Empties Galore Part 2: Makeup I've Used Up!

Alright, you've seen my skincare empties in the previous post, and now, we're moving on to the makeup items that I've used up in the past 6 months or so! (There's also a skincare item that I forgot about for the previous post - oops - but otherwise, all the other items are makeup!) I'm pretty excited to talk about some of the items here, because some of these items are really my makeup staples, and although I don't often talk about them on my blog, they are some of the day-to-day backbone-of-my-routine type products.

Makeup and skincare empties that I can finally say I've used up in 2015!

On reflection, it's pretty appropriate that this post is going live on the last day of the year, because it really has that "out with the old, in with the new" vibe. And while I'm excited for the new products that I will be buying this upcoming year, it's also weirdly satisfying to see that I managed to use up some of my older products, too.

All the skincare and makeup empties I've accumulated over the past half a year or so

So, without further ado, let's get started!

Glitter Sandwich: A Happy Birthday manicure!

Remember the time I first got Lippmann's Happy Birthday nail polish? I layered it over white and I was so excited because it worked glitter magic over a plain ol' white.

This time, I tried it out again, in the form of a glitter sandwich! I thought the colorful glitter would make it a perfect candidate. Plus, I've been wanting to do a glitter sandwich for ages, so I thought - now's the time!



I used one coat of GOSH Snow, a sheer white jelly, as a base. Then I layered Lippmann Happy Birthday over. I used one coat, but had to dab a little to get the glitter coverage to be more even, and followed up with another cost of GOSH Snow.



Maybe I'm a layering idiot, but this kinda underwhelmed me. Perhaps it's because the glitter fiend in me is protesting, "You have an awesome blingy glitter, why are you covering it up with another cost of colour? You're hindering it's blingy-ness! That's evil! Evil!" But hey, sometimes you gotta try new things.



I guess, despite my initial doubt, this mani is growing on me. I feel like I need to play around with the colours in my stash a bit more to find more colour combinations to play around with, so expect to see more glitter sandwiches soon!



(Lippmann product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Holographic Zebra Stripes Nail Art with GOSH Holographic

One of my favourite polishes of all time has to be GOSH Holographic. This was one of the first holographic polishes I ever got (before OPI had their DS line and even before China Glaze had their holos, I think), and it's still, in my opinion, anyway, one of the best. The last time I used this little baby was waaay back in 2009, where I raved about how GOSH Holographic was so awesome, so I thought I'd bring this little baby out for a spin!

Three years down the road, I'm still loving this polish! GOSH Holographic is a classic silver linear holo, and it's now discontinued (although rumour is that GOSH may be bringing it out again this Summer - I don't know, it's just a rumour I heard, and dates I've seen range from June to August). I was lucky to get mine from a Superdrug before it was discontinued, so I didn't have to pay ripoff eBay prices. In my last post I featured GOSH Holographic all by itself, so this time I decided to get fancy and do some konading.

I used Wet n Wild Black for the black zebra stripes, and the konad plate was M57 (although the M57 plate is so famous I bet some of you guys can recognize the plate from the pattern). For some reason, though, I really couldn't get the right lighting to take the photos (no direct sunlight), so I ended up having to make do with crappy indoor lighting. Sorry folks. My original GOSH Holographic post probably has better pictures, I'm ashamed to admit.



Anyway, GOSH Holographic can be tricky to apply, but I generally use 2 - 3 coats for this, letting each layer (base coat as well as each individual layer of polish) dry fully before applying the next layer. I think this is key to not having GOSH Holographic clump up on your fingernails. I've read blog reviews expressing lots of frustration at the lipstick, and I feel a lot of the frustration is due to not letting each coat dry fully. My old GOSH Holographic post also went into some detail on how to apply this pollish, so I won't belabour the details, but suffice it to say - let each coat dry fully before applying the next coat, and you'll get a great holographic finish. Some bloggers advocating using the GOSH base coat to make this apply better, but for me, either way, it doesn't make a difference, as other base coats work well as long as they're left to dry fully before applying the polish.



Like all holos, this chipped on me fast - think the next 1-2 days. Holos never last on me, which is a pity, because I really love them. Anyway, this is a gorgeous little colour that is just so worth it. I know my photos suck, but I hope you get the idea of the sheer awesomeness of this polish. I really hope GOSH brings this colour out again, so more of us can have it!

GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Swatches

GOSH is one of my favourite UK drugstore brands, and so far, I've pretty much liked everything I tried from them, which to this point includes their nail polishes, lipsticks, eyeliners, eyeshadows, and probably a few more items that have slipped my mind. They're a tad more expensive than some of their competitors, but I do feel that the quality is worth the little bit extra.

I actually found these swatches of the GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow sitting around in my hard drive, and I couldn't believe I hadn't posted them yet! I think these swatches have been lying around for a year, and I had just forgotten about them. Come to think of it, I really need to start looking through my photos and seeing what else I haven't posted yet...there's probably more where that came from.

L - R: 10 Gold, 11 Silver, 16 Copper, 13 Beige, 14 Grey Brown, 17 Purple, 12 Aqua, 15 Bottle Green

10 Gold is a shimmery yellow gold.
11 Silver is a white-silver. More white than silver, if you ask me.
16 Copper is a orangey coppery shade. Also has shimmer.
13 Beige is a shimmery light beige. This is slightly sheerer than some of the other shades.
14 Grey Brown is OMG TAUPE OMG TAUPE! *Calms down* Okay, it's a shimmery brownish-grey taupe. Unlike some other taupes, which also pull purple, this one doesn't have any purple in it. Very pretty, very neutral, and so work appropriate, too. Oh, by the way, the photo is mislabelled - the proper name is Grey Brown, not Brown Grey. D'oh!
17 Purple is a violet purple. This one has less shimmer than the rest - I can't remember if it's matte or not.
12 Aqua is a shimmery light sky blue shade.
15 Bottle Green is very pretty, too. It's an emerald green with glitter.

