Lancome Color Design Palette in 103 Golden Frenzy

I wasn't sure whether I should do this review since the product itself isn't actually available on its own or in fact anymore for that matter, but I decided to do it anyway because you can pick up practically everything on eBay plus this palette might actually be available elsewhere. Lancome don't sell these 5 colour palettes in the UK but they do in America, I picked up the purple one last year in Florida.

I got the palette as part of the Christmas Beauty Box back in November and sadly it isn't available anymore. It took me a while to get around to using it, but finally I have. It's a really nice neutral palette with some sparkle. The palette consists of 5 eyeshadows and they are labelled as: all over base, lid, crease, highlighter and liner. Of course you don't have to use the eyeshadows as they're labelled, I actually used the all over base colour as a highlighter and the highlighter colour in the outer corner of the lid because I don't think that such a dark colour would look good as a highlighter.

I found the eyeshadows nicely pigmented, soft and smooth, they stayed on without creasing and fading for 12 hours or so. I wouldn't say this is a must have palette especially if you have a lot of eyeshadows already, but it's a nice, all in one palette, and it certainly looks gorgeous too.

As these palettes aren't sold in the UK, I have no idea what they would cost if they were, but in the US they're around $48. You only get 4 g of product which isn't a lot, but I'm not really bothered about the weight anymore since I already have so much make up anyway, I will never use it all up in a million years.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I created using this palette after the jump!

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette Swatches and Quick Review

Following on the success of their Naked Palette, Urban Decay has released their Naked2 Palette and it is now available in the UK. I bought mine on Friday night and it arrived in the post this morning. I've had a quick look and swatched it for you all, but I have not had time to use any of the eyeshadows yet (except those that are permanent or repromotes, but not from this palette anyway).

My first impression is that I like it, some shades more than others. My favourite is the right half of the palette, in particular Suspect, Pistol, Verve and YDK, they all seem well pigmented and smooth, and the colours are lovely. Foxy (first one from the left) is a very hard to see skin tone shade, pretty unremarkable, Bootycall (third one from the left) is a nicer highlighting shade. Half Baked is included in this as well as the Naked Palette which is totally unnecessary. All in all it's not a bad palette and if you don't have many neutral shadows, this might just be exactly what you need. There are some mattes included and some rather shimmery, frosty shades too. There's also a Lip Junkie gloss included which is pretty nice, it has a minty scent and sweet taste, and lasts well on the lips, but colourwise it mostly just adds shine as it's quite pale. I have not used the included double ended brush.

The palette is exclusively available online from Debenhams, but it will hit the stores in February I believe. It costs £36 and you get 12 good sized eyeshadows, the mini gloss and the double ended brush. Not a bad deal at all. Also Debenhams are giving 500 bonus points to their Beauty Club Card holders at the moment (that's £5 worth!) with orders over £30. Have you ordered it yet? Are you planning to? Let me know!

See lots more pictures and swatches after the jump!

FOTD: Stila Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette Neutral Look

Following on from my review of Stila Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette here's the look I did with some of the shadows. I used Kitten, Bare and Sunset to create a neutral look which was very well complimented by Damsel Smudge Stick. Let me know what you think!

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Stila Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette:

• Kitten all over lid 
• Bare in inner corner and on browbone to highlight
• Sunset in outer corner and crease

Stila Smudge Stick in Damsel on lower lashline
L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion Mascara in Black
Givenchy Phenomen'eyes Mascara / Top Coat in Plum Sparkles
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation in 02 Lys Rose
Mac Truth & Light Magically Cool Liquid Powder
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Peony as blush

Lips:
Guerlain Rouge Automatique in 170 Nuit D'Amour

See more pictures after the jump!

Stila In The Light Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette Swatches and Review

It seems every brand is coming out of their version of Urban Decay's Naked Palette and today I have Stila's Naturaleyes (why one word?) palette to show you. I bought this online a couple of months ago for £22.50, but literally days later I noticed that it had gone up to £25. I'm glad I managed to snatch it up for less. :)

You get 10 eyeshadows, 4 matte and 6 shimmery ones. The colour selection is really good, you get a couple of highlighter shades, and as well as lots of neutrals, you also get grey and black, so you can create a nice smoky eye as well. All of them swatched nicely, and I'm sporting a look today I did with 3 of the matte eyeshadows and they applied and blended easily and their colour payoff is very good too. You also get a smudgestick included which I'm also wearing and it has stayed put on my waterline for hours now (6 hours and counting). It's a plumy colour, so less harsh than black, but still dark enough. You also have a small booklet with ideas for looks included which is a nice idea.

My only complaint about this palette is that you don't get a mirror in the lid, instead you have some quote from someone I don't know that I quite frankly could do without. I feel that at this price and considering that this palette is supposed to be a portable, contain all you need for your neutral looks, it really really should have a mirror.

Other than that I am really happy with it and I think it's a nice alternative to Urban Decay's Naked Palette. It's also quite a bit smaller, so should be easier to carry with you, if only it had a mirror too... The palette cost £25 and you get 14 g eyeshadows and 0.28 g eyeliner.

See lots more pictures including swatches 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!

