Urban Decay 24/7 Double Ended Pencil Duo Set Review and Swatches

Urban Decay 24/7 eyepencils are one of my favourite eyeliners and I can safely say I have pretty much every shade available now. So when I saw that this set was available on the Urban Decay website I knew I really wanted it because it contains a shade, Sabbath, I didn't own. Luckily it became available in the UK as well, so I could finally get my hands on it.

The set contains two double ended eyepencils and a Grind House Double Barrel Sharpener. The shades included are Zero (black), Corrupt (dark metallic brown), Stash (antique gold) and Sabbath (matte navy-blue). This set contains the essential shades, Zero is great black eyeliner, Corrupt is my favourite brown eyeliner, Stash is lovely with golds and greens, and Sabbath is a gorgeous smooth dark navy colour. Corrupt and Sabbath aren't available individually, although Corrupt has been included in a couple of sets before. Together with the sharpener, this would make an excellent starter set for someone who doesn't have many eyeliners.

All of them are really pigmented, smooth, they go on easily and stay put for hours. I use Urban Decay 24/7 eyepencils almost every day and would wholeheartedly recommend them to everyone. 

The eyeliners are 0.5 g each (well, 1 g per double ended pencil), so you get 2 g and the sharpener for £19. This is nowhere near as good value as the other eyeliner sets as you get just over £30 worth of products, but it's not bad. The sharpener retails for £7 alone, although I can live without it quite happily, and there's still £23 worth of eyeliner in there.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Illamasqua Nail Duo Bright - Glitterati and Viridian

I bought this set of two Illamasqua nail polishes from Debenhams, named Nail Duo Bright. The set includes Viridian, a metallic peacock green and Glitterati, a glittery plum shade.

My first impression was that neither of these polishes looked as bright or glittery in person as they did in the stock picture on the Debenhams website. Fair enough though, things never do. I still think naming them as "bright" is a bit misleading because they're not.

Viridian is rather dull, darker and a lot less metallic than I expected, even based on what it looks like in the bottle. I ended up jazzing it up a little by Zoya Maisie, a blue/green flakie polish.

Glitterati is very misleading in the bottle as you can see loads of sparkles, but they mostly end up being sandwiched between the layers you apply (I did two) and also just floating inside the polish. The end result was much less glittery than I thought it would be.

Both manicures took 2 coats to look opaque, the formula was nice, not too runny or thick and they applied evenly. Both started chipping slightly in the first 24 hours, even though these polishes are supposed to be "extremely hardwearing and chip-resistant" according to Illamasqua. Once I applied Zoya Maisie on top of Viridian, it lasted really well (3 more days), but that credit goes to Zoya Maisie. Glitterati was very badly chipped on me by the end of day 3.

The set costs £22 from Debenhams (currently £19.80 in the sale - ends tonight!) and interestingly £24 on the Illamasqua website. Single polishes cost £13.50 and as both are full size (15 ml each), this is a good value set. (I can't actually see Glitterati on the website, maybe it's exclusive to the set?) Whether I'd recommend it is another question. If you don't mind that they're not as bright as advertised and aren't chip resistant like Illamasqua claim, then I would. I'm myself a bit disappointed with this set, and since these are my first Illamasqua polishes, not sure this was the best introduction to the brand's nail polishes.

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Too Faced Shadow Bon Bons Review and Swatches

I have another pretty palette from Too Faced to show you, this time it's the Shadow Bon Bons palette. This one is also a very good value offering. Of course it's not just abut value, it's also the quality that counts. Luckily this is also a great quality palette. Well done Too Faced!

Shadow Bon Bons contains 12 eyeshadows, a trial size Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer and a full size LashGASM mascara. I have to admit, I actually bought this palette for just one of the eyeshadows (and the fact that I got £17 worth of points on my Advantage Card in Boots when I spent £50). I'm happy to say that all the eyeshadows in the palette are actually very nice, with the exception of Nude Beach which has quite bad fallout, although it's a pretty shade. This palette isn't as colourful as the Sweet Indulgences palette, so better for those who prefer neutral looks, but there's still plenty of variety in there. Not just colourwise, but also regarding the finishes, there are matte, metallic and shimmery shades.

