YSL and Boots Haul

Hello everyone,

Hope you had a lovely weekend.
It was chucking it down here in Leeds so I sensibly went in to town with the boyfriend and spent my hard earned dosh in my beloved Boots lol

So here's a couple of things I bought there:

Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation in 54. Only bought because it was £6.99 and I've wanted to try it for a while!

I've wanted Notting Hill Gate for so long! It is the perfect Barbie bubblegum pink.  It looks great and is beautiful! I bought it with some of my Boots points too, which made it extra great!!!

I love the whole dip dyed tips and being a dyed red head I thought I'd try a couple of other colours at the tips. It works really well, but the blue rubbed off all over my neck. I looked like something from Avatar! Apart from that, it looks really good! It washed in and out too which is handy. but I might just ask my hairdresser to do it permanently. I love it. These are £2.99 each and come in loads of colours. They are easy to apply and look really good.

This stuff is beyond genius!!! If you paint your nails everyday, like I do, then this is a life saver. When it says 1 second removal it means it! Amazing! Smells nice, feels moisturising and is only £4.99!


I then went to House of Fraser and Harvey Nichols to pick up a couple of things - and to shelter from the rain!

I almost escaped House of Fraser without buying anything; however my eye was drawn to this really cute YSL Iphone case, and the woman at the counter said it was mine for free if I bought a nail varnish and one of the new Stain Glosses. I've wanted to try the lip stain for ages, so I just went for it. A little expensive, and I wouldn't normally dish out so much, but I loved the case!

Sorry about the fingerprint. I love YSL packaging, I think it's my favourite.
The nail varnish is no. 18 Bleu Majorelle and it a true navy blue. So unusual.
The gloss is no.11 Rouge Gouache, and is lovely.

Finally from Harvey Nics I bought the John Paul Gaultier Diet Coke bottles. I always buy the designer bottles, and this year they are just as fabulous as always. 

So that was my weekend. I went to IKEA too but I won't bore you with the rubbish I bought or the pencils I stole :-)

Hope you are all well. Talk soon

Ali xxx

Caviar Manicure - Ciaté

Hello xxx


This looks sooooooo fab!!!!

http://www.ciate.co.uk/caviar-mancure-set-rainbow.html

Such an exciting product!!! Can't WAIT to try this out!!!!

They will retail at £18, which I think it pretty reasonable for such a cool concept!

Ali xxxx

OPI Spider-Man Nail Polish Collection

Hello xxxx

Eeeeek too excited! Two of my favourite things all rolled in to one!

Comic book characters and nail varnish!

Soooo happy when I heard about this and the collection looks exciting...for the most part.

Call Me Gwen-Ever. Lovely orange shade. Very summery!

Into The Night - Stunning iridescent navy. Very chic. Love it!

Just Spotted The Lizard - Gorgeous!!! Totally up my street! Love it!

My Boyfriend Scales Walls - White varnish. Yaaawwn... ;-)

Number One Nemesis - Beautiful slate shimmer. I need to own this.

Shatter The Scales - A teal shimmer shatter. Nice colour, but I hate shatter varnish.

Your Web or Mine - A gorgeous bright pink

So, there they are. Due to be released in May! Love the shades, love the names, can't wait to buy them!!!

Wish there was a rich red though to go with the navy :-(

xxx

OPI Nail Envy Review

Hello xxx

I bought the OPI Nail Envy a couple of weeks ago because my nails were awful! They were short, ridged, unkempt and embarrassing. I had to wear false nails all the time which I hated, and I was desperate to have long, strong nails.

I have been using Nail Envy for 3 weeks now and Wow...my nails are amazing! I can't quite believe it!
A definite buy if you need strong nails with amazing length, in hardly any time at all!

Wearing Nicki Minaj 'Save Me' over the Nail Envy base coat.

OPI App

I downloaded this App from the iPhone a few months ago. Anything OPI and I'm there.

It's a cool little App, doesn't do an awful lot, but it's pretty handy if you're an OPI fan.

It has a few different features, the coolest of which is the colour wheel. It has practically all the OPI colours you can imagine, and it gives you the opportunity to try the colours out on a hand that matches your skin tone.

