Le petit jardin

Halloween 2015 - My look

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 22:59:00 +0000

I know, I know. Tumbleweeds on the blog, long time no see, blah blah blah. Who gives a pumpkin about why I have not updated this blog for so long. I don't think for one minute that your life has stopped running its course because my blog hasn't been updated so let's cut to the chase and let me share with you what I wore on Halloween, which in case you didn't know, is my favourite day of the year.

I've got a list long as my arm of looks I would like to create and characters I would like to impersonate for Halloween until Halloween 2057. I can't tell for how long I have been longing to have some tribal style paintings on my face so this year I finally turned myself into a Tribal Warrior, inspired by "Alive" by Empire of the Sun and some tribal makeup looks from Instagram.

After the trauma of finding a wig that fitted the bill last year for incarnating Cleopatra and the costs involved, I really wanted to do a budget look this year and wanted to recycle what I had in my wardrobe and makeup collection. Minus my contact lenses (more on that later) everything I wore, from the makeup, the outfit, the jewellery was recycled from the past. With putting on weight over the years, and even after losing 8 pounds for the occasion there no chance I could have worn my brown avatar skirt so my ordinary multi purpose black skirt had to do.

Now for the piece de resistance: the most inexpensive, comfortable, easy to wear and striking even on dark eyes lenses on the planet. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to the Mesmereyez Xtreme LOUIS One Day Halloween Contact Lenses at £6.99 a pair from Hunt or Dye.
Of course I am never going to be as good as the boyfriend who pops in his lenses in a micro second flat, because he wears lenses every day but I don't recall managing putting lenses in my lenses so fast. I am not sure if it's because they are designed to last just one day and that the material is super thin but I found them very easy to insert in my eyes. Another big help was the colour. There is no way you can put the lenses inside out. The outside is very obvious from the inside and it felt so reassuring to be 500% sure they were inserted the right way.

Other products used:
-Usual bog standard very highly pigmented red Stargazer eye shadow from eBay, purple and black eyeshadow from the sleek makeup acid paletteSnazaroo white Face Paint
- Ben Nye Liquiset
- Ben Nye Final Seal
- Lips: La Splash Cosmetics Waterproof "Lip Couture" in shade "Malevolent"

Did you celebrate Halloween? Did you get dressed up?
Tell me all about it in the comments below, on instagram or on twitter @tsunimee :) xx

Cliloopatra: My character for Halloween 2014

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 21:43:00 +0000

I can't tell you for how long I had been wanting to travel to Ancient Egypt and become Cleopatra for a day. I have been putting it for so long, then when Katy Perry released Dark Horse, I interpreted it as a sign so I had to be the Queen of the Nile this year for Halloween.

I couldn't have made life for difficult for myself choosing to become Cleopatra. Cleopatra eye makeup, in my eyes anyway, is all about intricate eyeliner work, which is the last thing you want to replicate on a person with hooded eyelids like me. And then Cleopatra is famous for her luscious fringe (or bangs as Americans would call it) so began the maniac hunt for a decent looking wig. Now if you thought there were a huge reality gap between advertisement photos of, say, burgers or eyes supposedly transformed by mascara, the gap is even bigger when you buy a wig. The amount of money I spent buying wigs which looked absolutely nothing like the picture is unbelievable. Then to top it all off, the finishing touch for a Cleopatra look is some form of golden headdress which turned out to be the biggest ball ache. Again, an incredible amount of money was spent in buying all sorts of head gear on eBay for nothing. One week before Halloween, I wish I had broken my leg instead of wanting to become Cleopatra. In a nutshell, everytime I was trying to wear a headband over my wig, I looked like an Arabian Sheik, the hair would be stuck to my head, would ping out at the bottom and I just felt very unpretty and unhappy. Then I thought getting a headchain would be a good idea. I purchased this very one actually but it didn't work out. On a wig it would constantly slide about, fluff the hair up and make you nervous the wig would lift off. On my natural mop of hair, it looks actually really really nice but I looked more like Princess Jasmine than Cleopatra. In the end, I wished I just went ahead, bit the bullet and bought a headdress à la Moloko.

To cut a painfully long story short, decisions had to be made. On Friday Night, I wore the wig without any form of headgear, which made difficult for people to recognise who I am and on Saturday, I wore a necklace, which I already own, under the wig fringe and it added a little Cleopatra touch to my costume. Without further ado, here are some photos of my Halloween week end. A nice blurry one to start the proceedings…

Last but not least, some snaps illustrating the not so attractive sheikh hair style, pinging out at the bottom, which I talked about earlier on, and why I felt I just couldn’t possibly go out like that.

What I used:

Eyes: Two faced shadow insurance, Nyx Jumbo Pencil Collection (2000) Felt Tip Eyeliner, Gold Eyeshadow in the L'oreal HIP Flamboyant Duo, Dark Blue from Sleek Makeup Monaco Palette, 'Atlantis' Blue Eyeshadow from Milani, Katy Perry Eye Lashes Revlon eyepencil,
Lips: Boring Nude Lip (Mac Velvet Teddy)
Wig: This wig From Ebay.
Necklace: Primark. £3

See? I told you the wig looks shorter in real life! Or maybe it’s just because of the model’s giraffesque neck.

What I learnt from doing this makeup: When you see a wig, reality is that it will be 2 inches shorter on you, use double sided tape to secure your wig, wigs and hair accessories are a nightmare when paired together. I am grumbling a lot, but I really enjoyed wearing this look. Most of all, I enjoyed the makeup challenge and trying to be Cleopatra for the week end. Next year, I fancy being something spooky again though. Wouldn't mind having a dab at special effects makeup.

Hope you have had a fantastic Halloween. If you dressed up and did some fancy makeup, let me know in the comments, I would love to see :) xx

Last Minute Halloween Makeup: Webby Witch

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 20:11:00 +0000

You know when you have not been in touch with an old friend for years, you know an email is long overdue but you don't know where the heck to start, how to summarise years of absence, I am like that with this blog. So I'm just going to go right into it and share a little bit of makeup with you, just like in the old days. About two months ago, I started a new hobby and I have been going to salsa classes every Thursday. So last Thursday, on Halloween Eve, the Halloween Obsessed girl that I am couldn't resist the urge of wearing a halloweeny makeup look. It had to be wearable as I would still need to be able to dance with a partner, without smearing him with face paint or something like that but most of all it had to be simple, because I knew no one else would wear an Halloween makeup on the night.

Once on new year's eve, I decided to join a fancy dress bar crawl on my own and I turned out to be the only one in fancy dress gear and makeup, bar a lost Jack Sparrow. After surviving that experience, it is pretty safe to say that I've gone past caring whether I am going to be the only one wearing fancy dress makeup. It's too much fun to be had, fancy dress makeup opportunities are too rare and I didn't want to miss out.
So this is what I came up with: a mismatched asymmetrical colourful cobweb look and black lip accessorised with a mini-witch hat on a headband, ideal if you can't bring yourself choosing just one colour symbolic with Halloween.

Although this look can be done last minute and requires very few products, you might want to practise beforehand before your big day. What made all the difference was the marvellous Extreme 24 hour felt tip eyeliner from Collection (2000). You still require a pretty steady hand but it made my life so much easier. But the product which I had the most pleasure using was 'Sunrise' orange eyeshadow from the makeupstore: fantastic pigmentation, very smooth and hands down the easiest shadow I have ever worked with. It makes me want to throw all my makeup away and buy products just from the makeup store. The green is a combination of the 2 green eyeshadows from the sleek makeup acid palette and the purply brown colour in the crease comes from the 'oh so special palette'.

