Lipgloss love

Never been a huge fan of dense, opaque lipstick, wasn't into gloss either as couldn't be doing with all that gloopy, sticky, slippy yak so tended to stick with sheer lipstick or coloured balms and then, much like the eye shadow thing, I decided that as I am going to be sixty like really soon I only had a few years left in which to experiment and decided to give glosses a go. I now have a frankly awesome collection. Well, five. And the fifth is a vile purple nasty thing I bought for £2.50 in m&s and instantly regretted, if you can actually spend 5 mins regretting a £2.50 spend.



The m&s one is on the end, it makes me look like I have a heart condition. And three of the others are basically the same colour, not exactly adventurous am I?

First up was the Vinyl gloss in snog. Stupid name (if you are 40 odd!), nice gloss not too sticky, tastes fine. Second purchase was the Chanel one. As a careful and sensible traveller with no desire to have to chuck all my make in a bin at an airport I generally stash all make up in my suitcase. So went to Dublin duty free wedged up and ready to spend with no make up to make sure that I didn't inadvertently spend £19 on a Chanel gloss which is a sparklier version of one I already own. Fell totally in love with a Chanel gloss that was perfect in every way and sans sparkle, having decided that maybe sparkle was a bit childish on me. When I was told that the gloss I needed was out of stock I decided not to do the sensible thing and WAIT to get it at home I just bought this one, spur of the moment, no thought at all. When I got home and compared the two I realised they are basically the same thing. I wear the Rimmel one all the time and put the Chanel one in my bag for nights out so that people think I am posh.

The third one is the brighter Rimmel vinyl gloss in foreplay, or shag or something equally purile. It languishes in my back up make up bag as I am not loving it.

Having always known that I couldn't wear nude lips I decided to continue with the boundary pushing and purchased the Bourjois one. Look, no sparkles - I finally managed to by a non sparkly gloss. Of course it is now my absolute go to, wear every day gloss and the only thing I need to change is my lip pencil which is a bit pinky and needs to err more into the brown spectrum. Would show photos of these on my lips but then you would see my 'tache.

Little bit of weekend cheer!

No 7 Speed dry in Blackberry, Rimmel Vinyl (sad but true; I prefer these to my new Chanel) in Lovesick and freebie L'Occitane shea butter hand cream, could be me but has a bit of a baby poo niff to it. Yea, your right it probably is me. Gave up trying to upload the rotated image from Photobucket, cba trying any more.


Post update - that photo was the other way round yesterday evening. Not the right way up but horizontal to the left, now its horizontal to the right. Or was that wine stronger than I thought??!

Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in snog

This might not have been an essential if I am being completely honest. But what is a life without treats? It's lovely actually, have only recently got into gloss as have sort of thought I was a bit old for gloopy slippy lips. Have now decided that as everything is crashing out at a rate of knots I might as well make the most of what youthfulness I have left to me and so I am glossing whilst I still can! Snog, hilarious name for a lip gloss on a 44 year old, although not as chuckle making as the daughters MAC in morning glory, its a sort of pearly pink and I think I'll leave that right there! So anyway Snog is a rose cream, I guess, its not pink as in girly pink, warmer than that so rose covers it. Its not sparkly which I do really think I am too old for, just has a bit of a shimmer and its not sticky which is great. Not discernible taste, unlike the MAC ones which are lush and taste of vanilla ice cream, I might treat myself one day, just for the taste!

Swatched on my hand in sunlight.


And rather more attractively, in the tube!

The big decision has been made....

Had decided that I love Max Factor Dazzling blue on my toes for my holiday pedi but was torn between something totally different on my fingers or something different but toning, class or clash if you will!

Whilst I was deciding thought I'd give Max Factor freebie Disco Pink a whirl. I just don't get it. If I was going to give someone a free sample of a product of mine in the hope it would encourage them to buy more they would get the very best of everything that I could offer and yet every time I get a freebie sample nail polish (Nails Inc on InStyle magazine) the brush is ten types of crap. This one has horribly splayed bristles that drag the polish and make neat application nigh on impossible, why would you do that. I compared the paid for Dazzling blue brush with the one in the freebie pink and they are leagues apart, both same size and design bottle so thats no excuse.

Anyway rant over, the pink is nice but nothing fab, just doesn't have the hotness I was hoping for, bit too dark toned. I had hoped it would be just right as the clash option for my holiday mani but having seen it next to dazzling blue its just not cutting it so have opted for Rimmel Sky High, I love this polish, it wears well, goes on nicely and works really well with the dazzling blue, I think.


