Nails

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

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:

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

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

Nails

Free Nails Inc. with Glamour Magazine.

November 20, 2013

Glamour have really been busting out the big guns recently when it comes to freebies!

This month’s freebie is a choice of four gorgeous Kate Spade for Nails Inc. polishes! I made a smash and grab for Soho Silver, but soon went to track down the other three available shades Big Apple Red, New York Noir and Uptown Glamour.

They are full size 10ml polishes with an RRP of £11, so you can get the whole set worth £44.00 for a bargain busting £8!

Nails Inc. have a great formula, and all four applied smoothly and easily. Drying time is fast and they are pretty resilient to chipping.

Totally hellbent for more nail varnish that I really didn’t need (but really wanted!)

– Gem

Nails

NYC Disco Inferno Topcoat

November 19, 2013

NYC are really upping the game on glitter topcoats at the moment. As well as the gorgeous Rock Muse collection (reviewed here) I also spotted this gorgeous stand alone shade Disco Inferno.

A clear base with blue and silver holo glitter, it really has to be seen up close to understand how absolutely gorgeous it is.

I think it would look great over any complimentary shade but I really love how it looks over the dark blue. (B. Complete 180 Midnight from this months Glossybox) It’s equally stunning over both black (Avon Rapid Black) and white (Avon Star)

You don’t often get such a gorgeous finish with budget brands, but NYC never fail to impress across their nail range. I’ll be keeping my eye out for anything that twinkles on their stand from now on!

I do find it strange that this isn’t a red/orange/yellow tone given the name, but I’ve decided it’s a bit more of a metal inferno and I can’t complain about anything giving me reason to indulge in this most magnificent riff (and THAT chorus)

Available from Superdrug stores for £1.99, I can’t currently find it anywhere on-line but if you find it shoot me link!

Totally hellbent for anything that inspires thoughts of Symphony X!

– Gem

Nails

NOTD: Barry M Sequin Effects – 01 White

November 17, 2013

You know when you see something so utterly vile you just have to have it?

I think that must be the reason I picked up this Barry M polish, yet somehow I’m strangely compelled by how garish it is.

It literally looks like a clown threw up on my nails and it’s hard to decide if I think it’s the best, or most disgusting thing I’ve seen!

I didn’t use a base colour, and it took three coats to get this coverage, giving the first layer a jelly look. Perhaps this would pull off better with a single coat over a white base, because as it is, it just looks a sticky colourful mess!

Totally hellbent for something unique, even if it is pretty gross!

-Gem

Nails

NYC Rock Muse Collection and Swatches

November 13, 2013

One of my favourite nail brands + glitter + rock music influences names = win.

There are four colours in the NYC Rock Muse collection and I managed to grab them all across two different trips to Superdrug. I’ll admit it was the polish names, subtle (and not so subtle!) nods to some rock greats that made me need these, but I’m actually a big fan of glitter polishes anyway so I’m sure they would have ended up in my possession one way or another!

Rock Muse is a smoky black with silver micro and hexagonal glitter. You could likely get away with wearing this alone, but it really comes into it’s own over a black base.

Gold Maiden is a clear polish with gold micro glitter and silver hexagonal glitter. I like the look of this in the bottle, but think the silver clashes a little over a gold base.

Red Hot is a clear polish with silver micro glitter and silver hexagonal glitter. This looks gorgeous over a bright red, though at the moment I’m wearing it over a deeper richer red and it looks just as lovely.

Green Day is a smoky black with silver micro glitter and green hexagonal glitter. I wasn’t impressed with this one on it’s own but I think it’s the most beautiful of the set over a black. The silver glitter seems to have a slight bluey/green hue under lights that looks fantastic!

All four dried reasonably quickly, and do built up enough to wear alone with enough coats. I like that they don’t feel too rough for glitter polishes (though I’d advise adding a clear topcoat if you really hate the scratchy glitter feeling). They will definitely be getting some wear over the festive period and beyond!

Rock muse 01 is available for £1.99 from the Superdrug website and the others are available in store.

Totally hellbent for tarting up with topcoats!

– Gem

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Nails

Nail Tutorial – 1950s style roses and polka dots

November 12, 2013

Gem and I went to our friends wedding (evidence of the hen party we survived found here) the other weekend. Both feeling somewhat under the weather, we scrubbed up relatively well.

Alas, it was a 1950s esque red and black themed wedding, so naturally I went for a red rockabilly style dress to make up for the lack of my usual red hair.

This surely called for some distinct 1950’s nail art to go with it, so I have a play after some internet scouring. It’s also worth noting that I did my nails on the Friday evening, and didn’t remove my intact nail polish until Thursday the following week! The nails inc top coat is just -that- good.

