A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I’ve got another classic polish on the blog today, can you tell I’m starting to make some headway through my stash of untrieds?  I’ve got a long way to go but it’s been fun reminding myself of all those impulse purchases that got bought… moved from place to place before being lost and relegated to the back of the drawer!

Essie’s Glamour Purse is from their Fall 2011 collection, and while some may call it a taupe… I’ll stick to my usual description of greige.  I tend to favour these cool-toned greiges over their warm-toned taupe counterparts, they simply suit my skintone better.  Essie is probably one of the least-represented brands in my collection, I used to hate the stick-thin brushes that took an age to cover the nail bed – thankfully these were changed to a wider style sometime last year but I’m yet to have a love-affair with the brand.

The formula was ok, a little thin perhaps, and it needed three coats to fully eliminate some streakiness.  It dries to a beautiful finish… reminds me of a milky hot chocolate.  And when has that ever been a bad thing?

Essie Glamour Purse is priced at £7.82 (in the sale) and available to buy online at beautybay.com

I’ve only been in to a Kiko store a couple of times but when I do, I tend to do some serious damage in an effort to make-up for the fact I can’t ever just “pop in”. Truthfully, I haven’t been hugely blown away by the things I’ve bought, with the exception of a couple of matte eyeshadows, they’ve mostly been neither here nor there in terms of eliciting any major makeup-excitement.

Having said that, I am rather fond of this softly muted sage green. I’m not actually sure if it’s still available to buy… huge apologies if it isn’t. It should be, it’s lovely.

#349 (I hate numbers for names!) is a soft green in a greyed out base, it’s perfect for year-round wear and always looks beautiful when topped off with glittery tips… you can imagine how lovely gold-flakies look applied to the tips, no?

The formula is ok. It’s not completely smooth and as time’s passed, my bottle has thickened slightly. The above shows three coats but two would probably cover it if you were careful during application.

KIKO Cosmetics can be found online at kikocosmetics.co.uk

If you’re starting to feel some early Autumnal blues creeping in (where did the Summer go?), you’re not alone.  I’m already hyperventilating at the thought of losing my beautiful long evenings… aren’t they just the best thing about summer?  I love being able to take blog photos at eight in the evening, sit on the balcony after Leila has gone to bed, and enjoy the thought that, at lunchtime, I have more than three-hours of light left in my day.

Winter, you suck.

Well… let’s push those gloomy thoughts to the back of our minds and concentrate instead on this rather cheerful hue.

Headline Colors (used to be Killer Colors – remember the name dramas?) released this beautiful shade as part of their Spring/Summer 13 collection.  Poolside Party is a crystal clear blue with excellent opacity and a smooth formula that will bring a smile to your face in just two coats.

It’s simply cheerful.  Would look fabulous on toes (while you’re still brave enough to bare them) and makes me wish that Summer could go on forever.

Headline Colors Poolside Party is priced at £9 and is available to buy online from headlinecolors.com

* press sample

An oldie but a goodie today with Misa’s Toxic Seduction. When I first started blogging 4+ years ago, Misa were a brand that I’d see pop up on blogs across the Atlantic all the time. Nowadays, not so much…

Still, when I attended Pro Beauty in London a couple of years ago, I raced for the Misa stand which was part of a bigger NSI stall… it had already been half-emptied! It’s not hard to see why…

Misa’s Toxic Seduction is a blast from the past, Fall 2008 to be exact… it’s a rich forest green, somewhat muted in anything but direct sunlight and yet it has a certain depth to it that I find really appealing.  The silvery shimmer gives it a really great glow to battle through the vampy, blackened edges that have historically made Autumn collections such a thrill for me.

Yum.

Application on this one is great, nothing noteworthy to report.  If you’re a fan of green polishes and don’t have this classic in your collection… you’re doing it wrong.

Misa Toxic Seduction is currently available to buy online at amazon.co.uk (yeah, I know) priced at £3.02 not inc. shipping.

Loves me a good duochrome I do!

