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

OPI new collection: Holland!

Image from www.squarednails.com which is an amazing blog I'd urge you to check out.

The first thing to say is that, as always, the colour names are amazing. I think my favourite four are Vampsterdam, Kiss Me On My Tulips, I Don't Give a Rotterdam, and A Roll In The Hague.

The colours are also really nice - if this is summer 2012's palette, then I'm looking forward to it!

I love Gouda Gouda Two Shoes. It looks look it would look really sophisticated on the nails, as would Wooden Shoe Like To Know - both polishes look like they mean business!

I think the colour I Don't Give a Rotterdam might be my favourite in the bunch - it looks like there are slight grey tones to the blue, which is really elegant. It looks similar to Barry M's Blueberry Ice Cream in my opinion, but that might just be me.

A Roll in the Hague looks like quite a vibrant orange. Again, I have something similar in the form of Barry M's block orange, which I might have to dig out again...

Pedal Faster Suzi is a very pretty pale colour, which I think would look best on those with either very pale or very dark skins.

Dutch Ya Just Love OPI is a really nice colour, a cool purple which I think looks quite urbane and chic.

Thanks a WindMillion isn't a colour that appeals to me, but mainly because it reminds me of mint, which I don't like. However, pastels are very on trend this summer, and, similar to Pedal Faster Suzi, I can see this looking good with very pale or very dark skin tones.

Red Lights Ahead... Where is a classic red I think - there's not much to say about it, really.

Kiss Me On My Tulips is a really nice colour, a little cooler than some other hot pink nail polishes (ahem, No7 Stay Perfect Jammy, I'm looking at you), which makes it look much more wearable I think - classy, though I don't like the word.

Vampsterdam is an amazing colour, it reminds me of Rimmel Lasting Finish in Black cherries. So nice, it would look quite cool done like a French manicure, with that as the tip colour, and Kiss Me On My Tulips as the body of the nail.

I Have A Herring Problem is such a nice colour - I think this would be ultra-wearable, and suitable for pretty much anoint.

I really want to like Did You 'ear about Van Gogh because of the name, but I'm just not a fan of the colour - though I can see it looking good on very pale or dark skin tones.

There you go, a bit of a roundup.

There is a mini set, called Dutch Treats, featuring I Have a Herring Problem, Red Lights Ahead... Where, Kiss Me On My Tulips, and Pedal Faster Suzi. I think I might treat myself to it, especially as it's only £13 and I like all the shades in it - it works out at £3.25 per polish, which is really good value.

FOTD: pretty in pink

Products used:

• Rimmel Colour Rush Quad eyeshadow in Urban Flower - I used the pale pink matte shade all over the eyeshadow as a base (reviewed here)
• elf Custom Eyes in Wisteria (swatched here). I found that I wasn't really using this shadow to its full capability, only as an interest point to lighten up other eye looks, so I wanted to use it as a focal point. And it's really pretty!
• Boots 17 Photo Flawless Eye Pencil in Carbon Black/ Copper.(reviewed here).
• Boots Natural Collection WaterGuard mascara in Brown/Black
• Collection 2000 ShimmerSquare in Blushalicious (currently with £1 off at boots.com, which means it's down to £3.19)
• Benefit Watt's Up highlighter
• Boots 17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in Belle

Makeup from the poundstore!

Before you all cower in horror, I will give one bit of advice:
Only buy the brands you recognise - as well as the Rimmel stuff there were also some other brands whose names I didn't recognise, and you know what, their stuff might be worth less than a pound...

Anyway. On with the blog post. I had read on another blog (can't remember whose) that some pound stores have discontinued makeup for sale in them. So when I found myself walking past Poundworld on Saturday, I couldn't resist a look, and I found these really good Rimmel eye quads. These retailed at over £6 and are now only a pound each - bargain! There were a few different colours, but I picked up 016 - Urban Flower and 018 - Romantic Cool because I thought those were the shades I'd use the most.
And boy, are they good.
Here are the swatches:

 (urban flower)

 (romantic cool)

As you can see, the top right shade in each quad isn't particularly well pigmented, and the green in the urban flower one is also very sheer, but these are so smooth I almost don't mind. Also, a first for me: the applicators in the packs are actually not too horrific! Yay!

