A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I’m crackled out.  I’ve been crackled out for about a year.  I’m bored of crackle.  No more crackle.  Boo to crackle.

China Glaze have released FOUR new crackle glitter polishes, because they think that I OBVIOUSLY haven’t seen enough crackle yet.  The new China Glaze Crackle Glitters* landed on my doormat yesterday and I thought I’d swatch them up for all those 3 people out there who aren’t bored of crackle polishes yet.

If I’m serious for a moment, they’re actually pretty cool (in a really boring crackly way).  The four shades are Summer brights and each dries to a matte finish.  I haven’t applied a top coat in the swatches because all the swatches I’ve seen so far DO include a top coat and I also wanted to gauge their drying time and how much they might/might no pull apart the lower layers of my maniucre as they dried.

Turns out, they didn’t fare too badly at all, each finger was touch dry in about 10 minutes and fully dry within half an hour.  That’s without top coat remember.

The four shades from left to right:

Luminous Lavender (luscious light purple)
Glam-More (bold fuchsia)
Jade-d (radiant bright green)
Gleam Me Up (bright sky blue)

Jade-d is a beaut, it’s a golden green that really pops against a black nail. Glam-more and Gleam Me Up are equally punchy and Luminous Lavender is left languishing as my least favourite.  It’s simply sheerer than the rest and lacks the spark and contrast apparent in the other shades.

Ultimately, whilst I’m massively over the crackle trend, the formula on these is great and I’ll begrudgingly admit that there’s nothing better for patching up a tired manicure in minutes.  Got tip wear?  Slick a coat of one of these over the top and you’re sorted.  It’s a lazy girl’s secret weapon in her nail arsenal (am I giving away my secrets?)

If you’re on a budget, it’s worth pointing out that MUA do some crackle glitters for around half the price of these, though I haven’t tried them so can’t comment on their quality.

China Glaze Crackle Glitters should be available to buy in the UK instore from Sallys.  I can’t see them up on radiant-babe-beauty or beauty4nails-body yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long.

Are these reigniting a spark of fondness for just one more dip into the trend?

* press sample

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with their bath rituals and tales of Easter debauchery!  The Gods at Random.org have wiggled their pointing fingers and chosen TEN lucky winners, each of which will receive a LUSH Carrot re-usable bubble bar.

Claire
SarahC
Vicki
Sydney Kav
Julianne
Gilian
Victoria
Dejeniera
Gemma
Liza

If you’re one of the lucky winners listed above, I’ll be in touch to request your postal details.  Thanks everyone for entering, hope you had a lovely long weekend… next BH is a month away, keep on trucking!

If you’re still crazy for carrots, this is a really cute audio interview with the LUSH product inventors talking about the origins of The Carrot Bubble Bar!

…decorating gingerbread men!  L spotted these in Tesco and had been such a good girl traipsing around after me all day that I couldn’t resist giving in and promising her a morning of biscuit decorating.

super concentration!

caught red-handed giving way more sweeties to herself than the gingerbread men!

Mummy! You PINCHED one!

Mine, Leila’s and Mr. L’s masterpieces.

It’s a good thing they came with so many sweets ‘cos the actual biscuits tasted like shit.  And Tesco didn’t even bother to give them willies, I thought that was the law when it comes to gingerbread man baking?

Hope you beauty peeps have been spending some quality time with the people you love the most this weekend!

Question of the Week: – What was your last beauty-related impulse purchase?

Answer: Hair Dye!  I saw a box of L’oreal Recital Preference in “Ultra Lightening Golden Brown” while I was in TKMaxx last week and now I look a little bit like Donald Trump.  Don’t impulse buy hair dye ladies.

Pink Sith – is head over heels for the 120 different red lipstick color combinations that can be had with the Smooches Lipstick Palette in Take A Bow from Yagolicious!

Join Prime Beauty on her journey to rid herself of her crow’s feet with the PaloVia Skin Renewing Laser. How does it work? Is it safe? And most importantly, does it hurt? Find out!

Phyrra – does a bright video tutorial with Sugarpill Chromalust Shadows.

we heart this – we’re having a MEGA Milani Cosmetics giveaway of 48 products from the spring line. Wanna win? (Hint: you do!)

Clumps of Mascara – is loving OPI’s New York City Ballet SoftShades collection. What do you think? Are sheer polishes your thing?

EauMG – Victoria takes at look at the top 20 perfumes for women sold in the U.S. in 2011. How many of these do you own?

Gouldylox Reviews – I’m testing an at-home laser on my crows feet. In thirty days, I’m supposed to be dramatically un-lined. Check out where I’m starting from to follow my journey!

Krasey Beauty – shows you what she did on her birthday. There may also be morkie pics involved!

