The science of making a MAC polish last

For the record: I love nail polish, I truly do, but some of them are tricky to work with..

Though I love it, my nails don't seem to be made for polish, so I try to work around it. Especially the formula of MAC nail polish can be really problematique..

There are enough brands out there that provide awesome colours and so I usually don't bother, but sometimes MAC releases polishes that I just can't resist, for example: Peppermint Petti.. (the right one in the picture below)


And after I experminented and cursed a lot I found a way to make the polishes last perfectly. So here's the miracle step by step way, that worked for me:

1. You need these two babies! -> China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat and China Glaze No-Chip Top Coat
2. Make sure your nails are clean and start with one coat of the Strong Adhesion Base Coat and let it dry for one minute or so - it dries pretty fast
3. When this is done you go over that with two or three coats of your MAC polish
4. Finish with one coat of the No-Chip Top Coat and let it try for some minutes.
5. The last part, which makes a real difference I found out, is the use of drying drops! I tried three different: Opi, Zoya and Qtica:
   
6. I prefer the Opi Drip Dry or the Qtica Half Time drops. The Zoya Hurry Up drops didn't convince me fully yet, and especially with MAC polishes I need the best.

With the drops it is dry to touch after a minute and completely dry after five minutes. I love these drops!! :-)

So this is how the final steps should look like:

:-)

Hope this was useful!!

P.s.: I will talk about dry drops again in detail in one of the next posts.

Love,
Guinevere

MAC Masterclass Part 2

So here is the second part with more photos and some detail infos. I promised to give you a detailed description and guess what I don't find it. .

It's somewhere I know it, but wel,l for now I can only provide you with some guidelines I remember. If it shows up, and it will, I naturally upload it.

Besides some nice appetisers every participant got a MAC file with infos of the MUA, some sheets of paper with the MAC Logo!!! and a MAC pencil!! Yes, really! Felt like christmas...

I got my MUA info signed.. :-)

And here the glorious Sheets and Pencil. I'll probably never use them, but that's okay for me. Lol..


And here are the pics of Pablo working on the models. The quality isn't that great, I was actually sitting pretty far away and they were all taken with the closest zoom..






Here some things that I found most interesting. The first look:

He used over the black lined brows and eyes clear gloss for the shiny effect and did the lips without a lipliner. It's so different when you see a MUA's specialised in photoshoots doing their job than MUA's who create looks that are supposed to last. This look is only wearable for a short time without getting smudged all over.

The second one:

This was a lot more effort, but also a lot of fun. :-) What stood out the most was the way he colour the lower lashes. That was what I remember the most of the whole masterclass: He put a pencil under the lashes and started putting Fascinating eyekohl all over the lashes, with the pencil technique nothing landed on the face and the result was overwhelming. Loved it!

And last, but not least: Pablo and his equipment, I always love to see the kits and range other artists use. So I thought I share them as well:


I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed the masterclass.

P.s.: I uploaded all the pics in their original size, so just click on them and you can see the photo really large

Love,
Guinevere

MAC Masterclass

It's been a while since my last post, so sorry, was a stressful time..

Some months ago I attended a MAC Masterclass and I thought I share some pictures with you.

I'll split this post in two parts. In this post I will show you some overview pictures and in the next some details about the presenting Make Up Artist and a list and guide of the products he used to achieve the shown looks.

Enjoy!


They presented us two looks, here some pics with the first model and the end result.


And here the second look, which was Twiggy inspired as one can see.


I enjoyed this Masterclass so much, I wish they would do it more often, but I gues our country is just too small for that..

So stay tuned, the second post about the Masterclass with details comes soon!!

Love,
Guinevere

Last Part of Illamasqua Swatches Project - Pencils, Eyeshadows

Good morning!

So here is the last part of my big Illamasqua Swatching Session.

Let's start with their pencils - I love them, the formula is great and the colour range is, as usual, extraordinary.

And finally!!! the eyeshadows - as you can see I didn't swatch all of them, I just was so exhausted after three hours, I just swatched the ones which seemed special.

Enjoy!!

My next posts will be about some products I recently bought and reviews about these hauls. Also I wanna do a look and a review with some drugstore products. :-)

Love,
Guinevere

Urban Decay Primer Potion Depotting Project

Something not Illamasqua related.. Lol

I decided to depot it, because nothing came out anymore and so I wanted to try it and damn how much product was left in there - I have to say I'm really pissed that they chose this packaging, looking lovely aside, it's really not fair that one has to cut it open to get all the product that's in there.

Well, here is my "how to" UDPP depotting description:

1.: What you need:

• a knife
• your UDPP (I have the jumbo version, so don't be suprised that mine is so big)
• a jar where you put the product in
  

2.: Cut it open where I made the lines to get the product out easily.

Here's the shocking result:

Now you use your wand or whatever has a convenient shape to get out as much as you can.
And that's what I got:

Unbelievable, isn't it?

And lastly - this is really important - put it in a jar that is airtight!! It can dry out pretty easily and no one wants that..

And that's it, it's quite simple. :-)

I hope this was useful. Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Guinevere

Illamasqua Creme Eyeshadows

I love creme eyeshadows and the colour variety Illamasqua offers is really unbelievable! I wish I could own them all..

That's for posts today, I'll finish with my Illamasqua review project soon. :-)

Love
Guinevere

Illamasqua Illuminators - Eye Cakes - Pigments

As probably all of you know Illamasqua has released two new pigments, I was in Glasgow before the Dystopia Collection came out, so don't wonder that they are missing.

With the cakes it was quite difficult to get a good swatch without liquid, especially the eye liner cakes were utterly uncooperative.. Nevertheless, with liquid the work great. So don't be scared!

I really loved the Illuminators.. The consistency is a dream and the pigmentation so high, that you only need a tiny tiny bit of product.

I'll post pictures of the store itself too. :-)

Love,
Guinevere

Illamasqua Lipglosses

Today I'm a good girl - here are the glosses - sheer and intense. :-)


Guinevere

Illamasqua Part 2 - Lips!

The deal of the day - lipsticks!! Again: I swatched all they had in the store.

Enjoy.

The consistency of their lipsticks is really soft and smooth. Just how a good lipstick is supposed to be. :-)
Stay tuned, the lipglosses come next.

Love,
Guinevere

Illamasqua!!!!!

Finally..

The story behind the swatches - I was in Scotland for a few days with my honey and I went to the Illamasqua store in Glasgow. I stood there almost three hours and swatches almost their whole product range..

Many people thought I was one of the staff and I even sold an eyeshadow to a woman! lol..

Here are the results of my hard, hard work..

Let's start off with the nail polishes. I swatched all the colors they had in the store. I admit that I'm too lazy to write every name of each polish on it, but I'm sure you see quite easy which is which - just go to their website and compare :-)


One is with flash and the other one without. I think the pics turned out quite accurate. Enjoy!