Funny Face's place

Snail Slime

2013-04-12T06:20:00.001-07:00

Hi there. I've been recently getting really interested in trying some products that contain snail slime. It could of course be just a gimmick but apparently the mucus of a certain species' of snails contains loads of skin loving ingredients like allantoin and glycolic acid so I feel it could be worth a try. Now loads of people will probably find the idea of putting something that comes from a snail on your skin kind of disgusting, and that's fair enough, but I am not one of them. I bloody love snails and in fact have had their slime on my face before.

Me around the age of 15/16 with some friends.

The problem is that I cannot tell if the slime is collected in a way that is cruelty-free. Obviously it is not vegan friendly and whether or not the actual product I might choose is cruelty-free depends on the company that makes it but I cannot work out if the actual slime is produced under cruel or painful conditions for the snail. I’ve been trying to research about it but I can’t really find a straight answer. It seems to be basically cruelty-free, the snails aren’t killed or seriously hurt but I’ve heard they ‘agitate’ the snails which could hurt them a bit. Agitation isn't a very specific term, it could mean they are hurt or made uncomfortable but on the other hand it just might mean they are wiggled around a bit or something! If anyone knows more about it please, please let me know.

Just a few funny faces

2013-04-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hullo everyone. Things are a bit hectic with me at the moment so as usual I am being rubbish with blogging. What a surprise! Lillian being a bit rubbish? Never! :P

Anyway I've just popped on to drop off a few faces, hope you like!

I wore my hair in a pony-tail for the first time in many years:

Behold my incredible lack of jawline!:

I know I was wearing Sleek Candy Cane on my lips, have forgotten everything else though because I am rubbish.

Here is a photo of the one time I wore makeup on my trip to the arctic circle. There was absolutely no point in me glamming up as I was wearing ridiculous amounts of layers that covered most of my face. My hair looks awesome here though! All I'd done was blowdry it and it turned into a brilliant big mane.

Squinting. The sun was bright on the snow!

Wearing:

Face: Homemade Conjurers Cosmetics powder foundation, Sleek Pumpkin blush by 3 in Squash

Eyes: a few colours from the Sleek Storm palette, black mascara

Lips: Revlon lip butter in Candy Apple (applied very sheerly)

And finally some absolutely terrible photos of a really fun glam look! I was drunk and used my phone as a camera hence the terrible terrible shots:

I'm going to redo this look as a tutorial soon because I like it.

How's everyone doing?

Pre-emptive Spring time

2013-03-22T14:28:00.003-07:00

So pretty much everyone in the UK is currently getting pissed off at our dismal weather, even me and I usually love winter! But there's too much of a good thing and now I'm bored of being cold and wet and walking through mud and there being no spring flowers!

Anyway I tried to cheer myself up by dressing in my most Spring-ish outfit and then Claire and I went to Westfields and I ate too much food.

Milkshake in Butlers Chocolate Cafe (my home from home)

I got photobombed eating my lunch!

Here's a close up of my necklace which is amazing:

Wearing:

Dress: Bernie Dexter

Tights: Asos

Shoes: Clarks

Necklace: Les Nereides

Makeup:

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base foundation in 01, Sleek blush by 3 Pumpkin in Squash

Eyes: MUA Heaven and Earth Palette, Sugarpill eyeshadow in Mochi, Illamasqua Precision Ink in Abyss, Illamasqua Medium pencil in Vow, Black mascara

Lips: OCC Lip Tar in Narcissus

I absolutely love my dress, the print is amazing, it fitted beautifully and I loved that it showed up my super sloping shoulders. The company, Bernie Dexter has a bunch of absolutely beautiful clothes. Unfortunately they've just gone and discontinued all plus sizes. No idea why, they just decided not to make them anymore. So obviously I won't be giving them any more of my fat money! >:(

Google Reader thingamybob

2013-03-16T14:24:00.001-07:00

So you may have seen that google has decided to get rid of it's 'google reader' service. I am a bad bad blogger and don't fully understand what this means so I direct you to these posts which explain it better than I ever could.

Something I am genuinely baffled by is that I honestly don't know if I use google reader! To read the blogs I follow I just log into blogger and then the blogs are all listed there. Is that google reader?

Sorry I'm a moron.

Barry M Textured Nail Effects Nail Paints

2013-03-13T10:43:00.002-07:00

Hi! Today you get a look at my terrible stubby fingernails. I've been trying out these new Textured Nail Effects polishes by Barry M and I really like 'em!

These are pastel coloured polishes with a special gritty effect. The pink is called Kingsland Road, the yellow Station Road, the green Ridley Road and the blue is Atlantic Road.

They retail for £3.99 each but I picked them up at 2 for £6 from Superdrug (at the same time they were at 3 for 2 in Boots which would have saved me about 3p :P If you shop around you can usually find a deal on Barry M somewhere)

Now have a look at them and please ignore my poor ravaged cuticles. I've posted lots of photos to try and show the textured effects.

