A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Mavala Black Cherry is one of the shades I was sent from the upcoming Mystic Collection (available from January).

It’s a rich black shimmer infused with a cherry sparkle that isn’t quite red and isn’t quite purple.  The sparkle is very subtle and you have to be upclose with the polish to truly appreciate how much it lifts the polish from the realms of ‘just another black’.

Mavala Black Cherry is a solid 2-coater with a great formula that glides on without flooding the cuticles or suffering from drag.

Every dark Mavala shade I’ve tried looks positively amazing once the top coat is added.  Love it.

Apologies for the teeny tiny image, I’m gonna see if I can get hold of a bigger one once the holidays are over, but for now, I wanted to show you the Mystic Collection as a whole.  You can see that they’re all black based with varying degrees of coloured shimmer.

I also have Black Velvet (purple infused) and Mosaic Blue (blue infused) to swatch for you.  I’m ridiculously excited about Black Velvet which, in the bottle looks divine.

You can purchase Mavala polishes online from FeelUnique and GreenHands, they generally retail for around £3.75 for a 5ml bottle.

Do you like or are you getting tired of the dark shades? I must admit that I’m looking forward to Spring, although I don’t know why as I’m not sold on the pastelly shades that inevitably feature heavily in Spring collections.

I’m on eBay hunting down some of the Mavala Diamond collection from AW 09/10… I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve gone a little glitter crazy!

This has been on my wishlist for a while (dunno why, I still haven’t used the one I have in Milk yet)…

Anyway… I’m gonna try this out along the waterline to brighten my eyes.  It doesn’t feel quite so creamy as the one I have in white (Milk) which can only be a good thing to increase staying power.

It’s still very pale but has a bit of irridescence and lacks the starkness of Milk.

Will let you know how I get on!

I was eavesdropping on Twitter (as you do) and overheardread VexintheCity tell Cosmetic-Candy that Revlon Pink Pout was a reasonable dupe for MAC Angel.

“No it isn’t!” thinks I… “They’re completely different!”

So off I rush immediately to test out this theory! (as you do)

Left-Right: Pink Pout, Angel

I’m serving up my humble pie at this point….

They are simillar aren’t they?

So I swatch…

*sigh* I don’t like being wrong…

Dupe Alert!

but then… I apply…

L-R: Pink Pout, Angel

Woah there Nelly!  Pink Pout is… well… pink.  MAC Angel is distinctly beige-toned on my lips.

How on earth?

So there ya go.  Revlon’s Pink Pout is a definite dupe for MAC Angel (albeit a matte one) on everybody in the entire universe…

…except for me.

Now, what I want is a Revlon Pink Pout dupe that isn’t a moisture sucking matte… um… don’t say MAC Angel 😉

A few weeks ago, Cherry Culture tempted me with another 20% off sale (I think it was 20%, I can’t remember exactly)… anyway, my goodies arrived at the end of last week, packaged impeccably (as always).

Here’s what I got this time:

~ NYX Round Lip Glosses in: Ballerina Pink, Doll Pink and Whipped
~ NYX Round Lipsticks in: Electra, B52, Power, Paris and Snow White
~ Milani Blush in Luminous (supposed Orgasm dupe)
~ NYX Single Eyeshadow in: Dune, Herb, Sparkle Cedar and Golden Bronze
~ NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Cottage Cheese

Reviews, swatches etc coming up shortly but this little lot set me back £26 inc. postage (not bad huh?)

Have you been partaking in any hauls in the run up to Christmas or are you being good and spending your money on presents for other people?

PURE are a brand I know very little about although I’ve spied the mostly black packaging a few times whilst browsing in Boots.

The first products I noticed by the brand were the Kajal sticks, and I was tempted!  But to be honest, as an unknown quantity… I was loathe to part with any money ’till I’d read a bit more about the brand.

Well, of course that never happened… there’s simply too much makeup in the world worthy of spending my hard-earned cash on and something else equally tempting must have slipped into my line of vision and any thoughts of PURE were promptly dropped.

That is, until I was browsing the Debenhams website last week.

PURE was on sale (at 50% off the RRP) and I saw some eyeshadow duos that I liked the look of…

Pretty!

