Hogmanay Inspired Look

Last night I was extremely bored and decided to do a makeup look inspired by Hogmanay (New Years Eve in Scotland).  Although Hogmanay takes place at night during the cold, dark Scottish winter, I always associate it with both warmth and light as a lot of the coverage of the various events across the country involve fire (like Up Helly Aa, the Fire Twirling at Stonehaven and the fires and lighting in Edinburgh Castle) and of course everyones homes are warm and lit up as everyone welcomes in the New Year plus the skies are always full of fireworks.  Like most Scots, I love Hogmanay and consider it to be the main event of the year (my Mother never really got to celebrate Christmas as a child and all emphasis was on Hogmanay, so the traditions in her family were kept as we were growing up- although we got Christmas as well). So this look tries to capture the warmth and sparkle of Hogmanay (although the photographs don't show it too well, it is much more vibrant, the colours better defined and sparkly in reality).

Anyway, hope the New Year is good to everyone and you everyone stays safe if they are out celebrating.

Happy New Year!

TFSI
Sleek Molten Metal in Gold- Lid
Sugarpill Goldilux- lid and middle 1/3 on lower lashline
Barry M Orange (77) Dazzle dust- inner 1/3 of crease
Barry M White Gold-y (15) Fine Glitter Dust- over 77 and inner 1/3 lower lashline.
GOSH loose eyeshadow in Fox- outer 2/3 of crease
MAC Black Tied-Crease and outer 1/3 of lower lashline
MAC Gold Dusk-Highlight
Collection 2000 Glitterliner in Funk (it is gold)- over Goldilux
Bourjois Glittery liquidliner- Upper lashline
Bourjois Clubbing mascara- Black
GOSH Velvet Touch Liner in Black- Waterline

Review: Ciaté Nail Polish

Ciaté Nail Polish in Regatta (£9.00).

I had been keen to try this brand for quite some time but had never got round to ordering anything until a local department store started stocking it. The presentation of the nail polishes is fantastic with lots of bright colours, cute but stylish bottles and at £9.00 were not extortionate. As the selection was quite good I had considered buying 2 or 3 but managed to restrain myself and only buy Regatta, a navy blue with specks of silver shimmer in it. I'm glad I only bought one as I was seriously disappointed. The polish applied smoothly and even with one coat it went on opaque and did not look streaky and I was delighted. However, my delight did not last long. Once the polish had dried it looked very dull and almost powdery, I was quite disappointed but even then it wasn't too bad as once I had applied a top coat as it took away a lot of the dullness although I would have expected it to be a bit better.  The worst thing has got to be how badly and quickly it chips. I have tried everything I can think of to make it last longer but to no avail. Within two hours of application (when all I had been doing is watching tv) it was chipping, I was a bit irritated by this as no other nail polish I have used in about 10 years has chipped so quickly and under so little stress. If it had been a new company or a cheap polish I wouldn't have been so annoyed but Ciaté have been around for a few years and £9.00 isn't really that cheap (especially in comparison to the fantastic Barry M polishes which cost about £3.00). I had considered that it could just have been the Regatta colour/formula which was the problem but I spoke to one of my friends who had used them and she had the same problem with different colours and formulations. By time I had had it on for about 5 hours, I had to buy some nail polish remover as it looked really untidy, more in line with having worn it for 2 or 3 days (and having cleaned the house, typed and bathed/showered with hot water- the usual day to day stuff). The 'long lasting' comment on the bottle is a bit of a joke.

In short, I wouldn't buy this again and I was disappointed as I had expected something wonderful and got something I would have thought should cost £3 or £4. The dullness without a top coat I could deal with but the ease with which it chips is harder to overlook and it is a pity.

2 coats over an OPI base coat and under an OPI top coat.

