Let's Talk... Must-Have Lip Balms!~

Can one ever have too many lip balms? You tell me...

For a few years now I have been on a relentless quest to find the best lip balms out there to slather all over my extremely pathetically weak and delicate lips, and I believe after much searching, much travelling, much research and much, much spending, I have finally found them!

So, with that said, rather than talk about the insaaane collection of lip balms I have accumulated over the years, I will instead only be talking about my essential, cannot possibly live without, must-have lip balms (plus a couple of honourable mentions!) and without further ado, here we go!

Rose & Co. Rose Petal Lip Salve - £3.99 - via Superdrug

The Body Shop Hemp Heavy Duty Lip Care - £4.50 - via The Body Shop

Nivea Hydro Care Lip Balm - £0.99 - via Superdrug

Let's talk about the Rose & Co. one first. This, I first discovered a few years ago when ASOS was carrying them and I bought it as one of those little things to push your basket total just enough for free shipping. As it says literally on the tin it is 'the celebrated beauty balm' and while I had never heard of it until that moment, I have never regretted the purchase and have been singing its praises to anyone and everyone ever since! Need a balm that soothes, protects, moisturises, stays put for ages AND smells good? This is your winner. And at £3.99 for 20g? Bargain!

Next, The Body Shop. When I saw the words 'Heavy Duty Lip Care', I knew I had to try it out as when my lips get bad, they get BAD. While not as prettily packaged or as pleasant to smell, it certainly works as advertised, having helped bring my lips back from the cusp of flaky, cracking doom many times. It's not as slippery as other moisturising lip balms, but it seeps straight into the skin and gets to business better than just about any other, so despite its high price point, I just can't say no!

Lastly, an oldy but a goody, Nivea Hydro Care. I've tried a few Nivea lip products over the years, but this has been the only one I have gone back to time and time again. It may not be the fanciest lip balm Nivea has to offer, but regardless of its simplicity it is the perfect light, moisturising lip balm I have tried. Doesn't hurt that it's only 99p either! 

Aaand now for our honourable mentions!

Vaseline Cocoa Butter Lip Therapy - £1.95 - via Superdrug / Boots

Nivea Raspberry Rosé Lip Butter - £1.50 - via Tesco

Of course, how could I make a lip balm list without mentioning Vaseline? Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of Vaseline, as there's something about the consistency I'm not too game with, but undeniably, the Cocoa Butter Lip Therapy in particular is a must-have, particularly for those of you who like a good, affordable lip balm that works. Plus, it works quite well in helping to remove stubborn lip products! My main gripe with this however, and the reason that this is only an honourable mention, is that the longevity in effectiveness isn't really there and after application it stays quite thick and slippery for too long (in my opinion). So yeah.

And to round it all off, another Nivea mention! With this, I've only had it for a little while, having purchased this just before Christmas, but so far I am LOVING what I am getting out of this little tin and while it might be a little too early to call it yet, it's feeling like this could become a must-have for me! And the smell? Oh my goodness, that alone was the reason I bought it, it's sooo yummy!

So there we have it! My first post of the year and damn, was it a wordy one! Hope this has been a helpful read and if anyone has any other suggestions of lip balms I just HAVE to try, give me a shout!

-Philippa. x

PS.: other honourable mentions not included in this post as i just could not bloody find them are chapstick medicated and a blistex one that i tried about 5 years ago, loved, lost and have never seen anywhere since. =(

PPS.: btw, yes, i do use / have used most of the lip balms in the first picture, minus the sealed ones obvs. i generally have at least one lip balm in every bag and jacket so that i can try out several at the same time to compare without too much bias.

Review? Zoeva Cosmetics~

… well, sort of. As mentioned in my eyeshadow palettes post (from like a million years ago…), I really wanted to get some Zoeva palettes to add to my collection, and so I did! However, I sadly haven’t really had many occasions to test these lovelies out so can’t really give a fair review, BUT, will show some swatches and a brief rundown on my opinions so far on the palettes and all that jazz… so yeah!

Zoeva En Taupe palette - £17.50 / £18.00 - available from the Zoeva website and Beauty Bay respectively

The first palette I got my hands on was the En Taupe palette. It’s a very light, cool-tone, almost girly palette (at least in my opinion) and I like it for really subtle, everyday semi-smokey looks. I was a bit unsure about whether or not to get this palette at first, as it’s cute, but didn’t really stand out to me, but I’m so glad I did, as out of the three it’s definitely the one I use the most! The matte transition colours are very soft and easy to build up and the metallics are really buttery and pigmented, so yes, very happy with this one.

