EOTD - yellow eyeshadow

Letting men have a say in makeup can result in some interesting outcomes - Specktra's Miss Pumpkin is one of the luckier ones. Wonky eyeliner, clown cheeks and Herman Munster brows are common results of amateur males let loose with traincases, if the livejournal communities I've browsed are anything to go by.

So when I asked my boyfriend what colour eyeshadow I should put on yesterday, I wasn't totally surprised when he pulled a mischevious face and said "Yellow!".

I'm not a piker though - it took about 10 minutes but I finally dug out my one yellow eyeshadow and got to work with it.




Here's what I used:

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
Ruby and Millie Eye Colour Yellow 220M
Illamasqua Yearn eyeshadow
MAC Fluidline (Blacktrack)
Maybelline Full'n'Soft mascara



I'm actually really pleased with this. (Apart from the wonky-looking eyeliner in the second picture - it was alright IRL.) The yellow brings out the green colour in my eyes, which I hoped it would. The green accent on the crease helps too.

Boots offer free store collection for online orders

EDIT - it seems that Boots have seen the error of their ways and are now offering collect in store free whatever size your order! Go to the Boots main page to see the new details.

Here's a thing - spend £25 on Boots.com and you can have your bits and bobs delivered to your local store. Free of charge.

This is a definite improvement on their old system, where you had to pay the regular delivery charge for this service, however much you spent.

This is a good way of getting your Urban Decay, Clarins, Clinique, Too Faced etc. delivered to you locally for free if you don't have a counter nearby.

They could have lowered the minimum charge, but let's be honest, it's not difficult to think up ways to spend £25 in Boots now, is it?

DIY Stila eyeshadow palette

[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="DIY Stila palette with pans"][/caption]

I found myself in the position of having more Stila shadows than I did slots in my Stila palettes. That's a pretty luxurious dilemma, I think you'll agree.

The reason is that I availed myself of the amazing £2.95 Stila Eyeshadow offer at BeautySpotCosmetics. They're selling Stila pans at £2.95 each, and you will receive a free palette when you order 6 or more shades. A lot of the colours are sold out now. I'm afraid that's partly my fault. Sorry.

In order to store my new bounty of shadows without displacing my existing ones from their palettes (I got greedy and ordered more than 6 at a time from BeautySpot), I decided to DIY my own palette using an old Boots 17 freebie one that had long been sitting disused at the bottom of my stash.

Read on to find out how I did it. (NB, it's not using magic.)

Slap Happy - a common-sense UK beauty blog

Visit Slap Happy at www.slaphappybeauty.com

Modest MAC Haul - Seedy Pearl and Sumptuous Olive

[caption id="attachment_215" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Seedy Pearl and Sumptuous Olive eyeshadow pans"][/caption]

Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat this week, falling victim to a more urgent but far less enjoyable demand on my time - huge numbers of job applications. However, a trip to MAC yesterday has put me back in touch with what is truly important in my life: Eyeshadow.

With the last of my store credit (left over from Christmas 2008 - never let it be said that I'm not thrifty sometimes), I picked up two permanent-line eyeshadows that have been softly purring my name.

Limited Editions have come and gone, but I remain convinced that most of MAC's best work resides in its permanent collection. That's why it's permanent I guess (although it's the LE stuff that tends to grab headlines). Passing over the warm shadows from Naked Honey and the Mineralize quads from Colour Craft (is it just me, or are these really sheer?), I picked out Sumptuous Olive, and Seedy Pearl. Two shadows that appeal to my long-standing love of all things duochrome.

Click through for swatches and descriptions.

Curl products: Tigi Catwalk Curls Rock, reviewed

A few days ago I announced my intention to use and review some of the curly hair specific products gathering dust in my drawer. Summer's a good time to do this, since walking around with naturally-drying wet hair doesn't necessarily result in instant pneumonia and icicles hanging from one's forelock.

