Urban Decay - Alice In Wonderland Palette

The hotly anticipated Urban Decay Alice In Wonderland Palette will be launching on March 1st in the UK exclusively to Debenhams.

Lipglossiping has had the amazing opportunity of being the only UK blogger to get her hands on the product before it is launched here in the UK.

Check out her swatches and first impressions of the palette here.
The photography is amazing and I love her 'no nonsense' opinions of the shadows.

What are your thoughts on the palette? Are you hoping to try and get your hands on one?

Cosmetic Candy Blog Sale Haul

Always a sucker for a blog sale, I recently got my hands on four items from Cosmetic Candy's recent blog sale.


Darphin Shimmering Shine Lip Gloss in 03 Rose Petillant
Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Liner in Stagedive
Kryolan Aqua Pearl Shade in Purple
Cargo Mini Pigment (Not sure of name but it's a plum/bronze colour)

She was lovely enough add in a few extras; being a scrub and a face foam. There were also Haribo sweets but they lasted about 2 minutes from me opening the package.

I have being wearing the Darphin lip gloss nearly every day since receiving it. It's such a pretty pink colour and is quite a moisturising and non-sticky gloss. I am definitely going to take a look into more of these.

Cosmetic Candy holds blog sales often and I would recommend that you check it out as she has a wide range of brands to choose from. I would not have tried a Darphin product if it were not for her blog sale.

Fragrance of the Month: Dior Addict 2

Dior Addict 2 is sold as a summery fragrance. I received this for Christmas and I have been wearing it ever since.

It is a floral fragrance yet the soft musky notes mellow it and stop it from being too floral and sweet. On the tester strip, it remained very sweet but on my skin it warms and the base notes are what come through.


Top Notes: Orange, Freesia, Grapefruit and Bergamot

Heart/Middle Notes: Pineapple, Pomegranate, Lily of the Valley, Watermelon and Lotus

Base Notes: Sandalwood, Cedar and White Musk.

The next perfume on my shopping list is DSquared2's She Wood. I was given a sample of this when I went to Italy and I have fallen for it along with the elusive Ferre Rose Princesse by Gianfranco Ferre.

New MAC Eye Shadows

A few months ago I asked for your suggestions on MAC shadows that would compliment my existing MAC palette. I jotted them all down and a few weeks ago, I went and purchased a few of them.

Left to Right

Sumptuous Olive
A subdued khaki with metallic coat (Veluxe Pearl)

Woodwinked
Warm antiqued gold (Veluxe Pearl)

Trax
Burgundy-plum flecked with bronze shimmer (Velvet)

Swatched on top of Urban Decay Primer Potion

Veluxe Pearl has to be one of my favourite MAC shadow finishes. I love the look of Sumptuous Olive. In some lights it looks green and others it looks bronze.

Trax looks beautiful in the pan but I find that it loses a lot of it's intensity once you blend it and you are just left with the bronze shimmer and a tiny hint of colour.

I still have a few more shadows that I want to get including Humid and Patina as they have been recommended by many.

Utter Randomness

Ok, I will admit that this is a really random post but I wanted to show you a few things.

2010 Diary and Notebook

I absolutely adore my new 2010 diary. It is so cute and only cost me £6 from Paperchase.
The other notebook is damask print and was £3.75. I got this notebook to keep in my bag to write the many lists that I do. Hopefully my bag will not be littered with scraps of paper anymore.

My most unnecessary yet cute purchase this week would be my new pencil case. Why did I buy a pencil case?! I'm not really sure. My only excuse was that it was pretty looking.

I then thought of a use for it.... to store and protect my iPod Touch in my bag. Genius!

My iPod Touch has not left my side since I got it at Christmas. I love it!


Some of my favourite apps are:

Weightbot - Tracks your weight.
MyFitnessPal - I wanted to download the LoseIt! app but it is not available in the UK. So I settled for this app. It is a food and exercise diary.
P Tracker Lite - Tracks and forecasts your monthly.
Paper Toss - This is so addictive.
Echofon - To Tweet is use this app. I think it is the most user friendly of those out there.



