It’s not Superdrug, it’s mine

For me, when something is put into hot water, it will wash better than placed in cold water. This is why I really like treating myself  to self heating face masks. I don't know if it actually gives a  deeper clean, but I love the warming sensation on my face and I feel  it gives me a deeper clean. I tend to wash my hair only twice a week  and hair washing days tend to be the time when I like to put a face  mask on. I don't need to neat or careful with the application of the  face mask and it gets into the hairline, it doesn't matter because my  whole mop of hair gets washed after. I've fallen off the face mask  routine big time. This week end, I thought I would start my routine again and I  decided to treat myself to a chocolate orange self heating mask from  Superdrug.




 


I cannot even begin to describe the delicious smell of this mask.  Application was a very multi sensorial experience and I don't think I  would have enjoyed it as much if it had been applied by someone else.  The texture is spot on: too thick, too runny and you could definitely  feel that it's infused with some orange oil.


  
   







The mask claims to deeply purify and hydrate your skin. To be honest,  I didn't feel it left my skin noticeably more moisturised afterwards.  I definitely felt it gave my skin a nice little pampering session,  that it gave my skin a good clean but for me it was more a pampering  session for my senses. I don't think I will be repurchasing this  mask. I want more from my weekly face masks, either deep exfoliation, or deep moisture or something which makes my face younger/firmer.  Having said that, I will have no problem using up the other half of  this packet (Superdrug masks tend to have enough for 2 sessions) and  the extra one I bought at the same time. In fact, writing about it  now and reminiscing on how lovely it felt makes me want to apply it  again, right now





What: Superdrug Chocolate Orange Self Heating Mask
How much: 99p
Where: Superdrug online and physical stores
Availability: I have had no problems to find this
Special Offer: Buy 4 for the price of 3
Free delivery from the Superdrug website until 24 October 2012

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Tiggress Trio from Max Factor

Back in September, when Boots was doing an amazing 3 for 2 offer for a whole month, this little trio eyeshadow from Max Factor ended up in my basket. This is tiggress eyeshadow trio, which can be used dry or wet.

I need to confess I have never used an eyeshadow wet, I am scared of ruining it. I was hoping this would be the perfect opportunity to pop my 'wet eyeshadow cherry' but I just can't do it. I am scared I won't be able to blend the wet texture once on my eyes.

So what does it perform applied dry? It's ok. Definitely nothing to shout home about. The yellow is a nice shade but overall I was hoping the whole trio would deliver more pigmentation. I want my eyeshadow to have more punch, and sadly this screams more 'pussy cat' than 'tiggress'.


Before I fall asleep writing this review, a little picture on how it applies on the eyes.

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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.







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.








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.







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.





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





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.





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.









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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Un petit papillon inspired makeup look

I have gazillions of things to write about and how do I decide to spend my Friday night on? Faffing about with makeup! The day I wore my pink look at work, I asked a friend/colleague of mine to pick a colour combination for me to wear for the following day. 'How about something with purple and orange, you know a bit like a butterfly' she instantly came up with. I do love a makeup challenge but after looking for inspiration, and having a first practice, it was clear that I was never going to have the guts to wear something so colourful in the office.






So I chickened out. I actually wore no make up at work on that day (yesterday) but I still wanted to try to make an orange/yellow and purple butterfly inspired makeup look. It has been a while since I had attempted a dramatic cut crease so this is what I came up with.








On my eyes, for the main colours I have used:

- Purple from Sleek Makeup Acid Palette
- Purple from Sleek Makeup Bohemian Palette
- Black from Sleek Makeup Acid Palette
- NYX Mellow Yellow Eyeshadow
- Orange (my favourite orange in the whole while world) from the 120 palette.




Incidentally the next picture will show you an example of the smoothing effect of my camera. The picture below is my real skin with all its crap showing. Massive difference hey? It is worth noting that while it smoothes my skin, it does not change the blending on the eyes so much





I won't bore you with my highlight colour and lower lashline action.
My lashes are a combination of cheaptastic shiny lashes from eBay on top of Eylure Girls Aloud Nadine (Original) Lashes.  On my lips, Mac Velvet Teddy and Sally Hansen Lip Inflation Extreme Lip Gloss.







