July Favourites!

Hello lovelies,

So, it's August already! Summer is nearly over, and I never thought I would say this but September can't come quick enough! My little boy has only been off school just short of 2 weeks and already he's driving me bonkers. I lost count of the number of times he got sent to his room or put on the naughty step today, once for messing with a load of my makeup and spilling a load of glitter I was saving for a franken on the stair carpet. Little monkey had dragged the coffee table across the room to stand on to reach it while I was getting the baby to sleep. Argh! It's been one of those days...

Anyway, onto products I've loved this month.

First, of course, the polishes and nail products. I reviewed my current favorite polish remover here, so here are the rest of my current loves.

L-R: Color Club Ulterior Motive, Beauty UK Smoky Lilac, Rimmel 60 Seconds Hard Edged, China Glaze Lubu Heels, W7 Earthquake Red, Beauty UK Night Fever, Barry M Berry Ice Cream

Bottom: Original Bundle Monster plates

Now, some make-up. Everyone's been talking about the MUA Pro Heaven and Earth palette, and I can see why. So versatile, from quick go-to everyday looks to a glam smokey eye, you can use this palette for everything! Next is another W7 product, their Africa Bronzer. I love the design of this bronzer (notice the not-so-subtle Benefit inspiration?), but it is rather shimmery so works best as a highlight or used sparingly! Bronzer is my number 2 desert island product, after mascara, so I had to try 17 Falsifeye and love it too. My lashes are short and thin, so anything that promises length and volume and does what it says on the tin is good in my book. And also this month, I searched for a corla lipglass, and found two I love. Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in 290 Be Famous and Beauty UK Lip Lust in No. 9 Cocktail

L-R: W7 Africa Bronzer, MUA Pro Heaven and Earth Palette, Rimmel Vinyl Glass Be Famous, Beauty UK Lip Lust Cocktail, 17 Falsifeye Black

L-R: Superdrug Vitamin E Hot Cloth Cleanser, Witch Gentle Exfoliating Face Wash, Lush Shower Jelly Sweetie Pie, Aussie Aussome Volume Shampoo and Conditioner

Finally, some bath/body products. I've not been using the hot cloth cleanser from Superdrug for long but I already love it. It removes make-up easily and is gentle on the eye area, smells good and makes my skin feel great. I use it in conjunction with this Witch exfoliating face wash, which leaves my skin smooth and soft and isn't drying. I love Lush products but usually go for the bath bombs for a treat. I decided to get this shower jelly because I can never find a shower gel that I love the smell of - I prefer fruity to floral or aromatic - and this Sweetie Pie shower jelly smells of blackberries and cassis and I could literally eat it! You only need a really small amount too. And finally, my shampoo of the moment - Aussie Aussome Volume. I'm never usually loyal to haircare products, buying whatever's on offer or what takes my fancy. I find that shampoos that work great to start with soon lose their powers, but this one hasn't and I'll definitely be repurchasing when I run out.

So, that's it! My favorites of July. What have been your most loved products this months? Link me to your posts in the comments if you have one!

Hx

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Nautical Pink Wednesday - I can stick my whole fist in my mouth! Wanna see?

Another random mean Girls quote for the week!

The mani I'm wearing for Pink Wednesday this week is actually one I did on Monday evening for the facebook group I joined, Polish Aholics Anonymous. Every Monday they have a theme and this week it was Tape. As I don't have the time or patience to do a full stripy tape mani, I am rocking a trusy accent nail. The pink is Barry M Strawberry Ice cream, the cream is Stargazer 508 and I stamped an anchor (again) using Wet and Wild Denim Chrome. I think it gives a kind of muted, vintage pin-up nautical effect...but maybe that's just me.

Think it would have looked better if the pink were slightly "dustier" as such, more like OPI Steady As She Rose. But I don't have any dustier pinks - can anyone recommend any?

Hx

Oh, by the way, I've found a full sized bottle of OPI I Lily Love You for £4.99 + 50p postage. Now the next cheapest I've found it for is £8.99 plus about £1.70 postage. Would you say it's a fake/scam? I'm really lusting after it, but don't want to be ripped off.

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Review - Collection 2000 Moisture Care Nail Polish Remover

I don't really do reviews. I always worry that someone else will have used the same product, hated it and think I'm a moron who knows nothing about nails, or that I'll sound like a "holier than thou" head-girl type. Which believe me I am not. But this polish remover is good stuff, in my humble opinion, so I had to share it with you. I cam across it while quickly looking at the Collection 2000 stand in Tesco. I needed polish remover but had forgotten it, the kids were cranky, I wanted out of there and my other half had wandered off to look at something manly like meat or Old Spice or something, so I grabbed this (and a polish and foundation...) and ran before he noticed.

Yes, it's Collection 2000. Yes, it's less than £1.50 a bottle. Yes, it does what it says on the tin! The claims it makes on the bottle that it "Cleanses, conditions and whitens nails" are true. It removes polish so easily and since I've been using it my nails have looked less stained. Of course, that may be down to my current penchant for pale colours, and my nails are never naked for longer than an hour so it doesn't matter, but I think this remover has something to do with it. It is acetone based, but my cuticles and skin haven't been dried out after using it, and I've not had random dry bits on my nails. I a, also finding it removes polish so well, even ones with lots of layers and thick lashings of seche. It struggles with glitter, but what doesn't?

