FOTD: Purple Monday

I had quite a bit to do this morning, so I opted for something quick and simple, but still with some colour.

How can my eyebrows need attention ALREADY?!

Eyeliner: Aromaleigh eyeshadow in Odile, foiled
Mascara: Maybelline One by One Volum' Express in Satin Black

Lips are a bit more plummy and shimmery in person.

Face: Australis Fresh & Flawless pressed powder in Darkest Brown, Lost in Makeupland Finishing Powder for Oily Skin
Brows: Wet 'n Wild Eyebrow Pencil 3 and a brow powder I mixed myself

Blush close-up.

Lips: Silk Naturals Kisser Slicker in Infatuation
Blush: Sobe Botanicals Enchanted

IS MAH FACE

Note to self: less thick eyeliner won't transfer, duh.

Review: Australis Vampy

This one is listed under the Australis LE polishes on their website. I picked it up from Priceline a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not a huge pink person - in fact, I only own one pink article of clothing and it's more coral than pink. I have pink in my makeup collection purely to round it out, and most of my pinky polishes are either neutral or sparklicious.

What attracted me to this polish is that it's a berry/maroon/raspberry-red rather than straight-out pink, and the red glitter is gorgeous.

Luckily the red glitter shows up on the nail - in fact this is a jelly sandwich in a bottle. Removal is a bitch because of said glitter, and it needs a good layer of topcoat so it doesn't feel rough, but I actually think it's worth is since this is such a beautiful, unique colour. Grab it before it's gone!

The patchiness on my index finger is because I dented it. Go me!

Review: Australis Here Today Gone Tomorrow

From the name, I'm going to go ahead and guess that this is a limited edition shade, since it's not actually listed on the Australis website, but it is new.

Super dark green creme (I really don't understand why the label text on this bottle is black, you can't freaking see anything), kind of reminds me of Nars Zulu. SO much hype around that polish, and I was way more into eyeshadow at that time so I never bothered with it. Speaking of Zulu, though...

Fluorescent light

Artificial light

Excuse my cuticles! If you never bought Zulu and you're an Aussie girl looking for some vampy winter colours, this is gorgeous. Blackened-green jelly - extremely dark but not quite black. Two coats featured here, no topcoat - first coat is a bit streaky and light, second coat creates dark, glossy perfection. I'm itching to put China Glaze Wireless over it to see if I can make a dark green holo (!) but of course that darn bottle's disappeared again.

I picked up another Australis LE shade which I'll try to swatch soon, because it's GORGEOUS and if it's sold out before I review it, you might hate me. I also have two lovely brights from the regular collection. Australis polishes are so darn addictive!

Eccentric Cosmetics: review, swatches and give-away!

On the hunt for a good orange and purple lip colour, I finally decided to bite the bullet and order from Eccentric Cosmetics, another Australian indie MMU company that has been on Etsy for a while.

I placed an order for a Silken Lips lipstick, in the shade Orange U Glad. I received my order the following week with my product, a business card and two samples: an eyeshadow in (Wicked Mischief) and a clamshell containing their eyeshadow primer. Unfortunately the lip balm tube containing Orange U Glad wasn’t working properly and wouldn’t screw up at all! I contacted and she replied very quickly. I had offered to send back the product for an exchange, but she said she’d send me a new one and suggested that I microwave the defective tube and depot the lip product. 

The following week my new, working tube of Orange U Glad arrived, with another sample of Wicked Mischief and an addition sample in a clamshell of Killer Heels, which is the purple lipstick! So I’ll be swatching and reviewing everything except the primer today, since I want to do a wear test with that one. Also I give Anna a big thumbs up and a thank-you for her awesome customer service and generosity with samples.

First up: Orange U Glad. This is the replacement tube I was sent: 

The Silken Lips are quite an unusual texture - they're silky when you rub your lips together, but they have a high wax content which makes them sit a little heavy on the lips. They have lots of lip-nourishing goodness in them, and they feel like a really thick lip butter. The upside to the texture is that it's a nice protective layer on the lips and makes the colour quite opaque as well. The downside would be that you need to exfoliate your lips before using it, since you'll get a concentration of colour on any cracks or dry patches if you don't. Oranges always look kind of neutral on me, so I think I might try some gloss over the top to amp it up a bit. These have a satin finish, they're not glossy at all. 

