Darling Girl 'Glitter Glue' - What Your Eyeshadow Has Been BEGGING For!

Now, I very rarely say with any seriousness that a product is needed or necessary - but I'm about to, because if you ever wear eyeshadow you NEED Darling Girl 'Glitter Glue'. Glitter Glue takes eyeshadow from 0 to 100 in 1 second, making it look far more incredible than you could have ever guessed it was. You might as well just stop reading now, go buy it, then gush about it to me later on Twitter. Maybe I should indulge you to an actual review and some pictures first, though? Oh, go on then...

 Before anything, lets have a chat about the difference between primers and bases. Primers make things stay put and bases make things look bolder, for maximum effect a primer followed by a base will never do you wrong. I've been using Darling Girl 'Glitter Glue' as my base since it was first released (a couple years ago?!) and haven't looked back since.

Glitter glue has the appearance of PVA glue and a similar texture, which might sound pretty unappealing! Fear not, it's 100% eye safe, wont glue your lids together and wont peel off like sheets of snake skin (don't pretend you never 'accidentally' spilt glue on yourself at school...) I use a teeny tiny amount and apply it to my lid with my fingers; it becomes clear and leaves a tacky base for your eyeshadow.

The above swatches show eyeshadow straight over primer, then over primer and glitter glue (with hearts.) I'm pretty sure you can tell the difference! 'Glitter Glue' grasps to glitter and shimmer, keeping it firmly in place - meaning your eyeshadow never goes from 'BOOM!' to 'blah' through the day. I've also found that 'Glitter Glue' makes the colour switch in duochromes more evident, which is only ever a good thing!

And here is 'Glitter Glue' serving its original purpose, holding glitter down FAST. I've used it before nights out and the glitter on my eyes has still been there with no fall out when I get home many hours, many drinks and much dancing later. 

A couple extra tips would be - only use a tiny amount, don't take it into your crease (I use it on the lid only to prevent creasing), apply makeup using a dense brush with a patting motion and blend by layering. Removal is easy, just use your regular eye makeup removal routine. One tube should last AGES, I have about 1/3 my original left which I bought years back!

All in all, an absolute essential for all eyeshadow lovers - especially if you're into glitters, shimmers, bold shades or duochromes (I do sometimes use glitter glue with mattes, but they can end up looking a bit patchy.) Amping up colour, texture, longevity and even occasionally turning duds into stars. Plus, for how long it lasts - super cheap!
Price - $6.75 for 10ml (£4.45 ish) Availability - Order from Darling Girl Cosmetics
Do you like the look of 'Glitter Glue'? Do you use bases? What's your favourite glitzy eyeshadow? Let me know!

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FOTD - Persuasion

Now, I don't know about you, but I find applying actual loose glitter a bit of a ball ache. A super glitzy eyeshadow paired with a sticky base, is always an easier option! Darling Girl 'Persuasion' was my weapon of choice today - a pale lavender toned pink with gold and turquoise sparkle.

 

EYES - TFSI, Darling Girl 'Glitter Glue', Darling Girl 'Persuasion' (applied dry, then wet), Fyrinnae 'Faerie Glamour', Sleek black, Sleek pale yellow and white mixed, MUA liquid eyeliner, mascara.

FACE - New Cid primer, Collection 'Lasting Perfection' concealer, NYC mousse foundation, Collection loose powder, The Balm 'Frat Boy' blush.

LIPS - Detrivore vanilla 'embalming stick'.

Let me just tell you, these pictures do 'Persuasion' no justice. I wish I could capture just how much sparkle there is when this gem is applied wet! It's amazing! If you're a fan of Darling Girl 'My Little Pony', this is basically a paler, way more attention grabbing version. You should go and perv over Swatch Freak's...um...swatches.

Right! That's me suitably glittery! I'm off to go and help Momma Bad Habit prepare some food for my Uncle's birthday gathering. Hope you're all having a lovely day!

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Henna Bird

Henna is one of those things I've always wanted to try, but always thought it would be ridiculously tricky and time consuming. A few weeks back, I did a little research and finally bought some henna to try myself!

