A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Now that we’re hurtling headfirst into that downward spiral of financial gloom otherwise known as “the run up to Christmas”, I thought you lovely lot might be in need of a few discount codes to make those purse-hitting punches a little less painful.

Thanks to the penny-pinching money-savvy people over at VoucherCodes.co.uk, here’s the best of the discounts currently available:

20% Off and Free Delivery at The Body Shop
10% off plus Free Delivery at Elemis
10% Off first Orders at Zuneta
5% off Orders over £30 at Feel Unique
10% off and Free Delivery at TimeToSpa
£5 off Orders over £60 at Gorgeous Shop
5% over Orders over £50 at Salon Skincare
10% off Orders over £20 at The Beauty Room
5% off Christmas Selection at Treat Her

Click the image below for more money-saving discounts.

Ok, ok, I’m sorry… I never normally post 2 NOTD’s in such quick succession, let alone back to back!

But I physically couldn’t wait to show you guys this one.

You already know how impressed I was with my first George at Asda polish experience… Raincloud, that smooth pale grey remember?

Well check this bobby dazzler out…

I can’t stop looking at my nails, truly.

This is the most perfect blue I’ve ever seen.

It’s called Indigo Dazzle and really is rather exquisite.

Application was a bit frustrating, it didn’t dry that quickly (unlike Raincloud) and when I applied the first coat it was a hot streaky mess as it tried to drag the polish off my nail as fast as I could lay it down.

I think the trick to this one is to appy a thin 1st coat to get the best base of colour that you can, then just go back and be fairly heavy handed with the 2nd coat (whilst trying to avoid bubbling from applying too thickly).  Considering I was much more heavy handed with the 2nd coat I only got 1 bubble which is pretty damn good for a £1 polish.

However, application issues aside… this colour does something to me.

It’s a true blue… no purple or green reflects allowed and it literally glows from within.  I’m so excited to have found these, it makes the weekly food shop *so* much more interesting!

George at Asda Nail polishes, can be found (unsurpisingly) at Asda, they’re currently priced at £1 a bottle and there were a staggering number of shades to choose from when I last looked.

Do you like?

Yano when you’re shopping… and it’s been an el-crappo experience… your money is burning a hole in your pocket but you just can’t find *anything* to commit to… everything is… for want of a better (or even actual) word… meh.

I had one of those days in town.. lots of nice money practically setting my pants alight and nothing that caught my eye enough to extinguish them.  Until I popped into Superdrug and sidled up to the Sleek stand.

I prodded at the blushers… meh.

I eyeballed the lipsticks…. meh meh.

Just as I was about to leave, frown intact – I cast my eyes downwards and caught sight of the nail polishes.  Nail polishes? I didn’t even know Sleek did nails?  Well, obviously I haven’t emerged from that rock of mine enough… cos there they were all lined up like beacons of salvation ready to save me from a shit shopping trip.

I picked up two shades: Royalty (Blackened Red Shimmer) and Poison Ivy (Blackened Green Shimmer) but got the guilts at the checkouts thinking of all those polishes sat at home still untouched and left Poison Ivy at the counter.

Anyway, how do I like Royalty?  I like it a lot!

It is absolutely packed with subtle shimmer – beautiful!

Application? It could be a one-coater if you were a little more careful with application than me.  The above photo shows two coats with no top coat (I’m so lazy about top coats).

It dries fast, perhaps a tiny bit too fast for slowcoaches like me… but as soon as I picked up the pace, I had no problems with application.

This is such a Christmassy shade, I can’t wait to check out the others available!

Nailed Nail Polish by Sleek is available from most Superdrugs.

Ohhh Bourjois, my favourite high street brand.  It’s impossible to pronounce your name without doing a pouty french expression, it just doesn’t seem right.

I’ve been a big fan of Bourjois’ “little round pots” for years and was beyond excited to see Bourjois’ tweet about this Limited Edition collection of vintage Parisien styled packaging.

