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OPI Muppet Review, Swatches and Photos

January 16th, 2012 § 4 comments § permalink

OPI Muppets Collection

Another late collection, that would be OPI’s Muppet collection. I used to live on the Muppets as a kid, I had all their tapes, watched them addictively on TV. They, along with Young Talent Time and Sesame Street were my life! That’s part of the reason I felt it necessary to review the entire collection. I’ve had this sitting on my desk for the longest time ever, and am only just getting around to swatching them now! Too many collections and also I’ve been putting off anything with glitter in them :3 It’s a pain to remove!

It’s hard to really give a general overall comment on a collection this large, but you can be the judge based on the swatches and I’ll do my best to find the closest possible dupe :) All swatches are 2 coats with no top coat.

Animal-istic

OPI Muppets Collection

A pinky red shade with bright red shimmers, Zoya’s Kamilah is a slightly pinker version of this.

Designer de Better

OPI Muppets Collection

A frosty white shimmery polish with red shimmers, reminds me of snow for some reason :)

Divine Swine

OPI Muppets Collection

Pink glitters with large chunky silver flecks, totally Miss Piggy inspired!

Excuse Moi

OPI Muppets Collection

Silver and pink glitters with chunky silver flecks, I’m wearing this on my toes right now :D

Fresh Frog of Bel Air

OPI Muppets Collection

Forest green glitters with chunky silver flecks, such a great partner to Divine Swine ;D

Gettin Miss Piggy With It

OPI Muppets Collection

Red glitters with red and silver chunky flecks, pretty terrible on it’s own. Definitely should have tried this with a solid polish underneath :(

Gone Gonzo

OPI Muppets Collection

Blue glitters with large silver flecks, really love this one for some reason. Especially on it’s own! Reminds me of Winter~

Meep Meep Meep

OPI Muppets Collection

A darker hot pink polish with lots of magenta glitters, as you can tell the finish isn’t that smooth :( I found OPI’s The One That Got Away to be a less opaque version or OPI’s Let Me Entertain You to be a lighter and less opaque version.

Pepe’s Purple Passion

OPI Muppets Collection

A deep maroon / chocolate shade with dark red shimmers. Somehow I don’t think the execution of this was very good because the shimmers or perhaps glitters made the finish gritty :( I found OPI’s Velvet Voyeur and China Glaze’s Velvet Bow to be similar dupes.

Rainbow Connection

OPI Muppets Collection

Quite literally a multi-colour array of glitters and flecks, I don’t think I’d want to layer this over any other solid colours, I think this would look amazing if there were more glitters in general, so maybe a few more coats?

Warm and Fozzie

OPI Muppets Collection

Brown chocolate polish with warm gold flecks, I really do love this because it does remind me of Fozzie Bear, who was one of my favourite characters from the Muppets Show :) Some how completely relatable! :D

Wocka Wocka

OPI Muppets Collection

A maroon almost crème shade with the finest micro shimmers, China Glaze’s City Siren is a fully crème version of this.

OPI Muppets Collection

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Book of Fables: Chapter 83 – Sweet Rainbow

January 13th, 2012 § 13 comments § permalink

Book of Fables - Sweet Rainbow

It’s summer in Melbourne at the moment… or at least it’s suppose to be :P But you wouldn’t know it with the sort of weather we’ve been getting! So when the sun came out, I made a mad dash to film something light hearted and summery :D Which is what the weather SHOULD be!

As you now know I sketch all my Book of Fable chapters, but what translates well on paper doesn’t always translate well in person, this is one of those cases. I tried to add a bit more to it with the patterns and feathering, and whilst it help, I’m still uncertain. Anyways, it’s a happy look for sure!

This week has been pretty horrid work wise, it’s not often, but sometimes you land on those weeks or days where you just can’t stand to be at work anymore and I’m currently going through those emotions as I type :/ A combination of environment, people, work load and just bad timing. I have to admit that having my blog and YouTube channel gives me the ultimate escape, though admittedly often leaves me stressed out as well. I often contemplate just taking some solid time off work to sit at home and make videos, I think that would be an awesome yet financially poor use of time. Either way I hope I get out of my “funk” and that work comes back to being fun away, or as fun as work can be :)

At least I’ll be having dinner with some of my favourite creative friends tonight and I’m sure they’ll manage to pull me out~

Thanks for watching another chapter, and reading my personal venting / rants :) Love you all~ Have a great weekend!

