iBeautyTips

Hey there,

Ok, so you may or may not have gathered that i am just a tad obsessed with eyelashes and mascara, but i really hate how wearing lots of mascara weakens and shortens your eyelashes.

So, i’ve decided to test two methods/products to help keep my lashes long and at their best.

1. Vaseline – This is a well known tip (apply a small amount of vaseline to your eyelashes every night). It is even used by people such as Nicola Roberts.

2. Lorea’l Renewal Lash Serum – Retailing at £10.99 it’s the 1st product easily available to anyone designed to basically renew your lashes from the likes of mascara etc..

Every night i’m going to put one on each eye and after two weeks i’m going to compare the difference it’s made and which is better – Traditional or new?

Have your say – just leave a comment below this post…

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Charlotte

xxxxxxx

Hey there,

This is going to be a quick post/notification of new spring collections (a la nail varnish)!

These are the new essie ones (my favourite), and they cost around £9 a bottle. They are available off ebay, asos, liberty’s and selfridges. Click here for the official site.

And here is the new O.P.I. spring range…

Below, there’s a special collection – ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is inspired by Tim Burton’s new film – these sell for £9-£10, and they’re a pain to find, so i would recommend buying them online. Click here to look at a UK authorised opi retailer…

And here are the chanel ones…£13 a bottle…i’d recommend scavenging on ebay…

So, the main colours this spring are nude, pretty, and soft (apart from O.P.I’s extra collection!) I’d recommend starting afresh this season with a lovely new nail polish – maybe you can buy one per season and build up a collection yourself (this is what i’m currently doing). My pick is Essie’s ‘Lilacism’ (the second one to the right on the first picture).

Remember to apply a base and top coat with any nail polish, but most importantly, have fun with the colours!

If you have any feedback, feel free to comment below.

Subscribe for more reviews, tips and tricks of the trade.

Tamara

xxxxxx

I’ve been debating making this post for a little while, but my need to be upfront about why I do not support particular companies won out.

1. Archetype Cosmetics: While people rave that Archetype’s eyeshadows are amazing, the company is known for having the worst customer service in indie makeup. You’re lucky if you receive your order within a month; typically people wait about 3 months to receive their order, but I have heard of it taking even longer. When you do receive your order, if you do actually receive it, often things are missing from it. Any efforts to contact Holly, the owner, are completely ignored, including PayPal disputes, unless you are able to hunt down the phone number to the antique mall she works at, in which case you might be able to get ahold of her.

2. Evil Shades Cosmetics: My first order was missing something. I contacted Andrea, the owner, about the problem and she assured me I would get the missing item with my next order. My next order arrived, and once again it was missing something. Both were small orders, and both orders I placed with the company being messed up is enough for me to not go back. Please see my review here.

3. Lime Crime: Every single one of her eyeshadows has been matched to a TKB mica with the exception of Lime Criminal, which matches a 50/50 blend of Lemon Drop and Green Apple Pop! micas. She denies all claims of being a repacker, and has accused TKB of copying her. Denying it is one thing, but accusing a long-standing a well-known mineral makeup supply company of copying you, when they’ve sold the colors for years longer than your company has even been around? That’s just silly.

   Doe Deere/Xenia/Limey has also been known for harassing people who say anything negative about her company or products, including, but not limited to, making bogus legal threats in order to force bloggers to remove their reviews, one of the more well-known recepients of such being Grey of LeGothique.com.

4. Morgana Minerals: If someone posts a less-than-stellar review of your company or products, the professional thing to do is to contact them privately to discuss their concerns, or leave a comment with your contact info, inviting them to contact you. Completely inappropriate? Making an angry-sounding public comment chewing the person out and embarrassing them.

5. Pure Luxe: Last year, the Mineral Makeup Mutiny made a blog post about how TKB’s Pop! collection tends to get repacked pretty often by mineral makeup companies. In that post, Pure Luxe’s Bubblegum Ballz collection photo was used. No identifying information was included, so you would have to know it belonged to Pure Luxe already to know that’s where the photo came from.