Zoeva Mixed Metals palette - £17.50 / £18.00 - available from the Zoeva website and Beauty Bay respectively

I fell in love with this palette as soon as I saw the swatches online as OHMYGAH the pigmentation is amazing! I will say, I definitely use this palette the least as it is all metallics, apart from that black eyeshadow which is matte, so unless I have time on my hands, I don’t really use this much as it requires me to pull shadows from other palettes too. I can say first-hand though, that the pigmentation is wonderful and this is my go-to palette for big pops of colour.

Zoeva Smoky palette - £17.50 / 18.00 - available from the Zoeva website and Beauty Bay respectively

This is the palette that first really caught my eye (as who doesn’t love a good smokey palette?!), but I was hesitant to buy as, really, did I really need another smokey palette? And the answer was yes, I did! It is a mostly matte palette, which is already a win for me, but in particular I love that slightly metallic dark olive green colour which really did seal the deal for me. As it is the newest of the three for me, I really haven’t used it at all, but let me tell you I am excited to and will definitely do so as soon as any somewhat relevant occasion arises!

… and that’s everything! Like I said, while I haven’t used these palettes that much yet, I am so far loving what I’m touching and seeing and if nothing else I do LOVE the packaging (even if there is no mirror included) as it is very lightweight, easy to identify at a glance and easy to travel with!

Right, so that concludes another post! As always, sorry for the long gaps, I just suck like that I guess! xP

Philippa. x

Miss A Mini Haul! (and review?)~

Being as poor as I am, I don’t get to shop all that often. So instead I choose to live vicariously through others on YouTube posting their many haul videos and THUS, I discovered the gem that is shopmissa.com!

(sorry for the rubbish glare in the pic, but i really wanted to show off what little packaging i had left and there is next-to-no lighting in my room so flash was sadly a must!)

The real treasure about Miss A (particularly if you live in the US) is that everything, and I mean everything (well, sort of…) is $1! Oh my gah WHAT!? But that’s not all! According to the many review videos I have watched, the products, despite their unbelievable price point, are pretty damn decent too! Can this be true?! I decided to make a little purchase to find out for myself!

As you can see I only bought 5 items totalling at $5 (roughly £3.90) and at a glance they all look pretty promising…

AOA Scrubby Facial Cleansing Pad - $1 - available from Miss A (also available in other colours!)

AOA Brush Cleaning Egg - $1 - available from Miss A (also available in other colours!

AOA Hand Mirror - $1 - available from Miss A

While I haven't fully utilised these yet, I can say from at least playing around with the ‘tools’ (and by playing i mean touching and rubbing them…), the quality is really quite amazing for being so cheap - the hand mirror in particular - and while I have yet to use the face scrubby or the brush cleaner I have poked at more expensive equivalents in shops and these feel pretty darn comparable to those, especially the brush cleaner. One thing for sure is that they don't feel cheap.

AOA Wonder Metal Liquid Lipstick (in ‘Sleek’) - $1 - available from Miss A

AOA Wonder Matte Liquid Lipstick (in ‘Tease’) - $1 - available from Miss A

These beauties, however, I have already used and tested and they are the BOMB! Lame I used that terminology, but seriously, they’re great! I’m really sad I only bought two (and i will elaborate on why in a bit) but am really quite happy with the ones I did get so far. 

The metallic one is the slightly less awesome of the two, as it requires a little bit of work to get the coverage full and even, but is still a great colour, very metallic and does dry down completely matte! The other one however… ugh! I love it so much! The colour is absolutely gorgeous and despite looking more pink in the tube, once it fully dries down is more purplish in colour, which is right up my alley! The pigmentation and coverage is great, really easy to work with and again, this dries down matte and is completely budge-proof.

All in all, Miss A is one heck of a remarkable discovery and I am so happy to have found it! Not only are their products pretty darn decent*, but there’s tons of them too! From socks to hair accessories to brushes to individual eyeshadows, they have them all!

Now for the boring (but important) bit of this post. The reason I only bought 5 things, despite them all being so cheap and there being soooo much to choose from, is because of shipping. Miss A’s international shipping is a flat rate of £9.95, which is pretty fair for something coming from the US. But then there’s customs and sadly, the limit before having to pay customs (which in my experience so far has totalled in at between £8 and £25) is currently £15. However, that being said, I honestly don’t mind making a few small orders of just under £15 just avoid potentially painful and unpredictable customs charges, as in the end the value of everything, including postage, is still a really decent price. So yeah, just a bit of a warning for those of you looking into doing a bit of a shop with Miss A!

And on that note, I shall end this post! Hope you liked it and see you in like 4 months time when I next post! xD

Philippa. x

*Miss A carries their own brands AOA and a2o, as well as other brands like Elf, Kleancolor, LA Color, Beauty Treats, etc. Obviously the quality of the products will vary from brand to brand, but I only purchased from the AOA line, so my comments on how AMAZING everything is is, for now, exclusive to that line.

