This Week's Nails #18 - Essence St. Patrick's Day Shatter Nails

Hey guys!

Sorry I've been AWOL again, I've been busy working on some projects. I've been getting some more time for print and unpaid work and I'm so happy! They've been loads of fun and I'm meeting lots of new people and gaining tons of experience.

I've done my nails three times this week. I got some stamping plates, so I've been messing with those. They're a bit tricky to use but I'll keep it up and be pro in no time :D I didn't photograph those manicures, they were cool to me because they were stamped but they were pitifully done!
My latest manicure is another shatter one, I can't get enough of them. I was in town recently and saw the Essence 'Oz the Great and Powerful' collection. There are five shatter colours in it! I got them all..They cost about €12 total and they're really awesome so it was well worth it! I'll do another post soon with swatches from them all so you can have a look.

I've seen some St. Patrick's Day manicure's around. Some of them are pretty cool, but most just don't appeal to me! Paddy's day isn't a big deal to me despite living in Ireland, so while I like the colour theme I'm not so fond of the leprechauns, pots of gold and flag colours. I wanted to do a themed manicure for this holiday but a more understated one, so I topped Essence's 'Walk on the Wild Side' with their 'Master of Illusion' shatter topcoat. I love the result!

'Master of Illusion' is a pretty colour. I'd call it jade green, but I've seen others call it aqua or turquoise. It is a little on the blue toned side. 'Walk on the Wild Side' is a deep green with grass green shimmer. The shimmer isn't that visible in this manicure though. Here's what I used, see you soon!

Products used:

Sally Hansen Double Duty Base/Topcoat
Essence - Walk on the Wild Side, Master of Illusion
Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat

Another Face #4 - Jordan

Hi! :D

I did makeup on my buddy Jordan today, she was feeling colourful so I did a look using Sugarpill. I did contouring and stuff too, it was a practice session. Look how pretty!

I don't have a before shot, but I'll try to get one another time. I used liquid liner on her, normally I use gel liner on other people because it's easier to control. I think I'll stick with the gel liner for now, although I do want to become more proficient with liquid liner too. Doing it on myself is a lot easier, but then again all makeup application is easier on yourself! I think I'm doing more makeup tomorrow for someone and again Sunday for Jordan. She's going to a ball so she has to get fancy. I want to do something super sophisticated, I'll have to have a think. I'll look into some celebrity looks, red carpet stuff.

I have a film shoot coming up too that I have to prepare for. It's sci-fi so I have to come up with some pretty out there stuff. I have ideas though and I picked up some bits today to mess with. I also have an assignment that will be put off until last minute. I'm so busy lately! I quite badly need to find time to do my nails. Anyway, here's a product list for this look, see you soon!

Products used:

Face:

Revlon Photoready Primer
Stargazer White Foundation (Highlight)
L'Oreal True Match Foundation - Golden Amber (Contour)
Revlon Colorstay Foundation - Ivory
Soap & Glory Kick Ass Concealer - Light
Natural Collection Loose Powder - Translucent Neutral
NYX Blush - Silky Rose

Eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
NYX White Base
Sugarpill - Mochi, Buttercupcake, Acidberry, 2am, Tako
No7 Stay Perfect Liquid Liner - Black
Urban Decay Glide-On Pencil - ZeroMaybelline Falsies MascaraEssence Eyebrow Designer - Brown

Lips:
Essence Marble Mania Lip Gloss - Peach and Mix

Polish Haul and Black and Yellow Shatter Nails

Hey!

I bought so much nail polish :O Look:

Most of these were half price, and I wouldn't even feel bad if they weren't because I was on a spending ban for all of January and I rocked it :D These are the names from left to right!

