L'Oreal Color Riche Blues

As part of my birthday present from the lovely Bella at For Stella and Bob I received three beautiful blues from L'Oreal. Given my search for the perfect blue polish, this was an ideal gift and I've greatly been enjoying trying out each one and staring at my nails, going "Ooooh, pretty". As I am fond of doing generally.

                                 From left to right: French Riviera, Sky Fits Heaven, RebelBlue


French Riviera is a soft, powdery blue creme with a shot of fine shimmer running through it. I've been loving all over these pastel shades this Summer so I was drawn to this beauty first. Here it is on the nail:

I wore this for my hen night as it went perfectly with my MadMen/ladylike aesthetic. I love it.

Sky Fits Heaven is the middle blue, it's a solid creme- no shimmer in this one. It actually reminds me of a denim blue, a la Chanel.

Lastly, RebelBlue, a dark blue creme with a fairly strong shimmer running through it, it dries darker on the nail than how it looks in the bottle:

These applied really easily, aided by a wide brush and a fast drying formula. Two coats and they were all opaque. As usual I used base and top coat but they did look quite shiny on their own. Lasting ability was good, they pretty much all took more than a couple of days to start chipping, which is always a happy occurrence where my nails are concerned.
Now to try and choose my favourite..

Recently Watched

Jaws (and as an afterthought, Jaws 2)

I was bitten (ha) by the horror bug early: I saw Jaws as a youngster, loved it and have been loving it ever since. It's one of those films that I'll never get tired of watching; brilliant acting, soundtrack, special effects and thrilling scenes that make me jump every time, even though I'm expecting them. This was re-released in cinemas recently so HTB and I gleefully took ourselves off to indulge in some gory big screen shark attacks. Made in 1975, this still holds up surprisingly well by the standards of today's movie shock tactics. Everybody in the cinema jumped at the same scary moments, enabled by the famous musical score which constantly builds tension and suspense. Arguably one of Speilberg's best films, this regularly makes the top 100 greatest movie lists and Speilberg himself has previously commented that his directional style for Jaws is similar to that of Alfred Hitchcock (so it's no wonder I like it). It was also the start of the "hollywood summer blockbuster", such was it's success. Basically it's a classic and if you haven't seen it you should probably rectify that, stat! For those who haven't seen it, it centers on Amity Island- an American seaside resort, overcrowded with tourists for the 4th of July weekend celebrations. Unfortunately for the Island's inhabitants and visitors, a man-eating great white shark shows up and starts devouring people with a crazed vengeance. The sheriff, an oceanographer and a crusty old sea captain/shark killer set off to destroy old Jawsy..and that's all I'll say! We also unfortunately decided to watch Jaws 2 (we wanted more shark action). It was a mistake. It's a VERY different film ("it's a very different film Ted, it's a different shark!"). It was literally laugh out loud funny, but that wasn't intentional humour. Avoid.

The Amazing Spiderman

This is a reboot following the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst Spiderman trilogy (the first was released in 2002..I feel old). Basically it's the exact same story, Peter Parker is a big nerd (ably played by Andrew Garfield) who gets bitten by a fancy spider, discovers he has superpowers and starts solving crime after the untimely death of his uncle at the hands of a street thug. This time there's no Mary-Jane, instead we have Gwen (played by Emma Stone- love her) who is also a big nerd but has much better social skills then Peter, naturally. Anyway, the main storyline involves a scientist turning himself into a mutant creature and trying to destroy New York (pretty sure the same thing happened in the 2002 Spiderman) which isn't really all that exciting and if I'm honest I spent the majority of those scenes wondering to myself where the "Amazing Spiderman" t shirt I used to wear when I was 18 is. So that's probably not the greatest recommendation ever. Having said that, the scenes between Garfield (Andrew that is, no lasagne-loving-cat here) and Stone are pretty great. There is some serious chemistry between these two (they're a real life couple, so probably not that surprising) and their relationship on screen is easily the main selling point of this film. In related news, I have yet to look for the t-shirt.

