Primes... Primarni... Primark!

Right. I'm going to try and knock this blog post out in record time - I'm so tired I'm verging on delirious but such is my commitment to blogging that I am pushing through my duvet-desire to tell you about my recent acquisitions!

I prepared for the England vs USA match the only way I knew how - yes - I went shopping!

Went into Primark (codename Primes or Primarni amongst some of my friends) and picked up the following:

Little faux suede cross-body bag for £4 (also comes in navy):

Cute on the outside, crappy firehazard flammable plasticky lining on the inside - but who the heck cares!

Then I found these babies: faux suede platform heels £12. Very similar to a pair that I've seen in Aldo for £70:

Again, cute on the outside, slippy as hell on the underside - nearly went skidding across the shop floor when walking over to the mirror. Going to have to score the soles on these, or risk breaking my neck. Nice and comfy though. Although, not sure what good that is when you are lying in traction in hospital following a particularly nasty fall.

Final item - a pair of sunnies that cost £2 and have the unusual feature of arms that aren't placed in the middle/top of the side of the lens, but at the bottom of them. It almost looks as if you are wearing them upside down:



Cue gratuitous picture of me prancing around in shades:


Told you I was delirious.

I'm off to cleanse, tone, moisturise and all that business, then I'm hitting the sack!

Wishing you all a great forthcoming week...

XXX

Topshop - Lip Stick

I went to see Sex & the City 2 on its opening night in Westfield and beforehand, went in search of the Topshop make up collection. I didn't exactly leg it down to Topshop on the launch day... something told me the range would be a total homage to make up mediocrity and I was right, I think. The only products that really drew me in were the 'Lip Stick' lip crayons/pencils (£7).


I picked up the bright pink shade, 'Rosa' and loved the way it swatched - quite opaque in texture and slightly glossy:


It's a white based pink, quite pale but bright at the same time. I think fans of Mac's Lady Gaga/ Pink Nouveau lipsticks might like this one, although it's a darker version of those shades, so is more wearable for skintones like mine.

It doesn't drag when applying and I also like that because it's a pencil, you can be more precise when shaping your lips, but doesn't take too long to fill in your lips because of its jumbo size.

Drawback? I don't have a sharpener for jumbo pencils! Schoolboy error or what?? It is now languishing on my dressing table, blunt. Pointless, in more ways than one. More pointless, in fact, than my World Cup Sweepstake picks - Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Not. A. Chance. In hell.

Although, in their favour, neither of those countries have Butterfingers Green in goal! =D

Blah.

Believe The Hype: Sleek Eyeshadow Palette

Yeah yeah yeah, it's been blogged about for ages but I thought I would chuck in my 2 cents too.

Sleek eyeshadow palettes are crazily good. I cannot believe the value for money: £4.99 for 12 eyeshadows that are perfectly pigmented, easy to blend, do not fall out onto your cheeks when applying and last all day.

I got the Storm palette and there are no dud colours. There are even a few colours that look like MAC dupes...


My colleague was with me when I was buying it on a Friday after work and she picked one up too... come monday morning, she was also giving it rave reviews!

I apply the shadows with my MAC 217 brush and it goes on smoothly and evenly. You can create so many looks from smokey to natural with this palette.

My favourite right now is the colour in the top right (a dupe for MAC Antiqued?) which although looks like a standard brown, has a bronzey pink tone running through it.

I am still in shock about how good this palette is, honestly. It isn't often that something so cheap impresses so much. Well done Sleek!

Volume Million Lashes: The Verdict

I was going to wait until I had enough advantage card points to buy this mascara, but Superdrug had it on special offer for £7.99. I'm always torn between sticking with Boots and accumulating points, or going to Superdug for their better prices... anyway, after a particularly crap day at work, I decided to pop into Superdrug (dangerously close to my temporary office) to purchase it.

