BoA

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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