Pink and Blue Leopard Print Nails

I saw these pink and dark blue Barry M polishes in Superdrug and really wanted to use them together in some nail art. I was going to do stripes but then decided to add the other blue in and do some leopard print. I've never freehanded leopard print before and this isn't great - it looks more abstract than leopard print. I liked it all the same though, I really love the colours together. It is so bright and fun. I didn't want to take it off but had to because I cracked my thumb nail and needed to fix it :(

Colours used:
Barry M Flamingo (pink)
Barry M Turquoise (light blue)
Barry M Indigo (dark blue)

Jennifer xx

MAC Hey Sailor! - Shore Leave Lip Pencil Swatches

Shore Leave is a warm toned light pinky coral. It is the Pro Longwear formulation so has really good staying power, I lined the around my lip shape and applied lipstick over it and in on the rest of my lips and this lasted longer than the lipstick, leaving a bit of a ring around my mouth - make sure to fill in your lips too so it grips the lipstick everywhere! It is slightly drying, you may want some balm to soak into your lips before applying but it would be best to blot it off before applying the pencil to make it last well. It applies nicely as it is creamy but it sets on the lips, it actually feels a little tacky compared to regular lip pencils, probably to help hold your lipstick on for longer.

L-R: Shore Leave Lip Pencil, Sail La Vie Lipstick

Have you tried the Pro Longwear formula?

Jennifer xx

MAC Hey Sailor! Fleet Fast Blush Review and Swatches

After binging out on all of the Tres Cheek blushers (if anyone wants a review on any of them, leave me a comment and I will get one up for you) I intended not to buy any of the blushers from Hey Sailor... that didn't work though haha. I bought Fleet Fast and it is such a perfect natural colour on my skin. I simply love it.

My new love with MAC's blushers is their satin finish which has been in the latest blush offerings. They are perfection in a pan, I honestly can't rave about them any more. I've always been a bit wary of matte blushers on my dry skin and I usually prefer a bit of shimmer. The satin finishes that MAC have come out with recently have just looked so flawless on everyone's skin that I've seen them on and I know that a lot of people are really chuffed with them. They give such a natural finish which doesn't look completely matte, instead giving skin a slight sheen which actually looks just how skin should - not caked in makeup.

Fleet Fast has some fine gold shimmer in it which is quite subtle on the skin - you can see it but it is far from being a glitter bomb on your face. It is very flattering. I adore the colour too. It doesn't seem all that unique but the formulation is what makes it a must have for me. The shade is somewhere between pink and coral but with an earthiness to it. It gives my cheeks a natural flush which also appears like I've been in the sun, I love it.

It also has really good staying power, lasting almost all day on my skin - bearing in mind that I have dry skin so it might not work as well on normal to oily skin types.

So if I can recommend that you try something from this collection, this would be one of my top picks.

Jennifer xx

Candeo Colors Sprouse

I have another great colour from Candeo Colors, an indie nail polish brand. It is made up of large and small matte black and matte white hexagonal glitter, black and white bar glitter, medium sized royal blue hexagonal glitter, medium silver hexagonal glitter and holographic shimmer all suspended in a clear base. I love it. I said in an earlier post about Nubar's Polka Dot polishes that I love these black and white glitter polishes. This one is even more special because it has the blue glitter and holographic shimmer thrown in. It looks fantastic over lots of colours.The quality is great too, it applies like a dream and the glitter doesn't require lots of shaking to mix it because the suspension base is so good.

A couple of makeup looks

I found these photos on my computer of some previous makeup looks that I have worn and never posted so I thought I'd put them up now anyway. I can remember what I'm wearing in these however.

The top one is the kind of makeup I wear a lot and the bottom one is what I tend to go for when I want to wear more colour on my eyes.

Jennifer xx

Candy Yum Yum FOTD

I wore this for one day last week. I really love this lipstick, it is so smooth and long lasting. Unfortunately it was a limited edition but I was lucky enough to get hold of it before it sold out. BUT it might be coming back in the MAC By Request collection which you can vote for now at MAC By Request and you can do one vote each day so if you want it back, GO VOTE.

