Friday 9 March 2012

Lana Del Rey Nails


Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know who Lana Del Rey is. She is the hottest new artist taking the charts by storm with her beautiful and unique voice. She has a real vintage look and reminds me of Nancy Sinatra who I love.





I really adore this girl so thought I would do a nail art tutorial based on the nail look she tends to stick to. She has super long nails but they might not be too realistic in the real world, so I created the look on my own shorter nails. This look can really be applied to any length and it actual makes you nails look longer if you have shorter nails.



This is easy enough to recreate, firstly paint your entire nail in a nude shade, I went with Essence - Hazelnut Cream Pie. When this had dried I paint two flicks creating a point in Barry M - Raspberry. Once again, wait for this to dry then with a steady hand paint a thin gold line border, I used Barry M - Foil.





There you have it, complete in just three simple steps so this wont take too long to do. Both Essence and Barry M products are very inexpensive, but if you don't have these colours you could try this look with other colours, perhaps pinks and greens for Summer or pastel shades which are very on trend at the moment.





Hope you like the finished look. I always like to see your versions so leave your comments here, on my facebook page 'Mysecretpenny'  or my twitter @mysecretpenny .

Sinead x




Sunday 4 March 2012

It's a Shoe Thing

Like most girls out there I am a real shoe-aholic, so I thought I would do a little video on some of my shoe collection. I planned to show you all my shoes, but realised that would take ages, so here's a look at just a few. This video is all heels, they are by far my favourite, even though I might complain that my feet hurt, it sometimes is well worth the pain.

You will see a variety of shoes, from high street to designer. I don't think I have a favourite shoe shop at the moment, as trends change so often I tend to stick to stores such as Primark, so if I only get one or two wears out of them I haven't spent a fortune for them to sit in my wardrobe.

As you may know my most recent purchase are my Litas, which I love, they are super high and really eye catching. My boyfriend bought me my Louboutins, and I still keep them in their box, they are so precious.  One of my favourites in this video are my New Look black and gold glitter wedges, they are really girly and make any plan outfit look good.

Well, let me know what you think, or if you have any favourites I would love to see a picture.

Sinead x

Saturday 3 March 2012

Feeling Peachy


Peach makeup looks have been all over the red carpet and runways this season so I thought I would bring you some of my favourite products to give you that lovely soft peach glow. For this look I would mainly stick to lipsticks, blushers and nail polishes as I feel it may be a bit OTT on eyes, instead go for a natural simple eye and keep the pop for your cheeks, lips or nails.



My favourite peach blushers at the moment are Mac All's Good powder blush, Mac Something Special cremeblend blush and Topshop blush in Pop.A small dusting of any one of these across the apples of your cheeks will give you a fresh youthful summery look. If your not sure about the peach colour maybe go for the darker shades such as Alls Good, as it has more of the brownish pink tones, like a mix of bronzer and blusher. For the more daring I would use the Topshop Pop, and for a dewy finish go for the cremeblend blush.




On the lips go for a glossy finish, I love Mac See Sheer and Revlon Smoked Peach. They are matte shades but both very moisturising, you can top them up with a clear lipgloss to get a really juicy look. I normally stick to matte finishes as I find most of the other finishes can be a bit sparkly and don't have a really deep pigment in them.





To finish off the look give yourself a peach manicure with the lovely Barry M Peach Melba. This is a super cute shade which I think is going to be a hot colour for the spring.


Hope you enjoy creating the look yourself.

Sinead x

Friday 2 March 2012

February Favourites



I can't believe it's March already, this year is flying by. I am loving the slightly longer evenings and brighter mornings, it can only mean summers on its way, hopefully we get some nice weather! I thought I would do a small blog on some of my favourite products which I bought this month. I like to try out beauty products before I mention them so I can really see how they react to my skin over a period of time first.

For some reason my skin is going mad at the moment and I am having a few break outs, I felt like I was getting clogged pores across my nose, I have tried loads of cleansers and exfoliators but wanted to try out some nose strips and see how I got on. I just went for the Boots Witch Hazel strips, they are so easy to use, just place the strip across your nose and dampen with water, then it will harden which feels a bit weird. After a few minutes you peel it off and Ta-Da, no more pores. I like these, my skin felt soft afterwards and they got rid of any blackheads.


I wanted to get a new pressed powder to wear for work and stuff like that as I am wearing my Mac powder all the time and it gets used up so fast. Boots were doing a 3 for 2 deal and I was getting a Bourjois eye liner so I was looking at the powders they had in their range. I liked the Healthy Balance 10 hour powder, basically because it said it lasted up to 10 hours and as an oily skin sufferer this sounded great. I got it in Beige. I really love this powder now and adore its fruity scent.



There was a lot of talk about the new Soap & Glory concealer, and as a big fan of their products I thought I would try it out. Its not bad, I'm not sure if I am 100% in love with it, mainly as I feel it is a little greasy, which leaves my face feeling oily and shiney, so maybe for that it shouldn't have made my favourites blog, but as a concealer it is really great. It covers any blemish and under eye circles.

Samantha Chapman, make up artist and beauty blogger at Pixiwoo has launched her own range of make up brushes. I have wanted to try out a a stippling brush for a while and couldn't really find any reasonably priced ones, so when I saw this one in her collection I snapped it up. It's a really cool all round brush, it can be used for all sorts of foundations, powders, blushers or highlighters. There is also some information on the box about Samantha's website and links to video demonstrations which is really cool as it gives you a quick guide on how to use the brush.


As most of you will know, I am a total tanaholic, and I am always trying out new tans. I am really loving the Irish brands which are on the market at the moment such as Tanorganic and Wow Brown. I have been using the Wow Brown Tanning Liquid for a while and like that I only need about two layers for a nice tan. The last time I was buying it the girl in the pharmacy said she loved the Tanning Lotion as it gave a deeper tan, so I decided to try it this time, and I love it. I literally put on one layer before bed, and when I woke up I had a lovely golden glow, plus it doesn't have the usual biscuity smell like most fake tans and I wasn't sticky for ages afterwards, I could throw on a loose top and sit down comfortably without having to stand waiting for it to dry in. I think this might be on my favourites list for a few months running.


The last of my favourites is my Models Own nail polish in Utopia. I was looking for a white/pink shade and I came across this one, I really like the coverage as I put on two coats and was finished. I normally find with light shades you need to build up layers to actually see the colour. I am trying to think up a new nail art design which I can use this in, I feel a bit weird having plain nails after having jazzy ones for so long.

On a non beauty or fashion related note, I bought this secented cupcake candle in Pennys and I just adore it. I recently bought some new Yankee Candles but I bought this one mainly because tit was in a cute cupcake jar, but it has a really nice vanilla scent which is gorgous when you light it. Definatly worth all of the €2 I paid for it, what a steal!!



So there you have it, hope I didn't make it too long. I probably missed out some things that I really loved but I can squeeze them in to another blog soon. I have so many blog ideas which I need to get around to doing, it takes so much time getting good pictures, typing up and I have been trying to do more video blogs so between the filming and editing I am a very busy girl! Hopefully I can get a few out over the weekend. I promise to do plenty of fashion blogs to catch up with all my beauty and nail art posts.  As always I would like your feedback and suggestions for anything you would like to see me cover and if there are any products you have been loving lately.

Thanks for reading

Sinead x