A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Is there room in your collection for a pale apricot creme nail polish?

Butter London’s Shandy from last year’s Starkers collection delivered a trio of nudes and this one is an extremely pale hue which leans warmer than neutral.  It would make a great nude shade for fellow sun-dodgers who have less pink in their skin-tones than I do.

On me, it’s a little stark because it’s yellow-tones stand out against my skin but it’s not unnervingly so and thanks to a great formula, it was easy to build this one up to full opacity in three coats.

The only thing I wasn’t sure about was that as wear-time increased, it began to look a little dirty in a nicotine-kinda way.  However, as an ex-smoker, I may well be a little more sensitive to this than others!

Butter London Shandy is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

* press sample

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I haven’t really explored the B. range at Superdrug since its launch, to be honest… I just can’t say that any of the brand’s releases have inspired me to make the trip further-afield to a better-stocked Superdrug.  I saw a press release for their new B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colours, and for one moment… I thought I might well be converted by the look of these chubby lip crayons.  But was I?

Along with one of the new B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colours in Fandango* – a hot pink, I was sent the new B. Sculpted Contour Kit in shade Dark*.  I’ll start with the Lip & Cheek Colour first…

It’s packaged in a traditional, crayon-style format with a twist mechanism to raise and lower the waxy nib, perfect if like me, you hate having to sharpen anything!  It feels well-made and the colour glides over the lips effortlessly.

Perhaps a little too effortlessly, you see… it feels quite greasy and to achieve anything like the kind of vibrancy I was expecting, you need to layer up.  More layers = more grease.  It’s not a great combination.  I wasn’t expecting a matte formula but there’s just something about the way this feels that doesn’t appeal to me.  It’s not sticky and it’s not overly heavy, it’s just… not quite there.

Once I’ve built up the pigment to a medium-high finish (the swatch above shows about 5 swipes with the crayon), I tend to grab a tissue to blot.  That’s the only way I can enjoy wearing this shade on my lips.  To be fair, this doesn’t take down the pigment too much and possibly increases overall wear time but I just wanted something more instantly vibrant from a product that calls itself… vibrant.

As for my cheeks?  Perhaps the multi-use function of this product has something to do with why the formula feels the way it does… but you know about my distaste for sharing my lip products with my face and if I saw someone smearing their lip crayon around on their cheeks after I’d just watched them apply it to their mouth, I might be forced to spit on a tissue for them.

The B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colours come in five shades, ranging from a soft pink through to a rather striking mandarin.  I’ve only tried the one shade and would be interested to hear your thoughts on the others!

The other new release from the brand is a Sculpted Contour Kit that is available to buy in light, medium, and dark.  This is the “dark” shade choice.  The kit is split into two pans containing just over a total of 10g of product.

The powder, the contouring side of the pan feels finely-milled with a nice, soft texture and a good amount of pigment pay-off.  The cream highlight shade is an oddity.  When I first saw it in the pan, I angled it under the light, expecting to see some mica particles glimmer back at me.  But no, either mine is defective or it’s just a translucent white cream.  Much like a thin, theatrical greasepaint.  On my skin, it doesn’t do an awful lot other than look… greasy.

Once blended, it reminds me of putting a slightly more-refined version of vaseline on the high points of my face… there’s nothing wrong with this, women have been using vaseline as a highlighting trick for years, it just wasn’t quite what I anticipated.  It’s best applied at the end of your makeup routine, otherwise any setting powder that you apply will ruin the effect.

All in all, I’m not excited or enthused about these two releases from the budget high-street brand.  In 2014, I expect better formulas for the not unsubstantial RRP price tags of these products.

B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colour in Fandango is priced at £7.99 but currently a third off at £5.32 for a limited time.  B. Sculpted Contour Kit in Dark is priced at £11.99 but currently a third off at £6.99 for a limited time.  Available to buy instore at Superdrug and online at superdrug.com

* press sample

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I’m watching the poor postman out the window in his flourescent orange windcheater. He’s got an armful of a envelopes and is being blown all over the place… I’d have even more sympathy if he’d already passed my flat but I’m guessing that a couple of those envelopes might belong to me… so hurry it along mister.  It’s wild out there today, truly horrible and from what I read on Twitter, our capital city has gone into a transportation meltdown thanks to a number of tube strikes across the network.  Nice week for it.

So, in a bid to inject a little calm and tranquility into an otherwise turbulent week, let me introduce you to a polish from Butter London’s Summer 2013 collection.  A collection that was based mostly upon metallics, except for this little odd-one-out.  Butter London Poole is a dusky aqua blue with a hint of green… it’s namesake, a town not far down the coast from me, is an absolutely beautiful place to go in the Summer and the birthplace of LUSH Cosmetics dontchano?

