Archive for July, 2011

China Glaze Cherish

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

China Glaze Cherish is a beautiful light green polish from the Romantique collection. Last time I wore this I had the same first impression as with Harmony from the same collection, that it was a bit messy to apply. So I tried doing just one coat of polish this time around, and it was definitely better. I did get some pooling on a couple of nails, but after it dried with top coat on (Fast Forward) I thought it looked pretty good anyway.

In sunlight. I love the way the polishes in this collection shimmer in the sun.

Indirect natural light, where it looks more satiny.

With flash, showing off my Schefflera as well. It’s one of the few living green things in my home..

And you know what, I finally have vacation! But something tells me I won’t be able to do half of the things I have planned, but I’ll try my best to get some fun things done. Hopefully that means more posts on my blog =)

Beauty UK Haul

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

After seeing the lovely swatches by Nihrida of the pearl eyeliners from Beauty UK, I had to check them out for myself. And I rarely even use liquid eyeliners! I decided to get three of them, and I also got myself one of the palettes and a lip gloss.

Here we have the pearl eyeliners:

From left to right: Oceania, Purple Haze and Blue Lagoon. Aren’t they gorgeous?

They have a felt tip applicator that looks like this:

I’m not really used to wearing liquid eyeliners, but I like this type of tip compared to more brush like applicators.

The Pastel Eyeshadow Palette:

I really like the selection of colors in this palette. It’s also quite small and I think this one will be great for travel.

And last but not least, a Lip Lust in the shade Envy:

I’m not really that fond of lip glosses in general, and especially not sticky ones, but I really like this one. It’s just enough stickiness for me to handle. The color is a dark pink/berry shade with lots of shimmer in it, and it’s quite pigmented. The gloss smells sweet and fruity, but you don’t notice it that much on the lips. It has a sponge tip applicator that’s fairly easy to use, but I find squeezing the tube to be a bit difficult as the plastic packaging is quite hard. Or maybe it’s just me that’s weak =)

So, want to see some swatches? Some really bad swatches?

This photo is taken inside with flash. Left to right: Pearl eyeliners in Purple Haze, Blue Lagoon and Oceania, and Lip Lust in Envy.

This one is taken in the shade outside (I’ve also reapplied the gloss). And let me tell you, these eyeliners won’t budge at all once they’ve dried! But they’re still not too difficult to get off, I use Lorea’l Eye & Lip Makeup Remover – Waterproof for the removal.

And here are some really crappy swatches of the palette, with some shadows out of focus:

The two brown shadows on the left are the ones I find most pigmented. I know that the pink is hardly visible on my swatch but you do see more of it IRL. So, most of the shadows aren’t super pigmented, but considering that these are light pastel shades I find it acceptable. They also don’t feel chalky so that’s a big plus.

I tried doing a quick look with the palette and an eyeliner, so this is shadow number two and three from the top row, plus the Purple Haze eyeliner:

As you can see I didn’t wear any other makeup at the time..

Lip Lust Envy on the lips:

A close-up of my lip so you can see the shimmer:

All in all I’m happy with my purchase, and I will probably check out more of their products. I payed £19.49 for all of this including shipping, and I think you get really good value for you money.

Have you tried anything from Beauty UK?

Zoya Adina

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

I’ve had this polish for over a year and haven’t used it until now! It’s the purple/green duochrome Zoya Adina, and it’s absolutely lovely to look at. To be honest I’m not sure how many layers I did, but probably three or four plus top coat (a sticky Seche Vite). I found the formula to be a little thin, but easy to apply. I wish I could have snapped some better pictures of it, but these will have to do.

In natural light. Looks like I got some shrinkage going on.

With flash.

Weird angle in natural light, here it looks more like a plum purple. Do you see my tiny thumbnail?

I’ve been quite absent from the blogging for a while, I hope I’ll have time to stock up on some fun things to show you on my vacation, which is only two weeks away now.. and I wouldn’t mind spending some time like this:

Lazy Lakrits