FashionistA: A look at the brand and a closer inspection at their Supermodel Kohl Eyeliners

If it wasn't through Twitter and the beauty blogging world, I would have never heard of Makeup brand 'Fashionista' spelt 'FashionistA', with a capital A at the end, just to be awkward different. Like Look Beauty which was born last year (around October 2011 I believe?) FashionistA suffers from a crucial lack of representation in the high street shops and they have yet to open a webstore.


If it was up to FashionistA, they would be in every Superdrug nationwide but sadly this isn't possible. I have a few suggestions on what stand they could get rid of but I don't think some cosmetics brands will be happy with that. ;)




It was by pure chance yesterday that I discovered that there was finally had a stand of FashionistA Makeup in the Superdrug in Preston. I was not ready for what I was going to see:

A huge stand, slick black and red packaging, and all that at very affordable price which is music to my ears. Probably what FashionistA is most renowned for is their customisable palette system. You choose your shadows (49 to choose from!!) or blushes and you simply click them in a blank palette. Each individual shadow or blush cost £4. How cool is that! A picture is worth millions of words and expletives, so this is what I mean:







You will have to excuse my enthusiasm if this is old news for you. For me, this company just appeared in a Superdrug not too far from my small neck of the woods and it feels it's brand new to me.


They hadn't receive testers for everything yet (I know already that I *will* own a customised palette at some point and pray to god that there are some matte eyeshadows in 49) but I have some swatches for the khol eyeliners if you want to see. The liners are at £4 each, they are lovely and butter soft, and as their name entails, they are named after supermodels. My pictures don't show them justice and Claudia (Schiffer, I presume) is a beautiful sparkly black.










My favourite supermodel khol eyeliner? The gorgeous Heidi grey. I need to be careful on what I spend my money at the moment and already indulged on a small shopping spree yesterday but I will definitely travel again to that Superdrug and 'Heidi' will grace my lower lashline.

I leave you with a little montage I've made with pictures from the internet of their range of gel eyeliners. There are 13 shades in total, I didn't have room on the montage to feature the blackest black, it's not very easy to appreciate the nuances of grey and brown from these 'stock' pictures but hopefully these will give you an idea.






Conclusion: I am so happy this brand is stocked by a Superdrug near me. I hope there is one near you too, ‘cause there are plenty of things to play with and lots of happy affordable makeup moments to be had :)



Do you own any FashionistA makeup? What are the must haves from the brand?

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Barry aime Bold* and a flash giveaway

Barry M Cosmetics is on fire at the moment and is spoiling us with amazing new products: a new TV ad, 4 magnetic nail polishes, 5 'standard' nail polishes and 6 new shades of creamy and waterproof 'bold eyeliners' (£3.99 each) to complement the black, the only shade which existed so far.




Personally, I found the eyeliners a bit too creamy for my personal taste but I couldn't deny how bright and pigmented they are. Despite their initial movement due to their soft as butter texture, I can confirm that these are definitely smudgeproof and waterproof. Once they are on, they're on.




OMG. how gorgeous are they!!





If you like the softness of the Urban Decay and Gosh eyeliners pencils (I seem to be the only one who doesn't like them) I can guarantee that you will fall in love with these. When you need to sharpen them, just make sure to put them in the freezer for 15 minutes beforehand and you'll be all right.

To celebrate their release (and also due to the fact that I've recently won some Barry M stuff which I already own) I am giving one of you the chance to win:
- one bold eyeliner of your choice
- one Barry M nail polish in navy
- and one Barry M bold eyeliner in black (reviewed by my friend Claire here)




All I need from you to enter this mini giveaway is to tell me which shade of bold liner you would most  like to win basically. Simples. The rules are the same for every of my giveaway. Open internationally. You just need to be a follower of my blog (Google Connect, Google Reader, Hellocotton,  Blog Lovin) blabla.


How to enter:
This giveaway is for all my blog readers from all over the world.
It will end this week end: Sunday 22 April 2012, 23:59 BST (UK).
All I would like you to do, to enter in this comment giveaway is to tell me: 

What is your favourite shade of Barry M Bold Eyeliner?

