A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

You can keep your Andrex puppies and their loo roll-pulling antics because Zoya Kendal has super-softness in the bag.  This beautiful polish from the American brand is simply perfect.  A gorgeous greyed-lavender creme that incites visions of mist-swirled candyfloss.

The formula is also divine, reaching full opacity in two fuss-free, streak-free coats. You may be able to tell that this is my favourite polish of the year so far…. making me want to retrospectively check out the rest of the Zoya Feel Collection from last winter (thank heavens for eBay).

If you’re finding Zoya Kendal a little too simplistic or cold for your tastes, these kind of muted pastels are my absolute favourite for enhancing with a little glitter.  In this case, Butter London’s Tart with a Heart did the honours…

Ethereal, delicate, beautiful and blinging to the max!

Zoya Kendal is available to buy online from beauty4nails-body.co.uk, priced at £7.99

I know I was supposed to be hot-footing it to Boots to spend my points on Chanel Summer… but I’ve got a little secret to let you into: I didn’t actually get that far.  I was in West Quay and when I came out of the lift, I got distracted by John Lewis… if you haven’t been to West Quay in Southampton, let me tell you… they know how to make a good John Lewis.  It’s my favourite local beauty department… by contrast, the Debenhams in town is woeful and sends me into fits of depression whenever I darken its doors.

Anyway, there I was… fingering (you can use that word in other contexts) all the pretty beauty stuff at the front of store when I spotted this Illusion d’Ombre (cream eyeshadow to plebs like you and me).  I already own two of them (Mirifique and Illusoire) and I’d completely forgotten that this shade even existed.  I was umm-ing and ahh-ing over picking up Fantasme (a sparkly irridescent shade) which I hoped would brighten my eye area without being too gaudy when the subtle peach-tones of Émerveillé stopped me in my tracks.

Summer in a pot.  Minus the Mojitos and insect bites.

Like Fantasme, it contains tiny reflects of multidimensional sparkle, though much MUCH more subtle, grown-up, and golden.  I know I haven’t properly reviewed Mirifique yet, but I literally wore Illusoire every day for a fortnight whilst up North.  The Illusion d’Ombres are completely effortless in application, blending and wear.  They last perfectly for 7+ hours without a sticky base or primer and almost melt (in a good way) onto my eyelids.  I actually can’t praise them enough for their complex finish and I love how they don’t appear metallic-y (and aging) like many shimmer shades often do.

Chanel Illusion d’Ombre in #82 Émerveillé is priced at £23.00 and available online at Boots (or instore at John Lewis!)

Do you own any of the Chanel Illusion d’Ombres?  Are you as crazy about them as I am?

Staring cross-eyed at Fairy Lights is one of my favourite Christmas past-times, staring cross-eyed at this nail polish makes it only marginally more appealing than looking at it with 20-20 vision.

Butter London’s Fairy Lights is a pink metallic with a high-shine chrome finish that accentuates every single flaw on the nail bed, despite the use of a base coat.  The tiniest ridge will turn into the Grand Canyon and heaven forbid if you have a peeling nail like me…

It applied streakily, coming good on the third coat and is frankly, utterly dupable.  You should check out the MyFace Lil Bling Nail Chromes for similar finishes (they do a pink one too).  Longevity was average on my hardy nails, with tip wear becoming apparent from the third day onwards.

Butter London’s Fairy Lights is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from PowderRooms.

Shapeshifting.  Good or bad?  Would you like to be able to transform yourself from one thing to the next in the blink of an eye?  I remember watching An American Werewolf in London (from behind the sofa) when I was about 8 or 9, that bit where David turns from hairy man into even hairier beast?  Horrifying.  It still gives me the heebies to think of it now.

Butter London’s Knackered is an altogether prettier shapeshifter.  It morphs from green to purple in the most delightful of ways, proving itself to be a very worthy duochrome.  As if that weren’t enough loveliness to contend with, the shade is flecked with holographic micro-glitter.  In fact, it’s almost too much prettiness to contend with, basically the kind of polish I’d create if I ever had me a chance: “Oh, let’s just put EVERYTHING in it!”

