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Here's a quick look using the following products

OCC Lip Tar in NSFW (these seem to have dropped off the map a bit, which is a shame because they're still as brilliant as they were back in Jan when they were getting so much hype)
Stila Oil Free Foundation in Shade A (as concealer)
Stila Convertible Eye Colour in Stone (gawd bless those bargain websites)
Belvada Noir sliding mascara (it's £5 in Boots at the moment but it's not that amazing, I am just using it up because I bought it out of curiosity)



Click for more pictures and a couple of close-ups

A message sent out today from The Makeup Artist Boutique;

From today 4th May until 11th May we will be running May Madness!

During May Madness all products will be subject to 10% discount. If you are a member of the Industry Discount program this will mean a total of 30% off.

On to the other news; Hush and Grandma Lip Tars are now back in stock and the new shade Memento will be available for pre-order from 20th May for delivery in the first week of June.

A portion of the sale price from sales of Memento will be donated to Breast Cancer Care so not only will you have a cute new color you will also be doing your bit for women around the country.

Visit The Makeup Artist Boutique today to pick up your bargains!

Disclosure: The Models Own and OCC items in this post were samples provided for consideration.

Earlier this year, the Metro ran an article about summer corals by British Beauty Blogger, with contributions from Makeup by Katy. I loved their selection of products, and was especially struck by the neon orange Models Own eyeliner that BBB picked out. I told her I loved the look of it but doubted I could pull it off, and she suggested I should try it anyway. And so I have.

Pictured above are the orange pencil itself and a complementing loose eyeshadow in Orangeade, both £5 from Models Own (who kindly provided the materials for this experiment).

The barrel of the pencil is a staggeringly bright colour. It has a highly practical design, with a lidded smudger on the end and a sharpener set into the pencil cap. I love how well thought out it is. Swatched on bare skin, the pencil is opaque and true to colour.
However I found that applying it to the eye (I really didn't enjoy the prospect of this, and as you can see it does look pretty horrible by itself) it dragged quite a bit over the layer of UDPP I had put on in preparation and took a few tries to get payoff. (NB to self for future reference; UDPP and these pencils are not a good mix.)

Obviously I couldn't let it stay like that. Bleurgh. Below are the Models Own Orangeade (right), a cooler toned and surprisingly wearable orange/salmon colour, and OCC Titania loose pigment, a beautiful pale neutral with warm reflects that I thought would be handy in pulling a look together. I put the Orangeade on the lid and the Titania in the inner corners and on the browbone.

The next step was to thoroughly line the eye with UD 24/7 eyeliner in Zero. I went for the inner rim. I rarely do this (I feel a bit squeamish about applying product to mucuous membranes) but I felt I had to put something between that orange liner and my eyes.

That still looked off, so I added some black eyeshadow to the crease (applied with a pencil brush and blended out). And then some NYX Doll Eye mascara.

Passable, no?

Pics taken indoors;



And in natural light;

Here's Vintage, which came in the post today from the fantastic Makeup Artist Boutique (who are currently having their first ever sale with 15% off everything). I've swatched in in full-on-lipstick mode, and sheered-out-stain mode (see below). As you can see it has a red base, and with time it fades down to a lovely cherry-coloured tint.  You could actually apply just a touch of it as a stain for daytime. Very versatile shade.

NB if you're thinking of purchasing from Makeup Artist Boutique and are a new customer, use the code LBRNEWCUST to get yet another 5% off your order.

I recently pre-ordered a couple more Lip Tars, thanks to the Makeup Artist Boutique.  They're now sending out Lip Tars from stock, having received a shipment from OCC in the US.  I chose Plum, one of the regular line shades, and Demure, one of the new Spring shades - Hoochie looked too bright for me, and since I'm not a fan of overly light lips, neither Vapid nor Complex appealled very much.  Here are some on-lip swatches:


Plum - I wouldn't say this was a particularly plummy shade at all, at least not in the traditional plum lip product sense.  It's also miles away from the colour swatch given on the OCC site.  Very cool dark grey-toned purple.  This was also a tad more liquid in texture than the other Lip Tars I have.


Demure.  Not at all demure, is it?  This has the same texture as other Lip Tars and is a VERY bright VERY cool, blue-toned purplish fuschia.

Unfortunately for me, both of these look terrible against my cool, pale skin.  Demure clashes terribly with my hair, whereas Pageant sort of clashes but still looks good.  I've obviously had a terrible lip product week - out of two products, only two are remaining in my collection.