Some of the shades in this palette can also be found in the Sweet Indulgences palette (Peach Fuzz and Lovey Dovey) and I'm pretty sure I've come across some of the others before too, but this is such a nice, comprehensive set, and not too bulky to travel with either.

The Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer has a nice golden sheen, so it's great under shimmery shadows. It grabs onto eyeshadows and makes them stay vibrant and creaseless all day long. The LashGASM mascara gives me nice lenght, although not much volume. It has those plastic bristles/spikes I like and the brush is a nice size, not too big at all. The formula is pretty nice too.

All in all, a great set and well worth the £33 price tag. According to Beauty Bay the value of this set is £130. It contains 10.8 g eyeshadows which is £95 value, plus the full size (12 ml) LashGASM mascara £16.50, and the 5 g Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer is an extra £7.50 value, which makes it £119 in my books, but either way, it's great value.

Have you bought anything from Too Faced's holiday collection yet? Or are you waiting for Santa to bring you something nice? Let me know in the comments! Also see if you can guess which one is my favourite shade in this palette? And which one is yours?

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Stila Positively Pink Powder Blush and Lip Glaze Set

Stila has released this gorgeous set of blush and lip glaze for Breast Cancer Awereness month (October) and as I'm a sucker for pretty powders, of course I couldn't say no. It also helped that this set was an absolute bargain at £12.50.

I'd like to apologise in advance for the lack of swatches, but I didn't want to mess up the powder (yes, I'm weird) and I have so many glosses right now, there's no point in opening another one. I think I will just keep the set nicely boxed up as it is.

A portion of proceeds will be donated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (although Stila doesn't specify how big that protion is). The powder is 7.9 g and the gloss is 1.5 ml. The set costs £12.50, but the powder is also available on its own for £10.

And here's a £5 off code for you to use on orders of £25 or over at stila.co.uk, just enter StilaKiss at the checkout. It's valid until 30th November 2012. I've already ordered the Sparke Luxe eyeshadow palette, will review it as soon as I can.

See more pictures after the jump!

Mac Guilty Passions Crushed Metallic Pigments Review and Swatches

Sorry it has taken me this long to show you swatches of the Mac holiday crushed metallic pigment sets, but here they are finally. As you know, I bought all 3 of these sets because I absolutely love these pigments, they are just so pretty.

The packaging is adorable, they come in these cute mini sized "hat boxes" with a bow on top. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with mine yet, but they are good for storing little things you might have hanging around, although unfortunately due to the bow on top they can't be stacked, so they may not be that helpful. That aside they are very cute and pretty.

You get 4 pigments in each set and there are 3 sets: Sweetly Smoky, Brilliantly Cool and Tenderly Warm. There are a couple of repromotes, but most shades are new. Of course that doesn't mean they're not dupeable, although the testure of these is quite different, so the colours might look similar, but not the overall effect.

These crushed metallic pigments are all very high sheen, some are more than others. The sets contain a complete look with a highlighter shade, a couple of light/medium shades and a darker shade included in each one. Due to the nature of these pigments they are less finely milled than regular pigments which makes them less easy to blend and more prone to fallout. I have tried 3 of the shades from the Brilliantly Cool set on my eyes and I found the easiest way to apply these is with your finger. Another way is with a dampened brush. I used them over Too Faced Glitter Glue which made the blending even mor diffcult, and sadly there was some creasing too, not sure if it's due to the Glitter Glue or the pigments. Will have to keep experimenting. The set with the most finely milled pigments is definitely Tenderly Warm. I've found Brilliantly Cool the most "rough". Despite all this, I still love them because the colours are so pretty and the effect is so gorgeous.

The Guilty Passions set cost £25.50 each (Debenhams currently has 10% off beauty by the way) and you get 12 g of pigments in each set. That's good value since Mac pigments cost £16.50 for just 4.5 g (although these are not the same products and can't be bought individually).

See lots more pictures including swatches and a look I did with Brilliantly Cool after the jump!