The packaging is sleek, compact and functional… it’s solidly built and nice to use.

I bought: Freedom, Nude Gold and Havana. (L-R)  I paid £4.25 each.

Nude Gold and Havana look somewhat simillar no?

Clockwise from TopLeft – Freedom, Nude Gold, Havana.

Nude Gold looks a little washed out in my swatch, but it’s equally as vibrant as Havana and Freedom.

I’m really pleased with my purchases, the shadows are smooth, well pigmented and contain a beautiful amount of shimmer without being too sparkly.

They last well without a base and blend easily.  There’s not much more you’d want is there?

My only disappointment is the shade selection, I think I’ve already bought all the ones I’d be interested in bar one – the others look pretty samey or just plain odd.

I’ll be much more willing to try the rest of the brand now though!

Are you a PURE fan?  What have you tried?  What do you want to try?

For the girl who has everything, priced at £15 each.

Click the image to go to the Nails Inc Christmas Shop.

They Say:

For the girl who has everything. Collect all 3 of these irresistible new shades with gorgeously glitzy crystal caps. These are the perfect stocking fillers and are the ultimate accessory for your dressing table. Snap up all 3 and treat someone to an extra special gift this year.

The shades available are:

Warwick Avenue – Soft Pale Pink
Henrietta Street – Deep Pink Red
Bow – Dark Purpler Shimmer

Special note for Mr. L:

*The girl who has everything*

This week feels like it’s dragging… and it’s only Tuesday!!  Let’s have a quick Eye of the Day for a few minutes distraction…

Eyes:

Inner Corner: B Never Too Busy… – B Delight
Lid: BarryM – #88 Winter Berry
Crease: E.L.F Mineral Eyeshadow – Royal
Outer V: NYX Ultra Pearl Mania – Charcoal
Mascara: Rimmel Sexy Curves – Black
Eyeliner (1st Layer): MAC Fluidline – Silverstroke
Eyeliner (2nd Layer): eBay Infinity Liner – Black

Don’t know if it’s the ‘right’ thing to do, but I love layering my eyeliner like this.  I’m a total eyeliner fiend and have so many, it’s surely the only way I’ll ever get through them all!

Seriously, it’s a great way to wear a pop of bright colour along the lashline, without commiting yourself to making a statement with it.  I often wear gold and blue eyeliners in this way.

Ok, that distraction worked for about 40seconds… hurry up Hump Day!

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?

Yeah, it’s green… I don’t “do” green, but when I was getting my hair cut I saw the salon were offering two bottles for £10 and I didn’t want any more reds/pinks.

After 4 coats (yes, 4) I surveyed my new fungal fingers and sighed.  I don’t “do” green.  It was time for bed, so I resigned myself to the fact that I’d be wearing it the next day (of which I spent the majority hiding my nails).

It’s a very yellow green, like a muted chartreuse…it applies nicely and dries fairly quickly.  As I noted, it takes 4 coats to achieve opacity and dries with a glossy semi-sparkly finish.

The following evening I didn’t have time for a full mani, so in the hope of toning it down a little, I applied a coat of Nail Tek Foundation II to give it a matte finish.  The photo shows the mani after mattifying.

Nail Tek Foundation II works really well as a matte top coat, although I find that it definitely needs a squirt of quick-dry spray ontop as I had difficulty keeping it smudge free.

Do you wear greens?  What are your favourites? And do you say “ohpee” or O.P.I? (I’m sure I’ve asked that before)

UPDATE 13/11/2009

SmartBeautyShop have now revised their shipping prices to be based on weight.

Up to 100g will cost £1.78, over 400g: £2.64 and so on.

Good stuff SmartBeautyShop!

I’ve had a few emails and DMs on Twitter with regards to buying NYX Cosmetics in the US.  I’m aware that NYX is starting to be more readily available in the UK at sites such as SmartBeautyShop which is fantastic!  No more worries about import duty, long shipping times etc…

but…

Let me give you a little run down of the costs involved here…

SmartBeautyShop doesn’t have the Round Lipglosses in stock, so I’ll exclude that item from both baskets.

