Beyonce 'Countdown' Look

As many of you will already know, Beyonce has released a new song, 'Countdown'. When I first saw the video for the song, there was one thing I noticed, her makeup. Her makeup is amazing in the video, it's eye-catching, fun and most of all, very Beyonce!
I haven't done a makeup tutorial in a long time so thought I'd do a Beyonce 'Countdown' tutorial. It's very bold and bright so I wouldn't recommend this look to anyone that is a little colour shy.

Here is the look...

Products used to create this look:

• Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
• Urban Decay Naked Palette (Eyeshadows used were Sin, Smog and Darkhorse)
• Sleek Curacao Palette (Eyeshadows used were Screwdriver and Expresso Martini)
• MAC 'Lucky Green' Eyeshadow
• MAC 'Rapidblack' Penultimate Eyeliner
• NYX 'Milk' Jumbo Pencil
• Next White Glitter Eyeliner
• Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara

If you would like to create this look all you have to do is follow my nice and easy steps. 

1.) Apply Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion to your eyelids. Blend using your finger. 

2.) Apply 'Screwdriver' to your eyelids using a flat eyeshadow brush. For best results, pat the eyeshadow onto the eyelids. Also create a slight winged effect.

3.) As Beyonce's eyeshadow is more lime than yellow, apply a small amount of 'Lucky Green' over the top of 'Screwdriver'. 

4.) It's time to create the cut crease, to do this you will need to use 'Darkhorse' and a thin eyeliner brush. Carefully create a line in your crease. To soften the line, blend using a tapered eyeshadow brush. 

5.) Mixing a little bit of 'Smog' and 'Darkhorse', blend from the crease to the brow bone. Again you can blend using the same tapered eyeshadow brush. 

6.) To make the eyeshadow appear a little softer, apply a small amount of 'Sin' to the brow bone. This can be done using any small eyeshadow brush. 

7.) Apply a small amount of 'Screwdriver' to the inner corner of the eye using a small eyeshadow brush. 

8.) Using 'Expresso Martini' and a thin brush, apply to the bottom lash line and then create a smudged effect. This can be done using a sponge applicator. 

9.) Lets create a double winged eyeliner effect. Create one wing effect on the top lash line, and another wing effect on the bottom lash line. 

10.) In between both winged effects, add a small amount of white glitter eyeliner. This makes the black eyeliner stand out. 

11.) To finish off the look, apply mascara to your eyelashes and 'Milk' to your waterline. 

I hope you liked this look! If you have any makeup tutorial requests then please comment below!

:) 

Orly 'Shine On Crazy Diamonds'

I have to say that this nail varnish is probably the most glittery, sparkliest nail varnish that I have EVER used.

I love glitter nail varnishes, they're perfect for creating a simple but amazing effect. I have even been eyeing up the new Deborah Lippmann 'Stairway To Heaven' nail varnish and one of the new glitter nail varnishes from the O.P.I Muppets Collection. All I can say is that I'm a sucker for sparkles, you can NEVER have enough glitter nail varnishes.

Some people hate glitter nail varnishes with a passion as they're tricky to remove but it honestly doesn't bother me, trying to remove gel nails is a whole lot worse. 

If you dislike glitter nail varnishes because of the tricky removal of them, then I have a handy tip.

1.) Apply a good amount of nail varnish remover to cotton wool pads.

2.) Then place the cotton wool pads on your finger nails.

3.) Wrap tin foil around your fingers. 

4.) Wait for 10-15 minutes and then remove the tin foil and cotton wool pads. 

5.) And you're done, you should have glitter free nails!

This bottle of loveliness contains a 18ml and it can be purchased from Beauty Bay. It's great for wearing with any colour as it's purely made from multi-coloured glitter. 

The Orly nail varnishes retail at £6.95 but some places do them at discount prices. I know Boots sell Orly nail varnishes for £5.00 and some online shops are selling them for as little as £2.95. 

Let's take a look at this little gem...

Swatches...

(With Flash)

(Without Flash)

It's such a beautiful nail varnish and I think it would look amazing over black nail varnish. I think it's definitely a nail varnish I'll be wearing around the Christmas period. 

