A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

If you ever had reason to think that beige is boring, think again.  Clinique have recently released a lovely, understated collection of nail polishes that range from the palest skin-suiting shade right up to the darkest.  In addition to these eight new limited-edition nail polishes, there’s also an eye shadow palette featuring another eight complimentary neutrals.

Focusing first on the eyeshadow palette, the limited edition All About Shadow Neutral Territory 2 Palette (£32.00/€39.00) includes an essential wardrobe of work-friendly neutrals, from the softest sparkling white right through to the smokiest dark brown.  The textures are soft and blendable with a creaminess that belies their powder form.

The first five shades in the palette (from left-to-right) contain a very subtle shimmer that reflects a luminosity rather than a glitter but the final three, darker shades, are the ones that will carry your look from day into night, featuring a (slightly) more prominent sparkle.

The palette contains a large mirror and applicator with a sponge tip on one end and a blending brush on the other.  As much as I take issue with sponge tips, I won’t deny that the addition of a brush on the other end does ensure that you can get a decent application without carrying your own arsenal of tools around with you.

One thing that I haven’t mentioned yet is the size of the palette.  As much as I love my Urban Decay Naked Palettes, I find them far too big to offer any kind of portability.  This one is small enough to pop in a handbag with ease.  Most interestingly, despite its minute size, each pan contains more product (gram for gram) than the Naked Palette, although the Naked palette offers a total of twelve pans to Clinique’s eight.

Now, onto the new, limited edition A Different Nail Enamel (£12.00/€16.00) shades…

I’ve got two of the eight shades to show you, so naturally, I swatched one shade on each hand!  The colours that I received are almost similar enough in shade depth to get away without anyone noticing I’m sporting completely different polishes on each hand!

First up is the lighter of the two: Peek A Boo, I See You which is described as a nude peach.  I’m not sure I’d agree with that description… in my experience, peaches tend to be a lot warmer in tone and this one isn’t quite warm enough to qualify in my opinion.  Having said that, for me, this is no bad thing as it complements my pale skin-tone beautifully.  It gives a soft, clean finish that’s effortlessly chic and lengthens my fingers.

Following this is the next tone darker in the collection: Birthday Suit.  It’s a slightly deeper version of the above with just the tiniest hint of a mocha hue.  Both polishes took three coats for a smooth application, but each covered easily without pooling in the cuticles or any other application issues.

What do you think?  Does the collection offer enough interest for you to be tempted or are you of the opinion that beige really is boring?

The Clinique 16 Shades of Beige Collection is available to buy online from clinique.co.uk now.  Alternatively, the collection will roll out across Clinique counters nationwide from the 7th February.  I imagine the eyeshadow palette might sell out pretty quickly though!

* press sample

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On Thursday evening I unzipped my purse and shook it’s contents onto the desk infront of me.

Once the dust had settled and the moths had flown off to pastures new, I discovered that I had just enough left for one polish (we’ll ignore the little Chanel haul that spontaneously occurred the next day).

There was really only one polish the money could have been reserved for…

Butter London‘s All Hail McQueen!  A neutral beige/nude shade with a ton of holographic sparkle!  Ok, so it’s not the most sparkliest holographic in the world… but when the sun catches it, it sure is purdy!

Plus, I don’t own a beige holographic polish… are there any others about?

The formula on this polish is a joy.  Thin, smooth and heavily pigmented… 2 careful coats will give you enough opacity to lose the visible nail line, three will give you a perfect finish.  Thanks to the thin formula, drying time is great aswell.

I’ve just gone back to Zuneta (who delivered blisteringly quickly btw!) to pick up Victoriana.  I’m sorely tempted by Marrow too, heck, I’ve been banging on about it since NYFW… but the swatches I’ve seen so far are holding me back.  It’s lost that dusky, durgy quality the Vena Cava mix had.

Anyway, what do you think of All Hail McQueen?

I need to get my hands on more of these!  Especially Night Life and Hit That… but, they’re discontinued.  I’m stalking eBay… and I’m on a mission.

For now, I have this one to show you…

Rimmel Play Fast in Street Wear got picked up for obvious greige-y type reasons.  Please ignore the art stamp on my ring finger.  It’s where I got accosted at The Clothes Show by some bloke who didn’t know what he was doing and ruined my manicure with a shoddily applied topcoat and distinct lack of charm.  Dick.

Street Wear is a pale grey/beige which reminds me of Orly’s Country Club Khaki.  It’s a 3 coater and a little gloopy, possibly down to it’s age… I shall try adding a touch of thinner to the bottle before using it again.  It contains a subtle (but beautful) rose gold shimmer that picks up when the sunlight hits it.

Overall, it’s a nice addition to my collection… but ultimately not a must have.  Wear is good but once it sets in, the polish ages quickly and unevenly.

And that, my friends… is that!

I know some of you don’t dig the grey/beige thing, but every greige polish I’ve picked up thus far has suited my complexion beautifully, so I’m hooked.

This is Nails Inc’s latest offering: Lennox Gardens (£15)… and I’m in lurrrrrve.  Well I would be… if they took the stupid ‘crystals’ off and lowered the price by a fiver.

Sludgey poo in a bottle or the epitome of understated elegance, what d’ya reckon?

