The last time I did a lipstick swatch blog post was last year and for a similar theme - nudes and reds for all skin/lip tones (by BECCA, blog post here) and because I love the idea of nudes and reds so much, I had to write another blog post featuring this British beauty brand - Emolyne Cosmetics* (*gifted).
I actually was sent this package in May but with the postage delay I received it in June and didn't realise the founder was Ugandan born and the theme of each shade is named after an African country, city or landmark - which I love! The #BLM movement has really been an eye opener and I thought it would be a perfect time to spotlight this beauty brand on my blog, because quite frankly I love the whole concept and have been super impressed with the quality.
So Emolyne Cosmetics was founded by Emolyne Ramlov who wanted to create a brand that catered to those who were looking for coordinated lip and nail colours.. which I think is genius and genuinely have found it hard to find exact nail and lip matches even within brands sometimes.
Emolyne Cosmetics offer 30 coordinated lipsticks, lip liners and nail polishes with: 15 nude shades  15 red shades 
As mentioned in my previous lip swatches posts, I've been focusing on lip swatches for the past couple years because my lips are pigmented/darker than some other people's, so I like to show people who have similar lip and skin tones to me what shades could look like (to help them decide which may suit them too). Of course everyone is free to wear what they like but if you have darker pigmented lips like me then certain nudes just end up looking ashy/pastel, which I'm personally not a fan of on myself.
Read on to see the shades I was sent and the ones I want to try next!

Halal Nail Polish? Nova Nails

I recently discovered Nova Nails nail polish online after searching for a real "halal" nail polish.. something I've been looking for the last couple years actually, so I thought it would be perfect to try in Ramadan.
I have a couple Inglot O2M "breathable" nail polishes which are supposedly also halal but I've there's always a slight niggle that makes me worry that it's not fully halal so when I stumbled across these Nova washable nail polishes, I was over the moon!
Admittedly it comes with pros and cons, read on to see what these are and a demo video of how it works!

 

Tuesday Takeover: Truly Madly Beauty

Today I've got a mani post from the lovely Aysha of Truly Madly Beauty who is my go to blogger to ask mani related questions; she suggested CND Airdry to me last for fast drying nails that don't smudge and I haven't looked back since!

Hope you enjoy her post below:

Two Tone Geometric Nails

Thank you Safiyah for asking me back to do a wee Takeover Tuesday post on her lovely blog for you! I've been a long term fan of this lady with her seriously impressive makeup skills & I'm looking forward to the day when she finally teaches me how to contour right! I came to the conclusion that I may have been doing it wrong all this time after my mother inquired if I'd been in a fist fight on account of the "bruising" on my face...hmm. O_o *cough*

Anyways, I digressed majorly there didn't I? If you're familiar with my blog at all you'll know that nail art is my passion. Today I have for you lovelies a quick & simple two tone geometric design using two polishes from Loreal's Color Riche range.

Illamasqua Glamore Collection launch

Last week I attended the Illamasqua event for their new Glamore Collection, where I met and chatted with the amazingly talented and inspiring founder Alex Box (who is always so grounded, absolutely love her!)

Glamore collection with an extra "Marquise" nail varnish

We talked about the new collection and how it was all very girly and glam but also perfect for Spring with the floral type visuals. Alex wanted to show how these glamorous colours can suit any skin tone (see the visual below) and I have to say I was sceptical at first when I saw the cool toned pink for my own skin tone but once trying it out at the event I was pleasantly surprised!

a couple of us bloggers (Sheenie, Leanne, Priya & Sharmin) wearing the new lipsticks at the event photobooth

The collection features:
3 satin finish lipsticks (£16.50 each):

• Luster
• Glissade
• Soaked

3 glitzy "Shattered Star" nail colours (£15 each):

• Trilliant
• Fire Rose
• Marquise

It also includes a repromote of the Eye Brow Cake (£15.50) and Angled Brush (£19) to frame the face with these gorgeous lipsticks.

I decided to get a manicure done similar to one Alex was sporting with an ombre glitter effect and chose the colours Trilliant (a light pink shimmery shade with chunkier silver glitter) and Fire Rose (bright pink shimmer with silver glitter too):

holding shade "Trilliant" with ombre mani in Trilliant and Fire Rose

I was more drawn to the pinks in this collection, however on trying the Marquise nail polish, I absolutely loved that it had a pinky-gold hint with one coat and turned into a beautiful golden burnt orange-red when using two coats:

As for the lipsticks, I absolutely adore them, not only for the colours and longevity, but also because of the new satin texture which is massively different to their usual much drier textures as you can see in the swatches below:

I have to say I was quite surprised not to find an outlandish product in this collection as Illamasqua are known for their dare-to-be-different shades; personally this collection is my favourite to date as I am a huge girly girl and love anything sparkly or pink/purple and this collection hits all of these points on the head perfectly. 

I really can't fault this collection on any points as I feel there's something for everyone here and it will certainly draw more mainstream makeup lovers back to Illamasqua once again.
 
The collection is available globally from today (27th February) at Illamasqua.com and in stores.

What do you think of this collection? Have any particular products caught your eye?

 

Tuesday Takeover: Truly Madly Beauty

This weeks guest poster is the lovely Aysh from Truly Madly Beauty, who I've followed for a while now; I think we've both been blogging for around the same time in 2010 and I love her nail posts.. totally wish I could have the patience to do nails!

Revlon Sparkling Glitter Gradient

Well helloooo there lovely FrootiBeauty readers! How are you all doing? My name's Aysh & I blog over on Truly Madly Beauty :)

First things first, thank you so much to the lovely Safiyah for letting me loose on her blog today! It's such an honour as I absolutely adore this lovely lady's blog of which I've been following for yonks & am in complete awe of her make up skills. Its my wish to one day have my make up done by this talented lady! :D

Now whilst I love all things make up & beauty, if you're familiar with my blog you'll know that its nails that I am mostly passionate about & enjoy doing so I thought I'd share a quick little mani with you lovelies today! 

Whenever I'm stumped or lost for ideas/inspiration when it comes to nail art, I always like to go for a nice glitter gradient. Not only are they so easy to do, but its super quick, looks pretty & doing a gradient is a fab way of jazzing up an otherwise ordinary mani. Here I've used Revlon's Touch Of Mauve & Revlon's Sparkling for the gradient.

I started off with my base which was two coats of Revlon's Touch Of Mauve, a lovely pink based nude crème. I actually found this lovely in Poundland, which is one of my FAVOURITE little hunting grounds for polishes! I've found some right pretties in the past including Sally Hansen, OPI & Loreal so I definitely recommend you pop in to your local Poundland to see what treasures you can find!

Then for the gradient I used Revlon's Sparkling which is a lovely pale pink glitter made up of both small & large hexagonal glitters in a clear base. To begin the gradient its best to start off with just a little glitter on the brush, wiping off any excess on the bottle rim, then starting about three quarters of the way on your nail brushing upwards towards the tip.

Once you've done all ten nails, go back to the first with a bit more glitter & apply in the same way but this time starting from the middle. Depending on the denseness of the glitter used you can also go in for a third time, this time applying mostly on the tips, which I've done here.

Finish off with a nice thick coat of topcoat to shine & smoothen all that glitter & thats it! Glitter Gradient nails ready to go. Because of all the glitter layers, drying time may be a wee bit longer than normal but having a quick drying topcoat helps!

Hope you liked the mani lovelies! Thank you again Safiyah for having me on your blog today!

Lotsa love to ya!

Aysh xoxo 

Blog: www.trulymadlybeauty.blogspot.co.uk

Twitter: Aysh_tmb

Instagram: Aysh_xox

Sunday Swatches: Illamasqua Christmas Envy Collection 2013 Review

Following my previous FFF makeup look post (here) and holiday gift post (here) with my picks from the holiday sets and collections this Christmas, I wanted to give my thoughts on the gorgeous Illamasqua Envy Collection.
I received the package by surprise last Saturday and couldn't contain my excitement at receiving two of the products I'd lusted over from the new collection inside, namely the Powder Sculpting Duo and the Fatale Palette: 

 
Fatale Palette
I fell in love with the Fatale Palette as soon as I saw David Horne use it on his Instagram page to create this beautiful look.
I think the colours are gorgeous tones suitable for all skintones and love the warmth they bring; perfect for a festive look with its gold and cranberry tones.