I don't know if you can see in the pictures but the yellow has a slight shimmer to it, the others are matte.

The effect is very easy to apply, you just paint it on like any polish and the grit gets more pronounced as it dries. Applying it really feels no different from a regular polish either. These photos all show 2 coats of polish over a base coat (they were all nearly opaque in 1 but the extra coat made the grit more defined as well as making it completely opaque). Oddly I found that, though the bottle specifies to use one, the effect is much more pronounced if you don't use a base coat so in the future I probably won't bother with one. I've heard some people say these are a nightmare to remove but I didn't have a problem at all, it's much easier than glitter!

The feeling of these on the nails is an acquired taste. At first I felt really creeped out touching them but then I got a bit obsessed with it! It doesn't feel too gritty, just sort of bumpy, and luckilly they didn't catch on my tights at all. These lasted about 4-5 days before the started chipping, which was pretty good considering you can't really use top coat on them. Oddly the different colours had different rates of chipping, the yellow was the first to go, then green, then blue and finally pink.

Anyway I really like these. I love the easter-egg colours and the gritty texture takes them away from being too pastel and ice-creamy. £3.99 is a good price for a polish but like I said shop around. If you like the effect but are interested in other colours then in the US Milani have just released some (see swatches here at Nouveau Cheap) or Nails Inc have a few but they are much more expensive (still might get the pretty grey one though). What do you think?

Ich Liebe Dich

2013-03-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

For Valentines Day I was given a necklace I've wanted for ages, this gigantic Tatty Devine Gingerbread heart. I'm a very lucky girl and wearing it felt like a Bavarian Flava Flav.

Wearing:

Necklace: Tatty Devine

Dress: Topshop

Tights: Can't remember, been in my room for ages

Boots: Old Doctor Martens (They're falling apart. I need a new pair!)

Claire said I looked kind of punky which was not what I planned but oh well. Takes me back to my teenage years.

My huge necklace isn't available anymore but there is this smaller version here :)

Face: Homemade Conjurers Cosmetics powder foundation, No 7 Ballerina Beauty blush

Eyes: No7 stay precise eyeliner, some colours from the MUA Heaven and Earth palette, black mascara

Lips: Mac Strong Woman lipstick

Officially Number 2 at funny faces!

2013-02-26T13:31:00.006-08:00

I got an email yesterday from a reader in Spain to let me know that I am FAMOUS!

She was watching a TV program which shows youtube videos and other funny stuff from the internet and one section was a ranking of funny faces and who should appear at number 2 but yours truly!

Apparently "This is the face you make when your mother tells you that you both share the same cyber-boyfriend" :P In real life I think I was pretending to be a monster.

I can't find it in myself to be annoyed that I've been on TV without giving permission, it's just too stupid and funny!

Thank you very much to Lua for the screencaps and telling me about this!

50 things about me

2013-02-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

Hullo. I've seen this doing the rounds recently, I think it started with the wonderful Charlotte of Lipglossiping, and thought I'd join in because I love writing lists like this and can't find my camera lead so proper blog posts are delayed :P

I must say it was very hard to think of 50 facts but here we go!

1. I can't ride a bicycle.

2. I once won a karaoke competition while drunk singing This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both of Us by Sparks.

3. I can stretch all my fingers backwards at a right angle from my palms.

4. I couldn't blow bubblegum bubbles until I was 18. Now I love doing it.

5. My favourite colour is the pink of the pink snooker ball.

6. I've lived in London (specifically Merton) my whole life.

7. I have an odd voice. People from other countries usually get that I'm English but other English people often think I'm foreign or at least not a Londoner.

8. I have a fear of going underwater so am not a very strong swimmer.

9. I don't ever want children. I don't like them much and have a phobia of pregnancy.

10. I absolutely love dancing. I'd like to take classes but I'm too shy.

11. I have a sort-of fear of rubbing flour and butter together.

12. I took German for GCSE instead of French. I can't really speak it at all anymore but I can sometimes translate it to English (I did this for Claire with Herr Lipp in the League of Gentlemen).

13. I collect Mickey Mouse ears and have about 30 pairs.

14. I have a lot of Monster High dolls and mini LaLaLoopsy's.

15. I really like watching bad bad films. Some favourites are Grease 2 (one of my favourite films!), Blood Feast 2, Absolute Beginners, Can't Stop the Music (the village people musical) and The Room.

16. The first gig I went to was part of Blur's Parklife tour when I was about 6.

17. I have a small heart shaped birthmark at the top of my left boob.

18. I have a yo-yo weight problem. I've been as small as a 14 on top 12 on bottom and as big as a 22/20 and everywhere in between.

