Review: MAC Face and Body Foundation, Mineralize Concealer

A bottle of liquid Photoshop.

Recently I went on a bit of a makeup binge. Binge being a relative term - I don't like spending money on makeup. To give you some idea, my most expensive makeup purchase before this was probably ten whole pounds. I cried myself to sleep for a week.

So this was the first time I'd gone to a proper makeup store (MAC) instead of just Boots. There were two assistants on duty at the time, both wearing impeccable faces of makeup. One of them was ruining the effect slightly by giving me the most almighty stink eye, but luckily the other was really helpful and nice. She matched me to an N2 in foundation, and then promptly covered my face in it!

I loved it. Light and comfortable on the skin and blended perfectly. No SPF. Skinlike finish. The pricing scheme was a little less lovable - there are only two sizes of bottle, 50ml and 120ml, priced £21.50 and £27 respectively. Ouch. I would have preferred to have gone with 50ml until I was sure it was right for me, but at those prices, I chose the big bottle.

I was also looking for a concealer. I previously used MAC Select Moisturecover and was going to ask for that one again, but the assistant suggested MAC Mineralize. Another colour match to NW20, more makeup on the face - but this too looked really good, covering my dark circles well without being cakey. I couldn't see prices anywhere, and it's probably a good thing I couldn't, because the tiny 5ml tube cost £16.50. Eep.

And so I handed over £43.50 that day. *sob* At least while I was starving on the streets I'd have smooth skin, right?

I needed this stuff for a 'natural' look in a headshot photo. So this is the foundation with blush, concealer, mascara and eyeliner:

Photo credit to Matt

Looks pretty smooth! Beyond that, I'm happy to say that the stuff is long-wearing and hasn't broken me out or made me oily. Definitely my favourite foundation and concealer so far.

Review: G&G Shinny Green (Puffy 3 Tone) (+WataMote cosplay)

Tomoko Kuroki!

  Oh my god, it's been so long, I nearly forgot how to type. I did, however, manage to pull off a cosplay of Tomoko from WataMote (you don't want to know the full name. It means 'No matter how I look at it, it's you guys's fault I'm not popular!') She has green eyes, so off I trotted to buy some G&G Shinny Green (Puffy 3 Tone) circle lenses.

(No, that's not a typo. 'Shinny' makes me think of knobbly knees, and 'puffy' is my face in the morning if I accidentally sleep on it. :c)

Please note that the panda eyes are intentional and part of the cosplay! (Tomoko has too many late night playing otome games... :'D)

The green eyes of jealousy? (And two sets of eyelashes,
because whoever heard of curled eyelashes?)

GREEEEEEEN.

 The colour and design on the Shinny Green lenses is pretty great! I was a bit hesitant at first when trying to choose between these and Princess Mimi Apple Green, the other best-selling green circle lenses on PinkyParadise, but I was concerned that the limbal ring on the Princess Mimi ones was too wide, so not enough of the colour would be left. I'm glad I chose these. They have a pretty green colour, not too alien-like but definitely bright enough to show, and a little bit of brown round the pupil hole.

A comparison. I look a bit wall-eyed ('I SEE WHAT YOU DID
THERE. AND ALSO OVER THERE.' because I don't think my
right eye has its base curve quite right - lenses seem to slip...)

The enlargement is so-so. A little bit, but nothing too crazy and alienlike, just how I like it.

Comfort was great. I got a bit worried when it felt irritated when I first put them in, but they soon settled and I wore them for around eight hours, basically forgetting about them. Then again, the shoot was quite distracting, as it included making faces and mock screaming, dressed as a tired schoolgirl, while passing motorists laughed at me... .__.

Overall, fantastic. I would definitely recommend these for a green-eyed cosplay.

Whole costume! (minus blazer)

Review: Venus Eye Bright Red lenses from PinkyParadise

Lunatic Eyes?

 I needed some red lenses for my MCM Expo Spring 2013 cosplay of Reisen Udongein Inaba, Touhou's purple-haired bunny girl from the moon. Her special power is lunacy (Japan's moon rabbit? LUNA-cy? Geddit?!) and she has a pair of crazy looking red eyes to go with it. I own a pair of Venus Eye Aqua which I really liked and were comfortable, so I figured I'd give the red version a go.

 I bought Venus Eye Bright Red from PinkyParadise. The shot on the model were... very, very red. But then again, they're photoshopped to hell, so I do tend to take such things with a pinch of salt. Or an entire shaker of it.

Colour: 4/5
Colour-wise, yes, they're nowhere near as bright as on the model, but they are a pleasant, 'natural' looking red which is visible without looking like those weird Hallowe'en cheap ones.

Natural light. I really should get rid of that orange towel...

Indoor lighting.

Once again, it blends in well with my pupil hole and shows up fine.

Meanwhile, my special power seems to be
an inability to apply false lashes correctly.
Symmetry is for losers!

Comfort: 3/5 (4 after a while)
Not quite as comfortable as the Venus Eye Aqua, at first. When I first put them in, they shift around a little on my eyes and are slightly irritating, but it calms down after about half an hour of wear and then I don't notice them so much anymore.

