Etos

Nails

ETOS Feather Effect Nail Polish in Blue Bird and Purple Bird

June 4, 2014

ETOS Feather Nail Polish Purple Bird Blue Bird

If you read a lot of our posts you will no doubt know that I have a long distance relationship with a delectable Dutch man, which means I often just pop over to the continent (Sounds very swish and glamorous when I put it like that!) for mini breaks to see him. Of course I take a keen interest in Holland’s cosmetics, and of the few I’ve actually tried this brand is my favourite.

Etos is the Dutch the equivalent of Boots or Superdrug, selling drugstore to mid-range cosmetics on every other street corner. I’ve got quite a few different colours and finishes from their range and they all cost a bargainous €2.00 – €3.50. I picked up Blue Bird and Purple Bird on special offer so got both for €3.00.

I’m really into my glittery nails but I’m trying to ease off the all-over-in-your-face-sparkle-argh-you’re-burning-my-eyes-with-your-disco-ball-nails, so I’ve been flittering around with a couple of Barry M confetti polishes and decided I could definitely add to my “subtle glitter” nail collection.

Blue Bird and Purple Bird are both clear polishes with rectangle slithers of glitter. The swatches below are only one coat, so I theorize that each pot will last approximately forever…

The drying time was very quick,and the bonus with such glittery topcoats is that you (usually…hopefully!) get a few extra days out of your manicure because the clear polish adds a layer of protection over the colour beneath.

I got five days out of this stuff on my nails, not bad for a budget own-brand!

Unfortunately Etos polishes aren’t available in the UK, but everyone knows someone off on a weekend trip to Amsterdam, right?

Volledig hel gebogen voor mijn nederlands pools collectie (en de nederlandse vriendje is niet slecht;))

– Gem

Giveaways, News

100 Bloglovin’ followers giveaway! [Closed]

March 14, 2014

Since starting Hellbent for Lipstick, we have literally been overwhelmed by the response we have had from you all. Not to mention how our eyes have been opened to the wonderful blogging community which has been truly inspirational to meet like minded individuals.

Because of this, we’ve been wanting to launch our first giveaway for a long time, but we both agreed that we would set ourselves a target first. We’d decided on 100 Bloglovin’ followers and low and behold, you wonderful people have helped us reach it! So to give something back to you all, it’s now time for our very first (of many we might add) competition! *Squees*

All you have to do to enter, is complete the steps below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

When picking our prizes, we really wanted our first giveaway to be something that wholly reflected us both. After a few months of pondering, we finally came up with the perfect products that we hope you will love as much as we do.

Our first competition will be for the following prize:

Two ETOS long lasting nail varnishes – all the way from Rotterdam in our classic “things that look like Gem and Pants” colours – Red and Blue

MUA Luxe Lip Lacquer in Atomic – again, another staple amongst us is a red lipstick and this is one of our new favourites – you can read the review here

MUA Luxe “Pretty Edgy” studded palette – since we are a heavy metal blog, we had to include something leaning towards the heavy metal style and what better than this beautiful studded palette – you can feast your eyes upon our review of this product here and fall in love with the swatches.

Good Luck and we will be announcing our winner shortly after the closing date on 28th March 2014.

Totally hellbent for all our followers and our first ever competition!

– Gem and Pants

Terms and conditions:

No purchase necessary to enter the prize draw
The closing date for the competition is 12:00am on 28th March 2014
Uner 18s must request permission from a parent or guardian
Competition available to International entrants
To enter simply complete the instructions above
The winner will be picked via Rafflecopter and will be notified by the within 48 hours of the closing date – 12:00am on 28th March 2014
The winner must claim their prize within 14 days of being notified or another winner will be picked
For further information or details of the winner after the closing date, please e-mail info@hellbentforlipstick.com

Nails

Etos Glitter Nails and Glitter Topcoat

February 25, 2014

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter you will know I’ve just got back from a trip to Holland to see my lovely other half, and almost all of these trips involve me popping into Etos (sort of the Dutch Boots) to pick up a couple of their own brand nail polishes. This time I went for a shimmery pair of silvers, one Glitter Nails Polish and one Glitter topcoat.

Unfortunately neither of them are named or even numbered (one of my absolute pet peeves – please can’t all brands give their cosmetics cutesy names!) but both have gorgeous finishes to make up for it!

The Glitter Nails polish is a deep metallic silver with multi-holo micro glitters and a sort of sandy texture similar to the O.P.I Liquid Sand. It took two coats to get full coverage but dried reasonably quickly.

