Happy Samhain

So it's officially the end of Summer. Can't say I'm sorry, what a shit Summer it's been! So much rain!! Besides  I love the Autumn weather so much more, and the word Autumn is fab. I'm looking forward to fireworks and hot chocolates this harvest season <3

Hallowe'en, or Samhain, as I prefer because old Pagan festivals are so much cooler, is so commercialised nowadays but it hasn't lost all of its old meaning. It's traditional to dress up as something scary to ward off the evil spirits that may try to harm you as the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead becomes thinner before All Hallows Eve (Christian) or during Samhain (Pagan). This year I chose to dress up as a black cat because for the last 3 years (or 4, I don't remember) I have dressed up as a witch and I wanted to switch it up a bit.. black cat was the obvious next step lol plus I love cats.. if you hadn't already noticed >.>

Actually at the party I went to there were 2 other black cats and no witches so sods law was right again.
Unfortunately I didn't snap a picture of my costume so I can't show you, but I did enjoy having a tail.. rather more than I probably should.

Anyway I did some Hallowe'en nails today to mark the end of summer and to stop any wayward creepies getting at me whilst I try to sleep lol no ofc I don't believe in any of that.. but one cannot be too careful! So just in case, here are my nails:

 

For this I used 3 coats of Models Own Orangeade, which is a gorgeous bright orange jelly packed with gold glitter. I can see two types of gold in there, one that gives a yellow-gold glint and another than is slightly more green. Urgh I love this polish so much. Unfortunately I think MO discontinued it.. I was lucky enough to get one of the last bottles before it sold out. My friend Sandra was placing an order and I asked her to include this in it =) I was super excited when it arrived, it's sooo pretty! I used this for Hallowe'en last year as well haha! 

The spider cobwebs were super simple, just three lines with slightly curved lines joining them up. So easy. I used my nail art pens obvs, the little spider is just a blob with legs and eyes haha aww spiggy.

Anyway there we go! I hope you all have had a lovely Samhain!

-Lei

31 Day Nail Challenge: Week 8 - Metallic Nails

At first I was like 'I don't know what to doooo' for this week's challenge but then I rummaged through my collection and actually I have loads of shinies! So I had too much choice... Then I remembered the Models Own Mirrorball collection that I had won in one of their Facebook competitions in the lead up to their sale and I knew I had to use at least one! So then I just had to pick a complimenting metallic colour and this is what I ended up with!

 Not exactly as nail arty as my other mani's for this challenge but I really like it. I used two coats of Cuter Pewter from the Models Own Pro range which is a pale silvery gold foil with holographic glitter particles =) and then a coat and a bit (dabbing bigger glitter bits) of Hot Stuff on the ring fingers for accent nails! Yay! The problem I find with accent nails is that once they're done I look and them and then I look at the other unglittery nails and I think that they all need sparkle... But then there wouldn't be an accent nail.. Kinda defeats the purpose..

Hot Stuff was my favourite of the Mirrorball collection in the bottle. I'm yet to try them all but I still really like it on the nails I think we're onto a winner! Let's see how hard it is to remove.... Eep. There's tons of pink glitter and some goldy holographic rhombus pieces among the shards <3 so pretty!

Gemx's nails are super shiny this week too! Here they are:

Gemx says:

"I went for a really simple look for metallic nails. One of my favourite polishes is Mac Soirée, so I just wore that. It's a lovely rose gold metallic and I just really like it! Also, I chopped my nails off, so nail art is a bit rubbish on my new short nails, there's not a lot of space anymore! However, it had to be done, I couldn't really write any more nor play any stringed instruments. I probably went a little too short for my liking though. Oh and yes that is a cat bum in the background of my picture, he was obsessed with a pigeon sat in the tree outside and wouldn't move!"

Kitty!! Oh and the nails, the nails are so shiny! Metallic nails are great for magpies like me lol the only think is that any mess really shows up so you have to clean up... Not that I bothered, it'll come off in the shower tomorrow anyway =p

I'm off to see what Alli has been doing for her super shiny nails now and suggest you check them out too! 

-Lei

31 Day Nail Challenge: Week 3 - Yellow Nails

It's week three of the nail art challenge already! Morgan, Gemx and I are enjoying going through the list and I hope that you are enjoying looking at our designs!

