Nail Varnish

I used to be very into my nail varnish, but laziness and having short stumpy nails for climbing has put me off in recent years. However, of late, I decided I didn't have enough stuff to spend my hard earned cash on and have become a big fan again.

So hopefully, from now on, I will have lots of lovely nail swatches to add too, for now here are some recent shades:

*sigh*

So it appears the being able to post from work was a glitch in the Matrix and I actually still can't 99% of the time.

I have a load of stuff to upload and ramble on about, for now have a look created using the new MAC Art Supplies line which I am currently in LOVE with.







Back later with more Art Supplies details.

Illamasqua Vow pencil

I really am a marketer’s dream, I read a few reviews and watched a couple of YouTube videos recently which mention one of Illamasqua’s medium pencils; Vow, a nude shade which can be used on eyes, lips and face, wherever you like really as a highlighter and particularly in the waterline to brighten your eyes up instead of a white pencil which can give a really stark look. So, needless to say, I had to have one, although I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with it.

I’ve been wanting to try out some Illamasqua products for a while, also based on various reviews, as the colours look fantastic and they are supposed to be pretty good quality, so having a different type of product to try seemed like a good idea for starters.

The pencil was £12.50 and on first impressions it looked like it would be really good, however when I got it home I was slightly disappointed that using it in my waterline wasn’t much better than white at all and still made me look a bit odd, with freaky light lining around my eyes. All was not lost though, I tried it out on my cupid’s bow and around the lip to see how that worked, and it was fantastic! It looks really subtle, not like an obvious line, but it makes my lips look twice the size – in a good way – and properly pouty! A definite winner on that front.

It’s also handy as an under brow highlight, I struggle to get eye shadow to look natural as a highlight and don’t really like to pull it all the way up to my brows anyway, for fear of looking a bit too drag, so a nice thin pencil which can be smudged just under the brow is ideal for me.

Overall, not as successful as I’d hoped but definitely shows promise. Maybe with a bit more trial and error I’ll get it working right on my eyes too.

OCC Lip Tars

These are (one of) my new obsession(s). Here's what they have to say about them on the OCC site.

A stunning new innovation in lip color, OCC Lip Tar combines the longevity of a lipstick, with the ease of application of a gloss. Goes on slick and moist, and dries down to a satin finish. Ultra-saturated in color, Lip Tar contains an unprecedented amount of pigment - a little goes a very, very long way! An intense yet featherweight layer of color that stands up to the scrutiny of Hi-Def Video and Digital Photography, without ever looking (or feeling!) heavy. Meant to be mixed, Lip Tar comes in concise array of colors for a limitless selection of shades made by you!

Like all of our products, OCC Lip Tar is 100% Vegan and Cruelty-Free, and is also free of parabens and other harsh preservatives. A simple, elegant formula that contains Hemp Oil, Peppermint Oil and Vitamin E, OCC Lip Tar feels as good on the lips as it looks!

There has been loads of hype about them on the web, and until recently they weren't available in the UK, so when they did become available to buy online I had to purchase a couple to check them out.

I ordered two:
Hush
Grandma

They are very opaque, probably a bit too opaque for a lipstick phobic like me, but they do work well as a stain if you use a tiny amount with gloss, so I have been using them like that. I am not totally sold, and wasn't 100% about the colours, but when the site selling them sent me a £5 gift voucher and had an extra 15% off I did have to go back for another couple:

Uber
Demure

Needless to say, as soon as I had ordered these they put the colour swatches on the site (they had silly, tiny circles of the colours before) and now I am unsure as to whether I have made the right choice *panic*. However, before ordering, I did do a lot of research online and looked at plenty of videos and swatches, so hopefully the colours on the site are not exactly as they are in real life, I'm not quite sure I can pull off Uber if it is a muddy brown as it appears look?!

They are made to be mixed, so I am hoping with the four I now own I should be able to make lots of lovely colours. So far, even with only two I've found I prefer the colours I've created by mixing to how they originally come out of the tube.

Next on the hit list, annoyingly not an option when I ordered the previous 2;

Memento

It would be rude not to, it looks just my colour and they are giving money to cancer charities with each sale, so technically it's like charity, not buying more make up.

More on the Lip Tars later.

Sorry.

I have been hideously remiss in updating. Not that I haven't had anything to say, but I have, until recently, been unable to update from work and haven't had much time in the evenings. Hopefully now I have day time access I will be a little better at updating.