Goodbye 2010 - Review and Products of the Year

Happy New Years everyone!  I know it's a little early, but I thought I'd say it whilst I can!  I'm still not sure what my plans are for this evening, but I'm planning on getting dressed up and doing a full face of slap, so even if I'm sitting at home watching telly, I'm going to feel glamourous!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a round up of my year, since it's been an interesting one, and include a few products that have rocked my world in 2010.

I started out in 2010 stuck in a beauty rut.  I had had the same hairstyle for about a decade, and used to do the same makeup everyday, occasionally bringing out a bit of eyeliner for special occasions or red nail polish when I was feeling daring.  I was beginning to get paranoid about the signs of ageing and the grey hairs that were appearing, but doing very little about it.

All this changed when I went to a fancy dress party as Audrey Hepburn.  I was a bit clueless when it came to doing my hair and makeup for this event, so I googled her style, and a load of YouTube videos popped up.  As my boyfriend was stuck in Hong Kong because of the ash cloud, I was able to watch all the videos guilt free, and became hooked!  I tried (and succeeded) in pulling off a very complicated hair-do for the fancy dress party and even did my makeup to a pretty good standard.  And then I started discovering my YouTube Gurus and fab tutorials, and my love of makeup was reborn! I think I have at least five times more makeup now than I did when I started the year!

I then found beauty blogs, started my own in July, and the rest is history.

Here are some of my favourite products from 2010 - and I have all you lovely people to thank for introducing them to me.  Without you all, I wouldn't have bought them, and I love them all, so thanks very much!

Firstly, I've been using the bareMinerals Mineral Veil from Bare Escentuals.  I had been using the cheapest Boots 17 powder before I discovered Mineral Veil, and I'm so glad I did.  This is actually my second pot of it, as I've now used up my first one.  It's really light on the skin and does keep me more or less matte all day, which is something other powders have never done for me.  It also stops my makeup from shifting, so I love it!

I've become a complete convert to Teint Miracle by Lancome.  After having a couple of samples of it, I finally splurged on a full size bottle - it's so worth it.  It offers a good coverage, whilst not feeling like you are caking yourself in foundation.  It lasts all day and gives my skin a nice finish.  At £25, this isn't a cheapo foundation, but it's also not super-expensive, so it's definitely a foundation I will purchase again.

I've included the Naked Palette by Urban Decay as one of my favourites.  There's not really much more to say about this, other than it's brilliant value, has great colours, is a lovely formula, looks good, and is just about the most useful eyeshadow palette you could ever own.

My other favourite eyeshadow of the year is Taupe Grise by Chanel.  I've already reviewed it here, but I will repeat that it's such a beautiful colour and has even displaced Shale by Mac as my favourite.

In 2010, I've been getting into blushers in a big way.  My favourite, and the first non-high street blusher I purchased was Ladyblush cream blush by Mac.  It's not too dark a colour, but adds a lovely rosey glow, and it reminded me how much I used to love cream blushes when I was younger (but had gone back to powder for some reason).  I tend to reach for it first when it comes to blush, so it's become a staple of my makeup bag.

My absolute favourite skincare product this year is Starting Over moisturiser by origins.  This was one of my favourites in November, and I'm still loving in now.  I can see that this will become a winter staple for me, I'm so glad I found it!

Another great skincare product is the Revitalising Hand Saviour from No 7 (reviewed here).  This is such an indulgent product, but it has made a massive difference to my hands this winter.  It's another beauty staple that I'll be repurchasing.

And finally, my haircare product of the year is the Moroccan Oil treatment.  I bought a travel sized bottle in November, and I've used it every time I've washed my hair since.  It's a lovely hair oil, it smells lovely and it really does tame the frizz.  I'm nearly out of this bottle, so I'll be repurchasing a larger bottle soon.

There are a few beauty products and treatments that haven't been so successful this year.  These include my disasterous spa day, the fact that my Brazilian Blow Dry did absolutely nothing to my hair, and Powderflage by Benefit - the most useless product I have ever bought.  But there have been more sucesses that failures and I feel I'm a more discerning consumer of beauty products now than when I first started blogger, when I'd buy anything because of the hype.

