This Week's Nails #8 - Wanna Say Hello/Time For Romance

I did my nails last night and I'm really happy with how they came out! I wanted something trendy and I wanted to use glitter, and after some rummaging in my polish box I found a couple that I thought would look nice. I'm having a really rough time photographing glitter, so I'll post a few pictures. Unfortunately none of them do it justice, so try to use your imagination! ^_^

The first colour I applied was Essence's 'Wanna Say Hello', a rich, dark, chocolate brown. My bottle is from the older range, but the good news is that this polish is still available! It's priced at €1.79 and has a new and improved design.

I layered two coats of Essence's 'Time For Romance' on top of the brown. Again, my bottle is the old design, but this one is still available too! It's also priced at €1.79. This polish is gorgeous, and compliments 'Wanna Say Hello' just perfectly.

It's a real shame that the glitter doesn't photograph well. I'll describe it as best I can! It's coloured a rose gold shade, but more peachy. It has a sort of glow about it, it's lovely. The glitter is irregular  and some of the smaller bits reflect green, blue and sliver. You'd have to see for yourself! Alone it has a wine coloured base, but you can't see this over the brown polish. I'm not sure what it looks like on, I've only swatched it on white paper to see what it looks like. I hope you like this manicure as much as I do! See you soon ~_^

Zombie Makeup

Hey everyone! I've been busy the last few days preparing for yesterday's Zombie Walk. If you're unaware, a Zombie Walk is just what it sounds like. People dress up like zombies and walk around their city. Often they will use the event to collect for a charity. Our charity collection was for Cork Dog Action Welfare Group (DAWG). They rescue abandoned and abused dogs, and their site can be found here http://www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie/. I wanted to share a few pics of the makeup I wore for the walk ^_^ I had such a blast with this makeup, I think I'll be doing more stuff like this in the future. It's so much fun to do and wear!

Guh?

The makeup was heavily inspired by a piece of Durga Usagi's work, here's the 'making of' youtube video for it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KdJJs9CH5I. I highly recommend you check it out! If you like what you see on her youtube channel, certainly have a look at her website http://underbluelightsmakeup.com/. There's all sorts of amazing stuff there! :)

Braaaaaaains

I couldn't get the Wolfe FX Skinz palette Durga uses in time for the Zombie Walk, I used Snazaroo face paints instead. I'll add a product list at the end! I used Sugarpill shadows around the eyes, green and black lashes and mismatched coloured contact lenses. I was going to wear two pink lenses but I tore one of them so I mismatched instead. I think it looks even better! I really suck at applying lashes, I'm still getting the hang of them!

My look isn't perfect, but I think I did okay considering I've never really worked with face paints before this weekend! I had so much fun with this. I was expecting it to be a lot of work and not that much fun to be honest, since it takes quite a long time, but I loved every minute of doing this look. Unfortunately the day of the Zombie Walk my time management wasn't so good, so I didn't get to add pink blood like I wanted to. I was going to use a mix of face paint and lip gloss to do it! Jangsara did something cool like this using liquid latex and lip gloss on her blog recently, here's the post http://jangsara.blogspot.fi/2012/10/halloween-tutorial-pink-tears.html. I wanted to get fuzzy ear muffs too and be a super cute zombie. Everyone else on the walk was a gore zombie, I looked like a cartoon next to them! It was a lot of fun though, everyone should attend their local zombie walk!

I'll be staying in face paint mode for much of this week, since Dia de los Muertos is also this week and I want to do a sugar skull for that. I'd like to work out something really fancy for it so hopefully I'll come up with an awesome design! I've never done a sugar skull before so I'm looking forward to it. See you guys soon ~_^

Products used:

Lenses:

EOS New Adult - Pink
EOS Ice Green

I buy my lenses from http://www.honeycolor.com/

Face:

Snazaroo Classic Colours - Light Grey, Black, White

Eyes:

Sugarpill eyeshadow- Dollipop, Bulletproof
NYC Liquid Liner - Black
NYX Jumbo Pencil - White

Lashes:

Kiss Eyelusions Couture Lash Bar Collection - Mystére

This Week's Nails #7 - Trophy Wife/Emerald Isle

Hey there! I lifted my nail polish ban last weekend while I was away in Galway. This week I'm wearing two of the polishes that I bought there! One is Essie's 'Trophy Wife', here's a picture of the bottle and nails:

This is my first Essie polish, and I like it! I got it at Boots for €12.99. It's a deep teal colour, I had to have it as soon as I saw it ^_^ The accent nail I did with Angelica's 'Emerald Isle', here's a look at the bottle:

I applied it only to the little finger, to cover up some black face paint that wouldn't wash off without scrubbing the colour off too! This is a glitter polish, quite similar in colour to 'Trophy Wife'. It doesn't photograph well but it is pretty! I'd seen Angelica polishes before at Penneys on Patrick Street Cork, but only the pastels. In Penneys in Eyre Square Galway they have a much wider range! I picked up two for €2.75 each. Well worth it! You have to apply a couple of topcoats to smooth the glitter, and it comes out very blingy! I'll have to get my sister to pick me up some more Angelica polishes when my ban is lifted.

