Oooooh Prety - Love & Toast

Oooooh Prety - Love & Toast

I first saw Love & Toast products in Space NK last summer, they were on the counter, and whilst I was paying for something I had a play with the testers, I remember thinking how much I loved the smell of one of the hand creams and that next time I needed one I would go back and get that one.....but it went completely out of my head and needless to say I never went back to get it!

At the beginning of this month it was my birthday, and whilst having cupcakes with the girls one of my gorgeous friends gave me a little pink package!  It was the Love & Toast sugar grapefruit hand cream I had loved so much last summer! I was actually quite excited about this product (I know, I know, simple things) and the best bit was that she had no idea I wanted it, she chose it because it was pink....I guess that sums up the perfect gift for me!

Love & Toast have a whole range of gorgeous products, all of which are made from natural, organic ingredients and best of all the are Paraben free and contain no mineral oils, Sulfates or artificial colourings. They also never test on animals.  Even the cute packaging is recyclable.

This is the Sugar Grapefruit Hand cream, it smells so fresh and clean and instantly leaves the skin hydrated.  The key ingredients that make this cream so great are Shea butter, Avocado & Sunflower oil, Macadamia Nut and Olive Fruits. Despite having rich ingredients this is a really light weight cream which makes it a perfect  hand bag product!

Sugar grapefruit is just one of six fragrances so I'm sure you will find one you love!  Let me know what you think or if you have tried any of the other products from the Love & Toast range that you think I should try!

Stay gorgeous

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Oooooh Prety - Texas baby!

Oooooh Prety - Texas baby! 
 Calling all urban cowgirls and city slickers..... this is who OPI had in mind when launching their latest range of nail varnishes, The Texas Collection!

This collection consists of 12 juicy colours that are perfect for staying on trend this spring time!
OPI describes them as
Big Hair....Big Nails and Guy Meets Gal-veston - the sunniest peaches and corals
Y'all Come Back You Hear? and Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em - Vivid orange and honeysuckle
Do You Think I'm Tex-y? and Houston We Have a Purple - beautiful berries
San Tan-Tonio and Suzi Loves Cowboys - rich neutrals
Austin-tatious Turquoise, I Vant to Be A-lone Star, Dont Mess With OPI and Its Totally Fort Worth It - bodacious blue, green and lavenders.

All the colours are super shiney and a few of them have a "sorbet like" finish which gives a slightly sheer look to the varnish once on the nails.

 

Out of the whole collection these are my two favourites, Austin-tatious Turquoise and Guy Meets Gal-veston!

So for all you stylistas out there who are loving the colour pop trend, make sure you are using your nails as the perfect acessory!

So to sum up the Texas Collection gets a Yee-Ha from me!

See Y'all soon!

Stay gorgeous

Grace x

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Oooooh Prety - Pink Leopard Print!

Oooooh Prety - Pink Leopard Print!
I never used to be able to paint my nails for a couple of reasons! One, it's slightly impractical for work and two, i would become obsessed with them! I would literally look at them all the time, i would even brush my teeth holding the tooth brush so i could see my nails in the mirror! But now that I seem to have grown out of that phase and can handle the excitement, I have gone completely the other way, i don't like not having my nails painted and the brighter the better!

My nails are currently Pink Leopard Print!

To get this look i used OPI's Guy meets Gal-veston, a bright pink varnish from their most recent range 'Texas'. Once i had applied two coats of the varnish and gave it time to dry i used the Konad stamping kit with plate M57 with black varnish to apply the leopard print design, so simple but looks really effective, so much so i feel a YouTube tutorial coming on!

You can use any base colour to achieve this look, and it looks great on long or short nails!

Hope you give it a go!

Stay gorgeous

Grace x

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Oooooh Prety - PRODUCT REVIEW - Nina L'Elixir

Oooooh Prety - PRODUCT REVIEW - Nina L'Elixir

This is such a beautiful perfume I had to do a little review and tell you how gorgeous it is!
Nina L'Elixir is the latest perfume to be launched from the Nina range and is just, if not more magical than the others.  They are calling it "A love potion for the modern woman", with the harmonious blend of scents it has a very warm, suductive, feminine feel to it.

