Diamond Dust

I have just the right thing to jazz up your Saturday night. Meet Diamond Dust, one of the 2 releases from Rimmel latest 'Precious Stones' collection.





Rimmel were not kidding when they wrote 'high coverage' on the bottle: What you see is just two coats of Diamond Dust with nothing more than a transparent base coat underneath. not bad, huh?





I would still like to wear a dark blue or black base coat underneath but I just couldn't fault the handy flat brush allowing a very quick application ad the superb coverage. Lasting power is below average (1 day and I saw some tip wear) but then again, I didn't wear a top coat and I didn't have high expectations. This is, for me, very much a 'party polish' and a rather stunning one!




Expect all eyes on your nails when you wear Diamond Dust, a gritty finish if you don't apply a top coat,a typical troublesome removal process and you'll enjoy this polish as much I did. I loved it. Want to wear this polish 2 or 3 nights in a row? Apply the ‘lazy cow’ method: Just apply some polish on the tips. No one will ever know. 




  



If 'Ruby Crush' is anything like Diamond Dust, then I am in for a heck of a (sleigh) ride as I couldn't think of any more festive and convenient nail polish to rock at a Christmas party! Dang. Looks like I have just convinced myself to purchase the red one now





what: Rimmel Precious Stones Nail Polish in shade Diamond Dust
how much: £3.99
bought by me on a 3 for 2 mix and match deal at boots
where: Boots and Superdrug.
credit: last photo belongs was borrowed from Llymlrs blog.

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Does the Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover remove glitter?

If you're anything like me, you'll avoid wearing a glittery nail  polish just because you can't face the painful and time consuming  removal process. We've been all there for what it seems hours trying  to scrape the pesky glitter particles from our nails.

When Bourjois  released their magic nail polish remover, I couldn't wait to try it  mainly to see if it could tackle glitter polishes. There has been,  for a while, quite some rave about a certain Sally Hansen product  doing a fabulous job with glitter polish but to me, it was not very  helpful as the Sally Hansen product is

a) very difficult to source  and
b) extremely drying on your nails. (dry nails and cuticle mean more prone to breakage)


Before moving on to removal of glitter nail polishes in particular, I  wanted to write a novel few words on how it behaves with traditional  polishes.




The magic remover is such a pleasure to use and I have  found it very difficult to use anything else since I have opened my  first bottle for many reasons:


Not only does it smell gorgeous, sweet and fruity but the smell is  very family and office friendly. Traditional nail polish remover has  such a strong and distinctive smell that if you -hypothetically -  happened to be cheeky and wanted to use some in your office, you'll  be busted within one tenth of a second, and there is no way you could  blame the smell to be cause by another product in the office. No big  marker pen, tippex, glue can smell as strong as that.


The formula is absolutely amazing. In fact, I'd go as far as saying  that it's perfect. Within (10?) seconds and thanks to the rubbing  motion against the sponge, your polish just wipes itself off, leaving  your nails really nourished. You can really feel the goodness of the  sweet almond noil inside it and the nail polish removal process  almost feels like a mini pampering sessions for your nails. I can't  get my head round an acetone free nail polish remover can be so  effective and so nourishing to my nails, and I've never known an  acetone free nail polish remover to be so effective and kind at the  same time. This stuff is like your 'naughty and hardcore' full of  acetone purple bottle of Cutex but without the ultra drying effects  of acetone.


The sponge is of very good quality, is conveniently black so that you  don't see the remnants of your past polishes in there, never  dislodges itself from the bottle and is very durable. And then the  product is 100% times more convenient than a traditional bottle of  remover and is perfect if you only need to remove the polish from  just one nail.





The product is almost too convenient, you don't want to use anything  else and you'll find it hard to save it for special occasions? Why  would you want to save this for special occasions? Well, the magic  remover is 7.2 times more expensive than my traditional polish  remover and that's so annoying. I feel the product is definitely worth its £4.99 price tag, the quality is superb and you'll be hard  to find another sponge-in-a-tub remover of the same standard but it is expensive.


Would I feel more ready to spend £4.99 in a nail polish remover that  effortlessly remove glitter? Yes.
Does it effortlessly remove glitter? No.  
      