So that's it for 2010.  Let's hope 2011 is an interesting and happy year for everyone - I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Happy New Year everyone!  xx

Halloween Look

Just thought I'd do a quick post showing you my Halloween look I wore last night.  I went on a ghost walk around Bristol and then for a drink.  I didn't dress up and I wasn't in character, but I decided that as Halloween is one of the few times of the year that you can really go wild with hair and makeup, I'd experiment with a creative look.  As ever, my camera washes out the colours - it was much more dramatic in real life, honest!

I'd had my false eyelashes applied earlier from Shu Uemura, so I had to work around them.  First of all I primed my eyes with UDPP.  Then I used a silver base from my Revlon Precious Metals eye quad, and put No. 7 Perfect Eye Mouse in Pewter on top.  For my crease colour, which I extended upwards way beyond my crease, I used Psychodelic Sister from the Urban Decay Book of Shadows III.  In the inner V and to define my crease, I used a black sparkly colour from the Coastal Scents Warm 88 Palette, and a tiny bit of pure black in the very inner V just to add final definition.  I used a white colour from this palette for a highlighter.  Underneath the eye I smudged Rockstar from the UD BOS III.

For my brows, I used a No. 7 pencil.  I thickened and extended my Shu Uemura liner using Mac Blacktrack, used Mac Smoulder on my waterline and put on more mascara (Chanel Inimitable Intense).

Whoops - wonky lip liner!  I did sort it out later!

I used a No. 7 lipstick, but I can't remember the name, with my Illamasqua liner.  I think I used Prestige blusher.

I didn't dress up, but I did wear a leather-look top I bought in the Next sale for £8 - bargain!  I thought I'd rock up my look a bit!

Did you do any special hair and makeup for Halloween?

Thanks for reading! xx

Urban Decay NYC BoS 3 - Another EOTD

Hello ladies.  When I first got my Urban Decay Book of Shadows 3 I was worried I wouldn't use it often, so I blogged a couple of times here and here about some looks I came up with that were wearable.  But since then, I haven't touched it!

I went to a gig yesterday so I decided it was a perfect opportunity to dig out the palette.  By the way, I went to see The Vaselines at The Thekla in Bristol.  They were fab, and probably the closest I'm ever going to get to seeing Nirvana live (and yes I have seen the Foo Fighters before).  So it was a good night.

Anyway, here are the pictures of my eyes.  I decided not to go for a full on ultra-bright look, as that's just not me, but did go for a much bolder look than I would normally go for.

My camera has washed out some of the colours - it was much bolder in real life, I swear!

Check out that glitter!

So I started with Money, and used it all over my lower lids.  I like the colour, but it is quite glittery - probably a bit too glittery for me.  I then decided to rock purple colours, and went for Psychadelic Sister on my crease and at the outer corner of my lid.  I really liked this shade - it's not too dark or as scary as it looks in the pan, and it's very easy to blend out.  Best of all, it's not glittery!  I used Rockstar in my outer-v - well I was going to a gig afterall wasn't I?  Again, this was a lovely and easy to use shadow, very blendable.  As with all the Urban Decay shadows, I find that a little goes a very long way.  I was literally just touching my brush onto the pan to load up.

One of the problems with this palette is that there isn't a good highlight colour.  I used Uzi, which would be a good highlighter if it wasn't so ultra glittery.  And the glitter is really large glitter as well, which I really don't like.  I used it, but there was still glitter on my face after removing my makeup last night, and I even still spotted a stubborn bit of sparkle this morning!

I finished the look with a bit of Bordello under my lower lashes, and used the black liner (Zero) on my upper lids, and waterline and the purple line (Ransom) under my lower lashes.

I'm still not 100% impressed with this palette.  I fear it will be sat gathering dust under my bed, rather than getting regular use like my Naked palette is.  Some of the shades are just uber-glittery which really puts me off, as they are lovely colours.  And I hate the fact I can't do a complete eye from just one palette without cracking open the glitter.  But some of the non-glittery colours are great!

Thank you for reading!  xx

Delightful Parcels

Hello all!  I was lucky enough to win the delightful Sabra Rose's 100 followers giveaway - go and check out her fab blog here!

