Collective Haul: April - June

Looking at the products laid out in front of me, I've not been buying a great deal over the past few months. It felt like I had but a lot of what I purchased were replacement products. I've also been investing more in clothes after havihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifng a mad eBay clear out. I bought the most lovely Nicole Farhi silk top (I used it as a fabric background in this post) which I think I'll wear to death this summer. Also picked up a handful of maxi dresses which I tend to live in during the "warmer" months - whatever that means in the UK . Mostly, I've been saving. Mostly...



A few bits from Space NK. I haven't tried the new cleanser yet, I'm finishing up my Mario Badescu products (which I'll be honest, are not amazing. Stand out products are the buffering lotion and whitening mask. I didn't like the moisturiser at all and the cleansers were alright but quite drying)I also picked up a Nars blush in Deep Throat, Sheer Glow foundation and Shu Uemura Nobara foundation. Both are great and give good coverage while remaining light on the skin. Sheer Glow's coverage really surprised me! If I need to build it up, I use a Beauty Blender sponge (another I-love product) to stipple it on. Perfect.



A handful of things to try from BeautyBay.com. I'm excited about adding a toner to my skincare routine again. I haven't used a toner since Lush's Tea Tree Water and miss the squeaky clean feeling you get afterwards.



After scouring blogs and eBay, I'm 1 (Oh So Special - I didn't include the new Curacao palette as I just bought that today) palette away from completing my Sleek collection. If interested, I'll do a large review/swatch catalogue of all the Sleek palettes past and present.



I broke my nail polish ban and went a little nuts...the two Illamasqua nail polishes were STUNNING and I bought two of each to send to a couple of my friends. Perfect for a vampy night out. The Barry M colours are beautiful summer brights - the coral is by far my favourite. Seche Vite is hands down, amazing. Ah-may-zing. My nail colour lasts a good week without any major chips despite me working with my hands a lot.



I bought a few Soap & Glory products, one of which was the boddy butter seen and the other was a facial scrub and shower gel. LOVE the shower gel, LOVE the body butter, a little unsure about the scrub. It kind of burns my skin when it's meant to give a tingly sensation. The boy loves it so as far as I'm concerned he can have it! I'm giving one of these body butters away soon :)

Check out the adorable mini High Beam and Posie Tints free with Glamour magazine! Didn't get Benetint as I've got the full size, but aw, so cute!

I purchased (IMPULSE) a couple of MAC shadows - Vellum and Beauty Marked. Beauty Marked really stands out to me, it's dark but really brightens up the eyes. Vellum is a fab highlighter on the cheeks and cupids bow.

I'm also giving away a couple of Lord & Berry glosses that I bought a while back. I loved it so much I went back and picked up two. The perfect shade for any skintone, lovely texture and I actually like the smell of them. They're not MAC vanilla scented, but they're not plastic/playdough scented either! The lipstick I am less crazy about (weird considering I'm not much of a gloss girl) The New CID products, I've yet to try out yet but I'm excited about them. I've dangerously fallen in love with Illamasqua eyeshadows. They're dense, apply very well and stay vibrant until you take them off. I recently bought this matte purple called Fallen.





Recently, the fella and I went down to Brighton for a couple of days. We stayed in a beautiful hotel by the beach front and whilst pebble beaches aren't my favourite, I had a wonderful time. While having breakfast on the beach, we had a little debate on whether pebble or sand beaches are better. My argument was that you could build sandcastles on sand beaches...so John made a stone castle which he said was "more realistic" so better. I'd still rather get sand up my butt any day. Pebble beaches hurt right?!



I made some divine (if I may say so myself) lavender and lavender and lemon cupcakes (with my own recipe for lemon curd). So light you don't feel too guilty for eating more than one!

I've got reviews planned: MUFE HD foundation, Mario Badescu (the week-by-week thing didn't work out because honestly...I wasn't getting the results I'd hoped for but there are some great produts within the range) and a new foundation routine. I'm hoping to start pre-writing posts during the weekend as I'm so busy during the week. Though lately my weekends have been pretty crazy too! We'll see...but I miss blogging a lot! Thanks so much for reading!

Sleek Sparkle Palette Winner

Drawn at random...

Is MakeYuUp! Congrats hun!

Please email me with your details and I'll have your palette posted out to you as soon as possible.

Thanks all who entered :)

24 Hour Giveaway: Sleek Sparkle Palette [CLOSED]

Rules:

As this is a mini Christmas giveaway for my followers, you must be a follower via GFC. I will check!

How to enter:

1. Write enter me below as many times as you like.

2. Tweet this:

RT @ricewarrior I'm giving away a Sleek Sparkle Palette to my blog followers! Only 1 day to enter! http://bit.ly/envcXE

Winner will be chosen at random tomorrow (9th Dec.) at 9:30pm GMT. If the winner doesn't contact me within 24 hours, I will choose another.

Review: Sleek Bad Girl Palette

Sleek MakeUp Bad Girl Palette



L-R: Innocence, Gullible, Blade, Gun Metal, Underground, Noir
Intoxicated, Envy, Obnoxious, Abyss, Twilight, Rebel



Look using Innocence, Gullible and Abyss.

Excuse the transfer under my eye. There's a lack of concealer and primer here!

