Guerlain Meteorites Pearly White Light Perfecting Base

I ordered this gorgeous face primer from Hong Kong as it's another Asia exclusive from Guerlain as part of their Pearly White range and therefore not available in the UK. I already own and love the original version, so decided to try this one out as well.

This is such a gorgeous product, comes in a sleek glass pump bottle and is made up of little white pearls. When press down the pump, some of these pearls get sucked up and crushes, so you end up with a white shimmery liquid. I find that only one pump is enough to do my whole face, so a little goes a VERY long way. The regular version of this primer costs £40 for 30 mls, so it's not cheap, but as I said it does last a long time and it's a wonderfully silky smooth primer. Just feels really luxurious, as you would expect from Guerlain.

The Pearly White version is slightly shimmery, but once you've blended it all out, it just leaves a slight sheen on your face. As you would use it under your foundation and/or face powder, the shimmer would not be noticeable. It does help control shine and make you make up last longer.

Here are some pictures of this lovely primer.

Blended out, picture taken with flash

Blended out, picture taken without flash

How to buy high end make up for less

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you will have noticed by now that I have a lot of make up. And I mean A LOT of make up. Nowadays I tend to pretty much only buy high end make up, with the exception of a few lipsticks and lipglosses from Max Factor, Avon, No 7 and the likes. And let's face it, high end make up costs a lot. But there are certain ways of buying high end make up that can save you a lot of money, and I would like to share these with you. This is just my experience, and might not suit everyone, but I thought some of you might benefit from it. 1. Testers I buy a lot of testers, especially really expensive brands like Guerlain, who have lipsticks costing £25-27 where you pretty much pay more for the packaging and the brand, than the actual lipstick. I mean look at the G lipsticks, with such an extravangant case, even a mirror is included. And yes, it is nice, but seriously do you NEED it? Of course not. So if you don't mind not having the pretty case, you can get testers of Guerlain's G lipsticks on eBay for as little as £6. You still get a full size lipstick, but instead of the gorgous case, you get a little plastic cap and a coloured plastic end that shows the number of the colour. Exactly like the ones you can try on at the counter. Of course they are brand new, so as good as any other lipstick, but at fraction of the price of the original product. You can always buy one for the case if you really fancy it and get the other shades in testers.

Same goes for the Kiss Kiss lipsticks which normally retail at £20. You can get them for as little as £4! And because they all have caps, you can still carry them in your purse (if you don't mind pulling a tester out of your bag in the restroom - I don't).

Same goes for Guerlain's blushes and eyeshadow quads which come in neat little plastic cases with lids. You can get them for at least half of the normal retail price.

I also buy perfumes as testers. They usually come in the biggest size, or in some cases bigger than any of the "normal" products you can find, and usually come boxed in a plain box, often without a cap. If you don't mind not getting the pretty box and in the case of the Harajuku Lovers perfume the pretty doll that sits on the top of the bottle, then you can get yourself some excellent bargains. I mean sure, the little Gwen Stefani doll is cute, but what do you do with it once you've finished with your perfume? Instead I bought a 100 ml tester for a little over the price of the 30 ml product. Makes sense, doesn't it?

2. Preview/sample items

On eBay you can often find make up that was sent to magazines or bloggers for reviews and then sold on, usually brand new as they were only photographed and not even tested. They usually come with a sticker on the bottom stating that they are review items, but usually in their normal packaging, so they look just like the product you would buy in shops. And who cares about a little sticker when they can save several pounds? I have many Mac (and other high end incl. Clinique) items that I bought on eBay and are marked as samples, including lipglosses, lipsticks, eyeshadows and blushes. See photos below.

3. Trial size items

I use very expensive skincare products (Guerlain's Orchidee Imperiale range) and am of course more than happy if I can save money on them. One way of doing it is buying trial size items. You know the little tubes of creams, etc. that you are given with your purchase to try out. Guerlain Orchidee Imperiale Exceptional Complete Care serum costs £230 per 30 ml, which I have never paid for it, I would be mad to, when I can buy 10 little tubes (3 ml each) on eBay for often as little as £30-40. Sure, I don't get the fancy packaging, but then again, no packaging is worth paying £200 for, right? ;)

4. eBay

Now I have mentioned buying from eBay in every one of the points above, but I wanted to give it a separate mention, because you can find brand new items in normal packaging at a fraction of retail price as well, you just have to keep an eye out for them. If you don't mind it if something's used, items that have been tested sell for even less. (Although eBay is now not allowing people to sell used make up anymore, not that it stops people, lol.) There are fakes on eBay, especially high end make up (not just Mac, I have seen plenty Chanel, Guerlain, etc. fakes), but if you do your homework, you will be fine. I have bought over 500 items on eBay and only bought one or two fakes myself (and managed to get my money back anyway thanks to Paypal).

5. Sale / reduced items

And of course we all love sales, and you can always pick up some nice items at half price or less. Unfortunately that often means waiting for months and possibly missing out on certain products, but I have picked up a few limited edition items at half price that I never thought I would, including Guerlain's Meteorites Voyage Powder!

Well, that's it. I hope you've enjoyed my post and you can use some of my tips next time you are looking for something to buy.

