Arabic Palette Look - Burgundy Red Asian Bridal Look

Friday 25 February 2011

So this is the other look I did with the Arabic palette last week, it's a (south) Asian bridal look, using burgundy/red to achieve a full on dramatic look.
I remember using a lottt of products (like 3 concealers & 3 eyeliners!), but here's what I defo can remember:

> Bare Minerals makeup - Warm Beige foundation & Summer Bisque concealer
> UDPP
> Arabic Palette - silver white, bronze gold, gold & burgundy colours
> Manly palette - matte white for blending down brow bone, gold for highlighting cheeks
> Sleek Ink Pot gel liner
> UD 24/7 eyeliner in Zero & Yeyo for bottom liner
> MAC rapidblack penultimate eyeliner (to get an even more intense black topliner)
> Eylure Girls Aloud false lashes in Nadine
> Khuraira AC concealer in Light
> MAC Studio Finish concealer in NC35
> Sleek blush in Scandalous
> Pixi Lip Blush in Love
> Sleek Pout Polish in Scandal
> OCC Lip Tar in Harlot

And here's what it looked like!
First two pics are with Pixi Lip Blush in Love:
 
 
 
 
And here's with Sleek Scandal Pout Polish:
 
 
 
And here's the OCC Lip Tar in Harlot and how it looks:
 
Quite red! Finally, here's how it looked after I'd taken the lip colour off (OCC stained my lips a bit):
 
 
 
Hope you liked the look, I tried my best even though I'm still not used to eyelashes! I think my eyes are too small for these eyelashes in particular, so I'll keep trying eyelashes till I find the right ones for me!
 
Btw, if you've gotten paid today or just fancy splurging on Barry M, take their survey to win a goodie bag and for 20% off for this weekend, enter the discount code "SURVEY" when buying from their website!


<3

FINALLY... finally....

Wednesday 23 February 2011

No I'm not talking about the Rock's return to wrestling (you'll only get that if your partner annoyingly watches it!); I'm talking about my UD 15 year anniversary set finally arriving on Saturday.

Before I show you pictures of it, I'd just like to rant about the crappy service I got for this particular order.
I ordered the set on 1st February, waiting eagerly for it to arrive every day. But after a week of it not arriving (but baking trays that I had ordered AFTER it arriving), I phoned to ask about the whereabouts of it. I was told that it should arrive by Friday 11th, but that if it hadn't arrived by Wednesday 16th, I should call. 
First of all I thought it should defo not take up until 16th, but I waited patiently, only for it to not arrive on the 16th. 
On phoning this second time, I was told that it will be investigated and someone will call within three days, which meant Monday 21st at the latest. I expressed how desperately I had been waiting for this order and how terrible it is to have to wait this long. They apologised and said the fastest way it can be dealt with is within 3 days, but the sets were in stock, so I could order another one (which I did, just in case).
Luckily I received a voicemail the next day (Thursday 17th), saying that the order was "lost in transit" and that I would be refunded. I was heavily disappointed with the way it was dealt with, as all my friends and blog followers should know, I am a huge UD fan but to have my order cancelled like that and not even sent out another one, I was really disappointed. I've written a complaint email to them, to which they only responded with a "sincere apology", but in all honesty I don't think that's enough. I'm not usually one to complain, but when I had been waiting for over 17 days for an order I was excited about, it's really not on. Especially when orders taking over 10 days should be dealt with as soon as possible.

Anyway, my second order came fast (well it had better!!), it came on Saturday so I finally managed to get my hands on it.
And I have to say I'm in love with it, just like I knew I'd be.
15 pencils and a sharpener stamped with UD15, with 6 exclusive shades:
Stray Dog (taupe), Corrupt (chocolate brown with very tiny gold flecks), Midnight Cowboy (beige/champagne), Asphyxia (two toned pink-blue), Uzi (gunmetal grey) & Perversion (blacker than Zero black!)

