I'm Naked and loving it

New Years resolution: Be naked more often ;)

I can't believe I finally own the palette to end all palettes, the all-hallowed Naked by Urban Decay.
12 sumptuous, chic, velvety neutrals to face 2012 in. A million thank you's to GG for gifting this to me for Christmas.

The Naked palette is EVERYWHERE on the net but I wanted to take my own pictures to show off it's glory. I held off touching it for a whole two days (do you feel my pain?) until I'd taken photos so please appreciate my patience and admire them accordingly....

And it wouldn't be a 'useful' post without some sort of comparison so behold the Sleek Storm palette compared to my spanking new Naked baby.

There are definite similarities but not all the colours are duped. I thought about doing comparison swatches too but wasn't sure if it had been done a million times already, plus I spent the whole of the Christmas period feeling pretty rank and the last thing I wanted to do was paint the lengths of my arms in shades of beige.....  Nonetheless I will do some if requested along with a more detailed comparison of the two palettes. In general though the Storm palette shadows are softer and more 'crumbly' as they are mineral based. Also the colours in the Storm palette are a fraction warmer and darker and there is a matte black shade which the Naked palette does not have. Naked contains more pale shades.

Thoughts so far..... apart from loving the instant prettiness of all the colours, the shadows are buttery and smooth and apply beautifully. I haven't used all of them yet but Sin and Smog are in the running to becoming my favourites. The brush which is included is nice  and soft but in my opinion not suited to applying powder shadow. It doesn't pick up colour well or transfer it evenly. I want to see if it picks up cream shadow better as synthetic shadow brushes often do. I've been using my MAC 217 both for laying the colour down and for blending.

Naked 2 should be out later this month if not already......now, what's a girl to do?

Sleek 'Avoir la Peche' Collection Review

Well isn't this just peachy?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

But still, I finally got my grubby mitts on Sleek's new Spring collection and decided to share my thoughts. There are 3 items in total and I picked up all of them, seeing as they don't break the bank.

The Paraguaya iDivine palette of eyeshadows.

The Pan-Tao blusher.

And finally the Pout Polish in Sugar May.

The packaging is oh-so pretty! I love the blossom design on the blusher case and the pout polish. It's a shame that it's not printed on the eyeshadow palette too, it's only on the box and that will inevitably get thrown away once it's gone a bit manky. Still, this is a small complaint!

The Paraguaya palette is just beautiful. I could sit there for hours just staring at the prettiness of the colours....all pinks, soft tangerines, peaches, golden apricots and a hint of darkness with a muted grey brown and a slate grey thrown in. Luscious....

But how wearable? Well, to be honest you kind of have to be really into make-up to know how to wear peachy orange shades on the eyes. But that's not to say you shouldn't try, and at this price (roughly £6 or €8.50) you can definitely have fun experimenting. The great thing is that 6 of the 12 shades are not orangey at all and very wearable on a daily basis. Sleek have helpfully included a transparent top sheet with a name for each colour so I can tell you exactly which colours I think you need have no fear of: Parfait, Blush, Bellini, Sandstone, Bittersweet and Stone.

As for the more peachy shades, well, it does lead me to the question of how much peach eyeshadow one really needs to have? Answer: probably one would be enough, but hey, it's still fun to play around with these different shades on offer and depending on your skin tone, the subtle shade differences between the peaches could really make or break your look, so it's good that the different options are there. If in doubt about how to wear peach on the eyes then an easy and flattering way is to place one of the more neutral shades, like Sandstone, across the socket and then take a tiny amount of one of the peaches and very softly apply just above the socket line as a wash of colour which you can see with the eye open. Apply a bit of dark brown or black liner to the top lid and you have a very cool twist on a classic daytime eye.

Funnily enough the two shimmery orange colours, Persian Orange and Peach Gold are perhaps the easiest to work with as the shimmer somehow lends itself well to a pretty light wash of colour all over the lid without the need to add any more colours. The mattes are a bit less forgiving. Pigmentation is generally quite good throughout the palette, though not as strong as in the Original or Storm palettes. However, I do not regard that as a bad thing when we're talking about a palette of orange eyeshadow!

The only colour that does not convince me is Bellini, a pale yellow gold shimmer. The texture is too crumbly and it applies patchily. As an eyeshadow I wouldn't bother using it on it's own.

Still not convinced? Well, how about doing what I did and sweep a blusher brush over 3 or 4 shades and use them as a blusher? This works an absolute treat!

First quad blush, paler, muted shades with a hint of shimmer.

Second quad blush, natural pinky peach matte flush. My favourite combo!

Try the first quad together and then the second quad. The first quad will give you a paler more shimmery blush using Parfait and Bellini, whilst the second quad will give you a gorgeous chic natural pink flush with the colours Blush and Persimmon really coming through.

