Recent Nails

I have been really lazy, I have bought loads of stuff and done loads f nails but just not had the time or inclination to take pictures and blog it for you. I have been ill and work had been rough but I am excited to get started again so strap yourselves in because after this post with nails I did manage to take pics of the next post will be my 100th post give away. Then I can get to showing you hauls recent looks and discoveries.

This first colour is Passion from OPI, this is the colour I wore for my wedding and I love the way it makes my nails look. It is almost half way between a jelly and a cream and even with 3/4 coats its still slightly sheer. It just gives your nails that "perfect" false nail look and wears really well (on me it lasts about a week).

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natural light

artificial light

The next is a new discovery for me, this is from the Andrea Fulerton range at Super drug and is in the shade Mischa. She is THE manicurist to the stars and because of this her core range of polishes are all names after celebs, I also picked up Kylie. She also has a great selection of nail effects, glitters, nail art, stickers and layering shades. I was super excited for this range and finally manage to track it down to the Superdrug on the Strand but haven't managed to find it anywhere else. The prices are mid range with normal polishes at £4.99 and effects at about £8. The Mischa shade is a grey jelly base with lilac silver and gold glitter and honestly the photos don't do it justice, it's beautiful. It applies really easily and lasts fairly well.

This you have probably seen swatched a million times across the blogosphere but I just love the colour. This is Diva of Geneva from the Swiss OPI range. I just managed to snap one shot of it before I forgot great colour with only minor tip wear after a few days.

Again another one you have seen a million times but I wanted to share with you my nail disaster. This is of course Chanel Paradoxal 509. I wore this while we were away fro bank holiday weekend at my parent and my mother was admiring my long natural nails which were far longer than I normally have them. Then what do you know the next day I broke one clean off and now I know why I keep them in check, it's funny but I am kinda grossed out looking at how long they are in the pictures even though they didn't seem that long in person. I defiantly prefer them shorter like in the OPI Passion pictures.

A quick word on the shade, I was expecting it me be my hoy grail colour but the "secret shimmer" is so secret you can hardly see it. Can't fault the formulation though it's amazing just glides on exactly where you intend to put it, it's like it's psychic or something :)

gah serves my right

boo hoo

other hand, too long and a bit nasty

secret shimmer?

This is one from Mavala called aquamarine, I love mavala for their quality and affordability. Don't get me wrong they are in no way value for money (per ml they work out quite pricey) but the quality is great, the longevity is great and the colours are good they tend to be a beat behind the big boys rather than a trend setter but they are getting quite fearless with the colours they release.

artificial light

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We are finishing off with another disaster, this is one the Hello Kitty polishes from H&M can't remember what it is called, applied horribly had no shine to it at all even with a coat of Seche, they glitter was lumpy and it was runny and gloopy in equal measures. I guess they can't all be winners.

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natural light

I'm baaaaaccckkkk - recent make up looks

A.K.A - fun with palettes. I know I have been rubbish, I have been swamped at work and blogging has been the last thing on my mind but I have been reading and buying (new No7 collection). So I am up to date with the news and all that. How excited am I about the new Illamasqua store? Not only is it right across the road from PlayLounge my fav store in the while world but it means I can finally go and check out their makeup without having to brave Selfridges.

So Anyways on to some looks, I am a girl who loves (in a oh my god I have to have it kinda way) a good palette and one of these days I will treat you to a run through of my wildly varied collection but for now I am going to focus on 3 looks I have been rinsing and repeating over the last few weeks.

Look 1

This is the front cover palette in "cool eyes" and I have to say I love these shadows. They are so pigmented and buttery the just glide on and blend really really well. They also have a lovely iridescence to them with them, they are not out and out shimmer but they do catch the light beautifully. They give you a very subtle and wake look which makes then great for the office, the only down side is the brush it picks up colour and blends well but it is a little on the coarse side.

This is glisten all over the lower and upper lid and a little of honey just to define the crease and outer corner. Then butterum underneath the lower lash line.

Look 2

As you know when it comes to shadow palettes my heart lies with Guerlain and I am a complete and utter sucker for their limited editions, the packaging, the colour combinations and even the sponge applicators are a joy to work with. This look is a combination of two palettes Mysterious Butterfly (I wore this on my wedding day) and Cherry Blossom I would say the overall themes are lilac and mauve respectively but in mysterious butterfly you get white, dusky pink, lilac and a plum all in shimmer. In cherry blossom you get the same white, a deep plum satin, true purple matte and a baby pink shimmer.

