Monday 27 June 2016

Colors by Llarowe 'Lotus' & Cirque Colors 'Halcyon' Nail Art

Hello!

No Nail Mail this week but I do have some Nail Art to show you. Lots of pictures ahead as I just couldn't help taking a million photos of this mani! For these I used Colors by Llarowe 'Lotus' and Cirque Colors 'Halcyon'.

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'Lotus' is a gorgeous Orchid pink with gold and pink shimmer from the Colors by Llarowe Summer 2016 collection. The mixture of the pink and gold makes the shimmer lean towards rose gold which I love. This was three easy coats.

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Because of the rose gold leaning shimmer I paired it with Cirque Colors 'Halcyon' from their Holiday 2015 collection as this is my favourite rose gold polish. It's just stunning! This was just two coats on my accent nail.

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I wanted to tie the whole mani together so decided I'd use some nail vinyls for some nail art. I added a coat of HK Girl Top Coat on top of 'Lotus' first so that the nail vinyls didn't rip up the polish underneath during removal. I wanted to accent 'Lotus' with 'Halcyon' so I used some thin straight nail vinyls to create a cross at the bottom of the nail and painted over the bottom and side triangles it created with 'Halcyon'.

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I've always struggled with nail vinyls but previously I hadn't been doing a layer of top coat first. It made SUCH a big difference and I love how these turned out. I also used the latex barrier 'Zap' from Rainbow Connection UK to stop the 'Halcyon' going everywhere when dabbing it over the nail vinyl pattern. I love 'Halcyon' but it's a nightmare for clean up due to the shimmer and silver flakies. (This isn't an issue when removing everything though, just when your cleaning your cuticles etc...). After removing the vinyls (before 'Halcyon' dried) and letting it dry I topped it all off with another layer of HK Girl top coat.

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I really loved these polishes together and this design. I think I'm confident with stamping now so maybe mastering Nail Vinyls will be my next challenge. I brought these nail vinyls a while ago but I think they are the Skinny Straights Vinyls by 'Nail Vinyls' and I believe I purchased them from Picture Polish, they have their own website though.

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What do you think? Are there any nail techniques you're working on at the moment?

Thanks for visiting,

Have a lovely day,

Helen xx

Thursday 23 June 2016

Femme Fatale Cosmetics 'Saturnalia' Swatch & Review

Hello!

Today I have 'Saturnalia' by Femme Fatale Cosmetics to show you. This was one of the two Facebook group exclusives Sophie created for us last month.

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'Saturnalia' is a gorgeous teal holo packed with super sparkly microglitter and pink shimmer. It's truly stunning in the sunshine!

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The formula was amazing and I only needed two easy coats. I love opaque polishes! I topped it all off with HK Girl top coat. 

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I was a bit worried about removal with such a huge amount of microglitter but it removed perfectly. I love this polish and in the sun I couldn't stop staring at my nails! What do you think?

Thanks for visiting,

Have a lovely day,

Helen xx

Monday 20 June 2016

Nail Mail Monday - Femme Fatale Cosmetics Super Haul & Color4Nails Goodies

Hello!

It is tipping it down with rain today in the UK so I hope wherever you are is more sunny. It's the first day of our summer today as well! Standard! I was worried I'd not be able to take my photos today thanks to the dullness but I managed to gather some light from my window.

Today I've got my super haul from Femme Fatale cosmetics to show you. First up I have the new 'There and Back Again' collection which is themed on The Hobbit. I think this collection looks absolutely stunning as a set with the mix of colours and finishes. A creative masterpiece!




From Left to Right is Femme Fatale Cosmetics 'Elvenking', 'Heart of the Mountain', 'Lonely Mountain', 'My Precious', 'The Last Great Fire-Drake', 'The Necromancer', 'Thief in the Shadows' and 'Wandering Wizard'.

I also got a few other polishes with these.



From Left to Right is Femme Fatale Cosmetics June COTM 'Land of Treats', Emily de Molly 'Gold Light of Day (A Femme Fatale Cosmetics Store Exclusive) & Contrary Polish 'Somebody Loved'.

I also had my much anticipated Nail Mail from Color4Nails this week containing some Limited Edition Emily de Molly's. Especially 'LE 32' which I'm currently wearing, blog post for this beauty will be up soon!



From Left to Right is Emily de Molly 'LE25' & 'LE32 (which is a burgundy to orange thermal)'.

I also picked up some more of my cuticle oil which is a Color4Nails own brand oil in the scent Coconut & Kiwi which is my favourite of the many they do. I really love the brush application of this, so convenient and easy to use and it lasts for ages! Got to keep those cuticles moisturised!


I had a major delve into the Femme Fatale Cosmetics Eye shadow range with my Femme Fatale order this month! There was a new release and also a re-release of some discontinued shades with a new version 2 formula to improve application. I also got a couple of the Cauldron of Mysteries Eye shadows that are LE releases.



From Left to Right, Top to Bottom is Arcanomicon, Deepmoss, Estranged Sea Lion (LE Cauldron of Mysteries), Faerie Fire, Inscribe, Mystic Conjurer, Peebles, Phantasm, Prismo, Rampage, Six Days of Storms (LE Cauldron of Mysteries), The Scarecrow, Time Lost, Watery Grave & Zodiacal Light.

Femme Fatale also stock Detrivore Cosmetics and I picked up a couple of eye shadows to try.



From Left to Right is 'Midnight' & 'Vaermina'

Femme Fatale Cosmetics also released a new Eye shadow collection this month called the Faraway Collection based on the children's story The Faraway Tree written by Enid Blyton. I used to watch the TV show of this as a child and I loved it so I was really excited to see what Sophie came up with. The 20 piece collection is like a Rainbow for your eyes! I brought the sampler pack and it came with a couple of extra samples from the Cauldron of Mysteries as well! The COTM polish above was also linked to this collection. I know there's some of these I'll need more of! 


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I also purchased some more of the Femme Fatale Cosmetics Shadow Magic Primer as it really does help your eye shadow last all day and using it everyday I needed a top up!

This is now my Femme Fatale eye shadow collection! I'm going to need a bigger box!


Phew! That was a big Haul! What do you think of all these? Any questions or favourites? Let me know in the comments. Let me know if there is anything you'd like to see a full mani of on the blog.

Thanks for visiting,

Have a lovely day,

Helen xx