Sparkled Beauty

Besides the Royal Textured Glitter nail paints, I also grabbed a shade from Barry M Gelly Hi Shine line on FTB Beauty (reg. $7.99, on sale $4.99). The name is intriguing, isn't it?

This is Key Lime, released in Barry M Summer 2013 collection, 2 coats. Claims to have a chip resistant formula with strong pigmentation and glossy gel-like finish without the need of a top coat, it has quite a bit to prove.

Pigmentation and application are good, it would only take a thick coat or two thinner coats to even out.

Can't say the same with wear, as Key Lime does not last any longer than other nail polish I wore, 2 days on average. Might be just me though, as I have heard of its great wear time with other bloggers.

The shine in nail polish is not important to me, as I use a top coat most of the time anyway to help with drying time.

All in all, I like that Key Lime is a green on the lighter side, with smooth application. It would be a great polish if it last longer on me.

The sun is finally back, and it's the long weekend ahead. I can't wait!

I finally bought 4 shades from Barry M Royal Textured Glitter nail paint collection (Fall/ Winter 2013), reg. $7.99, on sale $4.99 each on FTB Beauty.

I find the textures not overly gritty, easy to wear. The glitters sure make things pretty but note that they might linger on your cuticles on removal.

First shade is Lady, like sparkling snow, 2 coats on middle and pinky fingers. For accents, I did one coat each on top of Soft Coral from Yves Rocher's Summer 2015 nail polish collection on index and Finger Paints Hula Aruba! on the ring finger.

Next is Duchess, described as a nude texture with silver chunkier glitters, 2 coats, very sparkly. The accent nail has Majesty (bottle shot in the pic on the right), a light gold with darker gold glitters, as base.

Lastly, Princess, a pink with silver and gold glitters, 2 coats on the index finger, which looks like a light peach.

On the other 3 nails, I used Yves Rocher Perfect Light Pink underneath for a more opaque base. I think I prefer Princess on its own :)

My favorite is surprisingly Princess, a pink I can get along with, and Lady is the IT shade for winter or a great topper for any nail polish. Duchess and Majesty are neutral enough for work, if you can get away with glitters. I like all of them :)

It has been a while since I bought any Barry M products, as they are quite out of reach around here.

Happened to come across FTB Beauty sale on certain products from the brand, I grabbed a few eyeliner pens. They seem to be called "Intense eyeliner pens" on the web but the packaging simply says "eyeliner pens", please note.

From top - bottom: 2 Aqua Green, 4 Royal Blue, 5 Kingfisher Blue and 3 Dark Emerald, reg. $7.99, on sale for $3.99 each.

These eyeliners has got lots of raves on blogs but are no longer shown on Barry M website, I assume they are discontinued. Thought I should swatch them if you want to catch a few before they are gone.

Shade names are printed on the bar code stickers which peel off with the safety wrap, and only shade numbers printed on the products. I'll include both for your easy reference.

The colours inside coordinate quite well with the packaging, and the retractable format certainly makes things easier.

I am glad to confirm the waterproof/ smudge proof and long wearing claim on these liners. The swatches, once set, took some rubbing with makeup remover to come off. On the eyes, they last all the way till the end of the day!

The texture, however, varies among shades. 2 Aqua Green (far left) and 3 Dark Emerald (far right) go on smoothly with good colour intensity. On the lightly patchy side when swatched are 4 Royal Blue (I wish it were darker, as per the name) and 5 Kingfisher Blue (harder to build up).

However, they all go on the eyes quite well, not as soft as gel eyeliner pencils I have tried but not scratchy either.

I would recommend these eyeliners for the wear. You don't need all 4 blue liners but maybe one or two :)

Also check out Barry M Royal Textured Glitter nail polish I got in the same haul.

I'm back, well kinda. I spent yesterday in bed, was hit by a flu of some sort. Missed Zumba class, so bummed. I have a few FOTD pics that turned out ok, lighting wise, so I decided to post them.

