Quick NOTD

I've been trying to switch up my nail polish more regulary because I have so many colours and I always end up wearing the same ones.


Yesterday I put on Plum Play With Me from Catrice, and I added glitter on my thumbs and ring fingers. For the glitter I used one coat of Models Own's Purple Haze and one coat of Bourjois' Paillettes Disco. I love the glitter, might actually put it on all my nails some time.


Here are the pictures:

Artificial light

Flash

That's it for now, more notd's coming up!


x
Tanja

Antwerp haul

A while ago I went shopping in Antwerp with my friend Magali.

I always say I don't like shopping, but I actually do unless it's for clothes, and only if its not too busy.

So here are the things I bought. Not just makeup, I got some jewelry too.

 I'll go over each item quickly. If you'd like me to do a seperate review, let me know.

I had been wanting to Hoola bronzer from Benefit. I like using it with my Sigma SS to contour and I really like it so far. Its not too dark and easy to blend. Also like how the colour looks on my skin tone.

 

At Kruidvat (drugstore in Belgium and the Netherlands) I saw the Dream creamy foundation, which is called Dream smooth mousse foundation in the US and possibly the UK. I got it in the lightest shade which was 08 Light beige. I haven't really tried this product yet but it does feel really smooth.

 

 We each picked up one of the Bourjois Smokey eyes trios. They were buy one get one free so we split the price of one. Really good deal.

I got the trio in . I think the pigmentation is really nice and I like using these colours for a quick neurtal eye.



 

I also got 2 of the Catrice lipsticks. I already had 2 colours and I like the texture of them so I wanted to get some more. Plus they're really cheap. I personally never really wear lipstick cause my lips are really dry and it just doesn't look nice. So I mainly got this for when I do makeup on other people.

 

 

I also got the kohl from catrice cause I needed a black kohl pencil. Had this one before and I think it's really nice especially for the price.

 

 

At Instant Spa, I bought Extravagance by OPI. It's one of the colours from the Designer Series and it is gorgeous. I've always wanted to try OPI polishes but they're really expensive here. When I saw this one, I just had to have it lol. I'll probably look for OPI polishes online in the future tho.

 

Next: jewelry.

I got two pairs of earrings from New Look. I'd seen the leopard ones before but wasn't sure if I wanted  them or not. Seeing them a second time really made me want to get them, do I did :).

Also thought the little fairies looked really cute.

 

Then we went in to a store called I Am, which I hadn't seen before. They had lots and lots of nice accesoires. I picked out these gold butterflies. Until then I always stayed away from gold earrings cause for some reason I didn't think they looked good on me. But Magali convinced me to get them and I'm glad she did.

 

We also stopped at the River Island store which opened not too long ago. On our way to the accessories section, Magali spotted this really cool ring that looked alot like the leopard earrings I had bought earlier. Only problem was that it was too small for me. So we went looking for a larger size, but couldn't find one. Even asked one of the girls from the store if and when they were gonna come back in stock. She said they were gonna get them back in stock but she didn't know when. So I was like ok, I'll just have to come back every day to check if they're back. Then, on our way out, Magali found another one, and it was a bigger one, yay! She then decided to get it too lol.

That's all for now.
Up next: Venomous Villains haul!!

Have a nice weekend.

x

Tanja

Nail Polish Haul Cardiff

Just got back from a trip to Cardiff a couple of days ago. While I was there I picked up a couple nail polishes. After recieving my Models Own polishes, I definitely wanted to try more of them, so I went to Boots to have a look. Unfortunately they didn't have all the colours in stock so only picked up 2 colours. Magenta Pearl and Purple Mystique. I love these colours! They were a bit more sheer than the cremes so I applied 3 coats to get them nice and even.

Models Own - Magenta Pearl

 

Magenta Pearl (3 coats, no topcoat, flash)

Models Own - Purple Mystique

Purple Mystique (3 coats, with topcoat, flash)

With that purchase I recieved a £5 off voucher for the N°7 and Ruby & Millie line. So before going home, I made quick stop at Boots. I wanted a nail polish that didn't look like anything I already had and Night Silver from N°7 caught my eye. It's a very dark silver, gunmetal kind of colour. Looks darker in person than on the photos (due to flash).

N°7 - Night Silver

Night Silver (2 coats, no topcoat, flash)

Lastly, I went looking for Mushroom from Barry M. After I heard Lollipop26 (check out her youtube channel here and blog here) talk about it, I decided I had to have it lol. She compaired it to Essie's Mink Muffs and Chanel's Particulière in this blog post.

Again, this colour looks alot lighter in the pictures because of the flash. Also took a picture with artificial lighting.

Barry M - Mushroom

Mushroom (2 coats, no topcoat, flash)

Artificial light

When I saw it in person, I thought it would look alot like a polish from Catrice I already had. But when I compared them, they looked less similar then I thought they would. I also compaired it to Models Own's Nude Beige. Nude Beige is alot lighter and From Dusk To Dawn from Catrice is more of a taupe.

From left to right:

Catrice - From Dusk To Dawn, Barry M - Mushroom, Models Own - Nude Beige

(2 coats, no topcoat, artificial light)

That's it for today. I'll be posting my make up haul soon!