Originally, I wanted to recreate the gorgeous web look from GoldieStarling but had to declare forfeit after battling with my hooded lids. I have to start so much higher than my crease that I end up with very little space for the web part. The web part under my eye was not much easier, as it gets all distorted every time I smile and laugh. It was pretty much a case of working with what I had (lots of under eye wrinkling action) rather than against it and adapt the angle of the web and the space between the lines to match the wrinkles, so that the web still looks pretty when you smile and move your face.

had so much fun wearing this look. I was so worried the eyeliner would smudge but a practise the night before made me realise I had nothing to worry about: it withstood lots of laughter tears and didn't budge until I was ready to take it off. Oh why can't it be Halloween again next week so that I can have some more play with it?

Under the sun series: Still Irreplaceable

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Have I already run out of ideas and content to feature a nail polish previously blogged about? Fear not, I have a backlog of posts as long the channel tunnel. Today, I would like to share you a old favourite nail polish of mine, in a different light, as part of my 'under the sun' series. If you are new to the series, you can read about it here. If you can't be bothered leaving this page, it is essentially about giving great nail polishes the love they deserve and giving them a better chance to shine: a chance to see them under the best light ever created by nature: glorious natural sunlight. Essence irreplaceable is a big favourite of mine and I still like it just as much as the first day.

Oddly enough, I have not been wearing it much at all as a manicure but it has been without a doubt *the* nail I have been wearing the most on my toes this season. In fact, apart from a glittery black nail polish worn for about a week, it's pretty much all that I have wearing this summer on my toes. Don't panic, there will no toes on show (I am very much aware that showing toes and feet is very controversial on internet) instead, have a look at this irreplaceable manicure.

I can't stress enough how easy this polish is to apply and wear. Nail polish experts will notice right away that my application is not the neatest and that it looks like I've applied the polish 3 miles away from the edges. But in the grand scheme of things, and in real life, it really doesn't matter. That's the way I wear it. The truth is that Essence irreplaceable is a very forgiving shade due to its subtle colour. On my toes, it will last 1 week before losing its sparkle. After a week, it will start to wear out beautifully, a bit like an antique gold vase.

If you're lucky to have a friend who lives in a country which sells bargainous high street wonder Essence products, this is definitely a shade you would like to get your hands (and toes) on. I need a gallon of this stuff and it will be a sad day when I will have run out of my second and last bottle. The closest polish to irreplaceable I own and which is available in the UK is this little sexy number from Marks and Spencers.

Nair Upper Lip Kit

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Since an unfortunate episode at the beauty salon, I've been avoiding beauty salons like the plague and I've been taking charge of the unwanted hair on my face at home. I've been scared to get my eyebrows waxed at the beautician (any beautician, not just the one who butchered my brows) so I have been trying to maintain my brows myself with a pair of tweezers. As I get older, removing unwanted hair around my eyebrows is getting easier and easier. My eyebrows just don't grow as full as they used to anymore and I find myself spending more time filling them in rather than tidying them off.

Hair on the upper lip, however, is still a problem. You'd think as you get older, hair on this area will stop growing too but no. Lately I have been trying to control the appearance of facial hair on the upper lip whilst bleaching it. The problem with bleaching is that the hair is still there, less noticeable but it's still there. As I was photographing some stuff for the blog, in my kitchen, on a sunny day, one day, I caught sight of my upper lip foliage and was horrified. The same day, I found myself in the aisles of Boots, purchasing my very first hair removal cream kit.

The choice of hair removal creams was quite baffling for the newbie like me. I remember that there was a product for the face, from Boots own brand at £2ish but I opted for a pricier product and went home with the Nair Upper Lip Kit (RRP: £5.10) formulated for sensitive skin.

The rationale behind my purchase was two fold:

1) A pricier product would mean better quality. If I want to have a memorable first time, I want to give myself as many chances as possible of liking the product. So I might just as well go for a good product, instead of choosing a cheapie one and running the risk of being put off for life from a method of hair removal I never tried before. I also remember the days when I was trying to learn how to put false lashes on and it was only when I spent £5 in a reputable brand like Eylure that I managed to put for the first time a pair of eyelashes with confidence.

2) A product for sensitive skin would be better suited for hair removal newbies.

Do you know where this is going yet? I am trying to write this in the most neutral way as possible, trying to manage the suspense, only to reveal my opinion of the product at the end of this post but I feel like you can already sense where this is going.

I made the effort to read all the instructions but chose to ignore the bit where it says you have to patch test a small area to see if you develop a strong reaction with it. The packet suggests that you do the patch test EVERYTIME you use it. Really? Who does that?

My first impressions were really good. The kit contains 2 tubes: the blue one is for removing the actual hair and the pink one is the moisturiser, to use after you've done removing the hair, to soothe and moisturise the upper lip. The colour coding makes sense in a way. The blue (blue for boys) is tough, like men are tough and strong and removes the hair. The pink (pink for girls) is girlie and adds some needed ‘gentleness’ to the world

What also impressed me that is that I didn't notice any scent at all, in either the blue or the pink product. It's only after I was done with the product that I realised that it didn't have any scent.

I wanted to leave the product for the 5 recommended minutes but as I tried to sweep some of the hair off, I noticed that it didn't come off easily so I decided to leave it on for 5 more minutes, making sure not to exceed 10 minutes overall. I was definitely ready to take the product after 10 minutes as I could feel the tingling sensation getting more and more noticeable.

As I expected it, my lip felt very tender when I removed the product. I was expecting this feeling to last maybe 4 hours, as this is usually the amount of time that my lip feels tender after an upper lip wax. The problem is that my lip felt sore for a whole 48 hours. It wasn't red, it wasn't a burning sensation as such but it just felt weird to the touch, so incredibly tender but numb at the same time, like the pain you get after a lip wax, but a pain which would last 48 hours. As the hours went by, my lip felt better and better but the first 24 hours were just extremely uncomfortable. Then 2 days later, when the pain had finally subsided, the hair started to grow back. Hair Regrowth felt quite sharp, a bit reminiscent of leg hair regrowth but at a smaller scale.

It's extremely unlikely that I am going to re-use the Nair upper lip kit ever again. I can't say it's a bad product and Nair did very well to create a scent free product but I think it's this particular method of hair removal which is not suitable for me. It's an experience that I never want to go through again. It's not worth it, 48 hours of uncomfortable pain and when the pain finally subsides, you have to contend with regrowth. To be honest, I don't know how long my upper lip stays hair free when I have it waxed but it certainly lasts longer than 2 days! To be fair, the product *did* mention that it would remove all visible hair, not hair from the root as waxing would but I expected better than that. And if I'm going to have 'sharper' lip hair again after 2 days, I might just as well use a razor and be done with it.

If you're quite accustomed to hair removal products and quite like this method, you will probably enjoy this kit. No need to mix anything, it has a handy slanted applicator nozzle thing, and it has no noticeable smell, from what I can remember anyway. If you're new to the method altogether, I would recommend to experiment with a cheaper product and see how you get on with that, with a view to upgrade in the future. The Nair upper lip kit retails for £5.10. To add salt to injury, it's on half price at the moment: £2.55 at Boots. Grr!