Review? Nyx Cosmetics~

Nyx Cosmetics has recently exploded onto the UK scene after finally launching in-stores in Boots nationwide (despite also having previously been available online) and I have to say that I too am totes in love with this brand!

For me the selling point is this: they are a cruelty free company selling a large selection of conventional and non-conventional shades to suit everyone’s tastes and at an affordable price point. The one thing I will point out, however, is that the international pricing is super inconsistent, which is a little bit annoying (see example below), but that’s just how the cookie crumbles I guess...

Nyx Lip Suedes:

UK = £6.50

US = $7.00 (about £5.40)

Norway = NOK109 (about £10.20)

Silly, right? Anyway, onto the products. I currently only own lip products, but as I mentioned before the thing about Nyx that really caught my eye was the variety of non-conventional colours that they offered.

Nyx Liquid Suede Cream Lipstick (in Stone Fox) - £6.50 (via Boots.com)

I love the texture of this! It’s really creamy and thick and because it’s so pigmented application is super quick and easy for full coverage. It doesn’t dry down fully and maintains tackiness, which means that it is definitely not transfer proof. However, apart from when eating, the colour lasts really well and won’t become patchy even when rubbing your lips together. Overall, love this product, need more colours!

Nyx Lip Lingerie Lipstick (in Embellishment) - £6.50 (via Boots.com)

I first discovered these after watching one of Jessica Haze’s (/mirrorsandhaze) videos and fell in love with the colour ‘Embellishment’ and just had to have it! Unlike the lip suede this does dry completely matte (though still with a very slight tackiness to it) so is almost completely transfer proof. Because of this, however, it is very drying on the lips, but I mean, that’s to be expected with liquid to matte lipsticks, right? My one sadness with this product is that, sigh, my skin tone doesn’t do it justice, as it’s meant to have quite a noticeable lilac undertone which is pretty much non-existent against my skin, but that’s my fault rather than the products, so what can you do. =/

Nyx Matte Lipstick (in Up The Bass) - £6.50 (via Boots.com)

Lastly we have one of their matte lipsticks. This is probably the product I use the most, despite this being my least favourite of the three. I love the colour and the texture of the product, though it is a little on the cheap side in terms of staying power and evenness of application and isn’t really as matte as I had hoped. On top of that, the packaging sucks a fair bit as the bullet doesn’t click in properly and frequently shifts to hitting the lid when in my bag, which is super annoying. Other than that though, for the price and the pigmentation, it’s definitely worth a go.

So that's my review-not-so-review on Nyx Cosmetics - I highly recommend anyone that hasn't tried some of their stuff to go out and do so! I know I will definitely making a few more purchases in the near future (*ehem* despite having no money *ehem*)!! ;D

-Philippa. x

"Coz every night I have to say, goodbye..."~

Disclaimer: This isn't really a gig review, but rather some disjointed and sappy drivel partially about the gig but not entirely which would probably be better suited on my Livejournal, but whatever, let's ignore that and make this an exception. I'd like to think a little variety is always good. ;]

"Elliot Minor aren't that good." -April 2008

Back in 2007 when I first stumbled upon this band I had no idea how much they would come to mean to me. Even when I was already starting to fall hard for them I was persistant in dismissing them as a brief phase which I would only indulge in due to convenience at the time. Fast forward 7 years and 17 gigs and I find myself repeatedly cringing at the words above which I so harshly wrote in an early gig review which once featured on my MySpace (and it was actually a postive one at that!). No, I suppose they aren't technically impressive in the same way a band like Dream Theater is or anywhere near as history making as a band like Queen, but somehow they have cemented for themselves a place deep within my heart and really, that's all that actually matters, right?

Last weekend they played their '#EMonemoretime' shows in London by way of a final hurrah after almost 4 years on hiatus. I was only able to attend the second night of three (29.03.2014) due to limited funds and what-not, and while the show wasn't particularly grand or awe-inspiring or flawless even (you'd think 3 months would be enough time to re-learn the lyrics to a few songs), it still stirred something in me. I felt a sense of sentimentality I was sure I had forced out of myself at least in the last year and for a while I allowed myself to bask in blissful nostalgia. No, I didn't suddenly feel like a screaming teenage fangirl again, but I did find myself unintentionally smiling like an idiot every now and then throughout the night.

The setlist itself was mediocre, consisting of all the typical numbers and the intimate venue meant that there was very limited special effects (in fact, there was only one very cheeky smoke machine). Nothing fancy, nothing complicated, it was just a simple, raw gig, ideal for fans to appreciate the music without distraction.

[i know i shouldn't be blaming my inadequate photography on anything but my own lack of skill, but seriously, the lighting in the underworld sucks. way too much red and not enough lighting on anywhere other than center-stage.]

