A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

You know I’m a sucker for a pretty duochrome right?  And if you don’t… STOP READING THOSE OTHER BLOGS, FFS.  Anyway, I spotted these duochromes from Bad Apple Cosmetics last night and a little googling revealed that you’ve probably all known about them for some time – I’ve never been too quick on the old scoop front, or really, anything. at all.

I don’t know much about the brand behind the colours, other than they’re British, and they make somewhat pretty polishes and nail wraps (boo to fiddly nail wraps – has anyone got the hang of keeping those things on longer than 3 hours yet?)  The polishes are priced at £9.95 each on their website, apparently the usual price is £14.95 *insert raised eyebrow here*.

Slightly more tempting is the fact that there are a few available on their Amazon storefront for £8.99 each with free shipping.

Have you tried any of the polishes from the line?

I found these Miss Sporty Metal Flip Nail Polish Duochromes in my local Boots store last week, they sure are pretty – and at £1.99 a-piece (aditionally on a buy-one-get-another-half-price offer), they’re also a flippin’ steal.  I can’t remember the last time I bought anything from Miss Sporty, infact, I thought you could only buy the brand in Superdrug?

Anyway… I’m pleased I had some time to kill for a proper “browse”, the kind of luxury I haven’t had in a while.

010 Beetle Wings (gilded green/brown combination)

030 Aurora Borealis (turquoise/lilac combination)

040 Fiery Blaze (purple/green/brown combination)

The Miss Sporty Metal Flip polishes aren’t the most groundbreaking duochromes in the world, simply because the colour combinations have been done many times over (don’t make me dig out my dupes!).  However, the formulas are really nicely done and each was opaque in two/three coats max.  Throw in a sub £2 price tags and these are such pretty little treats, thoroughly worthy of making it into your shopping basket.

Have you picked up any of these on your high street jaunts yet?  Which one is your favourite and will you be indulging?

How much do we love a beautiful duochrome nail polish? Almost as much as a cracking holo, that’s how much.

Love it even more if I can browse and pick it up during my weekly shop.

Oh, hai Eye Candy London… I don’t believe we’ve met but I’m liking the look of your Colour Flip polishes very much indeed!

Well, they’re a bit pretty aren’t they? Also available from this brand are some crackles (yawn), a magnetic range, a rainbow flaky and a graphite (think chanel-inspired).

The Eye Candy London range is available to buy instore at Sainsburys (yeahhh!) priced at £8 each.

I popped into one that I was passing yesterday but couldn’t spot them yet. Keep your eyes peeled ladies!

Have you spied these new instalments in the beauty aisle yet?

The last of my W7 Metallic nail polish purchases from last month (promise!).  Metallic Neptune is a delightful teal/purple duochrome and another succesful 2-coater.

This one is still in stock (at the time of writing) at NailPolishDirect.co.uk priced at £1.95.

Which has been your favourite of the metallics I swatched and did you buy any yourself?

Are you ready? No, really… are you? I thought I’d save a particularly special one for Christmas Eve because in some ways, Christmas Eve is better than the big day right? All that anticipation… *shivers*

LOOK!

Ain’t she gorgeous? W7′s Metallic Jupiter is a delight… a true delight and brings me proper, proper joy when I look down at my fingernails.  It shifts from purple to blue in a whirlwind of psychedelic glory.

God damn do I ever love a good duochrome. If I had one wish for Christmas (aside from world peace, eternal happiness for Leila and an everlasting can of diet coke) it would be for more duochrome nail polishes in 2012.

I purchased W7 Metallic Jupiter online from www.nailpolishdirect.co.uk, priced at £1.95 – I believe that it’s a discontinued shade so don’t hang around if you fancy adding it to your collection!

What’s your Christmas wish? Both frivolous and meaningful..

Another humdinger of a polish today with W7′s duochrome delight that is Metallic Venus. A gorgeous purple/blue combination that sings on the nail and doesn’t do to badly in the bottle either!

This one is less sheer than the Metallic Mars I showed you last week, fully opaque in three coats with no application issues.  Again, I paid £1.95 for this shade, bargain of the year I reckon.

