And the winner is....

Sorry to announce a day early but I'm not sure I will be able to post tomorrow. So time to announce the winner of my give away.
I used random.org to generate a number, a few entries where disqualified as they didn't actually follow my blog!
Anyway the lucky winner is Jennifer Leigh! Congratulations!
I would recommend taking a look at her blog it is lovely, and Jennifer I will be e mailing you to get your shipping address, congratulations!

My first attempt at nail art

So here is my first attempt at nail art. I used O.P.I's Off With Her Red for the red, and for the polka dots I used the Models Own nail art pens.

The black splodges are meant to be bows, inspired by Minnie Mouse, nice and tacky.

I also have lots of nice nail varnish all over my skin, how sexy.

Despite all the spolodgyness of this manicure, I still really like it and I'm proud of myself. Its a little different and it is a really nice talking point.

I am quite impressed with the models own nail art pens, they are a lot easier to use then a lot of other nail art type stuff I have tried.
Hopefully I will get better at this whole nail art shebang and have some better pictures to show you soon. I will also give the Models Own pens more of a whirl and hopefully have a review up soon!

But what do you think about nail art, tacky or creative?

My make up storage

So when I was out today I saw something in WHSmith that I fell in love with, and needed an excuse to buy, luckily I decided it would make great make up storage seeing as mine was currently just sprawled all over the table in my kitchen. So here is how my new revamped make up area looks like!

So as you can see it is one of those desk organiser things, but its covered in cupcakes and is very cute! As you can see on top I keep my brushes in a Alice In Wonderland mug, and I have some random eyelash curlers and sharpener on there too.

The drawers go quite far back which is a pleasant surprise. This is the top row, in the first draw I have lip pencils, sticks and glosses. In the middle draw is single eyeshadows, paint pots and my one lonely pigment and in the last draw I have eyeliner, kohls and anything to do with lining, as well as my primer potion which I didn't know where else to stick.

The middle sets of drawers are even deeper and a great size. The first one has my cheek products in it, and the second draw has my face products.

The bottom draw has been reserved for my eyeshadow palettes as it is the biggest.
So what do you think? I love it, and it was half price so not too bad for £9.99! They also had a couple of other designs if anyone was interested.

Rainbow Eyes

So on Sunday I decided to try and do rainbow eyes. I think it is something every beauty blogger will try at least once, and I love it! I used my Inglot bright eyeshadow palette, and I used the white from it as a highlight.

I also used my Illamasqua brow cake and precision liner, my usual face stuff and NARS desire for blush. It looked a bit like a child had gone crazy with crayons on my face, but I enjoyed it and got lots of compliments!

Candy Nails

So its miserable and wet outside, to cheer myself up I thought I would paint my nails in Spring/Summer pastels. I also thought I would do something a bit different and go for a accent nail, its sickeningly sweet, but I love it.

My nails are pretty short at the moment because I got stressed and bit them all off (bad habit of mine) and that put me off painting them for a while, but I'm glad to be back on the wagon!
I used China Glaze Something Sweet for the pink, and the blue is China Glaze For Audrey.

Bumblebee Eyes

Sorry for being MIA, lots of early mornings and long days again. Anyway yesterday I decided to try out Pixiwoos latest tutorial. It doesn't really look anything like theirs, but I still like it, so here is how it turned out:

The pictures aren't the best quality, it's hard to get decent lighting at 7AM when its raining outside...
Anyway, I used my usual Nars foundation and MAC concealer, and for my cheeks I used MAC Melba. On my eyes I used the yellow from my Inglot palette (it is amazing and bright!) and MAC Carbon, which if I am honest is a pretty shit black, but it worked for this look. I also used feline kohl. For once I didn't do my brows.
I also tried a bit of contouring on my lips using Nars Laguana Bronzer and my MAC I Get No Kicks pencil above the lip. I also used MAC Viva Glam Gaga and the gloss on top, I think it actually worked in making my lips look a little fuller!
Although this is quite a bright look, the black toned it down and made it wearable for the day. I really enjoyed wearing it and got a few compliments so I was quite happy with myself. It also lasted 13 hours so very impressive!

New Year Giveaway!

So I always said that I would do a giveaway when I hit 50 followers, but I was a bit busy at work when that happened, so it is more of a new year give away, anyway here is what you can win:

Yay stuff from the Lush Valentines day range! So you will get, It's Raining Men shower gel, the Love Birds soap, Frog Prince and Ex Factor. Unfortunately my local lush didn't have the mushrooms so I couldn't buy one to include.

