Showing posts with label L'oreal. Show all posts

31DC13 Day 24: Inspired by a book

Yay, I have another challenge manicure to share with you guys today! This time the task was to do a book inspired manicure and it was quite easy to choose the book I wanted to be inspired. I have already done once Hunger Games inspired manicure, but I really love those books and they do give a great inspiration for manicures, so I decided to be, once again, inspired by Hunger Games.

I started this mani by painting all my nails with base coat and one coat of China Glaze Riveting. Then I painted one coat of Orly Iron Butterfly over all the nails but I didn't paint the tips of the nails with it. I left the line between Riveting and Iron Butterfly very uneven and also made it a bit different to all the nails, so they would look more lively. Then using a sponge I added first some Riveting over the tips and Iron Butterfly, then I also added some OPI GoldenEye and Zoya Maria Luisa. Then lastly I finished the manicure with a coat of top coat.

This was quite simple manicure, but I really liked how it turned out. I would also imagine that the inspiration behind this manicure is quite clear, at least if you have read the books, so at least I did better this time than two year ago with this challenge.

I also wanted to try out how this mani would look matte:

I think I liked it more shiny in real life, but in these pictures the manicure looks pretty good matte too!

Which one do you guys prefer, shiny or matte?

Here are the polishes I used: 

L'Oreal Grow Beautiful
Orly Iron Butterfly
China Glaze Riveting
OPI GoldenEye
Zoya Maria Luisa
Mereneid Top It All - Top Coat
 (BK Super Matte Surface Oil)

Like I said, my manicure for this challenge wasn't really too innovative two years ago:
You can check out the full post here.

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Haaste jatkuu taas kerran, vuorossa siis 24. päivä ja inspiraationa tällä kertaa kirja. Kertaalleen olen jo toteuttanut vähän samantyylisen Nälkäpelistä inspiraation saaneen lakkauksen, mutta kirjasarja on sen verran hyvä inspiraationlähde, että se oli oikeastaan aikalailla helppo valinta tähän tehtävään.

Mielestäni lakkaus onnistui todella mukavasti ja tykkäsin siitä kovin! Melko yksinkertainenhan se on, mutta ainakin inspiraatio siitä näkyy, varsinkin jos ko. kirjat ovat tuttuja. Kokeilin lopuksi myös lakkausta mattaisena, mutta jotenkin livenä se ehkä näytti paremmalta kiiltävänä kun taas näistä kuvista katsottuna myös mattainen versio näyttää varsin mukavalta.

Ainakin tämänkertainen lakkaus onnistui olemaan ehkä hieman kekseliäämpi kuin kaksi vuotta sitten tämän päivän haasteeseen tehty lakkaus...

pekal

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go - Day 1 - Achromatic

Well hello there gorgeous readers!  Today is a special day, as it is the first day of the Nail-Art-A-Go-Go challenge (referred to as NAGG from now on), hosted by the fabulous Missy from Gnarly Gnails. I mentioned in my Bucket List at the start of the year, that I wanted to take part in at least a few of these prompts, and I will be.  In fact, I'm doing the whole challenge, so without further ado, lets get into Day 1.

The prompt for today is Achromatic, and I'll admit that at first, I wasn't totally sure what the difference between achromatic and monochrome was, but a quick Google search remedied that.  Achromatic means devoid of colour, so essentially, greyscale.
I originally planned to do a gradient, but changed my mind at the last minute, and decided to do some basic colour blocking instead.  I started with a base of Sinful Colors - Snow me White, then just freehanded the black and grey with my striper brush and La Femme - Silverado (I think), and Sinful Colors - Black on Black.
Then I added a coat of L'Oreal - Confetti, and top coated, and mattified it once it was dry.  I did get some glossy pictures too, as Confetti does have little specks of holo in it, although they were quite hard to capture on camera - they just look like little white specks here.
This was a really simple mani, but I quite liked it, especially matte.  I did consider using tape to get straighter lines, but I figured it wouldn't matter too much since I was planning on using a glitter topper anyway.
I'll be back tomorrow with Day 2, but in the meantime, why not check out some of the other mani's for this prompt via the thumbnails below :)