Too Faced Sweet Indulgences Set Review and Swatches

I have always liked Too Faced, especially the special edition pretty palettes, but this year they've really stepped up their game. This is the second palette I've bought from Too Faced recently and this is yet another excellent value, fantastic quality palette.

In this set you get 16 eyeshadows, a full size Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer, 2 bronzers, 2 blushes, a highlighter and a double ended eyeshadow brush/applicator. Too Faced have also thrown in 3 looks cards. The whole lot comes in a double layer tin. The top layer includes the 16 eyeshadows, the bottom layer has everyting else. The top layer is easily removable, can just be lifted out of the tin. It's not portable on its own, but at least you can hold it while applying the eyeshadows, rather than having to hold the whole tin. The bottom layer is also removable, but less easily.

First of all, the eyeshadows are great. Most of them are shimmery or metallic, but there are a few matte/satiny ones. Some of these shades have been included in pretty much every holiday palette Too Faced have done, I recognise a few of the names, but some of them seem new. I can't find this palette on the Too Faced website (I think this might be a Sephora exclusive in the US) and the Beauty Bay website doesn't have much info. Anyway, the eyeshadows included are: In the Buff, Peach Fuzz, Marshmallow, Lovey Dovey, Copper Peony, Teddy Bear, Gum Drop, Malted Milk Ball, Satin Sheets, Nice Stems!, Nice Ash, Cherry Cola, Honeymoon, Pastille, Cop a Teal, Black Sugar. You get 1.6 g of each colour, so that's a total of a whopping 25.6 g of eyeshadow.

I haven't worn them all yet (in fact I've only worn 4), but I have swatched them all (see below) and they all swatched really nicely. The shimmery ones didn't have much fallout (if any) and the matte ones weren't at all powdery. The shades I've worn (Peach Fuzz, Gum Drop, Satin Sheets and Cherry Cola) stayed on my lids all day (with Shadow Insurance underneath, of course) and didn't crease at all. I hade some glitter fallout, I think from Peach Fuzz, but it wasn't too bad and I only noticed it several hours later.

The bronzers are both pretty nice, the exclusive shade is darker, more matte and less pigmented than the Sun Bunny Light Bronzer which is just gorgeous, smooth and pigmented. Another favourite of Too Faced's is La Vie En Rose blush, I'm sure I have it in almost every palette that's come out in the past 2-3 years, but it's a pretty pink slightly shimmery blush, so i don't mind. Papa Don't Peach blush is really nice, more pigmented than La Vie En Rose and has a lovely glow. You also get a small Candlelight Glow highlighter (another palette essential).

The brush/applicator is alright, I have only tried the brush, I'm not usually a fan of applicators. It's okay, but it doesn't add any value to the palette for me. The full size Shadow Insurance primer is great and I'm happy to own another one. The tube I'm currently using is several years old, yet it's still not empty and hasn't changed consistency one bit. I have now fully converted from Urban Decay Primer Potion.

The tin is a nice idea and could be used for storing other things when you used up all the products, but quite frankly, that's never going to happen, is it? There's no mirror in the lid, and the lid itself is a bit flimsical, mine has changed shape a bit, although still closes fine.

The palette costs £42 which might sound a bit much for some, but according to Beauty Bay it has an actual value of £133. Sephora says $381 value (approx. £236). Either way, it's a great deal. The primer costs £16.50 and a single 1.7 g eyeshadow costs £15, so that adds up to a £241.50 value alone. I think even Sephora has underestimated the value!

That's enough of the maths, let's see some swatches I hear you say! Coming up right after the jump together with lots of product pictures!

Fantastic Lancome Deals At Debenhams!

I was going to blog about the Mac Glamour Daze eyeshadows today, but then I got so excited about the fantastic deal I came across in Debenhams, I just had to share (sorry, Mac swatches coming soon!). I don't know how long these offers last, so I thought I'd let you know quickly, in case you want to take advantage of them.

