Glitter In The Air... Frenchie

I really love Deborah Lippmann's nail polishes. Yes they are expensive but she brings our such pretty and unique colours and the cream polishes have a really good formula. They feel decadent to wear and last really well with only minor tip wear. I also really like the bottles (I will do a review of my Lippmann polishes at some point in the future so you will see them there).

One of her new polishes for the Spring is Glitter In The Air, the other being Naked which is a nude colour. I've been eagerly waiting for Glitter In The Air to come out in the UK as I think the Lippmann glitters are really special, you rarely see anything like them. A lot of them have different sized glitter particles as well as hexagonal glitter shapes. This one is one of those. It is in a very sheer baby blue base and has light blue and pink glitter particles in it and light blue iridescent micro shimmer which I didn't even notice until it was sparkling in the light so was a nice surprise.

When you apply it you do need to be careful as the hex glitters need to be positioned where you want them to make them look even. The effect is so worth the effort though. The polish is very sheer so is best used as a top coat but you can use a few layers and get a semi sheer effect if you want. To get the bottle colour you would need to pick a similar shade of baby blue and then layer the glitter over the top.

I decided to do a french manicure and then add this on top. Here is what I came up with!

More pictures and what I used...

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.

Butter London Spring 2011 Review

Butter London is a relatively new brand to me and it was this collection that grabbed me. All of their nail polishes have names which relate to London or 'British-ness' and this collection is made up of five colours:
Blagger (bright colbolt blue), Hen Party (sheer opalescent baby pink), Teddy Girl (retro bubblegum pink), Dosh (green apple with gold shimmer) and Lady Muck (periwinkle blue-grey with micro shimmer). I picked out Blagger, Dosh and Lady Muck. As soon as I saw these shades I couldn't wait for them to come out, I thought they were so beautiful.

When I got them, I loved the bottles. They are rectangular and have rectangle caps which you pull off to use revealing a circular grip cap underneath with a little bird on the top. They are very practical for storage considering their shape, they can be closely packed together into my box easily. I like that about squared bottles as they take up less space.

The lacquer was a great consitency, so easy to apply and it just glided onto my nails. The brush isn't too small but isn't a wide brush like an OPI lacquer which I find easier. Still, due to the perfect consitency of the lacquer, the brush is easy to control it with and you get fantastic coverage even with one coat. I always use at least two coats when I paint my nails as you get true depth of colour which one coat doesn't usually achieve. The finish is lovely, glossy and smooth. The two colours with the shimmer don't feel gritty, and I really like the size of the shimmer in them as it is subtle but at the same time large enough to notice it.

The colours themselves are beautiful, I love them all. I did find that once I recieved them that Blagger is quite similar to OPI Ogre The Top Blue which I already had and is another of my favourite polishes. Just goes to show that I am obviously attracted to that particular shade of colbolt blue. I've seen that some bloggers have been comparing Lady Muck with a China Glaze shade, Sea Spray I think but I don't have any shades which are similar, same with Dosh.

Read on for swatches...

OPI Touring America Collection - Autumn 2011

OPI are set to release a collection inspired by American culture and cities. There are twelve shades, featuring the season's trend colours - taupe and grey in different variations and also a couple of neutrals, an iconic red and coral-orange shades to reflect the U.S landscape.

Here are the shades:

Suzi Takes The Wheel
Buckle up—she’s not stopping until she gets to gray!

French Quarter For Your Thoughts
Want beads? Then show us your sexy gray nails!

Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window
You’re gonna wanna pull over for this “unexpected” olive green.

A-taupe The Space Needle
You’ll climb to new heights with this creamy-rich taupe.

Get In The Expresso Lane
An amped-up dark brown that’ll never letcha down!

I Break For Manicures
This gorgeous eggplant-plum has our full attention.

Honk If You Love OPI
Don’t let this gorgeous dark grape pass you by.

Road House Blues
In this case…R&B stands for “Really Blue.”

Color To Diner For
I’ll take the rosy-red with a side of “awesome.”

My Address Is "Hollywood"
We put this pretty rose-pink on the map.

I Eat Mainely Lobster
We “clawed” through crowds to catch this coral for you.

Are We There Yet?
Don’t make me reach back there and take that perfect melon shade!

What do you make of this collection? I think some of the colours are quite interesting, the greys/taupes and the olive green.

