A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

With our (very) mini heatwave in the UK, I propose that there’s never been a better Wednesday for whipping out the sunglasses and getting your Pimms at the ready for a look at the current limited edition China Glaze 2011 Summer collection, Island Escape*.

I wonder which isles the clever bods at CG were thinking of when devised this fruity collection, not the British ones… that’s for sure!

Papaya Punch: Crème based vivid orange.

A bold orange that commands attention, a little on the thick side but opaque in two coats as a result.  No top coat… amazing glossiness.

108 Degrees: Flirtatious berry pink with specks of micro glitter.

A juicy sparkler that looks great on cool skintones thanks to the violet undertones.  Photo taken on a very overcast day so the colour in the sparkles isn’t prominent… a mix of gold and violet.

Senorita Bonita: Passionate purple shimmer with pink micro glitter.

If you can only have one from the collection, you need to make it this one.  Senorita Bonita is the most impressive of the sparklers… hot pink sparkle against a red-toned purple?  MOAR.

Blue Iguana: Bold and daring sparkly blue.

My 2nd favourite from the collection, all the boom chicka wow wow of Senorita Bonita with a heap of gorgeous turquoise glass fleckiness.  However, it did give me mega smurf fingers upon removal and was the sheerest of the bunch.  4 coats – boo.

Cha Cha Cha: Vivacious shimmer green.

A gilded green that packs a punch!  This one practically glows… very beautiful and opaque in two coats.

Electric Pineapple: High intensity crème based lime green.

I’m not digging the colour but again, I have to admire the uber glossiness of the formula.  All of the swatches were photographed without a top coat.  Noice!

Buy China Glaze instore at Sallys or online from radiantbabe-beauty.co.uk

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Got some favourites?  AND if you could escape to ANY island in the world, which one would it be?

* press samples

Everytime I head into town I can’t move for a sea of yellow nails (exaggerating? me?) and it’s a trend that I was happy to watch pass me by until I saw George at Asda getting in on the act.  C’mon, it was a quid, I know you understand!

Four coats and still a little patchy in places… it’s not a bad formula for a notoriously tricky shade to get right but I’m not in a hurry to repeat the experience.  It’s a little more custard than I’d like but I admire its outright boldness.  I think I’m just gonna pop it in the back of this drawer though… *slam*

Have you embrace the yellows this Summer yet?

An oldie because my nails haven’t been this long for nearly a year but they do show off this gorgeous shade quite well (even if I do vainly say so myself!)

Butter London Scoundrel is a muted, warm lilac which sits nicely against cool skin tones like mine.  It’s one of my favourites from the brand and applies well without issues.

Look out next week because I’ve got a special interview with Butter London’s Founding Creative Director Nonie Creme and some Autumn/Winter 2011 previews for you!

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend party people! xx

The final item I received in my goody bag from the recent Illamasqua Blogger Event was this nail polish…

Don’t be fooled by its demure-sounding name, Purity* is about as vivid as a peach can get!  Not entirely suited to my skintone, I can see this looking freakin’ amazing on dark-skinned sisters.  It’s creamy, opaque and glossy.

The formula was great and the above image shows two coats… longevity has been impressive as I’m on day four of wear and can only see a tiny nick on the tip of one of my fingers…. not even a proper chip and barely any tip wear at all!

A perfect peach of a polish that is guaranteed to turn heads all Summer.

Illamasqua’s polishes may be a little pricey at £13.50, but they back it up with quality formulas and exciting shades.

Illamasqua Purity Nail Polish is available now to buy on counter, instore or online.

* press sample

My last attempt at nail wraps (using Rebel Nails) wasn’t exactly a fail but I really struggled with how they felt on my nails… continuously ‘catching’ them on things despite careful filing and I wondered if these wraps from Nail Rock would be any different!

Check out the cute polka dots!

The first thing I noticed is that these are much thicker than the Rebel Nails wraps which are more foil-like.  These feel more like vinyl stickers!  Initially, I thought it was a bad thing… until it came to application.

The Nail Rock wraps were much easier to apply than Rebel Nails and less prone to random creasing.  This meant that they simply looked more professionally applied once I’d finished.

I still had to trim each ‘nail’ down by a substantial amount to make them fit my narrow nail beds but this wasn’t really a problem.

Due to the thickness of the wraps, I found them a little trickier to ‘warm up’ with my hairdryer… it just seemed to take longer to get the heat to have much effect on the adhesive and I risked scorching my fingertips a few times.

Once on and filed, well they looked pretty amazing (even if I do say so myself!).

Wanna see?

Cute huh?!

But what about the wear?  Well… unfortunately, I experienced the same problems as ever with nail wraps.  They just irritate the crap out of me.  Having a 21 month old means that you’re forever picking things up, putting things down, playing catch, picking crumbs out of hair… etc… etc…

Nail Wraps clearly aren’t for me or my lifestyle.  Despite careful filing to round off the edges, they snag and catch.  It doesn’t hurt but it does risk ‘lifting’ the free edge of the wrap.  I lasted about a day with these on before I had to remove them.

Perfect for a night out?  Most definitely… but for longer wear?  I’m out.

Nail Rock wraps are available to buy online in a variety of styles, priced at around £6.65 a pack*

* you get 24 wraps per pack (for people with 12 fingers obviously) so you can get two manicures from one pack.

I’m not ashamed to admit that Estee Lauder had me at Hello with the release of Surreal Violet last year and I’ve been keeping a close eye on new nail polish releases ever since.

Due on counter at the end of the month, the new Pure Color Collection features a total of 16 shades… 8 of which are permanent and 8, limited edition.