Whether or not this is truly the end for Elliot Minor remains to be seen. I for one, among many others I'm sure, have my doubts, especially seeing as how I recall overhearing just last summer Alex stating that they would never reform and now they're suddenly saying "maybe, you never know!". I've had a lot of happy and interesting memories and experiences over the years with these guys to thank as cause and source and regardless of what the future holds for EM, all I can say is that I am proud to have been a part of their history as a dedicated fan, and even though they randomly unfollowed me on Twitter for no good reason, I wish them all the best with whatever they decide. 

Highlights!

-watching a good portion of the show surrounded by thick smoke; ed m. was literally less than 2 metres in front of me and i swear i couldn't even see him! awesome! (note the heavy sarcasm)*

-finally getting to hear 'parallel worlds' as the closing song of the set once more (where it belongs, btw)

-having a fairly decent view of dan and ali, which has only happened for me once, maybe twice, before

-the first words spoken to me by ed m. being "i definitely remember you!", despite having not seen me in over 3 years and me not prompting for such a comment. seriously, what stupid thing did i do for such notoriety? i was too shocked and worried to ask at the time...**

-drunk brian leaving teeth marks in my skull and then suddenly swinging me around despite my usual utter dislike for my feet leaving the ground without warning

-getting to, only for the 6th time surprisingly, have a complete set of photos with the band, thus, meaning that i actually got to have one-on-one time with everyone, brief and chaotic as it was

 ... and finally...

Alex Davies (vocals, guitar), Ali Paul (keyboard), Dan Hetherton (drums), Ed Minton (vocals, guitar), Ed 'Teddy' Hetherton (bass), 

and Brian 'Puke' Parnell (guitar tech dude)

-Philippa. x
---
http://ohmymeowy.tumblr.com
http://www.twitter.com/ohmymeowy

*not a complaint by the way, i was amused more than anything, though it did make taking decent photos near damn impossible...
**also not a complaint. in fact, i was and still am rather flattered. it's not every day an attractive (and, i suppose, somewhat famous) male vaguely acknowledges and recognises me, especially after such passing of time... xD

PS.: yes, i know the '2014' is slightly off-center, but i only noticed after i'd closed the photo editing site and could not be bothered to have to start again from scratch!
PPS.: just as a 'fun fact' the photos from 2008 and 2010 were taken in birmingham and oxford, respectively
PPPS.: and yes, i do realise that the title of this post is just sooo cheesy, but it had to be done! for those of you who don't know, it's a line taken from an elliot minor song called 'last call to new york city'.

MUA Nail Polish review - pastels edition!~

I've got to say, cheap as I am, I am not a huge fan of MUA. I once bought their eyeliner pen and mascara and the quality was so bad that I swore never to buy their products again. However, being as poor as I am, I decided to give them one last chance, especially as I've suddenly become quite desperate to try out this season's hottest craze - pastels.

 MUA Nail Polish in 'Pistachio Ice Cream' and 'Frozen Yoghurt' - £1 each

I've been lusting after all things mint and lilac recently and £1 each from Superdrug, I was hardly worried about breaking the bank with these, even if they turned out to be totally crap. Thankfully, however, MUA's nail products appear to be an improvement over their eye products. The application isn't all that great, but after 2 coats this super cheap nail polish looks like any other nail polish out there, so at least that's good. I haven't tried on the 'Frozen Yoghurt' shade yet, but I must say I'm quite happy with how 'Pistachio Ice Cream' turned out.

There's also a fair selection of colours to choose from, so previous qualms aside I might even be tempted to buy a couple more shades in the future...

Okay, I realise that this is probably really confusing given what I just said a few sentences ago, but the picture directly above this text is NOT of the MUA 'Frozen Yoghurt' shade, but actually Barry M's 'Berry Ice Cream' shade. My friend bought this when I bought the MUA nail polishes and I really wanted to try it out, so yeah, there you have it. It's a cute shade and the application is quite decent (still doesn't beat KIKO though), but I've gotta say, even though it's £1.99 more expensive than the MUA nail polishes you really can't tell the difference. Amazing!

Well, I guess that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get an OOTD post up soon rather than a bunch of wishlists and nail posts like I've been doing recently, but until then, I suppose!



-Philippa. x
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http://ohmymeowy.tumblr.com
http://www.twitter.com/ohmymeowy


PS.: sorry about all the funny lighting. i tried to get a consistent colouring for the nail polish, but it just wasn't happening. =/ 

Jess Nail Polish Review!~

Oooh, I've been a baaad girl, spending money I don't have! =O

But in all seriousness, the other day while I was in Poundland buying some essentials and what-not I spotted a display with LOADS of nail varnishes, all by an otherwise apparently non-existent brand (i have since tried and failed to find any trace of it on the internet), 'Jess Nail Polish'. The bottles, obviously, were £1 each, and with the insaaane variety of colours I couldn't help but give in and buy a couple of here they are!

