Non-tacky Gothic Make up.

There is no denying my gothic roots and the gothic subculture is one that I will always kneel at the alter to, but in 2012 there is no need to dig out the spiked dog collar and black lipstick.  Think Lady Gaga, Dita Von Teese, and of course Helena Bonham Carter.

This post was inspired by my attendance at The Twins of Evil tour earlier this week.  The Twins of Evil tour for those that are not familiar is the joint tour of: the king of Goth - Marilyn Manson and the king of horror - Rob Zombie.  It is safe to say that 99% of the crowd were wearing black.

Makeup worn by moi:

Primer: Loreal Studio Secrets Anti-redness Primer.

On days where I am having a particularly bad skin day I wear this to combat the redness and it works a treat.  It does make me look a little more pale than usual but unless you are corpse colour like I am you will not have this problem.

Foundation: Maybelline 24 Hour Stay in 05 Light Beige.

This is my new favourite foundation, it has totally replaced my love of Loreal True Match.  The consistency of it is perfect for my dry yet spotty skin and it has great stay power.  I attended the gig straight after work, with just enough time to sort my make up.  I had been blowing my nose all day due to a cold and I could have got away with just powdering my nose.  Being paranoid I added another layer of foundation but it was unnecessary.

Concealer(s): MUA Concealer Stick in Light and Natural Collection Corrector Stick in green. 

Both budget concealers and both great.  I will be repurchasing both.  The Corrector Stick is great for days where you don't want to wear primer but want to cover blotchy red parts of your skin and the MUA concealer is thick enough to combat any spots.

Powder: Maybeline Fit Me in Nude Beige.

They discontinued my favourite Maybeline powder which I have been using for the last five year, I was more than a little upset.  I decided to give the new one a try and being honest it might be the same powder in a different packaging. But the colour range is not as great. I feel this shade is a little too dark for my skin but I am going to try find the lighter shade next time round since I have seen advertised that there are more shades.

Blusher: ELF Blusher in Fushia Fusion.

This one is not stereotypically goth but without blusher I do look like the living dead and I would rather look like a living dead doll. This blusher is not for everyone, it is very pink and has glitter through it but I adore it.  I bought it off The Beauty Fiends blog sale.

Eyeliner: Loreal Gel Intenza Pure Black.

Reviewed here: A staple for any goth or rock chick out there, I truly feel a little vulnerable when I am not wearing eyeliner.  I have even pondered getting it tattooed on like The Style Khalessi has, but I still don't know. Have any of you pondered this?

Eyeshadow Primer: Benefit Lemon Aid

Reviewed here:  Great product for tired eyes and great product for keeping your eyeshadow at bay, especially if you are a fan of dark colours like I am.  I would not be without this product these days.

Eyeshadow: Urban Decay Oil Slick and Flipside.

I have the small Urban Decay palette with four shadows in it - the one that is wrapped in purple velvet.  I love this little palette and it has lasted me for years.  It also contains Stray Dog and Midnight Cowboy which are my during the day eyeshadows. Oil Slick is a lovely black shadow with silver glitter through it - it is quite messy to put you so you really do need a primer with it and Flipside is an emerald green shimmery shadow.  I only have a smudging of Flipside on to break up the black but on its own it is very striking.

Mascara: Maybelline  Colossal Volume Express.

The one in the yellow packaging with the orange leopard print.  I don't love this mascara but I don't hate it either, it is simply ok.  I want to use it up before I buy a new mascara - what do you recommend between £5-8?

Lips: Lasting Finish by Kate for Rimmel in 04 Rossetto.

I adore this lipstick but it is not one I have the balls to wear all the time. You deffo need to have some balls to pull this off since it is super dark, almost black really.  This is the darkest lipstick in my collection and next to my Mac Marilyn Lipstick it is my favourite.  Super striking and what I would call gothic chic. What are everyone else's favourite dark lipsticks?

Necklace: Kreepsville 666 - http://www.kreepsville666.com/uk/

The dark lipped vixen look seems to be quite hot this Christmas, is anyone else having more of black than white Christmas this year?

