I was actually going to wear this to my afterprom, but time constraints (I spent too long watching Question Time and therefore had no time left over to repaint my nails) meant that I didn't use it then. I applied it the day afterwards expecting a nightmare (application wise) but I was actually pleasantly surprised!



 First, I went for this because I was looking for a good, cheap nail polish and since I'd had a good experience with 'Slate' by BeautyUK, I hoped the rest of the line would be up to scratch. I'd call it a true, neutral yellow. I have no idea why it's more eyecatching than the other yellow offerings different brands had to offer :/ Something about it that I can't put my finger on...maybe the fact that it has a *touch* more green in it?



Yeah, my nails look fabulous here. But they're fake. I wish my real nails looked this good.



Application wasn't that bad, surprisingly - the formula didn't feel thick or chalky (and believe me, just from looking at the bottle I was convinced that it'd be chalkier than a cliff in Dover) and it was fine in two coats, both the opacity and the levelness (not a word?) of the polish. Impressed!
I wore Yellow Peril again, on my (disgusting) natural nails, and it lasted with minimal chips for three days which is pretty damn decent considering the state of my nails at the moment. Peel City. Yuck.



I've noticed that they've raised the price of these recently - this cost me £1.99, as opposed to £1.79 last year. An increase of 20p isn't too excessive, though, so I'm not crying over it.

#rant
#profanity

This is soooo long overdue but I've been holding off on posting it in the hope that things may get better. Which they haven't. Last Sunday's chat had me hysterically clicking the 'block profile' button in the hope that all this spam would just go away from my timeline. I barely remembered to do this:

 I know that's not even correct grammar in the context of my sentence but I was that angry. That extra 'e' can go to hell.

I DON'T EVEN LIKE THIS SONG THE BOYBAND ARE SO DUMB AND THE DANCE IS RETARDED

OK. This has been going on since probably the second or third #bbloggers chat. I'm not going to printscreen any individual specifically but I'm so sick of how bang on nine o clock there is an influx of 'wow great chat here's my blog link hiimwastingbandwith@blogger.com'

FUCK OFF. GOD.

It is so incredibly rude just to sit there and be like 'Well, that was great. I'm going to shamelessly self promote myself at everyone else's expense now! *flips middle finger at other beauty bloggers*' especially as many of the main offenders don't even seem to take part in the actual discussion! Recently, there's even been a lot of 'Ah, I missed the chat! Oh well, here's my blog link.'
I know lots of people seem to think that it's 'alright' because there are so many fools doing it that it looks like the norm, but just because lots of people do it does not make it 'alright'. By whatever arbirtary concept 'alright' is. I'm defining it. Don't like it? I can recommend you some (good) K-pop. Nothing by the boyband you see above.

Just because the chat is officially over, doesn't mean people are done talking - the chat often continues for an hour or even two after the official end. #bbloggers encompasses people of many different time zones who may find it easier to join in the chat a little later than the majority and also want to talk to other #bbloggers. Is it really too much to ask to leave the link spamming out, so they too can enjoy a conversation? Same as for those who've been busy during the chat and wish to catch up. On the last chat before Fee gave up leadership of #bbloggers, I was away doing something which I can't even remember so it can't have been that good. The next morning, having been informed it was a SERIOUSLY juicy discussion, I went back to try and read it. After three pages of 'READ MY BLOG PLZ' Twitter kindly informed me that it couldn't go back any further. So I obtained absolutely no information about the chat whatsoever and had to get friends to recap it for me. And this was just the day afterwards, before the spam really had a chance to accumulate. Incredible.

If you're one of the tweeple that spams DURING the chat, I hope you tweet yourself to death. I don't think I even need to get started on the foolishness that goes into thinking that is going to get you any followers. Or friends. 



'Companies' (though truly, half of these barely deserve the term) can get lost as well. I'm all for cosmetic companies taking part in the chat, giving meaningful and interesting feedback, and generally getting stuck in - in fact, I love that. Brands like MUA Cosmetics and The Teacup Agency are present week after week and forge connections with bloggers while not blatantly advertising all over the hash tag. Then you get brands like (pictured) who clearly aren't interested in connecting with bloggers during the actual chat, rather using them for free content and promotion (see below).



Why the hell did anyone think this was a good marketing strategy? It cheapens your brand and makes you look desperate. Leave #bbloggers be...if you're looking for people to try out your product, go the old fashioned route and contact bloggers that you enjoy reading to try it out. That was at you, Youngblood. :) Next time you fancy creating rivalry and tension between bloggers, leave the innocent hashtag out of it. Ta.
I hope people think more of their blogs than to go for this sort of thing. Companies rock up and decide that the 'best beauty bloggers' are the ones who should feature them. OK...
The attitude that bloggers jump when companies say 'how high' and that we're automatically inferior, somehow, really pees me off. If you're a company moving into a different market or you're a new company trying to establish yourselves, don't expect bloggers to be all over you, just as new bloggers don't expect to be showered with free samples.


I thought the whole point of #bbloggers was to show us as a blogging community. So many people love and enjoy beauty blogging because of the sheer amount of interaction that we all have with each other, and the fact that we can all connect because we're doing something we love. #bbloggers has grown into a networking tool that allows the beauty community, established or brand new, to all talk with each other as the equals we are - so why are some people showing such basic disrespect towards a community that's so welcoming? If posting your URL in a comment on someone else's blog is widely frowned upon, why isn't this practice? On #bbloggers, as long as you have your blog linked in your Twitter profile, it is incredibly easy to find new (to you) bloggers and read their blogs without cluttering up the chat for everyone else with, "omg, need some bedtime reading material - send me your blogs! My blog is apieceofshit.com". If someone makes an interesting point during the chat or calms down some tension or even has an awesome screen name - investigate them! Look at their profile, look at their blog. I was under the impression that this was common knowledge but apparantly not.

It's similar to the 'sub for sub' thing going on over at YouTube. You suscribe to me, and I'll suscribe to you. Did we suscribe to each other because we like each other's content? No. Are we even interested in the other person's blog/channel? No. We did it just to boost the numbers. It's hollow and fake and when you see #bbloggers littered with 'Hi, I saw your blog on #bbloggers and I really like it! Here's mine.' then you can't help but feel it's going the same way. Which is a real shame.

Wow, that was an angry post. Have some hot Korean men for your time.

Source: fuckyeahleejoon.tumblr

I say slightly redundant because I've pretty much not hauled anything this month. Between Duke of Edingburgh, family members coming to stay, and that huge boner kill of not having any funds, it's been a spend free month :( Apart from prom shopping. That was essential. and expensive.

Regardless, here is like a collection of stuff that I've cumulatively hauled from 2001 last month. Feels like forever :(


 Nails Inc/Fabulous polishes: I collected the tokens, so now I have a spare set which I was going to give away until I got back from D of E and then everyone hated the News of The World so I thought it might be best to leave that...alone for a bit.
Two Miners polishes which I should add to the blogsale, not really that enamoured with these.
Last month's Glamour offer. I picked up Benetint and High Beam.




Two Barry M crackle polishes, the pink one and the black one - these are sooo cool and were my first foray into the dark crackle underworld...does anyone want a full review on these? I'm under the impression almost everyone has already done one.
Everyday Minerals rollerball eyeshadow! It scares me how easily I fall for a gimmick...
I bought Pears soap on the basis of a review I saw by Fee on how non-drying and gentle it was on sensitive skin, which really excited me. But when I got home and talked to her on twitter about it (@MakeupSavvy) I realised she'd actually done a follow up post to say they'd changed the formula and it was now quite harsh! #learntoresearchlena
I cut it up into little cubes and we're using it for hand soap at the moment. At least it was (relatively) cheap.



