I thought that, once I’d got my Diploma exam over and done with, I’d be able to relax a bit, but of course it is now less than a fortnight to Christmas and the panic set in immediately after I’d returned from Trinity College last week.

It’s been a busy weekend comprising four concerts (performing and attending) and a birthday as well as all the usual stuff that cones with being part of a busy family.

Alas, most of my Christmas cards remain unwritten and my Christmas preparations are moving with all the urgency of a Galapagos tortoise basking in the noonday heat of the archipelago.

With all this in full and lugubrious swing, I’m afraid my blog posts have been rather dull of late which is rather sad, since I’m now into the final stretch of my year of daily blogging. There’s been so little time to devote to writing an inspired and thoughtful post recently so I apologise profusely. Perhaps next year I’ll just stick to occasional deep and meaningful posts. I don’t know.

So, instead of inspirational thinking of a philosophical nature, tonight I’m going to present a couple of cosmetics reviews. I’m sorry, @Casserly_Rocks but one is, after all, a woman who happens to be interested in such things.

Nars Soft Touch Shadow Pencil

You’ll know that the #lowboredomthreshold struck again recently, precipitated by yet another change in my skin tone. Some might say that this is the creeping pallor of despair and exhaustion but it’s not for me to judge. I will say, however, that I’m now considering having my eyes done as perhaps even a Siamese-cat-dragged-through-a-hedge-look would be preferable to my current eyebags and shadows.

Nars is my new love. I often find that the best cosmetics ranges for my skin tone are those designed by makeup artists such as Bobbi Brown; such as François Nars, who are maybe trying to save themselves the trouble of custom-matching their foundations to each of their clients.

Being a bit of a compleatist, and that paradox right there is constrained only by a lack of funds, this meant that I explored the range a bit further and bought lots more shiny, new stuff. A couple of eyeshadow palettes, the perfect nude brown, that sort of thing.

This is all very well but sometimes a person would like to be a little bit more adventurous than neutral so imagine the thrill when I caught sight of this beautiful colour, named Trash, rather judgmentally, in my view.

It’s a sort of deep and iridescent violet in a soft pencil form, which I was keen to explore as a more portable form of eyeshadow since, alas, it would appear that the pans of power shadow are liable to break up.

It’s a beautiful colour, yes, and really makes my dark brown eyes “pop'” as they say. Sadly, though, it doesn’t last and very quickly creased to shiny rivulets on my eyelids, even though I’d used eyeshadow primer. Deeply disappointing when you’ve come to expect that a shadow will last at least most of the day when stuck on with primer. And it’s a little more expensive than the powder sort too.

So, despite the gorgeous colours available in these stick shadows, I shall not be buying another. Boo.