A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Only a couple of months old, Cheeky Cosmetics, the sister brand of Cowshed is making waves online with their new range of 21 nail paints and freshly-opened Shoreditch beauty parlour.  Not all about nails, the new parlour also offers a range of other treats including the “Cheeky Blow” (a range of four different blow-dry styles for girls on the go), “Cheeky Paint” (A file and paint with the colour of your choice and 10ml bottle to take home with you!), and a “Cheeky Up Do” (perfect for a night out with a choice of three sophisticated styles).

Today, I’m putting one of their polishes to the test in my own beauty parlour in-front of an episode of I’m A Celebrity (why is Lucy still in there?)

The shade on my tips in the photo is The Feeling’s Neutral, an oh-so-lovely milky mocha that harks back to OPI’s cult classic You Don’t Know Jacques but with a slightly chalkier, softer and more greyed-out edge.

Application is quicker than usual with an ultra-wide brush that can suffer from overloading if you’re not careful.  Coverage is great in two coats and the polish dries rapidly to a glossy, tough finish.

My only complaint about this particular polish lies with the smell, it’s pretty obnoxious but you can take comfort from the fact that Cheeky Cosmetics lists the full ingredients on the website and there’s no sign of the toxic-three anywhere.

Cheeky Nail Paints are priced at £7 each and available to buy online and instore at the Cheeky Parlour

* press sample

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

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

I’ve only been in to a Kiko store a couple of times but when I do, I tend to do some serious damage in an effort to make-up for the fact I can’t ever just “pop in”. Truthfully, I haven’t been hugely blown away by the things I’ve bought, with the exception of a couple of matte eyeshadows, they’ve mostly been neither here nor there in terms of eliciting any major makeup-excitement.

Having said that, I am rather fond of this softly muted sage green. I’m not actually sure if it’s still available to buy… huge apologies if it isn’t. It should be, it’s lovely.

#349 (I hate numbers for names!) is a soft green in a greyed out base, it’s perfect for year-round wear and always looks beautiful when topped off with glittery tips… you can imagine how lovely gold-flakies look applied to the tips, no?

The formula is ok. It’s not completely smooth and as time’s passed, my bottle has thickened slightly. The above shows three coats but two would probably cover it if you were careful during application.

KIKO Cosmetics can be found online at kikocosmetics.co.uk

If you’re starting to feel some early Autumnal blues creeping in (where did the Summer go?), you’re not alone.  I’m already hyperventilating at the thought of losing my beautiful long evenings… aren’t they just the best thing about summer?  I love being able to take blog photos at eight in the evening, sit on the balcony after Leila has gone to bed, and enjoy the thought that, at lunchtime, I have more than three-hours of light left in my day.

Winter, you suck.

Well… let’s push those gloomy thoughts to the back of our minds and concentrate instead on this rather cheerful hue.

Headline Colors (used to be Killer Colors – remember the name dramas?) released this beautiful shade as part of their Spring/Summer 13 collection.  Poolside Party is a crystal clear blue with excellent opacity and a smooth formula that will bring a smile to your face in just two coats.

It’s simply cheerful.  Would look fabulous on toes (while you’re still brave enough to bare them) and makes me wish that Summer could go on forever.

Headline Colors Poolside Party is priced at £9 and is available to buy online from headlinecolors.com

* press sample

An oldie but a goodie today with Misa’s Toxic Seduction. When I first started blogging 4+ years ago, Misa were a brand that I’d see pop up on blogs across the Atlantic all the time. Nowadays, not so much…

Still, when I attended Pro Beauty in London a couple of years ago, I raced for the Misa stand which was part of a bigger NSI stall… it had already been half-emptied! It’s not hard to see why…

Misa’s Toxic Seduction is a blast from the past, Fall 2008 to be exact… it’s a rich forest green, somewhat muted in anything but direct sunlight and yet it has a certain depth to it that I find really appealing.  The silvery shimmer gives it a really great glow to battle through the vampy, blackened edges that have historically made Autumn collections such a thrill for me.

Yum.

Application on this one is great, nothing noteworthy to report.  If you’re a fan of green polishes and don’t have this classic in your collection… you’re doing it wrong.

Misa Toxic Seduction is currently available to buy online at amazon.co.uk (yeah, I know) priced at £3.02 not inc. shipping.