A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Have magnetic polishes become the new crackle top coats yet? Are we bored of them? Nails Inc. hope not because they’ve just released their newest shade: Whitehall.

Whitehall is a teal green/blue that offers complete coverage in a single coat. Not, almost complete – fully complete. This was one of the quickest manicures I’ve done in ages, quick drying too – it literally took me around 10 minutes tops from start to finish.

I’m not sure if you can make out from the above photo but this one dried to a fairly matte finish compared to some of the other magnetic polishes I’ve tried in the past.  It’s a striking combination on the nails and I didn’t encounter any magnet mishaps – the results were pretty consistent from nail to nail.

Ultimately, this is one of the better magnetic polishes I’ve tried – I’m not sure if this shade is available cheaper from the other brands (17, FashionistA etc) but I haven’t got any moans about the Nails Inc. version!

Nails Inc. Magnetic Polish in Whitehall is available to buy online from Nails Inc. priced at £13.00 (ouch).

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Orly Rock It is a sparkling sherry from the Mineral FX Collection that appeared earlier this year. It’s an impressive concoction that is packed full of dimension and light-play as the flecks dance on your fingertips.

In some ways, Orly Rock It reminds me of a flakie with it’s subtle golden duochrome and packed shimmer but without actually containing flakes… I know that makes better sense in my head than it does on the blog but hopefully the picture demonstrates a little of what I’m talking about.

You should also know that the picture makes it look less dimensional than it really is because of the flash lighting.  It’s December, sigh… it’s the best I can do when it gets dark so early!

Orly Rock It is available to buy online from BeautyBay.com, priced at £7.50

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NARS Holiday Collection didn’t catch my eye as readily as some of the other recent collections, but as a long-time fan of the brand’s Multiples, I have to admit that my curiosity was piqued by the new shade G-Spot.

The name… it’s atrocious isn’t it.  Thankfully though, the product… isn’t.

A rosy flush with a subtle golden edge that applies smoothly and blends effortlessly with either fingers or a brush – it’s a lazy girl’s dream.  I haven’t experienced any issues with application despite trying it over mineral, liquid and cream foundation in an attempt to pick some holes in the formula.

Compared to some of my other NARS multiples, I find my G-Spot (har har) to be quite silky (oh stop it already)…

In all seriousness though, this is a great shade with a solid formula, usefully packaged and easy to use.  I’ve sampled a couple of items from the Holiday Collection and this is the absolute stand-out-if-you-get-one-NARS-item-get-this-one.  Got it?

NARS G-Spot Multiple is available online or on counter, priced at £29.00

Are you a NARS Multiple fan?

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This striking pewter polish is from the Orly Birds of a Feather collection that was released for this Autumn/Winter.  It’s a beautiful grey with silver flecks that gives it a stunning metallic effect without the usual brushstroke issue that actual metallic polishes present.

Fully opaque in two coats with absolutely no application issues, this is a cracking polish for Autumn/Winter and one that I recommend you have in your collection.  Flawless.

Orly Sea Gurl is available to buy online at BeautyBay.com, priced at £6.95

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I’m not generally a fan of jelly nail polishes… they have to be quite special to turn my head. I like a nod to a jelly finish, infact, one of my favourite Butter London polishes has a slight jelly edge (Come to Bed Red) but in general, I’ll take a creme finish any day.

Orly Fowl Play from the Autumn/Winter Birds of a Feather collection contains a myriad of multi-colour flake, glitter and sparkle in a purple jelly base.  I love the razz but am just not digging that base which always looks kinda… unfinished to my eye.

The simple answer is to layer it over a cream polish, which is exactly what I’ve been doing… just one coat over a black looks incredible but for the sake of swatching, I’m showing it to you in it’s 3-coat glory over a bare nail.

Orly Fowl Play is available to buy online from BeautyBay.com, priced at £6.95

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How magnificently cute are these?

Not only cute, but pretty darn affordable too at £7-a-piece.  Keep the packaging as a tree decoration whilst bubbling up the contents (a 3-in-1 shampoo, shower gel & bubble bath) in your bathroom.

Choose between: Gingerbread Girl, Snow Angel and Peppermint Bark – but be quick because Philosophy Christmas sets are always in high demand and usually sell out pretty quickly.

Available to buy instore at Boots who are also currently offering 1000 points when you buy 3 or more selected Philosophy

Eat well, look good and smell great are my commandments for Christmas.  Eat well can be resolved by stuffing your face with a few extra mince pies, look good?  Easy – just pile on enough makeup (artfully of course), to conceal the cracks on the moon.

As for smelling great, well you could always ask Father Christmas (not Santa, we don’t say Santa in my house) for this Luxe Bath Essentials set from NEOM.  The scent is Refresh — an invigorating Sicilian Lemon with Fresh Basil combination that manages to be delicious without being foody!