These are powder eyeshadows that come in a little dome, like the baked mineralized eyeshadows. They're meant to be used both dry as well as wet for more intensity. These swatches are all on dry skin. My favourites are Grey Brown (I've previously swatched Grey Brown together with other taupes) , as well as Bottle Green.

Dupe Search: Taupe Eyeshadow Comparison Swatches!

Woohoo! Don't you love it when I ransack my stash and do comparison swatches? What's more, these are swatches of taupes, glorious taupes! Now to be fair, these are just some of my taupes, definitely not all of them. It started when I reviewed the new Edward Bess eyeshadow single in Storm, and I thought - don't I already have these colours? So I looked through my stash, and dug out the colours that I thought would be most similar to Storm. So in other words, what you're looking at is just those of my taupe eyeshadows that I thought might have some semblance to Storm.



Here are the shades we're comparing today, in order:

1: NARS Belissima II (darker shade)
2: L'Orea HIP Electrified I (lighter shade)
3: MEMEME Beautifully You Eyeshadow Cafe 7
4: First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey
5: Bourjois Stretch Eyeshadow Brun Nylon 09
6: GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Grey Brown 7
7: Edward Bess Storm 07
8: Stila Cloud

Isn't it funny how many taupe eyeshadows that are numbered are given the number 7? And on another note, gosh, it's embarrassing how many taupe eyeshadows I've bought over the years of being a makeup fanatic. Anyway, here are swatches of all of them, in that order, with my thoughts on each of them below. By the way, the eyesahdow labelled L'Oreal Sassy is wrong. The duo is actually Electrified:



NARS Belissima II (darker shade) is the only true matte in the bunch, as the rest all have some sort of shimmer. This is a cool-toned grey-brown with hints of purple. Texture is decent, pigmentation is sheer but buildable.

L'Orea HIP Electrified I (lighter shade) is absolutely rockin'! Don't be fooled by the cheap plastic packaging or the drugstore brand - this is awesome taupe goodness. As you can see, it just stands out among my swatches. Its texture and pigmentation are also excellent, and it has a frosty finish that, depending on your preference, can be a good or a bad thing. I've actually reviewed the Electrified duo before and have even previously compared Electrified to a much more expensive Bobbi Brown Heather Mauve eyeshadow.

MEMEME Beautifully You Eyeshadow Cafe 7 is also another cheapy-but-goody. This is cheap, but good, and I really need to get around to reviewing this sometime. It's a brown-based taupe, and thus would be very wearable for warm-toned girls who find a lot of taupes pull purple or greyish on them. It also has slight shimmer, that for some reason isn't showing up in the photo.

First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey is another underrated gorgeous colour. Like Edward Bess's Storm and MEMEME's Cafe, it's a light brown-based taupe, only that it has more shimmer than either. Pigmentation and texture are also pretty good. An EOTD (Eye of the Day) with Storm Grey is available if you'd like to see more of this pretty little thing.

Bourjois Stretch Eyeshadow Brun Nylon 09 is not as similar to Edward Bess's Storm as I initially thought it would be. For one, it's less brown-beige-y and slightly more purple and grey on. They did look quite similar in the pan, however. Texture is good, and pigmentation is sheer but buildable. I've previously swatched Bourjois Brun Nylon before, and also once did an FOTD with it. My, that FOTD was just a year and a half ago, but I think I actually looked visibly younger then. And my photography skills back then sucked.

GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Grey Brown 7 is one of those I keep meaning to review, but never get around to it. No fault of the shadow, though. This one has the texture of baked eyeshadows (it comes in a round, hard dome), and pigmentation is sheer but buildable. It leans more grey than most of the other taupes featured here, and also has some sparkles in the eyeshadow.

Edward Bess Ultra Luminous Eyeshadow Storm 7 is a brown-based taupe. Honestly, compared to the rest of the taupes on my arm, it looks a little blah. But since it leans brown, it's less likely to pull purple or grey on warm-toned girls. Pigmentation was sheer, and not the best, but still buildable. Texture was also decent. I'm not going to say too much about this since I just reviewed it in the last post.

Stila Cloud is a taupe that pulls purple and grey, and has a frosty finish that makes it look silver, like how the L'Oreal Electrified taupe looks silver due to the frost finish. I actually should feature this sometime, I have had this eyeshadow since I first became a makeup junkie years ago and it's still with me...Brings back all the nostalgic times when Stila eyeshadows came in little paper pots, and when collecting Stila eyeshadows was the "in" thing of the day. Anyway, this one is cooler-toned that some of the other taupes, and is more purply-grey than some of the other more brown-based ones. It also has frosty shimmer, which some may like and some may not.

So here you go, eight of my lighter-coloured taupes! As a taupe junkie, I love all of these shades and I think they are all different enough to own all, although I'm sure not everyone would agree with me. They're almost like my babies! I hope this post was useful for some of you who wanted a comparison between some taupe eyeshadows.

