MAC Heavenly Creatures - Sky & Universal Appeal Eyeshadows

L-R: Sky, Universal Appeal

Every year MAC bring out a mineralize collection for the Summer, after their main Summer collection. They are always so beautiful with the swirls in the products and there are always lovely shades. I like mineralize products but I had to be practical with the eye shadows this year because I simply don't pull them out enough to get a bunch of them, no matter how much I like them. I chose two shades which I thought were quite unique compared to what I have already.

Sky

Universal Appeal

The things I like about the mineralize eye shadows are that you can use them wet or dry and when you apply them over different bases you get multidimensional effects which look pretty cool. I also like these swirly eye shadows because you can pick out different areas to use. Some people say you can't but I always use them like this so I know you can. You might not be able to pick out an individual colour but I do pick areas to swirl my brush in to change the shade of the shadow. Eg. In Universal Appeal, there is a dark purple, violet and gold. If I want it to be very dark purple, I choose an area which has more of the dark purple or if I want more violet, I choose those areas. 

L-RL Sky, Universal Appeal. Complete mixed colours swatched dry, no primer/base.

These two colours are quite well pigmented for mineral eye shadows when used dry, when used wet they are much better and yield plenty of pigment. Universal Appeal also appears more purple when used this way compared to the browner tone it has used wet. Sky is such a pretty shade of blue and has a teal undertone which makes it easier for me to wear, blue is not the best colour on me so I have to pair it well to work. Both colours apply smoothly and evenly and don't drop lots of fallout although all mineralize eye shadows have some fallout so care should be taken when using them. These have a much nicer texture compared to the chunky mineralize eye shadows MAC has released previously.

Jennifer xx

Leighton Denny - The Heiress

 This is what I have on my nails at the moment. I wanted to use creme colours as I'd worn a lot of glitter recently but still wanted it to be fun. I haven't done any stripes for a while either and last time I did them my hand wasn't as steady as it is now painting nails. I picked out one of my favourite Leighton Denny colours, The Heiress which is a beautiful purply-lilac with some dusky blue in it. On the Leighton Denny website, it is described as 'a blue-belle purple' which I think is very fitting. For the stripes, I didn't have anything in mind other than using black and white so I just made it up as I went along.

The lines aren't perfect but I am pleased how it turned out and it is probably one of the best manicures I've done for myself :)

These photos are more colour accurate with some editing (purples are so hard to get colour accurate with digital photography).

 

 

 

What I used:

Leighton Denny Under Cover Base Coat

Leighton Denny The Heiress - 2 coats

Rio Nail Pens (black and white)

Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat.

Jennifer xx

Another Franken

Hi! I have another franken polish that I made a couple of weeks ago. This one is mostly purple but has some gold and lilac hexagonal glitter thrown in and teeny specks of pale purple glitter which flash blue in certain lighting. The purple glitter bled and tinted the clear base but it still worked okay. These pictures make it look a lot more blue than it is, just due to the camera. In real life, it doesn't show much blue at all, only when the light hits it in certain ways.

The base colour I used under this was Deborah Lippmann Call Me Irresponsible which is a purplely jelly.

I love the purple shade, it reminds me of Cadbury chocolate wrappers - if only I'd been able to take accurate photos of it (the bottle shot is better than the nails though). Those of you who don't get Cadburys chocolate where you are, it is in my opinion, the best chocolate.

Source

Speaking of Cadbury, I'm off on a canal holiday next month for a week with my boyfriend's family and we will be going past Cadbury World. I hope we get the chance to stop to visit.

What does this franken remind you of? Again, I'm looking for a name for it if any of you have a good one. I might just call it Chocolate Wrappers but I'm open to better suggestions.

Jennifer xx

Purple Zebra Print Nails

I haven't done stamping for a while so decided to pull it out again. I used one of the Color Club Foiled collection to stamp with, they are amazing to use for this because they are so opaque. I really liked wearing this, I will have to do something like it again soon.

More pictures below

MAC Fall Colour Lipsticks

These are lipsticks which I already had in my collection but have been released with the MAC Fall Colour collection. The shades featured here are all PRO colours so are available all year round at PRO stores and via phoning mail order. The shades I have are Violetta, Show Orchid and Neon Orange.

L-R: Violetta, Show Orchid, Neon Orange

Violetta is a fuchsia based purple lipstick. Whilst purple lipstick may seem strange, it is very wearable for a lot of skin tones. On some people it may appear more pink than on others. On me it is quite close to the bullet colour. It is an Amplified finish which is one of my favourites as they are well pigmented and last on the lips well. It works particularly well will green eyes as it compliments them, making them appear brighter and greener. This colour looks nice when patted on to be sheerer and also topped with a fuchsia pink gloss.

Show Orchid is an amazing bright fuchsia pink with a purply fuchsia irridencence. It looks almost like a duochrome on the lips. Even though it is bright, it is still very flattering when paired with simple neutral eye makeup. It is an Amplified finish and almost completely opaque. This colour could be patted on for more of a stain or sheerer finish.

Neon Orange is not what I would call neon (think highligher pens) but it is still very bright. It is the sort of colour which colour easily be shyed away from, however it still looks very nice on the lips when paired with neutral eyes. You could even add a little pop of colour such as a tiny bit of cyan liner smudged into the lower lashes or by using burnt oranges/coppers and browns on the eyes too to create a monochromatic look. It is an amplified finish and is very creamy and opaque.

I think all three of these colours make nice additions to my makeup collection. The colours are fun and can be used in many looks. I also love to do neutral eyes and bright lipstick.

Jennifer

Spotty Purple Nails

Sorry for the lack of blogging, I have had some computer issues at home and have been away at the boyfriend's house so not really had a chance but I am back now :)

This is some nail art that I did a few weeks ago, I used Leighton Denny Rebel and the white WAH Nail Pen from Models Own (do NOT recommend - review to come). I love this LD polish, it is a gorgeous shimmery purple shade, the perfect kind of purple and what I think of when I imagine purple. Often purples are too red or too blue but this one is just right. If you are not familiar with Leighton Denny or his polishes, definately go check them out. http://www.leightondenny.com/ He has some fantastic shades, the bright pinks are lovely and make sure you check back for his Spring collection which is gorgeous (I will be reviewing some of the shades from this soon). You can also get his colours from QVC which is where I buy from as the kits are such good value.

Anyway, on to the manicure.

I really enjoyed doing this and it was so simple and effective. I recieved lots of comments when wearing this, even the ticket lady at the train station called me back so she could look at them! I do think a cream polish would look nicer as the base colour as the spots sort of ruin the shimmery effect of Rebel. Also a dotting tool would have been more accurate for the spots but I am totally blaming the shoddy nail pen.

So what do you guys think?

- Jennifer