ELF -- Lipsticks, Eyeliner, Lip Balm

First off!



Kinda erked me. I almost wish they had forgotten the U as well, so I could say DEFINES YO EYES.

ANYWAY!

I got the Cream Eyeliner in Black, the Conditioning Lip Balm with SPF 15 in Blissful Berry and two lipsticks, Seductive and Fantasy.



Look how huge that lip balm is! It's so big. Especially next to the cream eyeliner. I don't know how I feel about that; I definitely won't lose it in my bag though~


Again, look how huge it is!

Both of these were £3.50 (studio line), so maybe that's why I got a huge lip balm. Meh. I would've preferred it if the sizes were switched, so the eyeliner was the bigger pot, but then, I probably wouldn't use it all and it'd dry up. The pots are very easy to cross thread, so you do have to be careful when you put them back on.


This brush comes with the eyeliner, and I must say, it does the job really well!


Lipsticks in Seductive and Fantasy.



These lipsticks are from their regular line, so they cost £1.50 each, which isn't bad. I like the packaging, it's nice and simple, and I don't have any other lipsticks that look like this in the tube. They're about the same size as all the other lipsticks I have (which admittedly isn't many), and they feel a lot lighter than the others though.


Yep, I know I got the name wrong for the lip balm :( It's Blissful Berry, not Blissfully

Quick run through of the products, one by one.

Lip Balm in Blissful Berry: This lipbalm is thicker than most lip balms; I'm used to using things like the Nivea lipbalms which feel a lot thinner and slide on easier. This balm is almost more of a solid lipgloss.
It smells like a standard vanilla lip balm, which luckily for me is my favourite! It also has a slightly sugary taste if you're to lick your lips. The colour is perfect for me. I have quite pigmented lips, and this berry colour is my perfect My Lips But Better colour. You do have to make sure your lips are perfectly exfoilated before you put the balm on, otherwise the flakes get caught in the thick balm and feel weird as hell on your lips. Glad I paid the £3.50 for this though, because it means I have a conditioning lip gloss with SPF 15 :P

Cream Eyeliner in Black: This eyeliner is one of the better cheap cream eyeliners I've tried. It's not what I'd describe as creamy though. It's a thinner than that, but it works amazingly. The little brush you get with it works really well too; and I was surprised by that because usually they're pretty dire. I was able to get a nice steady, solid line, and it was definitely black not grey! It doesn't budge, I've wiped over the swatch a few times after it dried, and I don't think it's going anywhere.

Lipstick in Fantasy: This looks soooo different than the picture on the website. It's still a really nice colour, a medium warm toned brown, with a creamy feel to it. These lipsticks are very buildable, and to be honest this one needs to be. One swipe, and it's a little patchy, but I use a lip brush anyway. There's no shimmer to the product at all, and I find that it smells like a soap from The Body Shop. Like one of the clear fruit soap bars. Hmm.

Lipstick in Seductive: Again, slightly different colour than on the website, but I think I like this colour more than what I was expecting. It's a warm pink, that goes on quite sheer, so it's easy to build it up to be more opaque, if that's what you want. It looks really nice and natural on me, so I'm a big fan. It again has The Body Shop smell! It reminds me of being a kid when I used to steal my aunt's soap. It definitely has a smell though so don't be fooled by the n/a; it has under scent. I find it pleasant, but some people might not.



Products can be purchased from Eyes Lips Face.

Maybelline -- Cool Watermelon and Peach Colada

Maybelline Moisture Extreme Lipsticks.

bought these from Cosmetic Kingdom a couple of weeks ago, and so are the pictures.




L-R: Cool Watermelon, Peach Colada.


Cool Watermelon is a very bright watermelon pink, in the tube it almost looks neon. But when applied, it's a very nice cool pink/red. The swatch is with about four strokes going over, so it's definitely a buildable colour. It is very smooth going on the lips but because of that, I feel that you lose some wear time. This might just be because once I have lip product on, I feel the need to rub my lips together to either make sure it's even, or make sure it's there. Also, this colour seems to stain, out of the two.

