Estee Lauder 'Pure Colour Extravagant' Christmas Collection by Tom Pecheux

Hands up if you've already paid your christmas office party deposit? Yeah? Then you've probably already started thinking what you're going to wear, maybe which shoes you'll buy and maybe even 'hmmm shall I go for a festive red lip or sparkly eyes this year'....

Well Lauder have it covered. If you've been impressed by the recent EL collections coming from Michael Kors and the more recent Blue Dahlia collection by Tom Pecheux, then you are going to LOVE the new Pecheux Christmas collection. Based on a few key shades of berries and gold, the Extravagant collection has sumptuous festive-ness all wrapped up in a bow.

This collection is sizzling and instantly makes me want a mince pie and a glass of champers. It is the absolute epitome of festive glamour and will take me all the way from early get togethers at the end of November to the ball I will be attending for Hogmany.

It will be hitting the counters next week and pieces will be limited, so get down there early. In the meantime, take a browse below. I will be doing a couple of videos of Christmas looks using various pieces, so keep your peepers peeled.

Up first are 2 nail varnishes, jam-packed with shimmer. The shades are Extravagant Pearl and Extravagant Night (Pictured below). Extravagant Night is a gorgeous deep plum-y blue/purple-y colour. Delicious.

Next is the eyeshadow palette 'Extravagant Gold'. Made up from 5 shades ranging from the lightest champagne, to the darkest chocolate, you will be able to create a variety of glamourous smoky eyes. The bottom left shade is my absolute fave - a stunning metallic caramel colour that will make blue eyes shine.

The lip palette centres around a true red lipstick, with 4 sheer glosses to choose as a top coat. There is a beautiful purple/burgundy colour in the bottom left and 2 champagne/gold colours at the top. The curve ball here is the coral gloss on the bottom right; stunning.

The lip products continue with 2 new shades of lipstick. 'Extravagant Red' (left) and 'Extravagant Berry' (right). There are also 2 complimentary lipglosses, detailed below. The packaging of the lipsticks are to die for - aren't they gorgeous??! And don't be put off by the extreme shimmer that appears on the bullet - this is just for show and is infused around the outside like a gossamer.

Berry (left) and Red (right)

The lipglosses gently compliment the lipsticks in 'Plum' (the purpley colour) and Ruby (the red). These glosses are high shine and packed with shimmer. Wear the lipstick during the day to the office and whack one of these glosses over the top to take you into the evening. Et voila!

Extravagant Plum

Extravagant Ruby

Unfortunately my festive hangovers have started early this year (champagne and wine on a Tuesday is never a great idea! and Ladies - you know who you are!). So below is a very quick and basic FOTD I managed to pull together using the Extravagant Gold eye palette - these shades are so pretty and I am looking forward t doing something a bit more glamorous with these products in the next few weeks. My first Xmas party is on the 4th Dec and I will be rocking a gold eye and berry lip!

A xx

*All these products were provided for review, but I would happily pay for them all.

New Video...

Yesterday's video

Review & Ramble

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Make Up For Ever Haul

Hi,

In July, when I was on the MUSE course in London, one of the brands I tried out a lot was Make Up For Ever. To be honest, I really didn't expect the products to live up to the hype, but by george was I wrong! I loved pretty much everything I tried and had made up my mind to make a few purchases. Unfortunately, the only place to pick up MUFE and try them in person before you buy, is in Fulham - not exactly the most convenient when I live in Aberdeen!

I didn't even realise they sold MUFE in Sephora stores so I was delighted to spy it for the first time! Here are some of the products I picked up...

HD Foundation in #120

The foundations are so pigmented that you only need the tiniest amount and you'll get amazing, gorgeous satin-y skin

HD Cream Blush. Possibly 2 of my current favourite products out of everything I own. Amazing, amazing stuff and if I could recommend one item from this brand, it would be one of these.

Maybe one of the products you've heard the most about, the Smoky Lash Mascara is thickening, lengthening, unclumpy and waterproof. What more could you ask for??

You can see me use some of these products here

What do you think of MUFE? Do you have any products? Shall we petition them to sell more widely in the UK??

A xx

FOTD

Hi,

Today is my little brother's birthday and so we were hanging out at the cinema. Here's the makeup I wore!

