The Chubby sticks of the poor: just bitten, just landed …

and just swatched.


For months now, the American have been teasing us with the Revlon 'Just Bitten' Kissable lipbalm stains. The wait is over and those of us living in the UK, can have finally have our grubby mitts on them now.




What are the Just Bitten kissable balm stains (again)?
They say: A pampering balm fused with a lightweight lipstain that gives you softer, smoother lips with a flush of shiny color that lasts hour after hour. The smooth and moisturizing gel formula glides on beautifully with a light peppermint fragrance for truly kissable lips – no sharpener is required!

The shades have all been named around the theme of love. My own ‘personal’ Superdrug received 7 shades, but I am not sure how many shades in total the UK will receive. Here are some quick swatches for you:







Just Bitten lip balm stains are usually sold at £7.99, but there is a special introductory offer. Boots being Boots, you need to purchase 3 to be able to use the offer (3 for 2 on selected Boots products) while good old superdrug lets you buy only one if you want at £5.99.

   

Will you be checking them out? Which is your favourite shade?

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FashionistA: A look at the brand and a closer inspection at their Supermodel Kohl Eyeliners

If it wasn't through Twitter and the beauty blogging world, I would have never heard of Makeup brand 'Fashionista' spelt 'FashionistA', with a capital A at the end, just to be awkward different. Like Look Beauty which was born last year (around October 2011 I believe?) FashionistA suffers from a crucial lack of representation in the high street shops and they have yet to open a webstore.


If it was up to FashionistA, they would be in every Superdrug nationwide but sadly this isn't possible. I have a few suggestions on what stand they could get rid of but I don't think some cosmetics brands will be happy with that. ;)




It was by pure chance yesterday that I discovered that there was finally had a stand of FashionistA Makeup in the Superdrug in Preston. I was not ready for what I was going to see:

A huge stand, slick black and red packaging, and all that at very affordable price which is music to my ears. Probably what FashionistA is most renowned for is their customisable palette system. You choose your shadows (49 to choose from!!) or blushes and you simply click them in a blank palette. Each individual shadow or blush cost £4. How cool is that! A picture is worth millions of words and expletives, so this is what I mean:







You will have to excuse my enthusiasm if this is old news for you. For me, this company just appeared in a Superdrug not too far from my small neck of the woods and it feels it's brand new to me.


They hadn't receive testers for everything yet (I know already that I *will* own a customised palette at some point and pray to god that there are some matte eyeshadows in 49) but I have some swatches for the khol eyeliners if you want to see. The liners are at £4 each, they are lovely and butter soft, and as their name entails, they are named after supermodels. My pictures don't show them justice and Claudia (Schiffer, I presume) is a beautiful sparkly black.










My favourite supermodel khol eyeliner? The gorgeous Heidi grey. I need to be careful on what I spend my money at the moment and already indulged on a small shopping spree yesterday but I will definitely travel again to that Superdrug and 'Heidi' will grace my lower lashline.

I leave you with a little montage I've made with pictures from the internet of their range of gel eyeliners. There are 13 shades in total, I didn't have room on the montage to feature the blackest black, it's not very easy to appreciate the nuances of grey and brown from these 'stock' pictures but hopefully these will give you an idea.






Conclusion: I am so happy this brand is stocked by a Superdrug near me. I hope there is one near you too, ‘cause there are plenty of things to play with and lots of happy affordable makeup moments to be had :)



Do you own any FashionistA makeup? What are the must haves from the brand?

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Barry aime Bold* and a flash giveaway

Barry M Cosmetics is on fire at the moment and is spoiling us with amazing new products: a new TV ad, 4 magnetic nail polishes, 5 'standard' nail polishes and 6 new shades of creamy and waterproof 'bold eyeliners' (£3.99 each) to complement the black, the only shade which existed so far.




Personally, I found the eyeliners a bit too creamy for my personal taste but I couldn't deny how bright and pigmented they are. Despite their initial movement due to their soft as butter texture, I can confirm that these are definitely smudgeproof and waterproof. Once they are on, they're on.




OMG. how gorgeous are they!!





If you like the softness of the Urban Decay and Gosh eyeliners pencils (I seem to be the only one who doesn't like them) I can guarantee that you will fall in love with these. When you need to sharpen them, just make sure to put them in the freezer for 15 minutes beforehand and you'll be all right.

To celebrate their release (and also due to the fact that I've recently won some Barry M stuff which I already own) I am giving one of you the chance to win:
- one bold eyeliner of your choice
- one Barry M nail polish in navy
- and one Barry M bold eyeliner in black (reviewed by my friend Claire here)




All I need from you to enter this mini giveaway is to tell me which shade of bold liner you would most  like to win basically. Simples. The rules are the same for every of my giveaway. Open internationally. You just need to be a follower of my blog (Google Connect, Google Reader, Hellocotton,  Blog Lovin) blabla.


How to enter:
This giveaway is for all my blog readers from all over the world.
It will end this week end: Sunday 22 April 2012, 23:59 BST (UK).
All I would like you to do, to enter in this comment giveaway is to tell me: 

What is your favourite shade of Barry M Bold Eyeliner?

