Author Archives: Dani - So Many Lovely Things

Nails of the week – colour shifting glitter flakes

colour shifting glitter flakes nailsOh, I love this. Pretty pretty pretty! You all know how much I love a glitter flake nail polish. Really. I cannot have enough of them!

This time I tried Specialittá Hits Mundo das Danças in Cha Cha Cha, a clear base laden with beautiful colour shifting glitter flakes that on a dark base, will change from a fiery reddish-orange through gold to forest green. AMAZING!!!

I used two coats of Barry M in Black and applied only one coat of the flakie. The quality is great, it is so saturated with flakes that one effortless coat will create a fantastic effect, covering the black very well!

colour shifting glitter flakes nails - somanylovelythings

Application was very easy and durability is also great. I am seriously in love!

Rating:

5_star

Product review: myface.cosmetics liquid eyeliner

myface.cosmetics liquid eyelinersI mentioned this before, at a product review and also eye make-up look challenges, but I thought it deserved a separate post, as every colour I use, I fall more in love with this!

The metallics are really vivid, and striking with only one stroke (I tend to go for two, as I like to really saturate the colours, especially for pictures!) and they have a fantastic range of colours. Application is great – the brush is thin and easy to use, pretty much fool-proof. I tend to avoid liquid, favouring gel or felt tip pens, but this one really changed my mind – they got it right.

The consistency is fluid enough to apply easily, but not too runny. It also dries very quickly, so no smudges – the precise lines sit exactly where they should be – and stays there.

These liners are an easy way of giving your make-up that extra oomph – a little splash of colour that really makes a look different!

To see some of them in action, check some of my eye make-up look challenge posts where I used a some of the colours on a raspberry/orange (metallic orange/copper – tequila sunrise), festive gold (gold – gilt-y) and this light pink/green (metallic charcoal – black ice).

You can get myface.cosmetics here.

This post contains PR samples, however, this review is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Nails of the week: nude and red

nude and red nails somanylovelythingsYes, you read it right. I have nude on my nails at the moment. Yes, I also thought this day would never come… but I had a nail emergency: I came back from holidays, was going out the day after, had to be at work and had no time to sort out my nails. The previous mani was past its prime and I had to take it off… so came up with a quick fix: wear a base coat and do a red french manicure. But I loved it so much that I decided to do it properly, and they ended up being my new years’ eve manicure!

So I used Nails Inc Basil Street, a lovely nude that applies beautifully – no streaks and a solid coverage with two coats. Then I applied Colorama’s Tapete Vermelho on the tips to create the French manicure.

I am in love with this look – it is simple and so effortlessly elegant… a classic with a very little twist.

Durability has been great, seven full days – I did have a breakage, now both my thumbs are far from perfect (one is awful, hence being missed from the photos).

What do you think? I love French manis, really do… planning my next one already!

Rating:

5_star

Product review: myface.cosmetics blusher

myface.cosmetics blusher in lady monaco and costa del soul Myface.cosmetics sent me (via their lovely PR guys, NBPR) a lovely bag of products for my skin colour to try a while ago. This brand actually has a complete make-up for different types of complexions: fair, medium and medium dark, with foundation, concealers, powders, lip liners, lipstick and lip glosses in shades designed to suit your skin tone, and categorised as such, thus making the right choice a bit easier. They also have amazing eye shadows, eye liners, mascaras and nail polish!

I have been using some of the eye liners which are fabulous, and amongst the great make-up selection I received, there were two R&B rouge/blushers: lady monaco and costa del soul.

Really great products, very well pigmented, good staying power and easy to blend. Packaging is lovely – a mirror finish case with a small brush inside. It is slightly on the large side though, to carry around your make up back, but it is very slim so it just gets away with it.

Lady monaco is warm pink (but not too pink), almost matt, with a very subtle shimmer. Although the colour is very vivid to the eye, when applied it is very delicate and adds a lovely flush of colour to the cheeks. I tend to avoid pink blushers, but this one is very wearable, especially when wearing pinker lipsticks.