The Glitter Topcoat is a much more delicate polish with white and silver micro glitters in a clear varnish. You can hardly see it at all on the pic below but it has a gorgeous ethereal shimmer worn alone if you fancy more of a subtle glitter polish.

I tried the Glitter Topcoat out over a few other colours, and absolutely loved the variety of looks you can get with it. (L-R Leighton Denny – Meet me in Monaco, Ciate – Plastic Fantastic, MUA – Pistachio Ice Cream, Revlon – Black Star, Revlon – Emerald)

Unfortunately these aren’t available in the UK , but if you find yourself in The Netherlands you can pick them up for around from € 2.49 from Etos

Totally hellbent for little treats to cheer up long distance boyfriend blues!

– Gem

Nails

Snowman Nail Art Tutorial

December 20, 2013

It’s not long before I ditch the festive cuties for the elegant red and gold nails for Christmas day. (I’ll show you guys nearer the day!) So here’s another quick and easy cute festive nail art!

What I used:

Etos Quick Dry in White
Kate Spade Nails inc in “New York Noir”
Kate Spade Nails inc in “Soho Silver”
Avon Nailwear Pro + in “blue escape”
Jesse’s Girl in “Beauty Guru”
Nail art brush/dotter (you can use an old painbrush and tooth pick)

I used blue for the base – there’s something about this colour that makes me think of Christmas (and Gemma!).

Next paint two circles on your “feature nail” to form the Snowman”

Using a dotter tool or toothpick, add some “Snow” to the rest of the nails

Taking a silver, make 5 small dots and a dot in the middle to form little Snowflakes. This is a bit like a tiny dot to dot.

Once dried, add some little hands, eyes and buttons on the Snowman

Finish up with an Orange nose and a top coat!

Totally hellbent for all of the blue things

-Pants

Nails

Reindeer Nail Art Tutorial

December 18, 2013

My second festive nail of 2013! These cute little reindeer’s are pretty easy to do.

What I used:

Etos quick dry in blue and white (see here for my latest Etos Rotterdam spoils)
Kate Spade New York by Nails inc in “New York Noir” (This colour is absolutely amazing) for my black
Avon Nailwear Pro + in “Vintage Boutique”
Révérence de Bastion “No 4″
A brush and dotter tool
Obligatory Nails inc top coat

Start with your base colour (not to be confused with your base coat, which you have already applied – obviously!). I went for this beautiful blue, but you can choose whatever you like.

Using the brown, paint the top middle of each nail. Almost as if you are painting a nail on your nail.

Using your brush tool, add some ears and some antlers. This doesn’t have to be neat, if looks a little funkier and adds to the effect if it isn’t completely perfect.

Once dry, use your dotting tool to add some eyes.

Add a nose to each nail, just put a blob of black varnish where you wan’t it. I used a red for one of my nails.

Finish up by adding a black eye on top of your white with the dotter tool and once dry, add your top coat.

Have you dabbled with some festive nail arts recently? If so, we’d love to show what you’ve been up to!

Totally hellbent for character infused nails

-Pants

Nails

Rotterdam Spoils

December 18, 2013

Gem and I recently hopped across the channel for a long weekend in Rotterdam. Gem went to see her partner and Brains and I decided to attend the Rotterdam Deathfest.

Besides the bonus of feasting on cheese and Stroopwaffles whilst on the mainland, Gem and I had a gleeful skip to their local “Superdug-esque” store “Etos”. Many shiny things live there, but the shiniest of them all is probably their Etos nail varnishes at a mere €2.50 euros.

Unable to resist such a juicy offer, I restricted myself to two new nail varnishes – a light blue and white, perfect for some festive nail art:

Coverage is great with these and I could have got away with just one coat of the blue, so if you are ever near and “Etos” I would definitely recommend checking out their stuff. They have a vast array of colours to choose from as well as lots of shiny glittery top coats and mosaic effect varnishes.

Totally hellbent for mainland spoils

-Pants

Nails, News, NOTD

NOTD – Etos Quick Dry 8

July 13, 2013

This was a bit of a rushed job on the way to work, but I loved the colour so much I had to do a post (my poor cuticles)!

I picked this up in Rotterdam on a visit to see my lovely other half for the bargain price of €2.50! I’ve got a few of the Etos quick dry range, you could consider Etos to be the Dutch equivalent of Boots and thus this is a bargain own range line.

It applies very easily and dries faster than any UK quick dry formula I’ve tried!

Downsides? Hrm, well I’m not the biggest fan of numbered shades rather than names but I suppose I can let that slip!

The left hand picture with flash is a much closer to the true colour than the shot on the right without!

I can’t seem to find an online purchase link but you can check out the Etos range here.

Totally hellbent for summer brights

– Gem