NOTD: Ulta3 Plum Violet

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a great weekend!

It seems that Summer has well and truly arrived (after some unseasonably cold weather) here in Melbourne so I did some bright nails to match the sunny weather.

This is Ulta3 Plum Violet (a present from my lovely sister - thank you!), three coats.

Ulta3 Plum Violet

This is so fun and bright, perfect for Summer!!  Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Ulta3 French Nude

Hi everyone!
Tomorrow, I'm starting my uni placement so I thought I'd stick to something neutral for my first day.  This is Ulta3 French Nude.  It's a little more yellow than Ulta3 Allure which I wore a few weeks ago.  I think I prefer Allure. Apologies for the inflamed cuticle on my index finger, I tried to crop most of it out.

With flash

Reminder of what Allure looks like

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia

Hi everyone,
Redid my nails tonight in Ulta3 Flashback Fuchsia.  To me, this isn't really fuchsia, more of a deep berry red creme.  It is a nice colour though and I think it was part of the Autumn/Winter range of 2010.  All the gloomy weather we've been having in Melbourne inspired me to go for a darker, more Winter-y shade!

It applies well, and was opaque in two coats!  I added a topcoat to prevent chipping, but this polish had a nice glossy, shiny finish on it's own so you could probably get away without one.

With flash

Thanks for reading!

Favourite Lip Products

Hello everyone!

Today I'll be sharing with you some of my favourite lip products!  I'm honestly not a big wearer of lipstick, I just don't really like the feeling of having something sticky on my lips.  Plus I hate having to reapply it all the time.  Having said that, I have made an effort this year to try to appreciate lip products more and use them more often in my daily routine.  I do use lip balm obsessively though, haha!

So here are my favourite products:

Lipglosses and lipsticks:

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipglosses and Revlon Colourburst Lipsticks

Tinted Lip Balms/"Sheer" Lip colours:

Revlon Beyond Protective Liptint, The Body Shop Sheer Lip Colours and Nivea Hydro Care Lip Balm

Thoughts and swatches:

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipglosses - I generally don't wear gloss as I just don't like the sticky feeling, however these are not too bad.  They are quite pigmented so you only need a thin layer and they don't have that awful grainy feeling that some glosses do.  Glossy Rose is a deep pink with gold shimmer, Peach Petal is a a light peachy pink creme.

Left: Glossy Rose; Right: Peach Petal

Revlon Colourburst Lipsticks - there was a lot of hype surrounding these when they were first released and I think it is well deserved.  They have a nice texture, glide on smoothly and evenly and come in a good range of colours.  They are at the pricier end of "drugstore" lipsticks, but if you can get them on a buy one get one free deal they are good value.  Smooth Nude is a creamy nude colour which I like to use to town down the natural pigmentation of my lips without getting that "concealer lips" look.  Blush, for me, is a nice "my lips but better" colour - a neutral pink with a hint of frost.  Mauve is a purply blue toned pink.  This is about as extreme as I go with lip colours (I've never been able to rock a bright red lip).  If I wear Mauve, I would tend to keep the rest of my face fairly plain.  Peach is a nice bright coraly pink which will be perfect for summer.

Left to right: Smooth Nude, Mauve, Blush, Peach

Top to bottom: Smooth Nude, Mauve, Blush, Peach

Peach looks quite orange swatched on the skin, I think it looks nicer on the lips.  It goes nicely with the Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Peach Petal.

Revlon Colourburst Lipstick in Peach

Revlon Colourburst Lipstick in Peach with Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Peach Petal over the top

Revlon Colourburst Lipstick in Mauve

Tinted Lip Balms:

Revlon Beyond Natural Protective Liptint - these are discontinued which is a shame because I think they are really nice.  A moisturising lip balm with a sheer colour pigmentation and light berry fragrance.  These are perfect for days when you don't want a sticky feeling on your lips or would prefer a light wash of colour without that heavy "lipstick" look.  They are also SPF 15+!  I bought these at Priceline on sale for $5 each after they were discontinued but you may still be able to find them on eBay or similar.

