A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I know, I know… my head is telling me…

“That’s gonna be expensive.  You’re gonna get it and then look at the pattern for a few months perhaps finally drumming up the courage to tarnish it sometime next November”.

But, but just look at it!  Is it art? Is it makeup?  I don’t care… I want it!

Introducing Blizzard.  This is such a fab shade… it’s not a grey, it’s not a black.  It’s a pewter.  A true metallic pewter, and I love it.

It has just a hint of subtle sparkle to lift it and is almost futuristic looking on my nails.  I don’t own a shade quite like it.

Application was fine with no major issues to speak of, perhaps a touch uneven on the first coat.. but it needed more than one anyway.

Blizzard is one of HJ Manicure’s winter shades aka, The Snow Collection.  If you haven’t already, head to the website to check them out, you won’t regret it!

I have the cutest little swatch chart here that HJ Manicure provided along with the polish (for potential review) and I’ll see if I can capture it in an image for you to see.

There are so many shades on there that I’m now lemming like a demon incuding the most ah-mazing looking sparkly yellow.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ‘sparkly’ yellow for another nail polish company, have you?  Oh, and if you like your pinks (like me) Bauble from the Festive Collection also looks divine, as does Champagne and Cracker… oh and Daylight, a fab looking Grurple – (that’s grey/purple incase you were wondering).  Aqua looks like a potential Spring diamond too….

Can you tell I’m getting excited looking at my swatch chart?  I need to get it online for you guys to drool over too!

I’ve just ordered 2 shades from the website in those cute little 5ml bottles that I wish ALL companies would employ!  Watch this space for some more HJ Manicure reviews!

I found another Stellar Showlights Lipstick lurking in my local T.K. Maxx… this time in the shade Ra Ra Red.

I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t the same glitter-bomb affair as the last one… but it still has glamour running through it’s veins.

Love the heavyweight packaging of the old style HR lippies.

These lippies are beautifully sheer yet buildable and I also find them quite moisturising… most of all, I love the shimmer left on the lips.  They give a fantastic illusion of fullness.

More, more… must find more!

A cool toned, slightly dirty lavender bursting with iridescence but no sparkles.

Opaque on 2 coats, but needs 3 for a really good finish.  I like it, but I don’t love it.

The formula is good and fairly thin.  It’s easy to apply with no streaking or dragging.  Longevity is fine too with minimal tip wear and thanks to the paler shade you barely notice it anyway.

I think I’d like it to be a little grungier, a little dirtier – it’s a touch princessy for me!

I adore China Glaze’s Ruby Pumps at Christmastime (me and everyone else) but I didn’t want to wear it quite so full on until a bit later in the month.  I decided to pair it up with a black creme for a little more subtlety.  Can you tell I’m still loving the whole dark nails thing?

HJ Manicure sent me a couple of their mini polishes to try and one of them was this rather basic black called Midnight.

Basic = a bit boring yes?… but basic also = essential… hmmm… like leggings! (stay with me, this analogy will make sense)… You want your leggings to be opaque, easy to pull on and look fabulous on the backside right?  Well, Midnight is your favourite pair of leggings.  It’s a beautifully glossy creme which is a solid 2 coater and really easy to apply.  I probably wouldn’t wear it on it’s own but combined with a coat of glitter (a fantastic jumper dress – see, this analogy is my best yet) it’s a total knockout.

The first picture doesn’t actually do this quick and easy mani much justice, I wore it up to London and had many nice comments on my ‘lit from within’ stumps. (Grow, grow, grow!)  The most realistic impression comes from the little finger in the top picture… you can see the red glow within the black base… see how it’s almost opal like.  The other fingers unfortunately make it look a bit gritty which it totally doesn’t.

Have you been wearing any combinations?  Do you like pairing polishes up with a great black base? Give me some ideas!

I’ve mentioned these maybe once or twice (or 7 or 8 times)…

When I first tried a GOSH Velvet Touch Liner, I was genuinely amazed at how they performed.  They just work.  They’re creamy and smooth to apply.  Once applied they don’t budge from the waterline on me for around 6 hours and if applied along the lower lashline, they don’t move until I remove my makeup that evening.

They come in an amazing array of colours and each pencil will set you back around a fiver.

I realised a few weeks ago, that since buying these I hadn’t reached for any of my other pencils (and eyeliner is kinda my ‘thing’, so I had a few!).  I ended up giving away, selling or binning my eyeliner stash and am now on the wonderful mission of hunting these down in every shade available.

Have you ever ‘purged’ your stash in such a way?  Now… if only I could do the same for mascaras…

GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liners are priced at £5 each and are available from Superdrug (instore & online).  Don’t forget, there’s a Superdrug 3for2 promotion going on at the moment aswell!

