Rimmel Space Dust: Total Eclipse

I have to admit, the whole textured polish thing bores me a little now, I want to see something different. That being said, I can't resist a good glitter, so when I saw the Rimmel Space Dust range, I had to give one a try. Total Eclipse is completely different from any polish I own with a black base containing green glitter which when looked at from a different direction changes to purple.

This colour is gorgeous and only has a slight texture so doesn't feel too gritty. I used two coats here and wore it for three days with minimal chipping. I am not too keen on the rest of the range, but Total Eclipse is really unique and worth a try even if like me, you are a bit sick of textured nails.

Have you tried any of the Space Dust polishes or are you sick of textured nails too?

Barry M Matte Crush

I showed my mini haul a while ago now, when I picked up a load of the new Barry M polishes and wanted to try them out. I have never been a lover of matte polishes but I do like to try something different every now and again and Crush seemed like a perfect colour for Autumn. I had also spotted the new limited edition polishes in Superdrug but didn't get one as they looked too similar to polishes I already had. The limited edition ones in Boots though are much more Christmassy, this one called Tinsel Town on the Boots website, is similar to the Confetti polishes and has red, green and blue glitter strips, perfect for Christmas.

Although very red in the bottle, crush dries into a much browner shade. I do like the colour but found it chipped on the ends of my nails within a couple of hours, something I always have a problem with when not using a top coat. I'm not keen on the mix of matter and glitter here but I do like the look of Tinsel Town over this kind of shade. 

If you pick one polish for a Christmassy manicure this year, I think it has to be Tinsel Town, it really does remind me of tinsel and got me a little excited for Christmas. Its going to be our first Christmas in the new flat and I can't wait for us to get our own tree and decorate the flat. 

Are you feeling Christmassy yet? Have you tried any of the new Barry M polishes, yet again they don't disappoint! I hope the new Matte range doesn't mean they stop making new Gelly polishes though!

No7 Match Made Concealer

I have reviewed a few No7 products on here, but despite working for Boots I have never been entirely convinced by the No7 range. Overall I am not a huge fan, but they do have a number of products that I love, and one thing I can't recommend enough is the foundation matching service. I have tried this myself as well as doing it for customers and I have to say it really does work. I was matched up as Cool Beige over a year ago and am still using the Essentially Natural foundation in that shade. When the money off vouchers came around this time though, I decided to pick up the matching concealer. 

I have awful dark circles around my eyes and have never managed to find a concealer which completely covers them. I have to say though, this one does a pretty good job! I love the idea of matching your concealer shade to your foundation, as you can see below, the concealer is almost a perfect match for my Essentially Natural foundation in the same shade- Cool Beige. The concealers are available in all the same shades as the foundations, so you can have a perfect match whatever your skin tone.

I have been really impressed with this concealer, it covers my dark circles as well as my Collection Lasting Perfection, but matches my skin tone better. It lasts all day without creasing too. At £7.50 it is a little pricey as with the rest of the No7 range but the £3 off vouchers come round often enough and £4.50 is a bargain for the quality. For anyone who hasn't been colour matched on No7 it really is worth a try!

Have you tried the No7 foundation matching service or the concealers? I'm really loving this combination at the moment.

A Lush Christmas

Lush is one of those shops you can't walk past without buying something. I love the smell of the place and how friendly the staff are. I've been seeing the Christmas range all over blogs for a while now, so while I was out shopping I had to stop in and pick up some Snow Fairy. I love Snow Fairy and I'm always a little gutted when they take it away after Christmas, so each year I buy some as a pre-Christmas treat. It didn't end there though, as one of the girls started talking to me and showing me the rest of the new Christmas range and I couldn't help myself, I ended up with a mini haul. 

I resisted picking up the giant bottle of Snow Fairy as I think over £10 is a little expensive for shower gel, so went for the medium bottle which is still pricey at £6.85 but it is worth it. I also chose Candy Mountain, one of the new Christmas Bubble Bars. I prefer these to the bath bombs as I love the bubbles and always think the scent goes further. It has tiny glitter particles inside and smells like bubblegum, lovely! On the right is Angels Delight soap which is designed to smell like jelly beans. It smells so sweet and very similar to Snow Fairy. I also picked up an Avobath Bath Bomb for my mum as her birthday is in a few days and she loves them, its become a bit of a tradition and I get her one each year.