 This was my third attempt, a patterned swallow/ bird of some variety. My first design was over my hand and down half of my arm, but being a bit of a moron, I didn't think to photograph it before it was half faded!

 You can buy henna pre-mixed in cones, but you can never really be sure how old it is and therefore how much of a stain it will leave on the skin. It's easy enough to mix up yourself, just sling in some lemon juice and tea tree oil and let it stand for 12 hours. Done!

Once you've applied your henna and allowed it to dry, you can pop on some PVA glue to seal it in. I dabbed some glitter on, too just because I like the look of it. Then you leave it on over night, wrapped in cling film then peel it all off.

The henna stain will deepen a little over time (mine will probably end up a medium brown) and fade after about three weeks.

I've still got some paste made up, sitting in the fridge, so no doubt you'll see some more henna fairly soon!



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NOTD - Aladdin Jewelled Accent Nail

Today muted, smokey purple nails just didn't seem blingtastic enough for my liking - so it gave me an excellent excuse to whip out one of my new polishes - Essence 'Circus Confetti'.

 I think that 'Circus Confetti' was popular in nail blog land sometime last year, so you've probably heard of it before! It's one of Essence's 'Special Effect' toppers, made to layer over other polishes to give them a little extra pizazz. Unfortunately, Essence isn't sold in England - I picked mine up in Austria!

'Circus Confetti' is full of multi-coloured hex and circle glitter in various sizes, densely packed so that you don't have to fish around to get any out. It's similar to H&M 'Confetti' polish but has a better variety of colour. I've heard some folk complain that H&M 'Confetti' takes ages to dry (my bottle didn't), Essence 'Circus Confetti' is a super fast drier.

I kept a nail free on each hand to cover in nail gems - don't the colours remind you of Aladdin shoes? I applied a thickish layer of clear polish, let it go tacky, then pressed each gem in with a pair of tweezers. After they had dried, I finished with some more clear polish to seal them in - hopefully they'll last!

Muted Purple - Shisem '306' (buy it from an eBay store)
Glitter Polish - Essence 'Circus Confetti'
Gems - Gem wheel (buy them from an eBay store)
Clear Polish - Something or other by Maybelline.

What do you think to accent nails? What about glitter polish?
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NOTD - Pink Leopard Print

Today's nails remind me of 'Bringing up Baby', a fantastic '30s film about a woman and her pet leopard. I think it's safe to say that 'Bringing up Baby' is one of my favourite films...though I could never figure out why! Perhaps because I first saw it when I was a kid and which kid doesn't want a leopard as a pet?!

HOT PINK - Beauty UK 'Strength'

PALE PINK - Beauty UK 'Hope'

BLACK LINES - Colletcion 2000 'Fast Stroke' liquid eyeliner.

GLITTER - Barry M 'Hologram'

 

Fun, bright and kinda tacky - how very me :) Leopard print is super easy to do and doesn't even require a steady hand - that's my kinda nail art! If you want to know exactly how, check out Fee's fantastic tutorial.

What are you wearing on your nails? What's your favourite kind of nail art?

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FOTD - May the Fourth Be With You!

Happy Star Wars day, nerds and sci-fi geeks! I've never actually watched it myself, mainly because the only word that should follow 'Star' is 'Trek'. HOWEVER. Every year, the people on my course gather for a pub crawl on May the Fourth. We're supposed to go fancy dress but I didn't really have anything Star Wars-esque...So, I AM the stars!

It's almost the same as the Illamasqua elementals look I did a while back, just with added glitz!I look way more like a cyber goth than the galaxy but...y'know...swings and roundabouts. Sorry for how horrifically over-exposed my face is - that's SPF and flash for ya!

Are you a Star Wars geek? Who would you dress up as?
 

FOTD - Te Amo!

A simple look I wore last night when I went off to the pub with the boyfriend. There's a lovely pub/ restaurant down the road with squishy sofas, a fire and ice cold Kopparberg - ideal! Tonight we're off to karaoke - will will consist of him and his mates singing and me sitting looking embarrassed haha.

 I've been wearing this Fyrinnae 'Te Amo' a fair bit recently, it's the don of understated duochromes, so pretty!