What I'm wearing:
Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation in Beige
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in Light
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium Plus
MAC Amber Lights Eyeshadow
MAC Superslick Liquid Liner (black)
MUFE Smokey Lash Mascara (I will have to review this because I'm not a big fan)
Collection 2000 Clear Mascara through my eyebrows
MAC Florida Cremeblend Blush
MAC Candy Yum Yum Lipstick

Jennifer x

MAC Shop Cook Cremeblend Blushes

I have a thing for cream blushes at the moment, I like the way they look on the skin, they give such a nice natural finish and you have the option to mattify them a bit with some powder. They are easily buildable and can be worn on lips too or even on eyelids if you wish!

There are three cremeblend blushes in this collection, two are repromotes (Florida and Optimistic Orange) and the other is brand new (Restores Dazzle).

They are all beautifully pigmented and glide on effortlessly. They blend out really easily so even though they are so pigmented, you can use them sheerly too.

Packaging (outer cardboard sleeve only - the rest is MAC's usual black packaging)

Clockwise from bottom left: Florida, Restores Dazzle, Optimistic Orange

OPI Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday & Save Me

Just a quick post to show this mani I wore not long ago. It is OPI Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday and Save Me glitter over the top. Two coats of Pink Friday, one coat of Save Me and a thick coat of Seche Vite over the top.

Jennifer x

MAC - Iris Apfel Lipstick Swatches & Review

MAC's collaboration with Iris Apfel is a lovely collection, the lipsticks for me are the stars. They are all beautiful colours with fantastic quality. There are 5 shades, Flamingo, Party Parrot, Pink Pigeon, Scarlet Ibis and Morange. Morange is permanent. I purchased all of the other 4 shades.

L-R: Flamingo, Party Parrot, Pink Pigeon, Scarlet Ibis

L-R: Flamingo, Party Parrot, Pink Pigeon, Scarlet Ibis

Continue reading for review and more photos

MAC Fall Colour Lipsticks

These are lipsticks which I already had in my collection but have been released with the MAC Fall Colour collection. The shades featured here are all PRO colours so are available all year round at PRO stores and via phoning mail order. The shades I have are Violetta, Show Orchid and Neon Orange.

L-R: Violetta, Show Orchid, Neon Orange

Violetta is a fuchsia based purple lipstick. Whilst purple lipstick may seem strange, it is very wearable for a lot of skin tones. On some people it may appear more pink than on others. On me it is quite close to the bullet colour. It is an Amplified finish which is one of my favourites as they are well pigmented and last on the lips well. It works particularly well will green eyes as it compliments them, making them appear brighter and greener. This colour looks nice when patted on to be sheerer and also topped with a fuchsia pink gloss.

Show Orchid is an amazing bright fuchsia pink with a purply fuchsia irridencence. It looks almost like a duochrome on the lips. Even though it is bright, it is still very flattering when paired with simple neutral eye makeup. It is an Amplified finish and almost completely opaque. This colour could be patted on for more of a stain or sheerer finish.

Neon Orange is not what I would call neon (think highligher pens) but it is still very bright. It is the sort of colour which colour easily be shyed away from, however it still looks very nice on the lips when paired with neutral eyes. You could even add a little pop of colour such as a tiny bit of cyan liner smudged into the lower lashes or by using burnt oranges/coppers and browns on the eyes too to create a monochromatic look. It is an amplified finish and is very creamy and opaque.

I think all three of these colours make nice additions to my makeup collection. The colours are fun and can be used in many looks. I also love to do neutral eyes and bright lipstick.

Jennifer

Using Sleek's Monaco Palette - Barbie Pink

Number 3 of the looks I have created using the Sleek Monaco palette. This time I wanted to create a look with the bright pink, it ended up looking very girly and a little Barbie-ish so I thought I'd go with it and add some false eyelashes (terrible application I will add, I am really new to attempting these and I've not got the hang on it yet) and a bit of pink lipstick.

I used Lotus Flower (shimmery lilac) over the whole of my lids and then applied Magenta Madness (bright matte magenta) through the crease and blended upwards gently as it is quite a strong colour. I added some Moors Treasure deep in the lower part of the crease and then lined my upper lash line with it. I softened the line so it wasn't as harsh and lined my lower lashes along the outer third with the same shade. I then lined the rest of my lower lashes with Lotus Flower. I put a teeny bit of black liner on the outer part of my upper lashes to add a little flick. The false lashes I used were from Eyelure and were the natural volume ones (not sure if they have a number or proper name), they are subtle and suitable for everyday wear if you wish (and can apply them properly, unlike me lol).