 

The 'breathless' one is not nearly as blue as the picture shows and is closer to a silverish colour with a bronze and pink shimmer and only a slight light blue overall tone. For some reason it makes me think of unicorns.

The 'mystery' one looks pretty much like it does in the picture as it is in real life, so yeah...

Anyway, I tested them out on my friend Ama (my nails are currently atrocious and would only make you cry upon seeing them) to see if the colours would be as amazing on nails as they look in the bottles, and here are the results:

[Under yellow light]

[Under white light]

As you can see, the colours don't seem to match too terribly to how they look in the bottle pics, but I can assure you, in real-life, the results are quite pleasing.

'Breathless' was not quite what I was expecting, with the blue being very faint once applied onto nails and the pink and bronze becoming much more evident. My only issue is that it probably needs a base coat to go with it to make sure your tips of your nails (the whiteish bit) don't stick out from underneath, which is a bummer as I normally cba with a base coat.

'Mystery' is less green than it shows in the picture and in certain angles flashes a bit of purple, which is really nice, but upon first look is just a really pretty, dark metallic blue. It's actually pretty accurate to how it looks in the bottle, and after 2 coats is good to go without a base coat which is a total plus in my books!

Okay, well, that's the end of my review I guess. I really wanted to try out more colours, but lack of money means no chance for a while. Overall, though, it's good quality for something so cheap* and essentially 'unbranded', so yeah, I definitely recommend it to anyone who manages to find it! xD


-Philippa. x
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http://ohmymeowy.tumblr.com
http://www.twitter.com/ohmymeowy


*i forgot to mention somewhere that it dries quickly too! bonus!

Note: swatches shown (for both colours) are with 2 layers and no base or top coat.

Throw The Goat gig review... finally!~ (04.07.2013)

Disclaimer: This review features subjective commentary which some might find somewhat harsh and/or rude. If you are easily offended by such things then please close this window now. Thank you.

They say patience is a virtue, but quite frankly, this is just ridiculous!

It's just as well I don't have writing gig reviews as a job, otherwise I'd have been fired 100x over for my insane and continual lateness. Yes, I realise this post comes TWO MONTHS after the fact, but I've been trying to motivate myself to write this as objectively as possible (you can ask bagel - she was witness to some of it!), though I must say, as you will soon see, I pretty much failed and have decided to stop stalling and just get it over and done with, SO, without further ado...

It is a consistent habit of mine to have high expectations of things, even when I realise that I'm jumping the gun a little, and with an imagination as wild as mine, it is no wonder I am almost always left disappointed when reality comes knocking. Not to say the entire evening was a total waste of time or anything, but there were definitely points where I was wondering why on earth I was there...

... FOR EXAMPLE, during the set of the first band, 'Spirits'. 

[Alex, Spirits]

Now ignoring all their blah blah Elliot Minor potential and what-not, I honestly feel that their set was below par, by any band's standards. It is always difficult to be the opening band and having the pressure of reeling in an already sceptical crowd, but I think they could have done a better job at it regardless. More crowd interaction and a more solid musical performance overall (sorry, but it's not an hour set, so cheating on those high and long notes is not excusable, alex) would have helped out on that front, but I suppose this was only their 2nd(?) ever gig (and they were even missing their bassist this time!), so they're still trying to 'find their groove' as it were, which is forgivable. I will also admit, that I was quite pleased with their performance of their song 'Unbreakable'; it was every bit as punchy live as it was the first time I heard it. All in all, while there is still a lot to improve on, I believe that, in time, they will be able to rise to the occasion.

The next band to play was called 'Serpico', who, just so you know, I have known about for a while and have even met on a couple of occasions but have always thoroughly dismissed without a second thought. Now, I hate to admit this, but other than my general distaste for the music, there is little fault I can make of their performance. From what I saw, they were the second most popular band of the night and I can kind of see why. Their set was energetic and well executed, the singer interacting well with the crowd and overall they really looked like the knew what they were doing. Even my extremely hard to impress companion (*ahem* isabel *ahem*) admitted to having been won over by the show they put on, so not bad guys, not bad.

 [Serpico and fans]

[Serpico]

Second to last was 'The Bastard Sons'. I'm not really sure what to say about their performance, as about half way into their set the singer started rolling around on the floor, and though at first I thought that was his way of getting into the music, it later appeared to be something slightly more serious, so I can't really fault them for that. However, up until that point, all I can say is that their set was powerful. It was a huge contrast to the two previous bands and came as quite a shock to someone like me who wasn't sure what to expect, but served to be an extreme yet somewhat valid segue between the first and second half of the gig. I especially liked the 'light box' thing the singer would occasionally stand on which lit up when pressure was applied to it, as it definitely added to the drama of it all.

