Getting Out Of The Rut Day 2

Here's another look I've done with products that had been sitting unloved in my make up drawers. Products used (other than my staples which I will do a separate post about) were Mac Surf Baby! Cheek Powder in My Paradise, Barry M Dazzle Dust no. 26, Mac pigment in Spiritualize, Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencil in Vacancy and Mac Kissable Lipcolour in Exxxhibitionist.

 Here are the products I used:

I'm really enjoying this and will continue to post pictures. Hope you like them.

Want It! Mac Baking Beauties Collection for Spring 2013

Mac has a very pretty collection coming out in April (I believe May in the UK) and I really wanted to share the promo pictures and collection details with you.

Pretty, isn't it? To be honest, despite the edible promo pictures and gorgeous colours I don't actually want many things from the collection. Since I'm on a lip product no-buy, I will be skipping the lipsticks and lip balms. I am rather interested in the new paint pots and the pearlmatte powders, although the pattern on those does remind me of the embroidery my grandmother used to make (and that's not necessarily the best thing to be reminded of when it comes to a hip and happening brand like Mac).

Here are the collection details, let me know what you're lemming! (Collection details taken from Specktra with thanks to the user Mac-Guy.)

Lipstick

Rasberry Swirl - Light white blue pink (Cremesheen)

Pure Decoration - Light white peach (Cremesheen)

Lavender Whip - Light cool lavender (Cremesheen)

Devil's Food - Glossy deep plum (Frost)

Mineralize Tinted Lip Balm

Sweet Tooth - Creamy lilac

Baking Beauty - Creamy light peach

Glace' - Creamy pale baby blue 

Cheery Cherry - Creamy mid-tone blue pink

Pro Longwear Pain Pot
Fancy Frosting - Frosted white
Mooncake - Warm beige
Eclair - Light chocolate with gold pearlized pigments
Let's Skate - Pale pink with pearlized pigments
Dangerous Cuvee - Frosted cool grey

Glitter
Reflects Transparent Teal - Sparkling white with turqoise
Pink - Bright pink

Haute & Naughty Lash
Black

Pearlmatte Face Powder

In For A Treat - Champagne base with matte coral flowers and mint leaves

Pink Buttercream - Light silvery pink base with dark pink flowers and periwinkle leaves

Lustre Drops

Pink Rebel - Blue pink with gold pearlized pigments

Nail Lacquer

Blue Velvet - Light periwinkle blue (Cream)

Confectionary - Light blue pink (Cream)
Pistachio Creme - Light teal mint (Cream)

129 Brush

Powder/Blush Brush 

252 Brush

Large Shader Brush

See more pictures after the jump!

Bellapierre Cosmetics 9 Stack Shimmer Kit in Pandera Review and Swatches

On a recent trip to TKMaxx I found this kit for under half the original retail price, so of course I had to get it. I have already reviewed another one of these in the colour Fabulous so I won't repeat everything I've said there, if you want more info, please click here.

What you get in a kit is basically 9 little pots of pigment, 2 eyeshadow brushes, an eyeshadow base, a clear lipgloss and an instruction CD. The pigments come in a stack which is pretty cool, although due to the nature of it, can only be carried around as one piece. 

Unlike Fabulous which has lighter, bright colours, Pandera has a darker, smokier colour mix. It also doesn't include any glitters, whereas Fabulous has two glitters in it. The pigments are still very shimmery, but I find that the shimmer doesn't show up that much on the eyes, so they are definitely very wearable. I only got around to wearing a couple of shades, namely the light pinky beige and the medium brown shade (middle of top rown and right one in the middle row - see in pictures below), but they were both very smooth and easy to apply and blend. They stayed on my lids without fading or creasing for 12 hours.

