A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

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?

[starreview tpl=14]

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.

Nails Inc still isn’t a favourite brand of mine.  I find the formula a little too thick – great for achieving opacity in 2 coats or less, but not so good for clumsy types like me.

Belgrave Place is a beautiful inky blue and although I love the colour, this polish isn’t a keeper for me.  Despite use of a base coat (I’m obviously not using one good enough), this stained my nails quite nastily upon removal.

Will I ever find a Nails Inc. polish I’m in love with?  The search continues – recommendations very welcome!

Sorry for so many NOTD posts, it feels like a bit of a lazy cop out as they’re much easier to do than full on reviews.  I have some MMU haul posts as well which I really need to be doing and I have a HG to share with you all – ‘citing!

A lovely, lovely nude that’s a dream to apply.  I enjoy being able to get away with keeping nudes on my nails a bit longer, especially this one which only suffers minimal and even tip wear.

#

I love GOSH polishes, I find them consistently good quality, with lovely pigmented shades that are easy to apply – never needing more than 2 coats to achieve opacity.

This one is no exception… look!

Hello beautiful!

Carmine is a lovely shade which is pretty hard to describe (and photograph).  It’s a beautiful rich, sophisticated magenta with flashes of scarlet and gold.  Applies like a dream… this is 2 coats:

This photo sadly does not do it justice at all.  It looks scarlet here and doesn’t show off the beautiful hot magenta.  I think you can just about make out the magenta more towards the tips and the gold flashes more at the base of the nail (particularly on the little finger), but it’s far, far more apparent in real life.

I’m flippin’ loving GOSH this summer – and it’s back on a 3for2 in Superdrug at the moment!

A gorgeous, vibrant shade shot through with a sophisticated glitter.

This polish is fantastic and would easily make it into my top 10 list. 

It’s a lush cherry red that I can’t stop looking at!  It goes on smoothly and evenly.  The texture feels a little gritty thanks to the glitter, but it’s nothing that a sweep of top coat wouldn’t fix. 

The above image shows 1 coat(!) after 4 days of wear.  There is very minimal and even tip wear.  This is my first experience with China Glaze polishes and I’m so impressed by the formula of this one, I’m looking for more!  Anyone care to share their favourite CG polishes?

The perfect wine red for cool toned gals like me.  I always forget just how much I love this shade until I rediscover it in my little box of polishes.

A solid 2 coater, hardwearing and glossy with a lovely shimmer.

I have a slight problem with nail tip wear with this polish though, you might be able to make out on the tips of my ring and little finger in the above photo which was taken the morning after application.  I’m guilty of not wrapping my polish over the tips of my nails though, it always feels like such a sloppy thing to do.  Does it really aid longevity on the tips?

Anyone care to share their ‘classic’ faves?