Some pretties and 2 sweetie pies

It's been a very tiring day. A tiring week for that matter! But before I go and pass out on my bed, I wanted to show you guys some pretties I have received this past week.

Well, guess what? The Nfu Oh polishes were ordered back in July but because Viis Illusalong don't deliver Nfu Oh to the UK, I had to get the package to be sent to my mother in law's house in Greece, it then got lost somewhere and finally arrived in the UK this week! Phew!!! I thought I would never hold those pretty bottles :(
I also got Tristam because I don't own any of the A-England polishes so I thought this was a good place to start.

I have already swatched the Nails Inc Magnetic polish in Trafalgar Square here and I was quite impressed so on a bit of an impulse, I also got Houses of Parliament (purple) and Big Ben (gold) - not sure why I needed them all though! Nails Inc sent me Heddon Street for becoming a member of their reward programme.

And here are my two sweetie pies snuggling up. Eggbert is holding and licking Lebowski's head. He loves to do that. Lol!!

My 250 follower giveaway - WINNER!!!

The winner of my 250 follower giveaway is:

Let's Polish Some Nails

I have contacted the winner and she has 48 hours to respond. If no response is received by then, I will pick another winner!!

Thanks to all of you who took part :)



Lemon Juice!!!

Nail polish, nail art, all things nail related is my absolute passion and I would absolutely freak out if nail polish ceased to exist (not that it ever would)! However, I also have other interests...many, many others. I like to dip my fingers in quite a few pies, figuratively speaking!
So, from time to time I may write about skincare (like this post) or make up products, I may show you my outfit for that day or just blabber on about something else.

I was reading Bubblegarm the other day, an amazing blog by a beautiful girl called Muhsine. She's also a London girl and her blog offers amazing insight and honest opinions on beauty, make-up, tips and tricks, skin care do's and dont's, etc!

Based on what I was reading, I felt inspired to look after my skin again. It hasn't been at it's best lately. Maybe because I've been neglecting it?! I have very oily skin which looks dewy as soon as I wash and apply a moisturiser in the morning but by 12pm it looks like I have ran a marathon in 35C heat. This then leads to blemishes breaking out around my mouth and chin area which I attempt to cover with foundation but this just leads to more oiliness and more spots - it's a vicious circle.
I would love to stop wearing foundation (especially during the day) but I always have a couple of spots taunting me and some scars and marks from previous spots that I squeezed (I know I shouldn't but I can help it)!

I've tried all sorts of brands (expensive and cheap) but I've never really given home made remedies or the natural way a go! I did a bit of research online and apparently lemon is supposed to be really good for oily skin and for acne. Lemon juice contains Citric Acid (one of the AHAs), it gets rid of dead skin, promotes elasticity and flushes out our pores! It's a cheap experiment so I thought why not give it a go?!

Image source: http://realitybrief.com/?page_id=394

Here is what I do:

* Wash my face with my regular cleanser and pat dry

* Dilute equal part of lemon juice and water and with a cotton ball, apply it all over my face as you would do with a toner (if you have dry skin, you should probably only apply it to the affected area and rinse off after 5 minutes if it burns. Remember that Lemon is has natural citric acid which works as an astringent so it may not be for you if you have dry or very sensitive skin)

*Moisturise as usual
I have now been using lemon juice as a cleanser/ toner for the past 8 days in the evening. (I only use it in the evening because my night cream is quite creamy whereas my day cream is oil free).

Verdict so far - The morning after I first applied it, I noticed a slight difference straight away. My skin felt softer but no major changes. On the 3rd day, the spots around my chin were still there but had dried up. On the the 5th day, the scares from previous spots were less visible but had obvisouly not disappeared and my pores seemed tighter. Today, the uneven pigmentation on my skin wasn't so noticeable and some brown spots were also beginning to brighten. It's not a miracle cure but has thus far worked much better than a lot of products I have tried.

I will now give my skin a bit of a break from the lemon juice as due to it's astringent properties, it may begin to irritate, but it's definitely a winner in my book.
Soon, I will also be making homemade lemon skincare masks mixed with other natural products to see what effect these have.

What's your experience with Lemon juice?

Pink Wednesday - Gothic Lolita Nails!

When I saw this picture on the Gothidge Angel Makeup blog, I fell in love straight away and had to recreate this mani! I thought it looked awesome!

I used a pound-store Barbie'ish pink polish (or should I say Euro-store as I bought it whilst on holiday in Portugal), it's by a Spanish brand called Lusty Cosmetics (I think) and it's #293 - no name! It's a pretty good polish considering how cheap it was. I also used BM11 to create the lace effect.

Nails Inc Magnetic Polish - Trafalgar Square

A few weeks ago, I posted this information post about the 3 magnetic polishes Nails Inc were launching in September. I finally managed to get my hands on one of them - Trafalgar Square which is a metallic silver chrome.

As soon as I got home today, I knew the package was here and so I had to try this polish! Although I vaguely know how to work with magnetic polishes from reading other blogger's instructions, I still wanted to check the instructions on the bottle, but guess what? They were only in French! Lol!

Anyway, I suppose applying the magnetic polish wasn't very difficult, what I was worried about was not touching the wet polish with the magnet as you have to get it quite close to the nails for it to create a shape!
That isn't really a problem with this polish as the detachable lid (which holds the magnet) also has a rest lip to rest your finger up against so your hand won't shake at all and it allows you to get as close to the polish as you can without actually touching it (see pic 2).

1 coat of this polish is quite sheer (for me) so instead of using 2 coats which would mean I would run out of it much quicker, I applied a base coat of another silver polish (Miss Sporty - New Black) to make it more opaque. Dry time is quite fast. I still have to get my head around creating slightly different patterns with the same magnet!

I loved this polish so much (it creates a nice effect on the nail when you don't have much time for nail art) that I went straight onto the Nails Inc website and bought  Houses of Parliament and Big Ben!

Kismet Elated gets a French Diamante twist

This is now the second manicure I have done with Kismet Elated. The first time around I added some heavy white opaque french curtain tips which gave the mani a sort of retro feel.

This time I went for a bit of a glitz & glamour look. I added slanted sheer french tips with Zoya Trixie and filled the ring finger with different sized rhinestones:

More Fall treats - Make-up, Body butters and Scrubs

My husband is spending the day with a friend and won't be back until very late. After doing a bit of cleaning in the morning, rummaging through the 2012 Ikea catalogue (I want to re-decorate our bedroom) and checking my google reader, I went for a walk to our local high street! I only get paid next week but I couldn't help myself. I had to grab a few treats in Superdrug.

No nail polish today, instead I got these little goodies:

Sleek Make-up Storm i-Divine Palette & Pout Polish SPF15 Tainted Lip Conditioner. I blame this one on Nihrida. Her swatches of the Sleek Palettes are amazing and she recommends them. At £6.49 a pop I thought I'd give them a go!
The Tainted lip conditioner was too sweet to pass, it smells so good and I love the pouty, glossy lips that this gives:

Some Nail Whitening Tables. I've never tried these but sometimes when my nails get stained from certain polishes, it really annoys me. These are supposed to be like a fizzy spa for your nails, they "enhance and maintain the nail's natural whiteness":

St. Ives Blemish Fighting Apricot Scrub. The Tea Tree oil scrub I am currently using is nearly finished but it's not doing my oily skin much good so I'm going to put this one to the test.
Plum & Red Cherry Body Butter. Although I have oily facial skin, I have dry skin on the rest of my body. This body butter seems perfect for winter and the smell...ummm. I can't even begin to describe it! I've never tried the Superdrug range of Body Butters so am curious:

Sinful Colors - Kismet Elated (another more optimistic go)!

I've used this colour in a mani before (click) back on the 18th June. At the time I was slightly disappointed with it because the colour didn't pop as much as I thought it would. It looked like a dull sort of colour that my nan would have work back in the 60's. It was too sheer even after 3 coats and I could still see vnl!

This afternoon I was looking through some swatches of SC online and came across Kismet Elated. They looked quite nice so I thought I should swatch it again properly and give it a fair go.

Strangely enough, it was the complete opposite of last time I used it! It applied really smoothly, was opaque in 2 coats and I really like the vibrancy of the colour now! It's a lot more on the purple side than it was last time I used it and I could actually see the gold micro-shimmer in it!
Is that weird? Why did I see it completely different and disliked it 3 months ago?!

Mini Haul & Some Pretties from Portugal

My mum has just come back from Portugal again (she goes there quite often, we have family there), and she brought me back a few pretties.

The colours she picked are quite bright and summery, maybe because it's still scorching hot over there, but I'm trying to embrace fall colours right now! Nonetheless, I really like what she picked and I'll be sure to use them, even before next summer :)

She brought back Andreia 5, 107 and 109. I've never used this brand, I'm not even sure if it's Portuguese or Brazilian but apparently it's meant to be really good. She also got me Risque Pop. This is a matte polish so I was really surprised she picked out a matte, I didn't think she knew the difference.

Here is a quick peek at what they look like! I'll swatch them properly later:

I've spent quite a bit on polish this month (I'll tell you about that later) so I was trying really hard not to give in but whilst on my lunch break yesterday, I went into Boots and Superdrug to get some toiletries and I just couldn't resist these:

They are a nice little addition to my autumn/ winter polishes and I'm getting ready for Xmas with that red glitter :)

Layering: Revlon Facets of Fuchsia & CND Violet Shimmer Effects

This polish has been causing a bit of a hype lately, not least because it's the high street drugstore's take on Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance for a fraction of the cost.

I'm sure you all know the ins and outs of this polish - black jelly base with Fuchsia glitter and hex shaped glitter, etc... so I'll skip that part!

I applied 2 coats of Facets of Fuchsia over 1 coat of Barry M Black. I just wanted to make it as opaque as possible without having to use too many coats of FoF! I wanted to try it over a fuchsia base colour as well but didn't have the time so instead I layered CND Effect Violet Shimmer over it:

What do you think of the CND Violet Shimmer effect? I think it adds another dimension to FoF and makes it more edgy.

Pink Wednesday!!! - Barry M Pink Flamingo

Today I wanted to show you a pink I acquired earlier this summer but hadn't had a chance to swatch it and take pictures. I wore it both on my fingers and toes whilst on holiday in Portugal this August and got quite a few compliments.

It's a bright pink with cool undertones and a bit of coral mixed in, hence the name. However, in some lighting, it can just look flat out pink! I'm not quite sure why but Pink Flamingo is one of those strange colours that looks different all the time. I remember having Pink Flamingo circa 2008/2009 and it was much more of a coral than a pink! When I wore it whilst on holiday, it looked like a true neon pink. Today, in direct light it just looks bright pink!

As with my other Barry M's, this one is also creamy and evenly pigmented but it definitely needs 2 coats. It doesn't dry as fast as my other Barry M's, not sure why! I got quite a lot of wear out of it the last time I wore it (5 days) which I was surprised with seeing that I was at the beach everyday!

 

A Hot Pink Chrome Leopard & A Snoozy Cat

I wasn't sure what to add to yesterday's Stargazer Chrome. When I'm in doubt of what to do or am lacking inspiration, I do leopard, Lol!

I used a Primark polish for the leopard spots. It's a hot pink with red undertones, the bottle has no name and a 001 number. It's my only Primark polish as I'm always afraid their polishes will lack pigmentation. I must admit this one is very good, I swatched it on my thumb and it was fully opaque in 2 coats!

The Stargazer chrome may look a bit too shiny in these pictures but that's because I added a coat of Barry M Silver to it as I showed you yesterday:

And here is a pic of Eggbert. When I got home yesterday, I found him snoozing in the bath tub! WTF?! My cats sleep in the weirdest places!

Stargazer - Chrome Silver #232

Stargazer Chrome Silver was all over Ebay and Amazon in the last couple of years (I think it still is). I have heard many good and bad things about it so I wanted to try it out for myself and at £2.50 a pop, why not!

So, in a nutshell, these are the good and bad points for me:

Bottle - Love the mirror shine colour of the bottle but hate the shape! It's super hard to hold when trying not to make your fingers look all frumpy and ugly for the pics.

Application & Formula - I've read reviews where people have had trouble applying this over regular base coat as it drags leaving bald patches. I had no problem with this. It applied evenly over my base coat (CND Stickey) and with 2 thin coats I was left with a complete opaque coverage! It dries like a matte polish - very quickly. Be careful is you have ridges, this polish shows EVERYTHING! Even the slightest piece of dust will be magnified if trapped in this polish!

Colour - Silver metallic foil, like a nice piece of stainless steel, but it's not glittery or glossy as are some other metallics. This one is quite matte with only the slightest bit of shine.

Overall, I think it's quite good for the price! I can't see anything majorly wrong with it. Don't know what all the bad reviews were about! I think a lot of people were expecting it to look exactly like the colour on the bottle!

I then added a coat of Barry M Silver as I wanted to see what it looked like with a high shine to it. I like both looks but obviously the original look is more unique!

Oh Eric...what sharp fangs you have!

I've just finished watching episode 10, season 4 of True Blood. OMG! I was sitting on the edge of my seat. I love everything about these series.
I know it's already finished in the States so I'm a little behind but I always wait until the series have aired all the episodes so I can watch them back to back! I'm really into True Blood, obsessed with it actually so other than buying "vampy" sort of colours, I also had to do a vampire inspired mani!

I used OPI Alpine Snow and two tones of red (OPI Keys To My Karma and Nails Inc Victoria) to portray vampires' pale skin and their bloody fangs (or one fang), or maybe it looks like I've dipped my fingers into some true blood!

I can't see Sookie wearing these, being the down to earth country gal she is (unless you count her racy dreams of Eric and Bill) but Pam definitely would!

Lost in Deep Waters

I was playing around with "forgotten" bottles of polishes again! I call them "forgotten" because as I don't really like some of the colours or the bottles are nearly finished, I use them for frankens and try to create shades of colours that I do not yet have.

Here is Lost in Deep Waters. When I tried this colour on a nail wheel as I was mixing it, it looked much more teal than it does on my nails but I still like the end result. It's a sort of murky, smokey blue which turned out more jelly based than creme (thus not as opaque as I would like)! There is the smallest amount of micro shimmer to it as well which is visible on some of the pictures!

What do you think of this colour. Yay or nay?

Accessorize - Aztec Wrapped Pressies

Today I have one of those rock minerals-glass-crystals-foily-duochrome type polishes, in the fashion of Orly Space Cadet and Hard Candy Beetle to show you. It's by Accessorize and it's called Aztec. I picked it up at the airport on my way back from holidays but hadn't yet had a chance to try it out.

This isn't a dupe for Orly or Hard Candy but it still portrays the multi-facet range of colours that we have come to like in these type of polishes. What colours can you see in this one? I mainly saw a sort of army green, plum sort of purple, gold, brown.

You already know about application of polishes like this - not majorly opaque unless you apply 3 coats to even out bald patches.
I don't really like taking pictures in direct sunlight because it can often alter the true colour of the polish but for this one I had to wait for a bit of sun to capture any sort of dimension to the polish! With no sun, they are a b*tch to capture. The duo chrome effect only showed if I angled my hand. 

I wasn't sure what to add to a colour like this, so I just added some tips, played around with some striping tape and added a metal butterfly embellishment. No top coat applied to these: