China Glaze goodies!

Hello, hello! I'm taking a little break from uni work to write a few posts and to cure the boredom! The lovely postman brought me some goodies yesterday morning so I had to share them with you. Hopefully my nail polish photography skills will improve sometime soon :(

Raven Cosmetics is becoming a firm favourite and I placed my second order a couple of days ago. Postage is pretty quick and came 2 days after I paid, so I cannot complain!

I opted for the China Glaze lucky dip (again) purely because it's such good value! 3 bottles for £12, with 15% off each order at the check out. Can't get better than that to be honest!

First up is the lovely, lovely 'Velvet Bow' which is a really deep maroon red. I put this on as soon as I could, and it's so dark. This would look much more amazing on long nails, which makes me miss my acrylic nails so much! Hopefully I can keep going with my natural nails for a bit longer. They're soooo bendy and it really creeps me out. 

I think this colour will grow on me the more I wear it. It's very dark and wintery so it will be lovely with a bit of glitter at christmas time.

Next up is "Glittering Garland" which is growing on me. I never really was a massive fan of green polish until I got Revlon's Emerald City matte suede. 

I tried to take a close up of all the shimmery, glittery flakes in this polish but I think my little camera may have let me down :( The photos just don't do it justice and it's such a pretty green. However, it's a bit dark for spring/summer so this one might get more use in the autumn and especially at christmas time. 

Last up from my China Glaze goodies is "Lighthouse", which is a shimmery, golden yellow. Personally, I would have given it another name like Daffodil or something summery.

At first I thought it was really similar to CG's 'Champagne Bubbles' but on comparison that's gold with silver flecks. 'Lighthouse' is so pretty. It's a yellow base with shimmer that complements the colour nicely. This will look really pretty in the summer, especially if you've got tanned skin. 

Overall, I'm extremely happy with the colours I received as I don't have any almost identical or similar. I'm glad I received a deep red because I don't own many at all. 

Have you ever bought a nail polish lucky dip? Were you happy with the colours you received?

xxx

Hello!

I am still here, just busy with my last pieces of uni work at the moment. I have 2 final projects due in like 2 and 3 weeks time so I'm saving my posts and blog stuff for when I'm finished. 

I may post a few quick ones like this, but I haven't got time to take nice photos and write long posts so bear with me and I'll be back in due time!

Thank you to Elizabeth at elicomplexchaos.blogspot.co.uk for the blog awards :) I'll fill that in and post my replies asap!

xxx

Quiz Time.

1. What's your favourite nail polish company? OPI/China Glaze, or Revlon.
2. Glitter or no glitter? Glitter :) even if it is a pain to get off :(
3. OPI, China Glaze or Essie? OPI for sure. 
4. When do you change your nail polish? Whenever I feel like it. It used to be every 2-3 weeks when I had infills done, but now it's more like every 3-4 days.
5. What's your favourite colour on your nails? Going by the number of bottles, it seems to be pink or purple. 
6. Darks or brights? Brights!
7. What are you wearing on your nails this very moment? China Glaze 'Stella'
8. Matte nails - in or out? In. Depends on the colour though. 
9. French manicure? Classic and sophisticated. Get's a little plain though so I end up painting them. 
10. Favourite colour for upcoming season? Anything pastel. Or contrasting. 

Pinched from Rachel at treat-party.blogspot.co.uk/

xxx

'Super eyes, Super eyes' and 'Feel Good Factor' by Soap and Glory

I realised the other day that I religiously remove my make up and moisturise every night, yet I don't pay much attention to my eyes. On my usual mooch around Boots after work on Wednesday I came across my favourite S&G and picked up a few treats. 

I chose 'Feel Good Factor' purely because of its high SPF 25 formula. Because I'm so pale, I really need to protect my skin every day, not just in the summer. The cream has a lovely texture and it isn't heavy or greasy so it's perfect for day-to-day use. At night I use Clinique Moisture Surge to replace moisture lost after cleansing. 

£12 for 50ml at Boots.

I love the names S&G give their products. This is "Super Eyes, Super Eyes." From the second photo you can see it's a really smooth gel balm for the eye area, which moistens and tightens. With caffeine, pro-vitamin panthenol and aloe vera, this gel is light and cool on the eyes when applied, and the tightening effect isn't unpleasant at all. 

£9 for 15ml at Boots.

Boots are currently running a promotion where if you spend over £10 on Soap and Glory products, you get a free 500ml 'Foam Call' bath and shower body wash for FREE!

Can you recommend any other S&G skincare products? 

xxx

China Glaze

While searching for new colours, I found a wonderful little website called Raven Cosmetics and purchased a few new little beauties! Every order has 15% off, no matter what your total cost and postage is reasonable; as is delivery time. I'd definitely purchase from there again.

