Gillian's Beauty Blog | Beauty Fashion Life

2 Valentines Day Nail Designs

2014-02-12T23:25:00.000+00:00

Hi everyone!

I've never been a massive fan of valentines day but for the past few years, I've found it fun to get into the spirit. I made a video of two different nail design ideas that doesn't have to be just for valentines day. The first design is using the water marble technique which looks different every time you do it and is actually quite simple once you know how to do it. The second design is also simple; it is plain pink nails with a glitter accent on the ring finger to stand out.

You can find all the nail polish colours and tools I used down below :)

MAC Holiday Collection 2013 | Stroke of Midnight

2013-11-19T06:23:00.000+00:00

Ever since 2011, it's turned into a tradition that I put money away to buy a few things from MAC's holiday collections. I like to get my limited edition MAC things from Selfridges because they usually release them sooner than MAC's website and I can get them before they sell out. As of writing this blog post, everything I show is still available.

So let's take a moment to admire the packaging since that's just as important as the product! This year they've gone with a black, white and gold theme which I think looks very holiday glamorous. I usually prefer silver to gold but I think it ties in nice with the theme. The face palette I bought is a shiny black plastic but I don't think it looks cheap. The other products come in beautiful black satin bags with a gold zipper and a chunky black zip tab that says 'MAC' in gold writing. These make up bags feel so nice and could also double up as a clutch, especially the lip and cheek bag which zips but also folds over with a magnetic popper.

Let's start with the priciest item: the lip and cheek bag which I bought in the colour 'pink'. This version is limited to department stores whereas you can only buy 'coral' on the MAC website.

This kit will set you back £50. It comes with full sized lipstick, lipgloss, travel blush, brush and a compact mirror.

Blush in 'formal'

from left to right: lipstick in 'how darling!', lipglass in 'soft spoken'

and blush in 'formal'

travel sized brush '129'

the same brush but the left one is from the 2011 holiday collection

It disappoints me about the holiday brushes as they are not to the standard of the normal handmade brushes. I don't know if the left brush has had more time to fan out, but they don't look like the same brush and it's a let down.

Next up is the face palette in 'cool' £42. It comes with an iridescent powder in 'sparkling rosé', three eyeshadows, two lipsticks and an eyeliner.

1. lipstick 'sublime pleasure' 2. lipstick 'romantically inclined' 3. iridescent powder 'sparkling rosé'

4. eye kohl 'ebony' 5. eyeshadow 'all races' 6. eyeshadow 'scene' 7. eyeshadow 'magic moor'

Next is the lip bag in 'violet' £32

I think these colours are perfect for winter.

from left to right: lipstick in 'dark deed', the same lipstick but sheered out, lip pencil in 'vino' (permanent) and cremesheen glass in 'art of seduction'.

Last but not least, the eye bag in 'gold', £39.50

This set comes with a paint pot, fluidline, mascara and dual ended brush.

'in extreme dimension' mascara

'genuine treasure' paint pot and 'blitz & glitz' fluidline

when swatched genuine treasure is very sheer but packed with gold glitter, I think it'd look beautiful over a black base.

dual ended brush, left side '239' and right side 209

Love this collection but now I have no money left! haha. I heard about the venomous villain collection coming out next year with but with just malificent this time, so I'll be saving my pennies for that :)

✎ Tip Tuesdays #2

2013-08-13T06:13:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone! :)

Today I've brought back my Tip Tuesdays that I planned on starting a long time ago. I've not been very well recently and this was the best I could do under the circumstances.

My tip is about how to properly apply under eye concealer without making your dark circles or bags stand out. Here's the video:

Thank you for watching/reading and I hope I will be feeling better soon so I can make more videos.

July 2013 Favourites ♥

2013-08-05T23:03:00.001+01:00

So I'm trying to get back into the swing of making videos and to start off, I thought I'd make a July favourites.

I've been loving the DKNY be delicious perfume as it's nice and fresh for the summer time.

This is the mac powder I was talking about in my video. It's the Studio Careblend powder and I have the colour light plus. When I bought it, they were sold out of 'light' and being as pale as I am I didn't trust the make up artist when she suggested the light plus. However after trying it on, it's not much of a difference between the light version and it gives me a bit of colour.

