Mac Fresh Salmon Lipstick
First things first…I love this lipstick! I recently bought it from Lady of the Lane in a blog sale. Whenever I see a blog sale I always have a quick look at swatches to see if any take my fancy. I’m always one for a bargain! I think this lipstick was limited edition in the spring 2010 Colour Forecast Collection.
When I first saw the name my initially reaction was YUCK! Fresh Salmon is not the greatest name to pick for a lipstick. I like to eat salmon, but I don’t want to smear it on my lips… Although it looks like orange in the tube, it seemed to come out as a sheer peachy colour with a gold shimmer on the lips. When it arrived it does look a little scary and orange. You can see the gold shimmer in it in the tube a little, but the shimmer really comes out better on the lips.
Below is a swatch on my arm and as you can see it is pretty shiny from the gold shimmer, more so than it looks in the tube.
Finally here are my lips with nothing on and below with Fresh Salmon. I really love it, I have to say it is probably my favourite lipstick at the moment. It isn’t as ‘done up’ looking as a red, but is more interesting than a neutral. I find the colour really suits me and makes me looks quite alive, which I hardly ever do! Hello dark zombie eye circles! I’m concerned about my love for this lipstick though, it was limited edition and I won’t be able to get another! What will I do when I run out!?
I’ve been lost in old music this week. I’ve had a massive tidy out of my house for my landlord visiting last night, not that he turned up or let us know anything *grumble*, but at least the house looks nice and I found all my old cds! I’m slowly going through the long process of ripping them to my pc, but a lot of it is already on Spotify so I can listen to it now :) Emma and Ayden have both mentioned old school music this week and made me remember all the cool bands I hadn’t listened to in ages.
Speaking of old music, I used to love Easyworld and it was one of my favourite bands when I met my OH. They broke up ages ago, but while searching for old school band info I found that apparently David Ford (the singer) kept recording. He has an awesome voice and even more awesome is that he is playing Southampton at the end of the month! I’m a happy bunny! xxx
Eyeko Fat Balms (Toffee, Minty, Frosting and Cherry)
I love Eyeko Fat Balms! I now have all of them, but here is the first four I bought. I’ve had them a month or so now and I wear them constantly during the day. The only problem I have is deciding which one to use! They come in these large tubes, but they are actually quite short and stumpy so them still happily fit in a small handbag. It takes some getting used to to apply them on your lips without getting it all over the surrounding area as well, but it not too bad as long as you are careful. :P
They come in lovely, cute cardboard boxes. I’ve snapped a picture of every side for you to see how sweet they are. :)
Here are the swatches on my arm of the Eyeko Fat Balms in Toffee, Minty, Frosting and Cherry. I think I bought three of them as a set (The sweet treats set – Toffee, Frosting and Cherry) and the extra one I added in as I really want to try the Minty one. I have a serious obsession with anything minty. In fact I am eating a mint now, my mum stocks my cupboards with mints and peppermint candy canes at Christmas, enough to last me all year! :)
The texture of the fat balms is such like a normal, moisturising balm, but they have a surprisingly great colour pay off. They also all have their own flavour/smell. None of them are strong or nasty, just nice and tasty! My favourite is obviously Minty, it is very fresh and makes your lips tingle, but Frosting and Cherry are a close second. Frosting smells like cupcakes and Cherry is such a lovely red.
You can also use these as a blush, but I didn’t really like it. I had a go with Frosting and it was a lovely colour, but I prefer to work with powder. The balm was difficult to blend for me, but if you are used to cream blushers you might have better luck! They don’t leave your cheeks sticky and they do leave a great colour that lasts. Mine such looked bad due to shoddy application! :p
The first swatch is in daylight next to a window and the second is away from the window to show you how the balms have light reflecting particles. I think it really helps make my lips looks fuller.
