Tuesday 25 December 2012

Sylvanian family texture nails FTW!!

Okay, I will admit it, I fail as a woman on many many levels. I am not girly, although I am told by my nearest and dearest I am because I 'like make up', I don't think that qualifies me as a proper girl. I have never waxed my legs, I wouldn't know where to start (obvs I shave though, i'm not a hippy), the first time I got anything done regarding beauty that wasn't me was getting my brows threaded in the thoroughfare of my local shopping center two years ago for a fiver, I never have had a bath with candles, the idea of it bores me, and how on earth do people not get insanely BORED!? I don't get the concept of fake tan, and hair extensions seem like fraud to my mind.....so yes, as I say, i'm not your average girly girl.

So what was this preamble about. Well, nails, I don't really do nails. The only time i'm proud of my nails is if they look like they'd be at home in Tron, the below 1982 version I mean.


Anyway, when I do pain my nails they're holographic, or clashing and matte with Nike ticks or some other bollocks shoved on to stop them looking girly. So when I saw the opportunity to own the below, I got rather excited. Ladies and whoever, I present furry nails!



MUA fur effect nails 

It's a pretty simple concept. It's a strongly coloured fur substance, and you paint your nail in a corresponding colour, then press the nail into the fur, wait thirty seconds, brush off the excess and you are left with something like the below. 


MUA fur effect nails in Boo Boo Fluff. 

They are available in five shades, Fluffy Bobbin (Purple), Fluff and Cuddles (Magenta/Red), Fluffy Puff (Baby Pink) and Fuzzy Fluff (Pink) as well as the already pictured shade above. Apparently the effect lasts from 2-3 days in total, because of the nature of the material, they do actually attract dirt and fluff, which sounds a little rank, but I myself would happily put up with it to have those furry friends for a night out. 

They will be available in Superdrug stores around the country from January 3rd, but are online HERE NOW for a bargainous £3.00 each. I myself have ordered three, and I cannot wait to try them!!


Saturday 22 December 2012

The Eternal Search....

Why is it that foundation is the blight of my life? Don't get me wrong, I love it, in my own way. I have at least eighty, yes, you read right, eighty bottles of the god forsaken stuff knocking around various draws and hiding in boxes, quietly going past their sell by date. There's always, ALWAYS an issue. I am very pale, I have an uneven, patchy complexion with large pores, and super oily t zone. I need foundation to see me through an entire nights dj'ing, or a gig, where I will sweat tons, and go really, REALLY red. I go so red when I get hot I nearly go purple, it's horrific. I also get lots of pictures of me taken with a flash, what with clubs running at night, so I really don't want an SPF in my foundation either. So I need the following attributes for my foundation.....

Pale enough, water/sweatproof, NO SPF, medium coverage, satin finish, oil control.

It's not THAT much to ask is it? You see, for years, if a claim has been made on a product, I just went 'ooooh okay i'll buy that because they're not allowed to lie'. Well they are, it seems. Not out and out lies, but when you get told something is going to 'superstay' for six months or whatever, it's most probably not. I don't know the exact facts behind the legality, and obviously companies can't tell you a bare faced lie, like 'this will never come off, beauty FOREVER AND EVER!111!!!', but they can make a load of women test a product for a day and come back with a report that may not necessarily be based in reality.

Anyway, enough of that. So I search and I search, and these are the current foundations I use for long sweaty nights, their pro's, cons, and what I wish they'd do.

Smashbox Studio Skin SPF 15 in Shade 1.1

So, i'm starting with my favourite. There are many problems with the foundation for me, but it's STILL my favourite for long nights out, and I shall tell you why. It's an incredible formulation. INCREDIBLE. The coverage is medium to full, and truly build able without going cakey, and it covers everything. 

Once it's on, it pretty much sticks if you make sure you prime and powder, just to make sure. However, the downside, and it's a pretty big one. the colour is so insanely BROWN in the palest shade, it's basically like fake tan on me. To wear this I have to mix it with Illamasqua Skin Base in white, then add a dash of Make Up Forever Face and Body Foundation in 38 to give it a less yellow tone, then finally I can use it. Sadly for me, this detracts from the amazingly great formula. 

However, if you ARE of a more medium skin tone, and you need a hard working foundation on your chops, this guy is for you, and you can purchase it for £27.50 HERE



Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation in BONE

Okay, it's an old one, and goodness, I have SO many issues with this foundation, but for all it's cons, there are A LOT of pro's, depending on your skin concerns. Let me be honest, I don't like this foundation for many reasons, but basically, if you want a foundation that is going to last and last and not come off and cover ALL flaws, you can't go wrong. However, the finish is unsophisticated, flat, and the flash back in photos is legendarily terrible. I remember wearing this to work once and even WITHOUT a flash, my complexion looked that of a jaundiced poorly oddball. 