Absolute Violet Baked Eyeshadow

…

This is quite an image intensive post, to see the other images, please click this link…

Still on the hunt for an easier to blend alternative to UDPP, I decided to give Art Deco’s Eyeshadow Base a go.

I’ve tried Art Deco products before and on the whole, I’ve been impressed.  I’m a fan of their eyeshadows and camouflage concealers in particular.

Art Deco are a German brand established in 1985 and they’ve been trying to make an impact on this side of the channel for a couple of years now.

I often spy “z”elebrities pictured in the likes of Heat magazine clutching their little Art Deco shopping bags.  You can find the brand stocked in beauty salons and the like, but they’re mostly still trying to find a way into the mainstream market.

Packaged in a sleek little black pot… nice and sturdy.  Honestly though, this is my least favourite style of packaging… especially with these long nails of mine.  HATE digging product out from under these talons.  Yes, I could use a brush, but most of the time I can’t be bothered.

The actual product is a warm flesh-toned creme with shimmer.  If you’re in too much of a hurry for full eye makeup, I have used a touch of this to even out my lids with a slick of eyeliner and I’ve been pleased with the effect.  The shimmer kicks it up a notch, and aids in making me look a little more awake than I feel.

It glides onto the eyelids smoothly and blends (with my finger) to an almost powdery soft finish.  No stickiness or greasy residue is left on the lids.

Shadows glide easily over the base, and blending is much more fluid than I find with UDPP.  Still a little trickier than with no base or the Kryolan Supracolor, but it’s fine.

The million dollar question… does it keep my eyeshadow crease free?

UDPP keeps my shadows glued to my lid like me to Eastenders on Christmas Day, they just don’t budge till the last duh, duh, duhs.

Here’s how my eyeshadow looked after 8hrs with Art Deco’s Eyeshadow Base:

That’s not bad huh?

It actually looks worse in the picture than it did in the mirror, I think the flash from the camera really makes the imperfections stand out.

On the plus side…

It’s creamy, non-drying, makes a good base when worn alone.  It’s easier to blend with than UDPP and it does a thoroughly stand up job at keeping shadows in place.

On the down side…

I don’t think I get quite so much longevity from it as I do with UDPP, but a minimum of 8hrs decent wear is probably all I really need.  I’ve just been spoilt by UDPP still wowing me at bedtime.

On the fence…

It seems to make the shadows just as vivid as UDPP and doesn’t appear to alter the original shades any more than UDPP does, but I’m not really that adept at noticing subtle changes which may well drive other people crazy with frustrations.

Overall, I’m hugely impressed.

It’s also substantially cheaper than UDPP… from memory, I think I paid around £6-£7 for my pot.

You can check out stockists on the UK Art Deco website

[starreview tpl=14]

Introducing Sleek’s new Sunset Palette, I would link you to the website.. but I can’t find the palette on there… infact, the website seems to be thoroughly out of date.  And just how long does it take to build an online shop?

Anyway…

I had absolutely no intention of buying this.  I’m a cool toned kinda girl, especially at the moment… I’m all about the greys, mauves and silvers.

However, whilst buying the Graphite palette… I couldn’t resist a sneak peek inside this one too.  Oh my!

I will probably never wear the blue or the bright orange (I know, I know – they’re the bestest ones)… but they’re just not me!  The others are deliciously wearable metallic shades that will be put into use immediately!

Absolute stand out shades for me are: Top 2nd from left (cranberry colour), bottom far left, bottom 2nd from left and bottom 3rd from right.  If you’re a neutrals girl the palette is easily worth the cost for those 4 shades alone.  Although the cranberry shade looks bright, (and it is..) it blends out smoothly making a gorgeous subtle crease colour.

I’m very happy with this palette, and delighted that it’s made it into the permanent collection – good job Sleek!

I had the opportunity to have a play with some of the new E.L.F Studio Products which should be available to buy on the website from next week – apparently the container arrives in Southampton at the end of this week.  Southampton you say?  Where’s my band of dandy highway makeup fanatics… huge makeup party at Dock Gate 4 then back to mine for a cup of tea?

