Hope on my fingers

This is proving harder than I thought to write. How on earth am I supposed to  objectively and critically review a product which I am so passionate about and  which little ol' me has helped creating? It is not without a certain degree of emotion that I would like to share with you my swatches of 'Hope', 'Love' and Strength' the  nail polishes part of the Beautyuk 'Paint for life' box set.







Moved by one of their fans' wishes, Beautyuk Cosmetics took the pledge to raise  £50,000 for Cancer Research UK and designed a range of nail polishes to help them  reach their target. While thousands of women are undertaking the annual 'race for  life' race throughout the country, BeautyUK is inviting you to support the Cancer  Research UK charity and to 'paint for life'. For each £5.99 'paint for life' trio  set sold, they are donating £1 directly to the charity.


The shades are gorgeous. Hope is a delicate pastel pink which could double up as  French manicure base if applied sheerly. I would describe Love as a shade of  carnation pink and Strength, the deeper of the set as a bright hot pink. The  formulation was very easy to work with, although they needed 3 coats instead of the  2 I am usually used to. Before playing with my paint for life set, I had a pre  conceived idea about Hope. For me, it looked too pale and it was not going to work with my skin tone. 3 coats later and I was in love!

*cue avalanche of photos*

 

You know what’s handy? it’s the names on the bottles

and last but not least this is strength. At this point, I would like to thank my spell check as I always always spell it wrong!

I think Beautyuk did a marvellous job with the paint for life trio. The shades are  lovely and would suit a wide range of people, from the shy and who only want a hint  of pink to the lovers of bold and bright talons.

Which is your favourite shade?
Will you be ‘painting for life’?

Further Information
Availability: The paint for life trio is available in Superdrug shops nationwide and online (£5.99)
BeautyUK Cosmetics Aid for Cancer Research UK: http://www.beautyukcosmetics.com/paint-for-life
Beautyuk twitter: @beautyuktweets
Paint for Life Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/paintforlifeuk
Paint for Life Twitter: @paintforlifeuk #paintforlife


Disclaimer:    
The box set was purchased by myself.

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Painting for Life

Just over a year ago, there was a blog competition where participants had to create  a nail polish just for fun to win some BeautyUK Cosmetics makeup. One fan of the  brand, Sam, expressed a wish to have a range of pink polishes designed to raise  money for a Breast Cancer Charity. Sam's inspiration was her mum, going through the  ordeal of cancer but who 'still wanted to look nice and have painted nails'. Beautyuk Cosmetics was so touched by the idea that they have been working hard for  the past year to help Sam's idea see the day.



The day has come and with the help of  a beauty blogger, BeautyUK went on to develop and release a 'Paint for Life' trio nail boxset with the aim of raising £50,000 for Cancer Research UK.  I feel really moved by this initiative, there is so much more I wish to say.  Perhaps I’ll share more when I show you my swatches. For now, I just want to keep it short and sweet. It is so heart warming to see, how an everyday girl next door, fan of a cosmetic brand can touch a cosmetic brand so much so that they take a pledge to raise £50,000 for a good cause.








The Paint for Life boxset consists of three shades of pink nail polish. Each bottle is individually named with ‘hope’, ‘strength’ and ‘love’. From every £5.99 set sold, £1 will be donated directly to breast cancer research.

************ updated on Monday 14 May ***********

Please click here or on the picture below to see my swatches:

Further Information:Availability: The paint for life trio is available online and in superdrug shops nationwide (£5.99)
BeautyUK Cosmetics Aid for Cancer Research UK: http://www.beautyukcosmetics.com/paint-for-life
Beautyuk twitter: @beautyuktweets
Paint for Life Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/paintforlifeuk
Paint for Life Twitter:  @paintforlifeuk


Disclaimer
The box set was purchased by myself and I received no incentive to write about this. This post is just driven by intense joy and emotion to have been part of the creative process of this initiative.http://bit.ly/hopenlifehttp://bit.ly/hopenlife

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Pout Painting

I've never been a 'lip' kind of person really When I  play with makeup, I like to focus the drama on the  eyes and tend to go for a very neutral lip colour.  I'm not a fan of textures of lipsticks either: I  usually find them sticky, messy, and not very comfortable to wear all around. When I first heard  of lip pigments, I had been wanting to try them  hoping they might give me the colour I want but  perhaps without the stickiness and usual gripes I  have about lipsticks.


