A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I liked all the products that I was sent from Stargazer thus far… infact, more than liked.  They’ve impressed me.  Factor in the price for them, and I’m singing their praises from the blogosphere rooftops.

Sadly, the eyeshadows that I was sent fall into the category “More what I expected from a budget brand”.  They’re not terrible, but they’re nothing that I’m gonna get excited about.

I was sent two shades:

Very metallic looking in the pan, the texture instantly reminded me of Superdrug’s MUA… they have that slightly greasy feel to them.  Nothing wrong with that, but it does scream CHEAP!

Decently pigmented, the Arctic Blue shade took a little more building than Copper Fire, both are metallic.

They wear for a few hours before fading… combined with an eye primer, I just about got 7/8 hours from them before creasing. I’m being a little harsh, they’re performing like most budget eyeshadows… and they are budget eyeshadows at £3 each… but I was so impressed by the other products I tried, I think I was hoping for something more exciting from these aswell.

What I will say for them though is that the range is immense!  Over 50 shades of every colour imaginable in single pan form.  You can purchase Stargazer online from their website.

…Strawberry!

I was sent an Arbonne lipstick in shade, Strawberry (£16).  It’s an “almost red” that would suit ladies who fear a completely bold red lip, i.e. me.

The texture is smooth and it feels light on the lips.  I’ve been wearing this applied quite sheerly and blotted with my finger to create a softer matte stain-like finish and as a result, longevity has been impressive.  Applied more heavily, you can achieve a glossier effect, but the flipside is a more noticeably dehydrated lip.

It’s a fun shade for the summer, a pink-ed red that suits it’s name perfectly.

Excuse the silliness, I was being too lazy to go and pose in my usual spot properly!

Visit www.arbonneinternational.co.uk or call Customer Services on 0800 977 5721 to locate your nearest consultant and purchase products.

What reds are you favouring for the Summer?

I suspected it from the moment I twirled the bottle between my fingers…

…Stargazer #155 (£2) is a very nice match for the cult O.P.I shade I’m Not Really A Waitress (£9.95)

INRAW was the first OPI I bought back in the day and is probably the only bottle of polish I’m even close to finishing.

If I look *really* closely, I’d say that Stargazer #155 is the teeniest bit more cherry toned than INRAW, but there’s barely anything in it.

#155 is opaque in two coats and applies smoothly with a decent brush… not too thin and no straggly long bits.  Quick drying but affording just enough time to work the polish to the edges of the nail bed.  It benefits from a glossy top coat to bring out the sparkle within the polish.

And a comparison with the OPI…

I prefer the Stargazer.  I’ve always had an issue with tip wear with this particular OPI (see my review from last May) and the Stargazer is outperforming INRAW in this instance by a huge amount.  No tip wear at all until the 3rd day.

Did I find a good dupe?  I’m usually pretty crappy at dupe hunting, so I’m kinda chuffed with myself!  Simple things and all that…

Slowly making my way through the Urban Decay Summer of Love nail kit (£17.50) and I’m currently sporting Psychedelic Sister!

Described as a bright coral, but it isn’t.  It’s far too red to qualify as coral.  However, it’s a beautiful shade of red meets salmon pink.  It shouldn’t work, but it does!

3 coats (as most of these seem to need) for a good finish, my one complaint is that I’ve got more tip wear than normal AND a chip *sharp intake of breath* on only my first full day of wear.  Can’t count, that’s two complaints… oh well.  You can see the chip on my index fingernail and the tip wear on the middle.

I don’t usually get chips, soooooooo it’s something that is noticeable when I do.

See my other swatches from the collection:

Aquarius
Woodstock
The Whole Kit

Some of you ladies have your Summer of Love nail kits now, how are you liking them?  Have you spotted them in Debenhams yet or is it only some Boots that have put them up?

The other evening, after painting my nails in Essie’s Wrapped im Rubies… it ddn’t take me long to decide that it was a dull, dull colour…

…but I’ve changed my mind.  It’s not dull, it’s just not Summery.

