Adding To My Mac Palette- Honesty and Sumptuous Olive

I'm not dead, I promise! It was a great surprise that I discovered that there was a MAC shop in the centre of Granada and after walking past in many times, I finally gave into temptation and popped in. I had been eyeing up Sumptuous Olive for a while now, and it's a branch out from my usual neutrals. As the name suggests, it's an olive colour with a lot of gold shimmer,making it one of those shades that could be two different colours depending on the light and the combination of the two make is a great shade for people with brown or green eyes.

Honesty is described as a pewtered bronze which is about right as there is a pink peach undertone and again has a lot of shimmer. Looking at my palette, I would say it's a cross between Naked Lunch with the pink and All That Glitters for the bronze-y shimmer.

L-R starting in top right- Shroom, Rice Paper x2, Naked Lunch, All That Glitters, Honesty, Woodwinked, Mythology, Mulch, Cranberry, Embark, Satin Taupe, Sumptuous Olive and Carbon

I've included a picture of how my palette is now so you can see how the shades all compare to each other. As you can see, I'm very drawn to my neutrals and bronzes. I'm tempted to fill the last spot with a bit of a wild card colour so watch this spot. On another note, Sumptuous Olive doubled up great as a green countour for my Medusa Halloween costumes. If you want to see a picture, it's here on my Instagram

Hope you guys had a great Halloween.

Any suggestions for the last spot?

xx

How To Depot MAC Eyeshadows

Today, I thought I would show you how to depot MAC Eyeshadows. At most MAC stores, you have the option of just asking for the eyeshadow pan so they can go straight into a palette but, when I was making the most of the duty free MAC in Gatwick, they told me they only had the ones in the pot. But not to worry, depotting MAC Eyeshadows are relatively easy to do. I'm going to be depotting my favourite of all time, Rice Paper and All That Glitters

The first bit you have to do is probably the fiddliest. The containers have a small groove between the bottom of the pan and the dish that the eyeshadow sits it. Using a sharp, flat knife, you need to carefully pry the two apart. I find it best to loosen the two corners and wiggle my way up. This bit is a bit annoying and it can take a while but persevere and it will pop out.

Next, wrap a bit of aluminium foil round some hair straighteners so you don't get any hot plastic on them and ruin them and let the pan sit on the hot iron for a minute or two so it softens the plastic and the glue. You may have to hold it down so it makes good contact with the heat and if so, please be careful of your fingers!

When the plastic is soft enough, you will be able to press your knife into the bottom of the plastic and push the bottom of the metal pan out. It will be hot so I use tweezers to get the metal pan out.

You will probably be left with a lot of glue residue on the bottom of the metal pan but a cotton wool pad with nail varnish will get it shiny and smooth and ready to sit in your palette.

And that's all it takes! Obviously, as you are using a sharp knife and heat, please be careful. 

Even doing these two, I caught myself on the edge of the straighteners.

Otherwise, this is a handy and straight forward way to depot MAC Eyeshadows

I hope this post was useful!

xx

Building Up My MAC Palette

Top row- L to R- Shroom, Ricepaper,  Naked Lunch, Woodwinked, Mythology

Bottom row- L to r- Mulch, Satin Taupe, Embark, Cranberry, Carbon

It's been a secret guilty pleasure of mine slowly building up a MAC Pro Palette. I love the idea of paying for the shades that you want and will use. Yes, it's a little pricey considering it's MAC, but every palette is, in my eyes, unique to the owner. Rice Paper was my first purchase and since then I've been building it up slowly/when I can afford it. As you can see, mine are fairly neutral, which is realistically what I would use on an everyday basis. The problem is now that I want to finish it off and fill it up. I think I might get a deep purple next and then I'll see.... If you have any favourite shades, let me know! I actually have a habit of keeping a post it note underneath so that I remember which ones which.

So anyway, I just thought I would share this all with you. I'm impatient for the end of exams and for the snow to go away! I'm really not a winter person... Me and the boy have booked a city break to Barcelona for the start of the Easter holidays, which, is incedently really early, so I'm trying to create a Sephora and other European make-up/skin care list. Best to make the most it, right? Can you recommend anything?

Hope you're all keeping well and warm

Have a good weekend 

xx

Top 12 of 2012

So I thought today of all days would be the perfect time to share with you my Top 12 of 2012. It's a complete mix of things- beauty, clothes, music etc etc but these are really things that I could not have lived without throughout 2012.

In no particular order

L'Oreal Mythic Oil

I've had this for quite a while now actually but it's still something I couldn't live without. I use it religiously every time I wash my hair and it's great for curly hair like mine. It also helps keep it healthy and happy and I'm proud to say my hair is in great condition.

Real Techniques Eye Brushes

A fairly recent purchase and something I never quite got round to photographing for my blog. I love these brushes and they're great quality. Now I've started branching out a bit in regards to eye make up, I feel I can properly follow all those lovely tutorials you see on Youtube

MAC Fanfare Lipstick

I bought this a while ago and haven't stopped wearing  it since. It goes great with my skin tone and isn't too much of a bright pink so it can be worn day or night. A very flattering and versatile lipstick.

ASOS Leather Jacket

This jacket has done me proud. I basically live in it. 