[The Bastard Sons]

Finally, we come to the final act of the night, 'THROW THE GOAT'! As expected, the closing band was the most popular of the night, and that really comes as no surprise as even I (who, shamefully, cannot admit to being much of a fan) found their set to be really quite enjoyable to watch! I was very surprised that, as such a young band, they were already so determined to cross water and invade the British music scene and was worried that they would not be too well received. Thankfully, I was wrong. I had initially anticipated (and please don't hate me for saying this) that a lot of their popularity would be riding on Brian's (lead guitarist) prior connection to Elliot Minor, but from the number of unfamiliar faces I saw that night, I am happy to report that that is not the case. Their performance exceeded my expectations and was very much the highlight of the night, both in terms of quality of performance and general professionalism (once again, a band who really knew how to entertain) and I even found myself at times distracted from my task of taking photos as I would occasionally stop to fully watch, wanting to take it all in. So basically... yeah, they put on a good show.

[Michael and Johnny, Throw The Goat]

[Brian, Throw The Goat]

[Throw The Goat]

And so ends my long awaited gig review. I am very sorry for dragging this out for so long, and imagine that any potential interest there may have been for its contents has been lost, but at the end of the day all I can say is, I tried, and every word that is written there, I meant 100% (yes, sadly, even the mean ones). I'd also like to say to anyone out there who has yet to listen to any of these bands or see them live, it's worth giving them a shot, even if I indirectly said they sucked or whatever. I'm just being an overly critical bitch. =P

-Philippa. x
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http://ohmymeowy.tumblr.com
http://www.twitter.com/ohmymeowy


PS.: i know i forgot to add my watermark to some of them, but just fyi, all these photos are property of me, so please no stealing, i worked very hard on them.
PPS.: sorry for the stupid half border on that last pic - i was using crappy free editting software! ><
PPPS.: also, sorry for the poor writing quality. i got so desperate to write something that i kind of forgot how to write at all!

Sonata Arctica gig review~ (17.04.2013)

Ahahaha, I'm over a month late, but whateverrr, better late than never, right? So enough with the delay, let's begin!

This was my first proper (i.e. non-acoustic) gig in over 2 years and the lucky band to have broken my hiatus was Sonata Arctica*, who, I must say, are one of the few bands I would ever have deemed worthy of such an honour. Much to my delight, they were gracing London's presence for the first time in 3 years in a lovely little venue in Highbury & Islington called The Relentless Garage and so with such a pleasant combination of wonderful band and wonderful venue, I had no choice to but to fall back into the routine that had once been like breathing to me.

The practice used to be something that was so normal to me, so much so that I would do it without a second thought, but being so out of practice made me notice just how bloody tiring it all is! Seriously, queuing for 10 hours, followed by having to stay upright and be squished against sweaty strangers for another 3-4 hours? Exhausting! Maybe I'm just getting old, but who knows...

Anyway, the first band to play was a band called Neonfly, a metal group hailing from London, UK. From what I can remember, they weren't all that bad, and I have to give them credit for effort. Their performance was filled with lots of energy, the songs were fairly catchy, and overall I'd say they were the better support of the night. I doubt I'll be seeing them again in the future, but from what I've read online, they've got some really good reviews and there's quite bit of hope for the young(ish) band, so I'd say they're worth giving a chance.

The second support band of the night, and seemingly the favourite from what I saw of the merch being donned by the odd attendee, was Pythia, a female-fronted metal band also from London, UK. Them, I didn't like so much. I suppose I have more of an opinion because they are closer to what I would normally listen, i.e., female-fronted, classically inspired metal, and so therefore I have more to compare them to, but even if that wasn't the case, their set was still pretty boring. The singing wasn't great, the performance was quite bland, and overall, they weren't particularly interesting or impressive, to the point where I was counting the minutes until they were done, or at all memorable. Sorry.

And then it was time for the main event... time for the Finnish metallers to shine... time for Sonata Arctica! Woo~! Ah, what can I say? This was my 4th time seeing them live and I must say, even though I was totally lost for about two-thirds of the gig (my own fault for not properly acquainting myself with their 2 most recent albums) I was also thoroughly reminded of why I loved gigs so much in the first place. With this band in particular, what I have loved ever since I first saw them perform in 2007 is their stage presence. The fact that they're genuinely lovely guys really shows through the way they are able to poke fun at themselves and interact with the crowd effectively. They command the stage with charisma and fill their performances with such fun, you can't help but enjoy yourself, and by the end of the night you leave feeling that your money was well spent and wanting more. Personally, I wish that they had played a more varied set, but regardless, I was content for the most part with the show, particularly their performance of 'Tallulah' and crowd favourite, 'FullMoon'.

