A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Beautiful shade, great looking finish, 2 easy-to-apply coats and truly, truly inexpensive at £1.50 a bottle.

Which is why the terrible wear breaks my heart.

This is how it looked at the beginning of the 2nd day.  It didn’t look much better halfway through the first day either (I just didn’t have my camera with me).

*sigh* what an unadulterated shame.

Love Light…

Totally a layering shade, so I thought I’d just see how many coats it needed to achieve opacity.

I got to 4 and I’m just about there…

One of the best applicators of the Summer of Love set, this glides on the nail and dries quickly.  Once opaque, it’s a beautiful pale gold shade with a lot of sparkle.

It’s feminine without being too floaty.  I like it more than I thought I would on initial inspection.

Sadly it has chipped in two places along the cuticle edge which is rather odd, I think it may have more to do with a heavy handed application of top coat though… which renders that last statement rather useless.

I’ve got one more shade to show from the Summer of Love kit.. I know it’s practically old news now, but I’m determined to get them all blogged for swatch purposes!

I need to get my hands on more of these!  Especially Night Life and Hit That… but, they’re discontinued.  I’m stalking eBay… and I’m on a mission.

For now, I have this one to show you…

Rimmel Play Fast in Street Wear got picked up for obvious greige-y type reasons.  Please ignore the art stamp on my ring finger.  It’s where I got accosted at The Clothes Show by some bloke who didn’t know what he was doing and ruined my manicure with a shoddily applied topcoat and distinct lack of charm.  Dick.

Street Wear is a pale grey/beige which reminds me of Orly’s Country Club Khaki.  It’s a 3 coater and a little gloopy, possibly down to it’s age… I shall try adding a touch of thinner to the bottle before using it again.  It contains a subtle (but beautful) rose gold shimmer that picks up when the sunlight hits it.

Overall, it’s a nice addition to my collection… but ultimately not a must have.  Wear is good but once it sets in, the polish ages quickly and unevenly.

And that, my friends… is that!

You like?

I love.

That’s all.

Ok… you wish…  Not even close.

Is this pastelly?  I swore off pastels in January and now feel silly ‘cos I’ve been loving them ever since!  I don’t *really* wear neon summer shades, but adore Summer blues so this is right up my street!

I’m perhaps a little bored of that Stanhope Gardens type colour (though I appreciate many can’t get enough of those minty blue shades).

The Limited Edition Nails Inc. Sorbet Collection (cute name) is out now and priced at £25 for the set.

Is it teal?  Is it blue?  Argh… can’t decide…

Petrol blue, that’s what I’m gonna call it.

Barielle’s A Bouquet for Ava is a stunning creme polish.  Opaque in 2 coats (as pictured), the formula is a beauty… smooth and thin but heavily pigmented.

I dislike the semi-matte finish once dried and was sure to top off with a coat of Seche Vite for the ultra-glossy look I love.  I’m on my 2nd full day of wear and I’ve no chips and only minimal tip wear, so far so good!

Barielle’s A Bouquet for Ava is available online from Barielle and priced at £8 (though they’re still currently offering BOGOF)

EDIT: Still love it, but you need to know… a base coat IS. A. MUST.  Trust me, this stains like a bitch.

Signed… Smurf Nails.

I’m having a bizarre relationship with this nail polish from the Urban Decay Summer of Love nail set… When I first saw Hashbury, I was a little bit in awe.  In the bottle, it looks ah-mazing.  Cadbury purple with masses of micro-shimmer…

Then I swatched it on one nail and couldn’t have been more disappointed.  It was watery, sheer and jelly-like.  It still is two of those things.  After 3 coats, I can get a pretty opaque finish, though it still looks more jelly than cream.  Nothing wrong with a jelly, but if you’re anticipating a nice opaque purple shimmer…. the effect is lessened with a jelly-ish finish.  I like it more than I did, but still not as much as that initial WOW factor.

Final verdict – Could have, should have been great but isn’t.

I know I’m being a tad harsh, it’s still a rather lovely purple… and although the formula is terribly thin, 3 coats isn’t bad and it has the most beautiful high gloss finish.

Anyway, I’m all up in the air about this shade… I can’t decide.  What do you ladies think?

Check out my other swatches from the collection:

Aquarius
Woodstock
The Whole Kit
Psychedelic Sister
Magic Bus

Another from the Urban Decay Summer of Love nail kit (£17.50)

Magic Bus is a hot, firey orange creme.

3 coats… but for such a vibrant, bright colour… I’m a little disappointed that I can still make out my nail line… I think it could do with being a touch more opaque.  Despite this, in all other aspects… the formula was pleasing and easy to use.  Drying time was average and tip wear/chipping minimal.

