Friday Favourites! (9th October)

I like the idea of a weekly favourite post! So I'm going to do one whenever I have time. I am not promising every week though! sometimes, I like to go out on a Friday night.. haha.
Venomous Villains & Jin Soon Nail Trend 2010!

(L-R: Rain of Flowers, Formidable, Bad Fairy)

- Bad Fairy looks amazing over a mustardy yellow and over black. Over red it gives it a pinky tinge. I want to try it over a green but I'm tired right now.

- Formidable is intense, I adore it, it looks even better over a purple or a yellow.
- Rain of Flowers is gorgeous in bright lights, and the rest of the time has a little, distinct shimmer.
- Mean & Green, the one I didn't GET, but thought I would like the most.. is weird! It's an odd mixture of green and purple and yellow. It looked weird on the nail. Shame, but I picked up Rain of Flowers from the Nail Trend Collection instead! Silver linings.
- These are PACKED full of glitter. Look. Glitter is gorgeous.
I have work in the morning but I'll do a full review tomorrow, with sunlight and everything!

Winter Coats

I tried on some coats today in Dorothy Perkins and I reaaaally want either a parka or a big duffle coat. I am unsure, though. I have to decide. I really loved the grey-duffle, but it's £65. I do want a new coat, though. Oh, dilemmas..

Dramatic Makeup

More dramatic makeup. I felt like I got into a super deep rut with my makeup and needed a change. So I'm putting down my beloved Naked palette and reaching for my Illamasqua and MAC a bit more. This was today. It looks gold & brownish in this picture, but it was deep purple in real-life and black in the crease. Damn camera.

GOSH Fix Base Coat & Holographic Joy

I wore GOSH Holographic with the Fix Base Coat, supposedly akin to NFU-Oh's Aqua Base, and it's amazing! A polish that would normally have chips in by the end of the first day lasted for three, with only a little chipping around the edges! It also made it much smoother and easier to apply. Definite fan of that one. Oh, and my nails are short again, I was getting irritated!

Green Giraffes & Great Friends

I had the most amazing dessert at Giraffe today. Actually my whole meal was pretty good, but the dessert was amazing. Belgian waffle, roasted banana, chocolate sauce and vanilla ice-cream. They messed up our starter, but they gave us a little giraffe to make up for it. Mine is the green one. I had a lovely catch-up with a friend from work too, and ended up talking for ages in the restaurant cause we barely see each other at work anymore, it's got so stressful, haha.

How has your week been? I've been rushing to get a painting finished all week so I could really enjoy myself today! I have to be up early tomorrow, but I'm only working until 1.30PM and I get Sunday off! Winner. Sunday lie-in, anyone?

FOTD, Face Of The Day! 17/04/2010 + 18/04/2010

A few bits and pieces for you! A FOTD from today and the day before. Messy, sundried hair, throw on eyeshadow, contoured cheeks.. this is what I'm into right now!
Look 1: Shimmery gold with bronzed-up cheeks. Taken after a day of shopping and eating ice-lollies in carparks, so s'cuse the smudging, etc.
Look 2: Quick, bronzy goodness suitable for when i'm late for work!




Eyes:
Too Faced Eyeshadow Insurance
Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Half Baked
MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow in Engaging (the bronze side, duh)
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack
MaxFactor False Lash Effect Mascara in Black
Benefit Browzings in Medium

Face:
Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel
Dior Diorskin Nude Foundation in )30
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium
MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW20
NARS Blush in Luster
MAC Iridescent Powder in Golden Bronze

Lips:
Carmex
Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Mistress

- - -




Eyes:
MAC Too Faced Eyeshadow Insurance
MAC Eyeshadow in Soba
MAC Pigment in Cocomotion
NARS Eyeshadow in Galapagos
MAC Eyeshadow in Nanogold
L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara in Carbon Black
MAC Eyekohl in Feline
Benefit Browzings in Medium

Face:
Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel
Dior Diorskin Nude Foundation in )30
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium
MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW20
MAC Blush in Hipness

- - -

Nails:
China Glaze Strawberry Fields
GOSH Rainbow


And a little wish-list!

