Not just nails, but makeup hoarding too?!

*hangs head in shame* It’s true. Although, I still have more polish than makeup, but it turns out I just want all the pretty colours and glitter and shimmer. I am a  Magpie. No judging 😀 Thought I’d do a quick blog post on how I store my makeup, what I do, and a quick organisation in progress 😀

This is my makeup case, not sorted out (although I have grabbed out stuff that I am destashing to my sister, but this is a bit of a mess). I keep my foundation/blush/concealer, eyeshadow palettes, and lipsticks and glosses in here. I also use a hanging storage thingy that I bought from a second hand shop to hang my daily moisturiser, brushes, and other misc makeup weaponry.

I am absolutely wearing a baggy jersey and trackpants. Just be grateful I’m not more in the mirror 😀 And yep, the tape on the mirror is there on purpose 😀

Taking photos of it made me tidy it up, so here it is again, better organised 😀 YAY!

the mess in the middle is from a body shop brush on bronzer which spontaneously combusted one day. Gah. Everything was bronze and sparkly for AGES

I have a box on my drawers with untried eyeshadows in it – I try and use one untried and at least one tried eyeshadow at a time – spread the love around 😀 The sad thing is, I don’t wear makeup everyday and when I see all these pretties I feel like I’m a greedy cow who should be slathered in coloured powder every waking minute. Ah well.

And this is my drawer with loose eyeshadows … the indie eye shadows. I have them in little plastic food containers arranged by colour, to make it easier to find one I want.

This is them, opened 🙂 I find it pretty interesting to see what colours I gravitate towards… purple, blue and green – same as the polishes – I have more brown eyeshadows than polishes though, which makes sense with my eye colouring. The only reason I have as many blues as I do is because I adore the colour so much 😀

And finally – I have a lot of samples of shadows – in little baggies, which are awesome to test colours but a pain to store, so I’ve stashed them in these – one is a CD holder (has the cool toned colours) and a business card holder (warm toned shadows).

So many pretties – not enough face. If anyone sees me on the school run painted like an Avatar native you’ll know I’m trying to utilise more of my shadows… 😀

Have a great day!

Ami

Notoriously Morbid Haul :D

I went back for more. I have no guilt 😀 Carrie from Notoriously Morbid has some GORGEOUS eyeshadows and lipbalms, and some amazing customer service too. What’s not to love?

and… lollies!!!! 😀

Quick swatches! In all of these pictures, the middle section is over Dark Hearts primer. The tops and bottoms are over bare skin. Primer seems to make these stay on my eyelids longer, but these shadows are super pigmented even without primer, as you can see 😀

The green/golds: from left to right: Rain on Cold Glass, Andorian, and Kilgharrah. I know I’ve swatched Kilgharrah before. But it’s so pretty, I wanted to swatch it again 😀

Sun

Rain on Cold Glass: VEGAN. Lovely cool toned gold, with what looks like silver and lilac/pink shimmer. Can’t wait to pair this with Kilgharrah!

Andorian: VEGAN.  Very pigmented green with a teal blue undertone, and a lighter leaf green interference shimmer. I think this will be an amazing eyeliner.

The darks: from left to right, shade: 13 Black Rainbows, Hearts of Black Lace, Velvet Hammer

Sun

Velvet Hammer: VEGAN – plum base, looks deep purple in the packet. However, on the skin that amazing lavender interference shimmer dominates, so a much brighter purple overall.

Hearts of Black Lace: NOT VEGAN. Wow. I need to get a full size of this, too! The overall effect is one of a deep copper toned brown, but.. no, not quite! When I was applying it I noticed a very blackened base, and the pigment was duochromatic red and gold – when blended it looks copper chocolate brown. I adore this!

13 Black Rainbows: VEGAN. Estelle gave me a little sample of this, which I decanted immediately into a small plastic pottle, and bought another sample to top up that pottle 😀 Looks plain dusty black in the bag, but mixed in with the pigment is plenty of teeeny tiny iridescent blue/purple /green / orange (the glitter I buy for my polish they call it a rainbow mix) flakes. I mean tiny, too. So, this is not a glitter, it is out and out stunning.

