Urban Decay Alice Through The Looking Glass Collection

Urban Decay Alice Through the Looking Glass Collection

As soon as I saw the sneak peek photos of the new Urban Decay Alice collection I knew I had to have it. I missed out on getting the original Alice collection because at the time I was a student and had no money to spend on makeup (not that I have the money now either). The first thing I did was contact my local Urban Decay counter, and put my name down on the waiting list for the palette, and was delighted to find that there weren't that many people on the list ahead of me. Then however I found out that the college which I did my makeup course with, DFMA, were running an exclusive event with Urban Decay in Convent Garden, and this meant that I would be able to get my hands on the palette a full week before it's proper release! Of course I jumped at the chance...

Urban Decay Goodie Bag

Over a month ago I was invited along to go to an event at an Urban Decay counter in The Oracle, Reading, which you can read about here. On the night we were very lucky to receive a goody bag from the team at Urban Decay, which was not only very surprising, but also greatly appreciated. Urban Decay is a brand that I have always been interested in, however until very recently I had never actually owned any products from them. You will have seen me mention before that I have started collecting their eyeshadow palettes since Christmas, but until the event I hadn't really ever used any of their other products. Since the event I have been obsessed with growing my UD collection, and this goodie bag certainly really helped...

Wishlist Wednesday: Urban Decay Cosmetics

So many beautiful items!

Having had my makeup done at an Urban Decay counter twice now, I have a massive list of things that I absolutely must buy, as you can see from the picture above! For full details and links please see below...

My Recent Palette Purchases

Last year I made the decision not to buy only Drugstore/cheap makeup, and to spend some money investing in some high end makeup. This was in the hopes that I would be a lot more likely to use the makeup that I bought, considering it would cost a decent amount of money. Now I'm sure that I have mentioned before that I have an absolute obsession with eye shadow palette's, so naturally that is where I started...

The Oracle Valentines Event with Urban Decay

A few days ago I was sent an invitation for an event that got me very excited. It was a Valentines makeover event at Urban Decay in the House of Fraser at The Oracle shopping centre in Reading. Of course I jumped at the chance to get my makeup done, especially as I had never had it done at an Urban Decay counter before. So yesterday evening I made the journey into Reading, all set to be pampered like mad.

On arrival we were offered a sparkling drink, but as this was alcoholic I declined. Then once everyone had arrived the team started by giving us a little brand introduction to Urban Decay. I was obviously aware of Urban Decay before this event, particularly for their eyeshadow palettes, and eye primer potion. The team told us that Urban Decay was founded in 1996, because the founder thought that there was a distinct lack of colour in high end makeup. They also told us that their most popular products (other than the Naked palettes) are their setting sprays. 

Then we moved on to the makeover part of the event, and they explained that as it is Valentines this weekend that they would do the makeover as sort of a 'speed date'. So each of the team had their own station of either complexion, eyes, and lips. We would then take turns rotating around the stations until we had our makeup completed!

Master at work

That's a lot of face products...

I started by having my base done by the lovely Bradley. He started by lining up all of the products that he was going to use on me, as shown above. He did pick out three foundations to colour match me, but I advised I was most likely the lightest shade they had, and that was definitely the case. So we started with the B6 vitamin prep spray, to keep the skin happy. Followed by the pore perfecting primer, which is silicone based to help smooth out the pores, for a more flawless finish. Then we went onto the Naked Skin foundation, which I was personally dying to try. As soon as he put the foundation on I really noticed how light it felt, I really didn't feel like I had anything on. I was also very delighted and surprised that this covered a lot of my redness on my cheeks, and also a few blemishes that I had too. Then he used the Naked skin concealer, again in the lightest shade, this was just used under my eyes, to cover up my dark circles. We next moved on to the Naked skin ultra definition powder foundation, in the lightest shade. He used this to powder the foundation and concealer, as I had asked for a particularly matte finish, which is my favourite kind, due to having oily skin. To add a little colour and glow back into my face with the skin we used the bronzer and highlighter from the lightest Naked flushed palette. Finally we finished with the De-slick makeup setting spray, designed to control oil, and keep your makeup looking flawless.

