Gem and Jo's Polish Picks - Special Edition

Hello, Hóla, Bonjour and welcome to our Special Edition Polish Picks! Not only do we have our usual nail varnish picks of the week, but this time we both got some special top coats that we tried out! Hence the 'Special Edition' title.
Check it out!
Jo's Picks:

I  know what you're thinking, deja vu right? You've seen this Barry M nail varnish in our polish picks before. Don't worry you're not losing it (not just yet anyway), this week I decided to go back to this beautiful shade and pair it with this crazy ombré polish from Catrice cosmetics. One of my little secret obsessions at the moment is ombré, from ombré hair (check) to ombré clothes (check) so I thought the only ombré thing I missing was ombré nails. Then this baby hit the shelves and it was like my little mission was complete. 

So all you do to achieve this ombré look is apply one coat of the polish on top of your nail colour to your middle nail, two coats to your ring finger and three coats to your pinky finger. That's all there is to it! The consistency of the polish is very thin so it can be a bit tricky to apply (as you can probably see by my botched attempt above. It was late, I was tired, I have all the excuses!). You also have to make sure that each coat has dried fully before applying the next coat or the polish can bubble a bit (and nobody got time for that). Apart from that, the nail polish is a bit of fun and can be put over pretty much any light or pastel colour. Red tones and pinks do tend to work a bit better though as the polish itself has a red tint. 

The Polish is great for jazzing up a nice pastel colour and you can find this nail polish anywhere that sells Catrice  for around €3.00 (not too shabby eh?). 

Check it out  on Catrice's website here. 

Gem's Picks:

   

So back to the blues. Again. I think I have a million shade of blue polish and you guys will get to see them all because I don't have anything else. Kidding! I also have a pink one. 

This week I used Primark's P.S. Love range yet again, this one a deep royal blue colour that actually matches everything in my wardrobe. I also added a Matte top coat that I picked up from H&M a little while ago. If you know me, then you know my obsession with matte everything. 

Matte + royal blue = my life. 

I was hoping that the top coat would provide the polish with a little staying power, but alas I believe this polish cannot be saved. Yet I still wear it. I'm strange. 

The top coat however is absolutley amazing! All you do is paint your nails as you normally would, then once it's dry, add the top coat like any other. Except it dries matte! Magic! 

Any polish made matte. It really is a wonderful invention. 

   

If your like me and painting your nails to any degree of success means you've completed your life's mission, then you would have been super proud. I think I shoved my hand in everyone's face shouting "LOOK AT THEM!!" I was just so happy with the colour, the texture and how I had managed to keep my hand so steady. It was a true Christmas miracle. Except not at all Christmassy. But a miracle none the less. 

Pick this top coat from H&M stories for €3.50

Check out H&M's Nail polish range Here

What nail trend have you been loving lately?
Thanks for reading!Until next time,

Gem and Jo's DIY Lip Scub

Lately we have been loving the dark lip trend, anything from reds to purples, we have been loving it all. Unfortunately though our lips have not been loving this transition into the cold weather, and trust us dark lipstick on super dry and flaky lips is not a good look. That's where our  DIY lip scrub comes into play. Massage a little bit of this stuff into your lips every night and your pout will be feeling super moisturized and smooth by morning, all ready for the lip product of your choosing.  So how do you make this marvelous stuff? Well here we go:
What you'll need:

4 teaspoons of coconut oil

3 teaspoons of brown sugar

2 teaspoons of honey

A few drops of vanilla essence

A tiny weeny jar to put the finished product in. 

What to do:

Put the honey in a mixing bowl. This stuff has great healing properties and works to bind the scrub together. 

Next add the coconut oil. This will make the scrub really moisturizing.  

Add the brown sugar to the mixture and give it a good stir until it's all combined. Finally add the vanilla essence to add a bit of flavour, this stuff is gonna be on your lips so it's got to taste nice (if vanilla isn't your thing go for something else like orange or almond extract). 

Finally,  put this wondrous stuff into a cute little jar to use later. It's as simple as that! Rub the mixture into your lips for about two minutes, wipe it off and apply some lip balm and voila, beautiful soft and smooth lips! Keep this stuff handy in the fridge for the next use and pop it out for about 10  minutes before applying to warm it up.

So there you have it, our secret to super soft, lipstick ready lips!

What's your favourite go to lipstick for this fall? 

Until next time, 

Click this ribbon to see

why we've gone pink! > 

Gem and Jo's Face of the Day

Good afternoon all you fabulous people! Today we had a lovely little get together with some of our close friends, just to catch up and what not, and this is what we wore on those things we call our faces.

Gemma's Makeup 

Today, instead of going for either a natural or night-time look, I decided to combine both and pair a neutral eye with a bold lip which also matched my nails! (Yay for matchy- matchy!) As per usual I started with Estée Lauder's Double Wear foundation in Shell (CO1) and powdered with Makeup Rumours pressed powder in Nude. (£1 you guys, £1!!) I yet again used Front Cover's blush for a healthy glow. 

On to the eyes! I used Makeup Rumour's Dazzle Palette, I applied 1 over my whole eyelid and browbone and used 2 in the crease of my eye with 3 adding a coppery look to my eyelid. Then I used 4 to highlight the inner corner and just under my eye to create an awake look! Wet n Wild's H20 Liquid eyeliner and Estée Lauder's Sumptuous Extreme mascara finished off my look. 

