Sugarpill Starling

I've been lusting over Sugarpill shadows for a while but i've been put off by how bright the colours are and the fact that the colours I could see myself wearing are all loose eyeshadows and I don't get on well with pigments/loose powders. However when I ordered my second lot of OCC liptars I couldn't resist this colour.

Sugarpill Starling

Sugarpill Starling - bright sunlight

I mixed a little matt back shadow with some Urban decay primer potion and used it as a base, to tone down the brightness slightly.

Photographs seriously do not do this eye shadow justice, its sort of like a bluer, brighter version of MAC tilt.
With so much shimmer and colour to it I can't see anyone not loving it.

While I've not been fully converted to loose eyeshadows, I've definitively started on the way to becoming a Sugarpill addict. 

I can see my next purchase being either their Magpie loose powder or their upcoming Heartbreaker Pallete;

I've also got my eye on one of their older palettes 'Sweetheart' but I can't seem to find it anywhere, which sucks.

Favorite lipstick post turned dupe?

This post was originally going to be about my three most used lipsticks but when swatching I noticed two of them are almost the same.

Left to right; 

Guerlain KissKiss Strass in 362- Corail Dentelle, Chanel Rouge Allure in 07 - Genius
and Revlon lipbutter in Peach parfait.

How similar do Corail Dentelle and Peach parfait look?

Top - Peach Parfait
Bottom - Corail Dentelle 

The texture, shimmer/glitter and how long they last are fairly similar ( both last about an hour and a bit).

But swatched heavily you can see Coral Dentelle is much more red while Peach Parfait is more brown.

Peach Parfait

Coral Dentelle

Once you put them on their actually as similar as when sheer swatched, unless of course you really layer them both on.

Both are really lovely and the main difference is price, Peach Parfait is £7.99 where as Coral Dentelle is £19.80.

April favorites

As I sit here writing this, watching Dr Who on iPlayer and wanting KFC I can't help but notice i'm rather late writing this.

Left to right; MAC Light flush Mineralize skinfinish, L'Oreal Infallible foundation (my trusty favorite),
Benefit 'The porefessional' primer, MAC Rebel Nail varnish and Revlon lipbutter in Peach Parfait.

I won't go into too much detail about Light flush because its a product thats hard to get hold of but if you can get, it makes a really nice bronzer on pale skin without being muddy or overpowering.

 L'Oreal Infallible in Porcelain is a good medium-high coverage foundation that lasts all day on my oily/combination skin.

Porefessional is a great silicone-y primer, my favorite kind, that really works well on oily and normal skin. Gives such a smooth poreless finish without blocking pores and making me breakout.

I'm a bit premature with my love of Rebel, I've not even worn it properly yet just swatched on one nail, but it really is such a lovely dark purple with a hint of fuchsia. I'm just about to remove my old nail varnish and wear this properly.

I don't think I've seen a single negative review of the lipbutters apart from maybe how long they last, though their basically just a tinted lipblam and lipbalms don't last long. Peach Parfait seems to be the most popular one, most people brought two or three of them and of the 20 multiple swatch posts i've seen this has been in literally all but two.

I'll post a NOTD of Rebel, with my silly short current nails.

Dupe - OCC Grandma Vs. MAC Vegas Volt

I love dupes for products, even more so when the dupe is much cheaper, not such a lover of them when I'm the one whose brought a dupe without knowing its a dupe.

Left - OCC liptar in Grandma
Right - MAC lipstick in Vegas Volt

(natural light)

OCC Grandma - MAC Vegas Volt

I took these photographs yesterday and when I came to labeling them tonight I had to study them close to work out which was which.

There is no difference between the two, both are bright and bold peach/orange.
The OCC liptar lasts much longer, about 4 hours if undisturbed, where as the MAC lasts 2-3 hours if undisturbed.

The MAC as the typical marshmellow smell and the OCC has their peppermint oil smell, neither are noticeable once their on.
I can also see the liptar lasting much longer with .33 onces against MAC's 0.1 onces, more than three times the product and you really only need a small amount of the liptar.

