FOTD: Chanel Mirifique Illusion D'Ombre

This is the look I did with Chanel Mirifique Illusion D'Ombre that I reviewed the other day. As I said in my review, I did find Mirifique to be a bit harsh when worn alone, so I softened the edges with a fluffy blending brush and the added Mac White pigment in the inner corner and above the crease to lighten it up a bit.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Chanel Mirifique Illusion D'Ombre all over lid
Mac White pigment in inner corner and above crease
Mac Your Ladyship pigment on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Zero on lower lashline
Guerlain Le 2 Waterproof Mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Truth & Light Magically Cool Liquid Powder
Laura Geller Baked Cheek Dreams in Banana Split on the cheeks (to be reviewed later)

Lips:
The Body Shope Rose lipstick shade 01

See more pictures after the jump!

The Great 30 Day Lipstick Challenge - Week 2

Here we are, second week of the great 30 day lipstick challenge. I'm having great fun choosing lipsticks from my Mixed Up Magic box. This week's selection includes some lipsticks I hardly ever reach for, and some that are quite new and haven't really had time to use yet, as well as some favoruites.

This week I used the following lipsticks:
1. Myface Cosmetics Gigabite lipstick in 154 Sweet Dreams
2. Mac Wonder Woman lipstick in Marquise D'
3. The Body Shop Rose lipstick in shade 01
4. Marks & Spencer Moisture lipstick in Coral
5. Mac Wonder Woman lipstick in Heroine
6. Mac Sheen Supreme lipstick in Insanely It
7. Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in 435 Love That Pink

Read  what I thought about these lipsticks and see more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Eyeshadows in Mirifique and Epatant

Like a lot of others, I couldn't resist picking up a few shades from Chanels newcream/gel eyeshadows, Illusion D'Ombre. I bought Mirifique (black) and Epatant (grey-taupe-green). They both lived up to my expectations and I'm pretty happy with them. (So much so that I have since ordered Illusoir and Emerveille, will review them soon too.)

Mirifique is a deep black with tiny silver glitter, it's very pigmented and goes on really smooth. Epatant is a lot lighter, but it's not at all sheer, and it also has some lovely shimmer. It's quite metallic, but not overly so. I find Epatant a very easy to wear everyday shadow, you can just apply it, blend a bit around the edges and go. Mirifique was harder work as you really need to blend out the edges for it not to look too harsh, also it is pretty dark for a daytime look. I ended up applying Mac White pigment to the inner corner to lighten it a bit (I will post a FOTD soon). However, I think it would make an excellent eyeliner and a base for a smoky eye. As for the application, every pot comes with a small slanted brush that works really well for applying these eyeshadows. Because it's slanted, it would work for applying them as eyeliner too.

They are £22.50 each, so not cheap, but you only need a tiny bit, so they should last a long time. Staying power is excellent for these, I used them over Urban Decay Primer Potion and they lasted the whole day without any creasing, and with Epatant, no powder shadow to set it at all. (I did have Mac White pigment over some of Mirifique as previously mentioned.)

Have you tried these eyeshadows yet? Are you planning to? Do you like them? Let me know in the comments.

See lots of pictures including swatches after the jump!

Blog Sale Coming Soon

Just wanted to let you know that I've been working on putting together my blog sale and it will be live probably around the middle of the week. I have quite a few already added including Mac, Estee Lauder, Avon, Benefit, YSL, No 7 and Revlon, and loads more to go, so make sure you check back soon to see when it's going live!

NOTD: The Good And The Bad

As you know, I love my Andrea Fulerton nail polishes and today I have a beautiful fuschia shade to show you from the Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Trio in Princess. On top of it I applied a glittery Claire's nail polish/topcoat, which has smaller and larger round glitter and also star shaped glitter in it (I don't know the name of it, it doesn't say on the bottle). Firstly, the good: Andrea Fulerton nail polishes are great, the formula's excellent, they go on nicely opaque and last for a good time without major chipping (on me it's 2-3 days I'd say, but everything chips on me very quickly). I love the colour of this polish too, it's a gorgeous fuschia pink with very subtle gold shimmer. The duo nail polish costs £7.99 and is available from Superdrug. 

Now onto the bad. While the Claire's top coat looked gorgeous in the bottle, unfortunately it was really hard to transfer any of that gorgeousness onto my nails. It looks like it's full of glitter, but actually it was very hard work to fish out any significant amount of glitter, as you can see on my nails. After about 5 minutes of trying, I only managed to scoop out 2 stars and a handful of glitter. I was expecting to see a lot more of them on my nails. The other problem was that it actually made the Andrea Fulerton nail polish chip off very quickly. I did apply the top coat directly on top of the AF nail polish while it was still quite sticky, so that might have been the problem, I don't know. In any case, a big dissapointment. I know the Claire's nail polish only cost £2.25, but still, you expect better than that.

