The best red eyeshadow in the world

If there is one party eye makeup I love is glittery red eyes. Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but I have found nothing gets you as many compliments as red glittery eyes. Once, I was coming back from a night out, was a bit naughty, didn't remove my eye makeup (don't sleep in your makeup, it gives you spots) and was stopped (the following day) by the Boots Makeup woman whose makeup is always absolutely flawless and she went 'woah, what's that you on your eyes'. I must say, I loved that moment as for once I was a getting a compliment from a makeup professional.


But my beloved red glittery eyes demand a pigmented red eyeshadow and good quality and inexpnsive eye shadows are VERY hard to find in the high street.

 
When I finished the teeny tiny little red eyeshadow part of famous 'ebay' 88 matte eyeshadow palette (the only shadow I used out of that palette, I had never liked that palette at all actually) I realised how difficult it was to find an inexpensive and good quality red eyeshadow on the high street. Matte shadows in general are harder to find, but blooming heck finding a matte red one really felt like mission impossible.


No point going to Boots or Superdrug, you'd be wasting your time. If you don't want to go through the expensive Mac route, Illamasqua does a gorgeous one (@LizzumsBB aka benebelle has some gorgeous swatches for you) but I'd rather not spend £16 in a eyeshadow if I could and would rather pay £1 more and purchase a pair of stunning lashes. Topshop does a lovely red shadow but 1) it's more a raspberry pink shade of red and 2) topshop annoys me, being so pretentious only selling their makeup in the poshest and biggest shops in England. Sleek finally released a red eyeshadow in one of their eyeshadow palettes but the palette was only a limited edition item, in honour of the Olympics and you still had to fork out £7.99 for it.

  
Ebay once again came to my rescue and you have no idea how excited I was to find a super pigmented red eyeshadow for just £1.76. Now for the confusing part. The shadow is made from the lovely folks at Stargazer. They have, I believe, 2 red eyeshadows. One is disappointing, and is called the 'fluorescent' one. Don't get that one, because it's dry and not that pigmented. You want to get the other one, also called the red velvet one by some sellers. I always wear a primer and a white base to maximise the duration and pigmentation of my eyeshadows but I took some photos for you, without any primer or anything to show you how pigmented this little bad boy is. POW!





I hope you will excuse the abysmally bad outdoor lighting. That’s England for you!









This shadow is everything you want from a eyeshadow: very good pigmentation, soft but not too much fall out, very easy to blend and is £1.76. Why get anything else?






I told you people liked it

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. Thank you for reading xx

What: Stargazer Red (velvet) eyeshadow
How much: £1.76 (+£1.44 postage)
Where: Ebay. Seller is called Supply me Beauty.
Link to product here.

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It’s Bargain time: 40% off Urban Decay Palettes

I would be a bad blogger if I knew about a great makeup offer and didn't tell you about it. Right now, you can get your hands on three Urban Decay eyeshadows palettes at 40% off on Cheapsmells. Which ones are they? Scroll down to know more:













Offer stops when they run out of stock and will end no matter what in 2 days, this Sunday12 August.
That's it  xx

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The eyeshadow palette of my dreams?

When I saw this eyeshadow palette on Vex in the City, I thought that my heart skipped a beat. You have no idea for how long I have been longing to find a neutral everyday eyeshadow palette containing only matte shadows, and 'in the know' from Stila might finally be the answer to my prayers. Please don't remind me of the pigmentation fiasco of the Sleek 'au naturel' palette whose bottom row might as well had been left blank as the shadows on that row were struggling to show on skin. The legendary Urban Decay naked palette, its amazing dupe by MUA and even 'In the light' from Stila contained decent matte shadows but they were lost in a sea of shimmers.







What's wrong with shimmery shadows? Shimmery shadows are beautiful, and they usually blend more easily than matte shadows but I have got a hooded eye shape. Hooded eye shaped gals can use whatever eyeshadow finish they wish but when you have a hooded eye it's considered best to use matte makeup on and above the crease area. Put shimmer on the hooded part of your eye and it will highlight it and make it more prominent. So I'd rather keep my shimmery eyeshadow for the part of my eye which is just above the lash line and use a matte everywhere else.


According to Yinka, 'In the know' will be released from 2 August, for £25 in selected Boot stores (definitely not my local store *sobs*) and Selfridges but I am hoping the bloggosphere will be able to share some swatches before then.


