Sex and The City Nails

At the weekend I went to see Sex and The City 2 (of course). For me, the programme was never about the plot, but the clothes. Of course I love the girls, and Mr Big, but I really loved seeing the clothes, and New York!

During this film I noticed Samantha’s nails changed as much as her outfits, and this inspired me to do a nail design based on her nails. A lot of the nails in the film seem to be the highly metallic Minx nails. I might pick up some holographic polishes to try and recreate the effect, but for now, I created this look using China Glaze polishes, and some rhinestones.

Products:

Basecoat – Rimmel Stronger

China Glaze – Black out, and For Audrey

Rhinestones from eBay

Collection 2000 top coat

At The Zoo

I haven’t ordered from Everyday Minerals for about a year, but recently when I did my favourites post I was reminded of my love for DVR Saturday blush. I decided to place an order. Since I last ordered there has been some controversy which slightly put me off, so I decided to skip the foundation, not that I needed any. 

I went with the At The Zoo collection, and the Try Me kit – Coral matte blush. I thought that they were very reasonably priced, at $12 for the At The Zoo collection, which included sample sizes of Hipster Hippo, Sea Horse, and At the Zoo eyeshadow, as well as Truly Tiger Blush and Luminizing Sunlight Powder. The $5 try me kit, includes 3 blushes, and was included for free (although I was actually charged $0.01, something to do with Paypal having to charge for everything, according to EDM). I was charged $6 for the shipping.

The order was placed on 15th May, and I received them on the 25th. I thought this was reasonable for shipping from US to UK. I was kept updated regularly, and customer service was excellent when responding to my queries. The new website loads quite slow and my computer, and I find it quite fussy in a simple way. It was driving me mad trying to purchase. However, I made it through.

As a note for customs, if you are ordering to import, on the shipping label they put $12.01, which is what I paid for the items, excluding shipping.

As for the products themselves, they are beautiful colours and well pigmented.  I especially loved the Tiger blush, it really warms the face up. The look below was created using the At The Zoo kit only.

They are very cutely packaged, and I much prefer the new packaging that the murky brown of the old style EDM.

I also love the Jr. Eye Kabuki Brush. It is completely different to any eye brush I own, and works great in the crease.

Definitely glad I purchased, and I am going to be repurchasing for sure! These would also be great to purchase as a gift, especially with the cute packaging.

If you are thinking of trying out a few thinks, the Try Me kits can be picked up free of charge, and cost around $3.50 for delivery to the UK.

K xx

Tinted Moisturiser ramble...

I have been hunting high and low for my Benefit tinted moisturiser, You Rebel, but for some reason I cannot find it anywhere. This was my beauty staple for a few months, and so for that reason there is barely any left so it's not a huge disaster. However, there is something about this weather that I crave for it. If you are not in the UK, you should know we are experiencing what will probably be the few days of heat and glorious sunshine we will get this year. Heaven.

Back to the point of this blog post, my thoughts on Benefit's You Rebel lite, tinted moisturiser. I absolutely loved this last summer. I found it as a great alternative to foundation, however it is not without its problems. 

The first thing that niggles me, is the packaging. Normally I love Benefit packaging, but not this time. Here is a google stock photo for you...

Not really what I have come to expect from Benefit, but I s'pose it is OK here. The trouble really comes when you start using it and squeezing the tube. All the outer area on the tube peels off and cracks. You are left with a scraggled looking tube, which I am ashamed for people to see. 

Aside from that, I do also find it quite greasy and oily. I always had to set it lightly with a mineral foundation. That is saying something as I have dry skin!

Besides from those few problems, I think it gives you lovely glowing skin, and I really enjoy using it. I find if I am not going out straight away I can leave it to settle in on its own without setting it, but if I am getting really in a rush it definitely needs to be set. 

I love the coverage and SPF you get from wearing You Rebel, and I do enjoy using it. I just wish I could find it.

I also vaguely remember something about the smell, but can't remember if this was a good or bad thing. oops.

So I am on the hunt now for a new tinted moisturiser. It may well be Benefit's that I end up with, but I would love to try a new one. I know everyone raves about Laura Mercier, but I would like to try something different.

What is your summer face product of choice?

K xx

Aussie hair care

For a while I have been intrigued by the Aussie hair care range. I decided this weekend to try out the 3 minute miracle treatment. I bought a sachet of it for 99p from Superdrug.

I washed my hair as normal, using my Kerastase shampoo, then slapped this on my hair, for a few minutes whilst I got washed, probably around 5 in total. The first thing I noticed about this product was the smell, I am not convinced I like it. It is a strong peachy smell, but it just reminds me of old ladies. Saying that, the peach in this provides a lot of nourishment for the hair so I can deal with it. I was able to wash it out quite easily as well. I skipped my regular conditioner because my hair is quite thin and I didn't want it to be weighed down. After using the product I do think I could have gotten away with using conditioner as well, as my hair was light and fluffy after it dried.
Overall, I was very pleased with the results after the treatment. My hair feels very soft and nourished, and looks healthy. I would be interested to try other products in this range. The bottles are on offer at the minute 2 for £6, so I might pick up a few things from the range.

K xx

Sucked in again…

I blame my Mum! She shouldn’t encourage me to be buying more polish, but she cant help herself. On Friday in Boots she convinced me to stock up on Diet Coke and grab some more Nails Inc Polish. You guys know I don’t need much encouragement, so off I went and chose Paris and New York to add to my collection.