Emergency Lilac

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 19:00:00 +0000

So you're about to go on a week end away, you're all packed but you didn't get the chance to do your nails because you actually started packing at 11pm the night before. You quickly pack some nail polish, before you hop on the train, or you think you did but you can't find the darn bottle.

What to do? Chances are that if you're going on a city break, you won't probably be too far from a Superdrug, when you can pick up some 'emergency' nail polish. Now, 2true nail polish in shade 14 might not be the most exciting shade out there, but it's one of these handy colours which will go with anything and which will quickly make your bare nails presentable enough to visit his parents in two easy coats. More importantly, it's incredibly good value for money (£1.99) and the application is a doddle thanks to the flat brush.

2true polishes (well, the 'creme' finish skinny bottles anyway) are too good quality to be relegated to the status of 'emergency' polishes. In fact, it's almost an insult to the brand to treat them that way. Next time you're in Superdrug, give their stand a chance. Despite its low prices and the young audience that it therefore attracts, 2true has some gems which are 2good to be overlooked.

I particularly cannot wait for the release of the 2true paper lashes, for a funky accent on the outer corner of the eye. Paperlashes are usually so much more expensive that normal so I am really interested to see how much 2true budget brand will sell them for.

What: 2True nail polish in shade 14
How much: £1.99
Where: Superdrug and 2true online.
Purchased the product myself.

You saucy mink

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 19:31:00 +0000

Getting back into blogging after such a long break is never going to be easy. To ease myself gently to it, I'd like to share with you a little bargain which has put a smile on my face.

I've always thought that when it comes to nail polish, and unless you're wearing a truly unique colour, that the general public don't generally notice whether the polish on your nails cost you 20 quid or whether you got it at the pound shop. In fact, there's nothing more satisfying when someone comments on your nails and you can say ‘It only cost me a quid, you know'. This is one of the main reasons I have been enjoying wearing MUA nail polishes. However, there have always been a few things which was spoiling my enjoyment of MUA nail polishes:

1) The terrible brush inside, making the application very laborious
2) The label is 99% of the time skewiff on the bottle, making the whole nail bottle of polish look really really cheap
3) Polishes have a number instead of a name, reinforcing the cheap look of the product.

To be fair, it was the brush which was my main bug bear. I was secretly hoping MUA would improve on their nail polishes but I was scared at the same time that improvements would mean an increase in price.

I had nothing to worry about. MUA listened to all the feedback and came back with 100% improved nail polishes, whilst selling them at the same price.Today, I have a lovely shade of polish to show you. It's called moody mink.

There's your first improvement right there. Polishes have a proper name now and everything. No risk of wonky label anymore, the whole label is ditched for a very sleek 'essie-esque' type of bottle. I won't be mad at you if you think MUA totally ripped off Essie's bottle design, it's understandable. MUA were definitely a bit cheeky there but the new design suits the new bottles so well, it feels so natural. Besides Essie have also changed the design of their bottles so I think there is definitely room for both brands to exist peacefully side by side in our beloved Superdrugs.

Without a doubt, the biggest improvement is the brush. It's nothing fancy, it doesn't fan out like the paddle brush in L'Oreal colour riche polishes but it finally performs its job perfectly.

If you have never tried MUA polishes before, there could never a better time to start. Own too many polishes already? How is a tiny £1 bottle going to hurt? Look at it, it's so cute and there's nothing wrong this new generation of polishes, this time. If you already own some first generation MUA polishes, you could even be a little indulgent, donate your first generation polishes and purchase your favourite MUA polish shades in their new format. I won't tell a soul if you did :)

What: MUA Cosmetics nail polish in shade Moody Mink
How much: £1
Where: Superdrug and MUA cosmetics online.
Purchased the product myself.

Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:49:00 +0000

Looking at the ‘decorations’ on this virtual garden, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the clock stopped and that it’s still Halloween 2012. The clock stopped for a dear friend of mine who decided to end his life in the opening days of November and my motivation for blogging went away with it. I tried to keep the blogging flame burning for a while, having Sunday ‘blogging dates’ with the lovely Sirvinya (we promised each other to blog every Sunday) but it never felt the same: the desire to blog didn’t come from within and writing didn’t feel as spontaneous and natural as it was before. At the end of January 2013, it was finally time to admit defeat and to take a break from blogging. I was still very much interested in the world of beauty blogs, devouring beauty articles like an addict and checking my beloved Google reader multiple times a day, to see if any of my 426 blog subscriptions had new content for me but I just couldn't blog anymore.

When the news that Google Reader was going to be discontinued first broke out, the hopeless creature of habit that I am got in a state of panic and I thought the world was going to end. Little than I knew then that things would get worse, much much worse. Weeks later, the fateful financial climate of my workplace meant that I had to fight to keep my job, and that were only going to be 4 jobs for 6 people. I had the chance then to sign on some kind of redundancy plan, to prepare for the worst but I chose to remain positive and to believe in my potential and in my skills.

Days before the Easter break, the worst came to worst and I had to depart for an arranged week end in York while all I wanted to do was to crawl into a ball, eat myself into oblivion and mourn the loss of my job. I don’t know what was the worst actually: the awful interview I was subjected to, the atrocious way I was broken the news on the phone (Bad news, I am afraid, you have scored the lowest, this means you have lost your job) or the fact that I had just lost the only job I had ever had in my whole life. I can’t even begin to tell you how destroyed and broken I was. Other than losing a great chunk of my hair at uni, and losing my dad (he also chose to put an end to his life) this is definitely the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with. Among other things, it made a huge door called ‘perspective’ violently slam against my face and made realise how silly I was to worry about small things like the discontinuation of Google Reader.

Google Reader is still a big thing to me and come tomorrow I will be a bit lost, but nowhere near as broken as recent events left me. Incidentally things haven’t been all bad. In a struck of fortune, I was lucky to meet a lovely man at the beginning of February and we have been seeing each other since.

I would love to go to back to blogging again. Not only there’s only so much the poor man in my broken life can hear about exfoliation, lashes and toners without alcohol but I really feel that there is a gap in my life. More and more lately, I have felt the urge to write and share things, express and share my experiences with certain products, to the point that it has been itching me to write: I am in the bath, and things come to my head. I am dying to put them onto (virtual) paper but I have felt shy about coming back, about having lost whatever little touch at blogging I had before. This overdue update is my attempt at coming back. I thought today (Boy, do I annoyingly like to leave things at the last minute or what) might be a good time, since ‘the end of the world’ is happening tomorrow and Google reader is dying and all :P

I can’t promise you that this very neglected garden of mine will be updated every other day like I set it out to be at the very beginning, but I would love to come back, write a little every now and then and if there would still be a little handful of you left still wishing to read my ramblings, life would be even sweeter.

There has been a lot of confusion between Google Friend Connect and Google Reader. Google Friend Connect (GFC for short) is not going anywhere yet, and it will still populate your Google ‘Dashboard’. If reading blogs through the RSS technology is your favourite way to keep up to date with your blogs subscriptions, you will have no doubt backed up your information and probably emigrated to a new RSS reader. I only backed up my data with Google Takeout yesterday (yep, queen of last minute, me) and have yet to find the RSS reader of my dreams. If RSS is all gobbledy gook for you, you can be notified about my posts through the usual channels and I will leave all the links for you at the end of this post.

