recent nail roundup

Apologies again for the lack of updates, no excuses I have just been tired and lazy. I am back though and we are getting ever closer to the magic 100th post in which I am doing a lovely give away for my subscribers. It has OPI, Urban Decay, Incoco and loads of other stuff.

So lets move on to the recent nails round up, not much to show you really as I have been wearing a lot of old favs recently but hopefully you will like what I do have.

This is the green from the H&M set in the last post, it actually applied really well and lasted not too bad, a bit if tip wear and shrinkage from the Seche Vitte but nothing major. The colour pay off was nice very pigmented and done in 2 coats. It also had a really nice shimmer but is a bit of a nothing green and doesn't really wow me.

Normal light

with flash

Next up is another magazine freebie (I can't tell you how much I love these) This was on the front of Tatler this month and is one of 6 mini Essie polishes they have available. I picked this up in the Tesco at Picadilly Circus and was one of the only magazines left with the polish still left on it, the rest had been ripped open and the polish removed, I mean seriously how lame do you have to be to steal free polish from the front of a magazine but anyways. This is Flower Girl and is a very pale very sheer pink with a green shimmer in it which is impossible to capture with the camera. I am not much for sheers but it is a very pretty shade and easy to wear this was however 4 coats but the application was nice even from such a tiny brush.

with flash close up trying to catch the shimmer.

with flash

natural light

Another from the H&M set this is neon purple (neon? really?) the shade is actually quite muted and a rally nice mid tone dusty purple. Same application and wear as the first one I showed in this post and again a bit of a nothing shade, perhaps I am so lucky to own so many outstanding polished that my expectations are now way too high.

flash

natural light

Now on to my disaster of the week. this is fiesta by accessorize and it is a mess of a nail polish. looks great in the bottle but is extremely un pigmented, very runny and the pigmentation isn't even stable in the polish and tends to pool in to dark and light patches, weird. The wear was also terrible and it started to get tip wear within a matter of hours. Epic Fail! (pretty colour though)

with flash

natural light

H&M - Small nail polish haul

So in a fit of boredom and frustration on Friday lunchtime I wandered into H&M, I have 2 of their nail polishes already so I am aware the quality is fairly good. I could not believe the price of these polishes in the summer nails sets. £1.99 for 4 polishes!!!!! O.K so each polish is only 3.2ml but at 50p a bottle who can argue (Mavala bottles run at £3.75 for 5ml and the OPI mini sets are 3.75ml for £12.99)

There are 2 sets a normal (white, green, purple and blue) and a neon (yellow, orange, pink and purple) and I look forward to swatching them.

The other one I picked up was another hello kitty branded polish called cool summer and is a pink toned purple with tiny blue and lilac glitter in it, very me so look out for this one coming up too.

Recent nail roundup

Here we go with another nails round up some bargains in here along with something a wee bit special to finish with.

First up is a n07 stay perfect that was a till spit purchase I was actually after violetta but predictably it was sold out when I went but this little beauty caught my eye. It's number 68 Vivid Violet. It's what I would describe as a Cadbury's purple (those of you in the UK will know what I mean) and I love it bright and shimmery and done in two coats. I have found that these no7 polishes do not like certain base coats and have a tendency to bubble quite a lot but a coat of the old Seche Vitte sorted it out.

With Flash

Natural Light

Next up is my bargain of the week this is Lagoon and it was in the Accessorize sale for £2 (previously £4) I am pretty sure it is an exact dupe for China Glaze's For Audrey. It is a Tiffany/duck egg/green blue and applied extremely well but went really bubbly due to the heat and me sitting directly under a fan but again Seche to the rescue. I really like how these shades suit my skin tone and they really balance out the pink tones to my skin whilst feeling very very summery.

Natural Light

With Flash

This is from the Shrek collection which I still can't quite believe OPI did, of all the movie tie-in's Alice was great and I am still surprised they haven't jumped on the Twilight band wagon yet but Shrek? Anyways they colours are pretty rockin, this is funky Dunkey which is a fairly unique purple, it has dusty tones to it but I haven't seem anything quite like it. The formulation of this was spot on as you would expect an I an see me using up the whole bottle of this one.