These stacks retails for £59.99, but this set was only £24.99 in TKMaxx. However, I did notice, 6 months ago the same set in different colour cost only £19.99. Still a good deal, but it seems even TKMaxx is getting more expensive! Anyway, I'm happy to pay 25 quid for this, but I do feel that 60 would be way too much. Thank Crunchie for TKMaxx, eh? 

See more pictures including swatches and the look I did with some of the pigments after the jump!

Bellapierre Cosmetics 9 Stack Shimmer Kit Review and Swatches

I'd been planning on reviewing this kit for ages, but other things always got in the way, but finally, here it is. I bought this set in TKMaxx a while ago (February), but this is also available from BeautyBay and House of Fraser. I had actually spotted this on the House of Fraser website and loved the colourful stacks, but at £59.99 I just couldn't justify buying it, especially as I'd never actually heard of the brand before. So I was really happy to see it for just £19.99 in TKMaxx and of course snapped it up straight away.

In fact I believe you only get the actual 9 colour shimmer powder stacks for £59.99 whereas this kit also includes an eyeshadow base, two brushes and a clear lipgloss. So yeah, bit of a bargain really. I got the colour Fabulous which is a nice mix of shimmery bright colours. The stack includes two small pots of glitter, one red and one copper, and 7 pots of shimmer powder pigment. The glitter is very fine, but of course still chunkier than the pigments which are really nice and fine. The base included with the kit is slightly sticky and does a good job of holding on to the pigment, giving a creaseless result for several hours (in fact I had no creasing or fading for about 12 hours or so). You can also mix the pigments with the clear gloss and create a lipgloss, although most of the colours in this stack wouldn't be my ideal lipgloss colours. The brushes are okay, a slanted eyeliner brush and an eyeshadow brush are included in this kit. You get 15.75 g of pigment in this kit which is a good amount, making each pot just under 2 g each.

All in all, I really like the pigments, but I would not pay £59.99 for this. It's nice, but not 60 quid nice. However, for £19.99 it's really great and I wish I could pick up more colours (I especially like Iris and Astrid), but sadly due to TKMaxx's nature, they're not available there anymore.

Have you tried anything from Bellapierre? How do you like it?

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

My Mac Haul Part 2 - Vera Collection

So as promised here's my Mac haul post part 2. (Missed part 1? Check it out here!) The Vera collection was the one I was most excited about with its pretty powders and colourful pigment stacks. There's also a bunch of lovely Pearlglides and Plushglasses, plus some nail polishes in the collection, but I didn't get those because I already have most of the Pearlgides, I am okay for sheer lipglosses for the next decade or so and I don't like cream finish nail polishes.

I did get all 3 Crushed Metallic Pigment stacks and both Pearlmatte Face Powders though and they are all so pretty. I haven't actually used any of them, but I have swatched the pigments and I'm pretty impressed. Quality wise Aloha is the best, all 4 pigments are really smooth and the colours are gorgeous too. I also love the colour in Strawberry Patch and the pigments are quite smooth, not as smooth as the ones in Aloha, but still pretty nice. The worst quality of the 3 stacks is Butterfly Party, much chunkier and harder to blend, but the colours in it are so pretty, I can forgive it.

I have to admit, I have not even swatched the powders. I'm sorry, they are just too pretty. I will - eventually - but not just yet. Yeah I know...

Another thing I wasn't too impressed with was the price increase. The pigment stacks are now £25.50 and the powders are £21.50. Ouch! Did you get anything from this collection? Let me know in the comments!

Anyway, keep on reading to see lots more pictures including swatches of the pigment stacks!

Updated Blog Sale Now On!

I've added lots of limited edition Mac pigments and some new paint pots, so be sure to check it out by either clicking here or at the link on the top of the page.

Blog Sale Is Back!

I have added loads of Mac pigments to my Blog Sale, so if you are keen to find some bargains, make sure you check it out. Either click HERE or on the Blog Sale tab on the top of the page.

My Recent London Make Up Haul Video

Just a quick video to show you what I bought in London yesterday.