This is the white along the brow, true purple all over the lid then blended with the baby pink on the inner lid and deep plum on the outer corner and crease. I did use a tiny amount of the lilac as a highlight right in the middle of the lid. Then just some simple black eyeliner, possibly my favourite makeup colours an look on me.

* just as a wee side note check out the old hair and look how long it has got, I got it chopped this week so I will post some new pics.

Look 3

This was a bit of an experiment as I mentioned before I bought some bits from the new collection at boots no7, there is exceptional definition mascara, smokey liner, shadow palette, matte top coat for nails and a couple of lipsticks. As I am all about the eyes you can guess what I went for so here is me wearing the smokey eyeliner which is ridiculosly easy to apply the mascara which is really lovely it has lash conditioners also so lave you lashes beautiful and the orange (is it really orange, copper maybe) and green from the palette. The palette is blue, green, purple a orange is lovely chrome/jewel colours perfect for Autumn.

So that makes us, what, 98 posts now so only 1 away from the big 100th post give away which one lucky reader will win.

recent nail roundup

Apologies again for the lack of updates, no excuses I have just been tired and lazy. I am back though and we are getting ever closer to the magic 100th post in which I am doing a lovely give away for my subscribers. It has OPI, Urban Decay, Incoco and loads of other stuff.

So lets move on to the recent nails round up, not much to show you really as I have been wearing a lot of old favs recently but hopefully you will like what I do have.

This is the green from the H&M set in the last post, it actually applied really well and lasted not too bad, a bit if tip wear and shrinkage from the Seche Vitte but nothing major. The colour pay off was nice very pigmented and done in 2 coats. It also had a really nice shimmer but is a bit of a nothing green and doesn't really wow me.

Normal light

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Next up is another magazine freebie (I can't tell you how much I love these) This was on the front of Tatler this month and is one of 6 mini Essie polishes they have available. I picked this up in the Tesco at Picadilly Circus and was one of the only magazines left with the polish still left on it, the rest had been ripped open and the polish removed, I mean seriously how lame do you have to be to steal free polish from the front of a magazine but anyways. This is Flower Girl and is a very pale very sheer pink with a green shimmer in it which is impossible to capture with the camera. I am not much for sheers but it is a very pretty shade and easy to wear this was however 4 coats but the application was nice even from such a tiny brush.

with flash close up trying to catch the shimmer.

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natural light

Another from the H&M set this is neon purple (neon? really?) the shade is actually quite muted and a rally nice mid tone dusty purple. Same application and wear as the first one I showed in this post and again a bit of a nothing shade, perhaps I am so lucky to own so many outstanding polished that my expectations are now way too high.

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natural light

Now on to my disaster of the week. this is fiesta by accessorize and it is a mess of a nail polish. looks great in the bottle but is extremely un pigmented, very runny and the pigmentation isn't even stable in the polish and tends to pool in to dark and light patches, weird. The wear was also terrible and it started to get tip wear within a matter of hours. Epic Fail! (pretty colour though)

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H&M - Small nail polish haul

So in a fit of boredom and frustration on Friday lunchtime I wandered into H&M, I have 2 of their nail polishes already so I am aware the quality is fairly good. I could not believe the price of these polishes in the summer nails sets. £1.99 for 4 polishes!!!!! O.K so each polish is only 3.2ml but at 50p a bottle who can argue (Mavala bottles run at £3.75 for 5ml and the OPI mini sets are 3.75ml for £12.99)

There are 2 sets a normal (white, green, purple and blue) and a neon (yellow, orange, pink and purple) and I look forward to swatching them.

The other one I picked up was another hello kitty branded polish called cool summer and is a pink toned purple with tiny blue and lilac glitter in it, very me so look out for this one coming up too.

Recent nail roundup

Here we go with another nails round up some bargains in here along with something a wee bit special to finish with.

First up is a n07 stay perfect that was a till spit purchase I was actually after violetta but predictably it was sold out when I went but this little beauty caught my eye. It's number 68 Vivid Violet. It's what I would describe as a Cadbury's purple (those of you in the UK will know what I mean) and I love it bright and shimmery and done in two coats. I have found that these no7 polishes do not like certain base coats and have a tendency to bubble quite a lot but a coat of the old Seche Vitte sorted it out.

With Flash

Natural Light

Next up is my bargain of the week this is Lagoon and it was in the Accessorize sale for £2 (previously £4) I am pretty sure it is an exact dupe for China Glaze's For Audrey. It is a Tiffany/duck egg/green blue and applied extremely well but went really bubbly due to the heat and me sitting directly under a fan but again Seche to the rescue. I really like how these shades suit my skin tone and they really balance out the pink tones to my skin whilst feeling very very summery.

