Valentine's Day Nail Art!

Eeeeeevening!

This is a kind of improvised manicure - I wanted to do a "love letter" style design, with a cream and pink heart background and newspaper print over the top. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the STUUUPOIIDIDIDD newspaper to transfer with vodka, so I've ordered some surgical spirit to try instead! I was very frustrated. Bundlemonster to the rescue, I decided to use plate BM09 and stamp the "love" image repeatedly, so it looks almost like a love letter (or weird love graffiti).

I started out with a base of 3 coats of Bloom Nicole and then stamped the swirly heart image from Bundle Monster BM02 using Konad Special White Polish mixed with bright pink. I then used Rimmel Urban Princess to stamp three little love-hearts from BM03 in the gaps.

After a coat of Seche Vite, I used Konad Black Special Polish to stamp the Love image from BM09 repeatedly over the whole nail. This was tricky to get straight! The beauty of adding a coat of topcoat before stamping, is that if you make a mistake you can take it off with nail varnish remover without destroying your previous stamping.

Don't forget you can click to enlarge!! A little bit different from my Anti-Valentines Day manicure...but I can get into the spirit of things!

I hope everyone had a lovely V-Day, single or not! Let me know what you think on the comments :D

xxx

Rimmel Lycra Pro My Denim

I'm back! Happy new year to all! It been actually over a day since I got back from my trip, but time has flown and I haven't been able to post or edit pictures yesterday. I have so much to do these days that I don't really know where to start. I did manage to write a paper yesterday, so at least that's a good thing. But I still have some more to write and a ton of studying to do. Of course I'm behind on reading blogs and watching Youtube videos, so if I don't comment on your posts please bear with me. 

Today I want to show you the polish I wore on my trip. I did put China Glaze Skyscraper over it on new year's eve, but the application was sloppy because I didn't have my usual space, so it wasn't up to my posting standards. I will swatch it again some other time. For now I have this gorgeous Rimmel blue for you. 

Rimmel Lycra Pro 425 My Denim, two coats, artificial light

I got this on sale and I was very happy to find it. It's a medium blue that leans a little purple but not too much. The pictures are not entirely accurate. The color is a bit more purple and dusty in reality, but these kind of shades are so hard to capture on camera. Application was a little tricky because of the huge brush this line of polishes has. As you can see, I cut my nails to nubs because they were starting to break at the edges and I don't like to travel with long nails because they chip in an instant. The polish was opaque in two coats and dried pretty quickly. 

Now as I learned from previous experience, these polishes wear awfully. It was actually very wrong of me to think that this would survive 2 days of packing, carrying bags and so on. The tip wear showed up on the day I applied it and the chips the next day. Again I'm not impressed with Rimmel polishes and I'm starting to think that I shouldn't buy anymore after the last two experiences. All in all, a very nice color, but one that I would only wear if I know I have time to do another mani soon. 

Rimmel Black Cherries and Nubar 2010

Hello loves! 3 more days left of 2011 and then 2012 is gonna march in. Hope next year will be much better than this one. One sure thing is that it's gonna be full of nail polish! Today I have a very special manicure to show you. I have received so many compliments for this one and I've really enjoyed wearing it. 

I've started with two coats of Rimmel I love lasting finish Black Cherries. The color of this polish is somewhere between dark red and purple, I think it's best described as a wine color. It has a hidden shimmer that is unfortunately more obvious in the bottle. On the nail it is visible only in bright light. The problem with this was its thickness. It could use quite a bit of thinner (but I don't have any at the moment). So the 2 coats I ended up applying where quite thick and a lot of bubbles showed up after it dried. I don't have good pictures of it alone and I wasn't gonna show you the bubbles, so this is the best I could do. 

Rimmel Black Cherries, no top coat, natural light (sorry for the reflection) 

Afterwards I applied one coat of Nubar 2010 and a glossy top coat. I applied the Nubar a little thicker to have more flakies on the nail, but the base color still shines trough. I think that the combo is just perfect. It really makes the gold-copper color of the flakies pop. Here's some picture spam for you. 

in the sun

still in the sun

artificial light, I tried to capture the color shift of the flakies

After wearing it like this for a day, I added a coat of Color Club Matte-ified. I really loved it matte and just can't decide if I like this combo better matte or glossy. The flakies almost looked red in some lights after I made them matte. 

artificial light (no sun that day, sorry) 

I love Nubar 2010 and I think I'm gonna wear it a lot in 2012 too. Stay tuned for a best of 2011 post! 