Book of Fables - Sweet Rainbow

MAC Prep + Prime – Skin Base Visage
Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation – 51
MAC Mineralise Skinfinish Natural – Light
Face of Australia Face Powder – Bronze *
NYX Powder Blush – Natural
Canmake Highlighter – 01
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Coastal Scents 88 Ultra Shimmer Eye Shadow Palette
BH Cosmetics 120 Palette – 01
MAC Fluidline – Blacktrack
Mirenesse Secret Weapon Mascara – Black *
Savvy by DB Luxury Liner – Shimmering Slate
Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick – Pink Please
MAC Lipglass – Cruise Control

Products marked * were sent for consideration

Book of Fables - Sweet Rainbow

Book of Fables - Sweet Rainbow

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Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick Review, Swatches and Photos

January 12th, 2012 § 7 comments § permalink

Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick

Catching up with the Holiday 2011 collections, introducing you to Bobbi Brown’s Party Shimmer Brick. I already own one of their “normal” shimmer bricks in a pink shade, so I was curious to know how this would fare.

Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick

The product comes with two distinct sides, a strong gold shimmer and a more white silver shimmer.

Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick

However when both sides are swatches separately I can tell that the silver side actually is tinged with gold, and isn’t a “true” silver or white… maybe we can just call it white gold ;D

Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick

Blended together, you get a much more yellow based highlighter. I used this product on my cheekbones, but as with all highlighters you can use it anywhere else you want to reflect light from e.g. inner corner of your eyes, brow bone etc.

Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick

General comments I have to say about this product is that the texture is very smooth, not velvety butter smooth, but close. The amount of shimmer this product gives off is pretty strong, so be sure to go light if you only want a “dewy” finish. But not surprisingly this works great for parties or clubbing :)

Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick

I purchased this product for $40US online, I’m not sure if it is still available at counters, but it’s worth a shot if you’re in the market for a new highlighter. This retails for $85AU in Australia… yeah :/

Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick

Bobbi Brown Party Shimmer Brick

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Fables of an Artist: Planning the Concept

January 11th, 2012 § 22 comments § permalink

Planning for a photo shoot

I can attest to the fact that the few seconds or minutes it takes to watch a video or look at photos is just a glimpse into the level of work and preparation it takes behind the scenes. I thought it might be fun to take you guys on a journey on how I conduct my photo and video shoots for both a Book of Fables chapter and general photo shoots. 2012 is a year for big plans and I’m hoping to really get my creative juices flowing so that I can start seriously collaborating with some of my friends.

As you can see above, I do my best to list out all the dates I need to hit for my chapters, and list out the idea of the chapter at least 2-3 months in advance. That gives me enough time to make sure I have the correct costume / prop, and if not, enough time to make / buy it. Hmmm… “Sweet Rainbow” is coming up this Friday, I wonder what that is ^_~

Planning for a photo shoot

Every single Book of Fables chapter is always first sketched out in my sketch book. You might be able to see some familiar chapters above ;) I have two sketch books already filled with makeup looks, but many of my sketches never materialise, so many chapters are rejected (in fact there are a number chapters that are actually filmed, and never make it online as I don’t deem the quality high enough)

I am by no means a master planner, in fact I know many of my close friends will agree that I don’t actually plan enough (one of my resolutions for 2012), but planning is really and truly so essential for a strong execution of any concept and creative project.

This is especially true for videos, I have already started storyboarding a ton of videos I hope to film this year, but as all the ideas are still new and haven’t been filmed yet, I will show you those storyboards on the next post for this series ;)

Planning for a photo shoot

Costumes are exactly the same, but worse. It’s one thing to draw a costume out in it’s entirety, but you then need to sketch out each individual piece of the costume, whether that be shoes, pants, top, accessories etc. And worse still, it’s important to sketch out how the pieces will be made and fit together. You probably can’t tell, but I have tons of tiny little notes scribbled next to each piece of the outfit to tell me how long I think it will take to make, what sort of colour it should, what sort of fabric I need, how much of it etc.

The next process is sticking little post it notes all over the costumes. If you think I have a lot of makeup, you should see my fabric collection! Unfortunately no matter what costume I am making, I never have every piece I need already in my collection, and so the post it notes tell me what materials I need to buy to complete the costume, how much of it and where I can buy it.

I know this all seems terribly organised for some, but trust me, I could do a lot better. And the reason I wasn’t able to produce any new proper costumes last year was thanks to my lack of planning.

The next post I hope to do on this topic will be around storyboarding for my videos :) I’m not sure whether I covered everything you guys wanted to know in this post, or whether you would prefer it in video format? But let me know, I’m only happy to accommodate, I want to give you guys a real feel for the work that goes into every video / photo :)

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Topshop Lipsticks Review, Swatches and Photos

January 10th, 2012 § 12 comments § permalink

Topshop Lipstick

You guys remember a while back when I attended the opening night for Topshop I mentioned I picked up a few items? Well makeup was one of them… of course! What sort of beauty blogger do you take me for?