--- your name
--- your email address
--- how you found out about this giveaway

Additional Information: - There will be 1 winner and the winner will be sent the three following Barry M items (1 Bold Eyeliner in Black, the Bold Eyeliner of your choice and 1 Navy Blue nail polish
- Winner will be chosen at random with random.org
- The prizes are new, unswatched and unopened.
- * Barry aime Bold is a play on words, based on the fact that ‘M’ is pronounced the same way as  ‘Aime’ in French which means ‘loves’. So ‘Barry aime bold’ just means ‘Barry likes bold’

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Gold by Giles Nailwear - My entire collection swatched

If your New Look store is anything like mine, they will have stopped stocking Stargazer Polishes. Fear not as there is a new brand on the block taking the relay offering a wide range of makeup products at a competitive price: It's called Gold by Giles, created by British Designer Giles Deacon, yes, the same one who designed the fabulous statement legwear.

Today, I am excited to share with you my impressions and pictures of a selection of nail polishes which I believe will hit the stores on 21st April. The bottles reminded straight away of Nars polishes and I couldn't wait to try them on. Despite a formula which was a tiny bit thicker to what I am used to, I found the Gold by Giles polishes super easy to apply and necessitated no clean up. Let's have a look at some pictures, shall we?





















Coverage wise, the bright orange and baby blue required 3 coats for full opacity. I was ready to go out for the door with 2 coats with the plum purple, turquoise and brown. The bright neon pink is shown here with only 2 coats. Three coats would have made the white line of my nail totally imperceptible but I really don't mind it like that. The medal of honour goes to the lavender polish, which you can see here with just one coat.

My favourite polish? It will have to be the bright neon pink as I don't own any other polish like it. I have a soft spot for the baby blue also, but that might because of the gorgeous contrast of the gold lettering against the bottle, which reminds me of Greece for some reason and the sun bursting on my polish, giving it an amazing shine. I believe there are 12 polishes in the total, but you will have to pop down to your New Look shop to check them out. Have I mentioned that the polishes are £2.99 each? Yeah baby


The Gold by Giles range is huge, they do eyeshadows, lip glosses, FALSE EYELASHES *screams*. My blogging and twitter friend Caroline was invited to the Press Event and has got some photos for you. 


What: Gold by Giles, Nail Polishes
How much: £2.99
Where: Selected New Look Stores nationwide and online.
Disclosure: Polishes were sent for review purposes.
Credit: Top Picture was sourced here.

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Flipping Beautiful!

As if Fire Fantasy was not exciting enough, Mac Factor has expanded their  Colour Effect range with a line of new lipsticks called 'Flipsticks'. Colour  Effect Flipsticks are double ended lipsticks: One end features a rich and  creamy colour, the other a lighter lipstick shade.






You can wear each colour alone, blended together, one on each lip, or apply  the lighter/brighter shade just to the centre of your lip to give a highlight  effect to your lip.








Max Factor says:
To add a new dimension to lip colour, you can sweep one shade over your upper  lip and "flip it" to apply the second shade to your lower lip. Another way to customise lip colour is by outlining lips in one colour, then  "flip it" and apply the second shade to the centre, giving a graphic texturised lip.


I don't think I will ever wear the upper lip with one colour and the lower lip  with the other colour but I absolutely love the 'highlight' effect with the  brighter/lighter in the centre of the lips or 'graffiti' effect as Max Factor  calls it. The model wears Gipsy Red all over the lips and then flipped the  lipstick over and dabbed the gold colour in the centre area of the lips.

Let's have a look at some swatches, shall we? From what I can gather from the  website, there are 6 (double) shades available. My local Superdrug is only  storing 5 shades and I missing 'Salsa Red'.




Bloomy and Swingy leave me indifferent but Folky, Boreal amd Gipsy are to die  for! I don't know if I could pull off gipsy with my yellow teeth but I totally  understand why they chose that shade on the promotion picture. It is simply stunning and most of all, so much fun and has so much more depth than just a lipstick with a bit of gloss on.








The Flipsticks are sold exclusively in Superdrug and are on special offer at  the moment. Buy them before by 10th April and you get them at £2 off: £6.49 instead  of £8.49

Will you be flipping it?

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L’Oréal Color Riche – Mini polishes: My entire Collection

The folks at L'Oreal have been working very hard lately. To name but a few products, they have released a bb cream, a concealer set to rival the iconic Touche Eclat, a primer, a mascara with no hint of lashes insert in sight, a lumi magique foundation and and and about 40 mini polishes. I am quite happy with my current primer from Loreal (I have the resurfacing smoothing primer in a pot) but I can see myself weakening at the knees and try the foundation at some point. Today, I want to share with you my impressions on 4 shades of mini polishes, part of this huge line from Loreal called 'Color Riche'.





Each polish contains 5ml of product and you will not be able to help yourself but wondering, from the onset is £4.99 is not a little bit steep for this amount of product, being a high street product and all. However, as soon as you open the bottle, you begin to notice that this is no ordinary mini polish. The brush is delightfully flat and wide which allows for a super speedy coverage. In fact, if you enjoy the actual process of applying nail polish like me, you'll be a little bit disappointed as it goes so quick! I need to warn you: the nail on my index broke, so the pictures are a bit gloomy.


