EOTD #1

2014 was a year where I practically had zero amount of time to experiment with makeup so now, in 2015, I am trying to make up for that. Digging through some of my favourite eyeshadows I put together some that I hadn't worn together before.

I started with a L'Oreal Paris Infallible Eyeshadow in 'Forever Pink' along the first 2/3 of my lid. Then I reached for my Nudes palette from Chi Chi. On the remaining 1/3 of my lid I reached for a dark brown with some shimmer, In the crease I used a matte medium brown, again from the Nudes palette. Underneath my brow and in the inner corner of my eye I used a shimmery highlighting shadow from the Nudes palette. I blended like crazy, maybe I blended too much? The mascara I used was Maximum Definition Volume Mascara from Essence. This is a great mascara for everyday, I really love it.

I'm only beginning to experiment with eyeshdows (I usually only ever wear one or two eyeshadows at the same time) so let me know what you think of this...and if you have any tips :)

Thanks for reading!!!

Face of the day #1

Yesterday morning I was in the mood for doing something a bit different with my make-up for the day.

As I was in the mood for experimentation I decided to use a combination of primer and bb cream, something I don' think I have done before. The primer I used was Revlon's Photoready Perfecting Primer. I haven't used this primer much so I don't really have a strong opinion of it (yet). But I do like how it feels on the skin. Wanting something foolproof (because I was doing my make-up in a rush and in bad lighting) and natural I used my Maybelline Dream Pure BB Cream in 'light'. This is the only bb cream I have ever loved using and will definitely repurchase it. I then used my holy grail blush, the Rimmel London Match Perfection Blush in 'light/medium'. Sadly I think this has recently been discontinued?! I've been on the hunt for a back-up but I can't find them anywhere! What I love about this blush is that it is foolproof, easily build-able and gives a lovely natural look.

On my eyes I used #2 from the Chi Chi Nudes Palette which is a pearl pinky nude. I don't have the Naked Palette but I believe this is similar to UD's 'Sin' colour. I also used my Rimmel London 'Endless Lash Accelerator' Mascara. This mascara makes my lashes look amazingly long and the brush is really good - very thin and long. 

On the lips I wore Maybelline Baby Lips and Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 'Honey'. 

I was really happy with how this look came together which was nice as I often feel disgruntled with how things turn out! Usually things look better in my head than they do in real life. 

And now a question for you. I have never done a FOTD post before. I don't want to post photos of my face here on the blog. Would you prefer to see swatches on hands or cropped photos of my face? Cheers :)

January Favourites 2014

I cannot believe I'm sitting here writing my first "favourites" post of 2014. It feels like I haven't written one of these posts for ages since I skipped Decembers' because I was focused on getting up my 2013 yearly favourites. And, in some ways January seems to have lasted forever. But now it is the 30th of January and I really should get a move along and tell you all what I loved in January (and stop rambling).

• Chi Chi Nudes Eyeshadow Palette

I didn't use to wear much eyeshadow, but now that I have the Nudes palette I find myself reaching for it all the time. You can create so many different looks with this one palette from day to night time, plus the quality is great. For the daytime I love the matte browns and the rosey coppers for night.

• Rimmel London Match Perfection Blush in 002 Light/Medium 

I'm going to be honest, I never use to wear blush (strange for somebody who blogs beauty I know) because I didn't want to look like a clown but recently I have started dabbling in blush and have loved how it has looked.This match perfection blush is pretty perfect. It's nearly foolproof, lasts a decent amount of time and works well with my skintone. It's also super cheap so if you are thinking about giving blush a go, I definitely recommend this. 

• Maybelline Sea-quins Nail Polish ey

Sea-quins from Maybelline is a stunning teal glitter. Tricky to remove but it's worth it for the sparkles!I'm ashamed how long this sat in my polish drawer before I eventually got around to using it. Lovers of glitter and/or teal...you need this polish :)

• Nyx Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee 

I've raved about this before so I'm going to keep this short. Creme Brulee is the perfect pinky nude gloss. Not sticky, lasts well and feels really moisturising. 

• Nyx Lipstick in Tea Rose

If you after an opaque dusty pink lipstick this could be it! I fell in love with this lipstick after discovering it would last 2+ hours and my munching on snacks. Very impressed with this lipstick and can definitely see myself wearing this a lot in the coming weeks. 

• Nivea Pure & Natural Milk and Honey Lip Balm 

First up, it smells like honey. So I don't think I need another reason why it's in my favourites post but I do have some. This lip balm is very moisturising, lasts on lips for around 2 hours (which in my book is fantastic) and doesn't dry your lips out once it wears off unlike some other lip balms. 

• Physician's Formula Organic Wear Mascara

This mascara has appeared in so many of my favourites posts it is kind of ridiculous. But it never disappoints me so I'm going to say (for the 100th time) that I love this mascara. 

And now time for a short ramble. My final favourite for the month of January is that trolley I used in the photo. This stainless steel, exact replica of a shopping trolley (complete with plastic features, wheels and a fold out baby seat) was a gift from Mum for Christmas. Every time I see these at the shops I think they're great but it's not like you buy yourself a scaled replica of a shopping trolley when you are just out and about...anyway this now lives on my desk and I use it to keep whatever base coat and top coat I'm using plus any polishes I've swatched recently and want to write up a review of. I'm in awe okay? Love it!

Before I forget...sorry about the dodgy photo today. With this crazy heat wave this was all I managed before rushing back inside.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have had a great January. What products have you been loving this month?

Chi Chi Nudes Eye Shadow Palette + BARGAIN Alert

Today I have swatches from Chi Chi's 'Nudes' Glamorous Eye Shadow Palette. Consisting of 12 different shades,  2 matte and 10 shimmers and housed in a sturdy plastic palette, with a clear lid it's a great palette and very good quality...especially considering how cheap it is! I don't personally own the Naked Palette by Urban Decay but I believe it is very similar...

I only recently picked this up so this post will only be swatches but I will do a more in-depth review once I've used it for awhile. Before I get stuck into the swatches though I want to let you know about how YOU CAN GET THIS FOR A BARGAIN!!!Yes I know...I probably went OTT with the bold and the underlining but, seriously, give me a second to explain and you'll be rushing down to the shops to score yourself a bargain :) This palette can be brought alone for $22.95 or you can get it in a gift set with a RRP of $24.95 that also includes a full-sized blush and 4 mini lipglosses. And now here comes the clincher, there is 25% off Chi Chi gift sets at Target at the moment meaning that this palette + full sized blush + 4 mini lipglosses will only cost you $18.71. So you can either buy this palette individually for $22 or buy it in a gift set with a blush and 4 mini glosses for $18.71. Kind of absurd really but nonetheless a great bargain! 

Okay now onto the actual swatches that I promised you...forgive me for getting side-tracked by bargain, pretty please :)

(Shade)

Cheers and have a great weekend!

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 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