19. When I was a small child I wanted to be a lady Farmer like Sophie from the Dick King Smith books.

20. I mush prefer drinking through a straw than the alternative.

21. I do practically all the cooking in my house.

22. I've been a vegetarian since I was about 8.

23. I'm attracted to skinny and slightly chubby men, I really don't like muscles.

24. I spend a lot of time making up band names.

25. I have inexplicably managed to become friends with members of 2 of my favourite bands. Now I need to do the same with Ron and Russell Mael!

26. I'm in a band with one of them except we have only come up with our name.

27. When I was little I had a speech impediment that I just grew out of. I couldn't say 'k' sounds so 'duck and snake' became 'dut and snate' or 'l' sounds so 'Lillian' came out like 'Yeeyan'. And I had a lisp.

28. I really like computer games. Some of my favourites are Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy 9, The Sims, Just Dance, Skyrim, Arkham Asylum and various marios, sonics and Zeldas.

29. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan.

30. My favourite artists include Peter Blake, Manet, Degas, Dr Seuss, Liselotte Eriksson and David Hockney.

31. I can quote practically the whole of Labyrinth off by heart.

32. I have a small gap between my top front teeth. It used to be a lot bigger and I feel sad now it's so small.

33. My family basically never call me 'Lillian'. It's always 'Squill' or 'Squilly' or similar.

34. I'm a very fussy eater. I mainly like Italian food and sweets.

35. I don't drink tea or coffee and rarely have fizzy drinks.

36. Possibly a result of this is that I'm a caffeine light weight. If I have a glass of Coke I won't be able to sleep for hours and hours.

37. I can kick 5 feet in the air. I know this from practicing kicking the top of Claire's head.

38. I have severe social anxiety and depression and also general anxiety and agoraphobia.

39. I don't like being in the dark but find it much better if I close my eyes.

40. I am a huge cry-baby. Everything makes me cry. I even cry when I am really angry which makes arguments awful as people think I'm doing it on purpose.

41. I really like the idea of getting married and having a lovely wedding but I think I'd be too shy and anxious to walk and say my vows in front of people.

42. My Mum and Dad split up when I was a kid but never got divorced because they couldn't be bothered.

43. I have an extreme hatred for spirit mediums such as Colin Fry.

44. I have an obsession with David Bowie. I like doing an impression of him. At one point in my mind he was in the Bratz film.

45. I love Batman but wasn't keen on the Christopher Nolan films (Dark Knight was OK because Heath Ledger was amazing). I love the Tim Burton films, the animated series and The Brave and the Bold best and read the graphic novels but can't get into the actual comic books.

46. I am allergic to pineapple, Kiwi fruit and some sweet ingredient which is in Pear drops and green Jolly Ranchers. If I eat any of them I have breathing difficulties.

47. As a child John Shuttleworth once threw me a chocolate bar as he feared I had missed my tea because I was watching his show.

48. I've never watched a James Bond film. I plan to see some soon though.

49. I met a Possum while on holiday in Florida and I'm sure he smiled at me.

50. I was dropped on my head just hours after I was born. Luckilly it was only onto a bed.

Where's my medieval knight?

Cosmetic Legislation in the UK

2013-02-13T13:24:00.002-08:00

A couple of days ago I went on a day course to learn all about the legalities of selling cosmetics in the EU. I found it very interesting and thought, even if you have no intention of ever selling makeup or toiletries, other people might at least like to know the effort brands go to to sell their products.

There's so much information that this is not going to be comprehensive by any means but it will give you the basic idea of what's required.

After reading this I think it will make it clear why there are so few indie cosmetic companies operating in the EU! Firstly the costs are prohibitive and secondly there is a hell of a lot of paperwork involved! (and I'm not even going into trading standards or any of that irritating stuff as it's not specific for cosmetics).

OK so while you might think making cosmetics at home would have rules similar to making food products at home it isn't. With food the regulations mostly apply to you (needing to get certificates in hygiene and so on) with cosmetics it mainly applies to the safety of your products with less interest in you. You do however need to make a Good Manufacturing Policy (GMP) which contains information such as where you intend to make your products, how you will ensure proper cleanliness, how you will take efforts to keep supplier information (such as batch numbers of ingredients in case you come across a problem) and so on. This is an official document which you must sign as a promise to comply with what you've written. When Trading Standards check you out they will check out your work area and stuff but I think otherwise you're just trusted to be sanitary (it's in your best interests anyway, noone's going to want to buy from you if they find dirt/hair in your products!)

So as I said the main regulations are surrounding your products, and this is where it gets expensive! Every product you make needs to have the recipe assessed by a cosmetic chemist. Each go will be around £150 but that's an estimate. Now when I say every product I don't mean that if you have a line of moisturisers with the same recipe but different scents they will all have to be tested there's some leeway. You can get away with making moisturisers with different scents and slight changes in ingredients (such as different oils or butters used) as it will make little difference to the recipe anyway. But if you wanted to start a toiletry range then you'd need different assessments for your soaps, creams, scrubs, and so on. If your recipe is found to be unsafe (though it's unlikely if you've done your homework) then you will not get your money back and you will have to have it assessed again when you've made changes to the recipe.

