I was very, very kindly sent a bundle of products to try, so I figured I would dedicate a week to reviewing said products.
I have given them a good test and I feel this week may come in handy, if you do ever fancy purchasing a few new items.
As well as receiving some fabulous products to try out, I was also very lucky to be sent a couple of beautiful nail polishes!
The shades I received are Candy Coated* , an amazingly beautiful hot pink, and Perfect Parfait*, a coral-ly toned orange. Both shades of which I hadn't already got in my collection.
The polishes retail for £6.50 and follow the matte packaging design.
I've played around with these during the past week. For a good opaque nail, I found I had to apply three coats, which I wouldn't say is unusual.
Both shades have worn well and lasted without chipping for three days.
I very much like these polishes and I would love to pick up a few more shades. Aren't these ones just perfect for the Summer!
If you want to see the large array of colours available, check out the Smooch Cosmetics website.
This is a super quick review of a nail polish I recently purchased from MeMeMe. The name of the shade is Pensive and it's the most gorgeous, bright duck egg blue.
I purchased it because I had nothing like this in my collection and it's now my all time favourite!
The swatch above is only one coat, so really you only need two coats for complete opacity.
The brush is a good size and application is easy.
I wore this polish underneath Deborah Lippmann 'Glitter in the air' this week and it looked amazing! Together with 'GITA', this polish lasted a good 4 days without chipping.
MeMeMe polishes usually sell for £4.50, but currently there is a pound off online.
You can find pensive and all of the other catwalk shades here.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a little Orly Nail Varnish, I hadn't seen any blogger previews that had received one.
The colour I received was Ruby, a pretty deep red that would go perfectly under the Deborah Lippmann polish from the Christmas Box. For a full size bottle you can expect to pay £6.95, which I think is a reasonable price considering how much you would pay for a polish from O.P.I.
I love the colour, but the formula felt really gloopy and was really difficult to apply evenly. It dried so quickly that if I had taken my time applying it, I would have ended up with brush streaks on my nails. I've heard so many good things about Orly, but now I'm just a little disappointed. I'm not sure I would intentionally go out to purchase one after this.
I came across this amazing shade yesterday and I just had to purchase it. I'd describe the colour as a deep teal duo tone. In natural light it can look very flat, but in a bright light you can see the beautiful mixture of blues and greens.
I don't have a colour like this in my collection and I really think it will be one I reach for on a regular basis.
You've all probably seen this before, but if you haven't, this nail varnish was in the December Glossybox. Due to the time of the month I subscribed I luckily received this box on Friday, so as you can imagine I'm quite excited, this means I get two boxes this month. Happy Sam.
I absolutely adore this polish and it's sparkly-ness! It's thick enough to wear alone and I think a few coats would give you a nice coverage of glitter. The colour is a very deep pink, maybe even leaning more on the red side, but I think it's a very girly colour.
I used this polish as a top coat over a deep red Barry M polish just to make sure it was completely opaque. I found it took quite a while to dry and was a little bit rubbery although now it's entirely dry it seems like it's going to be quite hard wearing. I heard a few people say how difficult this polish was to get off due to the amount of glitter in it, so when the time comes, I shall come back and add a footnote of how I found it for myself. So far I love it, but if the rumours are true, it could be a deal breaker for me.
I've been on the hunt for some good storage for my ever growing make-up/jewellery/nail varnish collection recently, so I thought I'd share some of the goodies I've come across!
I have literally been searching for a good display case for my nail varnishes for weeks and this is the cheapest I thing I have been able to find. If you have quite a small collection I think this could be ideal, although it's not quite big enough for my ever growing stash. It sells for £10.99 with free shipping and you can purchase it HERE.
Now this is exactly what I had in mind! I love the fact that it is wall mountable and you can fit a good variaty of polishes in the rack without them falling out. I had previously found another unit similar to this but the shelves were tiny and there was no way you could fit an OPI bottle in them.