Things did not get off to a good start as I found myself face to face with a grammatical car crash upon arriving at the stand:

Ahem, hhhexcuse me... since when did L'Oreal have the license to invent words?! Last time I checked, 'millionize' was not a word. If I was to use this word in a meeting at work ("Everyone, it appears that our costs have millionized") people would look at me as though I was a few eyeshadows short of a palette. I can see that L'Oreal might be trying to create inventive tag lines by coming up with their own lingo, but all I can say is that if worked in their advertising department, this one would never have slipped through the net.

Anyway, let's talk about the mascara.

Yeah, it's not bad.

Has it usurped my favourite mascara (L'Oreal Lash Architect)? Nah. And this is mainly to do with the brush.

I'm not a really a fan of these new rubbery brushes that Max Factor first used in their Masterpiece mascara. Give me the traditional bristles anyday - they seem to separate lashes better and inject more volume. Loads of companies have jumped on the rubbery brush bandwagon and 'Volume Million Lashes' is the latest offering.

When applying my mascara, I push it into the roots of my upper lashes so that it coats the upper waterline making lashes look more dense and dark. Normally, this is a comfortable experience... but not with VML. The rubbery bristles are pokey and feel a bit too spikey for this task.

As for the performance, I think it does serve to lengthen lashes effectively, but I would prefer a thickening effect too. Clumpiness seems to set in at the second coat, which I don't get as much of with my normal mascara. It wears well during the day - no transferring or crumbling off. Pictures speak a thousand words so here are a few to demonstrate what I mean...


No coats...



One coat...

Impressive lengthening


Two coats...

NB: A furry caterpillar has not crawled onto my face and died. That is indeed my eyebrow. I am long overdue a threading session


As you can see, there are little clumps forming. I could probably get rid of these with an eyelash comb, but I don't have to comb my lashes with my other mascara and don't see why I should have to add another step to the getting ready routine. It looks best after one coat and doesn't seem to be be a mascara that you can build, coat after coat. And that's what I love about Lash Architect - if going out after work, I can amp up my lashes with a few more coats to achieve a dense look. With VML, you get length and curl. With Lash Architect, you get length, curl AND thickness.

As I said before, mascaras are so subjective. None of my circle of friends swear by the same one. But in my humble opinion...

Does it live up to the hype of best mascara ever, per the Femail article?
Nope.

Will I repurchase?
Only if my other mascara is sold out.

Is it better than some of the more luxe mascaras?
Yes - I preferred this to Smokey Lash by MUFE and YSL Faux Cils.

So there you have it.

Now excuse me whilst I plot ways of 'millionizing' my bank balance.

X

Earrings I've Made...

Right chicks, in my last post I promised some pics of the earrings I've made since the jewellery workshop I went to. They're probably not to everyone's taste but I think I'll wear all of these at some point.

I've kind of tried to go down the vintage-y route, using golds and pearls.
Fake, of course darling ;)

I estimate that each pair cost £1- £2 to make in terms of materials. Cheap as chips!

Item number one:



Two...



Three...



Four...


And five...!


I can knock up a pair of earrings in about 15mins now.


Upcoming post: My review of the Volume Million Lashes mascara from L'Oreal. I bought this in Superdrug as they had it on special offer for £7.99. I've used it twice, but I shall reserve judgement until it's at least been a week. I find that mascaras aren't at their best when they're brand spanking new... they're a little bit too watery and almost need some exposure to air to let it thicken. And breathe. Rather like a fine wine. Or not.

Stay tuned!

Jewellery Workshop!

Feels like it's been a while since I last wrote something - work appears to be getting in the way of the fun stuff :s

Having said that, I had such a good weekend spending time with family, letting my hair down with friends... and I finally got round to redeeming the jewellery workshop vouchers that my mates had bought me for my birthday! The voucher was for two, so I took my mum along and on Saturday afternoon we toddled off into LDN town for the workshop, followed by dinner and a cheeky beverage. Or 5.

I've never made jewellery before so wasn't quite sure what to expect in terms of how fiddly it would be etc, but I was pleasantly surprised: we were taught two techniques along with how to use the tools and that seemed to equip us with enough know-how to make our own necklaces and bracelets.