Face:

FACE atelier Ultra foundation in Wheat

MUFE HD Cream Blush in #03

Eyes:

Urban Decay E/S in Creep from Naked Palette

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on pencil in Black

MUFE Aqua Smoky Lash mascara

Shu Uemura brow pencil in Seal Brown (Hard 6 formula)

And that's it! Simples!

2 Week Gel Manicures

Hi guys,

So I hate having a bare nails; I find having polished nails makes me feel just a little bit 'together' even when the rest of me might feel a mess. But for years I've achieved this by doing manicures probably 2 or 3 times a week.

Enter the 2 Week Gel Manicure! This stuff is amazing. It protects nails, it doesn't chip and it stays super super shiny for the whole 2 weeks. I have mine done at my new favourite salon in Aberdeen and they use BioSculpture, although I'm sure there are other gels available.

Here are a couple of pics of recent manicures I've had. Having spent the past couple of months with a french manicure, I finally broke and have gone for a very Chanel-esque burgundy red colour. Gorgeous winter colour.

A xx

Brush Cleaning Day...

Anyone else hate it?

Classic Black Liner and Pink Lip tutorial

Hi guys,

I promise there will be some proper posts coming soon! I'm a bit distracted by YT at the moment!

You can watch my latest vid here

A x

UD Naked Palette FOTD Video

Hi

Just realised the link I posted last night wasn't working so you can see the video of the natural look here

Taking requests on what you would like to see! either comment here, on the video or email me!

A x

Urban Decay NAKED Palette

Morning peeps

I picked the NAKED palette up in Sephora in Vegas. I figured my chances of getting one back home were fairly slim to none, so snapped it up. Like everything else I bought over there, I wish I'd gotten 2! I paid $44 (about £30). Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to find UK info online for UD; I believe you may be able to buy this in HoF if it's not sold out. I am not sure about Debenhams or Boots (sorry!)

I've never been a massive fan of the UD palettes as I often find there's only 1 or 2 shadows in it that I would wear on any sort of regular basis, but this one is jam-packed with colours I could wear every day and it has enough 'rockier' shades that it could be used just as well for evening looks. I also have never used the Primer Potion before (I know, I know), so will be looking forward to giving it a go. First impressions of the 24/7 glide on pencils are that they are super soft and I am keen to get using these too!

I imagine there will be a couple of FOTDs coming out of this in the near future which is why I didn't bother with a billion swatches. In the meantime, you can feast your eyes on these...

Love A xx

I joined YouTube!!

Check it out! (please)

http://www.youtube.com/user/millmollmac

x

Brushes

Jealousy is uh-glee, but it brings me pretty things!

You may have read Katy's (from makeupbykaty.com) recent post on some brushes from Sephora. Well the green-eyed monster got the better of me after I got to check out her brushes when she was doing my wedding makeup, so when I was in the states on honeymoon I headed straight to Sephora and bought some!

Who could resist a brush as soft as a baby Koala's tummy fur?? So this is the Professional Mineral Powder brush #45 and it costs $26 (£17). I loved the chunky handle and its bristles are truly the softest ever. It's a fabulous brush and I wish I'd gotten 2...

This is the Sephora 'Natural Foundation #111' brush and it cost about $30. I assume it's supposed to be used to buff in liquid foundation, but I bought it as a dupe for the MAC 116, to apply my Chanel Bronze Universel cream bronzer with. It's not quite the full round brush the 116 is, but it's softly dense and doesn't make streaks of bronzer, so it will do nicely!

Unfortunately Sephora isn't available to buy in the UK and the US site doesn't ship to the UK. Why, I don't know as the stores are fab. Anyhoo, if you want to get your mitts on these babies, you will need to do some travelling! Sorry....

Nouveau Lashes at Preen Beauty

I had intended on getting these up before I went away for the honeymoon, but my photo editor was playing silly buggers and kept putting the photos on their sides... anyhoo!

I had these done for the wedding and only just had them removed today. They lasted a good 3 weeks almost without shedding any, it's only been in the last 4 or 5 days that they've become noticeably patchy.

So these are the before and afters! My eyes are now back to 'before' and I'm currently trying a lash growth stimulant tonic that I will report back on in a few weeks.

These cost £65 for the full set and would be £30 after 3 weeks for a 'top up'. I had mine done at Preen Beauty, one of the best salons in Aberdeen and I paid for them myself.

Wedding Snaps

The day itself was perfect, everything I could have asked for. I know it sounds soppy, but it's true and I don't care! I'm not putting heaps up and you'll see some good ones of my makeup in a couple of weeks once the official pics are available, but here's a couple taken on the day.

