Lip Maths: Pens at the ready...

 I need your undivided attention today, class. The simplest theories are often the most important ones. Observe:

High Voltage Lip Candy in 'Vavavoom' + Hi Fi Spotlights Lip Glaze in 'Corrode' =

Hotness that is most certainly inappropriate for school.


Gloss addition has come up in every single exam paper for the past 10 bajillion years, and it's sure to come up again and again. When revising your stash, I strongly encourage you to practice the lipstick/gloss equation.


I'd be a crap teacher, wouldn't I?

High Voltage Lip Candy Swatches

Due to recent customer service complaints, long order waits, orders going missing and ingredient inconsitencies, I can no longer recommend High Voltage Cosmetics.

Soooo.... I pretty much cannot stop buying from High Voltage. Whenever Jasmine puts the 5 for $20 Lip Candy deal up, I physically cannot resist it. I just can't. Luckily for me, you can now get lip product grab bags! Sweeeet! And if you're reading this anywhen near time of posting, go and buy the very limited Heart of Glass now. Go on. *pokepoke*

Anyway, my last order was some of the 'tamer' colours that High Voltage carry. Let's have a butchers:

 'Bad Romance.'

 'Sunset Strip Strut.'

 'Va Va Voom'

'Kiss Of True Love.'

'Sweet and Deceitful.'

Sometimes I look at my lip swatches and think... I'd kiss the crap out of me if I wasn't me. Anyway... Not bad choices at all, if I do say so myself! Bad Romance might be a bit much on my skin, I'll just have to play and see what I can make it work with. I'm a massive fan of Sunset Strip Strut and Kiss of True Love already - just my kind of colours - and Va Va Voom will be featured in Lip Maths this week! I was hoping for a Lime Crime Cosmopop dupe in Sweet and Deceitful (which would be a fitting name for a LC dupe, actually, -_-) but it's more brown-leaning.  My word, does a peach lipstick do things to me! What shall I pair it with?

Bought anything pretty lately?

A-Z of me

Everyone and their dog has been doing this lately, and I think it's kind of nice. I talk to a lot of you on Twitter and Facebook, but not all of you obviously, so I thought I'd bung one of these out.



A. Age: 24
B. Bed size: Double. Not large enough, apparently, as I punched my other half in the face a couple of nights ago. Ah well.
C. Chore you hate: Cleaning the oven. WORST. CHORE. EVER.
D. Day: Saturday - I either don't have to get up, will be visiting friends/family or off on a photoshoot, or it's our RPG/takeaway day.
E. Essential start to your day: Shower, makeup, breakfast, in that order.
F. Favourite colour: Purple and green, though I am partial to red.
G. Gold or Silver: I used to say silver until I got some rings which are really, really important to me which are gold. I still prefer to wear silver in my ears or on necklaces, but I have one hand with gold rings and one with silver.
H. Height: 5′10"
I. Instruments: I played tenor horn for about a week in year 6. Counts?I'm not very musical at all!
J. Job title: Events Coordinator
K. Kids: Eventually, although right now I really can't deal with the concept of placenta so prefer to to not think about it.
L. Live: Ealing, which is in west London.
M. Mum’s name: Patricia, although no-one calls her that except her mother when she's been naughty - it's Trish to everyone else.
N. Nicknames: Rob, Robz, Bobs, Gobshite, Period Head, Skins.
O. Overnight hospital stays: None.
P. Pet peeve: Do you really have time for this? I have so many. To name a few - Uggs and short skirts (are you fucking hot or cold or what?), Uggs in the winter (they ain't winter boots, yo), people who push past you and then walk at one mile an hour, most makeup ads on TV, when people write 'voila' as 'wa-la,' and when they write 'Julia Goolia was Smith' on Facebook instead of 'Julia Goolia née Smith'. Those last two... oh man, the rage.
Q. Quote from a movie: 'But I was going to go into Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!'

R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: Sister, Toni, 20.
T. Time you wake up: About 7.00.
U. Underwear: Either tiny ridiculous whore pants or enormous girl boxers, I don't seem to have an inbetween pant.
V. Vegetables you dislike: I like most vegetables but I HATE olives. Are they a vegetable or what? Anyway, they be gross.
W. What makes you run late: My phone-keys-wallet-iPod-diary-glasses-kindle-Oyster check, which inevitably takes about ten minutes and whatever it is I've lost will be right in front of me/on my face/already in my bag.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Wrist, shoulder. And I've had a CAT scan, they're awesome!
Y. Yummy food you make: Risotto, nutella cupcakes.
Z. Zoo: Oooh.... giraffes! And hippos. And apes. And if I'm at an aquarium, beluga whales. <3

You're all tagged! I've loved reading the ones I've seen so far!

