Monday, May 21, 2012

Ready, Steady, Glow... bronzer block by Madame Milly: Cheap highlighter/illuminator

First things first, this is not a 'Bronzer Block'. This is not even a proper 'Eye Shadow Quad'. But what this $5 not-really-a-real-brand-branded product does is highlight and add shimmer perfectly. 


I love the kitsch vintage looking packaging especially the palm trees and this is the main reason I bought this apart from the fact it was on sale at my local Target for $2.85 so I decided that was a cheap gamble so I could open it to see what was inside.


The first layer of this little package has a small mirror which would be handy in limited circumstances but to be honest, this isn't the sort of "staple" product you'll be taking in your hand bag for touch ups.

The strips of colour are not brown in the slightest, hence I'm puzzled that someone labelled it a bronzer. The colours range from an icy white to apricot, purples and pinks. Although they appear these colours they all have the same distinct silver sheen to them which may not appear too obvious in this photo but is inescapable when swatched.

All appear slightly different but overall silvery
 This next photo helps show the slightly different shades of the colours but notice how they are all just slight variations on silver.



It's when the colours are swirled together that the product really stands out:


This is the bronzer brick swatched quite heavily with all the colours picked up on a kabuki brush. It was hard to photograph but I hope you can see how much of a reflective sheen the "bronzer" gives and that it doesn't have any noticable shimmer or glitter. It works great as a cheek highlighter but mainly for night time makeup needs, as it is too shiny for a natural day look.

The "eyeshadow" quad is basically a quad of four similar silvery shades that give the same sort of sheen/luminosity as the bronzer brick.

 

Overall this small little "bronzer brick" and "eyeshadow quad" is really a great inexpensive silvery highlighter that is probably best for night time makeup but will last forever and is super cheap. Quite a good buy but there are other cheap products that can do better highlighting.


RATING: 3/5

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Silver nail foils

After years of biting my nails, I have finally grown them out and what better way to celebrate the aesthetic goodness of nail than... mirror nails.
Seriously.
Ten million photos of metallic nail foils on tumblr and I had to have a go.

I bought the nail foil stickers off eBay for around $2 US. They just come with no instructions because the process is pretty straightforward. That's not to say the actual application is so simple. The edges of the nail stickers were similar to my own nail shape but needed to be trimmed down as all the nail stickers were too wide. Also, the stickers themselves are thick and inflexible. Not at all how I imagined they would be, so application is very difficult and it's hard to not crease or bubble the foils.
























They did look great and noone was going to see them up close or notice the slight imperfections.
They lasted great the first 24 hours then I decided to paint a top coat over to try and preserve them seeings as I had read on the internet that they only last a day and can be removed with hot soapy water. ALARM BELLS! I couldn't go a few hours without washing my hands so the top coat idea seemed to be a good one. Until I did it. They nail stickers didn't react well and went matte and shrivelled.
So here's my one main tip - Don't use a top coat, at least not a quick dry one like I did.







(Also sorry for the terrible hand poses, I don't have straight fingers so trust me, this is better than natural hands!)






They did look pretty good during the first day so I recommend only wearing them for a special event or short occasion, they won't last more than a few days and you'll have the urge to peel them off when the edges start lifting. For a temporary look though, they are cheap, look great and get plenty of compliments.


Pardon my terrible photos too, lack of a good camera and no skills at inserting photos into the text plus never having used Blogger I am struggling!

Have you used nail foils and have tips for me? Leave a comment stranger,

T.

Monday, March 5, 2012

HELLO

Agggghhh, first post. Scary stuff.
This is just a quick introduction because I have a million things I should be doing right now other than this but want to start this now or else I never will.

Right, tried to put in a crappy photo of myself here but failed. Will have to try again tomorrow when I have time.

Until then, Love You Random Internet People.