April Favourites

Hiya

Ha I nearly forgot to do this post again! Luckily some other bloggers are more on the ball than me, and their posts reminded me to do it! Here are my favourite go to products for this month:

* L'Oreal Matte Morphose Foundation

* Peach blushes - perfect shade for Spring/Summer in my opinion :)

* e.l.f. Studio Brow Kit

* Rimmel Lycra Pro Nail Polish in Pop Rose

* Johnsons 3 in 1 Cleansing Wipes - surprisingly more effective than my old favourites from Boots!

* Palmers Cocoa Butter Lip Balm

What have your April favourites been?

April Snapshot

Hiya

As if its the end of April already! For the most part, this month has been fabulous weather wise! Don't think I've worn my coat once!

Listening to... Joshua Radin, Glee cast, Lady Gaga
Reading... not so exciting things about law :(
Watching... Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, Glee, Damages, Gavin & Stacey, Lost, CSI
Buying... Jimmy Carr tickets, Soap & Glory products, and an unnecessary amount of make up and nail polish!
Wanting... exams to not happen! >.< As you read this I'll be starting a 2 hour EU law exam. Eek!
Trying... to keep positive about exams =\
Loving... the sun! And shopping courtesy of my last ever Student Loan!
Planning... post exam stuff!
Making... not a lot!
Writing... essays :(
Cooking... food ;P
Inspired by... Spring, Summer, corals!

How has your April been?

NOTD

Hi de hi :)

Last week I picked up a whole host of new polishes. After swatching them all, this colour totally called out to me for an easy hassle free NOTD.

2 coats of Rose Libertine

Despite being a bit tricky to apply, this evened out well with 2 coats and was rather shiny :)

I think this is a beautiful shade for Spring/Summer

Then I jazzed it up with a Sparkle top coat

I was surprised at this. I thought it'd be slightly gritty but it feels completely smooth. Great quality for a budget brand!

Products used

Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish in #405 Rose Libertine (2 coats)

Collection 2000 Sparkle Top Coat (1 coat)

Do you own Rose Libertine or Sparkle top coat? Do you want to? Let me know :)

Style Crush: Sophie Dahl

Hi hi everyone :)

One of my favourite things to watch over the past few weeks has been The Delicious Miss Dahl. For those of you that haven't seen it, essentially it's 30 minutes of the gorgeous Sophie Dahl telling us what she cooks when she's in different moods, for example when she's feeling celebratory or melancholic or romantic etc etc. It wasn't just a cookery show though, and we often saw her out and about doing things that we often do when we're in the same sort of mood. If you haven't seen it, I do believe the series is on BBC iPlayer until 9pm on May 4th.

Ok, I'm not here to ramble about the show, I'm here to talk about style, and I want to show you some of the outfits that she wore. Take a look:

I love this dress!! 

It reminds me of the 50's American housewife type style. 

I like how the polka dots are grey rather than white. For some reason I always assumed polka dots on anything are white. I think grey looks even better here :)

I don't know why but I really like this top - it's rather stunning :)

I used to have a top in a similar style to this - can't seem to find them anywhere these days though!

Did you happen to watch The Delicious Miss Dahl? What did you think? Who are your current style crushes?


Image Credits: BBC, Google Images

e.l.f. Order

Hi de hi bloggerinos :)

I made an e.l.f. order last weekend as they had another free shipping code floating around. To be fair I don't think I actually needed any of this haha. Oh except for the eye primers. And I had ran out of liquid liner... hmm justifiable at these prices though, right :D

Here's what I got:

Studio Eye Primer & Liner Sealer

Eye Primer

Liner Sealer

Studio Cream Eyeliner that I can't use because I forgot to buy an eyeliner brush... FML.

Angled Foundation Brush

L-R: Liquid Liner in Midnight, Liquid Liner in Black, Eyelid Primer

Swatches (fresh application)

After drying or blending in the case of the primer

The flash shows the odd colour of 'Midnight' - it has like a reddish colour in it - reminds me of a biro!

