Make up favourites of 2011

I don't really do reviews on the site much less make up but I have a few items I use daily and really love that I thought I would share with you.

1. Bourjois Detox foundation in 51 (the lightest shade) is a highly pigmented contains no silicones and gives quite high coverage without being a mask. It doesn't need powder on top (my skin is quite oily). If my skin is good I mix it with Garnier BB Cream for a more glowing look in the summer when it is a bit drier. I have used Clinique superfit, Clinique even better, Lancome Teinte Idol Ultra, Lancome Teinte Idol Silky Matt, and Chanel ProLumiere. Only superfit and prolumiere did not oxidise on my skin. Superfit I would continue to use if I hadn't found this Detox and ProLumiere is too dark for my skin even in the lightest shade. I have great difficulty in finding a foundation that does not turn orange after 10-15 minutes on my skin (oxidization) and that does not contain silicones (brings me out in giant cystic spots). Neither look is attractive.

2. Chanel Les 4 Ombres in 19 Enigma

As you can see this quad has a pink shade, 2 taupes and one purple. I have used this palette 80% of the time over the last year. I adore it.

At first the shadows were hard to use and I didn't get much colour payoff (as seen in the faint swatch on my hand) however the more I have used them the better the colour payoff (bottom swatch) I believe this is because they are baked. I have read that you can get better pigmentation scratching them when you first get them. I didn't do that I used Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer which helped and I continue to use as it helps with longevity. The pink is a great pink, most pinks make me look like I have been crying but this is a perfect light pink which acts as a good base of the other colours. I just looked this up for price and it is £37. I just noticed this was part of the Fall 2010 collection so I feel like I should get a back up quickly in case they stop making them!

3. Clinique Redness Solutions Instant Relief Mineral Powder £25 for 25g.

I use this when my skin is bad and very red. You warm a little powder in your hands and rub it on your face. I found it to be very effective and quicker than using a brush. I really reduces the urge to use a lot of foundation when you skin is red, spotty and generally annoyed. It's a lightweight product which does what it is supposed to. I bought this on a whim and I am so glad I did. I have used Clinique loose powders before and they all have a great lightweight texture just like this one. 


4. Love, Chloe Eau de Parfum 

I got a 30ml bottle for my birthday in September 2010 and bought the gift set in January 2011 Sales - the picture shows the 50ml bottle from the giftset and the 30ml box so you can see the packaging. I love this perfume. It smells AMAZING. I could wear it everyday. I have a few others I wear but none that I love as much. I can't describe perfume properly but I like this because it has a powdery quality and is not sweet. Other perfumes I like are Chanel Allure, Chanel No 5, Dior J'dore and Gucci Flora. I also love the original Chloe but that doesn't have the same moreish powderyness that I love about Love, Chloe. 

5. L'oreal Lash Architech 4D - Love this I don't have any pics but it is amazing. I have good length, thick and naturally curled lashes so everyone always asks what mascara I use and before I tried this it was Lancome hypnose but sorry Lancome L'oreal have beaten you hands down now.  I bought 2 Lancome Doll Eyes mascara with some christmas money as they were £13 each with a mini eyeliner and eye make up remover but I kind of regret it now. L'oreal is better especially for the price (about £10)


So there you have my favourite non-nail products of 2011. I bought each and every one with my own go to work get paid money and I would happily buy them all again. In fact I did I bought Detox foundation again today from Boots and got a free mascara too. 


Hope you all have a great new year. I think 2012 is going to be an exciting and fantastic year. I will be starting my own business as a nail technician so hopefully I will have lots of customers nail art to show you, more than there has been lately. 

I love my puppy but she sure eats into my nail painting time :D, she is growing fast though and I will miss those days soon. I love the picture of her above because she is so tiny and because the brown mark on her side looks like a bone to me :D She still has the mark but it's not quite such a good bone shape anymore :D
Thanks for visiting my blog and if you would like to win the scrapbook software you will probably win as no one has entered yet!!

I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year! 
Love Stacie xoxox

Merry Christmas MyMemories Giveaway

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a great day and father Christmas brings you what you want :D

I have been given a copy of MyMemories Suite (worth $39.95) to try for free and also a copy to give away to one lucky reader. I have tried the software and it is a very easy to use interface with a good selection of papers, textures and embellishments included. Here's the site if you would like to have a look MyMemories . There is the option to buy additional paper and embellishment packs. I have made my mum 2 scrapbooks to date and she loves them. I am currently scanning and the family photos to make into a photobook so we have a good duplicate and the photos don't get lost or spoilt over time. 