Tomorrow I'm going to a Zombie Walk in Cork. I've been practicing my makeup for it lately, and having the best time doing it! I'll write up a post on that over the next couple of days. See you soon!

Review with Look - Too Faced Shadow Insurance

This post is pretty late, sorry about that! I got TFSI last week, I was so happy when it came in the mail! I've been in need of a new eye primer and I've heard a lot about it. I was using Essence's 'I Love Stage' primer, but with long wear it caused creasing on the inner part of the eye for me. My sister uses it too and doesn't have this problem, so perhaps it depends on eye shape. It's definitely the best eye primer I've found for less than €5 though! It served me quite well while I searched for a new one. This is what the TFSI packaging looks like:

I dig the packaging, it's lovely!

This is the 'Original' TFSI primer. I ordered it from http://www.beautybay.com, and it was priced at €21.21. There are four other TFSI primers available, with different effects. They are all available on Beauty Bay, and more information on them can be found here on the Too Faced site: https://www.toofaced.com/c-111-primer.aspx. I applied it sparingly all over my lids, brow bone and lower lids, then applied shadow! The shadow went on smoothly over the primer, and didn't hinder blending. Here's the look I did:

I wore this in my FOTD #1 last week. It was inspired by one of Marayam's looks http://www.maryammaquillage.com/2012/10/daytime-smokey-with-missha-ud-naked-2.html. I didn't try to recreate it because I was stuck for time. I just remembered that the look was pretty and tried to do something similar! I toned my look down a bit though, I didn't add lashes or extend the shadow as much as Marayam. I also added thick brown liner to my top lash line, just because I thought it would look nice. I'll put a full product list at the end of the post. First let's have a look at the staying power of TFSI. Check out this picture taken five hours later:

It looks exactly the same as when it was applied! Really impressed so far! I tested it even further. This picture was taken twelve hours after application:

I'm sorry that the picture is a little blurry. The shadow has stayed incredibly well for twelve whole hours! No creasing or smudging either. As I said earlier I had problems with creasing on the inner third of the eye when using the Essence primer. TFSI protected against that extremely well! I can't compare it to another high end primer, this is the first one I've had, but I am very impressed with it. I would happily recommend this primer to anyone, it was worth every cent!

Products used in eye look:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Urban Decay Naked 2 palette - Suspect, YDK, Tease, Blackout, Verve, Foxy.
GOSH Cosmetics Long Lasting Eyeliner Pen - Brown
Rimmel Scandal Eyes Waterproof Kohl Liner - Bronze
Max Factor 2000 Calorie Mascara - Black Brown
Essence Eyebrow Stylist Set

Urban Decay Smoked 24/7 Glide-on Pencil Set

Ok, back for part two of my gifts from Arizona! Along with the Vice Palette, I also got an Urban Decay eyeliner pencil set. There are six mini pencils in this set. Here are some pictures:

It was packaged in a clear plastic box but I took it out of there for a better photo.

This set contains two exclusive pencils (Mainline and Smog), along with two bestsellers (Zero and Demolition), and two which were discontinued and according to the website, are featured in this set by popular demand (Uzi and Empire). I've never used UD pencils before, so I was really interested to find out what they're like! Swatches incoming:

Uzi, Zero, Demolition, Smog, Empire, Mainline

I can't draw a straight line to save my life, but you get the idea! The colours are so awesome. I struggle to find good drugstore eyeliners, I'm so glad I've got these now. They're soft and creamy, easy to apply and very pigmented! I haven't had a chance to use these in a look yet, but I'm dying to! Maybe I'll have time tomorrow. I left these swatches on my arm for the rest of the evening to get an idea of staying power. They did quite well considering I swatched on bare skin. Five hours later they were still there but quite faded, over primer they'll do much better.

These are mini pencils, each containing 0.8g of product. This set is priced at $38 (€29.30), which works out at little over $6 (€4.60) per pencil. The full sized pencils contain 1.2g of product and are priced at $19 (€14.60) each. Please note that these euro prices are only conversions of their dollar value and will vary from different retailers.

I've always wondered what the UD pencils are like, but they're pretty steep compared to what I normally pay for a pencil. If you think about it though, pencils last for so long. The black kohl pencil I use now is so worn it doesn't even have writing on it anymore, I've had it for years! The quality of these just doesn't compare to any drugstore pencil I've used. I've been looking at the full range of pencils on the UD site and I think I'll have to pick up a few more :) Christmas is coming, maybe Santa will bring me some! ^_^

If you've been wanting to try out the UD pencils this is the ideal set for you. In my opinion they're totally worth the money, and this mini set is a great price considering the cost of the full size pencils. Check it out, you won't be disappointed!

