Illamasqua Cream eyeshadow swatches

Love, suck, stir, crumble, midas, outcast, stimulus

I bought these when Illamasqua were about to discontinue them, so they were 50% off. I haven't actually worn them yet so i can't review them, just thought you might want to see some swatches. I love the intensity of some of the colours. Also the names make me happy.

Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss swatches

I love, love, LOVE these. I am basically trying to catch them all ala Pokemon. I'll probably do a longer review of them when i can, but here's a super quick one.
These are just amazing colours, and the most opaque lipglosses i have ever tried. They're a bit sticky, but not overly so in my opinion, they make my lips feel a bit silky. They stay on longer than any other gloss i've tried, but still wear off much quicker than a lipstick, to make them last longer you can layer them over a matching lip pencil. The smell absolutely amazing, like a fruity sherbet. You can sheer them out easily if you want. Perfect glosses in my opinion.

Mistress


Torrid


Temper


Move


Indulge


Gender


Galactic


Fury


Follow


Fierce


Besotted


Petulant


And to give you an idea of what they looked like sheered out, here is petulant applied very thinly.


Fume

 

Perform

Frenzy

Lush Review - Marilyn

It pains me to write this review. I am a huge fan of Lush, as you may have gathered through some of my recent hauls and my current giveaway, and on the whole i love their products. This one however i cannot possibly give a good review for. But do remember that everyone will have different results so while it didn't work for me it doesn't mean it won't work for you.

Lush describes Marilyn so:
'Softness, brightness and shine for blonde hair. Marilyn is for blondes who would like to stay blonde and become even more so, in a gentle, shiny and natural way. It's not good for your hair to bleach it, so we suggest that you use The Blonde shampoo, then use Marilyn pre-wash conditioner as a regular top-up. We make it with softening linseed gel, chamomile for lightness and to calm your scalp, saffron for golden colour, lemon for shine and olive oil to moisturize your hair. It also lightens hair gradually. All things come to she who waits.'

This retails for £7.60, generally i wouldn't spend so much money on a hair product but i wanted to test out Lush's haircare products as previously i had only tried soaps, bubble bars and other nice smelling bits for in the bath, also i bought this during the 'spend £20 get tonnes o freebies' time, so it seemed like a better deal than buying it another time. This is marketed as a 'Hair moisturiser', used on dry hair before shampoo or conditioner to soften and tame hair. This one is specially designed to help blonde hair. As i am complete bastard Monroe complete with peroxide curls the consistency of straw i figured this would be perfect to control the zombie hair.

So i eagerly scooped into the creamy coloured goop (it smells a bit like tea to me) and slathered it on my head. I don't have long hair, it's not shoulder length yet, and to get the majority of my hair covered (i didn't put much on my roots) used about a quarter of a pot. The pot tells you to 'apply a lot' but i didn't want to because i'd already used so much i didn't want to 'waste' any more. I was a bit disgruntled by the amount i'd used, as £7.60 for 4 washes didn't really sound like a good deal to me.

I left it on my hair for approximately half an hour each time i used it, then rinsed it out and washed, conditioned and styled as usual.

The first time i used it i didn't see any difference at all from after my usual hair washes (using just shampoo and conditioner) but figured maybe it would just take a couple of washes to make an effect. And well i was right.

Somehow this stuff made my hair even more dry and unmanageable than before! I don't understand how, but after every use of this my wet hair would have managed to knot itself together and felt drier than before! It also seemed to break more and was a lot more difficult to style. In fact it made my hair feel so bad i took to drenching my hair in leave-in conditioner after each washing. And i didn't see any lightening, brightening or added shine.

So basically i paid £7.60 for something i only got 4 uses out of and made my hair feel and look worse than usual :/ personally i can't recommend this at all and i definately wouldn't repurchase.

Evil Shades lip gloss swatches

Here are my lip swatches for all the colours of Evil Shades lip glosses currently available. These were applied quite quickly with a finger but i think they give a good idea of the colour and the differences in opacity of each shade.

Wicked Glosses. These have a sort of duochrome effect to them.
Diana's Bow

Gorgeous sheer pink with a green reflect.

Sasha's Heart

Medium sheer plummy, browny, greyish colour with a green duochrome

Lillian's Light

Silvery sheer gloss with glitter and a slight blue and pink reflect.

Regular glosses:

Venom

Near opaque black with a slight silver glitter.

Suffocation

medium sheer super glossy lilac/lavender with silver glitter. As you can see i got this on my chin :P

Sinister

Sheerish green with slight shimmer. It looks a bit brown but that's just because it's sheer and my lips are pink.

No Angel

Gorgeous near opaque red, one of my favourites.

Lethal Kiss

Lovely sheer peachy colour with silver sparkle. Really beautiful.

