Spain Haul - Essence, Catrice and more..

Hello lovelies!

I've come back down to reality with a bump..last week I was sunning it up on a beach in Spain, this week i'm back in rainy, grey Scotland and it's freezing!  My poor body doesn't know what's going on!

Whilst out in Spain, I treated myself to some new make-up and nail goodies!  They have 2 great budget brands called Essence and Catrice which unfortunately we don't get here in the UK so when I spied them I hyperventilated with excitement calmly perused the stands for some goodies!

Here are the things I picked!

As you can see I went a bit nail polish crazy!

Top left to right we have..

Clinique Even Better Eyes - I have dark circles which make the undead look well-rested so I thought i'd give this ago.  It is specifically for targetting dark circles whilst providing hydration.  I particularly enjoy the metal applicator as it's lovely and cooling.

Catrice Welcome to Las Vegas - This pretty dark metallic blue meets gunmetal colour just stood out to me, I think it will be perfect for the colder months.

Catrice Raspberry Fields Forever - Love the name first of all but thought this would be great for holiday toes although, as it turned out, I was too busy enjoying myself to get round to painting them!

Catrice Meet me at Coral Island - When I first spotted this, I thought it may be a dupe for China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy which i'm been lemming.  I don't have it to compare to, but it's similar and has a slight neon hue to it.

And bottom left to right...

Essence Oh My Glitter! - From afar this looks like a flat blurple ( I actually don't like that word...it makes me think of the noise you make when you are sick for some reason...euuugghhh!) but when I looked more closely it has a pretty pink glass fleck/small glitter running through it.

Essence Gel Look Top Coat - This was actually Darren's pick, god only knows why!  He actually quite enjoys picking out nail polish colours as he used to spray paint cars so I think it harks back to that!  However he suggested this might make them extra glossy, so who was I to argue with him?

Catrice Limited Edition Multi-Colour Blush in Gone with the Wind - Gotta love that name, it's worth buying on that alone!  But seriously this is such a pretty autumn/winter blush.  It's a difficult colour to describe, it's a terracotta-pinky-brown...kinda!

Essence Crazy Good Times in Confeterria - Oh Emm Geee!  I remember when this was first released seeing this little beauty on nihrida and instantly wanting it!  And now I have it! *squeals*

I was actually very restrained!  I could literally have filled my suitcase with make up goodies!  It totally sucks that we can't get either Essence or Catrice in the UK, they appears to sell in mainland Spain and in the US.  I mean, the cargo plane is literally flying over Britain!  Sort it out!!

Any other Essence or Catrice picks for me to lust over??

Models Own Haul

I'm weak for a good glitter polish!  So when I decided I wanted to do full-on gold glitter nails recently, I remembered that Models Own collaborated with Hed Kandi and one of the polishes was a super-sparkly gold glitter.  Off I trotted to Boots and when I got to the stand, they had a deal where if you bought 2 nail polishes, you got a nail art pen for free!  So here are the polishes I picked up!

 Disco Heaven is a clear base with mainly gold glitter and a smattering of blue glitter.  It is super pretty!  It would need a good 3+ coats to become opaque, so it's best to use over a base colour (I used Chin Glaze Champagne Bubbles)  

 The other polish I picked up was Disco Heaven (blimey, i'm all about the disco!!) which again is a clear base jam-packed with purple and turqoise glitter.  I can't tell you how many times I have admired this colour in-store, so I figured i'd pawed at it enough and should just buy it!

The freebie I picked up was this black nail art pen.  I've been admiring so much pretty nail art on Instagram so I am planning on trying my hand (do you see what I did there?!) at some very soon!  This has a pull-off cap with a dotting tool on it and a screw off cap containing a long, thin brush.

I'm already thinking I should do a post on my complete Models Own nail polish collection...what do you think?

Review: Soleil Tan de Chanel

Hello beautiful people!

Today I would like to give you a little review on this much talked-about item from Chanel...

Previously known, I think, as Bronze Universal..but for today now it's called Soleil Tan de Chanel.  It is basically a cream bronzer.  I have always had this on my 'to-buy' list, but always hesitated splashing the cash as I wasn't sure it would work with my oily skin type.

So imagine my delight when my lovely mum picked this up for me in duty free!

The first thing that struck me was the texture of the product, I think I expected a mousse consistency (think Maybelline Dream Mousse), however it's more of a cream-gel.  It has quite a lot of 'slip' when swatched but at the same time doesn't feel greasy, hurrah!  It is also quite firm to the touch, which is good because when I first opened the packaging it seemed quite shallow and I had visions of me using this up very quickly.  However you can give this a good old swirl with your brush and it hardly seems to dent it at all!

