Fashion Sets Morange

So, this was the stand of the Fashion Sets collection at my local MAC counter. I have a bit of an addiction to the colour orange, so I went home with all three parts of the Morange set. I've never had a nail lacquer by MAC before and I'd just like to say, the bottle is adorable. It's like a miniature version of their foundation bottle. Love it. :)

When I say orange, I mean orange. My picture makes it look red but that's because the lighting's odd. The picture I took in the shop shows the colour a lot better. The confession I have is.. orange isn't really my colour! It washes me out and doesn't suit me at all and I don't know if I could wear it out of the house. And this is coming from one who could wear the dreaded red lip and not have a care in the world.

Morange nail lacquer with Morange lipstick layered under Morange lipglass.

See what I mean? Orange really is not my colour. :( But this is what it all looks like together. I might brave wearing just the glass tomorrow at Scratch Orchestra. Sorry for how short this post has been! Ohh, one thing about the nail paint... I'm good at painting my nails. Really, really good. But this formula, while it dried fast was... a pain in the bum to make work. It dragged and streaked and was a bit bleurgh but I forgive it for the colour! I'll wear orange on my nails any day and not care because it's not by my face to wash me out. Lalala... x

PS: I also have the Russian Set winging its way to me from Debenhams. It'll suit me a lot better until I can gather up the courage to wear this look out of the house. I just love the whole tips-lips matching idea.

club and swatches!

I have wanted Club eyeshadow by MAC for the longest time. I'd heard there was a dupe for it in MUA's collection called Shade 12 and I went to Superdrug today only to find that my local doesn't stock it... So, finally, I caved and went across the road to where the only MAC counter I've ever encountered lives. It was a horribly rainy day today and it was literally coming down in sheets and worst of all, it was sideways too. Wind and rain are awful, so I braved quite a lot for this!

Top Row, L to R: MAC Quarry and MAC Bisque; Bottom Row, L to R: MAC Club and MAC Mystery. Out of all the photos, this is the one that is must true-to-life.

I got to the counter looking a bit of a mess and made a beeline for their eyeshadows. I was just going to buy a single Club, I swear. But then I caught sight of the pro palettes and thought I'd get one of the two slot ones instead with two pans, one Club, one Quarry, since I'd been eying that one up too. But then I realised that the palette for two shadows and four shadows cost the same, so it made sense to go for the four instead. Which meant I had to find two other shadows.

L to R, Top to Bottom: Bisque, Mystery, Quarry, Club

In the end, I took home three matte shadows and Club.

I couldn't decide on the other two shadows, so when the shop assistant came to help, it was... well, helpful! She showed me a few very warm shades which would have looked horrible on me and when I explained I wanted my palette to be a one-stop shop sort of thing, she finally suggested cool tones!

I don't know why they're looking purple in this shot... well, Club can look anything it likes since it's a duochrome, but the others are definitely matte brown shades, I promise.

Since I already had two medium-type shadows picked, Quarry and Club, she suggested Brule which, er... didn't show up at all on a hand swatch, so I asked for something more matte and opaque. She showed me Bisque and I absolutely adore it. You can actually see it! And yes, I am that pale. It's almost depressing. She went through a few darks with me, even suggesting a black (yup, that's my colour since I'm a winter, but it wasn't what I wanted) until she finally picked up Mystery, a cool-toned deep, ashy brown colour.

Can you see why I adore Club? It changes in every single picture you take of it. Beautiful!

 They're all very pigmented and you don't need a lot to get the effect you want. This isn't meant to be a makeup blog. :( It's just sort of turned into one! I can't believe I only went in for one and came out with four either! Oh, and there was an offer on for this week only - and they only have offers for MAC once a year in  Fenwick - that was if you buy three eye products, you get a half-price mascara.

False Lashes wand

So, naturally, I picked their false lashes mascara which took it down to the price of a Maybelline mascara from Superdrug, so it wasn't like I was buying something high end at all. Is it bad that I don't really like the packaging? I haven't tried the mascara itself yet, but this feels sort of... like I'm downgrading, almost! I know it's very sleek and grownup, but mascara is the one thing that's always been a crap, throwaway item for me! I'll probably be reaching more for my bright orange Rimmel tube if only because it's more eye-catching!

MAC False Lashes mascara 

Now for some swatches of the shadows! I have no idea why my camera is refusing to let Bisque show up. I can see that it's there in person, and you can vaguely see it on the back of my hand here, but... yes. So, we've got Bisque, Quarry, Mystery, then Club, from left to right. Club is way more multidimensional than it looks here. It's actually a warm and cool colour all at once, looking like a burned reddish brown, shot through with silver and green microshimmer.