How Stila designed it:

Stila's original matte shades are back in this beautiful collection of eye shadows in universally flattering shades. The In the Know eye shadow palette contains 10 matte shades of Stila's award-winning eye shadows that flatter every skin tone and can be worn wet or dry. The palette also includes an exclusive Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Halfmoon, a matte charcoal grey shade, plus an eight-page look book with detailed application tips and tricks.

and a description of the shades:

• air - matte beige
• driftwood - mid tone brown
• wind - soft matte peach
• fire - matte brick
• desert - soft matte tan w/warm undertones
• rain -matte brown
• clay - matte warm light brown
• smoke - matte charcoal grey
• earth - deep matte chocolate brown
• ebony - matte black

I cannot wait to see swatches of this and then I'll be in a better position to make a purchase decision.


Do you know own any Stila palettes? What are they like?
I had not seen before today the 'in the moment'. It's annoyingly pretty. grr ...





credit:
Photo of  Stila 'in the light' palette was taken from Sophie from melovemakeup.com.  Montage of three palettes was made by me. Read Yinka's impressions on Stila 'in the know' palette here.

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Revlon Colorstay Eyeshadow Quad in Addictive (500)

I am always on the lookout for a small self sufficient 'everyday' eyeshadow palette, with a selection of matte shades so good that I don't feel the need to use any additional colours to achieve a eye makeup look I am happy with. My search led me to buy a eyeshadow quad from Revlon from their 'Colorstay 16 hour eyeshadow' range. The range contains a whopping selection of 14 shades but it's shade 'Addictive 500' which I came home with. I am a big fan of colorstay products you see. I've lost count on how many times I have repurchased the colorstay foundation and some of the colorstay eyepencils so I was very eager to try this palette.








It is very unlikely that I'm going to find this palette 'addictive'. While the shades are very pretty, the bottom line is that this palette is cruelly lacking in pigmentation for me. I've had no desire to wear it on my eyes after this swatch. I am sure the colours could show better with a small layer of a white base underneath, like my nyx jumbo pencil for example but for now I am disappointed.










Addictive: meet my box of doom, where you will spending the rest of your life, until I can finally find you a new home.



The hunt for a 'self sufficient' decent pigmentation everyday neutral *and* matte eyeshadow trio/quad palette goes on...



what: Revlon Colorstay Eyeshadow Quad, in shade Addictive (500)
how much: £7.99 (Ouch!)
where: the usual suspects: Superdrug & Boots nationwide

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Barry only has eyes for you

I was very lucky to have been invited to the Barry M event in Morecambe where everything has been organised to launch the new Barry M eyeshadows: 'quite warm' Greggs pasties to tantalise our buds and free Michael Jackson in the background. For you today, I've got exclusive high resolution professional photographs and a video of Barry M himself talking about the eyeshadows in question. I'll end the sarcasm now, shall I? It was totally at random, while looking for Cappuccino Nail Polish from Barry M that I discovered that Bazza released 12 single eyeshadows and a 3 for 2 promotion on all eye products for the occasion.








I am going to be honest, I don't know what the name of this collection is or if it has a name. I am not quite sure the theme is either but no doubt I will find out more background information when the official product photos come out on Facebook and Twitter. The eyeshadows are housed individually in a flashy silver leopard print trim squared case. Testers have a flower embossed on the shadows but the real deal is smooth and have no flowers on them.






After a 'quick' play with the testers in the shop (I'll pretend I didn't spend ages trying to fit 12 shadows on my hand and plotting about the placement of them) I have found the shadows to be lovely and soft to play with. In my eyes the finish is shimmery for all the shadows (apart from Dark Brown) but not disco ball shimmery like some urban decay infamous numbers. Pigmentation is quite good although I have found the blue and the purple needed a heavier hand for the colour to show. Due to the soft nature of the shadows I experienced some fair amount of fall out but nothing too traumatizing.



 




I think Barry M did an amazing job at creating the colours. The green is a little too muted for me but this in turn makes it more wearable. The bronze and the dark gold caught my immediately but it's the delightfully matte brown which stole my heart.






Now this is when I drop the news about the price. Each shadow is sold at £4.49. I think they are worth that price range and are pretty good quality but I am a bit reticent to pay that price. The £1 dark brown from MUA is nowhere near as smooth and lovely to play with as the dark brown from Barrym but it does the job. Maybe I am just being a tight cow.

What do you think? Will you be checking out the new Barry M eyeshadows?

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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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Simmer Smokey Kit from Models Own

I've always been on the look out for small compact eyeshadow palettes where I can achieve a look just by using the colours contained in that one palette and no separate products. When I first laid my eyes on the smokey eye (trio eyeshadow) kits from models own, the first problem for me was to choose the colours and I wanted to buy them all: They have 6 trios on offer, with suitable sexy smokey names, all starting with the letter S: Sultry, Seduce, Smoulder, Sensual, Simmer and Sassy. But I decided to be ... sssensible and just buy one.