GOSH Extreme Art Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner Swatches Part 1

GOSH is one of the most underrated UK drugstore brands ever. Sleek and Barry M get more coverage (probably because they seem to engage in PR activities more), but I personally am more drawn to GOSH's colour selection and quality. Everything I've tried from GOSH, I've liked, and I can't say the same about Barry M or Sleek. And I've tried quite a bit from GOSH - so far, I've tried and liked the nail polishes (I still remember my first love, GOSH Holographic), lipsticks, eyeshadows, eyeliners, and lipglosses.

The Extreme Art Waterproof eyeliners are, indeed, waterproof. In fact, once you let these "set" for awhile, they seriously DON'T FREAKING BUDGE. These are probably the most long-lasting eyeliners I've come across, and thus excellent value for the price. I've worn these on a night out, and despite sweat and rubbing, they were still there at the end of the night. What's more, they come in such a wide range of colours - there's going to be a few you'll need to pick up.



L-R: Black 07, Metallic Grey 25, Dark Purple 01, Light Blue 08, Middle Blue 09, Cobalt Blue 10, Green 12, Light Green 05, Olive Green 06, Orange 03, Gold 13, Metallic Brown 24

Black 07 is jet inky black. It's one of the few colours that's not metallic or shimmery in finish.

Metallic Grey 25 is a gunmetal metallic grey with silver shimmer bits. Quite pretty, methinks.

Dark Purple 01 is one of my favourites! It's like Urban Decay's Rockstar, only in liquid form (which makes it last longer, on me at least), and it also has this metallic sheen to it.

Light Blue 08, Middle Blue 09 and Cobalt Blue 10 - GOSH obviously loves the fans of blue eyeliner because they have made three shades for them! They're all similar, but as you can see in the swatches they're not all alike. Light Blue 08 is a metallic sky blue, Middle Blue 09 is a darker blue (but it's still quite light), and Cobalt Blue 10 isn't quite my idea of cobalt blue at all, but it's a pretty metallic blue nonetheless. To me these are all variations on sky blue.

Green 12 is a straight up green. Not much to say here. Neither too blue nor too yellow.

Light Green 05 is not only lighter than Green 12, but it's also more yellow in undertone, and more metallic.

Olive Green 06 is another of my favourites! I love olive greens though, so I'm totally biased. But I love this, it's a very wearable neutral that still adds some colour to your eye look. It also has specks of silver shimmer in it.

Orange 03 is a light yellowy orange, while Gold 13 looks more like Orange Part Two to me...it doesn't look gold to my eye, but it does look like an ambery-orange.

Metallic Brown 24 is just that - metallic brown with just a hint of red. A very safe work option.

GOSH Extreme Art Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner Swatches Part 2

GOSH is usually one of those brands associated with boring neutrals, instead of brights and unusual colours. But there are surprises in that line, too. Like their Extreme Art eyeliners - they actually have glitter shades in there, and five of them, and some of them are actually pretty unique and very multi-dimensional. For a drugstore brand, the colour selection of glitter shades is pretty impressive. I only wish the glitter in these were denser, because for some of these shades, you'll need to go over the line a couple of times to achieve full opacity.



L-R: Multi Glitter Top Coat 18, Silver Glitter 19, Silver 14, Light Purple 17, Purple Glitter 26, Aqua 11, Aqua Glitter 21, Green Gold Glitter 22, Dragon Green 23, Light Yellow 04, Copper 02

Multi Glitter Top Coat 18 is pretty cool. It's a clear base with glitter bits that sparkle gold? silver? something pretty cool. I only wish the glitter was denser in this one, but I guess it's a top coat, right?

Silver Glitter 19 is just that - silver glitter in a clear base. Very nice if you like that sort of thing.

Silver 14 is a metallic platinum shade of silver. If you wanted a metallic silver, but didn't like Silver Glitter, this might do the trick instead.

Light Purple 17 is a gorgeous light lilac purple shade. Very pretty and girly.

Purple Glitter 26 - OMG this is totally awesome. Definitely my favourite of the bunch, and I don't even like glitter! For one, the glitter in this one is slightly finer than some of the other colours, and it's also denser. And - it has holographic glitter! This has got to be the only eyeliner I know of with holographic glitter! It's absolutely gorgeous, and my swatch did not do this one justice at all. There are two types of glitter in this one - a purple/silver metallic glitter, and holographic glitter. The net result combines to give a very multi-dimensional shade that looks purple in some lights, silver in others, and still black in yet other lights, AND also has holographic glitter to boot. Very very cool. Awhile back there was a shade of nail polish by OPI called Mad As A Hatter that was wildly popular, and this is the eyeliner equivalent of that nail polish.

Aqua 11 is a bright and pretty Aqua blue. Very glowy.

Aqua Glitter 21 doesn't look aqua in my swatch, but it's aqua/silver/gold in real life. The glitter bits shift colours with the light, and I think there's more than one colour of glitter in there. Very multi-dimensional, and even though I don't like glitter I can appreciate that.

Green Gold Glitter 22 is a metallic glitter that looks simultaneously green and gold. I kind of like it. Like Aqua Glitter, I think there's more than one colour of glitter inside. I think some of the glitter is the same in both colours though, which is why they look similar.

Dragon Green 23 is a grassy green shade that is darker than Light Green (which was swatched in the previous post). It has a metallic gold flash that makes it interesting.

Light Yellow 04 is a pale banana yellow with a metallic finish.

Copper 02 is a metallic copper shade, and this does look like copper to me. A little boring, maybe, but still quite pretty.