Left to right: Revlon Beyond Natural Protective Liptint in Pink, Rosy, Nude and Berry

Top to bottom: Revlon Beyond Natural Protective Liptint in Pink, Rosy, Nude and Berry

Revlon Beyond Natural Protective Liptint in Nude

Revlon Beyond Natural Protective Liptint in Berry

As you can see from the lip swatches, these are quite sheer, but you can build the colour if you prefer a more solid colour.

The Body Shop Sheer Lipcolours - these are also discontinued, I think they have been replaced by the new Delipscious Sheer Lip Shines, which I will probably look into when my spending ban finishes.  The sheer lip colours are, like the Revlon Liptints, great for getting a nice sheer wash of colour and a bit of shine onto your lips without the stickyness and heaviness of lipstick.  They also have a berry scent.  I'm not sure of the names of these colours, but the numbers are 01, 02 and 04.  They do look quite dark in the tube (especially 04) but as you'll see in the swatches, the colour goes on quite sheer so they can still give quite a natural look, or be built up for a more dramatic look as you prefer.  I also sometimes wear these like a gloss over lipstick as they do have quite a nice shine to them.

The Body Shop Sheer Lip Colours in 01, 02 and 04

Top to bottom: 01, 02, 04

This is 04 swatched on the lips - as you can see, it's not as dark as it looks in the tube.

The Body Shop Sheer Lip Colour in 04

And finally, I threw in my HG lip balm Nivea Hydro Care just because I love it so much haha! No swatch of this because it's just ordinary old lip balm.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments section what your favourite lip products are!

NOTD: Ulta3 Lollypop Lilac

This is a pretty light purple foil.  Formula was nice, not streaky or clumpy.  I did two coats (plus topcoat) but I think you could get away with one if you were in a rush.  There are a few bumps as my nails were not quite dry when I started baking so apologies for that.

With flash

Have a great weekend everybody!

NOTD: Ulta3 Watermelon + other random tidbits

Today's nails are Ulta3 Watermelon.  The name says it all, really - it is exactly the colour of watermelon!  Gorgeous colour which I predict will be on high rotation for me this summer.

With flash - this colour is a little lighter than this in person

This was two coats plus a topcoat.  It almost doesn't need the topcoat as it has a really nice sheen to it, but I just added the topcoat in the hopes that I will get an extra 1-2 days of wear out of it.

I had a really great sleep in this morning and in the afternoon went shopping at Westfield Doncaster to look for a dress for my mum to wear to her work Christmas party/my brother's uni graduation.  She didn't end up buying anything and neither did I.  I did try a nice fragrance in Myer - Ralph Lauren's Summer Romance.  I have the original version of Romance and I'm almost finished it, so perhaps I will put Summer Romance on my Christmas wishlist!

Also, I hopped on the scales this morning perparing for the worst (as this would be the first time weighing myself since before swot vac and exams started) and was surprised to find that I had lost 0.1kg, despite eating pretty badly (not junk food, but just snacking a lot throughout the day, especially on days where I stayed home all day) and doing pretty minimal amounts of exercise.  I'm not really counting 0.1kg as a loss, I was just shocked as I thought I would have gained at least 2kg.  Time to start cracking the whip again and get back into running as I'm only 3kgs away from my goal so it would be nice to reach it by the end of the year.

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Ulta3 Mulberry nail polish

Today's nails are Ulta3 Mulberry.  This was terrible to apply - very gluggy and streaky.  It seems to be a bit dried out, although this was the first time I'd ever used it.  I only did two coats today plus a topcoat.

Picture:

With flash

Right, off to bed now and looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning!

NOTD: Ulta3 Allure nail polish

Today's nails are Ulta3 Allure.  Please excuse my disgusting looking cuticles, that's what alcohol based hand sanisters do to your skin! This polish was quite sheer - after three coats the nail line was still a teeny bit visible.
Picture:

With flash - three coats plus topcoat

The past two days have been super busy for me, but I will try to post some pictures/commentary later tonight!

NOTD: Australis Liquid Gold

Today's nail polish is Liquid Gold by Australis.  The bottle boasts "Best Formula Ever!" and "Streak Free".  I'm not 100% sure I agree with this - it went on quite gluggy and streaky.  It dried a little better but I think you can still see the brush streaks.  I would describe this as a beige toned gold, rather than a yellow, brassy gold, which is perfect for me as I'm not really a fan of yellow toned gold colours.