Here's a pic of the UD15 stamped pencil compared to a normal 24/7 pencil:

I have a few of the others in minis from the Super Stash mini set (Binge, Rockstar, Ransom, Binge, Corrupt & Stash), so I have almost half of this anniversary set, but they are miniatures and I am a collector, so it's all justified. Plus my husband got this set for me as a gift =)


Here's some pics of my set, although for even better pictures, check Temptalia's page here.
 

And my swatches:
Left to right; top row: Midnight Cowboy, Baked, Stash, Mildew
second row: Stray Dog, Corrupt, Bourbon, Rockstar
third row: Electric, Binge, Ransom, Asphyxia
bottom row: Perversion, Zero, Uzi

The two blacks side by side- left Zero, right Perversion
The 6 new shades (with Zero for black comparison) 
Left to right; top row: Uzi, Stray Dog, Corrupt,
middle: Midnight Cowboy & Asphyxia,
bottom: Zero & Perversion
My thoughts:
Personally, as a huge UD fan, I love all their products, including this one. I do however find that a few of their newer shades (Asphyxia, Binge, Ransom from this set), don't have the same pigmentation as the other shades, and tend to come out lighter. My swatches above are swirled a couple times for these shades in particular, to get the full colour effect, but Asphyxia was so soft in colour that it smushed on the pencil nib mid-swatch!
I do however LOVE Perversion and have shown anyone I can the difference between Zero & Perversion. It's darkness is so mesmerising I absolutely love it and can see myself using it in makeup looks that have shimmery eyeshadows as Zero doesn't usually cut it on its own.
All in all, I'm pleased I got this collectors anniversary set (as I don't see non collectors/Urban Decay fans parting too quickly with £60 for this set really!) and I shall try encorporating it in FOTDs/makeup looks for you to see =)


<3

Wonder Woman NOTD

Saturday 19 February 2011

Here's the Wonder Woman NOTD I did on Thursday, I'm no nail technician but I do love funky nail designs, so this is my attempt.

Products used:

> Debenhams OB red nail polish (or any red nail polish!)
> 2True (Superdrug brand) navy/blue nail polish
> Claire's Accessories gold 2 way nail art pen & brush
> Andrea Fulerton nail glitter in blue 

First I coated the nails with the red polish and waited for them to dry fully. Once dried, I added blue/navy tips, fairly thicker than a french manicure-type tip. Whilst still wet, I dusted the Andrea Fulerton nail glitter (you can use any fine glitter you have), followed by the gold nail art pen in a strip between the glitter tips and red nails. Et...
 
 
 
 
 
Voila!

Hope you like, it's nothing spectacular, but my efforts! Have a lovely weekend =)

<3

2011; the year of Wonder Woman's return

Thursday 17 February 2011

This year is defo the year of Wonder Woman, everywhere I look, I see Wonderwoman; MAC, Ann Summers, Selfridges and even Primark (which I have ashamedly bought two tops from, red & grey).

Anyway, I managed to get myself down to the MAC in Selfridges Oxford Street today and to my delight I found out that the range is available exclusively to buy from Selfridges at the mo, ahead of its official release (which I still do not know the exact date of). 
I tried a WonderWoman NOTD on my left hand before I left (which you can partly spot in some of the pictures!).
Thankfully, I was able to take pictures of as much as I could today which was great and I have some prices for those of you in the UK who have no idea and are interested.. yay!
 
 

 
 
The products I had my eye on (after reading Temptalia's reviews) were:
> Mighty Aphrodite blush
> Opulash mascara in Army of Amazons (green) & Victorious (purple)
> Reflects Pearl pigment
> Spitfire or Russian Red lipstick

After seeing the products today, I still stick by all of my choices, aside from Pearl Reflects pigment, which I found wasn't a fine enough glitter, whereas the Reflects Bronze smoothed on nicer.
The other pigments Marine Ultra (matte blue) and Bright Fuschia (shimmery cherry toned pink) weren't really that great in my opinion, esp the Marine Ultra, which I didn't find too appealing in application.
All pigments are £17.
Below: Reflects Pearl & Bronze side by side, then next to Marine Ultra & Bright Fuschia.
 
