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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Steamy Glow Makeup Look

Today I want to share with you a gorgeous little eye shadow I bought from Loulou in a past blog sale. This is Steamy, from Rimmel. Despite being all shimmery, the colours are absolutely gorgeous, very well pigmented and blend easily into the skin.








I've used this eyeshadow trio three times now but on all these occasions I've been unhappy with the pictures I took from my looks. This is the less worst of them. If I could go back, I'd change the lip colour wouldn't have had an orange lower lashline, made my brows darker and put less darn highlighter on my browbone.






I do love this lipstick (it’s called My Beautiful Rocket, from Limecrime - blogged in detail here) but not with this look. The lashes, if you are wondering are my beloved Ardell 131 which I just can’t get enough at the moment.





All in all, I am not happy at all with my look, I feel it does not give any justice to the look but I've promised Loulou to publish it anyway. It's best to consider this as an eye swatch rather than a look look.





To make your click on my blog more worthwhile, I've swatched the other item I bought from Loulou. Have a looks on this gorgeous blush and highlighter. Unlike Steamy from Rimmel, this is still available to buy from Boots. Don't ask me how much as I got this for peanuts but being a product from 17 Cosmetics, this won't break the bank. I am afraid I don't have any decent pictures of me wearing Blush and Glow but I hope the swatch below will be able to show you its potential.





Pretty, huh? So pretty that I've wearing the 'glow' part on top of a pale eyeshadow (vanilla from mac) and made up a pale champagne colour on my eyes.

What can I say? You can take the girl out of the high street, but you can't take the high street from the girl :)


I love loulou, she's a great friend on twitter, buys makeup I would want to buy myself and knows everything there is to know about census returns :P She's on holidays at the moment but she's having a blog giveaway at the moment, to celebrate her 500 blog followers. Click here on the picture below if you want to take part.

Oh, I might just as well remind you about my other blog. I've started this blog which is mainly about giveaways. It's updated every monday morning at 06.00am, before breakfast time, to brighten your monday morning. I called it 'Les Petits Cadeaux' (French for Little Presents) but I find myself referring to it as Giveaway Gazette. I update it once a week with giveaways I find whilst reading my blog subscriptions. Bloggers can also submit their giveaway there.

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A smile in a storm: Reply from Andrea Fulerton, herself!

Just a few weeks ago, I wanted to share my experiences with 2 nails polishes from the Andrea Fulerton 'Trio Colour Layering System'. It wasn't by any means an easy review to write, my experiences with the products hadn't been positive to say the least. 





I even wondered whether I should publish my post at all. I took the courage to publish them and you'd never guess what happened: Andrea Fulerton, herself, that's right, Andrea Fulerton came to read my little old blog and wanted to respond to my post. And this is her message:

Hello Liloo and ladies,

Firstly thank you for your constructive and very honest comments.  I am of course mortified that these problems have occurred and sincerely apologies for any upset or disappointment caused.  At launch we realised that the wrong brushes has been placed in some of the Trio bottles
however I was assured this had been rectified and clearly this is not the case so again thank you for letting me know. As for your comments on the formulation I tested if over two year with Europe's top manufacturer and we are looking into this [to see if a 'rogue' batch is out there]
Word can't express how disappointment I am to read your comments and I am working with my team to ensure this is all put right as soon as possible.

Best wishes

Andrea

I feel incredibly honoured and touched that Andrea Fulerton wanted to reply to little old me, especially after a review which I can imagine must have been quite hard to digest.  I don't know of many companies who would take the time to do that. I am relieved to know that the brushes which came with my very unlucky purchases were accidental. Thank you very much Andrea for getting back to me.

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** UPDATED ** My unluckiest beauty product purchase

Saturday 14 May 2011

Following my blog post, I was extremely honoured to have had a reply from Andrea Fulerton herself. I have posted her reaction into a separate post but also wanted to preface her statement on here.

Hello Liloo and ladies,

Firstly thank you for your constructive and very honest comments. I am of course mortified that these problems have occurred and sincerely apologies for any upset or disappointment caused. At launch we realised that the wrong brushes has been placed in some of the Trio bottles however I was assured this had been rectified and clearly this is not the case so again thank you for letting me know.

As for your comments on the formulation I tested if over two year with Europe's top manufacturer and we are looking into this [to see if a 'rogue' batch is out there]

Words can't express how disappointment I am to read your comments and I am working with my team to ensure this is all put right as soon as possible.

Best wishes
Andrea

Following Andrea's statement, I really wanted to make one edit to my original post and wanted to change its title. My post was formerly called 'my most hated beauty product'. I have now wanted to call it 'my unluckiest beauty purchase'. I feel extremely honoured and impressed that Andrea Fulerton saw my post, took the time to read and wished to respond to it. I don't know of many companies who care so much about their products, who would want to get back to their customers, especially after the brutally honest review I have left. Please find below my original post, untouched.