Lip Collaboration: Orange Lip Product Swatches

EDIT: This is a really old post. I'm trying to archive all my lipsticks, and Blogger ate this very important post, hence reposting it. Stupid Blogger.

Wendy from Turtle Beauty, Lily from Beauty's Bad Habit and I were nattering on twitter about lippies, as you do, and we decided to do a swatch collaboration. Wendy posted her purple lipstick collection yesterday, I'll be doing my oranges here, and Lily will be posting her reds tomorrow.

Wendy posted her purple lipsticks here.
Lily will posted her red lipsticks here.



I don't have as many oranges as Wendy has purples and I'm pretty sure that Lily has 12,387 red lippies, so this post will be a little shorter and sweeter. Orange is a shade that I find very difficult to both buy and wear, so I hope that this helps someone out.

For reference, here are my bare-a-roonie lips:



Sexeh.

All these pics were taken with flash - there has been no sun here for about ten bazillion years. I meant to take skin swatches, but as you can see my lips aren't that pigmented, and with the "light" here I couldn't get good ones in the end. Let me know if you need a comparison.

Orange you glad you bought me?

-Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Hair Dye



Oh hai, chippy toof!

I love this Lip Lustre! While not as vibrant as I was hoping, the gold sparkle throughout is super pretty. If you're not sure about oranges, you can't argue with the price of Lip Lustres and this is a less in-your-face orange.

-Barry M Lip Paint in 117 Orange




Ah, Barry M Lip Paints. Barry M lovers will know that their lip paints either go on creamy and fabulous or horrible and drying. Sadly, this is the latter. A good slick of balm underneath does help. For £4.49 though, it's not a bad call. I have to be very careful with how I wear this shade though as does wash me out a tad and the shade can look a little 'dirty' on me.

-66 Lip Palette Orange.



I wasn't sure whether I would include this as a) there are ten billion lip colours in these palettes and it's obvious you'll find a harder-to-find shade there, and 2) you can't wear them out unless you want to cart around the massive palette. However, as the finish is a fair bit different to the others and the colour is a slightly more creamsicle orange, I thought I'd stick it on for reference. It's a shame I can't take this with me as I really like it!

-Gosh Velvet Touch lipstick in 82 Exotic.



The frostiest of my oranges, and a little less red in real life. This is a new purchase so I don't have too much to say about its wear, but I do really like the Velvet Touch formula even if I think its a bit of a incongruous name for a frosty lippy. Comes in at around £7 which I consider a bargain.
-High Voltage Lip Candy in Kinky.



Lip Candys aren't currently available on the HV website, but I spoke to Jasmine on Twitter and she can still make them. This is my favourite of the lot. It's the most flattering shade on me, the price is excellent and you get great wear out of it. Unfortunately the best way to apply is to take some out the pot, warm it up on the back of your hand and then apply with a brush, which is a pain in the arse but I think it's worth it.

-Barry M Lip Paint in no 54 Peach



A much nicer formula than Orange, but still a little drying. I bought this in hopes that it would be like Lime Crime's Cosmopop, which I fell in love with but won't buy. It's hard to tell both from online swatches and this picture, but Peach is a little more orange, a little more neon. I've never worn this so if anyone has any suggestions, please tell me because it is awesome!

Universally a-Peel-ing

-Primark Well Licked Extreme Shine Gloss in Sorbet



Sloppy application.... flash will expose you. Whoops.

A bargain find I snapped up for 50p! I don't think this is available anymore which is a shame. Obviously as a gloss is sheerer, it's going to be a lot easier to wear. If you can find this in Primark, I'd recommend picking it up - it's very sticky, but in a dry way but it lasts for ages on your lips - if not, Barry M has a less red-based Lip Gloss Wand.

-Nyx Round Lipstick in Femme.





I was unsure whether or not to post this, as it's not an orange at all, but it is a pretty orange-y red and Wendy was curious about it. Again, a way for the fainter of heart to get their citrus on. I love the formula of these and would certainly recommend snapping this one up.

(From here on, lipsticks are added to the post as and when I've bought them.)

-High Voltage Lip Whip in Lil Devil

High Voltage Lip Whips are the indie equivalent of OCC lip tars. The website states this as being a great light orange for blondes and redheads - while it's not as light as I was expecting, it's perfect for my hair/skin.

-Shiro Cosmetics Intertube in Rickrolled


A super pigmented, glossy lipstick with a strong ginger scent. I love this shade to bits! And it's hilarious! Win!

-High Voltage Lip Candy in Material Girl


A deep, coral-leaning orange. I love this shade - classy yet unusual enough to make me happy. Love the Lip Candy formula!

-Milani Orange-Gina

Despite everyone trying to ruin this for me by forcing me to read 'Gina' like 'vagina,' this lippie was well worth the wait. Crammed with gold shimmer, it's bloody lovely for summer. Thanks Wendy!

