Getting Out Of The Rut Days 3, 4 and 5

I know I've disappeared for a bit, but it doesn't mean I wasn't keeping up with the challenge. It just means I didn't have much time to post. The past 4 days though I have been slacking a bit, so no photos of that, but I did incorporate a few products in my make up that I'd not used for a while, mainly blushes and lipsglosses/lipsticks. Anyway, here are the photos of the days I did make an effort:

Products used (other than my staples): Mac Crushed Metallic Pigments in Moss Garden, Spruced and Silk Stocking, Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Covet, Laura Geller Baked Blush in Bora Bora and Mac Lipgelee in Lush & Bright.

See 2 more looks after the jump!

Haul Pictures

I am so happy we can finally get Essence in the UK! In case you didn't know, Essence is now being sold in Wilkinson. My small local branch only has a small display, but I popped into a bigger one that had a much bigger one. Today I want to show you what I picked up as well as a couple of other bits from Topshop, Superdrug and Boots.

So from Essence I got these cute nail stickers for when I'm too lazy to do some stamping, and a nail polish called Laser Show which is a glitter topper with silver microshimmer and black glitter. From Topshop I picked up two glitter polishes called Dreamlike and Myth.

Also from Essence, I got their Blush Up powder blush that bears a very strong resemblance to Mac's blush ombres. It's very pigmented, just great for summer. I also got the new Sleek palette, Rio Rio and Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in New Moon, one of the new summer shades. I have another shade to show you, which I'll be writing a full review on very soon.

Have you been buying any make up or nail polish lately?

Topshop Holographic Nail Polish Swatches

I have been on a MASSIVE nail polish kick (especially holographic nail polish!) lately, even though I shouldn't be buying any more, so expect to see a few more nail polish posts here on the blog.

I picked up these holo beauties on a recent trip to Topshop as I'd seen them on their website. I was a bit worried they might not turn out very holographic, but to my surprise these are actually pretty good. The holo effect isn't as smooth as the China Glaze Hologlam polishes, the holo particles are bigger in the Topshop ones. The effect is more similar to the Color Club Halo Hues polishes (maybe I should swatch all 12 of those too), but less strong.

The colours are nice, but nothing special, you get a silver one, a pale blue one and a pink one. I hope they come out with more colours as these are really nice polishes and at £6 for 8 ml each. I've yet to wear them, but they swatched really nicely and dried quickly and you can see for yourself how pretty they are. Now if only Urban outfitters sold their holo polishes in the UK...

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Mac Immortal Gold and Topshop Black Dynamite Crackle

Topshop Black Dynamite Crackle polish is an interesting one, it's matte back with gold sparkles without a topcoat. I preferred it with topcoat, I prefer shiny polishes. I applied it over Mac Immortal Gold nail polish and the combo looked really nice.

Formula was good on both, the crackle effect is actually really good. Sadly, that's where the positives ended. The mani chipped on me within 24 hours and in fact one nail completely peeled off. I don't know which polish to blame, but generally Mac polishes don't last very long on me.

Mac Immortal Gold was a limited edition, so it's not available anymore. Topshop Black Dynamite Crackle costs £6 and is a permanent shade.

See more pictures after the jump!

Do You Want A Dupe (Or Two) For OPI Polka.com Nail Polish?

With my China Glaze Hologlam order I also got OPI Polka.com, the only polish I was interested in from the Euro Centrale collection (which is quite unexpected since I'm from Hungary and there are a few references to Hungary/Budapest, but none of the colours called out to me). Of course me being me, I managed to accidentally pick up a couple of dupes before I even received Polka.com. I thought I'd show you what they are, so if you'd like the OPI polish but it's a bit too pricey for you at £12.

The polishes you see in the picture are (left to right) Beauty UK Posh Polish in Pinkabloo, OPI Polka.com and Topshop Hope Floats. There are very slight differences, but the over all look is pretty much the same. While OPI has blue and pink micro glitter (as well as the larger blue, turquoise and bright pink hex glitter they all have), the Beauty UK polish only has blue micro glitter and the Topshop polish has turquoise micro glitter. However, as you can see in the swatch pictures, the difference is very hard to see. The hex glitter is pretty much the same in all 3. Consistency wise they seemed pretty similar, while OPI had the best brush, it's nice and wide, and Beauty UK had the worst, thin little brush.