This sells for £21.50 and they also charge £4.63 for shipping, so it is a little more on the pricey side, but I think it's a good price to pay to have somewhere where you can display all of your varnishes.
Now, you should all know by now that I'm a massive lipstick junkie and my collection is growing super fast. I thought this would be the perfect way to store them and I'm most definitely getting one of these for myself as soon as I have some pennies!
It sells for £7.50 and £3.98 shipping, so once again a little bit on the pricey side for something that is basically just plastic, but it's a small price to pay for your lipsticks to not be rolling around in a draw.
This little tray is the ideal addition to any organisational system. Personally I would use it to keep all of my single eyeshadows in, but you could use it for almost anything! There are three different kinds of tray available but this was my favourite. It's available from Argos for £9.99, but if you can't make it to your local Argos store you can by it HERE.
This is so cute, I just can't wait for it to be a new addition to my room! I currently struggle to find a good way store my necklaces without them getting tangled up, but this is ideal! Not only could I hang my necklaces on this, but I could also hook my big earrings on it too. It costs £6.95 and you can buy it HERE.
I was pointed in the direction of this little beauty of a brush holder by juicystar07 (Blair Fowler) on Youtube. It's actually a product from the online store she has with her sister Elle (AllThatGlitters21 on Youtube.)
You can buy them personalised with your own initial as well as being able to choose a colour of your choice.
It sells for $15.00 and you receive the plastic beads as well. Now obviously it is an american site so I'm unsure of how long it would take for you to receive this product, but I do think it's too good to pass up.
If you would like one for yourself, you can purchase it HERE along with plenty of other personalised items!
I hope you guys found this post helpful. I'm going to purchase a couple of these items for myself as soon as I am back in the land of money again. Looking for a job is so damn stressful, especially when you don't want to join the army or become a TV areal installer.
Feature Nail : W7 Blue Diamonds as a top coat on top of Collection 2000 Hot Looks in Show Off,
Other Nails : Collection 2000 Hot Looks in BMX Bandit with MUA Shade 17 used as a top coat
I totally thought it was about time I did a new nail post, it's been quite a while since I've done my last one. I'm still very much obsessed with having a feature nail, for me it's usually a different tone of the same colour, or a glitter polish.
Are there any colours out there that you lovely people could recommend me?
As you all should know by now, I am a massive MUA fan. So when I managed to return the stuff from Primark that was too small, I treated myself to a few more bits to add to my ever growing collection.
This included 3 more nail varnishes, I decided to get some more girly colours, as the majority of what I have already are reds or greens. Ok, so I did buy another red (shade7), but this has a gorgeous sparkle to it.
I also decided to buy the amazing hot pink (shade15) and the pastel purple (shade24)
Above Shades - 15, 7, 24
My opinion of MUA polishes hasn't changed, I am still as impressed as I was when I wrote about the green shade 13 here.
So far I have only tried shade 24 on, the formula is more of a thicker consistency compared to shade 13. I only applied two coats for it to be completely opaque and the wear so far has been top notch. I am yet to see any faults with these polishes and I highly recommend them!
I thought I'd give one of my new MUA nail varnishes a go this morning, I decided to try the beautiful green colour which is shade 13.
Top - Without flash
Bottom - With flash
The colour itself is stunning, I'd say it's a rich emerald shade. In natural light the colour is very solid and has a metallic finish to it, but with the bright light of a flash, you can see the sparkle it creates.
I applied 3 coats to my nails, although 2 coats probably would have been plenty. The bottle gives you 6.2ml of product, which for a pound, it's hard to complain about, and the brush applicator is long and slightly flattened to help you achieve best coverage.
So far I am very pleased with this product, the only thing that will let me down, is if it doesn't wear very well, but so far so good, the nail varnish seems to be quiet hard wearing. (I normally chip my nails on the first day.) Much like other MUA products, I will definitely be buying more!