Eyebrows are a bit of a fail, they were meant to be purpley but maybe that's a good thing, as otherwise there would have been too much purple?
I had lots of fun creating this look. It reminded me of my first cut crease look (well,the  first one I was happy with) with also some butterfly action, which you may have seen somewhere ... 

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Orange and Lime makeup look {fotd}

About time, I put more makeup looks in this blog, don't you think? This is, after all, what this blog is essentially about.


Once upon a time, there was a little girl who gifted another little girl, obsessed with the colour orange, a fabulous bright orange lipstick and a lip pencil to go with it. And obsessed with orange I am. I feel there is nothing like orange eyeshadow to bring my brown eyes to life and make them pretty. I buy oranges (the fruit) by the bucket, my favourite mobile phone network is orange and I can't see myself moving anytime soon. Favourite perfume of the moment is Hugo Boss orange and I could go on and on and on. I was born to wear, eat, smell and live orange.


Today, I would like to show you the most amazing shade of lipstick: It's called 'my beautiful rocket' from Lime Crime. I wanted to do a simple eye makeup look to incorporate the lipstick and I went for lime green eyes, inspired by Hot and Cold video from Katy Perry.





Essentially, for the main lid colour, I use 'acid lime' from accessorize and in the crease the darker green from L'oreal Hip Colour duo eyeshadow called 'riotous'. To line my lips, 'thrash' the perfect lip pencil from Illamasqua which is nothing trashy: just pure undiluted orange.








You don't want to know what i have on my skin, since as usual it's my magic camera and its very forgiving flash who does all the work.  Highlight colour (Mac vanilla) brows (gosh brown trio) white  pencil on the waterline (Revlon matte white) have been used as per usual.Zzzz





Did I wear this look out? Yes. I wore it to the park to take the picture of the products I used for this look. I stayed there about 1 hour, catching some sun while photographing other things for the blog. This guy stopped me (he looked homeless and sounded drunk to me) and told me I looked beautiful. I should have given him money for the compliment.

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My favourite palette and a tropical fruity makeup look

It's about time I wrote about my ultimate favourite eyeshadow palette. I must confess, I feel a bit embarrassed to write about it: everybody must know someone who owns the 'Ebay 120 palette'. My palette looks awful, bruised, battered but at the  time I bought it, the thought of taking a photo in its pristine condition never crossed my head. I didn't have  a blog back then. It was my best friend Jo who suggested me to buy it, and I couldn't be happier about my investment. Thank you twinnie babes <3





I was just starting out with watching YouTube videos, experimenting with makeup. I didn't know where to start.  I wanted to participate in all sorts of makeup challenges (just for the sake of practising) but I just didn't  have the colours. First palette (containing more than 3 shadows in it) I have ever bought was the urban decay  deluxe palette but that didn't leave me very far: I just wanted all the colours in the rainbow.


I had heard all but good things about this 120 palette, but I just had to see it for myself to believe the huge buzz about  it. £17 later, and a few years after my purchase, I'd like to think it's my best makeup investment. I've  stopped counting the number of times I've used this palette. It's about the size of a small netbook, quite big  but I could not bear not having it with me when I go for a night out or a week end away.





Why I love it so much:  all the colours you could ever think off and the excellent pigmentation.

What I dislike the most about it is how fragile they are. Drop the palette and you can say bye bye to it. The shadows are extremely soft, some of  them too soft for their own good and you need to tap gently with your brush/applicator to take some colour from  it, rather than swiping the brush/applicator as you will only make a mess. If you think sleek makeup shadows are soft, the shadows from the 120 palette are even softer! The other drawback of this palette  is that many colours are way too shimmery, disco ball shimmery but then again, none of them have really chunky  glitter in them.





I have stopped counting the number of looks I've done with this palette and how much joy it has given me. I am  not going to swatch every colour but let me give you some swatches of my favourite colours.


The orange below in  my favourite orange of all times and whenever I am in need of orange, this is where I will go. It's not an  unique shade, but it's just how I want my orange, and how orange should be (scroll down to see the look I did with the orange) 
I've also 'hit the pan badly' on  the three gold you see below, and these are probably the colours I use the most in the palette. Again, these  are not unique. You could find them in other palettes, but when you have nothing, this is such a superb palette  to start with.