I have lost my job and have yet to find a new one. I have put on 2 stones of weight in since January and I have yet to be in the right frame of mind to lose the flab. Life has more downs than ups at the moment but the world has not ended. Life has just been very tough and hopefully blogging will help to add some necessary distraction to it. See you in the next post x

Follow le petit jardin de liloo: via google friend connect: http://www.blogger.com/follow-blog.g?blogID=7349732208940036092 via feedburner; via RSS: just paste http://lilooblog.blogspot.co.uk/ into your favourite RSS Reader. by email; via blog lovin; via hellocotton; via instagram;

10 moments when I like to use a bb cream

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 20:34:00 +0000

I feel so self conscious about the skin on my face (hyperpigmentation, red lumps and bumps, big pores and now visible signs of ageing) that you will probably never see me out and about, in broad daylight without a generous coat of the fullest coverage foundation I own. Asking me to step out of the house without some sort of foundation on my face is the same as asking me to venture out without my teeth brushed and deodorant. I basically could only do it if my house was on fire.

At the same time, I am a massive fan of bb creams and it just doesn't make sense. After all, bb creams are just a tinted moisturiser with a bunch of extra skincare properties. Why would I opt for something with such low coverage when I would usually go for the heaviest foundation I can lay my hands on? Well, you'd be surprised.

I wanted to share with you 10 moments when I want to reach out of my items of my beloved bb cream collection.

1) Going to the gym. There are lots of people out there who like to give you grief if they notice you're wearing foundation at the gym. You shouldn't have to care about what people (and mainly strangers) think about you, but if you're already feeling self conscious about your level of extreme unfitness, I find that wearing a bb cream helps with confidence and gives you one less thing people could give you grief about.

2) Strenuous-ish activities outdoor, for example a day to the mountain, walking pretty much all day. If you're anything like me, you won't enjoy outdoor activities much. One it's always cold outside, even in 'summer' and two, everybody is walking faster like you, like they have some sort of train to catch. The last thing you want is to appear like some sort of high maintenance girl, with layers of cakey foundation and who will cry if they break one nail. Just wearing a bit of bb cream on will make people think 'aww, she's clearly useless at walking, but she's not wearing any makeup, how refreshing for a girl who I thought was so obsessed with makeup.’

3) Beach. It is very unlikely I am going to put my head under water at the beach. I can't even swim. As people would laugh at me if I was wearing foundation at the beach, I find that bb creams are just perfect. And if people catch you re-applying bb cream more often than you should, you could always make it pass as a SPF cream ;)

4) Emergency Chocolate Fix. You need to nip out to the corner shop and can't bear showing your bare face to the world? BB cream to the rescue.

5) He stays over. You've started to see this guy more often. You know he's going to stay over and stay for the night. It's very early days and you don't feel comfortable with him seeing you with no ounce of makeup on. You dutifully take your makeup off, pop on bb cream on the sly right after, he's happy because he thinks you let him see the real you and you're happy because he's not seeing you with nothing on. I don’t condone wearing makeup overnight, but if a bb cream is just a tinted moisturiser, this has got to be better than full on primer and foundation, right?

6) Hungover Days. You went out the night before, have a massive hungover and someone is visiting you last minute.

7) Hospital stays. Foundation would make you look too done up. BB cream on its own (no blusher, mascara, lipstick, bronzer) will make you decent enough to be seen by visitors, will even some of your imperfections and still earn you sympathy and hopefully some non hospital made food goodies ;)

8) Dirty foundation tools. You can't stand apply foundation with your bare hands and all your foundation tools (brush, sponge, etc) are dirty or wet.

9) Rubbish Foundation. You bought a foundation and disappointed with its coverage. The foundation is not very buildable and would look very cakey and horrible if you attempt to apply too much, so you apply a bb cream as a base, and manage to use up your disappointing foundation overtime.

10) Fake Tan. You have a lovely fake tan on your face and don't want to mask with your heavy duty foundation. You apply a bb cream to cover some of your ‘bad’ bits and still let your lovely tan shine through.

What about you? Did you also catch the bb cream bug? Are you still using your bb creams regularly or are they sitting there gathering dust?

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. Thank you for reading xx

The best red eyeshadow in the world

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:08:00 +0000

If there is one party eye makeup I love is glittery red eyes. Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but I have found nothing gets you as many compliments as red glittery eyes. Once, I was coming back from a night out, was a bit naughty, didn't remove my eye makeup (don't sleep in your makeup, it gives you spots) and was stopped (the following day) by the Boots Makeup woman whose makeup is always absolutely flawless and she went 'woah, what's that you on your eyes'. I must say, I loved that moment as for once I was a getting a compliment from a makeup professional.

But my beloved red glittery eyes demand a pigmented red eyeshadow and good quality and inexpnsive eye shadows are VERY hard to find in the high street.

When I finished the teeny tiny little red eyeshadow part of famous 'ebay' 88 matte eyeshadow palette (the only shadow I used out of that palette, I had never liked that palette at all actually) I realised how difficult it was to find an inexpensive and good quality red eyeshadow on the high street. Matte shadows in general are harder to find, but blooming heck finding a matte red one really felt like mission impossible.

No point going to Boots or Superdrug, you'd be wasting your time. If you don't want to go through the expensive Mac route, Illamasqua does a gorgeous one (@LizzumsBB aka benebelle has some gorgeous swatches for you) but I'd rather not spend £16 in a eyeshadow if I could and would rather pay £1 more and purchase a pair of stunning lashes. Topshop does a lovely red shadow but 1) it's more a raspberry pink shade of red and 2) topshop annoys me, being so pretentious only selling their makeup in the poshest and biggest shops in England. Sleek finally released a red eyeshadow in one of their eyeshadow palettes but the palette was only a limited edition item, in honour of the Olympics and you still had to fork out £7.99 for it.

Ebay once again came to my rescue and you have no idea how excited I was to find a super pigmented red eyeshadow for just £1.76. Now for the confusing part. The shadow is made from the lovely folks at Stargazer. They have, I believe, 2 red eyeshadows. One is disappointing, and is called the 'fluorescent' one. Don't get that one, because it's dry and not that pigmented. You want to get the other one, also called the red velvet one by some sellers. I always wear a primer and a white base to maximise the duration and pigmentation of my eyeshadows but I took some photos for you, without any primer or anything to show you how pigmented this little bad boy is. POW!

I hope you will excuse the abysmally bad outdoor lighting. That’s England for you!

This shadow is everything you want from a eyeshadow: very good pigmentation, soft but not too much fall out, very easy to blend and is £1.76. Why get anything else?

I told you people liked it

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. Thank you for reading xx

What: Stargazer Red (velvet) eyeshadow
How much: £1.76 (+£1.44 postage)
Where: Ebay. Seller is called Supply me Beauty.
Link to product here.

My moisturising buddy

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:36:00 +0000

If there is one thing I keep changing times and times again is my day face moisturiser. For one, I don't think I have found my 'holy grail' one and my priorities change all the time. One minute, I will feel super self conscious about getting old and will want to invest into something pricey-ish hoping it will make me feel better. The next, I am thinking, I am going to get old anyway, no matter how many lotions and potions I slather on my face and will just want a very accessible and plain moisturiser which does its hydrating job well.

One of my skincare priorities which is hardly going to change is that I need moisture, loads of it and this what brought me to purchase a tube of Superdrug Vitamin e radiance moisture cream. I was very dubious this moisturiser would impress me. How could a £2.99 moisturiser ticks my boxes when a £14.99 face cream can sometimes leave me indifferent?

