Festive Make Up Ideas

Hello there!

I'm sure we are all feeling very full and probably a little ashamed of our eating habits yesterday. As usual I ended up eating a massive Christmas dinner with cheesecake to finish and then following it up with a second round later on in the evening along with chocolates and nibbles....the guilt is unreal.

The last thing that is on my mind right now is getting ready for my next night out, particularly New Year's Eve as it seems so far away and another eating/drinking session seems a bit vile. However the planning necessary for the hair and make up element of the night seems a nice and easy task right now.

I've been looking up some inspiration and instead of trying to create my own to show you I thought I'd leave it to the more capable hands of Pinterest. All of these images have come from my account if you'd like to view them (username is 'thecsigirls' you can find it by clicking in the toolbar to the right)

So yes, to double clarify, none of these are my own just purely some inspiration for some simple and some more extravagant beauty ideas for the end of year party.

NOTD: Deborah Lippmann's Ruby Red Slippers

Well hello there!

It has been a while since I've done a NOTD but i thought this was appropriate for the time of year. I spotted this a long time ago courtesy of the blogging world and fell in love; there were many copies such as Essie's Leading Lady (post here) which i tried and loved but there really isn't anything like the original is there?

Eventually when a website (beauty bay maybe?) had a post Christmas sale and I found a discount code I couldn't resist!

Ruby Red Slippers is a black gelly type polish with loads and loads of beautiful dark red glitter particles in various sizes. It is perfect for Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas, so get it now and all of your manicure problems are sorted for the next 2 months!

Another thing i like about DL polishes is that they are free from some chemical nasties and they don't test on animals. I would love to avoid all products that come from companies who test on animals but after looking into it extensively and having a few skin issues with reactions etc i just can't seem to work out how I can get by, which is disappointing and needs change. And is an entirely different topic for another day!

I LOVE the square shaped bottles, they are really classic and the lids are really sturdy too. They don't look like they'd break any time soon which is handy as I can be pretty clumsy sometimes.

Also, Ruby Red Slippers? Doesn't it just take you back to your childhood and wishing you had a pair of sparkly red shoes that would take you away to a magical land? I know it's not just me!

On the nails how did they fair? Well I will start by telling you that I absolutely love it but I'm glad I didn't pay the full price for it. However much I love it, it takes a good 4 coats to get it opaque which is pretty substantial and I end up painting my nails red or black to stop me from using it all up.

Next up is the dreaded chipping. I've always been a fan of glitter tips as they're pretty hard wearing and can save your nails for weeks if you're clever about it but this just seems to flake off like no one's business and drives me mad! 4 coats painstakingly painted and then they flake off.

See the photos below for how beautiful it is and also how it has chipped already between painting them and taking photos:

Granted it doesn't look a neat paint job, it is extremely hard to get a gelly polish like this to look neat at the cuticles without extreme patience! I love the layering of the polish as it really gives it a 3D look and it looks lush....but it just flakes and it makes me so angry.

It is possible that the base and top coat combo weren't good enough for the polish and so that is why it chips off so easily, or it could be many things. I'm thinking that my patience may only let me wear this once a year but that way the bottle will last ages!

What do you think of glitter polishes from Deborah Lippmann? Have you got a favourite?

Happy Birthday seems to be the classic but there are so many it is very hard to choose!

(as a quick edit there seems to be a few left on Beauty Bay for £9 if my review hasn't put you off!)

L xxx

China Glaze Be Bright Nail Polish Set

Hi there!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had a friend in the US who sent me a few goodies just after Christmas, this nail polish set was one of them. It was a Christmas set but lets be honest, it's not like there's a ban on glitter and metallics for the rest of the year is there?!

This set is Be Bright and contains 1 metallic nail polish and three glitter top coats.

Here is Your Presents Required over Essie's Fiji. This polish doesn't look much in the bottle but once I'd applied it to my ring finger I then had to put it on all the others too! It has so many colours in it that it looks perfect over a nude colour like Fiji

There are also multiple sizes of the different colours of glitter too which make it look a lot more authentic and less perfect making it look a lot better, in my opinion. This one is my favourite out of the whole packet!


This nail polish is Mingle with Kringle, a gorgeous super shimmery gold polish.



The photo above shows one coat, and the photos below show two coats. Two coats are definitely required for opacity and the colour is gorgeous. It's a true gold and extremely shimmery! I really like this shade but I do have quite a few polishes like this already.




For the next glitter, Bells will be Blinging was applied to my ring finger over an Essie polish called Parka Perfect. The photos below shows one coat of the glitter polish:





And the above shows 2 coats. You can see it definitely needs two coats for the full amount of sparkle, I can't say this is one that I'll use too often as I much prefer the first polish for glitter and don't often wear blues generally. But I was impressed how well this showed up after one coat, but as always you'll need 2 for the full effect!

Lastly we have Be Merry, Be Bright another multicoloured and multi sized glitter which I have applied over Ballet Slippers.

In all honesty I didn't think I'd like this at all, I'm not sure why, maybe it was the blue glitter in it. In the bottle I think the blue glitter looks a considerable amount more than it does on the nails and I've surprised myself by actually loving it!

Which is your favourite? I really have surprised myself by which ones of these are my favourites. China glaze is one of my favourite nail polish brands and I love every collection they bring out! 

Do you have any China Glaze favourites?

L xxx

NOTD: Barry M Rose Quartz Nail Paint

Good morning!