Lipglossiping – gets ready for Summer with a super-hawt lip and cheek stain. Say hello to Beauté Liqui-Gel Lip and Cheek Stain in Fluoron.

Nouveau Cheap – In honor of Easter, come take a peek at all the adorable reader-submitted manicures in my Easter Manicure Round-Up.

What was your last beauty-related impulse purchase?

My friend Jenni is conducting some research on makeup storage solutions, who better to ask than you guys? Please take just a couple of minutes to fill out the questionnaire.

All responders who leave their email address at the top will be entered into a draw to win a £50 ASOS voucher, sure to come in handy!

Thank you.

Twice a week, I’m instructed to make bubble monsters of varying shapes and sizes.  Some are scary, some are friendly… some exist for mere seconds before a chubby toddler squishes them back down beneath the water. Others cling to the bath until I can be bothered to flush them down the plughole with a healthy dose of Cif.  We like bubbles in our house and a bath simply isn’t a bath without an accompaniment of pops and froth.

Imperial Leather have released a duo of limited edition fragrances, one of which caught my eye owing to the fact that it alludes to one of my favourite perfumery notes, and one that you don’t usually see in high street bodycare products, Amber.

Claiming an intoxicating base note of Amber, the Blissful* range (which comprises a shower gel and a bath cream) promises a highly nourishing formula, balanced to be pH neutral.  Other than the colour in the bottle, I didn’t detect too much of the promised amber but it does still offer a warm and comforting exotic floral scent.  Containing jojoba pearls to help both exfoliate and offer additional moisturisation and with bubbles a-plenty, it passed the toddler test with flying colours.

The other limited edition fragrance is Sublime and is based around a pomegranate scent, expect a far fruitier affair!

Can you remember the Imperial Leather ads from when we were growing up?  I found this one on You Tube and have to say, despite it featuring the magnificent Julie Walters, this one slipped my attention!

The new Imperial Leather Limited Editions range of pampering shower and bath creams are available from all major retailers, with an RRP of £1.89 per 250ml shower cream and £1.53 per 500ml bath cream.

* press sample

I love a bit of alliteration in the mornings and the ECOTools Bamboo Bronzer Brush is just the kind of tongue twister that my beauty routine was waiting for.  I’ll start my review by pointing out that this little big brush has amassed an amazing 4.8 (out of 5) average rating over on makeupalley.  No great shakes you might think, except when you take into consideration that it’s been rated almost 300 times.  That’s a lot of very happy brush owners.

Although sold as a bronzing brush, this thing is so large, I have to assume that ECOTools intended this to be used as a body-brozing brush or simply an all-over face bronzing (as in tanning) brush.  There’s no way you’d wanna reach for this daily to “sunkiss” your face in specific areas, it’s mahoosive!  Where this baby excels is in its ability to buff – buff, buff and buff again.  It’s a wonderful long-handled kabuki for mineral foundation and an even more awesome applicator for the kind of liquid foundations that would normally give you an armache as you try to blend them before they quickly set.

This particular brush pairs up wonderfully with all manner of foundations including powders, creams and liquids and if you love the ELF Powder Brush for buffing in your foundation, I’m willing to bet that you’re going to love this even more.  The synthetic bristles are kitten-paw soft, keeping dry skin happy while you buff away to your hearts content.  I’m not gonna call the finished results ‘airbrushed’ (because it’s a naff expression) but I did get a lovely sheen to prove that the product had been worked well into the skin before any excess was buffed away by the densely-packed fibres.  I don’t find the large handle cumbersome to use, neither have I experienced any problems with shedding.

I’ve since bought another one to keep as a finishing brush and I use it to apply an illuminating/setting powder and ensure that everything is fully blended with a non-powdery finish – something I can struggle with when my skin is on the dry side.  The only negatives about this brush is that it’s a bugger to clean, takes an age to dry and isn’t very-travel friendly.

The ECOTools brush range is available to buy instore in Boots, priced at £9.99.  It’s also available online from cutecosmetics, priced at £8.99

If you’re looking for an excuse to treat yourself, you’ll be interested to hear that Powder Rooms are running a 20% off promotion over the Easter Weekend.  Get a 20% discount on brands including: Butter London, Ciate, Lilash, Kings & Queens, and Laqa & Co.  They’ve even got the latest Spring/Summer Butter London polishes in stock!

I’ve had a trawl through the site and put together a medley of some lovely things that caught my eye:

01: Butter London Bossy Boots (new for Spring/Summer 2012)  |  02: Do I Look Like… Mirror  |  03: Ciate Ditch The Heels Paint Point
04: LiLash Eyelash Growth Stimulator  |  05: Kings & Queens Tobacco Body Milk  |  06: Laqa & Co Lip Gloss Pencils

The code to activate the 20% discount on your order is EASTER and the promotion is live until Monday 9th April at 23.59 BST

Hoppy Happy shopping!

