Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Birthday manicure! (NOTD)

I got a konad stamper for my birthday today! Therefore, I had to do an awesome birthday manicure. I love it : D

This is 2 coats of Sally Hansen Midnight in NY; 1 coat of Essie Matte About You; Quo by Orly Filthy Rich for the gold stamping.


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Maybelline Color Tattoo Swatches & Review

Over the last few weeks I've been going back to Shopper's to collect more and more of the Color Tattoo creme shadows. My first one was Tough as Taupe and I loved it. They're extremely amazing; pigmented, creamy, and they really do last an extremely long amount of time. Without a base underneath, the do not crease, even not being set with a powder eyeshadow.

I proceeded the next two weeks to go back twice more to get Bold Gold, Bad to the Bronze and Painted Purple. I've heard the Painted Purple is a disappointment but I could really use a purple base, so I'm going to deal with the poor pigmentation in comparison to the other three.

Here are swatches of all four colours.






Tough as Taupe is an extremely pigmented very grey taupe colour; it's perfect as a base in a taupe-toned eye look. This one is particularly creamy and pigmented and you can rub it after you put it on and it will not come off. These are amazing.




Bold Gold is a yellow-gold shimmery colour; the shimmery colours tend to need a bit more patience to get the opaqueness as amazing as the matte ones, but it is really beautiful. It has gorgeous glitter in it.




Bad to the Bronze (awesome name!) is a brown based bronze, again extremely gorgeous shimmer. Very smooth and perfect for a neutral look.




Painted Purple in the jar is a vibrant purple grape colour which would be absolutely extraordinary if it was opaque; but the colour really does not come out opaque at all. The swatch is two coats and is still not as opaque as I'd like it to be. Beautiful colour non-the-less.




Have you tried these yet? Which ones do you love and which ones disappoint? How do you plan on using them? As shadows themselves or as a base?

Monday, January 23, 2012

EOTD: Smokey Burlesque

I decided to post an eye of the day today, instead of a nail polish because the nail polish I'm wearing is really ugly (Gosh Purple Heart - it definitely does not look purple.)

This look is a recreation of NikkieTutorial's most recent Valentine's day look. I'm trying it out because I'm trying to figure out what look to wear out for my birthday on Saturday! I loveee this, it turned out great in my opinion, but let me know what you think! What I used is listed below:





Eyes:
  • Urban Decay Primer Potion
  • Body Shop Golden Brown Quad - #3 Chocolate Brown Shadow
  • Body Shop Golden Brown Quad - #2 Dark Brown Shadow
  • Body Shop Golden Brown Quad - #1 Warm White Base
  • Makeup Geek Eyeshadow - Burlesque
  • Makeup Geek Eyeshadow - Mocha
  • Clinique Eye Defining Liquid Liner
  • Annabelle Eyeliner #73 Black
  • L'oreal Voluminious Millions Lashes (Dark Brown)
  • Friday, January 20, 2012

    Glitter Gradient: Gosh Gasoline & Nicole by OPI Make a Comet-Ment

    The pictures really do not do this manicure justice. It's gorgeous and holographic and purpley and wonderful.

    Gosh Gasoline is one of my favourite purple nail polishes ever, even if it takes like 4 coats to make opaque.

    As for Nicole by OPI Make a Comet-Ment, I just picked it up at Shoppers the other day and it's amazing. My first holographic type nail polish - beautiful silver holographic sparkle. I've read it takes about 3-4 coats to make opaque on it's own, but I decided to do a gradient with it and it looks amazing. Did you know it's really hard to capture holographic shimmer on camera? Haha.

    Anyway, onto to the nails!






    And here's Gosh Gasoline:

    And Nicole by OPI Make a Comet-ment:

    How do you feel about holographic nail polishes?
    Do you have a favourite nail polish (regardless of the colour) you go back to no matter how many new collections the companies put out?

    Saturday, January 14, 2012

    Quo by Orly: Turquoise Moonlight Swatches

    I've moved on from the Cold Stone nail polish, the texture was just too awful to endure.