Have you indulged in any of the new Spring Lip Tars?

Today's the day.  The Lip Tars have been unpacked and those who made pre-orders will be receiving their highly coveted goods in the next few days.  Yippee!

In honour of the Makeup Artist Boutique, who are now selling Lip Tars for just £8.99 from stock, I'm wearing NSFW (bright bright red) today.

Today's post was going to be an FOTD inspired by seasonal British confection the Cadbury's Creme Egg, which Gemma and I both like quite a bit. (Lucky it's seasonal, or I would eat them all year round and be considerably fatter than I am now.) However, I gave up after two attempts at making that work ended up in muddy ill-defined rubbishness. Today I somehow lost my blending mojo. I'm normally OK at blending.

So instead, here is the look I did after I had given up on the Creme Egg idea. I began with a pretty basic wash of iridescent blue shadow on the lid after priming with UDPP. Then I applied a navy shadow as eyeliner, dry, using an angled brush and flicking up slightly at the corners. I put a bit of pale neutral matte eyeshadow on the browbone and blended the blue into it.

Both the navy shade and the brow highlight (which doesn't show up in the photos) are from Sleek's new iDivine palette, titled Bohemian, which came out this week. The blue on the lid is Jelly Pong Pong "Single and Loving it" eyeshadow in Butterfly Wings.

On my face is Stila Natural Finish makeup (shade A) and on my eyelashes is Maybelline Full and Soft mascara (black).

On my lips I have applied a bit of the red shimmer eyeshadow from the Sleek palette over a dab of OCC Lip Tar in Clear.

Comments, questions and blending-advice-for-idiots are all most welcome.

Below, the iDivine palette in its new-style white casing, and the JPP eyeshadow. ("That looks like a nice box of paints" said the man of the house on seeing the iDivine.)

Sarbeauty!

Congratulations Sarbeauty - please send us your address via email and we will arrange for your prize to be sent out to you.

As we reported earlier this week, OCC have just unleashed 4 new shades of their culter-than-cult Lip Tar - Complex, Demure, Hoochie and Vapid. They are exclusively available in the UK, along with the other 20 shades, from The Makeup Artist Boutique.

They can be pre-ordered now, and are expected to ship on 23rd March. (Use the promo code OCCLBR for 10% off your order.)

We are offering you the chance to win one of these new Spring shades - Hoochie (third from left, above) in conjunction with the girls at The Makeup Artist Boutique, who are supplying the prize.

To enter, just drop us a comment below, telling us what other products you would pair with Hoochie (for example, you might combine it with black cat-eye liner and a matching plum blush). If for some reason you're not yet following us (*nudge*, *wink*), please leave us your email address in the comment too.

The competition will close on Saturday 20th March at 12.00 GMT, when we will pick a winner at random from the entries.

(NB - Get Lippie is also giving away one of the new Lip Tars - head over to her page to enter.)

OCC have finally released more details about the new Spring 2010 shades of Lip Tar, after premiering them at the LA Makeup Show this weekend.

From left to right:  Complex, Demure, Hoochie and Vapid.

These are available from OCC's website, or on pre-order from the lovely Makeup Artist Boutique,where they will be shipped in mid March - if you order there, don't forget you get a 10% discount with the code OCCLBR.

Pursebuzz has some swatches, and I'm already waiting with baited breath for Demure.  Any of these tickle your fancy?

Last week we reported that the Makeup Artist Boutique would be stocking OCC products, making them the first place in the UK to do so.  Their pre-order period begins today - orders are expected to begin shipping on March 23rd.

Find the full list of Lip Tars available here. A little birdie tells me that 4 brand new shades will be added over the weekend as OCC launch them!

If you decide to indulge, remember to use your 10% discount code- enter "OCCLBR" at checkout.

Lip Tars are lovely things, being mixable, highly pigmented, and high impact. But for me, one of their selling points - that you need so little to get opaque coverage - turns into a downside; they're not particularly portable. You need to carry a little tube and a lip brush, or if you mix your own shade, a sample pot and a lip brush.

Years ago, I bought a few bits of lip product packaging as one of my favourite LE lipglosses had burst on a plane and wasn't usable. Recently, I found the dial up pen applicators I had bought and realised that they are fabulous for Lip Tars.

