Photodump part 100,000! (now with added cat goodness)

These photos are from a few weeks back because I'm once again behind on explaining myself! I wish I could post smaller daily updates. I apologise it's coming to you all at once, once more... it's that or i'll be playing catch-up forever, which in turn makes me procrastinate (possibly the longest sentence in this blog ever?)

The above is the second time I wore Max Factor Fantasy Fire, this time two layers over one coat of Illamasqua Propaganda (dark blue jelly-like cream). This really brought out the duochrome, certainly better than when I layered it over a purple cream. It almost looks like it does in the bottle over this one! I added a Konad stamp to my ring finger, just because.

I have once again cut my nails down to nothing because they're still peeling pretty badly, no matter how much OPI Avoplex I apply. :( No more Nail Of The Days for a while.

The above is a Chen Man Love and Water collection inspired look I designed (based on a facechart from the official collection release). I forgot to put the dots under the eye for my photos! D'oh. Had to fix it when I got into work. I did a facechart and everyone wore it at the counter for a day. It was pretty sweet! I was ill-prepared and I still SUCK at facecharts and need to give myself a few days to just focus on practicing that. As an aside, I actually wrecked the first one I made by putting it in a puddle of water and drying it under a hand dryer. FACEPALM. It was all wrinkled and smudged when I got to work because I'm daft. I made a new one that was slightly better, got a bit of practice in that way. When life gives you lemons and all that... make orange juice?!

I used the Call me Bubble quad from Shop/Cook MAC collection and  Naval Blue pigment from Chen Man, with Plumage to darken the crease.

Two work looks + presents from Rachael@thebeautyspot

I can finally wear my mineralize eyeshadows to work because ones originally out with the Style Black collection are currently re-released. I wore the Blue half of She Who Dares from the Venomous Villains collection - which is exactly the same as Blue Flame (I have swatched them now, so I know it's true). This was to work on Saturday. It was sweet.
I used scotch tape to make a really straight line on the outer edge, layered the shadow on over Marine Ultra chromaline (pro) to help it pop. A little bit of Print eyeshadow into the crease and outer-V for a softer look (no black eyeshadow). I also added Number 12 lashes (long and wispy). Little bit of black pencil in the waterline and tightlined. Copperplate eyeshadow for soft brows.

Nail Post - 3/4 of the Boots 17 Magnetized Polishes

(Sorry for thumb chip, this was after one day-to-night shift wear).

I finally tracked these babys down and wanted to post my views. I've had them since my second interview for MAC (the demo) after which I felt really antsy and announced 'I am going to Boots to buy stuff to cheer me up'. They didn't have these during the 3 for 2 offer in that particular store, but they were still £1 off each (not too shabby), so I bought the three brightest ones. £4.99 for magnet polish is still a bargain to me. The metallic/gunmetal one I felt able to resist... What can I say? I love colour! While I'm writing I may as well say - you can also get a free gift if you buy two or more 17 items at Boots right now. It's a silver eyeshadow, red lipgloss and black liquid liner (bonus! I'm yet to try them out but they look pretty).

After a couple of attempts I felt quite confident using these, although watch out because depending on the thickness of the layer I have found it makes little bumps in the polish where the magnetic (iron?) bits are trying to join to the magnet! I generally used only one thick coat, as the polish needs to be wet for the magnet to take effect. You could, however, use two coats and hover the magnet only on the topcoat if you prefer a thicker polish.

Using my usual Essie Ridge-Filling base coat and Good to Go topcoat they last a good couple of days. It seemed to become brittle faster than my usual base coat, 2-3 coats and topcoat, but that's no matter as I'm always up for a change.

The colours are really seasonally appropriate jewel tones - beautiful. I hope they make more of these, maybe in brighter colours. They're so multi-faceted, quick and fun! I'd love a copper or a red coloured one. I had an attempt at turning the magnet the other way to make vertical stripes and was disappointed it only striped the centre of my nails. If I was designing it, I might attempt a curved magnet, that'd be the only thing I'd change.

Have you tried magnetic polishes? What did you think?

Ruth x

Two work EOTDs and a NOTD

I've been loving my abundance of Urban Decay eyeshadows and their ease of use for nice work looks. Above I used Bust, Missionary and Skimp from the Book of Shadows IV with winged liner. I also added some no-name pink gloss over Illamasqua medium pencil in Bait for a bright pink lip.

