What a Spark-tacular Saturday!

Hi my beauties,
Today I will be bringing to you my Nail of the Day (NOTD) look, as it's a look that has landed me a lot of compliments this week.
I recently recieved a parcel from a friend and inside were some (very) belated Christmas Gifts. One of the items my friend found for me was the Sephora by OPI Top Coat in Spark-tacular.
This top coat is just alive with colour and vibrancy. The clear top coat is filled to the brim with multi-coloured glitter and shards of reflective foil, giving a jewel-like effect to your nails.

I noticed that Spark-tacular includes a lot of silver, so I wanted to accentuate this.
I Started with OPI's base and top coat, then painted my entire nail an ice blue shade using Miss Sporty Lasting Nail Colour (this is available at Superdrug in the UK). I applied two light coats to the entire nail, and one coat just to my nail tips for definition. I then followed this with two coats of OPI Spark-tacular and voilá! Vibrant and fun, sparkly nails fit for hazy spring days dancing in the sunshine.

I love this look as my nails look so carefree, and ice blue silver tones remind me of diamonds glinting in the sun.
I would highly recommend OPI Spark-tacular top coat as it is so versatile at transforming the look of any base coat colour. The quality of the polish is fantastic, as is the case with all OPI's nail lacquers. On this occassion I didn't even apply a clear top coat to seal in the glitter and I have yet to notice any chipping or flaking. I would reccommend that you do use a top coat however, to prolong the colour and give a smoother finish.
Spark-tacular was purchased at Sephora in the USA, check out www.sephora.com for more amazing "Sephora by OPI" shades!
I hope you enjoyed my Nails of the Day everyone, I'm sure you'll see me doing a lot more looks with Spark-tacular soon!
CV
xoxo

A Curious Awol Adventure.

My beauties. I'm sorry. I've been away for so long. I am one lazy blogger! Today is a leap year, so I feel the need to dive straight back into blogging and shirk my lazy ways.

I've been trying to think of all the beautiful new products I've got my hands on recently.
One thing I've acquired are some new circle lenses. These will be my third pair and they are GORGEOUS! They are the EOS Pure gray v-201 lenses (not to be confused with the Max Pure series). The design is very natural with a 14.2mm diameter, so I expect that they are very comfortable.
I intend to wear these at the weekend so stand by for a post on these.

One product that I would really love to try is the Botanics Sensitive Oil Free Moisturiser which is meant to be really beneficial if you have oily skin, like me.
I am already a huge fan of the Botanics Soothing Eye Makeup Remover; an oil-based formula that tackles even the most stubborn waterproof mascara (mine being Max Factor False Lash Effect Waterproof).
So, being a fan of the range and hearing such rave reviews about Botanics Sensitive Oil Free Moisturiser you're likely to see a review here soon.

Well, this is me signing off for now. I won't leave it so long next time.

Night my beauties
CV
xoxo

What makeup means to me?

Recently, MissChievous hosted a giveaway competition on YouTube to win $1000 worth of Sigma goodies, and for a budding guru this is a competition prize I just could not pass up!
One of the requirements of her giveaway was to post a video response detailing what makeup means to you?
So, I thought about my answer, I didn't want to make a huge video but just a quick response. Maybe I'll go into more detail in a vlog one day. I just think that even though this is a contest question, it's a great idea for a TAG anyway.

For me I use makeup for many reasons:

As Camouflage: As a long-term acne sufferer I use makeup in order to conceal my flaws and to help me feel better about my bad skin. I am extremely careful about what products I use on my skin, in order not to exacerbate my acne. I prefer Mineral powder and meticulously remove my makeup every evening.

For Self-Expression & exploring my creativity: I love art and design as well as photography, so I like to create new makeup looks as a way of expressing myself. I especially like creating nail art designs, and using different colours of eyeshadow than the normal neutral shades.

For Therapy: I find watching tutorials and gurus on YouTube very theraputic and when I'm having a bad day or feel stressed this is what I like to do to calm down. Also I feel that applying makeup carefully and taking your time to decide how your look will turn out is very calming.

For Entertainment: Finally, with the birth of my new channel I'm using makeup for entertainment. I have taken great inspiration from some fantastic gurus on YouTube, which has lead me to want to share my opinions, tutorials and knowledge with you all! I know my channel is very new, but I hope to produce more videos and slowly achieve my own style so that I can become an established guru one day!


I hope you enjoyed my post on what makeup means to me? If you're not already Subscribed to Julia's [MissChievous] channel, please check her out here! She has so many great videos and I love her personality, she's so bubbly! Sadly, the giveaway is closed now but I'd love to know what makeup means to all of you! Leave a comment below.

Natalie
xoxo

Coastal Scents

It's a lazy Sunday. I had a horrible night's sleep, and for some reason my knee caps ache. I thought I'd cheer myself up by placing my FIRST EVER order with Coastal Scents.

