I WANT ONE!

Cue cute photos of otters *sigh*

Top 5 pets (wanted):

1. Chinchilla

2. Ferret

3. Rex Cat

4. Jack Russel Terrier

5. Iguana

Illamasqua - quick haul

The magazine Stylist was offering 25% off purchases at Illamasqua and I just couldn't resist, especially as I was keen to try their new matte pigments which were released as part of the new Toxic Nature collection. I only ordered two items as I'm planning to make a trip to the Trafford Centre to see the actual products up close soon.

First, I ordered a Cream Pigment in Delirium; this is a lovely mauve-y purple which I'm wearing as a blush, eyeshadow and lip colour. It's very multi-purpose and it's a colour I really love (I sometimes wear Mac "Pink Cult" over the cheeks).

(click on images for detail, Blaze (top), Delirium (bottom)

Second purchase is swatched above; I decided to go for an older lipstick form Illamasqua instead of the current Orange that was released with Toxic Nature. I wore this yesterday and got a good 6-8 hours out of it; although drying it wasn't as bad as I expected. Really love this tone of orange and joins my ever growing collection of corals and oranges.

I was really impressed by the service from Illamasqua (ordered on Tuesday night, arrived Thursday morning). Along with the items was a small catalogue which included the beautiful pictures from the current collection.

Overall: A+ for service; A- for products.

Barbie Collector... A worrying sign :S

On my second to last trip to London, I finally got to visit Harrods. I was extremely excited, and that's a bit of an understatement! Three things really drew me in: D&G, Laduree, and Barbies!

Whilst in the toy section, which was incredibly hard to find amongst the baby grows and pet gifts (??), I stumbled across the most beautiful barbie ever. I've never really owned a "doll" before and was never really into "girly" toys when I actually was a child. But this was so much more....

(click images for detail)

From the most intricate details such as jewellery and tights, to the gorgeous colour of hair, this is no typical Barbie. Joan was arguably the prettiest Mad Men Barbie, although Betty did look strikingly like the character. The notion of Barbie collecting and this "high end" range of Barbies is something I'm still not sure of but more information is available here: http://www.barbiecollector.com

This was my first Barbie, and my first "posh" Barbie. I'm sad to say that I may have developed a habit, three more have been bought, but two were for family members.

Barbie Collector is not readily available in the UK, as we cannot make orders form the US site listed above. Harrods have a section in their children's section, but this is not readily listed on their website. Ebay, Amazon and Play have all listed some of the Barbies.

Oscars Review Part1...

...so I managed to crawl out of bed just after 1pm GMT, it was a very long night. Considering one of my favorite person ever (James Franco) was presenting I expected to be entertained throughout but the show really lacked flair and the writers seemed to do little to help the two young, inexperienced hosts.

Major disappointment: There was a lack of song and dance, which has been done excellently the last two Oscars; a one minute attempt was alright but, just not enough.

Major hot point: James Franco in drag, is that weird? It was super hot either way.

Anyway, here's how my predictions stack up to the actual results:

Best Film: Inception (we can dream!) (The King's Speech)

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan (Tom Hooper, The King's Speech)

Best Actor: James Franco, 127 Hours (again we can dream!) (Colin Firth, The King's Speech)

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan (Natalie Portman, Black Swan)

Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham-Carter, The King's Speech (Melissa Leo, The Fighter)

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter (Christian Bale, The Fighter)

Best Original Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network)

Best Original Screenplay: Christopher Nolan, Inception (David Seidler, The King's Speech)

So, 4 out of 11. Was on the whole very impressed with the speeches made by the winners above; Christian Bale was moving, Tom Hooper and Colin Firth were very British and very funny, Natalie Portman was just breathtaking.

Next post will be on the best dresses of the night and looking at the make up.

Oscars Oscars Oscars...

As tonight is the Oscars, and I have no job, I'm pulling an all nighter and seeing the ceremony live (in the UK, in the middle of the night) for the first time! *squee*

For some light hearted fun and some, probably, totally wrong predictions, see below:

Best Film: Inception (we can dream!)

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

Best Actor: James Franco, 127 Hours (again we can dream!)

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham-Carter, The King's Speech

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Original Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Best Original Screenplay: Christopher Nolan, Inception

So, I'm armed with crisps and lots of coffee, let's see how the night goes. Hopefully I will have predicted one or two right!

xo