Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paint

Hi there!

I'm having a bit of a 'brights' moment now that the weather is finally starting to brighten up. now the clocks have turned back its definitely time to start playing with brights and I can't wait!

After purchasing Barry M's Rose quartz (finally) after a long time of lusting after it i also picked up this beauty; Gelly Hi Shine nail paint in Passion Fruit 407.

This is a gorgeous bright colour for spring and summer and great for nails and toes. It's one that seems to go with everything and any occasion, and I've had tonnes of compliments!

It's one of the good ones; requires 2 coats for opacity and is easily applied with the brush (although I do prefer Essie brushes as they are wider - I'm lazy).



Please excuse my messy application, I was in a massive rush on Sunday night painting them before I was out like a light ready for Monday morning! So they're definitely not my neatest but you can still appreciate the colour.
The photo above was taken without flash in natural light and the photo below was taken with a flash; you can see its a lot redder than the initial picture and it does change in different lights/





This has lasted pretty well considering the usual lab testing (chemicals and equipment normally means chips and cracks in polish). It's still on as I'm writing this late on Wednesday night and I'm only changing it now as I'm itching to try another polish! Fickle thing I am.

I've seen and heard so much about the Gelly Hi Shine range and I found it so hard to pick just one colour. I have a massive list of others I'd love to try particularly the nudes, pastels and other brights - basically the whole range!

Which colour is your favourite? Any recommendations?

I'm sure I'll be back to pick up more before the offer ends.....

L xxx

Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick Electric Orange

Goooooooooood morning!

Today I've got a gem of a lipstick for you. I've been wearing it the last few weeks after picking it up in Asda and it's a great 'summer moving into autumn' colour when you're not quite ready to give up the summer feeling yet.

This lipstick is from Maybelline's Color Sensational range. I've previously spoken about another shade in this collection which is called Shockingly Coral,but this shade is Electric Orange.

Firstly I like that all the lipsticks were individually packaged with tape so you knew nobody else had put their sticky fingers on it. This is always a massive plus for me!

Electric Orange is shade number 912:

This shade was a NIGHTMARE to photograph as the colour doesn't actually look like any of the following pictures....this one was taken with a flash:

Hideous! It's definitely not neon.
Without flash is a little more true to colour but the lipstick is a bit brighter in reality.

You can see the colour and the payoff on the back of my hand, the orange is a really wearable colour and has a shine which I love in a lipstick.
It's also quite hydrating too so I feel like I can wear it for quite a while during the day without having to worry that my lips are going to crack and flake.

You can see it on my lips below, this photo was taken with a flash so the colour might not be exact but it's pretty close. The colour is really easy to wear and its been great over summer and the few autumn weeks we've had so far. I can imagine I'm going to get a lot of wear out of it.

It's similar in some ways to MAC's Vegas Volt but a hydrating and more sheer version.

Have you tried any Maybelline lipsticks? Which of the Color Sensational lipsticks is your favourite?

L xxx

Urban Outfitters WIP Nail Varnish

Happy weekend!

I wanted to share some nail polishes that my friends bought for me a little while ago. I'd never heard of this brand before and they told me they were from Urban Outfitters, and as far as I can see is their own brand of nail polish.

These are great value at £6 each and are currently on offer, 2 for £10!



The colours I was given were Dolly Mix and Blueberry, shown with and without flash.



I've never used any polishes by WIP before, but I've been super impressed with them so far. Not only is the range great; they have a load of brights and funky glitters on the website (found here) but they're opaque in 2 coats and last just as good as OPI and Nails Inc for half the price.

The first one you can see is Dolly Mix, a hexagonal purple glitter in a clear base:

I applied it over a nude colour (Essie's Sand Tropez) so you can easily see the glitter after 2 coats.
It applies pretty easily with a decent amount of glitter in each coat but 2 is always better!

I love how it looks over nude! 

Blueberry is a super bright opaque blue colour that applied like a dream, it's so creamy and after 2 coats was opaque:



I teamed it here with a bright pink (Essie's Watermelon) for a fun summer look, I love how they both make each other look brighter.

I really like these colours that my friends chose for me, and the brand has been a great addition to my collection.

Have you tried any polishes by WIP? I have no idea what it stands for bit I'd love to know if you do!!
I've seen quite a few bright colours that I'd love to get my hands on.

L xxx

Maybelline's Color Sensational Lipstick in Shockingly Coral

Happy Friday my lovelies!

I hope you've got the Friday feeling today, I certianly have as me and M are going out for some much needed cocktails tonight!!

As expected lipstick is priority number one for us - cosmetic wise that is, the clothes are obviously also important so let's not forget them too!

There's nothing better than turning a pretty dress into a wow outfit by applying yourself some bright lipstick to brighten everything up. Which is where this little beauty comes in!

I've seen these lipsticks in Boots a lot. However I was always in a rush and couldn't ever find what I was looking for so I'd never picked one up. In my lust for a new lipstick I snapped up one that had a jazzy name to my liking - Shockingly Coral - and hoped for the best.

It was in fact a GREAT rash decision and I have absolutely nothing but praise for the lipstick and my alter ego for making me buy it.

The Color Sensational Lip Color range uses pigment technology to ensure a super bright pout enriched with honey nectar for a creamy feel and comes in 24 shades. Which I absolutely never knew and will have to scout them out.

Look at that beautiful colour! It looks nice and creamy even from the bullet and luscious coral shade perfect for Spring and Summer.

On the hand however it does come out rather a lot more pink than the bullet suggests:

Being perfectly honest I didn't particularly care as the colour of the lipstick itself was just so nice and wearable for day, evening and wayyyyy into the night that I just fell in love with it!

Here it is on the lips with flash and without:

Isn't such a gorgeous shade??

I'm 100% in love with it, but i do have a bit of an annoyance with it.....if it's called Shockingly Coral, it probably needs to be Coral and not a pink. they are very distinct from each other and I feel like it's a silly mistake to make, sorry Maybelline!

The colour is beautiful, it feels super creamy and doesn't dry out lips fast than a hydrating lipstick and gives a good 5 hours wear before needing reapplication. 

What do you think of the Color Sensational range? Do you think it should be called a pink and not a coral? What other colours would you recommend?

L xxx

Spring Series: Feet!

Happy Sunday!

We're back with another Spring Series post, this week with our favourite products and tips for foot care.

If you want to read any of our other posts in the Spring Series, you can click here :)

If any of you know me in real life, i will be the first person to tell you that I absolutely hate feet.

(Random fact - I also hate belly buttons too, I'm paranoid people are going to try and touch mine and feel sick when other people touch theirs! Weird eh?!)

So following from that I try to hide my feet in winter as much as possible. Socks are my number one friend and especially cosy warm slipper socks, I wear them all year around actually just to have my feet covered!

But the one thing I will not let happen is my feet to get manky. I refuse to be a person that hates feet so much they don't even wash them so don't worry folks, they do get washed every day...

Aside from that though, in the winter I am rather lazy.

Spring and Summer require a different tactic however and I for one have to get my pedicure kit out and face the inevitable.

Firstly I either use my Ped-egg to remove hard skin or a foot file. I know you're supposed to soak them first but quite frankly for me, filing is the limit of tedium especially on feet.

So I get that bit out of the way first and slather on some foot cream. I've used quite a few over the years and have come to the conclusion that I'm not a fan of cooling ones but I do like mint smelling ones.

Anything will do really but i am partial to 'Heel Genius' from Soap and Glory as I do generally love their entire range and i would love to try the Origins one as it smells gorgeous too!

After that I push down my cuticles with my fingernails (I know, i know) and buff and file my toe nails into some sort of acceptable shape.

Then my favourite part (if that is possible) and the whole entire point of me doing a pedicure to make my feet look presentable is applying nail varnish.

I do favour certain colours and that's mainly due to my pale complexion. I stick with reds, pinks and other similar brights and some metallics. I've had the nail wraps kind of things and they were great for me as I just had to sit back and let someone else touch my feet and the pedicure stayed for a good few weeks, much longer than when I do it!

