New Year's Eve NOTN W7 Cosmic Purple

I had to show you my New Year's NOTN its W7 Cosmic Purple....I LOVE it!! I have heard of W7 but I hadn't really seen anything to purchase except online. But while I was back in Wales for Christmas L and me popped into Wrexham and back to our old market stall where we used to get our cheap make-up back in the day. They had a massive basket full of W7 nail varnishes in glitters, shimmers, and plain all for £1.50! There nail varnish bottles are a imitation of OPI.

After having trouble deciding on what to buy I just settled on Cosmic Purple, though L has since gone back and got more!
The colour is a mixture of purple, blue, pink and even a little bit of silver glitter, but the actual varnish is a thin purple. I have used two coats in the picture and I feel that it looked good with just the two coats. My brush is a bit rubbish but I still managed to apply it better than some brands I own! The varnish does have that glitter feel to the finish so you could do with using a top coat.

But for £1.50 I love this colour and L will hopefully be showing you some more colours shortly, and when I go back to Wales I am going to get some more!

Have you tried any W7? what colour are you rocking this New Year's?

Strictly Fab-u-lous Nail Collection

I wanted to show you one of my Christmas presents that L actually got me...now I say Christmas present but L was sneaky and got me a thank gift for helping her out on the the blog and this was one of those pressies.
The set contains 12 nail varnishes (it had retailed at £16) and it was available in Boots before Christmas, and you can still get some in the Sales if they are still left. The set is spilt into Latin, Ballroom and and Salsa, my favourites are the Latin!

The Ballroom are very girly colours, the Salsa are bright and fun, and the Latin are dark, sexy and sultry! The Salsa and Latin only took 2 coats but the Ballroom needed 3 coats just to be nicely opaque.

One of the nights I was back in Wales for Christmas L, Hana and I had all choose a colour and painted our nails which you can see below.

I will really get some use out of these colours especially the Latin as I love the dark shades. This was such a nice gift to receive and it has given me some colours I wouldn't necessarily have brought myself.

L had also gotten me the Fearne Cotton brush set and Day nail varnishes which I will show shortly.

Products of the Year 2010 - New and Old

As it is nearly 2011 we just wanted to show you our products of the year, now these are a mixture of new items we have discovered this year and some old favourites as well!

L’s

Make-up:

· Accessorize Make-up – This year Accessorize make-up has been my best find, the products are great prices, the packaging is lovely and the colour choice is great! See review here

· Bobby Brown Moisture Rich Foundation SPF 15 - I have this in Alabaster (00), I got this when K and I went to London for Britain Next Top Model Live and we went to Harrods. I love the coverage I get with this foundation and for once it was great to see they had a colour that matched my pale skin!(this retails at £26) - a full review shortly.

· Benefit Erase Paste – I have only just done a post recently on rediscovering this product here, K and I both use it and love it (retails at around £18.50)

Hair:

• 
  
  Naked Hair care – This has been a great find for me this year I wanted something that was SLS and paraben free (retails at £3.99 for 250ml). I love the smell and how it leaves my hair, see our review here. I also would love to try their new face care range.

Face:

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  Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish – This is my all time Love!!! I am even converting K to try it now (I know shock horror! She still has not tried it!)

Hand & Body:

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  Soap & Glory Hand Food - a lovely scented non greasy hand cream which has been great over the cold period (retails at £4.75 for 125ml).


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  The Body Shop Raspberry Body Butter - I love the body butters from The Body Shop and have always enjoyed using them, they are thick and creamy but absorb well. I now love them more due to the Raspberry one, its gorgeous! (£12.50 for 200ml).

Nails:

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  Nails Inc London - I got this free over the summer with Diet Coke and I love it, its my go to nail varnish! you can see the colour here.

K's

Make-up:

• Benefit Benetint – I cannot live without this item, that might sound a bit dramatic but I use this every day. (retails at around £23.50)
  

Hair:

· Tigi Bedhead After Party – Again I have used this for years and love it! It is a smoothing cream for your hair and I use it once I have straighten my hair and I end up with loads of fly-away and static bits of hair. The best part to all Tigi Bedhead products is the smell...they are yummy! (retails at around £8-£10 for 100ml)

Face:

· Vichy Nordmaderm Purifying Astringent Toner (retails at around £10 for 200ml) & Vichy 3 in 1 Cleanser (retails at around £10 for 200ml) – I have to say I have really been enjoying using both of these in my facial routine.

