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Posts tagged Red
Sally Hansen Diamond 12 Hr Lip Treatment in ‘Fancy’
11
4 years
by Naomi in Lips
A couple of months ago, during one of my bargain beauty binges, I picked up this tube of Sally Hansen Diamond 12 Hr Lip Treatment from the pound shop for, you guessed it, £1. However, as happens to quite a lot of the make up that I buy on impulse, I put it in my make up drawer and forgot about it. Until recently, that is.
What first drew me to this gloss was the fact that it was from Sally Hansen, as I love Sally’s nail products so thought I’d give her make up a go too. The tube doesn’t actually say what the Diamond 12 Hr Lip Treatment is supposed to do, but according to the internet it is intended to condition and moisturise the lips for up to 12 hours, and give them diamond-like shine!
The gloss comes in a fairly large tube, with a sparkly polka dot lid, which is cute. The applicator inside the tube is very different to what I was expecting, however. Instead of the typical sponge applicator, it comes with a tapered bristle brush. The brush is quite fine which I thought would make precise application a lot easier, but it is actually quite difficult to use. The bristles tend to fan out rather a lot, which makes a bit of a mess, and the gloss itself is horribly thick and gloopy, so it doesn’t smooth out very well. Having said that, the gloss does smell lovely, almost like cinnamon bubblegum, so I will give it that.
The colour I chose from the several available was ‘Fancy’, which in the light of the shop looked like a deep shimmery red, perfect for Autumn’s berry trend. Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed with the colour when I first tried it, as it is a lot more orange in reality than it looks in the tube, and I’m not a fan of orange make up. The shade is slowly growing on me though, and the gloss does have incredible shine, and the diamond-like shimmer throughout it is really pretty.
On the lips, the gloss looks nice. The colour is strong and the shine is brilliant, but it’s not breathtaking. It’s just… nice. It’s not a comfortable gloss to wear either. As I said before, the formula is very thick, so it feels heavy and sticky on the lips, and though it feels quite moisturising, I always end up rubbing the gloss off within an hour, so I have no idea whether it actually lasts for 12 hours or not! It does make your lips tingle slightly though, which is fairly pleasant.
Overall, this definitely isn’t my favourite gloss in my collection, and I don’t think I’d buy another one like it from the Sally Hansen range, even at only £1. I noticed that the Diamond 12 Hr Lip Treatment glosses are no longer listed on the Sally Hansen website, so hopefully they’ve done the right thing and discontinued it, and replaced it with a better gloss. I think I’ll stick to Sally’s nail products from now on!
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
Ciate Mini Mani Month Round-Up: Part 2
9Hi everyone,
Six days have already passed since my last Ciate Mini Mani Month post, can you believe it? The days are flying by and before we know it, it will soon be Christmas day! But for now, as promised, here is Part 2 of my Mini Mani Round-Up, featuring the surprises hidden behind advent calendar doors 7 to 12.
You may be pleased to know that I managed to swatch every single varnish this time, so you can get a more accurate feel for what each one is really like. As usual, they all have that deliciously creamy signature Ciate formula, which applies evenly, dries quickly and is extremely chip resistant. Here they all are in their bottles…
Day 7 – Cutie Pie
Cutie Pie is a pretty, feminine, powdery pale pink shade with a creme finish. I usually prefer bold, bright varnishes to pastels, but this one really is quite lovely and clean-looking. The above look was achieved using two coats of varnish and it’s still quite sheer, but I think three would be plenty enough for a more opaque appearance.
Day 8 – Vintage
Vintage is my favourite varnish from this week. It’s a deep grey colour, but it has a tinge of greeny blue to it which makes it more unusual than most greys. I got so many compliments about my nails on the day I wore this. I have a feeling I’ll be getting a lot of wear out of Vintage – it goes with anything!
