Christmas Red & Gold Manicure

I've been busy doing last minute Christmas preparations this weekend; wrapping presents, baking some sweet treats and giving myself a new Christmas mani. As far as Christmas nails go, there is only one contender for the best Christmas polish in my book - China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

If you don't know this polish, you really should, it's a perfect crimson red with micro glitter that reflect a slightly brighter red, so festive! It's also good for Valentine's Day (see this post here). I love it, and although it looks perfectly fabulous on it's own I thought I'd jazz it up with some gold because is there really any better Christmas combination?!!

L to R // The Face Shop Gold Glitter & Micro Gold Glitter, OPI Big Apple red, China Glaze I'm Not Lion, China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

Sugar cookies - I cheated by using the Betty Crocker mix (shhh!) They're so good, it's unlikely they'll be any left by Christmas.

How cute is my little reindeer nail decal!!

I topped off my manicure with Seche Vite in the hopes of it lasting until Wednesday. Seche Vite usually gives me really good wear time, even if it does come at the price of a little shrinkage on the tips. Anyway, only two sleeps to go! :)

So, are you ready for Christmas or do you still have some last minute shopping to do like me?!

x x x

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Fancy Fingers, Phones and Flights

Hello Ladies, how's the week going? I'm pleased to say it's almost the weekend again. I'm already getting excited about the prospect of more lazing in the park and a bit of al fresco dining!

This week has been rather good for me. The nice weather has meant we've been able to get out and about in the evening for a couple of walks around the nearby parks. Isn't it amazing how good some warm weather and a bit of sunshine can make you feel?!

On Tuesday night I also picked up a new phone. I must have been the only person in all of Korea still using an iPhone 3. As a foreigner it's just too much of a headache to try and sort these kind of things out, so whilst my phone was still functioning I wasn't too bothered about getting a new one. Recently, it's been showing signs of dying so I decided to go upgrade. It only took me two separate visits to the shop, about 15 phone calls to a korean friend of mine and a total of around 5 hours to get an iPhone 4. Haha!

The Mr. surprised me with the cute cover when I got home. Isn't he a sweetie!

'You are wonderful and I love you' iPhone cover - Lost Dog

Another thing I've been excited about this week is my latest addition to my polish collection. Which, by the way, is growing at a shocking and slightly disturbing rate! I fear I may be developing a polish addiction. Okay, that's a lie, I know I have a polish addiction and it's been going on for a long time but I've been in denial.

Still, this new polish from Tony Moly is a dupe of Deborah Lippmann's 'Glitter In The Air' and could not be passed up. I actually ordered 'Glitter In The Air' weeks and weeks ago from an eBay seller (only way I can get it here) but it never arrived. Cue angry, also very disappointed me checking the mail box...every. single. day....TWICE. for the last five weeks. No joke!

Finally I accepted it's never coming, considered crying for a bit, then found out about this dupe available in Korea (Tony Moly is a Korean brand I think...). I headed straight to the store to get it and I'm now pretty chuffed. Can you see what I mean about an addiction going on?! It only cost $3 (versus Lippmann's $18 price tag) and from all the picture comparisons I've made it really does seem to be a near perfect match.

'Milky Way' - Tony Moly, a dupe of 'Glitter In The Air' - Deborah Lippmann and Revlon's 'Whimsical'

'Milky Way' - Tony Moly

It's a pale blue base with pink and blue glitter. It goes on quite smoothly, although it's very sheer so you do need at least three coats if you want solid coverage like my photos. The glitter builds up quite nicely if you do three coats though!

As for the actual Deborah Lippmann one I ordered...I contacted the seller and apparently they've re-shipped it to me, so we'll see if it makes it this time!

Other exciting developments over this way are that we're going to Hong Kong in just over two weeks!! We booked the tickets last night for a four day trip. I've always wanted to visit Hong Kong so I'm really, really excited about it!


