A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

You already know by now that I’m a big fan of Mavala polishes and further to my post a few weeks ago on Mavala’s “Ruby” polish, I was sent the remaining 2 colours of Mavala’s Autumn/Winter collection for review. 

The collection is called Viva La Colour!  – a brave slap in the face to the usual Autumn/Winter collections showing up around now.

The first shade I want to show you is “Liberty”, an elegant soft nude.

This is a sheer, but it builds up opacity quite nicely thanks to Mavala’s reliable formula which never fails to please me.  The above is a total of 4 thin coats, a little more than I would prefer to apply – but it’s not a chore thanks to the smooth application.  If you did want to wear this sheer, it would be a lovely shade to compliment a french manicure… as for me, I don’t do sheers – so I’m glad I was able to build up the opacity, especially on such a lovely work-appropriate nude.  Work-appropriate nude? An oxymoron if ever I heard one!

Before I continue, I have to tell you that  “Viva La Colour!” is a collection of mattes.  Which probably goes some way to explain why I wasn’t delighted with the finish of the Ruby shade I tried earlier this month.

To be blunt, I don’t regard this collection as matte.  We’ve all seen the mattes on offer this season from the likes of O.P.I, Zoya and Nubar… I’m not a fan, but regardless of my personal taste, these ‘matte’ offerings from Mavala just aren’t… well, matte.  Semi-matte perhaps, but they’re definitely still fairly glossy.  This might be the ideal compromise for you if you’re a little too conservative to rush headlong into the new trend.

For me, this finish just misses – I get a non-commital vibe from the collection which is a shame, but as I’m about to demonstrate… easily remedied by a swipe of your favourite top coat.

Introducing Tokyo, the final shade in the trio.  It’s a beautiful deep dark blue with more than just a hint of purple on display.  Lovely colour, shame about that finish.

But wait… 1 top coat later…

Oh my!… Hello lover!  You’re beautiful in all your ultra glossy loveliness.  You remind me of Cadbury’s chocolate wrappers.  You make me feel all dark, mysterious and sophisticated – quite an achievement!

So, to sum up… if you’re into your mattes, I’d steer clear of this collection.

If you just want some gorgeous Autumn/Winter nail styling that’s bang on trend, a dream to apply and beautifully finished (with a top coat – ahem) – then look no further.

The collection is available from Greenhands and priced @ £3.75 each

Now, if you’ll excuse me… I’m off to stuff my face on Dairy Milk.

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Right now the generous people over at Nails Inc are offering 6 fabulous Nails Inc. products for just £10.  Offer is valid for today only (21/08/2009) so be quick!

The lucky dip includes:

Fast Dry Spray (worth £8)
A treatment top coat / base coat (worth £11)
3 glossy nails inc polishes (worth £31.50)
Cuticle oil (worth £8)

A total saving of £48.50!

Shipping is £3.99 but if you use the MarieClaire code MCNI20 you get 20% off your order.

Whatchu waitin’ for?

Further to my post on the Debenhams sale, I nabbed a few colours.

Hello lovelies!  There’s 4 absolute stand out shades for me in this little lot, namely:

Sweety (Bubblegum Pink)
Velvet (Warm Taupe)
Lyric (Off-White v.pale coffee shade)
Miami (Dusky pink with lilac flashes)

Hmm, I think you can probably expect some NOTD posts coming up!

So, my Nails Inc. freebie arrived (I bet Nails Inc. HQ was positively buzzing with nail polish elves fulfilling orders last week).

I ordered Jermyn Street, a beautiful deep mushroom colour with a slight lavender hint.  It’s certainly unusual and sophisticated enough to wear any time you see fit.

It has a stunningly beautiful high gloss finish (no top coat used in the photo) and longevity seems pretty decent aswell with only minor tip wear after two days.

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know my rocky history with Nails Inc.  I just don’t love the formula of the polishes I’ve tried thus far.  I’d love to say that this is the polish to change my mind… but it’s not.  I don’t know if you can see… but on the outside edge of the little finger is what I’m talking about.  It goes on a little too thick and starts to dry a little too quickly for me to get a lovely smooth application.  Honestly though, for this shade… I’m happy to overlook my problems with the polish.

Courtesy of Jen @ MizzWorthy, I received this lovely polish.  It applied beautifully, the above shows 3 coats (although it only needs 2).  Barry M’s Pink Flamingo is such a gorgeous  coral summery colour.  The name describes the shade perfectly!

I’m on my 2nd full day, and it’s not displaying any tip wear yet – incredible.  The only negative is that I’m unsure how well this colour suits my cool skintone, I think it would look amazing on warmer toned people.  Regardless, I’m showing off my tips with my pride, this is one stonking shade!