W7 Metallic Venus is available to buy online from www.nailpolishdirect.co.uk, priced at £1.95 – I believe that you may also be able to get these in Savers? (thanks Nargis)

I love a good bargain and this W7 polish, purchased for the princely sum of £1.95 is a very good cheapie indeed!  Sure, it’s sheer (4 coats minimum) and it stinks so badly that I was worried my husband would phone NHS Direct for advice on solvent abuse.  But look, for less than £2 – it’s a pretty, pretty subtle duochrome.

Wear was great, I often find this with sheerer polishes… perhaps a side effect of those multiple thin coats?  Either way, I have no complaints on chipping or any of that nonsense.

I purchased W7 Metallic Mars online from www.nailpolishdirect.co.uk, priced at £1.95 – I believe that it’s a discontinued shade so don’t hang around if you fancy adding it to your collection!

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

It’s undoubtedly their duochromes that set Nubar apart from the competition and I’ve got a very pretty one to show you today.  Indigo Illusion is a liac/blue/green/grey infusion of colour that dances on the nails depending on the amount of light hitting it and from what angle it strikes.

Three smooth coats will ensure a fully opaque finish from a brand that is fast becoming one of my favourites.  No top coat in the above image either.

Nubar Indigo Illusion is available to buy online from BeautyBay.com and is priced at £5.50 with free delivery.

If you invented your own duochrome polish, which colours would you include?

Let’s kick off the week with another nail polish swatch, again from Leighton Denny‘s new Atmospheric Collection.  Your Planet or Mine? is a beetle’s wing duochrome that displays mostly teal with flashes of vivid purple around the edges.  It scores extra points for providing such good coverage after two coats.

Duochromes are notoriously sheer and after a single coat, I thought this one was heading in the same direction.  Thankfully, the second topping pulled it all together and I was done.

If you love this kind of colour-shifting gorgeousness, you might also want to check out: Ciate Starlet and SpaRitual Health, Wealth and Happiness – both of which, provide similar effects but with enough differences between all three to warrant purchases.  Enabler? Moi?

Leighton Denny’s Atmospheric Collection is available to buy online priced at £11.00

Blimey do I ever love these Accessorize duochromes.

If wealthy Elizabethan women wore nail polishes, they’d look something like this.  I think I need a sumptuous velvet gown to go with it no?  There’s something so rich and luxurious about this polish.  It’s smooth and almost creamy.

It flashes between pink, bronze, gold, amber, green.  Spell-binding.

Application was three coats but each dried fairly quickly so didn’t cause much annoyance.  The whole mani was done in half an hour from base coat to top coat (INM Out The Door).

The last Accessorize polish I picked up from the new range is called Pink Spice and I think I’m gonna save that one for Christmas Day.  Here’s a link to my other Accessorize polish, Aztec.

Am I missing any from the range that I absolutely must have?

When I was in London last week I was on the hunt for some of the new Accessorize Illusion nail polishes… you know, the duochrome ones.  Sadly, I only found one solitary polish and I nearly had to beat someone up to get my hands on it first.  It’s ok, I only broke a couple of her fingers… she can always paint the other hand.

It was totally worth it though right?  Look at those gorgeous purple/green/amber flashes! *dies*

Please excuse my death-warmed up hands… we were having double glazing fitted and the house was an ice-box sans windows.  My hands were ready to drop right off.

What d’ya think?

That is a bloody gorgeous duochrome to feed our inner 8 year old’s craving for something PURRRRRRDY right?

Application isn’t too shabby but it did need a good 3 coats and a healthy splodge of quick dry top coat for optimum shininess.  Wear has been good… no chips, just some minor tip wear.  Removal was a bit of a pain thanks to the glittery bits but othing too soul destroying.

My niece came over yesterday and the first thing I did was thrust my nails in her face and demand to know if she’d ever seen anything like so completely amazing?  She looked at me in the way only a 7 year old can when embarrassed by someone old enough to know better.

But she agreed, it was pretty cool.

Priced at £4 each for 10ml… Accessorize Nail Polishes are available instore (though I can only ever find a couple – usually by the tills), online (full selection) and I believe they’re coming to/are already in Superdrug?  Or did I imagine that bit…

Anyway, the moral of the story is… go and hunt them down, even if it means maiming your fellow shoppers in the process.