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
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
Shiro Cosmetics Potion Blush
It’s quite nice to be back at home, although I think I picked the wrong week to visit my family. It was nice because I got to see everyone, including my heavily pregnant niece. I just heard that her waters broke this morning, so the little baby is going to be arriving a few weeks early! If I’d gone to visit this week instead I might have got to see him, now I have to wait another 6 weeks! There’s only 3 years between me and my niece and we pretty much grew up together, so it’s weird to think she’s going to have a little baby when I next see her, quite nice though, I can’t wait to see him :)
I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but I forgot I’d written it and it got lost in my many drafts I haven’t finished. It’s here now anyway! Shiro Cosmetics recently launched four pressed blushers, one of which is a gorgeous berry colour which I snapped up right away. When it arrived it had been packaged so well, I was surprised when it arrived broken. I tried to re-press it and made quite a mess, but it was a lovely colour, just what I had been looking for. I let Caitlin know and she sent me out a new one right away! Isn’t she lovely?! My new one arrived, again amazingly well wrapped and in perfect condition, happy me!
It’s slightly darker in real life, but it’s not far off. The swatches show the actual colour a little better.
(Blended out on the left and a finger swatch unblended on the right)
The blush is a pretty berry colour and it has a shimmer in it which works well at being a blush/highlighter-in-one for your cheeks. You can apply it lightly for a subtle glow or build it up to be a more vibrant colour. I just applied it lightly over the apples of my cheeks to give a little bit of colour. I wanted to find a purple-esque blush for awhile and I’m quite happy with this one.
My skin looks pretty good in these pictures, since I got back I’ve been horribly spotty. Quite annoying seeing as I never normally get any! I don’t know whether it was the change of water, or that I forget my face cream and went a day without it. I doubt a single day without face cream would cause icky spotty face, but I’m not sure why I’ve suddenly been blammed with them! My skin looks a bit better today, so hopefully it should settle down again.
I’m currently working on my statistics for my third year project, it all seems to have gone a bit strange. I’m going into uni to harass those who know more than me. It should be a nice walk in, the weather is gorgeous again. Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine! xxxx
Collection 2000 Volume Sensation Pretty Please
Scheduled post…hopefully this works! :) If you are reading this it has and I hope you are all having a lovely week! :) I picked this lipstick up last weekend and I really like the coloured. I thought it looked a lot like Mac Fresh Salmon in the tube when I picked it up. Fresh Salmon is my favourite Mac lipstick and it is annoyingly limited edition. So I like to keep an eye out for a similar shade when out and about.
Is it a Fresh Salmon dupe? Nah not really, but it’s still pretty! They both have a coral/peachy/pink hue to them and they both have a golden shimmer running through them. But Pretty Please is a darker colour and because Fresh Salmon is a Mac Lustre finish it looks more pale/sheer on the lips.
This lipstick is from the Volume Sensation range. I didn’t think much of it when I bought it, but I was surprised when I put it on and my lips felt all cold and tingling! Very weird feeling, not bad, just weird. I don’t think it plumped up my lips, not that I noticed anyway, but that doesn’t bother me as I wanted it for the colour mostly :)
(Collection 2000 – Pretty Please)
Here is my previous swatch of Fresh Salmon. It’s not far off. Enough that I can happily wear Fresh Salmon without worrying it’s going to run out :)
(Mac Fresh Salmon)
Do you have a favourite lipstick or other product that is limited edition and you don’t want to run out of it? Have a lovely rest of the week! I have another post scheduled for the weekend about two of the new Sleek lipsticks. I really like them and I’m sure I’m wearing them a lot while I’m away :) Have a lovely rest of the week xxxx
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
Mac Fresh Salmon Lipstick
First things first…I love this lipstick! I recently bought it from Lady of the Lane in a blog sale. Whenever I see a blog sale I always have a quick look at swatches to see if any take my fancy. I’m always one for a bargain! I think this lipstick was limited edition in the spring 2010 Colour Forecast Collection.
When I first saw the name my initially reaction was YUCK! Fresh Salmon is not the greatest name to pick for a lipstick. I like to eat salmon, but I don’t want to smear it on my lips… Although it looks like orange in the tube, it seemed to come out as a sheer peachy colour with a gold shimmer on the lips. When it arrived it does look a little scary and orange. You can see the gold shimmer in it in the tube a little, but the shimmer really comes out better on the lips.
Below is a swatch on my arm and as you can see it is pretty shiny from the gold shimmer, more so than it looks in the tube.
Finally here are my lips with nothing on and below with Fresh Salmon. I really love it, I have to say it is probably my favourite lipstick at the moment. It isn’t as ‘done up’ looking as a red, but is more interesting than a neutral. I find the colour really suits me and makes me looks quite alive, which I hardly ever do! Hello dark zombie eye circles! I’m concerned about my love for this lipstick though, it was limited edition and I won’t be able to get another! What will I do when I run out!?
I’ve been lost in old music this week. I’ve had a massive tidy out of my house for my landlord visiting last night, not that he turned up or let us know anything *grumble*, but at least the house looks nice and I found all my old cds! I’m slowly going through the long process of ripping them to my pc, but a lot of it is already on Spotify so I can listen to it now :) Emma and Ayden have both mentioned old school music this week and made me remember all the cool bands I hadn’t listened to in ages.
Speaking of old music, I used to love Easyworld and it was one of my favourite bands when I met my OH. They broke up ages ago, but while searching for old school band info I found that apparently David Ford (the singer) kept recording. He has an awesome voice and even more awesome is that he is playing Southampton at the end of the month! I’m a happy bunny! xxx
Mac Cham-Pale Goodies
I ordered a couple of things from the Mac Cham-Pale collection and the arrived yesterday. It is so impressive how quickly Mac can deliver orders. I ordered Quiet, Please lipstick (lustre), I Get No Kick eye kohl and Soirée nail polish.
I was quite pleased with the eye kohl. I haven’t been using my usual black eye liner lately as it’s a bit harsh and makes me look more tired than I am. I wrecked my sleeping patterns over my holiday and I feel/look like crap going back to getting up early. I have been using Benefit Eye Bright instead of black eye liner. I like Eye Bright, but it is very pale and quite noticeable, like I am just wearing white eye liner. I wanted something to brighten my eyes that was a more skin coloured shade, just to tone down my red eyes. I really like I Get No Kick. It’s a pleasure to apply and it leaves behind a pearly skin tone colour. It makes my eyes look bright and less tired. Also the pencil is really long! It’s my first Mac pencil and I think it’s going to least years!
Swatch of Quiet, Please (top) and I Get No Kick (bottom)
I also bought Quiet, Please lipstick. It is a pale lipstick and very sheer, with a nice shimmer to it. This won’t be everyone cup of tea. I liked it because I wanted a sheer shimmery colour, but I know a lot of people will think it’s a bit pointless. I love it though! It is great to just put on everyday and Mac are one of the only lipsticks I get alone with. The swatch below is a bit crappy and out of focus, but I was running out of light. At least it shows the light reflecting shimmer!
Finally, the Soirée nail polish! I really wanted this when I saw it. I wanted a rosy gold colour for ages to match my engagement ring. I saw that Nicole by OPI are releasing a rose gold too soon. I want to try that too, it looks a tad more rosy than Soirée. I can’t wait to try it out, it looks lovely in the bottle. I haven’t tried Soirée yet though due to a boo boo. Look at my middle finger nail! I had to get into uni for 9am yesterday for 3 hours of training…groan! Afterwards I had to wait around and I decided to take a nap. I positioned two chairs to nap across and as I go comfy I cracked my hand off the chair and snapped my nails. The first time I leave the house without polish on for months and I managed to break a nail :( I’d just got them to a length I liked as well! Oh, well I guess I would have cut them down next week for exams anyway, I can’t write with long nails. In good news, my nails don’t look as nasty and yellow as I thought they would be without polish. I use Models Own 3 in 1 polish as base coat, just because I hated it as a top coat and wanted to get rid of it, but in all honesty it’s not a bad base coat.
A friend gave me a movie to watch with weekend and a bottle of Russian vodka for Christmas, so I’m a happy bunny. So tonight I can watch the movie, get drunk and try to not file my nails all lopsided! The rest of the weekend I am finishing my lit review. :/ Did anyone else get anything from the new Mac collections? Has anyone else planned a fun weekend? :) xxxx
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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