The World Cup may be but I still have a little back log of WC nails going round! This is the third of four designs, so one more to go!
This is a design I did a few times before and love. It ended up being less out there than the others and many people complimented it as a “lovely summery” manicure!
World Cup nails – that is what I’ve been calling them! They are however, a bit more than that: they are showing support to my team – Brasil!
I decided to put into practice the invaluable advice from Michelle Humphrey, the Maybelline nail extraordinaire, and try a “tie-dye” type of nails.
Promise I won’t proclaim my love for gradients again (ooops). I had an American All Stars themed party, and as usual, I get over excited about themed parties, so went all out.
Ho ho ho. It is December and I feel I am officially allowed to say the C word without attracting some dirty looks (and the “already?!” expression n their faces). Obviously, I am talking about CHRISTMAS, silly.
Most people know someone who is a beauty fanatic and if you are not one yourself, choosing the right thing can be quite difficult. But fear not, So Many Lovely Things will give you an easy solution that is certain to cause a good impression.
I went through my favourite places for beauty buys and here are my picks:
A good all rounder for a great price. Studio products are great value for money. This Smokey eye kit, for £6, is certain to please. New Years eve eyes, sorted!
I love the Eyeko Skinny liner – it is my favourite and I use everyday. This double pack from QVC is excellent value for £14 and after trying you will certainly need a second (and a third – you won’t live without it, ever!)
Classic skin care brand Nivea pulled together a lovely pampering selection with Honey Face Masks, Body lotion, Pearly Shine Lip, Cleansing Wipes, Moisturising Day Cream, amongst others. For £15, this gift goes a long way. Available at Boots.
Post Chirstmas excesses will show on your face. Pull yourself together with this L’Oréal Port-Party Beauty SOS and be ready for the next one in no time! £10 from Boots.
A pretty bauble from Rodial, with its lovely Glam Balm inside. A tiny bit of luxury to plump those lips for that all important unde the mistletoe action! £14 from Harrods.
I love this book. Rae Morris’ classic Makeup: The Ultimate Guide will help you get the grips with makeup and look even more fabulous! Only £12.50 from Amazon.
The Sanctuary’s Best Sellers Collection is a great body indulgence kit with their classic scent. £15 from Debenhams.
Clinique’s Chubby stick Whole Lotta Candy collection means you will have three beautiful shades to choose from for the New Year’s party! £20 from House of Fraser.
Pretty doll eyes with YSL Baby Doll Mascara Set – to put it on and remove later! Find it at Boots for £24.50.
Must Have minis from Nails Inc – lots of shades to start well the year – fro nudes to neons – this will keep your talons colour going for a while! Great value of £23.52 from QVC!
Festive talons courtesy of Clinique’s Party Tips nail polish set.. Three pretty shades for sensitive skin for £20 from House of Fraser.
Discover Elemis’ great Tri-enzime kit with this 4 piece set, for only £24.12 from QVC.
OPI’s Fit to be Tied #2 has two beautiful nail shades and delivers glitter in the right amount. £18.55 from QVC.
Clinique’s classic 3 step kit is one of my favourites cleanse, tone and moisturise sets. Have a go with this intro collection and see for yourself. £20 from Debenhams.
The Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser is a classic – and is has a special edition for Christmas – £26.25 for 200ml cleaner and 2 muslim cloths!
I couldn’t leave out the Naked 3 palette from Urban Decay, coming out on the 12 December for £37. Hurry!!!
Beautifully packaged MAC’s Stroke of Midnight eye kit in Smoky got me hooked. Smokey eyes paradise with Chillproof, Retrospeck, Gaelic Gold, Well Put Together and Carbon (my fave matte black eyeshadow). At £32, exceptional value for money.
Benefit’s Groovy Kinda Love gift set has their best sellers to keep you pretty – and all for £29.50 from Boots.
Sparkle! The Urban Decay Starlight Glitter set can help with that! £30 from House of Fraser.
Guinot has brought some lovely gift boxes this year, each one looking to fix a “problem” in a girl’s life.
Ready Set Glow will deliver complexion brightening tools; Damsel in De-Stress will pamper and help relief stress; Supercharged Youth Boost delivers a boost for ageing skin. They also have a male grooming gift set called Tied up, with a face wash, after shave and shaving brush! They are priced between £46 and £64 and can be found at your nearest salon using Guinot products or at the Salon Skincare website, amongst others. website
Reveal a younger you with YSL Forever Youth Liberator Serum set, £64 from Boots.
Lancôme’s Visionnaire is of my favourite serums – and this set has lots of amazing goodies to accompany it! It costs £82 from Boots.
This classic selection of half size MAC brushes is amazing – and a fantastic value too at £42.
And finally, a girl can dream…. fro £300 you can get the WHOLE Alber Elbaz collection for Lancôme at Harrods. Sigh…
It is no news I love a gradient on my talons, so this week I went a bit further – a four colour rainbow gradient.
