crazylibellule and the poppies

Good name, huh?

Makers of The Crazy Sticks, little solid perfume sticks, which I have just acquired 4 of. They come in very cute, handbag-sized packaging, perfect for carrying about with you.



There are 4 collections; Les Divines Alcóves (love stories), Poule de Luxe (vanilla based foodie scents), Shanghaijava (oriental, exotic scents) and finally Les Garçonnes (paying tribute to free women, apparently). All come in similar styles the same adorable packaging.



The four I chose were:

The Kiss which is sweet vanilla, violet and iris fragrance. I love violet, but not this violet, sadly this one is really not my thing and will be getting passed on, it's too musky and old smelling for me. I found it very clawing and had to wash it off after a couple of hours. Not good.

In Love is rose, berry and sandalwood. It's lovely; powdery, sweet and soft smelling. It smells quite old fashioned to me, but in a good way.

Vanilla Pom d'Amour as the name suggests is vanilla and apple, red apple I think, with a spicy hint to it too. It reminds me a bit of a festive scent as it settles, definitely a warm winter smell. Not something I would say is typically my kind of smell, but nice for a change.

And finally, my absolute favourite, Ananas Impérial smelling of grapefruit, pineapple, peach and lime. It's gorgeous, so fresh and juicy and sweet. It's a proper mouth watering scent and I love it, definitely my favourite.

Of course, now I have tried a few and looked on the website, there are at least another 5 I have to have. Most of them in the foodie range, which all sound delicious.



These dinky little scents are not cheap, mine were £6 each at half price which isn't bad, but normally they are around £12 each, which is quite a lot for such a small amount, especially as they currently only seem available online, it's a lot to spend without being able to try them out first.

They seem to last pretty well, and there are apparently hundreds of applications in each tube, so I guess time will tell on a value for money front, I'm certainly quite content with getting mine at 50% off.

Overall, I would say for the cuteness and delicious scents they are definitely worth a try, provided you avoid The Kiss.

Stila Lip Glaze Sticks

These arrived from eBay the other day and I am really please with them, a good selection of colours presented in a funky and easy to carry packaging. The pencils are really very similar to a highly pigmented gloss but slightly less runny. They go on nice and smoothly and give a good colour.



Whether they are really any better than a million other lip glosses I wouldn't like to say but the pencil style is very cute and easy to carry about and they do look great on, although I found a couple of the darker shades quite dark for me, I'm never really sure about wearing darker colours of lipstick.



Apparently they are supposed to be flavoured and scented similarly to their names but I haven't really found this to be the case, Gingerbread definitely has a cinnamon hint to it but the rest are just generic sweet fruity flavoured like most gloss products, pleasant but not different enough to distinguish.

Overall I'm glad I got them to try out ad I will definitely use them, but I certainly would pay the $16.95 advertised on the box for one!



Colour swatches:


Grapefruit on lips:

Jumbo Eye Pencil Update

I finally received my package form America, containing 10 of these beauties and was desperate to try them out. My first reaction was massive excitement as the colours are fantastic and they feel super creamy and lovely to apply.

Colour swatches:


Now that I have had a chance to try them out in a couple of different ways I have a few reservations. They do go on fantastically well, really smoothly, they are easy to apply, easy to blend and very blend-able. The one small drawback I am finding at the moment is that if I use them too generously in the crease they do tend to crease quite badly after a while, even when applied over a base (UDPP), saying that, it's not really bad creasing and can be re-blended throughout the day with a finger if necessary, it's just that I would rather that wasn't necessary. I also need to try out applying them using a brush as I think that might help.



However, they are fantastic for making the colour of eye shadows or pigments really pop, the colour pay off applying product on top of these is great, almost too great, I have yet to managed anything too subtle yet, they really do make every colour bright.

What I do love them for is as a liner under my eye on the lower lash line, they give a really soft, blended look down there with minimal fuss and look great. I also found them great for a quick splash of colour, apply your chosen colour all over the lid, blend upwards with your finger and then seal in with a similar colour of eyeshadow, I did this look at the weekend, it took 5 minutes and looked really nice, so definitely handy for days when there isn't time to do a proper blended look with shadows.



All in all I am really pleased with them and will continue to use them and see what application technique works best for me, so far it definitely seems that less is more and they have to be well blended to stop immediate creasing.

Urban Decay Primer Potion.

Urban Decay's Primer Potion is probably my all time favourite beauty find. It's, as the name suggests, a primer for your eyes. In the past I have had issues with eye shadow creasing a bit by the end of the day. I am not a big fan of having to so touch up throughout the day so ideally I want my makeup to stay put.

Applying the PP under my shadow means that not only do I have a nice smooth base to work on but also that the colours shows up amazingly and stay put all day. Plenty of people online recommended this stuff but it wasn't until I saw the results for myself that I was hooked, it really does work!

