Happy Xmas!

Just a little post to wish everyone a wonderful time over the holidays.

Thank you to everyone who's subscribed to my blog. I'm truly grateful that you've done so & hope my posts have been useful to some degree.

I hope the make-up fairy brings you all lots of beautiful things. :)

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Deborah Lippmann - Glitter Polish Haul

Three gorgeous glitters from Deborah Lippmann. These are more of a finishing effect than a full, glittery nail but they're still stunning.

Stairway To Heaven

Stairway To Heaven has a slightly milky white base that's full of iridescent glitter. You'll get flashes of pink, green, blue & yellow from this one. As it's not a completely clear base, Stairway To Heaven could probably be worn alone although it would take 3 or more coats to achieve a good effect.

Stairway To Heaven

Rock 'n' Roll Challenge - Blackout In The Red Room

I had a bit of a debate with myself as to whether I should post this, I didn't feel it turned it out as well as I'd hoped. That's what I get for rushing to get myself ready.

Anyway, this is the first part of a little challenge I've set myself. I'm trying to come up with make-up looks themed to a song or album title. This is the first one, named after Love/Hate's Blackout In The Red Room.

It looked better in person, but it was still a bit off somehow.

China Glaze - Eye Candy Collection

Yes, even more glitter polishes!
When I first heard about this collection, I got ridiculously excited. Six new glitters that are solid polishes, not topcoats with a bit of glitter to them.

First up is Blonde Bombshell.

Blonde Bombshell

A yellow-gold glitter with small flecks & larger ones scattered throughout. Took two coats to cover the nail completely. I'm not a huge fan of gold polishes, so this one doesn't really shine through for me, especially not when compared to my favourite gold, China Glaze's Medallion.

Blonde Bombshell

MAC for Gareth Pugh Pigments

Two new pigment shades released with the MAC for Gareth Pugh collection. The first thing to note with these - they don't come in standard MAC pigment packaging.

Looks pretty swanky, but it hasn't overly thrilled me for a couple of reasons. The first being that it's impossible to see the shade without opening it, which is done by twisting the square lid, rather than pulling (something it took me a while to figure out). The second reason is you're paying more money for this fancy packaging but getting less pigment.

Nails - Starry Night

A little experimentation with the Glitter Gal holo polishes. These were really simple to do, two colours & star-shaped stickers are all that's needed.

Glitter Gal Holo Polishes

As you may have noticed from the Holo Leopard posts, I have a bit of a thing for holographic nail polish. It occurred to me recently that I didn't own a red holo, so off I went to trawl the web & see what I could find. Glitter Gal's holo polishes popped up. Not only did they have two reds, but I noticed a few other shades that piqued my curiosity.

Firstly, I chose the Glitter Gal Black holo. My stash is home to OPI's My Private Jet & Color Club's Revvvolution, but neither are a true black & I've been lusting after a true black holo for some time.

Black

This is exactly what it promises - a true black-based holo.  Two coats gave a full, opaque coverage. My Private Jet has somewhat of a brownish tone to it, even applied over a coat of black polish, it still didn't look right. Revvvolution is more of a charcoal than a true black & the holo is quite subtle compared to both GG Black & My private Jet

Black

Honestly, this picture doesn't do it justice. The holo effect is so much better in person.
To show the differences, here's My private Jet;

My Private Jet

Small Orly Haul

It is a small haul, just three polishes. I admit it, it's the shiny/glittery aspect to these that attracted me, I'm a sucker for anything glittery.

Rock-It

First up is Rock-It. This one is a little deceptive, the colour in the bottle looks as though it'll be a warm red with gold shimmer. Once applied, there's no gold shimmer to be seen & the base is a deep red with pink tones to it. Very pretty & metallic-looking, two or three coats are best.

Rock-It

Look - Wine & Holly

Last night's outing to see Alter Bridge gave me an excuse to play with my new Kat von D palette & do something fun. I'd not tried a colour-combo using red, green & black yet & thought I'd give it a whirl. As well as colours from the Candelabra Edition palette, I used some of my Sugarpill colours to give it a bit of a pop.

Nails - The Return of The Holo Leopard

After my first attempt at doing holo leopard nails the other day, I decided to try them again in different colours. I ended up doing two lots; lime green & gold, then a purple version.

The first attempt was the lime green. For this particular mani, I used;

• China Glaze's L8R G8R - for the base colour
• China Glaze's Medallion - for the spots
• Random black nail art pen to  outline the spots

Kat Von D - Tattoo Chronicles Candelabra Edition Palette

The latest offering from Kat Von D's line at Sephora comes in the form of the Tattoo Chronicles Candelbra Edition eyeshadow palette. As with the previous Tattoo Chronicles palette, this is also packaged to look like a book.

And what spectacular packaging it is! The attention to detail on packaging is always first rate with the Kat Von D line, but this particular palette, with its black velvet finish & red metallic overlay, is truly something else.
Inside, there are actual pages with artwork & writing by Kat.

Nails - Holo Leopard

 I've not done anything other than plain colours recently, so I thought that something a little more fun was in order.
It doesn't look very glossy in the pictures as I hadn't added a topcoat at this point. I was waiting for the black to dry so as to avoid smearing & smudging that's usually a result of my impatience. Because of this, the pink spots look quite flat due to the colour used drying to a matte finish.

