NOTD: Konad – My first try!

It has taken me months to finally give in and buy a Konad Stamping Nail Art ‘system’. I’ve been putting it off, mainly because I couldn’t afford it and because I wasn’t entirely sure that I’d ever use it.

I finally gave in when I was browsing trademe and came across an auction for a Konad ‘Set’ containing 2 special nail polishes of your choice, an image plate of your choice and a double ended stamper/scraper set. All up it was $20 (NZD) which I thought was a pretty good deal. I chose black and dark purple for the colours and the m57 plate.

It arrived today so of course I tried it out as soon as I opened it. And I have to say I’m completely in love with it!! It is so much fun and the results (once you’ve had a few practice goes) are fantastic!! Now I’m going to have to buy more image plates because I can see this becoming addictive!!

Here’s a pic of what I did today:

I used the Santee nail polish pictured as the base colour. The colour is M30 – Silver Blue. I seriously love these nail polishes, and at only $3 (NZD) they’re cheap as chips. The Konad special nail polish I used is dark purple.

Thanks for viewing!
oxo!

Giveaways!!

A lot of amazing bloggers are having giveaways at the moment and here’s links to just some of them:

Jen's First Giveaway!

 

The lucky winner will receive:

• Soap & Glory Flirtigo Moisturising Body Mist
• The Body Shop Body & Leg Shine (gorgeous wash off fake tan)
• The Body Shop Satsuma Body Butter
• Topshop pearl stud earrings
• Nails Inc nail polish inMarylebone high st
• The Body Shop mini hi-shine lipgloss (love this!!)
• No7 New Extravagant Lashes in Black
• Girls Aloud lashes, Cheryl.

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Oh Puffcakes Giveaway!

 

Prize 1: (1st pic, far top)

• Soapalaya Sensitive Skin Moisturizing Soap Sample (Handmade and All-Natural)-----her Etsy shop
• Soapalaya Lip Balm in Pomegranate
• Pure Spring Body Mist in Jasmine Tuberose
• Lip Stick Case with Mirror (from China =D)
• ELF Studio Complexion Brush
• EcoTools Foundation and Blender Brushes 
• ELF Natural Radiance Blusher in Glow
• CoverGirl Cheekers Blush in Pretty Peach

Prize 2: (2nd pic)

• Soapalaya Lip Balm in Asian Pear
• Bath and Body Works Body Splash in Velvet Tuberose
• NC24 Long Lasting Extra Rich Cream
• ELF Studio Blush in Peachy Keen
• Maybelline Mineral Power Illuminator in Nude
• Forever21 Brown and Gold Bracelet/Bangles
• A pretty pair of Light Blue Dangly Earrings

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Missmercurylady's First giveaway!

If she hits 100 followers, she’ll throw in 4 more prizes so spread the word!!

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Shanghainese Dumpling's Giveaway!

 

And now here’re the rules:

1) Be a follower of this blog
2) Become a Fan of Shanghainese Dumpling’s Facebook Page (Except if you don’t have Facebook)
3) Leave a comment on this post to let me know that you’ve done so

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XROCKSMAMA Giveaway!

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Gem's Giveaway!

 

G-lish trio eyeshadow
Clinique black mascara
Clinique lipstick in Berrylicious
Estee Lauder lip gloss
Elianto nail polish
G-lish mosaic blush powder
Blue eyeliner
Bag!

Mechanics:
1. You MUST be a follower of my blog. So, click on the "follow" button if you aren't a follower yet!
2. Copy the image and post it together with the mechanics on your blog. Don't forget to link back!
3. Leave a comment on this entry saying, "I'm in!"

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Make sure you check out all these amazing giveaways!

oxo

FOTD: Mixing!

 

Yeah I look pretty tired, and the colours didn’t show up as brightly as I’d hoped they would but I wanted to show you all this anyway!