· Clinique Anti Blemish Solution – this is a fast drying gel like solution that you squirt onto a spot (the earlier the better) and it reduces redness and the spot! I have been using this for years and my Hubby also borrows it occasionally. It can sometimes dry the area out too much but it hasn’t stopped me using it! (retails at around £12 for 15ml)

Hand & Body:

· Vaseline Hand & Nail Lotion – I spotted this by the till in Boots a while back and have been using it since, it has a lovely smell and is a light lotion that absorbs well into your hands. (retails at £2.41 for 75ml)

· Nivea Hand SOS Intensive Balm – This is an amazing thick balm that absorbs brilliantly into your hands and it has been a great help this winter(I got this for £2 for a 50ml from Savers)

Nails:

· E.L.F Nail varnishes – I have loved the E.L.F nail varnishes this year and have picked up loads of colours and there are still loads I want. They are a bargain but I think they apply well. (retails at £1.50) see here for our reviews.

· Accessorize Nail Polishes – L and I have loved Accessorize make-up this year and I particularly like the nail polishes. The colour choice is great from brights to pastels to glitter and dark vampy polish(retails at £4) see here for our reviews.

My Christmas Nails

Just a quick post to show you my Christmas nails!

Firstly I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to New Year. I had a lovely Christmas Day and a great Christmas Day Mark 2 back in Wales. As I had two separate Christmas Day's I went for two different nail colours.

The first one I went for was George Shock which is £1.50. It's a lovely bright red with a gold shimmer!


I love this colour, it felt really Christmassy! And it went with my outfit.

The second colour was from 17 High Gloss in Shpinx which is a pale shimmery gold £3.49.


This went with my knitted dress that I wore Christmas Day Mark 2. The dress had gold embellished shoulders so I wanted gold nails and this seemed to suit me the best!

What Christmas nails did you go for?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Barry M Pure Turquoise and Strawberry Ice Cream

On one of my days stuck in the house I decided to re-do my finger and toe nails. I tend to always have a dark polish on my toes and this time I settle on E.L.F Metal Maddess...don't worry I didn't take any feet pictures! But I wasn't sure what to put on my fingers. As I have previously mentioned I tend to wear dark colours on my toes and fingers...all the time! So I went through my nail varnish collection and found these two from Barry M in Pure Turquoise and Strawberry Ice Cream.

I brought them over the summer on a 3 for 2 and so far I have not actually even use them...this happens a lot with me, I will spot a colour I like but as they are bright I tend not to use them.

I have applied 3 coats of each of these with no base or top coat and the finish is alright, definitely better on the Pure Turquoise than the Strawberry Ice Cream. Both the colours would be great in the summer or to cheer up a winters day, but are a bit too pastel for my liking. L is quite happy to wear colours like this and really likes Barry M Berry Ice Cream which you can see here and here.

So I am still undecided and may need to get some more of these pastel shades to try, Barry M does have a great choice which you can see here. But I think I need to find the right shade of pastel/bright varnish for me.

Any recommendations would be great! Do you have any favourites?

Thanks

Happy Christmas

We would both like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and we hope you all have a fantastic time get some lovely Christmas Gifts!

We are both sooooo excited about Christmas, we technically have two Christmas Days. L will be at our Mum's in Wales and I will be at the in-laws in Bletchley on the 25th, but on the 26th we will all do Christmas day again in Wales at our Mum's as L's future step-children will arrive on the 26th as well as us three!

We hope everyone is sorted and organised now! We can't believe its already Christmas...where has the year gone!

This will be our last post post now until the 27th December when we have a couple of little posts planned but it will be sparse between Christmas and New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Clinique Strawberry Fudge Eyeshadow Quad

Strawberry Fudge is Clinique's Christmas 2010 range, and is available here. I have seen a lot of posts about this range in the blog world and I really liked the colours but I don't think I would have particularly rushed out to get it. image from http://www.clinique.co.uk/

But my mum had recently popped into her nearest Clinique counter and received the eyeshadow quad below, as a freebie with some other purchases and she was very pleased! And I have to say the eyeshadows were nice and as they are quite pale (I find this with the colour surge shadows, they are quite sheer) but I would use them. So I now need to take myself off to Clinique and have a look. The top row of eyeshadow's are the strawberry fudge duo and the bottom row are daybreak and gold rush, from what I can see these are the names and they are Colour Surge singles. As you can see from the swatches below they are not very pigmented, but they all have a lovely shimmer to them. As you can see daybreak has been my mum's favourite!

The pinky shade even has a nice gold shimmer to it when applied, I don't particularly like pink but this is lovely! I think from the four colours you could make some lovely eye looks. On the Clinique website I can't see that you can buy this set but you can buy Colour Surge Duo or Strawberry Fudge Compact which contains a blusher as well.



