'Give 'Em The Eye' With This Lily Lolo 'Smoky Eye' Set

I’ve heard many good things about the Lily Lolo brand (and notice they’ve won their fair share of awards) but have yet to experience it myself; however I have found myself eyeing up this little set which looks gorgeous.

You may well realise by now that I am a sucker for metallic eyes right now, and this collection seems to be perfect for my little obsession, and party season too (I’m talking about this a lot, can you tell I’m excited yet?) – I can just imagine the seriously smoky, sexy eyes that could be created with these!

The items included in the set are free from harsh chemicals, parabens and bismuth oxychloride so you can feel confident that no nasties are going on your skin when you use them; and they’re cruelty free, so you can be sure that no animals have been harmed in the making of them too. I love these ethics; more of this please beauty companies.

The set comprises of:

• Silver Dollar Mineral Eye Shadow – This is described as an ‘intense metallic silver’ – ooooh!
• Brooklyn Black Mineral Eye Shadow – Described as a ‘matte black base with a high silver sparkle’ – aahhh!
• Natural eyeliner in black – This is self explanatory, really.
• Their best selling Pure Sable Brush - So you can apply it, innit!

All this for just £16.50, seems quite the bargain if you want to treat yourself, or somebody else (or both)! Surely it’s worth a punt? I’m hoping that I’ll be able to test and swatch these for you to help you make that decision.

If you just like the look of them and want to go for it straight away then you can buy them here: http://www.lilylolo.co.uk/products/smoky-eye-kit

Swatched - Sleek Bad Girl Palette!

Now I've got my mitts on one of these palettes, I thought I'd do a quick swatch for you. I took pictures in varying lights/slightly different angles and all with flash (as it's been a dull day, at best), if it brightens up in the next few days then I will take more photo's with no flash.

I haven't put the product on as thickly as I could have done (which is more noticeable on the lighter colours) as I wanted to show you a true colour pay off on the skin, without having to pile it on. Obviously if/when you use the palette yourself, you can build up the colour as much or as little as you'd like, but the darker colours are highly pigmented - as you should see below.

 
Innocence - A shimmery white - but still quite subtle as doesn't apply heavily.
Gullible - A shimmery flesh tone, subtle and doesn't apply heavily, as above.
Blade - Shimmery/metallic silver (the lightest silver in the palette).
Gun Metal - Shimmery/metallic... gun metal grey.
Underground - Deeper grey (heading towards black) with slight metallic/sheen.
Noir - Fairly matte very dark brown, verging on black it seems.
Intoxicated - Metallic very dark olive green.
Envy - Even darker green that verges on the grey side, still metallic/shimmery.
Obnoxious - Fairly matte dark navy blue.
Abyss - Even deeper blue, seems fairly matte.
Twilight - Gorgeous metallic purple.
Rebel - Fairly matte purple that seems a bit more on the plummy side.

I totally recommend this palette, the colour payoff is superb and it actually lasts really well - after doing the swatches I left the colour on for a while and I didn't notice that much deterioration in the end result. It also didn't come off too easily when I was trying to remove it so I'm confident that I could wear these colours on a night out and not have to worry about it sliding off my face before the night is done.

Swatched: Models Own - Silver With Silver Sparkle & Grey With Silver Sparkle!

I love eye shadows – especially those that are sparkly, shimmery or metallic, so it’s no surprise that I bought these when I saw them on sale recently. I’m a total magpie and was instantly drawn to the aforementioned elements of them and couldn’t wait to try them out.

I love them both, however I was surprised with how the ‘silver with silver sparkle’ applied as I expected more of a solid silver colour, but it turned out to be quite a sheer sparkly silver which is actually quite nice (although takes a bit more work to apply, I found); so thought I’d swatch them so you guys could see for yourselves.

I’ve tried to take pictures from different angles and against different backgrounds (in the pots) so that you could see how the light reflects off them.

The products last well once applied, just be aware that as these are powder shadows AND glitzy that you may want to take precautions to either preserve your already applied foundation/powder or do it after you have used these on your eyes as they do have the tendency to go everywhere. I also recommend either quite a sturdy eye shadow brush or even a foam one so it controls where the powder goes when you apply it.

Models Own posted this almost a year ago on their blog with instructions on how to ‘get the look’ (shown below) but I feel that these are still bang on the money for this season, especially over the festive period.

Available here (click) on the Models Own website at just a fiver each (or less if you buy more)!

OPI & Katy Perry 'Sparkle and Shatter' Collection.

