A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

This is another from Mavala’s recently released Mystic Collection that I was sent last month.

Mavala Black Velvet is a dark purple-black with a very subtle shimmer which unfortunately is more apparent in the bottle than on the nail.

There is a great swatch of it over at HeijastusPinta

I’m in two minds about this collection.  So far, I like how they look individually… but now my nails are getting a bit longer, I think they’re a touch vampy for me.  If you have short, well-groomed nails, this would be a great collection for you.

I have two more to show you and I’m gonna hurry them the hell up, because Spring is nearly upon us… and if you give a fig about staying on trend, you might not want to see them ’till next Winter!

You can buy Black Velvet online at Mistrys Pharmacy – £3.95 a bottle.

Obviously, this has been out aaaaaages… but ever since I saw the swatches on Jojoba’s blog last month, I’ve been lemming it like a woman possessed.

Since Sephora doesn’t ship to the UK, I have no US friends and I’m not keen on paying £40 on eBay, I’ll just have to suck it up and continue to cry myself to sleep thinking about it until like the beautiful LE item it is, it disappears from my sights forever…

A January essential? Most definitely *sigh*

If you have it, tell me how much you love it!

As part of my Dior haul, I also purchased the Dior Sparkling Liner in the Xmas ’09 LE Shade Sparkling Purple.

I actually had no intentions to pick this up until I swatched it on the stand… oh my.

It’s a beautifully iridescent purple liner with a brush that ensures a precision fine line.  It’s massively pigmented and perfect for winter.

Look at that… it just glows and reminds me of stained glass.  I’ve been pairing this up with grey shadows on my lids and have worn it once or twice on it’s own with lots of black mascara.

I’m so pleased I picked it up!

I think I paid around £20.  Do you wear coloured liners?  Any preferences or tips on shade selection for a chick with grey/green eyes?

A cool toned, slightly dirty lavender bursting with iridescence but no sparkles.

Opaque on 2 coats, but needs 3 for a really good finish.  I like it, but I don’t love it.

The formula is good and fairly thin.  It’s easy to apply with no streaking or dragging.  Longevity is fine too with minimal tip wear and thanks to the paler shade you barely notice it anyway.

I think I’d like it to be a little grungier, a little dirtier – it’s a touch princessy for me!

A beautiful gun-metal silver/grey metallic with more than a hint of purple.

Applies beautifully with absolutely no brush marks.  Needs a top coat to achieve a great glossy finish, wear has been very good.

It’s a fabulously winter-y shade and my first Dior Polish, I’m very impressed with the quality!

What are some of your fav Dior polishes?

So, you’ve seen the FOTD but not the palette… I got that ordering all arse about face didn’t I?  Although, you couldn’t actually see the shadows in the FOTD anywayyyy… but I digress…

Here she is!

I’m not a fan of these silly velvet pouches… I dunno why, but to me… they cheapen the product.  Makes me think of a tacky ornament that you pick up in the pound shop at Christmas for an Aunty that you don’t like very much.  Yeah, I don’t know how the hell I got from Dior to pound shop tat in one fell swoop either.

The casing on the other hand is pure luxe.  Love that midnight blue… just beautiful!

It’s a very cool toned palette, which suits me perfectly!  I’m loving the combination of totally wearable shades… gawjus!

As you can see from the swatches… this is one heavily pigmented palette.  The shade difference between the silvery taupes are perfect and the purple is a fabulous nod to the festive season.  The finishes are all metallic/shimmer and blend like buttah.

The palette is LE but there was still plenty of stock in the Boots I bought this from last week.  I paid £36 (well, I didn’t ‘cos I used my Advantage Card… but, I woulda done if…. oh you know what I mean!).

Do you like? Is it a bit cool toned for you?

Help, get me a Nanny!

My beautiful little girl was up at 5am this morning, team lark all the way.  I am exhausted, I have 5 million Christmas Cards to write and post, 7000 presents to purchase, approx 3000 posts to write and instead I’m playing with my Dior Holiday 2009 Collection.  At least I have my priorities straight right?

Thanks to the fact that it’s now DARK in England all the freakin’ time (who shifted Europe 500 miles closer to the North Pole without telling anyone) I have to rely on my flash gun more than I’d like.  Which makes for crappier, starker pictures and washes out the makeup a bit.

