Cutbacks 1 -2

Cutback 1 -Showergel

Something I'm quite big on is the quick refreshment of a shower and while I love using luxurious, natural shower gels unfortunately it's a needless expense. Just as i decided to undertake this challenge my lovely Dr Organic Manuka Honey gel decied it was done and I had to search for an alternative. Really I find that most shower gels contain very similar ingredients in the top ten or so which makes the £5 shower gel the same quality as the £2 shower gel, so with this, my general rule of thumb, I went on the hunt to find the most bang for my buck.

What I came up with was "Imeprial Leather Little Treat cherry blossom & vanilla bean Shower Cream." What a mouthful! Anyway, this was £1.49 for 500ml my previous, and much missed, "Dr Organic Manuka Honey Shower Gel" was £5.10 for 250ml making a rather substantial saving of about £1.74 per 100ml.

Cutback 2 - Falsies

I love, love, LOVE(!!) false eyelashes, there is nothing quite like the instant boost of glamour that comes with a nice pair of lashes. Eylure, a particular popular drugstore brand of eyelashes which usually retails for between £4-7 can sometimes be found in cheap beauty shops for as little as £3. I however being the chronic bargain hunter I am have found a few in Poundland before. The particular pair i found this time were from Eylures "color lashes" range, model "balance."

A promise i made to mysef awhile ago was to never spend over £2 on a pair of eyelashes. There things cost pennies to produce and can be found cheaply if you keep an eye out. Chinese Ebay sellers, discount beauty stores and pound shops will often stock cheap lashes. I aso don't find there to be much of a quality deterioration between cheap and higher end lashes and trust me I've tried them all.

Ultimate budget girl challenge.

I thought this would be a fun thing to document. May beauty bloggers seem to spent tonnes on needless beauty products which not all us can really afford. I have a total of £60 a month for non nessaities. This may go to the wind if or when i find work but i still like to think you can be faboulous on a budget.

Hair dye brands!

I'd like to consider myself somewhat knowledgeable of the subject of of bright unnatural hair colours. I've almost constantly had bright hair for and 5-6 yrs now and have used many brands with varying results.

La Riche Directions -

La Riche Directions is one of the cheapest brands out there which i know of who provide unnatural hair colours and in my opinion they're pretty good for the price. You get 88ml per tub , results I've found with this last about 1 month before needing redyed. The results are pretty true to the colour in the tub.

Manic Panic -

Manic Panic hair dye, isn't the cheapest out there, neither is it the best. With this brand I found that while it gave fantastic colour it faded within a few washes and needed almost weekly touch ups to maintain. A pot of Manic Panic costs about £ and contains 118ml.

Stargazer -

Stargazer hairdye, when i used it, never really stood out to me. I found it very similar to La Riche Directions with the exception that i found that the colour didn't last as long in my hair and the price is slightly higher. Stargazer hair dye costs £4, unfortunately I've been unable to find any information on quantity.

Special Effects -

I love Special Effects! I started using them about a year ago and haven't looked back. While expensive (nearly £10!) Special Effects hair dyes provide quality, consistent, long lasting colour. I really cant rave enough about this brand. They're colours always seem brightest, longest lasting and fade beautifully. I quite often find that my red fades into an amazing shade of pink instead of the crappy washed out orange i get with most other dyes however one major tick i have with this brand is the packaging. Special Effects Dye comes in a bottle. The mixture is so thick I usually have to take the cap of and squeeze the mixture into a bowl, put the cap back on and start shaking it vigorously to get the mixture near the cap...it's just so thick!

Remember everyones hair is different! My results may be totally different from yours!

So here is my recommendations used for each dye

Special effects - Long term crazy hair.
La Riche Directions - The budget alternative.
Manic Panic - For Short term/novelty colour.
Stargazer - When you cant find La Riche Directions.

Aromaleigh Review

Aromaleigh is the brand that got me into mineral makeup, I orginally found out about from popular goth artist Emilie Autumn during her sponsorship with the brand. I recently placed an order with them for some mineral foundation, which i use as a finishing powder. I wasn't expecting to see this order for awhile due to the flight issues caused by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.