Here I finally got around to trying Baked in eyeshadow form over Baked 24/7 eye pencil. It's a warm gold similar to Sugarpill Chromalust in Goldilux, a warmer/more copperish (somehow) than Urban Decay Half-Baked. The gold flecks in Cobra worked really well in the outer corner. I used Blackout and Vanilla from the 15th Anniversary palette to complete the look.

My nails this weekend are MAC Imperial Flower,  I actually used a thin coat of Illamasqua Whack underneath because I was worried about wasting product or having visible nail lines. I picked it up at the Cosmetics Company Outlet store in York yesterday for nearly 1/2 price... Woo! I also got Ming Blue. If they'd had more from that collection I would've bought all of them. I love me some microshimmery glassfleckiness stuff. This is somehwhere between deep orange and tomato red. It's lovely.


Hope you've all had a good week,

Ruth x

EOTD and NOTD of last week! (finally!)

Hi blog people! I have not been busy at all and therefore have no excuse for not posting regularly... does not feeling like it count? I usually love Autumn but this year I'm not so keen. I've clearly completely lost track of time reading books, listening to old CD's and working only super-duper part-time. I've let lots of things get ahead of me (like tidying, washing clothes/make-up brushes... not that I'm ever organised but yunno... it's worse right now than normally). What was that about no excuses? *sigh*

Anyhow, I'm posting this eyeshadow and nail combination as it's the most exciting thing I've worn in the past week.

I know some thing's up with me as I have no idea what eyeshadows these are. It may have involved Fyrinnae and Urban Decay. Hmm.
My brows were MAC brow pencil in Stud and E.L.F brow treat and tame in Ash, although it doesn't seem to photograph well and I struggle to apply the brow set as I guess my eyebrows are a bit sparse and so it just gets on my face, I still like this combination.

I've found myself doing a strong (full/natural) brow with light foundation (my new favourite Illamasqua Skin Base) and blusher with no mascara/eye make-up (and usually some kind of lip product involved) as my go-to for a week or so. I am finally feeling comfortable with a strong lip, I just need to improve my application technique.
 I liked the boyish look that Lisa Eldridge did in this video and seemingly I've started to wish I always looked like that. Time to attempt a brow grow-back I think. Seems to me I've overplucked so long this may be an impossible task. Time will tell, wish me luck!?

The nails... I used Nails Inc Barnbury Street (matte light brown), Illamasqua Fabricate (chocolate brown) and Essie Liquorice with Essie Good to Go fast-drying topcoat. This feels more subtle that my neon and pastel leopard nails of the last two weeks. Where does the time go? I STILL don't have any Konad stuff.

My plan for the week involves tracking down the Boots 17 Magnetic polishes and buying a couple of family birthday presents, too. How about you?

Ruth xx

Pastel Leopard Nails

I went a bit mad with many pastel shades (eight in total) on Saturday night. Yes, I have no life.

I used Blow (baby yellow), Wayward (yellow), Lament (coral) and Jo'Mina (warm lilac) from Illamasqua, Inglot 337 (baby pink), Barry M Spring Green (bright green) and Mint Green (pastel green) as well as Model's Own Beth's Blue (blue lilac) and my only (nearly all gone) cream black - Essie Liquorice.

It is still on my nails now through a day of work, a day of rest and a scary as Hell interview. I predict I'll keep it for a good while longer, because it's cheery and chunky and I like that. When I get paid, I am getting a nail oil, creams just aren't cutting it. My cuticles and nail-side-bits (finger edges?) shame me.

Ruth x

Neon Leopard Nails

Two Cyan and Purple EOTDs (one high-end, one low-end) and NOTD

Above is what I am terming the high-end cyan look I did last Saturday. I used NYX jumbo pencil in Milk and MAC pigment in Hi-Def Cyan patted on top. The browns were from the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette and I added dramatic liner just because! There ended up being a Sikh wedding at work on the day, so the liner felt kind of appropriate. A little bit Bollywood? (ps did you know Sikhs drink alcohol... a lot? Judging by this wedding anyhow. You live and learn!)

Today I ended up doing another light blue/cyan look using the Sleek Curacao eyeshadow palette - Blue Lagoon, Blue Hawaiian, Singapore Sling and Purple Haze (again using the NYX Jumbo pencil in Milk as a white base to help it pop). I also used the Wet n Wild I'm Feeling Retro palette (the white as inner-corner highlight and the pink for blending). Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Asphyxia was a base for the crease and also Perversion (blackest black pencil liner) was a softer version of my usual black liner. 

More pictures and a NOTD under the cut.