So - Curls Rock Shampoo, Conditioner and Curl Amplifier. There are more products in the range (Curl Booster and Leave-in Moisturiser, I believe) but this trio is what I'll be assessing for you today. Click through for a firm but fair appraisal - and a picture of my "rocked" curls.

The scent of yesterderday - Discontinued product nostalgia

I'll be frank with you - there is no stone I leave unturned when I'm looking for a bargain, and never more so than when it's a bargain of a beauty-product nature. I was thirsty the other day, and rather than pay £1 for a bottle of Evian, I nipped into nearby LIDL to get a 19p no-name-brand spring water instead. And while I was there, I thought I'd see if they had any beauty items worth nabbing.

Lo and behold, I found 400ml bottles of Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner at just £1.45 each. They had a mixture of new and old versions, so I picked up the "2nd gen" conditioner in "Hello Hydration" (that's the blue coconutty one), and for old times's sake, a bottle of the old pink rose-scented "Silk'n'Shine" shampoo.

A journey back in time was soon to commence...

Wowza! Model's Own Neon PM trio, reviewed

When these neon bottles tumbled out of their jiffy bag onto the garden table, my housemate looked up from his laptop and said "What is that?? Is it makeup?"

Yes, it most definitely is!

Neon PM is one of several nail polish trio collections assembled by stylish new British cosmetics brand Models Own. The pink, green and highlighter-yellow shades are all available to buy individually for £5, while the trio together costs £12.

I'm reviewing all three of these brighter-than-bright polishes. Read on to find out if the result is dazzling or simply extreme...

Illamasqua in motion

I went across to Selfridges yesterday for a browse and paid a visit to beautiful Mika at the Illamasqua counter. He mentioned that the Youtube video I posted of my Illamasqua makeover has been getting a lot of notice, and so I thought I'd give it an official home on the blog.



This was a Makeup Lesson, one of Illamasqua's counter services. It's an hour long session with an Illamasqua artist, and it's all filmed on a DVD for you to take away at the end. What you see here is an hour's worth of footage, edited into a few minutes.

The Makeup Lesson costs £30, which is redeemable on products at the end of the session. There is also a Transformation session, which is a full-on makeover ideal for big nights out.

www.illamasqua.com

Juliette Has a Gun - a tale of two testers

On my left forearm - Juliette Has a Gun's fragrance "Miss Charming". A rosey-powdery confection of lacy subtlety and gentle blossom. Maybe a little cloying? Drying down, it gathers warmth, and a kind of bright, cheerful optimism. It's not quite right for me, but with skin chemistry to complement it this would be a sweet daytime scent for work and days out.

On my right forearm - Juliette Has a Gun's "Lady Vengeance". I should confess that it's already in the lead after one look at the label thanks to my fondness for Park Chan Wook's sophisticated and gritty thriller of the same name. Like the leading lady of this flick, the fragrance is dark and complex, with a spicy topnote peppering a cedary, burnished base with trailing tendrils of musk. It's ever so slightly rosey-sweet, too, like a distant cousin of "Miss Charming" perhaps, but definitely not a daytime scent. This is one for the evening, a scent to take out on the tiles.

Juliette Has a Gun is a niche perfume house that has been running since 2006, with an international following. There is a third "sister" to the two fragrances I mention here, "Citizen Queen". Find out more at juliettehasagun.com

Curls - a haircare challenge.

My hair is naturally curly, although many people I know would be surprised to hear it. Most days I straighten or blow-dry my hair into more-or-less straight submission. It's not that I don't like my curls, it's just that I've never been able to make them look presentable.


If I leave my hair to dry naturally, I get ringlets, but also frizz. And if I go to sleep, the next day I wake up with a matted mane of kinks and fluff.



It could be that I need to invest a bit more time and effort in styling my hair in order for it to form happy curls. Hairdressers have suggested mousse, serum and even gel spray... none of which I ever remember to bother with when I come out of the shower.

