Sparkly NOTD!

Hey guys! Let me first apologise that I wasn't able to take this picture in natural day light, it's not even 3pm here but it's been dark and dreary all day.. Is it crazy windy where you are? It sure is here!

I don't wear sparkle or glitter on my nails too often but tonight the family and I are going out for a meal to celebrate my nephew's pre-birthday (his actual birthday is on Christmas Day, so we like to do something a couple of days before as well) and due to that and the fact that it is Christmas time, I wanted to do something more festive and sparkly with my nails. I know that red is the typical colour for Christmas but I'm saving to that to wear on Christmas day itself and instead went with Models Own Utopia with NYC's Gramercy Glitz on top. I put on two coats of each but definitely thicker coats of the NYC polish because I wanted to it be extra glitzy! 

I probably won't be posting again until after Christmas, so Merry Christmas everyone!

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Too Faced Borderline Clear Lip Pencil

When I first heard about this clear, wax lip pencil I thought, as someone who has trouble with lipstick staying neatly on their lips, that I would love it.. but I just don't love it.

The Borderline pencil claims to stop your lipstick from 'feathering' which I have to be honest, wasn't the issue I bought this for, so maybe I set my hopes too high but in my mind it made sense to me that if it stops feathering it would also keep my lipstick from moving off my lip line.. which it kind of does but at the same time my lipstick just seemed to sit on the line which I had drawn on with this and left a visible line along my lip of a slightly different shade to my lipstick due to, I assume, the two products mixing together.

I like that it's clear - you don't have to worry about getting the outline of your mouth perfectly shaped right or having the right shade to match your lipstick but it does make it tricky to see exactly where you have applied it. I also find that it wears down incredibly quickly (which is something I have heard said about this product before) so I'm not sure how long this would last and at the whopping price of $18 which I paid from the States (it was on the Boots website but I no longer see it on there) I'm not sure if this is good value for money and is a product I regret buying.

Have you used the Too Faced Borderline pencil? Did you like it?

Rimmel offer a clear liner too if you'd like to try out a more affordable option first!

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Cuticle Care!

I don't push my cuticles back, it makes me feel sick (anyone else?) which means most of the time I am usually left with pretty messy looking manicure. So, I decided I would try some products which are made for your cuticle area to see if they could at least make them look a little better. 

You can grab this at Boots for £8.99

The first one I tried was by Essie and is a product I'd been wanting to get my hands on for a while. I like the nail polish style application on this one since it is literally of an oil consistency which it makes it easy to apply. I don't know if I would say this smells like apricot but the smell itself is pleasant. I just dab a bit of this on each cuticle and then rub it in, Essie says to then gently push back your cuticles but I obviously skip this step and instead just let it soak into my skin for a while before washing my hands or wiping it off (I find this does leave your fingers very oily until you wipe it off, it doesn't ever fully soak into your skin). As a result, my cuticles look softer and seem to blend in with my skin more making them a little less noticeable and easier to work with when I'm painting my nails. 

LUSH £6.50

Next I tried 'Lemony Flutter' by LUSH, a product which is called a cuticle butter but which also suggests using on ANY area of hard skin you may have. This has a pretty strong lemon/citrus scent which at first I really like but then gives off an odd after smell which I'm not too keen on but not off-putting enough for me to not want to use the product. In the tub it's an extremely thick consistency and this time I simply scoop some out with my finger, place it onto my cuticle area and rub it in. At first this one is more like a lotion but quickly melts into a more oily product. This again doesn't fully absorb into your skin and I always have to wipe it off when I'm done. My cuticles are left looking soft and neater just like with the Essie one. I don't have dry elbows or heels (which this would be perfect for) but have used this on my knuckles which worked really well. If you do buy this with the idea in mind of just using it on your cuticles like I did, I don't see how you could ever finish this entire pot!

So basically, I love both this products, I can't fault either of them and can't choose which is my favourite!

What is your favourite cuticle treatment?

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Nails Of The Week #NOTW

Hey guys! I'm doing something a little different today and instead of a NOTD post showing you the single nail polish I'm wearing, I thought I would share with you the polishes that wore over the course of the week!