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises

Dear God, the anticipation for this film in my house was just unreal. Every time a new trailer came out for it HTB and I were all over it, like a pair of nerds at their first ComicCon. Oh yes, we've been waiting for this for a long while. The Dark knight Rises is the final installment in Christopher Nolan's epic trilogy and features the usual suspects- Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine, along with the newbies- Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordan-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard. A bum numbing 2 hrs 45 mins later (top tip-bring refreshments) and we were not disappointed. Set 8 years after the last Batman and we find Bruce Wayne literally on his last legs, living like a hermit and no longer doing the whole caped crusader thing. Which is unfortunate as new terrifying baddie Bane (great job by Tom Hardy) shows up to wreak havoc upon Gotham City. As the baddies are wont to do. Anne Hathaway gives a surprisingly excellent performance as Catwoman, which I was more than happy to be proved wrong about, as up 'til now I haven't been her biggest fan. They were all pretty great in this to be honest, in previous films I struggled to watch the likes of Katie Holmes and then Maggie Gyllenhall, but I genuinely thought each character worked really well together in this film. As an aside, I was also really happy with the strong female characters played by Hathaway and Cotillard..nice for a change in a big action blockbuster like this.
I can't say anymore without giving away the plot so all I will say is- go see it! If you've been a fan of the Batman franchise then you won't be disappointed, equally if you happen to enjoy a good action/thriller then you'll be happy out too. I'm just sad that there'll be no more after this..sniff.

Catrice Revoltaire Smokey Eyes Palette

I haven't been in Penneys in aaages so I've pretty much missed out on Catrice's Revoltaire collection. A recent trip there and I spotted this lovely little palette, which for only 4.99 I had to pick up (along with a pair of ankle boots and a pair of ballet flats- cause I really needed both of them, obviously. Ahem).

The packaging is so pretty on this, it reminds me a little bit of Urban Decay actually. The palette, called Toxic Combination consists of 3 eyeshadows (top 2 and bottom left) and a dry-to-wet eyeliner (the darkest shade, bottom right). The colours themselves remind me a bit of a YSL palette I got about 5 years ago and loved so much that I pretty much wore it out, so I was really drawn to these shades.

Pigmentation on these are really good, that acid green is beautiful (not a phrase I'd ever thought I'd be using), the greeny/taupe and the grey are lovely too. I can't for the life of me find an eyeliner brush to test out the eyeliner with but I have mixed it with water and my finger which gave me some idea, although not very scientific, obviously. Annoyingly, every single palette in the shop was missing its duo applicator, which I was none too impressed with, but I wanted it so instead I shook my fist at Penneys and bought it anyway. Good times.
Here are the swatches, the eyeliner is dry in this (last swatch on the right), cause it just looked a bit messy wet without a proper brush:

Very nice. That green will look particularly good with blue and brown eyes, I think.
But what think ye?

Hen night make up!

I recently had the most amazing hen night of all time. It was Mad Men themed (as I love that show but also the 50's/60's style in general) so we all dressed up in our vintage finery, went to Koh for lovely dinner, hen games and cocktail making lessons, followed by dancing and general hilarity. Several penis straws, feather boas and fabulous presents later and I fell into bed..all to get up the following day for champagne afternoon tea in the Merrion Hotel (an experience not to be missed) and pottery painting, which was so much fun! While I'm not going to put up any incriminating photos, I will share what make up was used to make me look like Betty Draper..if you squint..and blur the photos slightly :-)

This was my evening look- hair courtesy of Tony and Guy, spray tan courtesy of my wedding make up artist from the Powder Room Girls, Dublin. The make up is pretty much all from Laura Mercier:

• Hydrating foundation Primer
• Silk Creme foundation in Sand Beige (really liking this, I can only wear it when I have fake tan on cause it's way too dark for my regular pale skin but it is a great formula)
• Secret camouflage concealer
• Invisible Loose Setting Powder (it's pretty amazing, no doubt there shall be a review to follow!)
• Rose Bloom blush
• Rose Shimmer bloc
• Baby doll lip glace (I felt this was a bit pale though, so I replaced it with my Chanel Levres Scintillantes, no 169 later in the evening. It was actually a perfect match for the pink in my dress. Yay!)
• Eyes: Black liner and lashes from Shu Uemura. Shadow is a combination of various shades from the Urban Decay Naked Palette (my favourite), as applied skillfully by my second soon to be sister in law, the lovely Bella of For Stella and Bob fame.