Christian Dior 5 colour eyeshadow review

I bought these lovely Dior eyeshadows when I went shopping last week, but it's taken me a while to find time to take photos of my entire collection of Dior quints, so I thought I'd post about the whole thing together. I love Dior eyeshadows, they are great, pigmented, smooth and come in lovely colours. I have many of them (see below) and am always very happy to hear about new ones being released. That is why I got so excited when I read that Dior were releasing two new quints in USA and was very eager for them to make it all the way to the UK too. And finally we have them! The new eyeshadow quints are 004 Mystic Smokys and 804 Extase Pinks. They cost £39 each which is quite a bit more than they were when I started collecting them about 2 years ago (I think they were £34 then, but I might be wrong). I tend to buy them in Boots or Debenhams to make use of my Advantage Card points or Beauty Club Reward system, this time I saved £25 on them because I had £20 reward on my Debenhams Beauty Club Reward Card (it was the result of several months' make up buying) and they are currently giving a £5 voucher if you spend over £25 on fragrance and beauty. Anyway... Here are some pictures of my new additions. Mystic Smokys is a nice dark combo with two highlighter shades. The lady at the Dior counter said you should use the brown shade under the other shades to intensify them, which I haven't tried yet, so don't know if it's true. But I can definitely see myself creating a nice smoky eye with the silver and purple shades on the top, and the light pink in the middle.

Extase Pinks is much prettier to me with its pinks, purple and two gorgeous grey/silver shades. I can see using the two grey/silver plus the light pink in the middle for a smoky look and also the two pinks and the purple for a nice bright pink/purple look. Overall if I could only get one, I would definitely pick this one up.

And finally, here are some pictures of my ever growing collection of Dior quints. I have 38 of them and can't wait to add the two new summer ones, Ready To Glow and Crush Glow.

All 38 quints I own

Top row: Green design, Amber Design, Purple Crystal

Bottom row: Nude Pink Design, Navy Design, Smoky Design

Top row: Pearl Glow, Coquette, Twilight

Bottom row: Smoky Crystal, Rose Spirit, Tropical

Top row: Coquette, Twilight, Sweet Illusion

Bottom row: Rose Spirit, Tropical, Gris Vip

Top row: Petal Shine, Moonlight, Pink Ray

Bottom row: Golds, Pink May, Parisian Lights

Top row: Earth Reflection, Mystic Smokys, Extase Pinks

Bottom row: iridescent Leather, Pink Idol, Stylish Move

Top row: Mystic Smokys, Extase Pinks, Silver Goddess

Bottom row: Pink Idol, Stylish Move, Pure Dreams

Top row: Tropical Light, Silk Satin, Electric Lights

Bottom row: Pearly Lilac, Summer Star, Goldfever

Top row: Sky Glow, Graphic Lights, Charming Fantasy

Bottom row: Earth Reflection, Mystic Smokys, Extase Pinks

Top row: Graphic Lights, Charming Fantasy, Night Butterfly

Bottom row: Mystic Smokys, Extase Pinks, Silver Goddess

My stash and storage video

After I posted my stash pictures and slideshows, I had some requests to make a video of my stash and post it on Youtube, which I've done and here it is! It's my first ever video, so apologies if the quality isn't too great. Let me know what you think. :)

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.

Give Me Liberty Of London finally comes to the UK

Give Me Liberty of London was finally released over here yesterday, and today I went to my nearest city to check it out, especially as the collection will not be on the Mac website until next Tuesday. Other collections released this week are Art Supplies, Prep for Colour and Riveting (exclusive to Selfridges I think).

I was already pretty sure about what I wanted to get having seen the swatches on Temptalia and after swatching the collection myself, I settled for Shell Pearl beauty powder and Ever Hip lipstick as planned. Only problem, being told by the assistant, is that Ever Hip is already SOLD OUT! This was at 11 am on the day after the release! How on earth is that possible??? She also tells me that this collection is NOT going online, which I did think was rather strange, so I panicked and bought Perennial High Style lipgloss instead. Then I kept thinking, shall I phone up the other store some 15 miles away to see if they still had Ever Hip and drive there straight away? They did have some so off I went. They couldn't hold it for me, but luckily they still had some when I arrived (in pouring rain!), so I bought one, and there I was told by the girls who always seem to be much more clued up that the collection is in fact going online on Tuesday. What an ordeal, eh?

I also bought 2 Pearlglide liners (Designer purple and Industrial) and Just Add Colour lipglass from Prep for Colour. I will check out Riveting when I go to London next Tuesday.

Finally here are some pictures of my Mac haul.

What have you bought or are you planning on buying from these collections?

My amazing Urban Decay and Too Faced haul

I went shopping today to check out the new Mac collections, especially Liberty Of London (more on that later), and while looking around in Boots, I found that they had loads of make up on sale, including Urban Decay and Too Faced. I think it's because they've stopped selling these brands in that particular store. So I had a good old rummage and ended up with a total of 18 items.

The best part is the price: I paid £60.42 for all of this, all of them were half price or less, in fact the total retail value of these items is a whopping £225.00! That's 73.2% off! Oh and I also earned 830 points (£8.30) on my Boots advantage card due to some extra points vouchers I had. This is almost free make up! :)

I got the following items:

7 Stardust Eyeshadows (Urban Decay) 2 Heavy Metal glitter eyeliners (Urban Decay) 1 Single eyeshadow (Shattered by Urban Decay) 2 24/7 eyeliners (Binge and Baked) (Urban Decay) 2 Cream eyeshadows (Urban Decay) 2 Lockdown eyeshadows (Too Faced) 2 Duo eyeshadows (Too Faced) See more images: I am actually wearing a couple of the new Stardust eyeshadows (the two purple ones Retrograde and 54, that I already owned) and was going to do a post on them, but I will now do that later with the whole 9 shadows from the range. Anybody out there who owns and likes these shadows? I'm pretty happy with the look I did today, they are nice and shimmery shadows, but with hardly any fall out.