Nail Polish

Accessorize Illusions – Pink Spice

February 24, 2011 1 Comment

Last Saturday Andy and I took a little time out to wander up town and have a tea/milkshake and some cake in our favourite tearoom. He kindly agreed to buying me two Accessorize Illusion polishes and a Boots 17 polish. I’ll reveal the other Accessorize and Boots 17 polishes at a later date but for now here is the much coveted Accessorize ‘Pink Spice’.

I have heard many a muttering on the blogosphere that Pink Spice is nearly an exact duplicate of MAC’s ‘Bad Fairy’, which I am so so happy about because Bad Fairy is beautiful but much more expensive! CALI369 from Polishtopia did a colour comparison post here and a wear comparison post here.
Now for the piccies:
In the flashhhh
It looks darker here than it really was…
And here is the stunning orangey duochrome!
I wore this to a party and could not stop looking at the colour. In most lights it was a gorgeous foily pink, really really pretty, but occasionally when the right light hit it it became a stunning rusty, orangey colour. So in love with this. The pictures don’t really do this polish justice – it’s much more shimmery and much much more pink! The idea behind the Illusions range is that it allows you to “Create the Illusion of multiple colours and tones in one shade!”. I certainly did see more than one colour in this one!
I am so pleased with the Accessorize polishes, I now have 5, and am currently coveting about 10! All of mine dry quickly, which occasionally can be a little bit of a pain as the brush is fairly thin but really doesn’t pose much of a problem. It is more handy if I just can’t be bothered to wait around for my nails to dry (e.g. first thing in the morning or last thing at night) and you can get away with two quick coats. The cap is similar to that of Nails Inc., in fact it is identical in shape and size to the cap on the Diet Coke promo polishes, if a little less slippery.
Overall totally totally happy with this polish, it’s one of those ones that you will never stop looking at no matter how much you’ve ogled it. At £4 each for 10ml you just can’t complain! At least compared with Bad Fairy’s price, especially now if you check it out on eBay!
Now, my Andy was in a bit of a sleepy state when I persuaded him to let me paint his nails. In fact he fell asleep while I was doing it and I had to keep waking him to move his hand! So here are his pretty hands (he made me take it straight off after – can’t blame him really, as you can see I did quite a shoddy job!)
The blues were at his request. Hehe!
Hope you are all having a good week,
Emma 🙂 xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

BeautyUK – My New Found Fave :)

February 23, 2011 3 Comments

Andy and I nipped into town on Monday with nothing but a few pennies, just to visit the bank. But of course the temptation of nail polish overwhelmed us (me) and we simply had to visit Superdrug in search of such wondrous gains. We counted said pennies and had £5 between us although at the time we thought it was £4 (A-level Maths, me – really?) so split it half and half; Andy bought a muffin and 2 drinks – 1 each, and I spent my £2 on nail polish. And the exciting extra £1 on Liquorice Allsorts, which neither of us like. So it was all very fair. Ahem.

Having followed BeautyUK for a little while on Twitter I was familiar with the brand and keen to try their products. And of course nail polish it should be. So, while Andy was tapping his feet impatiently, I pondered along the BeautyUK shelf in Superdrug, and landed my eye on this little beauty:

Here she is! So it’s a little bit paler than this, and more fluffy and lovely. Okay maybe not fluffy but I know what I mean.
I can’t seem to get a photo of just how beautiful this colour is but here it is against my fairly neutral outfit… my hands are a different colour to my head. Ugh.
So this is Smokey Lilac No. 51, 3 coats, no topcoat, and at £1.99 it is a dream come true. The application and formula were both lovely, it levels itself out when disaster-cases such as moi come along and take too long applying it, resulting in  dragging that I don’t think would otherwise be present. (I was watching Being Human ‘behind the scenes’ clips. How could I not be distracted?) The dry-time was excellent too. Not too fast, not too slow.
I did have a mini panic when I got home and remembered about Nails Inc./Diet Coke Heather Grey, as from memory they are very similar. Next to each other, the Heather Grey is a lot more pink-toned, while the Smokey Lilac is well… just beautiful… Sorry Heather Grey but you lost on this one. If you look at my previous pictures of Heather Grey you’ll notice it’s a fair bit darker. I can’t think how to describe Smokey Lilac other than I LOVE IT. It it just a little more appealing to the eye. I don’t know, it’s just a skin-tone-flattering, girly, pretty shade.
Anyway, enough gushing.
Oh go on then… maybe a little more.
The main reason why I am in LOVE with BeautyUK is because of their Animal Testing Policy. While I am guilty of buying products that are not cruelty free, I am not comfortable, at ALL, with cosmetic animal-testing. I think my problem is I just get too over-excited about things and only remember about the animal-testing issue after I’ve bought the offending item. Also, in part, I can’t always afford the cruelty-free brands and so this is one of the reasons why BeautyUK are so fab. Like Barry M and Boots 17, they are seriously affordable, good quality and beautiful nail polishes. Unfortunately I can’t vouch for their other products but I will certainly be trying out their eye makeup and probably lip products in the near future, but I am just too excited about the nail polishes for words! If it weren’t for Andy’s upcoming birthday I’d have already bought up all of the stock. My only mini-complaint is that the label wasn’t stuck down properly but really that’s me just looking for a flaw.
They aren’t listed on the BUAV Go Cruelty Free website but neither is Barry M so I choose to believe them and hope I am not wrong! 🙂

