to me anyway!)

Sometime before Christmas I bought a size playsuit on ebay, when it arrived it didn't fit. I could have sent it back as the auction had called it a 16 and it was actually a 14 but I liked it so much I decided to keep it and try and slim into it. And somehow miraculously I now fit it! Do I look good in it? Well... see for yourself:

...So that's a no :P Ok I look like a black glittery bean desperately trying to burst from it's skin. But it fits! And I can pretend I'm now a size 14 (I know I'm not really, the playsuit is either mislabelled or just runs really large but I can still wear it and claim I'm a 14!). And yes it's in the beautiful setting of right next to the bin.

Here's Claire and I on the tube a while later. We went to see my friend Mikey playing at a Glam Rock club, which was fun but I ended up having some panic attacks which sucked. We looked good though! You can't see my makeup properly though, I had a red lightning bolt on my cheek. I stole the look shamelessly from my mate Liselotte (only I couldn't do it as well).

Claire decided I needed a pompadour to tr and make me look like La Roux. Unfortunately I look a lot more like a fat, ugly boy :P

And finally here I am making the most beautiful face in the world:

I have a cold and am grumpy! But at least I've dragged my lazy bum back to my blog! Sorry for the disappearance everyone! What's been going on?

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.

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?

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

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!

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 :)