-High Voltage Kiss of True Love

Hoorah for more orange Lip Candy! A lovely coppery orange.

Hope that helped someone! Other oranges I've got my beady little eyes on are:

*Evil Shades Deviant Lipstick in Ardour
*High Voltage Amplified Lips in Kiss of True Love
*OCC Lip Tar in Traffic
*Milani Orangina ( I'm pretty sure it's DC'd but if anyone can find this for me, I will love you forever.)*MAC Morange


Any oranges you'd like to recommend for me? Orange liners?

Did you like this post? Would you like more swatch colloborations, or more swatch 'archives', i.e., a purple shadow collection post, or a hot pink lipstick post?

Robyn xxx

Playing with Inglot!

I've been a poorly bunny this week so I've not had the chance to play with my new Inglot stuff as much as I would have liked - I haven't got to use the lovely lime green yet! However, I'm please to report my intial impression is: awesome.

 AMC 60 on lid, AMC 372 in crease, AMC 371 on lashline.

 AMC 379 on lid. With blue mascara. Aw, yeeeah.

AMC eyeliner gel in matte 79 (the red one!). Shadows from Wet & Wild Comfort Zone palette.


Blimey O'Reilly, the shadows are pigmented. You'd think I'd have to pack on the bright blue on my lower lashline, right? Nah - it pretty much applied itself! And I am in love with the red gel liner and I need to catch 'em all - it went on so smoothly. I can't wait to use it more bitchingly.


Posting might be a little sporadic and/or swatch heavy this week. As I said, I've been ill which means less makeup, and I'm waiting on a new computer as this one is dying on it's arse :(

May Favourites

I said I wouldn't do another favourites post, and apparently I'm a liar. Ah well. Let's see what I've been enjoying this month.

Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche
There's something about a Chanel fragrance that's so luxurious to me! This is an old favourite of mine that my boyfriend bought for me for my birthday - he says it smells of me, so I guess I have to wear it! Shame. It apparently has notes of 'Jasmine, Water Hyacinth, Citron, Teakwood, White Musk, Patchouli Amber, Vetiver,' but I don't know what any of those things smell like - to me it smells awesome. I should really write more perfume reviews.

Fyrinnae Damn Paladins
My favourite neutral and go-to shadow, I've been bunging this on quite a lot lately! Soft clay-taupe with green/blue shimmer - really unusual and beautiful, but still subtle enough for those gotta-get-outta-the-house mornings! I'm wearing it here, here, here... you get my drift. If my makeup was on fire, this is one of those shades I'd burn my hands to shit for to save.

Milani Orange-Gina
Ok, so I only got this right at the end of May as a gift from Wendy, but I love it already! You all know I love an orange lippy and I'd been lusting after this for ages! It's packed with a pretty intense gold shimmer - it's just uber flattering on me and I love it. You can see me wearing in our Inglot haul video here.

Special Makeup Effects for Stage and Screen by Todd Debreceni.
Yes, it's a book. Since I got my Kindle, pages confuse me, but I keep picking up this bad boy, opening a page at random and learning something new - this book is crammed with prosthetics stuff I had no idea about! My mum bought me this book for my birthday because she thought I'd find it interesting. If you always skip to the makeup on DVD extras, this book is well worth a look. It's got everything from facial anatomy to bald caps to wigs to making false ears.  Really cool book, fanks Mum!

Calvin Klein Eyeshadow Brush 2.
I bought a load of discount brushes from Fragrance Direct and this a really cute eye brush. It's a fluffy paddle shape, so nice if you blend with a windshield wiper motion, and dense enough for application if you want a wash of colour. Nice all-rounder, bargain at £2.99!

Well, that's all folks - not that much from me this month, I know, but it's been a very makeup-less month - I haz a lazy. I have a feeling I know what June's favourites are going to be already though! Feel free to point me in the direction of your May favourites posts.

Inglot Haul, Swatches and Review.

Oh yes, you read that right. I finally got my ass round to getting some Inglot. As you probably know, the lovely Wendy came and stayed with me at the weekend on her trip to the UK, and pretty much the first thing we did was head to Westfield and hit up Inglot. We were there for at least an hour swatching and omg-ing at everything. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, which is a shame as it really is a beautiful store.

This is a pretty long review and I think I've covered everything but if there is anything I have missed, I'll add it later, and obviously feel free to ask me stuff too.

Here's my beautifully boxed haul! Let's do the shadows first, shall we?

AMC 60 (bright shimmery yellow), AMC 59 (bright shimmery lime.)

AMC 372, (bright matte green teal), AMC 371 (bright matte blue), AMC 379 (matte light grape purple.)

