Review: Almay Smart Shade Primer

I recently posted about my buys from America where I bought a little more than planned...haha

One of my buys was the Almay Smart Shade Colour Correction Primer:

I saw it whilst on a trip to Walmart and couldn't help myself.

I've always wanted to try the Stila one and this one was only $10, I couldn't refuse!

Besides, the colours look so pretty in the bottle!

The purple is apparently to help with skin brightness, and the green is to calm redness.

I was hoping that whilst I was in America this would help even my skin tone when I wasn't wearing make up.

You can see on my hand where the pump dispenses and even amount of the clear gel, purple gel and green gel. 

As you can see I've called it a gel as it's definitely more like a gel consistency than a lotion, paste or cream, which is what I'm used to with primers.

It mixes in pretty well, as soon as you start rubbing it in, it seems to melt and feels quite watery but it sinks in quite quickly.

After it's rubbed in you can see that my skin is a bit shiny but it does sink in after a few minutes.

In terms of colour correction it really does work, it calms the redness and gives my skin a brighter tone.

I'm not sure how it would fair at keeping my make up on my face all day as it isn't designed to absorb oil etc that I definitely need in a primer for a full day.

But as my skin has improved quite a bit over the time I was away due to not wearing make up and getting some sun I think it's pretty good for me!

If you don't have too many blemishes and aren't worried about oily skin then I would definitely recommend you try this.

I'm not sure if you can buy this primer in the UK yet as it was new out in America and I can't find it online with other Almay products on Amazon, but I'm sure it will be soon.

What do you think of Colour Correction products? Do you have anything from Almay?

L xxx

Dainty Roses: A third haul

A third Dainty Roses Haul for you today, As I'm sure you can guess I'm a big fan. I love the stuff the lovely Lisa sales and I'm very fond of the glitter bows. They really brighten up an outfit. Hair accessories get forgotten all to easily. Posts can be found here

I was excited when my box come. Everything comes wrapped in ribbon and tissue paper. I love touches like this. They really make all the difference to me, and a lovely hand written card.

Inside the tissue the items are professionally wrapped in little bags to protect them even further.

I saw on twitter a few months back lisa had started making slightly bigger bows and had new colours. I was instantly sold but had to wake till I had some money. These are all sorts, pastel pink and petrol (which is definitely my favourite) can be purchased from here

I also got some new mini bows. I photographed my old bow with the new bow to show how good quality they are and how they last. The old bow is at the top. I ordered these for my niece as she was loving mine and Lisa kindly sent me two extra for her in my order. She was so happy when she opened them.

Look out for @daintyrosesxo twitter as she regularly runs great offers and stocks the amazing harry potter snitch necklace found here. Everyone comments on my bows, this gunmetal shade gets the most compliments!

I finally couldn't resist these cute tie bracelets. They are dainty and perfect for every day. I love the little triple heart. These were on offer for only £1 so I had to get three.

What do you think of my haul?? Have you ordered anything from Dainty Roses? If not check it out for brilliant different necklaces. I need some new ones. The rings are amazing too! Can not recommend this site enough!!

Love M

xxx

NOTD matching my nails to my dress

I got distracted yesterday and forgot to post this. Last night I ended uo going to see spiderman. It was so good. Actually had to hold back tears at one point (I'm a crier at films) lots of cinema trips thus week as me and L are off to see magic mike. I can 't believe she'll have been in the country almost a week before I see her!

So onto to today's post. I spent last week at my parents. It was so nice to have a week to catch up with everyone as weekends I seem to spend rushing.

Whilst at home I took advantage of having time to paint my nails and did them to match my outfits for my planned nights out.

Here is the first outfit I matched my nails to. 

Dress New Look spring sale

Blazer Next Christmas Sale

Belt Primark

Sorry I'm a bad blogger and only took finished photo's. But both designs are easy to do.

Firstly I wore this red dress for a meal with the family (you may have seen it before if you read the post on L's birthday night out) I picked it up in the new look sale a while back. I love the pattern on it and decided to try and do a feature nail with the pattern. I painted two coats of Avon Nailwear Pro+ in Real Red. I was pretty impressed with the opaqueness after one coat and it dried well.My nail art skills aren't good enough to do all my nails.

Using my trusty ebay dotting tool (I need to pick up nail art brushes soon) I started to create a fan shape with scollaped edges. I simplified the design a bit. I used OPI alpine white for this (I got the best of the best mini set for Christmas). It's great for nail art as its really opaque. 

I drew to of the spikey white fan shapes on each of my ring fingers. Next I used No7 Grey skies (only £2 with a voucher) I drew little half circles as with my dotting tool I couldn't be precise enough to smaller spikes.

Lastly using OPI Lincoln After Dark I tried to paint little triangles at the bottom of the fan shape and then used the No7 grey skies to add stems.

And the final look. It's not an exact match the patter was too fiddley but I like the way it looks only being on one nail.

The other hand. 

What do you think? Do you try to match nails to your outfit?

Love M

xxx

7 Weeks of Shopping - Sorry Bank Account

If you're a regular reader then you'll know that I (L) have been in America the past 7 weeks for a uni course.

I got back last night and spent 14 hours sleeping after completely missing a night of sleep due to the travelling.

I've spent the majority of today lazing around, sorting washing and unpacking my suitcase of all the treasures I bought.

So, sit down with a cup of tea (I'm slowly catching up on 7 weeks worth ha!) and I hope you enjoy looking at my vast range of purchases!!!

I've included the prices where I could and the pound equivalent so you'll be able to see how much cheaper it was there, I was in heaven.

