Collection 2000 Poptastic, Victoria Jackson and Yo! Sushi

So, the Poptastic palette followup I promised - yeah, it's actually pretty good! I have oily lids so it's hard to get eyeshadow to stick without a primer, but this stuff doesn't crease or fade unevenly, and still looks good after several hours. Says on the box it lasts up to 8 hours which is a lie, but it comes close enough. I like it a lot :)

So yesterday I got my hands on (read: Matthew bought me) some Victoria Jackson cosmetics. Allegedly I got stuff worth £210 for £30. I'd never heard of the stuff before so I looked it up online and found the website that is indeed offering the stuff I got at ridiculously high prices. There were also a lot of people shouting scam from the rooftops, and a lot of people on the fence. I don't think it's a scam, per se - they're probably just worth nowhere near £200.

I got a "survival kit" which has ten eyeshadows, five lip colours, a mascara, an eyeliner, a lip liner, two blushes and a set of mini brushes all in a little container. Also a colour collection in "peach" - two larger blushes, five larger neutral eye colours, and five lip colours which are actually quite good. I wore a brown eye shadow today and it's nice - feels smooth and silky and has lasted since ~10AM, so six hours so far. The lip colours are good too, I hate lipgloss and balm so I didn't think I'd like these, but they're more like lipstick. Not much staying power though. The blushes are far too bright for me.

I also got a bronze shimmer powder brush which I won't use... I get glitter on my face anyway from my eyeshadows, I don't need more!

The best part, mind you, is the brushes. I got one of each - powder, foundation, eyeshadow, eyeliner, lip liner, and eyebrow - and they're lovely. The foundation brush especially is amazingly soft and feels great. I've been needing a new soft eyeshadow brush and this one is just lovely. They're apparently made from all-natural fibres and will last forever so I'm pretty chuffed. Thankyou so much Matthew!

Yo! Sushi trip report: yummers.

I had five slices of tuna sashimi, two salmon skin rolls, two mini salmon rolls, two mini smoked salmon and wasabi rolls, two mini tuna rolls, some miso soup and for dessert some daifuku. Despite hating fish Matthew found stuff he liked - mostly chickeny stuff including some amazing teriyaki chicken that I wanted for myself. He had a chocolate mousse thing for dessert which was yum. It was a really awesome meal, I love sushi and can't get it very often so it's lovely to have a place like that so close. :)

Benefit mini makeover

I got accosted by a Benefit lady today while I was hunting for the Urban Decay counter. She offered to try some products on me and since I've heard pretty good things about Benefit, I agreed and sat down. Considering I'd put in minimal effort and was just wearing eyeliner and mascara and a bit of tinted moisturiser, I probably looked like a prime candidate for a makeover.

She started with that gal, a primer that can also be worn on its own, then put on some kind'a gorgeous which is apparently a foundation that works for every skin tone and adapts itself. It looked a bit cakey, but she put a lot on and I don't usually wear foundation this heavy. It does match my skin tone though which is an achievement in itself; I have very light warm-toned skin which is pretty difficult to match with drugstore brands.

She then put boi-oing concealer under my eyes; I think she used the wrong shade, because it was waaaay too light and looked a bit silly.

The eyeshadows she used were powders called snow bunny (white) and punk royalty (purple). All well and good, except she didn't use any primer on my lids! I have very oily eyelids and if I don't use a primer eyeshadow slides right off. This should have been pretty obvious. She didn't blend the two colours so really I wanted to go home and fiddle with blending, but of course by the time I got back most of it had slid right off. Boooo. :(

Finally (I thought) she put on bad gal mascara in brown. I actually loved this. True to its word it didn't clump at all and my eyelashes look awesome. Definitely something I'm gonna consider buying.

"You have lovely long lashes," she said.
"Owch," I replied, as she'd just poked me in the eye.

