marie claire freeeeebie

I don't think I've ever bought Marie Claire before. This month, however, Anne Hathaway was on the cover and there was a free bottle of Ciate nail polish. I love Anne Hathaway & have been wanting to try Ciate for a while, so I pounced.

There was a choice of quite a dark purple or a nude, so naturally I went for the nude - you can never have too many nude polishes! Then when I was painting my nails, I realised it was called My Fair Lady. I love anything even remotely related to Audrey Hepburn, so I totally fell for this polish!

With flash:

Without flash:

Ignore the shininess in the photo with flash - it's basically an exact colour match. I used a models own base coat, then two coats of My Fair Lady, then finished with my models own top coat. One coat gave quite a nice finish; if you apply it properly it looks like you've had a manicure and your nails look just that good. I went for two coats for a bit more opacity. I still had a VNL but I think it looks really nice anyway!

I think this colour would go with most outfits, and it'd be good to wear to work/school if you're not supposed to wear nail varnish. My nails also feel stronger since I've put it on, the way that China Glaze polishes make my nails feel too. Also, I didn't realise you get a whopping 13.5 ml of nail varnish, so £9 is actually quite a reasonable price! Definitely convinced me to try more from Ciate :)

I've had quite a lazy day today, nice and chilled though. I got my exercise done early & then popped up my Bampy's & spent time with him, my step-nan & her granddaughter. Lazy days are the best aren't they?

Do you like nudes or are you more into brights? What do you think of Ciate? How's your day been?

P.S. congratulations if you read this far, I got a bit carried away

yawn

I'm writing this on Saturday night, whilst watching Big Daddy. Anyone remember that film? I love it, so cute and funny! On to a more blog-worthy topic..blogger is full of posts about the nail varnish that came free with Elle this month and I'm about to add to it :).

I initially wanted the orange shade, but I could only find that with the travel sized edition and I have a thing about getting the full sized one. Unfortunately, the full sized magazine only came with the grey. I love it though!

That's without a top coat! Impressive, yes? It only took two coats to get that finish, though it did take a while to dry.

Later on I got bored and did this. The pink is Eyeko Punk Polish and the orange is OPI Hot N Spicy. The grey isn't particularly original but it applied well and has a nice finish. I'd probably give it 3.5 out of 5 stars (it loses points because it took a while to dry and it chipped easily, though that may have been my fault).

What do you think?

P.S. Excuse the slightly dodgy colouring, I didn't get around to doing it until night time. Also, excuse the terrible skin on my hands - eczema's playing up yet again.

superstar, where y' from, how's it going?

My nails are based on this post from Beauty By Kayla Shevonne. Now obviously I'm nowhere near as good as she is so my nails are far worse but I don't think I did too bad for a first attempt.

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I used different colours to Kayla because I didn't have a white polish good enough for the base. The base is OPI Pearl Of Wisdom, the cobalt blue is Blue My Mind by H&M and the turquoise colour is For Audrey by China Glaze, one of my all time favourite polishes. Then I used a Models Own top coat. The colours Kayla used are so much better than the ones I used, and I also forgot to do the little spots, but it still looks alright, ish haha.

P.S. if you don't already follow Super Gorgeous then you should check it out, she's just passed 500 GFC followers so she's doing a giveaway!

i love magazine freebies

this month, instyle and nails inc teamed up, giving away one of three shades with each magazine. unfortunately for me, i could only get my hands on the brown one of the bunch - fashion fawn.

similar to barry m mushroom, yes? i did a comparison and barry m is a tad darker, but you'd be forgiven for mistaking them. it applies well, it dried surprisingly quickly and didn't need a top coat. alas, it chipped overnight. boo.

green(ish) with envy

green with envy is another of rimmel's 60 second nail varnishes, though i don't think it's particularly green. it looks slightly bluer in real life than it does in my photos; it's one of those colours that someone will say "oh that's blue, that's definitely blue" whilst another person would be convinced it's green.

application was alright, not perfect but there wasn't too much to complain about. it didn't rub off on things i touched as rapid ruby did, but it did chip quite easily. not a bad nail varnish, but not too good either. nice colour though :).

i think i've got a crush crush crush on you

another rimmel nail varnish! this one is called coral crush. in most lights is positively shimmery orange, but when the light catches it in a certain way you understand why it's called coral crush :). so much love for the rimmel 60 seconds nail varnishes.

