A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Sometimes you just shouldn’t be trusted with a bottle of fuschia polish and flakies.  I don’t have too many NOTD monstrosities, but this one is pretty darn ming.

So that you can avoid the same retina-melting combination, we’re talking Nails Inc. – China Town with Inglot #204 daubed over the top.

Had any errors of beauty judgement recently?

I don’t own anything else like this shade.  Nails Inc. Battersea Park is a true hybrid.  It’s a cross between army greens and olive, and it really does apply differently on the nails to how it looks in the bottle (I prefer it applied).

1st coat is very nearly opaque, but if you hold your hand to the light, it looks a little uneven in patches… so for me, is a firm 2-coater.  Application is smooth with no dragging at the cuticles.  I do love these slightly murky creme finishes, they don’t feel very spring-like (I’m still craving some Barielle’s for that. HURRY UP BARIELLE!) but I’m loving them nonetheless.

What are your favourite greens?  Forest? Olive? Shimmer? Pea Soup? Emerald? – Come on, spill… I need some more green in my life.

The other NARS AW/10 runway look I wanted to share comes from Phillip Lim’s show:

It’s punchy but delicate all at the same time no?

Here’s the lowdown:

INSPIRATION: Disco-punk. “This is a youthful, rebellious look that exudes a strong sense of confidence. Energy radiates within the girls through their makeup with eyes that have a bit of a rock and roll feel,” said designer Phillip Lim whose inspiration stemmed from an image of Blondie’s Debbie Harry.

LOOK: “This look has many layers,” said NARS lead artist Lisa Butler. “The eyes are punchy and edgy while the skin was kept healthy and glowing. The lips are a soft, sheer pink for the elegant punk-rock princess style that Phillip was looking for.”

FACE
•  Riviera Multiple
•  Douceur Blush (NEW for Fall 2010); try Lovejoy or Madly Blush for a similar effect
•  Luxor Multiple

EYES
•  Abyssinia Single Eyeshadow
•  Nymphea Single Eyeshadow
•  Coconut Grove Single Eyeshadow (NEW for Fall 2010); try Bali Single Eyeshadow for a similar effect
•  London Eyeliner Pencil

LIPS
•  Bangkok Pure Matte Lipstick (NEW for Fall 2010); try Sex Machine Velvet Matte Lip Pencil for a similar effect

I’m loving the look of the new matte lipstick but groaning at how long we have to wait for it….

I can totally see Debbie Harry in the inspiration too.  She’s one of my favourite beauty icons ever (along with Jean Seberg, Anna Karina & Edie Sedgwick) so I’m not hugely surprised to find myself in love with this look.

I haven’t posted the Thakoon look ‘cos it’s a bit bronzey nuder and doesn’t do a whole lot for me, but check it out here.

Zomg.

That’s the sound of me toppling off my chair after seeing the AW/10 runway look Francois NARS created for the Marc Jacobs show at NYFW.

I got an email yesterday which contained a couple of the looks from the shows with teeny tiny pictures promising that more pics will follow. I’m like, HELLO! It’s a Friday… you CANNOT leave me waiting ’till Monday like this, these are freaking beautiful!

So, I googled and saw that the creme de la creme of US blogging ladies were already on the case!

There’s 2 looks in particular that I’ve fallen head over heels with, wanna see one of ’em? No? Tough shit.

How sultry is that? Be still my beating heart.

Here’s the details and breakdown of products used:

INSPIRATION: “I was inspired by the film La Vie des Autres. I wanted the models to have a dirty look as if the hair and makeup had been slept in,” said designer Marc Jacobs, who specifically requested Barbarella lipstick to be used on the models’ lips.

LOOK: “This look is what you’d see on a girl from the East Village or St. Germain des Pres – an existentialist with a modern twist,” said NARS Cosmetics Founder and Creative Director François Nars whose application technique included using his fingers to achieve the faded effect. “These girls are sexy and cool. Their makeup looks dirty and worn out as if it has been on all night but still translates beautifully on the runway.”

