Showing posts with label Nails Inc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nails Inc. Show all posts

Monday, 31 October 2011

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Hope you enjoy whatever you're doing tonight. I don't celebrate Halloween but wanted to do some Halloween makeup. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this and I don't have any products such as liquid latex or spirit gum etc to do anything really creative so had to make do with what I had in my makeup collection. As per usual, I leave everything to the last minute and ended up doing this last night. I didn't know what I wanted to turn myself into and ended up making it up as I went along. I think it looks a little bit zombish although could have done with some more cuts and veins and rot haha - maybe next year.





I already had my makeup on from the day, my eyeshadow was very neutral in skin tones with a tiny bit of shimmer. This was mostly covered up. Because I didn't want it to look perfect, I just added more on top of what I already had on.

What I used:
  • White eyeshadow (MAC Gesso) applied all over with a small foundation brush, packed onto my skin and 'scrubbed' in to get it to look a little patchy. I couldn't find a very light foundation to use cheaply yesterday so made do with eyeshadow but you could use a light foundation instead.
  • Taupe-grey eyeshadow as a contour on a round eyeshadow brush to sketch out the shape and then blend downwards. Soften with a fluffy contouring brush. I used MAC Copperplate through my cheekbones, around the top of the nose to add shadow and depth to the eyes and along the jaw bone.
  • Brown-red eyeshadow under the eyes to make them look sore, I used MAC Folie. I also used this colour in areas where I wanted my skin to look bruised.
  • Grey eyeshadow under the eyes and on the lids to make them appear deeper set. I used MAC Scene.
  • Matte black eyeshadow all over the lid and underneath for a dead and smudged makeup appearance.
  • Reddish plum purple eyeshadow, I used the one from Sleek's PPQ palette to use around the bruised areas to darken and deepen the look of the bruises, I also used it in areas around the mouth and also smudged the excess on the brush around the nose to make my skin look blotchy.
  • MAC Cream O Spice lipliner all over lips, use something brownish.
  • For the blood I used MAC's Kissable Lip Colours in Love Peck and Strut Your Stuff. Fake blood would be ideal, liquid and gel based would give the best effect.

I also did a Halloween nail design.



I already had the base colours on for this, they are one of the new Nails Inc Gossip Girl kits (the Lily set). It is a deep plum black creme finish with a flake polish on top which flashes red-orange-green. I added China Glaze's Ghoulish Glow (glow in the dark nail polish) over the top of all fingers except the ring fingers. I used Illamasqua Gamma (neon orange) for the pumpkin and OPI Jade is the New Black (medium green creme) for the stalk and swirly leaves. I then added the face in China Glaze Liquid Leather (black creme).

I wasn't able to get a photo of the polish glowing in the dark, my camera just wouldn't pick it up, I probably need to figure out the correct settings. It is subtle but does glow. It needs to be in the light for a while to 'charge', it will eventually fade out and not glow, just like children's glow in the dark stars do. It also mutes the colour down but I like it for this as it makes it a swampy greenish colour.

Enjoy your Halloween!

Jennifer xx

Sunday, 8 May 2011

Instyle Magazine June 2011 - Free Nails Inc Polish!

Hey all! Right, I haven't had time to swatch the Illamasqua polishes I promised you yesterday because I've been quite busy with other things but I will do them this week. I thought I'd bring you this today to replace it seeing as I think this issue of Instyle will fly off the shelves pretty quickly.


This isn't the first time Instyle have teamed up with Nails Inc to bring us some freebie colours, this is just the first time I have seen colours I have liked. There are three to collect if you fancy them all. Orange Candy is a bright orange, like the colour of a real orange. Electric Teal is a greeny ocean teal. Fashion Fawn is a light taupe sandy colour - I didn't purchase this one because I have colours in the same family and I just don't wear them enough to need another.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture the true colour of these in a swatch, the orange came out too bright, verging on neon weirdly and it just isn't. The teal came out far too blue but it is a gorgeous green teal and I actually didn't expect to love it but I so do. When you see them in the bottles, they do come out true to the bottle colour so you could just place it next to your skin to see how it would work.

These are the first Nails Inc polishes I've tried so I have no idea how they are formula wise normally but I thought they were pretty good. The teal was thicker than the orange which looked quite watery in the bottle but was fine in use. The teal covered perfectly in two coats, the orange looked good in two but I would have preferred a third because I could see my nail line faintly but if you have short nails and don't really get visible nail lines, two would be just right. The brushes were thin for my liking, I'm so used to OPI's wide brush that I always find thinner brushes difficult but that is just me. The bristles were all fine, none were splayed out. I haven't tested them for wear but regardless, for the price of the magazine, £3.70, I don't think you can go wrong. Of course if you are a regular reader of Instyle, unlike me who just bought the magazine for the freebies, you wont even be paying for the polish!

Like the colours? Get down to the shops before they are all gone!

- Jennifer
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