EOTD: Golden Gothic

Sorry, I haven't posted for a while as I've been a bit busy.  Last week I started a new job- it is only temporary but I'm hoping to get something more permanent  after Christmas. Sadly, due to the nature of my job makeup is strictly forbidden as is perfume, nail polish, strong smelling cosmetics, products containing nuts and jewellery, we must also wear some rather unattractive hair nets and overalls. In short, it is well outside of my comfort zone, although that had nothing on the horror of standing for 8 hours (which is going to be 12 as of tonight for the next 2 and a half to three weeks, although the pay should be quite good provided the shifts don't kill me, lol). So, in order to get back into the swing of blogging again, here is a look I did a couple of weeks ago:

MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack-tightline
TFSI- Prime
Sleek Molten Metal in Gold- Lid
Sugarpill Chromalust  in Goldilux- Lid
Body Shop Glitter in Gold- Over Goldilux
Sugarpill Chromalust in Stella- Outer 1/3 and crease
MAC e/s in Black Tied- to blend out Stella
MAC e/s in Dazzlelight- Highlight
MAC Blacktrack- Upper Lashline and Waterline
Benefit Badgal e/l- Lower lashline
T.F. Lash Injection Mascara
Brown e/s on brows.

This is quite a nice look for this time of year, I paired this up with a Black Barry M lipstick.  I would use and even lighter Foundation (I find it difficult to get the Stargazer stuff to work on me, so I was stuck with my usual NC15) to make the look much more gothic.

New Blog

I have noticed that I've been  increasingly blogging about things unrelated to makeup so I have started a new blog which I hope to get  lots of readers of. It is much more general than this one with baking, photography and just a variety of different posts which are not makeup related. I hope that you check it out and subscribe (if you like it of course).

Blog Sale

I have been forced to look at my makeup collection recently and have come to the conclusion that I have far too much that I don't use, much of which has only been swatched and that I know I won't ever use.  I have therefore decided to start selling it off in order to make more room and to make some money for something which, if it works out, I won't be able to take it with me or will have to try to get rid of it next year.

I will be putting prices on these but am willing to sell some of these items for a bit less. If there is anything you want email me at makeupaddict77@gmail.com or leave a comment.

Prices do not include delivery which is £2 in the UK, I can send them outside of the UK but contact me  for a price.  All Items will be sent as recorded delivery (non negotiable). For multiple items add 50p.

Sleek pallets £4.50: Chaos; Graphite; Sunset; The Original; Bad Girl; Safari; Storm; Good Girl (not pictured)

Collection 2000 Dazzledusts £2: Fairy Dust; Heavenly; Illusion; Jaffa; Rose Coloured

Hard Candy eyeshadows £5: Popsicle; Buttered Popcorn

Sleek eyeshadow dust £2.50: Jet Set

Nyx chrome shadows £3: Platinum; Baby Pink

MAC lipsticks £9 (£10 for style curve): Speak Louder; Pervette; Style Curve; New York Apple; Lustering; Sandy B; Ever Embellish; Most Popular; Kanga Rouge.

Nyx round lipsticks £2.50: Strawberry Milk; Fig; Louisiana; Spellbound; Orange Soda; Power; Pandora.

Sleek Lipsticks £2.50: Pink Freeze; Mystic; Amped; Cherry

Maybelline diamonds lipstick £2.50: Iridescent Rose Diamonds

Stargazer lipsticks £1.50: 104; 114 

MAC Select Sheer Pressed Powder £10: NC20

Too Faced Lip of Luxury £7: Pink Flamingo

Too Faced Glamour Dust £8: Glampire

Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Gel £5: Bootleg

Nars eyeshadows £10: Night Porter; Night Flight

Nyx Diamond Gloss £2: Red Sparkle

High Voltage Lip Whips £3: Hot Head; Synth Pop; Tainted Love; Midnite Desire

Too Faced Lip plumper £4

Ciate lipgloss £4

RMK Irresistible lipstick £8: Holographic Cherry Red

Sleek kohl £2.50: Noctournal

Too Faced Wrinkle Injection £6

Benefit IT stick £5

L'oreal Glam shine Crystals £3: Amethyst Stars

Bourjois Clubbing liquidliner £3: Black

GOSH liquidliner £2.50: 2;12

Barry M £2.50black glitter, bliue, champagne

Nyx £2: Oyster: Cherry Red

Nyx Lipgloss £3: Wild Orchid

GOSH shadesticks £3: Purple; Brown

Barry M Glitterlashes £3: Purple

MAC Technakohl £6: Uniform

MAC Shadesticks £ 7: Red Velvet; Cakeshop

MAC Solarbits £6.50: Scatterrays; Bronzescape

Pigment £6.50: viz-a-violet

Lipgloss £7: Dreamy

Liquidlast £7: point blank

Lipgelee £7: valentines

Blusher £10: springsheen

Rainbow Cake

New Neighbours...