I did a "Pretty in Pink" FOTD in the weekend, featuring Barry M products. I don't normally wear a full pink look for the eyes, but was surprised how well this turned out, and ended up liking it :)

All products used are Barry M, unless otherwise noted:
- Super Soft Eye Crayon #9 Matte Pink as base
- Dazzle Dust #3 Pink/ Gold in mid lids
- The olive shade from Annabelle 4Show eyeshadow in Pop-Eye in the outer V
- Lip Paint #147 Peachy Pink on top of Annabelle waterproof lip liner in Carnation
- Lip Gloss Wand #2 Toffee.

Separate product swatches follow near the end of the post, if you want to see how they look like.

A few comments about the products: the Dazzle Dust works perfectly on top of the eye crayon, adding a peach sheen on top of the pink. I didn't experience any fall out. The lip paint washed out my lips unless I used a lip liner as base, but the lip liner also made it a little more pink than it actually is.

Other products for the rest of the face:
- Marcelle Matte Finish make-up in Almond, mixed with Giorgio Armani Face Fabric Second Skin Nude Makeup in #4
- Vichy Dermablend Corrective foundation as concealer
- Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Mascara duo in black and purple (for brown eyes).

A close up on the eyes, hope you can see how pretty the Dazzle Dust is. I wouldn't vote for a full pink look unless it flashes peach under the light :) This look is subtle enough for work, and I would wear it again.

And here are some product pics and swatches, as mentioned above.

From L-R:
- Liquid Eyeliner #3 Electric Blue
- Super Soft Eye Crayon #9 Matte Pink
- Lip Gloss Wand #2 Toffee
- Lip Paint #147 Peachy Pink.

The liquid eyeliner was the only product I didn't use in this look. Didn't think a blue liner would go well with the pink shade on the eyes, so I skipped. The felt tip allows better application for an eyeliner snob like me, so I certainly dig it.

See how pretty of a pink the lip paint gives on my hand? I'd kill for naturally pink lips to rock this shade by itself. And I would kiss myself for it lol. I might try a peach lip liner next time, see if I can keep the lip paint closer to its natural shade rather than turning almost reddish like in the look above.

The lip gloss is quite nude, didn't really show up on my lips by itself but added a beautiful glossy shine on top of the lip paint. It smells a bit like vanilla, which I don't mind at all. Not very sticky either. I would love to get another one with a bit of colour to it to use it by itself. I'm lazy like that, lol.

The eye crayon is soft, didn't hurt the eyes during application. It gives a bit of a sticky base for the eyeshadow and Dazzle Dust to grab on, works perfectly. It is a bit on the matte side as the shade name suggests, but not flat out matte. Looks pretty on its own also, if you go for a quick, simple look.

The liner has no shimmer, almost matte as well. The colour is a vibrant blue, would look awesome on top of a smoky eye. Heard the bold eyeliner on top of neutral look is in trend this spring. Gotta try that out soon.

And lastly, this is how the Dazzle Dust in Pink/ Gold looks like by itself.

Bottom swatch is dry, I would do this if you only need a sheer wash of colour on the lids. Top swatch is wet, it looks a lot more vibrant here. I always use a damp brush for my pigments for this reason. Less fallout this way too.

All in all, Barry M makeup products work really well for me, just as well as their nail paints - I love Dusky Mauve.

If you are in Canada, don't forget to support their Facebook and Twitter to bring the brand to Canada. It'll benefit us all. Have a great day!

I guess by now, all of us have heard of Barry M and its wonderful products that are so hard to come by if you don't live in the UK. And the good news is there is something we Canadians can do about that.

Barry M is considering getting into Canada and we can help by showing support on their Facebook page. I know we all want them here, so see you there!

I was kindly sent a few goodies from the brand to try out. My package came with:
- Dazzle Dust #3 Pink/ Gold
- Nail Paints #313 Dusky Mauve and #296 Coral
- Lip Paint #147 Peachy Pink
- Liquid Eyeliner #3 Electric Blue
- Super Soft Eye Crayon #9 Matte Pink
- Lip Gloss Wand #2 Toffee.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to test out all these products, but you can guess, by the tittle by this post, which item I dived in to try first :)

I am so grateful to see Dusky Mauve in the package. This shade has always been in my mind the moment I saw swatches of it on nail blogs.

