Rouge Bunny Rouge, second haul

The more I use it the more I like it, so far I have only bought lipsticks and eye shadows but I am very impressed. This is fast becoming one of my favourite high end brands. The lipsticks are creamy without being heavy, have good pigmentation and last quite well and the eye shadows are long lasting and very easy to blend.
The descriptions given on the RBR website are pretty good, I would only say that prey of lust has a bit of peach to it (its a really pretty mix of peach/pink/beige) otherwise I would say these items match their descriptions.
I ordered from Zuneta.com and although I didn't get a confirmation email again, delivery was quick and they included a promo they are currently doing and samples with the order.

Illamasqua eye shadow swatches part 3

As you can see deity is close to my natural colour so for me its a perfect base shade. Please note that Soul is shimmery but on the Illamasaqua website its currently listed as a matte shade.

Illamasqua eye shadow swatches part 2

New Brand: Rouge Bunny Rouge

Rouge Bunny Rouge is a brand from Russia, they seem relatively unknown in the UK and have only recently become available to buy online. I saw a great review on Grace's blog (http://londonmakeupgirl.blogspot.com/) and after reading it I knew I had to place an order from Zuneta. I got lipsticks (£22) in 'Irreverence', described as a "Creamy, satin-finish natural rosy pink" , this is sheerer than I thought it would be, I'd say it has an almost peachy/beige tone to it mixed in with the rosy pink, a very nice natural looking every day shade . The other lipstick I got is called 'Nothing Unknown', described as "cool nude-beige base with an ash-mauve opalescence" I would say this is pretty much spot on although I would say the base is neutral rather than cool, I do like this shade but feel it would have been better without the opalescence. I got eye shadows (£22) in Solstice Halcyon,described as a mauve beige, I agree with Grace that this is more of a glowy medium taupe with a hint of mauve, and Gracious Arasari, this is described as "Semi-matte nude taupe, with the barest whisper of pink" I'd say this leans more to a beige than a taupe. Quality wise it is very good and I think in terms of price range, I would choose this brand over say Chantecaille, Sisley.
Just a note that Zuneta never sent a confirmation email.
Here are some pictures, eyeshadow on left is 'Gracious Arasari', right 'Solstice Halcyon'. Lipsticks top 'Nothing unknown', below is 'Irreverence'

Illamasqua "Odd" pencil update

If you had read my previous post entitled "Illamasqua bits and bobs" I was not too happy with the texture of my "Odd" medium pencil. I emailed Illamasqua and apparently they are going to look into it. They sent me medium pencil in "Devotion" to make up for it, which is a lovely mint green and the texture is really smooth as per my other medium pencil Hex. I was very impressed that Illamasqua replied so fast to my email and send me a replacement, can't beat that for customer service!

Illamasqua eyeshadow swatches part 1

I thought it might be useful to start swatching some of my Illamasqua eye shadows, I'll need to do it in a few stages as I have quite a lot ! If you want any descriptions of any of the colours just let me know.

MAC 15 pan palette

I finally finished filling up my MAC 15 pan palette so thought I’d take a pic of it in all its glory! I tend to buy MAC’s limited edition shades which come in pot form so its taken me a while to fill this up. I have tried depotting in the past, with very bad results so had to acknowledge that I don’t posess the required skills !

MAC make some great eye shadow colours and some of the formulas ( Veluxe pearl in particular) do have a nice texture but I always find I get colour fade by the end of the day even if using a base (TF shadow insurance) so they will never be my favourite brand of shadow for that reason, that said they do look like they have some nice collections coming up for the rest of the year................

Closer look at Illamasqua Sirens

Looking at the new Illamasqua catalogue I think some of the Sirens collection may have been incorporated into the main line up rather than being limited edition. As such I thought I'd post some more pictures of the items I picked up from the collection. I got two of the fat pencils in Perverse (sheer shimmery platinum) and Fickle (shimmery bronze) these have a really smooth texture and last well. As I'm very pale Perverse does not show as really noticeable on me so I think it maybe more suited to slightly darker skin than mine, Fickle on the other hand is really pigmented, I'm loving using this as a liner and in the crease. Both these pencils are not limited to eye area and I have used both on the lip area.


Soul sheer lip gloss I have already wrote about (slightly frosty peach champagne) this is a very easy to wear shade and Illamasqua lip glosses are pigmented and very long lasting without being really sticky ( I hate sticky lip glosses) . Liquid metal in Solstice has become somewhat of a cult product, I love using this as a liner, or just a light dab on the centre of lips, this is extremely pigmented, almost looks a bit like gold leaf but in a good way! a really rich golden metallic .It’s a very intense colour, and I did get a few looks when I wore it to work the other day, so for day wear use sparely :) . It has a non greasy texture and lasts very well.
Lament nail varnish, I have already mentioned (hot coral) I'm really loving this shade for summer, it definitely gets noticed as its rather bright.
I think whether your cool or warm toned you will find something in this collection as its quite a nice mix. Can't wait to see what they bring out for Fall.