I’m sure they must have made a booboo in this image… Surely Berkeley Square is the one over there on the right, whilst Belgravia is the far left… No?

Anyway, The new Autumn Winter collection is available now from Nails Inc. at a cost of £20 for the four shades.

Standard Autum/Winter fare, jewelled vampy but safe enough colours – the dark grey is a nice inclusion.  All in all a solid collection that I’m sure will appeal to many.  Anything there that catches your eye?

Funnily enough after this morning’s post…

I was browsing Debenhams sale online this lunchtime and some of the Mavala Mini shades are reduced to £1.87 a bottle – mega bargain!

Linkage

Use code SHD1 for free delivery!

I accidently added most of them to my basket *oops*

There’s also some Stila goodies on sale too.

Another Mavala NOTD, and my favourite shade so far… Magnolia

Of course, the connotations of Magnolia are dull, dull, dull but I love how gentle this is, perhaps it’s a little ‘safe’ for most – but I think it’s feminine, soft and sophisticated with it’s satin finish.

As with the other Mavala shades I’ve tried, this applies beautifully.  1 coat and this would make a lovely french manicure application, 2 or more to build up on opacity.  I think this was 3 coats.  A nice smooth fairly thin formula (which I love) and quick drying (but not so quick that I can’t go over with a couple of strokes to tidy up my application).

This is love, what shade shall I go for next?!

As an aside, you may notice that my cuticles are looking a little dry (well, you probably won’t notice – but they are!) Any recommendations for something I don’t have to apply a 100 times a day to keep them moisturised?

Not loving this one quite as much as Glasgow a few days ago… but it’s definitely worth a spot on here as I consider this to be a slightly unusual colour.  It doesn’t look as though it would be deserving of the description ‘unusual’ but it is.  Ruby by Mavala is a shade that upon first glance, seems to be your standard warm toned dark pink in the bottle.  However, it shows up far more red toned with a warm brown hint on my nails.

It’s particularly worth a mention as I would class this as a ‘work safe’ red, it doesn’t scream for attention and sits quite demurely on the end of my fingers simply looking polished and pretty.  It’s also not a super high gloss finish, the above photo was taken after 2 coats.  Personally, I prefer a more glossy finish but that can be remedied with a couple of swipes of your favourite top coat.

Definitely one for the collection.

I’m loving these Mavala Minis (5ml), so great for impatient types like me who never see the bottom of a standard sized bottle before it’s gotten too thick and unuseable.

This is Glasgow #29 a fab silvery lavender metallic shade.  It’s a little streaky (as with most metallics) but not enough to bother me in the slightest.  It applied as easily as a creme with no dragging at all.  This was 3 thin coats.  Drying time was decent aswell.  I’m very, very impressed with this range and will be checking out some other colours!

These Mavala Minis are on offer at £3.19 a bottle at Richard John at the moment (although they do that annoying p&p thing where they think it’s a good idea to charge you higher p&p the more money you spend with them *sigh*)

This is my first experience with the Mavala brand, anyone else tried their products?  What are your thoughts?

The beauty blogosphere is buzzing right now with nail junkies across the UK enjoying Collection 2000’s “Hot Looks” range of polishes.

There are some fab 80s inspired shades and seeing as Button Moon was one of my fav shows as a tot, I had to pick up it’s nail polish counterpart!

Button Moon is a mint green creme that randomly reminds me of Rennie Soft Chews.  It’s a fun colour and fairly chalky in appearance.  Application wise, it achieves opacity in one coat, but needs two coats to even out the streakiness it suffers thanks to it’s pretty crappy brush.

The “Hot Looks” range claims to be fast drying, a claim I would take slight issue with.  Yes, the surface doesn’t stay tacky for very long at all… but the risk of smudging remains for a good half hour after application – not one to apply 15 minutes before bed unless you want lovely imprints from your bed sheets on your tips!

The picture shows the streaking fairly well, but I believe the culprit of this is the brush rather than the formula, so can easily be remedied by using another brush instead.  I should also note that the picture was taken without a top coat applied.

At £1.75 a bottle (they come in a super fab mini 8ml size) and despite the faults I’ve noted, I still think the range is a bit of a steal – ideal for trying out some funky colours.  They’re also currently on offer in Superdrug at the moment (2 for £2.99) – get ’em while they’re hot!  *snigger* Hot, “Hot Looks”, gerrit?

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Love.

Longwearing, 1-2 coat opacity, smooth application, quick drying, non-staining, cool-toned suiting, hot & striking.

Only thing I don’t love is the application brushes, which I find a little on the thin side, requiring up to 8 strokes to cover the nail evenly and smoothly – but thankfully it’s not SO quick drying that it starts to drag if you go over it a few times.

Another thing I love is the price!  £2.89 each or 2 for £4.99 at the moment in Superdrug.