polish Archives - Irish Beauty Blog Beautynook

March Favourites 2018

I am way late on the March Favourites for 2018 bandwagon. We are well into April. But sure I thought, better late than never, right?

My March Favourites this year are a bit of a mixed bag of beauty (of course), fashion, (in inverted commas ha), and a Netflix recommendation.

March has been a bit of a funny month for me. I have been job hunting, but in a different way from what I am used to. Blogging for the last four years has given me a love for digital media and I’ve realised it’s the industry I would love to work in. Don’t get me wrong, I would love nothing more than to write about beauty full time, but here in Ireland, as someone like me, that’s not really a reality right now.

So March has been a been a whirl wind of interviews, beauty writing and life stuff. It’s been weirdly a month of clarity for me, so for that I am very grateful. Also, the weather was getting a teeny bit warmer through the month, so that helps everything. I wouldn’t be Irish if I didn’t bring the weather into this sum up somehow 🙂

Ok, I digressed completely there, let’s get into my random bag of March Favourites.

I talk more about them of course in the video, but I will link what I can here.

The Ella & Jo Squeaky Clean Brush Cleanser is my first beauty fave. You can buy it directly from their website or Meaghers Pharmacy also stock it. (It’s currently 20% off from Meaghers.)

I chat about the Wet n Wild 1 Step Wonder Gel Nail Colors all of the time but the shade, Lavender Out Loud, has been my go to shade through March.

The Nudestix Intense Lip + Cheek Pencils are available to us from Cult Beauty. I chat (and am wearing), the shade Kiss.

My Betty & Biddy necklace that I show isn’t on their website now, but I will link them here so you can check out what else they have on offer.

The jeans are from Penneys and Littlewoods as I mention. I don’t have links to either, sorry.

And then finally my honourable fave is Wild Wild Country on Netflix. I’ll link the Wikipedia page here so you can check it out. It’s a mind boggler 🙂

And there you have my March favourites for this year. Thanks for clicking as always, I really appreciate it.

xxx

*PR SAMPLES INCLUDED

April 8, 2018/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Nails

Chrome Nails Do It Yourself

It’s been a long long time since I’ve spoken nails here on Beautynook. I believe my last post was here years ago chatting about smelly Revlon nail polishes! I’m too embarrassed to click on it. But if you want to have a look and cringe at my even worse photos, go right ahead 🙂 I’m breaking the fast and coming at you with a post about doing chrome nails. At home, yourself. No salon is required here…or UV lamp, don’t worry 🙂

To create your own chrome nails, you will need: A nail polish colour of your choice, a clear top coat of you choice. You can use your finger, but it can get a bit messy, so may I suggest you rescue a sponge applicator in an eyeshadow palette you might have lying around. Then, the main thing you need is the chrome powder.

I know loads of high street brands are jumping on board with these now, so you don’t have to get the specific one I am using. But it is from Essence and it is super affordable. And Essence is readily available here in Ireland, so it might be a good one to look out for. The one I have is called Metal Shock Nail Powder in ‘Mirror, mirror on the nail’.

I would suggest creating your chrome nails on a wipe clean surface, or on something you don’t mind getting sparkly. The powder is super fine and it can get messy.

Start with clean nails. I applied a clear base coat, just in case the polish stains mine. Completely optional though.

With your polish colour of choice, apply a layer to one hand. I did a couple of nails at a time, just so I could show the process, but doing all five in one go is fine.

Let the polish dry for a few minutes. Essence suggest 60 seconds. I find that a bit too soon personally. You end up moving the polish and making a mess. I left mine for about 3 or 4 minutes.

Dip you eyeshadow sponge lightly into the powder and then begin the process of gently rubbing it onto the nails, one at a time. Don’t press too hard, remember the polish underneath is still tacky.

As you rub the powder in, the magic happens. You get the chrome nails effect!

It works in the same way as if you were doing it on gel nails, you’re just not curing anything so it might not last as long. But, you get a very similar result right?

Finish the nails off with a clear top coat. To lock everything in place, but to also help with the shine. Essence do a polish specifically for this purpose, but you could just use one you already have.

You will have a bit of overspill of powder around the nail bed. Just let them dry and you can clean everything up with a cotton bud and some nail polish remover.

And there you have my do it yourself chrome nails! Cheap, easy and pretty effective, if I do say so myself 🙂

xxx

*PR SAMPLE

January 12, 2018/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Makeup

Essence & The Lovely Little Things Trend Edition

My posts on the Essence Cosmetics collections seem to go down well, so I thought I would throw another one into the mix. The newest one on the block is the Essence & The Lovely Little Things Trend Edition.

I have the majority of what will be available here. I am just missing the new nail polish shades.

The Essence & The Lovely Little Things Trend Edition has the cutest of packaging. The illustrations on all of the palettes is adorable! You can read more about the story behind them, directly on the Essence Cosmetics website here.

First up we have the Face Palette (01 & My Crazy Family).

It contains six powders. Two highlighters, two blushes and two contour shades.

This retails for €7.50.

There’s three eyeshadow palettes within this trend edition collection. The illustrations capture each name which is very cute. There is seven eyeshadows inside each palettes and they range from shimmers to mattes. We have 01 & My BFF On The Phone. The more nude of the trio.

02 & The Love Story With My Wardrobe. These shadows are more bronzed in tone. This one is probably my favourite of the three. The shadows seem the most pigmented in my humble opinion.

