My Make-up Storage/collection!

Sooooooooo, who wants to see my current make-up collection?  I currently really love the way I store my make-up at the moment, its handy, practical and doesn’t look all to bad.
I’m currently living between two homes; My flat in London where I live during the week with two friends, whilst I’m at uni, and on the weekends I go home to the house I have lived my entire life, with my parents in Essex.  So at the moment I don’t have my entire collection all in one place.  All my favourite bits are here, in London where I spend the majority of my time, and the rest is back at the family home, which I haven't got pictures of yet!

This is my bedside table where I keep my ‘stuff’!
The four tier silver storage thing was like £5 from a little random store on my high street back home, and the silver mesh thing is a stationary separator from Staples, which cost around £6!  It is the perfect size to fit on top of the drawers, and to also hold any random bits.  I keep eye cream, lip balms, some foundations, body oils, brush cleaner and hair sprays here, as well as random essential oils and tattoo balms!
So, I’ll go through all of the drawers with you.
First drawer – Eye shadows! Pigments, glitters, shimmer cubes, paint pots etc!  The Barry M dazzle dusts are kept in a Muji box/tray thing!

Second drawer – Lip products! This is my favourite drawer! I keep most of my lipsticks in a, get this, ferrero rocher box – these are incredible and the perfect size to hold lipsticks, so next time you polish off a box, use it to store!  I keep lip glosses next to the lipsticks, and there is another ferrero box at the back holding even more lip products.

Third drawer – Blushers and bronzers!  I have a selection of shimmer waves, mineralized skin finishes and blushes which I adore, along with a few Body Shop limited edition blushers!

Fourth drawer – Eyeliners/mascaras! I keep a few false lashes on top, and underneath are mascaras, glitter liners, pencil kohls, and two eye shadows quads!  Again, my favourite glitter liners are in a Muji tray that you can see below!

Okay, so thats the drawers, onto the other bits!
 
These clear drawers are the cutest things ever! They are from Muji and it even has a mirror on the top lid, it was around £8 and they have loads of varieties of these boxes, I highly recommend!  Here I keep products that I reach for regularly, Body shop eye shadows and shimmer cubes, Mineral foundation, etc. 
 
I keep some brushes in a JD mug.  Mainly foundation and blusher brushes, along with some nail files.
AND FINALLY!

The products that I will most probably use every day.  I keep my recent favourite lipsticks and blushes here, along with my concelers, mascaras and brushes.  I used to keep my everyday products in a make-up bag, but it got messy and a box is a much cleaner option.  I rarely close the top lid like in the picture above though.  The box was under £2 from Hobby Craft!
So, what does every one think? I ADORE looking at make-up storage solutions and other peoples collections, so I hope you enjoy mine.  If there are any products which you spy and would like a review/swatch of, then let me know, also if there is anything that you want to know what it is, then comment below and I’ll get back to you asap!

Gaga Part 2!

Here it is, the second part of my Gaga dress up!

This looks was inspired by the ‘Sandwich’ scene in the Telephone video

How I did the eyes –

• I primed my eyelids with UDPP, and stuck some selotape along the outer corner of my eye towards the end of my eyebrow
• I then wet an eyeshadow brush and created a paste/creamy eye shadow with The Body Shops shimmer cubes 19, shade 04 sparkling sky and placed it all over my lid up to the crease – like so
• (yes, the only tape in my room was decorated in leopard print!)
• I then picked up a blender brush and blended black eyeshadow (MACs Beauty Marked) in the crease of my eye and up outwards.
• Then I lined my water lines with black kohl, and a little of the blue paste, and smudged some kohl onto my lower lash line.
• I then placed a shimmery gold eyeshadow (MAC’s Nylon) onto my brow bone and in the inner corner of my eye for definition.
• Filled my brows in and added mascara!

It took about 25 mins to do the whole look which was quite speedy for a look I’ve never practised before!  The look lasted the 6 hours until I got home from work completely, it didn’t smudge at all – that’s why UDPP is my holy grail primer.
 
