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O.P.I

Nails, News

Shatter by O.P.I

January 16, 2014

Shatter by OPI

I am very much a latecomer when it comes to the crackle nail polish scene. I had one or two when they first hit the market but never really bothered with them much, I think these three polishes from O.P.I have completely changed my mind!

I found these in Pound World of all places, and picked up Shatter the Scales, Super Bass Shatter and Black Shatter.

I remember reading a review on these somewhere that hinted that if you applied them directly to the nail they didn’t crack, but as you can see below Shatter the Scales is the only one you could really wear alone, Super Bass Shatter was far too streaky and Black Shatter crackled even without base coat.

Crackle by OPI

 

 

Used over a coat of polish ( I chose Soho Silver by Nails Inc) they crackled up right away, though Super Bass Shatter and Shatter the Scales seemed to only break vertically.Black Shatter  was very impressive however, and I think I’ll find myself using it more and more to cover up a manicure after a few days of wear.

Crackle by OPI

 

If you fancy getting a hold of them then your best bet is Amazon or Ebay where all three can be found at discount prices, though it’s worth checking the pound stores if you get the chance!

Totally hellbent for getting into a trend years after it shows up!

– Gem

Nails

O.P.I Mariah Carey

December 11, 2013

As some of you may know, in August I left my full time job as a Community Psychiatric Nurse, to work from home as a web developer with my partner Brains at our web development company BIOSTALL. (Shameless plug I know!)

My new career means I spend a lot of time building websites, but it also means my friends and family get to take advantage of this for ridiculously discounted prices. My latest site outside of work was for Solihull Rock School, a joint venture between Gem and her mum. Anyway, I finally finished the bulk of this and have handed it over to the guys ready for when they launch their new site, and to say thankyou they bought me this:

opi christmas liquid sand

Some of you may remember my Oct/Nov most wanted that featured this exact set, so I’m sure you can imagine my squeel of delight when they cunningly unveiled this and presented it forth. I felt like I was receiving an award at TV ceremony.

The Mariah Carey set comes in three colours:

  • Emotions – a reflective black
  • I’ts frost outside – a gorgeous shimmering silver
  • Kiss me at midnight – a very Christmas-esque blue

opi christmas swatch

 

The photo’s really do not do these justice. I was completely blown away by how beautiful these are and they are so sparkly! The only downside to this, is that it makes me want to complete the Liquid Sand collection.

One of my biggest gripes about using “glitter” style varnishes is that I hate removing it from my nails. Having used the black and silver together recently, I was a little concerned about removing it, however with the help of my trust Bourjois nail varnish pot, I soaked each finger and it came off fine. I have -never- been so impressed by a nail varnish as I am with these.

You can pick up these set’s in a few places between £9-£15 but they are also available on ASOS for only £9.00!

Totally hellbent for sparkly festive nails

-Pants

News

Penguin Nail Art

December 4, 2013

Well it’s official, we are now in December and Christmas is flying full speed and head first towards us.

The best thing about this time of year, is being able to paint your nails with lots of festive things, so my first Nail Art for the Christmas period is this totally adorable and really easy peasy Penguin. Honestly, this is one of the easiest nail art’s I have done in a long while, so for those that are a little shakey with their other hand, hopefully you will manage this!

I am using the following:

  • Kate Spade New York by Nails inc in “New York Noir” (This colour is absolutely amazing)
  • O.P.I in “The Drummer is Hot” from the Rock Goddess range
  • A white nail art pen – I would recommend a white nail varnish for this, as mine has gone walkies I was forced to use a nail art pen which was a little gloopy for this.
  • Nails inc Top Coat.
  • A dotting tool

Start by painting your nails black and leaving to dry.

black

Next take your white, and paint the middle of the nail up to the tip:

white

white full

 

With a dotting tool, add some eyes:

eyes

Finally, use your dotting tool to add some feet and a beak. I dragged the dotting tool slightly to give on oval shape for the feet and a triangle shape for the nose but a circle works just as well:

full

 

Apply your favorite top coat and smile! Are these not the cutest things ever? (Yes, I know I always say that about nearly all my nails!)

Hopefully I’ll have a few more festive nails before the Christmas season is up!

Totally hellbent for the first Christmas nail of the season

-Pants

 

Clothing and Fashion, Make-up, Nails, Skincare

Oct/Nov’s Most Wanted

October 30, 2013

It’s the time of year when I should be focusing my purchases on others, ready for Christmas. Unfortunately all this does, is fuel my longing for products that I happen to spot along the way. There are so many things that I want -need- this festive period that I have no idea where to begin!

