Katy Perry OPI The One That Got Away
I recently picked up the OPI Katy Perry mini set and I really like all the polishes. I LOVE Teenage Dream, but all of the polishes are really nice. There’s a mixture of colours and finishes and this one is a pretty purple shimmery foil-type polish. It’s like a purple base colour with very fine pink/raspberry micro glitter, which you can probably detect most in the last picture. I really love this colour, I have a soft spot for raspberry pinks and shimmers.
The application of this polish was nice and easy, two coats and done. The only down side was on removal of this polish it really stained my nails! I’m not talking a slight tinge either, I mean my nails were just completely stained a weird pinkish, yellow all over were the polish was. I always have minor yellow tinged tips due to excessive nail polish wear, but this polish was crazy for staining.
I’m not sure if it’s my Lumos base coat that is not very good at preventing staining or if this polish is just a stain monster. The Lumos base coat doesn’t seem very substantial, you can definiately see my nail ridges more with this base coat, but I do like the way it dries instantly. For now I’ve swapped back to my Nails Inc Kensington Caviar base coat. It takes a lot longer to dry, but it feels like you have a thick, substantial base to layer the colour on top. I’ll try this polish again with a different base coat when I’ve grown out my staining a bit! :s
This next picture shows the raspberry microglitter the best.
Has anyone else found that this polish is a stain monster? Although really I don’t mind, it’s such a pretty colour, I don’t mind putting up with a little staining :P
Barry M Lip Paint Pinkie Gold Sparkle
I’ve wanted this lipstick for ages! It is never in any Boots stores when I’ve looked and I never wanted to make a Barry M online order for fear of spending all my money! However, with a lot of restraint I finally made a small order and included this lovely lipstick. I was worried about the formula of this lipstick and buying before swatching it because some Barry M lipsticks can be a little drying, but I need not of worried because this lipstick is very nice and not at all drying.
The colour is, like it’s name, a pinkie sheer lipstick with a gold sparkle sheen to it. It’s sheer enough to apply without a mirror and although it’s lasting time isn’t great, it’s very easy to apply it doesn’t take long to top it up. The lipstick in the tube is really pretty too, it’s a nice dusky pink with a almost marbled gold shimmer running through it.
Finally here is a swatch on my lips. As you can see it’s not very pigmented, but leaves a nice pinkie gold sparkle finish. The lipstick is quite moisturising and this is my go-to lipstick for a neutral day with a bit of sparkle.
I’m in Marseille right now and I have a few scheduled posts for this week while I’m away. I’m probably still on Twitter though, I’ve sorted out my phone with an internet booster so I will have internet while I’m away. I’ve definitely packed this lipstick to take away with me. However, I am concerned about melting lipstick and myself melting in the heat. I’m a total heat wuss! Hopefully myself and my lipsticks will make it back in a non-melted state :P Speak soon! xxxx
Aussie Winners Announced…
The winners of the Aussie summer party pack are:
- Laura
- Leanne
- Sarah
- christine taylor
- liloo
- Leisha
- Rhiannon Price
Guest Post: Lauren Loves…Nail Polish Trends of 2011
Today I have a guest post over on Lauren Loves… blog about nail polish trends in 2011 so far. The lovely Lauren is away on her holiday and hope she is enjoying her the nice weather! Here it has been raining all day and I’m wearing boots, two coats and carrying an umbrella! Not nice! Hope on over to have a look at the Spring/Summer polishes before the weather gets any worse! :P
Missguided Misschievous
I picked up this polish as a freebie with Cosmo last month. I also have another Missguided freebie polish from last year that I love. Although these polishes are actually really good, I should actually buy some myself.
This polish is a lovely tomato red, opaque in 2 coats. These pictures are without top coat and the polish is so shiny I had a bit of trouble trying to get a picture that was in focus! The formula for this polish is amazing. It’s thick, but not too thick, it covers up any ridges or imperfections in your nails and leaves a really shiny, glossy colour.
Jen from nailPolishUK recently posted about a Missguided polish yesterday and basically said it all in her post. Great polish formula, needs more colours! :D
This polish also lasts really well, I keep this polish on for nearly a week with no chips, pretty good! I really don’t own many red polishes, I think this is my only tomato red one. I always skip them when I’m polish shopping because I think I’ve probably got enough reds already with it being the classic polish colour. You have got to have some good reds though :) Are there any colours you avoid or tend to go for when you’re out shopping?
To make sure I don’t go MIA for another week, while I’m away in Marseille suffering in the heat (I’m not good with heat, any more than 16 degrees and I’m in need of an ice pack! :P) I’m going to schedule some posts. I’ll do a mixture of lipstick/nail swatches and reviews to keep you entertained :)
Also don’t forget to enter my Aussie-versary giveaway! It closes this Friday and I need 7 people to receive a Aussie Summer party pack, there ‘s popping candy, or and Aussie haircare, ofc :P xxx
Aussie-versary Giveaway!
To celebrate Australia’s 110 year Aussie-versary Aussie have released new pretty packaging and are also hosting a little giveaway for the blogging community. Each Aussie Angel has 7 Summer party packs to give away and all you have to do to win one is leave a comment below telling me if you have something to celebrate and what it is, it can be anything big or little – Aussie use any excuse to celebrate! :) Don’t forget to leave me your email to contact you as well!
And best of all? All those who receive packs will have the opportunity to take part in a challenge, with the chance of one person winning 10 tickets for themselves and 9 of their friends or followers to the HUGE Summer party in October! I went to the last party in the Summer and it was a lot of fun!
If you are one of the seven chosen to receive a Summer pack you can choose one product from the Aussie-versary Limited Edition ranges to include in your own pack:
So, each winner can choose one product from the following ranges:
Take The Heat range – shampoo, conditioner, 3MM, heat-protection cream, heat-protection spray – For beautifully blow-dried hair wrap these products around your locks.
Miracle Moist – Shampoo, conditioner, 3MM – These heavenly products infuse moisture into dry damaged hair, leaving hair quenched, luscious, smooth and conditioned faster than you can say ‘shine on me’.
Luscious Long – Shampoo, conditioner, 3MM, leave-in conditioner – Blended with wonderful lovelies like Blue Mountain Eucalyptus extract, these products help transform weak, distressed hair into luscious locks.
The deadline to enter for is Friday 19 August (That’s this Friday!)
I’ve already played with my party poppers (love the smell after you pop them!), put on my flip flops and sunglasses and I’ve only been awake about 30 minutes, lazy day! :P I’m off to try out my new Take The Heat conditioner and leave in spray. Since I’ve been growing my hair I figured I should be using more heat protection to cope with my daily straightening :) Oooh and popping candy for lunch, good day! :D
(I especially like the fact that the glasses are large enough to cover my sleepiness! :p)
Terms and conditions
1. This competition is open to the Aussie Angels online communities
2. Winners must be UK Mainland residents and aged 18 years or over
3. Winners of the giveaway are to be chosen by Aussie Angels
4. To enter, community members must write a blog post, OR comment on an Angels’ Giveaway blog post, stating how they qualify for a Summer Party pack
5. To qualify for winning the Summer party pack, they must have something to celebrate (there are no restrictions on their reasons for celebration)
6. Selection criteria: Each Aussie Angel will select their own 7 community member winners. Selection is entirely at each Angels discretion
7. The Promoter will not be liable for applications not received, incomplete, delayed or damaged. Last date for receipt of entries is Friday 19 August 2011
8. There will be up to 7 winners per Aussie Angel
9. Winners must be chosen and notified in writing, by the Angels, by Tuesday 23 August 2011
10. The Angels must also notify Aussie, in writing, who they have chosen, by Tuesday 23 August 2011
11. A list of the prize winners will be available on www.uncoveraussie.co.uk after this date.
12. The prizes are as stated and cannot be transferred, sold or exchanged. There is no cash alternative. Only one prize per household. No bulk or third party entries accepted
13. Summer Party packs will be sent by Aussie, and all delivery costs covered by Aussie
14. By entering this competition, entrants agree to be bound by the rules and by any other requirements set out in the promotional material.
PROMOTER: Procter & Gamble UK, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 OXP
OPI Designer Series Tapestry
Hello again! I am a bad bad blogger. Yet again I go MIA without warning, I do apologise for my slacking of posting and commenting. I have been reading, but only in motion. I scroll through my Google Reader during breaks between running participants and hope to absorb all the lovely blog posts in a super fast blur of info, chat and beautiful pictures.
I am going to Marseille next weekend, my first time abroad and it’s to a psychology conference. I’m presenting a poster of my findings, but I still didn’t have enough data, so the last few weeks have been a mad rush of begging anyone to participant in my experiment so I can actually present my poster rather than a blank sheet of paper! :P I finally got the final participant at the end of last week and I’ve spent the weekend analysing my data and making my poster for the conference. Luckily my data looks good and the poster is almost done. Now I just need to get it checked by my supervisor and get the thing printed! Phew, I’m shattered again just thinking about the last few weeks. I’ve even been pulling 9am-7pm most days, in what can only be described as the world’s hottest cupboard with an eye tracker in! The eye tracker I use is actual housed in a Faraday Cage inside another larger room, so you can imagine the temperature with two people, two computers and only about 8 square feet of space! :S
Anyway…breathe! All I need to sort now is what I need to pack to travel abroad. I know I need a passport, and I assume a European plug adapter…I’m not sure? Any tips for a newbie travelling abroad would be greatly appreciated! :)
Now, I have still had just enough time to paint my nails still. I have priorities :P I’ve been painting them just before bed when I watch an episode of something to wind down. I picked up this lovely polish when I met up with Leisha in London. We found the rather beautiful OPI DS stand and both wanted them all! It took us quite awhile to pick a favourite, but I picked Tapestry, a warm, pink-orange colour with lots of holographic shimmer. I love this polish and I have already mentioned my love for the purple version Extravagance. I just love the holographic shimmer, it looks beautiful in the sunshine. This is two coats. It applies really nicely, these are some of the best polishes I’ve used, not only because they are pretty, but because they are so easy to apply and fast drying.
I wore this polish to my interview my my PhD place with a smart black dress and suit jacket. The colour is not too garish that it looked out of place, it was smart enough to be acceptable for the office, but shimmery enough to be special. The below pictures I took while I was waiting on a bench outside in the sunshine before my interview. I arrived ridiculously early because I was so nervous about being late, even though it was only a 5 minute walk from the office I was working in! Isn’t the polish lovely in the sunshine? :) Just after I took this picture a random black cat came over to the bench and sat next my me and my OH while we stroked it. It even tried to sit on my OH’s lap! Did the black cat give me good luck for my interview I wonder, seeing as I got the place? Maybe! :P
Anyhoo, I have lots of pictures to write into posts for you lovely people that are still reading this. I apologise again for leaving you all and not commenting. Hopefully when I get back from the conference all will be back to normal and I won’t have so much rush to get work done :) Hope you are all having a lovely summer! xxxx
Graduation! OPI Princesses Rule!
Hi there! Sorry for the unannounced absence, but I graduated last week, woo! I got to wear a silly gown and hat and prance around outside like I was one of the cast of Harry Potter! Luckily I had lovely weather and got to take some lovely pictures in the sunshine by the duck pond. There were plenty of little ducklings swimming around to coo over too, awww!
I also got some extremely good news three days prior to graduation. Remember all my moaning and groaning about having no future after I’d finished uni after I was turned down funding for a PhD in Psychology? I was moaning about having to get a ‘real’ job and having to dye my hair and be sensible and well…I was generally a grouchy git tbh. I applied for a place on another PhD course called Web Science. It was funded by Gordon Brown a few years ago and mostly focuses on mixing other disciplines with computing science to explore the web. Well, I had an interview for it and last week found out I had a funded place on the masters and PhD Web Science programme! So that’s me set for four years now! It really hasn’t sunk in for me, but I’m very very pleased about it! I can relax a little now :D
Anyway, I cannot have this post without my NOTD for graduation. First I was considering trying to match my nails to my gown hood which was a pale turquoise and gold, but I couldn’t find the right shades so I decided to keep my nails quite neat and neutral and opted for pink with sparkles.
I recently picked up OPI Princesses Rule! from Beautique.com when they had an offer and I got OPI Past, Present and Fuchsia for free. How could I turn down such an offer?! :P First I put on a coat of my trusty Eyeko Petite polish to cover up any staining on my nails and to even the colour out because OPI Princesses Rule! is quite sheer. Then I added one coat of OPI Princesses Rule! to make it lovely and sparkly. The shimmer is really dense so I only needed one coat. Lovely polish and I know I am going to have fun layering it on other colours too.
Congratulations to everyone else who has graduated in the last few weeks or is about to graduated! I hope the weather is lovely for you, but not too hot, those gowns are not fun in the heat! :S
GlossyBox June featuring OPI Designer Series Extravagance
This is a late review I know, I’ve already had my dispatch email for this months box! I was distracted by stuff, better late than never!
BioEffect EGF Serum – The super serum from Iceland. I hadn’t heard of this before, so when I received my box I just slopped some of this on when I got out the shower. You only need a few drops, but my skin felt really nice, even straight after applying it, so I looked it up online. When I found out that the sample alone is £8 and a BioEffect full sized bottle (15ml – hardly what I’d call full size!) is £125, is was a bit shocked and didn’t want to like it! However, it did leave my skin feeling plumped up (if that makes any sense) and it looked quite radiant, which my skin doesn’t really ever look. After researching it I also realised it’s best to apply it at night, but I apply a Benzoyl Peroxide gel at night so I haven’t been using the BioEffect. If I don’t use the Benzoyl Peroxide I turn into a painful, giant spot face, and I didn’t want to risk that! :S I don’t apply much of the BioEffect serum and I concentrate around my eyes as I’ve read that it can be good for dark circles, and I have quite severe dark circles. I’m not sure if it has reduced my dark circles, but my skin is much nicer and clearer around my eyes. The colour seems more even and I no longer have any combination skin around my eyes where it is dry and oily at the same time! I quite like using this just as an eye serum, at least it will last longer that way! :P I cannot afford to repurchase this, but if I had money to burn I think I would.
Batiste Original – Ahh, the box booby prize. I never use dry shampoo and the times I have tried it I can only really use the one for dark hair, the original makes me look like I had a fight with the baby powder bottle :P
Perles de Lalique – A perfume. Now, I’m not even going to pretend I know anything about perfume. I have two I like, Chloé, which is quite a fresh, flowery smell and my Litchi Milk Tea perfume oil from Haus of Gloi, which is very sickly sweet and I love it. This perfume smells like perfumes counters. It’s nice, but not special or different. I have been using it, it’s definitely nice, but I wouldn’t repurchase, I like what I already use.
Mama Mio Omega Body Buff – Again this is a really nice product, but for £23 for a full sized bottle, it’s not worth it for me. You apply it to dry skin before you shower and it contained ground up pumice stone. It’s a nice scrub, it smells lovely and left my skin smooth and soft, but most scrubs do and you can get them for a little cheaper! :P
Lastly, my favourite part of the box!
OPI DS Extravagance - The Designer Series have a “diamond dazzle”, it’s not a pure holographic polish, but it sure is pretty with it’s scattered holographic effect! I really like this and I actually bought a full size one (Tapestry) of these from Selfridges as a birthday pressie to myself. The whole range is gorgeous it was hard to pick just one. They look amazing in the sunshine and they are a pleasure to apply. These pictures show two coats and I didn’t even need to clean up my nails after application, the formula and the brush made it really easy to apply. The last picture is taken with the flash to show how sparkly the polish is.
So there you go, just in time before the July box arrives. I do like the GlossyBox idea, but as soon as they start charging postage I will probably abandon ship. I’m happy to pay £10 a month for a box of goodies and I enjoy trying out new things, but I wouldn’t pay more than £10- they are samples after all. I’m still looking forward to the next box though :)
Hope everyone is having better weather than I’ve had here all week. I have to packed a rucksack with clothes for all seasons when I walk into work! It’s raining, hot, sunny, windy, thunderstorms and even hail one day! I graduate next Thursday, so I hope the weather is nice to me that day. I’m not sure how I will cope with heels, a giant black cloak and a silly hat if it’s windy and rainy outside! Comedy photos at least :P xxxx
Katy Perry OPI Teenage Dream
I know, I know…I’ve been slacking on blog posts since I got home. I got out of the habit and I’ve been running experiments all week, or attempting to anyway. Let just say me and the program are not friends right now and I’ll fix it tomorrow. It’s been a bit of a mad week. I finally got my journal article fully published and it’s missing the abstract! Production glitch they say *facepalm*. Anyway my apologies, it’s no excuse, I shall try harder from now on :)
This is what I wore on my nails the week I was away. I love this polish, I actually have worn it on 3 separate occasions since I got it. It’s a pale pink base with fine pink/silver glitter and larger round hologram glitter. The polish is quite sheer so I first put on a coat of Eyeko Petite polish to give my nails a pale pink base and to disguise my nail line. I then put on two coats of Teenage Dream. It is definitely a glitterball polish, I really like it. The glitter on it’s own is awesome, but the hologram glitter really catch the light and reflect it, as you can see in the pictures, they reflect every colour in the rainbow!
This polish dries quite quickly, but the finish is a little rough so I prefer to add top coat. The polish lasts for ages. I had it on all week and only had chips on my thumb/index/middle fingers on my right hand on day 5, and they were only minor. Due to the pale and glittery nature of this polish I could touch the chips up and carry on wearing it for the rest of the week. This is a great holiday polish, it’s glitzy, pale pink nails go with most things and it lasts! I got quite a few compliments on them.
Do you like these kinds of glitters? I love the small, dense glitter and the larger holo glitter, I think they look great together. Although I don’t like the OPI Miss Universe idea, the Crown Me Already! polish looks like a similar polish but in silver, if it is I want it! :)
About me
My name is Gem and I am a psychology graduate in the south of England. I like shiny and sparkly things, but I am also a total nerd. ^.^
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