NOTD: Berry Ice Cream

Forgive the sloppy application, I had to rush the application because I was just about to go to bed.

The colour is Barry M's Berry Ice Cream and is my favourite purple polish. If I'm honest I'm not the hugest fan of purple nail polish, but I LOVE this colour. While its a pastel lilac its also quite bright and looks so good on my skin tone. It has a nice formula, goes on evenly and takes 2 coats for it to be opaque. Lasts about 2/3 days before chipping without base or top coat (which for me is pretty good).

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a lot more use out of it come spring (its so almost here!) and summer time.

Pancake Day

Just a quick post, but with yesterday being pancake day, I thought I would share the best pancake ever: nutella and banana!! I have never tried this before, normally just going for the typically British lemon and sugar, but saw this on another blog and immediately rang my mother to pick up bananas on her way home from work.

As great as this was, I can't help it think might be even better with whipped cream. Next year for sure (or whenever I feel like making pancakes again).

NOTD: Nudes and Neons

It seems like the theme of bright neon colours juxtaposed against neutrals is everywhere at the moment; Bobbi Brown and Nails Inc have both done collections on it very recently and Acne's show at London Fashion Week featured this theme.

Inspired by this, I decided to paint my nails with Revlons Smoky Canvas on 3 nails on each hand, and Barry M's Peach Melba on the other 2. I kind of really love this combination, I never use two different colours of nail varnish at once and after this I'm thinking of trying out some other combinations (maybe bright pink and orange in summer?).



Nail Polish Collection: Glitters

Over the past few months I have become OBSESSED with glitter polishes. And I mean obsessed. I love how they can be layered over regular polishes or applied as several coats. 

First off is the polish on the right, my favourite nail polish find of 2011 Deborah Lippman's Boom Boom Pow. I love this soo much. It can be worn alone which gives a beautiful gold colour with microglitter and larger gold hexagonal glitters. Over the christmas period I wore one coat layered over green and red and for new years over black. On the left is Shimmy Shake by Collection 2000. This is more of a shimmer than a glitter, instead of being chunky its just really fine more bronzey-gold microglitter. 

Shade

Sunlight

The next three are different types of blue glitter. From L-R is OPI's Absolutely Alice, Deborah Lippmann's Across The Universe and Avons Splendid Blue. The Avon just comes across as being a blue shimmer, Absolutely Alice is more interesting with predominantly blue glitter, along with some gold and silver microglitter. My favourite by far is Across the Universe. LOVE this, it is a blue jelly base with large hexagonal dark blue, light blue/turquoise and green glitter pieces along with some blue microglitter. The wear on all these polishes is pretty outstanding, lasting around 4 days which for a glitter is pretty impressive.

Shade

Sunlight

Next up are 2 red glitters; Barry M's Red Glitter and Avons Ruby Slippers. I prefer the Red Glitter purely because it is more densely packed with glitter, but after 2 coats, looks a little flat on the nails and 2 layers of top coats are needed on to make it look shiny. Ruby Slippers has smaller less densely packed glitter particles but the finish is shinier without topcoat.

Shade

Sunlight

The polish on the left is Bourjois number 18, a lilac/pink slightly holographic glitter. In about 3 layers its opaque, and it looks pretty cool over a dark polish. On the right is Barry M's Pink Iridescent. Coverage wise its pretty much the same as the Bourjois one, but the glitter is a lot paler and it has no holographic glitter.

Shade

Sunlight

The Revlon on the left is Facets of Fuscia and is a mix of larger hexagonal bright purple glitter mixed with smaller fuscia glitter on a black jelly base. I use two layers of this to make it opaque, but one coat would be enough if layered over a black or dark purple base polish. This is a perfect dupe for Deborrah Lippman's Bad Romance for at least half the price. On the right is Gasoline by Gosh, a really pretty deep purple microglitter. Both polishes are opaque in two coats.

The one on the right which is Paul and Joe's nail enamel in Confetti. This was limited edition and is a really pretty light grey/silver with multicoloured glitters. This is so beautiful and one of my favourite glitter polishes. In 3 coats its completely opaque (I apply thin coats so 2 average coats would probably suffice) and while its glittery, its almost subtle in that it doesnt have massive chunky glitter. Now to OPI's Mad As A Hatter. I got this the day before I went to see the Alice In Wonderland film and this is probably the oldest glitter polish I own. As such its gone quite gloopy and you cant see it in pictures but its got about a 3rd left. I love this SO much and have used it to death. Its a multicoloured microglitter on a dark grey/purple base.

Skincare Routine

Starting at the beginning of last year, I was using several random drugstore skincare products, and while it was keeping my combination-oily skin reasonably under control, it started to lose its effectiveness and I was beginning to break out more. Feeling quite frustrated I decided to splurge on Cliniques 3 Step System in an attempt to keep my skin clear, and for the past year or so, it has done just that.

I have combination-oily skin, so got the Oily Skin Formula Liquid Facial Soap, Clarifying Lotion in 3 and he Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel. I got the gel moisturiser because I tried the lotion when i was younger and it felt so heavy that I felt it would clog my pores.

First, I use about one pump of the soap, it lathers really easily and I want to get a Clarisonic to try with. The lotion is then applied using a cotton wool pad and the moisturiser with my fingers.

The products last me about 5-6 months for the soap, 8 months for the lotion and about 4 for the moisturiser, so while they are quite expensive, they do last you a while, and I feel I was to splurge on one thing it would be skincare.

At worst, my skin now will now have one or two really small spots at a time, but more often than not my skin is clear. I can't recommend this line enough.