Today I bought two of the Lancome holiday collection eyeshadows and one of the khol pencils (I will do a proper review on those later) and as a result was given a really nice gift with purchase including a gorgeous make up bag, several skincare samples, a tiny lipstick, a sample size mascara, two make up brushes (which I forgot to photograph, sorry) and because I bought the third product, a full size Bi-Facil make up remover. I won't go into all the details here, but you can see the offer by clicking on this link. According to Debenhams the gift with purchase is worth over £58, although I'm not entirely sure if it includes the extra Bi-Facil, but it doesn't include the make up bag and brushes apparently. A full-size Bi-Facil alone costs £21.

I also purchased the Christmas Beauty Box for £45 (you can only buy this if you buy 2 or more Lancome products, and luckily you still get the gift with purchase, they don't exclude each other) which actually has a value of £165! The eyeshadow palette and blush alone add up to at least £45 and there's also a full size Bi-Facil in here as well as Genifique and Visionnaire samples, 2 tiny lipsticks (one is the same as in the gift with purchase), 2 sample size mascaras, an eye khol, a sample size cream, a sample size cream cleanser and toner, as well as a gorgeous big sparkly gold make up case.

The Christmas Beauty Box is actually a fantastic deal as it costs £75 on the Lancome website, although you can purchase it without buying other products, but to be fair, if you're going to buy something from the holiday collection (and there's plenty to buy from that as it's gorgeous!) or even some staples, you might as well buy it from Debenhams and get it for £30 less!

See lots more pictures after the jump!

My Mac Holiday 2012 Collection(s) Haul

Just a quick post to show you all the goodies I bought from the Mac holiday collections: Glamour Daze and all the other collections with the sets, I've lost count of how many there are actually. I won't have any swatches or reviews today because although I've spend most of my afternoon taking pictures and swatching products, I haven't got around to cropping most of the photos, let alone actually trying on the products.

But for now, here are a few pictures to drool over. I especially love the packaging for the sets, they are so cute. Not sure what I will be using them for yet, but definitely wouldn't want to throw them out, they are too cute. I do remember throwing out last year's massive hanging Christmas decoration globes, but they were nowhere this pretty.

As you can see, I've bought all 3 crushed pigment sets, the coral lipgloss set and the pink brush set. 

From Glamour Daze I bought 5 Extra Dimension eyeshadows, all 3 fluidlines and Everything That Glitters nail polish.

Have you purchased anything from the Mac holiday collections yet? Let me know in the comments.

See more pictures after the jump!

Stila Seeing Stars Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner Set

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of days, but I've been very busy with my children. On Wednesday we spent the day preparing for Halloween, carved 4 pumpkins, decorated the house and I even did my first ever face painting. Today's been more about shopping, food as well as make up, I went to the Boots Points Event and to the Mac counter to pick up some of the new products from the holiday collection. Incidentally, I'm really behind with taking pictures and swatching, so there may be a small gap in posting, but normal service should resume come Tuesday.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired now, so this is going to be a very quick look at one of Stila's holiday offerings. What we have here is a set of 5 full size Smudge Sticks.

I just love great value sets and this is definitely one of those. You get £65 worth of eyeliners for £25. What's not to like? Smudge Sticks are very good eyeliners,they are waterproof and smudge-proof, they last for hours even on my waterline.

In this set you get Stargazer (black with gold and silver pearl), Angelfish (metallic pewter), Tetra (deep shimmery purple), Moray (golden olive shimmer) and Oscar Fish (warm brown with gold pearl). I believe that out of the 4 only Oscar Fish is limited edition, I only owned Tetra and Moray, so even that way it was worth buying as individually they cost £13 each. I can only see Moray listed on the Stila website, my Tetra came with one of the palettes, so I don't actually know if you can buy Stargazer or Angekfish separately. Maybe in the US?

My only criticism of Smudge Sticks is that you get very little for your money. While Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners contain 1.2 g, these Stila ones only contain 0.28 g each! However, these come in a plastic pencil and instead of sharpening them, you just twist them up as and when you need to. So I gues you save quite a bit that you would lose with sharpening, but I still think these could contain more product.

Other than that, Stila Smudge Sticks are great eyeliners and this set is certainly worth getting if you like them and don't already own many of the shades.

See more pictures after the jump!