Let’s do Cherry Culture first:

That’s my shopping list (minus the lipgloss).  The exchange rate conversion is correct as of 24/10/2009 and I’ve actually rounded *up* the values to the nearest 5 pence. E.g. The Jumbo Eyeshadow was actually £1.82

I haven’t included it in the shopping list total, but I also used a 20% discount code… so my eventual bill was closer to £22.

Now whilst I’m happy to pay Import Duty… I object to paying Royal Mail an £8 handling fee ontop of this, so I endeavour to avoid crossing the Import Duty threshold which is £18.

My goods order (inc. lipgloss and discount code) came to: £16.10 so I had a clear margin for exchange rate fluctuation.  You don’t include the cost of shipping in the £18 calculation… however, HMRC will include the cost of shipping in calculating the duty to be paid by you if your order value exceeds £18.  Does that make sense?  It confuses the hell out of me!

Ok, now that we’re all completely confudgeulated… let’s take the simpler route and shop for NYX in the UK!

Hoorah!

Um..

£56.95?

*double checks*

Um…

Are you freakin’ kidding me?

No, no there it is… 4 lippies, 6 eyeshadows and a Jumbo Pencil… oh and shipping.

Wait a minute? £7.50 for Royal Mail Inland postage?

But that’s more expensive than Cherry Culture all the way from the US?  And I personally consider Cherry Culture to be a little pricey on shipping!

Now, I do understand that SmartBeautyShop et al have to mark prices up… of course they do!  They’re importing from the US, they’re the middle men… they have overheads that are much greater than Cherry Culture’s.

They can charge what they want… but you won’t see me buying NYX in the UK anytime soon that’s for sure.

Confusion over international shipping or not… there’s no way I’m gonna justify paying over double for the simplicity of shopping this side of the pond.

How about you?  Will you be buying NYX in the UK now that it’s becoming more available?  Or saving up your pennies for US orders?

You’ve already seen the lipsticks from my Cherry Culture NYX haul…

Now it’s time for the eye shadows!

I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I’d heard such good things that I didn’t think I’d be disappointed but I wasn’t prepared to be quite so delighted either!

I stuck to what I consider to be great Autumn/Winter shades for me… Purples, Plums, Golds and Greys.  I was tempted by some brighter more Spring-like shades… but I’ll save them for my next haul 😉

Here’s the swatches (applied dry over UDPP):

My favourites are Eggplant, Golden, Champage and Charcoal…

Rust is an amazingly pigmented shade… it’s a touch too red for my taste but I’ve got it coming up in my next FOTD so you’ll get a clearer idea of how it looks on the eye.

I read up on a few forums about Champagne, and it was often suggested as a nice highlight.  Damn my paleness ‘cos it’s too dark to use as a highlight for me… it will be a gorgeous shade for a quick wash of colour though – still pleased I bought it.

Red Bean Pie looked fantastic on the site and doesn’t disappoint in real life.  It’s basically Eggplant but with more plummy/red tones to it.

Eggplant is gorgeously metallic, it’s simillar to Red Bean Pie, but a little more purpley.

I never use black in the crease, it’s just too harsh for my skintone so I’m always on the lookout for nice greys and Charcoal is the loveliest crease colour for me.  I’m very happy I chose it.

Last but by no means least is Golden – stunning… proper metallic, highly pigmented.. just beautiful!

I’m not disappointed by a single shadow.

I also bought this little beauty…

The much talked about Jumbo Pencil in Milk which is the creamiest, brightest white ever!  I know that it’s most often used as a base… but with my creasey creasey eyelids I’m actually gonna attempt to put it to work as an under the brow highlighter!  I’ll let you know how it fares…

Can I get a little feedback on my swatches?  I’m not particularly confident with swatching… I think they’re pretty colour accurate…  Let me know if you ever want a particular shade of anything I swatch incorporated into a FOTD, sometimes things just look different in a swatch than when put into context on the face – or maybe that’s just me?

Victoria is a perfect Autumn/Winter deep claret shade.  Application was fine, the above shows 2 coats.

I have a problem with this polish though.  Can you see where it’s semi-sheer in places?  Mainly visible near the cuticles.  Very frustrating.

A third coat would probably have fixed this… but for such a deep shade I wouldn’t have expected to have to apply so many!

Lovely colour, but I bet this shade is available from other brands with a better formula.