Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation

I picked this up the other day as part of my Midweek Haul here after reading lots of lovely reviews about it. I love natural foundations and can't stand the feeling of having something caked on my face, so I hoped this would be a good alternative to my staple No7 Essentially Natural Foundation. I have to say I wasn't disappointed. 

After trying a few shades I decided 150 Nude was the best match for me, although the light formula means you can't go far wrong with it even if the shade is slightly off, it will blend really well.

Just a quick mention of the bottle..it has no pump! WHY?? I don't like this, it makes it much harder to use and you end up wasting product that you can't get back into the bottle! I don't want to waste my hard earned pennies by loosing half of the product! I found the best way to apply was to pour a little very carefully onto my hand then apply as normal and I managed to get any excess with my finger and scrape it back into the bottle. I'm debating pouring a little into a sample pot and using it from there instead, has anyone else found better ways to use it?

Anyway, back the the foundation. It is lovely, I used it over my Seventeen Photo Flawless Primer which if you have read my earlier post here you will know I absolutely love it. The Nearly Naked goes on like a dream, it blends really well and feels really light. It won't cling to any dry bits (I have a sore nose after a cold so this was extreme circumstances and it still didn't cling).

You can see where I have blended on the lower half of my hand, it gives a slight sheen, which I quite like as it gives a similar effect to foundations like Rimmel's Wake Me Up without the shimmer, but you can top it off with powder to get rid of this. It feels lovely on, I do feel like I'm not wearing anything but safe in the knowledge that my skin looks even and any blemishes are covered. I'm starting to see why it has had such good reviews!

I usually hate taking pictures of myself but I couldn't review a foundation without showing how it looks, so there we go, the first is with only Nearly Naked, the second has a touch of powder and blusher. I think this gives a lovely natural look for those days where you don't need a full-face of make-up.

It lasts really well, I put it on at around 8am and even after going for lunch then to work it was still looking lovely at 10pm. It doesn't feel as moisturising as my No7 foundation which is the only thing I can fault it on, but I still really like it and will keep using it, its staying in my make-up bag and not being stuck in the drawer of things I don't use!

Revlon's Nearly Naked Foundation is usually £8.99 but is on offer at Superdrug at the moment for £6.99 and is available here. Does anyone else love it or do you have better light foundations? I'd love to hear your favourites!

Make-Up Free March!

So here we go, I said I would do it and I am going to! As I am wanting to move out, I need to stop spending so much money and start to save for all the lovely things I want to fill my new home with. Tomorrow is the First of March and so begins my month of  attempting to save money and use up some of the millions of products I have scattered around my room.

31 days of not buying any new make-up, nail polishes or other beauty products, other than anything I completely run out of and actually need. However, I have already paid for my Glossybox subscription, so will still be getting one of those, so it doesn't count!

I will try and do some weekly updates on whether I have managed to stick to it or not, and if not what tempted me to break it! I will also post about things I have used up, as I won't be having anything new to review :(. These lovely ladies listed here are taking part in an 100 day version of this, so I will be watching their blogs as inspiration!

Hopefully this will give me chance to use up some of the things I have forgotten about or never used and maybe even find some new favourites. 

Wish me luck!

NOTD: Atlantic Road and Dragon Fruit

I'm loving how sunny it is today! It seems like Spring is finally coming after weeks of cold and snow! It instantly made me think of all the lovely pastel nails which were around last Spring, so I thought I'd go for pastel polishes today.

I bought all the new Barry M Gelly shades a few days ago and also picked up one of the textured polishes in Atlantic Road. As I haven't tried them yet, I went for Atlantic Road and Dragon Fruit for a bit of a colour/texture mix. I wasn't sure how the textured polish would work, as it seems really watery in the bottle compared to the other textured polishes I have tried!

I also didn't notice until I saw it in the light but the Dragon Fruit shade has a subtle shimmer to it, like there are micro glitter pieces in it, gorgeous!

I think these two make a lovely mix, I might try them as a gradient, I think they'd go really well! Although I haven't tried a textured gradient, I wonder how it would work, has anyone else tried? I still love the Gelly range, the new shades are as good as my old favourites! Atlantic Road didn't dry as textured as I had hoped though, I think if you want a really textured polish, Seventeen's Rock Hard or OPI's Liquid Sand are better choices, although I do love the matte pastel effect you get with Barry M's version. 

