Chancer by Butter London - weekly nail review

Ahhh, the holiday season is here and what better way to celebrate than with sporting insanely red nails.  The gravitational pull towards Essies' new colours was still there, but sparkles and holiday colours began to beckon my name.  I've only worn glitter nail polish once as an adult and that was a few months back; the experience left me a bit hesitant, because my nails chipped straight away. I have since figured out why that happened (always in the same place, of course) - my zipper/fly is a polish muncher.  My right index nail always manages to get tangled between the teeth and then disaster strikes - my nail is left looking tattered and abused.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist, can't you tell?  And then frustation sets in, because I mucked up my manicure from being so thoughtless and careless.  What's a girl to do?

Wearing glittery things brings me back to my teenage years; Mom would often leave me to my own devices inside of the Limited Too (now known as Justice) to play with their makeup and to try on clothes.  I think I ended up purchasing up to 40 different shades of polish; it was cheap (less than 5 bucks a pop) and allowed me to express my personality.  Plus, being a chubby girl often proved difficult, because I couldn't really fit into the clothes they sold.  However, makeup always manages to fit all sizes, which is why I love the stuff so much!

Enough nostalgia and back to my nails.  The zipper muncher struck again, boo!  On the plus side, Chancer is such a stunning shade it shined beyond the tiny blemish I created.  The compliments poured in throughout the week; one girl went as far as stroking my nails - tee hee!

Scott has dubbed this colour as "cranberry sparkles."  I think it sounds waaaay better than Chancer!

What do you think of my holiday inspired nails?

Gala Look Breakdown

Keeping with the build up around readying myself for last week's gala, (I'll use any excuse to get gussied up) here is a list of all of the products I used in order to get prettified. This is me sans a full face of makeup:

Don't you just love my top from SABA?  It's now on sale, boo no price adjustments; obvs, I didn't pay full price either.  Back to what I wore on my face…

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Face:

• Bobbi Brown's Skin Foundation SPF 15 in Warm Sand 2.5 - applied where needed
• MAC's Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Medium - dusted all over
• Bobbi Brown's Concealer Kit in Sand and Pale Yellow - for under eye circles
• Burberry's Natural Bronzer in Nude Glow No. 3 - dusted over my forehead, cheeks and nose
• NARS' The Multiple in Copacabana - on cheekbones
• MAC's Powder Blush in Mighty Aphrodite from the Wonder Woman release - on cheeks

Eyes:

• MAC False Eye Lashes - applied by a MAC Pro inside of David Jones; $18 for lashes and application
• Inglot's Eye Shadow in Pearl #397 - applied from lash to brow
• Inglot's AMC Eye Shadow in #35 - applied on brow bone and inside corners
• Inglot's Eye Shadow in Double Sparkle #482 - applied to crease and winged out
• Inglot's Eye Shadow in Pearl # 402 - applied to upper and lower lash lines; winged out at bottom
• Inglot's AMC Eye Shadow in #85 - applied over lid (above Guerlain)
• Guerlain's Eye Shadow in Les Perles 08 - Chocolate Plum applied over lid

Brows:

• Inglot's Eye Shadow Rainbow in 107R - darkest shade used to fill in brows

Lips:

• ChapStick in Strawberry
• NARS' Lipstick in Damage - I purchased this shade after reading this review by Christine

A lot of makeup went into creating what I think are dramatic eyes for me.  The only thing I didn't like was how you could tell my lashes were fake when viewed from above.  It was my first foray into wearing false lashes; I'm sure wearing liquid eyeliner would've covered it right up, but I wasn't brave enough to try it out.

Thoughts?

Too much makeup or not enough?

MAC Glitter and Ice - First and only impression

I typically cut through Myer or David Jones during my walk back from work every day; I like scoping out the makeup counters to see what's new and if any of the displays have changed.  Last Sunday, I noticed MAC had changed their posters from MAC Me Over and Style Driven to Glitter and Ice; this was a great indicator of the arrival of MAC's wintry collection Glitter and Ice.  By Monday evening, the counters were adorned with shimmery displays and plastic gift ball sets. Nothing really caught my eye and I wasn't really lusting after anything, especially after reading reviews by Karen and Christine.  I'm pretty disappointed by this whole entire collection, except for the brush sets; they are cute and sparkly.  With that being said, I've heard mixed reviews about the quality of the brushes in these gift sets, past and present.  I don't have any personal experience with using them myself, you might want to visit your local MAC retail shop and have a play.

For me, MAC's holiday release is a no go - I'll save up my pennies for something even better than this lackluster edition.

Below, you can barely tell that I swatched five out of the six Mineralize shadows, three Glitter and Ice Paint Pots, two Beauty Powders and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Butter's Cheeky Chops and Frilly Knickers - weekly nail review

After last week's successful nail pairing, I decided to flip my colour selection on it's head and opted to go with Cheeky Chops and Frilly Knickers (again).  I was a bit too excited about the sparkly overlay and was quite frankly bewitched so much that I think my choice failed this past week.  Cheeky Chops is meant to be worn alone and Frilly Knickers should be showcased with a much darker palette. My nails really were lost in translation and to add insult to injury, I had to remove my polish mid-week due to submerging my hands in soapy dish water (talk about chipping).  I can thank my cookie baking expedition for that; I must remember to purchase super cute gloves (insert mental note here).

As you can see the sparkles were outshined by the bright yellow.  What do you think of this epic fail on my part?