pekal

Spotted: NEW L'Oreal Spring 2014 Les Blancs Collection

L'Oreal's been on a roll lately with their Colour Riche polishes. The new-ish Gold Dust polishes are gorgeous, and now we've got some pretty pastels and some speckled polishes too! Huge thanks to longtime reader Cyndiinphilly for this one--Cyndi spotted this brand spankin' new L'Oreal polish collection at her local Bed Bath & Beyond this week and was nice enough to share some pics. Take a peek!

pekal

31DC13 Day 23: Inspired by a movie

Today I'm finally going to continue the challenge! You know guys, I really struggled with today's task. I tried so hard to figure out what I wanted to do and I always came up empty. I do love good movies and I also watch movies quite often, but I just couldn't figure out even what movie I wanted to do. That's also the main reason it has taken me so long to continue this challenge... Finally I decided to just do this the easy and obvious way and then I managed to do at least something. The mani isn't no where near perfect and I pretty much got ruined, but I decided to post this anyhow as I really don't want to do this movie manicure again.

Yeah, like I said, the mani isn't too good, but it's something! Obviously I used Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast At Tiffany's as my inspiration. I started the mani with two coats of L'Oreal BB Perfect Pastel Coat, then I placed the water decals on my ring fingers. Then I painted the half moons with China Glaze For Audrey using some hole reinforcers to create the half moons and framed the decals on my ring finger nails with the same polish. Finally with the help of some top coat I applied small pieces from that plastic beads to each nails.

I thought this was nice and simple idea, but the beads didn't really want to work with me. It was so incredibly hard to somehow get them to that somewhat round shape on my ring fingers and I also seem to have too narrow nails for this. Also it would have probably been better idea to use some nail glue instead of top coat to secure those beads into place as with top coat they really went pretty much where they wanted to and they certainly didn't stay there where you put them. Those water decals are also some poor ebay quality and they were really thick but somehow still managed to get wrinkled...


At least the color of China Glaze For Audrey is as gorgeous as always and the color of the beads went really well together with the polish!
http://www.bornprettystore.com/ 
I have gotten the beads from Born Pretty Store for review and mine are color #2. These 100 cm of these in the one package, so there's really plenty to use for several manicures. I just have to ficure out some easier way to use these!

Don't forget that you can get 10% off with my code MBL91 and BPS offers free worldwide shipping! I don't gain anything if you use my code, but BPS has promised that they will sponsor a giveaway here in my blog if ten people use the code.

Here's what I used:
L'Oreal BB Perfect Pastel Coat (2 coats)
China Glaze For Audrey
Mereneid Top It All Top Coat
water decals
Reinforcements (for the half moons)
Wire cutters (to cut those beads)

My movie inspired mani wasn't that creative two years ago either:
But I think I still liked it more than that newer one. You can check out the full post about the mani here.

Do you guys have any movie in mind that would be great for nail art inspiration?


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Tänään vihdoin jatkuu siis 31. päivän haaste. Haasteen jatkaminen on venynyt lähinnä siksi, että oli ihan uskomattoman vaikeata keksiä mitä tämän päivän kynsiksi tekisi! En millään keksinyt edes mitään elokuvaa, mistä haluaisin inspiroitua tekemään kynsiä, vaikka katselenkin aika paljon elokuvia... Lopulta päätin mennä sieltä missä aita on ainakin suhteellisen matala eli tehdä jotakin melko ilmiselvää.