- Lush Lip Scrub
- Cuticle cream - possibly one from Lush? I've heard theirs is good.
- Crystal Nail File (which I can't find ANYWHERE near me! I think I have to travel further afield!)
- Some new body wash
- New facial-wash? I've finished my Clinique and found it's drying out my skin a bit, I need some suggestions for new stuff! I have combination skin, a little bit oily in the t-zone, a bit dry on the cheeks.
- My car back!! It's in the garage. ):

New GOSH Nail Lacquers + A Drugstore Manicure!

So I was looking at holographic nail varnishes online the others day, in particular, OPI's and china Glaze's. Not really wanting to shell out £6-£10 on them in this country (or trying to find them online!) i tried searching to see if I could get get hold of any drugstore ones. I heard rumours of GOSH having a holographic polish, so i had to pop into town today so I wanted to see if I could find it. And I did!
Also, I swear these used to be £4.50? Or even cheaper? But they're now £5! Oh well.
Anyway, the colour of GOSH 549 Holographic is fantastic - a silver holo. However, this is definitely a summer colour, and definitely for those with patience. The formula is completely different to other GOSH polishes, wish slide on smooth and chunk-free. This one was gloopy and chunky, and honestly made me a bit sad! It did level out eventually, but the coverage was patchy.

One coat, bald patches clearly visible. One the bottle it advises you to use their base-coat, so I used my go-to OPI basecoat, and I don't think it liked that, it actually went on much better on a bare nail. A little bit of internet-searchin' tells me that this wasn't formulated for long-lasting wear, it was made for nights out and you're not supposed to use a topcoat. That's me told, I suppose.

Still, in the sun, it's damn amazing.

Check out that holo, haha. But like I said previously, I think it's definitely a summer-polish, when I'm out in the sun all day, because indoors it is a dull, plain silver with a teensy bit of shimmer, see:

Not good!

The other polish I picked up was 546 Rainbow. I've seen this before, but never really fancied it until now, for some reason. In any case, it's incredible!

As soon as I got home I whacked it on over the Revlon Minted I was wearing, and it looked pretty sweet.

Then I wondered what it would look like with China Glaze's Matte Magic over the top.. and let me tell you it's also excellent. The flakes seem to really glow when you do this.

I swatched it over a few different colours and found it looked great over pinks and purples. I got this colour at Sainsbury's a week ago, and contrary to what my camera says, Rimmel Blue My Mind is a definite blue-purple, just my camera wouldn't pick up the purple bit, loser.

On it's own.
And with Rainbow on top..:


I think this would look great over a black, and I want to try it over a hot-pink next! You can't really see it in all the pictures, but the flakes have a greenish blue flash to them, as well as the pinkish-orange that's clearly visible. It sunlight, they really glow, and the flakes are excellent, I can't keep my eyes of them!

Both are £5, and available from your nearest Superdrug, and I think you can even get selected shades on the Superdrug website. (:

On a note, yes, my nails are shorter! I broke three of them at work, and had to file them all ridiculously short. I'm not even going to show you my right hand, it's that atrocious!

Nails - Part II, Summer Spending - Part I!

This is following on from my last post about nails, and is the first of four "haul" (slash review/information!) posts that I have coming up for you!
I've been trying out Sally Hansen's Natural Nail Growth Activator over the past two months, and have noticed a considerable improvement! I love it because it dries to an unnoticeable natural finish, which means its absolutely perfect for when I forget to take my polish off before work (we're not allowed nail varnish, unfortunately!), especially for £6. When the bottle runs out, I'm probably going to try the Miracle Nail Growth. That coupled with I've finally managed to kick the nervous habit of biting my nails, and been trying to drink more milk (I have bad teeth and nails, so, every little helps!). They're getting there, they're just not in the best of condition (Which is the next step, I bought Nails Inc's A&E base coat which my friend recommended to me.
But, I'm digressing. I always want to be one of these people that has their "signature" nail colour. I have my signature scent, but I'm still struggling to find the perfect colour. So I've been scouring nail blogs, and drugstores for a good shade. And I mean scouring - I think I'm going to have order offline, because I'm definitely lusting after a deep, glossy, dark green.



