Chanel Rouge Allure Lipstick

Review as promised!

If for some reason the world was a horrible place where I had to pick only one item of make up I could use for the rest of my life and everything else was binned - lipstick would be my choice. Over mascara, eyeliner, foundation, blusher - yes. Lipstick is my favourite.

I've always been put off getting Chanel lipstick as it seems so overpriced - £19.11 for one lipstick just seems so much when MAC are only £11 and there are such good drugstore options like Boots 17, Maybelline, NYX e.t.c

Once you've tried them though - oooh. So lush. The texture is really buttery and doesn't dry your lips at all. The colour selection is gorgeous, all the shades are wearable and work- friendly.

The highlight for me?

Whilst drugstore brands offer good colour selections and are great for purse-friendly options, they don't last. One sip of diet coke and adios.

I put this one on before I went to work yesterday (about 7am) and by lunch time - a bottle of water later - still there. More faint obviously but still visible.

Woohoo! No need to reapply.

Pigmentation - good, colour looks on exactly as it does in the tube. I hate sheer lipsticks, what's the point?

With gloss -

Chica's rating out of 10:9

Rimmel 60 second Nail Polish

Hey guys,

Firstly - I've made the photos larger as I think the size I've been using is a little too small - let me know, yay or nay in the comments!

Onto the review -

I'm a nail polish whore, seriously.

Name a brand - I've tried it.

I also as a general rule hate Rimmel cosmetics. Everything I've tried by them has been rubbish and I've ended up giving it away or chucking it.

Until now.

Meet my new nail polish cheapy love - Rimmel 60 seconds :

First off the price is fantastic . Courtesy of the VAT cut making prices a little random - they now retail for £2.92

Cheaper than anything else I have, even cheaper than Barry M.

Colour selection is again - fantastic. Every colour under the sun in this collection. I picked up sunrise (guess which out the 3 that is) and then picked up funtime fuchsia and twinkle after I was impressed with that one. They have a lot of neon, summery colours that i'll no doubt pick up as well.

Lasting power - they're cheap. So you can't expect Essie/OPI - up to a week magic (although is it just me or are the new OPI collections not as good quality - they seem to be chipping a lot faster than the older ones) - I've had twinkle on for 3 days and one nail has chipped so I'm going to say 2-4 days.

This is still better for me than Barry M - or the most awful polish ever - Boots No7.

Brush? Pretty average. I don't know what the old shape was like, as they seem to be promoting this brush as new and improved but it just looks like your average one to me!

Overall - this range is LOVE.

Chica's rating out of 10:8

Tried it? Let me know!

Big Haul - mainly MAC!

Oooh, stuff!

I went to the MAC pro store because I'm sick of single shadows, they take up too much space.

I bought an empty 15 pan palette and filled it up, mainly neutrals as I'm hoping to use this once I've completed my bridal make up course.

As most votes in the poll were for haul posts - enjoy!

Lipsticks L-R Chanel 62 & 40, MAC Angel

MSF in Redhead and MAC Mineralise blush in Dainty

for those who might be interested -

I picked up a really pretty hardback copy of Jane Eyre which is one of my favourite books & McMafia - about the new digital age of organised crime.

Expect reviews of the Chanel Rouge Allure lipsticks & the W7 fake lashes :)

Bobbi Brown & Shoe Porn!

Product review: Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner

Until yesterday there were 3 people who had not tried Bobbi Brown's gel liner. Me..and the other 2 people living under a rock.

I decided I needed to do something about that - plus I was getting fed up of my liquid liners drying up so..

voila!

I ordered Black Ink because I use black liner 95% of the time.

And.....IT'S AMAZING.

I know people rave about it all the time, but honest to God this is the best liner ever made. Seriously. I'm in love.

I faithfully promise that unless BB change the formula to make it crappy I will never cheat on my gel liner.

I've never found a liner so easy to use. I normally do a great line on my left eye (I'm a leftie) but make a crapola line on my right. Not anymore.

If you are one of those 2 people who haven't bought it yet, do it now!

Moving on..to

Shoe porn!

I needed (ha, wanted) some new heels and found a couple of bargains.

If you live in the UK - the blue ones are from George and cost £14, the red ones were the bargain of the century and reduced from £25 to A FIVER in New Look.

