So as I'm busy with my never ending blog to-do list, I've enlisted the help of a fab blogger Jadirah to fill in for me and discuss some amazing key Spring products.. including products I've personally been asked about from my followers (the ABH Glow Kit and Jeffree Star Liquid Lipsticks), so I was interested in this post myself to be honest as I've never tried them!
I also agree about MAC Crosswires, I'm sure I've used it in makeup looks on this blog in the past and still love the coral shade for Spring/Summer.
Thank you so much Jadirah, read on to see what she thinks of these products and more :)

Illamasqua I'mPerfection Spring 13

Hello my lovelies!

I've been super busy of late with shoots, work and clients (not to mention general housewife duties!) so apologies for the lack of posts. I do however have a lot to blog about so I'll be sure to get these out as soon as poss!

As it's coming up to Spring (although the snow is saying otherwise!), a lot of brands will be releasing their new products and collections and clients/customers will be looking at changing their makeup "wardrobe".
Personally I love Spring, it's my second favourite season after Autumn; the sun starts peeking out and nature is at full bloom. Makeup-wise, skin is fresher and there's a lot of pastels and brights to get you in the mood for Summer.

I attended the launch of the new Spring collection by one of my all time favourite brands - Illamasqua. One of the reasons I love them so much is that they like to break away from the beauty "norm" and conventions and this collection is no different.
If you remember the last collection (Generation Q) was about beauty having no age limit, and the one before that (Human Fundamentalism) reversed traditional beauty rules. This years Spring I'mPerfection collection ties in beautifully with the whole "nature" side of Spring as well as their ethos; to celebrate and embrace your "imperfections". 
If you look at nature you'll find speckled eggs and patterned feathers of all sizes and colours; the same is true with people, with their freckles, scars and birth marks.

"Show off your freckles. Make beauty spots more beautiful. Shine a light on your birthmarks. And be proud of your scars. Because life isn't about finding yourself, life is about celebrating who you really are."

This part of the new campaign really stood out to me because when dealing with clients and customers on a daily basis, they're so quick to want to hide their "flaws", a lot often embarrassed and some even with self esteem issues. What's worst for me is finding young teenage clients who look at beauty magazines/celebrities thinking that they're flawless and wanting to be "flawless" too, when no one actually is. So again, I applaud Illamasqua for highlighting their campaign models' "imperfections" and really hope other beauty brands take a step in that direction too.

Alex Box explaining the concept behind the campaign images

As always, Illamasqua have a wildcard in their collection and this Spring its a "Leaf Green" intense lipgloss as sported in the campaign picture (and swatched with Immodest lipstick) below.

Like Apocalips, Shoot will probably only be loved by a select few who will dare to wear green on their lips, however Apocalips became a statement lip and other brands followed suit to make teal lipsticks, so green may well be the new lip trend for 2013!
For those of you who don't quite see yourselves wearing the green by itself, it makes a great mixing colour as I tried it with the new pink lipstick (Immodest) and it made a nice nude brown colour. Apparently mixed with reds it can create berry colours too!

My personal favourites from this collection are the speckled polishes, the powder blush duos (particularly Duo No. 3) and the innovative blush brush to create an ombre blush effect. I also absolutely adored the speckled eyeliner look in the campaign image below and attempted my own version that I'll be posting about very soon!

The collection in a basket "nest"

Blush Duo No. 3 - Beg & Bronzerella

Speckled eyeliner image from the I'mPerfection campaign

The collection comprises of a new blush brush (£28.50), a range of pastel speckled nail polishes (£14.50 each), blush duos for light, medium and dark skin tones (£26 each) and a new lipstick (£16) and lipgloss (£14). The existing black liquid liner in Abyss (£17) is also part of this I'mPerfection collection (to create the speckled eyeliner effect).

The collection will be available to buy from 31st January 2013 from the Illamasqua site and counters. 

What do you think of the new I'mPerfection collection? Which products would you like to try?

 

Illamasqua Human Fundamentalism launch

Last night I trotted down to Piccadilly Circus to attend the launch of the new Illamasqua collection: Human Fundamentalism.

