FOTD: lazy lazy

Products used:
Collection Extreme 24H pen eyeliner
17 Photo Flawless Mascara
17 Nude Blusher
Rimmel 1000 Kisses Lipstain and balm

This was me trying to come up with the simplest, least scary look possible - a guy friend of mine professes to hate all make-up, so I thought I'd have a go at proving him wrong

FOTD: Family Day Out

Products used:
- Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation
- 17 Eyeshadow in Walnut Pearl and Funfair
- elf blush in Shy
- M&S blush in Ginger (discontinued)
- Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti

Review: 17 Photo Flawless Lashes

I bought this last Thursday for £5.99 (though it was actually free as part of Boots' ongoing 3 for 2). I already love the eye pencil from this range, and this is also the most expensive mascara I've ever bought (because I'm a cheapskate), so I had high expectations.

And this mascara lived up to them.

It comes in Black-Blue, Black-Copper, and Black-Green, and the idea is that you buy the tint that matches your eye colour, to help bring out the colour.

On the eye

Photo 1: Just some black eyeliner (Collection's Extreme 24H Felt Tip Eye Liner)

Photo 2: with two quick coats on the top lashes - you can see that the lashes already have more length and slightly more body than before.

Photo 3: Finished! Another couple of quick coats on the top lashes, some white eye liner (Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Pencil) on the waterline, and a coat on the lower lashes. You can see that this mascara has successfully avoided the tarantula-eye syndrome. Even if the gold-ness isn't obvious on the eye, I do think (though this may be the placebo effect) that the mascara has helped to bring out my eye colour.

Packaging

As you can see in the photo above, it comes in a bodacious black tube and has a curved brush. The bottle/tube feels fairly sturdy, but what with the fairly gloopy formula it could be quite difficult to get all of the formula out.

Close-up of the brush

The brush is the first curved one I've tried, and it's really good for lifting the lashes. Not hugely high-tech, but sometimes low-tech is the best solution. The only downside of the brush is that it makes doing the lower lashes quite difficult.

I really like the film strip design on the bottle, even if the pedantic side of me says that a film strip wouldn't go on a cone...

Does it live up to its promises?

These fabulous mascaras have a clever curved wand that will give your lashes a long-lasting lift and voluptuous volume from day to night. They are smudge-proof and promise to leave you saying good-bye to panda eyes.

By accentuating your natural eye colour, you’ll never feel the need to hide from the camera again.

"Thanks to the angled brush of this mascara it creates the most dramatic effect by lifting and curling the lashes. The best thing about this mascara is the intense pigment in the formula that accentuates the colour of your iris, brightening your eyes making them bigger and your lashes full of life”.

 I would say that this mascara does live up to most of its promises.

• long-lasting lift - yes, this mascara lasts AGES.
• voluptuous  volume - um, maybe. Each individual lash maybe.
• smudge-proof - yes! I wore this mascara for a party on Saturday night and when I got home there was no smudging at all. Nada.
• accentuating natural eye colour - maybe. I like to think so. It's certainly less harsh a black than the usual black mascaras and less 'meh' than the brown ones. So I like the colour.
• lifting and curling the lashes - yeah, pretty much, thanks to the ginormous curved brush.

Who would like this product?
Anyone with eyelashes, I think! Although it's not a waterproof mascara, it lasts really well. Also anyone looking for something between a brown and a black mascara. It's a really good all-round mascara.

Would I repurchase this?
Definitely! It is fairly gloopy which means it might dry up quicker than some other mascaras, but I really like it.

• Collection Extreme 24H Felt Tip Eye Liner - Black
• 17 Photo Flawless Lashes - Black/Copper or Black-Gold (the same thing, the website calls it Black-Gold but on the tube it says Black/Copper)
• 17 Pure Finish Sheer Mineral Blusher - Plum
• Rimmel 1000 Kisses Lip Tint - Carry on Cherry

What's your favourite mascara?

Long-lasting FOTD and review of Collection Extreme 24H Felt Tip Eye Liner

Often, I see Face Of The Day posts and think 'really? And how long did that last?' so I thought I'd post today's with a picture taken at half past nine, fourteen hours after putting on my make-up.