Peach Colada is my favourite out of the two. Initally it's a very sheer golden coral, and you can build it up to the opacity as depicted above; but it is sheer. I think it's supposed to be sheer. It's gorgeous with just one or two swipes; it makes your lips look fuller because of the shimmer in the lipstick.

These lipsticks upon swatching look juicy. That's really what this photo is lacking. The colour is pretty true to life but you can't see the juiciness that the colour has to it.

I find that unless you actively go out trying to identify a scent, these lipsticks aren't too bad. I had to get them out and sniff at them hardcore to find a smell! If I was asked, I'd say that there is a hint of a melon smell to them, but it's not bothersome at all.

I like these lipsticks, and for 99p(?) I don't think they're bad at all!

Glow in the Dark

Glow in the Dark!

I've been messing around with my camera, and I've finally found out how to take pictures of glow in the dark stuff!

Nail Polishes~




The taller one is one from Wilkinsons that came with a glow in the dark lipstick. It's with their Halloween stock, and was £1. The smaller bottle is the one I picked up from my local poundland (do you see a theme yet :P)


The one on the left is the Wilko one, and it doesn't leave a colour on the nail. It does however, feel like child's polish, and peels off. The one on the right is the poundland one, and it leaves a subtle lime green sheen.

Now for the fun part~


Left to Right, Poundland, Wilko
As you can see, in the bottle, the Wilko one is definitely brighter but on the nail, they're pretty similar. The Wilko one goes on a little more uneven, as shown with the streaky-ness. Both nails had 3 coats on.


Close up~

Homemade Palette

Depotting eyeshadows.

Now, I don't have MAC palettes, nor do I have Z palettes or Uni ones. What I do have however is a pencil tin from the poundshop that I have turned into my perfect palette for depotted eyeshadows.


This is a pencil tin that I bought from Pound World in my town, it came with 12 pencils (which I needed anyway). Magnets are attracted to the metal, so don't worry.


As you can see, it opens up nicely, has quite a lot of space for shadows to go in


The next step is to get hold of magnetic photo paper. Again, I got two sheets of magnetic paper from Pound World.
(Yes, you can see my lava lamp~)


Cut the magnetic paper into shapes that will fit on the back of your eyeshadow pan. As you can see here, that black square will fit nicely onto the back of that pan


Using superglue (I used some cheap glue from Wilkinsons), adhere the magnet on to the back of the pan. Magnetic paper will come with a black side and a white side. Make sure that you apply the glue to the white side.


Stick your pans in to the new palette!



The whole project cost me under £2.50, the pencil tin and magnetic paper were £1 each, and I have a feeling that the glue I used was ridiculously cheap, something like 17p. It's easy, cheap, and I find it fun organising the colours when they're all snug in the pan!

I have three of these palettes now, one that holds MUA colours, another that holds Colourworks shadows, and this one that holds random shadows that came in far too bulky packaging.

Pros of doing this mean that I can take a lot more eyeshadow colours with me when I travel, as they're all in one place, also, I can put the shadows in different tins, so all the colours I need will be in one tin. It's a lot easier than hauling around a bag full of loose eyeshadow palettes like the rather large Maybelline single eyeshadows.
Also! If you don't like the fact that people will see that you've got a 'palette' from a pencil tin, you can easily customise your tin with the sticky back plastic you can get from stationery stores. The plastic comes in all different kinds of designs and colours, so you'll be stuck for choice!

What's in my bag?

What's in my bag post!

Yes, I know I'm way behind in the times, but still. I wanted to do this post, so take a peek into what is in my shapeless sack of a purse/bag :P


Said shapeless sack filled with everything and a couple of hair clips in this post.

We'll start with the obvious and boring!


My wallet, I believe it was a gag gift for our family's Christmas Tree game we play on Boxing Day every year. I think it was from a poundshop? I like it, it feels sturdy, holds all of my cards/coins/notes, so I'm not going to argue!


Phone! Vodafone own brand phone, completely touch, which I dislike, and I think it's on its way out; it keeps on turning itself off and on whenever it likes. Notice how I have the day listed under the time? That's what uni does to you (I go in on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but by the time I get to Thurs, I think it's Friday). I barely remember what day of the week it is, so this is a nice reminder, so I don't look stupid asking all the time.