in other news, i'm waiting for my food to settle so i can go for a run on the treadmill. i'm most definitely one of those people who feels the pressure to exercise so much more in summer. i know a "summer body" should be an all year thing but its just so easy to settle for a muffin top when you know you can cover it up under lots of layers! p.s i find that listening to tinie tempah's album makes running easier because of the beats, give it a go!

barry m is always two for £5

today's post is about barry m's "mint green." my favourite thing about barry m is how inventive they are with their names...< /sarcasm>

the reason i picked this up was because i thought it was a possible dupe for china glaze's "for audrey." and as much as i love china glaze & for audrey, i'd like it more if i could get it in a 2 for £5 offer. well, it turns out i was wrong. but it's still a nice colour, so it's a win-win situation.

there are a few downsides but, as always with barry m, i'm willing to forgive them. application wasn't the best and it kind of stained my nails, but still..it's such a pretty colour!

another thing i'm loving atm..ashton kutcher! i watched what happens in vegas (again) yesterday and fell in love with him, yet again. demi, if you're reading this..you've got competition, bitch.

i'm joking obviously, but isn't he a babe!

he's such a cheeky chappy! any ashton lookalikes out there, get in touch :)

o.p.i lites to dark

MY FAVOURITE O.P.I POLISH EVER. lincoln park after dark. i think it's safe to say i'm in love.

it's special without a top-coat, but with top-coat it's just amazing! i love how people will look at it from afar and think it's black, then the light will catch it a certain way and they'll be like "oh, it's purple?" i don't have any problems with this nail varnish, it's so perfect. perfect perfect perfect. PERFECT.

o.p.i lites to dark

next up, meet me on the star ferry. in the pack, it looks like a purple version of princess rule! (the exclamation mark is part of the name, i'm not overly excited). it's actually really deceptive, meet me on the star very is the purple version of what i wanted princess rule! to be.

in real life, it's actually much nicer. it took three coats but it applied fairly well and didn't take that long to dry. not my favourite out of the set, but still nice.

o.p.i lites to dark

next up, princess rule! it looks like teenage dream in the bottle, only less glittery. in actual fact, it's a sheer polish. basically a sheer, clear holographic nail varnish with a hint of pink. i was initially annoyed because it wasn't what i expected, but then it grew on me. it's a nice twist on clear polishes and i think it may make a nice addition over the top of some other nail varnishes. i'll get back to you when i've tried it out :).

try as i might, i just couldn't capture the perfect glitteryness (made up words ftw) of it. application of this was much better; two coats and they dried brilliantly. i didn't use a base or top coat. it's experiences like this that make me think o.p.i are a complete hit and miss brand. still can't help loving them though, which annoys me, then makes me annoyed at o.p.i for making me love them. it's an endless cycle.

o.p.i lites to dark

i've come to a decision. i like o.p.i, i really do. but i don't like paying full price for their products when they're so incredibly over-priced. so, from now on, i'm going to stick to mini-sets. i never use a whole nail varnish anyway, so what's the point of buying a full sized bottle? o.p.i lites to darks includes 4 colours: sweet heart, princess rule!, meet me on the star ferry and lincoln park after dark.

today, i'll review sweet heart. o.p.i describe it as "the sweetest, softest pale pink" & i'd agree with that statement.

that gives a pretty accurate idea of the colour. it really is so pretty.

there is a huge downside. to get a finish like the picture, i used a base coat followed by FOUR coats of sweet heart. four. if i had the full sized bottle, i probably wouldn't complain. but considering i have the mini bottle and o.p.i bottles run out pretty quickly, i will complain. seriously, four coats. however, i am a sucker for their shade-names so will continue to buy o.p.i and put up with all their downsides (and there are oh so many of them).

blue my mind

i didn't even make up that name, this nail varnish is genuinely called blue my mind :') it's a lovely cobalt colour and, in my picture, there seems to be almost lilac undertones.

it's a h&m nail polish and only costs £2.99. for that, you get a good strong colour, nice shade name and decent packaging, easy application, and quite long lasting nail varnish. definitely a winner in my book!

p.s..i'm annoyed i had to label this "h and m" because "&" isn't allowed in a label.

george at asda cosmetics

i knew asda had a few of their own-brand nail polishes, but i didn't realise just how much they made until i stumbled across this..

