NOTD: Technic Celebration - Illamasqua Creator Dupe?

I've been lusting after Illamasqua's Creator ever since I saw a swatch of it. It just looked so mystical and it reminded me of  Prometheus (because I'd watched it the night before and I'm impressionable like that.) But like a lot of things that I want, I couldn't justify the price, particularly at £13.50 for a single nail varnish. Imagine my excitement when I came across Technic's Celebration! A possible dupe for £1.25? It immediately found it's way into my Love Thy Make Up Haul.

Celebration consists of 15ml of silver glitter suspended in black polish that is contained in a heavy based glass bottle. The packaging is sleek and functional but nothing special (and heavily borrowed from OPI's design.)

I was immediately disappointed by how sheer the base of this polish is. It came out as a dark milky grey colour and the opaqueness above was achieved with three coats of it. Saying that, application was very easy and the glitter spread evenly across the nail which can be a difficult thing to achieve in polishes like this. It also dried extremely quickly so it didn't bother me too much that I had to layer it up. The glitter is also much larger than in Creator so the galaxy effect is sadly lost; even more so because of the layering required. It's possible that it would be a lot less clunky-looking with a single coat over a black polish but I haven't tried it yet. Regardless, I actually really like this polish. I found myself looking at my nails a lot and even got a few compliments! The only problem is that on the third day of wearing it I experienced some rather vicious chipping. Admittedly, I should have used a base coat but it still surprised me that the lasting power was so poor! The remaining polish was an absolute nightmare to remove too, so if you do try this I recommend using a thick base coat.

Final Verdict: Definitely not a perfect dupe but a great alternative for people looking for something similar at a fraction of the cost. Nice effect but the lasting power and opacity could be better.

What do you think to this polish? Know of any other bargain Illamasqua dupes?

Lauren

Haul: Technic from Love Thy Make-Up

Ahh my first haul of February. Feels good. I won a couple of Technic products in a recent giveaway and discovered that they were of surprisingly good quality for a very low price. This led me to Love Thy Make-Up which is a stockist of quite a few low-priced brands. I'll be honest, I hadn't heard of any of the brands or of Love The Make-Up before but I'm definitely more inclined to take the plunge and try something new now that I know it's a stockist I can trust. I actually picked this lot up during a free delivery week so it was a super bargain! Believe it or not I got everything in the picture below for £16.45 which is just jawdroppingly cheap! And even better, delivery only took 2 days which is fantastic since I'm notoriously impatient for internet orders!

Palettes: 

Electric Beauty Eyeshadows in Ultra Violet £1.99 (Review and swatches here)

Electric Beauty Eyeshadows in Electric Eyes £1.99

Eyeshadow Quartet in Set 1 £1.49

Cream Blush:

Whipped Blusher Mousse in Candy Pink 01 £2.99

Whipper Blusher Mousse in Peaches N Cream 07 £2.99

Nail Varnishes:

Party Brights Nail Varnish in Ayia Napa (Green) £1.25

Party Brights Nail Varnish in Koh Phangan (Blue) £1.25

Party Brights Nail Varnish in South Beach Miami (Yellow) £1.25

Nail Varnish in Celebration £1.25

The Ultra Violet Palette isn't actually for me, it's for the lovely Katie from Katie Alyse who is an amazing blogger from across the pond. She loved the colours so I suggested we do a swap since she didn't have access to it, so I have that to look forward to around my birthday! Since I was so blown away by my own Technic Palette, I decided to try another one and see if I could repeat my good luck, here's hoping.

So many gorgeous colours! I love green eye shadow and cream blushes are a current obsession so I really hope these live up to my expectations. I'm hoping I can get some swatches up from the Electric Eyes Palette today or tomorrow so I can showcase it! Also worth noting is that the Nail Varnish Celebration looks like a dupe for Illamasqua's famed Creator. With a saving of over £12 I don't need to tell you which one I'd rather have. I'm looking forward to wearing this so I can compare to some photos online!

What do you think of my picks? Have you ever ordered from Love Thy Make-Up before?

