Magnum ice cream took over regent Street in London once again. This year the party was bigger and better – not only they painted the street pink and black, but they also lit up the London Eye in one of the ice-creams new flavours’ colours.
Tag Archives: pink
Nails of the week: ten days of nails – green, coral flowery and tie-dye
This post is a bit different. I usually do a new manicure every week, and well, post it – hence the “nails of the week” series name.
Spring/Summer 14 – what I am lusting over
It is no secret I feel more in my element over spring/summer. Although I like the elegance the winter brings, nothing beats a happy, floaty summer outfit.
Nails of the week – metallic green, blue, mauve marble
I told you I was going to have marbling done on my nails again…
This time, I went for a lighter base, Close, a metallic greenish aqua with some gold hints, then my lovely manicurist in Brazil, Irma, added Dancer, the metallic dark blue and Gaia, the metallic mauve, all from Brazilian brand Naty.
She used the same technique as before (see my previous post), with the wooden stick, and the patterns are really lovely!
I then got my toe nails painted with Gaia – I love it!
Durability was great, and in a few weeks I will try it myself…
Rating:
Nails of the week: purple, blue and pink marbling
I will confess straight away. I did not do this myself. This is one of the few manis posted here I haven’t. When I am in Brazil, I always go to the same manicurist. She, however, doesn’t tend to do anything artsy, as her clientele base usually goes for basic colours.
After insisting a bit, she told me she could do the marbling but not with water (“That takes too much time, especially to clean!” Irma said), but mentioned she could do something similar with a stick. Of course, I said yes.
Now, my second confession: I forgot to take down the name or photograph the nail polish colours used. Do-oh.
Basically, she applied purple first and made sure some areas were very saturated with polish. The she generously blobbed pink and blue around the nail and using a wooden stick, mixed the colours in random motions – big circles, tiny ones, waves…. to create the patterns. The secret is not to “stir” too much otherwise the colours will blend. Also, careful not to leave gaps without polish as you “scratch” the nails with the stick!
And this is the result. I really like it. It is different, very detailed and each nail is completely unique! As you can see, my nails are well on their way to recovery since the moving disaster. Yay!
It lasted well – a whole week, no chips, with an ordinary topcoat – I didn’t use Seche Vite there.
I loved this mani so much that have another one on… which will be published next week – and with the names of the nail polishes used!
Rating
Nails of the week – Pink and silver
Inspired by Chanel, I decided to use pastel pink ad silver on this weeks nails. However, I went against to trying to replicate their latest design using the colours, as it made my nails look very small…. hum….
Anyway, the combination is a winning one and I used Kiko Candy Pink and Barry M foil effects in silver.
I decided to do what a friend described as an “upside-down French”; with the strip following the cuticle line shape, a bit different from the half-moon.
Kiko’s nail polish was easy to apply (very even for being a light, creamy colour) and I used two coats. Barry M’s quality is exceptional, as I mentioned before; only one coat for the strip. Great coverage, lovely shiny silver.
Durability was top. Seriously, ten days now as I am going on holidays and waiting to do my manicure, so it will last longer when away.
I really like this one. Found it very feminine and delicate!
Rating:
Eye make up – daywear
I could not live without make up. Really. I cannot imagine my life without the colour it, literally, brings into my face. Not that I don’t like my clean face; there was a time I had severe acne and yes, and I would never think of leaving the house bare-faced. I think this is the reason I have such a passion for make up; I had to make it work really hard to cover my problematic skin. Today, its main purpose is not to hide, but to enhance my features.
Anyway… I thought I’d share some very basic, day wear eye make up ideas; I wear it to work pretty much everyday. It is usually a variation of what you see here, with different complementary colours, different products, but I tend to stick to this for the daily grind. It is usually a 5-minute job (providing I don’t mess up the eyeliner which I occasionally do).
Super mega staple eye shadows for me are MAC’s Expensive Pink, Nylon, Vex, Carbon, Naked Lunch and Brown Down and a light gold L’Oreal one. I mean, they are amazing, have a good staying power, truly everyday shades you can mix and match, build up or strip down for neutral daywear which will not fight with your lipstick, even if the chosen shade is red (like mine, most days).
I prep my eyes with the e.l.f or the NYX primers. Sometimes, I just brush Vex or Nylon on eyelids and brow bone and apply an eyeliner, across the whole lash line of just under half, for more sultry but at the same time lighter eyes.
I usually wear Vex (an iridescent pale silver, goes fabulously with blues and greens, but also with pinks) or Nylon (a shimmery very pale gold – and this my friend, goes with everything!) as bases, they look great on the brow bone.
Then from the outer corner of the eye and the crease, blending towards the inner corner, I apply the “middle” shade – this could be the golden L’Oreal, Expensive Pink or Smoke ‘n’ Diamonds. Most of the time, I stop there but sometimes, I use a darker shade, if dealing with warm tones, Brown Down (when I use Silver Ring, I don’t add anything darker, it is dark enough!) in the outer part of the crease and the corner, to give a subtle smokey effect.
When lining my upper lid, I sometimes do just 1\3 of the eye, leaving the inner corner clean and bright; sometimes, I do the whole thing, most of the times with a flick at the end – I am really into them now, I think it help flatters my eye shape.
Slap on the mascara on top lashes and eye liner to the water line. Now, depending on my mood (again!), I might do it just a third from the outer corner or the whole line; sometimes I add it to the lower lash line too and smoke with a pencil brush to make it less harsh, but any combination will look good! Promise!
At the moment, my favourite liners are Collection 2000 felt tip pen liner (amazing, and great value), MAC gel liner and Maybelline’s Lasting Drama gel liner, all of which I find easy to apply and long lasting. I love eyeliner, really do.
For the more grungy look coming for A/W12-13, I have been trying a chubby liner, from Miners, it is great for smoking after applying, with a pencil brush, but it smudges quite a lot, and its staying power is rubbish, sadly, as the effect is ace!
For mascara I am currently using Maybelline’s Falsies (one of my favourites).
So, what are your tested, quick day to day eye make up routine? It would be nice to know what works for other people!
Nails of the week – green and pink polka dots
Recently, I bought a nail dotting tool kit from eBay; it was very cheap and I love polka dots!
I wanted to try the pastel green and pink combination for quite a while; so thought polka dots would be perfect.
The green is called Vibe, from Ana Hickmann and the pink, Candy Pink, from Kiko. Both had a good coverage and were good to apply, especially for being creamy colours; there was very little unevenness, the colours were quite solid and two coats provided a great coverage! It does “bubble” a tiny bit, but not too much to bother me!
Initially, I did all nails green with the pink accent one and put pink dots on all greens and green dots on the pink. Thought that was a bit too much, so left the spots only on the accent nail; think that was a wise decision to ease myself into the idea! Looked too busy before!
The tool was easy to use, as I expected; the dots were of the same size; just one thing I wasn’t very happy about is that I didn’t quite nail the positioning of the spots; I am a bit ocd with symmetry; but I suppose that with practice I will get to a positioning of the dots I am happy with!
Overall, quite cute. Wasn’t sure about it soon after I applied, but it grew on me. I am really enjoying trying different things on my nails at the moment!
Rating:
Nails of the week – warm tones with gold French manicure
Once again, I went a bit colour crazy! I have so many lovely nail polishes, that sometimes is super hard to choose just one, so I decided to do a warm colour palette – from yellow to red.
The polishes I used were :
- Yellow: H&M summer sunrise
- Orange: Impala aleixo
- Lighter pink: Impala confeti
- Darker pink: Miss Sporty number 130
- Red: Colorama 40 graus
- Gold: Barry M effects foil gold
I had used the yellow and the red before, in fact, this red is one of my favourites. I found the orange a bit sheer, still with two coats; the darker and lighter pink were alright, application was smooth for all. Durability was surprisingly long, as
I tend to wear off my French manicure by typing; when I removed, seven days after applying, I felt it could’ve gone for longer! Ace!
I am really into French manis nowadays!
This is a very bold look, but I don’t think it interfered with my clothes or was too out there for eyes to pop; people usually noticed (and complimented!) after looking carefully and closer. I absolutely love the colours combination – and I am dying to do a cold colours one… we shall see!
I had a friend at home, so she also left with a slight more demure creation of mine; a purple and lilac French manicure, using a lilac from Miss Sporty and Collection 2000’s purple rain.
Rating:
Nails of the week – blue/pink duochrome
This week I am a bit rushed off my feet – my office moved to a brand new building and I am still a bit lost and until I get used to it, I think I will have this feeling of putting some extra effort into going to work – although, that can be easily explained by the fact I have probably paid a record number of visits to various high street shops in one day; office is near Oxford Street, in London, and the temptation is just too much!
I am also going to Paris for a long weekend (yay), so that has also contributed to my lack of time…
However, I finally found a few minutes to show you my talons: this week I am wearing Andrea Fulerton’s Smile in a storm. Having used two or her duos in the past, and being very excited about those, I almost forgot I had this one; I bought it ages ago, so decided it was time to try it.
It consists of two polishes on a double ended brush; one is gunmetal grey, super sparkly and the other one is an iridescent topcoat. Together, they become a very pretty, although subtle, duochrome which varies from a light, grey-ish blue to darker blue and then to lilac and pink. Sometimes, depending on the light, you can get a glimpse of the grey, but maybe because I just used one coat of each. The reason for that is because the polish builds up quite thick. I had some problems with bubbles, when adding a third coat (second of topcoat), so removed it all and applied again, this time settling for less.
Apart from the bubbles, and the fact that the double ended brush makes it a bit clunky when applying, I am happy with it. Even with an extra shine topcoat, I noticed the finish is not too shiny, and someone even asked me if I had my matte topcoat on! Colour is fab and durability great!
Really like my new H&M ring, so decided to add it here too!
Rating:
So Many Lovely Things 