Here’s the goodies I used for this nail:

As always I applied a base coat, filed my nails and did my cuticles.

I first applied Ciaté’s “Pocket Money” (another beautiful nail of the day from this shade can be found here) You can use any neutral or “toned down” shade for this really.

On all but my feature nail (whichever you choose), I used my trusty Avon Nailwear Pro+ “Licorice” to paint the tips and allowed this to dry.

Once dry, I lined the black with Révérence de Bastion “No 4” and added some Polka Dots with my dotting tool, I have to admit, the dots weren’t as bright as I’d anticipated so next time I may try this with a white underneath.

Now for the roses, I placed a blob of No 7 “Devil’s Delight” and a blob of Avons “licorice” on my nail wheel (or anywhere you don’t mind staining with varnish)

Using my nail brush, I mixed some black and red and made multiple C’s on my nail to get the rose effect. I layered this alternating the colours and once dry I used the black to add some leaves and the Révérence de Bastion “No 4” to highlight. Add a few polka dots and leave to dry. Make sure you pee or do any other hand based tasks before starting this!

Once dry, lather on the top coat and enjoy!

Totally hellbent for 1950’s themed weddings and nails!

-Pants

Beauty Boxes, Make-up, Nails, Skincare

Glossybox November 2013

November 12, 2013

After a pretty rubbish few weeks of Gem and I clawing through each day, surrounded by tissues and blankets, the arrival of this month’s Glossybox couldn’t have come sooner.

Last month we were both a little disappointed at the contents of our boxes, so I was reasonably apprehensive about opening mine this morning just in case! This didn’t last long though as I peeled open the tab on the box and carefully removed the lid, revealing a treasure trove of glorious products!

This months delights contained the following:

Elegant Touch Rapid Dry for Nails – Claiming to dry nails in 60 seconds – well as an avid nail varnish fan and waiting for my nails to dry being one of many banes of my existence I’m pretty darn happy to have had this in my box this month. I’ve tried the Avon Quickdry spray but to be honest it wasn’t -that- great. Here’s hoping Elegant Touch pull it out the bag. With a generous full sized 125ml bottle I can’t wait to try this out. £3 for 125mls.

Yves Rocher France Hand Cream in Cocoa & Pistachio Nut – Gem and I are self confessed hand cream-a-holics (just one of many obsessions we know!) When I saw the size of the hand cream – 75mls worth (another fullsize), I danced for joy. A little weary at first about the pistachio nut scent since I’ve recently given a Nip + Fab hand cream to Gem because of the smell, I shouldn’t have worried though. Popping open the top and giving this a little squeeze, the Cocoa really makes the scent and it smells beautiful! I’m pretty impressed at the value for money for this too, another addition to my desk of nail items! £1.95 for 75ml.

B. Complete Long-lastin Nail Polish in 180 Midnight – You can’t go wrong with a nail varnish, providing the colour is right. I’m pretty much a sucker for any varnish that’s red, blue or green so this is an added bonus. I can’t help but think this may feature in a few nail tutorials around Christmas as the colour looks absolutely beautiful. Another full size item, Glossybox is really doing well this month! £4.99 for 8ml.

Vichy Idealia Life Serum – Two 3ml Skin Idealizer Serum and one Smoothing and illuminating cream. All three wrapped in a cute little bag. Gem told me a few days ago that she knew we were going to be receiving a Vichy product and that alone was enough to excite us both. The packaging is so adorable that it may be a little while before I delve into these and give them a bash. With bold statements such as “helping to protect your skin from the visible effects if stress, pollution, smoke or an unbalanced diet” I am expecting miracles! £29.50 for 30ml.

Emite Make Up Micronized Eyeshadow in Dams – Excitement always follows as soon as the realisation sets in that the colour of your new eyeshadow is black. The perfect colour for both of us for pretty much most of our looks! I had a cheeky swatch on my finger and it seems to promise a nice even coverage but a slight matte colour. Apparently this shadow is good for those with sensitive eyes and lens wearers of which I know a fair few girlies who fall into this category. I’m looking forward to delving into this. £16.80 for 1.48g.

After last month, Glossybox have really redeemed themselves. I’m so excited to play with everything in this months box and it’s really brightened up the morning! If you’d like to try them out, you can get grab your Glossybox here for just for £10 (+ P&P) per month. Glossybox also have giftcards available in 3,6 or 12 month subscriptions. Perfect for the holiday season!

Totally hellbent for kissing and making up!

-Pants