As a result, I've amassed a drawer full of curl-powering unguents that have been hardly touched. I decided that it was time to "choose or lose" among these languishing bottles and cans. Join me as I decimate my curling product collection and sort the good from the not-so-good... stay tuned.

MAC Colour Craft is coming! (And they spelled it British style!)

Amid confused reports, it seems like the release date for MAC's limited edition Colour Craft collection in the UK will be JULY 13 according to VexInTheCity, who got it from the horse's mouth by calling her counter.

There's often a bit of fuzz around the exact time we'll be graced with the presence of new collections at different counters, so best to call your intended target up before you make any journeys. I'd call on Friday, as you never know your luck, it could be there early...

The pic above (reposted with thanks from Temptalia.com) shows the visually stunning lipglasses from the collection. We'll also see a new batch of Mineralize Blushes, 6 Mineralize Skinfinishes including the return of the much-coveted Porcelain Pink, and the first ever Mineralize eyeshadow quads.

The buzz around this collection is big, and I'm guessing the sell-out will happen within a few days.

Me though, I'm hanging on for Love Your Look, which will be released around autumn time. That collection has a repromote of Smoke and Diamonds eyeshadow, which I much regretted missing out on last time it was released. Obviously if I was richer I'd be picking up some of the swirling loveliness of Colour Craft too, but unfortunately for us (and fortunately for MAC perhaps), a person could go bankrupt keeping up with every desirable product this brand conceives.

Heatwave!

Are you warm enough there?

I don't think I've experienced heat like this in the UK since I was a little kid running under sprinklers in the heatwaves of the 1980s. It's truly Mediterranean, especially here in London where parks and streets are full of the sunburned, the shirtless and the be-shaded. 23 degrees feels like a distant idyllic memory.

If you're struggling to keep your cool, here are a few tips -

- Keep a spray bottle of water at your desk. A plant spray will do, or you could pick up a travel refill bottle from Boots or Superdrug. Spritz over your face and neck during the day to keep fresh. The water will evaporate, taking the heat with it.

- Do away with face powder and heavy foundation if you can. It'll simply slide off your face thanks to the extra sweating you'll do in the heat. Instead, use a light tinted moisturiser and make your concealer do the work. A solid creamy pencil format like Urban Decay 24/7 or Jelly Pong Pong's Nude and Improved will provide a long-lasting coverage.

- Invest in a fan. No, not an electric fan, but a simple cloth or paper fan that will slip into your handbag. It's an age-old way of providing relief from hot, humid conditions, helping to displace air and create a breeze around your face. Sweat evaporates faster, and your body heat is carried with it. It really does work. If you can find some acolytes to fan you with large palm leaves, even better.

- Drink water! The temptation is to head straight for the Magnums when the mercury reaches these heights, but a glass of water will do a better job of keeping you cool and comfortable, and is a more effective way to stay hydrated. Healthier too (although I'm in no way suggesting that Magnums don't have an important place in a balanced diet).

Stay cool, and enjoy the sunshine. Chances are it'll soon be grey again and we'll be longing for more golden rays.

Review and verdict - Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick.

Twelve hours have elapsed, and I am still wearing the Liquid Lipstick. I have eaten (including rich and oily Iranian pulauo, cinema popcorn, ice lollies), kissed, talked, and done quite a lot of checking in the mirror.

As you can see, the stuff is still here, 12 hours on, and Revlon are good as their word in this regard. It's looking a bit sparse in the centre of the lips, giving a hint of that charming end-of-evening "lip liner" effect. The colour is still pink, but has become matte and lost its sheen and shimmer. It's nice enough, but it's not quite the same as what I put on this morning.

The good news is that the tackiness went after the first couple of hours. During this initial period it was very sticky, and adhered quite keenly to my teeth a few times too. The lesson - apply this sparingly, because it is very slow to dry. Now that it has, it still feels kind of *there* on my lips, but it's not distracting or unpleasant.

