Monster High Monday: Gloom Beach Clawdeen

My goodness, I'm behind with work right now. I've had a pretty hectic few weeks, so want to apologise to all the lovely bloggers that I've not had time to visit lately. I've missed getting to comment on your blogs each day, but am planning a Bloglovin' super catch-up when time permits. I have a couple of The Shoe Girl Diaries posts for you and some beauty hauls (finally got me some pennies, whoop whoop), but for now, here is this week's Monster High Monday.
Clawdeen the fiery little wolf, has a plethora of bright colours for this swimwear line and a lot of purple in her hair which I'm sadly lacking (I just woke up one day it and it was pale lilac!). Not to worry I tackled a freshen-up colour today and gave my hair quite the chop. You know when you just cut off a little bit more to even the sides, then a little bit more and a little bit more, until you practically have no more to cut? Yep, that was me! Less to dye, that's my reasoning! Anyway back to wolfy and I can't say I love wearing pink eyeshadow and coral lips, but I guess I got the colours pretty spot-on. The only thing to note is, Clawdeen's lips are really washed out from the flash in these photos and in real life are the darker shade mine are.
So I'm still into my contouring this week, can't say it's very noticeable when I'm looking at these photos, but I'm still trialling different things and have made a few purchases to help. On the face is Lancome Teint Miracle in 005 with Dainty Doll Concealer in 002 on blemishes and finished with Clarins Ever Matte Mineral powder Compact in 00. For highlighting I used BeneFit Eye Bright pencil and Pout Face & Body Illuminator in Love Glow and for contouring, Teint Miracle in the darker 010 shade. On my cheeks is the blush colour from Lancome Blush Subtil Palette in 01 Rose Flush.

The main issue with the eye makeup was 'is it pink or is it purple?' Well it's an in-between violet shade, although when I zoomed in on the images I took of the doll, it definitely leaned more pinky. I trialled a lot of purples and pinks before finding dupes and my dupes were definitely more pink than purple. So on my eyes is Too Faced Shadow Insurance, over which I applied Anna Sui Eye Color Accent in 303 up to the crease. On Clawdeen there is very little colour difference between the two shades she's wearing, but the lid shade appears to be frosty looking. The Anna Sui colour has a little shimmer so seemed appropriate. I felt it was leaning a little too pink though, so smoothed some of the frosty lilac shade from Milani 07 Wild Violets quad over the top using my finger. It toned down the pink and helped get that slightly pink, slightly purple tone.
Above the crease I applied the deep pink shade from Givenchy Prisme Again! in Purple Emotion 3 palette and also ran it along the lower lashline. My eyeliner is YSL Waterproof Pencil with Lancome Artliner for the flicks and YSL Shocking Volume Mascara on my lashes. I then ran a thin line of the black eyeshadow (called Graphic Garden) from MAC's Graphic Garden Palette following the crease. The line isn't hugely prominent on Clawdeen, but I felt it helped separate the two colours.
I think the colours looked brighter on me because of my pale skin compared to Clawdeen. The lips were a coral shade but with a red undertone and not a 'bright' coral. I used Lancome Color Fever Lipstick in 110 Hot Stuff Rouge, which was actually a perfect dupe when swatched, but looked different on my lips. So over that I applied a sheer, almost neon pink, No7 Sheer Temptation Lipstick in 08 Pretty Please and my lipliner was MAC Subculture. I think it helped combining the two shades.
So that's me for another week! Not as much fun as last time, but I certainly got to test the power of my cleansing water to remove this lot! I should have my outfit post up tomorrow and I'll update this post with the link afterwards.

