MATERIALBLONDE

Nails, Make-Up, Hair, Beauty Products, General Ramblings & Pretty Pictures materialblonde.blogspot.co.uk all photographs are copyright of materialblonde unless otherwise stated

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Weekly Nail ~ Glitter Tips

I have really been liking tip nails, as they are the quickest way to achieve a more detailed manicure. You do not have to worry about being neat, and can let your imagination run wild with different combinations of colours and effects!

I particularly like this weeks mani, and looks far better in person, Glitter Tip Nails!

I used Barry M Retro Purple and Barry M Amethyst Glitter for this look. I used a base coat, then two coats of the Barry M Retro Purple. This was a freebie offer ages ago in Boots, and I remember not being that excited over it at the time, I just took it as it was free, but my gosh has it turned out to be one I turn to time and time again. It is actually a very blue metallic shade of purple, almost more blue than purple really. It also seems really weird to have a rounded bottle Barry M in my collection. I then put a couple of coats of Barry M Amethyst Glitter from the tips to half way down my nail. This has to be my all time favourite glitter that I own. It is apparently a dupe for Nails Inc Rainbow Street, and I have to say after looking at the swatches it is spot on, and will be for a lot cheaper too.

  If you do not own Amethyst Glitter (and you don't already have Nails Inc's version) I urge you to purchase it A S A P as it's the most marvellous glittery delight. FOR £2.99!!

  This is the perfect party nail, or if like me you just need a bit of cheering up and sparkle in your life!

  Products Used:

  Essie Grow Strong (base coat)

Barry M Retro Purple (nail colour)

Barry M Amethyst Glitter (tips)

Seche Vite Dry Fast (top coat)

What is your favourite glitter polish?

[materialblonde]

Weekly Nails ~ Feather Tips

So, I have a crazy  slight nail polish addiction and I can nevernevernever go without my nails painted. It just. feels. wrong. I have decided to start going through my collection and having a go at using everything and working my way through so I don't feel so much like it is a waste that I have so much.

This week I have been rocking Feather Tip Nails and I love this look.

  I started off picking a dark purple/blue shade, Barry M's Indigo which is a solid nail paint. I love Barry M, they are such great quality at an affordable price, and a lot if not most of my collection is made up of Barry M. I always use a base coat on my nails as they stain easily and I feel it makes the polish go on so much nicer. I just did two coats of the Indigo and then started painting the tips.

I used Barry M Liquorice that is made up of tiny black and white flecks. I painted from the tips of my nails to half way down my nail, then applied a second thicker coat just to the ends to give a gradient effect. I had never done feather tips before and they came out well and I really like the look of it. Nice quick simple fuss free way of jazzing up your manicure.

I would definately suggest wearing a top coat as the flecks can be a bit scratchy and catch on things if you miss this step out. I have been wanting to experiment a bit more with different ways of doing my nails as when you paint them at least twice a week like I do, standard painting can become a bit boring!

  Products Used:

  No7 Nail Brightener (base coat)

Barry M Indigo (nail colour)

Barry M Liquorice  (tips)

What do you think of the feather tip mani? Do you have any suggestions for other things to try out?

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Berry Lipstick

Winter time just screams berry lips to me, and suits light or dark hair so you can't really go wrong!

I love the dramatic look it gives and will always make lips look fuller if you pick the right shade.

Here are my lipsticks swatched:

1 - Avon in Princely Plum

2 - Avon in Lustrous Raisin

3 - MAC in Quite The Thing! (Sheen Supreme)

4 - Revlon Lip Butter in Raspberry Pie

5 - Maybelline Color Sensational in Mauve Diamonds

Avon Princely Plum

I have to say I think this is my favourite berry lipstick and shade of all time.

I recently wore this to our 1920's themed New Years Party and I fell in love with it all over again. It looks scary in bullet form but is such a beautiful colour once on,  goes on so easily and leaves behind a nice stain when it has worn off a bit. Although there is slight sparkle in the lipstick itself, although it is visible when worn it reflects more of a shine than glitter. The formula is very thick and creamy and leaves lips feeling moisturised. The red and black packaging adds to the glamourous feel when using this too.

