I’ve gone dotty!
Well, the ‘gone’ bit might be questionable (some might argue it’s more a case of ‘always has been’) but I’m totally seeing spots at the moment – and of course, it’s all because of nail polish! Hot on the heels of the blue strawberry slushie that was pa AA162, I finally managed to get my mitts on Deborah Lippmann’s Rockin’ Robin to continue my dotty delirium.
Posted in Beauty
Tagged aqua, Beauty, cosmetics, Deborah Lippmann, glitter, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, pastel, photos, review, Rockin' Robin, Staccato Collection, swatch, swatches, turquoise
Forget about the current nail polish trend for texture (you say texture… I say bed-sheet marks from your polish not drying properly), I’m all about the current craze for dots, spots and all things speckly! Both Illamasqua and Deborah Lippmann have come out with glorious collections of pastel crème polishes speckled with black glitter spots – and so to satisfy my dotty urges before I could get my mitts on either of those, I picked up pa AA62.
I know, catchy name, innit?! pa is a Japanese cosmetics brand currently wreaking havoc with my MS Word spellcheck as it’s written all in lower-case, and their polishes come in tiny Borrower sized bottles. Which is a shame, as AA62 is definitely a polish that you will want a whole lot more of!
Posted in Beauty
Tagged Beauty, best glitter nail polishes, cosmetics, Dear Laura, Japanese nail polish, jelly, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, pa, pa nail polish, review, swatches, turquoise
The English language has much to thank Tyra Banks for – popularisation of the word ‘fierce’, creation of the phrase ‘booty tooch’, invention of the infamous portmanteau (and excuse for me to use the word portmanteau at least once in my life!) ‘smize’. However, nail polish fans should also be particularly grateful for her coinage of the phrase ‘ugly-pretty’ – simply because it’s the perfect description for so many polishes that have hit the scene over the last few years!
Gone are the times where the only acceptable nail polish colours were pinks, nudes and reds; nowadays, weird shades of greige, decaying purples, mouldy greens, wincing neons and eye-boggling glitter combos rule the roost! Which brings me neatly onto my new favourite nail polish and definite contender for an ugly-pretty award (unless Tyra’s already patented those), Butter London’s Two Fingered Salute.
Posted in Beauty
Tagged Beauty, best green nail polishes, Butter London, green, make-up, nail lacuqer, nail polish, nail varnish, photo, review, shimmer, swatch, Two Fingered Salute, ugly-pretty, unique nail polishes
I’ve seen the future… and it’s chubby.
Hot on the heels of Clinique’s amazing successful Chubby Stick and Chubby Stick Intense Moisturising Lip Balms, come Clinique’s Chubby Stick Shadow Tints for Eyes! If you’re onto something good, milk it for all it’s worth – and when it’s as outrageously awesome as this, who’s complaining?!
Chubby Stick Shadow Tints for Eyes are basically a riff on eye shadow pencils – think MAC Shadesticks, Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks, Bobbi Brown Cream Shadow Sticks, Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Shadow Pencils or NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils and you’re halfway there. The difference? Clinique’s Chubby Sticks are bigger, fatter and well… just plain chubbier! Whereas most of the above products are either slim-line refined sticks of shadow or supersized eyeliner pencils, Chubby Sticks are chunky crayons of colour, just the right size to grab hold of and glide across the eyelid in one swoop.
Posted in Beauty
Tagged Beauty, Big Blue, Chubby Stick for Eye comparisons, Chubby Stick for Eyes, Clinique, Clinique Chubby Stick Shadow Tints for Eyes, Clinique Chubby Sticks, Clinique Chubby Sticks for Eyes, Clinique Eye Chubby Sticks, cosmetics, EOTD, FOTD, Fuller Fudge, look, LOTD, make-up, photos, Pink & Plenty, review, swatch, swatches
Nails Inc’s Sprinkles Collection of polishes continues to raid the kitchen pantry for delicious inspiration – if Sweets Way was the hundreds and thousands on top of a cupcake, then Sugar House Lane is cookies n’ cream in a chocolate sundae!
Sugar House Lane is a lip-smacking combination of black and silver glitter in a creamy milk coffee brown base – think an Oreo milkshake and you’re pretty much there (and now you’ve got me thinking about Oreo milkshakes… mmm)!
