NOTD: Rimmel Peppermint

You must be getting sick of reading nail polish posts by now.. but I have another one!

Seeing as the weather is getting warmer I feel justified in that I am cracking out the pastel shades already. Today I have my favourite mint green/turquoise polish on, Peppermint by Rimmel.

I had such issues trying to take pictures that would make it seem true to colour, without flash it looked to blue with flash it looked neon turquoise. While this isnt exactly mint green, it has quite a lot of blue which makes it look a little like a pale turquoise.

no flash

flash

I love the brush on this, its really wide and literally 2 strokes and its applied, and pretty evenly at that. Took 2 coats to be opaque and lasts roughly 3 days before chipping. I took the pictures before applying a top coat and it made such a difference, if you notice the top photo makes the polish look almost matte but this was fixed with my beloved seche vite.

This is the only polish I own from their Pro range but seeing how much I love this one I might have to check some of the others out...

Review: Barry M Lip Paint 54

I got this lip paint from Barry M last year when I was going to my friends house because we like to spend hours putting on really crazy makeup looks (this is going to sound so weird to people that don't do this).

I havent touched it since until about a week ago. I found it in the bottom of an old makeup bag and I wondered if I could make it look wearable, especially considering that peaches and oranges are the shades for summer.

Although it does look crazy bright in the bullet and in swatches, if applied lightly with your finger and then blotted it just looks like a light peach - which is a lot easier to wear that ridiculously bright orange.

 on the left is applied straight from the bullet, on the right is it blended

 lightly applied with my finger

applied directly from the bullet

As you can see from the pictures above, it is a very pigmented, matte formula and so I tend to layer it over or under Carmex just so it doesn't dry out my lips or make the cracks appear more obvious. While I won't be wearing it as a bright orange lipstick any time soon, I love using it to give a peachy colour to my lips.

Favourite Pieces of Jewellry: Earrings

Another post on my favourite pieces of jewellery, this time round its my favourite earrings. While I used to like only stud earrings, over the past year I have started to wear dangly earrings. I like how they can make it look like you put more effort into your outfit than you actually did.

These earrings I got as a present the Christmas before last and are from Oasis. I wore them when I dressed up as an elf this past christmas as they remind me of snowflakes or icicles or something like that. Unfortunatley they dont sell them anymore :( but similar ones could probably be found in various stores.

I got these as a present from my brother at Christmas. I love the detailing on these, there a lots of little leaves inside a larger one. The gold so far hasnt tarnished (although with them being dangly earrings they dont really come into contact with skin that much so...). They are still available on the Topshop website (link here) and are very reasonably priced for their quality.

I got these black long feather earrings from Topshop last autumn. When my hair was longer, these were just about the same length. These earrings are pretty long! I like how the feathers shift colours from black to blue to green. The only issue is that with them being feathers I always worry that I am going to damage them, but so far they've held up pretty well.

These earrings I purchased from Urban Outfitters in the january sale (I checked but they aren't available anymore). They are one of my few pairs of silver earrings, and my only long ones. What I like most about these is that they have a tough aesthetic (love wearing them with my favourite leather jacet).

The last two are quite boring, just 2 gold studs. The lion ones I wear probably most often of all my earrings, so much so that the gold rubbed off and I was forced to paint over with gold polish, but honestly I haven't had any issues with the gold coming off. The flower studs are pretty simple but a bit more refined than the lion studs.

I have been trying out a new foundation and will upload a post about it soon enough :)

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.