- Jennifer

Retro Flowers Nail Art

I hadn't done any nail art in a little while so I decided to give it another go. I'd wanted to try doing flowers using a dotting tool so thought I'd do that. I got one of the new MAC Quite Cute nail polishes (Mischievous Mint - review to come) and thought it would look really good with a bright pink, quite retro and kitchy.

I used MAC Mischeivious Mint for the base colour, Model's Own Bubblegum for the flower petals and OPI Panda-Monium Pink for the flower centres. I used a couple of different sized dotting tools (mine are actually embossing tools from a paper crafting company called Papermania, I got them from a local craft store but can't remember how much they were), the larger for the petals and the smaller for the middles. I haven't actually bothered to clean them so you can tell which I used for which. Then I topped it all off with a thick coat of Seche Vite.

I am so happy with how this came out, I actally impressed myself because I thought it would look a bit crap. Even my right hand looks good and normally it looks so bad when I've done nail art. I got quite a few compliments at work and I am going to do one of my colleague's nails next week in the same design.



This is colour accurate.



Sorry about the colour in this photo, neons do strange things to cameras.
My cuticles and the skin around my fingers is gross too.



Like?

- Jennifer

March Favourites and Harvey Dog!

Happy April! I hope everyone had a good month, it was my boyfriend's birthday at the end of it and we had a great weekend doing things around the town he lives in and in Eastbourne :) I got to see the gorgeous Harvey dog who kept us both very occupied playing with him in the garden, he likes to jump on the trampoline! (photo at the end) I made birthday cupcakes and we went out for a yummy Sunday lunch.

Here are five products that I've liked over March.

First, in the top left, we have Sally Hansen nail polish remover for dry brittle nails. You might be thinking that it is just a nail polish remover but it is a really good'n. My nails like to peel and break and since using this my nails have been pretty good... apart from the one I banged so it bled and now has a lovely crack in it. Other than being very gentle on my nails and conditioning them when I use it, it makes removing nail polish a doddle. Even glitter comes off easier than any other bottled remover I've used. I got it from the 99p Store. BARGAIN! I'm going to stock up on a few bottles as they are so cheap in case they stop stocking it. It is also sold in Superdrug (along with other removers for different types of nails) for £2 odd.

Next to that is Batiste Dry Shampoo in Dark and Deep Brown Hair. I bought this before I got my hair dyed to see if I could get on with it as I didn't want to wash my hair as often as I used to. It is pretty good. It comes out an ashy black/dark brown so completely dissappears into my hair which is great. I've always been put off dry shampoo as they are usually white and having dark hair it would show. This is good for me to get an extra day before shampooing again. I don't know if I'd get any more than that because my hair can get quite lank if left longer than two days when using normal shampoo, so I get three days before the next wash out of this. It doesn't make my hair feel as nice as when it has been washed but it is fine, it looks okay and I can put it up and it wont look greasy. Thumbs up.

Underneath is the Urban Decay Naked Palete. I'm not going to bother saying much about this, it has been reviewed so many times all over the place. If you want swatches, Temptalia always has good ones. I've been reaching for this more often than usual, just to get quick neutral eyeshadow done. It is great if I'm in a rush to get to work (always happens) and has some beautiful colours. There are so many possibilities in this palete and you can add a single brighter colour to change it up a bit. I like to use green... surprise surprise. I love Virgin for my brow bone and Sin is one of my favourite eyeshadows, it goes with everything and great for brightening the inner corner. I also really like Baked and Darkhorse, I use them a lot.

Bottom left is MAC My Highland Honey Blush from the Tartan Tale collection. This has been a bit neglected so I decided to pull it out one day and then ended up wearing it pretty much all month. It looks a bit orangy but isn't, it gives a nice warmth so my cheeks.

Finally, Bobbi Brown Longwear Gel Liner in Espresso Ink. I absolutely love this. I'd wanted a brown eyeliner for ages but browns are often too light for my taste, I wanted something very dark, verging on black but wouldn't look so harsh if I wanted more subtle makeup. This is perfect. I love BB gel liners, the formula is great and they last so well. I often use this with neutral makeup, like in the Naked palete and also with greens as it looks more subtle. Definately a staple for me.

...

Anyway, here is the photo of Harvey on the trampoline that I promised. He is a seven month old Springer Spaniel and is just crazy. He loves to get in everything and since he discovered the trampoline you can't go on it without him trying to climb up haha. He runs in circles and pounces on you if you sit down and he likes to catch balls on it.

And here is one where he isn't leaping into the air so you can see his pretty face. I love him. This is his favourite spot in the garden. He is holding his newest toy, the peanut.

- Jennifer

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