Le cheval rose et une introduction..

Quick Post about this blog's name sake.. my pink pony! He's super awesome and I adore his little face. <3

Being posh dressage pony

One of two pencil portraits I have of my boy - this by Victoria Greene

Sporting one of his many Fur Feather Meds outfits (spoilt!!)

Playing at jumping after his treatment for arthritis. He's still got it!

Oh and I ought to introduce the newest member to our family.

This is MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUSER!! (pronounced mow-ser) the naughtiest cat in the world but also the cutest.

Wish he was always this cute..

Must. Actually. Post. On. Blog

Er. Ooops.

I started this blog thinking it would be something to do in my 'free time' - truth be told, I was off work when I started it so I had 'free time'... Then I went back to work, and bought a house etc etc.

So I thought I'd do an update and actually use this blog for it's intended purpose - nail art.

Without further a-do, here's a nail based round up of polishes I've bought or looks I've tried apologies if photos are poor quality, am pulling them off Facebook/Dropbox/Phone etc!

I will add another post afterwards of Nails Inc Lucky Dip's, freebies, and general thoughts on new polishes (like how I HATE the formula of the Barry M Gelly in Key Lime, but love it in Lychee?!)

More to come... xXx

Illamasqua Collide with Saffron glitter in purple (on holiday!!)

OPI Liquid Sands in Get Your Number (on holiday!!)

Speckled Jelly Sandwich - inspired by Illamasqua. Using Nails Inc Elizabeth Street (Free with Glamour Magazine) & Technic Carnival (OPI Rainbow Connection dupe)


 

Nail Rock Metallic Leopard Foils & Missguided Misfit (Free with Cosmopolitan Magazine) on ring finger

Barry M Jelly in Key Lime with Essie Matte About You topcoat

Camo nail art using Nails Inc Northumberland Street, Models Own Beetlejuice in Emerald Black and Nails Inc Bruton Mews

Nails Inc Bruton Mews with stilver studs

Glitter fade with 2True Glossywear Nail Polish in Shade 49 with Nails Inc 3D Glitter in Maida Vale

Cherry nail art using Avon Vintage Blue, Nails Inc Draycott Place, Nails Inc Knightsbridge Green & Barry M White

Gradient manicure with Nails Inc Westbourne Grove and Nails Inc You're a Peach (Free with Glamour Magazine)

Pixiwoo.com: Illamasqua Lipstick Palette

Pixiwoo.com: Illamasqua Lipstick Palette How much do i want this?!

May have forgotton I had a blog. Woop..

What can I say, I forgot!! :( And for this I humbly apologise. As if it's any excuse, I've had a LOT (and I mean L.O.T) happen in the last 5 months since I last blogged. A series of updates are coming though. But I'm starting at the beginning (June/July, where I left this...)

I turned a whole quarter Century old in June. Yikes. But I was lucky enough to be in the very beautiful Costa Adeje with my boyfriend Ben, and I spent my birthday drinking cocktails with an amazing Scottish couple (Gill and Chris, who have since got engaged! Yay!) who we met there, and are still in touch with.

Anyway.. I came home from Tenerife to the CUTEST birthday present ever.. Introducing Boris..

Boris is an Abyssinian guinea pig, who's mummy is one of Ben's mummy's guinea pigs :) She had two babies, Boris and Ed born in June, I got Boris (named after the Mayor of London, because of the crazy hair..) and Ed went to live with Ben's brother's girlfriend! 

BUT. Little Boris was very lonesome living in my bedroom while I was at work all day long.. So we got him a friend! Poor little Asda was named thus because he was found sodden and bedraggled in an Asda carpark, riddled with mites and with one ear savaged. He was 3 months old! A lovely lady called Kate from  Guinea Pig Rescue and Rehome took him in and nursed him back to health, and he came to live with Boris in September. It was love at first squeak! 

They are SO sweet these two, like an old married couple! They boss each other about and 'weep weeeeep' at each other if they're unimpressed with their vegetable offerings for the day! 

So. That's my first update. There are loads more to come, mainly Nail Polish based, a whole load of different looks I tried with caviar, glitter, crackle etc. :) My nail polish collection expanded by 19 polishes this month.. OOPS. 

(Apologies for poor quality photos, they're from my phone..)

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!)

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.

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