Recent Nails

Once again apologies, I have been super busy at work and that has left me so drained in my free time that I haven't really had the energy to blog, I have missed it and I haven't stopped reading all the wonderful blogs out there (or playing with cosmetics). I have been trying out some fantastic products and some not so fantastic ones so I will be back sharing with you again.

First off I will give you a few of my recent nails

This one is my first little venture into Famous by Sue Moxley, the colour is 20 - Nude and you get a massive 14ml for 4 pounds. The texture is nice and the brush is suprisingly good. It took 3 coats for it to be opague and the colour reads a little darker on the nails than it does in the bottle. It's a pinky beige with a light gold micro shimmer and also dries super fast. Like I said it's a little darker than I like my nudes normally but I will certainly be giving the range another look as the formulation is a corker.

3 coats plus seche vite in the shade

in the most direct sunlight I could get on the day

The next is one of my go to brands and a polish range I have had before. I am always excited when Bourjois bring out new shades and I love how they have gone quite quirky and bold with their latest offerings in the So Laque "Paris Showtime" collections. This is the first that caught my eye and it is T44 Bleu Model and it is a great Tiffany blue type shade, not quite blue not quite green and slightly darker and bluer than China Glazes "For Audrey". The formula is super smooth and when on light a dream and even with the Seche Vite there was no shrinkage and no tip wear and it held fast for a good 4 days and I decided to change it way before I needed to.

in the shade

Direct sunlight - excuse the raggy cuticles

Lastly we have a little bit of fun, I know we are all completely over crackle polishes but when I saw the new MUA Nail Quake ones in Superdrug I couldn't resist. So here we have Shiver which is pink even though it looks a tad more coral in the bottle (I long for a coral shatter) but it's lots of fun and for £2.99 whats not to like. It's a nice rich, bod colour texture and cracks up really evenly. Shown here over two coats of Kylie by Andrea Fullerton.

Direct Sunlight

Shade

couple of FOTDs

The first look is quickly becoming my go to look. I used to go straight for the pale skin, winged eyeliner and either neutral or red lip. I am getting older now and I am finding that the winged eyeliner does not look as good on me as it used to. I am also a lover of a strong eye and love playing with colour but lately I have been loving the taupe as an easy and quick eye look.

Products used -

Base

Loreal wrinkle filler eye cream

Illamasqua cream pigment in emerge under the eyes

Clinique Super City Block

Stila angel light powder foundation in the lightest shade.

Eyes

UDPP

Boots NO7 simple eyes compact. Lighter shade on the inner third and the taupe blended across the lid and up into the crease.

Eylure eyebrow pencil in Medium/Dark

Chanel platinum rose eyeliner under lash line

Bourjois volume fast and perfect mascara

Cheeks

Illamasqua cream pigment in emerge

Lips

Clinique chubby stick in whoppin watermelon

In the next one I can't remember exactly what products I used but I took the photos because I was trying out a new eye product for me. A friend at work gave me some Gosh products that she wasn't getting the use out of and I was excited to try the eyeshadow base.

It is in a stick form and is a sheer white with a slightly bluish flash it was too pretty to cover up completely so I just blended in a colour from the 17 metallic nudes palette and finished with a little eyeliner under the lashline smoked out with the same shadow.

Recent nail roundup

He we go with another recent nail round up and I have been really lucky recently with some nice gifts and freebies.

Lets start off with a lovely gift brought back from the states by one of my best friends. I had asked him to pick up the new Hello Kitty palette from Sephora which I will be reviewing soon and he also picked up this cute Hello Kitty polish for me. The shade is called Blueberry and it kind of a periwinkle/forget me not blue and I love it. It is such a sift shade and suits my pale skin very well although I can imagine it wold look awesome with a tan.

The application was good and it was a fairly thick and pigmented polish so 2 coats is more than enough and it was a very easy to control brush.

The next is something I couldn't resist picking up and that is the new pirates of the Caribbean collection from OPI, this is mermaid tears with the silver shatter and the finish is beautiful. They have managed to make the shatter really sparkly so it is quite sheer this allows a lot of the base colour through.

Another freebie and this was part of the recent Nails Inc give away with Instyle. Whilst I love Nails Inc polishes I have only ever parted with cash for one and that was before they started giving them away. I feel the brand would do slightly better if they stopped giving them away and reduced their prices a little (£11 a polish is more expensive than OPI). Their polishes are lovely and their colours are always on trend but I am never compelled to part with my cash for them.

This is Candy Orange.

the last one is a bit of an experiment, it's OPI catch me in your net with the Barry M blue crackle over the top. Not sure I like this one it was very bumpy!