Here’s that FOTD I promised showing the GOSH Smoky Eyes Palette I was sent.

Remember the one?

No, sorry not that one… I meant this one…

*alright, stop bitching about their crap stock imagery already*

Anyway, I was semi pleased that it wasn’t hugely pigmented as I find the Sleek MakeUP Graphite palette so hard to work with.  Although I was unsure if I would get much payoff from that light grey (2nd from right) at all…

And I was right! (which makes a change).

I do really like this for a non-overpowering smoky eye.  It feels more grown up, more genteel and sophisticated than the Sleek Graphite Palette.  Unfortunately, I got nothing from that pale grey shade at all.  I applied it in the crease and blended upwards but you just wouldn’t be able to tell.

I hereby class this a “nearly” palette… “nearly” good, but no cigar.

STOP PRESS!: Check out Janice’s review on the Eye Transformer too, her photographs demonstrate the whole ‘smoky eye thing’ better than mine and really give a good idea of what I was trying to explain (lamely!).

http://seekforbeauty.blogspot.com/2009/08/review-elf-studio-eye-transformer.html

The new (to the UK) ELF Eye Transformer is another product that was lurking at the bottom of my goody bag from a recent E.L.F event I attended.  It’s an unusual product, I’ve only ever seen one other like it and I think that it fits in very nicely with the rest of the E.L.F Studio lineup.

It has one main function.  Applied over a dark coloured eyeshadow base, it will have the effect on transforming the base into a new and wonderful shimmering iridescent shade.

Make sense?

Let’s look more closely…

Oh there you go, it says what it does on the back of the box… and for bonus points it gets straight to the point.  Unlike me.

Packaging is identical to the Shimmer Palette, it’s good stuff… solid and sleek.

There are four powder shades: Green, Orange, Pink and Blue.

The powders are quite dusty and I’d recommend giving your brush a quick shake or blow before applying the powder ontop of your base.

First, I laid down 4 black base swatches.  I used a black eye shadow from one of my Sleek Palettes, then I layered each Eye Transformer powder over the base…

Let’s see them in action…

As you can see, from left to right… the powders create green, bronze, purple and blue hues when layered ontop of black bases.  Very pretty and much more interesting than plain old black!

This by itself is pretty cool, but I’ve discovered an even better use for them!

I’m rubbish at true smoky eyes, I look like a panda, I find it hard to blend very strong colours.  It’s a shame then that smokey eyes are *everywhere* at the moment.  Hell, Sleek and GOSH have even brought out palettes in celebration…

Let me demonstrate my crapness…

That’s my best effort!  It’s harrrrrrrrrd!

The variations between the black in the crease and the grey on the lid are obvious to me… I just can’t get a smooth blend when I use black, which is why I usually shy away from the shade, favouring greys and browns for crease colours.

However, let’s go over the whole lot with the blue shade from the Eye Transformer Palette…

What do you think?

It’s not *so* visible in the photo as it was in person, but adding the Eye Transformer shade seems to bring the other shades in harmony with one another.

My blending isn’t the best, and I should have definitely gone over that outer edge with my blending brush.  But focusing on the actual lid, don’t the colours seem to flow better?  Am I imagining things?

Anyway, all I can say is…

The ELF Eye Transformer is not the best quality product in the world… the powders are pretty chalky and dusty.

Having said that, I’m a sucker for novelty products like this and usually a little disappointed when I try them.  But I’m really enjoying using this combined with the Sleek Graphite palette.  They simply work as they’re supposed to, opening up many more opportunities for colour.

What are your thoughts?  Have you tried the ELF Eye Transformer Palette? Want to?

I was very excited to see the promo image for this latest GOSH collection which has been out for a little while now.

The eyeshadow palette in particular caught my eye:

*sigh* Such beautiful taupes…

Unfortunately for me, the stock image looks nothing like the product.  Way to go Mr. GOSH product photographer/retoucher.

This is what the palette really looks like:

Black to White… hey, where did my lovely taupes go?

I can’t really bitch too much – I was sent this by the nice people at GOSH.

Well I can bitch, ‘cos that’s what I do when I don’t like something… so yeah… where the hell was I?

Oh yes, it’s often helpful if the promo images reflect the actual product, don’t you think?

Let’s have a look at the packaging and see if the palette can redeem itself.

Oooh, a tutorial.  I’m a sucker for these and always happy to receive some inspiration and direction!

This is really nice, sturdy casing… good job!

2 eyeshadow applicators and a big mirror… all good stuff.

How about the actual shadows themselves?

Disappointing really…

They feel chalky and they’re simillar to Sleek shadows in as much as they’re quite soft and crumbly.  Shadow dust will fly everywhere when picking up the colour with a brush.

