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Posts tagged 17
Fashion and Beauty Christmas Haul
6Well! After weeks of preparation – shopping, cooking and decorating – Christmas Day has been and gone, and we’re all probably a few pounds heavier than we were this time last week! I hope you all had a wonderful time, celebrating in your chosen way with the people you love, and I hope Santa brought you everything you wished for. I personally had a great time! The highlight of Christmas for me is playing games and doing quizzes with my family, and they were definitely done in abundance.
Christmas isn’t just about the presents, but I got some really lovely fashion and beauty related things this year, so I thought I would share them with you today. I also got a lot of chocolate, baking equipment, geeky stuff (including a bat detector which I’ve been wanting for AGES) and books – my friends and relatives know me well!
So, here are some of my Christmas gifts. Apologies for the strange colouring in a few of the photographs… They were taken in bad lighting!
My dad bought me this absolutely beautiful sterling silver Bat Skull necklace. He mentioned that he got it from Etsy and it was handmade in New York by an obviously very talented maker. I instantly fell in love with it when I opened the box, and in my surprise I ended up dropping the box in my mug of tea, woops! I adore bats so I am going to treasure this piece.
I also love hares, so my dad gave me this large pewter moon hare pendant as well. Isn’t it stunning? I need to find a chain for this pronto so I can start wearing it.
The dinosaur at the top was from my sister, Rex from Toy Story was from my fiancé, and the owl was from my fiancé’s sister. Owls, dinosaurs and necklaces are a few of my favourite things, so I was very pleased to receive all three of these beauties.
I received three different perfumes this year, all of which are replacements for perfumes I already have. Cacharel’s Amor Amor (one of my all time favourites), Vera Wang Princess Night, and an Accessorize Gift Set.
I didn’t get much make up this year, but my cousin gave me 17’s Smoky Eye Palette and a few little 17 lip glosses. The red gloss is gorgeous! The guy at the bottom is a rather cute owl lip balm.
How amazing are these?! My fiancé’s sister gave me these Batman nail transfers. I was so excited when I opened them and I cannot wait to give them a go. Definitely expect a review of these soon.
This cat bag from my mum was one of my favourite gifts this year. It’s big and furry and very soft – it needs to stop raining now so I can use it!
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a scarf, gloves or socks, and this year I got all three. The scarf is purple with green skulls and is nice and light – ideal for spring. The socks have squirrels on them, one of my favourite animals, and the rainbow mitten gloves are SO SNUGGLY – win!
Not the best photo in the world but my mum got me a BATMAN ONESIE! Amazing, right?
A massive thank you to everyone who spoilt me this year, I am extremely grateful. Did you get anything fashion and beauty related for Christmas this year? I’d love to see your hauls too!
Naomi x
Ciate Mini Mani Month Round-Up: Part 3
6Hi everyone,
First off, I would like to wish my sister, Freya, a very Happy Birthday! Today she turns 21, an important age, but she’ll still always be my baby sister, wanting all my things. HAPPY BIRTHDAY FREYA!!
Now, down to business… Today I opened the door of Day 18 on my Ciate Mini Mani Month advent calendar, which means it’s time for another weekly round-up! This post will feature Day 13 up to Day 18, and I have swatches of all but one of the Paint Pots this time. I must admit, my feelings were mixed this week. There were a couple that I really liked, and one or two that I wasn’t keen on at all, but you can’t win them all as they say!
Day 13 – Glass Slipper and Day 14 – Speed Dial
On Day 13 I opened the door to Glass Slipper, a lovely blue glitter polish, and the first of the calendar’s three exclusive shades. The glitter is very fine and beautiful, and doesn’t feel too rough in texture, but it isn’t really dense enough to wear on its own (unless you’re willing to apply 3+ coats). It works perfectly as a top coat however, and is surprisingly easy to remove for a glitter.
Speed Dial is an unusual shade – it looks bright orange in the bottle, but I found it applies somewhere between a red and an orange. It is more orange in real life than it looks in the photo above though. I just can’t quite decide whether I like it or not! It definitely doesn’t look that good with Glass Slipper over the top, but with the right outfit I can see it working. Not one of my favourites, but not bad. It applied evenly and has a creamy formula at least!
Day 15 – Headliner
Headliner is my absolute favourite this week… I seem to have a thing for blues at the minute! It is a dark turquoise blue shade with a stunning creme finish and I love it! As you’d expect, the formula is great and, quite impressively, it only takes one coat to achieve a completely opaque finish (the photo above show two coats, however). Headliner got me a lot of compliments when I wore it, and without a doubt I’ll be wearing this one a lot!
Day 16 – Big Yellow Taxi
Ick, I’m not liking Big Yellow Taxi. I initially thought this looked okay as it appeared quite a creamy banana yellow in the bottle, but when I applied it I was soon disappointed. It has a really strange gloopy formula, so it went on very streaky, and no number of coats seemed to be able to even the finish out. The yellow shade is slightly too bright, and in all honestly it looks like tippex coloured in with yellow highlighter pen – not pretty! On the plus side, it doesn’t leave any stains behind at all. I don’t think I have the skin tone to pull this off, but it would probably look great against darker skin… I may use it for Batman nail art though!
Day 17 – Power Dressing
I haven’t tried Power Dressing yet so I can’t comment much on the formula and colour, but in the bottle it looks like a classic deep navy blue, and I imagine it will have a lovely shiny finish. I’m looking forward to using this!
Day 18 – Candy Shop Caviar Pearls
Candy Shop is the third out of four bottles of Caviar Pearls in the calendar, and so far they are my favourite. The beads are very small and coloured in three shades – turquoise blue, pink and orange. As with the other pearls that I have tried, these are very easy to apply (just pour over a wet nail, press down, and leave to set for 15 minutes), and look really striking against a bright varnish. The purple shade I chose to pair the pearls with is actually Cabaret, one of the shades I didn’t swatch in Part 1, so now you can see what it looks like.
So there you go, a mixed bag of mostly brights this week. Which is your favourite? Please vote below! Check back for Part 4 next Monday, on Christmas Eve, and if you want to see the previous shades in the Ciate Mini Mani Month, they are swatched in my Part 1 and Part 2 posts.
Naomi x
Nail Varnish Haul
7
5 years
by Naomi in Nails
After a week of waiting, my bargainous eBay nail varnish haul has arrived! This lot cost just £6.10 (with £4 postage) for fifteen varnishes, but the seller actually sent me twenty so I’m very pleased. They’re all new/swatched once/used only a couple of times and come from several different ranges. Read on to find out what they all are!
From Left to Right:
Models Own Smash Up Nail Polish – Black
Models Own Nail Polish – Bronze Rage
Models Own Nail Polish – Pearly Queen
Models Own Nail Polish – Utopia
From Left to Right:
2 True Crystal Nail Polish – Shade 2
2 True Crystal Nail Polish – Shade 4
2 True Crystal Nail Polish – Shade 3
From Left to Right:
Orly Oh Cabana Boy
Orly Chocolate Martini (I think! The name has rubbed off)
From Left to Right, Top to Bottom:
Revlon Colorstay Always on Colour – Ongoing Orchid
Revlon Colorstay Always on Colour – Sheer Sparkling Orchid
Revlon Colorstay Always on Colour – Clear
Revlon Nail Enamel – Lavender Light
Revlon Nail Enamel – Strawberry Electric
From Left to Right:
17 Magnetized Nail Polish – Grey
Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Colour – Joanna
L’Oreal Manicure Shine Wear & Shine Top Coat
Maybelline Salon Expert Nail Colour – Sheer Shining Star
Ruby & Millie Nail Colour – Lilac
Fearne Nail Varnish – Taupe
I am so looking forward to trying all of these out. Which is your favourite?
Naomi x
This Week’s Beauty Haul
3
This week I’ve treated myself to a few nice new things, all of them bargain buys as well which makes them all that little bit more awesome!
Today, from Superdrug, I bought a copy of Glamour magazine for £2 and MUA Pressed Powder in Shade 1 for £1. I don’t usually buy Glamour magazine, but the April issue comes with a free 100ml tube of a Percy & Reed hair product! There’s four to collect and in total they’re worth £43, making them £10.75 each – well worth the £2 I paid for the magazine! I went for the Moisturising Conditioner.
The Myleene Klass Nail Wraps were a snip at £2 (I bought them from someone on a forum who was selling them for her mum). I’ve been wanting to try nail wraps for a while so I couldn’t pass up the chance to get these!
I also bought three Rimmel Colour Rush Mono Eye Shadows in (from top to bottom) Tempted, Siren and Envy, which I’m really looking forward to trying out.
Yesterday, on eBay, I won a batch of 15 nail varnishes for just £6.10! They’re all new, swatched once or only used a couple of times, and there’s a mix of different brands including Models Own, Ruby & Millie, 17 Magnetic polish, Andrea Fullerton, Orly, Revlon and others. So excited about receiving them!
I’m going to review each of these products over the next few weeks so please check back soon to see what I have to say! What have you been buying lately?
Thanks for reading,
Naomi x
17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Lilac
0
5 years
by Naomi in Nails
Since the end of last year when I first heard about magnetized nail varnish, I have been searching for an affordable magentized product. Most of the magnetic nail varnishes I could find were all over £15, a lot more than I wanted to spend, and they didn’t always come with the magnet which would have been extra expense. I had almost given up my search, when I spotted this post by the lovely Nocturnal Beauty. Magnetized nail polish WITH magnet for just £5.99? It seemed too good to be true! But yesterday I went to Boots with some of my birthday money and there it was! I purchased the 17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Lilac (which is actually a deeper shade of plum than it is lilac). There are three other shades available in the new range, Gun Metal, Blue and Teal, but as you can probably tell by now I am a purple fanatic so it seemed only natural to try the Lilac.
I had heard mixed reviews about this range, with some of my Twitter followers telling me that it chips quite easily, but I wanted to see for myself so as soon as I got home I removed my red Nails Inc. birthday nails and applied the Magnetized Nail Polish.
Since the magnet needs to be used when the varnish is still wet, I applied a fairly thick coat of varnish and it went on very evenly without any trouble. The magnetic lid (which comes away from the applicator for ease of use) needs to be hovered over the wet varnish straight away for at least 15 seconds so the effect can develop. As you can see, there is a ridge on the lid which indicates how far away the magnet needs to be, which is very useful.
I found that the varnish dries very quickly and if the magnet is held close enough the effect is stunning, as is obvious in the picture above. However, holding the magnet so close means that you need a very steady hand. On my right hand, the magnet slipped a couple of times and smudged the varnish, so I held it slightly further away. As a result, the rippled, almost tie dye look is less apparent on my right hand but is still present.
I know it has only been a day since I applied the varnish, but so far I have not experienced any chipping, probably because I’ve used a good quality, reliable clear top coat over the top.
Overall I am very impressed by the 17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Lilac. The colour is absolutely beautiful and really catches the light, both inside and outside of the house. For £5.99 this is a brilliant bargain and I will definitely be adding more shades to my collection very soon.
What do you think of the new magnetic nail varnish trend?
Thanks for reading,
Naomi x
