Flowery Nail Art With Butter London Disco Biscuit

I don't do a lot of nail art mostly because I'm not very good at it and because I haven't got much time, but a little while ago I did this cute mani using Butter London Disco Biscuit. I stamped it with white Konad polish using Pueen 59 stamping plate and applied glitters from OPI I Snow You Love Me to the center of the flowers. Ta-dah!

It was really quick and easy, even for a beginner like me, but I got lots of compliments on it.

Do you do nail art? Do you stamp or do it freehand?

See more pictures after the jump!

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre #96 Utopia Review and Swatches

So as I've promised, I have a review of one of the new Chanel Illusion D'Ombres. This one is Utopia, a slightly frosty dusky purple shade.

I really like Chanel Illusion D'Ombres, they are one of my go-to eyeshadows when I only have time for a quick sweep of colour on the lids. They go on smoothly and blend very easily. I tend to use them over primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance is my favourite) and they stay without creasing all day.

The eyeshadows come with a small angled brush for application, but generally I think any dense brush is fine for that purpose and mine tend to sit untouched. They would be good for using the eyeshadows as liner though.

They don't come cheap at £25 for 4 g, but they do go a long way and I'm happy to report that none of my older ones are showing signs of drying out, so they are a good long-term investment.

There are 3 new shades in the Chanel summer collection and I have New Moon as well to show you at a later date.

For now, see more pictures of Utopia, including swatches, after the jump!

Haul Pictures

I am so happy we can finally get Essence in the UK! In case you didn't know, Essence is now being sold in Wilkinson. My small local branch only has a small display, but I popped into a bigger one that had a much bigger one. Today I want to show you what I picked up as well as a couple of other bits from Topshop, Superdrug and Boots.

So from Essence I got these cute nail stickers for when I'm too lazy to do some stamping, and a nail polish called Laser Show which is a glitter topper with silver microshimmer and black glitter. From Topshop I picked up two glitter polishes called Dreamlike and Myth.

Also from Essence, I got their Blush Up powder blush that bears a very strong resemblance to Mac's blush ombres. It's very pigmented, just great for summer. I also got the new Sleek palette, Rio Rio and Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in New Moon, one of the new summer shades. I have another shade to show you, which I'll be writing a full review on very soon.

Have you been buying any make up or nail polish lately?

Summer NOTD: Bright Green Neon Nails With A Bit Of Glitter

Today I'm wearing China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, a neon green polish from their Summer Neons collection from 2012, with China Glaze Sour Apple, a bright green glitter topper (I don't know which collection it is from).  

I'm With The Lifeguard is a very bright neon green, less yellow than my pictures show, with green and yellow sheen in the sun. It's very glowy and cheerful. The formula wasn't perfect, it's quite runny, so had to be careful with it, but after 2 coats it looked perfect. Sour Apple has fine glitter in it and it also took 2 coats to look even. The two polishes go together really well.

I took another picture to show you what it looks like in shade, and was also hoping to capture its real colour, but even this is too yellow. Anyway, I'm loving this combo.

Do you own any neon polishes? Which are your favourites?

See another picture after the jump!

Mac Flamingo Lustre Lipstick Review and Swatches

Okay, I know I said I hardly ever buy lipsticks and yet, I'm here reviewing another one, BUT Mac Flamingo lipstick was always on my wishlist. I didn't buy it when it first come out in a limited edition collection and always regretted it, so when it was recently added to the permanent lipstick line, I decided to finally pick it up, especially as I had some House of Fraser vouchers burning a hole in my pocket!.

Mac describes Flamingo as "light milky bright coral", but it also has a lot of pink in it. I'd say it's one of those my lips but better shades. It's a lustre finish, so it's not very opaque, it takes a few goes to get a good colour payoff. It's very glossy, but also due to the lustre finish it wears off really quickly. I'm lucky if I get 2 hours of wear out of it, and that's without eating or drinking. It's not drying at all and feels very comfortable when on my lips.

So was it worth the wait? I can't honestly say it was for me, but if you are after a nice subtle lipstick, this is a good one to pick up. It's a great colour for the summer, but also all year round. I now prefer more pigmented, more opaque shades, so Flamingo sadly didn't live up to my expectations.

Flamingo lipstick costs £15.50 and you get 3 g for your money.

See more pictures, including swatches after the jump!

NOTD: KBShimmer Run! It's The Coppers!

A little while ago I showed you my picks from KBShimmer's summer collection and Run! It's The Coppers! was one of them.

Run! It's The Coppers! is a beautiful copper holographic polish. It took 2 coats to build up opacity. The best things about this polish (other than its gorgeous colour and bright holographic rainbow) is the nice wide brush that makes application very easy. It's not too wide to worry those with thin nails, but wide enough to only need a couple of strokes to cover the nail. The formula was really nice and easy too. I ended up with a chip on my index finger, but you can see in the pictures that it's very uneven at the tip due to peeling, so that might have been a contributing factor. All in all I'm very happy with it.

I bought my KBShimmer polishes from Harlow & Co who ship worldwide at a very good price. KBShimmer doesn't ship outside the US.

See more pictures after the jump!

Lime Crime Opaque Lipstick in Geradium Swatches and Review

As I mentioned in my previous post I bought this beautiful summery lipstick from Lime Crime and couldn't wait to try it out. Geradium is a bright coral pink shade with a glossy finish. It is bright, but also wearable if you're not scared of a bit of brightness on your lips. The lipstick smells divine, it has the same vanilla scent as the Mac lipsticks, and feels lovely to wear.

It glides on really easily and feels very comfortable on the lips. Weartime is around 3 hours without eating, when I ate it wore off pretty quickly. The lipstick comes in a beautiful purple case with holographic print and a cute unicorn. This is my first Lime Crime lipstick, but may not be the last one. I already have my eye on another shade!

I bought it from Harlow & Co for CAD18, but I've also seen it for sale for £12.50 in UK webshops. I decided to buy from Harlow & Co as I was already ordering some nail polish from Katie. You get 3.5 g for your money which is the larger end of lipstick sizes.

See more pictures after the jump!

My Picks From KBShimmer's Summer Collections and a Lipstick Too!

My order from Harlow & Co came the other day, so I thought I'd show you which polishes I chose from the two KBShimmer summer collections (there was an early summer collection and a late summer collection - although I'm still considering this time of year to be early summer, but anyway). I only chose three polishes, not becasue I didn't like the rest, but because I now have over 2000 polishes and have completely run out of space to store them in. So I try to look for polishes that are a bit unusual or colours that I don't own yet.

I picked up Red, White & Blue-tiful from the late summer collection, a glitter topper with lots of red, blue and silver stars as well as red, blue and silver glitter and holographic micro glitter. Obviously it is for 4th July, the American Independence Day, but since the UK flag has the same colours, I thought it would be a very apt polish for the summer. Or just any time really.

From the early summer collection I got Run! It's The Coppers!, a copper holographic polish, and Let's Not Coral, a coral pink creme polish. Both are gorgeous and not similar to anything I own. (Which makes you wonder, how can someone have over 2000 polishes and still not own every colour possible?!)

I also ordered a lipstick which is a very rare occurrence for me nowadays (you might remember I went on a lip product no-buy when I was still blogging last year) as I now have so many lipsticks and lipglosses. I only buy some very special colours nowadays (mostly just Guerlain Rouge G's and Mac lipsticks), but I saw a swatch of Lime Crime Geradium Opaque Lipstick and just had to have it. I will review the lipstick in the coming days, but for now, here's a sneak peek.

Come back soon for a full review of this gorgeousness!