Products used:

• 17 BB Cream (most definitely still there, I used a cleansing wipe just after taking this picture and it came off onto it)
• Collection Shimmer Squares in Way to Glow (as above)
• Rimmel 1000 Kisses lip stain and balm (this I reapplied throughout the day, but the last time was at about 3pm, so this is still six hours' wear)
• Hello Kitty and Liberty eyeshadow palette
• Collection Extreme 24H Felt Tip Eye Liner Pen (still looking pretty much as new)
• Natural Collection LashCurl mascara in black.

And now the product review:

Packaging

It comes looking like a simple black marker pen - the end of the pen is a different colour depending on which colour you buy. It comes in black, teal, purple and blue. I had it in real about a year ago and lost it, and my mum has it in purple, but it is in black that this liner is indispensable. The lid fits nice and securely, which means the product doesn't dry out too quickly

Does it live up to its promises?

Be bold, bright and beautiful! The fast-drying versatile felt tipped pens give your makeup look an instant burst of colour.

Easy-to-apply felt tip nib for all day long lustrous looking eyes.

Obviously the instant burst of colour isn't applicable for black, but it is very quick to apply.

I totally agree with the easy to apply label, if I can do it, anyone can.

All day long - well, just look at the photo above! It's not even easy to remove with makeup wipes - even though mine say they tackle waterproof mascara. Maybe if I used my eye makeup remover pads they would work? On the odd days when I forget to take my makeup off, my liner is still ready to go the next morning.

It looks equally good when worn as a thin line or 'like Cleopatra' as my uncle put it. It also works quite well for the waterline.

Would I repurchase it?

I already have! Best of all, it's only £2.99!

FOTD: Spring is springing... Slowly.

Products used:

• 17 BB Cream in Light
• Natural Collection Bronzing Pearls
• 17 eyeshadow in Funfair and Walnut Pearl
• 17 Photo Flawless Eye Pencil (review here)
• Natural Collection WaterGuard Mascara in Brown/Black
• Maybelline ColorSensational Lip Stain in Blushing

Review: Garnier Belle Color hair dye in shade 6 - Light Brown, and FOTD

Naturally, my hair is a very very boring very very dark brown - so dark that there isn't really any colour so I wanted to take it up a few colour levels (I'd say I'm naturally a 2 or 3, where 10 is white blonde and 1 is black).

In the middle of December I dyed it the violet from Schwarzkopf's Salon Style range, which was a level 3 colour. So that's what the dye had to cope with.

Method

It's the standard colour cream into developer bottle situation, and there was a lot of product! As my hair grows back out it'll be interesting to see at what point it doesn't feel like there is enough, but there was pretty much surplus product.

There was a bit of an 'aargh what am I doing?!' moment when I saw that the cream + developer solution was a pale yellow, but it was fine in the end, as you can see.

A good thing about this colour was that it washed out quite quickly - last time I dyed my hair it took forever, and two or three washes after I dyed it I was still getting stains on the bath towel - this time, nothing, even though I wasn't rinsing for as long as I'd like to (the hot water ran out).

It also smells lovely. I think the little sachet of conditioner must be from the Garnier Fructis range because it smelled so delicious.

Once I'd used that conditioner I also used a bit of the Percy & Reed conditioner I got free with Glamour, to amp up the softness a bit more

In conclusion, five out of five - my hair feels lovely and soft, and still smells nice.

One odd thing I noticed - on the instructions, after rinsing and conditioning it directs you to 'style as normal' - who dyes their hair before going out for the day?!

Face of the day - products used:

• Elf eyelid primer
• Rimmel Colour Rush Quad in Urban Flower
• 17 Solo Eyeshadow in Green Glimmer
• 17 Photo Flawless eye pencil in Copper/Black
• Natural Collection LashCurl Mascara in Black
• 17 Sheer Finish Mineral Blush in Plum
• Natural Collection Cream Blush in Rosy Pink
• Elf blush in Shy
• Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in One of a Kind
• Benefit Watt's Up highlighter

FOTD: Sensational Sixties and review of 17 Pure Finish Sheer Mineral Blusher

Products used:

• Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in One Of A Kind
• 17 Pure Finish Sheer Mineral Blusher in Plum
• Collection Shimmer Shades Blushalicious (review here)
• Collection Extreme 24Hr Felt Tip Liner

And a review of the blusher!

This blusher sells for £4.69 from Boots, and comes in three shades - I have 'Plum'

I've had this blusher for a while and I really haven't used it enough - it was my first non-palette blusher, and I was really looking for a cream blusher, which I found soon after and so then didn't use this.