Mint crackle

Hi guys! I hope you are having a great weekend. For me it's studying again, as I have another week of exams ahead of me. Luckily it's the last one and I can't wait for it to end! I think it was about two weeks ago on a gloomy day that I thought I should make it better with a fun manicure. There's nothing like a bright, crazy color to cheer you up on a day like that. Here's what I came up with.

This is Rimmel Lycra Pro Peppermint, which has been previously reviewed here. To add a little something to the manicure I slapped on a coat of China Glaze Black Mesh (also reviewed here) and topped everything with a shiny coat of Out the Door. 

This is obviously not a fall mani, but it was fun wearing it. I think I'm kinda over the crackle look though, so I'm happy I didn't buy a lot of these polishes. 

You can see I'm very behind with posting manicures, but hopefully next week I will try to post more to catch up. I also can't wait to have time to do some nail art. I know I have been neglecting that part, but I was really swamped lately. I promise to redeem myself with some Christmas designs! 

Rimmel London mascara review and comparison

Hi everybody! This post is totally out of my comfort zone (nails), so forgive me if I mess it up. It's my first makeup review. I'll try to cover all the basics about these two products, but if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask in the comment section. Here's the two products I will be talking about:

• Rimmel London Extra Super Lash mascara
• Rimmel London Glam'Eyes Day 2 Night mascara

To start I have to say that I have pretty thick and long lashes. I use mascara to define my lashes, to make them look fuller and darker and also to accentuate the outer flare of the lashes.

my naked lashes for reference (sorry for the dark circles, I can never get rid of those)

That being said let's start with the first mascara. I've had this mascara for about a month or two and I've gotten around to using it quite a bit. Here's the official description:

Unique combination of the hugely successful Extra Super Lash formula and a totally new, cleverly designed curved brush.Reaches all lashes, even the ones at the inner and outer corners of the eyes. The formula contains hydrogels that form an ultra-smooth film on the lashes that is ideal for building layer upon layer with no clumps and no lashes sticking together.

I really like mascaras with curved brushes because I feel they give that extra flare effect to the outer part of the lashes. This mascara is volumizing  enough, but unfortunately the non-clumping part in the description is totally not true. The brush comes out of the tube with a lot of product on it, especially on the tip. You have to wipe it on the edges of the tube, but even so you still have to use one of those mascara wands to get the clumps out. The lashes stick together and you can't really separate them properly. The tip of the brush, which should reach those corner lashes is so full of product that it only gets clumps in there so you better not use it. Another thing I have noticed about this mascara is that it's pretty liquid and dries in a fairly long time. I don't mind that about it, but maybe some of you will.

the curved brush

my lashes with Extra Super Lash mascara (you can see that many of them are stuck together and some clumps are still present)

Moving on to the second mascara, this is one I purchased 5 days ago, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to test it. The official description:

Rimmel introduces Glam’Eyes Day-2-Night, our first mascara that creates two dramatically different lash looks with just one brush. The secret is the magic double cap! During the day, choose the Length Cap for ultra-long, gorgeously defined lashes – perfect for those flirtatious encounters by the photocopier. And for night time, choose the Volume Cap, and plump your lashes to up to 15 times their normal thickness, leaving them voluptuously lush-looking and ready to party.

So far I really like this mascara. It's a two-way mascara that actually uses the same brush, so I guess the difference would be in the wiping the brush receives by exiting the corresponding part of the tube. The brush and the formula are great. No clumps, shorter drying time and a lot of definition to the lashes. The length part is not enough for me personally, but I'm sure it would be for somebody with shorter lashes. When I use the volume part, it only takes one coat for my lashes to look really long and defined (and not sticking together).

the brush

my lashes with the length part of the Day 2 Night mascara

my lashes with the volume part of the Day 2 Night mascara

I hope this review has been helpful and I apologize for it being so long. My conclusion is that the Day 2 Night is a much better choice in comparison to the Extra Super Lash. The price difference isn't that big (Extra Super Lash is slightly cheaper) but for the price, Day 2 Night also gives you more product (9,5 ml vs 8 ml). Don't forget to ask your questions in the comments section and thanks for reading!

