Dressing table and storage

Some photos of my dressing table and storage- nothing spectacular or interesting (love the butterflies!) but have been in bed for a few days with the flu and my skin has been very red, dry and disgusting and I haven't felt like doing much. Have a nail polish review in the works and may do a skincare routine/review and a FOTD (if I can get my skin looking okay tomorrow morning)

Absence/ Bad News

Just a quick post for tonight.

I haven't been able to post for a while for a variety of reasons, primarily it has been that for the past 2 years (almost) my Mum has been battling cancer. In September we were told it was terminal (despite the tumour having been found early and being operable, the doctor waited 5 MONTHS to set the operation date by which time it was too late) and after being sick for a very long time, My lovely Mum died at midnight on 30 January 2010.

Unsurprisingly, I haven't much felt like doing anything far less blogging but I have resolved to get back on track as after Uni (I missed 2 classes in her last 2 days and was off on the day of her funeral) I have found myself at a loose end without her to talk to and need to distract myself from being upset. It doesn't help that Since August I have put on more than 2 stone in weight and have felt bad about posting pictures of my makeup.

Hope to have some reviews up in the next few days.

Possible blog sale..

Due to having a great deal of makeup I never use and never will, tutition fees needing paid and 2 trips planned I have decided to sell off some of my makeup, shoes and handbags. Having never done anything like this before, I am not sure how to go about it, whether or not to restrict it to this blog, ebay or livejournal etc.
If anyone can offer a bit of advice it would be appreciated.

Swatches: Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol.2

As promised here are the swatches from the UD Book of Shadows.

L-R: Perversion, Gunmetal, Ecstasy, AC/DC*
L-R: Nylon*(G),Sellout, Mushroom*, Sphynx*(G)L-R: Half Baked,Twice Baked (G), Midnight Cowboy Rides Again (G), YDK

L-R: Jinx*, Flipside, Homegrown*, Misdemeanor*(G)

Review: Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol.2

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. 2 (£27 Boots)

As mentioned in my last post I have wanted to get my hands on this product since I heard about it, so on Monday I was delighted to discover that my local Boots had some in stock and bought it on the spot (missed out last year due to assuming that there would be some left closer to Christmas - I learn lessons).  I can now see what all the hype is about, it is amazing.

The set has 16 eyeshadows, 2 eyeliners and a primer. 7 of the shadows are limited to the set and the other 9 are available in the full size version from the regular line.  Most of the eyeshadows are shimmery and 5 of them are glittery (Midnight Cowboy Rides Again is extremely glittery whereas Misdemeanor  has a very subtle glitter to it, the rest fall between these two). In keeping with the rest of the UD eyeshadow range, they are highly pigmented.  Most colours are represented in the set (purples, greens etc.) and since it has the eyeliner and primer it is excellent as a gift or to take on trips/holiday etc.

I noticed that one of the Limited Edition colours is called AC/DC, UD used to have an eyeshadow of this name about 8 years ago but it was more like MAC's Beauty Marked in terms of colour and glitter. This AC/DC is a shimmery purple and bears no resemblance to the old one (incase anyone remembers the old one and thinks it'll be the same).

The eyeliners are mini versions of the 24/7 liners in Zero (black) and Bourbon (brown). The primer is a mini version of the famous UDPP and there is also a mirror and a booklet in the box.

It might be obvious but I am kinda in love with this product, Great for anyone who has few eyeshadows or has some of the bigger sizes and wants the limited edition ones .

Swatches to follow.

Update

Another update, since I have not done or bought much recently but it will be the start of term in the next few weeks and hopefully I will be able to buy some of the amazing stuff I've had my eye on recently.