Yesterday my nails were the best bit EOTD

I used Illamasqua Blow (baby yellow cream) and Barry M Raspberry (dark raspberry red) nail polishes for this freehanded half moon manicure. It's particularly tricky for me as I have no natural half moons to base it on. As much as I'd love to make it pristine and perfect, using those ring binder, circle-around-the-holepunch, stickers just seems too slooooowww to me. This manicure took me half an hour including filing and removing the previous chipped polish. I used a coat of quick dry topcoat between the cream and red and ontop of the red, making my nails super thickened and claw like. This is a photo from five minutes ago, I have worn this for two days working a busy museum till (I took nearly £4000 in cash and card payments) and as you can see, no visible wear. Bonus.

Eyes under the cut.

EOTD and NOTD from Wednesday

For this look I used UDPP in Eden as my base, eyeshadows were Virgin, Baked, Buck and Naked from the Urban Decay Naked palette on the lid, Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencil in Binge as a base under the eye with MAC l/e Jeanius eyeshadow in Motorhead and l/e Venomous Villains mineralize eyeshadow in She Who Dares (blue half) patted on top. It looked more glittery in real life. Usual liner etc. Only a tiny bit of blush, Illamasqua cream blush in Rude I believe.

My nails for nearly a week or so have been Illamasqua Baptiste with a coat of Inglot green flakies on top of a few nails. This is one of my favourite nail combinations so far. 

It's lasted well and has only minor tip wear, no chips.

 Ruth x

Disney sidekick - Pascal (from Tangled) inspired EOTD

My new favourite Disney Sidekick and I'll tell you why. I rented Tangled and watched it twice in a row. Pascal is incredible. He's so expressive. He turns blue and red when scared/angry but green is probably my second favourite colour at the minute and I had wanted to do some green eyeshadow today so it all worked out. I tried to keep it rounded and lighter in the centre like real chameleons. I held a chameleon once on a school trip. It had awesome eyes and feet, all swivelly (shut up it is a word).

My fringe would not behave and got a firm hair-clipping!

Products

Base - UDPP in Eden, Illamasqua cream pigment in Bedaub (centre lid) and Jumbo Pencil in Milk (inner corner and lower lash line), Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy under the eye.

Eyeshadows - Inglot matte grass green 384 concentrated on inner and outer  sides of crease and glitter chartreuse AMC 59 in centre of lid. Matte skintone 352 to blend. MAC Newly Minted (for blending crease) and Sugarpill Chromalust in Tipsy (lower lashline/inner corner).

Eyeliner/Mascara - Illamasqua medium pencil in Vow (waterline, to make my eyes look rounder/bigger) Boujois Clubbing Liner in Black (not flicked out so eyes looked rounder... hopefully) and Boujois Volumizer mascara in Black.

Eyebrows -  Kryolan aqua blue coloured cream liner and Illamasqua matte blue eyeshadow in Sadist.

Face - Laura Mercier oil-free tinted moisturizer in Porcelain, set with a tiny bit of Clinique powder (I have noticed this is too yellow for my skin even though it's supposedly translucent so I would like a new powder soon, possibly Kryolan anti-shine) and a little Guerlain pressed meteorites powder in Mythic Parfait (I wanted a little glow). Blusher was from the MAC l/e Venomous Villains collection - Cruella's Darkly my Dear.

I'm still working my way through my nail polish hoard. Here is Illamasqua Lament, which they've put in a new collection called Magenta Muse. This collection is disappointing because it's all from the permanent range. In some ways I applaud Illamasqua for this as nothing ever sells out forever as with MAC. But you know... new stuff is exciting! Make new stuff guys! 

Anyway, I picked it up on sale from asos.com about two weeks ago. It's a lovely cream coral pink colour, brighter on the nail than I thought it would be from the bottle. I put a coat of Illamasqua Prism on top of a few nails just for an extra little something. Makes them look pinker, nearly neon, when it catches the light. 

My index finger appears to be dirty, looks like the hair dye to me. It seems to have stopped transferring onto everything now. Fingers crossed. I still have a black sheet wrapped around my red bedding just incase!

Ruth x

Working my way through new nail polishes...

I have twenty five Illamasqua nail polishes as of last week. I plan on doing a collection post/summary of them at some point because they are clearly a big favourite of mine. I have plenty others from cheaper brands, too. I currently have over twenty untried polishes. Now, let me say this - I only buy polishes (and most make-up in general) when it's on offer. That way I can afford more. 