Guilty As Sin

Medium sheer pink with pink glitter.

Deadly

Super glossy almost opaque raspberry with slight blue shimmer.

Banshee

Amazing near opaque light cyan colour with slight silver shimmer. One of my favourites.

13th Hour

Very sheer brownish purple with silver shimmer. This is the only colour i was unimpressed with as it is just too sheer for me.

Tee Hee

Various Things

Thanks again to everyone who sent me kind wishes regarding Millie, you're all so kind.

I see i've nearly got 150 followers now, which is absolutely amazing and mind boggling to me, i can't believe so many people would be interested in reading my little blog! If anyone didn't know i'm already in the middle of a giveaway, so please feel free to enter if you haven't already :)
http://lillianfunnyface.blogspot.com/2010/02/lush-giveaway-time.html

You won't be seeing any hauls from me for a good while, at least i hope you won't. Last week my bank decided to charge me £100 in charges, as i'd made a mistake and gone just a tiny bit over my overdraft (it's a long story but basically i was led to believe my overdraft was bigger than it is, so it's sort of my fault but it was a genuine mistake and not just me being reckless with money. Though frankly that wouldn't be too hard to imagine). I don't have a job due to my social phobia so my only income comes from the government (disability benefits), so i had to borrow some money from my Mum to pay the charge and get back into the black. So anyway i am on a HUGE no-buy for as long as possible to pay back Mum and store some savings.
This is easier said than done. I hate to say it as it sounds like i'm making it up but i genuinely believe i am addicted to shopping. Whenever i am feeling down or something bad has happened i go and buy something and it really does make me feel better physically and mentally. On sunday after Millie died i went and bought the Urban Decay Alice palette even though i knew i shouldn't because i am so poor. Not really regretting it though because i really, really wanted it. If you've seen confessions of a shopaholic... yeah thats me. Also that girl had some outfits i would have given an arm for!

If for some reason you want to feed my habit (or if i remain good help me get out of debt :P) i will be posting some new bits in my blog sale this week, or if you were interested in seeing what i do please check out my Etsy for clothes or paintings:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/fiddlefaddle
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Lillipopsshop

Anyway enough shameless begging!

At first i was worrying a bit as hauls make up quite a bit of my blog, but then i realised this could be really good as i can concentrate on reviews of older/favourite products and do some of the posts and videos you have requested.

As well as Millie's death and financial worries i have been incredibly upset by recent EastEnders (anyone else watch?) my favourite character ever ever ever died and, well i know it's silly, i can't help bring upset to the point of tears about it. Watching these soaps sucks you in and you begin to feel you know the characters and get really involved and then they kill them in horrible ways and you see the other characters having to grieve for them and it's just heartbreaking sometimes. Yes, i am pathetic :P

A week of Indie Makeup Day 5 - Morgana Minerals

www.morganaminerals.com

Some lip swatches swatches and a mini review of my first haul is here:
http://lillianfunnyface.blogspot.com/2009/12/morgana-minerals-haul.html

Morgana Minerals is a company run by a lovely lady named Melissa who started making mineral makeup so she could custom match her own foundation and then just grew passionate about creating her own cosmetics.

Morgana sell handmade mineral lipsticks, eyeshadows, foundations, hand-blends of glitters, as well as some other brands of makeup, hair dye, brushes and various other bits. She also has some makeup items made by a private label company, such as the current cream shadows. Melissa has some new products due to be released soon including lip glosses, pressed shadows, her own formulations of cream shadows and liquid liners, can't wait to see them!

Her website is really easy to navigate and has a cute, gothy look to it (your shopping basket is renamed a shopping casket :D). The ingredient information is a little irratic, for instance the ingredients for the lipsticks are on the main lipstick page, some eyeshadows have individual ingredients for each shade and some don't have any ingredients listed. All of her lipsticks are vegan (no beeswax here!) and Morgana never tests on animals. Some of her own eyeshadows and some of the private label products do contain carmine. If you're unsure about whether or not a certain colour contains a certain ingredient getting in contact with Melissa is dead easy, there is a 'contact me' page on the site for you to input your question or request. I had a query for this review and she got back to me in less than an hour! There is also a forum with places to request new colours, photo swatches and so on.

Morgana has a minimum spend of $15 for your first order, but if you have already purchased from her you can request to order less. shipping is free anywhere in the world with orders of samples or about $7 for international shipping of full size products (though this may vary depending on how much you order). Their prices are great! $10 for a full tube of their amazing lipsticks, $5 for a 5g jar of eyeshadow or glitter or $8 for a 10g jar and $4.25 for 4 grams of glitter.

I went for a massive haul of samples including basically all of Morgana's new lipstick shades, some glitters and some eyeshadows.