Go and visit their website – they often do deals, ‘get the look’ blogposts and competitions etc.

Overall I am one super happy bunny. And more than anything very happy to support this very under-rated brand!

Hope everyone reading is having a lovely week, I have half term and so there will probably be an influx of blogposts as I have many pending photos for you all, just as soon as I catch up on some sleep…
Love, Emma xxx

P.S. Just noticed that this post is significantly more waffley than my other posts. Which are also waffley. Must work on non-waffling. Sorry everyone! xx

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

No.7 + GOSH

February 22, 2011 5 Comments

I have no idea what compelled me to put the two together but here you go:

It looks okay in this picture but irl it looked rly bad. Well I think it was just the contrast of the red against the very very pale holographic that made it look even more pale. My mum thought it was a fungal infection from a distance.
Anywho, I liked it at the time so there we go 🙂 I used No.7 in Salsa 93 for the red (I’ve heard from Lina-Elvira’s blogpost that it is a dupe of Nails Inc. Aspen) and GOSH Holographic for the holographic ring finger (yes I caved… they were selling for half price in Superdrug! I think they still are…).
No.7 Salsa was mostly easily to apply although I found that if I was a little too slothful – can you believe that’s a word?! – in my application then it begun to drag a little, but otherwise it was good. First coat dried fast, this was two coats. However, the staying power was far from heavenly. To be fair, I do put it through a fair bit of stress during my paper round and I didn’t use a topcoat due to lack of funds, but this tipwear was after less than one day of wear. Hmm. Still at £2 (with another £5 off voucher I had) I can’t complain, and it really is a very sexy nail colour 🙂
GOSH’s Holographic polish was just awful. I confess I didn’t find the application as bad as everybody seems to say, but it took 4 coats to get to this opaque state as it was very uneven. If I so much as touched it it decided to come off on my finger, reminding me of the powder on butterfly wings. Don’t touch butterfly wings, this results in their starvation and death. Also, it chips like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Not even with the Poundland ChitChat polishes (remarkably good for the price, but anyway…) did I experience such a horror. I’m just happy I didn’t pay £16 for it on eBay because, looking online, there are many much better holo’s out there with better properties full stop. However, this was pretty for the day 🙂
That’s all from me since I’m getting sleepy. I wasn’t going to do this ’til tomorrow but I’m waiting for my nails to dry. This one’s exciting 😉
Goodnight all 🙂
Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

2 x Diet Coke = Free Nails Inc Polish = Yes Please!

February 10, 2011 5 Comments

Diet Coke and Nails Inc. have collaborated this Spring to strike up a very purse-friendly deal in which one has to purchase two 500ml bottles of Diet Coke from participating Boots stores, and one will receive a lovely free 10ml (fullsize)Nails Inc. polish. There are four available colours: Heather Grey, Denim, Caramel and Plum. I might sneakily add that in Boots Oxford this Tuesday there were also two polishes from last year’s collaboration – I believe they were both ‘Milan’ (bright red).

During our trip to Oxford, I managed to drag Andy multiple times to multiple nail polish hoarding areas and requested his opinion on certain colours, multiple times. Having heard about the Nails Inc. offfer, we definitely had to stop off in Boots. When we got there there were just two colours on show: Heather Grey and Plum. Because I already own L’Oreal 603 I decided to opt for the Heather Grey (I am hesistant about spending money on potential dupes as my money supply is far from limitless!) so I stole this from the display and grabbed a couple of unsuspecting Diet Cokes, heading for the till. I always end up feeling fraudulent at the payment stage, like I’m doing something wrong by taking this free gift, or like the cashier is going to say sorry, you’re WRONG lol. You can find swatches of the other colours (sorry I can’t afford them!) by searching in Google Images.

