Sunday 16 May 2010

Sunday Times - Edition #13

Oh dear. How long it has been since I wrote a Sunday Times post. I knew I would never keep it up! Nevertheless, I still blog on the occasion and today is one of those occasions!

I have a mini haul-ish thing that I thought I should share with you, but being a Sunday, I don't really want to put on makeup (and I'm too self-conscious to do entire videos without slap on, especially since my skin is a little bad again) and film so I took some piccies and thought you might like to see my photography skillz in actionz!!

Firstly, you might've heard that Topshop has begun to stock its own makeup range! I wasn't too excited about this at first, but after seeing other hauls and the cute packaging, I went along to check it out myself. I was very anxious to see these items and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I've made a little haul video which you will hopefully see below :)

I've had a few comments about the "cheapness" of the packaging. I have to disagree about that, as when you touch it, it doesn't feel cheap. The actual products themselves are pretty good quality for a clothing brand (not that I've really tried many others) and who cares if the packaging looks cheap? You don't see the packaging when its on your face!!

Anyway, the lipstick I picked is probably the best nude I have found for me. My skin tone and lips are pretty different to most people and so I've swatched the three nude-y lippies that I own:


Revlon Matte Lipstick in 001 Nude Attitude, GOSH Velvet Touch Lipstick in 134 Darling and my fan-dabby-doodle new Topshop Lipstick in Desert


(Actually, when I went to MAC, I swatched Creme de Nude and it looked bad on my hand and on my lips! Definitely one that does not suit me!)


From the actual sticks of lip colour, you can see that GOSH Darling is the lightest, Revlon Nude Attitude is Medium and Topshop Desert is the peachy-est and darkest which is reflected in the swatches below.


Also, the finished of the three lippies are very different! GOSH has a very shiny and glossy finish. I find it slides around a lot on my lips and comes off quickly. The Revlon lipstick is super matte, and I feel it dries out my lips which is NOT a good look at all! You'd have to cover it with gloss to keep from drying, but that defeats the whole matte look... But I really do think the Topshop lipstick has got it just perfect for my needs with a matte look without being drying. It feels creamy when applying and has quite good staying power! There's no harm in having to touch up every now and again! ^_~


On Thursday, Carnaby Street were doing a sale promotion where most of the shops were doing a discount, including MAC! So I went along with Fei (peonies and lilies) and bought a few items!

I got two new lippies (although one is for a friend's birthday present) and an eyeshadow to help fill up my MAC palette!

The lipstick I chose for myself is Sweetie which has a Lustre finish. It's a sweet pink which isn't too dark and Fei got the same shade aswell! It looked gorgeous on her when she was testing it! I adore the sweet vanilla-ry scent of MAC's lip products!!
The one I chose for my friend is Speed Dial which has a Cremesheen finish. Cremesheen is a nice formula and the last lippie she got from MAC was Chatterbox which she found quite dark on her, but only because she wasn't used to having such pigmented lips! I picked this by comparing it to Chatterbox which is a touch or two darker than Speed Dial. (No swatch as it is a gift and I don't want to touch it!)

The little eyeshadow I got is Beauty Marked! I've wanted this one for quite some time now and glad I finally got it! It has a Velvet finish to it and is described by MAC as "A deep blackened red with a sparkle/twilight effect" ! Sounds very magical, don't you think?

I, myself, would describe this as a charcoal black with purple sparkles, perfect for a smoky eye look! It sits perfectly in my purple MAC family in my palette underneath Trax! I still need to replace my Stars 'n' Rockets :( and possibly purchase Tempting to fit in my neutral shimmery column!

(The purple next to Trax is Memorabilia which is being re-promoted with MAC's Pret-A-Papier collection, I believe!)


I thought I'd show you a little NOTD pic or two!
This pattern isn't as elegant as I hoped it would be, but maybe I just need to practice more with the nail art brushes!

I used Topshop Nail Polish in Art School and my two Inglot Nail Art Polishes in White and Black!

Here is a basic step by step guide:
1. Paint your nails with base coat
2. Paint your nails with a base colour (Topshop Nail Polish in Art School)
3. Use the white and draw one vertical stripe just off centre and two horizontal stripes, one near the top and the other near the bottom
4. Use the black and repeat what you did with the white but to the sides of the white stripes
5. Apply top coat :)

I am totally loving the Topshop Nail Polishes currently and I've found the formulae to be pretty good!!


Right, that's me done for the day!!

Have you got any of these products?
What do you think of the colours I chose??

Love love and haullove!!
Toffee xXxXx

Sunday 9 May 2010

Haulings, Updates and WICKED!

So I am typing this as I sing along to the song from Wicked, which I went to see for the 3rd time on Thursday 22nd April 2010 and its still as amazing as I remembered from the first time I saw it with Idina Menzel playing Elphaba, Helen Dallimore as Glinda and Adam Garcia (from Coyote Ugly!) as Fiyero! That was such a magical day and I got to meet them as they left the theatre :)

I have to say, I did squeal when I saw Idina Menzel (playing Shelby) in the Hell-o episode of Glee! Idina also played Nancy in Enchanted! I was surprised they didn't ask her to sing though :( but maybe she will in Enchanted 2! Today, I realised Kristin Chenoweth (who played Glinda in the original broadway cast) plays April in Glee too!! Haha! I did think I recognise her :D

Anyway, enough of that...

A lovely lady from JWPR sent me some samples of the latest editions to the Batiste Dry Shampoo range. They have two new minis in Diva and Boho with the cute colourful packaging, just in a smaller handy handbag-friendly bottle!

I was sent a mini keychain brush to go with them too!

And for the more glam girlies, we have the new Shimmer range! Again, the packaging is cute and the scent is great! (Smells the same as the coloured versions in Black and Brunette, similar to Boho!) It's basically the same great formula, but with silver or gold glitter particles infused in the mix!

