NOTD: metallic berries

For this nail arti I used 17 Cosmetics nail polishes, High Gloss in Wicked and Fast Finish in Peacock.
First a quick review of the 2: they both dry really really fast, didn't really see much difference in the 2 to be honest. I LOVE both colours and how they change "hue" according to what type of light you are under. They are both REALLY opaque so one coat is enough for perfect thick coverage. For both polishes it takes a lot to chip; I had Wicked on for 7 days before it chipped very slightly. But what I love the most about them is the brush, the perfect kind of stiffness and it's got an amazing control as well...LOVE IT!!!
Would definitely recommend both colours.

(never mind the colour of my nails, I had a colour "accident" during the summer") Of course as always start with your base coat of choice. I am almost out of my one so please feel free to suggest your fave one.

Lay your base colour and make sure it's really opaque. Wait till it's completely dry

If you don't feel too confident with your painting skills or are not too sure about free hand painting, cut 5 short strips of scoch tape. First play them on your finger tips to make sure you remove most of the glue, then place it on your nails. We are going to paint one portion of the nails with the second colour, place the tape according to your own taste, if you wanna go from corner to corner or whatever.

Paint the portion of the nail and remove the tape. To jazz it up a bit I inverted the 2 colours on one finger per hand.

Next we are going to use the dotting technique. If you have a nail art dotting tool you can use that, if you don't, like me, there are titems around the house that you can use.
You can use a ball pen that you don't use any more for example. Or you could use a tooth pick or a niddle: with these 2 you can vary the size of the dot by dipping the tip in the polish and then wait til it's dry and do it again. The more you re-dip, the bigger the dots!
Then you will need a small non absorbing surfice on which you will dab a few drops of polish.
And start dotting! I chose to paint purple dots on the metallic aqua side, you can the other way around, or you can do both if you have big nails.
Apply your top coat if you wish et voila the result!

I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you think or if you try this yourself.

Lil

Dear scammers, yous don't fool me!

Ah scammers, you gotta love them! What I love about them? Nitpicking their emails, well the very very few that manage to make it to my inbox instead of the junk folder.

Dear scammers,
let me give you a few pointers so maybe in the future you WILL manage to scam someone?!
Here;s a short analysis of the latest email I received.

"Subject: Friend 7 5": this looks dodgy, you've lost me already. How about "Mega offer, you won't believe your eyes!!!" or something like that...
"Honorable sir or ms": what do you mean "sir or ms"?! Don't you know what sex I am?! Phrt, I'm offended!
"Our company is Large-sized China foreign trade companies." : this is so grammatically incorrect I want to cry. Why Large-sized with a capitol L?! Is it REALLY THAT large?! Other than that it doesn't make sense AT ALL: your "company" can't be "companies" as well. What? You don't know how many you run?!
"We sale cellphone, computer, TV, GPS，MP3 and Motorcycle and so on.": first off the verb is SELL, not sale. Secondly, notice how the items listed are all singular: you only have ONE tv, ONE GPS, ONE mp3 etc etc for sale?! Well ya might wanna start working on your stock guys, one item only it's really not good.....
"We have our warehouse and shopping centers.": first you don't know if you have one or multiple companies, then you tell me you have a VERY limited stock, you seriously want me to believe you have ONE warehouse and many SHOPPING CENTERS?! Nope, sorry, I'm not falling for it....
"we have very good price and credit.": price? ONE price? for all the items? they ALL cost the same? I dread to imagine an MP3 costing the same as a TV or even a byke. Credit? What's that? You give me money?! Why, thank you, I won't say no!
"We will ensure our product 100% eligible.": well they seem to love their singular...or they never learned how plural work?! Eligible?! Eligible for what?! An election? A marriage? ELIGIBLE FOR WHAT!
"Hoping we can have long-time cooperation.": cooperation?! We're not discussing a treaty here!
"E-mail: wfacai @ 188 . com)": notice how they spaced out the email so the spam filter doesn't pick it up, oh you clever grammar less scammers, you think you're clever! If you were a serious "companies" with all your "warehouse and shopping centers" you would have your own domain email and wouldn't have to rely on a BETTING website for that.