Pictures:

With flash - I think this pic looks more yellow than it is in real life.

Without flash (it's getting dark outside so I couldn't get a decent pic, sorry) - this one's really blurry but I think it this is closer to how the colour appears in person.

 Also, good news, another Project 20 Pan item has bitten the dust - a Body Shop Body Butter.  I will include pics and thoughts on this in my next post as my camera died after taking the pictures of my nails. This brings the running total to five items which I means I am one quarter of the way through!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Revlon Plum Attraction

Hi everyone!
On my nails today I have Revlon 762 Plum Attraction.  It's a gorgeous red-toned purple-y plum colour.  The formula seemed thin and it did apply a little streaky to begin with but it turned out alright in three coats (plus a top coat).  The one thing I hate about dark colours is that clean up is much more of a pain (and I am very messy, especially on my right hand - I'm a lefty).

Picture:

With flash.

It's really gloomy outside so I didn't manage to get a decent picture in natural light, but I think the photo with flash is a fairly true respresentation of the actual colour.

Thanks for reading!

Eyelid Primer Swatches

Hello everyone!
Today, I've swatched a few different eyeshadow bases, including two of the NYX ones (in skin tone and white).

Natural light, no flash

Flash

Left to right (or top to bottom): Almay Bright Eyes Eye Base/Concealer; MAC Shadestick in Beige-ing; NYX Jumbo Pencils in Pots and Pans,Cottage Cheese and Black Bean; Art Deco Eyeshadow Base; NYX Eyeshadow Bases in Skin Tone and  White.

The Almay one is alright as a concealer but I don't really use it as a lid primer.  I'm also not a fan of the applicator (one of those squeezy brush type arrangements), I just find it to be really messy and I always squeeze really hard because nothing's coming out and then you end up squeezing half the tube out at once.  Wouldn't really recommend.

I use the MAC Shadestick a lot, however it does have shimmer so if you are going for a matte look, I wouldn't recommend this one.  I do find this does crease a little as well, towards the end of the day.  I only use this as a base (i.e. set with a powder shadow), not on it's own as on it's own it creases like crazy!

NYX Jumbo pencils - similar to the MAC Shadestick, but a creamier consistency.  These come in a lot of different colours too and are great for putting under coloured shadows if ou want a really intense colour.

I use the Art Deco base a lot as well, however it does have a slight shimmer, as you can see in the photos.  My main criticism of this one is the smell - it's smells like men's perfume (weird!!) but the smell does wear off once you blend it out (i.e. you won't smell like a man all day).  I think it's mainly if you smell it in the little pot.

NYX bases - the skin tone base is VERY dark as you can see, compared to my pale skin, but I think it blends out well and once I put a shadow over the top it doesn't really bother me.  These have a similar consistency to a cream concealer type product.  I find they wear very well and (apart from the Jumbo pencils) are probably the most affordable option.

I purchased all of my NYX things on eBay.  Art Deco is available from some pharmacies and hair/beauty salons in Australia, here is the link to their Australian website: Art Deco Stockists in Australia

Hope this is helpful to some people!

NOTD: Revlon Gray Suede

This is Revlon 705 Gray Suede.  It was part of the Daydreamer collection released earlier this year (for Spring, I think).  I had trouble getting a good picture of this, I think it looks a bit more pink than the pictures showed.  It's a really pretty neutral colour and would be great for work or school (or any other environment where bright nails are a no-no).  Onto the pictures.....

Flash

No Flash

This was three coats plus a top coat.  Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Ulta3 Envy Nail polish

I love this nail polish!  Up close and in the bottle it has a kind of gold/bronze tone (sorry, I’m really bad at describing colours), but from further away it looks more silver.  What do you think?  In any case, I really like it.  This is three coats plus top coat.

My sister described this as "super robotic and futuristic" and then asked me if I was familiar with over 600 dance moves...hahaha, Eurotrip reference!  I love that movie.  Anyways, moving on to the pictures....

First pic is with flash, second pic is without. Please excuse my super short nails, I had a few broken nails so I filed most of them right down.

With flash.

Without flash.