MAC Hey Sailor Collection – Crew Highlight Powder review and swatches

Posted on May 8, 2012 by TGW

Hey Sailor is already out in the U.K. It’s the one rare collection that is out in the U.K. before it is out in the U.S. Like To the Beach was a few years back.

The only thing I got from the collection was the Crew highlight powder, because lets face it, it’s too pretty not to, right?

Described as “soft peachy cream with fine shinner” (thats taken directly from the MAC UK site, typo anyone?) This peachy cream got me thinking…. don’t break my heart MAC and tell me that these lovely stripes are only overspray!!

I nicked the top pink strip with my nail, to my surprise, it was pink underneath. I carried on rubbing away at it after and I’m pretty sure the pattern goes all the way down.

It did break my heart to destroy my pretty powder though :(

That said, is this a highlighter? It depends, if you’re fair skinned like me then this is going to be the most fabulous blush for you (it reminds my of my HG blush, which is Smashbox’s fusion soft lights in Baked Starlight, the only blush I have ever hit pan on, lol!) Which is a light peachy pink that almost glows. Which is great as that was LE so when I run out, I now have this as a backup.

If you’re darker skin toned, this would make a lovely highlighter for a pink blush. I think as its quite pink I personally wouldn’t use it as an all over highlighter.

The texture is great, very pigmented and easy to apply and blend. Highly recommended that you haul this one :D

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OCC Lip Tars – Complex, Vapid and Belladonna review and swatches

Posted on May 7, 2012 by TGW

When I saw that Cocktail Cosmetics had some of the old style lip tars on sale for £4.50 I knew I had to haul some more of these lovelies!

I also had to have Belladonna from the new In the Garden collection because I love me some purple!

OCC has recently come out with new packaging for its lip tars, as seen on Belladonna on the left, not only does it contain 2ml extra of product, it also has a squeeze nozzle on the end it eliminate any ideas that the old lip tars should be used as glosses and applied straight to the lips.

I love these, as a little goes such a long way, I can’t imagine ever using a full tube, it’d take forever. Over application can lead to the lip tar feathering so if you want to be extra sure, use a lip liner with these.

These are a little drying but I can forgive them this one tiny little flaw and they last forever on me, 5-7 hours on me, less if I’m eating though. Even then they still have a bit of a stain of colour left on my lips. But if dryness bothers you, add a little lipgloss over these.

Some of the colours in this line are a bit out there, but these are made for mixing! Meaning you can have a few lip tars but make a whole load of different colours just by mixing them.

Belladonna is described as “Ultra, ultra violet” and oh it is. A bit darker than the pic below, my flash seems to have lightened it a tad. Its not a colour for everyone, but I love purples so this is right up my street. This is going to work best on cool toned skin tones as it is definitely a blue based purple. Its also going to make your teeth look more yellow so beware!

Vapid is described as Bubblegum Lavender. Its a shade that reminds me slightly of Lady Gaga (Maybe it just reminds me slightly of Viva Glam Gaga I). Its a blue based light pink. This is one for light skin tones definitely. Also will look better on cool skin tones. Anything above NC/NW25 I imagine this would be too pale for. But this could be mixed with another shade like Belladonna if you like purple but Belladonna is too much for you. This shade is now discontinued but I imagine Digitalis would be similar to this.

Lastly I have Complex, described as a “pale, greyed violet”. I personally put this more in the neutral category than in the purple camp but hey ho. I will say that this lip tar is pale. Super pale, like Jersey shore jizz lips pale. I’m NW15 and its almost too pale for me. I’d probably mix this with a touch of another lip tar, like belladonna or Vintage to make a paled down version of one of those. But I like this on its own too, maybe with a fill in my lips with a darker lip liner and have this over the top. Or on its own if I’m going for the Jersey Shore look.

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Meow Cosmetics: Spell, Skeptic and Snow Leopard review and swatches

Posted on April 27, 2012 by TGW

I couldn’t resist Meow Cosmetics Friday 13th collection, which is available every Friday 13th and also on Halloween.

