Olympics Inspired Nails!

Hi lovelies!

As I mentioned in my Olympics inspired eye looks post, Beautyheaven are also challenging readers to come up with some Olympics inspired nails...I couldn't resist getting a bit creative today. I do apologise for the swatches, I did these looks at night and the lighting in my flat is quite atrocious.

First up, we have a look inspired by the Australian colours of gold and green! I apologise for the traces of pink here and there, I did this with nail tape and I'm afraid some of the colour ran onto the yellow. :(
It's the first time experimenting with nail tape so I know now to match the tape to the polish for my next use. ;)

 

Next, we have another look inspired by the Australian colours, I did this with gold crackle over a beautiful mossy green.

Then, we have skittle nails inspired by the colours of the Olympic rings!

 

Next, we have a manicure inspired by the Olympics. The flag on my thumb, followed by a crown (to represent the Queen), the colours of the medals (gold, silver and bronze), an English phone booth (iconic) and last of all, the logo of the Underground subway in London.

Lastly, here's a more wearable look, and this is inspired by the gold, silver and bronze medals.

 

EDIT: I had a bit more time on my hands and so I came up with a couple more looks!

Here's another 'creative' mani. I have the Aussie flag on my thumb, green and gold Australian colours, London 2012, waves inspired by the colours of the rings and finally, a Vegemite nail as specially requested by Ms Divine Diva! I'm not very happy with the Vegemite nail and I think I will try my hand at it again some time.

 

And here's the one I ended up wearing for a few days as it's so much more wearable. Again, inspired by the good old green and gold!

 

 

Which one was your favourite? I had a lot of fun with this challenge and I can't wait to do more nail art looks sometime soon. Don't forget to check out the thread, there were some amazing nail looks there!

Much love,
MM.
x

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012!

Hi lovelies,

I have an extra special post to share with all of you today; welcome to piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012! If you haven't heard of it before, Blog Fest is where piCture pOlish nail polishes are being reviewed on blogs all around the world, all on the same day, the 30th of July. It's also the day where brand new shades are released, so it's a very exciting day indeed! The lovely ladies at piCture pOlish sent out a request in early June for beauty bloggers who were keen on participating in Blog Fest 2012, and I was lucky enough to be chosen and sent two brand new shades to review! It was thrilling to participate not just because I love the brand, but also because many of my favourite bloggers have participated in previous years.

Without further ado, let me introduce you to two very gorgeous shades; Dorothy and Attitude!

Dorothy is a new 'Mesh' shade; a gorgeous scarlet glitter with lots of red and silver microglitter particles. It's aptly named as I think of ruby red slippers every time I look at it! I find that the intensity of colour changes depending on the lighting. It was really easy to apply and so opaque that I could probably have gotten away with just one coat, but I used two out of habit. It does get a little thick after a while, but it's nothing that a drop or two of polish restorer/thinner won't fix.

piCture pOlish Dorothy.

Under artificial light.

In natural daylight.

Under direct sunlight.

Under direct sunlight.

Under artificial natural lighting.

Attitude is a beautiful aubergine creme polish with scattered holographic microglitter particles, it's simply too stunning to put into words. Attitude was formed between Kim from Overall Beauty and piCture pOlish, and is part of the new 'Collaboration Collection'. This polish is a little thinner and a bit streaky compared to Dorothy, so I used three thin coats to achieve the perfect finish.

piCture pOlish Attitude.

With flash to show the holographic glitter.

Under direct sunlight.

Under natural daylight.

Under natural daylight.

Under natural daylight.

Both polishes are great quality polishes that apply beautifully and last quite long on nails without undue tip wear. They also dry very quickly with Poshe topcoat applied on top. I love the bottles as the square design makes for easy, efficient storage, and you get a generous 11 ml in each bottle. Dorothy retails for $9.50 while Attitude retails for $11.50, which I think is reasonable, given that OPI is generally retails for almost $20.

