Illamasqua

So I found out about this new brand, and judging from the awesome reviews on the net, about time! One of the things I've been hearing a lot of good about is the foundation, so I went in for a test (apparently they don't give out samples). The MUA matched me to SB09 and said it blended in perfectly... I looked at it and thought it made my skin look dull and a bit grey. She poo-pood me, but when I went to walk away, she said that the next shade up might suit me better. She put on SB10 and then gushed about the difference it made and how much better it looked than the last shade.. which she had said was perfect. I felt like I couldn't trust her then, so I didn't get any, but I did pick up some under eye concealer.

The foundation. Comes in a heap of shades and the swatches on the net aren't the greatest for comparing to. They've also included a table of comparisons with most major brands eg. MAC, Nars etc. but I've heard that can be off too. Best to go in store and get a MUA to do it. And come back another day and get another MUA to match you.

The undereye concealer. Illamasqua do a funky shaped container, and there's a mirror inside the lid. So far seems to wear well.

The intense lip glosses are reputed to have almost lipstick like coverage, and great lasting power than me. Just trying to decide if a gloss is worth $30+.

I tried on some of the liquid metal pigments and *swoon* absolutely gorgeous. Just swiped it on my arm (well, my son's arm) and it didn't last more than a half hour, but probably would be better on a face and with primer and base underneath. 

Illamasqua is having a huge online sale at the moment - if only the postage wasn't so exxy for the few itms I could afford to buy :/

Makeup Comp!

No, not me :)


But Meredith Jessica of http://pigmentsandpalettes.blogspot.com/ is running a comp and the prize is a $250 Sephora voucher!


Even though it will still cost me super postage if I win it as I will have to use a parcel forwarding service, it'd still be awesome.


So imaginary readers, if you could vote here: https://www.themakeupbee.com/look.php?look_id=15329 for this awesome look like so...

A woman this talented deserves to win!

Independence?

So far I have been using mainly attachment/natural parenting when it comes to my son, but last night I just felt like I had enough.


It was 1:30 in the morning, he refused to sleep and just wanted to lie there kicking me and flinging his arms around, and trying to sneak in a breastfeed and I was completely over it. I started fantasising about getting him his own bed and just closing the door for his room at night and leaving him to it...


It's daytime now and that's when I usually become free of these awful thoughts that really are akin to child abuse (leaving them to cry it out until they throw up or are just plain traumatised), but still the thought of buying him his own bed is lingering...

I like this one from Ikea because you can use it upside down for when the kids are little so they don't fall out, and then tip it so that it's like this with a play area underneath for when they're bigger!

Just looked it up at the US site and it's half the price it is here in Australia though :( Odd, since it's made in China right? And shipping to Australia should be cheaper! Wonder if this comes in a full size single bed and not a toddler bed...

Foundations

Quick foundation review (mostly to remind myself what I've got so far and how they're measuring up!)


- Estee Lauder Double Wear Light Intensity 3.0. Looks very cakey and powdery on. Applied a tiny amount with a foundation brush and set it with translucent finish powder, but it made my skin look terribly dry. Had to go over again with moisturiser on a cotton pad. Maybe try different applications/mixing with other stuff?


- Illamasque 9 & 10. 9 looked a bit off to me but the sales assistant said it blended in perfectly. Then she took out the 10 and put that on, and said that the 9 had a pink undertone and therefore gave my skin a grey cast (then obviously it didn't blend in perfectly?) That bit of bs made me walk away, but now that I'm home and looking at my skin again, the 10 seems  quite nice. A bit thick though, although that could've been her application.


- Have Nars Sheer Glow in two shades to try still.


Also tried Benefit Boi-ing, but that looked very cakey and powdery, and didn't cover my undereye circles anyway.


Laura Mercier in Maloo (?) seemed quite good, although that could be cos the sales guy applied it with a very light hand and then set it with translucent powder. 


Ended up buying Illamasque undereye concealer. Doesn't really cover my undereye darkness either, but maybe I just need more sleep! 

So more stuff happened...

In the last couple of days...


- I have cleaned up dog poop in the house;
- I have cleaned up people poop in the house;
- I have cleaned up cat poop in the house;
- I have done all of the above on my birthday; and
- I turned a year older.


Well, I guess the turning a year older actually happened over the course of the year, and not magically one day i was a year older than I was the day before it.


I also discovered that while flat packed gingerbread houses are an awesome idea in theory, in reality when you open the packet you will find that the sheets that are the walls have broken into at least two pieces. Because that's the minimum amount of pieces it can break into, I guess.


The last few nights I've been finding it really hard to sleep and I think it's taking its toll on me, hence all this gibberish.

What a day!

Got up at a ridiculous hour this morning (8 am!) and spent hours doing housework. Took the Monster to playgroup which resulted in acrylic paint being used as hairgel.


Got two cruddy phone calls. The first cruddy phone call was from a woman who'd adopted my foster dog on the weekend and wanted to return it because she said it was aggressive and she couldn't trust it around other dogs and children. So she returned it to me. Me with my two dogs and toddler.


Second cruddy phone call was from this guy. I'd won a dog crate off eBay and had arranged a pick up time for later in the afternoon. He called me to tell me that an hour before the arranged time, someone had nicked the crate that he'd left in the front yard for me. 


And now the Monster has just emptied a tub of yoghurt onto his foot. /sigh

Starting out!

Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like to live a really different kind of life (lots of times, actually, especially when I come across blogs on the net and the person seems super cool). So this blog is kind of a public diary in case anyone wonders what it'd be like to be a suburban mum trying to practice attachment parenting in between trying to figure out what to do with my life.


My priorities in life right now mostly revolve around my son and trying to raise him up to be a decent person in this world where children starve to death while other people are so rich that they throw multi-million dollar weddings that end in a divorce a few weeks later.

I don't know why his head looks almost as big as mine in this picture!

I'd also like to have a separate life apart from being a parent, which is hard since my son is still a toddler and therefore a lot of the things that I used to enjoy doing are now not possible unless I foist him on a babysitter. Things like starting any kind of career seem so distant right now. 


Jeez, sounds all a bit doom and gloom.. it's not all bad! I'm finding lots of new things to develop an interest in, such as sustainable gardening, cosmetics, animal rescue and interior design.


I probably won't post every day, but I will try to give a brief rundown of what goes on in everyday life.


Today will be fairly quiet. Just came back from toddler gym, which is a program held at the local church. Now going to bake gingerbread cookies if I can borrow a rolling pin and some cute cookie cutters from a neighbour, and then tackling the bathroom cleaning.