Jewels at your fingertips

Ever since receiving a Deborah Lippmann nail varnish in my latest December Glossybox, I felt really intrigued to see what other colours the DL range had to offer. I toddled into my local House Of Fraser and literally fell in love with the beautiful colour 'Across The Universe'. If you are unfamiliar with this colour, you should Google it, it's stunning. After looking at the extortionate price of £18 for just one bottle, my friend who was with me at the time pointed out that I could probably find a good dupe for merely half that price. I agreed, put the polish down and headed to Boots.

After much searching I picked up the latest Barry M nail varnish, Silver Glitter from the limited edition collection and teamed it with some other polishes I already owned.

I firstly coated my nails in Black, followed by the Silver Glitter and lastly Hologram. Here's the effect;

Ta-daaaa! Sparkly twinkly nails. I can't stop looking at them!

What is your favourite glitter nail combo?

My Lipstick Collection

After a recent makeup clear out and updated storage organisation, I decided to pop a little post on here of my lipstick collection. I constructed a lipstick collection post a while ago, and since then I've accumulated a few more lipsticks - I think I actually have a few more since this I took these photos, but hey ho, let's get cracking!

I have a wide variety of colours and brands - my all time favourite being MAC. Something I did notice is that I actually don't own any red lipsticks! Shock horror! I have a red lip gloss, but none of the lipstick variety. If you girls would like to recommend to me your favourite red lipstick it would be much appreciated. I've got my eye on the Me Me Me lipstick in Ultimate Red, which I quite like. Also, used by Towie's Lydia.

Anyways, I'm digressing. Here are my lipsticks in all their glory;

Light Pinks

[L-R]:

Bodyshop 55, MUA shade 2, Barry M 100, Elf Runway Pink, MAC Snob and x2 MAC Creme Cup. 

Purples

 [L-R]: 

 BeautyUK shade 3, MUA shade 3, Barry M Palest Lavendar, Revlon Wild Orchid, MAC Up the Amp.

Bright Pinks

[L-R]:

Barry M 140, Barry M 62, MUA shade 5, Topshop Brighton Rock, MAC Impassioned. 

Nudes

[L-R]:

 Barry M 101, MAC Myth, MAC Creme D'nude, MAC Shy Girl, MAC Venemous Villians range.

Oranges

[L-R]:

Barry M 54, Barry M 53, Sleek Peaches & Cream, MAC Vegas Volt, MAC Costa Chic, YSL Peach Faubourg.

PLUS: I've just purchased MAC Hue and MAC Viva Glam Gaga2.

So there we have it, my lipstick collection. My most used have to be MAC Creme Cup and MAC Shy Girl. Those are my all time favourite lipsticks. They're really wearable and seem to go with pretty much everything.

I'd love to see your lipstick collections! In fact, I tag you all to do it and then leave a comment with a link to your post. What are your favourite lipsticks?



Peachy Keen Birthday Countdown

I've been such a slacker lately when it comes to blogging. To be honest, I've had so much going on over these past few weeks. Some things nice, other things not so nice. Hence why I haven't blogged as much.

Anyways, that aside, I just wanted to show you my current favourite nail varnish to date; 

Barry M - Peach Melba

It does take a couple of coats to get your nails looking completely opaque. I do often steer clear of nude colours as I find they don't apply well, take lots of coats to even look half decent and can quite often result in a streaky effect. But, I can safely say this 'Peach melba' has been a pleasant surprise. On the photos above are my nails after three coats.


In other news, it's my birthday in 5 days!!! (16th August to be precise) Eeeeeee Excitement! Although, I'm not overly excited by the fact that I'll be turning the ripe old age of 25.

To make me feel better about this 'getting old mlark' - If you would like to send cards/holiday vouchers/presents, then feel free to email me directly.
(Ha ha - only kidding)

;)

Project Nail Art: Crazy Eyes

As boredom strikes again, I find the time to whip out my nail art drawer, grab myself a cup of tea and get cracking at some nail decorating.

I'm constantly browsing Google images for inspiration, and stumbled across these adorable, yet cheeky nail designs. I can't decide whether they look more like M&Ms or PAC Man ghosts? I'll let you decide!

The colours I used were;

Brown = Barry M (cant remember the name)
Red = China Glaze High Maintenance
Orange = Sleek Florida
Blue = Barry M Cyan Blue
Green = Barry M Spring Green

In other news the Bank Holiday weekend is nearly upon us! I'm really going to miss these Bank Holidays - the next one isn't until the end of August. Is anybody up to anything nice? I have a few nice things planned...

