FOTD Oct 31/11

Just a quick face I did today, day off so nowhere really to go but I wanted to do my makeup, so here we are!

Eyes:

• from the Sephora 5-in-1 palette shades 28 and 27 on the lids, a blend of shades 2 and 7 in the crease, 7 and 8 under the lower lashline
• UD Sin on the inner corners, UD Virgin on the browbone

Lips:

• NYX Fig Round Lipstick
• MAC Petting Pink Lip Conditioner patted over top

Cheeks:

• Wet n' Wild Color Icon Blush in Pearlescent Pink

Nail Wheel the Fourth

Yeehaw!! Four nail wheels done!! This one has lots of nails inspired by items I found on the Forever 21 website! And my first galaxy nails I've been happy with - I've tried them several times but never liked how they turned out, but I think I finally found the right colour combo and technique!! Hope you like. :) Click to enlarge!

new nails in the shop!

Finally did a new set of nails for my Etsy :) Earthtoned tribal, I love this one! Wish I had the patience (and left handed skills) to do it on my own nails! Maybe one day ;)

See them in the store!

NOTD Oct 29/11, another (older) NOTD... and a haul!

Got myself a nice little haul this week including two of those amazing Revlon glitters that have been all over the blogs this fall!

 From left to right it's Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet (picked up to replace the almost gone Revlon Jaded - they look almost identical in the bottle but I've still got to swatch to see just how close they really are!) Sinful Colors Envy and Revlon Blue Mosaic!

I had to test out one of these beauiful glitters so I did a coat of Rimmel Green With Envy (a shimmery teal green) and then a couple coats of Blue Mosaic over, and got this!

This looks even more amazing in real life - it looks so shiny it's almost glass-like! I'm in love!

I also had a look I somehow missed out on posting on here when I did it last weekend! I had a party to go to that was black tie themed, so I decided to interpret that by painting my nails black tie! I got the tuxedo design from Wah Nails for my index and ring fingers, and then went random for the other nails. I actually really love how the thumbs look, I want to do a redux of this type of design for my whole hand!

Nail Wheel the Third

Number three is complete!!! About half of these were done after I got the two-way nail art polish so I got to play around with some new ideas and techniques! So fun!!

Two-Way Nail Art Polish Review

I think (I am too lazy to check my archives so you may have to take my word on this...) that this is my first true review of a nail polish product! And really, besides basic nail polish itself, this is the first thing I've purchased for nail polish... and boy am I excited to review it for you!

I recently ordered a set of 24 two-way nail art polishes from the Born Pretty Store. The set was priced quite well at only $23.05 - I've seen similar sets for about $30 for only 16 colours. The first thing (that my roommate actually pointed out) that was pretty cool about this set is that when you use up a colour, it would be pretty easy to clean out the bottles and refill them with another polish, because the brush and nib are the best parts of these!

But first, I guess I should show them all to you! Here they are in all their glory!

There's a good selection of creams, shimmer/frosts and GLITTERS! Here's a close up of a couple of my favourite glitters in the set:

*drool* So preeeetty.

But of course the other important thing is how these get their name - two-way nail art polish!

Here's one way, the striper brush:

And the other way, the fine detail "nib" - such an adorable word for some reason! It's a very fine metal tube you squeeze the polish out of (the bottles are made of a flexible plastic, not glass):

There are of course, cons to this set as well! One of them I noticed very quickly was that the quality of the striper brushes was not exactly consistent:

Some brushes are longer and thicker and more uniform, while others are shorter, sparser and have a few bristles longer than the others. Although I do find they're just as easy to work with no matter what, but it bears mentioning. The other thing is that it can be a little difficult to work with the glitters using the fine detail nib. The picture below shows two stripes of glitter from the striper brushes (top) and then below a couple lines using the detail nib - you can see the glitter density is a little more inconsistent with the nib - I think it has a little trouble getting through the fine tip!

Another nice thing about this set is that they include handy little metal cleaners for the nibs on the bottom of each bottle:

But a word of caution - if you dump these out to use and then grab a big handful of them to put them away, don't do what I did and stab yourself in the thumb with one of these bad boys!

The doctor says I'll live. ;)

Overall, I really do LOVE this set and would totally repurchase it and recommend others try it out!

Also, just to clarify I am not affiliated with Born Pretty Store in any way beyond being a customer, and these items were purchased using my own money and reviewed with 100% my own opinions and impressions!

