Nails designs for Spring

We posted this a while back over at The Beauty Belle's blog. As we weren't sure how many of you guys had seen the guest post we decided to pop on on our own blog too as we loved some of the designs we did for this. 

 1. Glitter nails: I don't know about you but I absolutely love glitter, especially when like this one it has different sized pieces! Glitter is a top banana for Spring, and thank god, cos I'm obsessed with this one! It's by Saffron and you can find it on eBay for a measly £2, winner! I used No7 So Simple as a nude base colour: 

2. Nail art: Nail art is not going anywhere any time soon! I like to keep things quite simple normally, but with pastel shades being high on the hit list for Spring 2012, I did my own take on them using my favourite metallic from Model’s Own. For this I used Barry M's 304 Mint Green, Models Own Champagne and 17 Lasting Fix in Fairy Cake:

 3. Dotting tool: A new addition to my nail kit that I can see getting a lot of use out of! As I said above, I like simple colours and patterns, so for my dotting tool design I used Model's Own Champagne (again!) with Nails Inc's Black Taxi to do the dots, I quite like the effect!

 4. Save/Spend/Splurge: We've all done it at some point, bought the most expensive nail varnish just because we could! But there's plenty of other options...one of Spring's top colours is lilac and here's a range of nail products that you could buy depending on your budget: (All photos taken from producers website)

Save: Barry M's 308 Berry Ice Cream £2.99

Spend: Nails Inc's Lowndes Square £11

Splurge: Dior Vernis Forget me Not £16.50

  5. Most grabbed for shade: Last Spring I wore this colour to death! The bottle is almost empty now, and I'm even tempted to repurchase. It goes with everything, does need 3 coats to be opaque but it's worth it I think!

Natural Collection: Antique Coral

6. Glitter  Nail

I love applying the glitter to the cuticle area and fading it up. Glitter is a pain to remove but how amazing it looks out weighs that for me. I used Natural Collection Antique Coral, these are a bargain and only £1.89 the coverage did take three coats but I love the slightly muted orange tone of it. The pink glitter is Chine Glaze Doll House and a definite favourite of both of ours. The silver glitter I love as it has different sizes of glitter. It’s a brand called saffron and I picked it up cheap from Amazon.

 7. Nail Art

I saw a design similar to this on my favourite nail art blog, polishyoupretty. It’s a fading pink into bright pink, great to get you from nudes into bright pinks, ready for summer. It looks great with any colour as long as you have four varying shades. You just need a steady hand or you can line the nails with tape to get a neater line. I didn’t quite have the medium pink I needed for this look. Nail varnish used China Glaze Secret Admirer, Avon Rose Quartz, OPI Strawberry Margarita and Nails Inc Piccadilly Circus

8. The dotting Tool

These can be picked up cheaply from ebay or you can just use a Kirby grip to get the same effect. With dotting tools there are a variety of different designs you can achieve using it. As it’s spring I decided to do a daisy design on my ring finger and thumb. I prefer to do it on just a few fingers as a statement but it’s simple enough to do on all of them. I used OPI Strawberry Margarita for the base coat, OPI Apline Snow for the petals, Dior Water lily for the stems and an American brand for the lilac, not sure of the name sorry.

9. Save, Spend, Splurge

Nothing says spring like a pastel green to me. These are some of my favourite shades for different budgets. Elf Mint Cream, China Glaze Re-fresh Mint and Dior Waterlily. I’m lucky enough to own Dior waterlily and I can’t wait to purchase the Elf nail polish to try out

10. Most grabbed for Spring Polish

For me at the moment I am loving blue polishes. My favourite for spring is China Glaze Secret Periwinkle. Here it is with a coat of Snow Globe over the top but it’s such a pretty shade on it’s own aswell, reminds me of the hopefully nice blue skies we’ll be having soon.

Love L and M 

xxx

Review: Giles Deacon for New Look Bronzer palette

So I previously told you I'd bought a few products from the Giles Deacon for New Look make up range, the lip gloss review can be found here

The other product that I bought was the blusher in brown coloured tones, a very good dupe for the classic Bobbi Brown palettes which I currently cannot afford!

So the packaging is quite simple, black and gold with a clear window to show you the product inside. 

The colours of the blusher are a pretty good combination, and the palette is big enough that you can swirl your brush on the lighter colours or darker colours to contour and create the effect you're looking for.

The shades are quite pigmented considering the product is so cheap, only £2.99!

The brush that comes with it isn't up to much but they never normally are in a palette like this.