Some of the visuals from the Human Fundamentalism collectio

The collection is all about self expression and an "explosion of your alter ego", where Alex Box explained about making a stand with makeup and reversing "traditional beauty" with colour and through makeup.
There's a mix of acids and neutrals, with pastels for the nails so a great mix altogether, with something for everyone.
I loved the idea of making teal wearable on the lips, rather than just on hands and jewellery, though I may not be confident to rock it just yet haha! The idea stemmed from "classical beauty" of red lips and black liner but the inverse is teal lips and white liner (as above).
But for those who aren't too keen on colour, this collection has a contrasting "neutral" palette and colours more wearable and popular with most people I bet!

We were welcomed by the lovely Hayley (who was sporting the teal lip with a complimentary dress!) as well as milkshakes, sweets and more sweets. 90s garage tunes were playing in the back to fit the theme as well. We then were shown into a room with the products out on tables for us to play around with and swatch; here are some of my favourite products and their swatches:

The Neutral palette

Box & Apocalips lipsticks

Skin Base Foundation Au

Out of the two palettes the Neutral one was actually my favourite.. It had a great buttermilk shade (Stealth) which would be an excellent highlighter for the brow bone as well as an essential black (Obisidian). The golden colour (Vintage) was also beautiful too and the brown would be great in the crease. Both palettes are priced at £30 each.

The lipsticks (£15.50 each) were great too.. I spoke to one of the guys there about how I would use Apocalips.. mixed with another colour for sure! I found it more dryer in texture than Box, although both are matte lipsticks.

The skin base foundation in Au (the chemical sign for gold) can be worn alone or under foundation for a glow as it contains shimmery flecks in it. It will be sold at £25 but is limited edition!

I also loved the single eyeshadows (£15 each) Vernau (a caramel/peanut brown and Sex (pure white) as they would be amazing for contouring! 

Both nail polishes reflected the current Spring trend for nails as mentioned in the Superdrug post here. The two colours Stance (Mauve) and Nomad (Jade) compliment eachother wonderfully as you can see in the visuals above. I particularly loved Nomad (it seems to be growing on me this season!) and was lucky enough to get it in my goodie bag.
I tried it out today (very roughly I may add, to my recently cut nails!) with and without flash and loved how thick and creamy the polish was:

I also got the Fundamental palette (which I hope to recreate the Arabesque look from their campaign) and sealing gel that I'm excited to use for my eyebrows as it makes any powder a water resistant paste.
Fundamental palette & swatches:

There's also a white liquid eyeliner (£17) which I'd use under a black liner (not so much as a topliner!)

The whole collection will be available from March 14th from Illamasqua.com or you can preorder from today here.

What do you think of this collection? Which products stood out to you and will you be buying any of these products?

Superdrug event

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Hi there my lovelies!
As mentioned in the last post, I attended a great event hosted by Superdrug on Thursday with Numera, where we got to see some great new releases over the coming weeks.
I was welcomed with lovely service from the staff at Haymarket Hotel and after signing in took a quick sweep of the room to see what caught my eye.
There were many great brands there, some that I am familiar with: Sleek, Solait, Andrea Fulerton, MUA, FashionistA; and some completely new: Arora, Faux, Glam Republic and Simply Pure.

As I walked around the room, a nice lady approached me (can't remember her name unfortunately!) from Superdrug's own suncare brand Solait. We got chatting about SPF and also about my terrible reaction to Banana Boat's tanning oil last year and I was pleased to find they did tan-stimulating products with SPF too.. something I may have to give a try (and hopefully not react to).
I did get a Moisturising Lotion Spray Mist in SPF 15 in the goodie bag so will defo be trying that out when the sun pops out again.
I then had a look at some of the MUA Love Hearts range which I've seen so much about and totally love the concept.

Loving the purple shade!

I got Great Lips in my goodie bag =)

The full range of polishes and lip balms should already be available this February all at a steal of a price - £2 each!
Whilst we were looking at these, the company director Ana from We Are Faux lashes introduced us to her brand and we had a little chitchat about the brands handmade lashes inspired by music, fashion and art. The ones she wore were ever so nice and fluttery and she offered us a pair each, choosing Roux Sixteen for me.

My Roux Sixteen lashes

The range will be available in May and prices seem to start from £7.99

We found a great new bath & body brand Superdrug will be launching around April next; Arora. With its tantalising display of ingredients mimicking the fragrances, we were talked through the range Arora offer; body scrubs and butters, bath shimmers and shower nectars. 

