Aaa-ooooooo. Look into my eyes

Hello again, my little pumpkins. I hope you are well and that you've had a nice time around Halloween. This should have really been part of my previous post but I was on a tight deadline and didn't want to stand up my friend Rae, for our first blogging date together.


I am beyond excited to tell you about the contact lenses I used for my halloween costume this year. I heard about them from my friend Megan, a lovely Canadian girl whose makeup talent has no bounds. She is better known under the username of NsomniaksDream on youtube. As soon as I saw these particular lenses on her, I knew I needed them in my life.




The lenses are called 'Black Wolf' and they are just perfect for dark brown eyes. Apparently, their recommended retail price is a whopping £40.99 but I got them for £24.99 on Best Coloured Contacts.com. £24.99 is a bit more than I would generally want to spend on a pair of contact lenses but Halloween is my favourite time of the year, and I don't celebrate birthdays, Easter and a whole host of days during the year and, and ... I wanted to treat myself.





I have bought some contact lenses in the past, but these are hands down, without the shadow of a doubt the best looking contact lenses I have ever owned. I can't believe how dramatic and striking they look even on my dark brown eyes. If looked after properly, they can last up to 90 days. I've worn them twice now and I can't wait to wear them again for a special night out, or one of the Christmas Dos I've got coming up.






Unlike my avatar lenses, I found these extremely comfortable to wear. At times, my vision was blurry but I'd like to attribute that to the double JDs consumed on the night!







I am a total newbie when it comes to wearing lenses. In fact, I've only worn lenses twice a year, the Saturday before Halloween and Halloween Day itself. On average, it usually takes me around 40 minutes (per eye) to put my lenses. This year, I thought I would practise. So I practised, practised and practised every day for the week preceding Halloween. The practise was worth it and now I can proudly say that it only takes me around 5 minutes per eye. I can't tell you the number of twitter friends I've asked for advice and the number of youtube videos I've watched to suck less at putting lenses in. I'm nowhere near good enough to give some tips but I wanted to share something which I've read on youtube which finally made me tick. Regardless of which fingers you use to pry your eye open to put the lens in, hold your eye in a way which makes it virtually impossible to blink. If you don't blink, the lens will go in. And it's true! That made such a difference for me to try to do that!
Also, the lens will never drop by itself, you need to give it a little push.    


   
   




I think last year, I might have put one of my lenses the other way round. Youtube videos talk about this bowl shape that your lenses need to have if it's the right way round, but I can't make the difference. Right way round or wrong way round, it all looks like a bowl to me. My friend from work said that, the darker/most pigmented side of coloured side should be on the outside. It's sometimes to tell which side is darker but not with the Black Wolf lenses. You could really tell which side to put on the outside and that made me feel at ease and confident that I was wearing them correctly.


Finally, I just love the free case they came in. They are semi transparent so I can see without opening the case, whether the lenses need a top up of solution. I just couldn't be happier with these lenses and I think they really complimented my outfit this year. You can see more of my devil pictures here or by clicking on the picture below.





I couldn’t finish this post without giving a shout to NsomniaksDream on youtube. Below the collection of all the looks she did for Halloween this year.

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Fashion Fawn Nails and Brown/Taupe Polishes comparison

I've been wondering whether I was a bit harsh with my review of Nails Inc Instyle Orange Candy yesterday. On Emma's positive experiences on Fashion Fawn and Electric Teal, the other 2 shades of nails inc polishes, also free on purchase of In Style magazine this month, I decided to buy 'Fashion Fawn'. Everything is all right with the world again.

Application was the usual easy and I couldn't fault the formula. I was able to be more in control the application again and no hint of gloopyness in sight. I had one hair on the brush right in the middle of the brush longer than the others but it was nothing that a quick snip with a pair of scissors couldn't fix. My photos show 2 coats of polish. Fashion Fawn gets my thumbs up!