Rimmel Lycra Pro Peppermint

I bought this polish during my holiday in France. It had a fairly high price for a Rimmel polish, in my opinion (I payed around 7 euros for it). But you know how it is when you’re on holiday. I’ve seen this line here in a shop for about 4 euros but then again, not this particular shade.

Color:

I would define this as the average minty crème. It is pretty close to China Glaze’s For Audrey although I think that one is a bit more blue. Because of buying this polish, I gave up on adding For Audrey to my order on nailsupplies.us . I regret that a lot, and you will see why next.

Application:

The brush is the biggest one I’ve ever seen in a polish. They called it maxi brush, and man were they not kidding. I have the OPI pro wide and I find that one small in comparison. My smallest nail, which is the left pinky one, was very hard to paint (read flooding my cuticles). The formula is ok I suppose for a pastel.  It was opaque in two coats, although on some nails it may have shown some tiny, unnoticeable bald spots. I didn’t dare to paint a third coat as I always have issues with bubbling if I do that. Even so, a few bubbles showed up on some of my nails. I don’t know if I should blame the polish or the base coat for that one.

Durability:

Well, here begin the real issues. This polish was a chip fest.  I’m not kidding, this one looked like a 50 cent polish and in no case like a 7 euros one. It started with a big chip on the night of the same day I painted it. I thought it was my fault because I was opening a soda package. So I patched it and did one more coat of top coat. But the next morning, the same nail chipped on the other side. After that there were a lot of chips. So, 4 patches and a lot of minor chips later, I can tell you that on the 4^th day of wear it looked horrible. And a 4 day flawless wear is a very important condition for me, as I don’t have time to paint my nails very often. Also I need my polish to be bump-resistant and that’s surely not the case with this one. Sorry Rimmel, but you totally failed on this one.

Verdict:

Nice color and good application but not at all reliable. I will not be using this very much in the future, maybe for toes or nail art, but not for a full manicure. I might try it one day on very short nails to see how it holds up. All in all, not a good experience with this polish.  Too bad because I love the color.

 

And We'll Lie Beside A Turquoise Sea.

Sorry for not being around much this week, I promise I still read all of your comments and emails, I just haven't got around to posting - anyone who blogs will know it can be rather time consuming! Here is a Bundlemonster Konadicure for you, though, using Rimmel's Sky High as a base. Sky High is a gorgeous blue turquoise, goes on beautifully and opaque after 2 coats - I wore it on my toes for 2 weeks sans topcoat, and it didn't chip once.



I stamped the swirly image from the new bundlemonster set of image plates, BM201, using Konad's special polish in White. I think it kind of looks like art-deco style ocean waves, like a sea-themed mosaic!

 

I used Rimmel 60 Seconds as a topcoat - DO NOT WANT. I did not get on with it at all. Firstly, it smeared my stamping, which wasn't noticeable to the naked eye, but macro shows EVERYTHING! Secondly, it turned the white, stamped image yellow. You can't tell too much from the photos, as they are taken in bright sunshine, but trust me, the topcoat stained my manicure. I have NO IDEA how this can be, it's a topcoat for goodness sake! It is supposed to provide a clear coat over whatever I choose to use as a base! I'm baffled! Won't be using it again - money well spent...not. It's crazy how much I love Sky High, but hate this topcoat.

In other news, I loaned my nail art skillz to a little girl's birthday party, which was an exhausting 2 hours - kids are sticky and demanding! They loved my Del Sol Colour Changers though! (A post to come on those soon , once I've acquired Ruby Slipper!) I'd definitely hire myself out again, I've already been asked to do a wedding party - exciting stuff!

I also went to Parklife festival in Manchester this weekend (the reason Ive been so lax on the posts!) which was amaaazing, all the DJs we saw were fierce, and the crowds went mental! Skrillex was a definite highlight for us all, and despite the rain (and camping out for a couple of hours in a tea and cake tent!) we had a hilarious (if not muddy) time!

Leanne on my shoulders (yes, I'm a beast) and Sara during Chase and Status! Note the rained on makeup hahaha

The only one in wellies - soooo sensible

yes, the sun actually came out for day 1! Snapped in the Wagamamas noodle station with the dancing tigers. RIP reflective aviators, you shall be sorely missed (replaced)

Hey, look at that! Some of my real life made it on here! :D

I hope you are all well!