First off, I just want to apologize for any blurry photos, my camera isn't happy with me and isn't focusing like it should be.
I recently placed an order for some MUA (make up academy) products. I happened to order on the day of the launch of their website and managed to get mine done before it crashed due to a mad rush of shoppers.
A week after, I received an email from one of the girls on their team apologizing for the delay in my order being shipped. Just so happens that I had chosen one of their most popular products so it took a little longer than usual. I was really impressed that someone had actually taken the time to email me and make sure I knew what was happening, even though I'm usually quite patient waiting for things to come in the post any way.
MUA were offering a free Immaculate collection palette for every order over £8, so I had to take full advantage of that.
This is the Immaculate collection palette. It has 24 shades ranging from mattes to highly pigmented glittery colours. The packaging is very eye catching and even has a 'mini masterclass' printed on the back. The masterclass tells you which shades you should use and where to achieve a certain look.
I am truthfully very impressed with this palette, I had seen so many people blog about it already, I kind of knew what to expect, but the texture of the eye shadows and the pigmentation of them really blew me away. I am in love with shade 14, a very sparkly gold tone. It's ideal for a Christmas look.
This eyeliner is just what I needed, I always find my eyeliner ends up running down my face at some point during the day, but this will not budge. After swatching the product, I washed my hands twice with soap and very hot water and you can still see the eyeliner. Obviously not as strong, but it's certainly still there.
The applicator is a new one for me, it's a strong plastic 'brush', which seems ideal for the most precise line.
Pearl Eyeshadow - Shade 6 - £1
I bought this eyeshadow because the colour caught my eye. It's a very rich teal-y shade of green. The pigmentation of the shadow is great and I think for a pound, you really can't go wrong!
Lipsticks - £1 each
As a newly self proclaimed lipstick addict, I purchased 3 colours with the intention of keeping two for myself and putting one in my giveaway box, but the colours were all so gorgeous I couldn't decide which ones I wanted to keep. I am heading to superdrug this weekend so shall buy one of these 3 for the giveaway box then. Which one would you like to be in the box? Leave a comment below.
The lipsticks are smooth and long wearing, I have been wearing shade 3 for the past 8 hours, I have eaten, drank tea and it is still there. The two bright colours are very strong and bold, yet the shade in the middle is a very sheer nudey pink contains blue sparkles.
I love these so much, I think I may end up with every single shade.
Swatches above L-R: 13, 5, 3
Nail Varnishes - £1 each
I happily purchased 3 new polishes, as one of my new years resolutions will be to make more of an effort with my nails. Of course the pink caught my girly girl eye and I thought the green would be perfect for Crimbo. I can't say anything bad about these at all.
Swatches above L-R: 17, 13, 16
What are your thoughts on the MUA products? Can you recommend me anything to try?
Disclaimer: I purchased the above items with my own money and my opinions are truthful.
I received this beautiful berry colour in a magazine a couple of years ago, but I have to admit, I haven't worn it much and I really don;t know why! I love it, the colour's a rich and deep shade of pink. I think it's quite festive, ready for the Christmas season! The coverage is great, which is exactly what I expect from a company such as Nails Inc. I think you could get away with one coat, but for best results two coats makes it perfect.
It's a yearly tradition of mine to create a wishlist on polyvore. It hurts me to say that I will most probably never get any of these things, unless that it I magically get a new job and buy them for myself. Last years wishlist certainly had a lot less on it, and I think somehow my taste has become a lot more expensive over the year.
So this is this years wishlist, I'm going to list my top five things on there, but I'm not going to bore you with then whole 19 items.
1. A camcorder, preferably a HD one, but I'm not picky.
2. Viktor & Rolfs Flowerbomb perfume
3. Urban Decay Naked Palette
4. Sober is Sexy tank top
5. NYX HD studio photogenic foundation
So anywhoooo, here's to being a good girl and keeping my fingers tightly crossed that Santa is nice to me this year.
