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Thursday 10 September 2009

REVIEW: Smoke and diamonds by MAC

OH.MY.GOD!!!

I had to have this based on the looks I'd seen done with it, but to be honest I'm well used to being dissappointed when i give in to hype.

Not so with this eyeshadow.

Today I wore it VERY simply: base of soft ochre, s&d patted on my lid and blended softly over crease...and a touch of signed sealed to add dimension to the outer crease. I then lined with zero from ud.

The shadow blends like a dream. It is hands down the easiest to blend shadow I ever had. People had raved about the starflash formula and I happily join in, and beg mac to make it permanent. Everyone should experience this.

It is the most delicious smokey taupe grey...I LOVED how it looked, and it made my eyes look glassy which i also loved. It's a multidemensional colour on the lid...on my inner lids it looked more taupey gold and outer more grey smokey.

Oh man - I'm so so happy to add this to my kit. If you don't have it yet - and it ever becomes available again: GRAB IT!!!

Youtube Guru's and Twitter

I'm in 2 minds to post this but I'll write it and then decide.
I joined twitter very recently, mainly because i'm off work ill with flu, and I followed some "guru's" to get to know them a bit better...

Most of them never respond to you was my first finding. Now they will argue that they have too many followers replying to them, and they are too busy and that, so ok - but personally twitter follows have no point to me unless i can converse with a person. That's my opinion, and you may disagree. You may find their daily lives updates enthralling (I did not)

Was that worthy of me blogging - nope. No, the main reason for my blog is the conversation that went on between a large amount of them on twitter yesterday giving off about people complaining about them not answering them.

The tweets went on, and on, and on - whinge whinge, moan, we are not understood, its just a hobby for me, not a job, and blah blah blah.

Again - they are entitled to have a moan. But in the time they all spent whining and patting each other on the back, and generally doing nothing productive - they could have been answering a couple of emails / questions. You can bet your backside if it was an email offering them more free products, or inviting them to another event with free goodie bag - they'd find the time.

This is my point (and the biggest irritant I think)

You girls choose to stick yourselves on youtube, call yourselves a "guru", and make video's in which you tell people "If you have any questions, leave a comment, or send me a message". Then when people take the time (their time is just as precious as yours), to send you one...you don't bother replying.

All the while you have time to make video after video (sometimes of the most unimportant mundane crap imaginable), twitter, blog, and the latest addition to your arsenal -blogtv.

I think my point here is that instead of bitching, you girls (and guys) need to prioritise your time. So, less time on twitter telling us every minute detail of your day, - less time on blogtv, less time blogging, and more time connecting with the people who have put you in the position to get freebies, and invites to special events.

Choose only one of the options if you are truely stuck for time and give it your full attention - after all you guys keep making videos and saying stuff like "Thank you so much for taking the time to watch - it means so much to me". Well - it is OUR time we take to watch you, which is just as important to us as your time is to you.

Lastly: stop bitching about your fans.
Without them - you are nothing.

(ps I no longer follow any of them on twitter, and removed a lot from my youtube viewing....felt good :))

Thursday 3 September 2009

Products that blew me away

This post is a reflection of products I've purchased, and instantly fallen in love with, only to continue using them day to day. Price ranges vary considerably, which is proof that you don't always have to spend big money to find treasures.

In eye makeup - my best buy...the one men constantly comment on (even a romanian paper seller when I stopped my car at traffic lights knocked on the window to say he liked my eyes!) is by elf. A £1.50 quad called eye brightening in LUXE.



I can't imagine these colours not looking amazing on everyone, regardless of eye colour. I wear the gold packed on my lid (over either mac bare study paint pot, or revlon mettallic creme shadow in the gold colour) with the bronze in the crease, and the dark brown to darken the crease up. I don't really use the red shade, although I could probably add it to the crease colour to warm things up if I could be bothered!

I use something like blanc type by mac ( a matte neutral ) as my highlight as the gold is shimmery and I don't like being overly so. Although people always guess my age as early 20's - I am 37, and I feel my eyes have the skin of my age (less taught), so I try not to use too much shimmer. This may be me being overly paranoid, but rather that than look garish.

Another eyeshadow love - more recently is ricepaper. It's a yellow based neutral with a lovely sheen to it. I use it as an all over eye colour - on the lid and as a highlight. I also use it as a cheek highlight as it gives a really pretty sheen without glitter.



I also adore the SLEEK original palette which I bought in London. The colours have to be swatched to really see how beautiful they are, but they seriously rock as good as mac, and for a fraction of the price.



Mascara - I have thick eyelashes but they aren't as long as I'd like, so the mascara I find to be best for making them long and lushious is doll eyed long from NYX. I have to get it on ebay which is a pain but it is worth it. One thing though - don't overload this or you get spider lashes...ick!



In the blush department:

I was so close to selling off my pretty baby beauty powder from the mac hello kitty collection, as I didn't really understand how to make it work. Everyone seemed to say to use it as an all over powder, but to me it just felt like making my skin all flushed...not really my thing.


As a last resort I went over to MUA and browsed the reviews. Recent reviews stated that pretty baby worked amazing as a subtle blush on pale skin, so I gave it a try. I used my 181 brush to apply as its densely packed, and WOW! A totally natural looking slight (very slight), natural healthy glow. I fell in love instantly, and hope to never run out! I'm so pleased as I LOVE LOVE LOVE the compact.

Bronzers - Up to now I've been happily using rimmel's natural bronzer which works great but is nothing to scream about. Then lollipop26 (the girl is bad for my credit card I tell you!) reviewed ELF studio warm bronzer recently, and although I resisted for a couple of months...once elf did a free shipping offer, I was all over it like a rash ;)





I apply this with a large flat bronsing brush, but with a light hand as it's really well pigmented. It gives a nice peachy sheen, which I really like. I actually love this most when applied over my rimmel bronzer. I love how this looks - I go from pasty to interestingly peachy glowing. Adore it and recommend it most highly.

Lips - I have to be careful with lipstick to work as I work in a humid environment for 4 hours with no break, and my lips suffer horribly for it. My current favs are pink fish lip conditioner from mac, and barbie lipstick (also a balm) from gosh. Both give a pop of colour without drying.

Gosh Barbie



Body Exfoliator - the exfoliating gloves from the body shop. These are absolutely fantastic, and I love them.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

When project 5 pan meets mac's latest collections...

...you know we got issues!!

I have avoided specktra and collection videos like the plague, alas this week I made the mistake of peeking, and project 5 pan hit an unexpected dip in the road.

I spied smoke & diamonds...but it was sold out on the website. This of course made me want it even more, to the point that risking being late for work, I called up my local counter to ask if they had any left. They didn't.

One thing you should know about me - I'm a VERY determined lady when I want something, so I called the pro line to ask. THe girl said they had 2 left. At this point I was late for work, but not willing to risk missing out, so ordered. "Would you like anything else?" she asked provacatively. "Oh...umm...sure throw in a soft ochre paint pot too" I said knowing full well this was an extra I did not have any right to order.

But, I hang my head in shame admitting this - that was not the end of my failing.

I noted the makeup art collection, and primarily the photo realism quad (I blame tiffanyd for the tutorial). I love the name, love the colours, and stalked the website until it appeared. Did I stop there?

Of course not - I ordered the colour matters liner, and....even though I'm not buying any more makeup (yeah right), another empty 15 eyeshadow pan.

I know. I fail!

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