Matte Black French Manicure (with Glossy Tips)

Hi gals!

So we had this crazy thunderstorm and tree branches fell all over the place and knocked down power lines so we haven't had power since 3pm local time and it is now 10pm local (EST). What a day. I got a haircut today and right when he starts blow drying it started storming. We almost lost power there but luckily we didn't. I'm going to do a post showing off the new hair and maybe some before and after pics. I also passed by Illamasqua again because I wanted to try out their products. I bought 3 things which will be combined into my upcoming MAC Pro post. So enjoy today's nails post!! And if you want to know about the next couple of posts, check out my facebook page.

Today I'm doing something a bit different with my nails. Instead of doing a traditional manicure, I'm doing a black french manicure. Black is my favorite color and this is a great way to change it up instead of wearing just a black nail polish. It's matte black nails with glossy tips, which is why it's called a black french manicure. I think it's really nice, except I messed my first few nails up a bit, but whatever, I'm learning. I didn't use tape or anything, I drew it on myself. Thinking back though, I should have used tape, even if it's scotch tape. Just put it on your skin a few times to remove some of the glue so it doesn't peel your manicure right off. I also used a whole bunch of different brands, but you can use whatever you have. Just make sure you have a black nail polish and a matte top coat. Those are your most important tools. I know this isn't a very summery look, but whatever. I like it and that's all that matters. And by the way, the feel of the matte polish is really cool! I definitely have to try stripes and shapes next time. And again, I know they're not perfect and I don't care.


Matte Black French Manicure (with Glossy Tips)

Before you start, make sure to file your nails, push your cuticles down, buff them, and whatever else you do to prep for your manicure. I also like to set up my little station by putting some paper towels down in case of an accident. I have all my nail polishes ready. To prepare my nails, I'm trying out Sally Hansen's Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment. This is the first time I'm using this product and I picked it up because my nails are pretty fragile and damaged even though I only do my nails every 2 or so weeks. Hopefully this product will help. I'm using this as a base coat for my manicure. Next, take a black polish like Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in 430 Black Satin. I do 2 coats of black. Now it's time to turn your nails matte! Take your matte top coat, like Butter London Matte Finish, and apply that to the entire nail. Watch your nails turn matte in seconds! Now take your black nail polish again and paint the tips. You can draw them on yourselves like I did, or you can take tape. Personally, I like it when the french manicure is slightly rounded on the edges, instead of a super straight line. It looks more natural. Now your black french manicure is done!

I have to say that Rimmel makes really good quality nail polishes. I buy their regular French Manicure nail polishes and I use their Base Coat Top Coat Pro and I love their products. This was the first time I used a Butter London products and their Matte Finish polish worked extremely well. Now I just have to wait and see how Sally Hansen's Complete Care product is working under there!



Products Used:

Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment - approx. 12$

Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in 430 Black Satin - 6$CAD 

Butter London Matte Finish - 21$CAD

So that's it! Here are a few photos of my nails. I upload HD pics so you can really see what I'm doing, because I know that I hate it if someone has a 1 pixel by 1 pixel photo and you can't see anything. It's like, why even bother? But because it's HD, it's a lot easier to point out mistakes and criticize things. I know my nails are nowhere near perfect but this is the best that I can do at home. With that said, I hope that you were able to learn something from this. Enjoy the pics.

Thanks for reading and no, there aren't any pictures of me showing off the nails. Hah. I know my lines aren't perfect and they're a little smudgey but honestly I was never great any doing my nails. Part of what messed the tips up was that I was trying to do too thin of a coat because I didn't want to end up with a big blob that never dries. So don't worry about the coats being thick, it'll be fine. Use some tape if you're worried about your lines. I hope you were able to learn something from this post. Matte nails are pretty darn cool and I've seen that it gives cool effects on different finishes of nail polishes, like metalics, neons, glitters, etc.

If you haven't checked out my latest makeup post on MAC's Veluxe Pearl Fusion Eyeshadows using Greenluxe, then click here!

My next post is going to be my MAC PRO Haul. I bought quite a few Pro Only Eyeshadows and I have to say that the shades are way different and unique compared to the permanent line. If you ever get a chance to go to a MAC PRO store, seriously, do it.

Steph xo.

Shopping Haul #3

Hello glam girlies!!

I know I was supposed to do a post on my new MAC Veluxe Pearl Fusion Eyeshadow in Greenluxe but I had an extremely busy day yesterday. I decided to take a short nap and when I woke up it was 5am and my makeup was all over my face. So much for short nap. Hah. So I'll do the post tomorrow. I actually really like the palette, even more than I liked Smokeluxe. The palette doesn't scream bright green at you, which I take as a great thing, and is a darker olivey smokey green. The very last color at the bottom reminds me a lot of MAC's Club Eyeshadow. I got compliments on my eyes all day. I used all 5 shades because I wanted to try them all out. I'll redo this look and post it soon.

Today's post is a shopping spree post. It differs from my past shopping spree posts because it isn't solely makeup products. This time I have a bit of everything: makeup, nails, clothes, books, skincare. I'm going to organize this by category so this post isn't all over the place. Before I start, I know this can seem expensive but I do carry a lot of 10% cards and points cards to most of these stores. I also used coupons or redeemed points I had. If you shop at a particular store a lot, the best thing to do is to ask them if they have a points or 10% card or any kind of privilege card. And I'm also listing the prices as what it says on the labels and not what I actually paid. For example, the cost of my purchase at the body shop would have been 59$ but I paid 31.50$. They had an in-store promotion going on, I had my 10% off card and I reached 4 points, which gives you 15$ off.