The Mighty Aphrodite blush is less loud (peach gold toned, a bit like Sleek's Rose Gold) compared to Amazon Princess which is pink/purple:
 (Mighty Aphrodite)
(Amazon Princess)
Both blushers are £21.

As for the mascaras (£14.50), I love colour mascaras and the purple one (Victorious) is esp lovely looking but I'm not sure if I can justify spending so much on a mascara that won't be used regularly.. Maybe the Bad Bad Black if I'm feeling rich but I may not end up buying any of them.
Top: Army of Amazons & Victorious; Bottom: Bad Bad Black & Themyscira (blue)
The Lipsticks (£15) & Lipglasses (£17) were cute and coordinated; I'll list the coordinated couples below the pics (first two without flash, third with flash):
 
 
Left to right: Secret Identity Liplass with Heroine Lipstick below it;
Emancipation Lipglass above Marquis d' Lipstick;
Athena's Kiss Lipglass above Spitfire Lipstick
Wonder Woman Lipglass above Russian Red Lipstick 

I love the fact that they are coordinated, so you can wear the lipstick underneath the lipgloss, but unfortunately I don't like the sticky consistency of MAC's lipglasses, so I won't be buying them again! It's unfortunate that they are sticky cos I would love to buy this range of Lipglasses because they are jumbo sizes of their usual lipglasses; I particularly like the Wonder Woman & Athena's Kiss lipglasses and would buy to match the lipsticks but nevermind!
Here's two pics for size comparison of the lipglasses and blushers compared to MAC's usual sizes:

As for the £26 MAC Mineralize Skinfinishes (Golden Lariat & Pink Power) I didn't manage to get my hands on them both (or for size comparison, as they are jumbo size too), but I managed to get a not so great swatch of Golden Lariat:
The eyeshadow quads (£36) that I could get swatches of were Lady Justice (blue) and Valiant (green). Defiance was being used when I was swatching unfortunately!
Lady Valiant swatches:
 
Left to right: Lady Justice (shimmery white), Insurmountable (matte grey), Deep Truth (dark royal-navy blue) and Bold Babe (lighter blue than Deep Truth!
Insurmountable did not show up on me whatsoever. This may be because I had just wiped off previous swatches, so my skin wasn't dry enough to show the colour, but either way, it didn't show! I liked the blues, but I have so many blues and silvers now that this didn't phase me and to be completely honest, I was shocked at how under pigmented all the eyeshadows seemed!
Here's the Valiant eyeshadow swatches:
 
Left to right: Manila Paper (shimmery white with gold tinge), Valiant (golden green shimmer), Diana Undercover (bottle green in pan, dark green on hand) and Spinning Transformation (khaki-olive green).
These colours were nice to apply and I saw a lovely makeup look being done with this palette when I was was around, so I'd buy this of all palettes to be honest, plus it'd probably suit more skin tones.

I tried the Nail lacquers Spirit of Truth (blue) and Obey Me (red), which both seemed nice and thick/creamy, but I don't know about MAC's nail polish quality and have heard they're not that great re: chipping.
Here's Obey Me & Spirit of Truth:

The jumbo Penultimate eyeliner (£17.50) looked too chunky for my liking, plus it's no different (aside from size) to the usual MAC Penultimate liner.

I did like the Wonder Woman Utility Belts which did look a little cheap but very cute at the same time (I don't know how that works!). The belts come with an eye brush set or a face brush set, both at £39.50. I wouldn't mind spending that much on a LE belt brush set, but the quality of the bags look terribly cheap and tacky when the Wonder Woman phase wears off.. shame!
 
 The other makeup bags by Wonder Woman (red & blue) are both £20.50.
 
 
 Lastly, there are a pair of Wonder Woman eyelashes: #48 lashes that are £10:
 All in all, I'm glad the wait is over for this exciting range, I haven't bought anything yet (as I'm waiting for payday!!) but I'm glad I waited this time, unlike for the Venomous Villains, which I was slightly disappointed with..

Are you excited about the Wonder Woman range? And if so, which products would you be interested in buying?


<3
 
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