I know I only purchased this today but I feel that because I have a few other Sleek palettes, I'd be alright giving a fair review of this product as it is mostly based on the colours.

A bit about Sleek palettes: Priced at £5.99 and including 12 mineral based eyeshadows, Sleek palettes are not only fabulous quality but fantastic value for money at a pinch under 50p a shadow. The eyeshadows tend to be shimmery but a few palettes include matte and satin finishes as well. Pigmentation is phenomenal and in my opinion rivals Shu Uemura's (and we all know I'm a Shu Superfan) - and that's saying something. Application is buttery soft, the shadows are easily blendable and wear well. The only downside is I find I get quite a lot of fallout with these shadows but it's nothing that would stop me from buying them.

The Sleek Bad Girl palette is one half of their latest offering. The other half is the Sleek Good Girl palette which I feel is not something too many people would be interested in unless they're Sleek collectors or plan on using it as a blush palette as it's full of gorgeous pinks and corals. This time, the shades have names! Unfortunately the names are not printed anywhere on the palette except for the plastic protective insert which I usually throw away but won't this time.

I've got to say that the Sleek Bad Girl palette is my favourite so far with the Graphite palette coming in a very close second. It holds a selection of wearable smokey colours that suit any eye colour or skintone. I'm a sucker for a good purple shadow and the purples and blues are my favourite shades in the Bad Girl palette. Check out Twilight! Gorgeous.

Did you manage to get your beautiful mitts on this today? Do you plan on getting it?

Sleek Haul & 50 Followers Giveaway Prizes

I lay in bed this morning and wondered whether I should clean the house or head out and pick up the Sleek Bad Girl palette which was released today. Shopping it was. Didn't want to take my chances by trying to get it tomorrow. My instincts were correct. I picked up the last 2 palettes on the shelf. There was still a full stack of Good Girl palettes. I wasn't overly interested in the Good Girl palette. A couple of the shades were lovely but who really needs 12 pink eyeshadows? They might be great as a mini blush palette but I've got an abundance of blushes and am not in the market for any more at the moment.



Sleek Bad Girl palette - will post swatches later tonight.

Popped into Primark for some trusty disposble fashion and didn't find much. They had some nice faux fur gilets in and a few cute blazers but I look awful in anything faux fur and I have more blazers than any one person needs in their lifetime. I did find this keyring and picked up two. I tend to pick up doubles of things I really like just in case I want to give it away or give it to someone as a gift.

Anyway, a little preview of my 50 Followers Giveaway prizes.



Barry M Dusky Mauve, Barry M Nail Effects, Sleek Bad Girl palette & a pretty darn cute keychain. Baby cat not included.

Mimi Update: Much better now, Reggie has settled in more but still tends to run away when she comes near him! Umm...Reggie, she's the size of your water dish? He's just used to being the baby and we understand that. They've had their little scraps here and there but generally get on just fine.



They're eating together!



We have to give up on reading books or magazines with the cats around. They like to lay on them before you get a chance to turn the page.



She knows where we keep the food!

PS: P5P is still on - I cleared the Bad Girl palette release and it doesn't count! Oh I'm a cheeky one.

PPS: Getting insanely frustrated that I can't open or use my bottles of Dusky Mauve & Nail Effects! Since I bought them whilst on P5P, I'm not allowed to.

When it's 4am and you can't sleep...what do you do?

Slap on 3 tonnes of makeup then breathe heavily on your boyfriend's face so he wakes up.

Good. Times.

Using Sleek's Graphite palette, I did some shoddy cut crease work. I prefer to do cut crease with matte shadows - it always looks much, much better. But...as you can get away with not blending shimmery shadows perfectly and it was 4 in the morning, I did this...

I should probably try and sleep...

xx

My Valentine's Day Eyes

I'm really undecided on whether or not I'll make a video for this - not sure the Youtube video making world is for me yet. I'd love to be able to get the guts up to do it! I just don't think I'm in any place to teach anyone anything!





Yeah, that's a mole on my eye. It's gross.

So this is the red smokey eye I'm wearing for Valentine's Day with John. I've been seeing a ton of cute gorgeous pinks - really light and flirty looks...but no sultry reds (as far as Valentine's tutorials on YT go). So I figured I'd try one out with the Sleek Sunset palette. ME Brown by Shu Uemura is also thrown on there. It's a beautiful metallic rust coloured shadow. Shu shadows are divine to work with. They blend well and the pigmentation is incredible. I'm really excited to pick up more when I head back to Hong Kong because as it stands I only have 4 colours and that makes me sad.

I started out with UDPP and put a light base of ME Brown over the lid, pulled it up to just past my crease and winged it out slightly. I lightly swept In Awe by MAC (a lovely black with gold pearl) into my crease and patted a bright red from the Sleek palette onto the centre of my lids. I used Young Thing by MAC as a highlight and dotted it on my inner corners to lift my eyes a little. After a few (hundred) coats of mascara and a slick of black liner and this is what I got. I'll probably finish the look with neutral lips and a light dusting of bronzer on my cheeks and temples.

In the past I've been afraid of wearing red on my eyes as it has made me look tired. The same story with pink. The way I make it work for me is to use shimmery or frosty shadows and to have a "barrier" of black or brown liner between the red and my waterline or lashline to stop that horrible tired look.