all about that glitter: lips, nails and eye make up for new years eve!

Like Meghan Trainor and her penchant for bass and booty, at Christmas and New Year I am all about that glitter. I've recently been trying to mix up my makeup and try and get away from the eyeliner-flicks that have become my uniform, and what better time than December and January, when the festivities make it acceptable to wear glitter all day, every day. Plus, introducing flashes of glitter into your everyday makeup can help January not seem so long, dark and cold.
Read on for my favourite picks of nails, eyes, lips and some face staples to suit you for any situation at New Year..

E Y E S

My favourite thing is a glittery eye - whether thats mixed into a smokey eyeshadow, smudged along the waterline, or a wash of glitter along the lid with a sweep of liner. I particularly love creamy bases, my go-to's are the Illamasqua liquid metals - I have them in Superior (the blue), Surge (the gunmetal silver), and Solstice (the gold). They're great swept all over the lid or used as a base. I'm also a giant fan of the Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in Mirifique (black) and Epatant (silver). These look like an eyeliner or a cream base in the pot, but dry to a powdery consistency on the eye, which I'm a big fan off, as they are quick and easy to smudge into a smoky eye. I particularly love to use the silver Epatant with Urban Decay Zodiac - an amazing glittery green eyeshadow - all over the lid, with MAC Carbon (what should be a staple in everyones makeup bag, a true matte black) smudged along the lash line.

I also recently picked up this wonderful, matte grey Bobbi Brown Shadow Stick in Shadow which I've been using with my own little quad. It consists of MAC Copperplate (a cool-toned matte grey), Beauty Marked (an amazing glittery purple-black), Smoke and Diamonds (a beautifully soft, rich and pigmented shimmery grey) and a Grand Entrance (soft, shimmery champagne silver-pink): altogether they create a really beautiful smokey eye, particularly when paired with my new favourite eyeliner, the Bourjois Liner Clubbing and lashings of my favourite waterproof mascara, 17's Va Va Voom in Black.

N A I L S

Nails are one of those things you can definitely go all out with, I always think. If you're not that comfortable chucking glitter all over your eyelids, or worry over a red-lip, stick to eyeliner and paint giant chunky gold holographic glitter all over your fingertips. That particular culprit in question is OPI When Monkey's Fly, it's got amazing bits of gold foil and holographic glitter in, and looks great when layered over any dark polish. I'm really into dark greens at the moment, like Barry M Racing Green, and Essie's Styleonomics will forever be a favourite, with it's dark and gothy green-black. I received the green and white glitter Urban Outfitters polish in Snow Globe from a friend for Christmas and it looks particularly awesome over the Barry M green. You can never go wrong with a silver or gold at this time of year, but I find silvers suit my skin-tone better, so I'm more likely to reach for Leighton Denny Diamond Diva, with either an amazing H&M holographic glitter polish called Jo Is In The House layered over, or Essie's Hors D'ouevers (a sort of shimmery silver gold champagne colour) on top. And even though Christmas is done and dusted by December 31st, a dark or glittery red is a classic in my book, and my two favourites are China Glaze Ruby Pumps and the vampy dark red that is Essie's Wicked.

L I P S

This is where the glitter theme sort of falls apart, because please don't wear glittery lipstick, I beg of you. As you can tell, I'm not being that adventurous with my lipstick this year, and thats because I'm shunning all the dark vampy lipsticks in favour of nudes and pinks, and it's weird for me but I'm going with it. I'm adding my favourite reds in here though, just because.
On the red spectrum, my all time, absolute holy-grail of dark red lipstick is NARS Fire Down Below (bottom of picture). I actually hunted for years for this, and it's the best true dark red I've found, not a berry or pink hue in sight, but has enough brown and blue in to make your teeth whiter, and not make you look like you're from the 80's. Honourable mentions go to Illamasuqa's Encounter, a good all-rounder red, but if you want a more sheer lipstick, you could try something like the YSL Volupte Sheer Candy in #7, which can be layered to that darker red, but goes on sheer.

