Wednesday 24 August 2011

MAC eyeshadow in Gesso (review + swatches)


MAC eyeshadow in Gesso

Gesso is a white matte eyeshadow, which I use as a highlighter. What I like about is that it's just white with no pink or yellow undertones (it often happens that white shadow when applied god knows why leans towards yellow, which I honestly hate). On the negative side, I have difficulty getting a decent colour pay-off with MAC matte shadows. As I said, I use it as a highlight and this discreet effect is just right. But if I were to use it as a white eyeshadow I'd have to try very hard to make it show. Texturewise, this shadow is a bit dry and powdery and I guess this is the reason why it's so difficult to apply. When I ran my finger across it to make a swatch, it felt like one of these soluble vitamin pills they sell in tubes. Very rought and dry. Matte looks good, but it's definitely not my favourite as regards MAC finishes. Frost and pearl are much easier to work with.


and here comes the heavy swatch. barely there, huh?

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

OPI nailpolish in Take the Stage (review + swatches)

OPI nailpolish in Take the Stage


COLOUR:When I bought this polish I thought I was getting a nice autumnal shade of copper. It turned out to be orangey glitter which matches summer sunshine best. Whatever shade it is I love it!

OPI nailpolish in Take the Stage


FORMULA: One coat seemed quite thin, I thought I would never get a decent coverage, but 3 coats gave even and opaque effect. It's mostly glitter of tiny, shimmery kind.


OPI nailpolish in Take the Stage (sunlight)


APPLICATION: Excellent brush, excellent application.

LONGEVITY: Lasted for 3 days with no chipping, but then almost every polish chips within 2-3 days on me.

OVERALL: Gorgeous nail polish, though all this glitter tends to be hard to remove.



Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Seche Vite - dry fast top coat





Wow! I've found my Holy Grail as far as nail top coats are concerned. I've found it and I'm searching no longer.  This top coat dries nails in a minute or two leaving the most beautiful hard, glossy, even, smooth to touch coat. It even smooths out the rugged surface of my nails. I love it so much that I can tolerate the revolting smell which reminds me of some sort of heavy duty glue. I regret I ordered a tiny, 3.6 ml bottle, just to try it out. Well, it was worth it and definitely when I run out of this magic substance I'll get the full-size bottle.



Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

China Glaze Loft-y Ambitions (review + swatches)

China Glaze Loft-y Ambitions
Lofty-y Ambitions is the first China Glaze polish I've ever used and I'm amazed. If all the polishes I ordered from Metro collection turn out to be so good I'll stay loyal to the brand.

China Glaze Loft-y Ambitions

Loft-y Ambitions is a vampy dark cherry polish, which on the surface looks like shiny creme, but in fact it contains ultra tiny shimmer which instead of adding sparkle or shine creates the unusual depth of the colour.  

The camera mercilessly bares all imperfections, but this picture shows the micro shimmer well

 The polish is wonderfully easy to apply, though the brush is a bit on the small side. To my surprise one coat provided full coverage with no sheer areas, I added another coat out of custom. The polish even smoothed out the surface of my nails! Absolutely perfect! Even the price is very attractive, the only disadvantage is the fact that I have to order it online, without seeing the colour first.


micro shimmer through the glass


Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Monday 22 August 2011

Nail Tek Hydration Therapy Color in Scarlet Starlet



Nail Tek Hydration Therapy Color in Scarlet Starlet

COLOUR: lovely bright red with shimmer

FORMULA:  highly pigmented polish, 2 coats give full coverage with no bald patches, the consistency is just right, neither too thin nor too thick

APPLICATION: the bottle is fairly long and logically the brush is also long to reach to the bottom. The problem is that all the brush is immensed in the polish and even if you remove the excess polish by rubbing against the bottle, it will flow down the brush onto your nail, making the application fairly tricky. It's a pity cause the size of the bristles is fine, the formula is fine and still it's quite hard to apply.

LONGEVITY: can last almost a week. When the polish dries it retains a sort of flexibility, which prevents it from chipping.

OVERALL: if it hadn't been for the shape of the bottle and the application problems I would consider this product my HG.
  