She told me what she'd used and I said thanks, she gave me a little catalogue thing and I said I'd probably be back. Then she decided it just wasn't finished without a bit of lipgloss. Now I hate lipgloss - I've never found one that's not sticky and gross feeling. Give me lipstick any day. I was willing to give this one a try though, and sadly it lived up to expectations - ugh. Not only sticky and gross, but lumpy too! I could feel every little bit of glitter. I can still feel it now! Not impressed at all.

Still, overall it's okay. I'd definitely buy the mascara, and probably the foundation and primer too. I've heard awesome things about boi-oing so I was a little disappointed with it - I might go back soon and try a different shade.



Now that's out of the way, I also picked up collection 2000's new poptastic palette, which has nine really cool colours. I might do a review when I've tried them all, but first impressions are that I absolutely love one of the greens, it's beautiful, and I now own not only one but two yellow eyeshadows. Time to have fun experimenting.

Tata.

Review: Primark "Saint or Sinner" makeup palette

Primark makeup. I KNOW, RIGHT?!

So I accidentally left my favourite Urban Decay palette at home and needed a few simple colours to tide me over until I got it back. I didn't even know Primark did makeup until I popped in there for Halloween costume stuff; I came out with the £2 Saint or Sinner palette and a 50p "blend and stretch" eyeshadow in black. Well, I'm only out £2.50.

The black eyeshadow definitely exceeded my expectations. It goes on very smoothly, light grey with the first application, then if you go over it it gets darker. I have much nicer black eyeshadows if I really ever feel the need to go goth, but as a eyeshadow base it works really well. It made a couple of my loose pigments really stand out.

Now, the palette. It's got a generous 10 colours:

Glacier, a sparkly white
Lavender, a VERY pale pink, also sparkly
Denim, a very very glittery silver-blue
Blossom, a coral pink with a little sparkle
Paradise, a shimmery green
Fudge, a sparkly copper
Midnight, a very dark navy with a little sparkle
Regal, a lovely sparkly purple
Liquorice, a matte dark grey
Galaxy, another slightly lighter grey with a few glittery bits.

Lavender and Blossom aren't up to much - Lavender is too pale and Blossom is just a hard colour to work with. Liquorice is boring. Glacier is OK for highlights and Fudge is an OK neutral or base colour, though I wouldn't wear it alone. Paradise is pretty nice, I guess. Galaxy is good enough but pales next to Denim.

Ahh, Denim. I actually love it. It looks fantastic just dabbed in the corner of your eye as a highlight. It's extremely glittery and shimmery and is a very versatile colour. I haven't tried yet, but I bet you could wet it and get a nice eyeliner out of it.

Midnight - this is equivalent to Urban Decay's Goddess shade, and to be perfectly honest I prefer it! Goddess looks beautiful in the pot but goes on very roughly and the glitter gets everywhere. It also doesn't look nearly as blue on eyes as it does in the pot. Midnight, on the other hand, delivers. It goes on smoothly and has much, much less glitter, so you don't end up with sparkly undereyes. It's a very very nice colour.

But my favourite by far is Regal. I can't describe this purple adequately - it's lighter than any purple eyeshadows I've seen before, and looks amazing. I like to pair it with Midnight and Denim.

Staying power isn't amazing, but throw on a little primer (I use Urban Decay's primer potion, works wonders) and it'll stick all day and probably most of the night too.

Not bad for less than £3.

I've noticed a disturbing trend lately.

Having spent a few days in the city lately, I've been taking note of cool outfits on other people for inspiration, and I've noticed something horrible.

Leggings as trousers.

The trend appears to be centred as part of the "uni chic" style - messy bleached hair, ballet flats. Usually this style features tracksuit pants and a baggy hoody, or a spaghetti strap top in the hot weather, but now it appears to have mutated into a long-ish t-shirt or, more commonly, a long shirt, with or without a belt, and leggings.

Or even worse, jeggings. (Leggings designed to look like skin-tight jeans.)


Newsflash ladies: NO ONE WANTS TO SEE YOUR BUTT... OR EVEN WORSE, YOUR CAMEL TOE.


Please stop this right away. Just wear a skirt or jeans, how tricky is that? Did you forget to put your skirt on this morning? I hate you.