Is anyone else loving the new Barry M polishes? Link me some NOTD posts, I love seeing other peoples for inspiration!

February Favourites

I love seeing this kind of post from other people, so I thought I would do my own this month. It was really hard to pick my favourites as I seem to have a collection of things I have been using everyday so ended up with about 10 things I wanted to show here, but I have managed to narrow it down to the essentials.

So firstly, the only skincare product which made it onto my list of favourites, I really do love this one - Botanics All Bright Cleansing Toner. I use this daily after cleansing to remove any last bits of make-up and it really does brighten my skin and make it look smoother and more even.

I also included L'Oreal Confetti Top Coat as I have really loved using this and it has to be my favourite new polish at the moment. I know quite a few other people have included this in their favourites list this month because it is just that good!

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation - I won't write too much about this as I'll have a proper review soon but I am loving this one despite its lack of pump!

MUA Undress Your Skin Highlighter - I had never really bothered using highlighters before I invested in this one but it is another MUA product I love! It gives a really lovely subtle but brightening shimmer for the dull winter days we have been having. I love MUA for their fantastic quality stuff at bargain prices.

Another MUA product in my favourites this month is the Pro-Brow Kit. You can blend the colours really easily to match your natural brows and this fills them in beautifully and lasts all day. You even get a little brush which I do actually use, and some mini tweezers.

I had to include the Seventeen Photo Flawless Primer as it is still one of my daily essentials and it amazes me every time I use it as my skin looks so smooth and my foundation blends so well. I reviewed it here.

Finally, I have been really impressed with the Rimmel Accelerator Endless Lash Mascara. I don't know whether it is helping my lashes grow, but it gives really good definition and lengthens without clumping, so it is worth a try just for that! I don't usually like thin brushes like this one but I am getting on really well with this!

There we are - my favourites for February. What do you think of them? I'd love to see some of yours, link me if you've done a similar post!

MUA Gemini Nail Constellations

I haven't been doing much interesting with my nails recently (lazy I know!), so thought I would use one of my favourite effects from the last few months, MUA Nail Constellations. These are amazing and really simple to use, perfect if you aren't the best at nail art but want something different. I ended up with four colours of these and today I am using Gemini, a lovely mix of pale pink, deep pink and turquoise beads. I posted a little how to with these effects here so I won't repeat it but you can look if you want to :).

I didn't have a colour close enough to match these so went for MUA's bargainous £1 polish in Amaretto Crush, a gorgeous shade on its own! I have quite a few of these polishes now and you really can't beat them for the price! They give really good coverage and only need two coats. The only let down for me is the brush as I find it quick difficult to use as it is short and the lid is wide which gets in the way, but for £1 you can forgive them this!

I really do love the Constellations, they are really quick and easy to use once you get used to them, and if you use something to catch the overspill of beads, they can go back into the container meaning you get loads of uses from one little pot of beads! I love the colour of Gemini, its really pretty and the perfect pastely colour for spring. I'm going to try to get more use of these beauties, I really do love them (have I said that before?).

I usually find these last a good couple of days if you add a topcoat, they aren't the best wearing effect, but what do you expect with beads stuck to your nails! Has anyone else tried them? Do you love them as much as I do?

Another Midweek Haul

So, it would seem I can't even survive one day off work without having to go out and do something to stop me getting bored. Today that involved a trip to the White Rose centre, so I thought I'd show you what I bought...again!

The first stop for me always has to be New Look, I am loving their stuff at the moment, so much of it is similar to Topshop but half the price and better quality. They have 25% off jeans at the moment so I had to pick up a pair and have been eyeing these up for ages. They also had them in 34" length which I usually struggle to find (I'm 5'8) so I took it as a sign to buy them! (Pulled the pics from the website as its pretty dull today and my pictures were rubbish!)

I am currently living in plan/striped long sleeve tops as they are nice and warm and go with anything so picked up another colour, there seems to be a theme here, loving burgundy at the moment!

