Festive Nails: China Glaze Champagne Bubbles

I've bought a lot of nail polish lately, including lots of glittery ones from the current holiday collections, so I thought I'd do a little series featuring some of them. First up I have China Glaze Champagne Bubbles from the Let It Snow holiday collection, a yellow gold with silver glitter. The glitter is very smooth and not very noticable, but it's a nice twist on regular gold nail polish.

Taken with flash

I've only worn it for a day, so can't comment on how longlasting it, although I have 2 small chips already which is not unusual for me. The formula was a bit slow drying with 3 coats, even with Seche Vite on top, so I actually managed to put some small dents into it on my right thumb. I got mine from the US, but in the UK you can get them from Sally Express for £6.49 each. You get 14 ml which will certainly last you a good while.

What do you think? Do you like it? Is this the sort of colour you would wear during the festive season? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

More Guerlain Rouge Automatique Lipstick Swatches - 100, 163, 164

You might remember that a while ago I swatched all my Guerlain lipsticks including the new(ish) Rouge Automatique ones (you can find my post here). Well, since then I have acquired a few more of them (including the two Holiday Collection Rouge Automatiques which I reviewed here), so I thought I'd do a quick post on these. If you want to read more about the formula and packaging, please check out this post.

100 Apres L'Ondee, 163 Rose Bengale, 164 Chamade

I have shades 100 Apres L'Ondee, 163 Rose Bengale and 164 Chamade to show you. Apres L'Ondee is a nude pinky brown, Rose Bengale is a pinky rosy colour and Chamade is less pink, more rosy brown. I know, I suck at describing shades. Anyway, see for yourselves what the swatches look like. 

100 Apres L'Ondee, 163 Rose Bengale, 164 Chamade
Taken with flash

100 Apres L'Ondee, 163 Rose Bengale, 164 Chamade
Taken without flash in direct sunlight

Do you own any Guerlain lipsticks? Which ones are your favourites? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

Clinique Lash Power Mascara

I have a sample size of Clinique Lash Power Mascara that I've been using quite a lot and I thought I'd tell you about it because it's a good little mascara. It makes my lashes look nice and long and gives them good volume too, so really what's not to like? It has a much more straight forward brush than the No 7 mascara I reviewed a little while ago, and the brush is quite small, so would probably suit more people. I have Black Onyx and it's a nice black shade, but it also comes in Dark Chocolate for those who prefer brown mascaras.

The formula is called "long-wearing" and according to Clinique it "vows to look pretty for 24 hours without a smudge or smear" and also "lasts through rain, sweat, humidity, tears". This is true, and I was actually wondering if it is actually waterproof, and I tested it in the shower, which it isn't. In fact according to Clinique it "removes easily with warm water" which I have to disagree with, you need a good make up remover to remove it, although some of it will come off with warm water in a non-waterproof kind of way. You know what I mean. Now I don't need it to last for 24 hours and I also don't mind it that it's not a waterproof mascara, so the long-wearing bit is not that important for me, but obviously it's great that it doesn't smudge as I sometimes wear this when I go running and I don't end up with panda eyes.

So all in all, this is a great mascara and I would certainly recommend it. It costs £15 for 6 g which is not too bad for a high end mascara (or is Clinique more middle than high-end?). Have you tried this? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

A Tropical FOTD With Famous Festival Palette

I don't stick to many rules when it comes to make up, I will wear any colour I like at any time of the year. I even match my make up to my clothes sometimes (shock horror)! So that is why I'm showing you a yellow, orange and bright pink tropical look in December (I actually wore this is November, but still)! It was a sunny day and I felt like doing something sunny, so I ended up with this. I even went to the supermarket like this, although that day I did wear my glasses instead of my contact lenses because my eyes were a bit sore, so they hid the brightness a bit.

I used my old Famous eyeshadow quad in Festival to create this look. By the way, whatever happened to Famous? It used to be sold in Superdrug, but then the Famous stand was replaced by MUA. I quite liked it, the products were cheap, but not bad quality. I have quite a few quads and a couple of trios. I also got some lipglosses and a face kit that was a bit rubbish though as the highlighter bit smashed into little pieces. Anyway... I do like this quad a lot, it's very cheerful.

