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Top Spring Nail Polish Colours

I am a nailpolishaholic. If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram you will know I like to post obnoxious pictures of my painted nails on a regular basis…I do apologise 🙂

So I trifled through my collection to talk about the nail polish colours that represent Spring in a nail polish bottle for me. By all means you can switch and change brands and shades, these are just what I own.I am a firm believer that if you have and use a good base coat and top coat, you can use any brand of coloured polish and it should last pretty well on your talons!

I have very recently downsized my collection in order to fit them onto my new acrylic wall rack. So I threw out all the polishes I was hoarding in boxes and only kept the ones I know I would actually use:

So onto my picks for Spring:

Firstly I had to pick a hot pink. A hot pink is essential in Spring for me, it looks fab on your fingernails and your toenails and goes with everything, and helps accentuate a tan whether it be natural or from a bottle 🙂

I chose a BarryM colour. These polishes are so readily available in Boots and Superdrug, they are cheap and they have such a wide range of colours. I love them.

Barry M in Limited Edition 029

Next up I chose Peach. Peach is a colour that screams warmer weather to me. It’s the colour of icepops and sweets 🙂 It’s a good colour to have for those, who do not want to go crazy with their nail colour as it can look quite subtle and clean on the nails. I chose another Barry M polish, shock horror, this was a cult buy for last summer within the blogosphere!

Barry M Peach Melba 318

Next I chose… another Barry M pastel tone! I’m sorry but they’re lovely 🙂 I have a good cross section of brands in my collection but Barry M are really good and the pastels are lovely and creamy. Two coats and you’re good to go! So I chose a pastel lilac tone.

I love this colour and lilac is very on trend at the minute. Again, if you are afraid of colour, even use something like this on your accent nail for a touch of something different.

Barry M 308 Barry I/C

I have a sky blue shade chosen for my next spring nail polish. I think this sort of shade looks great on all skin tones and looks really interesting on long and short nails alike. It can really jazz up a look without going too over board.

This is an Essie shade, I love Essie polish from the point of view that their colour selection is amazing and the polishes themselves are easy to apply and do not need much working with. However, I will say they don’t last aswell as some other brands of polishes and they cost a small fortune here in Ireland, if other brands do the same shade for cheaper I say get it!

Essie Mint Candy Apple

Lastly, I chose a shade that is not for the faint hearted. This shade of nearly apple green sums up Spring in a colour to me. If you’re someone like me who loves bright colours on their nails, rock the hell out of it, if not this would be a great accent colour on the ring finger or whichever finger you choose to be brave with:

This particular polish is a Revlon polish. Revlon do a great formula of polishes, I have a few of them and they are some of my firm favourites. I can’t wait to give their new perfumed range a go 🙂

Revlon 510 Sassy

So there you have it, my spring nail wardrobe. I am rarely without nail polish, I don’t feel put together without it. Whether it is to compliment your look with a similar hue to your clothes or makeup or for it to contrast it, it all looks good in my book 🙂

Thanks letting me ramble on,

Gemma

xxx

April 21, 2014/by Gem

Makeup

Makeup Geek Pigments And More

Pigments? Scary…they are a bit I must admit, but they are so pretty! I haven’t many of them, but I wanted to share some of the ones I have accumulated over time. When alot of us think of pigments, we think of Mac, I know I do anyway. I cannot justify the money they ask for them, even if they are beautiful. So here are some more purse friendly ones and in my opinion just as pretty. There is one high end one thrown in for good luck, just because I couldn’t resist showing it off, hope you don’t mind 🙂

Pigments are fab to use just like shadows packed onto the lid with a flat stiff brush, as a light wash over shadows for a touch of sparkle or foiled onto the lid with some sort of mixing medium ie Mac Fix Plus, Inglot’s Duraline or even eye drops can be used to intensify the metal sheen or colour of the pigment.

I have some in my collection from Barry M which are readily available from Boots and Superdrug and come in all sorts of colours and finishes. They are priced at 5.99Euro. The others are from an American brand called Makeup Geek. Makeup Geek is owned by Marlena who is firstly a makeup artist. She started initially as a Youtuber and now has her own makeup line which is pretty fab. I own some her eyeshadows, lipsticks and of course pigments. The pigments are priced at 6.99 dollars from the website. Their shipping is pretty reasonable too.

First up is Barry M’s pigment in Number 4:

This is a really pretty silver pigment. It’s more of a chunky formula with silver glitter particles. I would definitely use a mixing medium like Mac’s Fix plus to adhere this to the eyelid as it will fall down and create a mess. I like to use this on my lower lash line for a pop of something extra. I wet a synthetic eyeliner brush with some fix plus and add the glitter carefully. I usually do this before I do my face makeup to ensure I only get glitter where I want it 🙂

Next is probably one of my very favourites. This is Afterglow by Makeup Geek:

It is a gorgeous shimmery champagne colour. This is a really finely milled pigment which is fab all over the lid for an everyday eye look, or as a pop of lightness in the middle of a smoky eye. It’s fab as an inner corner highlight also. A great all round colour I think.

Barry M’s No 98 is next:

This pigment has a black/blue base with really fine blue glitter through it. Perfect for an intense navy smoky look which looks great on a brown,green or hazel eyes. I rock this alot. I use a navy cream shadow underneath it and pack this on over the top. Love it 🙂

Utopia By Makeup Geek is next:

Utopia is another chunkier pigment. In order to get the best pay off, I suggest again wetting the brush you use and foil the pigment onto the lid. You then get a fab dark brown base with gold glitter through it. This is a fab lid colour.

Barry M’s No 27 pigment is next:

This is a lovely white pigment with a soft fleck of golden glitter running through it. I love this as an extreme inner corner highlight (for special occasions 😛 ). It is fab over darker shadows to add a sheen or as a gradient colour on the inner lid into a darker shade.

Here I have Makeup Geek’s shade in Insomnia:

This a really unusual shade. It is brown with green running through it, a two tone shade. It is really pigmented and blends very easily. This would be great for someone who isn’t great at blending colours as it is pretty much two shades in one, so it looks like you’ve spent loads of time adding different colours when you didn’t 🙂

The last on is Illamasqua’s Beguile:

This is the perfect going out glitter. I really couldn’t get a picture to do it justice. It’s a Barbie sparkle for all us grown ups out there. It’s fab over every kind of shadow or creams to bring a bit of glitter to your look. I love using this in the middle of my lid with a dark or light eye. The light catches it beautifully.

So there you have it, some pretty pigments. They can be underrated sometimes. I know I can leave them in a drawer and forget about them. They’re not as scary as you think though I promise, just don’t let it fall on the floor 😛

Thanks for reading.

Gemma

xxx

April 9, 2014/4 Comments/by Gem

Monthly Favourites

March Favourites 2014

Spring is finally here, we can all breath a sigh of relief and look forward to longer days with hopefully some sunshine woohoo ! So another month is gone which means it’s monthly favourites time in blog world. My March favourites are all beauty related this month, not on purpose I promise 🙂 So lets delve into the products I have been enjoying continuously through the month of March.

First up is not a very glamorous choice, but I honestly have not being able to get enough of it since getting it:

This is organic coconut oil, say what?! My good oul mammy was doing her usual ramble around the supermarket and she stumbled across this in the food aisle. You can use it for cooking or on your hair, I like to use it on my temperamental skin and I’m officially addicted. This big 500ml pot was about 6 or 7 quid and will last you a lifetime. When you open it the oil itself is solidified:

But when you scoop it out with your hand it instantly starts to melt into oil, that you can slather on and let it work it’s magic. It’s not something that dries instantly it does take a while to soak in but I think it’s worth it for how soft your skin feels after using it. When I have a bath I take a scoop and throw it in now aswell. Much better alternative to baby oil and it’s all natural baby 🙂

I use the coconut oil every second day. On the days I don’t moisture up with that I am using this:

The Cocoa Brown Gentle Bronze. I am a pale Irish girl, I do not get a tan I get freckles, it’s depressing, this stuff helps keep the pale at bay though without me looking too weirdly bronzed on a normal day to day basis. It is basically a moisturiser with a hint of tan in it. The cream itself is brown, which I love because alot of the alternative brands are just white in colour and you can miss spots when applying, which does not look great when the tan develops.

It also has the well known Cocoa Brown cocoa smell which we all love, you do not end up smelling like biscuits in the morning which is brilliant. Overall a winner for me. In fairness, Marissa has yet to steer us wrong 🙂

Next up is some makeup loveliness:

This is the neutral Mac pre filled palette. Mac have released two fully filled palettes and I had to scoop up this cool toned one, the other one is more warm toned so is more suited to those with a darker complexion. I have used this practically everyday since I got it. I have always found it hard to justify buying their eyeshadows from a price point of view. I have a few stocked away in a z palette, and another quad but other than that I don’t own many (don’t worry I make up for it in with other brands 😛 ). So when these came out and were 75 euro, this was cheap in Mac world so we had to buy some. I really like this palette, I know its yet another neutral one but I don’t care, you can never have enough of them if your a makeup fiend 🙂 The colours are pigmented, easy to blend, and there’s a great selection for everyday use right up to a dark smoky eye for night time with matte and shimmery shades a-plenty. I think Brun and Black Tied are the only ones I’ve ever heard of before that are in the palette, the rest of the names aren’t familiar to me. Overall it’s a winner for though 🙂

So onto my next favourite of the month:

This is the Maybelline Lasting Drama Black Shock Gel Eye liner. That’s a bit of a mouthful! This stuff is something I stumbled across rummaging in Boots for new stuff to try out. It’s a gel liner in pen form:

You twist the bottom of the pen and the product comes through the diagonal rubber tip. I’ve never had anything like this before. My favourite black gel eye liner is still No77 from Inglot that I rave about here. I use this in my waterline and top lash line and I know it won’t budge. However, I really fail in the skills of mastering the feline flick, especially with a brush. This eyeliner has helped me alot (I am still no master). It comes out of the nib in a nice thin line and I love that the nib is diagonal as it helps with drawing the flick. You can just place the nib on the corner of your eye and press down and it draws it for you.

This helps me because I don’t add too much product, and it sweeps across the eye in one swift movement, helpful again because I don’t have to go back in and fix it too much, which I am prone to do and that’s where it can all go wrong 🙂 It doesn’t transfer onto the eyelid once dry and lasts all day. Overall a great product and you can buy it in Boots!

Another Boots/pharmacy product. My foundation of the month has definitely been the Rimmel Stay Matte:

This is a mousse/liquid foundation. I use the shade 100 Ivory and it’s a pretty good match for day to day for me. It is a matte finish foundation as the name would suggest and is medium to full coverage.

Buffed into the hand, you can see if evens out my skin colour.

Not more I can say about it. It’s cheap, has good coverage, good colour range and lasts well throughout the day. Thanks Anita for recommending it to me 🙂

I have more face stuff from Boots next, I must have spent the whole month there!

This was a really random purchase. I ran out of my Image skin cleanser and just needed something to keep me going until I got more. I was in Boots and this was on sale for, I think 4 euro. It is the Botanics cleansing foam wash. I am a Clarisonic addict, I use it everyday. My clarisonic is an ugly yellow because I got it on Amazon before you could get them in Ireland so couldn’t pick a pretty colour 🙁 It still does the job though.

It works best with a foaming cleanser so just threw this in my basket as back up. I am so glad I did, it’s soap free and really foams up. It gets rid of all my makeup including mascara and works really well with the Clarisonic. And is has a nice fresh subtle smell. Overall a great (and cheap) cleanser. I will finish the bottle for sure before purchasing another one.

My last favourite of March is ANOTHER face product that can be purchased in Boots! Well Boots in Liffey Valley shopping centre anyways:

This is the Sleek blush trio in Pink Lemonade.

Pink Mint Macaroon Icing Sugar

We love Sleek makeup here at Chatterbox. And I love this blush trio. They are so pigmented and easy to blend. Usually I don’t buy cream blush much because my oily skin drinks it up and it disappears very quickly from my cheeks. However from having this palette I’ve been using the Macaroon shade under the other two and it helps them last all day! I use my fingers to apply it lightly on my cheekbones and then I tend to mix the other shades Icing Sugar and Pink mint together on a blush brush for a nice pink glow. By all means they can be used alone though, that’s just how I like to wear them :). I will be buying more of these trios for sure in the future.

So there you go, my fab faves for the month of March.

Hope you enjoyed having a nose.

Happy Spring 🙂

Gemma

xxx

April 4, 2014/1 Comment/by Gem

Makeup Haul

So pay day was last week, so I thought I would treat myself to some things I had my eye on whilst poor. Here’s my makeup haul 🙂

So for everything pictured I headed into Boots to get. I got the oily gals version of the Bourjois Happy Light primer, the Happy Light Base Serum Matite, and their cream bronzing primer. I also picked up their Universal Illuminating powder to give it a go aswell, as it’s been compared to the Hourglass powders by some and is a quarter of the price and Bourjois was on 3 for 3 happy days. I got a Barry M eye Kohl in No 28 I really like their liners and they’re cheap too. Oh and some E45 moisturiser cos ya gots to keep your skin in check!

And I couldn’t walk by the Sleek stand without having a nosey. So got their new eye shadow palette in Garden of Eden, some amazing green and brown shades in this, roll on Paddy’s day 🙂 I also got a Matte Me Lip Cream in No 431 Fandango Purple and since Sleek is on 3 for two at the minute like Bourjois I was able to grab a Blush By 3 Palette in No 369 Pink Lemonade too.

I also bought the Ben Nye Cameo Powder online and am loving it!

My cheeky Zara purchase came on this miserable Monday too to make me feel a bit better:

This is a little bag perfect for a night out from Zara’s new Spring range for 2014. It’s navy “leather” with square studs and has a flap over to close.Is it really bad that I bought this bag to match my Louboutins, that are still in the box and I’m afraid to wear? Maybe having this might entice me to get them out of the box and bring them for a test drive…

So quick little makeup haul for you of my weekend purchases, don’t judge 🙂

Thanks for reading.

Gemma

xxx

March 3, 2014/by Gem

Hair

Babyliss Curl Secret

Lets start by saying this Babyliss Curl Secret contraption looks like some sort of torture tool. Don’t let that put you off though 🙂

I got this for Christmas off my lovely mammy this year, she knows me well. She bought it in Boots and paid 160Euro for it. You can get it from Boots here. It’s a pretty hefty price tag and I have to be honest it would put me right off buying it myself. I am brutal with my hair, I never leave enough time when I’m going out to do much with it, not that I am capable of it anyway. I usually spend all my time faffing with my makeup and then it’s a rush to do something with my mop. So this is where contraptions like this come in handy, it does the work for you you just have to follow the machine and do what you’re told.

I am a big fan of the curling wand, I think I have three, shame on me. But they are bloody dangerous (especially when you’re in a hurry like I am all of the time and don’t bother wearing the glove like I do all of the time). So the Babyliss Curl Secret is a safer option as there is no exposed parts that are going to give you third degree burns. It is heavy though so that can cause a problem if you are curling the whole length of your hair. I tend to just curl the ends, so it doesn’t be too bad on the arms.