So there you go, a beautiful nail polish and a not so great top coat. Maybe I should leave Claire's polishes to the teenagers and use more grown up stuff next time. What do you think?

See more pictures after the jump!

I Can Paint A Rainbow With Mad Minerals Whisper Collection

I love highlighters, face and eye highlighters alike (hey, I named my blog after one!). So I was really happy to hear about Mad Minerals Whisper Collection and decided to order it straight away. These are basically some very finely milled almost white mineral eyeshadows that transform magically once applied either wet or on top of a dark base. They are absolutely amazing! Or you can simply use them as highlighters and they are very pretty duochrome ones!

This is what Mad Minerals say: "To look at them in the jars, all you see is a pearly white or off white powder. However, they are very deceiving! Once applied to your skin they actually have a sheer whisper of color. Absolutely amazing when the light hits them! When applied wet, you have intense color that pops! Minerals applied wet are commonly known as "foiling". The color looks like colored tin foil on your skin. Some colors look so surprisingly different when applied wet...So much more dramatically intense! The Whispers can be worn alone or layered with any existing colors you may already have. Excellent for mixing with the colors that just need a little more excitement to them. Perfect for day wear or as many of my customers tell me.... they love to wear them for "clubbing" at night. These are also fabulous for dusting on your chest, shoulders, or anywhere!"

I have worn them as highlighters and also on top of Topshop Zephyr Eyeshadow Crayon, you can see swatches and the look I created at the bottom of this post. They are available from Mad Minerals and come in a variety of sizes. I ordered the 1/4 tsp sample jars for $2.25, but they also come in 1/4 tsp sample bags, 5 g sifter jars and 10 g sifter jars. Shipping to the UK is a very reasonable $7 (it's $6 within the US), and shipping was very quick, my package was dispatched with a day or so and I received it within a week of ordering. I also got a small sample of their mineral blush. I would certainly recommend them both for the service they provide and both for the quality of their products.

See more photos, including swatches and a look I did with them after the jump!

FOTD: Guerlain Fall 2011 Collection

Here's the look I did with my new Guerlain fall 2011 products, in fact I also wore Guerlain foundation, mascara, blush and setting powder/complexion highlighter but that's mostly just because I love Guerlain products. :) In most pictures I'm wearing Rouge G in 71 Girly, but I included a picture at the bottom wearing 25 Garconne as well. (I did take that one with a slightly different camera setting, hence the cooler colours, but it's the same look.) Hope you like it.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Barbara Daly (Tesco) Eyeshadow Primer
Guerlain 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles light pink colour on inner half of lid
Guerlain 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles grey/taupe colour on outer half of lid
Guerlain 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles dark grey-purple in crease
Guerlain 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles white gold on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Zero on lower lashline
Guerlain Le 2 Waterproof Mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Parure Gold foundation in 02 + 03 mixed together
Guerlain Meteorites Voyage Powder in Radiant Butterfly
Guerlain 4 Eclats Blush in 04 Rose Plein Vent on the cheeks

Lips:
Guerlain Rouge G lipstick 71 Girly (and 25 Garconne)

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Colour in Eliza

I have recently discovered the Andrea Fulerton nail polish range and I have a really lovely one to show you today. As well as the Colour Layering Systems, the line also contains single nail polishes and I picked up a lovely light blue one called Eliza. I absolutely love this nail polish, the colour is lovely, the formula is great, easy to apply and goes on evenly. This one didn't even chip on my nails at all for a whole 2 days (which is a big achievement!) and was still looking okay at 4 days. My only complaint is that the pretty pink duo-chrome you see in the bottle doesn't actually transfer onto the nails, but the colour on your nails is still very pretty.

With flash

You get 5.5 ml for £4.99 (available from Superdrug), so it's a great value nail polish, and there are so many colours to choose from. Definitely one of my favourite (if not the favourite) brand of nail polish at the moment.

Have you tried any Andrea Fulerton nail polishes? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!

See more photos after the jump!

Guerlain Fall 2011 Collection Haul and Review Part 2 - Rouge G Lipsticks Girly and Garconne

As promised, here's the second part of my Guerlain fall collection review. In this part I'd like to show you two of the three Rouge G lipsticks that were released with the collection: 71 Girly and 25 Garconne. As you may know, I love Guerlain Rouge G lipsticks, they are just so creamy and smooth and luxurious. (If you haven't seen it, I have swatched all my Rouge G lipsticks here.)