I wore the pale pink from 'urban flower' as an eyeshadow base yesterday, and it lasted really well so I'm happy about that.

Face of the day - family dinner

Quite a simple face of the day here - apologies for the photo, I wrestled with my camera for long enough...Eyes: I used the pale pink and the green from Rimmel's colour rush quad overshadow in 016 urban flowers and elf's sage colour from their elements range. I lined my eyes in collection 2000's Extreme 24 hour felt tip liner, which I decided on as a replacement for my liner that got dropped earlier in the week... I then used Natural Collection LashCurl Mascara in black which is amazing, and I will get round to doing a review soon, I promise...

Face generally: Boots 17's BB cream which I love - it's so light on, for a start, and it does enough of a foundation job for me at the moment. Then my new Benefit Watt's Up highlighter, which is courtesy of britishbeautyblogger.com's giveaway. It's so amazing. Love the packaging as well - it looks like a lightbulb!
Then I used a really, really old Marks & Spencer blusher in Ginger, which I gaily went for with my total face brush and then realised I'd made a terrible mistake. Once I blended it out a bit though, and removed a little of the excess, it was fine. I then used the Natural Collection Moisture Shine Lipstick in Rose Bud, which I picked up in a 3 for £5 deal as my third item and never expected to like as much as I do - the colour is lovely, it's long lasting, it doesn't come off on glasses etc, and it really is moisturising. Plus it was only £1.99

FOTD: Simple green eye

Originally I wasn't going to post this, but today at school one of my friends said she liked my eye make-up, which I took as a go ahead to share the look.

So here it is, and you have Sarah to blame if you don't like it, haha.

I think this took less than five minutes to do in total, which is always good for hurried school mornings. Another thing about it that was good for it being a school morning was that it only used three products, so there was no scrabbling around, and walking back and forth from my makeup shelf to my bathroom sink.

As always, I started with this moisturiser. I put it on as I got out of bed to let it sink in while I got dressed - this was a key time-saving thing. If I'd worn foundation today I would have paused halfway through dressing to put it on, to let that sink in while I finished getting dressed. This dramatically reduces the amount of time spent at my dressing table, and increases the amount of time I get to spend having breakfast!

First was my trusty Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil, this time in shade 031, Jungle Green. It blends so well. Love it. I put this across the top lash line, and halfway across the lower lash line, from the centre outwards. It then smudges slightly as I put the eyeshadow on.

Next was eyeshadow - I used my e.l.f. elements one in shade 'sage' - top left in the palette in this picture, and centre of the swatches - across the whole eyelid. Simple but nice.

I then used the blush - 'shy' - from this palette too, which I have really loved using over the past week, as it's just pigmented enough, but not too brash, looks natural on, and blends well.

And ta-da, the finished look! Those of you who've seen previous Faces Of The Day will notice I've had my hair cut. I decided that cost would win out, and went to Supercuts, and I'm actually really impressed. The stylist was efficient, nice, etc, and always asking if the cut was okay. She was chatty but not too much, and the salon was nice and clean. So yeah, good.

I then decided to add some lip colour, and I used Boots 17's Lasting Fix lipstick, in the shade 'Chocolate Eclair'.

It's alright, but I don't think it will be a repurchase. It has a tendency to go bright pink after a few hours...

But here was the look totally finished:

Review and NOTD: Rimmel Lasting Finish shade 193 - Black Cherries

In a way similar (probably) to most of you, I can't resist a bargain, so when I saw that this polish had £1 off at Sainsbury's, reducing the price to £1.99 I had to take advantage of it. I had a brief dilemma between this colour and a sparkly one (which I can't find anywhere online, darn Boots.com being down for maintenance), but decided that I'd get more wear out of this one.

The colour is lovely , a rich dark purplish red which, if you look closely under the right light, has tiny glimmery bits in it. I love the colour so much. Definitely made the right choice.

It goes on really nicely, it's nice and thick and gloopy, and although the brush is more like the Barry M ones than the Rimmel 60 Second one, it is thick enough, and the polish thick enough, for it to work.

It dried fairly quickly, and once it was dry it stayed dry and fixed to the nail (ie, not like the Barry M that slides off). The photo above was taken after I'd been wearing it for a day, with a little bit of wear but overall still looking very presentable. The one thing I have noticed is that there are a few little grooves from the tips of my other hand's nails (I think), but that seems to be a serial problem with most polishes for me. The colour of this polish seems to disguise those grooves quite well, though, so I'm happy.