I am not very good at describing shades, and comparing it with others. For me it's brown, a nice shade of brown. I am going to leave you all nail polish aficionados and taupe experts to appreciate the nuances in my little comparison swatch below. Thank you Emma for the comparison inspiration :) xx






I really enjoyed that exercise. I have found that:
- Barry M Mushroom was the easiest to apply (They have really nailed their formula!!)
- I still want to recycle / blog sale Accessorize Truffle: not too keen on the brush, it feels so short. I am not very comfortably applying it, the size of the cap of the truffle feels disproportionately too wide too big compared to the length of the brush. I can’t believe how grey and dark it looks here!
- My favourite brown from this little swatch is Jermyn Street and it made me appreciate it even more.
 

This is one of these times when I would have loved to be a freak, to have 4 more fingers on the same hand and compare more shades at once. Now if you want to compare nails inc london, fashion fawn, eyeko posh and no.7 'the brown one' I'd love you for ever :)

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No.7 NOTDs Silver & Beans

You'd  have to be a little dense unfortunate have to repurchase favourite no.7 product at full price. You will have heard from the grapevine (aka Fee from MakeupSavvy.com) that the legendary Boots No.7 (£5 reduction) vouchers are back. Is it  *just* a very effective ploy to get us down to Boots and buy buy buy lots of products or do no.7 products need a boost anyway and don't sell well? Disappointing sales figures or not for no.7 products, whether you’re an avid fan of the brand, Boots manages to lure us to go to their shop and spend our hard earned pennies and I am the first one to succumb to the temptation.


I cannot help but feeling annoyed at the original prices though. Whatever no.7 product we choose, there will never be one product under £5, and we'll always have to pay at least £1.50. Unless you want yet another no. 7 nail sharpener at £5.75. How many nail sharpeners does one need anyway? I wonder if the face wipes have gone up as well?
 
Oh I remember the times (before January 2010) when the nail polishes used to be £6 or £6.50. Those times are gone and you have not to fork out £2 to get a nail polish you didn't even want in the first place. If the prices have gone up on all the products, maybe the reduction voucher should have its value increased as well?


Anyway. We are where we are. This week end, I bet some of you will have ended up in a Boot shop without their will and would have inevitably left the shop with some No.7 vouchers ;) What to buy with them? Well for £2, and if you don't already own them you could always get your hands on Night Silver' or ‘Beanie’.




I found Beanie a little bit on the thick side for the application but not too troublesome and very decent 'mushroom' brown polish.








And now for Night Silver: very impressive coverage with just one coat. Funny enough, night silver is part of the 'stay perferct' range but I found it more quick drying than the 'speed dry' beanie. I don't usually like high metallic finishes for a polish as I find them streaky, but I didn't have this problem with night silver. You can see some brush strokes but they don’t bug me too much as they are not too overwhelming. I really like this shade actually, it goes with anything, even though it's not a very original shade.






 



Do you own No.7 polishes? Have you perhaps blogged about them? Which shades should I buy?

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Golden Rush Makeup Look featuring Diva False Eyelashes from Girls with Attitude

*Note: picture heavy and lengthy post*
* Read till the end for the fab offer!!*

I am finding to sit still while writing this post. Words are whirling in my head at the speed of light. I am too excited. If you stumbled on this blog post, chances are you have a strong interest in makeup, and that within the world of makeup itself, that you might have an addiction soft spot for something in particular. Lipglossiping will have a thing for cream eyeshadows, DebbieDrew692 from Beauty Blogg Roll will need to have all the nail polishes in the world, Jo from beautyliciouslove can't get enough of blushes and cosmetic candy just loves errr … everything. My thing, my passion, my addiction is false eyelashes. I have a cupboard full of them and I still don't have enough. Why? I feel like nothing will put the finishing touch to your make up like full, thick, long lashes. If I only had 30 minutes to do my makeup before going out, foundation and lashes will have to be the priority even if I don't have the time for eyeshadows which is another soft spot of mine. Nothing makes me more sexy in an instant than eyelashes and I am really glad I persevered while I was beginning to learn how to apply them.