I have also been listening to a lot of 'Owl City'
They are a 'syntho musical project' They are one of MTV's 10 for 10 and one of the BBC's Sounds of 2010. Such easy listening that has been making work a little bearable.

Current Read

This book is aimed at business but I have been enjoying the read as you can take the fundamental practices that the author is advising and transfer the skills to your everyday life. It's not a 'bunch of laughs' type of book but I find it very interesting.

Finally...

I was a little tetchy last night, so I decided to settle for a Lush bath. I put a chunk of a Candy Cane bubble bar in but then decided to also put a bath melt in. It was a lovely bath! This morning when I got up and went to the bathroom, I noticed my 'bath melt' at the bottom of the bath... very much intact.

Oops, I had actually put in a whole Angel's Delight Star Soap. I am surprised that it did not melt. I should really use it for the purpose that it was made for.

So, that is my random haul/update.

I hope you are all well x

NARS 9947 Eye Shadow Palette - For Sale

NARS 9947 Palette
Top row: Bohemian Gold, Himalayas and Kilimanjaro.
Bottom row: Night Flight, Ondine and Surabaya.

** PENDING **

This retails for £37.00. This item has been very lightly used.

Price - £20.00 including P&P to UK

International - I will email you a shipping quote.

Please comment with your Paypal email address if you would like to own this lovely palette.

Vitamin E Body Shop Goodies

The fab Press Office from the Body Shop sent some of us beauty bloggers a lovely Christmas present of a gift voucher.

So off I toddled to my local branch to pick up some new goodies. I eventually decided on two products from the Vitamin E range that I had heard so many good reviews on.


Vitamin E Face Mist (£7.00 for 100ml) and Vitamin E Facial Oil (£15.00 for 15ml)

The Face Mist has obtained permanent residency in my handbag. I have been using it to refresh my skin, foil shadows and set my make up. It has a pleasant soft Rosewater scent and I can definitely see this becoming a fave that I repurchase.

So much so that I may not be repurchasing my MAC Fix+ .....

I've always thought that the Facial Oil was too expensive at £15 for 15ml but having used it for around two weeks now, I think that it is well worth it. This pre-moisturiser seems that have transformed my dry and flaky skin. I had a patch of dry/scaly skin from acne damage on my cheek and it is barely visible now. This product has softened it so much.

All I do is rub together two drops on my hands to warm it and then massage it all over my face. It soaks in straight away and leaves no greasy residue.

I would recommend that anyone check these products out and remember; the Body Shop are great for giving out samples in store for you to see how you get on with the products before purchasing full size.

Anti-Redness

Facial redness has always been a bit of a problem for me. What with my Rosacea and such fair skin, I have the tendency to look like a tomato.

Last week I took it upon myself to finally utilise my Boots Advantage Points that I have been accumulating for the past year and I picked up two items to help tackle my redness.

Both are from Clinique and so far I love them!


Clinique Redness Solutions Instant Relief Mineral Powder.

This is described as 'a lightweight, loose, yellow mineral powder that immediately reduces redness and visible capillaries on skins with persistent or reactive redness. Can be used both under or over make up.'

I have been using this as a finishing powder with a big powder brush (not the small retractable brush provided) and it has worked well at both reducing the redness on my face and keeping my face shine free throughout the day.

This powder costs £24 for 24g but I think that it is worth every penny so far.

Clinique Redness Solutions Daily Protective Base SPF 15

Clinique says - 'protects skin from UVA/UVB exposure that can aggravate skin with persistent or reactive redness. Does it without chemical sunscreens. Comforting, oil free make up primer with a sheer green tint visually corrects redness and evens skin tone. 100% fragrance free'

I am already a big fan of Clinique's Super City Block SPF40 as a daily sunscreen and even a primer and this product reminds me of that but with a green tint and not as thick. I have been using this as a primer after my moisturiser and before foundation and it has been working well at combatting my redness.