Right so once you've have your formula safety assessed you might think you're good to go. Not so. If your chemist suggests it you'll have to supply samples of your product and send it for 'challenge testing'. This is likely to only be for products that contain water and so MUST have a preservstive (some girls on the course were basically shuddering at the idea of using a preservative because they were so focussed on the idea of being 'all-natural' but I don't understand that mindset. To me it's better to use something, even parabens, that may be slightly frowned upon as a naughty chemical substance that have an unpreserved product that will harbour bacteria, grow mould and possibly harm your health). Challenge testing involves the technicians messing with your product, exposing it to nasty things and testing the bacteria levels to see if your preservative is strong enough. This will take about 6 weeks and costs around £200 a pop. And again if it doesn't pass then you have to go through it all again. Yay!

That luckily is where the product testing ends but there's still a lot of rules to follow. Labeling is a huge thing with very strict rules to follow. You also need to keep a document called a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for EVERY ingredient you use. Luckily you can find the MSDS's for most things by googling or you ask your suppliers for them. With fragrance oils though you MUST get them from your supplier because they change dramatically.

And finally for each batch of product you make you need to keep a manufacturing log including the weights, date of manufacturer, method of manufacturer, batch number and so on.

Phew! There's more to it then what I've described of course but that's the basics and you can see how rigid and difficult they sound. However I do actually think this is a better system then they have overseas because it really shows that you can trust the sellers and their products so we have far fewer Glittersniffer type horrors over here.

I hope you found that interesting. If not then here's a picture by way of apology:

Swatcharama - Sleek True Colour Lipsticks

2013-02-06T07:54:00.000-08:00

This is quite a small Swatcharama as I only have 5 Sleek lipsticks so far, but they've just released a load more colours and some of them are screaming at me to buy them so I might be updating this soon :P

The True Colour lipsticks come in two varieties: Sheen and Matte currently I only have one Sheen. The Matte ones are completely opaque and brilliantly matte but are quite dry which makes them harder to apply. On the lips they're slightly drying but not badly so, they look great (I love matte lipsticks) and last for absolutely ages. They're really stuck on the lips so last through eating and drinking with no problems. The Sheen one is slightly less opaque but still very pigmented and has a lot more 'slip' which makes it easier to apply and it's not at all drying, however it doesn't last as long. It still stays put for a good while but will fade away especially through eating and drinking.

Anyway, swatches:
'Amped' a bright, blue-based pink (Matte):

'Candy Cane' A deep, almost red yellow based pink (Sheen):

'Heartbreaker' basically the same as Candy Cane only matte (Matte):

'Mystic' Like Amped's deeper cousin, it's even more blue and is on the verge of being properly purple (Matte):

'Papaya Punch' a light, bright coral (Matte)

Illamasqua inspired eyeliner

2013-02-02T16:58:00.001-08:00

I don't usually post promo images but I'm making an exception for these from the new Illamasqua 'I'mperfection' collection. They are amazing!

Gorgeous aren't they all? At the moment I have no money for makeup (thanks in part to the Illamasqua sale that just ended) but when I do that green gloss is MINE!

The last photo shows one of the signature looks of the collection, the speckled eye. I absolutely loved this idea. It's so simple and yet I don't remember having seen it done anywhere before! It reminds me of a feather or snow. Both good things!

So anyway I had a go at recreating the look and I absolutely love it on me!

Wearing:

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base in 02, Sleek concealer and Correcter in 1, Illamasqua powder blusher in SOPHIE

Eyes: MUA matte eyeshadow in 16, Illamasqua eyeshadow in Blink, Illamasqua Precision Ink liquid eyeliners in Scribe and Abyss, MUA pencil eyeliner in Snow White (on waterliner), black mascara

Lips: No 7 Moisture Drence lipstick in Waterlily

OK I think I went a bit overboard on the white but I think it looks great and I felt absolutely gorgeous!

It was dead easy to do too. I think I might try adding some pink or other colour ala Robyn. Will you be trying this look? What do you think of the campaign images?

Very Imperfect

2013-01-26T06:42:00.001-08:00

On Thursday it was the Illamasqua blogger event for their S/S13 collection 'I'm Perfection' and I was invited. After a lot of stress and fear I managed to get over my nerves (with the help of a cheeky drink) and set off to it feeling very excited and proud of myself.

Unfortunately I am an idiot and trusted technology.

You see the venue for the event was at a gallery that I've never been to but instead of printing myself out a nice map I figured that I would just use the maps feature on my phone to guide me there. Then, while I was on the tube, my phone just stopped working. I don't know what the hell was wrong with it but it just would not turn on. It had a full battery when I left the house so it hadn't just run out of juice. It's working again now.

