After a lot (and I mean a lot!) of requests for more of the palette, I thought I'd get a review up on here for those of you who might not be watching my Youtube videos.
This palette is from Bee Royal Products and costs $70.00, which is reduced from $79.95. I'm aware that sounds quite a lot of money for a palette but I will explain why it's such good value later on in the post.
The palette measures 23cm wide, 15cm high, and 1cm deep so it's a little bigger than a MAC 15 pan palette.
Within the palette you get 16 eye shadows (15 shimmer and 1 matte), 2 matte blushers, 2 shimmer blushers and 2 lipsticks. So that's $3.81 per product. The $70.00 price converts to around £49.00 (according to xe.com on 30/03/09). I'm working in ££ simply because that's my currency. MAC eye shadows cost £9.79. I know I mention a slightly higher price in my video but tax is slightly reduced for a few months, £10.00 will be the price when tax is raised again at the end of the year. So, for 16 eye shadows from MAC you would pay £156.64, quite a lot more!
With the palette you get a piece of paper which tells you the names of each product. I've glued mine to the top of my palette as it kept falling out! Actually, it's a lot better having that loose bit of paper than having the names printed on the bottom of the palette or not at all!
I know I'll get asked the question - "Are they MAC quality?"
Yes, they are. They surpass MAC in my opinion. But then I don't find MAC to be the be all and end all of quality makeup. I can find shades in this palette similar to some of my MAC and the Bee Luscious ones are so much softer and more pigmented. Some of the swatches below may look a little sheer but they're supposed to be highlight, shimmery reflections of colour rather than a block of colour for the lids. They're soft, pigmented and so easily blended. The matte shadow is rich in colour and in no way chalky.
Swatches are swatched in the same order as the palette.
-Charm -Bullet -Fetish -Eggplant -Yellow Diamond - one of the shimmery highlights -Envy -Distressed Khaki -Morning Moss - the other highlight
-Blue Dreams -Backstage Blue -Moody Blue -Fantasy -Daffodil -Washed Denim -Neo-Plum -Orange Zest - matte shade
It may look a little bit of a mish-mash of colours but there are so many combination in here!
I did find the "Tickled Pink" lipstick very sheer, it only showed up on my lips as a sheer shimmer. I thought both of the lipsticks were somewhat drying, but I will be trying them over lipbalm next time I use them. The lighter of the pinks might be pretty over a darker lipstick to add some shimmer.
So, overall an absolute brilliant palette. It might be considered a little pricey, but I think it's worth every penny.
The weather is finally warming up, flowers are coming out and the clocks went forward today. That can only mean one thing - Spring has finally arrived. In honour of the season, and inspired by the daffodils on my way into work, I decided on a fresh yellow and green spring look.
I used my Bee Luscious Spring/Summer 09 palette for this look.
I used: -L'Oreal True Match foundation "Rose Ivory" -MAC Shadestick "Corn" over lid and lower lashline as base -Bee Luscious eye shadow "Daffodil" over lid -Bee Luscious eye shadow "Envy" in crease -Bee Luscious eye shadow "Yellow Diamond" inner corner of lid -Bee Luscious eye shadow "Orange Zest" under lower lashline (all from Spring/Summer 09 palette) -Body Shop Shimmer Cubes "18" (silver shade) as highlight -MAC Fluidline "Shade" top liner -Sleek Glitter Liner "Steel" over top liner -Mascara -Bee Luscious Blusher "Sparkling Rose" -Bee Luscious Hint of Mint lipgloss "Mint Pearl"
I am repeatedly asked why I don't feature upcoming MAC collections or reviews of collections or pictures of limited edition collections.
I thought I'd just spend 5 minutes letting you know why!
Basically, there are so many blogs out there doing that already that I really don't feel like as though we need another! Besides, I think there are very few who could beat Temptalia for upcoming collections, product pictures, swatches and reviews!
There are a couple of other reasons why I don't feature collections as well. That might change if I happened to be near a MAC when there was a new collection out and I'd bought a few things. In that case I'd show pictures and swatches of what I did buy.
I'm no where near a MAC. At all. It takes quite a bit of travelling, there isn't one in my entire county. I think the nearest is about 70 miles away. I'm aware that I could order from the website, but that gives me huge delivery issues (including my work address being in an industrial area so not a valid delivery address, grrr) so I rarely bother.