I awoke to a surprise parcel last Saturday…

Courtesy of a very sweet friend, this beautiful chocolate milk of a nail polish now holds pride of place in my collection.  I’d been lemming Zoya Pasha for the best part of a year and with such long-term longings inevitably comes a touch of pedestal placement!  I have to say, it didn’t disappoint.

3 coats for a smooth finish, Pasha is a silvery milk chocolate with a slight metallic sheen.  It applied beautifully with no dragging at the cuticles, my only slight issue was with a couple of bubbles which I think had more to do with my impatience at wanting to see it applied, like NAO! as opposed to any formula problems.

I’m so happy to finally have this in my hands, thank you liloo – your generosity delighted me and I may have been bitten by the Zoya bug!

I have a couple of GOSH brushes which I love and picked up on a 3for2 last year in Superdrug, but I haven’t ventured any further into the GOSH range than that, until now.

After discovering my love for bare coloured polishes (but not Nails Inc.) I picked up GOSH Nail Polish in shade ‘Ginger’ to try out.  I also picked up ‘Tangerine’ but that’s for another day!

It’s a very pretty shade with a subtle but definite shimmer, it’s not particularly ‘ginger’ as far as I’m concerned.

Application was a dream in comparison to Nails Inc., this is a solid 2 thin coater which builds up a lovely solid opacity.   The consistency is smooth and runny enough to allow for quick drying between the two coats.  I’m seriously impressed.  It doesn’t have a hugely glossy finish despite the shimmer, but that’s nothing that a top coat doesn’t put right.

I’ll definitely be heading back to the GOSH range for some more colours for the summer.  Great stuff!

GOSH Nail Polishes are priced at £4.89 each and available from Superdrug.

[starreview tpl=14]

Did you grab June’s InStyle magazine yet?  I did and I’m currently sporting my new nails.

The magazine shelf at Asda had been ransacked and I could only find Coral and Bare (typically I wanted Berry), but no matter, I grabbed Bare as I totally wouldn’t be able to carry off the super bright Coral colour.

Here it is!

It’s a really, really lovely soft colour – milky beige with a hint of pink.  And that’s where the compliments end.

Applying it reminded me of when I used to paint my nails with Tippex in school science classes.  It was a chalky, draggy nightmare!

I have no other experience with Nails Inc. as a brand, and wonder whether the quality was lowered for this huge InStyle promotion.  I don’t know if that’s usual practice – but if it is, how stoopid?  It’s left me pretty uninterested in ever picking up another Nails Inc. product.

As I’ve said before, my application skills suck (I’m slowly getting better though!) – and this looks like the worst I’ve ever done.  Up close, you can really see the drag marks at the base of the nail and the cleaning up I had to do after drying took me longer than painting did (2 coats btw).

It doesn’t look so bad here, but trust me it is.  I don’t know if paler colours are less forgiving – so that may make a difference.

The quality of the brush also left a lot to be desired, I had to snip the end a little to make the bristles align.  Surely, this must just because it’s a free promotional item – you wouldn’t pay £10.50 RRP for polish like that or are Nails Inc. incredibly over-rated?  I dunno, but thanks to the shoddy 1st impression I’m curious but not inclined to spend money on their products to find out.

Any reader opinions on Nails Inc. would be appreciated – tell me I’ve got it all wrong, or save me from my curiosity and let me know that YES, Nails Inc. are indeed overrated.

Shame, cos I really do love that colour.

[starreview tpl=23]

I was browsing the shelves of my local Boots looking for something to spend my latest ‘£2 off’ till spit on, when I spotted Bourjois’ So Laque! Nail Polish claiming to last up to 7 days thanks to the extra vinyl – woohoo!

I plumped for the Beige Glamour colourway, thinking I should go for something a little more conservative than the teal I was sporting that day…

So Laque! is currently on offer in Boots down to £3.37 from £5.37, so now is a great time to try out some new shades and if you’re organised enough not to have dumped the ‘£2 off’ till spit from last month, you can pick one of these varnishes up for a super purse friendly £1.37!

There weren’t that many shades available in my local store, but the Boots website claims to have 11 shades on offer:

I’m really liking Bleu Mysterieux and Rouge Diva in particular for my pale pink-toned skin (although those weren’t available in my little Boots).

Consistency of Beige Glamour is very thick but smooth and not at all gloopy, there’s no sheerness about this polish and you could easily get enough coverage from a single coat to achieve a nice opaque finish.

 The downside is that it’s pretty unforgiving to any mistakes that you may make with applying.  I actually preferred the colour I achieved from one coat as the 2nd turned the beige finish a deeper brown but my application skills demanded a second coat to achieve the glass-like finish I was after.  Definitely not one to apply whilst making the morning commute by train!

Drying time was perfectly acceptable and there’s not a hint of streakiness, super matt perfection!

I’m not sure I’d pay the RRP of £5.37 for Bourjois So Laque!, not when there’s so many other great brands out there vying for my attention – this polish hasn’t wowed me, but if it lives up to it’s 7 day wear promise then I’ll definitely be picking up some more shades while they’re still available at £3.37 each.

Review value rating is against the full RRP price.

[starreview]