I'm sure that we all know by now that Katy Perry and Russell Brand were married at weekend, but do all of you know that she has also teamed up with OPI to create what looks to be a stunning nail collection, due for release in January 2011?

The collection comprises of 5 polishes, 4 colours and 1 that is a black shatter/crackle effect polish – much like the Barry M Instant Effects Polish that we’ve all been seeing (and possibly buying) lately. They’ll be priced at £9.95, available from OPI’s nationwide stockist www.lenawhite.co.uk and I really cannot wait to get these.

The colours included are as follows:

The One That Got Away

Not Like The Movies

Last Friday Night

Teenage Dream

Black Shatter

I’ll swatch some for you as soon as I get them, but until then I have found a video that shows the collection for you to whet your appetite.

Sleek Bad & Good Girl Palettes Out Tomorrow - Don't Forget!

This is just a quick post to remind you that the Sleek Bad and Good Girl Limited Edition Palettes are out as from tomorrow. I'm so excited to get my hands on the Bad Girl Palette and will be sure to do my own swatching once it's in my possession!

Will you be buying one, both or none of them?

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick - Rose!

I just love this Shimmer Brick; it’s the perfect blush to give you a bit of a rosy glow with just a touch of shimmer. You can easily build up a stronger colour, or leave yourself with just a hint of it which is another reason I love this so much. I think the fact that it’s not excessively pigmented works in the products favour as I do find that blushers can sometimes be too overpowering and way too easy to overdo on application.

The shimmer is not at all glittery, so you’re not going to look like you let a herd of children loose with several tubes of glitter (does glitter still come in tubes?) as you were applying your makeup. I find it gives quite a dewy finish that flatters the face and can be used to highlight the cheekbones perfectly.

As Shimmer Bricks come with a range of shades within the compact, you will find that you can customise the colour you get *very* slightly, by using certain areas of it more than others. You can also use the very lightest shades to highlight under your brows or any other areas you would normally use highlighter and because the powder appears to be very fine, it’s not going to look stupid or too heavy. I have this in gold and like to use it on my eyes sometimes too, great versatility.

I hope the picture shows the product adequately, feel free to ask if you'd like other shots as I can easily add more if you'd like. If you’ve been reading the blog lately, you’ll know that my normal camera is out of action and whilst it’s not a DSLR camera, it’s certainly a lot better than the camera on my phone that I currently have to use.

Essie Autumn 2010 Collection - Swatches! Better Late Than Never!

I just realised that I have yet to put up swatches of the Essie 2010 Fall Collection so here they are, all are taken without flash (except the last one, labelled 'with flash') in various lights of day and against 2 different backgrounds. I apologise, the pictures aren't great as I'm still using the camera on my mobile phone, but it gives a fair idea of how these go on.

Clinique Holiday 2010 Colour Collection: "Strawberry Fudge"

November sees the release of Clinique’s Holiday 2010 Colour Collection, a selection of products that fit the aptly named ‘Strawberry Fudge’ perfectly as they consist of perky pink and beautiful brown hues.

The collection consists of:

Limited Edition ‘Strawberry Fudge’ Holiday Compact, £25 which looks lovely and contains a Soft Pressed Powder Blusher in New Clover, and Colour Surge Eye Shadow Trio that has shimmering shades in soft pink, chocolate brown and dark slate. Love the packaging on this.

Vitamin C Lip Smoothie Antioxidant Lip Colour in ‘Strawberry Bliss’, £13.50 which is also new to the Clinique range and seems like it may be sticking around. This sounds delicious as the ingredients include pomegranate and açai berry which are packed full of vitamins and antioxidants that are bound to be good to your lips.

Defining Liner for Lips in ‘Plush Pink’, £12.50 to help extend your lipstick wear and prevent feathering, plus it has a built in sharpener – winner!

High Lengths Mascara, Black, £14.50. The claim is that the curved ‘willow’ wand applicator will follow the natural curvature of the eyes allowing the fine-toothed comb to grab each lash at its root and make eyes look wider and energised.

I haven’t had a chance to look at or test these, but the collection does look lovely from the pictures and I shall do my best to get hold of them and swatch them for you.

Exclusive To Selfridges - The Beauty Advent Calendar!

Christmas is getting ever closer, and something that is always associated with the run up to Christmas (aside from shopping and stress) is advent calendars. They’re commonly made up of sweet treats that you inevitably end up feeling a little guilty about eating (especially if they belong to your son/daughter/younger sibling etc) every morning in December.

