Thursday, 8 March 2012

My heart is beating for ... an Illamasquian Cleopatra


It's gorgeous, it's breath taking, it's a celebration of colour at its most magnificent and it's a new collection from Illamasqua unveiled yesterday in London. I wasn't present at the blogging event, nor was my presence solicited but it doesn't matter. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you will have noticed that not getting press releases doesn't stop me from expressing myself and talk about beauty products which excite me. And boy, this is an exciting collection.


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The colour themes and the looks created for promotional pictures (The modern Cleopatra one is my favourite!) are absolutely divine. I'm itching to recreate the stunning jade and purple cut crease and play with my face paint in an attempt to create the arty white eyeliner.


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“Human Fundamentalism is an explosion of your alter ego. It’s becoming who you are and not who you’re told to be. Beauty isn’t conformity, but the fundamental human desire to express your inner self on the outside. To rise above mainstream limitations and exist in a world where individuality is received with celebration not derision, and breaking the mould is a sign of strength not instability. 
 
We stand for freedom of expression, embracing our glorious imperfections and showing the world we’re not ordinary but extraordinary, even if society refuses to accept it. We’re beyond conformity. Beyond control. Beyond hiding who we really are. We are not a religion, but the singular opposite. We are Illamasqua.
Get ready for a startling celebration of humanity’s connection with colour. Introducing the Human Fundamentalism collection, where blinding flashes of pigment provide a sharp contrast to neutral tones, creating a saturated palette that catapults your alter ego to new levels of self-expression. Mix contrasting textures to express your true self, spiraling from rich metallic to pale matt shades. This is nonconformity at its most fundamental. At its unpredictable best.”
  

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Products wise, if money flowed a little bit easily these days, and if could select my favourites, I would have loved to indulge in pivot, the stunning lime green eyeshadow (£15.50), the white eyeliner of course (Precision Ink in Scribe, £15.50) and the sealing gel (£10.50) to go with it.


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Anything from the collection which makes your heart beat?
Do you think Katy Perry has her eyes on 'Apocalips'?
If you were creating an eyeshadow called 'sex' would you make it white?
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Sunday, 25 September 2011

Crackle me madly notdees

If you're tired of the crackle nail polish trend, you might want to turn away now. If you still enjoy playing with crackle polishes, these might interest you. When 17 cosmetics released their gold crackle, I was only midly interested. It was not bright and in-your-face gold enough for my liking and I happily skipped it. A little bit more recently 17 cosmetics came back with 2 new additions to their crackle family and released these 2 babies: a vibrant purple crackle and a really original crackle: a mixture of gold, glitter and black crackle.


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I think I've already found my perfect purple crackle. It's BROKEN ARROW from MUA Cosmetics and it's perfect on every aspect. I like Broken Arrow so much that not only it's my favourite purple crackle but it might be my favourite crackle polish of all. So I didn't have much hope for the Boots 17 purple crackle to impress me.

I decided to use GAMMA from Illamasqua as a base  for my first play and I was really taken by surprise. The vibrancy of the purple is absolutely amazing. It is not as metallic intense as Broken Arrow (but this is turn makes it easier to photograph) but it has the most gorgeous blue undertone which comes to life when a powerful light hit it.

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I love the way the crackle created this x shape on my middle finger


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Application was easy, even though I have found the formula a bit thick. I like my crackle to be quite chunky so I had to make a point to load the brush to the max before applying the crackle polish onto my nails.


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I have yet to ascertain if using a nail polish thinner would alter the crackle formulation or whether it would still crackle? Does anyone of you know?


I was quite excited to try the gold/black/and glitter polish. I decided to use a nude polish underneath: NUDE CHAMPAGNE by Gosh which I am absolutely obsessed with at the moment. This crackle is very unique. In fact, it's so different from any crackle polish that I've known that I would like NOT to call it crackle. Whilst the finished effect is gorgeous and give you ultimate party nails in an instant, the crackle effect is much more subtle. It doesn't crackle as much as 'normal crackles'. Could it be because of the chunky glitter inside it?


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I couldn't stop looking at my nails whilst I was wearing this combo but I kept on wishing the glitter had been more fine. Removal as expected was quite laborious because of the chunky glitter. This polish presents the usual glitter dilemma for me. Is it gorgeous enough for me to put up with the removal process.


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If you're expecting this polish to be a true crackle, you'll be disappointed. If you're in a rush, and have 2 minutes to jazz up your chipped nude nails before a party: you'll be in love with this and all eyes will be on you too.

