Festive Nails!

Hello!  I feel like I haven't posted on here in sooo long!  I'm not even sure why?  I've just been  busy working and applying for jobs and stuff, not really had any motivation for blogging sadly!  

I've kind of decided what I would like to do as a career if possible.  I'd like to get into merchandising; they are the ones who work out how much stock goes where, and when to run promotions and markdowns going by the sales figures etc.  I have a background in maths and also in retail so it seems like something I can do!  Unfortunately most head offices are in London which would mean moving away from home but I'm not sure if I'm quite ready for something like that yet!  I have found one vacancy in Scotland so we shall see...  If anyone knows of any head offices that are in Scotland please let me know so I can investigate haha!

Never mind blogging, I've not actually painted my nails in over a month, it's shocking!  I actually felt like a 3 year old when I was doing it, I'm so out of practice... Also my nails are such a mess at the moment but never mind, at least now they look kind of cute and Christmassy.

I've used Nails Inc Victoria & Albert as the red underneath (only needed one coat!) with Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow over the top.  There are smaller gold particles which are much more visible in person and give it a nice shimmer.

PS do you like my Christmas duvet set?  I got it from Primark - love it!

<3

Nail Varnish Challenge #19

This is Wimpole Street from Nails Inc which seems to have been discontinued :( It's a deep, metallic purple colour.  Again, not something I would normally wear as it's quite dark but I do quite like it and it's perfect for Autumn!  I think I'll hold onto this one!  As you can see there's some tip wear but I took the photo about 36 hours after painting them so it had lasted quite well, and it's still looking pretty good considering how bad my nails usually are.

<3

Nail Varnish Challenge #18

I'm nearly finished my Nail Varnish Challenge!  There's only about 3 or 4 left in my box, yay!  This is The Serpentine from Nails Inc which described as a "muted navy slate" on their website, which I think is a perfect description.  Although this is isn't a colour I'd normally wear - it's a bit dark - I do quite like it.  However I found it shrunk quite a lot with Seche Vite and chipped even more quickly than normal on my nails!  Despite this unfortunate occurrence, I think I'll hold onto this one, I do have one other navy but it's more shimmery so this is a bit different.

<3

Nail Varnish Challenge #12

This one I definitely got from Diet Coke haha!  It is called London and it's a creamy taupe colour.  It's one of the few nude shades own, I'm not a huge fan of nudes on my nails cos I find them a bit boring!  I actually quite like this colour although it is slightly too dark for my skin tone.  I think this is quite similar to Barry M Mushroom although I don't own that shade to compare.  I am going to keep this as I have so few nudes, it might come in useful one day!

I decided to jazz it up a bit by adding Color Club Covered in Diamonds which also counts as #13 too!  I was so hopeful about this nail varnish but it's not the best... The flakies are so chunky and really stick out on the nail so you need to work quite hard to get a smooth, even coverage, and then top with a good top coat.  Overall I do quite like the effect this gives but it would probably be too much effort to do it on each nail!  I will keep this nail varnish too.

<3

Nail Varnish Challenge #11

Most of the ones I have left to use are very autumny colours, wahh!  However this one stood out to me so I chose it to use this time.  This is Victoria & Albert by Nails Inc and I think that I may have got it from a magazine, or free with Diet Coke, I'm not 100% sure!  For some reason I rarely wear red nail varnish and I have no idea why, it is stunning!  It was almost opaque in one coat, but as always, I gave it two and it was quite shiny without topcoat - but again, I applied it anyway!

Red nail varnish has a very glamourous feel to it.  It may have just been the warm weather we had on Friday but I actually felt more confident wearing this on my nails!  I am definitely going to keep this one, I need to wear this more often!

<3

Nail Varnish Challenge #8

... And #9!  I've created this french manicure style using two Nails Inc nail varnishes, Little Venice and Festival Pier (L-R).  Little Venice is a bit streaky but it turned out okay on some fingers.  Festival Pier looks much more neon in the photos than it is in person!  It does have a slight neon-ness to it which shows up in the photos a lot.  I do love this colour but as I remember from wearing it previously, it chips very quickly, even for me!  I applied this on Saturday night and by Sunday morning it was chipped...  I think I will keep Festival Pier but get rid of Little Venice cos it seems quite similar* to Topshop Milkshake which I prefer.

*Milkshake is more pink and Little Venice is more peachy/nude but I don't often wear those sort of colours so one is enough!  You can see Milkshake here for comparison.

<3

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.

<3

Nail Varnish Challenge #5

The next nail varnish in my challenge is Nails Inc The Southbank which I got in a set of 4 from QVC years ago, I think the others are in the box too actually!  It is a nice light grey creme, opaque in two coats.  I do like it but I think it's pretty boring and I feel like I want to do something to it to add some excitement!  For example, I think it would be an excellent base for stamping.

<3

Empties #3

Once again I have accumulated 5 empty products, so let's take a look!

Boots Botanics Enriching After Colour Conditioner

Thoughts: I love this conditioner but sadly it only comes with the Botanics hair dyes.  It smells amazing, I tried to find a similarly scented Botanics conditioner one day but to no avail. 

Cruelty-free?: Yes.

Repurchase?: I would probably buy the dye again, and I'd buy it individually if possible.

Naked Clear Anti-Dandruff Shampoo

Thoughts: My scalp has become quite dry and flaky the past couple of years.  It only seems to be at the front, I think that it follows from my forehead as I get random dry patches there and around my hairline for some strange reason.  I really didn't find this helped at all.  I do like Naked's hair stuff but unfortunately this one did not do what it was meant to do!

Cruelty-free?: Yes.

Repurchase?: No.

Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel Cleansing & Toning Wipes

Thoughts: This must be, what, my 20th pack of these?!  This is what I use to take my make up off every night (yes shocking I use wipes and not a cleanser haha!) and I really like them!  You're not meant to use them on your eyes but I do anyway, they're fine for me, which is weird because Simple wipes burn my face!  If I am wearing heavy eye make up then I use a separate eye make up remover first, but I usually only wear mascara and occasionally eyeliner for my every day make up. 

Cruelty-free?:  Yes.

Repurchase?: Yes.

Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Basecoat

Thoughts: I liked this basecoat but it's quite expensive, and as you can see there's still quite a bit left in the bottom but it's too thick now to use and hard to reach with the brush!

Cruelty-free?: Yes.

Repurchase?: I think I got it in a set with the top coat which I wasn't very impressed with it.  If it was under the £10 mark I'd be more likely to repurchase.

Mitchum Advanced Control Anti-Perspirant & Deodorant

Thoughts: I bought this because Mitchum are owned by Revlon and at that point I though Revlon were CF.  I didn't like this deodorant, I didn't really feel like it worked which is never good!  I gave up on it even though there is still some left.

Cruelty-free?: No, Revlon are no longer cruelty free.

Repurchase?: No.

<3

NOTD: Red Half Moon Mani

Wee bit of a different NOTD today!  I created a (messy...) half moon manicure using Nails Inc's Victoria and Albert, so I thought I'd do a mini tutorial sort of thing to show you how I did it.

All you need are hole reinforcement rings which you can buy in most stationary shops, and your normal base coat, colour and top coat.  You can also use a base colour after your base coat, then you will have a colour showing through rather than your natural nail - shown below.  Just make sure the base colour is totally dry before the next step!

Then all you need to do is apply the circles to your nails, trying to make them as central as possible.  You can also cut them in half so you don't use as many, I couldn't find my scissors for this one though!  Next you paint around the stickers, taking care as some can still get underneath.  I used two coats then once they were dry, gently peeled off the circles and applied a top coat.  It's also quite easy to get the colour onto the bare area when putting on the topcoat so you just need to be careful with this, always start at the bottom and try not to go over it too much.

Excuse the really old photo on the left, only one I seem to have taken of those nails, so silly!!

You can also do it freehand to create a V shape instead, but I found it so difficult to get the sides even!

<3

NOTD: Minty + Update!

I painted my nails using Haymarket by Nails Inc, I have had this for a couple of years but I don't think I've ever actually used it which is a bit odd!  Clearly I have far too many nail varnishes!  It is a lovely minty colour however the formula is quite thick and gloopy, it had also separated and it took a lot of work to get it back into one solution!  Saying this, it was actually opaque in one coat which is fantastic!  However just out of habit I applied two coats.  They dried to a sort of semi-matte finish which I then Seche Vite-d to get them nice and shiny!  I really need to find out if Seche Vite are cruelty free or not, I will be sad not to be able to buy another one.

I did this last night and took photos tonight so excuse the chipping!  My nails are terrible for this, especially as I was at work today and that can be tough on them.

Feel free to stop reading now if you just want to see my nails haha, but I thought it would be nice to do a sort of chatty update of my life as I've not really done anything like that before.

I am in third year of uni at the moment studying maths, which I hate, don't get me wrong I do love maths (GEEK :)) but I'm just not getting on well with uni at all at the moment.  Last year I had 3 resits and only passed two, meaning I had to carry over a subject in the second semester of this year, so this semester was really tough. 

At my uni we usually do 3 subjects per semester and then because of my one from second year I was doing 4 in the 2nd one.  I ended up failing all of my subjects in the 2nd semester - although I did pass the one from second year, yay!  And I had failed one in the first semester, leaving me with 4 resits in August!  I genuinely did study a lot, but clearly there was something fundamentally wrong with my methods, or unis methods, or something! 

I am planning to sit, and hopefully pass, two of my resits in August and then go back to sit the other two exams next year with the students from the year below me.  I also have got a tutor to help me, and basically teach me everything haha!  So only having 2 resits is definitely taking the stress off a little bit.  The only thing is now that come September I will need to find some sort of full time job to pass the time, eeek, terrifying!!!

I want to go to college to do make up artistry, I tried to apply this year to do it but I somehow missed it!  I was raging!  So I just need to find something to do until next August if I managed to apply and get in next time.

Also I don't know if I mentioned this but I passed my Grade 5 Singing exam!  I was so pleased!  I did really well for my songs, like, surprisingly well, however I did really badly in aural and sight singing which brought me down a lot.  I am still so happy though because other than my singing lessons, I've never had any other musical training like at school, so the theory side of it I really struggle with.

Well done if you made it through that!  Remember if you follow me to enter my giveaway :)

<3

8 Favourite Nail Varnishes: Swatches

So this is a sort of follow-up post from my Day 8 of The 10 Day Makeup Challenge. I showed my 8 favourite nail varnishes (very difficult decision) but only in the bottles, and I definitely prefer seeing swatches of colours cos you can't really tell when they are just in the bottle! I got my nail wheels the other so I thought that this would be a good use of my first wheel!

Barry M - Navy
O.P.I. - Russian Navy
Nubar - Prize
Barry M - Raspberry

Nails Inc. - Victoria & Albert
O.P.I. - Up Front & Personal
O.P.I. - Designer... de Better! from The Muppets Collection (swatches here)
Models Own - Juicy Jules

The photo definitely does not do Prize any justice, it's a beautiful bright pink holographic polish but it doesn't show up well with my camera.  This is a really good toenail colour!  It's my only Nubar polish but I love it and can't wait to get some more.

I also wanted to show a combination of two of these which I love.  It is Designer... de Better with Juicy Jules over the top, it's sooo sparkly and gorgeous!  I did a NOTD on my tumblr using this a couple of months ago, click here to see it.

While I was there I also decided to demonstrate just how much glitter is in Nails Inc's Shelton Street!  It's crazy!  Shown below is one coat, compared to two coats of Juicy Jules in 2nd photo down.  I kind of wish it wasn't so opaque to be honest, glitter is one of those things you should be able to build it up you so wish.  Never mind, it's impressive alone anyway!

<3