On my eyes:

• MAC Paintpot in Painterly
• MAC Satin Taupe eyeshadow – inner third
• MAC Club eyeshadow middle – middle
• MAC Handwritten eyeshadow – outter third and underneath
• MAC Carbon eyeshadow – along lashes
• MAC Ricepaper eyeshadow – as highlight
• Revlon brown eyeliner
• Avon Supershock mascara

Face:

• MAC Face and Body foundation in C2
• MAC Studio Sculpt concealer in NW20

Blush (the exciting part!):

• OCC Lip tars in NSFW and Feathered mixed together and applied to the apples of the cheeks, then blended using my fingers!

Lips (also exciting!):

• OCC Lip tars in NSFW and Feathered, then sheered down with a bit of the Clear lip tar.

It really makes these bright lip tars a lot more wearable for everyday use by sheering them down with the Clear lip tar. God I love these things.
Definitely going to be doing some more intense/bright looks with these in the future though, so look out for those. :D

Thanks for viewing!

oxo

Yaby Dramatically Neutral Palette – Review Time!

Yaby Cosmetics is quickly becoming one of the most well known professional makeup brands available today. Their concept of downsizing makeup artist kits and their gorgeous, highly pigmented products are very popular among makeup artists across the globe.

I first really heard about Yaby Cosmetics while browsing through the Model Mayhem forums and was impressed by all the rave reviews they were getting, so I knew I had to check them out!

The Dramatically Neutral Eyeshadow Palette really is wonderful. It holds 40 eyeshadows which are a fabulous mix of both mattes and shimmers. The colours are divine, the pay off is great and the longevity is amazing! I can honestly say that I prefer these to all of my MAC eyeshadows – seriously!

As you can see from the picture at the beginning of this post, my palette needs a bit of a clean (I’ve been using it on myself a bit lately and haven’t got around to cleaning it yet). What you can’t see is that this (along with all the other Yaby palettes) comes with a built in stainless steel mixing palette instead of a mirror! How genius is that?! :D I love it!

I’m not going to swatch all the colours, because that would take forever, but I did swatch a few so you can see what the pay off is like!

ES339 – Fairytrail (has a high shine finish):

ES347 – Pottery (has a frost finish):

 

PP036 – Summer Night (pearl paint):

PP062 – Tamarind (pearl paint):

 

ES168 – Earth (has a matte finish):

 

ES154 – abyss (has a matte finish):

 

ES382 – turquoise dream (has a frost finish):

 

PP026 – amber rain (pearl paint):

They really are just gorgeous and even though this line is aimed at makeup artists, I would recommend this palette to everyone!
I’m definitely going to be purchasing more from Yaby (once I get some money!) :P

Thanks for viewing!

oxo

ARGH!!

I really need to apologise to all my loyal followers. I am SO sorry I haven’t posted anything in so long. My life feels like it’s been consumed with drama and whatnot lately (such as a break up) so I have been neglecting this. :(

I’ve really missed blogging and will try to blog at least once a week or so from now on. Since I last blogged I’ve got a few new things to review, and should be doing some FOTDs sometime soon! I’ve also been playing around with my lip tars a bit lately so I should have some of that up soonish too!

AND it’s my birthday on Wednesday (16th Sept) and I have to admit I’m stressing out about it a little. I’m not a huge fan of being the centre of attention! But I am a fan of presents so.. yay! Lolol :P

Thanks again to all my followers, I’m at 80 now and I just think that’s amazing!! I will definitely be blogging in the next few days so watch this space!

oxoxo

OCC Lip Tars – The Beginning Of An Obsession

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics are a brand I recently discovered thanks to some fabulous bloggers, youtubers and the always informative – Model Mayhem forum.
Their Lip Tars immediately got my attention.

