NOTD: Rimmel Sky High and Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Hey all

A nail of the day to show you today. Ever since I picked up Max Factors Fantasy Fire I've loved it's duochrome finish what I didn't love was how many coats it took to achieve the desired look. I've tried using it as a top coat over various shades of nail varnish and have loved the look on most. 

I love how it looks different in different lights. I tried it over Rimmel 60 seconds polish in the shade sky high. This isn't a colour I use much and not even sure when I bought. I used two coats of this.

The finish is ok but if I wasn't using Fantasy Fire it would definitely need three coats. I love using Fantasy Fire over a bright purple so I was interested to see how it would look over blue.

One coat looked like this, a slight purple and turquoise hint to blue. I decided it definitely needed two coats.

Pre clean up (I'm a messy little painter ;)) I love this colour. Every time I looked at my nails I just thought of under the sea/ mermaids. It looks so pretty and shimmers so many different colours.

With flash you can really see a royal blue through it and a gold fleck.

I love the colour this turned out and I'm thinking of trying it over a pink shade soon.

Do you have fantasy fire? Do you layer sheer polishes over different shades?

Love M

xxx

Don't forget our giveaway found here, we are so excited we keep talking about it lots.

Oops I went shopping again!

Today I had to pop into Primark to get my gorgeous little niece's birthday present. (she know has her first pair of black skinny jeans, wardrobe staple) I love the clothes for little girls in Primark it's cute on trend and her mum tells me it's good for wear too! Her first pair of skinny jeans I got her lasted her 18 months!! She's so girly already I love it. At 3 she's obsessed with nail varnish and I've just got her children's nail varnish (rumour is it comes out of carpet).

Enough of my blabbing on about her. (I'd share a photo but her mum doesn't want photos of her online so you'll have to trust me that she's cute!! ha). Primark is usually hit and miss for me. I usually only find one thing lately and I'll put it back down to the long queues. Today I went first thing to avoid these. If you saw my August wishlist post you'd have seen I was eyeing up lots of gorgeous Kurt Geiger shoes ready for my holiday. When I saw the flip flops all half price in Primark I thought I should save myself some money and pick these up.

I love the jelly type material one these shoes. I have some French Connection ones similar to these that I literally wear all the time so I'm hoping these will be as comfy. Plus I adore the gorgeous bow detail and charms and for £2 who could resist. I wish they'd had the black in my size!

I've been wanting dolly shoes like this since seeing the Vivienne Westwood collabortion with Melissa for the AW09 collection and seeing the gorgeous leopard print ultragirl bow flat (I'm desperate for a pair of these). I love how simple they are and I'm hoping they will be super comfy. Another bargain £2. I really want these in a coral colour.

 This is the last pair of shoes I bought today and the most expensive. I splashed out an extra pound on these!! For £3 I thought they would be great for in the sun perfect with dress for day wear and the bow detail will make them pretty enough for evenings. I'm going away with my other half and as he's the same height as me heels are a no so I try to find pretty flats with sparkly detail and these fit the bill. I tend to favour this type of flip flop at the moment and recently realised I know have no traditional flip flops!

I was looking for a black strapless top but couldn't see them in Primark (if you know where to get cheap plain tight ones please let me know) but couldn't resist picking these up. Vests are a staple and you can never have too many. I tend to favour my select ones I bought a few years back but they have since changed the style so I'm back to trying to find my perfect vest. At £2 each I picked them up in the colours I wear the most.

Since picking up my sunglasses in last weeks haul I've been looking for a case. I wasn't prepared to spend £8 on the ones in Topshop. Now this print isn't great but for £1 my sunglasses won't get scratched in my handbag and it's big enough to fit most styles in.

I couldn't resist these at the till for £1 I thought they were worth a try and after biting all my nails a few weeks ago looking at my nails is bothering me. I was surprised when I got home to find they came with glue. I didn't expect much from it but it works just aswell as the elegant touch ones I'm used to.

I love false nails and used to wear them a lot before growing my natural ones. I love how quick and easy you can have a perfect mani for days. This pattern is so cute and they had a great variety of styles. My only complaint is the nails are a little large for my fingers. I have the smallest ones on and could have done with smaller. I would definitely re purchase though. If you like false nails give these a try.