03 & Our Secret Date At Midnight. This is deemed the smoky palette.

All three of the eyeshadow palettes retail for €6.25 each.

There’s two flavoured clear lip balms in the collection too.

01 & You Smile, is strawberry scented.

01 & We Kissed, is mango scented.

There is a mini nail file too which retails for €1.90.

And then finally we have some nail and styling stickers. These can be used on your nails or to actually customise the products which is another cute touch! These cost €1.60.

The Essence & The Lovely Little Things Trend Edition is available in Penneys stores nationwide from the 14th of August until September.

Any of the products take your fancy?

xxx

*******PR SAMPLE********

August 16, 2017/by Gem

Makeup, Youtube Video

Confidence Boosting Beauty Products

Major spoiler alert. Most of this video is slightly out of focus! Why may you ask? Because stupid Gemma (i.e me) focused the camera and then proceeded to sit in the wrong position like a dope! I debated on whether or not to scrap it. But I am mostly chatting about the confidence boosting beauty products in my life and just applying them as I go. Being able to see my potato head clearly really isn’t necessary in the grand scheme of things. Sure the beginning and end is in focus, you can see me in all of my glory there 🙂

I did a video a while ago here about products that make make me happy. Things that have a meaning to them whether they be connected with memories or people. I thought this was a good continuation on from that. We all have certain confidence boosting products in our beauty drawers right? Things that put a spring our step, that we know look good on us?

I thought I would chat about mine. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that makeup necessarily equates to happiness. I am not that narrow minded, This is just me talking lightheartedly about certain products that I keep in my life because I know they work for me 🙂

The eyeshadow shade ‘half-baked from Urban Decay.
A good eyelash curlers.
Eyeliner in my waterline. I used the Inglot AMC Eyeliner Gel in 96 (you can see it swatched here).
Mac Cosmetics Springsheen blush. On the Brown Thomas website here.
theBalm Mary-Lou-Manizer highlighting powder. The tone of this just works for me. I have an old review of it here.
Mac ‘Girl About Town’ Amplified Lipstick. You can get it from Brown Thomas here. I just realised I have two Mac products listed! Not on purpose, promise 🙂
Setting Spray. I am loving the L’Oréal Infallible Fixing Mist. (full review here).
My confidence boosting fragrance is Viktor & Rolf ‘Flowerbomb’. An oldie but a goodie. You can get it from Debenhams here.
Instant Tan! The ones I mention are the Vita Liberata Body Blur and the Bellamianta Skin Perfecting Instant Tan.
Then finally, my last confidence boosting beauty product is nail polish, or at least just having my nails did :). I chat about the Wet n Wild 1 Step Wonder Nail Polishes. I honestly love these!!

And that concludes my ramblings. So tell me, do you have any particular confidence boosting beauty products in your stash? You can watch the video directly over on my YouTube channel here.

xxx

July 14, 2017/1 Comment/by Gem

Hair, Makeup, Monthly Favourites, Skincare

October Favourites 2016

It’s October Favourites time!

Halloween is over and it is time to embrace the colder weather. Oh, and it means we are allowed talk about Christmas properly too now, right?

My October Favourites are strictly beauty related this month. For whatever reason there has been nothing else really floating my boat over the past few weeks.

I talk about my hair care favourites, skin care and of course some makeup too.

As always the actual Youtube video can be found on my channel here. But, you can watch it above too by just clicking on my mush there, Whatever you prefer 🙂

You can find the L’Oréal Fibrology hair products in Boots in store or online here.

The Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser is also in Boots in store or online here. Liz Earle are great with special offers and gift sets so keep an eye out if you want to try it.

You can watch my first impressions video on the Urban Decay Afterglow Highlighter in Sin here if you want to see it up close and in action

I also have the Max Factor Creme Puff Blush in Nude Mauve up close in a post here if you want to see swatches.

The Kryolan Transluscent Powder is available on the Sunaura website here. You just have to scroll down to see it listed.

And that’s it for my October Favourites for 2016.

I was digging my somewhat simple makeup that day so I thought I would include a couple of pics 🙂

The shadows are from the Too Faced Christmas Macaron Palette that is in Debenhams at the moment. And, my lippie is the Rimmel The Only One Matte Lipstick in ‘Trendsetter’. I have swatches of the lippie here. I’m obsessed!

Happy November , have a brilliant one 🙂

Gemma

xxx

November 4, 2016/by Gem

Archives, Giveaway

Essence ‘Me & My Umbrella’ Trend Edition Competition

Have you seen the new Essence ‘Me & My Umbrella Trend Edition Collection?

Well I have some of the goodies from the limited edition Essence Me & My Umbrella Trend Edition Collection to give away over on my Facebook page here.

You can win pretty much all you can see in the picture here:

matt eyeshadow 01
matt eyeshadow 02
eyebrow thickener 01
eyebrow thickener 02
matt lipstick 01
matt lipstick 02
blush
mini contouring set
contouring brush
rain boots nail polish 01
rain boots nail polish 02
rain boots nail polish 03
rain boots nail polish 04
nail stencils

This competition will run from Tuesday the 11th of October until Tuesday the 18th of October. Only open to residents of Ireland.

This Essence Me & My Umbrella Trend Edition Collection is only available in stores until the end of this month.

Thanks to Essence for kindly giving me the goodies to giveaway!

Good luck 🙂

xxx

October 11, 2016/by Gem

Posts