 
Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Sunday 21 August 2011

MAC pigment in Cornflower (review + swatches)

MAC pigment in Cornflower
I'm not a huge fan of pigments or other powder eyeshadows. I find them very difficult to handle, extremely messy, producing fallout everywhere. I was dancing around Cornflower for over a year and finally gave in to this gorgeous colour.

MAC pigment in Cornflower
 Cornflower is a periwinkle kind of blue with pinkish sheen, the intensity of the colour is immense. It applies and blends wonderfully, when used wet it's harder to blend, but the colour pay-off is even better. As for the messiness, it's not as bad as I expected. I use a round contour brush to apply it, I dip it in the jar, then tap off the excess product and then pat it on my lids rather than smudge. This way seems to produce the least fall-out (I tried using a flat brush at first, but it didn't work that well) and seems fairly quick. Once applied the eyeshadow quality is hard to beat. It stays put for ever with no creasing, no fading. Although I still wish this colour was sold in a pan form, I definitely don't regret buying it. Actually I'm planning to get a number of other pigments both from the permanent line and the upcoming fall collections.

MAC pigment in Cornflower
 Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Nail Tek Quicken - fast drying top coat


Nail Tek Quicken - fast drying top coat
 I bought Quicken cause I went for all Nail Tek manicure products, but I won't stay loyal to this particular product. It's a top coat like any other, guarantees nice shine and protects the polish from wear and tear, but that's exactly what all top coats do. The name is definitely misleading, without the fast drying drops this coat takes ages to dry. I guess there are other products on the market that are both glossy and quick-drying.

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Sephora retractable powder brush


Sephora retractable powder brush
 Sephora retractable brush is an excellent travel-size powder brush that will easily fit in your make-up bag. It's elegantly packed in a black metal case, which after opening reveals a thick, dense brush you can use to apply pressed or loose powder. The bristles are a bit on the hard and pricky side, they tend to scratch pressed powders and are not that nice and soft to touch. Nonetheless, if you use this brush for touch ups on the go, not as your basic make-up tool, this makes an excellent choice. Priced at around £12 this is not the cheapest option, but it's definitely worth giving a go.

Sephora retractable powder brush
 Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Nail Tek 10 speed

10-speed are polish drops that make the drying process  faster. You apply 2 drops per nail and let it spread on its own. The producer claims that this dries polish to touch in 1 minute and to go in 5-7 minutes, and I must say these promises are not exaggerated. My nails are completely dry within not more than 10 mins, helping me avoid many nasty surprises. The drops are very easy to use and efficient.   


Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Saturday 20 August 2011

MAC Semi-precious collection: mineralize eyeshadow in Blue Sheen (review + swatches)




So I got myself one more product from the Semi-precious collection - mineralize eyeshadow in Blue Sheen. This is sheer madness cause I've got so many blues I tend to forget about them, but it was so gorgeous I simply couldn't resist.

I was skeptical about this range of eyeshadows as I'd read about them on temptalia.com that they lacked pigmentation and performed decently only when wet. Well, sometimes the opinions of others can't be trusted cause the two eyeshadows I've got (Dark Indulgence and Blue Sheen) are pigmented like hell.

Blue Sheen is navy blue streaked with black and pink with pearly finish. Although the black veining is more prominent than the peach one the colour does not lean towards blackish shades, it's definitely dark blue. The shadow looks good on its own and combined with other shadows. It stays on primed lids all day. Blue Sheen produces some fallout, but I've seen worse. I love these shadows so much that I regret buying 3 Semi-precious skinfinishes, I should have ordered Hint of Sapphire instead.




Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

OPI nailpolish in I'm Suzi & I'm a Chocoholic (review + swatches)


OPI nailpolish in I'm Suzi & I'm a Chocoholic

COLOUR: The name is quite misleading. The colour is dark brick red creme, the shade is much closer to wine than to chocolate.


FORMULA: Great consistency, neither too thick nor too thin. Amazing pigmentation, 2 coats will suffice.

APPLICATION: Excellent application due to the best nail polish brush that I'm familiar with.  However, applying very dark polishes can be tricky sometimes. In spite of excellent pigmentation I found it hard to avoid bald pathces in places where the brush hits the nail.

LONGEVITY: Looked decent for 3 days, then started chipping.


