Maybelline The Falsies Mascara - Review

I bought this on my way to work (as well as a milkshake, mmm!) to help me get over the mid-week feeling of despair I felt at 8am this morning - it was on offer and my usual Clinique mascara is about to be used up. I bought it at Superdrug for £5.99. I'd seen some good reviews/pics of this so thought I'd give it a go.

1. Packaging/style
Love the purple and turquoise metallic packaging, the tube was hand-friendly and looked good. The brush is curved and has a slightly thin part just before the brush for flexibility I suppose.

2. Consistency
Very thick and black.

3. Application
Seemed ok but after I'd applied the first coat, because my lashes are so short (seriously, ridiculously short) and the formula is pretty thick I had a LOT of the product on my lash line/eyelid and it looked really messy. Taking off the excess with a cotton bud meant that my lashes all flattened out, not cool.

4. Final look
Horrible! Very clumpy, messy on the lid and just gross. My lashes did look really black though. I did some "before" an "after" pics but they're so horrendous I can't bring myself to put them on here, I look like I've never worn mascara before!

5. Removal
I wanted this off so quickly it was facewiped off, came off reasonably easy but went a bit smudgy during removal (again because I think it's so thick).

6. Verdict
Disappointing....I think I'd give this a 1.5 out of 5. I can't even imagine how clumped it would look over my Shiseido mascara base. I don't think I'll be bothering with this again, though maybe one quick coat in the morning for work would do? But then again maybe not.

It does seem to be the shortness of my lashes that's the major problem though, on girls with longer lashes to start with it looks lovely and really increases the volume and doesn't look as clumped as mine did - maybe because the product is dispersed more evenly?

This has not helped my Wednesday slump! If only you could wear false lashes with lash extensions, that would be my daytime and evening looks sorted.

Half Moon Polish - Nails Inc Albert & Victoria

Since my nails are finally peeping over the free edge, I decided to give myself a little half moon polish, as seen on Dita Von Teese.

For those of you that don't know what this is, it's where the entire nail is painted apart from the half moon (lunula) at the bottom of your nail. It gives a fab contrasting look and Leighton Denny does a fab one.

Here's mine:

How to do it:

1. Basecoat the entire nail

2. Apply your chosen polish, leaving your lunula uncovered

3. Cleanup using nail polish remover/acetone with a cotton bud or even better, a thin nail art brush

4. Apply topcoat

I've seen some variations where people use the half moon stickers actually meant for doing nail tips and it seems to work? And Glamour actually has a tutorial using holepunch protector stickers!

I need my nails a little longer, a bit more practice/a steadier hand and the ability to master a two tone one - like white on the bottom, black on top, like Dior did a while ago.

Models Own Goldfinger Polish (impromptu review)

I wasn't going to bother reviewing this and its silver counterpart (Silver Fox) as I thought they'd be your bog-standard watery glitters that you can use as a topcoat.

Anyway, I'm going out tonight and I seem to have started to wear black polish with the dress I'm planning on wearing (http://www.asos.com//Asos/Asos-Embellished-Smock-Dress/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=795750 for anyone who NEEDS to know what I'm wearing this eve) and because I was bored I tried Models Own Goldfinger on my thumb to tone in with the gold in my dress. And I was intrigued...so I carried on with the rest of my nails. And even did a second coat. The glitter was really dense and actually covered the nail thickly enough after two coats (I did a third "insurance" coat though).

I love it - it's so sparkly and blingy and I'm such a magpie. Goldfinger indeed!

It feels a little rough/raised but not as much as I'd expect from such a glittery polish. As a whole, Models Own has impressed me with the polishes I ordered from them. Application and drying time was totally fine, no problems there. I think I'll probably matte it tomorrow too to see what happens!

Funnily enough, I actually think it's maybe a little too dense to use as a topcoat over another colour as it might be a bit overpowering...

Estee Lauder Doublewear Foundation - Review

It’s apparently the beauty industry’s best selling foundation so of course I had to try it! I bought it from the Estee Lauder counter in Selfridges for £24.50 after getting the sales assistant to pop some onto my skin. The shade I have is Fresco 01 and I applied it with a Gosh foundation brush.

I’ve been wearing it for the past few weeks whilst I’ve walked to work in the freezing cold, been at work for 8 hours, had a few nights out and it’s held its own well. My skin is quite light at the moment, I have some dark circles under my eyes and a few blemishes around my chin area, which this foundation covered without me even needing a separate concealer, though I did use a light dusting of powder out of habit really – I didn’t reapply through the day and it still looked fine when I came to take it off at bedtime.

