Glossybox.

With a little research, decision making and deliberation, I've decided to subscribe to a monthly beauty box. I'd had a chat with the lovely Elizabeth about the choices a little while ago, and I've finally decided to go for Glossybox. I'm really excited to receive my first box shortly and to see what lovely goodies I have been sent. 

Boxes cost £10 each per month, with £2.95 postage. It's a little more than some of the other boxes available, but after scouring reviews on loads of blogs, I liked the look of the contents in the Glossyboxes more than others. 

I'm a sucker for nail polish and skin care products so having a sample of different items every month will be nice, as I'm stuck in a bit of a skin care rut at the moment. It'll also be nice to treat myself to some of the higher priced products without having to spend a fortune and find out that they're no better than high street or own-brand products. 

However, I'm a little fussy with make up and cosmetics as I know what I like and what works for me. I have quite fair skin and hate it when magazines contain samples of foundation because they always include samples that are waaaaay too orange for me. This is my only concern with  receiving samples through Glossybox.

I'm a bit of a magpie and I can't resist pretty things so the packaging also swayed me towards Glossybox. I can't wait for the postman to bring my baby pink box and my goodies!

I'm sure I'll love receiving them monthly, and I'm sure to post about it as soon as it arrives! 

xxx

E.L.F order :)

Today I took the plunge and ordered some new make up from 'E.L.F' or 'Eyes, Lips, Face.' 

I didn't go mad and only spent £10, but after I'd placed my order I realised they had a free postage offer that ended yesterday. Never mind. 

Firstly, I purchased the "Matte Finisher" clear nail polish. Since buying my first matte nail polish a few weeks ago, I've been curious to see what my other polishes would look like matte. 

£1.50 for 10ml.

Click images for link.

 Next is the "Therapeutic Conditioning Lip Balm" in the Blackberry creme scent. Vanilla and strawberry were sold out, and my boyfriend doesn't like orange, so blackberry seemed the best choice. 

 Again, £1.50 

Thirdly, an "Eyebrow Treat and Tame."

I've got quite good eyebrows already, but I tend to pencil them in a bit for definition. I thought I'd give this a shot to thicken them a bit and to add some colour. This product comes from the 'Studio' collection, so it's a little bit more than the standard range. 

£3.50

Lastly, "Pouty Petal" lipstick, described as "sheer cool pink/lilac with gold shimmer."

This came from the Mineral range. Recently I've been really into wearing lipsticks and lipstains, so I'm looking forward to trying this out. 

£3.50

Postage costs £2.95 per order, but it's free if you spend over £30. 

I'm really looking forward to receiving these products, and I'll be reviewing them as soon as I do!

www.eyeslipsface.co.uk

Removing acrylic nails.

I decided today would be the day to finally give my poor nails a break and remove my acrylic overlays. I've been having full sets and infills for about 2 years, without a break, so I thought it would be about time to remove them and let my natural nails recover. 


  During a chat with a colleague about her gel nails, she told me how she soaked hers off herself. I've soaked mine off before with a bowl of acetone over another bowl of hot water which works well, but I don't like the warm/hot acetone on my sensitive skin. I gave her method a go:

You will need: 

Acetone,

 cotton pads,

 tin foil in small strips (enough to wrap around the cotton pad and your finger)

nail file

1. Soak cotton pad in acetone and place over nail.

2. Wrap cotton pad and finger with tin foil. The tin foil just stops the acetone from evaporating.

3. Make jokes about looking like a dodgy Edward Scissorhands.

4. Leave on for 45-60 minutes, or until the acrylic is soft enough to start filing off gently. 

5. File gently until most of the acrylic is off.

6. Wash hands frequently and rub cuticle oil in so your fingers don't dry out.

7. I found it helped to have a small bowl of acetone at hand to keep dipping nails into so the acrylic stayed soft enough to file off gently. 

8. If you're like me, cry at how short and sad your nails look and rub in some more cuticle oil and paint with a coat of polish.

I tried to file my nails so gently to try and save my long nails underneath but they were just too thin and bendy to save. Once I'd cut them off I found it a lot easier to file the remaining acrylic off. 

I'm aiming to leave my natural nails alone for a few weeks, but I already miss them and it's only been 2 hours! I'll aim for 2 weeks before I'm back in the nail bar having a new set!

xxx

Model's Own

I'm a massive fan of Model's Own, and I've got the entire 'Beetlejuice' collection on my wish list. They've just announced the 'Kaleidoscope' collection and I'm in love with 3 out of 5 of them! I'm not one for orange or yellow nails so they don't really appeal so much. 

L-R:  Dream Stream, Blooming Pink, Purple Imperial, Zest-A-Peel, SunKissed 

Click the photo for a link. 

Just look at them! I love Dream Steam, Blooming Pink and Purple Imperial. I'm sure the other colours are lovely too, they just wouldn't suit my skin tone.  

L-R: Golden Green, Pinky Brown, Purple Blue, Aqua Violet, Emerald Black

The 'Beetlejuice' collection is just fantastic. I'm pretty sure my Mum would kill me right now if i bought any more nail polishes, so I'm holding back for a bit. I can't help but feel the names are a little unadventurous in this collection; they could have been so creative. 

Pinky Brown and Purple Blue look JUST like two Accessorize polishes I own (see post) so there wouldn't be much point in owning them, but Emerald Black looks lovely! Duochrome polishes are really appealing right now and I'm sure I'll be placing a rather large order on the Model's Own site soon!

My current selection of Model's own. 

L-R: Pastel Pink, Lilac Dream, Smash Up Purple, Smash Up Pink, In The Navy, Juicy Jules. 

I'm currently wearing Lilac Dream which has to be one of my favourite polish colours ever. It's subtle enough to wear every day, yet pretty enough to stand out. The texture of these polishes is good, if a little thick sometimes. The Smash Up polishes are the best crackle polishes I have used, and just don't compare to the Barry M one I purchased first. 

My first attempt at sellotape nail art. Lilac Dream and In The Navy with a silver glitter stripe.

 Apologies for the dodgy photo. 

xxx

Wish List!

Not too many on my wish list at the moment...

OPI "Wocka Wocka" from The Muppets collection

OPI "Dim Sum Plum" from the Hong Kong Collection 2010

OPI "Koala Bear-y" from the Classics collection.

All of the "Beetlejuice" collection by Model's Own. <3

(Especially "Aqua Violet" and "Emerald Black")

Click photo for link.

OPI 'Rainbow Connection' from The Muppets collection

That's all for now! 

xxx

Sally Hansen "Spectrum"

This is one of my recently acquired BARGAINS! I found it in good old Poundland for, you guessed it, £1. I guess the famous brands are in there because the labels are slightly off centre or something. I'm not complaining!

I found "Spectrum" along with several yellows and pink polishes, but only had £2 on me, so I chose this one and a matte Revlon, which I posted about previously. The colour is a two tone electric blue and purple, which shows slightly in the photo above. My camera battery is dead right now, and my Blackberry won't capture the tones nicely, so good old Google images came to my rescue tonight!

This is the packaging that the polishes come in, just as the Rimmel blush and other famous brand cosmetics do. 

Apologies for the dodgy Blackberry photo. The top 2 nails show "Spectrum", with the first layered over Model's Own "In The Navy," which is another of my recent purchases. On it's own, "Spectrum" would need 2 or even 3 coats to get close to opaque as it's pretty thin and the colour is so light. 

Layered over a deep dark blue really makes the depth of the colours come out. My nails were complimented by a man, (yes, a MAN!) at work the other day, and he even asked where I got the polish from so he could show his nail varnish-mad wife! Perhaps I should have told him I'd review it on here!

I'm not 100% sure whether I liked the blue on my fingernails as my skin tone is rather pale, but it looks fantastic on my toes. 

After looking online at some swatches of the other colours in the HD range, I'd love to own 'Digital' so I'll have to get my boyfriend to keep an eye out!

Revlon "Emerald City"

Again, my dodgy Blackberry photo wasn't up to scratch, so I found this one. Another of my £1 bargains, and also my very first matte finish polish. It was the only Revlon polish available and I don't have many greens, so I thought I'd give it a try. 

The colour is lovely, in the bottle and on the nails, and it has a beautiful shimmer to it. I guess if you weren't a fan of the matte finish, you could always add a glossy top coat to make it shiny. I may invest in a matte top coat so it lasts longer without chipping and to seal the polish. It would also be nice to see what other polishes look like with a matte finish. 

I have several Revlon polishes already, and this one definitely doesn't differ to the others in relation to application or coverage. Because it's a dark colour only 1 or 2 coats are needed, and it dries relatively quickly. I put one coat on and had a few streaks, so 2 would probably be best!

Overall, I think the colour is a suits-all-shade, and would look really good around christmas time, with some red or gold glitter tips or some candy striped nail art!

Fourth swatch from the top, 1 coat. I'll replace with a proper swatch when I have a charged camera!

About Me..

Perhaps I'd better introduce myself!

My name is Amy and I am 21 years old. I'm currently in my third year at university, studying English Language and Linguistics.

I've always liked having nice nails, and since having acrylic overlays on my natural nails around a year and a half ago, my passion for nail polish and art has soared.

I'm not one for spending a huge amount on nail polish, and have a penchant for trying any brand, from OPI and China Glaze, to Accessorize and Model's Own. I get my nails done every 3-4 weeks depending on the speed of growth and usually have them painted while I'm at the nail bar. Lots of the polishes I'll be posting will be ones I don't own, but where I can I'll post a link to a place that they can be purchased.



I'm still getting used to Blogspot as I'm usually a Tumblr girl, so any technical hitches and glitches will be ironed out in time!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at amyrosepullen@gmail.com


xxx

Accessorize polishes.

As I work for Monsoon Accessorize, I get to see loads of lovely colours of nail polish every shift, so of course there's the temptation to buy them. I currently have 4, and at £4 each they're not badly priced! They're also available to purchase at selected Superdrug stores.

  I'm currently not at home so I can't swatch "Pink Spice", but I do have this lovely photo of "Purple Dream." Personally it's my favourite of the 4.

"Purple Dream" is a multifaceted polish. Which ever way you look at it, it seems to change colour, from a inky, dark purple to a bright purple as pictured above.

The polish applies well, and is a reasonable consistency. It needs 2 or even 3 coats to get full coverage and to ensure there are no thin patches. It sets well and looks fab with a coat of topcoat.

In the bottle and on the nails this is so bright it's hard to photograph properly. It's like highlighter pen pink!

Again, not a great photo but you get the idea. This looks much better over a similar blue, so I layered it over Revlon's scented "Ocean Breeze."

L-R
Purple Dream, Hot Pink, Pink Spice, Emerald City.

OPI's "It's All Greek To Me"

Another of my nail bar favourites, featuring "It's All Greek To Me" layered with "I Lily Love You", both by OPI.


Originally I asked for just the glitter, but the base is very very sheer so it might not have looked so great on it's own. Michael (my nail technician) suggested the bright pink as a base and I'm glad I went with it!

"I Lily Love You" is a lovely glitter with a mixture of small glitter dots and flakies, so the effect is different on every nail. The photo below isn't great because it was taken on my BlackBerry, so in future I'll try to photograph them with my SLR. 

I loved this glitter so much I purchased some from a shop on Amazon.co.uk for about £9. 

"It's All Greek To Me" is similar to other colours I have so I didn't see the need to buy that too, but I guess "I Lily Love You" would look great on any colour because the flecks are almost rainbow coloured. 

I tried this over a blackened purple polish but forgot to take a photo. It looked like an easy way of creating Galaxy nails, without the sponging and artwork. 

OPI's "Dim Sum Plum"

So, as my first post I may as well start with probably my favourite polish of all time. OPI's "Dim Sum Plum" from the 2010 Hong Kong collection. I've had it several times when I've had my nails painted after having my infills done and I always seem to go back to it time after time. It's such a lovely colour, which seems a lot more pink and bright in the bottle, but turns into a lovely plum (funny that..) when it's on and dry. 

I don't own this unfortunately, but it's definitely on my wish list.