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Friday 8 June 2012

Glamour...

So Glamour are doing free Benefit stuff.... 


Is it wrong that I have bought two copies just so I can get Porefessional and That Gal for £2 each? 






*is a dork*




This evening I'm planning on doing a post allllll about my fav girlies and their beauty must haves! They're horsey too so they understand the chipped nail polish, and hair reeking of horsey wee <3 Bring it on...




(also to come is a review of my first She Said Beauty Box and when it arrives, my first glossybox!)

Thursday 7 June 2012

Yikes...

Oops.


I've been camping with the boy over the Jubilee weekend! It was lovely to spend time with him but it was cold, wet and windy :( I had no hairdryer, straighteners and I made a stupid foundation based error so I spent the weekend not looking at my best! 


The Foundation Error..


So, normally I am besotted with all things MAC... And I normally use their Studio Sculpt foundation.. but when we had that freakish hot spell in March, I misplaced it and so ran out to Boots to buy a last minute replacement which happened to be L'Oreal's Lumi Magique which I actually reallllllllly like! So.. I've been using the Lumi Magique ever since until cleaning out my makeup bag I found my MAC hidden at the bottom.. So I took it with me camping... 


BAD IDEA. My skin has obviously changed since I last used it, it didn't blend either with a brush or my finger tips, it went patchy and made me look a little ill. :( It didn't work with the colour of my bronzer or blush and though the colour matches my skin tone perfectly it just didn't sit or feel or look right. BOO. 


So now I have 1/2 a tube left and I don't know what to do with it? 


On the subject of MAC, I've been a bit disappointed with them of late... considering I am normally so so so happy with anything I buy at a MAC counter, I was gutted when they discontinued the liquid last liners (but luckily I'd bought two turqouise ones before they did!) and I replaced my black liquid last with their quickliner... Awful. It just transfers onto my browbone constantly... now that's not just how my eyes are shaped because my liquid last has never done that, neither has the L'Oreal carbon black pen I used to use prior to finding this new one.. It's gone really watery and now stings my eyes so I've just stopped using it. SAD FACE. 


MAC's Haught and Naughty mascara was another new purchase for me last summer - love the packaging, but it was honestly the clumpiest mascara I've ever used... It looked very 'lived in' like I was chanelling my inner Taylor Momsen... Weird. I replaced that with Maybelline's Collossal and Benefit's Bad Gal (always a winner in my book and doesn't smell so weird and chemically like the MAC one)


So. Can anyone tell me how many empty MAC products you need to take them for them to give you a free lippy?? ^_^ 




I promise a proper update later, I found some SUPER AWESOME things whilst Archna and I were on our lunch yesterday (read as were avoiding going back to work by going into every single store which sold cosmetics!) and I got yet another gorgoeus FREE polish (Ciate this time!)... more to come. Meow.

Friday 1 June 2012

Mini High-Street Haul

So it was payday on Thursday! Yippee!
I had to go into town to get my antibio's for my kidney infection and had a browse while I was there.. I picked up a few bits for holiday - Sun cream, shampoo etc. but I also got a chance to buy some products I've been wanting to try!


SQUEE!

So what and why?

1. Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr Eyeshadow (Turquoise Forever)..


I've seen commercials for this, and watched a lot of reviews on youtube. However I was sceptical.. I have bought 'creaseless' shadow before just to find it creases and the only creaseless one I've found that works is the Benefit Creaseless Cream BUT I really REALLy hate the colour range, every single colour combination made me look like a drag queen. :(
So back to the color tattoo... First thing I was struck with was the awesome range of colours - there are a good selection of gold/bronze/taupe colous for everyday wear and then some AWESOME popping brights. I LOVE all things turquoise (one of my favourite ever buys is MAC's Liquid last liner in turquoise) but turquoise shadow's always always let me down. I find they're either not pigmented enough if they're powder (even if wet!) and they crease like anything if they're cream.
The color tattoo feels great it's really creamy in the pot but applies really bold and solid colour. It wears all day without creasing and blends well with other colours and liner.
This is no.20 Turquoise Forever and I wore it with MAC quick liner in black and Maybelline Collossal mascara in black and I got SO many compliments! It really suited my complexion (fair) and didn't look over done or drag queen ish! All for £4.99! Bargain!
This gel-cream shadow gets 10/10 from me! I'm definately going to be buying some more of these for the summer... See the full range below..