What a lovely shade eh?  Not entirely undupe-able but very pretty nonetheless.  The formula was ok, not one of Butter’s best… it needed a bit of smoothing and lacked the nice, even flow that most of their polishes provide.  Opacity was good in two coats, I thought it might need three but the second coat pulled it all together.

Butter London Poole is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

What shades are  you loving at the moment, do I need to prise your fingers away from your Winter staples yet?

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Oh, I can’t take it any longer! It’s so dreary! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not Summer’s biggest fan… but c’mon, give a girl a break! I’ve got some gorgeous, suede boots that I haven’t been able to wear for about two-months thanks to my lack of initiative in getting them scotchgarded**

Not only that but I had to wade through a field of mud picking Leila up from school yesterday after the wind had uprooted a monster tree onto the path and to add insult to injury, the workmen chopping it into teeny, tiny pieces weren’t even hot.  No 3pm Diet Coke break for any of us Mums, just a bloody quagmire to wade through.

So I’m taking it upon myself to Spring things up a bit with this cheerful little number from Butter London.  Molly Coddled is from last Spring’s “Sweetie Shop” collection and has the perfect amount of chalkiness to keep it looking fresh without pushing into starkness territory.

The more astute, or simply fashion-aware among us may also be getting seal-clappy about the fact that this lavender orchid would work nicely with the current Pantone Color of the Year.  If you give a shit about that sort of thing.

The formula is superb on this one with no patchiness or streaking like you’d often get with pastels.  I definitely recommend picking this one up if you’re feeling a little Spring-resistant like me today.

Butter London Molly Coddled is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from www.powderrooms.com

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* press sample

** 1st world problems

I don’t care what the newspapers are saying, put down those pastel shades ‘cos it ain’t Spring yet!  Until I see a daffodil or tulip with my own eyes, we’re still firmly in the depths of Winter as far as I’m concerned.  I have an odd love/hate relationship with pastels anyway so I’m not gonna be grumbling about a couple more months of Winter trends.

Talking Winter trends, here’s a lovely top-coat from Butter London.  It’s all holographic n’ stuff.

In the photo above, I sponged the top coat over the tips… graduating the density on the way down toward the cuticle, it’s much easier than it sounds; You just need a high-density makeup sponge (you can pick up bags of them in Poundland/99p shops) before simply stippling the glitter over your existing polish.  I can’t even tell you how much easier it is doing it this way than trying to graduate the polish smoothly with a brush.

The above swatch doesn’t pick up the holographic sparkle too well, you really need to be a little out-of-focus to appreciate the fairy light-esque quality of this polish, so if you could all just go cross-eyed for a moment, that would be great.  Failing that, here’s an instagram which shows off the sparkle a little better.

As with all glitters, removal isn’t the highlight of my day, but the particles aren’t too chunky and to be fair, didn’t pose enough of a problem to send me reaching for the tin-foil.

Butter London Stardust Overcoat is available to buy online from powderrooms.com, priced at £11.95

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Is it purple? Is it blue? Neither, this is AUBERGINE bitch!  Well, kinda…

It also happens to be a one-coat wonder, unless you’re ridiculously meticulous and couldn’t possibly leave it at that.  Me?  I left it at that.  The finish is smooth and glossy and application harks back to some of Butter London’s best from a couple of years back.  When you’re dealing with bold colours, you really appreciate a faultless application and this can unquestionably be described as an easy-to-work-with polish.

Butter London Bramble was released as part of the Holiday 2013 Illusionists collection alongside a trio of top-coats and I’ll be blogging it again, combined with one of the top coats from the set: Stardust, which gives a wondrous, galaxy-esque finish.

I’m loving these chic darker shades at the moment, especially on shorter nails, what colours are you loving at the minute?

Butter London Bramble is available to buy online from powderrooms.com, priced at £11.95

I know that I’m not alone in announcing a mild disappointment with the post-Xmas beauty sales, I usually clean up and feel the inevitable spending guilts for weeks afterwards.  This year, not so much.  Infact, in my quest to add some new blood to my beauty cabinet, I’ve all but failed.

All but…

Thank God for Fragrance Direct and their bounty of Becca goodies that have seen me through this extremely dry patch.