All in all, I'd say this product is a great investment if you want a bold lip colour for a night out and don't want to risk smudging or having to reapply. One of the more vibrant shades like Top Tomato would be a good addition to your "once in a while" makeup shades. For more natural everyday shades, the plastickyness, tackiness and tooth-adherence mean that a regular gloss or lipstick would probably be easier and more enjoyable to wear.

Verdict - hard-working and good value, but stopping short of miraculous

On trial - Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick

Full Web 2.0 marks to Revlon for their integrated approach to product launching. The new Ultimate Liquid Lipstick is being offered free of charge to site visitors, in return for an online text or video review. The best reviewer wins the chance to blog exclusively for Revlon.



The product is worth £6.80, and claims to last for a full 12 hours, offering food-proof wear (I guess this means eating-proof) and a one-step application. It's the next step from those double-ended last-forever lipsticks that comprised one part plastic lacquer and one part clear gloss. I received "Premium Pink" (shade 010).

What's it like? Well, i'm wearing it now (see above). It's bright, shiny, feels slightly tacky on the lips (that'll be the "built in ultra-conditioning top coat"). Application is easy and quite satisfying - the high-pigment liquid just kind of slicks on and stays put after a moment's wait for drying. The formula is very "slippy", and has a vaguely plasticky smell to it.

My twelve hours has only just begun, and already I keep licking my lips and pressing them together to feel the tackiness. I've a feeling it's going to irritate me. We shall see...

Check back this evening to see my final verdict.

Review - Barry M Nail paint in Mint Green 304

Barry M's cool, kitsch mint green nail polish was a love at first sight thing for me. The colour brings to mind summer sundaes and sugary treats, but with a novel twist on the pinky-purply pastel norm. It set my sights on it when it was released a couple of months back. My covetousness was helped by the fact that it costs a mere £2.95, and that I got it as part of a 2 for £5 deal.

Application is a pretty average experience. The consistency is a little watery, although for this price, I'm not going to complain. With three coats, the colour achieves a satisfactorily opaque finish.

This is a shade that definitely needs a base coat - otherwise you risk a post-removal yellowy tint from the green dyes, and which looks anything but lovely. My solution is to put a coat of a pure white polish underneath. This protects your fingertips from staining and also adds a more opaque dimension, cutting down on the number of coats you need.

The end result is bright, but not garish, and pretty true to the shade you see in the bottle. Drying time is a bit of a drag - best to add a couple of coats of quick drying solution such as Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri topcoat over the finished nails.

Wear is good - I clocked up five days before I started seeing chips. Maybe due to the number of coats?

All in all, it's a great shade at a great price, with watery consistency being the only let-down. I'm happy with it for now, but if a more expensive brand released this shade in a more creamy, opaque consistency, I'd definitely trade up.

Lady Vengeance rocks red eyeshadow

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone. I've suddenly got an interview for an amazing job and I've been preparing like Billy-oh (whatever that means). It's been distracting me from the very important matter of writing about makeup. As of Monday, normal service will be absolutely resumed.

Here to keep you inspired is Lee Yeong-Ae, star of Park Chan Wook's Korean drama "Lady Vengeance". It's a great film, and wearing strong red eyeshadow without looking a) conjuncitval b) ill or c) like a zombie is a remarkable achievement too.

If you want to recreate this look, try a nude lip, defined brows, subtle blush, plenty of mascara and some kohl on the inner rim to set off your matte red shadow (Stargazer, H&M, Illamasqua and MAC all do one, choice depends on your budget). Amazing for green or blue eyes!

Cheaper high end makeup on the way?

Just a quick bulletin from the news desk (i.e. the picnic table in my garden, shaded by billowing Ikea sheets on the washing line). Colin aka Beauty Scientist flagged up this article on Twitter this morning -

Estee Lauder and other mega-corporations are looking to shift their buyer targets and incorporate cheaper items to their ranges

Estee Lauder owns Clinique, and also MAC, so this could be very good news indeed! Apparently this is a strategic move rather than a sale, so it won't be a dramatic thing. But we might expect products in smaller, more affordable package sizes, as well as more basic products being added to high end ranges.