On Saturday, myself and the girls are parading down to the travel agents and having a little nosey at some prices for Ibiza. We're going for Easter 2012 - it's 10months away, it isn't even booked and already I'm excited! Saturday night, the boyfriend and I are off to the cinema to divulge in yummy Ben & Jerry's whilst being entertained by 'The Hangover 2'. As soon as I saw the trailer for this movie I couldn't wait to see it. I love Alan - I wish I was part of his Wolf pack. On Sunday I'm spending the day with my boyfriend, before getting my glad rags on and hitting the town for cocktails with my two favourite girls. Monday should be somewhat of a hangover/feeling sorry for myself day. But, me and the boyfriend are heading out into the countryside to a lovely ice cream parlour. Mmmm. I'll hopefully put together some kind of weekend summary in photos for you all.

Have a lovely weekend!

Lipstick Haul

I sure do love a good lipstick, or a few. Ahem. Last weekend, I went a little lipstick mad and ended up buying five at once. I couldn't settle on just one. So, I thought I'd show you my purchases. Lovely for the summer!

[L-R]: Barry M 100, Barry M 54, MUA Shade 4, MUA shade 3, Revlon Wild Orchid.

I don't really have much else to say other than.. Ahhhh pretty colours!

Wishlist: March Edition

OMG T-shirt
I'm so upset that this is out of stock. I wanted it during my shopping ban and now that it's over, the tee is out of stock. Boo hoo. As soon as I saw this on the Topshop website, I needed it. How fitting for the world of internetz. Right?


Sigma Makeup Brushes
I've heard so, so many great things about Sigma makeup brushes, and how they're an amazing MAC dupe. I'd love to try them out at some point soon and will most definitely be ordering the full kit when I have some pennies to spare. Does anybody own any Sigma brushes? I'd love to hear more about them.


Barry M Nail Paint - Acid Yellow
Wowza! Isn't this just a 'smack-you-right-in-the-face-and-shout-about-it' kind of colour. OK, I understand that's not a great way to describe it - but, it's just amazingly loud. I love it! A must for the coming summer months.


Topshop socks
Everybody and their Grandmothers seem to be wearing over the knee socks in black these days (including myself). I'm really a fan of these lovely oatmeal ones from Topshop. They'd look lovely with pastel colours on a breezy day.


Tan brogues
I've been lusting after these babies for so long now. I think even before my shopping ban. Practical and easy to wear - they'll literally go with anything in my wardrobe!


PS. I've currently got a few items listing on eBay. If you would like to check them out, please click here. I really hope that you find something you like! I've listed a lot of great things for the upcoming summer months!

Project Nail Art: Fly like a Bee

After searching on Google Images for some nail art inspiration, I stumbled across some Bumble Bee nails. As soon as I laid my eyes on this cute little design, I decided to give it a try. Not only do you have a tiny little bee on your nails, but it gives the illusion that the bee is buzzing around on your hand. I love it!

After sitting at my vanity table with all my nail art equipment for a good 30mins, I finally produced the nail art I'd desired.

And voila...

I think this is my favourite nail art so far. Although because the bee took a lot of nail varnish to create, I had to wait ages for the little guy to dry. I jumped in the shower a little too soon and smudged him. Ooops. My boyfriend then asked where the bee had gone, whilst looking at my very smudged thumb nail from the shower. To which I responded "Hmm, he must have flown away?" :( Haha.


The base colour I used for this nail art was..

Barry M - Cyan Blue

Project Nail Art: Marble Nails

I've decided to take up a new little past time hobby. I've always loved painted my nails all different lovely colours, but when it comes to nail art, I've pretty much steered clear. I've kind of been happy just browsing at other peoples art work, and left all the 'handy work' to the professionals. (Rubbish joke alert!)

However, the other weekend, I was exceptionally bored and decided to give nail marbling a go. I've seen it around the internet before, decided to look up a tutorial on YouTube and give it a go myself.

It's quite a messy job and it was only my first attempt. On the close up photos they do look rather shoddy around the edges - but, like I said, it was my first time. I'm now happy to say I've popped my nail art cherry and should hopefully be doing more designs soon.

The colours I decided to use were; Pink, Black and White.

Here's the end result.

And here are some pretty pictures of some colour experimenting I was doing.

If you fancy a go at nail marbling, the tutorial I used was this one. She is truly a very talented lady!

I'd love to see your designs!