Bloom: Sibella II

Here's a seriously wow! nail polish shade from Bloom's current designer collaboration with interior designer Sibella Court.  Sibella II is a metallic antique gold inspired by coins used generations ago, "...for trading gypsy wares."

If you like metallic polish I think you'll love this one.  The application was pretty good for me, minimally streaky and the finished result was pretty amazing.  Here she is in all her golden glory:

Full sun

Indoors natural light

Gotta say this shade of gold is pretty unique in my collection - Love it!

That's all for now.

Vita :)

By request: Bloom - Elise

This post was requested by the gorgeous Vintage Makeup.

To my eye Elise is a rich glass-flecked plum or is alternatively described on the Bloom website (here) as a sheer "jewel-like sparkling ruby".  It's a sumptuous shade by any description!  I applied two coats and I didn't find this polish sheer at all, rather I found it to have a luxurious depth of colour.  Sumptuous, luxurious...these words keep flowing when I look at this rich nail polish.  This is a totally winter-appropriate shade in my opinion. 

Full sun:

Shade:

Looks glamorous in the bottle too...

Until my next post.

Vita :)

REVIEW: Rimmel Glam'Eyes mono eyeshadow

You might remember I was a little underwhelmed by the performance of my Rimmel Glam'Eyes Urban Flower palette (see my earlier post here ), but I still held out hope for the mono eyeshadows I'd purchased at the same time.

Happily I can now share with you that these individual eyeshadows didn't disappoint.  I did a simple daytime eye with Gold Rush (golden sparkle) applied all over the lid and Backstage (taupe shimmer) in the outer crease and here's the result.

I applied these shadows directly to my lids without any primer so you can see the pigmentation and coverage of these are quite good for an inexpensive eyeshadow.  They applied smoothly, blended well and also stood up to a full day's wear without any creasing. 

The Glam'Eyes mono shadows retail at $10.95AUD each and there's a good range of colours available - 25 in all.  Australian readers can purchase these from Priceline, Kmart, Target, Big W, Coles supermarkets and selected pharmacies.

What's your favourite budget eyeshadow brand?

Until my next post.

Vita :)

Layering with OPI Teenage Dream

I thought Witchery's metallic lilac dusk would make a great base for OPI's Teenage Dream.  From the Katy Perry collection, Teenage Dream is loaded with various sized glitter particles, including larger round holo glitter suspended in a sheer pink base. 

So here I am feeding my glitter addiction again with these results:

Full sun

Lamplight

I liked how the lilac base toned down the glitter from being too pink and girly.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Vita :)

Top 10 Award!

 I received this award from Tara of  keeping up with me.  Tara is another lovely Australian beauty blogger,  whose reviews are informative and include lots of product pictures and swatches.  I've only discovered Tara's blog fairly recently but I now check in regularly.  Thanks for the award Tara!

As per the rules of accepting this award I need to list my 10 favourite beauty products.  I thought long and hard to come up with my current 'desert island' beauty needs so here they are in no particular order - I've included nail products in my list of course! 

Here's my personal Top 10:

1) Nail polish shade for fingers: China Glaze - For Audrey.  I was lemming this shade for such a long time and fell in love with it on first wear because it is such a cheerful shade on my fingers.  Also, the China Glaze formula is fabulously smooth and glossy on application and long wearing too.

 2) Nail polish shade for toes: OPI - It's All Greek to Me.  This is a great hot pink shimmer for summer toes.  It's been a standard pedicure shade of mine for several summers.  With a single coat of top coat this pedicure lasts up to a month.

3) Top Coat:  Sally Hansen Mega Shine.  This top coat dries quickly and gives a gorgeous glassy finish to my manicure.  I've been using OPI's RapiDry lately but I'm coming back to this old faithful favourite of mine.

4) Hand cream:  L'Occitane Shea Butter hand cream.  A little luxury for my hands, this is a very rich and moisturising formula, with a beautiful scent.  This keeps my hardworking hands soft and doesn't aggravate my eczema.

5) Body lotion:  Palmers Skin Smoothing Lotion with Alpha/Beta Hydroxy & Shea butter.  This moisturises my skin with its Vitamin E & Shea butter, and exfoliates with its Alpha/Beta Hydroxy acids to keep my keratosis (goose-flesh) under control.  It has a nice fresh fragrance too.

6) Facial sunscreen:  Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Daily Face Sunscreen Lotion (SPF 30).  This is a daily must for my face because I'm wary of sun damage.  The formula is oil-free so it's lovely and light on my skin.  I apply it over my moisturiser and it absorbs quickly and easily into my skin.  It doesn't irritate my skin and provides a smooth base for makeup and/or powder. 

7) Makeup remover:  L'Oreal Gentle Makeup Remover for Eyes & Lips.  This removes even waterproof makeup and doesn't cost big bucks.  I've been using this for years.

8) Mascara:  Lancome Definicils Mascara - Black.  I just love the brush on this mascara.  It gets in close to the roots to define my lashes easily.   An everyday staple for daytime wear, this mascara doesn't flake or run.

9) Eyeshadow:  MAC - Vex.  A gorgeous shimmery duocrome taupe, which can be worn with other accent shades or as a wash all over the lid.

10) Lipstick:  Tom Ford - True Coral.  Wearing this colour I honestly don't need to wear any other makeup!  Expensive but understandably so given the premium ingredients, and oh so creamy on my lips. 

I could (should) nominate 10 of you to take up this tag but as I nominated a number of bloggers just a week ago I don't want to pester anyone. Instead I nominate anyone who wants to take this up!   I'd love to read about your favourite products

That's all for now.

Vita :)

More Nabi polish: Blue Away

I felt like trying another of my Nabi polishes after yesterday's positive experience.