So how do you use it. Here is a quick video of me demonstrating how easy it is:

Make sure your hair is dry and clean. There are two heat settings and 3 timer settings on it to choose to create the curl you want, you will want more heat for thicker hair and less for thinner hair. It will take some messing around with to figure out what works for you. You can only fit a small amount of hair in at a time, which for me is a bit of a let down as I prefer bigger curls, but you can brush them out for a more beachy effect. You take your section of hair, and put it in the chamber of the curler starting at the top of where you want the curl to start, clamp the curler together and then the cool bit…your hair magically gets drawn in to it. You hold it there until the curler beeps four times, and then release it. You then have a pretty perfect curl. I really recommend playing around with this on a night you’re not up to much, because it does take some getting used to, but once you are, you can do your whole head in a short enough space of time without your hair getting caught (my hair got caught in it a couple of times when I used it first, so be careful!).

Overall I love this product, although I am a beauty junkie that loves trying all the new gadgets on the market if I can. I believe because your hair is been heated from all angles in the chamber of the curler, your curls last longer then if you were to curl your hair with a traditional tongs or wand which is cool and good for girls who have trouble keeping a curl in their hair. For thicker haired gals like myself using the Babyliss Curl Secret will take longer than using a wand as you can only do small sections at a time, but it only take between 8 and 12 seconds for a curl to form so that makes up for it I think. You can also use it without a mirror when you get comfortable with it. I really like this curler and it is great for people who just aren’t gifted in the hair styling department as once you know how to use it, there’s no thinking involved. The price is a bit steep, so I say go into Boots and give the Babyliss Curl Secret a test run, they usually have one out on display and you can see the coolness for yourself.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps if you been eyeing one up but not sure if you want to drop the cash.

Gemma

xxx

March 2, 2014/by Gem

The Narsissist Palette Review

Today’s tale children is one of sorrow and woe 🙁 . I actually put my name down at the Nars counter in Brown Thomas for the latest limited edition offering from Nars “The Narsissist Palette”to be sure we got my hands on it. I got the call and high tailed it down when it was in stock and adopted it gladly for a surprising price tag of 55Euro. I thought this was pretty reasonable for Nars considering you get 15 shades in the palette and a single eyeshadow of theirs can set you back 24 quid.

The Palette itself looks amazing in the typical Nars black packaging. A large mirror in the lid, and a multitude of neutral colours inside that any makeup lover would love. The shade names and explanation of the colours are as follows:

All About Eve I :Flesh coloured neutral
Madrague II : Caramel matte colour
Fez : Cocoa Colour
Bali :Neutral Colour
Coconut Grove : Deep brown
Madarague I : Cream Matte
Nepal : Sheer rose colour
Ashes to Ashes : Shimmery brown with a violet base
Brousse II : Violet
Mekong : Espresso shade with gold flecks
Belissima I : Beige with gold shimmer
Lhasa : Lavender Grey
Bad Behaviour : Pewter Colour
Dogon II : Black Charcoal
Pandora II : Matte Black

These colours in the packaging look amazing and some are even sold as separate colours in the permanent line (Coconut Grove is a cult fave). But this palette as a whole is so disappointing. Alot of the colours are very wishy washy (Belissima I is a particular one of these). The matte black is matte and black and does what it’s supposed to do, but you can get that in any palette or pan and be happy with it rather than having to fork out for this palette. Colours like Ashes to Ashes and Nepal are impossible to blend and just end up looking like dirt on the eye if you want to do anything other than wear them as a lid colour or dare to blend them into a crease colour.

Alot of the colours are quite sheer as you may see above from my crude swatches, so maybe if you are new to makeup this might be a good palette as the colours are not too scary and the more pigmented ones would work for liners until you are brave enough to use them as full on lid colours 🙂 To be honest though there are way better alternatives on the market. The Naked Palettes from Urban Decay kick the Narsissist Palettes arse!

To say I am unhappy to have bought this would be a lie, but I am coming at you from the perspective that it means I can give you an honest opinion about it. It also means this palette can be added to my ever growing makeup collection…come on its limited edition I’m not going to throw it out :).

So there you have it a rather disappointing buy from Nars, I don’t think I will say this very often, well I hope I don’t, cos it ain’t cheap!

Thanks for reading guys. If anyone else has purchased this and wants to give their two cents by all means write it in the comments below.

Gemma

xxx

February 26, 2014/by Gem