A Vampy Divide

Using two of the polishes Nicole from Noir Lacquer sent me from our recent swap I did a scotch tape half n half manicure. I usually dot another polish over the divide but I like the way this looked with just the two shades.  First i painted a coat of Edyta by Zoya over all my nails and waited for it to dry. Next up I applied scotch tape diagonally across all my nails and painted two coats of essie's geranium. 

The essie polish would be a lot more vibrant if I painted it over a clean nail rather than on top of a dark colour like this Zoya one. But actually I really like the way this looks, dark and vampy.  

Nails, face, body

Using Models Own Golden Green nail polish from their Beetlejuice collection and Nubar's 2010 top coat:

I love the way Golden Green looks on its own, but I wanted add one of my fav top coats over it just to jazz it up a little bit as I was going out for a dinner party.

These were my nails for the party, this is my make up and my outfit:

Glittery two toned eye liner

Another work office look with some glitter: I used Maxfactor smokey eye effects in white as my usual base then applied a layer of Sin by Urban Decay all over my lids. Next up I applied a golden yellow eye coloured eye liner from Beauty UK on the inner corner to the middle, then a grey ish plum from the middle to the outer corner. 

To finish I used Urban Decay glitter eye gel in Power Ballad over the top, curled by lashes and used my usual Maybelline Falsies mascara.

The Beauty UK jumbo pencils applied so smoothly (I won these in a giveaway a while back) I probably wouldn't use them all over the lid, but to add a splash of colour on the upper lash line these are great.

Even though this is an office look I had to add a bit of sparkle!

Evergreen meets Cyan Blue

Another quick and easy sponge manicure using Models Own Evergreen and Barry M's Cyan Blue.

One coat of Barry M's Cyan Blue,  then using a (clean, unused!) kitchen sponge lightly sponge on Models Own Evergreen from the middle of the nail down to the tip.

I love sponge gradient manicures, they are quick and easy and the beauty of this technique is that you don't need to be precise. 

Lush goodies

I went shopping in Exeter a couple of days ago and popped into Lush, we don't have a Lush in my home town, so it is nice to go into a shop and smell everything in person rather than go off blog reviews and videos. Here is what I bought:

Snow Fairy shower gel, Cup Cake face mask, Pow Wow sugar lip scrub and the sales assistant popped in a sample of Northern Lights soap.

First up is the Cup Cake face mask, these are fresh so I put this straight into the fridge when I got home. I used this for the first time last night and it felt so good putting it on having taken it out of the fridge, very cooling and refreshing. I am surprised as a little of this mask goes a long way and covered my whole face and neck. It smells of chocolate but not in a sickly sweet way which I like. After ten mins I washed this off and my skin was soft, this is the first fresh mask I have tried from them, so as long as I can use this before it expires I would buy this again. 

Next I tried their new sugar lip scrub which is part of their Christmas products which are new for 2011. This one is called Pow Wow and it contains popping candy. I have used their lip scrubs before and even though they cost £4.75, my last pot lasted such a long time. I know this product is glorified sugar, but I like it, it helps my lips feel smooth and it gets rid of any dead/flakey skin. I tend to use the scrubs at night and slather on lip balm before bed.

Unfortunately, I couldn't feel any of the popping candy on my lips, but the scent is wonderfully fresh and zesty, reminds me of lemon and lime sweets.

I had to get the famous Snow Fairy shower gel, I got the biggest bottle 500g which costs £9.95. By far, this is the most I have ever spent on one shower gel, but the bottle is big and will (hopefully) last me a while. I love the smell of the gel, this one is sickly sweet and might be too much for some, this one reminds me of those pink shrimp sweets. I love the blue/purple glittery bits on the gel, these don't transfer to the skin, but hey it makes the gel look pretty in the bottle. I have only ever used this as a shower gel, but I think I will try it as a shampoo too.

The sales assistant also gave me a sample of Northern Lights soap which I haven't tried yet.


Also special carrier bags for the festive season

Models Own Beetlejuice - Golden Green

The final polish I bought from Models Own Beetlejuice collection is Golden Green, this is such an unusual polish, I haven't owned anything like it before. As the name suggests, this is a duochrome polish which flashes gold and green. I found the formula more runny and streaky than Purple Blue and Aqua Violet.

However, this is such a stunning colour, observe:

The other two polishes which I didn't get are Pinky Brown and Emerald Black. Pinky Brown has been out of stock for a while so once that one comes back I hope to grab that one too. Emerald Black didn't really excite me so I skipped that one.

A Purple Blue Enchanted Forest

Using two coats of Models Own Beetlejuice in Purple Blue and two coats of NYX Enchanted Forest makes a great Christmas manicure. Yes, I know it is still November, but Christmas dinners and parties are fast approaching!

Enchanted Forest is a gorgeous green glitter polish, the base is clear and there are tons of different size glitter particles. At first I found it difficult to get the glitter on the nail, the base is quite thick so the glitter had a tough time staying put. The second coat of the glitter was easier. I got this polish in a swap with Nicole recently, she knows how I love glitters so this polish was a great choice.

Two coats of Models Own Beetlejuice in Purple Blue:

Two coats of NYX Enchanted Forest:

No 7 goodies

This post is long overdue, I picked up a great deal whilst at the October Boots advantage points Christmas event. At that time Boots were also giving those £5 off No 7 vouchers when you spent  over a certain amount. 

There was an offer on a new mascara whereby if you buy that you get an eyeshadow quad. So I used my £5 off voucher to buy the mascara which I think was about £12 full price, so that dropped the amount down to around £7. So not only did I get the mascara cheaper, I also got the quad freebie.

The mascara itself is called Lash Adapt and is meant to give your lashes more volume, I didn't really find this is the case, but it is a good mascara, however, I wouldn't buy this at its full price. I don't feel it is worth £12 as I didn't think it made my lashes look amazing. 

The free eyeshadow quad is lovely though, you get a pearlescent champagne shade, a dark shimmer brown, a lighter shimmer brown, and a deep dark purple/plum toned shadow. This is called Smokey Rose Quad.

Even though the mascara wasn't anything special I am glad I bought it just for the eye shadow, this would be great for everyday office work makeup.

Models Own Beetlejuice - Purple Blue

Next up from Models Own Beetlejuice collection is Purple Blue, this is a thicker polish than Aqua Violet and has more of a glitter base. I feel the duochrome shift is more obvious in Aqua Violet than this polish, but it is still gorgeous.

I only needed two coats of this polish, the first coat was fairly think and transparent but the second coat smoothed and covered everything over. 

Each bottle of Beetlejuice cost £5 and can be found here.