Finally here are the lip swatches. I took these one after another and then I swatched a couple of red lipsticks. You have no idea how hard it was to figure out which swatch was which when I transferred them to my computer! Starting at the top and going down in order it is, Toffee, Minty, Frosting and Cherry. Frosting and Cherry look quite similar in these pictures, but Frosting is defiantly more of a bright pink and Cherry is more of a darker red. I really love them all. I was lacking Strawberry and Raspberry, but I bought them recently and I’ll swatch them soon.
Mac Blankety and Mac Pink Lemonade
This is my first scheduled post, so hopefully it works! I had a few pictures I’d taken awhile ago sat waiting to be put up so thought this would be a good time. Because this is scheduled, I wonder what I’m doing now. I’m most likely slumped over a book, probably swearing and wishing this week away! Poor me! Oh well, I’ll be fine when I go and buy myself some treats for making it through exam time. I’ve already bought myself a Deborah Lippmann nail polish for finishing my literature review :p
Anyway on to my lovely Mac goodies! I’ve become a bit of a Mac fan lately, it’s a shame I cannot afford such a hobby! Wonderful blog sales however come to my rescue. I bought two Mac products from a blog sale over at Vivianna Does Makeup . I picked up Mac Blankety lipstick and Mac Pink Lemonade Lipglass.
Mac Blankety – Mac Pink Lemonade
First is Blankety. It is quite similar to The Faerie Glen (which I love), but with an amplified finish. It goes on really nicely and has a neutral/polished look. It lasts quite well and it isn’t at all drying.
Next is Pink Lemonade. This is my first lipglass from Mac. I have avoided them as I don’t really like sticky lip glosses, but I really don’t mind this one. It is sticky, but it doesn’t feel bad, it just sticks to the lips so it won’t come off. I may be swearing about the stickiness if I get my hair blown in my face when outside though! :P I think it looks quite pretty on, again it is a neutral/sheer shade, but it just adds a little extra peachy colour and lots of shininess!
What about you, do you love blog sales? I know I do! :)
Mac Cham-Pale Goodies
I ordered a couple of things from the Mac Cham-Pale collection and the arrived yesterday. It is so impressive how quickly Mac can deliver orders. I ordered Quiet, Please lipstick (lustre), I Get No Kick eye kohl and Soirée nail polish.
I was quite pleased with the eye kohl. I haven’t been using my usual black eye liner lately as it’s a bit harsh and makes me look more tired than I am. I wrecked my sleeping patterns over my holiday and I feel/look like crap going back to getting up early. I have been using Benefit Eye Bright instead of black eye liner. I like Eye Bright, but it is very pale and quite noticeable, like I am just wearing white eye liner. I wanted something to brighten my eyes that was a more skin coloured shade, just to tone down my red eyes. I really like I Get No Kick. It’s a pleasure to apply and it leaves behind a pearly skin tone colour. It makes my eyes look bright and less tired. Also the pencil is really long! It’s my first Mac pencil and I think it’s going to least years!
Swatch of Quiet, Please (top) and I Get No Kick (bottom)
I also bought Quiet, Please lipstick. It is a pale lipstick and very sheer, with a nice shimmer to it. This won’t be everyone cup of tea. I liked it because I wanted a sheer shimmery colour, but I know a lot of people will think it’s a bit pointless. I love it though! It is great to just put on everyday and Mac are one of the only lipsticks I get alone with. The swatch below is a bit crappy and out of focus, but I was running out of light. At least it shows the light reflecting shimmer!
Finally, the Soirée nail polish! I really wanted this when I saw it. I wanted a rosy gold colour for ages to match my engagement ring. I saw that Nicole by OPI are releasing a rose gold too soon. I want to try that too, it looks a tad more rosy than Soirée. I can’t wait to try it out, it looks lovely in the bottle. I haven’t tried Soirée yet though due to a boo boo. Look at my middle finger nail! I had to get into uni for 9am yesterday for 3 hours of training…groan! Afterwards I had to wait around and I decided to take a nap. I positioned two chairs to nap across and as I go comfy I cracked my hand off the chair and snapped my nails. The first time I leave the house without polish on for months and I managed to break a nail :( I’d just got them to a length I liked as well! Oh, well I guess I would have cut them down next week for exams anyway, I can’t write with long nails. In good news, my nails don’t look as nasty and yellow as I thought they would be without polish. I use Models Own 3 in 1 polish as base coat, just because I hated it as a top coat and wanted to get rid of it, but in all honesty it’s not a bad base coat.
