Review - MUA Eye Primer

Happy New Year everyone! I'm determined to do a post every day this year without fail, which is why I've searched high and low for a phone signal!
Just a quick review today of MUA's eye primer, available at Superdrug. I paid £2 for this because they couldn't find the right price to put it through at, but I can honestly say I wouldn't buy it again. It feels slimy when applying it, and leaves my eyelids feeling greasy and irritated. My eyeliner (I use Maybelline's gel liner) won't apply in top, and the faint trace that does say on my lid fades off within minutes. I would advise that you try this for yourselves, as what works for one person won't necessarily work for another. I've included some images, and as you can see the product looks gluey and slimy. I may buy another of these just to see if mine was a dodgy one. I usually love MUA stuff so I was really disappointed with this.

Love xxx

Review - Aussie 3 Minute Miracle

Just a quick post today as the Internet doesn't work where I am today, so having to use my temperamental iPhone Internet! I found this product yesterday and thought I'd try it out, and I'm amazed! I got mine from Superdrug for £3.99, but it's often on offer in supermarkets and Boots.
I've not had my hair cut for over 9 months now, so understandably my hair isn't in great condition as I have it colored quite often! Up until I used it my hair was dry, fluffy, and felt like wool with load of split ends, and was really unmanageable. I've taken a photo of my hair before, with one side after I used the product and the other side without product and then what it all looked like after, and it feels (and looks!) like different hair! I'm amazed! If your hair is anything like mine was I can't recommend it enough, it's absolutely incredible. It smells divine too!

Love xxx

Best Beauty Buys Of 2011

Hello again! It's nearly New Year's Eve, and up until yesterday I was fully expecting to be sitting alone in the house by myself as I had no other options! Now I'm off to Harrogate for the weekend and I cannot wait, I feel like I can start to get excited about New Year's Eve now.
I've found some real star products this year, things that I found in February and am still using now, so they must be good! Just thought I'd share some of my beauty favourites of this year, and I'll most likely do some more in-depth reviews on a few of the products in a couple of days' time. Let me know if there's anything you'd really like to see more of!

1. George Face Primer, £5.

Really impressed with Asda's new own brand make-up range. It's not expensive, and it's actually a lot better than many high end products I've tried! This primer is one of my favourites, it's not too heavily pigmented so I don't look orange, but it really evens out my skin tone, hides any red patches and makes my foundation stay put all day. Love it. It's quite moisturising and it doesn't feel like it's sitting on top of your skin, and feels lovely and smooth on your skin. I could quite happily wear this and no foundation on days when my skin is behaving! Just make sure you shake it a bit before squeezing it, as I've had 4 of these now and one of them was a bit odd, it would go all watery unless I shook it up before using! The others were all fine though.

2. George Skin Perfection Mousse Foundation, £6

This is just perfect skin in a pot! Easily the best foundation I've ever used. It's a perfect match for my ghostly pale skin, and you can't tell I'm wearing it, it's not cakey or flakey and just looks stunning. It's not heavy and doesn't feel like it's sitting on top of your skin. I'd say this was medium to full coverage, but it can be built up so if you just wanted light coverage you could put less on. I use a brush to apply it as I prefer the finish rather then using fingertips.

3. Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Liner, £5.98

I'd been wanting a gel liner for ages, and the queue in Mac was so long I gave up and picked this little gem up from Asda on the way home, and I'm glad I did! It stays put all the day, and once you get used to the little brush it's really easy to apply. It stays gel-like and it's easy to create flicks or whatever you like. I wear eye liner everyday, and I've had this for about a month now and it looks like I've hardly used any so it's great value for money.

4. Body Shop Born Lippy Strawberry Lip Balm, £2

I got a gift card from Cosmopolitan last month worth £3 so went to the Body Shop and got three of these little lovelies as they were 3 for 2. They've completely rescued my lips, which were looking awful and were all cracked! I can finally wear lipstick again now, and they smell amazing too. Don't taste incredible though...

5. Herbal Essences Beautiful Ends Split Ends Repair Cream, £3.99

My flatmate gave me some of this two months ago and I use it every time I wash my hair as a leave in conditioner, and it's brought my tatty ends back to life! I know I should get them chopped off but until I do this is a mainstay in my life. It smells stunning, and really makes my hair feel soft and look more like hair and less like wool.

6. Body Shop Make-Up Brushes, £Various

This is the mini kit, but I have all the full size brushes and they are my go-to brushes every time. They are ridiculously soft and make it so much easier to apply make-up, and are cheaper than Mac. The eyeliner brush is amazing!

