Teeny Tiny Illamasqua Haul - My Friends Are Great At Gift Giving

So, a couple of days ago it was my 20th Birthday. Despite lamenting the fact that I can no longer revel in my own teenage angst, I had a wonderful day. I had lunch with my friends in my favourite pub in London (The Alice House in West Hampstead), and then had incredible cocktails in Freud Bar, which is just so goddamned hip (one tasted like an alcoholic chocolate milkshake. So. On. Board.)

Now, what is a Birthday without presents? Disappointing, is what it is. Anyway, I got some damn fine make up from my amazing lady friends and here it is.

The Nail Polish is called Melange and the Cream Eye Shadow is called Bibelot.

 The formula of this nail polish makes my heat soar. It's well pigmented, so one coat can be enough, I just prefer to have two (there are two coats in the photo). The glitter in the polish means that, despite the texture of my nails, it still looks hella good. I've had one coat on for a couple of days and there have been no chips, so I'm feeling real good about this polish. It's quite low maintenance as nail polishes go, and that's the fastest way to my heart. Also, the colour, I'm all about this colour.

Next up is this pretty little pot of deliciousness (not that I'm suggesting you eat it, that would be gross). The lid is a rose gold and is just so damn stylish and the packaging has some weight to it, which is nice. This lady is not going to break. The colour is gorgeous, and very autumnal, which is great. The texture is much like other cream products I own, where it's quite firm until you move your finger across the surface, where you can pick up product. It's not too liquid-y, which is nice. I hate it when you stick your finger in a product and it's creamier than you think and your whole finger just plunges into the product. Not cool.

On the left the colour if blended (not very well, sorry), on the right is a single swipe from a finger. The pigmentation is good, the glitter shows really nicely, even when blended and it has good wearing power (getting the swatch off my hand was a bitch). I wore this product (set with an eye shadow) on a night out where I was dancing for hours in a hot, sweaty room and not even a crease was found. Beauty.

Haul Of All Sorts - Literally No Excuse For This One, I Have A Problem

I've been popping up and down to London like nobody's business these past few weeks house hunting (which is a soul sucking experience). This has given me the excuse to be around well stocked Boots and Superdrug stores (I shop to forget). And, well, you get the idea. I bought some things and thus far I'm loving all of them.

From Left: Real Techniques Stippling Brush; Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge; MUA Lipstick in Shade 1; Seventeen Rock Hard Nail Effects in Blue; Seventeen Rock Hard Couture Nail Effects in Charm Bracelet; MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter in Pink Shimmer.

 Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge: 

This sponge is just so God damned brilliant. It just makes foundation and concealer look like I've always wanted it to look. Smooth. No unfortunate thick patches of colour, or streaks. This just blends it all away, baby. I wish I'd bought this sooner. The shape is great for doing different areas of the face, like I use the point for under my eyes and around the nose and the flat section for the rest of my face. I use this to blend in concealer and to blend foundation after it has been applied.

Real Techniques Stippling Brush: 

Again, I love this brush. I've a few Real Techniques brushes already in my collection and not a one has disappointed me. The bristles are wonderfully soft, the handles nice to hold and I'm rather in love with the different colours. I have a friend who needs all her brushes to be black with a silver ferrule - like Mac brushes. I, on the other hand, rather like the hodge podge of colours that my collection is. 

 The sparse bristles at the top allow a nice light, even coverage, and boy does it deliver. My face is looking pristine with this brush coupled with the sponge.

 MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter in Pink Shimmer: 

I'm an avid watcher of Nikkie Tutorials on YouTube and she has recently been recommending this highlighter. Now, seeing as this is MUA and therefore hella cheap, I made it a goal to purchase this.

 Seeing as I own a total of two highlighters, this seemed like a good investment to me. I have a liquid highlighter that is very gold toned, and a powder highlighter that is also gold toned, but to a lesser degree. So having a colder, pink based highlighter seemed like a good idea. The packaging isn't the best quality, but I think it looks good and it will hold together.

On the left is the highlighter blended out and on the right it is a single swipe of my finger. So it has good pigmentation, and the shimmer is just darn pretty. Which is all I really want out of a highlighter.

 MUA Lipstick in Shade 1:

This is another product recommended by Nikkie Tutorials. She recently did a review on her blog of MUA lipsticks, two were disappointing, this one was not. And she's right, cos this Lipstick is great. The best bit? It cost £1. The packaging isn't the prettiest I have, but it's functional, and I like the colour being at the bottom (it's actually functioning lipstick too!).

