Paradox

 It's my 600th post! WOOO!

To celebrate behold this amazing giant bourbon biscuit from Costa:

You have no idea how delicious it was.

Right now onto the proper post!

Back in the early summer my jewellery company Callooh and Callay launched a new collection based around impossible/paradox images. Because we're a tiny company we can't afford fancy stuff like models so I had to pretend to be one myself. We wanted a sort of New Wave look and I did my best!

 

 

Do you think I succeeded?

I used  Illamasqua Skin Base in 02 in several layers to give me heavy coverage. I wanted my skin to look as flawless as possible to give a mask-like appearance. I highlighted the bridge of my nose, cheekbones and cupids bow with Tiara Chromalust by Sugarpill. To make the angular cheeks I just cut a triangle out of paper and used it as a stencil with Sugarpill Love + eyeshadow. Finally for the lips I mixed Sugarpill Chromalust in Goldilux (the best gold eyeshadow EVER!) with ELF Studio Makeup lock and Seal. I knew I was going to be wearing big 80s style sunglasses so I didn't bother with any eye makeup. When I took the glasses off the look was... strange:

 

Here's a close up of the lips. The colour was amazing but it felt very dry.

So that was my 600th post. It may have been underwhelming but at least I only just realised so there wasn't a big build up to it!

Facey facey face

Just my face again. I promise for more interesting posts really soon!

Wearing: 

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base foundation in 02, ELF Studio HD powder, a blush from Sleek Pumpkin palette (the pink one, can't remember the name)

Eyes: Black mascara, the Me Me Me eyeshadows reviewed here, Illamasqua Medium pencil in Cane.

Lips: Mac Magenta Lip pencil with sleek Glossed over the top (the gloss just has the name on a sticker which I had to remove to use it! From looking on their website I'm pretty sure it's Pump it Up)

I want to do some more interesting, avante garde ish faces but have trouble thinking up ideas. Give me some inspiration or themes and let's see what rubbish I can come up with! :D

New Years Eve

 Going way back in time here to New Years Eve! Claire and I went to see one of our favourite bands David Devant and his Spirit Wife. Usually I avoid doing anything on New years because it's so busy and scary but the gig was really fun and not too crowded and getting home wasn't even that horrible!

I decided to dress up as my friend Mikey (the singer), because obviously that's what a normal person does. Originally Claire was going to dress as the guitarist, Foz, but she ran out of time to make a proper outfit.

Here I am being a super cool person:

 

 

Wearing:

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in 02, ELF Studio HD powder, ELF Studio Cool bronzer

Eyes: Illamasqua pure pigment in Synth, Sugarpill Pressed shadow in Bulletproof, Sugarpill Chromalust shadow in Stella, Sugarpill Chromalust in Tiara, Illamasqua Medium pencil in Sophie, Benefit Theyt're Real mascara.

Lips: Can't remember :(

Claire made me a lurex jumpsuit, I look like a very plump, glittery slug :P

  

Here's a pic from the night where I'm propping Mikey. This was probably taken about a minute before he toppled over taking me with him :P

Ahh posting my New Years look in March, I am clearly the best blogger ever :P

My besties of 2011

Right it's time to step away from the negativity and go onto something positive! I thought I'd finally share my favourites of last year, i'm only just in February so not as bad as last year where I just never got around to it.

(I stole the catergories from jennifaes awesome blog, because I am too lazy to make up my own! I did add a couple of things though and removed some that i don't have favourites of though). Some of the categories have contenders which are products that only just didn't make the cut.

Best High-End Beauty Brand

Illamasqua
 A lot of my favoutite products come from Illamasqua, they tend to have really high quality, beautifully packaged, excitingly coloured and richly pigmented makeup.  I also just love Illamasqua as a brand! Here's why. 

Best Drugstore Beauty Brand

ELF
ELF tends to be a bit hit and miss with their products but the majority of those I have tried have been really brilliant, particularly those from the Studio section of the brand. The prices are fantastic (basically everything is under £5) and the packaging is really nice considering how cheap it is.

Contender
Sleek
Sleek are another great Drugstore brand. I love that they have very pigmented, bright and interesting shades and exciting products like their Molten Metals and Pout Paints. Their shadow palettes are also fantastic and (even with the stupid price hike) great value.