There was only one Paris left, and I can see why. It is absolutely lovely. Quick swatcheroo…

New York really is a standard bright pink colour, but no harm in a swatch for you…

I might just convince myself I need more diet coke this week and pick up the last bottle. I don’t really need another red nail polish but I feel bad for leaving out the last one!

I think this off runs until the 30th, so grab yours if you haven’t already.

The diet coke is growing on me by the way!
What is your favourite polish from this collection?
K xx

Body Shop Bargain

As you may have noticed, I am on a freebie/offers kick at the minute. The latest offer to take my interest is a free Body Shop body butter with Marie Claire magazine. This is not normally one I read and at £3.50 not one of the cheaper mags, however the body butter is worth £5, and I absolutely love them, so I didn’t mind buying this.

You can choose from the Shea Butter, Mango or Love etc… body butter. I chose the Love etc… because I haven’t tried this one before, and so offers like this are great to try out new products. I normally buy the largest size in the body butter as it is better value, so these smaller ones will be great to travel with. Very happy with this purchase.

It is a milky cream, that is soft and easily absorbed, and has a lovely delicate scent! I adore it, and really want to try the perfume now!

Whilst I am on the subject of magazine freebies, if you are a Benefit fan (or even if you’re not) you should make sure to hunt down a copy of Glamour magazine next month (June 10th) to pick up your choice of either Eye Bright Pencil, Bad Gal Pencil or The it Stick. I might buy all 3! 

How do you feel about magazine freebies? Do they send you into a buying frenzy?

K xx

Freebies, freebies, freebies…

I am a sucker for gift with purchase style promotions, be it magazines, BOGOFs, 3 for 2’s, whatever it usually temps me in. Today’s shopping trip was no exception.

The first freebie I was on the hunt for, one I am sure you have heard about, was the free Nails Inc polish in Boots, with 2 bottles of diet Coke. This is such a good offer because Nails Inc normally retails at around £10. The thing is, I’m not really a fan of diet coke, I love the regular stuff, and am even partial to a bit of the coke zero, but diet always seems to taste off to me, especially from a bottle. However, for a free nail polish, I can deal. The other thing is, I don’t really like Nails Inc polishes. They always seem to come off streaky and very hard to get opaque. I usually pick them up free with a magazine, but am not overly fussed.

That said however, being the shallow thing that I am, I had to check out the polishes, and especially London, as it was causing such hype in the blogosphere. I happily picked up my 2 bottles of diet coke, and the polish from the stand and went on my way.

Now, the formulation on this one seems different to other Nails Inc polishes I have tried. It is opaque with one coat, and the colour is rich and creamy. I absolutely love it!

Colour wise, maybe not unique, as it looks very similar to the polish being given away in InStyle this month, and other companys have similar shades. This does not make it any less loveable though, and is a difficult colour to describe, a nude, greyish beige with a hint of purple undertones? It does come out pretty identical to the colour you see in the bottle.

I might just force myself to pop into Boots, and check out the other shades. The purple one looks delicious!

What are your thoughts on Nails Inc?

K xx

My favourite…

I saw a post on the lovely Abbie’s blog, and decided I would fill it out. I am finally getting round to posting it on here! Basically it is a list of the best makeup items you have ever used, and so here is mine…

Face Primer: Never used one, but recently bought ELF’s primer, so cant wait to try that

Eye Primer: Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Lip Primer: I just use lip balm

Mascara Primer: I’ve never tried one that I liked

Foundation: Currently Revlon’s Colorstay (My all time favourite was actually by M&S, but it was discontinued)

Powder: MAC MSF Natural

Face Concealer: dont use

Under Eye Concealer: ELF colour correcting concealer

Blush: DVR Saturday by Everyday Minerals

Bronzer: Nars Laguna

Highlighter: Perfect Topping MSF

Contour: The dark colour from the ebay/CS blush palette. Only one I’ve ever used but love it

Eye Shadow: Tough choice! can i just choose my 88 warm palette?

Eye Liner Pencil: I’m not fussy here, I’ve not found one I prefer

Eye Liner Gel: A Cheapy from Primark

Lip Gloss: Too Faced Mirror Shine

Mascara: Max Factor Masterpiece Lash

Lipstick: MAC A Rose Romance

Lip Balm: Nivea Pearl and Shine

Lip Liner: ELF feather proof liner in Natural Blush

Nail Polish: Collection 2000 (midnight rouge)

So that’s that!

Thanks for reading,

I’ve loved reading everyone else’s favourites! If you’ve not done this, or even if you have link me to it in the comments

K xx

Small E.L.F haul

Another E.L.F. haul coming up =)

Thanks to their 40000 facebook fans, ELF had a free shipping + free product giveaway!

I decided to take advantage and pick up a few things on Thursday, and was so excited they had arrived when I got home from work today!

I picked up some tweezers, boring but I needed some new ones, as mine just didn't grip anything. These ones are quite chunky so easy to get hold of, and seem to be working well.

I ordered the primer as I have never tried a primer before. I have just tried this for the first time, and my skin definitely feels different, I'm not sure how this will affect my make-up but we will see once I've tried it out properly.

I also ordered a concealer palette which has a few different colours in to neutralise any redness/bags etc.

Then I got 3 of the lipglosses free.

Can't wait to try these out properly

K xx