But I was good and only grabbed two, that’s two lipsticks only. I didn’t get any other beauty related products because I know I am swimming in them at home. See? I have self control… of some sort…. Anyways!

Topshop Lipstick

The two shades I grabbed were Confession, a watermelon pink / red shade and Nevada, a nude beige shade.

Topshop Lipstick

The packaging calls these two “Velvet Finish Moisturising Lipstick”, and I can attest to the moisturising element, These apply very creamy and feel lovely on the lipsticks. The formula smells sweet, which in the book of Celina, means I like them! I’m such a sucker for anything sweet :)

Topshop Lipstick

I can’t say these last a full day however, naturally Confession out lasted Nevada by a long shot, especially if I blot them before hand. Though lipstick tends to wear off faster for me given how I do love to graze during the day :)

Topshop Lipstick

I can’t decide which shade I prefer, but I know that I would be very comfortable using Nevada at work and Confession for a day or night out :)

Topshop Lipstick

Each lipstick is $15AU, which isn’t too bad given I would honestly say these are comparable to MAC lipsticks, especially their more creamy lines. I think last I saw there were about 20 or so colours? Perhaps a bit less, but I would definitely recommend you take a look at these :)

Topshop Lipstick

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Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe Review, Swatches and Photos

January 9th, 2012 § 6 comments § permalink

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe

Get ready for another dose of glitter! I actually have a couple more Christmas collections left I want to get through, in retrospect I think I have more than enough glitter to last me a life time and honestly can’t see myself wanting to add anymore to my collection. That said, hope you enjoy the swatches. I’ve been wearing Candy Cane on my toes for about a week now and it has done me proud :) Though I find most polishes lash much longer on my toes than hands!

Generally speaking I’d consider the entire collection to be mostly chunky. The finish is not smooth, and even with top coat, you can feel the bumps on the surface. Personally not a collection I’m particularly fond of, but at least the swatches are pretty!

As always 2 coats and no top coat!

Beyond the Mistletoe

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe

A silver and icy blue glitter shade, and the namesake of this collection. I reckon this would be great on either blue or white polish. OPI’s Simmer & Shimmer was a pretty close match to this, only with more purple to it.

Candy Cane

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe

An electric light pink glitter shade, the shade currently on my toes, which I really do love. Not sure I could handle this on my hands, but it works fantastically on my toes.

Gingerbread

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe

A light gold glitter with some hologram, would look amazing on top of some opaque polishes, perhaps another solid gold shade. If you’re looking for a dupe, OPI’s Bring on the Bling is a more pigmented version.

Holiday Splendor

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe

Silver glitter mixed in with a turquoise shade, the only polish from this collection with an opaque formula.

Jingle Jangle

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe

One of my favourite shades from the collection, a mixture of dusty blue and lavender glitter. Very unique :)

Sugarplum Fairy

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe

A hologram silver shade, in real life it has a slight blue ting to it. Beautiful and wearable shade for parties or evenings out.

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe

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Annie’s Graduation, Klara Cosmetics & Sechi Hair

January 8th, 2012 § 8 comments § permalink

Annie's Graduation

A little while back I was lucky enough to attend the graduation of one of my dear friends Annie, whom you all know as one of Melbourne truly talented fashion designers :D Knowing my love for cosmetics, Annie invited me backstage to check out the hair and makeup artists at work as her graduation was a fashion show~

I always love checking out what makeup and hair products are used at runway shows, with all the lights, stress and cameras, the makeup needs to be strong, pigmented and have good staying power :)

I know my white balance is all off! If I had time I would have corrected it in Lightroom, oh well next time!

Annie's Graduation

Annie's Graduation

Annie's Graduation

I found it really interesting that backstage in order to curl model’s hair they always use straighteners, no curlers!

Annie's Graduation

Annie's Graduation

My makeup desk is just as bad if not worse when I film a Book of Fables chapter X_x;

Annie's Graduation

Annie's Graduation

Annie's Graduation

*_* I found the stand out brands were Make Up For Ever, Illamasqua and Napoleon Perdis!

Annie's Graduation

Annie's Graduation

I was able to share a quick few words with the head of the makeup and hair team, Klara from Klara Cosmetics and Sechi Hair. She was so lovely, and her daughter was even cuter!

Annie's Graduation

All the designers from the night, Annie is on the far left~ Thanks again for the invite Annie, I had a wonderful time and loved watching the models get ready back stage! <3 <3 :)

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