Best Indie Makeup Brand

Darling Girl
Darling Girl is one of the newest indie companies I've tried but they've quickly become my favourite. All the products I've tried have been fantastic quality and come in lots of gorgeous colours. The prices are fair and Susan (the owner) is one of the nicest, most helpful people you could hope to deal with. I've never had a problem with an order and TAT are always reasonable. I have a proper review coming up soon :) 

Contender
Sugarpill

The reason Sugarpill didn't win is that they have fewer products to choose from and also I find it hard to catergorise them as an indie company! The packaging, branding and quality of the products is absolutely amazing and wouldn't seem out of place in a High End brand. 

Best Pressed Eyeshadow

Sugarpill
Sugarpills pressed eyeshadows are just the bees knees. They're insanely pigmented, bright and true to colour and also apply smoothly and blend easily. They're also really reasonably priced at $34 for a palette of 4 huge pans of shadow or $12 each. At the moment there are 9 fantastic rich colours and a tonne more are coming out soon!

Contender
MUA Pressed shadows
MUA shadows are nice, particularly the pearl finish ones which are creamy and easy to apply, but not amazing. However as they cost £1 each they're a fantastic bargain!

Best Loose Eyeshadow

Darling Girl, Shiro, Sugarpill, Venomous Cosmetics, Fyrrinae
I couldn't choose just one brand for this. All of the above make amazing shadows, pigmented, creamy, easily blendable, great range of colours, long lasting etc. I'd say they're all about equal in quality. Sugarpill tends to have the brightest, boldest colours, Fyrinnae the most complex, Darling Girl has fantastic unusual neutral shades and lovely duochromes, Venomous has great sparkle and Shiro has wonderful soft shades.

Contenders
Illamasqua pure Pigment, Barry M Dazzle dusts
Both of these are lovely too but more expensive (particularly the Illamasqua)

Best Pencil Eyeliner

Illamasqua Medium pencil
I really like these because they come in a multitude of colours and you can use them anywhere on your face, which means you can finally have a pale green lipliner or bright red eyeliner if you wanted! I also just really like them, they're soft enough to leave an easy line but not so soft as to break or smudge easily and they last longer on my waterline than the average eyeliner.

Best Liquid Eyeliner

Illamasqua Precision Ink
 This eyeliner has a really great applicator, it's a felt style one (not a felt-tip pen style though) but is a bit longer than average (I think? Something's different anyway) which makes it really easy to apply precisely. The formula is great, completely opaque and slightly glossy. It dries quickly and does not fade or smudge at all.
It's only available in 4 shades which is a bit of a shame in one way because I love coloured eyeliner but in another it's great because I love this stuff but my bank balance does not :P

Best Glitter Eyeliner
Collection 2000 Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Liners
Just the best glitter Eyeliners ever. These are packed full of glitter which means you don't need to layer it over and over to get a proper glitter liner look (unlike some glitter eyeliners *coughUrbanDecaycough*). They come in lots of lovely bright colours including some holographic ones and also dry quickly.


Contender
MUA Glitter Eyeliner
These are almost as good as the Collection 2000 but have a worse brush (it's too long and splays and is just a bit odd) and only come in about 3 shades, but they're also just £1 yay!

Best Mascara

Benefit They're Real
I've been using this as an alternative to my absolute favourite mascara (Lancomes Oscillation) since I discovered that lancome test on animals (or support animal testing or something, it's hard to tell :/ ). It's a really good mascara giving wonderful length and volume (doesn't add much curl but my lashes are naturally curly so I never bother with curling mascaras) and it doesn't flake or clump easily. The brush is a plastic one which I always prefer to bristles and has a cool little spiky top part that helps to lift the lashes up and coat them right to the roots. I have found that it's dried out a bit though and is not as good or easy to use as it was when I first bought it.

Best Lip Balm

Models own
When it comes to bog standard lip balm used just to moisturise your mouth I don't really have a favourite, I'll use anything as long as it doesn't taste disgusting, but these Models Own ones are amazing. Look here for a full review but these are highly pigmented, lip softening, super shiny, delicious smelling little pots of joy!

