I mentioned last time that I wanted to try different colours… especially violet! E-CircleLens.netwere lovely enough to send me some 😀 I was so excited for them to arrive! This was the cute package that came!
Whenever you purchase they send a travel contact case, last time I got one shaped like a puppy and this time I got this one:
How cute is that? I think it’s very Anna Sui inspired 😀
These are a light violet colour with yellow flecks in around the center. They are 14mm diameter.
Because these ones are quite transparent I found they didn’t make a strong colour over the top of my green eyes but the effect was really pretty anyway. One lens in the left eye, nothing on the right:
Because I naturally have yellow around the pupil of my eye they really bring that out too 😀 With them both in:
Comfort-wise I thought they were really great, I’ve been wearing them quite a bit for the whole day and by the end of the day there’s no discomfort. Verdict- These ones are really good for a subtle look, they purple isn’t overpowering and it looks quite natural. Love them!
These ones are a really bright violet with a black outside ring. They are 14.5mm in diameter.
These ones are my favorites out of all the lenses I own now! They are absolutely HUGE! It’s funny because they are only 0.5mm bigger than the Marie pair but they look soooo much bigger because of the black ring. Lens on the right side, none on the left:
I’ve been wearing these ones pretty much non-stop since they arrived because they give such a cool effect. They are dark enough to cover the green in my eyes and because they are this dark I can wear more/darker eye make up without looking washed out. LOVE IT! They really do give a huge dolly style eye, perfect for hime style!
These were the lenses I was wearing the other day in the curly pigtail hair tutorial and there were lots of comments about them! Verdict: LOVE. Super comfortable, pretty, bright and the colour is awesome!
Mwahaha this is my growing lens collection… I think I’m addicted now!
Now the second part of this post! Quite a few of you have been asking questions about caring for your lenses and how to clean them etc. I’m by no means an expert on the subject but after researching and talking to the very helpful staff at E-CircleLens.netI wanted to try answer your questions… so I’ve made a super quick video about it. On anything more complicated than this I though I would suggest you talk to your doctor or optometrist 🙂 Before you do anything I suggest buying a decent sized bottle of lens solution so you can keep everything clean and hygienic. This is the lens solution I’m using in the video:
And here’s the quick video ^_^
So I hope that helped and answered some questions!
Next time I’m going to be doing the hair and make up tutorials you’ve been requesting ^_^ Let me know about your circle lens tips! <
Thought all my Gum Leaf Mafia Australian/NZ nail polish girls would be interested in this: Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens! ^_^
Over here in Aus the range of Sally Hansen has up until now been rather scarce. Even though they’re stocked by a billion major chains the range usually only consist of a few nail treatments and maybe 2 of the light pink polishes. Imagine my surprise when I walked into Priceline to a whole new display of them *_*
There was a whole shelf of the Insta-dri’s in some pretty weird colours. They didn’t have the fluros which lovely Brooke sent me from the US but if these ones are anything like them I would definitely grab some if I had the money.
More interestingly they had some really pretty looking HD colours…
There was also a deal where if you bought anything from the lip/nail collection you could get one of the treatment pens for free… So I bought a light pink nail art pen for $13 and got a Corrector pen (which cost $16) for free…
While it looked like a good deal at the time here’s my review…
So nail art pen first. The best way I can describe this is it’s like a paint pen. It comes with a clear tip to begin with…
To get the colour out you have to press up and down on some paper a few times.
Colour of the tip:
I put a falsie on and did a base coat of and Opi white so I could see how opaque it was. Because the tip is super pointy and thin I thought I would be able to get a nice detailed stroke.
Not so much.
It’s more like trying to paint using the wrong end of a paint brush. When colouring with a normal felt pen you press the pen to the surface and it leaves a trail of pigment, when colouring with this it basically puts out a watery blob that you can sort of move around with the tip.
It did nice even dots very easily and the colour was very opaque straight out of the pen.
Unfortunately because it puts out such a huge amount of polish the drying time is a bit much. If you smudge it you end up with this:
Verdict: I don’t think it’s great for doing detailed work but for basics like dots and little designs it would be good. The drying time might be a turn off if you’re working on your natural nails. I think it’s not so great for the price though.
Ok now on to the corrector pen. The idea of it is just say you’d done a fantastic nail art design and then go to finish with a French tip and make a huuuuge mistake *o* rather than starting again you can just wipe away the mistake by drawing on it with the corrector pen. It comes with 3 different tips depending on the size of the mistake.
