Making it up as I go along...

BoA

2009-04-11T06:04:00.001-07:00

My new love is BoA - if you haven't heard her check her out!
She's feckin awesome & she is an amazing dancer :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4FCgvTnZxo&feature=channel_page

Check it out guys :)

x x

Review : Tara Smith Shampoo & Conditioner + EOTD

2009-04-10T04:15:00.000-07:00

This shampoo & conditioner range (available only from Tesco and Cult Beauty) is a newish brand created by hair stylist to the celebs Tara Smith.

- - - -
All Tara Smith's products are:
Made with natural and organic earth friendly ingredients
Contain certified organic fragrances
Made in the UK - in Sussex, England
Vegan approved
BUAV approved
Easily Recyclable
Tagged with wild flower seeds

- - - -
Tara Smith's products do not contain:
Parabens
Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLES)
Glycols
Phthalates
PEGs
Artificial colouring
Synthetic fragrance
Animal derivatives

- - - -

Now I've tried pretty much every drugstore (and a couple of higher-end) brands of shampoo I can get my hands on and all of them have irritated my scalp. I'm assuming it's because all of them contain at least half of the above list of nasties.
I bought the C Curl ones as I have really curly hair:

I really love this range. My hair lasts 3 days now inbetween washes, my scalp isn't irritated and although it doesn't work wonders for frizz it does make my hair nice and shiny.
Only downside is that the conditioner is a bastard to get out of the bottle!

A couple of things that make me love this range even more :

The packaging is completely recyclable

The card around the bottle is filled with wild flower seeds so you can plant it :) Super cute!

There are currently 4 different types within the range -

C Curls
Big Baby - fantastic if your scalp is uber-sensitive
Straight Away
Feed the Root - for dry hair (if you'd like a review on this check out Rowena's fab blog - http://cosmetic-candy.com/)

Chica's rating out of 10:9 - make them in larger sizes!

EOTD - Aerosmith 'Pink' Inspired

I used pretty much all cheapy drugstore products:

Et voila:

Happy Easter guys! x

Tutorial : Brown-eyed girl

2009-04-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

I had my first email request *punches air* :) I'm a geek, I know.
If you have any requests just email 'em over to apriliachica@hotmail.com
I was asked for a tutorial on an easy to wear neutral eye. Neutral for me is brown so here you go Lydia, hope you like it!

I did have a photo of the products I used but for some reason it hasn't downloaded properly off my camera :( boo!

Products used:

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Avon Big Colour eye pencil in Golden Glamour

Too Faced shadows from the Smokey Eyes palette (all of the everyday smoke)

MAC shadow in Ricepaper

MAC shadow in Carbon
Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in black

MaxFactor False Lash Effect Mascara (this is the UK version of Covergirl Lashblast)

I applied a base, my poison is UDPP. The Avon colour pencil is probably enough as a base on it's own but I always use UDPP just in case!
I covered my whole lid in the AVON Golden Glamour pencil (they're a bit like MAC Shadesticks/NYX jumbo pencils) to give the Too Faced Shadows more pop.
I applied The lightest of the two shadows from the Too Faced Palette to the middle of my lid and then smoked it out with the darker colour. To blend out you take a smudging/blending brush - my favourite is by the Body Shop - and pack colour along your crease in a windscreen wiper motion, dragging it down into the colour you've put on your lid.
I then took MAC's rice paper and applied this from the inner corner of my lid, blending it into the light brown Too Faced shadow.
I lined my upper lash line with Bobbi Brown gel liner and used MAC's carbon on the outer half of my lower lash line.

Et voila!

Review: MAC Grand Duos

2009-04-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

Grand Duos

This collection has been out for a while now and I've been able to have a good play with these to give them a half-decent review.

- -
There were 7 altogether in the collection -

Light over Dark - Orange/brown

Moon River - pale pink

Love Rock - bright pink/plum

Grand Duo - mid pink/plum

Earth to Earth - bronze/copper

Intenso - rose/red

Hot Planet - Copper/mid plum

- -
I wanted all 7 because I really love blush but I thought that was a few too many (lol) so bought the two that I thought were the most interesting - Intenso and Grand Duo.

I really liked Moon River, which seems to be their most popular shade (apparently people were going crazy over this one in Asia) but it reminded me quite a bit of the MAC Mineralise blush in Dainty, it looked lighter in the pan but the swatches came up pretty much the same on my arm so I left it.

Anyhoo onto the ones I've actually got!

These blushes are seriously stunning!

Grand Duo is the most wearable, it's a really deep plum shade on one side and pale pink with orange/coppery veining on the other. The coppery side makes a fantastic highlight and matches the plum perfectly. Grand Duo is pigmented enough to suit darker skintones and a light enough plum to look good on paler skin.

