Gothic Night Look

I promised to DJ at a new event in Bar Bändäri. They were having a Gothic Night first time ever, and I'm so glad I got to be part of it! Many people came, the music was good and the antique sofas of the bar were soooo nice and comfy and pretty. It's always great to see an event do well!

I went to the hairdressers the day before the event to get my hair dyed and to try out a hairdo for the wedding, so I still had the curls the hairdresser put in. When loose, my hair looked kinda eighties, which is cool! I usually wear larger curls, but this is a fun look too.

Bolero - Artifice Clothing

Dress - Lip Service

Earrings - Kill Star

I just love the different shades the hairdresser put in my hair! There's sections of purple, bright pink and more muted pink and purple. All done with Elumen so my bathroom doesn't look like a massacre after shower and the colour lasts a long time (in hair, not on bathroom floor ;D).

Femme Fatale eyeshadows, some Sugarpill Tako, a pink from Urban Decay Spectrum palette, and glitter lips. I did the lips so that I lined them with a liquid to matte Sephora lipstain (it's actually a lipstick, I don't know why they call it a stain), then added some Urban Decay Jawbreaker to the middle and a bit on top of the stain, then padded on loose glitter. Works like a charm! Thanks to the liquid to matte the lipstick doesn't bleed on smudge at the edges, but the traditional wax based lipstick in the middle is a lot more comfortable to wear. And the glitter just makes everything amazing.

Urban Decay Jawbreaker Lipstick

Some weeks ago Urban Decay released a new line of lipsticks, called Vice Lipsticks. The line has are hundred different shades. A hundred! Along natural shades it had a blue shade and a couple of purples, so this meant I was at the counter the first day the lippies were available in Finland. There are two dark purples, Jawbreaker and Pandemonium, but they are quite similar so after some pondering I bought only one, Jawbreaker.

Lovely packaging!

The lipstick bullet is very pretty, it's metallic with an embossed Urban Decay text and logo. I have to say the usability is not to my liking. You have to grab the tiny golden area at the bottom and all the rest of the tube is the cap. With longer nails I feel like I can't hold the bottom securely. The cap is also quite tight, so I have to use some force. I haven't dropped the lippie yet, but it feels like it could easily slip.

Metallic bullet. Very pretty but a bit impractical.

The line has lipsticks with many different finishes. Jawbreaker is a "mega matte". I didn't compare it to other matte finishes in the line, but to me it looks more like a satin finish than a matte. Then again I usually wear liquid to matte lipsticks, and those are as matte as they come, so I might just have gotten used to different standards for matte-ness ;D

The lipstick itself is a super pretty shade and the golden metallic bullet compliments the purple nicely. The lipstick has a little embossed Urban Decay logo, a very nice looking detail!

You can see some slight "sweating" on the lipstick. This is caused by oils coming to the surface of the product. 

Jawbreaker is very easy to apply and feels nice on my lips. It's not drying, as many mattes are, but also the finish isn't very matte, so you might not go for this one if you are looking for a very matte finish. The shade is gorgeous. It's a very magenta shaded purple, as in leaning towards hot pink more than deep purple.

Jawbreaker swatched on skin.

Jawbreaker on lips, in cool natural light.

Sadly Jawbreaker doesn't last very well on my lips, but needs touching up quite often. The shade is gorgeous, goes on well, applies evenly and feels comfortable, but I'm way too lazy to touch up my lipstick often! If you are looking for a pinkish-purple that's comfy, easy to use but you are up for some touch ups, this could be the lipstick for you. I'm not sold, but I do think I might some day learn to use Jawbreaker.

Neutral Spectrum Palette Look

Can't get enough of the Spectrum palette! Here's a neutral look done with it :)

I used these shades:

Daybreak

Burn

West

Protest

(Sugarpill Tako for highlight and inner corner)

I started by patting Daybreak, they lightest brown in the palette, to the inner part of the lid. Burn is in the crease and on the outer edge of the lid. To darken the crease, I added West on top of Burn and blended carefully. West is also on the lower lid. At this point I was pretty much done, but decided to add something non-brown to the mix. My choice was Protest, an olive green, that I put in the middle of the lid. It makes the look a little like camouflage patterns which use the same shades often. I think it's a nice effect!

I added Corrupt pencil, a dark brown, for the waterline and a little of it on the outer lashline.

Spectrum Palette for Christmas Party

Yesterday we had a company Christmas dinner, and boy was it good! Delicious food, good company and a gorgeous view of the city at night. I wore the Pearl Lowe dress my other half gave me for Christmas last year, and because I'm a bit obsessed with the Spectrum palette, I used it once again.

The shades I used are Deep End, Backlash, Flashback, Omen, and Sugarpill Tako for a highlight.

Deep End is the teal on the lower lid, Backlash is a vibrant pink in the middle of the lid, in the inner part of the lid I placed Omen, and Flashback is the darker purple in the crease. Lips are Deranged by Black Moon Cosmetics.

Urban Decay Spectrum Palette Look

Here's the first documented look done with the Spectrum palette by Urban Decay! I had tried a neutral look before, but was on a business trip with no access to my good camera, so I have no pictures of that.

This one combines many of my favourite shades in the palette. I wanted to use Deep End, a vibrant teal, and built the look around it.