The problem with some duochromes is that no matter how delightfully galactic they look in the bottle, once on the nail… they require about a billion coats before reaching full opacity.  I mean, I know that I’ll have some extra time on my hands once Leila starts school in September (oh God, I’m not ready) but, five fucking coats is pushing it somewhat, no?

And that my friends, is why you need this H&M cheapie in your lives…

H&M Wintersky is a swoon-worthy polish.  It looks like it’s majorly accentuating my nail ridges in the second photo… but it’s quite an unkind photo to this poor polish which applies beautifully in just. two. coats.  The brush has a tendency to overload so you do have to be careful to scrape the excess back into the bottle but the formula is one of the fastest-drying (without making any application sacrifices) that I’ve yet to encounter.  Fastest-drying yet.  It’s like pixie-pee or something.

You should be able to tell from the photos that the duochrome shifts from a silvery green/blue to pink/lilac gorgeousness.  I’m also not wearing a top-coat in these shots because I was having a major swatch-session.

H&M Wintersky is currently available in H&M stores… it’s also online (if you can navigate their abomination of a website).  Priced at £2.99, it’s worth picking up next time you’re instore.

If you follow my new tumblr account, you would have seen this particular beauty pop up on there last week. When I challenged you to guess the shade from the swatch most of you said China Glaze Ruby Pumps… well, you were wrong! Glitter Gal Hot Chilli is just as sparkle-tastic but with the added bonus of some major holographic loveliness.

Non-gritty and richly-pigmented, the warm slightly wine-y base will be perfect for autumn and has enough of a jelly type of quality to make it look all squishy and scrummy on the nails.

Application was a dream, two easy coats later and the colour is fully opaque with a strong holographic effect in sunlight. In my experience, the Aussie-based brand (now available in the UK exclusively at PowderRooms) has always made some of the most beautiful holographic reds available and this one is no exception.

Glitter Gal Hot Chilli is priced at £10 for 10ml and is available to buy online at powderrooms.com, this one’s a limited edition shade so if you want to get it in your collection in time for Autumn, be quick!

* press sample

Have I told you before that Urban Decay were one of the first brands that made me sit up and take a proper interest in nail polish? Remember some of those early polishes… I still have a bottle of Cult and O somewhere, such a gorgeous pink!

Anyway, reminiscing aside… Urban Decay have been lightly dabbling with the (re)creation of nail polishes via some lovely mini-sets these past few years but this Autumn sees the return of full-size bottles.

Well, I say Autumn… they’re actually live on BeautyBay.com and the Debenhams website as I type.  The brand will be looking to release two limited edition shades each season, and I’ve got one of Autumn’s offerings on the blog today for your swatch-swooning pleasure!

Vice, one of the two limited edition shades available with their skull-topped bottles, is a rich purple with a not-so-hidden red/blue shimmer.  It’s not as duochrome as the stock images might have you believe but it is a deeply sexy royal purple with that inner glow of gorgeousness that darkens at the edges.  I’ve included a macro shot below to give you a better idea of how the polish reflects the light.

The 3-three formula is bloody faultless, practically a one coater though I always do two when my nails are under swatch-scrutiny!  The polish glides on smoothly and dries quickly to a high shine, I’m not wearing a top coat in the above pictures.

If you’re in the market for a stunning purple, you’d be hard pushed to find better on the market at the moment.

Urban Decay Nail Colour in Vice is priced at £10 and available to buy online from beautybay.com and instore/online at debenhams.com

* press sample

There are more silver holos on the market than there are old-enough-to-know-better 1D fans on twitter but Dodgy Barnett is different.  This particular holo-infused polish blurs the lines between silver and grey, leaning more to the understated sophistication of a cool-toned grey than the usual bling of a silver holo.

As you can see, it’s a pretty unassuming polish when worn indoors and in the shade but as with many holos, its true beauty comes alive when you get outside and find a patch of sunlight…

Dodgy Barnett sparkles a multitude of rainbow colours but ultimately keeps that wispy, pastelly grey thing going on… perfect if you’re looking for something sophisticated but with a little something different to show off about!