At £10 a small tube, even when you apparently need a tiny little droplet to cover your own  lip, there was no way I was going to indulge in the  OCC (Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics) lip tars,  probably the most talked about lip pigments to date.  But when Sleek Makeup decided to release their  version of lip tars at half the price, £4.99, I  thought it might be the time to try some.




They say:

'The best of lipgloss, lipstick and a little bit  extra'
'Be a shade braver and have fun mixing pout paint to  achieve your own unique shade.
Pout pain releases the makeup artist in you and is  available in 11 shades.
'No more irritating tackiness or having to worry  about coverage wearing off, just bags of colours and  long-staying power.

I say:

Umm, there goes my ‘I am only going to spend a fiver in this’ out of the window since the ultimate purpose of the pout paint  is buy a few shades, let your creativity run wild and create your own shades.

There are 11 shades on offer and these were officially released in selected Superdrug Stores today:






First Impressions: a huge massive disappointment not  to see a black pout paint in there. What a crying shame. Since  the pout paint is hailed as being long lasting, I  was hoping to wear one of them for Halloween,  perhaps some sort of vampirish lip with black in the  outer corners or just full black, and forget about it and party the night away.

I came home with 3 shades:


 


This is the moment where I confess not having a lip brush. So I used a eyeliner brush to apply my first Pout Paint, which was milkshake. As as result, my application was very uneven. I doubt nobody, apart from Nicky Minaj would want to wear this on its own.






Magda in ‘Something about Mary’ called and said she wants her lipstick back…


 


Next, is a shade I had my mind set on trying from the very beginning. This is Rosetta:








and last but not least, the bright and majestuous Pinkini







My thoughts: I’ve got so many things I want to say about them. First things first, there is absolutely no way I would wear MILKSHAKE on its own, not even for fancy dress. I would not even consider bribery. ROSETTE and PINKINI by contrast are absolutely gorgeous and I feel that paired with a neutral eye makeup, they just add such a pop of colour to your complexion.


Application was, as to be expected, very laborious with a small eyeliner brush but I am reasonably happy about how it went, after a disastrous first go with MILKSHAKE. I can’t stress enough how little you need to cover a whole lip: a minuscule dot is all you need. Put too much and you’ll be left with a unpleasant wet feeling, as if you’re going to smear the whole room just by talking.


By the time, I applied ROSETTE and PINKINI, I felt so much more in control and applying less product made a massive difference. Non lipstick lovers will absolutely love this: As I was so desperately hoping, these sleek pout paint definitely deliver a great punch of colour without the stickiness of a lipstick. I am absolutely over the moon about that! This is precisely what I wanted from the Pout Paints.


I was afraid they would bleed and I am happy to report, that I didn’t experience any bleeding at all although I’m pretty sure some bleeding would have occurred after wearing Milshake for a while, as I definitely applied too much.



I wanted to test the bleeding and lasting power of Pinkini. I decided to venture out of my house (it was after 10pm) to Tesco and let me tell you that was a first for me. Apart from Halloween, I had never left the house with such a lurid shade of lipstick on my lips. What gave me confidence was the fact that it felt like I was wearing absolutely nothing: it felt liberating. I can’t promise you I will be wearing this, during the day as it takes some confidence to wear something so bright, when you don’t usually wear much colour on your lips.


A whole Cheese and Pickle sandwich later, this is what was left of Pinkini. It definitely took some battering but I am pretty impressed on how much colour I have been left with.


