How To: Rock an Orange Lip

Orange can be a pretty hard lip colour to pull off, and it won't be everyone's first choice of Spring colours, am I right? I think that most people are intimidated because they think "orange lipstick? too bright!", but really, there are so many different ways to wear orange. We all wear red which is bright so why are we so scared of orange? I have a couple of tips to help you feel comfortable in orange.

The two oranges that I have in my collection are Rimmel - In Love With Ginger and Mac - Morange. I, like many people, do not tend to go out and buy a ton of orange lipsticks, I go more for the reds. But orange is a huge trend this Spring, so I am going to try and be more confident in wearing it. 
Lip colours like Morange are probably not the best to go for when you're trying out your first orange. Its one of the most neon coloured orange lipsticks that I have ever come across. I would however recommend In Love With Ginger for those of you who are newbies to orange, as it has a red tint to it. Its super glossy in finish which I love and it leaves your lips feeling super moisturized.   

  In terms of the more neon oranges, it is super important that you use a lip liner. These colours are super hard to get off the skin so if you get the lipstick in the wrong place, that's it. Use a lip liner to line the outside of your lips before you go in with a colour like Morange. With bold lips, the line has to be super accurate around the lip! The lip liner that I use is by GOSH. I find that these neon lip colours look slightly nicer on a darker or tanned skin tone, as on paler skin tones they can wash you completely out. I feel I am even slightly too pale to completely rock Morange, but I love it and wear it anyway. 

As you can tell from the pictures I have kept the rest of my face super natural. Its just one of those colours where you cannot make your eye makeup or cheek makeup heavy as well as wearing orange on your lips. A dash of highlighter and maybe some bronzer is more than enough on top of your base.  

My final tip would be that if any colour does spill out of the edges, use concealer on a small brush and just tidy things up. Finding the right orange for you may take some time, but be sure to experiment with the more blue toned oranges, and the more red toned oranges. Which one will suit you depends on your skin tone.

Are there any oranges you love?

Nail Trend: Spring 2014

  

 I loved writing my Spring Lip Colour Guide the other day so I thought I would do the nails part that I planned! It was almost impossible to only choose a handful of polishes to show you because I have a huge chest full of them and I love so many. 

Most of these are pastel shades, as we all know these were the colours hitting the catwalks for spring/summer this year. Of course there are a few appearances from the Barry M Gelly range, since they are my all time favourites!

Nails Inc - Bruton Street I got this little mini in a Glossybox a few months ago and I literally fell in love with it. A perfect muted pink colour that reminds me of flowers, we have always had flowers this colour in our porch in Spring. 
Barry M Gelly - Papaya Of course this favourite would be in here, how could it not! A gorgeous coral colour that looks perfect on all skin tones and with pretty much any outfit.    Barry M Gelly - Prickly Pear Possibly my most used nail polish ever. Its a lilac that has a super glossy finish to it. I feel that Lilac is the perfect pastel colour for this season and I am looking for a few clothing bits to match this polish.
 Essie - Navigate Her
I have a horrible feeling that this colour is discontinued because I got it on Fragrance Direct a year or so ago for £2.99. Its not to everyone's taste I don't think but I really like it because it reminds me of leaves and just spring grass. Its a wonderful colour to use for nail art as well!
Essie - Naughty Nautical
I know Essie is a fairly pricey brand, but this colour was totally worth it! Its a sea blue turquoise colour with glitter inside which isn't too noticeable but when it catches the light it is gorgeous.
Barry M Gelly - Blueberry Another of my most used polishes, which I have bought a gorgeous top to match (was in my birthday Haul). This looks super flattering on all skin tones, I have a few pale friends who wear this colour and it looks lovely, and it also looks nice on my skin tone. 
Barry M Matte - Vanilla
The only matte finish I have in this post which is quite surprising because I love matte polishes. I thought I should include a more nude colour for those of you who don't like pastels. This is one of the few nude colours I own, and this one doesn't feel wintery to me which is surprising. I love it and the finish is so pretty!

Apologies some of the colours look a bit dull in the photos but they are actually super bright!

What are your favourite spring colours?

Lip Trend: Spring 2014

I am so happy that the weather is taking a turn for the better and I can actually see the blue in the sky instead of just clouds and grey. I was sorting out my makeup collection again yesterday as I got a new Lipstick acrylic stand from EBay, and I sorted through and put most of my Spring lip favourites in there.

MAC - Morange
An extremely bright orange which can not be pulled off by everyone. Personally I think I cannot wear it that well, and tend to put a red hue over the top, but it looks gorgeous on people with slightly paler skin than I have. 
MAC - Ravishing This is a fairly universal lip shade, its a orange toned nude, perfect for a more neutral Spring look. I can't quite tell if its coral or orange mixed with a nude shade, but whatever it is, its gorgeous. Its not the most moisturising of MAC lipsticks but nonetheless it is a lovely product!
GOSH - 60 Lambada I love red lipsticks all year through, but I feel like dark burgundy reds just are not the way after winter. This lip colour is a more orange toned red and is a fairly build able color. When you apply one layer it is not too overwhelming, but with two layers it is bright. This formula is fairly moisturising on the lips too. 
Rimmel Kate Moss - 110 This is a very gorgeous coral colour which again I think will suit those with a paler skin tone and those with a much warmer skin tone. I tend to wear this for more of a daytime look and I just love it. It is one of the matte finishes and I find that these do dry my lips out a little but the colour is gorgeous so its worth it.
Rimmel - In Love With Ginger This is a fairly new lipstick from Rimmel, having only been launched last year. There was so much hype around the new moisture renew lipsticks and this one definitely got talked about the most. I spotted it in a local ASDA just before Christmas and snapped it up for only £3 which was a complete bargain. Again this is a very bright orange but could be toned down with a red colour over the top. Its super similar to Morange but slightly more moisturising.