Good points:
· Good even coverage – covers up blemishes, rogue pigmentation etc but doesn’t look caked
· Matte finish
· Doesn’t transfer onto clothing
· Lasts well for at least 12 hours, possibly needs a touchup after then
· 19 different shades

Bad points:
· I don’t like that it doesn’t have a pump with it so application can be a little messy
· Seems to “set” pretty quick so you have to be speedy with your brush
· Second day of wearing felt dry and tight on my skin – as the days went out, I found my skin feeling quite dry though this could be due to the weather we’ve been having recently

I’ve also read some reports of people looking like they’ve been “whited-out” and mask like when wearing this for photos but sadly no-one has taken any pics of me whilst I’ve been wearing this so I can neither confirm or deny this.

Would I buy it again? Probably yes as it does everything I need it to, and does it well, however I still don’t feel like I’ve reached the foundation holy grail yet so when this runs out I might try something else…a great foundation though, nevertheless.

Pastel Hair?

So, pastels are "in" for Spring. My nails are already looking decidedly springy, my wardobe isn't but probably will be once it starts snowing/being so dark all the time etc.

Apparently another trend for spring is pastel hair. And I really like it. I'm trying to talk myself out of adding some lilac and pink to my very light blonde hair....maybe I'll just satisfy my urges with some coloured extensions though, colours can be a bitch to get rid of when you're blonde (plus I don't know what work would say if I rolled up on Monday rocking a pastel-streaked do).

Models Own Review Cont'd - Lilac Dream

Ok - first thing's first, I've had a spray tan done. And not a particularly good one, I actually complained in the salon as she's missed places she should have done (the sides of my hands, tips of my fingers) but managed to get tan on places she shouldn't (palms of my hands, soles of my feet...) - and it's speckly?!?!

Anyway, being the devoted blogger that I am, I still thought I'd show you Models Own Lilac Dream - this is my third day of wearing it, so there is a little tipwear and I have 17 glitter topcoat over the top.



See the speckles? Speckliness aside, I really like this polish, it was easy to apply, opaque in 2 coats and dried relatively speedily. Hooray! Plus the colour is just the right lilac for me, not too blue or too pink, I just added the glitter topcoat for an extra shot of girliness. Someone actually commented on how nice my nails were on the bus and asked what I was wearing (despite the fact I looked like an albino oompa-loompa with my newly blonded hair and newly oranged skin!)

Just had my eyebrows threaded...

I love threading. It gives a really defined, straight shape to your brows (much more than tweezing in my opinion) but without the drama potential of waxing (a brow accidentally being ripped off, burns, skin being taken off with hair etc). It's cheap - £5.50 to get my eyebrows done - and instantly lifts your face.
This is just the start of my Valentines beautification - brows today, hair and tan on Saturday, wax, make up and nails on Sunday. And the likelihood is my boyfriend will literally go in the shower and put on a new tshirt - that will be his Valentine effort. Tsk.

Models Own Nail Polish Haul and Essie Matte About You

(L-R) Goldfinger, Silver Fox, Hot Pink, Lilac Dream, Grey Day

This order arrived very quickly , in really nice packaging – I know it doesn’t mean much in terms of the polish but good service and things that look pretty can’t be sniffed at! I also got a free buffer as it’s my first order from their site, I actually went looking for their false lashes but got swayed by polishes instead.


I had meant to swatch all 5 of them but the first I tried was Grey Day and I liked it so much I didn't want to take it off! I've wanted a grey polish for a while. Sorry my nails are looking a bit useless at the moment, one snapped so filing of the rest of them commenced.

Grey Day is a bluish grey - kind of like the colours of those Russian Blue cats. It went on smoothly and evenly, dried pretty quickly and only needed two coats. I'm really pleased with it! It looks almost khaki in certain lights.

Then, I got in from work and my Essie Matte About You had finally arrived, so I had to have a play, and do you know what, I liked that too! It made Grey Day look almost like concrete, you could see it mattifying on my nails (that made me go ooooh!)

Label.M Resurrection Style Dust - Review

I'm always looking for ways to up the volume in my hair and having heard positive things about the Label.M Resurrection Style Dust I thought I'd give it a go.

I bought a 3g pot for around £10 - pretty small amount but I think the likelihood is you wouldn't get through it too quickly as you use it quite sparingly.

