A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

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!

So, Tsunimee and I were bitching on twitter that we didn’t really like metallic finishes to our polishes, and of course… that same day one of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL metallic nail polishes EVER showed up in my little ASOS haul.

It has that Quality Street wrapper quality doesn’t it?

Of course I had to apply it immediately…

I love it. And this photo… does not do it justice.  In real life, it looks like someone has foiled my nails with this glorious jeweled ruby red.  It’s perfect.  It looks like there are brush strokes in the image… which is hugely unfair, because I’m squinting at my fingertips now and I just can’t see any.

You pop off the clunky square ‘lid’ with a sharp tug and it reveals an altogether easier to manipulate round handle for application purposes.  Unfortunately, the brush is a STUPID thin thing, like in my Orly polishes… but other than meaning it needed about 5 strokes to cover the nail bed, it didn’t cause me any issues.

Application was *nearly* spot on.  Opaque in the first coat, I needed to go back in for a second just to tidy it up…. however, I did experience a couple of bubbles on 2 nails, which sucked especially as I know I wasn’t applying it too thickly.  Still, it’s so beautiful I don’t really care.  Plus, when the polish had dried (very quickly I might add) I could barely see these two bubbles… but I needed to mention it as bubbling isn’t something I usually experience with polishes.  Longevity is amazing for a metallic, I’m on my 3rd day (with no top coat) and it looks as good as new.

This was my first Butter London and I’m smitten.  They’re not cheap at around £10 each, but I want more…

What are your Butter London favs?

…for easy glitter nail polish removal.

No more endless wiping and scraping to get the glitter polish off your nails.  No more sighing and soaking of fingers in pure acetone till your cuticles shrivel up and you develop hang nails that reach your elbows.

At least, that’s what 2 of my lovely readers promised.  Meganne, and Lisa – to give credit where it’s due.

so it goes something like this…

1). Take your cotton wool and dampen it with nail polish remover.  I like to make it quite soggy… I don’t wanna have to be doing this more than once ‘cos I haven’t got enough remover on the pad yano?

2). Hold the soaked cotton wool to your nails and wrap a bit of foil over the top…

It’s at this point you’re wondering if you’re actually the butt of a big fat joke.

Wait 5 minutes, no less… and then remove.

I can happily report – it works! As ridiculous as you may look with your tin foil tips, it saves a hell of a lot of effort and irritation.

Try it!  If nothing else, at least the aliens won’t get to your fingers.

This is another from Mavala’s recently released Mystic Collection that I was sent last month.

Mavala Black Velvet is a dark purple-black with a very subtle shimmer which unfortunately is more apparent in the bottle than on the nail.

There is a great swatch of it over at HeijastusPinta

I’m in two minds about this collection.  So far, I like how they look individually… but now my nails are getting a bit longer, I think they’re a touch vampy for me.  If you have short, well-groomed nails, this would be a great collection for you.

I have two more to show you and I’m gonna hurry them the hell up, because Spring is nearly upon us… and if you give a fig about staying on trend, you might not want to see them ’till next Winter!

You can buy Black Velvet online at Mistrys Pharmacy – £3.95 a bottle.

A few of you eagle-eyed ladies spotted the manicure I was sporting in my NARS post!  *Looks at Kim, Danielle, Rae and Dee*

It’s the bomb! The Glitterbomb!  I originally had an Orly taupe shade on my nails that was looking a little tired… so I played at “How much glitter can I put on my nails in one go”.

The Miners Extreme Nail Colour is now discontinued I’m afraid, but it’s surely easily dupable?  I paid 99p for it a few months ago from their website. I think they may be sold at Claire’s (or at least they used to be).

I applied 2 coats of the Miners over my gnarly taupe polish and then finished off with a “top coat” of Inglot’s flakes.  A cheaper and more accessible version of the flakes would be GOSH Rainbow. (I can’t find it in my local Superdrug).

Ta-da!

I don’t even bother with cotton pads for removal of these glitter-fests.  I just fill the lid of my nail polish remover with the solution and dip for about 3/4 mins per nail.  That dissolves enough polish for one firm swipe of a cotton pad to do the job.

Have you been indulging your inner 4yr old lately?  Is glitter even remotely on-trend?  Do we even care?

Spring is coming, can you feel it?  The evenings are just starting to get the teeniest bit lighter and I for one, am pretty darn excited about it.

Beauty-wise though… Spring, for me, is the dullest season collection-wise.  I don’t really ‘dig’ pastels… they wash me out.  I have to wait nearly a whole year for my favourite to come round again – A/W FTW!

My Spring blues were lifted somewhat though when I saw this post on Cosmetic Candy.

To put it simply, Barielle’s Spring 2010 Wildflower Collection looks hawt.

Comprised of 6 shades, it’s screams: “Hey, I’m doing Spring… but I’m doing it my way!”