The finished complexion

After having my skin done, I got to watch a few of the other girls having their makeup done, whilst waiting for one of the stations to become available. I always really enjoying watching people having their makeup done, I think it's something to do with the transformation.

Lisa of United Cakedom having her eye makeup done

Another complexion consultation in progress

After watching a few of the ladies having their makeup done it was time for me to move to the next station, lips. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of this being done to me, but all he did was use the 24/7 Glide-on lip liner in bang, which is a lovely bright red, all over the lips, and then on top used one of the Revolution lipsticks in a darker red. For the life of me I cannot remember what the shade he used was called, but the finished effect was a lovely sultry red, perfect for Valentines day.

A lip consultation in progress

Unfortunately I never made it to the eyes station, as the store closed at 8pm, and although the team were very happy to continue working on us, the shutters had gone down and we needed to vacate the shop. The team however were kind enough to suggest us booking in another time to come and get our full face done, which I am certainly planning to do! Finally we were given a Hotel Chocolat goody bag, and the team at Urban Decay were even kind enough to give us a goodie bag, which was very generous of them. 

Upon getting home and opening my goody bag I was delighted to see that it was bursting with Urban Decay products that I had never tried before! I will be doing an entirely separate post with swatches of everything I received but for now here is everything that I got in my goody bags:

• Hotel Chocolat Passion Fruit Truffles
• Urban Decay Little Perversions Set (includes: Mascara, precision eyeliner, all nighter eyeliner, lash primer, glide-on eyeliner pencil - all travel sized)
• 2 x Urban Decay glide-on eye pencils in Desperation and Deep End
• Urban Decay Brow Beater pencil and brush
• Urban Decay eyeshadow in Bust
• Urban Decay Afterglow Blush in Kinky
• Urban Decay Sheer Revolution Lipstick in Sheer Streak

As you can see we were very spoilt by the team, and I just want to say a massive thank you to Lauren of Frank PR for inviting me along to the event in the first place, also a big thank you to House of Fraser for hosting us! It was so great to get to meet some bloggers, and get our makeup done. I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night.

Let me know in the comments what your favourite Urban Decay products are?

Foundations I Want to Try

Welcome back to my blog everyone, I want to try and spend more time writing about specific topics on my blog, as well as adding in random bits and pieces. One of the topics that I am going to be writing more about, is Beauty. So that will include a lot of make up mainly, with maybe a bit of hair care and skin care thrown in. Today however I want to talk foundations. I don't know about you guys, but I am yet to find my 'holy grail' foundation, I have tried a few foundations that I sort of like, but never found one that I am so in love with that I would never switch away from it. Due to this I always have a lot of foundations in my wish list, and below are just a few of them...

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 I have tried a tester of Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation and I have heard from a fair few people that the L'oreal True Match foundation is a good high street dupe for Double Wear. I did enjoy double wear but at £30 for the bottle I can hardly justify buying it for day to day use. True Match comes in at £9.99 on Superdrug's website (currently on offer for £7.99), so is only a fraction of the price of double wear. At this price it's definitely worth a try.

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This is a foundation that I am forever seeing my favourite Youtubers using, but have never really thought about buying myself. The name itself Nars 'Sheer Glow' has always put me off of it because I am not really a fan of a 'dewy' finish, and I just always assumed that was what you would get with this. However the other day I saw a post in a Facebook group I am a part of, and the poster was talking about having the same feelings about this foundation, however they gave it a try. What they found is that this is actual quite full coverage and isn't too dewy. Based on that post alone I have decided that I really want to give this a go. I am still having a serious think about it though because this foundation is £31...

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Last but not least is the Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation. Urban Decay is one of my favourite brands for eyeshadow, so why not try their foundation? This is another one that I have seen a fair amount of Youtubers using, and have always wondered about. Another thing that is pushing me towards this foundation is that I would like to try a high end foundation, as I am very prone to only ever spending less than £10 on a foundation, which I then never stick to. It's because of this that I wonder whether I would get more out of trying a high end foundation. This is another pretty pricey foundation at £27, but it is cheaper than the Nars Sheer Glow. Definitely something for me to think about anyway.

So there you have it, three foundations that I would like to try. Do you have any of the above foundations? Would you recommend them? If not, what would you recommend instead?