Products I'm Loving Right Now - February 2010

I know I promised a post on my Illamasqua cream blushers today but it'll have to wait I'm afraid.I wanted to do a January favourites but it's the middle of February so I figured it's a bit late! Instead I've done a products I'm loving right now post for you.

'Close to Real' lipstick from MAC. Wearing this in the photo to the right. This was LE with the 2009 High Def collection. When I bought it I wore it a few times and then it ended up being a bit neglected to be honest. I put this on again last week and fell in love - can't for the life of me figure out why I didn't love it before. It's amazing. I'll be so gutted when this runs out - it's the perfect nude for me. I'm praying for a repromote at some point!!

Wearing flowers in my hair. Also shown in the photo, I got that headband for £1 or something from Primark, bargain. I also have some gorgeous flower hair clips from h&m that I've been loving lately and they're a lot more subtle than the big flower headband is. Ok so this isn't a 'product' but it's definately something I'm loving right now ;)

'Nude Beige' Rimmel Pro nail varnish. I love the 'mannequin hands' look - the name that seems to be floating around for nude nails. I think it's such a classy look and very work friendly. I have to keep my nails painted as it stops me from biting them. For some reason if I have no nail polish on I think it's ok to bite!! They're at a lovely length now that I'm really happy with. Sometimes I don't want to wear bright colours and this is just perfect and so easy to apply with the 'pro-cision' brush even if you're not the best at applying nail polish.

Pigments - any pigments really. Been loving them for just a wash of colour on the eyes. I'm not the biggest user of eyeshadow, I much prefer a pretty blush and lipstick but lately I've been loving a neutral shade pigment to make my eyes stand out just that little bit more. I have big eyes as it is but they are my best feature so I always try to highlight them. I'm trying to pick up some of the old packaged mac pigments while I still can!

'Cleanse Off Oil' from MAC. I wasn't sure of this to begin with but now I use it daily. The reason I wasn't sure was because of my combination skin - I didn't really want to use an oil based product on my skin but I find that when using my usual cleanser afterwards that it hasn't created any problems with my skin at all. I read a few reviews on this before I purchased and all the ones I read were raving about it and I can see why - removes all my make up except some mascara but I use a LOT of mascara so I expect to have to use a separate eye make up remover.

'Mad as a Hatter' OPI. From the AiW collection. I wasn't sure about this at first as I expected it to be a lot more purple based as I saw in photos online but now I love it. It's fantastic. I've worn it on my fingernails and on my toes. I applied it to my toes over a week ago and it hasn't budged at all. I like wearing something a little more jazzy on my toes.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway here. You have until the 2nd March ♥

My Illamasqua Collection - Post 1- Lipgloss & Lipstick

Illamasqua is my favourite brand of the moment. I don't own many items from them, 4 lipglosses, 1 lipstick and 2 cream blushes but I wanted to share what I have as I think they're stand out items in my make up collection. I've also found that there aren't many swatches of Illamasqua items online and hope this helps in some way if you're looking to get one of these items and weren't quite sure - even if my photography skills are still awful ;) This isn't a review, it's photos and swatches. I've decided to do this in 2 parts over the next couple of days so the posts aren't too long. let's get started...

My Illamasqua Lipglosses & Lipsticks

Illamasqua do two kinds of lipglosses, sheer and intense. I own two of each type.
I only own one lipstick but know I'll be purchasing more!!

Flash

No Flash

Petulant (Intense)

Electrify (Sheer)

Kindle (Sheer)

Besotted (Intense)

From the photos, Petulant and Besotted look very similar and this is extremely close to how they look in the tubes however on the lips Petulant is much more a bright pink and Besotted is a true intense red.

Besotted was a present from one of my best friends in the blogging community - Steph. She bought me a couple of things for valentines day that I absolutely love - she couldn't have chosen better things for me, she knows me so well! A million times thank you Steph ♥

Sonnet

Flash

No Flash

Swatches on my hand

(same order)

Swatches on my lips

(it's bloody hard to take these photos yourself..!!)
HELLO TROUT POUT!!
and please forgive hideous spot!

Petulant

Electrify

Kindle

Besotted

Sonnet

Are there any that you think I should check out?
Check back tomorrow for cream blushers!