Varmastikaan ei tarvitsisi edes sanoa, että näihin epäonnisiin haastekynsiin inspiraatio on saatu Audrey Hepburnista ja Aamiainen Tiffanylla elokuvasta. Idea kynsiin oli ihan kiva, mutta toteutus ei sitten onnistunut ollenkaan. Tuo helminauha on kyllä kivan näköistä ja väristä, mutta eihän se meinannut taipua millään kynsille. Tuon vähän ympyrää/soikiota muistuttavan kuvion tekeminen tuolla nauhalla oli ihan yhtä tuskaa ja kaiken lisäksi omat kynnet oli näköjään liian kapoiset moiseen. Olisi alunperin pitänyt muutenkin käyttää tuon helminauhan kiinnittämiseen kynsiliimaan päällilakan sijaan. Eihän se tietenkään pysynyt päällilakan kanssa siellä minne sen asetti, kun päällilakalla ottaa tietysti aikansa kuivua. Lisäksi nuo Audrey-siirtokuvat on jotain surkeaa ebay-laatua, eli ne oli aivan liian paksut, mutta silti ruttaantuvat. Sentään China Glazen For Audrey näytti kynsillä yhtä kauniin väriseltä kuin aina ja tuon helminauhan väri sointui lakan väriin nätisti.

Kahden vuoden takaiset haastekynnet eivät nekään olleet mikään kynsitaiteen riemuvoitto, mutta silti tykkäsin niistä kuitenkin enemmän kuin tämänpäiväisistä. Miten voikaan olla niin vaikea keksiä leffainspiraatiota?! Onko teillä jotakin loistavia ideoita elokuvista, joita voisi käyttää kynsi-inspiraationa?

pekal

Delicate Water Decals Manicure

Yeah, I know, water decals again?! I promise I'll have something else for you guys next time, but I just had do this manicure after seeing this manicure at Wasting Lifestyle. As I'm still not any good with stamping I had to use some water decals to do my nails with similar idea.

I started these nails with two coats of L'Oreal BB Perfect Pastel Coat. Then I just applied the decals and after those I applied one coat of KBShimmer I Only Have Ice For You and a coat of top coat.

The yellowness and all the stains on my nails looks worse in these pictures than it did in real life. I really liked how this mani turned out, it's really delicate and neutral looking without being too plain or boring. I think it's really nice sometimes to do somekind of neutral look between all those not-so-netural-looking manicures.

I have bought these decals myself from Born Pretty Store and they are actually on sale there right now, so if you like them you should definately check them out now!

L'Oreal BB Perfect Pastel Coat (2 coats)
water decals
KBShimmer I Only Have Ice For You (1 coat)
Mereneid Top It All Top Coat
 

What do you guys think about this kind of neutral look?

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Emman kuurankukkakynsien innoittamana piti päästä itsekin toteuttamaan jotakin samantyylistä. Minulta kun ei tuo leimaaminen vieläkään oikein onnistu, päädyin käyttämään valkoisia siirtokuvia leimojen sijaan.

Lakkauksessa on pohjana L'Orealin BB Perfect Pastel Coat (kaksi kerrosta), jonka päälle asettelin suoraan siirtokuvat. Lisäsin siirtokuvien päälle vielä kerroksen KBShimmerin I Only Have Ice For You topperia ja tietysti lopuksi vielä päällilakkaa. Kuvissa korostuu kivasti kynsien keltaisuus, joka ei kyllä luonnossa näkynyt ihan noin hyvin.

Kynsistä tuli ihanan herkkikset ja täytyy sanoa, että välillä oli mukavaa tehdä tällainen neutraalimpi manikyyri kaikkien glitteristen ja värikkäiden sekaan.

Siirtokuvat olen itse ostanut Born Pretty Storesta ja ne ovat siellä monien muiden siirtokuvien tavoin parhaillaan hyvässä alennuksessa, eli kannattaa käydä kurkkimassa, jos näistä tykkäätte!

Miten teihin uppoaa tällainen neutraalimpi lakkaus?

pekal

Another drugstore cleansing oil coming to US drugstores?

