Author Archives: Dani - So Many Lovely Things

Nails of the week – pink and copper duochrome

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click to enlarge

Another colour changing beauty is on my nails this week – a delightful pink and copper duochrome from Accessorize, called Pink Spice.

It is super sparkly and the colour changes beautifully – it is true you need light, as the shades are not that contrasting, so when I painted my nails, at night, I was a bit disappointed. However, in the morning, I could notice the subtle, but lovely transition between the reddish pink and brownish copper hues.

Just like Aztec, which I tried previously, this polish does not disappoint. One coat is indeed too thin, but you can achieve the effect with two. Application was ok, I still find their brush a bit too small, but didn’t affect application. It has a good consistency and spreads evenly. Durability is good, no chips in five days, so (non-chipped) thumbs up – worth noticing I always use a topcoat to improve durability anyway!

A lovely colour which I am happy with and generated compliments, but lacks a bit of oomph if you ask me… Do I love it madly? not quite… rather pleased to see reddish pink on my nails once again, but the effect, for me, is not impressive enough (certainly not as impressive as Aztec), don’t quite know why; maybe it lacks a bit of contrast, I think. Still, at £4, a great buy for a duochrome – pretty, and I am happy to recommend and perhaps, wear again!

Rating:

See all of Nails of the week posts and check the star rating system.

Eye make-up look challenge: black and gold

Posted in Beauty, Make Up by
black and gold eye make up look

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I am very excited to be posting my very first eye make-up look challenge!

After considering my “menu”, I decided to kick off with slightly something different, dare I say, rather dramatic, although quite simple: a gold base with shadowy, geometrical black outline.

I really enjoyed the effect when the eye is closed. Now, I am not sure how much I like the pokey line once my eyes are open (which will be most of the time, right?!). As mentioned on the book, you must have perfectly plucked and groomed eyebrows if you are wearing this look, otherwise it can appear very  messy. I also think it would look great with some false eye lashes!

I really enjoyed doing it, and would maybe consider for some occasions.  I had a little bit of a problem with the line that pokes out, I drew it with the MAC’s 212 brush and shaded with the 231, after a failed attempt; it is quite hard to get the definition needed for the contrast.

Products I used:

Level of difficulty:

So, what did you think of the look? Would you wear it?

Find out what the rating means.

Eye make-up look challenge 2012

Posted in Beauty, Make Up by

A while back, I bought a great make up book, Rae Morris’ Makeup: The ultimate guide, which is packed with make up technique explainers and great tips in general. Although the whole book is fabulous, the highlight for me is the eye make-up looks it teaches you to re-create, step by step.

I am a big fan of make-up in general, but crazy about eye make-up and all my life, I favoured big (really, really reeeeally big and  heavy) eyes and just lipgloss. Having fallen in love with red lipstick didn’t quite go with my love of over the top, colourful eye make up, so lately I’ve been sticking to eyeliner with flick, discreet neutrals and to go out, black smokey, sometimes with some variations using a small splash of colour to blend.

This book has, in  away, inspired me to try some different looks for a few reasons: a need to fuel my passion for outrageous eye make up looks; the eagerness to learn new techniques and  ultimately, put the explanation to the test and find out  how easy (or not) it is to achieve the look on each step by step “tutorial”.

I will be trying some of the looks on the book, but also any I spot somewhere else or create myself. The first look will be coming very soon, so stay tuned.

To rate my tentatives, you will find one of this icons on each post:

Easy – pretty straight forward and not too time consuming to achieve look similar to instructions.

Medium – a bit of technique or trial+failure until I achieved look similar to instructions.

Hard – a lot of technique or trial+failure until achieved look similar to instructions.

Nails of the week – holographic glitter

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OPI Save Me - Nicki Minaj, holographic glitter

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This week I am wearing my new acquisition: Save Me, from OPI‘s  Nicki Minaj collection. I was so excited to receive this, I painted my nails on the very same day it arrived –  it looked to stunning in the bottle!

The final result was amazing: the polish has a very saturated silver glitter base, so it’s super sparkling. The holographic strands are beautiful, and as they get distributed unevenly,  it’s pretty much guaranteed that one will be catching the light at some point, so the effect is very noticeable and the colours really varied.  I got countless compliments on it!

I wore a black nail polish from Barry M as base and the application for both was fine. I kind of expected the black to be opaque enough with one coat, but two were necessary. I then applied a coat of Save Me on top of it. I am not going to lie: it was a bit of a pain, not so much while applying, but when cleaning the excesses –  not only was it hard to remove but also the holographic strands tend to poke out of the tip of the nail, and removing them can leave a gap… so I struggled a bit, having to do a *lot* of filing to smooth out the ends, a bit of cutting of stray strands, as they kept catching on everything, even after using a topcoat, my nails were so rough at the end I think I could cut stuff with it… a bit of a pain, really.

Durability is good. As a glitter polish, I am expecting it will be very hard to remove *sight*, but that’s unavoidable! Also, I do still have an issue with the texture of a glitter polish, even with top coat, it is quite rough for my touch; but that’s a totally personal point.

Overall, I am truly in love with this varnish: it is exquisite and nothing like any other holographic or glitter polish I have ever worn before.

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Louboutin’s 20th anniversary collection

Posted in Shoes by

Christian Louboutin The Isolde - image from facebook.com/christianlouboutin

Seeing the very pretty designs for Christian Louboutin’s 20th anniversary capsule collection on the Red Carpet Fashion Awards site, prompted me to check out the designer’s Facebook page, where I found pictures of the shoes – and I am not disappointed: they are beautiful! When it comes to Christian Louboutin, I know I am a bit biased, as I absolutely love his shoes, but you can check out for yourself.

My favourite from this capsule collection has to be “The Isolde” (pictured here), sooo fierce! However, I could easily pick another three at least. I also like the “Artémis” bag, with all those feathers… lush!

See the shoes at Louboutin’s Facebook page (you can also sign up to be one of the first to shop the new collection).

See some of the designs and read more about the collection at the Red Carpet Fashion Awards website.

Nails of the week – multicolour gold/green/blue

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This week I am wearing a nail polish I had been looking forward to trying on, as the colour is so vivid: Trendy, another Specialittá polish from the Marinoon Multigirl collection.

Now, one of the colours on this duochrome is definitely gold. The green part gets a bit complicated – I really loved the spectrum of colours on this: from the bright gold yellow, it changes to a subtle apple green, ending on a blue-ish, grey-ish green, with more or less variations depending on the lighting. Truly amazing colour! It is very shiny, the gold very yellow and intense.

The not so good bit is that application wasn’t that straight forward; although I just needed 2 coats (differently from the previous one from this range I tried, which was quite thin), I can still see the brush strokes marks, no matter how careful I was. Although to the untrained eye on a daily basis this is not noticeable, you can still notice in my pictures. This upsets me, I like my polish smooth and shiny, so a big let down. Drying time was slightly above standard but durability is very good!

Overall, love the colour, but a bit of trouble for what it is worth. The brush stroke marks are really bothering me, but a nice choice anyway.

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Getting over the fear of light colours on my nails

Posted in Accessories, Beauty, Shoes by

The lovely pastel colours KG shoes I bought are helping me put my fear of light colours on my nails behind me, I think – or at least they contributed to the very first step!

I came across this lovely set from Nails Inc called “The Candy Shop” with the most charming pastel shades plus a lime nail polish. I cannot believe it was half price (£12.50 for four bottles) as the colours in it are very hot for this spring! And they all go really well with my new shoes, and outfits I will put together with it. The blue is really cute, and although I couldn’t bring myself to wear mint green last year, I am confident I will make it this time around. But the star for me has to be the lime shade. Love it!

At the moment, I am obsessed with lime green (or yellow? ummm…) and been looking for some items of clothing to buy. As my outfits always start with the shoes, I do blame KG for all this. Talking about that, I found the cutest super skinny lime belt in Topshop, which has tiny silver studs, and I think it is perfect for my new shoes!

I cannot wait for spring, not only because I am very excited about putting together a fresh wardrobe, but also because I am really looking forward to the warming weather and the beautiful flowers everywhere. Always a comforting thought, when you are still wrapped in your fur coat!

 

Nails of the week – green/purple duochrome

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Totally in love with this nail colour. This week I am wearing a mega pretty green and purple duochrome called Aztec, from Accessorize’s Illusion nail polish range. Not only the colour changes beautifully, and you can notice it under most lighting, but it is also very sparkly, almost glittery.

The green and purple seem to be a common combination for multi toned nail varnishes, but the green on this one is forest green, making the contrast stunning (most of the others are teal like), and it also has some hints of gold.

Application was ok, if anything the brush was on the small side. The first coat was very thin, and I was worried about the effect. But upon applying the second coat, the beautiful colour revealed itself, in full glory, as in the bottle. Durability is good, of course I am wearing a topcoat, but there have been no chips, four days after application. A good quality nail varnish.

Overall, a great buy, at £4 per bottle. I must admit I am very impressed with the Accessorize nail polish – to be honest, I didn’t think it was going to be good in any way.  I bought this late in 2011, but they still have it on the site, and probably in store. I also bought another shade from the same range, Pink Spice, and cannot wait to try that one too!

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First pastel of the season

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Well, it looks like I won’t be able to run away from the pretty pastels – not that I don’t love them, but they were super in around 2001, and I had so many that I didn’t think I would bring myself to ever wearing it again. Plus, they are really unforgiving colours, revealing every body imperfection!!!

However, with the imminent pastels overload for spring, I have already given in and purchased an item I fell completely in love with (damn you newsletters!) – the stunning Esme shoes from Kurt Geiger. In one had, you have the delicate pastels, but on the other you have the spikes, which really give them an edge.

Now, you may remember I fell in love with a glittery KG not too long ago, but this one was stronger than me, when I slipped my foot in, I knew I had to bring them home. So I used the Elle KG voucher to take £25 off my guilty conscience and voilá!

Don’t you just love them? What about you? Have you bought any pastels yet or you are not succumbing the the paler palette this season?