I am lucky. I didn’t have to buy these 2 polishes as my friend from work bought them 2 days ago. Me thinks she should leave them in the office all the time :)


As far as I know, these crackle polishes don't have a name.
How would you call them?


What? 17 Cosmetics Nail Extras Crackle Top Coat
How much? £3.99
Where: any boots, even the 'crap' little ones :)

Related posts:
Mua Cosmetics Purple Crackle Nail Polish (Broken Arrow).
Gosh ohmygosh Nude Champagne Nail Polish.
Illamasqua Gamma Nail Polish.
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Saturday, 16 July 2011

Sleek Saturday - Acid Toxic {Makeup Look and Nails}

Ever since my makeup challenge with Jen (from Mizzworthy.com) when she created a beautiful bright orange and green makeup look with her not-loved-enough Sleek Makeup Circus palette earlier on this week, I have been itching to recreate  her look. Jen knows it, I have been talking about it every day. I don't have the circus palette. What I do have is the Sleek Makeup Acid palette which has rapidly become my favourite and most used palette ever.


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To this date I have yet to use the neon pink and neon green (that sounds like a challenge I have just set myself right there) but all the colours have absolutely gorgeous. Only disappointment is the white eyeshadow. It is simply nowhere near pigmented enough for my needs. However, 1 disappointing colour out of 12 others is not bad.


For me, the real attraction of this palette is the purple and the acidic green next to it.


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Basically, WHENEVER I need to use purple, this is THE purple I would use all the time. This purple fulfills all my (matte) purple needs and is just perfect. How does it compare to the iconic purple from Makeup Forever (92) I do not know, but nor do I care to know. Incidentally, to add depth to this 'acid' purple, I like to use the purple from Sleek Makeup Bohemian palette. They complement each other beautifully.


Because I like the purple and the green so much, this palette tends to follow me on my travels, along with:
-  my 120 palette (just in case I need it and because it humongous mirror
-  my gosh 'smiley face' trio palette and last but not least
- my nyx white/grey/black trio palette featuring the best white in the universe.

*rambles* *rambles*

The inspiration for this look comes from Mizzworthy.


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This look would be perfect, if you are daring enough, to wear for St Patrick's Day. I did a similar colours look for St Patrick's day one year, but I much prefer this one. This one was less faffy to do: just 3 colours and bam. Not 37 greens.


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The eyeliner  on the right eye looks a bit crap and too rounded but hey ho..



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Finally, I would like to show you a truly gorgeous nail polish, Gamma  from Illamasqua, also not the faint hearted. This is a present from a friend (I am not sure, at the time of writing if I am allowed to say where it comes from) and it's shockingly bright and gorgeous. You will have to excuse my nails. These are my nails live, as of Friday 15 July and they are 100 times too short for my liking but hey ho, never mind.

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Gamma reminds me of Instyle Candy Orange, a polish from Nails Inc. Well, this is where the comparison ends. I really didn’t agree with the formulation (or do you call it formula? my mind has gone blank) of the nails inc one. Gamma was a dream to apply. It makes me the happier since this was my first experience with Illamasqua ever. The polish glided on my stupid short nails and made me them look pretty.



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This post makes me happy. I have finally wrote a little about my favourite Sleek Makeup palette, found another opportunity to play with bright colours, and orange in particular, which is fast becoming my favourite colour. This post allowed me chill out a bit. I usually would never consider taking photos of a palette if it’s even used ( I usually like to take a photo when it looks pristine) and indoor. The photos don’t look too bad and I am gobsmacked the flash did not wash out the colours: First time this has happened. Maybe this is the start of a less stressed out me, and a more relaxed attitude towards blogging? I doubt it…


You like sleek makeup? My giveaway to win a sleek makeup Santorini blush is still going. Click here if you enter.
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Monday, 31 May 2010

Elemental Failure : Fire Eyes

To sweet Mizzworthy,

Oh I am so disappointed with myself. I really wanted to enter your fabulous makeup contest but sadly I was not happy with my 2 makeup practises and need to admit defeat. As you know, I’ve taken part  in many makeup contests before but for some reason I could not get past the nerves of being judged by Illamasqua themselves and  was not happy enough with my attempts to post them.


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I hope the little video helped spread the word a little bit.
For you, those replacement fire eyes
Wishing you all the best for the contest.

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Lots of love x


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