Saturday, 5 March 2011

A rainbow in Soho EOTD & Review of the Soho Bright Eyeshadow Palette

I don't know about you, but when I think about Beautyuk, the first item which springs to mind is the 10 eye-shadow palette, in particular the almost iconic no.2 'Soho Bright Palette' which I would like to call the 'rainbow mini palette'.


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I am first and foremost a bright eyeshadow lover, a fussy one at best so I was a bit apprehensive to purchase this one in case I would be disappointed, even though I really liked the earth child palette and the day and night palette. Why? Because  Soho Bright contains yellow and orange, colours I tend to use a lot, and I am extremely fussy when it comes to these colours. To give you an example, I own a 120 palette containing galore of yellow eyeshadows and there is none I like in them, they're always too greeny, or not bright enough, or something else, they're not quite right. So, from the outset, even before purchasing it, I didn't give much hope to this palette to impress me.



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I was pleasantly surprised. As with the other palettes I've tried, I couldn't fault its pigmentation. The shadows are very soft, easy to blend and mostly shimmery, apart from the neon pink and the lavender maybe. The greens and the deep blue on the top row were my instant favourites and I knew straight away that I wanted to play with them first.


As with the other palettes, the shimmer in this is definitely there but not in your face and very easy to work with. There is one shadow though which i can't see myself getting a lot of use for: the very light 'sky' blue near the yellow which is way too metallic and shimmery. Now if only they did put a true red in there, that's my only regret really.




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swatched over nyx jumbo pencil in milk



How did the orange fare? It's ok, but it's hardly going to replace my favourite orange: the one in my 120 palette, which was the first shadow I hit the pan of!
The yellow surprised me, I would have preferred a totally matte yellow but the shade is spot on and I will definitely use this. Overall, I like 8 shadows out of 10, which is extremely good value when you think the palette is only £3.99

The look I created today is very predictable, so please consider this look as more like an eyeshadow swatch rather a unique avant garde work of art lol. I used 5 colours from the palette, the black from the Day and Night palette and my favourite highlight colour, Vanilla from Mac.


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Would I wear this look out? Oh my, totally! Can you eye spot other colour combinations in this palette? 
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Sunday, 12 December 2010

Festive Nails with Barry M Emerald & Bright Red NOTD

When I think of Christmas, the first colours I think off straight away are red and green. I love Barry M polishes but I have never noticed their shade of 'Emerald Green' (284) before until last week. I nearly bought it and it turned out my colleague owned it and she lent it to me to play around with me for the week end. Of course, I had to show it to you. As usual, with Barry M, the application is a dream and my photos show 2 sloppy coats of polish.


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The shimmer in it is to die for. I like the polish applied on its own, but I think the nails look even more lovely  with some kind of Christmassy white or red nail art on it. Don't you think? To achieve full opacity, the nails would benefit with 3 coats, but I don't mind too much showing my white bits on my nails. I can't help but marvel at the pleasure of the Barry M formula on my nails. I really wish they would come up with more shades, more often, as for me the range is predominantly dominated by creme finishes. ( I keep on using the word creme not knowing really what it is, it is when there is no shimmer, effect or duochrome reflects is it?)



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Ever wondered what the Barry M bright red (262) feels and looks like applied on the nails? Here are some quick photos. The shine on this is incredible, the polish is super easy to apply but you will need at least 4 coats to achieve full opacity. Here it is with 3 coats and the white still shows through. I usually don’t mind a bit of white tip but with this colour and this finish, I really think it needs 4 coats.



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How do I feel with this polish on? This colour is not me at all: too flat (yet super shiny) too loud, too orangey red. I feel a bit like a cheap hooker wearing it really :S


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What are your favourite Barry M polishes? Feel free to leave me a link to a blog post featuring Barry M.
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