Butter's Cheeky Chops and Frilly Knickers - weekly nail review

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After last week's successful nail pairing, I decided to flip my colour selection on it's head and opted to go with Cheeky Chops and Frilly Knickers (again).  I was a bit too excited about the sparkly overlay and was quite frankly bewitched so much that I think my choice failed this past week.  Cheeky Chops is meant to be worn alone and Frilly Knickers should be showcased with a much darker palette. My nails really were lost in translation and to add insult to injury, I had to remove my polish mid-week due to submerging my hands in soapy dish water (talk about chipping).  I can thank my cookie baking expedition for that; I must remember to purchase super cute gloves (insert mental note here).

As you can see the sparkles were outshined by the bright yellow.  What do you think of this epic fail on my part?

 

Inglot Review

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I read a lot - mostly about celebrity gossip, makeup and fashion, but at least I take the time to read something.  I kept reading reviews about Inglot and thought that I'd like to try it out for myself to see what the hype is all about. Luckily, Inglot has a store located in the Chadstone Mall; it's about a 25 minute car ride away from where I live or an hour via public transport. For the past few weeks every Sunday, weather-wise, has been pretty meh and a visit to Chadstone was long overdue on a crap day. Scott visited the Apple Store and I finally became well-acquainted with Inglot.

Inglot Chadstone

Inglot Chadstone

Upon stepping into the store, I was welcomed by a super nice salesgirl who told me a bit about the brand - Inglot hails from Poland and was started by a chemist, Wojtek Inglot, who wanted to create great products at affordable prices.  I was then briefed about their Freedom System and was given a glossy pamphlet to see which item(s) I could purchase.  The primary purpose for my visit was to learn more about their eye shadows and to hopefully walk away with a few new colours.  Presently, Inglot carries 8 eye shadow palettes; the smallest holds two shades and the largest can handle up to 40!

It took me approximately five minutes to decide which one I wanted to choose, a palette of ten seemed right.  Before making my decision, I was asked what I wanted to accomplish during my visit and which shades I like to wear the most.  The information I provided allowed for the sales associate to make a few recommendations and then she let me be to play and soak in all that Inglot has to offer.  Before she retired to the counter, I was handed this…

Inglot Freedom System

Inglot Freedom System

And before I knew it, the swatching began…

Inglot Swatch

Inglot Swatch

As I devoured all of the colours, my hand looked like a rainbow had thrown up all over it…

Even more swatches

Even more swatches

What impressed me the most was the colour payoff; all it took was one pass of my finger and the pigment instantly appeared. There was no deception; what I saw on display also showed up on my hand.  After playing for a few minutes more, I narrowed my choices down and brought them up to be purchased.  The other great thing about my visit was not being pressured into purchasing a single thing; Inglot products truly sell themselves.

I was given the option of plugging the shadows into the palette myself or to have them placed in the palette for me; I gladly accepted the latter, I can be such a klutz at times.  The one thing I regret doing was not asking to keep the labels for each colour; I've since had to MacGyver my shadows out in order to figure out the colours I purchased. Tweezers and a bit of patience was all it took to pop them out - just be sure to do this over a towel, you'll want to have a soft landing/safety net nearby for your pan(s).

While we waited, I also found a few makeup brushes, brush cleaner and made one last minute impulse addition - Inglot's best selling Pure Pigment Eye Shadow in 85.  I also checked out these really cool lip glosses that change colours when you apply them.

Just playing around

Just playing around

Here is the cost breakdown of my visit:

  • One Freedom Palette with 10 placeholders - $15 AUS
  • Nine eye shadows @ $10 AUS/item - $90 AUS
  • One Rainbow eye shadow - $13 AUS
  • One Pure Pigment eye shadow - $26 AUS
  • One 80HP Makeup Brush - $30 AUS
  • One 21T Makeup Brush - $37 AUS
  • Brush Cleaner - $18 AUS

Grand total with tax: $229.00; each item averaged out to be $15.26.  Not too shabby.  After doing a few price comparisons between the Australian and US online stores, I found the shadows to be cheaper in Australia and the brushes were far less expensive in the States - go figure?!  Read more about my Australian beauty shopping experiences here.

I have since tried out most of the shades and created a pretty neutral eye look.  I used Urban Decay's Primer Potion in Sin as a base to set the shadow.  After 8 hours of wear time I saw little to no creasing.  I am sold!

Check out what I purchased below.

The Body Shop's Honey Bronze Shimmering Dry Oil - review

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Back in August as the US was winding down their summer season, Australia's fashion magazines were ramping up for the races and spring.  I spied in an issue of In Style Australia The Body Shop's Honey Bronze; upon seeing it, I thought it looked eerily like Nars' Body Glow.  If you're looking to save a lot of money, then The Body Shop's version is for you.  As soon as it became available here in Australia (early October) I swooped into my local shop and purchased a bottle.  Stocks were low, but are still available online.  I am all for saving $60 just by purchasing this dupe; you could buy a few other things with that leftover money - like a tube of Nars' lipstick!

The scent is light, if the colour purple carried a scent, this is what it would smell like.  I can't quite pin down the notes, but Honey Bronze lends itself to white flowers.  Over at Aimee Blogs, Aimee claims it's the scent of monoi, which happens to be the very same scent of Nars' Body Glow.  I'll confirm this by visiting the Nars counter inside of Myer.

As for my intended purpose of this product, truthfully I've been saving this baby for summer.  The sun is harsh in the Southern Hemisphere, especially over Australia.  Can you say depleted ozone?  In my late 20's I've become a bit sun conscious/sun safe; much to my Mom's dismay I hit the tanning beds a bit too much during my years at university.  My goal is to have a healthy glow, but not at the expense of my own health.

The Bagful breakdown:

Cost of The Body Shop's Honey Bronze Shimmering Dry Oil:

  • $39.95 for a 100 ml/3.3 ounces

Value for money spent (performance and quality):

  • 10 out of 10 bags; a great product indeed!

Likelihood to purchase from The Body Shop again:

  • Definitely - I need to run over and purchase a tube of Almond Oil Nail and Hand Cream for my desk, but wait a minute, they changed the packaging!  I think a comparison review is in the works!!

Butter's Fairy Lights - weekly nail review

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Another stressful work week was upon me, or so I thought.  I let the girls over at French Pink decide my nail polish this week, because I couldn't muster enough brain power; oh the horror!  We went with Butter's Fairy Lights, a limited edition shade released by the company a few years ago.  I tried hunting down this shade through Butter's website, alas, it's not sold there anymore - however, I did manage to find it here and here. Fairy Lights is a shimmery/metallic pink; the shine was high, so high that I had a really difficult time photographing this particular shade.  The photos below don't fully capture the ins and outs of Butter's majestic pink and if you look closely, you might be able to see a reflection of my pink camera.  I will note the one thing I hated about this colour were the greyish undertones; I thought my nails looked dirty as they grew out over the course of the week.  I took some after pictures yesterday morning in order for you to see how much my nails are ravaged by work and life.

Butter London's formula is long-lasting and durable; the only places their polish fails is on my right index and middle fingers. These two fingers are my "worker" fingers and they take the brunt of my abuse; the wear time on the rest of my nails is that of a week plus.