I've got a quick nails post for you today with a polish that I've had my eyes on for a very long time.

Barry M's Rose Quartz

This beauty has plagued my dreams for a while, I mean rose pink, glitter, and the bargain prices of Barry M, what's not to love!
I'm really not sure why I haven't bought it, I think its a lot of the 'I can buy it when I'm poor' mentality when I should have just bought it anyway.

The polish is as you would expect, extremely glittery and I couldn't stop staring at it. It could be used as a top coat or as a full on disco ball look if you layer it up.

It's a clear polish with tiny bits of glitter polish and also hexagon shaped pieces of larger glitter.

I am allowed to wear nail polish to work but I feel something too outrageous may commented on, so instead I stuck with a simple look for my first attempt at wearing the polish.

I used Essie's Ballet Slippers on all of my nails and applied 2 coats; then I applied 2 coats of the Barry M Rose Quartz to my ring finger for a bit of sparkle!


It applied really easily and was just enough to look girly without being too over the top:

For the weekend I'd apply this ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL over my nails in multiple layers for an amazing discoball look. The rose quartz colour is super flattering on my skin tone and would be great for fingers or toes, day or night and would especially be good for weddings!

I've had this on my nails all week and it hasn't chipped yet, which in a lab is pretty damn good going!

What do you think of Barry M's polishes? Do you love their range of colours and finishes?

Which would be your No.1 recommendation?

L xxx

NOTD: Essie Luxeffects

Good morning!

I'm sure you probably saw these beauties a long while ago but I couldn't resist posting now that I've had a proper chance to use them.
Essie are one of my favorite brands for nail polish and I'm sure I'll continue buying them for a long time to come, especially with their limited edition sets and individual polishes that get the 'blogger hype' thing going on!

The following polishes are from the Luxeffects set that was brought out before Christmas. I am a huge fan of the light pink glitter polish and have posted and mentioned my very first one which was China Glaze's Dolls House many times. As it was running low and this one was brand new I snapped this up instead, along with a double whammy of a set with the silver glitter and midnight blue colour inside.

This set is called Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and it is easy to see why. With a silver that's so sparkly and bright it's almost white and a dark inky blue you can create your own magical night sky on your finger tips.

Bobbing for Baubles and Set in Stones can be used separately and together to create a myriad of looks, but I think how they've put these two together is the simplest look.

I love how deep and inky the colour is, it's so dark and mysterious and looks great are short chic nails.

Set in Stones can be applied on top of one nail for an accent nail or on every nail as below for a subtle bit of sparkle. I believe this was 2 coats of glitter, though I wouldn't be surprised if afterwards I added a whole lot more, you've got to love the glitter!




When I picked these up the pink glitter, A Cut Above, was also available in a duo set with Fiji. As I already have Fiji I just picked up the glitter polish on its own but otherwise I would have snapped it up as Fiji is one of my favourite all round polishes.

In light of the set that was available I decided to paint my nails using Fiji and applied A Cut Above on top of it in the same was as I used the other set.

I love Fiji for an every day nail and with this applied its a lovely girly change for me, especially for day time and in work. I had lots of compliments on how girly it was for me (!) and its great for a Saturday night too.

There are plenty of polishes in the Luxeffects range, 6 in total including a gorgeous multicoloured polish and more metallics. They're still available on their website and in most boots stores if you wanted to pick them up. They're not just a Christmas party product they're very much a Saturday night and a long summer holiday product too!

Did you try any of the Luxeffects? Which was your favourite?

L xxx

Maybelline Color Show: Brocades

Good morning to you all!

These polishes were snapped up by myself on a shopping trip over Christmas and although they've been worn lots I just haven't had chance to post about them yet!

I'm a fan of the Color Show range from Maybelline, the bottles aren't huge but for £3/4 you can try out some new colours that you weren't sure you'd like etc and its a great way to build up a collection with a great quality product.

The Brocades were brought out in time for the festive period; you can NEVER go wrong with a glitter at Christmas time and Maybelline brought out the brocades in a gold, black, pink and a silver.
I'm not a big silver wearer so decided to pick up the other three in a 3 for 2 deal at my beloved Boots.

I swear almost all my wages get spent there!

You can see in the pictures above the colours; the Knitted Gold is very much a rose gold colour, Woven Skyline is exactly how you'd expect New York to look at night if it was a nail varnish and Rosy Rosettes is a gorgeous shimmery pink.

So how did they fare on the nails?

I decided to do an accent nail over the past few weeks so here are my shots with the pink and gold colours doing just that.

These were taken with and without flash after 2 coats. Some nails as I;m sure you can see could do with another coat....but 3 layers of a glitter polish is nightmare number 1 when it comes to removal so I had to stop myself knowing how fickle I am with changing them.

The colours are great and the gold was a nice addition to my collection as I don't have any rose gold colours.



I have to say though, however much i love the pink and gold the black didn't fare as well. The photos below show 2 coats again and it just wasn't enough.






You can still see a lot of my nails through the polish as it wasn't dense enough. This was a beautiful polish but would definitely require another polish underneath as a base colour before application otherwise who knows how many layers you'll end up with and that many hours of removal would drive anyone insane!



I really love the effects though, I'm a sucker for a glitter and these jelly types ones were really good and the range of colours means that anyone will want one.

Being glitters they also lasted really well on my nails even through working in the lab and i did get some compliments of how lovely and sparkly they were!

Have you tried the Maybelline Brocades? Which colour is your favourite?

L xxx