GOSH Eyeshadow Quartet Swatches: Vanity Pastels and Modest Liberty

While passing by Superdrug (I swear I wasn't getting makeup! :P ) I noticed that GOSH had put out two new eyeshadow palettes, called Eyeshadow Quartets. They aren't the Eyeshadow Quattros in round packaging. These ones had four small round eyeshadow pans in a square casing, and they actually looked similar to the Stila Montmartre and Marrakesh quads that were put out awhile back.

These quartets come in two shades - one consists of pastels, called Vanity Pastels, and the other one (which I actually like a lot) is called Modesthttp://www.blogger.com/home?pli=1 Liberty, and is a set of neutrals - one of which is a TAUPE! And if you are a taupe lover like me, this will make you happy. *Does a taupe dance*

Here is Modest Liberty. I'm starting of with this because THERE IS A TAUPE. I've even thoughtfully swatched a similar GOSH Single Eyeshadow, 14 Grey Brown, next to it, because I know you'll be wondering if it's a dupe for the single eyeshadow:



L - R: 14 Grey Brown, Modest Liberty

I really love this one, it's something I'll absolutely wear. It consists of a taupe (hellooo taupe!), a light pink, a light yellow, and a gunmetal grey. All the shadows are shimmery, but not overly so, and I think the shimmer is pretty much wearable. Pigmentation on this one started off a tad sheer but was easily buildable, as evidenced by the swatches.

And unfortunately, Grey Brown isn't a dupe for the taupe in Modest Liberty. It's more purple and brown based, whereas the taupe in Modest Liberty is more grey. Also, the taupe in Modest Liberty is a shade lighter, and doesn't have any of the sparkle of Grey Brown. Personally, I prefer Grey Brown, but I think the Modest Liberty quad is really pretty too.

Here's Vanity Pastels:



This one has a pastel blue-green, a pastel lilac purple, a pastel pink, and a pastel off-white vanilla colour.

As you can tell from my lack of enthusiam, this one I found a little more meh. Not because I hate pastels, but because compared to Modest Liberty, Vanity Pastels is weaker in pigmentation. I mean, it's not terrible, but it's not as great as the other quad. And it doesn't have a taupe.

Quality-wise, these are different from the usual GOSH Single Eyeshadows, which are domed and slightly harder in texture. This one is more like the GOSH Trios and Quattros, with a similar soft texture and medium but buildable pigmentation. If you liked those, these quartets would worth trying as well. The only thing is that compared to the relatively large size of the Quattros, these are a little tinier in size.

Are They Dupes? GOSH Bourgogne vs MAC Sweetie Lipsticks

In my last post swatching the GOSH lipsticks HERE, I mentioned that GOSH Bourgogne 66 was a more punched-up, pigmented version of MAC Sweetie. I thought they were similar because they were both plummy pinks with shimmer, so here are actual lip swatches for comparison!

Now that I actually swatched both of them side-by-side, I realized that while they might both be in the same plummy-pink-with-shimmer category, in terms of intensity these are two very different creatures. GOSH Bourgogne is a helluva lot more pigmented and intense than MAC Sweetie, so if you're looking for a pigmented lipstick, the GOSH is the obvious winner.

Here's a swatch of my bare lips for comparison:



Here's a swatch of MAC Sweetie. I love this lipstick:



I really like MAC Sweetie, it's a very work-appropriate colour, and it's a very sweet-looking pinky-plum with silver shimmer, and it's a slightly cool-toned colour. It's shimmery without being frosty, and it's not too sheer although it isn't totally opaque. This is one of the no-brainer shades I like to use when I can't think of anything else.

Here's a swatch of GOSH Bourgogne:



GOSH Bourgogne is like MAC Sweetie, but really revved up. It's also a slightly cool-toned pinky-plum, but really pigmeneted, to the point where it's a very bright colour. It also has a blue flash duochrome going on, which makes it really cool. I don't know if you can see the blue flash on the lips, but it's more obvious in the tube. The blue duochrome is more diminished once applied on the lips, so the net effect is shimmer that just ever-so-slightly flashes blue. It's not noticeable once it's on the lips, but if you look at the lipstick in the tube, its a lot more obvious.

Formula-wise, I found the two lipsticks to be similar. On me, both of them were a little on the slightly dry side, although the GOSH was slightly more dry than the MAC. I'm one of those weird people who find all MAC lipsticks drying (even the Lustres and Cremesheens), but if you aren't one of those, then you might find the MAC substiantially less drying.

So between the two, which one should you pick? Once again, it depends on a number of factors. If you love bright, pigmented lipsticks, then GOSH Bourgogne is definitely the one to pick. But if you want something less flashy and more work appropriate, or if you want a lipstick that's more sheer, then MAC Sweetie is a better choice for you. And if you want the less drying of the two, then MAC Sweetie is probably your best bet.

GOSH Lipsticks Swatches: Part 2

Today, we're doing part 2 of our series of GOSH lipstick swatches, after getting interrupted by a reader's request swatch! (Don't you just love my non-existent organizational ability?) Anyway, I really like these lipsticks very much, they're well-pigmented (most of them, anyway), and relatively emollient. Like a lot of strongly pigmented lipsticks, they're a little drier than my ideal, but I think they're still pretty awesome nevertheless. Without further ado, here are the swatches!



L-R: Nougat 122, Mulberry 127, Mocha 128, Amethyst 131, Darling 134, Hot n' Sweet 139

Nougat 122 has been swatched before, but I thought I'd just put it beside the rest of the swatches for comparison purposes.

