Getting a little bit Naked.

Oh god. I knew from the minute I laid eyes on this, it was for me. Literally, it was love at the first sight. I've been thinking about getting one of Urban Decay's Books of Shadows for a while now, but was debating over which one to get, and whether I could justify the price. And then this appeared and it could have come with hallelujah's, seriously.

Look at that stuff! I am glad I waited cause it suddenly puts all their old packaging to shame. It looks good and classy and well-made and practical - and it is. I always WANTED to like the Books of Shadows/Shadow Boxes with their drawers and the pop-up characters and the chainmail packaging and all that... but they never really looked sturdy or practical. And this is the opposite.

It looks black in the picture, but it's a deep brown velvet box with a magnetic closure lid, and a mirror that isn't obscured by any pop-up stuff. Basically, the packaging is gorgeous. You don't need me to tell you that, but I have spent a paragraph doing so.

Here it is in full. It comes with a mini primer potion and a double ended eyeliner, with colours Zero (jet black) and Whiskey (reddish brown). I do love their 24/7 eyeliners, but am frightful of their melting ability. I have my reservations about the primer potion, but that's for another post. Generally, if you like the little 'freebies' so to speak, you're getting a good deal for £27.

Now the price. This is where I need to discuss why I never bought one before. I always assume that you're getting ripped off with these things. Which is why this is my first!

If you think about it, a normal Urban Decay eyeshadow is £12-14, depending on where you buy it. You're getting 12 in this box, and I think they're about the same size as the ones you normally get in these kind of boxes/sets. I do get through eyeshadows at quite a rate, especially neutrals, but I think you'd have to be determined to use up all the shadow, to get through it.

Phew.

Now.

On to what you really want to see!

L-R: Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half-Baked.

Naked and Buck are the only two matte's in the box, and they're gorgeous. I can see they'll make a great contoured eye, with lots of black eyeliner. Virgin is an odd, but lovely one. It looks like a pinkish white in the box, but when swatched, has an interesting blue/purple duochrome. I kind of love it. Sin reminds me of a MAC Starflash colour - possibly ego? - but with grey undertones. It's a pretty, unusual colour. Sidecar is similar, a brownish-pink with multicoloured glitter, I can see blueish glitter. Half-Baked is the one I already own, but I adore it so much! It's a shimmery true-bronze, in my eyes. Very gorgeous swept all over the lid on it's own with lots of mascara and eyeliner.

L-R: Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal.

Smog is righhhht up my street. If you know what Go! from the MAC Starflash collection was like, it's very similar. A very pretty mid-tone brown that will suit my eyes very well. Darkhorse is a darker version of Smog with some silver-flecks through. I think it's my favourite one, but I'm not sure. I don't have a brown that dark that's not a matte. Here begins my love affair with Smog & Darkhorse, I think. It's too soon to tell. Toasted is strange. I don't understand the name, for one, but I like it. The correct name may be 'mauve'. Or I could say pinkish-purple with blue-brown undertones. We'll still with mauve. Hustle is very gorgeous. It's a deep purple-brown, that leans a little bit grey in some lights. Potential love affair with these two, too. Oh well. Creep and Gunmetal I didn't really expect to be so blue! I love them. Creep is an almost-too-dark blue with flecks of shimmer, and Gunmetal is a steel blue with similar shimmer. Swatched together they're gorgeous.

I will tell you what I have woefully just done, though. I just went to move it and jammed my fingernail into Half-Baked. These eyeshadows are so soft. So soft. I cannot tell you HOW SOFT THEY ARE. So be careful, kids. The fact they are so soft means they blend beautifully, but if you catch it with your nail, expect it to crumple undertouch. Just, you've been warned.
I would say they are coparable to MAC's Starflash formula. Beautiful at blending, especially the satin ones.

I think a great plus to this product is the fact you can have so many different combinations in one box, so here are some that I've found already, and love:
Sin > Toasted > Hustle
Naked > Buck
Half Baked > Smog > Darkhorse
Gunmetal > Creep
Sidecar > Darkhorse

Someone told me its the only neutral palette you'll ever need - but I know what I'm like, and there will ALWAYS be another neutral palette. Until then, this will satisfy all my cravings! I think this will be PERFECT for when I travel, now! No more lugging MAC palette's up and down the country. Wonderful stuff. Especially with the little eyeliner in there.

