5 looks with Shiro's Seven Kingdoms collection

Shiro Seven Kingdoms collection

Finally, here are 5 looks with my wonderful Shiro Seven Kingdoms loose eye shadows (see swatches here).  Sorry this post has been so long coming!  I've just moved house and so had a few weeks of utter chaos.  The chaos isn't over but I've found a smidgen of time to crack on with this.

Look One

A super simple look here.  I used Hodor to blend from my crease outwards, dragging a little under the eyes too.  Then I applied Mother of Dragons all over.  Very easy but MoD is such a pretty colour that it is by no means boring.

Battle of the liquid lipsticks

Battle of the liquid lipsticks

The matte lip trend has been going strong for the last few years and isn't going anywhere!  Matte lips are easiest achieved with liquid lipsticks, which come packaged like a gloss with their own wand, but dry down in minutes.  More and more brands are bringing out their own liquid lipsticks and to be honest, I don't mind as most of them are a bit different in some way.  Plus the more colour options, the merrier!

I thought it would be good to have a bit of a showdown between my matte liquid lipsticks, to see just how well they dry.  For each one I show a lip swatch (one layer) and then what my hand looked like when I kissed it 5 minutes later.  There's quite a difference in how they all perform.  I've got 12 brands to show you here so grab yourself a mug of tea!

My favourite Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencils

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils

It's no secret that I'm an Urban Decay junkie and one of my favourite products from the brand are their 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils.  I was originally drawn in by their wide range of colours (which has since expanded) and kept using them because of the amazing quality.  They are the best eye liner pencils I've ever tried; they don't budge at all and the colour stays intense all day.  I love that they set really well, my eyes are slightly hooded and other pencils can transfer up to the top of my eyelid but these don't do that.

Read on to see swatches of my favourite eye pencils.

Shiro Seven Kingdoms collection review

Shiro overload!  So a few months ago...actually probably less than 2 months ago, I ordered 4 of the Seven Kingdoms shadows from Shiro.  Once they arrived and I had a play around I pretty much ordered the rest of the collection immediately.  I'm a big A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones fan so these shadows are cool as each colour is inspired by one of the characters.  While you can get smaller size jars of the shades, full-size was the only conceivable option for me as the full-size feature drawings by Robert Hendrickson of the show's characters.

 I'm so obsessed with these shadows at the moment that I don't really want to use anything else right now and couldn't concentrate on other posts until this one was done.  The collection features mainly neutrals that wouldn't be out of place in the ASoIaF/GoT world but that doesn't mean they are boring.  Quite a few of them are duochromes and, as I've mentioned before, duochromes get me really excited!  

Shiro's shadows are loose ones, so if you aren't used to using them there can be a bit of a learning curve, especially when it comes bringing out the sparkle in them.  As well as doing a '5 Looks with the Seven Kingdoms collection' post soon, I also plan on writing a guide on using loose shadows so hopefully that will help anyone new to the world of loose shadows.

Read on for swatches of all 15 shades in the Seven Kingdoms collection!

Lit Glitter

Lit Glitters

 It's no secret, I'm a makeup magpie; I love anything shimmery and glittery.  I have quite a good collection of glitters and some of my favourite are from Lit Cosmetics.  They are a Canadian company with a massive choice of glitters...wait for it...over 200 glitters!  Not only do they have a huge selection of different colours but you can also get them in different sizes.  There are four sizes to choose from.  Size #1 is the smallest size of glitter, it would give a really dense concentration of the glitter colour but would only sparkle a little bit.  #4 is the large cut and would give the most glittery effect from a distance but you might feel the pieces on you more.  It really depends what effect you are going for.  I tend to favour a chunkier glitter as I want all of the sparkle!  Lit's glitters also come in different 'textures'; Solids are just one colour, Shimmers are transparent with a rainbow holographic reflect and Holographics are solid colour that reflects all primary colours.

Read on to see the Lit glitters that I have.

Shiro "Cheekbones" contouring powders

Shiro Cheekbones contouring powders

 Told you to expect more Shiro Cosmetics!  It's also yet another post related to contouring but it is a big thing right now and I'm enjoying it, so neh.  This contouring set is rather novel, as well as amazing; they are inspired by Benedict Cumberbatch's cheekbones, which are rather desirable after all!  The containers feature a picture by Amy Zen of Cumberbatch in his Sherlock role, and the names of each powder are references to the programme too.  I'm a huge Sherlock fun so this excited me no end, but also the collection actually caters to all skin tones and contains some of the most cool-toned (grey!!!) contouring products I've ever seen!  Remember, natural shadows = cool toned.

30 Day Blogging Challenge PLUS the highlights

You may have noticed I've been updating my blog a lot more frequently than normal the past 30 days.  This is due to me signing up for Sarah Arrow's 30 Day Blogging Challenge over on Sark e-Media.  I was googling some blog-related tips, can't remember exactly what, and a note popped up asking if I wanted to sign up for the challenge.  I thought it sounded interesting so entered my details and didn't really thing anything of it... until 6am the following morning when I had an email spurring me on for Day 1.