China Glaze Avant Garden Collection (and a link to Hologlam swatches!)

Posted by Lipglossiping On January - 30 - 2013

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris. I wonders where the birdies is?

China Glaze have released their latest 12-piece Avant Garden Spring 2013 collection, comprising of two halves.  One, distinctly pastel and the other… an altogether brighter affair.

China Glaze Avant Garden Collection

Pastel Petals

The Pastel Petals (shown above) feature six soft shades including:

Life is Rosy: blushed mauve
Pink-ie Promise: iridescent baby pink
Tart-y for the Party: light lavender creme
Fade Into Hue: periwinkle creme
Keep Calm, Paint On: sea foam green
Dandy Lyin’ Around: shimmery vanilla icing

China Glaze Avant Garden Collection

Blooming Brights

The other half of the collection is comprised of six brighter shades, known as the Blooming Brights and includes:

Budding Romance: moss green
Sunday Funday: bright blue
Fancy Pants: indigo with pink and purple shimmer
Snap My Dragon: bright red with pink shimmer
Passion for Petals: bright salmon-pink
Mimosas Before Manis: coral with a light wash of shimmer

Are any of these pretties calling to you?  I’m tempted by Fade Into Hue (can’t get enough periwinkle!) and Tart-y for the Party but I can’t say the bottle shots are knocking my socks off.  So, their Tranzitions collection was a disaster (trust me, I have a sample that I can’t even bring myself to assault your eyes with) and their Spring collection is uninspiring… you know what’s next though don’t you?

OMG HOLOGLAM *runs around, multiple flails* (and they’ve been swatched already!)

Roll the hell on Summer 2013!


Eyeko Pastel Polish NOTD

Posted by Lipglossiping On March - 7 - 2011

I’m generally quite sold on Eyeko polishes… and for the money, since the reformulation last year they’ve been a good bet.  I’m particularly a fan of  their pastels which can often be hit or miss from all brands thanks to streakiness, thickness of formula to overcompensate or just downright chalkiness.

Eyeko Pastel polish is a pale blue that isn’t chalky!  It’s almost creamy infact…

Not only that but the formula is easily spreadable.  The only area this polish fails a little for me is patchiness.  Whilst not horrific, you can see that after two thick coats… it could do with a third.  There is uneveness and a bit of streakiness going on here.

The pale blue has a gorgeous vivid flash of metallic blue pearl which stops it from looking flat.  If you’re willing to go with three coats on this shade, it’s a total winner in my book.

Eyeko Pastel Polish is available to buy online priced at £3.50  from PowderRooms or £4 direct from Eyeko.

I promised some decent swatches of some of the goodies that my beautiful friend Julia sent me from her home country, the Philippines!  Is there anything more exciting than surprise swap parcels from far away destinations?  Errr NO!

By the way… check out the backdrop, same location but finally entered the 21st Century and got ourselves some of that new-fangled double-glazing stuff – here’s hoping this Winter will feel warmer than the last!

Ok, so back to the 4U2 I-Pro Professional Eye Make-Up Palette in Contemporary (what a mouthful!)…

Nicely packaged in a sturdy plastic housing that feels secure and substantial… it opens to reveal a large, clear and distortion-free mirror and 8 vibrant, shimmering eyehadow shades.

The shades all lean toward the pastel, so this will make a perfect choice for some fresh, Spring looks.  All pans have a texture like butter with a colour payoff that matches our own Sleek Makeup offerings.  The difference being that I don’t get the same amount of fall-out with these shades as I do with the Sleek eyeshadows.

And some swatches (on bare skin)…

Aren’t they lovely?

Colour me jealous… I want this brand to be accessible in the UK!  Who says we get all the best stuff? *sulk*

I believe (after conversion) that this retails at around £13 a palette?  You get about 2.5g of product per pan which works out at around £1.60 per eyeshadow.  I do love an economical purchase!

Are you currently lusting after anything from foreign shores?  Spill the beans!

Eyeko Vintage Polish – NOTD

Posted by Lipglossiping On April - 7 - 2010

Some of you eagle eyed ladies spotted my nails in yesterday’s Shu Uemura kit review and asked what I was wearing, well shush!  You’re ruining my next NOTD!

Haha, not really, but here it is:

Eyeko Vintage (£3.50) is a pale green… to my eye it’s not quite pastel (especially after 3 coats as shown).

I had to laugh as I was checking out the Rouge Cocos today, the SA on counter asked if it was one of theirs (we all know what she was referring to right?).  In all honesty, I haven’t got a clue if it looks anything like the Chanel Jade… it’s just a nice green that makes a statement without being too “in your face”.