Pricewise the Beauty UK one is the cheapest at £3.49 for 9 ml, then it's the Topshop one at £6 for 8 ml and then the OPI one at £12 for 15 ml (I bought mine for £7.15 from Nail Polish Direct by the way). Technically the OPI is cheaper than the Topshop one gram per gram, but question is, do you actually NEED 15 ml of glitter polish?

See swatch pictures after the jump!

Topshop Nail Polish Swatches

In my 2012 Favourites post I showed you some of my Topshop nail polishes, a brand I discovered and grown to love in the last year and I thought I might as well show you what they looked like swatched. Since I never have time to do proper nail swatches, I have finally acquired some nail wheels and put them to good use.

Front row: Mercury Rising, Plume, Ashes & Fire, Hope Floats, Sleepwalker, Bowl Me Over
Back row: Rising Star, Neptune, Dark Knight, Brazil, Jem, 3D

These are just some of my Topshop polishes, I actually own 35 of them, these are just my most recent purchases. I cannot go into Topshop and not buy their nail polishes, they always have so many lovely colours, glitters, duochromes, the lot.

The swatches below were done with two coats. I have already shown you Rising Star (click here to see details), so I decided not to scoop out any of the stars for the swatches because there aren't that many of them in the bottle. As you can see, some of the glitter polishes would work best on top of a darker colour, also Plume would probably look more amazing on top of a black polish to bring out its duochrome quality best. Some of them though are nicely opaque in just two coats.

See lost more pictures after the jump!

2012 Favourites - Part 4: Nails

2012 was definitely the year of the nail polish for me. I bought over 550 nail polishes (I know, crazy!) and discovered some amazing brands. (Check out my stash video and pictures here.) Until 2 years ago I'd hardy heard of any nail polish brands that couldn't be bought in Boots or Superdrug (and back then there weren't a lot of glittery, shimmery, duochrome polish around, or at least I didn't notice them). As well as continuing to buy from mainstream brands like China Glaze, OPI, Orly and the likes, I discovered some very unique and interesting brands and nail polishes. My favourite polishes are holos and duochromes, or preferably both together in one product, and I'm also rather partial to glitter.

The picture above shows a few of my recent purchases including the new Color Club holographic polishes that I regret to say I haven't tried yet as well as Topshop glitter polishes and Enchanted Polish duo(multi)chrome polishes.

My favourite newly discovered brands in 2012 were Topshop, Enchanted Polish, Layla and Glitter Gal. Out of the four I'd say Enchanted Polish is my definite favourite, the only thing I don't like is how difficult it is to come by as the polishes are only made in very small quantities and the shades are limited edition. Nevertheless I have managed to get my hands on a few of them and here are some:

These are from the Beatles collection (I Am The Walrus and Magical Mystery Tour) and from the Falloween collection (Witchful Thinking). The new holiday collection came in a new style, fancier, more professional looking bottle:

Green Peace on Earth, Dance Of The Sugar Plum, Bruised Nutcracker, Olive The Other Reindeer

Enchanted Polish nail polishes are absolutely gorgeous, duo- or rather multichrome with scattered holo, straight forward holographic or glittery. I have showed you Across The Universe here if you want to take a peek.

Find out what other nail polishes and nail care products I loved in 2012 after the jump!

Festive Nails Part 4 - Sparkling Snow and Ice

I have another Christmas manicure idea to share with you today, this time it's Topshop Ice Crush over Mac Frayed To Order. I'm loving all the glittery polishes Topshop have been releasing lately, this one is just so sparkly and perfect for a Christmas party or New Year's Eve party.

I used two coats of Ice Crush, a clear polish with loads of small and larger holographic glitter on top of two coats of Mac Frayed To Order polish, a limited edition shade from 2011 (from the Jeanius collection). It's a very interesting shade, it's a matte finish, but it's got pink duochrome, so it doesn't look at all flat. The glitter in Ice Crush is very dense, but it will never go on opaque, it is definitely a layering polish. It had a good formula, not too thin or thick.

The manicure lasted really well, only started chipping very slightly on day 2, but I wore it for 4 days and it looked fine even by the end of day 4. It was so sparkly and pretty too.

Topshop glitter polishes are 8 ml for £6. Mac Frayed To Order isn't available anymore sadly.

See more pictures after the jump!

Festive Nails Part 3 - Red With Silver Glitter and Stars

I have another glittery combo to show you. This time it's Zoya Sarah with Topshop Rising Star on top.