The following day I went for a similar look but more daytime appropriate:

I used basically all the same make up, except with the addition of my Clarins Bronzing Primer, YSL Terra Saharienne bronzer/blusher  and YSL gloss/stain in Rouge Philtre.  C'est ca!

I would like to thank my fabulous family (especially my amazingly lovely sister in law-to-be, "A" *confidentiality at all times!* and beloved three sisters, all of whom made such a huge effort with all the organising) and friends for an unforgettable weekend, yiz are all the bestest ever!
xxxxx

Essence Evil Queen

My sister actually bought this but the magpie in me pounced upon it when I saw the bottle in her hand. Look at it there, so sparkly:

Part of Essence's Snow White collection, "Evil Queen" is a clear based special effect top coat, loaded with large purple circular glitter. I thought I'd throw on one layer on it's own, just to give you an idea of what the glitter is like:

Pretty but definitely needs to be worn over something, as it just looks a bit wierd on it's own.
Here it is over one of my all time favourite polishes, OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark (the OPI on it's own is first, just to show how the top coat changes it):

It's hard to see so I put a dark background behind it, I think the sparkles show up a bit better this way:

Nice, no? I really liked looking at this on my nails as it is really pretty but I will say application was far from easy, it's one of those polishes you have to use the brush to place the glitter to get a proper distribution, rather than just brush it on as usual. It also took aaaaages to dry, even after I thought it was dry it still smudged and pieces of glitter fell off, which was irritating. Having said that, it is a nice top coat, probably just requires more patience than I have!
On the plus side, while I have no idea how much this cost, being Essence, I would assume it's on the more bargaintastic end of the spending spectrum. Along with the rest of the range there's two other Snow White top coats which I would also be very interested in trying!

100 Films list!

Like my previous list of Books to Read before Death I've decided to work my way through some of those classic films I have yet to watch. My rather lovely Sister in law-to-be bought me "The Film Book- A complete guide to the world of cinema" for my birthday last month and while I've been enjoying flicking through it, I've also been shocked at how many amazing films I have never seen! For Shame!

Anyway, the book suggests a Top 100, here 'tis: (I've seen the ones with stars beside them)

• The Birth of a Nation
• The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
• Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror*
• Nanook of the North (never even heard of this)
• The Battleship Potemkin (nor this)
• Metropolis
• Napoleon
• The Passion of Joan of Arc
• An Andalusian Dog (as a Pixies fan, it's a disgrace I haven't seen this)
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• The Blue Angel
• City Lights
• 42nd St
• Duck Soup*
• King Kong (1933 one, obvs. Not the terrible Naomi Watts one)
• L'Atalante
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*
• Olympia
• The Rules of the Game
• Gone With the Wind*
• The Philadelphia Story*
• His Girl Friday
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Citizen Kane (every so often HTB exclaims "have you seen Citizen Kane?!" It's like this piece of information is so shocking, his brain refuses to remember I haven't seen it..I will watch it..some day)
• The Maltese Falcon*
• The Little Foxes
• To Be Or Not To Be
• In Which We Serve
• Casablanca*
• Ossessione
• Children of Paradise
• A Matter of Life and Death
• It's a Wonderful Life*
• Bicycle Thieves
• Letter From an Unknown Woman
• Passport to Pimlico
• The Third Man
• Orpheus
• Rashomon
• Singin' in the Rain*
• Tokyo Story
• On the Waterfront
• All That Heaven Allows
• Rebel Without a Cause*
• Pather Panchali
• The Night of the Hunter*
• The Seventh Seal
• Vertigo*
• Ashes and Diamonds
• The 400 Blows
• Some like it Hot*
• Breathless
• La Dolce Vita
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
• L'Avventura
• Last year at Marienbad
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Dr. Strangelove (I've seen some of this..does that count??)
• The Sound of Music*
• The Battle of Algiers
• Andrei Rublev
• The Chelsea Girls
• Bonnie and Clyde
• The Wild Bunch
• Easy Rider
• The Conformist
• The Godfather*
• Aguirre, Wrath of God
• Nashville
• In the Realm of the Senses
• Taxi Driver*
• Annie Hall*
• Star Wars*
• The Deer Hunter
• The Marriage of Maria Braun
• E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial*
• Blade Runner*
• Paris, Texas
• Heimat
• Come and See
• Blue Velvet*
• Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
• A Room with a View
• Shoah
• Cinema Paradiso*
• Do the Right Thing
• Raise the Red Lantern
• Unforgiven
• Resevoir Dogs*
• Three Colours: Blue, White and Red
• Through the Olive Trees
• Four Weddings and a Funeral*
• Toy Story*
• Fargo*
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*
• The Lord of the Rings*
• Traffic*
• In the Mood for Love
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*
• City of God