There was a little delay in sending my order (though in the end it only arrived about a week and a half after some other orders i made the same day) but Melissa kept me really well informed and gave me a discount code for 15% off my next order. Not only this, but apparantly my package cost less to pay than usual or something so Melissa gave me a code for $4 credit off my next order and remember i got free shipping because i only bought samples!

My order came tightly packed in a bubble mailer (completely forgotten if it was wrapped in tissue or anything) with an invoice and thank you note.

Firstly i got a few samples of glitter. Morgana's glitter samples are incredibly generous at $1 for a whole gram. I'm not sure if all of them are colours created by Melissa (i dont understand how a plain colour like the orange or pink could have been mixed) but lots of them are clearly hand blended, beautiful mixes of colours. There's not much else i can say about these, they're just regular glitters. Some of the colours have smaller sized particles than others, and these are described on the website. I don't think i'll be buying full sizes of these, not because i dislike them in any way, but simply because the sample size is so generous i doubt i'll use them enough to need a full 4 grams!





shifty eyed, twinkling teal, mysterious, rainbow sea serpent, twinkling red

As you can see i picked a lot of similar green/blue colours :P

Next i tried a lot of eyeshadow samples, some from each collection currently available. These were all really lovely deeply pigmented shadows that blended easily and had variable shimmer and glitter. The samples come in baggies and are 1/8th of a teaspoon for $1, which is quite a nice amount, though in this case I will be buying some full sizes of my favourite colours :) Haven't worn any yet so i can't comment on the longevity.

Regular collection:



Zaria, Drusillas sister, coraline, fantasy, mischievious, warped

pirate collection:

tavern wench, buried treasure, arrr matey, jolly roger, marooned

halloween collection:

ectoplasm, sinister, shallow grave, uninvited presence

christmas collection:


twinkling cherrine, harken, north pole, snowballs chance

Then i got a heck of a lot of lipstick samples!
A sample of lipstick is 50c and you get a little slither in a baggie. The slither is probably enough for 3 or 4 lip applications. I really find these lipsticks amazing and some of the new colours absolutely make me drool! The formula is just unbeatable, creamy and incredibly opaque. Again i haven't worn these properly so i can't tell you how long-lasting they are.


valentine, coralines kiss, slime, silverwitch, devilish, lillian


glittering poinsettia, pumpkin eater, blood, serenity, rustic, margarita


spellbound, watermelon, gunmetal blue, violets kiss, serpent


azalea, medusa, raspberry, red licorice, blueberry, mistress


Very cherry

Would I purchase again? Absolutely, i love love love so many of the lipsticks and i need full tubes as soon as possible! There's also quite a few eyeshadows i would like full sizes of, and more samples i want to try. I really love this company, there were the first mineral makeup i ever bought from and i have been more than happy with all the products i've tried. The lipsticks are just absolutely amazing, the quality, variety of colour and price are just perfect.

Lip swatches of all of the swatches to come soon (going to take me an age! D:)

Thank you everyone who commented on my last post, your comments were really beautiful and warmed my heart. It's so nice to know so many of you care so much, it's just really amazing. Thank you again.
Unfortunately, while the vets did all they could, Millie did not get any better and we had to do what was best for her and had her put to sleep.
She wasn't in any pain so it was obviously the right thing to do and she was purring right up to the very end.
Of course i'm very very upset. SHe was the sweetest, kindest cat i've ever met and the house seems empty without her. I haven't gotten used to her being gone yet and keep expecting to find her sleeping on a chair snuggled up with Omelette (her niece) or perched on the sofa to give me a kiss (she was the only cat i've ever met who kisses). She lived a really lovely long life, over 15 years. But i don't really remember my life without her so it's very weird.
To me animals just seem as much a part of my family as the humans, so i always really do grieve for my pets and i hope noone thinks this is silly.
I'm trying to keep busy so will probably be back posting like usual in a few days.
Thank you for all your lovely messages again <3

This is going to be a really quick post and may be my last one for a little while. I've had quite a bad day and about an hour ago my cat, Millie, collapsed and couldn't move her legs properly. We took her to the emergency vets and they're keeping her in and hopefully will be able to make her better (she has a serious blood clot) but it might not work and then we will have to put her to sleep. As you can imagine i am devastated so i don't know when i will be up to posting again.

A week of Indie Makeup Day 4 - Hi Fi Cosmetics.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/hificosmetics

Hi Fi Cosmetics is run by Veronica, a certified makeup artist who states about her company: 'I specialize in unique, handmade, and highly pigmented mineral cosmetics with lots of sparkle and huge color payoff. I blend all of the colors myself, taking special care to only offer a product that I would use myself. I use these products on my clients, as well as on my own face!!'.

