Make-up

Make-up

the Balm Cosmetics, NUDE’tude palette

January 6, 2014

Remember my Oct/Nov Most Wanted post? Well the Christmas Fairies a.k.a my lovely partner Brains (with absolutely zero, zilch, none, nil help from Gemma *ahem*) granted my wish and deposited this into my very safe and excited hands.

I’ve wanted the balm’s “NUDE ‘tude” palette for so long that I was so excited to try this out. With 12 beautiful neutral shades, it’s a palette for all occasions, quite literally.

Top from left to right: Sassy, Stubborn, Selfish, Sophisticated, Sexy, Serious

Bottom from left to right: Snobby, Stand-Offish, Sultry, Seductive, Silly, Sleek

All the shades are so unique in colour, which is what I love the most. I have recently been using the MUA neutral palette as my primary eyeshadow but found some of the colours are a little samey. These however are absolutely perfect, my favourites are “Serious” a matte jet black colour and “Sexy” which is a matte brick red-brown which I can’t wait to try out for stage since I think it many compliment my hair beautifully.

This even comes with a hand actual eye shadow brush, rather than those silly little wands. Although I doubt I will be using the brush to apply, if ever left in a situation without any makeup brushes, I can certainly make do.

Honestly though, if you love neutrals – buy this. You can get them online from Feel Unique for £26 – and trust me when I say this is worth every single penny.

Totally hellbent for the most amazing spoils (and a thank you to Brains & Gemma)

-Pants

Festivals, Make-up, Metal, Music, News

Welcome to January …

January 5, 2014

2014.

How did this even happen? Suddenly Christmas appeared and now we are in yet another year. So here is an obligatory summary of some of the better bits of 2013.

Last year was a pretty monumental year for both Gem and I:

Brains and I moved into our “actually proper just for the two of us” house – situated approximately 7 doors or so away from Gemma at the same time as going to Norway for the first time ever:

Dakesis made the decision to become a four piece:

We returned to the stage, and went back to enjoying our Dakesian adventures with the four of us and being as mischievous as ever:

Gem and I survived the journey to the holy Wacken lands, this time avoiding getting the car broken into, and Gem and Roode shared their first anniversary together. As well as being monumentally owned by the sun on our crossing to Europe:

I quit my job and started working with Brains at BIOSTALL, which meant I had more time to do stuff like this:

We witnessed the wedding of our two oldest joint friends Libby & Ian (not to mention I went blonde!):

We then got to spend yet another Dakesis Christmas with all of our lovely friends, fellow Dakesian’s and family which mainly resulted in this:

But most importantly, 2013 was when we finally got off our arses and launched Hellbent for Lipstick!

Our first ever post went live on 16th May 2013.

So here’s to another year of heavy metal, makeup, beauty, friends, family and being full of steel! Thank you for reading and Happy New Year :)

Totally hellbent for festivities and friends

-Pants

Make-up

Avon True Color Eyeshadow Duo in “Spacey Silver”

January 5, 2014

It’s not often I splurge on an eyeshadow duo from Avon, since I often steer towards MUA palettes or Elf but this one took my eye and I took a gamble.

Although the picture doesn’t quite do this justice, this duo is a beautiful shimmery silver and a darker grey colour.

A little underwhelmed by the silver-grey swatch on my arm, I gave it a go anyway and recently wore these two for a Dakesis gig. I was pretty surprised at how well they went on and actually are fast becoming my go to colours for stage wear. The darker colour blended beautifully and the silver added just enough sparkle without making me look like a drag queen or a “backing dancer” on stage.

Overall I’m pretty impressed with this duo and it hasn’t resigned itself to one of my many drawers of cosmetics, instead staying in reach on my dressing table!

This was a limited edition duo from Avon, but I’m sure they will bring this back sometime in the new year. You can check out the other colours from the True Colour range here at a slightly more expensive £6.00 although I think I only paid £4.00 for mine.

Totally hellbent for surprising shimmer!

-Pants

Make-up

Avon Colourtrend Lipsticks – Purple Roses, Heartbeat Red & Shimmer.

January 4, 2014

I’ll admit to being somewhat of a snob when it comes to Avon. I’ve a whole assortment of their standard lipsticks, but till now I’ve avoided the Colortrend range. Seeing as it strikes me as a sort of “things-you-might-buy-for-a-teenager” deal with it’s cheap white packaging and colour selections I’ve just never been tempted…till now!

