Monday 18 October 2010

God bless you LiLash


Goodbye short stubby eyelashes

Before: Eyelashes curled with an eyelash curler + mascara

And hello to these beauties!
After: Just mascara no eyelash curler used at all! Sorry the pictures a bit darker on this one, I took the 2nd picture at night without flash, as the flash was creating too many shadows
So eyelash enhancers have been big news in America for a while and they are finally arriving here. I did my research and one name kept cropping up.....LiLash. Apart from all the rave reviews the one major selling point of LiLash was the fact that there had been no reported changes in eye colour from anyone who had used this product. This is the one negative side effect of eyelash serums that really scares me and has put me off trying any of these types of products for a long time.

I bought my LiLash from eBay as it is an American product its quite hard to find over here in the UK. I know some people are a bit wary of purchasing products like this off eBay but just use your common sense and only buy from UK or US sellers. Now this stuff doesn't come cheap.....when I purchased mine it cost me about £70! I paid a little bit more as I bought it from a UK seller, so I didn't have to pay any shipping.

The product is like a clear liquid eyeliner. It has a very small thin brush, just like a liquid liner and you apply it to your upper lash line just like liquid liner. In the instructions they say you can apply it in the morning before you apply the rest of your makeup or at night when you've removed your makeup. One of the bonuses of this product for me is that I regularly got into the habit of taking my makeup off every night because I wanted to apply this!

It has taken about 6 weeks for me to notice the difference and it is a huge difference. At first its hard to notice as you tend to find yourself inspecting your eyelashes every single day! But I can really tell the difference and I think the pictures reflect that. I never have to curl my lashes now either, in the first picture my eyelashes have been curled before mascara in the 2nd picture that's just mascara. I haven't touched my eyelash curler in weeks as LiLash gives your lashes that natural curl. I can now feel my lashes hitting my brow bone and I have become prone to stroking them without realising!

Now one of the things I should point out is that your eyelashes have a natural growth cycle, they fall out regularly and regrow. Obviously when this happens you will have a combination of a few shorter lashes but this is unavoidable.

Combined with my LiLash the other product I have been using is L'Oreal Renewal Lash Serum

This product does not increase the growth or length of your eyelashes, it strengthens your lashes and stops them falling out so quickly. So your lashes appear thicker as they are not falling out as regularly, therefore you have more!

Unlike my LiLash I don't apply this everyday, maybe 3 times a week or more depending. This product is a lot more affordable at roughly £8 but you will not get the same results as this doesn't encourage eyelash growth.

This product comes with no outer packaging or instructions which is very helpful! I bought this on a whim and then had to search online for how to use it. Very poor L'Oreal.

You apply this to your upper lash line and also to your lashes, I tend to apply my LiLash to the upper lash line and then just run the L'Oreal serum through my lashes.

Now I have noticed that my LiLash is starting to run a little thin on the ground, there's still a lot of product on there but it did have me panicking about repurchasing. This is a very expensive product but.....it works! How many mascaras have you been sucked into buying for their false lash claims. How many times have you been disappointed with them and thought what a waste of money! I'll give you an example....YSL Faux Cils Mascara.....very popular and very expensive. This mascara will set you back at least £22 and it doesn't last long at all. I would say maximum shelf life for this mascara 3 months...max. Obviously if you have naturally long eyelashes then save your money this isn't the product for you (PS I hate you) but if like me you have always dreamed of ridiculously long eyelashes then with this product you can get them.

I know there are some cheaper alternatives on the market such as RapidLash which is about £40 in Boots but I've read quite a few bad reviews on this product including eyelashes falling out and I haven't heard the same rave reviews about RapidLash as I have LiLash so do your research.

I will definitely be repurchasing LiLash and I would 100% recommend it

Sunday 10 October 2010

MAC Venomous Villains!