Lastly, my new nail polish love: 'Copacabana' by Nails Inc. It's this gorgeous coral colour which everyone and their pet of choice needs in their life this summer...bright but not off putting and applies really well. I had to buy two Dove deodorants in Boots for this offer, which wasn't too bad as I usually use Dove anyway. I then went back for two more so I could get another bottle...obssessed much? The other colour, 'Havana', was really boring and looked sheer so I left it alone. They should have named it 'Sand' or something. If I think 'Havana', I think something vibrant and colourful, not yet another greige nude tea colour. grumble, grumble.

OK, these are amazing.









I have four out of the six in the range here for you today...'Show Stopper' 'Glammed Up' 'Starstruck' and 'Smokin'.

'Starstruck' and 'Show Stopper'

'Glammed Up' and 'Smokin'

'Show Stopper' reminds me of a sort of beach theme - a yellow gold, warm brown-pink with a copper hint, silvery seafoam blue and a a dark, ocean blue just scream, 'Beach!' at me. Very summery. As the name suggests, these are all highly shimmery with a metallic finish. Fans of MUA's £1 core line eyeshadows will find the same texture in these as in the regular line - highly pigmented and creamy to apply, these won't disappoint.







'Starstruck' is rather versatile in my opinion - the rose gold shade can be used as a shimmery blush (I've tried this applied to the cheeks with a finger and then attacked with a blush brush, and it blends out rather nicely) and the neutral caramel makes a nice body/tear duct highlight for me. The dark brown at the end would look good as a crease shade on those with lighter skin, but I've worn this all over the lid and it's great for daytime where I don't want to scare everyone with bright pink eyelids. I don't know why the pink and the caramel shade have appeared so light in my photo, as in real life they are darker. *shrug*







'Glammed Up' is the only quad I've got here that contains glitter rather than shimmer, which is why I wouldn't use the pink as a blush, but they'd make cute eye highlight colours. The first shade is more peach than the yellow gold of the 'Starstruck' quad but they're still close in that you wouldn't need both. Out of all of the quads, this is the one I'll be reaching for least simply because the only colour I'd regularly wear would be the last one. It's this gorgeous gunmetal with silver sparkles. I'm imagining the looks I'm going to create with it already...that's another thing I was meaning to ask. More EOTD's, yes/no? My technique is pretty poor and I can't photograph my eyes for toffee...anyone got any tips?







Lastly 'Smokin' is basically your portable smoky eye. Highlight, crease shade and lid shade all in one. MUA's famous matte black is included in this, but the standout shade for me is the third one along from the left. It's a silver with a hint of blue...reminds me of one of the shades in the ever famous Sleek 'Graphite' palette. If MUA did this one in gold, I'd buy it too and then make the two have sultry metallic babies. If I had one gripe, it'd be that the names are a tad cheesy...next time, get us beauty bloggers to name them :P I still demand my 'Arctic' themed palette.

When I first saw these, I thought 'Bobbi Brown Shimmer Bricks' instantly, but these are clearly meant to be used as eyeshadows rather than...whatever the Shimmer Bricks are for (I've never been clear on the purpose of those, aside from looking pretty). I wondered how the brush would be able to get in between each shade (as they're not clearly divided) but there's ample space for even a large brush, so that's not a concern. The new sturdy packaging means I can comfortably chuck this into my bag and not worry about it exploding all over my mobile phone...all in all, these are pretty decent. Ten out of ten for MUA.

I mislead somewhat. It was actually an 'after prom' face as I didn't go to prom. Sat at home and watched Question Time instead - far more enjoyable, to be honest.

Political statement made, I set about doing my makeup. First, I started with a layer of MUA's Primer, then moved on to 17's Photo Ready (or Photo Finish, something along those lines. Can't really remember) foundation in 'Honey'. BIIIIIG mistake. It seemed to be far too yellow and I was blending it in and getting more and more panicked until finally I was like, 'Nooo!' and removed it all and started again.

Take two.