Colour & Pigmentation: As always, Illamasqua shadows are gorgeously pigmented as you can see above from the swatches and translate just as you see them in the pan. 
Bronx: bronze gold shimmer
Ensnare: berry shimmer
Charm: violet shimmer
Mystify: chestnut brown shimmer

Texture/Finish: Powder shimmer

Longevity: Pigmented shadows like Illamasqua's do last long, however I always recommend to wear with primer.

Price: At £34 it's the usual price for an Illamasqua quad and works out £8.50 per eyeshadow; a single eyeshadow is £15.50 for 2g and here you get 4 x 1.5g which still works out cheaper!

FrootiFactor: I can see myself using this palette as a great addition to my kit for Asian brides as it holds 3 of the main colours I use for brides in it (gold, red and brown) with the addition of the gorgeous violet shadow. I give the quad a 5 out of 5 as I feel it would suit pretty much every skintone!

Sculpting Powder Duo
I have to say I'm a huge fan of contouring kits as I absolutely love the effect it gives to the face especially in bringing out the cheekbones, so when I saw this sculpting duo by Illamasqua I was very excited.
My hesitance on the product was that the contour shade looked like it would be too light for warmer complexions like myself, but the highlighter shade in Lumos certainly had my attention, especially as a Harry Potter fan!

Colour & Pigmentation: Again, the pigmentation is of usual high Illamasqua quality. I found Lumos highlighter to be even more so pigmented than Heliopolis.
On my NC30-35 skintone, Heliopolis actually shows up on my face, more so than it does in the swatch above on my arm for some reason!
Lumos: shimmering champagne 
Heliopolis: neutral peanutty brown 

Texture/Finish: Both powder; Lumos is a champagne shimmer and Heliopolis is a neutral matte.
 
Longevity: I'm a fan of powders on the face as I feel they last much longer on the skin. The Lumos shimmer lasts especially longer than Heliopolis.

Price: At £26 it works out £13 per shade; personally I tend to spend more on highlighters/bronzers and contour shades as I use it pretty much every day more so than blush, so for me it's totally worth it.

FrootiFactor: I was pleasantly surprised that the Heliopolis contour shade showed up on my face as I was almost certain it would do nothing for contouring on my skin. I would however recommend using the Heliopolis contour shade as a matte bronzer/in between shade for contouring on deeper skintones, or as a contour shade on the eyes.
I hope Illamasqua release more of these sculpting duos for a variety of skintones as I know it will be a hit and unfortunately this particular contour shade wouldn't do any justice for contouring on much deeper/black skintones. For this reason alone, it loses out on half a lipstick rating, but other than that its a 5 in my books!

Intense Lipgloss - Maiden
A surprise colour addition to the Christmas collection is the Intense Lipgloss in Maiden; I'd say it's more of a Spring colour but it would go well with a smokey eye if you wanted to tone down the lips so works well.

Colour & Pigmentation: As the name suggests, it has high pigmentation in a warm peach colour, with all the intensity of a lipstick.

Texture/Finish: Glossy, slightly thick for my liking but I guess it's due to the saturation of colour!

Longevity: Glosses tend to last longer than lipsticks due to their stickiness so I'd imagine this gloss to be just as long wearing as other Illamasqua glosses I've tried.

Price: At £14.50 it's more than I would usually pay for a gloss, however I am a fan of highly pigmented glosses when I do go for a gloss, and £14.50 is around the average price for a high end brand.

FrootiFactor: Unfortunately this gloss is much too light for my skintone and pigmented lips; it translates a much whitish colour so doesn't suit my lips at all, however I do think those with less pigmented lips than myself would suit it beautifully, paired with a smokey eye. For this reason, this shade is not particularly for me and I'd have to give it a 2.5 for it's pigmentation and longevity.

Nail Varnish - Blizzard
This polish is perfect for the wintery months, immitating snowy weather on your nails. You can wear it alone or I found it even better over a dark nail varnish (like Boosh) so the iridescent white speckles show up even more.

Colour & Consistency: A clear based nail polish with flecks of iridescent white sparkles in chunky hexagonal shapes and smaller shapes too. Two coats will give you the amount of sparkle in the above pictures.

Longevity: Fairly long wearing due to the particles in the polish; as with glitter they tend to last longer but I didn't find it as hard to take off as glitter which is good!