A friend gave me a movie to watch with weekend and a bottle of Russian vodka for Christmas, so I’m a happy bunny. So tonight I can watch the movie, get drunk and try to not file my nails all lopsided! The rest of the weekend I am finishing my lit review. :/ Did anyone else get anything from the new Mac collections? Has anyone else planned a fun weekend? :) xxxx
Mac Lipstick The Faerie Glen from the Tarten Tales collection
I have had this post as a draft for months. I finally remembered to post it and realised I’d have to change loads of the text. I was yabbering on about it starting to get cold. Since then we’ve all been snowed in and I’ve been living with the heating on all the time for weeks! I think the last week has been a bit warmer so maybe my new start to this post should be, it’s starting to get warmer…I hope. :P
Anyway, I have a thing for lipsticks at the moment. I don’t own that many due to a family trait of thin lips… thanks for that genes! But I’m starting to see what I can wear on my lips without looking foolish.
I started by getting a few tinted balms when it started to get colder and now I’m grabbing all the lipsticks I like the look of! I think I was mostly put off before after trying some lipsticks my sisters gave me and they were really drying, I wrote off lipsticks as ‘not for me’. I decided to try Mac and this was the lipstick I bought. I went for quite a safe colour first in case I looked ridiculous.
When the Tarten Tales collection was released I picked up The Faerie Glen. I’d seen it swatched a few times on different blogs and it seemed like a nice everyday colour. The colour looks quite brown/beige in the tube and when I swatched it on my arm I was convinced it was going to be horrible on! It looked (as you can see above) quite brown/orange and I couldn’t imagine it looking good on my lips. :/
However…lucky for me, it is much nicer when I put it on and I wear this constantly now. It’s a Lustre finish so is quite sheer, but buildable. It’s weird I didn’t realise how pink my lips were! You can definitely see I’m wearing lipstick, but it’s quite natural/neutral and I quite like it. :) It is really moisturising and feels quite nice on my lips and lasts a few hours before needing to reapply. It’s definitely one of my favourite make up items at the moment!
I just went on the Mac website to check if the new collections (Cham Pale/Stylishly Yours) had been released and they have! So my bank account just took a beating and I ordered a couple of things. I didn’t go to the sales so I’m allowed :P
Back to work this week :( Just as I was starting to relax! I have my lit review to finish up today and then much revision must be accomplished. I can’t wait for these two weeks to be over, exam time is not fun! My condolences to all those people back to work/uni this week, I share your pain. My posting may be sporadic the next few weeks, but I have some drafts I can fix up, hopefully I’ll remember. I hope you are have a lovely week! xxxx
Eyeko London Lips Lip Gloss Primrose Hill and Shoreditch
Here is a review of two of the Eyeko London Lips lip glosses. Below is a swatch of the two glosses I received in my Eyeko surprise gift bags. The top one is Shoreditch and the bottom is Primrose Hill. I have amassed a collection of lip glosses from lots of different places in the last year, from No7 and Rimmel to Mac and Illamasqua. There is a surprising difference between them all. Some are thick and sticky, others are thin or more like vaseline. These Eyeko ones are similar in stickiness to the Mac lip glosses I have. They are sticky, but not in a bad way. It is more that that stick to your lips well than your lips to each other, if that makes any sense! They are sticky, but in a good way. With thin lip glosses I fine myself wanting to wipe them off if they are slippy or I find I have to reapply them often. These Eyeko ones are great as once they are on you are set for hours. The only time I’ve had to reapply is after eating, I haven’t got the hang of how to eat without wrecking lipstick/lip gloss. :P They are a little annoying to apply as they just come in a squeezable lip gloss tube, there is no brush. I normally just use my finger or the tube.