I also wanted to try one of their wildcats in Snow Leopard so I added this to my order too :D

I love the formula of Meows cosmetics, Meow and Shiro are my two favourite indie companies.

Meows eyeshadow formulas are amazingly pigmented, blend so well and apply amazingly with and without primer.

The wildcats are described as a loose body glitter, snow leopard is one I use for my eyes (its amazing on the inner corners and the brow bone) and also as a highlighter for cheeks and décolletage.

Spell is described as “this one will make a believer out of you! bright periwinkle with copper and pink iridescent color changing fire” I love this. It is a light purple base with pink and copper shimmer to it. It looks purple in low light and shimmers beautifully in light.

Spell is described as “chromatic cerulean blue with green iridecent fire and aqua glow” This is a slightly dusty medium blue base with blue and aqua glitter. This is a bit more dupable than Skeptic but is still beautiful all the same.

Snow Leopard – “…as pure as the driven snow…with silver metallic sparkles!” I love this, being super pale its hard to get a highlighter pale enough for me. This highlighter is great, its shimmery without being a glitter bomb but if you take the sifter out like me, it becomes easy to overdo. This is definitely one for the pale girls, I’d say NC/NW20 and lighter, otherwise it’d just look too pale. Its a white with light silver sparkles. I couldn’t get the glitters to show in the photograph below, but you can see them in the swatch photos.

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NARS Jolie Poupee Eyeshadow Duo and swatches

Posted on April 7, 2012 by TGW

NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Jolie Poupee is part of NARS’s permanent line of shadows. Its full of purple goodness :D

NARS describe this duo as “Vibrant violet / Pearlescent purple”

The left side is a matte, my camera has picked it up as being more blue than it is in real life. It is a blue toned matte violet. The texture is nice considering its a matte. The pigmentation is good, it too two swatches to get it opaque and the colour was lovely and even.

The right side of this is the star for me though, a lovely frosty medium  royal purple that has a slight blue duo chrome to it. The texture of this is amazing, its amazingly pigmented.

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GOSH Extreme Art Liner in 01 and 17 review and swatches

Posted on April 3, 2012 by TGW

GOSH is a drug store brand in the UK and other countries. I’ve heard a lot about their extreme art liners, so when I saw them on clearance for £3 each, I decided to pick up two of them :)

GOSH describe these liners as: “a new liquid semi-permanent eyeliner. The combination of a fantastically soft and light formulation and an ideally formed brush makes it possible to draw a line that is beautiful, even and precise. Depending on the angle at which the brush is held, it is possible to adjust the thickness of the line – from very thin lines to super thick lines.”

These are waterproof, no doubt about this. I’ve had a shower with this liner on and it has not budged an inch. It does take a bit of scrubbing with eye makeup remover in order to get rid of this. So if you don’t like that, this won’t be the liner for you.

However if you have trouble with eyeliner staying put, this could be something for you. This is the longest lasting liner I know. Its a real shame they didn’t have the black one, otherwise this would probably become my go-to liner.

The downside to this is the brush, its a thin brush which can be tricky to get straight lines with this, it can also be a bit patchy and therefore take a few layers to get even, these layers then take a little while to dry.

01 – This is a metallic plum toned brown. Its really pretty and could be worn every day, for me I wish this was a little more plum and a little less brown.

17 (Light Purple) – This is a lovely purple metallic shade with pink and blue fine shimmer. Its super pretty, I wear this more of a cream shadow than a liner though.

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Illamasqua Cream Blush in Crush review and swatches

Posted on March 23, 2012 by TGW

This cream blush I got from the clothes show back in December and its been sat in my to be reviewed pile for a while :D

I got this on sale for £5 instead of £16.50.

Crush is described as a “deep raspberry red with a dewy finish.” This is definitely a raspberry, its a pinky red. Also don’t be put off by the colour! It looks super dark but this can be sheered out into a lovely plum shade.

If you want to make this a darker colour its better to layer this product instead of using one thick layer, as it has a dewy finish, it doesn’t tend to dry or set unless you sheer it out. However once set it last a good while on my skin, about 7 hours.

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Blog Sale :D

Posted on March 11, 2012 by TGW

I need to downsize my collection and I have a blog sale over on my Livejournal.