I also bought a full size of Mystique – Carrie sent a free sample of that with my last order, and I knew I needed a larger version 😀  Also two lip balms (coffin kissers) – Vanilla Veil (deep smooth vanilla scent – with a floral note??) and Strangely Charming Cherry – which is cherry scented and yes, charming. Not strangely. It’s just lovely 😀 The moisturising qualities of these last a long time on my lips, the shine doesn’t so much, and they aren’t sticky at all, but the slip and smooth lasts for ages. (about an hour at a guess? Goodly long time!)

Here is what my arm looks like now. Every time I do one of these I want to keep my arms all stripey and colourful all day. There must be a way we can do that 😀

Have a lovely colourful day!

Ami

Disclaimer: I bought all these, or they were free samples as she does because she is lovely, there is no kickback for me for writing this, or in saying check out her shop! So… check out her shop, ok? 😀

More Notoriously Morbid Swatches :)

A quick post! I went back and ordered some more goodies from Carrie at Notoriously Morbid – not included in these swatches is Kilgarrah, as I had that in the last post (here). I did need a full size of this, and I’m glad I got it 😀

As before, these arrived promptly (to the far corner of the globe, how a globe has corners I don’t know but regardless), and well packed. Carrie also added a few free samples which is always lovely and surprising… but, CHECK THIS OUT!

She wrote a little thank you on this note, for the last review I did, and said she’d noted my comments about the vegan shadows, and only sent me vegan samples. This totally blew me away! That’s some amazing attention to detail, and incredible thoughtfulness right there. I just hope my comment didn’t read like I was complaining, because I wasn’t. 😀

Swatches! These are over Dark Heart Designs primer, and smudged on with my finger. I do find though, that these swatches are pretty indicative of the pigmentation levels on the eye, too – i.e, very. 😀 All descriptions are my own, she has better on her site 😀

left to right – Belle’s Bounty (gold), Stake of Holly (green with blue overlay), Stripper Zombie (green with gold shimmer)

Left to right – The Doctor’s Wife (deep blue), Mystique (deep aqua blue with teal shimmer), No Warmth Could Warm (light blue shimmer with lilac duochrome).

And all together now…

Ahhhh.

I have do have one complaint. I just put in another order, and I didn’t swatch these before I did. I did order Mystique in a full size, but I should ALSO have got No Warmth Could Warm, The Doctors Wife, and Stake of Holly. ARRGH! She is too good at this!! 😀

There is a new webshop, too, nicely laid out and easy to find things, and another Coffin Kisser (don’t let the name put you off if such things tend to, they are pretty much the best lip balms I have EVER tried, and I’m not being paid to say so) – it’s cherry, which is exciting. Plus, as noted about, Carrie is just a lovely person, so I’d doubly recommend her products 😀

Have a great day

Ami

Notoriously Morbid Eyeshadows: Swatches and Review – VERY Picture Heavy

So many pretty colours! Once again Estelle from Serenity blog let me know about something worth drooling over, in this case, makeup from Notoriously Morbid. We chatted a bit on Facebook to Carrie, the owner / creative wizard behind Notoriously Morbid, so I can say that not only is her range good value, large and awesome quality; she is also a very lovely person.

Anyway! Haul!

Full Sized eyeshadows: all swatches are the eyeshadow, dabbed on with my finger, over Dark Heart Designs primer.

Goodbye Sweetie (sniffle). Ok, the sniffle was my add-on 😀

Swatch: Shimmery pale off white, with a slight gold tone.

Snow Queen’s Return. Looks similar in the pottle to Goodbye Sweetie, however…

Completely different in swatch. This is almost a very, very pale ice lilac, with tonnes of beautiful shimmer.

Lycan’s Revenge

Gorgeous russet red. Not vegan. I’ll admit, I didn’t check, and a fair few of these contain carmine. Which I normally steer clear of, but hey, I have these now. They are beautiful. I won’t buy more with carmine in it, and I’ll note all of these which do – but the ingredients are clearly listed on her website (as I said, she’s amazing), so just read a bit more carefully then I did, if it’s a concern of yours 😀

Look Upon Me (not vegan)

Sorry Swatch is blurry, but I think the blue shimmer which shows so beautifully throughout is still visible. This is stunning.

Shadow of Things

perfect name! A gorgeous grey base with teal shimmer, which is the predominant colour on the skin. Very pigmented.