Anyway I had no way to navigate my way to the venue so I had to just turn around and go home again .

To add insult to injury I was so flustered and upset by it I forgot I had to leave a station to touch out my oyster card, so when I got home TFL charged me about £15 for my failed journey :(

The new collection looks amazing and I am so so upset I didn't make it to the event.

Here's a few posts I've found that show off the collection beautifully so you can have a look if you haven't seen yet yourself. I am drooling over the Cadburys Mini Egg style nail polishes, that bright pink lipstick and the leaf green gloss! And once again the collection images are stunningly beautiful and the message behind the campaign is moving.

Stupid Lillian!

Anyway here I am in my gladrags before I left for the event. I looked awesome as well! Grumble grumble.

Wearing:

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base in 02, Avon powder, Sleek blush by 3 Lace in Chantilly , Illamasqua Gleam Cream in Aurora

Eyes: Illamasqua eyeshadow in , Sugarpill eyeshadows in Mochi and @#$%!, a colour from the MUA Heaven and Earth palette.

Lips: Illamasqua medium pencil in Debonair, a Conjurers Cosmetics lip gloss

I get bored when taking photos and end up posing and making stupid faces. Every time.

My outfit.

Hat: Asos
Necklace: Callooh and Callay

Top: Miss Selfridge

Skirt: Asos

Tights: Topshop

Garters: Present. Made by Claire

Shoes: Clarks.

My amazing garters were a birthday present from Claire. They say 'Stop, you can go no further' in french and are awesome.

It's boil-in-the-bag perversion for sexually repressed accountants and first-year drama students with too many posters of Betty Blue, The Blues Brothers, Big Blue and Blue Velvet on their blue bloody walls!

2013-01-24T05:17:00.001-08:00

Well yes but isn't it fun?

Yesterday I went to see Rocky Horror for a friends Birthday. It was a very impromptu thing but I had to dress up because I will dress up at the drop of the hat. As I had only a couple of days notice I was stuck for what I could wear but then my friend Pippa suggested I went as Columbia in her pjs. Perfect! An excuse to leave the house in pyjamas is always good in my book! So I nicked a pair of my Mum's (which apparently are about 40 years old and belong to an ex-boyfriend) and grabbed a pair of Mouse ears from my collection and I was done.

I have proper bitch-face in these full length photos. I swear I was smiling, you just can't tell!

My makeup sure wasn't perfect but I still liked it and thought I did a pretty good job :)

Wearing:

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base foundation in 02, Avon loose powder, Sugarpill Love+ eyeshadow (as blush), Illamasqua Intrigue blusher (a matte white highlighter)

Eyes: MUA matte eyeshadow in Shade 16, Illamasqua Liquid Ink eyeliner in Abyss, black mascara

Lips: Mac Cherry lip pencil, Revlon Fire and Ice lipstick, Mac Russian Red Lipglass

The show was good but had the weirdest (possibly most typically English) version of the Time-Warp ever. The audience were hilarious, they got up to dance in the chorus and then sat down in every verse then get up again in the chorus. It was ridiculous! But very very funny.

Here's me, my family and my best friend at the time going to see the show back in about 1997/8 (guessing I'm about 9 or 10) aren't we cute?

Conjurers Cosmetics Lip Products

2013-01-19T14:22:00.002-08:00

So as some people may remember I'm doing a home study course to learn to make my own makeup. It's taking me ages because, instead of just following the recipes included in the course, I'm trying to perfect my formulas and make loads of different colours of each product. Anyway I thought I'd share some of the lip products I've made so far for my imaginary makeup line Conjurers Cosmetics, some are successes, some are failures. What do you think?

Lip glosses:

This one is an opaque perwinkle blue with red sheen, The red is more noticable in real life. One of my favourites.

Lots more under the cut

Opaque orange with blueish sheen:

Sheer Pink with blue glitter:

Metallic rusty red:

Very Sheer shimmery orange:

Pearly violet with blue sheen:

Sheer red with gold sparkle:

Deep Purple (oddly this has photographed looking plum, in real life it;s almost royal purple). This one needs some work it needs to be more opaque and I can see little lumps of pigment in it:

Metallic milky pink:

Semi-sheer shimmery purple with glitter:

Very sheer red with flakies. This is cool and looks opaly-ish when the flakies hit the light, but looks boring when that's not happening:

Here it is over a red lip pencil:

Lipsticks:

Black with silver glitter. The glitter in this is good but it needs more black pigment, it's not opaque enough:

Khaki-ish gold with red sheen (the red is more noticeable in real life):

Pearly white with multicoloured shimmer. This one is a big failure! There's too much white pigment in it for the coloured shimmer to show through but not enough to be a good opaque white.