Also used:

Chanel Vitalumier foundation

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer

Sleek Luminous Pressed Powder

NARS Laguna bronzer

NARS Orgasm blush

MAC Brow Pencil in Spiked

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in Black Ink

Chanel Inimitable Intense mascara in Noir

MAC Creme Cup lipstick

I wanted to see what it would look like with a brighter pink lipstick so I switched to MAC Chatterbox, one of my favourite lipsticks. I don't think the tone of the pink works as well as Creme Cup. I should have gone for something more magenta based, or even neon like MAC Candy Yum Yum.



Do you prefer the lighter or brighter pink lips?

I have 2-3 more looks coming up for this palette and then I'm going to move on to the Caribbean palette.

Jennifer xx

Using Sleek's Monaco Palette - Pink and Teal

I am really loving this palette, I have reached for it so much since I won Rachel's from All Things Rachy giveaway. I'm going to be posting some looks that I have created using it starting with this one which I did yesterday.

I used Lotus Flower (shimmery lilac) on my lid and then blended Magenta Madness (matte magenta) into the crease and upwards. I then applied some Moors Treasure (matte plum) into the outer corner and blended through the crease to darken and deepen. Lastly I applied a line of Humming Bird (shimmery teal) along my lower lash line.

Other products used:

Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in Denim Ink

Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara

Bobbi Brown Corrector and Creamy Concealer

Chanel Vitalumier Foundation

Sleek Luminous Pressed Powder

MAC Semi Precious Goldstone MSF

MAC Spiked Brow Pencil

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Romance

Like? I will be posting a few more as and when I use the palette so keep a look out for them!

Jennifer x

Pink Ombre Nails

First of all, sorry I haven't posted in a while, I suck. I also couldn't get Photobucket to work for me over the last couple of days. Secondly, thank you to all of my new followers! I really appreciate you all coming to read my blog :) Lastly, I have a few posts coming up, some on the recent MAC releases, Fashion Flower and Semi Precious and also Bobbi Brown's latest offerings, The New Classics, plus the Chanel Byzance collection. Lots to do! I also want to get some makeup looks up but unfortunately can only do these at weekends when I get time to photograph them so fingers crossed all will go to plan with this coming weekend. Then of course I have lots of other random posts stored up in my head for the future too.

So I've been wondering what to do with my nails, attempting some nail art (nothing good enough to post) but recently wanting something simple, without being boring. I decided to do an ombre manicure, I have an awful lot of polish so it gave me a chance to use a few of them at a time.

Starting with my thumb I have: OPI Come to Poppy, 17 Pink Grapefruit, Nubar Honeysuckle, Leighton Denny All About Me and OPI Play the Peonies.

I really like it and will be doing the same thing with other colours in future. The OPI shades are from the recent Nice Stems collection which has just come out on lenawhite.co.uk if you are interested. The Nubar shade as from their Spring Garden collection and can be bought from feelunique.com. Leighton Denny polishes can be purchased from leightondenny.com or QVC. All polishes apart from Pink Grapefruit were two coats, Pink Grapefruit being three.

I will do my best to get posting more often!

Jennifer x

Les Fleurs D'Ete De Chanel Summer 2011 Collection - Mimosa & Morning Rose Review

Hiya! I hope everyone in the UK is enjoying their start to the Bank Holiday weekend, sucks if you are working though :( Thankfully I am staying at my boyfriend's house which is nice to have a little break from London for a few days.

L-R: Morning Rose, Mimosa

L-R: Morning Rose, Mimosa

Today I have a review of two of the Chanel Summer nail polish colours, the highly anticipated Mimosa and beautiful Morning Rose. There was also another shade released called Beige Petale but that didn't appeal to me at all, I loves my bright colours! As soon as I saw the press releases for these I just loved the yellow shade. I only had one yellow polish, Barry M yellow - do not recommend unless you want to have finger that look like they've been dipped in a pot of American mustard... bleugh, not a good look and I was actually told by somebody else that is what my nails looked like :( Chanel's offering looked much more flattering.

I recently did a post on OPI's Fiercely Fiona which is a really pretty yellow but Mimosa is quite different, it is brighter and is shot through with a pretty golden shimmer which gives the colour some depth so it doesn't look flat. Chanel are very good at putting trendy colours out there but making them flattering.