Does anyone have any recommendations for places to stay/things to see/restaurants to eat in etc? I'd love to hear them if you do! 

xxx

The Everyday Face

For some time I've been meaning to do a makeup related post. In particular I wanted to show you my usual daily routine, not that it's all that interesting mind you, my love of M.A.C sees to that! I figured that you see everything else I wear though, so why not see the stuff that works the magic every day!

I'm a big fan of MAC makeup and use mostly their products for my face. They seem to have serious staying power, my face looks pretty similar at the end of the day to how it looked in the morning. Which I think is amazing, by that I mean the makeup not my face. Obviously. No one is that vain are they?! I also love their huge scope of colours so much so that I find it veeeeery difficult to ever walk away from the store empty handed! There's always one more colour I just really want!

What you see in the pictures below is the stuff I use for my everyday natural (-ish) makeup look. It's probably about a fourth of my total collection. Yeah, I love makeup. There are a couple of products I use from other brands, but not many of those are used for day wear.

Although MAC and the other products I use are all on the more expensive side I think it's worth it for something that I wear day in day out. Also I need very few re-applications (if any!) which in the long run probably makes it better value for money than some brands that you need to touch up several times a day.

Face: Clinique Moisturizer, Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat and MAC Foundation. MAC Blusher 'Dainty', MAC Mineralize Skinfinish 'Soft and Gentle'

Get This Party Started - Deborah Lippmann Nail Polish

 

 

If you read my blog regularly you might remember I mentioned Deborah Lippmann's Get This Party Started set in my New Year's Eve post. I showed you one colour from the set and promised to do a post on the full set soon. 

Well, it's been two weeks already and I'll tell you why I didn't get around to this sooner. I needed to make sure I have the entire afternoon free to scrub the glitter off after I've done the swatches. No, I'm kidding, it's not that bad. It only took me about 45 minutes when I did all my nails for NYE! Awesome fun. Okay, okay...pain in the neck removal aside....I do really, really love this set! 

The set includes three full size (15ml) Deborah Lippmann glitter polishes. The glitter is the same in each polish, a rainbow glitter with both large hexagonal pieces and smaller too. Each polish has a different base colour though.

Happy Birthday - Deborah Lippmann

'Happy Birthday' has a clear base and can be worn over any other polish to add some pizazz. This baby is going over a hot pink later today!

Candy Shop

Then there is my favourite, 'Candy Shop' which you can see on my nails in this post. Candy Shop has a soft pink coloured base. It's slightly translucent so you can choose how bold you want the pink to be. One coat gives a subtle pink colour and three coats will give you a solid pink nail.

Forget You

Finally there is 'Forget You', a black base with the amazing multicolored glitter. Again, you'll need two coats for a solid black coverage. This one actually goes on a little uneven, with streaks unless you do use two coats.

I don't usually like to wear a dark nail colour, it's just not me, but this one I'll be making an exception for. I mean, look at all that glitter, it's not exactly dark or dull is it?!

Now, you can call me lazy if you want, but in the end I opted to do just one hand, one time, to show you all the colours. To be honest, I didn't fancy spending my entire Saturday getting glitter everywhere by trying to get it off. So here are the three colours with two coats of each:

 

 

I had seen this set on a blog a while ago but I had a hard time tracking it down especially from UK stores. In the end I found it for a little under £26 from Amazon.co.uk. It's also on Amazon.com in the US for just over $40.

In short, I think this set is great. I'm all about a bit of sparkle but I tend to find sparkles or glitter on clothes just comes off looking tacky. Glitter on the nails however, seems like just the right amount, playful but subtle! The glitter is distributed fairly thickly and evenly through the polish and it isn't difficult to apply. One coat is enough but if you layer it you can get an amazing, very shimmery overall effect on your nails.

So what do you think? What other glitter polishes can you ladies recommend? Let me know whilst I spend the next 30 minutes trying to get these off! Haha!

xxx

PS: Does anyone have any useful tips for glitter polish removal?