Illamasqua bits and bobs

Here are pictures of a few more Illamasqua items I picked up. I got two of the medium pencils as I think it was Pixiwoo who raved about them on youtube, Gossmakeupartist recommended Hex for the lower lash line to brighten the area(in place of your typical white which is more commonly used) so easily influenced that I am I ordered Hex and Odd.
Hex is a very slightly warm beige and does indeed brighten and open up the eye area when used on the lower waterline, however as I am very pale I do think this colour would look more natural on those slightly darker than me.I can also use this colour as a lip liner if I am doing a nude lip look. Odd is a cool toned medium almost forest green, unfortunately its texture is nothing like Hex and whilst it lasts very well it does not apply smoothly which I think you can see in the swatch I have done, I think I will order another of the ones more used for the eye area to see if the texture of these are indeed different to the ones more aimed at both/just lips like Hex and will report back as Hex applies so smoothly, pigmentated, no tugging and lasts really well so I'm hoping my odd pencil was just a dud.
I also got a cream blusher in Lies, this is a highlighter shade IMO, and applies as a cool pink shimmery sheen, I use it as I use my Armani fluid sheer 7. Lies looks great if you apply it on the cheeks first and then layer your normal blush over it, gives a really radiant flush to the skin which lasts right through the day which surprised me as texture wise it has a lot of slip to it. I will also say that ingredients wise these seem OK for those acne prone, I'm extremely acne prone so cream blushers are usually a problem for me so I will definitely pick up another shade.

Lastly I just posted a swatch of my furore pigment as I had previously only posted a pic of the product which isn't very helpful (its a very shimmery peach champagne) I have a lot less fallout with this compared to MAC pigments and this lasts better as well.

Becca nude lipsticks

Nude lipstick can be hard to pull off, I'm cool toned and rather pale so they tend to make me look washed out. Becca offer a good selection of 4 nude lip colours (Gisella, Estella,Laelia and Yasmina) within their sheer tint lip colour range. The two I have are Gisella (peachy/caramel pinky nude) and Yasmina (mauve/beige nude)they feel very creamy and comfortable on, pigmentation is good for a sheer lipstick, they don't last long but that seems to be the case for most brands range of sheer lipsticks. Of the two Gisella is probably the safer option as Yasmina is probably best for those cool toned and I could see it pulling a bit too brown on some so ymmv with that one.
The Becca website tends to do at least one 20% off a year so its worth checking makeup boards/blogs for codes as if they give a code for the American site this applies to UK site as well.

Illamasqua glosses

Your probably seeing a trend here :) Yes, Illamasqua is fast becoming my favourite brand. When they called them intense glosses they weren't kidding, these are extreme and they do apply exactly as swatched.Follow is a glacé cherry red,Temper is a bright tomato red, both these shades are bordering on neon and I do wear them applied very lightly as I'm not quite brave enough yet for their full on effect ! Move is a very wearable mauve. Soul and Rouse are from their sheer gloss line, soul is a shimmery bordering on frosty peach champagne and Rouse is a sheer baby pink.

More Illamasqua!!!

MAC's naked honey and colour craft collection looked somewhat lacklustre so I decided to buy some more Illamasqua instead. I got some more eye shadows as below and a lip palette and a few more bits I will post about later. I have to say Welt and plunge are a bit too bright for me so I do wear those with a gloss. The eye shadows are all hits, Fallen is a true cool toned purple, Soul is a true silver with a beautiful sheen to it, Fiasco is a rich cool toned teal(leading more to blue than green), Venus is a cornflower blue and slink is a shimmery champagne gold.

And back to Chanel we go......?

I used to buy loads of Chanel makeup, I think this was in part due to having a very friendly and helpful SA, it makes a difference, the whole experience was an extremely positive one, however she left last year and was replaced with someone who was indifferent with a lack of any knowledge of the brand and not very nice, the result, I barely looked at the counter anymore and instead went onto other brands. Its amazing the impact good customer service makes, I find I buy more from Fresh and Illamasqua at the moment as they are always a pleasure to deal with whereas I dramatically reduced what I bought from Armani due to bad service and have been put off Sisley before even buying that much due to a rude SA.
That said I haven't gone completely cold turkey, I can't argue that Chanel make some really good easy to wear timeless items, and this year I did pick up two lipsticks from the spring collection ( from another Chanel counter !) and having looked online at their fall collection I can see it may well be a hit for me.
These are the two spring lipsticks I picked up Panarea (top), a slightly shimmery sheer/medium brown with a slight berry tone and Ischia (bottom), shimmery pinky mauve

Illamasqua nail varnish

I have a few Illamasqua nail varnishes now, see picture below. These apply true to the colour in the bottle ( you don't need loads of coats) they last well with minimal chipping, and dry fast. Out of all the polishes I have tried ( which is a mix of both low and high end) I definitely prefer these, the only one I had that I wasn't too keen on was Brigette as this took a while to set ( this is one of the Juicy ones so its a different formula, loved the colour though, jelly like cherry).
Loella is a true bubblegum pink with a bit of fuchsia/lavender shimmer, Lament is a hot coral (great shade for summer), Obtuse is a shimmery,almost metallic goldy bronze and Boosh, a deep true black.