In terms of colour, I would liken it to a light milk chocolate mousse colour (I'm currently on a fasting diet so please forgive the food references!!).  It's quite a neutral bronze and isn't overly pink or yellow based.    I was concerned that this colour wouldn't show up too well, as I had been using Hoola by Benefit which is a fair bit darker.  Once I applied it though, it was love!  It created this very natural, skin-like finish and the colour was a perfect sun-kissed bronze.  Here is a little swatch, left is applied and right is blended...

If you are on the look out for a new bronzer, I'd definitely suggest getting yourself along to a Chanel counter and trying it out.  Yes, it is pricey, but I honestly think this will last a long time, even with daily usage.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

And the winner for the longest-and-most-unnecessary-product-name goes to...Revlon!

I picked this up a few weeks ago now and wanted to give it a good old road test before I did a review on it! I picked up the colour Rendezvous, which is basically a bright, warm orange colour.  I was hoping the beautiful peachy colour would have made it's way over the pond from the USA but unfortunately it hasn't!  I always wonder why brands do that, especially when they know that us British girlies are lemming over these colours on US blogs! Sort it out! ...please?!

Anywhooo, first up I must say how much I love the packaging of this.  I like that the packing is the same colour as the product itself, makes it handy to grab the right colour during the morning rush!  It also chunky and feels substantial in my hand.  Err..that sounds a bit rude but you know what I mean, right? Right?!!

One thing I wasn't overly keen on was the minty scent of this product.  There is something a little overpowering about it however thankfully it doesn't linger long enough to put me off wearing this.

In terms of longevity of wear, I did find that this rubbed off my lips within the first couple of hours, leaving a quite unflattering ring of colour round the outside of my lips.  It did cling a bit to the dry areas on my lips, but i'm sure applying a balm on top of this would alleviate that.  For all that I dislike the unneccesarily long name, I can see what they mean by a balm stain, although I kinda feel it's sitting on the fence, as it's not hydrating enough to be a balm or stain-ey (yup..made up a word coz that's how I roll!) enough to be a stain.

The colour is a far cry from my safe colour spectrum of nude/light pink/light peach, however I think both pale skinned and tanned girls  could pull off this colour with ease.

So overall I do like this, it's not my favourite lip product, but it's definitely a welcome additional to my collection!  I think i'd also like to try out a couple of the other shades too!

Available at Superdrug and Boots :)

Monday Manicure!

Hello!
Sorry for my absence, I have been rather obsessed with the Olympic Games and have spent a huge chunk of my free time immersing myself in London 2012 fever!
Today's mani is using a new polish I picked up from eBay. It all started with me googling 'rose gold glitter nail polish' and this little gem popped up in the image results! It's Sephora by OPI in Traffic Stopper Copper, which is a clear base packed with rose gold/copper large and small glitter particles. It is, in a word, beautiful! I suppose if you had the time, you could layer this polish until it was opaque, however my preferred way of wearing it is over another colour. I love the effect of doing this, it's like adding jewellery to your nails!
Without further ado, here are some pictures!




Do any of you have this? What colours to you wear it over? I want to experiment!! :)
Heather x

Giveaway Winner Announcement!

Firstly thank you to everyone who entered the giveaweay!  It was really fun to do and I have already got another in the pipeline so stick around for that very shortly!

So, the winner of the Best of British Giveaway is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations!!!  Please email me with your address details! :)

Sleek Glory Palette Review

Glory is the latest offering from Sleek Cosmetics!

I love the theming of this product!  I'm totally obsessed with anything vaguely Olympics-themed so this is right up my street!  Let's have a look inside...

And here are some close-up's...

Now, when I first saw the quite random selection of colours I thought it was poorly thought out.  However, I think that they have tried to appeal to a wide range of people with this; want a bright look? Check.  Want a bronzey daytime look? Check.  Want a smokey eye? Check.  They really seem to have covered all bases with this palette.  It's also a mixture of metallic and matte textures, although the majority of shades have a metallic finish.

Here are some swatches, over bare skin with no base or primer...

Pretty, ain't they?!

Most of the colours are smooth and pigmented.  The grey and the red, which incidentally are the matte shades, are drier in texture, however they can't be built up over a base if you have the patience.

I decided to do a video review of this product, and I have also filmed a simple tutorial...

 

Here are a couple of quick snaps of the look!

So, do you have this palette? What do you think?

And, most importantly...are you looking forward to The Olympics?? :)