Paul Mitchell Neon - Stand Out Style

Hey All

Last week we shared our thoughts on the Marula Oil range that you can view here. This week we're sharing another new range we were lucky to be sent to try out. As always all of these products are cruelty free but the Neon Range also adds even more!

The Neon range which is available from July has a great story behind it and when purchased supports some great anti-bullying organisations!! So not only do you get to treat yourself to some amazing products you support organisations that help people during tough times and Stand up to Bullying

NOTD: China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy

I don't know about you but I am a massive fan of brights nails for spring and summer.

Mostly I've worn pinks over the past few years but recently orange has made an appearance in my life, particularly neons!

Cue this beauty:

Flip Flop Fantasy (phew what a load of F's!) is a super popular nail polish from one of our favourite nail brands China Glaze. It is from their Spring/Summer 2012 range so has been out for a year but I was obviously way behind with this. 

Admittedly it applies a little streaky on the first coat, but the second seems to combat this 9 times out of ten, and once you've got the application right 2 coats is the perfect amount for this.

It's so beautifully bright but also complimentary for any skin tone I think.

I picked this up from Amazon for around £7 which is a pretty good price. Considering how wearable the colour is I'm going to bet that this will be my number one choice for summer!

The texture is so creamy it just looks amazing, a pastel neon is the only way I can describe it!

I love China Glaze not only for their beautiful colours but also that their polishes don't contain Toluene, DBP or added Formaldehyde and any chemical nasties removed is an added bonus!

I just wish they were easier to get a hold of in the UK!

What do you think of this colour? Are you a China Glaze fan?

L xxx

Spending Ban Update 10

It's April already. How quickly is this year speeding by. My spending ban will soon be over officially but let's start by saying this week has been a really bad week for me!! I've been naughty with spending. The ban is almost over and I really need to add on a few extra weeks.

This week was L's birthday. I already had a dress so thought I'd get away without spending money! After searching through my shoes I really wanted a new pair that was actually going to be comfy. On Thursday it was ladies night in our local shopping centre. Loads of the shops offer discounts and there were cute stalls all around offering things like Pimms and Snow Cones. New Look had 25% off and knowing there shoes are usually comfy I headed there.

I picked up these wedges for around £15. They were so comfy. I was in them for around 8 hours in the end and did plenty of dancing and had no blister. I want them in all colours now!

I had planned on neon accesories and was borrowing a bag off L and her nail varnish so wanted a bracelet to tie it all together. I love the bright colour on this one and with discount it was only £3

While in there I couldn't resist one more bracelet. This leaf one was under £4 with discount.

Also on ladies night I popped into River Island. I had a voucher left over from Christmas so didn't actually break the ban for these. I had literally just been talking to L about this necklace before we walked into the shop. I had this necklace around 5 years ago and wore it till it fell to pieces. I took it as a sign and bought it in Silver and Gold, They were £6 each and are a great easy to wear statement necklace! I've still got a bit on my gift card and I'm currently eyeing up a jumper I've seen.

Lastly we had our Mac makeovers ready for L's night out. ~I stated in a previous spending ban I'd spent £30 on this. So on the day I only spent an extra £2.60 so it wasn't too bad (luckily it was a 10% off time). There was so much more I wanted to get but I tried to be good and get sensible purchases.

Eyeshadow in Naked Lunch for £12. This was to replace Bootycall in my Naked 2 palette as I've hit pan on it.

I also picked up a Shine Supreme Lipstick in Fashion City. These remind me of the Revlon lip butters. They give a glossy finish with a moisturising colour. It was £14.50. Which is more than a normal lipstick but you do get 3.6g of product instead of 3g.

I love the finish of these and will definitely be looking at what other colours they do.

So that's my very naughty week. Though I only spent around £28 so not quite as bad as it seems. Need to get back on my spending ban and back onto saving. I definitely think I'll stick to it for a bit longer.

How are yours going?

Love M

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

Nails Inc: The Edit

Christmas seems like yesterday right?

I was just thinking about it the other day and couldn't believe it when I realised it was a whole 3 months ago.

It's my favourite time of year and it definitely went by in a flash, can't we have it again in July??

One of my Christmas presents was this really cute nail polish set from Nails Inc.

As you can see it's called 'The Edit' and I absolutely love the colours they've chosen.

Even though this was brought out in time for Christmas the colours can be worn all year round and I'm such a big fan!

There are five polishes in total, the names of which are shown below on the back of the box with a description next to them.

I'd had my eye on Porchester Square for a while as lots of people had raved over the colour and formula and also that the tone of it seemed to suit everyone's skin tone making it one of the perfect nudes! I couldn't wait to try this one out.

Also present was a holographic polish which was interesting to me as I'd never owned one of these nore seen any anywhere else so this was also one I wanted to try over the party season.

Tate and Richmond Terrace are both beautiful classic reds that are a must in anyone collection and I really think you can never have enough! (If you look in my collection I'd definitely say I can't...)