Jo's Makeup 

So today I decided to go for a put together neutral look. I started with Seventeen Miracle matte foundation and powdered with NYC Matte Powder Foundation (it was just one of those days guys!). I then highlighted with Benefit's High beam (it's like instant sunlight.).

On to the eyes! After priming my eyes I then used Stilla's Natural Beauty palette (check out our review  of it here). I started with vanilla (1) as an all over eye base. Next I used toffee (2) on the lid and ran rosey (3) through the crease. I then used caramel (4) in the outer third of my lid and used merlot (5) to deepen the outer corner. I finished off the eye look with a sweep of Wet n Wild's Mega liner in black and used lashings (see what I did there) of Maybelline's the Rocket mascara. I finished off my entire look with a rosey nude lipstick from makeuprumours (see our makeup rumours review here). 

So there you have it, our looks of the day.

What's your go to neutral eye shadow palette is? Let us know in the comments. 

As always, thanks for reading. 

Until next time, 

Click this ribbon to see

why we've gone pink! > 

Gem and Jo's Outfits of the Day - Breast Cancer Edition

Last Friday (24th October) was "Wear it Pink Day" in aid of  breast cancer awareness. As you all know, we are really passionate about raising awareness for breast cancer and of course we took part in this event! We both had little pink ribbons on our jackets and dug through our wardrobes to find the little pieces of pink we had. 

Here's what we wore to support breast cancer awareness! 

Gem's Outfit:

 Shirt: Primark €9.00

Jumper: Dunnes Stores €21.00

Jeans: Vila Clothing €34.00

Boots: Marks and Spencers €45.00

Bag: River Island €52.00 (It's actually black, my camera was being grumpy.)

Jo's Outfit:

Shirt: Savida at Dunnes Stores €27.00

Jumper: Savida at Dunnes Stores €35.00

Jeans: Primark €13.00

Boots: Primark €20.00

Bag: Parfois €34.00

What pink have you got in your wardrobe? Do you wear it often? Let us know in the comments! 

Also how cool is the location! So Autumnal! 

Thanks for reading.

Until next time,

Click this ribbon to see

why we've gone pink! > 

Gem and Jo's Polish Picks - Breast Cancer Awareness Edition

Well, it's been a month since we've done one of these babies! This time we've painted our nails pink, in honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is this month (if you couldn't tell from the overall pinkness of the blog)! If you want to know more about breast cancer and how to do self-checks, click on the pink ribbon at the bottom of this post!
Self checks are super important and are really quick and easy. The key to higher survival rates is early detection, so get checking girls (and boys!).
Jo's Pick:

So as it's breast cancer awareness month, pink polish was a must. I chose this beautiful Rimmel  London Salon Pro nail polish in the shade Simply Sizzling. This is a gorgeous cream cerise pink colour. 

I have been super busy with college this past month (up to my chin in assignments, eek!), so I needed a polish that was quick drying so that I wouldn't have to wait ages for it to try before I dived back into the books. This polish really did the trick. It dried amazingly quick and it gives off a gorgeous shine. The polish doesn't chip easily at all either, I'm really hard on my nails (even really good polish hardly lasts a day on my nails), but this one didn't chip until day three of wearing it (which by my standards is amazing!). The application was really easy too and this made the process of painting my nails lightning fast. 

I purchased my bottle from boots for about €5.50 which isn't half bad for the quality of the polish. You can find this in pretty much any drugstore that sells rimmel london cosmetics. They have tons of colours as well so there is loads to choose from for any occasion. 

Check out from Boots here.

Check out on  Rimmel London's website here. 

Gem's Pick: 

This week I chose Primark's P.S. Love polish in a really pretty coral-pink! I don't have that many varnishes in pink but this one is definitely a favourite of mine, despite it's poor staying power. (Sad face).

 The colour is really pretty and summery (I know, it's autumn. I'm just not ready yet.) and it goes great with everything!  

To add a little something to my nails I painted my ring finger a sparkly pink (I used some drugstore polish that I can no longer find. Damn my blackhole of a bedroom.). In case you don't know, painting one finger a different colour is known as an "Accent Nail" and it is pretty popular among those ole instagrammers! 

 This polish really made me happy because in the last few days everyone has been talking about Autumnal shades and whatnot and I'm just here like "No. Not yet, please not yet!" But alas I cannot slow the coming winter and it is inevitable that this week I will have to break out my heavy jackets. But this polish made me happy and feel summery again. Therefore it shall remain the colour of my nails for as long as I can make it stay. Which is not very long. 

You can find this polish in most Primark stores in Ireland and it was only €2.50 for a pack of 4 different colours. Yay for bargains. 

Find Primark's website Here

As always guys, thanks for reading. We really appreciate each viewer we get!
Until next time,

Click this ribbon to see

why we've gone pink! > 

Gem and Jo's Outfits of the Day

Once again we put on clothes this morning, I know crazy right? This is what we wore.

Gem's Outfit:

Top: Vero Moda €23.00

Shirt: Primark €9.00

Jeans: Vila €35.00

Shoes: Heatons €9.00

Hair: Priceless :P

Jo's Outfit:

Top: Forever 21 €13.00

Jeans: Primark €11.00

Boots: F&F at Tesco €25.00

Necklace: Primark €4.00

So there you have it, our cosy causal for going for a cup of coffee outfits! Thanks for reading, hope you guys enjoyed this post. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Until next time. 

Click this ribbon to see

why we've gone pink >