   Christina, the owner of Pure Luxe, wanted the image removed, so instead of contacting the Mutiny privately, she made a very nasty and very public comment that contained bogus legal threats. The image was removed, but in all of the drama, Christina never denied being a repacker. Just as well, because the Bubblegum Ballz are not the only thing she appears to repack. Please see my post here.

6. Sweet Libertine Cosmetics: Grey posted an honest review of the company, and the owner didn’t take it well; she ran her mouth on Twitter and caused a bunch of the company’s fans to harrass Grey, mostly anonymously.

7. Taylor Made: I have made probable matches between most of their eyeshadow line and TKB micas and pigments. Anything I am able to get my hands on usually gets confirmed as a dupe once I swatch it. In spite of this, Taylor continues to claim her company is not a repacker. Please see my posts here and here.

8. TheSheSpace/About Face: Heather’s customer service has apparently completely gone to pot, especially since she announced she would be closing in order to do a new project. More and more people seem to be having problems with their orders, with pigments missing, full-size pigments being replaced with sample sizes, et cetera. Emails about problems are ignored, PMs on her forums are disabled, and so when someone resorts to trying to post in a contact thread that Heather specifically set up so that people could get ahold of her, she chews them out for doing so, and lets a group of her die-hard “Heather can do no wrong” fans call the person a troll (I wish I were kidding, but I’ve seen it myself). She claims emails have been working perfectly, and then she makes announcements saying emails are fixed, contradicting her earlier claim that they were working fine. She “plays dumb” when people do finally get ahold of her for order problems, and her solution is to PayPal a couple dollars, letting PayPal take their fees of course, instead of actually trying to satisfy the customer.

   Not only that, but I’m hearing stories of other people getting duplicate colors. If you recall my review (here), Heather blamed one of her employees for puting the wrong pigment in the bag. Now the theory is that she actually recycles colors in the limited edition collections. Clearance prices or not, ordering from her is not worth the hassle.

Filed under: Repackaging, Review Tagged: About Face, Archetype Cosmetics, Evil Shades, Lime Crime, Morgana Minerals, Pure Luxe, Repackaging, repacker, Review, Sweet Libertine, Taylor Made, TheSheSpace

Before Ordering: I had been hearing about Hi-Fi for months, and chewed on ordering for awhile. It took me some time to narrow down my order to boot.

What I Ordered: Samples of Boom Shaka Laka, Chicago, Crazy Little Thing, Deck the Halls, Distortion, Don’t Forget the Violence, Forsaken, Grinch, Rising Tide, and Teen Spirit eyeshadows, and a full-size jar of Hope.

Shipping Time: I placed my order on January 19th and received it on February 16th. From what I have read this is not a normal timeframe for Hi-Fi at all, but Veronica, the owner, updated her blog with the circumstances. The delay in shipping on this order would not keep me from ordering again.

Packaging: My order arrived in a paper mailer. Opening it up, I found the sample baggies I ordered inside one ziplock baggie, and some free samples along with a business card inside another ziplock baggie. A copy of the invoice, complete with check marks made next to my items, as well as a promotional magnet, a magnetic calendar, and a postcard with a discount code were included.

Hope was inside its own little ziplock baggie then placed inside a small organza bag, along with a pink ribbon pin made by Veronica. To clarify, Hope is a special edition color that raises money for the Keep-A-Breast Foundation and is advertised as being paired with a pin, but I wasn’t expecting it to be packaged in the organza bag, which I thought was cute.

My free samples were Buttercup, Five O’Clock, and In Bloom eyeshadows, and a little flip-top of Got the Life Lip Glaze (also inside its own little ziplock baggie).

Ingredients: Ingredients are not listed on sample baggies, but there is a “may contain” list on the bottom of full-size jars. Even better, the stickers are shiny and seem like they’re water-resistant, reducing the risk of turning the list into a wet ink blur when you set the jar down on the bathroom counter.

Ingredients are also listed as may contains within Hi-Fi’s Etsy shop, but I have heard Veronica responds to emails pretty promptly and I believe asking for specific color help should not be an issue.

The Product:

While the colors I chose are not the most complex, they are gorgeous. I kept saying “wow” as I swatched them – just look at how bright they are! Teen Spirit is unlike any color I have, the closest being Fyrinnae’s Digital Faerie, but the two are completely different! No, I cannot stop using exclamation marks!

