NOTD : Bourjois 10 Day Nail Polish

As you know from my previous post, I was one of the lucky winners of Glamour Magazine's May Giveway Bourjois Set consisting of a lovely lipgloss and this gorgeoooous nail varnish.

I'd never tried any of these Borjois 10 day polishes, as you know I am a fan of the lovely and cheap Catrice, a brand that unfortunately does not yet exist in the U.K., so I've never really thought about shelling out on the more expensive brands like Bourjois (am tempted to try out the Essie range since it's so raved about).

I'm never convinced with these longevity claims (5 days, 10 days with no chips), to me a manicure only looks good the first couple of days, as I'm a perfeccionist when it comes to manicures and the slightest chip makes we want to get hold of my acetone, clean it off and start again. Because I like changing often the colour of my nails, I don't really mind if nail polishes don't last that long, but obviously it's a plus when they do resist some wear and tear for a while longer.

I was pleasantly surprised with this Bourjois nail polish, it doesn't last anywhere near 10 days but it kept nice and shiny for longer than my usual polishes. I would say 3 days with no chips is more accurate, but I'm still dead chuffed with this baby. And the colour... Gorge-balls!
It was almost impossible to capture the real colour on camera for some reason, so I took some photos with my camera, and some with Mr.Fish's smartphone. The real thing is somewhere in between, a lovely mauvy pink.

Here's is slightly more lilac than the real colour

With flash, still not pink enough!

Here it's ever so slighty "pink-er" than the real colour!

Unfortunately no funky imaginative names on these lacquers, in fact - no name at all, which is quite annoying since I like having a reference. Actually I just went on the Boots website and searched for these polishes... apparently they do have names, at least on the site anyway. I couldn't seem to find it printed on the actual bottle. I think this one must be Guimauve according to Boots.

I really loved the shape of the cap, it sort of clicks when you close it which reassures me the bottle is tightly shut. The brush is very good too, has a marvellous shape that allows you to get most of the nail covered in just one stroke.

As per usual I did two coats and finished with Sally Hansen Insta-dry top coat.

NOTD : Ombre Pink Nails

I'm not going to do the "unless you've been living under a rock" catch phrase everyone seems to be saying nowadays, but I'm sure you are aware of the tremendous success ombre nails seem to be having at the moment. 

I looked at a few tutorials a while back - probably on pinterest - and yesterday I decided to brave the sponging technique myself.

I thought it would be trickier,  to be honest and I don't think I did too bad for a first time! 

I must try other combinations, this one is very subtle but I'm sure two clashing colours would look great too.

For obvious reasons, I thought I'd try with two shades of pink so I chose a couple from my Catrice collection : Miss Piggy Reloaded and Aretha's R-E-S-P-I-N-K.  (I'm so in love with these names they come up with!)

I'm sure you can easily find a tutorial on the internet, but let me know if you'd like me to do one anyway.

I would be more than happy to set my mitts as an example!

NOTD - Salmon & Garfunkel

I had to cut my nails so they're looking much shorter than I would like them to be... but sometimes it's good to make a change and in my case, to get rid of any peeling I may have on the tips.

Today's NOTD is a lovely salmon coloured nail polish by Catrice. This brand really has a lot of imagination when it comes to naming their shades and this one is no diferent : Salmon & Garfunkel. How cute is that?

I'm really gonna miss my Catrice nail polishes now that I'm living in Northern Ireland. When I go to Portugal on holidays I'll really have to stock up! (yeah, like I need a reason!)

Excuse the little chip on thumb nail, mani is 1 day old actually!

with flash

It's such a lovely colour, it will look particularly good in the summer when I've got a bit more of a tan. Hmm..  better stop thinking about that, I'm starting to get the summer blues, it's so grey and horrible outside!

All glittered up...NOTD

To achieve this sort of fading glitter effect from the tips downwards I used the combo "Romeo" and "Julia" by Essence (I've shown you before a mani with this combo here) and also a clear nail polish with finer glitter called "Space Queen" by Essence (shown before here). I'm pretty happy with the results... what do you think? I love me some glitter... :)

I figure I could do this with any colour nail polish underneath..must try it!

NOTD - Essence combo "Modern Romance" + "Space Queen"

Hello lovelies,

Here is one of my fave combos of the moment.

I'm now loving more and more nude, pastel and soft colours on my nails and this little duo is perfect as it's a beautiful pearly soft pink (Modern Romance) topped with a hint of glamour (Space Queen).

These babies were so cheap too, less than 2€ each!

My baby Marley was trailing around after me as I was taking these pics, so I thought I should take one with him too ;) 

My first "ELFish" experience + NOTD - Elf "Desert Haze"

Hi there lovelies,

Today I've become the proud owner of my very first ELF haul!
Up till now I'm really pleased with the overall quality, look and feel of the products, they all look so professional and with such good quality (especially the Studio Line ones).. and for such a great price! These products are cheap enough, but I was lucky there was a 40% off discount offer at the time I ordered so I payed 20 something pounds for all these goodies! I'm so pleased.

Oooh, exciting! 

Here's the breakdown on the goodies  (the prices include the 40% discount) :

1. Blending Eye Brush - 0.90£
2. Angled Eyeliner Brush *Studio Line* - 2.10£ 
3. Eyeshadow C Brush *Studio Line* - 2.10£
4. Complexion Brush *Studio Line* - 2.10£
5. Nail Polish - Smoky Brown - 0.90£
6. Nail Polish - Desert Haze - 0.90£
7. Mineral Infused Face Primer *Studio Line* - 3.60£
8. False Lashes Natural Lash Kit - 0.90£
9. Essential 32pc Eye Palette - Natural - 3.60£
10. High Definition Powder *Studio Line* - 3.60£
11. Cream Eyeliner Black (brush included) *Studio Line* - 2.10£

And here is the first product I've tested - a nail polish of course! It's a light taupe that gives that natural but polished look for everyday use called "Desert Haze". I love it! The formula of the polish itself pleasantly surprised me, it was very easy to apply, dried fairly quickly and gave a great shiny finish.

The actual colour in real life is slighty darker, with a browny, almost aubergine undertone.

 I shall be reviewing the rest of the products soon ;)
 Take care, and thanks for reading! x

Catrice nail polish "Miss Piggy Reloaded"

Hi there girlies :)
 So my mum is back in the UK and calm has been restored to our home, haha.
Bless her, she loved being here in Portugal with this warm weather and made a point of going to the beach every single day. She had become so obsessed with it now that she's living in the UK. I try to understand her, but I am so so fed up with the heat! Thankfully the weather changed this weekend and we had torrential rain and gailforce winds. Hmmm, it's so great staying indoors and cuddle up in my blanket watching tv... You're probably thinking I'm crazy to actually want cold weather and rain, but trust me, we really need it by now! 

Anyway, I discovered another cheap and cheerful brand of makeup - Catrice - and I'm becoming obsessed with their products, especially their nail polishes! I love their colours and the names are so brilliant! I got a lovely pink which I'm wearing right now and will show you the swatches, it's called "Miss Piggy Reloaded"!

It's such a cute bubblegum pink and the most amazing thing about it is that it has really tiny subtle bits of glitter that you can only really see in certain lighting or when direct sunlight hits it. I love it.

As you can see my mani is far from perfect at the moment, it was done yesterday and has suffered a bit of battering since, and also I'm experiencing some trouble with bubbling of the nail polish. I don't think it's anything to do with the formula itself, it's to do with the drying process of the polish, and I think the problem would be solved if I had a good drying top coat like seche vite. I've always loved MavaDry by Mavala, but it's quite expensive so I've kind of gone without it lately.

Here you can see the subtle glitter.. Lovely!

Thanks for reading! x

Blog interview at "Life of a Sweetaholic" + NOTD : Essence nail art twins "Romeo and Julia"

As some of you may realize, I've been very naughty with my blogging, like I said on my previous post : I blame it on my mother!
Bless her, I love her to bits but she's highly demanding and always on the go, and I have the job of chauffering her about!
I don't mind at all, but not blogging every day and checking out everyone's blogs is feeling very strange to me now, it was such a natural routine for me and am now feeling slightly disrupted by all this!
Never mind, by the end of the week things should go back to normal, since mother dear is going back to home to the U.K.

So I was just about to go to bed, when I decided to very quickly check my emails, and to my surprise had a comment on my blog from a lovely reader that said she had come across my blog through my blog interview on the "Life of a Sweetaholic"!
I've been so busy I hadn't even remembered this and it was such a pleasant surprise. I love Rachel's blog, she seems like such a lovely person and would love to meet her! I fully recommend her blog to anyone who might come across this post :)

I though I might aswell post a quick NOTD since I'm at it, so here goes my most recent combo : "Romeo" and "Julia" nail art twins by Essence. I'm really loving Essence cosmetics at the moment, they are so so cheap and are great quality products. Do you have this brand in the UK?
I loveeee this combo. I used the top glitter coat only on the thumb and ring nails, that seems to be the trend now but I think it just tones down the whole glitter thing without it being just another boring mani!

Natural light

With flash  

I have tons of new things to post soon, like my recent hauls and b'day prezzies, so stay tuned!

Night night lovelies xx

NOTD - Barry M, Racing Green

Hey babes,

Today I'm using Barry M's Nail Pain in Racing Green. I found this nail varnish amongst my mum's stuff, she's not living here at the moment (she's currently living in the UK) but she's left loads of things hanging around in her bedroom and her old bathroom (yeah, we commandeered it - it's bigger and has a bathtub!).
We don't have Barry M here in Portugal, but I knew about it and had heard good things about their products, namely the nail polishes.

So here it is, a gorgeous rich dark mossy green - I love it!

NOTD - 2true nail polish shade no.7

Hi guys,

Today I'm wearing a nail polish my mum gave me, she bought it at Superdrug and I wasn't very impressed at the time because it's a cheaper brand (hadn't even heard of 2true before) and the formula seemed quite sheer. I tried it on anyway and had a pleasant surprise. Yes, the colour is quite sheer but if you apply 2 to 3 coats it looks sooo cute! The shade is called no.7 but that's just boring, so I call it Hello Kitty pink, since it's such a girly, pearly pink!

I also decided to play around and experiment with some nail art studs I just had hanging around, and stuck a few on with clear nail polish.
Here they are, with 3 coats of nail polish and a clear top coat:

With flash

No flash