Rouge Bunny Rouge: C Major - a Minor and Fire-Tailed Sunbird

Zuneta are offering 20% off RBR products for September only (code found at http://zuneta.blogspot.com/ ). Naturally this was too good an offer to miss out on so I picked up some more bits to add to my rapidly expanding RBR collection. I got an eyeshadow duo in C Major - a Minor (Iridescent sheer mint and iridescent sheer lilac) and an eyeshadow in Fire-Tailed Sunbird ( peach with an iridescent pink running through). I really like these shades, RBR shadows have good colour payoff are really soft and blendable and last well.

I got some more items but I'll post about them once I have tried them a bit more. RBR is definitely in my top three brands and I'm looking forward to see what else they put out this year.

Armani Eyes To Kill mascara

This retails for £21. Available in four shades, I got shade#1 (Black), although I am tempted by the red one (shade#4) just to see what it would look like on. It comes in a sleek tube and is rather heavy !
Unfortunately I have rather bad lashes,short,very fine and not evenly distributed and kinda droopy, sounds good doesn't it ! Due to this I expect a lot from a Mascara, as I haven't got much to work with. I need length, thickness and curl. On the whole I would say that Armani mascara has always delivered the best results; the only one I wasn't keen on was Maestro. Soft lash is great for a more subtle look and Starlash was my favourite mascara out of every brand I have tried but this has now been discontinued.
I am happy to report that I am rather impressed by Eyes to Kill. It does add length, thickness and lift and I do not get any flaking or smearing at the end of the day. I think the only disadvantage is that if you try to build it you will get it go on clumpy, so luckily I am happy with the look I get from two coats of it, as below
Ideally I would rather spend less on a mascara, but for the last 4 months I have tried to find a cheaper one ( Rimmel, L'Oreal, MAC, Clinique, Boots 17 ) that works for me; instead they have all ended up in the bin and have cost me far more than had I just stuck to high end.
####UPDATE: after about a months use the formula went dry and started to apply really clumpy####

Armani Manta Ray fall collection 2009

Armani remain one of my favourite brands, at one point I had a ridiculous amount of their stuff but due to some bad customer service and poor brand accessibility ( I don’t live near any of the stores so mail order) I’ve have barely ordered Armani over the last two years.
My luminous silk powder finally ran out and as this is a holy grail for me I had to get a replacement, naturally I had to order a few bits with it :)
I got the eyes to kill mascara, which I’ll be reviewing separately as I like to wear a mascara for a few days before giving my thoughts (this costs a fun £21!). I also got the two Armanisilk lipsticks and the sheer blusher all from the Manta Ray fall collection. I did contemplate ordering one of the new Eyes to Kill palettes but at £49 each I thought that was a bit steep.
I really like the Armanisilk lipstick formula, its creamy, pigmented and lasts very well. These cost £19 each. Shade #93 is a cool toned mauve rose. Shade #92, is a cool toned vampy plum, I think it has a slight grey tone to it.
I also got sheer blush #12, this is a beautiful cool toned subtle pink with shimmer. I really love this shade, as I find a lot of pinks turn out warm on me or have different colour tones, whereas this is a true pink. I will say this applies sheer, great for me as I’m really pale so one application is enough but I do think this will work best on lighter skin tones.
Lipstick swatches L-R shade #93, #92

MAC- the perfect cheek and Sharp focus

I had a look at the four MAC collections released this month and only came away with the perfect cheek blusher and sharp focus.
The perfect cheek is a muted mix of matte beige with pink and peach tones, on my complexion this nearly ends up looking a bit dirty if I apply too heavily, but I do really like the shade when I don't want an obvious pink or peach hue. I will say this applies quite sheer so not sure that it would show up too well on those with medium to darker skintones. Just a note that MAC's matte blusher shades I can use but their sheertones ones break me out.
Lastly I got lipstick in Sharp focus, this is labelled as a lustre but is completely not like any lustre I have tried, this does not apply with a lot of slip and is quite dry so you may need to use a balm prior to application. The advantages of it not having the normal lustre qualities is that its a lot more pigmented and lasts a lot longer. The colour is a medium to deep brown plum, this is about as dark as I can go with lip colours. Potentially this could pull quite brown on some so probably best to test first if possible

Closer look at Illamasqua nail varnishes

I've mentioned before that I really like Illamasqua nail varnishes,what you see in the bottle is what you get on your nails, they don't chip as much as other polishes do on me ( I'm looking at you Chanel !) and they dry quite fast.I think the only negative is that they contain formaldehyde.

Boosh is a deep black, Baptist is a rich shimmery true purple,Loella is a bubblegum pink with a bit of fuchsia/lavender shimmer, Obtuse is a shimmery,almost metallic goldy bronze nude, Lament is a hot coral.

I've taken swatches in natural light and with a flash to hopefully capture the colour.
L-R:Obtuse,Lament,Loella,Baptist,Boosh

YSL fall lips

I don't tend to buy from YSL as the few things I have bought in the past have been disappointing (eyeshadows, lipgloss) and I really dislike their packaging. That said I have heard a lot of raves for the Rouge Volupte lipsticks so knew I'd end up trying one at some point.
I had a look at the fall collection a few days ago and the Gloss volupte caught my eye. They have released four shades and three on them look REALLY bright in the tube (except shade #1, this is almost clear once applied so I'd give that a miss) .Straight away I wanted the frosted plum shade (#4) but they had not received shipment of this shade at any of the counters I went to so I settled for #2, chilled raspberry.
What we get is a sheer cool toned wet look pink,very wearable but not the most unique shade. Texture wise they have a lot of slip, are not sticky in the least, colour though very sheer is buildable ( but your not going to get the colour as it appears in the tube).
As they had some new Rouge Volupte lipsticks I got shade #20; spicy pink. This is a pinky brown (who would have guessed !) but it does have a noticeable mauve tone so if you are warm toned I'd avoid this one. Pigmentation is really good and the texture is creamy and the shade wears well. Both are £20 each and are heavily scented (fruity) I prefer unscented stuff ideally.
For me both shades are really wearable but not must haves, I think that #4 frosted plum maybe a bit more unique and as the YSL SA's said no where has stock of it I have taken that to be a challenge.... it will be mine :) I've updated my swatches as the light was poor the first time. On the left is Spicy pink, on the right is chilled Raspberry

Tag-I think You're An Awsome Girl

I was tagged by two lovely ladies, Shifa at http://getgawjus.blogspot.com/ and My Humble Reviews (http://myhumblereviews.blogspot.com/) to list 10 random facts about myself and tag 10 others.

1. I have a 14 month old little boy
2. I have not been on holiday for over 8 years
3. I hate Jam
4. I have too much makeup ;)
5. I keep buying similar shades (how many taupe eyeshadows and pinky brown lipsticks are needed, really…)
6. I hate having birds fly near me
7. one of my most rated films is pan's labyrinth
8. I get hayfever
9. I’ve not been swimming for over 10 years (wonder if you forget )
10. I can only put together (take photos etc) for my blog posts when my little one is asleep as I no longer posses free time.

I tag 10 other great blogs

1.londonmakeupgirl
2.Lipstick Fever
3.pinksparkle84
4.Dazzle 'n' Sparkle
5.Rupa's Makeup Diary
6.So I want to be an alternative model........
7.Robert Smith's Mistress Makeup Wonderland
8.too much blush
9.Mizz Worthy's Stuff
10.Whitz World of Makeup & Beauty