OVERALL: I like this polish a lot, the colour seems so appropriate for the nearing autumn.





Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

OPI nailpolish in The Colour to Watch (review + swatches)

OPI nailpolish in The Colour to Watch facing towards the light
COLOUR:  I bought this polish because of its intriguing, non-obvious colour. I would describe it as a duo-chrome: lavender blue shimmer which looks absolutely stunning in direct sunlight and a kind of taupe or beige in angles where light defracts.

OPI nailpolish in The Colour to Watch - away from the light
FORMULATION:  Thin, almost runny. Extremely sheer, I did 3 coats, but I should have done at least 4 or more make bald patches disappear. However, I hate doing so cause it takes ages to dry 4-5 coats of polish plus base, plus top coat and such a thick coat chips easily. Although I applied a top coat the finish itself was very glossy.


OPI nailpolish in The Colour to Watch at the most taupe angle
LONGEVITY:  Chipped horribly on the second day after the application.

OPI nailpolish in The Colour to Watch close up at the bald patches on my index finger

OVERALL:  I would be in love with this nail polish if it wasn't so sheer. I suppose it could be used over another polish to get a kind of holographic effect. I'll try this combination out when I get a taupe or beige polish cause it seems to me these colours would match. But if you're looking for a polish to wear on its own, give this one a miss.


Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Essie nailpolish in Smooth Sailing (756) - review + swatches


I found Essie Smooth Sailing highly disappointing, although I'll continue to use it because of the colour, periwinkle seems my favourite shade of blue.

PROS:

- gorgeous colour, blue with a hint of purple, which remains blue in different lighting conditions
- this is opaque creme polish, 2 coats were more than enough



CONS:

- the brush is too thin
- the consistency is too thick, if I didn't know this polish was a part of Essie's summer 2011 Brazilliant collection, I would suspect it was years old and definitely needed a drop of thinner
- the silver glitter looked out of place on creme polish, it hardly sparkled, in most lights looked like tiny white dots
- the finish was fairly matte, even a top coat didn't increase the shine
- chipped on the second day of use
- the glitter was hard to remove

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Thursday 18 August 2011

Katowice-Wroclaw tour and what happened after

When we were enjoying ourselves away from home I had this premonition that I'd have to pay for every single day, what I didn't know was that I'd have to pay more than double. On Wednesday after we returned home Adam fell ill and on Thursday night we rushed with him to hospital with pneumonia, as it later turned out. We spent a week there taking shifts at his bedside and today we're finally back home. Home sweet home! Adam's illness caused serious distress among all of us, but I need to say that the traumatic experience of being in hospital with a 1.5 year old was considerably diminished by the surprisingly humane treatment we received in the childrens' hospital. Going to hospital wasn't as scary as it seemed ...

... especially that we'd managed to charge out batteries during our 4-day holiday in Katowice and Wroclaw. The reason why we went to Katowice was to see Current93 play live as the opening event of OFF Festival. We set off at 6 am to allow for any unexpected occurences on the way, so we proceeded at leisurely pace towards our destination, enjoying the sunshine (so rare this summer) and trying to combat the desire to sleep with coffee. The centre of Katowice surprised us with how neat and tidy it was, no trodden grass, no dog poo, no rubbish, no cigarette butts, no plastic bags rustling here and there. Wide streets, no traffic, no stench of urine among the tenements. We felt as if we've crossed some boundary and entered a different country. People tell me that this picture is a bit misleading and does not represent the whole city, but I wish Zaspa looked like that.

Current 93 did not disappoint us, after the gig we went to a club where there was supposed to be an after party, but it turned out not many people were informed about that and only about 20 turned up, well, it didn't matter cause  the party was actually very nice with 2 DJs playing live. God, I don't remember when I was clubbing last! The club Hipnoza was tiny, but you entered it through the most weird hallway of mirrors and bright striped walls. It gave us the funny feeling when we were sober, we were wondering if you are able to find the exit when you're stoned. We did't try that, but we did our best to get ourselves drunk, which considering the fact that we'd slept only few hours and travelled over 500km shouldn't be a hard task, but we didn't manage. The beer in that establishment was so poor quality that having drank 6-7 pints a head we remained relatively sober.