For the inner corners and brow bones, I used Sugarpill Tako, a matte white. All other shades are from the Spectrum palette. On the lid is Omen, blending into Madness on the outer edge. In the crease I started with Madness, then added Deep End above it and blended carefully. For the lower lid I chose Flashback. I think Flashback and Deep End are just the perfect pair, my favourite shades! As an added bonus, this look goes great with my pink eyebrows :)

Aside from eyeshadows, I drew a thin line on the upper lid with black eyeliner and added black mascara.

Urban Decay Spectrum Palette

I'll just start with: Best. Palette. Ever!

When the Spectrum palette first came out, I was looking at all the reviews and very excited. Then it turned out to be Sephora exclusive, and I was super bummed. No Sephora's in Finland, and Sephora in the states has made it really difficult to order from abroad. So no palette for me, I just gave up.

Last week I was casually browsing Finnish beauty blogger's group in Facebook and noticed a post where someone was asking if the Gwen Stefani palette will come online, as some palettes had been added that day. So I went to take a look, I like Urban Decay's palettes. And there it was. The Spectrum Palette was online and at my nearest Urban Decay counter, with no previous notification!

The palette is not hinged, but a box with lovely cut details on the edges.

Now it's finally mine! I like Urban Decay's Naked palettes, but I often use colours in my looks and I especially like pinks, purples and turquoises, so I only have a Naked Basics palette of the Naked line. Electric palette had too many shades that I wouldn't use, as did the Vice palette. But the Spectrum palette is just perfect for me. Three purples, two pinks, a gorgeous teal and blues that go well with it, and a few very usable brown shades too. I've made two looks with the palette so far, and all of the shades seem to go well together. I'm also quite impressed with the quality: the shadows blend well, have plenty of pigment and are very easy to work with. I think I could survive for weeks if not months with this palette alone! The only thing it's missing is a matte highlight for the brow bone, but I'm using Sugarpill Tako for support.

Lets take a peek inside...

Ta-dah! 15 neat pressed eyeshadows inside, arranged in rows of similar shades.

The top three rows have green and teals, blue and purple. Deep End is something that I'm itching to try, but went this morning for Protest instead for a more muted office look. I'm not usually too keen on greens, but olive green shades are an exception, and Junkie is more of a teal than green.

I can already say that Madness and Evidence will be the hardest shades to use in this palette, as blues are not my thing. But then again they look like they will be perfect with the teals, so maybe I'll find new way to use these babies.

Omen, Flashback and Voodoo are all very easy-to-wear shades for me, I love purples.

The lowest two rows have mostly neutral, everyday shades, except for Backlash, the gorgeous pink. Daybreak, Burn and West make for an excellent combination, and they seem like the type of shades that look good on all skin tones. Bordello is an interesting one, it's kinda pink, but with gold shimmer to warm it up and make it more metallic. Flatline is the closest thing to a brow highlight shade, but I prefer mattes for that task. Flatline has a nice pink sheen and can be combined with many of the darker shades for extra depth and complexity.

This is such an exciting palette! I don't think I've ever been this stoked for any palette before ;D All of the shades look like very "me" colours, the quality is great, and I just love bright colours in these shades! Especially after having a difficult time with the Edward Scissorhands palette from Sugarpill, this was just what I needed. My favourite colours in a beautiful palette.

Urban Decay and Sugarpill Look

I've been way too busy lately! Barely any time to take pictures or play with make-up. But today I finally took some time to get to know my new Urban Decay eyeshadow, Psychedelic Sister. I chose the eyeshadow at the Urban Decay launch party, and I have to say the lighting there was such that I wasn't sure what I'll get in the end ;D Luckily Psychedelic Sister is just my kind of a purple shade: dark, deep and fairly neutral. I wanted to try it out in a look and felt it went well with Sugarpill's Sparkle Baby palette, as the palette does not have a dark purple.

This is the result!

Sugarpill Frostine on tear duct, CandyCrush on inner part of lid, Hotsy Totsy on the outer part of the lid and Urban Decay Psychedelic Sister in the crease and lower lid. Brows are done with Aromaleigh Obsession. The liner is Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil on Zero and a Mac concealer pencil on the waterline.

Official Look

I usually keep my newest make-up products on top of my vanity instead of putting them in the drawers with the rest of the make-up. The idea is that I would then get to know the new products and try them out a few times so I would get the hang of using them and remember them better later. I've had the My Beauty Addiction eyeshadow quad for over a month and I still don't want to put the shadows away! I find myself reaching for them instead of my usual neutrals.

The quad doesn't have a name, but it was one of the "Palette of the Week" sets at My Beauty Addiction. I was a bit disappointed with one of the shades, Illumi, not matching the shop picture, but the shade does still perform well. The shades are pink, but muted pinks, not too bright and obvious. I can pass these off as neutrals in daily use, and the red base colour really sets off my green eyes.

This look was done for a home photoshoot so I could get some official looking face shots to use in work related situations, when game websites and magazines occasionally need a picture of me. While the make-up looks quite heavy in close-ups, in the final pictures it's not that dark, the lights fade make-up and the camera never seems to capture it the same way as it looks in the mirror.

My Beauty Addiction shadows in Sangria, Illumi, Blossom and Ruby Slipper, Red Cherry false lashes, Aromaleigh Obsession on the brows and Urban Decay 24/7 Velvet eyeliner in Plushie.