“A stunning new innovation in lip color, OCC Lip Tar combines the longevity of a lipstick, with the ease of application of a gloss. Goes on slick and moist, and dries down to a satin finish. Ultra-saturated in color, OCC Lip Tar contains an unprecedented amount of pigment, so a little goes a very, very long way. An intense yet featherweight layer of color that stands up to the scrutiny of Hi-Def Video and Digital Photography, without ever looking (or feeling!) heavy. Meant to be mixed, OCC Lip Tars come in concise range of colors (and black and white!) for a limitless selection of shades made by you!”

With an introduction like that, who wouldn’t be intrigued?? They also mention that they’re 100% Vegan and Cruelty-Free! :D

Upon receiving the 8 lip tars I ordered from camerareadycosmetics, I realised that the description of these was COMPLETELY 100% true.
They are by far the most amazing lip product I have ever tried. Period.
The pigment is insane. The tiny amount needed is just… crazy. I truly did not expect these lip tars to be as good as everyone makes them out to be, but they really are.

Onto the colours I chose:
Clear – obviously for mixing

Feathered – again obviously for mixing

Tarred – fabulous for darkening any of the colours. Plus how awesome would this be for a gothic photoshoot? :o

NSFW – I could NOT resist this. As well as being great for mixing, this is the PERFECT red!

RX – Everyone needs the primary colours!

Traffic – Primary colour again

Katricia – I couldn’t say no to this. Bit gutted that Pageant was sold out, wanted that too :(

Uber – I just needed this.

I am so in love with these, I don’t think I’ll be satisfied until I own every single lip tar they make. And wouldn’t ya know it, they just released some new colours! Make sure you check out their site here!
We all need lip tars in our lives!!

I’ll be posting swatches of the colours I mix, so be sure to come back and check them out.
Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Review: Napoelon Perdis Cake Eyeliner Sealer

Napoleon Perdis Cake Eyeliner Sealer turns cake eyeliner and regular eyeshadows into a liquid liner. It also waterproofs them and can be mixed with loose eyeshadows/pigments and used as mascara.

I bought this last year and have used it A LOT. It does exactly what it says it does with great results.
I have one huge problem with it though. The price. For around $25NZD you get a measly 15ml! That is ridiculous.
I’ve also heard that Napoleon Perdis cosmetics are actually just repackaged La Femme products anyway. I find that quite appalling considering the huge price difference between the two brands.

For that reason I will not be repurchasing this. I may however look into purchasing the La Femme version of this and compare the two, as the product itself is wonderful, just a complete rip off. :P

Have you tried this or other Napoleon products?? What are your views on them?

Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Review: Graftobian HD Foundation Super Palette

Being a makeup artist is fantastic, but I am sick of carrying around a million different foundations in my kit! Not only is it hard on my back but it makes finding the perfect shade a huge hassle.

This lead me on the hunt for a foundation palette. After reading lots of reviews I finally settled on the Graftobian High Definition Warm Foundation Super Palette.
This palette contains all 18 shades in their colour range of warm shades, which will cover almost every skin tone, with the option of easy mixing since it’s in palette form.
Each colour has enough product for around 12 applications, and all colours can be bought individually in larger amounts (around 7 times the amount in the palette) so refilling it isn’t a problem.

These foundations are made for high definition film and photography making them perfect for everyday use as well. The coverage is amazing (no need for concealer with these babies!) and they can easily be thinned down with a moisturiser for a sheerer finish. 
With cream foundations (especially high definition ones like these) it is important to remember that as these are very highly pigmented, a little goes a very long way. Too much product and the skin will appear and feel oily.
Personally I prefer to apply cream foundations with sponges as I find that I can get a more flawless finish than I can with a brush.

I am thrilled with this palette so far, and I can’t wait to use it on more clients. I would definitely recommend this to all makeup artists. For anyone else who’s looking for a great, full coverage foundation, check out the individual ones I mentioned earlier.

You can find this palette online at Makeup and Glow and Camerareadycosmetics. Both sites offer samples of these foundations. :)

Big thanks to all my followers!
oxo