I’ve been a good girl for a long time, and not purchased ANY high end makeup (I think it’s been around six months…). I mean, it’s not like I really need to buy any makeup ever again, really. But the seed of an obsession was planted recently when I bought a friend a blusher for her birthday from NARS… It was sheer joy swatching those babies again, and literally ever since I have been obsessing over a couple of things from the range… Well, a lot of things from the range, if I’m honest. But I narrowed it down…

I know, I’m a bloody saint.

Ahhh… The rush from those little black boxes…

Gotta say, I blinking love NARS packaging… yep, I know it gets a bit mucky, but I still love it.

Its all curvy and shexxchy.

And can I really be the only one to marvel at the cuteness of the single eye shadows?

So, what did I pick up?

First up, a single eye shadow in the shade “Lhasa” from the Spring 2012 collection…

This looks like a bit of a nothing shade in the pan, which only really shows off its prettiness when you swatch it – its a cool taupe which leans heavily towards the grey side of things , and has a lovely purple undertone…

This picture serves the dual purpose of serving as a swatch, and getting my fingerprints on record… Good job I’m not a criminal mastermind.

I also picked up a cream blush in “Penny Lane”…

I partly blame twitter for this purchase (weak excuse I know…), because when I tweeted about my obsession a couple of weeks ago, I asked what people considered a “must have” – Penny Lane was one of the top answers (as were Madly and Torrid FYI!).

Penny Lane is one of those blushers from NARS, that I’ve always looked at and thought “Oooh, thats purty”, but never bought, so I decided to indulge finally… Again this isn’t a particularly “spectacular” shade, but is a very wearable everyday type dusky pinky-peach cream shade.

This is the sort of shade I can wear for work everyday, or with more dramatic looks when I don’t want a strong cheek. Given this was such a treat, I felt that this was kind of a practical one to go for no?

What are your favourite items from NARS? Come on… fuel the obsession!

Disclaimer – as mentioned in the post I purchased these items myself.

These are a few of my favourite things… (at the moment anyway!)

Reading and my Kindle. I bought this as a little pick me up and treat for myself just before Christmas – I’d wanted one for ages, but told myself that I didn’t need it/it was a waste of money/there’s nothing quite as great as a “real” book, but really I knew I was just kidding myself. I impulse purchased a new style Kindle and I loves it!

Its great for travel (better still if you can get yourself one of those lights to attach to the device as it isn’t backlit…), and in general the books tend to be a little bit cheaper than the paper versions. The only thing I wouldn’t really recommend using a Kindle for really is reference books, recipe books and the like, because you need to be able to flick through those types of books, which is difficult on a Kindle.

And is it just as good as a “real” book? Well, yes, and no… Yes, because it’s not as heavy, and you can basically carry the equivalent of three bookshelves or more about with you without any backstrain… but, there is definitely something to be said about picking up a lovely copy of your favourite book and you can’t beat the whole charity shop second hand book vibe either. Personally I’m loving mine, and I’d highly recommend if you like to read a lot, want to reclaim some bookshelves or travel a lot. (Disclaimer – I did buy two books in a charity shop today and I’m thoroughly looking forward to reading them).

Oh, and impulse buyers might want to think twice before buying one too – they make fast purchases far too easy if you have poor self restraint!

NARS blushers (and eye shadows, and lipsticks…), specifically cactus flower, which is the most delicious raspberry pink-red cream blush with a subtle shimmer. I’ve been ill recently with a typical winter bug, which drained the life out of my complexion, and with a runny nose and watering eyes. I had a word with the wisdom of twitter and was told in no uncertain terms that bright blusher was the way forward. Oh twitter, you are wise!

Forgive the terrible blurred picture - this is the only one of the millions I took that in any way shows the colour properly...

To the makeup drawers I hastened and rediscovered this beauty, which had lain unloved for far far far too long. I now cannot get enough of this lovely colour, which can be applied subtly or built up for drama.

Basically, even if all I can be bothered is to slap on a bit of foundation, mascara and lipbalm, this blush brings me to life, and stops me looking like an extra from The Walking Dead… The swatch above shows the real dimension and sheen in this blusher – I love it!

And speaking of TV programmes, yay for the return of Being Human on BBC3 (Boo for the departure of so many core characters though) and also for season 4 of True Blood…

Oh, and a special mention this month goes to a gem of a magazine called “Oh Comely” – Strange name, fab mag. I discovered this through Alex’s Blog – If you aren’t already following her then I highly recommend it!

Anyway, this magazine is published six times per year I believe, and is available in WHSmiths. It costs £4 but I’d personally much rather buy one of these than something like Elle, which just seem to be made up half of ads, and half of “how to make your man happy” articles (Clue – If it’s so difficult to “make him happy” then , maybe you just aren’t right for each other… also, er, hi, relationships are a two way thing!)