Girly is a bright pink shade, it's very girly as the name suggests, it's bright and cheerful, but very wearable. Garconne is possibly my new favourite red lipstick, it is an amazing shade that lit my whole face up! I couldn't not stare at my reflection every time I passed a mirror! I think it's what's called a blue based red as it made my teeth look whiter as well. Both lipsticks wore very well on me, Garconne lasted for 4 hours without even fading, Girly didn't have all that long time as I had lunch about 3 hours after I applied it, but up to then it lasted wonderfully and there was still some pink tint left after lunch. Girly also felt a bit more slippery than Garconne, and didn't apply quite as opaque, so maybe it would last less long. Both feel very comfortable on the lips and there was no bleeding at all despite wearing Garconne without a lipliner!

Guerlain Rouge G lipsticks cost a whopping £28.50 (used to be around £25 when they first came out) and you definitely pay a lot for packaging (they come in state of the art, very heavy cases with fold-out mirror), so if you don't mind not having the fancy packaging, you can always check eBay for testers. I usually pay around £7-£8 for testers of Guerlain Rouge G's. I find that the testers on eBay are genuine (haven't come across a fake tester yet), but unfortunately I have seen fake Rouge G lipsticks with very flimsical cases and shades that don't compare to the real shades, so as always, be careful when buying from eBay!

See below for more photos, including arm and lip swatches! I will post the look I did with the eyeshadows and the lipsticks tomorrow.

Guerlain Fall 2011 Collection Haul and Review Part 1 - 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles

Today I have Guerlain's fall collection to show you, or rather the few items I have purchased. It's not actually a huge collection, although there are 9 new eyeshadow quads coming out, they are actually permanent, so no need buy all the ones you like at once. Therefore I only picked up one of the eyeshadow quads and two of the Rouge G lipsticks. I skipped on the third lipstick as it's a dark plum colour and I don't often wear dark colours like that plus I already have plenty of them anyway.

I'm going to review them in 2 parts, so first I'm going to focus on the eyeshadow palette first. The one I got is 08 Les Perles. The other quads named after the colour they contain, like Les Violets and Les Bleus (the two on my wishlist actually), but Les Perles is actually named after the finish of the eyeshadows which is as you have probably guessed, pearly. Most of the other quads include at least a matte shade, but this one actually has 4 pearly / satiny finishes. The colours are taupy grey, white gold, dark grey-purple and light pink. The eyeshadows are nicely pigmented, smooth, easy to blend, as you'd expect from Guerlain. They didn't crease on me at all and lasted through the whole day. I will post a look I did with these in the next day or so.

The palette costs £37.00, so is on par with Chanel, Dior and other luxury brands. You do get a good amount of product for your money (7.2 g) which is in fact the same as the 6 colour eyeshadow palettes that cost way more (£52.50). I think you pay more for the packaging there and also the fact that you get 6 colours instead of 4.

Right then, enough of the chit chat, there are loads of pictures including swatches waiting for you after the jump!

The Great 30 Day Lipstick Challenge - Week 1

Once again thank you to everyone who voted for which box of lipsticks I should be using for the next 30 days (you can see the "winner" box here). It's now been over a week and I have 7 lipsticks to show you. I have to say, it was a very good idea of mine to start this challenge as I often reach for the same lipsticks despite owning over 300 of them, so being restricted to choose from "just" 58 lipsticks is actually quite liberating. I also consciously trying to choose lipsticks I don't normally go for, there are quite a few unused lipsticks sitting in each box, so it's a great opportunity to try them out as well as rediscover forgotten favourites. Ah, the curse of having too much make up.

So here they are, the first 7 lipsticks. As you can see I managed to choose from a variety of brands and if you scroll down, you will see that I also managed to use a variety of shades. So shall we see which lipsticks I used this week? Find out after the jump!

Topshop Sandstorm Make Up Collection Haul

On a recent shopping trip I wondered into Topshop and had a look at their make up (I don't actually like Topshop clothes, must be the only only person in the country who doesn't, but anyway) and ended up coming away with a few things. I am actually pretty impressed by everything I bought, so I thought I'd show them to you.