The Good:

• The bottle contains 18ml of product which is great as most nail varnishes contain 15ml at the most. O.P.I nail varnishes contain 15ml and they retail at £10.50 each. With Orly you're in effect getting 3ml more for £3.55 less, AMAZING. 
• £6.95 is a fab price for an high-end nail varnish. Most high-end nail varnishes retail between £10.00 and £17.00 so £6.95 is a bargain. I have tried other high-end nail varnishes that have cost a lot more but haven't been as good. I'm so impressed by Orly and I will definitely purchase more Orly nail varnishes in the future.
• The quality of the nail varnish is incredible, I have had it on for a week and it looks no different to when I applied it. It's still glossy, super sparkly and hasn't chipped whatsoever. I tend to find that most nail varnishes fade after a week of application but I can honestly say that I haven't found this to be the case with this nail varnish. Another great thing about the nail varnish is that the glitter particles aren't chunky, when I touch my nails they feel smooth, you cannot feel the glitter particles at all.
• It's great for wearing over the top of other nail varnishes. It would look fab over red, black and of course, pink.
• You only need to use 2 coats meaning you're not using a lot of the product. The glitter particles disperse equally meaning you don't have to layer the nail varnish. You could probably get away with only using one coat but I love full on glitter so decided to apply two coats.
• The consistency of the nail varnish is nice, it's not too thick or thin, it's just right (sounded like Goldilocks and the 3 bears then). Some glitter nail varnishes have a thick, gloopy consistency and they are very unpleasant to apply, I'm pleased to say that this nail varnish isn't gloopy and I don't think it'll ever become gloopy.
• Orly nail varnishes have a rubber handle meaning they're easy to grip.

The Bad:

• You can only buy Orly from Beauty Bay or Boots which is a little bit annoying as my local Boots doesn't stock Orly and Beauty Bay is an online shop meaning I'm unable to see the nail varnishes in the flesh. 

Thank you so much for reading! Have you tried Orly nail varnishes before?

:)

Products I Regret Buying

Over the past couple of years I've bought a lot of products which I've ended up disliking quite a lot. I find it very annoying when a product turns out to be utter rubbish and worst of all it makes my bank account feel a little robbed. I hate wasting my money on products that are only fit for the purpose of throwing in the bin. 

I chose 10 products which I regret buying but if I'm perfectly honest, I could have included at least another 4. The only issue with talking about 14 products is that this post would be 2 miles long and I'm 100% certain you'd get fed up of reading. 

So here are the products I regret buying...

MUA Pro Eyeshadow Trio in 'Smoke Screen' - £2.50 

I love MUA products and I do, in fact, own quite a few of these trios. The problem with this trio is that it's utter rubbish in comparison to the other trios, the pigmentation of the white highlight shade is appalling and I find that the eyeshadows don't blend well at all. I haven't found either of these problems with the other trios so I don't understand why there are issues with this trio.
The trio may be £2.50 but I honestly wouldn't recommend buying it, I'd go for the 'Eden' or 'Blue Babe' trio instead as they are lovely!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in 'Horse Radish' - £2.99

This has to be the worst eye pencil that I've ever used in my life. It creases after 20 minutes of application  and you cannot blend this at all, or apply eyeshadow over the top of it. The only purpose this pencil has is for using as an eyeliner and I'd only recommend using this as an eyeliner when you're going to be out for around 4 hours because it WILL fade. 

It's probably the worst £2.99 that I've spent, I could have put that towards a decent eye pencil. 

Prestige Waterproof Mascara - £2.99

I initially bought this for taking on holiday as I don't usually wear waterproof mascara on a daily basis. I cannot see the point in paying a lot of money for a waterproof mascara that I'll only wear for 2 weeks. 

I didn't think this mascara would be the greatest waterproof mascara ever as it only retails at £2.99 but I expected it to be half decent. 

I can honestly say that this mascara did not do anything to my eyelashes, they looked no different even after applying the mascara. It didn't lengthen, volumise or separate my eyelashes and worst of all, there was little colour pay off.

This mascara is so horrendous that I stopped wearing the mascara on holiday because you couldn't tell I had mascara on. If you can recommend any good waterproof mascaras then that would be fab!

EOS Lip Balms - £4.50 each

After seeing these beauties floating around various YouTube channels I decided to check them out. They seemed to be little, intriguing pots of wonder. 

I found out the EOS lip balms were based in the USA and weren't available to buy in the UK so I checked eBay and to my delight, a lovely seller had a whole bunch of them available. I opted for 'sweet mint' and 'strawberry sorbet'. 

The EOS lip balms contain jojoba oil and other various oils which are supposedly meant to keep your lips feeling moisturised and nourished. The lips balms do not keep your lips feeling moisturised whatsoever and after 5 minutes of applying them the smooth sensation disappears meaning it feels like you hadn't applied any form of lip balm to your lips. Pretty pointless don't you think?

