China Glaze Be Bright Nail Polish Set

Hi there!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had a friend in the US who sent me a few goodies just after Christmas, this nail polish set was one of them. It was a Christmas set but lets be honest, it's not like there's a ban on glitter and metallics for the rest of the year is there?!

This set is Be Bright and contains 1 metallic nail polish and three glitter top coats.

Here is Your Presents Required over Essie's Fiji. This polish doesn't look much in the bottle but once I'd applied it to my ring finger I then had to put it on all the others too! It has so many colours in it that it looks perfect over a nude colour like Fiji

There are also multiple sizes of the different colours of glitter too which make it look a lot more authentic and less perfect making it look a lot better, in my opinion. This one is my favourite out of the whole packet!


This nail polish is Mingle with Kringle, a gorgeous super shimmery gold polish.



The photo above shows one coat, and the photos below show two coats. Two coats are definitely required for opacity and the colour is gorgeous. It's a true gold and extremely shimmery! I really like this shade but I do have quite a few polishes like this already.




For the next glitter, Bells will be Blinging was applied to my ring finger over an Essie polish called Parka Perfect. The photos below shows one coat of the glitter polish:





And the above shows 2 coats. You can see it definitely needs two coats for the full amount of sparkle, I can't say this is one that I'll use too often as I much prefer the first polish for glitter and don't often wear blues generally. But I was impressed how well this showed up after one coat, but as always you'll need 2 for the full effect!

Lastly we have Be Merry, Be Bright another multicoloured and multi sized glitter which I have applied over Ballet Slippers.

In all honesty I didn't think I'd like this at all, I'm not sure why, maybe it was the blue glitter in it. In the bottle I think the blue glitter looks a considerable amount more than it does on the nails and I've surprised myself by actually loving it!

Which is your favourite? I really have surprised myself by which ones of these are my favourites. China glaze is one of my favourite nail polish brands and I love every collection they bring out! 

Do you have any China Glaze favourites?

L xxx

Banana Protein Pancakes

Hey All

A double post from me today. L's being sharing some tasty healthy treats and tips lately so I thought I'd share one I did at the weekend. We are both pancake fans. I love american style fluffy pancakes covered in all sorts of treats. One weekend at L's after a night out we used some of her brothers protein pancake mix (post here) and they were amazing so I decided it was time to try and make the banana pancakes I've seen everywhere!

These literally need 2 ingredients though from L's recommendation I added a third. You need 1 ripe banana, 1 egg and I used one scoop of chocolate whey protein (you could use 1 tablespoon of oat flour - just grind oats in a food blender, or even normal flour). L had warned me the mixture was a little wet using just a banana and egg.

I was sceptical as to how good these would be as they are so basic. This weekend I decided to give them a go. They are the easiest thing to make too. All you need to do is mash up a banana (this is where having a ripe banana really helps, mine wasn't ripe enough, mashing was hard work so I used to my hands to mush it!).

To the mashed up banana crack the egg and mix.

Then add the scoop of protein powder, oat flour or normal flour. 

Mix all the ingredients well and heat oil of choice in a fry pan over a medium heat. I used coconut oil (to my South Wales bloggers the health food shop in the arcade with Wally's sells it for a bargain £6.99 for 500g!).

When the oil of choice has melted add a scoop of pancake mix. I found using my 1/3 cup measure with this mixture got me three pancakes.

I left then for about 90 seconds. You can see as the mixture starts to set. Flip over and leave for about 60 seconds and serve.

How quick and easy. They were so light, fluffy and tasty. I covered mine in peanut butter (in the same health food shop you can get 1kg of 100% peanuts peanut butter for £5.99!!) and a small amount of maple syrup. They can literally be topped with anything. I'd usually go for Greek yoghurt and berries!

Will be trying these as a healthy weekend treat. Let me know how you get on!

Love M

xxx

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

Morning All

I should be revising right now but blogging is a much better choice! I'm all about procrastination. Lately I've found my skin hates powder, no matter what foundation or powder combination I was using my skin was looking awful and cakey, so for the past few months I've given up using powder and taken to blotting my face. This pay day I couldn't resist shopping. (you can view my haul here) A trip to boots made me decide to try it. I've only heard good things about the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder and I know L loves it. She's reviewed it here.

I picked up the shade translucent. In powders I'd rather go for translucent as I find powders tend to make my skin look orange toned otherwise. The thing that put me off this powder for ages was the packaging. With a powder I'd rather it was more handbag friendly and come with a sponge for if I need to top up during the day. The packaging is basic and I do worry the lid will get broken with my clumsiness at some point.

Onto the product. Let's start with this is fully deserving of all the hype it gets! It perfectly sets my make up, leaves my face shine free without my foundation looking heavy, clumpy or cakey. My make up lasts longer and while keeping my face shine free it doesn't look powdery or too matte. I've only been using it for the past two weeks but so far it really is worth all the hype.

Best of all it is only £3.99 and usually on 3 for 2! I'm regretting not giving in to this hyped up product sooner. It really does everything you'd want a powder to do. My only downside to it is the packaging but for the price I can't really complain.

Have you tried Rimmel Stay Matte Powder?

Love M

xxx

Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick - Catfight

Evening All

Hope you've had a great bank holiday weekend. A few weeks back we shared our thoughts on the Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in the shade Native (review here). When we went to an event for the Electric Palette this was another of the items I decided I had to purchase.

I loved the formula of the lipsticks but Native isn't a colour I wear much anymore. I very much a brights on the lips girl. I find nude shades don't suit me very much any more. I won't go into the packaging too much but I do love the gunmetal colour and embossing on it.

I went for the shade Catfight, after seeing it swatched on Nina's hand there was noway I wasn't having it. It's a shade my totally ridiculous necessary lipstick collection is lacking. Most of the red colours I own are blue toned. I love the warm pinky tone of the shade with enough red to make it not too pink! (I'm great at describing colours!)

One swipe of this lipstick leaves the most amazing pigmentation on the lips! It's got a subtle sheen to it and just glides onto the lips. Another bonus is it makes my teeth look white. I would say I could do with a lip brush to apply it. Something about the shape of the bullet makes a bright colour hard to apply tidy! It may be me. The lipstick does look different colours in different lights. The first two photos on the lips are from my camera normally and the last one is from the camera front facing. I would say the swatch is most true to colour.

These lipsticks last amazingly well and for a bright colour fade pretty well. There is a slight ring around the lips but nothing as bad as some. They aren't drying either which is always a plus.

They retail for £15 which is reasonable for high end lipsticks! As I have previously said I wouldn't have looked to Urban Decay for lipstick before but I love the formula and would put them on par with MAC!

Have you tried Urban Decay Revolution Lipsticks?

Love M

xxx