Love the fact that the cover girl is refreshingly “normal” and non-photoshopped looking, and also love the different content…

What can’t you get enough of right now?

…. But I think I can get away with bright blushers…

I love a cheery and bright blusher shade.

They look as intimidating as hell in the pan, but applied carefully with a decent amount of blending (the look often favoured by my fellow scousers of two bright red unblended stripes atop and orange fake tan is one which fills me with horror – and I know not all scouse girlies do that, but why is it always the ones who do that get featured on the “Lets All Laugh At The Scouse Birds at Aintree Ladies Day” newspaper articles?) they brighten up my pale complexion and makes me feel a lot less like I’m one of the undead…

I’ve applied a teeny amount of my new favourite bronzer from Bourjois (see review HERE) to contour a bit, and then used Sleek’s blusher in “Scandalous”, a bright bright red which looks as scary as heck, but looks lovely and fresh when applied and blended with a stippling brush…

Oh, and once again I’m wearing another current favourite – Sleek’s True Colour lipstick in “Liqueur”…

How about you? Are you a bright blusher fan? Which shades are your faves, and which brushes are your favourites for applying them?

xxx

These two new collections are just peeking around the corner for Sleek addicts… and I was lucky enough to be sent a couple of things to review…

The mediterranean collection launched on the 8th June, and consists of an iDivine palette, a pout polish and blush, while the caribbean collection is launching on the 6th July.

I was sent the pout polishes from both collections – Monte Carlo (from the Mediterranean collection) is a cool blue-pink, and Bonaire (from the Caribbean collection) is a hot orange shade. I also recieved the blush from the caribbean collection – Aruba – which is also a very hot orange shade.

Love the packaging for these – It’s nice to be able to pick out the products you are after from the others I own!

The pout polishes have a lovely coconutty and almond scent to them, both have SPF 15, and both are limited edition. Although they both look very scary bright in the pot, they are both fairly sheer on the lips, and on swatching…

Monte Carlo Pout Polish applied.

The blush I was sent is very bright on swatching and contains a lot of pigmentation…

I was slightly worried when I swatched the blush initially, as it seemed slightly chalky, however it applied quite well, although on my pretty fair skin a light touch was needed otherwise I’d have looked quite ridiculous. I’m always a fan of orange and pink hued blushers though, so I like this one – I also think this is pigmented enough to double up as an eyeshadow…

I’m hoping that I can get my mits on the palettes from both these collections – I’m an unashamed fan of the palettes and blushers from this brand, but they sell out fast!

What are you planning on picking up from the new sleek collections?

Disclaimer – these products were provided for review purposes by a PR for the brand. Honest opinion in the review as always!

There is currently only one INGLOT store in the UK, and I really really hope that they open some more soon – The current store in Westfields Shopping centre near Shepherds Bush tube station is fab, and I make a point of calling in whenever I can. Their eye palettes in particular are great value for money. 

Last time I was there I picked up this as I thought it looked similar to the MUFE HD blushers – I haven’t got any of those to compare it with but its a nice product so I wanted to do a mini review…

From memory, this cost me about £8 and you get 15 mls of product – a little goes a long way, so I can see this lasting me a long time!

The packaging is fine – its simple and comes with a pump, which is hygienic. One gripe is that the lid gan get a bit grubby when excess product from the pump ends up dribbling out and onto the inside of the lid. But thats no major deal, and I’ll survive!

The product is really concentrated in terms of pigment, however the formula itself is a thin gel like liquid… The shade I chose (87) is one of the lightest ones, however there were more vivid shades available – whereas with this shade I think there is room for more error, with more dramatic shade, care sould have to be taken to build it up slowly.

When blended out the product looks very natural and adds a pretty pale flush to the skin…

One strength I feel this particular shade offers is to act as a base to blushers that might be fab but have poor staying power – in my case many of the MAC blushers I own are lovely colours but disappear after half an hour. 


Dusting a powder blusher over the top of these works well as the Inglot blush grabs and intensifies the colour… I’ve demonstrated this by brushing the Body Shop bronzer in Warm Glow over the top…

Obviously, you’d use a far lighter hand in reality, but the strong sunshine kept washing out my more subtle attempts to demonstrate this handy little property of this product!

When applying the INGLOT pruduct to the cheeks, I use a duofibre brush – usually the MAC 188 for a natural finish. I have also appliedit with a MAC 109 for a more intense look, and that works really well too. I think this is a bargain for the price, and a versatile product to boot.

What have you tried from INGLOT? Do you wish they were more easily available?!