The colour applied like a dream boat. Smooth and pigmented in one swipe. The colour's also just great. Because who doesn't like a nice, rich red? The wearability is also pretty great, considering I wore it on a night out and I only had to reapply once. If your lipstick's still intact at four in the morning, it's a keeper.

 Seventeen Rock Hard Couture Nail Effects in Charm Bracelet and Seventeen Rock Hard Nail Effects in Blue:

 Now a friend of mine has been wearing Charm Bracelet for about two months now and every time I see it, I want it. I mean, just look at it. So I finally found it in a Boots and snapped it up. The colour does not disappoint (for both of them). I have been doing two coats, but one is perfectly acceptable, especially for Charm Bracelet. Also, being the formula that it is, it dries in no time and doesn't smudge, which makes me so happy.

These have both had two coats of colour.

Now here's the crux, these chip like little bitches. Like, I will have at least three nails chipped at the end of each day. I tried applying top coat, no dice. The only consolation is that it dries so quickly that fixing the manicure is a breeze. Also, the texture enables that even with many patch ups, the nails still look nice. So, this has been the longest manicure I have in a while, and that says something.

Emmeline out.

Water Colour Nails - For When You Feel Bad For All The Nail Polishes You're Not Using

 So I recently started using Pinterest, which is great, but also steals quite a bit of my time. I keep seeing cool nail things that instantly make me want to try something new. Discounting this one 'fish net manicure' that suggested using the netting from a loofah to give you cool nails and just didn't work - like I swear to God, I tried so hard and got nothing save a huge fucking headache - I've been loving trying all these new things. I can't tell you what picture in particular inspired this manicure, but using sponges on my nails has always worked well for me, so I was on board for these nails.

 Excuse my shitty, mismatched nails

 Here is everything you will need, different colour combinations such as blues and greens would also look awesome. From left to right: Rimmel Nail Nurse (as a base coat), No 7 Nail Colour in ME! ME! ME!, Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Rose Hip, Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Papaya, Topshop Nails in Listen To Me and Ciaté Speed Coat Pro for the top coat. Also a sponge, this is integral to the look.

Start with the base coat (duh), and wait for it to dry fully. Then do two coats of Papaya, waiting to dry between each coat. (The paint in my image has a weird texture because of the plastic, not the formula).

Now paint some of ME! ME! ME! on the sponge and blot off some of the excess paint.

Now pat the colour onto the nail, starting at one corner and blending it towards the middle. Wait for it to dry.

 Next do the same with Rose Hip, starting from a different corner and blending so there is plenty of overlap. Again, wait for it to dry.

Now pat Listen To Me in the centre of the nail, blending out a little, but less than the other colours. Wait to dry, longer than I did as I smudged the colours together a little (if you like how that looks, wait until it is no longer tacky, but would dent if you touched it).

Finish with a healthy dose top coat. Voilá.

Mini Haul - AKA I Lack Self Control in the Face of Make Up

So I ran out of concealer, no big deal, just pop over to Boots and pick some up. HA HA HA HA. I can't just walk past a Barry M display. They constantly bring out new shades of nail polish and it just kills me because I want them all. This time around there was an offer that if one were to spend over £6 one could get a free limited edition polish, there were two colours, a blue and then one I bought - that stunning coral with a slight gold shimmer running through it. I mean, who could pass that up? Definitely not me, because there were also many other new gel polishes, I picked up a very pale pink and a pale olive. I rather like the gel formula, so bonuses all round (save for my poor overused purse).

And then I was buying things already so I bought two lipsticks from the Rimmel Kate Moss range, which, as my previous post shows, are some of my favourite lipsticks. I couldn't resist getting a darker shade, but I also wanted something more Summer-y. The texture of these is creamy and lovely.

Then to finish it off I bought a base coat from Rimmel that is supposed to look after the nails. I don't know if it's going to heal my much abused nails, but it did work as a really nice base coat.

 Can we talk about how cute the packaging is for all the special Barry M polishes?

From left to right: Olive, Rose Hip, Carouse! (Exclamation Mark is very much part of the name).

 Look at the gold shimmer in Carouse!, I've found my Summer shade.

 Rimmel Kate Moss Lipsticks in 16 and 30.

I feel like this shade is perfect for me. It's not even too dark for Summer - seriously, I feel odd wearing way dark lipsticks when the weather's this nice, knowing England it won't last much longer though.

 Nice even colour from one swipe, parfait!

 A lovely pinky coral, perfect for this weather and it'll look amazing with a tan.

 Being a pale colour it sinks into the cracks of my lips a little, but from a typical distance someone should stand from you it looks just fine, and if someone's getting up close and personal with your mouth that lipstick's not staying in place for much longer anyway.