Ooh it feels like Christmas! As I'm sure you all know MAC Venomous Villains was released this week. I think it was released online on Tuesday and then released in stores on Thursday. I hope you all got your orders in as most of the products have now sold out online and in stores :( Personally i cant believe how quickly this collection sold out, even items such as the nail varnishes which weren't in special packaging, sold out straight away.

Being a huge MAC and Disney fan I have been waiting for this collection for months (that's my excuse anyway) So me and my best friend placed our orders online on the day of release. I tried to show some self restraint and only ordered the items I really wanted.......but then we both had regrets and seeing how fast everything was selling out, my friend went into our local MAC on the day of release and purchased a few more items! Also as its my birthday at the end of October I have asked for the last few items I wanted as birthday presents. So I basically got everything I wanted :) Now I'm on a strict no make up buying ban for the rest of the year!

Maleficent's Collection

This was the part of the collection I purchased the most products from and in my opinion the best products were Maleficent's.

So, I purchased:

Mineralize Eyeshadow Duo "My Dark Magic"
Mineralize Eyeshadow Duo "She Who Dares"
Lipstick "Violetta"
Lipstick "Dark Deed" This was given to me on my work experience :)
Lipgloss "Revenge is Sweet"
Nail Varnish "Formidable!"
Nail Varnish "Mean Green" (Not pictured as waiting for this to arrive)

The Evil Queens Collection:

From this part of the collection I purchased:

Beauty Powder "Oh So Fair" (I decided to only get one beauty powder, as I'm not sure how much use I will actually get out of them. So I just picked the one with the nicest packaging which was the Evil Queen)
Lipstick "Toxic Tale"
Eyeshadow "Vainglorious" (This was another lovely surprise from my work experience)

Cruella's Collection:

I purchased:

Lipstick "Heartless"
Eyeshadow "De-Vil"

(I have asked for Sweet Joy eyeshadow as a birthday present)

Dr Facillier's Collection:

All I purchased from the last part of the collection was:

Greasepaint Stick "French Quarter"

For my Birthday I have asked for Magically Cool Liquid Powder in "Truth and Light" and the 2nd Greasepaint stick.

Recommendations:

The products that I really rate and think are must haves are:

The 2 mineralize eyeshadow duos from Maleficent's collection. They are both beautiful colours, very pigmented and look great when applied to the eyes.

Nail Varnish in "Mean and Green" although mine hasn't arrived yet, I tried out my friends and I keep finding myself staring at my one painted thumb nail! In some lights its green, then gold, then purple. A really unique colour.

Lipstick "Heartless" from Cruella's collection. A beautiful perfect red. I think all skin tones could wear this, the texture, the application I love everything about this.

Now repeat after me, must not buy anymore make up ever!!!!!



Ojon Ultra Hydrating Shampoo & Conditioner


This is a part R.I.P post and part review, as so far I have only used up the shampoo but what the hell.
I purchased this shampoo and conditioner at The Cosmetics Company Store in Bicester Village. Basically its an Estee Lauder outlet, so they sell a lot of discontinued Estee Lauder, MAC, Clinique and Bobbi Brown products. I needed a new shampoo and conditioner and I'd never used an Ojon product before so I thought I would give it a whirl.
I loved the shampoo, it felt really moisturising and I've never felt that with a shampoo before. Like I've said before my hair has been ravaged from dying it blonde, then brown, then blonde, then brown! So normally when I use a shampoo my hair still feels really dry and knotty and I cant wait to slap on a ton of conditioner but this shampoo felt like a conditioner, my hair felt clean, detangled and hydrated. I really was impressed, I didn't feel like I even needed a conditioner after using this.
The Conditioner on the other hand........crap! First of all its really thick, and because of the bottle its in you proper have to shake it to get anything out. It's just like a glass tomato ketchup bottle, you know that frustration of shaking it to the point you feel like your arm is dislocated. So for a product that's thick, you would think, really moisturising....No. I just felt this did nothing, my hair still had tangles in after using this, didn't feel soft or hydrated just a big let down. I've used much better hydrating conditioners which were also a lot cheaper.