Rimmel - Sunshine
Essence Cherry Blossom Girl LE - Fortune Cookie, It's Peach Not Cherry
Essence Vintage District LE - Vintage Peach, Get Arty, Antique Pink
OPI - Black Shatter
Catrice Million Styles Special Effect Topcoat - Shake it! Flake it!, Return of Space Cowboys, Have an Ice Day, Godfather of Pearl, ¿Holo Que Tal?!
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure- Ivory Skull

I got the Catrice topcoats to do some more nail polish pendants with, they're all really cool! Here are some closeups of the bottles:

Sunshine, Fortune Cookie, It's Peach Not Cherry, Vintage Peach, Get Arty, Antique Pink

Shake it! Flake it!, Return of Space Cowboys, Have an Ice Day

Godfather of Pearl, ¿Holo Que Tal?!

Black Shatter, Ivory Skull

I did a manicure using Sunshine and Black Shatter! I'm really happy with how it came out, but the bottle of Sunshine I got is pretty crappy. Applied really streaky and took 3 coats to be opaque. I couldn't have worn it alone, it didn't look good at all and I don't think topcoat would have helped much. I was planning to use Black Shatter anyway, but I would've been cranky if I wanted to wear Sunshine alone. I got a massive chip on my thumb that I expertly concealed in the photo, but I don't think that's Sunshine's fault because all my other nails are still perfect. Have a look, I promise this is the last photo. See you soon!

Nail Art #4 - Rainbow Gems

Hey everyone!

Sorry there hasn't been a post for a while, I've been sick for over a week so I haven't been able to wear makeup at all. I'm on the mend now though so soon I'll be back in action :) I did some nail art recently! It's a recreation of this look I saw on preen.me. My version isn't matte, although I may try a matte version one day since I have Essie's 'Matte About You'. This manicure took me quite a while, since those tiny gems are really fiddly! I got them on ebay for a couple of dollars, they're easy to find. These are 1mm gems. I've had them for a while but haven't used them much before.

Products used:

Sally Hansen Double Duty
Essence - Black is Back

Nail Art #3 - Striped Ombre Dotticure

Hey! I spent all weekend chilling out and not wearing makeup, but while I chilled I watched some nail art videos on Youtube. Today I did a manicure that I saw on PackAPunchPolish's channel, I thought it was really cool and I had to try it out. It's pretty messy because I've only used dotting tools once and I'd never used striping tape before. I like how it came out anyway! I didn't have a creme white polish so I used a pearl white instead but I think it looks alright. Here are some photos and a product list.

Products used:

Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat
Essence Colour & Go Polish - Sparkling Water Lilly, Enchanted Fairy, Oh My Glitter!
Essence Nude Glam Polish - Iced Strawberry Cream
No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour - Vivid Violet

This Week's Nails #15 - Oh My Glitter!

Hey! Today was a chill out day, so I don't have a makeup look to post. I did my nails instead! The shade is 'Oh My Glitter' by Essence, it's a pretty mid-purple with pink shimmer. I used  three coats for this manicure. I think this polish is gorgeous, I hadn't worn it before today but I've had it for a while. It's easily one of my favourite purples now!

Nail Art #2 - Pink and Black Gradient Nails

More nail art! I'm still keeping it simple, I attempted pink and black gradient nails today. They came out a little weird and messy but I still think they're pretty cool. I think I need a cosmetic sponge for this one, I used the rest of the kitchen sponge I used for my galaxy nails and I think the texture is too rough or something. I painted two coats of pink and sponged some black on the nails. I saw this method on cutepolish's youtube chanel. If you haven't seen her channel before go check it out, it's awesome! I want to do this gradient effect again, only better and in different colours. It looks really nice! Here's my manicure:

Products used:

Essence - Black is Back, Ultimate Pink

Another Face #2 - Keelin

Tonight my friend Keelin called over and I did her makeup before she went out! She was going to a gig so I did colourful, dramatic party makeup with glitter.

Before, wearing only foundation

After

Both of those photos are unedited, just cropped. I think I did ok! I don't get to work on other people as often as I'd like so it's kind of hard to tell how I'm doing, but I like how the makeup came out. Still, I feel more confident working on people than I used to. Hopefully I'll get to work on Keelin some more in the future >_^ Do some different kind of looks and stuff. Let me know in the comments what you think of this look! I know it's pretty crazy but it's night out makeup, and glitter is so much fun! Here are some more photos and a product list, see you soon!

Products used:

Face:

Maybelline Dream Satin liquid foundation - Fawn

Soap & Glory Kick-Ass Concealer
Soap & Glory Trick and Treatment Under Eye Concealer
Inglot Transluscent Powder

The Body Needs Blush - Barely There Pink

Eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

NYX White Base

Urban Decay Vice Palette - Noise, Vice, Black Market, Provocateur

Sugarpill - Tako, Dollipop

Inglot Gel Liner - 77

Urban Decay pencil liner - Zero

The Body Needs Glitter - Superstar, Holo-Blue

Benefit 'They're Real' mascara

Lips:

Essence Lip Liner - Cute Pink

The Body Needs Lip Luster - Rumors

Nail Art #1 - Galaxy Nails

Hey guys, today I did some nail art! I don't have much experience with nail art and I'd like to try a lot of the cool stuff I see online. I've tried using dotting tools and I've used stickers before but that's about it really! One I've been wanting to try for a long time is a galaxy nail manicure, I'm sure most people have seen this one before. It's a very awesome and popular manicure, and very easy too! These are the polishes I used:

All polishes are Essence apart from the glitter polish which is from Revlon. Here's a rundown:

• Galactic Black - Black with subtle silver shimmer.
• White Tip Painter - This is the only white I own and I've never even done a French manicure. I will though, I promise!
• Sleepy from the Snow White collection - A pale greenish blue with blue pearl.
• Let's Get Lost - My favourite bright blue and the reason I started using base coats, it stains so bad!
• Ultimate Pink - The name says it all.
• Break Through - Lovely plum shade.
• Passion for Fashion - Violet.
• Revlon's Stunning -  Clear based polish with silver glitter reflecting multicoloured, irregular sized circular and hex glitter.

The basic idea is that you sponge colours over a black base, and work some glitter in to represent stars and planets. I used a cut up kitchen sponge because I had no cosmetic sponges, and I think it worked just as well. Revlon's Stunning is the perfect glitter for this manicure because of the different sized particles. They make for great stars in your miniature fingernail galaxies! I did a fair bit of searching for a polish exactly like this for this manicure, I was so happy when I came across Stunning. Another good glitter for this I've seen used by others is NYC's Starry Silver Glitter.

I really like how my nails came out! I'd like to do it again and try different colour combinations. I took a few pictures in a few different lighting conditions. It's hard to capture how cool this manicure looks in real life!

Natural light

Flash photo

Ring light

Ring light

Ring light

I will most definitely be dabbling more in nail art, I had a lot of fun with this. I'd like to do some gradient manicures too, the ones I see on other blogs look beautiful! We'll see what's to come ^_^

This Week's Nails #13 - Jack Frost/Black is Back

Hey there! It's been a while, I've been crazy busy for weeks and had zero time, but I'm back to regular posting now. I hope your Christmas was as awesome as mine! I got some great gifts that I will review in the not too distant future :) Here is the manicure I did today:

I layered Models Own 'Jack Frost' from the Winter Wonderland collection over Essence's 'Black is Back'. I saw this combination somewhere before and I had to try it for myself, it's so pretty! 'Black is Back' is a nice black creme, opaque in two coats.

'Jack Frost' is a pretty glitter containing a myriad of blue and purple hues. I don't care for it much alone since it's quite sheer, but layered over other colours it looks great! The formula is SUPER thick and goopy, you need to scrape a ton of polish off the brush before you apply it or it will refuse to dry. This is the second time I've done this manicure on myself, the first time was quite bad since I layered 'Jack Frost' too thick and it ended up smudging really bad later on. Also, this glitter absolutely demolishes topcoat. It's a bit silly! I applied three layers of a topcoat here, two of 'normal' consistency and one very thick one. For about an hour or so my nails felt smooth, but now they feel rough again. I love the colours in the glitter but the particles have such beautiful dimension when they're smoothed and glossy, and it's a shame that's so hard to maintain that wet look. I took a blurred picture of this manicure too, to show off the glitter some more:

I'll leave it at that, but I'll be back again soon. Thanks for reading!

