Lime Crime Aquataenia Fantasy Palette Review and Swatches

I'd been lemming this palette for ages, and once when I was placing an order for a Z palette from Love Make Up I decided to get it. You see it was free delivery for orders over £50, and I ended up with this in my basket. As you do. I didn't own anything from Lime Crime before, but the reviews I'd read were positive, so I thought why not.

I'm happy I got it though as it's a lovely little palette. It contains 5 eyeshadows in gorgeous bright colours. The palette just screams spring to me. The colours included are Nautilus Prime (bright blue), Coral Of The Story (bright coral-orange), Seahorse Discourse (bright lime green), Pearl-ple (pearly lavender) and Atlanteal (bright teal). The eyeshadows are housed in a tin palette which doesn't include a mirror (I prefer palettes with mirrors).

So far I have only used Nautilus Prime and Pearl-ple, but I have swatched all the colours and they all seemed very smooth, nicely pigmented and not too powdery. I applied them on top of Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer as I always do, and my eye make up looked good and lasted pretty well, although I did see some fading after about 8 hours. I didn't experience any fallout and the colours were easy to blend.

The palette contains 7.5 g of eyeshadows and it costs £23.99. The eyeshadows are vegan and have not been tested on animals. I bought mine from Love Make Up, but Cocktail Cosmetics also sells Lime Crime.

All in all, it's a lovely palette with gorgeous bright springy colours. Now I'm interested in trying out other Lime Crime products!

See more pictures including swatches and the look I did with these eyeshadows after the jump!

Lancome Hypnose Custom Wear Volume Mascara and Cils Booster XL Super-Enhancing Mascara Base

I've had these two samples for ages and finally got around to trying them (over a month ago!). Anyway, I have even managed to type up this review now, so better later than never, I guess.

Lancome Hypnose Custom Wear Volume Mascara

I usually stick with my favourite mascaras, Guerlain Le 2 and Givenchy Phenomen'eyes, but of course I'm always happy to try out new ones. I have heard a lot of positives about Lancome mascaras, so I thought I'd give these a go.

Cils Booster XL is a white mascara base that helps to prime and protect your lashes, and enhance your eye make up. You basically use it under your mascara. I have found it very good for giving a bit more volume and length, although I can't really comment on exactly how it's helped to protect my lashes as I've only used it a few times. As much as I like it, I never have time to use it in the mornings.

Hypnose Custom Wear Volume Mascara in Noir Hypnotic is a volumising mascara and it also gives my lashes quite good length. I like it very much, the brush is very easy to use, it's a nice size with good bristles and the formula is just right too. I really cannot fault it. I have found that I get more volume with the mascara base under this mascara, but even alone it's very good. I haven't had any problems with clumping, smudging or flaking at all.


You can see two pictures of me wearing the base and the mascara at the bottom of this post, but if you'd like to see full face pictures and the breakdown for the looks, click on the pictures.

The full size versions of these products cost £21 for 5.5 ml (Cils Booster XL) and £22 for 6.5 g (Hypnose Custom Wear Volume Mascara).

See more pictures after the jump!

Pink and Mauve FOTD

I did this look over a month ago when I had an entire morning to get ready and could actually experiment a bit. I really liked it, so I took pictures, and finally I have even managed to post them! I am also about to review the mascara I used, so I thought I might as well do the look first.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Too Faced Insurance Policy
Too Faced Insurance Policy
Estee Lauder Vivid Shine Eyeshadow in Magenta all over the lid
Estee Lauder Vivid Shine Eyeshadow in Cyber Ruby in the crease
Estee Lauder Cyber Metallic Eyeshadow in Cyber Pink in the inner corner of the lid and on browbone to highlight
Mac pigment in Helium patted on top of Estee Lauder Vivid Shine Eyeshadow in Magenta
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Crash on lower lashline
Urban Decay Heavy Metal glitter eyeliner in Catfight on the upper lashline 
Lancome Cils Booster XL mascara base and Hypnose Mascara Volume in Noir Hypnotic
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 02 Beige Claire
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Laura Geller Baked Blush in Bali
Bare Minerals Ready Luminizer in The Love Affair

Lips:
Chanel Rouge Allure Laque in #78 Phoenix

Let me know what you think about this look in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

The Winner Of My Vivo Smoky Moods Ultimate Eye Kit Giveaway

is Mateja Novak!

Many thanks to all of you who entered and a big welcome to my new followers! If you didn't win this time, don't despair, there's going to be another giveaway soon.