Intenso is a little more difficult to pull off on my skintone, I think perhaps I was being a little ambitious! It should be more wearable when I tan in the summer. This shade would suit any skintone from medium up, I can't wait to try it out then! As it is I have to wear it only when I'm doing a neutral eye/lip combo.

One word of warning - if you only like matte blusher then avoid this like the plague. These are just as shimmery as the MSFs which for me is LOVE but won't be to everyone's tastes.

Click to enlarge the swatches:

Intenso on the left / Grand Duo on the right

Chica's rating out of 10: 8.5

Tutorial : Classic Smokey

2009-04-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

Classic Smokey

To achieve a perfect smokey eye you need to spend the time blending (smoking) your shadow out.
Classic smokeys are all about the greys and black but you can smoke out any colour as long as you blend your darker colour heavily into your crease.

For a classic look I used:

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Chanel smokey quad
Urban decay Oil Slick (the shimmery black in the centre of the skull palette)
Urban Decay 24/7 white liner Yeyo
Bobbi Brown gel liner
Maybelline Define-a-lash length

I started off with my UDPP - any primer will do but for oily lids like mine you need a sticky primer. If your lids are dry Too Faced Shadow Insurance works better.
Then, using the lightest grey shadow in the Chanel quad (bottom left) I covered my entire lid to just level with my crease.
Taking a darker grey (top left) I blended this into the outer corner and up into & just above my crease. I worked this in until the two greys blended seamlessly.
I then took Oil Slick from the Urban Decay palette and used just a touch to deepen up the outer crease. I also added some on my lower lash line and using my finger smoked it out a little.
I used Bobbi Brown gel liner to add a little more drama and then set it with the dark grey shadow.

End result:

Long time no post!

2009-04-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

So sorry for the month without posting guys (if anyone reads this!) - work has been crazy busy the last month, I've been doing loads of extra hours because our financials had to be straight for end of year.
Expect these upcoming posts over the next few days:

Classic smokey eye tutorial
Review of MAC's Grand Duos collection
Review of Tara Smith shampoo & conditioner

Comment me with what's been going on in your life - or what posts you would like me to do!
I realised only certain accounts could leave posts but I've fixed that now so you don't need a google account to talk to me :) x

Chanel Rouge Allure Lipstick

2009-02-28T06:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-28T05:48:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-24T12:52:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-20T12:32:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-19T11:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-13T00:26:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-04T11:10:00.001-08:00

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!

Series: Liners

2008-12-28T08:42:00.000-08:00

Next up in the liners series is:

Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil

This review is based on the white liner.

Price: £2.99-£3.99
Availability: Superdrug, Boots, chemists
£££saver: currently on a 3for2 at Superdrug

Pros: affordable
Cons: not very pigmented, used on the waterline it becomes very sticky and sort of 'glues' your eyelid when you close your eyes!, not very long lasting

Chica's rating out of 10:1

I wouldn't recommend this liner to anyone, there are far better cheap liners in my opinion (reviews coming up) and after using this one a few times I've given up and it now lives at the back of my drawer in the 'don't know why I'm keeping this when it's crap and I'm not going to use it again' pile!

x x

Barry M Dazzle Dusts

2008-12-28T08:20:00.001-08:00

Apologies for not posting proper photos at the moment, my camera is dead :*( I'm planning on buying a new one some time this month while the sales are on and then there'll be photos everywhere!

Review on Barry M dazzle dusts :)

Cost: £4.50 each
Availability: http://www.barrym.com/, Superdrug & selected Boots shops
£££saver: Superdrug quite often have discounts on Barry M - the usual one is 3 dazzle dusts for £10 which I usually see offered once every couple of months (great time to stock up)
Pros: extremely pigmented, last a long time with a base, easy to blend
Cons:crease very quickly without a base, as these are loose there is a lot of fall out
Chica's rating out of 10:10

I personally prefer these to MAC pigments - obviously there is a price difference and the reason no doubt is the amount of product..but who uses a whole MAC pigment?!
The easiest way to get round the fall out issue is to apply your eye shadow first, then do your foundation and blush afterwards.

x x

Series: Liners

2008-12-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

The first series of posts I'm going to do will cover the various liners I've tried and my views on them.

First up are my HG (holy grail) pencil liners :

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils

Cost: around £9 per liner or £16 for a set of 5 mini liners
Availabilty: many online retailers stock this product, larger Boots shops.
Pros: creamy, very pigmented, stay on until you use make up remover!
Cons: may be too pricey for some

Chica's rating out of 10 : 10

If you are short on cash or want to try a few different colours without shelling out the full £9 for one, I would recommend the mini sets, these also make excellent presents for the make-up addicted amongst your friends!

x x

New Blog!

2008-12-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,

I'm a mega make up addict and have created this blog to share some of my experiences with make up, tutorials and reviews of products. Enjoy!

x x