Do Not Refreeze

OPI Nicki Minaj Nail Art

2012-02-14T07:00:00.000Z

What nail design could possibly be more apt than leopard print to showcase the awesome colours of the OPI Nicki Minaj collection?!

Someone in the office misspelt Minaj as 'Minage' a couple of weeks ago.. and since then we've been calling Nicki something else!

I'm sure you're all familiar enough with the collection now to recognise which colours I've used where - this collection has been all over the blogosphere and frankly I'm quite late to the party with this post. Just in case, though - I used Did It On 'Em (amazing colour) as the base colour on most nails, with Pink Friday for a few accent nails - the thumb and ring fingers on my left hand, and index and pinky fingers on my right. The dots were made with the opposite colours, and I did the outlines with Fly and just a dotting tool.

I kept this manicure on for possibly the longest I've EVER kept one on. A week and four days! I KNOW! In all that time, I experienced no chips and only minor tipwear. These photos were taken on the 9th day of wear, believe it or not. Impressive, right? Although I put this down to no longer doing waitressing, I think, as opposed to the polishes.

Did you pick up any colours from the Nicki ~~Minge~~ Minaj collection? Which ones are you loving or loathing? I've also got Metallic 4 Life and Save Me which I'm yet to try out!

Wet N Wild Comfort Zone Palette - Review and FOTD

2012-02-12T07:00:00.000Z

I really rue the fact that I didn't haul more Wet N Wild products when I was in America last year - I only picked up a mascara and a couple of nail polishes. I WISH I'd paid more attention to their other offerings - particularly their epic eyeshadow palettes. Amanda sent me this as a surprise in our swap last December, and it's given me some serious lemmings in the rest of the WnW range - I really want the Petal Pusher palette from this same range!

Comfort Zone is set up like two quads - with the left and right side containing shadows embossed with the words Browbone, Eyelid, Crease and Definer. On the back (which I stupidly didn't take a picture of) it has some pretty decent instructions for looks you can create with the palette, so the whole thing is really noob-proof (sorry, I mean suitable for beginners!). Although in my opinion, the Browbone shades aren't really suitable for the browbone at all because they're all a bit on the frosty side - I prefer a matte browbone colour or satin at a push. Let's take a look at some swatches - naturally swatched in the some layout as the palette.

These are some REALLY lovely colours. All colours that I will wear and get use out of, too, barring the green one (nothing wrong with it, green eyeshadow just doesn't look good on me!). My favourites, though, are the mushroom-y taupe on the top right and the beaaautiful brown-blue duochrome on the bottom right. This one really reminds me of Club eyeshadow by MAC - I don't own it, I'm only judging from swatches here - a slightly red toned brown with a strong blue shift. It's amazing!

Whilst the colours are beautifully pigmented and long lasting, and the price is amazing (somewhere around the $5 mark), the palette isn't without faults. The shadows are almost too soft and quite loosely packed - be prepared for a trip to Fallout City if you apply these after your foundation. I dread to think what would happen if I dropped it, too - frankly I'm amazed it got here in one piece! This isn't helped by the slightly flimsy packaging, either. But really these are small prices to pay for such lovely colours for such little money.

For the first look I did with the palette, I used the left Browbone shade all over the lid and then a bit of the right Browbone shade on the outer part of the lid, with the right Crease shade followed by a mix of both Definer shades in the crease. My actual browbone shade was Urban Decay's Virgin, and I also fancied a bit of colour on the lower lashline which I used Urban Decay's Flipside for.

You know.. whenever I look at my FOTD photos I always feel such crippling regret for ever getting a piercing in my face. Idiot.

On the skin I'm wearing BeneFit's Boi-Ing concealer and Illamasqua Skin Base foundation, along with Illamasqua Rumour blush and FashionistA Butterscotch blush on the cheeks (not that these have shown up in the photos!). I also used Illamasqua Havoc precision ink liner, Bourjois black kohl liner, CoverGirl All in One mascara, Sleek MakeUp Brow Kit, and a tiny bit of Topshop Pillow Talk lipstick dabbed on with a fingertip.

Have you tried any of Wet N Wild's eyeshadow palettes before? American bloggers, help me out - which ones do I NEED in my life?

Tips With A Twist part II

2012-02-10T07:00:00.000Z

It's been a horribly long time since I last did an Easy Peasy Nail Design for you, I'm sorry! I hope I can make up for it with this second installment to the Tips with a Twist mini-series I began but never continued! My nails are quite a nice length at the moment, so what better time than now to do a tips-focused design? Although this will definitely work on short nails too, by all means.

Pick your colours out before you start. I used a grey for the base, I think a dark grey works well here because it offers enough of a contrast against the bright tip colours, but I didn't want to use black because I knew I'd be outlining the tips in black. Choose two holographic or glittery polishes for the tip design - or indeed holographic glitter! You may also want two opaque creme polishes of the same shade family to use underneath your holographic/glitter ones to make them stand out even more. I've done this, but you can certainly choose not to if your holo/glitters are opaque enough to stand up on their own.

After applying a clear base coat, paint your base colour. I used two coats of London's Weather Forecast by Catrice. I have a handful of different grey polishes but this one really stands out thanks to the almost-hidden silver shimmer in it. It just adds something a little bit different to what would otherwise be a plain grey creme.

Once your base coat is dry, take your first colour - the base for your holo/glitter, or skip this step if you're using the holo/glitter straight away. My first colour is blue, and as my base blue I used Orly's Sweet Peacock. Paint one corner of the each nail diagonally with this colour - vary the side of the nail, size of the area and the angles as much as you like - I prefer it to look mismatched.

Now, top that colour with your first corresponding holo/glitter. This is Milani 3D Holographic in Cyberspace.

Once the first colour is dry, repeat the process of base colour and holo/glitter on the other sides of each nail. My second colour was purple, and my purple base colour was Illamasqua Jo'Mina...

...and my second holo was Milani 3D Holographic in Hi-Res.

Once the second colour is dry, outline the corners in black using your preferred method. I use a black nail art striper pen, but feel free to use liquid eyeliner in a pinch!

Once the lines are more or less dry, apply a quick drying topcoat to seal your design. Try to resist the temptation of applying topcoat whilst the black lines are still wet as they can be prone to smudging and ruining your design. Clean up any polish on your fingers using your preferred method (a cotton bud dipped in polish remover works just fine), et voila!

Really hope you enjoyed this criminally simple Easy Peasy/Tips with a Twist hybrid nail tutorial. Do let me know if you try it out, I'd love to see! :) x

IMATS Haul & Swatches!

2012-02-08T07:00:00.002Z

Last IMATS London 2012 post, I promise. But the haul is the funnest part, right?

First of all, apologies for the fact that all of these photos were taken with flash. I was FAR too eager to get these photos done on Sunday night so I could start using all my new stuff! As flash photos go, I don't think they're too hideous and they're pretty colour accurate.

I'm really, really pleased with everything I got. I didn't make any rash decisions on purchases - I think it helped on Saturday that I knew I'd be going back the following day, so if there was anything I was undecided about I had a whole day to mull it over. I bought a nice mix of practical and fun things, so all in all I think it was a pretty successful (if rather large) spend!

Naturally, I had to grab the most recent issue of Makeup International magazine from Charles Fox - I love this semi-annual magazine, it's always packed full of inspiring images and tutorials. I also got four back issues of Makeup Artist magazine, and a book called Style Eyes by Taylor Chang-Babaian. I'd not heard of the book before but a quick flick through it told me that it was everything I wanted Eye Candy by Linda Mason to be, so I had to get it.

One of the first things I picked up on Saturday was a Pro Chart, as I meant to get one last year and totally forgot. Later on, I learned that MUD had their own face charts, with 15 more pages and heavier, more textured paper for less than a third of the price - sigh! That'll teach me. I picked up the MUD one too, just because. I've never done a face chart before, but it's something I can't wait to start practising now I have both of these!

OMG BRUSHEZZZ!!1!1. Colin just doesn't understand the necessity for so many brushes.. anyone else's other half the same, or do they understand? Haha. Pictured on the left is the gorgeous set I mentioned in my last post that was gifted to me by Royal & Langnickel - I haven't taken any closer photos of this as I plan to talk about it separately another time. In the middle is the Real Techniques core collection - yay! I've already used the Buffing Brush, and OH MY GOD it is actually amazing. Best brush for foundation EVER. I could do with about 50 backups of this. Lastly, I got 5 individual brushes from Crown Brush - well actually I bought 10 or 11 but the rest were for my sister so there's no point in showing those.

Real Techniques Contour Brush, Pointed Foundation Brush, Detailer Brush and the sen-frigging-sational Buffing Brush

Crown Brushes: C209 Chisel Pointed Fluff Brush, Small Angled Flat-Topped Brush (no name or number on this one!), C150 Angle Fluff Brush, C250-2 Liner Brush, and C404 Small Duo Face Brush

From Inglot, I got 3 matte eyeshadows to add to my Z palette in exceptionally practical colours - I've come to the conclusion that I don't own nearly enough matte eyeshadows. I also got the nail polish in 017 - I've not swatched it for this post but it'll undoubtedly be featured sometime soon. I grabbed it because it really reminded me of Illamasqua Prism, but with a pink shimmer instead of blue. The sponges were £1.65 from Charles Fox so I picked them up for use with foundation or for nail art - it's nice to have a store of things like that! Also from Charles Fox I got the Glamour Sparks glitter in Copper - which I stupidly just realised I haven't swatched. I'm sure I'll post about it soon though. I also got 3 pairs of false lashes and some dark lash glue from Miss Adora; I'm not a wearer of falsies because I am rubbish at applying them, but these were only £2 each so I thought I'd give it another go.

Inglot Matte Eyeshadows in 353, 341 and 326

I decided quite some time ago that I prefer Sleek MakeUP's Pout Paints to OCC Lip Tars - OCC might have a much vaster colour range but Sleek's ones are softer, less drying, less prone to bleeding and don't separate in the tube over time. So, I picked up three more of these in lieu of Lip Tars. I also got a few lip bits from NYX - two lipliners and an 'Xtreme Lip Cream' which is reminiscent of the Collection 2000 Creme Puffs, but nicer. I also grabbed the cream blush in Glow, after hearing the lovely Jennie praising it so many times.

Sleek MakeUP Pout Paints: Minx, Milkshake and Rosette

NYX Lip Liner Pencils in Tangerine and Nude Pink, Xtreme Lip Cream in Nude Peach Fuzz and Cream Blush in Glow

Oooh, Illamasqua! I actually picked up a few more bits than this, but those are a secret for now because I'm keeping them back for a giveaway! I've wanted to give their Light Liquid Foundation a go for a while, so what better time than when they're offering it for £7.50? I took a chance on shade 120 and it's just right. By the way, this, applied with the Real Techniques Buffing Brush = my foundation HEAVEN. Everything else was a fiver, or 3 for £10 for the stuff I got on Sunday - except for the pencils, which were a criminal £2 each! The nail polish, Propaganda, isn't swatched here but you know it'll be on here sometime soon.

Illamasqua Light Liquid Foundation 120, Pure Pigments in Chasm and Breathe, Medium Pencils in Coax and Exert

Cream Eyeshadow in Crumble, Powder Eyeshadow in Angst, Cream Blusher in Sob

Ahh, these are probably my star purchases. Make Up For Ever! I knew I wanted to try a couple more Aqua Creams after falling in love with shade 5 months and months ago, so I grabbed a couple of those. I also swatched a load of the Aqua Eyes pencil liners and Aqua Liner liquid liners - there are some BEAUTIFUL colours, seriously. Also, a testament to their lasting power - the swatches were practically untouched after several hand washes and a shower. Amazing stuff! I ended up with two each of these. I also bought a Star Powder - wasn't a planned purchase at all but I spotted this colour out of the corner of my eye and it was frigging stunning, a real red-leaning brown with a STRONG teal duochrome. So so so pretty! The swatch below hasn't done it nearly enough justice.

Aqua Eyes pencil liners in 23L and 4L, Aqua Liner liquid liners in 1 and 8, Aqua Creams in 02 and 16, Star Powder in 90955

So that's it! Pretty good haul, don't you think?

IMATS London 2012: The Weekend

2012-02-06T07:00:00.000Z

I considered putting 'pic heavy' in the title, but since I resize all my photos to 540px wide no one should have any trouble loading it :)

Alexandra Palace in the snow on Sunday morning!

This was the first year that I went to IMATS on both the Saturday and the Sunday, and I'll definitely be going both days from now on - I like each day for different reasons. Saturday is the day to see everybody, and Sunday is slightly quieter so is great for leisurely shopping and even more bargainous discounts towards the end of the day when the exhibitors want to sell their remaining stock!

Illamasqua totally stole the show discount wise. They had foundations for £7.50 and a whole bunch of items at £5 each. Some were discontinued items but there was a lot of current stock there too which was great. On Sunday, the £5 items were reduced to 3 for £10 - I mean, WHAT?! I loved how they'd set up their booth, too - the £5 selection was arranged into sections according to colour, and each section had a beautiful face chart designed by members of the Illamasqua team.

Inglot's always worth a visit just to delight in the colossal amounts of colour! To be honest I'm not really sure what the discounts were like as I haven't kept up with what their current retail prices are, but I did pick up a nail polish for £6 and some single eyeshadow pans for my Z palette at £3.50 each.

Ben Nye products at Treasure House of Makeup

Makeup book porn at the Makeup Artist Magazine booth

I didn't pick up anything from OCC this year, but you can't deny that the range of colours across the Lip Tars is unparalleled

I got a nice handful of Make Up For Ever products this time. This is the first time that MUFE have been exhibiting on their own behalf - MUFE stock at IMATS is usually provided by Guru Makeup Emporium and PAM. There was a 35% discount here - not to be sniffed at!

Eldora false lashes - I didn't pick any up but they were on 3 for £10, which is excellent!

I do love me a bit of Charles Fox - despite spending a large amount of time at the booth (and several returning visits to it), I actually only picked up one product from here!

There were two talks I really wanted to see this year - Lan Nguyen's one (she's honestly hands down one of my favourite makeup artists), and Nick Dudman's. VERY annoyingly, they moved Dudman's talk from 4pm on Sunday to 1.30pm on Satuday, which meant it clashed with Nguyen's :( and as much as I love Lan's work, I am a huge Harry Potter fan so Nick Dudman won this time. He was joined by actor Warwick Davis, where he had an hour to transform Davis into one of his Harry Potter characters (which normally takes about three times as long!). It was very entertaining and I'm so glad I watched it!

Sorry about the quality of these, I was seated quite far back so these are on 11x zoom!

OMG it's Professor Flitwick!

The student competitions were a delight as usual - this was the first time I've seen the Character/Prosthetic competition as that's always on the Sunday. I must say, I actually preferred the entries for last year's Beauty/Fantasy competition last year but they were amazing nonetheless.

My favourite entry for Saturday's Beauty/Fantasy student competition - again, sorry about the poor quality photo, this one is 14x zoom!

My favourite entry for Sunday's Character/Prosthetic comeptition - the artist was awarded third place, he SO should have won!

One of my favourite things about IMATS is being able to see mind blowing art being created on faces and bodies in every direction you turn. Here's some of my favourites from the weekend.

Koren Zander doing some 3D body painting at the Crown Brush booth - wish I'd have seen this with 3D glasses on when it was completed!

Apologies, I can't for the life of me remember which booth this was at!

A student working on her entry for the Beauty/Fantasy competition

The colours and the headwear on this model at Royal & Langnickel Brushes reminded me of Krishna!

This model at Make Up For Ever was COVERED in glitter, I dread to think of how long it took the poor woman to shower, but it's beautiful.

Again, sorry, totally can't remember where this one was!

Other highlights included the Royal & Langnickel Bloggers Lounge on Satuday, where we had free drinks, pastries and other yummy things, along with the option to have a cheeky manicure or massage! Royal also really kindly gave us all a beautiful brush kit stuffed with some truly lovely brushes - thank you! I also spent a bit of time chatting to the amazing Tracy and Kim from Sleek MakeUP, where Tracy showed me some very exciting (and very secret) prototypes for products they'll be releasing in 2012!

Aaand of course, the whole experience is always made even better by all my lovely blogger friends - good friends, old faces I've not seen in forever, and first-time meetings with new people. I'm not even going to try and attempt to list everybody as I wouldn't want to miss anyone out and it is 1am. You know how it is. But you all know how lovely you are anyway ♥

Phew, I think that's it for now. The obligatory haul will be coming on Wednesday, but for now - if you managed to get through the entirety of this mammoth post I think you deserve a treat. Look, I met Warwick Davis! :D

IMATS London 2012: The Countdown Ends!

2012-02-04T07:00:00.000Z

It's here it's here! *Excited dance* My favourite event in the beauty industry calendar! By the time this post goes live, I will (as per usual) already be on my way to meet Kim and others to crash in to Alexandra Palace the moment they open the doors.

So, sorry, no proper post from me today - but if you're going to be about be sure to tweet me @donotrefreeze and I'll come and find you for a natter! I am most likely to be found somewhere in the throng of bargain hunters at Crown Brush, or watching in awe as the students prepare for the Beauty/Fantasy competition. Yay!

Review: Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint

2012-02-02T07:00:00.001Z

I am a real sucker for tinted moisturisers. I just LOVE them. This particular one, and ELF Studio's TM both featured in my Top 11 of 2011 post, and I'm also really quite fond of Topshop Skin Tint. It was inevitable that I'd like the Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint, which I was sent months and months ago when it came out. What I didn't expect was how much I would bloody LOVE it.

Even with something that gives you more leeway with shade choice like a tinted moisturiser, I often have difficulty finding base products that are pale enough for me. My shade in Skin Tint, though - which is shade 01 Bare - is literally the best match to my skintone EVER.

To apply, I just squeeze some onto the back of my hand - the amount in the above photo is plenty for my face and neck - and apply with a stippling brush. You can by all means apply this with your fingers as the texture is so workable, I just prefer to use a brush. Whilst this is the most expensive TM I've ever tried (at £21 for 40ml), I've been using it regularly for probably about 6 months or so and there's still a good month's worth or so left. This is pretty good for a TM in my experience, as I can burn though a tube of ELF Studio's one in about 6 weeks so even though that one only costs £3.50 it's probably a false economy!

Well, here comes the bit we all love to hate. The before and after! You should be used to them now, I've done loads of foundation reviews but this is probably the single worst before photo I've ever shown. My skin's NOT been happy lately. I put it down to my sudden change in routine and environment what with starting a new job and moving from the breezy Essex countryside to the polluted sardine tin of a city that is London.

In the after photo, you can really see what a perfect match this is to my skintone. It offers everything I want a tinted moisturiser to offer - it disguises the angry redness of my blemishes without making them look like I've painted over them, it minimises my pores and it just generally makes my skin look more acceptable for public consumption. AND it contains SPF15, which is just an added bonus for those who burn as easily as I do. Quite frankly, it's perfect for me and I'm more than happy to part with £21 for a product that I enjoy so much and can find no fault with.

This is something I will definitely be repurchasing - which is really saying something since I don't repurchase lightly - there's so much stuff to be tried out there, right? I will naturally continue to try other things to satisfy my beauty blogger curiosity, but Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint is genuinely Holy Grail material for me and I know I will come back to it again and again.

Dusky Rainbow NOTD

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000Z

This polish combination was totally ~~stolen from~~ inspired by the wonderful Ashesela. I saw a post where she'd posted pictures of a polish by Revlon named Naughty, and I thought it looked quite similar to Barry M's Dusky Mauve which I haven't broken out in ages, so she gave me the itch to use that. Then, I scrolled down to see she'd layered Finger Paints' Flashy over the top of it, an orange-green flakie polish that looks remarkably similar to the now discontinued GOSH Rainbow. So that's exactly what I slapped on my nails next!

I can't believe how much better Rainbow looks over Dusky Mauve than it does over black. Don't get me wrong, it looks cool over black, but this is SO much nicer! You can compare by checking out this super old post about the polish.

I love how much of a chameleon this is. From some angles, as you can see above, you'll get a real hit of the green colours in it...

...but from others, you'll see more of the golden orange tones.

What's not to love?!

I Hate Goodbyes

2012-01-29T07:00:00.000Z

There's one thing that we as beauty addicts and bloggers live in absolute terror of. Let's not deny it. When we finally discover a Holy Grail product after months (or even years) of searching, the sheer joy is quickly overcome by a crippling fear that the brand who enriched our shallow little lives with aforementioned Holy Grail product could, at any moment, snatch that perfect acquisition away from you by.. god forbid.. DISCONTINUING IT.

How bloody dare they?

I experienced this with Illamasqua's powder blush in Rumour. I have been using this to contour practically every frigging day since I discovered it in late 2009. It is the perfect shade for me to create the illusion of some sort of shape in my face - I am exceptionally pale with noticeably pink undertones and I'd found every other contouring product I'd tried to just have too much orange or yellow in it to work for me. I am so very, very in love with this product.

Quite some time ago - months ago now, don't remember when in particular - I tweeted that I'd hit pan on my Rumour and how DEVASTATED I was by this since I knew it was discontinued. Amazingly, the wonderful Alex, Junior Brand Manager of Illamasqua came through for me. She found a compact of Rumour in the office - probably the last one in existence ever, I like to think - and sent it on to me. In a nutshell, my inevitable heartbreak when I've used up that backup has been deferred for another two years.

You can see that since then, I've almost completely used up my original Rumour. Probably enough to warrant chucking it in the bin, right? No. I just can't bring myself to get rid of it until EVERY LAST BIT of powder has been used. It's that special to me. On a side note - isn't it a pain how much more quickly products seem to get used the moment you hit pan on them?

I estimate I've probably got about 6 weeks left of my original before I move onto the backup. Time's a-ticking. *Sigh*.

So, I know I'm not the only one who turns into a total drama queen when favourite products get discontinued. Tell me about your heartbreaking discontinued product loves!

This post is supposed to be very tongue in cheek.. please don't take it too seriously. I AM gutted though.

Motel Rocks Nail Tutorial!

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000Z

Recently, I was approached by Motel Rocks and asked if I'd like to contribute to their awesome blog by writing some nail tutorials for them.

Not being one to turn down a great opportunity like that, I set about creating a tutorial inspired by their gorgeous Winter Bloom print. If only I had the figure for that lovely Heidi Fit and Flare dress! *sigh*

If you'd like to view the full tutorial, please visit my post over there! I hope you like it :)

The Nom Files: Whoopie Pie Recipe

2012-01-25T07:00:00.001Z

Colin bought me an awesome Whoopie Pie recipe book for Christmas, and since then they've rapidly become my favourite thing to bake. They are frigging DELICIOUS and I love how the book gives you recipes for dozens of different types of cake/cookie/whatever you wanna call them and then different fillings, then encourages you to get creative with mixing and matching them! My absolute favourite combo has to be the Classic Chocolate whoopie, with cream cheese frosting in the middle. OM NOM NOM.

Sometimes following American recipes in the UK can be a bit of a pain, since we don't measure in cups, and it's also a pain trying to convert from cups to grams since pretty much every ingredient will convert differently. I gave it a good go, though, using a cup measuring jug I bought in the States last year and weighing each ingredient as I went along so I could give you UK measurements, too! This is a bit of an adaptation of the recipe in the book, I tweaked it around to fit what I had (and also shortening is pretty hard to come by over here).

You Will Need...

1 and 2/3 cup plain flour (210g)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (95g)
1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
8 tbsp unsalted butter (115g)*
1/4 tsp salt**
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar (210g)
1 large free range egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cup milk (300ml/half pint)

*The recipe actually calls for half butter, half shortening but I just doubled up on the butter. Also, I didn't actually have any unsalted butter to hand, so I used salted. It won't hurt.
**Omit the salt if you use salted butter as opposed to unsalted.

For the filling

4 ounces cream cheese (110g)
4 tbsp unsalted butter (60g)
Lots of icing sugar!
1 tsp vanilla extract

What to do

Preheat the oven to 375f/190c (180 for fan ovens). Measure the butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl. It turned out that I didn't quite have one cup of dark brown sugar this time, so I just made up the rest with plain old caster sugar. It didn't really affect the taste at all, I think the recipe just calls for dark brown sugar to add a deeper colour and slightly more depth of flavour.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt (remember to omit the salt if you used salted butter). Now, cream together the butter and sugar. Whilst it is entirely possible to do this by hand (I usually do all my mixing by hand when I bake, except for these), it's much easier to use a hand mixer - or even a stand mixer if you have one. Make sure you go at it for a good couple of minutes until all the little lumps of sugar are gone.

Crack the egg into the bowl, and add in your vanilla extract too (I used vanilla bean paste 'cause that's what I have). Mix until just incorporated.

Now, add half the flour mixture and half the milk to the bowl and mix. Once that's all incorporated, add the remaining milk and flour and mix again. Even once it's all mixed in, continue to beat it for another couple of minutes to help achieve the whoopie's signature fluffy texture.

By this point, you should have something along these lines! Now, start dropping spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking trays lined with greaseproof paper. The size of the spoon you use here will depend on how big you want them. The recipe book suggests dropping 'a tablespoon' of mixture onto the tray. I did this the first time I made them, and they came out FRIGGING HUGE. The tray I did here was dessert spoon size, and they still came out pretty huge so I moved onto teaspoons and that was much more ideal. But hey, if you want monster size whoopie pies then go right ahead and use a bigger spoon!

Baking time will also slightly vary depending on sizes. For tablespoon and dessert spoon sizes, I baked them for 11 minutes. For the teaspoon size ones I was making towards the end, I only gave them 9 minutes. The whoopies are cooked when they spring back after lightly pressing them with your finger. Don't be fooled, they will feel much softer than your average cake at this point, so don't overcook them. They firm up just slightly as they cool.