I am not quite sure what to do with myself when I will have run out with my favourite pinks in there (see  below) I love them so much. I used to use the bright purple a lot, but it is now replaced by the purple from  the acid sleek makeup palette, which is everything I want from a purple and hardly unlikely to fall from its  no.1 spot any time soon. The darkest purple you see below is so handy to darken a crease. Perfect in fact.









One of my looks entirely made with the 120 palette is my cut crease butterfly look actually (see post here) the very same  look I'm wearing on my banner. Pretty decent for a poxy palette from eBay, no?


While I reminisce the past, I hope you will forgive me posting this old look of mine. I actually never posted  on my blog, and at the moment it only exists on my YouTube channel. The look was born as a makeup contest  entry. The theme was 'juicy' and I decided to create a look inspired by a juicy papaya, reminding me of my native island.





The big black rhinestone stuck on the outside corner is bit odd, but let's just call it art,  shall we?
It's supposed to emulate the pips from the papaya fruit.









Looking back at it, some blush of some  description would have been nice but I didn't even know what it was back then (not sure if I do have more of a  clue now). Some fancier lashes with pips (sp?) stuck to them would have been a nice touch, and a highlight colour for the brow bone, did I even wear eyeliner?  But hey. This look  is very special to me. I actually won that contest (ok ok only 5 people entered) but it was my first YouTube  contest win and you have no idea how happy it made me.






120 palette from eBay? a big fat thumbs up for me.
A must buy for bright colours lovers and makeup enthusiasts who are starting out.

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Freebie Fursday {notd}

I am not liking my nails at the moment. They are too short, the nail shape of my index is doing its own thing again but today was a special occasion. Today was Freebie (Th)Fursdaaaay :) The orange fanatic in me found it hard to resist buying a copy in Instyle Magazine this month. Instyle did again one of their popular collaboration with nails inc and promised their readers 3 shades of polishes this month. 5pm couldn't come soon enough for me to get my hands on candy orange.


At the same time, I've been reflecting on my recent purchases of nail polishes and realised that the most I'd been spending lately on nail polishes had been £2.99 (Instyle Magazine costing £3.70!) So I really wanted to have a good look at the bottle and make a final decision then. The polish was much brighter than I expected but since I only had one orange polish in my collection (Gosh Orange Drops) I decided to give it a whirl.



 


Well maybe I shouldn't have bought it after all. I have found candy orange not very easy to apply. I found the formula to be quite thick, verging on gloopy. It has a nice glossy finish but it's one of these polishes that until it's a bit dry, it looks a bit messy to be honest. But if the colour and the result is nice, it's all that matters right?




Well, I do love orange but this is bit too on the neon side for my liking. Photos show 2 coats but ideally this manicure needs 3 coats. Overall, I am not very impressed by this shade and it will no doubt come up in some sort of blog sale. What a shame, I had great hopes for this little orange number. Maybe my expectations were too high. I should have bought the brown instead *sigh*






Candy Orange? I would prefer to call this more Fanta Orange, as it also comes free with plenty of bubbles unfortunately.

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Sunny Orange Drops Nails: GOSH NOTD

My fingernails are happy. I absolutely adore orange. Orange eyeshadow make my brown eyes 'pop', I am obsessed with orange lips, incidentally the only fruit I allow myself to buy and store in large quantities in my house is orange and I couldn't imagine being with another mobile phone provider than Orange. Yes I love orange but this is orange on my nails is not any kind. This feels like orange juice nails and the sun shining through it. This feels like carrying the sun with you. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a little crush of mine: Gosh Orange Drops (581) Nail Polish.





Kaboom. Bright or what? Application was not the easiest. Well it was easy but it does take 4 coats to reach full opacity. *yaaaaawn* I usually don't mind a bit of nail line showing but with this polish, I feel you need true opacity. So on this occasion, I totally cheated. I applied a base (I've learned from my mistakes now) then a coat of mannequin nude polish as I like to call it from Miscellaneous Missguided, then 2 coats of orange drops. This tip of layering a sheer polish over a nude coat, I've learnt it from Helen Nice things. Thank you very much Helen. It worked wonders :)








This screams summer, but this colour is too gorgeous to wear just for summer and should be worn whenever you need cheering up and brightening up. Gosh Orange drops is very easily found at Superdrug and can be purchased for £5. Watch out for 3 for 2 offers on Gosh which happens many times a year.





Overdose of photos? Well you don’t want them to go to waste, do you? :P

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