I believe these products are from the Sandstorm collection which isn't their latest, and I can't actually find everything on their website, but hopefully some of this is still available, should you be interested. I bough a baked eyeshadow duo called Solar Cell, an eyeshadow mousse in Tundra, and two eyeshadow crayons in Zephyr and Equinox. They cost between £8 and £8.50 each, so not too bad. My favourites are the eyeshadow crayons, they are really soft and smooth, and make very good bases. Of course you can wear them on their own if you wish. I did wear Equinox alone (over UDPP) in this picture and it held out fine all day. In fact one of these products creased on me all day, all of them were applied over UDPP and I wore Zephyr as a base for some loose powders (which I will tell you about later). The eyeshadow duo I loved so much when I swatched in the shop with my fingers, but swatched with a brush I felt quite disappointed, however, I was happy to see that applied over primer on my lids I could achieve the same intensity I did with my fingers. It did wear well though and didn't crease at all, and maybe it could benefit even more from being worn wet, I haven't tried that yet.

So there you go, that's my mini Topshop make up haul. Do you own any Topshop make up? Let me know in the comments!

See lots of pictures after the jump!

FOTD: Neutral Look With Urban Decay Book Of Shadows Vol. 4

Here's the second look I did with the new Urban Decay Book Of Shadows Vol. 4. I used eyeshadows from the bottom 2 rows which are basically just neutrals and as you can see, ended up with a pretty neutral look. To be fair though, you can achieve this look if you have the Naked Palette or the 15 Year Anniversary Palette, none of the shades used are that unique. Having said that, I love Sin, it's one of my favourite Urban Decay eyeshadows, but it is permanent, so you can just get it on its own. Zephyr is a nice highlighter shade too, frostier than Skimp, but no over the top. Let me know what you think!

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion (original)
Urban Decay Sin eyeshadow (Book Of Shadows Vol. 4) on inner half of lid
Urban Decay Missionary eyeshadow (Book Of Shadows Vol. 4) on outer half of lid
Urban Decay Bust eyeshadow (Book Of Shadows Vol. 4) in crease
Urban Decay Zephyr eyeshadow (Book Of Shadows Vol. 4) on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Rockstar on lower lashline and waterline

Givenchy Phenomen'eyes Mascara in Black (I ♥ this mascara!)
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Magically Cool Liquid Powder in Truth & Light
Mac Bite of an Apple blush on cheeks

Lips:
Boots No 7 lipstick in Rubellite


See more pictures after the jump!

FOTD: Blue and Purple Look With Urban Decay Book Of Shadows Vol. 4

As promised, here's the first look I did with the new Urban Decay Book Of Shadows Vol. 4 palette. I managed to test out the liquid eyeliner and the mascara as well as some eyeshadows. As you can see, the mascara really doesn't do much for me, it doesn't add any volume whatsoever and hardly any lenght. And like I said, I don't need a curling mascara, so this is of no use to me. Love the eyeliner though, it's very easy to use and stays put all day. The look was actually a bit more purple than blue, but as usual my camera refused to pick up the purple shades. Shame really because both Gravity and Blue Bus have lovely purple sheen to them. One day I will buy a new camera...

Anyway, to create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion (original)
Urban Decay Crystal eyeshadow (Book Of Shadows Vol. 4) on inner half of lid
Urban Decay Blue Bus eyeshadow (Book Of Shadows Vol. 4) on outer half of lid
Urban Decay Gravity eyeshadow (Book Of Shadows Vol. 4) in crease
Urban Decay Skimp eyeshadow (Book Of Shadows Vol. 4) on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Binge on lower lashline and waterline
Urban Decay 24/7 Waterproof Liquid eyeliner in Perversion on upper lashline
Urban Decay Supercurl Curling mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Parure Gold foundation in 02 Beige Clair
Mac Magically Cool Liquid Powder in Truth & Light
Estee Lauder Gilded Rose Marbleized Shimmer Powder on cheeks

Lips:
Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in #112 Ambre Rose
Mac Lipgelee in Budding Beauty


See more pictures after the jump!

Lancome Fall 2011 - Le French Touch Absolu Lipstick Review and Swatches

This autumn Lancome came out with a lovely collection called 29 St Honore and as part of that collection released 3 gorgeous red lipsticks: #100 Rouge 29, #102 and #104 (I'm sorry, I don't know the names for those shades). I bought #100 from Boots (actually got it free with my Advantage Card points, thank you very much) and managed to buy the other two from eBay in the form of testers. Those don't have the names on them, so I can't tell you I'm afraid.

These lipsticks are the cutest things ever, they are very small (although at 3 g they're not actually that much smaller than your average lipstick (most are around 3.5 g)), but the tube itself is very small, which makes you wonder what on earth you just paid £23.50 for! But then you apply them and realise that little actually goes a very long way as these lipsticks are super pigmented. Very smooth and silky, they are really lovely. I have one little problem with them, and it's the scent. I don't mind scented products as long as they smell nice, Mac's vanilla and Guerlain's flower scents are my favourite. Unfortunately these Lancome lipsticks have a very similar scent to those sweet plasticy smells a lot of drugstore/high street brand lipsticks have, like Maybelline. Although this isn't too strong, so I can live with it, but it's certainly not my favourite.