Price: 4/5
Packaging: 5/5
Product: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
Would I buy this product again? No, unless i somehow used them all up! But I would highly recommend them to anyone!

I hope this review was useful! For those asking where to purchase, you can get it at all House of Fraser's currently, and on their website, and then in stores everywhere else soon, I think! I do hope these pictures were okay, I took them on my iPhone but had to edit in PaintShopPro so I couldn't get the colours completely accurate.

Particularly chuffed. Oh, my wit.

Still in the midst of my blogging drought, I'm afraid! Computer is still being fixed, but I know whats wrong with it, and it's costing me shocking £495 to fix it! It's literally tear-inducing. Unfortunately, I've kinda learned this is what you get with Mac's, and as much I as I adore them and their products, they're ridiculously sensitive machines, and it costs a bomb to fix them. People have told me I'm crazy to pay that much for it to be fixed.. But when you think that the cheapest MacBook you can buy (not comparable to mine) is around £800, it's more understandale. Then pair that with the fact it has two years worth of work on it.. that I can't really replace! So kids, look after them, they do go wrong!

Anyway! I'm still making do with my parents computer, but as I can't get access to my camera software and things like that, it makes posting fairly awful! However, I did manage this sneaky snap with my iPhone, which has a blessedly good camera!
My older brother came home from a six-week journey across the states which I am ridiculously jealous of, but he brought my back a little present..

Isn't it lovely?! It's like a nicer version of You Don't Know Jacques by OPI, a lighter, creamier, better formula version.. I am fully in love with this colour. If YDKJ looks like wet clay, this looks like Galaxy chocolate. I adore it and I am so grateful for my brother for getting it for me! I also got a little sample of some lovely mascara and a little bit of eye-makeup remover! Gotta love the brother. (:
I hope everyone did really well in their GCSE's and A-Level's by the way! My younger brother did excellent in his GCSE's and is going to do some ridiculous A-Level's now! So glad I'm not doing that stuff! Haha.
Hope you're all well and normal blogging will commence shortly..? Sigh! Who knows?

Primark Rings and Other Things...

...and how I could be in the Sound of Music.I'm joking. I've also never seen that movie all the way through. But that is beside the point.

Yesterday I went into Reading to see the loveeeeely Miss Rachel. Even WITH the decidedly awful weather, we had a nice wander around the shops, a lunch that was eaten outside, precariously, under Pret a Manger's awning, lots of gossip and laughs, and we even trekked it up to Primark, which was an effort because of the rainnnnn.
But they have redone Reading Primark! I am quite impressed. It looks 1000x better than it used to. If you've ever been to that one, it always looks a bit of a mess. So I'm quite glad that they've done it, because they don't have those silly tower things where they fold clothes on anymore, and they've sorted out the jewelery section so that actually HAVE a good one now..and that is where I picked these babies up!

These are awesome! I've generally never really bought any jewellery from Primark because I've just never found anything that I really like. Then recently I've found loads of stuff I like. I bought an awesome pair of owl-earrings the other day which I'll show you at some point, and I got the snake ring in the top right at the same time..Buttt

t I got the rabbit, the bee/bug, and the ball. They look kind of funny lying down like this, and I realised this when I was editing the pictures, so here is a Photobooth picture, to show you what they look like on..

I loveee these. They were all £2 each! That's a right bargain. And I'm a sucker for anything animal themed. However, I have learnt my lesson all too well with cheap jewelery, so when I got them home, I immeditaely painted the inside of the bands with clear nail-varnish, and this will protect the metal from tarnishing as quickly and will stop your fingers from turning green! Which is really handy. I love the one of the bug in particular even my mum was like, "Clare. These are so weird." Haha, I don't think she understands me sometimes.

I also realised the other night that I have no like.. 'traditional' nail varnishes. I have loads of blues and greens and purples and things, but very few reds or pinks or corals, so I wanted to expand on that by buying a deep, vampy red. And I got a damn perfect one!

This is Barry M's Wine Red. And it's gorgeousss. I had to do a little clean up on my index finger and it stained it a little bit, but it's a beautiful vampish red jelly. It's a little lighter than the bottle, but if you layer it up it gets darker. But I demand you all go out and get it because it's beautiful and I just had to take it off because I have work tomorrow and that makes me sad.

And it's late now and I have to go to bed now or I won't wake up in time for work and then my manager will be angry and I could lose my job. Fun stuff!