Argh! I hate it when I get so behind that I miss awesome tips from you! Last week, reader Kaley shared this link to a new L'Oreal cleansing oil coming to Canada on the Nouveau Cheap Facebook page (sorry for not thanking you sooner, Kaley!). In Canada, this cleansing oil is named Sublime Radiance Sensational Cleansing Oil. But after some googling, I noticed that L'Oreal has had a cleansing oil in

pekal

Spotted: NEW L'Oreal Limited Edition Color Creations Collection (colored mascaras and more)

Huge thanks to reader Morgane for this one! Morgane spotted a brand new limited edition collection of L'Oreal Voluminous colored mascaras and coordinating eyeliners at Walgreens this week and was nice enough to share some pics. Take a look!




 image credit: Morgane for Nouveau Cheap

NEW L'Oreal Limited Edition Color Creations Collection 


Morgane confirmed that the Infallible eyeshadows in

pekal

Spotted: NEW L'Oreal Advanced Suncare Silky Sheer BB Face Lotion SPF50+ (and more)

Longtime reader Lisa (@littlemama71 on Instagram) shared with me today a new collection of Silky Sheer suncare items from L'Oreal that she spotted at Shoppers (in Canada) this week. This line is also new to the US but please note that in the US it's under the "Advanced Suncare" umbrella, whereas in Canada (as you'll see in the pics below) this line fall under the "Sublime Sun" umbrella of

pekal

Emily de Molly Cosmic Forces and Oceanic Forces

I saw a gorgeous picture of Emily de Molly Oceanic Forces on Lacquerloon's Instagram where she had added some matte top coat over the polish and I just had to try that out. It looked so gorgeous!


I also took EdM Cosmic Forces into the mix too. I started the nails painting every other nail with a coat of a-england Elaine and every other with a coat of Essie After School Boy Blazer to get a nice base color for both of the Forces. Then I painted every other nail with Cosmic Forces (over Elaine) and every other nail with Oceanic Forces (over After School Boy Blazer), two coats of each polish. Finally, I added some L'Oreal Matte* on top of all nails.

The matte top coat makes those glitters really stand out. It truly is a gorgeous look! I think I like more how Oceanic Forces looks matted, to me it somehow suits the colors in the polish better than in Cosmic Forces. But they both do look really cool!



I also took couple pictures before the matte top coat for you guys:


I can't really decide if I like the matte look or the shiny look better. What do you guys think?

Here's close-up bottle shots too:

The one thing I don't like about these polishes is the fact that you really need to do some fishing in order to get those big round glitters on your nails. I do like these enough though to be willing to do that and there's quite much of those glitters in these polishes, so it's not like you have to spend forever to fish them out.


*I have gotten L'Oreal Matte originally for review. For more information see my disclosure policy.

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Tänään vuorossa Instagramista (osittain) matkittu manikyyri. Näin nimittäin muutama päivä sitten Lacquer Loonin julkaiseman kuvan, jossa hän oli matannut Emily de Mollyn Oceanic Forces lakan ja pitihän sitä sitten päästä heti testaamaan. Otin mukaan myös Cosmic Forcesin ja lakkailin joka toisen kynnen Ocanicilla ja joka toisen kynnen Cosmicilla. Oceanicin alle lakkasin kerroksen Essien After School Boy Blazeria ja Cosmicin alle kerroksen a-englandin Elainea, jotta lakoista sai helpommin peittävät. Näin myös molempia glittereitä tarvitsi lakata vain kaksi kerrosta. Mattalakkana lakkauksessa toimi L'Orealin Matte*.

Molemmat lakat näyttävät kyllä varsin upeilta matattuina, ehkä kuitenkin tykkäsin himpun verran enemmän siitä, miltä Oceanic Forces näytti mattaisena. Kiiltävinäkin ovat molemmat edelleen upeita ilmestyksiä, en oikein osannut edes päättää tykkäsinkö matatusta vai kiiltävästä lopputuloksesta enemmän. Mitäs mieltä te olette? 