I carry this little beauty everywhere with me; in my pocket at work, in my bag and on my bedside table. The honey and milk version isn't my absolute favourite (the hydro care one is) but it's moisturising on my lips and feels really smooth. It also smells just like honey!

I've had this brush for years! I can't find a link to it anywhere so unfortunately I don't know if they still make it. I love how it is soft but dense and doesn't pick up too much product. This is the brush I use for all my powders.

The Rimmel apocalips is one of the nicest lip products I've ever tried. It's velvety smooth on my lips and Nova is a beautiful pinky mauve colour. I really want to try other colours in this range and I will possibly do a proper review on these once I collect a few.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed watching the video :)

OPI Can't Find My Czechbook

2013-06-26T15:09:00.000+01:00

I've been loving the Euro Centrale collection from OPI lately. One of my favourite colours from the collection is Can't Find My Czechbook which is a pale, but bright baby blue colour - perfect for summer!

I also like to add an extra something by putting the glitter polish from the same collection on my ring finger. It's called Polka Dot Com and is a clear base with purple and blue glitter particles.

Have you got any favourite colours for summer? :)

A Little Adventure.

2013-06-20T12:52:00.000+01:00

In case anyone hasn't seen my instagram pictures of my Granny's dog. This is him! His name is Laddy and my gran adopted him about 6 months ago as his owner died of cancer. He's got the sweetest nature and is really well trained.

I always take him on long walks through woods near my house and this time I brought my camera as I thought the scenery was stunning. Here's a few photos I'd like to share with you all.

Rainbow Cheetah Nails!

2013-06-17T05:35:00.000+01:00

I painted my nails this rainbow cheetah pattern a while ago but I thought I would still share it, as I love the way it came out :)

I like how bright and unique they look. A guy at the train station actually asked me if I'd painted my nails like the candy crush game haha.

For the colours I used:

-white: OPI alpine snow
-black: just a regular black nail art pen
-yellow: OPI fiercly fiona
-blue: OPI can't find my czcheckbook
-darker blue: OPI ogre the top blue
-lilac: OPI you're such a budapest
-darker purple: OPI pamplona purple
-pink OPI strawberry margarita

I painted my nails white for the base, then dotted all the colours listed above in a random order. I then took my black nail art pen (can't remember the brand) and drew C shapes around the coloured dots, not being too particular if it looked perfect. Lastly if there was any bare white sections, I added a few black dots here and there to finish off the look. I didn't use a top coat this time because I find even after a night of drying, the top coat still smears the black colour.

Thanks for reading!

♥ Spring Wish List ♥

2013-04-01T12:18:00.000+01:00

This is my spring wish list for 2013. I'm starting to really like pastel colours which is strange for me as I'm such a black clothes type of person. Since making this wish list I have actually purchased the pink blouse and necklace so maybe it will be featured in a haul or something. Looking at my wish list makes me really excited for spring and summer, especially when I don't get that excitement from looking out at the snow!

I really like the OPI Euro Centrale collection and hope to get a few polishes including 'you're such a budapest'

What's on your spring wish list?

✭ Review ✭ Soap and Glory Scrub Your Nose In It

2013-03-28T03:27:00.000+00:00

Soap & Glory Scrub Your Nose In It 125ml

For Christmas I received the Soap and Glory face scrub and I was instantly excited to try it as I love Soap and Glory products.

When you squeeze a small amount of the product out it's a blue-green colour and smells minty and refreshing. The instructions say to concentrate most of the product on your t-zone area and then spread the remaining scrub on the rest of your face.

Once or twice a week, I like to leave it on for a few minutes longer than usual for it to act as a face mask.

After rinsing the scrub off, my skin feels smooth and rejuvenated. For those of you who didn't know, I have very dry skin especially this time of year and I can get a bit flaky around my nose and forehead area. This scrub helps with this problem a lot. Although I wouldn't say it gets completely rid of the flakes, I feel a lot more confident after using it and it reduces them dramatically.

I reckon this product will last me a long time because three months later, I'm not even halfway through the tube. I will always adore Soap and Glory and can't wait to try more products of theirs.

What's your favourite Soap and Glory product?

Cute Phone Accessory

2013-03-28T02:02:00.001+00:00

As you may or may not know, I am a huge bunny fan! Give me anything with rabbits on it and I'll instantly love it!