I got some sleek blushes, NARS eyeshadows, MAC Lip glosses and a whole lot more!

Click here to see :D

I’m in the U.K. but I ship anywhere in the world.

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MUFE Aqua Cream in 19 Violet review and swatches

Posted on March 10, 2012 by TGW

I got this MUFE Aqua Cream from IMATS in London this year. I’ve been wanting it for a while and with the discounts at the show, I had to have it!

This is such a pretty colour. However this particular shade is not available in the US, I imagine there is an ingredient in it that the FDA doesn’t like. But it is available in the UK from Guru Makeup Emporium and in Europe from Sephora, France.

And its a darn shame because purple can be a bit of tricky shade to get an nice cream shadow in. This is by far my favourite. Its a metallic purple with blue shimmer.

With the aqua creams you need a tiny amount, they really do last a long time, which makes them great value, they seriously pigmented and don’t budge or crease. I love them! They are my absolute favourite cream shadows (they’re better than MAC’s Paint Pots mainly because MAC paint pots dry out and I haven’t had  that with any of my MUFE Aqua Creams)

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Urban Decay Naked Palette Review and Swatches

Posted on March 9, 2012 by TGW

The original Urban Decay Naked Palette was released last year. I got this in the Duty Free bit of the airport when I last went away in January, its been sat in my “to be reviewed” pile for a while, lol.

This is £36 in the UK (but Beauty Bay has it for £32) and $50 in the US (at UrbanDecay.com).

I think I got this for around £27 though if I remember correctly.

This palette has 12 shades, a brush and a mini UDPP. 10 of these are in the neutral family and the last two are greys, which seem an odd choice but I like these two shades.

Most of the shades are shimmery (but no chunky glittery shades that Urban Decay is infamous for!) There are also a couple of mattes thrown in for good measure. As with all my UD colours, they have an amazing texture and great colour payoff.

Overall: I think this is great value for the price, you get 12 colours and they’re all great quality and value. The fact you get a brush and UDPP mini on top of everything else shows that is it truly amazing for the price. I don’t know if I’d get Naked 2, I think one might be enough, I’d have to see how many colours are doubled in the Naked 2 palette.

Virgin – Satin nude, as you can see this is very close to my nature skin tone. This would make an awesome brow highlight for light to medium skin tones.
Sin – A lovely shimmery peachy champagne, similar to Urban Decay’s Primer Potion of the same name.
Naked – A matte neutral tan, this would look great as a highlight on medium dark to dark skin tones. Would look great as a cut crease on light to medium skin tones.
Sidecar – A shimmery tan, has some very fine glitter to it.
Buck – A matte neutral light brown, this would be a great highlight for dark skin tones, and would also look great for cutting the crease on light to medium skin tones.
Half Baked – I have this in a few palettes now, its a great shimmery bronze that is so versatile. I use this colour all the time!

Smog – This is a much darker bronze than Half Bakes, with a copper reflects to it.
Darkhorse – This is dark neutral brown with fine gold glitter. This is less frosty than the others, almost a satin.
Toasted – A lovely shimmery rich copper. This one has such a smooth texture, its like butter.
Hustle – A warm lovely frosty medium brown.
Creep – A matte dark grey base with fine blue and pink glitter.
Gunmetal – A dark shimmery grey.

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Goodbye Google Friend Connect – Reunite yourselves with your favourite blogs!

Posted on March 8, 2012 by TGW

Further to my post on Sunday about the lovely Google withdrawing Google Friend Connect for non-blogger blogs. That amazing Lipglossiping has created a list of “bloggers in exile” those bloggers who like me, do not use blogger and therefore have lost some of our subscribers due to GFC being withdrawn.

Please check the list, make sure you haven’t lost contact with any of the blogs you read! Readers mean so much to us bloggers so the idea of losing readers makes me super sad.

Please check here for the list of bloggers affected by the loss of GFC: http://twitter.com/lipglossiping/goodbye-gfc/members

And lastly, I’d like to say a massive thank you to Lipglossiping for helping blogs, like myself.

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