The organised make up bag

I have never been one of those girls with a perfectly stocked make up bag in their handbag. One of those girls that with the slightest sound of "does anyone have..." has already pulled out a grub free make up bag and answered everyone's prayers. God, normal I don't even have a bag for my make up let alone a well planned contents!

However, today is the day for change... I will be organised and I wont break my shoulder carrying 50 lipsticks around by the end of the week. So here is what my make up bag looked like pre-organisation:

It basically consists of products that I'm not bothered about using everyday because I often leave it in my locker at work. We have got...L'Occitiane hand cream, free out of a magazine but I love it and will for sure repurchase, tissues, chewing gum, a empty sample of double wear, 3 coral lipsticks and a coral gloss, Sleek suede blusher and a awful brush from a Benefit box'o'powder, Benefit Boiing concealer, 17 metallic eyes in wild nude and of course some HG balm carmex original!

Off to the bin goes the Benefit brush and the empty sample pot...its a start!

The new plan is to have a staple bag containing great multi-use products and then changing colour items. The big rule.... one lipstick in... one lipstick out!

Things that have stayed are the hand cream, tissues, gum, carmex and Boiing. Boiing is a great make-up bag concealer because its light enough to use as a foundation but good coverage for redness and under eyes.

New additions are 17 BB cream because its great for freshening up make up when it starts getting dry and Chanel Limited edition bronzer from last year, because it is a bronzer, blusher and face powder all in one and the brush is far, far better than those awful Benefit ones!

The current colour items in my bag are... a plum L'Occitaine lipgloss I got free with this months glamour, Mac Shygirl, because I'm trying to justify to myself that I wear nudes enough to buy 'a perfect day' from the new collection (don't lie, we all do it!). An awful lip liner from Collection 2000 which is probably on the way to the bin (if anyone can recommend a good nude lip liner let me know) and the Chanel Eclosion palette from the spring collection. This is the only thing I have bought from the spring colours and it honest is the best eye palette I have ever bought, and possibly the best Chanel product I have bought, it hasn't left my eyes since I bought it!

And yes, I have just noticed that I still actually have 3 lip products in this 'steam line' make up bag.... turns out you cant teach an old dog completely new tricks!

Mac Studio Finish vs Vivo Concealer kit

Covering dark circle has been a mission for me ever since I started wearing make up. I have never found a concealer with high enough coverage that doesn't look dry on my crêpey eyes.

Mac studio finish and the Vivo concealer kit has been my two most recent attempts at covering the darkness.

I got the Mac studio finish concealer in NW20, which I think is alittle bit too light but the NW25 was way too dark. I find this formula really nice, the coverage is really high but it stays slightly dewy so doesnt look too dry under the eye. Its stays on really well but because of how creamy it is it does crease up on my eyes.

The photo below shows Mac studio finish on the right side and nothing on the left.

I also bought the Vivo concealer kit after hearing loads of rave reviews about the brand. I went over the the stand and was instantly drawn to all the baked blushers but for god sake I just couldn't buy another blusher so I picked something a little bit more practical! For an amazing £5 I cant really grumble. In the kit you get a yellow based and a pink based concealer cream, a setting powder and then a liquid highlighter. The set only comes in one colour which is abit of a shame, it could do with having a lighter and a darker version too.

The creams are similar to the mac one, thick, creamy with high coverage. They are more drying on my eyes and leave the under eye looking crepey, which to can see in the photo below.

I absolutely love the highlighter in the tube, its very similar to Benefit high beam but not so silver. Great little handbag size too.

I do prefer the Mac concealer by far but it is £8 more expensive than the Vivo one. If you don't have eyes a wrinkly as mine I bet you would love the Vivo set. I think its a great idea to have the option to mix your own colours for different areas of your face.

For now though.... high end wins the race for me!

Some new eye shadows

I've started wearing eye shadow almost every day recently, I've always BOUGHT eye shadows I've just never really worn them but now is the time! So the new 'eye shadow wearing me' obviously had to go out and buy some more!!! and here they are...

From left to right. Mac Star Violet, Benefit leggy, Benefit Fawn over me, No7 Pewter and No7 Buff.
Swatches, left to right, Star Violet, Fawn over me, leggy, buff and pewter.
Star violet is my first ever Mac shadow, its just the most beautiful metallic burgundy. Although swings alittle pink when its on the eyes too.

