Um!

Ohhh dear, I've not posted here since July 2012! Lol! Well, my excuse is, I am now a very busy student nurse and hardly have time to wear makeup, let alone blog about it. I will post a bit more often though, mainly about good products I find that will suit a tight budget - very important to me as a student!

One such find is Barbara Daly concealer.

(Pic from Tesco Direct)

Now, I've been a fan of Bobbi Brown's award-winning Creamy Concealer for years. I've used it for FOTDs on this blog. I have dark undereye circles which unfortunately appear to be genetic, and found BB's concealer to be the best for hiding them. Unfortunately, it's £18, and I can no longer afford to spend that on a concealer. Heck, I don't even spend that on food per week.

But I seem to have found a perfect substitute in Barbara Daly's concealer, in Fair. The formula is similar to the BB one, and both concealers come in 1.4g. It is just as easy to blend, with the added bonus that it only costs £5! Bargain!

One downside, though - the shade range isn't great. I could only find Fair, Warm, and Medium available, whereas Bobbi Brown offers 14 different shades.
However, if like me you find that one of the 3 Barbara Daly shades matches your skin tone, I highly recommend you go for it :)

The Barbara Daly makeup range is available to buy in most Tesco stores, and on their website.

FOTD: Bruised

Been a while since I posted a FOTD! I used the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette for this look.
Rare pic of me without my labret piercing in! I'd taken it out for work, and forgot to put it back in. In my ears are black horn square spirals made by Diablo Organics.

Face:

Bareminerals - Prime Time foundation primer
Bareminerals - SPF15 foundation in Fair
Barry M - Translucent powder compact in Light
MAC - Mineralized Skin Finish in Star Wonder

Eyes:

MAC - Paint Pot in Painterly
Urban Decay - eyeshadow in Flow
Urban Decay - eyeshadow in Evidence
Urban Decay - eyeshadow in Junkshow
Urban Decay - eyeshadow in Omen
Sleek - kohl eyeliner pencil in Black
Sleek - eyebrow pencil in Brown
Barry M - Bold Waterproof mascara

Lips:

Revlon - ColorBurst lipgloss in Crystal Water (I'll be reviewing this later!)

Sugarpill Heart Breaker palette

Soooo excited to find that my Heart Breaker eyeshadow palette from Sugarpill had arrived yesterday! I love Sugarpill so much and am really happy to add this to my collection :)

The design on the packaging is different from Sugarpill's earlier palettes.

The shades are:

Acidberry - vibrant lime green
Velocity - vibrant matte royal blue
2AM - matte purple with a slightly pearl sheen
Mochi - matte mint seafoam with a slightly pearl sheen
(descriptions from Sugarpill's website)


And here are swatches on my hand:

 Verdict? Love it! All the shadows are velvety smooth and pigmented. My favourite is probably Mochi, it's a great shade for summer. I think it would look great combined with 2AM in the crease. I was expecting Velocity to be a pressed version of their loose eyeshadow Royal Sugar, but it doesn't have the sparkles. Still a lovely shade though. I think all 4 colours work well together, it shouldn't be too hard to combine them all for a really vibrant, eyecatching look. :)

Very glad I have all the Sugarpill palettes now! Can't wait to see what they release next!

Have any of my followers tried this palette? What do you think of Sugarpill?

More NYX round lipstick swatches

OK, I said I'd post the rest of my NYX lippie swatches, so here they are! The first of my NYX lipstick swatches are here.
Sorry, quite a lot of pics :)

Orange Soda

Pumpkin Pie

 Strawberry Milk

Indian Pink

Vitamin

Watermelon

Christie

Margarita

Miracle

Gem

Eucalyptus

Gardenia

Doll

Thalia

As you can see, some shades are quite similar but do have subtle differences. Hopefully you can see them. My favourites are Margarita and Doll. Least favourites are Orange Soda and Strawberry Milk, the formula on these two is far too creamy and slippery to achieve a nice finish.

You can buy these at Cherry Culture if you like they look of them (yes, they ship to UK)!

Not going to buy any more of these until Haute Melon comes back in stock. It's been unavailable for ages :(

Clean up!

Hi all! Just want to say thanks to all my followers for reading my blog. I am going to be going through my list of blogs that I follow and unfollowing a few, as it seems many people drop by my blog saying "follow me" and then they don't follow me back (Could I use the word "follow" any more in a sentence!? Lol!)

I also seem to be following a lot of blogs that are in foreign languages without a translation, I'm afraid I'm typically lazy and don't want to run posts through a translator so I'll be unfollowing some unless they're about things that really interest me.