However, I'm big into the pinky-nudes (I blame a Kardashian sister, though I'm not sure which one) and these are all my current go-to lipsticks from MAC. From the top down (to the left of the gold YSL colour) is MAC Blankety, a new favourite and is a bit paler than my lips, which  I love. In the middle is an oldie but a goodie in Plink!, and at the bottom, my true my lips but better lipstick, MAC Hug Me. I've been using them with the GOSH lip-liner Nougat Crisp to make it last as long as possible. I've just realised that maybe this is was being an adult is like, and not doing an neon pink lip on a daily basis...

F A C E

When you've got a lot going on on your nails, lips, eyes, etc, I think it's always best to tone down the contouring for a day. That doesn't mean not making the most of what you've got though. I love Yves Saint Laurent's Le Teint Touche Eclat foundation - I wear it in BR10 because it's got a great, buildable coverage and still remains dewy and fresh faced, so you can use it accordingly where needed. When paired with it's sister translucent powder, YSL's Souffle D'Eclat, and then a little bit of NARS Albatross highlighter swept over cheekbones, it gives the dewy illusion with good staying power. I've also been really enjoying eyeshadow of late - a change from my usual eyeliner - so a good shadow primer is needed, and I've been enjoying the Rimmel Exaggerate. It's not god's gift to beauty, and there are much better shadow primers out there, but for it's price-point (£4.99) and if you're in a pinch and need it, it's pretty good. Also make sure to prep your lips before even going NEAR that red lipstick - I was given this amazing blueberry EOS lip-balm by a friend and I've been carrying it with me ever since. The egg shape still feels a little weird to rub on your mouth, but I'm getting used to it!

What will you be opting for on New Year's Eve? I mean, despite liver-damaging amounts of alcohol..!

favourites things in june

SHORTS: I am including this in here for an important reason - basically, I have become body confident enough to wear shorts. Not little skimpy hot pants, but jean cut-offs that come to about my knee. You have no idea how weird this is for me (the girl who hasn't shown any skin above her ankle in public in about ten years). It's weirdly liberating to not give a single fuck if someone thinks my legs are too fat or too pale or too lumpy or too scarred or whatever and just wear them because it's bloody hot outside.  

BIRKENSTOCKS: So yeah, I'm one of those people that wear them. I don't even care if they're ugly, which yeah, I know they are, but I've wanted some for ages since my friend told me how comfy hers were, so I found the Birkenstock Arizona's at John Lewis, paid for them and they were waiting for my the next day when I went into work (I really love Click & Collect). 

NEON NAILS: Now it's all sunny and lovely outside I want to make my feet all ready for summer - which is sort of frustrating because I hate wearing shoes when it's nice outside - so my feet take quite a beating. I have been trying to keep my feet looking nice for the summer, but I saved you the picture of my exfoliating tools (really, I saved you) but my feet are feeling tip-top for summer. Pictured above are Illamasqua's neon yellow Rare (photos & review here) which is currently on my toes, Models' Own Toxic Apple (Instagram picture!) and China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy (photos & review here), three of my all-time favourite neons.  

GRADUAL TAN: When you start getting your legs out, wearing sandals and painting your toes highlighter-yellow - you realise your legs are hella pasty and blindingly white. So I found this St. Tropez gradual tanner at work and I stupidly bought the medium/dark one - which may be a teeensy bit too dark for my skin-tone, but it just makes me look super tanned, which I like. Just a warning though!  

ACCESSORIES: Apart from my usual day-to-day jewelery, some other things have made their way into my wardrobe - my trusty all black Swatch watch, and my still perfect Ray-Ban's. Both of which, I really love, I extolled the virtues of my sunglasses when I got them a couple of years ago but they're still a summer essential (they get use in the Winter, too, when the sun is low and bright in the morning) and they just go with everything. They're my first pair of prescription sunglasses and they're honestly the best thing, don't know how I coped before I got them? I also really love my Swatch watch, which I just think looks great when I'm a bit more tanned in the summer. 

SUMMER SCENTS: My standard, go-to, fail-safe summer scent is Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet (full review here), it's still the most heavenly perfume I've ever worn. It smells like gin-and-tonic, like elderflower cordial, like late nights spent outside, warm air, summer rainstorms and it fades to the most delicious, practically spicy, lemon and lime smell on my skin. I've also been using my Crabtree & Evelyn Tarocco Orange, Eucalyptus & Sage hand-cream on my hands, elbows, knees and heels, and it smells like bitter orange blossom, I'm in love.