As you can see, you need to try not to drop your balls of mixture too close together! Continue this process until all the mixture is gone, just keep track of the number you've done to make sure you finish with an even number (since you're going to sandwich them). Give them a couple of minutes cooling on the baking tray before moving them to a rack to cool completely. I find they become completely cool more quickly if you put them upside down on the rack.

During the baking, you can make a start on the filling. Again, by hand is fine, but beating for a good few minutes with an electric mixer will create a lighter, more airy texture. Beat together the cream cheese and butter first, then incorporate the vanilla. Add the icing sugar gradually until you achieve your desired consistency - I NEVER measure icing sugar when I make buttercreams or anything, I just keep chucking it in until it looks right! I guess I start with about 200g of it and add another 100g each time. Just keep going until it's the texture that you want it! Bear in mind it needs to be spread onto the bottom of whoopies to sandwich them together.

The sandwiching part is self explanatory. Just spread some of the filling on the back of a whoopie with the back of a spoon or a spatula, and stick another whoopie on top. Done! It's actually quite fun to search through all your cooled whoopies trying to match up pairs to stick together according to their size and shape.

Now sit back, admire your (admittedly 'rustic' looking) handiwork, and make sure you hide a couple somewhere for yourself because I guarantee that whoever you live with will EAT THEM. Quickly.

A note on storage: They will keep just fine for a few days in a cool dark place, but if you're going to stack them please put a sheet of greaseproof paper between each layer because they WILL stick to each other!

Enjoy!

NuBar Prize

2012-01-23T07:00:00.001Z

Lovely holographic goodness! This is fantastic, I love this. It's one I got in my swap with Amanda Cheyenne, and isn't just beautiful?

When I swatched this on my nail wheel, it took about 4 coats to reach optimum opacity and I couldn't really be bothered to do 4 coats on my nails, so for this manicure I applied one coat of Prize over one coat of Illamasqua's Vice. Despite having a different base colour underneath, it still looks exactly as it does in the bottle which is good.

OMG! What is this? Sunlight?! In January?

Sadly, I am not blessed with the ability to accurately describe colours. I have no idea where to start with it! This is the closest thing to a red holo that I own, but it's definitely not red by any stretch of the imagination. These photos (particularly the top one) are all fairly colour accurate, though, so you can decide for yourself what it is because I just don't know! What I do know, though, is that it's bloody LOVELY.

Just the obligatory flash photo to show the sparkles.

I've decided that NuBar is a brand whose polishes I need to build more of a collection of. I really like all the ones I have, and the brush is one of my favourites across all the different brands I've tried. I think it's a pattern with NuBar glitters, though, to dry to a slightly flat and gritty finish. I've experienced that with the three that I have - this one, one from the same collection called Essence, and Violet Sparkle. Nothing a good glossy topcoat can't fix!

Are you a fan of NuBar? What do you think of this one?

Don't you think it's mental...

2012-01-21T07:00:00.001Z

How we can use so many products in an effort to not look too done up?!

Would like to take this opportunity to point out that I was in in the middle of my second sinus infection in 6 months when this was taken... leave me alone

I like to think that my everyday makeup isn't overdone. I don't think it looks like I'm wearing an awful lot at all, but it occurred to me as I was going through my everyday routine one morning that I was using quite a lot of products... Pictured below are products I use every day (although naturally stuff like blush and lip colour are interchangeable, but this is what I used that day).

BeneFit Boi-ing Concealer
Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint
BeneFit Eye Bright
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Urban Decay Naked Palette
Kat von D True Love Palette (I use either Peanut or Missy from this palette on the inner corners of my eyes)
Sleek MakeUP and ELF Studio Eyebrow Kits - yes, both!
Bourjois black kohl pencil
CoverGirl All-in-one Mascara
Illamasqua Rumour blush (contour)
FashionistA Butterscoth Blush
No7 Grace lipstick

Now that's a pretty long list of products... but I've got to say I don't think it looks too much on the face. Does it?

Apologies for the rogue strands of hair there..

I don't think any of us (well, the majority at least) in the beauty blogging community overdo our makeup, because we know what we're doing! But I challenge you, when you next put your makeup on (I'm talking day-to-day face here, not going out face!), count how many products you're using. I BET it will be more than you'd have imagined!

By the way, I'm not trying to prove any sort of point with this post. I'm not horrified at myself or anything, I just thought it was kinda funny how I use so many products in an effort to look like I haven't really made an effort. Do you know what I mean? I know I'm not the only one!

Kiko 255

2012-01-19T07:00:00.002Z

PET HATE ALERT! I get a bit irritated over brands that don't name their products and just number them instead. I know the names of EVERY polish in my collection (I shit you not) just by glancing at the bottle - except the ones that just have numbers instead of names! Maybe I'm just lazy but it bugs me that if I want to blog about one, since all my pictures are normally taken in advance, I then have to go and hunt out the bottle and find its stupid number. Hmph. Well, ranting aside... have a look at this!

Who doesn't love a good holo? I know I do, so I was very excited when I spotted this very imaginatively named bottle (okay okay sorry) in the Kiko store at Westfield Stratford. A rich, deep purple chock full of small holo glitters - that amazingly aren't difficult to remove!

This was a right pain in the arse to try and photograph. Particularly with the stupid weather we were having the day I took these - it couldn't decide whether to be overcast or not, so every time there was a sliver of sunlight peeking through the clouds I was running to the window like a madwoman, camera in hand, but I still couldn't accurately capture it. I mean this is pretty close, the holographic loveliness is just more prevalent in person.

It's perfectly opaque in two coats, but it does leave an ever so slightly bumpy finish thanks to the glitter particles. A good thick topcoat will sort that out. Now, don't quote me on this because I swear the prices of all the products are different every time I go in there, but I'm pretty sure it was £4.90. Not bad for a nice purple holo!

FrontCover Moondust

2012-01-17T07:00:00.001Z

I was hoping to snag a ton of FrontCover and Soap & Glory bargains in the Boots post-Christmas sale, but stupidly I left it a little late to go shopping - the 28th. What an idiot; lesson learned. Next year I'll order online on Boxing Day! There were NO Soap & Glory gifts left apart from one exceptionally battered Yum at Heart set (the one with the cute apron in), and the only FrontCover ones they had left were a ton of Come to Light sets and Blue Eyed Girl sets (obviously their least popular sellers this year). I went back in later for something else, and spotted that they'd put out some of these Moondust sets! I grabbed one without a second thought.

I'm not normally one for loose eyeshadows and pigments, simply because I'm lazy and they require a little more work and attention than your average pressed eyeshadow. Couldn't really say no to this at £8 (half price) though! It contains six pigments, two holographic glitters, Shadowbase (FrontCover's primer) and a dual-ended eyeshadow brush/sponge applicator. On the inside cover of the box, you'll find a few nicely explained tutorials from Frontover's makeup artist Leanne Shaw. Although I feel compelled to point out, a lot of the instructions involve using the sponge applicator - and let me assure you that Leanne knows as well as we do that you will NEVER get results like the pictures using a sponge applicator. Pah.

But let's have a look at some swatches! In all the following pictures, the pigments are swatched over Shadowbase, with a dry swatch on the left and a foiled (wet) one on the right.

Lime Lime - I refuse to see why they had to give it this stupid name. Why not just 'Lime'? I've got to admit, I felt a little bit funny about this one, I didn't like it at all in the pot. It looks quite matte in the pot actually, but on swatching you see it has some nice hidden shimmer. Amazingly, after using it in a EOTD, I've decided it's actually sort of wearable!

Moondance - I do think deep blue eyeshadows are lovely, but I don't tend to wear them because my eyes are blue so I feel like it doesn't really suit them. Nothing to complain about here, though - super pigmented.

Saddle Brown - Lovely stuff, this is my ideal sort of crease colour. Looks particularly nice foiled, I think!

Coal Hoal - In the pot, this true black pigment has a pretty gold glitter running through it, but it doesn't really translate well when applied.

Burnt Carrot - Really? Again with the silly names - this is no sort of carrot shade, burnt or otherwise. In fact, it's an undeniably pretty yellow leaning gold.

Coinage - Mmm, probably my favourite. I love any gold or copper shades that lean quite red, I actually really like red toned shades on my eyes. I have to say, if I was going to call any of these shades a daft name like Burnt Carrot (which, for the record, I wouldn't...), it would be this one.

Ahh the glitters! I have to say, I was expecting these two to have no real pigment behind them and just be one of those irritating sparse glitters but they're actually quite nice, if a little gritty. Doubloon is a stunning gold, and Periwinkle is a lovely royal blue - not a periwinkle shade at all, in fact. Haha. I included the intentionally blurry shot to show off how sparkly they really are!

Overall, this is a pretty good kit, especially if you like pigments and loose eyeshadows. I do think it's worth the £16 RRP - think of it as each pot costing £2 and getting the Shadowbase for free! Naturally, it's even better if you can get it for half price so the pots only cost £1 each :) here's a couple of EOTDs so you can see the products in use.

This one uses Shadowbase underneath, with Burnt Carrot on the inner half of the lid, Coinage on the outer half and Saddle Brown in and above the crease. I used Coal Hoal as liner, and patted Doubloon glitter over everything. Trust me when I say the glitter looked nicer in person! Also, I used Urban Decay's Virgin eyeshadow to blend out the edges of Saddle Brown, and Kat Von D's Peanut on the inner corner.

This one was very simple - Shadowbase underneath again, Lime ~~Lime~~ on the lid, and Moondance on the outer part of the lid and in the crease. Coal Hoal as liner again, UD Virgin to blend out and Kat Von D Missy on the inner corner. As you can tell, I'm not very creative, haha.

Did you get any enviable bargains from Boots in their half price gift sale?

A Pure Ice Layering Experiment

2012-01-15T07:00:00.005Z

First of all, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who reads my blog - I just hit 2000 followers! I know I haven't done a giveaway in quite a while, and if you read my last post then you'll know I've got quite a lot going on with moving and starting a new job, but I promise once I'm all settled in my new routine and all that jazz I promise I'll sort something out. Thank you! ♥

I picked up a nice handful of Pure Ice nail polishes whilst I was in America last summer. I think they were $1.97 each, from Walmart. I actually did a spot of research before, looking at as many swatches as I could find of the brand, which sadly wasn't that many. I did see a few pictures of both of these gorgeous layering shades, though, so they immediately went on my wishlist. On the left is Busted, and on the right is Heartbreaker.

They both look very tame in the bottles, don't they? And let me reiterate that they are not suitable to use alone, you'll never build them up to opacity. I remember mum borrowed Heartbreaker to paint her toes, she did 7 coats in total and her feet just looked like she had some weird disease. Hahaha.

Layer them over another polish, though, and you'll see what makes them so lovely! As with most layering polishes, I think the best way to show them off is over black. Here's what they look like:

It was incredibly hard to capture the colours, it was so overcast when I took these so I've included a little blurry flash one to show you what I really mean. Nice, right?

Looking at how the polishes sit over black, I got curious as to what they might look like layered together. Pretty freaking sweet, as it turns out!

Again, a futile exercise trying to capture this accurately. It was SO cool, from some angles you'd see the pinky purple shimmer from Busted and others you'd see the emerald green from Heartbreaker. It's like making your own duochrome topcoat! Here's another flash one, where you can sort of see what I mean.

Do you ever experiment with layering different polishes together?

And now for something completely different...

2012-01-13T07:00:00.004Z

Those of you who follow me on Twitter and were around on Wednesday afternoon might have noticed my 'getting lost' tweets! I had nothing to do and the sun was shining (in mid January?!), so I decided to take a walk. I put on some sensible footwear - battered old Converse that I've had since I was 13 ♥ - and wandered off without any particular destination in mind! I've lived in this town for over 16 years and as I walked down Creeksea Lane, it occurred to me that there was one particular footpath off of Creeksea Lane that I'd never been down before. So that's where I went.

I'm pretty sure I somehow ended up deviating from public footpaths along the way and ended up on private land because I ended up in a field of sheep at one point! They surely don't keep sheep on public land? Two of them were exceptionally close to where I walked, they actually came a little closer to me until I said 'baa'... then they ran off.

After a few hours, the sun started creeping behind the clouds - clouds that weren't even there when I set out! - and I came to the realisation that I didn't have the slightest bloody clue where I was, nor was I 100% confident that I'd paid enough attention to my route and lefts and rights that I could find my way back! Google Maps couldn't find my location, either, so I decided to soldier on and hope that the footpaths would eventually lead to a town.

Eventually I came out at the very bottom of a dirt road and had a strange sense of getting my bearings despite being sure I'd never been there before. About 15 minutes later I reached Althorne train station and breathed a sigh of relief before hopping on a train home!

That was certainly the most random way I've spent a Wednesday afternoon in a long time.

P.S. I'm currently experiencing a bit of a life overhaul in the home/work departments. There's a lot going on very suddenly - I have posts scheduled up until the end of this month but depending on how things are going, things around here might slow down a little until I've found a new balance. I appreciate you bearing with me!

Polishgasm: Orly Fowl Play

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000Z

There were only 3 polishes that really called to me from Orly's AW11 Birds of a Feather collection - Sweet Peacock, Nite Owl and Fowl Play. I'm yet to get my hands on Nite Owl, but I was kindly sent Sweet Peacock and Fowl Play to try. Fowl Play is the REAL winner of the collection.

It's a purple jelly base, leaning a little on the red side, filled with red-green flakes (like the kind in GOSH Rainbow), and tiny silver and blue glitters. There's a lot going on in this polish, it's one of the most interesting ones I've ever seen!

It took me 3 coats to reach perfect opacity. This is so interesting to look at on the nail! Also, I just had to include this little cropped bit of the bottle. HOW beautiful is this?

Kiko Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadows

2012-01-09T07:00:00.003Z

I've mentioned these in passing a few times now, and I thought it was about time they had a post of their own. They're probably my single favourite product discovery of last year, I am rather fond of them!

Left to right, these are shades 06, 16 and 18. There's 20 shades of these, so there's quite some choice and you're pretty much guaranteed to find a colour you like. They are very similar in design to MAC's Shadesticks, but I actually like them a lot more. They're a lot softer - the MAC ones I find you have to really warm up on the back of your hand until they're soft enough to glide across your lid with no skipping or dragging. None of that malarkey with these though! I also find they're less prone to creasing than MAC Shadesticks.

I've worn them all rather a lot, so I can make some pretty decently informed statements on their wear. For reference, my eyelids are slightly oily. If I wear these alone, with no primer underneath and no powder eyeshadow on top, I get about 4-5 hours wear. If I wear them over the top of Urban Decay Primer Potion but with no powder eyeshadow on top, they wear comfortably for 8 hours before starting to crease. If I wear them over UDPP and set them with powder shadow, they literally don't go anywhere until I remove my makeup myself. Very impressive stuff!

Another thing I really like about them is that they don't in any way claim that they won't crease, which is a claim that is made about most products of this nature. The tube does claim 8 hour no transfer performance, which is certainly true, but I just appreciate that they're not all like 'omg crease free, will never crease omggg!'. You know where I'm coming from with that, right?

Less rambling now, more pictures. Again, L-R shades 06, 16 and 18. And, just to prove how much staying power they really do have, this is after a vigorous rub with a face wipe!

And here's a couple of EOTDs featuring 06 and 16, and some Kat von D eyeshadows. I've done an EOTD with 18 in a previous post, which you can see here.

In short, these come with a serious recommendation from me! As far as I'm aware the only two stores in the UK are in Westfield Stratford and Westfield Shepherd's Bush, but you'll be pleased to know that you can buy Kiko online! These shadow sticks regularly cost £6.90 (which is bloody brilliant anyway), but they're currently on sale for an AMAZING £3. Seriously, try one! You won't regret it :)

Top 11 of 2011 - Makeup

2012-01-07T07:00:00.001Z

1. Urban Decay Naked Palette - This has got to be on a million people's lists. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it actually came out in 2010? Not that I care - I was pretty late getting it, and now I just can't fathom how I got along without it! It was the product that helped me get back into the habit of bothering with eyeshadow on a daily basis. Love it, probably my sole favourite of the year. VERY sad about the mirror though - see it? My suitcase was a little overstuffed on my way home from Colin's after Christmas, and he put all his weight on the case trying to close it. My makeup bag was right on the top. The mirror in my Naked palette is now broken. *Cries*

2. CoverGirl All-in-One Waterproof Mascara (Very Black) - I discovered this badboy whilst I was in Florida in the summer. Prior to this, my all time favourite mascara was RMK's Separate Curl, but at about £22 it wasn't cheap. Imagine my delight when I grabbed the first waterproof mascara I saw in Walmart to get me through the humidity - who'd have thought it makes my lashes look even BETTER than Separate Curl? And it only costs about $5. Winner. I'm onto my third tube, and I recently acquired two more for backup from the lovely Amanda Cheyenne. I will want a stock of this forever.

3. Kiko Makeup Milano Long Lasting Shadow Sticks - Like MAC Shadesticks but about 50 times more pleasant to use, and actually last better. They're softer and glide onto the lid easier. They actually last pretty well sans primer, but with a primer underneath they will literally not budge until you want to remove them. The first one I got was #18, which was featured in this post, and I've got another in the pipeline to show you the other two shades I have.

4. Illamasqua Precision Ink Eyeliners - If you like to wear liquid eyeliner, you NEED these. It currently comes in 4 colours, Abyss (obligatory black), Alchemy (seriously rich gold), and the two I have - Glister, a really unusual nude colour with purple shimmer, and Havoc, a deep aubergine shade. Absolutely LOVE these - Glister looks especially awesome against deep smoky eyeshadow! Both of them are featured in EOTDs in this post.

5. Topshop Lipstick 'Pillow Talk' - Gotta admit, I haven't worn an awful lot of lip colours this year. I find that all too many lip products dry my lips out, and as a lip balm fiend I don't like this happening! I own dozens of lipsticks and lipglosses, but I've got to admit the main reason I barely wear them is laziness. Dryness is just a convenient excuse! I especially don't bother with it on a day to day basis because my job isn't one that's really conducive to topping up lip colour. Pillow Talk, though, was another bandwagon I had to jump on. I saw a lot of bloggers posting about it when it came out. I didn't think it would suit me, but I saw it in store and had to have it. It's lovely!

6. MAC Paints - Really, really like these and am very disappointed that there's not more shades of them. Super easy to use and super long lasting. I posted about them originally here (including an FOTD with Sublime Nature), and even did an EOTD with Flammable (the bright red one!) here!.

7. ELF Studio Eyebrow Kit - I don't know how I got by on just filling in my awfully sparse brows with a bit of powder before I tried this. Once you go wax, you never go backs... Okay, that doesn't work. But still - could not live without this. I've actually found that my perfect brow combo involves both this and the Sleek brow kit, but this ELF one wins out over Sleek for its price.

8. BeneFit Boi-ing Concealer (shade 01) - I think it was actually late 2010 that I was bullied into buying this by a pushy BeneBabe at a counter in Boots. I'm one of those people who feel horrid saying no when I know someone's only trying to do their job, and I felt TERRIFIED as she applied various products to my face. The result wasn't actually too bad in the end, but I felt pressured to buy something and thought the option I'd get the most use out of was Boi-ing. Turns out I didn't like it that much at first, but I slowly learned to love it and now I wouldn't be without it. I've even hit pan on it now! Who'd have thought I'd end up loving a bloody £16.50 concealer?

9. NYX Powder Blush 'Angel' - Had this for about a million years (well, since late 2009) and it's always been one of my favourite blushes. Really soft and pretty. I usually hate blushes with shimmer in, they really accentuate my pores and tend to make most people look overdone in my opinion, but the shimmer in this barely registers on the face. It's my go-to everyday colour, and it's lasting me forever - only hit pan about a month ago!

10. Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint (shade 1) - Actually feel awful for having never got round to blogging about this after being sent it by the lovely PR at Liz Earle. Will do it at some point! There's just nothing not to love about it, really.

11. ELF Studio Tinted Moisturiser (Porcelain) - 2011 was definitely the year of the tinted moisturiser for me. Between this, the Liz Earle one, and Topshop Skin Tint I had three new loves throughout the year! This was the only thing on my face in the summer when I had a bit more colour, but it's quite noticeably too dark for me in the winter (but Liz Earle sorts that problem out). I don't think I'll ever go back to full coverage foundation.

Please feel free to link to your Favourites of 2011 posts in the comments! I love seeing them :)

Top 11 of 2011 - Nail Polishes

2012-01-05T07:00:00.002Z

Well, like last year I had a lot of trouble narrowing down my favourite nail polishes for the year. In the end, I settled on 11... because it's for 2011. So there!

1. Orly 'Space Cadet' - I do love a good duochrome - who doesn't? This is what I was hoping the whole Models Own Beetlejuice collection would be like. Opaque, strong ~~duochomes~~ multichromes like this that have about a million different faces. Naturally, a real bugger to photograph. I've been through my blog archive and am shocked and appalled that I've never posted about this!

2. FashionistA 'Hidden Treasure' - I got pretty into glitters last year. Can you tell?! Super opaque (two coater) champagne gold glitter. What's not to love? I posted about this separately here.

3. NuBar 'Violet Sparkle' - Phwooaarr. This polish is so sexy that it's what started my Polishgasm posts. Posted about it here!

4. Illamasqua 'Vice' - My favourite polish from the A/W11 Theatre of the Nameless collection. Lovely rubber-look finish, hovering somewhere between a satin and a matte, and sultry deep berry colour. I recreated the Theatre of the Nameless corset nail look here (featuring Vice).

5. Illamasqua 'Loella' - Not from a seasonal collection, this one's part of Illamasqua's core line. It's a truly girly light bubblegum pink, with the subtlest hint of blue shimmer that looks nice in the bottle but barely translates to the nail. I don't mind though, it's still gorgeous. I used it as the base for a leopard print manicure here

6. Zoya 'Adina' - More duochrome goodness! Muted, metallic-y lilac-green duochrome. Really interesting, and this picture does it no justice at all! This made the grade for a polishgasm.

7. Zoya 'Isla' - PHWOAR. I've grown to really like Zoya. I'm not a red fan generally speaking, but this is frigging beautiful. There's a small chance that it might be my very favourite polish of the year. It's THAT lovely. And yes, it was another polishgasm of course!

8. LA Colors 'Shocker' - Hot pink shimmer with extreme blue flashes? Don't mind if I do. And do you know the single best thing about this polish? It costs 99p. Bloody 99p! I used it at the base for a pretty cool (if I do say so myself) butterfly inspired manicure here

9. Misa 'Dirty Sexy Money' - Dirty, muted teal creme. Opaque in one coat. My kinda polish! This was on my wishlist for such a long time, and I finally got hold of it last February. I used it at the base colour for this manicure way back in March.

10. 17 Magnetized 'Green' - The magnetic trend was one bandwagon I definitely jumped on, and I regret nothing! I still think the effect is really cool and it's great for a lazy paint-and-go manicure. This was my favourite colour that was released - if you have 'Ego Green' from the Saturdays/FashionistA collab range, this is identical to that. See my magnetic comparisons here.

11. Pure Ice 'Busted' (over black) - I'm quite into layering when it comes to nail polishes. If I come across a polish that's a lot sheerer than I thought it would be, I'm never disappointed - I know it'll work great for layering. If you look at the second photo at the top of the page, it's the one on the far right. Very unassuming in the bottle, but stick a coat of it over black and watch the pinky purply shimmery magic appear! Never got round to posting about this separately, but I have a post featuring it coming up soon.

Please feel free to link to your Favourites of 2011 posts below - I love reading them!

IMATS London 2012: The Countdown Continues

2012-01-03T07:00:00.002Z

With just another month to go now (doesn't time fly?!), I've been looking at the list of speakers and the schedule for the weekend. These are my personal picks - although I say every year that I intend to go to more talks next time and never do - always too distracted by the shopping!

Saturday

10.30am-12pm: Neill Gorton 'Classic Horror: Reimagined'. I'm secretly a bit of a fan of horror and gore makeup - I've got a strong stomach and it fascinates me how realistic it can be. Neill (of whom I'm also a fan - he's worked on makeup and prosthetics for Doctor Who and Saving Private Ryan, among hundred of others) will be creating a classic horror character live on the Main Stage. Sounds like fun!

12.15-1.15pm: Terry Barber 'Technical Beauty'. Again, on the Main Stage - but I predict the full 720 seating capacity will fill up quickly for this one. MAC's Director of makeup artistry Terry Barber is always a popular speaker, this time he will be discussing the relationship between beauty makeup and macro photography.

1-2pm: Lan Nguyen 'Beauty Make-up for Fashion and Editorial. Lan Nguyen is one of my favourite makeup artists, I absolutely love her work so I'm going to try reeeally hard not to miss this one. She'll be demonstrating runway and editorial looks and discussing the importance of teamwork in the fashion industry and the collaborative process (presumably between the fashion designer and makeup artist).

2-2.30pm: Student Competition (Beauty/Fantasy). ALWAYS worth a watch! The entries for the student competition are never anything sort of brilliant. This year's theme for the Beaty/Fantasy competition is 'Animal Kingdom' - literally so excited to see this!

2.45-3.45pm: Koren Zander (aka EnKore) 'Done and Gone in Seven Minutes (or Less)'. Let's face it, who doesn't struggle to get their face done in time in the morning? As women, we are always in a rush - that's just the way it is, right? But a wealth of tips and tricks and key application techniques from Koren should point anyone in the right direction. I reckon this class will have a huge appeal among the 'general consumers' like me at IMATS (aka not pros!) so slightly disappointing that this will be held at the Londesborough Room Stage which only has seating for 125!