This is what it promises to do:

12 hour moisturisation, did they say? I don't know about you but when a product promises me to give {insert amount of hours/days/weeks} result, I usually like to half that and consider myself happy if I get that result. Put your hands up if you only get 1.5 weeks of fuzz free legs when you’ve been promised 4! I can't tell you if this moisturiser left me moisturised for a whole 12 hours but my skin always feels adequately moisturised after a whole day of work and until I am ready to take it all off in the evening.

To top the long lasting moisturising experience (and the Superdrug vitamin e hot cleansers fans will vouch for this) the moisturiser smells absolutely divine and reminds me of cocoa butter mixed with sun cream. Texture is lovely too and sinks in my skin very easily, leaves me moisturised, plumped, smelling gorgeous and never too greasy. It feels like my skin needs it and drinks it all as soon as I slather it on my face.

Now for the 'radiance' bit. This cream, in my opinion, is strictly reserved for individuals with dry/very dry types of skin. The light reflecting pigments are quite powerful and noticeable almost verging disco ball but I absolutely love it personally. I hope the following picture, taken in bright natural light will be able to give you an idea.

I admit I will probably feel self conscious if I wear this moisturiser on its own, in bright day light, say at a picnic date (eek, I can't stand picnics) at 2pm on a ridiculously sunny 'summer' day, in case I resemble one of the vampires in twilight but to be honest, I can't imagine myself wearing this moisturiser alone, and with no foundation on top. As soon as you put something on top, primer or foundation, the radiance effect is dramatically reduced. Also having said that, I have found myself reaching for this moisturiser many times, on a dull winter day, even when I am not planning to put makeup on top.

This moisturiser is not perfect though and it tragically clashes with my favourite face primer (no.7 airbrush away primer) and as soon as the two become in contact, they almost curdle together and I am left with little bits of stuff peeling away on the surface. Is is the fault of the £2.99 moisturiser or the ridiculously expensive no.7 primer? (£19 something?) I don't know. My primer also 'curdles' with another face moisturiser which I own and my vitamin e moisturiser gets on perfectly with my L'Oreal Studio Secrets Smoothing Resurfacing Primer.

As for the anti ageing agenda, the Superdrug vitamin doesn't claim to bring me 10 years younger but it does contain 2 universally recognised anti-ageing ingredients (read the beauty mouth anti ageing cheat skin here) : vitamin e and a sun protection factor (SPF 15) and I am very very VERY happy with that.

I am going through my third tube of vitamin e moisturiser and it's definitely going to fall into my Superdrug basket many times again in the future, especially when I get 2 for £3.99 as it is the case at the moment. The tube has a very small handy handbag size, it's not overly girly and embarrassing to carry around and be seen with and finally no big fat fingers dipping in a big fat pot: you squeeze of fresh amount of product every time. It really bugs me I can use my airbrush away primer with it, but it gives me the chance to use up my other primers I never use.

What: Superdrug Vitamin e Skin Care SPF 15 Radiance Moisture Cream.
How much: £2.99 (watch out for 2 for £3.99 offers during the year)
Where: Superdrug.
Availability: even the small and dingy superdrugs have got it :)

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. Thank you for reading xx

About blogging: Untitled/Invisible subscriptions be no more

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 12:43:00 +0000

When my beloved british beauty blogger and miss budget beauty changed their blogging platform and moved from Blogger to Wordpress, a lot of changes took place. One of them was the way I was receiving their blogs posts in my rss reader. I am a big fan of Google Reader and not a (sober) day passes without me checking my reader for new content, multiple times a day.

Suddenly, and because of the blogger/wordpress conversion, for some technical reason, British Beauty Blogger's and Miss BB's posts became anonymous, almost invisible and arrived in my reader as 'untitled'. This is not the end of the world, as I was still receiving their content but I found that it really affected how much I read those posts. I almost didn't notice them.

If you are a little bit superficial like me, and you're having the same 'issue' with some of your favourite bloggers who changed their blogging platform, it is really really REALLY easy to fix it and I could kick myself for not having it done any sooner.

Solution:
In short: As a google reader user, you have the possibility to give a name or rename any blog you have subscribed to. Open your google reader, click subscriptions, then 'manage subscriptions' and just click 'rename'. And that's it.

In detail:
Open Google reader, click subscriptions,

then 'manage subscriptions'

Find the blog which has no name. The blog which have no name are very easy to find. They usually sit at the top.

Click rename.

By clicking rename, google reader allows you rename the TITLE of the subscription (which is what you want) not the actual rss feed address. The RSS feed address will stay the same which is what we want because otherwise you won't be able to receive the posts of your favourite bloggers.
And voila. xx

Last night a hair dye saved my life

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 21:14:00 +0000

So what do you do when you have a special occasion coming up, at the very last minute, there's no time to do anything and you're white as an headache tablet? You experiment with bronzer or wash off fake tan, and pray it doesn't rain. When it comes to hair, things are a little bit trickier, especially when there are grey hair involved. Colouring your hair is messy, super messy and if you're anything like me your hair only looks presentable the second time you wash it. No matter how much I rinse my hair, straight after colouring it, you can guarantee I will be left with a stained scalp and other tell tale signs.

While browsing Superdrug, I came across the Colour Effects wash in and wash out and I can't even begin to tell you how many times this has saved my ‘life’. I couldn't tell you how many times I bought it too.

The idea is to wash your hair as normal, pop a bit of the conditioning colour on your hair, leave it to rest for 5 minutes and voila. In reality, it is not straight forward as that. My hair is so bleeming dark, I like to leave it on 15 minutes (this is something I always do with any type of hair colourant) while I go about ma’ business in the bath. The product is super runny and before 15 minutes have elapsed, you look like you had a head injury and the red colourant is dripping all over your body.

The way I go round this is to apply this temporary conditioning colour and cover my head with 2 disposable shower caps immediately after. Bulk buying disposable caps is probably one of my best (and probably most boring) beauty investments in the whole of 2012. Don't even think of trying this hair colour and not having some sort of head gear at your disposal. You will only manage waiting for 5 minutes (if that) and you'll freak out in case the skin of your whole body gets stained in the process, which is probably something you don't want on the day of your special occasion.

The result is quite striking. If you have grey hair, you will still be able to see where they are, but they will look almost as highlights and will blend better with the rest of your hair. The bottle says that it contains enough product for 3 applications. I find that I just have enough product for 2 applications on my 20 inches hair. I love how it gives me enough colour to temporarily (2 shampoos) to cover the bits I am self conscious about but without the faff of a traditional hair colourant. You don't need to worry about gloves either and it won't stain neither nails or hands.

I easily could think of 2 brands which offer a wash in, wash out hair colourant with far superior quality: the legendary shaders and toners from Wella and another brand which used to be only sold at Tesco. Both of them seem to have been discontinued. Colour Effects from Superdrug are far from perfect. If I had to give it a mark, it'd just scrape a 5 out 10, due to its extremely runny texture. But it has saved my bacon so many times, it's a product that I've been buying again, again and again. It is definitely, for me, anyway, a case of 'confidence in a bottle' and that is priceless.

What: Superdrug Colour Effects Wash in Wash out. (6:4 rich red)
How much: £1.29
Where: Superdrug
Availability: even the small and dingy superdrugs have got it :)

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. It’s been a real challenge for me this week. To say that I have been feeling rusty, is an understatement. Thank you for reading xx

A pop of colour

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:01:00 +0000

It seems that these days that not a day passes without a celebrity releasing a beauty product. Sometimes their endorsement and whether they were really involved in the creation of the product is a bit dubious but there are times when it really makes sense and you wonder why a particular product weren't released any sooner. Cue Katy Perry and her most recent collaboration with Eylure lashes.