For those of you that know me, you'll probably be aware that yellow is my favourite colour. It's bright, happy, sunny and just wonderful <3 I have loads of yellow polishes and I love them all. Yellow can be a bit of a difficult colour, lots of people don't like it because they think they can't pull it off. My theory is this. Sod it. If you like a colour, wear it and sod whether you think it suits you or not. I love to wear yellow!

Here's my mani:

Beeeeeees! I think Bees are an obvious choice for yellow. I thought about giraffes again but wanted to try something different. I have been wiggling my fingers through the air and saying "bzzzzz" hehehe

I used a nail polish called Daisy by an Australian brand Bloom. I saw this brand in the Winchester Superdrug when I was studying for my degree, I wish I'd bought more colours even though they were £8 each.. I only got a green and a yellow. The green because it reminded me of a polish I had when I was much younger, a lovely light spring green <3 and the yellow well because it was yellow and I couldn't pass it up. Ha!
I used my nail art pens for the details. I added glitter to the wings because all bees should have glittery wings

Gemx also chose to do bees but her design is very different to mine, I love the flight path of the bee I can imagine it bumbling around looking for flowers =) bzzz

Here's what Gemx had to say!

"For yellow nails I went for a bee! I used Models Own Lemon Meringue and a Topshop liner pen in black to draw the bee. I appear to have misplaced my black nail art pen, but the liner pen worked quite well, although you have to wait for it to dry and add a topcoat to make sure it stays or it will just wash off."

I love that she used liner! I used to use gel pens for my nail art before I got my nail art pens, you can use markers too but like Gemx says you must seal them with a topcoat.

So there we have it! Yellow nails!

Let me know what you think and be sure to check out Morgan's design!

-Leishasaurus

PS Ignore the red bump on my index finger, I burned myself whilst making lunch the other day.. the toastie was worth it.

31 Day Nail Challenge: Week 2 - Orange Nails

Helloooo,
It's that time again! Morgan and I are doing the 31 Day Nail Challenge with one design a week!

So the theme for this week is Orange nails. I racked my brains for ideas. "What's orange?" I thought. Well there are lots of things that are orange tbh but it wasn't until yesterday that I hit on the *perfect* idea! So here we go, my version of Orange nails!

Cute orange foxes!! <3 Ah this is possibly my favourite nail art to date, I just know that I'm not going to want to take these off. Ever. I *love* foxes. Check out the adorable fox pyjamas in the photos, they were from Topshop last year and I bought two pairs because I love them so much!

For this design I used one coat of Barry M Nude for the base then for the foxes I used China Glaze Riveting, which was given to me for my birthday by my friends Sandra and Mike (hi guys if you're reading!). I only did one coat as it was so vibrant but I think in some places it needed two as there are a couple of patches. I did a curve about 2/3 up my nail then added points for the ears. The rest was done with my nail art pens.

Gemx sent me an email with her designs in and here they are!

Here's what Gemx had to say!
"I really love orange nail polish. I have two favourites, Illamasqua Gamma because it's so bright and lovely and the one I used for this Models Own Golden Peach. It's a pale orange with a pretty golden shimmer. I painted the tips orange and then added a coat of OPI Pirouette My Whistle. It's my favourite glitter at the moment with small silver glitter and larger sheer white hex glitter. "

I love coloured tips, especially orange. They just look so pretty! I adore Models Own Golden Peach, it's one of my favourite polishes! I love the addition of the glitter and I wish I could buy this one for myself but since OPI were taken over by Coty I refuse to buy their polish. It's sad as they were my favourite brand once.

Anyway. Orange for the win! When I was deciding which polish to use I had a browse through my stash and pulled out all of my oranges.. I thought you might like to see them!

They are as follows: 

Top: Rimmel - Apricot Punch / Natural Collection - Antique Coral / 17 - Tropical Island / Exposed - Sweet Caroline / Sinful Colours - Tapping Nails, Big Daddy, UFO, Cloud 9 / Revlon Orange Fizz.

Bottom: Leighton Denny - Hanky Panky / Models Own - Orangeade, Tangerine Queen, Golden Peach, Tropical Sun /  Nails Inc - Chelsea Flower Show / OPI - Goin' Ape-ricot! / China Glaze - Riveting, Papaya Punch.