FITNESS APPS & SUPER BRIGHT CROP-TOPS: I'm still on my weight-loss mission and I'm doing well - things slowed down through the month because of being away, having birthdays and meals out, and they're all excuses, but I am still dropping my weight, and I'm only 4lbs away from losing 4 stone! Which I'm still not quite sure is a real thing, but I know I'm so much fitter, I know that my clothes are so much looser (I've dropped two sizes in jeans!). I've been using the app Myfitnesspal to track my calorie intake and exercise and it makes me really think about everything I'm putting in my body, and it feels great! I'm also loving getting nice work-out gear, which makes early mornings at the gym worth it. I picked up some cute crop-tops (bras, if you're of the small-breasted variety) to wear under vests if they have slashed arm-holes from TK Maxx for under a tenner.

So I was sat at my desk on Sunday night with a slice of Victoria sponge and home-made lemon curd (oh man, that is making me hungry all over again, they'll be a recipe up soon for it!) and I suddenly realised that it was practically the end of June. I sat up straight and opened my calendar and realised, yup, there was only one day left until July. Where did June go? I thought in a panic, I remember my birthday, and being off work, and going away, and so many sunny days I can barely remember but... still, I'm really not sure where it went. Is this a sign I'm getting older? Actually, don't even answer that one, I already feel old enough when all the new kids are at work, telling me how they've just finished their first year of sixth-form (shudder).

Anyway, the point of this ramble (and a super long post) is that I thought I would show you some things that I've been loving this past month, even though it's been whisked out from underneath me and now it's suddenly the 2nd of July, which I still don't quite get (sometimes hot, sometimes not, when are the kids out from school, should I risk the beach this week or will it be rammed with kids, etc etc..).

Share with my anything you've been loving recently, I love to try out new things!

illamasqua rare nail polish review

Illamasqua Nail Polish in Rare, £13.50

Rare has been sitting in my nail-polish collection for a little while now, and it has a very special place as my new-favourite-neon. Every time I would go to Illamasqua I would admire this lovingly, then always thought better of it, because neons often have a shitty formula, and I didn't want to be disappointed in spending so much money on it and hating it. 

However, I am pleased to say that it is actually one of the best neons I have tried, although it is not fault-free. It's still a little bit streaky if you're not careful, though it has a nicer creamier formula compared with the likes of China Glaze and such, which are much thinner. I still like at least two-coats, though, but it's still amazing. Also, it's proper, beautiful highlighter, blinding neon yellow... and it's this that I love about it. 

I generally just rate Illamasqua polishes, and I think they're amazingly affordable. I know there are a few readers that probably look at me like I'm mad - £13.50 is still expensive, but it's not really on par with Chanel's £18.50. I like the simple design of the bottle too, and they used to have the two-part cap which I loved, it gave you a lot more precision, but I think they might have stopped that now.

Price: 5/5
Packaging: 4/5
Colour: 5/5
Formula: 4/5
Overall: 4/5
Would I buy again?: Yup.. I want the green neon..

american apparel sheer polishes

American Apparel Sheer Polishes, £9

I was bumming around on Tumblr yesterday, as you do, and these were on the Radar and caught my eye because, well, look at these pictures! Those nails are insaneee. Apparently they're the new line of American Apparel's sheer nail polishes, which I have not heard much about? The one that really takes my fancy is the yellow-green-blue nail, because that just looks amazing! I am so tempted by these, but they are quite steep at £9 each, which is the same as the regular AA polishes, which makes me a bit sad, because they obviously don't have the pigmentation of a regular polish, so I thought they might be a bit cheaper - or is that just my logic? The other thing that bothers me is that these are the pictures from the AA website, so you'd think they might be really slick and well done - and the application is a bit dodgy? Like look at that orange-purple nail in the middle, it looks a little crappy. So I wonder if that is just a bad promo image or they apply badly. Either way, I am sort of desperate to try these out! I'm off to London today so I might pop in and have a look at them.  