Then as it was raining I thought the best thing to do would be stroll through boots to escape the rain (What was I thinking) I should have got wet I can never resist buying in boots. I like using these Lee Stafford products honestly I don't know if they work but my hair is a bit longer now and I've just had it highlighted and they are great for conditioning. I only pick them up when they are on offer as they are £7.99 a pot but are currently on £3 for £12

As it was the mega points event and you need to spend £15 to get 10 points to the £1 I picked up a mini shampoo and conditioner for my holiday. I usually use John Frieda when I have blonde hair but they didn't have the one I wanted in the minis so I'm hoping these Trevor Sorbie ones will be good. They were £1.99 each and had 75ml in compared to the other brands having 50ml.

So that's all I bought today. Now I really need willpower to stop shopping!!

Have you picked up any bits in the last of the sales?

Love M

xxx

Selfridge's Box Part 1

I'm sure you're probably sick to death of hearing about the Selfridge's Beauty Box, especially if you didn't get one so apologies for that.

But we are doing a giveaway for one (woohoo!) and so we decided to do a more in depth post on our halves with mine being up today and M's being put up next Sunday.

I was super excited to try out the Stila One Step Correct Serum, the Philip B Katira hair mask and the Antipodes Avocado and Rosehip Divine Face Oil so that's what i chose from the box and M will be covering the other three items next week.

(We split a box between us, you can find more details on the giveaway page here)

First up is the Antipodes Organic Avocado and Rosehip Divine Face Oil all the way from New Zealand.

Antipodes are a brand that I'm really interested in because their skin care range uses only bioactive botanical ingredients, many of which are organic, and also have a strong ethical value.

Also I love that they have loads of scientific information on their website, I've fallen in love with a brand again!

The website states:

Scientifically shown to stimulate Type I collagen in human skin fibroblast cells by up to 51%*.

Give a lift to tired, stressed and sun-damaged skin with this nutrient-rich, certified organic face oil that helps to deliver essential nourishment for fresh, healthy skin. The superior collagen boosting action of avocado oil helps reduce the appearance of lines and age spots, while added rosehip helps avocado oil target scars and wrinkles.

Interesting!

Also how much do you love the bottle??

I love old style medicine bottles including these dropper style ones.

I mean obviously you'd have to use this for a few weeks to notice a big change and to give it time to work its magic....but I've been struggling big time with my skin recently.

I've been breaking out left right and centre and every spot seems to leave a really bright red scar that doesn't heal. Initially I was worried about using an oil on my face as my skin has always had issues with oil.

It's early days as I've only been using it since Wednesday but I am 100% sure that the scars have started fading which was not happening at all before.

I'm hoping over the next few weeks it will improve even more and hopefully will turn into the wonder product I've been waiting for!

I've tried every other product you can think of so here's hoping.

Next up is the Philip B Katira Hair Mask which I used this morning.

I've also been having a few issues with my hair being very dry considering I don't heat style it and have been taking good care of it.

First off I love the packaging as I love simple and anything talking about 'Magic' sounds good to me!

The website states:

PRODUCT DETAILS

A gentle yet surprisingly versatile rejuvenator for all hair types.

The unique, clear-gel formula sinks right in to plump up fine, limp strands or calm and smooth coarse, hard-to-manage hair.

HOW IT WORKS:

Pure Katira Extract – the "it" conditioner of the Middle East – fills in weak, damaged spots in the hair cuticle for added smoothness and strength. It also gives your hair a slight electrical charge – you’ll feel it during your blowout – that leaves it fantastically light and bouncy.

A high-tech L-Amino Acid Complex infuses your hair with a perfect dose of weightless, oil-free moisture and nourishing proteins for enhanced control and elasticity. Just one application will instantly revitalize your hair color, speed up blow-drying time, and lock in shine for a sexy, touchable, red-carpet finish.

It's also paraben and pthalate free (woo!)

I quite liked the consistency of this but it was quite thick and I can imagine needing a lot of it.

It says on the back about mixing it in with their conditioner, so I mixed it in with my current conditioner and applied it, leaving it for as long as I could (probably around 5/10 minutes).

My hair definitely feels in better condition though I can't agree that it took less drying time as I didn't feel there was any difference.

I was impressed to see that my hair doesn't feel heavy at all however so I will definitely be using this a few times this week with the hope of improving the condition over time but so far it's doing the job!

Last but definitely not least is the Stila One Step Color Correct Serum.

I didn't own any Stila products until a few conveniently found there way into poundland!

But I have ALWAYS lusted after this product.

Everyone can see how cool it looks but for me, being obsessed with science as I'm a complete geek this is the ultimate in make up.

It looks like a beautiful DNA helix or something which is just amazing (I'm going to stop waffling on don't worry!)