NOTD: China Glaze Stella and Haute Metal Crackle Polish

Firstly, I'd like to say sorry again for the lack of posts this week, but I've been busy with the children and I'm still not feeling well, so not had much energy for posting. Secondly, I just want to mention on a side note that a friend of mine's dog called Stella (the same name as the gorgeous burgundy polish in this post) is very poorly with kidney failure at the moment which is making me really sad. But I had this post planned for today, so I will still do it and dedicate it to my friend's family. Stella is a gorgeous loveable 10-year-old dog who is very much part of their family and will be sorely missed when the inevitable happens.

Taken with flash

I'm also a bit sad about this mani because it looked so gorgeous, yet it lasted very badly. As much as I love China Glaze polishes, they seem to chip on me almost instantly. This started chipping on me within the first 24 hours and had to be removed after just 2 days as it looked terrible. It did look very pretty while it lasted though.

I did 2 coats of Stella followed by a single coat of Haute Metal Crackle. The formulas were great on both, I was really happy with the crackle effect. I also used Seche Vite top coat (I think).

See more pictures after the jump!

ArtDeco Spring Collection Haul, Review and Swatches

This pretty magnetic palette is part of ArtDeco's spring collection and as I love butterflies, I of course had to snap it up. I also bought 4 of their duochrome eyeshadows to go with it and a pretty duochrome nail polish.

The palette takes either 4 eyeshadow singles or a blush and an eyeshadow, and I decided to get 4 of the new shades of eyeshadows. Of course you can buy it without refills and you also don't have to get the palette if you just want the eyeshadows, but I figured they would look lovely together.

I got 255 Aero Spring Green, 267 Fresh Water, 285 Lilac Passion and 297A Rosy Heart Throb. These are new shades for the spring, but I don't know if they are also limited edition or permanent. As I said, these are said to be duochrome eyeshadows, but with the exception of Rosy Heart Throb, I can't really see the duochrome in them. Rosy Heart Throb has a gold duochrome to it which is very pretty. The eyeshadows are very soft, a bit powdery and they are rather sheer as well. They give a very soft effect and look very springlike,but if you are looking for something more dramatic, more pigmented, then these are not for you. They did last well though and didn't crease at all, but due to their softness it was easy to overblend them, so you need to be careful when applying and blending.

Considering the price of the made up palette (£32.25) this is not as cheap as you'd think and for the amount of product you get (3.2 g) it's not the best value. I also found it a bit odd that the packaging of the palette shows an applicator, but you don't get one with it, which I probably wouldn't use, but for the price they really should've thrown in a measly applicator. 

I also bought Ceramic Nail Laquer 245 Iridescent Butterfly Wings which is a pretty blue with purple and teal duochrome. It seems very sheer, but I haven't tried it yet, so can't really comment.

The palette costs £10.25, the single eyeshadows are £5.50 (for 0.8 g) and the nail polish costs £9.50 (for 6 ml). I bought mine from BeautyBay, but Debenhams should be stocking the collection soon too.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with the eyeshadows after the jump!

Too Faced Sweethearts Perfect Flush Blush Review and Swatches

First of all, I'd like to apologise in advance for the lack of posts in the coming few days (and as you could see there wasn't a new post yesterday either). It's school holiday this week in the UK and that means 3 children in the house. With several daytrips this week I won't have much time to write up reviews and by the evenings I usually feel really tired to type anything coherent. I have also not been feeling well (cold and sore throat), so not been feeling energetic at all.

Anyway, I do have a review for you today and it's the new gorgeous heart shaped blush from Too Faced. As soon as I saw the pictures, I knew I had to have it. I just love the design and the colours are really lovely too.

Too Faced Sweethearts Perfect Flush Blush is a baked heart shaped blush devided into 3 colours: rosy pink, coral and peach. All 3 shades are rather frosty, but not glittery. You can just about use the strips alone due to their size or you can mix them up to create a pinky coral glow. It isn't overly pigmented, so don't have to worry about overdoing it. I've found that it gives more of a glow rather than an obvious colour, but of course you can layer it on. It did seem to disappear after a few hours' wear to due its lightness, so longetivity isn't its strongest point. I think this is true to most baked products though.

The blush comes inside a very cute pink heart shaped cardboard compact and the outer box is also cute and pink. The packaging is exactly what you would expect from Too Faced, girly, pink, a bit kitsch, but ever so cute. You get a nice 5.5 g that should last you a good while. The blush costs £24 and I got mine from Beauty Bay, but Boots should be stocking it soon if not yet.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!