The App updates its colours everytime you go on, so you know it's up to date. The colours are sorted in to collections AND colours. It's really handy to see what else OPI offers.

Another feature, which I don't really use, is the search bar. It would be handy if you liked an old colour, but we're unsure if it was still available.
I really like the favourites section as well. It gives you the chance to store the names of your favourite colours, which is pretty handy if out shopping, or to sen as a present list to the boyfriend ;-)

Overall, if you love OPI, it's an ok App. Got a lot of cool features but not massively entertaining. It's more of a go to place for information on colors, Worth a download. Plus it's free!

Ali xxx

e.l.f. Cosmetics first buy!

I have seen so many blog posts and youtube videos all about e.l.f. cosmetics, and I was really eager to get them a try. They are praised for being an affordable drug store brand with fantastic results, so if that didn't persuade me, the price certainly did!

I visited the e.l.f. UK site, www.eyeslipsface.co.uk, and decided I would only order a couple of things, just to see how my skin reacted. I have really sensitive skin and I'm very prone to eczema on my face and body. I never usually use cheaper cosmetic brands because of this, but often cheap doesn't mean poor quality.

I'm really hoping this is the case for e.l.f. because the range of products looks fantastic!

I was tempted by so much on the site, but a lot of it was out of stock : ( so I only bought three items to start myself off.

Now my parcel has arrived I'm feeling a little stingy and will no doubt go back on later and have another look!

So the three items I chose were the Eyelid Primer in Golden, The Matte Finisher Top Coat and the Individual Lash Kit.

The Matte Finisher nail polish was a definite must, because I have been looking for an affordable alternative to my Nails Inc. version. The reviews on Makeup Alley look promising, so I'm dying to give it a go!

This top coat was only £1.50!!! £1.50!!! I couldn't believe it, so I'm desperate for it to be great! Everyone loves the underdog. It came in a really sleek box and looked much more expensive than it was! The smell is a little strong, but I can live with it. I'll put a review on as soon as I have chance!

The primer was also £1.50, and it comes in four shades, however three of those were out of stock, so I went with golden by default. It has a lovely texture, and its scent isn't terrible, although it does smell a bit chemically. I'm looking forward to reviewing it, although my initial impressions weren't great. Texture great, packaging a bit cheap and the smell, not fab. But hey ho, we'll see how it performs!

Finally the lash kit. You get 18 separate eyelash clumps (lol) in three different sizes. These were £1.50 and they also come with glue, which is great value. I will do a look with these soon. I love false eyelashes for nights out, so these should be a good alternative to the full lash!

The items came so fast in the post! I was really impressed, plus they sent me a text to say that the items had been dispatched! Very organised. All in all, pretty happy with e.l.f. so far. It could be the start of a beautiful thing!


See you all soon

Ali xxx

OPI Nicki Minaj Collection

Hello x

It's not secret that I love Nicki Minaj. I'm not really a huge fan of her music, but I love her style and persona. She is really good fun and a little bit kooky, and that really appeals to me.

When I heard rumours last years that OPI were planning on collaborating with Nicki Minaj I was so excited!

I knew the colours would be amazing, and that OPI would come up with something great. 

How right I was!

I was over the moon when I saw the preview of the colours on line. They lived up to everything I hoped and I couldn't get my hands on them fast enough. 

I knew the colours would be released in the US first, so I was straight on the Internet and ordering from my favourite wholesale nail shop in Los Angeles.

I wasn't too bothered with the steep shipping costs, because I had to get my hands on these colours and fast!

I decided to buy 5 out of the 6 colours. The reason I didn't buy the sixth colour was because it was a purple shatter. I've seriously gone off the whole shatter look, I think it's totally over done and a bit over hyped, so I decided to not bother.

The varnishes usually cost about £11.00 in the UK. Obviously you can get them cheaper in the USA, however, you've got the shipping costs to factor in. 

So here are the colours.

This is the gorgeous Pink Friday. It's unlike any other pink varnish I own. It is a creamy, sharp, cotton candy pink, and it is seriously stunning. Really beautiful and goes on thickly and evenly. One coat is sometimes enough. Definite must have.

This is possibly my favourite of all the colours, although it's a close competition between all of them them. Fly, is a turquoisey, blue colour which is really deep, yet bright. It paints on to the nail really smoothly and it makes a serious pop of colour on dull days.

