A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Silver yesterday… so what can I wear today?

Of course!!  GOLD!

Butter London’s The Full Monty is a neutral gold (if that makes sense) it’s neither too warm, nor too green which makes it a suitable gold for most skintones.

Like Diamond Geezer, it’s also a foil…. my favourite type of metallic.  The above photo shows two coats, I could have done one more but am planning on adding glitter v. soon!

Do you wear metallics like these throughout the year or restrict them to the holiday season?

The Full Monty is priced at £9.75 and available to buy online from PowderRooms who are currently offering free delivery on all orders until the 5th December.

This glass-flecked, foil shimmer is a new finish to me… but when I saw swatches online, I knew I had to hunt down this beautiful green polish from the Nubar Autumn collection.

I don’t usually go for green polishes… infact, it’s the only drawer in my collection that has any room for more.  I’m so glad I decided to fill the space with this little number.

Nubar Verde is a blue-based green that makes it a good choice for cooler skintones… it’s almost gunmetal in certain lighting.  What really lifts this from the ordinary are the beautiful golden glasslike flecks of glitter that run through the formula.

Because the photo above was taken on such an overcast day, I’m afraid that the gold is far more apparent in the bottle than it is on the nail, but trust me… it’s there… being all beautiful and foil-like.

Tip wear was a bit of an issue with this polish as it was apparent by the end of the first full day of wear.  Such a shame because I could have happily worn this one for weeks.  On the plus side, pigmentation for Verde is magnificent and I was able to top up with a single coat to disguise the worn tips and get a few more days wear from this manicure.

If you’re a fan of green polishes or even just looking for something slightly different to the current plethora of standard (but beautiful) glitters, do check out the Nubar Venetian Glass collection, it’s really very pretty.

Nubar’s Venetian Glass collection is priced at £8 each and available to buy online from BeautyShed.

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?

The new SpaRitual Winter 2010 collection is titled Imagine and features 6 on-trend shades for the season ahead.

Unconditional Love – Deep rose foil metallic
Living in the moment – classy, understated mushroom crème
Health, Wealth & Happiness – Luxurious dramatic two-tone blue, purple metallic

Endless Possibilities – Intense black cherry plum crème
Dreams Becoming Reality – Dramatic teal blue crème
A World of Compassion – Deep lilac crème

Not only big 3 free, all SpaRitual shades are also vegan.  One of my favourite things about the brand is the packaging.  The bulbous bottles feel luxurious and curvy, whilst the caps are simply perfectly shaped and proportioned for use.  The patented design features rubber grips which are moulded for a comfortable experience.

I was sent two of the shades from the collection to swatch… I’ll start with Endless Possibilities:

Endless Possibilities is a cherry black creme, incredibly glossy with a smooth glass-like finish.  THe above photo shows no top coat… nice huh?

It applied very nicely, and was opaque in two coats.  Impressive.  I didn’t experience any chipping but as with most very dark shades like this, tip wear was apparent by the end of the 2nd day.

Another 2-coater, Health, Wealth and Happiness is one incredibly sexy shade.  A Blue/Purple duochrome… the two-tone flashes are spell-binding yet sophisticated.  Application was consistent with the other polish and again, the swatch shot features no top coat.

Wear was a little better on this polish… again, no chips but tip wear wasn’t quite so apparent.

SpaRitual polishes are priced at £7.23 (exc. VAT) each and available online from SpaRitual

Recommended!

Don’t forget ladies, you only have until the 31st August to book in and receive your £11 Nails Inc mini manicure.

The catch?  You must get yourselves and your nails down to your local Nails Inc. before 11am!

Will you be indulging in an early morning file and polish?!

I’m a bit late with this one… oooooh about… *counts on fingers*…  8 months late?  Anyway… this was really doing the blog rounds back when Spring had barely sprung.

And I have to say… I don’t really get it?

I was expecting to see some magnificent colour shifting between the teal and green and there was nothing.  Ok, so it was slightly more green in some light, but really?  You U.S girls didn’t miss that much.

A true blackened colour, Mr. L had a hard time believing it was infact anything other than black polish on my tips.  Sparkle was VERY well hidden and the whole manicure looked a lot flatter than I had hoped it would.