Hi Fi make an incredible amount of products,including powder eyeshadows, powder and gel blushers and bronzers, fine handblended glitters, shimmer gels, glitter gels and, a product that wasn't around when i ordered, lip glazes. Her prices are excellent at $4.99 for a 5 gram jar (filled to the brim with sifters) of eye shadow, paparazzi flash powder (and Veronica states clearly in these product listings that the amount is 3/4 of a teaspoon) and glam rock eye glitzes, $3.99 for a full 10 gram jar of Star glimmer gel, $6.99 for a 10 gram jar of gel blush or bronzer, $6.99 for a 5.9ml tube of lip glaze and $5.99 for a ten gram jar (with sifter) of shimmer dust or blush. She also sells little 3 piece sets for £9.99, including 3 eyeshadows and a 'look card' to help you recreate a look, so that's amazing value.
She also often has other sales, when i ordered she was offering BOGOF on all eyeshadows, paparazzi flash powders and glam rock eye glitzes.

Hi Fi currently sells on Etsy which makes ordering nice and easy. They don't list their ingredients on the website, but they are listed on the actual products and Veronica says you can contact her anytime before purchase for a full ingredient list. I couldn't find anywhere on the site that states whether or not the products are vegan or tested on animals (i must start asking this before i buy, i'm an awful vegetarian!) but have contacted Veronica to ask.

I picked up 4 eye shadows, 1 paparazzi flash powder, 3 glam rock eye glitzes and 1 gel blush. As i said at the time Hi Fi were having an amazing BOGOF sale so i only paid for the 4 shadows and gel blush. My total came to $29.70 including shipping to the UK and took about 3 weeks to arrive.



My order came really well wrapped with all the products bundled tightly together in catergories in zip lock baggies that were then sellotaped shut and then popped in a bubble mailer. Included with my order was my invoice with a short 'thank you' written, 2 business cards and a magnet, 4 eyeshadow samples and a code worth 25% off my next order over $20! :O So incredibly generous! (and no you cannot share my code :P)



So firstly the eyeshadows. The colours i bought are Grinch, (a beautiful glittering green the exact colour of the grinch in the cartoon), Raid the King (a practically neon red coral), Live Large (a bright violet purple with blue shimmers) and In Bloom (a hot pink). The samples i recieved were Champagne toast (a very shimmery gold-champagne colour), Brandy (a shimmery light pink), Chicago (a shimmery bright denimy blue) and Crash around me (a slightly dulled greenish teal).


no flash


flash

Grinch, Raid the King, Live Large, In Bloom, Brandy, Crash Around me, Chicago, Champagne Toast

I think you can probably see for yourself, but these colours are all amazingly bright and vibrant and incredibly true to their colour descriptions. I have not yet tried a look with them so i cannot comment on their blendability or longevity yet, but will tell you soon :) I really like all the colours i recieved free!

The Grinch shadow was from their holiday collection and look how cute the label is! It's really kitsch and reminds me of a cheesey old christmas card, love it!



Next i got a Paparazzi Flash powder, which is basically a beautiful fine glittle dust. I chose the colour was Conspiracy which is a yellowy/greeny chartreuse colour with different coloured shimmers.

I got a gel blush in Amore, which is a beautiful shimmering orangey coral with golden sparks. This stuff is amazing! You only need a tiny bit to get a lovely sheer flush of colour or if you want it more pigmented you can just layer it. It was really flattering on my skin tone and amazingly this stuff acts as a sort of 'stain'. When i washed my hand to get the swatches off the coral flush stayed on but without the gold and a bit less vibrant. The pot came absolutely full to the brim. If anything i'd say it was a bit too full as when i closed the lid a tiny bit of the gel would squidge out from under the rim, but hey i'm not about to complain about getting too much product for my money!

And finally i picked up 3 Glam Rock Eye Glitzes, with are amazing glitter gels. The gel is absolutely saturated with glitter A thin layer gives you a lovely sparkle, or you can put it on thickly for a real jewel encrusted eyelid, though if you do put it on thick it takes a good while to dry so might smudge above your eyes. I picked the colours Pyrotechnic (a holographic orangey bronzey colour), New Age (bluey/greeney glitter) and Elecric (fuschia pink with green and blue glitter)


no flash


flash

New Age, Pyrotechnic, Electric Glam Rock Eye Glitzes, Amore Blush, Conspiracy flash powder.

So would i buy again? Ohhooo yes. I absolutely loved all the products i bought. Honestly i cannot think of a single fault with them! I want to try the new Lip glazes, at least one other gel brush, all of the remaining eye glitzes, a shimmer gel or two and more paparazzi flash powders and eyeshadows. I think these products are amazing and even better considering how inexpensive they were. Veronica was incredibly generous and besides i've got a 25% off coupon :P