So lads, unfortunately for you, ya didn't fool me. You won't "sale" me anything and there will be no "cooperation" from me.

Thank you for reading,

Lil

TAG: my imperfections

I didn't get tagged for this -don't you know, I'm not cool!- but who cares I'll do it anyway!
The concept is: the 3 traits you like the least and the most about you.
Discuss.

MY DISLIKES:
Jeez...where do I start from? There's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many...

- Eyes: not just because they basically make me legally blind, but aestetically because they aren't bloody straight! This should have been addressed when I was a wee baba with a simple eye training with prisms, but I guess my parents were too busy worrying about my brother's better vision. I was told by my ophtalmologist back in Italy he wouldn't be able to straighten them up but I don't know if it was because of his limited equipment(it was a pubblic hospital after all) or because my eyes are inoperable -ooooh get me and my fancy words, HA!-.
I KNOW perfectly well that by using eye make up I make them stand out even more but what's a make-up loving ghostly skinned girl to do?! Between my hair and my face I need some flipping colour amidst all this general whiteness!

- Skin: I don't like its whiteness! I don't like how hard it is to find a good colour matching foundation without breaking the bank, or a good self tanner without looking like an oompa-loompa! Not to mention how clothing wise so many shades and colours look "meeeeh" on me.
I also don't like how "difficult" sensitivity wise it is, almost everything will irritate it, and usually the more "safe" stuff is the more expensive....gggrrr
Having skin cancer when I was a teen really burned me(please excuse the pun...), and I hate how I'm now almost constantly worried when I'm in the sun.

- My hips & the top of my thighs: no matter how much weight I lose or how hard I try, they're just not going to go away. Example? Despite losing about a stone and a half in the last 10 months, because of my hips I'm still the same bloody trousers size! Talk about frustrating! I guess it's in the Mediterranean genes along with bum and boobs but JESUS can they not bugger off?! Not to mention the cellulite and the stretch marks I got when I was 14; in the space f 2 months I grew about an inch and a half in height and lost about a stone. I wasn't bothered about them back then and when I started to bother it was too late...

MY LIKES:

- Hair: it has got to be the one thing I absolutely love THEE most about my appereance. Until I was 17 it also used to bother me as much as my skin, but then I was at last allowed to experiment with my hairdresser's help. In these 9 years I think at one stage or another I've had low lights of every single colour of the rainbow! At some stage I had at the same time purple, ginger orange, browns and blondes going on and it still looked very funky! As of recently I' ve settled for more tame shades of dark and golden blonde, but I still love it all the same! I'm also quite lucky that I can get away with washing it every 4 days and it still doesn't look like I could fry chips in them, despite living in a big city.
My hair is the one thing I get complimented the most along with my skin's clarity. Strangers in the street will often compliment me on it and women will often ask where I get it bleached -the "bleached" part is all natural, Darling!-. Because it's so long and thick I often get asked where I get my extentions from....I'm still debating weither this is a compliment or not...

- My skin: the ONE thing I like about it is its clarity. Give me an HALLELUYA for whoever invented Diane!!! Yes, cleansing, exfoliating and all that help, but the pill is my ONE secret for amazing skin! I used to completely hate my skin up to my early 20s because of severe cistic acne, not only was it awful to look at, but it was also painful! My gyno had me do tests and also with an eco we found I had a reeeaaallly big problem! Thankfully for me Diane would hopefully ease it. Despite it not being an actual birth control, it also has this "side effect". Despite it being the heaviest hormones wise, I was super lucky I keep myself very active and eating the right things, so I didn't put on any weight, even though that would have been a very natural cause (it does make losing weight EXTREMELY hard though....).