What do you think - would you give these a go?

florentine sunshine - chanel mimosa review

Chanel Mimosa, £18-ish

Two nail posts in a week? What madness. Still, you know a love of it runs deep in my heart! This little bottle holds a special place in my heart because I bought it when I was in Italy. Sadly, that's sort of where the love ends. I still really love the colour - and in the bottle it looks beautiful! It has a really amazing shimmer in the bottle that doesn't stand up on the nails. The formula is awful, even with three or four coats, it's still not opaque, and that bothers me. Also, it's pretty streaky. I feel like Chanel either do really amazing formulas, or really shitty, and this is one of the worst ones. Oh well, I still keep it around in the hope that one day it'll magically work! haha. It is a gorgeous colour, and will forever remind me of Italian sunshine and the botanical gardens in Florence where I sat and painted my nails with it, but still, it wasn't really worth the Chanel-price-tag!

Price: 2/5
Packaging: 5/5
Colour: 5/5
Formula: 1/5
Overall: 2/5
Would I buy it again?: I will buy other Chanel's, but not this one.

Did you get this when it came out? What do you think of it..?

summer brights - china glaze neons

China Glaze Sun Worshipper 

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, both £5.99

My love for China Glaze neons has been going on for a long, long time - as long as this blog infact.. See my post from back in 2010 about some of the green neons I own. Anyway, I've had these two for a long time, also, and I promised a full swatch and review back then, and never gave you one..Nearly two years later, I come through on that promise! Haha, I'm useless. Anyway, neons photograph.. horrifically, and I'm no camera expert, so these aren't really accurate shades. They're as close as I could get. They're these shades, but.. fluorescent! Temptalia has the most accurate swatches, colour wise.
Sun Worshipper is an amazing, not quite traffic cone orange, and not quite yellow, it's somewhere inbetween. It practically glows in the dark! And because it's so bright, it makes me look really tan. However, on overcast or dull days, it looks obscenely bright. Wear indoors, and you risk blinding people - my mother hates it!
Flip Flop Fantasy is a neon-coral, I suppose. It looks pink in the bottle, but takes on an orange tone when on the nails. It's less bright than Sun Worshipper.. though that's not saying much. It has a better formula though.
Neons are notoriously tricky - although I do own some good ones (In the Limelight, Turned Up Turquoise, Purple Panic). They are very thin, and watery, and require several coats to build it up to a flat colour. China Glaze recommend three coats, and with some polishes, that is enough. Sun Worshipper, I find, takes a lot more. And even then, you can still sort of see the nail lines through, so be warned, it takes patience! I also hate the matte/satin finish, so I always top-coat them. It protects them from chips, but it shortens the wear, I think.

Price: 5/5 (They're around £6 which is VERY reasonable)
Packaging: 5/5
Colour: 5/5
Formula: 2/5
Overall: 4/5
Would I buy it again?: Oh yes, yes, yes. In fact, China Glaze has a Neon Collection coming out for Summer 2012.. Oh, my wallet..

notd, bourjois red

Bourjois 10 Day Nail Polish in 11 Coquelicot, £5.99

I bought this a while ago on my quest for a perfect orange-red, and I was going to sell it when I did it like it, or give it to a friend, but I dug it out the other day in my quest for a red nail varnish and I actually quite like it! It's a pretty, warm red, with orange-hints. It also has the teensiest bit of shimmer to it, which is barely noticeable in the second picture. It also apparently lasts for 10 days with no chips. I didn't leave it on that long to tell, but it was very good with chips after a few days. Now I've got some time off work, I might leave it on for longer to tell. I know some people really care about the chipping of a polish, but I change my nails like I change my underwear, so I never really notice! 

It does have a weirdly angled brush, though, like an eyeliner brush or something. I don't really it it, if I'm honest. I'm a fan of short, wide brushes, and the angle doesn't work for me. Supposedly it's for "touch ups" but it just irritated me. Also, I didn't like the shape of the handle/lid. You can't really tell but they're short of pinched in the middle, which does sort of make it easy to hold, but I like to sort of flip the brush around and paint two nails with one dip in the bottle, and I kept on dropping it when I tried this. 