Packaging

The packaging of this is really useful for travel - it has its own brush built in. That's also useful because it means that you can't accidentally use a brush with a different shade of blusher in. The disadvantages, though, are that the brush is slightly scratchy, and that it's impossible to wash the brush. Also, on first use, it can take a while to coax the blusher through the brush.

The packaging is also very robust, which I like - it's Lily-proof.

Does it live up to its promises?

On the packaging it says the product has a 'Super-sheer and lightweight formulation'

Whether it's sheer or not really depends on how heavy-handed you are, obviously, but I have found it quite difficult to get a sheer wash. The flush it does produce, though, is lovely!

I certainly agree with the 'lightweight' tag - the blusher feels really nice on the cheeks.

Would I repurchase?

YES! I think I might purchase it in Rose, though, as the Plum is a little too red - though maybe it won't be when I'm more tanned.

FOTD: to the power of two, and review of Elf Shimmering Facial Whip.

This FOTD is so titled because there are two (at least) products used for each section of my face. Also because this post effectively serves two purposes - it's a FOTD post, and it's a short review of one product I used - elf Shimmering Facial Whip in Persimmon

Eyes:

• Elf Shimmering Facial Whip in Persimmon (more on this later)
• Elf eyeshadow in Wisteria (I hit pan on this yesterday, how exciting, my first pan ever)
• Collection Extreme 24h Eyeliner (formerly Collection 2000 of course)

Lips:

• Maybelline Colour Sensational lip stain in Flushing
• Boots No7 High Shine lipgloss in Whisper (layered over the top to give more shine once it had dried.

Face:

• Elf Shimmering Facial Whip in Persimmon
• Collection Shimmer Squares in Way To Glow.
• Boots Natural Collection Neutral Translucent Loose Powder.

And now for the review

I'm afraid this is a rather short review, mainly because I haven't used this product much. The formula and scent are lovely, but it's just too pale for me - I can use it as a highlighter, for which it's okay, and I would do that instead of taking my Benefit Watt's Up on holiday, but it doesn't really work as a blusher on me. If they made this in a darker pink, I would so be there, but they don't. I might invest in it in Citrus though, as I like the formula and I think that colour would get more use.

It's designed as colour you can use on your eyes, lips, or face.

I only tried eyes for the first time today and, again, while the formula is nice, the colour is a little off. It worked well as a base for Wisteria powder eyeshadow though, so I think I shall continue using it for that.

Lips: it's too pale for my skin or tastes. Just looks a bit frosted.

Face: as I said above, it's just too pale to use for anything but a highlighter,

I think this product would work really well for anyone with pale skin, and I look forward to trying it in Citrus.

It sells for £1.50 from elf's website.

FOTD: Blue Eyes, Blue Eyes

Yes, the title of this post is inspired by the Mika song with a similar name, which is, by the way, one of my favourite songs.

Products used:

• Elf Eyelid Primer
• Hello Kitty Liberty eyeshadow palette (Christmas 2011 special edition). If the shades are numbered 1 to 8 clockwise from the top left, I used 1 as an inner corner highlight, 2 across the whole eye, 6 on the outer half, 5 in the crease and 7 in the centre. This is one of my favourite palettes.
• Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in Denim Blue on the top lash line
• 17 Metallic Eye Pencil in Green (discontinued)
• Natural Collection LashCurl Mascara in Black
• Collection 2000 Shimmer Squares in Way to Glow. One thing I've found is that this really isn't that pigmented, so I may try using it with a blush.
• 17 Mirror Shine lipstick in Belle.

FOTD: Subtly sunned

Products used:
- Collection 2000 Shimmer Shades in Way To Glo.
- Collection 2000 Colour Intense Trio Eye Shadow in Cookie Dough
- 17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in Belle

FOTD: It's Party Time!

It's my friend's birthday party tonight, which I'm really excited about

Products used (in order):

• elf Nail Polish in Purple Pleaser (mentioned here)
• elf eyelid primer (mentioned here)
• Hello Kitty Liberty eyeshadow palette (the white shade in the inner corners of the eyes, and then the dark reddish and the dark silver glitter over the eye)
• Collection 2000 Extreme 24H eyeliner (upper lash line)
• Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in Black (lower lash line)
• Natural Collection LashCurl Mascara in Black
• Collection 2000 Shimmer Shades in Blushalicious
• Natural Collection Loose Powder
• Benefit Watt's Up! highlighter
• 17 Ultimate Volume lipgloss in Very Berry

FOTD: Summer Simple

Yes, I do know it's not technically summer yet - after all, it's still not 20 degrees out. But, it is warm and the sun is bright, so here's an easy simple look for summer!
Products used:

• Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil with a thick line on the upper lash line and a thinner line on the lower line
• Natural Collection Moisture Shine lipstick in Rose Bud, used as a lipstick and also as a blusher, for which it's quite good as it's neither shimmery nor sticky.
  