Sheer red with blue sparkle. The blue didn't come through AT ALL which was irritating, otherwise it's ok:

Pink with green shimmer. The green is not that noticeable but it's still a nice colour:

Bright bright bright matte pink. This was a big success for me as I absolutely love the colour and I worked out how to make a really matte lipstick. However it's coloured with cosmetic dyes which means it stains your lips pink:

And finally my favourite, bright red with red glitter

Do you have a favourite, or a colour you'd like to see me make? :)

Blush overload

2013-01-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hullo. Yesterday my friends took me out for some belated Birthday drinks. I decided to do a sort of monochrome coral look based off a picture in the Nars Makeup Your Mind book. This consisted of a lot of blush heading up to my temples and the same colour on my eyes.

The photos aren't great because my camera is broken and so I used my phone. It takes great photos in natural light but at night they look a bit weird. Still you get the basic idea of the makeup.

Wearing:

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base in 02, some Avon powder, Hi Fi Cosmetics Raid the Kind Eyeshadow as blush

Eyes: Hi Fi Cosmetics Raid the Kind Eyeshadow, black mascara

Lips: Sleek Papaya Punch lipstick, clear lipgloss (blotted down)

Yellow Eyes Silver Toes

2013-01-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Hooray, my keyboard is fixed! I can type like a normal person and not a 13 year old Avril Lavigne fan again!

I was going through my blog pictures folder and came across this look from several months ago. it's not particularly exciting but I still thought I'd post it because I love yellow eyeshadow. I think it looks particularly good with blue eyes and not actually too over-the-top at all.

I cannot remember what's on my lips or face but my eyes are Sugarpill Buttercupcake and Tako, a colour from the MUA Heaven and Earth pallette and Illamasqua Paint Medium Pencil on the waterline.

And finally I had glittery nail polish on my toes the other day and decided to use the silver-foil trick to remove it. I just thought it looked quite hilarious.

Sleek Skin Revive Fair/Light tester kit swatches

2013-01-03T07:06:00.001-08:00

My keyb0ard has br0ken. Guess which key? :P It's very irritating s0 I've 0rdered a wh0le new lapt0p keyb0ard. Let's h0pe I can install it pr0perly!

Anyway A while back I b0ught this f0undati0n testing kit fr0m Sleek. It c0mes in 6 different types (Fair/Light, Light, Light/medium, Medium, Medium/Dark and Dark) I g0t the lightest which is Fair/Light. Each kit c0mes with 5 mini tubes 0f f0undati0n which c0ntain quite a gener0us am0unt 0f pr0duct. I've g0t at least 3 full-face applicati0ns fr0m each tube. They c0st £2.99. Anyway the p0int 0f these is t0 find 0ut which shade y0u are (Sleek makes a t0nne 0f shades but n0t all 0f them are available in sh0ps s0 y0u have t0 0rder them 0nline). This p0st is just t0 sh0w what these different shades l00k like 0n me, t0 help if y0u have a similar skint0ne t0 mine. It's n0t a pr0per review 0f the f0undati0n f0rmular, that'll c0me s00n :)

F0r reference here's my bare face:

And here are the five shades that Fair/Light c0mes with acr0ss my jaw:

Fr0m left-right: Shell, White R0se, Linen, 0atmeal, 0yster.

N0w s0me full face applicati0ns, in the same 0rder. It's pr0bably best t0 full-view these t0 see the differences m0re easily.

Shell:

White R0se:

Linen:

0atmeal:

0yster:

It's quite hard t0 actually tell the difference, especially as the light kept changing (damn sun!) But Shell and White R0se are t00 dark and yell0w f0r me. Linen, 0atmeal and 0yster are all pretty g00d but Linen is the cl0sest (even th0ugh it l00ks t00 pale when swatched 0n my jawline)

Anyway I h0pe this was helpful!

Happy New Year!

2012-12-31T09:03:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone!

At the moment I'm feeling ill so it seems like my New Years Eve will be spent watching Batman The Brave and the Bold...Not that that's a bad thing!

Anyway I hope everyone has a wonderful 2013. I generally don't make resolutions but this year I have a few.

1. Be a better blogger.

Seriously I am aware I have been pathetic this year. I'm not going to go into the reasons why because, while I think most of my excuses are pretty valid, they are still excuses and I'm not happy with how I've been doing. I've started already by re-starting my hosiery blog Funny Face Lovely Legs so if you like tights and things please check it out :)

2. Learn more about making makeup! This one is gonna be fun! While I've got some things pretty much nailed down (eyeshadows, lip balms, lipsticks and other easy-ish things) there's lots more to learn! When I can afford the ingredients I'm going to start making things like gel and liquid eyeliners, mascaras, cream eyeshadows and so on. I've also booked myself into some courses next month to learn about making soap and body products and finally about the legistration and selling of cosmetics in the UK.