Price: 3/5 

Packaging: 2/5

Colour: 5/5

Formula: 4/5

Overall: 3/5

Would I buy it again?: Probably not. I've tried a few Bourjois nail polishes and  I just don't find them that spectacular for £6ish! 

find a cure for my life, put a price on my soul

Just a speedy post from me today, I'm having a good, well deserved day off, I had a bit of a manic one yesterday! In the morning me and my friends went to visit a gallery space, I had a quick lunch to celebrate my brother passing his driving test (well done Jon!) and then went to my university library to do some work and didn't get home until late. It was quite an exhausting day! I'm off to visit my grandma tonight in Stoke-on-Trent with my dad, but I'm going to have a lazy day today, spend it bed, etc. 

So a bit of a cop-out post I'm afraid! I had my first proper American Apparel experience the other day in Brighton - and it resulted in me wanting to shell out £52 for a chiffon skirt.. I did get something slightly more bargainous - two of their nail varnishes that were on sale for £3.50! I think they weren't very popular colours, but I really like them. I had wanted to try them out for a while and I thought this would be a good chance to do so..

And I really love them, so much! They have the perfect bottle size and shape I've ever seen, and the perfect formula. The two I have are almost perfect in one coat, but I did two just to make sure! I literally don't have a bad word to say about it! I think the colour is quite similar to that OCC Wasabi, but less bright, and I really like it. 

Price: 5/5
Packaging: 5/5
Colour: 4/5
Formula: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
Would I buy it again: Yes!

seeing double

Just a quick post today, I have a few things to do and I'm feeling a bit down at the moment. I got some slightly disappointing assessment results yesterday so I'm still picking myself up today!
I went to the shops with my mum on Monday and we mostly just went for lunch but we had a little wander around the shops too. I didn't spend too much, just got a few things. I wanted a book to read on the train next week when I commute, so I got these two. I've wanted to read American Psycho for a while, and I heard about How to Train Your Dog Quantum Physics somewhere and thought it sounded interesting. I also picked up this really cute notebook from Paperchase for £5.50. I wanted a notebook to keep all my recipes in and this was a really lovely one, I think. I like birds, as you can probably tell from my duvet cover, so I'm happy!
The nail varnish is from Accessorize - I think it's this colour here but I'm not sure, I don't have it to hand. It's one of Accessorize's really beautiful glitter polishes - I've not found any as good anywhere else! And for £4, you really can't go wrong. This is an old photo I've had lying around from playing with my old camera, but I thought it showed the glitter and the matte-quality of the polish (ie, not a glossy polish) well.
Anyway, there you, a short but sweet post from me, I'm starting to really panic about my internship next week. I know it will be fine when I get there, but I just get really worried before they start. Oh well!

a fail whale of a day

Jumper, Marks and Spencers

Scarf, gift

Skirt, H&M

Leggings, Tesco

Earrings, Vintage

Nails, Rimmel Rapid Ruby

Me and my mum had this really lovely day planned on Monday. My dad had to go to Oxford for a meeting, and so we thought we'd go and spend the day and see the museum and the art gallery and get lunch and grab a lift with him. Then we found out the museum and the gallery shut on Monday's. Step one, foiled. 

We thought, well, lets go to Winchester, it's a pretty town and they have some nice things to see. Get to the station on Monday morning.. no parking spots.. at all! Step two, foiled. 

Then I decided to drive us to Reading and we could get lunch in a place that's just opened up there - All Bar One. We went to one in Oxford a little while back and really liked it. We get there and we go inside. There are some staff who don't acknowledge us, and don't come over to help us - the place is empty. Annoyed, and will probably never go back there, we leave! Step three, foiled! 

We ended up in the Slug and Lettuce and got a quick bite there and then a nice wander round the shops and good browse in the bookshop, and it although it was nice to spend time with my mum, it wasn't what we had intended!

back with a vengence - chanel vendetta review

For Christmas, I got what every girl wants - Chanel. When I'm rich, I want to buy exclusively Chanel beauty products.. this is another story, I am here with some swatches for you!
I tried my best to get good photos of you - but this is one of those beautiful elusive nail-polishes.

