Selfish Christmas Haul

Friday 22nd october, i decided to venture to london's soho area to grab my mother, and selfishly myself, some christmas presents. before i left home, i had a vague idea of what shades of products my mother usually chose and then i went armed with a credit card and some basic knowledge of my mothers makeup bag. below are three products that i purchased for my mother. i bought feline eyeshadow (matte grey) and feist eyeshadow (matte medium brown) and wanton lipstick (matte medium terracotta cherry) all from illamasqua. unfortunately, i can't review these as they are gifts and am unable to swatch.




being the makeup compulsive i am, i couldn't resist treating myself to some products of my very own. these include the lush dark angels facial scrub, illamasqua rich liquid foundation rf100, illamasqua precision ink (released with the art of darkness collection) and the d'lilac limecrime lipstick. I've only had each of these products for about 2 days so far so i can't give out a full review of each but below is a one line review so far of what i think.

LUSH dark angels facial scrub: "I've had this product before. completely cleans out your pores and helps keep spots at bay. one of those products you'll notice it's power once you stop using it."

ILLAMASQUA rich liquid foundation rf100: "Love the colour, especially as it's halloween. Applied with a foundation brush. didn't find the coverage as heavy as my other rich liquid foundation. perhaps its because i use different brushes usually or apply more on a day to day basis. undecided."

ILLAMASQUA abyss precision ink: "I know nothing about liquid liners really but i can assure you i've never seen anything with such staying power. pigmented, fast drying, non drip and stays black all day. I recommend already."

LIMECRIME d'lilac lipstick: "Such a lovely colour. it has a mid range consistancy and is creamy on the lips. transfers easily and reminds me much of the barrym 129 lip paint, this is just a bit paler. i adore the packaging."

Illamasqua intrigue powder blusher

I have wanted Illamasqua's powder blusher in intrigue for so long since i clapped eyes on it. I knew i'd love it before i'd even tried it. It's white. It's matte and it's going to look great when recreating a take on a M.A.C style black collection makeup look!

Comparison: I like to compare Illamasqua to M.A.C as i feel these two are quite evenly matched in the cosmetic race.
Availability: Illamasqua are one of very few companies, in fact, the only company i'm aware of without googling it that do a white blusher. M.A.C don't do anything similar, starting with well dressed as their lightest shade which is a soft pale pink.
Price Vs Product: All illamasqua powder blushes will give you 4.5G of product for £16. However, for the same price, Illamasqua's cream blushers will only give you 4G of product. M.A.C is better in terms of price, product and consistency as they give you 6G of product, whether it be cream or powder, for £16.50.

My Conclusion: The illamasqua intrigue blusher is definitely a good investment if you don't mind being slightly edgy with your makeup as this product, like many of their products, is extremely pigmented. It works well as a highlighter across the tops of your cheekbones, or...as an eyeshadow. If you use it as an eyeshadow like i do, it saves you so much money as well. You can pick up a powder eyeshadow only giving you 2G of product for £15: 1 POUND CHEAPER AND HALF THE PRODUCT!?! Recommend: Yes.

M.A.C pink swoon blush dupe

If you're like me and live somewhere that's not cosmetically frontlined, you won't have a M.A.C store nearby. If you're also quite fair or like a good vibrant rosey pink blush to top off your blush, keep reading. Across my travels in boots pharmacy, i found in the makeup aisles a company called myface cosmetics. Within their collection, i found a blush called paradisio pink. It looks like an ipod as well, very odd. When i got home, i noticed it was very similar to my M.A.C pink swoon blush so i figured i would compare.

My Conclusion: The paradisio pink blush is £9 which is less expensive than the £16 M.A.C blush. I also found that the paradisio pink blush has a mirror inside and a brush whereas the M.A.C blush has no accessories, plus the packaging isn't as interesting. Depending on where you live, the paradisio blush may be easier to get hold of. Finally, the pigmentation of the paradiso blush is amazing! you get a really rich colour pay off after 1 swatch compared to the mac blush (see last photo).

M.A.C purple eyeshadow swatches + review

If you've seen my recent post on my blue illamasqua eyeshadows, then you'll know i also picked up these M.A.C eyeshadows the same day. They cost £11 each. The colours i purchased are digit (pale lilac/satin finish), beautiful iris (lavender/veluxe pearl finish), creme de violet (pinky purple with gold shimmer/frost finish) and shadowy lady (brown plum/matte finish).

my conclusion: nice colours that work well together and not as expensive as the illamasqua eyeshadows. however, you only get 1.5g of eyeshadow product in mac eyeshadows, unlike illamasqua where you get 2g of product for only a fraction more of the price. The creme de violet and digit eyeshadow were really pigmented and had a good staying power and colour payoff. Yet, beautiful iris was not very pigmented as i had to pack it on to get any colour pay off and came off easily. The same could be said about shadowy lady, except instead of it coming off easily, it was just a nightmare to blend and very bad colour payoff. i found myself packing this on to get any result! recommend: digit & creme de violet. avoid: beautiful iris & shadowy lady.

Illamasqua blue birthday eyeshadow swatches

For my birthday, i purchased my first illamasqua eyeshadows. I had just purchased four purple eyeshadows from M.A.C minutes before so i decided to go with blue eyeshadow. The shades i got were :anja e/s (light blue), fiasco e/s (teal medium blue) and never e/s (dark navy blue). All of these eyeshadows have a matte finish and cost £15 each.

My conclusion: the best eyeshadows i've ever purchased! I adore eyeshadow and these eyeshadow's were all highly pigmented, easy to blend and had a consistant pigmentation whereas M.A.C eyeshadows tend to vary in pigmentation. Recommend: All three!

New topshop fail varnish collection

Now i'm not into nails really. Infact, it's a rarity i wear any varnish at all, but when i laid eyes on the new topshop nail varnish collection, i was 'less than impressed' to put it frank. Maybe these colours wouldn't look as bad on darker ladies, but for someone pale like myself, i shall be avoiding!

MAC venomous villians unreleased face charts

These face charts don't appear on the M.A.C website, but i much prefer these to the looks featured online currently. Plus, these looks are on regular mac face charts, opposed to the villain face charts currently being used by M.A.C online. NOTE: I tried uploading these in a bigger format so product names/shades could be seen. For an enlarged view, click my tumblr link. CLICK HERE