Eyeshadow samples are 1/4 tsp, and they look like it, too, in comparison to other samples. Full-size jars are standard 5g square-side jars, packed full with a sifter.

Customer Service: I had no need to contact Veronica personally, as she posted multiple status updates on her blog and so I was not too concerned with the whereabouts of my order. Again, I have heard that she responds to emails promptly and politely, though.

Final Thoughts:

• Was I happy with my purchase? Yes!
• Would I order from Hi-FI again? Definately.
• Rating? 5 out of 5 stars.

Filed under: Review, Swatches Tagged: haul, Hi-Fi Cosmetics, Review, Swatches

Back in December of last year, this image appeared on my tumblr dashboard.

My immediate response? I decided I wanted to do an eyeshadow look based on it. Being that the image came my way via Miss K of Aromaleigh, it’s only flitting that I created the look with Aromaleigh eyeshadows.

Base: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Primer: Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy on lid, over TFSI
Inner 1/3 of lid and lower lashline: Aromaleigh Pure Eyes Frost in Dandelion (applied dry)
Middle 1/3 of lid: Aromaleigh Rocks! in Dominion (applied dry)
Outer 1/3 of lid, wing, outer 2/3 of lower lashline: Aromaleigh Holiday Blast 2008 in Not So Silent Night (applied dry)
Browbone: Aromaleigh L’Orchidee in Seed Pearl
Top lashline, bottom waterline: MAC Powerpoint pencil in Engraved (applied before eyeshadow)
Top lashline: Laura Mercier Caviar Eye Liner in black to fill lashline
Mascara: CoverGirl LashBlast Volume in Very Black
Brow: Meow Cosmetics BrowBeater in Auburn

Just for fun, I added a light application of Aromaleigh Rocks! lip color in Notorious – I don’t know why I’m so afraid of lipcolor!

Filed under: Eye of the Day Tagged: Aromaleigh, EOTD, Eye of the Day, Fyrinnae, Pixie Epoxy

Before Purchase: I had looked at e.l.f. before, but it wasn’t until I read a post by Janet at My Naked Face that I realized they have a pretty nice-looking brush line. I checked the site, and, just my luck, they had a buy one, get one half off coupon code for the weekend.

Price: The Studio line brushes are sold on the website for $3 each (or $5-$8 for the kabuki brushes), but with the coupon code I saved $4.50 on 6 brushes. Even without the coupon code, this is significantly cheaper than brush lines at many other retailers.

Shipping Time: I placed my order on February 13th, received a shipping notice with tracking number on February 18th, and received the actual package on February 25th. A little longer than I would like, but not unreasonable.

Packaging: Each brush was packaged inside a plastic pouch; as I understand it, e.l.f. products can be found at some brick and mortar stores, so this was not surprising. They were placed inside a plastic drawstring bag and sent to me via bubble mailer with a copy of the invoice.

Ingredients: The Studio line brushes are all takalon, a synthetic fiber, with black-painted wood handles and metal ferrules. I chose to purchase brushes exclusively from the Studio line because they are synthetic.

The Product:

Small Angled Brush: the bristles are slightly longer than I expected, but otherwise the size is pretty close to MAC’s 208 brush. The 208 is my liner brush of choice, but I think this brush might be taking its spot.

Contour Brush: simply amazing for the crease! I’ve never cared much about my crease, for whatever reason, but this little round dome brush made it incredibly easy to add some shading. A definite keeper.

Fan Brush: I’ve been looking at fan brushes for quite some time, for using to dust off eyeshadow that may fall onto my cheeks during application. Search completed, this does exactly what I need it to do.

Powder Brush: I bought this flat-top brush for the purpose of testing against my kabuki with foundation application. I’m far too used to my kabuki, and all I managed to do was flick a lot of foundation right off of the brush and into the sink. I have a feeling this brush will be given to my sister, because I don’t wear blush, and really do not have use for it.

Concealer Brush: my previous concealer brush, an old mark. one, had taken a bit of a beating; the bristles somehow now form an actual angled tip! Since receiving my order, the e.l.f. brush is the only concealer brush I’ve used.