Best Lipstick

MAC Amplified Creme Lipsticks
My favourite ever lipsticks, these are creamy, soft, not at all drying and easy to apply. They glide over my lips and are beautifully pigmented with a slightly shiny finish. They come in lots of pretty colours and while they don't have any very unusual ones like blues or greens they do have bright oranges, pinks, purples and reds. 

Contender
Mac Matte Lipsticks
I tend to just like Mac's lipsticks in general but only have a few that aren't either Amplified Creme or Matte formula so Matte would be my contender. A couple of the shades are hard to use (Ruby Woo i'm looking at you) but in general they tend to be slightly dry but not bad and not drying to the lips. They're very pigmented and have a lovely retro finish.

I have swatches of all my Mac Lipsticks here

Best Lipgloss

Illamasqua Intense Lipglosses
I just looove these. They're super opaque, ultra glossy, smell delicious, come in fantastic shades like grey and molten silver along with pinks and reds and last longer than any other gloss I've tried. See my full review here and swatches here


Contenders
Darling Girl Holo-glosses/venomous cosmetics Lip Poisons
Darling Girls Holo-glosses are fantastic (generally) clear or sheer glosses packed with lovely glitter. They last beautifully and are amazing layered over lipsticks. Venomous Lip poisons are actually quite similar to the Illamasqua Intense glosses, they're opaque and long wearing and lovely but just not quite as good (in my opinion) You can see some lip swatches here.

Best Blush

Illamasqua powder blush
Amazingly soft and blendable but ultra pigmented. You need a light hand with these! They last all day and come in a myriad of colours to suit every skin tone (from the palest pink to deepest plum). The majority of these are matte but a couple of shimmery shades have just been released and have a lovely hint of shimmer but not over the top sparkle.


Contender
ELF Studio
ELFs blushes are also incredibly pigmented, easy to blend and cheap at £3.50 each but I find them just slightly chalkier and the sparkle in some shades can be a bit brash for me.

Best Bronzer

ELF Studio Cool bronzer

I don't generally use bronzer to look bronzed or sunkissed, I just use it occasionally to  contour my face. To do this properly it's best to use a matt contour shade as the sparkle in bronzer reflects light (and when you're contouring you want to create shadows, which should not reflect the light) and this bronzer is great for that! It's matte and has 4 shades in the one pan that you can mix together or use seperately to get the right depth of colour. It's very pigmented though so you need to use a light hand. 


Contender
  Sleek Contour Kit
Sleeks contour kit has a beautiful formula which is really easy to apply and blend. It comes in a few shadesto suit different skin tones. I use the 'light' shade and it works well with my ultra pale pink skin. It's not super pigmented but I find that a good thing because it looks more natural. However it has shimmer in it which as I said before is not brilliant for contouring (for me anyway). 


Best Highlighter
ELF Studio Blush in Gotta Glow/Illamasqua Illuminator
 Gotta Glow is a pearly white pressed powder with some golden sparkle. It's great for adding a bit of shimmer to the face and highlighting large areas like the cheekbones however it's not very pigmented. Illamasqua's Illuminators are cream highlighters that are insanely pigmented and really reflect light. They have fantastic sparkle and dry really quickly. You can apply them sheerly for a hint of a glow or more thickly for a real sparkle with more opaque colour.


Contender:
ELF Studio Radiance Enhancer
This is a highlighting cream that comes in a handy brush applicator which makes it really easy to apply (especially to places like the cupids bow where you only want a hint of highlight). It gives a nice glow but is not very pigmented and takes a little while to dry.

Best Liquid Foundation

Illamasqua Skin Base 
I love this foundation (though ignore the claims that it's like a BB cream, it isn't) it's buildable from sheer to full coverage, easily blends on my skin, lasts brilliantly and gives a really lovely natural looking finish to my skin. You can see my full review here.


Contender
GOSH X-ceptional Wear
A great foundation that blends easily into the skin, leaves it looking matte and lasts all day.

Best Powder Foundation

BFTE 
To be fair I've only tried 2 powder foundations, BFTE's and Physicians Formula. The PF one is pressed, I find it quite hard to apply and the lightest shade is too dark for me whereas the BFTE is a loose powder which applies beautifully and comes in lots of shades (Alabaster suits me well). It's super easy to apply, you just buff it in, and it leaves my skin looking flawless. You can see me in it here.