In my experience it doesn't  easily remove glitter easily. I tested it with a high coverage  holographic glitter nail polish from Rimmel (review coming up) which  I wore for nearly 48 hours before proceeding to remove it and it was  a pain as usual to remove it and the sponge inside the tub didn't  help one single bit. In fact, I felt uncomfortable doing it as I  could tell that the only thing I was doing was subjecting the sponge  inside this much loved nail polish remover to unnecessary damage.

Conclusion: Despite its failure to effortlessly and quickly remove  glitter nail polish, the Bourjois magic nail polish remover is  product of an outstanding quality. Wow, Wow and Wow again. I am blown away by the fragrance, the  convenience, the sponge and how it leave my nails so nourished after  being stripped off nail polish.


However, for me it remains a luxury  product. It's such a handy product for everybody especially for nail  bloggers who are on a photographing session and apply/remove a  multitude of nail polishes in a row, on the same day. In fact, it has  actually made some of my nail polish pictures even prettier. The  almond oil it contains have made the skin around my nails looking so  nourished, soft, glowy but not greasy. Sometimes I even want to use the nail polish remover even if I don’t have anything to remove! But it is pricey.  


My nails have been enjoying  every minute of it, but unless this product is on special offer, I  won't be repurchasing it. It will be a sad day when I will have used  the last drop of my beloved Bourjois Magic Nail Polish remover. What can I say? Born a cheapskate, will die a cheapskate…

p.s
If Bourjois did a 'normal' tall bottle of nail polish remover (150ml) using the same formula but without the sponge and sold it at £1.99, I'd buy it in a heartbeat


what: Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover 75ml
where: Boots and Superdrug (3 for 2 offer throughout October 2012 at  Boots)
how much: £4.99
bought by me

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Pirouette my Summer by No.7

It's tipping it down outside, blowing gale and I have my thickest winter coat welded onto my body. But Boots has decided it was summer and went all out to celebrate its arrival. There are plenty of offers throughout the store to help you bare your body for cheaper and there is a new seasonal no.7 make up range whose name never fails to wind me up. This year, it's called 'Summer?In your dreams  in my head it's summer 'Summer of Dreams'.





Annoyance of the name aside, there are 2 gems I couldn't wait to try: The glitter top coats.  Would you believe (and this has never happened to me) they had an official tester of the silver top coat today and naturally I had to try!





My quick snap below shows one coat (applied in a patting motion) on one coat of no.7 lucky lilac. Not bad for one coat, hey? This glitter top coat reminds me of the 'Pirouette my whistle' from OPI, the only colour which I fancy from the recent 'New York Ballet Collection'. It's so pretty!





To complement the collection, Boots released 2 lipglosses, 1 bronzer and 4 eyeshadow crayons.







Not sure if I am happy to fork out the £8 requested to purchase a glitter polish but with a no.7 voucher (are they going to have some time round?) it's going to be very hard to resist.

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When Eylure and Models Own met Hedkandi …

I didn't think there could be any more exciting false lashes release this year when Katy Perry worked  with Eylure, one of my ultimate favourite brands of false lashes. This was until Eylure joined forces with Giant Record Label Hed Kandi to create amazing party pieces: Hed Kandi Lashes by  Eylure.






I love dance/house music, I love Eylure and I just couldn't think of a better  collaboration. It just makes perfect sense. Ministry of Sound, who I am also a massive fan wouldn't have worked you see: Hed Kandi already has the stunning imagery of glamorous girls, where the addition of lashes not only makes sense but would beautifully enhance them.

The Hed Kandi Eylure range contains 5 pairs of falsies, all housed in a beautiful  packaging, with a eye catching glittery/disco ball background, priced at £6.49 each and already available in your Superdrug.
















My instant favourite is 'Twisted Disco' (the one  featuring a girl with butterfly on it) which will remind you of Samantha, Sex in the City Eylure lashes. Typically, surprise surprise, my Superdrug doesn't hold Twisted Disco but I am more than happy to travel the country a bit to find them.
As if the release of Party Lashes was not exciting enough, Hed Kandi joined forces with Models Own to create a brand new exclusive collection of nail polishes inspired by the party capital of the world, Ibiza.