This was my week

So I have had a fairly alarming week, I was all set to give you a review on the newish Loreal infallible eye shadow in No15 Flashback Silver and then my day took a weird twist. I am was sat at my computer when all of a sudden I was seeing spots (just like someone had taken a flash photo of me). As I tried to concentrate on the screen I became aware that massive chunks of my field of vision were missing. At this point I started to worry and asked my friend and another of the company first aiders for advice. We agreed that I should switch off my monitor and and relax my eyes for a little while but within 5 minutes I had lost sight entirely in my left eye and the pharmacist (I work in a pharmacy) was called.

Long story short I had an Acephalgic Migraine which means you only get the visual symptoms. in the three and a half hours I was at the eye hospital, Western eye hospital are great by the way, my vision was starting to come back and I was sent home.

My lovely husband however did not tell me I had travelled home looking like this!

Massive pupils and eyes stained with fluorescein, the eyeshadow is lovely and did last really well and the colour os more lilac than silver. I will try to give it a full review soon.

Make up looks of the week

I have been making more of an effort to try a different make up look everyday at the moment. Normally I get in a bit of a rut and tend to stick to the same few things day in day out. The first look is from some of my fav mac makeup at the moment.

Base

Shiseido prefect refining foundation in 100 (this is so good I didn't use any concealer)

Bourjois mineral radiance powder in vanilla

Eyes

UDPP

Mac boy crazy all over the lid and under lash line

Mac aduki bean outer corner and in crease

liner avon supershock gel liner in plumful

mascara collection 2000 big fake in ultra black

eyebrows rimmel dark brown eyebrow pencil

Blush

mac sakura

Lips

Guerlain rouge automatique in cherry blossom

The next look is a bit more of an evening one.

Base

Max factor weightless foundation in 40

Bourjois mineral radiance powder in vanilla

Eyes

UDPP

Accessorize illusion merged eyeshadow in cocoa all over the lid

No7 autumn palette used to blend and highlight

liner avon supershock gel liner in plumful

mascara collection 2000 big fake in ultra black

eyebrows rimmel dark brown eyebrow pencil

Blush

Illamasqua cream pigment in Emerge

NOTD and one of my addictions

Nails of the day are Models Inc Pro - Black Grape. This looks stunning in the bottle dark purple base with pink purple and blue micro glitter. This is the first time I have used one if their polishes but I had hear good things. This however was a bit meh.

Application was a bit of a nightmare, it bubbled, I haven't had a polish bubble on me in ages. Also it wasn't shiny at all, I put a coat of good old Seche Vitte and that seemed to revive it and you could almost see the shimmer in the right light but when I woke up in the morning the polish had eaten the top coat and the nails were a little dull and rough. Not completely horrible but one of the worst I have tried in a long time. wah wah waaaaahh!

natural light

under a Halogen spot - you can almost see the shimmer.

Next up is my addiction and as you can see it's all things Cherry Blossom. I love them I love the smell, the look, the colour I'm just crazy about them.

Just a few of the Cherry Blossom themed stuff I have.

Top Row - Guerlain eyeshadow palette, Body Shop Body Butter, Guerlain blush.

Bottom Row - OPI D.C Cherry blossom, Mac Sakura blush, Shu Uemuera UV base, L'Occitane Lip Gloss.

A couple of slightly different looks for me

Ok so I am a creative person and and i'm not afraid of colours but there are certain looks and styles that stray out of my comfort zone. There are few things I avoid because I know they look wrong for me things like tanned skin and liner on the water line. Now there are ladies out there who rock this look effortlessly every day and look like wonderful godesses but on me it just doesn't feel right.

Lets explore shall we.

What started this was a little sample bag from MaxFactor (I think they were given away at christmas) The foundation samples are always in medium or nude which is about 2 shades to dark for me but I was interested to see if the formula for lasting finish was the same as this is what I used all through school and uni and loved it.

Products used

Max Factor lasting finish in 106 natural beige all over the face and jaw line

The I contoured like crazy through the cheekbones, jawline, temples and nose with Illamasqua in hollow (I can't begin to tell you how much I love this product) and then highlighted with a Tokidoki.

I then lined the waterline with a black Maxfactor Khol which I hate doing as it never stays put and I end up with little black globs in the corners of my eyes and them looking red and watery.

Shaded in my brows with my normal Natural collection shadow and put on a coat of Collection 2000 Big Fake.

The gloss was also in the give away bag and it is Vibrant Curve Effect in Majeste, which smells really strongly of Melon but is quite nice not sticky and quite long lasting.

Next up we have a bright lipstick, and I mean really bright which is a long long way from my classic red. I am not one to shy away from a bold lip but this is very different for me so here in all it's glory is Mac Candy Yum Yum and I LOVE it!

Please excuse the goofy face and nerdy specs