Non-England Nails

The World Cup is upon us, but England have already played their first two matches, and although I was going to do England themed nails, I chose not to in the end as I would probably have to change it mid week anyway.

I still fancied using a red polish as I can't remember the last time I did...and still wanted a pale background, but not quite white...so here is my design:

FOTD - using Shiro Cosmetics

 

I used Team Rocket on my outer corners, Zubat on my eyelid, and Meowth above my eyelid.

I'm afraid I haven't yet mastered the skill of being able to take good pictures of my eye yet...

I also used one coat of Extra-Volume Collagene Mascara by L'oreal in black on my top eyelashes, and Bad Gal eyeliner by Benefit in smoldering black on my lower lashline.

I wanted a look that wasn't too dramatic due to work.

Shiro Cosmetics

Ooooo my Shiro Cosmetics order arrived, and within 5 days, can you believe it!! I was so excited when I saw it I started picturing colour combos. Hopefully so will you when you see the pictures.

What I thought was different, apart freom the colours being name after pokemon, was the amount of care Caitlin takes to make your order look pretty. (see pic below) She also includes a personalised hand written note on the back of the Shiro Cosmetics business card which I thought was really sweet.

For £9.49 ($12 + $1.50 shipping) for all the samples I woulnd't have been too disappointed if I didn't like the colours as much as when I saw them on Becky's blog (http://www.sirvinya.com/). You all know what it's like when you see make up on screen, then in real life and it can be very different.

I loved every single colour, and the two free extra samples I was sent (Gengar & Meowth).

I tried out a look using 3 colours to start off with for work, I didn't want it to be too overpowering, but from looking at the range of colours I would say you can get any look you like from these shades.

Overall I find that these shadows are quite pigmented and apply easily, the only problem is I now want to buy the full size pots of every colour!! I may have to spend some time choosing my favourites as I'm not sure I can afford all of them. If you have ordered anything from Shiro, I'd be really interested in what you thought.

Avon Everglaze Lip Duo

Today I want to write about a product I have had for a while - but recently rediscovered - as in yesterday. It's been a while since I purchased cosmetics from Avon as I would end up spending so much money on things I didn't necessarily need  - which is bad for me as Dave says I have too much make up already (considering I don't always wear it).

Anyway, the product is 5ml, and cost about £5 if I remember rightly. I got the "Twig" colour as I thought I would go for something relatively natural - wood is very natural! hehe.

So here it is:

As you can see the writing has worn off slightly it is so old. But for some reason it came to my attention yesterday and I wore it remembering my partner hates the sticky lip gloss/lipstick taste when he kisses me and I thought - with this I get coloured lips, and he can't feel or taste anything different...genius!

I may be tempted to order some more, I checked Avon out today and saw they now have a 3-in-1 lip wand, gloss, lipstick and lip ink!! Will investigate!

Party Nails

Friday was my best mate's birthday and we had plans for a quiet night in with chinese and wine etc on Saturday. And Dave had been bugging me to do a video blog, so Friday night - I did. Only thing is I can't upload the video yet because I lost the cable that connects my camcorder to my PC (good news though, I got one off eBay which is on it's way!).

I decided to go for something simple with a bright spark to it...and added a rhinestone to each thumbnail for a bit of extra detail.

I was quite pleased with the way this design turned out, the black No.7 varnish I used actually dried very quickly and this manicure only took 14 minutes!! So you can never say you don't have time to paint your nails. I only applied one top coat and so far only one of the rhinestones has come off and that was this evening after doing lots of housework, so the nails had a pretty tough day!! I think that's pretty good.

This picture has also been taken after a few days wear; but still looks quite immaculate in my opinion.

I can't wait to do this design again in some more colours, as we get closer to summer I may try some really funky look - watch this space!

July's Glamour Giveaway!!

I know Glamour always send me my magazine earlier than they release it in the shops and I knew that this month they were giving away Benefit eye make up products - that's right, a £2 monthly magazine giving away a £14 make up product. So I phoned the fiance to find out which free item I got, and it was the eye pencil. I was quite excited as that is actually something I use quite often, compared to eye brightener and concealer, but in another way it was a bit of a downer because I already have so many eye pencils.

What I decided to do was...go out and buy 5 more magazines...crazy I know...but it means 2 of each benefit product for just £10, when their total worth is £90!! So actually quite a good idea I thought, or perhaps a little obsessive! But then pencils do last a lot longer than most make up products...so hopefully a good investment - we shall see.

Here are the products...quite nice, smart packaging, very funky looking. I think I will keep them in their boxes as I'm a little bit attached to them...sad I know. The first product I tried was the black eye pencil, it went on smoothly, and evenly, but didn't have as much pigment as I get from my Rimmel eyeliner (which is probably my favourite because it's cheap and cheerful, Urban Decay has probably now been pushed into third place). This eyeliner didn't gather in my inner eye after a few hours which is actually the first time it hasn't happened with eyeliner...

The other two products I tried when going to see my fried for her birthday on Saturday night and I think I put a bit too much concealer on as it wouldn't rub in very easily, but I'm not really used to using it so it'll take me a while to get it perfect.

The same with the eye brightener really, I love to sleep so not sure my eyes need brightening up much, but this was £2 guys, I could not resist!! I will have to use it though, otherwise Dave will moan at me...and plus I think Benefit obviously have some really good products so once I've learnt how to use this properly it could "Benefit" me alot, hehe.

May Favourite

Every month I will tell you what I have used almost every single day, and although I'm not a huge person for makeup everyday (I prefer to sleep longer before leaving for work) I do enjoy experimenting, so if something gets used often, it's normally pretty special!!

 In March I purchased this:

 
The main reason is because Boots were doing their "£5 off No.7" vouchers and I had bought all the nail polish shades I liked!! I also find that foundation tends to dry out my face a bit so I can't wear it everyday - therefore I save it for those special ocassions, or nights out.

I've never used a tinted moisturiser before but have always heard good things about it. I was quite glad that this had SPF15 as although I live in England we can get the odd sunny day in Summer - least I would be prepared!!

I find you don't need to use too much which is good as this would normally set you back £10.50 (I'm a bargain hunter so won't normally pay more than this). I find the colour matches my skin quite well, but they only had "fair" or "medium" so quite lucky really. I'm not sure if it would blend in well to eveyone's skin colour as I'm sure there are more than two colours of skin out there, right? Let me know if you've tried this and how it blended into your skin.

The moisturiser also gives a lovely healthy glow, which is a real bonus because if you don't have much time, you will just need this and perhaps one coat of mascara for a natural look. I've never had to reapply during the day, however I do normally wear No.7 loose powder over the top which helps the moisturiser stay put.

I will continue to use this product throughout June and we have had a few sunny days so I'm happy to know I am protecting my skin. Overall a great product, which I definitely won't mind paying full price for when it runs out.

9/10 A  MUST HAVE

Sunny Sunday Nails

This is the nail design I chose in the end, as it has been quite a sunny weekend, and I have the neutral cookie toes still! Plus the fiancé is a big fan of bright colours.

 

This mani is so easy to do, layer the colours so that the yellow goes on first, orange second and red last. You can make your nails appear longer by adding it just below where your white tip would normally be, this makes it look like your white tip is quite long and therefore gives the illusion of long fingernails!!

I must say however that this mani also looks great if you do have short nails because there's not much you can do with short nails in the way of nail art but you can do some pretty funky striped designs!!

Have fun!

Saturday Nail Play

There's not really much to do in East Grinstead so today is a chilled out day for me and I am trying to choose which nails to sport for the start of the week?

Neutral browns and golds?

Or rainbow colours? I'll tell you this one would take ages to dry!!

 

Kinda choca mocha look on my ring finger or a mini rainbow look on my baby finger - what do you think?

Nail Painting - Wedding Session

So, my wedding party nail painting session is tomorrow night and tonight I have been making a few quick plans, ideas etc (2 hours worth believe it or not!!) that were in my head that they may want on their nails.

I'm taking with me only my purples, pinks, turquoises, blacks and whites as these are the colours for the wedding scheme. Quite a few nail varnishes from my collection really -

Creightons Sunshine Blonde Conditioner

You will all be sick of hearing about our 99p store soon, but whilst purchasing an uber bottle of Messhead for the fiancé I spotted this on the shelf.

It looks very similar to the John Freida blonde shampoo and conditioner collection. Unfortunately on this trip I didn't see the shampoo so just bought the conditioner, but when I next stop by I will be on the lookout for the shampoo!! I always love trying new shampoos and conditioners because I've never really found something that makes me think my hair looks amazing, except when I recently used a hair treatment mask for the first time (will review shortly).

I dyed my hair a dark blonde on Friday evening and used this afterwards and my hair does look very blonde in comparison to the shade it was, but obviously at the moment I'm not sure if that's due to the dye or whether the conditioner did lighten my hair.

I will be washing my hair again soon so I'll let you know if I see a noticeable difference!!

Let me know if you have purchased this item or the John Freida one, I would be interested to know if it worked for you.

Spa Recipes - Leg Balm

So this sachet is another one from the set I bought from my 99p store. My fiancé was intrigued by the previous leg serum I used and didn't believe that my legs felt like silk. This time I said I would show him!

I applied this just before bed last night, when squeezing it from the sachet onto my hand, it smelt a bit like the medicine called "Calpol", felt a bit like it too actually, just less runny!! But I like the smell of Calpol so it's good. It's a kind of fruity smell in case you don't know what calpol is...and I suppose cherry like, as per the description of the sachet...

Once on my legs it was easy to smooth in, and was absorbed quite quickly, much quicker than the leg serum, but I think the serum was to exfoliate the skin rather than moisturise initially...making it easier for me to sleep as I didn't feel like I was going to stick to the bedsheets!!

 I'm now on my lunch break at work, and my legs do feel smoother than they did yesterday afternoon, so for a general treat for my legs once a week I would recommend it as it leaves my legs much smoother than a normal moisturiser would.

I'm now keen to use this every fortnight and the same with the leg serum, meaning my legs get a weekly treat!!