Budget Half Moon Manicure Tutorial

I can only apologise about how poor the image quality is of the photos in this post. My camera has gone walkies which means I have to wait till christmas to get a new one. I'm using my Dads' camera for the time being which is great at taking far away photots in daylight, but didn't do so well with close up photos in natural light. I'm sorry I'm rambling, I'll begin :)

What you will need

 Any two nails polishes on the face of the earth will do for this, whatever colours you think will go well together, or whatever you have in your collection. I have chosen two W7 nail polishes as they are a really cheap brand, but there is so much colour choice which is why I love the brand. Also if you pop down to your local cheap shop ( B&M, Quality Save ect.) then you can get a polish for around £1.50.  The main ingridient of this little tutorial is hole-punch reinforcers.

Since I discovered this tip a while ago I've seen it everywhere as it's a pretty well known tip. However if you're like me then this tip will come of some use to you as it makes creating half moon manicures and french tips super easy. 

The first thing I did was paint my nails with a shimmery silver polish ( unfortunatley the W7 polishes don't have names which makes them difficult to talk identify).

The I just stuck on the hole punch reinforces, put them on as high or low as you like depending on how big you want the moon to be. Also remember the first coat is going to be the colour of the moon.

Sadly I'm no hand model

Then I painted over the top half with a purple W7 nail polish, I forgot to picture this step but hopefully it's pretty self explanatory. The big mistake I made when I first started doing this was that I would leave the reinforcers on until the nail varnish was totally dry. You should pretty much take of the reinforcers as soon as you've painted the top coat. 

And these are the finished nails!

I felt like I need to use both pictures as I couldn't get just one picture that showed off the manicure properly. Now looking at the result I do kindof wish that that I'd put the reinforcers lower down but hey-hoe! Also it was really difficult to get a  picture that did justice to the purple colour  in the manicure. Even the one above doesn't show it's true prettiness. Either way (luckily) it's not the nail polishes under review, it's the tip that's important. 

I hope that this tip was helpful and that you'll try it out and prehaps get some better picture of it that I have. Oh and I forgot to mention that the reinforers cost like a pound and can be found in pretty much all stationary shop and alot of pound shops :)

This is all,

Gemmmm xxx

One more week of £5 off No7

Everyone wants to make the most of money off vouchers or other general deals and offers. However if you're anything like me even with the £5 off No7 you'll still find the prices a bit much. I'm not arguing that No7 products aren't worth the money because I definitely believe that they are, however if your skint then it doesn't matter if it's worth the money or not. So this post is all about the cheaper products in the No7 line that with the voucher will cost no more than about £3.

For me the best way to spend you're pennies is defiantly on the brushes. When you use the vouchers some of the brushes cost as little as £2. They're great quality brushes as well, I've only been using them for a few months but the three I have I love. The three in this post are the one I own myself as I don't feel it right to feature brushes that I haven't used. However in her Favourite Brushes video makeup artist to the stars Lisa Eldridge recommends the No7 foundation brush among some others from the No7 line, so I would say that this brush is definitely worth trying.

Concealer Brush - £3 with the voucher

I really like this brush, mainly because of it's size and thickness, it's more like a mini foundation brush and allows to conceal large areas of pigmentation much more easily that with the average concealer brush. Unfortunately that does also mean that a smaller concealer brush is need to do very precise concealing. 

Smoky Eyeliner Brush - £2.25 with the voucher

This brush does exactly what it says on the metaphorical tin! It's perfect for creating smoky eyeliner looks, both at smudging Kohl and gel liner and at applying the liner. The picture above doesn't do justice to how dense the brush is, which is what makes it so great for the job it does. I would still rather use a classic smudger to smudge eyeliner as i think it's generally easier, however I haven't found anything better this for applying smoky liner.

Eyeshadow Blend & Contour - £2.25 with the voucher

For me this is both my favourite and worst brush from the No7 brushes that I've tried. Why it's my worst brush- because the quality isn't worth the regular £7.25 price, the brush shed a couple of hairs the first couple of times I used it, luckily since then it's behaved itself. Also after washing it has lost its shape a little bit, but not nearly enough to ruin the brush. Why it's my favourite brush- because it works so well! It's absolutely perfect for the crease of the eye and blending out shadow. Therefore it's definitely worth the £2.25 but for the full price there is probably something better out there.

Quick Cover Blemish Stick - £3 with the voucher

I actually have two of these because I bought one last year when the vouchers were on which still has a tiny bit left in. I haven't used it religiously because I've been dipping in and out of using other concealers, but this always seems to trump any other stick concealers I've used. The coverage is great and it lasts for the day as well. I also find that this work really well with the previously mentioned concealer brush, and just to add a little cuteness to this post I would say that these two products belong together. The only thing about this product is that it needs a little warming up to make it easier to apply, but other than that I love it.

The final product that I would recommend is the eyelash curler, they're nothing different or spectacular which is why i didn't think they merited they're own picture. However they are very good and a pair of good curler for only a couple a quid sounds good to me! I hope this post was of some help to someone :)

This is all,

Gemmm xxx

Hello!

I have found that reading the Blogs and Vlogs of the Internet have truly been my favourite form of procrastination to date. Not only do I feel much more educated and the variety and brands that are out there, but recently I have found myself doing mini reviews of  new clothes and products in my head the first time I use them. So I have decided to jump on the blogging band waggon and hopefully I will be able to provide to any reader some useful advice and recommendations on all things beauty, clothing and generally just penny-saving items I've found to be a help rather than a hindrance to my purse strings. 

I'm hoping that my little venture into the blogesphere will be of some help to someone. If not then it may just have to act as a form of quite productive procrastination to me as i strive to avoid A-level  work.

This is all,

Gemmm xxxx