This is all written on the box but straight from their website:

The revolutionary new product contains 3 colour-correcting brighteners: 

• Green tone instantly neutralizes redness and conceals blemishes 
• Lavender tone counteracts sallow undertones for a vibrant, energised look 
• Peach tone brightens, illuminates and helps diminish the appearance of sun spots

Sooooo pretty!

Here's a few hand shots, not the most convenient but I don't have a working tripod or someone to take photos of my face where I don't look a bit silly! Plus my skin is awful!

The left is before, and on the right you can see how all three colours come out in each pump (the peach is slightly hidden underneath)

Then on the left the colour blend together SO easily and pretty much melt into your skin leaving a really nice finish, not shiny at all but the area looks really moisturised and even.

I can't wait until my skin is better and I can just apply this to my skin as I can imagine it looking great and makes everything so much easier in the mornings!

What do you think of the products? My current favourite has to be the Antipodes face oil, as it's a god send if it continues to get rid of my scars as nothing else I've tried has worked.

However I can imagine the Stila taking over if my skin clears up :)

If you would like to win these products and the other 3 also in the box, you can enter the giveaway here.

It's always worth a try and you can tweet each day for more entries!

L xxx

Review: Aveda Damage Remedy products

I realise these are only tiny samples but I just had to blog about them after the effect they had on my hair.

This is the Aveda Damage Remedy trio:

My hair isn't in bad condition normally, and in fact I never owned a hair oil until 2 weeks ago.

But recently my hair has been feeling awful, especially at the ends.

It's really frustrating as after straightening it twice all year and curling it about 5 times, as well as getting it cut at least every 2 months, it should be in pretty damn good condition!

I use heat protector and occasionally some Sebastian Potion 9 when I remember and that's usually all it needs.

However I think because I've been growing it for so long it's probably in need of some TLC.

This was why I ended up investing in a hair oil (Tresemme Liquid Gold if you were wondering, post soon!)

I've always been pretty lucky with my hair but in my hour of need, my nan (of all people!) had been given this in a shop and donated it to me, perfect timing!

This is the Aveda Damage Remedy set and contains a shampoo, conditioner and leave in treatment.

The details are:

Damage Remedy Shampoo

Organic Damage Remedy Restructuring Shampoo is a gentle daily cleanser most suited to dry, damaged or chemically treated hair. It helps repair damaged hair. With the addition of Quinoa Protein, Babassu and Coconut Oil your hair is moisturised and restored.

Damage Remedy Conditioner 

Damage Remedy Restructuring Conditioner is a lightweight yet deep daily conditioner. The formula using Quinoa Protein, phellendron and Sandalwood repairs and restores the hair shaft resulting in smoother manageable healthy looking hair.

Damage Remedy Intensive Restructuring Treatment 

Damage Remedy™ Intensive Restructuring Treatment combines essential flower and plaint oils to repair and rebuild. It restores and moisturises the hair shaft and helps to smooth out the hair cuticle. Used twice weekly alongside the three step programme hair is restored to shiny healthy condition.

So onto my thoughts...the shampoo and conditioner both smelt lovely.

It's really hard to describe but I could smell a sort of almond and aniseed type smell at different times which was odd but nice all the same.

Definitely couldn't smell the coconut oil in the shampoo, but it lathered up nicely and my hair felt very clean afterwards.

The shampoo was also thicker than others I've used suggesting it was a lot more moisturising which I'm guessing it was with the result it gave me.

The conditioner felt very nice to put through my hair as it sort of melted as I applied it.

I ended up using the entire tubes of shampoo and conditioner in one go as my hair felt like it needed it and 10ml isn't a lot!

I left the conditioner on for a good few minutes in the shower and my hair felt a lot better even whilst still under the water.

Lastly I used the leave in treatment just before I blow dried my hair which was a serum type product, if a little runnier than normal.

The result was that my hair felt absolutely amazing and I loved it!

I would definitely consider buying these 3 to see what the long term effects are if the short term effects are so instant.

Other products just don't seem the same since and my hair doesn't feel as great a week later so I'm going to have to try something else as at the moment my budget won't stretch to Aveda.

It's a shame that the tubes weren't a little bigger really! I'm going to have to dig through my collection and find some hair products to use up.

Have you used Aveda products before?

I've heard lots about them but have never used them, this was my first time and I'm thoroughly impressed!

L xxx

Also don't forget to enter our Selfridge's Beauty Box giveaway!!!

You can find it here