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

My Curious Sleek Haul

I recently took a trip to Superdrug to buy some of the Sleek i-Divine palettes which I've been coveting for a while now. Superdrug had a 3 for 2 offer on so I bought two palettes and one blusher.

I purchased i-Divine palettes in Original and Storm, and a blusher in Flamingo. I've yet to use them but I took some photos before their cross hatched surfaces were marred by my eager brushes.

Here is the blusher in Flamingo which is a very vivid pink. The colour pay-off is fantastic and I only need use it sparingly!


I will create some looks with these palettes and upload them to YouTube over the next few days, possibly when my E.L.F haul arrives as I've purchased a few new brushes. I will also review these products as I always think watching reviews is helpful before buying products.

Bisous
Ms Natya
xoxo

All images © ms_natya

Pink sparkle kawaii nails tutorial

This is my kawaii sparkle nails tutorial. I used my favourite colours of the moment from Barry M and O.P.I:





I was aiming for the normal french manicure look with a girly twist.
To start I used O.P.I's Start to Finish Base and Top Coat to prep my nails, then used Barry M Nail Paint in Bright Pink for my base colour. I applied two thin coats to give an opaque finish.
Next, I used Barry M Nail Paint in Strawberry Ice Cream on the tips of my nails. I applied this in two coats horizontally, as this gives a clean line.
Finally, I used an O.P.I Nail Lacquer from my Limited Edition Airline set in Golden Rainbow as a top coat.

The final look is a pink coloured french manicure with a sparkle twist.

Thanks for reading and watching everyone, please rate/comment/subscribe to my YouTube channel CuriousVisage

Ju-on The Grudge makeup tutorial

So here is my first YouTube makeup tutorial. Sadly it's not Halloween any more but luckily I had posted this tutorial on YouTube before Halloween!

The look is based on a character from the movie Ju-On (The Grudge). The character in question is Kayako Saeki, the Japanese female lead role. I chose to recreate this look as it is so simple, anyone can put on some white face paint and eyeliner if they are in a hurry!

So, to begin with I primed my face with Laura Mercier Oil-Free foundation primer. I prefer this blend as I have oily skin and I need my makeup to stay in place as well as possible.
Then I used my trusty UDPP to prime my eye area. Most of you will know the power of Urban Decay's Primer Potion and I can also vouch for it. I don't wear eye makeup without using UDPP now!
For the face paint I used Snazaroo's Water Based Face & Body Makeup applied with a slightly dampened makeup sponge all over my face, neck and ears. Be careful not to get the sponge too damp as you want the makeup to be relatively opaque. However, you also want to retain some reality to the complexion. After application, I set the face paint with normal translucent powder.

For my eyes I used M.A.C's Technakhol liner in Graphblack as I find this liner to be the most long-wearing for my waterline. I lined the entire lid area and upper & lower water lines. Next I set the liner with a matte black eyeshadow. Mine was just a cheap eyeshadow from Claire's Accessories. The brush I used is The Bodyshop Eyeshadow Brush, made from synthetic fibres of course.
To create a bruised look to the eyes I used a fluffy brush to smudge out the edges of my liner and to subtly add more black, graduating outwards towards my eye sockets. You want to try and achieve a skull-like appearance.
Concentrate adding black eyeshadow under the eyes. A tip is to look down and apply colour to where your natural 'dark circles' would end.

Finally to finish the look add a long, black wig. This is Kayako's signature hairstyle. Don't forget to perfect your Saeki sound!

I hope you all had a very Happy Halloween, why not try this look for next year? (Since my blog posts are so tardy)

love ms natya xoxo

A Curious Fruit...Vegetable?...Fruit...

So the time came to harvest my Kabocha. Winter is descending on the UK and frosts had ravaged my crop so I decided to cut my losses and harvest them.

Ripe kabocha have a developed flower scar, deep green hue to the skin with lighter green streaks and even orange patches showing through. The stalk will have a "corky" appearance.

An indicator of when to harvest is when the vines have died back, with a spaghetti-like appearance.