These have only been sitting in my bathroom for a couple of hours and just having them in the room has made it smell gorgeous,  haven't even used anything yet! I'm really impressed with the new range and I'm so excited to use Snow Fairy again (sad I know!). 

Have you had anything from Lush recently? I know their products are a little on the pricey side but I love them for a treat every now and again.  

Models Own Fireworks

Recently, I seem to have acquired more new nail polishes than I can use. I don't blame myself though, its the time of year when all the new autumn/winter polishes are released and who can resist the gorgeous glitter polishes that appear on the shelves. One collection I couldn't resist trying out was the Models Own Fireworks. I love Models Own and this collection is just perfect for autumn with 5 amazing new polishes with a mix of glitter shapes and colours. I picked up two, Catherine Wheel, a mix of gold and red and Roman Candle, my favourite, a mix of pink, gold and black. I had to try out Roman Candle first and layered it over Purple Ash, one of my favourite Models Own shades, and a perfect Autumn colour.

Although it looks very purple in the bottle, Purple Ash is much browner on the nail. I love this shade though and it works perfectly with the glitters in Roman Candle. This combination works really well and looks gorgeous, I can see myself getting plenty of use out of Roman Candle. The mix of different colour and shaped glitter makes it really stand out and does remind me of fireworks.

Have you tried any of the Models Own Fireworks polishes? I am really impressed with this one and can't wait to see what they will bring out next!

A little break....and an Autumn haul

You may have noticed I've had a little break from my blog recently. I haven't posted in over a month, which wasn't entirely intentional but things were getting too much for me. I had just started a new full time job and was trying to juggle that with finishing my masters dissertation and still finding time to see my friends. Somewhere amongst that I also moved away from my parents house into a flat with my boyfriend. Something had to go, and for a while it had to be the blog.

Things have settled down now though; my job is going well, my masters is done and I'm all settled in the flat. I also have a two week holiday from work, which gives me the perfect opportunity to show my blog some love. 

I thought I'd start with a little haul as I popped into Superdrug yesterday and spotted the new Barry M ranges on 3-for-2. I had to stop myself buying the lot, they all looked so pretty, but I resisted and only picked out a couple.

I had been admiring the new palettes online and have never really given Barry M make up a chance, just sticking to their nail polish, so I'll be interested to see how good the eyeshadows and blush are. I chose the Natural Glow Palette as it seems a perfect all-in-one everyday shade range.
Then I hit the new nail polishes...I went for two colours from the matte range, Caramel and Crush, as the swatches I had seen looked so lovely. I had also been admiring Countess from the textured range, I had to try this first and I love it! I also liked the look of the Crystal Glaze top coat and can't wait to try it over different colours. I picked up Berry Cosmo to make up my 3-for-2 offers as I hadn't seen it before and love a deep purple polish, this one will be perfect for Autumn!

How gorgeous is this colour? The picture doesn't do it justice, its such a lovely deep purple with gold and pink glitter and a slight texture. I had begun to find the textured polish trend a little boring, but this only has a slight texture which just makes the glitter stand out more. I'm not too bothered about trying the other colours in the range as I seem to have collected quite a few textured polishes, but this one is worth having!

Have you tried any of the new Barry M ranges? I can't wait to try the others!

August 2013 Glossybox

Glossybox time of the month seems to come round so quickly. This is the second box of my three month subscription and next months will have to be my last as the boy and I have found a flat! We are hoping to move out next week if all gets sorted out so I won't be able to afford non-necessities like Glossybox as we try to make the flat into a home. I seriously can't wait! It does mean things may be a little quite around here for a few weeks though, whilst I get settled and try to finish my Masters dissertation!

This is just going to be a quick post as I have seen soooo many reviews of this box already and they all seem pretty similar. This months theme is High Flyers, so beauty on the go I guess.

First up some £20 eye-lash curlers? Really? I love my £7.50 No7 ones and with a voucher that makes them £4.50. Can I see these being worth 4 times as much? Nope...they do the job but I wouldn't pay the price.

Secondly, and disappointingly the only real make-up product in the box, Jelly Pong Pong eyeliner and shadow crayon in black. Boring, plain, black. I love the other colours but this is just a fat eyeliner. Nothing special.