I thought that it would be like dry shampoo but it actually comes in a "shaker" type container and you shake the product onto your roots, then rub it in. First surprise - the texture. It feels really strange, almost sticky, like hair gel or old hairspray something when the product is being applied. I really really really didn't like this, I'd go as far as to say it put me off the product a bit! Also, don't apply too much or it's really hard to get it to "blend" into your hair and you might look a bit like you've put talc in your hair (like if you apply too much dry shampoo).

Results-wise, it DOES add volume, but a messy, matte finish sort of volume, so it's not for you if you're wanting hair that looks neat, shiny and perfectly coiffed - which is sadly the look I'm going for really so I don't think I'd purchase this item again, I'll stick to my velcro rollers, backcombing brush and trusty old hairspray!

Valentines Day Nails #2 - Pink Heart Crystal Tips

This is so easy to do but looks really cute - I did it on a false nail (that was already a really nice light pink colour) but Nails Inc Brompton Place is a pretty similar pink colour if you were doing it on your own nails.

Tools:

False nail/polish
Brush on nail glue
Orange stick

Blu tack

Heart shaped crystals (mine are from Ebay, I got a variety of colours - I chose to use contrasting pinks to go with the theme and to look good against the pink nail)

How to:

1. Usual basecoat, 2 coats of polish, wait to dry
2. Select the crystals you want to use and place them face up on a plastic surface

3. Using the orange stick with blu tack on the end, pick up a crystal by placing the blu tack gently onto the crystal and lifting

4. Apply a line of nail glue to the tip of the nail, from one side to the centre, but not all the way across
5. Then, affix the crystal to the nail by gently positioning it on the nail and pressing down

6. Repeat until nail is covered where the white tip would be of your nail

17 Nail Xtras Glitter Topcoat - Review

I bought this on impulse because it was sparkly and I'm actually pretty pleased with how it looks on, it has multicoloured fine glitter pieces in a clear topcoat - I've layered it over Nails Inc Black Taxi here:My camera hasn't picked up the true dept of the colours in the glitter - there's flecks of red, green, gold and silver in there that really catch the light! It wasn't overly quick to dry and as it's glitter will probably last a decent amount of time as a topcoat, though CND/Seche Vite etc probably don't have to be quivering in their polish bottles just yet!

However, it was £3.99 which I think for a brand like 17 is actually a little expensive - I could probably get similar results with something a lot cheaper (as it's a fun polish addition rather than an actual colour) so I'd have a look around for something else rather than buy this again, though I do like it.

Valentines Day Nails #1 – OPI Heart to Resist Review

It’s the 1st of February – 13 days to go til Valentines day - so thought I’d bring you a review of OPI Heart to Resist. Heart to Resist is a clear polish with a tiny bit of multicoloured glitter in it and lots of small red sequin hearts, perfect for the Valentines theme!

First point – it’s pretty hard to apply; try and do a thin coat and you get no hearts, try and get loads of hearts and you get a hell of a lot of polish on your brush, scraping off the excess on the side of the bottleneck means you lose the hearts. Fishing for the hearts and positioning them isn’t easy either!

But on the plus side, the polish does actually dry quickly (even where it’s thickly applied due to the difficulty of heart fishing) and to a shiny finish – I didn’t actually need a topcoat, though after the pics were taken I did apply a pink glitter topcoat and it lasted for days.

I think it would actually look pretty good over a red or a pink – but for a much easier time, buying some heart shaped sequins and sticking them on afterwards would be a lot easier and look much less haphazard. A pretty but not particularly functional polish.

I have some more Valentines nails/nail art to post in the run up to Valentines Day, so please keep your eyes peeled!

Ahem. I MAY have been shopping today...

• Leighton Denny Polish in Stunning - one of my beauty staples, in my opinion it's the perfect formulation and the perfect everyday pink
• Nutrisummer Face and Nutrisummer Mist - Nutrisummer is my favourite gradual tan so when I found out they did a mist and face tan I had to try (especially since I tend to breakout if I use body tan on my face...a beauty no-no there y'all)
• Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation - my DiorSkin Nude ran out so since I've heard such great things about it I thought I'd give it a go (apparently it's the beauty industrys best selling foundation)
• 17 Glitter Topcoat - I'm a magpie, what can I say? If it sparkles, I'll take it.
• Random fabric trimmings and cheap brushes from Bodycare - for some Valentines themed nail art I'm planning...keep your eyes peeled!

As soon as I've tried them, I'll do some reviews. I also managed to resist a Nails Inc set of 4 full sized polishes (nice colours too) for £10 in Debenhams, which I think shows EXTREME self control on my part.