I wasn’t so keen on the colour in the bottle as it seems halfway between Barry M Mushroom 310 and a pastelly-purple colour, which really does not appeal to the eye. However, upon application, I was needless to say more than pleasantly surprised:

So this is 2 coats and no top coat. First impressions were that this colour can either be identical to that in the bottle, or totally totally different, depending in what light you are in. I wore this to school and could not stop looking at my nails as they seemed a different colour every time! It is a really very unique muddy-purple. Having spent a lot of time trying to wade through endless stretches of heather I think I can safely say it is nothing like a lot of the more common heathers, but something in me can totally see why it has been named after heather. Top marks for uniqueness and a very subtly beautiful colour.
Application-wise, this was an absolute dream. I did this late at night and found that the first coat dried so very fast that I was able to do a second coat, which also dried super fast, so top marks on that one too. I know many people complain about the broad circular lid being difficult when applying the polish, but for some reason this really worked for me and I found it aided my usually-messy application skills. The brush was fine, nothing to write home about but easy to use and all in all I am very happy with this, especially for £2.40ish + 2 diet cokes! So so pleased I got this one over the Plum colour as I really feel that this one is very unique.

One slightly picky criticism is that the lid doesn’t seem to fit the bottle. It just overhangs ever so slightly but this really puts me off, maybe I’m just being overly perfectionistical (is that even a word?!) but it just gets to me, it looks so tatty! Oh well, I’ll put up with it for the lovely colour.

I also went in later this week for my work experience and treated myself to the lovely Denim colour, so keep a watch out 🙂

Hope your week hasn’t been as stressy as mine has,
love Emma xxx

EDIT: Looking at photos, Heather Grey seems to be very similar to Nails Inc.’s “Bruton Street”… I don’t have it so can’t do a comparison, but check it out! 🙂 xx

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

My experimental (as usual) face of the day :)

February 7, 2011 Leave a comment

When I do my makeup, I usually don’t have anything in mind to begin with and just build up the colour on my eyelids according to what catches my eye at the particular moment in time.
Andy and I went to an 18th birthday party on Saturday, so here was my face for the occasion lol:
In the very natural, miserable typical English weathery light.. lol
Avec flash
Close-up with flash, so you can see the eyeliner 🙂
The completed face of me! As it looks when you look normally at me. I think.
I wanted to wear a slightly party-ish look that I could get away with during the day, but really, if I’m honest, that didn’t play much part in my decision since it wasn’t a decision, more of a faff around with available eyeshadow colours lol.
What I used (facially!):
  • Chanel Vitalumière Aqua Foundation (free sample in February edition of ELLE Magazine)
  • Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
  • Urban Decay Eyeshadow in “Strip” used over the main eyelid.
  • Natural Collection Fragrance-Free Eyeshadow in “Barley”, blended with the UD eyeshadow, and dusted over the browbone. Also used lightly on lower lash line.
  • PrettyPink Makeup Palette Eyeshadows in a pale shimmery camel colour blended over the brow bone, a pinky mauve blended into the outer corners and a rusty brown on my eyebrows. I also used a dark purple for the liquid eyeliner with the transforming potion.
  • Urban Decay Eyeshadow Transforming Potion (for eyeliner)
  • Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in “Binge” worked into my lower lashes.
  • Urban Decay Big Fatty Waterproof Mascara
  • Natural Collection Juicy Lips Lip Gloss in “Pink Velvet”
On my nails (how could I leave them out!) :
Barry M Pure Turquoise 295 with N.Y.C. 105 Starry Silver Glitter over the top on my ring finger, just for a hint of partyishness 🙂
So as you can probably see, I have a little bit of an obsession with Urban Decay. But to be honest, it’s with good reason – all the products last forever on the skin, seem to have unlimited supply in the product, and aren’t tested on animals, all at a fairly reasonable price for their quality. My only qualms are with the 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils, as I find they are all used up in a matter of weeks, due to their softness. Oh and the Eyeshadow Transforming Potion stings like aif you get it in your eyes but that doesn’t happen too often. And I’d rather it happened to me than the animals 🙂
Hope you all had a good weekend,
Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.