My beautiful bridesmaids, handsome bestmen and my lovely lovely husband!

a highland fling!

just me in my dress!

Posing and loving it!

Mac and I had such an amazing time away, I can't even begin to tell you how much we enjoyed our honeymoon. Here are just a couple of snaps... (there were 600 to choose from!)

my winning machine in Vegas! $280!

Flamingos in our hotel in Hawaii

Dinner in Bryant Park, NYC

and my most favouritist purchase of all time!

A few wedding snaps to follow...

I'm Back!!

Hi!

So, I return as an old married lady... well married at least!

so so so much to post over the next few weeks... I spent $$$'s in Sephora, mostly on Make Up For Ever products, so lots of reviews to come. Some wedding pics and honeymoon pics will no doubt sneak their way up too, I'm sure!

Hope you enjoyed Lisa's guest posts?!

See you soon!

A x

Guest Post! Eve Pearl Concealer Review

Hi,

I told you she'd be back....!

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Eve Pearl Concealer

Ok, I’m guessing many of you may not have head of this brand but Eve Pearl is actually an awesome Emmy awarding makeup artist based in New York, New York. She also has a YouTube channel you may wish to check out, in which she demonstrates some of these award winning techniques.

The ‘Salmon Concealer and Treatment’ (yes, salmon!) is her most prolific product (also a favourite of the luuverly Goss Make-up Artist – http://gossmakeupartist.blogspot.com) which is known for covering under eye darkness and other skin discolorations. So to cut a very long story short during late stages of pregnancy I got horrendous pigmentation around the eyes known as Melasma, which has not faded one year on and gets worse through sun exposure. I’ve searched far and wide for a truly fabulous concealer to mask these marks to no avail – until now! Seriously fabulous stuff. Mine is in light/medium and I apply with my finger in a soft patting motion on top of my Chanel Pro Lumiere foundation (in Clair no.20), and then set with a little MAC Prep & Prime Power.

It’s expensive – $35-but IT WORKS and is apparently full of a lovely CosmeNutrient® Complex, which does all kinds of good stuff for the skin (sorry for being so technical there....) It’s lovely light texture belies its ability to give full coverage, and the dual palette means you can mix the light and medium shades to get your perfect colour match. Eve also has a rather fab book I purchased called “Plastic Surgery Without the Surgery - The Miracle of Makeup Techniques” Awesome bedtime reading for the makeup obsessed like me!

Products I tried and loved in London!

Hello there,

Thought I would do a quick run through some of the stand-out products that I got to try at MUSE a couple of weeks ago...

*please note, these are all products that I tried only. I haven't bought them yet and therefore don't really know best places to buy or best prices. All I know is the products are fab!

MUFE HD Powder

This is a talc-free, uber finely milled finishing powder and it is WOW. It's so fine, it literally smokes when you take the lid off. Leaves skin with a satiny finish and not a horrible dry chalky finish that some loose powders leave you with. As I didn't get the opportunity to get to the store, I didn't buy this, but think I've found a fairly decent dupe-ish product... Illamasqua loose powder; although not talc-free, still has a gorgeous finish and I actually use the Pink Brightening powder - gorgeous!

MAC Patina E/S

Believe the hype. This e/s is gorgeous. enough said.

MAC White F&B

This stuff was a dream product during the course, because we were working on different people each day and it was so so easy to custom blend a foundation shade. You can literally mix this with any liquid or cream foundation to lighten it, without it losing it's pigment. Fab Fab Fab and I will be ordering some of this, through mail order as it is a pro product.

Louise Young Foundation Brush

(3rd one, at the bottom of the page) This little baby has been showcased by Pixiwoo on YT a lot and it's difficult to see why it's anything more special than a traditional flat foundation brush. But, using it, you discover that it is super firm, but as soft as a feather. It doesn't make foundation streak as the bristles are so densely packed. Again, I will be purchasing this as soon as.

Hakuhodo Flat Top Kabuki

Love love love this brush! was amazing for buffing over the skin to create an unbelieveably flawless finish with foundation. Particularly worked well with HD Foundation and Pro Lumiere. Like the LY foundation brush, amazingly soft but super dense. This can be bought online (about $54 dollars I think), but I think I will wait til next years IMATS and keep my fingers crossed that Hakuhodo will be there!!

Hope that's useful!

A xx