I have to say, these are smudge proof, it took a lot to make them budge. However they flaked off under water with a gentle scrub. Fingers crossed they stay on the eyes! I'll test them out and do a review for you :)

Did you take advantage of the recent free shipping code?

Eye say I say

Hi hi :)

Just to let you lovely ladies know that I am now an Eyeko ambassador. If you make an order you can add my code at the checkout for a free gift.

Also, if you make an order over £10/$15/11EUR you can get 20% off until midnight April 29th - just enter 'DISCOUNT20' at the checkout.

I'll add this box to my sidebar, so don't forget to check it out before you shop :) And happy spending!

e.l.f. Nail Polish in Gum Pink

Oh deary me, my dear followers... one is not amused. A few weeks ago, you may remember that I made an order with e.l.f.. They finally had the polish I wanted back in stock so I ordered it. When it arrived I was disappointed. The polish looked nothing like the colour on the website. Here's the photo to prove it!

*Taken in natural light*

Has this happened to anybody else? I really don't like the colour. I swatched it on one nail and it wasn't for me. So if anyone wants it...

Review: Schwarzkopf Pro Styling Heat Protection Straightening Spray

Hiya :)

So, the time came when I ran out of my beloved Trevor Sorbie heat protection spray, and I'd used the last of my ghd spray. Gutted. I'd heard in the blogosphere that there was a heat protection spray in stores from Pantene. Could I find it? No. So I opted for this, having used and loved numerous Schwarzkopf products in the past from hair dye to hairspray, from moulding wax to smoothing gel. So what did I think? Read on to find out :)

Product

Image Credit: Google Images

What Schwarzkopf say: Schwarzkopf's professional haircare experts have developed Schwarzkopf Pro Styling Heat Protection Straightening Spray to give you the perfect hold in all conditions. Now even hot styles can be protected from heat damage. The perfect companion for any straightening regime. Use with straightening irons for safe, straight and smooth styling. Protects hair from heat damage - heat resistant up to 200°C.

What I say: Unfortunately my ghd's don't have a temperature control on them so I'm not sure how hot they get, although I have heard that 200°C is the top temperature for my particular irons. This product has helped keep my hair in good condition, I haven't noticed it being dry or looking frazzled. Saying that, I've reduced the number of days that I use my ghd's now. I used to use them religiously every day without fail. Now it's a couple of times a week. I'm sure my hair is thanking me for it!

Application

What Schwarzkopf say: Spray directly onto individual sections of clean, blow-dried hair and use straightening irons to finish. Alternatively, spray onto damp hair before blow drying and finish with straightening irons.

What I say: I always forget to spray this before I dry my hair. Oops. I do always use it before straightening though. The one thing I like about this bottle is the packaging. It's sleek, stylish, and comes with a very handy open/closed mechanism underneath the nozzle, which I'm sure would be good for those of you with younger siblings or children of your own - you really don't want to find half of your bottle has been wasted by little fingers, I'm sure. The nozzle distributes the product effectively when sprayed. The one thing I'm not keen on is the smell. It has no particular fragrance to it, and to me, smells quite chemically. What is it with me and chemicals these days eh? This is why I've always been faithful to Trevor Sorbie. His hair protection spray smells divine and I've often had compliments on how nice my hair smells when I've used it. So, for me, this is a bit of a thumbs down. However if you're not bothered about the smell of such products, it does what it says on the tin, so I would recommend it. I'm just too fussy for my own darn good! Now, I wonder if I can badger Soap & Glory to make a heat protection spray ;P

Price: £3.00 (Tesco), £2.99 (Boots)
Size: 200ml
Available from: Tesco, Boots

Ratings
Product: 8/10
Price: 10/10
Packaging: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
Repurchase: Probably not.

Have you tried this? What did you think? Got any recommendations for a great heat protection spray?