So... drum roll please as I unveil my handywork...

Ok, so Tiffany's have got nothing to worry about but not bad, huh?

A close up of the beadwork:


Being surrounded with shiny beads and metals was a bit like being a kid in a candyshop and to be honest it was hard to know when to stop - but I think (I hope) I managed to avoid the Mr T look.

As for the bracelet:
I have *officially* caught the jewellery making bug now. I'm addicted. I even found myself in Hobbycraft today, buying beads.

Hobbycraft... that's for people with... hobbies. There were lots of hobby-looking people in there buying hobby stuff. And I have now joined in with the hobbyness. Does this make me a... Hobbit? No, I think that's something else entirely.

Hobbits on their way to Hobbycraft. Probably.

If you are a jewellery fiend then I definitely recommend a course like this. It opens your eyes to how fun and cost-effective it can be to make your own stuff, as well as how big the profit margins of places like Accessorize must be (and I say this having spent mucho £££ on my last haul from there). The swindling bastids!

The jewellery workshop was run by the Claire Aristides Jewellery School. Whilst the instructors were obviously quite knowledgeable, their organisation left a lot to be desired - a community hall was used as the workshop space and it wasn't really sufficiently lit or set up in advance.

I've since made some earrings and I'll post some pics of those too.

Have a good week everyone x

Accessorize Haul

Popped into Accessorize in Liverpool St Station and ended up staying far longer than I intended - they have loads of fun stuff at the moment so a 5 min visit can easily turn into an hour-long browse!

My one annoyance about Accessorize? The overly attentive sales assistants. I felt like I was constantly being met with choruses of "Can I help you?"/ "Are you ok?"/ "Do you need any help?"

By the end of it I really felt like climbing atop a mountain and hollering "I'M JUST LOOKIIIIIIIIIIIIIING"!!

Except I wasn't just looking, was I. I did end up making a few purchases...


The pic above actually shows two separate necklaces that I think look cute together. As a tea lover, I was drawn to the necklace with the tiny ceramic tea cup, gold tea spoon and pink ribbon bow (£6). And of course, what goes with tea? Cupcakes! So it was almost a forgone conclusion that I was also going to get the cupcake necklace (£6). This one has a mini cake and a small diamante stone suspended from it. The lettering reminds me of Carrie from SATC's namesake necklace... although I really hope no-one thinks my name is Cupcake - it sounds distinctly stripper-ish :S

Next thing I picked up:


Some rose quartz style chandeliers (£12). Recently I haven't been wearing earrings much so i thought I'd get back in the saddle with these babies! These would look nice with some pink toned blusher (MAC Pink Swoon) and lipgloss.

And finally...

Some sweet little gold bows (think these were £5 or £6) for work.

So that concludes my little Accessorize post... enjoy the rest of the bank holiday, I'm off to do some ironing :D

Cheap Beauty Deals

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves this bank holiday weekend, despite the temperamental weather!

Just thought I'd pass on a great tip that my colleague shared with me. She's the only one at work that knows that I moonlight as a beauty blogger and during one chocolate binge-eating session (Montezuma's chilli and lime dark chocolate, ginger and dark chocolate and honey and banana turtles - yum!), she told me about the page in Martin Lewis's Moneysavingexpert.com that is dedicated to beauty discounts and deals.

The savings that particularly caught my eye are:

• Stila cosmetics: up to 50% off through halfpriceperfumes.co.uk.
  Cheek colour pans are £5.99, down from £11
  Lip glazes are £3.99 down from £11.99
  
  
• YSL Touche Eclat for £15.50 inc P&P at cheapsmells.com
  At the checkout, enter the code YSLNo1. I just tried this and (at the time of writing) this works, but is only valid until May 3...
  

I'm going to bookmark this page and visit it regularly!!

Why, martin... with all these beauty discounts you are really spoiling us

Testers & Germs

Just the other week, I was stood by the L'Oreal make up counter feeling a bit grossed out at the scene that was unfolding before me: a girl, having finished work and probably on her way out for a few cheeky drinks in the City, was hurriedly re-touching her make-up using the testers. There she was, with wild abandon, slicking on the worn-down manky lipsticks and finger-prodded eyeshadows. Urrrgh!!