If you’re sworn off the chocolates this year, how about some LUSH goodies instead?  The high-street heroes have released some Easter treats to ensure that even the strongest of wills are unable to resist the lure of some serious bathtime frivolities.

1. What came first, the chick(en) or the egg?  Well… it depends on what you choose to wrap inside this ridiculously cute Chick Knot Wrap!  Let’s face it, whatever you buy to hide inside, this chick is gonna steal the show – especially when the recipient finds out that the wrap is made from old plastic bottles!  Don’t forget to recycle it yourself, it would make an super-cute bag scarf.

2. Ahh, my favourite – ignore the strange looks and raised eyebrows you’ll get carrying a carrot into the bathroom and get that hot tap running.  Wave The Carrot about under the running water and watch as the bath fills up with (non-carrot scented) bubbles.  Leave our favourite orange veggie on the side of the bath to dry out and it’ll be ready to go again, and again, and again!  Reusable bubble bars?  LUSH!

3. Finally, you may be sworn off chocolate but no-one would begrudge you a few sweeties.  Especially when they’re of the bathing variety.  Fluffy Egg is a candy-mania(cs) dream, scented to smell just like marshmallow, candyfloss and all that teeth-achingly good stuff.  Stick two fingers up at the diet and sit in your Fluffy Egg filled bath this Sunday, eating your Easter Eggs.  Sick.

Fancy winning one of these Easter goodies?

I have a bunch of Carrots (geddit?!) to give away this weekend.  If you want to chance your hand at being one of TEN bathing belles to win a LUSH reusable bubble bar, leave a comment below and answer the following questions.

1. What’s your favourite bath-time ritual?

2. How many Easter Eggs have you hidden away and which one are you gonna break open first?

T&C
1. Entry open to UK residents only.
2. I will choose 10 winners at random.
3. Lipglossiping.com is the sole promoter of this competition.
4. Competition closes on Monday 9th April 2012 at 23.59 BST.
5. Winners list will be published on-site on Tuesday 10th April.

Most of my makeup is split between five old-style Ikea FIRA chests and a couple of Ikea HELMERS.  When Ikea discontinued the FIRA, makeup-loving hearts were broken across the globe, they’ve since replaced the storage solution with a hugely inferior version called the MOPPE which is about 2x the original price and half the original depth of the FIRA. No bueno.

I’ve been loving my HELMERS more and more since I threw some cheap drawer dividers in there, it wasn’t pretty but it helped to organise each drawer a little more effectively.

I went to Ikea a couple of days ago and came across some plastic basket inserts called ANTONIUS.  They come in one size, with one compartment configuration.  They cost a mere £1.80 a-piece and THEY FIT THE HELMER!  It’s actually a little bit of a squeeze to get them in there but fit they do!

Wanna see?

How sexy is that picture?  I just need a Dymo printer to make those little labels and I’ll be happy left alone in my room for the next seven years.  That’s a bit of a miscellaneous drawer by the way: powder highlighters, cream and liquid highlighters and lip products that don’t fit in my lipstick drawer!

On the right is mostly MAC MSFs, which should give you an idea of how big the compartments are.

A different drawer.  These are blushers.  It’s so much easier to be able to store them on their side with minimal rattling about or ‘foraging’ to find the right shade.

So how much would a full makeup storage solution set you back?  Well… let’s do the maths.

1 Ikea HELMER @ £24.99

6 Ikea ANTONIUS @ £10.80

Total = £35.79

Not bad eh?

I couldn’t be without my HELMERS.  Sure, I love the look of the ALEX but… these serve their purpose really well and after nearly three years of daily use, they look as good as the day I bought them.  I have one which fits snugly under my desk for nail polish and one that sits ontop of my desk (I have a huge corner desk) with the rolling casters removed.

How are you storing your makeup?  Got any tips to share?

Maybe I’ve been eyeing up too many chocolate eggs but this is just making me think of a Cadbury’s egg with a good dose of speckling!

Today’s NOTD is courtesy of Butter London’s HRH with a coat of the lovely L.A Colors in Jewel Tone ontop.  Although the glitter in Jewel Tone is fairly dense, the base is far too translucent to work as anything other than a layering polish.  Nevermind, it’s only 99p from BeautyBase afterall (£1.29 online) and works beautifully with a whole range of purples, blues and pinks!

Check out Rhamnousia’s great comparison with the much-loved Models Own Disco Mix.

Have you got your Easter Egg sorted for the weekend?  Whatchu got?