NOTD Dandelion Nail Art

I've been missing doing nail art lately and after seeing a really cute design on Glossy boxes twitter page I decided to have a play around.

After a bit of googling (glossy box didn't credit the person who did the nails) I find the cute design was done by Mad Manis (blog here). She's got some great nail art designs on her blog so next time I need inspiring I'll be going back.

I love how simple and cute this design is (I need a steadier hand it would seem)

I really like the sky grey/blue shade used as a base but didn't have anything similar so mixed some. I started off with a base of OPI Dating a Royal (which is a colour I absolutely adore. I forgot to photo this so used an old photo)

Next I put a layer of No7 grey skies on top.

And finished with a coat of Avon Blue Water Lillies. This deepened the Blue Water Lillies coloured.

For the desigin it's self I used my models own nail art pens. Disappointingly though my black pen has become blocked and doesn't work anymore so I has to use a cocktail stick which is why my black is a little messier than I wanted. 

I painted 3 nails with black sticks towards the tip of the nail. On top of the black sticks I then painted thin strips of white to look like the head of the dandelion.

For the other nails I painted a few wishes on them to look like the dandelions had been blowing. I did paint my top coat too soon and smudge them a bit.

I really like this design and really want to try it again and get it a bit neater like the brilliant original.

Are you a nail art fan? Is this something you'd try?

Love M

xxx

Revlon Mauve it Over Matte Lipstick

Hope you've all had a great bank holiday weekend! L and I have had a great one and were suffering yesterday so forgot to write a post.

Today is my newest lipstick to add to my now ridiculously large collection *cough* over 50 *cough*. In boots a few weeks ago they had some of the Revlon line on 2 for £10 including the new lash potion mascara which retails for £9.99. As I hadn't tried it before I decided to pick up a new lipstick as well.  

I've been wanting a more matte nude lipstick for a while. I love my Mac Fanfare lipstick (review here) but sometimes find it is too shiny for some looks. I remember seeing good things about the Revlon matte range on YouTube so decided to give it a go.

After swatching all the matte shades in Boots I settled on Mauve it over. It looked like a great neutral lipstick and felt soft on the hand.

The packaging is simple and classic in black and gold but what I really like it that the top of the lid is see through so you can easily tell the colour. This works great for me for the way I store my lipsticks.

On the hand the lipstick looks slightly more orange toned than it does on the lips. I find it to be very similar to my natural lip shade. It is a almost rose toned lipstick.

Even though it has yellow tones I don't find it makes my teeth look yellow which is always a good thing. I find blue toned neutral shades just look strange on my skin tone. I love the way the lipstick applies. It glides onto the lips and is opaque in one swipe. I find it doesn't really dry my lips out either which is always a bonus.

I love how natural the colour is and find this so easy to wear for everyday and going out. I wore it when I was a bridesmaid a few weeks ago. I love it for a night out as I find it just completes the look without taking anything away from a dramatic eye look. This lipstick has stayed in my handbag since I got it as I find it just easy to wear.

I'm loving this formulation and now want more of the shades.

It's still on offer for 2 for £10 in boots so technically free if you want to try the new Lash Potion. A great choice if you want a new everyday lip colour.

Love M

xxx

Hen Weekend

Hello!

We are both SO excited for the bank holiday weekend. We've made plans for both nights out and also have plans to eat and watch films on the 'hangover' days in between!
I think some serious products will be used over the next few days!

Last weekend we both went to our friends hen weekend near Hungerford which involved some afternoon tea and lots of drinks!



The venue was Oakly Hall, an amazing estate dating back to the 1700s, it was LUSH!
We had the afternoon tea in a library which I absolutely loved, I am book obsessed and dream about having a library one day. 

Even the tables and chairs were really cute and I loved the whole theme!

I wore a beige dress with pink flowers on, nice and girly for the sophisticated setting!

M wore jeans and blue and white spotty top:

As I'm (unfortunately) allergic to champagne I got to have some Pimms whilst everyone else tucked into flutes of the good stuff!

The food was amazing, it was a huge tower of sandwiches, warm scones, profiteroles, tarts and brownies:

I somehow managed to eat loads but only just!
It was amazing and so filling but after our drive I was feeling pretty hungry.