It's warm, well made and a bargain at £100 for real leather

MAC Ricepaper Eyeshadow

My first MAC eyeshadow and the one that set me off on a quest to complete a 15x palette... I'm 2/3 of the way there now. A gorgeous pale gold that works great as a base and lightens up the eye area. 

Great if you're a glasses wearer like me

Body Shop Seaweed Range

Throughout this year, I've been working my way through quite a few new skin care brands and while usually initially impressed with them, so many of them ended up drying out my skin. Enter The Body Shop. A great range and perfect for combination/oily skin. This range has not dried me out, is gentle on the skin and gets stubborn eye makeup off

Converse

Again, quite a recent purchase but again something that I have lived in. Apart from when it's really raining, cuz they're not so great for that... Very comfortable and makes an outfit look instantly a combination of casual and cool

Urban Outfitters Graphic Tee's

I've always loved UO t-shirts. They're great for when I need to chuck something on for uni with a pair of jeans but at their full price, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. But when they're in the sale and/or there are student discounts going around, I jump at the chance.

Ben Howard

2012 was the year I discovered and fell in love with Ben Howard and his music. I first came across him when he did an eerily good rendition of Call Me Maybe. Since then, I've hunted down as much of his music as I can but my favourite would still have to be Keep Your Head Up

Vera Wang Princess Night Perfume

My boyfriend bought me this perfume after months of hinting on his way back from a holiday in the summer. It's a very sweet fragrance- perhaps not to everyone's liking- but I love it and recommend everyone to go give it a whiff if they have the chance

Swimming

Bit off an odd one but 2012 was the year I started to swim. I've never been a particularly good swimmer having nearly drowned when I was very young. I started going with my sister in the summer and have kept it up since. It's great exercise, has really helped my asthma and my confidence in the water. I've also taught myself how to do the strokes properly and I plan to keep improving

Origins Night-a-Mins

Jusssst sneaking in to 2012, is this moisturiser. I know I've only had it a week but it's left such an impression on me, I had to include it. It's helped reduce the appearance of blemishes as they fade and has left my skin feeling much healthier and softer in the mornings

And those are my top 12 of 2012!

Let me know if you have anything similar on your blogs- I love seeing what products people have really enjoyed this year. 2012 has been a great year for my blogs- it's grown so much (thank you Twitter...) and I'd like to take the chance to say hello to all my new followers this year and thank you for joining my blog!

I hope you all have a great NYE and I'll see you all in 2013

Onwards and upwards!

xx

Product Review- Laura Mercier Eyeshadow

Laura Mercier Eyeshadows in Black Kharat and Guava

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I haven't been too thrilled with a lot of stuff in the shops at the moment so when I went in again for a second browse, I ended up lurking around the beauty counters in John Lewis. I remembered vaguely of an eyeshadow me and a friend saw aaages ago and we both loved, so I tracked it down to the baked eyeshadow Black Kharat. And it is gorgeeeouusss. The photo's really don't do it justice. It's an amazing black gold with a gold pearl. It's really subtle- enough so to be worn during the day. Another thing with baked eyeshadows is that they can be worn wet for a more intense look which I have yet to try! I'm scared it'll ruin the eyeshadow but definitely on the pricey side at £18- more than a MAC eyeshadow.

The one is Guava which is a bit of disappointment. Once applied on the actual eye, it really doesn't show up that much, especially if it was used as one wash of colour. Might be enough for a highlight but not much else. It's also reeeally finely milled so it's a little bit on the powdery side of things. I'm sure I'll get some use out of it as I do use neutrals a lot but I'm not so impressed with the quality.

So that's my review of Laura Mercier eyeshadows. 

I really want to try the tinted moisturiser which I've heard a lot of things about so if anyone's used this or has a review on it, please let me know and leave me a link- I'd love to read it!

Have a good day guys :)

xx 

MAC Haul

Top Image- Left to Right Clockwise- Cranberry, Mulch, Woodwinked, Embark

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took full advantage of the fact that there is a MAC in Bournemouth. Even better, was the fact that it is inside a House of Fraser that was offering 10% off on that particular day. All the more reason to get my hand on some stuff!

I went with the intention of buying a x15 palette only to be told they had none as they were being redesigned, or something like that but they were still available to buy online. I said I wasn't bothered and that I would pick one up another time. I really want to start putting together my own palette as I only one Ricepaper at the moment.

These are the 4 shades that really caught my eye-

Cranberry- A red plum with shimmer

Mulch- A red brown with bronze pearl

Woodwinked- A warm antique gold

Embark- An intense reddish brown

They all come out fairly warm toned in the first photo but you can see the difference in the second. 3 of them are shimmery with Embark being the only matte shade, but perfect for using in the crease or to line the eye to avoid the harshness of a black line. They're all pretty autumnal colours, I've just noticed, but they all work well together as a colour scheme. And with my birthday coming up, I'm planning to get my palette and start adding to it.

P.S. Just a heads up, but I'm only 9 followers away from 100!

I know it's not many but it means a lot to me!

So in order to celebrate, when I hit 100 followers, I shall be holding a giveaway for a MAC lipstick of your choice!

 But if and when! I'm not going to force it!