Nails

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.

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?

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.

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 Frankenstein Nails

October 25, 2013

I have another festive nail design to share with you all. This one is simply adorable!

Things you will need:

Black nail varnish/nail art pen
Green nail varnish
White nail varnish/nail art pen
Top and base coat
Dotting nail tool or toothpick

As always prepare your nails with a base coat. I’ve used my usual Avon peeling and brittleness solver and base coat.

I’ve picked NYC’s In a Minute quick dry varnish in “High Line Green” for my green colour. Paint all of your nails with this to begin with.

Next take your black varnish or nail art pen and draw a jagged line for the hair line at the tip of your nails. It doesn’t have to be neat as this adds to the effect.

Once you are happy with your lines, fill them in. You can’t see too well in the pictures, but I used a nail art brush and dabbed the black varnish on to create a textured “hair” look.

Add some eyes with your dotting tool and black, I’ve made mine a little uneven for a quirkier look.

Add some lines for the mouth, you can make him smile if you like!

Once your eyes have dried, take your dotting tool and dot a white circle in each of the eyes.

Finish off with a top coat and there you have it. Adorable little Frankenstein monsters that you want to hug!
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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

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

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!

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.

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

Colour 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.

Once 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.

Paint 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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Make-up, Nails

An Accidental Haul

October 24, 2013

We set out for our little shopping trip yesterday with a thrifty mindset and a small budget. Four hours later that all went out the window! We’ve added links where the items are available online, otherwise you’ll have to hit the highstreet and track them down yourself!

Red links are Amie’s treats and blue are Gemma’s treasure, black things we both picked up!

In our defence we did start off well so first up is the charity shop treasure we found. Our intention was to find things we could craftily turn into cake stands and we did at least succeed in that.

Candle stick – £1.50

Studded belt – £1.25

Glass plates – £1

After that it all started to go downhill (at least for our bank balances, our mood certainly went uphill!) when we dared to venture into Superdrug. 3 for 2 on cosmetics is too good of an offer to resist really isn’t it.

NYC Rock muse in Red hot – £1.99

NYC Rock muse in Gold Maiden – £1.99

NYC Rock muse in Rock Muse – £1.99 (Free)

NYC Disco Inferno top coat – £1.99

NYC In a New York Minute in Lexington Yellow – £1.79

NYC in a New York Minute in Prince Street – £1.79 (Free)

MUA Glamour Days eyeshadow palette – £4.00

MUA Stary Night eyeshadow palette – £4.00

MUA Pro-brow ultimate eyebrow kit – £3.50 (Free)

MUA Heaven and Earth palette – £4.00

NYC in a new york minute in High Line Green – £1.79

NYC Foil Explosion in Magic Earth – £1.99 (free)

technic party brights in Sunset Strip – £0.99 (from Bodycare)

Vaseline Paint The Town – £3.49

It was a complete accident that we fell into Sallys and happened to find two OPI Rock Goddess sets.We’ve been lusting over this for ages and it’s always out of stock so we grabbed them gleefully and spent the next ten minutes talking ourselves out of getting the Mariah Christmas sets too (with a promise that we will get them next time…)

OPI Rock Goddess -£12.95

The poundland search for Revlon nail varnish came up trumps as always and we chose two gorgeous shades at a massive discount.

Revlon Scented Varnish in Grape Fizz – £1.00

Revlon Matte Suede in Fire Fox – £1.00

We then realized that all the charity shops were closed and that we had sort of diverted from our immediate task with the promise of cosmetics, so we decided a quick peek around home bargains might bring us some last minute treasure.

Gemspa body butter in Calming Amber – £0.99

Halloween shot glasses – £0.59

Craft storage box – £0.59

Star cookie cutters – £0.99

Drawer dividers – £0.99

Seeing as we DID get what we set out for, and found a whole host of treasure all at super bargain prices I don’t think we did too badly! A whole bunch of swatches and reviews will be coming very soon!

Totally hellbent for shopping trips with a bad influence

– Gem & Pants

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Nails

O.P.I Tiny Treats

September 26, 2013

It took me a while to get into O.P.I.

As a lover of a bargain I always thought the RRP of £13.95 for a single polish was a bit much, but after dipping my toe(nails!) into the range I’ve now found myself a bit of an addict and the polishes worth every penny!

My latest purchase was this adorable Tiny Treats set containing mini 3.75ml ChipSkip, Nail Envy Natural Nail Strengthener and RapiDry Top Coat, a 30ml Expert Touch Lacquer Remover and 25 Expert touch Nail Wipes in a super-cute travel bag.

The nail treatments are a dream, and I love that I can take this on the road with me (there’s still room inside the bag for one or two full size polishes too) and have everything I need to touch up or re-do my manicure mid tour. Of course with the ChipSkip the likelihood of me needing to touch up is minimal – what a product!

The full sizes of all the treatments have gone straight onto my wishlist, but I doubt I would shell out £7.60 for the 120ml size Expert Touch Lacquer Remover. Though it took my varnish off quickly and efficiently my Sally Hansen remover does the job for a fraction of the price at £2.34 for 200ml with added nutrients and a not-too-unpleasant smell.

Same with the wipes, they work great but you can pick up the exact same product much cheaper without the O.P.I price tag!

Overall I think this a great little set if you want to try the nail treaments but don’t want to invest in the full sizes without trying them first, or like me if you travel about a lot and want to be able to keep your nails looking great!

Available from Fragrance Direct for £5.99

Totally hellbent for tiny treats (and big treats too!)