This Week's Nails #10 - Black Galaxy

Sorry it's been so long! I've been quite busy this week, I didn't really have a chance to get anything beauty related done :( Last night I decided I couldn't take it anymore and I did my nails!

Once again I've gone with my 'screw autumn' theme. It feels far too cold for all these warm reds and oranges that are still hanging around. I'm very cold, god damn it, and my nails will reflect that! This gorgeous shade is Isa Dora's 'Black Galaxy'. Black polish with silver glitter that reflects rainbow colours. I picked it up for €3.75, reduced from €7.50. A very good deal! Here's a close up:

After two coats the polish was opaque, but one layer of topcoat didn't suffice. I used three coats to completely smooth the polish and make the glitter look its best. The topcoat I used is quite thin, so perhaps just one or two coats of a thicker one would do. This is my second Isa Dora polish, I'm becoming a big fan of theirs!

The Powerpuff Girls - Bubbles

A few months ago I did a look inspired by Blossom. You can see the it here on my Makeupbee page: http://bit.ly/XnPS4v. I was planning to do looks for all three Powerpuff Girls, but I didn't get round to it for a while and then it slipped my mind for another while. Yesterday I remembered and did a look inspired by Bubbles.

I was going to do something cute and innocent, but Bubbles can be hardcore too so I made it a little darker. Her dress is blue which is the prominent colour I chose for the look. Here are some more pics and the product list!

Products used:

Eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Essence Colour Arts Pigment - Little Mermaid
The Body Needs - Bunny Blue, Iced Blue, Steal the Night
Sugarpill - Tako
Inglot Gel Liner - 77 (Black)
NYX Jumbo Pencil - Milk
Maybelline Falsies Mascara
Essence Eyebrow Stylist Set

This Week's Nails #8 - Wanna Say Hello/Time For Romance

I did my nails last night and I'm really happy with how they came out! I wanted something trendy and I wanted to use glitter, and after some rummaging in my polish box I found a couple that I thought would look nice. I'm having a really rough time photographing glitter, so I'll post a few pictures. Unfortunately none of them do it justice, so try to use your imagination! ^_^

The first colour I applied was Essence's 'Wanna Say Hello', a rich, dark, chocolate brown. My bottle is from the older range, but the good news is that this polish is still available! It's priced at €1.79 and has a new and improved design.

I layered two coats of Essence's 'Time For Romance' on top of the brown. Again, my bottle is the old design, but this one is still available too! It's also priced at €1.79. This polish is gorgeous, and compliments 'Wanna Say Hello' just perfectly.

It's a real shame that the glitter doesn't photograph well. I'll describe it as best I can! It's coloured a rose gold shade, but more peachy. It has a sort of glow about it, it's lovely. The glitter is irregular  and some of the smaller bits reflect green, blue and sliver. You'd have to see for yourself! Alone it has a wine coloured base, but you can't see this over the brown polish. I'm not sure what it looks like on, I've only swatched it on white paper to see what it looks like. I hope you like this manicure as much as I do! See you soon ~_^

Another Face #1

Hey everyone!
Today I got back from Galway, I went up there for my sister Laura's university graduation ceremony. She received a BA in Arts from NUIG :) I am very proud of her and her giant brain!
She wore a beautiful dress with a purple, green and teal butterflies and flowers on it. Here's a nice picture of her with our mother and step-father.

Paul, Laura, Mam

Here's a closeup of her heels, they are sooo cute!

They're by Ruby Shoo. The prettiness almost justifies the pain!