The book does suggest that North by Northwest, Psycho or Rear Window could all have made the list too, which is typical as I've actually seen all of them, what with my love for Hitchcock. Boo.
As it stands I've only seen 25 out of a hundred.

My head hurts.

YSL Terra Saharienne Collector Summer 2012

"Summer 2012", eh? Perhaps in Paris, not so much in Dublin. This rather lovely bronzer/blusher collector edition from YSL does give the appearance of a Summery glow, however.

I started using this before I photographed it but the excitement was too great..that and I was lazy. Bad blogger.
Anyhoo, I've been using this for about three weeks and am loving it. The regular Terre Saharienne powder is only a bronzer but the collector edition has three different shades of powder blush and bronzer which are pressed into a layered snakeskin print, for a summery feel (only effective if you happen to live in a desert or keep snakes. If you're reading this blog then that's probably unlikely).

I got no.2, "Sunkissed", Satiny light, rosy apricot that gives complexions a healthy glow. And that it does. The three shades of peach, tan and pink compliment each other nicely and really do give a lovely, natural glow. What I particularly like is that it doesn't require a huge amount of blending, you just swirl the brush over the powder to get a mix of all three and when applied it just glides on easily. It's pale enough that I don't end up looking like Katy Price but still has enough bronze in it so that I look like the sort of healthy person who is routinely exposed to Vitamin D..a non-Irish person, obviously. The other two shades of the collector edition are Harmonie no 1, "Tanned", a golden brown with a sparkling effect that brightens every skin tone and Harmonie no 3, "Bronzed", a matte light, intense brown with a bronzing effect to sculpt the face.

This is all three together (shaky photo courtesy of HTB while in the duty free, texting me to see which one I wanted), personally I think the first and third are a little too dark for me, the second one just strikes the right balance for my skin tone. The goldilocks of bronzers, if you will. I did attempt to do a photo swatch but I have the remnants of a spray tan going on so it's not showing up that well on camera. Granted, that's not that helpful but you'll just have to take my word for it that this is well worth trying!

Rear Window at Film Fatale

So as I mentioned in my previous Hitchcock post, Rear Window (1954) is my all time favourite of the famous director's films. You can imagine my excitement then when I found out that Film Fatale were hosting a "Rear Window" night. The idea behind Film Fatale, for those who haven't heard of it, is that each month an old movie is picked and shown in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street, decorated like a vintage movie theatre. Those attending are encouraged to dress in the style of the movies characters, themed cocktails are served, a singer performs before the film and a dj afterwards. Tickets are 15 euro each and all cocktails are a fiver, which is pretty decent.

Rear Window stars Jimmy Stewart as Jeff- a professional photographer, who following an accident during a hazardous work assignment, finds himself recouperating in his apartment in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast. Unable to work or otherwise entertain himself, he begins to watch his neighbours in the building across from his rear window apartment, none of whom seem to understand what their curtains are for. Not that he should be looking in the first place, but still. He becomes particularly interested in the comings and goings of Lars Thorwald, a middle aged salesman, living with his invalid wife- she mysteriously disappears from the apartment one night and Jeff is convinced that Thorwald has done away with her. Enabling him in formulating this theory are his insurance company nurse, Stella, who provides some light relief and his girlfriend Liza (Grace Kelly), who provides plenty of glamour. Like all of Hitchcock's films, the tension in the film slowly creeps up on you as the pieces start to come together. Meanwhile, distraction is provided by the activity in the other apartments in Jeff's vision. I really just love everything about this film. A particularly noteworthy scene is the opening shot where the camera artfully pans across the courtyard and lands on Jeff, sweating and sleeping fitfully in the cruel New York Summer heat.
Jimmy Stewart has an incredibly descriptive face. Because he's on his own the majority of the time, his facial expressions are used to tell us his reactions to what's going on around him- a clever way to tell the story.
All of Grace Kelly's scenes are just fabulous. Apart from being absolutely stunning, she really did have an enviable grace and elegance, as well as being a great actress. The costumes are beautiful too by the by, Jeff is mostly just in pajamas, but the character of Liza is a wealthy socialite so she has some amazing outfits. Regardez vous:

Stunning. She was a bit of a legend really. That being my style inspiration for the night I threw on some false lashes, red lipstick, pearls and a tulle-skirted dress.

While it would be fairly impossible to match the unbeatable style of Princess Grace, I really enjoyed getting to dress in the style of my favourite era, the 50's. Good practice for my forthcoming hen (Mad Men themed) and wedding (50's style dress)!
Next month film fatale are showing "Some Like It Hot", another of my all time favourite movies...I think I may be making another trip to the Sugar Club. In fairness, I really don't think I can pass up the opportunity to dress up like the lovely Marilyn :-)

YSL La Laque Couture

Ooh, fancy! HTB was in the duty free recently and along with my favourite mascara (YSL Faux Cils) and a lovely new bronzer (YSL again, review to follow soon!) he also picked me up the brand's La Laque Couture in no 4, Coral Colisee:

Yup, he's a good'un. This is part of their S/S range, I had already scoped it out in Brown Thomas, where I couldn't stop picking it up from the display, proclaiming "Shiny..pretty..". The SA gave me the big sell (completely unnecessary given my appreciative mumblings)- apparently this is "like Shellac in its finish", "doesn't chip", "not like all other nail polishes". Sold! Except they had none in stock. Boo. Luckily HTB found it in the airport and I giddily did my nails soon thereafter. This is it with 2 coats, apologies for the impromptu photo but I sensed the chipping force was strong in this one and that a photo should be taken, stat!

Anyway, after the pictured coffee (accompanied by brunch of eggy bread, crispy bacon, mascarpone and maple syrup..heart attack on a plate but so good!) I went home and threw on another layer with a top coat of Seche Vite:

So shiny and pretty! This is seriously easy to apply, it has quite a wide brush and it dries super fast- no streaking or waiting about. Lasting ability is not so great. What's that?-"Like Shellac" you say? "Doesn't chip", you say? Hmm..it had already chipped after a day. Now in fairness, I'm never sure if chipping is due to my poor quality nails but then again, some polishes last me for ages without chipping so it could well be more the poor quality of the polish itself than anything else. Polish pretty much never chips on my toes though so I think this'll be a nice Summery colour to wear with sandals, if Summer does in fact decide to make a reappearance (slash appearance full stop). 

This is completely neither here nor there but the name of this keeps reminding me of Game of Thrones:

Khaleesi, that is. Not Colisee. Similar though.

Aaargh, Game of Thrones, so addictive!

Hitchcock

Every so often I revel in a day off to snuggle up at home with tea and my Hitchcock boxset. I saw Rear Window when I was merely a young'un and the seed of love for these super stylish, classic thrillers, horrors and suspense films was sown.
Recently I wasn't feeling too great and so crawled back into bed with the aforementioned tea and box set (and eh, my laptop..staring at the cover of a box set would be a bit pointless really). While I've pretty much seen every Hitchcock film ever made, this post would be stupidly long if I went through them all, so instead here are my favourites:

The Birds
This 1963 horror stars one of Hitch's favourite icy blondes,  Tippi Hedren, playing a somewhat standoffish socialite who decides to follow her potential love interest from San Francisco to his small-town Californian home, but ends up with more than she bargained for when mysterious attacks involving birds start to plague his small fishing village. The suspense is built up so slowly in this that each episode of violence, although kind of expected, is still quite shocking- herein lies the power of the mighty Hitchcock.
At times the acting is a little wooden and some of the special effects aren't the best (still quite good though considering it was 1963) but to this day it's creepy enough to make the most jaded film goer jump in their seat. As a side note- I've also read the short story of this by Daphne du Maurier and seen the play, both of which are completely different to the film- Hitchcock took the general bones of the story and made it his own. That's neither here nor there but a bit of useless information never hurt anyone.