I recently saw all these cute 'dust plugs' to protect the hole where you put your ear phones into your phone. I thought this was a practical and cool idea so I bought one from a seller on ebay and of course it had to be a bunny one. Click here for a link to the seller I used. It came beautifully packaged and shipping was fast!

It's a bit bigger than I thought but I still love it. My only complaint would be that the actual bunny is a bit heavy for the plastic rod and I'm worried it'll snap. It was less than a fiver though so I'm not too bothered.

You can get these dust plugs in all shapes and sizes, including a starbucks cup!

(source)

Nails of the Week: 23/1/13

2013-01-24T01:47:00.001+00:00

Hi guys! so as promised, here is the first post in the series: Nails of the Week :)

My nails are OPI Die Another Day. It's a shimmery red colour with a hint of orange. It's very pigmented for a shimmery colour as I usually find with opi, they are more sheer. I could get away with one coat if I wanted but in the picture I used two.

(with flash)

I've had this colour on for around a week and it's only just starting to chip at the tips which is amazing as there was no top coat on it. The wearability is pretty decent.

Thanks for reading and I hope you will enjoy my nails of the week series :)

Candy Striped Nails

2013-01-22T15:58:00.001+00:00

Hi everyone! Today I found some pictures of my nails that I did for Christmas. It gave me an idea to do a Nails of the Week series on my blog because I switch my nail polish colours so often.

For Christmas I painted my nails with OPI Big Apple Red.

Big Apple Red is a bright blue toned red. It has no shimmer but is extremely glossy.

I decided to try some nail art and attempted a candy stripe on all my nails except my ring fingers.

This is the nail art pen I used. It came in a set with lots of colours. This nail art pen has a thin tip but also unscrews like a normal nail polish and has a striper brush.

I definitely need more practice with my nail art but it was fun and my first time using a striper brush. :)

Tomorrow I will start the series with the nail polish I'm wearing right now. It's one of the James Bond nail polishes and I'm loving it!!

New Year

2013-01-16T12:29:00.002+00:00

Happy (belated) New Year everyone!! :) I'm excited to see what 2013 has in store.

I've said it before but this is seriously a new start for my blog. I'm going to pay much more attention to my youtube channel as well as it's something I really enjoy but have neglected due to being ill (thyroid issues). I also got a new camera for my christmas which made me happy as the one I had before was technically my parents and I dropped it while trying to film a shoe collection video.. oops! We've been meaning to go into Glasgow to get it repaired but have never got around to it. Anyway I was really excited about the new camera because I was going to buy one myself and didn't expect it when I opened it on Christmas day. It's a fujifilm one from qvc but it doesn't seem to be great quality for the price and all the reviews are saying it's not that good so my mum is going to return it and we're splitting the price for a canon 650d/rebel t4i. This means I have no excuses not to film with such a fancy camera!

I hope everyone had a good time during the holidays. Here is a few pictures of my christmas & new years eve.

Outfit of The Night | All Time Low Gig

2012-09-10T04:00:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! Long time no speak...

So a couple of weeks ago All Time Low and We Are The In Crowd were playing in Edinburgh. Being my two favourite bands, I had to go and I thought I'd film an outfit of the night for it. I had also just got my new Jeffrey Campbell Litas the day before, so I wanted to wear them straight away!

not looking impressed haha

Watch the full video here! :)

We Are The In Crowd (I love Tay!)

All Time Low

We Are The In Crowd

Later that night at a club :)

Thanks for reading/watching! Speak to you all soon ;)

Review | TRESemmé Dry Shampoo

2012-08-19T01:02:00.000+01:00

TRESemmé Instant Refresh, £4.75 each

I've used the TRESemmé dry shampoo for a good two years now and it's the only dry shampoo I swear by. I have tried the one by Batiste but found it leaves white residue on my brown hair even when brushed out.

It claims to: "Absorb oil and odour in between washes. The unique formula gives hair a clean look and feel with gorgeous volume, even when you don’t wash it."

I certainly agree it absorbs the oil although I've never had a problem with smelly hair before so I can't comment on that part but the product itself smells heavenly so I'm sure it would mask any smell your hair did have. It makes hair look refreshed and soft. The "gorgeous volume" claim, I tend to disagree with for most products as I would say you're only getting volume from the product due to rubbing it in with your fingers and slightly messing your hair up a little which would create volume anyway.