As for Lasting Finish, I'm not yet entirely sure... it has seemed to stay on quite well, as you'd expect, but I'll have to see how it looks later in the week before I can really assess that.

Overall though, I love this polish, and I can see it becoming a staple.

http://www.superdrug.com/rimmel/rimmel-lasting-finish-nail-polish-black-cherries/invt/499951/

(note that it's only £2.49 at Superdrug anyway)

FOTD: inspired by Chloé A/W 2011

I was browsing the blogosphere, and found a really interesting article:

http://pretty-easy.tumblr.com/post/12323011680/get-the-look-chloe-a-w-2011
Normally when I see posts like those, they need a particular shade of eyeshadow, for example, that I don't have. But to my joy I actually have everything needed to do this look - or at least a slightly toned down version of it.

I started with my trusty Natural Collection ShineAway Foundation. You know what, it may not be the best foundation in the world (I'm really looking forward to trying Maybelline's Dream Matte Mousse when I've finished this foundation) but it's still darned good for what I need.

Then I used a black Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil to line my eyes, as the original post suggested, to allow it to smudge... which it did, all over my face.

Then I used my much-neglected Collection 2000 'Color Intense Trio' in Cookie Dough. I don't tend to use this much, mainly because the shades are next to each other and shed quite a lot, and also because it just doesn't go on as well as the 17 eyeshadows. Plus they're not particularly pigmented. They were, however, just right for this look. I used the palest shade as a base and then blended the darkest shade with it, but not all the way out as the picture showed - I wanted it to be wearable, after all.

The next step was to use a little of the same shade as a blush/bronzer under cheekbones for definition. I wasn't sure which brush to use for this, and initially tried my blusher brush, but that loaded on way too much of the powder. So I decided to use the 'Way to Glo' shade of the Collection 2000 Shimmer Shades, as it's slightly less pigmented. That worked better.

The original blog post suggested black mascara, only mine's a bit dried out, so I used my Natural Collection Brown/Black one.

For a natural and neutral lip, I used tinted lipsalve, and then the No7 High Shine gloss in Whisper.

And a spritz of Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Toilette to finish.

2011 in review, and looking forward to 2012

In this post I'm going to review what my favourite products have been - my top three mainstays that have seen the most use - in 2011, and look at what I'm most excited about for 2012.

Well, of course, since I didn't really get into make-up until August, the review only really covers the last part of the year.

I think that my overall favourite product this year would be the Boots 17 All About Nude palette, which was their free gift when you bought two products for a while in the summer - I liked it so much that when it appeared on boots.com for 1.50 in the autumn I bought three more!
It has eyeshadow in shades Funfair and Walnut Pearl, a cream blush, and Mirror Shine lipstick in shade Belle. Since getting this palette, I've bought individual ones of the Walnut Pearl eyeshadow, which forms part of my everyday eye, and the lipstick, which is great just to add a little colour and shine if I've emphasised the eye. This palette also meant I searched the entire Boots store at Westfield for a cream blush, since I found it so so much easier to use than powder blush - though I think that's partly down to poor brush technique. I never was good at art.

Another of my favourites would have to be the Boots 17 Photo Flawless Eye Pencil which I reviewed a couple of days ago. I won't repeat myself here - suffice to say that it's great.

The last product to make my top three for 2011 is another eye pencil - the Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil. I have it in every colour except brown, and I think the standouts would be grey, which looks lovely as a base for a daytime smoky eye, and green, which I have worn by itself and been complimented on my eye makeup before. (That sentence doesn't quite make sense, but my brain can't figure out how to make it do so - forgive me, it's Sunday). Overall this pencil is lovely and soft, smudges like a dream when putting it on, but is then nice and long-lasting.

One other product I'm going to briefly mention (oh, split infinitive, my Latin teacher would be disappointed) is my moisturiser the Neutrogena Multi-Defence Daily Moisturiser. I started using this in the summer and I love it. That it has built in SPF 25 is a huge bonus.

In 2012 I'm looking forward to using the Naked2 palette by Urban Decay. I've seen swatches and reviews and it looks amazing, even if it is more than a week's pay...