The picture above shows a peachy-neutral shade of Lip Tar which I mixed up in one of the applicators. It's a dial up pen format, like Stila use for their lip glosses, so you can make the compartment as small as you like - I doubt anyone would mix up enough Lip Tar to fill the thing to capacity. Once the compartment is full, you snap the sponge top into place and voila, you have a portable Lip Tar.

When you turn the dial, the Lip Tar saturates the sponge applicator, and it's easy to control the flow of product to get the opaque coverage. The photo on the right shows my custom blended colour applied to my lips with my dialup applicator.

I got my dialup pens from DIYCosmetics.com, for the reasonable price of $6.50 for a set of 10. Sadly, they're out of stock until April, but a viable alternative might be the click pens, which are $6.80 for a set of 10. Shipping is a fairly reasonable $10. There are other places to buy these containers, but they are often more expensive.

Since I have quite a few spares, we'll be giving a few away - six randomly selected people will receive two sponge tip dialup pens, and a bonus brush tip pen too. Leave a comment with a valid email address to enter - closing date is Saturday 27th at midnight, as with our other giveaway!

Here's some fabulous news for those of you who are lusting over Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetic's Lip Tars, and were unable to get hold of one at IMATS this year.

We've received word that the Makeup Artist Boutique, who currently stock Yaby Cosmetics in the UK, have plans to bring OCC makeup to our shores mid March. Prices are set to be £8.99 for Lip Tars, £6.99 for lip balms, and £7.49 for Loose Color Concentrates/Glitters/Pure Pigments. Pricing on nail colours and airbrush products are to be confirmed at a later date.

The Makeup Artist Boutique also tell us that they'll be starting a special deal around two weeks before the shipment of OCC goodies come in which will bag you 10% off all OCC pre-orders, using the code they have given us for you lovely people: use "OCCLBR" at checkout.

Disclosure: OCC gave us samples of Authentic to try out.

This is OCC's Loose Color Concentrate in Authentic, a metallic orangey-copper. In these pictures I've foiled the pigment onto the lid using a touch of mixing medium, and blended out the edges with some dry pigment. As you can see, it's a very intense colour with a gorgeous metallic sheen when applied damp.

This is pretty much everything I'd hoped that Illamasqua's Liquid Metals would be on the lid. Intense, metallic, beautiful. But the Loose Color Concentrate, being a powder and not a cream, doesn't crease like the Liquid Metal did. The tradeoff is that the OCC product isn't quite as opulently metallic as the Illamasqua.

Still - if you want to bring out the green in your eyes, this is beautiful. And the application is much better than my other favourite copper pigment, MAC Copper Sparkle, which is a bugger to apply due to its gritty texture - the OCC offering is uniformly smooth.

If you'd like to try this for yourself, you can find it at OCC's website, where it'll cost you $10 for 2.5g.

Disclosure - we were given product samples to review by OCC.

We were able to grab 5 minutes at IMATS with Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Creative Director and CEO David Klasfeld and Director of Creative Development Katie Pellegrino. After swapping notes on polish (Katie was quite curious about the Illamasqua NWS I was wearing) we asked a few questions about the phenomenal surge of OCC mania that has erupted across the internet.

As expected by everyone but the brand themselves, the Lip Tars had all but gone by half-way through the first day of the show. "We always sell out, and then we bring more the next time, then sell out again" says Katie, not altogether ruefully - it's a huge compliment to the products, even if it does mean it's tricky to anticipate and meet demands. We tell her there are people for whom the presence of the hallowed Lip Tar was a major draw to IMATS itself.

"That's my baby!" she says with a mock-wink. "We never realised it would be so popular. And the name - David wanted me to change it. He said nobody would buy a product called "tar" and want to put it on their lips! I really had to fight him on that."

But Lip Tar it is, and it's taken the makeup community by storm. Despite having several other products in their range, including loose pigment, glitter, nail polish and airbrush makeup, Lip Tar has become synonymous with the OCC brand.

The first two Lip Tars were Tarred and Feathered, the black and the white colours. Since then the range has blossomed into a riotous rainbow of 24 colours - from clear to fire-engine red to ultramarine blue.

So is there a flagship Lip Tar? Indeed there is - Complex, a pale lilac, was created by Katie for fashion designer Diego Binetti's Spring 2010 collection, and is currently the brand darling. It's not yet on sale. We *think* this is what Katie herself was wearing at IMATS (and which she artfully applied direct from the tube - a move not recommended for amateurs). Another icon is Katricia, another, bolder lilac that many made a beeline for at the IMATS stand.