I also got one of her lipbalms, called Coffin Kissers (chortle). This one is Rotten Rainbow, which is apricot, and…. there is a scent, I can’t pick it, but it’s not your average straight apricot/fruit scent. No, not rot! 😀 A nice, deep tone. So, nice aroma, goes with the theme. And it’s one of the nicest balms I’ve tried, so silky!

You can see by the label that there was a tiny bit of leakage, but it’s High Summer here, so this is nothing. AND she’d separately bagged it,  so worse comes to worst there would be no damage to anything else. That’s thinking ahead. 😀 Also, the shape of the tube is different than normal, is a flattened oval, and the twist up dial is in the center of the base. Very stylish!

Samples now. These come in the standard little baggies with name and ingredients on the label, and have a really decent amount in them. I bought these ones 🙂

Nudist – not Vegan. This is almost matte, and darker than it looks in the baggie. This may be a prefect crease colour!

Tenorman’s Tears – very pretty, though sheer, seafoam shimmer. I bet this would also look gorgeous layered.

Melancholy One – Not Vegan. Lovely shimmery grey.

Crimson Horror – Not Vegan. Really nice vampy red

Snow’s Fury – brown base, but with a super pretty purple shimmer that changes the whole look to a blackened purple.

These samples were part of the blogger pack I also bought (I wanted the rainbow of colours, I got it! YUS!) and a couple of free samples Carrie popped in there, too. Love! 😀 I’m not sure which are which, so here they all are!

Lizard on a Window Pane: Not Vegan. Very pretty light shimmery tan with strong green shimmer. Not as sheer as the photo makes it look, that’s mostly the reflection off that shimmer 😀

Kilgharrah – doesn’t know if it’s green or brown! Brown base, deep forest green shimmer, I’d put it, but man, I’m buying a full size of this. It’s STUNNING is what it is.

More Weight – deep chocolate brown with an icy blue/green shimmer.

Spirit of All Three – looks like mustard powder in the bag, has the most beautiful gold shimmer. I’m sorry, I had to swatch this on my hand (hence the bumps, tendons!) it deserved better than that! I’ll be wearing this today, this is not your standard gold eyeshadow (though I do like gold eyeshadow, but I have plenty), this has a depth and edge that is new to me.

Pornographic Priestess: Not Vegan – pretty dusty rose with shimmer – and I LOVE the name 😀 Makes me giggle like a fiend :D:

Tempest: Not Vegan – bright pink with deeper pink shimmer. Didn’t get a good photo of the label, whoops

13 Black Rainbows – this is CRAZILY intensely pigmented! And super pretty with the multicoloured shimmer in the black base.

Close up swatch, hopefully catching some of the shimmer, though in real life it’s at least 4 times are pretty.

And there we have it! Kudos to anyone still reading 😀 I’d definitely recommend Notoriously Morbid, they are excellent quality and very good value, I got these during her last big sale, which made them ridiculously inexpensive. So, I’d say check out her website, like her Facebook page if you are so inclined, and have fun!

Have a great day

Ami

Quick Geek Chic Cosmetic Swatches

Quick swatch on my arm of the new makeup I bought from Geek Chic during their recent sale!

swatches in the shade…

From left to right, all applied with a wet brush on bare skin EXCEPT the glitter which is over Glitter Glue (it wouldn’t stick at all, otherwise, be warned!) are:

*House Elf :  gorgeous warm shimmery brown I bought a sample, but I’ll be buying a full size of this when I can!

*You Know Who:  very nice blackened green with green sparkles

*Yellow Jumpsuit: lovely shimmery orange

*Blood Bond: I bought a sample of this last time and went back for the full size, it’s a nice auburn red, and I like them with my skin tone and eye colour.

*Yay! I do like a nice light shimmery pink, seeing as I’m not flash at putting on makeup and often don’t have much time, a quick sweep of a nice neutral is a good way to feel like I’ve made an effort 😀

*Always: pretty dove grey with sparkles, throws a green almost duochrome here!