EYES - UDPP, Fyrinnae 'Te Amo', MAC 'Deep Purple', Natural Collection 'Sea Shell', Barry M 'Irridescent Gold Glitter', Collection 2000 pen eyeliner, mascara.

FACE - No. 7 'Naturally Matte' foundation, Collection 2000 'Lasting Perfection' concealer, Sleek 'Sahara' blush, Collection 2000 pressed powder. No.7 highlighter.

LIPS - MAC 'Honeylove'

The eye photos from last night were bobbins so I didn't want to use them! The top eye look is the one described, but doesn't *quite* match the look from yesterday. Yesterday I used MUA 'Brunette' brow pencil on the lower lashline and skipped the glitter.

Don't you agree that Fyrinnae 'Te Amo' (lid colour) is just amazing?!

NOTD - Models Own Utopian Pink Fizz

I felt like a change from the norm today, so I opted for an uncharacteristically girly look for my nails. My shades of choice were Models Own 'Utopia' (milky, pale pink-purple) and Models Own 'Pink Fizz' (rosy pink glitter).

I started by applying 'Utopia', which is mega thin so I had to be careful not to create bubbles. 'Utopia' seems to start drying as soon as it's applied, so you're best off trying to apply it evenly in as few strokes as possible. Once 'Utopia' was opaque I applied 'Pink Fizz' near the cuticle and flicked the brush upwards to create a gradient look.

[[ Look! It matches my unicorn box! ]]

I really love both of these polishes, they're just gorgeous! 'Utopia' is one of those polishes which seems a different colour every time you look at it - right now it looks baby pink. I can see myself repeating this mani over and over when I'm in the mood for something different to my usual nail colour choices.

Models Own are available from Boots and online, priced at £5 a polish for 14ml of product.

NOTD - H&M 'Confetti' Nail Polish

While perusing H&M looking for Maria's birthday gift, my eye was distracted by a flash of something distinctly glitzy. Being the magpie that I am, naturally I had to investigate. Hanging from the beauty rack amongst the lip balms and eyelash curlers was 'Confetti' - a freakin' awesome glitter polish.

'Confetti' consists of silver, gold, hot pink, blue and green chunky hex and tiny circular glitter, suspended in a clear base. The density of the glitter is pretty good, I applied one coat which resulted in a decent coverage.

The bottle is one of H&M's typical chunky, sturdy, kinds. I thought the lid might be too bulky for me to hold properly (I usually hate big lids on polishes) but I didn't have any issues. The brush is easy to work with - then again, with a clear polish I guess that doesn't particularly matter! Drying time was average, with enough time to re-arrange glitter on the nail if need be.

'Confetti' is available from H&M at £2.99 for 9ml of product.

Do you own any H&M polishes? Any recommendations?

REVIEW - Barry M 'Gold Iridescent' Fine Glitter Dust

When Barry M released their fine glitter dusts a few years back, I'll admit I wasn't impressed. I remember buying 'Opal', a black base and lots of gorgeous blue glitter which vanished as soon as you applied it! It was dreadful. I hadn't even given them another look until recently, when 'Gold Iridescent' caught my eye...

 

Like all Barry M eyeshadows, Glitter Dusts are housed in sturdy, chunky little pots with a black screw top lid. Now - before anyone says 'THEY AREN'T EYESHADOW DO NOT PUT GLITTER NEAR YOUR EYES!' they actually are (kinda) eyeshadows. It's lots of eye safe glitter with an eyeshadow base, the base for 'Gold Irridescent' is a pearly pale cream. The fact that glitter dusts have a base to them means that they apply and stick better than regular loose glitters.

 

'Gold Irridescent' is...well...irridescent gold. It's primarily a pale gold, but has different sized glitter particles, some of which shine bronzey peach or green. The varying sizes and multiple colours make this utterly stunning! It's less 'flat' that usual glitters and really comes to life applied over a sticky glitter base.

And here's the main reason I bought 'Gold Iridescent, to dab over the top of dark eyeshadows. It totally transforms them and could be a really simple, effective way to make eye make-up a little more interesting. It's not all about dramatic looks though, I've been wearing a touch over a bare lid for some everyday glitter!

Available from Boots, Superdrug and online for £4.59, look out for 3 for 2 offers.