Gemx mentioned her favourite oranges so I probably should too, though it's hard to pick! If I had to choose one it would probably be UFO, it's a stunning glitter in an orange jelly base. Riveting is now firmly on my favourites list too! I hadn't realised how much I love orange until this post, woot go orange!!

That's it for now, I hope you enjoyed mine and Gemx's nail art! Let me know! Also, make sure you pop over and see Morgan's orange nails too!

-Leishasaurus

P.S. Some of my orange polishes were purchased over a year ago and are not CF. Of the brands mentioned in this post, I no longer buy Rimmel, Revlon or OPI.

How much is my face worth?

I've seen this a lot on blogger recently and thought I'd have a go whilst it was still current, rather than leaving it several months and then not bothering.
What I use on my face varies, but I've gone with my most common selection (as per my recent 'most used' post). Also, what these items retail for and what I paid for them differs a lot. So I'll do the cost for both. Here goes! (WIP stands for What I paid)

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation
RRP £10.99 WIP £7.99 (introductory price at Boots)

Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer
RRP £7.49 WIP £5.99 (introductory price at Boots)

Models Own Eyeliner Pencil
RRP £5 WIP £0 (free with eyeshadow palette that I wanted anyway)

Soap and Glory Supercat
RRP £6 WIP £4 (in 3 for 2 offer, have used 1/3 of the price I paid)

No7 Lash Adapt Mascara
RRP £12 WIP £7 (£5 Boots voucher.. plus I got a free eyeshadow quad!)

MyFace Blingtone Eyeshadow Raspberry

RRP £9.99 WIP £2.49 (clearance sale at Boots)

The Balm Frat Boy Blusher
RRP £16, WIP £1.40 (I got this in my first Carmine box -RIP Carmine- have divided the £7 I paid for the box by the amount of items in it)

Barry M Lip Paint 132 Pink Gold Sparkle
RRP £4.49 WIP £4.25 (bought on amazon as this colour is not widely available)

My face: RRP £71.96 WIP £33.12

As you can see I love a good bargain!
I think it's fair that I counted the eyeliner as £0 because I was going to buy the palette anyway, and I charged myself the full price for the mascara despite the fact I only bought it to get the quad lol! I was going to add the eyeliner and the palette together then divide by two and the same for the mascara and quad, but it only worked out at like 50p difference so I thought sod it.

I'm happy with the cost of my makeup, I have yet to use any of the items up and I envisage they'll last for a long time yet, so I think it's amazing value. The best part? They're all cruelty free.

-Leishasaurus

Tag - Most Worn Makeup

I'm trying to post regularly and make a effort with this blog. I saw this tag on Glitter on Glitter and thought I'd have a go. I got me thinking about my makeup and I'm going to try and use more of my stash. I only really wear makeup when I'm going out in the evening so I might try and wear it to work and use a few of my less-used items. I find that time is so precious in the morning that I don't get time to play with colours etc.. 
Anyway, here are my most worn makeup items:
1. Most worn lipstick & lipgloss:
I.. hmm I'm not actually sure. For a while it was Revlon Lip Butter's in Tutti-Frutti and Berry Smoothie, but then I heard that Revlon wasn't cruelty free and I felt guilty. I haven't worn them much since. I have a fair few lipsticks and tend to switch it up each time I wear makeup so I usually pick a shade to go with my outfit. I have a few from beauty boxes that I quite like and a fair few Barry M's. Actually it's probably Barry M Lip Paint in 132.. or 130.. they pretty much go with anything. I don't wear much lipgloss as my hair gets stuck in it and my bf hates it haha but I have a few that I like a lot! Bourjois do lovely glosses. And omg they smell AMAZING. The one pictured changes colour which is nice touch! It goes VERY bight pink on me!

2. Most worn eyeliner/kohl:

Models Own Pencil Eyeliner in black Soap and Glory Supercat - Black I use the Models Own pencil for my waterline and to tightline and the Soap and Glory pen liner for my eyelid. I love the Supercat, it's awesome! Very black and excellent control so I can be very precise. I'm pretty rubbish when using liner on my eyelid, I make a mess or blink, or end up making  part of the line too fat then going over the whole thing and ending up with a massive line >.< but I'm getting better. I need to work on my wings though! Some girls make it look so effortless! Grr.