I bought these for one reason. They were -cheap-. I can’t resist a bargain and a £1.25 lipstick is just too good an offer to turn down.

I picked up (L-R) Shimmer, Purple Roses and Heartbeat Red not expecting much, but all three are gorgeous! Such pretty colours with a lovely shimmer for the price-point, they all went on well – even with my winter chapped lips, and had great lasting power.

It’s not all wonderful though, all three have an unpleasant synthetic scent but luckily it’s only detectable from the tube when applying and isn’t noticeable once on the lips.

Really at such a bargain price you can’t complain at all, however it’s worth bearing in mind that these are from the last collection, so they’re not available in the current brochures or from the website.

Your best bet would be to look on ebay, or to wait for a sale/clearance Avon brochure and snap a bunch of them up at a ridiculously low price!

Totally hellbent for a bargain that exceeds expectation.

– Gem

Make-up

Elf Waterproof Eyeliner Pen

December 4, 2013

As mentioned in my HD Blush post here, I found a few treats hidden away that I had completely forgotten about. The Elf Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in black was one of them.

I think I bought this before I discovered Eyeko, so when I found it still packaged I was sceptical after using such a great product already, but I dived straight in there and applied this a few days ago.

It’s very black unlike some pen’s I’ve tried where the colour has been more of a grey, and the precision is pretty good. It stayed put all day when I was out and about, until I came to take my makeup off in the evening, so again brownie points given.

I do wonder however, whether this will last or dry up quite quickly, but I guess only time will tell. Overall I’m pretty impressed with this and depending on how it fares, may even consider buying a few more for such dark and dingy places as festivals, where I really don’t want to lose any expensive makeup.

The Elf Waterproof eyeliner is only £2.50 and can be found here on their website.

Totally hellbent for festival substitutes

-Pants

Make-up

Elf HD Blush

November 29, 2013

You know you have a serious makeup addiction, when you forget about unopened products for months.

I have a little box, that I keep packaging in, for reviewing purposes obviously. Alas, I had a nose in there and to my absolute delight I found two unopened elf products!

One of them was the Elf HD Blush in “Headliner”. I’d wanted this for ages and had completely forgotten that I had bought it on an earlier haul. I hadn’t even opened it to swatch! Anyway, I immediately rescued this from the depths of the box and had a play.

Despite this being a “liquid” blush, it’s actually quite versatile. I only used a small amount when I tried it out and it blended in well with a nice fluffy brush. As you can see from the swatches below, even when more is used, it’s not so overpowering that you can’t work with it and blend it in.

(Left: Concentrated swatch, unblended Right: Small swatch, blended)

The colour is beautiful, there’s a slight shimmer to it and tied in with a good highlighter, I think is is going to look fabulous for the festive season and maybe even on stage.

I’m really pleased with how this looks and feels, since I remember thinking it could go either way after previously trying out “liquid” style blushes.

You can pick up a 10ml bottle of Elf’s HD Blush here for only £3.75. (It’s so large, I think this is going to last me forever!)

Totally hellbent for finding lost treasure

-Pants

Make-up, Skincare

Dec Most Wanted

November 28, 2013

I was hoping my Oct/Nov Most Wanted installment would be it until after Christmas. I was so wrong!

Browsing the web and gift magazines has only made my love for all things … well erm … all things … even bigger!

So my Nov/Dec most wanted, is going to be all the things I want, but definitely can not have until well into the New Year.

Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette

20 Beautiful dark and glittery shades. God I need this. I was so upset when I saw fellow beauty bloggers posting reviews about this. It’s certainly out of my pre-christmas price range, but I am definitely going to think about purchasing this sometime in the New Year.

This beauty is only £37.80 instead of £42 at Debenhams.

Benefit Groovy-Kind-A-Love Gift set

Even though I already own two of these products, I still want this. I blame the packaging entirely. There is something about Benefit that makes me want to own it all, even though it may not be the right shade or something I would never wear.

Anyway, this beautiful gift box comes with the following:

mini the POREfessional
mini they’re real!
mini benetint
dandelion & gimme fever cheek powder duo with brush
eyeshadow palette with four neutral shades

This is one of those “should I – or should I not” kind of moments. Torn between spending my money on other mini Benefit products, or buying this simply because I am in love with the packaging.

You can pick this up directly from the Benefit website for only £29.50.