I'm also making myself a resolution to actually use the Funfair shade of eyeshadow in my All About Nude palette. While not such a big thing as the Naked2 palette, it's all about being adventurous and using colours etc that I'm not used to.

The third key thing to do with makeup that I want to do in 2012 is to find a great foundation. The Natural Collection one I've been using is okay, but I'm sure there are better ones out there.

Now for the photos - I took one with the palette closed and one with it open - mine's a bit scabby and dirty due to months of continuous use, but apart from that it's held up well - I'm always surprised that I've not hit pan on Walnut Pearl.
Clockwise from top left it's eyeshadow in Funfair, eyeshadow in Walnut Pearl, the lipstick in Belle, and the blush.

The eye pencil by itself is the Photo Flawless one, and then the group is the Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal ones.

New Years Eve look.

Right, so I had the joys of spending NYE with my parents this year, so this is a special family dinner kind of a look.

I wore a navy blue Miss Selfridge dress with a cream collar and trim, so I decided to go for a navy eye.

Picture 1 - my 'before' face

The first thing I did was moisturise with my Neutrogena Multi-Defence Daily Moisturiser. I started using this in the summer and I love it. Then I put some Boots Natural Collection ShineAway Foundation (I use shade 'porcelain') on my cheeks, to de-pink them a bit.

Next was a thick line of Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in shade 021, denim blue, along the top lash line and halfway along the lower lash line. This will smudge easily as I add the rest of the eye make up.

Then I swept No7 Stay Perfect Eyeshadow in shade 69, Starry Night, ( another freebie from the gift I mentioned in my lipgloss review) across the whole eyelid as a base and to blend with. Next was Boots 17 Eyeshadow in shade Regal, a lovely blue, which I put towards the outer edge of my eyelids and blended with my finger.

Last came mascara (Boots Natural Collection in Brown/Black), lipgloss (No7 High Shine in Whisper, reviewed below) and blusher (Natural Collection cream blusher in Rosy Pink).
Then I was done :)

Picture 2 - the products I used, in order from left to right

Picture 3 - the 'after' face

In hindsight, looking at the photo, I could probably have done with a tiny bit more blusher. I also made a duff choice with the lip gloss which, while it was great that it didn't leave marks on my drinks glasses, did get lots of hair stuck to it on the walk into town for dinner, when it was quite windy. I can report, though, that the lip gloss has quite good staying power - nearly four hours after I put it on, after eating and drinking, while it's not as glossy as it was, my lips still look fairly shiny and glossy with a faint bit of the shimmer. The rest of the look seems to have held up well, though, and the foundation has done as promised and kept shine at bay.

Picture 4 - the 'hours after' face.

NB: you may notice that these photos are better quality than up to this point - that's because I took them on my proper camera rather than webcam for once.

Review : Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish - Shade 610, Pompous

This nail varnish is definitely my favourite, so I thought it would make a good first review.
I bought it on a whim to match a dress I was wearing for a Hallowe'en party, and have worn it almost constantly since. I used to be a Barry M nail paint devotee, but that's all changed.
As you can see in the swatch, it's sparkly, which is always fun for nails, especially during the holidays and for parties. The sparkles in this polish, though, are quite subtle, and just add to the catching-the-light effect.
So now we now that I love how it looks - is it actually any good?
Yes!
It doesn't fully dry in the 60 seconds suggested by the packaging and name, and nor can I get the full colour payoff in the one coat stated on the bottle, but it's darned good. It dries almost fully in a couple of minutes, and enough to put the necessary second coat on very quickly - usually, by the time I've put he first coat on my second hand, the first hand is ready for the second coat.
Durability is a key issue for nail varnish, and one I can report back on with a smile on my face with regards to this polish. I've had this polish last three or four days with only tiny nicks before, and since it dries so quickly, touch-ups aren't an issue. For some polishes, I've noticed that due to slight colour variations it's very obvious where I've 'mended' the polish, but for this polish it isn't. Presumably it would last even longer if I could be bothered to put a topcoat on it.
Also, and this is a big bonus for such a dark polish, it doesn't seem to stain my nails when it comes off.
This polish sells at £3.69, and in my opinion is definitely worth it.
http://www.boots.com/en/Rimmel-60-Seconds-Nail-Polish_867420/