Face of The Day using Fyrinnae Shadows

It was my Dad's birthday on Sunday and we had a few people come round for a BBQ, the weather was absolutely gorgeous and we had a lovely afternoon out in the garden. I decided to use some of my new Fyrinnae shadows as they are so sparkly that they look gorgeous in sunlight.

Face:

Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation

Illamasqua Hollow Cream Pigment as contour

Shu Uemura Colourless Setting Powder

 Illamasqua Hussy Blush

Eyes:

UDPP

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy on lid

Fyrinnae Dinosaur Plushie on Lid

Fyrinnae Calavera Cupcakes

Fyrinnae Arcane Magic Glitterboi mixed with Illamasqua Sealing Gel as liner on upper and lower lashlines

Covergirl Lashblast Mascara

Lips:

Sleek Heartbreaker Lipstick

None of these pictures show you just how amazing Dinosaur Plushie really is, its contains so many different colours of shimmer that it almost looks holographic, it's definitely worth buying so you can see it in person!

I was also really impressed with the Sleek Lipstick, I ate and drank and the colour stayed on my lips really well, I didn't feel the need to re-apply at all.

Sleek Avoir La Peche Palette - First Impressions

You have probably seen a million and one swatches of this palette by now but I was a bit late in picking this one up. I swatched it in Superdrug as soon as it came out but didn't buy it as I wasn't sure how much I would use it. But I eventually went back and picked it up, more as a challenge to myself really to try and use colours I would never normally reach for.

The palette is made up of a mixture of matte and shimmer shades, I actually love the bottom two neutral matte shades and can see them getting a lot of use. A couple of the colours I think would work really well as blush so I will testing that out too. It's not the most wearable palette Sleek have released but I still think I will find a way to make it work for me. As usual with these palettes the shimmer shades are incredibly pigmented, the matte shades need a bit more work to build up the colour but that is something I have come to expect when using matte colours.

Do you have this palette? Any looks you can share with me?

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy Review

I have been meaning to do this review for a long time and just kept forgetting about it. Since I started writing this blog I have discovered so many brands and products that I never knew existed. Fyrinnae is one of those companies, I first saw them featured on Sirvinya's and Phyra's blogs and I knew straight away that I wanted to try some of the products. As well as selling some of the most beautiful loose eye shadows I own they also sell a product called Pixie Epoxy. This isn't a primer, it's basically a glue for eyeshadow. If you have oily lids (like me) you will still need to apply something like Urban Decay Primer Potion first.

It comes in a clear tube with a doe foot applicator, the Epoxy itself is a whitish/clear liquid that is invisible once blended. This can make any eyeshadow look 10 times better, it grabs the colour and any shimmer and holds it there. The only downside is that once the colour is applied onto it you cannot blend it as it really does hold it there, you can apply shadow again on top which you can then blend, it also works really well if you want to do a cut crease look. This works amazingly well with loose shadows, especially those with glitter/shimmer as sometimes these don't adhere to the eyelid over a normal primer.

All of these swatches are with no base on the left, over Urban Decay Primer Potion in the middle, over Pixie Epoxy on the right. I think the picture speaks for itself really, you can see how huge the difference is between the applications. With the swatch of Immortality you can see the shimmer so much more over Epoxy.

Have you tried this before? What are your thoughts?

Nail Art - My first attempts at the tape manicure

I recently discovered Chloe's Nails blog and was inspired to try the scotch tape manicure. If you don't follow already I highly recommend checking it out, she is one talented lady!  Here is the first colour combination I have tried, this is in no way perfect but for a first attempt I don't think it's bad. Will definately keep practising!

I used Boots 17 Wicked on the whole nail then put on the tape and used OPI Done Out In Deco on the tips. I used a Kiss nail art polish for the silver strip.

This is such a simple way to create a lovely manicure. It just takes patience, the first time I tried it I didn't let the base polish dry enough and ended up pulling it off with the tape!