On Christmas day, I whacked it on straight away - so excuse the shoddy job. Unless there is super bright sunlight or a bright, direct light, this is what it generally looks like - only nicer. It's kind of like an almost-black in every day light. It's in bright light, it really shines.. I took this under the spotlights in my bathroom, it's been so dark here recently, I can't show you in sunshine!

It's in the same vein as Chanel's Blue Satin, that almost black, but not quite. They're truly beautiful, spectacularly subtle.
I tried to take a picture to show the shimmer you'll get in bright lights (Blue Satin is in the background, you can sort of see the similar shimmer there!);

However, I wore this without a topcoat last night, and it chips something awful.

Price: I can't really comment on this, it was gift, but Chanel polishes are pretty pricey.
Packaging: 5/5
Colour: 5/5
Formula: 3/5
Overall: 4/5
Would I buy this product again?: Yes, yes, yes. Even if with the chipping problems, it's a beautiful colour, and I always wear topcoats.

privatising world peace

The other day I was showing my mum different examples of nail art - and I was showing her the amazing blog Nailside.. (If you're not aware of her blog, by the way.. you are sorely missing out! Go look, learn, love..It's amazing.) I really wanted to try doing a V-Gap. Sadly, I am nowhere near as talented - and I only did the one accent nail..

China Glaze, Ruby Pumps, £5.99

I was going for this blue and gold thing, only with my lovely new Ruby Pumps nail polish and a gold accent. I think I did it a little too high up, so I might try doing this with it, and making it like a sort of harlequin, or adding a stripe.. who knows! In it's current state though, I feel it all looks a bit Ironman-ish, haha. Maybe I need to do other superhero nail art..
On the other hand, I tried a fun glitter polish a friend bought me for Christmas, I loved this, but it was a bit too much glitz for my liking!

Anyway, Ruby Pumps may be one of my new favourite nail-polishes on my hunt for the perfect red. It is nowhere near.. but a fun purchase.

Take a bite of my heart tonight!

Quick evening post for you all! I got in from a work meal a little while ago and thought my hair looked quite nice - all over the place and fluffy is my idea of nice! - so snapped a quick picture on my computer. Also thrown in for good measure are my nails which everyone at the meal were fascinated by! Might do a proper post with better pictures soon.. 

Anyway, this the the Primark dress I posted about previously - my dad hasn't seen it yet and he called me a hussy for wearing such a bright red. I don't know either, i thought that was red shoes..haha.

I have my induction at uni tomorrow - I don't know why we need one for second year but we apparently do - then I'm having a speedy lunch with some friends before going to work in the evening.. and then an early bedtime because I have to be in work at 7.30 on tuesday morning! God.. haha.

Hope you've had a nice day - apart from the wind it's been pretty nice here.

Moving!

Hey guys! I wanted to give you guys a quick update of what I've been doing in a super speedy post because I have work in half an hour. I have moved out! But I was back the next day. Our lease for the house started August 1st, so I moved a bunch of stuff in and spent the night there, and made it all homely and junk, but because we don't get internet there until next Wednesday, I've been staying at home. I have a few extra shifts at work and want to get the most of seeing my friends before they head back to uni! I'm only half an hour max away from home, so I can luckily flick back and forth between the two. Besides that, I popped to the shops today and bought a few things, but I thought I would show you some pictures of my room, and a lovely nail varnish I picked up today!

MAC Blue India swatch

Here's a nail swatch of Mac's Blue India. I had this picture chilling in a folder, so thought I would upload! It came out with the Liberty collection, whenever that was. I don't keep up with them any longer because they're all so awful, but I remember I really loved the packaging on the boxes because I adore Liberty scarves.

Think of me today whilst I'm getting my tooth pulled out!

Essie Knockout Pout Nail Polish Review

Recently, the lovely Kelanjo had a blogsale, and being the eager eyed bargain hunter that I am, I managed to pick up three Essie polishes for £12. All were barely used at all, and I'm not really picky about buying things like that, so I was veryyy excited to get these in the post!

(Knockout Pout is the one in the middle.)