*Edit* A couple of you lovely readers have pointed out that the corrector pen is actually used for removing polish from the skin and cuticles if you make a mistake rather than polish mistakes on the nail. Firstly the pen was actually recommended to me by the clerk at Priceline with the nail art pen saying that it was great to use and clean up mistakes in nail art, so firstly fail on the clerk for not knowing what she was talking about and fail on me for not reading the package properly. I did actually test it out on the skin too but apparently when I was posting half asleep this morning I forgot to include that part of review, double fail on me!
Anyway on the skin/cuticles I found it to be a little bit pointless as it took quite a bit of effort to remove any polish rather than just mushing it into my skin and turning it purple. For a highly pigmented polish you would have to stop and clean the tip several times if you needed to clean more than one finger which I found frustrating and time consuming. I think for the price (assuming I hadn’t gotten it on sale) I would rather just use an orange stick with a little cotton and polish remover >_< */Edit*
Oh noes I made a huge mistake with dark purple nail polish what ever am I to do?!
Following the instructions I wiped over the mistake. The pen didn’t specify if the polish should be wet or dry when I used it. When removing wet polish it just kind of moved it around. To be honest you might as well use an orange stick covered in a tissue because it really just smudged everything. You can see the results below:
I let the remaining polish dry and then tried the pen again. All it seemed to do was scrape off polish layers and mush them around together. Results:
Verdict: I wouldn’t buy it. I tested it in several different situations and with different polishes etc and all it didn’t do anything different. I don’t think it would be useful for removing small mistakes without destroying the rest of the design. It’s a pity though because it’s such a good idea 🙁
Next post is going to be a circle lens review 😀
Have any of you had good results with a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen?
Quite a while ago I placed an order with Bodyline Japan for quite a few items as a belated Christmas present from James ^_^
A lot of you asked for a review of the items so here it is!
Website:
The site is very easy to use with a standard shopping cart and the ability to pay via Paypal or credit card. Shipping is offered via DHL at a flat rate of US$20 or EMS with a rate depending on your country. The site has a huge amount of items to choose from so it was a little hard for me to stay in my budget! 😉
Shipping:
I chose DHL shipping to save money. DHL has a rather bad reputation from other people I’ve spoken to, depending on what country you live in *cough*America*cough* they have been known to expedite your package through customs and then several weeks after delivery present you with a bill for doing so. As far as I’m aware this doesn’t happen in Australia and it definitely didn’t happen to me this time. That said if I was ordering again and I was in a hurry I would spend the extra money for EMS because even though the “estimated arrival time” from Bodyline was arriving on a Friday the package didn’t arrive until 4:30pm on the Monday. The package made it all the way from Japan (via a bunch of other countries) to Australia in around a day and a half and cleared the airport customs very quickly and then it spent the better part of 3 days “on route” to my house. Considering my house is around 30min from the airport that was kind of irritating! Anyway not a big deal! XD
Here is the package that arrived:
Inside I ordered the following (not the real names but I can’t find half of the things on the site anymore):
James’s mini review of the beannie and hat is “very soft and nice” XD
Ok let’s do the individual reviews!
Spotty Bow
Price- US$3
Made from average quality ribbon, finished quite nicely.
On the siteI thought it was a side bow but it’s actually right in the middle, now looking at it I think she’s just wearing it to the side. The plastic band it’s on is a little flimsy.
Over all: happy with the quality for the price. I’ve worn it several times now.
Short ruffle socks
Price: US$5
The lace is nylon but it’s still very very soft. The actual socks are incredibly soft. I’m really happy with these especially for the price, they are adorable!
Music Note Dress
Price: I think it was around US$35-ish I can’t find it on the site now but it was very cheap.
This is the packaging. Something about Bodyline’s international packaging has always made me happy.
The dress:
I fell in love with this print. It’s not top notch quality, up close the print gets slightly pixeled and one thing that irritates me is that some of the treble clefs are backwards… but unless you’re staring at it from 2 inches away and are a music nut like me I don’t see it as a reason not to buy.
The quality of this dress is fantastic for the price plain and simple. No it’s not the same quality as AP or BtSSB but it’s still better than the average dress you would pick up at Supre or even Target. All of the seams are finished well and though there is no lining every stitch is in it’s place. *edit* I also forgot to mention that this jsk comes with bow ties for the back and shirring with ribbon so the size is quite adjustable. The bow ties are not detachable unlike other brands.