To enter you have to be a follower of a blog. All you have to do is comment below saying what your favourite cosmetics brand is and why.
You can also get two extra entries by

1. Tweet about it. Include @cocoalikegnomes somewhere so I can see it
2. Blog about it or include it in your blog role, link it in your comment below.

The competition will end on the 31st of January and I will ship internationally. Good luck!

LiLash

So I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I will be telling you the secret to my eyelashes, well that secret is LiLash. For those of you who don't know what LiLash is, it is a eyelash conditioner, which promises to make your lashes grow in about 6 weeks.
You apply it like you would a liquid eyeliner, along the base of the lashes. I tend to do it of a night time after my cleansing and toning, just so I know I am not rubbing it off when I put make up on.
Unfortunately I do not have any before and after pictures, but if you look at any of my FOTD photos you can see the results, I even have people ask me if my lashes are real which I think shows that the products has been working!
I have been using the product since September, and it is still going strong, which is good as it shows that you get a fair bit of product in the tube.
The main issue for me with LiLash is the price. It sells for $139.97, which is about £90, so very pricey. I didn't pay for the product myself, my mum got it for me for my birthday, and I'm not sure that I would spend all that money on this product.
Having said that, I know my mum has re purchased this as she has been using it since the start of 2010. She is blonde and has very fair eyelashes, that are very short and the product has had a lot more effect on her lashes. They have darkened the lash so even if she isn't wearing mascara she actually looks like she has some eyelashes, and they are a lot thicker and darker so I feel if you do have thin short lashes this product will really help, but if you lashes are pretty dark and thick already its not really worth the money.

Some images from my favourite MUA

Just some lovely images from brilliant artists.
From top to bottom, Pat Mcgrath, Paul Innis, Nicci Jackson, Alex Box

Lush Valentines Day Products

So now Christmas is over I need something to look foward to, and that comes in the form of valentines day products from Lush! So here are what the are launching this year:

The Ex Factor - A ballistic that smells like butterball. It's meant to be a bit like voodoo, so if you are alone on valentines day you take the ballistic and fizz off his arms. A bit sadistic but a lovely ballistic, was out last year.

The Frog Prince - Another ballistic. Your meant to kiss the red lips before you pop him in. The lips part is actually a bath melt so this is a lovely moisturising product. Scented with rose, rosewood, jasmine and neroli. Watch the frog turn into a prince!

Magic Mushroom - This is a bubble bar that was released last year. The red part smells like strawberry and the white part is vanilla so it makes for a very creamy, sweet bubble bath.

It's Raining Men - This is the product I am most looking foward. It is a shower gel that has the same frangrence as Honey I Washed the Kids soap, which is honey and toffee scented. I think the fact that it has honey in it means that it will proberbly be moisturising too.

Love Birds Soap - Another product that I am excited about. It just looks so beautiful and it smells like vanilla and jasmine, the same fragrence as the old B Never perfume, Keep it Fluffy, Lush also do this scent in a ballistic too.

So there we go, thats all the valentines day products, minus the gifts. Are you excited for any of them?

MAC Cham Pale Haul and Swatches

So yesterday I popped by my local MAC counter (I used the VAT increase as an excuse to go) to check out Cham Pale, a collection I have been quite excited for.

The collection itself is full of muted soft colours and a little bit of sparkle, very fitting considering the collection is based on champagne!

I really wanted the quad, but I already had Brule, however I did tell myself I use Brule a lot so if I really love the quad when I see it, its fine to have a back up. Unfortunately the colours are not what I expected so I didn't get the quad. I also didn't get the NW20/NC15 whatever it was pencil. I thought it was a good idea, but when I swatched it I was like nah. Anyway here is what I did get:

So we have the I Get No Kicks Kohl, which is a lovely shimmery flesh colour, which I think I will be using to highlight. The top paint pot is Vintage Selection, which is very shimmery and a light brown colour, the bottom paint pot is Chilled on Ice which is very lovely and will be my replacement for my lost Bare Study, be warned though it is very shimmery. I also got the Rose Ole which is the highlight powder. It is very pretty and is more matte then a MSF so I feel like I could use this for highlighting everyday without having to worry about looking like a disco ball. I don't really understand what the texture pattern thing is about though.

So now for some swatches:

I thought I would try and be helpful by separating the swatches with black lines because the colours are so subtle its hard to see. I don't think it worked though, anyway from left to right we have, I Get No Kicks Kohl, Chilled on Ice pp, Vintage Selection pp, Rose Ole highlight. I'll do another picture without the lines, same order :

These pictures make my arms look fat. I am glad I am going on a diet. But in this picture you can see the shimmer of the paint pots a bit more. They really are gorgeous.
So what did everyone else think of this collection? Did you get anything/will you get anything?

Neutral FOTD

So this is just a quick FOTD post because I am tired and this face is nothing special.

So the eyes where done using Inglot. The lid colour is slightly darker and more brown then Brulee. I also used Illamasqua precision ink and MAC Vanilla pigment as a inner corner highlight and brow highlight. I forget how much I love this pigment sometimes. I also used my Illamasqua brow cake. Oh and Feline Kohl!
My face is done using my usual NARS Sheer Glow and MAC Moisture Select concealer, plus my MSF Natural, and on my cheeks I have Melba. On my lips is MAC Hug Me.
I love this look and got a lot of compliments on it. It is slightly darker then what I normally wear so it made a pleasant change.
Sorry for the shortness and lameness of this post, the 11 hour shifts are starting to take their toll.

New Years Resolutions!

So once again this isn't a beauty related post, but I think that having my resolutions down in writing in front of other people will hopefully encourage me to go through with them.

• Be a size 10 for my 21st birthday. This involves dropping a dress size, well maybe two dress sizes and I have 7 months. Hopefully I can do it!
• Take better care of my hands. I work with water and hardly ever wear gloves, I need to moisturise my hands more and take to protecting them!
• Drink more water. I have about 1 glass a day which is appalling, and its beginning to show in the dehydration lines around my eyes.
• Get a job that I actually like. I think this will be a lot easier when I move back to London as there is more opportunity and I won't have to pay rent so I can always start interning and not having to worry about rent.
• Not worry as much. I make myself sick by worrying and getting nervous and it holds me back from too much stuff, I just need to relax and get on with life.

Not a huge list, and some are the same as every year, like loosing weight, but I think they are all achievable. I've checked out other peoples resolutions and seen that I'm not alone in my wanting so good luck to us all and happy new year!

2010 Favourites

Happy new year everyone! So It is time for me to do my favourites from last year. There isn't many skin care ones, just because my skin changed from being oily to dry and dehydrated so I am still searching for something that works for me. Anyway lets get started!

So first up is my favourite eye products. I moved this year and haven't been able to find a person to thread my brows at a decent price so I have taken to plucking them, and for that I need my tweezorman tweezers, not to mention my boyfriend enjoys stealing them too....
Keeping on the eyebrow theme we have my Illamasqua brow cake in Storm. This is a fairly new purchase, but I love it so much and it beats all the other methods I have used for my brows hands down. The colour really suits me and it stays put all day. I also love the Illamasqua eyebrow brush, it is amazing for filling in brows.
This year I have also really been into highlighting the inner corner of my eye and highlighting underneath my brow. My MAC pencil in Fascinating has really helped with inner corner highlighting, and if I want a stark brow highlight then I will also use it there. I couldn't find my Teddy pencil, which is brown, but if I could I would definitely include that for lining my waterline!
Next up is my three favourite eyeshadows, all MAC, Blanc Type, Brule and Wedge. I use these colours constantly and I am glad I finally got a camera that can show the difference between Blanc Type and Brule. I use Brule all over my lid, Blanc Type to highlight and Wedge to blend out my crease.
Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner is my favourite. It is the easiest to use and it was the product I learned how to do eyeliner with when I was about 14. I have tried other gel liners but always come running back to this one.
Last up is Make Up Forever Smokey Lash mascara. This has been a firm favourite for about 2 years. It lengthens and makes lashes appear fuller and holds a curl amazingly.

Next up is face products. First of all we have Nars Sheer Glow in Mont Blanc. This is my favourite foundation I have ever tried. It doesn't feel like it is clogging my pores and gives me a flawless looking face. The shade also suits me better than MAC shades.
To set it I use MAC Mineralise Skin Finish Natural. The shade is actually Medium Plus, which is a little darker then I am. My face is a completely different colour to my body though and this helps even out the difference. The product is light and non clogging and makes my face last all day.
My favourite concealer is MAC Moisture Select Cover. I only use concealer for under the eyes and this helps brighten up the area.
Last but not least we have my go to blush. It is MAC Melba. This is one of the first ones I got and I use it when I am unsure what to go for. Its a very flattering shade.

I don't have any favourite lip products as I am very fickle and use a different product most days. I also don't have any favourite body products because I am just using stuff to get it used up. My favourite haircare is definitely Phillip Kingsley. This year my hair has really improved condition, and I think it is due to this shampoo. It finally has a shine again!

So I think that just about covers things. It's not too exciting, but I don't think staples ever are. Lets hope 2011 is more of a skincare year for me!