The TRESemmé dry shampoo comes in a 200ml aerosol can. I've seen bigger versions when looking online at US websites, but haven't seen it in a bigger size here in the UK shops.

My hair does not tend to get oily very fast. I can get away with not washing my hair for around 3 days. I will use TRESemmé dry shampoo during these in between days though, just to freshen my hair up. I do admit, I can tend to get lazy and 'abuse' this product haha! Any excuse to put off the 20 minute process of drying my long thick hair!

How to use: Shake the product before use and hold it 8-12 inches away from your hair. I like to hold the section of hair up and spray underneath instead of spraying directly on top of your head. Once I've sprayed it, I leave it for a few seconds then rub the product in with my fingers in a vigorous motion. Lastly I brush my hair out and style it how I want.

Overall I would definitely recommend giving the TRESemmé dry shampoo a try, especially for those brunettes out there as I know the white residue left with other dry shampoos can be annoying. It smells good, is relatively cheap and it works, I couldn't really ask for more.

Freshening Things Up

2012-07-24T02:43:00.001+01:00

So I came back to this blog after months of not updating it and have rediscovered my love for blogging and reading other beauty guru's blogs as well.

I really want to start using this blog more often, as well as updating my youtube channel. I keep gaining new subscribers on my youtube but then losing others as well which I think is due to the fact I am so bad at updating regularly!

I'm also amazed by all these fancy layouts the blogs I follow have and am fed up with the generic one I have at the moment, which brings me to the main point of this post :)
When I was 12 I had my own website called 'Magical Mix' and I used to design all the layouts myself using paint shop pro but as I got older I lost my interest for web design and moved on. However I still remember how to do everything to make my own layout for this blog so during the next few weeks I will be freshening up the look of this blog then I will update it after that with new ideas I have for posts.

Thank you to the readers of my blog for the support and here is a little taster of things coming in the near future so stay tuned ;)

Review: Urban Decay Setting Spray
Review: Tresemme Dry Shampoo
Review: Nivea Kiss of Moisture lip balms
Top 5 OPI pink nail polishes
Top 5 OPI red nail polishes

Lush Review: Oatifix fresh face mask

2012-03-06T08:02:00.000+00:00

I was looking for a fresh face mask but didn't know what one to pick, so the girl at Lush recommended the Oatifix one when I told her I had dry skin.

It smells divine!! Like oats, banana and honey.. my rabbit actually sniffed it out and was trying to get a lick at it haha.

It comes in a 75g tub and was £5.75 which I thought was a lot for a one time use mask but I was very wrong! I've used this very generously three times and theres still at least another three uses left, so very good value for money.

This is me using it for the first time :) Doesn't look very appealing but the result was great.

Oatifix has a very thick texture and you need to work at it to spread the mixture all over your face.

I will definitely be repurchasing this after it's used up. It made my skin feel very soft and refreshed.

Lush have a range of different fresh masks for different skin types. These do have a best before date which is the only downside as you need to use it up within a few days. It also has to be kept in the fridge.

Overall I'd give this mask an 8/10 It feels really nice but didn't completely eliminate my dry winder skin although it made it feel softer :)

MAC Wonder Woman Collection Photos and Swatches

2011-03-03T12:19:00.000+00:00

I got my wonder woman items on Feb 19th from www.selfridges.com whereas the mac website didn't release it until tuesday and in stores today. So I thought this was the perfect time to show the photos and swatches for UK people that didn't know about the Selfridges release. Maybe keep in mind for future mac collections you are excited for to check Selfridges out first because waiting for maccosmetics.co.uk to release wonder woman was such a long time from the US release but Selfridges was a compromise to waiting until today.

Anyway, into the photo's...

Mineralize Skinfinish in Pink Power

Pink Power packaging

Lipsticks: Marquise 'd & Spitfire

Pink colour: Spitfire, Nude colour: Marquise 'd

Lipglasses: Wonder Woman, Athena's Kiss & Emancipation

Wonder Woman, Athena's Kiss & Emancipation

Opulash mascara in Black

MAC Wonder Woman Collection

2011-02-20T06:05:00.000+00:00

I just received my package in the post today with the wonder woman products I ordered! I'm really happy with all of the items and will be posting pictures up tomorrow :)