Price: At £14.50 it's a slightly pricier polish but gives a lovely wintery effect on your nails if you're looking for something to suit this season.

FrootiFactor: I'd give this nail polish a 3.5 out of 5 as I find it looks best on top of a darker colour polish and needs two coats for the full "snow" type effect. I do however like that it isn't as hard as glitter to take off!

This "Christmasqua" collection is a great addition to their existing products in my opinion; I'm particularly fond of the Sculpting Powder Duo and the Fatale Palette which I can see myself using on in my kit as well as myself fairly regularly. I do hope they bring out more shades in the Sculpting Duo as I can see it being a very popular product for everyday and going out.

All Illamasqua products are available to buy in store or online at Illamasqua.

What are your favourites from this Holiday collection? Will you be buying any?

 

Tuesday Takeover: SamRam

It's been a while since a Tuesday Takeover and as I've been away on holiday and busy with clients I figured I'd feature a fellow beauty blogger again to help me with my blogging load!
This weeks post features the new nail varnishes from Illamasqua's Creators collection by Sam of Sam's Beauty blog.

Illamasqua Creators Nail Varnishes

Hey guys!

Today I am guest posting on Frootibeauty's blog (thanks in advance Frooty!). She was sent two Illamasqua nail polishes from the new Creators line and asked me if I wanted to do the guest post – of course I said yes!

Illamasqua has released a new limited edition collection with four guest creators. This new collection is a unique social collaboration to celebrate 5 years of Illamasqua. Illamasqua joined forces with StyleSuzi, Vex in the  City, Pearls & Poodles and Munroe Bergdorf to create two lipglosses and nail polishes which take inspiration from the 4 corners of the online galaxy. The guest creators had an integral part to play in the production development. StyleSuzi and Vex in the City were the guest creators for the two nail polishes.

Perseid

First, StyleSuzi guest created the nail polish called Perseid. Suzi said she was inspired by the explosion of colours in the galaxy and she wanted to evoke the mysterious nature of the sky at night. She decided to use different sized glitters to create a texture as unique as a star.

Perseid is definitely a combination of a few glittery colours. I can see more purple but then a two-toned teal creeps in too, so it absolutely is a unique colour that reminds me of the night sky. I love the chunks of glitter and then the tiny glitters combined. The texture is amazing and literally one coat is enough. This does take a bit longer to dry, bearing in mind it’s a thicker consistency so it’s understandable. I love the different types and colours of the glitter. This definitely is a WOW nail polish.

Fusion

Vex in the City created the nail polish called Fusion. Yinka said she wanted to create a shade which reflected her vision of the galaxy. She wanted something dark, intense and mysterious with the magic of the stars shining through.

Fusion is a bronze and khaki colour combined. It’s very metallic and I really wish I had an eyeshadow in this colour. It has small glitter pieces compared to Perseid. Again, you literally only need to apply one coat. I think out of habit we tend to apply two but it makes no difference, one coat is good enough. This nail polish dried really fast too and it looks so gorgeous! 

Out of the two, I think I’m in love with Perseid! And super wow to Illamasqua nail polish quality. Never tried their polishes before but will look into buying some soon!

The polishes are limited edition and priced at the same price as the usual Illamasqua nail varnishes (£14.50) and can be bought here on the Illamasqua website.

Which is you fave out of the two?

  


Sam Ram 
x 

Illamasqua Mystery Box

Hello my lovelies! 
Apologies for the lack of posts recently, after getting back from holiday I had a fair bit of catching up to do with clients etc as well as actually working and washing all those holiday clothes (glamorous I know!)

Anyway, I've thought of a couple posts that may be of interest to you so over the coming weeks I shall try my best to get these up!

This is a quick post and mini review based on the Instagram picture I put up regarding the Illamasqua Mystery Boxes, excuse the picture quality in this post as they are from my phone!:

There's two versions of this box that came out last year and as far as I know I think they were only exclusive to Debenhams.  
I chose this "Alter Ego" box as it only has one nail polish in it (the other "Eyes and Nails" box has two), which I wouldn't use as much. My box included 6 full size products, 4 of which are mystery shades.
I happened to come across these a few times but was too worried I'd get products I won't use, but whilst strolling past the sale table in the Lakeside Debenhams I saw the price had been slashed down to £17.50 from £35, I couldn't say no.
One blush alone is around £18, so this was certainly a steal and even if I got products I wouldn't personally use, I know I could always use it in my kit or on a shoot (my failsafe excuse for any makeup purchase!).

what I got in my box!