Tesco Value Luxury French Moisturiser, anyone?

My latest adventures in Superdrug - and this time, Boots too

Darting between raindrops, I found myself in the shelter of Superdrug the other day. It serves well as a haven from weather, but of course I quickly forgot about my reason for entering and started prowling the shelves. When I was done, I went next door and scoured Boots too. Here are my top finds from the highstreet's Big Two:

Sleek cosmetics have released another of their Divine eye palettes. My first experience with these was mixed, when the first one was released last year. Their shades are intense and vibrant, but also very prone to staining and smudging. I suspect the creaminess of the formulation has something to do with a heavy hand with the mineral oil or petrolatum at some stage of the production. Anyway, this new palette is called Acid, and it packs an unbelievable neon punch - the four colours in the centre are the real stars - yellow, green, orange and pink with a vibrancy to match any highlighter in your stationery cabinet. At £4.88, this has to be worth a look!

Another gratifying Superdrug 3 for £9.99 deal from Barry M is made all the sweeter by a selection of new Dazzle Dusts to choose from. Teal, Parrot Green, Gold, Dark Chocolate are just a few of the new intense, deep shades on offer. The star of the show for me has to be Petrol Black. A black base with a blue/green/violet iridescent top note. It's like the old version of Urban Decay's Oil Slick has come back from the grave but with even better payoff. I'd love to wear this one packed on over primer for a recklessly OTT going-out look.

Meanwhile over in Boots, the 17 revamp continues apace with some eye-catching new false lashes. Pictured is "Punk" - a black/purple combo that I can imagine looking fantastic paired with the Petrol Black eye look I just described. I don't know how these wear or what the build quality is like, but again they cost less than £5, so I wouldn't begrudge them if they lasted just one evening.

Cult items and LE value - the "Parrot" phenomenon

Do you remember the eyeshadow that cost more than your monthly Council Tax? It was called Parrot, by MAC. And it wasn't released costing outrageous sums... in fact when it came out it cost a pretty standard price for a high-end eyeshadow - the same as the rest of the MAC line. It was buyers who were willing to pay £50 or more for it that set the bar so high.

Mineralized Skinfinishes Petticoat and Shooting Star experienced similar hype, as did taupe/mauve/silver eyeshadow Moth Brown. It's not just MAC products that achieve cult status, although the MAC propensity for LE collections certainly lends itself to the phenomenon. This summer's radiant Brights eyeshadow palette by Bobbi Brown sold out at lightning speed and now changes hands for substanial sums on eBay.

These are lovely and versatile products, and their value as beauty tools is without question. However, sheeny cheekbones and jewelled lids can be achieved without them. In fact, the benefits of all the products mentioned above can be replicated for less money using products or combinations of products with lower prices that are readily available on the high street.

There's a deeper phenomenon at play: Kudos. Cachet. Exclusivity. These products are not just prized for their ability to make you look lovely - in fact, they're more highly valued when they've never even been opened. They're coveted because of the edge of kudos they carry with them. Collectors of LE items aren't just buying a beauty product. They're buying membership into an exclusive club with limited membership, allying themselves to the glamour and fascination that has amassed around products and brands.

Some people choose their products because they want to be unique, to have tools to express their artistry and to be bold in conveying their own personality. Then, at the other end of the scale are the extreme collectors, those who want to adopt a piece of someone else's vision of what is lovely, charismatic and bold. They seek to follow, not to lead.

I'm not sure which of these categories I fall into. Like most beauty junkies, I think I'm a bit of both. The urge to collect is natural, especially when you gain so much enjoyment and satisfaction from using the products. You want more of the same. But I think the huge prices and the tendency to preserve items "BNIB" is a shame. If you don't use the products, you're not doing them, or yourself justice. You're simply following the crowd.

It's interesting that the product at the most extreme point of this phenomenon has the name "Parrot" - following the hype to that extent is a kind of mimicry not often seen outside the jungle.