So I waited for the half price sale and purchased 'Simmer' trio, the only true matte eyeshadow trio from the collection, at £4 instead of the usual £8. The trio comes up with fully detailed 6-stages instructions on how to achieve a smokey eye and two cute brushes.

Had my local Boots stored some Models Own at the time, I would have had the chance to swatch it beforehand and make a more informed decision. You've guessed it, the trio is just not good enough for me and I can't use it really. The main problem for me is low pigmentation. The light shade hardly shows on my hand (I should have marked the spot really) The warm and dark brown offer better pigmentation but I find them a bit patchy and not just good enough. Cue swatch:

I've tried to create a makeup look with the trio to demonstrate the colours applied on the eyes but I was unable to create a look I was happy with it and I found I needed to add some darker brown to add a bit of depth to the look, which totally defeated the purpose of finding a handy self sufficient eyeshadow palette.


Matte eyeshadows palettes are renowned to be a little more difficult to get it right and I knew it would be a gamble before buying it. Thanks goodness Simmer was a half price gamble, as I would have been ever more sorely disappointed. Don't let it deter you from swatching the other smokey trios, but you'll be better off skipping simmer. Right, there's no more words starting with S I can find..


Thank you for reading.

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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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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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“Avoir La Pêche” Sleek Makeup Collection

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"Avoir la pêche": French expression which you're likely to hear again in the beauty blogosphere.  Literally it means 'to have a/the peach'. Used as an expression it means 'to feel great, perky, happy, bouncy, in top shape, tickety boo, like a happy bunny etc'. Also the name for the latest Sleekmakeup makeup collection released a few days ago in selected Superdrug stores. The collection boasts a juicy lip product (a SPF 15 pout polish) a blusher and a eyeshadow palette named after a variety of Chinese flat peach, the Paraguaya.



 



Do i like peachy/corally tones on my eyes? Do they even suit me? I don't know but I am intrigued and I can't wait to dip my fat fingers in the tester of the paraguaya palette at my nearest Superdrug and have a little swatch. I am slightly disappointed they didn't release a few nail polishes in there but overall, this collection excites me. I am all  for bright colours and I want to see how much they 'give me the peach' and brighten my mood :)

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A rainbow in Soho EOTD & Review of the Soho Bright Eyeshadow Palette

I don't know about you, but when I think about Beautyuk, the first item which springs to mind is the 10 eye-shadow palette, in particular the almost iconic no.2 'Soho Bright Palette' which I would like to call the 'rainbow mini palette'.





I am first and foremost a bright eyeshadow lover, a fussy one at best so I was a bit apprehensive to purchase this one in case I would be disappointed, even though I really liked the earth child palette and the day and night palette. Why? Because  Soho Bright contains yellow and orange, colours I tend to use a lot, and I am extremely fussy when it comes to these colours. To give you an example, I own a 120 palette containing galore of yellow eyeshadows and there is none I like in them, they're always too greeny, or not bright enough, or something else, they're not quite right. So, from the outset, even before purchasing it, I didn't give much hope to this palette to impress me.






I was pleasantly surprised. As with the other palettes I've tried, I couldn't fault its pigmentation. The shadows are very soft, easy to blend and mostly shimmery, apart from the neon pink and the lavender maybe. The greens and the deep blue on the top row were my instant favourites and I knew straight away that I wanted to play with them first.


As with the other palettes, the shimmer in this is definitely there but not in your face and very easy to work with. There is one shadow though which i can't see myself getting a lot of use for: the very light 'sky' blue near the yellow which is way too metallic and shimmery. Now if only they did put a true red in there, that's my only regret really.





swatched over nyx jumbo pencil in milk




How did the orange fare? It's ok, but it's hardly going to replace my favourite orange: the one in my 120 palette, which was the first shadow I hit the pan of!
The yellow surprised me, I would have preferred a totally matte yellow but the shade is spot on and I will definitely use this. Overall, I like 8 shadows out of 10, which is extremely good value when you think the palette is only £3.99

The look I created today is very predictable, so please consider this look as more like an eyeshadow swatch rather a unique avant garde work of art lol. I used 5 colours from the palette, the black from the Day and Night palette and my favourite highlight colour, Vanilla from Mac.

















Would I wear this look out? Oh my, totally! Can you eye spot other colour combinations in this palette? 

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