Secret Beauty Blog -

Whilst buying hairdresser-sized shampoo & conditioner on LookFantastic (Tigi Honey & Oatmeal FYI) my eyes caught sight of the giftsets and of course, I had to have a closer look. I spotted this super cute Stila palette and for £10 I just had to have it… As you may have guessed the spending ban hit the skids a while back, ahem.

Can you spot Xbox in the mirror? =p

From L-R
Convertible colour in Sakura – Shibuya – Sake – Kawai
I couldn’t resist popping this in my basket, it’s so cute! I love everything Japanese and the cutesy names really appealed to me. I haven’t had much experience with Stila as the brand is not that readily available here in the UK, only seeing a few bits and bobs in discount stores.
The convertible colour is absolutely gorgeous on the lips, it’s meant for the lips & cheeks but I don’t really like the feel of cream/liquid cheek products as my skin is so oily but if that isn’t an issue for you this would give a lovely pink flush. The shadows are smooth and easily blendable, all the shades have a shimmer finish bar Shibuya (the blue) which is a high …

So I’ve been lusting after the D&G nude palette after seeing Lorraine Stanick praising it up in one of her videos and stalking the D&G website daily. Although I live fairly close to central London I HATE going uptown if I don’t really need to. The tube is horrible, cramped and stinky and I always get super stressed… But alas, I braved the crowds with my boyfriend and skipped merrily into Harrods to the D&G counter =)
The SA was very keen, and couldn’t help me enough. Although I wish she had left me alone to have a play, instead of playing  jack in the box behind the stand =0/ I had a good swatch of the nude palette but this lil beauty is definately more me! The Mediterraneo quad is the perfect neutral eye palette, the gold is simply stunning! I also picked up the Classic Cream lipstick in Nude because I’m a sucker for a nude lippie and this doesn’t disappoint.

So what do you think?
At £35 for the quad and £20 for the lipstick they don’t come cheap. I am so impressed with the quality, and everything about the line just screams luxury. This is the start …

I love Inglot! A huge variety of products (alot of unique products you don’t see often!)  a huge selection of shades and all very reasonably priced. It’s a shame there isn’t many stores about, if they was to open an online store they would definately give MAC a run for their money! The store in Westfield shopping centre is always empty, which I always found a bit strange as MAC is always HEAVING… Sometimes a ‘one in one out’ roped off jobbie =0/. I must admit I went to Westfield before I started blogging and did have a nosey in Inglot, but as I had never heard of the brand before I didn’t pay too much attention and didn’t purchase anything. Now the second time round, I made sure I did my research and came away with some right gems =D

Very sleek packaging, I think one of the freedom palettes would make a lovely gift

I’m really sorry but I didn’t make a note of the shades in my freedom palette =(
They are very ‘me’ shades and I think I chose quite well out of the hundreds (maybe) that were there! You can choose all kinds of palettes from …

As soon as I saw this on the MAC website I KNEW I had to have it! Bio Green is one of my favourite shades ever, which is funny as having blue eyes MUAs are always telling me to stay away from greens but I love a bright eye and I think olive greens compliment my eyes perfectly.
The colours apply soft as butter and the swirly side would look amazing worn as a smokey eye with a touch more black. I am also going to try the block green on it’s own as an eyeliner, the colour payoff when foiled is even more vibrant… I could rave on about this shadow but I’ll let the pics do the talking!

MAC £15.00
Very pleased I picked this up and I can’t wait for the September ‘In The Groove’ collection to pick up aload more mineralize shadows.
Do you own any, what do you think of them?

I know I’m a bit late jumping on the pro palette bandwagon but I was so excited when my parcel came today from Cosmetics Skincare.
I love my MAC shadows, but sometimes ‘forget’ about them as they are hidden away in a big box on my shelf and it’s much easier to reach for my ELF palette then to go through my box of shadows if I’m in a hurry. So the plan is to depot all my MAC shadows into a 15 pro palette, but when I saw the bargain prices on Cosmetics Skincare I couldn’t resist a lil purchase…

It cost me just £4.99 for the palette & £6.49 for each of the shadows =)
Clockwise from left – Shroom, Purple Haze, Steamy & Juxt
I’d been after Juxt for a while, it would look gorgeous teamed with my beloved Bio Green! I also was in dire need of a quality highlight so Shroom will get alot of love, as you know I am a teal freak so Steamy found itself in my basket and Purple Haze is just the perfect purple!

L-R Steamy, Juxt, Shroom & Purple Haze

Do you have a pro palette?

Please excuse the gay title, we all know 50 cent is sooooo ‘04 =P
A quick EOTD using the new Boots 17 ‘Dolly Mixture’ candy coloured eyeshadow trio…

How pretty are the colours! I found them v.easy to work with, silky soft and easy to blend. I know my blending skills suck ass but even I managed to make it look half decent lol
The trio costs just £4.99 and at the moment Boots are running a free gift offer when you spend over £6 on 17 (see previous post). Well worth it IMO.
I’m also on a bit of a ELF kick (hardy ha ha) ATM, since learning some of my HG products are made by companies that test on animals I’ve had a bit of a re-think, and am no longer purchasing products that I know to be tested on animals… But thats a story for another day!
So for this look, I curled my lashes with my ELF curler, primed my eyes with my ELF (£1.50 range, not studio) primer, applied the shadows with my ELF shadow brush, a quick slick of the ELF liquid liner in plum and a few strokes of my ELF mineral infused mascara and …

I’m loving green eyeshadow! I’ve been after a gorgeous mint green for a while (since pastels are the shiz for spring) and snapped up the gorgeous Aquadisiac for £7.99 from eBay! Now alot of people are put off buying make-up from eBay as there are alot of fakes floating about but there are some great bargains to be had if you do your homework. Personally I think I’m quite good at spotting fakes, and only buy from reptuble suppliers. If you have any doubt, ask the seller if they can guarantee the items authenticity, if they don’t reply, then you know its a fakey wakey!

Anyway, met my lovely friend Clare for some chicken and had a lil play with my MAC shadows, I’m getting quite a collection!

Face – Revlon ColorStay mixed with Estee Lauder Double Wear (been wearing the Lush colour supplement alot BUT I wanted a bit more coverage as was hitting the pub =P) Maybelline Mineral Power concealer & Maybelline Dream Matte powder & No.7 Honey blusher…. I thought MAC Harmony would replace this but it doesn’t apply as nicely as Honey. Hmm!

Eyes – UDPP, Wookwinked on the lid with Cranberry blended into the crease, Aquadisiac …

I’m in love! With an eyeshadow! I have worn this every day since I’ve bought it, I absolutely adore it. Now I was always advised not to wear green eye makeup as you may have noticed my eyes are blue… Very blue. I was told any green/aqua/blue eye shadows would go against my colourings and generally just look a lil odd, and I have abided by this beauty rule pretty much forever. I have rarely gone out of my colour comfort zone favouring bronze/gold/browns which make my eyes appear bluer and brighter, and admittedly, they do but since I began blogging I’ve been going colour crazy! Going against the grain with turquoise liner and cobalt eye shadows has made me finally realise that ANY eye color can pull off ANY colour eyeshadow, if worn the right way.
So Bio Green is a colour I would never have looked twice at normally, but after playing with my free Collection 2000 palette I really liked the yellow/green eye I created and wanted a better quality shadow for doing similar looks. I saw it on http://www.cosmetics-skincare.co.uk for the bargain price of £6.99 and promptly added it to my basket. It’s a PRO …