Lime Crime leopard nails

I got a couple of nail varnishes from lime crime a couple of weeks ago and since Christmas is over I've given up on red and green glitter.

Enter lime green leopard nails.

I used two coats of Lime Crime Pistachio then used a dotting tool and Milky Ways to add random dots before finishing it off with some black to make the leopard pattern.

More Snowflake Nails

Another use of bundle monster plate BM 323. It's just so Christmassy. Especially over red nails.

I started with two coats of Cult Nails superbly festive red called Bitten, then added Deborah Lippmanns's Razzle Dazzle glitter on the tips.

Stamping was done using konad's special polish in white.

Enjoy!

Green Glittery Christmas Nails

A couple of new pieces from my nail collection came out to play for this one.

Bright green is my favourite colour at the moment so Cult Nails new release Coveted became an instant must have, as did China Glaze's green glitter Running in Circles from their Cirque Du Soleil collaboration.

The obvious thing to do was a glitter gradient. So two coats of coveted and a smattering of running in circles later we have a very green nail that was a bit plain for my liking.

So I used bundle monster plate BM 323 and Konad special polish in white to add some wintry snowflakes.

The picture only has two figures as the mani was a few days old by the time I took the picture and I had tip wear!

China Glaze - It's A Trap-eze

China Glaze's holiday offering this year was with Cirque Du Soleil's release of World's Away 3D.

I adore Cirque Du Soleil. I was lucky enough to see 'O' while in Vegas and so the love affair began. Now whenever they're in the UK I try and go to the show.

So when I saw this collaboration I couldn't pass up. I got three colours off eBay and today I have the fabulous It's A Trap-eze. A gorgeous multicoloured glitter suspended in a milky white base. This is truly unique and such fun. I used three coats and topped it off with a couple of clear coats to smooth the texture.

Even in an extensive nail polish collection this is definitely one that will stand out!

Butter London HRH with added glitz

This week I had a little splurge on Cocktail Cosmetics who stock a huge range of fantastic beauty brands.

Butter London's Cadbury purple nail varnish called HRH is one I've had my eye on for quite some time so when they had it reduced to £9 I had to have it.

Two coats and this colour is beautiful. It applies well and dries quickly. Another winner from Butter London!

Obviously I couldn't help myself so I had to add some sparkle. I used Barry M silver glitter to get a bit of a reverse glitter gradient and then layered over Topshop's Ice Crush to add some holo fun to the party.

I recommend both HRH and Cocktail Cosmetics who delivered incredibly quickly.

Green Sparkly Nails

Christmas is coming, which always leaves me with the need to have green or red sparkly nails.

Today I went for green.

I used two coats of Cult Nails Feelin' Froggy with one coat of Alter Ego to add a bit more shimmer then two coats of Models Own Dancing Queen glitter from their Mirrorball collection.

Winter Wonderland - Layering nail varnish

As part of my mini Models Own haul earlier this week I got Indian Ocean. I found it a bit sheer on its own so decided to layer it over Cult Nails Charming. What a beautiful combination. A lilacy, blue, shimmery ocean of loveliness!

Obviously I couldn't resist using glitter so i used another one of my new polishes, Snowflakes. A gorgeous holo flakie.

I love the final result. A perfect winter wonderland.

Models Own - Boogie Nights

Asos recently got the Models Own Mirrorball collection. And in true magpie fashion I had to have some of the beautiful shiny glitters! I got two from the collection and today I have boogie nights to show you.

The glitter is mainly pink based with blue and holo flecks in. All the glitter is hand cut meaning they are wonderfully random.

It's not the easiest polish to work with, like most glitter suspended in clear base you have to arrange the glitter to get an even spread and I found it took a while to dry due to the thickness when trying to get good glitter distribution.

I used three coats of Boogie Nights over one coat of Cult Nails Charming and sealed with one coat of OPI top coat.

Green Gradient Stamped Stars - Feat. Cult Nails

I love green.
I love stars.
I love Cult Nails.

See where I'm going with this?

I started off with a couple of coats of Cult Nails Deal With It polish, then sponged on Feelin' Froggy followed by Illamasqua Viridian to create a light to dark green gradient.

Could have left it there but I felt it needed something extra to make it pop. So as is often the case Cheeky plate CH5 came out along with Konad special polish in black to add some stars.

All finished off with OPI top coat and we have my mid week manicure.

This is one that will definitely be repeated again.

Galaxy Nails - A first and not very successful attempt

There are amazing pictures all over the blogosphere right now of the most amazing galaxy nails!

Some of them are so insane it makes me drool!!

I decided to give it ago but I wasn't very impressed with the outcome. Found it a struggle to get different colours to show up.

Any way here's a picture of the finished nails and the collection of varnishes that I used.

I will be trying again and hopefully more successful next time.

Cult Nails Charlatan

My second order from the magnificent Cult Nails arrived today.

I was so excited/impatient that in the hour between coming home from work and going to ballet I had to try one out.

Charlatan is the one I am most excited about. Seeing people pictures of it in action made me need it. Not want it, need it.