Day 9 – Mistress
Mistress is a classic, very bright scarlet red, with a slight orange undertone and a high shine finish. I’m not the biggest fan of orange varnishes so I wasn’t too keen on this when I first saw it, but once I applied it I instantly changed my mind. I think shades like this can look a bit tacky sometimes, but because Ciate is such good quality, it actually looks really beautiful on. The only issue I have with this is that it stained my skin when I removed it! You can see evidence of the staining around my cuticles on the photo below…
Day 10 – Ladylike Luxe & Day 11 – Bumble Bee Caviar Pearls
Ladylike Luxe is a shimmery yellow gold shade, and it’s the best gold varnish I’ve ever tried. For some reason, gold and silver varnishes tend to show up any imperfections on your nails (no matter how small) and though this one isn’t perfect, it definitely disguises imperfections more than any other metal colour I’ve used. Overall this is a fab varnish – very Christmassy!
The Bumble Bee Caviar Pearls consist of two different coloured pearls – black and yellowy gold. I gave myself a ring finger mani with them yesterday, and as you can see it turned out rather well for a first attempt! The pearls were very easy to use… You just pour them over your wet nail, press them down and leave them to set for 15-20 minutes. I absolutely love how they look and feel, but they haven’t lasted very well. This morning when I woke up I noticed that the colour on the gold pearls had faded/rubbed off slightly, and after 24 hours a lot of the beads have already fallen off. I’m not sure how long they’re supposed to last, but I thought it’d be longer than a day!
Day 12 – Twilight
Last but not least, today’s varnish is Twilight – a black base with a gold fleck shimmer running through it, which also looks greeny brown depending on the light. I have a feeling this was intended to go with the Bumble Bee Caviar Pearls, and indeed it is a great match. A gorgeous, classy shade to round off the week.
Which one of this week’s minis is your favourite?
Don’t forget, you can read Part 1 of my Ciate Mini Mani Month Round-Up here. Check back next Tuesday for Part 3!
Naomi x
Freebie Alert! Models Own with More Magazine
6I know we all love a good freebie, so I thought I would let you know about a great one I found today whilst browsing the supermarket! Every copy of this week’s More magazine (Issue 774) comes with a FREE Models Own nail varnish or lip gloss, worth £5.00 each. The magazine only costs so £1.50, so you are getting a VERY good deal! Even if you buy four copies to get every freebie, you are still only spending £1 more than ONE of these freebies is worth – amazing, right? Oh and don’t be put off by the low price tag of the magazine… I know some cheap magazine freebies are ‘limited editions’ which aren’t actually up to scratch with the rest of the brand, but this is the real deal.
There are two nail varnish shades to choose from (Raspberry Crush and Nude Beige), and two lip glosses (a pink and a red). The freebie I went for was Raspberry Crush, a gorgeous raspberry pink which I actually had my eye on a couple of months ago – I’m glad I didn’t buy it at the time now! I haven’t yet tried Raspberry Crush on my nails, but it looks like it has a lovely creme finish and I can’t wait to give it a go.
The magazine also comes with a free Miss Selfridge Lucky Gift Card, which gives you a surprise discount in store, between £1 and £500. There are also several other exclusive discounts in the magazine, such as 20% off at boohoo.com, Rock N Rose, Essensuals Hairdressing and Motel, and 25% off a spray tan at the Tanning Shop. Oh and a couple of free drinks too.
The magazine itself might be a little bit trashy, but who cares when you’re getting a bargain as brilliant as this?! The next issue of More goes on sale on the 27th of November, so you have 4 days left to get your Models Own freebie.
Naomi x
Mini Nail Varnish Haul featuring Models Own and Barry M
20Hi everyone,
Just a quick post from me today as I want to share with you my recent nail varnish buys. As well as the Models Own sale items I ordered a few weeks ago, I have acquired a few more shiny pretties lately. In fact, they’re ALL glittery! It must be the time of year, what with the party season and Christmas just around the corner.
The most exciting new varnishes in my collection are three from the new Models Own Wonderland range. The range features five sparkly, wintery glitters, all of which give a different stunning effect. The three I went for are…
From Left to Right:
- Northern Lights (pink micro holographic glitter)
- Southern Lights (purple micro holographic glitter)
- Jack Frost (Blue micro glitter in clear varnish)
Aren’t they ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL?? The photos really don’t do them justice. I can’t wait to try them on! I nipped into Boots to buy these yesterday and was extremely pleased to find them included in a 3 for 2 offer, so I got all three for a total of £10, saving £5. If you want the whole set I recommend you grab these whilst they’re on offer as it works out cheaper than buying the full boxed set from the Models Own website!