*Frag: total glitterbomb, may never have the guts to wear this on my eyes, but it’s pretty and a nice mix of silver and gunmetal grey glitters

and the last swatch is a lipgloss called Willful Wyvern, and it is a duochrome, lilac and green. Doesn’t show up that dense on the lips, but adds a pretty sheen and a subtle shimmery gloss, isn’t sticky, smells like cocoa and something else I can’t quite pick, the sheen and colour disappear quickly (as with ALL lipgloss in my experience) but the moisturising effect lingers for quite some time, as a bonus!

sunlight: House Elf, You Know Who, Yellow Jumpsuit, Blood Bond, Yay!, Always, Frag, Willful Wyvern

It did take a long time for these to be sent, the lovely people from Geek Chic did sent out periodic nice and abashed emails, apparently the sale was successful beyond their wildest dreams and they were rushed off their feet. So, hey, they got here! They are pretty! No free samples this time (quickly suppressed pout) but the sale was so good that I still feel like I got FAR more than my money’s worth. I definitely recommend Geek Chic cosmetics!

Have a great day

Ami

Doll Face Mineral Makeup: Nude Lipsticks, and Pretty Eyeshadows!

A little while ago, when the sun was not shining and no good photos could be taken, I bought a lipstick from Debbie of Doll Face Mineral Makeup.

The back-story, and example of amazing customer service/relations – goes like this.

*Debbie posts photo of lipsticks in holder on Facebook

*I say, ooh, whats the one on the left there? Still looking for my perfect nude shade, that could be it…

*She says: message me with your address, and I’ll send you swatches.

*So, I do. And as well as the swatches, she sends some cute little samples, so I can find my perfect nude shade! WOW! I choose Pout. And not long after… she pops up some grab bags of makeup, and because my internet was running off good old IE9 I couldn’t get one, and she held one for me! So, all of these amazing things turned up at the same time, and I only knew about Pout (the lippy). I couldn’t be happier with all of them, and amazed at how awesome Debbie is. 🙂

Photo time – the haul!

Doll Face Mineral Makeup – cute bag, packaging, and business card!

The haul exposed … and my youngest sons favourite Lego man. :D’

ALL the pretty things!

Ocean – a loose, soft green eyeshadow. This applies so nicely, and looks good, even with my blue eyes with the weird brown flecks, as an eyeliner when used with primer.

On my arm…

Ocean – eyeshadow from Doll Face Minerals. Lovely and pigmented!

The three eyeshadows which are pressed into a set: Forbidden Fruit – and just look amazing together.

And on my arm..

in order they are in the set – I love that there are two shimmers and a matte shadow! It’s a smokey eye in a box… and they are AMAZINGLY pigmented. Seriously. BE CAREFUL hehehe Fine line between smokey eye and black eye…

The TWO lipsticks: Pout, which I bought, and Good Kitty – which were the two I had a hard time choosing between! Amazing!

Doll Face Mineral Lipsticks.

Check out these tubes. I normally dislike leopard print, but something about these really appealed in the photos – and then I had them in my hand. People, these tubes are metal. Not plastic. METAL. They feel amazing; solid, classy, stylish – and fun! Now, that’s a hard combination to achieve!

METAL lipstick tubes! The glamour! Seriously! 😀

Swatched… Good Kitty is closer to the bottom – and a lighter, shimmery nude. Pout is towards the top, a creme, deeper browner nude.

And all the lipstick samples on my arm: shade

L- R: Apricot Dream, Breast Friends, Pearl, Pout, Good Kitty

Sun

L-R: Apricot Dream, Breast Friends, Pearl, Pout, Good Kitty

And horrible photos of them on my lips. I don’t think I can do these any more, they weird me out too much! Argh!

Apricot Dream:

Shade – such a lovely soft colour, was a little too pale against my skin tone.

Breast Friends

Breast Friends – the pinkest, and a very pretty shade! So tempted by this one, but a little too pink for my lips 🙂

Pearl

Pearl – just too pale and shimmery for me, but would be perfect for the ‘Mod’ type look – dark eyes and pale lips!

Pout

Pout: my fav on me!

Good Kitty

Good Kitty: my second fav, bordering on too light for me but just perfect for some looks, and so nicely shimmery!

One thing I have to say about these lipsticks is that they are amazing. They are, for me, at the upper scale of what I would pay for a lipstick (and I know that $31.50NZ is very reasonable, but we have 4 people on 1.5 incomes, so.. yeah). But I do not regret buying these. They are soft. They are smooth. They can show off cracks in your lips, but only concrete wouldn’t. You can put gloss over them, and they retain their colour. You can eat and drink, and STILL HAVE MOST OF YOUR LIPSTICK ON AFTERWARDS. These aren’t nuclear-blast-proof, and so although they last really well, you have soft lips still! I love these lipsticks, and the eyeshadows, and I have never been disappointed by any of the Doll Face products I have bought.