Lauren

NOTD: Technic Carnival "Jawbreaker Nails"

Yet another product that I received from Fiona today! Clearly the girl knows how to put together a giveaway. So many gems!
I've seen this particular nail varnish all over the blogosphere and beyond being hailed as a dupe for OPI's Rainbow Connection and Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday (which will set you back more than £10) - and a fabulously cheap dupe at that. Sadly I don't have Rainbow Connection or Happy Birthday to compare but there are a ton of comparisons out and about on the internet!

Here's a slightly blurry photo to give you a good idea of what's inside Carnival. It contains a mix of medium and small sized hexagonal glitter pieces in gold, red, blue, green and silver suspended in a fairly thick, clear polish. A lot of people have worn this over a nude base but I personally wanted it to really jump out and decided to apply over white polish.

I plumped for White Tip by Famous. I actually bought it about 18 months ago and the company has since gone under a serious rebranding so I can't comment on the quality of the products that they now make but I can say that they're a hell of a lot cheaper! I bought mine in my local Superdrug (Famous counter has since disappeared) but you can find the products online here. Not a lot can be said about White Tip, it was opaque in two coats and had a fair drying time.
Technic's polishes come in OPI-shaped bottles and contain 15ml of product. The glass is thick and heavy based which makes it much less likely to tip over than some other brands. Application was a bit awkward and did need some "blobbing" to get it spread evenly across the nail. I found the best technique was to brush it against the tip of the nail (leaving a big blob of glitter on top) and then apply from there, dragging it backwards down the nail.

Once dry my boyfriend took one look at them and declared that my nails looked like tiny jawbreakers! I thought that was so adorable and had to agree! They certainly do have a jawbreaker-esque feel about them. I wore this to my cousin's 14th birthday party and she and her friends loved them. Seal of approval if I ever heard it. Like pretty much every glitter polish, it's a pain to remove, but I think it's worth it.

So there you have it, an amazingly cheap glitter polish that's near impossible to hate, despite the blobbing. I've seen people saying that they've found this for 99p but the cheapest place I've found it (and from a company I now trust) is at Love Thy Make Up for £1.25. Technic is a company that is fast cementing a place in my heart and I actually bought a whole host of Technic goodies that I can't wait to share with you!

Have you tried Carnival or either of the dupes? Do you have an Technic recommendations?

Lauren

Valentine's Day Inspired Makeup Tutorial

Ahh, love is in the air... and by love I mean an inordinate amount of money and the pressure to somehow make sex more exciting than usual. I'm only joking! I'm not a total grouch. Whilst it's absolutely true that you should be loving your significant other pretty much every day, it's kind of nice to have a day dedicated to it. And it certainly doesn't have to cost a lot of money. I for one am intending on making my lovely boyfriend breakfast in bed which I know he's going to love.
Regardless of what comes with Valentines Day there's no denying that it can be pretty inspirational with it's classic girly colour palette and patterns. Since I recently received this palette (only £1.99!) I decided that I was going to experiment with some pink shadows.

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Gently pat the lid shade all over the eye. I used my Body Shop Eye Shadow Brush. Blend slightly outwards to create a more soft, rounded shape. Using the same brush, work the crease shade into the crease and bring it under the eye about half way across. Using a clean brush (or even your little finger as I did) pat some of the lightest shade into the inner corner.

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Apply a liquid liner. I used Illamasqua Precision Ink in Havoc which is a deep red/purple shade and dries to a wet-look finish. Matte black would be fantastic and much easier to wear, but since we're experimenting I think Havoc is great! Slick two coats of black mascara onto the top lashes and one coat onto the bottom lashes. I then defined my brows and highlighted the arch on the brow bone using the Soap and Glory Arch de Triumph.