It's a gorgeous top coat that is pink toned with micro green glitter suspended in it. Amazing.

I cannot wait to try out out on different colour bases and over the top of stamped nail art.

My pictures don't even come close to doing it justice, I definitely recommend trying this or any other Cult Nail polishes out. It's one hell of an indie brand!

Pastel Eyes- featuring Sugarpill Heartbreaker Palette

It was a pretty miserable Monday morning, bad weather, no more weekend, back to work. So it felt necessary to have some colour in my day.

When I think colour, I think Sugarpill. So I grabbed my Sweetheart palette and set to work.

It ended up being quite a subtle look as I used a neutral base. Next time I might go for a white base to make it brighter.

Face:
Urban Decay Naked Foundation in 3.5
Mac Bronzing Powder in Refined Golden
Bobbi Brown Illuminating Bronzing Powder in Pink Peony

Eyes:
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeshadow pencil in Sin
Sugarpill Heartbreaker palette

Bobbi Brown for Breast Cancer

To support breast cancer awareness month Bobbi Brown released a limited edition set with Pink Peony illuminating bronzing powder with a mini blusher brush with a pink handle.

The set costs £35 with £5 being donated to breast cancer research.

I thought it was a really cute set and I was desperate for a travel sized face brush so I went for it.

The blush itself has the breast cancer ribbon embossed on it and is a lovely soft pink with micro gold shimmer. This is a lovely set, the one thing that could make it better is a bigger percentage of the sales price to go to the charity.

Burgundy Lips - Featuring Rocker from Mac

Mac finally released their By Request collection on the UK website.

The collection was a vote by customers to bring back their favourite limited edition products.

After voting ended the three winning lip glosses, lipsticks and eye shadows were announced.

A few pieces caught my eye and today I have the perfectly vampy and on trend lipstick in Rocker.

It's a gorgeous matte burgundy with tiny gold flecks. I love this colour, perfect for the winter months!

Face:
Urban Decay Naked foundation in 3.5
Mac Pro Longwear Bronzing Powder in Nude on Board
Nars Illuminator in Orgasm

Eyes:
Mac Eyeshadow in Jete
Bobbi Brown eyeshadow in espresso

Lips:
Mac lip pencil in Currant
Mac lipstick in Rocker

Golden Eyes

Face:
Urban Decay Naked Foundation in 3.5
Mac MSF in Light Year

Eyes:
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeshadow pencil in Sin
Chanel Illusion D'ombre in Vision
Armani Eyes to Kill in 20 Obsidian Black

Lightly pinked lips - featuring OCC lip tars

Face:
YSL Touché Éclat Foundation in BD40
Chanel universal bronzing base

Eyes:
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Zero
Bobbi Brown eyeshadow in espresso to fill in brows

Lips:
OCC Lip Tars in Orphelia and Pretty Boy

Mixed purple nails

After seeing an amazing mani on The Polished Perfectionists blog I thought I'd have a go myself.

Although it is nowhere near her league I still like the result. I used a variety of OPI nail varnishes and Cult Nails in Charming. If you fancy giving this a go use any colours you have to hand.

I used the spots on Cheeky plate CH6 and the flowers on Bundle Monster plate BM-306

Happy weekend everyone!

Butterfly Nails - Featuring China Glaze

As I last posted, I recently bought some nails plates from bundle monster and I am in love.

I also invested in my first China Glaze nail polish, which so far have lived up to all the hype.

This manicure was done using one of China Glaze's 2012 summer collection and it is the most amazingly vibrant blue called Splish Splash. This was a dream to apply and totally opaque in two coats.

I added some of OPI's Last Friday Night, blue glitter from their Katy Perry collection just to the tips.

Then once everything was totally dry I used Bundle Monster plate 307 and Konad special nail polish in white to stamp on butterflies.

Not the best example of stamping, I didn't get complete images onto all of the nails. But hey I'm still learning.

New Toys - Nail Stamping

After seeing this amazing piece of nail art on Sugar Nails I simply had to get myself a set of Monster Bundle Nail Stamping Plates, just to get the Hibiscus flower!

I've seen the nail stamping plates around for a while but never really got it so I did a bit of investigating and decided to invest in the gear that I needed.

The set that I got from Monster Bundle was the 25 piece 2012 set. And it is amazing. I love the selection of full nail patterns, tips and small icons. Something for everyone.

I also bought the Konad double sided stamp and scraper set along with Konad special nail polish in white.

My first attempt went relatively smoothly. I was expecting to be cursing the whole way through and ending up with nothing, but although not a perfect result definately easy enough and with good enough results to make me want to use them over and over again. In fact I simply don't have enough nails to try all of these out as quickly as I want to.

Nails:
OPI - It's My Year - A gorgeous purple/gold shimmery duochrome that photo's don't do justice
Konad Special Nail Polish - White
Bundle Monster - Plate 318

Follow me on Bloglovin

Hi there lovelies. Sorry I've been a bit lacking on posts lately, work has been crazy and I've got my dance show this weekend which means I'm spending all of my time either working or dancing. I'll try and rectify my lack of posts in the next week or two. In the mean time you can now follow me on bloglovin using the link below. Follow my blog with Bloglovin Hope you're all well, keep an eye out for new posts in the near future.