Katy Perry released some false lashes before but never before have they looked as perry-esque as they do now. Katy Perry is all about bright colourful looks and these lashes invite you to add a pop of colour into your makeup look.

These would be perfect if you want good quality and reliable quality lashes (as opposed to taking your chances with lashes an obscure random brand on eBay) to complete an already bright and colourful eye makeup or if you want to subtly enhance the natural colour of your eyes. The blue and the purple would be ideal to make brown eyes pop.

The packaging is absolutely spot on: What more appropriate that pop art to illustrate lashes with a pop of colour. The shape of the colour of pop lashes also excite me. The feathery look really remind of the luxurious shu uemura smokey layers who are by far, without the shadow of a doubt THE lashes which have got me the most compliments EVER. When I wear them, people go 'You should wear them often'. Well, I would if they weren't £17 a pop! They also present 2 features that I really like on false lashes: a solid lashline (easier to conceal than 'dash-lined' ones) and the fact that they are shorter on both the inner and outer corner. Lashes which have a slanted shape and longer at the outer corner do not tend to suit me as they emphasise my droopy lids.

If you couldn't tell already I am beyond excited about these lashes. The concept, the name, the shape, the colour and the fact that they scream Katy Perry to me. They cement the idea that I already have in mind of Katy Perry: Her costumes are so much fun, you could almost believe she comes straight out of a comic book.

According to the lovely Bicky, from Tastes Like Glitter, these little beauties will be released in January 2013. I can't wait to check them out and see how they compare to the 'pop-of-red' (Girls Aloud) Sarah Festival lashes.

Bronze Nails

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000

'Tis the season to make your nails festive and today I have a gorgeous golden coppery bronze shade to show you. I am the first one to be surprised at the beauty of this shade. My first experience of bronze nail polish didn't have the best start. I remember buying Models Own Proper Copper from a blog sale and not being able to wear it at all. It basically looked like baby poo.

Models Own Rage however is a total different kettle fish altogether. I predict that it won't be everyone's cup of tea and won't suit all skin tones but for me, it has enough gold in it to stand against the contents of a baby's nappy and I really really like it. To top it all, Bronze Rage applied very easily and gave me a beautiful opacity in just 2 coats.

In one week's time, well next Friday, I am hoping to wear a black skirt and a fancy gold embroidered corset style top for my staff Christmas Party (this is the plan so far anyway) and Bronze Rage is presenting itself a strong contender for my nails. I am thinking that maybe I could jazz them up with a gradient-ish gold glitter tips a la Lady of the Lane? We'll see...

I am once again very grateful to Sirvinya, without who this blog would be very bare at the moment. Take a moment to check out her blog, if you have a few minutes to spare. If we hadn't had this Sunday blogging date going on, this blog wouldn’t be very much updated these days. I think my mojo is hibernating.

Have you been on a Christmas Party yet?
What did you wear on your nails?

Sequin Drama

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:20:00 +0000

I have stopped counting the number of times I've genuinely put Tammy Sequin Dress in my shopping basket. It has gone from available in my size, to unavailable and to available again. So naturally, I just had to feature it in my entry for the Boohoo Christmas #partypose challenge.

Before you think and sulk about not having been invited to take part in the challenge, let me reassure you I was not invited either :) Boohoo is inviting bloggers to blog about their dream outfit from the website, I browse a lot on Boohoo so naturally I wanted to take part. The idea is to create an outfit with at least 3 items from the website and the maximum you can 'fantasy' spend is £100. A doddle considering how affordable the clothes are on boohoo.

I was dying to feature the Tammy Sequin Dress as it is a dress I have genuinely been contemplating buying. I feel the dress would help enhance my good bits (the waist and the midriff). Most of all, it's the flared bottom half that I like. It's right in between a pencil skirt type of skirt and a full on fifties/skater skirt, without (I hope) being too clingy on the thighs which is my problem area. I think I need to try it.

There are however 4 reasons why I haven't bought it so far:

1) I have a short bust and I feel this is so low cut that it might show my navel. This won't be a problem for Roberta, my alteration lady up the road though.
2) Strewth this dress is long. Is it not going to drown the 5ft2 person that I am?
3) I absolutely love the sequin drama but the back looks a little bit too much like a swimming costume. Will I like that in real life? What I could sew (well, stick) some mesh fabric underneath. Would I like it better like that?
4) What if it is too clingy on the thighs?

I just can't make up my mind. I feel so drawn to this dress. It's so rare to find dresses these days which are not bodycon or skater style.

I decided to pair Tammy Sequin with a baroque necklace to add a bit more to the skin. This dress shows so much skin, that I wanted to dress the body back a little if that makes sense. And last but not least, the uber gorgeous lillie diamonte shoes. They are not perfect, and they look like they have this suedette effect on them (it's not my favourite type of material to be honest) but I love the shape, the diamonte straps, the chunkiness, the height and the price.

I hope you liked my second (and final) entry to this #partypose challenge. If you want to take part yourself, you can find out all about it here. Thanks for reading xx

disclaimer: I heard about this competition whilst blog reading and no one asked me to take part.

Bronze Baroque

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:29:00 +0000

I have resisted and resisted but it's December in just under 2 hours and it's finally time to realise that Christmas is coming, whether I've reached my target weight or not (I haven't). I don't have many preparations to do at all, and no presents to buy - that's the advantage of not having a family - but I do have a few parties coming up in December and I need to find outfits to party in.

The Boohoo #Partypose challenge could not come at a better time. I've heard about it today through my friend Jade, aka the Beauty Butterfly Blog. The challenge is to create an outfit collage of at least 3 products available on boohoo.com. The full outfit must cost less than £100. This is a very easy challenge, as the clothes are boohoo are very very affordable. I couldn't wait to take part. I had four outfits ideas but I decided to post my two favourites ones.

My first collage is called Bronze Baroque. Baroque because of the beautiful Lydia Baroque dress which is the centerpiece of this outfit.

The dress is described to have a 'skater' style. I don't usually go for skater style dresses. This is because, although they accentuate the waist and are very feminine, they tend to bulk up the thighs and the bum. But I feel this one is different as the material seems to be forgiving and skimming. I absolutely love the baroque gold/bronze detail and the see through mesh insert which allows to show some flesh. I also love the way you can wear your biggest cleavage boosting bra underneath and all I need is some clear straps.

I decided to pair the dress with some golden owl earrings with a little stone for eyes and some bargainous black rhinestones high heels.

As if the outfit was not bargainous enough, Boohoo is offering 15% of all the dresses and shoes until Sunday 02 December 2012, 23:59 if you enter the code PARTY15 at checkout.

Like this challenge and want to take part yourself? You don't have to receive a special invitation to take part and the prize is pretty amazing: £100 to spend on yourself. You can read all about it here.

disclaimer: I heard about this competition whilst blog reading and no one asked me to take part.

Nudey Dudeys

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 20:00:00 +0000

It's been so long since I've blogged that I feel I have forgotten how to do it. To ease myself gently back into it, I wanted to share with you my impressions on the second half of the neons and nudes set from Nails Inc. After being very disappointed with the opacity of the neon side, playing with the nudes was a walk in the park. Just two coats and the white line of my nail was appropriately hidden.