Another spot of shopping

Hiya :)

The weather was absolutely gorgeous here on Saturday - 18 degrees! I of course, took advantage of that, and the fact that my student loan had come in, to stock up on some more bits and bobs that I didn't get last week.

First off, I saw Charlotte's post on the bargainlicious Babyliss Conical Wand being on offer over at ukhairdressers.com. I've been lusting after a conical wand for ages, and at just under £23, this was right up my street. So I ordered :D Oh and it's pink! Lush!

So, what did I get in town? Let's have a looksie:

Boots

I wanted to pop into Boots as this particular store has a larger Barry M range than the store I went to last week. Odd considering this was a town store, and the other a city centre but hey ho never mind. When I got there I also found that there was yet another Soap & Glory offer on (up to £3 off selected products), so I stocked up on some more items. Here's what I ended up with:

And I got a £5 No 7/Ruby & Millie voucher & a 1/2 price sunglasses voucher! Valid until May 23rd :)

*No flash*

*Flash*

*Flash*

And some swatches:

Superdrug

For some reason, I thought this Superdrug would have the new GOSH eye primers in. I was disappointed. They also didn't have anything else that I wanted either. Fail. Although I did pick up the following:

Velvet Touch Eye Liners in Black Ink (top) and Golden Globe (bottom)

Such a gorgeous colour, and has immense staying power! Bargain at just £5. I didn't take a photo of the black, because, well, everyone knows what colour black is ;P

Wilkinsons

I don't really know why I popped in here. Oh yes, I was killing time before getting the bus. It worked out well as they had some new storage items in, so I picked up this baby for my make up and nail polish collection:

 This cost me £10.97 :) I can happily report that it holds my entire cosmetics collection! Yay!

These aren't beauty related but I did find these:

How cute lol

Right, I need to stop spending money and get on with this revision malarky. Hmm. Yes. Over and out.

New nail polish swatches

Hiya :)

I know its Sunday and you were probably expecting a Sunday Selection post. I've decided to do this instead. I've got exams very soon and therefore am in revision mode, so Sunday Selections will take a back seat until May 9th. Hope you don't mind!

I decided to swatch my new nail polishes so I could see what they were like and to show you guys of course :) Here goes!

Blue/Greens

Each polish had 2 coats

The easiest to apply, possibly surprisingly, was the Primark polish! The other two were a tad streaky I found.

Corals/Sparkle Top Coat

Each polish had 2 coats, except for the Collection 2000 polish

All three Rimmel polishes needed 2 coats. Rose Libertine was a tad streaky. Coralicious and Coral Crush were great to apply.

Pink & A Possible Dupe?

Each polish had 2 coats

I mentioned in my haul post that I thought Shocker was a possible dupe for Nails Inc China Town - it looks like I was right! Shocker is more shimmery and a little more sheer, but overall, why pay £12 for a polish when you can get a close enough dupe for a quarter of the price?

Have you picked up any of these polishes? Tempted?

Loving & Loathing

Hiya :)

Here's what I'm loving and loathing this week:

Loving
* Joshua Radin's album
* Finishing and handing in my essays a week early
* Getting a bigger wage slip than expected
* Going shopping
* Working to earn more money to justify said shopping spree
* Helping Mum make this cake for Dad's birthday:

Chocolate Indulgence Cake - my uncle's top secret recipe apparently.

It was yummy ;P

Loathing
* Rude store staff - HMV Hanley I'm looking at you
* Annoying customers
* The stupid '5 items only rule' in Primark changing rooms...
* People not texting me back and messing me around
* Being skint the day after I've been paid. Fail!
* Break outs =\
* My skin suddenly going from normal to dry :S
* One incredibly annoying watery eye which ruins my make up, makes my eye red and puffy, and makes it look like I've been crying. Fail.
* The library not being 24/7 but 24/5... and discovering this fact half an hour before closing time...