*Scheduled post, so sorry for late replies to comments*
(Image © NaLa-aka-Umka @ DeviantArt)
2010 is the Year Of The Tiger. I fucking love tigers! And lions and cats of all sorts and sizes :) I was born in 1991, the year of the goat. Hah, I hate that, there's so many awesome animals in the Chinese Zodiac like tigers and dragons and monkeys and rabbits.. but no I'm a goat. A metal element goat, apparently! "Metal Goats – Years 1931 and 1991: Metal Goats are tough on the outside, fragile inside. Those close to Metal Goats understand and accept this. Metal Goats are very cultural and they’re most appreciative of the arts." Haha, shut up chinesezodiac.com!
Anyway, I digress! I want to wish all my followers and friends a very happy and prosperous new year, and may the beauty blogosphere continue to bloom and grow! :D I've had such a great six months getting to know you all - I don't really have any friends so you guys mean a lot to me. No one ever normally listens to the crap I have to say so I always feel privileged to know that you lovely ladies do! I'm not gonna get all mushy, but thank you all so much :)
May the Year of the Tiger bring you everything you want and more, you all deserve it! Have a great time girls. Cheers!
Lots of love <3
I think I've been a very lucky girl this Christmas! Whole ton of beauty related gifts from my dad, yay!
Lauren Luke's book, a Linda Mason book I've had my eye on for quite a while, GHD IV stylers, all the Konad plates on my wishlist, and a UV gel nails kit - I'm kinda intimidated by this! I definitely won't be jumping straight in with the tips, I'll start off doing gel overlays on my natural nails. Also pictured are Lush Snow Fairy, Collection 2000 Glam Metallics in Vinyl (Silver) and Ripped (Purple), and Glam Glitter Wand in Showbiz (Black) from my younger sister. I always avoid talking about Lush on my blog, because I used to work there and since they got big in America I feel like they've really sold out. Hmph. :(
Anyways! I'm FINALLY going to spend a week with my gorgeous boy from tomorrow so reviews on most/all of these things will be up in the New Year. I'm going to try and schedule a couple of posts for the week I'm away if I can find the time today. ^_^
Oh oh oh! And here's the mani I actually ended up with on Christmas Day - I painted them with China Glaze Emerald Sparkle late on Christmas Eve, then after receiving new Konad plates from my dad I added this design from plate M73 with China Glaze Passion, and finished with China Glaze Wireless Holographic topcoat. Very festive, right? :D
I hope you all had a fantastic day and got spoiled rotten like I did, hehe. Let me know in the comments what you got! I'd love to hear :D
I must say, GOSH have excellent customer service!
A couple of weeks ago, I went into a Superdrug store with the intention of picking up some GOSH stuff but the display was disgusting. Customers obviously had no regard for the tester items and had opened damn near everything on the stand, and everything was all smooshed up and gross.. :(
So, I found a contact email for GOSH and told them about it, giving the address and telephone number of the Superdrug branch concerned. A few days later I got a reply from Rikke Mogensen, GOSH's Export Area Manager, thanking me for alerting them to the issue and asking for my postal address so they could send me a few items! Very pleasantly surprised, I remembered my late grandmother and how she always used to complain to companies about the tiniest little thing and get compensated with a bunch of products - I should become a professional complainer, it looks like it pays off! Haha or maybe it's just GOSH's great service.
So anyway, I replied to their email with my address on Monday night, and this afternoon I received a package from GOSH all the way from Denmark, by FedEx. I'm so impressed with that, I wasn't expecting to get anything before the new year!
They sent me a nice letter thanking me again for the feedback, along with a Light & Shine Lipglaze, and four Velvet Touch liners. One of the liners was Black Ink, which I already have, so I've put it aside along with another couple of items I've been saving for my next giveaway (which will be at 300 followers).
L-R: Velvet Touch liners in Green Grass, Blue Lagoon and Purple Stain, Light N Shine Lipglaze 01
I absolutely love the formula of the Velvet Touch liners, and I haven't opened the lipgloss yet so I can't say an awful lot - but I'll try to get a full review up in the new year!
The moral of the story is, complain! :D Hahaha.
Merry Christmas girls, I hope you all have a great time and get all the gorgeous presents you want! :D I will be posting again on Boxing Day or Sunday, so I'll wish you a happy new year then, hehe.