Butter London Knackered is priced at £11.95 and available online from PowderRooms.com

Fall-out free and less fussy than their loose powder counterparts, these new blushers from BareMinerals pack plenty of pigmentation without any of the faff.  Available in a wide variety of shades, the packaging is both simple and sleek, NARS fans will be familiar with the rubberised finish that sadly doesn’t stay neat and tidy for very long.  The blush palette comes complete with a brush (more on that later) and a generously sized mirror.

I took delivery of shade The Confession, which looks alarmingly warm and dark in the pan but swatches a neutral/warm rose-wood shade that should flatter most complexions.  The texture is smooth and feels as finely-milled as you’d expect from a brand who excel in powder products.  The blush offers ample colour in a single sweep for those of us who are particularly pale and delivers great blendability with no patchiness.

Unusually, I like the brush that comes housed in the palette.  I only tried it after finding myself on holiday, short of brushes and it works very nicely!  It’s loosely packed to ensure you don’t go all Bozo on your face with a single sweep, the hairs are soft and fan out delicately to create a natural ‘shape’ for application across the cheek area.  It’s all I use to apply it now!

I do love a good matte blusher and this one works well with a variety of looks – you can see that despite its warmth, I paired it successfully with a cool eye in the above FOTD photo.  It’s a workhorse shade with a reliable formula – I recommend checking out the shades next time you’re near a BareMinerals counter and be sure to SWATCH – I would never have plumped for such a strong looking shade without seeing how it looked on the skin!

BareMinerals READY Blushers** are available to buy now on counter and online, priced at £22 each

* psst – they’re currently cheaper at beautybay.com and escentual.com (swatch first, buy later?!)

** press sample

It’s not my blogging style to post new collections but I’m making a “sort-of” exception in this case. You see, I have a good amount of Boots points burning a hole in my purse and I wanted to gauge some opinion on whether any of these pieces are setting your makeup-loving hearts alight as they are mine?

I usually buy a few Chanel or Dior pieces from the holiday collections, helped along with those handy points but last year, I only bought Chanel Féérie (not even using my points!) and I’ve barely used it. I’ve lost my splurging confidence after being totally won over by the pretty rather than the usable – do you do that?

The above picture shows a few of the pretties from the Chanel Summer 2012 Collection and I’m lusting after one of the bronzers (Sable Beige 907 – the one without the pink) and that eye duo (Sable-Émouvant) – I can’t go far wrong with those right?  I think I’m leaning more toward picking up the Sable-Émouvant eye duo and the Summer blusher (Sheer Summer Glow) from Burberry, have you seen that one?  If you’re as pale as me – I think you should take a look!

The Chanel Summer 2012 Collection will be available nationwide from Friday.

Have you got any high-end beauties on your Summer radar?

Taking a break from the Summer shades for a moment to dazzle you with Butter London’s Black Knight – a veritable nebula of twinkle on yo’ nails.

I feared that The Black Knight wouldn’t live up to my expectations, so many times have I been disappointed by a glitter but this one dodges that particular bullet.

The glitter sits proudly on the nail bed without sinking into the base colour and a single layer of top coat is enough to stop my teeth from grinding in protest against a gritty finish.  Fully opaque in three coats, it’s what one might technically call “a bobby dazzler”.  There, I’ve just come up with Butter London’s next shade name.

Butter London The Black Knight is available to buy online from PowderRooms, priced at £11.95

I don’t do many ‘haul’ posts, I don’t think they’re quite as popular in the blogosphere as they used to be?  Taken over by beauty box posts perhaps?

Anyway, I’ve been having a bit of a high-street love-in this past week and in the town where I’m currently staying, I’m limited to a Boots and a Superdrug – the Superdrug is a good ‘un, the Boots store massively blows but I did spot a good discounted section at the back that I didn’t have a chance to check out.  My LUSH purchases came from my local store in Southampton just before I drove up North. Um, that’s about it really – here’s what’s prompted me to open my purse this week!

When you’ve got a full fringe, dry shampoo is your friend and I thought I’d give Batiste Cherry a spin, I usually go for the original, dark, or tropical but I think this one is my new favourite.  I’m a massive fan of Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation and surprised myself when I realised that I hadn’t given the Healthy Mix Serum version a go – again, this is a big hit with me (so far).  I think it suits my dryer skin even better and gives a slightly more translucent coverage.  The only gloss that I’ve ever repurchased is BarryM’s Lip Gloss in Toffee, it’s a wonderful colour with a pretty amount of shimmer and a non-sticky texture, I love it!