I also thought that these would have tasted how they smell because they smell divine but if truth be told, they taste like wax, nice. 

In future I'll stick to the Carmex.

Black Up Pearl Powder in '13' - £11.50

This is just navy pigment. There's nothing special about it and it doesn't deserve it's £11.50 price tag. Yes it is pigmented and it does blend well but that's about it.

If you're looking for a cheap navy blue pigment then head over to Barry M, I have no doubt it my mind that the Barry M one will be a lot more sparkly and it's also half the price.

I will NEVER buy one of these pigments ever again.

MAC Paint Pot in 'Dangerous Cuvee' - £13.50

I love MAC paint pots I just don't love this one. It's patchy, creases and I find it feels really greasy on the eyelids, it's unpleasant to work with too. You cannot blend it in fear of it going patchy and you most certainly cannot apply other eyeshadow over the top of it meaning you cannot use it as a base or create a smokey look using them.

MAC Prep & Prime Skin - £18.00

One word, spots. This broke me out so bad that I've only ever used it once. It does keep your foundation on for a long period of time and it does make your skin feel lovely but I don't fancy using something that's going to give me spots. 

I love the glittery packaging and the whole of concept of this product, I just hate how it gave me spots. I'm well and truly scared of using this product again, I think I'll let my mum and sister give it a go. 

MAC Plushglass in 'Girl <3 Boy' - £16.00

I loved this at first and now I physically cannot wear it. I love the colour of this plushglass but after an hour of wearing it, it leaves you with an unattractive white line around your lips. I also think it's 'plumping' qualities are rubbish, it doesn't make your lips look fuller at all, rubbing a chilli on my lips would probably have more of an effect. 

The plushglass was also £16.00 which is pricey considering the bottle is tiny. 

NARS Skincare - Approx. £30.00 each.

I first bought a whole bunch of NARS skincare because I'd heard that many people loved it and I believed that it would help to sort out my skin because at that time I didn't have a good skincare routine. 

I bought several cleansers, eye makeup remover and toner and I have to say that they did help to get rid of nasty under the skin spots.

However, the NARS skincare did make me develop blackheads and whiteheads on my chin. I have never had blackheads or whiteheads on my chin so it really disappointed me when the NARS skincare made me develop them. I had to stop using the NARS skincare and switch to a different brand.

NARS skincare is also very expensive and I honestly do not understand why, I now use Clarins/No 7 and my skin has never been better so it just shows you that you don't have to pay a lot in order to get good skin. 

Hakuhodo Makeup Brushes - From $4 to $150 each.

This has to be the biggest regret ever. I in effect spent a lot of money on makeup brushes that look and have the quality of something that you'd find in a kinder egg. 

I first discovered these brushes after watching a review on YouTube, the girl talked about how great these brushes were and that they were the best brushes she'd ever used so gullible me checked them out. And I have to say that I wish I'd never come across that particular video. 

Hakuhodo claim that there brushes are all natural, hand-cut, handmade and that they're made from the finest materials. The brushes range from around $4.00 to $150 each so as you can imagine, they're not the cheapest.

I'm so unimpressed by these brushes and I'll never be purchasing any more of them. The fact that one of the brushes has clearly been dyed just makes me think that Hakuhodo are an untrue brand who like to lie about what their brushes are actually made of.

I'm sticking to trusty MAC and Sigma brushes in future. 

So those are the products I regret buying. If you have any questions about the products I mentioned, please feel free to comment below.

Thanks for reading lovelies!

:)

I Love Crosses...Lots & Lots...

If you haven't guessed already, I've been making cross jewellery again.

Here's what I made...

Very Large Gold Cross Earrings - £3.50

If you love these as much as I do then I'm selling them in my shop. I also have 2 pairs left so be quick!

Thanks for reading lovelies!
:)

September Favourites

Is it just me or does September seem to have flown by? I don't like how fast this year is going because one, I dislike all the coldness in winter and two, the reality of being in my last year of University next year is scaring me quite a bit.I have to say goodbye to fun, childish Cole and grow into an old, womanly Cole... noooo.

Anyway, I'm now going to talk about what I loved in September. I feel like I should also write about my loathes as that's what everyone seems to be doing these days. I guess if I talked about my loves and loathes, this post would end up being a mile long...think I'll just stick to writing about my loves ;) 

So guys, without further ado, here are my September favourites...

VIVO Radiant Boost Highlighter - £2.49

(Swatch found at the end)

I wouldn't really say this was necessarily a highlighter as it's more of an under eye concealer. If I placed this on my cheek bone or brow bone then I'd probably get laughed at. 