Fawn over me, I always use this colour on customer at work so I decided to get it. Its really suits anyone with green or brown eyes, and makes the most amazing base for smokey eyes, or any purple colours. The Benefit powder shadows need a primer because there hold isn't amazing but they are lovely and soft in texture, described as 'Velvet finish'.

Leggy is another great base to build darker colours on top of. It suits blue or lighter eyes better than my darker ones but its really brightening.

Buff and Pewter... I love these cream shadows, they were part of the autumn collection but I hope they bring out more colours because they are amazing value. I got them with my No7 voucher and staff discount so they were like crazy cheap. They stay on so well, seriously all day with no creasing. Buff also makes an amazing primer. Both colours only have a really slight shimmer so they perfect for day time. These colours were limited edition but alot of counter still have them in a draw if you ask them.

I also bought the new Sleek nude palette, but if you need to see another photo of that then you have obviously been living in a cardboard box for a month and don't really need to see it :-P

We had been in the airport for five minutes ...

...and I already had these beauties in my duty free bag :-)

I got the Mac lipsticks in Shy Girl (left) and Vegas Volt (right). These are actually the first Mac lipsticks I have bought and I'm really impressed, although I'm not 100% sure I like the vanilla scent. Shy Girl is a brown based nude, with a slight peachy hint and Vegas Volt is a warm coral with a slight red hint.

Here is Shy Girl on me, I'm not sure what is wrong with me but I think I'm actually addicted to buying this colour lipstick, thankfully this one has enough peach in for me to like it on me.And Vegas Volt on me, it seems to look more red on me than other people but I really, really like this colour and I'm sure I'll wear it to death!

Surf, Baby!

My ikkle tiny, very well behaved buy from the Mac surf, baby! collection... the cheek powder in 'my paradise'. Mac say its "a peach shade with gold hibiscus overspray"....how cute is the design? and I'm glad it has a limited edition packaging unlike the quite cute collection, I am a sucker for the way things look.

I'll be honest the colour is pretty intimidating even for me and needs to be applied lightly. The gold shimmer is optional because you can work round it, which I love, and the shimmer is very fine so not overly glittery, another thumbs up. The gold seems quite deep aswell so wont run out after like 3 applications like they sometimes can do.

Here are the swatches of the gold on its own (left), peach on its own (middle) and mix (right).

And here it is on, it look quite light in this picture but trust me its just the camera, there was some serious blusher going on here!

A really summery and trendy colour, its definitely going to get used alot. I have seen some people compare it to Nars Orgasm so maybe not for you if you already have that.

The whole collection it pretty gorgeous actually, I really want to check out the bronzer creme sticks too and the eye pencils next time I'm in a store.

Mac make up lesson part 2

As I have previously mentioned I had a Mac makeup lesson for my birthday, and bought an absolute truck full of stuff, these are 2 more bits that I bought.

Cremeblend blush in something special and Mineralize skin finish in Soft and Gentle.

Now I have always been a powder blusher girl, no real reason I just have never really got on with creams, and I hate using my fingers to apply makeup, so when the mac girl pulled this out I did sort of wince! but surprise surprise I actually love it, the colour is beautiful very soft peachy pink and the textures thick enough to give the heavy pigment I like. She even applied it with a blusher blush so no fingers... yey! I don't think it lasts that long on my skin, although I have read other reviews that differ, but I think I'll accept it coming off through the day for the dewy glow it gives, really really beautiful! I will definitely be buying other colours!

I got the skin finish because of how much I loved the Wonder woman skin finish, but unfortunately I don’t think this one is in quite the same league! It’s very very shiny and glittery, looks fab on a very glam night out but abit much for most other moments haha! I do love the texture of the product because it doesn’t look too powdery, I might have abit of a play around on the eyes too.

Here is the swatch:

Mac makeup lesson part 1 - foundations

For my birthday my friends very kindly bought me a gift voucher for Mac so last week I made an appointment to have an hour makeup lesson so I could try the products and get abit of help, because to be honest on every other occasion I have found Mac staff really unhelpful.

Heres the look that the lovely Stacey at Mac Nottingham did for me, stupidly I forgot my camera so didn't get a photo of it on me.

I basically bought everything so I may have to break these posts up abit. In this one I will talk about the two foundations that I bought.

I have been looking for a new long lasting foundation to replace my double wear for ages so I bought pro long wear in NW20. So far I really like this foundation, the coverage is high but it doesn't feel too heavy and it really is long wear. I found it didn't dry quite as much as double wear which meant it didn't go as patchy as the day goes on. It also photographs amazing because often high coverage makes your face look mega pale, but this doesn't do that. If your looking for a different alternative to Estee Lauder double wear or a more hydrating version of other long wearing foundations like L'oreal infallible I'd give this a try.