Psycho
Potentially one of Hitch's most well known and critically acclaimed films, this 1960 horror still packs quite the punch. Starring Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates himself) and Janet Leigh (hapless victim/criminal/blonde beauty Marion Crane), Psycho shocked viewers at the time for the film's voyeuristic and violent scenes. Rumour has it the story is based loosely on that of real life cannibal and human-skin-wearer Ed Gein..so you can imagine that this isn't exactly fun for all the family type of stuff. Personally, I love it (not the human-skin-wearing and cannibalism, before you alert the authorities)- the storyline, the sets, the UNBEARABLE suspense! For anyone who hasn't seen it, the story starts off with Marion swindling her boss out of a load of money and skipping town- we're with her the whole way from the beginning so our only real frame of reference is her..until things end badly when a rainstorm forces her to pull over into the Bates motel for the night..and, eh have a shower. Ahem. The viewer is then left a bit helpless- the film's heroin, although clearly flawed, is now gone and this all happens not too far into the plot. What we thought was the story- Marion being a big mad thief and generally a femme fatale turns out to be a rouse. This was an unusual tactic for films of the time and makes it still quite unique. I won't tell you the ending- (one of the most shocking scenes in any of his films) because this is well worth a watch if you've missed it up till now.

Rope
Ah, Jimmy Stewart. One of Hitch's favourite actors, and mine too. Rope was made in 1948 and is based on the play of the same name, which in itself was based on the real life murder case of Leopold and Loeb. The film opens on the murder (using a length of rope, hence the title) of a college student by his classmates Brandon and Phillip, who then place his body in a trunk, which they cover and use as a table for snacks for their party that same evening. Nice. Amongst the guests at the party are the parents of the boy they just killed..the purpose being to see if they could commit the perfect murder and not only get away with it but get away with it on a grand scale by being super great actors. So far, so macabre. Unfortunately, they haven't bargained on the awesome detection skills of one Mr Jimmy Stewart- who plays their old college ethics professor. I know it sounds a bit grim but again, the suspense is just so well done that you're on the edge of your seat until the final scene. Amazing. (Also, if you're not singing that "On a rope, on a rope got me hanging on a rope" etc song already, well you are now. If I must suffer with a catchy-ass song, then every one else must too. Apologies).

Vertigo
This 1958 classic again stars Jimmy Stewart, this time as a private detective (suffering from acrophobia, hence the title) hired to follow his friend's wife Madeline (played by Kim Novak- another one of Hitchcock's cool blondes) around, to get to the bottom of her recent odd behaviour. Instead of closing the case as usual however, he becomes obsessed with her, falls in love and they start a romance. All goes well until tragedy strikes- she commits suicide. He ends up in a sanatorium, suffering from depression, his life in tatters. When he re-emerges back into the world he then sees a woman who he thinks is Madeline, although she looks different. He follows THIS woman (I know, right? Stalker much) back to her hotel where he introduces himself and they start seeing each other. As you do. He's still obsessed with Madeline however, and gets this new woman, Judy, to start dressing like her and wearing her hair like her etc. Way to be creepy, Jimmy. Anyway, I can't tell you the ending of this cause that would be cruel but needless to say this is a magnificent thriller and well worth watching- for the psychedelic falling scene alone, if nothing else.

My all time favourite, however, is the aforementioned Rear Window. I could watch this a million times and never get sick of it- it's practically perfect in every respect, in my humble opinion.
As I'm going to a special screening of this in the Sugar Club for Film Fatale on Saturday night though I'm going to leave this to a separate post. "Thanks be to Jesus", says you, there's only so much of my Hitchcock ramblings any one person can take. That said, I have plenty of other favourites, including Dial M for Murder, Marnie, Rebecca and Strangers on a Train so there shall no doubt be a part 2 coming your way at some stage and you can also expect a post devoted entirely to Hitchcock's famous blondes! The other day I was particularly excited to read Emma's post on Beaut.ie about Chanel's upcoming A/W range, inspired by Hitchcock's films. Chanel AND Hitchcock???!! Swoon.

