NAILS // My Experience with Gel Nails

My sister has been getting shellac nails done for a while now and I always thought it looked amazing, so last month she took me to get mine done for my birthday. Just the gel polish, I'm not a big fan of acrylic/false nails! (Apologies for the rubbish pictures, I wasn't planning on doing a post about this so never took any good ones with my camera!)

I was super happy with the result of my gel nails, they're so shiny and really strengthen your nails, it was just the removal process that really made me rethink whether I wanted to get them done again. Also, the 'nail regrowth' after about 2 weeks really doesn't look the best...

All in all, it took me around 2 hours to remove the gel nails. I had to alternate between soaking them in nail polish remover and a gel remover oil, I then had to basically scrape the gel polish off and for someone who hates the feeling of even filing my nails, it wasn't the nicest process for me.

The one major upside to having gel nails (other than having perfect looking nails for 2 weeks straight) was none of my nails broke at all! I love having long nails and constantly have to cut them down and grow them out again when one breaks so I think having gel nails really gave them strength whilst I was growing them and now they're at a perfect length! I'm being very careful with them though, as apparently the removal of gel polish takes off the top layer of your actual nail, so I'm very conscious of my nails being weaker now.

I'm still umming and ahing on whether I'd get them done again, but at the moment I miss all the new polishes I got in England in April so I'm actually excited to be able to paint my nails again!

Have you ever had shellac/gel nails or would you like to try it out? Lets have a chat in the comments!

VIDEO // Get Ready With Me

Long time no see (post?)! I haven't had my camera for a while since coming back from England a couple months ago so I couldn't make any posts and I really want to get stuck into doing YouTube more now so the first thing I did after being able to use my camera was film this. Here is a Get Ready With Me with makeup, hair and an outfit from when I went to the theatre to see Annie!

I'd love if you'd give it a watch and let me know what you think, I'm gonna try and get into posting a video once a week so we'll see how that goes!

REVIEW // Maybelline Flash Clean Express

I've had this product for over a year now and I love it so much I had to do a review on it! It's a 3-in-1 makeup remover that claims to remove, cleanse and moisturize.

It's amazing at removing stubborn makeup, especially Benefit's They're Real mascara which I find difficult to remove without this product. It's a very creamy consistency that turns into a sort of liquid when applied to the skin. It doesn't have any fragrance to it which I really like as sometimes fragrances in these sort of products can irritate the skin.

This product claims to use an exclusive 'Quick-Break Technology' to transform the lotion into a liquid to remove the makeup and is infused with Moringa Seed extract to purify and cleanse the skin. It then moisturizes as it cleans. I haven't used this product continuously enough to test whether it really does work as a cleanser and moisturizer too.

I don't use this an awful lot as there are a few downsides to it. I find that you have to remove with a wet towel or baby wipe otherwise it'll leave your skin feeling a little sticky, and although it claims it's for sensitive skin and can be used on the eyes, I find that it stings my eyes quite a bit. I only really use this product when I want to remove makeup quickly due to these reasons but other than that I love how well this works when I need it!

Have any of you tried this product? What do you think of it? What's your favourite makeup remover? Let me know in the comments!

VIDEO // Top 5 Beginners Beauty Tips

So I haven't posted in a while because I've been working on something...my YouTube channel!

I finally got around to filming and uploading my first (if we don't count the Miley Cyrus music videos I did when I was 11...) video and I'm so excited! It's a little rough and jumpy and the lighting changes a lot as I was using natural lighting but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?

I'd appreciate it so so much if you'd watch my video and maybe even share it to someone you might think would like to watch it. Leave me a comment below if you did and your thoughts on the video, and if you have a YouTube channel too, link me and I'll definitely check it out!

Do you think I should do more videos or stick to just blogging?

REVIEW // Revlon Diamond Lust

Revlon Diamond Lust {110 Starry Pink}

I've been putting off reviewing this for a while because I keep thinking 'maybe the more I try and use it, the more I'll like it' but alas, that's not the case. I'm also not very excited to post a negative review but I was so excited to try this product because I kept seeing it and I'm all for a glittery eyeshadow, so I grabbed it when it was on sale.

To put it simply, this product just doesn't really do anything. It's such a lovely colour and swatches a lovely colour too, but it basically is just crushed up glitter and sticks to everything but your eyelid. Well, it does for about 10 minutes, maybe even up to an hour, but after that it's just all over your face. I expected fallout from a product like this, but only really when I was applying it. You can put this onto your hand (with a base/primer) and it will just rub straight off.