Drool my friends.

UD Look

Today's Look :

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow in Sting

Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow in Fishnet

MAC Ricepaper

Avon Chunky pencil in Icicle (white inner corner of the eye)

Maybelline Define-A-Lash length mascara

Lips:

MAC Lustering lipstick

the Body Shop Sparkle lip gloss in Dusk Pink (limited edition)

To recreate this look -

• Apply UD primer potion all over the lid


• Apply MAC's Ricepaper from lash line to brow - this will work as your highlight as well as a base for the UD deluxe shadows


• Using a flat eyeshadow brush apply UD sting all over the lid to just above the crease. A flat eyeshadow brush is best to pack on colour


• Using a blending brush apply UD fishnet to the outer corner fo the lid and blend upwards to smoke out the shadow.


• Apply liner if you want and a tonne of mascara!

Finished look:

If you would prefer a photo-by-photo tutorial let me know guys!

Ilamasqua

Brand Focus: Illamasqua

Illamasqua is a new brand to the UK - they are London based and seem to fit a missing link to higher end dramatic, dark make up.

I put in an order with them a few weeks ago and received it yesterday -

I ordered 2 eyeshadow palettes (1 of purples, 1 of greens) and a lip palette where I just picked 4 colours at random from their list.

Now..onto the review -

This brand is not cheap - single shadows & lipsticks are more expensive than MAC - but less than NARS:

Single shadow - £14 (MAC £9.79 NARS £15)

Lipstick - £14 (MAC £11.26 NARS £17)

Liquid foundation - £19.57 (MAC StudioFix £18.60 NARS £31)

Palettes are much more affordable - the three palettes I ordered cost me just short of £90 with postage.

When I ordered there were already a lot of colours out of stock (there are now even more) and my order was delayed by part of my order being out of stock - had to be replaced with similar colours. Despite the wait - the customer service was excellent, when I emailed for updates I received emails back the same day - which my fellow Brits will know is extremely rare for UK companies - most seem to forget the value of actually helping the people buying their products -mini rant over-

I've already tried out all of the green shadow and 3 out of the 4 lipsticks and there are good and bad points to both.

The eyeshadows are all matte - they do have a small selection of shimmer shadows on their website but the vast majority are matte and as such they are difficult to work with - hard to blend and even though the greens look different to each other in the pans, it is very difficult to tell between them on your eye :

This is all 4 shadows - all look the same right?

Click to see close up

However, saying that the colours are really pigmented - in the future I will probably use these as base colour and shadows that are easier to blend with for crease/blending work.

I tried the most vibrant green wet as eyeliner this morning and it looks fantastic, I will try out all the shadows wet and let you know if that makes any difference - hopefully the colours will stand out better against each other.

Swatches of shadows

Lip palette -

When I first tried these out (the top - I think this is Underworld & bottom left - I think this is Welt) I was really disappointed. I don't naturally have very pigmented lips and the colours hardly came up - and I was applying a tonne of the stuff - this morning I tried the top (bright purple/pink) over nude lipliner ..et voila! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. It reflects blue in the light and looks amazing, I've never seen that combination of colour in any other brand. I tried to take a photo to post up but they all looked blurry so I'll work on that!

In conclusion, I think this is a good brand with an excellent range of products & colours but they haven't personally beaten MAC, Chanel or Urban Decay yet for me as the eyeshadow queens.

I will order from them again but I will probably buy the lipsticks individually and try out other products - their blushers look amazing for one.

Chica's ratings :

Customer Service: 10/10 (even with the delay)

Quality of Products : 7/10

Selection & Price: 7/10

x x

UD Deluxe

Urban Decay Deluxe Shadows

One of my favourite cosmetics brands is Urban Decay. I love bold, bright shadows and I think that they offer the best range of bright shadows - yes even better than MAC ;)


Adore (single shadow, bottom) is the most stunning shade of royal blue. I haven't found a dupe for it yet.

Click on the photo for close up of colours




If you're thinking of buying Urban Decay but are put off by the £12 price tag of the singles, the palette is only £25 which per shadow works out dirt cheap.
Here is a look I've done recently using the palette:

Finally have a camera!

Hi guys,

My shiny new camera with too many buttons than I know what to do with turned up yesterday so I can now do photo posts! Woot!