In non-beauty news, I also bought milk, sushi, a smoothie, 2 pairs of work shoes and my ASOS order arrived (some of it isn't great, some of it is).

Dermalogica Favorites Holiday Kit

I love Dermalogica, I already use their cleanser and masque (see below), and if I ever get a facial, I make sure it's a Dermalogica one - they do face-mapping and recommend products for you, guaranteeing they'll work to try and sort any skin problems you may have if specifically recommended.

But, the products are pretty expensive (especially when you want EVERYTHING), so before I committed to spending money extending my collection, I thought I'd buy some minis, so the Favorites Holiday Kit it was:

It contains: Precleanse (0.5 fl oz), Gentle Cream Exfoliant (0.3 fl oz), Daily Microfoliant (0.45 oz), Skin Hydrating Booster (0.25 fl oz) - so, they are all pretty small but my word, good things do come in small packages! My skin feels amazing, the Precleanse and Daily Microfoliant will be bought in full when these minis run out...

InStyle 100 Best Beauty Buys 2010

I bought InStyle for the first time today, predominantly because of the 20% off ASOS code within - but I'm actually really pleased as it also came with a booklet about the 100 Best Beauty Buys of 2010, definately worth a read!

I decided to do a quick run through of what I agree with, disagree with and want to try on the list. I had originally planned to copy the list out but decided on giving my opinions instead.

Products I agree with:

• Best facial exfoliator - Dermalogica Daily Microfiliant - exfoliating particles in this are so fine, you can use it every day without damaging your skin...plus it actually works!
• Best long-lasting lip colour -Max Factor Lipfinity - I'm something of a long lasting lip connoisseur and this is by far the best I've use
• Best self tan for the body - St Tropez Self Tan Bronzing Mousse - the mousse formula is really easy to apply and gives a nice coloured tan (I also like the Fake Bake spray too)
• Best base coat - CND Stickey - I've blogged about this before!

Products I disagree with:

• Best moisturiser for normal to oily skin - Creme De La Mer -I hate this moisturiser, it looks and smells cheap, contains lots of thickening agents, doesn't do anything for your skin that Nivea or similar wouldn't and I've recently been told that it allegedly costs £6 to make (don't know how true that is though!)
• Best moisturiser with self tan - Johnson's Holiday Skin Body Lotion - PAH! The best is Loreal Nutrisummer in my opinion

Products I want to try:

• Best mask for congested skin - Eve Lom Rescue Mask - sadly with a £46.98 price tag, trying is unlikely!
• Best spot treatment - Dermalogica Overnight Clearing Gel
• Best wash-off cleanser - Shu Uemura Cleansing Oils
• Best compact foundation - Chanel Teint Innocence Compact
• Best stick foundation - Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick
• Best top coat - Seche Vite

Best get saving up really!

Backcombing/teasing brush - it works!

Last time I was getting my hair done, I mentioned to my hairdresser that I like a lot of volume at my roots and that I was partial to a bit of backcombing. She tottered off and came back with one of these:It's a backcombing/teasing brush! She suggested if I went to Sally's I'd be able to get one cheaply, sadly I can't drive to get to Sallys so I headed to the trusty internet and found the brush above, which arrived today.

It works! It backcombs effectively and feels a lot less harsh on my hair than my usual methods of backcombing, there is a worrying sound of static when doing it and I think the plastic bristles aren't dissimilar to cheap hairbrushes you can get from the £1 shop, but I'm pleased with it! I did take some pics of the effects on my hair but my roots are so bad lately I was too ashamed to post them, damn the recession.

Shiseido The Mascara Base (Lash Primer)

Since Clinique discontinued the lash primer I used to use by them, I had to search for another one, because my lil lashes are, well, little. After a bit of research I found a lot of recommendations for this product - Shiseido The Mascara Base.

I had never used anything by Shiseido previously but thought I'd give it a go! And I'm glad I did - this product actually makes a difference to my lashes, a more noticeable difference than Clinique ever did. It actually made enough of a difference that my boyfriend (who I could come and meet with pink hair, and he wouldn't notice) commented how long my lashes were looking, woooo. Probably still not long enough to be classed as "long" or for me to hang up my false lashes just yet but at least you can actually see them above my liquid liner line now!

The only criticism I have of this product is that it's HARD WORK to remove, because it's sort of a greyish colour as well, it's kind of hard to tell if it's all off or not until you touch your lashes and realise they're still loaded with product.