*L'Orealin Matte on saatu alunperin arvioitavaksi.

pekal

Spotted: NEW L'Oreal Youth Code Pore Vanisher

2014 is already shaping up to be the Year of the Face Primer when it comes to drugstore beauty, as we've seen many brands release face primers for 2014 and it's only January! What's interesting here is that, not only are we seeing face primers from traditional makeup brands (Maybelline Baby Skin and Rimmel Stay Matte Primer), but we're also seeing face primers from skincare brands (L'Oreal

pekal

Coming to a drugstore near you: New haircare from L'Oreal, Pantene and Clairol

Here's a wrap-up of some new haircare products that are coming to a drugstore near you in 2014 (some of you may have already spotted some of these in your area!). I want to thank several of you for the heads-up about these new products here on the blog, on social media and via email--I really appreciate the tips!


First up, lots of new haircare from L'Oreal:



image source: lorealparisusa.com

pekal

My Favourite Nail Polishes of 2013

I've done my favourite nail polish listings in 2012 and 2011, so of course I had to do one for this year too! This has been such a great nail polish year that I just couldn't narrow my list down from 25 favourites, so this is going to be quite a long list. Again, these aren't really in no particular order, because I just couldn't figure out which ones I'd prefer more than others. I do have one favourite though and I'm going to save that one for last, so make sure to check out the full post. I also included the links to my posts about the polishes if you want to take better look.

I only tried to include polishes that have come out this year, but there are couple in this list that came out late last year, that I only managed to get them and try them on this year.


This is from KBShimmer spring 2013 collection and it's really gorgeous blue jelly with hex glitters in different sizes. It just looks so amazing on nail and I love the depth in it!


Zoya Stevie (pinky and index nails)

I don't have proper swatches of this beauty, but you can still see how gorgeous it is in this manicure. Pretty much all the Zoya PixieDusts could have been on this list as they are all gorgeous, but from the summer pixies this one was my favourite. It is also quite unique one as I haven't seen too many textured polishes out there with similar color. 



This amazing blue and green glitter is from China Glaze's Cirque du Soleil collection and it is really so pretty that I needed to include it to this list eventhough it came out already in 2012.



This too came out already in 2012, but I only got it this year and I'm so glad I did. It is really gorgeous polish, but I think it looks best worn over some other polish and it's truly gorgeous in gradients and such (for example I did a gradient tips with this one over China Glaze Light As Air, here).



This amazing brick red creme is from Zoya's fall collection and I just love this color so much! The quality of this one was really great too, so this was quite a perfect polish. 



This is also from the same Zoya fall collection as Pepper and it's really a great polish! There are quite many flakie/gold toppers out there, but this was still something new and different. I especially loved this gradient look with Maria Luisa and Pepper. 



I wasn't so sure if I liked the other colored jelly base Polka Dots polishes that Maybelline did this year, but this blue one is really gorgeous one! I really seem to have some sort of soft spot for blue toned jelly bases with glitters...



Essie made some really really great collections this year and there were quite a few polishes of pretty much each collection that I could have included in this list as they were all quite gorgeous ones. From the summer collection I decided I liked the color of Rock The Boat best, but I really loved all the polishes from the collection and that gorgeous silver shimmer. 



Of course I had to include at least one of those gorgeous Zoya fall PixieDusts to this list too and my choice is this amazing green called Chita. This is by the way also a perfect polish for some Christmas nail art. 



This one was really a surprise favourite of mine from Essie's fall collection. This doesn't really look nearly as good in any pictures as it does on nail. It has a gorgeous glow in it that doesn't translate into the pictures.



This is one of my favourite textured polish ever! The name suits this polish perfectly as it really is a chameleon one. This one you really need to see in real life! 


KBShimmer It's Razz-ical

 This delicious raspberry glitter jelly is from KBShimmer summer collection. Unfortunately I haven't done proper swatches of this one either, but you can still see the gorgeous color and the awesome depth of this polish from this picture.

