Urban Decay 'Theodora' Oz The Great and Powerful Palette | Review

Whenever Hollywood produces a huge blockbuster film with whimsical female characters, it's only time before one of the big makeup brands jump on its bandwagon and release a limited edition collection. With all the buzz surrounding the release of 'Oz The Great and Powerful', Urban Decay has released three limited edition palettes - one for each of the three witches. To say I was excited for the film was an understatement, and when I heard about the palettes I had an irresistable urge to buy all of them! Sadly, my bank balance wouldn't allow this and I had to settle with only one. Of the three, I felt the Theodora palette was both the most wearable and the most suited to my skin tone.

The Theodora palette boasts eight eyeshadows (four of which are compacted into duos), a black 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil and a Super-Saturated High-Gloss Lip Colour. The palette is made of a sturdy plastic, and thankfully not the velvet-like material Urban Decay are known to use which, although looks nice when first purchased, turns grubby very quickly. As well as the material, what I love about the structure of this palette is that the eyeshadows are removeable, so you can rearrange the colours to how you want and, if you're a YouTuber, you can hold them up individually to the camera. You could even put them in your own home-made palette if you wished!

The shadow colours are all of the same great standard we've come to expect. They're highly pigmented, easy to blend and have a smooth texture - although the usual fallout downside still applies. I'd go as far to say that I prefer this palette to my Naked one, as I feel the colours supply me with everything I want:

- 'Broken' is an amazing nude highlight colour

- 'Beware' is the perfect matte, mid-toned brown for crease definition

- 'Bewtiched' provides me with a cool toned dark brown, and 'West' is it's warm counterpart

- The 'Spell' duo of a black and gold shimmer are essentials for me in any night out look

- and finally, the 'Jealous' duo, a light and mid-toned green, give me a great alternative to neutrals that will contrast beautifully with my blue eyes.










Little needs to be said about the 24/7 liner, as it's reputation for being an amazingly black eye-liner which stays put preceeds it, so I have not included a swatch of it in this review. The only thing left to discuss is the Super-Saturated High-Gloss Lip Colour in 'Theodora'. I have slightly mixed feelings about this product, as I have slightly mixed feelings about any glossy lip product. I'm not a fan of lip gloss or any lipstick that it's matte. I find them irritating to wear, my hair sticks to them, they never stay put and I find them, quite frankly, a waste of time and money. Why this product gives me mixed feelings is, because against all odds, I actually really like it. I wouldn't have paired it with a smokey-eye like the palette directions suggest, but even that I supirsingly liked. It is certainly both super pigmented and high shine but incredibley isn't sticky, and what's more I had it on all day as a road test to it's longevity and it was still glossy when I took it off at night. I wouldn't run out to buy an other colours - but I'm very happy with this one.







I followed the directions for the Theodora makeup look as a bit of insight for you guys as to what you would be buying into should you choose to purchase it, and also for a bit of fun! It's nice to follow instructions sometimes as it takes all the thought out of it and lets you get on with the fun stuff. It's a lot more makeup than I would usually wear, as I never pair red lips with smokey eyes, but it was fun for a day.

I hope I've done this palette justice with this review, because it really is an amazing product and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves neutals and red lips!

My Crowning Glory

Some of you may remember I post I did quite some time ago now about Crown and Glory. I've been an avid wearer of their beautiful hair accessories for years, and Sophie King (the creator behind the brand) never ceases to amaze me with her amazing floral designs. To add to my ever growing collection, I purchased the 'Whole Lottie Rose' Headband, having been inspired by it's uncanny resemblance to one Lana Del Rey wore in one of her iconic images. I may not look as amazing as she does in it, but I love the headband all the same. The headband, priced at £20, comes in a range of colours - I bought the mine in Lilac.

You can find the 'Whole Lottie Rose' headband and other stunning hair accessories at Crown and Glory's Website

Happy hair days guys!

Walking on Tortoise Shells

Just a quick post to show you the newest addition to my ever expanding shoe collection - I picked up these babies in the Topshop sale for £30! I'm so happy with this purchase as I have literally been pining after these shoes ever since they were first released. Well, good things come to those who wait! I love the tortoise shell heel, I feel like it makes them more than just another pair of black heels, whilst still being versatile enough to pair with pretty much anything and everything.

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Review

I've recently become a bit obsessed with Chanel beauty products, ever since making my first purchase of the discontinued Pro Lumier I just can't get enough. I visited the Chanel counter in the Trafford Centre a few weeks ago and after getting on so well with the makeup artist (I must have been there for an hour!) I ended up getting a full makeover. I've always shied away from getting my makeup completely done at any other counter than MAC as I've had a few bad experiences with under qualified, clueless girls, but she did my makeup beautifully. Throughout the rest of the night I got a number of compliments off people about my makeup and in particular my eyes, so before I went home I nipped back to Chanel and purchased this beauty - Illusion D'Ombre in '85 Mirifique'.