Basically my suggestion to you, is to wash and take care of your feet all year round, and pay a professional to do it in the summer. Worth every penny in my opinion! Is anyone else foot phobic??

L xxx

With spring hopefully on it's way followed by my favourite time of the year flip flop season!! I love flip flops and sandals and live in them as soon as it's remotely warm enough. I'm the same as L and start with my Ped Egg. I also don't soak mine. I find it really tickles and it's a job I really hate. It is the best thing for them though. I always used to use pumice stones but the Ped Egg gets the job done quicker. I've tried cheap versions but have found they aren't as good as the original. Which I actually found in local cheap shop (hyper value) for only 99p. With sandals there is nothing worse than having nasty looking heels.

When I have a spare few hours I like to load my feet up with a body butter put some socks on and put my feet up. I don't tend to use a specific foot cream as I like the feel of a body butter. They leave my feet soft and smooth. I do use Heel Genius as L mentioned above but manly as it comes in the big S&G sets at Christmas. I wouldn't go out and buy it specifically.

To groom my nails I use the cuticle trimmer featured on the blog this week (you can read here). I tend to use a buffing cube to smooth over my nails too as I find my toe nails can sometimes be quite rough and not smooth. Gross I know

I really like my toe nails to match my finger nail colour if they are showing. During winter I paint them if I go out and then I get lazy and leave the polish on but in the summer I like my toe nails to match my finger nails. I just think it looks better.

Ciate Jelly Bean

China Glaze Coconut Kiss

China Glaze Pool Party (this is L's but I adore it)

Max Factor Fantasy Fire and Rimmel 60 seconds  Sky High

I love bright colours on my nails! I think it looks nicer. Feet aren't the greatest to look at so something bright makes them better in my opinion. I need to find a better way to display my nail varnishes I think so that I actually use them more. I forget about some of the ones I have. What's your favourite nail colour shade for feet? Love M xxx

NOTD: No7 Cheeky Chops

This is another No7 Voucher buy. 

I love the consistency of these colours, I was super impressed with the colour 'Crave Me' that I had to go and buy some more...

Next on the list was 'Cheeky Chops':

It's a gorgeous pinky coral that I have absolutely loved wearing.

It reminds me a little of the Brook Street colour I posted about a few weeks ago from Nails Inc (here) but this is a more pink shade.

Without flash the colour almost looks red, and is annoying as I've never seen it look like that in any light!

It definitely looks a lot more like the colour below, which was taken with a flash:

The No7 polishes are so easy to use, the brush makes application quite easy and they're not too runny or thick and dry in a relatively decent time.

What do you think of this colour?

I think it's gorgeous, and looked even better when I applied the No7 Top Coat on it too, super shine!

What have you been buying with your vouchers recently? Do you look forward to them coming around again?

L xxx

NOTD - Brook Street

I'm into using bold and bright colours at the moment now that the sun is starting to shine woohoo!

This colour has barely left my hands recently.

This is Nails Inc's Brook Street:

I've had it a little while, maybe a few years and I still love it as much as I did when I bought it!

The bottle is probably half way through, which as we all know is a rare occurrence!

The pictures are taken with and without flash to give you an idea of the colour, its a very pinky coral which to be perfectly honest would go with ANYTHING, work, pub trips, Saturday nights out and holidays!

As with all Nail's Inc colours it goes on like a dream in 2 coats and lasts a good few days without chipping.

You can tell from my bottle that it gets it's fair share of usage.

I'm not sure if this colour is still available as I haven't checked, but if it is I would 100% recommend it which is why I decided to post about it!

I believe it would also suit someone of any skin tone, I'm super pale and when I fake tan it looks just as good, and bright colours like this are made for darker skin tones too!

It's clearly a must have buy for anyone!

(I've just checked this out and it is still available and costs £11, Go buy it! You will never look back!)

Are you a fan of these kind of colours?? Do you have anything similar for when this one runs out?

L xxx