------------------

Saturday, 9 April 2011, a day which lots of us in England will  remember as a truly glorious day. The sun and the warmth we had today  has just been unbelievable and too good to be true. It felt like  Summer. Wait, it was even better than Summer. I had been waiting for a  good occasion to review this product. A day when nothing could spoil  my mood and I could write in a calm and diplomatic manner about a  product which I hate to the core didn't impress at all.


Did it work? Nope. The minute I  start thinking of this product, the minute I get all wound up inside  and want to throw plates on the floor. In fact, it is probably fair to  say that no other beauty products has wound me up so much that these:


Introducing the ANDREA FULERTON Trio Colour Layering System (£8.19  for 2  x 4.4ml)





What it says on the box:

A unique and genius new colour layering system giving you the creative  freedom to choose from 48 shade choices to suit your mood or occasion!  This space-saving, double-ended bottle of nail varnish contains a  different colour at either end. Choose from either of the two colours  or layer them over each other to create a unique 3rd colour or effect.

The idea is genius and the colours are lovely. When I saw in the giant  Superdrug in Sheffield, I fell in love. I wanted to buy the whole lot,  but I decided to be sensible and buy just 2 (thanks goodness) and  limited the damage at £16 worth of products. At this stage it is worth  mentioning that the most I would generally buy in a nail polish is £5,  so spending £8 in a nail polish was a rare indulging treat.








The first thing which let me down was the packaging and you need to be aware of this. You know the same way as they don’t fill up a packet of crisps or a pot of yogurt to the very top for safety reasons (that air is needed, bring your packet of crisps in a plane and you’ll see what I mean) the same is true for this  layering system. Be aware that when you remove the polish from the box, you end up with a much smaller bottle than you expected:





 



The first one I bought was SMILE IN A STORM. You have the most  gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous micro pink glitter which I totally fell in  love for and which I had never seen before and your usual gunmetal  polish. Now if I could have bought the pink glitter top coat on its  own, I would have, alas it was not available on its own.






Put it bluntly, I just cannot believe that Andrea Fulerton and the  team thought it would be acceptable to release this product and demand  money for it. Let's start with the brush: absolute scandal. We're not  talking about a few stray hairs here, we're talking about a fully  slanted brush, as if it's been chewed by rats, or used to clean the  floor or been cut by a bad hairdresser's. That's for the micro glitter  part.



  



Bad luck? The brush on the gunmetal side is no better. I mean  un-be-lie-va-ble. Just typing this makes me want to bash my keyboard,  I am so bloody wound up  arrrrrrrrhgh nbv/lafd?LJBeaflbL/LKB Fycadelpk.





I realise that my photos are not the best to show the  brushes. I did set my camera on 'macro' and took tons of photos but I  just cannot for the life of me capture it.





Wait. It gets worse. Now for the formula. Man, I've been buying lots  of nail polishes in my life. From £0.49 polishes, to a bit more  expensive polishes. But hand on my heart, I've never ever seen a such  a thick gloopy mess ever in my life. It's just too thick, it just  won't apply (what chances have you got anyway with a brush like that  anyway) and it will never never dry. Now you're supposed to wait till  the first coat has dried to apply the lighter one. What are you going  to do? Wait till for 3 hours for the first coat to dry?


What upsets me the most in this, even more than the absolute scandal  that someone would release this useless trio layering system (it's not  trio anyway, there are 2 things in there, so for me it's a duo thing)  is that the light colour of 'smile in a storm' is just stunning and  that it's a crying shame.


Now for HARD DAY’S NIGHT Layering 'Trio' System. You have the most  awesome coppery gold colour as the light colour to layer over the most  stunning electric midnight blue. You see in the shop and you got to  buy it cos it's just too gorgeous for words. Look at the gold here:







For this one, I was 'lucky'. Both nail polishes on this combination  sported a normal brush, until you start to apply them. The formula was  exactly like 'Smile in a Storm', the thickest gloopiest messy formula  ever. You have to be the most patient person ever to apply this. 


Everytime you pick up polish from the bottle, the brush picks up way  too much products and deposits itself like glue. I bet tarmac is  easier to apply to your nails than this. How on earth has this product  been able to pass quality control. I also need to mention the label on  this product. Now I would expect something which cost £8 to have a  label which looks a bit more decent that this.






Now for the last straw for 'Hard's Day Night'. The combination doesn't  work as a layering system. Total shambles. The coppery gold is too thick to apply on top of the midnight blue and is not sheer enough. I did my best to apply the thinnest coat of gold, alas it just wouldn't work.