No? Oh ok then.

After seeing some of the new products, I have to say… E.L.F are getting all innovative on us (but thankfully, not in a vibrating roll-on type way)

Amongst the new goodies, this one in particular stood out to me.

High Definition Powder… oooooooooooooooooh!  I’m going to look all pore-less and fuzzy round the edges.

Or am I?

Let’s have a look then…

So, we’re basically looking at a mix of dimethicones (silicones like you’d find in primers) and silica.  There’s been some controversy surrounding Silica and it’s use in cosmetics… but after a little google I found this article by The Beauty Brains (love them!).

So, it seems that cosmetic grade Silica is not something we should be too wary of using… although some people do have skin reactions to it, so as always… discontinue immediately if you get any kind of irritations.

I’ve been very impressed with the packaging in the Studio line, it’s solid… well made and does a good job at not showing you up in public.  This is no exception, the box is a chunky, solid screw top affair… nicely minimalistic – all in black with simple white text.

See? Still looking rather sleek isn’t it?  Not bad considering it’s retailing at £6 on the website.  It comes with a powder puff type applicator.  I usually throw these away in favour of using my fluffy powder brush, but the HD powder is *very* finely milled and this applicator manages to contain the flying silica dust really well.  I recommend you give it a go before deciding whether or not you’d rather use a brush.

There’s a nice deep reservoir to contain the powder and the sifter sits securely in the pot.  Overall, I’m pleased with the packaging design… I’m not sure how it would stand up to being dropped, I *think* you might be hoovering for a week… but really, that’s your fault for dropping it in the first place isn’t it.

A quick flip upside downside dispenses a nice, even amount of powder onto the puff.  I’m really liking this puff.. it’s soft, fluffy and bouncy.  The little ribbon/tab thing that you hook your fingers under isn’t annoying tight either so it’s easy to grip onto.

The powder itself is white and very fine…. when rubbed between my fingers I can feel the slippery smoothness of the silica.  If you open the pot to have a look… do be careful not to pick that exact moment in which to sneeze.  Luckily I turned my head just in time and only created a minor dust storm.

On to application…

I applied this powder over the top of my finished makeup… that’s after concealer, foundation and blush.  To apply, I placed the puff in the reservoir and inverted the pot which dispensed a thin even coat of powder onto the puff.  Bringing the puff up to my face I patted the powder over my t-zone.  I pat all loose finishing powders on, never swiping, stroking or buffing.  This stuff is *so* fine that it’s not going to leave big floury patches all over your face that need buffing in.

I noticed that it immediately absorbed any shininess without looking cakey.

To be honest, that was all I noticed…

I was disappointed, I’m not sure what I was expecting… but I wanted to see a little more than just a really good shine absorber.  To be fair to the powder, it was invisible… no ashiness on my very fair skin-tone and a lovely even, matte finish which felt silky to the touch.

It was only when I took some pictures for the review and uploaded them that I became a little more excited.

Please excuse the blotchy nose, I think I’m developing a little rosacea there 🙁  Hopefully it’s just the change in the seasons rather than something more permanent.

Anyway, I digress… as you can see, it’s left the nice, even and matte finish I described.  Nice, but no great shakes… until I zoomed in…

Wait, wait, wait… where have my pores gone?

Let me compare this to the image you thought you’d never have to look at again… sorry… but I have to…

LINK

Can you see the difference?  It’s so hard as a reviewer to explain exactly what I’m seeing… I mean, after 28 years… I *know* my face… I know where I picked a spot age 17 and left a slightly bigger crater, I can pinpoint exactly where that pesky enlarged pore on my cheek is or how deep that fine line is just below my 45th eyelash from the left 😉

What I’m trying to say (in my usual bumbling way) is this HD powder genuinely seems to be achieving something that is pleasing to my eye.  It’s not erasing my pores by any stretch of the imagination but it’s ‘softening’ them.  I think that’s the best way I can describe it.