Slightly Depressing Illamasqua Post

This is my third attempt at writing this post, not because I messed up the last two but because I find this post difficult to write as it requires me to draw upon the worst time in my life.

Yesterday Illamasqua announced their "Final Act of Self-Expression" collaboration with a London Funeral directors to provide makeup artistry services for the recently deceased's funerals. The intention I'm sure is to offer a service which would allow those for whom makeup played an important in their identity to be made up in a way which they would have had done whilst alive. However, I am not convinced that this is coming across in a way in which they intended, it does seem in poor taste, namely because many of the people who would want this service are young or at least much younger than the average life expectancy. It is not 'natural' in Western society for young people to die, it is not common place to expect to lose a loved one so early on in life, so such deaths will ordinarily be extremely traumatic, if it had been a service offered through funeral directors, it would be fine or if this scenario were really commonplace it wouldn't seem as bad.

My primary objection comes from the fact that this could create an unrealistic expectation as to how the dead person will look. The model in the images advertising this is obviously alive and looks fantastic, much more like a sleeping character out of a fairytale than a corpse. Despite the common misconception, it is difficult to make the dead look alive, when my Mum died I was present and the change was instantaneous, the body she had once lived in looked like that of a stranger and no amount of make up would have been able to change that. As a result we decided that the coffin lid should be shut and no viewing allowed, although viewings are fairly common where we come from in Scotland (there were viewings at my Grans funeral, at my great-Grans twenty years ago and at all but one (out of necessity, rather than disapproval) of my families funerals in Scotland). Opinions varied as to the success of this but my Mother had said that my great Gran "looked like a vampire-it was horrific", she had said that it wasn't down to the make up or and lack of skill on the part of the funeral parlour. I think this could be selling an unrealistic expectation to someone who is dying and to relatives who have just been bereaved. 

Birthday EOTD

I am now inescapably in my late 20's which is a slightly depressing thought. Had a reasonably good day, My Dad and brother had bought this massive chocolate cake meant to feed 20 people and as a result we're going to be eating a lot of cake to get rid of it and I got to but a load of books without having to pay for them myself.

Makeup was a 1980's inspired but fairly simple look.

TFSI

NYX jumbo e/s pencil in oyster- lid

Sugarpill chromalust in birthday girl- lid

Medusa's e/s in electro purple- crease

Medusa's e/s in electro green-lower lashline

MAC p/m in pink opal- highlight

Barry M white eyeliner-waterline

Collection 2000 glittery liner in disco queen- upper lashline

Benefit bad gal lashes

Margarita: Love and Destroy

I was really bored earlier today so I decided to try a look inspired by a scene in my favourite book, The Master and Margarita. This is kinda how I think of her makeup during her flight over Moscow (not at Wolands Ball where I imagine her face to be even paler, more sharply contoured and the eyes darker- a bit like how they did Illamasquas Dystopia collection a couple of years ago).

I initially thought of trying to replicate the look in the video at the bottom (the song is Love and Destroy by Franz Ferdinand and the video is a scene from a Russian tv adaptation of the book). I had remembered the eyeshadow wrong so it is quite different.

Swatches: Ben Nye Green and Purple Eyeshadows

Royal Purple, Amethyst, Cosmic Violet
Mermaid Green, Jade, Chartreus

Ben Nye Eyeshadows-Size

I recently bought 2 Ben Nye Grand Lumiere eyeshadows and was surprised at the difference in size between the individual ones, the palette ones and a MAC eyeshadow. Considering that a Ben nye shadow costs about £11 it is amazing to see just how much you get compared to MAC.

Miscellaneous Non-makeup Post

This makes me wish I lived in London, a feeling I have been getting quite a lot over the past 6 months. I have been looking into moving there and it is probable that I would need to move there anyway as most of the jobs in the field I want to work in are based there, as well as 2 of the Universities where I would want to do a PhD.

There seems to be a lot to do in London, plenty of shops and a chance to reinvent myself as something other than a shy, slightly reclusive nerd who never goes out. I have decided to try save up when I get a job and try to move there once I finish my Masters next summer. Not really sure why I'm posting this here but I suppose it is since I'm trying to find a starting point for moving. I have been to London twice and one those time was to get the Eurostar, so doesn't really count. I have no idea what areas are good but not too expensive and not too far away from the city centre.