Summery Face Of The Day

The weather has been beautiful for the past couple of weeks and I have been trapped in my basement office at work! I know have 11 days off so hopefully I will get to enjoy it. I wanted to wear Mac's Candy Yum Yum today as it's such a perfect summer colour. I teamed it with a neutral brown eye and pink cheeks. I have to say I am really impressed with the Rimmel Colour Mousse, full review to come soon!

Products Used:
Face:
Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation
Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque
Illamasqua Hollow Cream Pigment as contour
Illamasqua Rude Cream Blush with a little bit of Mac Giggly on top
Shu Uemura Colourless Setting Powder
Eyes:
UDPP
Rimmel Colour Mousse in Sassy all over lid and blended into the crease, also under lower lashes
Mac Espresso eyeshadow blended in the crease and outer corner
Mac Blanc Type as highlight
Gosh Long Lasting Eyeliner Pen in Grey
Covergirl Lashblast Mascara
Lips:
Mac Candy Yum Yum Lipstick

Have you been out enjoying the sunshine?

Beauty Blog Link Love Saturday 23rd April 2011

See some before and after photos in My Lips But Better's review of the new Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation.


Queen of Turquoise reviews lipstick with polka dot packaging!


Sarah from Iheartcosmetics finds the best bikini wax in London town, at Strip.


Have you encountered the awesomeness that is Sugarpill Cosmetics yet? If not, then you're in luck, because Krasey Beauty has the scoop on the line!


Were the Cucumber Wipes a 'yes'? Find out over at Jeweled Thumb.


Find out why Urban Decay Good Karma Brushes remind Makeup Morsels of Martin Luther and his 95 Theses.


Daily Polish shows off a gorgeous blackened blue nail polish you can buy for a steal by drugstore brand Sleek.


Retrodiva knows it's spring when she suffers from her first sunburn of the season. Find out her tricks for treating it and preventing peeling.


Phyrra debuts Geek Chic Cosmetics new collection, N7 and gives you a sneak peek of an upcoming collection, Mana Screwed!


AOYV suggests five must have coral blushes to try this season.


Creamy pink lippies go head to head in The Lip Print's Pink Month featuring Lime Crime, MAC, Maybelline and more!


Remember those really expensive Rock and Republic blushes? Musicalhouses has found a cheap dupe of Rock and Republic's Kinky blush!


Whether you're a beauty blogger or just a product lover, you *need* to check out theNotice's first tips for beauty bloggers photography post!


K at Beautifully Addicted To feels the Pinch with Topshop blushers.



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Audrey Dao is giving away $400 worth of NuMe hair styling products, including a hair straightener valued at $300!


What would you choose with a $50 Gift Card from Apothica? Enter to win at Prime Beauty!

Blog Sale Update

Thanks to everyone that took part in my blog sale. I have had such a hectic week that I haven't sent the parcels out yet, will get them all packaged up over the weekend and sent out on Tuesday so you should receive them before the bank holiday next Friday.

I have reduced prices on the remaining items and have had a couple of non-payers so please have a look!

Nails Of The Week - Beauty UK Voodoo

Ok I am officially in love with this, it's a gorgeous vampy red that looks very different depending on the lighting so I tried to catch it in as many different ways as possible. It looks at it's best under bright artifical light or direct sunlight.

 It is a deep red with shimmer, it's almost metallic. This was completely opaque in two coats and if you had shorter nails and took your time applying you could probably get away with one. It dried really fast as well. And the best thing about this is the price, £1.99! I own a lot of nail polish and the majority of them are higher end like OPI, China Glaze and I have to say in quality this is right up there with them for a fraction of the price. This is the first Beauty UK polish I have purchased and I will definitely be going back for more! These are available in Superdrug and from the Beauty UK website.

Let's Try This Again...And The Winner Is.....

The first winner of mu giveaway never got in touch with me so I had to re-draw it.
I used random.org to select a number and then found the relevant comment

And so the winner is Zoe! I have sent you an email so please get back to me with your postal address and I will get your prizes sent out!