I also took a little visit to Westfield in White City yesterday with my housemate, as we both had to get some birthday presents! I did manage to pick up a few things for me though!!


We found our way to Inglot, and I got two Nail Art Enamels. One in white, and one in black! Check out the two ways you can use this:

superthin nail art brush

spot applicator

and if the spot applicator gets blocked, there's a tiny needle under the label sticker on the bottom of the bottle to clean :D

In Superdrug, I got these limited edition false lashes from Eylure.
Part of the Girls Aloud range, these are the festival lashes from Nicola.

These cost £6.50 and are the only set that come with two pairs of lashes. The butterfly is only on the left eyelash! So cute :D

This glue pot is a screw top :D handy for carrying with you!!

And a little extra I got with my asos.com order :) Another Barry M Dazzle Dust in 51 Mushroom!
It's really similar in colour to MAC's eyeshadow in Style Snob :) DUPE ALERTTT!!
This is the video where I explain everything a bit more in detail:



Love love and haullove!!
Toffee xXxXx

Friday 7 May 2010

Sleek Makeup Event!!

Well hello!

I'm sorry it's been such a long time since I wrote you, I hope you'll forgive me!

As I am currently typing, a beautiful song is playing (which I stole from the current May 2010 Special K advert on British TV) called Sunny Day by Joy Williams! It's so happy and would be a great song to go into your 2010 summer anthems album! Haha :D Today, I realised it's been a year since Lindy (aka Bubzbeauty) held her "What makes you happy?" contest (which I won) when I created probably my favourite video that I've ever made! I feel I should make a new one for this year and I'm always on the look out for sweet songs that I could make videos to! Hot Air Balloon by Owl City would be another great contender!!

Enough of that now, Ling! Come on, we want to hear about the event!!
(I actually have a video explaining this if you are a bit lazy like me and don't feel like reading right now! There are also two other videos which are a vlog of the day! These are all at the end of the post so scroll down for that!)

So Sleek Makeup is a brand I've known about for a while now. It's never really caught my eye as I've walked past in Superdrug, but I've heard/read a lot of great things about their palettes and jumped at the chance when they invited me along to their event so I could really get to know the brand and products!

It was awesome! So fun, and to be honest, I've never come to expect anything from these events other than promoting their current and latest edition products but this just blew me away!

We were swept into this very swanky bowling alley where they had hired a private area which came along with its own bar and lanes!!

The 5th of May 2010 afternoon was split into two sections. The first was probably the best part for me where we were split into three groups and got to visit different 'stations' if you like!

The first one I went to was the make up artists! They had two, one to match foundations so we could take the right colour home, and one to show us how to recreate a look using Sleek products! This was really interesting to see and I picked up a few tips :)

The second 'station' for my group was the lab! They brought all this equipment from their university and showed us how to make lipsticks, lipgloss and eye dust! Really exciting to see the scientific part of makeup (if you didn't know, I have always been a rather passionate scientist lol!) and how it's created! I got some great footage which you can see in my vlog part a!

'Station' three was where we encountered their current and upcoming product range. We got to play, swatch, test and try the products! I got very excited by the nail polishes, tinted lip conditioners and eye dusts!

check out our sexy bowling shoes!

The other part of the afternoon was the most exciting part of the day - the big bowl off!! Let me tell you something, bowling is not something we bloggers do very often! With our preened and polished nails, strong bowling isn't a regular event in our lives! Many of my team ended up with a broken nail or two! Even I did :(

I'd like to congratulate the 6 prize winners :D and I hope Sophie and Milly have a great time in NYC at the makeup show! Take lots of piccies and have an amazeballs time!!!

They also had a suggestion board up (but I forgot to suggest anything... oops! my bad) and two little white macbooks where we could tweet, blog and vlog! I totally had to vlog as I thought this was an awesome idea! Here it is:

And of course, we all got sent home with a Sleek goody bag!

I am so excited by the new brush belt filled with their professional line of brushes which will be out shortly, along with the limited edition Circus divine palette!

I decided to model the brush tool belt along with the makeup book for you :P

Hehe I did a thumbs up in the mirror XD this one is with flash btw!
and this is without flash :)

This little set of Sleek goodies will be up for a giveaway very soon, so make sure you follow my blog to get in with a chance of winning them :D


Want more details??
TwinkleTalk ~ Sleek Event!


Vlog ~ Part A


Vlog ~ Part B

Love love and Sleeklove!!
Toffee xXxXx

P.S. Here is everyone who attended if you wish to check out their blogs/youtube :)

I made everyone do a funny face pic :D

(Not in order...)
Seyi and Cheryl@ http://www.lacemagazine.co.uk/
Sarah Smith @ http://www.iheartcosmetics.co.uk/
Milly Tomalin @ http://pearlsandpoodles.blogspot.com
Sophie Collis @ http://www.sophieismadeup.com
Sabrina @ http://www.a-littleobsessed.blogspot.com/
Leanne @ http://www.donotrefreeze.com/
Louise @ http://www.youtube.com/user/MakeupLoveer
Fei @ http://peoniesandwaterlilies.blogspot.com/
Yinka @ http://www.vexinthecity.com/
Zara @ http://www.almostzara.com/
Didi @ http://www.virtuesofbeauty.com/
Samantha @ http://beauty-crush.blogspot.com/
Hannah @ http://www.babyblonde.net/
Fleur @ http://www.youtube.com/user/FleurDeForce
Charlotte @ http://www.lipglossiping.com
Janaka @ http://jj-jj26.blogspot.com/
Zoe http://www.thelondonlipgloss.blogspot.com
Shirley @ http://www.meek-n-mild.com/