Disclaimer: Even though I stated it above, here it is again for the sake of any FTC stalkers: I DID NOT pay for the products featured in this post, they were sent to me free of charge by GOSH Cosmetics as thanks for alerting them to an issue regarding the company, not for review purposes. GOSH Cosmetics are not even aware that I am a blogger, as far as they're concerned I am simply a customer who complained.
I never really bother with New Year's Resolutions 'cause I never, ever stick to them especially if it's something that's a total bore like quit smoking or lose weight. But in preparation for 2010 I've compiled a list of a few cosmetic related things that I want to achieve next year.
Enrol on a nail technician course. Gonna have to save up for this, but I think it will be worth it. I don't really have any idea about the technical stuff about nails, and I'm not even very good at looking after my own hands (I'm sure you've noticed my cuticles suck). But this is something I would love to gain a qualification in so I can actually get a job I would enjoy. Good plan, right?
Buy and fill a MAC 15 pan palette. Would you believe I only own one MAC eyeshadow? Grand Entrace from the Love That Look collection, if you're interested. I'm not entiiirely sure why but I'd really like to fill a 15 pan palette over the next year - depotting Grand Entrace will be fun I'm sure >_< src="http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn281/leanneamy/blog/MakeupBrushesMainImage.gif">
Improve brush collection. I have plenty of brushes, but nothing from higher end brands because I feel like I really can't justify spending like £20+ on a brush, yknow? I think I'm gonna go for the Sigma eye kit, that's excellent value at only $39. Also, the brushes I love the most are blending/crease brushes! Sadly I only have two, haha, but I may take a trip to Charles Fox to look for a couple more - I'm amazed at the quality of Kryolan brushes and Sian says the Charles Fox brand ones are great too. They also sell a couple of other brands' brushes in there but I can't remember off the top of my head so I'll have to see.
Master the cut crease technique. Yup, I REALLY have trouble with this haha. So I'm just gonna practice practice practice! I've watched a whole bunch of tutorials on it but I still can't get the hang of it. Any tips from the masters among you would be greatly appreciated!
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In other news, I just received my third package from Wayne Goss (I cannot resist his blog sales) - stacks of 16 different Bobbi Brown gel liners and eye bases (which I assume was a collective term for paint pots and paints, maybe?)! I'm hungry, so I'm gonna go have some lunch then get to swatching, because none of the MAC ones are labelled so I'm gonna need help from you guys to identify them!
Oh oh oh and also.. here's my Christmas mani!
Color Club Alabaster as base colour, stripes done with a generic red eBay nail art pen, dots done with China Glaze Emerald Sparkle and Passion. Totally stole the candy cane idea from Sian (who has now had two mentions in this post, yeah I love her), then jazzed it up a bit with the dots. I'd love to keep this on over Christmas, but you know me, I probably will have changed it tomorrow. :)
And I promise this is the last thing I'm gonna ramble about in this post, this is the lazy eye look I have been favouring for the last few days - super simple with just two shadows (plus highlight), I normally use 4 or more in any one look! It's just Urban Decay Last Call, and the matte black from Kryolan's Berlin palette. I'd love to use Urban Decay Oil Slick for convenience as it's in the same palette as Last Call but I can't bear the chunky glitter in it! :(
Anyway, shutting up now. Look out for a post later today or tomorrow with swatches of my latest Goss haul! Haha :)
We hardly ever get snow here in the South East of England, and when we do it's just a light smattering that never settles. But over the last few days we've had a snowfall of about 6 inches! I'm not a huge fan of snow normally because it's a pain in the bloody arse and delays everything (post, public transport etc), but it sure is pretty. Here's some crappy photos I took in my garden yesterday morning.
And today, I played in the snow in a big field with my little sister and our cousin Kirsty. So here's a SUPER flattering picture of Kirsty and I jumping off of huge snowballs (snowboulders?)!
In other news, I liked my pink and blue polkadot mani so much that when it started chipping off, I replaced it with the same design in lilac and mint green.
Aaaand here's a festive EOTD. Yay!
UDPP, GOSH Velvet Touch eyeliner in Rising Sun, TSS Twinkle Dazzle Delight (applied wet), red from Sleek Sunset palette, TSS False Pretense, TSS First Class Con, GOSH Velvet Touch eyeliner in Black Ink, Maybelline Pulse Perfection mascara, Anastasia brow gel.