Avon Lustrous Raisin

This one is not a very well loved item in my collection, I always seem to forget about this one. It is exactly the same formula as the plum version, but a slightly pinkier lighter shade.

MAC Quite The Thing! 

This was my first ever MAC lipstick that I got, it is a sheen supreme finish and a lovely purple berry colour. It is super glossy and light, although the wear is not that great so you will need to keep reapplying, but when a lipstick is this lovely you won't mind!

Revlon Lip Butter Raspberry Pie 

A solid colour that has a lot more depth than many of the lip butters and could almost be a normal lipstick. It has a very shiny appearance and I prefer to just dab this on the lips as a kind of stain rather than a thick coat all over as it tends to give a plasticy finish. 

Maybelline Color Sensational Mauve Diamonds

I lovelovelove this one. It is so easy to put on, no need for a mirror and is a light sheen on the lips. It has micro sparkle particles that give a lovely bounce. I use this one a lot in summer as it is so easy to quickly slick. I also like the holographic packaging, and find Maybelline's lipsticks to be of particular good quality.

 What berry lipsticks do you enjoy? 

[materialblonde]

Weekly Nail Update

In support of Breast Cancer Awareness we are having a 'wear it pink' day at work this week on the 31st, so I of course must have matching pink nails!

I thought it was the perfect time to try out my new Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Pomegranate.

I was curious to see how it would differ from the normal Barry M Nail Paints and was quite impressed. The Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paints are an extra £1 but totally worth it.

They are a lot thicker in texture making it so much easier to paint your nails. I got perfect coverage with just one coat, but just to make sure I did my normal two coats. 

 As normal I used my Alessandro Pro White as a base coat, followed by the Barry M. The Gelly Hi-Shine certainly lives up to it's name and was really shiny even without a top coat. There is not really any need to use a top coat for shine purposes, I just did one to help make it last longer. I used my 2true clear nail polish for this, I do not really like it, it has a really annoying thin applicator brush but I hate wasting things and am trying to hurry up and use it all so I can buy a nice new top coat!

I might go over this on 'wear it pink' day with some pink glitter as well!

I love the colour of this and can safely say the Pomegranate Barry M has made it's way into my top favourites. 

Has anyone tried the pale purple one out? I think that may be next on my wish list!

[materialblonde]

Product of the Month

Avon Advance Techniques Dry Ends Serum

First things first, I need to stress how much looking after my hair actually needs.. after lots of battering over the years, and of course the drying out of blonde hair dyes, I have ended up with what I can only describe as 'cavegirl' type hair. The only positive thing out of this is I can tell when a product actually works or not.

I am always trying out new rescue remedy type products to attempt to make my hair look and feel like actual hair, not dried out straw.

I was recommended Avon Dry Ends Serum by a work colleague who said when she killed her hair from being blonde, this was something that really sorted her hair out and got it back to a good condition. If she hadn't told me about it I would have never tried this out and would have been completely oblivious to it's existence!

This. Is. The. Most. Amazing. Thing. Ever.

I use about 2 or 3 pumps on the palm of my hands and rub my hands together to ensure they are properly covered. I then get chunks of hair and rub them in my hands, concentrating at the ends - I often have 1 extra pump of serum just for this part. I always do this on damp or towel dried hair, and then either leave my hair to dry naturally or use the hair dryer.

I could not believe the difference in my hair, it felt so incredibly soft, like normal, healthy hair and looked in brilliant condition. I will continue to re-purchase this and cannot imagine not having it in my life - an absolute saviour!

If you have dry hair, particularly if you dye your hair blonde I cannot recommend this enough - and it's not even expensive! I think I paid £2.50 at the most for it, admittedly it was on offer but it seems to always be on offer in the Avon book, even full price is just over a fiver I seem to remember.

Has anyone else tried this or have any other suggestions of things to try out?

[materialblonde]

Weekly Nail Update

I have been really into my glitter nail varnish of late and was really eager to try out my new mirrorball one!