First up, Dior in “Rouge Dior 999”, because even though I already own over 9000 red lipsticks, I really need this one! I don’t know why, I’ve never been a massive fan of this brand before, I love their perfume but that’s mostly where it lies. I keep seeing beautiful adverts for this lipstick though and I don’t know if it’s the arty “chains” it is photographed with or how in the right light, the casing looks like it’s made of studs, the fact of the day is – I want it in my life!

For £26.00 from House of Fraser, it could be yours (and mine)

Now, lip Crayons are still quite a craze. Owning a few I think they are OK but most are not shades I would wear to important places such as the stage.  The NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in “Dragon Girl” and also “Red Square” both look absolutely amazing. Unfortunately only the Red Square colour is available on the UK NARS website which makes me very sad.

They start around £17.50 and you can pick them up directly from NARS.co.uk

I’m not one to lust over Loreal Skincare, but browsing a beauty magazine I hade a lot of fun playing with one of their QR codes which scans your face and tells you all about what skin tone you have.

The Loreal Skin Perfection range promises to “transform the appearance of skin quality” with tone looking more even and pores virtually undetectable. With wild statements like this I simply must at least try the Day Moisturiser.

For a very reasonable price of £9.99 I shall be picking one of these up from Boots although I may wait until -after- Christmas.

L'Oreal Paris Dermo Skin Perfection Skin Perfection Correcting Day Moisturiser 50ml

 

I’ve been swallowing feelings of envy for a while now over this pallette. Seeing a lot of our fellow beauty bloggers reviewing theBalm “Nude tude” palette, with 12 beautiful neutral colours I really really want this.

The cheapest I have found this is £26.00 from Feel Unique. Can I resist this for a few more months?

Illustration of theBalm® cosmetics NUDE 'tude™ Nude Eyeshadow Palette

Gem and I are going to a friends wedding on Saturday. (Evidence of our hen party shenanigans found here) With the theme being Red and Black, naturally my dress had to be red. After having a shoe dilemma and searching the web for a perfect match to my 50’s dress I came across these:

Iron Fist Little Lamby Polka Dot T-Bars. They retail around £44.00 definitely not an amount of money I am willing to spend on shoes right now, but I will be purchasing these as soon as I can physically justify it. (Being someone who never/rarely wears heels.)

My rubbish girl skills for walking in heels aside, look at them! They are absolutely perfect, it’s like they one day, decided they were going to make a shoe for “Pants and friends.”

Lastly, before my bank closes and ties all contact with me. O.P.I Christmas 2013 Liquid Sand editions modelled by Mariah Carey. At the very least I must have in my possession “Kiss me at midnight” and “It’s Frosty Outside” for all of my Christmas nail art fun!

Full size prices range from £11.00 but you can pick up the miniature versions in Christmas sets for about the same price.

 

Kiss Me at MidnightKiss Me at Midnight

 

So there we have it, my October and spilling rather heftily into November most wanted. Are there any things you are lusting after this time of year? Let us know!

Totally hellbent for spending all the monies on all of the shiny things

-Pants

Nails

Halloween Pumpkin Nails

October 24, 2013

It’s that time of year -again- where we have just a few precious months before Christmas and Halloween strikes! What better way to celebrate than to play around with lots of funky nail designs.

This is just a quick one to get into the spirit of things so I hope you enjoy it.

Things you will need:

  • An Orange Nail Varnish
  • A Black Nail Varnish
  • Obligatory base and top coats
  • Nail brush/dotter or tooth pick/cotton bud

Halloween nail 1First of all coat your nails with a base coat. I always use Avon’s peeling and brittleness solver and base coat.

halloween pumpkin nail 2

halloween pumpkin nail 3

Next paint all except your “accent” nail with a black colour. I’m using Avon’s nailwear pro+ in Licorice. I absolutely adore this black and have not found one like it yet. It gives such a beautiful shine!

halloween pumpkin nail 4halloween pumpkin nail 5

Next take an orange and paint your accent nail. I’m using technic Party Brights in Sunset Strip which I bought specifically for Halloween-esque nails. This took quite a few coats before I was happy. I also used this to paint the tips of my black nails. Because this is such a weak colour and needs so many coats, this gave a haunting opaque orange look over the black which I liked so much I kept.

halloween pumpkin nail 6Take your nail brush and draw an upside down apply shape as an outline for your Pumpkin.

halloween pumpkin nail 7Colour this in and add a curved line either side in black which thickens in the middle. You can also add a stalk at the same time.

halloween pumpkin nail 8Once dry, take your orange or another colour and use a dotter for the eyes and mouth. I used O.P.I’s The Drummer is Hot from the Rock Goddess set, mostly because I wanted to play with it.

halloween pumpkin nail 9

halloween pumpkin nail 10Paint over with your favorite top coat and basque in the glory of your shiny Pumpkin nails! Simples.

Do you have any Halloween nail designs you can share with us?

 

Totally hellbent for seasonal nail art

-Pants

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