If I have to pick a favourite, I have to go with #100 Rouge 29, it's a gorgeous pinky red and it's just beautiful. But in all honesty I love them all. So if you also like the look of them, don't delay, these are all limited edition, so make sure you buy your favourite(s) before they're gone. And don't forget to let me know in the comments which one you like best.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. 4 Review and Swatches

So here it is, Urban Decay's latest offering, the Book of Shadows volume 4. Well, really it's 5, because there was also the Alice in Wonderland palette, but anyway. It cost £46 and for that you get 16 just over half size (of the Urban Decay singles) eyeshadows as well as a full size 24/7 Waterproof Liquid eyeliner in Perversion (black), a travel size Supercurl Curling Mascara (black), a travel size Eyeshadow Primer Potion (original), as well as a mini speaker and cables to connect your smart phone, and a card with 5 QR codes. I don't have a smart phone, so can't test the technical side of it, but I will tell you all about the make up.

First of all, the palette is HUGE. It's probably one and a half times the size of the original Book of Shadows and some people tought even that was pretty big. This one measures 22.5 cm (length) by 15.5 cm (width) by 4.5 cm (height), so it is pretty bulky. The palette comes in a cardboard box which is different from the older Books of Shadows because those came in plastic sleeves with an extra card showing the contents of the palette, whereas we have that all printed onto the bottom of the box. The design is butterflies and rays of light, which is actually very pretty. Inside the box you have the palette with the same design which is nice. It's got a pop-up lid with a smallish mirror and a fold-up pocket for your smart phone as well as the Get the look card, and some more butterflies that are supposed to go boing up at you when you open the lid, but mine are just flat, sitting still at the bottom. Ah well, never open the lid of my Books of Shadows anyway when applying my make up. You also have the usual drawer with the eyeshadows and extras.

Now the eyeshadows are a bit dull to be honest. The bottom half of the palette is practically just neutrals (which is great I guess if you love neutrals, but you have the Naked Palette and half of the 15 Year Anniversary Palette for that already). The top half has some colours, but it's greys, blues, greens and browns and not really the vibrant variety either. There are some shades I like a lot, including Gravity, a blueish purple, Blue Bus, a nice blue, Baked, a lovely orangey copper (permanent by the way), Sin, a gorgeous pink champagne (permanent), and Skimp, a flesh toned satin textured highlighter. The good thing about this palette is that it's not glitterfest. It does include some shimmery shades yes, and it does include Midnight Rodeo (from the 15 year anniversary palette) which does have major glitter fallout, and Midnight Cowgirl, but most of the shades are not glittery. I have to be honest, when I hear the words Urban Decay and Midnight, I immediately know there will be lots of glitter involved, but Midnight Cowgirl is actually a pretty good distant cousin of the Midnight Cowboy family and is a very pretty, only slightly glittery shade.

I did have some issues with Crystal which just doesn't seem very pigmented at all, and Blue Bus needed a few layers to make it work, but most of the eyeshadows are pretty good quality. I personally would say if you can only buy one palette and you have to choose between this and the 15 Year Anniversary Palette, then I would definitely recommend skipping this one in favour of the other one. At £46 however, it's still good value, since the 16 eyeshadows (0.8 g each) would already add up to £110.93, plus the eyeliner is worth £14, the mascara worth around £8.50 (don't know how big the full size one is, but this is pretty decent size), and the Primer Potion, so we are easily looking at £140 or so. I think the question is whether it's worth £46 to you? I bought mine mainly because I have all the other Books of Shadows and thought I'd probably regret skipping this, but in all fairness, you could quite happily live without it.

As for the extras, the eyeliner is very nice and easy to apply, lasts all day and is definitely waterproof (took a while to remove with my Estee Lauder Gentle Eye Make Up Remover, probably need something like Lancome Bi-Facil instead). The mascara doesn't do it for me I'm afraid, it doesn't add any volume and only adds a little lenght, and since my lashes are naturally curly, no matter what mascara I use, I don't really need a curling mascara (and can't really say if it does a good job at curling or not). The Primer Potion is a very good base, I use it all the time, and it's nice to have a travel size one to take on holiday, etc.

Okay, enough of the rambling, there are lots more photos, check them out after the jump! I will be posting a couple of looks soon, so be sure to check back!

An armful of swatches...

All this and more to come to Pleasureflush. I have a lot of new things to tell you about, so much make up, so little time. Stay tuned and I will get through it all, I promise!