Also, collections in the UK are so far behind the US. You lot in the US are already over Hello Kitty and Sugarsweet and looking to the next one. Sugarsweet isn't even out for another 2 weeks. So by the time I've got round to buying stuff for the collection and showing it, it's old news.
Besides, I don't have the money to keep up with MAC collections.
I love glitter! Something about it just makes me incredibly happy. I've got a few glitter liners in my stash, but I find very few occassions to wear them. I really do need to make more of an effort to include glitter eye liner in my every day make up. Yes, you did read that correctly, I do plan on including more glitter eye liner in my looks! It can be done if you are subtle about it. A little hint of charcoal glitter liner over black liner is subtle and pretty. Plus, you can snigger to yourself all day that you are wearing GLITTER!!!
Imagine my joy then when these popped into my life:
Sleek, one of my favourite make up lines has bought out 5 glitter liners!! I love that they've not done the usual "bring out a gold and silver glitter, then one or two colours later on" thing that most lines seem to do with their glitter liners. I'd love to see a rich emerald shade though. I have no idea if more shades will be added in the future, I hope so!!
The brushes in these are fab, they remind me a great deal of the Urban Decay liquid liner brushes which are pretty much perfect. They're not floppy or too stiff, no bent hairs and the brushes hold the shape wonderfully. Isn't that pink close up just yummy?
Onto the details! They're roughly £3.50 each for 5.5ml. As always, a great price from Sleek.
But, I know you want to see swatches. These are swatched in the same order as the above picture, with one dip into the bottle.
The glitter is suspended in a clear gel. The gel sets on me in about a minute, a little longer if I've applied a thick layer or glitter. The glitter sets really solidly in the gel and doesn't budge once the gel has dried. To remove at the end of the day I just wipe with my face wipes rather than washing off with the oil. I do find washing off with cleansing oil can migrate the glitter all over your face!
You'll have to forgive the manic expression in the full face picture, I do tend to look like that first thing in the morning! Normally I'd wear my hair down for my FOTD pics but I really wasn't quite awake at that point so my hair was still pulled back. I thought the eyes came out pretty today. I really needed that little bit of bright colour.
I used: -Lily Lolo Foundation "Candy Cane" -Urban Decay 24/7 Concealer "CIA" -Lancome Colour Dose "Rose Bahamas" over lid as base -The She Space pigment "Wonder With Me" damp over lid -Fyrinnae pigment "Mischievous Puck" dry in crease -Boots No 7 pinky cream eye shadow as hightlight (no name on case) -MAC Fluidline "Blacktrack" as top liner -MAC Kohl "Hyacinth" bottom liner -Boots No7 Dreamlash Mascara -Benefit Dandelion
I bought this as an alternative to the Smashbox Photofinish primer as the Smashbox isn't readily available where I live. I'd seen several great reviews of this so I decided that I'd give it a go.
Gosh is sold in the UK at Spuerdrug, pretty much every Superdrug has some kind of Gosh stand. Though in some of the stores, it's a huge stand. I actually bought this at the Meadowhall Superdrug which had one of the very large, open benches as the Gosh stand. But this product is even sold at the Superdrugs with only a narrow stand (Lincoln, Grimsby and Boston as examples).
You get 30ml (1.0 floz) for less than £10. I think it was around £9ish. I could be wrong, I don't have the receipt any longer and I didn't note the price last time I went into a Superdrug.
The primer is a matte, colourless gel. I noticed no definite scent to it. The texture of the gel is very smooth and slippery. It smooths out very easily and evenly over my face. I used my fingers to apply it after pumping some onto the back of my hand. It felt as though it absorbed into my skin quite quickly, leaving it smooth and even. Foundation applied very smoothly over the top of the primer.
At the end of a day of work, about 12 hours after I've applied both the primer and foundation, I'm aware of feeling it on my skin. I can touch my face and feel the primer. It's a feeling that builds throughout the day. Straight after application it feels wonderful but as the day goes on, it begins to feel a little greasy, not oily, but greasy.
Then, around a week of using this every day I began to get spots. Not the occassional hormonal breakout I get however. These were deep and painful spots. I haven't had spots like that since I was 15. I did suspect it was a new moisturiser I was trying but something I'd seen in a video about primers made me then suspect it was this primer. So, without making any other changes to my skincare routine, I stopped using this primer. Within 2 days my spots had virtually gone.