Costa del soul has a more orange based, a dark peach with shimmer without being too “metallic”. I love peach-coloured blushers, so this is a total winner. Again, looks stronger than it turns out on the face; it doesn’t look too harsh, creating a soft hint of colour to the cheeks!

They are now part of my make-up routine!

You can get myface.cosmetics here.

This post contains PR samples, however, this review is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Eye make-up look challenge: festive gold

Festive gold eye make-upOooh the festive mood… it is in the air… everywhere you look… Here, at So Many Lovely Things it’s no different. Nothing better than a lovely black and gold smokey eye to go with it, right?

I started by applying the gold eyeshadow across the whole lid. I then applied the black with gold flecks to the crease and swept out and upwards, following a 45 degree “line” from the outer corner of my eyes.

I then applied black eyeliner on the upper lash line, with a nice flick, followed by a gorgeous metallic eyeliner above it, creating a slightly longer flick.

I then applied black eyeshadow to line the lower waterline and lash line, and applied the gold eyeliner slightly below the lash line, creating another flick at the end, in the same direction of the upper lashline.

I then applied a light eyeshadow to highlight the brow bone and sprinkled the gold dust around the brow bone and towards the inner corner of the eye, and finished off with some mascara and gorgeous false lashes.

Great for New Years eve!!!

Products I used:

  • Urban Decays eyeshadows in zephyr (book of shadows IV), jagged and blitz (vice)
  •  Collection 2000 felt tip pen liner
  • myface.cosmetics liquid eyeliner in gil-ty
  • MAC eyeshadow in carbon
  • Mac Zoomlash mascara
  • Kryolan glamour sparks in golden
  • Eylure eyelashes in vintage 124 (if you look really closely you’ll notice they are not perfectly applied – had one of those nightmare days where the lash doesn’t want to sit in properly, unluckily  it was on my “model” eye… oh well)
  • Beauty boxes brushes (first time I used them – they are great!)

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Difficulty:

eye make up look - medium

Shoe fund 2012 cashed in

Christian Louboutin red shoes - somanylovelythings shoe fundIt’s been more than two years now –  I finally stopped going on about it – but I could not be happier with my shoe fund – it gave me beautiful decolleté in 2011 and I wanted to share (better late than ever, I suppose) the fruits of the 2012 fund. I shall never look back.

Nude was on my mind. And throughout the whole year I was set on a classic pair of nude shoes. However , at the last minute I saw red. Literally, I just had this urge to buy red shoes.

Given the colour choice, I thought I’d go for another designer, and not cave into my usual Louboutin obsession, as red on red seemed a bit odd. Blahnik and Choo were head to head – or toe to toe, if you prefer a foot based comparison for this post’s illustration purposes.

But then I fell in love (and as you know, I go totally blind when I fall in love) and the shoe fund 2012 materialised in the shape of the lovely patent, pointy-toed and needle heeled Christian Louboutin Decolleté. Red on red never looked so good to me. I cannot even believe that for a moment I thought it wouldn’t work.

What a beauty – they have already been worn. Now, nude probably got bumped to next year. May be. Shoe fund 2013 is already growing….

Read more about the my shoe fund.

My last minute spot at the BBloggersXmas event

I found out about this event very last minute, thanks to Grace from All that slap – and I am so glad they had a little place available for me.

This networking event took place really close to my home, at the Reebok bar in Canary Wharf and it was beautifully organised by Lola, from Lola Star Hearts and Victoria, from Victoria’s Beauty and Fashion Review blogs.

Lot of talk about it was going on Twitter (I am still not quite sure how I completely missed it!). Everyone was excited and thinking about outfits! I hadn’t thought about that yet, and panicked a little bit, as I was sure everyone was going to look lovely, so I settled for American Apparel wet(ish) leggings, a burgundy leather peplum from H&M, Louboutin black courts, a multicoloured necklace also from H&M, grey/black smokey eyes and burgundy lipstick (MAC’s Diva).

Around 65 bloggers, I hear, attended the event – an amazing turnout. There were some brands demo-ing their products, such as Slendertone, Aromatherapy Associates, Diva hair styling products, Bad Apple polishes, Bronze Ambition and Twisted Sista hair products. There was a quiz and twitter prize draws – lucky me here got a glass nail file with Swarosvki crystals!