3. Most worn nail polish:
China Glaze - Fairy Dust I pretty much add this baby to everything. I tried to think about a main colour that I use the most and I think it might be Models Own Champagne but that's probably only a couple of times more than any of the others. I have so many I can easily go through the year wearing a different one each time so I don't really reuse them often. I guess that's kind of wasteful. But I have thinner so they'll last for ages! I have my favourites but I kind of clutch on to them like Gollum, saying "my precioussss" and pawing at them with big eyes. I want to preserve them so that they're mine forever. 

4. Most worn eyeshadow:
MyFace Blingtone - Raspberry Beret This eyeshadow is gorgeous. It's a lovely bright-but-not-too-bright pink with tons of silvery glitter. LOVE. I got this in the sale when boots were discontinuing the range for £2.49 down from £9.99. I will replace this when it runs out, I think they still have them on the website. I adore it. I wet my finger and apply it straight to my lid. I have the blue one as well but haven't tried it yet as I adore the pink too much to wear any other colour!

5. Most worn concealer:
Bourjois - Healthy Mix - Shade 51 I like this concealer, thinking about it actually it's the first one I've owned! I guess I can't really compare it with any others but I'm happy with the way it works and I can really notice a difference when I use it.

6. Most worn foundation:
Bourjois - Healthy Mix Serum - Shade 51 This is a good foundation! It can pick up dry bits on my skin but I make sure I exfoliate and moisturise before using it now to avoid any dry patches. They're usually on my nose. I have an oily forehead, it's a bit worse now I have a fringe.. but I don't really see my forehead much because it's hidden haha I use a little bit on there but not much and if I finish with powder and it doesn't get too bad. The shade is good and I like the pump and the smell!

7. Most worn (finishing) powder:
Boots No7 Mineral Foundation I don't really have a finishing powder as such, I bought a mineral foundation with a No7 voucher just to try it out.. I got the lightest one but it's a bit dark for me.. so I use a very small amount to set my foundation sometimes and you can't really tell it's the wrong shade. I like powdering my nose with it, I feel all posh haha

8. Most worn blush:
The Balm Frat Boy I got this in my first Carmine box. Oh Carmine how I miss you so much. RIP. It's a lovely blush, a kind of peachy colour but it's got enough pink to give a nice glow. You can tell it's expensive, the powder is very silky and applies like a dream. If/when I hit pan I'll be buying this again. It's become a staple in my makeup bag. 

9. Most worn bronzer:
I've never actually worn bronzer! It's not something I've ever considered buying or wearing and I'm not sure that'll change any time soon! Am I missing out?
10. Most worn mascara:
Boots No7 Lash Adapt - Black I got this because I had a £5 voucher and there was a free eyeshadow quad that I thought looked very pretty. The mascara was something I didn't need at the time but it was the only way to get the quad so I got it. Funnily enough I've used the mascara every time I've done my makeup (except to try samples from beauty boxes) and haven't touched the quad. LOL. Well maybe once. I love how this defines my lashes and doesn't clump them all together. I have very long lashes, they're darkish at the roots and very fair at the ends so you can't tell how long they are until I wear mascara, this one makes them look HUGE. I only use one coat because I prefer them to look long and thin but I reckon this would be good for layering. It's very black which I like and dries quickly which is useful because I'm impatient. Definitely a keeper.

I hope you've enjoyed having a nosey through my make-up! I'll be pricing them up soon so keep and eye out for that!
-Leishasaurus
PS, Sorry about the pictures, the light was funny -.-

No7 Gold Glitter Topcoat

Last night I went to a wedding reception of an old Sixth Form friend of mine and rather than totally redoing my nails I decided to jazz them up a little!