The quality of the lace was as good as any brand piece I’ve seen, no nylon at all.
It came with 2 detachable bows on the collar which I totally love. They are the perfect size to use on my beret or just in my hair. The only problem I had (and this is really nit-picky) was the clips were put on backwards compared with everything else I own so I put them o upside down a few times out of habit ^_^
Eyelashes:
Price: US$1-3
I was really happy with the lashes, here in Aus lashes are usually $8-10 which I think is quite unreasonable. These are a great price and decent quality. They also offer many many different styles.
This was my favorite pair:
Diamantes!
Shoes with bows
Price: US$37
I can’t express how happy I am with these shoes, they are exactly what I was hoping for! I bought them so I would have good walking shoes for Melbourne, the reason I chose these ones is because the front platform is almost as high as the heel so there isn’t as sever slope as appears. Apart from rolling my ankle once they did their job fantastically and I didn’t have any major dramas.
I picked the non-shiny version. They are very sturdily made and surprisingly light. I went through two airports with them and didn’t set off security so I imagine they are made of hollow plastic.
The heels are thick and the bows on the back are so cute!
One feature I really liked was the fact that the top buckle is on a snap closure. This means when you have ridiculously long nails you won’t have problems with putting your shoes on 😀
The tread on the bottom was a nice touch too that a lot of these style shoes seem to miss out on.
The only problem is that being white they do scuff quite easily. That’s not a design flaw, it’s just how white shoes are so if you’re going to get some you should get some shoe polish too.
Stripe Candy Tote bag
Price: US$6
I was a little disappointed with the colour of this one, on the site it looks like a very pastel blue but in reality it’s about half way between my photos and theirs.
The pattern is so cute!
For some reason the straps are made from a shiny slightly stretchy almost cheap vinyl fabric. It’s a very strange choice because it feels so much more flimsy than the rest of the bag. That said I used it to carry my heavy laptop to and from Melbourne and all around the place and it still hasn’t broken. It hasn’t broken yet but I still think I want to replace the straps just to be safe.
It’s lined with pink cotton. For $6 you can’t really go wrong though.
So what does it all look like on? Well it looks like this…
The skirt of the dress has lots of room for a good sized petti. Without the petti it is the perfect shape for hime style.
And co-ordinated slightly differently. Also don’t worry I haven’t forgotten that you all want a tutorial on this hair style, I’m just a bit behind at the moment *_*
Overall I’m happy with my purchases. I think it was great value for money and I was able to buy a lot more items than I was expecting.
Bodyline had such a stigma in the Lolita community because of quality issues many years ago, since then they’ve worked hard to change their image. Yes you will still find maid style items and no not everything there is good BUT if you are prepared to do your research and study the pictures carefully it can be a great place to pick up well priced lovely items.
So if you’ve been following my Twitter you’ll be aware that I’ve been testing out Circle Lenses!
So what are circle lenses? Basically they are coloured contact lenses which make your eyes appear bigger, they are very very popular in Asia especially with Hime Gyaru models. I’ve been interested in trying them for like 2 years but never got around to it until now when E-CircleLensoffered to send me some 😀
You can’t imagine how excited I was when I came home from Melbourne to a package from E-CircleLens!
Inside the package were 3 different lenses, some pamphlets and instructions, 3 cases and a cute little doggie travel kit!
How cute is this? The little cases for the lenses have bows on them!
They came with cartoon instructions showing you the do’s and don’ts of putting them in and caring for the lenses.
This is the little doggie travel case! He’s found his way to my handbag now!
The doggie opens up and inside is… a mirror, tweezers, a bottle for contact solution and a case!
All of the lenses come packaged really well in styrofoam, when you take them out they are in little glass bottles like this:
It took a bit of work to get the aluminum lids off but that’s probably because I’m incredibly weak heehee!
These ones here are the Aryan Ring Circles.They have a diameter of 14mm which is huge and they last 1 year.
This is a photo of me trying to put them in for the first time. Considering how un-coordinated I am, it’s surprising I didn’t lose an eye! It was a lot easier to do than I was expecting, I think if I can do it anyone can!
So what kind of difference do they make? Here is me with one of the Aryan Ring ones in and one eye natural. Big difference right?