Small Precision Brush: I bought this little guy for eyeshadow application, wanting a smaller brush for use in the corners of my lids. Another definite keeper, and, in fact, I want to buy a couple more. This brush would also be great for concealer.

My two nitpicks:

1. The fan brush’s bristles were kind of bent on both sides inside the package, which you can see in the above photo; they have a slight inward curve on the side sections. It bugs me, but does not hinder its use.
2. The powder brush kept releasing black dye! I washed all brushes prior to use, and, washing the powder brush last, I noticed the suds were pretty obviously grey. I washed the brush two more times with the same result. I washed the brush again after using it, and I saw more dye come out than foundation. I don’t know what’s up with that!

Final Thoughts:

• Was I happy with my purchase? Yes.
• Would I purchase more of the e.l.f. Studio brushes? Yes.
• Rating? 5 out of 5 stars.

Filed under: Product Review Tagged: e.l.f., haul, Review

Today’s mail – another TKB order. I think the number of times I have ordered from them now should be indication enough, do I still need to write that review? *laughs*

TKB orders can be bittersweet. Some of them are for personal fun, like my previous order, and some of them are for the support of honesty in the indie mineral makeup industry.

Bittersweet.

Filed under: Mail Call Tagged: haul, TKB Trading

Of course, I had to test a few of my new Essence items on Friday. I was too curious, honestly. As always it’s a colourful eye make up and as always I wore this in public. But believe me, noone wanted to burn me as a witch and noone laughed at me because he or [...]

Hi lovelies! Yeah, finally I found some time to get back to business as usual. I’m happy to say that I’ve already posted the packages to the winners Andreia and Isa. I hope that both ladies will receive them very soon. As for me, I’m still busy but I wanted to meet my cousin who felt [...]

Hello beautiful ladies! As promised I’m back again though I’m superduper tired today. But I don’t want to let you wait ages just because Madame Mylanqolia pretends to have a migraine. At first I’d like to thank you sooooo much for your amazing feedback on the haters issue. You are very precious ladies and I’m madly happy [...]

Hiya lovelies! So sorry about the rant but I had to vent my feelings. But don’t worry, I’m still fine and I haven’t forgotten about the giveaway. So, I’ll announce the two winners tomorrow though I’d love to draw them now because I don’t think that someone new will enter. Yeah, I know that I [...]

Dear representatives of the species hater or misantropist,
I know that it’s hard to get familiar with my eye make up creations. They are either bizarre or too loud. Actually, it’s a matter of taste if you love or hate them. I don’t expect all people to enjoy them. No way! What a surprise!I’m still realistic. This [...]

Hello Divas,

These past few weeks have not been the greatest in my life…feeling moddy, stressed…etc. But what I found amazing and wanted to write about (despite my moodiness) is how smelling certain odors can make you feel better…(or worst). I have been burning a lavender aromatherapy candle oil by TISSERAND that automatically makes me feel more calm and better. I don’t know if it is the aromatherapy thing or the odor but it really leaves a stress relieving smell in a room that is worth a million…Now I have no clue where you can get it in US as it was a gift bought in Dubai but I would suggest you try bath and body works aromatherapy oils. The aromatherapy gels and lotions are also fabulous at bath and body works.

Another thing is perfume. I have at least a dozen of bottles of perfumes but mostly use the same ones…Coco Mademoiselle being my favorite. But lately, with all my mood swings, it takes me a second each morning to think about how I wanna smell…(I don’t know if I you will find me weird…lol). Here are a few good ones that you can try that I like:

• FLOWER BOMB by Victor Rolf
• MAGNETISM by ESCADA
• VERA WANG by VERA WANG
• LOLA by MARC JACOBS
• 1881 by CERRUTI
• DIOR CHERIE by CD
• LOLITA LEMPIKA

Coco Mademoiselle by CHANEL remains my signature scent though…

The lavender oil is burning in my room as I am writingthese last lines and it makes me feel like taking a good bath and goind to bed…

XoXo

eVaDiVa

PS: I realize that this post may make u think about reasons of moodiness and smelling odors but it is nothing like that…! lol