Feeling Blue?

Blue and green lips seem to have been gaining a bit more coverage recently. Illamasqua have their forest green lipstick and slightly lighter lipgloss, and if I'm not mistaken Mac have a blue lip tint coming out soon too. If you are that way inclined and don't mind spending £4.99, Sleek offer a blue with their OCC Lip Tar dupes - the Pout Paints. 

These are nothing new, they've been on sale for a good while now, but they've always been on my mental list of 'products I'd quite like to try/things to consider'. Also on that list at the moment is having my ears pierced, but that's a whole other post. 

Anyway, I spent half of yesterday afternoon shopping (haul coming up tonight on my channel) and the other half sitting on my bedroom floor having a good play around with these lip paints. I'll be sharing the other shades I created in the future, but today we're sticking with blue...

So, from L to R we have dark blue, pastel blue and medium blue. I genuinely think there could be something in the dark blue - if you can picture it, I think it could potentially work well in the autumn, perhaps with a full fringe, heavy eyeliner and a check shirt?  I mixed this shade by using blue and a tiny bit of red. The pastel blue is, well, interesting... obviously I would never leave my house wearing this as a lip shade (and probably never as an eye shade either) but if you're daring enough you might fancy giving it a try. This would maybe work on a dark skin tone, but it definitely doesn't work on me! If you're interested, I mixed blue and lots of white to create this shade. Finally we have medium blue. I'm still undecided on this one. I Instagrammed a photo I took wearing it this morning and I think it kind of works on me, but you know... it's blue...

While ever there are people shying away from blues or greens for the lips, the trend is never going to take off. That's pretty much a fact. You never know, I might be brave one of these days and leave the house wearing a blue lip. I'll be sure to let you all know if I muster that courage.

What do you think? Would you be brave enough to stray from the norm and wear a blue or green lip? Let me know in the comments below, I'd love to hear from you on this! :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xo

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachel.soshedances@gmail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com
YouTube: soshedancesxo

On Trend: Floral & Geometric Nail Art Tutorial

Evening everyone :) I'm sure you all know by now that I'm a bit obsessed with nail art. You're unlikely to see me out and about without some pretty pattern adorning my fingertips and my love for nail art tends to spill over onto this blog. Today is no different as I bring you a totally 'on trend' nail tutorial...

Floral patterns and prints are always 'in' during the spring, but this year it also seems that clear cut shapes and geometry are also 'in' too. It seems like every blogger and their dog are enjoying a good triangle whether it be on their clothes, their jewellery, their accessories or, now, their nails. Creating this nail look is surprisingly easy to do and I'm going to show you how to create that blue nail design on the right. The process of creating the design on the left is exactly the same, just with different colours :)

You will need:

1x base coat
1x light pastel blue (I used Rimmel's Sweet As Sugar)
1x medium pastel blue (I used 17's Heartbeat)
1x white (I used Rio's white nail art pen)
1x medium to dark green (I used Rio's green nail art pen)

Step 1:

Give your nails a base coat and allow it to dry. Then give them one coat of your light pastel blue colour and allow it to dry.

Step 2:

Give your nails a second coat of your light pastel blue and allow to dry. If you feel it necessary, then add a third coat.

Step 3:

Take your white and draw a V shape starting from the top corners of your nail. The easiest way to do this is by drawing two straight lines that meet in the middle. I used a nail art pen with a thin brush, but you could use a cocktail stick/tooth pick or dotting tools if you don't have one. 

Step 4:

Immediately follow this by filling in the V you've created with the same colour (so in this case, white) until you have a fully coloured-in triangle.

Step 5:

When the white has dried sufficiently, take your medium pastel blue colour and roughly create some dots over the white.

Step 6:

Follow this by taking your white and swirling it inside the dots you have just created.

Step 7:

Now go back to your medium pastel blue and swirl it over the white. When doing this, make sure you don't cover up all of the white.

Step 8:

Finally, add the 'petals' of your flowers by creating tiny green lines coming out of the sides of your flowers. Allow the nails to dry before adding a top coat, then you're done!

As you can see from the slightly 'edgier' design that I'm currently wearing, you can also change the position of the triangles to break things up a bit. That is, if triangles and flowers aren't varied enough already ;)

Hope you enjoyed :) Have you ever sported a floral nail design? Do you think you'd like to? Let me know in the comments below :) I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachel.soshedances@gmail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com

Things You All Need: & Other Stories 'Shinjuku Bloom' Body Scrub

During my recent family visit to London, I turned into a bit of a beauty junkie... by which I mean I was acutely aware that I was suddenly surrounded by stores and brands that Yorkshire is still lacking. One of these stores was H&M's 'spin off' store & Other Stories. If you haven't yet heard about it, give it a quick google and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Because I'm terrible at describing scents and also forgot to take a photo of the actual product, here's a screenshot of the site...

For £7 you get 250ml of rich yet fresh smelling, non-scratchy body scrub that will lather up brilliantly with a bit of water and really does leave your body feeling insanely smooth. It's not too intense feeling and doesn't leave the skin stinging at all. I have to say, I absolutely love the scent of this product and it's perfect for spring and summer - it's fresh smelling without being a citrus kind of scent, but also sweet smelling in a way that isn't sickly or too reminiscent of autumnal/winter scents. Basically, I have completely fallen in love with this product. 

If you find yourself near & Other Stories or are making an online order, I highly recommend you give this a try. There are six other scents (Lemon Daydream, Rose Revival, Couture Carnival, Punk Bouquet, Fig Fiction and Moroccan Tea) so if Shinjuku Bloom doesn't sound like your kind of scent, head over to their website (stories.com) and read up on the other scents. 

Have you tried any & Other Stories products? Do you think you will? Let me know in the comments below!

Lastly, I have a new email address specifically for this blog and my YouTube channel. So, if any of you have any questions or comments and fancy sending me an email, I'd love to hear from you at rachel.soshedances@gmail.com :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachel.soshedances@gmail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com

NOTD: Geometric & Arty

Let me just preface all of this by saying that this design took hours. Literally. And whilst I love it I'm not entirely sure I'll be trying it again anytime soon. If you have the time though, go for it.

Recently I've been going through a bit of a phase with my nails where everything bores me. I'm not one to buy into the trends (feather nails, concrete nails, leather nails etc) but I do like to keep things fresh by trying out different nail art designs. I had a few spare hours a couple of nights ago and decided to give this a try.

To complete the design, I used a small paintbrush and drew on little triangles. I used one colour at a time, so the patterns built up over time and I wasn't constantly needing to wash my brush. The shapes aren't perfect, but I kind of feel it adds to the design a little and for a first attempt, I'm pleased at how it turned out. 

What's on your nails at the moment? Are you a fan of nail art? Let me know in the comments below :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachelelizabeth.xo@googlemail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com

March Favourites

Hi guys :) So, since I'm off for Easter at the moment I thought I'd try something a little different for March Favourites and I made a video for you all. Argh! Let me know what your favourites have been in the comments below :)

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachelelizabeth.xo@googlemail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com

An Experiment: Ombre Nails

So, I tried ombre nails this weekend. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about them even though they're now gone and I'm wearing Barry M's Blood Orange. 

First off, aren't they messy to do?! I ended up dunking a make up sponge into polish on a paper plate to get it right. And even then it's impossible to make the nail look neat because the sponge is never going to be nail shaped. 

To create this look, I coated my nails in Essie's 'Blanc' until I was pleased with how opaque it was, then I dipped the sponge into the polish (which I had in stripes next to each other on a paper plate) and gently pressed it onto and round the nail. I had to repeat this on most nails because the sponge absorbs the polish. 

I like the effect it gives, but really I do think it was a bit of a let down. I tried out loads of pastel colour combinations and this gave the best effect. I think brighter colours would definitely suit this style for the summer (if we have one here in snowy Britain...) but I didn't fall in love with the concept.

What do you think? Have you ever tried this out? Were you a fan? Let me know in the comments below :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachelelizabeth.xo@googlemail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com