Has anyone else tried any of the range? what are your thoughts?

More shopping...oops!

As I said in a previous post everytime I' ve been shopping I've been picking up bits for me!

I'm the women in the new Boots advert who shows her other half the three free items she got at Boots and the six items she got herself.

Oh well here are some more of my recent additions but this time for my wardrobe.


I've got picture of the original items as well, as my picture is rubbish. I'm still having to use my iPhone as my poor camera is still not right after its little accident on Honeymoon. Can't afford a new one just yet :(.

My little town of Bletchley near Milton Keynes is not the prettiest thing and is a bit rundown (its one of those high streets that has a lot of Charity and pound shops). But it does have a Superdrug, Peacocks, Boots and a Dorothy Perkins so I end up spending a fortune down there anyway!

I spotted the black cardi in peacocks a while back and kept trying it on and eventually though for £16 why not get it...I am hoping to get some use out of it over Christmas. I love the embellished shoulders!

I'm always drawn to Dorothy Perkins, their clothes seem to fit my shape well, they have a great choice, are value for money and wash well. This is just a plain black top but it has puff sleeve. It was £12 and will be prefect for casual days with the little one or for work (I only work part-time evenings in a call centre, although thats now all about to change! Starting new job in the new year).

I have recently been searching high and low for some riding style boots and eventually found a pair I like in Barratts, at the time they had a 20% offer running so I decided to treat myself and get them. The little one and me pop out lots for walks so I just wanted something nice and comfortable, but I wanted them to look nice (I am not a fan of Uggs...slippers should not be worn outside the house). These were £90 but I got them for £72 and so far I love them.

As you can see everything is black....oops! I have been trying to get more colour into my wardrobe but with losing weight (I have lost 5st 9.5lbs to date), and still losing I don't want to buy too many clothes. So black and white have been my staples for a while. But after Christmas I am determined to brighten up my wardrobe.

Have you secretly been treating yourself this Christmas? if so what have you been buying?

E.L.F Mini Haul

I thought I would share a mini E.L.F shop with you, I had a nightmare with this order as well! I had place the order on the 29/11 but it wasn't dispatched until the 6/12 and then it didn't arrive until the 14/12! So all in all I was not a happy bunny....but that all changed when I opened the box as I was so pleased with my items.

I had brought myself 3 nail varnishes in Metal Madness (Xmas Nails), Cranberry and Chocolate and I got a Eye Defining Brush which was £1.50.

I love E.L.F nail varnishes they are a bargain price £1.50, I find they are easy to apply, the bottles are a great size and the choice of colours are great (you can see here).

I had trouble deciding what colours to get, I knew I wanted a darker shade of red and with being Christmas Cranberry fitted the bill. I also loved the look of Metal Madness when I was searching for swatches beforehand. And lastly I picked Chocolate as I fancied another dark shade for winter and I currently don't have a colour like this.

I apologise for the spelling mistake in pic!

I have applied 3 coats of varnish in the picture but I think I could have just used 2 coats. The Chocolate has a Opaque look finish and as I have found with my E.L.F nail varnish it applied really easy. I am not convinced this shade suits me that well as I am very pale but I am going to give it a go. The Cranberry is gorgeous, I previously did a post on a hunt for a red nail varnish and this is now my favourite! It has a lovely shimmer finish and is such a great deep red, perfect for Christmas. And lastly there is Metal Madness, which E.L.F have brought out for Christmas, I love this colour it has a shimmer finish with glitter as well! This again will be well used over Christmas and it is already on my nails...I love a bit of sparkle.

As I was ordering the nail varnishes I decided to get a new eye brush, I settled on the eye defining brush.

So far I have been really pleased with the brushes I have brought from E.L.F and this one was only £1.50! You can see more of the brushes that E.L.F stock here, they do a great choice from singles to sets. They now even do a range of Bamboo brushes in sets or singles which are all natural and eco friendly, you can check those out here.

Are you a fan of E.L.F nail varnishes?

Next Cashmere Complete Beauty Palette

Firstly, just wanted to say that this is our 203 post! How mad is that??

Hadn't noticed that we'd done that many...its crazy!

Ok, haha back to the post :-),

I noticed this palette when Next launched there Christmas Guide, it costs £8 and contains 10 eye colours, 6 lip colours, a blusher and a highlighter.

I thought it looked pretty. The packaging looks really cute and it would make a lovely gift.

The colours look lovely in the palette and clearly they have used the Urban Decay Naked palette for inspiration. From the colours included, you could make some really lovely eye looks.