Application was a teeny bit awkward, it seemed to remain sheer in certain places on the nail and I experienced a tiny bit of bubbling on my thumb.  To be fair though, I was in more of a hurry than usual… so it could well be down to my application skills (or lack of them on this occassion).

I’m on my 2nd full day of wear and tip wear is barely noticeable.  I did dent one nail despite my quick dry top coat, so it seems to be a slow dryer… deffo crack open the seche or alternative.  Essie Wrapped in Rubies is a beautiful bronzed-red with flecks of gold from the Winter 2007 collection… perfect for Autumn.

Shame it’s May!

Moving on from the Eyeko pastels I was playing with earlier in the month…

The new Eyeko range features 5 new shades from sheer pink through to this rather gothic black with red glitter called Vampira.

As with all Eyeko polishes I’ve tried, the first coat applies streaky… my trick to achieving a good finish with these polishes is a thin first coat, followed by subsequent thicker coats.  Don’t worry how crap that first coat looks… just get some product onto the nails and map out the shape you want.  If you start thick then it’s gonna take longer to dry and will be more likely to drag at the cuticles when you lay down that 2nd or 3rd coat.

You can see that I got decent coverage with 2 coats following my method above.  Unfortunately I then needed to add a couple of coats of top coat to smooth out the rough, gritty surface thanks to the glitter.  This fnish might not bother everyone, but it kinda sets my teeth on edge.

Wear has been fine with no chipping (though I never seem to have a problem with chipping and I know other people do), average tip wear and when I did finally remove it (after 3 days) it didn’t give me a TOTAL nightmare considering how packed full of glitter it is.

Overall it’s not my favourite Eyeko polish I’ve tried… the black/red glitter mix is kinda chunky.  Still pretty good value for £3.50 though.

More NOTDS to come from the range soon…

I’m smitten.  My heart is won.

Move over, make room… I’ve finally discovered Fyrinnae Lip Lustres.

I only own 4… I’ve already remedied that little problem and have another 10 winging their way to me as I type.

Wanna see what I’m going so crazy for this week?

4 mini tubes, each one sample sized and priced at a ridiculously cheap $2.50.

A standard little doe foot wand with an unassuming looking substance…

…produces the most beautiful hybrid between a lip stain, lipstick and gloss that I’ve ever encountered.  The colour is pigmented and glossy yet it feels like I’m wearing nothing more irritating than a slick of water on my lips.

As the day progresses and the initial burst of colour fades, I’m left with a beautiful stain that remains even and true despite drinking and snacking.  Not only that, but I’m not finding these at all drying and I was almost positive that I would need to combine them with lip balm.

I just wasn’t expecting to be bowled over by these little lip lustres quite as much as I have been.

Here’s some swatches of the shades I own, I prefer to do full face shots simply because when searching for lipstick swatches I feel that I personally get a truer impression of the colour if it’s put into context of skintone etc rather than just a pair of lips on the screen!

~ Visual-Kei is my perfect pink….

~ Romantique is a stunning golden peach nude…

~ Lollipop-Pop is a punkier pink with blue flashes….

~ Type A is an almost metallic garnet that cries out for some heavy lashes and winged eyeliner.

.

They’re perfect.  Oh and they smell ah-mazing too.

Ok, I need to think of something I don’t like about them… this is so gushy, I’m gonna make myself vom.

*thinking*

Oh yeah, the lead time on the Fyrinnae website isn’t great for impatient types like me.  It took 3 weeks before I had them in my hot little hands and now I’ve got to cool my heels for the same time again to get my new order…

anything else, anything else?  Um… no, I really can’t think of anything I don’t like.

I feel like I need validation after such a sickening gush, if you have them… tell me I’m not a mental and that they really are this great?

It’s Monday morning and I’m feeling gloomy…

Cheer me up, I wanna talk about the classic red lip.

I struggle.  I have too much pink in my skintone and am forever clashing.  Failing that, I catch sight of myself walking past an office window and suddenly realise that the Hamburgler is probably after my Big Macs.

Can you pull off a great red lip?  Do you even like red lips?

Tell me about your favourite reds… your greatest disappointments, your greatest triumphs!