I used two coats of Zoya Sarah, but in all fairness, one would've been sufficient. It's a great polish and the colour is gorgeous too. I then added two coats of Topshop Rising Star, a clear polish with silver/holo glitter and stars in it. I was actually pleasantly surprised by this as there was plenty of glitter and the stars were pretty easy to scoop out.

The manicure lasted on me for 4 days with not much chipping, so I was very pleased with it, and it was so glittery, I couldn't stop looking at my nails.

Zoya Sarah came out 2 years ago, but is still available on eBay and also from Zoya's website. It costs $8 for 15 ml. Topshop Rising Star is a new addition to their nail polish line, I'm not sure if it's permanent or not, they seem to be bringing out new shades constantly. It costs £6 for 8 ml.

See more pictures after the jump!

Topshop Liquid Eyeliner in Intensify by Louise Gray Review and Swatches

I have another Topshop product to show you today. This is from the latest collection, a collaboration with Louise Gray and the product is a lovely blue sparkly liquid eyeliner.

Unlike Desert Sun Cheek Duo I was much more impressed by this. Very similar in style to my MUFE, Mac and Stila liquid eyeliners, it has a spongy very pointy tip, excellent for precision. The colour is a lovely sparkly medium blue and the formula is really nice. It dries pretty quickly and once on, it doesn't budge. You will see at the bottom of the post a picture I did after I smeared the liner after about 2 minutes. The only bit that smudged was the bit where I had applied it rather heavily so you can see the colour properly. The thin line did not smudge at all. It stayed on my eyes all day, but came off easily with make up remover.

The liquid eyeliner costs £8 and it contains 1.7 ml which is the same as the MUFE and Stila liners. Available from Topshop online and in selected stores.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Topshop Cheek Duo in Desert Sun Review and Swatches

I have a confession to make: I don't get Topshop. Please don't hit me! I don't know if it's my age or that fact that I'm ridiculously not fashionable, but I have not once managed to find any clothes in Topshop that I liked. Make up however, is a different story. I'm a sucker for Topshop make up especially their nail polishes, but I have been known to pick up other products like their eyeshadow crayons and other bits and bobs. So when I last wondered into Topshop this little beauty caught my eye.

Topshop Cheek Duo is basically a 2 in 1 baked products with a blush and bronzer in one compact. Desert Sun is the peachy version, there is another shade (Break of Day) which has a pink blush instead of a peach one. Actually I'd say the blush in Desert Sun is more a pinky coral than peach. It's a satin finish, whereas the bronzer, a little coppery brown shade, is actually quite shimmery. I'd prefer it the other way round to be honest, the bronzer would be more suitable for contouring. The blush is quite powdery and had to be layered to show up on me and it faded away quickly. The bronzer is more pigmented and longer lasting and not as powdery either. The two products together give a nice sunkissed glow to my cheeks. I think on darker skintones the blush would look quite ashy, but the bronzer would make a lovely highlighter.

The compact is an off-white colour matte finish plastic. It seriously lacks a mirror in the lid, I think at this price they really should put one in. It's not overly expensive, it costs £12.50 for 6.5 g, so still significantly cheaper than Mac blushes and bronzers, but equally I don't think the quality is there. I like it, but don't love it.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with this product after the jump!

My Nail Polish Stash and Storage Video (and Lots of Pictures!)

I've spent a couple of days re-organising my nail polish storage and creating a spreadsheet, so I know exactly where every single one of them are, so I though I would show you the fruit of my hard work. Also I enjoy looking at other people's stashes, so hope you enjoy it too.



I have also taken pictures of the contents of each box and separate packs, so if you're interested, have a look! No individual pictures, but I did do a rather extensive series on my nail polish stash last November, so click here if you'd like to check it out.

See lots more pictures after the jump!

Is It Possible To Have Too Much Of A Good Thing (Or The Same Colour Nail Polish)?

Question: How many different nail polishes am I wearing in the picture below? Yeah, I know, it looks like the same colour on every finger nail. The truth is, I'm wearing 4 different polishes form 4 different brands ranging from £6 to £14. Confused? Let me explain.

I now have a ridiculous amount of nail polishes (over 500) and I managed to fall into the trap of buying the same colour several times. Partly because I didn't know what I had, although partly because I do have a tendency of buying colours I like over and over again. But even so, I never would've thought that it is possible to buy 4 nail polishes from 4 brands that will look EXACTLY the same. Similar, maybe, but exactly the same? All these polishes are fairly recent releases, so it seems that some brands are copying other brands here. Anyway, let me tell you what I have here.