I finally gave in and bought the bag I have been wanting for ages, I really wanted the Topshop version but it was £40 and having just bought a Marc B bag, didn't want to pay that much so settled for the Primark £12 copy. This will be perfect for chucking in everything I need when I am working.

I then made the mistake of going into Superdrug. To be honest, I intended to treat myself to a few new bits as I am taking part in a spending ban on make-up and beauty products throughout March and this was my last chance to shop before March begins! 

After reading lots of good reviews I thought I needed to try the new Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation, on offer for £6.99 (usually £8.99). I don't like using heavy foundations and don't really have any problems with my skin so this seemed perfect for me. I went for shade 150 Nude so I'm hoping it will be a good match.

I have been wanting to try the new range of moisturisers from Garnier which contain different ingredients designed to tackle different skin problems. I debated getting the dry skin one but in the end thought I'd go for the Wake Me Up formula for dull skin. I am hoping this will be really good to use on a morning to brighten my skin up and set a good base for my make-up. £3.99 at the moment (usually £5.99).

I have been suffering with chapped lips all Winter so have been trying all sorts of lip balms  and as Palmer's is one of my favourites, I had to try the new formula - Dark Chocolate and Cherry. It is gorgeous!! It has a slight red tint to it which looks lovely on and for £1.99 you can't go wrong.

Finally, I wanted to treat myself to a few new make-up bits. In the end after deciding I really don't need or want any new nail polishes, I chose some more lipsticks from MUA. I really liked the three shades I got in my 50% off haul so chose a few different colours. These are shades 2, 6 and 11. I'm particularly liking shade 2!

So there we go, my last haul before Make-Up Free March. I'm really not looking forward to this now, I wish I'd never said I'd do it, but hopefully it will save me some money to go towards a deposit for when I move out. What have you all been buying this week, I love reading haul posts.

DIY Speckle Polish With L'Oreal Confetti Top Coat

Recently I have been getting a little bored of the same old glitter polishes, and as much as I love them, have found myself looking for something different. I first saw the Illamasqua Imperfection range a while ago, and have been trying to convince myself that £14.50 is just too much to pay for one nail polish no matter how much it looks like Mini Eggs!

Pictures from Illamasqua website

Aren't they gorgeous? I decided rather than splashing out one one (the lilac obviously!) I would have a go at making my own version of the Speckle polish. 

I picked up this little beauty the other day, and love it! It looks gorgeous over any colour polish, I can see this being a favourite this month! It is a clear polish with different sized white and black pieces and tiny silver specks of glitter which really make it stand out.

I decided to use the Glitter Sandwich method to try to get the speckle effect (one polish coat, one glitter coat, one polish coat). I used Barry M Gelly in Prickly Pear for the base as it was the closest colour I had to the Speckle base.

This was the effect I got. I actually ended up re-writing this post as last night when I painted my nails I wasn't  too happy with it, but seeing it in daylight today, I love it! It really does look gorgeous and you can see a similar effect to the Imperfections, although the black doesn't stand out as much as you can't get any bits to sit on top. It looks better on some nails that others, you need a really thin coat of polish over the top so the confetti isn't covered, but it is hard to get it thin enough! 

Has anyone else tried the confetti polish? I hope there are more to come like it! I'm sure I'm not the only one lusting after the Imperfections collection too, has anyone tried it? Are they worth the money?

Mini Boots Haul

Just another normal day at work for me, although my purse is a lot lighter! This was my first trip to Boots after sales-plan day, where all the offers change and the new products are available. I had a few things I needed but ended up spending more than I wanted to, as usual. So, here is what I bought:

No7 have a really good offer on at the moment, if you buy two cosmetic products you get a free Ballerina Beauty Bag worth £26. I needed some more foundation and always use No7 top coat on my nails so picked one of these up too. Inside the lovely bag you get a unique colour eyeshadow, a Moisture Drench lipstick in Mulberry, a sample size Extreme Length mascara and sample size Protect and Perfect Intense moisturiser.

