NOTD Studded Nails

When I was picking a nail varnish on Saturday I wanted to do some nail art but I was feeling very uninspired after routing through my nail varnish. I chose to use one of the Ciate ones I had in my advent calendar as it was one I loved the colour of but hadnt used yet. It's called Cabaret. 

I love the wear of Ciate polishes. They are streaky after one coat but after two give a gorgeous finish and last really well. When looking for my top coat I spotted some studs I'd ordered from eBay. You can find similar ones here. I always get nail stuff from eBay and usually from China as it's so cheap. You just have to wait a while for delivery.

These particular studs are great as they have flat backs so I don't feel the need to pick them off. When I've done this before and use Caviar type beads they annoyed me quickly.  Caviar manicures annoy me after 24 hours and I tend to pick them off.

This manicure lasted me over 48 hours. In that time,  I cooked, cleaned, had a bath and spent a whole day in work. In that time only one stud fell off. That's pretty impressive to me. The only thing was some of the studs ended up looking more silver than gold as the colour wore off.

To do this manicure.  I painted two coats of nail varnish. Then used my Seche Vite and applied it one nail at a time. I sprinkled the studs onto a DVD case and touched them gently with my dotting tool till they were all the right way up. 

Using a not very hygienic method (but it's my nails and easiest so doesn't matter) I lightly dabbed the end of my dotting tool on my tongue then found it was easier to get a stud on the end. I've tried other methods and they don't work as well. If you don't have a dotting tool you could get one cheap on eBay when you order studs or use a toothpick, tweezers or something similar.  When a stud was on my dotting tool I gently pressed this into the wet top coat and continued to apply them.  Once one nail was done I applied top coat to the next nail and repeated.  When they were all done I added a layer or top coat over the top.

I'm so impressed with how long this manicure lasted and how quick it was to do. Which surprised me. I'll be doing this more as I love the way it looks. Im gutted I lost a nail on the way home so I've had to take a them off but all studs were still strong, none were loose and I think I'd have got another couple of days out of it.

Do you like stud manicures?

Love M

Xxx

Spending Ban Update 1

So after one week I broke it already. I was organised or so I thought on New Year's Eve and went and got what I needed from ikea to organise,  Staples for uni stuff and boots for make up wipes, eye make up remover (boots you're evil bringing out the No7 vouchers at the start of the ban. The eye make up remover is my favourite and the best by far). But on New Years day (the start of our ban) I realised I still needed a few bits for the flat.

This flat is bigger and I have the room to be tidy and organised so I wanted everything in it's place. Off to Staples again I got 3 folders for uni. As the ban started I got the cheapest one's, I also got a clear acrylic holder for my make up brushes and some hooks for my straighteners and hair dryer. I then popped to B&M as I wanted new bedding to match the bedroom. As I'd already spent I went to Costa and bogghr a coffee.  Spending money on Starbucks and Costa will be the hardest for me to stop! I don't think this stuff is too bad as it was stuff I needed and now my flat is organised and tidy!

I haven't broke it since the 1st and haven't got any make up or anything.  Since the ban started I've found I'm lusting over even more things.

Here's a few things on my list at the moment.  Im going to just add to it weekly so I can look back at it at the end and see what I still want.

Mac Brick-O-La lipstick
Urban Decay Setting Spray
MUA Eyelid Primer
Nars Sheer Glow
Bobbi Brown Corrector
Mac Naked Lunch

My list is going to be a very by the end of this ban!

How are your bans going?

Love M

Xxx

You can check out Marvelle From Blog of Shadows post here to see some of the other lovely bloggers who've put themselves on spending bans

Review: Origin's Brighter By Nature

We've both previously mentioned an event we went to at the John Lewis beauty hall in November where we both spent a hefty sum of money in Origins resulting in us getting a bag of goodies.

Not that we were bribed with the offer of freebies at all.... ;)

One of the products in the gift bag was the Brighter By Nature face pads which we've both been intrigued by and after finding out there were 20 in the gift set for free (worth £20) we couldn't resist!

NOTD: Essie's Winter Collection 2012

I wrote a few weeks back how i had a ridiculous Essie splurge and picked up the Winter Collection from Boots.

This collection box only had 3 polishes from the 2012 set which doesn't seem to be available anywhere else nor in the original store where I got it from.

However if you did want to pick up a similar one ASOS have a set with 4 of the colours in including the following 3 for £12.95 in their sale, woo!

I am assuming the collection is called 'Leading Lady' as one of the polishes is and i am in love with the quote from the back of the box:

Too true Essie, too true!

I also love the names of these polishes, shown in the picture below:

I won't waffle on too much and please excuse some of the messy nail applications!

I painted my nails various times over the past few weeks since having them and was almost always in a rush.

Beyond Cozy:

This beauty is a combo of gold and silver which is my ultimate nail polish for a night out, as you literally cannot do wrong.

This was opaque in 2 coats, lasted really well with a top coat and got me a hefty load of compliments.

You can see in the photos the variation of colour where the flash has hit the glitter, but this is beeeeeeeeeautiful in day and night. 

Big fan!

Snap Happy:

Again this was 2 coats and a really good consistency to cover.

I love red nails and this one is no exception, an orangey 'plastic' red as I like to describe it, it would go with most skin tones.

This was a beautiful polish also but not a lot different to any other year round collection, having said that everyone needs a red like this!

Leading Lady:

This beauty is what i was really looking forward to getting my hands on.

It's a beautiful jelly polish with glitter in and the colour is just gorgeous!

I really did like this one though it would take 3 coats for an even consistency of packed glitter (which is the look i like) and then a few coats to make the top coat smooth as the glitter is quite chunky.

(The photos show 2 coats)

Having said that the results are worth it and I had so many people ask me where it was from it is probably the reason there are none left in Boots haha.

Definitely love this too!

Basically aside from wanting to show you how amazing these colours come out I wanted to make you all buy the collection from ASOS...

For £12.95 you can pick up these 3 plus another polish in a mint green colour called 'Where's My Chaffeur?' and i think this is SO worth the money!

The red and gold can be used all day every day and for weekends and nights out also, and the jelly glitter is just a beautiful colour that will mesmerize you as it did me.

What do you think of these colours? Are you loving them too?? Have you picked them up in the sale??

Essie just go up in my estimations every time!

If you wouldn't buy this for yourself it would make the perfect gift for any female in your life :)

L xxx