Monthly Archives

December 2013

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)

blue

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

snowman

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

snow

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

snowflake dots

 

snowflake full

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.

eyes

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

full

Finish up with an Orange nose and a top coat!

 

Totally hellbent for all of the blue things

-Pants

 

Hair

Lee Stafford – Wonder Spray “Blow Dry Faster”

December 20, 2013

Lee Stafford blow dry faster

 

If you’re anything like Gem and I, during the festive season you will be run ragged with errands, presents, squeezing in visits to nearest and dearest and trying to prepare for the run up to Christmas.

A perfect time to shout about Lee Stafford’s Wonder Spray! My hair is pretty long – granted about 10 inches shorter than it usually is, but if I don’t blow dry, it can take 24 hours for my hair to actually dry properly, especially if I’ve scraped it into an up do. Again, blow drying and straightening my hair used to take 3+ hours and I’d have to strategically plan my hair styles in advance so I knew how long I’d have to take out of my day.

Alas, last year sometime, a friend told me to try this. Although the sceptic inside me was shaking me, I was willing to give it a go – after all it couldn’t make it any worse right?

Well all I can say is, thank god I actually tried this! Honestly, this is one of the best products I have ever tried and has pretty much halved my hair drying time. I simply spray my hair, leave it for a few minutes then dry away. It now takes about 15 minutes before my hair is completely dry and ready to straighten. Tie that in with Trevor Sorbie’s straight Shampoo, Conditioner and Serum and I can get my hair dry and styled in under an hour.

So if you put off hair washing day as long as possible due to the hours it takes styling, give this a bash. I bought my own after Christmas last year and the same can is still going strong! You can pick it up for a cheerful £6.19 from Boots either in store or online.

Totally hellbent for less time blow-drying and more time partying

-Pants

 

 

Facemask Friday

Facemask Friday – The Body Shop Tea Tree Face Mask

December 20, 2013

teatree face mask

I absolutely love tea tree products, one of my firm favourite’s used to be Superdrug’s exfoliating Tea Tree Face Pads before they changed the product slightly and they now don’t seem to resemble sandpaper as closely. (I know I know, bad for your skin but it feels so good!)

When my skin is feeling a bit drab I love using this tea tree face mask from The Body Shop. It’s also probably one of the nicest face masks to apply due to how easily it goes on.

tea tree inside

tea tree face mask swatch

Above – this applies so well to the Skin and I find the coverage is amazing, this face mask also dries hard as you can see below which I generally prefer with masks. The other added bonus to this mask, is that I end up with a dry green face which is wonderful for freaking out my partner Brains.

tea tree mask dry

 

Another thing I like is that this washes away so well. I generally take mine off in the shower and this rinses with ease. I find I don’t have to spend ages trying to find stealth green residual bits on my face! It also leaves my skin wonderfully soft and feeling full on pampered.

You can pick up The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Face Mask in store or online for just £10 (trust me when I say these pots go a long way!) If you have sensitive skin, just ask at your nearest store for a sample before hand and they usually oblige very kindly.

Totally hellbent for facemask’s that make you look like the incredible hulk

-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

basecoat

 

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.

browncoat

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

ears

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.

whiteeyes

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

nose

 

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.

blackeyes

 

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.

etos

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

 

 

Beauty Boxes

Glossybox December 2013

December 16, 2013

In some sort of strange parallel Universe, this month Gemma received her Birchbox but not her Glossybox and I, the other way round.

Fortunately, the arrival of my Glossybox was enough to momentarily distract me from my missing box and my excitement at the red theme for this month sent me giddy with joy.

gb-outer

 

gbbox

 

gbcontents

With a beautifully festive red box complete with candy cane tissue paper inside, this months products included the follow:

intuition

Wilkinson Sword Intuition – Naturals Razor

The morning this arrived, I was just thinking to myself as I showered – I think it’s time for a new razor. Unlike Gem, I resist the urge to sneak a peek at the contents of my beauty boxes before they arrive so this was a nice surprise. Allegedly you do not need to use shaving foam or soap with this razor, you just wet and go. I’ve had friends who have praised this one, so I will give it a good go!

A bargain full size product at £6.49 which can be bought here.

beenature

Bee Nature – Bee Nature Soap

I’m not really a soap person, I find it dries out my skin and it’s a little unhygienic. That aside, I have been known to buy a few handmade soaps to keep small business’ ticking over and because they looked and smelt adorable. This one has a base of honey and poppy seeds and promises to deliver a gentle exfoliating wash for both face and body. Alas it’s cute and quirky so I’m willing to try it out and see how it fares.

A reasonable €5.50 for 100g and can be bought direct from their website.

 

browdrama

Maybelline New York – Brow Drama Scultping Mascara

Now I am a fan of my eyebrow products since I currently favour the Elf and MUA Eyebrow kits. I am not sure about Brow Mascara though. I tried something similar a few years back and it never stuck and I’m also a little cautious about this product being a “Dark Brown” shade which may be a tad too dark. Hopefully it will surprise me and I’ll have a new Brow Product to add to my daily routine.

This was full size and is £4.99 for 7.6mls from Boots.

seche

Seche – Nail Lacquer in “Empress”

I’ll admit I’ve never heard of this brand, but I always love a full size nail varnish product to add to my already ridiculous collection. This one is a dark purple colour which is nice, because I usually end up with neutrals or pinks from beauty boxes. When I tried this out, it’s a little darker than I expected and one coat seemed to do the trick! Once my festive fever is over, I will be trying this out in the new year.

This was full size at 14mls and is £9.95 from Liberty.

beautifullips

And finally:

Beautiful Movements Cosmetics – Nude Lip Gloss

Although I purchase lip gloss’ on a fairly regular basis, I’m not a huge fan and I would rather put a nice lipstain or lipstick on. I reluctantly tried this out the yesterday when doing a spot of Christmas shopping and actually it was quite nice. A slight nude tint and non sticky as promised I’m pretty impressed and will probably make an effort to wear this more often!

A half size product at 4mls but still plenty to last a while! The full size 8ml is £12 and available from Beautiful Movement Cosmetics.

So there we have the final Glossybox of the year. I like all the contents, but I’m not sure if I was expecting something a little more … well … festive? Still another box full of reasonably priced cosmetics which I won’t hesitate to repurchase if I fall in love.

You can subscribe to Glossybox here for just for £10 (+ P&P) per month. Glossybox also have giftcards available in 3,6 or 12 month subscriptions. Perfect for a last minute Christmas prezzie!

Totally hellbent for all things seasonally red

-Pants

 

 

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

 

Make-up

Elf Waterproof Eyeliner Pen

December 4, 2013

elf eyeliner pen

As mentioned in my HD Blush post here, I found a few treats hidden away that I had completely forgotten about. The Elf Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in black was one of them.

I think I bought this before I discovered Eyeko, so when I found it still packaged I was sceptical after using such a great product already, but I dived straight in there and applied this a few days ago.

elf-eyeliner

It’s very black unlike some pen’s I’ve tried where the colour has been more of a grey, and the precision is pretty good. It stayed put all day when I was out and about, until I came to take my makeup off in the evening, so again brownie points given.

I do wonder however, whether this will last or dry up quite quickly, but I guess only time will tell. Overall I’m pretty impressed with this and depending on how it fares, may even consider buying a few more for such dark and dingy places as festivals, where I really don’t want to lose any expensive makeup.

The Elf Waterproof eyeliner is only £2.50 and can be found here on their website.

Totally hellbent for festival substitutes

-Pants