The stand-out shades for me are A Bouquet For Eva, June Bug and Daring Dahlia.

Myrza’s Meadow captures my imagination, but I can’t imagine it looking good on my skintone.

Here’s how Barielle describe them:

A Bouquet for Eva – A cool Caribbean blue
June Bug – A teal with fuchsia glitter
Blossom – An opaque peach
Daring Dahlia – A deep fuchsia with a hint of silver metallic
Snap Dragon – A metallic sea foam green
Myrza’s Meadow – A light lime green with silver glitter

Barielle Shade’s polishes are available to buy from the Barielle UK Website and are priced at £8.00ea.  No sign of the Spring Wildflower Collection yet though… Hurry up Barielle, it’ll be Summer soon!

Any of them on your radar?

I received a press release a few days ago alerting me to a store called ToxicFreeBoutique.

To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the email.  As soon as I saw the name of the store I was all “yeah, yeah… organic… dull… where did I put the biscuits…”

It was only a few days later at about 2 in the morning, when any normal person would be tucked up in their bed that I remembered the email and opened it up to have a look at what ToxicFreeBoutique was all about.

As it happens, it’s far more interesting than I initially gave it credit for.

They have bath tea bags! Tea Bags! For your bath!  I love it, it’s quirky and cute and I want one.  I love all things ginger (except cats), therefore “phew” has my name written all over it.

The website is kinda sucky (sorry, but it is) but I was well and truly snared when I read the following…

Mezaya water-based nail colours are an innovative concept to traditional polish. If you are used to traditional polishes you will immediately notice some differences.  Mezaya polishes do not have the potent smell usually associated with nail polish.

Wait.. what? Non-stinky polishes? Admittedly, I’m not hugely knowledgeable about nail polishes… I love ’em in a very shallow un-learned way.  But this is news to me!  Not only that, but the day Mr L. doesn’t nag me about the smell painting my nails creates, is the day the world will fall of it’s axis.  This sounds like it would give my ears a welcome rest from his “GOD, that stinks!” declarations.

Of course, I’m sure there are other “health” type benefits from toxic-free nail polish… but meh, whatever… just stop the nagging already.

My 3 favourites from the collection: L-R: Pink Tea, Navy Angel, Big Kisses

They also have some transluscents… but they just annoy me.  If I wanna see my nails, I just won’t wear polish.

I also have to give the company props for the images… it’s nice to see “swatches” of shades next to the product information.  How many times have we been disappointed when a colour has applied NOTHING like how it looks in the bottle?  Too many, that’s how many.

Also… for the love of God.  Tell us!  Is it a cream? is it a sheer? metallic?  There’s honestly not many things that annoy me more than getting home a gorgeous opaque (in the bottle) shade only for it to take about 12 coats to achieve opacity on the nail.  So thank you for including the finishes in the description Mezaya. Kudos.

Something had to go and spoil it though didn’t it… I looked at the price.  £12.95 for a 10ml (not even your standard 15ml) bottle of toxic free polish.  And then they want £3 to post it to you.  £16… for a 10ml bottle.  That’s 26 of your US Dollars… for a bottle of nail polish.  That doesn’t even smell of nail polish 😉

They’re a bit too rich for me, even if they would work better than earplugs.

A lovely greyed-out lavender.  It’s one of them dirty colours… I love me a bit of grunge.

This is my first Orly polish and I’m torn.  I found the formula easy to work with… a little thin, but I don’t mind thin polishes as long as they dry quickly and evenly, which this did.  The above shows 4 coats… 1 more than I would have preferred… but it’s ok.

However, I dislike the brush intensly.  It’s super thin and bendy.  Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the OPI Wide Brush that covers a nail in 3 clean strokes… this took about 6/7.  I think I can live with it, but only because of the thin formula.  Painting thicker polish with a brush that weedy would be a nightmare.  Are most Orly polishes fairly thin?

Longevity has been fine… medium amount if tip wear, but no chips.

What do you think of the shade? Are you a fan of grungey colours?

It is love.

I was hugely excited to find OPI – Absolutely Alice in my latest parcel of goodies, although I can’t pretend I’d forgotten I’d ordered it… I have been pacing like an expectant father ever since handing over my Visa deets!

Absolutely Alice is amazing, a true blue and the sparkles? Oh my… the sparkles are breathtaking.  I couldn’t stop twirling the bottle in the light, watching the glitter dance and flash blue and silver.  Fantastic.

Photographed in daylight..

Photographed in artificial light.

Photography doesn’t really capture the sparkle that emanates from this polish, but the hue is true to life and you can see how great the coverage is from 3 coats.  The glitter is suspended in a sheer jelly base, so I’m pleasantly surprised at the opacity I was able to achieve.

Dear god, I’m not looking forward to removal.