I'm feeling super Christmassy now, and I can't wait until I can see Colin. You all feeling nice and festive yet? :D
I was lucky enough to be sent a few George @ Asda polishes by my good friend Charlotte, as my local Asda doesn't sell them.. pah! But yeah, biiig thanks to Charlotte - these are lovely! She sent me Ultra Violet, Indigo Dazzle and Frost Bite. I'm loving my dark blues at the moment so Indigo Dazzle is a very welcome addition to my polish family, and I've been wanting a decent opaque light blue for AGES - my favourite is Eyeko Pastel Polish but it's such a bugger to apply so I'm loving Frostbite too. You can see these two polishes showcased further on in this post. I'm yet to try Ultra Violet, but it has of course been swatched on a nail wheel and I've got a design idea in the back of my mind for it :)
You might be wondering why there's a No7 polish bottle there too - when I took the George polishes out from the bubble wrap my first thought was 'ooh these look just like No7 bottles' - I checked, and they do! Haha :) although I do prefer the George ones, smaller and more cutesy :) and MUCH better value for money of course!
Now I'm going to break the probable monotony of all my nail ramblings recently, and give you an EOTD. Just 'cause I haven't done one in aaages! I haven't even been wearing eyeshadow very often in the past couple of weeks, I've just been throwing on eyeliner and mascara. But here we go, a smokey blue kinda thing:
Naturally, I started with UDPP. Then, I applied a thin layer of Bourjois Shimmering Shine liquid eyeshadow in Gris Platine on the lids and blended with my finger up to the crease. Gotta be SUPER quick with blending these, they dry like lightning and once they're on, they're on! I placed Fyrinnae Sleepy Hollow on the inner 1/3 of my lids, and Barry M Dazzle Dust in Midnight (80) on the remaining 2/3. Next, I used the matte black from Kryolan Shades palette in Berlin blended right into the crease, followed by the dark grey from the same palette blended a little higher up for a smoother transition between that and my highlight colour: MAC Vanilla pigment. Of course I used my HG liner, Maybelline Line Definer in black on my upper lashline, and also GOSH Velvet Touch liner in Black Ink smudged across the outer 2/3 of my lower lashline. I brightened up the eye by sweeping a touch of The She Space; The Mirror Loves Me on the rest of the lower lashline. I used Maybelline Lash Stiletto and Colossal Volume mascaras, and Anastasia brow gel. That's it!
And now.. please don't kill me; more NOTDs.
This was meant to be snow inspired, I hope you can see that..! Haha. I used George Indigo Dazzle for the base colour, and when that was dry I sponged Color Club Smoke & Mirrors (silver) down the tips. After the silver had dried, I sponged a bit of Color Club Alabaster (white) as lightly as I could over the silver but I forgot how opaque that white is! Haha so I kinda ruined the effect a bit. I applied three rhinestones around the bottom of each ring finger, and finished with China Glaze Wireless holographic topcoat - I think the topcoat really pulled the look together as the holo glitter particles blended so well with the sponged silver and made it look much more of a gradual gradient. I really liked this mani but unfortunately the white and silver started wearing away at the tips so quickly! :(
When I'm stuck for what to do with my nails, I ask the boy for a colour combination. This time he said 'light pink and light blue', so that's what I did and I was dying to play with my new dotting tools! Base colour was George Frost Bite (SO opaque.. pretty much a one-coater but I did two because I'm like that). Then I added a pink line on the right hand side of the nails, approximately 1/3 of the nail width - this was Collection 2000 Hot Looks in Hoola Hoop. Sorry I haven't bothered cleaning up properly, haha. To neaten up the line between the pink and the blue I used a white nail art pen from eBay. I used the largest head from my dotting tools to add pink dots to the blue parts of the nail, then a smaller one to add white dots to two of the pink dots on each nail :) then finished up with OPI Designer Series topcoat. I'm liking this one quite a lot too!