Maybe all you want to know is… will I be buying this when it runs out?  Yes, yes and yes again.  For me, it works not only as a great finishing powder… but I’m seeing a marked “soft focus” difference in my images.  Basically, it’s doing for me what it’s supposed to do.  It’s living up to the hype of MUFE’s HD Powder at a considerably lower cost to my purse.

Do I notice a huge difference when I look in the mirror?  I’m not sure I do.  But I’ve looked at a few of my older images zoomed in, and I can see it when I compare.  I don’t know what that means… is it only visible in photographs?  That’s just weird and not hugely useful… Maybe it’s a subtle overall soft focus effect and I’m analysing it too closely when I’m looking in the mirror searching out the flaws.  Perhaps I’m able to detach myself a little when I look at a photograph instead.  I don’t know… I’m getting all psychoanalytical now, so I’m just gonna shut up.

Will it work for you? Who knows.. I’ve tried a few soft focus mineral finishing powders (from MMU companies) that have been raved about and I’ve struggled to notice any discernible differences and I really wasn’t expecting to be so pleasantly surprised by this one.

Apologies for my hugely wordy rambling review, but I guess you can tell.  I’m excited by this one.  If you buy it, please let me know how you get on with it.  I hope it works for you.

E.L.F’s HD Powder is available now from the E.L.F website.  If you can wait a couple of weeks, they usually release promo codes on their twitter or facebook page so you can often take advantage of free shipping.

This is Sleek’s latest addition to their highly popular palette family.

It’s basically an all-in-one smokey eye kit.  Two highlight shades and variations of blacks/greys with a purple (or 2) thrown in.

Texture wise, they’re the same creamy, slightly crumbly but highly pigmented shadows that we’ve come to know and love from Sleek.

I wish, wish, wish that the shades between the highlights and the first grey were more graduated.  There seems to be an awfully big jump from those first two shades into what (for me) is crease colour territory.

As I don’t generally wear dark shades on my lids, this palette ultimately consists of 10 crease colours.

If you count, left-right… top-bottom… 4 & 5 are too simillar as are 7 & 8 and even 11 & 12 which is such a shame, because this is a wonderful palette idea from a company that produce great shadows for a great price but honestly, I think it’s a “could have done better”.

I’ll get lots use out of it, and for less than £5 it’s definitely not something I’d ever regret buying, I’m just sad thinking about how good it could have been.

It’s Limited Edition, and from experience these palettes sell out quicker than a Bon Jovi concert, so get down Superdrug quick!

You’ve already seen the lipsticks from my Cherry Culture NYX haul…

Now it’s time for the eye shadows!

I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I’d heard such good things that I didn’t think I’d be disappointed but I wasn’t prepared to be quite so delighted either!

I stuck to what I consider to be great Autumn/Winter shades for me… Purples, Plums, Golds and Greys.  I was tempted by some brighter more Spring-like shades… but I’ll save them for my next haul 😉

Here’s the swatches (applied dry over UDPP):

My favourites are Eggplant, Golden, Champage and Charcoal…

Rust is an amazingly pigmented shade… it’s a touch too red for my taste but I’ve got it coming up in my next FOTD so you’ll get a clearer idea of how it looks on the eye.

I read up on a few forums about Champagne, and it was often suggested as a nice highlight.  Damn my paleness ‘cos it’s too dark to use as a highlight for me… it will be a gorgeous shade for a quick wash of colour though – still pleased I bought it.

Red Bean Pie looked fantastic on the site and doesn’t disappoint in real life.  It’s basically Eggplant but with more plummy/red tones to it.

Eggplant is gorgeously metallic, it’s simillar to Red Bean Pie, but a little more purpley.

I never use black in the crease, it’s just too harsh for my skintone so I’m always on the lookout for nice greys and Charcoal is the loveliest crease colour for me.  I’m very happy I chose it.

Last but by no means least is Golden – stunning… proper metallic, highly pigmented.. just beautiful!

I’m not disappointed by a single shadow.

