Illamasqua Bacterium and Revlon Beach
I’ve been coding questionnaire data for a full two days. I feel like my eyes are going to fall out! I can’t really complain, it is easy money :) It was extra nice because I was offered to code the data unexpectedly, so I’m happy to grab myself some pocket money. I gave in my previous job last autumn to concentrate on my final year at uni and I’ve had to be quite money conscious this year. It’ll all be over in 7 weeks though! Scary stuff, I can’t wait :D It’ll be nice to have a job again :)
Here is a NOTD from last week when I had Bacterium on. Bacterium is a lovely and unusual colour, but when trying to decide what would go with it I wasn’t quite sure what to use. I have a lot of polishes yes, but I mostly have one of every colour and very few shades in between. Primary colours were not going to work with this little beauty, a neutral would be a bit boring, a glitter would be pretty crumby in the colours I have (pink glitter is a no no)…I needed something equally dirty.
I recently picked up one of the new Revlon scented polishes in Beach. It is a dirty, lime green colour so I thought it would match quite well. I was browsing these with my OH in toe and a girl from one of the make up counters started talking to us about the new scented polishes. I explained to my OH that they smell like the colour, so coloured like bubblegum=bubblegum smell. I listed another couple than got the this one. Coloured like sick=smells like? I can’t go anywhere without embarrassing myself…
Anyhoo, I taped off my now rather long tips (you can tell when I don’t have to use a pen for awhile :P), and painted on some Beach. It covered Bacterium really well and I think it matches nicely. The polish in the bottle just smelt like normal polish to me, but I have a couple of the Rimmel scented polishes and they were the same and only seemed scented when the polish was dry. When Beach was dry it didn’t really smell, maybe I need a full manicure to smell it. I’m not really sure what Beach should smell like, maybe seaweed or salt water? I’ll put this on properly when I change my polish and I’ll do a proper review.
I know these are quite ugly colours, but I really like them together. I feel like they should be worn by a sludgy super hero baddie called Sludgelor! He dirties up people houses when they are out at work. Only the mighty Roomba can defeat him, mwahah! Ok, too much sugar for me, I’ll put the lollipops away…
Does anyone else have Beach? What does it smell of? I don’t know what it could be. I want it to be candyfloss and fresh cooked donuts, but I doubt that. I used to go to Skegness as a child and the best part about the seaside for me was the poor diet I would maintain all week and the donkey rides! I was quite disappointed when I moved to Bournemouth and it wasn’t the same kind of seaside as Skegness. It was more posh, with no donut stalls or donkeys! Very upsetting.
Also, where did the nice weather go? I had to wear my winter coat out in the rain today, I even had the heating on for awhile! I hope that you are all somewhere with nicer weather! Enjoy the rest of the week xxxx
Illamasqua Bacterium
I wasn’t sure whether to get this polish or not, but the colour drop of it on Illamasqua looked lovely and I had to order it. It’s described as “pearlescent ash ochre” which is spot on for the colour at a distance, but if you look at it in different lights it has a slight blue shimmer like Prism. It’s a really nice and original colour, typical of Illamasqua. I love the name too, it complements the other colours in the Toxic Nature collection really nicely.
The formula is fabulous as usual with Illamasqua polishes. It did feel a little watery and sheer on the first coat, but the second coat was perfect. I expected a lot of brush strokes from a pearlescent polish, but it wasn’t too bad at all. For such a gorgeous colour I didn’t really mind. I went through a beige/brown/neutral obsession with polishes, but they can be quite dull, Bacterium is so much prettier than any neutral polish I own. I tried to take pictures in different lights and at different angles, but the colour was a pain to capture. It’s not far off the base colour, but it is so much more complex in real life.
Again, no topcoat and the polish is nice and shiny on it’s own. It also lasted 4 days until I removed it to put something else on, Illamasqua polishes are amazing quality! I know they are quite pricey, but they have some awesome colours and the polishes really last.
I won’t be around this weekend because I’m going to London! I’m going up on the coach which will be painful and cramped, but the train was far too expensive. The coach is half the price, but nearly double the time and half the space. Money matters most at the moment so I’m sacrificing time and comfort :P I’m not sure what to do in the daytime tomorrow, but there’s so much to do in London, I’m sure it will be fun! I wanted to go to the Tate Modern, but ran out of time on my last visit so I will probably check that out. Then in the evening I’m seeing Art Brut!!! I’m am far too happy and excited about this. I must try not to come off as a crazed groupie or just crazy in general.
I hope the weather stays as nice as today, it was lovely. I had a group meeting at uni and we decided to have it outside in the sunshine. I managed to get a tanned/burnt shoulder! I know I have pale skin, but an ability to burn in April is quite impressive. I better pack the suncream just in case tomorrow. I’m only staying overnight so I’m going to try and restrict my packing to only a few things rather than go mad and plan for all contingencies like I normally do, why I often pack 4+ pairs of socks for an overnight stay I don’t know!
Have a wonderful weekend lovely people! Enjoy the sunshine! xxx
Illamasqua Gamma with Nails Inc London Nights Tips
Hello to my new followers! I’ve been very happy this week as I’ve had a few new followers, it makes me happy that someone wants to read my driveling nonsense! :D <3 I was a bit bummed after I posted the first picture of myself a few weeks ago and I lost a follower, how depressing it that? :p Oh well, I’ll try not to scare the rest of you lovely people away!
My last nail post was Illamasqua Gamma and I didn’t want to take it off. It had no chipping or tipwear after 4 days with no topcoat, quite impressive! So, I decided to jazz it up a little with some black tips.
I taped off the ends at random angles and painted on some Nails Inc London Nights. It’s a shiny black one coater, perfect for taping. I accidentally put the black on a little thick on some nails so when I pulled the tape off it looked a little scruffy. It looked really obvious next to the bright orange so in order to fix my now scruffy looking manicure I finally got the nerve to give the paint brush a go! I have a load of paint brushes I bought from The Works years ago when I used to paint a lot. I think they were £1 for 5 different thin brushes, bargain! I used a thin angled brush and Models Own Sterling Silver and dabbed a line of silver along the join to disguise my untidiness. I do have a very thin stripe type brush, I think I’ll try that one next time. I was dabbing more than brushing so it’s not perfect. For a first attempt it isn’t that bad though. In person it looks okay because no one looks that closely at my nails, so I’m happy with it :P
Here is a picture as proof that I did that on both hands! It took quite awhile and I think I was getting the hang of it while doing my right hand. I think if I do this again I’ll section off larger bits, it’ll look better :)
What do you think? Do you use paint brushes to do any nail art? I’ve seen the Models Own nail pens, has anyone tried them and how are they? :)
Hope you are all having a lovely week so far! Sorry for my absence lately. I have a lot more free time now that it’s the Easter break, so hopefully I’ll be posting more often! xxxx
Illamasqua Gamma Toxic Nature Collection
I finally submitted my postgraduate application yesterday, a few days early too! I’ve been working on it for weeks so I’m quite glad it’s gone so I can’t stop re-writing it. I’ll have free time again! Yay! It was the one good thing that happened yesterday, the rest of the day just felt horrible. Feel free to skip my moan if you like :P
<moan>I had to do a presentation yesterday, it was awful. It had a really strict time limit of 20 minutes, with 5 of us having to present, which is about 3-4 mins each. A whole chapter summarised in 3 minutes is horrible. We had to write scripts so we knew how long it would be, there was too much information to do my usual thing, which is just learn it and know it. I’m normally fine with presentations if I know my stuff. I very much dislike reading from a script. As I’ve mentioned before I’m dyslexic and trying to read from a script and the added time pressure…not good! I managed to forget to move onto a slide, lose my place more than once and in general I was a driveling wreck. I was completely bummed about it. How can I be absolutely fine without a script, doing a 20 minute presentation on my own, but as soon as I have a script and only 3 minutes I become an idiot. Very annoyed at myself. Anyway, I’ve got one more presentation left on Thursday, it’s just me and I know the topic so I’ll be fine. Although I’m concerned I’m going to take part in a repeat performance. By just not having a script I’ll be happier, I prefer to just chat about the topic, that way you can re-word anything that elicits a furrowed brow! </moan>
I feel better for my moan :P Onto better topics!
Grab your sunglasses because this is bright! So bright in fact that my camera had a lot of trouble even focusing on it! I love Illamasqua products, but I’m normally too out of pocket to buy them. I picked up this and Bacterium from the new Toxic Nature collection with my Asos Groupon voucher. I had to try this one first just because it was so bright and fun. I really love how Illamasqua create collections with a great theme running through them. Toxic Nature has a mixture of earthy, dirty shades and bright, radioactive shades. Illamasqua describe it as “an atomic-botanical environment”, sounds great!
This polish is really bright and even strangers commented on it. It’s a really great colour, probably not a great match to my pale/yellow skin, but I like it! I think it would great with some black polish. I might tape some bits off and give it a go before I remove it. I’ve not tried taping off polish without my quick drying topcoat, so it may end up a disaster, but I’ll give it a go. If it’s awful you won’t hear anything about it on here, you can just assume it was a catastrophe! :P
The polish itself is fantastic, as with all Illamasqua polishes it applied easily and perfectly. I put on two coats to even out the colour, but it was pretty good even with the first coat. It dried really quickly to a smooth, shiny finish. Most neon polishes dry matte, but this polish is nice and shiny even without a topcoat (I haven’t used a topcoat in the pictures). Although, now I look at the pictures the polish doesn’t look very shiny. This is because if the light was shining on my nails, my camera couldn’t focus on the colour, so I had to turn my nails away from the light to get the true colour to be captured. The polish dries as shiny as normal polishes, it is definitely not a matte finish.
Illamasqua polishes are also pretty hard wearing. I’ve had this on for two days and it hasn’t got a scratch or a chip on it even though I’ve done all my housework. Not bad! :)
What do you think? Are you happy to wear such BRIGHT, brights? Or should it be left to someone with not such a deathly skintone? I always read that brights look better on tanned or darker skintones. Oh well, when have I ever done what is best :P Hope your all having a lovely week so far and enjoying the lighter evenings! xxxx
Illamasqua Prism
Gah, horrible weather. I’ve been battling a migraine for the best of two days. It is quite dull. I never really get headaches, but every now and again I get hit by a migraine where I can do very little, no TV, no computer, no reading = boring!
Although I do get the fun aura stuff before the headache, yesterday I got to be blind and numb down one side, I was convinced I had a brain tumour! Bizarre! I feel really sad for people that get migraines regular, I’ve only ever had a handful, when the moon and planets line up and I walk a certain number of steps and the weather is exactly 20.4 degrees, I’m not sure, but probably some combination of random factors!
I more interesting news, I was a happy bunny who finally bought Illamasqua Prism! I’ve wanted it since it was released but could not justify the price, until sale time! It’s even more pretty than I expected. It goes on lovely, dries fast and is gorgeous on it’s own and over other colours. My new favourite polish :) I can’t wait to try it over every polish I own. Below is a picture of two coats of prism on it’s own over a base coat, no top coat, I didn’t want to make it super shiny as I like the subtle shine it has on it’s own.
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