Archive for May 2010

Barry M Bright Purple

Hey guys! I told you normal, nail polish related posts would resume! *suppresses anger about eurovision*

This is the first of the new Barry M's I bought. Formula is pretty crap, actually - left bald spots everywhere. This is two coats, but it could have done with a few more.
I painted this late in the night and by the morning, there were already a few chips. After washing the dishes, there was like nothing left. Fail.

Colour = meh. Formula = ew.

A complete breakdown of the Eurovision Song Contest

Normal, nail polish related posts will resume shortly.

Opening Act

Pretty suckish compared to Russia's last year, which was pure perfection. Alexander Rybak poncing around with his broken violin again. Old news, boring, change channel.

Azerbaijan

This was the bookies favourite but clearly going first did it no favours. Can't say I'm that upset as while it's a good, mildly catchy song, Azerbaijani YouTube commentators are lethal. They get so unreasonably competitive. Jeez.
Why is Safura only wearing half a glove? And the dude doing some faux-ballet behind her is very, very, distracting. Still, a nice strong start to the competition.

Spain

This was some creepy shizz. "Algo Pequinito (Something Tiny)" is bloody terrifying. A load of overgrown, heavily made up toybox toys having epileptic fits on the stage. Glad to see the UK isn't the only country that can't take this seriously. The singer himself, Daniel Diges, has some serious Jewfro action going on. Stuff of nightmares, I kid you not. Song was improved immensly by the fan who ran onto the stage and started dancing. Kudos to Spain for carrying on as usual.

Norway

Hosting the Eurovision costs a lot (despite the fact that this years is about as low budget as it gets) Can you blame Norway for not wanting to win again? Didrik Solli-Tangen (singing "My Heart Is Yours) really reminds me of that dude from Blue who you always suspected was gay but was never 100% sure. The song is the typical Euroballad of which pops up every year, with the obligitary semitone key change near the end. You can't fault his singing ability but the song is just a tad too slow for my tastes. Meh.

Moldova

The dude playing the violin while jumping, spinning and generally acting like a douche is hilarious (and talented). A nice bit of Euro electropop from the SunStroke Project feat. Olia Tira (song name: Run Away) for some comic relief. Dancing = fail. Makeup = fail. Lyrics = fail. Altogether = pleasingly amusing.

Cyprus

lolwut?
"Life Looks Better In Spring" written by two Cypriots, performed by some Welsh dude and his British friends. If you're into pretentious, acoustic, Scouting for Girlsesque music this probably made your night. I actually went off to feed the fish during this song because I was like, dying of laughter. Why is his guitar taped up with gaffer tape? Whyyyyy?

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The first of the former Yugoslavian pals that forgave each other for the years of violent fighting and now award each other twelve points whenever possible.The first faux-rock of the evening performed by Mr Receding Hairline (Vukasin Brajic) is named "Thunder and Lightening". Gotta love the thunder effects and the fake guitar solo (by now, most of Europe know that ESC rules forbid your instruments actually being plugged in, preventing us hearing anything but the backing track and the singer) The competence this year is making the entries very difficult to mock. Still, I do try.

Belgium

Average teenage girl - this will appeal to you. Tom Dice - Me and My Guitar (written by himself). This song does exactly what it says on the tin - if you were looking for the typical Eurovision theatrics, it's literally just him. and. his. guitar. It sounds boooooooring. Where are the lights? Dancers? Gimmicks? However, this is Belgium's first qualification since 2004, so clearly this has something going for it. In practice, the song is alright, perfectly listenable. All in all, a refreshingly simple three or so minutes.

Serbia

Some Eurocheese for us to munch on! Ovo Je Balkan (performed by Milan Stankovic) is an overly excitable...tune. Don't really know how to describe it, in all honesty :P It's cute and one of the things I really shouldn't admit to liking. What the obsession with having "Balkan" in the song title? Last year, it was Romania with "The Balkan Girls" and now Serbia. I'm not complaining, though, the refrain of "Balkan Balkan Balkan" is insanely catchy. A "can't help but smile" tune.

Just go away, Presenter

The irritating Nadia woman pops back up for no good reason and talks about how Spain get to go again. Joy.

Belarus

3+2 with Butterflies. The women turn into butterflies halfway through. how. did. you. people. qualify.

Ireland

That type of power ballad needs a key change like the UK need a good song. Desperately. Niamh Kavanagh (singing It's For You) has already won Eurovision previously so I don't know what she's trying to achieve by returning (another win is pretty unlikely) but a solid performance from Ireland. Her and Iceland's singer (Hera Bjork) seem to be interchangeable though.

