Sunday 31 July 2011

Hand and Nail Care: Sanctuary Spa Essentials Hand Wash and Hand Lotion

I absolutely love Sanctuary products, their classic signature scent is absolutely to die for, a fresh floral aroma with a hint of lavish luxury, containing: bergamot, citrus, rose, jasmine, cardamom, vanilla, patchouli and sandalwood

I love taking advantage of Boots 2for1 offers on this range, as they tend to be a little on the pricey side! I love buying their travel size bath and body range products for holiday, but recently decided to try out their hand wash and hand lotion:




Sanctuary Spa Essentials Hand Lotion


Price: £4-£5
Size: 250 ml
Sanctuary's Hand lotion is ideal for regular use, it's not overly greasy at all but leaves your hands feel nourished and smooth. The hand lotion combines Shea Butter (a natural fat extracted from the nuts of the African Shea tree, known for its moisturising properties) and Aloe (known for it's healing properties) alongside their signature scent.

You only need a tiny pump to get enough product, and as these bottles are on the large side (250ml) They're excellent value, and look gorgeous by the bathroom sink :)
Sanctuary Spa Essentials Hand Wash

Price: £4-£5
Size: 250 ml
Sanctuary's Hand Wash is a gorgeous smelling lavish treat for your hands. Combining Mango and Aloe with their signature scent this hand wash leaves the hands feeling fresh and soft.

Sanctuary's Hand Wash has a slightly oily consistency but it still foams up when mixed with water, it's a great alternative to soap (I often find soap leaves my hands feeling a little on the dry side) and paired with Sanctuary's Hand Lotion leaves your hands feeling completely pampered! Love it! :D





I really love these two products they add a touch of luxury in the bathroom and I really can't get enough of Sanctuary Spa Products' signature scent

Saturday 30 July 2011

Clarins 230

I feel so lucky to finally have one of the most coveted Nail Polishes of all times in my possesion: Clarins 230. I can confidently say the Clarins 230 (often referred to as "Unicorn Pee" by avid polish lovers) is hands down my favorite polish from my collection, and I don't think I've ever been able to say that about any other polish before! Wondering how can this polish possibly be all that, well lets begin some bottle pictures:

Clarins 230

As you can see from the bottle, Clarins 230 is literally a bottled rainbow, with red/purple/green/gold hues sparkling throughout, the polish itself is extremely sheer, and works best as a layering polish, but the possibilities here are endless as it makes so many polishes look spectacular! The consistency is thin and applies perfectly! It's packed with tiny shimmer particles that flash so many different shades. This polish should really carry a hazard warning with it, because once its one, you wont be able to stop looking at your nails, whatever the lighting you will notice this polish literally transform throughout the day depending on your light source, and I swear I've never kept a polish on so long before, I could happily wear this colour every day and never tire of it! 



The first polish I layered Clarins 230 over was China Glaze Long Kiss (a red metallic polish), I'm not sure I picked the best polish to start with, as I've since tried it over other shades and its continued to dazzle me even more (but I'll save those for a later post) Prepare for photo overload! :D

Clarins 230 over China Glaze Long Kiss (Flash Pics)



Now for the exciting part! Non-flash pics, these really capture the true multi-chrome nature of this awesome polish!

Clarins 230 over China Glaze Long Kiss (Non - Flash Pics)








I wish I could capture how truly stunning this polish is on camera, but its near impossible, I've since tried again, and I think I did a little better with the next attempt, so I promise more photos soon :) I really cannot say enough good things about this polish! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE! :D

Friday 29 July 2011

OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam: Simply Smashing gets Shattered

Now to have a look at how OPI's Simply Smashing Looks under the Black Shatter polish, also part of the first Serena Williams Glam Slam Collection for 2011:
no top coat
 Black Shatter looks stunning over Simply Smashing, makes me think of bumble bees :) the sparkly tones of Simply Smashing really shine out from under the black shatter. Black Shatter dries matte (first photo). The second photo has a coat of Seche Vite
with Seche Vite

Wednesday 27 July 2011

OPI Serena Williams Glam Slam Collection: Simply Smashing

I've been meaning to post this polish for absolutely ages, finally got around to it! :) Here is OPI Simply Smashing, the first polish released from Serena Williams' Glam Slam Collections.