I will definitely not repurchase the conditioner, I would repurchase the shampoo and I was genuinely impressed by it but Ojon products are expensive and harder to find so I wouldn't go out of my way, but it really was a great shampoo.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

MAC Venomous Villains Malificent Dark Deed Lipstick





































So here in all its beautiful glory is my freebie lipstick, as mentioned in my post below! The MAC Venomous Villains collection was launched online yesterday and looks like quite a few products have sold out already including all 3 Maleficent nail varnishes and Oh So Fair The Evil Queens beauty powder. I placed my order yesterday morning so hopefully it should arrive soon and of course I'll post some pictures on here :)

Dark Deed is a colour that looks very different in real life to all the swatches and promo images. It looks brown but in real life its a dark wine colour, perfect for Winter. I love dark lips and the whole vamp vibe with the darker colours that are around this time of the year, so much sexier then summer's pastels and rainbow colours!

I know a lot of people online have said they don't like the images on the packaging and would prefer the sketched drawings that are on the outer packaging but I'm the opposite, its Disney, its meant to be cartoony. The lipsick feels very luxe, heavier then a normal MAC lipstick and I love how shiny the back packaging is. Basically I love everything about this collection and I cant wait for my order to arrive :)

I hope they release a Disney villains part 2 with Ursula and Jafar seeing as this collection has been so popular.

Monday 4 October 2010

I met Pixie Lott!!!!

I met Pixie Lott la la la la la and I have this terrible picture of me with her to prove it! Seriously could I be any more pale! That was very Chandler wasn't it.

So I have been doing work experience at Reveal Magazine and I got the amazing opportunity to go to Pixie Lotts launch party for her latest range of Lipsy clothes. It was at the Gilgamesh in Camden which was an amazing venue and somewhere I have never been. Now in my defence I did not know I was attending this party until that morning, by this point I had already done a whole days work and didn't even have so much as a pressed powder to blot away shine! So please excuse my appearance!

So me and Charlotte, the other girl on work experience went who was lovely and we had such a good time. It was such a random night and something I've never done before! Plus I think we over indulged on the free drinks and being a bit tipsy makes everything better ;)

I had my eyes on the prize and the celebrities I spotted were Danille Lloyd, The new one from the Sugababes...Jade is it? Mollie from The Saturdays, Tinchy Strider, Chipmunk, Emily Atack from the Inbetweeners, Konnie Huq, Kinga, Imogen and Nicky Graham from Big Brother, Sarah Cawood and I'm sure there were a few others but I cant remember.

Now I am a Pixie Lott fan I think she is gorgeous and I love love love her style, mainly for all the jewellery and accessories she wears. To me she is like a modern day Bridgette Bardot with all the blonde hair and black eyes. So I saw her standing there and I thought, Laura you're only going to get this moment once so I went up and asked her for a picture and she was really really lovely. I think its definitely made me a bigger fan, plus she looks even more gorgeous in person.

This really has made my week, month, year! Seriously I've had such a crappy past year so to come and work for 2 weeks at Reveal and go to this amazing party really has been amazing and I'm extremely grateful. I just don't want to go back to my regular job now, I want to be a beauty assistant sooooo bad :(

I will do some more posts on my work experience plus the the lovely beauty editor gave me a MAC Venomous Villains lipstick! AHHHHHH and the collection wasn't even released until today AHHHHH and it was Maleficent my fave AHHHH and I wore it today AHHHH and yesterday AHHHH and Friday AHHHH. How annoying am I? But seriously I remember when the Venomous Villains images were first leaked online months ago and I have never been so excited about a collection, so to be handed that lipstick OMG I know its probably extremely shallow to shed tears of joy over a lipstick but I think for this lipstick an exception must be made! I feel extremely lucky :)