FACE
•  Sheer Glow Foundation
•  Enchanted Blush (NEW for Summer 2010); try Gina Blush for a similar look

EYES
•  D. Gorgeous Single Eyeshadow (NEW for Spring 2010)
•  Black Moon Eyeliner Pencil
•  Nuits Blanches Eyeliner Stylo
•  Larger Than Life Volumizing Mascara

LIPS
•  Barbarella Lipstick

See, I didn’t fancy the look of D.Gorgeous when I first saw it… but now I want it (or something simillar). I really need some mattes in my life.

I also TOTALLY need Barbarella, but in the tube it scares me, it looks proper peachy orange.  Any of you lovely ladies have it?  Is it super warm toned?

I’ll post my other fav up on Monday!  I’m off to try and recreate this, I think the difficulty will be stopping the eyes from looking too smoky and heavy, any tips?

I was just having a clear out, and thought I’d scan and upload these incase they’re of interest.

Click on an image to see the full size version.

Derek Lam:

Marc Jacobs:

Marchesa:

Phillip Lim:

Thakoon:

If you like your purples, get ready to put a padlock on your purse.

NARS Purple Rain is such a beautiful, beautiful colour.  A warm-toned purple that has that ethereal ‘lit from within’ quality with it’s blackened edges and glowing centres.  Packed full of grown up shimmer (I can see red and blue in there).  2 coats for full opacity with no formula issues at all.  I’m deducting one point for the handle.  I had to do some major q-tip clean up because I found that huge chunky square handle a nightmare to wield with any accuracy.

Longevity is great so far… 3 days with barely any tip wear and not a chip in sight.  I guess I should be going for some lighter more spring-like shades now…. too bad I still have loads of dark polishes I haven’t played with yet!

A.K.A… the one I’ve been waiting for!

This much anticipated release from NARS is another reason I was in London last Thursday.  I attended the presentation with VexintheCity and by the time 5.30 rolled around we were giddy with glee.

Elbowing each other outta the way to get up the stairs, we practically fell through the door looking every bit true Orgasm addicts.  Stop sniggering.

In it’s simple packaging… it looks kinda plain and… well, um… orange.  There I’ve said it.  It looks orange.  If you’re as pale as me, I know you’re gonna understand when I say that I may have physically recoiled from the tube.  Truth be known, my soul felt slightly crushed.  It looked *nothing* like I was expecting.  I mean, I don’t know just WHAT I was expecting… but it sure wasn’t a tube of ORANGE.

Anyway, here’s what Sephora (Oh! Sweet Sephora) has to say about it:

What it is:
A complexion enhancer that makes skin look instantly refreshed, radiant, and glowing.

What it does:
NARS Orgasm Illuminator lights your skin from within! Deceptively sheer and decidedly luminous, it magically transforms lackluster skin into a remember-me, luscious complexion. Flirt with foundation, go it alone, or go neck-and-neck with your décolleté. The effect is, well, orgasmic.

Whatever.  It’s still ORANGE.

And so I applied…

Woahhh Orange…

To be fair, I applied WAY TOO MUCH!  Seriously, this stuff spreads… you need the teeniest amount.

and then I blended…

and I blended some more…

You can see how far a little goes, right?

I haven’t sheered it out too much in the picture above so that you can still see the colour impression… I wouldn’t wear it this pigmented, although you could if you blended out the edges.

That’s more like it!!  Can you see the dewy faintly peach glow?

I want to suggest that the ladies (in my humble opinion) most likely to put Monsieur NARS on their Xmas card list for introducing this, will be darker-skinned.  Check out some swatches over at VexintheCity for an idea of how it looks on dark-skinned sisters.  On fair skin it’s beautiful… but it’s lacking the wow-factor that seems to magically appear on deeper tones.

Having said that, would I repurchase? Yes.

I think some people are expecting this to be the same as the blush, but in liquid form.  It isn’t.  It illuminates the skin with the teeniest hint of colour… and I think it will polarise opinion.  It’s subtlety will either be it’s strength or it’s weakness depending on what you want from it.

I slick a little of this ontop of my blush (not necessarily Orgasm!) for that extra bit of oomph… and it looks great down the centre of my nose.  Don’t laugh, it makes my nose look less um “fat”.  (Do you think it’ll work on my bum?)

It’s also fab for highlighting the cupids bow and although I know there are a 1001 illuminators out there that would do the job adequately, I’m back to stressing just how easy to use this is.

