Tag Archives: NYX

NYX Powder Blush Pinched Swatches & Review

NYX Blush Pinched Swatches & Review Did you ever have an aunt who pinched your cheeks?

None of mine ever did that. (Thank goodness!)

And I wonder how that gesture even developed. Who was the wise guy who thought that we should pinch someone’s cheeks?

The only pinching I do is with pennies. I press them so hard that they split into two. 😛

And one way to get more bang for your buck is with blushes by NYX. That brand is so good about providing a lot of colourful options for prices that don’t make your piggy bank squeal louder than even coming face-to-face with a strip of bacon!

The NYX Powder Blush Pinched is one that really got my attention because it’s demure and catches the light. I thought that this would be an easy-to-wear shade. But was it? Dun dun dun!

Continue reading →

The Best of 2011: Nail Polish, Nail Art, Makeup, Skincare & Fragrance

16 Replies

Swatch And Learn The Best of 2011 It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it?

I’ve tried all sorts of new beauty products including nail polishes. And I’ve had tons of fun coming up with nail-art designs!

Now that it’s the last day in 2011, it’s time to reflect upon the year.

I’d like to share with you my Best of 2011 list! I still have a ton of favourites from last year, so these picks are strictly new ones that I’ve blogged about in 2011.

You’ll see it broken down into the following categories: nail polish (duh), nail art (double duh), fragrance, makeup, and skincare. All lists are in no particular order. (It was difficult enough to whittle down my picks for the nail polishes!)

Feel free to click on the links – they’ll take you to the blog post with the swatches, reviews, and tutorial (where appropriate).

Now I’m so curious about what you think!

Is there a lacquer that you feel I sorely missed including? Have you found your Holy Grail facial cleanser? What nail-art design have you worn in 2011 that you would consider wearing again in 2012?

Please weigh in with your picks! We’re all different, but our love for beauty products brings us together. 🙂 Continue reading →

NYX Girls Gilded Glitter Swatches & Review (Plus Layering Experiments)

38 Replies

NYX Girls Gilded Glitter Swatches & Review There are all sorts of flakes. Some you eat in a bowl, and they give you that satisfying crunch. (Yum!) Others are white and a result of a dry, itchy scalp. (Eww!) Some are the posers in high school who think they’re all that. (Boo…)

Today I’m going to share with you the best kind of flakes – the ones in nail polish, of course!

I enjoy trying all sorts of flakie polishes, so when Ivy, one of my readers, e-mailed me and asked me about NYX Girls Gilded Glitter, I was happy to track the polish down and review it. It also helped that I didn’t have anything quite like it in my collection.

If you enjoy layering polishes and you don’t already have a gold flakie, Gilded Glitter is a great one to have. Plus the price won’t set you back much, either!

When I wore this, I layered it over a blue polish, China Glaze Frostbite, which I recently blogged about. But if you scroll to the bottom of the post, I’ve included photos of Gilded Glitter layered over several different colours to give you some other ideas on how to wear it. Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Spider & Web Nails

24 Replies

Natural Light Spider & Cobweb Nails Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches smaller Oh, the tangled webs we weave…or paint! 😉

Here are some really simple Spider & Web Nails I did not long ago. It’s all freehand and doesn’t take long to do.

Looking back now, I wish that I had done more spiders and just one cobweb as the accent nail because I like the spider more than the web.

This Hallowe’en nail art reminds me of Charlotte’s Web. Do you remember that children’s book? It was one of my favourites, and I also enjoyed watching the movie. Oh, Wilbur was so cute, but I really fell in love with Charlotte.

Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Frankenstein’s Monster Nails

31 Replies

Frankenstein Nail Art Tutorial Hallowe'en Nail Art Tutorial Frankenstein Monster Nails Today I am really excited to show you some more Hallowe’en nail art: Frankenstein’s Monster Nails!

I wore them for 4 days straight. Unfortunately, during that time, the sun only came out once, but I was busy and couldn’t take photos, so I only have flash and natural-light photos to show you. Hope you don’t mind!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is my favourite novel of all time. I love the author’s way of writing in such a descriptive and flowery way – it helps me visualize everything like I’m watching a movie.

Back in 1818, people sure knew how to craft sentences and make them sound so poetic. And I admire how they flossed an impressive vocabulary!

If you haven’t read the original text, I highly recommend you do. It’s so much more than just the Hallowe’en character that a lot of people have identified it with.

The first time I read Frankenstein was in university for a humanities class. It was the biggest surprise. I thought it was going to be boring and cliche. It wasn’t! And I had trouble putting the book down. I literally read it in 2 days…on the bus, the subway, in my bed… (Sigh, I so need to re-read it.)

There’s deep philosophy and a myriad of allusions to other famous literature.

I really empathized with the monster more than with Frankenstein. The nameless monster was actually really intelligent and even taught himself how to read! He desperately wanted to be loved and to feel a sense of belonging, especially after he was harshly denied all ties to the only familial bond he knew. I could understand why he ended up lashing out.
Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Mummy Nails

20 Replies

Mummy Nails Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches Today’s Hallowe’en nail art: Mummy Nails!

I decided to put a little spin on it. I tried to go the underground-graphic-novel route for my mummy nail art.

Classic mummy nails consist of more horizontal lines, but, as you can see, I changed it up by adding lots of thick diagonal and vertical lines. I felt like this gave it more of a wrapped and comic-sketched feel.

This is another design that’s super simple to do – you need 3 colours and it’s just freehand lines and dots.

Plus the cool thing about giving them red eyes is that if you accidentally smear them while putting on a top coat (like I did), it actually gives them that bloody-eye look, which is tres chic avec les momies, n’est pas? 😛

Continue reading →

Nail Art Tutorial: Skull Nails

34 Replies

Skull Nails Nail Art Tutorial & Swatches The next Hallowe’en nail art: Skull Nails! They’re really easy and fast to do. Plus you’ll only need two colours, so hopefully more of you will decide to replicate this!

Yes, the teeth are super long, but you can tweak this design as you see fit. You could make your skulls smile, you could add some stitches, or you can go the lazy route like me and just draw vertical lines.

Even though it’s not perfect, I think that this is a fun design you can do in a snap.

Also, with just a few easy modifications, I can see how you could turn this into ghost nail art. (I’ll probably try this out later, too!)

P.S. Later on, I may try to do skull nail art that looks more menacing like The Punisher. We’ll see! Continue reading →