Overall, I didn't regret going. Sure it was a huge effort, but the best things in life are worth breaking a sweat for, right? And when everything was said and done, the only thing I regretted was not bringing a camera with me to capture the night with.

 ... but at least I got this! xD

-Philippa. x
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PS.: my first gig review in about 5 years! wowww... hope it wasn't too bad; let me know if i should do more of these in the future, how i could improve, etc., would be very helpful. ^^

*i would have linked their official website, but for some reason when i tried to go on it it crashed my internet, so yeah, just being cautious and linking their facebook page instead

Jewellery haul + Make-up review~

Right, with the internet as my witness, I solemnly vow to not spend any more money unnecessarily. Honestly, I think I have a real problem; I'm turning into whatsherface from 'Confessions of a Shopaholic'!  But my craziness aside, time to reveal the stuff!

I have, since FOREVER, loved rings, and I know that there's already a post a while back showing a bunch of rings that I bought, but let's just ignore that for now...

I bought all of these from various eBay stores, all based in China, so had to wait approximately a month before I got all of them. I think they were all 99p, but I'm not sure... something like that. Out of all of them, I'd have to say the eternity symbol one is my favourite, because it feels to most well made. The 'free' ring on the far right is close second, as it fits really well and has a nicer tone than the other one so yeah. Nothing's tarnished or made my fingers go green yet, so as far as I'm concerned, so far so good!

I'm a little ashamed of this purchase, as it just proves that I can't escape the power of trends. Perhaps not so much this season, but quite recently jewelled cat ears had become quite a thing, probably thanks to people like Pixie Lott. I resisted for ages but then couldn't help myself and bought one off eBay. I mean, it was only £1-£2, so not much damage finance-wise. As it was coming to me from overseas, there was an obvious risk of damage along the way, and true enough, it arrived with an ear snapped off. Thankfully though, at no extra charge I was sent another, which thankfully arrived in one piece, so yay!  Despite what some might think, though it was bought from some random Chinese eBay store, the quality is not far behind that of Topshop or any other UK high street brand, so I'm quite pleased with myself. That's a good £6-ish I saved!

Now the make-up!

(left to right: 'Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate' in shade 04, 'Sleek True Colour' in Mulberry sheen, 'Sleek True Colour' in Vamp matte)

Last time it was eyeliners and mascaras and now it's lipsticks. Oh deary me, what next. I'm kind of annoyed as my skin tone greatly limits which shades suit me. My mother is fairer than me and she can pull of quite a variety, ranging from beige to brown to bright red to dark red. So not fair. So for the past year roughly, I have been on an epic quest to find the perfect lipstick for me at an affordable price. Sadly, I failed, so had to turn to 'real' brands for the answer. Actually, I lie, I found nice shades, but the quality was so bad that it always smudged onto my teeth or didn't spread nicely and basically looked like I just got a paintbrush and smeared some colour onto my lips. Badly. but then what did i expect from £2 lipsticks

ANYWAY, moving on, let's start with the cheaper one. I got the 'Sleek True Colour Lipstick' in two different shades: Mulberry (sheen) and Vamp (matte), both at £4.99. The quality of these lipsticks is really good and the colour lasts for practically the whole day. While I don't have a preference between the two, combining them makes a really lovely in-between colour that's not too sheen-y or too matte, which is, to me, just right. The variety of shades for this lipstick is huge and, as one of the cheaper options out there, is definitely worth a go. The 'Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate' lipstick, though not much more expensive at £5.49, felt a tad too pricey to me (i think it's all psychological), but I'd been wanting to try it out for a while so decided as a last splash to just go for it. I got shade number 04 and am very happy with it. It's a little lighter than the Sleek Mulberry lipstick, but is almost matte, so saves the hassle of having to combine lipsticks for the effect. Overall I'd say that though the variety is less than what Sleek has to offer, the Rimmel lipsticks are absolutely lovely and are true to their name (i.e. long lasting), so also worth a go.

And so ends another blog post. Hopefully I'll be able to stick to my earlier vow and the posts for the rest of the year will not be featuring any more hauls. My poor pocket can only take so much!

-Philippa. x
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http://ohmymeowy.tumblr.com
http://www.twitter.com/ohmymeowy

PS.: too much writing? if so, let me know with a comment so i know to fix that!

PPS.: i would have annotated the swatch images like last time with the eyeliners, but i have super limited internet so couldn't get on to the manipulation site. sad times.
PPPS.: haha! was too lazy to proof-read and just spotted a note i forgot to take out! it's fixed now, (though i'm sure many already spotted it) but silly me... xD

Everyone's a critic... (reviews!)~

I need to stop, seriously. I have spent WAY too much money recently, and on stuff I really don't need more of. Like today, for example, I bought even MORE eyeliner and mascara, despite having already bought like £15 worth about 3 months ago. Anyways, I'd figure I'd put the unnecessary purchasing to good use and make a review of what I got, so here it is.