I decided not to wear any false lashes this time as I wanted the blue to stand out, and I didn’t want my eyes to feel heavy again through work, but if I was dressing up properly I would have worn them!  The lipstick I used was TBS #59 which is a gorgeous neon pink, and I used my favourite blusher of the moment, TBS #12 Apricot Shimmer.
Hope you girlies liked this one as much as the last! They are both very opposite looks but so fun to do! Let me know what you think!
& Don’t forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already (The Link is here!!) I’m giving away some cute Body Shop and Gosh beauty products, and the entry closing date is next Thursday! XXX

The Body Shop Lipsticks, part 2!

More Body Shop lipstick swatches!
54 – Pastel Rose

54 is a mega-frosted peach lipstick.  The colour is a nice peach nude, and the frost gives a beautiful shimmery dimension.

66 – Coral Splash

66 is a bright yet kinda dark coral orange.  I think this colour looks stunning on tanned and olive skin tones, a friend of mine wears it and just looks stunning. Coral oranges are very popular in lip and nail shades this spring. 

63 – Sunset Peach

Sunset peach is peachy pink lipstick which I think is very moisturizing.  The colour is beautiful, its almost a nude pink, but with more colour and pigmentation.  I think this is a lovely colour to wear day to day.

10 – Soft Heather

10 is a stunning purple shade, I don’t think I can wear this personally as I’m too pale, but a girl at work wears this and it compliments her tanned bronze skin perfectly, it almost looks like a nude on her.  Purples are also very ‘in’ this spring in the world of make-up and fashion!

14 – Pink Ginger

Pink Ginger is a wearable dark pink which is so pigmented and easy to apply, I can’t help but love it.  I think its quite similar to the new ‘Rougue coco’ Chanel lipstick modelled by Vanessa Paradis!  This lipstick would look gorgeous with a natural eye look with lots of mascara!
You can see my first post with Body Shop swatches in here - http://mesluxes.blogspot.com/2010/03/body-shop-lipsticks.html .  All of these lipsticks are very pigmented and moisturizing with the community traded marula oil and they are also very wearable day to day.
What ones do you like the look of? Have you tried any of these colours before?
I have 4 more body shop lippie swatches coming up in the next week! X

FOTD

I went out with my class last Thursday to celebrate the end of term, and here is how I wore my make-up for that evening!



Eyes – UDPP
MAC Nylon and Beauty Marked eyeshadow
The Body Shop eye shadow in 20, black liquid liner & black super-volume mascara
Gosh velvet touch kohl eyeliner pencil
Lips – My favourite lipstick EVER (at the moment!) MAC’s Patiserie
The Body Shop lip liner in 10 Pink Brown
Face – MAC’s Studio finish concealer in NW15
The Body Shop’s all in one face base 02 and Apricot shimmer 12 on the cheeks!

In this photo I was testing out my new Babylis Pro 230 Radiance Straighteners, one side is obviously straightened and the other isn’t.  I normally straighten my hair once a month as I’m scared about damaging it, and kinda prefer my hair wavy.  I do adore the straighteners though, they heat up to 230 VERY quickly and make my hair super straight.
A quick snap of some of me and my class mates from the night -

XXX

Barry M lipstick swatches

I currently only own two Barry M lipsticks and I love them both so much! Here they are on my lips -
147 -

This is one of my favourite lipsticks, its so beautiful.  Its a gorgeous light peachy pinky coral and its just stunning, I haven't seen a lipstick like this colour and the pigmentation is great.  It can make your teeth look yellow if you put too much on though!
52 -

52 is a brave neon purplish pink, which has been quite fashionable the past year.  There was a week not long ago where I wore this everyday, I just love it.  It is daring and you need to be confident to pull it off.  I didn’t realise quite how bright and purple is was until I took pictures of this!
Conclusion - Barry M have the most beautiful and daring colour collections which is great for those wanting to be different.  The packaging is black and sleek (I’m sure you’ve all seen it!).  The only thing about these lipsticks is that they are quite drying.  They aren't really moisturizing at all, I always need to apply alot of lip balm before and after I use this, but this definitely wouldn’t put me off wearing them!
I hope everyone's having a lovely weekend! XX
Small note – All pictures included are mine, please ask me if you want to use them on your blogs/website and put a link back to my blog.