So, I went on the website was about to place an order but saw the shipping prices were so high for England. I emailed saying I wanted to buy the Combo Set Number 5 for review on my YouTube channel, and did they have any cheaper shipping options? I know, it's cheeky, but if you don't ask, you don't get!
I went away and later received an email back from Coastal Scents. They were thrilled I wanted to review their products, and as a thank you had sent me a Gift Certificate!
I had to re-read the email, I thought it was a joke. I used the code and it worked! I'm over the moon!

I've placed an order for combo set 5 which looks like this:

You get the Original 88 palette, Ultra Shimmer 88 palette, Warm palette, and Metal Mania palette.
Well my beauties, if I can't create endless looks with this purchase then I don't know what else I can!

So, a MASSIVE THANK YOU to Coastal Scents for giving me this opportunity. I can't wait for my package to arrive! I look forward to featuring these on my channel, keep watching!

xoxo

Twitter, Sigma and other curious online entities!

So, I recently signed up to twitter so I can blah blah blah about one of my life's passions: Makeup.
I can also follow the gurus and industry individuals and companies I really admire.

So, you can imagine one day that I was shocked to find one of my favourite companies, Sigma, is following ME! I was checking my new followers and there Sigma was, I didn't really believe it at first but, hey. I guess that's the beauty of Twitter.
After seeing that @Sigma_Affiliates was also following me I decided to become a member of their affiliate programme, which is exciting as it means I get the chance to review their products and tell all my beautiful followers what brushes and products absolutely ROCK!

If you would like to see their site click the banner above ^ ^ ^ and to my International beauties, Sigma ships WORLDWIDE!

On another note I started following one of my favourite gurus Koren of @EnKoreMakeup who posted a tweet saying: So, if you use HD Makeup for HD film and camera. What do we use for new 3-D trend? Oh dear... crisis! discuss...

I tweeted him back saying: @EnKoreMakeup Easy: Paint one eye blue and one eye Red making good use of coloured eyeliner and marcara too ;) which he found funny and so gave me a retweet, and the message: EnKoreMakeup @CuriousVisage haha best one ever!

:D That made me smile. I'm just loving social networking at the moment, it's a real boost for budding gurus.

So if you want to follow me click the link below:


If you want to check out my rambling on YouTube it's: http://www.youtube.com/CuriousVisage and if you want to check out the wares Sigma has to offer, either click the banner above OR

Click here to visit www.sigmabeauty.com

Well my beautiful ones, that's all from me. Hope you have a great Bank Holiday weekend (if you're in the UK), a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend to my beauties on the American continent and a great weekend anyway to everyone else!
I'll upload some more YT Videos soon :D

CV
xoxo

Foundations I covet!

Lately I've not been loving my Esteé Lauder Double Wear foundation as much as when I bought it. I've been using my Lauder foundation for a few years now and I think it's time for a change.
But I'm worried it will be a grass-always-greener situation!

The foundation products I want to try at the moment are the Dr. Jart+
Rejuvenating Blemish Base SPF 35 PA++ AND Revlon Colorstay Foundation for Combination/Oily skin

I really wanted to try BB cream but I need a formula that stays put on oily skin for the impending summer months. I've heard a lot of good things on YT about Revlon Colorstay, and so this intrigues me too.

So, as for the two foundations in comparison they offer completely different levels of SPF protection. The Dr. Jart+ has SPF35 pa++ which is a high UVA/UVB sunscreen, whereas the Colorstay only offers SPF6 a low UVB protection. This has both up and downsides: the Colorstay will not protect too much against UV rays, but won't give too much of a white-cast on camera. The Dr.Jart+ will give good sunscreen coverage, but due to physical barriers will give a stark white-cast so won't photograph well.

I think the collective price for these two items will be £29.29 for 80ml of product. My Esteé Lauder Double Wear is £25.50 for 30ml...I think that justifies my foundation gluttony ;)

♥

So, watch this space (probably for weeks via a sasa haul!) for these foundations.

CV
xoxo

Things I want to try!

Lately I've not been loving my Esteé Lauder Double Wear foundation as much as when I bought it. I've been using my Lauder foundation for a few years now and I think it's time for a change.
But I'm worried it will be a grass-always-greener situation!

The foundation products I want to try at the moment are the Dr. Jart+
Rejuvenating Blemish Base SPF 35 PA++ AND Revlon Colorstay Foundation for Combination/Oily skin

I really wanted to try BB cream but I need a formula that stays put on oily skin for the impending summer months. I've heard a lot of good things on YT about Revlon Colorstay, and so this intrigues me too.

So, as for the two foundations in comparison they offer completely different levels of SPF protection. The Dr. Jart+ has SPF35 pa++ which is a high UVA/UVB sunscreen, whereas the Colorstay only offers SPF6 a low UVB protection. This has both up and downsides: the Colorstay will not protect too much against UV rays but won't give too much of a white-cast on camera. The Dr.Jart+ will give good sunscreen coverage, but due to physical barriers will give a stark white-cast so won't photograph well.

I think the collective price for these two items will be £29.29 for 80ml of product. My Esteé Lauder Double Wear is £25.50 for 30ml...I think that justifies my foundation gluttony ;)

♥

So, watch this space (probably for weeks via a sasa haul!) for these foundations.

CV
xoxo