Quick FOTD - Coral Lips

On Saturday I went to visit some family as my cousin had come back for a flying visit from working in Singapore.

The weather was actually nice and sunny for a change so I felt a coral lip was in order. I layered it with a glitter lipgloss over the top to make it a little more daytime.

Face:
YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat Foundation in BD40
Mac Blusher in Fleet Fast

Eyes:
Urban Decay 24/7 Liquid Eyeliner in Perversion
Maybelline Collosal Mascara

Lips:
Mac Lipstick in Toxic Tale
Mac Lipgelee in Summer Shower

FOTD - Green Eyes

Last week I took Friday off and spent it with a wonderful friend from uni. We went shopping and had our usual Wagamama's fix before heading to Camden for London Zoo Lates, an adults only night out at the zoo that happens every friday in June and July. It was great fun and I recommend popping along for the evening if you have the time.

For my day out I went for sparkly green eyes using mainly Sugarpill Chromalusts.

Face:
YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat Foundation in BD40
Mac Bronzing Powder in Refined Golden

Eyes:
Mac Paint Pot in Let's Skate
Sugarpill Chromalust in Lumi, Absinthe and Stella


And just for fun here are a couple of pics from the zoo:

YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat Foundation Review

The release of this foundation has been the talk of the beauty world since its announcement. A foundation based on the best selling Touche Eclat miracle pen would it live up to expectations?

I happened to be in a Boots store a week ago where they were offering a 7 day sample prior to the release of the foundation on 9th July. I got matched with shade BD40. I loved it.

The colour was a perfect match. It stayed true to colour throughout the day, no oxidisation which I seem to be suffering with most of my foundations right now. I'm quite pale at the moment and even the lightest Chanel foundations are too dark on me, so to have this be such a good match made me happy.
I used the tester up within the week because I couldn't bear the thought of wearing anything else.

It feels lightweight but provides medium coverage whilst naturally illuminating the skin. I have dry skin and this didn't cling onto the dry patches as some others do. The only problem I did experience was it becoming oily towards the end of the day when it was humid outside so it may need to be powder part way through the day.

I was excited to hear that it had already been released exclusively in Selfridges ahead of its general release on the 9th. So I had to have it. And to my pleasant suprise it was cheaper than my usual Chanel foundation, coming in at £28.
The bottle is sleek, solid glass with the signature golden lid embossed with YSL.

I'd definately recomend trying this foundation out if you get the chance, available in 22 shades there's bound to be the perfect one to match you.

Bare Skin

Wearing YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat in BD40

LOTD Dark Berry Lips - Lord & Berry Lipstick

The trend on alot of celebrities and models at the moment is the dark berry lip.
I love this look so much. My inner rocker was dying to break out, so when ASOS had 20% off makeup I invested in my first Lord & Berry lipstick called Vogue Black Red.

It's got a matte finish and I absolutely adore the colour. It's rich and pigmented, although a little drying, but this is often the case with matte lipsticks anyway.

I wore it to work one friday and although noone said anything I did get a few double takes, but that's never really bothered me as long as it's for having out there makeup rather than it being smeared all over my face.
I just stuck to a plain black flick on the eye, with a little bit of Mac Young Punk over the top to set it and add a little sparkle.

This lipstick would look fab with a dark smokey eye on a night out. Probably not so work friendly though!

FOTD - Turquoise and Orange

This look was inspired by one of the hundreds of makeup pictures I have saved on my iPad.
I was looking for something a bit different that I could do using one of my new Maybelline Colour Tattoo Eyeshadows, that I just posted about.

To create this look, I took Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Forever Turquoise and placed it in the inner third of my eye, in the outer third I used Make Up Forever eyeshadow in number 5 and in the middle I used Mac eyeshadow in Dazzlelight.

Maybelline Colour Tattoo Cream Eyeshadows

I am a massive fan of Mac Paint Points, I use them most days as a base for other eye shadows. The only thing they lack are colours. Occasionally we get some colours released as part of a limited edition collection but the permanent ones are all very neutral.

So when I saw the Maybelline 24 Hr Colour Tattoos came in some bright colours I knew I had to check them out.

I grabbed a couple from my local Boots store when they were 3 for 2.

The two that caught my eye were Endless Purple and Turquoise Forever.
The colour payoff is great. Endless Purple needs a couple of layers to really pack on the colour but Forever Turquoise is intense in one swipe.

I certainly haven't worn them for 24 hours but I have worn them both alone and with eye shadows on top for around 12 hours with no creasing or fading. These are fab.

If you're a fan of Mac Paint Pots but not the price tag then you should definitely check these out as they are only £4.99 each and currently on offer at Boots where you will get 3 for 2. Bargain.

Endless Purple

Forever Turquoise

 

Endless Purple

Forever Turquoise

Left - Endless Purple     Right - Forever Turquoise