Application wasn’t too problematic… 2 coats with a brush that was a little too firm for me.  The streaking on the first coat shocked me, the brush practically drags the polish across the nail bed.  A thicker 2nd coat solved this though.

Wear on Lancome’s Pop Petrol has been decent enough, no chips until the third day and tip wear (despite the v. dark colour) has been negligible.

This is a polish that I picked up from a counter bargain bucket last week.  Lancome are obviously shifting the last of their Spring collection, so if you wanted to get your hands on a shade that would happily suit Autumn/Winter – now’s the time to do it!  Original price £14.50, I paid half that.

Beige, Grunge, Greige, Taupe, Shit Fingers… whatever you want to call it.  There’s a love/hate vibe around the shade that hasn’t venured far from the spotlight for the last year or so…

Here’s a run down of a few of the shades I own.

My perfect “greige” needs to be the right mix of grey and brown.  If it has just a hint of mauve, all the better…

Orly Prince Charming and BarryM Mushroom are quite chocolatey in appearance… I prefer a little more grey to my greiges.  Boots No7’s Beanie and O.P.I’s You Don’t Know Jacques are both beautiful but quite dark.

This leaves the mega bargainous E.L.F’s Smoky Brown as my pick of the colour crop.  On price alone (£1.50) it wins hands down.

If you haven’t done so already, you can check the E.L.F polishes out here.

If you’re a Nails Inc. facebook fan you would have seen them post their sneak preview of the Autumn/Winter shades they have in store for us!

Hello wintery cool-toned beauties!

I do have one slight “issue”…

You know when a child is doing something they shouldn’t… but it’s kinda cute and you can’t help but smile.  Except, very small children have no concept of ‘pushing their luck’ and before you know it… something that was mildly amusing becomes a source of irritation.

Ladies… I present you with ‘Grilac’.

‘Greige’ I can cope with… it rolls off the tongue.  Grilac sounds like a BBQ cleaning fluid.

Just stop it.  It’s not big, it’s not clever and it stopped being cute last February.

Grilac or no Grilac, what say you?

A ‘propah’ Summer bright!  I’m making the most of my shorter nails and digging all the shades I wouldn’t normally be able to wear so well.

China Glaze Towel Boy Toy is from the Poolside collection of neons and summer WOW colours that China Glaze do so well.

Towel Boy Toy is a super bright blue with shimmer, and it’s the shimmer that makes this stand out for me.  It’s not a neon… and you can look at it quite comfortably without squinting!  The shimmer gives it a little lift and really does remind me of the depths of a swimming pool!

Application was a touch streaky and I’d recommend 3-4 coats.  It also dries matte (like many brights and neons do), so I added a top coat to bring back the gloss.  I think it needs it personally.

Have you tried any of the China Glaze Poolside shades?

Barbara Daly has some caaaaa-ute mini nail polishes (7ml) available in Tesco at the moment.  I’m wearing the shade Sunset which is a glorious pink-toned red.

It’s one of those shades that make your nails look like colourful little smarties and I’m definitely going to check out the other shades whilst they’re on 3for2.  (Currently £3 a piece)

The formula of Sunset is easily one of the best I’ve used.  Yes, it’s that good.  2 coats for a truly perfect finish the brush is well made, the polish glides on my nails and with a slick of top coat gives the most beautifully glossy yet creamy finish.

Not only that… but the above photo was taken on the third day of wear.  Erm… where’s the tip wear?

I just hope the other shades live up to my now hugely inflated expectations!

I suck.

I caved.

I totally caved on ASOS and picked up both Illamasqua Jo’Mina and Baptiste…

Illamasqua Jo’Mina is a vibrant lilac creme.

It doesn’t looks bad against my complexion, but in my opinion… would suit darker skintones better.  I found the formula easy to apply but prone to a little streaking.  It needed a third coat to even out patchy areas though it dried quickly and to a high gloss finish.

At £13, it’s an expensive polish (though I paid half that in the sale).  I can’t say I would have been delighted with it had I paid full price.  I need to reswatch, but I’m interested to directly compare it to my Barry M Berry Ice Cream… I think this is a little darker and more vibrant.

Do you have Jo’Mina? Love it?