Lastly the one I most pleased to receive was Notting Hill Gate. I'd owned Shoreditch from Nails Inc for a few years and used it until it died a very dry death and nothing would come out of the bottle any longer.

I've since been aiming to get a replacement and this one is similar enough for my tastes. 

I absolutely love bright pinks as they're perfect for most occasions and go perfectly with my skin tone for fingers and toes.

As the nude and the pink were ones I was most excited about....here's my latest NOTD with both colours, what do you think??

My nails are a little battered as this was after work so my hands are cuts and the nails a tiny bit chipped but nevertheless you can see the idea!

Me and M both love an accent nail and i love to keep it simple with nudes and then a flash of neon colour.

Out of this set I would 100% buy these two colours again as they both fill gaps in my collection and I can see myself using them a lot.

In fact my toes are painted with the pink right now!

I don't see this small bottle lasting me very long...

Here's a picture of all the colours painted onto nails:

How gorgeous are they??

I love trying out new colours and think miniature kits like this are brilliant to try them out and also to have if you need to do your nails on the go. Taking smaller bottles with you is so much easier to change your manicure in a rush than lugging your whole collection!

Unfortunately the set seems to have been a Christmas exclusive as it is sold out everywhere I've looked. But you can pick up each shade individually and I'd recommend them all.

What other sets have you tried? What's your favourite Nails Inc colour?

Black Taxi is a personal favourite but Notting Hill Gate and Porchester Square might come in close. It's so hard to choose, so I generally just buy them all!

L xxx

NOTD China Glaze Turned up Turquoise and Pool Party

On a dull day when I was round visiting L I wanted something to brighten up my nails! I loved both of these colours and couldn't choose between then so decided to use both.

They are China Glaze Turned up Turquoise and Pool Party. They are a neon pink and neon turquoise. I love both of these shades. I've never really been a neon girl but was instantly draw to both of these. Especially the turquoise.

They apply smoothly and have the same great quality I've come to expect from China Glaze. I adore China Glaze polishes and they are probably my favourite brand. They apply well, last well and are cheap is you are American (booooo) They are hard to get in the uk. I tend to ebay China Glaze and see what they have for 99p at the time.

I decided I preferred the turquoise as it has an interesting semi matte finish to it. It's not completely matte and is an unusual finish I've not seen in a polish I currently have. I'll be looking for more like this.

As I still wanted to use the pink I used a dotting tool to add the dots. I really love the combination of these two colours together. They are great for summer but also great for winter to brighten up those dull days.

Do you have any of these? Do you love neon and China Glaze?

Love M

xxx

NOTD China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise

Day 12!

Here's my other latest China Glaze purchase and a beautiful colour for brightening up your gloomy summer days!

This is one of their neon colours and although I normally stick to pinks and reds by choice, this colour is a very welcome addition to my collection

Turned Up Turquoise has been hard to photograph but I think that the above photo is the closest to the true colour

It is quite frankly a perfect bright neon turquoise that covers pretty well in 2 coats.

The photo below shows a single coat:

It does cover quite well with one and you can already see the neon effect but a second coat is definitely required.

This is much more like it!

It dries with a semi-matte effect which I'm not normally a fan of but it does increase the neon effect of the polish and it's easy to put a top coat on top anyway!

Here's another photo showing the many shades of Turned Up Turquoise:

It's almost blue in comparison!

You can definitely see what I mean with the colour changes!

Such a beautiful colour though, and it's really brightening up the rainy weather for me!

What do you think of this colour? Are you a fan of neons?

How much do we loooooooooooooooove China Glaze!

L xxx

NOTD: China Glaze Pool Party

Day 3!

This beauty is my absolute favourite at the moment!

It goes perfectly on fingers and toes and pretty much any occasion when the weather is this blooming lovely!!

Check out that SUN!

I managed to go a bit pink on my shoulders today from my 20 minute sit down at lunch time, woohoo!

This is another polish I picked up from America, from a brand that me and M love, and I'm pretty sure M introduced me to.

China Glaze prides itself on having no toluene, DBP or formaldehyde in its products which we of course LOVE on this blog, chemicals are bad!

Pool Party is from the Neon collection so take a look at how it turned out:

It even contrasts beautifully with my room behind it haha.

It was a beautiful colour to put on and needed the usual 2 coats to be as bright as you can see!

It really is a beautiful neon colour that you can't take your eyes off.

The only downside to this (for me) was that it dried with a kind of matte finish, it wasn't as matte as you get when you apply a top coat but it was definitely more matte than a usual polish.

It was odd and not quite what I look for in a polish as I love the shiny finish

So as I always do when painting my nails, I applied a top coat and had the wonderfully shiny finish as below:

I just cannot get enough of this colour, and even though I bought a silly ridiculous 17, yes SEVENTEEN nail varnishes whilst in the US, this one is hands down my favourite of the bunch and the others aren't getting much of a look in!

What do you think of Pool Party? Do you like China Glaze?

You can still buy them in the UK but unfortunately only on eBay as far as I know, though you can still get them for around £8!

L xxx