Index: gold on its own
Middle finger: blue on its own
Ring and little finger: gold layered over blue


 


Many cosmetic brands try to widen the range of products they have, for example, brands who start doing nail polishes, whilst their speciality is eyeshadows, or false lashes and I wouldn't ever expect a company who offers so many products, on top of their main attraction / speciality to wow me. But for a company which specialises itself in PRECISELY nail polishes, I just find it appalling.


Andrea Fulerton: your idea of layering system is a genius. Your colours are gorgeous and I love the concept. But you need to throw everything away, as in EVERYTHING away and start again.


* n.b: I realise the title of this review is very strong, but the products wound me up so much that I couldn’t find a diplomatic phrase which yet could summarise my feelings around the product. ‘Hate’ *is* a strong word, but then again, the products provoked a rather unique feeling of frustration. I have waited nearly 6 months to write a cool, calm  and collected review, yet the strong feelings re emerge as soon as I try to put it on ‘paper’.

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Color Intense Trios from Collection 2000

I resisted about 5 seconds when I saw these new ‘Color Intense Trio’ Eyeshadow from Collection 2000. I just had to have them: They looked like little stripes of colours suspended in air in a little icecube. On special introductory offer at Superdrug, why resist? 










 
















I bought 3 trios, from the 8 available in the range
from left to right: lemon tropic, fuchsia falls and night jewels





Starting off by the one which caught my eye the first, was lemon tropics and I could not wait to swatch it properly and wear it on my eyes. What a lovely colour combination. I was a bit apprehensive about the yellow, as I am extremely fussy with my yellows (none of the 7 yellows available yellows in my ebay 120 palette impressed me) And I was right: it is the right shade but not pigmented enough for my taste. Here are some swatches without any kind of primer on the skin.  The other colours in the lemon tropics trio are much more pigmented but I would still use them with a white base.  I can’t hide the fact that I am a bit disappointed by this palette. The yellow really let me down.


 



 


Night Jewels is a hit for me and I can’t wait to wear these. Super value for money, and I can’t believe this is just £2.50!  Again this is without any primer or white base.






And finally the piece de resistance: Fuchsia Falls. No only do I love this colour combination, but I am super super excited about the fuchsia in there mainly because this is the colour I have hit the pan in my 120 palette and I am going to be stuck when it’s finished. The grey is a bit flat and too matte for my liking but this is compensated by a mile, with  the third colour:  a gorgeous purpley grey. Love it. It’s one of those colours that I can myself using again and again.  Click here to see the look I’ve done with the fuchsia falls. (Anybody else got problems remembering the spelling of fuchsia by the way?)






I am debating whether I should buy candy shop (the third one below) 
Have you got any?

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Who needs Mac Carbon & Gesso?

Ever since, I got into makeup, I have been wanting to buy Mac Carbon, acclaimed to be the blackest black eyeshadow around and Mac Gesso. I resisted long and hard and instead, I went on buying endless black shadows and being disappointed all the time. If only I had opted for Mac in the first place, it would have been cheaper for me in the long run. But somehow, I couldn’t justify spending £11 in a boring black and white shadow, however crucial those shadows are. So I gave it one last shot, before making the Mac plunge and purchased this Nyx Eyeshadow Trio in white/gray/black (TS01) from eBay.





The palette comes in a black elegant and sturdy case and is about 9 cm in length (that’s about 3 inches and a half for your with the imperial system) and a mirror, and the obligatory sponge applicator. One swatch of the black and I knew I had made the right choice: super pigmented and most definitely the blackest matte I have ever swatched: smooth, velvety, black. What more could anyone want?

Is it deeper and blacker than Mac Carbon? I got no idea. Carbon was just a myth and I actually never swatched it. I don’t even want to buy it anymore and I fully satisfied with this one and I am at rest.





These are swatched straight onto the skin with no primer and I am in love with the black.
The white is good, much better than some of the matte white I have in my collection but I find it a bit chalky. As a matter of fact, I find all my matte whites chalky, so no surprises there. I don’t even know if Mac Gesso is whiter but I don’t fancy it anymore. I reckon if I use a white base, it will perfom well. I found the grey very good and not too shimmery. I am not sure when I am not going to use it, but for £2.94 (without postage and packing, which amounted to £2 proportionally? – I placed a big £40 order)  for this palette from ebay, new, this is by far the best buy of the year for me.






I use white and black nearly everytime in my looks, and this palette is super handy. The size makes it also handy for carrying around, and it has become one of my must haves.  I am thrilled. *Woop* In the same order, I bought some other gems from NYX, so keep your eyes peeled, I have only just started :)

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