Top Notes - Caipirinha Lime and Calabrian Lemon give a fresh twist
Middle Notes - Jasmine and Red Fruits give a sweet, fruity fragrance
Base Notes - Ceadarwood, Cotton Musk and Warm Amber give warmth and a slight oriental aroma

Theres something about this perfume that is slightly whimsical and fairytale like, you can't help but feel pretty whilst wearing it!

Another great thing is the bottle, a beautiful jewel like apple shaped bottle, with graduating colour from clear to deep decadent red, it has a silver leaf detailed spray and stopper and will look divine on your dressing table!

It comes in 30ml and 50ml and is available from most department stores.

Although it hasnt worked for me as a love potion (yet!) I absolutely love it and think every girl should go and try it out, you never know, one spray and your prince charming could appear!

I hope you love it as much as I do.

Stay gorgeous

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Oooooh Prety - Shatter!

Oooooh Prety - Shatter!
I just wanted to tell about one of my favourite nail products.
Black Shatter is from OPI and is so simple to use.

With nail art making a come back this season, using this product is a great way to achieve an on trend look with out much expense or spending hours trying to get your nails looking perfect!

The idea behind Black Shatter is that as it dries on the nail it gives a crackle effect and the colour you used as your base will pop through. You can use any colour you like or even use it as part of a french manicure to get a different look!

The key to using this product is to work fairly fast with it as the varnish dries very quickly and once its on the nail it doesn't have much movement, i have put a tutorial video on my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LclWeTh0Yw if you want to see a demo.
Because its a crackle effect no two nails will look exactly the same which is great as it will never show any mistakes! I have added a few photos to show you the kind of things you could do but just have fun with it and add your own creative spin! 

I hope you like this product as much as i do, its definitely an essential item for my nail kit!

Stay Gorgeous

Grace x

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Oooooh Prety - All that glitters....Is not always good!

Oooooh Prety - All that glitters....Is not always good!
Now i never thought i would ever say that!

If i can add glitter to something i will, Nails, Make Up, Clothes....a sparkling accessory will brighten up any ones day.  Even when we were introduced to the Vajazzle by the 'The Only Way Is Essex' despite being slightly sceptical at first, once i saw that it involved sparkly diamante they had me shouting "shut up, i love it" in no time, in fact i could take as far as to say, My name is Grace Kingsley and I'm addicted to glitter!

That was until my Tuesdays nights were taken over by 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding'! My normal Tuesday evening routine consists of the latest issue of Look magazine and a cuppa, curled up on the sofa.  When i saw this programme advertised i knew it was going to be right up my street, and judging by the amount of comments on Facebook and Twitter after the first show about 10 million other peoples too!  Now as a self confessed glitter junkie (and believe me it hurts to even think this!), Surely these girls are taking just a tad too far! I swear there was enough crystals on one wedding dress to sink a battleship.....But i still secretly love it!

I think there is a fine line between just the right amount of glitter and looking like a disco ball!  So here are a few tips to pulling it off the right way!

Part of this seasons fashions are based around a subtle amount of glitter with gorgeous metallics and rich looking gun metal silvers.  These colours can be carried through to your clothes, shoes and hand bags (although maybe not all at the same time!) or maybe you would prefer to start smaller by using a shimmering grey eye shadow to get a smokey eye look or add a splash of sparkle to your nails.

I have a few favourite nail varnishes which will keep you looking fabulous and on trend, they are from OPI, which in my opinion are the best nail varnishes for quality and last ages.

The first one is My Private Jet, its dark grey with a rainbow metallic running through it. I love this as its still got that pop of colour even though its dark and edgy!

The second one is called 'Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous', this is a beautiful gun mental metallic grey and is spot on for spring '11 fashion trends.

And finally the third is 'Light My Sapphire'.  This ones breaks the fashion rules slightly, it verges on the side of blue/black rather than grey but its such a great colour.  It has a very slight amount of shimmer. 

The perfect way to wear these darker colours is to keep your nails shorter and neatly shaped, you really don't need great long talons for this look to work. Also remember you choose a fabulous clutch bag to compliment your beautifully fashionable nails!

