MOTD: Nude smokey and winged eyeliner

Today I decided to have a little play around with my new Sleek Storm palette that I picked up the other day. I'm a huge fan of Sleek - the eyeshadows in particular. They're mineral based, super pigmented and blend really well. And at a price of £7.99, what's not to love?

This is what the storm palette looks like. It has a mix of matte and shimmer shadows, with nudes and neutrals and the odd pop of colour. They all work so well together, and I even think that you could create a look using every single shadow together without looking like a hot mess. Funnily enough, the shadows are all named after types of storms. Personally I find it a little bit boring, but we're not here to judge now. 

 TOP ROW L-R Sand Storm, Snow Storm, Calm Before The Storm, Thunder Storm, Perfect Storm, Firestorm.

BOTTOM ROW L-R Dust Storm, Gathering Storm, Storm Cloud, Electric Storm, Eye Of The Storm, Blackout.

My favourite from the palette is probably Snow Storm. It's a really pretty white pearly shimmer with pink/peach undertones and it's just oh so pretty. I use it as a soft highlight in the corner of my eyes, and even a little bit under the brow bone. 

Had to do a little bit of editing to try and disguise some nasties on my face

Here is my finished look. From the Storm palette I used Snow Storm as a base, Calm Before The Storm in my crease and darkened with Eye Of The Storm round the edge. I used Thunder Storm to fill in my lid and a tiny amount of Perfect Storm to blend it out. It was all looking very pretty and gentle until I whipped out the eyeliner and threw a copious amount of that onto my eyeballs. And that's how we ended up at this.

A full list of products used: Illamasqua matte primer

Illamasqua Rich Liquid foundation

Avon Perfect Brow kit in dark brown

Sleek Storm palette

Ted Baker illuminator in Pearly Pink

Illamasqua bronzing duo

Shu Uemura gel eyeliner

Soap and Glory Thick and Fast mascara

Technic false lashes

Mac lipstick in Blankety

Avon Glimmerstick lipliner in Nude

And that's that! This is a much heavier look than I'm used to but I must say I'm really loving it. I always felt my eyes were too small for thick eyeliner but I'm going to wear it anyway because honestly, it looks awesome.

Thankyou for reading!

Mini Illamasqua haul

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I've written anything on here - nearly a year! A lot has happened, some good, some bad, many life changing. But right now I'm not going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about going shopping and getting new make up yay!!

So the other day I got some good news in the form of a new job, and felt it was therefore appropriate to spend obscene amounts of money on new make up that I didn't really need but definitely wanted.

Naturally the first place I went to was Illamasqua, my favourite make up brand of all time. I still remember my first encounter with them at IMATS in London a few years back and ever since I've just been intrigued by them. Not to mention the products are incredible. They're sort of higher end I guess - I've only ever seen counters in Selfridges - but you certainly get what you pay for. Or at least I think you do.

The first thing on my list to buy was a bronzer. I'm very nervous when it comes to wearing bronzer, or anything of colour for that matter, simply because I'm naturally pretty damn pale. BUT it was time to take a leap into the unknown world of sun-kissed and glowing skin. Best, decision, ever. The bronzing duo comes in 2 gorgeous colours, glint and burnish. I tend to used glint (I'm assuming that's the lighter, pinker colour) on day to day basis, as a very light contour over my foundation. I feel burnish is better suited to evening make up, or for those who just prefer a heavier contour. Like I said, colour to me is scary so I'm still practising on a way to make it work for me. That being said, I've worn it everyday since I bought it and have received lots of compliments, so maybe I'm doing something right!


The next product I wanted was a lipstick from the new Glamore collection. I chose Buff, a beautiful fudge brown colour. On myself, it seems to have an almost greyish undertone to it. It's super creamy, which makes a difference from the usual matte lipsticks I go for, and opaque. This is a pretty unusual colour, and certainly something I would not ever go for but I was feeling adventurous. I can't wait to wear this colour out.

Now initially I thought I was done, that I had go what I wanted and was ready to cash up. However the counter lady asking 'is that everything?' caused me to blurt out 'how much is the matte lip liquid? Is it good?!' to which she replied 'yes' and boom, just like that she'd sold me another product. It wasn't hard. I was just trying to find an excuse to buy it. So I ended up purchasing the lip liquid in Exotic, a neon orange colour which is just - there are no words. Amazing, is one. Incredible, is another. You get it.

