A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Like a four year old with a brand new craft set, I’ve finally gotten to grips with my nail striping tapes that I bought about a million years ago before promptly relegating to the back of a drawer.

You see, when I first applied BarryM’s Gelly polish in Papaya, I didn’t really like it… it’s not quite as “peachy” as I was hoping for, a little too bright against my pale skintone. Especially for a school day.

So, I grabbed a muted green polish and with the help of a few strips of tape, managed to create quite the neatest lines I’ve ever accomplished!  Go me!  This was all a complete fluke you understand, even the fact that the colours kinda go together was not part of a greater master plan.  I simply got lucky.

Doesn’t it look nice though?  If you don’t Pinterest the shit out of it, I’m not talking to any of you again.

Don’t own any nail striping tape?  Oh, you should!!  It’s only taken me a couple of years to get round to using it… I bought mine on eBay.  Next time, I’ll actually try leaving the tape ON the nail… but you know, baby steps…

Are you sporting any nail art at the moment?

I don’t do many ‘haul’ posts, I don’t think they’re quite as popular in the blogosphere as they used to be?  Taken over by beauty box posts perhaps?

Anyway, I’ve been having a bit of a high-street love-in this past week and in the town where I’m currently staying, I’m limited to a Boots and a Superdrug – the Superdrug is a good ‘un, the Boots store massively blows but I did spot a good discounted section at the back that I didn’t have a chance to check out.  My LUSH purchases came from my local store in Southampton just before I drove up North. Um, that’s about it really – here’s what’s prompted me to open my purse this week!

When you’ve got a full fringe, dry shampoo is your friend and I thought I’d give Batiste Cherry a spin, I usually go for the original, dark, or tropical but I think this one is my new favourite.  I’m a massive fan of Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation and surprised myself when I realised that I hadn’t given the Healthy Mix Serum version a go – again, this is a big hit with me (so far).  I think it suits my dryer skin even better and gives a slightly more translucent coverage.  The only gloss that I’ve ever repurchased is BarryM’s Lip Gloss in Toffee, it’s a wonderful colour with a pretty amount of shimmer and a non-sticky texture, I love it!

As for my LUSH dabble, I picked up another holy grail in the form of Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter, it’s the one I keep in my handbag and I generally alternate between this and CND’s Solar Oil which I use immediately after painting my nails.  I was sent a bottle of LUSH 9 to 5 Cleansing Lotion a few weeks ago and whilst I’ve been enjoying using it, it hasn’t set my world alight you know?  I’m not really expecting LUSH Ultrabland to either, but I wanted to try another cleanser to discover the differences and to see which one I lean towards in terms of formula, as they’re both quite different.  Finally, I picked up a bath bomb for Leila – yes, it’s Space Girl.  Yes, it contains copious amounts of glitter.  No, I didn’t have a say in the selection and yes, I will be the one left cleaning the bath.

What was the last beauty product you snapped up?

A bright, strong… vivid blue creme.  Perfect for tips or toes this Summer!

A solid two-coater, a great all rounder with average wear of 2/3 days before the tips start looking a bit ragged.  No chips but as I’ve said many times… I don’t generally suffer from poor nail wear.

It feels like a very clean colour that is somehow almost sensible enough to wear in the office.  Of course, being BLUE it isn’t.  But it just gives an impression of formality.  That makes more sense in my head than it does on this page.

But the thing is… surely it’s incredibly dupable?  And at £11.95, you’d hope it might be…

I went and bought BarryM‘s Cobalt Blue to compare because I figured it would probably be the nearest match (off the top of my head):

In the above photo, I’m wearing Cobalt Blue on the little and middle fingers whilst I’m sporting Blagger on my index and ring fingers.  They’re similar but Blagger has a teal edge to it and isn’t quite so “primary” blue after all.

What do you think?  Is the difference worth £8.96?

You can purchase Butter London Blagger online from PowderRooms priced at £11.95

With all this Chanel vs. BarryM nail polish dupe talk… how could I possibly have resisted CHARGING down my local Superdrug as fast as my fat little trotters could carry me (ok, I drove) before scooping up a bottle of BarryM’s new nail polish sensation Dusky Mauve to compare for myself?

Well I couldn’t.  Hence this post – duh.

So is it?  Isn’t it?

It most certainly is.

BarryM’s Dusky Mauve Nail Paint is a practically perfect dupe for Chanel’s Paradoxal – I’ll let the photos do the talking.

When Bazza met Coco… *cue music*

The only teeniest, tiniest difference between the two is that I feel the BarryM version may have a touch more sparkle in direct sunlight… but I’m not even 100% confident on that.

If you had wanted to indulge in Chanel’s Paradoxal but couldn’t quite stretch to the £16.50 required to do so… put those pennies towards the £2.95 dupe of the year and head down to Superdrug for BarryM’s Dusky Mauve instead.  No one will be able to tell the difference.

If your local Superdrug/Boots are out of stock, don’t forget that you can also buy BarryM’s Dusky Mauve Nail Paint online from the BarryM website which ships internationally.

Like a moth to the proverbial flame, I found myself in my local backwater Boots yesterday afternoon and they had just put out their latest delivery of BarryM.

Being the dedicated beauty blogger that I am *cough* and remembering that some of you are struggling to source this for yourselves, I thought I’d pick up two of the new Instant Nail Effects Nail Paints for a quick giveaway!

