Friday, 22 February 2013

The risky business of cutting make up brushes (Royal Lip Brush)

I recently heard that having a square ended lip brush brings more precision to applying lipstick. As a lover of straight lines and a person who can't work in a room with wonky paintings, I decided getting a square ended brush would be great. Alas, being a cheap asian person, I decided to DIY my own cheap lip brush into a square ended one.

The Royal Lip Brush (the actual name, not a strange nickname I gifted it lol)

Originally a pointed lip brush that worked well, I've transformed it into this:







I did it purely by eye, around 5am. Not too bad right? I'll have to test it out later, but I'm pretty pleased. The point lip brush worked well, but I think a square ended brush will suit me better. If you do want to do this, I highly recommend wetting the brush first with water then gently fanning out the brush and cutting slowly. Nick off tiny bits at a time, and try to measure the brush against something straight.

*UPDATE*
I recently tried using this brush for lipstick - I got pretty good results!  

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Easy Nail Art - Super easy polka dot nails (ALL CREDIT to Small Good Things.com!)

Hey guys - since I paint my nails quite often I might as well start posting about them right? I'm no nail guru, I always sticks to easy design but maybe one day I'll start doing more difficult designs. I often browse the web for nice and easy tutorials and this one is credit to Small Good Things, check it out! (I understand that I've posted the same design before, just I've vastly improved with the tutorial help.)

http://www.small-good-things.com/archives/1542

And here's my attempt! Not too bad for a first try using a toothpick right?



Small Good Things is a great site, some nice and easy designs mixed in with some more difficult ones. Pretty please with this first attempt though, a thing to note is that when using a toothpick you might want to cut the end off to make it blunt for slightly bigger dots. Poke the dots gently, and never EVER rush. I messed up more than once on one nail because I didn't space the dots properly. A few extra seconds to consider the placement makes a MASSIVE difference!

Here's the stuff I used by the way, with a mini review next to each one in case you're thinking of buying them.

 2 Revlon nail varnishes, one in a very light blue and one in a bright silver. Neither are dark, but all you need are 2 contrasting colours.







The nail polishes are both from the Revlon's older collection, but you can still get them online I'm sure for much cheaper than drugstore price!

710 Cloud is a thin nail polish, but is in the "top speed" range, so dries really quick. 2 or 3 coats don't take long on each nail. I think with lighter colours you tend to find them to be thinner.

918 Silver Screen is a thick nail polish, a nice bright solid silver. 1 coat is enough of this stuff, so it's nice for doing dots.

Best top coat ever. Not cheap here in the UK, but Ebay is my best friend! I reccommend after painting your nails wait till they are DEFINITELY DRY then add a coat or to of this. Be very patient, even though it says insta-dri it's something that should be left along for a few minutes to be safe. 5 minutes is what I tend to wait - just watch a Youtube video while it's drying. Oh, when they said anti-chip they're not joking. A good week of wear will always lead to the tip of the nail wearing away, but with this it's very minimal, I could probably keep a manicure decent for 2 weeks if I was good with this.


And finally, the wonderful toothpick. A strong pointed toothpick is good, I cut the end off mine and filed it down with a nail file to get it even. Worked pretty well, but be patient with the actual dotting and don't start until the nail is decently dry.




 Well, that's all from me for today ^^ see you all later! 








Saturday, 12 January 2013

It's been a while... and New Year's Resolutions.


Sorry.

It's been a while.

I've been lazy, and nothing much has happened.

Then again, it's not like I have an actual audience xD

This blog was started for me, and since it's a new year, I suppose I should make more of an effort.

My New Year Resolution:

"do something interesting every weekend! I tend to be in places for years and never fully explore what's in them which is lame since I love exploring things. Gonna eat everywhere, see everything and fb all the weird things!"

As quoted from my facebook.

And for now, that's all I've gotta say :)

Here's a fun picture to end things.













And that's why I love the internet.