Shoreditch (top) – Primrose Hill (bottom)
Eyeko says:
“Make way for Eyeko London Lips Lip Gloss poured into pretty tubes stamped with iconic London images. Long-lasting colour and non-stick shine make for smooth application in a choice of 3 sheer and 3 cream blends. Eyeko London Lips are sweetly scented with a fruity fragrance and available in six lust-worthy shades.”
Primrose Hill
A pretty lilac shimmer for girls on the go. This suits-all shade is ultra flattering.
Shoreditch
Creamy rose makes for a flirty lip look! Whether you’re browsing in Brick Lane or partying in Hoxton Square.
Below is what they look like on the lips. The top picture is with nothing on. The second is Primrose Hill and the third is Shoreditch.
Primrose Hill is a sheer pink with a gold shimmer and is a really flattering sheer pink and the shimmer is noticeable. I think this is my favourite.
Shoreditch is one of the creamy finishes and it is a lovely rosy pink colour. The camera hasn’t picked up the differences between the glosses very well, but Shoreditch looks creamier on the lips and Primrose Hill looks shinier with its gold shimmer.
They both smell lovely and fruity, but they are not at all over powering. I think these are great lip glosses and I definitely want to try the other colours too. I want to try Soho which is the hot pink gloss. It looks lovely and if it is the same as these two I’m sure I’ll love it! :)
elf Beauty Encyclopedia Lip Edition Palette
Here are the much delayed swatches of the elf Beauty Encyclopedia Lip Edition Palette that was sent to me by Christina from Christina Marie says… from her giveaway. Thanks again!
The first picture is of the palette and I’ve numbered them. I haven’t swatched the two glosses because you can’t really see them, but they are glossy. You also get a lip liner and a lip brush.
Below are the swatches following the numbering from the above picture. The first line is the lip liner that comes with the book. These swatches are all just one finger swipes of the colours so they have quite a good colour pay off.
The tips on how to use them in the book are quite good too. They feel quite nice on the lips, not sticky or drying and they last really well. I love this palette, I was surprised at how nice they felt and the colour pay off! I look forward to trying all of them, it might take me awhile! :) At first I found it a bit strange painting my lips with a brush as I wouldn’t normally use a brush. I normally put it on from the tube or with fingers, but I quite liked it and the colour lasted for ages, whether that was due to the brush application,the tips inside the books of dabbing and reapplying the colour in layers or the colours themselves. I’m quite impressed all the same! Oooh and they taste quite nice…not that I’m eating them, but they smell and taste quite fruity. Nom nom!
Weirdly as the weather has got colder I’m now using more lipsticks and glosses, which is probably the opposite to what I should be doing. I think it’s because I am looking after my lips because of all the cold weather so I might as well use all my nice lip things while my lips are in good shape. Also wearing more lipstick/glosses has stopped my nervous habit of biting my lips, unless I want to cover my teeth in goo and then have to reapply anything! :)
Thanks again to Christina for sending me this, I love it! :)
Eyeko Cheeky Colour Blush Duo
I love these blushes from Eyeko. I have been using Meow Cosmetics Taboo blush in Nudity since the summer with Benefit High Beam as a highlighter. I don’t really own any other blushers and I never think to look for any because I had one that I liked. However, when I saw these new blusher/highlighters from Eyeko I wanted to try them. Luckily I received these two in the surprise gift bags and I’m really happy about that! :) I received My Coral Crush (for a pretty peach glow) and Glow Getter (for a pretty pearly glow).
Eyeko says:
“Baked pressed powders highly pigmented with finely milled pearlescent shimmer for a long-lasting flush of colour. Each double-sided compact features duo colour blush on one side and mirror and mini-blush brush on the other, perfect for touch ups on the go.”
My Coral Crush
Peachy keen! Get your glow on with shimmery coral colour for a flattering blush look.
