#irishbbloggersSS Reveal 2013 (Pic Heavy)

I hinted at this in a post of mine a few ago and now I’m delighted to be able to tell you all about it.

Aisling over on her blog  - totalmakeupaddict announced that she would be hosting a Secret Santa gift swap for Christmas J for all the Irish beauty and Fashion bloggers.

I know I’m not a beauty blogger (not by a long shot) but I figured I’d chance my arm and ask to be included since I’m a nail polish fan and that falls under the “beauty” label to a degree doesn't it?

I do read an follow a lot of the Irish beauty bloggers and now I never buy any new products until I check with reviews on people’s blogs, this has saved me a small fortune over the last year or so, but it also means I've a wish list of lovely things that I heart <3

So here are the “rules” as set by Aisling

“The spending limit is €20 and postage is not included in that spending limit. You need to make sure to have your Secret Santa gift popped in the post by Friday 13th December, in order to make sure that it arrives before the huge reveal on social media on Sunday, 22nd December.

When you are talking about this on Twitter, please use #irishbbloggersSS so that we can all follow each other.”

Look what I unwrapped.....  How cute is the wrapping paper :) 

And my secret Santa was.... Anita, her blog is here and her fab shop is here where she will make you your very own customised polish , how cool is that :) Go check it out...

My Xmas Card

Anita's details

Wanna see what I got??? I was soooo excited opening all of these, but I did have my camera on hand to photograph all of them...

Here we go...

PRESENT 1

Essence Gel Look top Coat - I have used this in the past and its definately a winner and very welcome back into my polish family

PRESENT 2

Inglot nail Polish - Can't wait to try this out - I don't own anything Inglot but I've heard good things

PRESENT 3

Essence Studio Nails 24/7 nail base - I go through so many bottles of base coat that I was very happy to unwrap this :) 

PRESENT 4

Precious Polish - Passion Flower - This present got me very excited, my very own polish from Anita's home made polish's :) Cannot wait to try this out and show it off 

PRESENT 5

Essence French Glam nail stickers - How cute are these stickers, awww, I'm looking forward to playing with them

PRESENT 6

Roger & Gallet Fleur d'Osmanthus - Moisturising Body Lotion - 50ml - Another brand I have never tried.. This smells AMAZING

Aren't my present fab??? I can't wait to show you swatches of the two polish's :) I decided to do that in another post because of all the photos already in this one.... 

Big thank you to Anita for the time and thought that went into picking out pressies for me :) 

Now that the reveal is done and this post is up showing you all the lovely things that I was sent, I think its safe for me to share with you who I sent a present too.  It was Sarah and here’s a link to her blog if you wanna check out what I sent her. HERE 

Were you involved in this Secret Santa gift Swap? If so, leave a link to your blog in my comments and I’ll go check out all the lovely things that you were sent J

I must say, I think that this was a big success and a lovely idea also. It was my first time being involved in any kind of a blog swap but it won’t be my last.

BIG HUGE Thank you to Aisling for organising this JJ

If your on twitter check out the following to see all the chat and posts about the beauty blogger Secret Santa  #irishbbloggersSS

Easter Nail Art

Happy Easter Everyone.

First off this weekend my blog has hit 5,000 views, Thank you all so much, its a nicer present that n any Easter egg to know that your reading and hopefully enjoying my blog :) 

So this week, I was undecided what I wanted to do on my nails for Easter! I knew that I fancied a colour injection, but other than that I wasn't too sure!! So I picked 5 bright colours and started from there. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo of my nails before I started to doodle!! 
But here is how my nails turned out. I left both thumbs out of this (incase your wondering)

RIGHT HAND 

So I decided that I would do every nail different, I started with the pretty yellow nail, I was thinking a lil cute Easter chick, I was trying to make it look like he was peeking out of an egg shell, not a bad first attempt, but his eyes and nose could be better!! 

The bunny on the pink finger I think is cute. The other two nails i decided to try to decorate like Easter Eggs, I used nail art pens. I like the end result especially on the blue nail.

LEFT HAND 

As you know I'm dotty for spotty :) and time wasn't on my side unfortunately, so spots over all these pretty colours seemed like a good option to me, and I was happy with the outcome, I didn't spot the drag marks over the spots until I uploaded the photos onto the computer!! 

I had left my ring/yellow finger blank with the intentions of attempting another chick on this finger, but sadly I never got around to it!! But hey, Yellow is a nice Eater colour and it looks pretty as it is I think :) (good excuse? lol) 

WHAT I USED

From Left to Right

• GREEN = Avon Speed Dry + nail enamel - Don't be jaded
• BLUE = Catrice 400- Blue Cara  Ciao
• PINK = Barry M Gelly Hi Shine - Grape Fruit
• YELLOW = Catrice 700 Birdy Reloaded!
• ORANGE = ESSIE 210a Orange, Its Obvious
• BLACK = Essence Color & Go 144 - Black is back
• TOP COAT = NYC 202 Grand Central Station
• WHITE = OPI Alpine snow
• WHITE = Essence tip painter - white
• Nail Art Pens - Orange & Silver = Penneys
• Dotting Tool & Tin Foil

Overall I'm happy with these nails and I've received lotsa compliments for the pretty colours over the weekend :)

What do you think? Did you brighten your nails for the Easter Weekend? leave your link below, I'd luv to see your Easter nail art :) 

Enjoy your Easter Eggs today. Happy Easter 

Leopard Print Mani

I wasn't going to post these photos of my first attempt at a leopard print mani, because my top coat dragged and kinda wrecked the whole lot  ***yip, i learn everything the hard way *** SOB***

BUT then I thought, I'll post them and the next time when I do leopard print, you'll see the improvement: :)

I'm a huge fan of leopard print... Even the wallpaper in my bedroom is pink leopard print.

I used Leighton Denny - Supermodel
Nail Art pens = gold & black = Penneys
Top Coat - ESSENCE

Valentines Day Nail Art #2 + 3

HALLMARK HEART DAY!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

I'm not a big Vday fan I must admit, its a hallmark holiday, but I am a fan of cute red hearts and bows etc, plus any excuse to try and be a little bit creative, even tho I'm still learning.

So this post shows my next two attempts at hearts and kisses. I was mad to try out some of the flocking powder that arrived in the post last week for me :) and thought that this was my opportunity

RIGHT HAND

LEFT HAND

Unfortunately the flocking powder didn't stay put and I may have inhaled some whilst blowing my nose (not recommend, gag) also the powder transferred over to my other nails. BOO :(
In an attempt to keep the furry flocking in place I put top coat over it, but you can see from the above photos, this made it worse :(


So after maybe 12 hours, I decided that the 4 fingers with the bad looking flocking powder had to go!
I came home from work, stripped the 4 fingers and started fresh on these.

So here are the final results

LEFT HAND 

I like them, my hearts are definately improving and the lips are quite good for a first attempt

LEFT HAND

RIGHT HAND

RIGHT HAND

The Love heart weets were purely for photographic reasons only ;) cutte tho aren't they

WHAT I USED

What I used:

Essence Nail Art Peel Off Base Coat

Nails Inc St. James (red)

Avon Nailwear pro Mercury Metal (silver)

OPI mini Alpine White (white)

Essence Gel look Top Coat

Red Flocking Powder (eBay)

Dotting Tool & Tin Foil

BEE NAIL ART

Hey Guys,

I want to show you my bad attempt at bee’s!! These turned out so much better in my head than what has appeared on my fingers!

But Its completely my own fault!!

I used:

Essence nail art peel off base coat

W7 Yellow polish

Nail Art Black Striper

Essence Tip Painter – White

Seche Vite – Top Coat

Dotter

It took 5 coats to make this yellow opaque, I must admit I lost my patience during this application and my cuticles suffered for it and were suffocated!!

I probably should have stopped at this stage and done some rescue/ clean up bits, but I decided that I’d keep going!!

I was sitting watching a film during this process and it shows, as you can see in the photo’s, its messy and careless and I was too lazy and tired at the time!!

I free handed the stripes  and then used my dotter to make big black dots, followed by smaller white dots and then tiny black dots.

As you can see from the photos I never got around to the clean up at all!! I took the photos and then started the lovely picking and peeling process.

I will attempt this again when I’m not glued to the TV and in better light, I’m guessing the results will be 100% better.. But that’s for another day!!

Just thought I’d share these with you anyways. From a distance they looked kinda ok!!

Essence Nail Art Peel Off Base Coat

Essence Nail Art Peel Off Base Coat

The best invention/ find of 2012 has to be "Essence Nail Art Peel Off Base Coat"
I have been raving about this product for the last couple of weeks, I'm not sure why I haven't done a post on it before now!! So here we go :)
This cost me €2.79 in Penneys and its worth every penney and more.

 

 

Why is it so great I hear you asking?? (sorry I do tend to go on) Well this is a base coat, it goes on white and is essentially PVA glue, but give it a few minutes to dry and its drys to clear.
you paint your nails with whatever you want, I recommend glitter polish.
Do all your business, glitter, nail art, top coats etc.

Then when your ready to change your colour, you break the seal up around your cuticles and push it with an orange stick and other beauty bloggers say it comes off in one go.
I haven't tried this technique, you see I'm a picker, so I'm loving this method of removal :)
I break the seal at the cuticle and I pick/ peel off the layers of polish off my nails, finger by finger.
I find it to be great fun and the best bit???? (apart from the fact that you can do it anywhere, my mother can vouch to that!! her poor car, oops)  It doesn't do any damage to your nails :) Yip, you heard me, so you can pick and peel and your nail bed doesn't suffer AT ALL.

 

 

I have been raving about this stuff since I discovered it, I'd read about it on an Australian blog a few months back, so I was thrilled when I spotted it by accident on the Essence stand.

I think every girls should have a bottle of this in their collection, you don't have to be doing nail art to have this.
Its made the removal of glitter polish's fan-ruddy-tastic tho, I used to avoid glitter polish's because, as pretty as they are, they're a total nightmare to remove.. but no more.. Now I get to enjoy an hour of picking when I want them gone and then I just use nail polish remover around the edges.

I've been changing my nail colour a lot more frequently over the last few weeks, purely because the knowledge that I can pick my nails clean makes me happy... Sad but true..

I'm thinking this could be a holy grail product for 2013.

have you tried this?? Are you a fan?



***I can't add comments to my photos at the moment, but I'm sure they're self explanatory