Micellar Blind Trial

Escentual have set me and 99 other bloggers, a blind-test trial. The products we are sampling are French micellar waters. There are seven waters and each one comes packaged in an identical dropper bottle labelled A-G, so we have no idea which is which. After we've sampled each one, we have a survey to fill in on how we thought each one performed.
I think it's a brilliant test, because you can't subconsciously be swayed by "ooh I love that brand" or packaging, you're basing your opinions solely on how it works, feels and smells. We have 14 days to trial all seven, so I've taken to using one for two days at a time as that gives me 4 (morning and night) applications and a good idea of how it cleanses and also how good or bad it is at removing makeup. I'm halfway through and have varying opinions on the ones I've sampled thus far. One I really didn't get on well with. After my 2 weeks, I thought I'd let you know details of each one. It's a really interesting trial isn't it?
What's even better is I haven't tried any of the seven before this trial. Actually the only cleansing water I've tried is Lancome Eau Micellaire Douceur, so it's interesting to see how these perform against that too.  The samples we are using are the following:

Dior Instant Cleansing Water
Nuxe Micellar Cleansing Water
Caudalie Make-Up Remover Cleansing Water
Bioderma Sensibio H20 Micelle Solution
Vichy Purete Thermale Calming Cleansing Micellar Solution
Avene Micellar Lotion Cleanser and Make-up Remover
La Roche-Posay Physiological Micellar Solution

I can't wait to let you know how they did.

Monster High Monday: Roller Maze Lagoona

Sorry this post comes a little late, but it's well worth waiting for. Last week, I had a lot of issues colour matching Howleen, even although the look I was replicating was supposedly 'no-fuss' neutrals. I didn't like the finished look and I didn't even enjoy the application. So this week, I picked a doll that to be honest, I've been avoiding since I purchased her. Why? Well she's wearing lime green eyeshadow, bordering on neon and lots of it! That's never going to work on me surely? To make matters worse, the lime is then mixed with green (eww at the colour clash) and bold pink lips. On the doll, it looks fabulous though, but that's because it's Lagoona and she's ridiculously pretty and could pull off anything! After my failed attempt at neutrals, I'd definitely lost a bit of confidence in my makeup artistry skillz (!) and I felt I was destined to look ridiculous. Clown ridiculous. To say this is the antithesis of Howleen last week would be an understatement!
When I started to pick out colours and saw how bright the eyeshadow was that I would be using, I was utterly convinced it would look nothing but hideous on me. O-M-G, I was so wrong! I absolutely nailed the look this week and it's possibly my favourite Monster High Monday ever!!
All the girls in the Skultimate Roller Maze line had some sort of lime in their outfit and hair and/or makeup, so I was dubious as to whether I had a shade bright enough in my own collection. I could only think of one and it was a little more yellow than I would've liked. I then spied my MAC Eyes On Manish palette which I've been using for previous MHM's and within that is a bright yellow and bright green. The green was perfect. I had a little fiddling around to find the correct lip shade, but otherwise it was relatively easy to find dupes.
Note there is also some glitter involved in the eye, as if the colours weren't enough!
I'm trying out highlighting and contouring this week and even although Lagoona wears no blush, I wanted to try and incorporate my HaC methods into this look. I've only properly tried it a couple of times and am already loving it, so I'll maybe do a tutorial/FOTD post once I become more natural with the process. I started with Lancome Teint Miracle foundation in 005 and applied Dainty Doll concealer in 001 to blemishes, under the eyes and as my highlighting colour. I used Pout Face & Body Illuminator in Love Glow on the top of my cheekbones, Mark Good Glowing powder blush in After Glo on the cheeks and Cameo Glo as my contour colour and finished with Clarins Ever Matte Mineral Powder Compact in Transparent Opal. HaCing does involve a little more products and brushes than usual!
On the eyes, I applied Too Faced Shadow Insurance and some Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Eye Gel in Backstage for the glitter, just under the brow. Despite the glitter being gel based, I still managed to lose a lot of sparkle as I tackled the rest of my makeup, however it turned out just like Lagoona, with sporadic glitter.  I decided against the line Lagoona has in her crease, I felt I didn't need it.     
On the lids up to the crease, I applied MAC Shimmermoss eyeshadow. Then taking a blending brush applied the lime shade from MAC Eyes On Manish palette from the crease upwards and also under the lower lashline. It's bold, it's bright, it's kinda ugly, but it's exactly what was required. It's a really harsh colour, but somehow it's worked.  I finished with YSL Waterproof Eye Pencil in Black Ink and Lancome Artliner for the flicks and YSL Shocking Volume mascara. I also filled the brows a little with the brow powder from the Jelly Pong Pong Wakeup Makeup Palette.
For the lips I had to mix a couple of shades together to get just the right colour. Although the pink is bold, it's a little more dull than most of my bright pinks. So I used MAC Outrageously Fun (Cremesheen) as a base over Pout 36DD Lip Liner and then MAC Romancin' (Lustre) over the top. It was perfect.
I had no idea these colours could look so good together, especially as I have green eyes and I'm sure there's some stupid beauty rule about not wearing eyeshadow the same colour as your eyes, along with only wearing either bold eyes or lips and not both. If anything this post just proves that it's worth doing something outside of your comfort zone, no matter how subtle that might seem and that beauty rules are there to be broken.
I was so happy with the finished look and the photos, I felt great and who knew lime eyeshadow would be the reason?! I think my HaCing is partly responsible too as I've been having such trouble with my skin lately but this sculpting and glowing can't fail to make you feel good. You can see my full outfit and slightly less green eyes on The Shoe Girl Diaries now. How do you think I did?