Again, it was streaky… The Eyeko Lilac is still the best formula polish of the ones I’ve been sent, and like the others… drying time = slow.  Speed dry topcoat = necessity.

I’ve got one more Eyeko to show you, it’s a punky purple which will be a bit of a change after all these more spring-like shades.

Hope you’ve been enjoying my Eyeko mini-series!

Not so Sleek

Posted by Lipglossiping On February - 19 - 2010

I was recently sent two products from Sleek Makeup‘s range, focusing on a couple of shades that are suited to this year’s Spring trend.

On the left we have the Dip It in Pastel Green and on the right, an Eye Dust in Livid Lilac.

I’m a beauty addict with eclectic tastes and try not to discriminate based on price or accessibility of products.  So, I approach this review with a fully open mind.  Even when I held the Dip It pot in my fingers, twirling it…. marvelling at how incredibly cheap Sleek had managed to make it look.

The eye dust packaging doesn’t fare much better.  I mean, they’re both obviously plastic, but they’re SO lightweight I’m surprised that they’re not defying the rules of gravity.

Having said that, I ultimately only really care about how it looks if I’m gonna be seen in public with it (shallow soul that I am), how about the actual contents?

How ABOUT those contents…

Well, there they are.  In all their ‘spilled across my new desk cos the sifter fell out when I tapped the bottom of the pot’ glory.  You can only imagine how much I was loving that purple Eye Dust at this point.

When I grumbled about my little dust-spilling incident on Twitter, it turned out that I wasn’t the only one who had nearly ended up with a lapful of Livid Lilac.  Something for Sleek Makeup to investigate perhaps?

Anyway, the colour is pretty… it’s more vivid in the pot than it is swatched, a good thing seeing as it’s called ‘Livid Lilac’ afterall and looks thoroughly ‘Royal Purple’ in the container.

The top swatch shows the Dip It liner in Pastel Green.  It’s an opaque mint, and really does look like a fabulous shade for Spring.  Livid Lilac is far softer once swatched (dry) and slightly metallic.  I was really impressed with the choices for this season’s shades.

Application of the Dip It was a bit tricky.  The wand and narrow tip allowed for a precise sweep across the eye lid, but as I was drawing the line, I found that the applicator dragged at the pigmentation leaving the line of colour less pigmented in the centre than at the edges.  To be fair, nothing that a second coat didn’t remedy.  The liner dried almost instantly without transferring to the hooded part of my eyelids.

I had no issues applying the Eye Dust, it blended smoothly and the colour depth was nicely buildable.

Here’s a FOTD, don’t laugh… the shades are a bit bright for me, but I enjoyed playing!

Unfortunately, that’s where the fun ended, 20 minutes later, I looked in the mirror and saw that the eyeliner had begun to flake…

Bits of Dip It kept getting caught in my eyelashes, so I ended up using an eyeshadow brush to work back and forward until I’d dislodged all the flakes.  I wasn’t left with much.

Fast forward to bed-time and my cleansing routine.  I cleansed with my ever faithful cleansing oil and a blob of Cetaphil to finish, towelled my face dry and then shrieked at the mirror when I saw a matching pair of pink-dyed eyelids looking back at me.  I would have photographed them for the comedy value, but it was kinda late and I’m kinda lazy so you’ll just have to use your imagination instead.

On the plus side, it showed that my sense of symmetry has improved.  Those dyed patches were perfect.

Overall, I was disappointed at the quality of the 2 products I was sent by Sleek Makeup which is a shame, because in the past I’ve been mostly impressed (how ’bout them 12 pan palettes eh?).

Sleek Makeup products are available from selected Superdrug stores, the Eye Dusts and Dip Its both retail for £2.99 each.

Spring is nearly here!

Posted by Lipglossiping On January - 2 - 2010

Ok… so, it’s totally not but let’s not let reality get in the way of a a good Nail Polish Collection ogle.

Up & Away is China Glaze’s Spring offering…

I love the idea behind it, the carefree association of colourful balloons signalling the end of winter and the promise of summer.

Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of pastels… I am excited about a few of these though – Flyin’ High (the blue at the back), Something Sweet (the pale pink) and Happy Go Lucky (the bright yellow).  I would like to be drooling over more of these shades but I just don’t think they’d be the greatest match for my skintone.  Good for my purse, bad for my polish-loving heart.

Are you excited about this collection? Which shades are on your radar?

RANDOM

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