What's red, black and.. black?

Me, apparently, with my mini-haul that I got the other day. I wanted to check out the new MAC collections (Fabulous Felines), and my friend needed some hair dye, so off we went to town! And this is what I got!

China Glaze Nail Polish in Agent Orange

MAC Superslick Liquid Eyeliner in On The Hunt (Black)

MAC Lipstick in Lady Bug (Lustre)

I bought these separately, sort of. I had a free Back to MAC lying about, and wanting a new kind of red lipstick, as my Russian Red was running low, and wanted a slightly more glossy red, a lighter more "day" red lipstick.

This nail varnish is gorgeous, but super awkward to photograph. It's called Agent Orange, but I wouldn't really call it orange, even though it looks it in this picture! It's a reddish-orange, with pink undertones, in some light. I genuinely don't have anything like it, and think it's a really unique colour! It's super pretty, and I've worn it every day since, I love it so much! It looks boring in the bottle, and I thought I might regret it (I'm trying to buy more "traditional" colours!) but I definitely don't, which is good news. (:

And then I got them home and tried them both on, and realised just how perfect they look together! They're very pretty, I'm also wearing the new eyeliner - it has a weird wet-look effect, which I like on its own, but not when paired with eyeshadow, I found out today, haha.

And if you're wondering what awesome new scarf that is..

That would be this bad boy, £6.99 from H&M and I absolutely adore it! H&M scarves always sucker me in, and I buy a few every Autumn/Winter, cause I love them so much. There's another two I want to go back and get.. You can't really tell in the picture but the orangey bits are a super bright orange, and they're lovely and I love it and there is lots of love.

Thought this was a cute little post to do! Anyway, today I'm off to the gym and to see my friend for lunch!

Getting a little bit Naked.

Oh god.

I knew from the minute I laid eyes on this, it was for me. Literally, it was love at the first sight. I've been thinking about getting one of Urban Decay's Books of Shadows for a while now, but was debating over which one to get, and whether I could justify the price. And then this appeared and it could have come with hallelujah's, seriously.

Look at that stuff! I am glad I waited cause it suddenly puts all their old packaging to shame. It looks good and classy and well-made and practical - and it is. I always WANTED to like the Books of Shadows/Shadow Boxes with their drawers and the pop-up characters and the chainmail packaging and all that... but they never really looked sturdy or practical. And this is the opposite.
It looks black in the picture, but it's a deep brown velvet box with a magnetic closure lid, and a mirror that isn't obscured by any pop-up stuff. Basically, the packaging is gorgeous. You don't need me to tell you that, but I have spent a paragraph doing so.

Here it is in full. It comes with a mini primer potion and a double ended eyeliner, with colours Zero (jet black) and Whiskey (reddish brown). I do love their 24/7 eyeliners, but am frightful of their melting ability. I have my reservations about the primer potion, but that's for another post. Generally, if you like the little 'freebies' so to speak, you're getting a good deal for £27.
Now the price. This is where I need to discuss why I never bought one before. I always assume that you're getting ripped off with these things. Which is why this is my first!
If you think about it, a normal Urban Decay eyeshadow is £12-14, depending on where you buy it. You're getting 12 in this box, and I think they're about the same size as the ones you normally get in these kind of boxes/sets. I do get through eyeshadows at quite a rate, especially neutrals, but I think you'd have to be determined to use up all the shadow, to get through it.
Phew.
Now.
On to what you really want to see!

L-R: Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half-Baked.

Naked and Buck are the only two matte's in the box, and they're gorgeous. I can see they'll make a great contoured eye, with lots of black eyeliner.
Virgin is an odd, but lovely one. It looks like a pinkish white in the box, but when swatched, has an interesting blue/purple duochrome. I kind of love it.
Sin reminds me of a MAC Starflash colour - possibly ego? - but with grey undertones. It's a pretty, unusual colour. Sidecar is similar, a brownish-pink with multicoloured glitter, I can see blueish glitter.
Half-Baked is the one I already own, but I adore it so much! It's a shimmery true-bronze, in my eyes. Very gorgeous swept all over the lid on it's own with lots of mascara and eyeliner.

L-R: Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal.

Smog is righhhht up my street. If you know what Go! from the MAC Starflash collection was like, it's very similar. A very pretty mid-tone brown that will suit my eyes very well. Darkhorse is a darker version of Smog with some silver-flecks through. I think it's my favourite one, but I'm not sure. I don't have a brown that dark that's not a matte. Here begins my love affair with Smog & Darkhorse, I think. It's too soon to tell.
Toasted is strange. I don't understand the name, for one, but I like it. The correct name may be 'mauve'. Or I could say pinkish-purple with blue-brown undertones. We'll still with mauve. Hustle is very gorgeous. It's a deep purple-brown, that leans a little bit grey in some lights. Potential love affair with these two, too. Oh well.
Creep and Gunmetal I didn't really expect to be so blue! I love them. Creep is an almost-too-dark blue with flecks of shimmer, and Gunmetal is a steel blue with similar shimmer. Swatched together they're gorgeous.