#1 - MUA Extreme Felt Eyeliner - £2

#2 - Collection 2000 Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Liner - £2.99

#3 - Beauty UK Lash-fx Extreme Volume Length + Lift Mascara - £2.49

#4 - Miss Sporty Lash Curving Mascara - £1.99

I'll start with the mascaras. I've tried both of them, granted, only for about 2 hours, but they both seem to be doing fine. In terms of application, I found the Miss Sporty mascara to be easier to use, but honestly, there wasn't much more of an issue with the Beauty UK one, so I'm just being nit-picky. There isn't a huge amount of difference in terms of visual lash length with either of them, but it's at least noticeable that mascara's on, so not bad for the price I say. On a side note though, I would recommend the Miss Sporty Lash Building Mascara, as it does have more of an effect on lash length and is still really affordable!

Now to the eyeliners. Because of my ridiculously folded lids, it's essential I get good quality eyeliner, otherwise the smudging is just hideous. BUT, at the same time, I'm on a tight budget, so yeah, not always easy to find quality at cheap prices... anyway, I'm not a huge fan of liquid eyeliner, so felt pen eyeliners for me are a huge relief where that's concerned. I've only tried one before from Rimmel (I think), and it was amazing, but so tiny and so expensive, so I figured I'd give the cheaper brands a shot, and here's what they look like on:

The first one is the one from MUA and I've got to say, it really reflected the cheap price in terms of its quality. I applied 5 strokes in this photo, by the way. It looks really watered down and doesn't really show up, so honestly, I would not recommend this eyeliner. Or their mascara either - the brush has bristles falling off! The Collection 2000 one is really good; it is bold after a single stroke, unlike the MUA one, and dries really quickly, so my lids don't have the smudging issue. Woo. Also it doesn't fade or come off too easily, so I think it could potentially last quite a while, though the claimed 24 hours is debatable.

Right, enough make-up, on to music. Uh oh. Okay, so, I've been debating with myself a bit as to whether or not I should even bother with this review, but I figure, eh, might as well. As many who know me even vaguely will know, one of my favourite bands of ever is a UK band called Elliot Minor. Sadly, however, they are on hiatus, or so we can assume / hope from their lack of activity for the last 2 years. Since then, drummer Dan Hetherton has already gone on to form a new band called 'The Dead Famous', but that's not who I'm going to be reviewing today. Instead, I will be talking about singer Alex Davies' newly unveiled project, 'Spirits'.

As you can see from the vandalized image above Spirits is made up of 3 members: (L-R) Bob, Alex, and Dan. On their Facebook page (click the image for the link) they cite their influences as being Queens of the Stone Age, Biffy Clyro, and Foo Fighters, to name a few. So, really quite different from Alex's previous band. Now, I really shouldn't do this, but I'm afraid it's going to get a little subjective here. I listened to a song of theirs called 'Sweet Dynamite' which they offer as a free download on their Facebook page via PledgeMusic, and I've got to say, I don't really like it. Okay, so I know I'm talking from an Elliot Minor fan point of view, but knowing the potential this band could have with Alex as their songwriter, it's really not that great. I played the track earlier to my brother, someone also familiar with Alex's earlier work, and he too was not impressed. "There's not even a guitar solo!", he stated, and that really does sum up the whole song. The verse doesn't really suit Alex's vocal aesthetic, the chorus is bland, the bridge is feeble and the overall content of the song is way too simple.

I realise that they're not going for an Elliot Minor-esque sound, but I'm quite familiar with the bands they list as their influences and even then they're lacking. They're lacking the Foo Fighter power, the Biffy Clyro drama and the uniqueness of Muse. Then again, I'm basing all of this on one 3+ minute song, so I may be proven wrong in time, but sadly, for now, I'm just not feeling it. I do, however, have hope, even if only because I know what Alex can do; that song ('All My Life') he wrote for 'Clement Marfo & The Frontline', though not really my thing, was extremely well written and well executed, so I guess I was kind of hoping he'd be able to pull out that same magic for his own band. Well, as I said before, I guess we'll just have to see as they release more stuff in the future.

Phew! That was long. Anyway, before I go, just wanted to quickly show off my new Motel Rocks banner and maybe even hint a little something to you... *hint hint*

-Philippa. x
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PS.: Spirits' debut album will be available to pre-order via PledgeMusic on 1st February '13
PPS.: Not being mean and slating the band btw, just sharing my opinion! I totally urge you to go and check them out - the song is actually quite catchy (just not my thing...)!