YSL Couture Palette - Metal Clash

I purchased this pretty fall palette as a birthday treat for myself as I loved the look of the colours included and I normally purchase larger palettes from Urban Decay for example however I have found myself away from home a lot in the past year and thought it would be nice to have something more compact when I'm travelling.

(I usually end up being lazy and just taking a cream shadow with me - boy do I love cream shadows...) 

  The palette itself feels sturdy and I find the design fun and a bit edgy and futuristic. It comes with two mini sponge applicators which - let's face it, I'm never going to use.

  The shadows themselves are lovely. They are quite sheer so if you are after something heavily pigmented then these might not be for you. Personally I mostly buy shadows with loads of pigment and so these make a nice, subtle change which I feel makes them more flattering. The highlights for me are that icy, shimmery pink which is gorgeous and the gold, which is very heavy on the glitter and great for the party season and they blend BEAUTIFULLY. That's the key thing that I love about this palette is that the shades blend effortlessly from one colour in to the next, however you apply them.

It's pretty pricey at £42.50 and I don't feel like you get a whole of product for your money. It's definitely a luxury product and I think it feels that way when you use it. If you're tempted, maybe try and catch it at a bargain in the January sales.

Venus II Palette Review

Today I am giving you my first impressions of the brand new Venus II Palette from Lime Crime.


(Now I know there have been some controversies surrounding this brand so I will say this up front: I personally chose to purchase this palette as well as some other Lime Crime products which I will review here very soon, because I loved my Venus palette and there were some great bargains in the Black Friday sale which for me were too good to pass up. I am not vegan myself and so whether the products are truly vegan or not is something that doesn't really affect me so long as I am only using these products on myself. I'm not going to comment on every issue individually. Whether you yourself want to purchase from this brand is up totally to you.)

Shades from left, top row: Pigeon, Filter, Marsh, Mustard. Bottom row: Fly, Jam, Mud, Boot.


The main reason I decided to purchase this palette was because I felt it featured all those odd colours that I see people wearing from MAC that I don't own and REALLY wish I did. In particular those bold yellow and bold orange shades. In addition to that, I thought pigeon and fly were to die for, with those gorgeous iridescent shimmers.

These shadows all live up my expectations. They are pretty pigmented although perhaps they could be a little more so. I feel they are less pigmented than those in the original Venus palette but they still have enough colour for me.

Pigeon is a stunning murky burgundy/green iridescent shimmer and possibly my favourite shade in the whole thing. I found the burgundy shows up as the primary shade and it is dark, so be prepared for grungy eyes with this.

Filter is nicely pigmented, but this is the one shade in the palette I don't really see myself wearing. If matte baby blue is your thing though then this is exactly that.

Marsh I would say is a slightly shimmery army green. I like it as I like to wear green shadows now and then as I have green eyes and it compliments pigeon very well.


Mustard is... well... a mustard matte yellow.

Fly surprised me as I thought it would be more similar to Aura from Venus I, however it has a divine subtle green shimmer to it which I love and really compliments the other green shades in the palette. It's quite vibrant too.

Jam matte orange.

Mud very warm, rich, matte, reddish brown.

Boot Black with gold shimmer. This is not as pigmented as I would have expected. It is more a smoky black rather than a jet black.

So that's all the shades broken down for you, here's my first look:

For this I am wearing pigeon in my crease, blended quite heavily, Marsh all over my lid, pigeon then patted lightly on the outer third of my lid and finally Fly on the inner corner, patted on the centre of my lid and on the brow bone. Finished it all off with a good blend (boy does this stuff blend) and a touch of pigeon along the outer third of my lower lash line. 

(I'm wearing Riot from Lime Crime on my lips)

I think that's about all for now. I hope that has given you a general idea of the new Venus II palette and come back soon when I will be taking a look at my Lime Crime Black Friday hall!

Matte... Purple?

So you may have caught on by now to my obsession with matte red lipstick HOWEVER this month it seems I finally caught the purple lip bug and this Black Friday it was my mission in life to pick out the perfect purple lipstick for myself.

I searched and searched for hours and hours and days and days and finally went for these bad boys.

From left to right: Gerard Cosmetics Lipstick in Grape Soda, Gerard Cosmetics Lipstick in Lilac Moon (£10 each from Cocktail Cosmetics), Violet Voss Glitter in Aurora (£6.50 from Cocktail Cosmetics)

In the end, I chose to go for lipstick rather than liquid lipsticks mostly for comfort and because I knew I would want to blend shades and while I'm sure this would have been possible with liquid lipstick I thought it would probably be easier this way.

I was tempted by a quite a few brands, NYX's liquid lipsticks, MAC's Heroine, pretty much every shade of purple from Lime Crime however I felt that Gerard Cosmetics had both of the best shades I had seen and wanted, a pinky bold purple and a lilac.

And here's the look sin glitter. I used Sleek's eau la la lip liner in Raisin to line my lips, then Grape Soda all over and Lilac Moon in the centre of both of my lips. 

I felt a little drag queen at first but I then got used to it.

So I thought

LET'S UP THE DRAG QUEEN GAME!

And used Violet Voss cosmetic glitter in Aurora all around the edges of my lips just leaving a little bare patch in the centre to keep that ombre look.

I'm not sure how much guts it will take me to wear these lipsticks out and about but I know that I want to. All of these products I found very comfy and not too drying, even the glitter which surprised me. The lipsticks take a few coats if you want a bold colour, but I am happy with that.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my first dabble in purple lips, I feel this is the start of a beautiful obsession. Help me out by letting me know your favourite purple lipsticks/liquid lipsticks!