Nail polish candy selection boxes

Not a clue what to wear tonight, but my nails are sorted thanks to the most amazing early xmas pressie from my wonderful friend. I am such a lucky girl,  it's like a sweetshop of nail candy! Neons, metallics, foil wraps, 3D effects and nail gems

Don't know where to start - but will update you on my polish pic 'n' mixing....

Adding a touch of sparkle

I have experimented with blended a shimmer coat over a block base and I'm very impressed with the results! This look is acheived by combining OPI 'He's My Boo' polish (part of OPI's Spookettes halloween collection) with Barbara Daley's Nail Polish in Lustre (£5)

I often find that paler nail polish colours can often have a more translucent look on the finger nails, especially when they get a bit older. I bought this OPI 'He's My Boo' miniature as part of a OPI's Spookettes halloween set 2 years ago (usually about £12 for the set) also the OPI miniatures although mega cute, they have a smaller brush which doesn't have quite the same amount of coverage as full-size brushes do. I couldn't find any links to the OPI Spookette set as it’s their 2011 collection, but found this fab OPI Spookettes Halloween 2011 and Jack o'lantern nail art blog post from blogger ThatLeanne, definitely worth a look.

OPI's 'He's My Boo' nail polish
- used as basecoat before shimmer

I find shimmer nail polishes alone a bit 'meh' they look beautiful in the bottle - but once on the nail they look nothing like that block colour. Barbara Daley's Nail Polish in Lustre (£5) has a milky shimmer and is lovely on nails alone if you want to make natural nails look a little less dull.

Combining the shimmer polish on top of the base colour gives a rather luxurious look - pastelising (I think I’ve made that word up) the block base colour and adding a rich sparkle to the shade.

Looking forward to experimenting this method with other shades...

 

Dermalogica Active Moist

My friend recommended Dermalogica Active Moist (£43 for 100ml) to me, whilst I was moaning that my skin always becomes greasy at work by about 11am - she affectionately named this 'butter face' which is something I seem to suffer from also.

It won In Style's Best Beauty Buys 2013, Style's panel said:

"It’s very light, non-greasy and never makes breakouts worse, yet it’s still ultra-hydrating. In fact, it’s so light that you may need to use two layers on less oil-prone areas, such as cheeks and neck.”

The packaging for Dermalogica looks very clean, almost medical and it smells completely unfragranced and natural, with a slight medical tang to it. You can smell the lemon and bergamot essence which gives it a really crisp and natural feel.

Here's the official blurb on the box for interest:

Oil-free lightweight moisturiser to hydrate combination skin. Sheer easy-to-apply formula contains Silk Amino Acids and a unique combination of plant extracts that help improve skin texture and combat surface dehydration. Natural botanical astringents of Lemon, Cucumber and Burdock help to refine the skin. Free of artificial fragrances and colours.

The moisturiser is really lightweight and easily absorbed into the skin, I found I could put my makeup on instantly, whereas usually I go and dry my hair whilst my moisturiser is still fresh, or otherwise I get eyeshadow sticking to it etc.

Using normal moisturiser

Using Dermalogica Active Moist

Test: I took a photo of my skin at the end of the day with Simple Hydrating Light Moisturiser vs. Active Moist.





I was amazed to find that 'butter face' didn't hit me at 11am like normal. It's not a miracle cure - as you can see from the pics, by the end of the day, my face was a bit shiny, but it's still a genuine game-changer for those with oily skin and I highly recommend it!

At £43 it's rather a pricey moisturiser - however, it also comes in a smaller 50ml tube for £30 which will last 6 months, which in my opinion is is well worth the investment and not quite such a high price tag. When I run out, I'll be getting the 100ml version definitely.

I ordered through pure beauty - as they sell Dermalogica at discounted prices (100ml is £38.95 rather than RRP £43)* but also you get to choose up to 5 free samples with every order, which is an awesome little added extra  but also is very useful when buying online as you can sample the product first to check it's right for your skin before investing in the full product - I also found I was much more inclined to buy more products through the samples options (I am a cynical marketeer, but I really appreciate when a brand put that extra effort in to keep you loyal) So I look forward to sampling them and sharing it with you on here....

* At the time of going to press Pure Beauty are offering the 100ml Active Moist as part of a gift pack with a free Dermal Clay Cleanser 50ml and Precleanse 30ml

Mr.Men inspired nail art

I've not dabbled with nail art before for three reasons:

1. I have a short attention span ( I love a quick dry/minimal coat polish)
2. I don't have the steadiest hands
3. I didn't own a nail art pen.....I now do.