EDIT I should have mentioned that I grabbed kindle in the 50% off sale on the website and I believe it's now discontinued. Possibly still able to pick this up in stores but I'm not 100% sure.

Twitter..

Hello lovelies, just a little post to say I've got a new twitter account. Bit lonely over there at the moment so come along and follow me! @_AntiqueRose.

I leave you with my suprise Valentines delivery because I'm beaming about getting them... totally unexpected, I don't have a clue who they are from! Hope you're having a lovely day xx

Mini Blog Sale

Rules

1) uk and paypal only please

2) state what items you would like and your paypal email address and I will invoice you

3) first come first served

4) postage is £1.75 + 50p for additional items

If you think I'm charging too much, make me an offer ♥

Whats for sale....

Soap & Glory Sexy Motherpucker Lipgloss in 'Plum Juice'

used once - £4.00

MAC Dazzleglass Creme in 'Perfectly Unordinary'

used once and have box - £9.00 - SOLD

Lush Vegan Lip Balm in 'Let Them Eat Cake'

never used - £2.50

Barry M Dazzle Dust in '20'

never used - £2.00

OPI 'Lincoln Park After Dark'

used once - colour not showing well in photo is a really dark purple almost black

£3.00 - on hold.

Benefit 'You Rebel' Tinted Moisturiser

used a few times, still loads left £9.00

MAC Strobe Cream

used twice no box - £13.50

Fake Bake Golden Bronze Faux Glo Wash-Off Instant  Tan

never used - £6.00

MY MINI GIVEAWAY!!!!

Hello lovelies. I mentioned on twitter earlier today that I would be doing a mini giveaway today. The prizes have gone up from one to three but the other two are just litle ones I've thrown in :) This isn't a giveaway for reaching a number of followers or anything, just feeling generous! There are a couple of rules and a number of ways you can enter. Before I show you the prizes, here are the rules.

♥ Although this isn't a follower giveaway you MUST be a follower to enter

Sorry, just the way it works.

♥ Please be over 18 or over 16 with your parents permission -

I will need whoever wins address in order to send the prizes to them.

♥ If your email address isn't on your blog - please leave that too

That's it - pretty simple. On with the fun part....

♥ Soap & Glory Righteous Butter (Travel Size)
♥MAC LadyBlush Cream Blusher
♥3 Creme Eggs! Yummy!

Okay so you have four possible ways to enter this. You must do the first one in order to enter..

♥Comment below saying 'enter me'
♥For one extra entry - pop a link to my giveaway in the sidebar on your blog
♥ For one extra entry, make a blog post about this giveaway
♥ For one extra entry, tell your twitter friends about this giveaway

This is open worldwide -  anyone anywhere can enter.

This will close 2nd March 2010 so you have three weeks in which to enter.
Winner will be decided via random.org

Good Luck Everyone!

♥

Colour Eyeliner - What do you think?

I'm not sure how I feel about eyeliner in colours other than 
black or brown. I've been looking into some recently, ones
that I already had in my collection and ones that I've purchased more recently.

The photo shows me wearing just a tiny bit of No.7 Metallic Eyes Pencil in 01 Green. Retails for £7 but I used a voucher last month so paid £2. Today I wanted a simple make up look but wanted something a little different, so I swiped a small amount of this eyeliner across my waterline.

No.7 says 'Soft and creamy, long lasting pencil glides onfor maximum colour intensity'. This pencil does exactly what it claims to do. It really is so soft compared to some other coloured eyeliners I have which I tend to stay away from because they're too hard for my waterline where I really dont want to be applying a lot of pressure to - it hurts and I'm sure isn't very good for my eyes either! This pencil can be soft when applied with a light hand or quite dramatic when applied normally. However as I was going for a daytime look, I only used a tiny bit. I'm keen to try out other eyeliners from No.7 if the rest are as good as this one.

Other colour eyeliners I have include Prestige's Eyeliner in 69 'Disco' which is a gorgeous light blue however to even swatch it i have to drag it along my hand and its not exactly a pleasant feeling so this has gone nowhere near my eyes. I got this eyeliner for free when I bought my beloved Prestige mineral highlighter as there was a promotion in Boots when you spent over £8 on Prestige products, you got a free eyeliner. Then I have Rimmel's SpecialEyes in 121 'Azure Shimmer' which was extremely popular at the boarding school I went to when I was around 14. It's nice. That's the only word for it, nice. It's nothing special. I never find myself reaching for this.