Also, I want to say thank you to Claire (Adorning) for giving me a shout out on her awesome blog! *Hug*
A couple of weeks ago, Kim (Dottie_K) and I decided to split an order on dollarnailart.com (since their minimum order is $25 and shipping to UK is at least $10.40). The website doesn't look like much but EVERYTHING is a dollar. It's seriously worth checking out! And if you can't afford/don't want $25 worth of stuff (plus shipping) by yourself, do what we did and split an order! (I paid and had it shipped to me, Kim paypal-ed me her part of the money and I mailed her stuff on).
Soo here's what I got:
A packet of assorted coloured pieces of striping tape, black glitter and pink glitter
Six different transfer foils and foil adhesive (order 6 foils and they throw in an adhesive for free)
Packets of: hollow white hearts, hollow pink hearts, white butterflies, purple butterflies, black stars and purple stars. The three kinds of rhinestones on the other side of the wheel were from elsewhere (see below)! I also ordered a few of these carousels 'cause I knew I'd need them for storage.
Don't forget to keep an eye out for a post on Kim's blog to see what she got! Well, presumably she'll blog about it :D haha.
At some point last week, Sian told me she'd bought a nail art kit in Poundland with a whole bunch of decorative shapes and gems. A few days later I happened to be in a town with a Poundland so went to take a look on the offchance I might find what she was on about and I DID! Haha I was way happy. It came with a file/buffer (not sure of the quality, I won't be using it - I've been totally converted to the OPI nail file I got from Helen), two wooden sticks for picking stuff up, and FIFTEEN, yes 15 different little packets of awesomeness. All for £1! The carousels I bought from dollarnailart have only 12 compartments each so I filled one up and put the remaining 3 packets into the other carousel, as you saw above. But here's the rest!
Not sure how well you can see but there's a cute assortment of flowers, hearts, stars and pearls. :D
And last but certainly not least, I finally got some dotting tools! I can't believe it took me so long to get some - what indispensable tools :D
Because I don't want to make this post too long, I'm gonna do another right after this. See you in a minute ;D
^_^ As promised, here's some nail candy from the week!
After I tried water marbling with the purples in my second most recent post, I practiced some more but using a different method. I wanted to just marble one colour over the top of the base colour but couldn't figure out of that was even possible. If it is, and I'm being dense, please tell me! Anyway, I tried marbling with one colour and a clear topcoat for the next few tries and I think it turned out pretty well!
Okay so actually with this one all of the fingers turned out pretty crappy (waaay too much silver) but the thumb turned out great I think. This was Glitter Gal Black Holo for the base colour, marbling with China Glaze OMG and OPI Designer Series topcoat.
Sooo, not one to be totally deterred, I tried again with NYC Cognac Sparkle as the base colour and China Glaze FYI and OPI DS topcoat for marbling. Sliiightly better attempt but the middle finger was fail!
I gave the marbling a rest the next day and went for Barry M Grey, stamping in white with Konad plate M9 and China Glaze Wireless holographic topcoat - I REALLY like this actually! The topcoat I mean, but I was quite fond of the mani overall too.
Next day, I tried marbling again. I LOVED this! I was so proud of it, haha. I decided to mattify it any I loved it even more! Base colour is OPI Russian Navy (which has rapidly made its way into my list of top 10 polishe of all time), marbling is OPI DS topcoat again with China Glaze Passion.
BUT THEN! Disaster struck :( I broke my middle fingernail REALLY low down on Thursday and had to cut everything else down to even it up. I have stumps! They are so ugly >__< 
Here's NYC Cognac Sparkle again, Konad stamping with China Glaze Passion on image plate M57. This is a recreation of a mani I did a long time ago 'cept in the old one I used Rimmel Posh Trash for the stamping (it was before I got Passion), and I mattified it this time. I think I preferred the old one, if only because my nails were long and not ugly and stumpy then D:
Aaand finally, here's what I'm sporting now. GOSH Wild Lilac, Konad stamping in white with image plate M4, hot pink rhinestones from an AWESOME kit I got from Poundland (big nail art haul post coming soon), and China Glaze Wireless holographic top coat. I quite like this actually.
I'm just hoping my nails grow quickly! ...Although now I'm looking at the pictures, that middle nail has actually appeared to grow a noticeable amount overnight from the leopard Konad mani to to lilac one today!
How are you, girrrrls?