I added the gold glitter topcoat from No7. It has two sizes of glitter, teeny tiny and medium-sized hexagons. The larger hexagons are still pretty small to be honest, smaller than other glitter topcoats that I own, but I like it! I have the silver colour too, they were £8 (I paid £3 for each, because I had two £5 off No7 vouchers) but I'm not sure they're still available.. I haven't been in Boots for ages now.. at least a month. I did a couple of coats to get a good smattering of shiny and I'm pretty pleased with it! I did my toes to match but I'll let you imagine those.. I'm not going to post my feet on the internet lol

 Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my outfit, otherwise I'd post that too.. but I wore a pale green strapless dress with a paisley pattern and gold sequins (from New Look a couple of summers ago). One of my rather drunken friends pulled it down halfway through the night and I was left exposing my strapless bra to a complete stranger. That was fun. Oh and I also managed to hit a child in the face with a chair. It was an accident! I swear he was a vampire or something, he appeared out of nowhere! Either way I'm never going to live either incident down and yes, the child was fine.

All in all just a normal night out for me. At least my nails looked nice.

-Leishasaurus

Models Own: Soda Pop Pink

Well crap it. It's been ages again.
Do you ever just get out of a habit and can't be bothered to pick it up? I've had an apathy for blogging recently. I have a lot to say, I've done my nails a fair few times, but can I be arsed? Pfft. Nope.
Anyway I'm here.

It's been a gorgeous day here in Suffolk. The sun has been shining, the birds have been singing and I have been stuck at work for the entirety of it. Joy. Still, I'm here on my bed with my laptop with two cats and it's a Thursday so it's not too bad. One more day until the weekend.
My birthday was last month. Yup it's August already! Where did the time go? I hauled a bunch of China Glaze polishes from the massive Sally's near my bf's house. How I didn't know it was there for so long escapes me. But it's mine now! Mwahaha! >.>

So at my birthday party I was sat there feeling rather drunk and my phone buzzes on the table. I go to check it, one buzz means an email so I was expecting some kind of spam about how much % I can get of something I didn't want in the first place, when I had a rather nice surprise! Louise from MakeUp.Etc had contacted me to say that I'd won her 100 followers giveaway! Needless to say I squeaked a bit and typed out a hasty "omg yay" email to send back and got myself another drink. Louise was so sweet, she let me pick my own colour from the Models Own website and got it sent straight to my house! It arrived a couple of days ago.

I chose Soda Pop Pink based on swatches from other websites and I can safely say it looks SO much brighter than any of the pictures I'd seen! I thought it would be a muted dusky pink but it's pretty much bubblegum. And I love it. I never would have picked it because I would have feel self conscious about wearing such a bright, girly colour but it's really pretty! Here are some pictures:

It's easy to see how deceptive the swatches I saw were, these pictures don't even look as bright as the polish actually is! You can *kind of* tell the colour on my thumb in the first picture, but really it looks so much brighter in real life!

I would like to say a big thank-you to Louise for holding the giveaway and sending me this wonderful polish out of her own money! It's very generous and was a lovely surprise on my birthday so thank-you Louise! Soda Pop Pink is sitting happily in my little Models Own collection and fits in a treat, entirely unique to my nail polish stash!

Here is clawdy, he is asleep on my bed <3 Willow just crawled underneath and I can hear her snuffling aww..

-Leishasaurus

Safari Nail Art

So my giraffes chipped and I had to remove them.. it was very sad, their faces looked like they were melting. Today I have replaced them, but instead of one critter (I couldn't decide) my brother suggested doing a whole safari of animals, a different one for each nail! So, without further ado, here it is!

On my left (dominant) hand:

Lion, Zebra, Leopard, Flamingo, Hippo

On my right hand:

Elephant, Giraffe, Crocodile, Monkey, Rhino

I'm not going to lie, these were tricky and they took ages but I'm really pleased with how they've turned out! I used so many colours doing these, my bed was covered in bottles haha but the main brands were Models Own, Barry M and Rimmel. I don't buy Rimmel any more though, as it's not cruelty free. Also, weirdly, I think I did better at painting my left hand than my right! 

Anyway, I feel a lot more myself now that my fingers are covered in critters =) just don't ask me to pick a favourite >.<

-Leisha

Giraffes!

Ok final post of the day I promise! I just wanted to show you my nails =)

Check out my instagram prowess! Also, GIRAFFES!! 
I used Models Own Beth's Blue as the background colour and my nail art pens for the rest. The brown colour is Barry M Mushroom =)

I managed to stab the ring-finger giraffe in the face with some black.. it looks like he's crying.. they're starting to chip now which makes me sad..