Monster High Monday: Dance Class Howleen

You'll have to bear with me while I catch up on posts I've missed this week. My little sister and I bought tickets ages ago for The Big Reunion tour (the show on ITV2 that reformed 90's bands) and so we set off on Tuesday and stayed overnight in Glasgow and got back yesterday. Can you believe it was the first time I've been away since I went to my friends wedding in Aberdeenshire 3 years ago? I definitely don't get out much, so it was a nice little break. I'm pretty shattered and sore from the trip, but keen to get back into a routine. Monster High Monday was pretty much a disaster this week though. I woke up on Monday feeling fine, then within an hour I started sneezing. Not just once or twice, about 60 times in 20 minutes. Sneezing constantly is exhausting! I wasn't sure whether it was allergies or the cold, but then my nose started running and I figured it was the worst possible moment for me to start feeling ill. I couldn't breathe, my nose was blocked, but running like a tap, I sounded choked up and I was still sneezing. My nostrils were so sore and all red, that the last thing I felt like doing was putting on makeup and getting dressed to go out. However I did. Strangely enough I still felt sick on Tuesday morning, but it subsided throughout the day and other than being left with a sore nose, I have no signs of a cold whatsoever. Must be my temperamental hay-fever which disappears for years and shows up when it feels like it. Anyway, besides feeling like poo, I completely stuffed up the makeup on MHM. I thought Howleen would be easy to emulate because it involved a lot of neutrals and looked simple enough. How wrong was I? I spent around 20 minutes on Sunday colour matching and thought I'd come up with close enough shades.
 