Being a dupe of a famous (expensive) shade - Chanel Paradoxal, if you don't know already, Dusky Mauve already has an advantage against other shades. Besides, as I mentioned before, purple has grown on me tremendously since I "devoted" my life to nail polish. And what wonderful about this shade is that I feel like I wear 2 different nail polish at once. The purple sheen only comes out under flash or direct sunlight, while the base colour is a pretty deep dark chocolate/ plum kinda shade. I love them both. This first pic is what Dusky Mauve looks like with a direct flash.

And this is it again, with indirect flash.

The base colour is what you can see most of the time on your nail and the purple sheen comes around once the light hits it right. Don't expect a duochrome here, as that's not Dusky Mauve is about.

Application was good, I used 2 coats for this mani. You can get away with one thick coat if you like the semi sheer look. I like its dark depth, so I put on an extra coat.

The brush is the typical polish brush, not wide or extremely stiff. The handle gives good leverage during application too.

I couldn't help but showing you one more pic. You can see the purple best in this shot. Are you sold on it yet? :)

I found it interesting that it is recommended on the bottle that you shake it before using, and use a base coat underneath. I always have a nail hardener as a base coat with my mani, but I don't normally shake the bottle, unless the polish has been separated inside, to avoid bubbles. I didn't shake Dusky Mauve, as I didn't see any reason to.

I'll be coming at you with more swatches/ reviews for the rest of the goodies, stay tuned. Let me know if you prefer to see any items up first. In the meantime, make sure you visit the facebook page I linked to at the top of the post.

I always love to look at blog sales, to find things that I can't normally get from here. And a few weeks ago, I found some good stuff to buy :-)

The first haul is from Keri at Glimmer Gloss Glow. I was extremely happy with what I got, as belive it or not, these items are all the first of their kinds that I own.

The nail polishes are OPI DS in Fantasy and Vintage, and Zoya Matte Velvet in Loredana. I don't have any OPI, not mentioning the Designer Series. Always love holo polishes, so I hasd to get them. I haven't had any matte colour from Zoya either.

I also got some Bare Minerals pressed shadows in Firelight, True Gold, Fire Opal (first row), Aurora, Trinity, and Firefly (second row). I already put them in test runs a few times. The colours are gorgeous, but they don't stay on the lids as long as my pigments do, unless I put extra work in prepping the lids.

Keri included some extras too:
- Stila Convertible Color (Lip & Cheek Cream) in Peony
- Barry M Shimmering Eye & Lip Crayon in #7 Golden Bronze
- Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in 1999.
My first Stila and Barry M too, and I was looking for a liner that is not black. So, perfect!

Another haul came from Sara at The Makeup Snob. I love the drugstore items that she had.

Here they are:
- Milani Wet/Dry shadows in Shamrock, Black Out, Girls Luv Pink, Leaf Green, and Blue Lagoon
- Jesse's Girl Baked shadow in Moonbeam
- Physician Formula Face Sculpting Trio in Tan Organics
- Revlon ColorStay Mineral Finishing Powder in Brighten
- L'Oreal Wear Infinite Pressed shadow quad in Petals of Promise and Bouquet of Strength (LE).

It's exciting to have new makeup to play with.

Visit my blog sale too, if you are looking for some MAC. I made a tab at the top of the page for it too, for easy browsing. Have a good day.

So... August is my birthday month, and I like to think it's fun to "celebrate" the whole month instead of just one day. So I'll make an effort to blog everyday this month, to be a good blogger and all, lol. Will see how that works out. Ok, back to the topic.

I bet you all have heard of (or purchased from) Illamasqua by now. There have been countless reviews on the web about products of this UK brand, and most were positive. I like the idea of a new brand that is comparable to MAC and that has a good marketing sense to promote their products to Sephora . With the newly opened Sephora in NY, the brand has made a grand entrance to the US market. Needless to say, makeup lovers are all over Illamasqua powder/ cream blushes ($23), pigments ($24), liquid metals ($24), nail polishes ($14), etc. The price range is not really within my reach, but I'm fine with not shopping this brand, just like I'm fine with not shopping MAC (I'm weird huh?). But it's still an exciment to the makeup world, as maybe it's time for MAC to share the throne with someone else.