Inspired by the beautiful blank Revlon's 050 White On White Nail Enamel* (£6.49) provides, I thought I might get creative. For a beginner I thought it best to keep it simple and I don't have any fancy tools (yet).....so went for 5 dots in a circle to make multi-coloured flowers (think in the style of Mr. Men)
canvas that

I've used Barry M's Nail Art Pen (£4.99)** in black, for the outline. It brings out the design, but also is great for masking wobbly lines and imperfections.

The only issue with using blogs if polish for the flower petals, is that the polish is quite thick, which takes a while to dry - and as the pen has a sharp nib it can dent the flowers if they are still a bit tacky....so patience is the name of the game here (see point 1 above).

I finished the flowers with a dot of white in the centre. They look pretty cute, but the steadiness when using my left hand was questionable!! Painting nails with my left hand is fine, but writing/outlining details with a pen is another matter. ...and for this reason I would take Blue Peter's advice and get a grown-up to help you!

Not bad for a first attempt, but practice makes perfect!

* Revlon's nail enamels are currently on offer in Boots £2 off - so it's worth grabbing them while the offer is on

** Boots are giving away free gift of Barry M Lash Vegas Mascara when you spend £9 or more on Barry M cosmetics.

Disclaimer: I'm not promoting boots - but I love a beauty bargain, so always worth a share. 

Pop art nails

I can't take credit for this amazing pop art manicure as I was treated to it by Fashion graduates from Southampton Solent University. For those who don't know, I've recently moved jobs to be their Digital PR Officer. The graduating fashion students have organised Southampton Fashion Week (SFW), an entire week of Fashion events, demonstrating the wide skill sets across all of the varied fashion courses at Solent University. 

As part of SFW, I was invited to the launch of an exclusive fashion careers magazine Aspire, with industry specialist speakers, and a cheeky popup nail and lash bar. It would have been rude not to get involved - so recent BA (Hons) Fashion Styling graduate Bianca Richards gave me a cute 'pop art' inspired manicure, using the new Barry M nail art pens (£4.99), they come in black, white, pink and silver. 

The pen-like nib makes it so easy to paint on detailed designs, you just need to wait until the polish is fully dry before designing. So I'm off to get some pens and start doodling - designs to follow.....

Bobbi Brown's 'pop' blusher method

As the lucky owner of some John Lewis vouchers, I
decided to treat myself to some beauty pampering from the beauty floor. In search of the perfect blusher I went to the Bobbi Brown counter and got thoroughly spoilt by their makeup artists where I learnt about Bobbi's "pop" method.

"Blush is used to create a healthy, pretty look. Different formulas can be used , depending on the desired finish or time of year. The right shade will add a pretty brightness to the face without looking obvious."

- Bobbi Brown

In search of a spring glow the BB makeup artist suggested fresh pinks and used Bobbi Brown blush Pastel Pink 33 (£18). I prefer a matt blush, I'm not a massive fan of shimmers on the cheeks as I like my cheeks to look naturally flushed. Bobbi Brown herself recommends topping a neutral blush, (which should be the colour your cheeks naturally go when you exercise), with a “pop” of a brighter shade right on the apples of the cheeks.

For the 'pop' shade, the BB makeup artist used Bobbi Brown blush in Pale Pink (09) (£18) which really brought out a fab glow - see the test paper that she gave me. The best way to apply blusher is to smile and then apply it with a rounded brush to the 'apples' of your cheeks and blend it up into the hairline

If I had the money I would have bought both shades, but I just treated myself to the base Pastel Pink 33 blusher, and at home I've been using the MUA blusher shade 2 (£1); at £1 each it's a snip of the price of the £18 Bobbi Brown blusher, its allot darker than I'd use usually, but as a soft pop of colour on the apples over the Bobbi Brown blusher, it works perfectly.

 

I've been wearing just the Bobbi Brown shade Pastel Pink 33 during the day and then adding a pop of the MUA for after-work drinks to get a bolder 'evening' look...but the evening drinks aren't really helping me save the pennies to get the brighter Bobbi Brown Pale Pink (09) shade - maybe next pay check ;-)

Here's Bobbi Brown's official video tutorial on blusher application:

Bespoke blended gel shades - "Skiing: all the gear, no idea"

Hi there - apologies for the radio silence, but I've been away skiing in the mountains. I'm a bit online security-conscious, so didn't mention anything before, but it's good to be back peeps!

