If any of you were wondering about the strawberry - it's a Wimbledon tradition to sit around eating strawberries and cream while watching the match. I don't actually even watch it, but I did this mani for some odd reason. Hmm.
The Student's Guide To Nail Polish
So much makeup. Such little student finance. A fight against the draconian makeup policies of a Catholic school. (2013)
Archive for June 2010
Wimbledon Nail Art
If any of you were wondering about the strawberry - it's a Wimbledon tradition to sit around eating strawberries and cream while watching the match. I don't actually even watch it, but I did this mani for some odd reason. Hmm.
Pink nail art
I really don't know what I was trying to achieve here.
The Cherry Award! And 100 Posts!
Thanks so much jaljen (of nailpolishuk) for giving me this award! I was going to nominate Rebekah from For the Love of Nails and also Rebecca from Nails Etc but they've already been nominated! I'm going to nominate:
Susie (Susie's Home and Hobbies)
Rhea (The Chain Nail)
Vegesaurus (Bethanie's Nails)
Phyrra (Fresco Phyrra, now Phyrra)
Bicky (Tastes Like Glitter)
Positives:
I am so much better at Legend of Zelda
Way better at thinking up comebacks (thank goodness for that!)
Slowly getting better at languages
Thanks you guys! Means so much to me :)
EDIT: Just realised that Blogger says I've made 100 posts! YEY!
Haulin' II. Poundland Concealer and Eyeliner Pencils and why you should not eat pigments
And the ugly.
The eyeliners (don't know if you can see from the picture) are metallic. They also had a choice of two black pencils or two brown ones.
And this. This is in a league of it's own, I tell thee.
Anyways. First, the concealer. I was at Poundland, all excited, looking through the concealers. This one was called "Dark" so I bought it.
Can you read that? It says, "Shade Dark, with added tea tree".
That's not dark, dammit. It's really light - almost like my Sleek foundation (I really need to get rid of that but don't know anyone who wants it... -.-)
Also, it's really weirdly shaped, like a lipstick bullet.
They serious?
And look at all that product being wasted in the bottom of the tube. I've tried, there's no way to get to it.
I made a splodge on my arm with brown eyeliner.
Stuck concealer over it. Fail. After rubbing in, adding more, and repeating the process several times, I got this:
It looks very odd on camera but in real life there's just a slightly pink toned smudge over the eyliner. Sigh.
Perhaps it might work if I wore it under foundation, but what really gets me is how they've labelled it as "Dark" when it's not at all!
Since it looks so much like a lipstick, I put it on my lips to see if it'd make a good nude (not for me, obviously, but for my lighter skinned readers)
Nah. Looks so bizzare in relation to the rest of my face, you have NO IDEA. Plus it doesn't apply evenly, adding another coat removes the first and it will accentuate everything on your lips. Also has the odd effect of making my lips look like they're pillows. They're not that big, I assure you.
So save yourself the quid and get something off the McDonald's saver menu instead. Hmmm, medium fries. Unless, of course, this shade would actually suit you, in which case buy it. It's odd that the pressed powder comes in tones suitable for dark girls but not the foundation or the concealer...
These are the eyeliner pencils. They're alright. I haven't actually worn them for a look yet but when I put swatched these on my hand, the blue one was fine while the green melted a little (in fairness, it was a very hot day).
Green on the left, blue on the right.
And finally, the 2True Eyeshadow Dazzler. It's one of those that doesn't have a name, just a "Shade X". Why do all the companies not put any effort in these days?
Number 9, they call it.
For an entire day, this was as far as I'd got. I couldn't remove that plastic protective thingy they've got covering the holes of the sifter and I couldn't remove the sifter. I was a tad miffed that I'd paid £1.95 (considering MUA is £1 for slightly more product and Sleek is £2.99 for WAY more product and an unbelivable colour choice. Even Barry M do some awesome shades in their Dazzle Dusts and theirs don't come with a sifter so you have more than enough in there). for something that I couldn't even open.
Today, however, I resorted to a small knife to prise the sifter away from the jar. Though halfway through, I'd tried to take off the sifter off with my teeth and ended up with pigment in my mouth. EWWW it was gross tasting.
It's more product than I'd originally thought but I think it's still less than the MUA pigment which I really do like. If only it came in more shades.
The brush is damp with homemade mixing medium. I'll do a post on that at some point because my method is somewhat...unorthodox :P
Foiled on the hand. Gives quite good colour payoff, I like it.
I wanted to give the concealer one last chance to redeem itself as a primer. I put a thin layer on my hand and then applied more eyeshadow "dazzler" (what a crap name, blatant rip off of the Barry M Dazzl Dusts) on the left hand side. Three hours later, this is what they look like:
With concealer primer far left, with no primer middle, with that unwanted Sleek foundation as a primer far right.
It managed to fade within three hours. Screw this.
Haulin'
So this is the loot I managed to bag on that trip to town. I'm going to do the Sally Hansen products first because I'm most pleased with them but I have strong words about the Poundland kit.
Found a load of this in TJ Hughes for just £2.99, bargain! I <3 TJ Hughes, seriously. So much good stuff.
And I also got this:
I thought it would be about £2.99 as well but when I got to the checkout, the woman said it was just a pound! Wow! I've used it twice so far and I like it, it's good. I really hope it works for my nails though :/
Second part coming up.
It's a dark pink, not red.
Everything that I used for this:
The Nails Inc was the base coat (they have very distinctive bottles, it's the one with the shiny lid) and the MUA was used as a top coat. It's actually just a clear nail polish but I find the MUA ones last surprisingly long without chipping so I used it. Also, I used two nail art stripers, and a generic pink polish.
My hand always looks so stupid in these photos! It's like a claw.
Africans mean serious business. I love proof.
Yeah. But first...
GHANA WON AGAINST THE USA. Wahey!
Nah, I feel sorry for the US, I do, but Black Stars... <3 Well played to both teams. Sing sing Africa!
Yeah OK, back to the point.
So I took a trip up to the town centre today, as you do, and settled down for a hard revision session in the Library. Pretty good times. Got a page or so of notes down, went on Bitesize, and then around twoish I decided I needed a break. Borrowed the books (so no one else would take them) stuffed them in my Jane Norman bag and walked out.
Went into Poundland and picked up their concealer (utter crapola) looked for a foundation in my shade (nope, all they had was "Biscuit" (white) and "Oatmeal" (still white, one is slightly warmer toned than the other...) bought their metallic eyeliners (good) picked up some things for the giveaway, got food (wahey).
Went into TJ Hughes and picked up the most awesome Sally Hansen Nail Treatments. One was £2.99 and the other was just a quid. BRILLIANT.
Walk into Superdrugs. The metal detector thing bleeps as I walk in, but I think nothing of it. Go browsing. Eventually, I settle upon a 2True eyeshadow dust for £1.95. There's basically no product in it but it's a nice metallic blue and I wanted to try. Paid for it, made to leave...the thing starts beeping manically. Argh. I stand still in the doorway and the woman is like, "Come over here."
So I go.
"Give me your bag."
I hand it over, along with the Poundland reciept. She sniffs through it cautiously, and pulls out the Sally Hansens.
"Where on EARTH did you get those from?"
Ah, sh!t. Superdrugs have some just the same on their display, only it's about £8.99? Clearly, she thinks I must have stolen them.
"They're from TJ Hughes." I say. The woman next to me agrees. "Look" she says. "You can see the label"
I thank the woman then fish out the rest of the reciepts from my pocket. Luckily everything corresponded. Jeez. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't had those....I didn't even steal anything! I mention the library books in my bag and immediately she's like, "Oh, that's what did it then."
Lol thanks for the apology, not.
So anyway. Superdrug, update your fricking anti-theft devices so they don't bleep when someone carrying a library book comes into your store. Everyone else has managed it.
"Doctor, we're losing him!"
Yeah.
I only had one exam today, yey! Maths, at the end of the day. ROLL ON THE WEEKEND.
MUA Nail Polish Shade Thirteen, Exams may kill me before next Thursday, just a heads up.
Awesome polish. Awesome colour. My science teacher (I have two, a man and a woman. The woman is the most AWESOME science teacher you will ever meet. She is GOLD. Yeah, anyway.) said it was pretty :D
Rare picture with flash.
Anyway, the only problem I have with this polish is that it forms bubbles, even more than the MUA polish in Shade Three. I can't think as to why this would be...base coat? Not enough time to dry?
Also - Jan, I've posted your item, and I have the reciept if you'd like to see it! I hope you get it soon.
Lena xxx
Max Factor Mineral Foundation
As you can see, I got mine in "Bronze". Drugstore make up companies (save Sleek) tend to patronise non-whites with their foundation ranges by naming them stupid and predictable things like "Cocoa" "Chocolate" and "Ebony". "Bronze" is slightly better, I'll give them that.
Close up of the canister where the foundation is.
Naked and sifterless.
The sifter (lol, these captions are getting stupid).
Seriously heavily swatched on my hand. It blends in very nicely, but on the canister, where it says "Buildable coverage" they really mean, SERIOUSLY buildable. In other words, pretty sheer.
Sheered out somewhat. In real life it has sparkles, which is a tad odd. Only really noticeable in sunlight. It feels very nice on your face, so so far, I like it :D