The software has some photo editing parts, you can add effects such as sepia and add drop shadows. It is really easy to drag and drop the ribbons and buttons around the page and create interesting titles and text boxes. I don't think I have scratched the surface with this software, I know it will be great for whipping up a lovely personalised birthday card - handy when you can't get to the shops create and print instead!! You can see the main features of the website here

Here are a couple of the layouts I have done of my Florrie and Bluebell. To make them you click create album, chose a theme, chose the number of pages and pick your photos it does the rest so is great for novices. You can also do individual pages from scratch if you want to get more creative.

If you would like to win this software you must:

Either follow me on GFC or Twitter

You get one entry for each and also additional entries if you blog, tweet, tumble or have me on your blog roll

You must comment below with your:
GFC name
email address
twitter name
links to the posts or tweets. 

This is open internationally :D
edited to add I forgot to put a closing date!! Entries must be submitted by 10th January 2012 and the winner will be announced on 13th January 2012.

	This is the code to save $10 mentioned in the banner STMMMS10117 please check it has worked before you pay and if it doesn't work please let me know BEFORE you pay. I might be able to get different codes but I CANNOT refund money as I do not work for the company.

Snowflake nail art

As you may or may not have noticed I haven't been posting much for the last few months. I have been studying to learn Gel nail enhancements. I have loved the course it's been really good but I have spent a lot of time practicing and studying. Once component of the course was to create a french manicure as the body of the nail rather than just polish on top. I did this a few weeks ago and have only had time to post it now!!

I used acrylic paint to paint on the snowflakes and finished it off with a very light coat of Models Own Juicy Jules.
This is the first time I have used acrylic paint for my designs. I likes that you can create very very fine lines with it - polish is thicker but it melds better with the polish around it so gives a different look.

Now I am a qualified to do manicures and gel nail enhancements. Very exciting. Now I've got to get my workspace ready for the public and I'll be off :D Can wait until after christmas though.
Stacie xoxox

Scaley nails

Hi
I had an idea to create a fish scale look using hexagon shaped glitter shapes I got from ebay. As it was an experiment I tried it over different colours.

I got the idea from some of the fashion shows but I can't remember which one to link it! It was a dress with large paliettes irridencent all over. From top to bottom it is Boots 17 Soda Pop with orange glitter shapes, China Glaze Light As Air with clear irridencent glitter shapes, China Glaze Re-Fresh-Mint with blue glitter shapes, OPI Who the Shrek are you? with green glitter shapes and OPI Rumpoles Wiggin with Purple Glitter shapes.
I didn't wear the multi-coloured manicure it was more of an experiment to see how the different colours worked together.

I think my favourite is China Glaze Light as Air with the irridencent glitter shapes the best but it would be fun to use the green for a mermaid, orange for a goldfish, blue and purple for other fishes. It was really easy to do I painted my nails added a coat of Gelous from Sallys then put each hexagon one at a time then topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.
I have big plans for these glitter shapes with gel polishes when I finish my course.
Love Stacie xoxox

New fancy Samsung galaxy S2

I got a new phone today. It's lovely, white and really easy to use. Loving that I can use blogger on it even if it takes a while to type.
Florence is growing so quickly. She his 16 weeks old now and very energetic.
Last week wss very exciting too I had the first 2days of my ibd gel nail course. I really enjoyed it. We have to do 5 sets of nails so if anyone is in the hatfield area who has natural nails, has no diseased nails, is not pregnant and would be free for a rebalance in 2 weeks drop me a line I would be grateful for the practice. I already have 3 guinea pigs so only need 2 more. The other point i should mention is that they do not soak off so you would have to fade them out if you didn't want to keep having them filled and balanced.

The nails in the pic are my first set ever i did on myself then i painted as usual. I am very impressed with polish wear on gel nails. No tip wear in 2 days is unheard of for me. Colour is models own champagne base and purple ash blobs and nail art pen.

Thanks for reading i hope to be blogging more soon but puppy and my course are taking up lots of time at the moment
Love Stacie xoxox

Black and White with coloured tips - with tutorial

Hi Everyone
Thanks for the comments on Florence. She is too cute. Amazing how quickly you can love a little puppy or bunny! Mustn't forget Bluebell she is taking it all really well bless her.  I know that isn't why you come here though!
I watched Beetlejuice a few weeks ago and decided to paint my nails with black and white stripes with different coloured tips.