On the index finger I have Deborah Lippmann Private Dancer. This one costs £14 for 15 ml. On the middle finger I wore Nails Inc. Cheyne Walk polish. It costs £11 for 10 ml making it the most expensive per ml. On the ring finger it's China Glaze No Plain Jane, around £7 in the UK (although BeautyBay are selling this for £12.75?) for 14 ml. I got mine on eBay for $4.50 plus pretty reasonable shipping, making it the cheapest per ml. On the pinky it's Topshop Amethyst nail polish, £6 for 8ml. 

So are they any different? I'd say there are very slight differences, but not enough to justify paying over double the price for the higher end brands. In fact for me the Topshop one had the nicest formula which is the second cheapest per ml (or cheapest per bottle, however you look at it, it's still one of the cheapest). The Deborah Lippmann polish is a tiny bit pinker, but really, noone would say you're wearing 4 different polishes on your fingers, they are that similar. The duochrome effect was about the same with all of them (not overly strong and a bit muddy).

I can't comment on how longlasting they are because I only wore the Deborah Lippmann polish on all my other fingers, the other 3 I only wore on one finger each, and I wouldn't compare the ring finger to my index finger, because the pinky and ring fingers are always the last ones to chip and the index finger is the first, whichever polish I wear. The Deborah Lippmann one lasted on me for 2 days without major chipping, but buy the end of day 2 it wasn't looking its best.

I would like to apologise about the application, but I was in a big rush to take pictures because my middle finger nail was actually slightly broken (you might be able to see it in some pictures), so I didn't have time to clean up properly. Also apologies about the picture quality, I took all pictures with my phone because my normal camera cannot handle purples and turns them into blues, but this is such a pretty shade of purple, I really wanted to show you the true colour. The pictures of the bottles turned out the worst, sorry about it.

Right then, onto the pictures!

L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows Review and Swatches Part 3

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you will know by now how much I love L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows. I have already reviewed them here and here. When I found out that in the UK we once again didn't get all the shades that are available in the US (just like we didn't get all the Revlon Lip Butters or Maybelline Color Tattoo Eyeshadows), I got onto eBay and had a good look to see what other shades were available and I found these two.

Infinite Sky is a beautiful light sky blue colour and Amber Rush is a light pinky bronze (to me not at all amber), it actually reminds me a lot of Mac Sweet Heat Extra Dimension eyeshadow. Both Infinite Sky and Amber Rush are shimmery and rather frosty, especially Amber Rush, and they are both really lovely. I have worn them with and without primer, they lasted really well both ways, although without primer I "only" wore Infinite Sky for about 10 hours (I normally wear eyeshadows for about 14 hours or more). Still, there was no creasing either way which is definitely very impressive. Amber Rush is more pigmented, but Infinite Sky is pigmented enough for a nice wash of colour and of course can be layered for more intensity. They are both really smooth and easy to apply and blend, they feel like cream eyeshadows, and they're certainly very comparable to the Armani Eyes To Kill eyeshadows for a fraction of the price (£6.99 with a 3 for 2 offer in Superdrug at the moment I believe).

It's a shame we didn't get these shades in the UK, but you'll be pleased to hear (well I was) that there are some new shades that have just come out including a gorgeous turquoise, a coral, a pink, a light grey and metallic lilac and I will be reviewing four of them (I didn't get the metallic lilac shade myself) very soon!

For now, see more pictures including swatches and a look I did with Amber Rush, after the jump!

Topshop Crayons in Sun Shower and Ramble - Review and Swatches

I popped into Topshop the other day and picked up a couple of their eyeshadow crayons in shades Sun Shower (gold) and Ramble (chocolate brown with gold flecks). I'd already owned two of these (reviewed here) and really liked them, so I thought I'd check out some new shades.

These eyeshadow crayons are really nice and soft, glide on very easily and can be blended out nicely. They stay on all day without creasing (I used UDPP under them) and both shades are just gorgeous. I adore the gold sparkles in the chocolate brown shade. They are 1.64 g, cost £7.50 each and are available from Topshop. There's one more shade (Whisper) I'm contemplating getting, but they never have testers of it (don't you hate that?) and ideally I would like to test it before I buy.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

NOTD: Topshop Blitz Nail Polish

On a recent trip to Topshop I picked up a couple of nail polishes that I really liked the look of, both of them looking beautifully duochrome in the bottle. One of them is Blitz, a lovely fuchsia pink that promied to have orange/yellow duochrome to it.