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That's the eyes finished! Looking very sleepy. For the lips I wanted to tie into the colour palette but keep them quite muted so as not to overpower the rest of the makeup. Annoyingly I didn't actually have any pastel pinks in my collection so I had to get creative. I began by slicking on a thin coat of Rimmels Apocalips in Nude Eclipse and evening out with a lip brush (or fingers.) I then used Revlon Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie over the top by rubbing the product onto my finger and gently patting across the lips. I am absolutely thrilled with these lips! It just goes to show that you don't always need new products to get the desired effect and I'll be experimenting some more in the future with colour mixing.

Here's the finished look. Fit for Aphrodite herself! ;)

Products Used:

Face:

The Body Shop Moisture Foundation in 03

The Body Shop Lightening Touch Concealer in 01

The Body Shop All In One Face Base in 03

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in Light

Illamasqua Illuminator in Slay

Maybelline Dream Touch Blush in Berry 06

Eyes:

Technic Electric Beauty Ultra Violet Palette

Illamasqua Precision Ink in Havoc

Soap and Glory Arch de Triumph

The Body Shop Super Volume Mascara in Black

Lips:

Rimmel Apocalips in Nude Eclipse

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie

I really hope you liked my look and would love to see some links to your Valentine's looks! Obviously this is a bit "out there" with the red liner but I still love it and I did wear this out! Very brave for such a beauty and fashion backwards town but I felt great.

Lauren

Review and Swatches: Technic Electric Beauty Ultra Violet Eyeshadow Palette

Another fantastic item that Fiona sent me when I won her giveaway was this palette. I haven't heard much about the brand Technic. To be honest all I knew about them was that they occasionally produced amazing dupes of nail varnishes (Carnival for OPI Rainbow Collection if you're wondering, which I also got!) and that they were generally super cheap! Always a massive plus for me.

The Ultra Violet Palette contains 12 shadows in purples, pinks, lilacs and mauves. At first glance it looks a lot like a Sleek palette. It comes with the same large mirror and the same size pans. It's housed in a slim, secure, black plastic container and comes with a generic double ended sponge applicator. I had no problems opening and closing it and I'd feel happy travelling with it.
I love the colours available here, I don't own many purples at all. There are a few dotted about in my other palettes but it's nice to have so many all in one place! I'm finding myself reaching for purple eye shadow more and more recently and I think it can be a nice alternative to neutrals without being too overtly bright or garish.

The pigmentation is so good and they were really smooth! (As always, no primer used.) They're all shimmer shades but I really don't mind that, I think shimmer eye shadows look fantastic. This is all literally just one quick swipe on my arm. The only ones that I had a small bit of trouble with were second colour on the first row and the first two colours on the second row. They're just a smidge chalkier than the others and therefore slightly patchy so they'd require a bit of building up. Still really beautiful colours though. I was getting a bit of a duochrome effect from a lot of the shadows, some of them shined silver or blue which was gorgeous! This is particularly evident in shade 11. It's a rich kind of pink/cranberry/mauve? Very unique and it shines a lilac/silver colour.

Here's a look I created with the palette for day time:

This is shade 4 all over the lid, shade 1 in the crease and under the eye and shade 12 as an inner corner and brow highlight. Liner is Rimmel's Exaggerate Liquid Liner in Black and mascara is The Body Shop's Super Volume Mascara in Black.
I think one of the great things about this palette is that you could literally pick any of the colours and they would go together well. I loved this look on me and I actually got creepily chatted up by three different weirdos in the middle of the day so I guess it's doing something? Weirdo-attracting isn't really a selling point but I did also get some compliments from normal people! I wore this for 8 hours and it didn't crease AT ALL. Not one bit. It faded a little by the 6 hour mark but I can live with that. I'm so impressed with these and can't wait to experiment some more with the colours!

And now time for the best bit: I've had a trawl around on the internet to find out where you could buy this and I found it here at Love Thy Make-Up for £1.99! Absolutely amazing. There's also free delivery on the website until midday tomorrow if you wanted to buy one of these for yourself. I don't need to tell you that it's worth it for £1.99!

Final Verdict: If you like purples and pinks, you should 100% try this!

What do you think to these shadows? Have you tried any other Technic products that you recommend?

Lauren