Application was smooth enough on this 4-coater, but the formula was a little thinner than I’d have liked.  It has an almost semi-jelly finish with a undoubtedly glossy sheen.  Red Alert is an orange-based red that somehow manages to look ok on my skintone.  It reminds me of a 1950s pin-up red and I’m a definite fan of the shade.

I have an issue with longevity, suffering a chip within 24hrs of application is not a way to win me over, but strangely enough tip wear was non-existent even after a full 48hrs.  If you’re looking for a hot red with retro leanings for your tips or toes, definitely consider Red Alert by Models Own.  But maybe employ a good top coat.

Available from the Models Own website, priced at £5

So, Tsunimee and I were bitching on twitter that we didn’t really like metallic finishes to our polishes, and of course… that same day one of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL metallic nail polishes EVER showed up in my little ASOS haul.

It has that Quality Street wrapper quality doesn’t it?

Of course I had to apply it immediately…

I love it. And this photo… does not do it justice.  In real life, it looks like someone has foiled my nails with this glorious jeweled ruby red.  It’s perfect.  It looks like there are brush strokes in the image… which is hugely unfair, because I’m squinting at my fingertips now and I just can’t see any.

You pop off the clunky square ‘lid’ with a sharp tug and it reveals an altogether easier to manipulate round handle for application purposes.  Unfortunately, the brush is a STUPID thin thing, like in my Orly polishes… but other than meaning it needed about 5 strokes to cover the nail bed, it didn’t cause me any issues.

Application was *nearly* spot on.  Opaque in the first coat, I needed to go back in for a second just to tidy it up…. however, I did experience a couple of bubbles on 2 nails, which sucked especially as I know I wasn’t applying it too thickly.  Still, it’s so beautiful I don’t really care.  Plus, when the polish had dried (very quickly I might add) I could barely see these two bubbles… but I needed to mention it as bubbling isn’t something I usually experience with polishes.  Longevity is amazing for a metallic, I’m on my 3rd day (with no top coat) and it looks as good as new.

This was my first Butter London and I’m smitten.  They’re not cheap at around £10 each, but I want more…

What are your Butter London favs?

I found another Stellar Showlights Lipstick lurking in my local T.K. Maxx… this time in the shade Ra Ra Red.

I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t the same glitter-bomb affair as the last one… but it still has glamour running through it’s veins.

Love the heavyweight packaging of the old style HR lippies.

These lippies are beautifully sheer yet buildable and I also find them quite moisturising… most of all, I love the shimmer left on the lips.  They give a fantastic illusion of fullness.

More, more… must find more!

Yano when you’re shopping… and it’s been an el-crappo experience… your money is burning a hole in your pocket but you just can’t find *anything* to commit to… everything is… for want of a better (or even actual) word… meh.

I had one of those days in town.. lots of nice money practically setting my pants alight and nothing that caught my eye enough to extinguish them.  Until I popped into Superdrug and sidled up to the Sleek stand.

I prodded at the blushers… meh.

I eyeballed the lipsticks…. meh meh.

Just as I was about to leave, frown intact – I cast my eyes downwards and caught sight of the nail polishes.  Nail polishes? I didn’t even know Sleek did nails?  Well, obviously I haven’t emerged from that rock of mine enough… cos there they were all lined up like beacons of salvation ready to save me from a shit shopping trip.

I picked up two shades: Royalty (Blackened Red Shimmer) and Poison Ivy (Blackened Green Shimmer) but got the guilts at the checkouts thinking of all those polishes sat at home still untouched and left Poison Ivy at the counter.

Anyway, how do I like Royalty?  I like it a lot!

It is absolutely packed with subtle shimmer – beautiful!

Application? It could be a one-coater if you were a little more careful with application than me.  The above photo shows two coats with no top coat (I’m so lazy about top coats).

It dries fast, perhaps a tiny bit too fast for slowcoaches like me… but as soon as I picked up the pace, I had no problems with application.

This is such a Christmassy shade, I can’t wait to check out the others available!

Nailed Nail Polish by Sleek is available from most Superdrugs.