Candy Crazy

The world of cakes & confectionery seem to have unleashed the  creativity of nail companies in a big way, this year. We have seen  NailsInc released their sprinkle collection, MUA won the heart of the  nation with their loveheart collection and now it's the turn of  Beautyuk to have been inspired to release a candy collection: a range of candy coloured nail polishes at the sweet price of £1.99 each.





The first 'candy' I couldn't wait to sample with was Bonbon, a  gorgeous shade of sunflower yellow. I am a big fan of yellow nail  polishes. My favourite yellow nail polish is actually another polish  from Beautyuk, called yellow peril which is absolutely flawless and  opaque in 2 coats. So I was a bit nervous to wear Bonbon in case it  wouldn't be as good as yellow peril.


Bonbon applied very well, with  absolutely no sign of streaks or patchiness, the common problems which  you usually encounter with yellow polishes. My photos (please forgive me for the state of the awfully short nail of my index finger) show 2 coats of  bonbon applied very hastily. Three coats would have been better to  conceal the 'white line' perfectly, but I am quite content with the  coverage that 2 coats provided me.







Dolly Mixture is a bright, luminous {and almost neon in certain lightings} shade of coral mango orange and it's just utterly gorgeous.  Again, only 2 very easy coats were applied on my nails. A little bit  of white edge can be seen on the ring finger but it doesn't bother me  too much.











Lollilop excited me a lot. The opacity is fantastic, this is a true 2  coater, like the nail polishes Beautyuk used to do up to the release  of their urban jungle collection. If you were to buy a beautyuk nail  polish, I would still prefer it if you chose to purchase the set their paint for life set, the set they released in support of Cancer  Research but if you wanted just one shade of pink, lollilop would be a  great option.  










The pieces de resistance of this collection, in my opinion are the  last two shades which feature Beautyuk's new matte finish technology.  I wouldn't define the finish as pure matte and my photos still show  quite a bit of shine but in real life, the finish reminded me a little  bit of the rubber finish from Illamasqua's Theatre of the Nameless  Collection mixed with a glazed cherry appearance. The cherry on the  top is the coverage: they are both opaque in one coat.









When I apply a nail polish, my first coat is usually the sloppiest and  the second coat is there to even everything out, especially the edges.  So if I had known that Jelly Bean (the bright purple) was going to be  opaque in one coat, I would have definitely tried to be neater the  first time round. So even though, the 'white line' was totally  concealed, I felt the need to apply a second coat, just to even out  the edges and even out my sloppy mess.


So when the time came to play with Gobstopper, the semi matte  turquoise, I felt I was more ready to apply it properly and tried to be as neat as I could in just one coat. Gobstopper is a stunner, so much  so that I had to give it more exposure (3 photos instead of 2) and I  can't believe this is only £1.99.












A candy collection wouldn't be complete without its very own skittle manicure, right? So please allow me :)






And what the heck, I have added some 'smarties' dots on top.







what: Beautyuk Candy Collection of nail polishes
how much: £1.99 each
where: Beautyuk online and Superdrug stores nationwide
disclosure: polishes were offered for review purposes

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Peach Melba Nails and exciting news...

The Peach Melba (French: pêche Melba  is a classic dessert, invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London to honour the Australian soprano, Nellie Melba.[1] It combines two favourite summer fruits: peaches and raspberry sauce accompanying vanilla ice cream. (source: wikipedia)


Peach Melba is also the name of a gorgeous shade (no.72) of peach polish by BeautyUK (source: liloopedia). Many pale or pastel polishes tend to be streaky or patchy. Not with this one. Application of peach melba was, as per usual a doddle and a pleasure.  The overdose of pictures will give you a pretty good clue on how much I have enjoyed this polish :P


 

 
My pictures show 3 coats but some of you might prefer to put 4 coats. (see close up at the bottom of this post)


 
I got a little bit fruity and wanted to pose with my beloved mango butter.





Then I got carried away and tried a little bit of  nail art. Oh dear. Well it was fun to play.







Peach Melba was sent me for review purposes and I was waiting for the right opportunity.  Well, there couldn't be a better moment to indulge in a little bit (or a lot) of Beautyuk. The brand has just garnered th support of 5000 fans/likers on their Facebook and to celebrate their achievements, they are offering all their customers a discount of 20%. Just enter the voucher code Face5000 at checkout and your discount will be applied automatically.





Be quick, offer will end on Saturday, 20 August, when the Xfactor starts. yaaaaaaaaaay!
I've placed a cheeky little order myself today. If you're good, I might blog about it next week, state of my nails allowing it of course.  Looking for inspiration on what to buy at BeautyUK? this might tempt you :)


And last but not least, BeautyUK is touring England at the moment and offering free makeovers, in a  bus! Click on the bus or here to see where the BeautyUK bus will  be going next. (picture source)








Peach Melba retails at £1.99 in the glam nail range (9ml) or £2.99 in the salon range in the salon professional range.

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Saturday Night Fever Nails featuring BeautyUK Gold Shatter

I was very excited when BeautyUK released their pink and silver shatter polishes a few weeks ago but part of me wished that they had released a gold shatter polish at the same time.  Well, I dreamt it and they did it. Introducing, hot from the BeautyUK oven, (Saturday) Night Fever, the gold shatter polish at only £2.99.