4-5pm: Valenté Frazier 'Red Carpet Make-up: Essential Tools and Techniques'. With a clientèle including the likes of Rihanna and Tyra Banks, it's no wonder Emmy award winning artist Frazier is such hot property. Anyone interested in the demanding world of creating camera-ready looks for the A List would lap this up!

Sunday

10.15-11am: 'A Visual History of the Greatest Make-up Artists of our Time'. IMATS staff photographer Deverill Weekes and actress Juliet Landau will be presenting a collection of portraits of artists visiting IMATS over the last 15 years. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's an excellent idea - as described by the website, it's a 'great way for students or novice make-up artists entering the business to put faces to the names of our industry veterans'.

12.15-1.15pm: Neil Young 'A Darker Shade of Beauty'. MAC's Senior Artist will be using this hour for something touted as this season's big trend - glam goth-rock. This sounds RIGHT up my street, I absolutely love dark and gothic makeup.

2.45-3.15pm: Student Competition Character/Prosthetic. This will be the first time I see the Character/Prosthetic student competition as it's always held on the Sunday and I've only ever been on the Saturday before. But this year's theme is 'Men in Black Aliens', which promises to be lots of fun!

3-4pm: Sam and Nic Chapman 'YouTube Guru Q&A'. The effortlessly wonderful Pixiwoo sisters will be answering questions about all sorts of things, including their favourite makeup items and what's in their bags, to application tips, to how to get started as a makeup artist or YouTube guru.

4-5pm: Nick Dudman and Warwick Davis 'Goblin Make-up Demo'. Okay, I am NOT missing this for the WORLD. Nick Dudman has a jaw dropping CV featuring some epic blockbusters including (but certainly not limited to) the Harry Potter and Star Wars films. If you're a Harry Potter fan like me, you'll be very excited at the prospect of watching Dudman create (one of) Warwick Davis' Harry Potter character Griphook! Honestly so excited about this it's almost embarrassing!

Looks like they've got some really great talks and speakers lined up this year. Not long to go now!

Have you booked your ticket yet? If not, you can do so here. Hope to see you there!

BANG!

2012-01-01T07:00:00.001Z

Happy New Year ladies! I hope you had a good time last night, however you celebrated, and aren't feeling the effects too much this morning!

Colin and I didn't have a very exciting one this year - we both felt rubbish when we woke up and felt progressively crappier throughout the day - probably something we ate! We spent the day at Westfield window shopping, but by the time we got back we really didn't feel up to trudging to central London to see the fireworks. Add that to the fact that his next door neighbours were having a very loud party, needless to say were both feeling pretty grumpy and disappointed!

I was feeling especially gutted because Colin bought me a lovely new camera for Christmas (a Canon Powershot G12, if you're interested) and I'd discovered that it has a Fireworks mode on it. At five to twelve, I suggested we go to the top of the house to see if we could see any fireworks from the velux windows - there was a good chance since you can see Canary Wharf out of one window and the Olympic Stadium out of the other - we were bound to see something pretty! It turned out even better than that though; some people from the estate behind the house were setting off a ton of fireworks that were exploding just above my eye level!

In the end, I did actually get some pretty cool photos. I wish I'd have had a tripod but I had to make do with bracing my elbows on the window frame whilst standing on tiptoes! So they are a little wobbly, but definitely the best photos of fireworks I've ever managed to take :)

I'm very excited about my new camera. My old one had all but bitten the dust, so much so that I'd resorted to using my phone to take photos for my blog over the last couple of months. So expect to see much nicer images from now on! I'll be going home tomorrow night, so I should be back in the swing of things in the next few days after that :)

(Oh! And I gave the blog a little makeover for the new year, too. Hope you like!)

Year of the Dragon

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000Z

So, I'm officially jealous of all the babies who will be born in 2012 - they will get to say they were born in the Year of the Dragon. I was born in 1991, the year of the bloody goat. That's not exciting!

You know I don't like getting soppy, but I just wanted to say a colossal THANK YOU to each and every one of you for supporting me and my blog throughout 2011 (and 2010 and 2009, to those who've been here a long time!). As much as I enjoy blogging, I have to say if it wasn't for all you lot I wouldn't still be doing it. I know everyone says they blog for themselves and no one else, but I've got to be honest and say I wouldn't bother blogging if no one was going to see it, you know? I like sharing my photos, thoughts and opinions with you lot. It's like having 1900 very like-minded friends!

So again, thank you all very much and I hope you continue to stick with me through the Year of the Dragon. I hope you all have a fantastic time tonight celebrating the New Year!

[source]

^ What we're all going to be doing tomorrow!

So Here It Is...

2011-12-25T07:00:00.000Z

Merry Christmas!

[source]

I just wanted to schedule a quick post to send you all my warmest wishes for a happy holiday :) I hope you all get spoiled rotten and eat so much you have to change into tracksuit bottoms! Hahaha.

On a side note, I'm not sure why I always use pictures of kittens in posts like this. I love kittens, but I'm definitely a dog person!

I hope you all have a lovely time!

Snowflakes Revisited

2011-12-23T07:00:00.002Z

I would have loved to do another series of festive nail tutorials this month like I did last year, but lack of time coupled with lack of inspiration meant it just didn't happen. I did recreate one of my designs from last year though - snowflakes! You can see last year's post here :)

I did this aaalmost exactly the same as I did last year, same polishes and everything - except this time I added some Essence Hello Holo to the tips for extra sparkly goodness.

Oh, and here's some guest fingers! My bestie Coral loved my snowflake nails and asked if she could have some too. For hers, I used Illamasqua Baptiste as the base colour, Nubar Violet Sparkle for glitter, and silver snowflakes instead of white.

So, in other news, I'm spending my first ever Christmas away from home this year. This will be the fourth Christmas that Colin and I have been together, so we figured it was about time that we actually spent it together! I'm off tonight, and won't be coming home until the 3rd of January. I'm afraid I haven't got any posts scheduled for the time I'm away, but I'm sure we're all going to be busy over the next week or so!

If I don't get round to writing any posts between now and the 3rd, then I'd like to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mermaid's Tail NOTD

2011-12-21T07:00:00.001Z

This was one of the hardest NOTDs to photograph, EVER! You'll just have to trust me when I say it looked SO much better in real life.

I bought Kiko's nail polish in shade 336 a good couple of months ago now, it took me a while to wear it and I wish I had sooner. It's a one-coat electric blue creme, and it's gorgeous. I fancied a bit of flakies, though, so I topped it with Inglot 203, a green flaky topcoat. It was SO LOVELY!

When I showed it to Colin, I said 'doesn't it look awesome, like a mermaid?'. His reply? 'Yeah, well more like fish scales than a mermaid..'

He may be right, but what's life if you can't have a bit of poetic license?

Swatchfest: FashionistA

2011-12-19T07:00:00.000Z

Aside from my huge gripe with the magnetic nail polishes from FashionistA bearing uncanny similarities to the 17 ones, the rest of the brand is actually pretty cool! I was gifted quite a few items from the range by my good friend Zoe, so here's a little rundown.

They have quite a nice range of other, non-magnetic nail polishes which I have a few of (I have previously posted about Hidden Treasure here, and I have every intention of swatching and posting about those in the New Year. For now, though, I have a few eyeshadows, blushes and gel liners to show you!

These are the Fashion Secret Gel Liners. They are nicely pigmented and pretty long lasting, but I have to say I'm not loving the packaging. I like the idea of having a little mini brush inside the cap, but the brush just really isn't adequate for achieving a nice line and you're much better off using a separate brush. Also, the name labels on these are stuck right over the lid of the product and are very difficult to peel off so you can actually open the things. Also because the adhesive on the labels is so strong it leaves sticky crap all over the outside. *Sigh* Aside from that, though, I like them! Here's the swatches:

Top row: Dress Up Chic, Dress Down Cool, Under The Radar
Bottom row: Shortlist, Exhibition, Cute Route

Unfortunately I don't know how much they cost as they're not on the Superdrug website and I've not seen FashionistA in any stores near me as of yet. I'd guess somewhere around a fiver though!

Now, I definitely really like the Custom Palette system FashionistA have got going on here - it's nice to see something like this brought to the High Street! You can buy the empty 4-pan palettes for £5 each (in a choice of black or red), and the eyeshadows and blushes you can buy to go in them are just £4 each. In my red palette here I have three blushes and one baked eyeshadow - I was given 3 blushes and 5 shadows, which left me a little miffed but after swatching them I thought that the baked shadow would work nicely as a cheekbone highlight so stuck that in the blush palette - problem solved! Here's swatches of the blushes:

L-R: Butterscotch, Juicy Apricot, Blushing

Definitely nothing to complain about here - all nicely pigmented and soft to apply, no chalkiness in sight!

Here's my eyeshadow palette - Zoe definitely picked out my kind of eye shades, I'm really pleased with this selection and have used them quite frequently! These are exceptionally well pigmented for high street shadows, very impressed with them.

Top row: Golden Glow, Auburn Glow, Berry Brown
Bottom row: Brunette Bombshell, Bella (baked eyeshadow from the blush palette)

In conclusion, if you're a fan of gel liners you might want to give the Fashion Secret ones a try (if you can get past the less than likeable packaging), but the Custom Palette system definitely comes highly recommended from me!

Have you tried anything from FashionistA yet?

An Epic Fail - Calling All Water Marbling Whizzes!

2011-12-17T07:00:00.001Z

If there's one thing I will never master, it's water marbling. I just cannot do it for the life of me. It's something that frustrates me so much every time that I very rarely have the inclination to practice it. I was looking back through some very old blog posts a while ago, and saw that it had been over a year since the last time I tried water marbling. There's also a couple of posts with my very first attempts from 2009, but I'm not down with posting the links because they are embarrassing. Haha, if you're that determined to have a laugh at my fail, the posts are still up if you fancy browsing for them yourself!

Anyway, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to give it another shot. NOPE, still crap at it! It's silly really, I know it's one of those techniques that will come with practice but I just seem to think that I'll try it one day and it'll just be perfect. No such luck, of course!

This is the first time I'd tried it over a white base - I thought that might make it easier, but in fact I think it was even trickier than I remembered it. The white base is very unforgiving! I tried several different colour combinations to see what worked, and surprisingly the first finger I did (the index finger) came out the best. I actually think that one looks pretty good, but the others are shoddy.

I just can't figure out how to make a good pattern, and I always get smooshy patches and stringy bits and air bubbles in it and all sorts. It makes me so MAD! The middle finger was especially crappy, I mean what the hell is that?

So, I need the help of those geniuses who've mastered the technique. The biggest problem I had this time was the polishes not spreading right in the water. I'd apply the first drop to the water and it would spread just fine, but then by the second or third drop it just wasn't spreading at all, it would just stay as a tiny little bead in the middle of the polish rings. Is that something to do with the temperature of the water, do you think? I was using water at room temperature, but does it work better with warm water, or cold water?

Please, if you have any tips that might help me get even just a fraction better at this, don't hesitate to comment below! I will be forever grateful. I would just about kill to be able to marble like Colette of My Simple Little Pleasures. Just frigging look at these will you! *Sigh*

Winter Warmer Recipe! Roasted Curried Parsnip Soup

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000Z

Om. Nom. Frigging NOM. Let me just clarify one thing first of all - I actually cannot bear curry, I'm really not a spicy food person at all - so if you're the same, please don't be frightened to try this recipe, the little bit of curry powder just serves to add a bit of something to warm you from the inside out!

I adapted this recipe from the way we make it at work - we make a lot of different soups, but I think this is definitely the best winter warmer. It genuinely heats you right from within your core, and it's bloody delicious to boot. Give it a go!

Roasted Curried Parsnip Soup

Serves 4-6 depending on your portion size!

Ingredients

:: 1 kg parsnips (approx 4 large ones)
:: 3 tbsp olive oil
:: 2-4 cloves of fresh garlic
:: 2-4 tsp dried thyme (you can of course use fresh if you have it)
:: 2-3 tbsp honey
:: 1-4 tsp hot curry powder
:: Salt and pepper
:: 750ml vegetable or chicken stock
:: 300ml double cream
:: Splash of milk

Note that you can vary the amount of the seasoning ingredients according to your taste. If you're really afraid of curry powder, just go for a teaspoon. If you like it hawt, go mad with it. Just do what you feel! For reference, I used 4 garlic cloves, 3 tsp thyme, 2 tbsp honey and 2 tsp curry powder.

Method

Peel the parsnips, top 'n tail them, and cut them into relatively chunky batons (about two inches long and half an inch thick). You don't want them too skinny else they'll burn when you roast them, and equally you don't want them huge else they'll take a million years to roast. Use your common sense.

Toss them in a roasting tin with the olive oil, garlic, honey, thyme, curry powder, and a good twist from your salt and pepper mills. Roast at 200 degrees (reduce to 180 for fan ovens) for about 30-40 minutes, until the parsnips are softened and browned.

Once the parsnips are out, mash them up a little bit to make blending easier. Use a regular potato masher just to break them up a bit, right there in the roasting tin. You don't need to be thorough in the slightest, it's just to make your life a bit easier.

Meanwhile, bring 500ml or so of your stock to the boil in a large pan then take off the heat. Carefully add the squished parsnips and double cream, and gently mix together. Pour the rest of the stock into the roasting tin to remove the bits and pieces from the tin - extra flavour! Pour this in to the big pan, too.

The next part is blending - you can use an electric hand blender if you have one. Mine literally died on me whilst I was making the soup so I chucked it into a proper blender instead which works just as well if not better (it just creates more washing up ;P). I split this quantity of soup into two batches for blending to leave some room in the blender.

Just use your judgement as far as consistency goes. I think I did it for about 2 minutes on a medium speed until it was smooth. Once it's all blended nicely, return it to the large pan and pop it back on the heat to simmer for a while. Taste it, test the consistency - if it's a bit thick, add milk just a splash at a time until it's how you like it. Add a little more salt and pepper if you like.

Now eat loads of it with a hot crusty roll. Mmmmm. This is very rich, though; you will need less than you think.

This will keep for up to a week in the fridge, but it can of course be frozen too. Just make sure you do not refreeze once thawed ;D see what I did there?!

Festive Polishgasm: Zoya Isla

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000Z

You know, I'm not normally a fan of red nail polish. Not plain red cremes, at least - I find them boring. This, though, is a whole different kettle of fish. The second I applied the first stroke, I knew it was going to be one of my new favourites.

It's just so SEXY. And festive! Enjoy :)

Sunday Stumbles

2011-12-11T07:00:00.001Z

A series of 'Unrealistic Scenes' by Nathan Spotts. As much as I am a fan of raw, untouched photography, I am definitely appreciative of photomanipulation. These are stunning.

The adorable story of a baby hippopotamus who survived being swept away by a tsunami. Newly orphaned, he adopted a one hundred year old tortoise as his mother!

The title of this webpage is 'Titanic Needed This', and they most certainly did! The genius lifesaving design for sinking ships relies on magnets and GPS to attract scattered survivors into a huddle.

Amazing. Bring nature to your home even in the inner city with a real moss bathmat!

Oh my god. I think I just died of cute.

With the arrival of Siri on iPhone 4s, it was only a matter of time before someone compiled a list of 'Awesome things said by Siri'.

If you found (or god forbid, stole) this guy's camera, there's no way in hell you could resist giving it back after seeing the full-of-win message on it. Genius!

A little comparison of two women who happen to be the same age, Nigella Lawson vs. Gillian McKeith. Very funny!

This made me LOL (click through for the full graphic). It should make any Harry Potter fan do the same!

Look Beauty - Catsuit

2011-12-09T07:00:00.001Z

I knew I had to buy this badboy after seeing it on the lovely Lydia's blog, so I snapped it up on my day out with Kim a few weeks ago.

I've been getting into glitter in a big way this year. Have you noticed? Haha. As with most glitters, I decided to layer it to avoid the necessity for a billion coats and the base colour I chose was Essence Hard to Resist. I used one coat of that, and two coats of this stunning navy blue glitter.

It's beautiful, isn't it? It's became touch dry quickly, but has a very gritty feel, and despite the wonderful sparkle the finish isn't shiny at all. I applied two coats of top coat and it still didn't quite seem shiny enough! Lydia used a matte top coat on it in her post, be sure to check it out (link at the top of this post).

I can forgive the minor grittiness and lack of shine even post-topcoat, though, because it's just so lovely. You can buy Look Beauty nail polishes for £5 from selected Superdrug stores - I'm afraid I have no idea which ones though!

Review: The Body Shop Coconut Gift Box

2011-12-07T07:00:00.001Z

Who doesn't love a good gift set from The Body Shop at this time of year? I for one always buy at least one as a gift for someone and and least one for myself, every year. What can I say.. I'm a Body Butter hoarder. This year, rather than buying one for myself, I've been kindly treated to one courtesy of VoucherCodes.co.uk's lifestyle e-zine, Most Wanted. Naturally, I chose my favourite TBS scent which is Coconut.

These gift boxes come in most of The Body Shop's most loved varieties, including Shea, Cocoa Butter, Moringa, Strawberry, Lemon, Satsuma... The list goes on. And at £25, they're undeniably good value and are beautifully presented in sturdy boxes with a pretty bow. Personally I think that the packaging alone contributes to the set having a more luxury feel, but disregarding the packaging, how much are you saving with the gift box?

This particular gift box contains Coconut Body Butter 200ml (£12.50), Coconut Body Scrub 200ml (£12.50), Coconut Shower Cream 250ml (£4.00), Coconut Soap 100g (£2.00) and an Ultra Fine Bath Lily (£1.50). That's a total value of £32.50, so that's a saving of £7.50. Or, to put it another way, it's like buying the Body Butter and Body Scrub and getting all the other bits for free in a beautiful gift box!

I am a self confessed exfoliation junkie. I love exfoliators and scrubs in all shapes and sizes, and The Body Shop make one of my favourites. There's no better way to make yourself feel as squeaky clean as humanly possible than having a good slough in the shower, and I reckon TBS Body Scrubs are one of the best products for the job. The exfoliating particles are hardy enough to effectively buff away any dead skin cells, but gentle enough to not feel scratchy (if there's one thing I can't bear, it's a scratchy scrub). The perfect balance, really.

Ahh, the cult classic. More or less every woman I know has at least one TBS Body Butter (and I know several who have a damn sight more than one, myself included). They are cult classics for a reason! Rich, beautifully scented (of course) and incredibly moisturising, but not at the expensive of being greasy. Far from it! They absorb quickly into the skin, leaving behind no oily residue or sticky feeling. TBS Body Butters work wonders on dry patches, too - if you suffer from flaky bits on your knees, elbows, wherever, slather a bit of Body Butter on them after a shower and you'll be feathery soft in no time.

Shower gel is one of my favourite things ever. So is coconut, so this is the no-brainer winner for me. As much as I love the indulgent feeling of scrubbing and slathering with Scrubs and Butters, I simply can't be bothered to do it every night, you know? But shower gel is a necessity every shower, and my word I love this one. Creamy and moisturising with a nice lather, going over my skin with this on a TBS Bath Lily makes a good lazy substitute for proper exfoliation! The smell lingers on the skin for hours, too.

I'm not one for using soap in the shower, but am an advocate for using solid soaps at the sink rather than liquid ones. A pet hate of mine when it comes to solid soaps is lack of foam, and residue. This plain, unassuming little bar boasts a surprisingly rich lather and a good clean feeling. Not to mention it leaves you sniffing your hands for ages afterwards (try not to lick them).

In conclusion, a gift set from The Body Shop is a great choice for Christmas this year. It is every year, actually. You can buy the Coconut gift box, and others like it, on The Body Shop's website (or in store, of course).

If ordering online, don't forget to check VoucherCodes.co.uk's TBS Discounts page to get a cheeky little bit off!

The (Magnetic) Elephant In The Room

2011-12-05T07:00:00.001Z

Let's not bullshit here. It's nothing short of blatantly frigging obvious that both 17's and FashionistA's magnetic nail polishes are from the same manufacturer. It completely baffles me that neither 17 or FashionistA seem to care how obvious it is. I guess maybe that's because 17 is exclusive to Boots, and FashionistA is exclusive to Superdrug, but would it really have killed either party to make a bit of effort for originality?

The only real difference is how you buy them - the 17 ones all come with the detachable magnetic lid, whereas the FashionistA ones are sold without the magnet and you buy that separately. The magnets are identical, by the way. Surely this whole business would be more forgivable if they at least had some variation in their colours, right? Well, 3 of them are exactly the same. Look at my little scientific table here:

17 Green = FashionistA Ego Green
17 Purple = FashionistA Purple Me Up
17 Blue = FashionistA Forever Is Blue
And I don't have the FashionistA one to compare, but I would take a wild stab in the dark and bet money that...
17 Grey = FashionistA Notorious Silver

How about some photographic evidence?

Index and ring - 17 Green
Middle and pinky - FashionistA Ego Green

Index and ring - 17 Purple
Middle and pinky - FashionistA Purple Me Up

Index and ring - 17 Blue
Middle and pinky - FashionistA Forever Is Blue

THEY ARE THE SAME BLOODY PRODUCTS. This doesn't seem to phase most people, but it just absolutely baffles me! I don't understand why either party is happy about it... am I just being dense and missing something here?

The real question is, which ones should you buy if they're both the same? I guess it's down to price. 17 ones cost £5.99 each (magnet included) and the FashionistA ones are £6.00 each with the magnet sold separately at £3.00. Clearly, then, the 17 ones win. Having said that, FashionistA do have the added bonus of a fifth colour, All Fired Up Red (which is actually lovely).

Don't get me wrong, I love the magnetic polish trend. I just don't get this whole identical business! The magnets are quite fun to experiment with. Have you tried turning the magnet sideways to create vertical waves on the nail instead of horizontal ones? They also work brilliantly with a matte topcoat, somehow the matte finish seems to make it look even more 3D.

What's your opinion on the fact that the offerings from 17 and FashionistA are exactly the same products? I mean, I realise that different brands release products that are basically the same as each other ALL the time, but they just couldn't have made this one any more obvious if they'd tried.

I just want to point out, I bought the 17 polishes myself and was sent the FashionistA ones for review some weeks later. I would be furious if I'd bought both sets, although frankly if I had have been stupid enough to do that without realising then I would have deserved to waste my money! Haha

IMATS London 2012: The Countdown Begins

2011-12-03T07:00:00.003Z

It's getting on for that time of year again! With just two months to go until the International Makeup Artist Trade Show graces our capital again, I think it's about time to start getting excited and making shopping lists!

One of the most exciting things about IMATS 2012, particularly to those who've been to the show before - everything's being moved to Alexandra Palace's Great Hall. This means LOTS more room!

There's always an impressive list of exhibitors, these are the ones I'm most looking forward to right now; but there's still time for others to show up on the list before February!

:: Cazcarra London - I'm pretty sure they were exhibiting last year because the name rings a bell, but I must have skipped over them. After having a look at their website, though, I definitely want to check out their products in person.

:: Charles Fox - Naturally! Anyone who's been around for a while will know how much I love the Covent Garden based store, and their stall at IMATS is always one of my favourites to visit.

:: Crown Brush - I don't think I need to say anything. Awesome brushes, dirt cheap. Roll on February!

:: Guru Makeup Emporium - GME always offer a sizeable discount on Makeup For Ever products at the show, so I intend to try a few more bits and pieces, I've become quite the fan of Aqua Creams so I want to check out other colours.

:: Hakuhodo - Depending on what my budget's like, I might just treat myself to one of these luxury brushes.

:: Illamasqua - You all know they're my favourite brand, so this is a no brainer. I'm interested to see whether they'll have individual products for sale, or if they'll be shifting old stock by offering several products in a cheap set like last year?

:: Inglot - This is definitely one to go to early as it's one of those stalls that is rammed all day long. If you want a Freedom palette, or a browse at their impressive range of nail polishes, get it done as soon as possible!

:: Make-up Designory (MUD) - I've heard rather a lot about their products, but have never tried them myself so I'll definitely be checking them out at the show.

:: Make Up For Ever - I will be very interested to see if they're going to be offering more of a discount than Guru Makeup Emporium.. somehow I doubt it, but we'll see!

:: Naked Cosmetics - Every year at the show, I play with and swatch their beautiful pigment stacks but can never convince myself to part with the cash for them. Will I be swayed this time? I know they do this really cool looking mattifying eyeshadow primer/paste thing, that makes shimmery shadows matte. If they've got that there, I'll definitely be purchasing!

:: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics - Well, it's basically a rule that I have to buy at least one new Lip Tar at each show.. you understand, right?

:: Pro Chart - I know I'll be purchasing one of these for sure. A Pro Chart is a sketchpad with a blank face chart on every page - I meant to get one last year but for some reason must have forgotten. I've never done a face chart before, and since I can't draw for crap this is the ideal thing to make me give it a go!

:: Royal and Langnickel Brush - A good place to browse for brushes when the Crown stall gets too claustrophobic.

It's a fair while until the show, so a lot of the details of talks and competitions and whatnot are still TBC. I'll be keeping an eye on the schedule, and will be posting again about the speakers and classes I'm most stoked about!

You can buy your IMATS tickets here. Are you going to be there?

Such a stunning look - I remember this well, it's by Loren Huckin, the winner of the 2011 show's Beauty and Fantasy student competition :)

October/November Favourites

2011-12-01T07:00:00.000Z

So I've decided almost certainly that I don't change up my makeup routine frequently enough to justify a Favourites post each month. One every two months seems much more realistic!

:: Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint - You know what I'm like with foundations/tinted moisturisers by now. My preference in terms of level of coverage chops and changes more than my weight (which is a lot). At the moment, I'm feeling tinted moisturiser more than foundation, and Liz Earle's first foray into coloured cosmetics is my choice product at the moment. Literally can't fault it, and it's the perfect colour. I wear '01 Bare' of course. Will review properly one day... like I say I will with everything else!