Did It On Em, is a gorgeous lime green. Really pungent and bright. It's not as scary as it looks in the bottle. It's a really pretty colour which look particularly great just on the ring finger of one hand. It's really beautiful, and if you're umming and arring about buying it because of the colour, don't be put off. It's well worth it.

So on to the glitters!

Metallic 4 Life is a fantastic varnish which is CRAMMED with different sized dots of black and silver glitter. With a couple of coats it goes on to the nail completely opaque. It looks really sparkly and seriously glimmers in the light. Really sophisticated glitter varnish.

Save Me is not only my favourite glitter in this set, it might actually be my favourite glitter EVER!

My photograph doesn't do it justice! The clear varnish is packed full of tiny silver specks of glitter, however threaded through the glitter are confetti strands of multicoloured glitter! It is unlike any glitter varnish I have ever bought or seen. It is really pretty and looks amazing on top of a clear base or over any of the colours in the collection. A serious must have. 

I'm so sorry I haven't got any pictures of the varnishes on my nails. As you may know from other posts, I've not been well at all recently and I'm recovering from a major operation. Painting my nails is not only impossible at the moment, but pretty much the last thing on my mind : ( 

If you knew me, you would know that is totally out of character. I normally wear a different colour everyday if I can. So having these colours on my varnish shelf, and not being able to use them is serious torture!

As soon as I'm back on my feet I will post some pictures, I promise!

Ali xxx

OPI Avoplex Oil and OPI Nail Envy

Hello everyone,


I bought these two items in a set from QVC UK, called OPI Perfect Partners.
I'm sure you can buy this set at other places, but I find the QVC 30 day money back guarantee a great bonus - plus I got the items on two easy payments, which is always handy.


The 30 day money back feature means that you can try both items, and if you're not happy you can send them back and get a full refund. 


Anyhow, lets start with the Avoplex Oil. The 15ml of oil come in a normal, nail varnish glass bottle. The oil apparently softens and replenishes cuticle oil through it's key ingredients of OPI's Advanced Avocado Liquid Complex, avocado oil and Vitamin E. 

The oil is a golden colour and smells beautiful. I can't describe the smell, but it reminds me of sweet peas or freesia flowers. I've read a few reviews where people have said they dislike the smell. I for one love it. It's very floral but not over powering. You apply the oil twice a day or whenever your cuticles and the skin around your nails looks or feels a little dry. You can't over moisturise so it's perfectly safe to slap this oil of several times a day! Trust me, once it's soaked in, it's so tempting to pop some more on; it's so soothing and gentle.

I have used the oil at least twice a day for the last week. It has made a massive difference to the skin around my nails and the cuticles, so I'm really impressed. Also, according to an OPI technician on QVC, it can help with ridges in the nail. I have a few of those at the moment, however I've not seen a big change yet. 


I love the oil so much, that I'm tempted to buy the oil in a potable pen form, so I can tuck it in my make-up bag. I would recommend this to everyone, even if your cuticles are perfect. It's making big differences in my nails growth and appearance.


On to the Nail Envy. The product is known as an insider top secret for the growth fantastic, healthy and long nails and I was looking forward to trying it out.The glossy varnish will apparently replenish your nail plate's moisture levels and prevent cracking, splitting and peeling. This kind of product is exactly what I need at the moment. The product can be used as a base or top coat, and although it has a strong varnish smell, it goes on smoothly and creates a really high gloss finish.

So, here is the real test. Here are my nails at the moment. They are short, ridged and generally unhealthy. My nails are usually much stronger, however due to my recent few months of constant illness, my nails have really suffered. I'm hoping the Nail Envy has some effect, because I have hundreds of nails varnishes which I am desperate to start wearing again on finger nails that do them justice!

You have to apply an initial base coat once a week, and then you apply another coat, either OVER THE first coat of Nail Envy, or over the top of your regular nail varnish, every other day for a week.
Once you reach the end of the week, you need to remove all your varnish and nail envy and then start all over again. This is a crucial routine if you want full effects.


I will post the results after 2 weeks (this is when you supposedly start seeing results). So keep your fingers crossed people!


Ali xxx