The colours I used:

• China Glaze Sexagon - the holo silver base colour
• China Glaze Purple Panic - used to create the spots. Despite the name, it's a great hot pink
• random black nail art pen to outline the spots

Look - Poison & Bubblegum

Only managed to get a few shots of this one, I was in a bit of a rush to get out to see The Darkness (who were great).

It looked a lot brighter in reality, the lighting just wasn't cooperating at all.

What I used -

• Sugarpill's Tako - inner corner & browbone
• Urban Decay's Omen (from the 15th anniversary palette) - in the crease & just above
• Sugarpill's Poison Plum - blended into Omen 
• Sugarpill's Bulletproof - in the crease
• Sugarpill's Dollipop - on the lid & under the eye
• Kat Von D's Autograph Liquid Liner in Puro Amor
• Kat Von D lashes from the Tattoo Chronicles volume 1 palette
• Urban Decay's Heavy Metal glitter eyeliner in Catfight - patted over Dollipop under the eye, but it didn't show up very well. I think I need to put more on next time.

OPI - Muppets Collection

I feel like it's been ages since I last posted something. It's probably due to suffering from a horrendous cold that's left me with no will to do anything lately.

Anyhoo, what better way to cheer myself up than by posting about glittery things?
This is the OPI Muppets collection. Although there's 12 colours with this one, my inner magpie chose to concentrate purely on the glitters.

Rainbow Connection

First up is Rainbow Connection. A clear base packed with multi-coloured glitter, this one is the closest dupe I've found so far for Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday. Three or four coats are needed for an opaque, glittery nail or just a couple over the base colour of your choice.

Rainbow Connection

Deborah Lippmann - Happy Birthday

Fiery Blackened Gold - Eye of the Day

Last night's look; I wanted to play with my Sugarpill stash & in particular, Goldilux Chromalust. I didn't take any full-face pictures because the flash washed my foundation out so badly that I looked like I'd stumbled off The Walking Dead set.

MAC - Matchmaster Foundation

I've been trying out the new Matchmaster foundation from MAC over the last few weeks. I've left it for a while before reviewing so I could get a better idea of how it performs over time.

Halloween Nail Polish

Three polishes perfect for Halloween!

Two come from China Glaze, Haunting & It's Alive, whilst the third, Zombody to Love, is from OPI.

Haunting

I've been searching for a polish like this for some time now. Haunting is a black base packed with silver sparkle. Unlike a couple of other polishes I've tried that look similar in the bottle, Haunting's base isn't sheer black or a jelly finish, it's solid, deep black. This is basically MAC's Black Tied eyeshadow in nail polish form.

Two coats give perfect coverage, and although it doesn't dry to a matte finish, a glossy topcoat really brings it to life.

Haunting

Glitter Polish Haul

I admit it, I have a problem with glittery things, I just can't resist them. When I saw these polishes, they immediately appealed, especially the green & pink.

The two Zoya polishes, Rina & Kissy, are from the Gems & Jewels collection. Although I have a few green & pink glitters, none are quite like this.

Whilst I like blue glitter polishes, they're not my favourite. But Connaught Square by Nails Inc. caught my attention.

Rina

Rina isn't your typical green glitter. Instead of small, round glitters, Rina is made up of bar glitter. The base is a very bright, vivid green and there's blue holographic accents. These aren't quite as apparent on the nails as they are in the bottle. Certain angles show the polish to be purely green, moving your hands gives a flash of the blue flecked throughtout.

Rina

MAC - Fall Colour

Although it's a small haul from this collection (one of the quads & two pigments), it's going to contain quite a few pictures as I already had the rest of the pigments in my collection.

First up, there's the Parlor Smoke eyeshadow quad. This contains four shades in different finishes.

Parlor Smoke, Cross Cultural, Indigo Noir, Steel

Parlor Smoke is described as a mauve grey & it has a frost finish. It's a shimmery, light shade that applies smoothly & has good pigmentation.

Cross Cultural is a repromote. Labelled a neutral brown, it's a matte finish that may seem at odds with the other colours in the palette but it comes in handy to blend out the darker shades. I found this particular pan to be a little harder to apply than Cross Cultural as a single pan.
Indigo Noir is also a matte finish. It's a gorgeous blackened purple shade that definitely leans more to the blue side of purple. This was also a little tricky to swatch.
Steel, a deep charcoal with a silver sheen, is a veluxe pearl so it's easy to apply & blend. Good pigmentation to this one.

MAC - Styledriven Pro Longwear Eyeshadows

Of the sixteen new Pro Longwear shadows, I chose six shades. 

These are a larger size than regular MAC shadows, they're the same size as a Cream Colour Base, so these should last for ages.

Sweet Satisfaction

Sweet Satisfaction

Described as a soft, neutral beige, I find Sweet Satisfaction to have a hint of gold to it. Of the six shades, this was the most shimmery, looking like a frost finish.

Weathered

Weathered

This hasn't photographed too well. It's labelled as being a dirty blue grey but I found the blue tones to be quite prominent. There's also a slight purple tinge to this one. Not at all overly frosty. Makes for a pretty, slightly more colourful smoky eye.