Is Topshop's Zodiac a dupe for Chanel Graphite?

I hope you're all having a happy weekend!  Mine's almost over...

I was wearing Topshop's Zodiac on my nails all last week and I couldn't stop admiring my nails.  Zodiac is from Topshop's limited Sisters Of The New Moon collection.  It's  peculiarly described as black although this stunning gold flecked pewter foil polish is anything but that.  It's pretty well amazing and my camera kept freaking out, having trouble focusing on this complex sparkly polish.  With a base and top coat I had no chips or tip wear all week either, which suited me fine because I wasn't in a hurry to remove this beauty.

Full sun

 

Shade

Indoors

Now, I went past the Chanel counter late last week and picked up the tester bottle of Graphite to compare to my Zodiac manicure.  Now to my eye, my Zodiac nails were an exact match to Graphite in the bottle!  It makes this little bargain all the sweeter because I bought Zodiac for $12.95AUD which is a heck of lot less than around $39AUD I'd have to pay for a bottle of Chanel.

So - Do you think this is a dupe for Graphite?

*EDIT* - For a direct comparison click on Kristy of The Polish Haven's post here.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Vita :)

Topshop NOTD: Gypsy Night

 Happy Monday everyone - let's get onto the first of my Topshop NOTD's!

I felt Topshop's Gypsy Night polish had "date night" written all over it when I saw it, so of course I wore it out to dinner last Saturday night.  This black glitter polish has a jelly-like translucency to show the multi-coloured glitter to its full effect but worn on its own could look a bit murky like muddy water on the nail.  I applied a single coat of Revlon's Black Lingerie as the base to get the black opacity I wanted and then applied two coats of GN.  The glitter looks multi-tonal in the bottle but the warm copper glitter really dominated the look on the nail.  I prefer more of a rainbow but it still has a bit of oomph.

It was another sunless day so I used lamplight to pick up the sparkle:

Lamplight

Outdoors daylight

Thanks for looking as always. That's it for tonight.

Vita :)

A tiny Topshop haul

Hi everyone!

It takes a brave forty-something woman to enter into and navigate the wilds of Topshop without being accompanied by an attractive, fashion conscious twenty-something for protection.  And, you know, I've done it twice now.   The first time was purely a reconnaissance mission to find out what was there - the second time a few weeks ago I was there to BUY! 

This little post is to share the trophies of my second mission (Enough of the silliness, OK?).  Topshop have a veritable rainbow of nail polish colours so I knew I was going to choose at least one of those and I also wanted to see what else would catch my eye in the rest of the makeup line.  Considering the inexpensive prices I walked away with a reasonably small haul of three items:  two bottles of nail polish and a cream blush.
 

Clockwise from top:

Cream blush (Prime Time)

Nail polish (Zodiac & Gypsy Night)

I surprised myself by ignoring all the rainbow brights and pastel polishes, and zoned in on the metallic and darker hues.  The seasonal influence of winter was clearly at play when it came to my fingertips!

Zodiac -  is a limited edition shade from Topshop's Sisters Of The New Moon collection and the Topshop website describes it as black.  It's actually a silvery/pewter metallic which reminds me a little of Chanel's iconic Graphite.  I can't see any black undertones in it at all!

Gypsy Night - is a multi-coloured glitter mix suspended in a jelly black base.  I bought this with plans of wearing it over an opaque black creme polish for an after-dark mani. 

Now I wasn't very rapt in the quality of the eyeshadows when I swatched them in the store but I was pretty impressed by the feel and pigmentation of the cream blush.  I chose Prime Time for its vivid candy pink just because it looked like a cheerful colour.  According to Topshop this is a cream to powder blush fomulation which "melts into the skin, giving a natural luminous, radiant finish".  I can tell you it does feel lovely and buttery when you swipe it with your fingertips.  The pigmentation is very rich so  it's a case of dotting the smallest amount before blending into the cheeks.

Now for the swatches. I've done these quite heavily and this is photographed in full sunlight.

 Top to bottom:

Prime Time

Gypsy Night

Zodiac

 I've already worn the nail polish so I'll post full manicures of these shades soon.

That's all for now.

Vita :)

Browsing in Topshop (Picture post)

A few weekends ago I finally had the chance to check out Topshop which opened its first Australian store in Melbourne late last year.  I''m probably a bit too *ahem* old for the fashion but beauty products don't discriminate quite as much - well that's what I tell myself!!  Here are some snaps I took on my phone. 

A nice little mix of bright and neutral eyeshadows.

  (I didn't have time to swatch because we were passing through on our way from the movies to dinner!)

My first encounter with the seasonal nail polish line.  These pics aren't too great but you can probably just make out these polishes are metallic, and there are some crackle polishes there too.  Also, some nail wrap stickers on the left...

The full range of polish colours from pastels to brights.  Snapped from the left...

...and from the right!  There were quite a few blues that took my eye :)

I'm ready for my close-up!

 I look forward to heading back after my no-buy ends!  Melbourne girls - have you checked out the Topshop store yet?

Until next time.

Vita :)

Topshop makeup (giveaway haul)

It was just over a month ago I was lucky enough to win a Topshop makeup giveaway from the lovely Rose of The Beauty of Red Roses.   Rose is another Australian beauty blogger who appreciates the pretty things so do check out her blog!

It's taken me a little while but I finally had the time to take some product pics and swatches...

Duo Eyeshadow - Thunder

I actually had a choice between Thunder and another 'safer' colour palette so I selected this one because it's outside my comfort zone.  The deep teal green and mauve/grey look a bit scary in the palette but they're actually quite sheer when applied dry to the skin.  I've yet to do a makeup look with this so I can't comment on the wear, creasing etc.   I've done a bit of Google hunting and this duo is a limited edition from the 2010 Heavy Duty collection.

Liners - Steely & Facet

These are the first gel eyeliners I've owned.  Steely is a very wearable matte grey/blue, while Facet is an interesting rose red.  My instinct is to use Facet as a lipliner but I'll try and dream something up that doesn't make me look like I've got an eye infection!  Again, I haven't subjected these to the wear test yet but they're supposed to be, "long-wearing, water-resistant precision..." products.  I think these are also limited edition but I can only guess from the identical packaging they're from the same Heavy Duty collection as the eyeshadow.  My initial swatching shows these liners aren't as sharply defined as I'd expect:

Dry swatched in daylight on the back of my hand.
  I didn't use primer so I could get a true indication of the pigment of these shades:

Well, hello, I then read on the back of the box the eyeshadow can also be applied wet.

Here's a quick reswatch and comparison.  Much more intense, sparkly, interesting (and

outside my comfort zone - yay!):

From my first impressions I'm a bit dubious about the gel liners but I'm excited about the eyeshadow and look forward to some experimenting.  

Topshop finally opens its first Australian store in Melbourne's Jam Factory on Thursday, 8th December (only a few days away)!

That's all for now.

Vita :)