You can see the effect in the photo below:

A lovely warm toned bronzer that blended really easily with a slight shimmer.

I personally like piling this kind of product on, but it doesn't need it and in fact looks too shimmery particularly for day wear so I've had to tone it down a little...

However I love the results and for such a small price it's worth every penny to keep my Bobbi Brown envy at bay!

If you like the look of this product, we have a whole selection of Giles Deacon make up products in our Giveaway which you can find here :)

Have you tried any products from Giles Deacon's range?

L xxx

Review: Etat Pur Micellar Water

A few weeks ago I fully caved in and bought a few goodies from Etat Pur as I was so fed up with my skin care routine.

I'd heard a lot about them and so was excited to browse their website, take their 1 minute application to see what they prescribed for my skin and finally place an order!

I ended up purchasing the much raved about Micellar water, and also 2 actives in the form of A20 (Zinc Gluconate) and A01 (Q10).

As well as the 3 products I purchased, when you place your first order you get free delivery and 3 free samples, 2 of which you get to choose yourself!

This intrigued me, and I'm always a sucker for freebies!

All of my goodies are shown below:

So starting with the Micellar solution...

I had previously tried a micellar water from Joliebox (The Taaj one) which was ok, smelt like flowers and took off quite a bit of make up even after cleansing with Liz Earle.

Whilst it wasn't a revolutionary product in terms of what it did (nor did I like the smell much!), it did make me realise that maybe I needed something like a micellar water as an extra step for make up removal, particularly mascara, though I personally wanted a brand that had a website I could read more about!

The Etat Pur Micellar water was infinitely better when compared to the Taaj micellar water.

My make up came off so easily, particularly my eye make up which is a big bonus as my eyes have been sensitive for MONTHS now, I'm really having trouble with them!

I'm hoping that with long term use it will improve my skin texture too, as cleaning it better can only improve it!

I was quite impressed with this product, and the smell wasn't too strong nor did it the break the bank at a measly £6.40, I have definitely been won over!

I'm still trialling the actives out at the moment, but at the first few uses I'm definitely impressed and my skin has definitely improved.

My mum is considering putting in an order...I'm hoping I can add a few more things and steal her samples...would that be mean?!

They're so cute and perfect for travelling with...hopefully I can bribe her ;)

I was a little disappointed that my order took so long, it was supposed to take 4 days to arrive, but mine took more like 10 days which was a considerably longer time.

It was worth the wait, but obviously it was very frustrating.

Have you bought anything from Etat Pur? Have you used a Micellar water before?

I think I'm going to look for something to help my dark shadows and pores next...hopefully I can find something for every bit of my face that needs a little helping hand ;)

Hope you enjoyed the post, I love writing about new products like this!

L xxx

NOTD: Max Factor Fantasy Fire

So I'm sure you've all seen it on the rounds of various blog posts the past few months as did I, but eventually I gave in and purchased Max Factor's Fantasy Fire, an apparent dupe for a Clarins polish.

I can't comment on how much of a dupe it is because I haven't seen the Clarins one, but I was drawn to the amazing effects it has.

I will warn you now, this is a very photo heavy post as it's so lovely/hard to photograph that I took way too many!

The polish itself is a purple jelly type polish with a metallic effect, its not quite glittery but has a gorgeous shimmer all the way through it.

It is shown above without flash, and below with a flash to give you an idea of the colour.

It was hard to photograph accurately as even though the colour is a purple jelly, the metallic effect is produced by a number of different coloured particles ranging from gold, orange, red and pink, hence the name 'Fantasy Fire'

I am such a sucker for a good name and this one hits all the right spots!

Fantasy and dream world plus dangerous fire?! All wrapped up to produce a beautifully shimmery lacquer?! What's not to love!

You can see a whole load of shimmer in the photo above and below, I am in love with this colour!

Click for an enlarged version of the photo below and you can see it even better.

The only problems I have found with this is firstly you need a good 3/4 coats to get an even and vivid enough colour which as we all know is arduous and eventually costs more.

Secondly, the pot (whilst only £3.99 normally, £2.99 in superdrug right now!) is tiny, and although it's cheap you don't get a lot of product and it can be harder to paint your nails with the smaller pot in your hand.

That being said, for a night when I have the time to do 6 coats of polish and somewhere to wear it to, this baby will be coming out a lot!

If the bottle finishes as quickly as I imagine it would I would still buy this again, although I would rather a larger version (in an ideal world eh?)

Have you bought Fantasy Fire? What did you think of it? Have you found a similar colour elsewhere?

Any other Max Factor varnishes you've used and loved?

L xxx