Femme-Fi is back!

I bought Femme-Fi when it was released as part of the Neo Sci-Fi collection in the summer and as you can see it is well loved. For me it is the perfect everyday colour and makes a lovely highlight. I don't like my highlight colours too frosty or bright and this eyeshadow is neither of those.

I have tried other similar MAC shadows since (Shroom and Naked Lunch) but they just don't cut it. Femme-Fi is a lovely subtle shimmery champagne. It has more gold than Shroom and is less pinky than Naked Lunch.

I have been trying to use this product sparingly to lengthen its life, but I must say I have never exposed so much silver pan on a MAC shadow before!

So imagine my delight when I discovered it was being re-released as part of the upcoming Brunette, Blonde and Redhead collection! Now I'm slapping it on willy nilly safe in the knowledge I can repurchase in a couple of weeks. Click here to see official photos.

If you like All that Glitters you will love this. I'd describe it as a paler version with the same veluxe pearl finish and warm undertones. It really is so pretty, photos do not do it justice; go check it out and stock up!

Next to All That Glitters

Swatches: Femme-Fi on the bottom, All that Glitters above

Does anyone else have any faves that are oh-so-annoyingly limited edition?

Dame Edna Swatches

As requested, here are some swatches from the MAC Dame Edna collection.

Lipglasses: Splendid (top) and Hot Frost (bottom)

Eye trios: Wisteria (top) and Royal tour (bottom)

Wisteria

Royal Tour

Spectacle highlight powder is a beautiful peachy pink with gold shimmer (see top finger). After one swipe, the shimmer is gone leaving a matte pale pink powder (see bottom finger). I had high hopes for this product and quite simply this is a total waste of money. You will get one or two uses out of this at best.

See below how the shimmer is lost once the surface is touched. My advice is do not invest £18 for this if you actually want to use it as a highlighter. I'm glad I have it as I like to collect the special editions but I can't ever use it. Such a shame, I would have expected better from MAC.

Supermarket Skincare

As some of you may already know, I swear by Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser which I have used religiously every day since discovering it a year ago.

For those of you that don't know, this all-natural herbal scented cream is applied to the face and then polished off using a muslin cloth soaked in warm water. This gently exfoliates the skin and removes all traces of makeup leaving my skin feeling fresh and clean. I loved this product so much I went on to purchase Liz's entire range of products, but that's a story for another post!

A 100ml pump with two muslin cloths is £12 and comes in a handy zip-up waterproof pouch. The 100ml pump alone is £10.

As I was perusing the beauty isles of Tesco recently I stumbled upon their bnatural range of organic products. In particular I was drawn to their Organic Cream Cleanser as it instantly reminded me of my own Liz Earle fave. The packaging is nice and simple and at £3.97 for 150ml it really is a bargain. The only drawback is that the muslins are sold separately at around £4.97 for two which I think is a bit steep. But as the products are on 3 for 2 it isn't so bad.

(NB The Liz Earle pictured here is in 150ml special edition size and is £17.25)

So how do they compare? They have similar herbal scents but I'd say the consistency of the bnatural is thinner and spreads out over the skin more easily. You need quite a bit of Liz to do the job but just a small amount, probably half, of the bnatural would be enough. So I think a bottle of this will last a lot, lot longer. It is also just as effective as Liz removing stubborn makeup brilliantly.

I also got their Organic Skin Boosting Serum and Radiance Face mask. The Serum leaves my skin feeling wonderfully silky and I love the smell. I have yet to try the mask but it contains apricot oil and plum which somehow appeals to me massively.

I'm so, so impressed with bnatural. The range of products is huge and are loads of things I want to try. I still can't say enough good words about Liz Earle but the bnatural cleanser beats hers on price and is much easier to get hold of (Hardly anywhere stocks Liz Earle).

Has anyone else tried this range? Are there any other supermarket secrets I should know?

P.S I also picked up some items from Tesco's own Barbara Daly makeup line (I just can't resist the 3 for 2!) I'll try these out and post my findings soon.

Surprise Nail Discovery!

Whilst wandering through my local House Of Fraser I was distracted by what I thought was an OPI stand which I had never before noticed. On closer inspection I soon realised they were not OPI but a brand called SinfulColours.

From left to right: Easy going, Wicket Mind, Cabana, Burgundy Apple.

I had never come across this brand before but the colours were so appealing and prices so reasonable (£2.95 each!) that I had to give them a go. Somehow I managed to limit myself to just four; after testing them out I regret not picking up more.

Easy Going

Wicket Mind

Cabana

Burgundy Apple

I have to say these are the best nail polishes I have ever tried and I have tried tons! The formulation is light and fluid allowing them to glide on effortlessly and the colours are strong and vibrant. I ALWAYS apply two coats of nail polish (at least!) but with these one coat is enough.

I am especially impressed with the pale pink shade (Easy Going). As you can see from the photo, one coat provides totally opaque colour. I have bought so many similar pale polishes hoping for this effect and finally have found one that doesn't require five coats!

Has anyone else tried this brand? I'm smitten and can't wait to go back for more!

MAC Lip Erase

After wanting this product for months and months I finally got myself down to the MAC Pro store in London and picked this up. I love a nude lip and hate the way my natural lip colour sometimes shows through glosses and lipsticks so this seemed like the perfect solution as I have never really liked applying concealer or foundation to my lips.


Lip Erase comes in two shades; Pale and Dim. The Makeup artist advised me to go for Dim as Pale would be too light for me.

Now you see them.....

....Now you don't!