 Sorry the picture isn't the best. I played with the settings on my camera and didn't realise how pants they were until I loaded them up and I had taken the nails off a couple of weeks before.
I used the thin tape you can get from ebay for 99p for 10 colours to mask off the white base coat. On one of the nails I tried using the white coloured tape on top of black as I hadn't masked off enough stripes on one nail but the tape isn't opaque enough to cover black. Good to know for the future eh!
I had varying results with the colours I used for the tips. Not all can compete the with black and white stripes sucessfully.

I used tip guides to mark of the section I wanted to colour. I think this is quite an easy manicure to replicate which is still effective.

1. Prepare the nail using a good base coat
2. Paint nails white - I used Color Club french tip as it is opaque in one coat - wait until it is completely dry.

3. Place 3-4 pieces of tape along the nail where you want it to stay white - you could do horizontal stripes or diagonal stripes for a different look.

 4. Paint the nail black. I used MUA shade 2 (or whatever number the black is) because it is opaque in one coat and dries quickly.

 5. Remove the tape keeping it in line with the tape still stuck down. If you veer off to the side it can make the line less crisp. I realised this is where I had gone previously!

6. Coat of Seche Vite and wait for it to dry completely.

 7. Place a tip guide at the line where you want the coloured polish to stop.

 8. Paint the tip the bright colour of your choice. You may need two coats to cover the black stripes depending on the colour.

So I hope you enjoy creating these nails

Stacie xoxox

Florence

Hi Everyone
I got a new member of my family! Her name is Florence! She is totally adorable.

She's 8 weeks old. We've had a hard week settling her in with not much sleep but she is a really good girl. Would have been easier if I hadn't had conjunctivitis in both eyes. Unfortunately in my right eye it got quite bad and the white of my eye filled up with blood. I had to go to hospital on Sunday morning to get it all checked out. I got 2 lots of drops and it does seem to be getting better but it still looks like I have been punched in the face.

I hope to get some nails up soon but I'm sure you'll understand if I just post cute puppy pics instead XD
Stacie xoxox

Liberty Rocks Wool Collection inspired Nail Art

Wow I'm on a roll! 2 posts in 2 days! I was looking at the Liberty website for some ideas and found this amazing fabric designed by Stefan C Lantana for the Liberty Rocks Wool Collection. I thought I should be able to do a reasonable job at it as it was quite similar to my roses.

The colour pallette for these nails is quite muted which I love  I used only Models Own polishes mainly the ones from the car key collection: Mushroom for the background colour then I created a base for the flowers using Snow White, then the lines of the flowers were grace green, vintage pink, purple ash, concrete mixer and becca's brown.
I hope you like them. Thanks for all the comments and letting me know which tutorials you would like to see. I will start working on roses and illustrated cupcakes but if there are any other nails let me know.
Love Stacie xoxox

Denim and Roses

Well I hope you haven't missed me too much.
Just for a change I've got roses on my nails XD I decided to mix them up with some denim effect. I think they looked pretty cute.

I did these a few weeks ago and cannot recall exactly what polishes were used but the main blue was Nails Inc denim which came free with diet coke in boots and the white was Color Club mini french set I found in TK Max. The pinks were various Models Own and the Green and the Gold are China Glaze overboard collection and 2010 christmas collection.

 I was also wondering if you would be interested in Tutorials? If so leave a comment to say which design you would like to see can be one I've already done or something else I will try it out,  might be a fail but I will give it a go, and I will do them as photo and text tutorials for now.

I'm really excited to hear what tutorials you want! you can also tweet me @kawaiinailart

Love Stacie xoxox

Topshop Dalmatian Jumper Inspired nail art

Hi Guys

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post. I'm still not feeling brilliant but I am chosing to ignore it over the bank holiday weekend. I'll probably spend Monday asleep all day because of that but never mind! 

I'm off for a day out to London tomorrow. We're starting at the Tate and seeing where the day takes us. It will probably take me to a Primarni and a sleek selling Superdrug. And Sallys. And Topshop. I wanted to do some funky nails and when I saw the press releases for Topshop A/W 11 I died when I saw the Dalmatian jumper and HAD to do some nails. if you haven't seen it the Topshop lookbook is here and it's in the new mod section.