7. Ponds Cold Cream Cleanser, £4.07

My secret weapon! This is a dream for taking off make-up, even heavy black eye liner. The pot lasts forever, and leaves your skin feeling clean, refreshed and so soft it's unbelievable. It does smell a little old ladyish but I love it! It's so luxurious, and is often on BOGOF or half price so it's silly cheap.

8. Bourjois Blush No. 48, £7.49

Been using this for a few months now, it's got a gorgeous gold undertone to it that injects some life into my pasty face! The pink isn't too dark for me either, and there's not loads of glitter and shinyness in it so it looks really pretty and natural. It lasts for quite a long time too, so it's worth the £7.49. Love the cute little mirror in the lid too!

9. MUA Immaculate Palette, £8

I know lots of bloggers have been raving about these palettes, but they have good reason to! I've got the Heaven & Earth palette too, but this one is my favourite as you can create SO many looks using it. I adore the glittery neutral shades, as they are more stand-out than the matt shadows in the H&E palette, and you can create a pretty damn sexy smoky eye with the glittery inky blue-black in this one. I got mine free in a Superdrug promotion where if you spent £8, you got this free, so look out for similar ones.

10. Ralph Lauren Cool, £Various

My all time favourite perfume. I'm pretty sure it's been discontinued, as I never ever see it in stores but you can still get it in various places online. It smells beautiful, it's youthful and fresh with flowery hints to it, but it's not sickly sweet or spicy or anything yacky like that, it's so delicious. I always try to buy one with my Christmas and birthday money so that I have some for the next six months!

Sorry for the crazy long post, I'll try to make them short and sweet in future!

Love xxx

Review - Front Cover Nail Polish

It's review time! I got so many lovely beauty products for Christmas that it's going to take me a while to review them all, but I'm determined to do it! I'll try to be as honest as possible, as I hate it when you read blogs and they are clearly lying through their teeth about how good something is, then you part with your hard earned cash to discover it's actually useless... But enough of that!
This nail varnish was part of this Front Cover set from Boots, which is now in the sale. The rest of the set is really good, and I'll talk about the rest of it in more detail in another post.
When I first saw the polish I was so excited, as it's definitely my kind of colour! In the bottle it's a really dark, rich and shimmery blue, with a slight purplish sheen in the light. The glitter particles are really small too, which is great as I hate polishes with big chunks of glitter that feel really rough on your nails. The bottle is quite small, as the lid is massive, and I found it quite hard to apply the polish as the brush is really small! I've taken a photo so hopefully you can see what I mean, it's just too short and the lid is so big it's hard to control. Sorry the photos are quite dark, the lighting is awful! I've tried to include photos with flash too where possible.

As you can see from the photos, the colour really is gorgeous! I will admit that as much as I wanted to love this polish, I was quite disappointed by the end result. It was really hard to apply to my nails, as the brush didn't seem to pick up much product which meant it was hard to get a smooth and even finish, and the varnish was quite sticky and didn't spread well over the nail. I know I don't have the longest, easiest nails in the world to paint but I did find it a pain. I applied two coats, this is how my nails looked after the first coat.

The first photo is without flash, the second is with. My skin looks so orange in these photos! I am ghostly pale, honest! As you can see, the polish is quite transparent and streaky, but it does dry very fast which is a bonus if, like me, you insist on doing everything possible to try to smudge your nails immediately after painting. I apologise for the state of my nails!

This is after the second coat, it's much better coverage this time, but there was still no hint of the purple sheen I could see in the bottle! I didn't have any remover which is why there are smears around my nails, I am appalling at all things nail-related! I applied a third coat to see if the purple appeared, and it did, a little, however it wouldn't show up unless I went in the sunlight! I'll try to take another photo in the sun tomorrow if I can and update this post,
Overall I'm not blown away by this. The rest of the gift box was spot on, but I felt let down by how hard this was to apply, the finish isn't good at all, I haven't applied a top coat yet but it is very 'blobby' for want of a better word, and clings to every tiny bump on the nail even though I had buffed them and used a base coat. It chips quite easily too, with one appearing the morning after I'd painted them! Must have had a fight with the duvet. I wouldn't buy this again, but if I could find the same colour by another brand I'd try that.

Love xxx

Nails, Nails, Nails

I've been making a beauty wishlist today, trying to find all the make-up products I want to buy whilst there are still some left in the sales! I've managed to not bite my nails for nearly a month now, which is a record for me so I'd like to treat myself to some pretty new nail varnishes. I've heard only good things about Models Own, so I've found a few I like on the website.