So with Lip Tars setting the fashion and beauty world alight, have Katie and David seen any copycat products influenced by them?

David laughs - "If any of the big beauty labels saw our formula and the amount of pigment we use, they'd actually think we were insane. It's just such a niche product." I ask if he has any thoughts about MAC's Pro product Lipmix, a high-pigment tube-based gloss/colour hybrid of a similar ilk. Is it a Lip Tar rival? He doesn't think so - "It's a different product. Less pigment, a more matte finish. It's a good product but it's not the same thing. It is interesting though," he speculates, "how MAC have been promoting Lipmix a lot recently."

So surely OCC aren't going to rest on their laurels? What's the next step for the Lip Tar?

Well, the current project is metallics. So far there's no satisfactory way to get shimmer into Lip Tar format without it settling and separating in the tube. It can be done, but not without sacrificing the intensity of the shade - which of course would never do. A solution is in the pipeline - expect to see metallic Lip Tars rolling out in the near future.

In the meantime, David recommends creating a DIY metallic lip with a mix of Lip Tar and Loose Colour Concentrate in the desired shade. I've tried it here with Authentic, mixed with clear Lip Tar - what do you think?


Finally, we asked how the underground popularity of Lip Tars among the blogging community had affected them. Did the bloggers who championed Lip Tar make a difference to the product's success?

"We wouldn't be where we are today without bloggers. We love bloggers."

Guys, we love you too.

OK, since a certain red-haired someone is clearly bursting to share the word on these, it just seemed cruel to wait until the weekend to write up the OCC Lip Tars.

I initially planned to do a big feature post about the products, the user experience and our encounter with the brand's creators. But there's a lot to say, and a lot of pictures too. So what I'm going to do is - basic swatches now, feature later in the week.

These are the 6 coloured Lip Tars Gemma and I bought on Saturday at IMATS. (Later we got some more things to review, but that's another post.)



We bought three each and split the tubes between us via sample jars, giving us 6 colours each. (Mine are the warm tones, hers are the cool ones, complementary pair that we are.)

Without further ado:

Lip tars in Fondue (brown), NSFW (red), Pageant (pink), Safety Orange (orange), Melange (peach/nude) and Hush (pale pink), swatched on MAC NC15 skin.

It goes almost without saying that these pictures show but a tiny fraction of the brightness of these colours. And that this is just about the least interesting thing you can possibly do with them: these colours are made to be mixed up and invented with, not just worn straight.


Fondue is, believe it or not, the least pigmented of our selection. It's slightly translucent. Sorry about the wonky application here.


NSFW is a blue-based red - normally not something I can wear (blue tones+me=fail.)


Pageant - actually much more pink than this. See Gemma's swatch in earlier post.


Safety Orange... my new love.


Melange - dare I say it, a workday lip tar?


Hush - with opacity to die for, this is a great one for mixing and lightening the darker shades.

As a control, here are my denuded lips.


One thing is clear when working with these - they're not lip gloss. You only need a very small amount of product and you need to use a brush to apply. And in fact the less you use, the better the effect, based on my experience with them so far. They do have a tendency to bleed if overapplied. I found the best way to apply is to start in the middle of the lip and work out - using an almost-dry brush to kind of blur the colour along the lip edges.

I'm sure we'll be talking about these some more later but here's a sneaky peek of my first application of my newly acquired OCC Lip Tar in Pageant. It's SO bright. And very comfortable too; once worked into the lip, it dries down to a very light texture which feels almost weightless. Sort of like a lipstain, but much more pigmented.

Amazingly, that intense pink colour (which clashes fantastically with my red hair) was achieved using only a tiny amount of product. A little of this goes a long, long way - and it does need to be applied with a brush; trying to apply it on directly from the tube as you would with a normal gloss will leave you looking gloopy and messy.

If, however, you want a more pigmented, strong look than that shown above, slightly more Lip Tar (or a second coating, in my example) will give you an effect that almost glows with intensity and has a slight sheen.

Once applied, it does seem to feather a tiny bit, but not in a way that's noticeable unless you are deliberately looking closely. I'll be wearing this for the rest of the afternoon to see how it wears, but so far I'm very impressed; this product has no way been overhyped!