Old EOTDS

I had intended doing a post on pressing pigments and a look with the ones I have pressed today, however, my mishap with the pigments yesterday has ruled that one out and as I don't want to aggravate my eyes any more than they have been, I won't be doing an EOTD today. So, here are some of my older ones that I haven't posted:

Not sure of these colours but I think the lighter one is Bitter (MAC) and the darker one is Sassy Grass (MAC- LE).

This one was done using all of the colours in the Sugarpill Burning Heart and Sweetheart Quads.
This was done with the 88 colour shimmer palette.
I think this was Juxt and Atlantic blue by MAC, with my favourite false lashes.

Pressing Pigments/ Ordering Fail

I made my first attempt at pressing pigments the other day and they looked pretty good, so I ordered eyeshadow pans, a pallet and a couple of other things off the internet yesterday afternoon and I was quite happy until last night. The pigments had been dry for more than 24 hours, so I decided to try them out and I felt as if my eyes were going to melt out of their sockets, it was really sore and they are feeling a bit sensitive just now. All thoughts of pressing any more pigments have gone out of the window, the alcohol clearly does not agree with me and I have no desire to re-test the pigments. The pallet can easily and cheaply be sent back to the seller as it was from in the UK; the empty pans, dropper and the presser were cheap but there are 50 pans on their way here and everything will just be left in a box doing nothing but getting in the way. I was going to contact the seller but I checked the account which said that it has been sent so there is nothing I or the seller can do about it until it arrives.

If there is anyone out there who wants 50 empty tin 26mm eyeshadow pans, the presser and a dropper can email me at: makeupaddict77@googlemail.com.

I shouldn't have ordered until I tried the pigments on my eyes. Lesson (painfully) learnt.

EOTD's: Purples

Was a bit bored and have been playing with makeup this is what I did tonight:

TFSI

MUFE 92-Lid and 2/3 lower lashline

MAC Lucky Tom- over 92

MAC Romping- Crease and inner 1/3 lower lashline

Sugarpill Dollypop- above crease

MAC Yoghurt- to blend out Romping

Sugarpill Tako- Highlight

MAC Stately Black- outer 1/3 lower lashline

Maybelline black kohl liner- waterline

Barry M- Purple glittery liner

Too Faced lash injection

MAC Pink Reflects glitter-over Romping

A nice simple look for nipping out to Tesco:

TFSI

MAC Vibrant Grape inner 2/3 of lid and lower lashline

Ben Nye Royal Purple- outer 1/3 lid and lower lashline

MAC Vellum- Highlight

Maybelline black kohl- waterline

Too Faced lash injection

Too Faced lash injection pinpoint

EOTD: Too Christmassy for June?

I really like this look but I think that it might be a bit too Christmassy for June.

TFSI

NYX Rocky Mountain Green e/s pencil- Lid

Sugarpill Chromalust in Tipsy-Lid

Sugarpill e/s in Love+ - Outer Crease

Sugarpill e/s in Flamepoint- Inner Crease

Sugarpill e/s in Dollypop- Blended into top of Love+

Ben Nye e/s in Mermaid Green- In crease

Sugarpill e/s in Tako- Highlight

Sugarpill e/s in Buttercupcake- Inner Corner

Sugarpill e/s in Love +-Inner 1/2 Lower lashline

Sugarpill e/s in Poison Plum- Outer 1/2 Lower Lashline

Maybelline gel liner

Maybelline black eye kohl

Benefit Bad Gal lash'es

EOTD: Purples

TFSI

Medusa's Makeup loose e/s in Purple Rain- Lid

Sugarpill chromalust in Hysteric- over Purple Rain

Ben Nye e/s in Royal Purple- above crease

Medusa's makeup e/s in Electro Purple- over Royal Purple

Sugarpill chromalust in Weekender-inner crease

Sugarpill e/s in Afterparty- lower lashline

Sugarpill chromalust in Royal Sugar- over Afterparty

MAC e/s in Black Tied- crease

Sugarpill e/s in Tako- Highlighter

Maybelline eye Kohl in Black- waterline

Bourjois glittery liquid liner- upper lashline

Benefit Gad Gal lashes