I'm mainly here to follow beauty blogs. Fashion doesn't interest me so much. If fashion bloggers want to follow me I really do appreciate it, though. I will follow a few but not a great deal. I'm bad at fashion, I usually just wear whatever I want and don't follow trends religiously. :)

I don't blog every day and am rarely online so a lot of blogs I follow seem to slip through the net on my reading list, which isn't really fair and another reason for a clean up!

Just so this post isn't text-only, here is a nail polish you all must see! I'm late to the party on holographic nail polishes I know, but I love this one. It's by Nfu Oh! and the shade is 61.
I apologise for the state of the skin around my cuticles, I haven't really looked after my hands very well since my surgery!

Bye bye for now!

Morgana Cryptoria lipsticks

Hi all! I haven't posted in a while, because I went on a short holiday to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare county! Loved it, btw) and have been preoccupied with course work. But I received my order from Morgana Cryptoria today, so I thought I'd post!

I ordered four lipsticks in Peach Champagne, Fiery Pumpkin, Apple Plum, and Electric Azalea, and two gel lipsticks in Persephone and Athena.
I had to pay £15.06 customs charge *grumble grumble* Most stuff I order from the US slips by, but unfortunately not this time!
They arrived in a cute little bag which was a nice touch :)

Swatches of lipsticks (descriptions from Morgana Cryptoria website):

Peach Champagne
"Peach with gold tones and a pearl sheen."

Fiery Pumpkin
"A shimmer of gold and red on a rust-orange base."

Apple Plum
"Muted red with just a hint of plum sheen."

Electric Azalea
"Vivid pink with sparkles that change blue-violet to red-violet."

Gel lipsticks:

Persephone
"Pink champagne that shifts peach-gold-green."

Athena
"Red toned purple with sparkles that change red to orange-gold."

The regular lipstick formula is really nice and long wearing on me. I really love Fiery Pumpkin, and had to snap it up when I saw it was to be discontinued. My favourite though is Electric Azalea, it's a really striking pink!
The gel lipstick was a little harder to apply, the formula is quite thick so very thin coats should be applied in layers, with a light hand. Morgana Cryptoria advises that you don't purse your lips or rub them together as it unsettles the finish. Apparently they are liable to melt in high temperatures - luckily I live in cold rainy England, lol. I guess if they felt too soft, I could stick them in the fridge. Both Persephone and Athena are gorgeous colours, and look very glossy as you can see.

You can buy these lipsticks from Morgana Cryptoria's website. She sells other makeup too, so check it out if you haven't already :)

I'll be posting some more NYX lipstick swatches soon, so you'll soon be bored of seeing my lips all the time! Lol! I'm a total lippie addict obviously, so if you want to recommend me lip products to try out, please do so!

Sweetpea and Fay Liquid Lipstick

My SweetPea and Fay order arrived today! I ordered four "J'Adore Les Levres" liquid lipsticks in Ranunculous, Mermaid Kiss, Penelope, and Yeti.
I also got a free eyeshadow in 'Shibalba' (full size, not a sample!) which is really cool of them. It's a shimmery yellow-gold, definitely a colour I'll use. But this post will be about the lipsticks :)

These lippies come in squeezy tubes with a plastic applicator on the end. It's not my fave packaging ever I must admit, I prefer tubes that come with a wand. I found it difficult to squeeze the product out, but that might be because I only have my left hand, lol. I tried applying straight from the tube but found it easier to just use a lip brush.

Here's what SweetPea & Fay say about these lipsticks:

"J'Adore Les Levres tubes are VERY VERY pigmented. They glide on with a rich creamy texture and a soft french vanilla flavor. Lightly blot for a liquid lipstick look or build up for a more glossy shine."

Swatches on my lips:

Ranunculous

"soft pastel pink"
I love this shade, it's one of my fave shades in lipstick. Very thick, creamy formula.

 Mermaid Kiss

"neon hot pink"

Very bright and eyecatching colour. Creamy and opaque which seems to be the norm for these lippies.

Penelope

"Opaque redish purple, with just a hint of lip stain"

I don't know about the stain because I only wore it to take pics, however the colour is stunning and I found the consistency the easiest to work with.

Yeti

"neon blue"
Lol, yes, I'm getting a bit addicted to odd lip colours! This is very VERY creamy and opacity definitely not a problem!

 For a bit of fun, I tried a lip ombre with Yeti and Mermaid Kiss, lol:

 

 It came out a bit wrong, haha

All in all, I'm a big fan of these lippies! Packaging aside, I think they're a great quality product for the humble $7.99 price tag. If you buy only one shade, I'd recommend Penelope, it's my favourite out of the four!

What do you think? Will you try them?

If you want to buy, they are available from SweetPea and Fay's website. Shipping to the UK for 4 lipsticks was $4.50 which is very reasonable!