And when you add some make up, they look awesome!
These ones look really dark but still have a burst of natural colour through the middle.
Here is a close up comparison between natural eye and made up eye with the Aryan Ring Circles:
The second set that they sent me are called Walkure Brown and they have a diameter of 14.5mm! These ones are my favorite because they are the absolute biggest! Here’s the comparison between my natural eye and the Walkure Brownup close:
These ones were slightly harder to apply because of the size but once they were in, they just look fantastic! The dark brown works really well with hime style as well which is great for me!
I was surprised how natural they looked on me as my eyes are actually green normally ^_^
From a distance they just look cute!
The third set I received was the Angel EX Greenwith a diameter of 14mm. I was excited about these ones because they were so natural looking and they really made the green in my eyes pop! It probably helped that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them in Ageha as well 😉
It’s such a pity that these photos don’t seem to capture the real colour of these lenses, they are a really deep vibrant green in real life. I wore them to lunch the other day and got 3 compliments about my eyes, no one even guessed I was wearing lenses XD
They are darker than my natural eyes but the green really stands out!
Pretty!
So my review! Ok the quality of the packing was really good, the box arrived dented by a careless post office worker but the insides were still perfectly ok because of all of the packaging. The complimentary instructions they include are really easy to follow and well set out. I have never used lenses before and I managed to put them in very easily. I have to say that unlike some other resale companies I’ve dealt with, the staff at E-CircleLens were super helpful and really knowledgeable about their products. I couldn’t have been happier with the support I received. The actual lenses were really comfortable to wear and after I got the hang of actually putting them in I didn’t really notice that they were in during the day. On the first day that I wore the Angel Ex Green ones I actually forgot they were in, if James hadn’t reminded me I probably would have gone to bed with them in XD If you want your own sets, all of these lenses can be bought via E-CircleLensfor around US$40 and they last for 1 year if taken care of correctly.
I’ve made a fun little video tutorial to show you how to apply circle lenses, click below to see!
So in conclusion, my first experience with Circle lenses has been really positive, I’m definitely going to keep wearing them and I want to get lots more different colours to try out 😀
Ok this post is pretty huge if I do say so myself, it even has two tutorials including a lilac lace nail art… that’s right two!
I’ve been getting a lot of nail polish related requests lately so here is a gigantic post to take care of some of them!
Firstly a lot of people have been asking how many nail polishes I have… the answer is 87. That sounds like a lot… and well it is a lot but I’ve collected those over the last 4 years aaaaand a lot of them were gifts and the ones I bought were all like $2 so it’s not actually the gigantic money pit it sounds like!
Question 2: how do I store them? Well if I’m going to be making a lot of nail art to sell at once then I set them all up on a table organized by colour. Other than that they all live in a draw organized by whatever I shoved in there first.
With that many polishes how do you choose colours that go well together?! Well I make swatches out of old fakes nails and paddle pop sticks like this:
I got the idea from one of your blogs actually… but I can’t for the life of me find the post and I’ve been searching all morning >_< If it was you just let me know in the comments because I want to credit you!! *edit* some has said it was invented by “krisprimps.bradandkris.com” but I haven’t ever been to her blog so I must have seen it somewhere else!*/edit*
A random selection:
I use white nail tips so when I need to test out how opaque a white polish is I paint the tips black first.
So how do you make them? Well let me show you with the new Lilac polish that Eyekowas kind enough to send me 😀
Gather all the items above, you need: -A glue gun -Paddle pop sticks -A pen -Old false nail tips -Various polishes you want to swatch, I try to save them up and do around 10 at a time.
First count how many polishes you have and get that many paddle pop sticks and nail tips.
Heat your glue gun and put some glue on the back curve of one of the nail tips.
Press it down onto the edge of the paddle pop stick. Be very careful not to burn yourself!
Add some extra glue to the back to make sure everything is secure.
Rinse and repeat for how ever many you need…
Now wait until all of that is dry and paint one coat of polish over the whole thing.
Wait for it to dry!
While we’re waiting for it to dry here’s a mini review of the Eyeko polish:
The application was quite good it was a nice consistency and very shiny after application. It was opaque/the colour in the bottle after 2 coats. This next photo is a really good representation of the colour, it’s nice and soft and reminds me a lot of OPI “Do you lilac it?”. I didn’t find the smell of the polish over powering either which was nice.
The packaging is super cute too which is a plus!