Just look at the jam and cream for the scones! I do love cake, its one of my vices whenever I'm in a bad mood or trying to lose a few pounds....cake always gets me!

For the night out we all got glammed up and went out to a club in Newbury. It was so much fun and great to go somewhere different to our usual places.

Here's a photo of us during the night:

I wore an Olivia Rubin dress that I bought a few years ago for a birthday night out. I teamed it with my black wedges from New Look, bangles from Internacionale, nude bag from River Island and necklace from Topshop.
I curled my hair with a wand which is my favourite way to do my hair and went for classic make up with a nude smokey eye, winged liner and red lips!

M wore a flowery playsuit from New Looks tall range a few years ago with New Look Black Wedges (such comfy shoes), a statement necklace from River Island, with Thomas Sabo bracelets and teamed it with my black leather obi belt from Mango.

It was such a fun night and were hoping to have a great time again this weekend!

The wedding is coming up in September and we cannot wait for it now. We've both got our dresses sorted and we're working hard at the gym to make sure we look our best!
It might be our friends wedding and not our own but that doesn't mean we don't have to make an effort right?!

I can't wait to start getting ready for it and to see her walking down the aisle! She'd made a lot of the decorations for it so it's going to be really personal.

Do you have any friends getting married soon?

L xxx

L'Oreal Mascaras

What a horrible day!

I don't know about where you are but it's horrible and rainy here and it's not supposed to be like this for a bank holiday weekend!

For the past few weeks I've been trialling some L'Oreal mascaras. They were on offer when I picked them up and I was really excited to try them out as they've both got good reviews

I picked up their Volume Million Lashes Noir, and False Lash Flutter:

Firstly I like that the mascaras are individually packaged with plastic so you know for sure that nobody else has had their sticky mitts over and have been using the wand on their own eyes...!


The mascara I used first was the False Lash Flutter. It has fibres in it, which I wouldn't normally purchase as I'm a contact lens wearer, but as I've been wearing my glasses to work I thought I'd give it a go.



The packaging is pretty, nice and futuristic which always feels clean and functional in my view.
It's quite a chunky size too which is great as I don't like ones that are skinny, they're harder to handle and I like them to be robust in case I drop them....(quite often!)



As I've mentioned this mascara has butterfly wing effect fibres. To be perfectly honest I can't even tell that there are fibres in the product at all, which was a relief for me as my eyes are sensitive and would easily get irritated by them, as they have with lots of other fibre mascaras.

For me the innovative part was the mascara brush:



It's more like a comb than a brush but has a winged end towards the handle which was hard to photograph so I've shown it above and below so you can see it better as it has a double winged end.
I felt that this helped catch the end lashes better and give them an extra coating.



You can see this mascara on my lashes below:




I like the effect it gives, it doesn't cause clumpy eyelashes and picks them all up so they're all separated individually. It didn't flake off during the day and my lashes looked the same for over 16 hours during work and the gym which trust me is a lonnnnnnnnnnnng day!
I didn't ever see any actual fibres which was good for my sensitive eyes but I didn't see any benefit from it either. Maybe they do help as I did love the effect they gave.

Next up is Volume Million Lashes Noir:



I love the two toned colour of the tube and again it's chunky which I've already mentioned. The colours look classic and sophisticated which is my favourite kind of packaging!



The brush for this mascara is in a slight figure of 8 shape which I found great for picking up the lashes at the inner and outer corners of the eyes.
This one is just a normal mascara without any fibres so it was a great comparison to the first one:



The photo below shows my lashes with the mascara and I feel they look a lot fluffier than when I used the False Lash Flutter, especially on the bottom.

I really liked the second mascara, Volume Million Lashes, a lot more than the False Lash Flutter. Both mascaras were great and I'd repurchase both, but the Volume Million Lashes mascara worked better on my own lashes as they're already quite long, but need volume and curl so this worked better for me personally.

Have you tried any L'Oreal mascaras? Which were your favourite?

What's your favourite mascara in general? I do love a new one, any suggestions send them my way!

Hope you enjoy your bank holiday weekend, I'm sure you'll see some picture from our weekend in the next few days!


L xxx