Ombre Nails

This is my favourite look for my nails recently. I tried it with pinks as seen here and now I've experimented with my collection of blues.

The new fashion manicure has been getting a lot of admiring glance, will you be trying this trend?

Take a look at some other Ombre manicure’s i love and keen to try…

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Look out for my next nail post featuring Shellac.

Multi-coloured Mani

Some of you eagle-eyed readers may have already spotted my bright nails in my last post, so here’s a close-up.

L-R: Bourjois Bleu model 44, Revlon Pretty in Papaya 315, Nails Inc Candy Orange 121, Bourjois Lime catwalk 38, Revlon Passion Fruit 375.

After i saw Fee from MakeupSavvy post on the new Bourjois nail colours, i couldn’t wait to pick up some the neon shades. Currently on 3 for 2 in Superdrug (remember to use your Beautycard) i selected Lime Catwalk 38, Bleu model 44 and Jaune trendy 39 (not shown).

These are my first Bourjois polishes and i am impressed, all you need is two coats for full even coverage. They boast an ultra shine and hold finish which lasts for 7 days. I’m currently on day 4 and there are no signs of chipping or wear, unlike the Nails Inc and Revlon colours. So a big thumbs up from me!

Jump for my love

A few weeks ago the lovely llymlrs tweeted two H&M codes which gave you £15 off your order so i hotfooted over to their website (which they really need to improve) and picked up a pair of printed trousers which you will see later and this leopard print jumpsuit. I paid about £6 for both and £3 of that was postage – bargain.

This is my first jumpsuit and i was a bit dubious over whether to keep it just because it has that harem style going on which can look a bit dodgy,  but I’ve decided i can get away with it by pulling the trouser part higher so they’re more high-waisted. The jumpsuit is quite casual but to dress it up a little i would add some high heels and a black blazer. The obvious problem with jumpsuits is the toilet issue, i won’t say anymore than that but you know what i mean! I can overlook that though because they’re so comfy and when i get bored with wearing it for day it can double up as my winter pyjamas – toastie!

In other news, my friend has just trained in Minx nails  and work are introducing Shellac nails so I'm very excited to try them soon, but for now I’ve been experimenting with polka dots and matte nails. 

Top tip – Use a kirby grip/bobby pin to make the polka dots.

Top tip – Don’t fork out for matte nail polishes, buy No.7’s matte top coat and it’ll transform all your favourite colours.

Anyone got any good and inexpensive nail art tips?

In the Pink

I've been experimenting with my manicure recently and trying different colour combos. For the first time I tried a graduation colour manicure where you paint your nails using one shade from light to dark. What do you reckon?

The colours used from thumb to pinky are: Revlon Passion Fruit, Nails Inc Strawberry Hill, Nails Inc Brompton Place, Nails Inc InStyle Candy and Barry M Berry Ice Cream.

I did get a lot of admiring glances and comments so will be doing this again soon, but which colour palette should i choose next?

Smartie nails

I've been meaning to try this trend for different colour nails for a while now after spying twitpics from Fearne Cotton and Rochelle Wiseman (below).

I wish i could accessorise with that YSL ring - jealous!

With such a huge collection of polishes I'm so indecisive on which colour to paint my nails next, so choosing five solves that and it's also a great way to use up my old polishes. Before anyone complains of plagiarism i want to say credit does go to Make Up Savvy and 25Flondon who blogged about it first.

Seriously you don't know how many attempts it took to try and hold five polishes in one hand and get an alright picture!

Trying to get a bit artistic!

And the polishes in question i used are:
- Barry M Berry Ice Cream (lilac)
- Revlon Blue Lagoon (pale blue)
- Rimmel Apricot Punch (coral)
- Revlon Minted (mint green)
- Nails Inc Spitalfields (yellow)

I really liked the effect and it definitely stops me from getting bored too quickly i can't wait to try it on my toes for summer. Next up i think I'll do graduation nail colours if i can round up enough of the same shade.

What I've been wearing recently...

I think i may over the pastels that are all around at the moment and moving onto the brights and have been looking at ways to inject some colour into my working wardrobe.


Heels or flats? Flats or heels? Can you guess which one i went with?

Top - Topshop
Camel Hareems - Topshop
Jacket - H&M
Belt - Borrowed
Heels - River Island
Flats - New Look

Ah yes, well I've always been a heels girl...

Still feeling the brights i chose Revlon's Passion Fruit as the polish of choice, a vibrant purple from their limited edition scented collection.

My picture shows the colour as a reddy plum but i wanted to show you how it actually looks in normal light, so here's a pic from Chic Beauty Blog.

Don't you just love the purple against that cyan stone ring, the colour compliments perfectly!

Revlon Blue Lagoon NOTD

It seems Revlon have introduced a few new products recently including lip stains to rival Maxfactor and scented nail polishes to rival Rimmel.  I did pick up one of the Just Bitten Lip Stains and the nail polishes were on offer, 2 for £8. I chose a pale blue called Blue Lagoon and a bright coral/red called Pretty in Papaya from the limited edition scented range - reviews to come later.

As with all Revlon pastel shades you need time to get an opaque even application. You would probably need 3 coats over a base coat but my top tip is to paint a thin layer of white first and then 2 coats of the pastel shade - magic! This blue has a hint of silver glitter which you can pick up in the light. I've tried to show in the next picture the shimmer.


Can you see the shimmer?

Overall, i don't think it's one of my favourite colours and i'll only wear it during spring, but i did say that about Minted and now i love that so be prepared for a change of heart!

Blue Lagoon was one of two new spring colours, the other is called Sunshine Sparkle. Check out The Style Of Neighbourhood for Yi's review of Sunshine Sparkle.

Pastel shades meets OOTD's

Inspired by the Parma Violet nails the other day I've decided to keep with the pastel theme and show some love to my favourite polishes for spring.



Revlon - Minted

I really want to love this shade as much as i do in the bottle, but the consistency is very watery so the application goes streaky and you need at least 3 coats to achieve opaque coverage and then you lose the paleness. I think next time i will paint one coat of white underneath first.

Nails Inc - In Style Candy

Now this is my Barbie polish, a true bright but baby pink that's opaque after just one coat - yes only one coat application so great for on-the-go, i might even have to do the toes as well just in case it gets warm enough to show them off.

I seem to be in love with shorts at the moment as they're so versatile, work or play, day or night, cold or warm, they do the job. I've been meaning to do an OOTD wearing the Topshop blush shorts but not had chance to wear them out anywhere yet so played a little dress-up for you guys yesterday!

Again apologies for the iphone pic's but i keep forgetting to charge the camera!

Jacket - Topshop (image 1)
Fur gilet - Dorothy Perkins (image 2)
Shirt - Asos
Shorts - Topshop
Leggings - Primark
Boots - Office
Clutch - Warehouse

I was undecided whether the outfit look best with the aviator or fur gilet, what do you think?

NOTD

The sun was shining for at least a few hours the other day and i nearly thought spring had arrived, embracing the season i decided to paint the nails a pastel shade that reminds me of Parma Violets.



Avon - Luxe Lavender

 The colour is actually paler than the photo shows just like the sweets - mmm good enough to eat!

It's all grey-vy (sorry!)

Today's outfit was a LGD (Little Grey Dress). It was just about acceptable for my work code of dress when teamed with some opaques - I'm not sure i could ever wear it with bare legs :P

Dress: Asos

Tights: Primark

Shoes: Faith

I've cut my face out as this was taken after work and I'd been up since 5am so definitely not looking my best.

I love the design of this dress, it's quite simple with cap sleeves and pleated detailing - see below for close-up...

Apologies for the lack of flash but it was just emphasising how dirty my mirror is

And then i came home to a parcel - my eagerly awaited Nails Inc flash sale buy. On Friday Nails Inc tweeted they were having a flash sale (can't remember the occasion) with up to 77% off, so you know me, I'm a bit of a Nails Inc whore and couldn't resist the Glamour Collection which includes 6 nail polishes for £15!!!

The polishes came beautifully presented in a small box wrapped in black tissue paper....

And inside....ta-dah!

So on the top row we have from left-right....

Tower Bridge - Deep Burgundy brown
Duke Street - Mauve/ grey
Motcomb Street - V.dark navy/black - looks black at first glance but you can see navy blue running through

And bottom row left-right....

Birdcage Walk - soft marshmallow beige/pink
Chester Square  Burgundy/wine
Pembroke Close - Lilac

Now immediately Duke Street stood out as my favourite and seeing as i was wearing grey (hence the title) i thought it would match my outfit nicely - pretty pointless as i was already at home as had planned at night in watching The Brits.

Now it looks very distinctly like a flat grey in the NOTD and a little similar to my Rimmel Grey Matter as seen here but on close inspection you can pick up on the purple undertone making it more of a mauve colour. Grey nail polish has been having a bit of a moment during A/W '10 and works well with my office attire.

I'll do NOTD with the rest of the colours in due course.

Before i go i want to say a big congratulations to Tinie Tempah on scooping 2 Brit awards, i have his Disc-Overy album constantly on repeat on my ipod, its in my car and my workout CD! I'm going to post a pic soon complete with geeky glasses to commemorate!!

Work OOTD

Hi guys, just a quickie office OOTD from this week. The dress code at work is supposed to be smart but not suited and booted smart, think more advertising office smart, so at least we stamp our personality and individuality into our look. I have to be honest the following look doesn't really showcase this though - oops!



Apologies for the grainy iphone pics

Top - Miss Selfridge

Jacket - Warehouse

Trousers - Miss Selfridge

Shoes - River Island

This outfit does feature two of my wardrobe hero pieces. The first is the jacket, which i got in the sale recently and is perfect for slipping on over little camis and summer tops for the office and instantly smartens up your look and equally works well with jeans for day and night. The perfect cover-up for all seasons. The second hero piece are the trousers, it's not really these in particular trousers but the style, i am loving cropped, peg-leg and harem trousers. In summer i can't live without my skinnies and these are the work/office equivalent. They're great with flats and heels, for work or play, not to mention leg-lengthening effects!

The look was completed with my new statement ring from Dorothy Perkins which i mentioned previously but didn't have a photo ready so here it is:

I was playing around with my fringe that day and managed to find a good look - not managed to recreate it again though damn!

I must sort out my foundation! Face and chest two totally different colour MAC here i come...

I'm torn between growing out the blunt fringe or keeping it, so at the moment it looks a mess but nothing a bit of hairspray and kirby grips can't sort out.

And as promised yesterday's NOTD featuring Nail's Inc/ Diet Coke's Denim.

This colour looks better in the bottle than on and i was a bit disappointed as it doesn't seem as bright. You can get full cover with just one coat so plus points for that, but i can't really comment on durability as i accidentally painted basecoat instead of topcoat on one hand so had to take it off after one day! Matte one hand and gloss on other hand is not a good look. 

Anyway over at Saskia the Style Fairy you can find a great leopard print NOTD using Caramel and Heather Grey from the Diet Coke collection, as i already have the Caramel i going to try my hand and get a bit creative - fingers crossed!

Check out the link to Saskia's blog: http://saskiathesalsafairy.blogspot.com/2011/01/nails-incdiet-coke-leopard-notd.html

Have a great weekend!!

Nails Inc and Diet Coke

Nails Inc have introduced a few Limited Edition polishes my highlights are Foubert's Place and Porchester Square. Very on-trend for spring/summer.

Porchester Square

Porchester Square is a muted mushroom described as an "ultra delicate putty shade".

Foubert's Place

Foubert's Place is described as a cook khaki influenced by the collections from John Galliano and Yves Saint Laurent.

Now these are priced at £11 as usual.

Just to mention Diet Coke and Nails Inc have teamed up again. Boots have brought back the "Buy 2 bottles of Diet Coke and receive a free Nails Inc polish" offer back - hurrah!! Diet Coke is also on offer in Boots - buy 2 bottles for about £1.80 so for less than a fiver you can get two full sized Nails Inc polishes worth £11 each - bargain.

Now last time i left it late and the decent colours had all gone. But a trip to Boots in Leicester's Highcross revealed the choice of four colours were still available.
Tip: More polishes are at the till!

I picked up Denim (denim blue funny enough!) and Caramel (soft beige/nude).

I was keen to do a NOTD with Caramel as it's a perfect office-appropriate colour. Can't really comment on wear/chipping yet but you know i'm a huge fan of Nails Inc anyway. It's very similar in tone to my skin colour so it may wash me out a little but do i care? Hell no! I'll be awaiting some admiring glances from work!!!

Keep an eye out for a Denim NOTD but for now here's some images of the Catwalk Collection  taken from I heart Cosmetics.

You'll notice the Caramel would compliment Foubert's Place and Porchester Square perfectly and if you're buying all three you've got a great muted/nude collection.



Pre-Xmas beauty buys

I'm so excited to tell you that my Urban Decay Naked Palette arrived - yay!! Disappointingly i had to reorder from Boots as it was sold out at Debenhams despite them taking my order, not good customer service guys. Anyway Boots can deliver to your store free of charge and don't forget the points. I think this is possibly the most beautiful palette i own, all the colours are amazing and i love the combination of the different eyeshadow textures from shimmer to matte, perfect for day and night. I was so excited to use the palette that the following day i decided to experiment for work, but i didn't really give myself enough time and went a little crazy with the shimmer shadows that i ended redoing my eye makeup 4 times, not happy as I've wasted the primer already. I got a little frustrated so haven't got an EOTD to post but rest assured the primer i absolutely love and can't believe it's not been in my life before - this is one product that is going to become a staple of my daily make-up routine bye-bye creased eyeshadow, hello smouldering smokey eyes! I used the primer under an Avon smokey grey combo and it lasted all day, so no need for lunchtime touch-ups, although after the morning i had i was still trying to remove the amount of glitter drop-out i had all over my face from playing around with the shimmers - best left for night i think.

Urban Decay Naked Eyeshadow Palette



From L-R; Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal.

I won't bore you with the same spiel as everyone else or the swatches as there are plenty already out there in the blog world and on eBay, but my opinion is i prefer the darker shades, my personal favourites are Darkhorse, Smog, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal. I sometimes find bronze and golds hard to work with because of my olive skin tone so I'll be looking for some tutorials on YouTube for some tips, if anyone has any for me to try please feel free to share.

Now I've mentioned before i work in a health spa and unfortunately for my bank account we have a beauty shop (and a generous 25% discount) which just so happens to have had their latest delivery of Christmas gift sets. These usually sell out fast and with over 100 therapists at work i need to get in there first. The gift sets are amazing value for money and make great gifts for the family. My mum is always partial to an Elemis Pro-Collagen Quartz set!

I picked up some Spa Find (sometimes referred to as Finders) sets, which is a natural mineral skincare brand. Their products include Dead Sea Minerals and organic plant extracts great for re-hydrating the skin. They don't contain prabens or genetically modified organisms (GMO's) and are hypo-allergenic and importantly not tested on animals, thumbs up! Spa Find is extremely good for people who suffer from dry skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis as their products are really gentle on the skin including their mineral exfo which is a fave of mine, also they can be used by people with an external nut allergy. I should be on commission hehe!

I got two gift sets, the first is the Lovely Glow Spa Luxury Exfoliation Set which costs £25 but worth £45 (lucky me, i get a 10% staff discount).

Spa Find Lovely Glow gift set



A peek of what's inside...

Included is:
- Radiance Anti-Ageing Cranberry Salt Brushing 500g
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Bath Shower Gel 15ml
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Body Lotion 15ml
- Heavenly Hydration Hand Care Cream 15ml
- Luxury Spa Candle ( smells de-lish!)

The second set is the Lovely Body & Hair Spa Body & Hair Set for deep nourishment £35 worth £92.

Spa Find Lovely Body & Hair gift set

Spa Find inside sneak peek

This set is bloody brilliant if i do say so as the products are FULL SIZE!!!
Included:
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Body Lotion 400ml
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Bath Shower Gel 400ml
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Shampoo 400ml
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Conditioning Scalp and Body Mud 500ml
- Heavenly Hydration Salt Brushing 50g
- Luxury Pumpkin Wash Puff

I bought both body sets but there are others available including face and hands. I do have duplicates of the products so i will be putting all the sample sizes in a gift set for Xmas for someone. The only downside to the sets is the packaging its a little cheap and tacky, a bit Superdrug, but I'll probably keep the smaller red bag for my ever-expanding cosmetics. Both gift sets come with  "Home Spa Regime" with instructions on how and when to use the products. Can you guess what I'll be doing tonight?

Please find the link below of details of all their gift sets for Christmas 2010,
http://www.spafindskincare.com/tradeonly/latestnews_2007.htm. It doesn't look like they've got the sets I've bought available to buy online but try emailing for stockists.


A quick NOTD to finish, i've painted my nails using the freebie Ciate nail polish from this month's Marie Claire in Dangerous Affair 013.



Ciate Dangerous Affair 013 without flash

Ciate Dangerous Affair 013 with flash


I can report it is day 2 and after a full day's work including typing there are no signs of chipping so so far so good. I did mention before that there is a 15% discount off Ciate on the box but there is also a 25% discount offered in the magazine p.131.

I wanted your opinion on FrontCover make-up from Boots, there deal of the week is a FrontCover To Go gift set complete with 20 removeable eyeshadows and interchangeable compact reduced from £35 to £16. Is it worth it and is the range any good? http://www.boots.com/en/Front-Cover-To-Go-Eye-Collection_1115227/?cm_mmc_o=HFzbkCjCWwclkwffwyCjCioviviCjC_zEEwyv&?cm_mmc_o=HFzbkCjCWwclkwffwyCjCioviviCjC%20C%20
They look ok and the price is good, it only runs until Thursday so i would love to hear from anyone on this please. To buy or not to buy?!

Much love xx