Refreshing balcony manicure - bit chilly! using 5 different shades of purples and lilacs

I go skiing every year with my family, and my cousin and I have taken to spending our evenings manicuring to match our ski gear. The phrase "all the gear, no idea" comes to mind, but looking good on the slopes is all part of the fun. My ski colours are purple and white (although as we discovered, this does cause issues when stuck in a blizzard as my top half disappears, and I become quite hard to find!) My cousin is a snow boarder and has a more edgy turquoise and orange look, which I created a diagonal split manicure to cover both shades of her outfit.

Turquoise and orange diagonals

In previous years we've found that a normal manicure doesn't last as long in the mountains - as the freezing conditions often cause the polish (and nails) to become a bit more brittle , so it often chips sooner than usual.

So this year I went for a gel manicure from my good friend makeup artist Rosie Lee, using Gelish, as they have a much more varied range of colours than Gellux. Gel polishes can be mixed to create bespoke shades, and the advantage to gel polish is that they dont set until the UV lamp exposure, so the colour can be mixed perfectly without rushing before it dries. We experimented with some 'inter-breeding' between different brands of gel polish and can conclude that this does indeed work.

To get the perfect shade to match my skiing purple, we mixed A.S.P Signature's Shocking Pink with Gellux's Purely White and Midnight Satin shades and in homage to my snow-like colours, I had an odd white nail on my ring finger which I rather loved. I took my ski jacket along to the manicure so Rosie could mix it to match perfectly - and what an awesome job - it's spot on! The full manicure can be seen below, plus for laughs - evidence that I completed a black run....conclusive proof that effective manicure improves performance!

Evidence that I completed a black run....conclusive proof that effective manicure improves performance! (lol)

Magnetic Manicure

I'm a big fan of nail polish and it's really exciting to see all of the new beauty tech out there at the moment meaning that we can try out the latest trends at home without the expensive salon prices.

Today I'm going to try out a magnetic manicure using Barry M's Instant Nail Effects in Magnetic Blue (£4.99). Each metallic colour comes with a different magnet design in the cap of the bottle, so the pattern is dependent on the colour that you get. Magnetic Blue comes with what looks like a Picasso Union Jack pattern

The bottle comes with instructions, so I thought I'd set the blog post out according to those steps:

1. Shake the bottle well to ensure magnetic particles are evenly distributed throughout nail paint - Done!


2. Apply a basecoat and then apply one coat of your magnetic nail paint and allow to dry
The first coat has a lovely metallic look to it on its own, so it's also good to know that you can get two looks out of this bottle, it comes out a bit paler than what the polish looks like in the bottle, but you have to brush it quickly as the metallic particle can make the polish appear a bit streaky if not applied evenly.

3. Apply second coat and IMMEDIATELY hover the magnet over the nail for 5 to 10 seconds and watch the effect appear
The lid has a ridge on it so you can rest it on your finger so it doesn't touch the nail and can hover over. Pretty handy, but I discovered that on the smaller nails you need to move the ridge further down your finger to ensure that the pattern appears in the centre of the nail.


So I was very impressed with the effect of the magnetic print, the pattern magically appeared and looked very cool.

4. Once dry apply topcoat

Sadly the top coat blurred the magnetic effect, which is a real shame! The shape of the magnetic pattern is still visible, but the wow effect has been lost, as you can see they still look cool, but not as good as they did before the top coat.

However this may be because of my topcoat as it is a super strength one, maybe just using a clear varnish would be fine, but it wouldn't provide the resilience of a top coat.

In order to get the most out of the magnetic effect nails, I wouldn't recommend using a top coat and just plan to have them for only one night/day, (rather than doing a top coat to make them last a long time).....in the word of Kurt Cobain "It's better to burn out, than fade away" - ok, I NEVER thought I'd manage to get Kurt Cobain into a beauty blog!!!!

The cool thing about the different patterns on the magnets is that you can collect the whole range to mix and match colours and effects.

Colour-blending: step-by-step tutorial - loving the lilac!

In this blog I'm going to demonstrate colour blending, creating a very bold look, and then blending it down with a white. This look is based on MUA's eye colours, they have amazing pigment and stay on all day and are only £1 each (I shit you not). What I love about MUA's shades is that they actually deliver the colour they are in the pot in the first stroke.

