Oh the lovely Alice!

Like a lot of people, I was so excited when I heard about Urban Decay releasing the new Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows, and even more excited when I actually managed to buy one (which was not easy, I'm telling you, it took several days of constantly refreshing debenhams.com to finally buy one). So here it is, really really pretty, both the pop-up scene from Alice in Wonderland, and the 16 eyeshadows in the drawer below.

Even though I am a big fan of Urban Decay and own several of their palettes, I didn't have a few shades from this palette, so instead of buying those shades separately, I got the palette. I'm sure it works out cheaper anyway, since you get 16 (albeit not full size) shadows in the palette for just £28. And of course you get a travel sized UDPP and 2 travel sized 24/7 eyepencils.

I used the palette to create a pretty, but easy and neutral look that I'd like to share with you. It only took a few minutes to do and is very easy to create. I paired it up with a bright lipstick because the rest of the look is very neutral. Here it is:

To create this look, I used the following:

Eyes:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin
• Drink Me, Eat Me (Sin) eyeshadow on inner corner of eyelid and above the crease up to the browbone
• Muchness (X) eyeshadow on middle and outer part of lid
• Chessur (Chopper) in crease
• Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Underground on lower lashline
• Boots No 7 Extreme Length Mascara in black

Cheeks:

• Mac Trace Gold blush
• Mac Honour blush
• Guerlain Meteorites in Beige Chic

Lips:

• Mac Big Bow lipstick (LE from Hello Kitty collection)

Hopefully I'll be posting more looks using this palette later this week. Yesterday I used Alice (Painkiller), the beautiful turquoise shade in a look, but unfortunately I never got around to taking pictures. I used it together with White Rabbit (below brownbone to highlight) and 3 shadows from the Book of Shadows vol. 2 palette (Jinx, Flipside and Homegrown) and 24/7 eyeliner pencils in Flipside and Covet.

Do let me know what you think!

Guerlain Meteorites Pearly Whites 05 Absolute White

A new piece was added to my collection today (although I've already included it in the pictures in the post below) in the form of the newest Asian exclusive Meteorites. A very lovely lady on MUA CP'd it for me from Hong Kong, it's called 05 Absolute White. This is the third time now Guerlain has released an Asian exclusive shade, after 00 White Pearls (in 2006?) and 04 Pastel White (summer 2009) titled Guerlain Meteorites Pearly White. (Shades number 01, 02 and 03 are in the permanent line, the other limited edition shades don't get numbers.) As the name suggests, these pearls are all very light, either very pastely coloured pearls mixed with white pearls, or in the case of the new ones, entirely white with very subtle shimmer to them. Here are some photos of this gorgeous powder, and also a couple of swatches. Please note that I swatched it very heavily (there was a lot of powder on the puff on top of the balls), you would not put this much powder on your face, so it wouldn't look white on you, just act as a subtle shimmery highlighter.

My expensive hobby

I have mentioned this before, I have this very expensive hobby of collecting Guerlain Meteorites (and pretty much everything Guerlain, come to think of it! :)). At most recent count I have 17 Meteorites powders, in fact I have all the Meteorites released by Guerlain since they changed the packaging from the big plastic containers to the smaller cardboard ones. (I don't know when that was, sometime around 2000 I think?) I also have one of their old style ones (Dorees - all gold powder balls). Here are a few photos of my Meteorites collection.

Top row: Mythic, Rose Fresh, Beige Chic

Bottom row: Glittering Pearls, Reflets de Nacres, Red Pastel

Top Row: White Pearls, Pastel White, Absolute White

Bottom Row: Plui de Nacres, Winter Radiance, Perles de Velours

Top Row: Glittering Pearls, Reflets de Nacres, Red Pastel

Bottom Row: Gold Temptation, Emilio Pucci, Perles Imperiales

Top Row: Plui de Nacres, Winter Radiance, Perles de Velours

Bottom Row: Dorees, Butterfly Pearls

My favourite ones (although I love them all) are Red Pastel (works really well as a blush), Butterfly Pearls, Perles Imperiales and Plui de Nacres. I'm really looking forward to adding the new 3 Meteorites from the summer collection to my -not so - little stash. These little pearls of powders not only look beautiful, give a lovely glow to your face, but also smell devine. What's not to love?

My stash and new storage pictures

A while ago I posted pictures about my storage solutions (see here), but as I've just rearranged some of it, I thought I'd post pictures of it. I have a very big collection, and most of it is actually stored in boxes and make up bags/cases, and drawers all over the place, but I do have some of it in storage units with drawers on top of my chest of drawers. I keep all my Mac make up in them (except for a few back up MSFs and lip products) and also most of my face products. I have a big 6-drawer-unit which is mainly for my Mac stash and high end lipglosses which don't fit into my lipgloss bozes due to their size. I also have two 3-drawer ones that have non-Mac face powders, blushes, lip palettes, longlasting lip colours, some eyeshadows and spare foundations in them.