Katy Perry Crystal Nails DIY Tutorial...bling bling!

I know this is a bit late (Katy Perry tweeted the above pic like 2 months ago...) but I still love it, finally got round to doing it (whilst I had short nails) and thought I’d tell you how I did it!

It’s really easy, though somewhat time consuming.

Tools:
CND Super Stickey

OPI polish in Glamour Game
Elegant Touch Brush On Nail Glue
Blu-Tack
Orange stick
Crystals (I bought 10,000 from Ebay)
CND Super Shiney

How to:
1. Basecoat
2. Polish
3. Attach the Blu-Tack to the end of your orange stick
4. Use the Blu-Tack/orange stick tool to pick up a crystal by gently pressing the Blu-Tack onto the top of the crystals (so the sparkly bit is stuck in the Blu-Tack)
5. Paint nail with nail glue in a stripe across the nail where you’re first going to attach the crystals
6. Press the rhinestones onto your nails by placing them onto your nails via the Blu-Tack and pressing lightly
7. Repeat in rows until the nail is covered
8. Wait for the nail glue on the whole thing to have dried properly
9. Cover with (good) topcoat

Voila......................................

...............................................Bling bling!

I think this would work amazingly well in acrylic rather than just with polishes too. I’d also recommend getting larger crystals that the ones I used, daaaaaaaaaaamn they were small.
It looked really nice when I started at the top, almost like a french mani but with crystals rather than white tips, and I think that overall that's a more wearable look.

Lord knows how long it’ll last but I’ll keep you updated………………….

Beauty in the Big Apple

Well, I've just got back from New York (lucky me!) and I'd expected to come away with a real haul of beauty stuff but to be honest because of the exchange rate, the fact we were going to all the big department stores (Macys, Bloomingdales etc) and the fact that it's New York so it's expensive, make up and stuff wasn't much cheaper!

On my shopping list was: Dior foundation and nail varnish, Chanel nail varnish, Demeter, Tigi, Nails Inc, OPI, perfume, Clinique exfoliator, mascara and superdefense moisturiser, Bobbi Brown Vitamin B Face Base and Prescriptives Super Line Preventer Extreme . Instead - this was all I got (in the way of beauty products, I mean):


And two of those were gifts for other people, and one was a free gift from Clinique (the make up remover)...how pathetic am I! Clinique was much cheaper there though. Did anyone know Prescriptives were closing down by the way? That's what they told me at the counter when I was buying - might be worth stocking up/waiting for clearance bargains from there if you like the stuff.

Some other New Yorky stuff - I got a manicure done in a salon just off 5th Ave (called Nardi's, based in the 4 star Lombardy Hotel) and it's fab, I got it done on Friday and the colour is still perfect, a really nice red by Essie. Two of my friends paid $30 for a beauty package thing there so I just tagged along for a mani! :-)

I was also pretty disappointed in Sephora - they're EVERYWHERE and I was really looking forward to going but when I got there, there wasn't much in there I couldn't have bought elsewhere, and again it was no cheaper than buying it in the UK.

But still, I had a fab time and did plenty of other shopping, spending and sightseeing. Quite sad to be back in grey old Manchester!

Battle of the Batistes

I love Batiste dry shampoo- it's a godsend when you get up late/can't be bothered washing your hair/are travelling somewhere.

I started off using Lee Stafford dry shampoo but quickly graduated to Batiste once I'd spotted the Tropical scented one. I loved it. Then I noticed the Diva and Boho fragrances - both gorgeous too! Weirdly my favourite is Boho (I'm not what you'd call a Boho girl), though I haven't tried Blush yet (which I assume is florally?)

Now I see they've brought out sprays for brown and black hair (no more white powdery roots!) but as a blondie I won't be trying these; strangely they are like £1 more than the normal ones?

Fishtail plaits/braids

I recently taught myself how to do fishtail plait (also known as herringbone braid) and I love it - it's a bit fiddly to get the hang of at first but looks great.

How to:

1. Start with tangle free hair
2. Decide where you want your braid to be - down your back/to the side and position hair there (it might help if you put your hair into a ponytail at this point using those clear elastics, you can always remove/cut them at the end if you want them out)
3. Divide ponytail into two equal sections
4. Pull a thin strand of hair from the outside left section and add it to the inside part of the right section. Pull it as tightly as you can.
5. Repeat this until braid is finished Secure with a small band (a clear elastic again should do the trick.

If in doubt, Youtube has plenty of videos that will give you a step by step.