While I'm aware it may have just been a flare-up I'm not prepared to try using this primer again just in case I get spots like that again.
Not really a full FOTD today. I had a slightly manic look to my full face pictures and it was either retake the photos or post the ones I had before nipping off to work. I'm not always the most photogenic of people at the best of times, never mind early in the morning when I'm off to work!
I used: -Afterglow foundation "Cameo" -Lancome Colour Dose "Vert Provence" over lid as base -Fyrinnae pigment "Hauting" wet on lid -Fyrinnae pigment "Steampunk" dry in crease -Urban Decay liquid liner "Revolver" top liner -MAC eye kohl "Rosmary & Thyme" lower liner -Barry M 3in1 mascara
A bit dissapointed in the "Steampunk". It's a beautiful bronzy brown over a black base but when applied dry the shimmer all but vanishes and you're just left with a soft black. Maybe it'll work better used wet as an eye liner.
I'm sat here covered in sparkles and shimmer. It can only mean one thing! I've got some new Sweetscents pigments! Joan was also kind enough to sneak a little brush into my parcel but I forgot to photograph that. It's called "Oval Camouflage". Looks to be very useful for applying creamy eye shadow bases.
So, here are the pigments:
I got: -Jardin -Calypso -Spearmint Glow -Lotus Flower
They're all very smooth and richly pigmented, just what I've come to expect from Sweetscents. The "Spearmint Glow" is a welcome addition to my collection as I'm missing a really good minty green colour. I think they're all on the limited edition page.
I love how they just seem to glow! They're all applied damp as about 90% of the time that will be how I wear them. The photo was taken at night so there's a slight orange cast to the right hand edge of the picture.
I haven't neglected you, don't worry! I have been very busy finishing off a college assignment which was for last night so my usual semi-regular updates should be back on track!
I've got a review to do after work tonight but I thought I'd leave you with a FOTD for now. I haven't posted one for 10 days, I am sorry. I've got loads sitting on my camera but I decided there was no point posting previous ones.
I hope you liked this one!
Used: -Afterglow foundation "Cameo" -Lancome Colour Dose "Argent Zacateca" as base over lid -Fyrinnae Pigment "Equality" wet over lid -Fyrinnae Pigment "Party Crasher" dry in crease -Boots No7 cream shimmer from an old palette as highlight -Sleek Gel Liner "Stone Cold" -Boots No7 Extreme Length Mascara -Urban Decay Blusher "Score"
I think I'll be reviewing the Sleek Gel Liners soon.
Just to let you know that Iona Cosmetics is going to be closed for a week or so. I know a few of you have ordered from them after I've featured some of their Go Cosmetics products in my videos. They're moving this week so let's hope that everything runs smoothly.
They've let me know that they'll be closing on Friday and getting back online around 24th.
Good luck with your move! Twitter is going to be very quiet while you're offline :)
Recently I received a parcel from Mineral Face FX containing 8 pigments, 1 mineral liner and an eye shadow brush. I've discovered that the photos on the website do look washed out compared to the actual products. The minerals are much more vibrant than their pictures show.
The website is split into different categories (Blush FX, Foundation FX, Eye FX, etc), plus there are several different categories for the pigments.
All jars come with sifters (I prefer to remove mine). They're in 5 gram jars and are $5.95 each.
So, these are the 9: -Plum Frost -Purple Halo -Vanilly -Ice Princess -Shasta -Sea Breeze -Apple Martini -Charcoal Briquette -Black Liner These are all very interesting pigments. Once applied, there are many coloured shimmers and sparkles that aren't immediately obvious in the jar.
All swatches applied damp over bare skin. Fortunately I managed to crop out the huge bruise I'm sporting near my thumb! I have a habit of hitting my hand right on the corner of benches. Ouch. Swatches are done in the same order as the jar photo.
