Lush Radiant Eye Powder Pigment

Hey All

A few weeks ago L and I headed to London and just happened to walk past Lush Oxford Street, as we knew Cardiff was opening it's own spa we couldn't resist a peak inside to see a glimpse of what may be on sale in Cardiff. We lost an hour in there browsing and both couldn't resist a few cheeky purchases.

The make up pigments and lipsticks are exclusive to Lush Oxford Street and Lush Cardiff I believe so if you head to either of these make sure you check them out.

MAC Cinderella Fluidline Eyeliner Gel: Little Black Bow

Morning!

A few weeks ago my amazing friends got me some lovely gifts for my birthday - MAC is always a lush present to receive right??
They got me both of the items below, the limited edition Cinderella Fluidline Eyeliner and the Toledo Ombre Blush. I will come to the blush in a separate post so this one is for the Cinderella liner.

If I'm honest I can't say the packaging excited me that much. I loved the look of the eyeshadow palette but that's maybe because it has Cinderella plastered across the front!
I just didn't feel like it was as magical as it could have been - though it is a pretty blue and matches the dress that she wears in the film. It needed a little more sparkle in my opinion!





The MAC Fluidline Eye-Liner Gel is called 'Little Black Bow', and is classed as a grey liner with silver pearl.

It's quite a dark grey liner gel with silver glitter particles, though it isn't gritty. It's one of those shades that can be used as intended as an eyeliner, but also as a cream eyeshadow. The texture is very smooth and has a sheen finish, it's a thin gel so applies really easily regardless of your application.

So for application as a eyeliner gel, how does it look?

I applied this using the Real Techniques liner brush, it was super easy to get a perfect flick considering I haven't worn eyeliner for a good few months recently. It may need a few layers to get a decent uniform effect but I didn't find it was too much of an problem.
I normally love liner but it's too fiddly for work and I haven't had any occasions for anything different.

I liked this in the pot but I wasn't sure I'd get much wear out of it. Having used it a few times now I can say that I surprisingly love it and it's a beautiful alternative to a black. I could in theory wear this grey to work as its a great subtle alternative to black (though maybe the glitter wouldn't be ideal....)



I was also impressed with how well the liner lasted too, it didn't smudge or budge all day and I think that wearing it alone as I have above or with a subtle or full blown smokey eye would be a really nice alternative to a black, especially for summer nights out when minimal make up is the best option.

What do you think of Little Black Bow?

I love receiving limited edition products but they can be hard to write about especially as they sell out so fast! Allegedly this has been brought out before under a different collection but a dark grey liner is generally a good addition to any make up collection.

Do you wear dark grey instead of black liquid liner? Do you buy from MAC limited edition collections?

I normally lust after them as they sell out!

L xxx

NOTD: Deborah Lippmann's Ruby Red Slippers

Well hello there!

It has been a while since I've done a NOTD but i thought this was appropriate for the time of year. I spotted this a long time ago courtesy of the blogging world and fell in love; there were many copies such as Essie's Leading Lady (post here) which i tried and loved but there really isn't anything like the original is there?

Eventually when a website (beauty bay maybe?) had a post Christmas sale and I found a discount code I couldn't resist!

Ruby Red Slippers is a black gelly type polish with loads and loads of beautiful dark red glitter particles in various sizes. It is perfect for Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas, so get it now and all of your manicure problems are sorted for the next 2 months!

Another thing i like about DL polishes is that they are free from some chemical nasties and they don't test on animals. I would love to avoid all products that come from companies who test on animals but after looking into it extensively and having a few skin issues with reactions etc i just can't seem to work out how I can get by, which is disappointing and needs change. And is an entirely different topic for another day!

I LOVE the square shaped bottles, they are really classic and the lids are really sturdy too. They don't look like they'd break any time soon which is handy as I can be pretty clumsy sometimes.

Also, Ruby Red Slippers? Doesn't it just take you back to your childhood and wishing you had a pair of sparkly red shoes that would take you away to a magical land? I know it's not just me!