"With this year being Hed Kandi’s 10 year anniversary on the Balearic party island, the range of five polishes reflects the Hed-turning, fashionforward glamour that the fabulous brand brings to all their events on The White Isle. The ‘Hed Kandi collection’ instantly brings to life the recognisable glamorous girls synonymous with the brand, transporting you to the jet-set global dance floor. With three of the brightest Models Own shades and two premium glitters making up the collection this embodies the whole essence that Ibiza has to offer."

Balearic Cool: a crystal aquamarine blue inspired by the waters of Formentera
Hedonist: a no inhibition hot neon coral.
Beach Party: a sunny, bright and intoxicating polish inspired by the world famous sunsets on the White Isle
Disco Heaven: a glittery, gold disco bomb
Ibiza Mix: a dense multi-coloured day-night sparkle







The Hedkandi polishes will be on sale at £5 from the end of March online and are due in your Boots stores in April.


If all this doesn't get you in a summery or party mood, well I don't know what will

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I am lusting over ...

... The utter gorgeousness of Forever 21 nail polishes. While googling for nail polishes swatches, I stumbled on the American website of Forever 21 and got totally lost lusting for their massive nail polishes collection, and browsing among over 200 polishes at only $2.80 (that's £1.76 at current exchange rate). You know what's coming next. Yep, the (excruciatingly slow to load) British Forever 21 webstore doesn't hold any polishes. But if they did, this is what I would happily splurge on.

The range of chunky glitters is absolutely phenomenal (see gratuitous small selection below) Who needs OPI Nicky Minaj or Deborah Lippman glitters when you can those at a fraction of a price, if you live in the USA that is..





Any of you have had the chance to try some Forever 21 nail polishes?

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Crackle me madly notdees

If you're tired of the crackle nail polish trend, you might want to turn away now. If you still enjoy playing with crackle polishes, these might interest you. When 17 cosmetics released their gold crackle, I was only midly interested. It was not bright and in-your-face gold enough for my liking and I happily skipped it. A little bit more recently 17 cosmetics came back with 2 new additions to their crackle family and released these 2 babies: a vibrant purple crackle and a really original crackle: a mixture of gold, glitter and black crackle.






I think I've already found my perfect purple crackle. It's BROKEN ARROW from MUA Cosmetics and it's perfect on every aspect. I like Broken Arrow so much that not only it's my favourite purple crackle but it might be my favourite crackle polish of all. So I didn't have much hope for the Boots 17 purple crackle to impress me.

I decided to use GAMMA from Illamasqua as a base  for my first play and I was really taken by surprise. The vibrancy of the purple is absolutely amazing. It is not as metallic intense as Broken Arrow (but this is turn makes it easier to photograph) but it has the most gorgeous blue undertone which comes to life when a powerful light hit it.




I love the way the crackle created this x shape on my middle finger





Application was easy, even though I have found the formula a bit thick. I like my crackle to be quite chunky so I had to make a point to load the brush to the max before applying the crackle polish onto my nails.

I have yet to ascertain if using a nail polish thinner would alter the crackle formulation or whether it would still crackle? Does anyone of you know?

I was quite excited to try the gold/black/and glitter polish. I decided to use a nude polish underneath: NUDE CHAMPAGNE by Gosh which I am absolutely obsessed with at the moment. This crackle is very unique. In fact, it's so different from any crackle polish that I've known that I would like NOT to call it crackle. Whilst the finished effect is gorgeous and give you ultimate party nails in an instant, the crackle effect is much more subtle. It doesn't crackle as much as 'normal crackles'. Could it be because of the chunky glitter inside it?







I couldn't stop looking at my nails whilst I was wearing this combo but I kept on wishing the glitter had been more fine. Removal as expected was quite laborious because of the chunky glitter. This polish presents the usual glitter dilemma for me. Is it gorgeous enough for me to put up with the removal process.

If you're expecting this polish to be a true crackle, you'll be disappointed. If you're in a rush, and have 2 minutes to jazz up your chipped nude nails before a party: you'll be in love with this and all eyes will be on you too.

I am lucky. I didn’t have to buy these 2 polishes as my friend from work bought them 2 days ago. Me thinks she should leave them in the office all the time :)

As far as I know, these crackle polishes don't have a name.
How would you call them?

What? 17 Cosmetics Nail Extras Crackle Top Coat
How much? £3.99
Where: any boots, even the 'crap' little ones :)

Related posts:
Mua Cosmetics Purple Crackle Nail Polish (Broken Arrow).
Gosh ohmygosh Nude Champagne Nail Polish.
Illamasqua Gamma Nail Polish.