Luxembourg Garden first caught my eye. It's a gorgeous teal polish which I was looking forward to try as I don't own similar shades in my collection. The coverage was really impressive and needed 2 coats for an opacity I was happy with it. However I was a not fan of the finish: you can definitely read the tell tale signs of my sloppy application and see where the brush strokes have been.








Next, this is Parisian Rooftops. In my head, this was going to be a dupe of Mavala Elle, a gorgeous purple grey. In reality, the polish rendered more grey than I would have liked, and the hint of purple is too faint. The name suits the shade I guess and I can definetely picture some roofs, in Paris or elsewhere sporting that colour. Application was super easy and I achieved the opacity that you see in one coat. Two coats would have given me a more even finish but the bottle is so tiny that I wanted to see if I could get away with one coat. I am disappointed, despite the lovely finish and the decent colour, I am sulking as I wanted a grurple.









Next, comes my favourite shade of them all. Mysterious Icon is an absolutely gorgeous blend of purple, grey and gold shimmer and is to die for. The polish reminds me a little bit from a polish from OPI (it's my year maybe?) but a little dirtier. The best is that only one coat was needed and I really felt it made the £4.99 I had to part to own this polish go a little further. I predict this shade to be a sell out, and I feel I need to restock at the week end before the whole world knows about this fabulous shade.












Last but not least is Beige Countess which disappointed me the most. Nothing wrong with the formula, nor the finish as beige countess applied very easily on my nail. Nothing wrong with the coverage either, it certainly needed two coats but the brush is so handy, it made the application seem like the breeze.





It's the colour I am not a fan of. I love my nude polishes but I am very particular about them also. I feel Beige Countess doesn't go with my skin tone, there's not enough contrast with my skin tone and I can't wear it. This will explain why I only applied the polish on 2 nails only. No point wasting a nail polish when I know straight away it's not going to work. I was hoping Beige Countess was going to be a mini Nails Inc London. What a shame. Never mind.

Overall, this is a lovely collection. Even though the polishes cost more than I would have liked to pay for them (£4.99 each), I feel they are very good quality and they really excel themselves with the brush. Now would be a perfect time to get your hands on them as there is a 3 for 2 offer on all the polishes (and other make up items from the L'Oreal Color Riche) at Boots and Superdrug. If you're only going to purchase one shade, make the mysterious icon be yours.      






Please, please please, if you have yourself tried any of the polishes from the Loreal Riche collection, let me know in the comments below: I would love to hear about it and see your pics.  xx

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Crushed Grape, whatever the season. Free Leighton Denny Manicures

There are times when I spend ages trying to find that first sentence on how to start a blog post and others, like tonight where billions of way to start a blog post comes bustling in my head and I am overwhelmed. Please excuse me for I am very excited tonight. It's been a while since I've played with a Leighton Denny nail polish and I forgot how good it was.

When the gorgeous Nic, from Strawberry Blonde Beauty Blog told us informed us about the Magazine Freebies offers in March 2012, I got a bit hot under the collar: 3 shades of Leighton Denny nail polishes can be yours for free, if you purchase a copy of the March 2012 edition of Red Magazine (£3.80)





Nic warned us that the actual magazine with the free polishes would be hard to track down but being a massive fan of Leighton Denny, I was not going to give up so easily. I was lucky, they had some in my local Marks and Spencer and I managed to get my hands on 'Crushed Grape' a dark berry polish and a lilac polish annoyingly called 'Whatever'.





I can't explain in words the delight it was to experience 'Crushed Grape' and 'Whatever' on my nails: smooth, creamy, easy peasy to apply, opaque in one coat, dries fast, only £3.80. What more can a girl want? Well perhaps spending some time en-tête-à-tête with Leighton Denny himself.


I didn't do any clean up whatsoever on my manicures, (it probably shows but I would be quite happy to parade with my nails like that) I went really sloppy with it so much so that it felt like that the polish applied itself. I am in love, totally in love. As a consequence of my infatuation, I am going to leave you with an avalanche of photos.


Crushed Grape in all its glory, one coat only:







Now with slightly warmer lighting





and this is, ‘Whatever’. I am not going to lie. I feel the name doesn’t do justice to the beautiful shade and finish. Again, this is one coat. I know!!







Now with warmer lighting







If you have not yet tried a Leighton Denny polish and can hunt a Red Magazine with freebies in, you will not regret it. It will probably be the best £3.80 you've ever spent   








Needless to say, if the third free shade ‘Vamp’ had also been available at my local Marks and Spencer, I would have also bought it. Let me know if you managed to get your hands on it, I would love to see!  
      

 
Leighton Denny, will you marry me?      

 

What? Leighton Denny nail polishes in 'Crushed Grape' and 'Whatever
How much? Free on purchase of Red Magazine, March 2012 edition, £3.80
Where? I don't know. In some Marks and Spencers. xx

     

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