When I first put them in, unlike with Venus Eye Aqua I can see a very slight tinge of red around my vision - I wonder if the pupil hole is smaller? Not really a worry though, it doesn't get in the way.

Overall rating: 4/5
Pretty colour, a little uncomfortable at first but otherwise fine.

Served me well at the Expo, thinking of doing a shoot for this costume soon...

I'm here to guard this door that totally
doesn't lead to Kaguya. Yes.

Review: Dolly Wink 02 'Sweet Girly' and 14 'Natural Cute' False Lashes

On the Grand List of Women who should be Disallowed from having a Makeup Blog, I'm pretty far up there. To put it politely, I am clumsy as fuck. :D

Behind the scenes last Friday night.

My number one problem is with the eyelashes. Put a tube of mascara in my hand and suddenly I'm like a toddler making a macaroni picture. Upper eyelid, below the eye, cheekbone, eyebrow... What can I say, I am just that amazing.

So false lashes sounded great! Instant romantic, long fluttery eyelashes. It would also fix one of my pet hates with mascara - the clumpiness. I do my best with the eyelash comb (usually getting mascara everywhere again) to avoid the fate of many women who walk around with what looks like six thick eyelashes in total. But still, it's all such a pain! Falsies would be better. Right? Right?

So for my first set of lashes, I bought two Koji Dolly Wink sets, No. 2 Sweet Girly for the upper lashes and  No. 14 Natural Cute for the lower set (available from PinkyParadise... see all the Dolly Wink eyelashes, they're all nice!) The packaging features a Japanese idol wearing various wigs and lashes who is officially Cuter And More Gyaru Than You. You get two pairs in each pack, which for me, was a pretty good thing.

Well, if I thought that this was going to be easier than mascara, I was horribly, horribly wrong.

How to apply false lashes

• Squeeze blob of glue onto back of hand.
• Draw lashes through glue to coat the lash band. And often the lashes themselves.
• Dry out the glue a little. Blow on it, or alternatively snap forearm from side to side in a sassy fashion.
• Hold lashes up to eyelid and attempt to press lashes into place above the lashline. One of the following will happen.
• You somehow manage to glue your eyelids together.
• You attach the false lashes to your real lashes, where they flop about uselessly.
• Everything falls off the second after you press it in place.
• When this happens, you must run a cotton bud through makeup remover, run it over the falsies (assuming they haven't fallen off already) and peel them off. 
• Clean all that glue off your real lashes, you klutz.
• Pull all the tiny sticky strings of glue off the lashes without mangling the lashes themselves or screaming in frustration.
• Repeat until victory! (To varying degrees.) 

I don't know whether I'm just clumsy or this process is always a pain in the ass, but over the course of an hour I poked myself in the eye countless times and got glue in my real lashes, on my eyelids, and even somehow in my hair.

And this wasn't even my first go. I'll just leave this here.

A moment of silence for their fallen, sticky comrades.

Those aren't dead spiders, it's what happened with a lack of patience, over-zealousness with the eyeliner and a lack of makeup remover while cosplaying at the London Expo. That's £10 worth of crusty eyeliner, lashes and glue right there.

Still... at some point, I made it!

Looking fairly solemn.

Still showing behind glasses!

I like these lashes! The top set, 'Sweet Girly' are long enough to open up the eye without being so crazy dense that each blink causes a breeze, and the bottom set... well, not quite so dramatic (because really long lower lashes are quite creepy!) but they give a nice effect too.

I think until I get better, I might buy some cheap lashes to practice with during downtime (I prefer my £5 to buy me several sets of cheap practice lashes instead of one pair which was once beautiful but is now mangled and lumpy.) Mascara in the meantime. But I look forward to trying out more of these!

Review: Princess Pinky Twilight Brown from PinkyParadise

GoldenEye!

 I have heard that Princess Pinky Twilight Brown is the circle lens for cosplay of a character with yellow eyes. Since I am intending to cosplay Chuunibyou's Rikka (who has a single yellow contact lens in her right eye), I figured I'd give a pair of these a shot. I bought them from PinkyParadise.

I bought these at the same time as my Venus Eye Aqua (here) in which I mentioned that I got a defective one which felt scratchy and painful (in the right eye no less!) But pinkyparadise were great about sending me a replacement, with a really quick turnaround too. <3 I'm glad to say the new lens was absolutely fine.

I've been Tango'ed! Nah, I was standing in natural light, in front of an orange towel.  Looks like the mother of all tans.

Indoor lighting. They look more yellow than gold like that.

   The colouring on these is great. Under natural light, they're a beautifully wild-looking gold colour, which added a nice touch of evil to my normal look without being those freaky, fluorescent yellow Hallowe'en types. They were great on my dark eyes, blending well with the pupil while being opaque where it counted.

Look how well they show up!

  I really wanted to love these, however! There was a downside. My eyes felt dry and uncomfortable after only an hour. I didn't use any eyedrops, true, but should I really have to resort to that after only an hour? This is only my second pair, so I'd like to hear more about it, but I wore the Venus Eye Aqua for three hours before any sort of dryness happened.

It is a shame that they are not very comfortable for long use, as the colour is nice! I think these might be good for a photoshoot, but too irritating for long wear.