Urban Decay Smoked 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set Review and Swatches

This is the second 24/7 eyeliner pencil set Urban Decay has released for the holiday, and even though it's not as exciting/great value as the Ocho Loco set, I thought I'd show it to you, because this is also a good one and still very good value.

This set is supposed to complement the Smoked Palette released earlier this year, which I didn't buy, but you don't need that of course, you will still enjoy this set if you like dark, smoky colours.

The set contains 6 travel size 24/7 glide-on eye pencils and they come in a variety of colours and finishes. You have Uzi which is a dark shimmery grey, Zero, a black, Demolition, a cool toned matte dark brown, Smog, a light metallic brown, Empire, a dark aubergine with satin finish and Mainline, a dark matte teal. Out of the 6 shades 2 are permanent (Zero and Demolition), 2 have been included in other sets (Uzi and Empire) and 2 are brand new (Smog and Mainline). I only owned Uzi and Zero, I wasn't even aware that Demolition was permanent.

It's a lovely set with really nice colours, my favourites are definitely Empire and Mainline, but I also really like and regularly use Uzi. Demolition doesn't seem that pigmented to me and Smog is a little light to be referred to as a smoky colour, but it's still nice. If you don't have these colours yet, this set would be a great one to buy.

The eyeliners are 0.8 g each which is 2/3 of full size and the set retails at £26, but it's actually worth £52 based on the price of the full sized pencils (£13). So it's still a great value and it also means that you don't have to commit to buying full sized products, because let's face it, who can get through eyeliners quickly enough anyway?

All in all, I would happily recommend this set especially as Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencils are one of my favourite eyeliners.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Urban Decay Ocho Loco 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set Review and Swatches

Another lovely set this holiday season (yes, I know it's only mid-October, but you know make up collections are always a season ahead) from Urban Decay is the Ocho Loco 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set. Similar to last year's 15 Year Anniversary set, this set also contains full size 24/7 eyeliners in a variety of shades and finishes, both existing colours and some exclusive ones.

24/7 eye pencils are one of my favourite eyeliners, they are creamy and easy to use, but they set quickly and don't smudge. I find they don't last for very long on my waterline, but on my lashline they last for several hours. They also have such a brilliant selection of colours, they always come out with new ones and you often get these great value sets too. I have so many 24/7 eye pencils, I have now lost count. I use them every day and they last for a long time. I think I've only finished 3 of them over the last 3-4 years and those were the tiny travel sizes (0.5 g I think).

Ocho Loco set contains 8 full size (1.2 g) 24/7 eye pencils, including 4 existing shades: Perversion, a matte very dark black, Rockstar, one of my favourites: a lovely aubergine colour, Stash, an antique gold shade, Junkie, a teal with gold shimmer, as well as 4 new colours. Actually, Junkie is new to the UK, it was part of a 5 colour travel set, but only in the US, although I did get it through eBay of course.

The new colours are very nice too, Mushroom is a metallic taupe pewter, Hustle is a medium brown (reminds me of Bourbon, although I didn't compare them side-by-side), Psychedelic Sister is a bright purple shimmer and LSD is a navy with bright turquoise shimmer - possibly my favourite!

You also get a double barrelled pencil sharpener with the set. This set, while still a great value, is less good value than the 15 Year Anniversary set was. This one costs £40 for 8 full size (1.2 g) pencils plus the sharpener, giving you a £104 value for your money (8 x £13) excluding the sharpener. The Anniversary set was £60 for 15 full size pencils which was AMAZING value! But let's not grumble, this is still great, even if you already own some of the existing shades (plus let's face it, you can't have enough of Perversion or Rockstar anyway), you still get 4 brand new exclusive shades for less than the price of 3!

This is limited edition, so if you want it, be quick. You can be sure it won't be available for long. You can buy Urban Decay from Debenhams, House of Fraser, Beauty Bay and Lookfantastic in the UK, but I can't see this set on the latter two websites.

See lots more pictures including swatches 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!