MAC Powerpoint Eye Pencil in 'Lilacky' is actually the oldest make up item I still own. I've had this for years - still soft and creamy and still gorgeous. I checked on the MAC website and this isn't on there anymore, that's how old it is. I love this but I like to wear coloured eyeliner on my waterline and this just doesn't show up there no matter how much I apply. Shame because this could be one of my favourite eyeliners of all time if it worked how I'd like it to.

Barry M Metallic Liquid Liner in No.4 (silver) is the only liquid liner I have that isn't black. Again, it's nice, doesn't swatch very well and I find myself having to apply a couple of layers to make it show up the way I want it to. It's worth a look into but it's not something I ever plan on repurchasing and never seem to reach for it.

So what have I found? Well, I've found that when I want that extra little bit of colour but don't necessarily want to spend lots of time applying eyeshadows and the likes, just a little bit of colour eyeliner on my waterline will make my eyes stand out just as much, if not more. Will I be trying more? Yes, I don't see why not.

What do you think? Are you a fan? Do you regularly reach for that purple eyeliner or do you stay away from any other colours than brown and black? I'd love to hear your opinions and if you do like them - what do you recommend to me?

Things I'm Loving Right Now

Post Who doesn't love a nice letter or parcel delivered to them?! I know I do. This week I've had MAC, Illamasqua, a ton of false eyelashes I ordered from ebay, teeth whitening strips (they hurt so bad, but bloody well work!) and it's been exciting! I even managed to break a nail trying to get into my MAC parcel. I was desperate to get to my products, heh.

Music More specifically, rediscovering music I forgot I loved. Lately it's been Jimmy Eat World. I love the 'Bleed American' and 'Futures' albums and they make me feel quite nostalgic.

Illamasqua I don't have loads of their products but the ones I do have (cream blushers and lipgloss) I am adoring. I went to Birmingham the other day and popped to the Illamasqua counter in Selfridges and the MUAs were so friendly and not at all intimidating which I often find with other brands. They seem to genuinely care about their products and I love them too. I'm especially loving their cream blush in 'Sob' at the moment.

Box Sets I've been watching loads lately. Not just shows I haven't seen before but series dvds I already had and forgot how much I love. Lately I've been watching 90210 and The L Word. I've just finished 90210, not sure what to start next!

Reading I love nothing more than escaping into someone elses world through a good book. I love to lounge on the sofa with a cup of tea and indulge in a few chapters of my current read.

photos fromwe heart it

MAC - All Ages, All Races, All Sexes Collection

I've been fairly uninspired by the MAC collections lately. In fact I think fairly uninspired is a bit of an understatement. From Warm and Cozy I picked up two items - By Candlelight MSF and Mulled Cider Eyeshadow and from Love Lace I picked up one item - Feline Kohl Pencil. Having seen multiple YT videos about the MAC in Lillyland collection, I can safely say there is nothing that grabs me. Originally I considered a lipgelee but they're so glittery and too much glitter on my lips is not a good look for me. The cream blushers do nothing for me either - so bright and on my pale skin even blended out I'm not sure that they would be particuarly flattering.

I have picked up a couple of items from All Ages, All Races, All Sexes although again, I don't think the collection is anything particuarly special. I toyed over the lipsticks 'Equality' and 'Myself' but after testing them out in store, they're so sheer and I can't pull those kind of lipsticks off. So, I chose 'Banshee' Eyeshadow and Personal Style Blush.



'Personal Style' is an unusual shade compared to all the other blushers I own. I'm pleased to have this in my collection, it adds a lovely natural finish to my cheeks for those days when I don't feel like wearing a lot of make up - or at least attempting to give the illusion I'm not wearing a lot of make up!! Haha. 'Banshee' is a lovely shade, a Lustre finish which I tend to avoid but there's something that really attracted me to this and I'm glad I got it. I had it for 10 minutes and it was already depotted and sitting pretty in my palette!



My usual camera died a painful death and the one I'm currently using didn't seem to pick up the colours very well when I swatched so I leave you with the above photo of me with Personal Style on my cheeks.

Have you picked up anything from Lillyland or All Ages, All Races, All Sexes? Are there any upcoming collections you're looking forward to?