Nip + Fab Body Butter Trio

I squeeled when I saw this hidden in the corner of the Tesco gift magazine. I love NIP + FAB and I love Body Butter, I also love the smell of cherry and spiced apple, so for a set that includes all of these, it surely has to be for me.

As I write this, I am poking Brains repeatedly in the hope that he will get the hint. The set includes: Spiced Apple, Winter Cherry and Sugared Almond. Very festive indeed.

This beautiful trio are only £8.95 from Tesco’s

With all of my funds tied up in the gift of giving this month, I shall have to wait and see what the New Year and the delightful sales bring forth.

Totally hellbent for all the festive shiny things in all of the festive magazines. (For me?)

-Pants

Make-up

MUA Starry Night Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

November 22, 2013

MUA have a great range of eyeshadow palettes, but I always seem to have trouble with their matte shades. This gorgeous silver toned collection however is all shimmer finish, making every single shade a winner.

Starry Night has twelve shades in total, but as with all the older MUA lines they are not named (or even numbered – a big gripe of mine!).

As with all cheaper eyeshadows a primer is an absolute necessity, and for these swatches I’ve used the MUA Professional Primer for some brand continuity!

There’s enough variation in this relativly colour restricted palette to create a number of looks, and with the right blending I reckon there are some amazing smoky silver looks coming my way.

Available for £4.00 from Superdrug.com

Totally hellbent for an all shimmer MUA palette!

– Gem

Make-up

MUA Luxe London Glitter Eye Palettes in Rock Chick and Diva

November 21, 2013

My transition from occasional glitter lover to full on magpie seems to be reaching an all time climax and I nearly did myself some damage when I saw these little boxes of sparkle!

There are four palettes on offer, Rock Chick, Diva, Burlesque and Twilight, ranging from cool blues to fiery reds. I of course went for the two blue toned palettes Rock Chick and Diva and I’ve been pretty mesmerized with them since.

The glitter is suspended in a gel, which I thought would be poorly pigmented and difficult to build up, but actually it’s the complete opposite! Unfortunately all eight shades are liable to crease purely from the nature of the product, but I for one am happy to overlook this for the sake of such gorgeous colours!

The sponge applicator that comes with each palette is actually pretty good for applying the gel, with a thick and thin end for more precision.

Diva consists of a bright emerald green, a black/silver, a grey holo silver and a white holo silver.

Rock Chick has a deep turquoise blue, a black/multi holo, a light blue and a pure silver.

If you’re a fan of warmer tones I suggest you go take a look at the other two palettes on offer, as they are just as gorgeous and will no doubt make their way into my possession soon!

Available for £4 from Superdrug.com

Totally hellbent for all things sparkly and shiny!

– Gem

Make-up

MUA Pro-Brow Ultimate Eyebrow Kit

November 17, 2013

I picked this up in a haul a few weeks ago, but only just got round to trying it out! It’s silly when I spend ages hunting around for something, and once I have it, it lies untouched…alas.

I always struggle to find the right colour for my eyebrows, I’m a natural blonde but with my blue hair I find I need to darken them a little to not look washed out.

The MUA Pro-Brow Ultimate Eyebrow Kit contains three powders; a dark brown, a light brown and a pinky-nude, along with a gel. It comes with a small pair of tweezers and a short double ended brush.

The tweezers are absolute rubbish. Couldn’t even grab a thicker hair with them, let alone stray wispy hair. The brush is far from ideal, but passable enough to use on the go or in a hurry.

The dark brown was WAY too dark for me, and the lighter shade has too much of an orange understone. In honesty I think the colours are way off in the transition from pan to skin and the texture just feels too creamy, completely wrong for eyebrow powder in my opinion.

The highlight was…alright I suppose, really I feel largely indifferent about it. The only thing I will be likely to use is the gel which is pretty much standard across all eyebrow kits really. The only other real positives were in the packaging, it feels very sleek and heavy duty for MUA and the large mirror in the lid would be very handy for on the go.

Perhaps a lot of my disappointment is based on the fact that neither of the brow shades are really usable for day to day wear with my colouring, but I really wasn’t impressed with this as a whole.

If you have dark brunette brows, you may very well find this a great piece of kit for the ludicrously low price, but for me it’s a dud.

Available for £3.50 from Superdrug.com.

Totally hellbent for getting the HD brows palette that’s winging it’s way through the postal system right now.

– Gem