Next day we left Katowice, I liked the city so much that I deeply regretted that we didn't stay for the whole OFF Festival, and we promised ourselves to come next year, no matter what the line up will be. But we're masters of futile plans (eg. we're not going to London in September, as we planned due to Adam's prolonged medication) so this one most probably won't work out, but who knows.

When we were leaving Katowice we got excited like children by taking a 3-lane motorway! We'd never seen such a thing before! Wow! Then we got a less direct route to Wroclaw cause we wanted to see more of the countryside and visit a replica of Krakow's Wawel in Brzeg. Again we were struck by how tidy the little villages were and even more by rhe lack of people in them, they looked like ghost villages, deserted. Not even a local drunkard loitering around the off-licence.

Brzeg was the place where we saw some local inhabitants, and the town was not as clean and well-kept as the surrounding villages. But the castle was really lovely. What was on those Renaissance men's minds? Dirty, dirty!




First thing I did upon arrival to Wroclaw was to drag my friends (who I'm sure think now I've freaked out completely) to a shopping mall, the only reason being the urge to get some MAC goodies and new nail polishes. Then we checked in our hotel, which wasn't as nice as the one in Katowice ( though Adam enthusiastically enjoyed its facilities, swimming pool being one of the most frequently used words during our stay there) and abandoned ourselves to a life of pleasure, i.e. eating and drinking. Our pub crawling tour began in Spiz, where they brew their own beer and then continued along the lovely streets of Wroclaw Old Town. 

It was my first night out this summer, the evening was so nice and warm I let myself get carried away by the holiday atmosphere of the city. I thought I would like to live in a place like this. It seemed so European, it had so much to offer. Gdansk is so provincial and so pompous with all these restaurants catering for rich Germans.
I found my happiness in pub Academos, where we continued to reside for 2 subsequent evenings.

The pub sold delicious Belgian beers, horribly expensive, but worth it! White beer and excellent cherry beer called Kriek on draught and a number of fruity bottled beers won our hearts. The pub owners obviously said no to big corporations and chose Kozlak and Zywe from our local brewery in Bielkowek to represent Polish beers! 


We loved the decor of the place, especially the sofa opposite us, which we christened White Noise (see below). Intriguing, isn't it?


Next day looked pretty much the same, the only difference being that we started earlier. We had a lovely Mexican breakfast in one of the countless cheap bars with food from all over the world. We did a bit of random sightseeing. In the evening we were joined by Adam's friends in beer garden of Bierhalle, where the waiter told us he'd serve us if he found time causing roars of laughter. So we ended in Academus for our final pints.


On Sunday, sad-faced we left for home. Home sweet home they say. Unfortunately we didn't even start to miss it!










Monday 15 August 2011

Essie nailpolish in Meet me at Sunset (755) review + swatches


Essie nailpolish in Meet me at Sunset

I absolutely adore this nail polish. So summery and hot, even though there's no summer this year. The colour is bright orange creme with reddish hue. Two coats were enough for even and opaque application. The colour wore well for about 5 days with no chipping or signs of fading, I removed it simply cause I wanted some change. The only thing that I would gladly change is the brush, which successfully discourages me from buying any more Essie products. It's very thin, consisting of a couple of bristles which can't be flattened on the nail so you need to paint the nails in 3 mm wide strokes. Painting the thumb was a real challenge, but the creamy consistency of the polish is so great that after all it applied nicely.
   


Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Nail Tek Foudation III

Nail Tek Foudation III

I bought this nail polish foundation hoping it would solve my splitting nails problem and I've been using it for 2 weeks niw and I must say I returned to painting my nails! I don't see any signs of damage which other nail products caused to my nails! Even if it turns out one day that this doesn't work as I hope it should, there will always be one thing that will make me like this product more than others - it dries out matte and thanks to this nail polish sticks perfectly and applies evenly (no effect of sliding along the nail).