I highly recommend them! Here is a link to Debbie’s shop, and to her Facebook page. She’s a lovely person, and has even created makeup products for people if she didn’t have exactly what they wanted. Check her out!

And have a lovely day.

Ami

P.S, feel free to stop on by my Facebook page too – link is at the top right hand side of this page. Article links, plus extra jokes – be nice to see you there!

Playing with Kleancolor Jewel Box 02 – silly fun :D

So, yes, I said I’d play around with the Kleancolor palette, and I did. Because I’m like that, mostly. ahem. I used Designer Brands eyeshadow primer on my eyelids first.

I guess I’m in a bit of a silly mood because instead of doing something normal with them, I went to town. I did one eye using the browns and golds, and it looked pretty normal until I blinked..

because I painted a leopard print-esque spot on that one.

My photos don’t come out that well, the lighting isn’t great and it looks a lot fainter in the pictures than in does in real life. I used Doll Face Satin under my brow, and Chi Chi brown eyeliner, and Max Factor mascara in Burnished Brown – with the gold side on my bottom lashes. Which then went all over the underneath of my eye. Meh

Then on my other eye I used all the blues and greens, with some gold for emphasis.

Oooh this was fun! I sort of ended up going all blue-eyebrowed-Egyptian theme on it: I haven’t had as much fun with makeup for AGES. I used Dollface black eyeliner for this, and it just didn’t do what it normally does, the powder was too slippery I think. Not sure how to get around this, possibly liquid eyeliner? Or eyeliner first, then top up after? It was fun though!

I did, however, forget how pigmented the blue shadows are. I remembered when I went to take OFF the makeup though.

So, yep, now I have one blue eyebrow. Hopefully it’ll come off with extra scrubbing soon, or I’ll have to paint the other side to match, and I’ll *probably* get weird looks at Playgroup tomorrow. Heh heh heh

But, yes, I can and have worn these ‘normally’ – just put them on lightly, blend well, and don’t paint your eyebrow blue unless you are happy with it potentially staying that way 😀

Kleancolor Jewel Box Eyeshadows 02 Emerald

I bought the cutest little eyeshadow palette from a Coin Save shop today, for $3.90. It has 10 eyeshadows in gorgeous shimmering colours, and had ‘Jewel Box’ on the lid in holographic lettering. How could I not? 😀

Kleancolor Jewel Box 02

There were a few different kinds of palettes: I was drawn to the golds and browns, and the aqua blue shades were pretty. I can’t wear these types of blue well, but I’m getting to a point in my life where the colours are more important, rather than ‘rules’, so I’ll find a way to make it work. 🙂

 

These swatches are a thick swipe over bare skin, no primer. Golds and browns – which get progressively prettier  and more pigmented as they move from left to right  (as they appear in the tray).

And blues – these were so pigmented. I had to wash these off, I couldn’t just wipe them off my arm (no primer, again in the order of which they are in the tray).

There’s the funniest little blurb on the underside of the tray: “Jewel Box is the perfect palette for creating mesmerising looks with portable collection of provocative hues in luxe pigments which deliver true color explosion. Simply sweep them on and let your inner gem shine through your eyes.” That sounds MOST uncomfortable 😀 But, even my 4.5 year old son thinks this box of eyeshadows is ‘tool’ (he can’t say a hard ‘k’ sound well yet, but rest assured he means ‘cool’). They are cool. I’ll try a few looks out later, and see if there is something I can show you 🙂

Australis Brush-On Perfection Eyeshadow in Warhol

Bought from Reduced to Clear (I know, cringy name, but they sometimes have cheap cosmetics and they always have cheap chocolate!) for $2.

There were 3 colours in the shop, I chose this one as it looked like it could be a neutral OR a goldish toned shimmer from the colour circle on the base:

Why yes, yes I WAS feeling optimistic that day 🙂

The colour circle is on a button, that you click to deliver the eyeshadow to the brush…

Blurry brush shot – it’s a nice enough brush, I guess, soft but nylon-y.

and click and click and clickedy clickedy click click click.. .check… click clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick.. etc. For purposes of review, I carefully counted my clicks so I could tell you how many it took. Well, it took 35 before I went mental and just clicked frantically.