A true summer shade that my fingernails will see again before Autumn descends.

Check out my other swatches from the collection:

Aquarius
Woodstock
The Whole Kit
Psychedelic Sister

Sometimes… you come across something a little bit special in the nail polish world.

Surreal Violet from the upcoming Estee Lauder Pure Color Collection is a little bit special.

I’ll admit, I’m biased.  I love me a bit of greige… I also love me a bit of dirty purple… combining the 2 tips me over the edge.

But then… THEN… throw in a generous amount of amber shimmer that sparkles like fireflies when sunlight hits it, and you’ve got me foaming at the mouth.  2 coats to achieve opacity, the sample I received glides on beautifully with no problems to note.  I finished with a quick-dry top coat to really enhance the shimmer contained within.

Surreal Violet is a limited edition shade from the upcoming Estee Lauder Pure Color collection by Tom Pecheux which is due to be released in the UK in August.

The polish will retail at £12/€17 and frankly, you need it.

Taking advantage of Barielle‘s current ‘buy one get one free’ offer, I find myself the new owner of four new Barielle shades.  I should have behaved and gone for two… but I even had a hard time narrowing it down to four.

I chose two shades from the Spring Wildflowers Collection (which was WILDLY late to arrive in the UK) and two from the High Steppin’ Summer collection.

I’m being a bit of a kid in a sweet shop, because I still have a couple left from the Urban Decay Summer of Love set to show you, but I simply couldn’t resist cracking open June Bug (£8) first.  After all, I’ve been desperately desiring it for the last 5 months.

I’m delighted and annoyed with it all at the same time.

I mean, once applied… I love it and I’m very pleased that I bought it… It’s like nothing else that I own.  But my God I turned the air blue during application.

Gloop, gloop, gloop.  This polish is thick.

It spread like marmite on my nails and with the addition of the glitter gave me a horrible satin bumpy finish that needed two coats of quick dry to stop me from reaching for the nail varnish remover.

However, once all is said and done… it’s one of those polishes that ends up looking far neater and more uniform than you would have thought possible during application.

The glitter is subtle and it mixes in beautifully with the shimmer that is present in the muted baby-blue base.  Mr. L couldn’t detect the fuchsia glitter from a distance of 4 foot until the sun caught my nails and it gave a litte sparkle.

I’m talking myself round as I’m writing this and casting glances at my fingertips.  I was cross with it as I was trying to work with that 2nd coat that was drying as quickly as I could put it on… but you simply have to forgive a polish that ends up looking as pretty as this does.

That pesky reflection below makes my nail bed look bumpy, it’s not… two layers of top coat sorted that out nicely.

Barielle are still offering BOGOF on their new Spring/Summer collections, but I’m not sure for how much longer.

What do you think?  Do you like it?

Oh, I wasn’t expecting not to like you.

You’re a little bit greige gone wrong… too much grey or maybe too much brown… I’m all confused and can’t pinpoint what it is that I don’t like about your colour.  But you’re just not quite right for me.

You were a bit patchy too.  Though I totally admire you pouncing on the latest trends and bringing us great colours at affordable prices… you disappointed me with this one.

I’m sad.  Did I get a duff bottle?  Mine did apply a lot darker than the bottle colour suggested… everyone else seems to love it?!

I suspected it from the moment I twirled the bottle between my fingers…

…Stargazer #155 (£2) is a very nice match for the cult O.P.I shade I’m Not Really A Waitress (£9.95)

INRAW was the first OPI I bought back in the day and is probably the only bottle of polish I’m even close to finishing.

If I look *really* closely, I’d say that Stargazer #155 is the teeniest bit more cherry toned than INRAW, but there’s barely anything in it.

#155 is opaque in two coats and applies smoothly with a decent brush… not too thin and no straggly long bits.  Quick drying but affording just enough time to work the polish to the edges of the nail bed.  It benefits from a glossy top coat to bring out the sparkle within the polish.

And a comparison with the OPI…

I prefer the Stargazer.  I’ve always had an issue with tip wear with this particular OPI (see my review from last May) and the Stargazer is outperforming INRAW in this instance by a huge amount.  No tip wear at all until the 3rd day.

Did I find a good dupe?  I’m usually pretty crappy at dupe hunting, so I’m kinda chuffed with myself!  Simple things and all that…

Exclusive to ASOS.

Bourjois have released a new nail polish collection which claims to give a false nail effect for up to 8 days.

Bourjois False Nail Effect Nail Enamel is available in 8 shades and designed to cover any nail imperfections for a smooth and even finish.

The colour range isn’t exactly blowing me away, but I like the sound of the wide brush and am tempted to pick up a bottle in the hot pink (3rd from left).

Priced at £5.50 each and available at ASOS.