Glow Getter
Pale iridescent pink, perfect for a pinch of colour for pale skinned beauties or as flattering highlighter for dark skinned honeys.
My review:
Below are the swatches on my arm. As you can see My Coral Crush is packed with colour and you really don’t need a lot on the brush. It is a very warming blush and I have used it this week while I’ve been feeling under the weather and I’ve looked pretty much alive after putting it on! :) The blusher colour is on the left and highlighter on the right. The blush colour is a coral colour and the highlighter is a more orange coral that warms up the blush and the highlighter also has shimmer in it so the light bounces off your cheekbones.
Glow Getter is my favourite! It is perfect for pale skin. The blush colour is on the right and the highlighter is on the left. The blush colour has a good colour pay off like the coral blush, but is more buildable. With My Coral Crush you only need one swipe of the brush, but with Glow Getter you can have a sheer wash of pink or more colour if you require. I tend to put two layers of colour on to get my perfect pink. The highlighter in Glow Getter is really shimmery, more shimmery than the coral highlighter. I really like it, you can see the light reflecting as soon as you put it on.
The blush lasts really well. I can still see it after an 8 hour day. Maybe not as noticeable as when you first put it on, but with the handy brush and mirror packaging you can re-apply if you wish! :)
They come in a cute little cardboard box. Inside that is the plastic packaging that can open two ways. The top can open to get to the colour and the bottom can open to get to a little brush and a mirror! It’s a nice touch. I don’t really use the brush that came with it. It’s not bad, but I prefer my blusher brush, but for on-the-go application it would be fine to use.
Finally, below is what they look like on. The top picture is Glow Getter and the bottom is My Coral Crush. I wish the lighting was better today. :/ The main difference between them is obviously that one is pink based and one is coral based. Glow Getter gives a lovely fresh pink cheeked glow and My Coral Crush gives a lovely warm glow.
I love these blush/highlighter duos and would not hesitate to recommend them. I admit that I don’t have much experience with lots of different blushers/highlighters, but I am really impressed with these. There is one more I don’t have which is ‘Make Out Blush‘, it is a darker pink blush and I will probably order this one soon. :) Has anyone else tried out any of the new Eyeko products? I have a few Fat Balms in the post too, if they ever arrive with the snow ruining the postal service! I think I have gone a bit Eyeko mad lately. :)
Eyeko Haul Surprise Party Gift Set
I have a slight obsession with Eyeko at the moment. They recently released lots of new things and had several offers going on. The last two week they have had offers on their surprise gift bags. You pay £10 or £15 pounds and receive random items worth around double the value you pay. The first week the offer was £10 for a surprise bag of all new products. I liked all the new stuff, but hadn’t yet bought any so this was ideal for me. I received the items in the top picture. It contained: Magic Bronzer in Rio, London Lips lip gloss in Primrose Hill (a light pink with gold shimmer) and something I really really wanted and was happy about about, one of the new Cheeky Colour Blush Duo’s in Glow Getter.
The following week, about a day or two after receiving my first lot of goodies they had another surprise gift bag offer for £15 and you receive more goodies. I knew it was more of a risk this time as I already had some and could get doubles, but then I thought…well I like them all I wouldn’t mind getting doubles! This time it was random items from the whole Eyeko collection and I received the items in the bottom picture. Another Cheeky Colour Blush Duo, this time in My Coral Crush again something I was very happy about getting! Another London Lips lip gloss in Shoreditch (a mid pink), two Graffiti liners in purple and blue and another Magic Bronzer again in Rio.
Annoyingly the only thing I wouldn’t use from these is the bronzer and I have two of them! I’m far too pale for this bronzer, Rio is the darkest of the three bronzers available. As you can see below it is quite dark. The first swatch is blended and the other is a finger swatch which I haven’t blended so you can see the colour.
