Polish round up – Brown and Gold

You may have noticed an increased effort on my part to stop spending recently. It’s going pretty well. The last cosmetics I bought were a little Sleek haul on the 27^th December. If I can get to the end of December without parting with any more pennies it’ll be a big achievement. Long story short I’m focusing on paying off some student debt. Anyhoo boring stuff over, as part of my ‘enjoy what you have’ project I wanted to go through and have a look at what nail polish I already have in an effort to dissuade myself from going out and buying any more similar colours. These are the browns and gold’s I’ve accumulated. First with flash and then without. 

From left to righ we have; Diamond Cosmetics Yukon Gold, Orly Rage, L’Oréal 395, Collection 2000 Foxy, Little Rose (got this in Thailand, no idea what it’s called), OPI Sand In My Suit, Barry M Dusky Mauve, China Glaze Ingrid, Barry M Chocolate Brown, Nails Inc Jermyn Street, Barry M Mushroom, Essie Mink Muffs. 

All of these are 2-3 coats with no top coat. The purple shimmer in Dusky Mauve isn’t as apparent here as it is in real life, trust me it is there really. Some of these colours are very similar too however none are exact dupes of each other. Oh and please excuse the cat fluff in the back ground. That rug was literally washed 24 hours before those pics were taken but madam decided it needed to be fluffy again.  I hope this is useful in comparing some of the more popular brownish shades out there. Any other colours you’d like to see a roundup of? 

*Sadly I bought all of these myself apart from Jermyn Street which was free in a magazine*

Glass Half Full?

For fall, J.CREW (which I adore) is carrying two shades of Essie nail polish ($8) at select stores (the J.CREW website says that they are a catalog/jcrew.com only item but my local store on 45th and Madison is carrying them). I picked up the shade called Eternal Optimist (both because I liked the color and I appreciate the irony of me, a decidedly glass half empty type, owning a polish with that name). Eternal Optimist is a perfect fall shade--it's a nude color which is very on-trend, but it isn't a taupey nude that can prove so unflattering in real life as opposed to in glossy magazines. There is a good dose of warm pink with a bit of putty that makes this both a wearable and a fashionable shade. (The other shade is called One of a Kind and is an orangey red).

A Few Quick Corals

Hello, all! I know that I've been somewhat MIA this week. Work has been so stressful that I've just been coming home and basically crashing! I'm hoping that the long weekend will do me a world of good, but you can't start summer without a manicure and pedicure! To me corals just scream summer, and these are the ones I'm really loving lately.

Sephora by OPI How Cute is That- this is a pinkish coral with a pink pearl.

SPARITUAL Miss World looks pink in the bottle but has a definite coral undertone.

Essie Carousel Coral is a gorgeous melon. It makes a great pedicure coral on my pale skin but would definitely offset deeper tones nicely.

OPI My Chihuahua Bites is a hot coral color. It's the perfect shade for those who admire this season's neon nail trned but aren't quite ready to go that bold.

DIY China Glaze Fortune Teller

Firstly I’d like to say sorry to those who are sick of me waffling on about polish, I promise my next few posts will be about actual makeup. I’ve just been on a bit of a polish kick lately as I’m still trying to grow my nails so I have to paint them every two days to stop me chewing. Yes I am disgusting and bite my nails. I never claimed to be ladylike.

I have been craving Fortune Teller since it came out but was never able to get my grubby little mitts on a bottle. If you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it matte Google Scrangie China Glaze (I covet her nails!) I read somewhere that you could use Gosh Rainbow flakies to create a dupe. I don’t remember where I saw this so if it was your blog sorry! Just comment below and I will edit the post to give you full credit for the idea. So here is my attempt using a random black polish (think it was Collection 2000), Gosh Rainbow and Essie Matte About You. I show it here without the matte top coat first then in all its mattified lusciousness.




Now I don’t have the actual fortune Teller to compare it to but from the photos I’d say that’s a pretty darn good dupe! Rainbow does flash iridescent yellow in certain lights, I don’t know if FT does that but I like it anyway. The matte top coat takes a special looking mani to new ethereal looking heights. Come Autumn I will probably be wearing this combo ever day. In fact I’m considering buying another bottle of Rainbow just in case I run out. Is that weird? I know some of you fellow polish junkies out there will understand.

So anyone out there have the actual Fortune Teller? How does this combination compare? I think I probably put a touch too much glitter on and I *think* the chunks are bigger here. Thoughts? Comments? Opinions?

*P.S. I just wanted to quickly say thanks to everyone following my blog. It really means a lot to me! I’ve almost hit 30 :-D As I’ve said when I hit 50 I will be doing a giveaway so fingers crossed we get there soon so we can have some giveaway fun xxx

Chalk board nails

I was asked recently by the lovely Simpleelegance http://simpleelegance27.blogspot.com/ if I knew of any flat black mattes as she was concerned about shelling out for expensive products like MAC just to find she got bored of them. My answer to this is why bother buying new polish you might not like when you can turn your current polish matte with just a top coat? There are a myriad of matte top coats out there and my personal favourite is Essie Matte About You. Yes you have to fork out for the top coat but in the long run this means you have as much matte polish as you want. I painted a nail (fake obviously) with a cheapy black – Collection 2000 Maxiflex polish in 87 Ebony and topped it off with Matte About you. I was rather pleased with the result! The finish it more lumpy on the plastic nail than on my real ones but you really don’t want to see mine at the moment...

Manicure (and Pedicure) of the Week

This week's manicure is Essie Eternal Optimist, one of the shades they made for JCrew this year. It's a very natural pink beige. My toes are Zoya Roxy, a deep magenta with magenta glitter. Even though it's absolutely frigid here and my feet spend most of their time in boots, I always think it's nice to have a fun color on your toes (even if you're the only one who knows about it)!

A few empties

From L - R

Pai Echium Eye Cream - I have to thank amodelrecommends for her review and subsequent offer. Eye creams are not easy I think, too light and zero effect, too rich and puffy eyelids, at least that's what happens to me. For me an eye cream should really "do no harm". My problems with my eyes are discolouration on the lids - hello concealer, and sagging eyelids which no amount of ingredients are going to reduce and I do a) have the spare funds for surgery, or b) have the spare funds for surgery.
This eyecream is definately a cream with the texture of a cream albeit a light one, and it does the job, it moisturises, does not irritate, and leaves my eyelids feeling cool and calm. I do not like the pump, a pump never delivers anything less than a dollop which is far too much for 2 eyelids. Currently £24 for 10mls from paiskincare.com 

Sarah Chapman Dynamic Defence SPF15 Day Cream - I have already bought my replacement of this and have already used up a previous bottle. In a life where I flit about like a butterfly trying this lotion and this potion, it is a delight to find a product which a cannot better for my skin. Rich and creamy without being heavy, my oily/sensitive/combination skin has a real affinity with this day cream. Currently £43 for 40mls from SpaceNK but QVC often do good value kits.

Trilogy Rosehip Oil - I like face oils very much and tend to always have one on the go, I currently have 3 rosehip oils on the go (whoops!) and will do a comparison post at some stage. This rosehip oil by Trilogy is quite light, spreads easily into the skin without feeling at all greasy and for someone with oilier skin that is a bonus. Rosehip oil seems to calm the redness in my face and I notice when I don't use it. £16.50 for 20mls from Boots

Essie 3-Way Glaze - I do still have a little left in this bottle but it is on its way out. This rescues my nails, it is designed as a base coat, top coat and treatment all in one and it really does work, I can almost see my nails growing, and it doesn't dry my nails or cause any subsequent coats of varnish to peel off. I buy mine from Boots

French Manicure - a bit passe?

My nails are not looking too bad now thanks to some TLC and I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and do a french.

This was my "to go" for nails about 10 years ago, but as for "to go" more like "stop-everything-mum-is-doing-her-nails" because I used to spend about 2hrs every Saturday doing just that, and woe betide anyone who made a perfectly reasonable request because this was hard core manicure, extreme nail painting, it was fraught with tension and the possibility of failure and then having to repaint the whole lot - for I was a fan of the tipex white tip, my nails were long and looked false and I loved it.

So fast forward and nowadays I am more relaxed about the whole thing, and if I do a french I am after a more natural look. Here is what I used:

First up Leighton Denny Starkers as an all over base and Natural White for the tips

  
I think that this is the most natural french manicure, I have worn this to work and nobody is any the wiser, to me it looks like healthy nails.

Next up Essie, I have a real fondness for Essie varnishes, they last years without the need for anything to thin them.

Sugar Daddy for the base

Marshmallow on the tips

It is very difficult to show the Essie varnishes as they are so pale, Marshmallow is on the left and the much loved Sugar Daddy is on the right.

And here is the finished look, brighter and more noticeable and if I am honest, my favourite. Nostalgia rules okey cokey : )