The colours are not very pigmented as you can see below, and half are shimmer and half are matte. I have swatched them left to right from the palette and the first four colours are very pale. .

But even with this I actually quite like this palette, with me being so pale the lightest colours work alright for me as a day look with just some eyeliner and mascara.

The blusher isn't particularly a shade I would normally go for but I do quite like it on me and the highlighter is nice, though a tad to bright for me. I am not a big fan of highlighters I can never seem to get the balance right between just a nice glow instead of looking greasy and a bit Disco!

The set also contains 6 lip glosses which are very pigmented and are a good choice of colours. They are a bit sticky on but I find that with lip glosses you have in palettes. I will still use them with a bit of plain gloss as well, I really like them all but probably wont use the darker pink/red shade it's not my colour.

Thanks

Round-up of the week

A bit later than normal but here is our Round-up of the week.

Well my first big news of the week is that I have got a new job....I am so excited. I currently work 4 evenings a week in a call centre for a well known bank, but I hate it I am sooo tired as my little one like to get up at 7am. But now I will be going back to 9-5 and going back into Retail Head Office, which I used to do before little one. Also this week in Bletchley, Milton Keynes we had a good bit of snow on Saturday so we are now a bit snowed in...But we have managed to get about walking.

Poor L was suppose to have a night out Saturday with her girlie friends but the snow in Lancashire put a stop to it....she was gutted as she had got ready before it was called off! She was even sat at the train station ready for Preston before she found out people were struggling to get in. L has also been super busy this week in work so is feeling very stressed out. At least she’s not got long till Christmas now and will have lots of fun back at my Mum’s in Wales.

This weeks posts have been:

E.L.F Super Glossy Lip Shine in Pink Kiss & Goddess: K shows us some E.L.F bargain lipglosses.

NOTD Rimmel Strawberry Fizz: L does a NOTD featuring a smelly bright polish.

L on Charlotte’s Obsessions Tuesday Treat: L got featured on Charlotte’s Obsession blog this week.

Sharing the Love...: We also got featured in Lauren Loves Advent Calender.

Rimmel Goodies: K shows us some 3 for 2 Rimmel goodies she got.

Tag your it!: We were tagged by Georgia from Lippy and the LBD.

My Batiste Brit Winnings: K shows us a great prize she won from from Batiste

We hope everyone has a great last week before Christmas....

My Batiste Brit Winnings

I have been a fan of Batiste for a while. I mostly use Batiste Blush, but back at the end of November Batiste had a Retweet competition running on Twitter....and I won.

Heres my winnings....


I was so please to win and it had been a particularly lucky month (I had won 6 prizes in November through Twitter and blogs giveaways).


For those who may not be familiar with Batiste they are dry shampoo that you spray into dirty or greasy hair to make it feel instantly clean, fresh and also lifted! I also like to use mine for updo's as well. Currently you can choose between 12 varieties from shimmer to coloured, and they retails at around £2 (but its does depend where you buy it).


I'd won the Brit one which arrived it a gorgeous bag with a mini brush that you can see above, and currently it is exclusive to Superdrug. They have released Brit with it Cool Britannia fragrance as Batiste has been going for 30 years. I have to say I love the smell of Brit, it is sooo fresh and isn't overpowering so it is great to use. I am going to stock up on this!


Have you tried Batiste? Do you have a favourite variety?

Beauty Blog Love Link

Dare to wear red lips this holiday season? Check out these three options on Katie of My Lips But Better.

Amy Antoinette reviews Estee Lauder's Double Wear Foundation and Concealer.

See a sneak peak at the Nicole by OPI liquid metals collection, and a nail of the day!

Dare to wear red lips this holiday season? Check out Katie's picks ranging from sheer to bold on My Lips But Better.

Do you love rock n' roll? Find out what product Cindy at Prime Beauty uses to channel herinner Rocker Chick. Soft Rockers, don't fret; there's a look for you as well!

Shela at Confessions of a Beauty Guru is going cuckoo for Korean lip products!

Curious about more unconventional skin products? Rachel tells all about Witch Hazel Wondersat Queen of Turquoise.

Retrodiva experiments with the Estee Lauder Holiday Collection and likes what she sees.

Emma compares two similarly packaged mascaras to see if they really are the same.

Got a sticky compact and don't know what to do? Musicalhouses shows you how to clean up a sticky NARS, Smashbox, or Becca casing!

Need holiday makeup look ideas? Check out Audrey Dao's Holiday Look Book for ideas and tutorials!