This is the one that I wasn't as sure about as the others, so I'm getting it out of the way now. You all know my love for greens, and I do have a certain penchant for corals, but pinks? Bright, barbie pinks? They just don't really jump out to me. I feel a bit chavvy in them, in all honesty! Especially a hot pink or a baby pink. They just seem so.. common? Haha. A touch of grey in there and I'm sold, on both counts, but generally, we can say that I'm not a fan.

So anyway, this is the last one I tried on out of the three, and in the bottle, yeah, it looks okay. On the fingers, I have to say, I was completely, pleasantly surprised.

Don't get me wrong, it is VERY pink. Blindingly so (we could even say, a knockout - queue cymbal crash). But because it's so washed out, so pale, and with a teeeeny hint of Haute as Hello's coral tone in there, it's good. I can work with that colour!

With a flash, it reminds me of China Glaze Pool Party's younger sister, which I quite love, because sometimes, Flip-Flop is just TOO bright.

The formula is also quite nice. Pretty Edgy was the clear winner of the bunch, by at least a mile, but the other two are okay, too. They're quite milky, so you need a few coats to build up the colour, but generally, I didn't really have any problems with Knockout Pout.

If I was to see this in a shop, I would give it such a wide berth, but because I got this by chance, really (I just wanted the other two), I ended up finding something that's okay, if a bit Barbie-ish. Price-wise, they're usually quite pricey, around £8-£10, I think, for each one? I got all three for £12, so I think that's a smashing deal, but you can find them on eBay and such! Oh, and just to throw this in there, I do really like the packaging, haha.

Price: 4/5  Packaging: 5/5  Colour: 3/5  Formula: 3/5  Overall: 3/5  Would I buy this product again? If I'm honest, no. It's an interesting colour, just not really my thing!
Clare Marie
xx

Mouldy Black Cherries: MAC Venomous Villains, Formidable Nail Polish Review

About the title.. well you'll see.
I was wondering whether to lump all these swatches together, but I wanted to do a full manicure of all of them, and after putting Formidable onto one nail, I really didn't want to take it off and put on another.. so I'm going to spread them out. Thought I'd leave a little cooling off period between



I was trying to think of a way to describe this colour, and the first thing I thought of was black cherries. It has a kind of purple-black base. The first coat, you really see this, as it's thin. It's like a deep-purple base with greeny-blue shimmer. Then you put another layer, and it gets darker and deeper, and so on. When it's on, it looks almost black in dull light, with some blue-ish glitter. It's pretty, but glitter polishes do best in sunlight. Direct light is Formidable's BFF.

This was the best I could do. They are PACKED with glitter. Lots of different colour of glitter. In some lights, this looks blue-brown. Others greeny-purple. It's hard to pinpoint one colour. MAC describes it as a "Teal green with pink multi-changing pearl". I don't know about you, but mine has no pink in?

L-R: Natural light, with flash.

I guess theres some pinkish hints in there? I think it's more purple, in any case.

As always, I adore MAC's formula. It goes on thin, you do need a few layers, but I like that aspect, because it means I can use them for layering, as whatever colour you put it over, it brings out that colour in Formidable. Ie, a purple beneath makes it more purple, a blue more blue, etc. I love that, it makes them very versatile. Some people don't like MAC polishes, I have no problem with them. They dry super quick, they last well.. I genuinely don't know why there is such hatred?
These retail for £8, which I think is completely reasonable, really. Sadly, they're sold out right now but I bought an extra Bad Fairy for someone that never got back to me about it.. so I might do a little giveaway.. keep tuned!

Price: 5/5
Packaging: 5/5
Colour: 4/5
Formula: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
Would I buy this product again?: Uhm, probably. It's not really a polish I ever see myself finishing off completely, but if I ever did, I would probably want another bottle!
Hope this was enjoyable! Did you guys pick up anything from Venomous Villains?

"Hi, babies have fingernails. FINGERNAILS."

Just a quick one from me today!

I recently just remembered I owned this nail-polish, and it's pretty gorgeous! This is 303 Bright Purple from Barry M.

If you're wondering what it looks like in person, think about the colour of the bottles of Vimto! It's pretty much a perfect match, haha, I compared once.