Swatch application not proper mani btw and managed to smudge the Rimmel whilst smearing cuticles with a bit of hand cream into the bargain! So thats this evening sorted, bit more packing and then paint my nails!

NOTD 6 - Rimmel Shocker

It's been ages again hasn't it, if everyone is bored to death of this non-event of a blog I would so understand, loads of stuff going on and not enough time to do the things I want to, sure you can relate! As is usual when I have time to do one post I generally do two, have updated my photo blog today as well with photos of Tom on his last day at school - he is too handsome!

Not my usual sort of colour this one, don't really do pink but Em wanted it to match the maxi dress she has bought for her hols and having seen it on her I rather fancied it for a change. Its one of those nice electric pinks with a sort of bluey ish flash. For some reason I have always associated this colour with my Aunty Helen, who I met when I was 14 and filled with self-loathing and in inveterate nail biter! She has the most gorgeous hands and fantastic nails and I was so envious and was convinced if I could stop biting my nails they would look like hers. Hmm, not so much! So in my head this is "aunty Helen pink"!




S'cuse the rather gleaming cuticles, grabbed my brush and oil combo and was painting away when I remembered that I had recently dipped the brush in the olive oil I was using so instead of a bit of gentle moisturising I was achieving full on oil slick!

Really like the Rimmel formula, not mad keen on the brush - I have very small nails and on my smallest the brush is almost too wide. The polish is lovely though, this is 2 coats with no top coat yet. Just a shame the Rimmel colours aren't more exciting, much as I love Barry M colours I don't think that anyone would argue that the brushes and the formula on some of them can be a bit tricky. That said bought the bright green one at the weekend, more of a jelly than the more recent pastels I have bought but I loved it on, must take photo next time I wear it! Oh and Em and I got the Barry M blue glitter which is craaaaaaaazy - looks fab on her, not sure I wouldnt be back in transvestite territory but might give it a whirl!

Spotted in the Body Shop.....

After reading Leanne's post on the Body shop Monoi Miracle Body Oil I decided I needed to make a detour to check it out, in spite of seriously limited funds at the moment! The oil is lovely but I have a feeling that the one they had on display had been sat open for some time as it had a slightly unpleasant petrolly whiff to it which rather masked the "holiday" smell that Leanne was getting from hers. Did pick up a travel mini of the Aloe calming cleanser - my £10 bottle has run out and like I send being careful with the pennies so a travel size bottle for £3 was perfect not least because I am away for work next week.

Whilst I was in the The Body Shop I spotted a fantastic nail gizmo - am probably years behind everyone on this and you have all been using them for ages, but in case not this is a heads up! In their Almond hand care range they have a fab Almond nail and cuticle oil, it comes in a pen with a brush and you turn the base to load the brush and then run it round your cuticles and nails. Mum bought me something similar ages ago which I kept on my desk and used religiously, as she said something about using the brush to apply and then massage in the oil seemed to really help and of course its quick and non-messy. So all great so far but nothing outrageously fab, where this item got kudos from me is that instead of just having a cap on the brush it is fitted with a good sturdy plastic hoof, like those flimsy ones you get on the old traditional hoof stick which frankly never seemed to achieve much in my opinion, although to my shame I have been known to use some pretty dreadful things in an attempt to shift my cuticles including an old false nail and the edge of the nail cleaner on a pair of metal nail clippers, isn't that awful? I always use an orange stick because they work I have always felt the proper hoof stick rubber tip didn't quite do the trick but as I say the one on the Body Shop nail oil looks much sturdier. This costs £7 which seems like a bargain to me - she says moving her half litre of olive oil that cost £1.50 to one side!

I do have to confess to a couple of purchases today - a Rimmel nail varnish in a light teal/turquoise called Sky High, a real splurge on Paul Mitchell Relaxing hair balm my excuse being that I have bendy hair that drives me insane and only good styling products will do the trick!! and some Sally Hansen Acetone free nail polish remover, used up the last of the Co-Op cheapo stuff last week and am paying the price; the skin is quite literally peeling off of my hands, ouch.

This is Sky High - taken with flash because it's beyond dreary outside!


I tried to tweak the colour to show you that its much more of green turquoise than a blue one.


And just to prove that even though I have the Barry M turquoise, it leans blue and this leans green so I did NEED it!!

Although that photo would suggest otherwise!

And a quick update on Barry M blues - just for comparisons sake:

L-R: Pale Blue, Cyan Blue, Turquoise