NOTD Oct 21/11

Did these cute little dotted nails yesterday, loving the colour combo here! Sorry the lighting is a little weird in this, it was just getting on to dusk when I took this!

FOTD Oct 18/11

I snapped these pics really quickly before I went to work today because I really liked how my makeup looked! Got a few compliments on it too. :)

Eyes:

• NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Nude on the lids
• UD Buck above the crease
• UD Darkhorse in the outer V
• UD Smog under the lower lashline, also a little more Darkhorse at the very outer corner
• UD Virgin on browbone and at inner corner

Lips:

• NYX Indian Pink Round Lipstick
• NYX Whipped Round Lipgloss

Cheeks:

• mix of the first two blushes from the Sephora 5-in-1 palette

NOTD Oct 17/11

This started as a simple Halloween themed ruffian manicure, but I felt like it needed something more! So I added some little dots and love how it looks now. An 11 year old girl saw them on me at work yesterday and loved them. :D

Nail Wheel the Second

Another one knocked out! This one has the Excel gum characters and a lot of Halloween stuff! I find though that I am not crazy about doing Halloween designs... I don't know why, because I love looking at them but I don't get very inspired by making them! But I had to give it a shot. :)

NOTD Oct 14/11

I saw a mani like this a while back (can't remember where) with a black background and a silver chain. I had been meaning to do it forever, and last night I was thinking about it and inspiration struck - white background, gold chain!! I love how it turned out! Very simple to do, it isn't pictured here but even my right hand turned out really well because the design is so easy to do!

Excel Gum Character nail art

You know those seriously adorable commercials for Excel gum with the little onion, garlic, coffee and donut? You know, these ones? I've been obsessed with these commercials since they came out - the little mascots are SO cute! My boyfriend suggested I do some nail art of them and I thought it was a great idea!

Although this is definitely the straw that broke the toothpick's back - meaning this mani made me realize I need to get some detail brushes for nail art, because these were kind of a pain to paint using only the nail polish brushes from the bottle and toothpicks! But I'm very happy how they turned out nonetheless! Hope you like too!

Top Taupes!

I figured it's high time I posted some swatches of my favourite taupe eyeshadows, seeing as how the colour is my blog's namesake!! Although nail art has been (and probably will continue to be) more of a focus on this blog lately, makeup is still a big part of my life and is still a part of this blog!

So without further ado, here are my favourite taupes, the ones I use again and again (and again)!

From L-R:

• Urban Decay Sidecar - lovely shimmery taupe with slight red undertones and some gold glitter flecks.
• CoverGirl Tapestry Taupe - awesome drugstore taupe, a little less pigmented but over a base it shows up nicely and has a gorgeous subtle sheen.
• NYX Iced Mocha - a loose pearl pigment, extremely shimmery and dramatic! Blends out like a dream though.
• Sephora 5-in-1 Color Play Palette, shades 2, 12 and 27 - 2 is a great dark smoky taupe, awesome in the crease or for one of my favourite evening looks, the taupe smoky eye! 12 is a slightly lighter but still mid-toned taupe, I use this one a lot in the crease for day looks to add depth. 27 is a slightly warmer taupe that has almost rose-gold tones in it, very pretty!

All of these beauties get heavy rotation in my makeup routine - how about you guys? Do you have any of these colours? Love or hate? Any other great taupes you can recommend? One can never have enough!!

new in the shop!

I'm still having tons of fun painting these sets!! I've also almost got my second nail wheel done :) Here's some of the newest sets I've done! All up in my Etsy!

FOTD Oct 5/11

This was actually my face yesterday but I got to do a nice long 10.5 hour shift at work until 11:30 at night, got home and 12:30 and couldn't sleep until 2.... LOL so here it is now!

Main colours used on the eyes were: UD Sidecar, MAC Print and UD Creep! I really like this colour combo, probably going to use it again!!

nail polish dreams...

I just had to post about my bizarre dream last night!

I was with a big group of friends and we were on our way to a nightclub or bar or something like that, and we were all on a bus. We stopped at this big grocery/drugstore and all went in, and I got separated from the group checking out the cosmetics section (this sounds like real life right now, not a dream...) and then I found this AWESOME display of nail polish pens. I got so sidetracked looking at them that all of a sudden everyone was ready to go because the bus was leaving. I ran with the pens I wanted to buy (black, yellow, red) to the till but by the time I paid, I'd missed the bus. But I wasn't really bummed... I had the polish pens.


LOL This must have been because I bought a big set of polish pens from the Born Pretty store yesterday! This is how you know your hobby is taking over your life!