I also have two small 4-drawer units that house my eyeshadow primers, concealers, eyepencils, liquid eyeliners, mascaras, spares, and GWP face creams. You will see that I have a lot of face products (primers, lotions, etc.) and tons of perfumes on top of my chest of drawers too, it all looks a bit chaotic, but it's about as organised as can be. :)

My lipsticks and lipglosses are kept in several boxes under my chests of drawers, and my drugstore lipglosses are stored in a small 4-drawer unit in the downstrairs cloakroom. I need a new box for my lipglosses as I'm running out of space, I tend to use icecream tubs, so need to eat lots of icecream (Cornish Cream tubs are the best!) so I have a new empty box for my lipglosses. :)

Here are a couple of slideshows and some pictures of my storage solutions and some of my stash. I didn't update the second one, I have slightly more glosses in it, but the idea is the same.

Things I'm loving right now - Chantecaille Les Dauphins palette

You might remember I showed you a list of things I'm really wanting at the moment (see here) and now I am the proud owner of this beautiful palette from Chantecaille. It features 3 eyeshadows and a blush, all 4 pans are split and have 2 slightly different coordinating shades. On top of them all are 2 gorgeous dolphins with gold and silver overspray.

I really love and collect Chantecaille's limited edition powders and palettes, it's quite an expensive hobby as these palettes cost a lot of money (this particular one is £79 in Space NK, but I only paid £53.50 incl. postage as I got it from eBay). I need to update it, but photos of my collection can be seen here and you can search for Chantecaille to see all my lovely aquisitions since. Here are some more photos of this beautiful palette to drool over. Let me know what you think.

Things I'm loving right now - Stila Jewel eyeshadow quad and lip glazes

I'd like to show you something I received in the post the other day (I love receiving little parcels, don't you?). This is the new Stila Jewel eyeshadow quad and lip glaze trio. They are so pretty and shimmery, just what every girl wants (or at least I want anyway!).

Here are some pictures of these beauties:

The eyeshadows come in the following shades (left to right, top to bottom):

• golden topaz
• amethyst
• black diamond
• rose quartz

The lip glazes come in the following shades:

• pink diamond
• amethyst
• golden topaz

I got mine from BeautyBay.com, the eyeshadows cost £27, the lip glazes cost £23.

What do you think, aren't they just gorgeous? :)

Face of the day - blues and greens with Mac Graphic Garden

I did this look on Wednesday, it was a lovely sunny day (not like today) and I felt like doing something springlike and cheerful. I went to my local Mac counter that day to pick up my Viva Glam Cindy lipstick and got complemented by one of the sales assistant girls on my make up. :)

For this look I used Mac Graphic Garden palette, Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Flipside and No 7 Extreme Lenght mascara on the eyes, Mac Summer Rose beauty powder and Mac Glissade MSF on the cheeks and Mac Electric Fuschia lipgloss on the lips.

After applying Guerlain eyeshadow base I applied Straight Hedge (light blue-ish green) eyeshadow in the inner corner, Botanical Blue (bright blue) in the outer corner and crease and Wild Wisteria (pinky purple) above the crease and slightly blended with Botanical Blue. I the applied Social Climber (pinky white) below the eyebrows to highlight. I used Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Flipside on the lower lashline and waterline.

I didn't include any close ups of my eyelids because for some reason they looked extremely wrinkly and creased, I don't know why as I took the pictures only about an hour after applying the eyeshadows. :(

These are the products I used:

Mac Graphic Garden palette

Mac Summer Rose beauty powder (this is coming out again in the Give me Liberty collection minus the rose design) Mac Glissade Mineralize Skinfinish Mac Electric Fuschia lipglass (from the Spring Colour Forecast collection)

Things I'm loving right now - Lancome Color Fever Gloss #322

And to follow up my previous post about the things I'm wanting, here's something that I'd spent a lot of time trying to track down and I am so happy I did!

This is a lovely Lancome Color Fever Gloss in shade #322 Pink but not innocent. I saw a tester for this at my local Lancome counter and fell in love with it straight away, however, as luck would have it, this shade is now discontinued and completely unavailable in the UK. After weeks of searching for it online I finally found a seller on eBay from Italy who was selling these at a very reasonable price (it is a boxed unused tester). So I quickly bought one and it arrived today. :)

It is a gorgeous coral-y pink shade, very natural and very lovely. I don't think I own a gloss in this shade and i have over 300 glosses (I kid you not!). So I am very pleased.

See more photos of this gorgeous product and one of me wearing it. I tried to take a close up of my lips too, but I can't use that because *ahem* I need to get rid of a few little hairs here and there. ;)

Things I'm really wanting right now

I love reading other blogs about upcoming collections from my favourite brands and love planning what I'm going to get when the collections are out (usually a month behind the US). Here are a few things that I really want right now and cannot wait to be able to buy.

Chantecaille Les Dauphins palette

Guerlain summer collection eyeshadow palette

Guerlain summer collection eyeshadow singles

Guerlain Meteorites pearls from the new summer collection

Mac Give me Liberty of London collection

Mac To the beach summer collection (I'm especially wanting that seahorse powder)

There are more things I'm wanting right now, but these are possibly the ones that make me the most excited. Are you interested in any of these?