Best Setting Powder

ELF Studio HD powder
This is just a good, bog-standard powder. It's colourless so should work for most skin shades (though if you're very dark skinned I think it could make you look a little ashy as it could leave a white cast) and sets foundations brilliantly, leaving you with matt skin. You only need to use a little bit and it's cheap at £6 (or cheaper in the US or with one of ELFs millions of codes).

Best Makeup Brushes

ELF Studio

I love the ELF Studio brushes, they're really cheap (generally £3.50), synthetic and thus cruelty free and just work brilliantly! I can honestly say these are on par with my Illamasqua brushes that can cost up to 10x as much. It's hard to explain why they're so good, they just work! I have a video about them here

Contender
Illamasqua
Illamasquas brushes are great, synthetic, soft, easy to use and apply and blend makeup easily.

Best Nail Varnish

Illamasqua
While Illamasqua nail varnishes are among the priciest I've ever bought at £13.50 each (though I always wait for a sale or discount code as I am cheap :P ) they're probably the best quality too. They're generally very pigmented needing only 2 coats to be fully opaque, come in beautiful colours, dry really quickly and last for ages without chipping or wearing.

Contender
Models Own, Lynnderella, GOSH
Models Own and GOSH polishes are great and dry quite quickly. I generally need 2-3 coats but the finish is smooth and glossy and lasts for days. Lynnderella polishes aren't quite as quick drying but they are so unusual and gorgeous that they're worth it!

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone, My laptop is being fixed so I have to use claire's and don't have access to my files and photos. I'm getting it back soon though.


If there's any other catergories you'd be interested in knowing my favourites of then comment and I'll add them in :)

A Haul from Wendy :D

Hullo everyone.

A while ago I got the lovely Wendy to cp me a few bits, but she was naughty and sent me gifts too. Ohhh naughty generous people :P

Have a look at my goodies!

First I got the Deborah Lippmann 'Get This Party Started' set which includes 3 polishes in 'Happy Birthday', 'Candy Shop' and 'Forget You'

   

These were a lot bigger than I expected. I've only seen photos of the bottles from straight on and I imagined they were cuboid/rectangular, like Barry M polish bottles. Instead they're square and pretty huge!

 I had my Lynnderella polishes (which I mentioned in this post) delivered to Wendy.

  

The colours are Snow Angel, Connect the Dots, The Glittering Crowd and Throwing Water into the Ocean (a freebie :) )

And in the US ELF had a 70% off sale, and as it's about half the price there than it is here I thought I'd grab some bits.

 

ELF studio Angeld Eyeliner Brush, ELF mineral Flat Eyeliner Brush, ELF Zit Zapper.

 

ELF Studio Glitter Gloss in Jeweled Jam , ELF Studio Minty Lip Gloss in Houston, ELF Studio Pout Perfecter, ELF Studio Radiance Enhancer in Spotlight, ELF Studio Lip Lock pencil.

This delightful thing is a candle holder from Bath and Body Works.

 

Ad then some gifts from Wendy <3

2 Bath and Body Works PocketBacs (antibacterial hand gel stuff)

 

The ghost is Chocolate Chew scented (smells JUST like a Tootsie Roll and the ghostie glows in the dark :D) and the Lichtenstein-esque Whaam! Is Fruit Punch scented. 

And some Makeup! I am spoiled :)

Milani Lipsticks in Orange-gina and Blackcherry, Jordana Lip Out Loud gloss in OMG, Sinful Colors polishes in Frenzy and Hottie

Thank you Wendy!!

Swatches of most things under the cut :)

ELF haul!

I haven't posted a haul in ages because I haven't had a proper haul in a while! I was super poor before Christmas and am still saving money because I have tonnes of birthdays and things coming up (boo hoo) but as I got money for christmas I've indulged my addiction a little, so expect other small hauls coming up :)

Sorry the photos aren't that great, the white table I usually take photos on was covered as paint and for some reason the light was awful! But I will be reviewing most things separately, so will have better photos then :)

I actually made two orders!

