Taupe of the Day: Bourjois Ombre Stretch Brun Nylon Swatch

As you know, from my stash pics here in this post, I have more taupes than I could ever use up. In fact, I suspect that there will be enough for me, my children, and my grandchildren - future generations will always have enough taupe!

So today I wil show you a taupe from my collection, but wasn't in my stash pics (horror!) - Bourjois Ombre Stretch Eyeshadow in Brun Nylon. Now I'm not that huge a fan of Bourjois - I mean, I don't hate the brand, but it's just never been one of those that caught my eye, although I've heard people rave about their blushes. But I think this shadow isn't shabby at all - in fact, I quite like it. As usual, feel free to click on all the pics for the full-sized picture.



That's the outside packaging. Please ignore that purple residue from the huge tag Superdrug likes to put on all its products.



And that's a closeup of the baby.



Oh yes. Hey there, gorgeous.
And of course, no review is complete without a swatch!



That swatch is in shaded natural light (in other words, me pressing my arm against my basement bedroom window, hoping enough light flows in to take a picture...) so there shouldn't be too much color distortion.

Anyway, here it is. It might surprise some people, since this isn't your expected 'taupe', like Satin Taupe or ME850, but it's a good bit lighter, and a tad browner. I kind of like it this way though, it's actually pretty unique in my stash, and that's saying something :P It's not a dark taupey, purply taupe, like MAC's Satin Taupe, but it's a good medium-to-light taupey color, with a good shot of silver, beige-ish-ness (I think that's what makes it medium-to-light, instead of a dark plummy taupe), and just a hint of purple. But it's still taupe. It reminds me of a more purple, less beige and brown Stila Wheat, since it's of a similar color depth. It's a little on the frosty side, but not so frosty that it's unwearable. Because of the mix of beige and purple in the color, I'd say this color is pretty neutral, maybe leaning a tad to the cool side. I think for most people, this would work as a lid color for most people, and would probably have to be paired with a darker colour for the crease - for my NC20 self, this shows up well enough on my skin. I personally really love this color, because for me a lot of the cult taupes out there tend to be on the dark side, and it's hard finding a nice light taupe. This for me is perfect - not too dark and not too light.

Pigmentation starts off sheer at first, but color is very buildable. I think that's what the 'Ombre Stretch' selling point means - the idea is that they have these nylon micro-spheres that allow the shadows to be 'stretched' out - i.e. stretched out sheer, or packed on opaque. I don't believe nylon particles are going to make an eyeshadow fantastic, but at least they got the description right on this one - it is buildable, and very nicely buildable, even if it starts off sheer. Just the whole thing about nylon-microspheres is such a terrible way to put it across to the consumer - I'm not sure if the average consumer is going to understand the mix of nylon and eyeshadow. Bu at least there's no false advertising here - it does start off sheer, and builds nicely. The texture of Brun Nylon is also pretty smooth, which is good, and it applies well.

I wore Brun Nylon for one entire day to try out how it wore as the day went on, and I'm pleased to say this is decent. It doesn't fade, but it does crease a little by the end of the day, but I wasn't wearing any primer or base (I don't have major eyeshadow issues so I've never found it necessary), so I think with a little primer this will be much better.

If you don't mind frosty eyeshadows, or the fact that you have to build up the pigment, and if you've been wanting a light taupe, not a deep, dark, taupe, this is worth a shot. It's harder to find a light taupe than a dark taupe, and good ones are hard to come by, so if you feel that alot of the taupey colors out there are too dark for you, this is worth a try. Brun Nylon isn't a flashy colour, and it isn't going to start any periods of obssessing on MUA, nor is it going to garner a whole host of cult followers, but it's a good workhorse basic.

Yay, a new blog! And NOTD: Nails Inc Jermyn Street

Ok, so right now I'm busy with work and all, but holidays are coming up soon, and soon I will have time to post. For now this is going to be limited to makeup posts (no FOTDs, sorry), and NOTD posts, because I'm a huge slacker, and there are plenty of blogs doing the let's-swatch-every-new-collection-that-comes-out thing. This is going to be my online reference place - for things I like or hate - basically things I have something to say about.

I'll probably start with some NOTD posts, because that's what I'm into right now. With any luck I'll document my swatches (dupes, personal stash) at some point. I could post everything on MUA, and I will, but it's just nice to have my own personal space for reference, where everything I have is in one place.

Anyway, without further ado, here's my first constructive post ever: an NOTD from awhile back - Nails Inc Jermyn Street, which I bought sometime in the not-too-distant past, when I went on a total Nails Inc haulage! (Yes this is the disclosure bit - I bought this myself! Not paid to write this or affiliated to any company blah blah blah...Dude, duh. My blog, just born, is not famous enough to get freebies. And with how slack I am it's never going to reach the pinnacle of blog famedom.)Of course, I just HAD to get this, it's one of the standouts of their line, and purply-taupey-brown? Mmmmmm...that's my favourite eyeshadow color, and it would make a good nail colour too!

I really love Nails Inc polishes, every single one I've used has had the bestest application ever - smooth, even, just the right balance between thin and thick, and some of the colours (especially the darker ones in my experience) are so awesomely pigmented that you could probably Konad with them. Now I'm a nail noob, and I'm nowhere near the gods of the nail board on MUA, but I've spent enough of my dough on nail polishes to know an awesome one when I see it. And this, ladies and gents, is totally AWESOME.



Click to see full-sized pic.

This is 2 coats, no topcoat, under crappy lamplight. And yes, it's a crappy pre-clean-up pic, so sorry about the frazzles et al. The colour is pretty close, though, despite the lamplight, if I do say so myself. It's even got a hint of purple too, a slight one.

Applying it was effortless, although I do have one teensy gripe - the CAP!! Why does such a beautifully formulated nail polish have to have a sucky cap? The cap is big, so maneuvering it requires a bit of work - I don't know why, but somehow having to handle a cap this bag kind of reduces my dexterity, so I get more polish on my cuticles etc than I normally would. Well I did say I was a nail noob! Otherwise, Nails Inc is awesome, and I totally want to buy more of these to add to my already-growing stash of them.

And the color? I really love this one - it's in the same color family as OPI's YDJK, and $OPI's Metro Chic. It's more brown than Metro Chic though, and much lighter, browner, and less grey than YDJK. It's yet another addition to my taupey-mushroomey-brown-with-a-hint-of-purple color family, and I'm loving it to bits. It's a gorgeous creme finish, smooth and opaque in 2 coats, and basically just 10ml of creme awesomeness. It takes 2 coats to be totally opaque though, so I'm not sure if I'd want to Konad with this. Maaayyyybe one day I might try. But for now I can say that my eyeshadow matches my nail color! Haw haw!