April favourites

I know it's probably a bit late to be writing my April favourites now that its the 7th May, but I have been planning this blog post for a couple of days now. I always find it really difficult to limit my favourites to only a few items! So here are those carefully selected for April:

Barry M Textured Nail Paint in shade TNP 5 Princess 333 - I go through phases with Barry M of either loving there products or finding them a bit disappointing. This nail polish though is Barry M at its finest. This is a gorgeous glittered light pink shade and is so easy to apply, especially for a textured polish. It dries evenly, but you do need to use a topcoat to avoid that rough, sandpaper like feeling you get with textured/ glittered varnishes. I really do love this colour though and have worn it a few times for evenings out as it really is like dressing up your nails.

Benefit the POREfessional Agent Zero Shine - As you may have read in earlier posts of mine, my skin is very oily and looks very shiny very quickly, regardless of whether I have put a base on before my make-up or not. But this works wonders combatting the shine! It's a mattifying powder that does really work to give a more matte look to my face. I keep this in my make-up bag and use for touch ups during the day, which means that it having a built in brush is brilliant! It's a translucent powder so can be used for all skin tones and it doesn't cling to dry patches like with some face powders. Being from Benefit it is a bit pricey, but well worth every penny.

Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Parfum - This was actually a gift from my aunt that got pushed to the back of my perfume collection (I do have a pretty epic perfume collection) and forgotten about until recently. I was wanting to wear a different perfume as I seem to always wear the same 3 or 4 regularly, so I picked this one up and have been wearing it a lot since. It is a beautiful smell and has great longevity so you really don't need a lot to last you all day. I'd say it is a great summer scent and I will definitely continue to wear this a lot.

Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in shade 240 Striking Spectaculaire - Not only do I love a good bright red lip but I also love a good matte lip, so I definitely struck gold with this lip crayon. It is so easy to apply accurately to the lip and goes on so smoothly and feels so hydrating, not like you would expect from a matte lip product at all. This shade is a gorgeous bright red that I love to wear out in the evenings, although I do have some more neutral shades in these Revlon crayons as they just feel so great on the lip. The fresh minty-ness of it is an added little bonus as well - lovely!

Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner in shade Busy Signal - I got given this by a friend AGES ago as she didn't think the colour suit her (she is blond with a very fair complexion and this just looked to dark against her pale skintone). Again this was a product that I had just chucked in with my other make-up and not really given a second thought to. I rediscovered it when sorting through my make-up a few weeks ago though and have been wearing it to work a lot since. I prefer to use it as an eyeliner as it isn't too obvious and a perfect shimmery brown shade that compliments my eyes and skintone, but I have also used it as a shadow too recently (after trying the shadow sticks here, before getting them I always thought anything other than powder eyeshadow would feel cakey on my lids) and it gives a great colour without feeling in anyway heavy on the lid.

So those are the products I have been loving in April. It is mainly just make-up products but I haven't found any other products that I have really fallen in love with recently. Are you a fan of any of my recent favourites? Maybe you have these yourselves? All comments are very welcome :)

Another bit of Nail Art - Jewels!

Here is my most recent nail art design! I have to apologise for the mess on the skin around my nails but I did all the designs and then realised I had run out of nail varnish remover so I couldn't tidy them up but really wanted to do the photos before any possible chipping so I'm afraid this seemed the lesser of two evils!

To achieve this look I used the following nail varnishes - Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in shade Grapefruit 407 and MaxFactor Glossfinity in shade 15 Opal. The grapefruit shade is a very bright light pink and the Opal is almost a very pale gunmetal grey on the nail.

First of all (after letting a base coat dry) I applied the Opal shade over the entire nail. This is such a great nail varnish that I only required one coat, it has a really opaque finish. Once this had dried I applied the Grapefruit shade to the nail with a nail art brush to create a triangle with the nail bed and then filled in the rest of the nail with this colour. I thought this required a little something more so I applied a small gem (from a little pot of them that I bought at Superdrug) to the point of each triangle just to give it another dimension. When it was all done and dried I covered over the entire nail with a clear top coat to try and preserve it a bit longer.

I really love this look, but then again I'm pretty happy with anything nail art related and a bit different. Not bad for another attempt!

I hope you like my nail art attempts, I like to think I'm getting at least slightly better with my designs! All comments are always welcome!

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paints are available here for £3.99
MaxFactor Glossfinity Nail Varnishes are available here for £5.99

Nail Art - Glitter Tips

I had seen a few pictures of people painting their nails with a block colour varnish and then adding an extra dimension to it by just adding a slight amount of glitter to the tips. It gives a sophisticated, understated look that I just love. I have been meaning to try this for ages on my own nails, but when I received my Color Club Nail Lacquer in shade Heirloom Pearls I knew this was the colour to try it with (I told you their would be a post on this very soon!). These are the varnishes I used:

I used a Barry M Basecoat and Topcoat in shade 54 Clear as a base coat over the entire nail. Once this dried I applied two coats of Color Club in shade Heirloom Pearls. Once this had all dried (and I think it's quite important that it is left to dry fully) I delicately painted just the tips of my nail with Barry M in shade Silver Glitter. This is a very good, glittery topcoat as the glitter is in quite small pieces and not big chunks like you can get with some glitter. Once this had also dried I then went over the whole nail with the clear topcoat again to preserve the nail varnish and make it last longer.

And here are the results!

I adore how these came out, I don't think I have ever been so happy with the outcome of my nail art attempts. I know this was a pretty simple look to go for but it is so effective and looks so pretty and summery. I think the varnishes I chose go so well together. I had even thought that these would make great bridal nails with the satin pearl varnish and silver glitter. Classy and elegant!

What do you think of my recent dabble with nail art, are you a fan of this style also? Do you have any other suggestions for nail art techniques? Let me know, all comments are always welcome!

Watefall Nail Art

I had been looking for more nail art inspiration and came across so many different designs on Nailasaurus 's blog (you really should give it a look, so many gorgeous designs with good, clear tutorials!). The one that I liked the most, and thought I stood a chance of being able to do being such a novice myself, was the Waterfall Nails design. So my boyfriend's mum kindly decided to let me practice on her hands, and I was so happy with the results (luckily I think she was too!).

And this is all I used:

So, first of all I applied the base coat and once dried, covered the whole nail in a pale pink - 19 Baby Pink from W7. Once this had dried I started creating the 'waterfall lines'. To do this I picked 4 colours and applied them from the cuticle end of the nail with a skinny, tapered brush and slowly drew the line towards the end of the nail, gently lifting the brush so that the line tapered to a point before reaching the end. I picked the colours Lilac from London Girl, Rendezvous from Seche, 319 Foil from Barry M and 66 Matte White from Barry M. Once they were all done and dried I applied a clear top coat to seal the colour and make them last longer.

The overall effect looked lovely! I will definitely be trying this look on my own nails in the near future :)