The next varnish in my little haul is a new one from Barry M – Ruby Glitter.
Barry M released this shade along with a few other glitters a few weeks ago. There are quite a few in the range that I would like (especially Amethyst Glitter), but I went for this one first because I instantly fell in love with it. It consists of different sized flecks of black glitter, studded with red/magenta glitter. It reminds me of Valentines Day (my birthday) for some reason… It just has an air of passion and luxury about it! Like most Barry M Nail Paints, Ruby Glitter retails for an affordable £2.99.
The final little gem in this haul is one that my mum brought back from Portugal last week – a lush purple shade from a range called ‘Yes Love’.
This varnish is Cadbury purple with a delicate golden shimmer running through it. I’m wearing this at the minute and it looks really lovely on. Apparently it only cost a bargainous 1 euro as well, which is a miniscule price tag for such a good quality varnish.
I’ll be reviewing all of these varnishes over the coming days and weeks, starting tomorrow with the ‘Yes Love’ purple so keep an eye out. Which is your favourite so far?
Naomi x
Chocolate Treat Week: Nails
5
4 years
In this penultimate Chocolate Treat Week post I will be talking about all things nail related. I will be sharing my favourite chocolate coloured nail varnish, by Barry M, as well as some new nail art featuring five of my favourite chocolate treats! See if you can guess what they are. Oh, and of course there’ll be a few words at the end of the post from one of my favourite bloggers, in The Last Rolo.
Nail Varnish… Barry M Nail Paint in ‘Chocolate Brown’
Since first discovering them many moons ago, I have always loved Barry M’s Nail Paints, so it seemed only natural to include their ‘Chocolate Brown’ shade in this post. Like all of their paints, this one has a fantastic formula. It applies effortlessly easily and leaves no brush strokes or streaking behind, and opaque, even coverage can be achieved in just two coats. The paint dries impressively quickly too so there’s no hanging around for hours waiting for it to dry, and as you’d expect of Barry M it is very long-lasting.
‘Chocolate Brown’ is a really stunning shade, and it has a high shine, creme finish which gives it a true look of chocolate! The brown colour is highly pigmented with an undertone of orange so it isn’t too dark. As such, even indoors in dim light it looks rich brown rather than dull black. I’m sure you’d all agree that ‘Chocolate Brown’ is perfect for Autumn/Winter 2012 as deep, earthy nail shades are bang on-trend right now.
Barry M Nail Paints are available in Superdrug and Boots for £2.99 each, but as far as I know they aren’t currently stocking this shade. However, you can get it even cheaper on a great website I discovered recently called Scentsational. They are selling ‘Chocolate Brown’ for £2.95 with free delivery, but if you ‘Like’ their Facebook page you can get £1 off your order! That’s how I got hold of this shade, so you can definitely trust the website and discount code!
Nail Art… Chocolate Wrappers
After much deliberation about what I would do for a chocolate themed nail art design, I came up with this – the wrappers and logos of five of my favourite chocolate treats! Can you guess what they are?
If you said (from left to right) Cadbury’s Creme Egg, Terry’s Chocolate Orange, Cadbury Twirl, Milky Bar and Maltesers then you are correct! I had a LOT of fun creating this look and I’m very pleased with the results… Especially the Milky Bar nail! I surprised myself with how neat and accurate I got the font on that one. As usual, I used nail dotting tools to draw this design, and the colours I used were:
- Avon Nailwear Pro ‘Real Red’
- Saffron ‘Shade 16′ (Purple)
- Rimmel 60 Seconds ‘Blue My Mind’
- Barry M ‘Yellow’
- Barry M ‘Chocolate Brown’
- Laval Crystal Finish ‘White’
- Primark ‘Black’
- NYC In A Minute ‘High Line Green’
- Avon Nailwear Pro ‘Coral Beat’
- Leichner Nail Gloss ‘Blueberry’
What do you think? Which five chocolate bars would you include in this design?
The Last Rolo…
The Last Rolo is where I hand over the last few words of each Chocolate Treat Week blog post to another blogger. In the run up to Chocolate Treat Week I asked five of my favourite bloggers a couple of questions about their favourite chocolate treats, and today’s answers come from Ra of RaRa Reid.
Can you recommend any chocolate scented, flavoured or themed beauty/fashion products?
I would recommend the Soft Coeur masage bar from Lush. It smells incredible and is amazing for your skin. Like most Lush products! It’s also heart-shaped which I love. 
Lush also have a lip tint called Double Choc. I haven’t actually tried this as brown shades don’t suit me, but it just smells wonderful! As for fashion, I am a huge fan of kitsch jewellery, especially necklaces. I got a Jammie Dodger necklace a while back from Diamond Lil’s and they have a lovely Bourbon Biscuit necklace which I’d also love to add to my jewellery collection. This is their website. There are plenty of other sites that have similar necklaces to this too.
What is your favourite chocolate treat to eat, and why?
Choosing a favourite chocolate treat is really quite difficult, I love all chocolate! My absolute favourite has to be a Kit Kat Chunky Peanut Butter, I haven’t actually had one for over 2 years now though as Teddi is allergic to nuts. Other than that, I love all the chocolates that I used to have as a child. Like Freddos and Curly Wurlys.
Once again, thank you so much for reading my latest Chocolate Treat Week post. Please come back tomorrow to read the final chocolate themed post which will focus on fashion and accessories.
Naomi x
BooHoo £50 Blogger Challenge
2
4 years
To celebrate BooHoo being included in Fashion Vouchers‘ ‘Top 10 Fashion Money Saving Websites’ list, Fashion Vouchers have launched a new blogger challenge! The challenge is to put together an outfit costing £50 or less using clothes, shoes, accessories or anything else from BooHoo’s website. There will be four winners, and each will win a £50 BooHoo fashion voucher. I love a good bargain so this challenge is right up my street! I’ve entered a couple of other challenges like this before and I always enjoy window shopping lovely items to put together my ideal outfit on a budget, so I thought I would give this one a go too, and here is my entry…
(Click the image for a closer look)
Shop this look:
– Annie Oversized Vintage Jumper in ‘Black’ (£20) – Davina Skull Print Leggings in ‘Berry’ (£10) –
– Quinn Black Suedette Platform Courts (£12) – Diamante Skull Chain (£8) –
I have been browsing the high street a lot lately for Autumn trends, and have spotted a lot of big slouchy jumpers and grunge style pieces on the shelves, with a mix of Gothic style prints. Lucky for me, I already incorporate these styles into my look anyway, so it seemed only natural to take this route when choosing my outfit for the challenge.
Too often people go for bright, patterned tops and plain bottoms, so I thought I would switch the conventions around a bit. I knew that I wanted to team a simple black jumper with bold bottoms, and the Annie Oversized Vintage Jumper seemed like a good starting point. I chose the red Skull Print Leggings to go with it as they offset the bagginess of the jumper nicely by being skin-tight, and the red adds a gorgeous splash of Autumn colour. The skull print is what initially drew me to this piece as it happens to be one of my favourite clothing prints, and it gives the outfit a hint of Gothic.
I added black Platform Courts to the outfit to show that grunge/Goth can be sexy too, and that the image can be carried through to the evening with some killer, confidence boosting heels. My final addition was the Diamante Skull Chain. I adore big statement pieces of jewellery, and own a few sparkly skull necklaces myself, so when I saw this necklace I just had to include it… It matches the leggings perfectly, and would really stand out on the simple jumper, giving the outfit a girly edge.
My outfit totals exactly £50, which I am very pleased with. This is the kind of thing I will be wearing myself throughout Autumn and Winter, and if I win I may even use the voucher to buy this outfit!
I was contacted about this challenge by email yesterday, but anybody can enter. If you fancy trying your hand at styling on a budget, here are the rules for entering:
How to Enter
1. Head over to BooHoo.com and start piecing together an outfit, making sure you do not exceed your £50 budget (no student discounts or other voucher codes can be used to help you stretch this budget I’m afraid).
2. Write a post about your outfit and this competition on your blog, which includes a link back to our home page www.fashionvouchers.com.
3. Email a link to your entry to .
Rules
1. The prize will consist of 1 x £50 BooHoo.com voucher, and there will be four winners.
2. No cash alternative is available for the prize.
3. The competition starts on September 1st.
4. Closing date for entries is September 30th.
5. Winner will be announced by October 10th on our twitter page @fashvouchers.
6. Only one entry per person.
I hope you like my outfit, and if you decide to enter yourself please comment below with the link to your entry so I can check out your fashion finds… and good luck!
Naomi x
Monopoly Nail Art
19
5 years
by Naomi in Nail Art
Today I thought I would share my latest attempt at nail art with you all, which is themed around squares on a Monopoly board! After doing my Pac-Man nail art last week, I wanted to try some more game themed designs. Monopoly is one of my favourite board games and I happened to have MUA’s Shade 5 to hand, which is very much like the colour of a Monopoly board, so it seemed only fitting for this to be my next design.
What do you think? I’m rather pleased with how they turned out, although it was VERY difficult drawing the ‘Free Parking’ car using my left hand! I’m very happy with the ‘Go’ nail though, and I think the coloured cuticles look good.
The colours I used for this design were: MUA Nail Varnish Shade 5, Avon Nailwear Pro ‘Real Red’, Avon Nailwear Pro ‘Coral Beat, Barry M Nail Paint ‘Yellow’, NYC Nail Polish ‘High Line Green’, Rimmel Pro Nail Polish ‘Fancy Fuchsia’, Primark Nail Polish ‘Black’, Primark Nail Polish ‘Blue’, Laval Nail Polish ‘White’, Technic Nail Art Pen ‘Black’ and Sally Hansen Base & Top Coat.
Naomi x
Pac-Man Nail Art
6After looking at some amazing computer game make up designs yesterday, I wanted to try my own game-inspired look. I didn’t want to do anything too complex (it was 9pm and I’d had a looong day), so I settled for nail art as I find it quite relaxing. I decided to do a basic Pac-Man design as the simple shapes are very easy to draw using nail dotting tools, and it only took five colours – black, white, red, blue and yellow. This was the finished result…
I painted Pac-Man on my index finger, Blinky the red ghost on my ring finger and the famous Pac-Man cherries on my thumb. I really enjoyed painting the cherries for some reason! I’m not completely happy with the overall look as, once again, my bed sheets left imprints on the design (someone please stop me painting my nails at night!), but I think they look cute enough. People keep telling me how much they like them anyway so I must be doing something right.
What other games would you like to see turned into nail art?
Naomi x
Olympic Nail Art for Team GB!
14As I’m sure you will all know, the London 2012 Olympics opened on Friday with a breathtaking opening ceremony. I was glued to the screen for the whole ceremony and I think the volunteers did an amazing job with their performances – they should all be very proud of themselves! It was great to see Danny Boyle pay homage to the National Health Service, and all of the brilliant music created in Britain. The highlight for me was definitely Mike Oldfield’s performance of ‘Far Above the Clouds’ from Tubular Bells III, one of my all time favourite pieces of music.
The games are now well underway and, of course, I am supporting Team GB all the way! To show my support for Great Britain, last night I created some Olympic inspired nail art. I painted each nail a different colour, the colours of the Olympic rings – Blue, yellow, black, green and red. Then, using nail dotting tools, I painted the Union Flag onto the blue nail, and gold Olympic rings on the black nail.
I know they’re not the neatest (it’s difficult painting straight lines with round tools!), but I’ll be wearing my Team GB nails with pride! The colours I used for this design are:
- Leichner Nail Gloss in ‘Blueberry’
- Barry M Nail Paint in ‘Yellow’
- Primark Nail Polish in ‘Black’
- MUA Nail Varnish in ‘Shade 13′
- Avon Nailwear Pro in ‘Real Red’
- Laval Crystal Finish Nail Polish in ‘White’
- Gallery Colours Nail Varnish in ‘Gold Mine 434′
- Sally Hansen Continuous Treatment Base & Top Coat
Which Olympic team are you supporting?
Naomi x
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