I might do a tutorial with these shades soon! My own custom palette. Love. <3

woo

this morning i got up early to post a package to my valentine. but, since it was 8:30 by the time i got into town, i had to wait around until 9 for the post office to open for business which was kind of annoying since my lecture started at 9, but i ended up making it in time anyway, so don't worry about that. :)

while i was waiting, i went to fenwick and browsed their mac counter for a little bit. since it is valentine's day, i was already wearing my viva glam i which i wore to my sister's wedding last summer. it's this really deep, retro red and it worked with the 40's glam style i went for that day. :) but, since it's so deep, it's not really... i don't want to say daytime appropriate since what red is, but it's definitely more of a special occasion wear, if that makes sense?

so, a little bit of browsing, and i located the one. a gorgeous matte red that was just bright enough to be wearable during daytime too! its name is ruby woo and i picked it up, paid and then went to post my package.

ruby woo

i wore viva glam i all through my lecture since i'd rushed to get there and hadn't had any time to try it on, i had to wait 'til i got home to test it out. but i made sure to get a photo first and that's what you can see above!

it's a retro matte (that's actually what the type of lipstick is called, 'retro matte') so i took off what i'd been wearing and put on some lipbalm (carmex!). then i waited a little while for that to sink in and finally put it on! it's seriously just love. :) i really do love this lipstick, but i couldn't follow my cupid's bow with a pucker like i normally do. :( i had to stretch out my mouth in a sort of reverse smile because it needed a firm surface before any colour came out! when they say matte, they really mean it!

on!

i tried a million photos to get the colour and this still isn't it. the brightness of this red is something that my camera really hated. some of the pictures look like i've photoshopped it on, it's so bright!

so, this is my new favourite everyday red, i think. :) i won't wear it every day, but i'll definitely wear it a lot. this isn't a beauty blog, i promise. i just didn't have anything else to post about, really!

happy valentine's day! x

a sweet sunrise with a subtle breeze

i decided when i started this blog that i wouldn't make it a makeup blog even if i am interested in it. that still holds true, but that doesn't mean that i can't share some of the things i bought today. well, actually, they were the only things i bought today, but i love them already.

subtle breeze blush & sweet sunrise lipstick

i'd heard about mac's naturally collection already and decided that i wanted something from it, even if i didn't know what. i asked the sales assistant what she thought and she recommended the lipstick a perfect day and some strange reddish brown blush that would look a lot better on someone with a darker skintone than mine. i suggested that pink tones were better for me and so she wiped off what she'd done and handed over the lipstick sweet sunrise and the blush subtle breeze. they're perfect.

lipstick and blush in action :)

i genuinely cannot believe it. i've found a daywear lipstick that won't make the whole world notice that i'm wearing makeup and a blush that compliments my skintone. and the entire thing together is seriously just... perfect. sweet sunrise is really moisturising and a beautiful colour that brightens up natural lips but still looks natural and the blue tones in subtle breeze really compliment an nw-15 skintone, at least, that's what i thought. :)
this is my perfect day. :P

just one more shot!

missing home

i've just been talking to my mum and dad on skype and they were being normal, you know, vaguely irritating, but i still miss them. and mum sent me pictures of my two dogs, fluffy, who's 15 years old, and godiva, who's 4 years old.

i wonder sometimes if it's bad that i miss them the most! i didn't say goodbye properly, i don't think, when i left home for canterbury after the christmas holiday. i fully expect godiva to be cross and ignore me when i get home for a day like she did the last time i visited for a weekend!

i think it was probably obvious, but here are the pictures. fluffy is the shih tzu (although we've never let her hair get long) and godiva is the pug!

really unexpected beauty

i was out and about on the way to my singing lesson which meant walking down the highstreet when i spotted that the resident chalk bandit had struck again. i've seen him once before and that was actually on friday night after we'd all come back from the graduation ceremonies. i've not graduated yet, by the way, we were just singing with cantata.
i'm not sure how long this has been going on, but i think that he's been striking over the past few weeks. it's never anything bad, just a bright little mural or something to brighten your day!

so, obviously, because i wanted to look like i was insane to the rest of the world, i crouched down and took a picture of the manhole that he'd decorated. i think it's probably been washed away now thanks to the rainy snow we had around by the uni last night, but i'm glad i got to capture this, even if it is just a manhole! i think this was by an estate agent's, but i don't really remember.

free range

i'm part of an ensemble called the scratch orchestra that operates out of cccu. sam, who runs scratch, set up a series of experimental music gigs called free range that are free to go to (so long as you book a seat with him first!) at a café called the veg box café. it's impossible to find at night and you have to be in the know or really good at following maps to find it, but during the day, it's a gorgeous place too.
they serve funny things like beetroot brownies and the whole atmosphere is very relaxed and happy. :) it's a gluten free/vegetarian café too, so that scores a lot of points with a lot of people.

scratch did a performance there two thursdays ago. it's a tiny little place but even with all 15 of us in one corner improvising our music in a collaboration with simon dean, there was enough room for 40+ guests. they had to turn some people away, including a few friends of mine (boo!). begging the door man did no good for me.
the gigs happen every thursday and the doors open at 8pm.
the next thing that scratch get to do is a lunchtime concert at the university. i'm really looking forward to it. :)
if anyone wants to hear what scratch's gig was like, click on the link above and go into audio and then pick simon dean & scratch orchestra. if you want to identify me, i'm the only female singer! x