-Leishasaurus

Blue Glittery Nails! + Models Own Haul #2

Hello it's me again! Firstly I'd like to say, I don't know how it's happened but somehow I've got 22 followers! YAY! So thank-you very much for following and commenting - it means a lot =) I'm hoping to do a giveaway at some point, maybe when/if I manage to get 50 followers! Exciting! I'm going to start putting together a prize or two =D


Sorry for the lack of posts over the weekend, my boyfriend was visiting and I didn't get online. I painted my nails on Sunday though and no chips so far! Would you like to see? I thought you might =) 

 I originally wanted to do a glitter gradient using three tones of glitter polish but the mid-toned one that I have had a blue jelly base whilst the others were clear so I decided just to layer them! This is going to be a right pain to remove though lol!


The colours I used are Juicy Jules and Bluebelle from Models Own and Cosmic Blue by W7 =) I love how sparkly it is! Juicy Jules gives it a lovely holo glint in the sun too! I'm loving my blues at the moment, my last 3 mani's have been blue! 

Oooo and I reported my faulty polish to Models Own and they sent me a replacement! A brand new full bottle of Pink Lady! I'm very happy, excellent customer service! Also, my second order arrived a the same time as my replacement! Here's what I got:


Polish (Left to right): Tangerine Queen, Purple Poppy, Slate Green
Brushes: Foundation Brush, Retractable Brush, Retractable Lip Brush
As well as: Cream Eye Shadow- Pink Piper, Blush - Warm Glow, Lipstick - Sheer Sparkle, Powder Eye Shadow - Pale Peach.

I was going to order a lip balm as well but I got the retractable brush instead.. I tried out the lip balms in boots and they seemed very sticky and didn't smell very nice.. besides I have plenty already lol I will try all of these out and let you know what they're like! I want to do a brush review at some point too. The retractable ones are hours of fun lol!


So there we go! A blue glitter mani and my second Models Own order =) hope you like it!
-Leisha xx

Models Own -Prussian Blue

Hello! Guess who? Yup it's me again! Today I have for you another instalment of pictures from my Models Own order! YAY!
Prussian Blue is a gorgeous deep blue. I would say that it has a hint of purple to it but not enough to make it indigo, it's definitely a blue. Tonally it is perhaps on the same range as Beth's Blue, but obviously a lot darker. They look good together and don't clash! I decided to go for a darker colour because I went out last night and wanted something a bit sophisticated and glam =) Prussian Blue fits that description perfectly. 
The texture is, as with most Models Own polishes, thick but not difficult to apply. I only used one coat and the coverage was perfect! The finish is satin in that it's not gloss and not matte but a happy medium of the two! It has a delicate sheen to it and I hope that my camera has picked up the diffused quality that it gives as the sun hits it.
My favourite part about this polish is that you can visibly watch it dry! It goes from being wet and shiny to dry and satiny! Who said that watching (nail)paint dry was dull? lol =)

I have been wearing so many pastel shades over the last few months that I had forgotten how pretty a darker polish can be. The great thing about this colour is that it isn't so dark that the gorgeous blue hue is lost. I have a polish (No7 Betty Blues I'm looking at you!) that is a lovely sparkly blue in the bottle but looks a flat black colour on my nails. So disappointing. This one is definitely a dark blue. I wore it with an all black (with some polka dots) outfit so the blue gave a nice splash of colour =)

Sorry that some of the pictures are out of focus, I haven't really been with it today lol I would take more now but my light makes everything look slightly yellow so I might take more tomorrow during the day!

I love how this colour looks so different in all of the pictures but it does make it hard to get an accurate colour portrayal to show you.. Oo I cropped the first picture so you could have a close up of how the light hits the polish! It shows up greens and pinks like an oil slick! It shifted and moved almost like the static you'd get on a tv! I was a bit mesmerised for a minute lol I hope you can see what I mean!

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this post! I'll be going through my MO order bit by bit so expect more swatches to come =)

Leisha xx

P.S. don't you just love when you wake up after a night out and realise that you forgot to take off your make up and your dinosaur pillow is covered in glitter? lol