I decided to brighten up the dark winter days with some colourful nails and tried this easy two-tone polish.
You can use any two or three colours, but I chose two pinks (of course).
What you'll need
Base coat (Manicare Glamnails in Ice Ice Baby)
White polish (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in 300 White On)
First colour (The Face Shop Nail Colour in RD 303)
Second colour (OPI Nail Laquer in Pink Friday)
Top coat (Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat)
Any cheap make up sponge (got the cheapest one in the supermarket!)
Lets begin
1. Apply base coat. This prevents nails from getting stained yellow and protects them.
2. Apply a thin coat of white polish. This acts as a base for the other colours, making them appear brighter.
3. Dab some of the first colour on the top corner of the sponge. This will go on the tops of your nails.
4. Dab some of the second colour below the first colour. This will go on the tips of your nails.
5. Now dab the sponge on one nail. Don't move the sponge around, just dab once,check the nail, and keep dabbing until the whole nail is covered (and some of the skin too!)
6. Add more polish to the brush and dab the next nail. Keep repeating until all nails are done.
7. Apply the top coat. This will help smooth the polish and blend the colours together in the middle.
8. Clean up around the sides of the nails with a cotton bud dipped in nail polish remover.
9. Add glitter polish to one nail if you wish! (I did, but I think it looks better as is)
I really like the look of this, and if you add a third colour in the middle, you can do gradation nails.
It's so easy to do and I'm definitely going to play around with more colours!
Hope you try it!
xx Paro
I love thoroughly researching beauty products online before purchasing, taking care to read about the product and as many reviews as possible, so I know what I'm getting.
Usually the information out there is pretty accurate, and there are no nasty surprises with the product.
There were however, a few instances where I bought the product and had a total "what the...??" moment, and these are the products I will be talking about.
Duo Eyelash Adhesive- clear
This false eyelash glue is used universally from makeup artists to first timers. It is raved about by absolutely everyone and there just seems to be no other comparable glue.
So of course I picked up a tube from MAC with my first pair of false eyeashes, and was so excited to try them...
When I opened the tube.... what the?!?
The glue had funkiest fishy smell I had ever smelt! I thought mine was off and immediately threw it out and ordered another one online. That one also had the smell! I tried using it, but that smell lingered around all day, it made me feel self-conscious, worried that people would think that smell was coming from me, and I felt like my eyes were itchy and irritated although they looked perfectly fine.
I went back online to do more research, and no where did I see anyone mention the smell! I couldn't believe no one had mentioned something so obvious and repulsive.
So now I'm on the look-out for some odourless eyelash glues!
Sigma makeup brush- F30 and F40
These makeup brushes are very popular and highly recommended, so I decided to purchase a few. They're only available online, but I wasn't worried about the quality because they were so raved about by my favourite beauty youtube gurus and bloggers.
The brushes came, and... what the?!?
The smell! They smelt like old horse butt!! Seriously disgusting.
Once again, absolutely none of the reviews had mentioned the smell. And it wasn't just one brush, it was two of the most recommended and favourited brushes!
I tried everything to wash out the smell- soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, brush cleaner, detergent, baking soda, disinfectant spray, and finally, finally just soaked it overnight in mouth wash, and it has masked the horse butt smell enough that it doesn't make me gag when I use it, but still I don't like to use it.
In hindsight, I guess I should have bought the vegan range to make sure I got brushes with artificial bristles, but it honestly never crossed my mind that these natural bristles could smell so foul.
I totally love Sigma brushes though, and all the other brushes I bought (Sigmax, smaller eye brushes) are brilliant, they're so reasonably priced and I am very happy with them.
Essie nail polish- Haute as Hello
Essie polish is also very very well liked, and I really like my Mint Candy Apple, so I did some online research and fell in love with Haute as Hello, which is described in the Essie website as a "racy, scorching coral", which seemed perfect as I was looking for a great coral.
I bought the polish and when I tried it... what the?!?
It was completely matt!! A matt polish? I knew there was a trend for them not long ago, but I was never interested as I love shiny, glossy nails. But I thought somewhere on the website they would have mentioned it's a matt finish!
Lesson learnt, I must try the nail polishes in store before buying..
So that's my "surprises from much loved and much hyped beauty favourites- important features that I think should have been mentioned in the reviews" (that was the original blog post title).
Let me know if you agree or disagree. Maybe I just got dud products, maybe it's been mentioned before in someone else's bog that I missed. But I hope my honest review is a help to someone out there!
xx Paro