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'Sharksbiteoflifesque' California Gurls Inspired Makeup Look

If I'm not careful, this blog is going to turn into everything else but not makeup. I can't believe the last makeup look I posted was dated the end of March. Is my addiction of nail polish taking over, am I losing confidence with makeup, I don't know but it's time I tried to rectify the situation and put more makeup into my erm... makeup blog.


There are 2 projects I have been working on for a while now but there are not quite ready yet. Please bear with me whilst I play with makeup again and regain a bit of confidence. In the meantime, this is what I did earlier on - read ages ago. A look which I wanted to recreate from sharksbiteoflife, makeup guru on YouTube and her take on Katy Perry 'California Gurls' look.


 


This happened so long ago and I've lost my notes on what products I used and I am really sorry about that. Well mainly because if I wanted to recreate myself, I would be bummed and not knowing what shadows to use. What I *do* remember is using 2 pairs of false lashes at once, some blue underneath some regular black ones and some green glitter from fairy dust from eBay.


The main idea is to have a block of colour, smoked out as it goes towards the brow, not much of a crease, and some chunky glitter strategically placed only in the centre of the lid to add a bit of dimension to the look.







Ignore as well my blush placement: I do suck excellently well at it and I practise so rarely with blusher that I can't see myself improving in this area. I'm selling this look very well, ain't I? 







In an ideal world, I would be posting this on my YouTube channel but I've lost confidence with that too. Well, whilst we are talking about YouTube activity, to be honest, I am struggling to keep up with blogging (writing & reading that is) and YouTube. I had only 1 new year resolution, going back to YouTube properly and I managed to screw that up in an obsession to keep up with my blog reading & commenting, which is also equally important to me. Do you know what's a pressure? When you have 2000 lovely people subscribed to you YouTube (or thereabout if you ignore the lapsed accounts and the bots) and when you're not delivering the goods.



   



Thank you to all my loyal blog followers who are still following my blog, despite not posting makeup looks as frequently as I would like.
xxx

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Russet Eye Glitter Dust (Beauty UK) and EOTD

What can I say. I think I might have a little crush on Beauty UK. After Lily from Beauty’s Bad Habit was raving about the metallic eye sparks, I wanted to get some for myself. Alas there was none in my Superdrug: instead 2 little pots (the last ones) of  glitter eye dust were begging me to grab them: Russet and Green. The glitter lover in me couldn’t resist at £2.99 each.




Let’s cut to chase and go right into it: the packaging is far from ideal but let it not deter you as the product it contains it’s gorgeous. It is like your traditional loose glitter but more finely milled to look almost like an eyeshadow. With this product, you get the best of both worlds: vibrancy, glitter and drama which you would get with a loose glitter, but a product very similar to eyeshadow as far as the removal goes: a cotton dampened with eye make up remover will take it off very easily, while traditional glitter would be more tedious (I usually resort to sellotape to remove the excess first)





Talking of packaging, this is what it looks like inside. I feel like the product dissipates itself around its little opening at the top.

 



You can actually remove the whole plastic protector inside and just use the lid. I happened to have some mini jars (5ml) left so I decided to depot them.



 
Are you still with me yet?
Now for the look. This is not very elaborate at all. Look at it more like it’s a swatch of the product but made directly on the eyelid.

 





To create this look, I used 3 colours from the Day and Night Palette (reviewed and fotd’ed here) and the russet glitter eye dust. Eyepencil and eyeliner are the same usual ones, I won’t bore you with it :P Again, I must point out that you won’t usually see me using shimmery shadows in my crease.  But the shimmery burgundy from this palette as well as the other colours don’t have an overpowering shimmer at all, it’s more of a mix between subtle sheen and shimmer.

I treated the glitter eye dust exactly like it was chunky loose glitter and applied it with my beloved and trusty splash proof sealer. In retrospect, I wish I had darkened the crease a bit more with a bit of black. Never mind.


 


Now what am I going to do with 2 jars of the same glitter, huh? ;)
Oh, anyone want to have a guess at the nail polish I am wearing? answer tomorrow. I know, you just can't contain yourself ... and I need to get out more

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