I had a whiff of them all and have to say that my personal favourites had to be Sweet Vanilla and Coconut Crème. I reckon I would have liked the Chocolate Espresso too (the bath shimmer looked lush!) had it not have had the honey smell.. I'm not too keen on honey smells as you may know!

These bath products are priced at only £3.99 each, making them an affordable luxurious looking brand without the price tag.

Finishing Touches (Superdrug's OB nail art range) caught my eye next to the Arora stand as I've been trying to play around with my nails a bit of late. 

They had everything from my personal favourites of the minute - nail wraps/foils to stencils, glitter and more.

Next Numera and I decided to get our nails done by the Andrea Fulerton girls, so whilst I waited I went over to the Glam Republic stand where I saw the lovely Kaushal of BeautyFulfilled. 

She was so friendly and as gorgeous in person and explained about this great new concept of appliqué eyeliners that will be launching in May (£4.99 each or £8.99 for a double pack). I'd spotted a great glittery liner on the lady at Arora and then found out that it was in fact one of these stick on liners which was amazing! Kaushal herself was sporting a great velvet textured liner (which looked so classy) and she offered a glitter pair to me as I loved them so much.. Can't wait to try them and possibly do a makeup look with them ;)

Glitter liner has never looked so easy!

I have to say that I love the fact that they're so easy to use.. self adhesive so no messing around with glue, or having to have a steady hand which is something I get asked a lot about eyeliner/eyeliner techniques.   

I then had my nails done "frooti" style.. with the pretty "Popping Pastels" Spring range of Andrea Fulerton polishes which look ever so girly and not too pastel-ly for my skintone. A bit of Glitter puff dust was added to make them look even prettier:

My hand with a great swatch of the new Accessorize brow pencil haha

The colours from the range include: Jade (a minty green), Carrie (pink), Debbie (coral), Emma (Lilac) and Eugenie (blue), all of which are above and will be priced at £4.99 each.

Last but not least I passed the Sleek stand on the way out, which looked exactly like the stands in the Superdrug stores, showcasing the new Blush By 3 blush compacts (£9.99) as well as the even newer Face Form compacts comprising of contours and a blush. 

L- Medium, R- Light Face Forms.

These should be priced around the same price as the Blush By 3's (or less), so I can't wait to buy them once released!

So there you have it, I chose specific brands that interested me in this post but there were a couple of others there too like the new Elemis Fresh Skin (an offshoot of Elemis but aimed at younger skin), FashionistA (the custom design palettes that I'm dying to yet see fully!), Accessorize and Superdrug OB Simply Pure range.

Here's a couple more pics from the day:

FashionistA new bronzer range

Superdrug's OB dry shampoo range

Accessorize eyebrow pencil that seems pretty good!

All in all it was a great event, maintained by the lovely Haymarket staff who kept us fuelled whizzing around with drinks, mini burgers, fish and chips cones and more.

Can't wait for the next one!

Urban Decay Spring Products - swatches & review

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After my last FOTD I had a lot of people asking me which colour I used on my lips (the nude-pink) which I had sneakily used for the look as I love it so much!

I thought I'd use that as an opportunity to blog about the upcoming Spring UD products that they so kindly sent me along with the Naked2 which is also being released in stores at the same time - 6th February 2012.

First up:

Super Saturated High Gloss Lip Colors (or SSLC as I call it!)

 

The colour I used on my lips for the last smokey look was Lovechild a pale pink (no glitter). I love these two new shades that UD have added to their range of SSLCs, the others were definitely for the more daring, the only less daring colour being F-Bomb (bright red) (see swatches here). Lovechild & Apocalypse however are much more wearable, both without glitter and Apocalypse being a deep berry colour.
The new colours will remain at £14 each along with the other shades available in the SSLC range.

Primer Potion Duo Set

I spotted these about two weeks ago in Debenhams Oxford Street and was glad that my two favourite (and most used) PPs were in a set together. As you may know, I use UDPP (original) for almost every makeup look.. and Sin I use on my lazy days when I can't be bothered to wear eyeshadow but want to look like I am. Both are amazing shades that suit a lot of (if not all) skin tones and as you must know by now, they really do work at making your eyeshadow pop and last, crease-free.

