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!

LA SPLASH Studioshine Lip Lustre Evil Queen Review

Today's review is going to be short and sweet as I have already reviewed this product in another shade, Aurora, in my last review and I don't want to repeat myself too much.

Evil Queen is a dark berry red matte shade of liquid lipstick, with a very subtle glitter. To me it seems to shimmer red blue and gold shades however in natural light this is barely noticeable at all. It perhaps catches the light slightly more in unnatural light however it is still an extremely subtle effect.

I like this shade, especially as it's October and I can definitely see me wearing this for all things Halloween. 

The same as Aurora, this liquid lipstick I find takes a bit of concentration to use and in these photos I used a Sleek Lip Liner pencil in Raisin 293 to define the edges and get the neatest line I could, which is especially important as this is such a dark dramatic shade. It feels dry but sturdy, and comes off with oil and greasy food but holds strong with drinks.

All in all I love feeling like I am channelling Regina/The Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time in this shade.

LA SPLASH Studioshine Lip Lustre Aurora Review

(Side Note: Apologies for my absence and lack of responses over the past few months. I've been dealing with a lot of changes in my personal life lately and haven't had the time/energy for blogging. Consider this my hopeful return.)

Today I'm reviewing one of the new shades of LA Splash's Studioshine Lip Lustre range, inspired by Disney's female characters. When I saw the internet going crazy over these new lip shades, I admit I was weak. All they had to do was stick the name of a few Disney princesses on these and I had to have at least one lipstick from the range.

I went for Aurora as I loved the dark pinky/red tone it seemed to have and it was a shade I didn't have already as I usually go for straight up, bold reds. I ordered it from ebay in the end, as the postage if ordered directly from LA Splash's website to the UK was pretty extortionate (I wasn't paying £30 for this baby).

First things first: This can be one messy product when applying. My first time wearing this to my friend's birthday dinner, I applied it in the bathroom at work in a huge hurry which was a BIG mistake. There were pink smears all over my face and hands and in the end I had to use my Dolce and Gabbana trusty lipstick over the top to try and cover up the horror underneath. So essentially, probably don't try wearing this on a day you are late for work.

However, when applied calmly and carefully and in half-decent light, I love the result. As I've mentioned before, the more matte a lip colour, the better as far as I'm concerned as like most liquid lipsticks, it doesn't get more matte than this. It can feel a little dry, but I don't really expect anything else from a liquid lipstick like this. It stays put through kisses and drinking but can slide off a bit if you are eating oily food. I use Johnson's moisturising face wipes to get it off at the end of the day which contain oil and therefore work like a charm. 

I find the colour surprisingly flattering on my pale skin and I'm sold, despite the fact that I'm not usually a pink lips person. It reminds me of Rimmel's Kate 107 lipstick which is a favourite, but this is slightly brighter and more pink. 

So, I say, if you fancy a bit of princess in your life, go for it. It's a shame these are so difficult to come by in the UK at the moment, I've now ordered Evil Queen too (couldn't resist as I love a bit of Once Upon a Time) which I shall review shortly! 

Crazy Eyes!

This week I've been feeling really under the weather and unfortunately today I had to drag my self-pitying body out of bed and to a meeting. Therefore I think I subconsciously made the decision to overcompensate for my lack of enthusiasm for getting out of my PJs this morning with BAT S**T CRAZY EYE MAKE UP! I mean really over-the-top, I'm wearing a rainbow on my face kind of eye make up. 

I decided to take a couple of quick pictures for this spontaneous post and share the look with you which I created using a mixture of indie vegan eye shadows and the Urban Decay Vice 3 pallete.

For your reference, I'm wearing: Shiro Cosmetics' Finklestein all over the lid, Notoriously Morbid's Dita on the outer V and a little into the crease, Urban Decay's Alien on the outer half of my lid, Urban Decay's Alchemy  in the crease, outer V and outer third of my lower lash line (what a mouhtful!) and finally a little wash of Urban Decay's Bobby Dazzle  all over and then built up on the inner third of my eye. 

I was surprisingly happy with how this look turned out this morning and I felt it brought a little edge to my otherwise boring outfit today. As a side note, what you can't really see in these photographs is that Finklestein has a strange green/purple thing going on which I love. 

If you happen to have some of these products lying around, give this an experimental try! 

(Note: I'm wearing a coat of Pixie Epoxy under this to bring out the shadows to their best)

The Matte Reds: Part 1

Searching for the perfect matte lipstick? You've come to the right place! 

I'm an addict when it comes to red lipsticks and for me, it's matte all the way. So today I've decided to share with you some of my favourite matte reds, including one from the new Dolce and Gabbana range (reviewed here). 

Left to right: L'Oreal Exlusive Reds Blake, L'Oreal Exclusive Reds Eva, Rimmel Kate 01, Dolce and Gabbana Desire

1: L'Oreal Exclusive Reds Blake £7.99

To me, this shade is a perfect red. It's the purist red of all the reds! With a lovely very matte finish.

02. L'Oreal Exclusive Reds Eva £7.99

With an identical finish to the Blake shade in the same range, this lipstick is a very rich orange-red. It's not overly bright and therefore I find it very flattering and easy to wear, and I think it would suit olive skin tones beautifully (like Eva's of course)

03. Rimmel Kate 01 £5.49

Similar in colour to Eva but brighter and slightly more red, this shade is pretty bold. It has the least matte finish of the four but tends to dry to a more matte finish after a little while. This is one of my oldest and trustiest reds!

04. Dolce and Gabbana Dolce: Desire £26.50

My current favourite, this shade from Dolce and Gabbana is a cut above the rest, with a somewhat hefty price tag. Personally, I think it's totally worth it for that creamy velvet finish that this lipstick gives, and I love the deep pink-red colour. It's the most matte of all which in my opinion is a great thing!

So there you have it, I hope I've helped you on your way to finding your favourite matte red lipstick! If you're still searching, come back soon for part 2 where I'll have a few more matte reds for you deliberation (I know, I have problems).

Plus, if you have any recommendations for me of your favourites, I'd love to hear about them so please leave a comment below.