Natural Light

With Flash

The Pièce de résistance OPI catch me in your net, this is from the summer flutter collection and is a limited edition. It's green, it's blue, it's sparkly and chrome I just love it it is so eye catching it's distracting and complete strangers will stop you in the street, grab your hands and demand to know what shade it is. The only problem with it is that I couldn't get it off. It stained my nails green and my fingers blue. Having said that I literally can't wait to wear it again.

Direct Sunlight

Again Direct Sunlight

With Flash

Red Lipstick Series - Barry M Lip Lacquer Crayon No1

Hullo sorry about the lack of updates but it has been way too hot to even think about make-up and I have been having a little bit of down time. I have another nail roundup to post later today but for now lets crack on with another from my ever expanding red lipstick collection.

Today I'm bringing you Barry M and this is one of their fairly new Lip Lacquer Crayons in N01.

Colour (2/5)

No1 is not very descriptive now is it, I would say it is a very shimmery cherry red with some of the shimmer being gold. It sounds lovely and the shimmer puts it in the same family as the Chanel it just really lacks punch. I mean it's fine but it is just neither here nor there.

Application (2.5/5)

The crayon like stick means you can sharpen this up to a nice point so you wouldn't have to use a liner and you can be fairly precise it is quite melty though (it is a very hot day perhaps best kept in the fridge) so can get a little messy and gunky, no ned for a lip brush though you may want to use one to make sure it gets into all the little wrinkles on the lips because it is very thick.

Ronseal Factor (3/5)

These intense glossy crayons glide on to lips to give a high shine lacquered finish. The smooth and silky application provides maximum comfort while the bright and bold colours give a glamorous finish.

They are crayons, they actually do glide on fairly well no dragging although they are more shimmery than shiny if that makes sense. The colours are not bold though well not the one I tried and they are definitely not silky they are actually quite sticky.

Wear (4/5)

Because this is so thick and sticky it really does stay put for a very very long time, I don't find the sensation of it on my lips very pleasant infact I find it a little suffocating.

Price (3/5)

So this is £4.95 which is reasonable for a drug store brand. I want to say it's cheap but really I think it comes in at about right for the quality and these are nearly always on an offer of some kind so you will pick it up cheaper than RRP.

Packaging (2/5)

Pencils for some products are always going to loose point with me, lipsticks are not really suitable because you need to sharpen then to get a decent application but in doing that you lose a fair amount of product. Some things lend themselves really well to the fat crayon format like the benefit products but this just doesn't work as well as it should. Having said that though it is a very pretty crayon with nice design and detailing.

How it left the lips (1/5)

This left my lips in a bad way, it is very very drying and on me it tends to form into what can only be described as scales. It is also quite difficult to remove and extremely sticky.

Overall 17.5 out of 35, oh dear out lowest score so far. I really do love Barry M products their dazzle dust and nail polishes rock but this just doesn't do it for me.

FOTD for a saturday out

So today I was off out to watch a preview of the new twilight movie eclipse and since it had been a rough week I decided it was time to dust off the makeup bag and do myself up a little.

I was a little worried that since have been walking to work I had taken quite a lot of colour to my face but to my relief my factor 50+ is holing true and my foundation still matches.

So the base was

No7 protect and perfect eye cream

No7 protect and perfect intense serum

No7 protect and perfect day cream (only a tiny amount on my drier patches)

Then I used my faithful Garnier tinted eye roll on under the eyes.

Foundation - just a touch of the Bourjois healthy mix foundation in 51

Concealer - Bourjois healthy mix, a pinhead amount of this in 51

Powder - Bourjois mineral radiance in 02

The eyes and the rest was

Primer - Urban Decay Primer Potion

Eyeshadow - Togetherness from the MAC in the groove collection.

light lilac all over the lid

intense purple on the outer part of the lid and on the lower lash line

grey in the crease and also on the lower lash line

Eyeliner - Doir liquid liner on upper lash line and Urban Decay Binge on lower lash line

Eyebrows - Clarins eyebrow kit

Mascara - Bourjois Elastic

Then to finish I used a very very light dusting of MAC petticoat mineral skin finish which is also from the in the groove collection.

Oh and yes I thought the same of the movie as I thought of the other good but hard going and doesn't do justice to the book.