Come Monday, I felt my colours weren't as perfect as I'd thought and it turns out I'm not much of a brown eyeshadow fan (always knew that), so I was struggling to find something close enough. I have a neutral drawer of colours and besides looking through every eyeshadow in that, I refused to start sifting through mixed-palettes for the correct colour. There's literally thousands of eyeshadows to check through and off the top of my head, I couldn't even think of any and there's only so many hours you can dedicate to finding the right products. Now you see why I rarely use palettes! Add to that the fact I don't think I even got the lips right, this week felt like a fail for me. I might just write it off or maybe try it again some other time if I ever have the patience to find better colour matches.
So starting with the face, I applied Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Eclat in BR10 with Dainty Doll Hot Pour Concealer in 001 Very Light under the eyes and on blemishes. I finished with Clarins Ever Matte Mineral Powder Compact in 00 Transparent Opal and also used a little MAC Legendary powder blush on the cheeks. Although Howleen doesn't wear a cheek colour, I needed it and it's a light enough peach to not detract too much from the rest of the face.
Now is where it gets complicated and I use a lot of colours, so I'll break it down. Howleen has a highlighter/sheen shade along the lower lashline and under the brow. She has what looks like a very pale pink on the lids up to the crease. A black thin line along the crease and then a reddish brown between the crease and highlighter shade. So that's four different shades. For the highlighter I used the pale pink shade from Lancome Ombre Subtile Duo in 351 Rose Garden. It didn't look quite frosty enough, so I applied some Lancome Poudre Superbe in 02 Argente over the top, which is a shimmer powder rather than eyeshadow.
For the pale pink lid shade I used the bottom left colour from Givenchy Prisme Again! Eyes in 3 Purple Emotion. For the black line in the crease I applied The New Black from my Lancome Color Design palette and decided it wasn't quite intense enough, so added a little Barbie Loves Stila Smudge Pot in Little Black Dress. My eyeliner is YSL Waterproof Pencil with Lancome Artliner for the flicks and mascara is Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless.
So far, not too bad, but it was the warm red toned brown 'crease' shade I struggled with. Colours were either too bronze or brown, not enough red, too light, too dark, too shimmery. So I ended up applying a pale but pigmented peach shade from Versace Eyeshadow Duo in V2038, then applied Givenchy Prisme Again! Eyes in 1 Zen Pastel (the top right colour) over that. It's a peachy, mauvey brick reddish colour, but I felt I was lacking the brown base. So over them I applied Prisme Again! Eyes in 2 Brown Caress (the top right shade) which is brown.
I still can't say I'm happy with the outcome, it was a little too orangey and less tan than Howleen. Plus it was shimmery looking and Howleen's is matte, but the finish was the least of my worries to be honest! At this point I got Mum to come and kill kindly release a huge spider (thankfully I didn't freak too much because I thought it was a couple of really black moths or a beetle or something) that was wedged between the pleats in the top of my curtains. I got a 'you can barely open your eyelids because they are so heavy from all the makeup you're wearing' comment from Mum and knew it was time to finish up!
For the lips, I'd found a couple of close-enough shades on Sunday that I thought I could mix together to get the right colour. They were both MAC lipsticks, so I applied Colour Crafted (Frost) as a base and Creme Cup (Cremesheen) over the top and my liner was MAC Naked Liner. I'd describe the colour on Howleen as a dull peach, but I found in reality it leaned either too coral or too nude, it was really difficult to find a balance between enough colour but not being too bright. I can't recall what I thought at the time of my finished lips, I think it was that they were lacking in the coral shade, but in the photos it's come across as much brighter, lighter and more colourful than real life (like a lot) but actually looks to be a perfect match to Howleen here. Again, my lips looked really shiny and on the doll they look matte, but she's painted and I'm using real makeup, so that's my excuse!
I have no plans to revisit this anytime soon, but would like to re-attempt it at some point. I think I mismatched my colours and finishes and my nose was red-raw and I couldn't pose for photos without having to stuff a tissue up my nose!  I have a hilarious uncropped eye close-up where you can just see the tissue blocking my runny nose! Attractive (!) I'm definitely finding a trend of those dolls that look complicated turning out to be easier than I thought and the simple looks being difficult to replicate. How do you think I did this week? Howleen certainly lived up to her mischievous and troublesome nature!

PHP's Beloved Beauty Bits (April)