This eyeshadow is a lovely smooth copper with a rosy sheen and golden sparkles. A really gorgeous, complex neutral with a kick. I wish I could have gotten the red-pink flash to show up a bit more - it's faintly visible in the bottom of the first swatch - it's almost a sunset on the beach colour. Quite smooth and the glitter particles stick nicely. Official description is "beautiful bronzy gold rubs down to a pinky base, filled with gold and orange sparks."

No foundation and lazy, day-old eye makeup!

Red-toned medium purple, though it looks quite blue-toned in that swatch. I love it. You can apply it sheerly for more of a 'wearable look', but I exfoliated my lips and then layered it on with a lip brush (that I totally forgot I even owned). The formula means it's not my HG purple lipstick, but it's definitely a lot closer to the colour that I want than all the too-dark or too-pink purples I've been disappointed by in the past.

I will definitely be placing another order with Eccentric Cosmetics in the future - at the time of writing this post, you can get 3 Silken Lips samples in clamshells for $6 AU. The other colours I'm keen on trying would be Vamped, a deep red, and The Future is Right, a stunning teal-blue colour. They also have 5 eyeshadow samples for $5, and eyeshadow primer samples in Nude or Black. I have the Nude and I will be doing a wear test soon.


Since I have an extra tube of Orange U Glad, I’m going to have a little give-away! All you have to do is make a comment using the word “GLAD” and your email address, and in ten days I’ll pick a random comment and send that tube (opened to check it was working, but otherwise untouched, I used my de-potted tube to swatch with) to the lucky commenter. 

Also, just for funsies:

 ^ sheered out, more colour-accurate, and 100% more duckface.

Sorry about that accidental hiatus, there!

Oh man you guys! I've been reading your blogs and commenting occasionally and suddenly BAM! It's been nearly two months and I haven't posted!

I'm wearing make-up nearly every day and I've been trying to photograph looks, but I still don't have a good system going with my lights so it's really hard. These days I tend to have to run off and do things straight after I paint my nails as well, so no nail pics either.

I've still been buying stuff and putting it aside to review - look!

That's just the indie/nail polish box, I have a few gifties from Suzanne I should review as well.

The reason for my absence is that aside from adjusting to having to do most of the cooking and cleaning in our little house, I've now got an evening job which means I don't get home til 7:30ish and by the time said cooking and cleaning is done, I am SO TIRED, not to mention my eye makeup is usually creased to hell and again, the lights are just blech.

The other reasons are good reasons. In fact they are BRILLIANT reasons: I have a job as the media liason for a small graphic novel publishing company in Perth. I have been interning there since Supanova of 2010 and they offered me this PAID position a few months ago. I've been privelaged enough to talk to many great bloggers and writiers in the industry, and the reponses I've had back about our books (which I'm a fan of) has been freaking awesome.

Breaking up the wall of text with a look!

Sugarpill Midori & Tako, and I don't remember what the blue was :(

The other job I've picked up is that of writer/reviewer for ComicBooked.com and that is where a lot of my energy has been going! I'm writing 1500+ words a week for them. It's an absolute dream. That's a link to my author page and yes, my real name, and my face! So you might see a few full-face posts on this blog now that my secret make-up-obsessed identity is all shot to pieces. If you enjoyed my non-makeup reviews, if you like games, comics or pop culture, I will totally beg you to bookmark the site. The staff are all really friendly and keen on both getting news out to their readers, doing reviews and analysing stuff and it's been a real pleasure getting to know them all.

Anyway, back to makeup! I'm going to do my best to post at least once a week here. Feel free to pester me on Twitter! I've missed you guys a lot and I don't want to stop make-up blogging, since I feel like it's helped me get to where I am now, both personally and professionally.

Supanova is next weekend so there will be some non-makeup posts, though nothing like Jerry's ridiculously awesome con photos! I am so jealous of all her hilarious celeb duckface pics.

I have, as pictured, a butt-ton of reviews to do. If you have something you'd like to see first:

• Aromaleigh v2 e/s
• Australis polishes
• Fyrinnae e/s (one new-ish one) and the Coffin Velvet lip lustre
• Eccentric Cosmetics - primer, one e/s and one lip product
• Two Morgana Cryptoria lipsticks
• One Scaredy Cat Cosmetics e/s
• Two Shiro e/s
• Misc nail polishes including Ozotic Pro, Rokk96 and Orly

Let me know, because I have no idea where to start! I will try to take photos if I wear make-up over the weekend, though.