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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Lime Soda and Champagne {eotd & notd}

I am still angry at myself for having missed the 'all nyx eye pencils at £1' from cocktail cosmetics the other day. More than ever since then, I have been obsessed to get my hands on a bright lime pencil. Ideally, I would have loved to buy a Revlon, as a big fan of the colorstay eye pencils, or a Bourjois but both these brands don't offer a bright lime. There was 3 for 2 on Gosh recently and I finally took the plunge and bought Gosh Lime Soda 'velvet touch' eye pencil






The colour is absolutely gorgeous. It's just the perfect shade


 


However, I am not in love with this pencil. I know many of you are absolutely in love with these pencils, but I found the application of Lemon Soda a bit laborious, the texture a bit on the dry side and not as creamy as I would have liked. For its price tag of £5, it took a few goes for the pencil to warm to my waterline, and showing some pigmentation before firmly migrating soon after to my lashline.


Removal of lemon soda was even more laborious. This is not the fault of Gosh. The pencil is meant to be long lasting and waterproof which I failed to read, as I was too enchanted by the colour to consider anything else.


Another product which I have been waiting anxiously for its release is the line of mini polishes from Gosh (£2.99 for 5ml of product). I decided to be good, and just buy 1 from the range and opted for 'nude champagne' (022).






I am absolutely thrilled with my purchase. The colour would suit a darker skintone better than mine but the polish offered me full opacity in just ONE coat, and all the photos outdoor and indoor show just one coat of 'champagne'. My application is very rushed. I didn’t expect to apply just one coat at all!!



 





This would be a perfect polish to take with me if I am in a rush, packing to go somewhere, and absolutely no idea of the final outfit I'd be wearing and when my unsightly yellow nails would need to look pretty and polished. This would also be perfect as a base for other colour polishes which would require 3 or 4 coats to achieve opacity and cover the white nail line. Ironically, this polish would need to exist in ... full size. There I said it.





Lime Soda annoyed me, Champagne excited me. 


Fin.

p.s Like the look of these mini polishes? Nic from Strawberry Blonde Beauty Blog is giving away 6 shades of the Gosh mini polish on her blog. Don't delay your entry, her giveaway closes on August 1st!

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Ruby Ribbon Nails, from Revlon & some Rainbow too. NOTD

I know, I know. I just posted a red manicure yesterday and here I am with another red manicure. For my defence, this one is ruby, it's not red :P Plus, You'll see how gorgeous it is and you understand immediately why I just had to post it as soon as I finished playing with it.

I was very fortunate to win 'Revlon Ruby Ribbon' at Perfectly Polished Nails blog giveaway but never got round playing with it until today.  I was not going to post pictures of it tonight. I was not even going to do both my hands it. I was only wanting to swatch it quickly tonight and wear it another time but before you know it I had both my hands done. The following pictures show 2 sloppy coats on all the fingers, and 3 coats on the thumb and index finger.






I had seen previous pictures of Ruby Ribbon before (for some reason, I keep on calling it 'velvet ribbon) but was really curious about trying it out for myself, and was very suspicious about whether or not I would like it on me. I am not a 'matte finish' type of person, have never experimented with matte polishes before and for me the first duty of a nail polish is to be glossy. It's a bit a like a shampoo I guess. It's meant to do lots of foam on your head, otherwise something is not quite right. So in my head, I was not going to like ruby ribbon on my nails. Well, reality turned out to be totally the opposite. I love it and I have never experienced a nail polish like it.





And what an experience it was. First impressions were not overwhelming. The bottle looked and felt quite big in the hand (but admittedly less heavy than an opi bottle) and I was not a fan of the gold lettering on the cap. It looks a bit too classic and 80's for me. Opening the bottle and I began to ask myself why on earth they could call this a matte polish, as it looks just like a regular polish with some sort of silver shimmer running through it.







Now, I was expecting a very troublesome application. I was expecting not to have the time to place it properly on the nail bed and seeing a streaky mess drying it too fast before my eyes. Oh my, this polish totally proved me wrong. The formula was just a dream and so easy apply. It applied very smoothly and started to dry out glossy. I was still asking myself why this was called a matte finish. And then it happened, the polish started to go dull at first, it felt like the light had been switched off from it. Seconds later, the dull had gone and was taken place by this beautiful finish. I am not sure how to describe it but it's gorgeous: semi matte muted glazed finish with a lovely sparkle and definitely not dull.






To say that this polish messed with my head and emotions (I know, I probably need to get out more) is an understatement: I went from massive doubts, to liking it, to not liking it and then to love it again. I still can't believe how easy this was to apply: this was not supposed to happen. I probably will end up not liking it, as I believe that the longevity of matte polishes is much shorter than a traditional polish, but for now, after my first play with it, I am in love. For a first flirt with matte polishes, I think I definitely cheated here as I would not call this a true matte but I feel this is just enough matte for me and would not like it any matter.


Would I choose this red polish over a traditional glossy red for a special night out? I am divided. I will always prefer a glossy finish (and I think the world - aka your typical average man - are not yet ready for semi matte polishes yet) but this polish is so quick drying, it really impresses me and is perfect for last minute manicures to match last minute changes of outfit. So yeah, one could say I am in love with this ruby ribbon of gorgeousness…


More experimentation below. This is ruby ribbon with a top coat of  my latest acquisition (landed today, thank you Rosalyn from Primps and Preen!! ) and much lusted after Gosh Rainbow. Not convinced this is the best combination, and I think I’ve ruined the red a little bit but I thought I would share the pics anyway. I will review Gosh Rainbow in more depth in another post.

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Poll & Chrismas Party Nails - Elf 'Red Velvet' NOTD

After my huge disappointment with my first nail polish from ELF (I am convinced I got a dodgy bottle) I didn't expect much at all from £1.50 'Red Velvet' Nail polish from Elf, recently released a few months ago. I was pleasantly surprised. The colour and the application is a dream and I can't stop looking at my nails. I love it. Just look at this baby here and look at me in the eyes and tell me it's not gorgeous! Excuse the overdose of pictures, please stay till the end for the poll on elf products and your responses. The following photos show 2 coats of red velvet and 1 coat of seche vite.





I genuinely can't believe how this is only £1.50 and I really want to get some more polishes from elf. I am thinking of moonlight, twinkle and glitter glam, as beautifully swatched by drew692 here.





 


and now for the obligatory claw pose…






While I was having fun playing with Red Velvet, I was asking myself a question and I wanted to know your opinion about it: If Elf products were to be made available in high street shops, let's say superdrug or boots if you live in the UK, do you think you would buy more products from the range? This is what some of my lovely followers on twitter had to say about it. I hope you can read it. If not, click on the picture to enlarge it.





Talking of internet swatches I wanted to show you the reality of 'red velvet' compared to the swatch on internet. Now I have never been more grateful for the beauty community to share their swatches with the world.





Have you blogged about an elf polish yourself? Feel free to leave me the link to your blog post about it, then I can have a nosy ^_^
What about you? If Elf products were to be made available in high street shops, let's say superdrug or boots if you live in the UK, do you think you would buy more products from the range?

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