Illamasqua Nail Varnish 'Haul' with Swatches

So remember I said I wasn't going to buy any more nail varnishes until I completed my nail varnish challenge?  Well, I lied.  It was an offer I couldn't resist!!

 

In case you hadn't noticed, over the Easter Weekend, Illamasqua carried out an 'Easter Hunt' game on their website where each day certain colours would be up to 50% off.  I really wanted them to do blushers but unfortunately they only did eyeshadows, nail varnish, pure pigments and lipsticks.  I took advantage of the nail varnish and pigment offers getting Hemlock (shown above) and Beguile.  I also really wanted (full price of course!) Pink Raindrops so I stuck that in the basket too!  Luckily I get student discount so I didn't pay full price for any items and paid just over £25 for the 3 bits - with free delivery.

I've never tried nail varnishes from Illamasqua before so I wasn't sure what they would be like.  I still haven't tried them on my nails yet but below are swatches of them both on a nail wheel.  I was a bit disappointed by Pink Raindrops to be honest, but maybe the sparkles will come to life with a top coat.  Hemlock is really pretty but obviously very sheer - I used two coats for each colour.  After first use I decided I hate the packaging!!  When I tighten up the square lids, they don't sit on straight and it makes me irrationally angry!  I love the Butter London packaging cos the lid comes off and there's a separate one underneath so the square lid always sits neatly - I think Illamasqua should consider that idea!

Just for fun I picked out a few colours I thought might look good with Hemlock on top, and I also put it over some of the ones which were already on the wheel so have a look below for those:

Nail Varnishes used in the first post were:

Nails Inc - The Southbank
Topshop - Hidden Treasure
Barry M - Silvery Lilac
Ciate - Skinny Jeans
Nails Inc - Haymarket

The other colours are from the neon Clubworks set I got for christmas.

I think it looks nice over the Ciate one, and the greens, orange and pink neon colours!  It adds an extra depth to the colour.

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Nail Varnish Challenge #7

I haven't painted my nails in so long - well I mean since last month which is a long time for me!  This nail varnish is  by Barry M.  It's a dark navy with a subtle metallic shimmer through it.  I have actually only used one coat for this which is pretty impressive!  Generally I don't love dark shades as even though I don't think I'm all that messy at painting my nails, they always look messier than lighter shades!

However, I have decided to keep this one as I don't have anything similar and I think it's a good colour to have in my collection!  Also it's a good toenail colour, I think!

Hayley has joined me in doing a Nail Varnish Challenge so if you like these posts then you should check out her blog to see what she's got in store!

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NOTD: Coral Sun

I bought this Coral nail varnish the other day as Barry M were doing 3 for 2 so I decided to go for this as I don't have one this colours.  Although applying it on my nails it reminded me of the Tangerine nail varnish from Barry M but I haven't compared them side by side yet.  I would assume that Tangerine is more yellow and less pink.

I was looking at this on my nails and it was very uninspiring so I added Models Own Tropical Sun over the top and I love it!  New favourite combination!  Tropical Sun has a gold duochrome and tiny bits of gold glitter in it, it's so pretty when it hits the light.  I wore it to work and got loads of compliments from colleagues and customers.

(I was ambushed by Rory during taking the photos for this, at least he sort of matches!)

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Collection: Lipsticks & Storage

I wasn't happy with my lipstick storage which was basically them all just shoved in a box in a drawer and not very easy to reach for!  However I got a beautiful mirrored jewellery box for my birthday but as I have loads of jewellery boxes already, I decided to use it for my lipsticks!

This is where it sits usually as I keep all my makeup in my bathroom (weird? normal?), but for ease of taking clear photos I moved it to my hall!

In the top I have my purples.  Sadly I only have 3 - plenty of room for more!!  Also because there is space, my Lipcote is in here as well.

In the middle drawer are my pinks.

And in the last drawer are my orange/reds.

So that is my lipstick collection!  Pretty small but growing, I've only recently got into lipsticks and even then I only wear them on nights out/special occasions!  I am going to do a 'most used lip products' post too as I keep those in a separate, more accessible place.

Out of these, the following are not cruelty free: Avon, Lipcote (unknown), MAC and Revlon.

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Louise Loves #3

It's my birthday tomorrow :D It's my 21st and my parents are taking me to the Harry Potter Studios for the day - I'm such a big kid, but I really can't wait!

Silvery Lilac nail varnish by Barry M 

This was the first time I'd worn it and it's so pretty!  However, the main reason it's in my favourites this week is that I painted my nails on Friday night and it was still going strong on Tuesday when I took it off - I only took it off because I wanted a different colour on!  This is verging on a miracle for me!  Nail varnish literally lasts about 48 hours on my nails, I've no idea why but I have just accepted this fact and it doesn't really bother me now.  So when it was still intact after two days at work, I was very impressed, and it continued!

Obviously I used base and top coat and I doubt very much that this would have lasted that long by itself but I used exactly the same products I always use!
[£2.99 from Boots or Superdrug]

Asda Duo Chocolate Spread

Although I'm sure this will be a long-term favourite for me, I thought I'd add it in anyway as I got a new tub this week!  This is another really good vegetarian treat.  After finding out that Nutella wasn't vegetarian (although they did email me to tell me that now it is, however I won't be happy buying it until the packaging states that it is!) I went hunting for an alternative.  A lot of the main brand's spreads are not vegetarian though, Asda included I'm pretty sure.  Tesco's are veggy so I tried them, they were alright but not amazing.  Then randomly I decided to check Asda's and it now states that it is vegetarian!  I got this flavour and the normal chocolate hazelnut, which was nowhere near as nice.  The duo one is a winner, it's really sweet, but not too sweet.

I am a massive weirdo and eat it with sliced apple - it tastes amazing!  But it would be good on toast or however you usually have spread.
[£1.54 from Asda]

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NOTD: Duochromey!!

Without flash, blurry* :( 

I love this colour!  It is Barry M's Silvery Lilac.  It's mainly a silvery lilac colour (wahey!) but it has an amazing green duochrome and also some silver glitter.  The green was so hard to photograph but you can kind of see it in the 3rd photo down.  You can also see from that photo that it is opaque in 'RL' but the flash makes the nail line visible.  This colour is very similar to OPI's Not Like The Movies and you can see my comparison of the two here.

*Does anyone know why when I don't use flash it goes blurry?  It's actually driving me up the wall!  I have a Nikon Coolpix S3100, any help would be appreciated!!

Not Like The Movies Vs. Silvery Lilac

Forgive me if I seem rather obsessed with this sort of colour!  Here is another comparison of O.P.I.'s  Not Like The Movies (not CF, from the Katy Perry Collection), this time with Barry M's Silvery Lilac which is one of their recent releases.  Previously I compared it to Knackered which you can see here.  However Silverly Lilac is much more of a dupe which is very exciting!

In the bottle they look very similar and fortunately this follows through when you apply it to the nail - or nail wheel in this case! 

It is Barry M on the left and O.P.I. on the right, this took a lot of concentration to make sure I didn't forget which was which between coats haha!  I used 3 coats of each to make sure they were opaque.  From the photos you can see that there is a slight difference but it's not all that noticeable!  SL looks a bit more green and NLTM looks a bit more silver.  They both have the subtle glitter through them but in NLTM it just looks like dots rather than glitter, you can really see the sparkle from SL in the out of focus middle photo.

I think that I actually prefer Silvery Lilac which is only £2.99 and cruelty free!  However I haven't actually tried it on my nails yet so when I do I'll show another quite comparison between them.  I am really pleased to have found this, especially as the O.P.I. is just a mini one so won't last for very long!

L-R: Barry M, O.P.I.

L-R: Barry M, O.P.I.

L-R: Barry M, O.P.I.

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NOTD: 'Summer' Brights

The weather in Scotland - and most of the UK I think - has been just horrendous recently, I think this is the worst summer ever weather-wise!  Dreich is such a good word to describe it right now haha!

So in order to cheer myself up I have painted my nails in really bright colours!

I applied Yellow by Barry M on all fingers except my rings fingers which instead I used Punki Pink by Ultra Pro.  The Ultra Pro colour was a naughty impulse buy and having researched it I can't actually find much info on the brand at all, so I am classing this as not cruelty-free and won't buy anything else by them in the future!

The formula on this Barry M one is not so good, some of them are amazing but this one is quite thick and hard to spread evenly.  

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EOTN: Makeshift Teal

Tonight my friends and I sang at friends and family night at a cancer unit.  We really enjoy singing as a group and have put together a choir totally just for fun!  We have been to a few different places now; we sang at that cancer unit and a care home around Christmas time last year, and we also sang at my friend Beckie's wedding (who is in the choir but obviously being the bride she didn't join in!).  Our general theme has been to wear black and then we all have different coloured folders for our song words which we match to our eyeshadow!  My folder is a dark teal sort of colour which is quite a tricky colour to find a matching eyeshadow for, so I just used blue and green and hoped for the best!

Photo from my phone, shows off the highlights better as they get washed out from the flash!

I actually hated this during the process but this happens most of the time for me lol!  I just persevered with it and ended up quite pleased with how it looked.  I used quite a lot of products so I will use bulletpoints below to try and make it clearer!

• UDPP all over the lid (no longer CF - grrrr).
• Covergirl 'green' all over the lid (not CF).
• I then pressed Barry M dazzle dust in 92 over the 'green' (which ends up blue anyway!)
• Then mixing Mildew and Oil Slick from the Urban Decay Ammo Palette (no longer CF) together on a tapered brush I applied this into my crease and blended it out.
• I then used the blue and green shadows from the E.L.F. Eye Transformer palette, blue around the inner corner and up then green under the brow bone, blending them together.
• I used the Covergirl 'green' under my lower lash line.
• Finally I applied black gel eyeliner along the upper lashline, and then mascara - Bourjois Fast & Perfect - on upper and lower eyelashes.

'Green' is second on the right - got this in Florida years ago

I used the two outer shadows here

The E.L.F. palette is fantastic, it is an almost-but-not-really dupe for the Naked Cosmetics Ivory stack.  These are perfect for highlighting the inner corner as they are subtley coloured.  From left to right they are green, gold, pink and blue.  You can also apply them over different colours such as black and it creates a really nice iridescent shimmer.

Oh and I had my music exam yesterday!!  It wasn't too bad,  it wasn't perfect and my nerves were definitely showing but we'll see in two weeks when I get my results!  I feel like I can finally relax for a bit now, phew!

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Pre-Payday Shopping Trip!

I had the day off today and didn't really want to sit in the house all day so I ventured out to another town with a shopping centre 15 minutes away for a bit of a change.

I wanted to go to Wilkinsons because they usually have nice stationary but I was quite disappointed with their range today, I just ended up getting a recycled nu: notebook for £1.10.  But then I realised there was a b&m shop across the other side from the shopping centre so I decided to have a look in there.  It's so huge! I've never been in one before, it reminded me of the big shops in America!  So I found a couple of really cute notebooks for 99p each, one has cupcakes on it and the other has apples!  I also picked up one of those money tins which you need a tin opener to get into to stop you from taking money out if every time you're skint, this was 89p.

Make up wise I went into Superdrug as they have a 3 for 2 on, so tempting, wish I could shop there more often -.-  Anyway I got Barry M nail varnish in Silvery Lilac, Revlon Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti, Revlon Just Bitten stain in Frenzy and MUA eyeshadow in shade 16.

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