- My bum/muscles: I LOVE my bum! yes it might be 1 or 2 sizes bigger than the rest of my body, but I LOVE it! it's not big at the sides, it's just nice and firm where it's supposed to be!
I know muscles may not be very lady like, but I especially love the "lines" they create on my forelegs, abs and shoulders, it shows I'm fit! Give me muscles over flab ANY day!

What about you ladies? What are your likes and dislikes? Drop me a comment or do your own blog and post a link to it.

Lil

TAG: skincare routine

From A Paradox Of Ego & Self Doubt

✿ How many times do you wash your face daily?

Usually twice

✿ What is your current make-up remover?

Speedy Care wipes for the face(and eyes when I'm travelling, AMAZINGLY gentle on my super sensitive eyes) and also The Body Shop Camomile eye make up remover, it's AMAZING on waterproof mascara.

✿ What skin type do you have? (dry, oil, combo)

Dry despite the aount of moisturising and water drinking, and it's also super super sensitive

✿ What is your current facial wash?

Garnie Body Tonic and exfoliating gloves

✿ Do you exfoliate?

Yep, I use exfoliating gloves plus Garnier Body Tonic, or my shower gel mixed with sugar, or often the gloves are enough. Once every 3 or 4 days

✿ Which moisturiser do you use?
For my body I use Palmers butter, for my face I use Vichy Aqualia

✿ Do you use eye cream?

I use Garnier Ultra Lift roll on

✿ Do you, or did you, have acne prone skin?

I used to have very bad acne, often resulting in cists, but it wasn't a skin problem, it was deeper, an hormonal inbalance. It totally cleared when I started taking the pill

I tag EVERYONE!!!!!!
Leave me a comment with the link if you decide to do it.

Lil

Collection 2000 Metallic Liquid Eye Liner

(in the colour Punk, photo above)

Collection 2000 says: " Water resistant precision eye liners in a range of metallic shades. Give an edgier twist to the traditional liquid liner. Includes precision brush for easy application.".

I say... I was SO disappointed by this! I really did have high expectations for this as the colours are so vibrant and rich.
Where do I start.... The tip, yes it is very thin and precise but it picks up SO much product you end up with a very thick and unprecise line. If you try and wipe some product off the applicator then you're left with nothing really, I tried with a thin angle brush...pretty much the same result really.
So I thought I'd try it as a shadow: applied all over the lid without smuding it, with a base, it takes FOREVER to dry and eventually creases like crazy. When applied and then smudged, the vibrancy of the colour goes away and it's just a dull colour I have in one of my palettes.
The only upside is, it didn't cost me much...

OOTD & FOTD

...although these are not "of the day" but "of the night", but seeing as I never go out I don't really need a "of the night" tag...

It was just a relaxed night at the pub, nothing uber fancy...
And here's my mug...

for my eyes I used my trusty L'Oreal Waterproof Voluminous in black and Lancome waterproof Kohl in Black.
The gold is Barry M's Fine Glitter Dust in the colour 10 Yellow Gold (even with a very sticky base this is starting to be a bit of a hassle to wear for me because the little particles keep falling in my eyes during the night making them very watery and often smudging the make up too much). The blue, also applied along the lashes but not all the way in, is from Naj Oleari and it's called Blu Oceano.
Concelear is the usual MAC Select in NW15 under my eyes, on the bridge of my nose and on my chin, add a bit of Lancome Tropique Minerale smoothing loose bronzer and voila!!

Help A Talent

This is just a little post to ask you guys for a little favour, it's not for me though, so don't worry.

The wonderful Katy from Make Up by Katy has been nominated for the Annual Wedding Ideas Awards in the UK.
Katy is a super talented make up artist who's been involved with make up for the last 15 years, working both free lance and for brands, the latest being the great Laura Mercier. She's SO great she's even done shows for the London and Paris fashion weeks!

She has posted some photos displaying her fantastic skills here.

So head over to the Awards website, it only takes you 2 minutes to register your vote for her in the Special Touches Category.
Please please please pretty please with batting lids !!!

Thank you lovelies !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!