FOTD - Office Neutrals

Hi all, I decided its about time I did another FOTD as I haven't done one for ages! My Urban Decay Naked palette recently arrived and I haven't stopped admiring it since! This has become my new go to palette for work - sorry MUA Heaven & Earth, I do still love you, we're just on a break!

I used Rimmel lasting finish foundation in ivory, Rimmel blusher (part of set), ELF HD Powder, MUA black pencil eyeliner (along botton lash only), Eyeko Magic Eyes Mascara, HD Brow Kit and of course the Urban Decay Naked palette.

  I used Virgin all over the eye and Buck in the crease.

What is your go to make-up for a working day? I'm quite boring and tend to reach for the same things everyday. 

FOTN - Family Party

I was hoping that I'd be reviewing my Glossy Box today, but it wasn't meant to be as it isn't here yet. I'm hoping that a neighbour will be over with it shortly *crosses fingers* as I'm so impatient and tend to end up giving in and reading posts about it! I want a surprise!

I went to a family party last week, took the photos for my FOTN and totally forgot about sharing them! I'm 26 and have no kids but my memory is shocking, I dread to think what I'll be like when I'm old / have kids!

I decided to make the feature my red lips so scraped my hair back and kept make-up quite minimal.

MAC Studio Fix Foundation NW15

ELF HD Powder

ELF Blusher in Peachy Keen

Eyeko 3 in 1 cream on brow bone

The Body Shop Eyebrow Kit

Lipstick All for Eve by Daniel Sandler in Eve Red

MUA Starry Night Palette

ELF Cream Eyeliner in Midnight

Eyeko Magic Eyes Mascara

What is in my travel make-up bag...

I've been meaning to put this post up for ages but with one thing or another I haven't got around to it. I've always suffered with joint problems and lately have been having quite a lot of trouble with my hip, which means a lot of pain and not a lot of concentration to write blog posts!

I went to visit my brother-in-law in Wokingham on the bank holiday weekend. I didn't take a lot of make-up with me as it isn't that type of place, I always feel way over dressed there as its a real casual place.

This is the minimal make-up that I took :

ELF HD Powder

ELF Studio Blush in Peachy Keen

Witch anti-blemish liquid concealer

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

Rimmel Stay Matte foundation (my 25 hr is running out so this was a back-up)

Rimmel 25 Hour Foundation

Body Shop Eyebrow Kit

Eyeko Magic Eyes Mascara

MUA Heaven & Earth Palette

ELF Eyeshadow brush

Sigma F80 (for foundation)

Sigma F15 (for blusher)

Sigma Miss Taylor Kabuki (for powder)

All packed in my pretty pink Sigma make-up bag (part of set)

I also took my Witch Primer but forgot to photo it!

Here is a little peek at the clothes that I took (all dresses, I'm trying to change this habit!)

What are your essentials when travelling?

How do you Konad?

Hi guys, I hope you don't mind the late night post! I wasn't going to post tonight as we went to watch The Inbetweeners (hilarious by the way!). I've just had a cup of coffee and an wide awake so thought I'd pop up this post that I took the pictures for the other day!

Konad...how do you use it?

After several failed stamping attempts I decided to sit down with a few nail varnishes and Konad plate m83 to see if I could get the stamp to transfer with any of them, the results weren't very successful as you can see below...

MUA - Hardly there

Eyeko - quite promising but only part of the design

17 - no transfer at all!

Rimmel - this one picked up a lot of the image clearly, but missed parts 

Barry M - hardly there

ELF - picked up a lot of the design but again missed chunks

No.7 - just a tiny dot!

This is where you guys come in, how do you Konad? Am I doing something wrong or do I just have to admit defeat and buy the Konad Special paints? Do you have any Konad hints and tips?

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

 

OOTN & FOTN - Engagement Party

Hi all, how are you today?

I went to my friend's Engagement party on Friday. It was a lovely evening, who doesn't enjoy a good party?

I wore my 'party dress'. Do you have a dress that you always fall back on for parties? This is mine...

Dress - Peacocks Pearl Lowe

Tights - Primark

Brogues - Peacocks

It wasn't really a 'dressy' party so I wore my brogues to keep it more casual.

I teamed it with these accessories...