I only did her eye makeup for her, she'd already done her foundation that morning. She wanted her makeup to involve colour that goes with her dress, but not so much that she would look silly. Nobody trusts me with makeup, they always ask me not to make them look like a clown. I would never! I get a bit adventurous on my own face, but there's a time and a place. Here's her finished face:

So pretty!

I had creative control in this situation, but I only actually applied the eyeshadow and defined the eyebrows. This was a daytime ceremony so I wanted to keep the eye makeup relatively natural, with just a touch of colour as she requested it to coordinate with the dress. I wanted it to be soft and pretty. Here's a closeup of her eye makeup:

I didn't line the top lid because she normally doesn't. Since she doesn't normally wear much eye makeup she might have thought it a bit much. I filled in her eyebrows a little with the paler shadow in the Essence Eyebrow Stylist Set. She doesn't normally fill in her brows and I didn't want to scare her, so I just lightly filled them to add more definition to her eye area. What makeup looks 'normal' to me would be quite dramatic for her, so I tried to keep that in mind! I was very proud of my work on Laura. I think the makeup really added to her outfit and enhanced her natural prettiness so much. She said that she liked the look and had at least one compliment that I know about :)


Products used:

Face:

Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation - Porcelain
Maybelline Dream Matte Powder - Rose Nude
No7 Natural Blush Cheek Colour - Cool Pink

Eyes:

Sleek - Nougat, Cappuccino (Au Naturel palette)
Soap & Glory - Dandy Plum, Wild Blue (Off the Wallflower quad)
Soap & Glory - The Daily Double - Velvet Pink/Brownie
Essence mascara - I Love Extreme Volume
Essence Eyebrow Stylist Set

Lips:

Revlon Lip Butter - Peach Parfait

In other news; I broke my nail polish ban while I was in Galway and it's all Nikki Lou's fault for her review of the Models Own Winter Wonderland collection here: http://nikkiloub.blogspot.ie/2012/10/models-own-wonderland-collection.html
I really needed Jack Frost. I didn't like the rest enough to buy them, but I had to get Jack Frost so I can layer it over black like that, it looks fantastic. Expect it in a nails of the week post soon! I also bought three other polishes..
Also, my wonderful husband Jim returned home last night from Arizona where he was visiting family, and he brought me gifts! I'll feature them in tomorrow's post :D
See you soon!

This Week's Nails #6 - Mellow Yellow

Ninja post from my Mom's house in West Cork! :D

I wasn't planning on doing a post at all today since I'm not home, but before I left this afternoon I had just about enough time to photograph my nails. I painted them last night because I'm going to Galway tomorrow with some of my family since it's my sister's university graduation on Monday. I brought my camera so hopefully I'll be able to get some nice pictures! I'll be back on Tuesday so maybe then I'll be able to do the Too Faced Shadow Insurance review. That's a tough one to do when I'm not home because I'll also be talking about the eye makeup in yesterday's FOTD. I'd rather have my makeup stuff there for reference so I can do an accurate post. :)

I did my nails this colour to go with the skirt I'll wear to the graduation. I'm not getting super dressed up but I'll be fancied up a bit.

Another one from Essence, it's called 'Mellow Yellow'. I picked it up for 65 cents when the new line of polishes came out. This is unfortunately another discontinued shade, and I've learned that this is the second 'Mellow Yellow' that Essence released. The previous one was a bright, true yellow. This version is a shimmery primrose yellow. I applied three coats of this, and it's not completely opaque but I think it's meant to be like that. The colour of this polish is paler than the yellow in my skirt, but it'll go nice all the same. It's a very soft, feminine colour, I can see it being paired with a light dress in the summertime too!

I'll be offline for a few days, enjoying myself in Galway :) Can't wait to come back and blog some more! Maybe I'll even come across something nice up there to do a post on, who knows?

See you soon!