I suppose the nearest ‘dupe’ I have to this would be Illamasqua’s ‘Fondle’ Illuminator which I love, but find to be a little too glowy for daytime and if I don’t blend thoroughly, it leaves a hard edge.

I also own and adore NARS Albatross.  For me, Albatross is the best highlighter on the market.  Bar none.  Truthfully, it’s better than this for my skintone, but I wouldn’t dare try and apply it on the go.  Ladies who own it would agree with me that it needs a *very* light touch and more than a little patience to stop you looking like a disco ball.

NARS Orgasm Illuminator is foolproof.  It dries to a powder finish, leaving no horrible sticky residue and yet it doesn’t dry too quickly.  You can blend until you’ve got it *just* how you want it.  Im a dunce and I could apply this in the dark without screwing it up.  I’m honestly not sure how the formula manages to combine powder-finish with such blendability.

If you want the beautiful Orgasm flush, go for the blush.  If you want a subtle grown-up glow that you can add to your foundation without looking ridiculous, go for the illuminator.  Personally, I want both… he’s not daft that Monsieur. NARS.

NARS Orgasm Illuminator will be available from 18th February as a Space NK exclusive (boo!), before being rolled out across all NARS Counters on the 1st March – priced at £21.

Whilst in London last week, I had the opportunity to check out the NARS Spring 2010 Collection and hear a little more about it’s inception and application on the runways at New York Fashion Week last year.

It’s the first time I’ve ever analysed a collection like this… and honestly, I feel a little “hell, what do I know about ‘collections’ and ‘runways’ and excuse me while I kick off my Mum’s stilletos and get back in my sandbox”.

If I shrug off those insecurities, I’m left realising that I was handing over my debit card at the NARS counter in Liberty less than 20 minutes after being given this bag of samples… and really, what other qualifications does one need?

Let’s start with the actual collection.  Swatches, thoughts and all.

I have to say, I’m not a huge fan of the Catherine Deneuve-inspired promo shot for the collection…

…it just doesn’t ‘speak’ to me.  Infact, before being invited to sample the collection, I’d dismissed it based on this promo.  With that in mind, things didn’t get off to a good start.

First up are two new lipglosses. Ophelia (£17) (Strawberry Nectar) and Easy Lover (£17) (Sheer Hot Pink).

In the tube, Easy Lover is WOW!  It’s a true hot pink that makes you want to grab at it and play (and I did!).  On the lips, I’m disappointed.  It is so sheer, and whilst sheer lipglosses have many uses, I just feel cheated after seeing how it looks in the tube.  Worn alone, it adds no pigment at all to my lips.

Ophelia is more pleasing, I’m loving this over the top of a nude lipstick.  Again, it’s fairly sheer… but as it promises less in the tube, it doesn’t disappoint me in the same way Easy Lover does.

Swatches of both…

Next up is the single lipstick in the collection: Cruising (£17)

When I first saw Cruising in the tube, I can’t say I was too excited by it.  Infact, I don’t think it particularly registered until I got home and attempted a FOTD with the collection.  You know, I own over 48 lipsticks… and this has jumped straight into my top five.

Nude lipsticks are difficult to get right.  Choosing the correct one for your skintone is an unenviable task, so I’m not gonna start shouting that everyone needs to own this lipstick.  I really want to tell you to go and TRY it though.  It is *so* completely unassuming in the tube, I would have passed this by time and time again.

On my dry lips, It’s truly moisturising, glideing on with ease but crucially it stays on.  It gives my lips enough colour so as not to look dead but keeps the focus on the rest of my face whilst giving an overall polished finish to my makeup.  And that to me is what a true nude lipstick should do.  I love this, perhaps too much.

Bains Douches Glitter Pencil (£18.50), the eyeliner in the collection named after the legendary Parisien nightclub is a vivid matte blue infused with silver glitter.  Thankfully, the glitter particles are not particularly chunky and don’t irritate my eyes.  I’m not sensitive to eye irritation though, so you may want to give this a miss if you think it could cause problems for you.  Not only that, but I do have to point out… My God it’s expensive!