3. Try to stop worrying so much. This one is much easier said than done as I have severe problems with anxiety that I can't just get rid of instantly but I'm going to at least try and be easier on myself about things. For instance tonight I was meant to be going to a friends house to celebrate New Years but I'm feeling too sick. I feel really guilty about letting people down but it's something that can't be helped so I'm trying my best to just relax and not beat myself up.

I also want to lose weight but that's not a resolution as it's not something I think is important, I just want to fit into my lovely clothes again.

Anyway eat, drink and be merry tonight! Tell me what resolutions you're making, if any.

A trip to Brighton

2012-12-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

Back in summer (ish...maybe even earlier) Claire and I took a day trip to Brighton which we like to do from time to time.

I know I'm wearing a homemade (conjurers cosmetics) lipstick and my eyebrows are a dark blue from the Sleek mattes V2 pallette.

We always head to The Mock Turtle which is our favourite tea shop. It's full of doilies and plates and brick-a-brack and reminds me of Madame Puddifoot's from Harry Potter. It also has awesome food.

Here I'm being super sexy and classy eating sugar cubes:

Plate halo!

Claire with tasty hot chocolate:

Me with my giant meringue:

We spent a while just lounging on the beach and taking loadsa photos of these two adorable puppies playing

We then went and had cupcakes at a little cupcake shop (yes, we seem to spend the majority of our day trips eating). I had an absolutely amazing chocolate orange one, I can't remember what Claire had and then we shared another which again I can't remember. I bet it was good though.

I found what I think is my perfect wedding dress!

We also tried our first Bubble teas! Claire had Taro tea with the traditional tapioca bubbles

I had passionfruit green tea with bursting strawberry bubbles.

Claire bought me Alfonso the anxiety shark! Here I am trying to do an impression of him

Then we went home and I reverted to my true form

Blue lips and nude eyes FOTD

2012-12-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

Just my face. I think I was going dancing again. I'm very nearly caught up on the months old photos, yay!

Blue is meant to make your lips look whiter. I prove this is not the case:

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in 02, some powder, Sleek Pumpkin Blush by 3 (I used the colour 'Squash')

Eyes: various colours from the MUA Heaven and Earth Palette, Illamasqua Wisdom eyeliner, black mascara

Lips: An unnamed Kryolan lip gloss

Tiger Lillies

2012-12-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

A while back (I'm slowly catching up and posting all the looks I've done in the last... year -__-) I went to see one of my favourite bands The Tiger Lillies. I dressed up nice, have a look-see :)

Face: Illamasqua Skin base in 02, Sleek blush by 3 in Guipere

Eyes: Illamasqua Berber pure pigment, a colour from the MUA Heaven and Earth palette on my browbone, Illamasqua Precision Ink liquid Eyeliner in Abyss, black mascara, black pencil eyeliner

Lips: Mac Russian Red

And my outfit. I'm wearing one of my favourite dresses EVER :)

Hat: Asos

Necklace: Callooh and Callay

Cardigan: Beth Ditto at Evans

Dress: Handmade by Claire <3 p="p">

Tights: Les Quelles des sardines

Shoes: Clarks (super comfy!)

So as you can see I'm wearing Illamasqua here. I assume everyone has seen the drama surrounding their Christmas adverts. I've been trying to keep away from talking about drama on my blog as for a while it seemed like all I did :P But my feelings about it are quite long and complicated. Long story short I think what they did was very disappointing but not unforgivable and I will be continuing to buy from them and use their products. Because of this I thought perhaps people might want to hear the more lengthy explanation of my thoughts and feelings. Let me know in the comments :)

Zooo!

2012-11-30T15:28:00.001-08:00

Way back in the summer it was my friend Xenia's birthday and we went to one of London Zoo's special late nights to celebrate. Here is my zoo-face:

Face: Illamasqua Skin Base in SB 02, NYX cream blush in orange

Eyes: 2 shades (sandy coloured and pale yellow) from the Sleek matte V2 palette (I lost the sheet that says the names), Sugarpill Buttercupcake, Illamasqua Cane medium pencil, black mascara, Illamasqua precision ink liquid eyeliner in Abyss. There's something on my eyebrows but I can't remember what. Possibly a brown from the same Sleek palette.

Lips: I'm not certain but I think it was Amped by Sleek.

And below the cut are some photos of sweet animals and me making funny faces :)

Hoggy warty warthogs!

Okapi! I want one to ride around on!

Beautiful Giraffes!

Butterflies:

GIANT butterfly!

And... Digby

Rabbits!

2012-11-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

A while back now I went to Brighton and wore this very rabbity outfit. I looove the playsuit so much! I have no photos of my face as I was running late and ended up doing my makeup on the train.