There were cakes pops, Pop Chips (yum yum yum!) and lots of lovely bloggers to meet and chat away! The atmosphere was great! I find that people say bloggers are not very friendly to other bloggers, but I am not sure where people get this from – every event I attended, everyone I met was super lovely and friendly and I always have a great time!

Thank you very much Lola and Victoria, it was an awesome event, really well organised and a goodie bag to really die for – and early Christmas treat (it was like opening my stocking in the morning) and which will generate plenty of reviews!!!

Nail polish storage solution

I finally got round to  putting all my nail polishes, tools and accessories in one place. My boyfriend got me this box from Argos – a truly bargain buy!

It is really great to have everything in one place I can move around. The box, however,  is quite heavy when loaded. The box is of alright quality and all the movements are smooth.

Although I manage to fit everything I have… sadly, although it is a new solution, I am already running out of space!!!

Crazy!

What about you? Where do you store you nail polishes?

Nails of the week – green and purple glitter

purple and green glitter nails

click to enlarge

This week I am mourning. For the second time this year I broke a nail. I know, amazing all time record for me; my nails used to flake a lot, thus splitting and breakages were a constant. Somehow, the first six months of this year were great for my talons -not even a single breakage. Second half, not as great – twice, by the “hands” of a spin bike.

Anyway…. I wasn’t so inspired, so went for a “one colour will fix it” kinda mani. I chose Specialittá Hits Phenomena Moonbow, an amazing colour shifting glitter – its goes from green into blues to purple into a warmer fuchsia.

Application was a nightmare. Sadly, this polish has a clear base and it is not super saturated with glitter. I applied Collection 2000’s Bongo Beats (which matched the green shade of glitter) as a base and had to apply, and I kid you not, around six – yes, you heard it – SIX coats of the glitter. It was so difficult to work with, and to make things worse, it is not the quickest drying polish in the world, so there was plenty of gloopiness on the nail as the coats piled up. It looks pretty, got lots of compliments, the colour shifting range is AMAZINGLY STUNNING but seriously, when I finished applying, I was exhausted!

Durability, on the other hand, is great. As expected, it was awful to take off (yes, SIX coats of glitter). I was thinking about buying more of the collection, as the colours are undeniably exquisite but I don’t think I will – I just cannot bring myself to do it again. Gorgeous, but just a bit too much hard work for me.

Rating:

4_starfor the looks

starfor the application (traumatised)

Product review: Russell Organics Argan Oil

Russell Organics argan oilMy hair (and skin, for that matter) really suffers on the run up to the winter. Something in this transitional period really upsets my hair – it gets drier at the tips, lifeless and a bit dull, so anything that can do any good is very welcome, especially at this time.

I received the Russell Organics argan oil and on the same day started to use it. I’ve been using it for three weeks now on my hair. The bottle has 2 fl. oz, and a pipette, which I love! I applied a few drops on my hand and rubbed it to warm, applying then to the ends of my towel dried hair.

My first impression was that the hair naturally dried softer, heavier but not greasy, with less fly-aways. As the days progressed and I kept using it, I feel my hair has a little bit more weight to it and is less straw-y.

Something I like liked about this product is that it has no fragrance, no smell at all. Also, it can be used all over the body, as a moisturiser, on your nails and of course, hair and a few drop go a long way!

This product is 100% pure argan oil, carefully sourced from Morocco, and eco-certified. It is toxin and cruelty free, as well as vegan.

Their whole range uses pure natural ingredients. Packaging is fuss free, to minimise environmental impact, but very functional. Russell Organics, which carries the slogan “naturally luxurious”, is a carbon free organisation and also certified cruelty free and vegan – so goodness all around!

They also have a long toxin list on their site, to raise awareness about the ingredients we should avoid putting on and in our bodies! Nice!

They are a US company, available online and in various shops but will ship internationally, with reasonable rates, according to their site.

This product was sent to me by the company to try, and I became their media partner, meaning I will receive a product once in a while. This review is, however, based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on it.