Seen a lot of posts about the new Illamasqua collection (Dystopia). I'd like almost all of  the products in the collection, which is in contrast to Sirens where I was fairly indifferent to much of it. Urban Decay has also got quite a few things that caught my attention, the new primers look good and I would kill for the new Book of Shadows, which I missed out on last year due to the delay in my funding. From looking at the official US website there are a number of great products due out but, sadly, it does not always follow that what is released in the USA will be released in the UK but fingers crossed. The same goes for the Too Faced site, they are advertising the Teddy Bear hair bristles on a variety of brushes aside from the kabuki and flatbuki both of which I have and love. I wish that even if these products weren't sold in UK stores or on a UK based site, you could buy them off the US site and pay for the shipping to the UK.

I have also noticed that Lime Crime are bringing out a range of lipsticks on the 1st October.  I have fallen in love. I have wanted to try the eye dusts but felt that $12 + shipping was a bit steep for 0.07 oz of product but for a gorgeous bright lipstick ($16)  I think it would be worth it and I could buy a dust to try it and not feel as bad about it. The range of bright and bold colours is quite impressive, it has pinks, purples, oranges and red, as well as a black and a blue lipstick,which for a collection of 10 colours is quite good, as not even MAC carries black or blue as permanent colours and Illamasqua doesn't carry a blue (I wouldn't be surprised if this changed one day).   The other thing that stands out is the packaging:  a bright pink tube with a holographic unicorn, what isn't to love about that?  I only hope that it is as good as it seems otherwise I am going to be very disappointed...

I am keen to try the OCC lip tars especially Anime, Pageant and Katricia.  I recently did the makeup for one of my friends and her two sisters for her wedding, which got me thinking about freelancing.  I do have a lot of good makeup and brushes and as lipstick and eyeshadow etc go, I could do some nice looks  for people of different races and skin tones but when it comes down foundation and powders etc,  I only have NC and NW 15 and 20's. Clearly, that is not very helpful, in the town I grew up I suspect it would have been perfectly possible to work with such a limited range but where I live now, it would be difficult to do much with just those. Foundation costs a lot when you have to buy several different colours, so when I was on OCC's site I noticed that they have small sizes but that was for the airbrush system. I have been wondering if it is possible to use these without an airbrush machine and just apply with brushes. But don't want to waste money to find out if it looks okay or not.

I am overjoyed that it is almost time for the Boots Christmas catalogue to be released. Every year I race down to my nearest Boots to grab one and look at all of the stuff they have got in.  It has been like this for years, the only decent places to buy anything in my hometown and the neighbouring towns was Boots and Superdrug (and even then the range was quite restricted), so when the catalogue came out I would give my parents a long list with just about everything from the 17 and Natural Collection ranges on it and hope that on Christmas morning I would have lots of bright and smelly goodies under the Christmas tree. They would sometimes buy a couple of the things on the list as well as "proper" presents, i.e. things I would be able to keep and wouldn't be used up by New Year.  It is much better now that I can buy my own things and don't have to wait until 25th December. Especially now that I'm a bit too old for lists and they would have no idea what to buy, what I've already got and my Dad would have a heart attack at the tills at the price of a singular lipstick, so best done myself.

I love autumn and winter more than summer and spring. You can really go for drama in your makeup and wear lovely deep spicy perfumes and wear gorgeous deep purples and other jewel colours.  It is also easier to wear foundation without it being too hot or humid and ruining the look.  Autumn and winter tend to (or at least they seem to) last quite a long time in the UK, so I suspect I'm in the right place in that respect.

Review: Illamasqua Fetish Lipstick

Illamasqua Lipstick 'Fetish' £14

Haven't been out much so I have not been wearing much makeup recently, so it has taken a while for me to roadtest it and then life turned a bit hectic, meaning I didn't have time to write it up.

Anyway, when the product  was applied the colour was gorgeous and vivid- exactly as I had hoped it would be. I found that it had quite a dry, matte texture (as I think most illamasqua lipsticks have) which coupled with the colour, meant that it really was not very forgiving on dry lips.  I think to get it to look decent you really need to exfoliate  and moisturise your lips better than with MAC (generally speaking).  It would probably be a good idea to use a good lip primer to help with this.

Otherwise there is not too much else to say except that this colour is amazing under the "Fierce" lipgloss.