Flower Bracelet - Primark
Key Ring - Primark
Leopard Ring - Lea's Gems
Brogues - Peacocks
Leopard nails tutorial here
Bag - Primark

I decided to use my MUA Starry Night Palette for my eye make-up, this is the first time I've used this palette and I love it!

 MUA Starry night
E.L.F Cream Liner in midnight
Eyeko Big Eyes Mascara
MUA Eyeliner pencil in black
Rimmel 25 Hour Foundation
Rimmel Blusher (part of gift set)
E.L.F matte lip colour in tea rose

Annoyingly I had a huge spot on the side of my nose which meant I had to wear my glasses as they hid it a lot! This spot also made my eye slightly 'deformed' as it went all swollen and closed! Thankfully the glasses did a very good job of hiding it!

NOTD - Leopard Print

Hi girls, how are you all? I'm good, day one of a three day working week done! I'm going to Reading this weekend to visit Spencer's brother, as a result I've booked Thursday and Friday off work :)

This NOTD is a complete rip off! I saw it on Kim at the SW Blogger meet and loved it so much that I decided to copy of her! I used different nail polishes to Kim but am very pleased with how it turned out!

Do you love it? I do :)

This is how I did it...

2 coats of 17 Wave for base

Eyeko Punk Polish for dots 

Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner for markings

As you can see from my mess the dots really don't have to be neat! I used a dotting tool, if you don't have one of these a kirby grip is a good alternative!

I then used my eyeliner to draw random squiggles around the dots and on the nails! The downside to using eyeliner for this is that it takes ages to dry and smudges easily. I've since ordered some nail art pens so will use these from now on!

I then applied two coats of top coat to seal the eyeliner in. SIMPLES!!

Do you like the leopard print nail trend? What are your favourite colours?

MUA Pro Line Haul - Thoughts & Swatches

There has been a LOT of hype surrounding MUA's pro line, especially the Heaven and Earth eyeshadow palette. I have been dying to get my hands on some of the range for a while now so I dived straight in when I found out that Superdrug were running free delivery on their website! Here is what I bought...

MUA Nail Quake in Broken Arrow

I've only ever tried Barry M & 17 Crackle polishes before this one. This one has booted those two straight to the side! I find that both Barry M & 17 are quite textured when dry, which makes me want to pick it off. This one dries really smoothly and it isn't gloopy at all. I love the colour, not so much over yellow, I just happened to be swatching my Ciate in Big Yellow Taxi at the time so applied this over the top. I think this colour will look gorgeous over silver and can't wait to have a proper play with it! This costs £2.99.

MUA Heaven and Earth Palette

top row

bottom row

a look I created with the palette

i'm also wearing ELF cream eyeliner in metallic olive and eyeko magic eyes mascara

I can see why there is so much hype surrounding this palette. It provides a very good variety of good quality colours, for just £4. The eyeshadows have a lovely consistency and glide on effortlessly.

MUA Starry Night Palette

top row

bottom row

I think this palette has been slightly over shadowed by Heaven and Earth. This one really does deserve to be in the lime light as much as Heaven and Earth. Again this palette is packed with a fabulous variety of colours all of which have a lovely consistency.

MUA Extreme Metallics Celebrity

I decided to add this in at the last minute because it is a nice small palette with gorgeous colours. This will be handy for chucking in my bag when going away, again I love it! This cost £3.00.

Superdrug are running their free delivery promotion until midnight on 08 August 2011.

P.S. Please ignore my awful iron burn! I'm too cacky handed to swatch on the other arm!

Nail Art Fail

Evening all, how are you today? I've finally recovered from my pollen induced coma, a result of walking home along the canal, so have decided to write a post!

You may remember me mentioning Emily's amazing tiger nails in my monthly summary post. They were amazing, my attempt wasn't!

One coat of NYC Spring Street

After dabbing Barry M shade 134 and Nails Inc Copacabana over the top using the corner of a sponge

Finished result

It didn't look as bad  blurred....

This nail art fail has really taught me that I need to invest in some nail art pens instead of using my Eyeko Eyeliner! I had to skip the gold step out as I didn't have a gold nail art pen, and I do feel that the black may have come out better with a nail art pen. The plus side of using eyeliner...I didn't like the design so instead of locking it in with a top coat I washed the eyeliner off and kept the gradient nails!

I'm still a nail art newbie so am definitely going to try this again as Emily did it so well! Do you have any nail art tips/recommendations?