-Plum Frost - Light purple in the jar, absolutely glows when applied. Looks like it has a little red iridescence. -Purple Halo - Looked to be somewhere between fuchsia and purple in the jar. Opening the jar revealed lots of green sparkles. Unfortunately this pigment is very difficult to apply. The sparkle has a slight gritty texture causing the pigment to apply unevenly, even when applied damp. -Vanilly - Oooh pretty peach, I thought. Very richly pigmented with a blue iridescence that doesn't overwhelm the peach. -Ice Princess - A white shimmer that is much more complex than it looks. A hint of blue/lilac iridescence and some sparkle without a gritty texture. -Shasta - Gunmetal grey shimmer, I'm sure there's a hint of golden shimmer as well. -Sea Breeze - Lovely mint shimmer with silver sparkle. -Apple Martini - Gorgeous!! Apple green that has a gold glow. A little sheer though so it needed a couple of layers for the swatch. -Charcoal Briquette - Matte black base that blends out to a smoke. Silver sparkle adds a little unique touch. -Black Liner - Eye liner rather than an eye shadow. This is black, black, black. Very rich and velvety black. Makes my MAC "Blacktrack" fluidline look like it isn't black.
So, overall I'm pretty impressed. The liner is fantastic and is going to be a staple for me when I need black liner. Out of the remaining 8 pigments, 7 are spot on with colour and texture. "Purple Halo" just doesn't quite work texture-wise for me. The green sparkle is a brilliant touch but makes the shadow very difficult to use.
Here's a video I recorded using some of these pigments. As you can see, applying a dry layer of "Purple Halo" over the damp layer really brings out the colour.
Right now I feel like I'm about a week behind the rest of the world! I got this parcel from Bee Luscious last friday and have only now had chance to have a really good go through everything! The palette was the stand out item, but more on that in a bit.
-Spring/Summer 09 LE palette -Signature Shadow Quad "Rock Diva" -Automatic Liner "Onyx" -Volume X Mascara "Ink" -Hint of Mint Gloss "Mint Pearl" -Calming Chamomile Day Lotion So, the lotion is really nice. I've been using it as my daytime moisturiser for a few days now and I seem to be getting on with it really well. My skin is drinking it straight up and feels relly soft throughout the day.
The lipgloss is really pretty. Not a very opaque milky pink/peach as I was afraid of. It gives a very subtle sheen. It's not completely matte. The quad is just gorgeous! I love the silver, it's very bright and metallic.
Now, the palette!! It's just beautiful. I'm almost too scared to dip the brush in as it is just so lovely. But tomorrow, after I've been to work, I will be recording a video with a look from this palette. There are 16 eye shadows (15 shimmer/sparkle, 1 matte), 2 matte blushers, 2 shimmer blushers, and 2 lipsticks. The photo above is quite large so you can see how lovely it is! The flash has washed it out a little though.
I'll review the palette later on and I plan on giving more in depth opinions on the rest of the Bee Luscious products.
A question I see popping up a lot is how the MAC and Shu Uemura cleansing oils compare to eachother. I bought a bottle of MAC's Cleanse Off Oil last time I was at a MAC so I have both to compare.
I will be using each to remove 10 days of make up and at the end I'll be writing up what I thought of each. I say 10 days of make up so that each will be used the same amount. If I said just a week then one might get used 5 times and the other 6 times. I don't wear make up every day. I won't be alternating them so that I can see if my skin reacts to either. Although I've already been using the Shu Uemura oil for about a year and haven't had a problem.
Since I've upgraded the camera to a fabulous fully HD camcorder, getting the actual video to a state that will upload on Youtube takes hours! It used to be fully done and uploaded onto Youtube less than an hour after pulling it off the memory card. It's taking 20 minutes just to get the footage from my camera to a format my laptop will recognize. So that means there will only be one video a day at the most for now.
Hard Candy! Not a brand I ever got into as I was always distracted by the Urban Decay counter. But I love the eye shadow quad! Here's everything open and a closeup of the quad:
Of course, I just had to use all that in a video over the weekend. For some reason though, I completely forgot the eye liner. Oh well, I'm sure it'll feature soon. I didn't take a picture but the eye liner comes with its own turquoise sharpener. So cute.
-Super Slim Eye Pencil "Vibe" -Training Brow Pencil & Gel "Dark Haired Girl" -Lip Sync Quartet "Princess" -Eye Shadow Quartet "Drama Queen" Here's the look I did.
They're running a competition for my Youtube subscribers so keep a look out for the video, which will be going up tomorrow evening. All the details on how to enter will be on there. This is the picture they sent me for the prize!