It took me a while to figure out how to use this product, though. It's certainly got a knack to it, and it is to layer. Start out with a tiny amount on the brush, allow to dry and build the colour. If you layer it on too thick, it goes clumpy and generally pretty gross. Layer, and you will have long lasting, non drying colour all day. Seriously, all day. It won't budge even when you want to take it off.

So that's it! I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. Thankyou for reading ☆

My Japan trip ☆

I can't believe how long it's been since I last updated! >.< Time has really gotten away from me recently.

So I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in Japan recently, and I thought I'd share a bit of my experience with you! I stayed a little bit out of Tokyo, maybe around 40 minutes on the train, with my first week being in Hino and my second in Hachioji. This was actually a god send with the weather being a little bit cooler than inner Tokyo~

I didn't do much touristy stuff, with it being my first time I just wanted to get acquainted with the culture and lifestyle. Instead of getting dragged down by an itinerary I tended to go with the flow and take each day as it comes.

Here comes the photospam ^^

Avantgarde in Harajuku! I had a really nice time going here. Staff are SO pleasant and also there was a secret sale whilst I was visiting there

I purchased a bag from Nadia in Harajuku and omg the packaging was so cute

Crepes were my fall down. They are so tasty! This was banana choco cream (I managed to spill the chocolate all over my dress . -.)

Just coming out of the station, greeted by the Takeshita Street sign

I bought Tokyo Boppers :D 

My first proper Harajuku shopping haul lol. Including Tokyo Bopper, Rolick, Spinns and Avantgarde

This place is in Lumine in Tachikawa, the BEST mango juice I have ever tasted

I met Hirari Ikeda *-* very sweet girl and so easy to talk to. Also she is incredibly tiny! (I'm wearing triple sole creepers hence why I look like I'm towering over her lol)

I picked my YRU qozmo hi's up in Harajuku at PINNAP. The staff working there were very kind and helpful considering I was having trouble finding a comfortable size

I got my nails done by a lovely lady named Kaori at Dashing Diva found in Celeo shopping centre in Hachioji

Where my heart belongs

And on the train back to the airport on my last day.. just to keep me going!

Taken somewhere over Sweden, so peaceful~

I had such a wonderful time in Japan, I was treated generally very well (despite some mishaps with the older generation) and I cannot WAIT to go back again. However I doubt I will be visiting in July again, the weather became unbearable on some days D: but i really cannot recommend this place highly enough.

Thankyou for reading!☆

Paris!☆

Hi everyone! So sorry for the lack of updates, i've been really busy lately.

About 2 weeks ago now, I went to Paris!! I went with my boyfriend for 2 nights/3 days. I was really panicky about not getting there, because the weather was really bad but luckily the snow held off and we arrived just fine ^^
This post will be really picture heavy!!

We did all the usual tourist stuff. This is the first time I've been to Paris when there hasn't been a concert on, lol. So I got to experience some things I haven't really had time for before, which was really nice.
I took a few pictures:

Korean BBQ on the first night! I've been to this place about 3 times and I absolutely love it

The view form our hotel room

The snow on the Chamos-Élysées was so compact and hard to walk on :(

Arc de Triomphe

It snowed over night on the first night, so the snow was so nice and soft the morning after! ^^

The Eiffel Tower during the day. It was closed because of the snow and ice so we couldn't go up it 

Peekaboo 

Walking down Champs-Élysées at night and I just couldn't look away. Jil Sander, gimme! ;a;

The Eiffel Tower at night. If you go on the hour, it flashes for about 10 minutes ^^ it's really pretty.

The outside of Notre Dame, the architecture is unbelievable

Mona Lisa

Venus de Milo

One of the huge windows from inside of Notre Dame. It's really dark inside so tricky to take good pictures >.<

Chocolate and vanilla macaroons!! So good 

Bored in the airport waiting for our delayed flight :c

Sooo that's my quick update of my trip! I'll definitely be getting back into the swing of posting more regularly soon :D Thankyou for reading ☆