The TRESeme Keratin Smooth treatment is something I want to try. I love the split end treatment so I'm hoping this will help my heat damaged hair. Until it grows out a bit I am having to straighten it every day so I hope this will help do some good to my hair for a change.

I think about the last four or five boxes I have had contained moisturiser samples, so I wasn't too pleased to find another one and although it is nice, something a bit different would have been better. Plus on my beauty profile I stated I have dry not oily skin, well done Glossybox....I don't really want to use this in case it makes my dry skin worse.

Finally, a make-up remover pen from some unknown brand, price unknown? Seems a little strange but I like the idea. It seems perfect for eyeliner or eyeshadow mistakes or just to neaten up a little. The fact that it has 3 spare tips is good, as I can't imagine using the same one for lipstick as around my eyes.

All in all a pretty disappointing box this month. I have had a few boxes recently that I haven't been too keen on so unless next months is amazing, I won't miss them too much when I stop paying for them. 

Has anyone else had the same box? It isn't the worst ever but just a little boring, nothing really special or exciting.

Blog Sale (UK only)

I'm having a bit of a clear out to make some space and a little money as I am moving out soon :). I am off work until Tuesday so anything not sold by then will be given away or binned so feel free to make me an offer on anything left.

Postage:                   £2 for 1-2 items                     £3 for 3-5 items                    5+ depends on weight/size

Awapuhi Shine Spray (new) £2.                                               

Anatomicals Facial Spritz (sprayed twice) £1.                            

Elegant Touch Purple Haze Nails (new) £1.
Kiss Nails Wraps (new) £1.    

No7 Cuticle Cream (new) £1.

Stila Written in the Stars Palette (new) £5
MUA BB Cream Medium (very pale for medium, used once) £1
17 Smokey Eye Palette with mini eye liner and brush (new) £1          
JPP Fairy Lashes Mascara (new) £2
MUA Eye Trio Legendary (swatched once) £1

Model CO Lipgloss Strip Tease and Berry Pink (swatched once each on hand) £1 each
Collection Colour Pro It Girl and Show Off (both used once) £1.50 each
17 Lip Lustre 3 Little Words (used once) £1.50      
Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Punchbowl (used once) £2

No7 Moisture Drench Lipstick Mulberry (used once) £1
Sleek Pout Paints Pin Up and Peek-a-Bloo (swatched on hand) £1.50 each
Elizabeth Arden Frag Free 8 Hour Cream Sample (used once, tiny amount) £1
Figs and Rouge Coco Rose Lip Balm (used twice) £1.50
Molly Mabel Pastel Pink Pop Band (new) £1

Barry M Magnetic Red Sparkle and Blue (used twice each) £1 each
17 Magnetic Purple (used twice) £1                              
MUA Magnetic Regent Street (new) £1
17 Colour Switch gold/purple (new) £1
Seventeen Rock Hard Blue (used once) £1                      

Models Own Iced Neon Pink Punch (used once) £2                
Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots Shooting Stars and Speckled Pink (used once each) £1 each
No7 Stay Perfect Afternoon Tea, Thunderstorm and Milan (all new) £1.50 each

Models Own Mini Gold (new) £1
Ciate Speed Dial (new) £3                           
Revlon Moon Candy Satellite (used once) £2
Barry M Chameleon Blue (new) £1                      
17 Fast Finish Revenge (new) 50p              

Seventeen Quicker Slicker Caribbean Coral (used once) 50p

Rimmel Cocktail Colour Baby Bellini (used once) £1
Precious Stones Diamond Dust (used twice) £2
Metal Rush Purple Reign and Pearly Queen (used once each ) £1 each
Striping Tape Gold and Silver (new) 50p for both


Please comment with what you want and I will confirm a price to be sent to paypal: sally_c1@hotmail.co.uk. All orders over the weekend will be sent first thing Monday, please state if you want anything other than second class postage but it will cost more. If you leave an email I will confirm postage.

Happy shopping :)

An Amazing Polish Invention...

I no longer have a desk in my room (I replaced it with a second wardrobe...) so have to sit on my bed. I always paint my nails whilst watching TV and this has led to accidents on more than one occasion, ending with polish on my laptop, nails, bed, carpet....I am quite clumsy. I have been looking for something to use as a stand for my polish so that whilst I am painting my nails I am less likely to knock the bottle over. After a little searching on ebay and a week waiting for postage from China, I may have found the perfect thing.

