Review | The Body Shop Matte Lip Liquid

The Body Shop's Matte Lip Liquid claims to be long lasting with a creamy matte velvet finish that sets with an intense and rich colour pay off. They are 100% vegetarian, don't contain carmine or gluten and are of course cruelty-free.

I have two shades from their collection, 'Nairobi Camellia' and 'Crete Carnation'. 'Nairobi Camellia' is  a neutral dusty pink colour and 'Crete Carnation' is a pinky nude. Compared to 'Nairobi Camellia' 'Crete Carnation' is more pale and a nude whereas 'Nairobi Camellia' is a deeper shade and has more of a berry mauve tone to it. I adore both of these shades and I was really pleased with the range of shades they offered. I am very subtle with my lip colours but I still managed to find two wearable shades in their collection. I often look at the type of products but can't find a shade pale enough or neutral enough...like Huda Beauty for example. I have heard amazing things about their liquid matte lipsticks. But when I swatch them they all seem to bold for me. 

Okay let's get back on track here...the applicator is the typical doe foot applicator. The formula is quite dry when you pull the applicator out of the tube and I often find that not enough product is on the applicator. I always have to dip the applicator back in. Nonetheless the product itself applies the product nicely onto your lips. It feels lightweight and does set but not immediately. Once set your lips still feel lightweight and you can honestly forget that you have anything on your lips. They are very comfortable to wear and don't accentuate your dry lips. Neither do they dry your lips out. 

These last for a minimum of two hours. I find that after 2 hours and 40 minutes I want to do something to with 'Nairobi Camellia'. As it is a bolder colour it is more noticeable when it starts to fade. It fades evenly and you don't end up with a weird outline of your lips. 'Crete Carnation' lasts easily for three hours. I think as this is closer to my natural lip colour it is less noticeable when it starts to wear. 

These retail for $14.00 and overall I really love these matte liquid lipsticks. They are definitely some of the best I have ever tried. 

Easter Dotticure

Hi guys,

Happy Easter!!!

I'm afraid this is going to be a rather chatty post so if you don't like my chattiness feel free to just look at the pictures! Anyway, onto the chat...

When I got home yesterday it was sunny so the beauty blogger in me thought it was a good opportunity to do my nails and then obviously take photos. Winter is coming and the sun is playing hide and seek behind clouds. Why do you think I decided to do a dotticure?

a) I am an expert in dotticures. 

b) I didn't want to study. 

c) I wanted to spend an inordinate amount of time doing my nails, only to ruin them. 

d) Options b and c. 

Did you guess option d? Give yourself a pat on the back because you are correct. By the time I finished my nails it was too dark for photos so I decided to take the dog for a walk (see, I really didn't want to study!). Let's just say it is a bad idea to take a dog for a walk when your nails are still drying. Then, this morning (the walk was yesterday) I decided to do a bit of a clean which only contributed to making the manicure look even more scruffy. 

You probably didn't want to know any of that so I'll move on. The polishes I used for this skittle dotticure were:

That's What I Mint from Essence (mint green). 

Apricot Nectar from Revlon (peach). 

How Do You Lilac It? from Rimmel (lilac). 

Grey Matter from Rimmel (grey, used for the dots). 

Champagne Kiss from Face of Australia (baby pink). 

Platinum from Face of Australia (matte top coat). 

I think it turned out okay considering I wasn't using my brain when I sat down and did the manicure. I love the matte effect and the combination of pastel colours. Now I need to stop procrastinating and get some study done! 

I hope you enjoy your Easter break and have a very safe Easter. 

Cheers :)

Covergirl - Wine to Five + FOA Platinum Matte Top Coat Review

'Wine to Five' from Covergirl is a gorgeous burgundy nail polish. In the polish it looks more like a raspberry shade but on the nails it definitely looks more burgundy. There is still that slight raspberry tinge to it though. 'Wine to Five' is opaque after two thin coats and dries to a shine. I don't love the formula of the Outlast Stay Brilliant nail polishes, they are very thin and I find that I apply too much which then means they take awhile to dry (even with a quick drying topcoat). But that's just because my preference is polishes with a thicker formula. In the photos the polish looks brighter and less burgundy than it does in real life.

Face of Australia currently has a limited edition range of nail polishes out at the moment called 'Screen Siren'. This range includes a matte top coat called 'Platinum'. I applied one coat of 'Platinum' over the top of 'Wine to Five'. It dries very quickly, wasn't streaky and had a good, easy to work with, formula. Unlike other matte top coats I have tried, this top coat kept my nails looking very matte for around two days before developing an extremely low shine. Nonetheless even after two days they were still noticeably matte.

I think this is the start of a matte nail obsession! 

Thanks for reading, 

cheers. 

The Battle Nail Challenge - Holographic vs. Matte

Okay so continuing on with The Battle Nail Challenge today I have for you the battle between holographic polishes and matte nail polishes. I think both holo and matte polishes can look fantastic however I find that both don't tend to last long on my nails :( Holographic polishes are definitely my favourite although I think this love comes more from swatches rather than actually wearing it on my nails - weird I know!

I decided to do a "matte" manicure for this post but if you want to see a holographic post click here to see fishwife by butter london or siw by make up store.

For this manicure I used the following polishes:

• 1 coat of 'Jungle Gem' an indigo teal by Sally Hansen 
• 2-3 coats of Speck-tacular a flakie top coat by Australis
• 1 coat of 'Matte Top Coat' by Chi Chi

I love how flakie top coats look when covered with a matte top coat and same goes for glitters. They still sparkle and have that "light-shift" property but it looks more mysterious. 

I promise I didn't forget about this challenge but somehow ended up starting other challenges and sadly haven't done this for a long time! Bad me!!!! Hopefully I will be able to get back on track now. 

Thanks for reading and take care, 

Cheers

Razzle Dazzler - Matte

Sorry for my lack of posting. Life has been hectic, exams and my dominant wrist is stuck in a brace and giving me hell. Like seriously, now???? Less than a week until my exams and I could barely pick up a pen! Okay, I am sorry for the whinge, I will move onto a happier topic now: GLITTER!!!!!!!!

Cutting to the chase. For this manicure I used a polish from Sally Hansen's Gem Crush series called Razzle Dazzler which is a rosy pink micro glitter with larger silver glitters. I layered it over the top of a pink polish by essence called 'Meet Me Now!' and used two thin coats of 'razzle dazzler'.

It is a very versatile glitter because:

• clear base but because of the dense pink microglitter if you don't want to layer it over another opaque polish you don't have to, a few layers and it becomes opaque all on it's own. 
• dries quickly. 
• applies very easily, don't have to "arrange" the glitters at all. 

It is quite a sparkly polish but I wanted to try something a little different and something more wearable for the everyday. So I decided to put a matte top coat over it (I use chi chi's). 

Cheers, 

31 day challenge - galaxy nails day 19

Galaxy Nails. You are probably expecting me to shudder and run away because I’m not a “nail art” person (yet….) and I’m not known for amazing idea but I actually don’t mind galaxy nails! Surprised???

This is only my second time of galaxy nails so I don’t have a pre-determined routine yet for galaxy nails but I really loved my first attempt {click here to see it} so I was excited for today’s theme! This time I decided to use a purple base for my galaxy nails.

The polishes I used for this manicure are:

Essence – Where is the party?

Revlon – Fierce

Revlon – Bold Sangria

BYS – Crystal Daze
Chi Chi - matte top coat

No matte top-coat

No matte top-coat

No matte top-coat

No matte top-coat

Not sure why but I always love my galaxy nails more with a matte top coat!

Matte

Matte

Matte

Matte

So people following the 31 day challenge will know that galaxy nails is the theme for day 19....and today is day 25. Yes I know I am horribly behind. My stupid nails broke so I cut them all down and decided to re-grow them with TLC. Today I put nail polish on for the first time in two weeks!!!! SHOCK HORROR but then, this evening, one of my nicest nails split so now that it short again and I have a weird split nail I think I am going to have to stop wearing nail polish again and give my nails more TLC :( so sad!

Hope you have a fantastic Saturday!!!!

Please check out everybody else doing this challenge:

Sally Morgan

http://nailpron.blogspot.co.uk/

Nikki Muldrew

http://www.cutie-cles.blogspot.ca

Kimberly Rybak

http://www.bleedglitter.com/

Felicia Renee Banuelos

http://fesnails.blogspot.com/

Belén

http://nailpolishlane.blogspot.com.es/

Cristina Santos

http://theclockwisenailpolish.blogspot.pt/

Courtney Mendoza

http://cute-iclechronicles.com

Natalie Elise

www.walkinmyeyeshadow.com

Rebecca Russell

 http://rebeccasramblings-tenderheartr.blogspot.com/

Jessica Beswick

http://rubysnails.blogspot.com/

Raquel Soares

http://9mluniverse.blogspot.pt/

  

Briana

http://nailacollegedropout.blogspot.com/

Kimberly L

http://to-polish-or-not.blogspot.ca/

Kelly Cooke

http://crazynaillady.blogspot.com

Carina Martins

http://polishitall.blogspot.pt/

Laura Carls

http://justagirlandherpolish.blogspot.com/

The winter challenge day 10 - Galaxy Nails

I don’t know whether I love Fridays or Thursdays more. Fridays are awesome because you know that you the following 2 days are the weekend, which usually equates to some relaxation and a chance to catch-up with friends as well as a desperate catch-up study session. Although sometimes the properties of weekends ruin the weekend for us, with a busy weekend spent catching up and going places and getting home exhausted. On the other hand, Thursdays are pretty good too because you have the excitement of Friday and you can allow yourself to start daydreaming about the weekend.

Anyway, the theme for today is galaxy nails. This was my first time EVER doing galaxy nails and my electricity was out so no internet and no access to any tutorials. Hence I kind of just made it up as I went. Not sure if that is good or bad. Maybe you can be the judge J

I decided to do two different galaxies because I had a couple of ideas and then pick one and do all of my nails using that idea later.

My first idea was to use the following polishes: Revlon’s Midnight Affair, Essence’s In Style (metallic teal), Essence’s blue addicted and then Ulta3’s confetti. Some photos of this idea also include Face of Australia’s aussie nature I read somewhere that galaxy nails are all about adding dimension to your manicure so that is why I chose two different sizes of glitter.

My second idea was a little more crazy but I think I actually like it more. The polishes I used for my second idea were: Revlon’s Midnight Affair, Essence’s In Style, Avon’s Flutterby, and Ulta3’s confetti.

After taking a few photos of both I was on the fence on a couple of issues:

1) Were nails really galaxy nails?

2)  Did I like idea 1 or idea 2 more?

3) Should I experiment some more?

I decided to experiment some more so I did the following layers: midnight affair, blue addicted, face of australia's aussie nature, blue addicted. This made a really cool effort.

I really like how my these ideas turned out, especially idea 2 with the matte top coat on top and I will definitely be doing a full manicure soon and uploading it. I had a lot of fun trying out galaxy nails :)

Here are photos of idea 2 with a matte topcoat, I think this is my favourite!!!

Comments on my galaxy nails?  Hope you have a great weekend!

The Winter Challenge Day 4 - Black Nails

For day 4 of the challenge I wanted to do something different so I decided to play around with my matte top coat by chi chi. As this was to be the first time I used it for 'real' I decided to do three different nails and then continue from there on what I wanted to do for the rest of my fingers. 


I first used Rimmel's 'Black Out' and did two coats. For the matte top coat I used some sticky tape to divide my middle finger diagonally, one side being matte and the other side not matte. For my index finger I painted it matte all over and left my ring finger normal, without the matte top coat, for comparison. 


Long story cut short, it did not work and I am very disappointed in how this turned out. Not only did it just not look that prominent but after only a few hours the matte seemed to disappear and fade away. It is still kind of there, but barely. And I experienced tip wear after 2 hours of wearing it by just surfing the internet and going on facebook (nothing heavy duty like typing an essay or something). 

Here are the photos. I apologise for this boring and bland post but I'm just really disappointed. I didn't even clean away the excess polish sorry! 

Lets hope tomorrow's grey nails go better :)

Cheers