ISADORA

Snap! Judgement: IsaDora Twist-Up Eye Gloss

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On a bit of an IsaDora kick, it would appear. These are perfect timing, as I’ve been self-tanning.
ISADORA EYE GLOSS toobz
From left: Sun Bronze, Peachy and Nude Pearl. I thought they were lipglosses at first {love a good sparkly nude for the summer} but am happy enough to know they are for eye ornamentation.

And frankly, probs for a touch highlighting everywhere else, as well.
ISADORA EYE GLOSS swatch
That’s the same line up as above, from left. The editorial comment is thanks to the Twist-Up Metallic Eye Pen in Golden Khaki, which resisted being photographed. Maybe there is such a thing as too shiny.

Swatch me impressed! Really looking forward to taking them for a spin on the town…

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Twist-Up Eye Glosses: €13.25
Twist-Up Metallic Eye Pen: €10.95

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Snap! Judgement: IsaDora Volume Lash Styler Mascara

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Oooh!
ISADORA mascara

ISADORA wandEh: it’s not much of a Snap! Judgement, which generally amounts to me reacting to a product as it is, fresh out of the package, but IsaDora’s Volume Lash Styler needed to be taken through its paces.

It is pretty impressive. That spiky little comb gets all up in your lashes, lifting and separating, and getting as much product onto them as quickly and efficiently as poss.

It usually takes several goes to achieve this look — I only did two coats (apply-dry-apply-dry) and got this result. As well, this formula didn’t get glommy and sticky at any stage.

When MUA Stephen Øien was in town presenting the brand’s summer looks, he said this was his favourite mascara —it’s now mine too!

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€17.95

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I Try Before You Buy: Palettes of the Eyeshadow Persuasion

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01 YSL couture
YVES SAINT LAURENT Couture Variations 10-color Eye Palette in Tuxedo €70
*****
This is an almost unbelievable world of combinations here, in a wealth of textures — although they do err on the side of sparkly, a side I have been known to err on lo these many years. It’s suits its name as it does feel very formal, but don’t be put off by strength of the pigments: the key matte shades are there for day, and the deeply rich ones (love the navy) are there to transition you into the evening. The lightest touch has you covered, and the colours stay strong.

02 ISADORA eye bar
ISADORA Eye Color Bar in Nude Essentials €17.50
***
These are not rich in pigment, but they are long-lasting, the perfect sort of non-dramatic hue and intensity for a day at the office. This is not damning with faint praise: most of us can’t rock up to the office like we’re ready to go clubbing at the drop of a mouse. If you want to enhance your peepers and still look professional, you won’t do any better than this — but when you are ready to drop that mouse and go out to play on a school night, you may find yourself caught short. The Surf & Sun Eye Color bar is like a Caribbean holiday in a palette, complete with yellow and green, so if you’re more adventurous, you’ll have a blast playing with it. I personally love that purple and teal…

03 NO7 mini palette
NO 7 Mini Eye Palette €14.25
***
Not just for mini eyes, ha ha. Actually, this palette isn’t at all mini, but it is slim. The ‘mini’ designation is, I think, due to the palette’s being comprised of the top shades from No7’s line of eyeshadows. These are surprisingly hefty in terms of pigment, and I’m starting to feel a little bit misled by the whole ‘mini’ designation. I like the container, it’s sleek and looks expensive, which it is so not. I’d pop this in the carry-on and go travelling with it.

04 CLARINS garden escape
CLARINS PARIS Garden Escape 6-Colour Eye Palette €41
**
Love these colours in theory, and as ever, the shades are long-lasting and rich, but that green. I don’t even know what to do with that. I played around with it, and it became apparent fairly quickly that I needed a professional to show me how to do this. If your skillz are up to it, then there’s lots to like here. If you have The Fear of mad colours, go with a classic Clarins palette.

FUSCHIA
FUSCHIA MAKE-UP The Pro Collection €45
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This is fun! You too can walk in the footsteps of many a make-up artist, thanks to Fuschia, by personally selecting each and every color you put in your palette. You can buy a Pro Palette Senoir {€18} or Junior {€18}, and fill it repsectively woth large pans {€7.50} or small ones {€5.50}. Nothing I love better than playing with colour, so once you’ve decided to go big or go small, you can start choosing your hues. Choosing colour online, however, has inherent drawbacks. If you’ve got a good eye and decisive mind, then you are laughing. If you can’t picture the colours on your face — which is totally understandable — this may be seem daunting. I received many compliments recently when I used this, and the look lasted the whole night long.
fuschia.ie

SLEEK Vintage Romance
SLEEK MAKE-UP I-Divine Eyeshadow Palette in Vintage Romance €10
****
These mineral eye shadows have more pigment in one little pan than many palettes have in their entirety. These are very very smokey, and may be hard to manage — but practice, and you’ll get a long-lasting, dramatic look rather than a panda-bearish vibe. For a tenner, this is going to last an age and a half — perhaps even an aeon. There are 13 palettes to choose from, so for the price of many of the above, you can have the eyeshadow department of your beauty regime completely sorted for months to come. See http://www.sleekmakeup.com for the full line.

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THIS: IsaDora Flashing Volume Instant Effect Mascara

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This smokey eye was discussed here; were you wondering about the mascara?
MAC QUAD lo light
It’s via IsaDora. I was a bit dubious about their Flashing Volume Instant Effect Mascara, because of the odd little end on the wand — but, of course, it’s thanks to this odd little end that you get this ridic effect.

Here is it, all by itself:
ISADORA 1

That was only two coats. I know I’veISADORA mascara wand wrestled with this before, but here I go again: I consider a coat to be the first layer of mascara you put on, not the actual first brushing of the lashes. Like, you put on as much as you can, then let it set, and go back for more. Am I wrong? I don’t think so.

Here’s the wee little ‘brush’ at the end of the wand. This is spiky like the newfangled wands we’ve come to know and love or loathe in the past few years. Maybe they’re oldfangled now? Anyway, as far as spiky wand heads go, this is teeny.

It’s perfect for those hard-to-reach spots like the inside of the eye, but I was certain that it would take an age to get this on my face, just because the brush was that small.

It didn’t. The thing is, this tiny brush is hollow, so you’re getting twice as much product with every dip. And in fact, the smallness of the brush allowed for greater precision, and quicker application.

Once the first coat set, I went back for more, it was almost too much; this got a bit gunky, but that’s what they make lash combs for, right? I learned my lesson, though and did as comprehensive a job the first round.

Look: IRL. Tiny!
ISADORA WAND IRL

Good thing, small package!

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€16.25

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A Miscellany of Brushes: My Top Ten

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MY BRUSHESMake up brushes had always seemed an indulgence to me, and were also an extra bunch of fiddly things that couldn’t stand up on their own — which meant I’d have to find a place to keep them, and in most of the places I’ve lived in the last… yikes, fifteen-point-six years, there’s been minimal bathroom-room.

There was also a thing where I was keeping the sets inviolate? Which is like, what? I got over that. And I was, okay, maybe a tiny bit intimidated by make up brushes — got over that, and haven’t looked back. They really are good for you, and your face.

Got well over that, found a jar to hold ’em, and got down to putting together, no matter their provenance, my own personal collection of brushes. There are others, for sure, and someday perhaps they will move into the rotation. In fact, I’ve made some changes to this lot already, and I only took this photo a month ago.

From the left!

> The BENEFIT Foundation Brush is the best one I’ve tried. I prefer my fingers, no matter the truth that every MUA routinely lays down — that truth being that you get better coverage with less product. I get annoyed because: one more thing to clean!

> I don’t even know that JO MALONE make brushes anymore, but this big, puff ball of goodness is genius for applying loose powder, and pressed powder that I don’t want to be too matte.

> ISADORA‘s ginormous Kabuki is perfect for bronzer, and blush if I use just the very middle chunk of bristles. Which it is entirely possible to do.

> TRISH McEVOY‘s eyelash comb. I found the metal scary near my eye the first time I used it, but now I am fearless. Should probs clean that too, oops.

> Hmm, where did that come from… MARKS & SPENCER, I think? The eyelash comb, as you can see, did not travel well, and is toothless — but the little wedgey brush at the bottom is flawless when it comes to applying dark pigment at the lash lines.

> BOBBI BROWN is my only woman for smudging. {At the moment, anyway… I’ve just gotten me paws on a SMASHBOX Blending Brush, and it may join the crowd.}

> The SISLEY PARIS brush is okay, and it may lose its spot in the Top Ten. In fact, it already has because:

> The DR HAUSCHKA Dear Eyes Limited Edition brushes are fab. That’s the Definer pictured, and the Blender is fantastic, too, and will be shifting the Sisley out of the way.

> Have no idea where that wee Kabuki came from, but it travels exceptionally well, and is a staple in my daily going-out make up bag.