Posted in Beauty
Tagged Beauty, best glitter nail polishes, cosmetics, glitter, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, Nails Inc, photos, review, Sprinkles Collection, Sugar House Lane, swatch
Sugar and spice and all things nice… that’s what Nails Inc Sweets Way is made of!
Sweets Way is part of Nails Inc’s awesome Sprinkles Collection of nail polishes. As soon as I saw these swoon-worthy sweeties online, I knew I had to have them – and since Nails Inc isn’t sold in Hong Kong, the lovely Jenn sent them to me! And I am so SO happy she did, because I am even more in love with them in real life!
It’s time to get chubby!
We all know how much I love Clinique’s Chubby Stick lip balms (I own seven and counting!), so it should come as no surprise that I have been awaiting the launch of the new Clinique Chubby Sticks Intense with baited breath… or should that be puckered lips?!
Clinique’s Chubby Sticks Intense are basically Chubby Sticks with added junk in the trunk. Whilst the regular Chubby Sticks are more mellow subtle sorbets, these new ones are in-yer-face intense shots of colour. For all of you who loved the old moisturising formula yet wished the shades were just that little more pigmented – well, the Clinique Genie has been at work and your wish is their command.
Posted in Beauty
Tagged Beauty, best lip balms, best lip products, best lipsticks, Broadest Berry, Chubby Sticks, Chubby Sticks Intense, Clinique, Clinique Chubby Stick Intense, Clinique Chubby Sticks, Clinique Chubby Sticks originals vs intense, comparison swatches, cosmetics, Grandest Grape, make-up, Mightiest Maraschino, photos, review, swatch, swatches, tinted lip balms
Zoya FeiFei is absolutely one of my favourite polishes of last year. It’s blue, it’s silver, it’s black, it’s gold… ugh, screw it, it’s just awesome!
FeiFei is such an amazingly multi-faceted colour – like a sexy sparkling chameleon. It’s even good enough to make me overlook the fact that its name sounds like Canto for fat; in fact, “Fei Fei” literally was the nickname given to a chubby Hong Kong TV personality of yore, Lydia Shum… and I’m pretty sure my auntie has been know to call me it a few times too!
Metallic polishes are ten a penny and dime a dozen these days (phrases which would both make for decent metallic nail polish names actually!), so it takes something pretty special for me to sit up and take notice of one. And with a name like Screaming Bright – and a colour that lives up to it – MAC have achieved just that!
MAC’s Screaming Bright is part of their recent permanent collection of polishes – a pale yellow gold that is SO bright, it almost starts to look silver… if that even makes sense! This is some seriously SHINY shizzle.
Posted in Beauty
Tagged Beauty, best metallic nail polishes, cosmetics, gold, Mac, MAC cosmetics, make-up, metallic, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, review, Screaming Bright, silver, swatch
Sometimes you just see a nail polish and know it’s going to be a classic. Such was the case with OPI’s Warm & Fozzie.
Part of OPI’s 2011 Muppets Holiday Collection, Warm & Fozzie was part of the first wave of mainstream interesting foil-metallic-shimmer-duochrome-awesomesauce finishes, that in my world at least was kick-started with Chanel’s Graphite (possibly my most referenced nail polish ever – I just can’t get enough of it!). Since then, we’ve seen loads of polishes with a similar finish in the same metallic colour family (including Butter London’s Wallis and Estee Lauder’s Nouveau Riche) but I still hold a soft spot for one of the originals!
Posted in Beauty
Tagged Beauty, best bronze nail polishes, best copper nail polishes, bronze, copper, cosmetics, make-up, metallic, Muppets Collection, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, O.P.I, OPI, review, swatch, Warm & Fozzie, Warm And Fozzie
I'm Rachel Read, a Hong Kong-based freelance writer and editor, make-up addict and general layabout. I'm powered by bacon, cupcakes, nail polish and the needs of two cute Yorkies.
All products/meals were paid for by me, unless otherwise stated.
Contact me at
rachelmread+ttlg@gmail.com
Photo by Sabrina Sikora Photography
© Rachel Mary Read and Through The Looking Glass, 2010-20.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material (including photos) without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rachel Read and Through The Looking Glass with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Through The Looking Glass by Rachel Read is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Through The Looking Glass 