GOSH Nail Lacquer - £4.39 from Superdrug.
542 Chocaholic, 573 Golden Brown, 551 Sweet Peach, 571 Wild LilacI am in love with Wild Lilac. Think OPI's Done Out In Deco, but less washed out and half the price! I tested this out the second I got it home, one coat without a base coat, and it lasted amazingly. A lovely, glossy finish, and was surprisingly durable.
Sweet Peach is a colour I loved... in the bottle. A pretty mustard yellow with a pinkish duochrome, with glitter in it, too. It came out a little chunky, and stained my nails a bit, as well as taking a while to dry, I found (but I am terminally impatient). Chocaholic is a pretty colour, but a little plain, and comes out with hints of red and purple, instead of the true chocolate brown the bottle promised.
Golden Brown is a colour both me and my mum loved. I've just taken it off my toes after wearing it for.. probably three weeks, give or take. It's very shimmery but very pretty, and from swatches I've seen, a decent enough dupe for MAC's Mercenary (half the money!).



China Glaze - £? (forgot! about a fiver) from Sally's.
Strawberry FieldsFirst off, 'scuse the shoddy job I did of painting them. I think I was in a rush to do this. Actually, thinking about it, I may have done this whilst we stopped in Pizza Hut for lunch, haha. I was looking to see if Sally's sold any Duo glue the other day, and found a rack of China Glaze polishes, much to my happiness! My immediate reaction was to pick up five I just had to have (before remember I'd dropped £30 in MAC, already that day!). I limited myself to just one, amazingly (but I know where I'll be heading with my next paycheck..!), and this is the one I picked. I'm not really one for pinks, but this colour has a lovely gold shimmer to it. In some lights, it pulls a little red, but the bottle is an accurate colour. And you get a big bottle for your money, I think a few ml's more than the GOSH, which is only a little cheaper. I love the consistency, easier to apply, a good brush, and dries well, to boot.



OPI £9.99 (roughly)
You Don't Know Jacques!I'm actually wearing it on my thumbnail, here, but because of how my hand is tilted, the bottle is a more accurate swatch. I have a grey, by Barry M, and I always thought this was a pretty grey. It's not. It's more of a mushroomy brown grey, a taupe, if you like that word (which I don't!) - either way, I am in love. In some lights, it looks dark brown, in daylight, it shows it's true colour, which.. is just lovely. If you can get this online, do. I wouldn't by it from Sally's, because you will have to pay £10! Some websites (which I'll list at the end) sell it for $4 USD! Which is insane, so shop around.



Rimmel 50 Seconds Nail Polish - £3.22 from Boots
819 Green With EnvyNow all my friends have this polish, I think. And whenever I see it on them I think wow, and always ask them what it is. This is it. My friend was wearing when we went out the other day (and I'm very jealous of her nails) and in the sun it seemed to glow. Don't let the name fool you - I would never call this a green. It's a predominantly blue turquoise. It takes a while to dry, and showed brush-strokes on me, but its worth the awkward nature.

A word before I let you get back to your lives! I've learnt my lesson with paying a lot for nail polishes.. I shelled out for Chanel's 471 Blue Satin, and do regret it, cause I've found much prettier shades for a fraction of the price! Such as Barry M's 292. I only get OPI's because I get a discount on some of them, but I highly recommend searching the high-street (and the internet!) for dupe's. As much as I would kill for a bottle of Gold Fiction or even NARS Zulu (which looks gorgeous), I don't know if I could justify them.
But that's just my two cents! I'm off to bed cause I have to work in the morning!

Nail Polish

I'm having a nail dilemma, readers - I don't know what colour to paint them! 

Recently, my nails have grown a fair bit, and I've really got into painting them - hence my sudden expansion of nail polishes. 

There are some drugstore ones that I really love. I think Barry M's nail paints are excellent, I love the range of colours, and they're not a bad quality for the price you pay, I think you pay about £4.50. I think the formula's pretty good, only taking one or two coats usually to get bottle colour. 

Another brand I tested recently was Gosh, their nail lacquer's are great. My absolute favourite is 571 Wild Lilac, which I think, after looking at my bottles, will be the colour of choice for tonight!

Anyway, heres my little collection! Colour names/numbers underneath, from left to right. 

Gosh Sweet Peach, Barry M 134, Barry M 137, Barry M 290, Barry M 295, Barry M 294.

Barry M 291, Barry M 292, Chanel 471 Blue Satin, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, Barry M 161, Rimmel 193 Black Cherry

Barry M 303, Gosh 571 Wild Lilac, Rimmel 424 Magnolia Pearl, Rimmel 320 Rapid Ruby, Barry M 150

Barry M 66, Barry M 293, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, Gosh 542 Chocaholic, Gosh 573 Golden Brown