I’d been eyeing this blusher up for a while, trying to convince myself about how I really needed another blusher (I only have about 20 from Illamasqua alone – seriously, I mean, thats not enough is it? Its just a very basic collection… *conveniently forgets about her NARS collection, as well as all her other random ones…*). Anyway, suffice to say I succeeded in convincing myself – and now Ladies and Germs I proudly introduce you to “Tremble”;

The crap amazing camera I have combined with the fantastic lighting I had at the time, has made this look actually a bit more pink than it is in real life – To the eye, this is actually a pink with a peachy-orange undertone. Its the usual high quality and pigmentation we have come to know and love from Illamasqua, and lasts really well.

This is one of the less dramatic shades from the brand, perfect for the people who shy away from the bolder hues in the range. Obviously it can be built up from a natural flush to a more dramatic look, just like all the other shades, and on me it woks as a lovely complexion brightening shade. Which is good when you are as pale as me – I can look corpse like if I am not careful, and my skin can take on a grey hue if I don’t get enough sleep – this blusher makes me look as fresh as a daisy!

Here it is on the cheeks;

I’ve applied a fairly light application for this look, but I love it – I mean I’m even smiling in pleasure at how nice it is…. Anyone else tried this?

MizzWorthy xxx

After something of a haiatus on the palette front from Sleek lately (I like their thinking – absence makes the heart grow fonder!), they are back with three new additions to the range – the sunset palette, the graphite palette and a new range of blushers….

I was sent the graphite palette and a blusher from the range which in spite of postal strikes etc, somehow managed to find its way to my door yesterday. Upon hearing that another palette was out (via the magic of twitter), I popped to my nearest Superdrug to investigate and picked up the sunset palette.

As always the Sleek palettes are great value for money at £4.88, each contains 12 shades of mineral based colour, and (Chaos palette aside) are well pigmented – great especially if you like shimmer colours.

The Graphite palette was a massively pleasant surprise when I opened it – the smoky eye is never really out of fashion, but is especially massive this season – This palette is (ahem) “bang on trend” as they say – a great range of greys, black, a metallic blue and two purples (including a rather fab royalish hue), and even includes a couple of great highlighter shades;

Above – Graphite palette (with flash – without flash it was impossible to see the colours with my fabulous camera!)

Above – Swatches from Graphite palette, pictured in same order as shown in the palette above – swatched dry without base, again with flash, which has washed the colour out a little – the colours are more intense in real life

I was also sent a blusher from the new range – simply called “BLUSH”. The range has five shades – Pixie pink, Flushed, Flamingo, Sahara and Coral. I recieved “Flushed”, a deep raspberry pink shade;
Blusher fans may recall the recent range released by Barry M, was often criticised for the cheap packaging and not great brush – Sleek have surpassed them on this front – the packaging is externally similar to the palettes, the lid has a decent mirror, and there is no crappy applicator included (now they just need to leave the sponge applicators out of the eye palettes hey? Who’s with me?), which is a very positive thing.

I checked out the other shades in the range today at superdrug, and loved the look of pixie pink and flamingo – both vivid pinks as the names suggest.

Above – “Flushed” swatched (heavily) on the hand

Above – “Flushed” applied to the cheek… a lot more wearable than it looked, and I like it for this time of year…

I have not really used this blusher for long enough to comment on its longevity etc, but it was easy to apply, and easy to blend – it’s also a bargain at £3.29 for 8g of product!

I picked up the Sunset Palette today – something a bit different to the usual winter palettes, but in turn, this means the palette will be useable after the party season, and beyond.

As you can see, this one is very pink/red/orange based (sunset colours surprisingly!), together with a blue and a black – again colours are shimmers, and extremely pretty when swatched…

…Although, sadly once again, my camera has managed to wash out a lot of the intensity… The highlighter colours are fairly similar in both palettes, but the two colours on the bottom left are very reminiscent of MAC’s Star Violet, the orange and yellow are also very pretty and well pigmented, which sadly this picture fails to communicate.

I’d definitely try to check these palettes out before they sell out – even if you don’t like all the shades, at £4.88, you can’t really go wrong.

As always with mineral based shadows though, these can be a little crumbly and fragile – so take care with them!

Have you picked up any of the new products from Sleek? Don’t forget to tell us what you think – it good for people to get different perspectives!

Hope this helped!

MizzWorthy

All my pretties together!

I know a lot of people out there are interested in Illamasqua’s blushers, so I thought I would show you the ones I have, complete with some swatches/thoughts etc…

First of all, Illamasqua blushers come in two forms – cream and powder. Both types are well pigmented and I find that they last really well once applied.