PS Sorry that most of these pics were taken before cleanup.. gotta get out of that habit! haha
Yeah, title says it all; I lost my job yesterday. The coffee shop I was working at only opened six weeks ago and of course this is an unseasonal time for a business like that so the boss wasn't bringing in nearly enough money to keep me on. She only had two employees anyway and the other girl had a fair few years more experience than me so I was the one to get the boot :(
But let's be honest - it was a shit job anyway and I couldn't wear nail polish. I'm gutted at having to sign on for Jobseeker's Allowance again, I hoped that's something I'd never have to repeat. So anyway - in the meantime, until I can find a new job, I might not be posting quite so regularly especially since I can't afford ridiculous hauls like before! Haha. I won't be on a hiatus or anything though, I'll still be here. In fact I'm still doing my nails every evening so I'll post up a bunch of this weeks manis at the end of the week. :)
Hope you're all well! <3
I don't even bother with spending bans, because I know I have NO willpower. I should do though, I accidentally took advantage of the Superdrug 3 for 2 thang at the weekend - but I showed remarkable restraint (for me at least) and only got six items, the best of which was probably the Sleek Sunset palette - first time I've been able to find the bugger since it came out! But of course I wasn't too worried as it's part of the permanent line - thank fawk I got my hands on Graphite when I did, hey?
I also picked up a GOSH Velvet Touch liner (just the black one) after my good friend Charlotte raved about them so much and I have real trouble finding liners that show up in my waterline - this is performing well so far and I may have to grab a few more colours before Superdrug stop their 3 for 2... Also from GOSH I picked up Wild Lilac nail polish 'cause I don't think I have enough purples ;P Theeen I got a Collection 2000 pressed powder and blush, because why not?! Last thing I grabbed wasn't intended - I was looking on the Maybelline stand for Dream Mousse Blush (brilliant Maybelline product IMO) but they didn't have any. What I did spot was an amazingly pretty polish.. it's called Flash Cosmic and is part of the Express Finish line. It's a very iridescent blue glitter suspended in clear polish so it's more or less a top coat, and what's so cool about it is that the glitter only shows up when the light catches it from certain angles and you see this awesome blue flash out the corner of your eye.. stunning. BUT, it was absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to photograph. When you photograph it, it looks like there's dirt stuck to your nails or something.. so weird.
ANYWAY! Yeah I got sidetracked again. This evening I thought I'd give water marbling another go after my disheartening and disastrous first attempt. I do think this was a significant improvement, but I've still got a long way to go! You nail bloggers make it look so easy D< 
This time, I used a base colour (Collection 2000 Dynasty) which seems to have helped a LOT. I marbled with GOSH Wild Lilac and Color Club Alabaster. There's too much white going on with my index finger, and my ring finger just looks smudgy. I think the middle finger looks best. I'm gonna keep at this, I think - I'll try several different colour combinations throughout the week :) I've also found that room temperature to lukewarm water seems to work a lot better - I used cold water the first time I tried because I had no idea what temperature the water should be!
Oh, and I used China Glaze Wireless Holographic topcoat here. It doesn't give quite the result I'd hoped for (which would be to make any polish look like it had come straight out of the OMG collection) but it's still very pretty - it's more or less a really really fine holographic glitter.
And lastly, sorry for the lack of proper clean-up in the pics! Haha <3
So ever since I got my Konad, I've totally ignored the nail art pens I got from eBay months ago. Woops. But I prefer to think they've just been in hiberation rather than been neglected. Soo, over the last couple of days I've been making a special effort to include them in my polish play. So I present to you, four manis sans-Konad!
I LOVE this colour. It's Sportsgirl Nail It! in Apple, courtesy of the lovely Jacie. This is everything I wanted Barry M Mint Green to be! It applies like an absolute dream, too. Anyway yeah, raves on the colour, not so keen on my crappy half-assed little design, haha. A few swirls and dots with the white pen.. yup!
Base colour for this one is Barry M Cyan Blue, then using the edge of a foundation sponge I stippled in a bit of China Glaze Atlantis (thanks Brooke) in a roughly triangular shape from the left hand side. Then I lined the edges with the black pen, and added the dots with the dark blue pen. I would have preferred to use the black for the dots too, but the dotting part was all clogged up and the needle that's provided to unblock them just kept bending when I tried to unclog it.. *sad*
Started getting a wee bit more adventurous.. haha. Base colour is Glitter Gal dark brown holo (another one from Jacie), then using a sponge I stippled on the top left hand corner with the polish from a coppery coloured nail art pen. Theeen I used a tiny little artists brush to do pointed teardrop shapes in the same corner with China Glaze Passion, then to make those look a bit more like the flower petals they were supposed to be I outlined with the black pen again.