If you’re bored of chocolate advent calendars (not bored of chocolate, I hasten to add) or think they’re just for kids, and have a spare £60 then this is just the advent calendar you need. It’s a beautiful beauty advent calendar and it’s packed with 24 luxury items that you can look forward to ‘receiving’ every morning in the run up to Christmas.

“Indulge in 24 days of luxury with this exclusive beauty advent calendar. Including products from YSL, Lancome, Giorgio Armani, Kiehl's, Shu Uemura, Viktor and Rolf and Stella McCartney, it's a unique way to count down to Christmas.”

I noticed it earlier, whilst browsing online and promptly asked Mr Beauty Scoop if I could “have a £60 advent calendar this year” he answered very quickly with something along the lines of “can you f#@k!!” so I assume that’s a no then. In his defence, he didn’t know it wasn’t chocolate that I wanted him to spend £60 on, but we all know that that’s not the point! 

Anyway, if you don’t live with a miserable tightwad (ha!) or indeed if you just fancy treating yourself then you can find these exclusively at Selfridges. If you do get one, be sure to let me know what you think of it! 

http://www.selfridges.com/

Avon SuperShock Gel Eyeliner!

I love it when a product comes along that excites me, and I’m very lucky to have been offered a chance to try such a product before its official (re-)release. Now you may be surprised to see that the product in question is an Avon product as although they’re widely known, they’re not usually the first brand you may think of when it comes to products that people should be (and are) raving about.

Their SuperShock Gel Eyeliner has been on sale before (as shown above), but is no longer on the website – it appears to have had a little makeover itself, now sporting a fancy pink lace design (below).

Eyeliners can be very hit and miss, performance wise; liners that are soft enough to smudge usually don’t stay where you want them to, and liners that stay put can be too hard to smudge. I’ve been through my fair share of liners and this one is one of the best that I’ve used.

Firstly, it’s so easy to use, you do not need to keep going over the same skin area to try and get a good colour depth as the colour payoff on the first stroke is incredible. Even the lightest stroke gives great colour and you can easily make the liner as thin or as thick as you desire. Below is a quick swatch (sorry about picture quality, my camera is still out of action) showing a quick and very light sweep of the liner on the bottom, and a normal sweep on the top.

If you want it smudgy then you have a window of opportunity to do it before the colour seems to set in place, and once it has done so then it stays put. I love love love this as there’s nothing worse than having your eyeliner ending up everywhere but the place you had wanted it to be.

I do think that Avon *may* have slightly missed a trick in making it retractable, rather than a normal sharpening pencil – unless, as I suspect it’s something to do with the formula possibly being too soft to use in this way, in which case I forgive you, Avon.

This appears to be the only real downside that I have found, as this means that the liner needs sharpening (using a good sharpener) more than usual as it is a bit softer than a normal liner (although I’ve found this with Urban Decay 24/7 liners too). However, for the price of the liner this isn’t such a big deal and you’re still going to get plenty of wear out of it before you need to repurchase.

I think that there may only be around 4 colours to choose from in this range (judging off the previous incarnation) but I don’t see this as a massive issue, so long as the staples are included, and I expect they will be. Maybe Avon will branch out the range once it proves to be popular.

This liner is a complete bargain, especially when you consider how well it works and how it lasts once applied. It will be priced around the £6 mark, although Avon regularly run special offers so you may even be able to get it cheaper, and it’s available from October 28th.

Individual StriVectin Wrinkle ID Consultation @ Harrods & Harvey Nichols!

"Take up the NEW StriVectin Challenge

Clinically proven results and a healthier, younger looking skin in just weeks!"

"Join us at Harrods and Harvey Nichols for an individual wrinkle ID consultation on the proper treatment and effective defence against wrinkles.

• Dramatic improvement in fine lines

• Overall improvement in skin texture and tone

• Dark eye shadows and circles diminished

You’ll also receive a complimentary deluxe sample of our new StriVectin SD collection on presentation of the attached invite."

I’ve personally not had any experience of using StriVectin but I have heard very good things about the brand in general from both the press and in general beauty chit chat with friends and acquaintances; so when I got this information sent to me I thought I should pass the information straight onto you guys as this seems like a very good way to introduce yourself to the brand if you’re not already familiar.

I think even if you are already fairly familiar with the brand that this is also a great opportunity to get some personalised product recommendations based on your skin and any wrinkle problems or concerns that you have.

The claims the brand make are impressive and more importantly seem to be clinically proven too, with the pictures on the invite (available to download below) showing noticeable changes in the before and after shots.

These events are going on in 2 locations (shown below) so if you are in or around London whilst it’s going on then make sure you print off the invite (click me) and get yourself down there as soon as you can, as I’m sure this will prove to be very popular.