OCC - £9.50 

MAC - £13.50

OCC liptars - review and swatches

OCC are a brand I've been lusting after for ages, I finally gave in last week and picked up a few.
I decided to buy Grandma and Harlot from cocktailcosmetics.co.uk as they had the old style packaged ones for £6.50 so I got harlot in the old and Grandma in the new, they didn't have Grandma in the old and I wanted it so much.

Then I was super impressed and it arrived within 48 hours, they ship all their orders recorded so you do have to sign for them, so I made another order this time of Butch and  Melange (as well as a cheeky Sugarpill shadow). Again posted the next day and arrived the day after, colour me impressed at the speedy shipping.

Anyway, shipping and order ramble over. On to the swatches.

Left to right; Butch,  Melange, Harlot, Grandma.

Butch is a blue with grey and purple undertones.
Melange is a brown with a hint of red.
Harlot is basically a bright red, sort of vintage red.
Grandma is my favorite, I love it, its a red with a little orange.

Their really long lasting, with matt finishes and I don't find them drying though I know some people do.

And for anyone who doesn't know much about these, these are meant to be mixed to create different colours (I don't think I'd wander around just wearing Butch).

Though whenever I try to mix any combination of these I basically just get various shades of purple.

For example this brown-purple mix of 1/4 harlot, 1/4 butch and half Melange.

Close up of Harlot.

If you over apply them they do feather and bleed, they did this on my hand as well so I decided to take a picture of that as well.

Old packaging, Butch.

I can see why they changed the packaging. This is what I was greeted with when I went to use Butch a second time. Even a tiny squeeze, even while the lids on, makes a mess and loads of product comes out.

I forgot to photograph the new packaging but its similar to the newer Urban decay Primer Potion packaging, thin nose sort of thing.

Writing this has made me want to order more and try to actually make different colours. I would have actually ordered more already but I'm going to Brighton on Sunday and want to keep as much of my bank balance intact because I know i'll probably have no money after I get hyper in Brighton. I plan to be good, and have enough for a few more liptars (and a few Sugarpill bits) afterwards.

On a non-makeup note;

So having swapped back to the old Blogger layout, I can actually make my way around the site with out being confused and annoyed. I don't like the scroll-y thing of the new one, I slightly like the post writing page but the rest was bothering me so much. I was trying to navigate it and came across an option to swap back, I was very happy.

MAC Lightscapade - swatches.. kinda

I've been lusting after Lightscapade for months, since I saw it being re-released with their new Reel Sexy collection.

When I saw they'd gone up on the MAC website early, the collections are usually released on the first Thursday of the month but it was up on Monday afternoon, I ordered it right away (along with the Rebel nail varnish, how am I to resist a purple?... plus it gave me free delivery.)

Anyway, onto the swatches.

MAC Lightscapade on my arm... really its there, honest.

Lightscapade heavily applied.. and I mean heavily. 

You can see some shimmer right?

As it turns out Lightscapade is basically a sheer, shimmery foundation on my skin.

I'd like to say this now, I have never found a highlight that was an exact skin tone match for me. I'm pale as hell and every highlight looks like its basically either like a bronzer or pure white with some glitter on me.

The first picture is my attempt at packing on the product with my usual blush brush (Sigma F84) the second is my attempt at making it show up with my fingers, i figured i'd pick up more product like that... turns out it makes very little difference.
Such a shame, I can see this looking pretty on anyone (and actually showing up on anyone) with darker than NC/NW15 skin. I can barely wear MAC foundations or concealers and that's in the middle of summer or after at least a week of sunny weather. Though I do love the coverage of my NW15 ProLongwear concealer, though if its not been sunny I have to make sure I wear at least a medium coverage foundation over it to cover the darkness.

I have basically brought a fairly expensive product I can think of no use for, I can't even apply it and get a slight glow like I thought I might. I had to layer it up to make any sort of difference. I just ended up looking like Edward Cullen, beyond pale and glittery. 

And its not even like I try to keep my skin this pale, I know its naughty of me but I've not used sunscreen for over 2 years. This is me with a tan.

Damn you paleness!