While I'm on the subject, I plan on doing a giveaway with some polishes I ordered yesterday, more details on this soon... 

Now, these days everytime I wash my hair I dye my fingernails blurple. Therefore I have already worn two different colours of polish this week. Saturday/Sunday/Monday morning I wore this - 

 Color Club Glitter Envy is a neon green jelly with glitter throughout. Because it's semi-opaque the glitter suspended in it looks more like little polka-dots than shiny glitter. I actually really like it, but don't think I'd want more than one, or even the whole collection... unless it was free. I got a few comments at work, mainly from customers, who didn't know whether to look at my hair or my nails first. It was fun!

And for the past two days I have worn Illamasqua Blow (creamy pastel yellow) with Essence nail twin glitter in Edward on top. It has tiny flecks of holographic glitter, small circular blue glitter and teal/turqouise chunky square glitter. It's just stunning, probably my favourite glitter top coat overall. Teals/blues/greens are still at the forefront of my mind. This Illamasqua yellow applies really easily, this was two thin coats. 

I suppose I like it as it is almost the exact shade I obtained from a discount shop (that's right, not even drugstore/highstreet... it was £1) when I was about 11. I used it for all over yellow nails or sometimes as the centres of daisies on lilac nails (what my friends called fried egg nails). Yeah. I had around 20 nail polishes then and I'm pretty sure my pre-teen buddies were all jealous. 

Maybe that's why I collect them so much at the minute...maybe I'll never get over the tastes I had as a schoolkid. I'm ok with that :) 

I made my first holographic franken today, which I plan on road-testing tomorrow. I couldn't bear to part with this particular manicure (in the above photo) today...mostly because glitter is a bitch to remove for me, even with acetone remover. Any tips?

Ruth x

Blue Hair second day and NOTD

Today, my second full day of bluedom, I decided to blue my eyebrows. I used Illamasqua matte eyeshadow in Sadist. I might try my darkest matte blue from the Sleek mediteranean palette tomorrow, or a wet pigment. We'll see. It's fun to experiment. 

Today I had some twirled up/faux victory rolls at my temples for work and it made pretty curls when I took  it out. Oooh! The possibilities.

Now some backstory: I wanted blue hair since I was about 15. Finally got blue streaks at 16. It went all wrong, it went funny and patchy. It was meant to be an electric blue colour, but because my hair hadn't bleached evenly (from where it'd been dyed black) it went white in places, violet, yellow, brown and a tiny bit of my desired blue. The only other unnatural colours I ever had were red and purple (only a few streaks at 14-15, in the summer so I didn't get in trouble at my strict catholic school... the idiots). Anyway, so far I love having blue hair.

Blue Hair Inspirations 

Zoetica Ebb - illustrator, photographer, model, -beautiful person!- (of Biorequiem)

Shrinkle (Amy of my favourite -favourite- eyeshadow brand Sugarpill)

And I don't know who this is but it makes me want my Bettie fringe back. Ha!

Since my hands (and even my toenails!) got all stained purpley blue from the dye (I should've washed it out over the bath first!), I painted my nails with a-england's Tristam for the first time. It's very gently holographic and very sparkly dark blue and pretty. Many of my favourite things.
This is two coats but I could've managed it with one. It covers up my stained nails perfectly and it hasn't chipped in three days, bonus.

I have a gram of Specktra flair and three empty polish bottles, I plan on whipping up my own franken-holos some time next week. Watch this space, 

Ruth x

Wet n Wild Cool as a Cucumber EOTD + NOTD

I used UDPP in Eden, the Wet n Wild Cool as a Cucumber eyeshadow palette (all three colours), along with UD 24/7 liner pencil in Perversion (blackest black) and Rimmel Lash Accelerator mascara (also in black, this mascara has certainly got better with age). 

I haven't been wearing much eye make-up recently - I've been dying my hair and doing my nails a lot. I used my usual foundation/concealer (Laura Mercier Oil-Free tinted moisturizer in Porcelain with Clinique powder/Collection 2000 cheapo concealer aka most awesome concealer in Light). Blush was Illamasqua cream blush in Rude. This palette was not the most pigmented eyeshadow ever but over a base I know they'd work amazingly as they blend really well.

I wore this nail look for all of a day before I messed it up/dyed it blue/got tissue stuck on in cleaning hairdye off my face with polish remover. It is Maybelline express finish in 'Outloud Lime'. It claims to dry in 50 seconds and with a basecoat, three coats of the colour, a coat of Inglot green flakie (on 5/10 nails) AND my fast dry topcoat, it was dry to the touch in 10 minutes flat. It is a very impressive nail polish. 