Morning Rose is a jellyish colour and again shot through with gold shimmer although bigger particles in this shade. I wouldn't say it was a proper jelly because it is quite opaque but you can see the shimmer floating within the polish just like in a jelly finish. I found capturing the glitter difficult for both of these colours because the sun refused to come out and it has been horrible in London for the past few days so I couldn't re shoot the photos unfortunately. The pink is a nice flattering shade, it is a medium pink and has slight peach tones in it. Both of these colours are perfect for Summer.

Application was smooth on both, Mimosa needed a third coat to get true bottle colour and I used a third coat of Morning Rose because I didn't paint the second coat very well but I think a third coat gives it a bit more depth with the extra shimmer going through it. The polishes retail at £17 so they are expensive but Chanel often bring out really unique shades which you can't get elsewhere. The bottles hold 13ml/0.4fl oz of lacquer.

Here are a few pictures at different angles, hopefully the shimmer is visible in some of them. Mimosa isn't quite as bright in real life, I'd say one shade lighter but Morning Rose is pretty accurate on my screen.

L-R: Mimosa, Morning Rose

L-R: Mimosa, Morning Rose

L-R: Mimosa, Morning Rose

Mimosa

Morning Rose

I think they are sold out online now which is a shame so if you would like these colours I would call/visit your local Chanel counter to see if they have it there.

- Jennifer

Zebra Funky French Nail Art

I was inspired by something I saw on another blog but can't remember where it was now but I went home and did this. It took me a little while to do it but I was quite pleased with it. I wasn't overly happy with the colours I chose, I thought it was a bit too much and ended up only wearing it for a couple of days, I think it would have been really nice with a bright and a more muted colour to go with it, say two shades of blue.

Sparkly Lollypop

I'm so rubbish with titles haha. This is what I had on my nails over the last few days before I decided to pick at the glitter and ended up peeling half of it off one nail so wanted to change it. The base colour is Leighton Denny Lollypop and the glitter is Deborah Lippmann Today was a Fairytale. This glitter is so pretty, it has small circular glitter particles and larger hexagonal glitter shapes. It can also be layered up to wear alone - although not perfectly opaque, it still looks good.

Close up - hopefully you can make out the hexagonal glitter shapes.

Like? I have a nail art post coming up which I am really proud of, hopefully it should appear over the weekend :)

- Jennifer

Pink Spikey Flower Nail Art

So after getting those awful WAH nail pens (sorry for the slow review, it will be up this week!) and the disaster of the disintegrating brush, I decided to get myself down to a craft centre for some thin brushes. I originally wanted some rigger brushes (For those who don't know, they are very fine brushes with length to the bristles but not as long as nail stripers. They are called so because painters traditionally use them to paint the rigging of boats in their work) but they didn't have any so I got some shorter versions. As you can see, longer brushes would have made the tapered ends crisper and finer but these brushes will do for now. I also got some craft rhinestones. I wasn't sure how they'd react with the solvents in nail polish but figured I'd try them anyway. They came in a carousel wheel and are by the well known craft brand Anita's if any of you are interested.

The colours I used were Leighton Denny Berry Nice for the base, Leighton Denny Pure White for the stripes/petals with a little bit of Leighton Denny Cascade (sheer multi coloured fine glitter) over the flowers. Then I dabbed a bit of clear polish where I wanted the gem and gently pressed it down. Two coats of topcoat to be sure it was sealed on (1 regular topcoat, 1 Seche Vite). The gems didn't come loose at all until I wanted to take it off and it was quite hard to get them off so they were well glued lol!

What do you think?

- Jennifer

Benefit Powder Time Lover

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Benefit. I tend to buy things from them and then get them home and go 'meh' but for some reason they manage to lure me back again and again. This time it was because Debenhams had a sale on and this was included. The day before I had visited a Benefit counter in Brighton and had a quick look at some of the things but was pestered by one of the counter girls because I was touching things and she asked me if I was actually going to buy anything. I told her I was browsing and then picked up a catalogue and left. Silly girl, I would have probably bought something had she left me to it. I hate being pressurised in stores, if sales assistants do it, I'm off. I just like to browse before asking for help but anyway, rant over.

The catalogue had this amazing smell coming out of it from one of the perfume scratch and sniff pages and it got me a bit addicted to the catalogue so I decided to go online shopping for this perfume but couldn't find it on Benefit's website and then ended up seeing the Debenhams sale and spotted this mini collection of boxed powders - one of the things I'd been playing with the day before.

It was just over £16 I think and was originally about £10 more so I thought it would be good to try out. I'm glad I did, they're really nice and one of the few Benefit products I've fallen for.