And when I say quick, I mean QUICK!

Answer this question in the comments below:

Which polish would you choose as a base coat underneath the BarryM Instant Nail Effects?

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RULES
~ Two winners (winning 1 polish each) will be picked at random early next week
~ Giveaway closes at 11.59pm this Sunday (you have 48hrs – ish)
~ Open worldwide

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Good luck!

I scoured high and I scoured low for this little bottle of Barry M Instant Nail Effects… it’s seemingly harder to acquire than the proverbial gold dust.

When I first saw it on Yinka’s blog… I didn’t think I was gonna like it.  I like NEAT nails and I’m not hugely into nail art.  Not really… I just like polished tips that add a bit of interest.  Instant Nail Effects looks haphazard… indeed it is.  It’s messy, it’s random…

But I kinda like it!

What I didn’t like was that I slapped a glossy top coat over it.  Next time I’m gonna keep the crackle matte.

Is this a new idea?  Nooooooooo…. these crackle polishes have been around for years, but as far as I’m aware – it’s the first time it’s been brought to the UK high street (correct me if I’m wrong!).

Wanna know how it’s done?  Watch the official BarryM tutorial video on how to make the Instant Nail Effects work for you here.

Do you like the effect?  I think the general consensus is that it works best over bold, pale colours… think bright pastels!

If you can source it on the high street, Boots are currently offering two BarryM polishes (including this one) for £5, otherwise you can purchase online from the BarryM website for £3.95 a piece.

Oh, I wasn’t expecting not to like you.

You’re a little bit greige gone wrong… too much grey or maybe too much brown… I’m all confused and can’t pinpoint what it is that I don’t like about your colour.  But you’re just not quite right for me.

You were a bit patchy too.  Though I totally admire you pouncing on the latest trends and bringing us great colours at affordable prices… you disappointed me with this one.

I’m sad.  Did I get a duff bottle?  Mine did apply a lot darker than the bottle colour suggested… everyone else seems to love it?!

I’d heard that Berry Ice Cream was a hard colour to track down, so I was really delighted to be able to waltz into my local Superdrug and whisk this and Mushroom off the shelves without any problems at all!  And I only paid a fiver for both!

Berry Ice Cream is a bright lilac pastel.  It’s not pastelly enough to be soft and floaty (if that makes sense!).  It has a bit o brightness to it that would endear it to most skintones.  Sometimes, lilacs can make darker skintones look kinda dead… zombie hands.  I can’t imagine you’d have the same issues with this one, it has enough punch to it!

Application was fair… 3 coats to cover any imperfections or patches from a small amount of cuticle drag.  Dried speedily and as with most BarryM shades I’ve tried, it has an impressive glossy finish.

Many people have issues with BarryM polishes chipping on them, but I never do… so although I can safely state that in 2 full days of wear I had no chipping, that doesn’t necessarily mean much.

If you’re looking for a colour to take you from Spring into Summer… this is a great choice.  However, I’m totally lagging in the ‘what’s hot’ stakes so this shade is probably already SO LAST SEASON.

Whatever bitches, I was rocking an Autumn colour last weekend… my fingers transcend fashion.

BarryM Nail polishes are still on a 2 for £5 offer in Superdrug, so get ’em while they’re hot! (or not).

As promised, my pigment pressing method…

It’s a mammoth tutorial and rather picture heavy, so please click ‘read more’ to continue on the pigment pressing adventure!

The cast of characters:

I’ve provided links of where you might purchase supplies, feel free to shop around – the links are there as a convenience only!

1. Minimum 70% Rubbing Alcohol (also known as surgical spirit or iso-propyl alcohol)

2. 5ml Syringe

3. Biosilk Silk Therapy (the link I provided is a VERY good price for Biosilk, I paid more than this)

4. Orange Stick or any suitable mixing tool you have to hand

5. Empty Palette or Pans (Those 26mm pans will fit in an ELF empty palette although may not be magnetized – easily fixed with a self-adhesive magnetic sheet though)

6. BarryM Dazzle Dust or pigment of your choice (Not MAC)

7. Suitable mixing container

8. 10 pence piece (I think the US size equivalent is a quarter?)

9. Textured material/kitchen roll

Read the rest of this entry »

Check out my first homemade palette!

Ignore the 3 on the right, I totally cheated and shoved 3 MAC pans in there for the photo whilst my last 3 pigments were drying.

The palette is mostly made up from The She Space pigments, I find that one full size pigment fills a pan fairly nicely.  I’ve also sneaked in a BarryM Dazzle Dust and a few Elemental Beauty shadows too!

What ya reckon?  Any of you ladies press your own loose eye shadows?  Any interest in a pictorial on my pigment pressing methods?

I received this email in my inbox yesterday and thought it may be of interest to some of my UK ladies.

The blurb:

We’ve got just the thing to lift you out of the January blues and make you feel fabulous – a free Barry M make-up kit! The five-piece set includes an eye pencil, eyeshadow, nail varnish and lipgloss, which all come in a gorgeous pink cosmetics bag, worth £20*!

To get yours, simply collect four of the tokens that will be appearing in Fabulous magazine every week for five weeks from this Sunday (17th January). Then redeem in any of our Superdrug stores between 7-14th February to collect your goodies.

On a mildly related and not very PR friendly note… does anyone else get the urge to kick Ms. Holden up her smug, bony arse?  Just me then…

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!