This costs £14 for 40ml.


Although both of these products are very bright on application, they blend into the skin well and do not leave any tint of colour on the skin.

Neither of these products have aggrevated my skin at all, which is kind of a miracle as I normally suffer with Clinique products.

Do you suffer with similar problems and use anti-redness products? If so, what works for you?

NB - It has just been suggested on Twitter for me to post photos before and after using the anti-redness products. This will be posted shortly.

Glosses Of The Moment

These are the two lip glosses that I am really loving right now. One has been passed to me recently by my Mum and the other is one I purchased a few weeks ago.


Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Rosy Plum
This is a soft berry shade with a fair bit of shimmer.


MAC Tinted Lipglass in Enchantress
This is a light peach shade infused with pearl and is a frost finish.

The Revlon one is smooth and not very sticky where as the MAC one is more tacky but not enough to bother me.

Offer - Origins

Get a 50ml Origins 'Modern Friction' Facial Scrub (worth £11.20) free with February's issue of InSytle Mag (£3.50 - with Reese Witherspoon on the cover)

All you need to do is take the voucher from Page 141 to your nearest Origins stockist before Thursday 28th Jan.

This is a great offer for a fab product!

2010 Wish List

Below are a list of products that I would really like to try out this year.

Bumble and Bumble Tonic Lotion
Clarins Beauty Flash Balm
NARS Orgasm Illuminator
Benefit High Brow
Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment
Dr Sebagh Foaming Cleanser
Dermalogica Precleanse
John Masters Organics Deep Scalp Folicle Treatments
MUFE 5 Camouflage Concealer Palette

Have you tried any of these products? If so, what did you think of them?

New Year Prize Draw - Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered my prize draw. It was great to see all of the different products that you recommended.

Winner of the package with the Front Cover goodies is Cat from Catslittleobsessions

Winner of the package containing the Mavala is Sinead from DaintyDollyMix

Can the both of you please email me at contact@sophiesrealm.com with your postal details and I will then get these posted out to you. I am not sure if I will be able to post them out this week due to the bad weather but I will keep you updated.

New Year Prize Draw

Happy New Year everyone! May 2010 bring you all that you desire.

What better way to kick off the New Year on my blog than by having a small giveaway.

All you have to do to enter is to comment on this post with your top three products of 2009. The winner will be drawn at random on Tuesday 5th January @ 20:00 GMT

I will only be able to post to the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands.

Prizes
All items are brand new, unused and purchased by myself.

1st Name Selected

Mavala Nail Trio (Glasgow, Samoa and Riviera) This set contains pretty pastel/summer colours.

Lush's 'The Comforter' Bubble Bar. This is my favourite bubble bar from Lush.

Collection 2000 Love Your Lips SPF 20 Lip Gloss in Honey Bunch. I've mentioned these a few times on my blog and they are one of my top 2009 products, here.

Collection 2000 Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Liner in 'Funk'. Loving these recently. Blog post, here.

The Body Shop Eye Definer in Vibrant Emerald. I received a set of these in a goody bag from The Body Shop. I love them, so I went out and bought a colour that I thought most people could wear.


2nd Name Selected

Simple Pleasures Ginger Bread Hand Soap. Love the smell of this!

The Body Shop Eye Definer in Burnished Amber. Again, I tried to pick a colour that would suit most. I wear my liner of this a lot.

Front Cover Cosmetics Trio Eyeshadow in Sapphire. Trio with a blue, blue/green and grey in it.

Front Cover Cosmetics Sheer Ruby Lipstick. Pretty deep raspberry colour!



NB: I just want to say a quick 'sorry' to all of my international readers. But I will be having a giveaway in about 2 months that will be open to everyone.
Sophie x

Happy New Year