Mulberry 127 is a bright deep red, very pretty and wearable (as far as red lipstick goes anyway), and this one is a nice neutral red.

Mocha 128 is a brown colour with a hint of pink and tan. This is on the warm side.

Amethyst 131 is a frostly lilac. This is a little bit odd, because most lipsticks I've seen up to this point are bright neon type of lilacs, but this is much more muted and grey. I'm not sure how it would look on a lip, the grey tones in this look a little bit odd.

Darling 134 is a nude, and is one of the more acclaimed shades - everyone seems to be raving about this one. This is a nude with pinky tones to it, and it's very pretty. I've heard that it's a dupe for MAC's Hue lipstick (also another acclaimed nude) but I've never owned Hue so I wouldn't know.

Hot n' Sweet 139 is also another colour I really love very much. It's a jewel-toned red that's cooler-toned than Mulberry 127, and has more purple to it. This one will be the perfect standout red lipstick for cool-toned girls, while warmer-toned girls might want to go for Mulberry 127 instead.

Alright, that's it for the GOSH Lipstick swatches!

GOSH Lipstick Swatches: Part 1

GOSH is fast becoming one of my favourite drugstore brands in the UK, and in particular I really love their nail polishes, lipsticks and eyeliners. They aren't the cheapst drugstore brand around, but they have a really good range of colours, and some kickass products. Today, I bring you part 1 of 2 of the GOSH lipstick swatches. While these aren't as pigmented as the Barry M Lip Paints, they're definitely not sheer, and they're still pretty pigmented. They also smell of vanilla and crayons mixed together - they smell sort of, but not quite, similar to a MAC lipstick.

Here are the first of the swatches:



43 Tropical Pink, 60 Lambada, 66 Bourgogne, 77 Romantic, 86 Kitsch, 122 Nougat

43 Tropical Pink is a bright, neon, lavender pink. This is NEON okay, although my swatch doesn't quite show it (stupid camera).

60 Lambada is also a bright neon tomato red, and if you wore either Tropical Pink or Lambada down the road, you're definitey going to be stopping traffic.
Bourgogne is a very pretty pinky-plummy colour, and it's like a much more pigmented and brighter version of MAC Sweetie - I likey! This is definitely one of my favourites. I've no idea what Bourgogne is, but someone told me it's a geographical place. Hmm.

77 Romantic is a pinky-brown with a hint of peach, which makes it warm-leaning.

86 Kitsch is also pinky-brown, but without the peach, so it's not as warm, and more neutral. This is also one of my favourites, it's a universal workhorse colour like MAC's Twig.

122 Nougat is a very browned pink, and not as pink as Kitsch, or as peach as Romantic.

Next time, I'll be posting the rest of the GOSH Lipstick Swatches, so keep a look out :)

Orly Foil FX Rage and GOSH FrouFrou: Are They Dupes?

So the Orly Foil FX Collection, launched a couple of months back, has met with general aplomb from bloggers and nail polish lovers alike, being right on trend with its metallic take on golds, silvers and pinks. But of course, for us who aren't in the US, Orlys (is it me, or is it just that everytime I see the brand Orly I think - O RLY?!) are hard to come by, and when they are, they aren't cheap either. I know, doesn't it just make you want to cry? But I was lucky. One of my friends agreed to buy it for me and mail it here, so I have both Rage and Shine (I'm still trying to get my hands on Luxe). But not every girl could be so lucky, so I thought maybe I'd see if there isn't a dupe for it yet.

And sure enough, I found something I thought was dupey - GOSH FrouFrou! Actually, I had already done an NOTD with that colour! (Come to think of it - is it a NOTD? Or an NOTD? I know grammar rules say that if the first letter is a vowel, or has a wel sound, then it should be 'an'. So I guess since N sounds like a vowel, it should be an NOTD. But I always feel like typing 'a' because I'm seeing it in print, not hearing it in my head when I type...) Anyway, that NOTD was done waaay back when the only reader of my blog was my imaginary pet dog, but you can see it HERE. Wow, I never knew I was so ahead of the curve! Weird, I know.

Anyway the big question all my UK ladies want to know: are they indeed dupes?

Here are bottle comparison pictures:



L-R: Orly Rage, GOSH FrouFrou

They look pretty similar, don't they? They could be dupes!

Here are the comparison swatches:



My index and ring fingers are Orly Rage, while middle and last fingers are GOSH FrouFrou. That means L-R: Orly Rage, GOSH FrouFrou, Orly Rage, GOSH FrouFrou

Ooh, so close, sooo close. They're not total dupes though. Although both colours are metallic foil pinks, Orly Rage is a more beige, making it a beigey-pink, while GOSH FrouFrou is pinker. But otherwise, they're entirely alike - the way they apply is similar, the finish is similar, and both are just good metallic foil-y goodness that can be worn to work despite the bling, because the colour is so innocuous.

So which one should you pick, if you somehow have access to both but only wanted one? (I think this is purely a hypothetical scenario though, since Orly is available in the US only for most part, and GOSH is only available in Europe for the most part.) Well if somehow you could buy both but only wanted one, then it would depend on your undertone, and how beige or pink you wanted your colour to be. I think the beige tinge in Orly Rage would suit warmer girls better, especially if they find GOSH FrouFrou too pink and unwearable, while the pink might work better on cooler-toned girls. I don't think it really makes that much of a difference though; both colours are neutral enough either way.

GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner Swatches!

Today, I bring you GOSH Velvet Touch pencil eyeliner swatches! These babies are totally awesome. They're my second favourite brand for pencil eyeliners, and that's saying a lot because those of you who know me will know that nothing, and absolutely NOTHING, can top my love for Urban Decay's 24/7 pencil liners, so to be second is a big wow.

These are of really good quality. They glide on just as smoothly as the Urban Decay 24/7s, and they are just as creamy. They also last for almost as long, and are a lot cheaper too. And they have an awesome range of colours too - the swatches below aren't everything, but they're what my Superdrug had testers for, so there are actually other colours out there that I didn't swatch. I really highly recommend these with all my heart, I do love them so.

Some of the liners had numbers with the names, and some didn't, so that explains the inconsistent labelling. Don't ask me why though - they were all Velvet Touch Eyeliners (i.e. the eyeliners that were in non-twist pencil form with the cap). I'm pretty sure they're all from the same range, but if I got anything wrong, let me know!

And, here we go! Swatches:



L - R: 010 Copper Girl, 008 Silver Screen, Purple Stain, Green Grass, Golden Moss, Woody Green, Cool Mint, Pretty Petrol, Black Ink, 001 Blue Moon, 002 Girl Power, 004 Green Boost, 005 Golden Cadillac, 003 Green Devil, 006 Bananas, 007 Alligator

Most of the names are pretty self-explanatory, so I guess I'll keep my chatter to a minimum today. Most of the colours have shimmer that gives a certain sheen to them, although a couple are matte, and some have a metallic or duochrome finish. Surprisingly, because of the greyed-out nature of most of the blues and greens, especially the darker ones, they're actually more wearable than they look at first glance.

010 Copper Girl is a bronzey brown that's on the warm side - I could see this veering pretty orange if you're really cool-toned.

008 Silver Screen is a pure platinum silver. Very pretty. As you can see this one has a nice metallic finish that really makes it stand out as compared to just pure grey. I like this one.

Purple Stain is really cool. I think it might have had a slight blue/purple duochrome that the swatch didn't fully capture, and is a very pretty violet-purple that leans blue.

Green Grass is is a mid-tone green that is neither too yellow nor blue (as opposed to the yellow-green 003 Green Devil, or the blue-green 007 Alligator), and it's a pretty basic green.

Golden Moss is one of my favourites, as it's a very pretty olive green, and it reminds me of Urban Decay's Stash 24/7 liner. You know I love a good olive green eyeliner, so I'm all over this one.

Woody Green is a very pretty greyed teal. I don't know why they called it Woody Green, seeing how it has so much blue in it. Nevertheless, this is really pretty, and one of my favourites. It's a dark bejewelled teal that is pretty, and lends a pop of colour, but the way the colour is greyed keeps it muted and wearable.

Cool Mint is one of those colours I'd ooh and aah over, but would never dare to wear (I know, I'm a wimp). It's positively glowing in this swatch, and has a slightly frosty metallic finish. So pretty.

Pretty Petrol is a it's a bright but wearable colbalt-bordering-on-navy blue. I like how it's a cross between colbalt and navy - it's wearable, but still pops for a bit of colour.

Black Ink is a flat out matte black, so that's one to look at for those who are looking for a good basic black eyeliner, or who want a cheaper version of Urban Decay's 24/7 liner in Zero.

001 Blue Moon is a blue with shimmer. Your basic mid-toned shimmery blue.

002 Girl Power is an orange shimmer. I wouldn't wear such a colour, but hey, how often do you see orange eyeliners around?

004 Green Boost is a pastel pale jade or mint green - sort of like Chanel Jade (and all its imitators) but in eyeliner form, instead of nail polish form. If anyone liked the whole mint green or jade green nail polish trend and wants to try it in eyeliner form, this is it. It's also got a frost finish to it.

005 Golden Cadillac is a sunny bright yellow. It's a good primary yellow - the kind you see in colour charts.

003 Green Devil is a yellow-green, and it reminds me of grass more than Green Grass. But it's a great green for very warm-toned girls who find most green eyeliners tend to pull blue on them.

006 Bananas is another one I like. It's a shimmery vanilla yellow that does remind me of the inside of bananas. For girls who like to rim their waterline with light colours, or use a light-coloured eyeliner in the inner corners of their eyes, this is a good one.

007 Alligator is a pretty slightly greyed blue-green that reminds me of emeralds. I like the jewel tone of the colour.

Dupes Or Not? Zoya Ki vs GOSH Purple Heart

You know you've got a large enough stash when you finally have dupes of things in your stash! You know what I mean - the two brown eyeshadows that look exactly alike, or the two pale pink glosses that are exactly the same when you wear them. I guess having duplicates is a sign that you're having too much. In that case, I guess I'm almost reaching the optimal number of bottles of nail polish to have, because...I have a dupe! Sort of. It depends.

Over the course of my purple and duochrome fetish, I've collected GOSH Purple Heart and Zoya Ki - both of which are dear to my little beating heart because they're both purple, AND duochromes. How cool is that! They also both apply well, and dry relatively fast (the GOSH definitely dries faster than the Zoya though). However, they're also both deep violet purples with green duochrome, so I decided to get both of them out one fine day to see if they were really dupes or not!