The bottle is quite small at 8.5ml for £3 but for a boutique company that seems to be fairly standard. So the verdict = good! Everything they have is themed on a very cute manga which they update on the site every week, here’s some of the cute info they sent through:
Now back to the tutorial! After the first coat is dry write the name and colour of the polish on the other end of the stick!
Just like this 😀
Now time for the second coat, this time you should only paint the top 2/3rds of the nail.
Then leave that to dry. Once it’s dry you should paint one final coat on the top 1/3rd of the nail.
So you should have something like this, the numbers represent the number of coats. This doesn’t mean much for a polish as opaque as this one but when you have a more sheer polish it’s much more useful to know how many coats you’ll need for the finish you want. Now you can see at a glance without having to trial and error it every time.
This is an example of some polishes where the differences are a little more obvious, especially the orange.
So there you have it! Now it’s time for a nail art tutorial 😀 Today we’re going to make a pretty but easy lace finish on a base of the Eyeko Lilac Polish. Video is below!
<div-id= “lilac”>
Hope you enjoyed the double tutorial post! And please let me know if you have any other nail art related questions <3
Let me know what you think of it all especially the lilac lace nail art, I want to do more tutorials ^_^
A while ago I was sent a really interesting new product to test out for you guys: Rapid Lash eyelash serum.
I held off posting about it for so long because I wanted to be extra thorough while I was getting information about it because it’s a bit of a touchy subject for a lot of girls: EYELASHES
A lot of my friends and girls I know are really self conscious about the size/shape/curve/density/whatever of their eyelashes and I have to admit I’ve gotten quite caught up in the whole thing in the past too. My eyelashes are naturally quite light so when I don’t wear mascara or false lashes it can be a little tough to see them and they don’t stand out against my eyes 🙁 There all kinds of solutions to this like fake lashes (my fav), lash extensions and dyeing kits and now there is something called “Rapid Lash Eyelash Renewal Serum” which claims to “transform each strand at the lash line from thin, brittle or short lashes into thicker, fuller and healthier-looking lashes by delivering essential proteins, vitamins and other moisturizing and rejuvenating ingredients that replenish the lashes, while adding shine and elasticity.”
That’s a bit of a mouthful and quite a big thing to claim! So I’ve done a road test for you all ^_^
This is the packaging it comes in:
Their literature has a lot of before/after photos. Apparently the serum can be used for eyebrows as well, I don’t think I need my brows any darker though so I just used it on the lashes.
It comes in a little shiny tube with a brush in it kind of like a liquid eyeliner. At AU$65 it’s a bit on the expensive side but it’s an alternative to actual eyelash extensions especially if it’s something you’re really self conscious about.
The liquid is clear and kind of gloopy… When you put it on it’s quite cold because of the metal container which feels quite nice. It takes a few minutes to dry but it wasn’t irritating at all to have on. It didn’t feel like I was wearing anything once it was dry and it didn’t bother me through the night. I did notice that my eyes had extra sleep in the morning but nothing uncomfortable.
What you are supposed to do is apply it to your lash line as if you were putting on eyeliner every night before bed. According to their website you should see a change after around 3-4 weeks. I used it for around 4 weeks before I took all these pictures and I did notice a change. Both James and my Mum noticed that my lashes looked a bit longer and fuller.
The website has lots of features and benefits of the lash serum including things like it’s paraben free, cruelty free and lots of other scientific things about how it works… but I think most of you will only care about how well it works! So here is a before and after shot of me after 4 weeks of using it every night:
(apologies for the blurriness I didn’t even check the photos before I started editing them for the post. Also haha you can totally see James’ reflection in my eye!)
This is my scientific way of looking at it. In my before shot the longest lash I could kind was approximately 76 pixels long after the longest one I could find was approximately 88px. I don’t think there was as big of a change as the before/after photos on their site but everyone gets different results. The numbers don’t lie so as far as I’m concerned it works!
I don’t think this is going to be a product for everyone but I do think that it’s a really cool idea and for girls like me with naturally light lashes especially if you don’t like extensions! If you’re interested in buying some you can get it from Priceline or online here.
Thumbs up!
Have any of you tried Rapid Lash or the similar systems before?
I’m having so much fun here in Melbourne with Candice! I can’t wait for the big tea party tomorrow!
Would you guys like me to post photos here of the trip at the end of every day or one big one when I get back?
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