Essie Parka Perfect

I had quite a hard time choosing my favourites from Essie winter collection as all the six polishes from that collection are gorgeous ones. I had to include two polishes from that collection to this list and the first one is this awesome dusty grey with that gorgeous silver shimmer.



I haven't been so much into holographic polishes this year compared to previous years, but there have been still a few really nice ones. This Perfect polish H7 was nice surprise as it has really really nice color, it coveres very well and it's also really cheap one!



Essie's spring collection was also one of those from which I could have included every polish to this list. Besides this Go Ginza one (and Maximillian Strasse Her which I have coming up later in this list) I really loved Avenue Maintain and Bond With Whomever. I chose Go Ginza as it is really awesome by its own, but it's also perfect base color for any type of layering combos.



KBShimmer's Teal Another Tail is from their fall collection and it's one of the most unique polishes I have seen in a while.



IsaDora Rocky Ruby has really nice mix of different glitters and I love the color. It looks great alone, but it's also really nice one for layering and glitter gradients and such. Perfect for the holidays!



This is my other favourite from Essie's winter collection and probably the one I liked the most from that collection. The color of this one is also quite unique to me and it is truly gorgeous. Also the formula is amazing!



I had one of the 2012 Color Club Halo Hues in my top list last year and I just had to include Eternal Beauty from the 2013 Halo Hues to this list as it truly is a gorgeous holographic polish! The formula and quality of all this Color Club holographics is truly great and of course the color of this one is so pretty.



There were quite a few of black and white glitter toppers this year, but for me L'Oreal Confettis had the best mix of smaller and bigger glitters and also that nice little shimmer. It's also the one I have used the most eventhough I do have (at least) two other similar ones.



Kiko also made some really beautiful textured polishes this year and I especially loved the shimmery Sugar Mats. My absolute favourite was Poppy Red (640) and actually it has been also my favourite pedicure polish of this year.



Zoya Julie is truly a perfect spring color and like with some of the Essies that I have in this list, I love that silver shimmer very much. The color is so delicate and sweet, I just love it!



I also love the color of this one so much, as it is quite unique take on grey, at least to me. Also like with all the other Essie spring collection polishes, the formula was really great on this one too.



Like I've told you many times already, I loooove round glitter so much, so it's probably no wonder that this Elevation Polish lacquer is one of my favourite toppers of this year. It also doesn't hurt that the mix of glitters in this one has such lovely colors.



Did you figure out which was going to be my ultimate favourite of this year already? Well, if you thought Zoya Dream then you were right! To me it is truly a perfect polish! The color is just so amazing! I really can't say much more about this one, I just love love love it!

My favourite brands this year have certainly been Zoya and Essie, and that really shows in this favourite list. Also this year I have really loved blue nail polishes and you can definately see my crush on blue from this list. 

Tell me guys, what did you think about my favourites? Did you have any of the same polishes in your list? Or did I miss something really spectacular?


*I have gotten some of the polishes in this post for review and some I have bought myself, for more information see my disclosure policy. 

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Tänään ajattelin siis listata hieman tämän vuotisia lakkasuosikkejani. Tämä lakkavuosi on ollut niin loistava, että jouduin kasvattamaan listaa ja ottamaan mukaan 25 suosikkiani, eli lista on melko pitkä. Lakat eivät varsinaisesti ole missään paremmuusjärjestyksessä, sillä en vain pystynyt järjestämään näitä minkäänlaiseen järjestykseen. Yksi kuitenkin nousi ylitse muiden ja se on listan viimeisenä oleva Zoyan Dream.

Oliko teidän suosikkilistoillanne samoja lakkoja? Tai onko minulta mennyt ohi joku upeus, joka pitäisi ehdottomasti olla suosikkilistallani?


*Jotkut postauksen lakoista on saatu alunperin arvioitaviksi, toiset olen ostanut itse.

pekal

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