Top row over NYX JEP in Milk, bottom row over bare skin. L-R AMC 60, AMC 59, AMC 372, AMC 371, AMC 379.

OOOOH. I went for cute, bright tropicals. I'm really impressed with the payoff of the Inglot colours - I don't think we swiped one thing that we thought was 'meh.' I'd still say the yellow and green here need a base but they're traditionally very difficult colours. I swatched MAC Chrome Yellow yesterday and it blows compared to this, as do my Sleek yellows, Barry M yellow and 120 yellow.

For those who don't know, Inglot is most famous for their Freedom System whereby you create your own palettes. The makeup is all laid out on a table in pans, and you pop them on a magnetized board. When you've got what you want, the staff make up your palettes for you. I went for a 5 square pan palette - thes pans are 2.7g each. With these and the round pans, you can fill them with shadows, lipsticks, brow powder, brow wax, and cream concealer. Larger pan palettes can be made up with blush and face powder (I'm not sure if there were cream foundations or not.) They also have palettes of mixed sizes, i.e., ones you can put eyeshadows and face powder in, etc. I didn't get a good look at those but the square and round palettes seemed to go from 2 pan to 10 pan and the saving seems to get better as you buy more. If you buy and fill a palette, you get a 10% discount. So my 5 eyeshadows, with the palette included, cost £27 after 10 % discount. Each shadow was £5 (before discount) with the exception of AMC 371 which shows on my receipt as £4, no idea why! The palette itself was £6 before discount - it's uber sturdy with really strong magnets, so I think it's a bargain.

The price system is pretty complex and confusing, but the staff in store were very helpful . Either way, I'm really pleased with what I got for the price.Consider that a MAC palette 4 pan palette costs £6.50 and that their refills cost £9 as opposed to £4/5 - if you already have a Z palette or similar Inglot is well worth checking out! I'm not overly knowledgeable when it comes to high end brands and it's easy to use the blogger buzz of 'cheaper than MAC,' but for the eyeshadows, I'd certainly say they're more consistent in quality and have a similar sized shade range.

Lets move on to the lip products...

Matte Collection AMC Lip Pencil in 11, Slim Gel Lipstick in 65.

  Slim Gel Lipstick in 65, Matte Collection AMC Lip Pencil in 11.

Matte Collection AMC Lip Pencil in 11.

Slim Gel Lipstick in 65.

That matte! I die! It is quite a dry product, but it doesn't instantly emphasise the dry parts on the insides of my lips, which is a plus. I got the 'ring' of colour left on my lips after eating, but I've not worn it long enough to comment on its wear further. So far, I like it as equally as the MAC mattes and I have, and it's cheaper at £9. The Slim Gel Lipstick comes it at £11 - I haven't worn it other than to swatch it, but it's opaque and very creamy. I'll update later.

The wall of lipstick in Inglot was beautiful! I didn't pick an ordinary lipstick as I wanted to try something a little different. I was instantly drawn to the matte pencil and I chose the purple colour in honour of Wendy. Inglot also carries Lip Paints (in a pot), Sleeks Platinum Lip Paint (doefoot applicator) Sleeks Cream Lip Paint (doefoot applicator), various lip glosses and lip liners. They also had a really, really cute little display of all their black lip products, which thankfully for my wallet I managed to avoid.

I also picked up a gel liner...

AMC eyeliner gel in matte 79.

Yeah. It's red. I was going to get a lovely teal, but Wendy is an enabler (her words, not mine!) and how often do you see red liner?! I swatched a few of these on my hand and it was a right bugger getting it off, so I'm keen to wear it. They seem really smooth and creamy to apply, and seeing as I haven't swatched it with an eyeliner brush yet I'm really interested. These come in at £10, which I think is a bloody bargain considering the Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner comes in at £7.99 in Superdrug

I also bought the Duraline, which is a liquid to create, er, liquid out of powder products - so convert pigments into liners/paints, essentially, but I think it deserves more thorough investigation before I review it.

So overall... yeah, I love Inglot. They're not the cheapest, but they're excellent value and the range is fantastic. Sadly the only store in the UK is in Westfield, London, but if you're up shopping, do go and have a look. The customer service also deserves a mention. The lady who served us was friendly and helpful without being too pushy, which is pretty much what I want - waiting in the wings rather than breathing over my shoulder - and all the girls were wearing lovely makeup, I mean really nice and funky without being too over the top or trannytastic, unlike some SAs! I'll certainly be going back to Inglot when I have a bit of cash... I came out with a huge wishlist!

Looks and more of Robyn-and-Wendy time coming soon!


*Oh. AMC stands for 'advanced makeup component,' which according to nice sales assistant lady, means it's more pigmented. I'm not sure compared to what but I can't argue!