The SA said it was £22 which means that if you use both like me, then buying this set would save you £7 rather than buying them individually for £14.50 each.


24/7 Concealer Pencils

This new launch excited me a lot.. I'm a fan of the current concealer pencils as they give great coverage and apply lovely and smooth. My normal shade is NSA (the darkest shade) however when I came back from holiday last year I had to make do with my MAC NC30-35 as NSA was way too light for me. Thankfully, Urban Decay have finally extended their concealer shades to match their darker foundation shades. I always wondered why their concealers were always light whilst their foundations were great for ethnic/yellow/red toned skin!
The packaging has also been updated (no more light purple, but instead a gorgeous deep purple!)
The new shades include (in shade order): ATF (golden beige), DOD (warm tan), KGB (golden caramel) & MI6 (deepest cocoa). 
The swatches of all the concealers sent to me are here; CIA (the lightest shade) was not sent, but it's a very pale ivory shade, almost white looking!

These concealers will still be £12 which is great as they are handy to carry around for touch ups and as a MUA I like that it's hygienic (no fingers dipped in pots.. can be sharpened!)


24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils

Urban Decay have again listened to their fans for this one; fans didn't like the packaging of the primers so they changed it. Then after releasing Perversion eyeliner in their 15 year anniversary set last year, fans everywhere (including me!) asked Urban Decay to release it by itself.. and they have, along with two other shades!
For those of you who don't know, the 24/7 eye pencils are one of UD's best sellers; long lasting, waterproof and smudge-proof smooth eye colours make it one of the best selling eyeliners and it actually works!
Swatches:

Perversion is a pure matte black (blacker than Zero) and seriously lasts long (longer than the others in my opinion!). My pencil up until now from the anniversary set has been used for special occasions/looks only, but now I can freely use it!
Demolition is another matte pencil - dark brown, darker than Bourbon for those wondering!
Woodstock is a bright fuschia pink shimmery pencil, but I don't see it suiting me as a topliner.. I will however try it with my pink glitter liner (Catfight) but I'm not usually a fan of pink on the eyes, so I don't see it selling that well! 
I think UD could release a 24/7 eye pencil in a similar colour to their eyeshadow pencil Delinquent (a pure deep purple) which is a favourite of mine rather than the purples available in the liner range. 
All pencils are priced at £13 and will continue to be when these new shades are released in less than 2 weeks.


Pocket Rocket Lip Glosses

These are UD's lipglosses that fit nicely in pockets without any bumps and pheromones in the ink. I've never been too keen on them myself coz the "creme brulee" scent and their somewhat sticky consistency.. and like their honey scented products you either love it or hate it and unfortunately I'm not a fan.
The colours however are amazing, so I tend to ignore the smell if I'm using them!
Two new shades have been added to the collection (£13 each); Rashad (light dusty rose) and Dustin (nude with sparkle and shimmer).
Swatches:

Lush Lash Mascara

Another mascara has been added to Urban Decay's mascara boutique, the Lush Lash mascara. Like the Lush Lash system, this mascara is supposed to enhance lashes by nourishing, thickening and lengthening lashes rather than damage them like normal mascaras. This mascara is also somewhat waterproof even though it's not labelled so.
The Lush Lash system was quite amazing as it did lengthen my lashes (and help grow my brows!) but as for thickening, it only did it after about 5 weeks of continuous use. 
I found the Lush Lash mascara to be lengthening, but not so much thickening.

The brush looked amazing so I was expecting great things but unfortunately I wasn't too impressed.. I would like to see if the mascara does work on improving the condition of my lashes as everyday mascaras I use make my lashes feel weaker, but as it doesn't give me the thickening effect I want, I'll just stick to using the Lush Lash system.
The packaging is lovely though, purple so of course I'd love it! 
The mascara is £15 like all the other mascaras available by Urban Decay.


So there you have it! All of these will be available by February 6th (less than two weeks!) so those of you who were loving that Lovechild SSLC, now you know when it's available!

My personal favourites were the SSLCs and the release of Perversion liner as a permanent pencil.

Urban Decay products are available to buy from Debenhams and House of Fraser stores or online at beautybay.com, hqhair.com and lookfantastic.com. 

Which of these from the Spring collection has excited you most? Will you be buying anything?


<3