So, you can imagine how pretty excited I was when I was given the chance to try out and review a pair of false lashes by Girls with Attitude. Pretty routiny for lots of  successful bloggers out there, but for little ‘ol me it's a big thing and I am over the  moon. I  hope you will forgive the avalanche of pictures. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on these babies: The 'Diva' (Dramatic for extreme volume & Effect) False Lashes by Girls with Attitude.





  
 
and outside their box






You’ll notice straight away that the Diva Lashes are very dramatic and would be more suited for evening wear or party wear. Let’s pop them on, shall we? Straight away, I noticed that the lashes (like 95 % of the lashes I buy) are too long for my small eyes and needed trimming (this is how much I had to trim from each outer corner if you are curious). They feel strong, sturdy, and a bit plasticc-y (but not shiny like these cheap lashes from China on Ebay) but what you lose in ‘day-wear looking’ aspect, you will gain in longevity. I’ve worn false lashes of the same material before and they just last an obscene amount of time.

My lashes are so ridiculously short and straight, I don’t even bother anymore with merging the falsies with my natural lashes. So if you avoid contact with mascara, glitter eyeliner (such a pain to remove) are careful with put your eyeliner on (make sure to wipe out the ‘body’ of the eyeliner wand, so that product doesn't deposit itself on the ends of your lashes and look after carefully after use, these lashes will give you at least 10 wears.


I am very fussy with false lashes. I have tried quite a few brands and models now and I know exactly what I like and what I don’t like. What did I think of them? It was love at first sight and this going straight into my top  false lashes! Unlike everybody I know, I like to apply my false eyelashes before any makeup (I feel I am more able to apply them closer to the natural lashline that way and if I mess up with the application, I don’t mess my eyemakeup while removing them and applying them again) and they looked so good, it felt a bit of a pity to apply eyeshadow as I didn’t want it to steal the show from the drama of the lashes. I found them very easy to apply. If you are a total beginner, I would recommend thinner lashline eyelashes to start with and you will need to spend time to make sure the inner corner is spot on and don’t ping out. 


If I had to assess the level of ease of application of these from 1 to  5 (1 being easy and you don’t even have to trim them or anything and 5 needing a total reshape, trim, tears and 1 hour to apply them) I would say this is a 2-3 of ease because of the sturdy and durable material and the thickness of the lashline. As for the glue,  glue is provided with these lashes, but I like to use my own glue as the tube provided doesn’t have a handy applicator.

I wanted to make a very special eye makeup look for the first time I was going to test, try and wear these lashes but I got very nervous. So I ended up doing my tried and tested ‘Golden Rush’ look. Why the name? Well, this would be the look I would wear on a night out, after failing at an elaborate makeup, realising I only have very little time left to do my makeup, when I am in a rush. It’s therefore nothing special I am afraid but if you want to know, I used mainly 3 colours for this, Max Factor Colour Effects Dip-in eyeshadow in Ibiza Sunset, for the gold (reviewed here) L’Oréal Professionnel Individual Shadow for the Brown (reviewed here) and some black from the first sleek makeup palette which was to hand. 


 



 
 



These lashes retail at £5. If you can’t find them at Boots or Superdrug, you can get them online on the Girls with Attitude website, which offers free postage on all orders and payment with PayPal. More than anything, the brand has a fantastic social presence, always there on twitter to answer questions, entertain and throw competition. They have a facebook too, with massive pictures of all the lashes (and other products) they do.






And and and and guess what? Girls with Attitude have a special offer on at the moment, order more than £10 (again, postage is free as usual) and you can get 25% off your order. Be quick though, as this order finishes on 11 December, You bet I had to make the most of this offer and placed a little order (come and have a look at what I bought here, loads of pics).

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