Showing posts with label unusual. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unusual. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 January 2013

Review: NYX The Curve Eyeliner


This extremely interesting looking thing is NYX's answer to the eternal difficulty of doing perfect liquid liner.  It found its way into my basket when I was browsing NYX's UK site for unnecessary that given my lipstick drawer is overflowing essential new lip products and I'll admit I added it mostly because it's quite unusual.


The contents of the pen is an intense black liner which doesn't smudge and lasts up to 14 hours.  That's not a particularly new thing in the beauty world: you can find liners of this caliber from a great many brands.  The shape of the pen, though, is very innovative - it's curved, ergonomically designed, to help you maintain the steadiest of hands, aiding in the drawing of perfectly smooth liquid liner.




It's held like a gun, with the forefinger along the top of the curved pen, and the thumb gripping the side.  This position is comfortable, and enables me to run the liner smoothly and easily across my lashline, easily creating a thin or thick line with ease.

I'm incredibly impressed with this tool - it makes liquid liner so easy.  I don't personally struggle with felt tip or liquid liner so long as I take it slowly, but this tool makes it so easy I can apply it within a few seconds.  It's so much easier to use than the traditional cylindrical pen format.  I'd definitely repurchase, and would highly recommend the Curve to anyone who finds liquid liner a little bit of a faff.

Find it at the NYX website, where it'll cost you £12.50 - not cheap, but certainly not expensive for such a useful and unusual product.


Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Review: Violent Eyes Violet Glitterati


Violent Eyes are the latest appliques from the people behind Violent Lips.  They claim to give you a high impact, high glitter look that lasts for up to sixteen hours (depending on your skin type).


The pack contains eight sets of eyeliner appliques: two pairs of each design shown above.  You also get some pretty comprehensive illustrated instructions.


The appliques themselves come with handy trim lines, to allow you to tailor them to your eye size and shape. I tried out the topmost design, with the biggest flicks - in for a penny, in for a pound, right?  I had to cut them down to the smallest size to fit my eyes.

To apply, you peel off the protective clear film, and then wet the paper backing with a damp cotton bud until it becomes bendy.  Then, you simply position over the eye, trying to line up as close to the lashline as possible, and use a damp cotton bud to smooth the applique onto the eye whilst removing the paper backing.



It's worth mentioning that these look much better on the skin than they do in the pack.  They looked like a fairly uninspiring flat glitter in their pouch, but have much more dimension on my eye.  

I really struggled to apply the applique smoothly.  I thought I'd lined it up well against my lashline, but it seems I've managed to overhang my lashes with the applique (albeit just a little).  I found that my hooded eyelids really worked against me as I tried to smooth the applique out - it'd be smooth, then I'd open my eye, and my lids would scrunch it back up again.

Applied alone with a bit of mascara, the applique doesn't really look crisp and clean enough to my eyes.  Much of that is probably in my cack handed application, but still - I'd rather a more pointed flick.


To balance it out, I applied loads of black kohl and surrounded the applique with a layer of Illamasqua Precision Ink in Glister, a metallic nude with purple sparkle.  I even went over the applique with Glister to try to give it a more cleanly defined shape.

The end look is pretty cool, but I did have to work around my slightly dodgy application, and I really think I'd struggle to get these on exactly right.  They're pretty fiddly, and I have quite low patience levels - particularly given that I can draw on this kind of flick with an eyeliner much faster.  The applique also felt a little heavy on my eyelid.  Blinking gave me a slightly uncomfortable skin stretching feeling - somewhat like flexing your hand if you've just covered it in PVA glue (I assume other people did this when they were kids!).

Overall, whilst I like the idea and some of the overall look (particularly the intensity and the glitter), I'm not convinced that these appliques are going to become a big part of my going-out makeup routine.  Perhaps I'll get along better with the thinner styles, but overall, I reckon these will work best on those with taut eyelids with plenty of space, and not so well on those of us who have hooded lids or wrinkles in the skin.

Find them at Harvey Nichols, where a pack of eight pairs of appliques will cost you £7.

Saturday, 1 December 2012

Quick Pick: Tony Moly Latte Art Milk-Tea Morning Pack


Okay, I admit it.  I bought this product solely for the packaging.  It looks like a cup of coffee!  Complete with spoon and little package of milk!  So cute, seriously.  

The product itself is a "morning pack" which is actually a moisturising, smoothing gel-cream primer/moisturiser.  The milk package can be mixed in with the cream in the main cup container, acting as a booster to the base product.  Not quite sure what else it actually adds, but hey, it's in a coffee cup container.



The product itself is in the bottom part of the cup - the top twists off to reveal the peach-toned gel-cream underneath.


After adding the contents of the milk package, you can stir it all up with the included spoon (which is actually just a metal stick).  To use, you simply take a small dab of product and massage it into the skin - it's designed to be used before makeup, and has a smoothing and slightly tightening effect which makes a great base for foundation.

Mostly, though, it looks really cool in my bathroom.

Find it on eBay for around £15 - unfortunately Tony Moly is a Korean brand and not easy to get hold of in the UK!

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

Demeter Fragrance Library

Ever wanted to smell like play-doh? No? How about rain, or maybe wet garden?

Demeter are a US based company who make a variety of scents, some of which are slightly mad. Play-Doh, Dirt, Mushroom - all these and more are available via their US website. While I don't really want to smell of dirt or mushrooms, I quite like the idea of having a bottle of rain. Or maybe snow.

Apparently some of these colognes don't last a hugely long time on the skin, but with some of the most unusual scents I've ever heard of, and a relatively small sampling price of $10 for a half-ounce spray (that's about 15ml, for those who understand metric), I could be tempted to try a few.

They ship internationally, albeit at the high price of $40 per shipment. If you'd like to learn more, you can see the full list of fragrances at the Demeter website.
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