--- your name
--- your email address
--- how you found out about this giveaway

Additional Information: - There will be 1 winner and the winner will be sent the three following Barry M items (1 Bold Eyeliner in Black, the Bold Eyeliner of your choice and 1 Navy Blue nail polish
- Winner will be chosen at random with random.org
- The prizes are new, unswatched and unopened.
- * Barry aime Bold is a play on words, based on the fact that ‘M’ is pronounced the same way as  ‘Aime’ in French which means ‘loves’. So ‘Barry aime bold’ just means ‘Barry likes bold’

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Pearl Eyeliners From BeautyUk – The whole collection swatched

Ever since I saw sneak peek(tures) of 3 shades of the Beautyuk pearl eyeliners on their facebook page, I've been really impatient to see all the 8 shade . I am a great fan of colour liquid eyeliner. My very first product swatches post on my blog was about glitter eyeliners, and I probably own pretty much everything Collection 2000 has done in terms of metallic and glitter eyeliners. If Gosh Cosmetics liquid eyeliners had been cheaper, I would have probably indulged and collect them all (and then I wonder how I got myself into debt)


*I am rambling already* Anyway, when Beautyuk  finally released their eyeliners, you bet I was very excited but I was very apprehensive too. My favourite type of eyeliner would ideally be really pigmented, not runny, not too thick, have a soft felt pen type of brush/applicator, long lasting and would not be a pain to remove. The very day of the release, I had to get myself down there to Superdrug. After checking their polishes, I just had to open one eyeliner and check out the brush, tester or no tester provider, I just had to see it for myself. Well, they did it: my ideal type of brush was in there, the only thing which was not so perfect with my beloved Gosh and Collection 2000 eyeliners.


Let's have a look at some swatches, shall we?

 







Photos show 2 coats of eyeliners. My instant favourite was purple haze, which I would personally call 'electric purple'. Application on hand was very easy, and dried fast. Once it's there, it's there and it won't budge.







Removal was easy. None of the shades stained my skin and it wasn't as hard work as the extreme art liners from Gosh to remove. I've come to think that the Gosh ones are too long lasting for their own good, and that I need to remove them with baby oil and lots of scrubbing.



So on the hand it's awesome, but how is it on the eye?







The felt tip applicator made a world of a difference. I was able to be so much in control. I had however to apply 3 coats to achieve the opacity I wanted. The first coat was more about tracing the shape, and the 2 others about filling that shape and tapping the product on rather than dragging it along. No baby oil was needed to remove the eyeliner. I used my simple eye makeup remover to moisten it, then I was able to peel off the product off my eyes.


In a an ideal world, this eyeliner would have given a opaque result in 2 coats, but with a brush like that, I am more than happy to compromise.



where to buy: superdrug, internationale or online.
price: £3.49
disclaimer: I purchased the product myself

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Lusting over Spring Offerings from Gosh

Gosh Cosmetics has decided to celebrate Spring with a bang and has released lots of funky new products. A new foundation primer (now cream instead of a yukkygreasy gel) a cute brow kit, lip marker pens, mono eyeshadows, limited editi0ns nail polishes, and last but not least a range of long lasting eyeliners. As if this was not good news enough, Gosh is on 3 for 2 at the moment, so there could not be a better time to pop down to your local Superdrug and sample/get some Gosh.


I am personally on a forced 'stop buying everything that you see' ban at moment and until further notice but that doesn't mean I can't lust and blog about it, right?

Feast your eyes on these new limited edition nail polishes. I absolutely love the design on the bottle and the colours of course. If money was not so tight at the moment, I would have definitely indulged and got home with 'groovy grey'. Misty Mauve is good idea, but I am wondering if it's just your average lilac, and if it's too clean and not greyish enough to tempt me. All these are priced at £4.99. They also released a matte top coat (Matt 604 - non photographed) but my Superdrug had none of them in stock.  


