How To Remove Glitter Polish

This is one of those things I'd always heard about but took ages to try and when I did I couldn't believe the results. I'm sure for a lot of you this will be like teaching you to suck eggs.. you've seen it all before, right? Well I would have thought so too as  you're all so beauty minded but when I mentioned it in a recent video I had an overwhelming response to film a tutorial so of course, I did.

If this helps only one poor glitter lover it will have all been worth it!

What you'll need...

Acetone Nail Polish Remover

*acetone free works just not as quickly in my experience*

Tin Foil

Cotton Wool Pads

• Cut your cotton wool pads into quarters and your tin foil into strips.. you'll need 10 of each.
• Saturate a cotton quarter and place it on your nail.
• Wrap your fingertip with foil - don't use too little foil and make sure it's properly covered.
• Cover all 10 fingers and leave for 5 minutes.
• To remove wiggle the foil and the cotton pad on your nail and pull the whole thing off, you should be left with a clean, glitter free nail.

The polish that I was wearing was Razzle Dazzle by Deborah Lippmann, I absolutely love this stuff but it's the worst to remove in my collection because the tiny glitter particles act like sand paper to my cotton pad. Nightmare! It was this polish that first drove me to trying this method and I still can't believe how effective it is. I know it's still time consuming but you feel a lot more productive wrapping your finger with foil than you do scrubbing away an entire pack of cotton pads for an hour. I reserve this removal for the more terminally difficult polishes.

It's easy peasy and I'd have thought you could follow this easy step by step but here's a very short video tutorial for you if you'd like to see it in practice...

Here's to many more glitter moments for us all!

Miss BB

L'Occitane Pivoine Delicate

I was sent these products a week ago but didn't want to tell you about them until they were readily available in the UK which luckily enough they are today! L'Occitane is a company I came to learn about when working in Debenhams, I would test random products and though I was never driven to make a purchase they were always aesthetically pleasing. The three products from the new (and limited edition) collection Pivoine Delicate that I was sent were the eau de toilette, the hand cream and the shimmering powder. When is comes to fragrance I struggle to review a scent I can only tell you that though it's lovely it's not necessarily something I'd reach for on a day to day basis. It's very floral and that's a personal taste thing.. if you like florals and peony in particular you'll no doubt love this. I would like to note that at £35 for 75ml it's extremely good value so although this scent isn't for me I will absolutely be stopping by my local store next time I'm shopping to check out their other options. The hand cream I knew I would love - little known fact, my brother used to work in a newsagents and at the end of the month they would take the 'free gifts' from the unsold magazines before sending them back to be disposed of.. as a result I have a drawer full of L'Occitane hand creams that I doubt I'll ever run out of. I've always got one on the go and think their formula is really great but let's face it.. you're not interested in hand cream or perfume! You want to know about the bottle of shimmery powder, right? I thought so.

This was definitely the most exciting of the three and the first thing I got out to test drive. I would like to point out to those of you like me (stupid folks) that there's a plastic stopper on the end you need to remove before using the product. I did not and was pumping like a mad woman until I finally realised resulting in a rather large glittery mess all over my (luckily) kitchen floor.

Guerlain brought out a very similar product 2 Christmas's ago and I was absolutely in love, a scented, gold powder you could spritz over your hair and skin to leave you well.. glowing. This is much the same but the sheen you're left with is more a delicate pearl pink, definitely more spring appropriate.

The range also includes Eau de Toilette 75ml, Lip Shines, Lipsticks, Gloss duo and a Fresh Mist and can be purchased online here with prices starting at £11.50

Miss BB

Next Glitter Liners

I would never have bought cosmetics from Next for myself but having received this eyeliner set for Christmas I would consider doing so in the future. It contained 4 shimmer and 4 glitter liners. The pigment wasn't fantastic but they're a great little addition to my makeup collection for adding a little bling as and when. When it comes to glitter I prefer it in liner form as I HATE fallout but don't use it enough to warrant buying lots of full sized colours. These minis are perfect.

Have you tried Next cosmetics?

Miss BB

Gloss & Glitter

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I've really rediscovered my love for red lips this Christmas so it seemed only right that I wear them in my Holiday tutorial this year. For my eyes I used a similar technique as I do everyday.. I define just above my crease in an attempt to widen my eyes, classic winged liner and a slick of festive glitter...

What I used for this look...

MAC Paint Pots in Morning Frost and Chilled On Ice

Urban Decay Shadows in Last Call and Smog

2True Easyglide Khol Eyeliner in Black

Rimmel Exhaggerate Liquid Liner in Black

MUA Glitter Eyleliner in 4 (gold)

Loreal Volume Million Lashes Mascara

Daniel Sandler Baby Jet Mascara

MAC Sheertone Blush in Plum Foolery

Urban Decay 24/7 Lip Pencil in Gash

17 Ultimate Volume Lipgloss in Very Berry

To see how I did it watch the video tutorial below...