To create my look I used Alessandro Pro White Original as my base coat, then Umberto Giannini in Love Letter Blue, then lashings of Models Own in Freak Out!

After managing to permanently stain my nails due to years of painting my nails withnobasecoat (shock horror!) I now make sure I always use a basecoat when painting my nails without fail. I also find it makes the polish go on so much smoother and wish I had done this sooner.

I used Alessandro Pro White Original as a basecoat, I can't say I notice much of a difference to the colour of my nails when using this alone, luckily my discoloured nails have almost grown out so they look much better. I then used one coat of Umberto Giannini in Love Letter Blue, it is so pigmented and thick that one coat is more than enough. The colour is so dark it is easy to think it is Black.

I then used a lot of the Models Own to create a spangly topcoat. Rather than do loads of layers I just put a big gloop of the stuff on my nails and spread it around, topping up where there were any visible gaps of sparkle!

They look really nice and reflect the light well. I do not often go for blue nails, I do tend to swing more towards warmer colours but I think this makes a nice change. Certainly adds a bit of sparkle to Winter!

What do you think? Has anyone got any other suggestions of how to wear the Models Own Freak Out! Mirrorball nail varnish?

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Barry M Nail Paint Collection

I am a bit addicted to Barry M Nail Varnish.. I have 35 at the moment. I think they are amazing, not only are they cheap, they are good quality, brilliant colours and I love the bottles.

Whenever I want a new nail varnish I do try to keep it Barry M unless it's something they don't have. If there is ever a new effect out, it is usually Barry M that have them out first! I have separated my collection into three groups just to make it a little easier to talk about:

Nail Paints

Nail Effects

Nail Glitters

Firstly I will start off with the Nail Effects..

Nail Effects

I was so excited when I saw the Gelly Hi-Shine set was now available and picked it up in Pomegranate, I am yet to try this one however loved the Plum one a work colleague had on! I am interested to see if there is much difference in the texture/shine compared to their normal Nail Paints.

My favourites are the Magnetic Effects, I think they are so clever and will never get bored of them. I absolutely love the Gold Foil Effect one, it is so luxurious, has a really thick creamy texture and looks amazing on the nails.

I was really disappointed with the Croc Effect, I just could not get it to work at all, I followed instructions, I watched videos and read reviews and just had no luck with it all. I also was not too amazed with the Chameleon Colour Change, I think if there were some more vibrant shades out in this set it would be more interesting.

Nail Paints

Berry IceCream, Strawberry IceCream, Acid Yellow, Raspberry, and Blue Moon are my go to shades. I would say about two coats is all you ever need to get good coverage on any of the Nail Paints. Also in the Nail Paint Collection you might spot the Barry M Retro Purple, bit strange it's in a circular bottle, but is a nice rich colour. I am not one to be shy with bright colours on my nails and if ever there is a shade I am looking for, I can pretty much guarantee Barry M will have what I am looking for.

Nail Glitters

I am a sucker for anything sparkly, even though I dread taking it off as it is such hard work getting it all off!

I have never had so many compliments about my nails as I did wearing Pink Sapphire Glitter (far right), even people shopping in Boots were asking me about it!

I am looking forward to using Red Glitter over Christmas time!

I would love to see some of your Barry M collections, which one is all your all time favourite?

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Weekly Nail Update Extra

I ended up getting fed up of my hair catching under my Impress nails every 5 minutes and decided to give my new MUA Nail Constellations a try out!

To create the look I used No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Oyster and MUA Nail Constellations in Gemini.

I painted one coat of nail polish, left it to dry and then did another coat and while the second coat was still wet sprinkled the nail beads over. I was quite impressed with how well they stuck on and thought they looked amazing!

I was curious to see how long the beads would last, unfortunately they only lasted me a day before I took them off! I didn't use any top coat to help them stay put and will try this next time I give them a go. I think they add a bit of fun to nails and although I probably wont buy any other colours, definitely recommend giving them a go!

