So I'm back from Italy, and will just give you a rundown of the makeup related portion of the trip before DISPLAYING THE PRETTIES.


 

 How and where to start? Well, we went to Italy and on the second day, we went to buy jewellery. While waiting around for the jewellery shops to open, we walked into a beauty store (reminded me of Superdrug) and there, on the walls, was the most gorgeous Labello display I've ever seen.


Naturally, I tried to get my mum to let me buy some but she wasn't having any of it ('We've got lip balms at home!') entirely missing the point which was that I NEED THESE FOR THE BLOG GAWD

Eventually, I admitted defeat and reasoned that we could come back another day and buy them. But as the days passed and Mum finally realised the IMPORTANCE OF THESE LIP BALMS, it became clear that we weren't returning. sob. And by the time she was prepared to help me buy them, it was a bank holiday in Italy (any excuse for a day off work, you slackers). And we were leaving the day afterwards! We stopped at two superstores on the way to the airport but all I turned up were these two poxy imposters.


By this time I was pretty furious, seeing as I'd SEEN what I wanted to blow my 30 euros on on like the second day, but I wasn't allowed to buy it. And they were only 1.50 euros each, compared to what I'd pay if I wanted to buy online from the UK (upwards of four quid including postage) so I totally sulked my way through security. Had a sneaky check in Duty Free but couldn't find anything but overpriced Toblerones.



On the way to the gate, however, I saw a Kiko store and SQUEALED. Yey for Kiko!
I should have taken photos but it was getting close to the time for them to open the gates, so I quickly chose what I wanted and left. The polishes were priced at 2.50 euros each, which I found very reasonable, but they also had a discounted bucket full of polishes at 1.50 euros which was even better. The majority of the cremes were 2.50, and the rest 1.50. I paid 15 euros in total (my Mum bought a polish too which isn't pictured. See, she can buy nail polish, but I can't buy lipbalm. no capito) and I'm pretty happy with what I got in return.



I'm genuinely upset about my Labellos, though. As soon as I regained internet access (no thanks to you, TalkTalk) I spent like three hours looking for sites that ship to the UK but it was a lot more expensive than it would have been to buy in Italy (1.50 versus nearly £3.70 a lipbalm, often not including postage) so yeah. Depressed. If anyone knows any reasonable sites that do it, please let me know!

My Kikos are beautiful though. Kiko Makeup Milano. Doesn't that just roll off the tongue?



Kiko Makeup Milano sounds like a name for a chav baby. I still like it though. For a cosmetics company.



Before, when I thought of 'Kiko', I thought of the gorgeous Japanese model Kiko Mizuhara. But then she had the bad taste to go out (not confirmed but it's so obvious) with the hideous lead singer rapper thing from the tryhard and tragic boyband Big Bang so she's on my shit list anyway. I fully embrace Kiko Makeup Milano as my new go-to Kiko of choice.

2NE1 are a four member Korean girl group.

Above is a little Photoshop image (click to embigify, as it were) I made up of all five nails, since I can never get a decent one of the thumb. I tried to include screenshots but failed miserably, so can only link the video here and briefly explain what was inspired by what.
 The index finger was inspired by the tattoos that CL (blonde hair in the video) and Minzy (short black hair in the video) had painted on their arms. Same goes for the little finger.
Middle finger was inspired by the camoflague junglesque patterns that served as the backdrop for their video.
The ring finger was quite random. Their fanclub is called "Blackjacks". I have no idea what significance that has to them but whatever. Anyway, I guessed it was a type of card so drew one of the card symbols on it? *shrugs innocently*
The thumb is only pictured above, and that was inspired by Dara's (long brown hair, absolutely gorgeous woman) bright red lips in the video. She's my favourite out of the four and her lips were so eyecatching, I had to put them on my nails :P I used Nails Inc "Milan" from the Diet Coke colours for that design, but against the white it stamped closer to fuschia/hot pink than red. Whatever.
She's like 25 as well? Again (if you remember my Brown Eyed Girls manicure) that's quite old for an idol. I seem to like all the older women in Kpop. O_o

 I'm sure most of you are thinking , "Who on earth are the Brown Eyed Girls" right now, lol. Basically, they're a K-pop girl group that can actually sing very well, with a kickass rapper (Miryo). They're seriously quirky and talented, and are known for being older than the average kpop idols (They have an average age of like thirty or something).
Anyway, this is a manicure that was loosely inspired by the video.
 I chose a sort of metallic purpley/grey thing (Speed Dry, 17 from Boots) because that's the sort of colour the film gave me (even though it's in black and white. It was the first colour that jumped to my mind when I thought about this movie. It seems to suit the Brown Eyed Girls, in my opinion). The thumb sort of looks like the logo, and the silver reminds me of the member Narsha - showy, but not trashy. <3
 The design on the middle finger didn't show up that well, sorry :P These are all from the Bundle Monster plates, by the way.