Sugarpill - Buttercupcake Shadow & Buttercupcake look

I've been missing in action for a while, mainly due to recovering from the post-Download blues. I had an amazing time at Download festival, caught some great bands & hung out with a fantastic bunch of people. Getting my mojo back & catching up on blogging (or anything, really) has been somewhat of a hard slog. As far as the bands went, my favourite sets of the Download weekend were probably Twisted Sister & Rob Zombie.

Anyhoo, I had a look in mind that I wanted to do for an upcoming Cyndi Lauper gig. It involved yellow, orange & a touch of gold. I already have MAC's Chrome Yellow but I find it to be hard work to get it looking how I want. Since I love the other Sugarpill shadows I have, Buttercupcake seemed like the way forward.

Kat Von D - Angeles Palette

The latest palette from the Kat Von D line at Sephora, Angeles comprises of browns, blues & turquoise. In this palette, there's 3 shades that have made an appearance in previous palettes: Leather (in both Beethoven & Ludwig palettes), Rehab (in the Truth palette) & Peggy (Memento Mori). As with most of the palettes, there's a cream shadow inside. 

The packaging, as always, is stunning. The box features rosaries in gold. On the actual palette, they're black.

OPI - Pirates of the Caribbean

Of the six shades with this collection, I opted for Planks A Lot, Mermaid's Tears, Stranger Tides & Skull & Glossbones. The two remaining shades, Steady As She Rose & Sparrow Me The Drama, are pinks but neither appealed to me, as I prefer bright pinks.

All are creme finishes that are quite glossy even before the addition of a topcoat. They're a dream to apply, no skipping, pulling or dragging & with two coats, you get opaque coverage that's bottle-shade perfect.

Planks A Lot

Vibrant mid-purple with a slight dusty tone to it. Not the most unique shade of the collection, but a nice one for fans of purple polishes.

Planks A Lot

The swatch shows Planks A Lot to be a touch darker than it actually is. There's no topcoat here, just the polish. Even so, it's still a glossy one.

Deborah Lippmann Polish Haul

Yet more polish goodness! The only Lippmann polish I had before this bunch came was the fabulous Bad Romance. Since I liked that one so much, I picked some more of the glittery polishes as well as a couple of others. The haul is comprised of Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Wicked Game, Call Me Irresponsible, Ruby Red Slippers, Don't Tell Mama, Across The Universe & Lady Sings The Blues.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Gorgeous, metallic gunmetal grey shade. It's a dark one, for sure, but definitely not black. Applies well, two coats give the shade that appears in the bottle. Good, glossy finish even before you add a topcoat.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Wicked Game

Silver base with a green & pink duochrome. This bears a slight resemblance to OPI's Not Like The Movies. The differences between the two are Wicked Game's lighter base shade & Not Like The Movies has a slight amount of glitter in it & the green tinge is slightly more obvious. Again, two coats gives the exact bottle shade but you can easily get away with one coat of this particular colour.

Wicked Game

Call Me Irresponsible

A bright, mid purple. No shimmer or glitter to this shade, it's a creme & a super glossy one at that. It'll take three coats to get it close to the bottle colour because this particular polish is quite sheer. 

Call Me Irresponsible

Ruby Red Slippers

This stunning polish is one of my two favourites from this haul. Black base encrusted with red glitter in small flecks & larger, hexagonal pieces. RRS is what I wanted China Glaze's Lubu Heels to be. The glitter absolutely pops in this one yet it doesn't feel overly rough once applied. 

Ruby Red Slippers

China Glaze - Lubu Heels

Don't Tell Mama

Deep, dark, shimmery blue-green. It isn't quite teal because, depending on the light, the shimmers flash blue or green. I found the initial coat to be quite thin & streaky but a second soon fixed everything & had it looking like it did in the bottle. Very glossy finish to this one.

Don't Tell Mama

Across The Universe

My other favourite from this haul! Across The Universe has a deep blue jelly base packed with green & blue glitter in small flecks & larger hexagonal ones. Two to three coats gives the full effect. This shade is really glossy & makes me think of oceans for some reason.

Across The Universe

Lady Sings The Blues

Like Across The Universe, Lady Sings The Blues has a blue jelly base, although it's a touch lighter. The glitter, once again, varies in size & shape. The predominant glitter shade is silver but some are a pale blue. Two to three coats give a good finish.

Lady Sings The Blues

I'm turning into quite the fan of the Deborah Lippmann polishes, especially the glitters. They all have a glossier finish than other brands I've tried & the glitter finishes don't feel quite as rough & bumpy as some. The bottles are very simple, square & elegant looking.

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Crackle Polish Haul

Five new crackle polished that I've just got. So far, I've tried Barry M & China Glaze versions. This haul comprises three LaRosa crackles, Barry M's white crackle & OPI crackle in silver.

Of the two brands I'd previously tried, I loved the colours from China Glaze but found the Barry M black crackle to give a slightly better effect. In fact, I was kind of disappointed with Lightning Bolt, China Glaze's white crackle. It didn't shatter into smaller pieces no matter what base colour I used under it. The other three shades I got worked better. I decided to get a different white to compare with.

LaRosa Crackle - Seaweed, Green, Million Dollar Red

I'd never heard of LaRosa before, but I liked the fact that they had a good number of shades in the crackle range. I was particularly interested in the green, as I've been longing for a green crackle for a while. Seaweed looked like a fun colour & Million Dollar Red appeared to be a vivid red that just needed to be tried.

MAC - Surf, Baby! - Small Haul

I finally managed to get to a local MAC counter to check out the rest of the Surf, Baby! collection. I came away with the two eye shadows I wanted to look at, Surf USA & Swell Baby, and one of the Suntints lip balms.

I wasn't overly taken with the other shadow colours. I already have Saffron, Short Shorts wasn't on the display stand & Sun Blonde had the unfortunate effect of looking like a yellow bruise on my skin when I swatched it. I was, however, really taken with My Paradise Cheek Powder. I didn't pick it up, which is something I'll probably come to regret since it was a really nice peach shade.

MAC - FashionFlower

Fresh Daisy, Groundcover, Bows & Curtseys

A small haul from FashionFlower for me, just three of the six shadows. I already had Aqua, Free To Be & Lucky Green, so I got Fresh Daisy, Groundcover & Bows & Curtseys.

Originally, I'd just decided to get Bows & Curtseys as I can't resist a dark green shadow. Groundcover & Fresh Daisy also got picked up.

Fresh Daisy

A frost texture, described as a frosty white yellow. I thought that it would be like a few other shades I owned but, when swatching, I couldn't find an exact dupe. The shade in the pot shows more yellow than it does applied to the skin. Once on, it becomes a frosty, vivid white with a slight, subtle yellow tone.
Well pigmented & applies smoothly.