 

I wanted to show you quick swatches of the brand new mono shadows Gosh has released here. The colours seem to be a bit more pigmented than your average trio from Gosh but I am not too blown away. From what I gathered these shades just have boring numbers for names (from 001 to 008). My favourites are the lime green (001) the golden brown (003) and the golden peach (007)







And last but not least, and my favourite from all the gosh new releases, these new "Super long wear long lasting eyeliners" priced at £5.99. They feel a bit runny on application, but once they're on, they're on and they don't budge. The colours are great despite once again, very unimaginative names and the applicator nib makes the application like an easy walk in the park .

If you are a fan of the Gosh extreme art liner already, you'll definitely want to try those and you’ll probably like these better, precisely because of the great pointy nib, rather than the brush of the art liners.  (Man, how bad was the English of that sentence, I hope you understand what I mean) x






Some selected swatches for you:
From left to right: the green, turquoise, brown and grey, photographed in natural daylight.






I could have seen myself going home with these four amazing shades but if I had to pick just one, it would have been the turquoise, which a is a lovely mix of turquoise and hints of copper running through it. Here you see it in mid afternoon light, in the shade, without flash.





Any of these new products from Gosh tempt you? I am very curious to try the new cream face primer. I really really disliked their existing primer, it felt so greasy!


Where to buy: Superdrug
How much: eyeliner £5.99, nail polish £4.99, eyeshadow:?

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In love with the Amazon: Review of the Amazon Combo Palette (Beautyuk) and Eotd (makeup look)

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Forget everything I have said before about my favourite eyeshadow palette from BeautyUK, this 'Amazon' combo eye shadow and eyeliner palette is my new unexpected favourite of them all. Unexpected as I never planned to buy this palette at all. For one, I never use cream/gel liner. Segundo, the photos from the website had never been very appealing to me. I knew I liked what I thought to be the red eyeshadow in the palette, but other than that, I was not too bothered to be honest.



 



This was until I saw the palette in real life in Superdrug and I just had to have it. What I thought to be the red eyeshadow - the sole object of my desire from this palette - turned out to be the most gorgeous orangey coppery shadow and had my name on it. It was also the first time I had ever seen this palette in real life, they only had that one, looking at me with its puppy eyes and it was no brainer: get it before nobody else does. I am glad I didn't have to use force.






So this palette boasts 6 soft eyeshadows with a soft and not overpowering shimmer, 2 cream eyeliners and a double ended applicator thingy: on one end a fluffy brush and on the other an eyeliner brush, all this packed all neatly in the usual beautyuk palette.






And now swatches time. How gorgeous is this! Yes, I was a bit disappointed at first that there was no red eyeshadow, but this was until I saw what is the star of this palette for me: this orangey copper shadow. no other word to describe it other than WOW. My second favourite eyeshadow is the gold, and then all the others which complement each other very well.

I need to stress out again that the shimmer of all these shadows is very easy to work with and that droopy eyelids like me can ever wear in and above the crease. 


  


Now for the liners. Let's not beat around the bush. They are hardly going to replace my trusty liquid eyeliner from H&M. I like my upper lid eyeliner to be very black and sharp, which I don't think I will achieve with these. However, these would be good if you want to achieve a softer or even smokey eyeliner look. 






The other surprise from the palette was the brush. I was ready to ignore it completely as most of the time, the little applicators/brush which come with palettes are just, well, a bit useless to be blunt. The eyeliner side is actually really good and I used it in my look today to apply some eyeliner on my bottom lash line. As for the fluffy brush, it is actually really soft and I used it to define my crease and I am beyond chuffed with that.






For the look today, I used all the eyeshadows in the palette apart from the brown on the right hand side and the black eyeliner on the lower lashline, applied with the eyeliner brush provided.





 
 



I absolutely love this palette and at £3.99 what a bargain. The copper eyeshadow alone is worth £3.99 and more.






Oh and this is the first picture I have taken with my shorter hair. I had a hair cut last Thursday and had about 10 to 15 cms removed!





Edit. Addendum. OMG. Where has my head gone? I can't believe I nearly forgot to post this. You will know from my blog that I am a big fan of beautyuk nail polishes. Check out these new babies due to be released on April 13th. If you're impatient like me, you might want to follow @blissmag on twitter as they were sent these exclusive polishes before anybody else. A little bird tells me they might want to paint and tweet soon...