:: Stila 'Marrakesh' Eyeshadow Palette - I bought this off Lily about a million years ago, chucked it promptly in my 'to try' drawer and never touched it again. I only pulled it out about 6 or 7 weeks ago and tried it. I have to admit, I wasn't very impressed, it was kinda shite to be quite honest. That was when I swatched it sans-base, though - I tried it again over good ol' UDPP a few days later and discovered that this palette is actually lovely. The colours are just beautiful, I feel really autumnal wearing these shades (even though we seem to have bypassed Autumn this year and skipped straight to Winter, right?). They can be a bit of a pain to blend, though, as too much brush action will start to fade the colours away on the lid.

:: Inglot Eyeshadow in DS458 - Oh, how I wish Inglot eyeshadows had names! They are bloody fantastic, though, so I can overlook that. I have to say, this is probably one of my most frequently used shadows of the entire year, let alone October and November. See, even on days when I can't be bothered with proper eyeshadow, I'll still chuck a very nude eye base (usually MAC Paint in Bare Study) over the lid and hastily put a bit of this into my crease. My eyelids are a funny shape, you can never see it in my FOTD/EOTD pictures because angles rule, but the outer corners of my eyes are slightly hooded (which makes winged liner exceptionally difficult to pull off), and so I just really feel the need to have some shadow in my crease to lift that outer corner of the eye. This is my favourite shadow for that purple! Whilst it looks quite heavy in the swatch, it's easy to blend lightly.

:: Kiko Long Lasting Shadow Stick in 06 - I totally love these. I am a fool for eyeshadows in cream/mousse/gel/stick form. The Kiko shadow sticks are just like MAC Shadesticks but better - I talked a bit more about shade 18 in this post if you want to have a look. The colours of these are just so, so gorgeous. I'm particularly enamoured with this one at the moment, so much so that it's been replacing MAC Bare Study as the lid product for my lazy day eye. Now that's saying something!

:: Topshop Lipstick in Pillow Talk - This one's been causing a bit of a storm in blog land lately, right? I'd seen it on loads of blogs and admired it, but just had this feeling it wouldn't look right on me so never pursued it. Then, just a few weeks ago, I was hunting in Topshop's flagship store for some nail polishes for a swap I'm doing at the moment (could only find two of them, sigh), and this caught my eye out of nowhere. I thought 'ooh, that looks nice', looked at the bottom of the tube to find out the name and was quite surprised that it was actually the infamous Pillow Talk. It looked quite different in real life, and I picked it up on a whim. Very glad I did - it suits me a lot more than I initially thought it would!

:: Hard Candy Fox in a Box Blush in Smooth Talker - A little something I picked up in America that remained in its plastic packaging for months before I even bothered to open it. I have consequently kicked myself for not cracking this one out sooner, it's LOVELY. It's clearly modeled after BeneFit's Sugarbomb, the four colours are pretty much identical. I think I paid about $7 or something for this, whereas BeneFit's blushes cost what these days, £23.50? No brainer, really.

Top row: Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint, Kiko Shadestick 06, Topshop Pillow Talk
Middle row: Inglot DS458, Hard Candy Smooth Talker (all colours swirled together)
Bottom row: Stila Marrakesh palette

Which products have you been loving lately? Favourites posts are one of my favourite kind of posts to read, so please feel free to link me to yours in the comments :)

Dupe Alert! Orly vs. Models Own

2011-11-29T07:00:00.001Z

I'm sure we all jumped on the Beetlejuice bandwagon when Models Own released their new, highly anticipated collection of duochromes. When mine arrived, I had a good stare at the bottle of Purple Blue trying to figure out why it seemed so familiar. I knew it looked just like something I already had in my collection. It took me a good few minutes to realise what it was - Orly's Galaxy Girl from the A/W 2010 Cosmic FX collection.

Sure enough, I dug out my bottle of Galaxy Girl and held them side by side. Most of you will know what a pain in the arse it is to try and accurately photograph duochrome polishes, and it's even bloody harder in the bottle as you can see above! But it's plain to see that they are twins. How about on the nail?

Index and ring: Orly Galaxy Girl
Middle and pinky: Models Own Purple Blue

They are super similar, aren't they? The unusual reddy-brown sort of base that's completely transformed by the multi-chrome glass fleck type particles that glow purple and blue and all sorts. It's such an interesting colour - but I actually think there's a little difference. Not sure if it's just me, but I think the blue flash in the duochrome is actually stronger in the Models Own one. What do you think?

Index and ring: Orly Galaxy Girl
Middle and pinky: Models Own Purple Blue

Overlooking that tiny little difference, do I have a preference? Probably the Orly one, I'm quite the fan of Orly in general. You notice quite a difference between them on application as well, Purple Blue needed 3 good coats and was exceptionally sheer on the first coat, whereas Galaxy Girl needed 2 and was much stronger on the first coat.

Considering it's not easy to get your hands on the Cosmic FX collection anymore, and the RRP on Orly in the UK is higher than Models Own (I've seen the Orly RRP listed as £9.85 in some places and £6.95 in others - who knows what the real one is? Haha), Purple Blue definitely makes a good substitute at £5.

Sunday Stumbles

2011-11-27T07:00:00.000Z

I got my phone back! Finally. It only took them a frigging month to fix it. So now I can Stumble again :)

Oh my god. Chocolate chip cheesecake dip?! GIVE ME SOME. NOW.

I'm having a little bit of an over-emotional spell at the moment, and this adorable photo made me well up.

Amazing bathroom design - is it too much to ask to just put that in my bathroom?

Mmmm, puff pastry cherry blossoms. Sweet, sticky, easy and delicious!

I absolutely love these optical illusion paintings by Oleg Shuplyak. Take a look through them all, they're fantastic.

Okay, I take a fair amount of pride in my linguistic skills and understanding of the English language... but it took me an awfully long time to get my head around this. "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically valid sentence. If you have any interests in linguistics, definitely worth a little read!

Ohhhh. I am big fan of mushrooms, and an even bigger fan of garlic. Garlic butter roasted mushrooms. Just... get in my belly.

Collection of amazing space-saving bedroom inspiration - I don't know if I'd feel a little cramped though!

Good job this guy doesn't suffer from vertigo, but wow, what a breathtaking view.

Oreo cheesecake?! Where do people get these mouthwatering ideas from?

FashionistA - Hidden Treasure

2011-11-25T07:00:00.002Z

Not to be confused with the Sally Hansen polish of the same name! Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure is a multifaceted flaky topcoat (see here!) along the same lines as GOSH Rainbow. FashionistA Hidden Treasure, however, is a very opaque gold glitter. I love them both, but I particularly love this one!

This sort of colour is what I always think of as 'white gold'. I know that white gold actually looks almost silver, but in my silly brain white gold is a more neutral, less yellow-toned gold colour. Like this. This almost has a pinkish sort of shimmer to it at the right angles, too, which is really interesting but subtle. You can see it best in the photo above.

No issues with application, either - glitters aren't often very opaque to apply and usually work best for layering, but this was completely opaque and lovely in just two easy-to-apply coats. It wasn't a particularly gritty texture when it dried either, not that things like that are important to me since I am a religious top coater.

I had a lot of compliments when wearing this polish, which is always nice, but I actually know sod all about the FashionistA range so couldn't tell anyone much about it! I've got a few bits from it that I was sent, but I don't have a clue about prices and availability. I've not seen it in any Superdrug stores near me yet, and the Superdrug website only has the eyeshadows and Magnetism nail polishes on it. There's no list of stockists on the Superdrug website, and the FashionistA website is completely useless. So, sadly, I'm afraid I can't tell you how much this costs or which Superdrug stores are stocking it. I'll let you know as soon as I find out!

Scratch that - I wrote this post a week or so ago, just editing this bit in the night before it's scheduled to be posted. I actually saw the FashionistA range in the Stratford Centre Superdrug (not the Westfield one) - the nail polishes are £5 each and Hidden Treasure was there. I still don't know a list of stockists, just keep your eyes peeled!

My Day in Hipster Photos

2011-11-23T07:00:00.000Z

On Monday, I spent the day at Westfield Stratford with my wonderful BBBFF (that's beauty blogging BFF), Kim. And today is Kim's 23rd birthday, so please wish her a happy one via her blog or Twitter (@_dottiek)! :)

So anyway, I downloaded an app for my phone the other day called mytubo, it's like the Android version of Instagram. I don't know why they don't just release Instagram on the Android market, but there you go! Mytubo gave me the desire to document parts of mine and Kim's day in tragic hipster fashion, so here.

Frigging delicious steak in TGI Fridays. I like mine bloody as hell, how do you like yours?

There's Kim nomming on a Mocha Mud Pie dessert!

They've set up an ice rink for the winter at Westfield. I won't be doing any skating though, I'm terrified of it!

Oh, why is there the Tardis outside?

Because Jo Whiley is interviewing the Doctor Who cast, that's why!

It's probably a little too early to be feeling festive, but you can't help it when you look at those lights can you?

BBBFF ♥

Have a lovely birthday Kim!

Review: Too Faced 'Fun in the Dark' Palette

2011-11-21T07:00:00.001Z

I got this cutesy little palette on BuyaPowa (seriously, I love that website) several weeks ago, at £15 down from the RRP of £25. Although, I should mention that I just had a quick Google of the palette and you can actually get it for about a tenner on eBay - kicking myself. Oh well!

The palette contains four eyeshadows - Pin Up, Peep Show, Full Frontal and Lucky Charms - Too Faced's cult blush Papa Don't Peach, their equally popular Free Love lipstick in pan form, Tropical Pink lipgloss and Sun Bunny bronzer. It also features six adorable little lights around the decent-sized mirror that you can switch on and off by pressing on the top right corner. Cute little gimmick :) but naturally, the products are more important!

Lucky Charms immediately strikes me as looking out of place with the rest of the colours in the palette. I guess that could be down to the fact that I'm not a fan of green eyeshadow, but I just don't think it looks quite right next to the other neutral colours. Sure, throw a pop of colour in the palette by all means, but I think maybe a purple colour might have worked better. What do you reckon? Let's have a look at some swatches!

Do you see what I mean about Lucky Charms? You can see that Pin Up, Peep Show and Full Frontal will all work together to create a simple neutral eye - where does the green fit in? Maybe on the lower lashline, but again as someone who's not a lover of green eyeshadow I'd prefer to see a purple or something for that purpose. Certainly no complaints with the formula or pigmentation, though - Too Faced always deliver well on that front. I think Peep Show is my favourite, it's quite brightening and just has a fresh sort of appearance on the lid.

Papa Don't Peach blush is beautiful, possibly my favourite product in here! I wanted to buy it individually a long time ago but never got round to it, so I'm glad I have it in this little kit. Not so keen on Sun Bunny - I'm not one for bronzer at the best of times, but this is definitely too orange and shimmery for me to even try and work with. The worst product is undoubtedly Tropical Pink lipgloss. They should have called it Tropical Clear Nasty Sticky Lipgloss With Gritty Sparkles. Or better yet, they just should have put something else in its place! Free Love lipstick on the other hand is gorgeous, a wonderful 'my lips but better' shade with the most subtle hint of shimmer to lift it a bit. Another product I wanted to buy from Too Faced about two years ago - now I've tried it, I might actually buy it separately for convenience.

Here's a speedy EOTD using the palette - Pin Up on the inner corner, Peep Show on the lid, and Full Frontal in the crease. The colours look a little different, though, because I used a pale bronze-y coloured gel eyeliner as a base.

Overall definitely a cute little palette that's worth getting, especially for less than a tenner on eBay!

Polishgasm: Essence Hello Holo

2011-11-19T07:00:00.001Z

Oh my god. Just, oh my god. I have never seen a silver holo glitter that is so... holo glittery. Oh my god.

Note that this isn't just Hello Holo on its own - this is two coats of it over Pure Ice Silver Mercedes (just an opaque silver).

Less word vomit, more holo porn.

Oh my god. *dead*

Models Own/Diet Coke Christmas Kisses Collection

2011-11-17T07:00:00.001Z

Instead of another collab with Nails Inc for the festive period, Diet Coke have this time joined forces with Models Own to bring us four exclusive lipglosses in the familiar 'buy two 500ml bottle of Diet Coke in Boots and get [insert pretty item here] for free' format!

The offer started yesterday (16th November) and will run until just after Christmas (27th December), so you have plenty of time to chug down some Diet Coke - or just buy the coke and give it to someone else if you don't drink fizzy stuff like me - and snag yourself some glosses. And of course you get Boots Advantage Card points too; can't go wrong!

The four colours are Golden Nude, Glossy Pink, Lacquer Red and Pure Plum. Here are hand swatches for you, followed by some lip swatches and a little bit about each colour from makeup artist Lauren Parsons (labelled as 'One to Watch' by Vogue magazine!).

Golden Nude: Surprisingly my second favourite from the collection. I didn't think I'd like it at all in the tube because it looked a little yellow for my skintone, but it's sheer enough that it should suit everyone.

Lauren Says "Dial up an A-lister look straight from the red carpet with smoky eyes and nude buff lips. Create forget-me-not lips by glossing them with Golden Nude matched with layers of liner and on-trend precious metallics for statement eyes."

Glossy Pink: Unsurprisingly, my favourite one of the four. I've developed a real thing for milky pink colours this year, and you really can't go wrong with this kind of colour - it'll go with pretty much anything!

Lauren Says "Feminine pink lips never go out of fashion, so pucker up and make your kissable pout the focal point of your look. Try Glossy Pink with statement lashes and big backcombed hair for a timeless and classic makeover."

Lacquer Red: Red just isn't my colour, so I wore just a very sheer slick of this in the above swatch. This is the most pigmented gloss out of the collection, though, so be aware that you most certainly can achieve an opaque red gloss finish with it!

Lauren Says "1940s glamour is big news for A/W 2011, take the trend from your wardrobe to your make-up bag with stand out red velvet lips. Transform into an instant icon with Lacquer Red, pair with just a touch of rosy blush across the apply of your cheeks and feline liquid eyeliner to create a siren look."

Pure Plum: I actually quite liked this one - again, I wore it quite sheered out and I think it would look amazing with a gold eyeshadow look.

Lauren Says "With the vamp glam look totally on trend this season, now is the time to dial up deep tones with Pure Plum. Taem with a smouldering shade of pearlescent eyeshadow for sultry and striking make-up then contrast your outfit with lighter fabric and nude hues to complete the look."

Overall, a pretty nice little lipgloss collection that's well worth buying eight Diet Cokes for (presuming you want to collect them all, that is!).

One thing I do want to mention, though, is to be careful when squeezing the tubes. The samples I had were fine, but some of the tubes I played with at the launch event were VERY hard to squeeze and I quickly discovered that applying just a touch too much pressure will result in the tube bursting. The pink one seemed to be the worst culprit (I managed to burst three tubes of pink at the event, I shit you not), but as I said the samples I swatched above were absolutely fine. Just something to be aware of!

P.S. Speaking of Christmassy things, what do we think of my brand new super festive layout? :D

BuyaPowa.com Get Naked!

2011-11-15T07:00:00.000Z

You might remember my post about BuyaPowa.com from the end of September. If not, please feel free to go and refresh your memory!

Anyway, I felt the need to interrupt my posting schedule so I could get this post up ASAP since there's some great beauty co-buys coming up including the following...

:: Urban Decay Naked Palette
:: Urban Decay Midnight Emergency Kit
:: Clinique Dramatically Different Lotion
:: Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
:: Urban Decay Lip Primer Potion
:: Urban Decay Brow Box (in the shade Honey Pot)
:: NARS Holiday 2011 Eyeshadow Duo
:: Chanel Les 4 Ombres Smokey Eye Palette
:: Urban Decay Pocket Rocket Lipgloss Duo
:: OPI Mupettes Mini Collection

Now, there's no way of knowing exactly when any of these co-buys will go live, so I strongly suggest signing up for an email alert when the co-buys you're interested in go live. I predict a VERY fast sell-out of the Naked palette, so keep your eyes peeled if you're slow like me and still haven't got it! Haha.

I got a great deal from BuyaPowa a while ago that I still haven't got around to posting about - the Too Faced Fun in the Dark palette. So writing this has reminded me to review it! I promise that will be coming soon.

By the way, this isn't a sponsored post - I just thought you might be interested in getting some bargains!

LA Colours - Cactus

2011-11-14T07:00:00.001Z

You would be forgiven for assuming that a brand with nail polishes at 99p might be a pile of crap. However, I urge you to give LA Colors a go! I've been buying mine from Beauty Base in Westfield Stratford, but I'm sure there's a ton of places you can get them online.

There's an awful lot of polishes in the range that aren't particularly interesting, but if you have a good look you can come across some really great colours. My personal favourite that I've found so far is Shocker, a hot pink with an intense blue duochrome. What other brands are you going to find a pink-blue duochrome from for 99p?!

This one's called Cactus. In the bottle it looks sort of like a black base with golden green glitter through it, but on the nail it's quite different. Not much to write home about in dull lighting, but get it in the sunlight and you'll see all sorts of colours shining back at you - myriad shades of gold, green, orange; it's really quite lovely!

I do have one annoyance with this polish, though. Despite wearing it with my favourite basecoat (Orly Bonder, if you're wondering), it stained my nails pretty badly on removal. And despite being a blackened gold/green shade, it didn't stain them any of those colours... it stained them a serious orange colour. A little puzzlig, but I must admit that staining doesn't bother me too much since I never have my nails unpainted anyway. Just something to be aware of!

Review: Sleek MakeUP Brow Kit

2011-11-12T07:00:00.001Z

Filling in my brows is hands down one of the most essential steps in my daily makeup routine. I am quite happy to leave the house with not a scrap of makeup on the rest of my face, but I feel so awful without my brows on. Anyone else with me on this? In my case it's a result of some zealous over-plucking in my early teens.

Sleek's new wax-and-powder combo Brow Kit has been hailed as a fantastic high street dupe of BeneFit's cult Brow Zings kit. Personally, I've never tried the BeneFit version, but I wanted to see how it compared to my beloved ELF Studio Eyebrow Kit. Naturally, the Sleek one is more similar to BeneFit what with the two mini brow brushes and pair of mini tweezers included, but ELF's offering is less than half the price of Sleek's and has been an absolute staple in my collection for a long time. To be honest I probably would have never bought the Sleek MakeUP version myself because I've been perfectly happy with ELF, but since I had the opportunity to try this one it's been interesting to consider their pros and cons.

Stupidly - and I didn't even notice this until I was resizing and watermarking the photos - but I actually took photos of both different eyes for the before and afters. Sorry! But even so, you can see the huge difference in my brows and why it's so important for me to do them!

Before

After

Now, I don't know if it's just me who thinks so, but I found the wax from Sleek's kit leans just a touch too red for my skin and hair tones. The pigmentation and quality of the product as a whole, though, can't be denied. The brushes are pretty good too, although I prefer to use my own designated brow brushes but they are obviously a great addition for the everyday consumer - as are the tweezers; always handy!

So yes, this is definitely a great kit but I feel the wax is just a teeny bit red for my liking. Of course the lack of shade range (this only comes in a choice of Light or Dark) means I wouldn't be able to find a better match, but I have found the perfect combination. The powder in the Sleek kit is a bit darker and just more suited to me than the one from the ELF kit, so I've taken to using the ELF wax and Sleek powder as my go-to brow combo. So both kits are useful to me, but honestly I can't see myself buying the Sleek one again just for the powder when the ELF one is just as good at less than half the price.

Either way, I think another high five for Sleek MakeUP is deserved! :)

Sleek MakeUP Brow Kit is available in Superdrug stores or online for £7.99.

Toothpaste and Deckchairs

2011-11-10T07:00:00.000Z

Yup, toothpaste and deckchairs. Two of things this nail design was described as! In actual fact, what I was aiming for was an updated version of a very old manicure that I called Candy Stripes!

For this I used China Glaze's For Audrey and Sugar High, and Leighton Denny's Baby Doll. No special brushes required for those base colour stripes, just a careful application with the bottle brush. You can of course use any combination of colours for design like this, but it's best to go with very opaque ones that aren't going to need a lot of coats.

Once the base colours had dried I painted the dividing lines between them with a white striping polish, and added dots on the stripes of Baby Doll with a dotting tool just as a little extra.

Stripes are such an easy design to do and they look great on any length of nail. Give them a go!

Polishgasm: Essence Blue Addicted

2011-11-08T07:00:00.003Z

Phwooaarr. This was another polish I got in my swap with Sylvie - Blue Addicted from Essence. I heard it was a dupe for Deborah Lippman's Across The Universe. I don't own it, but a quick google image search shows that it's pretty much spot on! Except I think the green hex glitters are much more pronounced in Blue Addicted, and I actually prefer that.

I generally like to layer glitter polishes like this, so that's exactly what I did. I applied one coat of this over one coat of Hard To Resist, a very opaque navy blue, also from Essence. And I LOVE IT.

I mean, what's not to like? As always with Polishgasms, the pictures do the talking.

Review: 17 Wild Metallic Eyes

2011-11-06T07:00:00.000Z

I had a handful of Boots advantage card points to burn several weeks ago, and ended up picking up three of these new mousse eyeshadows from 17. I didn't even know about them before I bought them, I think their release was very much overshadowed by the Magnetized nail polishes - which I still haven't got around to posting about!

Even since buying them, I've not really heard much about them but I have heard a little rumour that they may be a good drugstore dupe for the Chanel Illusion D'Ombre shadows. Naturally I can't confirm or deny this, but either way I think the 17 Wild Metallic Eyes have been massively underrated so far.

There are six shades - all with the same black and gold leopard print design as the Wild Curls mascara - they are Wild Nude, Wild Bronze, Wild Midnight Blue, Wild Green, Wild Silver and Wild Purple. Pretty wild name choices, right...? I picked up the purple, silver and nude ones. Here are swatches!

They are very smooth and creamy to apply, but not wet. They will crease without an eyeshadow primer beneath them, but with a good primer you can expect about 6 hours of wear before creasing. Setting them with a powder eyeshadow too will give you an extra couple of hours of wear time!

Less is definitely more with these too. Due to their consistency, applying a thicker layer of product is going to increase your chances of creasing. Luckily they are generous on the pigment, so applying a thin layer isn't going to make you lose out on colour payoff.

How about a bit of EOTD spam now?

Here's a couple of shots of Wild Silver, set with a silver eyeshadow from the Famous by Sue Moxley Shooting Star palette and some purples from Kat von D's True Love palette in the crease.

This is Wild Nude - now I can't quite remember what I set the lid with, I think it was probably MAC Grand Entrancce - and just a bit of MAC Satin Taupe in the crease.

And last but not least is Wild Purple. I don't often wear purple shades but it makes a nice change! This was set with one of the purples from Kat von D True Love again, and there was a tiny bit of MAC Graphology in the crease.

So I would say these are absolutely worth trying out - especially at a measly £3.99 each. Get them, get them, get them!

Wings of a Butterfly

2011-11-04T07:00:00.002Z

This is one of my favourite nail designs I've done in a while. I love it! It surprisingly wasn't too difficult either, I just used a black nail polish and a striping brush to create the wings' outlines.

The base colour is absolutely beautiful, it's from LA Colours and it's called Shocker. I've bought quite a lot of LA Colours now from Westfield (well, it would be rude not to for 99p each), but this one is quite easily my favourite! Hot pink with blue flashes, almost as if you're wearing a coat of Illamasqua Prism on top. It's gorrrgeous. On my index, middle and little fingers I added a coat of China Glaze Wireless Holographic topcoat - I did actually intend to put it on the thumb and ring nails underneath the wings but somehow managed to forget.

On the corners of the wings I added some silver dots with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and a dotting tool, and added rhinestones to a few of the dots for extra unnecessary sparkle :)

I wore this design for a full week before I had to take it off thanks to tipwear. That's how much I liked it!

What do you think?

Guest Post: Gemma's MeMeMe Review

2011-11-02T07:00:00.000Z

Following on from my recent review on the MeMeMe Smokey Eyes Gift Set, Gemma from Getting Ready at Gemma's is showing us a couple more MeMeMe eyeshadows. Enjoy!

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I was really excited to receive these eyeshadows to review as I haven’t tried anything by MeMeMe and I’m a big fan of the new packaging. My favourite of the two would have to be the pressed eyeshadow trio in ‘Sultry Eyes’. The step by step guide is very easy to follow if you want to accomplish an intense neutral eye. I like that you can mix and match the three shades to create many different looks for the day and night time.

I have used Urban Decay Primer Potion underneath the shadow to prevent any creasing. I lined my upper lash line with Bourjois Effet Smokey in ‘Smoked Brown’ and went over my lashes with No7 Lash 360 in ’01 Black’.

I’m more of a neutrals kind of girl, which is why I am not too keen on this baked eyeshadow quad in ‘Drama Eyes’. I didn’t find the shades to be as pigmented but they are buildable so you just need to work with them a little more to get good results. I like that they aren’t overly shimmery so you don’t get much fall out when applying. Although I wouldn’t wear all four shades together as shown on the guide I have liked experimenting with one or two. It’s something different and i think these darker shades are a good choice for Autumn/Winter.

There are five trios in this range for the price of £5.50 each and five quads which are only £1 more! I really like the look of the quad in ‘Ocean’ but I’m not sure how often I’d use it. You can purchase online at www.mememecosmetics.co.uk or pop into your local Superdrug.

Gem x

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Thanks Gemma!

Why You Need A White Nail Polish

2011-10-31T07:00:00.001Z

Have you ever bought a nail polish that looked awesome in the bottle, and then suffered the bitter disappointment that comes when you apply it and discover it's really, really sheer?

Then you need a white nail polish.