I've had this gorgeous green from Fyrinnae in my stash for a little while now so today I had to dig it out to use. It's a lovely shimmering green with sparkles. I was also naughty on Saturday and bought a new Urban Decay liquid liner. I think I'm slowly collecting them all.
I used: -Gosh Velvet Touch foundation primer -Lily Lolo foundation "Candy Cane" -MAC paintpot "Greenstroke" as base on lid -Fyrinnae pigment "Leif" wet over lid -Fyrinnae pigment "Rebellion" dry in crease -MAC eye shadow "Nylon" as highlight -Urban Decay liquid liner "Lucky" top liner -Boots No7 Metallic eye pencil "Green" lower liner" -L'Oreal Panoramic Curl mascara -Nars blusher "Sin"
To me, Gosh is a very hit and miss brand. There are a few really good products, there are also a few that I really didn't like. One thing that I have found to be a huge hit is there Velvet Touch Eye Liners.
They're available in a rainbow of colours and cost less than £5.00 each. In the UK they're sold at Superdrug, I'm not sure where they are sold in the rest of Europe. I have 8 of the liners now. The first one I bought was the black one ("Black Ink") which is a true, deep black.
These are very soft liners. They tend to break if you have them sharpened into a very fine point. The texture reminds me of the MAC Powerpoint liners. The softness does help when applying the deeper colours, especially the black.
Most of the darker colours are very pigmented but some of the lighter ones are very sheer so they need to be layered up. I do wish the silver one was more pigmented, it takes a couple of layers to show up well on me but it's a fun shade to use on the lower lash line to add some interest to a look.
There is a very good range of colours, and not just the usual shades. I'm sure I've seen an orange on at some point! One of my favourites is called "Metallic Brass". It looks like a black liner but has a subtle sheen which softens the colour.
They last quite well on me. The softness does mean that they smudge, whether you want it to or not! If you're creating a smokey look then they're great for the smudging as they never really dry on me. They stay creamy and smudgy all day. I don't really have a problem with the ones I wear on my upper lash line but the deeper colours smudge on my lower. It's possible the lighter, more sheer ones do as well but it's not as noticeable.
Here, they are swatched in the same order as the above picture:
Anyone who has watched any of my Youtube videos will know that I love Barry M dazzle dusts. The colours are just amazing for the price (£4.50 a jar). So, I was lucky enough to get my hands on the 6 new colours that are out in stores later this month. They're already available on the website: here.
Here they are in all their lovely glory! There's even a matte shade (#93). These are all gorgeous!! I think my 2 favourites are #96 and #98. The last 2 are actually deeper than in the picture. The flash has reflected off the iridescense. They're both loaded with shimmer over a very deep base. The swatches show the colour much better:
-#93 "Block Blue" - Matte aqua blue. Not at all chalky! -#94 "Teal" - I thought it was a little light to be Teal, lovely shimmer. -#95 "Parrot Green" - Lovely grass green, I think the finish is more satin. No over the top shimmer. -#96 "Gold" - Intense metallic yellow gold. Gorgeous! -#97 "Dark Chocolate" - Not the colour of Bournville, but the 90% stuff. Very deep and rich. -#98 "Petrol Black" - My favourite out of the 6! Black base with aqua shimmer. In some lights the shimmer looks red and purple.
Overall, 6 very impressive new dazzle dusts! I probably won't use the matte one quite as much as the others but the last one is going to make a gorgeous liner.
Good morning! If you follow my Youtube channel you might have seen me playing with my new camera! I'm still playing with the settings so videos might not be appearing as HQ.
You know, sometimes I get absolutely overwhelmed by what's happened with Youtube. I'm nowhere near as popular as some, but things have just been going nuts lately. I've got so much coming up that I can barely keep up. I'm enjoying every minute of it though.
Anyway, I dug through the "Bag of Doom" this morning and found a couple of mineral eye shadows that looked nice together. Peach and green is a favourite combo of mine, especially now that Srping is making a slow appearance.
This is my FOTD for work so excuse the half asleep look and scraped back hair.
The peach is only a sample but I might have to buy a full sized jar.