Do you like it? I’m trying to stop myself from buying OPI – Mad as a Hatter, but  I know I’m gonna cave when I see you UK girls start swatching it…

Screw it, I’ve just ordered it.  Man I’m a good enabler!

EDIT: Rhamnousia reminded me, I forgot to say… This definitely needs a couple of coats of top coat to make it bearable to touch!  Gritty glitter!

EDIT EDIT(!): You can purchase this online in the UK from Lena White

EDIT EDIT EDIT(!!): How many edits can I get on a post?

Ok… shouldn’t really add this but before you think I’ve gone completely mad.  Let me explain something about focus.

You focus to achieve optimum sharpness within an image.  That is a given right?  If your focal plane is off, you will achieve blurriness, but a pleasant side effect of blurriness is a little something called ‘bokeh’.  Bokeh is the technical term for the out of focus areas in a photograph and a very pleasing aspect of Bokeh are the discs of light that appear at the source of any highlights in an image…. it could be true light sources or reflections that cause this kind of bokeh.

Are you with me?

See the discs?  Every reflect from the sparkle on my nails are causing those… so you can see that from tip to base it’s sparkle-rama *admires nails*

But yanowot?  I don’t feel like a child in this polish.  And we all know that I suffer ‘hand-hiding’ syndrome if I feel at all silly in a polish.  But this shade and sparkle makes me feel amazing.  High praise indeed, but I realised it was true this afternoon, before this edit.  I simply couldn’t shop showing off my fingers when I was in the supermarket.  I was rocking it!

So, it’s not the Holidays anymore… it’s mid January and I certainly don’t feel very ‘glowy’.  Wearing this now, makes me incredibly unfashionable and like “SO” last season… Regardless, check this beautiful shade out!

OPI Holiday Glow is a 3 coater to fill in any baldy patches and get the best from it.  It’s undoubtedly a glitter but you could get away without using a top coat if you were feeling particularly lazy thanks to the small, smooth glitter particles.

I couldn’t decide if the base colour was brown or burgundy, so I’m calling a” BRugurndy”.  See how I did that?  No, please don’t applaud, you’ll only make me blush.  The glitter is a nice mixture of gold and silver, the combo works so well as a whole.

I ended up buying 2 of these by accident.  I thought I’d bought this and Merry Midnight… turns out, I’d just bought 2 of these.  No matter, I’m giving one away on twitter this evening.  So, if you fancy being tragically last season too, find me on there to be in with a shot of winning it.

Do you like? This is probably one of the most sophisticated glitters I own… I love that OPI wide brush too…

I was pissed at the snow and the miserable post-Christmas aura surrounding January.

In a two fingered salute, I daubed the most obnoxious summery colour I could find on my tips.  I said tips.

HJ Manicure in Blonde.

I was worried I’d look like I smoked 60-a-day or at the very least had a kinky penchant for bananas, but thankfully this shade just misses looking horrendous.  It’s not the most suitable shade for my skintone, but remember… I’m being aesthetically antagonistic in my shade selection.  And as a bonus, it makes the inlaws wonder what their son ever saw in me.

I even received a few compliments wearing this.  To be fair, one was from the checkout girl in Wilkinsons who didn’t look a day over 11 and a half and the other was from the lady who served me a sausage roll in Greggs, but let’s be honest, a compliment is a compliment.

Again, I’m loving HJ Manicure’s formula.  Yellows are the problem children of the nail polish world and one of the reasons I chose this shade was to put the brand to the test on their formula.  It coped admirably.  My only complaint was with opacity.  This was 4 coats, and you could still faintly make out the tips… If it’d had been fully opaque in 4 coats, I would have been satisified.  As it is, it’s a slight issue for me.  Thankfully, each coat was a smooth quick-drier.

Most yellows appear to be cremes, this is a shimmer… it has a slight sparkle to it that would make it such a great choice for the summer.  Longevity is fabulous, no chipping and minimal tip wear despite not adding a top coat.

Are you a fan of the brights?

HJ Manicure shades can be bought online from their website in 5ml (£3.50) and 15ml (£8.50) sizes with free P&P on every order.

I’ve just ordered OPI’s ‘Absolutely Alice’ from the upcoming Alice in Wonderland collection (already available in the US – I think us UK folks get it at the end of Jan).  I love my blues, and this glitter bomb of a shade caught my eye last month.

I was tempted by Mad as a Hatter aswell but I wanted to get my hands on some Orly shades so cooled my heels for now incase I’m like SO OVER glitter in a few weeks time.

I’ll put my hands up and say that on the whole, I’m kinda disappointed by this collection.  The Alice in Wonderland theme surely opened up an amazing prospect for some off the wall shades and this feels a little like an opportunity missed you know?  I mean.. 4 colours, and 2 of them are reds.

Any of these caught your eye?