It acts as a wonderful under eye concealer and I can honestly say that I used it every single day without fail. It does a great job of concealing under eye bags and it lasts all day, this baby does not budge!

I rely on this product majorly and if I didn't use it, god knows what I'd look like at uni! It's great for hiding the fact that I get up at 5.30 in the morning!

MAC Lipstick in 'Russian Red' - £13.50

(Swatch found at the end)

I wore this lipstick so many times last month, I just absolutely adore it! It's the perfect colour for A/W and I think it's one of those lipsticks that never goes out of fashion.

This lipstick lasts for hours on end so it's great for when I've got a busy day, no need for any touch ups!

It's a true red yet has a deep tone to it, it also makes your teeth look whiter.. YAY. No need for those crest strips ;)

Overall it's one of my favourite all time lipsticks.

MAC Lipstick in 'Innocence Beware' - £13.50

(Swatch found at the end)

This is the perfect nude colour! It's also a cremesheen meaning it's comfortable on the lips.

It doesn't necessarily last for hours on end but it's a great everyday colour and it goes with any look. It's especially good for wearing with a dramatic eye! 

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in 'Epatant' - £22.50

(Swatch found at the end)

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in 'Fantasme' - £22.50

(Swatch found at the end)

These wonderful pots may seem very expensive but they are honestly worth every single penny. At first I was unsure about getting them because of the price but I'm so glad I bit the bullet and bought them.

They are super pigmented, easy to apply and they do not crease, best of all they last all day even without applying eyeshadow primer!
It used to take me around 45 minutes to do my makeup but when using these beauties it literally takes me 20 minutes at the most.
They are so convenient if you're in a rush or on the go! They also come with a handy brush too!

Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara - £22.50

The best mascara that I've EVER tried and I've tried a few. It's pricey but it's worth it, the colour is intense and the wand is amazing. You literally only need one coat.

Bobbi Brown Blush in 'Nectar' - £17.00

I featured this blush in last months favourites but I love it that much I had to feature it in this months favourites too.
Bobbi Brown blushes are probably the most pigmented blushes that I've ever come across and I'm considering purchasing more of them.
You only have to use a tiny amount so I can imagine one Bobbi Brown blush lasting for a long while. Also use with a light hand because if you don't, you may end up looking like Aunt Sally.

Urban Outfitters Cross Inspired Nails - Created by myself

This isn't a typical monthly favourite but I love my nails so so much, I wanted to include them in this post. 

They're funky, trendy and I think the colours suit the season perfectly. I will definitely do these nails again but I may used a different colour.

If anyone would like me to do a nail tutorial for this design, please comment below.

Let's take a look at the swatches...

From left to right; VIVO Highlighter, Innocence Beware, Russian Red, Epatant, Fantasme, Nectar.

Hope you liked my September favourites! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below!
:)

How to create Dalmatian Nails!

After seeing LLYMLRS dalmatian nails, I knew I had to recreate them (obviously in my own little style). I think they're a simple but effective design and they are very on trend. I don't know if you've noticed but animal prints seem to be pretty big, a key trend for A/W 2011.

To create dalmatian nails you will need the following:

• White nail varnish
• Black nail varnish
• Dotting tools (or cocktail sticks)
• Top coat 

Do not feel like you have to rush out and buy fancy tools for your nail art as cocktail sticks work as great nail art tools. The great thing about using cocktail sticks too is that you can just dispose of them in the bin, cleaning dotting tools is a pain in the neck! The only reason why I bought dotting and nail art tools is because I do nail art on a daily basis.

If you would like to create dalmatian nails all you have to do is follow my nice and easy steps.

1.) Apply the white nail varnish to your nails. I would recommend applying 2 coats as white nail varnish tends to have a thin consistency.  If you have a matte white nail varnish then 1 coat may be enough.

2.) Using the black nail varnish and a large dotting tool, dot a few large dots on your finger nails (excluding your ring finger nail).
Using the black nail varnish and a small dotting tool, dot a few small dots around the larger dots.

3.) Let's draw 2 paw prints on our ring finger nail. To do this use the black nail varnish and a large dotting tool, then dot 2 big dots on your ring finger nail. Once dry, apply 4 small dots at the top of each large dot, again you can do this by using the black nail varnish and a small dotting tool.

4.) Once dry apply a top coat.

If you prefer watching videos, here's the video tutorial for this design...

Hope you liked my dalmatian nails! If you have any nail tutorial requests, please feel free to comment below!

Thanks for reading/watching!
:)