I would rather go without than put on make-up that countless people had deposited their countless germs in. Eye-infections, anyone? Cold sore virus? Hell-to-the-no thanks! The furthest a tester ever gets with me is the back of my hand and even then I wonder what kind of lurgies I've invited onboard.

Coincidentally, this week I came across an article about the dangers of using testers and it's worth a read, if only to confirm what you already know: that testers should go nowhere near your face. Check out the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1268268/Dangers-make-counter-E-coli-EVERY-tester-beauty-counters.html

Here are a few choice quotes which made me put down my toast:

"In a shocking study, researchers found that every make-up tester pack they analysed was contaminated by the e.coli bug... As well as e.coli - which causes stomach cramps and diarrhoea and, in severe cases, can be fatal - staphyloccus and streptococcus bacteria were found, which can cause infections"

"Dr Elizabeth Brooks, a biological sciences professor at Jefferson Medical College in Pennsylvania, who led the study, said: 'Wherever you can see e.coli, you should just think e.coli equals faeces."

Testers= E.Coli = Faeces? Dr Brooks, this is possibly the most disturbing equation ever.

And just incase you needed further clarification, Dr Brooks is on hand:

'That means someone went to the bathroom, didn't wash their hands and then stuck their fingers in the tester"

Stay away from those testers!

AUI: Applying Under the Influence

Let's be honest, getting ready is often the best part of a night out. The metamorphosis process is fun: I love breaking out of my nondescript daytime chrysalis and emerging- after prepping, painting, teasing, straightening, curling- as a peacock. (Please suspend all knowledge of biology when reading this. I recognise that saying a butterfly would have been more inkeeping with the whole 'metamorphosis' and 'chrysalis' analogy thing that I had going on, but a peacock seemed less trite and cheesy).

My mate's birthday night out was no exception. Earlier, I had taken myself off to Boots in search of a nude lipstick and came back with YSL Rouge Volupte in shade 2. Granted- this shade is verging on being too light for me (it's much lighter than it appears in the pic below), but with the right application, it was going to be the perfect fodder to the dark smokey eye that I had planned. So I started getting ready, carefully dabbing on the lipstick, glossing it up with a Juicy Tube and deftly managed to avoid the corpse look...


However, fast forward three hours, numerous glasses of champagne, vodka and sambuca shots, and the same could not be said: in my drunken state, my careful application method had gone out the window and was replaced with a more heavy handed approach. I had taken to doing Jenson Button-style circular laps of my lips with the Rouge Volupte, sans mirror.

At the time I was blissfully unaware, but post-event examination of the photographic evidence proved that I looked ridiculous, atrocious. Ridiculocious, if you will. Yes people- this faux pas warrants the invention of a new word, it was that bad. Not only did the thick layer make me look deceased but the combination of nightclub lighting and camera flash meant that the my lips had taken on a luminous quality. I had glow-in-the dark corpse lips. It was as though I had been snogging Slimer from Ghostbusters:


Thankfully, the photos also showed that I was not alone - my friends had obviously wanted to share in the delight of a new YSL lipstick and it got passed around. There we were, grinning like inebriated buffoons with matching ectoplasm lips! I would so love to upload a pic of us to show you just what I mean, but shall refrain as I don't quite fancy being ostracised by my friends. Someone's attempt to upload said photo to Facebook was met with picture comments such as "GET THIS OFF NOW" and frantic texts like "Please remove picture 57 from album 2 asap". And thus, it was banished to The Recycle Bin. At least I hope so - don't want that one coming back to bite me in the ass in years to come...

This is in no way a slight on the YSL product, rather I just felt it was my duty to warn others of the perils of "Applying Under the Influence". Relying on friends to tell you what you look like is of no use if they are as drunk as you are.

If there was a way of rigging a breathalyser to some of my make-up items, scenes like this could be avoided.