PS. Care to guess what brands these lipstick swatches might be?

My Mac Me Over Collection Haul, Review and Swatches

Mac released a huge collection with 51 (!) pieces earlier this month called Mac Me Over and today I want to show you which products I ended up buying from the collection. To be honest, I wasn't that excited about the whole collection as it looked a bit too boring in all fairness, but there were some pieces that interested me, including some new (and permanent) lipsticks and some eyeshadows. I also picked up a fluidline gel eyeliner.

So what did I buy? I got Avenue fluidline, a dark brown colour with gold flecks, 2 eyeshadows: Satin Taupe (silvery taupe colour) and Mythical (pinky copper), and 3 lipsticks: Rebel ("vivid pinkish purple"), Oh, Oh, Oh ("plum bronze with pearl")  and Runaway Red ("rich red-blue"). The fluidline cost £13.50, the eyeshadows were £11.50 (except for Satin Taupe which is permanent, so I bought it as a pro palette refill pan and that way it was only £9.50) and the lipsticks were £13.50 (except for Runaway Red that I got free with my 6 Back 2 Mac empties). Oh and I also got a 116 blush brush (not pictured).

I have to confess that I haven't worn everything yet, but I am very happy with everything based how they swatch. I wore Avenue fluidline the other day and it is so soft and creamy, easy to apply, but it stays put for hours on end and the colour is just lovely. The gold flecks are not quite as visible as in the swatch, but it's still gorgeous. I also wore Runaway Red lipstick and it lasted on me for a good 3 hours or so and it is a beautiful red shade. It's a strange one actually as it looks really dark in the tube, swatches quite light and pinkish, but is actually red when worn. Sadly I didn't get around to taking photos of Runaway Red on my lips, but I have some photos of Avenue fluidline in action at the bottom of the page.

Be sure to continue reading and see lots more pictures after the jump !

NOTD: Revlon Nail Polish 549 Facets of Fuchsia

I bought this nail polish on a whim when I went to London a few weeks ago, but it actually turned out to be a very good purchase in the end. I think this is my only Revlon nail polish, so I don't know if they are all this good quality, but this one is certainly a keeper.

It is actually a gel like very dark black-purple base with lots of small and larger glitter in it. The first coat was very patchy and mostly grey, but with the second coat I achieved the opaqueness you see in the pictures. The glitter is pretty equally distributed with each brushstroke and is very easy to get it even as it moves about just enough to apply evenly. Wear time was really good on me, it only started chipping after 2 days, which is already very good for me, but it actually looked okay for another 2 days. Removing it was hard work though, took a good 20 minutes to scrub it off, but that's expected from glitter polishes like this. All in all I think it's a really nice polish and just perfect for the autumn. This costs £6.29 (for 14.7 ml) and is available from Boots and Superdrug.

See more pictures after the jump!

My Mac Styledriven Collection Haul, Review and Swatches

Mac released a few new collections at the beginning of this month and I've got a couple of products from Styledriven Collection to show you. This collection includes pro longwear products: eyeshadows, lipsticks, lipglasses and lip liners. I purchased two products: pro longwear lip pencil in More to Love and pro longwear lipcreme in Positively Dashing.

More to Love lip pencil is a bright blue pink colour that will go very well with my bright pink lipsticks, and Positively Dashing is a medium berry pink (or according to Mac "mid-tone berry blue-red"). They both go on really smooth and they are nicely pigmented. Positively Dashing has a slightly sticky texture, I guess that makes it longer lasting than regular lipstick. It's not unpleasantly sticky, but definitely noticable. I didn't find it drying though, which is often a drawback of longlasting lip products, so that's a plus. As for how longlasting they really are, I have not worn More to Love yet, but I did swatch it on my hand and it took quite a bit of rubbing to get it off. I have worn Positively Dashing and it lasted for about 4 hours with drinking and eating (just snacks though, not a main meal). The lip pencils cost £14 each and the lip cremes cost £15.50, and are available from maccosmetics.co.uk and debenhams.com. I have heard conflicting information on whether the products in this collection are permanent or not, some counters think the eyeshadows are going to be permanent, some think it's the lip products. I think all the products would be a nice addition to the permanent line.

See lots more pictures, including skin and lipswatches after the jump!

UK Readers! Get Your Free Graze Box!