I’ve also got a REAL TECHNIQUES blush brush, and a BODY SHOP blush brush near to hand, but I notice that I rarely wear blush {Should I?!?}, and one-a them fan-shaped deals, via SMASHBOX, with which to apply that fabulous white stiff, the Photoset Finishing Powder, which I need to post about.

So many brushes, so little time!

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A swipe of brushes? Thinking their might be a better collective noun…

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Hey! Weather! I Got Work to Do, Yo.

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I know, I know — I know! But even here in Ireland, where we expect such things as hail and rain and sun and hail and rain in one hour, we are getting fed up.

It is feckin’ May, dammit. I have things I need to use and have not got much impetus to do so.

I know I am an amateur when it comes to self-tanning. I still abide by these now arbitrary rules as to when it is actually ‘summer’. Heck, I’d begun relaxing them in recent years to incorporate May, but look where we are with that. How’m I s’posed to check all this stuff I’ve got if there is not going to be A} sun to block or B} sun to illuminate the applied shine?

HEY WEATHER!There’s that bottle of Clarins Splendours Shimmer Body Oil {€37}, which falls squarely in the B category. Sure, I could douse myself from head to toe, and how I yearn to do so, but then what? Cover it up with a jumper? What a waste! I also have a tub of He-Shi’s Luminous Shimmer {€12.60}, not pictured because I think it ran away from home, and is heading for climes in which it can be shown to its best advantage. Cannot believe the bitch did not take me with it.

I suppose I could use La Roche-Posay’s Anthelios XL Invisible Nutritiv Oil SPF50+ {€22} when I go horseriding, and I think I will definitely try in on my face. I found the Anthelios XL Extreme Fluid {€19.50} to come over rather Chaplinesque  — not a good look.

At least I’ll get some use out of the above. But whither my massive IsaDora Bronzing Powder {€25.95}, much less my long-awaited and anticipated Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick {€42.50}? Or the new Vichy Capital Soleil Beautifying Sun Protection Compact {€19.50} — which, okay, since we’re meant to ABSPFing* I should probs use anyway.

All this moaning would be moot if I would just crack into Cocoa Brown’s Night & Day Tan {€7.99}, giving myself the proper canvas upon which to apply all the shimmer. This shows up the tan immediately, with no development time, and showers off the next day to a lovely, light tan. Or so I’ve heard.

And I guess I could work my way into the whole glow-y vibe by using the Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder {€48}.

CHANEL les beiges

I am happy just to look at the lovely cream lid. I am such a weirdy, but that is actually lifting my spirits. So elegant. So… so full of je ne sais quoi. No, I know quoi — it’s an inanimate object, uneffected by the vagaries of les temps.

Anyway, as I watch the rain piss down from the heavens, I feel a rebellious urge begin to stir within… Let the tanning begin! Weather bedamned!

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*Always Be SPFing

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Face of the Day: *Not* Photographed on the 46A

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FOTD 23 01 2013Hmmm: I always seem to do this on days that I am wearing Hourglass Cosmetics Veil Fluid Makeup SPF 15 in  Sand, along with the Mineral Veil Primer. Well, that tells you all you need to know, I reckon. I always feel like I need to show off my face when I am wearing that primer/foundation combo.

Like the blush? It’s IsaDora Glow Stick in Rose Bud, a tiny wee cream-blush-in-a-twist-up-tube that I am {is}adoring at the moment. It is very soft, and applied on the apple of the cheek, it makes you look like a Victorian Valentine. as

As if my cheeks weren’t entirely apples!

Brows are my usual HD Brows, for which Carter Beauty can take credit. I have defined them with my favvvvourite new brow thing, Smashbox Brow Tech To Go. Google it now, ladiez, it is so good: it comes with a brush-in-gel to set them up, and then an angled pencil to fill ’em in. Proper review to come — hey, haven’t done a Haiku Review in yonks. There’s a plan!

Eyelashes are via VenusLash by Venus Medical. Oh, there will be updates there.

A bit of Clinique eyeshadow, the fabbalis Black Honey, which never, ever goes wrong.

Lips = a combo of Lush Liquid Lipstick in Confidence, with some Clinique Chubby in Chunkiest Chilli on top. This solves two problems I have, one with each: the Lush is too dry, and the Clinique doesn’t have the staying power I’ll ned today. Together, they are perfect.

Okay! Ready to face the day with the #FOTD!

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