The shade selection is great though, and they have just introduced even more new shades, so there should be something for everyone, including us pale girls. I would recommend this foundation for ladies who have acne, and need to cover imperfections without much bother, who have very oily skin, or are going to be in sweaty situations, and will NOT be getting any flash pictures taken. You also must be ready to add dimension. 

The last time I wore this foundation was to the All Tomorrows Parties Pavement weekend (it's a festival in the UK, curated that time specifically by Pavement), and what I did was use Estee Lauder Illuminating Primer initially, and then also mix a quantity of it with the Double Wear, to give dimension and a more natural finish, and then popped Posie Tint by Benefit on my cheeks with a little High Beam on my cheekbones, and I had a fresh, summery look that would NOT budge, that I didn't have to powder, and I could sweat through and it lasted all night. As I said though, any photos, I looked ruddy AWFUL.

So in summary. If you want something that LASTS and you care no for trend based skin finishes, and you want high coverage, this is your guy. 

Available for £27.50 HERE

MAC Pro Longwear Foundation SPF 10 in NC15

When this foundation was announced a couple of years back, I virtually camped outside Mac to get my hands on it. It was released paired with Mac Pro Longwear Concealer which is a product I use virtually every day, so fantastic it is, but Pro Longwear Foundation and me never got on that well, certainly not the roaring loving friendship I predicted when I saw the early press releases. 

First problem, which I find with a lot of Mac foundations, is the shades are wildly different between each formula. NC15, which, despite not being yellow toned as such. is always my go to as it's the palest. However, Pro Longwear NC's run REALLY yellow, which is okay for covering redness, but I don't subscribe to this idea of wearing yellow based foundations to cover redness, because when the eventual foundation breakdown occurs, you look dreadful, whereas if it's actually closer to your skintone, it looks much less conspicuous. 

So, regardless of the tone based problems, this does have a nice finish, if you prime well and work quickly with it. It also does last, but the problem is, once oil starts to break through, the foundation will cake in creases, and separate, leaving you greasy and sticky. Initially it's a satin finish, which looks lovely, it fills in pores etc, but sadly, longevity wise, it doesn't cut it if you have actual oily skin. I would recommend this for long wear for a normal/dry skin whole heartedly though. 

Available for £24.50 online HERE

Thursday 20 December 2012

So i'm back etc....

Hello, according to page views of this blog, despite the fact that i've barely posted on it, people are viewing it, and seeing as my last post was outlining that some bad stuff had happened that stopped me from posting. Well, it's not over as such, but I want to put some of my energy into reviewing the endless reams of make up I buy. For a while I found a place on the internet to ramble about make up but forums tend to be a bit odd, people get a little bit intense if they're missing things in their real life....whereas I really just want to know whats going to stop my nose looking red after a couple of hours in the wind. So anyway, enough of my rambling....

I have so much to review. SO MUCH. Today I bought the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette, which is basically a pared down, 95 percent matte version of the Naked palettes. Have a look at this crappy pic here


Shades from L - R Venus (frost), Foxy, Walk of Shame, Naked 2, Faint, Crave


So as you can see not a terribly exciting range of shades if you're a fan of strong looks, but retailing at £20 for SIX shades, that you are bound to need at least 80 percent of the time, even if just as a brow highlight or base for other shades, or for a great mod look, this is a pretty cheap, and useful palette to own. However, as a budget option, there is the fantastic Sleek Palette in Au Naturel which has a range of matte and frost shadows with great colour payoff and pigment, and on top of this, you can also pair it with the Sleek Ultra Matte V2 which is a darker lot of mattes, and you can buy BOTH for less than you pay out for this. Not that i'm doing Urban Decay down (although I would have a few months back when the whole entering into the chinese market hence their products being used on animals, which they quickly went back on thank goodness). I will return with swatches of these shadows once my brushes are to hand. 

Otherwise purchases were the STUNNING Giorgio Armani Lip Maestro's in 502 and 503. I have always been a big fan of a matte finish lip, and the idea of liquid lipstick always pleases me, having wanted to check out the liquid lipsticks offering from Stila too, which, unlike Maestro, promise to 'Stay All Day'. This is a big issue for me, as I do need my make up to last through tough conditions anyway, so I plan on snapping a couple of these up. 

Anyway, it's four am, and I have a big weekend coming up. Tomorrow, clubland, day after SLWXMAS, which is always the BEST night of the year. After these things, horrors abound, except for actual xmas day, which is always magical in it's own way. So yes, I should sleep. However, I'm not going to because i've still got last nights Eastenders to catch up on, which sadly, i'm rather excited about....

Rock n roll....