I know beauty boxes are all the rage right now, but if you're like me and love snacking while browsing for swatches and hunting for bargains online, and are worried about your waistline, then you need to get yourself a free Graze box! What is a Graze box I hear you ask? It is basically a weekly selection of healthy, nutrious (and a bit naughty) snacks sent to you in a small cardboard box. Graze boxes normally cost £3.49 (delivered) per box but you can get your first box for free. After your first box you can either carry on with your weekly orders, or simply cancel all further deliveries. There are absolutely no catches or obligations.  

Below is my latest box, containing some healthy and of course a bit naughty snacks. You can choose what you'd like to have included in your box, special diets and allergies are catered for, and you can rate the food you are sent every week to let the folks at Graze know if you loved, liked or hated them. This way you get only the foods you like and not what you don't want. There are savoury treats as well as sweet ones, with lots of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and a bit of chocolate thrown in for good measures.

It's very easy to sign up for your box, just go to www.graze.com and enter code 8GMY7Z7 to get your  free box. Then enter your details, and hey presto, you're registered. (You will need to register your credit/debit card details, but your card will NOT be charged as you first box will be absolutely FREE. Then you can carry on with your subscription or stop all further deliveries if you wish.) You can then choose what kind of foods you'd like included in your box, and a selection of these will be included in your first box.

The box is small enough to fit through your letterbox, so no worries about not being at home when the postman comes. Just open it when you get home and enjoy! You can also choose which day you'd like your box delivered, perhaps in time for the weekend, or a Monday evening pick me up. Oh and don't forget to let me know what you think once you've received your free Graze box!

See more pictures including details of what's inside my box after the jump!

Chanel Poudre Tissee Brompton Road - A Harrods Exclusive!

I have something very pretty to show you! Chanel has a new Harrods exclusive highlighting howder and blush out called brompton Road to celebrate Chanel World opening at Harrods. When I read about this on BritishBeautyBlogger and saw pictures of this gorgeous powder, I knew I had to get it. It is just one of the pretties things ever. ♥ I ordered it from harrods.com and it arrived just 2 days later.

Similar to Chanel Ombrees Tissees in appearance (shimmery like thousands Swarovski crystals), but this is more of a blush than a highlighter (obviously depending on your skintone though). Also a bit larger at 15 g and costs £2 more at £46 (gulp!). The price in relation to the size isn't that crazy actually since a Mac blush is around third of the size of this and almost third of the price as well (a same size Mac blush would (in theory) be £42.50, ie. Mac costs £2.83 per gramm compared to £3.07 per gramm of Chanel). But still it is very expensive and an average person would probably never use it up. But it's also a collectors item and I am very happy to own it, even if I know Iwill not use it in the near future. I know I'm crazy, it's only make up, but I just want to save it and look at it.

There are also 3 new Harrods exclusive Rouge Allure lipsticks that are making their way to me as we speak. Kensington is fuschia, Hyde Park is a coral based pink and Belgravia has gold and silver shimmer. There's also a lipgloss, Levres Scintillantes Glossimer called Chelsea that is neon pink (I did not buy that). The lipsticks and the lipgloss are not available from harrods.com, you have to phone the counter if you can't make it to Harrods in person. They do charge a lot for postage, but hey, after all it's Harrods and Chanel, dahling. ;)

I'll leave you with a few more pictures after the jump!

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. 4 Is Now Available On Debenhams.com!

Urban Decay's newest eyeshadow palette is now available on debenhams.com priced £46, but with 10% off on all beauty it's actually only £41.40. Plus you get 500 bonus points if you have a Debenhams Beauty Club Card, so basically that's another £5 off. Get it while stocks last! (10% sale ends today, Friday 9th September.)

For more information on the palette click here. And don't forget to let me know if you've bought one.

The Great 30 Day Lipstick Challenge Starts Tomorrow

Thank you to all of you who took the time to vote in my poll. It was very close, but Mixed Up Magic won, so I will be choosing a different lipstick every day to wear from that box for the next 30 days. I will try to do a weekly post on which lipsticks I wore and hope to show you some swatches and looks featuring some of them. So once again here's a picture of the winning box.

I'm quite excited about this because it contains my most recent Mac lipsticks, other new-ish purchases that I haven't really worn much and some old favourites as well. So let the challenge commence...

WANT IT! Guerlain Holiday 2011 Collection - Belle de Nuit

Guerlain is one of my favourite beauty brands and I always look forward to their holiday collections because they usually are very very pretty. It's the same again this year, Belle de Nuit is just a simply gorgeous collection. Once again the promo picture features the ever beautiful Natalia Vodianova and the collection is all about sparkles. (Although her face does lok a bit odd in this picture, don't you think?)

To find out what products make up the collection, continue reading after the jump!