I used: -Gosh Velvet Touch foundation primer -Lily Lolo foundation "Candy Cane" -Lancome Colour Dose "302" thin layer over lid -Fyrinnae pigment "Rapunzel Had Extensions" damp over lid -Fyrinnae pigment "Poison Arrow" dry in crease -MAC eye shadow "Naked Lunch" as highlight -MAC fluidline "Shade" top liner -Gosh liner "Woody Green" lower liner -Boots No7 Lash 360 mascara -Nars blusher "Orgasm" -NYX Diamond Sparkle lipstick "Flamingo Sparkle"
Buying drugstore foundation in the UK can be a bit of an ordeal. The testers are always disgusting and we don't have the returns policy that you American folks are so lucky to have. Over here, cosmetics are only returned when legally required (that is, when the product is damaged or defective). Not liking something is not a reason that will be accepted. A faulty foundation pump will be swapped for the same product.
So, I've had numerous request to review Maybelline's Pure Liquid Mineral foundation. I had a quick look at Tesco and the colours seemed ok. I squeezed out a bit of the tester for the palest shade onto the back of my hand then held my arm out so that I could get back into my car and apply some.
I applied a couple of streaks to my jawline and it looked ok. No obvious lines where I'd streaked it on. As I was in a bit of a rush, I had to wait before I went back to buy some.
Next time I went over to Tesco I bought a bottle of "010 Ivory". This cost me £7.82 (gotta love the VAT reduction for creating some strange prices) for 30ml. It's described on the bottle as non-comedogenic, Talc free, Oil free, Fragrance free, SPF 15. Not bad, I thought.
Well, in all honesty, I hated it.
It was too dark and too yellow. I'm aware that doesn't make it a bad product, just one that doesn't match my skin. However, it had that feeling of liquid foundation. I hate feeling like I've got something on my skin. It didn't blend into my skin at all, just sat on top of it. It clearly looked like I had foundation on. I'm not sure what the micro-minerals are though and I don't like the foundation enough to bother looking it up.
I received this from Beautycounterdirect about 2 weeks ago and I've been using it pretty much every day since then.
It's for sale on the website for £23.99 which is a reduction from the rrp of £29.99. They are currently selling 7 shades but on a YSL counter you will be able to find the full range all the way up to the deepest skintones. I'm using shade "01 Ivory" and it's a perfect match for my pale winter skin. I really am that pale! I don't go much darker in the summer though but I might need to go up a couple of shades.
So, as you can see it comes with a brush at the end for application. The brush twists round to open and close the tube. It comes with instructions:
So, what do I think? Well I adore the foundation but don't like the brush! I apply a small amount to the back of my hand as the picture shows then I use a synthetic kabuki to apply the actual foundation.
That gives you some idea of the colour of shade 01.
I am an absolute mineral foundation lover. I never got on with liquid foundation as I hated the way they felt like they sat on my skin and I could never find a shade that was light enough. This is completely different! This feels very lightweight and I don't even notice I'm wearing it.
I find using a synthetic kabuki gives a more natural, airbrushed look to the foundation. I had trouble blending the foundation using the brush attatched as it's quite a stiff brush. I ended up with a few brush streaks over my forehead. The synthetic kabuki requires much less work to apply the foundation as it blends as it applies.
After showing the application in a Youtube video, I have been asked why you need a synthetic rather than an animal hair brush. An animal hair brush will absorb some of the foundation into the hairs so it will not go on as smoothly and you'll probably need more. The foundation sits on synthetic hairs without being absorbed. I always recommend synthetic brushes for any liquids or creams.
This has light reflecting qualities so it's not a matte or flat foundation, but it doesn't give a dewy finish either. I find my skin absolutely glows without looking the slightest bit oily when wearing this. If you are especially oily then you may need to set this with powder but I haven't found that I've needed to.
I wear this foundation to work, where I am sometimes in a very steamy and humid environmet. 12 hours later, I still have a full face of foundation. I am very well trained not to touch my face at work though so that might have something to do with it! I do have some slight oilyness across my forehead by the end of the day but it doesn't seem to be causing this foundation to come off.
This foundation does have a slight scent which some describe as watermelon. It fades quite quickly on me.
So, overall I'm very impressed and I'm likely to repurchase. Probably from Beautycounterdirect as long as they still have my shade!
I'll finish on a skin close up so you can see how it matches!