Ideally, I would wait till my nails are longer to showcase a manicure, but I really couldn't wait to play. There is another reason why I wanted to write about this as soon as possible (special offer which expires tomorrow, details at the bottom of the post) but for now, let's see it worn on the nail, shall we?


The first colour combination which I wanted to experiment was a red and gold one, reminding me of a Chinese Restaurant Take Away. So this is my 'imperial dragon' manicure. (Thank you @loulou699 on twitter for the name)





The red underneath is a red mini polish from Opi, a present from my friend Drew. I absolutely love the way it turned out. The shade of gold is spot on: much warmer and richer that the 17 gold crackle but less mustardy than the W7 equivalent. Perfecto! Hold on to your internet data allowance, let the cavalcade of pictures begin.










Next manicure is very predictable. This is night fever layered over BeautyUK black. How vibrant is that gold over the black. I am now wondering whether I prefer this over the Chinese takeaway manicure.












And last but not least, this is Night Fever shatter over Eyeko Posh Polish. This colour combination reminds me of a delicate silky fabric you would use to cover cushions with. I didn't think this would work but I find the result quite elegant.  Apologies for the miserable photos. This is my right hand and I suck at applying polish on that hand and capturing it is even worse. You could drive a truck in that cuticle gap!







If you're anything like me, and have a small Superdrug, chances are you won't see them in your store, or any shatter polishes for that matter. But that's not a problem: BeautyUK is offering FREE postage if you place an order on the website, and if your order contains a shatter polish. This offer  will expire Sunday 10 July 2011 at midnight.


How much: £2.99
Where: Online, in the special effects section and in some Superdrug stores
Disclosure: This polish was kindly offered by BeautyUK for me to review. Yay!

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Quick: a golden opportunity!

Just giving you a quick heads up on a 2-day twitter competition which BeautyUK Cosmetics has just launched first thing this morning at breakfast time.



To celebrate the release of their latest shatter polish, the fantabulous gold shatter polish, Beautyuk are giving away a whole set of their shatter polishes to a lucky retweeter twitter fan of the brand. Colours include: pink, black, silver, and gold.

To enter, it's easy peasy:


1.Log on to twitter
2.Follow Beautyuk Cosmetics on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/beautyuktweets or @beautyuktweets
3.and tweet the following message:



RT & Follow @beautyuktweets to #win a set of shatter polishes (GOLD, pink, silver & black) Ends 08 July #competition


The twitter giveaway is ending tomorrow Friday 8 July so don't delay your entry.

Twitter is not your thing? You can also follow BeautyUK on Facebook to keep up to date with all their current competitions and giveaways.

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A pop of pink {Work FOTD}

I don't know what possessed me this morning but I wanted to wear pink eyeshadow ... for work. Bright eyeshadow to be more precise. The most bizarre thing in is that work never sees me with makeup on and I usually get there with a heavy slap of foundation and that's it: no concealer, mascara, liptisck, lip balm, eyeshadow, eyeliner, blusher. Just foundation. They know I like makeup and it's a hobby of mine but they don't actually see me with makeup on.



So this is what I had on my eyes today: Mainly 2 colours. The bright pink from the Soho Bright (the Eyeshadow (or rainbow as I like to call it) palette from BeautyUK blended into my favourite highlighter eyeshadow: Vanilla from Mac. I wore my trademark stark white eyeliner on the lower lashline and some heavy black eyeliner from H&M. I had no mascara on (why bother with these non existent lashes, I despair at times) but added a pair of falsies for the purpose of this blog post.  None of the eyeshadows was touched up but I added a fresh coat of white on the waterline, for the purpose of this photo.




I don't think work was ready for it. I think it was too bright for them. We had a team meeting today and they went suspiciously quiet about it. I guess it's better than 'oh dear, what's that on your eyes?'


When I came back from work, I wanted to set my challenge to see how long it would take me to write a quick blog post about it. 20 minutes should it, right?  





It is surprising how long such a simple task as posting a photo of your look of the day, and commenting briefly about it takes and I need to declare my out of the blue (or pink should I say) a big fat FAIL.






It was fun trying though :)

What’s the boldest eyeshadow look/colour you’ve ever worn at the workplace?

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Get shattered for £2.99! The shatter shuttle has landed…

When OPI released their crackle/shatter polishes, I was thinking to myself  'yeah but why would I indulge in a OPI shatter polish when I can have the effect with Barry M for cheaper'? When Barry M released additional colours to their trend setting black crackle top coat, it was really hard not to give in and resist the temptation of buying the pink one but I had heard some news at the time that BeautyUK were going to release their own family of shatter polishes and I instinctively knew that BeautyUK would offer them a even more competitive price that Barry M.





And they did. If you miss the wave of excitement on twitter earlier, BeautyUK released today on their website (in their special effects section) 3 shades of shatter polishes at the amazing price of £2.99 and a little matte top coat with it because it would be rude not to.



