Above you can see the range shot for Illamasqua’s forthcoming Art of Darkness collection (look for it from the 16th) and it’s quite challenging, I think you’ll agree. There are lots of wearable bits in the collection though, like some new liquid liners with sponge tips, great loose pigments, a gold body dust and those polishes. They mix up with new primary metallic Liquid Metal shades, and yes, yes indeed, that IS a navy lipstick you’re looking at there.

A navy lipstick, well now, that’s nothing but throwing down the gauntlet. And so ladies, post-cut, you can see said lipstick, named Disciple and costing €17, on my very own smackers.

Hi guys!

I like this about one billion times better than Revlon’s granny-chic beige I also tried recently. In fact, I like this quite a lot.  It’s very editorial, I know. I’m not about to go to work wearing it, but y’know, should the time and place be right, well yeah, I would.

You could also look at this bullet as a mixing medium – a way to darken up a red or pink to give it an edgier look, as opposed to wearing it solo, which obviously most people will not be doing. I may try to work a couple of looks that way but right now I got experimenting a little further and layered the new metallic berry gloss, Hermetic, €15, over the top. The brand’s glosses are great actually  – thick and pigment-packed, this has a fab metallic finish that really works with this matte lipstick to lift and add interest.

Very roughly applied to the centre of the lips and patted out, there’s a close-up below:

Whaddya think? An emo too far or good goth, it’s quite nice?

(psst: just noticed my foundation appears to have oxidised and my face is a different colour to my neck. The shame!)

It’s not the heavage I can’t take my eyes off in this pic. MY EYES! MY EYES!

Popularised by John Travolta, Tom Jones, Tom Selleck and other hairy Seventies idols, the low cut male neckline with perhaps a hint of gold medallion and a soupcon of Old Spice, positively screamed masculinity.

Those days seem to be making a comeback as the resurgance of this trend has been with us for a while now. Inspired by the likes of like Russell Brand and of course Simon Cowell, low cut necklines for men are firmly in again. Now this is all very well for the likes of worked out celebrity males (like Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass) purrr) who rock the look – but what about your average dude on the street?

According to high street retailers like Debenhams sales of tight low cut tshirts are on the rise and stores can’t keep up with demand.

But honestly though – what do you think of heavage? Does it get you all hot under the collar, or are you filled with horror at the thought of males of your acquaintance flashing their chests.

Is this something you’ll be getting your Dad for Christmas?

Thoughts please!

Beloved of the scaly and sensitive-skinned, E45 is launching a new version of its popular Endless Moisture body moisturiser that should find favour among anyone who likes a bit of shimmer in their life.

Endless Moisture Radiance promises to deliver all the long-lasting, hypoallergenic hydration of the original in the same lightweight, non-greasy formula, only fabulised with subtle sparkly bits. I love body lotions with a bit of a glimmer, me, so I’m intent on picking it up on my next Boots run.

If you’ve tried it already do let us know your thoughts on it in a comment below!

Echoing the colours of the glass produced on the island of Murano, Nubar’s three-free Venetian Glass collection for the autumn is an eight-strong collection of lit-from-within bold, glossy shades that’s a total departure from all the cremes we’ve been seeing for the past while.

Are you feeling a little over summer’s flat pastels? You’ll like this lot so.

Bronzo, left and Oro, right

Arencia, left and Caramello, right

Vaso, left, and Verde, right

Rosso, left, and Vino, right.

Looking at this collection in pictures, it strikes me that there are definitely a couple of bronzey orangey golds too many but they could well all come into their own on the hands. Verde is the one I got to try and is so much prettier in the bottle for example – lots of gold shimmer in there. I’ll give it a lash soon and do a post on how it is on the nails.

So, price? €10 a go is the damage or you can buy the set as a kit for €70, saving you a tenner. Stockists – as always! are available on the stockists page.

Regulars’ll know I’ve been trying to get my hands on this for a few months and every time I entered a Boots, it scuttled off the shelf and hid itself from me. Well, it was either that or it kept selling out.

Probably the latter.