Even just a French tip white will do, anything opaque. I use Models Own Snow White; pictured above with three offensively sheer nail polishes - Anime and Perpetual* by Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, and P.Y.T. by Deborah Lippmann.

This post doesn't require an awful lot of words really, the pictures demonstrate much better. Here's the three polishes alone, these are four coats each.

And in this picture, you see two coats of each polish layered over one coat of Models Own Snow White.

And THAT, my friends, is why you need an opaque white nail polish. I don't need to say any more than that!

* It's not that important, but I felt the need to point out that these photos of Perpetual are horribly inaccurate. Perpetual is a bright indigo-purple sort of colour, nowhere near as blue as in the pictures. But we all know what a bugger purple is to photograph!

Top 4 Lip Balms

2011-10-29T07:00:00.000+01:00

Okay, so there's not a lot I can really say about lip balm. And I know that four is a funny number - it's normally top 3 or top 5 or something, but I am a self confessed lip balm addict and I couldn't bear to narrow it down to 3, and on the flipside my high balm standards refused to accept a fifth one as a favourite!

I mean it when I say I'm an addict. It is one of my biggest weaknesses and I pick up a different one nearly every time I pass a Boots or a Superdrug. I have one in the pocket of every coat I own, I have several on my beside table and several on my desk, at least one in every bag, and let's not talk about the ones hidden in my makeup drawers. I apply it constantly, no matter if I'm walking or talking or smoking or working or travelling, I barely go about 2 hours without reapplying lip balm of some description. These four are the ones that I always come back to, though.

First, absolute favourite lip balm ever, is Burt's Bees Replenishing Lip Balm With Pomegranate Oil. This has got to be the nicest, most moisturising formula I've ever used - it's one of the least oily-feeling balms I've ever tried but it's not dry in the slightest. Very difficult to describe! The pomegranate scent almost has a herbal twang to it. The first tube I tried was a PR sample, which I promptly lost within about 2 weeks. I ended up buying another one from Boots (where it costs about £3.50), then another one when I'd used it all up. Whilst I was in America earlier this year, I spotted it in Walmart for $1.95. I shit you not, I bought ten backups. I don't think I need to say any more than that.

Second place goes to Lush Honey Trap. Whilst £5.25 might sound a little steep for a lip balm, bear in mind that the Lush tins contain 10g of product vs an average of 4.5g in most stick balms. Honey Trap is BEAUTIFUL, and comes a very close second in my favourites. In fact, it would probably be number one if it came in a stick as opposed to a pot! Beautiful beeswax-based formula, honey and white chocolate scent... what's not to love? This was the very first product I tried from Lush, I think in 2005? Maybe even earlier. I stocked up on 12 of them using staff discount during my employment at Lush in 2007, but it was only £3.95 then anyway! They do love to hike their prices up, don't they?

Number three is another purchase I made in America, Blistex Raspberry Lemonade Blast. This lasts an impressive amount of time on my lips, and it smells like Love Hearts or Refreshers. A very cheerful summery scent as another harsh British winter closes in on us! I paid somewhere just over one dollar for this, I can't even remember where I bought it, but I'm pretty sure you can get it in Boots and Superdrug over here for somewhere around (probably just below) £2.

Last but certainly not least, Lip Smackers Cherry Cola (the top one in the image!). Colin is quite the fan of Lip Smackers, too (but shh, only behind closed doors), and between us we have about 20 different flavours. Haha. I have a lot of favourites from Lip Smackers - I'm particularly fond of the Vanilla and Cotton Candy ones - but the Cherry Cola one is my ultimate. Little known fact about me: I don't actually like fizzy drinks, at all, and I've never drank Cherry Coke in my life. I think the lip balm will suffice!

Do you have any favourite lip balms? What's your biggest cosmetic addiction?

Review: MUA Heaven & Earth Palette

2011-10-27T07:00:00.002+01:00

I only really bought this because I know that everyone wants it! This highly sought after offering from Superdrug's Make Up Academy range has been touted as the high street's answer to the Urban Decay Naked palette. I still think that title should go to the Sleek MakeUP Au Naturel palette for it's varied mix of matte and shimmer finishes, but this is definitely a contender!

Whilst all 12 shadows in this palette have a shimmer finish, they're not onboxiously frosty or anything. They are what I like to think of as a 'gentle' shimmer. They are really lovely and smooth to apply, and blend well together. There's a well thought out mix of pale highlight shades, mid-toned lid shades and darker crease colours. Obviously I use those terms loosely as you can use whatever shade wherever you like! Haha. But you know what I'm getting at.

Another thing that pleasantly surprised me was how consistent the forumla was on the shadows. Often in eyeshadow palettes - even higher end ones, not just cheaper ones - you tend to find that some shades pack a lot more punch than others in terms of formulation and pigmentation, but these are all on the same level. They are all as buttery-soft as each other, and none are particularly more pigmented than any others. This is a huge plus point, I think! Here's some swatches:

I've numbered the swatches in correspondence with the layout of the palette, because the shades don't have names and to point out the shades I used in the EOTD below!

For this look I used MAC Paint in Bare Canvas as a base. All the eyeshadows were from the MUA Heaven and Earth palette - shade 1 in the inner corner, a mix of shades 4 and 8 on the lid, shade 7 in the crease and on the lower lashline, and a mix of shades 5 and 12 on the outer part of the crease. I didn't use a brow highlight, I just blended out the edges with a clean brush. And if you're interested, the liquid eyeliner is Illamasqua's Havoc, the pencil liner is a Bourjois kohl, and from memory I think the mascara was MAC Haute & Naughty.

I was impressed with the longevity of the shadows too - they suffered only minor creasing and some barely noticeable fading throughout the day. I wouldn't have expected such good performance from a palette that only costs about £4!

Overall, this was a real pleasant surprise and I urge you all to get your hands on one!

Catrice 'Dirty Berry'

2011-10-25T07:00:00.000+01:00

Phwoar. Muted purple holo? YES PLEASE.

I partook in a swap recently with a wonderful reader named Sylvia from Germany, she doesn't have her own blog but she's an absolute sweetheart!

I was really quite excited by the prospect of trying out Essence and Catrice nail polishes, having seen a lot of European nail bloggers showcasing them before. One that I knew I needed was Dirty Berry by Catrice. It's LOVELY!

This non-flash photo is actually pretty colour accurate (surprising for a purple, right?) - the photos with flash are leaning a little bit too blue. But yes, I just love everything about this polish! The dusty mauve colour and the awesome holographicness. The formula is fantastic, too - great consistency and very opaque, I did two coats just to be thorough; you know me, I always do. The drying time wasn't particularly fast (still felt tacky after about 5 minutes) but I always always apply a fast drying topcoat anyway.

Amazingly, I think the holo finish actually looks stronger on the nails than it does in the bottle. What do you reckon? This is really unusual because I normally find that holographic polishes always look more holo in the bottle.

I love it. Very impressed with my first taste of Catrice!

MeMeMe Smokey Eyes Gift Set

2011-10-23T07:00:00.002+01:00

I haven't forgotten about Sunday Stumbles - my phone broke and is out for repair, and I usually do my Stumbling from my phone whilst travelling! It will be back once my phone is :)

I can never quite decide whether I prefer to spell smokey/smoky with or without an E...

I was kindly sent this by Find-Me-A-Gift.co.uk way back in July. I'm a bad blogger, but as the gift giving season is rapidly approaching (where HAS the year gone?!), I thought it was about time I showed you.

For £15.99, you will get the following:

An instruction card with brief but understandable instructions to create the look shown on the card, Smokey Eyes eyeshadow trio 01, Eye Line pencil in Coal, Eye Sweep precision eye definer in black, and Lash Attack mascara in black. Well, I got Lash Attack - on the webpage the images and description say that the kit includes Fat Cat mascara, not Lash Attack.. not that I suppose it matters too much.

Swatch time!

The eyeliner pencil is swatched at the very top. I thought the pigmentation of this was fantastic and it showed up brilliantly on the waterline, and lasted really quite well throughout the day. My favourite item in the set!

The eyeliner pen is swatched beneath that - it's one of those felt tip liners. I used to love them, but I just feel I don't get enough control with them these days. Maybelline's old Line Definer was the first one I used and set the bar very high. I also enjoyed Eyeko's old ones, and by comparison to the two of those this one wasn't great. Even though it swatched really well, it wasn't so great upon application. It dragged a little against the eyelid and felt quite dry. I couldn't get a decent line with it at all!

The eyeshadow trio is swatched at the bottom. The white and silver shades are lovely, shimmery and nicely pigmented but the dark grey/black is less so. It requires a little more building up to show true to the colour in the pan, but it's worth it.

Aaand here is Lash Attack mascara. I like the formula, it's a tubing mascara that's neither too wet nor too dry. It's marketed as an 'extreme lengthening' mascara - and that it is. My lashes are pretty long anyway, though, and what I generally look for in a mascara is a little volume and a great curl. However, if your lashes are quite thick already but suffer from being short, you'll love this.

Lastly, here's an EOTD using all the products in the set (and nothing else aside from eyeshadow primer). You can see how iridescent the eyeshadows are!

The kit costs £15.99 from Find-Me-A-Gift.co.uk - great value when you consider that to buy each of the products separately would cost £24!

Although... I couldn't not mention this else I'd feel deceptive. I have to point out that you can buy this set (and several other create-the-look gift sets) directly from the MeMeMe website for £15.00...

Recreated: Illamasqua's Theatre of the Nameless Nails

2011-10-21T07:00:00.000+01:00

Every cloud has a silver lining - a couple of weeks ago I spent a few days off work ill (AGAIN), and even though I felt like absolute death it did give me time to do a few things I'd wanted to do for a while. Most specifically, the Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless corset nail design! You know the one I'm talking about, this one...

I wanted to recreate it the moment I saw the promotional images. I was lucky enough to get Vice (the burgundy/claret type colour) in my gift bag from the launch event, but I wanted to hang on until I'd bought Faux Pas (the blue-ish violet colour). I bought that a few weeks later, but then typically I couldn't find the time to sit down and recreate the design.

I actually did a corset nail design a long time ago, one of my earliest Easy Peasy tutorials. But this look is really quite different!

In the original Illamasqua image, it looks as though they've used some sort of thread or ribbon to create the ties on the corset, so I was planning to do my recreation with black striping tape as that has a little more texture than just a line drawn with nail polish. Unfortunately though my striping tape seems to have gone walkabout (god knows how anything manages to go missing, my nail and makeup collections are the only things I keep OCD-neat-and-tidy round here!), so I had to go for polish in the end. I did make a few mistakes, but I don't think they show up too much!

I also used a whole lotta rhinestones for this - there's 8 on each nail, so 40 on each hand, and 80 in total!

I much preferred the design without a topcoat, as the satiny, rubbery looking finish of the nail polishes looked like real material. Obviously I had to give it a good thick topcoat, though, to keep the rhinestones secure. I guess the shine could maybe pass for a PVC look corset? Kinky ;)

Distinctly Mediocre

2011-10-19T07:00:00.000+01:00

I was SUPER excited to be receiving a couple of the coveted Deborah Lippmann nail polishes in he swap I did recently with kittypolishnbags. I'm not going to beat around the bush here - I really don't see what all the fuss is about. In fact, the best way to describe my experience with them is disappointing.

This is Ruby Red Slippers. It looked completely awesome in swatches I saw, but oh my god WHAT a pain in the arse this polish is! Now I'm not meaning to brag or anything, but my manicures are normally very neat around the cuticle. My painting is pretty accurate, but I always shape up the edges of my manicures with an angled brush dipped in acetone for a really crisp edge. Due to the varying sizes of glitter in this, though, it was just impossible to get the neat edge I always feel I need. It just bloody annoyed me to look down at my hands and see those obnoxious specks of glitter messing up my cuticle area!

It's an undeniably cool colour (which admittedly isn't done any favours by my crap photos) - multi sized red glitters suspended in a black jelly base (which surprisingly took three coats to achieve complete opacity - I normally find glitters with jelly bases have to be layered over a corresponding base colour). I don't have any trouble with the placement of the larger hex glitters in it - I know that some people push the larger glitters around with an orange stick when using a polish like this but I have quite a few polishes with large glitters in and I think I've got the hang of placing them well as I'm painting. So it's not the large glitters that annoy me, it's the small ones that I can't clean up around my cuticle. And naturally, removal is an utter pain. I just can't imagine ever mustering up the effort to bother with this one again I'm afraid!

This one is Pretty Young Thing. I WANT TO LOOOVE YOU, PRETTY YOUNG THANG! Yes, I really did want to love this. It's such a beautiful, beautiful colour. But oh my god, it's got to be one of the sheerest polishes I've ever used. The above swatch is a staggering six coats. Yes, SIX. You read that right. And there's still visible nail line.

I had no problems with the application of this, in fact the formula is very pleasant. I just find it shocking that a polish can cost so much and deliver such poor pigmentation! Also, it takes an absolute age to dry. I was planning to let it dry between coats but it was just taking far too long, so I ended up slapping on coat after coat for these pictures and taking it off immediately. It's such a shame because I really do love the colour. I've been intending to try it layered over a white polish to fix the opacity issue but haven't got round to it yet.

Overall, for polishes with a $16-18 price tag, I don't think they've got a lot to boast about.

Have you tried Deborah Lippmann nail polishes? What are your experiences with them? Are there any shades that are completely awesome in every way that just might convert me?

Guest Post: Emily's Oh So Special Review

2011-10-17T07:00:00.000+01:00

I just realised this is the second guest post, and the second Sleek palette review I've put up this month! Hope you don't mind. So when I was originally sent the Sleek MakeUP Oh So Special palette, I just knew I was never going to get around to reviewing it so I sent it on to Cat (who I absolutely love, by the way), 'cause I know she likes a good Sleek palette! Cat's super busy in her new job at the moment, though, so she ended up passing it on again to a friend of hers named Emily. Emily doesn't have her own blog, so this is her first ever review - enjoy!

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I’m doing a guest review for this product on behalf of Cat because she’s incredibly busy at the moment. For me, this is great because the first review I get to do is for a company I really like.
I only recently got into Sleek products and this is the fourth eye shadow palette I have used of theirs; I’ve also got ‘The Original’, ‘Storm’, and ‘Acid’ palettes. The first thing that I noticed when opening the ‘Oh So Special’ palette was the fact that they’ve added the names of the colours to the film. This, for me, was one of the main issues I had with the previous palettes I’ve owned. Trying to explain to my friends what colours I was wearing on my lids became impossible!

This palette, in my opinion, seems to have a colour for everyone and, like most Sleek palettes, can be used to make a great combination of looks. This is one of the first Sleek palettes I have seen with pastel pinks in it and at first I was quite dubious about these colours (Ribbon and Pamper) but once applied the colours were much more subtle then I was expecting and I have a feeling I will use them more than I thought.

(Top: Ribbon, Bottom: Pamper)

I was also immediately drawn to about four main colours and thought ‘Yep! They’re mine!’ These are ‘Organza’ a shimmery dusky pink; ‘The Mail’ a matt, slightly tan, colour; ‘Gift Basket’ a glittery brown and ‘Boxed’, a much darker, matt chestnut colour.

(L-R Organza, Boxed, Gift Basket and The Mail)

As well as these Sleek have included some very new, exciting and highly pigmented colours; ‘Gateau’ which reminds me of the holographic colours that always surprise you; ‘Glitz’ which is a stunning metallic blue and ‘Celebrate’ a lovely purpley/brown colour. I can definitely imagine me wearing any of these three on ‘Oh So Special’ occasions.

(L-R Celebrate, Glitz and Gateau.)

However, at the moment, for a day to day look I love this mix of ‘Bow’, a creamy white on my brow bone, ‘The Mail’ on my lids, and ‘Gift Basket’ on the outside and crease of the eye. Using the shimmer of the ‘Gift Basket’ is an amazing way to brighten up a generic, and normally neutral, look!

Have any of you tried the Oh So Special pallet yet? What do you think? Do you have any favourite looks from it?

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A huge thank you to Emily for writing her first ever review for Do Not Refreeze :) but no thanks to that Cat girl ;P

Pink Week, Part III

2011-10-15T07:00:00.000+01:00

Here's the third and final installment of Pink Week. :)

This is China Glaze Something Sweet. It was part of the Up and Away collection for Spring 2010, I actually bought all the pastels from the collection and I still love them now. They are starting to thicken a little now though, I'm gonna have to give in and get some thinner at some point. But if you want a pastel pink nail polish you can't go far wrong with this gloriously opaque one.

This is China Glaze Strawberry Fields. I can't quite remember when it came out, I think it was 2009's Summer Days collection? Regardless, it's just lovely! Quite a warm shade of pink full of gold sparkle (that's actually not too difficult to remove). Definitely very feminine and lovely :)

POW! RETINA ATTACK! This is OCC Anime. The neon-ness of this actually puts the Illamasqua neons from the last Pink Week post to shame, I think. This is shockingly bright, I LOVE it. I actually swatched it here over a white polish as it's horribly sheer on it's own - I'm going to talk a little bit more about that soon, promise :)

So that concludes Pink Week. It's still Pink Month, though, so if you have the time, money and inclination please consider donating to Breast Cancer Care.

Pink Week, Part II

2011-10-13T07:00:00.001+01:00

Here's part deux of Pink Week, featuring three awesome pink nail polishes from my all time favourite brand, Illamasqua.

This is Collide. BAM. NEON. IN-YO-FACE. What's not to love? I don't have a lot of neon colours because they always need so much building up. They often come in a jelly formula that should ideally be worn over a white base for best results to negate the need for a million and one coats, but amazingly this neon jelly is perfectly opaque with zero visible nail line after just two coats. Also, neons tend to dry down to quite a matte finish but this comes out super glossy, as you can see (all my pink week swatches are sans-topcoat, by the way).

This is Loella. Completely girly, and I love it. Definitely what I would describe as a baby pink. I used it as the base colour for this awesome leopard print manicure here. In the bottle, it has quite a noticeable but understated white-blue shimmer to it but it doesn't translate quite as well to the nails, and it doesn't really translate at all to photographs which is disappointing. It looks beautiful in real life, though - I urge you to try it if you can!

This one is Obsess. This was one of my earliest Illamasqua purchases - I think it was the fourth nail polish I bought by them. I absolutely love it. Almost neon and surprisingly dries less glossy that Collide, which is a lot more neon. I can't quite decide how to describe the shade, I'm not quite sure if I'd call it a magenta but it's definitely got purple tones to it. Mmmm.

Part three coming the day after tomorrow!

Pink Week, Part I

2011-10-11T07:00:00.001+01:00

Since we all know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the chances are that most of us either have been affected or know someone who has been affected by breast cancer, I thought I'd have a little bit of a Pink Week on the blog.

I spent one of my days off a couple of weeks ago swatching nine of my favourite pink nail polishes to show you - I hope you enjoy! I have to say it was difficult to narrow down, I have raaather a few pinks in my collection.

This is Zoya Reece, from the Spring 2010 Reverie collection. I promised I'd show you this one in my post about Adina from the same collection - and for once I've actually lived up to a promise on here haha. This is stupidly beautiful, when I wear it I just can't stop gawking at my nails. What's not to love about a pink-gold duochrome?

This is Essie Flawless. I think this was part of Essie's Spring 2010 collection, too. I've only got a couple of Essies, but I really like them. Nice opaque formula (at least on the ones I've got!) and a pleasant formula to work with. With it's muted cherry blossom hue, this, and Reece come to think of it, are probably the most 'grown up' pinks in my collection - most of the ones I own are very in-your-face and not what you'd call office friendly. This one, though, makes me feel very grown up and professional!

This is Inglot 938. I picked this one up at IMATS this year, and its probably my favourite of all the Inglot ones I got. Probably the darkest pink I own, it's just sexy. It has this glorious shimmer to it which almost shows up as blue in direct sunlight, but try as I might I just couldn't capture it on camera. It has an incredibly shiny finish, too. I always use a topcoat just for fast-drying purposes, but speaking in terms of finish this one doesn't need a topcoat to look it's best.

Look out for part II coming the day after tomorrow :)

Sunday Stumbles

2011-10-09T07:00:00.001+01:00

I'm quite the fan of typography, and this is just a whole new level of awesome!

Bizarre natural phenomenon alert! This hiking trail in Austria spends six months a year as a 10-foot lake! This is just amazing, take a look.

A collection of stunning long exposure photographs from Bragi J Ingibergsson.

Genuinely one of the best questions I've ever seen on Yahoo Answers. :D

Shit just got real! Those who use and/or are familiar with the interface of Photoshop will really appreciate the attention to detail in this.

I developed an admittedly unhealthy obsession with Churros during my time in America earlier in the year. They're very rare to come across in the UK, though, so this recipe for adorable little Churro Tots might be my saviour!

You'd be surprised at how easy the setup was for this trippy photo.

Give me this house. Now. I'll even learn French if I can have it.

Do you have any idea how easy it is to plant and grow your own freaking pineapple?! I don't even like pineapples but I so want to do this.

As a serious grammar Nazi, this definitely tickled me. :)

Kiko Makeup Milano

2011-10-07T07:00:00.001+01:00

Yeah, I recycled this photo from my Westfield post.. bad blogger!

Kiko Makeup Milano is an Italian cosmetics brand that has just opened its first UK store in Westfield Stratford City. When I popped in there on my first visit to Westfield, it was opening weekend and the place was heaving so I didn't have a proper look around like I wanted to. In fact, I let Colin pick out which few items I should pick up to try.

The products don't seem to have names, but the nail polish I got was number 300. Take a look!

An undeniably beautiful blue with a seriously shimmery finish. Up close it looks as though it has tiny microglitters in it - blue, green, silver. It's lovely! The formula was great, just the right consistency and really easy to work with. Slightly sheer, though - the above is three coats to cover any visible nail line. The brush is really nice to use too, it's a flat one - reminiscent of the OPI wide brush but skinnier. Which is good for me, because my nails are narrow so the OPI wide brush is always too big for my little fingernail! Haha. Either way, for £3.50 I have no complaints with the polish.

I did feel there was a little something missing, though, so I slapped on a coat of a polish that turns the average into the stunning. Inglot XL1, a no-nonsense sparkle-in-your-face topcoat. Now THAT is a good combination! It almost looks galactic :)

Now as much as I love blue nail polish, I very rarely wear blue on the eyes because my eyes are blue and I feel like it does nothing for them. But Colin loves blue eye makeup on me, so he chose the Colour Sphere eyeshadow in 36, a mineralised eyeshadow, along with the Long Lasting Stick eyeshadow in 18.

I probably would have picked up the stick of my own volition - they are just like MAC's Shadesticks but BETTER! These are softer, creamier (I always find the MAC ones get really hard and you have to warm them right up to get any even colour out of them) and just nicer to use. Shade 18 is a beautiful gunmetal grey packed with micro shimmer particles in all colours of the rainbow. SO pretty! The Colour Sphere eyeshadow, though, I definitely wouldn't have gone for myself for the simple reason that it's blue. Colin swatched it on my hand and I was like 'meh, it's alright', then I swatched it over the shadestick. PHWOAR!

Shadestick 18, eyeshadow 36, then the eyeshadow swatched over the shadestick

HOW pretty? Powerful shimmery blue goodness! I wasn't going to argue with the swatch, it was too sparkly and pretty. So I parted with £5.90 for the shadestick and £4.90 for the eyeshadow (I think). And I regret nothing!

A few days after buying them, I wore the eyeshadow over the shadestick (with another base of MAC Paint in Bare Canvas to minimise creasing), with a little matte black eyeshadow in the crease for a full on smokey eye. I really, really liked it actually! And after about 10 hours of wear (8 of which were spent in the hot kitchen at work) I'd experienced only minor creasing. Nothing that wasn't fixable with a quick smudge with my finger... come on, we ALL do that! What I found interesting though was that the shadestick claims on its packaging to deliver '8 hour no-transfer performance' - so it actually surpassed its own claims! And I'm always impressed when something holds up well in my work environment.

In short, I am thoroughly impressed with my first experience of Kiko. I'm definitely going back for more - I want to explore everything in the store! In fact, by the time this goes live I should already be in possession of more from the brand as I'm scheduling quite far in advance at the moment. So watch this space for more Italian goodness from Kiko Makeup Milano!

Have you tried Kiko?

Guest Post: Sophie's Sleek/PPQ Palette Review

2011-10-05T07:00:00.000+01:00

I was sent the new Sleek Makeup palette in collaboration with PPQ a few weeks ago now, but immediately upon opening I just knew the colours weren't my sort of thing. To save it sitting unused forever, I knew that Sophie from Me Love Makeup collects them - in fact I distinctly remember her buying the old discontinued Curious palette from me a couple of years ago! So I sent this new palette to Sophie, and she's kindly written a post about it for Do Not Refreeze :) thanks Sophie!

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That's right people, Sleek MakeUp have released yet another new palette. They seem to be releasing loads right now, I can't actually keep up!

So, first off, I want to thank Leanne for letting me do this review for her.

I'm a massive fan of Sleek MakeUp in general, but I love their palettes the most, and I collect them all. So I am always excited to add to my collection, and this new Limited Edition Palette is a welcome addition.

Sleek MakeUp have teamed up with PPQ to create this palette to go along with the PPQ S/S 2012 theme. The palette has an interesting mix of shades, not necessarily shades I would have put together, but I do like them all.

They have really quirky names for the colours too, from Chris De Burgundy to Lilac Allen. I like that they give the shades names, but I would prefer them to be printed on the back on the palettes, than being in an insert, because I normally always lose it.

The quality of the shadows is overall great, although a couple of the matte shades need to layered to get decent pay off. The shimmers though as soft, and so pigmented. I have done some swatches for you to see (sorry they're not the best, I'm not the best swatcher!)