I am still super-duper grateful to Lyuba @ Funky Makeup Junkie for these amazing goodies. Can't wait to try the second palette, too :)

Ruth x

ps. All will be revealed about my new hair soon!

Swapsies... :D + NOTD

I undertook my first two swaps recently. One through makeupalley.com and one through this here blog. I'm really happy with it. In both cases, looks like I got the better deal SUCKAS (j/k... but I think so).

From the beautiful and talented and also kimono-loving Lyuba-chan (just look at this eye-look she did the other day and follow her because she's great) two (!!) Wet n Wild trios in Cool as a Cucumber and I'm Feeling Retro. I can't wait to try these... I've never tried Wet n Wild so it's going to be fun. She also sent two nail polishes in Wet n Wild megalast 'Haze of Love' and Maybelline express finish in 'Outloud Lime'. 

We swapped brow powders because I ended up with Gingersnap browbox from Urban Decay (not ginger!) and she ended up with this Gosh set (which may be a bit dark because she IS a redhead!)... I didn't send her as much. I feel like I cheated... but I'm still excited.

Incidentally this green is creamier and lighter than Illamasqua Radium, a favourite of mine. It also has no shimmer. It reminds me of an Avon colour that I had when I was at school (like 11 or so) that came out sheer no matter how much I put on... It looked like this in the catalogue but was disappointing in real life. Fingers crossed, looking at it in the bottle this is opaque. And just look at that red. It's like a dusky creamy brick-colour. Oooh...

My make up alley swap was with Nola at Hedonism Limited. Her nails are immaculate... . I sent her a couple from Illamasqua, a couple from Accessorize and a couple from Models Own and she sent me some Essence and Inglot. Now, I know I could've got the Inglots when I was at the London store earlier this year but I completely blanked and forgot all about nails. The eyeshadows and eyeliners... they blinded me! Anyway, I had my heart set on 203 and 204 (green flakey and blurple flakey). From essence their nail art twin in Edward (it might be named after Twilight but I do not care a jot... it is beautiful! It has square glitters!), Circus Confetti, Matte Topcoat,  'Can't Cheat on Me' and 'Where's the Party?' also got my attention when I was searching blogs. 

My nails at the minute are Illamasqua Bacterium (a taupe with silver sheen), which I got bored of after a day and when I received my Polish polish (see, it's from Poland!) decided to glitterify (what, it's a real word!?) with essence Circus Confetti. I've had it on this way two days and can't see me changing it till tomorrow... I like it. But I know with so many new ones to try it's only a matter of time.

Anyone else like swapping?

Ruth x

Flit inspired EOTD and NOTD

I need to get my favourite Disney's on dvd, clearly. I think that's where this idea came from - my subconscious. The Disney loving child in the back of my mind that learnt all of the words to the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. Flit from Pocahontas is one of the best characters in my opinion. I like it when he gets impaled on a biscuit. Anyway, I painted my nails with a recent acquisition, Illamasqua Muse a few days ago...

That was one coat. I liked it enough with one, but two would've been neater (probably). This colour reminds me of Flit, and I'd decided to do a little series devoted to Disney characters for a while so I added a coat of Models Own Disco Mix (a fuscia and blue glitter)...
 

And to match it (because matching nails to eyes is fun, ok) I did an eye look based on the same colour scheme (teal and pink, with some white for good measure). 

(I went a little bit picture mad but I liked the lighting I had - when I started the make-up it was overcast and when I'd finished it was sunny... it's been all weird today as well. Tut.)

Products
Base: UDPP and NYS Jumbo pencil in Milk.
Eyeshadows: Sugarpill Chromalusts in Darling, Dollipop and Magentric (used with Illamasqua sealing gel for the pink liner on the bottom lashes), Inglot browns in crease, shimmery white on inner tearduct area and matte skintone for blending.
Liner and mascara: Boujois clubbing liner intense (black), Illamasqua medium pencil in Vow (waterline) and Rimmel Lash Accelerator.
Brows: matte brown eyeshadow from a Clinique free gift.
Foundation: I mixed a blob of Illamasqua rich liquid foundation in 140 (which has started to separate already... :( ) with my Laura Mercier oil-free tinted moisturizer in Porcelain. I powdered with Clinique translucent powder.

I really liked the double winged liner, just think I need to be more dramatic with it... It's never as bold in the photos as it looks in the mirror, huh?

Ruth x