There are still many Becca products available on the website, infact… most of the items that I purchased on Boxing Day are still available so I’ll just get some pictures up with their corresponding swatches in an effort to siren-song you into some lemmings.  Do we still use that word?  Oh, I’m so 2008.

my haul

Becca Sheer Stick Foundation (sherbet), Becca Radiance Primer, Becca Luminous Skin Colour (porcelain)

Becca sheer stick foundation in Sherbet

Swatch of Becca Sheer Stick Foundation in Sherbet

Swatch of Becca Radiance Primer

Becca Luminous Skin Colour (porcelain)

Swatch of Becca Luminous Skin Colour (porcelain)

Becca Eye Tint Water Resistant Colour in Vicuna

Swatch of Becca Eye Tint Water Resistant Colour in Vicuna

Becca Professional Polishing Brush 57

Becca Sheer Tint Lip Colour in Valentina

Swatch of Becca Sheer Tint Lip Colour in Valentina

The Becca stock on the Fragrance Direct website starts from around £2.99 and whilst I haven’t had long enough to provide defnitive reviews of everything, I’d really recommend picking up some of the Sheer Tint Lip Colours and a Luminous Skin Colour as a matter of urgency!

As far as freshness goes, considering that these will be old stock… I haven’t got any complaints.  Even the Eye Tint is showing no signs of oil/pigment separation and everything still smells fresh to me.

Are you going to be taking a look at what’s on offer?

In another completely-inappropriate-shade-for-the-season, today I’m sporting Butter London’s Kerfuffle.  A word that I can’t actually say without immediately thinking of Lou from Little Britain’s Lou and Andy.

Kerfuffle is a delicate pink-peach creme with a glossy finish in a bright (but not too bright) base.  Application was fine, three coats for full opacity with a formula that didn’t disappoint.  It’s a soft, pretty-looking shade that should complement most skin-tones nicely.  The chances of this pairing up with tanned toes as we approach Winter is unlikely, but should it get the chance… I think it would look very nice!

Butter London Kerfuffle is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

It’s something that most of us take for granted.  ‘Aving a wash, getting a scrub, jumping in the bath!  Some of us do it every other day, most of us scrub up daily, and the super-fastidious among us do it even more often!  Some forget to scrub behind their ears and others don’t dry between their toes or in their belly-buttons properly!

What you think you don’t know about getting clean can be written on the back of a stamp, right?  Wrong.

Here’s ten things that I bet you didn’t know about bathing, washing, and general cleanliness!

1. Back in 2009 the world’s oldest woman passed away after slipping in her bath.  She was 130 and had just had the new bathroom installed to celebrate her old age!  Where’s Alanis Morisette when you need her?

2. The romans didn’t use soap, instead they rubbed olive oil onto their skin before scraping it off (along with any dirt) using a special scraper.  Sort of like a slave-operated windscreen wiper.

3. Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand is the largest hot spring in the world, covering an area of 38000 square metres with an average depth of 6 metres.  The hottest areas of the lake reach boiling point!

4. Think baths are less water-efficient than showers?  Not nowadays!  An average bath uses 80 litres of water whilst an eight-minute power shower uses around 136 litres.  If you’re really serious about saving water, you could always share!

5. In medieval Europe, the Church thought of bathing as an “excessive” indulgence and believed that such acts led to immorality, disease, and promiscuity!  In fact, so widespread were the fears of bathing contributing to ill-health that the daily bath (or shower) has only become a common occurrence during the past half century.  I’ll bet Sunday mass used to stink!

6. The average temperature of bath water in the UK is between 38c to 40c – that’s just a couple of degrees above the average body temperature.

7. Every citizen of Kentucky, U.S.A is required by law to take a bath at least once a year.  Personally, I think we should introduce this globally.  Especially in London, in the Summer.  All tube stations should install stink-o-sensors as standard.

8. A lady called Charlotte Lee holds the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Rubber Duck collection at 1439 different ducks!

9. The Japanese take the business of cleanliness and bathing very seriously.  They even have an amusement park dedicated to the ritual with over 25 water attractions!  Visitors can choose between bathing in coffee, red wine, green tea, or even Sake!  I wonder what the penalties are for drinking the water?

10. In the UK, it is the law upon entering a bath to immediately submerge your head and enter the land of Mermaidia.  Particularly if you have long hair, in fact… if your hair is short, you should grow it immediately to let this occur.

Ok, I made that last one up… but damn… you used to do this as a kid ALL the time right?

Anyway, in celebration of my ten frankly mind-blowing facts about bathing, I wanted to introduce some of my favourite bathroom companions…

From left to right:

Zirh Warrior Collection (£14.99).  When I discovered these were being discontinued, I snapped up a few bottles to keep me going.  Although aimed at men, I love the concentrated scent and divine lather.  There’s something rather brilliant about having a “collection” of commonly-used toiletries like this and Zirh capitalised on using great ancient leaders to appeal to our sense of smell and personality traits. Obviously, I’m Caesar.  OBVIOUSLY.