Dorothy is available from the website (which ships internationally) and from all Network members (if you're not based in Australia, just look for a Network member in your country) while Attitude is available exclusively from their website or from Overall Beauty. The polishes are made in Australia and there are QR codes on each bottle so you can scan it and it takes you directly to the website or the Network member it was purchased from. You can also find piCture pOlish on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Will I be purchasing more polish from piCture pOlish? I certainly will, and I already have a wish list including shades like White Wedding, Kryptonite, PMT, Denim and Wisteria (don't you just love the names?).

Much love,
MM.
x

Note: These samples were kindly provided for my consideration. This has not affected my opinion in any way. For more information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Olympic Inspired Eye Looks!

Hi lovelies!

I'd like to share some Olympics-inspired eye looks I created with you! One of my favourite websites, Beautyheaven, challenged readers to create Olympics-inspired looks to celebrate the starting of the Games! Now, I'm not a huge fan of the Games (or most sports for that matter), but I always love the sense of camaraderie and unity it seems to inspire worldwide! Anyways, I digress, I thought it would be fun to participate in the BH forum, so I came up with three looks to share. I might update this post with more looks if I have time to create more before the challenge ends next weekend.

Please click here to check out the thread. There are truly some amazing looks that shouldn't be missed. I must say that BH has some very talented readers!

First, I have a medals-inspired look, with gold, silver and bronze used. I have gold in the inner corner, silver in the middle and bronze on the outside, with three liner flicks to represent the straps/lanyards of the medals.

 

My second look is where I had a go at creating the Australian Flag on my eye...it was a lot tougher than I thought! I'm so sorry for the photo quality, my camera battery died so I had to resort to using my iPhone camera. They looked so clear on my iPhone screen but were really fuzzy when I transferred them to my computer.

Last look, I tried to create an eye look inspired by the Olympic rings. I've used the five colours from the rings; blue, yellow, black, green and red, and I lined my lower lashline with yellow and gold for Australia's colours.

  

Well, lovelies, I hope you enjoyed this post, I certainly loved the chance to get a bit creative! Which one did you like best of all three?

I'll definitely try to do a few more if time permits!

Much love,
MM.
x

Neutral Shades!

Hi lovelies!

I'm still alive! I'm so sorry it's been two weeks since my last post, I caught a terrible bout of the flu and it really took a huge toll on me! I actually can't remember the last time I was that sick! I was given antibiotics by my doctor, which helped me get over the flu, but unfortunately, really upset my tummy! I've basically just been going to work, then coming home and crashing, which didn't leave much time for blogging. I'm feeling much better today than I have for the past few days, so I've been visiting my favourite blogs to try and catch up!

I just wanted to share two of my recent EOTDs with you. I took a break from eye makeup for almost two weeks, but I picked up a new BYS 18 shadow palette (it's called Neutral Charm and retails for $7.95 from Kmart!) over the weekend and couldn't resist playing with it yesterday.

I used the gold shade (marked #1) all over my eyelid, then the aubergine shade (marked #2) in the outer corner/crease and just under the lower lashline, and finished with the steel grey/greenish shade (marked #3) to contour in the outermost corner. I apologise for the labelling on the photo, it's the first time I've tried to mark my photos and I think I need to use different software. I finished off with some brown eyeliner and Lash Architect 4D mascara (which incidentally, does not help my stubborn lashes hold a curl). Oh, and I also added a dash of gold pencil to my lower waterline.

Please click on this to enlarge the numbers.

Here's the finished look!

  

I quite like the palette, it's really metallic but the shadows are quite 'creamy' and blend together beautifully. I wore them all with primer underneath and they lasted all day without creasing!

I promised a second EOTD, and that's the one I wore to work today! I kept it quite light as I was wearing coral lips, so I wanted to keep the eyes neutral.

I used my Essence holographic effect shadow in Mystic Lemon with a bit of a bronze Inglot shadow in the crease, Revlon colourstay eyeliner in brown (top and lower lash line) and Max Factor false lash effect waterproof mascara to finish.

I hope you enjoyed that, lovelies!

Now, after two days of wearing neutrals/browns, I think I feel a colour EOTD coming on tomorrow...


Much love,
MM.
x