FOTD: Make A Splash With Rimmel Colour Mousse!

Here's a quick and easy look I've created with Rimmel Colour Mousse in Splash. I used it as cream eyeshadow and just added a bit of highlighter, coloured eyeliner, mascara and voila! As this mousse eyeshadow is absolutely brilliant, it doesn't need a primer and still stays put, doesn't crease or fade all day. It's very easy to apply and I absolutely love this colour, it has a gorgeous gold sheen to it. Just to add, I don't think Rimmel Colour Mousses are waterproof, but I think they'd probably be okay with a bit of splashing.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Rimmel Colour Mousse in 004 Splash
Mac White Gold pigment to highlight browbone
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Zero on lower lashline
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Electric on lower waterline
Diorshow Black Out mascara in black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Cheeks:
Bobbi Brown Apricot Shimmer Brick

Lips:
Mac Thrills lipstick

Sorry, no idea what foundations and setting powder I used for this look, probably Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid and Mac MSF Natural. Anyway, let me know what you think of this look in the comments!


See more pictures after the jump!

This is what £300 worth of make up looks like!

Don't get much, do you? This is my haul from Mac's latest collections: Cham Pale, Mickey Contractor and Stylishly Yours (plus one permanent item). Actually, strictly speaking this isn't quite £300, because I forgot to include I Get No Kick eye khol, but with that it comes just over £300. Crazy eh?

Wanna know what I got? 

From Cham Pale I got the two highlighting powders Chez Chez Lame and Rose Ole, all 4 new lipgelees, Caviar Dreams eyeshadow quad, all 4 new paint pots and I Get No Kick eye khol. From Mickey Contractor I got the two new fluidlines and Mehr lipstick. From Stylishly Yours I got the 3 new pigments (I already own Violet) and Style Curve lipstick. I also picked up Rubenesque paint pot. 

Sorry, no swatches at this time, but here's another photo for you. Did you indulge in any of these collections? If so, what did you get?

Mac Alice + Olivia dazzleglass cremes and Partylicious pigment

This review is probably a bit late since some of the Alice + Olivia collection is now sold out online, and the only other place they're sold is Harrods, which will only suit those living in London. The dazzleglass cremes are all still available, but Partylicious and Later pigments are now sold out, together with one of the nail polishes. the curse of limited edition. I was lucky (and determined) enough to buy Partylicious pigment before it sold out and I'm pretty happy with it. It's a nice medium turquoise shade, finely milled and not at all glittery. I got two of the dazzleglass cremes: If It's Pink and Sparklicious, which are very glittery as dazzleglasses should be. If It's Pink is a bright pink shade, less shimmery than Sparklicious, a milky pale pink with loads of glitter. If It's Pink works well on its own, Sparklicious is probably better layered on top of a brighter lipstick.

Sparklicious, If It's Pink, Partylicious

See more pictures of my haul and me wearing some of these products!

My recent Mac haul

I'm back! Sorry it's been a while since I last posted on here, but I've had a lot less spare time lately. What with having a new kicthen installed and all the cleaning and sorting out that followed, and children at home on their summer holiday, I've hardly had any time for myself. What little I've had I've spent reading forums and blogs and searching eBay for bargains. I also never got around to taking photos of my new purchases, let alone looks, so there wasn't much to write about. But now... as we've entered into August, that means Mac has launched its new collections and of course I've had to endulge. Unfortunately it turned out that the UK isn't getting everything from the new Digi Pops collection, including the new dazzleglasses and the Look in the box sets. I wasn't bothered about the box sets, but I really wanted some of the dazzleglasses, although luckily it seems I may be able to get them from a very nice person on Spektra. I have placed a rather large order with Mac the day the new collections were launched on the website and my black box arrived this afternoon. So I thought I'd show you what I got and I will try and take pictures of swatches and possible looks over the next few days as well - we'll see how that works out. But for now, here's the details and some pictures of my haul: