So, so sparkly

I've been an absolute glitter, shimmer and sparkle whore lately. I was doing the matte thing for a while and now I'm back onto glitz and wowza.

So I've got 2 FOTDs for you. The first is with items from Mac's Fabulous Felines (only 2, I didn't get much) and it was for my birthday dinner this past weekend. I was wearing a vintagey pinup dress so I matched my makeup (pic of the dress coming as well...)

Eyes: Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Revlon matte e/s Vintage Lace, Mac Superslick eyeliner in Smokey Noir, Maybelline Lash Stiletto
Cheeks: Mac Stereo Rose
Lips: Mac Liquid Lurex lipstick and Mac Extra Amps dazzleglass (this was SO SPARKLY)
















































Why does my hair ALWAYS ruin photos?! I'll take a perfectly good pic and there's a strand of hair in my face. Every. Single. Time.

My dress for the evening (excuse my diva face):

























I love those shoes but we ended up waiting in queue for a table at dinner for almost an hour with no place to sit, so my feet were killing me very quickly.

Next up is my look from yesterday. The color combo was actually Rob's idea... he shouted silver and green!! So I did it. It totally didn't match with what I was wearing but I really loved the look. My only problem was with the Lancome shadow, I seem to have coverage issues with it... anyone tried that one and had the same issue?

Eyes: Urban Decay Primer Potion, NYX Jumbo Pencil Milk, Lancome Style Section, Mac Swimming (whoop! Got it to show up!), Mac Sassy Grass, Mac Humid mixed with Mink and Sable, Mac Humid used to line, Maybelline Lash Stiletto
Cheeks: Mac Prim and Proper blush
Lips: Wet n Wild 547B, NYX gloss in Chandelier


































































I tried to apply the colors in a diagonal shape, especially with Swimming... you can't really see it in the photos.





















See the coverage issues with the silver color? I don't know if it creases that fast or what.

That's all for now! :)

Making Your Own Nail Polish

Yeah, yeah, nothing original. I wanted to try my hand at it after I was looking at my manicure last night thinking, wow, this looks like Mac Rose pigment in nail polish form. So I looked up how to make nail polish from pigments... and here we are!

First of all, here is my current mani, China Glaze Awakening. It's totally gorgeous even though pink isn't my thing.











































Excuse my sorry nails. Two of them broke last week and I had to cut them all back to match... I want my nails back! It's so hard to paint short ones.

So, onto making my own polishes. You need your loose eyeshadow pigment of choice, a bottle of clear nail polish, and something to drop the pigment into the bottle with. The neck is quite narrow and I originally tried using a teaspoon but that wasn't working. I later used the tip of a metal nail file... that worked fine.





















That's right. I'm making two =P.



















The paper funnel thing DID NOT work. At all.



















We then tried scraping it off of the spoon... a lot got wasted.

For this one, I used Barry M Oyster Grey. Zomg... look at it...




















The pink doesn't show as well in the polish as it does on your eye. I did not take it out into direct sun so it probably will have a secret pink shimmer. Yaaay! I made my own taupey nail polish!




















This was fairly sheer so I added more pigment in. I can't tell you how much I used. Maybe 1/4 of a teaspoon? It would be good in two coats, though.



















You know it's coming...
























































































That's right. I used Barry M Petrol Black. It looks pretty amazing. I had to use quite a bit of this one as the black base was really sheering out when mixed with the clear polish. This will be AMAZING in direct sun light. Totally excited...

When out going for the clear polishes, I picked up two others that I was interested in.























It's LA Splash Golden Seahorses and Sally Hansen Mystic Lilac. Mystic Lilac is new and I think Seahorses has been around for a while. I saw the LA Splash one on Pink Sith and fell in love... didn't even notice that my Ulta carried LA Splash polishes before! They are gorgeous on the nail as well...

























2 coats of this will be love. I know it.

























This is quite sheer but I think it will be good in 2-3 coats.

In case you noticed how odd my nail swatches look of my frankens and the 2 new ones I got... wanna know why? Yep. They're my boyfriend's nails. Mine are painted and he volunteered, because he is amazing. I thanked him, of course:




















He's such a good sport. That's all for today!

Woo! Inspired!

I've been creating some pretty baller looks lately, but they're not photographing :(. The blue on this looks so iridescent and shimmery in person. Oh well, here it is:

Eyes: Barry M dazzledusts in Mushroom, Oyster Grey and Petrol Black, Urban Decay e/s in Aquarius, Petrol Black used as liner... Rimmel VolumeMaxx mascara
Cheeks: Mac Prism blush
Lips: Light pink Sephora lip liner, Mac dazzle lipstick in Hellraiser, little bit of Mac Extra Amps over top

The lipstick is normally way more lilac than this -- the pink lip liner screwed up the color. I don't like it. I have to find an alternative... maybe the clear liner from Urban Decay? The dazzle lipsticks NEED a liner and I got two more last night =/.

2 For 1 Late Night Special

Okay... so it's 9:45AM here. It's late at night SOMEWHERE, right?

I have 2 looks for you today, they were my yesterday and today's looks, respectively. (See, I'm keeping up here...)

This 1st one used mostly Mac... Woodwinked, Steamy, Amber Lights and Cranberry. Lips were Milani Orangina (blotted) with Flurry of Fun (lipglass) over top. Cheeks were Mac Gold Deposit.

I have a bit of creasing going on under one eye, and a fellow blogger asked me if Steamy creased on me; Yes, apparently it does! :( I also can't figure out why my lids look like one solid color as the 3 I used are quite varying.
















































Next up is today's look - I wanted to use my little vial of Rose pigment that I got ages ago. It's chunky! I slid a toothpick around in it and broke some of it up, but I think the seller neglected to tell me that it got wet at some point. The pigment itself is quite thick and piecey, so I used Pixie Epoxy to hold it on.

So, products were Mac Rose pigment, Mac Amber Lights, Ben Nye Aztec Gold, Mac Hepcat and Mac GlamourCheck. On cheeks was the MeMeMe Moon Beam highlighter. Lips were Viva Glam Gaga with Essence Rising Star gloss over top.






































































Oooh... shiny. Rose is very pretty even though it's a PITA to work with. I've seen a ton of pink/gold combos for eyes, lips, etc... but nothing quite like this. It's a darkened pink with bronzey shimmer, gorgeous.

That's all for today! :)

New blog post in 5...4...3...

Yay! I'm alive. I haven't posted in ages. I feel like I have so much to tell you, so this will be a semi long post.

Thanks again to the lovely musicalhouses for guest posting! I will actually be on vacation on September 7 to some unknown time -- we had to move our trip because of my boyfriend's delay in moving here. But he's here now! More on that later...

I've not been doing terribly exciting makeup lately, a lot of looks with the Naked palette mostly... and glittery winged liner. While my boyfriend likes the more dramatic looks, between the heat and him I've been trying to keep it neutral and natural.

I did do a rainbow look this past weekend though, it came out really nice except I couldn't photograph it. Oh my god, I must have taken 30-35 pictures INDOORS of it... then the outdoors ones. I used the yellow, orange and red from Sleek Circus, Sassy Grass and Zingy from Mac, and MUFE #92, of course. None of the pics really came out well... but here's what I have:
















































At least you can kind of see the double liner in the bottom pic and the 2nd half of the rainbow ><. So frustrating! My camera auto corrects red-orange-yellow and I can't get it to stop.

Next up, I had a $40 gift card to Mac and was up in Richmond near a freestanding store, so I could actually use it. I kind of had a hard time choosing anything to be honest, as I had gotten my Dare to Wear items and Fab Felines isn't out yet. I wandered... and then decided on a lipstick and two eyeshadows:

































































It's Expensive Pink, Steamy and Hellraiser lipstick from the Digi-Dazzle collection. I haven't used either of the eyeshadows yet as I keep forgetting, but I will post when I use both of them. Swatches:




















I think they're gorgeous! I'm quite pleased... we'll see how easy they are to work with. The lipstick isn't the greatest swatch -- it has a ton of blue and silver glitter in it. You actually SEE it when you apply the lipstick. Think Dazzleglass in a lipstick form. I like it but it's a bit of a pain to wear as the glitter travels like crazy. I am going to try it with a light pink lipliner.

Next up, I did B2M 12 empties (including a shadestick that I never use... lol) and picked up two lipsticks. I wasn't sure what I wanted and the girl was helpful in getting me two shades. I ended up with Odyssey (which I saw on Temptalia and loved, and not sure about it on me) and Fresh Moroccan. The girl picked Fresh Moroccan due to my hair color and all... I like it, it's just a bit high maintenance. I hate wearing lip liner (they always dry out my lips) and it's definitely necessary with this. I have photos of me wearing them...

























Odyssey. This is a really pretty berry shade. I like that it's not messy and stays put, and I think it will be a staple color of mine for fall. It's a bit slippery and I found that it worked better when I DIDN'T apply gloss over top.
















































Fresh Moroccan. It's a bronzey red... but still works on me somehow. This is also kinda my FOTD from yesterday, even though I don't know why my lids look discolored? I did take it at the end of the day...

Also, a quick outfit of the day, I liked this dress a lot and it seemed like it would be popular on here:

























The dress is Forever21, tights are Charlotte Russe, and shoes are from Burlington (Bumper brand??)

Lastly, why I've been so busy lately and not posting:




















Yep. He's here! Permanently... provided he doesn't get deported... lol. It's a long story. We've still got a long way to go. I'm trying to keep up with the blog but it just seems like every day, we've got something to do. I thought I could work on this last night and then we found out that the potential employer my dad knew wanted him TODAY, and we had to run out and buy him spare work clothes and shoes as its manual labor in 90 degree heat. He'll be bringing in money though and it's something -- considering we can't legally have him work for another month or so, at least I won't be bleeding money trying to support both of us. Anyway, enough moaning about my immigration troubles! lol

Guest Post: An Introduction to UK Nail Polish Brands

So the title says "Guest Post". That's right, Cydonian is away and I'm standing in for her! Awww, aren't I nice? :P She requested a blogpost on UK-based nail polish brands, and I obliged. Originally, I was supposed to do some swatches from my decent-sized UK nail polish brands stash, but due to unforeseen circumstances (bathroom overflowing - you can read about it in my own blog HERE, I swear it's beauty related!) and foreseen circumstances (like my thesis, which is due at the end of this week), I haven't been able to do swatches at all.

So, I've opted to go for the easy way out - do a compilation of some of my previous NOTDs by brand, with a quick low-down on each brand! So yes, the pictures all have my blog's watermark on them, but it's OK, because they're used with permission! :D

So here's to UK Nail Polish Brands 101! This might be followed by UK Nail Polish Brands 102, if there is time.

Brand #1: Barry M
Price: Low
Availability: High
Quality: Mostly Average
Colours To Try: Mushroom, Vivid Purple, Racing Green, Grey, Navy

Barry M's are one of the most talked-about UK brands outside of the UK, so they're a good brand to start with. They're cheap in the UK (around 3GBP if my memory doesn't fail me), and readily available at any Superdrug. They also have a wide range of colours, although a lot of the more exciting ones aren't carried online. They're also known for releasing on-trend colours every season, like their version of Chanel's Jade, Mint Green, and their version of Particuliere, Mushroom, which was surprisingly close to the actual thing. Other popular colours are Vivid Purple, Racing Green, Grey (this is a good grey that doesn't have much blue tones) and Navy.

Quality-wise, these I have found to be a little hit-and-miss. Some of the colours, like Mushroom and Vivid Purple, are good in quality - pigmented and smooth, but some of the others, like Mint Green, were total PITAs to apply. So do your research before buying, and you'll never end up with a dud.

Here's an NOTD of Barry M's Mushroom from my own blog:



If you're interested in trying out other Barry M products, they have awesome lipsticks (called Lip Paints) and loose eyeshadows (Dazzle Dusts). They're cheap, cheery and easily available and worth checking out.


Brand #2: Nails Inc
Price: High
Availability: Low
Quality: High
Colours to try: Jermyn Street, Victoria, Just about anything really!

For those of you who read my blog (not many, I'll bet), you'll KNOW I just HAD to include Nails Inc in there SOMEWHERE, because I love them so much. Although these are pricey, at 10GBP a pop (for a measly 10ml of polish), and are only available in select department stores like Debenhams (they also have their own bricks and mortar stores around Central London), the quality totally makes up for it. I've more than 30 colours (and counting) and I don't think I've had a dud yet. Well, maybe one. That's how awesome they are. They're better than my RBLs, and yes I did say that! They're better than RBLs! Okay, now I'm going to stop before I get stoned by the RBL fans.

So what colours should you try? Jermyn Street, the ever popular taupey-brown-grey mushroom colour, is always on bestseller lists in the UK. Victoria, a vampy purple jelly along the lines of OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark, is also another must-try. But personally, I love the brand so much, it's hard for me to recommend just one.

Here are some of my previous Nails Inc NOTDS:

Here's Basil Street:





Here's Jermyn Street, that ever-popular bestseller (man, I'm drooling just looking at my own pictures of this one):




This is Dover Street Market (with some bling):





Here is Belgravia:





Ok, I'm going to stop here before this post becomes picture-spam. These are some of my favourites. If you want to see more, you'll have to go over to my blog :P Also, here's a tip if you want to buy Nails Inc for less than the retail price - they often do sets on QVC UK that make them much cheaper per bottle, and every now and then they do come out with seasonal sets that are 20GBP and comprise of 4 limited edition bottles. That's half the price! :D Also, I really like their Kensington 45 Seconds Top Coat. I seriously doubt that it dries in 45 seconds, but it certainly dries fast, and doesn't cause shrinkage the way Seche Vite does.


Brand #3: Ciate
Price: Average
Availability: Low
Quality: Average
Colours to Try: ASOS Paints Pixie, Sharp Tailoring

Ciate is one of those brands that don't get much love, because they're pretty low profile. But they're mostly good, although you do have a couple of duds. The ones I've tried have been pretty good though, and worth buying. The sad thing is, I've never seen them sold in real life, and I got all of mine through ordering online, which is a major bummer. Ciate also makes the ASOS Paints by Ciate line...it's sort of like OPI for Sephora in the USA.

Here is Ciate Sharp Tailoring, konaded over with Velvet Tuxedo



And here is ASOS by Ciate Pixie:




Okay folks, that's it for today! I'll probably be back with more brands, but that's it for now! Hope you've enjoyed my cop-out of a guest post! In the meantime, if you'd like to check out more of my NOTDs (which I promise have improved in recent months), check out my own blog.