Miss BB

Guest Blog Post - Blue Ombre Nails

I don't know about any one else but i'm always switching up my nail polish. No matter how lovely the colour looks or how long i've spent making them look nice, within a few days i'm bored and want something new. I've always liked nail art but spending hours on intricate details to remove it all a few days later seems silly!

This design is quick, easy and cheap(and did i mention really pretty too?!)

To get Gradient nails(or ombre as some might call it!), where the polish goes from light(less opaque) to dark(highly opaque) or dark to light(whichever you fancy) all you need is one nail polish. I've seen this done(and attempted it very badly) with multiple polishes but that's where it starts getting a bit tricky!

When doing this with a single polish it's best to use one that is thin and that isn't very opaque. This allows us to create thin layers that we can gradually build up.

I chose Barry M's Silver Sea. It's a lovely silver ocean blue with a bit of glitter that really adds another dimension to the gradient. It's perfect for the cold Winter season that's coming up. It's also a complete steal at only £2.99.

Seche Vite fast dry top coat, Barry M Silver Sea, Leighton Denny Sex Kitten.

The first step is to apply a very thin coat of polish onto bare nails. It doesn't matter how thin it is as we're going to build it up. It also doesn't matter how messy the layers are as this won't be noticeable once we've finished all the layers.

Bare in mind that my thumb and ring finger are already painted.

When this layer is nearly dry start slightly higher up the nail and apply another coat, still quite thin. 

Repeat step two higher up the nail again, making the coat slightly thicker

Apply another layer focusing on the top half of the nail.

Finally apply the last layer focusing right at the tip of the nail.

The tip should now be opaque and the colour should be gradually getting darker as it goes up the nail.

Once all the layers are applied, it's important to let them dry before finally applying a top coat(I used Seche Vites fast dry top coat). If they're not dry when you brush on the top coat it can smudge the polish and ruin the gradient effect.

It's such a quick and easy way to create such a lovely effect. You can also do this technique over a base colour like i've done below on my thumb nail for a more subtle effect. Firstly apply the base colour, mine is Sex Kitten by Leighton Denny(From October's Glossybox!) and then repeat the above steps on top of it when it's dried.

Zoe, xo

About Todays Guest Blogger...

My name's Zoe and my Blog is zozeze.blogspot.com

I'm a 17 year old who makes too many impulse buys and spends far too much money on superficial things.

I'm very new to blogging but i'm already obsessed! My blog focuses on make up, current trends and shopping but occasionally something about fashion and style might pop up!

 

NOTD - MAC Unconditionally Fabulous

I absolutely love this.. beautiful bottle of sparkly christmasness! 

It's so difficult to get a true to life photo, the glitter is so dense you can't really make out the individual pieces like you can in the photo. The light reflecting on my nails makes them glisten.. it really needs to be seen to be believed. Quite possibly the ultimate festive fingertips!

I wanted to do a sepearate NOTD post to show the polish I wore underneath it, Soft Grey from Beauty UK. Also really lovely but takes a good 3 coats to get an opaque finish. It's very much a budget product. None the less the combination of the two is gorgeous, don't you agree?

I can't wait to try the glitter over more of my favourite shades.

Miss BB

MAC Glitter & Ice - What I bought

So I finally picked up what I decided were the must-haves of the new MAC Glitter & Ice Collection last night. The Paint Pot in Morning Frost and the Glitter Polish Unconditionally Fabulous.

The polish was one I knew I'd regret if I didn't buy it and I wasn't wrong. It's beautiful and would absolutely "Christmas Up" anything you applied it over the top of.  The glitter is dense enough you could build an opaque glitter polish with 2 or 3 coats and it's nice and evenly distributed for it to work well as a topcoat. For those wondering the polish I have on underneath is Soft Grey from Beauty UK (look out for NOTD post soon). I thought it would look nice and frosty and it really does, very festive!

The paint pot is a very neutral shimmery shade.. on my hand it looked perfect and I must mention it is super long wearing. Once it was on there was no budging it and on my eyes it didn't seem to crease. I am disappointed though, it's a lot lighter on my lids than I anticipated. I thought it would give more impact but it's kind of blah. I didn't buy "let's skate" because it seemed really similar to "Chilled on Ice" which I purchased from the Champale collection. I do love my neutral tones but this is nothing special. Not many paint pots do it for me but i was so hoping this one would. Shame. 

I picked up a foundation and concealer while I was there but I will blog about those separately.