Included in the two-piece set is all you need to turn your bathroom into a mini-spa.  Lock the door — deadbolt the bugger if a family member has had a curry in the past 48hrs — and pour a couple of capfuls of the bath oil into the tub.  Light the candle, relax and luxuriate whilst imagining yourself a thousand miles away on a hillside lemon orchard.  Screw reality, just don’t drown.

NEOM’s Refresh: Luxe Bath Essentials set is available to buy online at a currently reduced price of £39.00 – visit their website for more details about their range of luxury organics.

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The most important thing that you need to know about this is that it’s currently on offer at half price in Sainsburys.  There’s also a bigger-sized one that was priced up at £20 down from £40 when I passed the shelf earlier this week.

Sadly, I don’t have the details on that one so will concentrate on the one pictured below which is a smaller option currently priced at a ridiculously good £7.50 (regularly £15.00).

The set contains:

Tropical Blooms Moisturising Shower Gel (175ml)
Tropical Blooms Softening Body Cream (50ml)
Tropical Blooms Nourishing Hand Cream (50ml)
Spa Getaway Gentle Cleansing Wipes 25 wipes
Body Polisher
Travel Bag

As a sister brand to Elemis, the supermarket-priced range is receiving some rave reviews across the blogosphere, one of my favourites comes from the lovely Yinka over at VexintheCity.  I haven’t picked anything up yet, but she has me lemming the Amber range like a woman possessed.

Have you tried any products from Mandara Spa?

A couple of years back, I stayed at the Les Trois Rois hotel in Basel, the penthouse suite no-less and there’s a video of me (Mr. L keeps threatening to YouTube it), running around the suite (it’s not pretty – I was 6 months pregnant), all breathless and getting hugely excited (as only a peasant would) over the fruit displays, cinema screen TV and private rooftop jacuzzi.

But the thing that got me squealing most of all in the video were the 5 bathrooms, each filled with full-size Molton Brown products.  Infact, so decadent was it that I didn’t steal a single bottle to take home – it just felt too naughty.  I still curse that angel sitting on my shoulder – I could have at least decanted a bit from each bottle right?  Clearly, I’m only devious with the benefit of hindsight.

Which is why I would be rather pleased were I to receive this set of Molton Brown shower gels for Christmas.  Take that stupid angel!

The Spectrum Set contains 6 x 100ml bath & shower gels which include the scents: energising seamoss; relaxing yuan zhi; travel-reviving cempaka; re-charge black pepper; warming eucalyptus and invigorating suma ginseng.

Priced at £36 and available to buy online from moltonbrown.co.uk

Do you steal hotel toiletries?

My hair is prone to breakage, and thanks to my PCOS – there isn’t as much of it as I would like which means that I have to be very careful when detangling my hair not to end up with more on the brush than on my head.  I currently use my Tangle Teezer on wet hair and my Mason Pearson on dry hair.

I attended the launch of a new product from internationally acclaimed hairdresser Michel Mercier, a new detangling hair brush available in three varieties, each suited to a different hair type.  To choose the right brush for your hair, you simply need to check which colour you’re picking up:  Pink = Fine Hair, Green = Normal Hair, Blue = Thick or Afro Hair.  The difference between the three varieties lies in the flexibility of the bristles used.  The coarser the hair type, the more rigid the bristles need to be in order to combat the tangles.

The brush is made up of a patented system which involves placing 428 bristles (who wants to count ’em?) positioned at different heights across the surface with a unique geometric distribution which helps to disperse the pressure placed on hair during brushing.

But does it work, and is it better than the Tangle Teezer?

Michel Mercier Detangling Brush*

I found that it works very well for detangling my hair, especially when my hair was dry but the efficiency came at a cost.  The Mercier Brush gave me more discomfort during use than the Tangle Teezer.  However, it really couldn’t be faulted for it’s rapid detangling properties… I often find that the Tangle Teezer misses tangles on the underside of my hair thanks to its very flexible bristles – the Mercier’s bristles are stronger, I think this will prove very popular for those with thick hair.

Sadly, I experienced more breakage with this one than my Tangle Teezer, probably just because it was more effective and gave me more discomfort but I’d rather have to section my hair to detangle than lose it on the brush.

Tangle Teezer

I was also hoping for better things from the Michel Mercier design.  The Tangle Teezer is notorious for flying out of unsuspecting hands thanks to the rubbish grip it offers.  At first glance, you’d think that the Michel Mercier solves this with the inclusion of a chunky handle but sadly, the handle has quite a strong taper which means that it doesn’t feel as secure as I would have liked.