I adore the colour, but my first thoughts were that it sits oddly with the rest of the collection.  Until I tried it on the lower lashline with the Kuala Lumpur Eyeshadow Duo on my lids.  POP!  I’m very pleased to add this to my collection… it will see me right through ’till Winter and the sparkle is subtle enough to wear during the day.  I’ve surprised myself liking this so much and I’ll attempt an EOTD with this soon.  It applies beautifully, without need for ‘warming up’ and the glitter gives a lovely wide-awake look when applied along my lower lashline.

Camargue (£23) is a cream eyeshadow duo described as a Golden Moss/Sienna pairing.  It’s a slightly muddy looking combination, but I think it would be amazing on warm medium skintones.

As with all NARS Cream Shadows that I’ve tried, this really needs setting with powder if your lids are at all oily or you’ll be picking it out of your crease in a matter of minutes.  The NARS MUA I was talking to in Liberty recommended the golden half of the Alhambra Duo (which I bought) over the top of the Sienna half of Camargue.  He was right – it’s a beautiful pairing.

Camargue swatches, they look particularly warm against my cool skin tone:

Kuala Lumpur Eyeshadow Duo (£23) is one of the more talked about pieces in the collection:

It’s a beautifully pigmented combination of Rose Gold / Boysenberry.  Yeah, I’m not really sure what a Boysenberry is either… Google Images was my friend.

In the pan, I thought it would be a touch too warm for me, but it works.

The only thing I’d be wary of is that the right hand side of the duo contains enough red to give you that “I’ve been crying for 7hrs” look.  If you usually struggle with these shades, I’d steer clear.  Thankfully, I look neither suicidal nor ill wearing this duo and the right hand side is amazing applied wet as a liner.

Finally…

Purple Rain (£13).  I’ve been hugely excited about this polish ever since I saw nail swatches on Scrangie’s blog.  I tried, but failed miserably at capturing how it truly looks in the bottle… the polish is practically dancing in there.  I can’t wait to do a NOTD with it.

The final item in the collection is D. Gorgeous (£16), a dusty lilac single eyeshadow.  Here’s a stock image:

D. Gorgeous (love the name!) is a matte shadow which got a lot of love at New York Fashion Week, especially applied under the lower lashline.  Uneducated pleb that I am, I keep looking at the images thinking… “Tsk, that makes her look like SO tired”.  I didn’t have this in my goody bag so can’t offer an alternative (more educated) view!

So, that’s my run-down of what NARS has to offer us this Spring.

The single thing that strikes me is that I’m favouring the pieces that on first look, didn’t draw me in.  The slightly brown-looking lipstick, a bright blue eyeliner and an “I’ve been sobbing” eyeshadow duo… whoulda thunk it.  Not me.

If you’re not sure the NARS Spring 2010 collection is for you, go have a play.  It’s left me pleasantly surprised.

I’ll leave you with a FOTD:

Eyes:

~ NARS Kuala Lumpur Eyeshadow Duo on the lidand blended underneath the lashline.
~ NARS Camargue Cream Duo blended up above the crease (washed out in this image sadly)

Cheeks:

~ NARS Crazed Blush
~ NARS Orgasm Illuminator (applied over blush, bridge of nose, cupids bow) – review coming later today!

Lips:

~ NARS Cruising Lipstick
~ NARS Ophelia Lip Gloss

All items from this collection are available at NARS counters nationwide and online.

What say you? Is anything from the NARS Spring 2010 Collection capturing your attention?

Back in the days of stumpgate, the wonderful Sirvinya kindly offered to send me a spare pack of her Nailene false nails that she’d received for review purposes.

I was tragically distraught at the state of my tips and would have ripped the packet out of her hands given half the chance.  Living a good many miles away from her she was saved that fate and I had to sit on my nails instead, waiting (impatiently) until the postman dropped them through my letterbox.

I’m not used to false nails, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve donned a set of these.  I remember one occasion, I’d not long met my soon-to-be husband… we were young and cavalier back then.  He lived over 300 miles away from me and we’d sneak weekends together whenever we got the chance.  My 19yr old self obviously wanted to look my best, and I invested in a set of falsies (nails not tits) from Superdrug.  I remember they were red. *roarrrr*

They kept falling off.  Before my coach had even arrived in County Durham, I’d re-stuck them on about 50 times.  The weekend was wonderful… we laughed, played Super Mario, drunk Lambrini and ate many slices of Salami pizza (you’ll be pleased to hear I’ve retained my classiness).  I was demure, elegant and altogether rather swishy.  That is until his mother told me a few years later that she’d found at least 6 of my stick-on red nails tangled in his bed sheets and thought her son had developed a “thing” for ladies of the night.