sorry about the picture quality, it was taken on my blackberry and i had to rush because people were looking at me very suspiciously. i was quite taken aback by how much they've developed the range! i picked up two nail varnishes; frostbite for £1 an sherbert fizz for £1.75 - amazing. they're both supposed to be "quick drying" and you get 5ml of product.

i also picked up a mascara for about the same amount, my reasoning being that i'd save so much money if i fall for such a cheap mascara. however, i didn't realise that it came in "blue black" instead of black *blushes*. i put it on over another mascara yesterday and although it was blue on the brush, it dried black above my other mascara:/ hm, i'll try it out alone soon and see if it's worth a review!

that's frostbite, it looks exactly like the picture on the left usually, but in artificial light it tends to be a bit darker, like the image on the right. after the first coat i seriously regretted buying it, it was so streaky! after three complete coats though, this is how it turned out. i think i'm in love. it definitely lives up to it's "quick drying" claim too! i like how it's called frostbite too, because if i had to describe the colour i'd say it was a frosted baby blue.

how insanely "barbie-like" is this?! this didn't do quite as well on the quick drying side, but for £1.75 i really don't feel able to complain. it also took 3 coats, but with a finish like this for the price it is, i'll take three coats any day!

so far, i love what i've seen from asda and i'll definitely be stocking up next time food-shopping rolls around!

NOTD :)

last night i had a sudden urge for red nails, so i reached for my favourite ever red nail varnish - models own red alert. it's the perfect colour, kind of a fire-engine red. i don't think it's the classic red nail, more a modern classic red nail if you get me. it's got the perfect amount of orangey undertones & looks good in every light!

application is perrrrfect! by the way, it looks like the picture, only glossier & with not so many orange undertones. back to the application..it takes three coats, which might seem like a pain in the bum, but only if you want to get it perfect. you can get away with two but on my nails, you could still kind of see the little half moon shape at the bottom of my nails (i have no idea what they're called *hangs head in shame*). the consistency is brilliant, it's really liquidy, not gloopy t all! it really does glide on the nail & it seems to dry in no time at all! ah, i love it! it didn't chip overnight either which is always good, plus it's cheap as chips! the only issue i have with this polish, and i mean the only, is that it's one of those nail varnishes that stains around your nails when you take it off. it might just be me but that really makes me feel dirty and tramp-like! still a brilliant nail varnish though :)

o.p.i pearl of wisdom

pearl of wisdom was from the hong kong collection, it's still available on asos but i don't know if you can get it anywhere else. if you're looking for an opaque nail varnish, don't look to pearl of wisdom. after three coats it's still translucent but i've never tried making it opaque so i can't tell you how many coats it takes. pearl of wisdom is, however, a really nice sheer polish. when i wear it on my own nails i don't really like it. not on its own anyway, but it's nice over other polishes. this time, i tried it on false nails. the nails i use are the nailene full cover active square nails. they come in a pack of 200 and they're only like £5, i can't remember the exact amount but it's definitely less than £10. i love these nails 'cause they're a nice change without the commitment of professional false nails. they last for 2 or 3 days and they look just the same as (actually, better than them sometimes if i do say so myself). aaanyway, back to pearl of wisdom.

when other people say they can't capture the colour of a nail varnish in picture i never really believe them or understand why they can't. that was until i tried photographing pearl of wisdom. it was SO hard. i took the pictures in this post on my blackberry, and they're rubbish even for my crappy phone. you can't see it in any of the pictures, but pearl of wisdom is almost holographic. in certain lights, it look glittery purple and pink, it really is fascinating.

you can kind of see the glittering in that picture, but not properly. gah i need a new camera! i definitely think "pearl" of wisdom was the right choice of name, pearl-like is the only was to describe it. length of wear is normal quality, drying time is really fast. not annoyingly fast, so that it drags before you've even finished painting the nail, but fast enough for you to not have to wait around for it to dry. when i first wore this polish, i was super annoyed with it. i thought it was a glittery nude but it was completely different to what i expected. i'm glad though, there's plenty of nudes out there but none really like pearl of wisdom. i'd definitely recommend this nail varnish don't write it off straight away, it'll grow on you :)