FOTD: Pencil it in

I realised that whenever I wear eye makeup, whatever I do the liner lasts longer than the shadow, so I thought I'd use my eye pencil as shadow.

Products used:

• Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Pencil in Stormy Grey (as shadow) and Black (as liner)
• Elf blusher in Shy
• Natural Collection Moisture Shine Lipstick in Rose Bud

I think this is definitely a look I'll repeat, maybe with other eyeliners.

FOTD: Recreating Zooey Deschanel's look from the new sitcom 'New Girl'

If you're anything like me, and since you're reading this you probably are, I bet you have a girl-crush on Zooey Deschanel. She's great, and so pretty! I've been watching her new sitcom, New Girl, and it's really funny - in last week's episode they attempted to defrost a turkey by putting it in the spin-dryer.

Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at recreating her look from the show.

I used the following products, in this order:

• Natural Collection Corrector Stick (it's light green, to neutralise red cheeks)
• Natural Collection Cover-up Stick (beige)
• 17 BB Cream (Light shade) - review to come
• elf Eyelid Primer - review to come but mentioned here
• elf eyeshadow palette - review to come but mentioned here
• Collection 2000 Extreme 24 Hr Felt-tip liner - review to come but mentioned here (on the top lash line)
• Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil (black) - mini-review here (on the bottom lash line)
• Natural Collection LashCurl mascara (black) - review to come
• Collection 2000 Shimmer Shades in Blushalicious - review
• Natural Collection Moisture Shine Lipstick in Rose Bud - review to come

Gosh, looking at the list here it really emphasises how much stuff I already have that I haven't yet reviewed for the blog - thank heavens for Project Pan, eh?

Are any of you Zooey fangirls too? Let me know

FOTD: it's Spring!

The trees mostly still have bare branches, but the grass is growing bright green and there were daffodils in the florist's shop yesterday. So it's spring! Yay!

Today's face of the day is a laid back look that took less than five minutes in front of the mirror - which is always good, really. Because it's Sunday and I like to let my skin breathe at least one day a week, I moisturised but didn't use foundation or BB cream today.

If you've read my blog before, you might know that I'm basically in love with my elf eyeshadows (on which note, they've got a free gift sale today and free shipping too, til 10pm). The only problem is that they have a lot of fallout. They definitely fall into the category of eyeshadows that you put on before your foundation. Today I decided to try and apply them with the minimum fallout possible. And I managed. The trick is to use your finger rather than a brush - somehow that reduces the problem hugely. It works because of how lovely and soft these shadows are - I've ordered another shadow and another blush, so there's now a queue of things to go into my elf palette (yes, all right, I forgot to include a second palette in my order...)

I used 'sage', a lovely lovely green, all over the eyelid, and 'wisteria', a pinkish lilac, above that close to the lash line. I really like the effect of that, and I think I'll team the colours up together like that again.

I used a metallic teal eye pencil - Boots 17's, though it's no longer in the range. It was a present from my lovely friend Philly (who runs her own blog) who had two of the Gift With Purchase that included the pencil (summer 09 as far as I can tell from the Internet) and gave me the second, because she's lovely like that. I guess the nearest equivalent now would be the blue eye version of the Photo Flawless Eye Pencil.

I used my elf blush in 'shy' which is a really pretty colour, as you can see on my cheek to the left of the picture - my camera isn't handling light and dark very well at the moment, as you can see, but the colours on the left of the picture are truer to life. Unlike the elf shadows, which are very soft and which I think I'll hit pan on very soon (especially sage), the blush is fairly hard, and despite having used it a lot I've barely made an indent on the top of it. I've ordered another elf blush as well, because I like this one so much. To finish off I used Boots 17 Mirror Shine lipstick in shade 'Belle' - which is, as others have said, fab. It's one of those your lips but better lipsticks.

Ta-dah!