So, that was my very short lived affair with false nails… it was over as quickly as it had begun and I haven’t even considered them since.  Until now.

These sounded as if they’d be easy to apply… but judging from the instructions, I could tell that removal was gonna be a pain in the backside.

I was right on both counts!  I had no problems with application, no air bubbles, no visible glue, and boy do these buggers stick!  I couldn’t resist doing that thing before removing them… yano, the ‘lifting’ thing.. seeing how much strain I could put on them, waiting for that satisying popping sound as they broke free from my nail bed.  In hindsight, I’m freaking grateful it never came.  I mean, what the hell was I thinking?  It’s like spot-picking… you know you shouldn’t, but that doesn’t stop you.

Here they are in action:

They look… false, don’t they? Mannequin hands…  I didn’t like how they looked on me.  I have quite narrow nails, and these made my hands look pretty chunky and squat.  Sizing was the issue, I couldn’t find one narrow enough to fit my index fingers properly.  Can you tell?  In the first picture I think it’s obvious that the index fingernail is too big.  Not only that, but although it seemed to just about fit on the nail bed, I noticed that it started to hurt the cuticles about 12hrs later, so it was definitely too large.

Removal was… tedious.  Worse than tedious.  I soaked as instructed.  What I failed to realise was that my Sally Hansen Nail Polish Remover was coloured blue.  10 minutes of soaking later, I emerged from my dip bowl with blue fingers up the knuckles.  And they stayed that way for a couple of days.  I think I preferred stumpgate.

What can you take away from this review other than the fact that I’m an idiot who was once mistaken for a prostitute?

Well, the nails are fine… if you like the look of them.  They’re easy to apply, a bitch to remove and might not suit you if you have narrow nails.  Look… I could have just saved myself about 3204 words right there.

Nailene So Real False Nails are available… actually, I’m not sure where they’re available in the UK… Boots? Superdrug? If you’ve seen ’em let me know so I can update!

Can’t. stop. buying. these. lipsticks.

Seriously, at under £2 a pop you can afford to experiment, and although the Cherry Culture swatches are pretty naff… Google is your friend.

I bought 3 more with my last haul.  Actually, I think I bought 5… but 2 were Ronald McDonald reds so I gave them to someone who would look less like a serial killer in them.

These are the 3 I kept:

And here’s what they look like swatched “ON MAH FACE!”:

NYX Paris is my favourite, it’s a perfect pink for me… not too warm, not too cool.  Love it!  It’s glossy and smooth and doesn’t highlight my sore bits.

NYX B52 is a touch warm for me, but it’s not too bad.  Doesn’t look much like I expected it to, it’s a little darker on my skintone than I thought it would be.  Texture is great though.

I don’t understand this pout… is it even a pout?  What AM I doing?  Anyway… ignoring the stupid expression, NYX Power is akin to Revlon’s Pink Pout but without the dryness.  It’s not a total dupe, but it’s the nearest I’ve found for my skintone (yes, I know MAC Angel is a well-known dupe, but not on me).

With my love for cleansing oils fairly well documented, I was keen to try another in my (quite possibly) never-ending quest for the ‘perfect’ cleansing oil.

I want my oil to do 3 things…

1). Cleanse my skin (like, duh!)

2). Rinse clean leaving no oily residue.

3). Not dry my skin out.

There’s other stuff too like “smell nice”, “not break the bank”, “easy to dispense”, “look pretty in my bathroom”… but they’re secondary to my 3 Commandments of Cleansing Oils.

I was sent a bottle of Nude Cleansing Facial Oil for potential review and immediately liked it’s sleek, minimalistic exterior.  I am a sucker for packaging, and this ticks all the boxes for me.

Detergent free? So that’s SLS and the like which are well known culprits for stripping skin of moisture… good stuff!