Have a nice weekend!


x
Tanja

Orly + INM experiment: update

It's been 4 days since I painted my nails and started this little experiment. So here's a little update.
I took these pics a couple minutes ago.

As you can see, the polish has worn off a bit on the tips, which you can only really see from up close. Other than that it looks fine. I'm really happy with the results so far, cause usually my nail polish starts peeling or chipping after 2 or 3 days. So I guess the Orly Bonder is doing its job!

That's it for now. I'll be busy studying this weekend so I might not be able to post anything, but I'll defintely be back on tuesday evening with the final results of this experiment.

So have you ever tried one or both of these products? Did you like them? What's your favorite base coat and top coat?


Have a nice weekend!



x
Tanja

Orly Bonder + INM Out The Door experiment

I recently purchased Orly Bonder and INM Out the door topcoat on Ebay. I read alot of good reviews about them so I wanted to try them out. I think you can find Orly polishes in nail salons in Belgium, but I don't know if you can find the INM topcoat anywhere. Instead of looking for them, I just went for the easy way and bought them online. For the Orly Bonder I paid €7.18 ($9), the INM topcoat was €5.97 ($7.49) (both prices include shipping costs), and I don't think I would be able to find them much cheaper.


So here are some pictures of the bottles

Now, as I've mentioned before, I usually don't wear a manicure for a long time. Since I have exams coming up, I dont have time to change up my manicure alot. So I figured that's a good opportunity to see how well these two last.


I painted my nails last night with one coat of Orly Bonder, two coats of Catrice's Lucky in lilac (bottle below), topped with one coat of the INM topcoat. I added a subtle (read: barely noticable, lol) detail on my ring finger using one of the designs on the Konad plate m26 (design nr. 3 on the picture), using My Little Orchid from Essence (LE from the Returnt to paradise collection)


Some pictures of what I used

And here are the pictures from last night.

Only had this on for one day so I didn't bother taking pictures. But so far no chipping or tip wear. I'm planning on leaving the polish on till next tuesday, which is the day of my last exam. That way I won't be able to spend time on my nails and I'll know what it will look like after a week. I'll probably post an update on friday or saturday.


Another tutorial coming up tomorrow!



Thanks for stopping by!


x
Tanja

"Tips Only" Challenge

I've been reading Polish Hoarder Disorder for a while now and every week she posts a new challenge. I love looking at the pictures nail polish fanatics send her for each challenge. For this one, I decided to take on the challenge and send her my entry.
You could only use the tips of your nails and had to leave the nail bed bare.
So here's what I came up with:

Tadaaaaaa!
I spent alot of time on these and I have to admit, I got a little impatient towards the end. But I had fun doing them. Unfortunately, I only kept them like this for a little while. I have 2 exams coming up and they were waaaaay to distracting :)

What I used:

- Hema - 2 in 1 Ridge filler & base coat
- Rimmel - Hot Gossip
- Catrice - Hot or not?
- Catrice - Lucky in lilac
- Essence - My little orchid (LE from the Return to paradise collection)
- Catrice - It blue my mind!
- Catrice - Blue's brother
- Gosh - Ocean
- Essence - Back to paradise (LE from the Return to paradise collection)
- Catrice - Sold out forever
- Catrice - Don't feed the birds
- Catrice Nail Expert - Quick dry & high shine topcoat
- Rhinestone wheel (bought on Ebay)
- Damp cotton tip to pick up rhinestones


First I painted each tip in a colour that matched each rhinestone colour.

Then I applied my topcoat and added the rhinestones.

They were sooo sparkly and just couldn't stop looking at them :)

Hope you like them too and definitely check out Polish Hoarder Disorder for all the other entries, more challenges, swatches and reviews!


Thanks for stopping by.



x
Tanja

Tutorial

As promised: my first tutorial.
I went for a gold with red/burgundy look. This took me FOREVER lol, but here it is, hope you enjoy.

(please ignore the redness caused by fanatical eye brow picking)


I started by putting MAC's paintpot in Soft Ochre all over the lid with my finger.

Then, I applied NYX jumbo eye pencil in milk on the lid to make the eyeshadows pop and blended it.

For the inner corner hightlight, I used Silky Gold from Catrice (LE from the Caramé collection) with a Sigma SS 214 (short bristle smudger brush).
(I know you can barely see it on the picture, sorry.)

I then put Woodwinked from MAC next to it, till about halfway my lid, with a MAC 239 (flat shader brush).

Next is Amber Lights, also from MAC, with the same brush.

The last colour I used for the lid is Spiced Red from Catrice (LE from the Caramé collection). Again, same brush.

For the lower lid I used the same colours, in the same order with the SS 214

To blend out and darken the crease I used Sketch from MAC with a Sigma SS 226 (tapered blending brush).

Next is eye liner. I put MAC's Fluidline in Blacktrack on the lower and upper waterline and smudged it in between my lashes using the Sigma SS 266 (angled eyeliner brush).

No look is complete without mascara! Lots and lots of masara. I used Masterpiece mascara from MaxFactor (like it but not as much as the False Lash Effect).

And for some extra glam, I added false lashes. I bought these at Claire's, but forgot what they're called.

And that completes the look. The lighting still needs work. These colours are so much more vibrant in person.
I really had fun making this, but my god did it take long...
Let me know what u think!




x
Tanja