I also got face and body foundation in C3, I got a darker colour so I can use it on the body (as I am a tan-aholic). This seems to be one of those products that no one ever reviews or talks about because everyone is meant to just know that it is amazing! and no surprise that it is! (I really need to start finding some rubbish products to review I'm starting to sound like Louis Walsh....I liked it!) Its a sheer coverage, but can be built once the product thickens up on the skin, its really long wearing too, I have been wearing this to work recently and its held up almost all day, 9 hours is pretty amazing! It stays very dewy so even I put a powder with it and I love shine so I probably wouldn't recommend it if you have oily skin. If you are looking for a a cheaper alternative to a body foundation try Sally Hansen's airbrush leg spray or Natural Collections tinted moisturiser which are both very good.

I have to wait till JUNE!!!!!!

are mac having a laugh.... I have to wait 3 months for this beauty....

I die for this blusher.... it will be mine!

Here are some other gorgeous bits from Mac's Summer surf baby collection out in June.

la la la Happy birthday to me!

It was my birthday at the weekend and I thought I'd share with you the lovely gifts I was given. (Yes I am obsessed with dachshunds)

Did you spot the mac goodies?

I got the mineralize skin finish in 'pink power' and the Penultimate eye liner in 'rapid black'. I know that everyone has gone on about it but I just have to mention the size!!! They are both so big (and I saw the lip glosses in store on Tuesday and they are just stupidly big)!

The skin finish could possibly be one of my favourite products ever. It does everything, seals makeup without making it too matte, gives coverage on its own, its a blusher, a highlighter, a bronzer, a finishing powder and a contourer.... basically if you don't have this in your life.... GET IT!

The eyeliner is a little tricky to use because its so big, but perfect if you like to create a really thick line. Its just going to take a little getting used to but I love the felt tip nib and it stays on really really well without the colouring dulling. Unfortunately I don't think its quite knocked Benefit's Magic Ink liner off the top liner spot.

I also want to say a big thank you to all my friends and family for the lovely gifts and birthday messages

Another mac launch

Another launch that we poor brits have to wait forever to get! The Viva Glam Gaga 2 colours.

This nudey/brown is one of those colours I continuously buy but that looks really really bad on me, and I imagine this one will be no exception.... I just love it so much on other people!

They come out in March 2011 over here, and I imagine there will be a frenzy!

Just in time for my birthday (fingers crossed)...

Mac seems so be having about a million launches in the next few months, but the little girl inside of me is possibly most excited about this one:

Mac wonderwoman collection, released in the UK in March 2011.

Here are the 3/4 bits I will hopefully be getting my hands on...

Mineralize Skinfinish in Pink power

Penultimate Eye Liner in Rapid black

Lip glass in Wonder woman the bright red (far right) and possibly Emancipation the Pale neutral pink (2nd from left)

The mascaras look amazing too......

Have you been swooning over anything in this collection?

red red lips

How sexy is this MEGA glossy red lip thats all over the place this spring?

Its making me even more excited for the Mac/wonderwoman launch. Mac's bringing out the most amazing bright red lip glass called, funnily enough, 'wonderwoman' which launches in March in the UK!

If your after a slightly cheaper version have a look at the new and improved effect 3D glosses from Bourjois (£6.99).

How wrong I was....

I was recently introduced to pixi woo, (www.fashionface.tv ) by a friend from work, and basically spent a whole day watching their tutorials. I saw a few brushes that they constantly used and thought I would try them out. The main one I have used so far is the Mac 217 blending brush (£15).

Now to be perfectly honest I've never really "got" the whole Mac thing, Ive tried a few of their products and liked them but at my local store I find the staff rather unhelpful and abit intimidating so I've been kind of put off. However, I bought these brushes online and the service was bloody amazing, haha, really short sign up form and then they were delivered in 2 days, and all for about £3, which is cheaper than getting to my nearest Mac store.

The 217 brush its self is absolutely hands down the best thing I have ever bought from Mac, and certainly the best brush I have ever bought. Its used for blending colours together, and really good for blending darker colours into the crease line of the eye. The brush is really soft and hardly removes any colour so it spreads really well.

If you are trying to create blended or contoured eyes or looking for a good starting brush for your kit its most definitely worth the money. Watch this space for the other 2 brushes I bought...