REVIEW: Mac Greaspaint Stick in Dirty

Hello all,

I know I've been away for oh so long, but once again I find myself ill in bed, and once again my desire to blog all things beauty comes into the forefront of my mind. This may or may not coincide with my looking at the pale, snotty mess that stares out from my mirror each time I pass by...

So today I bring you my review of the greasepaint stick, from the art supplies collection, named "dirty". The name in itself made it a must have for this wannabe rock chick.

As usual I was completely uninterested in this collection until it was sold out online, and through mail order. I happened upon a video by belledujournyc on youtube (one of my new obsessions!), in which she used the navy one to create a simple, messy, understated and completely gorgeous smokey eye. I was sold, alas so were all the greaepaint sticks...

A trip into belfast city centre to exchange a mac 187 I recieved as a gift and didn't need (already have one baby!), and lo and behold...the woman of belfast had not seen belle's video and my counter had 3 dirty greasepaint sticks left. I decided not to enquire on the other colours for fear of bankrupcy..

Home I came, armed with my greasepaint (doesn't the name sound so...just...ughhhh - why would I want grease on my eyelid??). I put it on immediately. Now by this point it was dark and my lighting is clearly rubbish. Trying it against my NYX jumbo pencil in blackbean I thought they were identical. I was most upset....but the story does not end there!

Let's begin with the formula: creamy, easy to apply and once on it will not budge. You have to be super fast to blend it if you wish to use it as an all over colour, or a base. It can also be used as a liner, and there is a small sharpener you can pull out at the base.

The colour: On using this the next day it became clear that the colour was entirely different, and inherently more beautiful than black bean. It is a dirty greyed taupe with small sparkles in it. I will add a picture here at some point with a swatch.

Application - like I stated earlier...you need to be fast blending this. Once on the color does not move. My normal makeup remover (dermalogica calming cleanser) wouldn't budge it at all. I ened up using the oil based dermalogica precleanse (great for conditioning your eyelashes!!) to get it off.

My fav current way to wear this is smudged all over my upper lid, and lower lash line, with urban decay zero liner in my waterline, a little femme fi as an inner highlight, and woodwinked blended into the crease. It looks really really nice.

Did you get any of the art supplies collection? What did you think? How do you wear them?

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!!!

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.

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!

Tag: Overhyped and Underwhelmed

This is in response to Lollipop26 's post of the same subject.

To begin - I blame youtube for all the overhyped crap that now collects dust in my makeup drawer. When I first started watching "guru's" I had no idea the stuff many were reviewing had been sent to them free by companies to review. I think all guru's should state if products were bought or sent to them free, and also give unbiased reviews regardless - it would have saved me a fortune.

On to the products.

Everyday minerals - the daddy of the overhyped products. Every guru on youtube was raving about this stuff when I first joined the video age and still I hated this stuff. It is powdery, and not suitable for anyone with dry skin. It made me look cakey and it broke me out. The only saving grace for this company was the nice brushes they sold. Those I did like, but I still never use them now.

Urban Decay Ammo Palette - whilst I concur the shadows are gorgeous...they are also shimmery nightmares. Not suitable for me, which dissappointed me greatly.




Clarisonic - I debated getting this as shipping it from the us was expensive. Heck even before shipping it was around £100, but the promise from guru's and mua reviews was that this was a wonder product which would magically unclog my pores and leave my skin clear, clean and baby soft. The reality was much uglier. Within about 3 days, my skin had rebelled and I looked like I was in the throws of teenage hormone hell. A mess. I've tried it again since, in the hopes that it might work, and again...acne city. This little bugger is going to be sold on ebay any day now.

MAC 226 brush - I hate to drop this one in here, because the hype was huge and everyone raved about it. I was so thrilled I managed to get my mitts on one before the SOLD OUT icon appeared on the mac website. (doncha love when that happens and you got one?!! heh), but I can honestly say, with hand on heart - the brush is not that great. It is scratchy, and I don't think it deposits colour that well. I love my 222, and this one pales in comparison to it's perfectness.


MUFE HD foundation - I got this expecting everyone to comment on how well my skin looked, after reading all the reviews. In reality I was told my skin looked less dewy than normal, and over the course of a few days wearing it...the underlying skin grew more and more congested and eventually...you guessed it...I broke out.



There are more but I caught on to the over hype on youtube pretty fast, and now only trust a few guru's reviews (lollipop26 included!), which has saved me a lot of money, and dissappointment.

Feel free to jump in with your tags too. Thanks for reading :)