Sleek is another makeup brand from the UK that I recently discovered. Its iDivine shadow palettes) have been a hit in the blogger world. I personally don't own any, as so far it is UK-exclusive, but judging by people's raves over them, I'm curious to try. The company is working on an online-shop website so that people outside UK could put in their orders, which is exciting. The price is about £4.49 which isn't bad. The website only features 3 palettes (Original, Chaos and Storm and the new Curious palette (in the picture) coming out this August, but I have read about a few more (Acid, Safari, Jewels, etc.). Lots of them are LE, but I really hope Sleek will have more than 4 different palettes online. I love shadows, especially with drugstore price, so this might be something I could afford. And it's from the UK, probably my first experience ever buying anything from there :-)

Barry M is another brand on the affordable side. Their most famous products are the Dazzle Dusts (£4.50) - in the picture, and nail paints (£2.95), but there are a lot more on the website. The good thing is they do ship internationally, but I can't tell what the shipping cost is like, as customers are asked to contact the company for a quote. With the exchange rate, the prices would come out a bit higher than I would normally pay for my mineral pigments or nail polishes. Also, the colours aren't LE, so I'm not in a rush to order.

Another brand which isn't popular outside UK yet: Collection 2000. I was intriqued seeing this brand popping up in a few blog posts. The Dazzle Me! Eye Dusts are said to be a "rip-off" of Barry M Dazzle Dusts, as they are only at half of the price in bigger pots with a few similar shades. And the quality is good, no complains. And then, there are the Hot Looks nail polishes (featured in the pic in the most famous shade "Dynasty"), around £1.80 each. They are said to be comparable to Barry M polishes as well. Are you confused with too many alternatives yet?

Unfortunately, there is no option to buy directly from the company website. They point visitors to boots.com or superdrug.com, and these 2 sites certainly do not deliver outside UK. So the only solution, if you want some Collection 2000, would be asking a UK friend for a shopping favour, or find a swap :-)

Lastly, beautyuk, another less popular brand. How gorgeous is this eyeshadow collection palette? I spent quite some time on the website looking at their products, liked the shades and the price point. They have single shadows (£1.99), quads (£3.49), lots of nail shades (£1.79) as well, but I am only interested in the palettes for now. 4 options to choose from: Pastels, Brights, Glitters and Neutrals, £3.49 each. Not available online, though, only at Superdrug. Just imagine if one day I go to the UK, my first stop would probably be Superdrug, lol.

At least I'm glad to have full access to Rimmel, Boots No7 and Gosh from drugstores around here. Well, Gosh is a Denmark brand, not UK, but you know what I mean - brands from that part of the world that isn't always accessible. If I miss a brand that you like from there, let me know and I'll add it to the post.

EDIT TO ADD:
B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful, a sister brand of Lush, is known for its vegan cosmetic line and its super cute packaging. Can you guess what's in that "jewelled hinged pot"? It's their Lip Cream in Bitten (£9.30), with a 24K gold leaf for look. Their Pressed Shadows are very cool too, a little to the expensive side (£8.30) though. Refills are available, so you can continue using their cute packaging one shadow at a time. Imagine you have a little army of these babies, they could be great decorations to your vanity and you don't have to worry about organizing them in a drawer.

The thing is they haven't been expanding very much, only have 3 stores in the UK so far. They for sure ship within UK, Japan and Austria but ask that customers from any other country contacting them for shipping availability. In short, I'm not sure they ship to Canada.

Eyeko is another fun brand to try out. Their manga-styled packaging is eye catching, and so is their "free shipping world wide on all orders" policy. Who doesn't love that?

Their most popular product is probably the 3-in-1 Cream (£6 or $9), and its tinted version too. It is said to work as a moisturizer, a highlighter and an eye cream at the same time. Most bloggers said they mostly use the cream for highlighting, as it adds a nice glow above your cheek bone and emphasizes your blush.

Their little bottles of nail polishe are cute too. Check out the swatches at Scrangie if you are interested.

Note: Make sure to click on the little $ sign on the side bar to see the price in $, as the default is in £ and the exchange rate they use does change over time.

Photo credit: illamasqua.com, sleekmakeup.com, barrym.com, collection2000.co.uk, beautyuk.org., bnevertoobusytobebeautiful.com and eyeko.com