MAC Pro Longwear Lipstain Markers & Liberty of London Beauty Powder

Just a quick post about a mini MAC haul. I've been to MAC recently to check out their latest limited edition collections. I came home with an item their Liberty of London collection, as well as several of their new pro longwear lipstain markers:


The Liberty of london item that I bought was their beauty powder in Shell Pearl. I just love the foral and bird print on the casing! This design was based on an old Liberty & Co. fabric print.

I really do love this beauty powder. I've read some good reveiws about it, and couldn't wait for it to come to the UK. Shell Pearl is a beautiful pale peach with gold pearl.

Hopefully, you can see in the swatch below that it gives a nice glow without being too shimmery. I use this beauty powder as a blush on days when I want a really natural look. It's also great for highlighting due to its glow:

I've been excited about the Pro Longwear Lipstain Markers eversince I've first heard about them. I love lipstains, and the maker pens make them so fun to use. I bought them in the colours; Full of Flare, Puposefully Red, and A Classic.

Below are lip swatches of my new lipstain markers.

Full of Flare:

- a bright coral

Purposefully Red:

- a nice vibrant red colour

A Classic:

- a rosy red (sorry the pic is so dark.. I ran out of natural light)

The markers were pretty easy to use. However, I found that they tend to stain the dryer parts of my lips more, making the colour slightly unevenly distributed on my lips. The colours are great though, for when i'm in a mood for something more vibrant on my lips.

Husband and I go hiking

A non beauty related post...the sun's come out! It seems like everyone in England is enjoying the outdoors. My husband and I have restarted one of our favourite past times - hiking through the English countryside.

Last weekend's hike started at Lyme Park in the Peak district. Lyme Park consists of a large Grade 1 listed mansion surrounded formal gardens and a deer park. Our hike took us out of the park and over some hills of the Peak District, so we didn't get to see any deer.

This is my husband in his hiking gear.

Five minutes into our hike, we realised that our clothes were matching in every way. I have the ladies version of his boots, vest and bag. Our trousers are the exact same colour, and our sunglasses are horrifyingly similar. I must stress that this is all unintentional, we did not plan to dress like twins.

The hike was great as the weather was beautiful...


... and so was the scenery


The hike brought us through a couple of farms. We came across these lovely cows. It's enough to turn me vegetarian. My husband thinks I'm a wierdo, but I do find cows very beautiful. They have very soulful eyes.

Us (me), happy to see the cows:

Anyway, near the end of the hike we turn back into Lyme Park. In the park there is big hill with a three story building called 'The Cage'. Built around 1735 as a banqueting house, it's since been used as an observation tower, lodging for gamekeepers, and as a prison for poachers. you can see the Cage at the top of this hill. (I have to say, i thought the hill was alot steeper than it looks in this pic!)

It's occasionally opened for visitors, but sadly not when we were there. You can see they sky starting to turn pink in the background.

At the bottom of the hill is the mansion I mentioned earlier. We didn't go inside as it was closing by the time we got there. We were looking abit scruffy and muddy anyway, so we gave that a miss.

Us looking tired and scruffy at the end of the hike:

I thought I'd finish with this picture. It's not one taken from this hike. It was one taken about a month ago when we went hiking with our friends. This hike was terrible. We ended up desperately lost and completely reliant on a compass that cost under a pound. As we spent 6 hours being lost, I took the opportunity to take lots of pics. This is one of my favourites, showing my husband and our friends in the distance, morale plunging, with the sun beginning to set.

Sakura Inspired FOTD

Finally it's springtime! And around this time Cherry Blossoms are beginning to bloom. The sakura cherry blossoms are incredibly beautiful. I'm going to Japan this spring/summer, but sadly I'll miss the blossoming!

Anyway, in the spirit of Sakura and springtime, I've decided to do a fresh looking FOTD using spring colours of green, pink and peach.