Simply Smashing is a Yellow/Lime polish packed with large shimmer flecks! I'm pretty sure this colour was intended to resemble a tennis ball, and it's definitely succeeded brilliantly! The awesome shimmer really gives this shade an almost furry quality, very much like a tennis ball :) I'm really tempted to add some white lines to this colour to create a tennis ball nail look :) must try that out some time :)

Application went very smoothly, the polish has a nice consistency, but is a little on the sheer side, this was 3 coats, and although the photos show a hint of VNL, the polish looks opaque enough in real life! :). To be honest I think this is going to be a love/hate shade for many people, as an absolute lover of unusual murky yellows, I adore it, I never think there's enough shades out there like this! :) Here's more some more photos :D



Next up: Simply Smashing gets Shattered :D

Monday 25 July 2011

Top 10 Cosmetics and Awards : Thanks peeps!

All the awards and tags are at the bottom of the post, thanks so much peeps, sorry it's taken me so long to get around to doing this :)
Top 10 Cosmetic Products (no particular order)

1. Sanctuary Hand Wash and Hand Lotion

2. Seche Vite Top Coat (Professional refill bottle) and Seche Restore

3. Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream


4. Olay Total Effects 7 in one Touch Of Sunshine

5. Clinique High Lengths Mascara

6. Garnier Roll-On

7. Clinique Chubby Stick in Super Strawberry

8. Mac Lipstick (Wonder Woman) Lustre MARQUISE D

9. Nars Blush - Orgasm

10. Rubis Eyebrow Tweezers

Many thanks to D.I.A.N.A  and Nails Wanted for this lovely award :D 


Many thanks to  Nails Wanted for this award

7 Random Things:
Name your favorite color: Crimson Red (although this is not my favourite nail polish colour hehe)
Name your favorite song: Grace by Jeff Buckley
Name your favorite dessert: I'm not a big dessert person, hmmmm guess I'll go with mint choc chip ice cream!
What makes you mad? Selfishness
When you’re upset you… : Tidy up (it's an OCD thing lol)
Your favorite pet? Only Pet I've had was a cockatiel, whose sadly gone :(
Black or white? Black
Your biggest fear is? Bad Health
Your best feature is? Being Flexible (in life lol).
Everyday attitude: It's all about now!
What is perfection? Dealing with Imperfection :)
Guilty Pleasure: well Nail Polish is a given :) also strangely: stationary :D

And Thanks to Spellbinding Nails for this award

Thanks so much guys :) I've tagged the following blogs, apologies if you've already received one! :D It's so hard to narrow it down to just 10, I love all of your blogs!! 



Gotham Polish
Let them have Polish!
Glitta Gloves
Cosmetic Cupcake
Konad Addict
Nails Beautiqued
loodie loodie loodie
Imperfectly Painted
Playing With Polish
Haute Lacquer 

Friday 22 July 2011

Cuticle Care - Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream is available in 2 sizes: 17g and a handy 8.5g travel size tin (a bit smaller than those travel size vaselines). The first thing I thought when I bought this product: "I'm going to literally break all my nails to get this thing open!" I don't know if it's just me but it took me a good 5 mins to get this baby open! Thankfully, this was only a first time thing and it's easy to open and close now :)

I've heard a lot about this cuticle cream, but I've always been quite happy with my OPI Avoplex oil, except for the fact that my mini bottle kind of exploded in my makeup bag and made everything oily :( To be honest that's what prompted me to try Burt's Bees, as it is a solidified product, i.e. no leakages :D

Consistency-wise its pretty solid and waxy, so you have to rub the product quite a few times to get enough on your fingers. The formula is a little on the greasy side, but lets face it that's the point of a cuticle cream :) I absolutely love the lemony scent, really leaves your fingers feeling very nourished and fresh!

