A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Among an ever-increasing tide of Mother’s Day press releases, I spotted one subject line milliseconds after deleting (itchy trigger finger) that had me scrambling through the email bin to retrieve it.

Child-friendly nail polish brand Little BU will be holding an Easter sale extravaganza and all nail polishes will be reduced to a ridiculous £5 each.

Horrendous news for my wallet, with Leila’s 4th birthday coming up and four recently released shades to put a twinkle in her eye.  I can see myself having to sacrifice one of my Helmer drawers for her stash in the future, though I was hoping we’d hit teenage years first.

Incase you’re unfamilliar with the brand, Little BU offer non-toxic, water-based, and odourless nail polish formulas that wash away with a bit of soap and water.  For increased longevity, you can apply their special top-coat to seal the colour for extra wear.

Here’s Leila showing just how prepared she is to follow in her Mum’s footsteps.  Heaven help her.

Little BU in Sofia

If you have birthday gifts to buy throughout the year or stockings to fill at Christmas, I suggest you make a head-start and hide them away.  There’s nothing like a little prepared-ness in the face of a good sale.

Little BU in Olivia

The Little BU Easter Sale begins online at www.iluvlittlebu.com on the 18th March (date for the diary) and will run right through until Easter Sunday.  All polishes will be reduced from the regular price of £9.95 to £5.00 each.

Another fun shade from LittleBu making my little boo a very happy boo indeed…

My daughter’s polish collection is beginning to outdo my own!  We picked up another bottle of Emma when we were in London last month to replace her beloved red that sadly met its end when the impatient one sent it flying from the coffee table.  There was no lasting damage to the sofa (thank heavens for water-based formulas!) or that would have been the end of Leila’s foray into mini-manicures.

To say that my daughter got a little bit excited when a bottle of the creamy blue Olivia landed on the doormat is an understatement.  Well, I think that first photo probably gives you the idea – it was like watching a chocoholic discover a Twix in the fridge after the local co-op had shut its doors for the night.  If you don’t have any ishoos with painting your child’s nails (the Little BU formula is non-toxic and completely washes off with soapy water – eventually!) then it is lovely bonding time, and I never realised that L was capable of such patience and stillness!  A perfect treat for Mother’s Day?

The polishes aren’t particularly cheap at £9.95 each but the look on L’s face was pretty priceless!

* Olivia (the colour featured) was a press sample

My little girl Leila loves watching me polish my nails, she loves lining up my bottles along the carpet… organising them by shape, colour and height.  She makes me nail polish trains and loves nothing better than picking out my next shade.  With that in mind, you can imagine the ridiculous amount of delight on her face when I presented her with her own set of nail polishes*.  No?

Well, here’s an idea…

I’ve never painted Leila’s nails before.  Aside from the politics about whether or not children should wear cosmetics, I’ve just never felt comfortable applying solvents to those tiny little fingers.  Hell, all I need to do is look at my own peeling, yellow nails to discover more than one supporting reason why I’m keeping my polishes locked in my cabinet when I’m not around.

But Little BU make nail polish especially for little fingers with a non-toxic, water-based, solvent-free formula.  The brainchild of Patricia Dente Haimes, a former New York beauty publicist — these formulas have spent a long time in careful development and are now ready to be unveiled to the world.

I’ve tried a water-based polish before but I found it an utter pain to apply.  Streaky, watery and sheer to the point of frustration.  In Little BU’s case, I can confirm that both the shades Emma (red) and Sofia (dark purple) are opaque in a single coat and when you’re trying to paint a moving target, that comes in very handy.

Kyra (luminescent silver) wasn’t quite so successful, mostly because Leila decided she didn’t like it and wasn’t going to afford me even thirty seconds of the patience needed to apply it, but I could tell that it was sheerer than the other two shades.  Over on the right in the above photo is the top coat.  It’s not an absolute necessity if you’re just having afternoon play but I do recommend it for sealing the colour to the nails so it doesn’t wash off too easily in soapy water.

Leila has already requested that I might like to buy her Olivia (soft blue) and Riley (bubblegum pink) and I’m sure I can stretch to those for her Christmas stocking but until then she’s rocking red toenails, just like her Mum.

Little BU are having a launch party in Harrods on Saturday 15th October from 2pm – 6pm.  It’s set to be a proper knees-up with mini manicures, face painting, colouring in and balloon modelling and what’s more — we’re all invited!  If I can make it into London, I might see you there!

Little BU Nail Polishes are priced at £9.95 each and available online at www.iluvlittlebu.com or instore at Harrods.

* press sample