All in all a fair amount of orange tones in this post right? I just feel that brighter hues are much nicer in Spring when the sun is shining and you can actually be outside without feeling like your fingers are going to fall off.   I am thinking of doing a Spring Nail Loves - what do you guys think?

Nails Of The Week #4: Spring Papaya

Spring has sprung my friends and with the weather being so gorgeous this weekend I thought I would paint my nails a perfect Spring colour!

This is the Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Papaya, which is a gorgeous pinky coral, and as usual the formulation is amazing and glossy.  

Are there any spring colours that you recommend? 

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer VS. Collection Illuminating Touch Concealer

Who doesn't love the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer, lets be honest? However, the other day I was in Superdrug and all the Collection products were under £4 - so I thought I would pick up the Illuminating Touch Concealer and see if it was any match to the Lasting Perfection.

I wasn't sure whether you guys would want a written review or a comparison so I thought I would do a little bit of both.

Lasting Perfection This concealer has a very thick consistency and has medium to full coverage. It is not the easiest of concealers to blend as it is so thick, but with a brush it is much easier to blend. I tend to use it on red spots and under my eyes to cover my dark circles however it can sometimes be a bit too cakey and heavy for under the eyes. There isn't an amazing colour selection, only 4 colours, so most of you will probably have to mix a couple of shades together which is what I have to do. The doe foot applicator isn't the most hygienic of all applicators but it does mean you can get the concealer precisely where you want it. I would say this concealer is perfect for those of you wanting to cover red areas and spots. 

Illuminating Touch  If you thought Lasting Perfection had a bad colour selection, this bad boy only has 3 shades in its collection (pardon the pun). It has a pen style applicator which I just love because I enjoy winding it up to get the product out - which means I normally get carried away and end up with far too much! It has a medium texture but still a medium coverage, which makes it even better for under eye darkness and other dark areas! I love using it to highlight the centre of my nose too. When applied under the eyes it does not crease or seep into your pores and fine lines which is always handy. I also use this on my eye lid before applying my Maybelline 24 Hr Colour Tattoo because it neutralises the eyelids. 

All in all both concealers are amazing for drugstore products, but Lasting Perfection is better for redness and Illuminating Touch is better for darkness. Both the concealers are £4.99 normally, and are available from Boots and Superdrug.
Which one do you guys prefer?

The Red Lipstick Collection

A phrase often said to me is "why do you need another red lipstick Daena?" - well every red lipstick is different to me.  Below is my current collection of red lipsticks, and from the swatches you can see that all are very very different. 

  

I would probably have to say my most used are the Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple, the Revlon Colourburst Matte Balm in Striking Spectaculaire and lastly the Collection lipstick in Queen of Hearts. The Collection lipstick was in fact my first ever red lipstick, so although it is probably well past its use by date, I feel I cannot part with it.

1. MUA Shade 1
- Creamy and pigmented but hard to remove

2. Miss Sporty - Dream
- Very Bright, not too long lasting either

3. Maybelline Super Stay - Continuous Cranberry
- Stays on ridiculously well, matte finish

4. Revlon Lip Butter - Candy Apple

- Sheer colour, moisturising and slightly glossy

5. Revlon Colourburst Matte Balm - Striking Spectaculaire

- Matte (duh), not too pigmented, staying power is ok

6. Collection Lasting Colour - 1 Queen of Hearts

- Not the best staying power and a bit drying to the lips

7. Elf Matte Lip Colour - Rich Red

- Matte finish, bit drying on the lips but the tip makes it easy to apply precisely

8. GOSH - 60 Lambada - (newest edition to my collection)

- Gorgeous colour, moisturising and easy to build up colour

9. Sleek Matte Me - Rioja Red 

- Applicator makes application easy, bit drying on the lips, matte finish, hard to remove

10. Rimmel - Kate Moss 107

- Matte finish, slightly more vampy, not too drying

11. Rimmel Apocolips - Big Bang 

- Glossy Lip Lacquer, gorgeous colour, gets on teeth easily despite tricks!

Some may say I have far too many red lipsticks, but this is only the beginning my friends - I guarantee I will have at least 4 more by the end of Summer. Admittedly 2, 3 and 6 do come out very similar but the texture of them is far from similar. 

Each lipstick has its own perks and its own disadvantages so they are all good and used for different purposes and events. 

I used Micellear water to see how easily they could be removed and to really test their staying power. As you can see, the MUA lipstick, the Maybelline Super Stay and the Sleek Matte Me lip colours stayed on the best! I am not even exaggerating when I say I was scrubbing at my arm for 5 minutes and the Sleek one is still there fully  even now. 

I hope this has been helpful and inspired you to go out and buy a red lippy...or two...