My only issue with it is the stupidly shaped tube it comes in, guaranteed when you think you have run out and none is coming from the tube on the applicator you will still have more than half left, the shape of the packaging means the majority of it gets trapped in the curves of the bottle. Simple solution though, saw it open and store the remains in a little pot! That way you use all the product and save yourself from buying a new one way too soon. There are tutorials all over the web on how to do the sawing so I won't go into it.

On the whole, one of my wonder products that I would never be without.

Perfect Powders

I currently use two, both as cheap as chips but excellent, I think.

As my main face powder I use NYC Colour Wheel Mosaic Powder in Translucent Highlighter Glow, it's light and gives pretty good coverage and it also has a highlighting element to it which means more of that lovely light reflecting action that you get with Skinlights. My face must resemble a glitter ball on the days I over do my make up.



There isn't much to say about this powder really, except that I love it, it lasts well, goes on smoothly and best of all is a bargain buy at under £5.

On top of that I use another product which I have to hunt down online, as a blush I use W7 Illuminating powder. I'm not a big fan of blush, I have nightmares about turning into one of those girls with two bright pink go-faster stripes down their face, so I tend to stick with lighter colours and subtle blush rather than any real pink or red coloured product.



The W7 is perfect for this it gives a rosy pink glow with a bit of shimmer and can be built up if I do fancy having a pinker cheek.

Again, it's a bargain at under £3!

Skinlights

I know I post a lot about eyes and eye make up, specifically because it's my area of interest and what excites me most in terms of make up, but I do use other products as well, so this post, and possibly the next few, talks about face products instead.

I currently don't wear foundation, for a number of reasons, the main ones being it never seems to stay on and by half way through the day it's sliding all over my face, I hate that over made up, orange look which is very easy to stray into if you are even a shade out in your colouring and I've never really found anything that cover well without doing one of the previous two.

What I do use on my face is my number one top wonder product, Revlon Skinlights.


I have been using it for years, around 15 years actually which is scary, and although it doesn't seem to be available in most UK shops now it's totally worth tracking down online.

It gives a really nice natural glow to the skin and kind of wakens your face up a bit, but is still light enough to not look like a full coverage foundation while diverting attention from small blemishes and uneven skin tone.

Generally I just stick on some Skinlights and powder over the top, but, it can also be used after you've applied foundation and powder as a highlighter, like a cheaper version of Benefit's Highbeam.

When Skinlights were available in UK shops they retailed at around £9.99, however, since I've started sourcing them online you can pick them up for a good deal cheaper than that, in fact last time I think I got 3 for £12 off eBay, so it's worth searching around.

Sunset

A couple of snaps of the iDivine Sunset palette from Sleek, which obviously I couldn't resist when I saw it.







Another collection of really wearable shades for a bargain price!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils

My new obsession! Obviously, I chose something awkward to obsess about, it wouldn't be so much fun otherwise.

NYX is a very well regarded drug store brand in the states, known for being good quality, great colours and very reasonably priced. Although NYX products are available on a couple of UK sites, they are much more expensive and generally less easy to get hold of here than they are in their native land.

The JEPs come in a fantastic choice of colours, so obviously I was powerless to resist to urge to track them down and try them out for myself:



Anyway, a little more information; the jumbo pencils, are, as the name suggests, big chunky pencils for your eyes. They can be worn either as liner or shadow but what I want them for is to use as a base. They're well talked about online as a perfect, and cheaper, alternative to MAC Shadesticks. For those who don't already know, Shadesticks, as well as being great to wear alone, are a perfect base to show off your eye shadow colour and make it really pop. They are also an ideal base for glitter or shimmer powders and pigments which need something to stick to.

So, I tracked down a seller on eBay who will send 10 JEPs over here for $20 plus $6 shipping, queue much excitement! UK sites are charging £6 each. Now it's just fingers crossed to see if they turn up, and how soon. In the meantime, have a look at the colours I am waiting for!


Next NYX update should be when I get them!!

More looks

Teal:









Fireworks inspired eyes for Nov 5th; terrible pictures as the light was bad:










Navy:






Yellow & Orange:



Special squinty eye shot:

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Swatches

Eventually! I am the proud owner of the new Super Stash set from Urban Decay:


I was slightly concerned that a lot of the newer colours were doubling up on the existing ones in the line so I have done some comparison swatches. The names are on the photos and should show up better if you open them in a new window.

Ransom & Lust.
Ransom actually seems brighter and more vivid than Lust which shocked me, I was expecting it to be a bit darker and less vivid, definitely a different shade though which is good:



Underground, Bourbon, Corrupt & Oil Slick.
Underground is darker than I expected, which I am pleased about, though lighter than Bourbon. Corrupt is a good bit darker than Bourbon. Oil Slick is black but with quite a bit of glitter in:



Binge, Deviant, Covet, Flipside & Electric.
Binge is navy, although not dark, dark navy, it's darker and less vivid than Deviant. Covet is a lot more teal than the others and darker. Flipside is turquoise, and quite a light, matt shade. Electric is the lightest of all:



If you'd like to see side by side comparisons of two colours other than these ones, let me know!