I ordered

Glissade 1Y
edie
italian ice
elegant reverie


Glissade 1Y I a beautiful pale yellow toned mineral foundation. I like to wear it over a liquid foundation as a fiishing powder, I also (even though it's a huge makeup no) like to wear it to bed when my skin is bad, i find it very healing! This stuff has a very clean ingrediants list it is paraben and bismuth free. It also contains Zinc and titanium oxide which can act as a natural spf.

No base.

I find that the picture taken with flash displayed the colours truest.

Elegant Reveri is a darkslate colour, which look like it reflects a dark brown in some. It is quite shimmery but nowhere near so as Edie and Italian Ice. It blends smoothy and in my opinion is a wonderful crease colour.

Edie is a wonderfull soft baby pink colour. It is very shimmery and very fun, i found that it looked alot softer on my eye than on my hand. I think this colour is very diverse and could be used for both caual to dramatic looks. In my opinion it is the most eyecatching of the three

Italian Ice is a shimmery bright yellow, I've been after a good yellow for awhile and with this i think my search may be over. It's a slightly orange toned yellow with lots of shimmer and glitter and was that a little bit of pink glitter i saw mixed in it? Win.

Heres a look i did quickly with my shiney new make up to finish off!

17.04 Haul

This haul is primarily a fashion haul, I'm trying to cut back on the amount of makeup I'm buying too two pieces per month.

This gorgeous dress is from New Look and was reduced from £28 to £15. I've been looking for a dress exactly like this since winter. I envision it with big stompy boots, striped stockings, leather corset and big teased up hair. It is however completely sheer so I'll have to do some digging to find a suitable underdress or such.

I got talking to one of the MUA at the Illasqua counter while I was in Debenhams having a look at the new Body Electrics range, I got my eye on a nail polish to say the least, anyway we got talking about foundations and I mentioned that the 120 was much to dark for me now, so she colour matched me to the 135 (yeah bet you wheren't expecting that) which seemed like a rather good match, so in the end I skipped away with it....-£21

Next on the agenda is the Miss X Aesthetics Labortories mirrored scalpal necklace i bought at the Angelspit concert, these are created by Destroyx, the female singer in the band. I am so glad I didn't pay retail ($25) plus shipping for this. At the merch stand they where selling them for a tenner so I snapped the last of this design up. They're made of rather thin plastic, you have to be very careful with these, lest they snap. This did happen to me, however superglue saved the day in the end.

I also at the same merch stand bought a tour t-shirt, which is a tradition for me, simply to say "I was there." The back design on the s-hirt is very smart instead of the standard list of dates & venues they where all done in a text based design...which I can not now for the life of me find a picture of.

16/04 FoTD & Angelspit

Yesterdays FoTD was a copycat look from Goldiestarling. I saw it and though that it was perfect for the angelspit gig in Edinburgh. Angelspits look is very edgey, full latex outfits with crazy hair, lots of black and red, now I don't own any Latex, but Black and Red and slightly pin-up i can certainly manage. The orginal plan was skirt and corset but I pulled a stomuch muscle and couldn't hande it.

The Make-up

Products used:

Urban Decay 24/7 Pencil yeyo
Illamasqua Eyebrow Cake Thunder
Barry M Dazzle Dust 65
Barry M Dazzle Dust 85
Aromaleigh rocks! Obsession
Illamasqua Powder Blush Intrique
Shiseido Accentuating cream eyeliner 1
Barry M Liquid Eyeliner 01. Black
MAC Matte Squared Typographic
Prestige my blackest lashes mascara 01 Blackest Black
False eyelashes

Outfit



Dress: Vintage
Belt: Primark
Socks: Leg Avenue
Necklace: Danger Dame
Shoes: Unknown/Funtasma
(I later changed into Funtasma heels)

When I got into the venue I felt very underdressed, Lots of girls in tutus, corsets and dreads. Won't make that mistake next, I don't know if it's just me but I usually consider any time theres a large gathering of goths in one place it becomes a huge competition to look best You know the way if two goth kids pass each other on the street they'll strut and pretend the other doesn't exist...don't lie...

We all do it.

On another note, I think my quarterly haircut is about due, my ends are completely frazzled looking at the moment. Don't think I'll do anything different, shorten my layers a little maybe, thicker fringe.

Layout Update

Well I just tried to sex up my blog a bit, I added a banner and messed about the the colour setting but to be honest I have no idea what to do with the place, any input would be very helpful.

A few throw pillows here...

Some Fabreeze there...

Polyx