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

REVIEW: Revlon Nail Polish/Varnish: 863 Ruby Ribbon and 919 Black Lingerie



Hey guys! I bought these polishes a little while ago, but only recently used them. Here's a quick review :)



919, Black Lingerie. A pretty intense black in the bottle, but on nails? It's actually a bit streaky. One thin coat and I could see the lines of my nails show through. Nevertheless, it is still very good! 2 thin coats (the way it should be done really) is great for this one, and it is a nice true black when applied. 




A nice, very opaque polish. A darker red, more like burgundy if anything. Has some nice silver shimmer to it, applies well. You could do well with just one coat of this stuff.





And here's a quick pattern I did - my first time doing it with a hairpin actually. You get a hair pin/ bobby pin and bend it so it looks like a V shape. Use one of the bobble ends to make nail varnish dots you your nail.








Overall, Revlon have a pretty go reputation for nail varnishes so I do recommend them! 
See you later guys! :)








Wednesday, 3 October 2012

Wantage Hall Mini Tour with Pictures + Freshers Fayre 2012!



Wantage Hall Mini Tour with Pictures!

So I just came back from the Freshers Fayre - free pizza and people throwing leaflets pretty much sums it up. Bear in mind that Reading hosts 2 Fayres, one for normal societies and one for sports societies. I'll definitely go to the sports one as well, but here's a few pictures to give you guys a taste!

Here's a picture of my room from the door to give you a idea. The last picture of my room I put up was lousy, but the fact still remains that these rooms are pretty big for what they are.









And here it is again from the other side of the room :D Just to note, my room is the very basic. You can get rooms with basins as well, but it costs more.
 My corridor.












And here is one of the entrances.


 Some other flats in the same area.
 And here is the dining hall! It's pretty cool right? Like Hogwarts :3

This is what you first see when you first come through the entrance! Pretty nice - but I don't live here as you can see. This area is called Old Court - filled with international students and older students from the university. Their rooms tend to be bigger and have more furniture.






 See that brown door under the tree? That's how you get to the dining room and the other flats.











And here are the stairs to get to the flats and The Baa room. And yes, it's called The Baa.











The right side of Old Court.












Aaaaand the left side.















And most importantly...



One of the bathrooms in Wantage! Very VERY clean and pristine. Only finished 2 days before we arrived! Behind the blue door there's the shower but I couldn't take a decent picture of it as if I closed the bathroom door the room could be too small to take a decent picture of everything.




FRESHERS FAYRE!!

In fairness, the pictures do kinda suck. There were so many people and as someone only 5 foot 3/4 it was hard to take pictures.

The guy in the tinfoil was trying to get people to join the systems engineering society.

 Ahaha the guy with the hoodie walked up to me straight after I took this photo and handed me a leaflet for the photography society - bad timing since I don't really wanna join xD









Some things were inside, but the societies were outside in a tent.










Now this was fun. This is a mini race course littered with small plastic army men. Two guy trying to raise awareness of drink driving asked people to control the remote control car while "sober" and timed you. Then, they handed you a pair of goggles simulating the same vision as beer goggles and timed you again to see the difference. I killed 7 people while wearing the goggles and 3 people while sober. Doesn't look promising does it? I haven't got my real license yet. They also let you wear the beer goggles and asked you to try walking in a straight line - I didn't do too badly at that.











































The Aftermath!



So many leaflets and bags!










Food leaflets, there was a Domino's stand that was giving out free pizza! xD











Entrepreneurship society, Think Tanks, job recruitments....











There were some people from the NHS who were giving leaflets and info on mental illness - pretty handy if you feel the pressure is too much. And the give blood stand told me that I couldn't give blood ): Apparently you have to been a certain weight if you're between 5"3 and 5"4. I think you have to be 8st something - which I'm not. This is because a study showed that women under 5"6 who weren't a certain weight were more likely to faint while giving or after giving blood. But I can donate when I'm 20 though!




OK guys, that's all from me today!