FOTD #1

Hey! It's gonna be a short one today unfortunately. It's really late and I have to go out of town tomorrow so I have to pack and stuff before I go to bed. Today I did a full face of makeup, so I photographed it and it will be my first FOTD post! :)

I even brushed my hair. I know it doesn't look it, but I totally did. Here's the deal with the eye look. I'm going to feature it it my next post because I used this look to test the Too Faced Shadow Insurance that I got in the mail today (yay!). I'll go into more detail about the application and shadows in that post while I review TFSI. I hope that's cool with you guys!

Products used:

Face:

Maybelline BB Cream - Light
Revlon Colorstay - Ivory
Maybelline Fit Me - 120 Classic Ivory
The Body Needs - Under Eye Concealer
Maybelline Cover Stick - Ivory
Essence Bronzing Compact Powder - Bronzing Queen
Catrice Defining Duo Blush - Apricot Smoothie
Inglot Loose Powder - Translucent

Eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Urban Decay Naked 2 palette
Gosh Long Lasting Eyeliner Pen - Brown
Rimmel Scandaleyes Kohl Pencil - Bronze
Max Factor 2000 Calorie Mascara - Black Brown

Eyebrows:

Essence Eyebrow Stylist Set

Lips:

Revlon Lip Butter - Peach Parfait

This Week's Nails #5 - Be Optimistic!

Nails today!
I wanted autumnal nails this week. I had a look online to see what was trendy, and I saw a lot of beautiful deep colours, but I wore Revlon 'Forbidden' (deep red) last week and I wanted something a bit brighter. I came across a small few pictures of metallic copper and orange nails, inspired by autumn leaves I would imagine. They were so pretty, and  I have a similar colour in my collection :)

This is an older Essence one, I got it before they overhauled their polish range. I believe it's discontinued now, I haven't seen it around, which is a shame because it's a lovely shade! It's like, a rusty orange colour and has a chrome finish. It's beautiful! It really suits the season too and I haven't seen many polishes like it.

This Week's Nails #4 - Grey-t to be Here

'Grey-t to be Here', another Essence polish for €1.79!

I'm gonna be totally honest and tell you that I mainly bought this polish because of the punny name. It's not bad though! Sorry about my wrinkly hands in these pictures. I don't actually have the hands of an 80 year old woman. The cold weather just dries them out and makes them look that way!

It's a light grey with pink shimmer. The shimmer isn't as prevalent as I'd like, though :( The caps on the new Essence bottles often quite accurately reflect the colour of the polish when applied, although this one looks a lot more pink and glittery on the cap than it turns out on my nails.

Here's an extreme close up:

The pink's really really subtle, even when looking at it super close. It does give the colour a slight lift, I suppose it could be a little drab without it, but I'd much prefer if it were more obvious. I didn't think I'd be that fond of this one, but it actually goes well with a lot of my clothes. I think it will be a nice colour to wear in the winter!

This Week's Nails #3 - Naughty and Pink!

Sorry for two nail posts in a row! I've been trying to find time to do a makeup look, but I've been pretty stuck for time lately. I made time to do my nails though, I can't stand them being bare. It makes me feel so blokey >.>

This one is called 'Naughty and Pink!'. It's by Essence, and it's priced at €1.79. In the photo it looks crazy bright, but it actually looks a few shades darker in most light. I wasn't sure of it at first because it looked a bit strange against my skin tone, but it grew on me!
I'm using a different top and base coat this time. I was at my mother's house and I forgot to bring mine with me. She had a Sally Hansen one, it's both a base coat and a top coat. I believe it's called Diamond Shine. It's in an all silver bottle. Initially I was really impressed with it, it dried really fast and the polish felt really solid on my nails. The next day though, I got a chip. You can see it in the photo, at the tip of my middle finger. Now most of the nails on both hands are chipped quite badly :(

To be fair I did a TON of housework that day and I was super rough with my nails, so perhaps it's not entirely the fault of the top coat. I know that Sally Hansen products have a good reputation. I'd like to get it for myself and give it another go because I liked that it dried quickly. I normally use an Essence top coat, but it seems to take much longer to dry and I often mess my polish up trying to do stuff in the meantime.

I shall return and report my findings! :D