There's nothing else I'm DYING for from the Glitter & Ice collection. I loved the Snowglobe beauty powder, mainly because of the name but when I swatched it in store it really was beautiful and I'd also have loved to get a brush set but this close to baby and Christmas I'm trying to reign in the spending a touch. I figured I was entitled to a little pre-birth treat though ;)

Miss BB 

NOTD - BarryM Peach Melba & Hologram

I'm sad to say this colour disappointed me. It will definitely be going away 'til Spring as it's not really an Autumn/Winter shade.. but I knew that when I bought it. It's just a tad more orange than I thought it would be. I'm glad I have it now as it's been on my wish list for a while and I'm sure it will get used but I don't know..I just expected to like it more than I did once I'd got it on. Isn't it always the way? The glitter over the top was a repurchase so I knew I'd like that but I did forget how tricky it was to get an even scattering of glitter.. it's worth the extra effort though. It's a great top coat to snazz up any manicure while letting the polish underneath shine through.

Saturday Sparkle

I popped to Boots today on the hunt for these new 17 Wild Metallics eye shadows and came home with a few more bits all of which seemed to lean on the sparkly side.. hence the title of this post. I can tell you I am more than happy with my purchases and I got everything in this post for less than £15! That's 3 Nail Polishes, 3 Eyeshadows, a Liquid Liner and a Lip Gloss.. now that's bargain hunting! First up I had to decide between the gorgeous new shades from 17. I must admit I was drawn immediately to the neutrals and I may just have to go back for them later but I decided to go for these... more party friendly for the upcoming season I thought.

Wild Silver and Wild Midnight Blue. The consistency is more mousse than cream/gel. I'd liken it to Maybellines Dream Matte stuff crossed with Rimmels Colour Mousse range.. consider it a sparkly lovechild of the two. The reason I decided to go for these shades in the end was my absolute hatred of glitter fallout. These seem to have just as much impact as your average glitter-packed shadows without any of the annoying side effects migrating to your cheeks. I can't wait to try them out in a look.. I'll try and make it a tutorial and really road test them for longevity for you guys. I'd imagine as with all cream-type eye colours these will crease but that shouldn't be a problem if you use a primer or even a powder shadow over the top.. again this is all speculation.. I will let you know once I've tried it for myself. I'm almost certainly going to be going back for more colours as they are just £3.99 (can be bought here).. very reasonable if you ask me!

Another awesome bonus from 17 is the free gift you get right now if you purchase 2 or more products. I already knew I had to have at least 2 of the new shadows so I was on to a winner before I even stepped in the store. The Femme Noir gift set is a really cool freebie, the contents of which exceeds my total purchase price for the other 2 products as it is so really terrific value for me.

In the set you get a Glitter Eyshadow in Night Sky (which I cannot wait to try over the metallic silver!!!), a liquid liner in black and an Ultimate Volume lip gloss in Very Berry. The glitter shadow is a wash of gun metal sparkle, the liquid liner is pretty basic but will be used and the lip gloss is GORGEOUS! The absolute perfect shade for the holiday season.. I just can't believe it was free!

Lastly here are the other bits I picked up. I was on the look out for Models Own Juicy Jules which unfortunately was out of stock so for the same money I bought 2 polishes from Barry M. Hologram is a repurchase.. Mine dried out forever ago and I've been meaning to replace it for the longest time and Peach Melba is a relatively new addition to the range which having seen all over the blogsphere was also on my list so it didn't take long to pick once I was at the stand. After I'd paid for my purchases I received one of those lovely £5 off No7 vouchers which was nice so I went and got ANOTHER polish (money) which ended up costing me £2!! It was a great day for bargain hunting!

I also bought my wedding dress from Primark for £17 for anyone interested... I posted about it on my other blog here. Like I said... great day for budget shopping.

I feel like I haven't shopped in forever, I've just had no spare cash and now I'm saving for a new laptop I really don't want to part with any that I don't have to but I guess I'll have to get used to spending less with the baby on the way.. still... don't expect my blog to run dry. I will always have something to say as long as you're here to listen.

Barry M Silver VS Barry M Foil

When I first saw Barry M's Foil polish launch I immediately thought of the old "Silver"

I always thought the silver came off as a "foil" or "minx" like finish so I was dubious as to whether they were just rebranding the old formula at a higher price. Being the curious blogger I am I had to test it out...here's what I found...

Surprisingly they are totally different! I thought I'd hate the foil and begrudge paying a pound more for something I effectively already have covered from Barry M but far from it. I must stress that the pictures below show my nails after ONE COAT of the foil effects polish... that puts it way up in my estimations already but also.. it's a totally new addition to my collection. As you can see from the below pictures the silver (on my thumb and forefinger) is very much a sparkly finish. It's made up of lots of fine glitter and took three coats to achieve a full coverage. It's still a lovely polish but I have to admit if you're looking for foil... it doesn't compare. I may even go out and buy the gold one now.

Man I hate to be wrong!

Have you tried this yet?