That’s where the Sleek comparison ends.  Unlike Sleek these give very little payoff in terms of colour.  Wanna see?

That third grey from the left is a real bastard to get much out of. *swipe, swipe, swipe*.

Having said that… hand on my heart, I don’t mind at all in this instance.  I usually err on the side of heavy-handedness when it comes to applying eye shadows and with a palette of this nature, my looks usually end up all black and not much else.

The Sleek Graphite palette is a real bugger for this as it’s *so* pigmented I generally look like I have a pair of black eyes after using it.  This, on the other hand gives me the chance to build up the colour and stop short of Panda.

However, for most… I’m sure that this lack of pigmentation is not a good thing.  And if it were a palette of different shades, I’d most likely agree with you.

One more thing I will say though, is that it does state that you can use these eyeshadows wet… I shall give it a go and be back with a FOTD, you never know… it could be amazing – eternal optimist that I am!

I’ve heard great things about the nail polishes from this collection.  In general, I find GOSH Nail polishes to be *awesome* but I’m still dipping my big toe into the world of glitter polishes and don’t need another black so didn’t pick either of these up.

The Gosh Bright n’ Black Collection is available to buy from Superdrug and the eyeshadow palette is priced at £8.99

How have you been finding the collection?  Have you tried any other GOSH eyeshadows?

So, the ELF Studio Line has burst onto the scene with a variety of affordable makeup and the most interesting thing about it all to me is some of the innovation it’s brought with it.

I’m talking genuinely new, innovative products… that, and trying to knock high-end products down from their pedestals (HD Powder anyone? – p.s. how are you finding that?)

Introducing the Shimmer Palette.

It’s a palette of 4 shimmering iridescent cream shades that can be used to highlight wherever you choose to apply!

The ELF Studio Line packaging has been consistently good, more than slightly reminiscent of NARS… everything I’ve bought or been given has a solid feel to it and this is no exception.

The 4 shades included range from white through to a couple of peachy/gold colours ending with a pink.  All are very wearable shades.  Although I have no idea how they would look on deeper skintones.

The consistency of the creams are slightly greasy which means that they blend very easily but need setting to stop them sliding.  The colours are also surprisingly pigmented until you blend them out into a nice sheen.

You can see the iridescence in the shades in this swatch, I’ve tried using them on my cheekbones… I like.  I’ve tried using them on my eyelids… um, not so much like (too greasy).  I’ve yet to try them on my lips… I don’t really see the point.

Someone give me some more ideas of how to use!

You can see the colours a little better here.

So, overall ELF’s Shimmer Palette is a nice, fun product.  It’s easy to use and does what ELF intended it to do… add a bit of shimmer an sheen wherever it’s used.

I’m not sure that I’m going to reach for the palette that often, I don’t really have much need for it… however, I will be buying some as Xmas pressies for a couple of young teenage girls in the family.  I think it would be awesome for that “too young to wear full on slap – but wants to play with makeup regardless” age.

Have you tried ELF’s Shimmer Palette – what say you?

I woke up to an email this morning announcing the arrival of Get Lashed lashes for sale on the Nails Inc. website (like that website isn’t tempting enough already right?)

Choose from 8 available styles:

L-R: Get Cute, Get Natural

L-R: Get Gorgeous, Get Kissable

L-R: Get Glam, Get Flirty

L-R: Get Funky, Get Playful

Prices vary from £7 up to £13 depending on style.  Personally, I’m loving the look of Get Kissable!

Which of these styles would be perfect for your Christmas parties this season?

Hello my pretty!

I discovered her hiding under a pile of soaps at my local T.K. Maxx… let me introduce you to “Bubble Pink” as we shall call her from now on.

Seriously, have you ever seen a more outrageously girly lipstick in your life?

I know… that’s almost indecent.  Glitter bomb on a stick.  A pink stick.

This really shouldn’t work for anyone over the age of 7.  And it definitely shouldn’t work for a lady knocking on the door of 30 (by ‘knocking’ I mean ‘ungracefully sprinting in the opposite direction of’).

So does it work?

Ohhhhh yes.

The topmost layer of glitter is an overspray… after the first application it’s a lot more subtle as you can see above.  The pink is a beautiful soft bubblegum pink which is neither too warm, nor too cool.  The shimmer (whilst apparent) doesn’t overpower nor look frosty.  It’s just ‘glitters’.

I was most taken aback by the texture… yes, there’s a teeny bit of gritiness… but nothing compared to what I expected considering how packed full of sparkle it is.  I find it actually quite moisturising and my teeth aren’t set on edge every time I press my lips together.

Whilst wearing this, be sure to kiss lots of people for whom glitter prints would be highly inappropriate.

I want to be buried wearing this lipstick.

And if you think it’s too shimmery for me… I can’t hear you *la la la laalalala*.