MUA's primer, and then a light dusting of Max Factor's mineral foundation in 'Bronze'. I dotted a few spots of Sleek's Hide it Concealer (Shade 4, but I'm going to go back and buy Shade 3 as Shade 4 is too dark, I think. It matches my skin? Aren't concealers meant to be lighter?) and then a little more powder. Contoured with Sleek's Contour Kit in 'Dark' and added a little highlight on my legs with MUA's Mosaic Bronzer (it got completely broken and smashed up when it was sent to me :( But I could still sort of use it.) Primed my eyelids with Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden, then put my contact lenses in (I always do it that way around).




Used the darkest dark brown from the Sleek Paraguaya Palette (though the lighting and perhaps brush contamination has made it appear slightly purple in the photos, fml) all over the lid, added a matte brow highlight, filled in brows with a matte black from a Sleek palette (can't remember which one but for the most part, they're all the same?). From here, I took the shimmery dark brown from the MUA Extreme Metallic quad in 'Starstruck' and added it over the lid below the crease. I then used the dark black from the MUA Extreme Metallic quad in 'Smokin' to add definition to the outer third. Blended it all together to make it look less harsh, applied eyeliner on the lower lid but not the top, and finished with a pair of Eye Candy false lashes. Wouldn't recommend these, they began to come off at the end of the night -.- something that I've never experienced with my cheapy KKCenterHK lashes. I wasn't impressed.


Now, as a lipstick newbie, I did the sensible thing and bought the brightest fuschia I could see, which happened to be a Sleek True Colour lipstick in 'Mystic' (matte). It didn't bleed even though I wasn't wearing lip liner, and stayed on somewhat even through numerous bottles of beer so kudos to it, I guess...

Finally, prom nails for your eyes only:




It's been four days and they're still on my hands...impressive staying power. I would have gone for my usual Allura ones but when I popped into Poundland (on the DAY of my prom. Yes, I am organised...) they didn't have any! Rage...these were adequate substitutes, however. I'm not looking forward to removing them, though...

I was totally pscyhed when I saw these MUA palettes and was lucky to recieve two to review. The first one I'm going to show you is called 'Pretty Pastels'. I find it's a really sort of 'spring' feeling
palette for me - pretty much every spring time is all about pastel colours. I don't mind wearing pastels on the nails, but it's a bit of a new concept for my face...plus I don't really wear pastel shades as they usually just fade to white on me. I was hoping that these'd be different but...nope, sadly. Although I do quite like the light brown colour as a sort of brow highlight.







BEHOLD. MY EYE. MULTIPLE TIMES.

 

Wahey, it's like I'm staring at you a billion times. Feel free to be creeped out.

Unfortunately, doing this EOTD was a bit of a pain in the arse, in all honesty. I think the amount of kaolin clay used in them made them chalky and hard to work with, and even worse wet (in large quantitites. They were good using a small amount as eyeliner). I'd apply some of the pink shade, go back to do the blue and find a lot of the pink had run out. Reapply and it all fell out over the blue shade. This took way longer than it should have.






These all contain a little shimmer/micro glitter in them, which I found made them a bit tricky to remove as the glitter clung for dear life around my skin, even when swatching. Where I think I'll be using these is as liner for a pretty pastel (ignore the pun. I genuinely didn't plan it. Promise) pop of colour for looks and stuff. Wet a brush, dip into the colour and line away. Who knows, maybe next spring I'll be rocking these as liners...probably not as actual eyeshadows, however.

Anyone picked up this particular palette?

I found this shade in particular applied sooo nicely. Two coats, no bubbles, like a sort of wham bam thank you mam but in a more desireable context. I approve.








I couldn't decide which pictures to add and which to leave out (I'm exprimenting with a new nail polish swatching technique, which is photographing them outside my window, lol) so this is a rather pic heavy post.





These dry down to a semi-satin, but still with some shine to it - again, typical of a neon finish but not quite. They're just bright enough to be bang on trend for summer, but not too bright as to alienate less daring nail polish wearers. The swatches that you're seeing have had a layer of topcoat applied to it though, as I wanted to see it shiny!



As you can see, my Mum and I are collecting our tokens...are you? The value of these polishes is pretty damn intense, if you're in the UK I'd be surprised if you missed out!