This brings me on to the Pan-Tao blush. Now, this is very orange, very bright and VERY pigmented. Go easy, or you'll be Tangoed. Just like I was. This is the peril of trying to do your make-up in a room with bad lighting. I only used a smallish amount of product, but when I stepped out into daylight I noticed that my mum was staring at me strangely, after which she told me I'd gone orange and looked ridiculous.

Photo does not pick up how bright this really is, it's almost fluorescent orange!

I suppose it doesn't help that it's matte. The colour seems so much more concentrated when there is no shimmer to water it down. Despite this, I do like it. I've learnt how to use it now and it does give a lovely peachy flush to the cheeks when applied with a delicate touch. On darker skintones this would look amazing. For all you pale English rose types out there AVOID and just use the Paraguaya palette instead as a blusher. In fact, if I had been clever I would not have bothered with the blush but would have seen that the eye colours would have worked just as well. We live and learn....

My favourite product of the collection is undoubtedly the Pout Polish. What a gorgeous colour! Pale coral orange which goes on the lips like a pale peachy pink. It's a tinted lip conditioner so don't expect high colour, but in my opinion it gives just enough. The texture is so smooth and buttery and it tastes and smells like melted Carte D'Or vanilla ice-cream! It contains jojoba oil, shea butter, sweet almond oil, avocado oil and wheat germ oil so I guess with all these lovely ingredients it would work as a lip balm at a push. Normally I don't like pots of lip product just because I don't like sticking my fingers in it and then transferring the product to my lips, so I'll only be using this at home from the comfort and cleanliness of my bathroom. Not one to be sticking your fingers into once you've been on the tube..... eugh!

My already well-used pout polish :)

So conclusions after all this waffle (ooooh, I fancy a waffle now..... )

Paraguaya iDivine palette: Not strictly a necessary purchase, but if you're thinking of picking up a peach/pink eyeshadow you may as well get this as you're basically getting 12 colours for the price of one, and in terms of value for money I don't think you can beat Sleek palettes.
Score: 7/10

Pan-Tao blush: Really not necessary if you buy the Paraguaya palette. Not an easy colour to work with, but still pretty.
Score 5/10

Pout Polish in Sugar May: A sweet pretty treat for you lips, a lovely flattering colour for all. Shame it's in a pot as I'd like to take this with me in my handbag.
Score 8/10


What are your thoughts on this collection? Will you be wearing peaches this spring or just eating them? :)

Parrot Saturday

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend my dear fellow beauty junkies! It's been a glorious week here in Brussels, the sun shining, blossoms in bloom, cotton replacing wool etc. Definitely time to dig out those brights from your make-up bags and start having a play around with colour again. This is precisely what I spent my Saturday night doing. Too knackered to go out anywhere, Mr P and I were lolling about the house trying not to eat the entire contents of the fridge and while he settled down to watch something ridiculously boring I sauntered upstairs to put a face mask on and ended up digging out my Sleek palettes and having a bit of a play around. First I created a very dramatic smoky eye with 3 shades of blue (3rd, 4th and 5th colours on the top row in picture below) from the Original palette, after which I skipped downstairs to show Mr P my handy work.

He was a bit disturbed as I never really wear blues (men don't like change) and then proceeded to 'constructively' criticise my blending (????).
I returned upstairs and proceeded to spend a good while in front of the mirror batting my eyelashes at myself, trying to work out whether I, as a truly mediterranean olive skinned, dark eyed, curly haired brunette, could carry off this strongly blue look. Conclusion? Yes, on condition that I wear something stark and simple, either all black or all white, and if my skin is totally flawless with a very cool toned pink cheek and a neutral mouth. It's not the easiest of colours to pull off, but boy does it make brown eyes sparkle! I could suddenly see nuances of green and hazel in my eyes which normally are not apparent. Note to self and to all you dark-eyed lovelies: Will definitely be using bright blue as an accent colour rather than an all-over colour.

Not content with my blue adventure, I swiped off the eye make-up to try something else. Here I feel I must add, blue eyeshadow as pigmented as these are a NIGHTMARE to get off! I used Bioderma cleanser as it's extremely gentle and non-oily, important as I was going to be applying more make-up. If however you are going to wear blues, get out an oil based or bi-phase make-up remover, you're going to need it!
Next adventure, Project Acid, aka trying to find wearable looks using the Sleek Acid palette.

I picked the two arguably most 'unwearable' shades, the fluorescent yellow and the orange next to it. Trust, me the photo doesn't really do justice to how fluorescent these colours are. Think highlighter pens. I used the orange on the outer half of my eyes and the yellow on the inner half to create a summer citrus-y look. The good news is that these shades are not as pigmented as in some of the other palettes, which means that you get a really 'friendly' version of what you see in the palette. I ended up with a surprisingly chic-looking matte citrus eye which was very wearable. Noticeable, but not scary and, astonishingly, also very flattering! I added a feline slick of liquid liner and again popped downstairs to subject myself to the judgement of Mr P.