[NB: Frantic clicking hurts the button. If it gets stuck down you can take it off, put it back on, and it still works fine.]

This was a cream, not a powder. THAT was a suprise. And because its a cream, not a powder, when it eventually came out onto the brush, it kept coming out, and out, and out, and getting curlier: quite like a stood-upon toothpaste tube.

Camera wouldn’t focus, I guess it didn’t want to look either.

But, here it is, swatched over bare skin.

Its orangey nude. And very greasy. It creased INSTANTLY, even over eyeshadow primer, and just didn’t look good at all. Maybe it was because there was so much on my brush (yes, I took most of it off, but.. it was pretty saturated). I don’t know if I’d bother trying this again. Brush on eyeshadow, yes. Perfection? Well, not for me!

The good news, it was cheap. The bad news, it was.. well, cheap. I’ll stick to my Dollface, Ro Vie, and Chromatic Cosmetic shadows, I think.

Ro Vie Eyeshadow: Strawberry Bonbon – swatches and review

This has to be one of the longest, most drawn out, blog attempts I’ve made. I bought this eyeshadow (and another, Sugared Almond and I’ll review that soon, it won’t take long!) a few months ago, and have been trying to get good photos of this pretty since then. What a hard colour to swatch!

Anyway – off the whinging, back on topic. This is Strawberry Bonbon from Ro Vie,

Ro Vie Strawberry Bonbon

Ro Vie describe it on it’s page as: “Ohh la la! A delectable gleam of chameleon color. Open the pot and you’ll see a neutral pearly pink. Sweep it on, however, and the subtlest iridescent lavender appears. This whitish powder- pearlyzed by a touch of purple- is a gorgeous way to light up eyes.  Beautiful everyday to make your peepers pop.”

Here it is in the container, its a lovely pale pinky loose powder, with an iridescent light purple sparkle.

You can see the lilac shimmer in the bottom of the photo, where the bulk of the powder isn’t 🙂

Heavily swatched on my wrist, over an eyeshadow primer – it is SO hard to get a good photo of this! It is sheer, but flashes lilac in the light.

One of the most interesting things about it is what it does to eyeliner: Here is eyeliners (different colours) swatched on my bare arm:

And with a light sweep of Strawberry bonbon on the top half of the liners:

Ro Vie Strawberry Bonbon on the tophalf of the eyeliners..

See? Blurple! For some reason, it turns every eyeliner I own into a blueish purple liner – even if I put the liner on top of the shadow. Interesting, huh? I have found that, as I don’t always want blurple eyeliner, that it’s best to use another shadow, wet, as an eyeliner, or – in these following swatches; a glitter liner. That stays true to colour.

 

Do you know how hard it is to take photo of your own EYE? 😀

 

This look is with Dollface Satin under the brow bone, Ro Vie Strawberry Bonbon all over eyelid, and a silver glitter gel with added Chromatic Cosmetics silver holo glitter in Rollin’ Face as eyeliner. I used Kleancolor eyeshadow primer as a base.

These photos are so frustrating – although the Strawberry Bonbon IS sheer, it’s not THAT sheer! It is highly shimmery and reflective, so you definitely see it as a bright wash of lilac in real life. I just couldn’t capture the true prettiness on camera, and believe me, I’ve tried – over many, many days.

But, there you have it, Strawberry Bonbon by Ro Vie as best as my camera and skills will allow. I can say that this colour lasts – at least 8 hours; longer with primer. It doesn’t crease – sometimes a tiny bit, but one quick smudge with a finger and thats that, no more creasing all day. It looks good with blue eyes, it looks FANTASTIC with Ro Vie Blackcurrent Cream (with wet brush) as the liner with blue eyes, and think it would love equally good with brown and green eyes.

It costs $20 from Ro Vie, for a 5gm loose powder pot, and that should last about.. ooh.. 20 years, probably at the rate I wear makeup, but a LLOOONNNNGGG time for anyone! It’s a very soft and silky powder, and doesn’t fall under your eye when you are applying it.

You can also contact, read about, and admire Ro Vie cosmetics via their Facebook page, here. They often have special and sales, ‘like’ their page and keep up with the news! 🙂