Barry M Instant Nail Effects

Good grief, this stuff is harder to find than than hen's teeth in the shops at the moment. I must've hit four different shops in one day trying to get my hands on a bottle.
Luckily, I managed to find some for a reasonable price on ebay, even though some sellers are charging a small fortune (£10 for a bottle of something that costs £3.99? You're having a laugh!). If you're of a more patient nature than I am & can hold out, it'll be worth it as a nice lady in Boots told me that this may well become a permanent addition to the Barry M range.

So what does this stuff do? It's basically a simple nail-art in a bottle. Just paint it on top of your chosen base colour as you would a coat of nail polish & let it do its magic.

Kat Von D - The Tattoo Chronicles Palette Vol. 1

After using this for a few days, I can safely say it's as good as the other Kat Von D palettes. Maybe better, purely because this one is all powder shadows, no creams involved.
I usually use the High Voltage primer in Skin with all of my shadows (I'm on the lookout for something else, I feel an eye primer post coming on) but I've also tested Stellar & Smoky too.

A Work of Art

Just a quick sneek peak at what I'll be reviewing next. This only came this morning so I haven't had chance to use it yet.
Kat Von D's Tattoo Chronicles Palette - Vol. 1

Zombies on Earth!

Since I got Peace on Earth, I kept wondering if it would work with Zombie Zest. I decided to experiment.

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China Glaze - Holiday 2010 collection

There's a few colours I skipped in this collection, either because I already have something similar in my stash or they just didn't appeal to me.
Since there's already a post with Party Hearty & Jolly Holly, this one concentrates on Sugar Plums, Mistletoe Kisses, Peace on Earth & Little Drummer Boy.

Sugar Plums, Mistletoe Kisses & Little Drummer Boy

MAC A Tartan Tale Pigments

 Just the three full-sized pigments here, not the sets of minis.

Three all in all; The Family Crest, Later & Moonlight Night.
All are described as having a Frost finish although they seem to have more of a matte base with sparkles. I was quite giddy at the prospect of three dark pigments in one collection, perfect for the smoky-eyed fan. Even though they are all dark, they are different enough to justify getting all three should you want to.

China Glaze Goodies

Here's 3 nail polishes I've picked up recently, all by China Glaze. There's still a few more to take pictures of so I'll get to those at some point soon.
There's Zombie Zest from the Halloween collection, Jolly Holly & Party Hearty, both from the Xmas collection.

Zombie Zest

Party Hearty

Jolly Holly

MAC Venomous Villains - Eyes

Yes, I'm a little late to the party here. Better late than never though.
Even though I didn't get everything in this collection, it is still a big haul with a fair few pics so it's easier to do this in two.

First up, the eyeshadows.
There are six regular-sized shadows with this collection & two Mineralize shadows. Since Carbon is already a permanent shadow, I skipped getting it. It's already in my collection & I didn't feel compelled to buy it again just for the packaging.

MAC Pro Longwear - My Verdict

Rather than rushing straight into reviewing this, I held off and wore it for several days to get a more accurate picture on how this foundation worked for me.
It's probably helpful to note skin-type here; Combination (oily t-zone, normal elsewhere). The t-zone is what makes or breaks a foundation for me.

Illamasqua Haul

A very small haul, just two items in fact. These are from the new Art of Darkness collection. Pure Pigment in Alluvium & Liquid Metal in Stoic.

I've collected a few of the Illamasqua pigments but this is my first Liquid Metal. Usually, cream shadows aren't a high priority on my list but the colour of Stoic was just too beautiful to resist.

MAC Pro Longwear - fresh from the box.

I confess, I have a terrible problem. I'm a foundation junkie. I've tried quite a number now from various brands & even if I find one I truly love, I still get the urge to try new foundations.
At the moment, my favourite is Armani's Lasting Silk. Great colour match, nice finish & good wear-time. Upon hearing about MAC's newest offering, Pro Longwear, I felt that uncontrollable urge to go forth & purchase.

A Bad Romance that's oh so good.

Glittery polishes are a weakness of mine, right up there with smoky eye colours. Add a black base in to the mix and I'm guaranteed to start drooling uncontrollably. Enter Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance.

Kat Von D - Love and Fury palette

Bit of a quandry here, I've seen this referred to as the Adora palette & as Love and Fury. Since it's titled Love and Fury on the back of the palette, I'll stick with that one (it is part of the Adora collection I believe).

As usual, the packaging is absolutely gorgeous. Rubbery yet sturdy case with beautiful graphics on the outside. Inside, it boasts a decently-sized mirror, eight shadows & two small double ended brushes.