2. Barry M Nail Paint Magnetic in Dark Silver and 17 Lastting Fix Nail Polish in Juicy


YAY I've been wanting to try a Magnetic nail polish for SO long, but I've not seen any in my local Debenhams, Boots etc. I picked this Barry M one up in Boots for £4.99. The range is very limited and is all dark metallic colours so not ideal for summer but still dying to try this! Will blog once I've given it a go - I'd do it now but I'm still liking my pink and blue semi-gradient!

Barry M Magnetic range...

The second polish I bought was super cheap but the colour screamed at me! I wore this over the weekend and it wore well even without topcoat (I forgot!) I love that one coat is a pale shimmery green which is very wareable, but two coats made a really vibrant chartreuse colour. I got lots of compliments on this, the subtle shimmer made it more eyecatching than a regular bright polish. This was £3.59 from Boots again but is only an 8ml bottle. I love the coverage it gave and how quickly it dried and what a good finish it left.

Weirdly, the colour I have called 'Juicy' is called 'Spring Petal' on the site!

3. L'Oreal Collagen Re-Plumper Day Cream


Oh my god, where do I start? I LOVEEEEE this moisturiser! I fist tried a collagen moisturiser when I bought Soap & Glory's 'Wish Upon a Jar' however I didn't feel it was worth £15.00 and it said only to use for 3 weeks at a time? Then I saw this L'Oreal one on special offer so I picked it up.
WOW. It's so thick and luxurious and makes my skin bouncy plumped and soft.
I have SUPER sensitive skin prone to dry patches and so many moisturisers aggrevate my skin but this doesn't. It absorbs well and isn't at all greasy, I can put my foundation on immediately after and it won't slide off.
The Collagen re-plumper has UVA/UVB protection - a must in summer and has a faint scent to it which is lovely! I didn't feel like it dried out over the course of a day and my skin felt hydrated and soft all day.
This cream is £11.75 for a 50ml jar in Boots but I popped into Wilkinson's and picked it up for £6 (obviously I bought two jars!) Highly recommend this to anyone - no matter what age!

4. Maybelline Pop Sticks Lipstick in 060 Citrus Slice


I saw this by chance on my way out of the store... the packaging screamed LOOK AT MEEE! When I looked at the actual product I LOVED the transparent lipstick. Wow. I swatched it on my hand and was pleasantly suprised by the very pale pink sheer colour (when I say very I mean VERY). I've seen other reviews of it that say there is NO colour but there is - I assure you! It made my lips look soft, shiny and tinted pink as if I'd just had an ice lolly! LOVE this for the summer and oh my god the smell is heavenly! I'm definately going to get some more of these as they're only limited edition and I want a stock pile!
The Pop Sticks are super moisturising and the packaging is gorgeous. At around £5 they're perfectly acceptable as a lip balm with a bit of shine to it :) The UK range has 5 colours, from baby pink to orange and darker pink but all very very sheer.
I love this, it'll definately be coming on holiday with me for a quick holiday look :)

VERY sheer when swatched but more pinky pearly on lips.

5. Water Decals


I LOVE water decals! How to get really unique pretty designs on your nails super easily! If you look back to my Previous Post about Gradient Nails you'll see at the bottom there is a lace effect nail design done with water decals. This was my first attempt and I was pretty happy with the look. Lotss of people complimented me on them! I find decals much better than wraps and less fiddly and so long as you put lottttts of topcoat on they last well.
This time I bought some little sailor girls (I am obsessed with anchors, swallows etc all thinks old school sailor!) and some moustaches!
My plan is to use some of the sailor girls on white nails with a navy nail and paint an anchor on the navy one.
The moustaches I plan to use on a nude colour and maybe add a rhinestone to the middle of the tache?
I buy my decals from eBay this seller has a great selection and they're £1.99 a set and postage is 79p - they'll combine postage too and she always adds instructions and some bonus decals. Brill.

6. Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara

I've not had a chance to try this out yet as I'm using up my Collossal mascara which I LOVE! If this is anything like the Collossal I'll be super happy!


So that was my little mini high street haul! Am about to hit up the MAC website and have a look on there.. When I get to 50 followers I will do a MAC giveaway! :)

Tonight I'm off to my boyfriend's grandparent's for his Nana's birthday. I will be sporting my kinda gradient nails and I'm thinking of wearing a navy floral print loose mini dress with some very skinny jeans. I think soft waves in my hair and black liquid liner and loads of mascara with some bronzer and my Popsticks should look pretty but not over done :)


I'd love love love to know your thoughts, reviews, comments on these products or if you've found a similar product or a way of using them! Please do comment and let me know! <3

 

First Attempt at Kinda Gradient Nails...