Oyster Cult* is a metallic silver with one hell of a shine.  It’s a blinding, blinging shade but not hugely original – it applies well and lasts a good 3/4 days before showing much wear but at £14 a bottle I’m just not sure that there’s enough here to warrant a recommendation over and above any other silver in my collection.

Sizzling Taupe* on the other hand is fairly unique to most other taupes on the market… apart from one.  Zoya Pasha sprung to mind as soon as I applied.  They both have that slightly cool toned edge thanks to the silvery frost that runs through the finish like delicate threads.

I thought I’d do a swatch comparison between the two…

You can see that we’re not really very close to dupe territory when swatched side-by-side.

Estee Lauder’s Sizzling Taupe is darker, more opaque in two coats and doesn’t have the slight violet hue that Zoya Pasha displays.

If you’re a fan of taupes or perhaps just want a beautifully shade that’s safe for work but has a slight ‘edge’ to it then I’d thoroughly recommend Estee Lauder’s new Sizzling Taupe.

Are any of the new Estee Lauder shades catching your eye?

*Press Samples

I bought this last summer at the same time as picking up a few of their other shades.  I was so unimpressed with the gloopy formula that I found with Peacock (a teal shade), that it’s taken me until now to try one of the others!

Silly me eh?

Mouse is quite, quite lovely.  It’s a softened greige… I defy you to liken this to shit fingers you ‘orrible greige hating lot (you know who you are!)

Very sophisticated-looking (if I do say so myself) but it needs 3 coats.  The above photo shows two coats and I can see a bit of transparency on my ring finger that I didn’t spot until looking at the photo above.

Longevity is slightly less than average, tip wear was noticeable after a day so I’d steer clear if polish peels off your tips quicker than you can paint it on.

American Apparel nail polishes are available instore or online priced at £7 each.

Ahhh, that catchy #105…

O.P.I-esque shade naming this ain’t!  But the sample they sent me is a raspberry fire cracker regardless!

The above ladies… is one coat.  Swoon, go on… I’ll catch you.

Intensely pigmented and glossy enough to do without a top coat… consider me impressed.

For some reason, #105 is listed on the website under “glitter polishes” which as you can see, this isn’t.  I’m wondering if perhaps the webmaster still has some re-jigging to do.  If you’re thinking of ordering, keep this in mind and perhaps email them for confirmation about that ‘glitter’ category.

Wear has been consistent with the majority of polishes I use… nothing major to report, although in all honesty I often wonder if it’s even worth me commenting on longevity because I just don’t seem to suffer the same chipping problems that lots of you do – sorry about that!

This would make a cracking pedicure shade… infact, I think it’ll be gracing my toes before the week is out!

Paese Cosmetics Nail Polishes retail at a bargainous £3.37 each.  I’ve already got my eye on #110 and #120 aswell as some of the treatments that seem to cover every nail problem known to man!

I always protest that I don’t like pastels… and on paper, I don’t.  They’re insipid and make my hands look pudgy and blotchy.  I know that my fingers look far more slender with darker tips… but then I look down at my nails and get that happy feeling that only light and airy colours can bring.

Ciate Fun Fair is a cool toned cross between pink and lilac… the thing that strikes me most about it though is that it doesn’t look too stark.  Anything that leans towards pale AND cool does tend to start looking a little chalky and obvious.  Fun Fair just about keeps it’s dignity intact!

The formula was fine, one of those polishes that really come good on a 2nd or 3rd coat.  Don’t expect to be happy with this on it’s first coat.  I find that to be true of a lot of Ciate polishes.

Wear was good too… it lasted a full 3 days before tip wear became noticeable enough to make me want to remove it.

Ciate Fun Fair is priced at £9 and available to buy online from The Powder Rooms.

A galactic explosion of coloured glitter pieces in a glossy black base.  It’s a lovely polish apart from one failing… even after two top coats, the finish was still gritty.  It didn’t bother me hugely but I would have prefered to have a lovely non-bumpy surface.

Everything else was pretty spot on with this little number.  Very nice!

Eyeko Cosmic Nail Polish is available to buy online from PowderRooms priced at £3.50

Oh noes! I don’t like it!

I can probably count on one hand the number of Butter London polishes I’ve tried and disliked.  This would fall into that sad category.  I had cuticle drag with this one… you can possibly see the remnants on the middle finger at the base (where it looks kinda streaky).  This meant that although in most places it was completely opaque after 2 coats… there were patches that demanded a third coat to finish off.

Everything else I was happy with… formula, drying time, glossiness… so it’s a shame I don’t really like the colour either.

Fash Pack is infused with the most delicious micro golden-sparkles… very similar to how China Glaze’s Ingrid looks in the bottle.  And in the same way, I think that this is what ruins it for me by making it too warm (yet grey at the same time).

Warm and Olive toned ladies, this might be a really great choice for you.  For me, it’s a boob.

You can buy Butter London Fash Pack online from PowderRooms

Blimey! It’s nail polish Sunday or somethink, sorry polish haters!

Some of you coo-ed over Butter London’s The Full Monty that I swatched earlier in the week… a true Xmassy gold that kept neutral enough to suit my cool skintone.  Well… what with it being December n’all, how could I not glitterize the crap out of it?

I mean c’mon… it’s CHRISTMASSSSSSSSSSS! (nearly).

I added two coats of Butter London West End Wonderland to get this disco on my nails.  It’s fabulous!  Glitter is freaking HARD to capture in a still image.  It lends itself to movement and light reflecting so what you can’t see is that West End Wonderland has a rather gorgeous red glitter scattered amongst the gold which sets it apart from my other gold glitters.

As always, it’s a bugger to remove… I love/hate glitter.  But this time of year?  Love wins out.

Butter London’s West End Wonderland is available to buy online from PowderRooms priced at £9.75