There are so many ways to be on trend, but I think the key is to keep it simple...........Maybe somebody should tell the girls from My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding!

Grace x

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The Daily Nails - ZOYA CAITLIN & DOVE PROMO

The Daily Nails - ZOYA CAITLIN & DOVE PROMO 
Get Zoya Dove and Zoya Caitlin FREE with ANY** purchase on Zoya.com

Limited time only

Special Promotional Offer*!

Try the Zoya "French Twist" manicure created by Haven Spa for the Joy Cioci presentation at NYFW! For a limited time with any** purchase (excluding Zoya Color Spoons) on Zoya.com you get Zoya Nail Polish in Caitlin and Zoya Nail Polish in Dove for free!! Just enter the code ZB52 when you check out! These trend setting spring colors are MUST have in any collection! This offer is only good until Monday May 23 (11:59PM EST)! Act now and try the "twist" everyone is talking about!

*Online only, cannot be combined with any other offer , promotion or coupon. US ONLY. Promotion ends Monday May 23 at 11:59 PM EST. Offer good for 1(one) open stock .5 oz bottle of Zoya Caitlin  and 1(one) .5oz bottle Zoya Dove with the purchase of any NON-SPOON item on Zoya.com. Art of Beauty Inc. will not honor promotions that are submitted after promotion has ended - No exceptions. No exchanges. No returns. Worst case scenario please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Comments, videos and pictures posted about this Zoya Nail Polish Exchange outside of Zoya.com or zoyanailpolish.blogger.com are not representative of the opinions of Zoya Nail Polish, Art of Beauty, Inc., Qtica and Qtica Smart Spa and we do not confirm the accuracy of any postings. Customers are responsible for maintaining active accounts. If username or password have been lost we (Art of Beauty, Inc.) are not responsible for restoring accounts or giving out any account information. S/H not included. 

**offer excludes Zoya Color Spoons.

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The Daily Nails - The Real Dill

The Daily Nails - The Real Dill

I used butter LONDON Dosh as a base for all nails, and over top of the nail pearls on the bumpy nails. On the bumpy nails, I used Dare 2 Wear Rio De Janeiro, Icing True Beauty, and RBL No More War, and MAC Dry Martini to sponge over butter LONDON Dosh. For the pickle inside nails (thumb and ring) I used Dare 2 Wear Rio De Janeiro over the base color, then mixed with American Apparel California Trooper and some Icing True Beauty to make the highlights and shadows of the seeds. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

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daily nails - OPI Stranger Tide

daily nails - OPI Stranger Tide

Murky beiged/pistacho creme

Not sure how to describe this, but I adore it. ADORE. IT. Something different there that doesn't remind me of any of my other polishes, which is hard to do. I can see me wearing this polish a lot. Go OPI! :) 

Opacity scale (1-5): 2.5

Use for Konad: Not great for darker or lighter colors really. It does show up on both, just not very well.

Finish: Creme, 2-3 coats to be opaque - depends on application


What it really comes down to:


As I stated before, these colors really don't make me think of Pirates of the Caribbean, but some of them confused me more than others. That said, all 7 colors are well-executed colors. They applied lovely, the colors were fairly unique - and great for pastel-ish colors, and they're colors that most people can (and will) wear. I'll definitely don one of these color combinations when I watch Pirates (or perhaps all of them!?!)

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daily nails - OPI Mermaid's Tears

daily nails - OPI Mermaid's Tears

Aqua creme

Love this color!  It really is a beautiful turquoise/aqua color. For some reason, when I first opened the bottle, it made me think of OPI Damone Roberts 1968, so above you see a swatch comparison, and as you can see, DR is MUCH lighter and greener. I've actually been wearing this color with silver Shatter for almost a week - can you say RARE?!  I really like this color, but it's not my favorite of the collection,  however, it's runner-up. ;)

Opacity scale (1-5): 2.5

Use for Konad: Probably the best of the 6 on lighter colors, but still not wonderful. Not great stamping on darker colors either.

Finish: Creme, 2-3 coats to be opaque - depends on application

 

 

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daily nails - OPI Sparrow Me the Drama

daily nails - OPI Sparrow Me the Drama
Medium pink creme. 