The last one I did was a long time ago, and this was due. After seeing a rainbow gradient on some Brazilian nail polish Facebook page, I decided that was going to be the next one.
The technique is the very same I used before: sponging, and I found it a bit more challenging with four colours to make sure all nails had about the same amount of each and that the transition was smooth. But it happened in the end!
I used Colorama’s 40 Graus (red), L’Oréal Banana Pop (yellow), Kiko 385 (blue) and 343 (green), applied a stripe of each to a wet make-up sponge and stamped to previously painted white nails. I went round three times! I then added the magical Electric lane holographic topcoat from Nails Inc and a clear topcoat(Seche VIte) to seal it all.
To be honest, before I did it, I thought it was going to be a bit too much. It turns out I love it and don’t want to take it off. At all. Seven days have gone by and it still looks perfect and I am struggling with the idea of removing it and moving on to the next mani…
It had been a while since I had a spotty manicure on. I’ve been meaning to do one for ages, and this week I finally got round to it!
I went for a pastel colours version: blue and yellow. This blue, Oxford from Nails Inc, has been a favourite for a very long time. The yellow came in the same set, and is called Wimbledon.
I used my one of my dotting tools to get the dots close to perfect (they never are!). Overall, a very easy mani to do, and very cute.
The polishes apply ok. As they are a bit on the old side, they stained a bit. I used two coats of the blue and three of the yellow.
Extra shine was given with the Seche Vite topcoat and durability is always fantastic with Nails Inc polishes!
You may say “another gradient”? First, yes. I love them. Second, this one is a bit different; instead of doing it horizontally, I decided to do it vertically. Oh, yeah, the subtleties of life.
The technique was the same used before – sponging – and somehow I found this a bit trickier; getting the blending in the middle of the nail is quite hard! I really want to do a rainbow gradient, with different colours on all nails, and this was just a taster of how hard it will be…
I painted all my nails white (and for the first time, due to lack of time, had them like that for 24 hours – how 90’s, even though pure white nails is making a come back, it still takes me back to my teenage years!) then applied L’Oréal Color Riche Neon Pop nail polishes in Flashing Lilac and Acid Watermelon (pink).
Then I applied my all time favourite sparkling topcoat Electric Lane from Nails Inc and voilá!
Application was alright, both colours are pigmented enough not to make sponging a nightmare. My gradients usually last an awful long time, this one is 8 days and counting – just don’t want to remove it!
Pastels… and to think at one point I would shun light nail colour in favour of dark ones… pah…What was I thinking?
Truth is, that lilac changed my life… and this week I went for a pastel colours manicure with a holographic glitter topcoat and bird details!
It had been a while since a painted each nail a different colour, so I thought it was tome I did it again: lilac from Miss Sporty (cannot see the number anymore!), pretty blue from Nails Inc, Oxford, pink from Kiko (376), green from ColorClub (no name or number on bottle, sorry!) and this amazing yellow from Nails Inc, Wimbledon. Add Nails Inc topcoat in Electric Lane and a couple of uber cute bird nail tattoos from Nail Art UK and voilà – spring ready nails!
Application was good, all applied evenly and with no streaking. Durability was great – 7 days perfection, no chips, then the cracks started to show; a couple chips in the pink and the birds lost a wing each. Tragic. As I am super busy with my essays, I just fixed the chip with a dot of polish and topcoat and filled the birds in with a Sharpie – gotta love it – to keep it going for a couple more days when I can finally do my nails. Desperate times, desperate measures!
Yes, I am still obsessed by gradients. I just love them. So, I gave myself another one: a lovely yellow, orange and red, to go with my tropical mood, as I am on holidays in Brazil (hence the lack of posts).
I used the H&M bright yellow summer sunrise, Impala’s orange aleixo and one of my fave reds ever, Colorama’s 40 graus. I used the sponging technique and applied the gorgeous Nails Inc electric lane topcoat. Ended up with a good seven layers and a lovely heart nail tattoo on my ring finger, from SkinArt UK to finish off the design!
It lasted very well – eight days including pool days!
This mani lifted my spirits, it is cheerful and looks forward to the summer!
It had been quite sometime since I painted each nail one different colour, and I was certainly in the mood for this week.
I decided to go for blues and purples – I love purples on my nails, and one of the blues I used is one of my favourite nail colours ever!
I used Nails Inc Oxford (light blue), Nails Inc Cambridge (light lilac), Kiko 336 (royal blue), H&M Pale violet (purple) and Nails Inc Belgrave Place (darkest blue) and added the super pretty Nails Inc topcoat Electric Lane (another obsession of mine – so versatile and so pretty, a great investment , finishing it off with a cute star nail tattoo!
Really love the look! Application was smooth and easy, and durability is ace – 8 days, no chips.
So Many Lovely Things 