Blog Sale Mac, Benefit, Nars and Illamasqua

Ok first the rules

- All items are sold as seen, no returns
- Payment by paypal only, please leave a comment stating the item/items you would like and your paypal email address and I will send you an invoice, please let me know if you are overseas.
- Shipping will be £1.50 for UK and £3 for overseas, if you buy more than one item I will work out the postage, it may stay the same depending on what the items are.
- You will have 24 hours to pay the invoice otherwise the item will go to the next person or go back up for sale!

So onto the goodies, these are all items that have been lightly used, they are just very unloved in my rapidly growing collection!

 

 Benefit Creasless Cream Shadow in Flying Down To - Used twice £5

Mac Shadow Lilac Touch (LE depot), Stars N Rockets (Pro Pan) - Lightly Used £5 each

Last Call For Becky

Becky, if you see this please send me an email at jobetterdays@hotmail.com you are the winner of my giveaway but I haven't heard from you! If I haven't heard by midnight on Monday then I will draw another winner.

Blog Sale Tomorrow

Just wanted to let you know I will be having a small blog sale tomorrow. I have some Mac, Nars, Benefit and Illamasqua items that I just don't use and hopefully someone else will give a more loving home to!
I will be putting the sale up at 3pm tomorrow.

Face Of The Day Featuring Majolica Majorca Majolook Palette BR762

My friend bought me this gorgeous Majolica Majorca eyeshadow palette back from her holiday in Japan, it is absolutely gorgeous and just my colours. It also comes with a gorgeous silver highlighter, it has a beautiful pattern oversprayed onto it, I almost didn't want to touch it and ruin it.

I used it at the weekend and it is absolutely gorgeous, the shadows are really soft, pigmented and blended together really well.

Products Used

Face:

Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque

Revlon Colourstay Foundation

Illamasqua Hollow Cream Pigment as contour

Illamasqua Delerium Cream Pigment as blush

Shu Uemura Colourless Setting Powder

Mac Moon River blush lightly on apples of cheeks

Eyes:

UDPP

Majolica Majorca Majolook Palette BR762

Shade 1 on inner corners

Shade 2 on rest of lid

Shade 3 on outer corners and crease

Gosh Long Lasting Eyeliner Pen in Green on upper lashline

Covergirl Lashblast Mascara

Lips:

Revlon Soft Rose Lipstick

Face Of The Day Featuring Mac Quite Cute Collection

I got to play with my Quite Cute goodies over the weekend, as you have probably noticed I usually go for darker more smokey colours so the eyeshadows were out of my comfort zone but I actually really like them! The colours did take some building up but nothing that would put me off using it. I hate photos of me with my hair tied back but I really wanted to show you Sakura blush on so I will post them anyway.

(Please excuse the eyebrows, they need threading!)

Products Used:

Face:

Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque

Revlon Photo Ready Foundation

Illamasqua Hollow Cream Pigment as contour

Shu Uemura Colourless Setting Powder

Mac Sakura Blush

Eyes:

UDPP

Mac Moshi Moshi on inner corners

Mac Goody Goody Gum Drop on middle of lid

Mac Azuki Bean on outer corners and crease

Mac Boy Crazy to blend crease

Mac Blanc Type as highlight

Mac Blitz & Glitz Fluidline with Boy Crazy on top

Covergirl Lashblast Mascara

Lips:

Mac Play Time Lipstick

Do you like pastel eyseshadows? Ay recommendations for me?

Paradise Wildlife Park

On Sunday I went to Paradise Wildlife Park with my Dad and my Boyfriend, it was such a beautiful day, we really couldn't have wished for better weather. It was my first real chance to put the camera I got for Christmas to the test. I absolutely love photography and spent pretty much the whole day taking photos.