Mascaras! Rimmel, YSL, Bourjois and Benefit.

This post is a little compilation of my 4 most recently used mascaras- two high end, two drugstore brands. Two of them are currently in use but I held onto the other two in order to share my thoughts!

Benefit's They're Real, Bourjois Volume Glamour Max, Yves Saint Laurent Effet Faux Cils and Rimmel Volumeflash Scandaleyes. 

1) Benefit's They're Real, 25.05 euro on www.feelunique.co.uk. A black mascara which supposedly "lengthens, curls, volumises, lifts and separates lashes...using an exclusive brush with precision bristles ...revealing lashes you never knew you had!" 

Hmm. While I agree in principle that this definitely adds to the appearance of lashes, I feel like this is achieved more through the tar-like formula rather than through the actual brush itself. Speaking of which, I found the brush really hard and uncomfortable to use. Plus if you wanted to refresh your make up after a days wear and went to throw on an extra coat-good luck to you with that. Once this is on and dry there's no adding to it or, really taking away. Cause that's the other thing- this takes lots of make up remover to get it off, something I began to find a bit tedious after just a few weeks of use. As aforementioned in a previous blog post, this has the tendency to make you look like the Joker when a bit of make up remover is applied. It did last me ages though and it made my lashes look more substantial, in fairness to it. I won't be repurchasing though, price and inconvenience of removal make it a big no for me.

2) Bourjois Volume Glamour Max in black. I like Bourjois mascaras. This set me back 13.20 euro and is the one I'm currently using for daytime. I really only got this cause it was on offer with something else but I have had good experiences with Bourjois mascaras so I said I'd give it a lash (see what I did there?!)

This is grand (such enthusiasm). It doesn't do a huge amount if I'm honest, other than add a little extra definition to the lashes, but nothing spectacular. I won't be repurchasing purely because I think 13.20 is a bit much to spend on something that doesn't really do a whole lot. From now on I'll take that 13.20 and add it to my YSL fund...

3) Speaking of same, this is YSL's Effet Faux Cils mascara in black, yet again. I love this one. A bit more costasach at around 23 sterling (ouch) on the HOF website but this one is actually worth the spend. 

I love this. Unlike Benefit's offering, the brush on this adds volume and lifts the lashes without resorting to the infliction of pain. Yeah, it is obviously more expensive but sometimes it's worth spending a bit extra for a good quality product. This is about my third time rebuying this and I'll certainly be getting it again when it runs out (HTB just picked me up a new one in the duty free with some other pretty things..more on that in another post).

4) Rimmel's Volumeflash Scandaleyes. That's the ridiculously bright orange one in the above photo, just in case you missed it, which is unlikely. 

I got this one on special offer too so luckily it didn't actually cost that much, although I can't for the life of me remember how much it was. Apologies. Look at the big mad brush on it. Terrified so I was to put this near my eyes. When I did use it it pretty much did nothing. All that neon and massive brush fibres for nothing. Disappointing.

Anyone else tried any of these? 

OPI "Into the Night"

And so my search continues for the perfect blue polish. The winner will most likely feature on my toenails as my wedding day "something blue". So obviously it's fiercely important. Ahem.
Anyways, this is "Into the Night" from OPI, as part of their Summer brights collection, this time a tie-in with The Amazing Spiderman. This is a full size 15mls but a set of four minis from the collection are also available from Asos if you'd like to try out more than one without making a commitment. Or as much of a commitment as one can consider buying a nail polish.
This is a rather beautiful metallic midnight blue, gorgeous in the bottle and even more stunning on the nail. I love it so:

Super easy to apply, this reached full opacity with two coats although it actually had a nice shimmery iridescence from one coat only. It also wears really well, no chips so far and it's a few days in. Hurrah!
I may well be checking out a couple of the others in the collection, in particular, "Just spotted the Lizard", a metallic yellow-green and "Your Web or Mine", an interesting pinky/red.