Butter London’s Dodgy Barnett is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at PowderRooms.com who are offering 25% off all Butter London products with the code “butter”.  But hurry, today’s the last day to take advantage of the promotion.

* press sample

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?

Layla, Leila… what’s a few letters between friends… I’m pretty excited for these new Summer shades from child-friendly nail polish brand: Little BU.

Of course, I should be more excited for the actual colours than their names but heck, I can’t help it. I’m just a big kid at heart. *buys all the everything with Charlotte on it*.  And don’t think I don’t see you trying to look all cool as you scramble around the fridge for a Coke bottle with your name on it.

So anyway, I’ve got two new Little BU shades to show you (but not the Charlotte, they’re messing with me!)  My mini-model even agreed to wear one at super-short notice, which was nice… considering she was in a head-spinning foul mood brought on by the fact that we only had Biscuit Dairylea Dunkers and not Tube Dairylea Dunkers. There’s a difference (apparently).

Carolina is a sheer peach with a hint of subtle sparkle and Layla is a sheer (but buildable) lilac with a myriad of multi-coloured glitter.  No prizes for guessing which one was my little Leila’s favourite?

She made me do three coats… I thought it looked better with two… but you know, she’s four.  She doesn’t know when to stop gilding the lily.  MOAR GLITTER.  MOAR.

I sealed the final layer with a slick of the Little BU top coat which keeps everything pinned down for around 24hrs or until you chuck them in a bath to soak.  These really give off absolutely no scent at all during application, they apply without any frustration, and I’m happy in the knowledge that they contain no harmful toxins.

Little BU polishes (9ml) are priced at £9.95 each and are available to buy online at iluvlittlebu.com and instore at Harrods and Selfridges.

* press sample

fid·dle·stick

exclamation /ˈfidlˌstik/ 

Nonsense

Who knew such a bunch of "nonsense" could look so pretty?

Butter London Fiddlesticks is a deep magenta glitter suspended in a raspberry base.  It was released as part of their Holiday 2012 collection and thus, horribly inappropriate to be wearing in June.  Whatever.  It's pretty and I like it… so I'm gonna wear it.

The coverage is pretty full-on and the above photo shows it worn with 3-coats, which as you can see, delivers full and complete opacity.

Removal is a minor bitch… what with it being glitter and all.  You could layer this one over something like Butter London Blowing Raspberries and I'm sure that a single coat would have much the same effect with less irritation during the removal process.

Butter London Fiddlesticks is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from PowderRooms.com

Whenever I get given one of those nifty till spits treating me to X amount off Boots No7, I make a beeline.  Well, two actually… my first port of call are the brushes, I must have a million No7 brushes that I always take with me on holidays.  You know the sort of thing… not so rubbish that they’re unusable, not so amazing/expensive that you’d cry if they got bent out of shape! Makeup bag staples.

My second stop-off is in front of the Boots No7 Stay Perfect nail polishes.  I’m a little bit reluctant to hand over full-price for the range but when you’ve got £3 off… well, things don’t seem quite so expensive after-all!

Especially when they look as pretty as this…

How lovely is that teal?  Next stop, it’s going on my toes!

I generally find the No7 formula to be a two-coater, the brushes have improved recently and now I can generally cover the nail in 3 strokes with an extra one thrown in to tidy up.  Drying time is average but the gloss is usually out of this world.  My biggest bug bear with the formula is that so many of the strong shades stain my skin and require more acetone in removal than I’d usually like to use.

Despite the moniker, Stay Perfect doesn’t actually stay all that perfect.  I usually get significant tip wear within a few days and the odd chip here and there, noteworthy for someone whose nails rarely suffer from chips!

That being said, I’m almost tempted to forgive it for being such a rich, glossy shade that looks as though it’s been poured on rather than painted.  Lush.

Boots No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Cruising is priced at £6 (without a voucher) and available to buy instore and online at boots.com

Are you a fan of the No7 Stay Perfect nail range?

* press sample