I've tried multiple different primer products to put underneath this and nothing really seems to work. The only thing I haven't tried is a cream shadow because I don't own one at the moment.

I don't want to give up on this product but I feel like I might have to.

Do any of you own this product? Have you had the same experience as me? If not, what do you use with it? Comment below!

FOTD // Smokey Wing + Red Lips

  Excuse the horrific picture quality, my camera was not agreeing with me!

I went out to dinner with my family the other night and went for a winged out smokey eye kinda thing with light red lips. I saw this look on a YouTube tutorial once and have been loving doing it, even if it is a little scary to put tape on your face to get the sharp edge!

I love this look because it's an interesting twist on a smokey eye, and I went for a more lighter look but you can make it as dark and as intense as you want.

The products I used were - MaxFactor Smooth Effects foundation - Benefit Erase Paste -  Rimmel Stay Matte powder - Kryolan eye shadow palette {Highlight, Black and Oak as blending colour, M-12 blush to contour} - Wendy Hill eyeshadow {Thunder} - City Colour Jumbo Eye Pencil - Maybelline The Falsies - Natio Brow Kit - Jordana Lipstick {Matte Red} 

Have you tried out any looks like this? Whats your go to look for going out to dinner? Let me know in the comments!

DIY // Crayon Lipsticks

I've heard a lot about people making lipsticks with crayons and coconut oil, so last night I thought I'd give it a go. I wont go fully into detail about how to do it because there's a lot of tutorials/videos out there already but you basically put the oil and crayon into a glass that's in a pan of boiling water and then pour it into a little pot when it's all melted. 

I ended up making a blue, red, and two dark purples that weren't supposed to be the same colour. I made the blue one simply because I wanted something to match my hair, haha.

These aren't really anything too extraordinary and despite adding in a few drops of peppermint essence, they still have a very strong waxy smell that puts me off. They aren't that pigmented either, but I think that depends on how much of the crayon you put in to how much coconut oil.

These are the swatches I did on my arm, as you can see one of them doesn't really show up at all. They're more of a tinted lip balm over anything I'd say. I might have a play around with them though and see if I can get any of them to look good.

Let me know in a comment if you've ever tried making these or if you'd be interested to see an update in a few weeks if I can get them to show up well!

HAIR // A Tale of Turquoise

I usually keep my hair a pale purple colour but since I haven't really been doing much since I last did it before Christmas, it faded out to my normal blonde. I bought the purple dye last year, and along with it I ordered a pink, a blue and a turquoise. When I finally got sick of my yellow-y blonde hair a few days ago, I noticed that I had yet to use the turquoise dye, so this is what came from it!

I use the brand Directions by La Riche and I prefer to buy darker colours than what I want so I can dilute them with conditioner to produce the shade that I want. Although this is a very inexpensive brand, it's definitely both a money and time saver doing it this way as you use a lot less of the actual product but still get the same outcome! This also is less damaging to you hair as there's more conditioner going on my hair than dye, so it's basically a conditioning treatment more than anything.

I'm really, really enjoying this colour at the moment!

with Vienna

Let me know in the comments what your favourite hair colour is, or what colour you'd absolute love to go! I loooove talking about hair colours!

BEAUTY // Everyday Makeup Routine

 I'm one of those people who likes to sleep in and leave myself 20 minutes to get ready whenever I'm going somewhere, so it's a good thing I've done this routine plenty of times and can get it done in about 10 minutes if need be!

The majority of the brushes I use are from a brand called 'imei Professional' simply because I got them when I was doing my makeup course last year and I just haven't got any new ones yet. I do have a few Real Techniques ones too that I use in this post.

First of all, you've gotta have something to keep your hair out of your face, and for me this is my minnie mouse ears, without fail, every day. (Wait til I've been to Disneyland in April and get proper ones, I'll probably just wear them all day!) 

 As for prepping the skin, I'm not really a big fan of primers, so I just go for a moisturiser, especially as I have pretty dry skin, and a cooling eye roll-on. Both of these are from the brand Simple. Next I use Benefit's Erase Paste under my eyes and I blend that in with a Real Techniques domed shadow brush. I then apply dabs of Rimmel's Match Perfection foundation evenly around my face and blend that in with my stippling brush. I use a pressed powder from Avon with a big fluffy brush to set it all.  

 Now onto the eyes and eyebrows! My sister got me this Natio brow kit for Christmas which has been an absolute life saver. It comes with a wax, a mini spoolie brush, a mini double ended angled brush and a pair of mini tweezers! I just brush out my eyebrows, fill them in, brush them out again to soften and then apply some of the wax to keep them in place.

On my eyes I use my DIY eye primer with a loose shimmer shadow over the top just to add a little bit of sparkle! I use a black Designer Brands kohl eyeliner to tightline my eyes, which I really love doing as it makes my tiny eyes look so not tiny, haha. I then apply a sparkly white eyeliner (which was kindly given to me by the lovely Vienna, check her blog out!) to my bottom waterline and the inner corners of my eyes.

After curling my lashes I apply a coat of Maybelline's The Falsies followed by a coat of Rimmel's Scandal Eyes Flex mascara to my upper lashes, and then for some reason, the opposite way around on my bottom lashes.

 I don't do anything too exciting regarding blush, it's actually one of the things I'm scared to experiment with, haha. I slightly contour my cheekbones and temples with the top blush in Peach Daiquiri with an angled blush brush and then with my Real Techniques multi task brush I apply a very light dusting of the shade Mild Pink on my cheeks, both of these are by Wendy Hill.

My lip products usually depend on how I'm feeling or where I'm going that day, if I'm going for something more casual I'll just apply some of my Little Green Tin lip balm (which is definitely my holy grail of all lip balms), or if I want something a little more fancy, or simply just want a bit of colour on my lips, I'll put on my Colour Trend tinted lip balm by Avon. This one is in the shade 'Dewy Rose' which just adds a nice pink tint to your lips and also keeps them moisturised!

And there we have it, my everyday makeup routine! Let me know in a comment if yours is similar or a lot more in depth than mine!

NAILS // Nails of the Week

Just a little post today because I'm currently in love with my nails at the moment! The picture definitely doesn't do it justice but the glitter just makes my day, haha. The purple base is a colour called 'Glow Pastel' by Blackheart Beauty which actually has some blue and pink at the bottom and it's one that says to not shake it, so I guess it'll be a bit of a marble of the three colours when I get down to the bottom. I'm not sure where this one is from as my mum got it for me when she was in America, and not that you can really tell in the picture but the bottle is actually in the shape of a skull which I really love!

This colour has little flecks of silver glitter in it but after painting the 'ulta3' glitter on my toes, I couldn't resist putting it on my fingernails too! It's such a good formula for a glitter too, I only have one coat on and that's all it needs really. It doesn't dry too textured either which is something that annoys me with glitter polishes. I think this will definitely be one of my go-to nail combinations!

REVIEW // Eye Majic Instant Eye Shadow

Ever since watching this video, I've wanted to try out this whole one swipe eye shadow trend. Fortunately enough, last week my sister came over with a bunch of things she didn't want after doing a bit of new year cleaning (including a whole heap of clothes - yay for being the youngest sister!) Included in what she wanted to get rid of were these 'Eye Majic Instant Eye Shadows' that she'd got free with a magazine and of course, I jumped at the chance of giving them a try.

The ones I have are in Shade 02: Cappuccino which is a neutral set of colours, starting off with a dark brown to a light brown and then into a light gold as a highlight. These are part of the 'Pearl' collection so the shadows have a shimmer to them.

Taken from the Eye Majic website, the product claims "the warmth generated by the human body activates the powders and then transfers the eye shadow/colors from the patented soft foam applicator to the eyelid in a simple sweep." I found that you have to be very careful when taking the applicators out of the packet as I ended up wiping off a bit of the shadow from the corner with my finger, not realizing it would wipe it away that easily.

Before applying, I primed my eyes with a DIY primer that I've been using and followed the instructions from a video on the product's website. It's pretty simple, you just tilt your head back, place the applicator on your eyelid, hold for a few seconds and then swipe the applicator out and upwards.

Before and after blending

I found that they didn't end up applying too smoothly, which could be because of my hooded eye shape. There were a few parts that got missed near the outer corner but I feel like this would differ for everyone depending on your eye shape. Blending was definitely needed, but can be done with the opposite end of the foam applicator, like suggested in the how-to video from the product's website. I did find that there was a bit of fallout from the darkest colour, which was something I thought you'd be able to avoid with a product like this.

Overall I think this is a pretty cool product and great for beginners who have trouble knowing where to put which shadows on their eyes. I'd love to try these in a few different colours (especially as I'm not a big fan of gold shadows on myself), but I'll have to wait until their New Zealand shipping isn't $37.88!