It does a great job of neutralizing the colour of the lips without the yellow undertones of foundations or concealers which can also be too thick for the lips and appear cakey. This product is applied easily to give a shine and texture-free finish allowing lipstick to glide on smoothly. Although described by MAC as a balm, I would not say that it is moisturizing although on the other hand it does not dry out the lips either.

I was excited to try this out under lipsticks and glosses to see if the colours really would appear truer and brighter.

With MAC Frozen Dream Lipglass (Chill collection):

Before....

With Lips Erased

With MAC Splendid lipglass (from Dame Edna collection):

Before

With Lips Erased

Lip Erase gets the thumbs-up from me. I much prefer being able to see the true colours of the glosses once my natural lip colour has been muted. Would I buy this product again? As little of this stuff goes such a long way I can't ever see myself getting to the bottom of the pot!

Over to you, what are your thoughts on this product? What do you use to achieve the perfect nude lip?

The Dame has arrived!

Hello Possums!! Dame Edna has arrived at Mac counters unfashionably early.

I'm not usually a January sales goer but decided to hit the shops anyway and on my way into Debenhams out the corner of my eye I glimsed the blue rinse perm and bejewelled spectacles enticing me.

I know I'm weak and am conned by gimmicky packaging but I couldn't resist the lure of the lilac compacts.

Not all of the collection appealed to me, the lipsticks felt drying, matte and far too bright for me to wear but the lipglosses are gorgeous and have good pigmentation.

Splendid and Hot Frost

The eyeshadow colours in the trio compacts are lovely apart from one which I'm a little dubious of and don't think I'll use (the turquoise one). Both highlighters are really pretty but I don't think they will stay looking lovely for long.

Wisteria Trio - Fineshine (bottom), Wisteria and Divine Night (top).

Royal Tour Trio - Royal Tour (bottom), Dame's Desire, Climate Blue (top).

Although the packaging is great I have heard some negative comments about the collection on YouTube, the highlighters lose their shimmer after the top layer wears off and the red glasses emblem is prone to peeling off. Bit disappointed that they are only stickers but I'm going to try to keep them in tip top condition, I'll let you know my solution when I come up with it.

Spectacle! Highlight Powder

I'll test them out tomorrow and post some swatches and looks. What does everyone think about this collection?

Mac Monogram!

I was really looking forward to Mac's latest luxury line, Monogram, the packaging is of course gorgeous and usually I'm sucked into packaging ploys but this time I managed to restrain myself.

I'm glad I did, after watching mixed reviews on YouTube I decided not to splash the cash but wait until my sucker friend did.

The colours are gorgeous and the packaging is to die for but in my opinion not worth the expense. The eyeshadow/highlighters are around £22 and lipglosses around £17, if you collect Mac then these are for you but if you're looking for useful makeup this collections not great.

Sheerspark pressed powder in Old English

The eyeshadows don't have much pigmentation and are difficult to work with. The texture is dry and lumpy, the glitter doesn't last long on the lids and ends up on your cheeks within ten minutes. All this said the colours are gorgeous and the compacts are some serious eye candy great for showing off in the Ladies'!


Gorgeous compact

Although not impressed with the eyeshadows or mystery powders the lipglasses live up to expectations.

Lipglass in Distinguished

After much hard work scraping away at the eyeshadow here's the finished look. To complete the look we also used Clinique cream shaper eyeliner in Deep Cobalt and Mac Mineralized blusher in Love Joy.

Has anyone else indulged in Monogram? What do you think, worth the cash?

Mac Chill collection look!

Yet another collection hit Mac counters last week, no fancy packaging or quirky characters but the Chill line is perfect for creating a knockout apres ski look.

Snow bunnies will love the icy pinks and frosty greys, on screen the collection doesn't look like much but in reality the colours are simple, wearable and just plain pretty.

I bought my favourites as a christmas gift for a friend, unfortunately she won't be hitting the slopes this year but I thought this might compensate for the lack of snow.

Here are all the products used for the look, not all are from the Chill collection as I also bought her the lipstick in Snob and the 249 eye brush but they were used for this.

Icescape - beautiful frosty baby pink


Wintersky - a baby pink with a hint of mauve and shimmer

Voila!The finished look, pretty, pink and perfect for frosty weather.

Depotting: The Lowdown

So as you can see in my Christmas goodies photos I got my first Mac palette and all the pan form shadows to fill it. I was so excited, I'd finally made it in the makeup world then I encountered the dilemma of what to do with my trusty favourites in their little black cases, all lonely and begging for a place in the palette.

This resulted in a YouTube investigation and I discovered that there was a technical term for this process, known to makeup junkies as DEPOTTING. After watching many dubious and somewhat dangerous attempts I've taken bits and created my own foolproof method.

Here's my failsafe step by step guide to the art of depotting.

Essential equipment needed:

Safety pin/needle

Scissors

Greaseproof paper

Flat magnet

Hair Straighteners

1. First pop out the eyeshadow pan from its pot by using scissors in the groove at the front.

2.Cut out a square of magnet smaller than the size of the palette hole.

3. Place the pan onto the heated plates making sure you protect the straighteners with a piece of greaseproof paper. Leave it for about 30 seconds or so.



4. Using the safety pin, push out the metal pan. The black plastic should be soft enough to pierce easily. The pan should just fall out; be careful it will be very hot.



5. Whilst the glue is still sticky quickly place the square of magnet onto the back of the pan.





6. To remove the label place the pot onto the straighteners. After another 30 seconds the label should just slide off and can be stuck directly over the magnet.




Et Voila! The depotting is done and the shadow is ready to be transferred straight to palette.


Disclaimer: The Yummy Mummy's Beauty Blog is not responsible for any damage to persons or precious makeup!