As for my LUSH dabble, I picked up another holy grail in the form of Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter, it’s the one I keep in my handbag and I generally alternate between this and CND’s Solar Oil which I use immediately after painting my nails.  I was sent a bottle of LUSH 9 to 5 Cleansing Lotion a few weeks ago and whilst I’ve been enjoying using it, it hasn’t set my world alight you know?  I’m not really expecting LUSH Ultrabland to either, but I wanted to try another cleanser to discover the differences and to see which one I lean towards in terms of formula, as they’re both quite different.  Finally, I picked up a bath bomb for Leila – yes, it’s Space Girl.  Yes, it contains copious amounts of glitter.  No, I didn’t have a say in the selection and yes, I will be the one left cleaning the bath.

What was the last beauty product you snapped up?

Continuing on the Spring/Summer Butter London parade is Disco Biscuit – a hot pink jelly with iridescent blue flashes courtesy of a sprinkling of micro-glitter.  This jelly finish is my favourite kind, soft and squishy without being too sheer – four coats gives enough coverage to please this opaque-loving polish fan.

Application wasn’t too taxing, a streaky first coat soon smoothed out with subsequent layers.  I really didn’t think I’d like this before applying it, some of the swatches I’d seen made me think I was going to have to put up with that slightly messy-looking finish that semi-sheer shades deliver but this builds beautifully to achieve just the look you want from super-sheer to fully opaque.  It would also make a beautiful layering shade if you’re keen for a little experimentation.

Butter London Disco Biscuit is available to buy online from PowderRooms, priced at £11.95

Butter London’s Slapper, a.k.a the hardest nail polish to photograph in the world, ever.  It’s a super-bright teal which definitely leans more green than blue.  It’s more vibrant and a bit deeper than my photograph shows.  I was getting massively frustrated trying to capture the shade until I google image’d it and it turns out that I’m not the only one who suffered!

Unlike the others that I’ve tried from the Spring/Summer collection, Slapper went on like a textbook nail polish dream, the above photo shows two coats of perfection – the shade gave me no issues at all.  This season’s brights from the brand have all been edgier than the traditional summer neons though practically as bright and eye-catching.  The subtle nuances and retro-leanings have ensured that they stand out from the other releases, though so far, the formula has been a little unpredictable.

Butter London Slapper is available to buy online from PowderRooms, priced at £11.95.

Hello Trout Pout, 1983 called – they want their nail polish back.  This is one seriously retro shade that deserves pride of place in Wham’s Club Tropicana video.  It’s neon-leaning with enough pink to keep it looking acceptable on cool skintones.  My picture below sadly makes this look a little less bright than it is in real-life but the shading is accurate.

This is a beautiful shade for sandal-ready toes this summer and applies in two coats, though I did experience the same weird runny-yet-thick texture that I found with Bossy Boots so just be aware of this to prevent any cuticle pooling or bubbles… thin coats required!

Butter London Trout Pout is available to buy online from PowderRooms, priced at £11.95

Who’s da boss? Leila’s da boss (when I’m not around – sorry Mr. L!)

It’s Leila’s 3rd  birthday party today, though she doesn’t turn three until the 16th May it was the only day available at the venue so I’ve been trying to explain to a very confused tot why it isn’t actually her birthday yet but everyone will be wishing her a Happy Birthday – cue confused face.

I’m wearing Butter London’s Bossy Boots from their Spring/Summer 2012 collection in honour of the occasion, seeing as I’ll be rounding up a few under 8s, I thought it quite appropriate!

Isn’t it Spring-like?  I love muted shades but whoulda thunk I’d go gaga for a pistachio shade like this!  I like that Butter London haven’t made it too dirgy or grey and have kept it feeling somehow fresh and airy without sounding the “woah green nails” klaxon.  I’m absolutely, positively against wearing green nail polish on your toes usually (fungal feet) but I’m gonna admit to being tempted by this one.  Talk me out of it please!

Opaque in two coats, it needs the second to get rid of pastel streaks – the formula covered nicely but did have a tendency to pool around the cuticles… thin strokes required!

Butter London Bossy Boots is available to buy online from PowderRooms, priced at £11.95