Quick and Easy Natural Look Using Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Palette

I decided to do a quick and easy natural look with my new Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Collection and this is what I ended up with. The shadows were all really lovely to use, I only one complaint: Midnight Rodeo has awful glitter fallout, so I ended up with glitter all down my face (there was none on my eyelids weirdly). It's a pretty shade though, but I wish Urban Decay stopped making these glitterbomb shadows (Midnight Cowboy and MCRA, I'm looking at you too!). I loved Vanilla as a highlighter and Flow as a lid colour, they are both very pretty shades.

To create this look I used the following:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion in Greed (gold)
Urban Decay Flow eyeshadow (15 palette) all over lid
Urban Decay Midnight Rodeo eyeshadow (15 palette) in crease
Urban Decay Midnight 15 eyeshadow (15 palette) above crease
Urban Decay Vanilla eyeshadow (15 palette) in inner corner and on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Bourbon on lower lashline and waterline
Givenchy Phenomen'eyes mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Magically Cool Liquid Powder in Truth & Light
Urban Decay Score blush

Lips:
Bourjois Sweet Kiss lipstick in #47 Rose Pare

Let me know what you think! I will also show you a blue and teal look and a pink sparkly look I've created with this palette, so check back soon!

See more photos after the jump!

FrontCover To Go Pop In Pop Out Compact Review

I was recently sent a voucher from Boots for FrontCover's new FrontCover To Go compact so I thought I'd try it out. The offer was that you get the FrontCover Pop In Pop Out compact and 4 eyeshadow singles for £10 (they would cost £21 otherwise with the palette priced at £5 and the eyeshadow singles at £4 each). My local Boots doesn't stock FrontCover neither do the bigger ones nearby, so I was happy to see that the Boots on Oxford Street had them when I was in London 2 weeks ago.

So what is it exactly? You get an empty eyeshadow palette with a mirror and double ended eyeshadow brush to fill with your choice of shades. You can choose from 25 different colours, but unfortunately the Boots on Oxford Street only had maybe half of them in stock. The eyeshadow singles come in a square base that you can snap into the palette. They are very easy to put in and take out, so in theory you can replace them with other shades if you desire (a selection of these eyeshadows came out last winter with the FrontCover To Go holiday palette), but I don't know where you would put the singles as they don't come with a lid so you could safely store them individually. The eyeshadow singles comes in 25 shades, but they are mainly only golds, neutrals, greys, some blues/greens and one (!!!) measly purple shade. I would really like to see a much bigger variety including more purples, some pinks, oranges, different greens and blues, or at the very least it would be good to be able to purchase any of the existing shades and not find the stand half empty. I ended up putting together a neautral/gold palette which is very nice, but I've since discovered that I'd already owned 3 of the 4 shades as they were included in the FrontCover To Go holiday palette. Actually, that's another thing, most of the singles are already in the bigger palettes of which I own quite a few myself.

So all in all, was it a good buy? At £10 it was okay. The eyeshadows are a really nice quality, the colours I chose are gorgeous and the palette is quite funky, although the brush is pretty manky to be honest. However at £21 I don't think it would be quite such a great deal especially if you already own a lot of the shades from other palettes. I wish there was a bigger selection and better availibility of the shades, I would've liked not to duplicate what I already own and I prefer brighter colours to neutrals.

Anyone tried this or other FrontCover palettes? What do you think?

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Urban Decay Stardust eyeshadows - review and looks

After my huge Urban Decay haul yesterday I now own all 9 shades of the new Stardust eyeshadows. So I thought I'd take a few pictures and write up a quick review for those who are interested in these eyeshadows.

My first impression of these was that they look VERY shiny. Not so much glittery (Midnight Cowboy Ride Again, I'm looking at you!), but like wet shimmer. They are very smooth, not gritty at all, and as a result, there really isn't much fallout with them. I found them pretty easy to work with.

The shadows are 3.5 g (0.12 oz) each and come in a funky square black case with slightly domes clear lid. To open them you have to squeeze the sides of the black case together (it's made of some sort of rubber). They cost £13.50 each.

They come in 9 shades, some are very light and not much more than shimmer, but there are some really nice pigmented shades in there, my favourite being Atmosphere, an intense teal colour. See some photo and swatches below.

Top row: Bobby Dazzle, Space Cowboy, Diamond Dog, Griffith, Atmosphere

Bottom row: 54, Retrograde, Moon Spoon, Void

Top row: Bobby Dazzle, Space Cowboy, Diamond Dog, Griffith, Atmosphere

Bottom row: 54, Retrograde, Moon Spoon, Void

Top row: Bobby Dazzle, Space Cowboy, Diamond Dog, Griffith, Atmosphere, 54, Retrograde

Bottom row: Moon Spoon, Void

Moon Spoon, Void

I created two different looks using these shadows, for the first one I used 54 and Retrograde, for the second one I used Bobby Dazzle, Space Cowboy and Diamond Dog. Please let me know what you think.

Bottom line is, these eyeshadows are a nice addition to the Urban Decay line. If you don't like shimmery eyeshadows, however, these are not for you. But they are fun and easy to work with. To be completely honest, I wouldn't have purchased them all at £13.50 a pop, in fact I only bought 54 and Retrograde at first, because I'm not sure they're worth that much. But if you can find them cheaper or a 3 for 2 deal, then I'd pick up 2 or 3 of them because they are pretty nice.

See more photos...

PS. I'm wearing Stereo Rose on my cheeks and Ever Hip lipstick on the lips in this second look.

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!