So I've been off sick from work the last couple days - managed to get myself a kidney/water infection. Yum.
Anyway, while I've been off I've been bored and watching lots of nail tutorials (uh-oh..) but they were a bit advanced for me, being that although I have a fairly extensive polish collection, I have no nail art pens, brushes etc so I thought this almost Ombre/Gradient nails thing would be a good place to start..


To to begin with these are the colours I used... From L to R L&B (not a brand I know) Silver Sparkle, Avon nailwear pro in Vintage Blue and Nails Inc ltd ed for In Style no:072.



The Vintage Blue is one of my all time favourite polishes, I ALWAYS get asked by shop assistants where I got it and they are ALWAYS suprised when I say Avon! It was about £5 and the formula is great, it dries quickly and even one coat on a clear basecoat looks opaque and bold.

Nails Inc are probably my favourite polishes, and I LOVE getting them free with In Style magazine! Seriously, SO happy! So I picked this one up on Tuesday (there are a range of 3 colours a peachy creamy off white, this pink and a lilac) and I think I might have to get the other 2! The formula is perfect, they're hardwearing and leave a fabulous glossy finish.

The Silver glitter is a bit of a random one, it was part of a set I got at Christmas a while back and though L&B isn't a brand I've heard of they were gorgoeus winter colours, rich metallic blues and reds which will be great in the autumn/winter! Unfortunately the formula on this one is a bit annoying - it's very thick and therefore took yonks to dry! :\

But yeah anyway this was a VERY easy manicure to do, I applied two coats of Sally Hansen double duty clear top/base coat then one coat of Vintage Blue and let dry. Once dry I painted some of the In Style polish onto a make up sponge, wiped the excess on some tin foil and then stippled the sponge over my nails starting at the tip of the nail and working down to about 3/4 of the way down my nail. I did about 4 layers of this to build up the colour I wanted. Then I added some silver glitter to the very tips of my nails and sealed with clear topcoat.

Voila!




BUT! About 3 hours later I went to have a dressage lesson with Bally <3 but even though I was super careful and put my gloves on as soon as I got to the yard, I smudged two nails! BOO! This manicure should last a week anyway but mine only lasted a couple hours. :( The damage isn't much but it's still really bugged me and made me wonder whether if I'd left the glitter off maybe it would have been okay?
 Bad middle finger and thumb!

Any tips on how to avoid this?



PS. Check out some of my previous attempts at nail art .. eek embarrassing..

Lace effect water decals on Barry M polish

Pikachu! H&M polish with acrylic paint. This was done with a HUGE thick brush so is V messy!


Eek.. A Blog!

Yowza, this is super scary.. My first ever blog post!


(insert awk silence here)

So, I started this blog because I got a little bit obsessed watching beauty channels on YouTube. Oops. But there's more to it than that..
I found myself spending hours doing awesome manicures just to then go to ride my horse and come home with broken, smudged nails :(
Sooo I was thinking about how to make these cool make up/nail/hair tips pony-proof and I wondered how anyone else manages this? Hence this blog..
So it's more about learning from other people than people learning from me!

SO I guess I should do a little bio about me eh?

With my previous horse Quitus, beautiful boy!

I live in Bedfordshire in a small market town about 35 miles outside London. I have a great job as an Interior Architect for a well known international Architectural practice in South London which means I spend about 4 hours per day commuting (YAWN!).


I have this aweeeesome little pony <3 good lord I adore him! His name is Bally and he's the inspiration behind the name Pink Pony, and the background image is him - my little pink pony.

Pink Unicorn!

I also have a super super boyfriend called Ben, we've been together 3 years and have just bought a house together and are waiting for it to be built (roll on November!)

Ben at KoKo <3

I'm originally from Scotland (Inverness to be precise) and I moved to Bedfordshire in 2002 when my father decided he needed a change from being the Provost of the Episcopalian Cathedral in Inverness. So we moved to this cute little village 500 miles away when I was 15..

The beautiful house I lived in in Inverness.

I studied at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey and graduated in 2008 with a BA(hons) 2:1 - super pleased!
 Hayley (right) and I graduating!

 

Soooo.. what will this blog contain?


Mainly, beauty stuff! Nail art, favourite products, ideas and questions about my hair,nails makeup etc! But also, some stories from every day life - designs I'm doing at work, photos of my gorgeous Bally and sketches/photos of things I make from sewing projects and recipes to fixing up my car!

So please do read on, follow me and comment - let me know the good things and bad things and what you'd like to see! Please please please ask me to follow your blogs - cause I love them!

You can check out my facebook and twitter here:
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Thanks for reading my first post, now let the journey begin <3