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Glam Crystals Galore: The whole collection swatched.

 





Oh no she didn’t! Yes, she did: another post of Collection 2000 ‘Dazzling Glam Crystal Gel Liners’ Glitter Liners. If you live in the UK, you probably have had those for about 10 years and are bored to death with it. I was directing an American friend of mine on my blog earlier on this week and I was checking the names of the shades, I wanted to die in shame as my swatches were very poor. So, to the risk of boring my British followers, I’d thought I’d do ahead and try to swatch them better.  This post is going to be picture heavy (read: serious overdose) so you might need to put the kettle on while all this is loading.






If my maths are good, there are 14 eyeliners in total in the Glam Crystals range. I own 9 of them, but I went ahead and taken swatches of the 5 I didn’t have to make this post as thorough as possible.
Why do I own so many? Well, I just love them. They add a instant bit of sparkle, and a vibrant pop of colour to your eye makeup. Whenever I wear them, I always get a compliment and whenever someone wears them, my eyes are just drawn to it. I was bit a sceptical before buying my first one as I remember having been let down the much more expensive and much less pigmented Urban Decay Heavy Metal glitter liners. The collection 2000 brush might be a tinge too big and fiddly to use a first, but the great thing is that it offers great colour pay off at first stroke, where I would have needed to apply 3 coats of Urban Decay liner (and wait in between each coat to dry) to see anything happening.

So is it all good? Anything negative at all to say about them? Nearly. The glam crystals are very long lasting, but some colours are too long lasting for their own good and will stain a little on bare skin. The offenders are POW, LE FREAK, SHAKE IT UP.
So here is my little collection:

Part 1






 
As you can see from the close up pictures, the liners differ in size of glitter. The chunkiest in this little swatch is POW (middle) but its application is the same as the others. The green is called PIZZAZZ, which reminds me of a ‘Christmas Green’ and is not stocked everywhere. There is another green called SPANDEX, which is more of a apple green. I do not own it but I’ve taken a swatch of it from a tester and posted it at the bottom of this post.




 


Part Deux





 





Hoping I have not slowed your computer down too much with the overload of pictures, below swatches of the 5 remaining liners. I do not own any of these , but I might be tempted to buy SPANDEX.  I hope you liked this post. I had fun making it :) x

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Metallics & Makeup Storage on a shoestring

After I played with my Collection 2000 Gold Glam Metallics eyeliner (see my “Queen for a Day” look here) ,  I just could not get over how bright and pigmented it was . So I could not wait to purchase some more. At £2.99 from Superdrug, it was hardly going to break the bank. So I bought  3 more! Recently, and about the same time, I was thrilled to bits to find a tiny little of set of drawers perfect to to store lots of small items, like eyeliners, lipsticks and individual shadows. It looks cheap as chips, but that’s because it *was* cheap: £1 from my local Pound Shop. So I thought I would share it you and swatch my new Glam Metallics side by side. 





The set of drawers is about the size of a cd case. It looks cheap and tacky but it’s perfect for my needs. I am surprised how quickly I filled the drawers so I went ahead to buy 2 more and definitely looks 100 times better than a multitude of categorised plastic carrier bags in the bedroom.
And here my new little babies: My little collection of ‘Glam Metallics’ eyeliners from Collection 2000. You can see all the shades here on the official collection 2000 website. I got them in 4 shades:
green(grunge), gold(fierce), blue(groupie), and purple(ripped)


 




They say a picture is a 1000 words: good job, because I am not quite sure to review them other than saying that they are super pigmented, and very long lasting. Here I have applied too thin layers, as I usually apply 2 when I put on my eyelids.




The brush is a bit rubbish, and it would take some practice to get it right. The best is to really take your time with it and try your best to apply as thin as you can: you can always go back on it afterwards and make it thicker to your taste. Or you can apply thick and uneven straight away and say it was totally intended and it's part of the concept of the look :D




I hope you like the pictures: I took them tonight in the park and it was freezing.
The things I do for you, hey? :) So what do you think? Do you fancy them? Are there any other coloured eyeliners you would recommend with a better applicator?

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