NOTD - Colville Mews and Luxe and Lush

Today's NOTD is a rather girly one.  I wore this combo to a recent wedding as it was subtle but a little bit special.   I think you could probably get away with wearing this to work if they weren't too fussy about nail colours and finishes.  To do it I used Nails Inc's Colville Mews, China Glaze's Luxe and Lush and No7's Stay Perfect.

Firstly I put on a coat of Nails Inc's Colville Mews, which is a wonderful putty coloured creme.  This is one of my favourite neutrals.  It is has tinges of pink and grey in it but is nice and opaque.  Below you can see what it looks like on.  That is just one coat - in my humble opinion that is pretty amazing for a pale neutral colour.  The formula on this was great, not too runny but not too thick.

Although I liked it as it was I wanted something a little bit less 'daytime' as I was going to both the church wedding and the evening reception.  So I decided to jazz it up a little.

To do that I added China Glaze's Luxe and Lush.  This is probably my ultimate favourite sparkly topcoat.  It is a wonderful flakie which, when it catches the light, changes colour between green, gold, pink and blue.  You can see the way it looks over several different polish shades here.  It really is beautiful and photos cannot do it justice.  This polish is thicker than most due to the nature of the flakes.  One coat is enough to get a thin even coverage of shards, as seen below.  They also lie nice and flat, there is nothing worse than uneven nails.  Due to the fact that it is thicker it takes longer to dry than normal China Glaze polishes, but not a ridiculously long time.

Here you can see the final result.  I finished it off with the No7 stay Perfect top coat and it lasted an impressive 5 days.  Even then I took it off because I was getting a little bored and it was starting to show a bit of wear and tear around the tips.  

Magazine Freebies - October 2012

This month we are very lucky in the 'freebie' department.  I do love a good freebie, and not one of those cheat ones where you have to go to a counter or send away.  A good old fashioned on-the-front-of-the-magazine freebie.  Today I picked up two magazines, In Style and Marie Claire (which I don't usually buy), purely because of the free gifts.  Naughty I know, but it gives me something to read on the train and I get a little beauty treat as well.  Win win.

First up we have In Style and their Benefit goodies.  I was extra chuffed with this one because it was on offer in Tesco, £2.50  instead of £3.80, bargain. I picked up Bene tint as it was the only thing left but I am quite glad as I know I like the product and this is a nice travel size or good for having in my handbag.  The other things available (if you can find them) are Sun Beam and Cha Cha tint.  I am tempted to keep my eyes open, especially for Cha Cha tint as I would really like to try that one.

 

I have never bought In Style before but I have to say I rather enjoyed it.  My favourite bits were the interview with Chloe Moretz (is it strange to be in awe of a 15 year old?), their profile on the new gothic beauty trend and their A-Z of beauty.  The A-Z of beauty included many of my personal favourites and has made me think about doing my own version as a blog series.

The other magazine that I bought was Marie Claire.  The free gift with this one was a 30ml tube of L'occitane's hand cream.  It was available in various scents; shea butter, date bouquet, rose petals and mango flower.  I decided on mango flower as I thought it sounded a bit different (plus I am a sucker for all things mango).  I'll tell you right now it smells amazing.  Personally I think it smells like mango not mango flower but it is lovely either way.  I think this would be a perfect handbag hand cream except for the fact that it is rather luxurious (and expensive, were you to replace it) so I think I would save it for special occasions.  I am tempted to pick up the shea butter version as well but I'm not sure I can justify it.

The magazine itself is fatter than In Style but this could be down to extra adverts.  Either way I liked that it felt more substantial in my hands.  My favourite parts of this magazine were the interviews with women in love with the styles of different eras, an article about the quest for finding the perfect perfume and a page of 'Good Princess' vs 'Evil Queen' makeup looks.

No7's Foundation Match Service Update 2

I have recently being experimenting with new foundations.  I decided to use No7's Foundation Match Service Update which you can see my first impression of here.

I updated you on how I felt about the Beautifully Matte foundation here.  Needless to say I wasn't blown away and felt as if the colour matching claims of No7's Foundation Match Service had been exaggerated.

I wanted to see if this would be the case in both of the samples I received.  I have been trialing the Stay Perfect for a while now and can honestly say I love it.  It is a wonderful match for my skintone.  It stays really well on my skin and I love the slightly dewy healthy finish it has.  It honestly looks like my skin - but better.

I am still working my way through the extremley generous sample size I was given but will probably be purchasing a full size when it runs out (and I am no longer on a project pan).  It is the fist liquid foundation that I feel comfortable wearing.

Due to my success with this foundation I am going to try wearing the Beautifully Matte again to see if my mind will have changed since I first tried it a few weeks ago.

Why do you wear makeup? TAG

This month's Tuesday Tag was created by the wonderful Sprinkleofglitter and Beautycrush, you can watch their responses here.  It is basically about finding out your makeup history and is called 'Why do you wear makeup?'.

When did you begin wearing makeup?

I didn't have much of an interest in makeup as a young child.  My mum almost never wears makeup and I am the eldest girl so I never really saw people putting makeup on.  One thing I really got into was body products and nail varnishes.  The thing that got me into these was The Body Shop.  When I was about nine years old I was taken my great aunt to The Body Shop and was in awe of what was there and in fact spent all of my holiday money in there (which I slightly regretted when we then went into The Disney Store).  The range I was particularly in love with was the Oceanus scent, to this day the smell of it brings back memories of that trip.

I started experimenting with makeup when I was about 13 or 14, sadly this was mainly involving blue eyeshadow.  In my defense I didn't know any better.  At college I would wear mascara and tinted lip balm on a daily basis with eyeliner making a guest appearance every now and again.  When I started working on my gap year I started wearing makeup on work days in order to feel more 'put together'.  Then university rolled around and my attitude to makeup changed again.  I could never be bothered in the morning as a few extra minutes of sleep seemed more important than putting on makeup for lectures.  However I also started going out properly in the evenings.  This is why I started playing around with foundation and other makeup items which I had never really bothered with before.  Now I love having makeup as something fun to wear for a night out and if I have the time or the inclination I sometimes I put it on in the morning before I head off to uni.


How do you feel without makeup?

It depends if I was popping to the supermarket I wouldn't bother to put makeup on.  For university I almost never wear makeup, but if I do it is just a quick bit of mascara and lip stain.  If I am going to the pub or going out for lunch or dinner I will wear the same and maybe a bit of powder foundation.  For a night out I will normally go all out on the makeup front.

During the day if I wasn't wearing makeup I think that I would honestly feel fine as I don't wear it often anyway.  If I wasn't to put makeup on before going out in the evening I would feel fine but maybe not quite as confident as I would like.  I have gone out clubbing before whilst being barefaced and I'll admit it did feel a little strange.  I did feel as if people were looking at me strangely but that was probably paranoia.  After a while I started to forget about it and I had a lovely night anyway.  I think overall it just depends on the situation and who I am with.  I dislike being with a group of beautifully made up girls when I have no makeup on, somehow it makes me feel as if I am lazy for not making that effort.


What do you like about makeup?

I like the way makeup can help me feel like a different person.  I used to have my 'work' makeup and it turned me into 'work Rosie'.  She wasn't afraid of stroppy customers and was always infinitely patient.  It can improve my confidence for when I happen to bump into that guy that I have a crush on or even more importantly the dreaded ex-sighting.

Another thing I adore about makeup is that you can use it to express the way you are feeling.  Smokey eyes are for when I am feeling flirty.  Red lips is sexy and vintage.  Thick eyeliner is for when I am angry about something and want to channel my grungy teenage years.  I used to change my hair colour to suit my mood but makeup has taken over that duty.  It is my way of communicating with the world how I am feeling that day without saying a single thing.


What are three of your Holy Grail items?

First would have to be Benefit's Hello Flawless powder foundation
Second is The Body Shop's Lip Stain
Thirdly is a bit of a cheat because it is my Urban Decay Naked Palette.

Life is beautiful...an update

You may have noticed that I have been a bit absent over the last few days.  Well a combination of a family wedding and a terrible cold have rather wiped me out.  I am on the mend now but have come to a decision regarding my 'life is beautiful' posts.

Doing them every single day has started to feel to restrictive, especially as I am now back at university and often don't get home until quite late.  Instead every weekend I will post about the things that have made my week beautiful.  I am hoping this will reignite my passion for this project.