Keys! My sister's lovely recent school photo, she's adorable~ Keys to my flat (3), and keys to my mum's house and my nan's. Tesco clubcard keyfob thing, and a bottom of a bright pink medical equipment company's lanyard.


This is my little cardholder thing I got from my bank on opening my student account, I got a free 16-25 railcard which runs for 5 years (I don't need to renew the card). I keep this right in the front pocket of my bag so I can grab it quickly, and store my uni ID card, my railcard, another ID card for my work and a £20 note in it. When I'm travelling though, I keep this little wallet in my jacket pocket.


Since coming to uni, I've become scarily organised and ridiculously good at time management, even if I don't know what day it is~ This book has my life in it.


This book however, is my love~ I like keeping a fun book with me in my bag in case I get stuck at a train station, or if I'm waiting between classes.


And of course, because this is my uni bag, pencil case time! This pencil case is my sister's. I stole it. It's small, and it holds these pens just snugly. I can only process my handwriting in red pen. If it's in black I have a hard time, and blue I just can't make sense of it.


A6 notebook for random stuff that I think of during the day~ Usually full of shopping lists of stuff I forget to then buy


Lavender oil roll on (for relief of headaches, or to relax), menthol gel rub thing for your forehead if you have a headache. It's not waxy, definitely gel like, and Marks and Sparks Lemon Anti-Bacterial hand sanitiser. These live in the very front pocket of my bag, the one with the zip.


Omg drugs. Seriously, this is a little coin purse that I keep ibuprofen and antacids in :)


Make up stuffz.

Ok. Nail varnish (whatever I'm wearing at the time), home made lip balm in a lil 5g jar, mini mascara, lip gloss, brown eyeliner, travel size moisturiser, mirror, face sun block, Marks and Spencer lip balm, Marks and Spencer hand cream, travel size sun block.

All of that (apart from the lip balm, hand cream and the Nivea sun block) lives in here:




I think there's about 1/3 of these cleansing wipes left, so the packet slides nicely in the back pocket of the bag. Always handy to carry around, but I have super sensitive skin so I wanted to make sure that it was ok for the face just in case.

And the last thing! Essential now the cold has hit us. handwarmers!


This is a cupcake one that I got for Christmas '10, it was from play.com, and I think it cost about £5.

Northern Light Soap -- LUSH

So, I touched on my spree in Lush the other day, but there was one purchase that really stuck out for me, and that's the Northern Lights Soap. I bought it just for the colour, I don't think I even smelled it until I got home!

It's part of their holiday collection (at least in the UK), it's flourescent green/yellow with a dark orange/red outer rim. It also has these white shreds of what I assume, soap. The scent description says lime and pine, and I definitely get that immediately, I don't have to spend ages trying to decipher the individual scents. It's a very distinct, and quite strong, but pleasing scent. I love citrus so I'm a little biased though.

When you wash your hands, the lather is lovely and smooth, a lot creamier than other soaps, but upon rinsing, like all soaps and my hands, as soon as I rinse, my hands feel... Not dry but kind of like there was a residue on my hands. However, the lather was a fun green colour, so that makes it up, I'll just use hand cream. When I put the soap on the side of the sink to rinse, then picked it up again, it had left a green residue mark on my sink, but that's what you get for flouro soap!

I love this soap, and the little things that are bad, I can just pile the good reasons; the gorgeous smell or the amazing colour, on and it's all good.

Also! I think it's quite large, so I'm cheap and have cut mine into quarters, and I'm going to wrap them individually up and give one to my mum, and one to my sister for Christmas (I only tested one quarter of the soap for washing my hands).

I got this from my local Lush store, and it cost me £3.42 as I got just over a little 100g, but the website says that per 100g it's £3.25 :)


Blurry picture to show the craziness of the flouro~

Available at Lush stores and online.

Rimmel Colour Rush Eye Quads

Rimmel Colour Rush Quads.