How cute are the baby Lemurs! We saw them just before we left and the park was a bit quieter so the Mum obviously felt more comfortable bringing her baby's out. It's a great place to go if you have kids as they have a huge children's play area and there are some animals you can feed and interact with. It was a lovely day out.

Nails Of The Week - Nails Inc Franklin's Row

My Mum ordered some new polishes from Nails Inc, the first one that really caught my eye was Franklin's Row so I asked very nicely and she let me use it. It's a gorgeous purple with blue and pink micro glitter. It looks different depending on the lighting. Not quite a duochrome but almost.

With flash, this really highlights the blue shimmer.

Without flash, the blue shimmer is still noticeable but the purple base colour shows a lot more.

 This bottle shot really shows of the shimmer.

To be honest none of these pictures do it justice, it really needs to be seen in person. Definately a winner for me.

Mac Quite Cute Collection Haul

I know it's not to every one's taste but I was really looking forward to the Quite Cute collection, I had some birthday money left so didn't feel too guilty about indulging! I picked up the eyeshadow quad, 2 blushes and 2 lipsticks. On to the swatches:

I know a lot of people have complained about the pigmentation of these shadows but I didn't really find this. The only colour I had to build up was Boycrazy and it is pretty sheer but I do still like it. As these are pastel colours I think they would like slightly chalky if they were more pigmented. I actually really like Goody Goody Gum Drop which was the one colour I thought I would hate as I don't usually like pinks. I would say if you were put off buying this one its definitely worth swatching in person.

From left to right: Main colour, Heart and then swirled together. This is such a unique colour, I haven't got any purple blushes so this is a welcome addition to my collection. I do think this will work better on people with a light skin tone as it is quite sheer.

From left to right: Main colour, Heart and then swirled together. I didn't intend to get this but fell in love with it after swatching, it's such a gorgeous pink. I think I like the swirled together effect the most.

I think this may become my new favourite lipstick! It looks pretty scary in the tube but it's a cremesheen formula so can be applied lightly and is really wearable. It can be built up though to give a denser colour if you want.

This lipstick is incredible! It's a matte formula but it is actually pretty creamy. The flash has washed the colour out slightly, in person this almost neon! It wears really well and doesn't feel particularly drying. It does stain the lips though which personally I like as it means I don't need to worry about re-applying all the time!

What are your thoughts on this collection? Did you pick anything up?

Beauty Blog Link Love Saturday 9th April 2011

Did you get a chance to buy any MAC Sheen Supreme Lipsticks? Visit StealMyHeartLovee for swatches of her two favourite lipsticks from the permanent collection.


Makeup Morsels participates in a Dare to Wear challenge for Japan with this cherry-blossom inspired eye look!


New and improved Dior Addict lipsticks?! Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed couldn't wait to try them out so come admire her lips!



Beauty Info Zone shows you 2 of the amazing Real Techniques brush sets created by Samantha Chapman from Pixiwoo.


Hot Beauty Health shares 4 sure-fire ways to becoming a top-notch professional makeup artist.



Do you like crackle top coats? Find out how Anita got on with the new 17 Nail Xtras crackle top coat over at Pleasureflush!


Summer is almost here! You know what this means - Musicalhouses does a bright teal summer eye!


Phyrra’s Independent Spotlight for April is with Venomous Cosmetics! Learn about Tracy & her fascination with the vibrance of creatures found in nature, as well as her makeup.

Find out the brand Audrey Dao is raving about that costs only a fraction of high end brands but performs like one!

In spirit of the upcoming royal wedding, Miss Beauty Nerd shares the 3 must-have skin care products for brides-to-be.

Beautywoome.com sheds light on such beauty terms as 1661, plastic fantastic and the new new face in its all new Beauty Fictionary.

AOYV insists that Chanel Coco Rouge is the perfect present for Mother's Day.

IHeartCosmetics reviews Elemis FreshSkin, a brand-new range designed specifically for young people.


Love corals for the spring? Check out Jacquelyn at FabDiva20 for a gorgeous coral FOTD!