Stars, Skulls, Swirls, Sponging and Stamping. (Giveaway Winner, too)

God, I love it when an alliterative post title comes together.

The whole shabang for you today, I went a little stamp crazy...

All photos in natural light

Please ignore the smudge-tasic index finger! After all that work, there was no way I was re-doing it haha!

I'd been wanting to use the Skull image from the new Bundle Monster Image Plate set for a while, but was in danger of utilizing it to create some kind of gross emo-dream/Pirates of the Caribbean tribute! I decided, in the end, to keep the colours light, and add some swirly pattern and some stars :D

I started with a base of Barry M Turquoise, and sponged on Models Own Blooboo in differing places on the nail. I then repeated this with Silver, from Claire's Silver Nail Art Pen. Now, I've mentioned this before, but however wonderful this silver is (and it is), it gives you the WORST glitter herpes ever. You can scrub and scrub at your silver-stained cuticles but it Just. Won't. Go. Away. So, I apologise for the sparkly cuticles haha! I also added a little bit of Rimmel Sky High to the sponged base too :)

After adding a coat of Seche Vite to smooth it out, I stamped the swirly, planty image from BM225 using Konad White Special Polish onto different parts of each nail. Then, using THIS method, I mixed my own pastel Special Stamping Polishes and stamped some pink, green and purple Skulls from plate BM211. I then did the same with the Star image from BM206, adding them sporadically to make a pattern. I added some coloured rhinestones to the Skull eyes (a later addition - I liked it without, too) that you can get from Nail Art online store Born Pretty.

If people like this look, I may do a sponging/stamping tutorial, because it looks rather busy and difficult, but it's really very simple, when you know how!

Also, I'm going to quickly announce the Giveaway winner (I know it's been a long time coming, soorrryryyyy).
I have contacted her and she's accepted, the winner is...

Lily over at Beauty's Bad Habit!

Congratulations! I'll be posting your goodies after my exams (next week :D)

I used Random.org to select a random number, then simply found that numbered entry in my spreadsheet!

(Didn't want to include your email, Lily!)

So, there we are! My first Giveaway, over and done with! As you can see I had a colossal amount of entries, so they took a while to verify - thank you for your patience, and for entering in the first place!

I hope you enjoy your prize Lily, check out her blog Beauty's Bad Habit!

I also got some great feedback from the giveaway question "What would you like to see from me in the future", so I'll be sharing some of the suggestions with you soon! 

Thanks Everyone!

Rimmel Fruities and Kiss Nail Art Stickers

Just a quick reminder to all of you that you can vote for my entry into the BundleMonster Nail Art contest over at their Facebook page! You can vote once per day until the 20th :D

A rather simple one - I actually did this manicure a couple of weeks back, and forgot about it ha - I've used Rimmel's Fruity polish in Apricot Punch. It's a scented polish, and smells looovely and fruity when it's dry. This polish is a warm Red Coral, and it dries quickly and goes on really nice and smooth - this is three coats:-

Natural light, overcast.

 The smell lasted really well and was still lingering after a couple of days, even with a topcoat - it's not too overpowering that it gives you a headache first-off, though. I also own Lemon Drop, and although both smell rather artificial, I like them both, MAYBE Apricot Punch a little more :D

I was stuck for ideas (I feel coral is a hard colour to work with when thinking of nail art colour combos - is it just me?!) so I decided to add Kiss Nail Art Stickers, purchased from Superdrug for around £2.85.
Now, I didn't have any problem with the quality of the product itself, they were quick and easy to apply, came in a range of sizes, some with rhinestones, and they lasted alright with a topcoat - my only beef is that they only give you SIX of each design. EH?! Utter Face-Palm moment, Kiss. Did you skive Biology? Did the Nail Art Mafia chop off 4 of your fingers for crimes against Manicures? If not, it's a pretty shocking oversight since I have TEN WHOLE NAILS!!!
Unless you're doing a mismatched design there is no way to get your nails all the same! This, quite literally, baffled me. Why not include enough of each sticker to do ALL of your nails? If this is a sales ploy, then it will fail because I'm more likely to never buy them again, than to buy another packet to finish my manicure - madness. Here they are anyway, I used the large daisy design for my right hand, and the smaller (NOT-MATCHING) design for my left hand. They're so easy to use, literally peel them off and whack 'em on wherever you like:-

all photos in weak, pathetic British sunshine

And for the left hand with the smaller daisies:

I think I prefer the smaller ones. I did have a problem with them lifting after a couple of days, even with a topcoat, and the almost spongy texture of the transfer went a bit sticky. They were, altogether, a bit meeeh - I wont be buying them again.