I'll be honest, not a huge fan of this color, and not entirely sure how it fits into a Pirates themed collection, but I can see the appeal to someone who enjoys pink polishes. I will say that this color sticks out underneath the silver Shatter, which I can totally appreciate. :)

Opacity scale (1-5): 2.5

Use for Konad: So-so stampig on lighter colors, but not great on darker colors.

Finish: Creme, 2-3 coats to be opaque - depends on application

 

 

 

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daily nails - OPI Skull and Glossbones

daily nails - OPI Skull and Glossbones

Ecru Creme

I think this color is one of my favorites of this collection, though not terribly unique. It evokes thoughts of Johnny Depp in not-so-clean looking pirate garb. *drool*  The Shatter effect is again very subtle over this muted color.

Opacity scale (1-5): 2.5

Use for Konad: Not great for stamping on lighter or darker colors. 

Finish: Creme, 2-3 coats to be opaque - depends on application

 

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daily nails - OPI Steady As She Rose

daily nails - OPI Steady As She Rose

Pale pink putty with just a hint of blue or lilac undertone.

Not a bad pink at all, coverage was great, and this actually doesn't hate my skin tone. :)

Opacity scale (1-5): 2.5

Use for Konad: Better for darker colors than light, but not great for either.

Finish: Creme, 2-3 coats to be opaque - depends on application

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daily nails - OPI Pirates of the Caribbean Planks a Lot!

daily nails - OPI Pirates of the Caribbean Collection OPI Planks a Lot!

That said, the colors are fabulous, and the silver shatter is brilliant. (even though it doesn't show as much as I'd hoped over the muted colors)  

More thoughts after the photos- on to the swatches!

Bright pastel purple creme

This polish is a very pretty purple- a little darker than the average pastel, but I'd still consider it a pastel, though a strong one. :)  The silver shatter didn't really stand out over this one, they're too similar in density of color perhaps?

Opacity scale (1-5): 2.5

Use for Konad: So-so for stamping, doesn't show up amazingly on darker or lighter colors.

Finish: Creme, 2-3 coats to be opaque - depends on application

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daily nails - American Apparel Neon Orange

daily nails - American Apparel Neon Orange

Since the launch of their initial line of polishes, I've been a HUGE fan of American Apparel polishes, listing many of them amongst my absolute favorite polishes. Naturally, when I got the information that they were releasing a NEON collection, I was super stoked! OK, on to the swatches! In the collection, there are 6 colors, Neon Orange, Neon Yellow, Neon Green, Neon Coral, Neon Purple, and Neon Red, and today, I have 3 of those to show you!

Bear in mind that neons photograph horribly, and photos never do them justice. These are truly retina searing (especially the Neon Yellow!!)

Neon tangerine orange

This is full on neon Kraft Macaroni & Cheese orange. Formula was a tad on the thick side, but still workable. I found that this was shinier than most neons I've tried, but not glossy by any stretch. I enjoy this color, it's super fun! :-P The second picture, though blurry, is closer to the actual brightness of the color. In my head I'm thinking this is very similar to China Glaze Sun Worshipper, I'll have to do a comparison later.

Opacity scale (1-5): 3

Use for Konad: Stamps ok on lighter colors, but not darker colors.

Finish: Neon, 2-3 coats to be opaque.

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daily nails - American Apparel Neon Green

daily nails - American Apparel Neon Green

Neon lime green

This color is awesome. I love that it's opaque and EXTREMELY bright. A bit thick again on this formula, which made this one a tad harder to even out.

Opacity scale (1-5): 3

Use for Konad: Stamps ok on lighter colors, but not great on darker colors.

Finish: Neon, 2-3 coats to be opaque.

 

 

 

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daily nails - American Apparel Neon yellow

daily nails - American Apparel Neon yellow

Neon lime green

This color is awesome. I love that it's opaque and EXTREMELY bright. A bit thick again on this formula, which made this one a tad harder to even out.

Opacity scale (1-5): 3

Use for Konad: Stamps ok on lighter colors, but not great on darker colors.

Finish: Neon, 2-3 coats to be opaque.

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