A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

When it comes to my current beauty routine, I’m sorry to admit that painting my nails is about as intense as it gets.  I’m still struggling to find “me” underneath all this baby stuff, not that I mind… it’s just that everything else seems so much more… not important per se, but… urgent, at least.  I was able to put aside some beauty and blogging time when Leila was born.  Back then, I lived with Mum and Dad, and Paul wasn’t on a constant deadline… plus, I guess I didn’t have another kid to invest my time laughing with.  It’s been an odd few months… simultaneously both easier and tougher than the first time around.

Anyway… back to the pretty polish.  I’ll save my blatherings, perhaps for another day.

Revlon have recently released a range of gel-effect nail polishes into the UK market.  The shade selection is huge, 30 colours in total alongside a diamond top coat.  There’s a lot of these gel-effect polishes around, jumping on the buzz-word bandwagon, but what do they actually offer above and beyond a normal nail polish?

Well, in this case Revlon promises: brilliant colour, gel-shine and long lasting wear.  But does it deliver?

Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy – #100 Cardshark

The formula, in my opinion, isn’t the easiest to work with.  It’s fairly thin but well-pigmented and has a tendency to pool at the edges if you overload the brush.  Working with thin layers is your best bet, even at the expense of having to apply another coat to achieve an opaque finish.

Having said that, the formula isn’t without merit because it self-levels as it dries, ensuring a neater overall look.  This makes it especially kind to those of us with ridges, flakes, and any other imperfections that may show through a freshly-painted nail.  The finish is lovely, intensely shiny and smooth… in terms of how it looks, there’s no need to add any kind of top-coat.

Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy – #210 Casino Lights

I’ve already mentioned the rich pigmentation delivered by the Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy range and nowhere was this more apparent than in #210 Casino Lights, a lemon yellow that dispenses with the classic yellow-polish-streakiness completely on the third coat.  Yellows are notoriously hard to work with, and this one was easier than most.

As for wear, I can’t comment on how it fares with the addition of the Revlon Diamond Top Coat… but worn naked, they did well.  I reached day 5 with minimal tip wear and no chipping.

Have you tried these yet?

The Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy range is priced at £6.99 a-piece, available insore and online at Boots.com

* press sample

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What is it?

A pretty polish packed with micro and medium-sized pink glitter particles. There are two special versions, with lids designed by both Poppy Delevingne and Matthew Williamson.

How much is it?

Each 10ml bottle is priced at £11.00

How much of our money goes to supporting PINK projects?

£1 from every sale of Pinkie Pink polish will be donated to Breast Cancer Campaign, the UK’s leading breast cancer research charity.

How do I get it?

Now sold out on the Nails Inc. website, you can still get your hands on it online (with free delivery) from lookfantastic.com

In another completely-inappropriate-shade-for-the-season, today I’m sporting Butter London’s Kerfuffle.  A word that I can’t actually say without immediately thinking of Lou from Little Britain’s Lou and Andy.

Kerfuffle is a delicate pink-peach creme with a glossy finish in a bright (but not too bright) base.  Application was fine, three coats for full opacity with a formula that didn’t disappoint.  It’s a soft, pretty-looking shade that should complement most skin-tones nicely.  The chances of this pairing up with tanned toes as we approach Winter is unlikely, but should it get the chance… I think it would look very nice!

Butter London Kerfuffle is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

They say that nail polish is the new lipstick in terms of what we’re spending our money on during these tough economic times.  Infact, for the first time ever…. nail polish sales look set to overtake those of lipstick by the end of the year.

And with brands releasing collections as beautiful as Leighton Denny’s new Temptation collection*, it’s not hard to understand why.

Attention Seeker

Hypnotic

Lilac Lust

Mutual Attraction

Statement Maker

Tempt Me

Attention Seeker – Vibrant cherry red with added shimmer creating a deep and sophisticated, yet edgy look.

Hypnotic – A teal blue with an exquisite taffeta appearance.

Lilac Lust – A Lilac base tone with a hint of shimmer.

Mutual Attraction – Sophisticated smoky mauve with a burgundy shimmer touch.

Statement Maker – Emerald bejewelled green with a sprinkle on metallic sparkle for a unique shimmery Look

Tempt Me – A romantic dark purple with a metallic green undertone.