Shades in my box: 
*Nail Varnish in Collide (neon pink) [revealed on outer box cover]
*Liquid metal in Electrum (metallic antique gold) [revealed]
*Intense lipgloss in Move (mauve rose pink)
*Lipstick in Fetish (violet/blueberry)
*Powder blusher in Panic (red with pink tones)
*Powder Eye Shadow in Fallen (lilac-grey)
Everything except the nail polish is swatched below:

The box is worth up to £96.50 based on current prices however some of these products are discontinued, for instance Fetish lipstick and Fallen eyeshadow. Having said this, as I mentioned on my Instagram account I'm really pleased with my mystery box; I know some other bloggers/reviews have had some not so wearable shades but I believe it was pot luck that I picked a good box, considering! It felt like the lucky dips you get as a kid, when you wish for good stuff but mentally prepare yourself for something you may not have wanted lol!

I love the colours I got, even the neon pink nail polish is surprisingly pretty and something I would wear in Summer. I was dubious that Move lipgloss would be too light for me but even that looks fine on my generally dark lips and it doesn't feel sticky.

If you happen to come across one of these boxes at your local Debenhams, be sure to snap it up as you'll get more than a bang for your buck and as you know I'm massively a fan of their products as they are super pigmented so you can't go wrong!

Did you get any of these mystery boxes? What did you think of it and which products do you like best?

 

Avon Arctic Goddess event & quick review

I recently attended the Avon Arctic Goddess launch which introduced 9 new products to their already substantial cosmetics range; the Arctic Goddess collections includes two new palettes, three lipglosses & nail varnishes and a mascara.

I've haven't properly tried Avon products lately; I tried a few products here and there when I was a teen and reacted to a Color Trend eye pencil - not good!

Fast forward a couple years and here I was eager to see how things have changed. Luckily it wasn't just the Arctic Goddess products being shown at the event, so I got to peek at the other permanent ranges like the foundations and lipsticks.

One of the palettes that caught my eye - gorgeous colours!

I decided to get my nails done by Marian Newman and chose the Arctic Goddess colours Sea Breeze and Green Goddess on top as the greens went with my outfit.

Getting my nails done by celebrity manicurist Marian Newman

Sea Breeze underneath Green Goddess

Sam & Nic of Pixiwoo were there to give lovely makeup advice as well as just a general friendly chitchat. We talked about the new Avon collection and how best it can be used as well as YouTube and names like Pixiwoo and Frootibeauty!

I went with Numera, Tanzina and Asmaa and we managed to get a sneaky pic in before meeting Alesha Dixon, Avon's Beauty and Empowerment Ambassador:

Alesha was absolutely gorgeous and friendly, explaining why she became the ambassador and how she supports domestic violence initiatives. She modelled the new Arctic Goddess blue palette (which I got to take home) and gushed about how she loves the Ideal Flawless foundation and perfectly nude nail varnish too; personally I think her natural skin is flawless, as a makeup artist I know a good base helps a makeup look look amazing, so that's her real secret!

I didn't get to take a proper FOTD picture but I have one pic that you can sort of see what I wore:

excuse the funny face!

The new collection is all very Snow Queen and icy but also slightly Mermaid-like too with the green nail polishes and second eyeshadow quad.
I got to take a few goodies from the new collection home:

I found the blue quad's matte colours to be more pigmented than the shimmery ones:

The Ultra Colour Rich lipgloss in Pink Icicle was surprisingly unsticky which I loved. The pink shimmer is sheer but the multicoloured glitter was pretty enough for me anyway. I also liked the thin applicator for precise application:

Finally, one of my favourite nail polishes from the range, Arctic Waters:

I do think my opinions of the company have changed as the quality seems to be a lot better than what I knew of it; I'm also quite impressed with the Supershock Gel Liner that I got to try out at the event and take home so looking forward to see if it lives up to the hype!

The Arctic Goddess collection launches in November and can be bought from an Avon rep (if you have one near you!) or online at www.avonshop.co.uk.

Have you tried Avon products before? What are your thoughts/favourite products?