This was the first:

 

I got:

3 Nail polishes

Studio Brush Shampoo

2 Pencil sharperners

Tinted moisturiser in Ivory

Concealer brush

11 piece glitter Studio brush set

Studio Angled contour brush

Smudge Sponge

Shimmer Eyeliner in Precious Pink

Eye Widener

(I also got a few other bits for a giveaway, but you can't see them yet! :P)

Then about a week later they had a special on where you got free shipping over £10 and a free makeup setting spray, so I just bought a small amount of stuff:

 

I got:

'Theraputic conditioning balm in Blackberry Creme

Studio Lip Liner and blending brush

Nail Polish in coral

Studio Makeup setting spray

Studio blush in Peachy Keen

Ok, there are many reasons i LOVE ELF but this is the main one:

All this, including shipping and including the extra bits for the giveaway all came to less than £60. THE JOY!

 

And also, I haven't tried everything yet, but so far i really really like everything. There will be individual reviews of most things coming up soon (you don't need a review of pencil sharpeners though :P) if there's anything you'd like to see first let me know!

Also I've added a couple of new tabs at the top of my blog, have a look if you wish :)

Jellyminx Thinks contest entry number 2 - Snowdrop

This time i based my look around one of my birth months flowers, and one of my personal favourites, snowdrops.

It's sort of an updated version of my mistletoe and wine look from before christmas.









You totally can't tell, because i couldn't get a good picture, but on my lips, over the baby pink pencil, the gloss has an amazing green reflect. Boo.

I am wearing:

face:
NYX liquid foundation in LM01 Pale
Avon loose powder
Illamasqua powder blusher in Nymph

Eyes:
white pencil eyeliner (on waterline and eyebrows)
ELF eye transformer (the green section) as a higlight
Hi Fi eyeshadow in Grinch all over lid
Barry M dazzle dust in the crease
white liquid eyeliner
black mascara

Lips:
Baby Pink Barry M lip pencil
Spell Hologlow gloss in Absinthe

I've been a bit poorly recently but have managed to play around with new makeup.

some FOTDs:





I bought a pressing solution from coastal scents and when it arrived it had leaked (just a tiny tiny bit, not enough to be a problem) and somehow the bit of liquid made all the letters come off the label and i could push them around. How amazing does this look?:



And finally, here is what i looked like on Halloween (which i actually celebrated a week late because i had some bad stuff happening on the actual halloween). The makeup is quite terrible because i was in the middle of it when my guests turned up (all early!) so i had to just shove the rest on quickly.
This is my hilarious 'sexy' Mickey look :P



While my first ELF order (the brushes, which i'm still testing) took over 2 weeks to arrive, my second one (a few of the new Studio Line products) came the day after i ordered it! Amazing! I'm going to do a review on what i got soon, i am so incredibly impressed already.

I had a really nice night yesterday, shopping at Carnaby street where (basically) all of the shops had 20% off everything! I did get a lot of nice stuff, but i didn't go into a shopping mania of buying every single little thing i wanted. I went into the Mac Pro shop and it was hellish! We had to queue to get into the shop! So i didn't do any browsing because it was so very busy and stressful, but i picked up a few bits that have been on my wishlist for a while.

Tomorrow i have to do a really dull job in my house, but hopefully i'll be able to take some photos soon.

Also as i now have 46 followers i'd like to announce that i'm going to do a give-away when i get 50. I really can't thank you guys enough. I had no idea so many people would be interested in my little ramblings. I'm really touched :)

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post!
I've decided to combine all of your suggestions!
I'm gong to try covering my eyebrows and drawing on the high arch just to see if it suits me (i'll take photos so i can get your opinions) then if it's a hit i will go get the professionally done and then i can do the upkeep at home :)

My E.L.F. brushes finally came today! After i've given them a thorough play i'm going to give them a proper review, but so far (having only used a few of them once :P) i love them! I used the powder brush mainly and it was so incredibly soft! I just kept stroking it over my face again and again because it feels so nice.
Up until now i've only used rubbish brushes, either incredibly cheap ones from superdrug, a very very old set of Hard Candy ones the dreaded sponge applicators or even my fingers.

While the actual brushes are great they took an age to come! I've heard they usually have really quick shipping, but with me it took over 2 weeks. Also because i was a bit worried about them (it said on my delivery confirmation that it would be about 2-5 days) i emailed them to ask if there was any problems, but i didn't get a reply. It was just a bit irritating. Having said that they now have a bunch of new studio products and i want to buy lots of them!

I hate to say it but i'm afraid i've got even more Lime Crime drama to come at you. Sigh.