Has anyone else tried these out and found any good ways to keep the beads on the nails longer?

[materialblonde]

Weekly Nail Update

I have a little bit of an obsession with doing my nails, I have to do them every week, something new. I am also going to start selling my own hand painted nails, more on that soon!

So I say I do my nails every week.. however with the exception of this week.

All of this week I have been wearing Impress Nails in Totally Busted.

They are fluorescent orange and really more of a summer nail, however I can just about get away with it still.

I have a few pairs of the Impress Nails, and I have to say I am not sure I will be adding to my collection. I went bowling attemptedtobowl last week and my nails, that are always in a bad condition anyway, got ripped to shreds. I needed something quick to cover them up and was feeling too lazy to cut to shape and paint some false nails, these were perfect. They are what I would call an 'emergency nail' - and for this I will keep a pair on standby.

As great as they are for quickly sticking them on, I do find I have a few problems with them. Firstly I can never find the right size nails to perfectly cover all of my real nails, there is always a few nails that just will not fit any of the sizes included. I painted my nails orange first to try and hide any edges that may still be visible.

I also find that the nails do sometimes pop off, and so far I have had to glue on 3 nails in a week. The nails themselves however stay in good condition for ages, so I will still use them for next week as well.

Lastly I find that the sticky layer underneath means the nail actually rises quite high off your actual nail. I find when washing, brushing, or doing anything with my hair, my hair gets caught under the nails which is slightly annoying.

As great as they are for an instant nail cover up, I don't think they will replace normal false nails for me. I tend to not use false nails either that much, as my natural nails are always in such bad condition, no matter what I try to get them healthy!

[materialblonde]

September Empties

Well I only decided half way through September to give myself a kick up the bum and get my blog together so there would have been products added to this if I hadn't already thrown them away! The things I used up were:

Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in Peach Glow

Dove Roll on Deodorant in Pomegranate & Lemon Verbena Scent

Impulse Body Spray in Loving Words

Batiste Dry Shampoo in Lace

Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in Peach Glow- I am really pale and I find it so difficult to find something that does not look orange on me, I just instantly look for the lightest shade in any collection and hope for the best. This powder however was a knight in Rimmel shining armour! It has not only lasted for absolutely ages, but seemed to blend in well with my skin tone, and actually helped calm the colour of some liquid foundations that I used underneath it. Am definitely going to re-purchase this and is only about £4. Only thing I find annoying is all the writing has rubbed off the lid, as with a lot of make-up the packaging is not make-up bag proof!

Dove Roll on Deodorant in Pomegranate & Lemon Verbena Scent - Again, another product that has taken a long time to use up, I carry a roll on deodorant with me in my handbag every day to work, as it is great as a top up and as it's not a spray it wont smell the office out if you need a cheeky refresher. It seemed to do the trick and combat any feeling of sweatiness straight away. Only thing is, it was hard to tell when it was near to running out and I have now chosen a clear bottle for my next roll on.

Impulse Body Spray in Loving Words- As I can't smell it is kind of hard to tell how to review my experience with this, but I did not really get any compliments about the smell of this one, as soon as I ran out of this one and went on to the next spray I had a compliment, so I don't think I will buy this one again

Batiste Dry Shampoo in Lace- I am lucky with the fact I have blonde hair as the white residue that Batiste Dry Shampoo seems to leave behind is camouflaged. I don't think this one smelt as nice as the other dry shampoo's and I am now back to using the leopard print one that everyone comments smells lovely. I have seen some positive reviews of the VO5 dry shampoo so think I will give that a try when I next need to buy some

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Welcome to Material Blonde!

Well... it finally happened. After what seems like forever of following beauty blogs and watching countless youtube blog videos, I have finally made my own! I think I am as addicted to reading beauty blogs as I am buying products! Also a slightly random fact is that I have Anosmia (I have no sense of smell - yes really!). Things have a completely different take for me, I am certainly drawn to packaging. This means I have to read reviews quite a lot to get views on how things smell which is what led me to beauty blogs in the first place!

I hope you enjoy my blog once it's in full swing!