Look - Chartreuse Fizz

Today's result of boredom turned out to be the look I've named Chartreuse Fizz. Because I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, I did just the one eye, in case it all went horribly wrong. As it turned out, I was rather pleased with the result.

Halloween Photo Shoot

Today, I worked on a Halloween-themed photoshoot with Karl Walsh Photography. I took a couple of shots myself, these haven't been edited or Photoshopped at all, and they may be a little blurry (it was cold out there), but they give the basic gist.

EOTD - Illyria

It's been an absolute age since I last posted a look. Anyway, this one is a bit rough & ready, I got the urge to do this first thing this morning. I did one eye only, no other make-up at all, it was a test run of an idea I had kicking around.

I'm a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer & its offshoot series Angel, with Angel being my favourite of the two shows. So, I got the idea late last night to do a themed look, the inspiration being the character Illyria.

MAC - Hey, Sailor! Pigments

Although I haven't bought anything from the Hey, Sailor! collection from MAC, I do already have the two pigments, Naval Blue & Old Gold, lurking around in my stash. Because I've had these a while, they're in the older style of packaging, so they look different to the jars in this collection even though the pigments are the same.

Naval Blue pigment

Firstly, there's Naval Blue. Described by MAC as a "deep smoky blue", there's a hint of purple to this dark navy pigment. One of the more finely-milled pigments, Naval Blue has a frosty finish to it.

Naval Blue pigment

MAC - Strawberry Patch Crushed Metallic Pigment Stack

Another of the Metallic Pigment Stacks from MAC, Strawberry Patch focuses on metallic pink shades. 

Star Crystal

The lightest shade in the stack, Star Crystal is a bright peach-tinged white pigment. This one is quite finely milled, not too much of an issue with fall-out.

Rose Light

Rose Light looks distinctly salmon-toned inside its pot but, once applied, it becomes more of light yellow-toned pink with subtle silvery shimmer flecks that bears little resemblance to its appearance inside the container. Rose Light is another of the more finely-milled pigments in this stack & it has a nice frosty, metallic sheen to it.

MAC - Butterfly Party Crushed Metallic Pigment Stack

The Butterfly Party Crushed Metallic Pigment stack from MAC Cosmetics is comprised of four shades of loose powder.

Butterfly Party

Butterfly Party is a red-toned purple shade with a violet shimmer to it. This particular pigment isn't overly chunky.

Desert Cloud

Despite looking very blue in the picture, Desert Cloud is really a blue-toned darker purple shade. This has a silver/violet shimmer to it that stops it looking quite as blue when applied. Desert Cloud also has a chunky texture to it.

MAC - Iris Apfel Shadows

Five new shadows out with the Iris Apfel collection, Silver Gull, Diamond Dove, Howzat, Robin's Egg & Early Bird.

Silver Gull

Despite its name, Silver Gull is a grey shade. The Velvet finish means it has silver sparkles, although you may end up losing the majority of them when you blend this shadow. I found Silver Gull one of the harder of the five shadows to swatch/use, I needed to pick up more of the shadow to be able to get a good swatch.

Daphne Guinness for MAC Haul

My small haul from the Daphne Guinness collection; the Interior Life quad & two pigments. Although only Nebula & Aurora are shown above, I already had Circa Plum & have swatches to include in this post.

Interior Life eyeshadow quad

Interior Life is comprised of four shades in a pink, purple & grey scheme. Three different finishes are included, Matte, Satin & Veluxe.

Rock 'n' Roll Challenge - Eye of the Storm

The second part of my Rock 'n' Roll challenge & this was also my New Year's Eve look. This particular eye was based upon the Smashed Gladys song, Eye of the Storm.

MAC for Gareth Pugh Pigments

Two new pigment shades released with the MAC for Gareth Pugh collection. The first thing to note with these - they don't come in standard MAC pigment packaging.

Looks pretty swanky, but it hasn't overly thrilled me for a couple of reasons. The first being that it's impossible to see the shade without opening it, which is done by twisting the square lid, rather than pulling (something it took me a while to figure out). The second reason is you're paying more money for this fancy packaging but getting less pigment.

MAC - Matchmaster Foundation

I've been trying out the new Matchmaster foundation from MAC over the last few weeks. I've left it for a while before reviewing so I could get a better idea of how it performs over time.

MAC - Fall Colour

Although it's a small haul from this collection (one of the quads & two pigments), it's going to contain quite a few pictures as I already had the rest of the pigments in my collection.

First up, there's the Parlor Smoke eyeshadow quad. This contains four shades in different finishes.

Parlor Smoke, Cross Cultural, Indigo Noir, Steel

Parlor Smoke is described as a mauve grey & it has a frost finish. It's a shimmery, light shade that applies smoothly & has good pigmentation.

Cross Cultural is a repromote. Labelled a neutral brown, it's a matte finish that may seem at odds with the other colours in the palette but it comes in handy to blend out the darker shades. I found this particular pan to be a little harder to apply than Cross Cultural as a single pan.
Indigo Noir is also a matte finish. It's a gorgeous blackened purple shade that definitely leans more to the blue side of purple. This was also a little tricky to swatch.
Steel, a deep charcoal with a silver sheen, is a veluxe pearl so it's easy to apply & blend. Good pigmentation to this one.