This little rubber polish holder is great! The base is wide enough to make it almost impossible to tip over and allows you to tip the bottle if the polish is getting low so you don't have to tip the holder. I can easily paint my nails without worrying about making a mess. I have tried it with a few different brands and it is quite flexible meaning that most bottles will fit, including wide bases like Revlon. A few brands don't quite fit or won't go in at all (I'm looking at you Sally Hansen and Ciate!), but the majority will fit so it isn't too much of an issue. 

My only complaint is the colour, it only seems to be available in pink, I would have preferred something different, but I am not going to complain for the price. There are lots of these on ebay but the ones I got came in a pack of two, perfect for when you don't want a simple one colour manicure. 

My polish holder was from this seller and a pack of two was £1.24, with shipping taking just over a week. I can't recommend this enough if you don't have a sturdy worktop, it really has made things easier for me.

Baby Lips?

For months beauty bloggers in the UK have been waiting for the Maybelline Baby Lips to appear in our stores. I never really understood why they were such a cult product in the US, I mean they are just lip balms, so I had to pick up a couple myself, just to see what the fuss was all about.

Cherry Me and Pink Punch, two of the most gorgeous, colourful lip balms I have ever owned! I am starting to see what the fuss is all about. These balms glide on like a soft gloss rather than a sticky, thick balm. They smell amazing and give a lovely tint to your lips. I have been loving Pink Punch, which reminds me of cocktails in summer and I'm not usually a fan of pale pink lips, but this is just pale enough to suit me. 

For £2.99 these are well worth your pennies and I can see myself ending up with all six! They leave your lips feeling really soft and as they are lip balms, you can forgive them for not lasting more than a couple of hours. Plus they smell so amazing you will want to reapply!

I'm going to jump on the blogger bandwagon and say these are a must have! I can't wait to try some of the others.

A Budget Beauty Brand Discovery!

I love my bargain products and don't own anything make-up related which would have cost me more than a tenner. I just can't justify spending that much on something I will use a couple of times and most likely forget about or replace with something new and more interesting. I have been loving MUA over the last few months for their cheap as chips products which give you amazing value for money. I know they work under various different brand names but this post involves one of their brands which I had never seen before- Vivo. Vivo is stocked in Tesco, something lacking in my local city, which probably explains their absence in my life until now! They are currently holding a half price sale online so when I spotted them I had to give them a try.

This whole lovely haul cost me £14.88 including postage (£2.95) amazing yes? Nothing came to more than £2 and the nail polishes were about 50p, amazing bargain! The packaging isn't the best but I really like everything, the quality seems great for the price and the eye shadow palette will be getting a post of its own as it is amazing!

I love lip crayons so had to try some of these, the Colour Stay Lip Crayons in Sweet Dreams and Thing Called Love were £1.99 half price and the Laquer Shine Lip Gloss in Heavenly was 99p! The lip crayons look very similar to the MUA versions but with a better colour payoff. They also have the same minty scent. The Laquer Gloss is so pretty and a bargain for 99p, again it looks very similar to the MUA Intense Kisses. 

I also picked up a Blush and Highlighter Duo in Sweet Peach for £1.19. I LOVE this, the blush is such a perfect peachy shade without being too orangey, and the highlighter is a perfect shimmery match for the peach but isn't too glittery. I really want another of these, I love the idea of a matching blush and highlighter and who can go wrong for that price!

I wanted to try the Radiance Boost Highlighter as it was only £1.79 and I hoped it might work to cover up my dark eye circles. I doesn't seem to give much coverage and is a little pink for my skin but I will give it a go.

These lovelies were only £1.49 for the Nail Flare in When I Dance and an amazing 50p for the varnish in Funfair. I love the glitter polish and can't wait to try it. Funfair is the perfect pinky coral for summer.

Finally, the best product in the bunch, the 12 Shade Colour Block Palette in Unprotected, supposedly a dupe for MUA Undressed and the Naked palette. I can see the similarity between this and the MUA and I will be posting swatches soon but the colour payoff is sooo much better than you get from the Undressed palette so I will compare them. I love the look of the palette and prefer it to my MUA ones. I just think it looks more expensive and is a better shape to store. This was only £1.99 but even at the regular £3.99 it is still well worth buying.