So, Pink Beret and Supernova are the two matte shades that I'm talking about. They are quite sheer, but they are definitely buildable. It's quite an odd mix of shades for one palette, but I do think I will get use out of them all. I particularly love Primal Green and Blue Monday.

This palette was released on the 16th September, and is an online exclusive only, you can get yours here, priced £6.49. Remember, it's a Limited Edition.

Frontcover AW11 Collection

2011-10-03T07:00:00.001+01:00

Last Tuesday, I made the excessively long trek to Chiswick (seriously, furthest I've ever gone for an event before and will NOT be going that far again! Haha) to preview the new kits from Frontcover for their Autumn/Winter collection. There are a huge 14 new sets to choose from - although you may have trouble choosing just one!

The collection comprises of the following sets (click the names for product images - I didn't want to make this too pic heavy!)

:: Airkiss (£20)

The ultimate lipstick library with an array of shades in creamy and pearl textures

Contains a whopping 20 mini lipsticks, one nude lipliner pencil and a retractable lip brush

:: Come To Light (£10)

Essential tools... lip colour plus a mirror

Contains a desk mirror and a double ended lip product - a 'suits all' lip stain and sheer iridescent gloss.

:: Blue Eyed Girl (£12)

This season's colour story translated into the latest eye look combined with a flash of colour for the nails

Contains 3 'shot silk' eyeshadows (Frontcover's newest eyeshadow formula), the cult Shadowline (transforms any eyeshadow into a liquid eyeliner), a double ended mascara with blue and black, and a midnight blue nail polish.

:: Micro Rainbow Eyes (£12)

Frontcover's cult Rainbow Eyes made miniature!

Contains a palette of 9 baked eyeshadows - a miniature version of their very popular (but very bulky) Rainbow Eyes set from 2009 (I think), Shadowline and a metallic faux leather pouch.

:: Finger Print (£14)

This season's coolest nail polish shades plus gold glitter topcoat for endless possibilities

Contains 6 metallic/shimmer finish nail polishes, gold glitter topcoat and two dual-purpose nail files/buffers.

:: Eye Popping (£16)

Double layer compact with lenticular lid and mirror - showcases 3 fine line colour combinations for eyes and cheeks

The top layer contains a mirror and two fine line colour combinations for eyes, each featuring six colours so twelve eyeshadows total. The bottom layer houses one fine line colour combination for cheeks (or also eyes if you like), a flat cheek brush and an eyeshadow applicator.

:: Moondust (£16)

A collection of loose pigments and glitters in pots to create twinkly sumptuous looks

Contains 6 iridescent pigments, two holographic glitters, Shadowbase (Frontcover's awesome eye primer) and an applicator.

:: Top Drawer (£16)

Six chunky eye pencils in an array of textures - creamy, sparkly, metallic and glitter!

Contains six chunky eye pencils with one of four formulas; cream, metallic, shimmer or glitter, one slimline black kohl pencil and a dual-sized pencil sharpener.

:: Packing Case (£18)

Everything you need for eyes, lips and cheeks in one slimline box. Perfect for that weekend away or overnight stay

Contains 4 fineline baked eyeshadows, 4 fineline baked cheek (or eye, again) colours, translucent powder, double ended lipstain/gloss, double ended black mascara/sealer, black kohl pencil with smudger, mini tweezers, eyeshadow applicator, cheek brush and mirror. A serious amount of stuff for £18!

:: The Point Is Pink (£20)

Lashes and eyes have never looked like this before - endless combinations of effects from vamp to va va voom

Contains 'twinkling pink' fake lashes, mini black kohl pencil with smudger, lilac holographic glitter, 2 sparkle powders, double ended mascara in black/silver glitter, eye applicator, lash glue and lipstick.

:: Brush Work (£20)

Experiment with the art of nail decoration. Everything you need to be creative with nails

My personal favourite (naturally)! Contains 3 sets of nail wraps, three pots of different rhinestones (round silver, square silver, teardrop black) and a pot of silver stars, an orange stick, a thin nail art brush, 2 nail polishes and a clear topcoat, nail glue, a buffer/file, mini tweezers and mini scissors.

:: Gilt Edged (£25)

The ultimate party collection for golden girls... Glitter, shimmer and shine from your head to your toes

Contains a mini cosmetic bag, a shimmer stick (think NARS Multiples), a baked powder blush/bronzer/highlighter/whatever you want it to be, double ended lipgloss, double ended chunky eye pencil in gold and copper, one holographic glitter, one iridescent pigment, Shadowbase, an eye applicator and a cheek brush. All housed in one large makeup case!

:: A Billion Stars (£35)

A array of textural products for eyes. Experiment with NEW satin pressed eyeshadows, NEW shot silk eyeshadows, iridescent baked powder eyeshadows and luscious twinkle baked powder eyeshadows

Contains 4 satin pressed eyeshadows, 4 shot silk eyeshadows, 4 baked shadows, 4 twinkle baked shadows and an empty compact which any four of the shadows can be clicked into. Also contains 2 iridescent pigments, 1 holographic glitter, a pot of little silver stars, Shadowline, Shadowbase and lash glue.

:: Style Queen (£35)

The ultimate collection of timeless makeup essentials for eyes, lips and cheeks plus makeup artist tools to get the look

This is a big one! Contains 7 baked eyeshadows, 6 satin pressed eyeshadows, 6 lip colours/glosses (in pans), 2 baked cheek powders, double ended mascara/sealer, 2 iridescent pigments, Shadowline, 6 makeup brushes (actually really good quality!), mini lash curlers and dual-sized pencil sharpener. I would be happy for them to bump the price up to £40 on this one if it included Shadowbase as well!

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So as you can see, there's a pretty huge amount of offerings from Frontcover this season. I like the look of most of the sets as it happens - I would get Moondust if it wasn't for the fact that I can never be arsed with using loose pigments. I'm really quite tempted by the Style Queen set as it's packed full of really wearable shades and there's nothing in there that I wouldn't use, although the absence of Shadowbase is a little disappointing. You can buy Shadowbase separately in some Boots stores for £8, but I'd just like it in the kit. I chose Brush Work to take home with me (how could I not, really?), so you should be seeing a proper post on that one in the future!

Overall, I'm really impressed with the amount of work that Frontcover have put in this season. Naturally they make great Christmas gifts (since they're always in the Gifts section at Boots), and that means they're usually on 3 for 2 as well. So it would be rude not to try something!

I did take some pictures of my own at the event, but they're not great because they were taken on my phone (stupid blogger forgot her camera!), so I thought it would be better to use proper product images in the links above. But I have to show you this picture of the cupcakes at the event - HOW cool?

So, is there anything that Frontcover are tempting you with this season?

August/September Favourites

2011-10-01T07:00:00.001+01:00

I've actually been quite good with using different bits and pieces in my makeup stash over the last couple of months - you know, waking up 10 minutes earlier to actually get some eyeshadow on for a change, trying to cycle different blushes every day to get some use out of the obscene amount I own, that kinda thing. But the above products are the ones I've been coming back to most frequently!

:: Illamasqua Precision Ink eyeliners in Glister and Havoc - I've had Glister for a few months now, and it's got to be one of my most loved products EVER. It's what finally weaned me off of black eyeliner; I still love to wear black liner but I'm just completely in love with the soft, shimmering nude colour of Glister. It's perfect for mornings when I have to get ready in a hurry, it only takes me about 60 seconds to do both eyes because I don't have to be too super neat - if I make a little mistake with this it's not going to show like it would with black. Not that mistakes happen very often, because the brush on the product is so easy to work with. It's more of a spongey kinda tip than an actual brush. Anyway, this looks fabulous with no eyeshadow for just a hint of shimmer on the lashline. LOVE IT. It also looks frigging awesome when worn with a dark smokey eye, it really contrasts with deep shadows and just looks so different and fantastic. As for Havoc, it's helping me with the transition into autumn/winter makeup. A really deep aubergine shade, it's just beautiful. Adds darkness and drama to my makeup, but just a little more soft and a lot more interesting than plain black. Basically I just love Precision Inks.

:: Estee Lauder Pure Colour lipstick in Hint of Peach - Just a really beautiful lipstick. Not massively long lasting, but I don't mind too much because it's just really pretty (and I bought it in a blog sale so it's not like I paid full price for it, haha). It's really quite sheer on it's own, which imparts a pretty peachy toned sheen to the lips, but my favourite way to wear it is layered on top of MUFE's Rouge Artist Intense in number 39. The MUFE is a super pigmented peach colour, so the EL shade tones down the starkness and boldness of the MUFE whilst adding that classic Estee Lauder crystal shimmer finish. Laaavly!

:: MAC Pro Longwear Lipcreme in Dress It Up - They're not lying, it really does last an incredibly long time. I got this quite recently, about a month ago. It's from one of the newer collections, not even sure which (who can seriously be bothered to keep up with MAC LE collections these days?!). I think it might be Styledriver. Or Styledriven, whatever it's called. Regardless, I actually really like the product and I might pick up another shade or two if it's still about the next time I manage to hit a MAC store. Dress It Up isn't usually my sort of shade, it's quite 'bubblegum' for me and has definite purple tones to it. I normally try to avoid anything purple or lilac as it really makes the yellowness of my teeth stand out, but my teeth are actually getting a little whiter! My dentist prescribed me a toothpaste with a much higher flouride content than your usual (5000ppm vs 1000-1350ppm in normal toothpastes). So yeah, that's making my teeth look a whole ton better so I feel like I can actually get away with shades like this now!

:: Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in shade 28705 - Guhh I wish MUFE products had names instead of numbers, don't you? Anyway, I completely love this. I am a huge fan of cream products for the eyes that genuinely don't crease - MAC Paints, BeneFit Creaseless Creams and the like. This badboy has given me serious lust for more Aqua Creams! The formula is just amazing - bouncy, soft and just wonderful. It lasts ALL day without a single crease showing up, and that's on its own without an eye primer or even with any eyeshadow over the top to set it. I love to just wear a slick of this on its own, the peachy tone compliments my blue eyes fantastically. I like to apply just a sheer wash of the colour with my fingertips, but the colour can easily be built up and layered for a more intense look.

:: Sleek MakeUP New Skin Revive foundation in Oyster - I actually gave this a proper review back in May, so rather than regurgitating my words too much here you should probably check that out. I almost exclusively wore ELF Studio's tinted moisturiser throughout the summer, but now we're moving into autumn I'm favouring a little more coverage on my face. There's nothing I don't like about this foundation, so please take a look at the thorough review!

Top - Sleek New Skin Revive, MUFE 28705
Middle - Estee Lauder Hint of Peach, MAC Dress It Up
Bottom - Illamasqua Glister and Havoc

What have your most used products been recently?

Polishgasm: Zoya Adina

2011-09-29T07:00:00.000+01:00

Oh Adina, y u so beautiful? ;_;

Zoya's Adina was part of the Reverie collection, released for Spring/Summer 2010. It's a pretty awesome collection as it happens; I only own one other from it, Reece, I'll definitely be showing you that soon too. Massive thanks for this go to Kitty for including this in our swap!

Sorry about the faint sheet-marks in the above photo (bad blogger didn't wait long enough after painting before going to bed), and also the nasty peeling that is evident on my index and middle fingers. These pictures are a couple of weeks old, the peeling is getting better now thankfully.

BUT ANYWAY. Just frigging look at the polish.

Purple. Green. Duochrome. Opaque, nearly a one coater. GUUHHH. Awesome.

The only slight little niggle I have with Zoya is the brush - it's so tiny and stumpy. But that's a small price to pay for such great polishes.

As with any post that has 'Polishgasm' in the title, I don't need to say a lot. The pictures speak for themselves.

PHWWOOOARRR.

BuyaPowa.com - We're In This Together!

2011-09-27T20:20:00.000+01:00

This is NOT a sponsored post. I just think this a brilliant concept! Stay with me, please read it - this could be such a cool thing for us as a community!

Edit: I had scheduled this post for tomorrow morning, but I just had to put it up now because the current co-buy is for the BeneFit Smokey Eyes kit. How relevant! To learn about co-buys, read on!

You may have already heard of BuyaPowa.com - Charlotte (Lipglossiping) blogged about the site a few weeks back. That was where I first heard of it, but for those who aren't familiar, I am very excited to introduce you to BuyaPowa and their invention of 'co-buys'!

Let's break this down. BuyaPowa are a site that bring us, the average everyday consumer, the bulk-buy discounts that retailers receive. This isn't an entirely original concept - there's plenty of group buying websites already that offer large discounts (think Wahanda mobdeals and Groupon offers and the like). BuyaPowa do things a little differently, though. Let's look at how:

:: The more people join a 'co-buy', the lower the final price becomes. This is what's fundamentally different about BuyaPowa when compared with other group buying sites.

:: BuyaPowa's co-buys are focused on physical products, rather than other group buying sites which more often than not tend to offer experiences and spa days and what have you.

:: There is no limit on what co-buys BuyaPowa can offer. You and I will mostly be interested in their beauty related co-buys (which they are trying to make a really big part of the site, hence reaching out to bloggers), but if you're in the market for almost anything BuyaPowa could be great for you.

:: You can request co-buys! If there's something you want, but don't want to pay the RRP for, you can simply request it on BuyaPowa and if enough people on the site back up your suggestion, the BuyaPowa team can begin the process of hunting down the particular item and setting it up as a co-buy.

:: And, potentially one of the coolest things (and biggest incentives) - the person who brings the most fellow buyers to a co-buy receives the product for free!

Now, let me explain how the 'prices drop as people shop' thing works. There are three price drops, and the obvious goal is to get enough people to join the co-buy that the third price drop (and therefore the lowest price) can be achieved. Typically, there will be 100 units of each product to be sold. If between 1 and 24 people join the co-buy, they will pay BuyaPowa's starting price for the item (which is already lower than RRP). Once more than 25 people join, the price will drop some. At 50 people, it will drop again. At 75 people (up to 100 when the items sells out), the third price drop will happen and everybody receives the product at BuyaPowa's best price. A good beauty-related example of this is the new Nails Inc magnetic polish that was offered as a BuyaPowa co-buy a few days ago. The RRP for those is £13; BuyaPowa's starting price was £10, and the best price was at £7.

Are you starting to see how AWESOME this could be for the online beauty community? Imagine a product that caused a storm upon release, that everybody wanted but wasn't necessarily a reasonable price. Now imagine if we had BuyaPowa.com when that product came out!

This is what could happen, if we all worked together on this:

Product is released and everyone is very excited. One smart cookie puts in a request on BuyaPowa for a co-buy on that product. That smart cookie tweets/blogs/facebooks about the request, that person's readers spread the word further, and everybody supports her request on the BuyaPowa site. BuyaPowa see how badly people want this product, and approach the supplier to set up a co-buy. Co-buy goes live, and we all spread the word again (thank you social networking), bundle in on the co-buy and receive it for somewhere around 50% off the RRP! And don't forget, the person who brings in the most fellow buyers receives their product for free!

There's a short video on the site which briefly summarises the concept of co-buys, if you want to take a look.

Aside from introducing the concept of the site to you, the other purpose of this post was to ask you all some questions that might help the BuyaPowa team offer us exactly what we want. I would be exceptionally grateful if you could find the time to answer even just one of these questions, as I'm really excited by the idea of co-buying and suddenly want EVERYTHING at BuyaPowa's best price!

1. Would you be at all interested in buying products in this way? We'd be strengthening our little community, and getting much-wanted products for great prices!

2. What sort of products would you like to see in co-buys? Remember, you have the potential to request anything on BuyaPowa, not just beauty products.

3. Do you think this would work really well within our community, or do you see it falling a little flat? I'm interested in the opinions of those less optimistic than me, too!

4. What hideously overpriced products would excite you most to see in a co-buy?

5. Think of one specific product you'd like to see on BuyaPowa and would definitely participate in a co-buy for. Then, once you've answered that, hop off to the site and request it so we can all support it and start shopping together for bargains!

Time For An Upgrade

2011-09-27T07:00:00.001+01:00

When your constant purchasing causes your nail polish collection to grow exponentially, the time will inevitably come when you literally run out of space for everything. This is what happened to me! The drawers above used to fit all the nail stuff I owned six months ago, but it got to the point where I just couldn't fit any more in. I'd been wanting to buy an IKEA Helmer for quite some time, and seeing these 40-odd homeless polishes on top of my old drawers (despite getting rid of a LOT of polishes this year) should have given me the push I needed, but I just procrastinate terribly with things like this. Luckily though, I have an exceptionally thoughtful boyfriend who ordered one for me! Thank you Colin ♥

I must admit I had a little internal panic when I took everything out of its flat-pack box and realised that I've never had to build or assemble anything before. Despite that, I managed to do the WHOLE thing, ALL by myself, with NO help from my dad (I think he was quite disappointed that I didn't ask him for help actually, haha), all in about an hour and fifteen minutes. I must say I was rather impressed with myself!

And here's my new baby in pride of place next to my desk. It fits perfectly underneath, I think it was meant to be. I'm completely in love and I want to buy twenty more Helmers and keep my entire life in them! And I've managed to fill three drawers with polish, and I've also devoted the top drawer to things that are normally strewn across my desk making a mess, so it's made me a little more organised. This means I've still got two more drawers to fill up with nail polish - I've kept all my nail art supplies in the old storage drawers which will probably eventually be used for spillover when the Helmer gets full.

The top drawer for stuff that I use on a daily basis. Notepad and pens, everyday makeup, Batiste, cuticle oil, that sort of stuff.

Drawer number two - Base and top coats, Illamasqua, Orly, Nubar, Barry M and all brands of glitters and crackles.

Three - China Glaze, Zoya, two lonely Deborah Lippmann ones, Milani, Pure Ice, Inglot, Hard Candy, Essie, Models Own, Accessorize, Nails Inc, Eyeko, GOSH, and a few more dtugstore ones.

Aaand number four - LA Colors, OPI, Sinful Colors, OCC, Color Club, and loads of other drugstore stuff from all over the world! Haha I actually really like this drawer, there's a lot of stuff I've acquired in swaps in this one. I like looking at them and thinking of the different countries they've come to me from!

So that's my wonderful sexy new Helmer. I really do want a million more! What do you store your nail polish in?

Sunday Stumbles

2011-09-25T07:00:00.001+01:00

This moving series of images by Tom Hussey doesn't need words, just look at them. I LOVE them!

A beautiful collection of unobstructed sunrises and sunsets captured by Eric Cahan

The title of this webpage is 'Best wedding pictures ever'. They really are, I shit you not! Look through the whole lot - so fun :)

A true 'wish you were here' shot if there ever was one. England's getting cold now, I want to be wherever THAT is! From the URL I gather somewhere in the Maldives.

I thought this was amusing and thought provoking! View full size :)

A lot of you have probably seen these hand animals before, but they're always cool to look at!

This fascinating 'Family Tree' series by Bobby Neel Adams is completely Photoshop-free - portrait photographs of immediate relatives are physically torn and glued together to explore visual DNA between generations. Amazing stuff!

I'm quite the fan of cherry blossom (in fact the background on my phone is of cherry blossom!), here's a pretty collection of different cherry blossom photos :)

This page of jaw-dropping undead SFX makeup immediately made me think of Lily! Not for the squeamish, probably!

P.S. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm trying to get back into my old every-other-day posting schedule. I felt like every 3 days just wasn't enough for all the crap I want to ramble about... I just hope I can keep it up!

Guest Post: Aisling's KISS Nail Art Review

2011-09-23T07:00:00.000+01:00

The wonderful Aisling from Fashion Closet Lover very kindly agreed to review these KISS Nail Art polishes for all of you, and has also included a tutorial! I hope you enjoy this awesome review-come-tutorial :)

**********

Hi everyone, it's Aisling from Fashion Closet Lover and I'm here on Leanne's blog to review some KISS Nail Art Paints for her. I will warn you now that I am nowhere near as talented as Leanne when it comes to nail art designs so bear with me please! I thought to fully test out the paints I would show you a quick, and fairly easy, tutorial for some snakeskin effect nails!

The colours paints I used; (L-R) Black, Silver, Silver Glitter, Pearl White and White.

To start off this design I used a grey nail polish, I used Barry M's 293 but you can use any grey that you have to hand. Obviously use as many coats as you need to get a solid colour, I think it took me about 3 coats to get this results. As is usual with Barry M polishes! You then need to let this set properly, as it will be more difficult to do the design if your nails are a bit tacky. I think I let my nails dry for 4 hours, went off and did something else, but if you can I would recommend painting your base the night before. Then when you wake up you know they are properly dry.

I then used a cosmetics sponge and a small amount of the Pearl White colour to create a light coverage over the base colour. The messier you are with this the better as you're trying to recreate a snakeskin effect, the nails don't have to match either as you want a natural look.

I also used the White paint to do a slightly different nail, or a ring finger accent nail if you like. The great thing about doing this kind of effect with a sponge is that it dries really quickly meaning that you can move on to the next step fairly quickly. Using the paints to get a small amount of the sponge was really easy, as there is such a small brush you can control the amount that goes on the sponge. This is important as you don't want too much on the sponge, also it means you don't waste too much which is always a bonus.

For the next step, I used the Silver Glitter and Pearl White paints to do various lines and blobsto add another dimension to the look. Again, you don't need to be perfect with this, get your create juices flowing and do different patterns of each nail. Although I found this quite easy to do with the small brush, sometimes it did go everywhere on my finger. Hello nicely painted fingers! I think this is because the length of the brushes, as you're holding it right at the top, it's hard to control, especially when using your non-writing hand.

As you can see the brush is quite long, especially when you compare the control to a nail art pen (with a nib instead of a brush).

Please excuse the messiness fingers in this photo, you can see what I mean about sometimes losing control of the brush...

Anyway, the next step is drawing on the 'scales' of the skin using the Black paint. You do this by drawing semi-circles or 'c's in a repetitive pattern. You want the start the line of the next row halfway through the arch of the last row. I hope you can see what I mean from the photo.

And volia! The finished, and very cleaned up, product. Once the black lines had finished drying, I put a top coat on to protect the design.

Overall, I think these paints are quite good to use. Although you do have to have a really steady hand, something I don't really possess! It too me a really long time to do the scale details, and I had to correct a few mistakes. For the less detailed parts the paints were easy to use, so I think it really depends on the type of design that you want to do. And whether you're more skilled artist than I am!

I hope you liked the review and the design, thank you to Leanne for sending these to me to play around with!

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I LOVE snakeskin! Thanks so much for this Aisling :)

Hello Westfield!

2011-09-21T07:00:00.000+01:00

Oh my god, you have NO IDEA how long I've been waiting for the new Westfield Stratford City to open. I've been watching closely as the 2012 Olympic site and Westfield have been constructed from the ground up over the last couple of years, and I have been patient but VERY excited about the opening of Westfield for what feels like so long now. You see I'd always been quite a fan of the Westfield shopping centre at Shepherd's Bush but it's quite a trek for me so I could hardly ever be bothered to go, whereas the new Stratford City centre is literally 10 minutes from Colin's house. HOW perfect?

Anyway, I finally got to go over the weekend. Oh my god it was absolutely HEAVING, especially with The Look Show going on too. Despite it reportedly being Europe's biggest urban mall, you would scarcely believe how much of a squeeze it was in there what with it being the opening weekend. For that reason Colin and I didn't stay too long on this trip (I lose my temper with crowds very easily), but my word I absolutely LOVE it. I'm looking forward to going back already.

This is Beauty Base, stocking heavily discounted fragrances and LA Colours cosmetics - myriad nail polishes at 99p each!

Few bits I picked up in Beauty Base, the mini sets were £2.99 each

A distinctly blue-themed handful of items I picked up from a makeup store called Kiko. I've never heard of it myself, but a quick Google tells me it's an Italian brand. We'll see how I get on - hopefully very well, because the prices were great!

Non beauty related, but there is genuinely a Lego store. COOL.

Anyway, if you can deal with large crowds then I suggest you go there as soon as you possibly can, you won't regret it! And if you hate crowds, then I suggest you definitely go in a few weeks time when the hype has died down a little bit.

Seriously though, this is like the epitome of the regeneration of East London. If you're an eastender and you're used to the area, I bet you'll feel like you're somewhere else. It didn't even feel like England, let alone Stratford! It's just so swish and awesome.

The Superdrug isn't huge, but it's very nicely presented (and is also currently the exclusive carrier of Look magazine's new cosmetic range), and the Boots is pretty big with plenty of good makeup counters. I only glanced in John Lewis and noticed Bobbi Brown in there, but I'm sure not sure about what other beauty brands you'll find in there. There is the obligatory Lush and The Body Shop, along with L'Occitane, Neal's Yard, Keihl's, As Nature Intended, a MAC store opening soon and quite a few more including Beauty Base and Kiko as mentioned before. There's a good selection of makeup and beauty stores - the only things I wish for are The Makeup Store and Inglot like Shepherd's Bush have got! But there's nothing to complain about on this front really.

As far as fashion and footwear go, there's a huge amount to choose from. The obvious Primark, H&M, Topshop, New Look, River Island, Dorothy Perkins, GAP... there's also a Forever 21, Guess, Esprit, Hollister, Next, Republic, Tommy Hilfiger, True Religion, Miss Seldrige... there's a whole ton more but that's all the ones I can remember off the top of my head. As for footwear, I definitely saw Dune, Office, Nine West, Kurt Geiger, Linzi, Dr Martens, Russell & Bromley, Skechers and Vans (Vans opens on Sat 24th). Again I'm certain there's a LOT more than that - I was amazed at the amount of footwear shops actually - but those are the only ones I can remember off the top of my head again.