All lined up in a row on my kitchen counter. Ranging between 0.90kg and 1.5kg

Look it's almost as big as my head!

So, I shall wait about 1-3 months to let my Kabocha ripen. The carbohydrate levels in Kabocha intensify the longer they are left to ripen, these give the Kabocha that smooth, sweet flavour they are so famed for. I'll be making Kabocha no nimono in no time!

All images © ms_natya

A curious season.

Why hello again, I thought I'd post some new musings of my antics this month. My kabocha have continued to grow but I think the cold, dreary weather has prompted the plant to begin to wither. It does this in winter and the vines gradually become thinner. The veg patch now looks like spaghetti junction and I've had to prop up some fruit with upturned plant pots to prevent them from rotting.

My kabocha have got to 6" in diameter which means they should be full-sized now. They're heavy but the flesh isn't hard enough yet, and the stalks not corky.

In other news, if you can call it that, I'm almost finished with my Medium Format reel so hopefully i'll be able to post up some Lomography shots of my trip to cornwall. I can't wait to see what I get. Watch this space!

A Green Fingered Vignette

So, to my second blog entry. I recently decided to turn my hand at gardening in order to become more self sufficient. As I had spent a lot of time in Japan, I chose to start with Japanese pumpkins, called Kabocha. Kabocha aren't so much a pumpkin but rather a type of squash. The plant itself resembles that of the courgette closely, accept the leaves and stems have a prickly and almost hairy surface. The fruit it bears are gorgeous and sweet, with a dark green skin and yellow-orange flesh.

I began sewing my seeds at the start of May in a small incubator and after they had established, re-potted each plant into it's own pot. 

As Kabocha typically grow in a humid climate, I waited until June to replant my Kabocha into the vegetable patch. From mid June to mid July Japan experiences a rainy season and so I would have to ensure that my plants were constantly well watered. I grew 6 plants which would typically require a 1m squared patch of soil each. However, I did not have this space (as you can see from the photo), so, I'm just growing them and seeing what happens!

I enriched the soil with Miracle Grow pellet fertiliser to give my little plants a kick-start. This I found had an overwhelming effect and my plants have grown prolifically! The vegetable patch is jam-packed with plants now, each with tendrils that anchor the stems to any surrounding trellises or even other plants!

Before long the leaves of the Kabocha had grown bigger than the size of my hand by up to 4x, and huge bright yellow flowers had formed. The plants are now standing at approximately 7ft tall.

Kabocha grow a male and female flower on the same plant (above you can see the Male flower). Squash result when the female flower is pollinated. Female flowers are easily identified as they have a kind of bulb at the base of the flower, which includes the ovaries and will eventually become a Kabocha fruit. While male flowers grow at the end of a stem. Finally after approximately 3 months I noticed my Kabocha plants had finally produced female flowers, which had been fertilised within a week.
 

As you can see, at the base of the squash is a small stem, where the female flower once was. Above is one of many Kabocha fruit I have, and certainly not the biggest! Below is an example of my "prize" Kabocha, while below that is an example of an aborted fruit:

I will continue to update you on my green fingered vignette. Sorry this post has been picture heavy but I am proud of my little Kabocha. Unfortunately I have somewhat of a blackfly problem, which I am combating with the tried and tested soapy water spray method. In addition, 10 of the 16 dwarf French beans I grew in the same plot were eaten by what I can only describe as an evil vole. So I have yet to find if said vole enjoys eating Japanese pumpkins. Time will tell...

And so it begins...

Hi Everyone,

This is the first blog I have created so here goes.

I'm Natya, 23 year old gal from the UK. I am intending my blog to reflect all the things I love about life. I hope to provide you with some vignettes via my posts: small insights into my character, interests, and the world in general.

These may be in the form of photographs, stories, reviews, and maybe even some videos.

So maybe I should explain quickly some random things I love (not in any particular order) : Lomography, Japan, nail art, decoden (デコデン）, photography, languages, beautiful songs, illustration, beauty, gardening, purikura (プリクラ),  and world cinema.

As I'm new to all this I hope you will all bear with me ^_*

Ms Natya
xoxo