On a more positive note, you've still got bags of time to enter my 100 Follower Giveaway (even though I have 400 today! Waheeeey!) to win yourself a fabulosa goody bag of British Polishes. NOICE.

xxx

Strawberry Picnic Nails

It was another lovely, bright sunny day yesterday, making me wish I was sat on the park having a picnic - this manicure would have to do instead!

ooooh I wish they had all come out as well as the index finger! The other two strawbs are looking a bit squished and deformed....Nails are SO tiny to draw on hahaha!

With Flash - Pesky Orange is very apt for this mani!

I made little picnic rug tips by taping them off and painting them white over a base of a shimmery Claire's polish. I then stamped with Barry M turquoise and MUA shade 16 from BundleMonster BM17. I stamped the shape of the strawberry (not the leaves) with Barry M Red off BM05. I tried stamping the Lemon image but was struggling to pick up a complete image (I think it was the Miss Sporty polish) so just freehanded them in the end, using Barry M Spring Green and Miss Sporty Taxi! I outlined using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen, and topped it off with Barry M 3-in-1 Topcoat.

I got some compliments on this, it was lovely to wear on a hot summery day! I cracked out the Raybans today and it felt sooooo good!

Let me know what you think, kids!

xxx

FOTD Green Eyed Monster

...Well, not "monster" hopefully. I used to rock this look a lot in my final years of school, I was a lot bolder with my style back then - I had pink hair for a start! I met my good childhood friend Emma for a free lunch today. I am a 'mystery diner' which means we get £40 to spend on food if we do a review afterwards! SWEET DEAL! We stuffed our faces, naturally. I was wearing a forest green dress from forever 21, and I decided to co-ordinate my make-up -

I absolutely HATE taking pictures of myself haha! here we have:-

• FACE - Benefit Erase Paste in Medium, Rimmel Stay Matte foundation in 100 Ivory, MeMeMe Blusher in Rouge (these are meant to be a dupe for the benefit blushers, and although very pigmented, this is muuuuch redder than Coralista despite looking almost identical in the box. I'll have to do a comparison one day)
• EYES - I used a very, very old 17 green eye palette. Dark forest green, light green and a yellowy gold - none of them have names. I don't think they do the exact combination anymore, but their green Eye Shadow Trio will do a treat, with a yellow gold shadow, in creating this look. Eyeliner is H&M Brown, Mascara is Max Factor False Lash Effect.
• LIPS - Topshop Lip Polish in Iced Coffee. 

Here's a couple of shots so you can see the blending on the eyes -

This look is dead easy and you can use the same technique with literally any 3 shades of you choice. I started with the medium green on the eyelid, then used the gold in the corner, blending it outwards and slightly under the eye. I then took my darker shade of green, with a smaller shadow brush, and blended this from the outside edge inwards, creating a slight taper as I went, taking it under the eye and across to about halfway. Added some eyeliner to the water line and just along the top lash line, some mascara, and voila!

This is what my hair looks like from the back today, a messy rosette with the hair from the crown:

Close you eyes to the mountain of crap on my bed...cheers!

Another easy one - take two medium sized pieces of hair from each side of the crown, bring to the back of the head and pin in a cross shape, with 2 bobby pins, so one overlaps the other (this will hold it in place better). Take the little pony bit and wrap it around your finger so it makes a twist. Form the twist into a circle and pin in place at the end and the top, weaving the bobby pin inside the rosette so it cannot be seen. Spritz with hairspray. Five minute up-do!

I hope you enjoyed that my dears, any questions just let me know on the comments, or drop me an email :) A bit of exciting news, I will be doing a guest post for Leanne over at DoNotRefreeze in the next couple of weeks - it's a nail art tutorial, and a good one at that! :D

I'm trying to do tomorrow's Mani tonight and I'm SO uninspired. Need to have a think and a peruse of the BundleMonsters  I reckon. Only thing I know, it will be blue haha.

Take care everyone! xxxxxxx