I was happy to received the Graffiti liners too as I have been using a black one from Topshop recently and I quite like the felt tip liners. However, I still need lots of practice as I take forever to put it on or make a mess of it. I’m too used to using kohl pencils, which I’m not sure why, but they seem easier to use to me. Below is a swatch of the blue and purple liners. The blue is great for daytime looks, I use it when I don’t want the harsh black. The purple is my favourite as it is a quite bright, true purple colour. They both last really well and the best thing about the Graffiti liners is you can draw really thin or thick lines with ease.
I will review the lip glosses and blushes in another post at the weekend. :)
I am just having a quick break from writing my lit review. It is going quite well, but my Christmas ’to do list’ is getting longer and if I don’t finish my Christmas cards I’ll have to send them out next Christmas! I made some Christmas cards myself this year. I was quite pleased with them, until I realised I’d spent an hour making only 6 cards and I was covered in glue. Then the phone rang…you can imagine the fun sight of me covered in beads and glue attempting to have a sensible conversation with my boss and trying not to get my phone glued to my face. I think I’ll just buy a pack of cards! I have to go into uni tomorrow, but I’m hoping I can do a big Christmas shopping and posting sweep tomorrow afternoon, I’m going to be cutting it close this year! The uni term officially ends tomorrow, yay for time off! Hope you are all sorted for Christmas and hopefully not leaving it till the last minute! x
elf Beauty Encyclopedia Basic Eyes Palette
I’ve been feeling under the weather today. :( I’ve read some articles for my lit review, but all from from the comfort of the sofa (go recliner, go!). I watched a rather lovely old Sherlock Holmes film with Ian Richardson in, which kept me very well entertained. If only I was drinking tea so I could feel like an English stereotype! After that I was bored, unable to face food and stuck with the choice of more work or Saturday TV or the difficult choice of deciding what film to watch. I had a quick blog browse (always good for a cheer up) and remembered I had seen patchwork nails post on Karen’s blog (Frazzle and Aniploish – follow her blog and if you are in the UK prepare to be jealous of the lovely polishes we never see here! :D) and I thought it was fantastic! I would never of thought to put tape on my nails to section the colours, I just assumed it would ruin the polish, silly me! Anyway, I gave it a go and it worked out pretty well, better than I expected. Plus it kept me occupied and distracted for a little while! :) I’ll put up some pictures soon when I’ve sorted them out. For the moment I’ve sorted the swatches from the elf eyes palette.
Here is the elf Beauty Encyclopedia Basic Eyes Palette that Christina from Christina Marie says… sent me from her giveaway! :) It’s a lovely neutral palette with plenty of wearable colours and instructions of how to apply them written on the inside. I get a double ended brush and eye liner with the book as well. I have numbered the shadows and put the swatches below with the corresponding numbers.
Here are the swatches, they are such great colours. It kinda reminds me of the Urban Decay Naked palette, which I love! I swatched these over the Urban Decay Primer Potion which I always put on before eye shadow. They look great and I they are great to put on and blend really well. Plus, the instructions are really helpful inside the book. It is the standard how to/where to put the shadows, but I am still a little rubbish at getting that right so I find it helpful! :p
Here are the two cream eye shadows at the bottom of the palette. They are really shimmery and I think will look great as a highlighter on the brow bone/inner eye. One is a white shimmer and one is slightly more of a pink shimmer.
I used this palette everyday and it is great! I followed the instructions and I really like using the colour combination of the colours across the middle of the palette. They make a really nice neutral eye. They are really easy to blend and last all day. I tried to take a picture, but it has been so dark and gloomy, the pictures looked rubbish. Silly winter, I need some light!
So in conclusion I would say the quality is really good and the range of colours you get is great! I love these elf palettes, they are perfect for someone who doesn’t have a lot of make up in different colours. Also, if you think the Urban Decay Naked palette is a bit pricey, this would be a great alternative. The colour range is similar and the quality is great! :) The only thing I didn’t really use was the eye liner, but I have lots of eye liners and at the moment and I’m in love my Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero. :)
Thanks again Christina! :x
About me
My name is Gem and I am a psychology graduate in the south of England. I like shiny and sparkly things, but I am also a total nerd. ^.^
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