On the nails how did they fair? Well I will start by telling you that I absolutely love it but I'm glad I didn't pay the full price for it. However much I love it, it takes a good 4 coats to get it opaque which is pretty substantial and I end up painting my nails red or black to stop me from using it all up.

Next up is the dreaded chipping. I've always been a fan of glitter tips as they're pretty hard wearing and can save your nails for weeks if you're clever about it but this just seems to flake off like no one's business and drives me mad! 4 coats painstakingly painted and then they flake off.

See the photos below for how beautiful it is and also how it has chipped already between painting them and taking photos:

Granted it doesn't look a neat paint job, it is extremely hard to get a gelly polish like this to look neat at the cuticles without extreme patience! I love the layering of the polish as it really gives it a 3D look and it looks lush....but it just flakes and it makes me so angry.

It is possible that the base and top coat combo weren't good enough for the polish and so that is why it chips off so easily, or it could be many things. I'm thinking that my patience may only let me wear this once a year but that way the bottle will last ages!

What do you think of glitter polishes from Deborah Lippmann? Have you got a favourite?

Happy Birthday seems to be the classic but there are so many it is very hard to choose!

(as a quick edit there seems to be a few left on Beauty Bay for £9 if my review hasn't put you off!)

L xxx

Top 10 Glastonbury Highlights

Hey there!

You might have seen our tweets for the last few weeks of noticed our lack of tweets/posts last week. me and M both finally went to Glastonbury festival after wanting to go for YEARS!

We finally got tickets for this year and were so excited we've spent weeks preparing for it, picking up goodies like bars and cider and essentials like new clothes and cat ears (like I said, essentials!)

We've got a whole post dedicated to Glastonbury coming up on Sunday, but I wanted to share my top moments with you as I'm sure M will be doing the same. So in no particular order:

1) Arrival. In through the gates, tent up and off for breakfast with a Pimms in hand by 9am, winner!

2) Imagine Dragons. Enjoyed their set so much I had goosebumps by the time they ended on Radioactive. The photo below is not mine as I was too busy singing and dancing to BEFORE they came on stage. Me and M would like to party with these guys WHENEVER THEY ARE AVAILABLE!!

3) The randomness. Nothing can prepare you for the sheer crazy things that you will see and experience during your time there. Banksy also made an appearance in the form of a slaughter truck filled with squeaking and moving stuffed toys - mental.




4) Arcadia. I'd heard many a thing about this bug-like beast but nothing compares to the real thing. Check out the pre festival picture and then 2 from Nero's DJ set on the Friday night. Unbelievable!








5) Brother's Cider. Festival strength at 7% one of these was all we needed a day to keep us 'happy' I would fully recommend visiting this stand if you ever go!




6) The ability to wear glitter, crazy eye make up and any kind of head wear and clothing imaginable and it all be perfectly acceptable! We didn't venture much further than glitter, coloured eyes and cat ears/floral crowns but some people wore catsuits and all sorts!

7) Skrillex. One of the coolest dudes ever, spaceship on the stage and involved the lion king in his Friday night set. What a cool guy!




8) I'm not sure I can fathom my love for the man that is Ed Sheeran. Amazing singer/songwriter and a genuinely nice guy it seems, asked the crowd if they minded him taking a picture and he certainly wooed me during his set on the Sunday. Bonus points for a cool video courtesy of swirling around clothing above your head during 'Sing'. LOVE.




9) The smaller stages. I loved seeing the big hits on the most popular stages but loved seeing up and coming acts such as Kiesza and MNEK (both below) on the Sonic stage and others on BBC Introducing etc. Managed to get right down the front which is a bonus on the photo front too!







10) Ending on a cheesy one - spending my first festival and first camping experience with my best friend was LUSH. We had an awesome time watching acts together and making our food choices for the 5 days as soon as we'd done a lap of the site, we clearly know how to have a good time!

Did you go to Glastonbury? Did you watch it from the comfort of your home?