Here's a bottle pic of both of them side by side: GOSH Purple Heart is on top, Zoya Ki is at the bottom. Please ignore the fact that there are stray cotton bits stuck to the GOSH bottle - it's all Superdrug's fault for sticking these HUGE eternally sticky tags on their bottles that just pick up any speck of dust in sight. (They should find out what kind of glue Superdrug uses and just make Superglue out of that.)



Hmmm, they do look dupe-y, don't they? But of course, looks can be deceiving (I mean, really! Think of all the good-looking guys out there who are jackasses...but I digress), so I decided to swatch them.

This is one coat of both on all the nails. Please be warned - these are quick and dirty swatches, so they're REALLY BAD. Like, you know, polish on cuticles, polish overflow, raggedy cuticles, weird nail shapes and lengths (we do not mention that..My nails have been through a hard time, and they don't like to talk about it). I've just ordered Burt's Bees Cuticle Cream, and I hope it'll fix part of the problem, and as you can tell these were photos from before my nails became nubbins. In anycase, consider yourself forewarned.



GOSH Purple Heart is on the index and ring, while Zoya Ki is on the middle and pinky fingers.

Now they look different. For one, the Zoya is a lot more sheer than the GOSH. In fact, the GOSH is practically opaque in one coat (which is why it's one of my favourite polishes to Konad with - check out this KOTD and this KOTD for proof of it's Konading awesomeness), but I don't think I'd Konad with the Zoya. So if you want a polish to Konad with, definitely go with the GOSH.

But of course, since few people use just one coat of polish, here are "proper" swatches, with two coats of polish on each nail:



GOSH Purple Heart is on the index and ring, while Zoya Ki is on the middle and pinky fingers.

Okay, so they're not dupes, but they're similar. Both of them are a similar shade of deep violet purple, with a green duochrome. The only difference is that the GOSH is a lot more of a vampy colour, as it's more blackened, whereas Ki is still visibly purple in most lights. Purple Heart also has this very pretty glowy, lit-from-within quality that makes it almost black around the edges but glowy purple on the front of the nail. Very cool. Ki has a similar kind of glowiness, but it's not quite a vampy, because it's not blackened enough.

So which one should you buy? It depends. Do you want your purple-green duochromed very blackened? If so, take the GOSH. Do you want to Konad with it? Then definitely take the GOSH. Do you want it to be visibly purple in most lights? Take the Zoya. I suppose for that among non-nail fanatics, noone's going to notice the difference, even though they're not dupes. However, I'm kind of happy that they're not all that similar - it means I get to keep both!

Revlon Snow Violet and GOSH Purple Haze KOTD

Today's KOTD is using my newly-arrived M57 plate, the coolest Konad Plate ever! Look Ma, Zebra stripes! Anyway, as my KOTD photo shows, I'm still struggling with the full-nail plates. Excuse the smudgi-ness, the blurry-ness, and the tipwear - I swear Sally Hansen InstaDri causes major shrinkage on me, but well, it's cheap and readily available, and it dries fast.

Revlon Snow Violet is the base of my KOTD, and I really LOVE this colour to bits. It looks like a pale pale white-lilac, but it's not (stupid camera). It's a pale cooltoned off-white with a violet flash. Yes it HAS a violet flash, I swear, I just can't get it to show up in photographs. (stupid me, and stupid camera) Also I think once I konaded over it, it lost its purple flash a tad. But it's really cool. This was one of their limited edition colours, that I bought maybe 7 or 8 years back, waaaay before I was into nail polish, and it's kept well since then. It was also one of my first 'proper' nail polishes (i.e. realy polish from a store, not kiddy-play-polish), so it has emotional value to me. Awwwww. But, this thing is a bit sheer and streaky, and what you're seeing is 3 coats. I'm imagining the possibilities over other colours...Mmmmm, purple flash.

GOSH Purple Haze is the design on the KOTD. Mmmm I know I've used it before in another KOTD here in this post, but I said that Purple Haze is a chamelon because it looks green in some konads and purple in others. Well, the last time I showed you that, it looked green, but now, it looks purple! I LOVE this colour. Unfortunately, I just use it for konading because when I do my entire nail with it, it just looks black :X

Once again, excuse the crappiness, tipwear, smudging, etc etc. I was just so excited that I finally got hold of the fabled M57 plate.

Pink Bling! GOSH FrouFrou: NOTD

This is another great NOTD! GOSH Froufrou:

Here's my NOTD swatch, and as usual pardon the general lack of skills and pre-clean-up state of my nails:



I really love this colour because it's such a great pink, and it goes with everything, but it's far from boringly neutral. In fact, this is really bling, without crossing the line and becoming tacky or overly blingy (although I'm pretty sure some people would tell me that there's no such thing as over-blinged when it comes to polish!). I believe it is many flecks of small light pink glitter suspended in a clear base, but the pink flecks are so numerous and so tiny that when you put it on your nail it gives the illusion of having pink nail polish that's glittery or frosty. Really cool. If you want your nail to be totally covered, 3 coats would probably be optimal, but this is 2 coats - as you can see, the glitter is dense enough to cover almost all the nail, but if you look closely you can still see some bald spots where the glitter didn't cover, but the spots aren't visible from far away though. I'd hesitate at calling work safe though - this could probably pass in some environments, but its glittery nature makes it a bit hard to pass off in a really stern office environment, even if the base colour is inoffensive and neutral.

And as usual, this one has the ridiculously-fast-drying quality that all the GOSH polishes I've encountered seem to have. I also had no application problems with this. I'm really starting to like GOSH a lot for nail polishes.