New Loreal Shampoo and a Laugh At My Expense

These samples could not have come at a better time for me.  Two day's previously I had a hair disaster and a blonde brunette moment.  I have lots of random bottles of shampoo that I am trying to use up (I always run out of conditioner first) so I purchased a random conditioner to go.  Well I thought I had bought conditioner, I had actually bought shampoo but did not realise this until I was washing my hair that night.  I had an interview early the next morning for the journalism placement I am going on and my hair had been back-combed all weekend - see my dilemma? I needed something to work as a substitute for conditioner so I scanned my bathroom and found Lush's Ultrabutter and The Body Soaps Mango Body Scrub.  I had heard Ultrabutter has many uses and the mango body scrub is oil based - this was such a mistake.  My hair ended up just caked and the oil from both products would not budge from my hair.  I went to my interview with my hair caked in talcum powder because I also had no dry shampoo. 

My hair was not a pretty site but Loreal Ever Pure Shampoo and Conditioner really helped restore it to its naturally thick frizzy state.

Gwen Stefani gives it a thumbs up and I can understand why.  I really liked this shampoo and I felt it helped lift all the product from my hair and some of the undesired hair dye build up that currently holds on to my hair.  The colour of my hair looked great afterwards and it was so shiny.

"Specifically designed for coloured and dry hair, L'Oreal Hair Expertise EverPure Colour Care & Moisture is a Colour Care System with non-sulphate cleansing and gentle moisturising care. The formulae are enriched with botanical rosemary and juniper oils and leave hair feeling nourished".

The price however I do not like as it is quite expensive with the cheapest I have seen it being 2 for £8.00; which is not too bad if you have the money to spend but like I said in the previous post when you are unemployed you cannot afford to be spending that on shampoo.  What is everyone's favourite expensive shampoo?  

Loreal - Nude Magique BB Cream

I signed up somewhere to receive a sample of this since everyone is talking about BB cream's and I have not tried any. Mainly because I like a heavy coverage on my face - I have never been one for the natural look much more the doll look.  I will always be that girl that wears too much eye-liner and too much blusher but things could be worse. I was not gonna pass up trying it for free though.

The sample came in medium which was way too dark for my skin as you can see but it did seem to make my skin look  a lot smoother but it was hard to give a proper verdict with the colour being so wrong.

The texture of the BB Cream reminds me of the Almay Smart Shade foundation I used years ago.  That was completely the wrong colour for my skin also but came in handy when I got a spray tan for my prom and didn't have anything to patch my face up with. It was such a disaster and my dress was green so I was in full out oompaloompa mode.

As you can see in the photo the BB cream is initially white and then when blended into your skin it turns into the colour it should be. I was hoping it would have some of the same ingredients as true match so it would match my skin tone; but obviously not.

I just did not like this product.  They also sent a sample of the lumi magique foundation which I have already reviewed here: http://razzledazzleandrocknroll.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/loreal-lumi-magique-light-infusing.html

I did not rate this highly either so it may just be the Magique range that I do not like. Has anyone else felt the same about this range?

Glampire

Loreal - Lumi Magique Light Infusing Foundation - Review

Every time I go foundation shopping I know I should stick to my tried and tested favourite of Loreal True Match but being my curious self I decided to try Loreals new foundation and now I wish I hadn't.

Their new foundation is Lumi Magique - Light Infusing Foundation, I had hoped this foundation would be a cross between true match and infallible but it's not.

On the bottle it says 'Flawless Skin. As If Lit From Within' - ick!  My skin is a bit of a mess right now due to illness and the foundation does far from leave my skin looking flawless.  I like a heavy coverage in a foundation and this foundation leaves a rather natural look which is not a nice look when you have spots all over your face and bags under your eyes.

If you like a natural look in a foundation then you might have more joy with it then I did and even though I have rather dry skin and I wear powder over the foundation I feel that it slides off the skin in no time at all. 1/5 for stay power!  On more greasy skin this foundation would be a horror story.  I do not even want to think about how it would cope under nightclub lights.

