Friday 16 April 2010

The Gym - Supersize vs Superskinny

I love watching Supersize vs Superskinny on C4. I especially like the anorexics rehab they're currently following, and I also like Anna Ryder Richardson's bit where she looks at quick body fixes. A couple of you who read my blog know this already, but from the age of 18-21 I lost a total of 5 stone.. and I did it without follwing any "celebrity diets", body shreds, superdiets, diet pills, procedures.. just a lot of sweat, hard work, and a whole bloody lot of common sense.


I always enjoy the bit Anna does because I just think it's mental the extremes some people will go to. But one that always gripes me, and really annoyed me this week, is she always bitches about the gym and people who go to the gym. This week she met the singer Jamelia to talk about how she keeps her gorgeous legs in shape.

The first thing Jamelia said was that she doesn't go to the gym, and Anna responded with "OH I LOVE YOU! It's so good that someone with such a great body DOESN'T go to the gym, I hate the gym!" and was basically praising Jamelia for not being a gym goer, and expressing her dislike for people go use the gym.

Okay. I like the gym!! I know a lot of people don't.. but my gym is cheap, friendly, at the back of my house, and it;s a great place for me to run, stretch, bike, and workout without having to face the elements. I can just stick my Ipod on and have a pick of various different workouts depending on my mood and energy level. Now, I won't lie, I prefer going for long walks, running outside/down the woods, and I really enjoy bike riding.. basically anything outdoors.. but for convenience and for when the weather is shit, the gym to me is great. And I do enjoy it while I'm there, I like being active and I feel good afterwards..  The gym was part of the reason why I was able to lose the weight that I did. That and running, and completely overhauling the way I ate.

I also find people I work with and certain friends, that they seem to resent my enjoyment of the gym and can make me feel like a bit of a leper for going. At work if I say no to a biscuit when people bring them in, just because I don't particularly WANT one, everyone looks at me mortified, while they praise each other for their "naughtiness" and finish the lot. I will say now I don't like these girls who sit and pick at a bit of lettuce for their lunch, and I'm certainly not one, I adore my food, but I don't see why people seem to get so resentful over people who just like to eat well and look after themselves and they get made out to be "boring".

This is just a bit of a rant! What are your thoughts?

Sunday 11 April 2010

Front Cover Eye Spy 09/10 Review

Front Cover has been talked about a lot by makeup lovers the past couple of Winters.

I missed it all. Why? I've always been very girly and into my clothes and fashion and jewelry.. but makeup not so much. I wore it, but always the same look and never experimented with anything new. For New Year 2009, some friends and I went to Edinburgh for the Hogmany Street party, and my friend Caz had the Front Cover Rainbow Eyes set with her. I tried the Smokey Eye look, and LOVED it. I couldn't believe I'd managed to create a makeup look that actually LOOKED like it had been done by someone who knew what the Christ they were doing.

I bought  Rainbow Eyes set immediately on Ebay, then saw the Eye Spy one and knew I NEEDED IT. It retailed for £30, I got it for around the same price on Ebay. I then bought the Eye Spy set which by then had been sold out in Boots for £20.

First of all, the palette itself



The front has serious looks created from the palette by pros, and inside opposite the palette, it has a step by step guide to creating 6 different looks using only the palette - Double Line, Vintage & Matte, Matte and Shimmer, Smokey Line, Natural & Understated, and Ultimate Smoulder. The guides are all really easy and I've played around with all 6.



The palette has 15 dome baked shimmer eyeshadows:
Vanilla Ice - A light shimmery white colour, perfect for highlighting.
Powder Puff - A pale shimmery peachy colour, again, great for highlighting,
Burnt Toast - A really rich burt brown, looks great on green and blue eyes, and a good colour for adding depth. I havn't really used this one yet, but I plan to. It looks good on tanner or darker skin too.
Amber Green - One of my favourties! A gorgeous khaki green and gold mix, such a unique colour.
Black Ink - BLACK! Lol what more to say! It has a slight shimmer, but instead of the usual black shimmery shadows having silver mixed in, it's more a metallic black.
Lime Sherbert - A lovely pale greeny gold, reminds me a lot of a lighter version of Amber Green... it certainly isn't a bright lime colour like you'd think.
Parrot - God I love this one! I darn't use it with my pasty grey Winter skin though, I need a tan! A really rich, bright green.
Moondance - A lovely dark bright blue colour.
Lagoon - I adore this colour, I just don't think I could wear it! Very bright shimmery light blue.
Bluebell - Gorgeous silvery denim blue, it really does remind me of the colour of bluebells.
Vintage Violet - A lovely mid lilac with a slight blueish tint.
Bougainvillea - A brighter and slightly lighter lilac.
Tallulah Pink - Gorgeous pale pink with a light shimmer, looks great with golds and browns
Taffeta Blue - I love this colour.. a very dark blue, almost black, with a dark blue metallic undertone.
Moon River - Fantastic bright silver highlighter.

Then there are 5 pressed matte powder eyeshadows:
Glacier - A very pale and cool light green/blue.
Stonewash - A great bluey grey slate colour.
Gothic Grape - A rich and dark grey purple.
Sledgehammer - Bright peacock bluey green.
Iron stone - A dark greyish brown.

Then we have 4 glitter gels, each lid has a small and thin liner brush attached for application:
Sweet Pea - A pale green glitter.
Silverdollar - Silver. Not much else to say on that!
Star Sapphire - Dark blue glitter.
Ingot - Gold!