Urban Decay Vice Palette

Yesterday I mentioned that my husband Jim returned from Arizona and brought me gifts. One of those gifts was the Urban Decay Vice Palette, and another was the 24/7 Smoked Pencil set! Awesome picks, I had no idea he took notice of things I bought took interest when I talked about makeup. I'm extremely impressed with his choices! I was going to feature them both in this post but it ended up being so long with only the Vice Palette that I decided to do another post today about the 24/7 Smoked Pencils. This isn't a proper review since I haven't done a look with them or tested their staying power or anything like that, it's more of a 'first impressions' post with swatches. So, let's take a look!

Front Packaging

Back Packaging

Palette

The Vice Palette is nicely packaged. The cardboard outer packaging has a crystal design on it and is coloured deep purple and black. On the back you'll find the shadows named and pictured. The palette itself has a raised 'UD' logo on it and is also coloured deep purple. When you push the button on the front, the lid opens by itself! Fancy! :D

When you open it up, you'll find twenty beautiful shadows along with a double ended 'Good Karma' brush. There's a big mirror under the lid too. Prepare for lots of swatches:

Row 1 - Desperation, Muse, Jagged, Blitz, Penny Lane

Row 2 - Junkie, Chaos, Occupy, Unhinged, Black Market

Row 3 - Provocateur, Rapture, Vice, Noise, Armor

Row - 4 Nevermind, Echo Beach, Anonymous, Freebird, Laced

Wow, that's a lot of swatches. While I was swatching them I was thinking of which ones would compliment each other, but they've pretty much done that for you by row. These shades are blowing my mind though. I have so many look ideas, I don't even know where to start. I can't even pick favourites right now! I thought the brights (Chaos, Noise, Unhinged) would be my favourites for sure, they're the reason this palette caught my eye to begin with, but after swatching the others there are just too many amazing shades that I love. There's not one shadow here that I won't have use for.

The quality is fantastic, as always. The shadows are soft with great colour payoff. There's a wide range of finishes and an even wider range of colours to choose from.There are uber glittery ones, shimmers, satins and mattes. You've got metallics, brights, darks and soft, feminine shades. I'm excited about the pink/peach colours, it can be hard to find really great shadows in these colours so I can't wait to try these out. This palette was bought for me as a gift but is priced at €47, or $59. Are you lucky enough to have picked up this badass palette yet?

Another Face #1

Hey everyone!
Today I got back from Galway, I went up there for my sister Laura's university graduation ceremony. She received a BA in Arts from NUIG :) I am very proud of her and her giant brain!
She wore a beautiful dress with a purple, green and teal butterflies and flowers on it. Here's a nice picture of her with our mother and step-father.

Paul, Laura, Mam

Here's a closeup of her heels, they are sooo cute!

They're by Ruby Shoo. The prettiness almost justifies the pain!

I only did her eye makeup for her, she'd already done her foundation that morning. She wanted her makeup to involve colour that goes with her dress, but not so much that she would look silly. Nobody trusts me with makeup, they always ask me not to make them look like a clown. I would never! I get a bit adventurous on my own face, but there's a time and a place. Here's her finished face:

So pretty!

I had creative control in this situation, but I only actually applied the eyeshadow and defined the eyebrows. This was a daytime ceremony so I wanted to keep the eye makeup relatively natural, with just a touch of colour as she requested it to coordinate with the dress. I wanted it to be soft and pretty. Here's a closeup of her eye makeup:

I didn't line the top lid because she normally doesn't. Since she doesn't normally wear much eye makeup she might have thought it a bit much. I filled in her eyebrows a little with the paler shadow in the Essence Eyebrow Stylist Set. She doesn't normally fill in her brows and I didn't want to scare her, so I just lightly filled them to add more definition to her eye area. What makeup looks 'normal' to me would be quite dramatic for her, so I tried to keep that in mind! I was very proud of my work on Laura. I think the makeup really added to her outfit and enhanced her natural prettiness so much. She said that she liked the look and had at least one compliment that I know about :)


Products used:

Face:

Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation - Porcelain
Maybelline Dream Matte Powder - Rose Nude
No7 Natural Blush Cheek Colour - Cool Pink

Eyes:

Sleek - Nougat, Cappuccino (Au Naturel palette)
Soap & Glory - Dandy Plum, Wild Blue (Off the Wallflower quad)
Soap & Glory - The Daily Double - Velvet Pink/Brownie
Essence mascara - I Love Extreme Volume
Essence Eyebrow Stylist Set

Lips:

Revlon Lip Butter - Peach Parfait

In other news; I broke my nail polish ban while I was in Galway and it's all Nikki Lou's fault for her review of the Models Own Winter Wonderland collection here: http://nikkiloub.blogspot.ie/2012/10/models-own-wonderland-collection.html
I really needed Jack Frost. I didn't like the rest enough to buy them, but I had to get Jack Frost so I can layer it over black like that, it looks fantastic. Expect it in a nails of the week post soon! I also bought three other polishes..
Also, my wonderful husband Jim returned home last night from Arizona where he was visiting family, and he brought me gifts! I'll feature them in tomorrow's post :D
See you soon!