This product has been a complete life saver for my cuticles, as an avid swatcher, my nails see far more acetone than they probably should, and as a result I do suffer quite badly from dryness, but since using this product 1/2 times a day, my hands feel transformed, and I don't know how I managed without it! Really recommend this product especially to my fellow bloggers who use remover on a regular basis, it is a serious cuticle saver!! :D 

Thursday 21 July 2011

China Glaze Sealed With A Kiss Collection Part 4 Trophy Wife and Lip-gloss

Last up from China Glaze Sealed With A Kiss set is Trophy Wife and the free matching lip-gloss.


Trophy Wife originally surfaced in autumn 2009 originally as part of China Glaze's Specialty line of 50 polishes. Trophy Wife is a pale Salmon pink polish packed with shimmer. The shimmer is gorgeous in this polish, almost looks like microglitter they way it sparkles and catches the light! This was opaque in 3 coats, awesome formula!


Here's how the polish looks alongside the "unnamed" lip gloss:


Lip-gloss Swatches

The matching lip gloss is a pale sheer pink packed with gorgeous shimmer particles which really catch the light. The gloss has a spongy applicator, which doesn't really pick up too much lip gloss, so it takes a few pumps to get enough to apply. This really reminds me of old lip-glosses, I remember the scent and applicator of the first lip-gloss my auntie gave me when I was young, and this is very reminiscent of that, which is actually really nice :) The colour is very subtle and wearable for everyday, slightly on the sticky side, but as I am avid lover of gloss that doesn't really bother me! Here are some photos of the lip-gloss on, with the nail colour as a comparison, they really do match well! :D


Lip-gloss


China Glaze Sealed With A Kiss Set

Wednesday 20 July 2011

China Glaze Sealed With A Kiss Collection Part 3 Long Kiss

The next polish from China Glaze Sealed With A Kiss set is Long Kiss:



Long Kiss is a gorgeous deep berry red shimmery metallic finish polish. The metallic effect gives this polish a gorgeous lit within effect, and it seems darker around the edges like a jewel, application was perfect and full opacity at 2 coats. This colour instantly reminded me of Mommy Kissing Santa From China Glazes Tis The Season... Collection. (see skittle swatch below). Long Kiss is a lot lighter though. This colour really makes me think of pomegranates :). Long Kiss was originally part of China Glaze's Under The Mistletoe Collection from Christmas 2008


middle finger: China Glaze Mommy Kissing Santa

Long Kiss


China Glaze Sealed With A Kiss Set

Monday 18 July 2011

China Glaze Sealed With A Kiss Collection Part 2 Drastic

First up from the Sealed With A Kiss set from China Glaze is Drastic:


The first thing that comes to mind when applying China Glaze Drastic, is blood. A vibrant crimson red jelly, Drastic is about as close as any polish is going to come to resembling blood, the jelly like finish really intensifies this effect! And I can't stress enough how much I love the name :) it just makes me smile every time I type it :) This is definitely going to be a good polish for Halloween.

One of the things I love most about Drastic is the fact that is a dark deep red, without being too vampy, it really stands out on the nails and literally glows, and as much as I don't usually rave on about jelly finishes, I feel like its absolutely the perfect finish for this colour! 

I have to admit when I saw the bottle initially, I wasn't overly excited by the polish, just thought it was going to be another standard dark red, but once I started applying it I couldn't stop grinning :). What's even better is the fact that Drastic is part of China Glaze's core range of colours, so it's not going to disappear any time soon :D 

truest colour pic: mmm bloody nails :)
The camera slightly washes out the shade, but the middle photo is most colour accurate, so you can really see how intense this shade is! :D


All photos are 3 coats of Drastic. So if you are a lover of red polish or the jelly finish in general, I wouldn't miss out on this awesome shade!

China Glaze Sealed With A Kiss Set