The others are definitely meh, but I actually really like this one! It appears that keeping is simple is definitely the most effective route. Base is another Jacie polish - BYS Pink Panic. GORGEOUS! Haven't got any pinks like it! Then the strokes/ribbon type things were done with the black pen except for one one each finger which was done with a metallic silver pen, then gone over with a glittery silver pen when that was dry. I'm actually quite proud of this.
So how do you like them? Be honest - I want to get better at this freehand malarkey so honest opinions and suggestions much appreciated girlies! :)
Of my recent piggie haul, Fyrinnae is the only company which isn't technically mineral. It is all vegan, however, and incredibly unique!
I think the most truly brilliant thing about Fyrinnae's website is their swatches. And when I say swatches, I mean ACTUAL swatches, not inaccurate color pictures or the crappy splat-shapes of pixellated colour that Illamasqua used to have before their revamp. Take a look at this page for example - it's the swatches that persuaded me to choose this product. You really do know what you're getting here, which is fantastic.
I only ordered four shadows (got five though - you get one free!) and one other product, as their samples are a little more pricey than Sassy's - coming in at $1.75 (about £1.05) each - but SO worth it, these shadows are truly unique to a bigger and better extent than any others I've tried. The other product I picked up was their 'Pixie Epoxy' - here's what Fyrinnae have to say about it. I must say, I was completely intrigued and after seeing swatches with it I HAD to have it.
"Please note that this is not an eye shadow primer, or really a base. It is to keep sparkles on or to make shimmery shadows appear "glossy" / a foiled look without foiling.
Originally developed and formulated for a friend/pro artist, this unique "glue" is designed to hold the sparkliest, most shimmery eye shadows in place and minimize "fallout". Can also be used to retain a "wet" or "glossy" look to loose shadows. Don't worry, it's easily washed off, and while keeps shadows in a water-resistant state, the product itself is water-soluble (no silicones or oils)."
I've found for best results with Pixie Epoxy (or Pixipoxy as I like to call it), you only need the tinest amount spread over your eyelid - it comes in a tube with a doefoot applicator - and leave it to go a bit tacky before applying eyeshadows on top. It's very difficult to blend over but I'm working on it - if I find a good method I'll be sure to let you know! Anyway, we've GOT to see swatches now right?
Swatches from L-R are dry, wet on bare skin, dry over Pixipoxy.
Gorgeous colours, right? Boy Toy is I think part of their permanent line and was my free sample - I think I mentioned in my haul overview post that this free sample has a lot less in it than the bought samples but that's not a problem. Sleepy Hollow and Pumpkinfire are from the Halloween 2009 collection - Sleepy Hollow looks a bit more blue here than it really is, it's a bit more teal in the flesh.
These two are AMAZING. Jaw drop much? :D I think Dressed to Kill was one of the Halloween colours too, I can't quite remember. Love Potion is one of their 'Arcane Magic' shadows, which are supposed to be really multifaceted and all sorts of colours from different angles. I think the swatches of Dressed to Kill best illustrate the effect given by Pixie Epoxy - stunning, no?
I really, really want to order some more of the Arcane Magic line when I've got some spare money floating around (not for a while then.. hah). How about you - have you tried Fyrinnae? If not, do you want to now? XD
So I was surfing the interwebz for inspirational nail art pictures, and I came across THIS THREAD in the 'Ultimate Guitar' forums.
I'd just like to clarify that I find big ugly 3D acrylic nail art like the last two pictures in that first post fucking horrible - the person who started that thread chose some VERY ugly examples to illustrate her point. And I'd also like to clarify that I don't give a rat's ass about what men think - my Colin likes my nails and appreciates the effort I put into them, but the general concensus of the men on that website is that women who paint their nails are self-obsessed.
I will admit that as beauty bloggers, we DO have a certain amount of vanity but whatever, at least we take care of ourselves, right? If those guys wanna stereotype like that, we can just say 'all guitarists are filthy and unhygienic' - definitely not true of all boys who play guitar but it just kinda riled me that they think girl who paint their nails are a bunch of tarts. :( Can't they appreciate that for some of us, it's a hobby? It certainly is for me because I can't wear polish on a day to day basis because of my job - I come home and paint them for fun then take it all off again. It's a hobby in very much the same way as playing guitar is for them! Grr.