The Great 30 Day Lipstick Challenge - I Need Your Help! *VOTING HAS CLOSED*

So I think we have established that I have a lot of make up. I have a lot of all kind of make up, I'm not picky. I currently have 300+ lipsticks as well as over 500 lipglosses. Yep, I'm crazy. Anyway, I do rotate my make up, usually by brands, so that I get to use everything (as much as possible), but I tend to usually just do that with eyeshadows. The way my make up is stored, most of my face and lip products are very accessable, but the eyeshadows I usually have to pull out of different places. This results in the eyeshadows getting more equal use, but I often reach for just certain blushes and lipsticks, despite the number I own.

So I thought, why not pick a box of lipsticks and challenge myself to use a different one every day for a month? And this is where you come in. I would really appreciate it if you could help me choose which box to go for by voting in my little poll. Below you can see 5 boxes of lipsticks (most of my lipsticks are included), with numbers on the boxes, and below the picture a little poll. Please can you vote for the box I should be using lipsticks from for a month?! (I also included detailed pictures after the jump if you want to take a closer look.) Thank you!

I will do a few posts on how I'm getting on, maybe swatch everything I wore that week, or show you looks, etc. Luckily I have a good selection in every box, so I should be able to create nice looks with them. Oh and sorry about the crappy names, couldn't come up with anything better. Now onto the poll...

***VOTING HAS NOW CLOSED THANK YOU!***

Which box of lipsticks shall I wear for 30 days?

See detailed pictures of my boxes of lipsticks after the jump!

NOTD: Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Colour Layering System in Rainfall

Just a quick nail of the day post as I've been very busy with getting things ready for school in the last few days (children are going back tomorrow). Today's look is a lovely lovely blueish purple nail polish with green flecks from Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Colour Layering System.

Princess, Rainfall, Smile In A Storm

It's basically a double ended nail polish that you can either use separately or layered on top of each other. I haven't tried layering the polishes yet, because so far every shade I've tried was lovely in its own right. Today I'm sporting Rainfall, which is a blueish purples with green flecks at one end and a gorgeous metallic turquoise at the other end. I used the turquoise on my toes (no pictures, sorry) and the blueish purple shade on my fingers (the actual shade was more purple and less blue than in the pictures below, but unfortunately my camera refuses to pick up pinks and purples properly). The formula is excellent, the polishes go on really evenly and it only takes 2 coats to achieve a very good coverage. The polish lasted really well on me, only started chipping after two whole days (on my fingers, it's still intact on my toes), which is awesome for me as nearly everything chips on me within 36 hours or so. These polishes cost £7.99 each from Superdrug, you get 2 x 4.4 ml and they come in loads of shades. As you can see I have 3 of them now, so far I have not been disappointed. There are also individual shades in the Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique line and I'm eager to check them out too.

Keep reading to see more pictures after the jump!

The RapidLash Challenge Day 1

Thanks (or no thanks, we'll see) to Claire at Eyelining Obsessions I've decided to spend silly money on a lash enhancing serum. You see I have tiny, thin, short, nothing little eyelashes. I wear mascara and eyeliner all the time, because my eyes don't have any definition. So since Claire mentioned that RapidLash has worked very well for her, I thought I'd give it a go myself. I'm not expecting miracles, but it would be nice if I could have a tiny bit longer and thicker eyelashes. I will always want to wear mascara, I can't see such a dramatic result happening that I wouldn't, but nice long thick lashes would be lovely.

I am starting an 8 week challenge (according to RapidLash that's when you can expect to see improvements), and I have taken photos of my bare eyelashes to compare with in a few weeks time to see if there are any changes. In the meantime, let me know in the comments if you have used RapidLash, or any other lash enhancing products and how they worked out (or not as it may be the case) for you!

See some naked pictures of my eyes after the jump. You have been warned though, proceed with caution, my eyes are not a pretty sight without make up!

Finished! The August Edition

Another month has gone by and I've managed to finish a few more products. Mostly skincare, but there are a couple of mascaras in there too. Let's start with the one thing I don't have a photo for, that's because I took it with me on holiday and managed to leave it behind. It was nearly finished, and since I don't have it any more, I'll consider it finished. What I'm talking about it a sample of Clinique's 7 Day Scrub Cream. It's an okay scrub, but not too special. Certainly not £17 per 100 ml special, so I will not be repurchasing it.

Onto the next Clinique product, I also had a sample of Take The Day Off make up remover. I did like this one very much, it's very effective at removing make up, and I will definitely buy a full sized one once my current Estee Lauder make up remover runs out. The full size (125 ml) costs £14.50, it's not cheap, but it is certainly a very good make up remover.

Read about all the other products I've finished this month and see more pictures!