Surprise!

Hey Guys! So I have some exciting news and some pictures to boot. The Body Shop I work in (Thurrock, Lakeside) has been chosen as the shop to trial a new shop re-vamp! We are having our whole store changed completely at the end of April so I'll let you know the changes when they happen!

As part of the new trial we have also received a completely new make-up section, which I took pictures of, of course!




It all looks lovely and sexy/sophisticated now huh!? The black looks professional and charming, the layout is more playful and fun, and most importantly to me, finally all the eye shadow and lip colours are in colour shade order!! It makes it alot easier on the eye and looks neater aswell. The make-up drawers and the mirror also have a nice wooden effect which looks expensive, but I forgot to take a picture of that!
So, what does everyone think? Should all Body Shops have their make-up counters like this? XX

Small hauls!

Arrgghh, don’t let my Mum see this! Haha!
So I did a tadddd of shopping the other day and just accidentally seemed to buy make-up! I’m so bad.
So, went to MAC in London’s Soho a few weeks back and bought
 
Paintpot in Bare Study
& Woodwinked eye shadow!
I’ve never buy more than two items at MAC, ever, as I always feel so naughty and guilty doing it, as although everything is just beautiful, I’m only a student and just can’t afford it in the first place!  But my collection is slowly growing and I adore every item that I’ve got there.  I decided to get Bare Study PP as I LOVE shimmery gold eyeshadows, one of my favourite eyeshadows being MAC’s Nylon, and as that's running out I decided on this!  So far I’ve only used it with UDPP underneath so I’m not sure at its staying power and its ability to non crease yet, but we will see. Woodwinked is just beautiful, I can’t find any faults in MAC’s eye shadows.
So then, last weekend I went shopping for some black cardboard for my project and for some milk and bread, and came back with lots of make-up and feta cheese! Ugh, help me someone!  I blame this on the ‘Boots Clearance’ in my local retail park.
Boots clearance is actually, uh-mazing.  They have so much stuff for so little money.  For example, I bought 10packs of colour camera film for £3! (Would have been £10 in a normal Boots).  Basically, all discontinued products go to Boots Clearance stores and get sold for little dosh.  This doesn’t mean the products are out of their sell by date, it just means they need to get rid of it as the packaging is being re-vamped or its being replaced etc.  Obviously I had a look around the make-up session and ended up getting this-

Botanics eye shadows in 48 Blazing Star, 125 Milk Thistle, 70 Angelica and magnetic compact.
Botanics blush in 25 Nutmeg
Botanics ‘Quench your thirst foundation’ in 10 Almond
No7 Nail base colour in 10 Nougat.
Firstly, how cute are these eye shadows! You choose your colours individually and then pop three of them into the magnetic compact case, which has a mirror as well…


I haven't tried the blush yet, but will do soon!
Also, the Botanics foundation is pretty impressive, its SPF12 and its actually the palest colour I've ever seen on the high street, and I thought the one I was using now was the palest (L'Oreal infallible perfecting foundation 015 Porcelain).  The jar is pretty annoying to use as its just a stick attached to the lid, but I'm pretty positive i could screw one of MAC’s foundation pumps onto it.
You know what, I have NEVER seen Botanics make-up in a Boots store before, no wonder its all being discontinued! All of this came to like £7, which is an absolute bargain, the only let down being that once its gone I won’t be able to purchase again.
Has anyone been to a Boots Clearance before?
Also, I have 50 followers!! Wahhayyy!! I will be doing a free give-away later this week to celebrate so stay tuned!! XX