Anyway, I finally tracked a tube down and as Boots was doing an offer, it was only €10.79, down from a regular price of €13.49 for 100mls. While I get a lot of stuff sent to me for review as part of my job as a beauty writer, I’m still a total cosmetics junkie like the rest of you and will hunt high and low for stuff I’ve read great things about.

But I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. I have been lucky enough to try and use some amazing products in my time, the whole way across the spectrum of price and brand. So while there have been so many rave reviews about this, I’ve got quite a bit of experience with balm cleansers and wondered if it’d stack up.

Recently I’ve put my trusty Eve Lom away to give myself a chance to see what else is out there. And this one is a very good substitute, as it happens. Lets talk a little about price before I get into its abilities though: at €13.49 full price for 100mls, I don’t think I’d get longer than about three weeks out of this with daily use, based on the instructions to use ‘a generous splodge’. I use maybe a 10c coin-sized piece of Eve Lom to effectively remove a face full of product and the grime of the day, and I’d generally get up to three months from a €70 pot. At full price, Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser would cost €53.96 for the same period.

That probably won’t change anyone’s mind but hey, I like working these sort of things out.

So, how is this in use? Firstly, you get a decently-sized pink-edged muslin with it which I was delighted about as all mine are grey and sad looking now, and the packaging and tube are predictably great. In use, this is nothing like Eve Lom really. There’s none of that slight grittiness or dense texture and would be more like Liz Earle’s Cleanse and Polish.  A thick, smooth white cream, Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser contains sweet almond oil, synthetic beeswax, orange and lavender oils and panthenol, a conditioning ingredient.

You use like any other balm cleanser – massage into the face and then remove with the hot cloth. It’s a very effective makeup remover and can handle mascara well. They recommend you don’t rub right into your eyes  and if you do, follow with meticulous rinsing, but I’ve noticed nothing untoward about using it to remove eye makeup, barring a slight tingling. It smells nice as well, sort of menthol-y, which I like.

In use on my face now for over  a week, I’m not noticing a build up of Face Cheese in my chin, where I normally would if a cleanser wasn’t doing the job, it’s leaving skin clean and fresh but not tight-feeling and is all-in-all, a very good buy for a balm junkie who may be on a budget trip. It’s also a good one for holidays and travel as the tube makes it very portable.

Thumbs up, Soap and Glory.

Okay okay I know this post should strictly speaking be appearing as part of our Fantasy Friday series (which has sadly been on its holidays for a while*). But what the hell, we have no rules here at Beaut.ie do we? It’s like Fight Club round here due to the lack of rules. Well without the fighting. Unless Kirstie gets her paws on the new lust have mascara before me – then there’s plenty of sulking.

So it’s not really like Fight Club at all then is it? But you get the analogy. So it’s Fantasy Wednesday today and no arguments.

On to the business of fantasy. Any time I see offers or competitions that proclaim “Win a luxury beauty hamper!” I’m always interested to know what exactly is in the luxury hamper.

Sometimes it’s wow! Othertimes it’s meh.

But just imagine if you could construct your own Fantasy Hamper? Full of things that you actually lust after but cannot afford without making yourself destitute or living on baked beans for the rest of the year. You can splurge on skincare, buy the fanciest makeup and throw in a facial voucher if you want. Or maybe you’d blow the lot on a spa trip – or a short visit to the Creme De La Mer counter. Perfume your thing? – sure chuck in a bottle or two.

You have Five Hundred Fantasy Euro to spend. What’s in your hamper?

*Any Fantasy Friday ideas up your sleeve? Get emailing them to us! info@beaut.ie

I’ve been slightly obsessed with the idea of silver nails ever since Lynnie posted about Chanel’s catwalk silver manicure back in February. I’m usually a fan of dark, glossy shades on my own nails, but the clean, futuristic look on the models’ nails drew me in. Sadly, the shade Chanel used was a limited edition that was no longer available and so the idea went out of my head.

And then I came across Gosh cosmetics nail polish in Silver, €8.50, as I browsed the shelf in my local chemist and that image from the Chanel show came back to me. Would I be able to pull off the smooth silver look with it? Well at that price I was certainly going to try.