Beauty takes on a charitable twist when done in honor of Japan by Socialite Dreams, geisha style.

Goudlylox Reviews gets to the bottom of the inspiring story behind BE Cares new shadow, Sweet Smile, and has one to give away!

My Get Lippie Prize and Nails Of The Week Chanel Black Pearl

A couple of weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had won a giveaway from Louise at Get Lippie. The prizes were 3 Chanel limited edition nail varnishes. I was walking around with a big smile on my face for the rest of the day!

The parcel arrived last week and she had put in a lovely card with a note as well as a few perfume samples.

The colours she sent me are Particuliere, Black Pearl and Paradoxal. I already have Paradoxal so I gave this one to my Mum who absolutely loves it. I was most excited about Black Pearl, I have nearly bought it about 10 times but always stopped myself! So obviously that was the first one I put on.

It is an absolutely gorgeous metallic green. It is very dark but as you can see in the photos above it doesn't really ever look black, the green always shines through. This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Thank you again Louise, you made me a very happy girl!

Accessorize Eye Dusts as Liners

On my haul post one of my readers asked if the Accessorize Eye Dusts could be used wet so I decided to give it a try. The answer is most definately yes! I mixed these with Illamasqua's sealing gel for the swatches and the liner photos.

Swatched dry on the right and with sealing gel on the left

With Molten Truffle as liner, this is such a beautiful shade, I think it works really well as a liner.

Wild Moss as liner, using this shade wet really brings out the gold shimmer.

Other Products used were

UDPP

Mac Feme Fi on lid

Mac Quarry in crease

Mac Shroom as highlight

Covergirl Lashblast Mascara

Nails Of The Week - Models Own Pro Green Envy

I went into Boot's on my lunch break and noticed they have started stocking the Model's Own Pro range of polishes. There are some absolutely gorgeous colours which are completely different from the standard range. These are £8 for 15ml and are a 3 free formula with added Vitamin E and UV Filters.
Application was a breeze, it was fully opaque in two coats and I found the lid really comfortable to hold and control.

I tried taking photos under a few different lights to try and get the true colour but none of them are 100%, it's a gorgeous dark green base with multicoloured shimmer. In person the shimmer shows through no matter what the lighting.

This bottle shot really shows the shimmer of well. I can't wait to go back and pick up a few more colours!

My Favourite Lip Glosses

I have to admit I am not a huge lip gloss fan, I much prefer wearing a lipstick that I can blot and know will last the majority of the night. That being said there are a few lip glosses that I love the colour of so much that I still wear.

 This is a beautiful mauve toned gloss with blue shimmer, it was one of the first high end glosses I bought and it's still one of my favourites. It's not overly sticky so I find it quite comfortable to wear.

This is another mauve tone with blue shimmer but this one is a bit darker. As its a Dazzleglass it's incredibly sticky which is a bit off-putting but it does last a decent amount of time on the lips.

This is a gorgeous nude with a golden shimmer, it's a buxom gloss so it plumps the lips, it does tingle a lot on application but this fades after awhile. This is another very sticky gloss but it does last well.

This is just so easy to wear, it isn't sticky at all and feels more like a balm on the lips. Love the scent of this one too.

A gorgeous rosey pink shade, on me it's a my lips but better shade. It isn't at all sticky but I do find it wears off pretty quickly.

This is more of a liquid lipstick than a gloss, it's a gorgeous mauve tone. I would describe it as a satin finish, it has no shimmer and is not at all sticky. These last a decent amount of time on the lips and can also be blotted to leave a subtle stain.

I think this is my all time favourite gloss, again it's a mauve tone with blue shimmer but I just find that it wears better than some of the others I own. I absolutely adore the scent of this gloss.

This is an intense gloss and you only need a tiny bit to acheive full coverage. It's a gorgeous vampy red. It dries to am almost lipstick finish and I find it lasts really well.

Do you have a favourite gloss?