Next the to glitter gels we have the infamous Shadowline. This is just water in an eyeliner bottle, but the beauty is that it means you can turn any of the eyeshadows into and eyeliner just by mixing the tip of the liner into your chosen eyeshadow.

Finally we have the applicator brush.

Onto the swatches:
L- R Moon River, Taffeta Blue, Tallulah Pink, Bougainvillea, Vintage Violet, Bluebell, Lagoon, Moodance, Parrot, Lime Sherbert, Black Ink, Amber Green, Burnt Toast, Powder Puff, Vanilla Ice


The pigmentation is good.. not amazing but very good. The only ones I really wish were richer in pigmentation are Taffeta Blue, Burnt Toast, and maybe Amber Green too. However the good thing about that is they are fantastic for layering to get a deeper effect, or mixing with other shades. Some eyeshadows with high pigmentation, especially shimmers, can be so messy and hard to work with.
The 5 matte shadows are fantastic for building up a base for a look or just mixing with the shimmers to create something different. I absolutely love Stonewash and Gothic Grape. They are great for creating some really smokey looks with with a little colour.

Some finger swatches:


L- R Amber Green, Burnt Toast, Powder Puff, Vanilla Ice

L-R Black Ink, Lime Sherbert, Parrot, Moondance

L-R Lagoon, Bluebell, Vintage Violet, Bougainvillea

Tallulah Pink, Taffeta Blue, Moon River, Glacier

L-R Stonewash, Gothic Grape, Sledgehammer, Iron Stone

Here I tried out the Shadowliner with a few different colours. L-R on the Shadowliner swatches is Amber Green, Black Ink, Lagoon, Moondance, Taffeta Blue, Moon River, Gothic Grape and Stonewash. Then five swatches L-R Iron Stone, Sledgehammer, Gothic Grape, Stonewash and Glacier.

The Shadowliner is just brilliant. Best and most simple invention ever. It makes the palette so incredibly versatile and you could easily create so many different looks. Imagine having eyeliner to match every eyeshadow.. it's brilliant!

Finally, the glitter gels.
L-R Ingot, Star Sapphire, Silver Dollar and Sweet Pea.

Meh. I'm just not a massive fan of glitter? This is two coats fo each gel, and they've tried to make them subtle but honestly, I'd prefer full on crazy glitters so I could recreate the glitter look on the front of the palette! I doubt I'll ever use these. Probably the only negative thing I can say about the entire palette really.

Sadly this palette is no longer available to buy.. the Fropnt Cover range was exclusive to Boots. However you can buy these on Ebay still, and keep updated on their website for the new products:

So there we go! I love it :D Took me a while to do all that but it has taken my mind off my raging hangover. I went to an open bar party last night... bad times.

Monday 5 April 2010

Sleek iDivine Palette Review

First review, woop :-)

I bought this palette a couple of months ago, and I thought it was worth talking about.

Brand: Sleek
Name: iDivine
Colour: Storm
Cost: £4.99




What I liked: I loved the rich, jeweled colours. The pigmentation was also really rich, and each shadow blends on very smooth, and is very easy to blend and mix together. I didn't find any of the shades to be chalky or not enough. Each one goes on quite thick so you only need a tiny bit, I can see this lasting me a long time.
1 is a pale coppery gold with great shimmer. It works as a great undertone for greys, blacks, browns, golds, and greens.
2 is a very pale shimmery vanillaery gold. Great I think as a high lighter.
3 is a completely matte beige/biscuit type colour. A good natural colour, good base or undertone.
4 is a gorgeously rich gold which I love.. I wore it recently with black liquid eyeliner and red lips, it looked great.
5 is a beautiful pretty rose gold. I absolutely love this colour, it introduced me to wearing pinks with my eyemakeup. I love mixing it with browns for depth.
6 is a rich golden burgundy/magenta. Probably the colour I've used lease as I;m still learning with makeup and when I put it on it looks like I've received a hefty smack. I do like experimentally mixing it with greys and blacks though.
7 is a gorgeous rich copper brown. Such a classic colour, it mixes so well.
8, god I love this colour! A gorgeous metallic blue.. I've used this with Front Cover's Shadowline and used it as an eyeliner as well as a shadow and it's amazing. I love the richness of it.
9, again, another one I love! I adore rich emerald colours and love mixing this with browns, coppers and golds.
10, a richer, deeper version of 8... gorgeous.
11 a natural, matte essential deep brown. Excellent for natural looks, and creating deeper shadows for copper, gold, bronze and beige shades.
12 is a gorgeously thick, black smudgy coal colour. This is literally like touching burnt coal.. except it goes on so much smoother! I adore this colour, it;s so gloriously thick and dramatic. Only a tiny bit is needed for a deep effect and it layers really well. Great for a deep, smoky look.
What I disliked: Nothing?! For the price, these mineral eyeshadows have amazing pigmentation and go on so well. I can use every single colour and find other colours in the palette to mix them with as well as other eyeshadows I already have. This palette is perfect for taking away with you. I often taken it to work with me on our Friday Nights Out so that I can do my makeup quickly before we go. I suppose maybe the eyeshadow blender they gave with it was a bit crap?!



Swatches:


I didn't apply the swatches very thickly and could quite catch them looking right in the rubbish lighting. This is a great swatch from the fantastic MakeupForLife.net:






Would I Buy it Again: Absolutely. I hope they don't discontinue it... I might panic and buy a spare set for when this eventually runs out!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails