Uhhh...hi?! + Ciate Very Colourfoil Manicure

Well, this seems a bit odd!

It has been so long since I've written a post. Infact, my last post was the 10th October. Wow...four months!

The reason I haven't posted is that I had surgery on the 14th October last year, to remove two large dermoid cysts from both of my ovaries. I was in surgery longer than I should have been, I was released from hospital sooner than I should have been, and for about 3 weeks I was confined to my bed, barely being able to walk to the toilet. Technically I should have been back to normal after about 6 weeks, but the wound I had decided to..."pop" open, and so up until about two or three weeks ago I had a very large, very disgusting open wound. Yes, its taken it about 13 weeks to heal over. Ridiculous. So that knocked me about a bit! Anyway...let's do a proper post!

I've had one of the Ciate Colourfoil Manicure sets for a while and have used it a few times, and I really do love it. The one I have is Wonderland. In the box, you get a full size polish (in this case, it's Cream Soda, which is a light grey with a slight brown tint to it), a bottle of glue and a little envelope containing the foil sheets. There are 6 different colours, and I think there's either 5 or 6 sheets of each colour. The colours of foils included are a pink, green, silver, orange-bronze, holographic gold and holographic silver. This mani is very easy and fun to do, and I love how it turns out. My only complaint would be to switch up the holo sheets for other colours - once you apply topcoat, the holo effect disappears, and if you don't apply top coat, within a few hours you'll have a big sticky mess on your fingernails.

The other 'issue' I noticed with this is that when you do apply topcoat, the foil 'cracks'. You don't see it unless you're looking, but it goes from looking like a lovely piece of smooth foil to being covered in tiny little lines and cracks. It's not an issue per say, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

It's very simple to use. You just paint your nails and let them dry, paint a thin layer of the glue over and wait until it turns clear, and then just place the foil sheets over the nail, press down and rip them away. And, of course, you have to seal with topcoat.

I do need to get my paws on the other one of these. I did buy some foil sheets off eBay to use but...they just weren't as good. They seemed thicker and you really needed to rub to get anything to come off onto the nail at all.

Also - I'd like to apologise for the state of my cuticles and around my nails. It's not until I looked at these pics that I saw just how awful they were. Ugh!

 

Cream Soda!

Anybody else tried this?

RiRi Hearts MAC - Talk That Talk Dupe!

This was a very happy coincidence!


When the latest RiRi collection dropped last week, I was bummed that I didn't have the cash to get the items I wanted. The two things I was really after was Talk That Talk lipstick and lip liner. Of course, they sold out in no time and I didn't get a chance to buy them.

So I went on the hunt for a really dark red lippy - something that screamed vamp. I ended up on Illamasqua.com as they had a sale on (I also finally picked up Pink Raindrops - yay!). I was browsing through their lippies and decided to give Growl a try.

I then get an email from MAC a few days later saying RiRi is back in stock...so of course I jump over and grab TTT. The liner was still sold out, so I settled for grabbing Nightmoth pencil instead.

They both arrived yesterday and to my suprise...Illamasqua's Growl is an exact dupe of Talk That Talk. I cannot tell the difference at all. Growl is slightly more matte than TTT, which bizarrely doesn't feel like a retro matte at all and has a good amount of slip in it!

Seriously...I can't tell the difference!

Illamasqua describes Growl as a " Rich mahogany brown" whilst MAC describes Talk That Talk as a "Matte dark plum". I'd say somewhere in the middle of both, with added red.

*PS - there is a slight colour difference in two of the pics below, as I took them from my phone which really wasn't a clever idea, but my proper camera picks up way too many of my blackheads to attempt that! I can assure you, they are definite dupes!*

 

 

 

Talk That Talk

Growl

Growl (top) and Talk That Talk (bottom)

Talk That Talk (left) and Growl

Talk That Talk *slightly pinker overall tone here*

Growl *slightly yellowy tone - my phone sucks!*

Growl over Nightmoth lip pencil

Nightmoth lip pencil and Talk That Talk

Illamasqua's Growl can be found here

Striping tape criss cross mani's...and I have a new four-legged friend!

Hi guys!


Been a while since I posted (again!). I've recently been a bit obsessed with doing criss-crossy striping tape mani's. Get a serious amount of compliments with these! They aren't always perfect, a lot of the time I can't angle them correctly so they end up being a bit skew-whiff, but I still think they're pretty!




This first mani is using Azature's Blue Diamond and OPI's Tiffany Case:

Second is using Layla's Chrome Mirror Effect polish with OPI's Honey Ryder. I basically just kept wrapping a long string of tape around my nail on this one.

Third is using MAC's Please Me with OPI's Jinx. Pic was taken on my phone whilst I was out shopping, hence the trolley...

And the last mani is using Illamasqua's Swinger with OPI's Every Month Is Oktoberfest.

Whilst I'm here, I want to introduce my new friend. He's adorable. Seriously.

His name is Buddy (cos, he's my little buddy!) but he also gets called Budbud, Hammy, Hamham, Little Man and Bugger when he's being mischievous!

He reallllly loves broccoli...

Azature Blue Diamond Polish Swatches

I just had a re-look through my Azature posts and realised I hadn't posted up pics of the Blue Diamond polish!

 

I had originally swatched this many many many months ago, but must have completely forgotton. I've decided to re-swatch, because it really is a to-die-for polish.

This, next to the Green Diamond, are my favourite polishes from Azature. It's a little on the thick side but definitely manageable, has no major issues (pooling, bubbling etc) and is opaque in just one coat. Blue Diamond is a medium-dark vibrant blue packed out with blue and holographic shimmer. It really is an absolutely stunning colour!

Azature Lilac Diamonds Polish Swatches

Yay!!



Azature very recently released some new polishes - all of which are creme finishes. They can be found exclusively at Selfridges for £17 each.

I'll admit, part of me is very underwhelmed with these. After the first lot of Azature's, which I'm dubbing the "sparklies", these just seem a little...meh. I mean, there's nothing wrong with them, I love a good rich creme finish polish, but compared to what we've seen from Azature they just aren't hitting the same sweet spot. If they were packed out with pretty sparklies I'd be having constant orgasms over them, but these are just okay. £17 is a lot to pay for a creme finish polish. It does still have that pretty little black diamond in it though, and that will always suck me in.

Lilac Diamond is a medium blue based purple. I used two coats for this, and didn't have any issues. The formula flows really nicely on the nail, it's neither thick or thin.

If you have some extra cash or you really love diamonds, they could be worth a splurge. I'll complete my collection of these, but it will take me some time!

Azature Red Diamond Polish Swatches

Ahhh...more diamonds!


Red Diamond is the second to last polish I've picked up from Azature's sparkly polishes. The last one to grab is the Yellow Diamond, but I'm not too sure I'll be picking that one up. They've very recently released some more polishes - all creme's - one of which I do own (which will be up next).


I do absolutely adore Azature's Diamond polishes. They're so incredibly sparkly. Some have issues with pooling or being very thick (or some having horrific staining)...but I still love them. Anyway...

Red Diamond is a classic red polish with holographic shimmer. My camera refuses to pick this up correctly. It's a cross between a jelly and a creme. I used two coats for this polish and had no major issues with it (including staining - yay!)