MAC - Styledriven Pro Longwear Eyeshadows

Of the sixteen new Pro Longwear shadows, I chose six shades. 

These are a larger size than regular MAC shadows, they're the same size as a Cream Colour Base, so these should last for ages.

Sweet Satisfaction

Sweet Satisfaction

Described as a soft, neutral beige, I find Sweet Satisfaction to have a hint of gold to it. Of the six shades, this was the most shimmery, looking like a frost finish.

Weathered

Weathered

This hasn't photographed too well. It's labelled as being a dirty blue grey but I found the blue tones to be quite prominent. There's also a slight purple tinge to this one. Not at all overly frosty. Makes for a pretty, slightly more colourful smoky eye.

MAC - MAC Me Over Quads

Very small haul from the latest collection - just the two quads, Evil Eye & Lady Grey. What I like about these, besides the colours, is these quads aren't all overly frosty or shimmery. Between the two, there's three mattes, two satins, two veluxe pearls & one frost.

Lady Grey

The Lady Grey quad includes the shades All Races (matte), Tendersmoke (frost), Lady Grey (satin) & Hazy Day (veluxe pearl). Despite being softer shades, I found these to apply well with little trouble.

All Races, Tendersmoke, Lady Grey & Hazy Day

Lady Grey has a very subtle hint of green to it, but I found that it showed up more on pictures than it does in reality. All Races looks a little on the chalky side here, but it doesn't look quite so chalky in person. Despite it being a lighter shade, it's not quite right to use as a highlight shade for me. It'd work better on my skin tone as a light lid colour or to blend out edges on deeper shades.

MAC - Semi Precious Haul

Just a small haul from this for me, three of the Mineralize Skinfinishes & one shadow.

Semi Precious Pearl MSF

The base shade is a champagne shade whilst the middle is comprised of a mixture of white, plum & bronze. Quite a shimmery one, but it doesn't have glittery chunks. The main colour is a highlight shade, mix it with the the centre colours & it gives a light colour that can work as a shimmery, subtle blush on pale skin.

Semi Precious Pearl 

MAC - Bloggers' Obsession Shadows

Four shadows with this small collection. Since these are limited edition & selling like hotcakes, I had to try them out.

The four shades are Sparkle Neely, Sparkle!, a warm reddish brown with golden shimmer (Velvet), Hocus Pocus, a sooty grey with silver shimmer (Satin), Jealousy Wakes, an emerald green with teal & golden shimmer (Veluxe Pearl), and Parisian Skies, a greyed-blue shade (Satin).

MAC - Surf, Baby! - Small Haul

I finally managed to get to a local MAC counter to check out the rest of the Surf, Baby! collection. I came away with the two eye shadows I wanted to look at, Surf USA & Swell Baby, and one of the Suntints lip balms.

I wasn't overly taken with the other shadow colours. I already have Saffron, Short Shorts wasn't on the display stand & Sun Blonde had the unfortunate effect of looking like a yellow bruise on my skin when I swatched it. I was, however, really taken with My Paradise Cheek Powder. I didn't pick it up, which is something I'll probably come to regret since it was a really nice peach shade.

MAC - FashionFlower

Fresh Daisy, Groundcover, Bows & Curtseys

A small haul from FashionFlower for me, just three of the six shadows. I already had Aqua, Free To Be & Lucky Green, so I got Fresh Daisy, Groundcover & Bows & Curtseys.

Originally, I'd just decided to get Bows & Curtseys as I can't resist a dark green shadow. Groundcover & Fresh Daisy also got picked up.

Fresh Daisy

A frost texture, described as a frosty white yellow. I thought that it would be like a few other shades I owned but, when swatching, I couldn't find an exact dupe. The shade in the pot shows more yellow than it does applied to the skin. Once on, it becomes a frosty, vivid white with a slight, subtle yellow tone.
Well pigmented & applies smoothly.

MAC - Surf, Baby! - Crushed Metallic Pigment Stacks

So far, I've only picked up the Crushed Metallic Pigment stacks from the Surf, Baby! collection. I'm planning on having a look at the other goodies at a counter soon.

Two stacks with this collection - Summer Stash, which is warmer tones, & Surf The Ocean, cooler shades but with a bronze shade thrown in.

As far as texture goes, these lie somewhere between the chunkier standard MAC pigments, such as Steel Blue & Rose, & the Solar Bits. Thankfully, they're easier to work with than the Solar Bits.

Packaging-wise, they come as two stacks with two pots on each in the box but you can remove the lid to stack four pots together, making them easier to store.

Summer Stash

Two Looks - Black, Pink, Silver & Blue, Purple & Green.

A couple of looks, one from last night & this morning's effort. Last night was gig night, again, (Michael Monroe was absolutely amazing!) & I felt the urge to do something involving pink. I used Sugarpill's Dollipop, Decora, Tiara, Stella & a touch of Bulletproof.

For this morning, I wanted to use some of my new Chromalusts I hadn't used yet. I picked Royal Sugar as the main colour & added some Hysteric, Absinthe & Poison Plum. Shock! Horror! I managed to put together a look where the only black I used was my liner, no black shadow at all. I'm suffering slight withdrawal symptoms. ;)