First up it's the nail varnishes...I haven't bought any new ones for a little while.

I might be lying to myself here but let's go with it for now ;)

So when I saw these in the shops for a much cheaper price than at home I couldn't resist stocking up!

Revlon nail polishes were $7 each, which is £4.50.

I bought the pink scented one called Raspberry Rapture along with their new range of nail treatments including (L-R) Fast dry drops, Post Trauma treatment and Calcium nail hardener which was great for my nails after spending 3 weeks of my time in the dirt digging.

I haven't mentioned this before but the course I went to do was Forensic Anthropology, and so lots of my time was spent using my hands and trowels to dig up plastic bones, which FYI is not good for the nails!

I also bought the Barielle wedding collection which I have previously posted about here and have a NOTD from them coming up. This cost me $10 at TJ Maxx which was such a bargain!

Next up I took full advantage of Nicole by OPI being $7 in Walmart and picked up a normal glitter one with hearts in and 2 Kardashian colours (Wear Something Spar-Kylie review here and also Kimpletely in Love)

I also bought my first ever Essie nail polish in Sand Tropez which I wouldn't have looked twice at but I'd read about it online and fell in love when I tested it! A review will certainly follow!

Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in 540 Frutti Petutie $5 or £3.20

2 brand new China Glaze polishes were bought in a 3 for 2 deal with the Essie polish (I could have bought so many!!!) and were originally $7/8 each but were $16 for all three which is a bargainous £10.30.

The colours I bought were Turned up Turquoise and Pool Party. So looking forward to using these!

Lastly I'm a bit of a Hunger Games geek and when I noticed the Capitol Colours mini set for $13.95 (£9) I had to buy it!

I was quite reserved when I got to Mac, I knew what I wanted to buy and got exactly that and nothing else!

I could have easily gone mad but I had to be careful after wanting so many other things.

Pressed powder in medium ($22/£14.20)

Studio Fix Fluid ($27/£17.40)

Eye brow pencil ($14/£9)

I've wanted to try the Revlon Photoready products for a while but had loads of foundation and could never justify the price so was waiting for an offer to be on.

I bought the PhotoReady powder and the Colorstay foundation ($10 each or £6.50) and the PhotoReady Perfecting Primer ($12/£7.70), hence why I gave in as they were all at a reduced price.

Lastly I also bought the Almay Smart Shade primer which was $10/£6.50 and is green and purple to correct any kind of colour imperfection you have. As far as I know we don't have Almay in the UK (I may be wrong) so this definitely intrigued me!

I've always wanted to buy Elizabeth Arden's 8 hour cream, and I found it in TJ Maxx for $7, a whopping £4.50! I was so excited I almost screamed! What a bargain for a 50g tube!

The L'oreal Magic Perfecting Base was a favourite of mine when it came out and was at it's introductory price of £10, but at £14 for so little product I wouldn't justify buying it again. For $10/£6.50 I certainly will!

My Benefit haul could have been so much bigger but I ran out of cash (on my last day I had $16 for all 3 meals...oops!)

Cha Cha tint was on my list for so long and I've fallen in love with it! $29/£18.70

Am yet to try 'They're Real' but I've been told it's really good for people with straight lashes who want them to curl, here's hoping! $23/£14.80

I was surprised to see Real Techniques brushes over there, I have 2 already but just didn't think they'd be there. I was even more surprised to see they were $17 (£11) for the core collection which is £18 in Boots!

I snapped that up so quickly they probably thought I was crazy!

I also rebought my Naked palette after mine went 'missing' at a friends house.

Won't say any more about that but I was soooooooo pleased at having this back in my life!

After owning it for 6 weeks after Christmas and using it most days I felt like I'd lost a limb, now I can finally show you my smokey eye designs with it!

This was $50/£32 so not much cheaper than the £36 it costs in Debenhams but I needed it ;)

I think like most bloggers at the moment, Origins is my skin care of choice.

Their Eye Doctor (found here) has completely renewed the skin around my eyes and any lines I had have gone.

We're big fans of products without chemicals on this blog so Origins are a big winner.

I snapped up lots of oily skin products which I cannot wait to use!

Out of Trouble mask: $22 (£14.20)

Zero Oil Instant Matte Finish: $13.50 (£8.70)

Zero Oil Pore Purifying Toner: $19.50 (£12.50)

Ginzing Eye Cream: $29.50 (£19)

Zero Oil Oil-Free Moisture Lotion: $26 (£16.70)

As you can see from this, I made a big saving on most of their products!

Neutrogena Deep Clean Daily Scrub is the best thing I found out there, my skin broke out really badly when I got there and this baby cleaned them up right away!

Both Tigi products were from TJ Maxx - Some Like it Hot humidity protector and Control Freak Conditioner. Can't remember the prices but they were verrrrrrrrry cheap.

Lastly I know Nioxin has been doing the rounds recently, and if it wasn't for that I would never have noticed this in TJ Maxx also.

For the shampoo, conditioner and scalp activating treatment in the full sizes of 500ml or 50ml for the treatment I paid................................$10!

I couldn't believe my eyes!

I'm always wanting my hair to be bigger and more voluminous and instead of paying the $37 for the kit online it was $10, amazing!

The only difference I can tell between this and the current kit is that the packaging has changed so that it fine by me.

What do you think of my buys??? I went completely overboard but I couldn't stop myself with all of the bargains to be had!!

M is going to America in September and is already making a list....I'm also making one for her too ha!

This is not going to help with my beauty rehab posts at all!

I'm such an addict!

L xxx