• Harrods, Knightsbridge, 17th-30th October

• Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, 24th-30th October

Goodness 'Grey'cious Me!

This year I have noticed quite a few reports on and pictures of celebrities with grey hair; not only celebrities that are showing off their naturally grey hair and being proud of it (e.g. Kristen McMenamy), but also that celebrities who don’t yet have grey hair that have been dying it silver/grey as a fashion statement (e.g. Kelly Osbourne).

I’m quite intrigued by this as being grey has always seemed to be a no-no when it came to being in the spotlight. If only the grey hair revolution had happened whilst I was at school, it could have saved me a lot of embarrassment all those years ago; if you want to know why then just carry on reading...

I had an unfortunate incident after a visit to the hairdresser once, when I was in my early teens. I was actually going there to get some blonde highlights (using a cap eeek) in my hair as it was the thing to do at the time (around the same time as the ‘Rachel’ haircut actually) and naturally I wanted to fit in with my school friends; so off I went with my mum to have it done.

Once it was done and I had seen my hair in their mirror things were all seemingly fine, that was until I got home and I had chance to have a look at my hair in my own mirror! I got such a shock, they had left the bleach on for so long that my ‘blonde’ highlights were actually white, and mixed in with my brown hair it gave it an overall grey appearance. I hadn’t noticed until later because under the hairdressers lights it had looked more blonde than white, so I had left there happy. 

Predictably when I went to school the next day people were asking me why I had dyed my hair grey like a grandma, I had hoped they wouldn’t notice but in all fairness in the broad light of day it was a lot more noticeable. Now because kids are kids, for the following few weeks I was renamed Granny, Grandma, and Nana etc etc which is funny now, but at the time was mortifying (especially after the ‘Cuthbert’ incident I suffered when I was about 9 – that’s a story for another post though). Luckily it wasn’t permanent but the stress of it going wrong could have quite easily made it that way!

So what do you guys make of these ‘grey’ celebrities? Would you ever be brave enough to not cover up any naturally grey hair you have, or if you’re not already grey would you ever be so bold as to dye it grey or silver?

Updated: Models Own 'Car Key Collection' - The Verdict!

You may remember me writing about the Models Own ‘Car Key Collection’ a short while back! Well I have been testing out the polishes and am back to tell you my thoughts on them. Firstly let me tell you about the polish rather than the colour, as if a polish doesn’t last or apply well then it doesn’t matter what colour it is.

Application was very easy, the polish went on much smoother than I thought it would, because of the bargain price of just £5 each (less if you buy more on the Models Own website). The coverage was also better than I thought it would be for the price, I did do 2 coats but I think I could have got away with just one coat if I had been in a rush.

Drying time was ok; it was touch-dry in a relatively short time – although with my 2 coats it did take quite a while to be completely hardened. This meant I did get a couple of dents accidently (story of my life) in it, but that’s no reason to not buy the polish though as I find this to be the same with many polishes at all price levels.

I applied using Models Own 3 in one base coat, top coat and gloss underneath, and then another layer over the top of the polish. The result was glossy and smooth, and more to the point it did not look like cheap polish.

I am SO impressed with how this has lasted, I had thought it would chip after only a couple of days but the first chip only appeared on day 8 (evening) of wearing it.

I did a minor rescue job with one coat of polish over the bit that had chipped and that seemed to hide the chip to an acceptable degree as a quick fix, but I think another coat would have been a lot better and I think you’d barely have known it had chipped. Still, it’s not a bad result for a very affordable polish in my opinion.

The colours stay true to how they look in the bottle, apart from going a little bit darker once dried on the nail but not dramatically so. Shown below both with and without flash - sorry if they seem a bit cut off at the bottom, they seem to be going a bit wonky when uploading - for reasons unknown to myself - you still get the idea though!

Without Flash!

With Flash!

With comparison to the Chanel Khaki range, I wish I could tell you how it compared in my own experience, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find anywhere with the Khaki Collection in stock to purchase and compare. I can however point you in the direction of the fantastic blog from British Beauty Blogger (above is a little screen shot of her site, added with her permission of course) where you can see for yourself that there is a difference between the colours when compared next to each other, but don’t let that put you off buying any of these, as these polishes are lovely colours in their own right as you can see above.

I am still on the hunt for both Chanel Khaki Collection and other potential dupes so if there are any updates, I’ll be sure to post it up. If you have any potential dupes that you’d like investigating before you spend your hard earned dosh on them, please let me know and I’ll do my best to find out and swatch for you.