Overall it’s a real mixed bag.  If my hair were stronger and thicker, I’d probably prefer it to my Tangle Teezer but as things stand, it’s back to my Tangle Teezer/Mason Pearson combination for the time being.

The Michel Mercier Detangling Brush is priced at £14.95, and available from www.michelmercier.co.uk and selected salons

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If the Met Office is to be believed, we’re ‘in for it’ (technical description) this Winter, I hope so anyway… I’ve just bought some bargain sledges in anticipation of blizzard-y snow and icicle snots.

There are thankfully a billion things to make up for the fact that we’ll only achieve around 6 hours of sunshine from now until February — Pringles, Quality Streets, and Christmas episodes of Eastenders would feature heavily on my list, but another thing that melts my frozen heart are the Winter fragrances that I can splash on with abandon.

Here are my TOP FIVE Winter Perfumes to ward off the big chill…

1. L’Artisan Parfumeur: Tea for Two EdT (£78.00)

Black tea, honey and an aromatic smokiness that encourages deep, long sniffs with your nose buried in your sleeve.  Most of my perfumes are unisex because I’m developing expensive tastes and I find it much easier to justify my purchases when I remind Mr. L that we can *both* use them.  It’s not true of course, as I hide them behind my scarves in my wardrobe.

Tea for Two also contains a ginger note which doesn’t present itself very well on my skin.  I consider Tea for Two to be a less-sweet, slightly less boozy version of Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille.  Longevity is grand on this one but it wears close to my skin – all the better for sniffing yourself with.

2. La Prairie: Life Threads Gold EdP (£74.00 – currently £59.95 at Cheap Smells) *

La Prairie’s Life Threads Gold is a force to be reckoned with thanks to its retro leanings and powerful floriental heart.  If you like people to smell you before they see you, this one could have your name written all over it.  Notes include (are you ready?): Plum, clove, tangerine, pepper, cinnamon, corriander, rose, lily of the valley, ylang ylang, vanilla, musk, golden myrrh and precious woods.

It’s as unapologetic as it is striking – go big or go home.  Perfect for the cold weather.

I implore you to go sniff this one out – as a girly/womanly type fragrance, it’s hard to beat.  I cut my teeth on Hypnotic Poison and it harks back to all I loved about that fragrance, but this one feels like it’s for grown ups.

3. Fendi: Fan di Fendi EdP (£39.50) *

The majority of my Winter fragrant love affairs evoke a smoke, leather and amber accord that carries me away to warmer, more exotic climes.  Fan di Fendi is a kitten by comparison, rendering it very work-appropriate whilst still containing a hint to my usual leanings.

The leather base is apparent though not rough-and-ready, as if struggling to make up its mind between dominatrix and classy handbag lady.  I detect a twist of the Mediterannean thanks to a freshness from some fruity notes which include tangerine.  Silage is decent, particularly when those initial top fruity/floral notes present but it quickly calms down into a calmer experience.

4. Bottega Veneta: Bottega Veneta EdP (£42.00) *

Elegance and sophistication with a clean, smooth leather that evokes the joy of sniffing luxury leather accessories.  And so it should, coming from Bottega Veneta — purveyors of luxury handbags.  A quiet soul of a scent, work appropriate without losing the edge that sets it apart from the competition.

The leather is gentle, almost suede-like with an initial hit of citrus to remind you of its Italian heart.  It’s most similar to the Fendi but with an altogether more sophisticated personality.  It doesn’t try hard, it doesn’t have to — it’s like that girl you know who manages to ooze grace without even knowing it.

5. Parfums d’Empire: Ambre Russe (£84.50)

Perhaps the ultimate in decadence, a king of a fragrance with a boozy, amber accord that transcends all earthly dimensions.  A little goes a long way and will leave those in your company searching the room for the source of this scent that offers up a kindly lesson in “how the hell to smell amazing”.

You can’t read anything about this scent without the mentions of Tsarist Russia and that’s because you can’t wear this scent without being transported to one of those onion-domed churches, incense burning while the blizzard roars outside.  Throw in a booziness that would make vodka-loving Russians (stereotype much?) blush and you’re getting close to the experience that wearing this powerhouse offers.

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What are your favourite scents to get you through the cold Winter ahead?

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Nubar, your duochromes make my world a prettier place.  Nubar Wildlife is beautifully named as it twinkles between an earthy brown and foresty green depending on which way the light catches it.

The formula builds nicely after the first coat and the above photo shows that two coats were needed for an opaque finish, really impressive stuff.  I did get a teeny chip on my thumbnail after a day, which is unusual for me – but when a polish is as pretty as this one, you can forgive it nearly anything.

You can keep your Models Own Beetle(notveryjuicy)Juice polishes, these Nubars are still where it’s at.

Buy Nubar Wildlife online at BeautyBay.com, priced at a bargainous £5.50