Also, thanks to my hooded eyelids… you can only actually see the eyeliner… *whistles and wonders why she bothered*

~ Lips are BarryM Lip Paint in Lavender
~ Cheeks are The Body Shop Trio in Cool Dusk
~ Eyelashes are Rimmel Sexy Curves & Mavala Double Lash I reckon

Gonna attempt a better photo of the eyeshadow quint/liner… this is rubbish for seeing what they actually look like!

Let’s make it an “of the day” day.  First the nails, now the mug.

I know a few of you have wanted to see how the Ben Nye Grand Lumiere Palette actually translates into everyday use.

Quite wonderfully is the answer (if I do say so myself!)

Eyes:

Ben Nye RL-14 (Amethyst)
Ben Nye RL-17 (Cosmic Violet)
Ben Nye RL-4 (Silver)

Check here for swatches

It’s completely wearable no?

It’s tricky to get back into this blogging lark when you take a little break huh?

Leila has started teething, so I’m finding myself fully occupied until around 8pm every night.  It’s tough to find enough daylight to take pictures, but I have much cool stuff to review, and lots of lovely things to talk about with you guys… need more hours in the day.  Simple.  Sort it someone!

I’m not delighted with these FOTDs… but hopefully they’ll be a useful stepping stone back into making notes and photographing what I do.

Anyway, my first FOTD is a green one and nope… I still don’t like green on me, but there’s 2 particularly lovely looking ones in the palette, so I had to make use of them right?

Eyes:

Sellout in the inner corners
Homegrown on the lid
YDK in the crease and blended out (not that it looks at all blended in the pic *sigh*)
Lined with Shu Uemura Painting Liner in Brown

and number two…

Eyes:

Sphinx on the inner corners
Ecstacy on the lids and up above the crease
Perversion blended lightly in and above the crease
Infinty eBay gel liner in Deep Purple

If you’ve done any looks with the Book of Shadows Vol II, link me up – I want some inspiration!

Love, (a tired) me xxx

I’m *nearly* over the whole matte top coat thing… a couple more mani’s then I’ll be able to move on.

This is Barielle’s Shades range in “Grape Escape” – It’s gorgeous.  It’s actually better glossy… but well, I’m a mattifying sheep.

Application is smooth – this is 2 coats.  No issues to speak of, perhaps a touch slow drying… but nothing a quick-dry top coat doesn’t fix.

Desperate to check out some more colours… looks like they have a lovely A/W collection out at the moment.  Let me introduce you…

Putt-E-On-Me – Classic clay

Blackened Bleu – Black with turquoise glitter

Lava Rock – Black with red pearl swirl

I don’t even like glitter and I’m salivating at the thought of the black/turquoise one!

L-R: Putt-E-On-Me, Blackened-Bleu, Lava Rock.

Check out the range at Barielle

I bought the Kryolan Supra Color to use as a base for my mineral eyeshadows which tend to apply sheerly without a solid base not to mention the fall out if they don’t have something to sitck to!

It’s basically a black grease paint.  Upon opening, it has a clear layer of grease ontop which I ‘patted’ off with a piece of kitchen roll until I got to the black stuff below!

As you can see by the swatch above, it’s a very deep and pigmented black which applies smoothly.  You can use a brush or your finger to apply, I’ve been using a synthetic flat shadow brush to apply which seems to work really well.

I then pat my mineral/loose eyeshadows ontop of a thin layer of the Supra Color.  The shadows stick really well to the Supra Color with minimal fall out and even more impressively, I’ve discovered that I actually do have some blending ability!  It is SO much easier to blend out eyeshadows over this base than it is over UDPP.

Here’s the finished result:

Unfortunately (and as I mentioned yesterday) my eyeshadows start to crease after a mere 3 hours 🙁  UDPP holds them firm for at least 9 hours on me.

The picture below was taken after 3 hours wear:

What a shame huh?

JoBetterDays & GraceLondon both recommend I try it over a little UDPP.  I’m really hopeful that’ll make the difference because my GOD I don’t want to give up my new-found blending abilities!  Imagine… colour that lasts AND looks fantastic!

Not too much to ask… is it?

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?