Be warned, this may be a long, picture-heavy post!

L-R: Stella, Wink, In Awe Of Amber, Champagne Bubbles

I've been wanting China Glaze's 'Stella' for quite a while now, so of course, I purchased that. I love this colour. It's a deep and rich purple with a magenta tone and looks fabulous. I currently have it on my fingernails and it only needed 2 coats to be completely opaque.

Now I can cross it off my Wish List!

Raven Cosmetics have a great Lucky Dip promotion, 3 China Glaze polishes for £12, and several others too. They're well worth checking out if you don't mind what colours you receive. With an individual value of around £39, this is a brilliant deal.

The first Lucky Dip polish is 'Wink.'

A nude/beige sheer polish with a very very subtle shimmer.

This is so sheer that I imagine you'd need 4-5 coats before it became anywhere near opaque. I've used it on my toes just as a bit of a shimmery-sheen. I'm more of a colour girl so perhaps this will be used as a base coat.

Secondly, 'In Awe Of Amber' is a polish I probably wouldn't have purchased if I had the choice, BUT after testing it out on my practice wheel it's a lovely bronze/amber shimmer. 

It reminds me of swatches of OPI 'Warm and Fozzie' from The Muppets collection, so on review I'm pretty happy that I own something similar. The glitter particles are smaller than in 'Warm and Fozzie' but I reckon it's pretty close. 

Lastly, from my Lucky Dip, we have 'Champagne Bubbles' from the Holiday 2011 collection which is a gold base with silver glitter particles. Again, in the bottle, it isn't something I probably would have popped in my basket but I may have changed my mind. Gold polish hasn't always been my favourite because I'm rather pasty and feel that it looks nicer on tanned or darker skin. However, with a black outfit and gold accessories it would look fab. The silver glitter looks lovely with the gold base and really show up on the swatch.

In my order was a free 4ml mini Nails Inc. polish, which was a nice gesture. 

I received 'Swan Walk' which is a lovely baby pink with a blue shimmery tone to it. It's very sheer so would need multiple coats to become opaque. 

I'm very happy with my first China Glaze polishes and I will definitely be purchasing from Raven Cosmetics again in the future! 

 www.ravencosmetics.co.uk

xxx

NOTD: Revlon "Black Lingerie" and OPI "I Lily Love You"

A little while back I mentioned layering my lovely 'I Lily Love You' over a navy blue or a black, but I forgot to take a photo at the time. This morning with a little time to kill, I decided to repaint my nails because I played around with tape manicures last night and painted each one differently so they looked horrendous!

I used to wear black nail polish all the time but recently I've stayed away as it seems too dark and gothic looking for my skin tone. However, with a little glitter, it doesn't appear so scary!

2 coats of Revlon 'Black Lingerie' and 2 coats of OPI 'I Lily Love You' sealed with a top coat.

After taking the photo it seems that one of my nails has been broken slightly and I didn't do a great job at tidying up around my cuticles. Rubbish.

 I ordered 1000 1mm AB crystal gems from eBay the other day for less than £1 I think and they came as I was painting my nails so of course I had to try them out! One thing that bugs me when I put crystals or gems on my nails is that when they're covered with top coat they seem to go duller and not so sparkly anymore. Does anyone have any tips or solutions? 

I think I'm a reverted black nail polish fan and I'll definitely be having black nails more often now I know they look so good with a layering of glitter. 

What do you think?

xxx

Weekend nails..

(Top left) Revlon's 'Grape Fizz' layered over 'No Shrinking Violet'

It was such a nice day today! Sat in the garden and painted my nails and soaked up some vitamin D.

(Bottom left) Friday night out: 'Lilac Pastelle' by Revlon with gems and acrylic bow. The bow got taken off half way through the night as it kept getting stuck in my hair. They may be cute but they're bloomin' chunky.

(Top right) I love my new blouse. Good old Primark strikes again. It's a lovely lilac pastel polka dot shirt with no sleeves. Wore it with my Gap 'treggings' (?!)  because it's longer at the back than the front and coral ballet pumps with my blazer. Smart-casual for a night in Wetherspoons!

Bottom right: Sunday snuggles with my dog and my re-discovered floral jeans. I bought these from Primark last year after the summer so I put them away and completely forgot about them until now. They're cropped just above the ankle with turn-ups so I couldn't wear them during the winter months. As soon as the sun comes out in Britain, everyone's rocking the shorts and flip flops!

I'm addicted to InstaPhoto on my BlackBerry, which is just another version of Instagram, so I seem to be editing and changing photos all the time!

xxx