I was so excited when the postie dropped off my parcel, as she had a spectacular giveaway!  I'm so pleased with the products - they are all, without a doubt, fab!

The giveaway included:

Cherry Cupcake Hand Cream

Prestige Skin Loving Minerals Fresh Glow Baked Mineral Blush in 01 Pink

Sarah Jessica Parker New York City Perfume 15ml

Urban Decay Icon Lipstick in Tease

Revlon Colourburst Lipstick in Peach

Since I received the parcel, I've used the Prestige blush everyday, it's a really pretty colour and really suits my skin tone.  I've also used the SJP perfume everyday and I love the smell.

L-R Prestige Pink, Revlon Peach, Urban Decay Tease

Both the lipsticks are in really lovely wearable colours  I've been wearing both of them, alternating between the two!  The packaging for the Urban Decay lipstick is devine, with a little dagger on the end.  Yesterday I went to a Medieval Castle, and then a Medieval Abbey in Wales - I wore the dagger lipstick, as I thought it was appropriately Medieval!

I'm saving the hand cream for my desk at work when I go back next week!  My office is so ugly, it really needs something pretty to cheer it up a bit!

Thanks for reading, and many thanks again to Sabra Rose (don't forget to check out her blog)!!  xx

More Urban Decay NYC Book of Shadows - Eye of the Day

Hello ladies!  I've been playing around with my Urban Decay NYC palette again.  Tonight, I've tried out a really bold look using only two colours, Haight, a fantastic metallic teal colour, and Money, a shimmery mint.  The colours show up slightly more blue than they are in real life, unfortunately.

I used Haight all over my lower lid and crease - I really packed it on.  Then I used a small amount of Money in my inner eye and to slightly blend out Haight just above my crease at the outer part of my eye.

Finally, I used the Zero eyeliner on my lashline and waterline and mascara. I think that a liquid or gel eyeliner would be better on the upper lids, as it would give more of a contrast.

This look is a lot bolder than I'd usually go for.  Even my boyfriend commented on it (and he usually never notices my make up)!  I was thinking that it would be perfect to wear to a gig, especially to a loud, raucous rock or punk gig!  What do you reckon - where would you wear really bold make up looks?

Thanks for reading xx

Urban Decay NYC Book of Shadows - Eye of the Day

Hello all.  I've had a long, hard day today, so when I got in this evening I decided to play around with some of the colours from my new Urban Decay NYC palette to cheer myself up a bit! 

I've seen quite a few posts from fellow bloggers celebrating their palettes (which made me lemming like mad!), but very few on actual 'looks' yet, so I thought I'd try a wearable look.

For the base all over my lower eyelid I used Bordello.  This is a reddish, brownish shade with a sheeny shimmer - it's not too glittery and is probably the most neutral colour in the palette.

I then applied Last Call through my crease and the outer quarter of my lids.  This is similar toned to Bordello, but darker and more pinky. It's also more shimmery than Bordello. For some reason, it appears to be lighter in my swatches, but I swear, it's darker in real life!

I then used Rockstar to darken up the outer crease and outer V of my eye.  I love this shade, it's a very dark, plummy, purpley shade.  I could see myself doing a maximum impact look with this all over my lower lids with loads of eyeliner!

Smudged under my lower lashes, I used Haight.  This is a gorgous metallic teal shade with a brilliant sheen.

For a highlighter under my brow and in my inner eye, I used Uzi.  This is uber-glittery, so I used it sparingly under my brow.  This is probably a bit too glittery a highlighter for this look, but I wanted all the shades to come from the palette, and there's not much more choice.

I finished off the look with Zero eyeliner on my lashline and waterline and loads of mascara.

L-R Bordello, Last Call, Rockstar, Haight, Uzi

By the way, the shadows are very soft, so be careful with them.  Look what happened to poor Money, and I've not even used it yet!  That happend when I was just getting the liner out of the box!

 

What do you think?  It's probably a bit too full on for a day in the office, but I would definitely wear it for a night out!  Have you put together any looks from this palette yet?

Thanks for reading! XX