Greece

Giorgios Alkaios and Friends (song: OPA!)have entered a ringtone which appears to have been remixed with the movie 300. I approve. Greece almost always do a great Eurovision track and this is no exception. It has the familiar Grecian beat with a techno thread. The hunky male dancers don't hurt it, either. Niiiiiiice.

United Kingdom

Nuff said, really.

Just go away, Presenter

Haddy comes and molests Graham Norton. The rest of Europe got an ad break. By this point, that irritating We Buy Any Car advert is looking quite appealing. Why no ads, BBC? WHYYYYYYYY?

Georgia

Sofia Nizharadze does some very, very odd things with her eyes near the end of the song (Shine) which actually made me slightly worried as she looks like she's having a seizure or something...pretty average, Europop ballad which will do reasonably well. Great singing. Too much guyliner on the dancers, though.

Turkey

Turkey always do quite well in Eurovision but with the second faux rock/anti establishment song of the evening (yeah, look at us being so hard and awesome, sit through this singing competition and stick it to the man by VOTING FOR US) this is a possible winner. They have a robot at the back that stands like a statue until about the two minutes mark, when it suddenly comes to life and starts taking the suit off, revealing a pretty blonde lady who...comes and drapes a flag over the lead singer. *shrugs*. manGa - We Could Be The Same. This should appeal even to non-rock fans, becuase it's quite catchy and generally very impressive.

Albania

Apparantly Albania still think it's 1980 with their entry. "It's all about you" by Juliana Pasha is a Eurodisco tune masquerading as sophisticated electropop.
...
It's not a song you can be particulary verbose about.


Iceland

Hera Bjork (the Ireland entry's doppleganger) sings "Je Ne Sais Quoi". Pleasingly Europop, pleasingly catchy, but doesn't stand out from the rest.

Ukraine

Ukraine, the country of Euro stardom, the country that gave us the stripper in the hamster wheel (2009) and the dancing tin foil robots (2007) and the awesome Ani Lorak (2008) has thought it appropriate to bring some limp blonde (Alyosha, "singing" Sweet People)to sing this faux rock ballad with lyrics that make NO SENSE. What's up with the leather monk hood? What's with the lyrics "The message is so real, the end is really near?" But it's going to be a winner. It's going to win the most baffling song of the evening award.
Having a rich daddy counts for a lot in Ukraine. Remember this.

EDIT: Apparantly the song is about environmental issues. Doesn't look like noise pollution is one of her concerns.

France

Jessy Matador with "Allez Ola Ole" easily pwns most of the competition with this high octane, Congolese song. Crazy dance moves, great lighting, poor camera work (it keeps zooming out at the interesting bits, but that's not their fault) and performed with geniune commitment. Yes, it's a football anthem but it translates so well to stage (better, than say, Germany's song - the song is great but on stage, not so powerful) that it should score highly. It didn't, but it should have.

Romania

Lovely, cute, happy Europop duet that is sure to have many fans. The dual piano is a novel touch, too. Paula Seling and Ovi - Playing With Fire. Check out the official video, it's pretty cool.

Russia

Clearly they don't want to win again (they spent quite a bit on Eurovision 2009) so they thought they'd send three minutes of suicidal tendencies to a song contest. Lost and Forgotten is sung by Peter Nalitch and Friends (are you sure he has any friends? He seems like such a JOY to be around, end sarcasm) and he sings to a "photo" (it's not, it's a very poor sketch). Oh, and way to butcher the English Language, Nalitch.

Armenia

A very pretty girl singing about Apricot Stones. The cameraman enjoyed focussing on her pair of "apricot stones" a tad too much, though.

Germany

The favourite (joint with Azerbaijan). Now, I love this song (Lena singing Satellite). I've been listening to it and France's song for ages before the contest. But I don't think it looks all that impressive on stage - it's literally just her, with unchoreographed dance moves, holding her stomach a lot and three backing singers, which does not an entertaining show make. Still, it's number one in a lot of Europe and will do well.

Portugal

Basically the UK circa Jade Ewen.

Israel

Disappointing, but then again I've never seen an Israeli entry that has been, you know, good. He sings of tears of blood. I cried tears of blood all the way through that song. Ghastly.

Denmark

*pukes*

And Spain again, but was the same sans intruder.

Interval act:

As good as Russia's. True, there were no people in swimming pools suspended from the ceiling. Instead we got fairly awesome flashmobs and dancing and MADCON, YEAH! from all over Europe. A simple idea, yet fairly impressive. Probably cheaper, too. Yeah, I've got your number Oslo.

Votes:

Germany won as everyone knows. Not an unexpected result. Turkey achieved a respectable second (it really was a good song) with Romania in third (again, good song). Drip Drop (Azerbaijan) was one of the big disapointments of the evening - a favourite to win, yet only achieving fifth? Burn.


Countries that were ROBBED:

France
Azerbaijan
Greece
Serbia (OK, maybe not, but the song was funny :P)

Countries that achieved higher than deserved:

Russia
Ukraine (the top two shouldn't have even made the semi finals)
Denmark
Armenia (hadn't guessed nice bewbs counted for so much?!)
Israel

Until next year, peoples.

TOO ANGRY FOR WORDS

France were ROBBED in the Eurovision Song Contest. ROBBED.

yes, I know I like Lena. Doesn't get me past the fact that France were better. 10th place? You people serious? Oh, and the UK came last but honestly, I expected no more. Why were Denmark anywhere near the top three? They sucked. They SOOOOOKED.





AHNLK12QI3PJIGN1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what is eurovision coming to.

/end rant.

fricking political voting.

Epic Haulage and a little Eurovision something for my followers :)

Hey guys!

Wow. I went to watch a film and go shopping with my friends today and we went to Boots and Superdrug...
Yeah that's right. You sees it, you wants it.

Bahaha I am so proud of my hauling skills.
Barry M's! They were doing 3 for 2 over at Boots so the three cost me £5.90 when they usually would have cost whatever £2.95 times by three is. :D I got Spring Green, Cyan Blue and I've forgotten the name of the purple one.


I thought I'd get in on the MUA action. You see, Superdrug have just brought out their new range of £1 products (nail polish, eyeshadow, pigments, liquid eyeliner, blush and bronzers etc.) and I wanted to try them out because the blogosphere's been kinda empty lately. And yes, I've only photographed one for a reason.

I'm so late to the Sleek bandwagon! It's a company that makes makeup specially for darker skinned women like myself (though of course lighter skinned people can wear it too) and so all the colours are highly pigmented and stuff. British bloggers rave about this so much :P
I got the Acid palette which is full of the bright colours which I love as well as a few more shimmery, slightly less bright ones. At a glance, I probably won't be using the matte white, but I'm game for all the others :) They've raised the price since these first came out, they used to be £4.99 but now they're £5.99. Still, I'm not that bothered - apparantly they're great quality for their price (and they're mineral based) so swatches will be appearing soon.


So I was feeling the Eurovision love (as I'm typing this there's only about half an hour to go until it starts!) and decided that I'd give away the other MUA polish (mint green) and try and go to Superdrug before the giveaway ends to pick up some more colours (and some Barry M, because apparantly everyone loves that) for an international blogger to try. Failing that, you can have the other MUA polish and of course, either way, I will include chocolate :D The giveaway isn't starting today, by the way - I'd quite like to get everything together first, but yeah. Anyways. To the European readers - go Eurovision!

Love,
September Lena


The Eurovision Song Contest

This is Barry M in Raspberry (my favourite nail polish, ever) with a black and yellow nail art pen. I did a little mountain scene thing but it probably looks a bit weird on the thumb :P
OK. Now I'm going to rave about something that UK and European viewers will be familiar with.
OMG EUROVISION TOMMOROW *squees*
For those that don't know what I'm on about, the Eurovision Song Contest is a Europe wide (and, for some reason, Israel are involved too) song contest held yearly. It's basically a load of kitsch Europop and I love it :D There are two semi finals and one final, and the final is tonight! It's the worlds most watched non-sporting competition and it's like, amazing :P It's all over YouTube if anyone wants to take a look, and if you're international you can stream it live from the Eurovision website!
 My favourites to win:


France with Allez Ola Ole

Germany with Satellite

Thanks for sitting through my rave :P

Love,

September Lena
xxx

Fimo experiments...

My Fimo pieces have been slobbing around my room for an age after my terrible experiences with the three flower canes that were included :( Seriously, they would get caught on anything and everything and by second or third period there would be these huge ugly holes in my nail polish :( Plus, they were really time consuming and boring to cut.

aha.


First, I painted my nails with this orange franken.
Then I got my fimo canes and decided to slice them. Surprisingly difficult as these were fruit shapes and the majority were a lot thicker than what I'd been used to. So I filled a mug to the brim with hot (like, from the kettle) water and put clingfilm over the whole thing before resting the canes on the whole thing. A few minutes on that and they were a lot easier to slice thinly.
What do you guys think? I topped it off with a gold glitter polish from Rimmel.

These actually managed to stay on for three/four days without falling off, which I was really pleased with! I've come to the conclusion that round canes are just easier to use than the flower ones. How do you guys find fimo?

Love,

September Lena
xxx

Yet More Drama /inapropriate language

Blogging while you're angry. Don't do it, guys.

Seriously, since Scandalous Ange is oh so desperate for the commenter "hmm" to reveal herself, here I am.

I really respect/respected her and her blog. She's witty and amusing and generally a good read, as are the rest of the Wicked Vixens. I used to comment a lot on her swatches etc. and actually quite admired her. (infact, she's actually on my blogroll)
 Today (Sunday) I saw the post she'd written which I've linked to above. The post does not bother me, at all. What she wrote after it does. This was my comment:

"I have no issue with this post but I do take issue with you wishing Afghanistan and Iraq to be turned into "craters" and expressing a wish to a return to the destruction of Hiroshima.

"I want this shit settled. And if it means nothing but a goddamn crater left, then so be it."
"If it were up to me, I'd be blowing a hell of a lot more shit up and getting this shit DONE. I miss the days back in WWII, back when America wasn't afraid to FUCK SHIT UP"
I love your respect for, you know, humanity in general, other nations, etc. /scarcasm. You're against the deaths of American soldiers but for the annihilation of entire nations of (non American) people? Shame on you."


I recieved abuse after that but you know, I spoke my mind. Check it out if you want guys. I'm not calling for anyone to stop following her blog because it's still very entertaining and informative, or to call her out over this. This is just a cautionary tale - be careful what you say on the interwebz.


I'm done here.

Thursday/Friday Dark Night Nail Art

Sufficiently posey? :P
This is: Miss Sporty Nail Varnish (black) and konaded over with Nails Inc Brompton Place and top coat was some silver generic glittery thing.
The glitter is slightly bumpy but I guess if you added more clear top coat it would have been evened out. I didn't want to put yet more nail polish on, though, because glitter is tricky to remove as is.
 Thanks for looking guys!

Love,

September Lena

Abstract Nail Art and a little moan.

Hey guys!

I was seriously stuck for inspiration the other day so basically scrawled over my nails with the black nail art pen (I'm using that all the time :P)

I can never get my left hand to pose properly, it looks completely spastic :P Anyway, I basically did a basecoat of Kensington Caviar (Nails Inc.) and smushed Boots red nail polish, Avon Minimalistic Peach and the Boots 17 Lilac polish over my nails. Then SCRAWL.

UK readers: I've been scouring Boots for bottles of Diet Coke because you know that they're doing that promotion with Nails Inc? (buy two 500ml Diet Cokes, get a free Nails Inc polish?) but they've not heard of it. I'm going to try a bigger one soon but I mean really? I don't really want to trek the country to find a certain product...sigh.

Love,

September Lena

Conservative Manicure

It's basically a French, but in black. Perfect for Monday mornings :P
Kinda classy, dontchya think? My tutor saw it and said, "Those are just bruises on  your nails, right?" but clearly really meaning "I see your nail polish but I won't call you out for it because it's quite subtle" :P I made this with Nails Inc Sloane Mews and the black Nail Art pen from China.

Love,

September Lena

Palm Sunset Nail Art

I made this with the Boots 17 Lilac Polish and an orange franken.
My nails are still in a really bad shape right now, all peely and ickness. And they keep breaking! Any suggestions?

Pastel Nail Art

I used a konad plate and Miss Sporty Nail Polish in Black for this. Mildy spring-y, even though it's turning to Summer...
Love,

September Lena

xxx

Pastels Series

Oh hey. Recently, I frankened a load of pastel nail polish colours because my collection is distinctly lacking in them. Here they are:

The green colour is Barry M in mint green. All the others are frankens, though.
Sorry about the sidewaysness of it, I forgot to rotate them before I uploaded them. This is like a pale peach colour that I made that I've since frankened into a stronger orange colour.
Application was awful. Just sayin'.

This was a lot better, and actually one of my favourite colours because it applied so smoothly and looks really good.
The lilac and the blue. I've already featured the blue on this blog but here's a swatch of the purple:
I really didn't make a lot of this colour, it barely fills the bottom of the bottle, so I expect it to run out soon. Still, the colour was cute.

Thanks for reading! Love,

September Lena

Collections

I just thought I'd showcase my weird nail polishes for you. These are the frankens - I'm going to do a quick series on these in a few posts time, so stay tuned :P

From left to right: Brown/dark red colour, green, purple glitter, lilac, pale blue. In front: pale coral, light orange

These are all my generic polishes obtained from like nail kits and suchlike.
The purple is, incidentally, a peel off nail polish which is quite a cute novelty. The second to last gold colour is a mad mass of glitter when it gets into the light and the last one is a pretty pearl.

UNBANNED

Yeah, you heard that right. I have internet access again, oh yeah, wooot.
So. This is the pleasantly green creation I have made from that hideously yucky yellow colour I had.  You guys wanted me to show the result to you, so here it is!
I did make a camouflage nail art design out of it (as I was going paintballing for a friend's birthday party) but I didn't take a picture :( next time eh?

 It dries really quickly, which is always a plus, and has some sparklly shimmer in it.

I've missed you guys :)

Love,

September Lena

xxx

Hnnnng.

Parents think it's funny to take away laptop. Will be posting irratically until some point when I have recovered laptop/bought iPod Touch with wireless capabilities :P

xxx

September Lena

What colour IS this franken?

Anyone that could help me out here...
On the nails, it looks like a purpley-browny-greyey-bluey-slightly copper...thing. By all rights it should be a failure but I love it <3. It's one of my more unique colours, that's for sure.
How I made this elusive character. From left to right - Light Blue Franken, Bobbypin (Boots brand) dark red nail polish, and then the franken, right there. I also added the remains of my green franken to it.
Ignore the bottle colour, it didn't really mix properly. 
It dried semi-matte very quickly, which I liked, but chipped within a couple of days, which I didn't. Ah well. It was very easy to take off :P

Barry M Mint Green Swatch

This is the colour that I've been waiting for for so long. I figured that since we have a bank holiday this weekend, why not try it out?

In all it's glory:
Two pounds ninety five from Superdrug. I love it so much.
This was two coats, apart from the ring finger and the thumb - that was three. Application was a tad iffy, to be honest. Not as good as Barry M Nail Paint in Raspberry. This formula was really quite watery and blah. Took ages to dry as well - I kept smudging it and having to start over. Definitely needed at least two coats because one is really not enough. Still, the final effect is really good and it hasn't chipped yet, even without top coat.
I apologise for the index finger - had a really bad break and I had to cut it back so far that it hurt :( Ah well. I really love this colour! It's very eye catching and cute. Another winner from Barry M.

Have you guys heard about this?

Apparently OPI are not allowing and suing e-tailers that sell their polish abroad. I've never bough any OPI because where I've seen it (mostly QVC) it's been stupidly expensive. They were selling a 15ml bottle of cuticle oil with a matching cream for eighteen pounds something. This is absurd. Now that you have to order it from their website, paying full retail and postage etc, it's even more stupid. The Swatchaholic says it better than I do - I urge anyone interested to take a look at her post on it.

She raises quite a few valid points. American cosmetics are a lot more expensive over here (when I say here, I mean Europe in general) which is why e-tailers are great. Obviously, it's more expensive to ship a product over, and so some disparity between the country of origin and the new country is expected. But when you get price markups of 140% (OPI in Germany and OPI in the US, check Swatchaholic for all the maths) perhaps it's time to draw a line.

Yellow Franken Fail

The camera is so forgiving. I assure you, this franken is hideous.

So I started out all optimistic, wanting to make a pale yellow franken out of the Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours yellow and this white 17 basecoat thing I had.
Do you see the yuck? Do you see it? This polish was a streaky mofo to apply, just like it's parent yellow, which I expected to be honest. I chucked a ball bearing in and that didn't seem to help much. Undeterred, I painted two coats on my nail. Ewwwwww.
Major visible nail line going on. In real life, it's practically fluorescent. You know what it looks like? It looks like a much paler version of that Piggy Paints Neon Yellow thing.
Photo from the lovely Rhea at The Chain Nail (Check out her blog here.), one of the few people that can pull this colour off. The franken looks so awful on me I immediately removed it, screaming in pain. My eyes! My eyes!

I'll let you guys know when I've found a way to get rid of this travesty once and for all.

Love,

September Lena

xx

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