At theNotice, Rae checks out a Benefit cult favourite -- but doesn't like what she sees.

Red lips are hot for Christmas! Lipglossiping trawls through her collection and uses a Red Lip Series as a great excuse to buy more!

Daily Polish falls head over heels (but manages not to lose her head!) for Rescue Beauty Lounge's 'Catherine H' from the new Tudor collection.

At Pink Sith, Joeybunny introduces you to the Wet n' Wild Night Elf Palette. See why she's swooning!

Chanukah may be over, but that doesn't mean you still can't enjoy this LUSH Fizztival of Lightsgift set!

Beautywoome has published its Christmas gift guide, because you know you haven't done your shopping yet.

Hellcandy stumbles across her first dupe! Find out which drugstore brand matches the gorgeous fucshia of Nars Funny Face lipstick here.

Acquaintance gifting causing you stress? Jeweled Thumb shares her coworker holiday gift guideto put your mind (and wallet) at ease!

L from Beautifully Addicted To rediscovers Benefits Erase Paste.

Kim Porter shares some skincare tips for the cold weather.

Take a sneak peak at Dior’s Cannage eyeshadow palette from the upcoming Spring collection over at Pleasureflush!

***

Jenn over at Spiced Beauty is celebrating her 2 year bloggerversary with a Huge Annabelle Cosmetics giveaway!

Phyrra is giving away 5 eye shadows from the Aromaleigh Wonderstruck Collection!

Over at The Glamorous Gleam, Mz. More loves Revlon's Perplex Nail Enamel so much that she is giving away four bottles to her readers!

Beauty Crazed loves Burberry Beauty and wants to give you a chance to love them too!

Sourz Winner!!

We would like to say a BIG Thank You to everyone that entered the Giveaway and announce the winner......

Gem from From Gem with Love

Well done Gem and I will email you shortly as well.

Thank You

Tag your it!!

We were tagged by Georgia at Lippy and LBD.

So L's up first,

1. four shows that you watch

- The Mentalist

- Gossip girl

- Vampire diaries

- NCIS - normal and LA

2. four things you are passionate about

- family and friends

- anything beauty related

- my job

- cooking, will baking - i'm obsessed!

3. four phrases you say a lot

- Oh joy!! mainly said sarcastically

- god awful!

- yep

- this sucks!, yep i'm 27 and still use the word sucks (i'm that cool haha)

(also discovered my most used phrases are quite negative and people try to tell me i'm bubbly haha)

4. four things you've learnt from the past

- i'm pale and there is nothing that is going to changed that without looking orange

- my natural red hair suits me the best

- short hair doesn't work on me, my hair is frizzy

- what other people think about the way i look doesn't matter to me anymore

5. four places you would like to go

- south america

- india

- china

- all of USA

6. four things you did yesterday

- went to work

- decorated my office with some tacky tinsle

- food shopping

- went to bed

(god i'm boring)

7. four things you are looking forward to

- my wedding on the 4 June 2011

- my honeymoon

- christmas with all my family

- IMATs in January

8. four things you love about winter

- i can wear dark nails all the time

- wearing black tights, so i can wear a lot more skirts and dresses for work

- christmas

- sitting in my pj's on the weekend with the fire on full

Here’s K’s answers,

1. Four shows that you watch

- Fringe

- CSI (all three)

- Castle

- Deadliest Catch (odd but true)

2. Four things you are passionate about

- My little girl Livvie

- Family and friends

- My weight loss

- Shopping

3. Four phrases you say a lot

- For the love of God!

- Bear with me (its a work thing)

- No Livvie

- OMG

4. four things you've learnt form the past

- That GHD are amazing

- I can actually wear Masacara

- I do quite like children (but I prefer mine)

- I can have confidence if I want

5. Four places you would like to go

- Mexico

- Bali

- Goa

- Las Vegas

6. four things you did yesterday

- Worked

- went on shopping trip with little one

- Blogged

- played with play dough

7. Four things you are looking forward to

- My 1^st year wedding anniversary in sept (but we will have been together 10 years as well)

- L’s wedding in June

- My mum’s 50^th Birthday

- Family christmas

8. Four things you love about winter

- That I can leave the house without worrying about burning

- Snow (especially with little one)

- That pale skin is acceptable

- wrapping up nice and warm for cosy nights in!

Finally,

9. four bloggers that should share their list of fours

- liloo at http://lilooblog.blogspot.com/

- nicolleta http://nicolettasbeautyspace.blogspot.com/

- Welsh Beauty Blog http://www.welshbeautyblog.com/

- Giddy princess http://giddyprincess.blogspot.com/