– Gem

Make-up, Nails

A mini haul and some unsuccessful shopping!

September 23, 2013

I had to pop to my local shopping mall today to pick up a birthday card and present for my sister and though I’m trying to save money (and thus stop buying lots of make-up!) I promised myself one treat.

I headed straight for Sally and peered helplessly at the O.P.I stand till a clerk came to ask if I needed help. Seems this was due on today’s delivery but she “wouldn’t know till she had sorted it all, so come back tomorrow”.

Drats!

I started lusting after the O.P.I Rock Goddess set the moment I spotted it on-line. Admittedly more for Rolling Bones and The drummer’s hot (and the free bracelet!) than the other two shades, but at a RRP of £12.99 for four O.P.I shades and an extra gift I wouldn’t complain at Yellopalooza and Stand in lime for days as I don’t own any similar shades.

HOWEVER. My lust was not be sated with this delicious treat today so I moved on and picked myself up a few bargains in it’s place. I’ll return for the varnishes next time!

Another Poundland bargain. I picked up two Revlon Top Speed polishes in Ignite and Black Star. RRP is £5.99 so a few pennies saved there!

Also how cute is the butterfly wrapping paper I picked up for my sisters gift!

Bodycare had slim pickings today, but I saw this Chubby Stick style Technic lipstick in a gorgeous pinky purple (shade 16) for only £1.19 and was sold! On that note I definitely need some purple lipsticks – how is it I don’t own a single one!

I popped into Superdrug in search of the new MUA Pro-Brow Kit, but alas the shelves were looking very empty. As my current brow palette is completely out of gel, I settled for going old school and bought a clear mascara to set them. At only £1 I figure it’s not much of a loss if it doesn’t work!

Finally honourable mention goes to these ADORABLE mini animal sticky-notes that arrived in the post this morning. Only 99p from Ebay! You can’t pick which set you get (I was totally hoping for the ones with the zebras!) but they are all quite adorable so worth the risk!

So there you go, a mini budget haul of four cosmetic items for only £4,19!

Totally hellbent for saving pennies

– Gem

Nails, NOTD

NOTD: Emagerd nail wraps how do these work arrrghhh!

September 18, 2013

As I sat down to do my nails today I thought…finally….at long last….today is the day I try nail wraps. I have quite a collection building up but I’m always too scared to try the nicer ones out as they only have one use, and I don’t want to mess that one use up!

I grabbed these disco zebra offerings that I picked up in Poundland ages ago and tried to figure this wrap thing out.

Turns out it’s not as easy as it seems! Now I’m going to put this down to both the cheapness of the wraps and my inexperienced application. On reflection I should have trimmed quite a few of them down at the sides to make them fit the nail better – but at least I’ve learned for next time!

I doubt this shoddy application will last the day, but I do feel a bit braver about reaching for the Essie and Sally Hansen wraps in my nail drawer now.

Have any tips for a smoother application? Leave me a comment and help me on my journey to pretty nails!

Totally hellbent for “ooh at least they look shiny and pretty from afar!”

– Gem

Nails, NOTD

NOTD – Essie sleek stick nail stickers in 03 so haute”

August 13, 2013

Shortly before festival season, I received the Latest in Beauty Ultimate Summer Nails box which Gem and I have been pining after for ages. These were one of the items in the box and in my delirium between Wacken and Bloodstock, I decided to give them a bash.

You get 18 stickers in total and a small emery board/buffer. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but found there was at least a sticker for every nail that fitted well. It’s a bit strange that you only get 18, which means if I wanted to use these again, I would only get 8 nails done.

As a first timer to nail wraps, I found them surprisingly easy to apply, stick them on and file the edges off. My only issue with this, is that throughout the course of the evening and the day after, my nails felt very rough because the edges of the stickers didn’t come out very smooth. After showering and doing some light house work, this became worse so I applied a top coat. Needless to say, the feeling of scratchy nail tips became so irritating, that I had to take them off after only an evening and mornings wear.

The final result was pretty and I am willing to try wraps again to see if I can refine my technique, only next time it wont be before another festival and definitely after a day of house chores.

Despite my first time disappointment, I thoroughly enjoyed just peeling these off, although I used a small amount of nail varnish remover to take some of the residual glue off my nails. I could definitely get used to avoiding the task of varnish removal.

Totally hellbent for laborless nails

– Pants

Nails, NOTD

NOTD – Avon Red Bombshell

July 21, 2013

Today’s nail is one of my all time favourites. I often struggle to find the perfect “red” nail varnish. They are usually slightly too dark or more of a coral colour. This is one of two nail varnishes which is the “perfect” match.

I am a bit of a sucker for Avon nail varnish. They are super easy to apply and combined with a base and top coat, seem to last for ages for me at least. Plus, they look great next to each other.

My only downside to this varnish, is that Avon gave it a different top so it doesn’t match the rest of mine!

Totally hellbent for the perfect red

– Pants

Nails

H&M Nail Varnish – Mad Mint and Mad Confetti

July 18, 2013

Amie went on an epic arduous adventure into Birmingham today to buy much needed hair-dye for our upcoming photoshoot with Tony from Stagedive Photography, and as she is the bestest friend ever she bought me back a few spoils to play with!

I’ve not used H&M’s nail varnish before but I instantly loved the two she chose for me – Mad Mint and Mad Confetti.

Mad Mint is a gorgeous and bright minty green, and I know I’ll be getting a lot of wear out of this over the summer.

Mad Confetti is a mix of large and small glitters in silver, blue and purple.