Topshop Glow Domes - duochrome highlighters

Topshop Glow Domes

 I just want to reiterate my title: duochrome highlighters,  Let that sink in.  Yes, it's as good as it sounds.  Admittedly,  if your thing is the natural look you might want to pass these by, but if you like something a bit different or want a festival look, then these are the thing for you!

I just adore anything duochrome (post on my favourites coming soon) so as soon as I saw these on Fashionicide's blog I knew I had to make them mine.  They do no disappoint.  Topshop say that these are inspired by their Chameleon shadows, which I LOVE (blog post here) but these are cream as opposed to powder.

I have mainly used these to highlight by layering them under a blush, usually using a mixture of both colours.  They also work great as an inner corner highlight or just dabbed in the centre of the lid.

Read on for some close-ups.

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.

Debu(t)ary: 5 Looks with the Nars Dual Intensity Palette

NARS Dual Intensity Palette

To go with my review of the Nars Dual Intenisty palette here, I thought I would show you some of the looks I've created using it.  All of these are what I would call work-friendly, but maybe most wouldn't.  Anyway, nothing too dramatic.

My Favourite Makeup Geek Shadows

Clockwise from top left: Unexpected, Stealth, Burlesque and Rockstar

I am so in love with Makeup Geek shadows.  I had seen them all over YouTube and Instagram so had a pretty good idea of what colours I wanted.  You order the singles and then arrange them in a palette yourself.  I have mine in a large Z Palette. I made my first order about two months ago so have done lots of playing.  I bought enough colours to made for pretty much unlimited combinations so I haven't been straying from them much.  All of the different textures blend beautifully and there are some really unique colours.  I highly recommend the shadows in general and I can't wait to get more.  I thought a great way to introduce them would be to show off my four current favourites,  I've loved using these colours together as well as with the other shades

Topshop Chameleon Glow Eyeshadows: Review and Looks

Despite having a few very good make up items from Topshop, I always seem to forget about their range.  Every now and again I wander in and discover something new and amazing.  Like this week.  I am such a fan of finding things that are unlike anything else I have in my collection.  The Chameleon Glows are such a product.  Part of Topshop's Festival collection, they are powders than can be used anywhere to create a "multi-dimensional, iridescent finish".  Basically they are beautiful duo-chrome eyeshadows (I think they're a bit too chunky to be used anywhere else).  Of course I couldn't choose between them and got all three.

5 Looks with the Naked 3

I've heard some friends say that they loved the look of Urban Decay's Naked 3 palette but that they weren't sure how to use it.  I have been loving it for a few months now so I have devoted the last week to the palette, coming up with looks for this post.

I think it's an easy palette to use.  Strange is the perfect highlighting colour for under the brow and around the tear duct.  It's hard to go wrong if you stick to the general idea of lighter colour over the lid, darker colour in the outer V and blended out with a mid-tone into the crease.  That's been the base for most of these looks.

For all of these looks I used either Urban Decay Primer Potion, original formula, or MAC's Paints in Sublime Nature.  I used Too Faced's Better Than mascara in most, if not all, of the looks.  My brows throughout are filled with Illamasqua Brow Cake in Thunder.  The double-ended brush that comes with the Naked 3 is quite good but I feel like you need a good blending brush and maybe a little smudger/pencil brush too.