EDIT: Final thoughts after using the foundation for over two months:
1. I still love the matte finish, helps to distribute the polish much more evenly than any glossy base coat
2. Didn't make my nails any stronger. They split just as they did before whenever I used nail polish. I suppose they're allergic to nail polish.
3. Became clumpy and real pain to distribute
4. About 1/4 bottle is left and I find it relly hard to get the thing out of the bottle, you need to screw the cap back each time you want to paint a nail. I know this always happens when you're running out of a nail product, but it's much easier to pick a more liquidy product than the one with quite thick consistency. I suppose I'll just dump it cause I find this digging for product infuriating.
All in all I think I'll look for another base coat with matte finish.

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in Intense Blue (20) - review + swatches

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in Intense Blue
I've been searching for a nice and wearable blue cream eyeshadow to work as a base to powder eyeshadows, but since it turned out an impossible task I ended up getting something much more vibrant than I intended. I can describe this shade as a sort of intense aquatic blue. This makes a perfect holiday shade, especially that it's waterproof and resists both water and sweat and oiliness of the lids.

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in Intense Blue (swatched as a liner, and then a heavy swatch and a blended out swatch)
 As with all MUFE Aqua Creams the product is very smooth in application (though you need to be quick if you want to blend it out) and long-lasting. The only problem is that the colour is so strong that it dominates whatever shadow I use over it and it happens that I like cream eyeshadows as bases which enable me to create a wide range of combinations and looks. With MUFE Intense Blue this is hardly possible.

The picture below shows a number of MAC powder eyeshadows applied over MUFE Intense Blue: left to right MAC Moon's Reflection, Freshwater, Deep Truth, Contrast, Silver Ring. As you can see Intense Blue and Freshwater make a good match, other colours are dominated by Intense Blue. 

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in Intense Blue as a base for eyeshadows
 All in all I think it is a very good shadow, the only thing is that it's so bright and defined that there's no fun playing with it.

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Inglot Top Coat Matte


I bought a matifying top coat cause I saw some nice swatches on somebody's blog, I liked the suede-like effect on the nails. So I got Inglot to experiment with. I must say I'm not extatic about the results. Instead of looking velvety or suede my fingernails looked a bit off. Or as if they were covered with a protective foil of some kind. I think the matte finish would look better on ligher colours like light beige, once I get a varnish of this kind I'll place an update.


As far as the application is concerned it applies smoothly and I guess you need 2 coats for a fully matte effect (I applied only one). Being matte means also being white, so application of the coat may change the shade of your varnish substantially. 

My conclusion is that if you like matte finish to your nails you should find this product satisfactory. I suppose I'll rather stick to gloss for the time being.


Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

MAC blush in Mocha (review + swatches)

MAC blush in Mocha
To the best of my knowledge the colour mocha is a kind of milky-coffe brown. That's why I'd never considered buying a mocha blush cause brown blushes look horrible on me. To my surprise MAC perceives mocha as soft plum-pink, which in reality is a sort of dusty rosy colour. In practice MAC Mocha is a lovely blush, which can be used on everyday occassions. It's matte and relatively sheer, but can be built up without looking cakey.

What I dislike about the blush is the powdery consistency. The brush instead of picking the product sends chalky dust everywhere around (this makes the blush so sheer in application). The problem does not lie in the brush as I've tried a number of options, but in the blush itself. This is my first matte blush by MAC and I must say that other finishes are much creamier. Nonetheless I really like this blush cause this powderiness does not affect the performance, it simply makes the palette messy. The colour is lovely and wearable and that's all that matters!

MAC blush in Mocha (blended out and heavy swatches)

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.

MAC eyeshadow in Satin Taupe (review + swatches)


MAC eyeshadow in Satin Taupe
 The weird thing about taupe is that in Polish such colour doesn't exist. It's taken some effort to actually learn to recognize the colour (we place this shade in the range of brownish/beige colours). Satin Taupe is for me the achetypical taupe with no pinkish or purplish undertones. I never use it on its own, but it's so nice it can be paired with almost any other shade. It does a nice job when blending out sharp edges of dark eyeshadows. The consistency is marvellous, it's almost like a cream eyeshadow. The frost finish is nothing close to glitter, it's rather a kind of lovely sheen. If I liked nudes in my make-up I'd be hitting the pan soon, but since I use it just for finishing touches this eyeshadow will last me ages.
MAC eyeshadow in Satin Taupe

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.