There are a couple of downsides - the bottle is fairly small (150ml). I want a bigger bottle! And also the cap doesn't seem to be leak-proof after you've opened it for the first time. But just don't lay it flat wherever you store it I guess.

Other than that, if you're looking for a good basic polish remover than this is one to try! I'm on to my second bottle now - and I'm not usually a brand-loyal kind of girl. I am easily bought with promises of buy one get a free tree frog etc, but I'd happily pay full price for this.

What polish remover do you use? Anyone tried pure acetone? I would like to try it, mainly for cleanup though I think as it can be very drying.

Hx

BTW - giveaway is still going strong! Link in the sidebar x

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NOTD - Beauty UK Mauve Flash + Gold Shatter

Hello! A quick NOTD from me. I wore Beauty UK Mauve Flash yesterday, just with a pretty sticker on accent nail and thumb, but the stickers didn't last long and I didn't get to take a pic before they looked nasty. Today I wasn't doing anything but housework, so instead of a fresh mani I just took the remains of the stickers off and added a coat of Beauty UK Night Fever (their gold shatter) to hide the mess and tipwear! I love this combination, and Mauve Flash is a great colour - I can't wait to wear it in the Autumn. I'll definitely be wearing it again soon, so I'll show you it's lubblyness on it's own then!

Perfect summer nails - please excuse the mess!

With every Beauty UK polish I get I'm more and more impressed. Next to try are Slate and Frozen Kingdom.

Have you tried Beauty UK? You can win a lovely bottle of Smoky Lilac in my giveaway - the link is in the sidebar!

Coming over the next week - July faves, Pink Wednesday a TOTD and that remover review I promised you!

Hx

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NOTD - Molten Copper funky french

Hello :)

My (sometimes) lovely OH (sometimes) likes buying me little presents on his way home from work Quite often these are food-based as he works in Central London surrounded by lovely little delis and cake shops, but since I'm currently embarking on a weight loss program (don't like the 'd' word, too depressing - check out my weight loss blog link in the sidebar) he's trying to be more creative. He's not very good at it, bless him. Once, he bought me a lighter with a silly cat picture on it (I don't smoke, have an electric cooker and rarely use candles, and don't like silly cat pictures unless they're LOLcatz. LOLcatz don't count). Another time he bought me a pair of slippers, which he thought were monkeys (we have a monkey thing) - they were dogs, I don't wear slippers and they were £18 (most of my shoes don't cost £18) at Kings Cross station. Occasionally, he hits gold, but on this occasion, he hit copper...

Accessorize Molten Copper to be precise, which is an orange-gold glitter in a clear base. It has a consistency comparable to the Barry M glitters - opaque enough in a few coats but quite gritty when dry. And a pig to remove! For this reason I decided on an accent nail and funky french on the rest. The base colour I chose for the funky french fingers is Rimmel 60 Seconds 850 Hard Edged, which you can win a bottle of in my giveaway! It's a pretty maroon colour. I was hoping for duochrome but it's barely there on the nail. Still pretty though.

See, it teased me with duochrome...

...but didn't live up to it's promise. A few glitters escaped into the seche too.

I should wear more glitter. What's a shit-ton of polish remover, tin foil and cotton pads between friends?

Any other Accessorize polishes I should have? I only have two.

Hx

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NOTD - Lemon and Lime

Hi!

Today I have a Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish Fruity scented polish to show you. The colour on this one is lovely, soft buttery yellow, a little streaky and uneven but three coats sorted it (come on, it is a yellow) and actually looked good against my skin. But oh my days the smell! DO NOT BUY this polish if you're only interested in the scented aspect. It smells less like lemons and more like rotten melon. Thankfully, it's a not a strong scent and with top coat I could only smell it if I really tried. I'm not sure how dupable it is (Barry M Lemon Ice Cream might be close) but it is unique in my stash otherwise the smell alone would make me get rid. And I never get rid of polish!

Anyway, this is three coats of Lemon Drop, plus some fimo slices and lots of Seche Vite.

I wore this for two days but by the middle of day two I was picking at the fimo. Think the other half got one in his dinner....

Anyway, what do you think of scented polish? Bit of fun or silly gimmick?

Hx

PS Click the link in the sidebar to enter my giveaway!

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Pink Wednesday - One time, she punched me in the face, it was awesome

I dont think I'll ever run out of Mean Girls quotes to use as Pink Wednesday post titles! Anyway, I have a confession to make, I'm not actually wearing pink today! Not on my nails anyway, I have a pinky top on and pink eye makeup, but my nails are yellow (I'll show you tomorrow!). For now, here's a mani I did a few weeks ago but couldn't post at the time - and because it was a few weeks ago I can't remember what polish I used. It's either 17 Pink Grapefuit or Beauty UK Pink Explosion. I then did the flowers using a dotting tool and Wet n Wild Black Creme, and the middle of the flowers with the same colour as the base.

That's it for today! Nothing really to say about this apart from I wasn't really keen on it so it didn't last long! Love the base colour...if only I could remember what it was...

I'll leave you with a pic of the mini Nail Envy I bought. I thought I'd try a mini before committing to a full size bottle and when I came in the post I literally went "aaaww" when I opened up the package! I'm a sad sap I know...

Hx

P.S Did you enter my giveaway yet?

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