I also bought this little beauty…

The much talked about Jumbo Pencil in Milk which is the creamiest, brightest white ever!  I know that it’s most often used as a base… but with my creasey creasey eyelids I’m actually gonna attempt to put it to work as an under the brow highlighter!  I’ll let you know how it fares…

Can I get a little feedback on my swatches?  I’m not particularly confident with swatching… I think they’re pretty colour accurate…  Let me know if you ever want a particular shade of anything I swatch incorporated into a FOTD, sometimes things just look different in a swatch than when put into context on the face – or maybe that’s just me?

A quick heads up. This has just landed in my inbox…

Click the image to be taken to the offer!

There’s some really nice colours included no?  I’m loving Savoy Court!

I took advantage of the last offer and am hoping to get my hands on some HQHair goodies today, so will be grudgingly resisting the latest Nails Inc. temptation!

How about you?

Fellow dark-haired lovelies, RUN to your nearest stockist for Batiste’s latest brainwave (it’s a good’un!)

Batiste Coloured Dry Shampoo!

This promises to solve the only problem I’ve ever had with dry shampoo!

Props where it’s due, Batiste have done so well to revamp their image in recent years and have become a cult favourite the world over.

I’m all for quick starts in the morning and since discovering Batiste I can’t remember the last time I had to scrape my hair back in a ponytail.

Just one thing… what about the redheads?

Are you a dry shampoo fanatic?

Apologies my lovelies, this post is about 2 weeks late.  I’ll explain why…

After exclaiming my new found love for these el-cheapo gel liners and promising a full review, I wore one of the colour ones and experienced a fair amount of transfer to my upper lid.  Enough to make me rethink whether I should be shouting about them from my virtual rooftop.

I umm’ed and ahh’ed about if for a few days, then promptly forgot they even existed until the weekend whilst playing with rearranging my stash.

I gave two of them another chance and they didn’t move an inch!  Now, the odd thing is this… I wasn’t wearing any primer at the weekend, but I was when they smudged to my upper lid.  However, it may be completely unrelated and I just had particularly oily lids that day or someting bizarro like that.

I’ve already talked about the black… let’s have a little look at the coloured ones I got…

L – R: Shimmer Sky Line, Shimmer Sexy Pink

L-R: Deep Purple, Indigo Blue

Stunning no?

I’ve included the black (from my initial order) in this swatch

Now, I don’t know why they transferred.  Once set on my skin I can run my finger over the top quite firmly and nothing smudges… not even a tiny bit.

Infact, when I tried to wipe them off with one of Leila’s wet wipes, they resisted quite heavily.

Look how hard I had to scrub to remove the pigmentation…

Yes, that is my skin gone all blotchy from the vigourous rubbing and no, they still hadn’t completely faded.  A little bit of makeup remover did the trick.  Infinity Liner indeed.

Swatched on the eye… Clockwise from top-left: Deep Purple, Shimmer Sky Line, Shimmer Sexy Pink, Indigo Blue.

These Infinity Liners are hugely pigmented, soft, creamy and easy to apply.  They take about 30 secs – 1 minute to set and once they do they’re not budging on me despite my best efforts to get them to transfer again.

Infact, as I write this… a thought has occured.  I wonder if *perhaps* there was a slight film of grease or something across the top layer and now that I’ve used them a couple of times and dispersed the grease they’re no longer transferring?  Pure speculation, but I can’t think of any other reasons.  Anddd that doesn’t explain the fact why the black one *does* transfer if I don’t powder it.

My favourite is the Shimmer Sky Line.  It’s positively electric.

Ok, enough of the review already… where did I get them from?

I purchased these from eBay seller CeliaMakeup currently priced at £4.00 each with free delivery.  Delivery is a *little* slow @ just over 2 weeks (my Deal Extreme parcels usually arrive in around 1 week) but they arrived really well-packaged which bodes well for my future orders of those 88 palettes 🙂

I’ve also experienced good customer service from them, I ordered a double-ended eyeliner brush at the same time as my initial order and one end was splayed… they were eager to replace it for me with no problems at all.

Will you be making a purchase?  If so, what colours do you have your eye on?