Mulberry is a gorgeous deep pinky red, more pinky than the picture shows. It is a really popular colour and suits a lot of people. I don't usually go for such dark shades but this is really nice. I love the eyeshadow, its quite a pinky brown but really shimmery when wearing. I love the paler No7 shadows for highlighting parts of the eye and for a natural daytime look so this is perfect for me.

After reviewing the Seventeen Rock Hard Nail effects a few days ago here, I picked up the other colours I wanted, Blue and Grey as they were on buy one get one half price.

I also wanted to try Rimmel's new Lash Accelerator Mascara, which claims to make lashes look 60% longer and speed up lash growth. Anything which claims to make my lashes longer is worth a go, I'm not convinced it will work but I'm willing to try. £5.99 at the moment in Boots.

Finally, L'Oreal have got some more interesting nail polishes! The old ones are really dull and plain, but I love the new glittery ones. I am going to attempt something different with this which I will post about when I get round to it, but I love the black and white mix, I haven't seen any like this before. £4.99 and 3-for-2 in Boots.

There is my shopping for the day! Back to attempting to write essays!

Barry M vs Nails Inc Denim Polish

After seeing lots of hype around the forthcoming Nails Inc Denim Effect polish, which won't be available for a good few months yet, I couldn't help thinking "Don't I already have one like that?...." Enter the Barry M denim polish fished out from the bottom of my "tried once then bought something new" nail polish drawer.

I decided to give it another go and see how the two compare.

Nails Inc's denim offering will come, similar to the Bling It On collections, in a set with some star studs for £19. Barry M's denim polish (number 325) has been around for a while now, and is a bargain for £2.99 (especially as we all know nail studs are readily available on ebay for very little if you are prepared to wait for them to ship from China). Mine are on the way so excuse their lack of presence in this post, I'll have some in around 2/3 weeks!

The denim polish from Barry M is gorgeous, a deep navy colour with a subtle light blue/silvery shimmer to give the denim effect. I know the Nails Inc are supposed to be textured, which the Barry M isn't but to be honest, there is enough textured polish around at the moment to not care if we give this one a miss. It dries to give a lovely semi-matte finish, so I avoided a top-coat in order to keep this effect. I did also try it with a matte top coat, but this took all the shimmer out of it!

The picture of the Nails Inc here isn't the best, but there don't seem to be many around yet as the polish hasn't yet been released, but you can see the similarity (not a perfect match but close enough!). I say save yourself £14, grab a Barry M denim and some stars from ebay and go for it yourself. What do you all think? Will you bother with the Nails Inc Denim, or go for the bargain Barry M? Do you even like the denim effect? I'm not convinced, I prefer the leather look!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Bargains

A quick one for you today, I just wanted to mention an amazing bargain I ordered from Boots.com while at work the other day. Sally Hansen Salon Manicure polishes are £2 at the moment on the website, and buy one get one half price. This means £3 for two, bargain right? I know a few people have picked them up in Poundland, but I haven't been able to find any, so this was the next best thing :)

A few colours are out of stock but they have loads of nice ones and I picked up four, Plum's The Word, Frutti Petutie, Wine Not and Kook-A-Mango.

I decided to go for Plum's The Word today, but they are all lovely colours and I'm tempted to get some more! They give a really nice shine and are supposed to contain a strengthening and growth treatment, I can't imagine this working in a polish but we shall see! 

My Weekly Hair Detox

So once again the thought of writing my essay has driven me back here. I have written sooo many more words on this blog than I have for my course, which I will probably regret, but anyway, another post for you.

Today is one of those days where I'm not leaving the house so I'm having a detox day, I try to do this once a week, but it isn't always possible. So no make-up and no hair straighteners for me today, my face and hair will be thanking me! My usual hair routine includes fair too much straightening and lots of volume-adding products, which can leave my hair dry, tangled and feeling pretty awful. After trying out plenty of different products for a hair detox to attempt to sort this out, I have settled on a few which leave my hair feeling soft and nourished and I thought I would share these with you!