I found these on my computer, from a couple of months ago, so I thought I'd share. I don't have pictures of the actual products, but swatches are always good~


Smokey Brun. The lightest colour is a vanilla sheen kind of colour, perfect for when you're doing a simple look where you want the actual lid to look untouched, and all the work going on in the crease. The rest of the colours are all smooth and easy to work with. This was my favourite quad out of the bunch.


This is a better picture of the darkest brown. All of the other colours were showing true to life, apart from this one. Here you can see it's a darker golden brown with gold reflects.


State of Grace.
I was suprised at how easy this quad was to work with. Usually, blues are a b*tch to work with, but this was just fine. The only troubles came to the purpley-blue at the end which had a tendency to be a bit chalky and patchy.
All colours are true to life :)


Beauty Spells.
I'm not sure why I had such a hard time photographing this quad, but it annoyed the hell out of me. The colours look gorgeous in the pan, but this is a lilac quad, so I knew not to get my hopes up. I was right to. This quad is the one I was least impressed with. The light silver is ok, a little sheer, but ok. The lilac isn't really lilac with one swipe; it's glitter with a lilac sheen. The plummish colour is very powdery, I don't want to say chalky, but it's very... Clumpy, the black however, wins. It's a matte black with silver glitter, and it does the job just fine.


The black in Beauty Spells. Glitter!


Sun Safari.
This quad is a nice warm collections of brown/sand/golden tones. The light colour is similar to the light colour in Smokey Brun. The two middle colours are very close in person, and almost dupes of each other, but when they're built up, one has a more distinct orange tone. The darkest colour is gorgeous. It's an almost metallic burnt golden-bronze. I love this colour so much.


All of the shadows are nice and smooth to work with, and they're not bad to play with. I was expecting the dud to be Beauty Spells, but that's because purples/lilacs are so hard to get right. That's ok! Rimmel can be forgiven ;)

All eyeshadows were bought by me, a few months ago, so I couldn't tell you the price, but could be bought from Rimmellondon.com, Superdrug and Boots stores. It's Rimmel though, so I'd think around £5-8.

Quick post! Nail hauls

So... As a student, with no money, what do you do when you're tired, grumpy and have no money? You spend £30 in Lush and buy nail polish, that's what!


Art Deco Nail Art Lacquers in Black, Yellow, Baby Pink, Collection 2000 Hot Looks Fasty Dry polish in Wink, Art Deco in Gold Glitter, Silver Glitter and White, Collection 2000 Nail Care 2 in 1 Base Coat and a Glow in the Dark polish from Poundland.



All polishes apart from the Base Coat were found in my local Poundland, so I was very happy (I bought the Black and White Art Deco polish and the Hot Looks one yesterday and the remaining lot today) The base coat was in Superdrug for £2.99.

I like finding things in the Pound Shop that are good quality; the only problem is that you seldom find things in there two visits in a row. I was incredibly lucky that I managed to get the rest of the Art Deco polishes (I got all of the colours they had), because usually if I left it a day between, I wouldn't have gotten a chance!

P.S, I feel much better now, I think I might have a bath with a third of my Candy Mountain Bubble Bar :)

MUA Eyeshadows

I bought 2 new MUA eyeshadows a week ago, and I thought I'd share pictures of swatches of all the shadows I currently own (I'm going into town tomorrow to pick up some more and a few nail polishes, AND pretty much all of the I Love... Chocolate and Oranges range).

Unfortunately, I depotted them all into a tin before taking photos; it never crossed my mind that I should photo before swatching that day! Nevermind! I have a photo that I took a few months ago when I bought my first round of the shadows, and the packaging is still exactly the same.


Plain black casing with a clear plastic lid. The shadows aren't hard to open, so your nails will be intact after opening. They're also sturdy as I was able to do a whole move across the country without them shattering.


Back of the packaging. Each pan holds 2g worth of product, so £1 for 2g, deal right?


These are the swatches done in my room, under tungsten lighting, and all of the shadows are of the pearl texture. I think that number 26 is the wrong number, so we'll call it 2? from here on.