I love the products I got and I'm really tempted to go back for more once the sale is over and they re-stock all the out of stock products. If you love MUA then Vivo are well worth a try and can be bought in Tesco or online at http://www.vivocosmetics.co.uk/ where everything is still half price!

Miss Glossybox July/August

I have been loving Glossybox for about six months now and when they revealed Miss Glossybox, I though a high street box would be perfect for me, as it would have products that I could afford myself and wasn't as expensive as the normal box. I wasn't too keen on the first box but decided to give it a second chance and ordered the July/August box. I have to say I am still not impressed. This box would perhaps be good for a 16-18 year old which I suppose is who they are designed for but a high street box aimed at everyone would be a much better idea!

I love the Miss Patisserie bath bomb, as soon as I opened the bag I could smell it and it is gorgeous, this was perhaps the only product I really liked in this months box. The sample of Beyonce Heat perfume smells nice, but I'm not too keen and was disappointed to find such a small sample. The Glossybox false lashes were also a bit of a disappointment, I would have preferred something more natural and from a brand you can actually buy!

I already have a can of the V05 Backcomb spray, and have tried it but prefer the texture spray as it seems to do the same thing but better, and to be honest the best volumising product I have found is the volume powder. The Kiss nail wraps would have been lovely if the design wasn't so tacky, I can't ever see myself wearing these.

All in all a bit of a rubbish offering from the Miss Glossybox this month, I won't be ordering one of these again!

Have you tried Miss Glossybox? I'm really disappointed with it and after hearing rumours of a high street beauty box from MUA, I will be saving my money for that one!

Seventeen Backlash Mascara and Eye Liner

I am a sucker for new products and freebies, I really didn't need a new mascara, but when I spotted the new Seventeen Back Lash mascara with a free gel eyeliner and £1 off I couldn't resist. I love Seventeen products and their Falsifeye mascara is one of my favourites so I was expecting great things.

The brush on the mascara is one of those really fat soft bristled brushes, not my favourite sort but it does get right in between your lashes to give really amazing definition. Back Lash claims to give over 100% greater lash impact with definition, volume, length and lift. I didn't find it gave as much volume as the Falsifeye, but it really does lengthen and define the lashes with out any clumps. Maybe not a night out mascara for me as I like more volume, but a perfect day to day one for amazing long defined lashes.

The big surprise for me though was the free gel eye liner. Now I am not a massive fan of gel eye liners, I love my Collection liquid liner and don't really use anything else. I gave the Back Lash eye liner a go though and I love it! I have tried gel ones before and found them hard to work with and they didn't last as well as liquid. This one though is more like a mousse than a gel which makes it much easier to use. I found it went on much smoother and with a neater line than other gel liners. I did find it hard to get a thin line but that should come with practise. I also love how with a smaller amount you can get a smudged look and less of a heavy black line. For a freebie, this is lovely and I can see myself getting plenty of use out of it as it seems more versatile than my Collection Liquid liner.

The Seventeen Back Lash mascara is £5.49 at the moment in Boots with the Back Lash liner free. Have you tried it yet?

Maybelline Superstay 10 Hour Tint Gloss

I had spotted these a good few months ago but after trying a couple of testers had got my heart set on Lasting Pink. I couldn't find it anywhere, every Boots I was in seemed to have sold out. I finally managed to get my hands on it a few weeks ago though and have been loving it ever since.

I thought these would be similar to the L'Oreal Stain Splash but rather than being glossy you get more of a full on colour stain. The five shades in the range are lovely but most are a little bright for my taste so Lasting Pink is perfect for me, bold but not too scary. 

I love the colour, not too red but not too pink. For me, its just bright enough to wear through the day but looks lovely with a smoky eye for a night out too. It last really well too although I wouldn't say it lasted the full 10 hours, 3-4 is probably more realistic depending on how much you eat/drink, but I don't think that's too bad and for the price I don't mind re-applying. It doesn't dry your lips either as I have found some other lip stains do. It smells gorgeous too, really fruity and is perhaps my favourite smelling lip product at the moment!

I hope they bring out some more colours in the range, I'd love some more of these. For £5.99 I'm really impressed and can see this getting plenty of use.

Have you tried the Maybelline Tint Glosses? Do you prefer these or the L'Oreal, I'm not too sure!