I'm hoping that Colin and I can eat there next time we go - it was far too busy last weekend but there's masses of eating choices too, from little stands in the precincts (cupcakes, pretzels, Millies Cookies, gelato, Krispy Kreme), to grab-and-go outlets like Pret and stuff (there was also a smoked salmon place - MUST try that), right the way to proper dining areas with Nandos, Wagamamas, TGI Fridays and more. I swear there must be about a hundred different food establishments within Westfield. Oh, and there's a champagne bar too!

It doesn't stop there, either - there's a 17 screen Vue cinema and All Star Lanes bowling, both open now, and Aspers Casino opening in December. If you're a natural born shopper (which you probably are if you're a blogger or a blog reader!) then GET YOURSELF TO WESTFIELD STRATFORD CITY. Right now. You won't regret it!

Easy Peasy Nail Design - Tips with a Twist pt1

2011-09-19T07:00:00.000+01:00

I call this 'part one' because I intend to do a good handful (har har) of different tip designs for you. I call it 'Tips with a Twist' when most people would call it 'Funky French' because frankly, I completely abhor the word funky..

Anyway! Let's get on with it. This is SERIOUSLY frigging easy, potentially the easiest Easy Peasy I've ever posted. Ever. You don't even need any tools apart from an unused eyeshadow applicator!

Start out with a clear basecoat. If you have nasty yellow stained nails like I do, you might consider a coat of a sheer pink or something to slightly disguise it (I applied a coat of Bourjois' Rose Lounge). Now paint in your tips in whatever colour you choose - this is Illamasqua's Collide. If you're rubbish at painting your tips in freehand, this is really not a design where that needs to concern you! The edge will be covered up, so it doesn't matter. Don't bother wasting tip guide stickers or anything on this, it honestly doesn't matter if it's messy at this point.

Consider the colour of glitter you are going to use and grab an opaque polish of the same hue - I'm using a silver glitter, so my next step is to sponge on some plain silver polish (Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes) over the join between my tips and the rest of the nail. If your tips are impeccably neat, though, this step is pretty much optional as it mainly just disguises any messiness of the tips that might show through the glitter.

Now, sponge on your chosen glitter polish! This is Models Own's Juicy Jules. You would not believe the bloody hassle I had with this polish, I'll tell you all about that in a minute! Concentrate the majority of the glitter on the join between the tips and rest of the nails, but also bring it down a little so there's a few sparse flecks of glitter further down the nail, and the same thing on the tips themselves.

That's literally it, so go ahead and apply a topcoat, clean up the edges et voila!

There are SO many colours that this design would work with. Any sort of bright colour would look great, and black tips would look especially awesome I think. Or how about giving it a go with a rainbow of different polishes across the nails? Please give it a go, it's such an easy one :)

So before I go, let me tell you about my Models Own debacle! I ordered a few polishes from them in their recent 50% off sale. The first time I made the order, I got an email saying that Paypal had withdrawn the payment, but I got no order confirmation from Models Own. I emailed them about it, and a few days later they refunded me in full and said that my order didn't go through properly. Fair enough, the servers were getting quite a pounding. So I ordered again, order confirmation arrived fine. TEN days later I'd received no shipping notification, which I thought was taking the piss a bit so I emailed them again. 'Oh your order is still being processed and you'll get an email when it's shipped, make sure it's not in your spam folder' - I'm not stupid.

Anyway, it eventually arrived and I'd had this design in mind for a while but was waiting on one of my new purchases, Juicy Jules, before I went ahead and did it. So imagine my absolute FURY when, after painting my tips and sponging on my silver, I cracked open my brand new bottle to find... no brush. Really. I was frigging fuming, it just felt like rubbing salt in the wound after I'd had such a hassle just getting the damn thing. I decided I'd email them to ask for a replacement, but in the meantime I needed to finish my manicure! So I just decided to stick the eyeshadow applicator into the bottle since I was only going to be sponging with it this time anyway. Shockingly enough (or maybe not so much given this whole saga), the consistency of the polish was like treacle. I shit you not. I was determined to finish my nails, so I sponged it on with difficulty.

Seriously though, Models Own, no bueno! I doubt you'll be receiving my custom again.

P.S. I'm still going to do my Stumbles posts, I've just decided to make them fortnightly instead of weekly :) thanks for the good response on it!

Famous by Sue Moxley - Half Price!

2011-09-16T07:00:00.000+01:00

On a day out with some lovely bloggers recently, I picked up some products that I definitely didn't plan on.

I'd never tried the Famous by Sue Moxley brand before. I remember in my first year at college they had a stand in the nearby Superdrug, but the palettes were about £14 and whilst I loved the look of them I was only just starting to get into makeup so it was a little out of my price range. Then the stand just disappeared from that Superdrug, and I could never find it in any other Superdrugs near me. In fact, I don't even remember it being in this Superdrug on Oxford Street (the Marble Arch one) last time I went in there either!

Having said that, I don't know if the range is being discontinued or something but everything on the stand was half price. Naturally that meant that most of the stand was empty - I probably would have picked up a lot more if it wasn't all sold out! But here's a look at the few bits I did get.

I picked up the Star Studded liquid eyeliner in silver, the Shimmer Brick in Pink (as if they couldn't even be bothered to give it a different name than the Bobbi Brown original? haha), and two of the Eye Collection palettes in Cafe Culture and Shooting Star. I can't remember exactly how much everything cost now, but the palettes were definitely £4.50 each down from £9, and I think the liner and highlighter were about £2.25 each.

So, swatches!

Top - Star Studded liner in silver, Shimmer Brick in pink
Middle - Eye Collection: Cafe Culture
Bottom - Eye Collection: Shooting Star

Okay, so the eyeliner is pretty pants straight off the bat. I didn't swatch this before I bought it as there was no tester available, but I figured I'd give it a go as it was so cheap. You can build up a reasonable level of opacity with it if you go for a few layers, but I'm probably too impatient for that. I can't comment on wear time or anything as I've not even bothered using this yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

The shimmer brick is nice, but nothing too special. The swatch doesn't do it much justice, it has a lovely golden shift to it but it's really not much different from other highlighters I have.

I quite like the palettes, but they do have their faults. They are pretty nicely pigmented as drugstore shadows go, but they're certainly not the high quality of Sleek MakeUP which I've come to think of as my benchmark for drugstore eye colours. The texture is a bit funny on them, though, they are quite loosely packed and they're almost kind of... flaky? If you get what I mean. If you use these you will DEFINITELY experience fallout, so I would suggest doing your eyes before your foundation. I am impressed with the blendability (that's SO not a real word) and the longevity of them, though. Below is an EOTD with the Cafe Culture palette, which I applied over a base of MAC Paint in Bare Canvas and the shadows lasted all day at work with no fading and only very minor creasing by the time I took my makeup off at about 10pm (which is when these pictures were taken).

And here's another EOTD with Shooting Star - and for anyone who's interested, the eyeliner is Illamasqua's Glister from the Toxic Nature collection; I think it offsets a dark eyeshadow look SO well!

Sorry about the crap image quality on those, my heinous excuse for a camera isn't very good at Macro mode, particularly with flash on.

Generally speaking, from my small taster of the brand in these few products, I have to say that overall it's nothing to get too excited about. Although, it's definitely worth snapping up a couple of the eyeshadow palettes if you see it half price. Personally I don't think the palettes are worth their RRP of £9 but I'd be happy to pay £4.50 for a couple more!

Have you tried much from Famous by Sue Moxley?

Easy Peasy Nail Design - Cityscape

2011-09-13T07:00:00.002+01:00

Not gonna lie, I totally and shamelessly pinched this design from Calee Loves Nails on Tumblr. I saw her picture and immediately knew I had to give it a go myself, but it didn't look nearly as good as hers so I decided to outline the buildings and add little windows to them with silver. Either way, since I took pictures of each stage as I was doing it, I figured it's about time I did another Easy Peasy post so here you go!

Start off with your chosen base colour - this would look great with most colours really! I'd like to try again with a navy, or dark purple or something. This one is Illamasqua's Vice.

This step is completely optional, but I just wanted to add a little extra interest to the background colour, to try and make it look a bit more 'cloudy' if you like. I just sponged on a little bit of Pure Ice's Twinkle, a sheer peach shimmer.

Once your base colour is dry, use a black nail art pen/liquid liner/whatever you use to mark the outlines of where your buildings are going to go. I decided to do this before adding the glitter just to make sure I didn't get glitter in the areas where I wanted to add buildings, if you see what I mean. Apologies for the blur in this one, it looked sharp on my camera LCD but apparently not when I got it onto the computer!

Now go ahead and add your glitter! I used BYS's Kinky Pink as it has a sheer base with multiple sizes of glitters including those big sexy hex glitters to act as stars. If you don't have a polish like this, you can of course improvise and apply large hex glitters by hand to a base of clear polish (to make it stick), or you could use rhinestones, or even just paint in your own stars with silver or gold polish and a dotting tool or similar.

The next step is to fill in your building outlines with a black polish. I stupidly didn't take a picture at that stage, but it just didn't look right because I didn't leave small gaps between the buildings like the original artist did. To save it and make it more obvious what it was supposed to be, I just outlined the buildings with a silver nail art pen and added in little windows.

And that's pretty much it! I hope you enjoyed, sorry, I'm a bit rusty with this whole tutorial lark :)

Saturday Stumbles

2011-09-10T07:00:00.001+01:00

So you know I've been pretty terrible at posting recently, right? I've decided the time is right for me to start posting about stuff other than makeup and nails every now and again. My main trouble with posting is that I need a good few hours to do a decent makeup/nails post, and I just don't have that most of the time! I toyed with the idea of doing a weekly Someday Summary like many bloggers do, but I recently discovered StumbleUpon so instead decided to compile a list of the best things I've Stumbled Upon during the week. Stumbled Upon... or StumbleUponed?

Either way, please let me know in the comments if you like these sorts of posts or you'd rather I shut up and stick to my usual junk. I promise I won't be offended!

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I challenge you not to physically salivate at this mouth-watering recipe for Red Velvet Crepes. Mmmm...

As much as I love my iPod, I am not a lover of Apple in general. Click the picture or this link for hilarity!

Everyone loves a good sunset photo, and I think this one is particularly beautiful. Click the picture for source.

I would LOVE to see something like this on Grand Designs, wouldn't you? Click the photo or this link for an awesome collection of underground homes.

An amusing compilation of distinctive musicians' haircuts. Very entertaining to look through! (Click for larger)

Collection of 100 amazing photographs taken from aeroplane windows. Your jaw will hang open!

I'd seen a few of these before, but I just love how creative they are. Trick photography with album covers!

The baking aficionados among you will LOVE this awesome technique for swirled icing!

'Life's too short for the wrong job' - this is a German ad campaign which I completely admire. Click the pic or link for similar!

And finally, I'll leave you drooling again with this recipe for chocolate chip cookie dough truffles... How freaking good does that sound right now?!

So, should I keep on Stumbling? Or just stick to my usual?

Welcome to the Theatre of the Nameless

2011-09-07T07:00:00.001+01:00

First of all, I'm really sorry for missing my posting schedule AGAIN. I've been exceptionally busy lately, I'm trying really hard to get back into my routine. Sorry :(

Secondly, I would frankly be astounded if you haven't yet seen any posts about Illamasqua's new Autumn Winter collection, Theatre of the Nameless. I'm not going to talk too much about the collection's story and whatnot, because I have to be honest with you I'm not a great lover of it. You all know I LOVE Illamasqua, they are hands down my favourite brand of all time, but I can't help but feel that the story behind this collection glorifies prostitution. I'm certainly not a prude (if you know me, you know that!) but that's just how I feel about this one.

Regardless, I can just not pay attention to the story and just enjoy the promo images and products, which are astounding as always. I'm afraid I couldn't get any decent product photos at the event because the lighting at the venue wasn't conducive to good pictures :( I do have swatches of all the products, though - but apologies again, because I swatched every product on my hand before leaving the event so I could take a photo outside in the natural light, but I only went and smudged a coupe of them when I put my coat on... even so, you get the idea :) Oh, and I should mention that the collection also includes the new Masquara and two new pairs of lashes, but naturally I can't swatch those ;)

1. Shimmer Blusher in Morale
2. Shimmer Blusher in Ambition
3. Cream Pigment in Androgen
4. Cream Pigment in Depravity
5. Pure Pigment in Zeitgeist
6. Pure Pigment in Berber
7. Pure Pigment in Beguile
8. Intense Lipgloss in Facade
9. Sheer Lipgloss in Violate
10. Intense Lipgloss in Belladonna (online exclusive)
11. Lipstick in Kontrol
12. Precision Ink in Havoc

I must say, I was quite intrigued by the Shimmer Blushers - a first from Illamasqua, with all their previous blush offerings being matte. Also, I could be wrong but I think this is the first time any blushes have been included as part of a collection, I believe all their others are part of the core range. I am also interested in getting my hands on Androgen cream pigment to use as a blush and lip colour, but I could take or leave Depravity.

I also really liked all three of the Pure Pigments. Zeitgeist reminded me of Android from the A/W09 Dystopia collection but with much less shimmer particles. Berber is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, so rich in its auburn colour and just amazing to look at - I was thrilled to discover this one in my gift bag. I can't wait to try it paired with Resolute liquid metal from the A/W10 Art of Darkness collection :D. Beguile also has a cousin from the Dystopia collection - remember Static? This is very much like that, but without the blue/purple/pink reflects. Beguile was designed to look like water, and it almost really does in the right lighting!

I'm passing on all the lip products, none of them are really for me. Belladonna is a beautiful colour, though. The Precision Ink in Havoc is another story, though - the moment I saw it I had to have it, so imagine my delight when Kim swapped it with me for Kontrol lipstick ;D. I bought the Precision Ink in Glister early on in the summer and it has quickly become a holy grail product for me, so I'm really excited about having another colour to play with. It looks almost black in my swatch above, but in reality it's a gorgeous aubergine shade.

1. Nail Polish in Taint
2. Nail Polish in Kink
3. Nail Polish in Vice
4. Nail Polish in Faux Pas

Ahhh, nail polish. I love you. I like all of these - even Taint, which I thought I'd hate when I first saw it. Vice is my favourite though, how beautiful is that? And luckily enough, it showed up in my gift bag! You must have heard of these 'rubber look' nail polishes before. The finish on them hovers somewhere between matte and glossy, it looks almost like candle wax. Although, as with any polishes that have a matte or semi-matte finish to them, they will lose that finish over a few days on the nails. I lazily wore these swatches for 4 days and by the time I removed them they looked like just a normal creme finish polish. So yeah, I definitely really like these but I have just one pedantic little complaint. These polishes feature a rubber lid to allude to the finish of the polish, which is a nice touch admittedly. But I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to Illamasqua polish, and it's going to get on my nerves that my bottle of Vice doesn't match the rest of them! Haha.

So yes, there's swatches and my thoughts on the new products - is anything catching your eye? I'll leave you with my two favourite promo images from the collection; I MUST get around to recreating those corset nails!

The Theatre of the Nameless collection is available online now, and on counters nationwide from tomorrow!

Loella's Leopard Print

2011-09-03T07:00:00.000+01:00

Haven't done a good leopard print manicure in a while, so here you go! I am absolutely in LOVE with the base colour. It's Illamasqua's Loella, a new addition to my collection - I have quite a few of them now :) it's such a beautiful girly pink.

The spots were done with GOSH Holographic. I like using this polish for accents in nail designs because I love the way it looks but just can't bear to wear it over the whole nail because of its terrible wear... it holds up better like this! Not that you can see it very well in any of these pictures, but take my word for it that it looked fantastic in direct sunlight.

I used a Nails Supreme nail art pen to outline the spots, and when you look you can tell I hadn't used it for a while and hadn't shaken it properly before using it this time! The lines on the thumb and index nails are much thicker and look more diluted, but by the time I'd moved onto the middle nail the polish was better mixed together. It wasn't really noticeable in real life though, so never mind!

So yeah, not much else to say - just thought I could do with a leopard print mani to offset my new layout :)

Guest Post: Mel's Nailene Nail Tabs Review

2011-08-31T07:00:00.000+01:00

Hello! I'm sorry I'm a couple of days behind my posting schedule. I was supposed to be off work over the bank holiday weekend but I had to work at the last minute all three days so I haven't had a chance to get on!

Today I have a guest post kindly written by the gorgeous Mel. Mel lives really close to me, actually - big up Essex bloggers yeah? ;D (I kid I kid...). Anyway, here's Mel!

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I volunteered to do a guest post for the lovely Leanne and so she sent me a couple of bits in the post with some great headed letter paper (Sorry couldn’t resist!!) to review.

I love nail products, especially varnish but am open to trying new things and was pleasantly surprised when I saw these Nailene Nail Studio Nails and Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs. Last time I think I ever tried false nails was when I was about 16 so I’m sure things have come a long way since then and that was using nail glue!

Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs take the pain out of gluing with false nails! In fact they save a lot of time and mess and in my opinion are much more gently to you real nails underneath! They guarantee that they will last up to 5 days when you use them; they are also easy to put on and remove after.
I was quite interested by these as I have very weak nails at present from removing my acrylic nails and am trying to get them back to peak condition. The thought of using something that is non-damaging to my nails is appealing.
The best way to describe Nailene Ultra Adhesive tabs is they are like double sided bits of tape but a little thicker. The tabs are transparent pink so you won’t see them under colored false nails nor under the French white tips I will be using in this review.

Nailene Nail Studio Nails are good quality nails that feel quite strong without being super thick and fake looking. The ones I am using are French white tips and are short so they don’t look like talons! I really liked the look of the nails firstly, as they did look quite natural but also as I’d never tried a Nailene product and had heard good things about them.
In the false nails pack you have a selection of different size nails. You also have an emery board (nail file) but this is namely for use when you are using nail glue and not tabs. I tend to go through the pack (Much like when I am doing nail tips) and choose which nail matches mine for size (width) and put them aside in order so I can apply them quicker.

This nail system is very easy to apply; you look at the tabs and choose one that is closest to your nail width.

Take the tab off of the backing paper either with your fingers or some tweezers and apply it to your nail as close to the nail bed as possible.

Smooth it out so there is no air bubbles with your finger and then apply the false nail and press firmly. Repeat this process for each nail.
Voila you have perfect looking nails that look natural and beautiful!

When you are fed up with your nails, or maybe have lost a few and want to remove them it’s so much easier than if you have used nail glue! Just gently push the false nail down your nail, remove it and then peel any glue that is left behind off with your fingers. If you do have some residue still you can easily remove this with nail varnish remover. You now have your original nails in EXACTLY the same condition as they were before!

These Nailene False Nails should last up to 5 days when using the Nailene Ultra Adhesive Tabs. I found it was 3 days before I lost my thumb nails as they slid off. I will be honest and say I wasn’t careful with them and did all the normal things I usually do; housework, washing up, cleaning, playing with the kids etc. Every one commented on how natural they looked and it wasn’t till I said they were false nails people realized! They had a lovely high gloss to them and were so smooth they felt lovely on!

Nailene has changed my views on false nails from years ago, especially with the use of Nailene Ultra Tabs! I would consider using them again especially at present where my own natural nails are so weak and you could easily wear these over the top till you own have grown and are strong again!
Nailene Ultra Tabs are priced at £2.49 and the Nailene Nail Studio Nails are £4.69. You can purchase them in Boots, Superdrug, Tesco and Asda.

Lots of Love,
Mel xxxx
Http://www.30somethingmel.co.uk

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Thanks Mel, great review :)

Screw you RMK, I'll do it myself!

2011-08-26T07:00:00.000+01:00

The photo above is NOT RMK's nail polish in 'Holographic Blue Pink'. Let me set this up for you: I bought this from Jen in a recent blog sale. I knew she wasn't a great lover of it but thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt and try it. It was thoroughly disappointing! While the formula was good and it was nice to apply and all that jazz, it was just pink. It was neither blue, nor holographic. So I set about making it a Holographic Blue Pink myself!

This is the polish in question on its own. Meh, boring. Let's add the blue, shall we?

Ooh, that's looking better already with one coat of Illamasqua's Prism on top. Now all we need is the holographic finish...

Enter China Glaze Wireless Holographic topcoat. Two coats of this, and BAM. That's the polish I wanted in the first place.

Screw you RMK, I'll do it myself!

P.S. I gave the blog a little leopard print facelift on Sunday. What do we think?

Book Review: AOFM 'Makeup Is Art' (pic heavy)

2011-08-23T07:00:00.001+01:00

Those readers who've been around for some time and have good memories might remember me picking up this beautiful tome at IMATS at the beginning of the year. I've read through the entire thing a couple of times since then, and decided it was high time I showed it to you!

The entire book is chock full of beautiful, inspiring images and whilst the writing is definitely targeted towards aspiring makeup artists, it's still a beautiful book to own for the makeup enthusiast.

It begins with a foreword/personal first-person bio of the authors; Jana Ririnui, the founder of The Academy of Freelance Makeup and Lan Nguyen who incidentally is one of my favourite makeup artists.

The book isn't just nice to look at - it features a wealth of information on makeup artistry, tips and tricks etc. Some of it is basic stuff but it goes a lot further in depth with some things than most of the makeup books I've read. The eyebrows section for example was actually a good read - normally if a makeup book includes a section on eyebrows it just regurgitates the crap we all know/have heard a million times. This one is a little different, though. For example, it suggests a tip for shaping the brows of a more mature woman - shaping them to be longer and straighter creates a cat-like look that takes years off the face. I've never heard that anywhere else before! The bit about working with different face shapes was interesting, too, and little bits and pieces about face shapes are brought up again in different sections throughout the book. For instance, in the section about contouring and blush, it suggests that to achieve the appearance of slenderness in a very round face you should try applying blush in a sideways V shape on the cheekbone. Very square faces can lose some of their hardness by applying a little blush across the forehead and chin - interesting, right?

It also offers a very good read on skintones and how challenging it can be to match a foundation, particularly with non-white skins. For example, it's not something I really knew myself but apparently black skin has a tendency to look dull, grey and ashy with the wrong foundation. It also suggests for olive skins to go a shade lighter than usual with their foundation. This is because Latin, Indian and Asian skins in particular often tend to be quite oily and the oils on the skin mixing with foundation can cause it to go darker, so going a shade lighter will counter this. Clever!

There's not very much in the way of tutorials or step-by-step guides, but it's so full of other stuff that this seems a small price to pay. You can find those in any book, but this is just something different. There are a handful of step-by-steps, though, including one for this beautiful grey smoky eye, and some eye-popping editorial lip looks:

Aside from the typical Face, Eyes and Lips sections there's also plenty to read about bronzers and tanning (including a guide on how to achieve the perfect tan), skincare, the different types and textures of all kinds of makeup products, all the way to a section on adornment including the usage of glitter and diamantes. Later on there's a whole section on conceptual makeup (very interesting), one on working on men, one on body art and even one on waterproof makeup including tips on working on a shoot where you know water will be involved.

There's also a section on period makeup from iconic eras - I am a BIG fan of the 60s makeup style (also rather fond of the classic 40s, actually), so I loved these pages on the 60s Dollybird style look.

It doesn't stop there, though. Towards the end of the book you see just how much it's geared towards aspiring makeup artists. There's tons of information and tips about working on clients for the red carpet, working with a group (keeping similar styles but individual looks), editorial work, the relationship between lighting and makeup, the relationship between stylists and MUAs on a shoot, retouching and what to be aware of, advertising and the effects of colour within it... honestly, there's just SO much in here. Even a page about backstage etiquette when doing catwalk work! Right at the very end there's a Q&A section including information about qualifications in makeup artistry, getting an agent, and how to ensure you get work in such a competitive industry.

Overall I would recommend this volume to any makeup enthusiast in a heartbeat as it's such a beautiful book. But I think this would be an especially good buy for any aspiring makeup artist. You can get it for the extremely good value of £14.95 from the AOFM website. I'm not sure if this is a limited time offer as I paid £15 for it at IMATS, but either way I would happily pay like £30-40 for this.

Seriously, highly recommended! I'll leave you with a few more of my favourite images.

P.S. I'm sorry there's a couple of blurry/out of focus photos. I didn't even notice until I was resizing them and I was too lazy to take any more!

Futuristic Konad!

2011-08-20T07:00:00.001+01:00

I'd be surprised if you hadn't noticed by now, but my nails have been pretty short for a while. Well, whenever I say that I always get people telling me my nails are still long, but I mean short by my own standards! Haha. Anyway, I decided it was about time to dust off the old Konad, which only ever comes out when my nails are stumpy.

I don't think I'd ever used this particular Konad design until this manicure. It's from plate M64, and I like it more than I thought I would. I wasn't quite sure about it on the plate, but once I gave it a go on the nails I actually really liked it! I also made a conscious effort to stamp the image a different way round on each nail so it didn't look too uniform.

Naturally this manicure didn't last long, since the base colour is that infernal GOSH Holographic. Beautiful polish, atrocious wear time! I did the stamping with Illamasqua's Scorn, which I've discovered isn't super good for stamping. Whilst Scorn is a perfectly opaque matte black when painting the nails, it comes out quite weak and sheer with stamping.

So yeah, I thought this was pretty awesome and futuristic-looking. You like?

Quick Reviews: New ELF Studio Bits

2011-08-17T07:00:00.001+01:00

I have big love for ELF Studio. I use several of their products in my everyday face routine, so they must be doing something right! I've tried a vast amount of products in the range at one time or another and I've never really disliked anything. I did have a bit of a gripe with the mineral infused primer last summer, but they have been forgiven because they've gone on to impress me time and time again.

These two new additions to the range were released recently - Flawless Finish Foundation and Matte Lip Colour. Just to clarify, these were sent to me but I buy a LOT of ELF Studio products with my own money because I love it. Here's a quick review of each!

