(MORE) Essence- Eye liners

I think I should just go ahead and take out shares in Essence, I really like them, they're so cheap and recently Target had a 25% off all makeup sale so they were even cheaper.  I picked up a few eye liner pencils because at a price of about $2 they seemed worth a try.

I got 3 colours, a purple, greeny blue (because I am addicted to those colours) and a white.
I'm a devoted Rimmel user when it comes to eye liner, it has never failed me, my eyes staged a revolt against ALL eye liners when I was about 16 where the slightest hint of a liner would have in in tears- literally, and sting like you would not believe.  Thankfully Rimmel never did this and although I grew out of the phase, I stayed loyal to the brand and product. I'm also a devoted waterline lining kinda gal, yeah I know its supposed to be bad and you're not to do it but I do and I'm ok with it. That being said, its hard to find good liners capable of the job.  Not any more, these are great, they do the job well and come in a selection of great colours.  I'm still devoted to my black Rimmel liner but I have now accepted that not all looks require black and I can choose something else!

Hoo Raaa! for Essence.

Idiot Proof Makeup Item 3. Nutrimetics Marbleyes Eyeshadow

Next on my list of idiot proof makeup, (I'm beginning to feel bad about using the word 'idiot', but its too late) is the Nutrimetics Marbleyes Eye Shadow.

You can just about see (from my not so great picture) the swirls in these shadows, which makes them cool to look at and also cool to play with.

What Nutrimetics say:
Exquisite in every way, nc Marbleyes Eyeshadows are baked with veins of glitter for supreme colour control and a truly spectacular finish.

What I say:
These shadows are great if you're not so good with blending, a bit like bronzers and blushes with the mixed the colours these blend in the pot.  The colour pay off isn't truly fabulous, you will need a few applications to get an intense colour and you WILL need a primer, having said that, given that I am describing these as an easy to use and therefore idiot proof product, they're perfect as they are.  Its far easier to add more than take off some.

The names are all associated with the galaxy, presumably due to their resemblance to planets.
They're $25 each and you can obviously get these from your local Nutrimetics consultant or here.  The 'Eclipse' shadow (a grey-black-silver-swirly mix) is perfect to complement the Nutrimetics Smokey Eye Stick or as I like to call it Idiot Proof Makeup Item 1.

Everyone loves a good swap!

This week, the most exciting thing to happen (so far)was I signed up to be a part of The Beast and Beauty Valentines Beauty Blog Swap its not too late if you want to join in and if you miss out this time, I'm sure there will be more in the future. 

Basically, being from the UK and having spent a year living in the US I'm more than aware of the mark up we Australians pay on cosmetics, and since those times the Aussie dollar has only gotten stronger.  There are ways to take advantage of this, such as websites and even eBay but there are some products we just can't get. 
So the best way I have found, except from coaxing my friends into sending me stuff, which I feel guilty about. But which totally got me my UD Book of Shadows, is to take part in a swap.  They're so much fun.  Like I say, if you have a blog and haven't signed up, there's still time. Do it!!!

More indie brands and pictures

OK, so I'm going to do a rather picture heavy indie brands post, not a review, they will come, but more like an awesome illustrated directory!!!

• Geek Chic Cosmetics

Love the name, love the products, love the colours here is lots of pictures...AND A LIP SWATCH (gasp omg- yeah, its blurry, sorry)

The lip swatch is 'Hipster Ariel' a lip stick, you can see here.  Its AWESOME! Goes on smoothly is the more amazing colour of lipstick and is generally great.

• Evil Shades Cosmetics

Awesome colours, awesome names of colours to go with the theme of evil such as Banshee and Morose both shades of blue.

• Kiss My Sass

The girl who runs this is lovely, I follow her blog about other indie brands, you can too Addicted to Indie Makeup

What an amazing selection of colours.

• Glamour Doll Eyes

Special mention to these guys who include a note in the package to tell you they will discount the cost of your samples from any full priced order because they are confident you will love their products.  They also include a collection of funky cards with tutorials on them.

• Concrete Minerals

These are so cute, and fast becoming a 'loved by all' brand

Obviously all of the companies I've mentioned ship to Australia, and they are very reasonable shipping prices (or I wouldn't have bought them) I have found that the smaller a company the more reasonable their shipping prices are, I guess its the lack of overheads or whatever but I love all these brands, my only problem is not having enough eyes/time to wear them more often.

Indie brands: My Pretty Zombie

Ages ago I said I was going to do a bit of a run down on some indie brands, well, I got slack, took the pictures but not much else, and I'm hopeless at swatches so I'm just going to introduce a few brands and you can check them out yourself!  First on my list is My Pretty Zombie.  I like zombies so I was immediately drawn to the name.  To top it off some of the colour names also rock socks, such as Pink Eye, a beautiful pink colour, or Varicose a suitably blue/green colour.  Best of all these came in the most amazing package....let the multitude of pictures begin.

So they got to my house in a little box, I love this because padded envelopes are just not tough enough for international postage.

I must admit, I opened it then was so impressed I put it all back in the box to take some pictures...HAD-TO-SHARE
Inside I got a shock then a smile at this

Oh yes, nothing like a bloody thumb, AND samples.... love it  The shadows themselves were in this rather cool bag;

Here is all the extras;

The shadows;

Then finally at the bottom of the box it was pretty shredded stuff, which also added to the safety of the package.

I haven't tried the shadows properly yet but if the care and attention put in the packaging is anything to go by then they will be fabulous and amazing.