nails inc denim

i've always wanted to try out some nails inc nail varnish but just never got around to it, so when they were on the diet coke offer (buy two bottles of diet coke in boots & get a nails inc polish free, i'm not sure if it's still on) i thought it was the perfect opportunity to get quite an expensive nail varnish without having to pay for it, i'm a cheap-skate i know. i can't get a tidy image for denim without googling it, but if you google image nails inc denim loads of pictures come up :). if you can't be bothered to google it, then just imagine the type of navy trousers a lot of schools wear for uniform & denim isn't far from that. i wore it for the first time two weeks ago today and it chipped within about two hours. i wasn't doing anything particularly vigorous & have no idea how it managed to chip, but it made me avoid that certain polish until last night. the colour's really nice so i want so badly for it to be a good nail varnish :(. i put it on 3-4 hours before i went to bed last night & there was visible tip-wear by the time i woke up, then i went to school and i've got quite big chips on at least 5 of my nails, bad times! i'm not sure if i've just picked up a dodgy polish, or if nails inc don't put as much quality into the diet coke polishes, but this really isn't working for me. my nails were in good condition before i put it on, so i don't think it had anything to do with them. i'm thinking maybe it would last longer with a good base coat and then a top coat? but that just seems like too much effort haha.

if you ignore the bright parts and darken it a bit, that's pretty much what it looks like. it really is such a nice colour & it's really shiny and glossy, so i might try ordering one more nails inc polish and judge it from there, really really hope i just unluckily picked up one rubbish polish out of all the good ones :(. also, i HATE the packaging. for me, the silver lid just looks quite tacky and it's a real bugger to put back on. this annoys me so much, because models own is much cheaper with a similar lid, and they make it work! plus models own seems to be better in general, so i think nails inc may be a rip off brand.

NOTD :)

even though basically everyone has seen numerous swatches of barry m mushroom, it's one of my favourite nail varnishes so i'm going to blog about it anyway :). if you're one of the few that hasn't seen it, mushroom is a gorgeous light brown shade. it reminds me of galaxy chocolate, nom. i hate how people make fun of brown nail varnishes with the poo comments, ha, i think they look really nice. mushroom is one of my go-to nail varnishes because it's suitable for so many occasions. i painted my nails with it yesterday, then felt like changing it up a bit, so i painted one nail on each hand with doll house by china glaze. doll house is the typical "barbie" nail varnish - pink with lots of glitter. i can see why some people would think it's tacky or a bit too much, but i like it for going over other nail varnishes or just on one or two nails :)

on my other hand, doll house is on my index finger. i quite like how it looks, and my nails are actually an alright shape for once! the consistency of mushroom is brilliant, i usually find barry m are a bit hit and miss. with a thick coat and careful application, mushroom would be good to go with one coat! i'm a bit careless though so tend to stick to two coats. i did this at about 9pm yesterday and there wasn't even any tip-wear until i got home from school today, and then it was only minimal. i'm always a bit confused when it comes to applying glitter nail varnish, is there really a correct technique?! i put two coats on this time, but i wasn't trying to cover the whole nail.

this was taken at night time, with flash, so it's a bit overly bright, but i like how my nails look so i uploaded it anyway, haha. i buy my barry m nail varnishes from boots, they're on offer quite often so it's always worth a look! i've never tried ordering from the china glaze website before because amazon is cheeper *looks sheepish* when i bought mine it was £8 or £8.95, i'm not sure, but i think prices change on amazon quite often anyway.

china glaze for audrey

i'm completely and utterly obsessed with audrey hepburn, so when i heard about china glaze dedicating a nail varnish to her i HAD to have it. i got mine off amazon for about £8 i think, i've looked at the china glaze website but it doesn't seem to be on there. either that or i just completely overlooked it. when i first saw for audrey, i wasn't that keen on the colour. it looked too bright, almost neon, and i thought it would look cheap on. in real life, it's really quite a wearable shade and the quality of it is amazing. it lasts upto three days on me; this might not sound very impressive to most people, but nail varnish seems to have a habit of falling off my nails. it's really easy to apply, there's no need for a base or top coat and drying time is really reasonable.

please ignore my actual hands, i have eczema so my skin is ridiculously dry. the ridge on my index finger is nothing to do with the nail varnish, i just have really rubbish nails haha. my nails are also really stumpy, but don't let that distract you from how good this nail varnish is. i didn't want to take a picture off google in case it was stealing from someone, and my camera's on its way out so i'm making do with the camera on my phone, which is clearly awful, so you can't see quite how bright it is in real life. it looks much more muted in my pictures, but it's more of a duck-egg colour and it's bright, in a nice way. it's really shiny, again in a nice way, and i don't have any issues with this nail varnish. it might be because i don't expect much from nail varnish, but i'd really recommend this one :)