Purple is one of my favourite colours, for blue eyes it's such a versatile colour, it brightens the whites of your eyes and oddly brings out a green to your iris - however this may just be me, I have grey/blue eyes which seem to change colour with the weather!

I've used a thin flat brush to apply the purple base coat, MUA's Pearl Eyeshadow in shade no.9 has a fab shimmer to it, so you don't want a looser brush (or you may find you have a shimmery nose and cheeks too!) You can see from the photo that the purple is very bold, further on I will show how to bring this shade down.

Using an angle contour brush dab it into the black, I used MUA's Matte Eyeshadow in shade 20 (£1) as the black need to be a matt shade rather than a pearl for creating a smoky look. Brush the black from the outside corner of your eye running along the socket, and then along the outer end of the lash line (creating a V-shape) from the outer corner of your eye. By this point you may be worrying that you are starting to look a bit drag queen with the bold colours going on on your lids, but fear not this will be addressed.

Revert back to the flat brush and dip it in the purple again, smooth this across your lids to blend the dark corners into the purple.

Then with the angle contour brush draw a thin line with the purple along your lower lashes. I like to reuse the brush I used for the black, as it adds a bit of definition, but if you prefer not to mix colours (and have an endless supply of brushes) then use a separate brush if it suits you.

So now comes the white stuff - I used a softer brush to sweep the white shade from MUA's Immaculate Collection (£8) over the lids, and it instantly brings the colour down to a beautiful lilac shimmer.

To frame the eyes I drew a line across the top lashes with Max Factor's Kohl Eye Liner (£4.99), and built it up gradually with a slight flick at the corner, followed by lashes of mascara, I used Maybelline's Volum' Express® The Falsies Mascara (£7.99), and as you can see from the pics I am a firm believer that you can never have a mascara on!

Hope you liked the blog post, I enjoy doing ones like this, so do let me know if you want to see more or any things you'd like me to cover.

Home Gel manicure? Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Polish

In the pursuit of a nail polish to rival a gel manicure I came across the Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine (£3.99) nail colours, which look good enough to eat! They come in 13 fruity shades and I have the scrummy looking 'Blueberry' and 'Satsuma', the latter is a vibrant orange, almost neon, but the blueberry is more of a cute pastel blue.

I did get a bit excited about the 'gel' element of the product, thinking it potentially had magical non-UV setting properties, but Barry M's Hi-Shine Gel effect Nail Paint just provides an extra glossy finish which has the look of a gel manicure.

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in 'Blueberry'

I have to admit, on the first application, I used a friend's basecoat of a brand I'd never heard of before and by the next morning they began to peel off, but in complete chunks almost like stickers.  The peeling was incredibly frustrating, as I was running late anyway, and had to remove (luckily with the peeling, they came off in seconds!) I think however this may have been the dodgy basecoat, as on second application later that evening they lasted a good 6 days.

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in 'Satsuma'

The collection of colours are gorgeous, and they have a great shine to them which really stays, so I couldn't resist doing an arty wet gel shot on the Satsuma polish (below).


My only comment would be that as the consistency is similar to a gel, areas that are thinly spread tend to show as slightly darker patches which are hard to hide with a second coat. So unlike usual polish application (where I would do a very thin bottom coat as a base for the next coat to latch on to, followed by a thicker second coat), with the Gelly Hi-Shine I found that each coat needs to be a full covering.  This takes a little longer to dry between coats, but worth it for the overall effect.

Now to collect the rest of the set.....

Breakdown of the breakout

So here's the wrap-up post of the breakout experiment. In 6 days with the help of The BodyShop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask (£12) and Montagne Jeunesse Clay Spa masks (£1.49) I successfully managed to clear a major breakout on my forehead in time for a big party night. (Disclaimer:
I may have used a naughty bit of toothpaste on the big blighter shhhhhh don't tell the beauty police!)

So here is the experiment progress in pics....

 6 days to go (uh oh!)

5 days to go (after The BodyShop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask - £12)

1 day to go (after Montagne Jeunesse Clay Spa masks - £1.49)




So nobody's perfect, and I certainly don't claim to have airbrushed skin. These photos are real, and though the last photo may have a few imperfections, overall, it's a far shot from the state it was in 6 days ago! It just goes to show that you don't need expensive treatments for problem skin, and with a couple of face masks, plenty of water drinking, (and a bit of toothpaste), you can indeed clear up a breakout.