Flawless Finish Foundation

With an oil free formula and SPF 15, it also comes in a shade that is actually light enough for me! Rejoice! Funny though how the shades don't necessarily hold true through the whole range - My shade in this foundation is Porcelain, which is very pale. I also use the Tinted Moisturiser in Porcelain but that's much darker by comparison. Odd! Anyway, here's those before and after shots that you love so much - sorry, I'm at the spotty part of my cycle at the moment!

This is one of those hard-to-find foundations that doesn't go shiny within a couple of hours on my oily skin, presumably thanks to the oil free formula. I like the way it applies, although it is a moderate to high coverage foundation (at least in my opinion, but I'm a tinted moisturiser kinda girl more often than not). But I just buff it in to within an inch of it's life (with an ELF Studio flat top powder brush, incidentally) to make it a coverage I'm more comfortable with. Also, it does tend to exacerbate any dry patches I might have. Having said that, most foundations do in my experience. I also have a bit of an issue with the smell. I had a quick look at the ingredients list and it whilst it doesn't say 'Parfum', it has a really perfumed smell. That's something you might want to bear in mind if you have sensitive skin - luckily I don't, I just hate the smell! It smells like old lady perfume. Once it's been on my skin for 20 minutes or so and has set in, the smell goes. Either that or I just get used to it, but either way it annoys me!

The packaging's great, though - sleek shape, heavy and sturdy feel, luxury-looking frosted glass, and of course a pump. It should be illegal to release foundation in a bottle without a pump. Overall this hasn't blown me away, but I'm liking it nonetheless.

Matte Lip Colour

I love these! I have the shades Tea Rose and Coral. I was expecting Coral to be bit darker and more orangey/reddy, but it's much more on the peachy pink side of coral. Take a look:

Tea Rose has quite a lilac tone to it, it's an interesting shade that surprisingly suits my skintone, but it definitely makes my teeth look even more yellow than they already are.

Regardless of shades, I really really like these! I usually have a bit of trouble with matte lip products. Despite my worrying addiction to lip balm, my lips can become dried out VERY quickly if I use a product that they don't like. These haven't given me any problems whatsoever - whilst their finish is definitely matte, they don't look or feel dry. I sometimes think matte lips can be very ageing if they don't wear nicely but these just don't look dry. Which is great! They are also moderately long lasting, they survive a smoke no problem but you will need to reapply after eating. There's two more shades in the range, Natural and Praline, but it's a shame there aren't more shades because I love these! I hope they bring out more eventually.

So - you might like to try the Flawless Finish foundation (£6.50) if you have oily skin and like a medium coverage. But really, I think everybody should try at least one of the Matte Lip Colours (£3.50)!

Are you an ELF fan?

Why You Need A Dotting Tool

2011-08-14T07:00:00.001+01:00

Everybody needs a dotting tool. There are lots of things lying around the average house that you can use as a makeshift dotting tool - bobby pins, the ends of makeup brushes (these will give you big dots), the tip of an old biro (remove the ink well first), cocktail sticks.. use your imagination.

But proper dotting tools to add to (or even to begin) your nail art arsenal are SO cheap, there's no reason not to get them. You can get sets of 5 on eBay for like, less than £2 - basically every single one of those Hong Kong based nail art sellers will have them.

Just trust me, you NEED dotting tools if you're at all interested in nail art. It's the first place to start, really! Don't be put off by thinking 'oh, but all they can do is polkadots' - so not true! Just use a bit of imagination - even if they primarily are for making dots on the nails, think about all the millions of different designs you could incorporate dots into. And don't be put off if you're not sure how to use them - literally all you do is get a blob of nail polish on a palette/piece of paper/whatever, dip the tool in it, and dot it onto the nail.

They seriously couldn't be easier to use, and they couldn't be more invaluable to a nail artist. All of the following nail designs featured on my blog used a dotting tool for something!

:: Neon Daisies

:: Polkadots 24/7

:: Kimono Inspired

:: Failsafe (leopard print)

:: Dirty Sexy Flowers

:: Current Nails (circuit board inspired)

:: Abstract (tutorial)

:: Leopard on Cream

:: Snowflakes (tutorial

:: Winter Berries

:: Something Sweet and Simple

:: Mono on Pink

:: Grafitti Splatters

:: Candy Stripes (MUST get around to recreating this one!)

:: Cupcake Nails

:: Eastern Inspired

:: Disco Lights

:: Corset Nails (tutorial)

:: Cherry Blossom (tutorial)

:: The Original Easy Peasy nail art tutorial!

:: Peachy Keen Leopard Print (Check how frigging long my nails were back then!)

:: Semi-matte Polkadots

:: Some massively old and messy polkadots

So I hope that extensive list has helped you to see how awesomely versatile dotting tools can be, and has convinced you that if you don't already have any, you NEED them in your life. That is all! :)

Neon Daisies NOTD - and birthday flowers!

2011-08-11T07:00:00.001+01:00

I'd already scheduled this post, but I just had to give it a quick edit to include this. It was my 20th birthday yesterday, and LOOK at the beautiful flowers that my wonderful friend Kim sent me! Thank you so much :)

Okay, now normal post time :)

I really don't get very creative with my flower manicures, do I? I really must get around to having a go at the Cath Kidston style rose type manicures you see.

Even so, I loved this manicure because it was BRIGHT. The base colour was Sinful Colors 24/7, which I used for the polkadots in my last nail post. You can see this is a bright, bright colour. Full on neon, and it dries matte (like most neons do).

After I painted the base colour I was almost tempted to just top-coat it and leave it out of laziness, but I decided it wouldn't take me long to just do some flowers in other bright colours, just to make it all the more eye-searing! I used a dotting tool with Illamasqua Jo'Mina, Sleek Florida and Sleek Turquoise for the flowers, and a Nails Supreme yellow nail art pen to do the centre of the flowers. I could have easily done the centres with a dotting tool too, but I told you, I was being lazy ;P

I used INM Out the Door topcoat, which I've been putting through it's paces for a couple of weeks now and I really, really like it. I think I like it the most out of all the many different quick dry topcoats I've tried! It's neither too thick (Seche Vite and Posche) nor too thin (Orly Polishield and SH Anti Chip), and I really do think it dries faster. It probably doesn't dry any faster than any of the others to be quite honest, but I like to think it does because I'm enjoying it! Haha.

This manicure gained quite a few comments at work (again, something to be said for keeping it simple) - what do you think of it?

Sleek MakeUP Pout Paints

2011-08-08T07:00:00.001+01:00

You MUST have seen a bit about these by now - the high street's answer to the infamous OCC Lip Tars. We actually had a chance to play with these way back at the beginning of April at the Destination S event - I mixed a beeeautiful peachy pink colour that I named Refreeze, naturally ;P. I wish I had it now! But anyway, the Pout Paints are now on the shelves of Superdrug - quelle excitement!

Sleek were nice enough to gift me with 4 of the 11 available shades. Pictured above, from L-R; Cloud 9, Peachy Keen, Pin Up and Peek-a-Bloo. Like I said, I'm sure you know a little about these anyway but for those who don't and are having a WTF moment at white and blue - similar to OCC Lip Tars, Sleek MakeUP Pout Paints are meant for mixing and creating your own shades; Cloud 9 is meant for cooling (lightening) shades and Peek-A-Bloo for warming (darkening) them. Although, if you can comfortably rock pure white or blue lips then big respect to you! Haha.

Again, for those who aren't familiar with this product or it's Obsessive Compulsive cousin, I'm not kidding when I say you only need the TINIEST amount of product to cover your lips. You literally need no more than the size of a pinhead. So just imagine how long these will last you! And I would highly, highly suggest not even trying to apply without a lip brush!

Now I really need to talk about why I think these are BETTER than Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics' cult Lip Tars. To put it succinctly:

:: They are cheaper (£4.99 for 8ml vs around £8.99 for 8ml)
:: They are more accessible, being available in Superdrug. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe there's anywhere in the UK that you can buy OCC in a store, I think it's just online only so with Sleek's version you can try before you buy.
:: They are less drying - I'm too lazy to compare lists of ingredients, but whilst OCC dries down to a matte finish and tends to dry out the lips, Sleek dries without going matte and keeps the lips soft.
:: They last longer - When I say all day I mean all day. Although I don't tend to really eat during the day, so I might need a second opinion there! But they hold fast through drinking and my afternoon smoke whilst still looking freshly applied. I always found that OCC would start to fade after 4 or 5 hours, around the time it began to make my lips too dry and flaky to bear!
:: They don't bleed - Don't even think about wearing an OCC Lip Tar without a lipliner, else you'll be feathering all over the shop. But you can easily get away sans-lipliner with the Pout Paints.
:: They have better packaging - This is demonstrated in the picture below. With both products you need only a tiny, tiny speck of product and this is MUCH easier to achieve with the Sleek one whereas you can see on the OCC one there's product all over the place. I much prefer the long nozzle (is that the right word for it?) on the Sleek one.

Mind you, all this isn't to say that I dislike OCC Lip Tars. I've been quite the fan of them for a long time, but I honestly have to say that I like Sleek's version better. To be honest with you, I can't fault them (and you know I'm not afraid to fault things, haha) and I am definitely going to collect a few more shades!

Below is a shade I mixed with Peachy Keen, Pin Up and Cloud 9. It was a ratio of about 3:1:1 - in miniature!

Have you tried Sleek MakeUP's new Pout Polishes yet? And how about OCC Lip Tars? If you've tried both, which did you prefer and why?

Kat von D 'True Love' Palette

2011-08-05T07:00:00.000+01:00

So I have wanted this badboy basically FOREVER. I always liked the look of the True Romance palettes in the Kat von D range and this one, True Love, is the one whose colours stood out the most to me. On our second full day in Florida, we went to The Florida Mall. Naturally I made a beeline STRAIGHT for Sephora and all I could see in my mind was this! Haha pathetic. When I spotted it in the store there was like a ray of sunlight from the heavens beaming down on it and a Hallelujah chorus... maybe a slight exaggeration but IT IS FINALLY MINE!

From left to right, we have Peanut, Benji, Rebekah, Lucifer, Cholita, Shiba, Babe and Missy. Benji is a cream shadow, while the rest are your usual powder. I'm not normally a huuuge fan of cream eyeshadows, I love to play with them and apply them but they always crease like no one's business on my oily lids but Benji is of quite a dry consistency for cream shadow. But to hell with chat, you want swatches!

The only slight let-down for me pigmentation wise is Lucifer - I imagined it to be the black shadow that means business, but it's pretty wishy-washy. I actually did three swipes of it for that swatch, while all the others are only swiped once (all without a base by the way). Overall though that's a small price to pay for how much I love the other shades - I can always use my go-to blacks (Sleek Noir or Inglot 63) if I need them!

The exterior of the palette is almost as gorgeous as the outside - I believe it's inspired by one of Kat's favourite tattoos.

I'm on the fence about the brushes included in the palette - obviously a damn sight more welcome than sponge tip applicators, but they are synthetic and I feel the bristles are a little too floppy to be suitable for applying powder eyeshadows. I used one end of one of the brushes to apply Benji (the cream shadow) though and it worked wonderfully, although I can hardly use what's technically four brushes for one shade, haha. I can always use them with other cream shadows, though, since my brush collection is definitely lacking in the synthetic department.

I've used this a few times already, so here's a couple of pictures from two EOTDs I wore!

For this one I just used Kryolan eyeshadow base and applied Missy quite generously to the inner corner. SO shimmery and brightening, my craptastic camera really didn't pick it up well at all. I'm wearing Shiba on the inner half of the lid, and Babe on the outer half of it with Cholita mixed with just a touch of Lucifer on the outer corner and through the crease. A mix of Shiba and Babe is on the lower lashline. I didn't wear a brow highlight, just blended the edges out with a clean brush. I'm wearing No7 Smoky Eyeliner on the upper lashline, Bourjois 16 hour kohl on my waterline, and a waterproof mascara by Covergirl (I can't remember the name and all the writing's rubbed off the tube!).

This one is almost exactly the same in terms of colour placement (in fact, most of my EOTDs are, I'm pretty boring haha). I used Kryolan eyeshadow base again, but also blended the cream shadow Benji over the lid as a base. Not that it had much chance to show through - I applied Peanut (again very shimmery and brightening) to the inner corner and roughly about the inner third of the lid, with Rebekah on the outer part, as well as the lower lashline. A mixture of Rebekah and Lucifer made the crease colour, and again I just blended out the edges with a clean brush instead of using a brow highlight. Same eyeliners and mascara as before - told you I'm boring!

I didn't realise how much of a state my brows were in until I looked at these photos - damn Macro mode! Straggly eyebrows notwithstanding, I bloody love this palette. I would not hesitate to buy another Kat von D palette someday - completely worth $34 in my opinion! A very satisfying purchase :)

Have you tried anything from the Kat von D range?

Note: I was aiming to get back to posting every other day, but I just seriously don't have the time :( so I'm going back to my once-every-three-days schedule! I hope you guys don't mind :)

Polkadots 24/7

2011-08-02T07:00:00.002+01:00

I decided against doing a July Favourites post, since the small amount of makeup I wore for the whole month was all comprised of old tried and tested favourites which have been featured in previous monthly favourites, so I didn't just wanna regurgitate the same stuff. :) Have some nails instead!

When I'm pressed for time, I know I literally cannot go wrong with leopard print which is why it's one of my most commonly worn nail designs. But it never looks the same twice because it looks great with so many colour combinations, like pink and gold, or purple, or even multi coloured on a cream background.

Because I always opt for leopard print in a pinch, I'd somehow managed to forget that there's something even easier and faster. Polkadots! Duhhh.

I used Hard Candy Sky for the base colour. When I bought this I thought it would be a pretty good dupe for Eyeko Pastel Polish (you can see that in action here), just with slightly less shimmer. Speaking of Eyeko, can you believe that they're discontinuing their nail polishes? WHY? Fail.

Anyway! I used three thin coats of Sky for opacity but I could have got away with two slightly thicker ones. I did the dots with a dotting tool (no shit) and Sinful Colors 24/7. That is one BRIGHT pink! I've been wearing it on my toes lately and it's amazingly bright. Because 24/7 is pretty much a neon, the dots dried quite matte. I liked how it looked and was almost tempted to add a matte topcoat to the whole manicure, but went with a normal one so it would last longer.

One little thing that bugs me about doing simple manicures, though, is that they get more compliments! I had at least 6 customers comment on them at work in one day*, and that always seems to happen when I do something really easy. But conversely when I do something more intricate and time consuming, no one ever seems to notice! Haha. Am I the only one who finds that? I guess it's because simpler designs tend to be more bold and in-yo-face?

I love the colour combination here. It makes me feel so happy and summery! I hope you enjoy it too :)

*Speaking of work, don't you think it's awesome that one of the girls at work calls me Nails? My boss's name is Leanne too, so to save confusion she's Boss and I'm Nails. Awesome. Hi Katie :3

Florida Haul!

2011-07-31T07:00:00.001+01:00

I didn't actually go as crazy as I thought I would with makeup and nail polish purchases while I was away. I guess that's because we were far too busy doing things every day to have much time for shopping! Here's a quick look at what I did get, though. And sorry, these photos are TERRIBLE.

(Listed L-R, top to bottom)
:: ProFX 75ml Quick Dry topcoat (haven't tried this yet but it was less than $5 for a huge bottle so if it's any good then MASSIVE bargain)
:: Sally Hansen InstaDry topcoat (one of my favourites)
:: INM Out the Door topcoat (wanted to try this for AGES)
:: Milani JewelFX polish in Gems
:: NYC polish in Starry Silver Glitter (seen this on a lot of American nail blogs and had to have it!)
:: LA Colors polish in BCC 064... can't find a name!
:: Hard Candy polish in Sky
:: Pure Ice polish in Twinkle
:: Pure Ice polish in Kiss Me Here
:: Pure Ice polish in Silver Mercedes
:: Pure Ice polish in Heartbreaker
:: Pure Ice polish in Busted
:: Pure Ice polish in Cheatin'
:: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails polish in Sturdy Sapphire
:: Wet N Wild Fast Dry polish in Buffy the Violet Slayer (awesome name)
:: Wet N Wild Wild Shine polish in Blazed
:: Wet N Wild Wild Shine polish in Wild Card
:: Sinful Colors polish in Rise and Shine
:: Sinful Colors polish in Fiji
:: Sinful Colors polish in 24/7
:: Sinful Colors polish in Dream On. I THINK it's Dream On anyway, the label has come off the bottle but from what I can gather from internet photos, this is it.

And now onto makeup!

:: Hard Candy Blush Crush in Living Doll
:: ELF Eyelid Primer Collection (at $3 it would have been rude not to)
:: CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion mascara (I loved LashBlast Luxe, and CoverGirl's waterproof mascara was a godsend on holiday so I thought I'd try another!)
:: Wet N Wild Mega Wink curl enhancing mascara
:: ELF Studio blush in Candid Coral
:: ELF Studio blush in Pink Passion
:: BeneFit One Prime Day sample set (sample sizes of That Gal primer, The Porefessional primer and Stay Don't Stray)
:: Kat von D True Romance eyeshadow palette in True Love (MAJOR lemming basically forever)
:: Hard Candy Fox in a Box blush in Smooth Talker

And that's it! There's a few things I plan to feature in separate posts but you know what I'm like with saying I'm gonna post about something (i.e. not very good), so please, reviews on request!

Giveaway Winner!

2011-07-29T07:00:00.000+01:00

HELLO! I'm back :3 did you miss me?

I'm still far too exhausted to talk in any great length about my holiday, but the short version is that it was fantastic! And I've missed blogging, so I'm just going to get straight on with it now!

First, I want to extend a COLOSSAL thank you to all of the wonderful bloggers who filled in for me while I was away. You were absolute life savers and I am exceedingly grateful for all your amazing posts! I owe you one. :)

But now I need to announce the winner of the Sleek Caribbean Collection - thank you to everybody who entered. I noticed there was quite a few less entries than I usually get on my giveaways, I did wonder why and then I remembered that I made it UK only for the first time! Sorry about that, my next one should hopefully be worldwide again :)

Moving swiftly on, there was a total of 66 comment entries. Random.org decided upon...

Comment number 20, which belonged to...

Miss LV!

According to Miss LV's comment, it was her birthday yesterday (the day the giveaway ended) - so a slightly belated Happy Birthday to you, and I hope you enjoy this extra present! I will email you after I get home this evening, but feel free to email me first if you see this beforehand so I can get your address and send the prizes off.

Congrats to Miss LV, and thank you all again for entering!

I should mostly be back to my normal posting schedule now, although my birthday is coming up very soon (10th August) so I might not be perfectly regular with my posting around then as I haven't got plenty of posts scheduled in advance! Either way, I'll speak to you all soon :)

Guest Post: Aimee's Nautical Nails

2011-07-27T07:00:00.000+01:00

Here is my tenth and final guest post - I hope you have all been enjoying them! Today's is a post about nautical designs for short nails from Aimee at Aimee's Nails.

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First of all I’d like to thank Leanne for letting me do this post, it’s the first time I’ve been a Guest Blogger and I’m so nervous as well as EXCITED!!!

After having 2 sets of gel overlays after each other, my nails were incredibly weak, so they either broke down or were filed down to an extremely short length. Today, I’m going to prove that even short nails can be fabulous by showing you all this really easy nautical bail art.

You Will Need:

-A Nude-ish Polish (Model’s Own Nude Beige used here)

-A Red Nail Art Pen (Or Varnish with a Smaller Brush:)

-A White Nail Art Pen (Or Varnish with A Smaller Brush:)

-A Blue Nail Art Pen (Or Varnish with a Smaller Brush:)

-A Top Coat

-Rhinestones(Optional)

First, paint all nails with the nude polish

Then, using the blue and white nail art pens draw stripes diagonally on the right side of the nail going out to the left.

Stripe all of the nails in different ways (the index too, I must have taken the photo before I did it. Oops!)

Next, start adding a red detail to each of the nails.

You would not believe how easy it it to do this. Just follow my ‘3 rules for nautical’;

1. Red, Blue, White Colours

2. White and Blue Stripes

3. Red Detailing

And Voila! We are done! It is just as easy to create this look on long nails too. Nautical is one of those looks which can be used on nails any shape or size.

Adding rhinestones can add the extra WOW factor to the look.

I hope you like my post and thanks again to Leanne for letting me post. If you have any questions or queries, or to see more nail art, reviews and ramblings, feel free to visit my blog at aimeesnails.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great summer so far!!

-Aimee- x

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Thank you Aimee, they are super cute! I love your 3 simple rules for Nautical.

By the time this one goes live I should have been back in England for a few days, so my next post will be written by me! See you all soon :)

Guest Post: Daniella's Tips for Cellulite

2011-07-25T07:00:00.000+01:00

Okay, there's probably only a handful of us in the entire blogosphere who DON'T suffer with the dreaded cellulite. Luckily, qualified complementary therapist and fellow blogger Danielle (aka Madame Gourmand) has concise information and tips for us!

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I’m an avid reader of Do Not Refreeze so when I found out that Leanne was looking for guest bloggers to fill her place whilst on holiday I jumped at the chance to be involved.

I’m a Complementary therapist and practice a number of treatments on clients for various beauty or medical complaints. The issue that seems to affect most of my clients is Cellulite, around 80 – 90% of women suffer from it so I’ve decide to discuss this issue with Leanne’s readers.

If you’ve never heard of Cellulite before it’s a permanent change in the fat stored under the skin and has a lumpy appearance around the buttocks, hips and thighs. Women of all ages, shapes and sizes can get cellulite and it is inevitable in most women. It’s not just us poor women who have to suffer with Cellulite, men can develop cellulite but it's not as visible because their network of fat cells is deeper in the skin.

As the fat cells enlarge with age, they push through the connecting fibres, which stay the same size, giving the effect of a balloon being blown up through a string vest. The dimples on the outer skin are the fat cells emerging through.

Stress, toxins, inactivity, hormonal imbalances and genetics have all been suggested as possible influencing factors.

There is no 100% guaranteed method of prevention or cure but there are measures you can take to reduce both the appearance of cellulite if you have it and lower the risk of developing it if you don’t.

You don’t need to buy expensive creams, lotions and potions just follow my tips and hopefully you will see an improvement!

Please note: Although I am a qualified Complementary therapist I am not a medical professional, these tips are only to be used as a guideline.

Tip 1 – Massage

Massage works by breaking down fibrous bands, when deep tissue massage is applied over the area of cellulite the appearance can be reduced. Several sessions with a massage therapist may be needed depending on how severe the cellulite is.

Daily self brushing over problem areas can also help if you do not have the funds for regular massage treatments.

Tip 2 – Self Tan

You may be thinking self tan? What can that do? Cellulite is actually less obvious on darker skin so for a quick fix option get rubbing the tan in! Remember if you are using self tan to hide your cellulite you need to exfoliate well and moisturise to avoid streaking and an orange peel effect on the skin.

Tip 3 – Diet

Improving your diet will help prevent to improve the appearance of cellulite. Eating protein rich foods at every meal will help to repair, strengthen and stimulate the production of collagen and elastin in the skin. Foods that provide lecithin like eggs, spinach, peanuts and apples can restore the strength of dermal cells.

Tip 4 – Lower your stress levels

A high stress lifestyle causes an increase in the level of catecholamines which are released by the adrenal glands and are associated with the evolution of cellulite.

Tip 5 – Exercise

Exercise is probably the most effective method to smooth out the appearance of cellulite. Excess fat stores are burned during exercise which reduces the size of the lumpy fat deposits that cause cellulite. Exercise also boosts blood circulation which flushes fatty deposits and waste toxins out of the body.

Tip 6 – Herbal remedies

Ginko bilboa promotes efficient circulation; this can be taken in tablet form.

Lemon, Juniper Berry, fennel, eucalyptus and Grapefruit oils used in the bath or blended with a base oil like sweet almond can be massaged into the problem areas as they are all excellent when used to treat cellulite.

A black pepper, ginger and cardamom compress can be used to wrap the whole of the area to be treated which will increase circulation.

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Thank you Daniella! I hope to be brushing my butt into submission now! Look out for Wednesday's (final) guest post, by Aimee of Aimee's Nails :)

Guest Post: Sonja's Ombre Nails

2011-07-23T07:00:00.002+01:00

I'll be coming home on the day you read this! Today we have an awesome ombre manicure from Sonja at Happily Polished. Hope you like!

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Hi everyone,
My name is Sonja from Happily Polished. I have the great honor of making this guest post while Leanne is away. I am fairly new in the blog-world and I have never tried guest blogging before, so when Leanne mentioned that she was going away for a while I thought this would be a fun opportunity.
Since this is a guest post, I asked Leanne what she wanted to see and after she’d looked around on my own blog she mentioned that she liked the ombre manicures, so I promised to look through my stash and see if I could come up with something fun. At the moment I’m really into taped mani’s so I tried to combine the those to with each other and make some kind of blocking-ombre manicure. This was the result:

I originally didn’t like the outcome of this because I had a slight tape failure on my middle finger so I didn’t bother with the clean up and thought I just take some pictures to see how it would look on camera. It turned out that on the actual camera display there was not colour difference on my index, middle and ring finger. In order to try and save the manicure I decided to give it a coat of glitter and this is how it turned out:

Though it the colour became less distinguishable I actually like it better with the glitter.
I used the following products:
- H&M – Blue my mind
- Inglot 970
- Franken minty shimmer green
- Depend (turquoise)
- Maybelline Colorama –Urban Turquoise
- Sally Hansen – Jumpin’ Jade
- OPI – Last Friday Night

That’s all I have for you guys, I hope you liked it
Xoxo

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I love it, thank you Sonja! The next guest post will be by Daniella of Madame Gourmand - and I'll be back resuming normal service shortly!