I hope you will excuse again the 'lazy' manicure. These bottles are so small (only 4ml of product in each of them) and you really feel the big dent in the bottle after 2 coats on each finger. Porchester is such a lovely colour. It was love first sight. If I listened to my heart, I'd go buy a full size bottle right now. I feel it compliments my skin tone quite nicely. I didn't get along with Cadogan Square at all. I can't put my finger in it, it just clashes with my skin tone. It feels a bit like trying to pull off a shade of blonde hair on someone designed to be a brunette.

No seche vite was used in this manicure. Holding a normal size bottle of nail polish made the photograph taking easier

The little cherry on the top in this set was the timeless classic Jermyn Street and it made me fall in love with it all over again. I could have sworn to have blogged about it before but a quick search on my blog made me realise that I was wrong.

Jermyn street is quite simply the best brown nail polishes out there. Some of you will call it taupe but to be honest, I don’t know much about colours to distinguish between taupe, brown, mushroom and all that. Since jermyn street, I have not touched at my Barry M mushroom which I find quite bland in comparison. Jermyn has just the perfect dosage of purple in there and I don’t think I could ever get bored of this colour. I would totally recommend it!

It’s time of the week again when I have a blogging date with Becky. Hop over to my friend Becky aka sirvinya and check out her post of the day

Neon Skittles

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Everything beauty is just so Christmas focussed, I wanted to take a little step back, break from the mould and write about something a little different. I will embrace Christmas when I am ready but for now I want to write about something bright, something neon. Some of you will associate neon colours more with Summer. For me, neon is there anytime you want to brighten your mood and this is just what I need at the moment. Without wanting to throw my doom and gloom on you, I've spent most of the past week under the weather, mourning the loss of a close friend of mine. It's been quite cathartic to cry but now I feel the urge to shake myself out of it and inject some brightness into my life again.

Cue the Nails Inc 'Neons and Nude' boxset of mini polishes. I was lucky to win the boxset in a blog giveaway and the neon shades had to go on my nails first.



For you today, I have some swatches of the 3 neon shades: Westbourne Grove, Portobello and Notting Hill Gate.

The first shade which I felt compelled to try first was Westbourne Grove, the neon yellow-orange shade. I am not going to beat about the bush. I was very disappointed. Whilst I find the colour absolutely gorgeous, the application was laborious. The formula was smooth enough, but it was way too sheer. I paired it with my favourite nude polish underneath but even then it took 3 coats of polish to be able to appreciate the colour of Westbourne Grove. Then it's the finish I had trouble with. I do like matte polishes but when Westbourne dried on my nails, it looked decidedly dull.

Portobello and Notting Hill Gate were a little bit better in terms of coverage but they still required the application of a nude polish underneath, which defies the object of 'quick, let's just apply a bright ass nail polish to cheer myself up'. Enjoyment of the neon part of this box set takes time and patience.

There's something as well you should know. Bottles only contain 4 ml of product. Do not be fooled by the photos. 4ml is not much at all which explains why I only opted for a skittles manicure to show you how it looks when applied on the nails. The set is very cute but I find the price tag of £22 a little steep for sheer polishes. Maybe the other half will fare better in terms of opacity?



If you like Westbourne Grove but feel slightly put off by its pigmentation pay off, I'd recommend BonBon by Beautyuk. You’ll have your bright orange/yellow fix quicker and with less effort. I moan, I moan but I am quite happy to be the owner of this set. It brightened my mood, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

I am once again eternally grateful to Sirvinya, without who this blog would be very bare at the moment. Take a moment to check out her blog, if you have a few minutes to spare. If we hadn't had this sunday blogging date going on, I am not quite sure I would have updated my blog at all these days

Bella of the ball

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:22:00 +0000

If there is one thing which is difficult to buy online because of unrealistic and digitally enhanced pictures is coloured contact lenses. Prime example of this are the Edit Twilight Bella Contact Lenses. I expected golden reddened light hazel nut eyes and all I got was slightly more defined brown eyes.



I love how the outer darker rim gives my boring dark brown eyes a little bit more edge. I love how it gives bigger eyes, a little bit like a doll but in the grand scheme of things, I wish I didn't bother with these lenses. They are a bit pointless in the sense that the change is not dramatic enough.

If you are going to go to the expenses of buying contact lenses and through the MASSIVE faff of putting them in, you want them to be really noticeable. I wore them yesterday on my trip to Nando's and none of the 4 people I was with noticed any difference. This is how subtle they are.

But since I had them in yesterday, I decided to keep them for a few (ahem) drinks round town. I seem to be in a red phase at the moment. I gave my red clip in extensions another outing and I decided to adapt my moulin rouge makeup, get rid of the fake lace, the feather and add a little glitter. Red eyeliner was made with snazaroo red face paint mixed with Ben Nye Liquiset mixing medium.

I was so scared to wear face paint as an eyeliner on a night out, in case it would smear but the eyeliner lasted remarkably well. I was really impressed. To make it more durable, I added a little bit of red glitter on top which I stuck with eyelash glue. If I wear glitter on the whole lid, I would usually rely on my trusty splash, but since it was only a small area, I decided to use eyelash glue instead.



As predicted, people didn't notice the lenses, but the makeshift red glitter eyeliner coupled with the red extensions got me some compliments. Woo :) If I lack inspiration for the makeup for my staff Christmas do, I might do this one again.

Immaculately Collected Lashes

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 20:15:00 +0000

This is probably one of the most overdue reviews I have to share with you. I like to call these lashes my 'Madonna Rain' lashes as I was convinced Madonna was sporting similar one in her 80s video entitled 'Rain'. As a matter of fact, I was totally wrong. Madonna wears these funky lashes on the cover of her legendary Immaculate Collection album, on a look immortalised by photographer Herb Ritts.

I found them years ago, while browsing the dusty lashes corner in now closed TJ Hughes. They were probably £2.99 but it doesn't matter now anyway. TJ Hughes has closed and you can find them for £1 on Amazon. Bargain, or what?

As with most crazy lashes, do not expect that they will sit just like that on your own lashes and look pretty. Like 99% of the fancy lashes collection, they need layering under or over some regular lashes. I first wore them on my reptilian sunset makeup look, a look I did ages ago for a little competition on youtube. On this look, I layered them over or under (I don't remember) my favourite party lashes ever (More about that in a separate post)

Unless you have full and fabulous natural lashes (I don't) I wouldn't wear them these W7 lashes on their own. Treat them like a fabulous nail polish top coat and they will jazz up your party makeup.

Recently, I wore them on my devil look. I hope you're not too sick of hearing about it now. xx

What: W7 Lashes
Where: Wherever who sells W7 lashes. I bought them on Amazon and the seller is headprom. Postage and Packing was just £1.50.

Today is Sunday and that means Blogging Date with Becky (aka Sirvinya) and she has a rather amazing nail polish to share with us today.

Aaa-ooooooo. Look into my eyes

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:59:00 +0000

Hello again, my little pumpkins. I hope you are well and that you've had a nice time around Halloween. This should have really been part of my previous post but I was on a tight deadline and didn't want to stand up my friend Rae, for our first blogging date together.

I am beyond excited to tell you about the contact lenses I used for my halloween costume this year. I heard about them from my friend Megan, a lovely Canadian girl whose makeup talent has no bounds. She is better known under the username of NsomniaksDream on youtube. As soon as I saw these particular lenses on her, I knew I needed them in my life.