I've been wearing it with China Glaze's Agent Orange on my toes.

What are your recent fingers & toes combos?

(PS, sorry about the title! haha. I watched Juno the other week.)

Particularly chuffed. Oh, my wit.

Still in the midst of my blogging drought, I'm afraid! Computer is still being fixed, but I know whats wrong with it, and it's costing me shocking £495 to fix it! It's literally tear-inducing. Unfortunately, I've kinda learned this is what you get with Mac's, and as much I as I adore them and their products, they're ridiculously sensitive machines, and it costs a bomb to fix them. People have told me I'm crazy to pay that much for it to be fixed.. But when you think that the cheapest MacBook you can buy (not comparable to mine) is around £800, it's more understandale. Then pair that with the fact it has two years worth of work on it.. that I can't really replace! So kids, look after them, they do go wrong!

Anyway! I'm still making do with my parents computer, but as I can't get access to my camera software and things like that, it makes posting fairly awful! However, I did manage this sneaky snap with my iPhone, which has a blessedly good camera!
My older brother came home from a six-week journey across the states which I am ridiculously jealous of, but he brought my back a little present..

Isn't it lovely?! It's like a nicer version of You Don't Know Jacques by OPI, a lighter, creamier, better formula version.. I am fully in love with this colour. If YDKJ looks like wet clay, this looks like Galaxy chocolate. I adore it and I am so grateful for my brother for getting it for me! I also got a little sample of some lovely mascara and a little bit of eye-makeup remover! Gotta love the brother. (:
I hope everyone did really well in their GCSE's and A-Level's by the way! My younger brother did excellent in his GCSE's and is going to do some ridiculous A-Level's now! So glad I'm not doing that stuff! Haha.
Hope you're all well and normal blogging will commence shortly..? Sigh! Who knows?

Primark Rings and Other Things...

...and how I could be in the Sound of Music.I'm joking. I've also never seen that movie all the way through. But that is beside the point.

Yesterday I went into Reading to see the loveeeeely Miss Rachel. Even WITH the decidedly awful weather, we had a nice wander around the shops, a lunch that was eaten outside, precariously, under Pret a Manger's awning, lots of gossip and laughs, and we even trekked it up to Primark, which was an effort because of the rainnnnn.
But they have redone Reading Primark! I am quite impressed. It looks 1000x better than it used to. If you've ever been to that one, it always looks a bit of a mess. So I'm quite glad that they've done it, because they don't have those silly tower things where they fold clothes on anymore, and they've sorted out the jewelery section so that actually HAVE a good one now..and that is where I picked these babies up!

These are awesome! I've generally never really bought any jewellery from Primark because I've just never found anything that I really like. Then recently I've found loads of stuff I like. I bought an awesome pair of owl-earrings the other day which I'll show you at some point, and I got the snake ring in the top right at the same time..Buttt

t I got the rabbit, the bee/bug, and the ball. They look kind of funny lying down like this, and I realised this when I was editing the pictures, so here is a Photobooth picture, to show you what they look like on..

I loveee these. They were all £2 each! That's a right bargain. And I'm a sucker for anything animal themed. However, I have learnt my lesson all too well with cheap jewelery, so when I got them home, I immeditaely painted the inside of the bands with clear nail-varnish, and this will protect the metal from tarnishing as quickly and will stop your fingers from turning green! Which is really handy. I love the one of the bug in particular even my mum was like, "Clare. These are so weird." Haha, I don't think she understands me sometimes.

I also realised the other night that I have no like.. 'traditional' nail varnishes. I have loads of blues and greens and purples and things, but very few reds or pinks or corals, so I wanted to expand on that by buying a deep, vampy red. And I got a damn perfect one!

This is Barry M's Wine Red. And it's gorgeousss. I had to do a little clean up on my index finger and it stained it a little bit, but it's a beautiful vampish red jelly. It's a little lighter than the bottle, but if you layer it up it gets darker. But I demand you all go out and get it because it's beautiful and I just had to take it off because I have work tomorrow and that makes me sad.

And it's late now and I have to go to bed now or I won't wake up in time for work and then my manager will be angry and I could lose my job. Fun stuff!