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.