The lenses are called 'Black Wolf' and they are just perfect for dark brown eyes. Apparently, their recommended retail price is a whopping £40.99 but I got them for £24.99 on Best Coloured Contacts.com. £24.99 is a bit more than I would generally want to spend on a pair of contact lenses but Halloween is my favourite time of the year, and I don't celebrate birthdays, Easter and a whole host of days during the year and, and ... I wanted to treat myself.

I have bought some contact lenses in the past, but these are hands down, without the shadow of a doubt the best looking contact lenses I have ever owned. I can't believe how dramatic and striking they look even on my dark brown eyes. If looked after properly, they can last up to 90 days. I've worn them twice now and I can't wait to wear them again for a special night out, or one of the Christmas Dos I've got coming up.

Unlike my avatar lenses, I found these extremely comfortable to wear. At times, my vision was blurry but I'd like to attribute that to the double JDs consumed on the night!

I am a total newbie when it comes to wearing lenses. In fact, I've only worn lenses twice a year, the Saturday before Halloween and Halloween Day itself. On average, it usually takes me around 40 minutes (per eye) to put my lenses. This year, I thought I would practise. So I practised, practised and practised every day for the week preceding Halloween. The practise was worth it and now I can proudly say that it only takes me around 5 minutes per eye. I can't tell you the number of twitter friends I've asked for advice and the number of youtube videos I've watched to suck less at putting lenses in. I'm nowhere near good enough to give some tips but I wanted to share something which I've read on youtube which finally made me tick. Regardless of which fingers you use to pry your eye open to put the lens in, hold your eye in a way which makes it virtually impossible to blink. If you don't blink, the lens will go in. And it's true! That made such a difference for me to try to do that!
Also, the lens will never drop by itself, you need to give it a little push.




I think last year, I might have put one of my lenses the other way round. Youtube videos talk about this bowl shape that your lenses need to have if it's the right way round, but I can't make the difference. Right way round or wrong way round, it all looks like a bowl to me. My friend from work said that, the darker/most pigmented side of coloured side should be on the outside. It's sometimes to tell which side is darker but not with the Black Wolf lenses. You could really tell which side to put on the outside and that made me feel at ease and confident that I was wearing them correctly.

Finally, I just love the free case they came in. They are semi transparent so I can see without opening the case, whether the lenses need a top up of solution. I just couldn't be happier with these lenses and I think they really complimented my outfit this year. You can see more of my devil pictures here or by clicking on the picture below.

I couldn’t finish this post without giving a shout to NsomniaksDream on youtube. Below the collection of all the looks she did for Halloween this year.

Fork, fishnets and fun - My halloween 2012

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:33:00 +0000

I need to say it right away. I don't think anything could beat the excitement I had when I turned myself into an avatar for Halloween. I loved that film so much, for so many reasons which I won't go into right now and becoming a na'vi for a night is one of my most fun, exciting and memorable Halloween moments of all time. Any character you turn yourself into after feels a bit boring. But I can't be avatar every year and it took me ages to decide on what I was going to be for Halloween this year.


I don't know how this has happened but I seem to own 4 sets of devil horns in my house and I thought I could recycle some of them and become a little Lilith for Halloween this year.

Problem: Devils are so popular for Halloween. How can you jazz up a devil's makeup and costume? What can you do to stand out from all the devils around? Paint your whole body red? Have eyebrows on fire?


This is what I came up with and I hope you like it.





I wanted to have 3D cartoon lips for the night. I know, I know, it looks like I drunk milk from the bottle and forgot to wipe my top lip but this was intended. Products used my favourite red lipstick of all time, All for Eve red lipstick, Black Barry M eyeliner on the edges and some 17 Cosmetics gold highlighter in the middle.



It was fun playing again with spirit gum, and challenge myself makeup wise. It was the only way for me to get excited about my halloween character, after the anti climax of not being an avatar.

I want to tell you about the contact lenses I bought especially for the occasion and if I wasn't pushed for time and on a #bloggingdate with @raeraemakeup, I would have written about them today. Hopefully, I should be able to blog about them tomorrow. Click here to see what Rae turned herself into for Halloween 2012

Hope you had an amazing halloween! xx

Swatch Sunday – With a twist

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 20:00:00 +0000

I am feeling really poorly right now. Don’t feel sorry for me, I am nursing a bad head because I over indulged last night. But it’s Sunday, it’s the day when I have my blogging date with Sirvinya and business must carry on. For you today, I have some swatches of a little beauty from Gosh. Not a unique shade by any means, but definitely worth getting for the pleasure of its application. Everytime I play with Gosh polishes, I forget how dreamy they are to work with. My photos show 2 coats.

My very own little beauty elixir

noreply@blogger.com (liloo) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:00:00 +0000

I have been going on about it so much, I think you will have got the gist by now that I 'suffer' from very dry skin. I am not in pain or anything, and ‘suffer’ might not be the best word but I have dry skin on my face and I don't like it. I have been trying to look after it more since June and it has got a lot better. I have been using a toner and a serum most days, using face masks weekly but I still need a little helping hand every now and then when I have been a bit forgetful about my new routines.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to my little helping hand which I have been absolutely in love with. I’d love to be able to proudly say that I’ve discovered it by myself, but I can’t. I first heard about it while reading Laura Louise makeup, a blog I am very fond of.
It's called 'Moisture Boost Hydro Mist', designed by the folks at Simple Skincare.

Packed with lotus flower, glycerin, vitamin E, and much more, it does exactly what it says on the bottle. One pump sprayed on one half of my face, then one on the other side of the face, and 20 seconds later, my skin has such a lovely glow to it. Not a shiny disco ball glow, not a greasy oil slick finish, just a very natural_omg_have_you_changed_your_moisturiser_I_want_one_of_them_too lovely glow about it.

I like to spray it after my makeup is complete. The mist is so fine that it doesn't disrupt my makeup whatsoever. The best bit about it, it has no perfume added and doesn't smell of anything. Try to beat that Caudalie ;)

Perhaps you have crocodile dry skin like me, perhaps you've applying too much powder to set your makeup and your face is looking a little flat, in either case, you need to give this a go. Trialling it will set you off by £5.99. I never bought it full price, I bought it at £4 in August, in Superdrug, when most of the simple skincare products were at £2 off. The little 50ml spray bottle is just the perfect size: perfect for your travels. I love this so much, I'd like to call it my little beauty elixir.

Would I repurchase this? I've already have. I bought two more in August, while the offer was on.

Note: This is not a refreshing mist, to apply on the go, throughout the day. This is something gentle and powerful at the same time. I find that I only need to spray it once in the morning, after I’ve done my makeup. I applied it twice one day, with just maybe 2 hours after my first spray, whilst I was trialling the product at the beginning, and it was definitely too much! Well, perhaps you can apply it more than once a day, but my face definitely didn't need an extra pump 2 hours afterwards!

What: Simple Kind to Skin Moisture Boost Hydro Mist
How much: RRP is £5.99. Look out for offers in Superdrug and in Boots. Currently (October 2012) on a 3 for 2 mix and match at Boots
Purchased it myself

Sunday evening is now my #bloggingdate with my friend Sirvinya. Check out what she blogged about today. This week, I have been particularly enjoying the look she created with the Mua Cosmetics trio eyeshadow in shade innocence.