"You look like a parrot"
"Er, is that good or bad?"
"Actually, it's quite nice, you should do that next time we go out"
"So it's 'good' parrot then?"
"Yeah, but it's still parrot"

Conclusion? Fun, chic, wearable.... flattering! I love it, no matter what Mr Parrot says.

Well if I'm a parrot then he is too...

So, will you all be following 'parrot fashion'?



Sleek Make-up (delivers throughout Europe and most other countries)
http://www.sleekmakeup.com/en/categories/eye-shadow-17.aspx

Carnival Queen

It's carnival time girls (and boys!). It's not really a UK tradition to dress up and party but it really should be. In the rest of Europe the fancy dress and feathers come out and everyone has a whale of a time. There are delicious specialities on offer during carnival week, in Italy they fry EVERYTHING and then coat it in sugar. How can that possibly be wrong?? I decided I wanted to make little fried doughnuts, but then I settled on brownies as a "healthier" option. So carnival brownies in the oven, I sat down at my laptop and caught up with one of my gorgeous girlfriends. The lucky lass was going out partying tonight with a pink wig and she needed make-up help. Always happy to oblige, I brought down my massive haul of make-up and designed a look for her. What a blissful way to spend a Sunday evening, playing with make-up with the smell of warm chocolate in the air...

My friend being the ultimate blonde-haired, blue-green eyed beauty that she is can carry off almost anything, including the pink wig. She wanted to keep everything looking quite feminine and soft but with a twist, so first I demonstrated (over Skype!) a soft pink shimmery eye winged out with a deep purple and lined on the inner rims with black. Then on the the other eye I decided on a deeper brighter pink, almost magenta actually, all over the eye lid to just above the crease line and the lower lash line, again lining the inner rims with black and using lashes of black mascara. The second look won. I was so surprised by how much I loved it as it was so simple. Just one colour had so much more impact and lining the waterline top and bottom just made it even more punchy.

I used the first pink colour on the top row of the Sleek iDivine palette in "Acid" (pictured above) with a shimmery pale pink Benefit eyeshadow underneath. This palette is perfect for carnival time where the only limit is your imagination, but for any other occasion try using just one of any of these colours all over, just as I used the pink, line the waterline in black, and you've got a very on-trend monotone smoky eye. Yes, even the fluorescent colours, just don't forget to blend properly. Patchy is not a good look. Skin must also look flawless and go with a light hand when you apply blush or you'll look like you've just stepped off a float in Rio... but of course it's carnival week, so maybe right now that's the look you're going for.

Er, no, the blush goes on your other cheeks

To my darling friend in the pink wig, have a great time at the carnival party!
To all my lovely readers, how will you all be celebrating this week?
Carnival kisses to you all!!!!!!!!!!
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rhubarb Rubacuori

Possibly a contender for the most bizarre blog-post on the entire world-wide web, but bear with me on this....

Tis the season for rhubarb. Today I picked up a massive bunch of the stuff at the supermarket, so enchanted was I by its glorious pinky corally reddish hue.
What is that? asked Mr P, grimacing somewhat.
It's rhubarb!
What are you going to do with it?
I don't know, probably make a crumble. But really,  I don't care what I do with it,  I love the colour so much, I just want it!

So ok, this isn't a foodie blog but I can't stop being inspired by food, and somehow that inspiration seems to lead me to make-up on a very conscious level. Hence Blossoms and Brownies. 
After all, nature produces some of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring colours, so why not?
As I chopped up the magical pink batons it occurred to me that the colour reminded me of something I had in my make-up box. At the time I couldn't think what it was.
Later on I went to get myself ready for going out, and it hit me. My blush (MAC Springsheen) was the exact same colour as the magic rhubarb. I was filled with joy, simple creature that I am. I applied it liberally to the upper part of my cheeks and worked it into the skin to give me a healthy peachy (or rhubarby) flush. To complete the look I used gold and bronzey brown eyeshadows  from my beloved Sleek Storm palette and my Jemma Kidd "Bridgetown" lipstick, my current favourite nude colour. I didn't want to go all pinky rhubarb all over, the cheeks were enough.
I came downstairs, and pouted at Mr P.

What do you think of my make-up?
Nice... you look like Ruby Rubacuori!

Cue a little paranoia. Had my pouting gone too far? Had I indeed transformed myself into Berlusconi's "stealer of hearts" herself?

What on earth do I do with all that rhubarb?!

Well no, not exactly. But the pouty nude lip look is one that Ruby often sports (as well as other 'nude' looks, but we won't go there...). Men can be very observant!
Still, never in a million years did I think that the pure and simple inspiration I took from the humble rhubarb would lead to a comparison like this. I'm just thankful I don't have the Italian prime minister on speed dial.
What started out as a look based on pretty pink innocent flushed cheeks had ended up being about a sexy fleshpot pout. No bad thing I guess. But couldn't Mr P have said Angelina Jolie instead???