Tutorial Videos From Urban Decay Book Of Shadows IV For The Technically Challenged

When I bought Urban Decay's Book Of Shadows IV with all the gadgets and QR codes, I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't use any of them. You see at the time I didn't own a smart phone, so all of that technology was lost on me. Annoyingly I also couldn't watch the tutorial videos it came with (quite a big change from the booklet with the second Book Of Shadows), but finally even I own a smart phone, so I thought I'd share the links to these tutorials with you in case there are still people out there who otherwise couldn't watch them.

The palette came with a card with 5 QR codes that you can scan in with your phone and it takes you to the Urban Decay website where you can watch the tutorials. Of course you can do that on your computer too, so here are the links for the 5 looks. Enjoy!

Monochrome: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV1

Smoke Out: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV2

Chrystallized: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV3

Purple Cat: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV4

Naked: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV5

My Ever Growing Nail Polish Collection Part 2 - Zoya, Color Club, Mac, Nails Inc.

Here's the second part of my nail polish stash post, if you missed part one, you can check it out here. And don' forget to come back soon to see part three!

As you will see below, a lot of my nail polish sets are still in boxes, this is partly because I haven't used them yet (Color Club), or because they are actually more convenient to store like that. I apologise for being too lazy to remove them from the packs. If you really want to see detailed pictures, let me know in the comments and I'll see what I can do.

First up are my magnetic polishes, I only own these 3, and actually didn't like them much, so won't be buying more of them. I might just sell thm actually.

Nails Inc and 17 magnetic polishes

See more pictures of my stash after the jump!

My Ever Growing Nail Polish Collection Part 1 - OPI, China Glaze, Orly, Mavala

I had some requests to show off my nail polish collection, so here it is. I'm going to do it in 3 parts because I have a lot of nail polishes, so make sure you check out part 2 and part 3 as well!

Some of my nail polish stash

Would you believe it that just a couple of years ago all the nail polish I owned fitted into this box?

Wanna see what's inside? A bit boring really, but here you go:

A bit samey, all pastels and hardly any colour. I just wasn't into nail polish, mainly because my nails are really thin and bendy, so nail polish chips off within a matter of days, and I couldn't be bothered to repaint them all the time, so I just used barely there shades. What's changed? I realised that there were some really gorgeous nail polishes out there from brands I'd never heard of! I also realised that nail polishes come in seasonal collections like make up, which of course made me buy even more so I don't miss out. And suddenly I don't mind painting my nails every 2-3 days. At the last count I had 130 nail polishes, which is really crazy, especially as some (most of them are large 15 ml sizes). I will now have to stop buying them and be sure to use them all, although that will certainly take a while. I'd say about 75% of the nail polish I own has not been used yet, so I'd better get cracking!

Without further ado, here are the detailed pictures. I haven't put the shade names down simply because it would take too long, but if you have any questions, just ask in the comments! Enjoy!

FrontCover Eye Popping Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

Every year with Christimas comes a new bunch of limited edition FrontCover sets and I usually can't resist and end up buying a few, despite already owning a good number of them (you can check out my collection in this post). As there's usually a 3 for 2 offer in Boots, I often end up with 3 of these sets at a time. This year, among others I purchased the Eye Popping Eyeshadow Palette which I'm going to show you today.

Housed in a plastic two-tier compact you find 18 eyeshadows in pretty much every colour of the rainbow. They are all quite frosty, so if you like your matte eyeshadows, then this is not the palette for you. A couple of them also have small glitter in them, although it's not too obvious, especially as those are the darkest shades. The top tier contains 12 eyeshadows in blues, purples, greens and a couple of highlighter colours, and the bottom tier contains 6 pink/peach/brown shades arranged in a slightly different format like a shimmer brick. You get a double ended brush and a small face/blush brush as well, plus there's a nice large mirror in the lid.

The fact that there's a face brush next to the 6 pink/peach/brown shadows made me think they're also intended to be worn as blush, swirled together as the strips are too narrow to be used alone, but to be honest, they are way too frosty for that. I did try to recreate the look on the cover and used the bottom 6 as blush, but it did not look very good. And they're too dark for highlighter, so I would stick with them as eyeshadows.