I didn’t know if I’d be able to get the smooth, polished finish they managed at Chanel as Gosh Silver looks more metallic and textured in the bottle. I knew this shade was one where I’d definitely need a basecoat – metallics can be really hard to remove when applied directly to a naked nail. My first attempt involved two layers of Silver, but I’ve since decided this looked too heavy on my nails, so read on to see the results with one coat of Silver applied over a base coat.

Try as I might, I just can’t get it to look as smooth as the Chanel nails, but then I didn’t really think I would. I do quite like it on me, though I still think dark glossy shades are more flattering against my skintone. I actually think the Silver may be more flattering during winter, when it will contrast against darker, heavier clothes. In warm summer light it can tend to look a bit too pale and frosty on me, but indoors in low light it looks much better (and yes, I’m aware that it sounds like I’m trying to convince myself that I like it here, but I do see it as very much a “going-out” shade for myself).

I get the best finish if I apply one coat, but make sure to have a good bit of polish on the brush when applying it. The finish can be uneven if I wipe too much of the polish off the brush when applying, so I place a drop of polish onto the nail with the brush to begin with and then spread it out with the brush to get the most even result. The resulting silver manicure may not be Chanel, but I like it anyway.

I do recommend trying to be as neat as possible in applying a shade like this, as it doesn’t clean easily off finger tips and cuticles. This also means it’s not the easiest shade to remove – the metallic formula requires a bit of patience and effort, but try soaking a cotton pad in remover and pressing it down over the nail for 30 seconds to soften the polish before wiping it off and it makes it a bit easier.

At this stage, you hopefully have your tent organised, located and rinsed off your wellies after Oxegen (or Electric Picnic last year – ewwwww) and are just about set for EP this weekend. We’ve covered make-up inspiration and general festial survival on the blog in the past, but what about your crowning glory? Won’t somebody please think of the children gruaig!

Needless to say, dry shampoo is your only man when it comes to keeping hair (reasonably) fresh. Sure, there will be pop-up salons offering a wash and blow dry service if you’re arsed to seek them out, but mostly you should just forget about high-octane glamour this weekend. It’s all about looking half decent while keeping things as low-maintenance as possible so you can spend less time fretting about your hair and more time looking at bands or queuing for mojitos in the Bacardi Live Tent. Work with what you’ve got. And don’t go next or near those pay-as-you-go straighteners: GHDing dirty locks is just dis-gus-ting.

Cheap and cheerful Batiste is now available in different colours as well as different fragrances, so you should be able to find a version to suit. It’ll also give hair a bit of grip and volume so you’ll be able to tie it up out of the way with ease.

If you’ve got mid-length or longer hair and can pull them off, tousled, teased, low-slung pigtails or plaits (in the style of blogger Keiko Lynn rather than Abby from NCIS, mind) are my favourite festival look. Easy-peasy to do, they can look gorgeous, a bit boho and – yes – even grown-up if done properly. Clipping back the front of your hair for a half-up, half-down style is another dead simple option and will keep it out of your face.

Long, straight hair that’s inclined to look lank without daily blow dries? Curl it with a GHD, tongs, or hot rollers before you head for Stradbally. Aim for tight curls that will survive being slept on and you should be able to gently brush them out the following morning for soft Olivia Palermo-stylee waves or coax it into an updo with loads of body.

If you’ve long hair with a natural curl or wave and fancy something a little bit different for the weekend that’s in it, why not give the faux bob a whirl, or pile the lot up into a messy bun, either atop your head or at the nape of your neck as an asymmetrical chignon?

I love love love the look of headbands, both hippie chic versions like Nicole Richie’s and proper hippie flower garland versions as worn by Una Healy and Pixie Lott. Sadly my massive forehead will never permit me to pull of either with aplomb, but I urge anyone with a normal sized noggin and flower-child leanings to give them a whirl. If a full-on headpiece is a bit OTT for your tastes, try an embellished Alice band or a clip in a corsage instead.

Last but not least: remember to pack a cover-up. If all else fails, it’s very bloody handy to have a dapper trilby hat or chic headscarf (or wig, if you’re Katy Perry) on hand under which the whole lot can be bundled!