However the shade 'Rose Pearl'  is nice and suits my very pale tone.  I always find with Loreal foundation the colour is spot on and this is the reason I keep buying Loreal foundation even though I would rather not as they are said to test on animals.  Once I have a job I will be swiftly changing to Mac, you can be assured of that.

In a sense the foundation does do what it says on the bottle.  It does leave skin looking radiant and I think the foundation would be more suited to older less greasy skin - being 21 I definitely do not have old skin.

On  an older woman I think this foundation would be really nice but for most of us young pups its most likely a no go.

2/5

Loreal - Gel Intenza Eyeliner - Pure Black

You know when boots do that sneaky three for two deal and you feel like you need to buy three things despite only needing one?   Well that is how I ended up with the Loreal Gel Intenza Eyeliner .  I went in for foundation and came out with a foundation, a powder and this eyeliner.

When Maybeline brought out their gel eyeliner I toyed with the idea of purchasing that but after hearing reviews of it not being terribly good I decided against it but the Loreal one has turned out to be a valuable purchase.

I like my eyeliner for one thing black but I also like it thick and bold.  I try and try to do fine elegant eyeliner but it never turns out that way.  I rock the panda look or raccoon - whichever way you look at it.

The eyeliner comes in a little glass tub and comes with a fine brush to apply it.  This is my first experience of using a gel liner like this and I really like the level of control it allows you to have.

The gel itself is very smooth and the liner glides on.  I have experimented using the liner on the eyelid, flicks, on the eye line and under.  It works effectively on all areas but I mainly use it to line the eyelid like it is worn in the above photo.

You do not need to use much each time and therefore I think it will last a good amount of time.  The only problem I have found with the liner is that it takes a little while to try and if you open your eye too early you end up with that dreaded black line on your eyelid.  It smudges really easy when not dry so it is best to keep your eye closed for as long as possible to allow it to dry.

I feel that in this eyeliner I have found everything I have been searching for in eyeliners - its smooth, its super black and it has stay power.

5/5



Loreal Elvive Re-nutrition Replenshing Mask - Review

I picked this up the other day when I was in Superdrug buying the exciting item of cleansing wipes.  The previous night had been a bit stressful to say the least so when I seen the Loreal Replenishing Mask for £2.99 on the sale shelf I picked it up.

I have used the Loreal Elvive shampoo quite a few times over the years - a variety of different ones but the one with royal jelly is the one my favourites.  It just smells so good but not in a fruity way that most shampoos do.  This smells almost sophisticated.

The re-nutrition range is for sufferers of dry hair and for me it is perfect.  My hair is very much damaged through dying and straightening it - it is rather limp due to the thickness of it too.

To use the mask you just squeeze out excess water from washing it and then cover your hair or just the ends - I smothered it all over.  I advise if you have long hair tying your hair up whilst it is on your hair to stop it from coming off.

Afterwards hair is beautifully soft, almost as if you have had a hair cut, it really does revive the dry ends but does not weigh them down.  Hair is left super shiny too. 

I have known people to use the nutri-gloss mask (the pink bottle) too so I assume this is also a good mask.  Sometimes you will get a buy 2 get one free offer in Boots or Superdrug so you could pick one up for free more or less.

After checking the boots website the now I notice they have this exact deal on - 2/04/12.

Loreal - Anti-Rednes Primer - Review

I was prompted to buy this when my skin was really bad and I had a night out coming up (the night I kissed my now boyfriend) so that proves it good. I have used sheer coloured primers in the past and although they have provided a good base for foundation they haven't been as good as Loreal's Anti-Redness Primer.

Yeah...its green but that's what makes it successful in covering any redness in your face. The green pigments help neutralise green patches, you do look like an ogre when you put it on though, so you couldn't wear this primer on its own.  I wouldn't say I have particularly red skin except for when I am having a spot breakout, so the primer if anything makes me look slightly more pale than I usually do, - I am naturally very moon faced. The primer would be excellent for someone who does suffer from red tones in their skin. 

It costs £10.30 from Boots but it does last a while.  I don't wear it every day just on nights out and special occasions and it has lasted me over a year. 

Loreal have a whole primer range for different skin types if this one doesn't suit your skin you should try the others and obviously let me know what you thought about them.