I'm constantly scrolling through my pictures and missing my can of warm cider at 10am. however I do not miss my wellies, 5 days of 10 miles plus a day and they're in agony!

L xxx

China Glaze Be Bright Nail Polish Set

Hi there!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had a friend in the US who sent me a few goodies just after Christmas, this nail polish set was one of them. It was a Christmas set but lets be honest, it's not like there's a ban on glitter and metallics for the rest of the year is there?!

This set is Be Bright and contains 1 metallic nail polish and three glitter top coats.

Here is Your Presents Required over Essie's Fiji. This polish doesn't look much in the bottle but once I'd applied it to my ring finger I then had to put it on all the others too! It has so many colours in it that it looks perfect over a nude colour like Fiji

There are also multiple sizes of the different colours of glitter too which make it look a lot more authentic and less perfect making it look a lot better, in my opinion. This one is my favourite out of the whole packet!


This nail polish is Mingle with Kringle, a gorgeous super shimmery gold polish.



The photo above shows one coat, and the photos below show two coats. Two coats are definitely required for opacity and the colour is gorgeous. It's a true gold and extremely shimmery! I really like this shade but I do have quite a few polishes like this already.




For the next glitter, Bells will be Blinging was applied to my ring finger over an Essie polish called Parka Perfect. The photos below shows one coat of the glitter polish:





And the above shows 2 coats. You can see it definitely needs two coats for the full amount of sparkle, I can't say this is one that I'll use too often as I much prefer the first polish for glitter and don't often wear blues generally. But I was impressed how well this showed up after one coat, but as always you'll need 2 for the full effect!

Lastly we have Be Merry, Be Bright another multicoloured and multi sized glitter which I have applied over Ballet Slippers.

In all honesty I didn't think I'd like this at all, I'm not sure why, maybe it was the blue glitter in it. In the bottle I think the blue glitter looks a considerable amount more than it does on the nails and I've surprised myself by actually loving it!

Which is your favourite? I really have surprised myself by which ones of these are my favourites. China glaze is one of my favourite nail polish brands and I love every collection they bring out! 

Do you have any China Glaze favourites?

L xxx

Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadow Glitter Rock

Hey All

A few weeks back me and L went see the new electric palette being used in all it's glory and couldn't resist buying ourselves some treats. Since we went to the showcase for Naked 3 this product has been on my radar!

I was obsessed with these. I absolutely love glitter! In the words of Ffion 'if in doubt add glitter'! I'm always craving sparkle on my eyes for a night out. I don't really want the child's glitter effect I want sparkle. That's where the moondust shadows come in!

These are amazing microfine sparkle eyeshadows, with the most amazing pigmentation. Theya re also super smooth and apply easily! (I'm in love with dust in the Naked 3 palette but it can be a little chunky to apply!) The smoothness of these and the pigmentation has had me wanting them for months!

What I really love about Urban Decay shadows and didn't know before I got this one home is that if you have a palette the shadows easily pop out of the case to fit into the palettes. No warming things on straighteners to melt glue and carefully peeling off labels if you decided to buy your palette at a later date *cough* Mac *cough*. The silver packaging of the single shadows is sturdy and I like the patterns on the packaging to give it the edge you expect from Urban Decay. Plain packaging just wouldn't suit the brand in my opinion!

Glitter Rock is a pink/grey toned shade. I picked this over the neutral one as it packed more when swatched. I think this colour will go well over most colours on the eyes to add a bit of sparkle for a night out!

The swatch is done straight from the pan. On primer they come out very intense!

These shadows can be used either dabbed onto the eye using a finger (I like this best for day time as I think it gives the best results!) for evenings or more intense glitter if you slight dampen the brush you want to use with a setting spray or UD B6 spray as I like to use it picks up the product more intensely to allow it to be packed onto the eye!

I love the Moondust eyeshadows and want more now. I really want intergalatic for under the eyes! I love the naming of Urban Decay products!

The eyeshadows retail at £14. 

Have you tried moondust eyeshadows? Are you a glitter fan?

Love M

xxx