Urban Decay - The Black Palette

It's taken a while but I've only just got a properly functioning camera.
My latest object of lust is Urban Decay's Black Palette. True, I do tend to hoard shadows that are good for a smoky eye look but the idea of several all in one place was just too much to resist.
First of all, the packaging is gorgeous. It's black & glittery, pretty much my favourite kind of packaging. Admittedly, I'm not sure how this particular palette would hold up to regular abuse in a bag since it is made of cardboard. I've managed to take it out with me a couple of times with no obvious signs of wear or tear.
It's the inside that counts, right?

Boredom depletes my nail polish collection

Sad but true, when I get very bored I resort to painting my nails. Usually picking a colour & just going with it works but those days when boredom has burrowed in for the long haul has seen me do my nails up to four times.
It's also caused me to get halfway through doing a mani & realising that I'm not feeling the particular colour I've chosen. Sometimes, I'll switch to another shade only to go back to the first colour I started out with.
Let's not even get me started on getting a bad dose of the fidgets. That can only lead to one thing:- smudging, smearing or just out & out ruining your freshly-done mani.
If there's a cure for obsessive boredom-related nail polishing, I haven't found it yet. Until I do, I guess I'll just keep on raiding my polish stash.

Beauty Stuff I Can't Live Without

There's some things that are nice to have, some that are just downright essential. Like any makeup junkie, I'm prone to always looking at the newest thing. As of now, my list is pretty much as follows;

Skin Care
Lush's facial cleansers are a big win for me. I have quite sensitive skin, once I find something that works for me I stick with it.
Herbalism - only recently started using this one but it's fantastic. Recommend for those with combination skin that gets oily in the t-zone. Controls the oil well without drying out areas that are normal. Great for controlling hideous breakouts.

Aqua Marina - this is one of my favourites, have used this for years. Very soothing & great for sensitive skin.

Angels on Bare Skin - lovely, scrubby but gentle cleanser. I like to use this at night after I've taken my makeup off.

Shu Uemura cleansing oils - I can't rave about these enough. They take off even the toughest of makeup with minimal effort. No need for scrubbing around the delicate eye area. MAC's Cleanse Off Oil is a similar product but I found it broke me out quite badly, something the Shu oils have never done.

Lush Ultrabalm vs Vaseline

I've been dyeing my hair for quite some time now & a couple of years back I decided to strip the black dye out of my lower layers, bleach them & go bright pink. It's taken some dedication but it's finally got there. Despite doing it myself for longer than I care to remember, I'm still a bit accident-prone and end up with dye on my neck, ears, face etc.
Whilst Vaseline does work to prevent staining, I've never liked how sticky & gunky it felt. Usually I'd leave it off altogether and tackle the stains after. When Lush released Ultrabalm, it claimed in the Lush Times that it was great for this very purpose. I figured it'd be worth a go, if it didn't work I could always find another use for it.
Last weekend, I dyed the upper, black portion of my hair. A liberal application of Ultrabalm was applied first. The first thing that I noticed that it wasn't half as sticky & gunky as Vaseline. My hair didn't appear to be magnetically attracted to it, either. This was great, normally a good portion of dyeing time is given over to fishing out random strands of hair that have got stuck & then they're coated.
After a while, it seemed to sink into the skin a little, but not so much that I was left worrying that I'd still have to deal with any errant stains.
When it came to washing it off, everything came away easily. Ultrabalm & blobs of dye that had run down. No blue-black stains in sight & it left my skin really soft.
The next test comes when I re-dye the pink hair. I'm currently using a mix of Special Effects Cupcake Pink & Atomic Pink. Atomic Cupcake, as I like to call it. Atomic Pink stains like there's no tomorrow but I'm pretty confident that Ultrabalm will be able to withstand its urges to turn everything neon pink, including my ears!

Just My Luck

A relatively new laptop (don't ask, I seem to kill them off with alarming regularity. Mobile phone chargers meet a very early demise at my hands, too) and wouldn't you just know it? The memory card from my camera is too damn big to fit in the slots on said laptop.
This could very well be a perfect excuse to upgrade the camera & buy the little hot pink Nikon I've been eye-balling.

First Post!

So yeah, the title says it all.
This week started out on a grand note. Monday night I got myself all dressed up (with nothin' to lose, all dressed up with my bad attitude...ahhh, I love The Mansfields) and went out to catch Dirty Penny supported by Falling Red.
I'll admit that I went mainly to see Falling Red. They didn't disappoint. Great songs, great show.
As an added bonus, caught up with some lovely people I haven't seen in a while, since Download back in June. That seems forever ago now.
The only bad part of the night was the very dodgy lemonade which tasted like nail polish remover smells, if that makes any sense.
Good times.