I will tell you what I have woefully just done, though. I just went to move it and jammed my fingernail into Half-Baked. These eyeshadows are so soft. So soft. I cannot tell you HOW SOFT THEY ARE. So be careful, kids. The fact they are so soft means they blend beautifully, but if you catch it with your nail, expect it to crumple undertouch. Just, you've been warned.
I would say they are coparable to MAC's Starflash formula. Beautiful at blending, especially the satin ones.

I think a great plus to this product is the fact you can have so many different combinations in one box, so here are some that I've found already, and love:
Sin > Toasted > Hustle
Naked > Buck
Half Baked > Smog > Darkhorse
Gunmetal > Creep
Sidecar > Darkhorse

Someone told me its the only neutral palette you'll ever need - but I know what I'm like, and there will ALWAYS be another neutral palette. Until then, this will satisfy all my cravings! I think this will be PERFECT for when I travel, now! No more lugging MAC palette's up and down the country. Wonderful stuff. Especially with the little eyeliner in there.

Price: 4/5
Packaging: 5/5
Product: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

Would I buy this product again? No, unless i somehow used them all up! But I would highly recommend them to anyone!

I hope this review was useful! For those asking where to purchase, you can get it at all House of Fraser's currently, and on their website, and then in stores everywhere else soon, I think! I do hope these pictures were okay, I took them on my iPhone but had to edit in PaintShopPro so I couldn't get the colours completely accurate.

Body Shop Haul and FOTD 21/04/2010

The other night I was feeling a bit down in the dumps, when I got an email from The Body Shop with a 25% off discount code! As you can imagine, this cheered me up immensely! I ordered this later on Sunday night, and I received it at lunchtime today (Wednesday) so I'm pretty pleased with that! I am the most impatient person and hate waiting and waiting for orders, haha.
That said, onto the goodies. (:
I definitely suggest you check out The Body Shop's website, and get on their mailing list, because they have some great online deals. Currently they have a 2 for £8 deal on their shower-gels and a buy 1, get 1 50% off del on their Nutriganics skin-care range, so go have a look!
I got two of their shower-gels, and then there were two other things that caught my beady eye, so I splurged. Andddd I got free delivery cause I spent over £15! Score. Cheapo student, sorry to say! Haha.

L-R: Mango Shower Gel, Satsuma Shower Gel, Banana Conditioner, Seaweed Deep Cleansing Facial Wash.
The Satsuma Shower Gel smells ah-maze-ing! That kind of spicy-sweet and super damn refreshing and I can't wait to use this to wake me up in the morning! I kind of just want to sit and huff it, so I might have to invest in the Satsuma body-butter or something! I also got a Mango one, but I want to do a review on all these products in the future so I'll shut up about it right now. (:

And a quick FOTD from before I went to work! I look deathly pale in these, apologies! I really liked my hair today, actually. I threw it up in a bun when it was still damp and normally that creates a disaster but it looked quite curly and nice, for a change.
Also, looking at these pictures, my eyeshadow is really washed out. In person, it was much prettier. Boohoo. ):


Eyes:
MAC Eyeshadow in Shroom
MAC Eyeshadow in Tete-a-Tint
MAC Eyeshadow in Soba
MAC Eyeshadow in Copperplate
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack
L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara in Carbon Black

Face:
Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel
Dior Diorskin Nude Foundation in 030
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium
MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW20
MAC Blush Ombre in Ripe Peach

Lips:
MAC Naked Honey Lip Salve
Estee Lauder Pure Colour Crystal Gloss in 342 Dragonfruit
Have you bought anything good recently? Let me know! (:

FOTD, Face Of The Day! 13/04/2010

This afternoon I was raiding beauty blogs for some inspiration, and all I got was the idea of using orange on my lid. I feel like I've got very much into a rut with my makeup so this was a bit of a change. The colours were dulled down a bit more than I'd like (and the photo washed them out a bit) cause I had to wear this to work.. but anyway, it got me in a spring mood!

Oh, and please don't mention my eyebrows! I need to re-do them, one of the blessings of having a long fringe becomes a curse when you have to pull it back for work!




Eyes:
MAC Shroom eyeshadow
MAC Nylon eyeshadow
MAC Evening Aura Eyeshadow
MAC Off The Radar pigment
MAC Blacktrack fluidline
L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara

Face:
Dior Diorskin Nude Foundation in 030
MAC Studiofinish Conceal in NW25
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium
NARS Orgasm Blush

Lips:
MAC Naked Honey Lip Salve