 


I am absolutely over the moon with the Pout Paints. The non-sticky lightweight feel of them is very liberating. What a shame they didn’t have it  in black…


What: Sleek Pout Paint
How much: £4.99
Where: Selected Superdrug stores and on Sleek Makeup Website

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I'll have 2 Blue Lagoon & 1 Peach Melba, please Barry...

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How dare you Barry M tempting me with a whole host of mouth watering products, when I am in the middle of a spending ban? Barry M has just released 2 new shades of nail polishes on their website: Blue Moon 317 {Blue Lagoon totally sounds way cooler :P} and Peach Melba 318.






I am not sure when they will be available from your local Boots and Superdrug, but you can order them online at its usual bargain price of £2.99 each.






Also, hot from the oven, the Wink Marker Pen (£4.59)
A chunky marker pen style eyeliner that makes lining your eyes easy. In simple strokes you can create instense, bold lines and flicks. Quick drying and long lasting as the perfect eyeliner should be! £4.59

Love the design and the bulkyness of it but is that going to dry up in 2 minutes like lots of other pen-style eyeliner? (hinting at you Eyeko)


2. Imperfection Correction (£5.99)


Our NEW Imperfection Correction concealer pen has been developed to conceal blemishes, dark circles and signs of fatigue from the eye area, whilst illuminating the skin and adding a touch of radiance.
It is available in 3 shades to suit all skin tones (Ivory, Almond & Peach)  and the enriched formulation provides smooth and long lasting wear. Simply twist the pen for the liquid to appear and brush onto your face for a flawless finish.

There is no way I would buy this without first swatching in the shop. The applicator reminds me of  Touche Eclat. I wonder what the texture is like.


3. Finally, the 3 recent colourful additions to the Instant Nail Effects (£3.99) hitting the 'physical stores' with no more precise date than "in a month or so". I must admit the future release of 8 the Models Own crackle polishes has excited me more but I cannot deny that the colours are absolutely gorgeous, from the photos I have seen so far. I've seen a girl wearing a girl wearing pink crackle on bright fuchsia and it looks so cool. I am very tempted and you can 2 Barry M crackle polishes for the price of one Models own. But since Beautyuk will also be releasing a pink crackle polish in May, I might just as well wait for that one, since the polishes there usually cost £1.99 (maybe it will be £2.99 for that special one?)



 


Now would it have been great, like Elf always does, to have free postage and packing a as a little incentive to order these new products from the Barry M website :)

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Crackle Polishes go technicolor: Blessing or overdose? Radioactive Lizard NOTD

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Apparently crackle polishes first started their appearance years ago and what we noticed in England, when Barry M released their record breaking 'paint effects' black top coat last October was a revival of the trend. Revival or not, it took the blogosphere by a storm, and I was one of many who didn't even such a effect could be achieved with a nail polish. I have no idea how the contraction works and makes the polish, snap, pop and crackle (to reuse dottie k's expression) but I have to confess it's quite fascinating watching it doing its thing.






When I first wore 'Barry M' paint effects at work, the first thing my colleagues asked was if 'they' did it in other colours. Well, now 'they' do. Models Owen firmly embraced the trend with both arms and are about to unleash their 'Smash up' range, 8 colour additions to the crackle trend, with also a black version thrown in for good measure. The range is very enticing: bright colours, funky bottle lid design and cool name.









You'll be able to get your talons on them, at £6 each from April 6th online at http://www.modelsownit.com/ (thank you Drew692 for info on release date) and in selected Boots Stores later on in the month of April.


The polishes not being available yet, I obviously couldn't try them on. So here's a little manicure done with beautyuk yellow peril (see it worn on its own here) with a thick coat of Barry M paint effects on top. I prefer my crackle to be big and chunky so I like to apply a generous coat of it.










Have you joined the crackle bangwagon yet? Will you be 'smashing it'?


credit: big kiss to debbie aka @drew692 and her cool tumbrl beautyblog for letting me use her pictures.

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