 

'It's the way it shatters' BeautyUK called their ‘tease trailer’ press release. For me, it's more a case of 'It's for how much you can get the shattered nail look for that matters' :) The shatter polishes are due to hit Superdrug Stores on 6 July. I don’t know if I will be able to wait then. One thing I know is that I'm going to shamelessly talking some twitter accounts to see what it looks like before I can get my hands on it!


Will you be hopping on to the shatter shuttle?

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Pearl Eyeliners From BeautyUk – The whole collection swatched

Ever since I saw sneak peek(tures) of 3 shades of the Beautyuk pearl eyeliners on their facebook page, I've been really impatient to see all the 8 shade . I am a great fan of colour liquid eyeliner. My very first product swatches post on my blog was about glitter eyeliners, and I probably own pretty much everything Collection 2000 has done in terms of metallic and glitter eyeliners. If Gosh Cosmetics liquid eyeliners had been cheaper, I would have probably indulged and collect them all (and then I wonder how I got myself into debt)


*I am rambling already* Anyway, when Beautyuk  finally released their eyeliners, you bet I was very excited but I was very apprehensive too. My favourite type of eyeliner would ideally be really pigmented, not runny, not too thick, have a soft felt pen type of brush/applicator, long lasting and would not be a pain to remove. The very day of the release, I had to get myself down there to Superdrug. After checking their polishes, I just had to open one eyeliner and check out the brush, tester or no tester provider, I just had to see it for myself. Well, they did it: my ideal type of brush was in there, the only thing which was not so perfect with my beloved Gosh and Collection 2000 eyeliners.


Let's have a look at some swatches, shall we?

 







Photos show 2 coats of eyeliners. My instant favourite was purple haze, which I would personally call 'electric purple'. Application on hand was very easy, and dried fast. Once it's there, it's there and it won't budge.







Removal was easy. None of the shades stained my skin and it wasn't as hard work as the extreme art liners from Gosh to remove. I've come to think that the Gosh ones are too long lasting for their own good, and that I need to remove them with baby oil and lots of scrubbing.



So on the hand it's awesome, but how is it on the eye?







The felt tip applicator made a world of a difference. I was able to be so much in control. I had however to apply 3 coats to achieve the opacity I wanted. The first coat was more about tracing the shape, and the 2 others about filling that shape and tapping the product on rather than dragging it along. No baby oil was needed to remove the eyeliner. I used my simple eye makeup remover to moisten it, then I was able to peel off the product off my eyes.


In a an ideal world, this eyeliner would have given a opaque result in 2 coats, but with a brush like that, I am more than happy to compromise.



where to buy: superdrug, internationale or online.
price: £3.49
disclaimer: I purchased the product myself

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Cotton Candy, Frozen Kingdom & Gunmetal - NOTDs

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Today has been another amazing day of sunshine: not at as warm as last week end, but the lighting has absolutely phenomenal and I just couldn’t wait to play with my new nail polishes from BeautyUK and pap away. Now don’t get used to it, as this was very exceptional and I will continue to take most of my nail photos in artificial lighting. 


Beautyuk has released 6 gorgeous shades about a week ago. Today, I would like to show you part 2 with Cotton Candy, Gunmetal and Frozen Kingdom.





One of the most popular shades of nail polishes at BeautyUK is ‘smokey lilac’. If you like smokey lilac, chances are you’re going to like this one too. This is COTTON CANDY, a lovely frosty lilac. I usually prefer shimmery finishes over frosty ones but this one took me by surprise. I was expecting a very messy application with very apparent brushstrokes marks.








Instead I had a very easy application, minimal brushstrokes marks and a perfect opacity achieved in 2 coats. I took about a million pictures today, indoor and outdoor, which made the task of shortlisting pictures even more than difficult. So please excuse the ‘tsunami’ of photos.









Next, we have GUNMETAL,which is well … a dark gunmetal metallic grey shade really. The name might be a little bit unimaginative but it does exactly what you’re expecting for and doesn’t disappoint. This little ‘rock chic’ baby is a gorgeous one coater, and dries fast. At £1.99 you need this in your collection.








 



And finally,my favourite polish from this batch, is FROZEN KINGDOM. I didn’t know what to expect from it when I first saw it on the website. It looked very white to me and I was expecting Tippex-style fingers. I was very apprehensive of the application too, as bright shades like these are usually renowned to be very patchy. Frozen Kingdom is the most gorgeous shade of white with a gold shimmer through it.





As for the application, I was again really pleasantly surprised: the polish took a little more work than usual: 3 coats instead of 2 but the result is worth it and I absolutely love it. Is that a typical Spring shade and name? Definitely not, but who cares? I, for one, refuse to be dictated by seasons to choose the shade of polish I want to wear.







Patches? what patches? :) yay!




All in all, I’d say that my absolute favourites from the beautyuk spring collection are Frozen Kingdom and Voodoo (click here to see part 1 – Voodoo, Golden Chestnut and Aztec)




Which one is your favourite? xx


How much? £1.99
Where? Superdrug and http://www.beautyukcosmetics.com/ (Ask @beautyuktweets on twitter for your 20% discount voucher code, valid until 15 June)
Disclaimer: I bought these polishes myself.

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