Before I start rambling on as per, I was tagged by Dottie for the Kreativ Blogger tag and by Anca for the I love your blog award. I've already done both of these tags, but thanks much to those two ladies! ^__^
Okay so like, a week and a half after I originally intended to get this up, here's the swatches of my little Sassy Minerals haul. I love the design and layout of their website - so clean and professional. I hate to be overly critical but I find that a lot of indie makeup companies have really poorly designed websites - this is brilliant. Sample sizes of anything (foundations etc, blushes, eyeshadows, liners) are just $0.75! Sassy also give two free random samples with every order (even if you're just ordering samples anyway). This effectively means I got 10 samples including shipping for a grand total of $9.96 - approx £6 :)
(As with my Lisa Kate Swap swatches, these all feature a dry swatch on the left and a foiled one on the right except the blushes which are just dry)
The first thing I added to my basket was their blush in 'Tart' - the description claimed it would remind me of NARS Orgasm. I don't actually own Orgasm but I borrowed it from a friend once and from what I remember of O, and swatches I've seen of it all over the place, this is certainly a reasonable match! I also got Chick Flick blush, described as a 'warm rose shimmer'.
Next, I thought I should pick up a good matte highlight colour. Another excellent thing about the Sassy website is ease of navigation - they have their product type tabs at the top; 'So Cheeky' for blush, 'Eye Candy' for eyes etc, and each of these has subsections titled 'Shimmer', 'Silk Lustre' and 'Deja Vu'. Obviously Shimmer filters results to give you shimmery products, and Silk Lustre will show you the mattes. Deja Vu sections exhibit Sassy products that are meant to be dupes of other brands' products. I grabbed Sensible Shoes from the Silk Lustre section as a highlight colour but this was the only matte I got. I remembered seeing Fashionista on Lisa Kate's blog some time ago and decided I needed that!
Then I tried to hunt out a pretty golden green. I went for Bad Attitude, described as 'deep olive with golden flashes'. It's extremely helpful that the pictures on Sassy's website are reasonably similar to what actual product swatches look like. One of my free samples was Truth or Dare, which I love pairing on the inner corner when I use Bad Attitude as it's more or less just a paler version of it!
I also picked up Lyrical, a 'deep smokey green with intense green and aqua sparkle' - although I personally think this is more of a blue! My other free sample was Taste The Rain, a lovely light silvery blue which looks great with Lyrical.
I was also intrigued by Why Not? When I saw it on Lisa Kate and Phyrra's blogs, so I picked that one up too. Lastly, I had a look through their 'liners' section and due to the same blogs I picked Gasoline Rainbow. These two are so beautiful and sparkly! I had to include a blurry picture to show off the sparkle. Also, there are three swatches for Gasoline Rainbow - the one to the far right is swatched over Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy. Yes, there WILL be a seperate post about that at some point.. some point! :D
So there's my little Sassy haul - I'm definitely tempted to go back for more blushes. :) I'm not going to give a specific date for the next lot of swatches but it'll probably be Allure By Jen. I know I'm approximately forever and a day behind the times with this post scheduling thing, I just never thought of using it before :D so this should be up some time on Thursday afternoon while I'm working. Yknow what Blogger needs? It needs a link with Twitter. Whenever I update my blog I always tweet 'New blog post: Post title (link)', but obviously I can't do that if I schedule a post for when I'm not around. Tumblr has what I'm on about - when you post on Tumblr it automatically updates your Twitter with a link to it. Anyway, it's not gonna happen and I'm just rambling now. Byebyebye! ^_^
You know you've got loads of parcels on their way to you but they're all taking so long to arrive, then they all arrive at once? :D Kinda like what happened with my mineral haul. Well it happened again - my nail wheels finally arrived yesterday! So I set about swatching my entire collection of nail polishes. You wanna see? Of course you do! ;P
Blues and greens:
1. Eyeko Pastel Polish
2. NYX Ocean
3. Barry M 294 Cyan Blue
4. Model's Own Bluebelle
5. Maybelline Forever Strong Midnight Blue
6. Eyeko Vamp Polish
7. OPI Russian Navy
8. Originals By Brooke Russian Gravy
9. Boots 17 Peacock
10. Maybelline Colorama Jellybean
11. Guppy 77
12. China Glaze Cherish
13. OPI Sit Under The Apple Tree
14. Barry M 137 Lime Green
15. Barry M 304 Mint Green
16. Sit Under The Apple Tree over Lime Green
17. Bluebelle over Russian Navy
Purples and yellow:
1. Clatty nail color 312
2. Rimmel Vinyl Stars Twinkle
3. Collection 2000 Hot Looks Dynasty
4. NYX Dream
5. Miss Sporty 205
6. Miss Sporty 209
7. Barry M 303 Bright Purple
8. Rimmel Lasting Finish Underground
9. Bourjois So Laque! Bleu Violet
10. Constance Carroll Eclipsed Earth
11. NYC Nail Glossies Cognac Sparkle
12. Some unbranded/unlabelled purple!
13. NYX Dream over Dynasty
14. NYX Dream over Bright Purple
15. NYC i114a
16. Barielle Shades Lemondrops
Pinks, reds, corals:
1. Eyeko Pretty Polish
2. Boots 17 Pinking Shear
3. Collection 2000 Hot Looks Hoola Hoop
4. Eyeko Punk Polish
5. Barry M 272 Shocking Pink
6. Collection 2000 Hot Looks Vixen
7. China Glaze TTYL
8. Boots No7 Pink Grapefruit
9. Boots No7 Rose Truffle
10. Maybelline Express Finish Cherry
11. Eyeko Saucy Polish
12. Barry M 297 Coral
13. Rimmel Lasting Finish Heated
14. Barry M 136 Tangerine
15. Guppy 33
16. NYX Sorbet
17. Sorbet over Barry M Coral
18. Miss Sporty 203
Monochromes, golds and neutrals (these are my favourites!)
1. NYC Nail Glossies Black
2. Collection 2000 Hot Looks Intense
3. GOSH Bright Passion (over Black Nail Glossies)
4. China Glaze Fortune Teller
5. China Glaze Let's Do It In 3D
6. Barry M 293 Grey
7. Eyeko Disco Polish
8. GOSH Holographic
9. China Glaze OMG
10. China Glaze FYI
11. China Glaze Passion
12. Guppy 25
13. Rimmel LycraPro Posh Trash
14. Bourjois So Laque! Rose Lounge
15. Barry M 124 Pinky Caramel
16. NYX Natural
17. NYX Natural over Pinky Caramel
I was very, very disappointed to discover I only had 62.. it looked like a lot more than that looking at bottles! Haha. Still, not a bad collection I don't think. Well, 62 was the number in my collection as of December 1st. Today, December 2nd, I got three packages! One was the Illamasqua no13 lashes I bought from Wayne Goss's sale, one was unmistakably another box from Brooke, but I was puzzled as to what the last one was. Turns out it was from Jacie! :D Oh my word I was so excited - although I'm still puzzled as to why there's no indication of international postage on the package from Jacie, haha. So in the space of a day, my collection managed to grow an impressive amount! Take a look at these.. First, the package from Brooke.
I've been so excited about the matte topcoat - I know I'm so late jumping onto that bandwagon but better late than never, right? I can't stop myself from mattifying everything in sight, glitters look especially amazing! Thanks a lot Brooke :D
And here's what I got from Jacie:
A sweet note in a Koala bear card (had to be something typically Aussie in there didn't there? In case you're unaware, Jacie is from Australia and we're doing a swap), sweeties! (These look like Refreshers but I haven't had any yet so can't report back), a Milo bar (god damn this was so nummy, it was a bit like a Lion bar but with more caramel and some brownie bits.. om nom nom), two of the CUTEST little cupcake lipglosses, an eyebrow pencil and some tinted brow gel - I wonder if she's been looking at my EOTDs and thinking my eyebrows need some grooming? Charming ;P
And here's the rest of the goods!
I've been gagging to try out Glitter Gal holos ever since Jacie swatched them on her blog - my word, they are beautiful! I mattified the brown earlier, sooo gorgeous.
So, a massive huge THANK YOU to Brooke and Jacie for expanding my collection for me XD <3