1. I really like deep, rich reds like this one (Come To Bed Red), as they make my skin look so pale and milky-white. Some varnishes make my hands look yellowy, so I have to avoid them! It's part of the Models Own Pro range, which is supposed to be chip-resistant and encourage nail growth, which appealed to me as my nails are weak from twenty years of being bitten and shredded on a daily basis! It's £8, which is a bit more than the rest of the Models Own varnishes, so I'd probably buy just one to try and see if it lives up to the promises it makes, rather than do what I usually do and buy about five at once!

2. There's a sale on at Models Own at the minute, and I spotted this stunning glittery black polish (Mixed Up) hiding among the other glitter polishes. I love how sleek and mysterious it looks, so I've ordered one and will post some photos of how it looks on my nails, as I know sometimes that the glitter particles are massive and it feels gritty rather than smooth.

3. I'm not a huge fan of the crackle polishes, but the Barry M ones I've had in the past have been fairly good, as they don't chip easily or fade. I'm tempted to try this crocodile-skin effect one just because it's a bit different. It's only £3.99 so if I hate it it's not the end of the world!

4. This is Barry M too. Some of their polishes are brilliant, and I can't fault them, but I've had quite intense colours like this before and they've just been so gloopy and sloppy that I threw them away. This colour is really pretty though, so I'm bound to end up giving it a go at some point!

5. More Models Own. These pastel polishes (Pastel Collection) are perfect for springtime, and I especially like the blue, yellow and the pink. Yellow tends to make my skin look funny though, and I think the orange and the green would have the same effect, although I've never tried them. Most pastel polishes I've had in the past have been really streaky and needed lots of coats to get full coverage though, which puts me off as it takes so long to dry and chips easily. All the Models Own sets in the link are down from £30 to £20 so they are good value.

I need to find a good nail hardener too to stop mine from snapping, I'm clueless though! If it could be used as a topcoat too it would be even better. Any recommendations?

Love xxx

Christmas Sale Lovelies

I LOVE the Christmas sales! I've spent much of today flicking through various websites hunting down sale items, but most of the things I've seen and want are still full price, which is typical! I've just discovered Polyvore, so had lots of fun playing around on there and choosing what I should buy with my Christmas money! Found these beauties whilst searching for a pair of shoes, and I need them all in my life!

I love cats, so the Meow shirt caught my eye immediately. It's really soft-looking and would be perfect for normal everyday wear. It's also only £15 from River Island, so it's super cheap! It's quite a loose fit too, so I'd probably wear it with one of my many black body-con skirts from H&M and tights.

The polka-dot headband is really cute, and I love the fact that it would go with most of my wardrobe and disguise my roots which are awful at the moment! It's been about two months, maybe three since I went from black to red hair, and my mousey brown roots are threatening to take over. It's just £6, again from River Island, which is hardly anything when you think about it.

I love love love this star print bra top from Topshop, even though it's the US site. Unfortunately I can never wear this kind of thing, they just don't flatter me at all. It reminds me of something Jessie J would wear, but I just can't get enough of stars at the minute,

This draped skirt from Lipsy is gorgeous! I adore it, and the silky chiffon makes me think of Florence Welch. It comes in nude and black, and although £32 is a fair amount for a skirt, it's so beautiful that I think I'd get plenty of wear out of it. Must have both colours though!

The zebra ring is so cute and quirky, it's beautiful. I don't usually wear much jewellery because I often forget to put it on, but I do have a silver bracelet with a heart on that I got from my boyfriend last Christmas that I never take off, and my sister gave me a ring yesterday that I'm crazy about. I'd definitely pay £10 for this ring!

Yet another draped skirt. This one from River Island is cheaper at £22, but it only comes in bright colours, such as the blue, lime green and a violent pink shade. I'd prefer it in black or nude, but I suppose you could always dye it black. I do quite like the blue but don't think I'd be brave enough to wear it!

How cute is this bag?! It reminds me of Minnie Mouse! I really like the shape of it, and it looks like a good size for an evening bag. I've been using the same River Island bag as my everyday one since December 2010, and it's getting a bit scruffy now so I really need a new one. It needs to be big enough for me to fill with my junk on a daily basis though!

Finally, this horse jumper. I've loved horses ever since I was a little girl, and went horse riding for the first time in ages yesterday! This is a really neutral slate-grey colour, but I've also just found it in white with a black horse, which is in stock so I think I'll go for the white, as I'll still wear it. I'll just have to make sure my hair is completely dry or I'll have pinky-red streaks on it! The perils of red hair.

I got some gorgeous new make-up for Christmas, and also lots of face and body lotions and potions so I'll be doing some reviews of those in the next few days once I've had chance to use them, and no doubt I'll be buying plenty more this week! I'm hoping to get some pieces from Mac and Illamasqua, I want a new primer as mine keeps going all watery and strange!

Love xxx