    This nail polish faired a bit better than the Cold Stone one; another Quo by Orly polish, this time Turquoise Moonlight. This polish has a turquoise base and is packed with shimmer and looks like it has a golden duochrome affect, but this doesn't translate exceptionally well to the nail. It's a gorgeous nail polish, ends up being a very bright glittery. It can go from looking bright blue to a beautiful turquoise-gold.

    This is 3 coats of Turquoise Moonlight.





    I also put a coat of Finger Paints Flecked flakies on top to give it even more interest! It looks so cool now, I can't stop looking at my fingers :P



    Friday, January 13, 2012

    Quo by Orly: Cold Stone Swatches + EOTD

    So I decided a couple days ago to swatch another of the 18 Quo by Orly nail polishes I got for Christmas... but it's taken be about three days to decide whether I should photograph it and share it or not. The colour should have just blown me away - it looked gorgeous. In the bottle it looks like a gunmetal grey colour with silver sparkles and holographic microglitter. Doesn't that sound amazing? I thought it would be extraordinary.

    And it's not that the colour disappointed once it was on the nails, but I felt as though the formula disappointed. You can see what I'm talking about in the swatches. I can't tell if the polish bubbled drastically or if the glitter is so course that the polish ends up looking this textured when on the nails, but even with a coat of Seche Vite on top, it just would not smooth out.

    I also tried to mattify it with Essie Matte About You, but you completely lose the holographic glitter when you do that, which is the best part!

    Anyway, I love the colour, but I'll let you decide for yourself if the texture completely ruins the manicure for you as much as it does for me. Excuse the tip wear because it took me 3 days to decide whether to swatch this or not.








    And finally, I did a look the other day just for fun. I used all Makeup Geek eyeshadows, and no base since I was just doing it for fun and actually wasn't wearing any other makeup on my face.
    All Makeup Geek:
  • Corrupt (black)
  • Mocha (brown)
  • Cocoa Bear (terra cota)
  • Shimma-Shimma (highlight)
  • Sunday, January 08, 2012

    Lubu Heels Gradient

    Today I tried my first attempt at a gradient. I used one of the nail polishes I got a few weeks ago at Sally's during the Boxing Day sales. This one wasn't on sale, but I just fell in love with the colour. China Glaze Lubu Heels is GORGEOUS. It's a black based nail polish with bright red microglitter. Even used as the gradient for this manicure, it's beautiful and sparkly and I can imagine it's fairly opaque. I'll post a swatch for it next time I use it by itself.

    My first attempt at a gradient turned out fairly well, I think I could use a little bit more practice at it, but I love how it ended up anyway. I used China Glaze Red Pearl as a base and of course Lubu Heels as the darker shade.





    Have you ever tried a gradient manicure? What method do you use that works the best?

    Thursday, January 05, 2012

    Finger Paints Special Effects Flakey Swatches - Asylum, Flashy, Flecked

    I come to you today bearing swatches of the Finger Paints Flakies! I'm so excited because these are my first flakies. I looked high and low for Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure to no avail. Likewise for the Essie Luxeffects collection, with the same result. So when I heard about the Finger Paints collection, I ran out as soon as I could to get as many as I could ; )

    I picked up 3 of the polishes: Asylum, Flashy, and Flecked.

    First, we have Asylum; this is an orange and royal blue flakey. It has to be my least favourite out of the three, but even then I love it. It's very sparse which is why it's my least favourite. These swatches have two layers of Asylum and it still looks much more sparse than the other two.

    I also have in these swatches Flashy which is your traditional orangey gold flakey. This is what I imagine Hidden Treasure or the Essie Luxeffects would have looked like, so I am happy with this one. It was much more full and this is only one coat.

    These are all swatched on top of 2 coats of Sally Hansen Midnight in NY.









    Finally, I have Flecked which is my absolute favourite of the bunch. It's a green flakey but in the light it has this brilliant teal colour. It's amazing, rich and wonderful. Beautiful.






    Which one is your favourite? Have you picked up any of this collection yourself? I'm so upset I missed out on Twisted, but I'm happy with my purchases!