The products used for this look is shown below:

Face:
Skin79 The Oriental Gold BB Cream
MAC Cremeblend Blush - so sweet so easy (Mac in lillyland)
MAC Cream Colour Base - Luna

Eyes:

Paul and Joe Eye Colour Primer - 01

MAC Eyeshadow - Pearlmatte (Mac in lillyland)

MUFE Aqua Eyes Eyeliner - 2L

Clinique High Lengths Mascara (not shown in pic - oops)

Lips:
Chanel Rouge Coco - Gardenia 13

Shu Uemura Gloss Unlimited - RD133S

This is the BB cream I am wearing:

This BB cream has a fairly thick consistency and provides light to medium coverage. It has a light floral scent which I love. What I like most about this BB cream is that it gives a nice glowing finish, with no need for powder to set. The coverage is light enough to let enough of my real skin show through, for a natural look.

I then applied a tiny amount of the MAC colour base in Luna to my cheeks to highlight my cheekbones, followed my the MAC cremeblend blush on the apples of my cheeks.

On my eyes, I used the MAC pearlmatte.

After applying the Paul and Joe eye colour primer, I used the pearly white shade all over the upper lid. I then used the spring green colour on my upper eyelid, and lined the lower eyelid with the pink.

I then added a touch of brown eyeliner, followed by mascara:

On my lips, I used Chanel's new Rouge Coco in Gardenia. It gave a really pretty pale petal pink colour.

I applied Shu Uemura's gloss unlimited on top for extra shine, and to deepen the colour.

Here's the finished sakura inspired FOTD. I wore a peach dress to match:

To finish this spring look I've added a sweet pink NOTD, using Essie nail colour in Princess Pink.

Dior Extase Pinks EOTD

Here is the Extase Pinks EOTD that has been requested. Please bear in mind that this is my very first EOTD/tutorial, and I don't think I'm very good at it! Nevermind, I'll keep practicing, and hopefully I'll get better.

The items used for this EOTD are shown below:

Paul and Joe eye colour primer 01

Dior 5 colour shadow in Extase Pinks 804

Bobbi Brown long wear gel liner Black Ink 1

Bobbi Brown ultra fine eye liner

Clinique high lengths mascara Black 01

Heated eyelash curler

I used the following colours from my new Dior palette, which I previously reviewed. I chose the pinks and purple for today's look:

I started with applying the Paul and Joe primer all over the upper lid, followed by the lightest pink shadow from the palette on top. This pink gave my eyelids a pretty, but subtle shimmer.

I then applied the medium pink shadow from the lashes to the crease of the eyelid, and the purple shadow at the bottom portion of the eyelid. I also used the purple shadow on the outer corner of the bottom lid.

I lined the upper eye with the gel liner.

I then added two coats of mascara, using Clinique high lengths mascara. This mascara added a slight curl to my lashes, so my lashes didn't really need curling with a wand.

I curled it with my heated eyelash curler anyway, to finish of the EOTD:

Here's the finished product:

I like this Dior palette alot, as it gave my eyes a really pretty dose of colour. So there you have it, my very first EOTD! Oh dear, looking back on these pictures I realised my eyebrows need serious reshaping...

Dior Extase Pinks swatches and review

I've recently bought the new Dior 5 Couleurs eyeshadow in 804, Extase pinks. I was trying to cut down on the amount of makeup I buy, but I couldn't resist this as the colours were so pretty!

It came in the usual glossy dark blue casing ...

.. and contained 5 shades of:

shimmering pink with sparkles
dark grey shimmer

irredescent silver-grey

irredescent violet with pink undertone

pale pink shimmer

I've numbered the colours to correlate with the sawtches below:

L-R: colours 1 and 2 (you can see the silver sparkles in the pink)


L-R: colours 3, 4 and 5 (5 being a great highlighter colour)

Dior's new eyeshadow palettes are said to have been made from Dior's new and improved formula to create a soft , melting texture which glides across the lid, creating a smudge-proof application (according to Sephora).

I did find the texture of these eyeshadows to be silky smooth, though no more than my older Dior palettes (and they do not glide as easily onto the eyelid as I would have liked.) However, the colours were long-lasting, fairly pigmented, and blended together quite nicely. I also like the versatility of the palette, how it can be used for all occasions throughout the day (with the light, pale colours for a pretty daytime look, and the darker colours for an evening smokey eye.)