Pigmentation-wise the shadows are pretty good, some better than other, but the bright ones really do pop and the dark more matte (well with glitter) ones aren't too chalky either. Over UDPP they didn't crease or fade at all. There was some fallout during application but not while worn, so I was pretty impressed. All in all you get 23 g which is massive for £16. The case is rather heavy, so that makes it less travel friendly, but it's not bulky and you get so many shades that you really don't need much else. The brushes provided are pretty naff, but that's normal with sets like this I think. What's great about FrontCover sets is that you get useful hints and tips on how to create certain looks. I have tried to recreate the cover look and will be posting my FOTD pictures soon. The cover is pretty cool actually with the image changing from open to closed eyes depending on the angle you look at it, I can't for the life of me remember what it's called, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

There are lots of pictures including swatches after the jump!

Urban Decay Rollergirl Is Finally Mine!

Although it seems the UK isn't getting Urban Decay's Rollergirl sets, I've managed to get my hands on the eyeshadow/lipgloss set thanks to eBay. I would also love the mini nail polish set, but so far I haven't had any luck. Still hoping the sets will make it to the UK, but considering that these are for the summer and it's already mid-July, I doubt it. Still, at least I have the eyeshadow/lipgloss set which is what I wanted most anyway.

The set contains a 4-colour-eyeshadow palette, a miniLip Junkie lipgloss and a travel sized 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Whiskey. The colours in the palette are Woodstock, Verve, Suspect and Darkhorse. If you think you've heard them before, it's because some of them have been released in sets before and/or are permanent single eyeshadows. Woodstock came out as a Sephora exclusive single, but has also been included in the recent Fun Palette. Verve is exclusive to this palette, not available separately. Suspect was included in the I♥NYC Book Of Shadows (which is currently available on the Debenhams website by the way!), but it is not available to purchase as a single. Darkhorse has been included in two palettes: The Naked Palette and also The Feminine Palette. It isn't available to purchase as a single either.

I think this palette is a great, more travel friendly alternative to the Naked Palette, in that it contains 3 neutrals that can create a variety of looks including smoky eyes, but also you can jazz up your look with the bright pink Woodstock. You also get Whiskey eyeliner (also included with the Naked Palette, not available to purchase separately) which is a nice dark brown, less harsh than a black one, and a hot pink lipgloss. The eyeshadows are soft and buttery (Woodstock less than the other 3, but still nice), the eyeliner is smooth and has excellent staying power, and Crush Lip Junkie has a lovely cooling mint scent (for reference, I have not tried it on yet, only swatched it on my arm). The set retails for $32 in the US and is a great value for money considering that it contains 4 eyeshadows (1 g each which is 2/3 of the full sized singles that cost $17 each) which alone would add up to $45, plus a travel size 24/7 eyeliner pencil and mini Lip Junkie lipgloss. Of course it's not that great if you already own half the shades, but I thought that instead of buying Woodstock on its own for £13, I'd fork out £9 more and get Verve and the other two (which I already have), plus a back up for my Whiskey liner and try out the Lip Junkie lipgloss. Would be mad not to, right?

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Urban Decay Rollergirl Where Are You?

I have been wanting to purchase the new Urban Decay Rollergirl eyeshadow palette set and nail kit ever since I saw them on the Urban Decay website. However, it's been months now and they still haven't arrived to the UK. I have tried e-mailing Urban Decay, they reckon the sets will be available in the UK, but they don't know when. I was given a couple of contacts in the UK, but have had no replies, I also tried contacting Debenhams and House of Fraser, but they were no help at all.

Please Urban Decay, I have waited for so long now, please let me have them! Or at least somebody tell me when I can have them, so I can stop checking the Debenhams website twice a day! Thanks.

Urban Decay 15-year Anniversary Set Is Online at Debenhams.com!

A big thank you to the lovely Charlotte for letting us know. You can also find lots of photos and swatches on her website. The set costs £60 and is available HERE.

Urban Decay 15-year Anniversary Set UK Launch Date 1st February

I've just had comfirmation from Urban Decay that the 15-year Anniversary Set is going to launch at Debenhams.com on 1st February and in store on 14th February. Exciting!

Will you be buying it?