Cardigan: Topshop

Playsuit and belt: Primark

Tights: Topshop (they've got little metal studs allover)

Shoes: Clarks

My necklace is a rabbit from Callooh and Callay

if you like it we have 25% off everything until the end of tonight with the code 'thankyou' :)

Unfortunately this day ended up being much much sunnier than I anticipated and I got horribly sunburned. Hey kids don't be a fool like your Aunty Lillian, wear sunscreen!

Dancing times with Zoe!

2012-11-23T15:12:00.000-08:00

Now my computer is up and running I have some very old looks to post, for most of these I can't remember most of what I was wearing because it was just too long ago but I have guessed things which should at least give a similar look.

This post is from sometime in early summer when I went out with one of my best friends, Zoe. I don't think I've mentioned Zoe before here but she is absolutely awesome and beautiful and knows everything there is to know about Lush products.

Anyway here's my face:

pulling faces:

I assume I'm wearing my usual foundation which is Illamasqua Skin Base in o2. My blush looks orangey and I would guess it's one of the colours from Sleeks Pumpkin Blush by 3 palette. The blue eyeshadow is matte so it could be from one of the Sleek matte eye palettes and I'm wearing a white eyeliner pencil, Illamasqua Precision Ink liquid eyeliner in Wisdom and some black mascara. My lipstick is a homemade one which is bright red with glitter that you can only really see in the closeup.

Here are me and Zoe being silly and slightly tipsy. There is no good lighting in my house!

I wanna go dancing now!

Colour B4 Extra Strength

2012-11-19T14:55:00.000-08:00

Hello! Pinky the computer is up and running again and I didn't lose any of my documents. Thank you Dell Datasafe restore or whatever you're called!

So today I have a review for Colour B4 Extra Strength hair dye remover.

You've probably seen reviews for this or similar products on other blogs, these products really became well known within the last year. It's a great idea, if you dye your hair and don't like the result, or get bored of it, or whatever other reason, you apply this stuff and it takes you back to your original colour...In theory.

I'm not going to go into all of the science behind it as I am not smart enough and can't be bothered to read into it properly but it seems the basic idea is that this somehow shrinks the hair dye molecules which releases them from your hair follicles, then when you rinse it away it also rinses off the molecules taking your hair back to it's previous colour. Or something...

Anyway does it work?

Well it had a challenge with my hair. It hasn't been my natural colour (except for the roots) for over 11 years. The closest the poor hair came to a break was when I was about 17 and shaved my head. Since then it's been (that I can remember) bright red, blonde, light pink, ginger, dark red and black so I was not expecting the Colour B4 to perform miracles and get me back to blonde, I just wanted to get rid of enough black to enable me to get back to ginger.

So here I am before applying:

You can see my hair is a sort of washed out black with lighter brown tips

You apply it like any regular hair dye, it comes in a bottle with a spout that you mix the various components in then just apply it to your hair as usual (I am useless on my own so always get someone else to put it on me). Then you just leave it awhile (60 minutes for the extra strength). For it to work you need a warm environment so I wrapped my head in clingfilm, which has the added bonus of stopping clumsy people like me getting it everywhere.

I'm beautiful I know.

After you've given it time to do it's thing it's time to wash it off. Unfortunately this is where it differs from hair dye as unfortunately you can't just rinse until the water runs clear, no, instead you need to rinse for at the very least 5 minutes, with the longer the better basically. When that is done you apply a 'buffer' which I think is like a sort of conditioner to bring your hair back to a normal condition, live it for a minute then rinse it off for at least another 5 minutes. Then you apply the buffer again and rinse it off just like a normal shampoo. Annnnd you're finally done! Phew!

And here are the results:

So you can see it worked quite well! It got rid of all the black leaving me with a slightly darker version of the ginger that was there previously.

However it has one big major con, the smell. This stuff smells absolutely evil. People have said it smells like rotten eggs, I've never smelt one, but to me it smells of stink bombs which I've heard are based on rotten eggs. It's a horrible sulfurous smell and it's strong. To make things worse for the next month or so after using this every time I washed my hair the smell would come back. Something to do with wetting the hair reignites the power of the stench!

Also the rinsing thing was a major hassle for me as we don't have a proper shower, just a shower -head. Which means I couldn't just stand and let the shower rinse it away, instead I had to crouch uncomfortably in my bath holding the shower-head over me for about 20 minutes in total. This left me with a very stiff neck. But if you have a proper shower I'm sure it's a lot easier.

But even with the irritance of the rinsing and the evil smell I would still recommend this. It does work!

There are various other brands of hair dye remover such as Color Oops and a superdrug own brand one (which is meant to be cheaper but I picked up the Colour B4 when it was on a special) and I assume they're the same thing and work the same. It cost me about £9 which is quite expensive but as it's not something you'll need to use regularly it's not that bad.

Has anyone else tried this, or one of the other brands? Did it work for you? How did you cope with having hair of eternal stench?