It's been a bit of a strange one this month, with no colour products and only two 'makeup' items making it into my favourites. I think it's probably because my skin has been suffering so much, that I've been concentrating on treating that and makeup wise I haven't really tried anything new or exciting. I've been really disappointed after months of searching for the Oxy Seaweed range, only to find it, use it and it's not worked wonders on my skin like it did last time. The stress of being spotty again definitely isn't helping and I'm finding areas that used to be blemish free are breaking out too (I'm really getting exasperated). I finished my last jar of Clarins Multi-Active and although I didn't think my skin was overly enamoured with it recently, it seems to have broken out in sympathy spots asking for the pricey stuff back ("no chance" at the moment face)! So I really need to rethink my whole skincare and makeup routine this month to get control over the situation. Anyway, first up is one of the makeup items, Clarins Ever Matte Mineral Powder Compact in 00 Transparent Opal.
I've had this for a while but only recently started using it exclusively. I was surprised to hit pan one day though as I hadn't realised I'd used it quite that much! I remember being disappointed when it arrived, as it looked much darker than I'd expected, however it actually applies very light. It feels like silk, very lightweight and does a good job of keeping my face matte for most of the day. It's not overly powdery or matte looking though, it leaves my face looking very natural.  I prefer to apply it with my Urban Decay Powder Blush, rather than the applicator in the compact. I'd definitely consider repurchasing this once it runs out.
 For the past year or so, I've gotten out of the way of using concealer. My foundation (and powder) cover pretty well, so I felt it was an unnecessary step in my routine. Now that I've had more breakouts than hot dinners, I've been back to using concealer! I bought Dainty Doll Concealer Hot Pour in 001 Very Light and 002 Light and am especially fond of 001 (shown here). I'd been using it under the eyes to brighten and kept 002 for spots, but for the past couple of weeks have just been using 001 for everything. It's a creamy pot concealer, so I just apply it with my finger, patting it until it blends into the skin. It doesn't 100% conceal to the point you don't know there are any blemishes there, but it does a pretty decent job of masking the redness on large spots and does cover smaller pimples.
A couple of months ago I mentioned I wanted to try another of my Harajuku Lovers 'Wicked Style' fragrances after using Baby lots. So I tried 'G' and am really loving it this month. It's a refreshing, fruity-aquatic scent which feels perfect for summer. Usually G contains coconut in her fragrances but there's no 'tropical' tone to this, which made for a pleasant change. Upon application it's quite strong (not overpowering) but fades. There's apple, raspberry, pineapple and watermelon coming through and although it's not my all-time favourite, it's been a playful scent that I've enjoyed wearing.
I've also been a big fan of Sunshine Cuties G. So much so, that I've finished one bottle and asked my sister to switch 'bases', so I can use hers too (they are only 10ml unfortunately). I like to wear a light scent in bed and this one is really subtle, so perfect for that. It's mainly coconut and vanilla and quite sweet without being sickly. I definitely prefer it to the original coconut G. I only wish they'd made the SC range in 30ml sizes because I have several favourites from that collection now.
I've been feeling lazy this month when it comes to applying body lotion, so Soap & Glory Girligo body mist has been the perfect product for me. It's like a liquid form of Righteous Butter (the original pink fragrance) that just sprays on. Obviously you still have to rub it in (it's as watery as milk), but there's something about not having to dip my hand into a big tub, that's had me reaching for this! It's also nice and light for summer. I've just finished my first bottle, but have about 4 more in my stash, so it better remain a favourite!
Generally my hands are pretty good in that I don't suffer with dry or cracked skin or any problems. I do apply hand-cream every night before bed regardless of how my hands feel and what time of year it is though. So imagine my horror when down the right side of my right hand, I got what I can only describe as 'old lady' hands! It was so dry it was rough (literally felt like sandpaper), it looked cracked and it felt like it belonged to a hard working, 85 year old (no offence). So after a quick freak out, I found this No7 Revitalising Hand Savour in my stash. I got this ages ago with a GWP, but thought it was worth a try before throwing it out. Wowzers, this stuff is good! It's a bright yellow scrub, which you apply to dry hands. It's gritty, very gritty, especially dry and once you've rubbed it in, your hands feel a little greasy/oily. You wash it off and you're left with the softest, smoothest skin you've ever felt! It's brilliant! I've been applying it a couple of times a week and finishing with hand cream and it's sorted out my hand issue. I'll definitely be looking into buying this next time I have a voucher.
Before my hand problem, I had a dry elbow issue (what is wrong with my entire body and face this month?)! I put it down to working at the computer all day, with my arm rubbing along/resting on the hard arm of the chair. I've used Soap & Glory Flake Away for years, but have to admit to losing interest in scrubs recently. While Flake Away isn't quite as yummy smelling as The Breakfast Scrub, it's still a delight to use. It's a sugar and salt scrub with small but very scratchy grains, so if you have sensitive skin this probably isn't for you. personally I like an exfoliator to feel like it's really scrubbing, so am alright with this one. It washes off to leave an oil like finish to the skin which feels like it's really hydrating. I always finish with body lotion to seal that moisture in. After one good scrub of the elbow and some body lotion (see below), my elbow was fixed.!
 
As well as using Girligo this month, I've been treating my problem areas (elbow and hand) with Jergens Ultra Healing body moisturiser for extra dry skin. I got this tube free with Look magazine a few weeks ago and it's certainly come in handy. It's got a really subtle, warm scent and contains vitamins C, E and B5 to penetrate beneath the skin and heal dry skin at the source and lock in moisture for 24 hours.  I expected it to smell quite clinical and be a really thick cream, but it was neither.  It was easily absorbed into the skin and I'd say after 2-3 applications, my skin had recovered completely.  
Told you it was a funny bunch of items this month!  Is there anything you've been loving or anything you like here?