All six shades apply smoothly and easily in just two coats, not one of these needed a third.  A couple of them have a thinner-than-standard formula but most look practically opaque on the first coat.  I love this time of year for jewelled shades and Leighton Denny have embraced the season, giving us punters exactly what we want.  Neons for A/W?  Sorry Butter London… but you’re not speaking my language this time.

The stand-out shade, for me, from the Temptation collection is Mutual Attraction.  I called it a couple of weeks ago as my favourite A/W nail shade and now that I’ve seen it in person… it exceeds my expectations, the shimmer is glorious whilst remaining somehow understated.

If you want to stand the chance at winning the entire collection, the brilliant @URbeautique team are running a twitter competition.  To enter, simply tweet them a photo of your nails with the hashtag #UR_tweet2win – you can find their Twitter account here.  Competition closes on the 30th September, so hurry!

The Leighton Denny A/W 2013 collection is available to buy online at urbanretreat.co.uk, priced at £11 each.

* press sample

When I was younger, I lived by the seaside… like, right on the seaside.  And whenever my Nan used to come for a holiday, she’d pick me up from school and walk me down to the arcades.  I must have spent summer after summer on the pier, playing the one-arm bandits with her.  Being the nice kind of Nan that she was, she’d feed the machine with money and let me sit on a stool beside her pulling the lever.

Fruit machines aren’t like that nowadays… instead, they’re high-tech, expertly programmed things that make a god-awful racket in the corner of a pub.  I say bring back the more genteel OXO ones… and limit people’s spends to 2p a go.  Them were the days (I remember when all this was fields etc. etc.)

Anyway, Butter London’s interpretation of a Fruit Machine, is like no fruit machine I’ve ever encountered.  Some of these names are a bit bloody random aren’t they?  What does pepto-pink have to do with anything?!

Fruit Machine is a pale bubblegum pink with a bright white base that keeps this colour popping right off your fingernails! It looks a little chalky to me but in a mod-esque, edgy kinda way rather than a cheap nail polish kinda way.

The coverage is pretty thick but the formula, completely workable and I was done after two coats.  Fruit Machine is one of those happy Spring colours (hello Autumn!) that keeps your focus firmly on your fingertips.

Butter London Fruit Machine is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

You know how you can get those mugs with the how-much-milk scale on the side of them?  From “builders brew” at the top end of the scale right down to “gnats piss” at the bottom?

Well, Butter London’s Cuppa is definitely in gnats piss territory.  Infact, if someone actually brought me a cup of tea and it was this colour.  I’d tell them that their parents had clearly dragged, rather than brought them up.  After which, I’d send them back to the kitchen for a second attempt and remind them not to forget the biscuits this time.

So, clearly I prefer a strong brew… on the nails, however, Cuppa is a real stunner.

Until now, I’d majorly-lemmed for a super-pale beige but I hadn’t found one that managed to look creamy rather than chalky.  Cuppa hits the spot, the tones are just right, the neutrality is perfect, and it applies smoothly without any issues.

My only grumble is that it takes three coats to eliminate all streakiness… many super-pale pastels suffer from baldy spots here and there but beyond that, I adore this shade.

Butter London Cuppa is priced at £11.95 and is available to buy online from powderrooms.com

These Denim polishes have been out in Asda for a little while now, released just before the Summer started but I’m only getting around to them now.  I don’t know about you but I think they have more of an Autumnal feel to them?

First up is the blue*, which was opaque in a single coat.  How much do we like it when that happens ladies?  And even more than that… it dried within five-minutes, completely.  Not just touch-dry you understand… but proper pull-your-knickers-up-after-a-wee dry.  Amazing.

The second shade, which I believe has only recently made it onto the shelves at Asda is of the black jean* variety.  This one took two-coats and dries to a charcoal shade.

Both polishes, as you can see, also dry to a matte finish… I could imagine that for the artistically inclined amongst you, these would make a rather cute base for adding arty things such as studs and painted stitches.  Me, well…. I’m just not that creative.

Wear is about average for a matte polish, a little quicker along the tips than regular polish.  Removal is a little slower too with these because of the silver shimmer, which isn’t chunky… but behaves like glitter during the removal process.

As I was packing my camera away, I remembered that I had an untried polish in my collection that I thought might be a dupe.  Yes, I know that BarryM’s Denim was released LAST year and it’s still in my untried box… but it is still available, and should you miss out on the Limited Edition George version, you have an alternative!  As you can see, they’re pretty much identical to look at… the only difference being that the BarryM one was a little slower to dry.