Cream blushers – £16 for 4g of product, 14 shades are available. I have read a lot of comments/reviews about the cream blushers saying that people dislike the fact that at times (especially in hot weather) these sometimes get “beads” of an oily substance on the surface. While this is true, I’ve never found that it effects the quality of the product – I actually think this substance keeps the blusher moist and makes them really easy to blend. I can see however why some people might not like this, so this might be worth considering…

They can be applied on top of/under foundation for different effects. I usually dot it on with my used foundation brush and blend with fingers or a brush designed for creams/liquids (usually my foundation brush). They can be built up from subtle to full on dramatic looks. What I also love about these is that they can be used on the lips too.

So here are my cream blushers…
1. LIES

I actually don’t think this would work as a blusher on most people apart from the super super pale – I consider myself really pale (MAC foundation NC15/20 for example) and this doesn’t work as a blusher on me – I use this as a highlighter around the browbone and cheekbone. I also use it and a lipgloss. I think this could also be used to tone down other more vibrant colours or adding shimmer to other blushers (this is the only shimmery blusher they make at the moment).

2. DIXIE

This one is a really wearable peachy-raspberry pink. Goes with most colours and although it looks a bit loud in the pan, it’s very wearable when blended.

3. RUDE

This one is has been described as a cream version of NARS Gina (by the lovely Bubblegarm) – I don’t actually own that so I’m not sure, but as you can see by the dent I have created in it, its one of my most reached for cream colours – it also looks great on lips.

4. PROMISE

This one is a cool lilac pink with blue-ish undertones. Works well with blue and purple eye looks. Again, can be built up or kept subtle.

4. LIBIDO

OK, So I admit it, this one is farly scary in the pan – I have only recently purchased this. It is a gorgeous bright orange-red, a classic tomato shade if you will! For some reason I always feel attracted to red blushers, but I really really really love this on the lips – below is a (not very good) picture of this swiped onto the list using fingers…

I personally adore this shade, but it’s definately not for the faint hearted!

Finally on the cream blush front, here are some swatches…

Top row L to R – Rude, Dixie, Promise. Bottom row Libido, Lies.

Powder Blushers – Again these cost £16 for 4.5g of product. 28 shades are available. All the ones I have so far are really well pigmented. Because of the size of the pan as well, they are easy to use even with bigger brushes (again, same goes for the cream blushers). Some of the powder blushers might appeal more to pro’s or makeup artists – eg Possess – a yellow shade, however a lot of the shades are really wearable. They are all matte, and I find them easy to blend – they also last really well on the skin (unlike MAC’s powder blushers in my opinion!)

1. INTRUIGUE

Obviously, this is not really best described as a blusher – it is a matte, pure white powder. I love this as a highlighter for more formal looks – it adds a sheen to the skin without adding shimmer if that makes sense. Can be used below the eyebrow as well as a brow highlighter. Can also be used over other more vibrant powder blushers in order to tone them down and give a “doll-like” effect.

2.MISCHIEF

Again, this is clearly not a blusher for most skintones – Illamasqua do a lot of “brown” blushers – all designed to be used as contour shades. This is one of the lighter ones and works really well on my skintone. There are loads of different contour shades available.

3. NYMPH

A really easy to wear pale dusky pink, with cool undertones – I’d class this as an “everyday” blusher, it goes with pretty much everything cool or pink toned…

4. LOVER

My other “everyday” blush – a pale peachy shade, warmer in nature than nymph (obviously what with it being peach lol). Again goes with anything peachy based – Nymph and Lover are probably the ones to go for if you like versatile colours or are pale. Would probably also work on darker skins but in a different way…

I have to say, this is my personal favourite of all the Illamasqua blushers I own – its a matte hot orange shade. Wierdly though, even though this is matte, it doen’t look like a “flat” colour on the skin. Obviously if you are a fan of neutral looks, then this may not be the one for you, but I adore this shade. Both this shade and Tweak (below) and both pigmented enough to use as eye colours as well.

6. TWEAK

Yet another scary looking colour – this ones a pinky red shade. The reason I bought this? I saw this picture – http://krystleclayton.blogspot.com/2009/06/dotty.html on Krystle’s blog, and I came over all creative lol… It can be applied with a brush like the MAC 188 for a less intense look though! A really pretty colour, which looks great paired with simple lips and a black winged eyeliner.

Powder Blush swatches…

Top row – L to R – Lover, Tweak, Nymph. Bottom row – Excite, Mischief.

So there you go – well done for getting to the end if you have lol! If you want any more info on any of the shades I own (No doubt further colours will be added lol) then please feel free to ask anything and request swatches or looks etc…Does anyone own any other shades? I’d love to see what ya got! After all, it would enable my addiction further!

MizzWorthy xxx