First, the shampoo. I wash my hair every other day and by the second night my hair always feels awful and dry and leaves me feeling like there is a build-up of products in it. I use Aussie Mega Shampoo once a week in order to try to strip all this away, remove all the build-up and leave my hair clean and soft. It really does work! My hair always feels lovely after using this, although because my hair is very fine, it can leave it quite flyaway and flat, the only reason I don't use it daily and prefer my Herbal Essences Volume shampoo. It really does smell gorgeous too, when I was using it this morning I got a little deja-vu from Lush's Snow Fairy, it is really fruity and sweet. £4.49 from Boots, although they tend to have offers on Aussie quite often making it better value.

Secondly, the conditioner. I don't normally use a conditioner (bad, I know) again as my hair is very fine, I have never found a conditioner which doesn't leave my hair so soft it goes flat. If you have read my Hair Heroes post you'll know that this is the bane of my life! So, once a week I use TRESemme Thermal Repair conditioner to try to combat all the straightening. I use a small amount and leave it on for a few minutes.It leaves my hair feeling really soft and moisturised, without the dry ends I usually suffer from. I only have a the travel size bottle as my bathroom is cluttered enough and it lasts for ages only using it once a week. £4.39 for the full size bottle, £1.49 for the travel size at Boots . Worth a try for anyone like my who straightens their hair daily. I wish they made an intensive mask in this range as I would definitely use it, but as far as I know they don't?

After towel drying my hair, there are a couple of other products I have found to give my hair that extra bit of nourishment. I use a couple of sprays of Boots Coconut & Almond Leave-In Conditioner concentrating on the ends of my hair. This smells gorgeous and I always feel like the ends of my hair need some extra love. A few sprays of this helps to get rid of dry ends and leave them really soft and smooth. I really love this, especially as it is such a bargain at £1.49. I have a lot of love for Boots own brand products (particularly Botanics), some of them areas good if not better than more expensive brands. 

Finally, something which has started to become an essential part of my hair care routine, TRESemme Split Remedy Leave-In Treatment. I started off using this with my weekly detox, but have started using it the night before I wash my hair, or whenever I feel like I need it. It claims to repair up to 80% of split ends in three uses leaving hair moisturised and smooth. You only need a few pumps a time and rub it into the ends concentrating on any heat damaged sections (I usually find the front bits of my hair are the worst). I don't know about repairing the split ends but it does make them less noticeable and smoother. 

I thought this would make my hair flat and greasy, but because you only use it on the ends, once it settles into your hair and you brush it through, it just leaves the ends feeling gorgeous and soft, no greasiness or weighing your hair down. I really am in love with this product! It sells for £5.69 at Boots, I have had this for ages and because you only need a little bit it really does last, making it really good value for money.

There we go, my hair detox is complete and my hair feels lovely and soft and in much better condition than it was last night! Has anyone else got any products better than these? I know TRESemme have a new range out so I will be interested to give it a try!

Seventeen Rock Hard Nail Effects

A few days ago a posted a picture of the new nail effects Seventeen are due to release on Wednesday, and being the nail addict that I am, I had to sneakily purchase one when I was at work the other day so I could give it a try! There are four different colours available, but I went for black as I thought the texture might stand out more.

As I said before I think I prefer these to the Barry M textured polishes as I think the textured effect is better suited to the bolder colours than the pastels. The first thing I noticed when I tried this polish is how thick it is, but you only need a really thin coat as it dries to a better texture. Two coats gives great coverage and makes the texture more noticeable. It dries amazingly fast too, by the time I had painted my last finger my first few were dry. No sitting around waiting for this one!

I really am in love with this effect! It suits me perfectly, a little grungy but still glam, and I want to stick some studs on it but I might wait to see how well it wears first before I try anything fancier. It is described on the bottle as a matte black effect, but between the bumpy bits it is still really shiny, which adds to the contrast in the texture. 
Having seen pictures of the Nails Inc Leather look polishes, I think this is an amazing dupe! A little more textured than the Leather polish, but pretty damn close! Fantastic for the price as you could get all four of Seventeens' colours for less than a single Nails Inc Leather!

Seveteen Rock Hard in Black vs Nails Inc Shoreditch Lane 

(picture from the lovely Charlotte of soyoubeauty)

I will definitely be getting the grey and blue ones when they are released properly! They will be available in Boots from the 20th! Well worth a go for £3.99 each!

What do you think? Will anyone else be joining me in getting some more of these next week?