The ingredients are listed as:

INGREDIENTS: glycine soja (soybean) oil, polyglyceryl-4-oleate (vegetable oil), squalene (olive oil), tocopherol acetate (plant sources), natural fragrance (parfum), benzyl benzoate (essential oil), linalool (essential oil), eugenol (essential oil)

The first thing I noticed was the quality of the ingredients… At £28 a bottle, this stuff isn’t cheap.  But if I think back to my SK-II, (which came in at a hefty £32) it’s central ingredient was mineral oil.  I commented then on how mineral oil is one of the cheapest substances on Earth and I’m delighted to see that Nude Skincare have stayed true to their Organic ethos by keeping their ingredients as natural and pure as possible.

On their website, Nude assert that…

Up to 70% of what we put onto our skin is absorbed into the blood stream. Our remarkable products work with the skin, using active ingredients that face and body can understand and use without harm.

I can get on board with that..

Packaging is 40% recycled plastic apparently and I have no quality issues to report.  The bottle is great for travel… I carted this up to the North East with me and didn’t experience any spillages.

The blurb says to dispense 1 or 2 pumps.. I don’t wear huge amount of makeup, but I don’t find 1 pump to be enough.  It’s quite a thick oil and doesn’t spread *that* easily.  2 pumps makes it easier to guide over my face, and if I’m wearing a smoky eye… then it needs to be 3, which is quite a lot compared to other oils.

When using this, I actually feel like I’m experiencing a ‘treatment’ rather than simply cleansing my face.  One of the reasons is the scent.  Quite strong and pungent, it’s inescapable.  If you’re not a fan of strong scents in your skincare products, then I’d think really carefully before purchasing this cleansing oil.  I’m a huge fan of the smell… it reminds me of something quite specific which you’d probably all laugh at, but which turns the whole experience into something a little more special than simply washing my makeup off.

I can’t really say that without telling you what it makes me think of can I?

OK… it reminds me of being a teenager at my parent’s home in France.  It reminds me of Autumn and of damp horse chestnuts scattered over the lanes… It reminds me of woodburners and the wood from those horse chestnut trees spitting as the resin gets caught by the flames.

Silly and very personal to me but I can only review on my experiences.  What’s useful for you to take away from that is the fact that scent-wise, I think you’d either love it or hate it.  Have a sniff of it next time you’re in Space NK and let me know what you think!

Because the oil is of a thicker, more viscous consistency, I find myself massaging it into my skin in little circles.  I do this without any real thought – it’s almost a subconscious action, and one that probably benefits my skin more than I appreciate.

What about cleansing though? Does it budge mascara, foundation, eye liners?  Yes… apart from when I use a particularly hard to budge eyeliner, I have no problems removing my makeup with this cleansing oil and my eyes suffer no sensitivity from wiping this over my eyelids.

It doesn’t emulsify as completely as I would like.  I’m finding this to be my main annoyance with most of the cleansing oils I’ve tried.  It (like many others) leaves a slightly oily feeling on my hands and face.  I don’t think it leaves a proper ‘residue’ per se, but my skin doesn’t have that squeaky clean feeling after rinsing off.  I need to second cleanse with another product when using this cleansing oil.

A huge plus point in it’s favour is that I’m not noticing this oil drying my skin out at all.  Compared to all the others I’ve tried and reviewed (DHC, Shiseido, SK-II, Smashbox) – this one leaves my skin feeling as soft and supple as promised.  I’m putting that down to those carefully selected ingredients.

So, Nude Cleansing Oil… are you my Holy Grail?  You *are* lovely and I have thoroughly enjoyed using you…. I love the feelings your scent invokes and the way you’ve quite unexpectedly turned my cleansing routine into a mini spa.  I just wish that you emulsified completely and were a little more affordable.

Pros: Beautifully Scented, Removes makeup well, Quality Ingredients, Great Packaging, Non-Drying & Luxurious to use

Cons: Doesn’t emulsify completely, Expensive

From L-R: Doll Pink, Ballerina Pink & Whipped

I’m love the NYX Round Lip Glosses, they’re fairly pigmented, non-sticky (can’t abide sticky glosses), pleasant smelling and affordable!  My only criticism is that they’re not particularly long-lasting… but most non-sticky glosses can’t last through lunch anyway.

Swatched: L-R: Doll Pink, Ballerina Pink & Whipped.

Do you like the NYX Round Lip Glosses?  What shades are your favourites?

I bought these from Cherry Culture.com and paid $2 a piece, at that price… you can’t go wrong.