Shade 3: A pearl finish, it looks like tin foil when swatched on your hand. It's very smooth, almost creamy, and has pretty good pay off
Shade 9: A duochrome. The base colour is very pink, as you can see in the photo, but it flashes between blue and pinky purple. Needs to be built up though to work well
Shade 14: A darkened forest green. Soft, and better colour pay off than shade 9. Is a pearl finish
Shade 11: Metallic golden brown. This colour is gorgeous, kind of reminds me of Urban Decay's Toasted; maybe not so much in photos, but in person, yes.
Shade 12: Possibly the most talked about MUA shadow. This is the dupe for MAC's Club. Reddish brown base with a green duochrome, which you can just about see here. I love this colour, it's the ultimate 2 colours in one. Smokey eyes are effortless with this colour... Just be careful you don't end up looking bruised with all the red and brown.
Shade 13: Dark Royal Purple. I want to love this colour so much, and in the photos it's easy to see, but look, the pay off is bad. This swatch was done on top of Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and it was still patchy. I tried it on top of coloured bases too, and it's still patchtastic; and not in the good way.
Shade 2?: Golden Rose colour. Starts off sheer, when I swatched it initially, I thought I had finally come across a bad MUA pearl shadow. Naw, not by a long shot. It swatches beautifully, smooth. It's a pretty rose-y colour, and it makes me think of the transition from summer to fall when you don't want to darken it up, and you still want to cling to the roses/corals of summer.


All of these shadows are in Superdrug stores around the country, retailing at £1 each.

All purchased by me, with money that is my own :)

Khaki Force and a Raindrop

On my way home from uni I popped into my local Superdrug and picked up these.


Two Miss Sporty Lasting Nail Colours, in Raindrop, and Khaki Force.

These are two excellent fall/autumn colours; they come in the standard Miss Sporty rounded glass bottle, and are small enough to throw in your bag and for you to lose it in there.

Raindrop is a blackened blue heavy teal colour, which I am in love with, ever since swatching. The drawback with this colour is that the formula of the polish is actually very watery, and it takes around 3 coats for the colour to be fully opaque. Think dupe of OCC's Echo

Khaki Force is a yellow heavy khaki colour (funnily enough :P), and after one coat the colour is pretty gross. Ever seen baby poop? Yeah, it's that colour after one coat, but after two and three coats, it's a much nicer darkish yellow green. The formula is a little less watery.

I don't know the wear of these just yet, as I only bought them two days ago, and I have just put a fresh coat of Raindrop on my nails, but as soon as I know, I'll update this post.

Courtsey of my little nail swatch wheel thing, here are swatches of Khaki Force and Raindrop!



Here they're shown as they are after normal application. My favourite way to wear these though is with a matte top coat; I use Claire's matte top coat (£2.25), because I'm cheap like that. My camera subsequently died as I wrote that, so I can't post pictures right now of the polishes with the top coat; sorry!



Nail Polishes can be bought from Miss Sporty website or Superdrug stores. The polishes cost £1.99.

Purchased with my own money, from Superdrug.

Yet another hair post~

So, I felt it was time for a hair growth progress type post~


March '11. At this point, I had to straighten my hair everyday or the craziness that is my hair would be unleashed. The volume of my hair naturally is unreal and it's just so big. Straightening my hair is a very lengthy process because my hair's so thick, but to be honest, I do skimp a lot on the back sections of my hair.


As you can see, that purple colour is pretty much gone, apart from up in my roots. Sad times, but, I have a mid brown which I'll dye over with, because my hair seems to have patches of rose in it.


You can kind of see where the purple is at the roots, and where it fades out into a rose/brown. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the camera to capture the weirdness that is my hair colour, accurately, at the moment.



I've been religiously using a deep conditioning treatment once a week, and using Herbal Essences shampoos/conditioners, or the Dove ones, because I know my hair likes those, my hair is in good condition; it's soft, growing (which is rare for my side of the family, our hair grows out rather than down) and generally easy to work with.
I've not heat styled my hair in about 2 months now, I've just been lazy to tell the truth, but I think my hair has benefited from it.

But...

My hair is finally growing!