Natural Light

With Flash

This is from the Shrek collection which I still can't quite believe OPI did, of all the movie tie-in's Alice was great and I am still surprised they haven't jumped on the Twilight band wagon yet but Shrek? Anyways they colours are pretty rockin, this is funky Dunkey which is a fairly unique purple, it has dusty tones to it but I haven't seem anything quite like it. The formulation of this was spot on as you would expect an I an see me using up the whole bottle of this one.

Natural Light

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The Pièce de résistance OPI catch me in your net, this is from the summer flutter collection and is a limited edition. It's green, it's blue, it's sparkly and chrome I just love it it is so eye catching it's distracting and complete strangers will stop you in the street, grab your hands and demand to know what shade it is. The only problem with it is that I couldn't get it off. It stained my nails green and my fingers blue. Having said that I literally can't wait to wear it again.

Direct Sunlight

Again Direct Sunlight

With Flash

Red Lipstick Series - Barry M Lip Lacquer Crayon No1

Hullo sorry about the lack of updates but it has been way too hot to even think about make-up and I have been having a little bit of down time. I have another nail roundup to post later today but for now lets crack on with another from my ever expanding red lipstick collection.

Today I'm bringing you Barry M and this is one of their fairly new Lip Lacquer Crayons in N01.

Colour (2/5)

No1 is not very descriptive now is it, I would say it is a very shimmery cherry red with some of the shimmer being gold. It sounds lovely and the shimmer puts it in the same family as the Chanel it just really lacks punch. I mean it's fine but it is just neither here nor there.

Application (2.5/5)

The crayon like stick means you can sharpen this up to a nice point so you wouldn't have to use a liner and you can be fairly precise it is quite melty though (it is a very hot day perhaps best kept in the fridge) so can get a little messy and gunky, no ned for a lip brush though you may want to use one to make sure it gets into all the little wrinkles on the lips because it is very thick.

Ronseal Factor (3/5)

These intense glossy crayons glide on to lips to give a high shine lacquered finish. The smooth and silky application provides maximum comfort while the bright and bold colours give a glamorous finish.

They are crayons, they actually do glide on fairly well no dragging although they are more shimmery than shiny if that makes sense. The colours are not bold though well not the one I tried and they are definitely not silky they are actually quite sticky.

Wear (4/5)

Because this is so thick and sticky it really does stay put for a very very long time, I don't find the sensation of it on my lips very pleasant infact I find it a little suffocating.

Price (3/5)

So this is £4.95 which is reasonable for a drug store brand. I want to say it's cheap but really I think it comes in at about right for the quality and these are nearly always on an offer of some kind so you will pick it up cheaper than RRP.

Packaging (2/5)

Pencils for some products are always going to loose point with me, lipsticks are not really suitable because you need to sharpen then to get a decent application but in doing that you lose a fair amount of product. Some things lend themselves really well to the fat crayon format like the benefit products but this just doesn't work as well as it should. Having said that though it is a very pretty crayon with nice design and detailing.

How it left the lips (1/5)

This left my lips in a bad way, it is very very drying and on me it tends to form into what can only be described as scales. It is also quite difficult to remove and extremely sticky.

Overall 17.5 out of 35, oh dear out lowest score so far. I really do love Barry M products their dazzle dust and nail polishes rock but this just doesn't do it for me.

FOTD for a saturday out

So today I was off out to watch a preview of the new twilight movie eclipse and since it had been a rough week I decided it was time to dust off the makeup bag and do myself up a little.

I was a little worried that since have been walking to work I had taken quite a lot of colour to my face but to my relief my factor 50+ is holing true and my foundation still matches.

So the base was

No7 protect and perfect eye cream

No7 protect and perfect intense serum

No7 protect and perfect day cream (only a tiny amount on my drier patches)

Then I used my faithful Garnier tinted eye roll on under the eyes.

Foundation - just a touch of the Bourjois healthy mix foundation in 51

Concealer - Bourjois healthy mix, a pinhead amount of this in 51

Powder - Bourjois mineral radiance in 02

The eyes and the rest was

Primer - Urban Decay Primer Potion

Eyeshadow - Togetherness from the MAC in the groove collection.

light lilac all over the lid

intense purple on the outer part of the lid and on the lower lash line

grey in the crease and also on the lower lash line

Eyeliner - Doir liquid liner on upper lash line and Urban Decay Binge on lower lash line

Eyebrows - Clarins eyebrow kit

Mascara - Bourjois Elastic

Then to finish I used a very very light dusting of MAC petticoat mineral skin finish which is also from the in the groove collection.

Oh and yes I thought the same of the movie as I thought of the other good but hard going and doesn't do justice to the book.