I also forgot to take pictures of my body shop purchase so I'm inserting pictures from the body shop site. I'm also wearing the new pijamas I bought. Because it's night and I'm a creature of the night.


Shopping Haul #3

Clothes:

La Senza

2 pijama tops in Small - 2 for 24$CAD or 16.50$CAD each

2 shorts in Medium - 8.25$CAD each

1 3/4 mix between leggings and sweatpants in Medium - 22.50$CAD

I needed summer pijamas badly and they were having a clearance sale at La Senza to get rid of all their summer stuff, bras and underwear included. They didn't have a whole lot of stuff left so I got what I thought was alright. Besides, it's not like anyone's going to see me in my jamies, right? These pijamas are pretty comfy and I needed something that wasn't long sleeved flannel for the summer. I bought these so I can mix and match them together and also possibly with some future pijamas. They're comfy.


Books:

Indigo (same as Chapters)

Nice is Just a Place in France, by The Betches - 17$CAD

This book is hilarious. It's a cross between humour and a how-to manual. It's a betch's bible. This book isn't meant to be taken seriously and it's not for the easily offendable. The girls behind this book are also the very same girls that run the site Betches Love This. I've only read a couple of pages so far, but I can tell this is going to be a funny book. And I also want to say that extremely young girls should not read this. This book isn't meant to be taken seriously, so don't follow bad examples in real life. Eating is good. Food is my friend. And it can be yours, too.


Skincare:

The Body Shop

Coconut Body Scrub - 20$CAD

Seaweed Pore Perfector - 21$CAD

Vitamin E Eye Cream - 18$CAD

I got the usual skincare products that I normally get. I got the 2 things that were running out and/or empty and I decided to try out an eye cream. I've never used an eye cream before but now is as good as any other day to start. I went with the Vitamin E Eye Cream. I've only used it once so I can't say whether or not it's working just yet. The Seaweed Pore Perfector is also a product I've recently gotten into. I think it's been working so far. And lastly, the Coconut Body Scrub is just amazing. I use that stuff almost every time I shower and it really helps to get down deep and completely clean your skin. I follow up using their Coconut Body Butter to make my skin extra soft!


Nails:

Ciate

Speed Coat - 17$CAD

Butter London

Matte Finish - 21$CAD

Sally Hansen

Complete Care: Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment - approx. 14$CAD

I've been wanting to get a fast-drying top coat for a while now and I finally picked one up. I have a ton of Ciate mini nail polishes that I got in a set so I figured why not keep it the same brand? They didn't have any Matte Top Coat left by Ciate so I bought one by Butter London instead. My mom picked me up a Sally Hansen nail treatment because I had forgotten to get one while I was getting the Ciate and Butter polishes. I don't usually like Sally Hansen. I had a manicure set from her once and the nail polish pealed off in the shower. It couldn't stand up to the heat. I bought manicure polishes by Rimmel and they are a lot better quality. So I'm a bit skeptical about this nail polish. If you've used it, I'd like to hear how you found it.


Makeup:

MAC

Eyeshadows in Embark and Contrast - 14.50$CAD each

MAC Contrast

MAC Embark

Makeup Forever

HD Foundation in 110 - 49$CAD

Benefit VIB Spree Gift - free

Mini Sun Beam, Mini Bad Gal Lash Mascara, and Mini Sugarbomb Lipgloss

And finally, the makeup. It took me a while to figure out which 2 colors I wanted to add to my MAC palette. I asked the MUA what she thought about my list. I showed her what I already had and what I will buy in the near future. She gave me some great suggestions that I've added to the list. Sometimes it's hard because not every color is available in store and the shadows look extremely different online. I got Embark, which is a brown with a bit of red in it. It's really nice and I think it would look great with Twinks. I got Contrast, which is a purple-blue color. It's a really nice dark color. I'm thinking about how I would pair it because I don't have any blues yet. I'm not really a blue girl. At Sephora I got my MUFE HD Foundation because I'm starting to run out and I don't want to be caught off guard when it finally does run out. I know the Benefit VIB Spree gift was a while back but the nice girl managed to find one hidden and gave it to me. Yay! I only have Sun Beam and I'd like to try out Bad Gal Lash because I hear a lot of good things about it and the lipglosses made after their blush boxes are really cute.





So that's all I got on my shopping trip. So I know it seems like I spent a lot of money, but I saved everywhere I could and that isn't listed here. I saw a cute Betsey Johnson bracelet at The Bay and aaahh it was so cute. It had little leopard hearts dangling off the chain. It isn't a recent item from her, they had a couple earrings that I bought a few years ago there, but it's pretty nonetheless. I really hope she gets a new collection going, I was sad when she went out of business and closed all her stores :(  

So I hope you found this interesting in that it wasn't just a strictly makeup haul. It really did have a touch of everything. I know I haven't been doing a lot of posting lately but here are a few things I will be doing in the near future:

Smokey Green Eyes using MAC Veluxe Pearl Fusion Eyeshadow in Greenluxe

Days 6 and 7 of Sephora + Pantone Universe Precious Metals

Too Faced Loves Sephora Dupe List

Empties and Extras #2

And I hope you are looking forward to these posts, and let me know if you want me to do a certain look or show a look using a certain palette, or whatever else!!

And also, if you've used any of the products shown above, let me know if you liked them or not!

[I just want to say that all the products here were bought by me, except for the Benefit VIB Spree, it was free with my purchase. All opinions are my own.]

Steph xo.