ILLAMASQUA Fatale Eyeshadow Palette - Swatches and First Impressions

Hello!

This quick post is about the latest eye shadow quad palette from Illamasqua. Moving on really nicely from the creamy textured powder Paranormal Palette (see photos below), this palette is back to their smooth, soft powdery dry texture.

It is interesting to note that the Paranormal Palette is made in Thailand, and the Fatale Palette is made in Germany. I have found the best cosmetics products and brands are often made in Germany, but that is not to say that the Thailand-derived products are inferior. It is most likely to do with the ingredients and process of the eyeshadow, and who can make it.

Below are the images from the Illamasqua website, and a face chart using the palette from their Instagram account.

Their website states: 

"Put your eyes in the spotlight with this powder eye shadow palette. Enjoy four intense shimmer shades: bronzed gold, sultry berry shimmer, chestnut brown and seductive violet shimmer. Wear separately or blend to create your own bespoke look."

I think the colours definitely appear dark and brighter on the website, but luckily I saw it in store at Myer and was in love at first sight.

These shadows are highly pigmented, shimmery and soft. I cannot wait to use these tonight (going to Strike bowling with Alex and my parents).

To use on their own I think they would work well on bare lids, but if you have oily lids like me, perhaps use an eyeshadow primer or one of Illamasqua's creamy bases.

Another idea is to use the creamy texture of the Paranormal palette as bases for the powdery shades (3 of the colours are quite similar, but different enough to warrant buying both).

Here I've swatched Paranomal on its own, then with Ensnare on top. Although you may not be able to tell much of a difference, Ensnare adds a two-tone shimmer to this look and also sets the creamier shadow so it won't slide around on your lid.

As always, the packaging is gorgeous. Probably not the smallest of palettes to lug around on a daily basis, but I never take my eyeshadows with me. I've never been into de-potting palettes, mainly because you pay for packaging, so you may as well enjoy it.

Make sure to follow me on Instagram @ lucyhelena to see the look I create with this palette.

Love + Lipstick,

xx Lucy.

SPECKLE PASTEL OMBRE NAILS

Hello!

It doesn't matter what time of year it is, pastel nails are always appropriate in my books. When I first got my hands on Illamasqua's speckle polishes in Speckle and Scarce I didn't even bother doing one colour to a nail. I saw someone on instagram via their profile post an ombre look and I thought I'd give it a go.

Unlike other ombre nail looks which required sponges, white base coats and tricky top-coats without blurring the art, this technique is simple.

This ombre mani is so shockingly easy and I do apologise for not showing it broken down into steps, but the trick to it working well is to paint the second colour immediately after the first colour so you can do a little blending. The reason why this works so well is the speckle finish/texture of the nail polish and specks of glitter hide the "blend line".

I ventured into the post-Boxing Day sales today and discovered Fragile and Mottle on sale for $11! I couldn't resist. That's 50% off (I think).

So I really just winged it with this look and made up the colour combos as I went. I used Sally Hansen base coat and top coat as pictured, then decided to add another element to this look with Illamasqua top coat in Prism. This makes any colour mermaidy and pearlescent.

***** Please excuse my cuticles. I couldn't find my cuticle trimmer*****

Step 1: Apply base coat to whole nail and edge of nail. I've been using this one since I had my Japanese gel nails removed to get my nails back to their strong state. It's worked a treat!

Step 2: Apply thick coat of colour 1 (keep all bottles open so you can quickly switch between brushes) from the base of the nail about half way.

Step 3: Apply a thick coat of colour 2 starting exactly where colour 1 ends, slightly overlap if you like, but you don't have to. Add a quick swipe to the edge of the nail to seal the colour and prevent chipping.

Step 4: If the colour looks sheer, repeat steps 2 and 3, but I usually find this is where the ombre effects starts to look more like colour-blocking. That's why one thick coat works better than two thin coats with this technique. 

Alternate colours however you like. I've done all 10 fingers with pink as colour 1 and purple as colour 2, but this time I just changed it up each time.

Step 5: Wait until dry and then apply top coat to whole nail and edge of nail to seal.

Step 6: (optional) add shimmer/pearl top-coat.

I haven't tried it with any other brand of speckle polish, but if you're after a cheaper alternative, I've seen gift packs on sale in Myer and Target by ChiChi.

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into one of my favourite manicures.

Love + Lipstick,

xx Lucy

GOLD DIGGER - GOLD GLITTER NEW YEAR'S EVE MAKE-UP

Hello!

It's almost the end of 2013 and what better way to bring in the New Year than with a bunch of glitter and a smile?

I decided to challenge myself to not only use my Lime Crime Zodiac glitters, which I don't use often enough, but to also restrict myself to a 1-colour theme.

This proved challenging, because I love using several colours at once to create my daily unicorn mermaid looks, but it turns out I have a lot more gold products than I realised.

I show all of the products in the video, but please feel free to comment below if you have any questions about where to buy them, where I personally bought them from and how they compare to other similar products.

Make sure to subscribe to my channel to be notified when new videos are added, as well as catch up on my first batch of videos.

Looking forward to posting on here as regularly as possible!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love + Lipstick

xx Lucy

Love + Lipstick xx Lucy

Hello! Bonjour! Konichiwa!

Welcome to the first post of my beauty blog.

I've been wanting to do this for a while - have a dedicated site to show images, links to videos, product reviews etc that's a lot more formalised than Instagram, Facebook etc.

I will continue to share my links to this blog, my YouTube channel etc on my Facebook page, but that page will serve more as a hub of links.

This blog will be where it all comes together. One place for you to read about my daily beauty routines, blunders, reviews, swatches, photos, hauls and of course rants. I love to rant.

If I have an issue with a product or service, I'm going to speak up. If I'm paying full price for a product, I expect it to be amazing. That's speaking about quality.

If a product is cheap, I can settle for less quality and more of a one-off or fashion item.

Anyway, before I rant too much, this is just a welcome.

Star this page on Chrome, Follow me on Google+, bookmark this page - do it all!

https://www.facebook.com/LucyHelenaCreative

http://web.stagram.com/n/lucyhelena/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVqJYnd14suwukwxLxSZjLA

My Fashion Blog: http://wearandtear101.blogspot.com.au/

I will try my best to post every few days.

Of course make sure to Subscribe to my YouTube Channel, Facebook and Instagram.

Can't wait to chat with you all about the things that I love - make-up, hair and style!

Love + Lipstick

xx Lucy.