Speaking of nail polishes, tomorrow I will give you a nail polish comparison post, like I promised yesterday. I'm comparing the various nude/beige polishes I have, so stay tuned! :)

Nails Inc Basil Street and GOSH Purple Haze: KOTD

Did I tell you I've been on a nude nailpolish kick lately? As of now I have 7 nudes in my collection, and I totally plan on doing a swatch comparison one day. But for now, here's a simple NOTD/KOTD for you!

Here's Nails Inc Basil Street:



Excuse the frazzle, and the fact that there are cotton wool bits stuck in my mani (I hate when that happens).

Basically, the perfect opaque non-pinky (or almost non-pinky, rather) beige nude. Perfect, perfect perfect. This one was smooth and easy to apply, and it was even and opaque in 2 coats. Unlike most nudes which can be often sheer or streaky or just a pain to apply (ahem, Essie), this covered well in 2 coats. Love, love, love.

Then, because I was bored, I just had to do this over it:



I know, I know, let's not talk about that smudge ok? :( And the fact that I suck at centralizing my designs :(

The interesting thing about GOSH Purple Haze is that it's a very dark, almost-black purple/green duochrome. AND it's opaque in 1 coat - thus making it ideal for Konading. The interesting thing though, is that depending on what color it is used to konad with, Purple Haze shows up either as a dark purple, or in this case, a dark green. It feels so weird to see your konad being green when you really used a dark purple, but I love this colour. It's like, self-adjusting or something. Really, really cool. So far when used with pinks it tends to veer purple, and here, with a beige it looks green. GOSH nail polishes are also in general one of my favourites, because they dry very fast. Sometimes I even wonder why I use a topcoat with them, but then I remember that I need to prevent the polish from chipping so fast. They also have a pretty decent wear time. Basically, I've pretty much liked everything I've tried from GOSH and Nails Inc.

Well, that's it for this post! I hope noone threw up from my terrible mani skills...

GOSH Holographic Nail Polish: NOTD

I know that this blog is about faces (makeup) and fingers (nail polish), but due to my lowdown on my makeup brushes (Part 1 here and Part 2 will be up tomorrow!) I've been neglecting the fingers side of the blog a little. But now I'm evening the score with this darling of an NOTD: GOSH Holographic!

For those who don't know what GOSH is, it's a drugstore brand found in the UK. (EDITED TO ADD: Thanks to Pixie, I've learned that they're actually a Danish company! Cool! Thanks Pixie!) Superdrug carries it, I believe. And even then, it's pretty expensive - for drugstore that is. But they make some awesome items, particularly their lipsticks, eyeliners and nail polish. At some point I hope to swatch the lipsticks and eyeliners, but I don't think I could ever swatch all their polishes...

Anyway back to the story. Yes, GOSH Holographic. I've heard this touted as a dupe (possibly a better dupe, even) for Chanel Holographic, but I don't own the Chanel, so I can't verify. But this polish was holo awesomeness in a bottle, and even though the holo doesn't look like much on the bottle, on the nail, it is absolutely STUNNING. My friends always exclaim, "Look! Your nails!" whenever I wear this, so you know it's a keeper.






As you can tell, these were pre-cleanup pics, and they were 3 coats. I'm sorry for the ickiness of the pre-cleanup-ness, and for the frazzles on my cuticles. But frazzles and ickiness aside, isn't this a beauty? It's HOLO, BABY, HOLO! I even took two pictures just to show you how holo it can be, since the first picture sucked in showing the holo.

Application on this one isn't bad once you get the hang of it. I read a lot of blogs saying that they had to use 3 or 4 coats, and this was a nightmare to apply as the holographic glitter tended to clump together and become uneven when you apply subsequent coats....Well, that is true, if you don't wait for the polish to completely, and I DO mean completely, as in let's-wait-an-extra-3-mins-to-be-sure kind of completely, dry. Yes, it's a little of a hassle in that sense, because with most polishes you can get away with not waiting for the layers to dry, but with this one, you simply can't - if you put more polish on top of a wet layer, you will get the result of having your holographic glitter clump together, and you'll get too much holo in one spot, and no holo in other spots. And THEN you'll have to use 3 or 4 coats to cover up the uneveness. So, as long as you wait for each sheet to dry, you could probably just 2-3. Of course, I didn't know this, so I painted on top of wet polish, and had to use 3 coats.

Same goes for the basecoat. I've also read a lot of blogs going on about how you simply can't use a basecoat with it, and in this NOTD I've successfully used it with a basecoat - once again, the trick is to wait for the basecoat to completely, completey dry.

The polish in this bottle has a consistency that's more on the watery side, but not enough to irk me. All the GOSH polishes I've had were all of that slightly watery consistency, with the exception of GOSH Rainbow (which I should totally do an NOTD with sometime!) because of the suspended flakies in the polish. The good thing about GOSH polishes that I really like though, is that they dry SUPER fast. Sometimes I even wonder why I bother to use a topcoat with these things, because when I'm done doing my last nail, my first nail is already dry to the touch, albeit a very light and ginger touch. Of course these don't dry as fast as the OPI Suedes, but for non-suede polish, they're pretty much the fastest drying ones I've found so far.

Edited to add: The day after, IT CHIPPED! And I don't mean like tiny, at-the-corners-of-your-nails chipped. This is odd, because the other GOSH polishes I've tried weren't like that. But Pixie tells me it might be because it's a holo polish, and holo polishes in general tend to be chippy. I think she's right :) Thanks again, Pixie!