Sadly, as you can see, it doesn't. By all means it is a nice nail polish and the colour is pretty, but duochrome it's not. Shame though, because I would've loved the effect on my nails, but maybe it's just how the bottle reflects the light or something. The blue one (Missile) has lovely purple duochrome in the bottle, but once again not on the nails. At certain anglesthe colour seems a bit warmer, bit more orangey, but it's not enough to qualify for being a duochrome.

All in all though Blitz is a nice nail polish, the consistency is just right, it took 2 coats to look opaque and lasted as long as most nail polishes (2 days or so) without chipping. At £6 for 8 ml it's not a bad deal at all. I do wish it was duochrome though...

See more pictures after the jump!

My Ever Growing Nail Polish Collection Part 3 - GOSH, Models Own, Dior, Chanel

As promised, here's the third and final part of my nail polish collection overview. If you missed part one and part two, you can check them out here and here.

So let's just get on with it shall we? Any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments!

My GOSH nail polishes

See more pictures of my collection after the jump!

Topshop Sandstorm Make Up Collection Haul

On a recent shopping trip I wondered into Topshop and had a look at their make up (I don't actually like Topshop clothes, must be the only only person in the country who doesn't, but anyway) and ended up coming away with a few things. I am actually pretty impressed by everything I bought, so I thought I'd show them to you.

I believe these products are from the Sandstorm collection which isn't their latest, and I can't actually find everything on their website, but hopefully some of this is still available, should you be interested. I bough a baked eyeshadow duo called Solar Cell, an eyeshadow mousse in Tundra, and two eyeshadow crayons in Zephyr and Equinox. They cost between £8 and £8.50 each, so not too bad. My favourites are the eyeshadow crayons, they are really soft and smooth, and make very good bases. Of course you can wear them on their own if you wish. I did wear Equinox alone (over UDPP) in this picture and it held out fine all day. In fact one of these products creased on me all day, all of them were applied over UDPP and I wore Zephyr as a base for some loose powders (which I will tell you about later). The eyeshadow duo I loved so much when I swatched in the shop with my fingers, but swatched with a brush I felt quite disappointed, however, I was happy to see that applied over primer on my lids I could achieve the same intensity I did with my fingers. It did wear well though and didn't crease at all, and maybe it could benefit even more from being worn wet, I haven't tried that yet.

So there you go, that's my mini Topshop make up haul. Do you own any Topshop make up? Let me know in the comments!

See lots of pictures after the jump!

My Mac Me Over Collection Haul, Review and Swatches

Mac released a huge collection with 51 (!) pieces earlier this month called Mac Me Over and today I want to show you which products I ended up buying from the collection. To be honest, I wasn't that excited about the whole collection as it looked a bit too boring in all fairness, but there were some pieces that interested me, including some new (and permanent) lipsticks and some eyeshadows. I also picked up a fluidline gel eyeliner.

So what did I buy? I got Avenue fluidline, a dark brown colour with gold flecks, 2 eyeshadows: Satin Taupe (silvery taupe colour) and Mythical (pinky copper), and 3 lipsticks: Rebel ("vivid pinkish purple"), Oh, Oh, Oh ("plum bronze with pearl")  and Runaway Red ("rich red-blue"). The fluidline cost £13.50, the eyeshadows were £11.50 (except for Satin Taupe which is permanent, so I bought it as a pro palette refill pan and that way it was only £9.50) and the lipsticks were £13.50 (except for Runaway Red that I got free with my 6 Back 2 Mac empties). Oh and I also got a 116 blush brush (not pictured).

I have to confess that I haven't worn everything yet, but I am very happy with everything based how they swatch. I wore Avenue fluidline the other day and it is so soft and creamy, easy to apply, but it stays put for hours on end and the colour is just lovely. The gold flecks are not quite as visible as in the swatch, but it's still gorgeous. I also wore Runaway Red lipstick and it lasted on me for a good 3 hours or so and it is a beautiful red shade. It's a strange one actually as it looks really dark in the tube, swatches quite light and pinkish, but is actually red when worn. Sadly I didn't get around to taking photos of Runaway Red on my lips, but I have some photos of Avenue fluidline in action at the bottom of the page.

Be sure to continue reading and see lots more pictures after the jump !