Blue Away is a Persian blue creme polish. As I'd thought, this nail polish was watery and sheer on application.  I applied two coats and you can clearly see my VNL in these pictures.  Another coat would have fixed this problem I think but I just wasn't bothered today...

Full sun - Oops, sorry about the lint on my nails!!

Shade

What do you think?  Is this polish a keeper?

Until my next post.

Vita :)

Nabi - Lavender

Hello again!

I decided to do a proper nail swatch of one of those smelly Nabi polishes I hauled a few weeks ago (click here to see).

I chose Lavender because it was the only polish of the three that didn't apply as a thin watery mess on the original tape swatch.  It was horribly 'plasticky' smelling on application as I expected but the coverage was pretty good and the polish dried fairly quickly. Thank goodness the smell faded fairly quickly too. The colour is a totally pretty musk pink which I would love to wear in spring or summer. 

Please forgive my horrible cuticles showing remnants of leftover dark polish - I cropped these pics within an inch of their lives but I couldn't hide them completely without the pictures looking totally silly...

Full sun:

Shade:

Flash:

 

If I'm feeling daring I'll try out the other Nabi polishes and see how they fare on my nails. 

Until my next post.

Vita :)

NOTD: Witchery - Dusk

My nails have been wearing my new Witchery Dusk polish to work this week.  As Witchery is primarily a fashion and accessories store, their cosmetics are very seasonal and the colours complement their clothing lines - Dusk is no exception.

Dusk is a semi matte lilac-tinged silver.  It's almost a metallic 'neutral' I think and coordinates well with the winter wardrobe of blacks, greys and plums.  The nail polish formula provides great coverage and I could have got away with wearing a single coat of colour although I did apply my usual two. This shade is safe for the office but still a little edgy.

All of these pictures were taken in late afternoon sunlight which warms the tone of the polish:

Until my next post.

Vita :)

Face of Australia: Flaming Lava + OPI: Black Shatter

Hello

This is a quickie post to share my black + red mani from last weekend.  I'd put my Black Shatter in the Helmer drawer and kind of forgotten about it - you know, out of sight out of mind - but in a random thought wondered how it would look over my fabulous Flaming Lava mani.

Here 'tis (apologies for tip wear and craggy cuticles!).  This was without top coat so you can see the textured effect.  Both photos were taken indoors under lamplight.

I thought this would make a good wintry colour combination.  What do you think?


That's all for now.

Vita :)

By request: My Bloom cosmetics collection

Vintage Makeup requested a post on my Bloom collection so I was happy to dive into my makeup case again... 

I've amassed quite a collection of Bloom products over time because I love the delicious edible scents using natural essential oils, the cute and quirky packaging, the interesting but still quite wearable colours and the high quality of the products at a mid-range price.  Also, the fact that this is a fashionable Australian brand doesn't hurt either!

Nail Polish 
Bloom has some more interesting nail polish colours in the core line and does some great collaborations with local fashion designers releasing limited edition collections to reflect the seasonal shades in fashion.

L-R: 

Lucille - pink glitter (swatched here)

Claudia - hot pink creme

Elise- glass flecked  purple

The Cassette Society I - denim blue creme (swatched here)

Sibella II - metallic khaki

Lip Gloss and Lip colour card
In my opinion the lip glosses are Bloom's star product and I've been buying these for years. They come in a great range of colours in varying opacity, feel moisturising, wear well and have a delicious vanilla and mandarin scent.  The lip colour card is the size of a credit card and lives in my makeup bag for emergencies.

L-R:
Sweet Pea - opaque dusty pink nude
 Honey Bunch - shimmery brick brown
Tint - sheer berry red (swatched & reviewed here)
Dazzle - sheer sparkly coral
Lip colour card - Colour Chameleon


Lip Tint & Lipliner
I confess I've only just tried the lip tint.  This sheer lip colour/balm with SPF8, contains beeswax, jojoba oil, avocado oil, evening primrose oil, with Vanilla and Mandarin essential oils so it has the same edible scent as the lip gloss.  I love the invisible lip liner as it locks my lipstick in place but doesn't affect the lipstick colour at all.  See link below the picture for the full review. 

L-R:
Invisible lip liner (see review here )
Lip Tint - Tint (I used this immediately after I took the photo!)

Eye Shadow, Eye Base & Sheer Colour Cream
The eye shadow is soft, well pigmented and resistant to creasing.  For my previous reviews of the eye base see here  and sheer colour cream see here .

L-R:
Eye shadow - Platinum
Eye Base
Sheer Colour Cream - Tint

It was fun putting this post together as it made me rediscover - and better still use - a few of these items as soon as I'd pulled them out.  It's always worth revisiting your stash because you never know what you might find and fall in love again with!

Leave a comment and let me know if you want to see swatches of any particular item and I'll be happy to do another post or two.

Vita:)

Blog Award: Stylish Blogger

 

I was nominated for this award a few weeks ago...

Thanks to the lovely Melyssa!

Now I have to share 7 more facts about me and nominate another 7 wonderful bloggers:

1. I'm left-handed - that's why I usually photograph my right hand for swatches :)
2. I've always dreamed of being a writer
3. I like to sing but NEVER in front of anyone else
4. I used to be a tomboy when I was a child - making up for it now!
5. I prefer the beach to the mountains
6. I hate wearing yellow because it clashes with my pale skin
7. I used to be painfully shy when I was in school

The 7 blogs I nominate are (in no particular order but just because I genuinely love and appreciate them):

Vintage Makeup 

Dainty darling digits

 keeping up with me

ANOTHER bottle of polish

makeup and macaroons

Josie's nails

hauteandstylish

 Until my next post


Vita :)