First is Essie's 'Miss Fancy Pants' which as you can see is a grey/taupe colour. I love the Essie polishes that come with the wider brush because they make applying the polish so much easier and neater (I find). I'm not sure how in love I am with the colour of this one though, I don't really find myself looking down at my nails an loving it whenever I have it on. 

Then was 'Lychee' from the Barry M Hi-Shine Gelly collection. I don't know about you but I find milky/pastel colours like this hard and streaky to apply and usually don't like how they look around the edges of the fingernail but overall I thought this one dried pretty smoothly. I'm not sure how shiny I would say this is though, definitely no more shiny than any of my other polishes.

Then was 'Jamaica Me Crazy' by Essie. I really like this polish (not sure I can say the picture does it much justice). It's a deep magenta/purple colour with a pretty shimmer running through it. Click here for another look at this polish.

Finally is OPI's 'Tickle My France-y' which is a new polish in my collection but one I can already tell is going to be one of my go to colours which I reach for when I want something on my nails but can't decide what. As you can tell from the picture it dries darker on the nail (I have two coats on) than it looks in the bottle, I kind of wish it didn't and stayed more true to the colour you see but I still really like it either way.

Seems like I had a thing for nudes this time around but what have you been wearing this week?

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Barry M Matte Nail Polish

Hey everyone, Happy Halloween! I remember a while back a few companies (I have Rimmel in particular in mind) were selling matte top coats which when put over any nail colour, gave it a matte finish. While I was read a blog recently, I read that Barry M have come out with a line of actual matte polishes and I was eager to get my hands on some and try them and for some reason (not sure what exactly) I thought they fit well with Halloween and so comes this blog post!

L-R: Vanilla, Crush & Espresso

I actually found these pretty hard to find, wherever I was at the time seemed to be sold out of all the colours except a darkish tan/nude colour which I wasn't too keen on. I finally found these last week in Superdrug and since they were on a 3 for 2 offer I decided to try three of them. 

I wasn't sure how I would like these, especially after hearing people weren't so keen on the matter top coats but I was pleasantly surprised. I tried 'Crush' first and while I'm undecided on exactly how matte the finish is, it definitely isn't your typical polish finish. I also found this dried a lot quicker than my normal polishes. I'm excited to try the other two colours which I'm sure will pop up on the blog in NOTD posts soon!

Have you tried the matte polishes?

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Friday Favourites

Hey guys, welcome to my first Friday Favourites! I'm not very good at doing a monthly favourite posts, I usually just don't have enough products to talk about. As a result of that, I've decided to start doing Friday Favourites, although not every week.. just when I have a few products that I'm loving and want to tell you about!

Macadamia Deep Repair Masque - I've already reviewed this product (which you can read by clicking here) so I wont talk about it too much but I'm still really liking the masque which I usually leave on for around 10-15 minutes for silky soft hair. I have found a highstreet mask which I'm also loving also, so stay tuned for a blog post and review on that soon!

Not Your Mother's Way To Grow Shampoo - I've been really picky with shampoo lately and keep finding they leave my hair feeling knotty and hard to manage but this one not only smells amazing but didn't leave me with knotty hair and made it feel clean and soft instead. I'm almost out of this and going to be sad when it's gone because the product isn't readily available in the UK

Essie's Ladylike nail polish - Ladylike is my go to polish when I want something on my nails but not sure what or when I just can't decide on a colour to wear. It's a subtle nude with a pale purple hint to it. I think Ladylike is a perfect name for this polish as it brings in a chic almost classy look to your nails, which I love. 

Maybelline Babylips in Quenched - I love the Babylips balms but in particular I like the clear ones as you can apply them without a mirror and not worry about them getting all over your face. I think these might be the softest balms I've ever used but that means I do find myself getting through them pretty quick.

Soap and Glory Sexy MotherPucker lipgloss in Punchbowl - I was given this as as unwanted gift from my sister and at £9 I don't think it's something I would have purchased myself but I really like this gloss. It has a plumping formula so has that tingly sensation after you apply it but I love the colour and find that this actually stays put on my lips for longer than I expected. I like this so much I think I may just pick up another colour!