So I used the yellow in the inner corner, the orange on the lid and the bright pink in the crease and blended them together. I added a light pink highlighter (also from Famous, from the infamous face kit) and Laura geller Angel baked eyeshadow on the browbone. I used Urban Decay 24/7 eyepencil in Zero on the waterline and Asphyxia on the lower lashline. I added Mac Dollymix blush on the cheeks and one of my Famous lipglosses (it's cherry red, but the writing has come off the tube, so no idea what shade it is). Ta-da!


What do you think? Do you wear bright summery make up in winter? Perhaps dark vampy lips in summer? Let me know in the comments!


See more photos including the quad after the jump!

NOTD: BeYu Nail Polish no. 397

Firstly, I would like to say that since this is a very busy time of the year for me I expect that the blog will not be one of my first priorities in the coming weeks. I've already been very busy with shopping for Christmas gifts, now we've got the children's Christmas performances coming up, there's the school Christmas fete, you name it, we have it. None of my Christmas cards are written yet and the list goes on. Also, I haven't really bought much make up lately, so I've been a bit uninspired.

So when I was trying to work out what to post about, I actually dug out some pictures I took back when it was lovely and sunny in October, so it's not a very wintery product to be honest. But it is so pretty, I really wanted to show it to you.

In direct sunlight without flash

This is BeYu nail polish in no. 397 (no name). I bought this in a shop called Beauty Base in Westfield, it was a strange shop with both high end brands and cheap brands. I did mention it in my London Make Up Haul Video if you want to hear more. The photos don't do it justice, this is a really gorgeous holographic pink glitter, it shimmers in every colour of the rainbow. Quite sheer when used alone, I think the picture shows 2 coats, but still, it's stunning. I think it cost something like £2 and you get 8 ml.

See more pictures after the jump!

Laura Geller Eye Elements Baked Eye Shadow And Highlighter in Sahara Skies

As you might know by now I'm a big fan of Laura Geller's baked products, be it eyeshadows, blushes or highlighters. So it's no surprise that I have yet another one of her products to review today. This time it's a 2-in-1 (well, really 4-in-1) product that contains 3 eyeshadows and a highlighter. Same concept as the Eye Elements Baked Eye Shadow And Highlighter in Amethyst Skies, just different colours. I believe this was part of the Lightness of Beauty Collection, but as I mainly purchase my Laura Geller make up from eBay, I didn't get anything else.

I love this product. The eyeshadow colours are plum, shimmery gold and brown, they are well pigmented and apply and blend easily, plus they stay on well without creasing. The highlighter I believe is called Portofino (according to the eBay listing), but I forgot to swatch it against my other Portofino highlighter, sorry. It's a lovely champagne colour highlighter, quite subtle and not at all glittery. The compact is 8 g, so a very reasonable size and this retails around $20 I believe. I haven't seen this for sale in the UK, but I would expect it around £20. 

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Finished! The November Edition

I managed to finish a lot of products this month, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Of course most of them are skincare products as usual, but I did finish two pieces of make up, so it's alright.

First up is the most expensive face cream I've ever owned, it's Guerlain Orchidee Imperiale Exceptional Complete Care Cream. This is a 50 ml size and it currently retails for £255. No, I've not gone mad, or maybe I have! I didn't pay nowhere near as much as this was actually a tester that I bought on eBay and the lid actually looks pretty worn, although don't know why because the cream inside was untouched. I've had this for quite a while, especially as I tended not to use it in the summer as it doesn't have any SPF. Also you really only need a tiny bit, so it does last forever. It's really lovely, but I don't know if it's 25 times better than my Nivea face cream that I've also finished. So I won't be repurchasing this for now, although I do actually have about 15 samples of it as well for travelling, so I'm okay for now anyway.  

See what other products I've finished after the jump!