Although it's advertised as a "long wear luminous eyeshadow" the artist had applied it as a liner, and also brushed a small amount through my lashes so that as I blinked the light would catch the tiny glitter particles and my eyes would appear to 'sparkle'. For the sake of the review I've applied the product as a liner and as an eyeshadow.














My inicial worry on viewing the product is that it would be difficult to apply. In the pot the product's consistancy appears grainy, due to the glitter, but it actually applies really smoothly - even when making the finest of lines. The product comes in a number of tempting colours, the colour I purchased is black with tiny black glitter particles in it. When applied thinly it can appear more of a dark silver/grey colour, but when built up makes a beautifully dark black which I've found is brilliant as a base for more intense looks. It isn't by any means cheap, coming in at £23 pounds, but there is a lot of product for your money and I can see it lasting me a very, very long time.

I'll definitely be purchasing some other colours when my bank balance allows it, hopefully in some lighter more bronzey shades. If you're interested in seeing the product in action, Pixiwoo of YouTube recently uploaded a video using the Illusion D'Ombres in a popup Chanel store in Covent Garden - I've linked the video below so go ahead and check it out!

Snowman Nails!

So I spent the best part of 5 minutes trying to come up with some sort of pun for this blog title, but there was snow way it was going to happen... no? Nevermind then. Moving driftly on...

Winter is well and truely setting in and I thought I'd get a bit festive with my nails this week by painting on some cute little snowmen. Once again, I used CutePolish's nail tutorial that you can find on her YouTube (link below). I used OPI 'Alpine Snow' as a base colour then added No17 Glitter top coat to give the nails a bit of an icy sparkle. I then used a dotting tool and Rimmel's 'Black Cab' to create his eyes and mouth and then a random peachy/orange polish I had lying around for his nose.

If you were feeling extra creative you could probably adjust the size of the face and create a vertical striped tip for a scarf, which I might give a go next time.

Hope your all having a good week guys x

I mustache you a question.

I've been really getting into my nail art recently, and with the arrival of Movember I've been rocking some little handle bars on my nails! Pretty much all of my male friends are growing out their pathetic attempts of facial hair (sorry guys) and in all honesty, I've been feeling a little left out. But no more!







I used OPI 'Alpine Snow' as a base, and then painted on the taches with Rimmel 'Black Cab' using a dotting tool. They aren't perfect, I only have one size of dotting tool so I did find it a bit difficult getting perfect flicks. I've had quite a few compliments on them though, so I'm satisfied.

Hope you've all had a great weekend!

To Infinity and Beyond

I had a go at 'Galaxy Nails' recently. I decided to channel LLYMLRS and go for some cheap stick on nails from ebay as they're a lot easier to paint (I have no patience when it comes to nails!) and also because my nails are so short and stubby my galaxies would have been pretty non existant.

There was a 3 for 2 on makeup items at boots, including No.17 nail polishes so all the colours used were No.17. (excluding the white, which was OPI 'Alpine Snow')

I followed the cutepolish tutorial, she is epic at nail art and has some amazing easy to follow tutorials that you should definitely check out. I've put the video below. But any way, check them out! They weren't as hard as I anticipated, infact they're perfect for begginers. They took a while with all the different layers but they were so worth it.




Cutepolish Tutorial

Autumn Updates

Autumn is my favouritest of seasons. Mainly just because it gives me an excuse to layer up in furs (faux, obviously), scarfs and mittens! But also because of the colours, rich plums and burgundies are an A/W must and they give me a feeling of sophistication and, lets face it, we all like to feel a bit posh sometimes.

Topshop are fastly becoming one of my favourite makeup brands. I guess because they're orginally a fashion brand, they always seem to get every season right as far as colours and textures go. For A/W they released the 'Smoke and Mirrors' collection, and if I'd have had the money I would have indulged in all of it, but alas I did not. So I chose to buy a lip colour and a nail colour, two of the easiest ways to update a beauty look without going OTT.









'Confessions' lipstick if a gorgeous coral red colour. I find corally/orangey reds work best for my skin tone and really compliments my blue eyes. The polish, called 'Bourbon', is described by Topshop as being a dark chocolate colour, which I'd say is pretty spot on as long as you imagine the darkest chocolate you can find! It looks black in some lights and I found it quite hard to photograph its exact colour, but has an amazing rich red undertone running through it.

Very much looking forward to rocking these colours!