Do you like Denim nails?  Matte seems to be the only recent (as in the last couple of years) trend that I haven’t completely tired of!

George (at Asda) Denim Effect Nails are priced at £3.00 each and are available to buy instore.

* press samples

Seeing as it’s blatantly not Summer anymore – the rain hammering at my windows is testament to this – I thought I’d show you a real Summery shade.  Just because I’m obtuse like that.  I said obtuse, not obsese, bitches.

Butter London’s Fiver is a very, very pale pastel.  Not quite a green, not quite an aqua… it sits somewhere between the two.  There’s a definite amount of blue in there to prevent it from looking full-on minty, making it a slightly more unusual shade than most.

Application was a little streaky, after two coats it was *nearly* there but for me, needs a full three coats to make it presentable and completely streak free.  The formula was fine… easy to spread and dried rapidly.

It’s not at all right for the season is it, do you wear out of season shades whenever the mood takes you?

Butter London Fiver is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

Orange juice and toothpaste, a vegan at a BBQ, Miley Cyrus and a touch of class. Some things just don’t seem to want to go together do they?

Crabtree & Evelyn and nail polish?

Hmmm…

To be honest, I always think of Crabtree & Evelyn as a bit of a nanna-brand, aimed at garden potterers and people who use talc.  What are they doing with a new line of fashion-forward nail lacquers anyway?  Does it fit their target demographic?

Well, whatever they’re doing with it… it’s here. Launched this week into stores nationwide. Let’s have a look at them…

Not too shabby, I think you’ll agree.  Don’t underestimate those Crabtree & Evelyn shoppers, Nanna’s everywhere have their fingers firmly on the pulse it seems.

The range includes a total of 19 polishes, I’m missing a few from the pictures above… including a rather fabulous-looking olive green that I’d really like to check out sooner rather than later.  Also, in the lineup (but omitted from my picture) is a clear top/base coat, and a box of nail polish remover wipes that have been formulated with an environmentally friendly soy-based formula instead of your usual hydrocarbon solvents!  All rather innovative stuff from a brand that, to be honest, I didn’t think had it in them.

By now, you will be whooping with delight when I tell you that all of these lacquers are formulated without camphor, dibutyl phthalates, formaldehyde or toluene, and get this…

…each 15ml bottle is priced at only £6.00 each.

Available instore and online at crabtree-evelyn.co.uk now, made my weekend this has!

Hmmm, I only know two Jaspers. One Carrot and one Conran, and I’m pretty sure neither were in mind when Butter London named this polish. The birthstone maybe? But I always thought that was green!

Regardless of where it derives its name from, Jasper is certainly the type of colour I’d usually shy away from… infact, it’s only adorning my fingertips due to the fact that I’ve shop-swatched it for Powder Rooms. I’m not a yellow nail polish kinda girl… perhaps I need a tan to appreicate the effect?!

Butter London’s Jasper is a creamy yellow with a non-too-bright base making it suitable for fingers and toes without looking too… fungal. You could say that it’s a somewhat pastelly number, reminiscent of sun-shades, ice-creams, and all those other lovely things soon to be packed away for the foreseeable future.

Application-wise, it’s on par with most yellows I’ve tried over the years. Patchy at first, developing a full opacity only after 3/4 coats depending on thickness. They’re not the greatest of colours to wear if you’re pernickity about the formula of your polish but this one smoothes out nicely after a wee while.

Butter London Jasper is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at powderrooms.com

I do love a cheap n’ cheerful polish pick-me-up. No guilty spend and the sense of satisfaction that you got something purdy for a few pennies… in this case, I think it was about 99 pennies.

Here’s a little something I dug out from the bottom of my stash, I think I bought it a couple of years ago on a trip to Beauty Base in Whiteleys at Queensway.  I still have a couple more LA Colors shades that I haven’t blog-swatched.  That’s the technical term for “worn” dontchano?

Morning Glory is a blue-toned purple with a strong electric-blue micro shimmer running through the base colour.  It has a fairly watery consistency, the kind you think will never reach full opacity… when all of a sudden, it does.  In this case, it took three coats to achieve the coverage you see above.  I didn’t think we were gonna make it after two but it came good in the end!

I’m not sure if this is still available to buy in-store but I’m pretty sure you’d be able to pick a bottle up from eBay for next to nothing…

What was your last inexpensive beauty find?

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