Well those are my favourites for this week!

What are you loving right now?

Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac look-alike / Dupe !

I'm not really a bag lover but I have always liked the Rebecca Minkoff Mini Macs handbags that have been popular over the last year or so but not being a bag person, I couldn't justify the price tag. So, every now and then I search to see if there are any look-alikes about that I can get my hands on instead. I came across this one on a blog post with the girl saying she got it from Tesco! The post was dated a month ago and I believe the bag has since been taken off the Tesco website but I decided to pop in last night on the off chance they still have them which they did and for only £10 too!

Actual Mini Mac. Photo source: Luuux.com

Tesco have made a pretty good dupe of it in my opinion! These have been around in Tesco for a month or two now going by the original blog post I found, so if you want to pick one up, I'd be quick about it! 

What do you think? Will you be picking one up?

Macadamia Natural Oil Deep Repair Masque

I know what you're thinking "Not another Macadamia natural oil deep repair masque review", but I just had to! It's not often I spend a little extra on a product and say to myself that it is actually worth the money but with this I do.. Every single time I use it. It is expensive at £26.95 in the UK and $33 in the States but if, like me, you have really dry hair then this is going to become your new best friend.

I'd been tempted to by this for a long time but was always put off by the price. A friend of mine then made plans to come to the UK for the summer from America and I knew I had to ask them to bring some of this with them since it works out a little cheaper over there. I tried to make an order for it at Ulta.com but for some reason the order wouldn't go though. So I popped over to the Target website to find they were being sold by one get one free, making them around only $16 each!

It recommends you apply this to wet hair and leave it on for around 7 minutes but I've been putting it on before I get in the bath and then rinsing it out once I'm done which is usually anywhere from 15-30 minutes later. It leaves your hair not only smelling amazing but so super soft too. I have pretty long hair and a couple of days ago in the car, I just loved how soft it felt against my neck and shoulders which is something I don't think I've ever noticed before.

I really cant explain how much I love this masque or recommend it enough. It makes me eager to try out some of the other products in the line like the shampoo.
Have you tried any of the Macadamia products?

More empties!

Okay, before I start I have a confession to make: I did not in fact finish the Mask of Maganminty face and back pack. Well I did finish it but I've already included that in empties post and I'm not sure how it's ended up in another one. By the time I realised I've already included it in a post, I had thrown away all the other empty products and it was too late to take another photograpgh. So there's that and lets move on on with some of the products I did in fact finish recently..

I finished two of the EOS lipbalms in summer fruits and mint. I love these lip balms, they do what they're supposed to do but the packing just isn't functional. I like to carry a lip balm around with me in my purse since most of the time this is all I take out with me but these are just far too big.. Which leads me on to the Burt's Bees lipbalm, a balm that does fit in my purse and which has been one of my favourites for a long time now.

I'm always in two minds about whether or not to include deodorant in these empties posts but the two I finished up recently are two that I really liked and I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to deodorant. The Nivea double effect in violet senses smells really good and I liked the Sure crystals deodorant because it comes in the stick form which is a type of deodorant I've been enjoying using lately.

I also had to include the Herbal Essences shampoo in chamomile because of the smell. This stuff smells amazing.

What have you used up recently?

Weekend travel make up!

Hello, hello! I just spent the past weekend up in Scotland for a wedding.. We had beautiful hot and sunny weather while we were there and also got to visit Loch Lomond, which as you can see from the above picture is absolutely beautiful! Anyway, I thought I would share the make-up that I took with you!

I was pretty tight on space so tried to condense what I took with me compared to what is normally in my make up bag and even though I kept a few things out, I still didn't end up using all the the things I took with me. I took the Seventeen Doll'd Up mascara in brown for the daytime since I like a more natural look along with the Rimmel nude eyeliner pencil and then switched them both out for the black Oraganic Wear mascara from Physicians Formula and brown eyeliner pencil from Soap and Glory for the reception. I also took with me my first Revlon lipstick that I've tried in 'Pink in the Afternoon' and so far I really like it!

What are you make up essentials when you travel?