You can still buy the Zirh Warrior Collection on amazon.co.uk

Abahna White Grapefruit & May Chang (£17)*.  Abahna are all about the ritual of bathing, about turning an ordinary experience into an extra-ordinary occasion.  They’re definitely heading in the right direction with this beautifully citrusy number that perfectly marries the uplifting aromas of grapefruit with the energising zest of may chang.

Available to buy online from abahna.co.uk

Bodhi Rosemary Chi (£23)*. When your spirits are in need of a little reviving, Bodhi’s synergy of Rosemary, Geranium, Petitgrain and Cedarwood oils is just the ticket.  This bath and shower therapy is generously fragranced ensuring that both your mind and your senses are stimulated by the rich perfume.  For an added boost, combine your bathing ritual with their new Rosemary Chi Himalayan Detox Salt Scrub by using your hot bath waters to dissolve the salt scrub after application.  Genius.

Available to buy online from bodhi.uk.com

Kings & Queens Aztec King Vanilla & Pear (£3.33).  No Tesco shop is complete without adding to my Kings & Queens stockpile, I’m currently due another haul as I’m on my last bottle.  The sister brand of Korres have been inspired by ancient rulers from around the world to create a line of body products that delight both visually and during use.  My personal favourite is a toss-up between Tsar Peter Tobacco and Caspar Myrrh.

Available to buy online from tesco.com

What do you to make your bathing routine that little bit less ordinary?

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When I was younger, I lived by the seaside… like, right on the seaside.  And whenever my Nan used to come for a holiday, she’d pick me up from school and walk me down to the arcades.  I must have spent summer after summer on the pier, playing the one-arm bandits with her.  Being the nice kind of Nan that she was, she’d feed the machine with money and let me sit on a stool beside her pulling the lever.

Fruit machines aren’t like that nowadays… instead, they’re high-tech, expertly programmed things that make a god-awful racket in the corner of a pub.  I say bring back the more genteel OXO ones… and limit people’s spends to 2p a go.  Them were the days (I remember when all this was fields etc. etc.)

Anyway, Butter London’s interpretation of a Fruit Machine, is like no fruit machine I’ve ever encountered.  Some of these names are a bit bloody random aren’t they?  What does pepto-pink have to do with anything?!

Fruit Machine is a pale bubblegum pink with a bright white base that keeps this colour popping right off your fingernails! It looks a little chalky to me but in a mod-esque, edgy kinda way rather than a cheap nail polish kinda way.

The coverage is pretty thick but the formula, completely workable and I was done after two coats.  Fruit Machine is one of those happy Spring colours (hello Autumn!) that keeps your focus firmly on your fingertips.

Butter London Fruit Machine is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

You know how you can get those mugs with the how-much-milk scale on the side of them?  From “builders brew” at the top end of the scale right down to “gnats piss” at the bottom?

Well, Butter London’s Cuppa is definitely in gnats piss territory.  Infact, if someone actually brought me a cup of tea and it was this colour.  I’d tell them that their parents had clearly dragged, rather than brought them up.  After which, I’d send them back to the kitchen for a second attempt and remind them not to forget the biscuits this time.

So, clearly I prefer a strong brew… on the nails, however, Cuppa is a real stunner.

Until now, I’d majorly-lemmed for a super-pale beige but I hadn’t found one that managed to look creamy rather than chalky.  Cuppa hits the spot, the tones are just right, the neutrality is perfect, and it applies smoothly without any issues.

My only grumble is that it takes three coats to eliminate all streakiness… many super-pale pastels suffer from baldy spots here and there but beyond that, I adore this shade.

Butter London Cuppa is priced at £11.95 and is available to buy online from powderrooms.com

Seeing as it’s blatantly not Summer anymore – the rain hammering at my windows is testament to this – I thought I’d show you a real Summery shade.  Just because I’m obtuse like that.  I said obtuse, not obsese, bitches.

Butter London’s Fiver is a very, very pale pastel.  Not quite a green, not quite an aqua… it sits somewhere between the two.  There’s a definite amount of blue in there to prevent it from looking full-on minty, making it a slightly more unusual shade than most.

Application was a little streaky, after two coats it was *nearly* there but for me, needs a full three coats to make it presentable and completely streak free.  The formula was fine… easy to spread and dried rapidly.

It’s not at all right for the season is it, do you wear out of season shades whenever the mood takes you?

Butter London Fiver is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com