I used Color Club in French tip for all the white, Pupa 704 for the black nails and a claires black nail art pen. The red line on the french tip nails is Boots 17 Knockout Red and the bow is hexagon sequiny bits then I drew round them with the nail art pen. to tidy up the bow shape. Not totally neat nails but I think they are funky XD. This was a really easy manicure. I'll break it into steps for you prep nails as you normally would using your favourite basecoats

1. Paint thumb and ring finger white

2. Paint index, middle and little fingers black

3. Paint white tips on black fingers (I used a fine brush)

4. Paint black blotches on the white polished nails and the tips. I found it best to use a nail art pen and jiggle it a bit so the edges are not to smooth and try to be random. 

5. Paint a fine red line where the white tips meet the black nail polish

6. place sequins in a bow shape on both white nails. 

7. Use the nail art pen to outline the sequins and define the bow shape. I also put a few little creases in the bow. 

8. Paint all nails with topcoat. I used Sally's Express Gelous and when that had dried a little a coat of Seche vite.

If you decide to recreate this look please share your links I'd love to see it.

Have fun 

Stacie xoxox

Minx inspired nails

Sorry I haven't been around much I've been feeling under the weather I just thought I would do a quick post of these nails. I saw some new designs from Minx and loved this design Roses 2

I didn't copy it exactly but have been inspired by it. I only did this design on my thumbs too as I'm into every nail being different but matching at the moment. I think these look like a lovely patchwork quilt

Polishes used are mainly Barry M ice cream colours

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the bunny nails I'm glad you liked them

Stacie xoxox

Nail Blog Round Up

Sarah stamped a pretty red and white design with her Fauxnad plates and using Beauty UK coral for the base http://spellbindingnails.blogspot.com/2011/08/sdp-d12-red-and-white-floral-design.html

Stacie was inspired by a Tatty Devine bunny brooch http://kawaiinailart.blogspot.com/2011/08/bunny-nails.html

Claire created a paint splatter manicure with her Konad plates using OPI red as the base http://toptwentynails.blogspot.com/2011/08/opi-red-and-konad-splatter-step-by-step.html

Theresa dipped her clients toes in crystals with this extravagant pedicure http://theresabloor.blogspot.com/2011/07/swarovskidiamonte-crystal-toes-pedicure.html

Grace created a cool tuxedo manicure http://ooooohpretty.blogspot.com/2011/08/tuxedo-nails.html

Trisha showed us what she got when she broke her 3 month no buy http://www.trishadotj.com/2011/07/i-broke-down.html

Emily brought back the 80s with her pacman manicure http://emilysnailfiles.blogspot.com/2011/08/pacman-french-manicure.html

Jen shared her Brittany Femme Fatale manicure http://moondancerjen.blogspot.com/2011/08/femme-fatale-tour-nails.html

Lena showed her Nails Inc polish free with 2 dove deodorants http://thestudentsguidetonailpolish.blogspot.com/2011/08/nails-inc-copacabana.html

If you would like to be involved in future round ups email Stacie.fields@gmail.com

Bunny nails

I was looking around on line when I found this bunny brooch on the Tatty Devine website. How cute is that! I didn't want it on all my nails so this is what I came up with

 The thumb and middle finger was base colour of Missguided in Misstique with ColorClub in french tip and barry M berry Icecream for the bow tie. I used spangles from ebay for the tail.
The index finger was Color Club french tip and Nicole by OPI in Make U Smile (justin beiber collection which I found in Claires Accessories! I also got step to the beat of my <3)
Ring finger is GOSH holographic with 3 black rhinestones from ebay
Little finger is Missguided Misstique with Essence Nail Art Twins in Julia.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while I've been busy with work and stuff. I hope you like the nails

I also want to say a big thank you to: Amanda at Ha!Bisky, Gretal Rabbit, Christine at Opinionated Little Finger, Mandy at Mandys Secrets, Lady Luck, Sarah Louise, Marshee, Nail Art Addicted, Forever '92, Aimees Nails, Minnie, and Ling Ling for the awards! I am very flattered and grateful for them all.

Thanks so much for the lovely comments on the Cupcake Nails I really appreciate them.

Finally! If you would like to be involved in future blog round up posts email me my details are on the side bar.

Love Stacie xoxox