Sunday 28 July 2013

Tara's Talons, UK Indie brand, review!

Today's post is something a little different for me and is a very exciting first for me, as a relatively new blogger! 



Today I have two gorgeous polishes, that I was thrilled to be sent to review, from Tara's Talons-a UK based Indie polish brand! If, like me, you too are obsessed with Indies, you will know that UK brands are few and far between, so it's been nice to see a few more springing up of late! 


Tara's Talons launched on 1st April 2013, initially offering a collection of 10 polishes, with 10 bottles of each. However all collections since, have been complete one offs! With custom polishes available to order and design around your wishes, at amazing prices, Tara's etsy shop is an Aladdin's cave of sparkly gorgeousness! (Which is just heaven for a magpie, like myself!)

The newest addition to the shop are 5ml bottles of polish, which are what I shall be reviewing for you today, they are priced at £3.50 and £5.50-for custom orders.

Here are my two beauties!






The first is called 'Magpie Polish' which is a gorgeous taupe/toffee brown, with gold and holo micro glitter and medium gold holo circles. It reminds me of treasure buried on a beach! The hint of gold sparkles is really appropriate for the name.








Picture shows two coats of polish and no topcoat, although it looked a little gritty in the bottle and also in the picture above, it was surprisingly smooth to the touch. Application was easy and finally a polish with no fiddly glitter fishing required! Although it hasn't shown up well the larger holo circles were surprising compliant and spread evenly across each nail.







Another shot without topcoat, I am so happy with this polish and the most astonishing thing is that I own nothing that is remotely like this! 







Finally I added a generous coat of gelous just to tame the glitter and smooth it out completely.





I love how the gold circles (or coins as I like to refer to them) just add little bursts of sparkle.





The second polish is called 'I'm Melissa's polish' and it's a blackened/navy blue base packed with blue micro glitter and scattered holo micro glitters. It really is so beautiful!! 
Again in the bottle it looked quite gritty, but on the nail (pre-topcoat) it has a similar effect to the OPI liquid sands, only less rough to touch. 




This polish is so strongly pigmented and crammed full of glitters that it is completely opaque in just one, stress free, coat. It is actually quite a bit darker in real life, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get it to translate into the pictures. I love how it has a sparkly sandy finish before topcoat. 





Pre-topcoat, taken with flash. It really comes alive and you can spot all of that gorgeous glittery goodness (can you tell I'm excited, I'm even bringing out the alliteration!!)


Time for a shot with the bottle:

with flash.


low indoor lighting.



 And with one coat of gelous, you can see how full of depth this polish is and it becomes squishy and almost jelly-like. 





With topcoat and flash. It is such a beautiful polish. It really shocked me how much I ended up loving this polish on my nails. It's one of those that looks pretty in the bottle, but on the nails it really steps it up a notch and becomes something very special.



I really love the new mini bottles and Tara's Talons has a lot of special deals on polishes-for example: Pick and mix, lucky bags and talon twosomes. Meaning you get to try more pretties for a fraction of the cost. 

If you're interested in learning more about Tara's talons; or if you would like to purchase your very own custom polish, you can visit either www.tarastalons.co.uk direct or her etsy shop HERE! Also as a little treat use the code THANKYOU20 for 20% off with no minimum spend and lasts forever!! 

I just want to say how much I have loved reviewing these polishes and also that my opinions and feelings about the polishes are 100% genuine. 

I don't know about you but I'm heading off to Tara's Talons to create my very own sparkly beauty! 

Thanks for reading, come back soon! 
xoxo












Friday 26 July 2013

In which I add to my small, but treasured, collection of Enchanteds!

The most beautiful polish ever...?


...I think I will let you decide! 

Of course I am talking about a polish that has been one of my biggest lemmings..I'm kind of a big deal , by Enchanted Polish.


I'm kind of a big deal is quite hard to describe; In some lighting it is almost a deep, true lavender and it others it has more pinky tones to it. This is a linear holo polish, although it doesn't come across as well as other EPs. I completely LOVE it! As with all EPs the application was flawless in two coats and topcoat doesn't dull the holo goodness at all! 


Enchanted definitely were not lying-Kind of a big deal? OMG yes you are, yes you are!! (better move onto the piccies before I keel over from the gorgeous, girlishness of this pretty!) 
WARNING: I sort of overdid the whole pictures thing...I couldn't help but take loads! 


indoors natural light

This picture is probably the most true to colour. You can just see the holo sparkle coming out to play.

with flash

in low indoor lighting!

with flash
with flash


with flash

with flash (pre cleanup-excuse the mess!)





How could anyone not fall head over heels for this polish? I absolutely adore it!

Is this one of you lemmings??

Thanks for reading, come back soon!
xoxo


Thursday 25 July 2013

July's beauty bargains/freebies and a small..ish polish haul!

Polish & nail art bits n bobs haul + July beauty freebies!


Firstly I want to share a few little polishes I've collected over the last couple of weeks! 


From L-R: row one: Enchanted polish-x3, OPI-catch me in your net.

row two: Dollish polish-crystal empire, Girly Bits-ornamental my dear watson, Layla ceramic effect-butterfly effect, smitten polish-sunken galleon.

row 3: Literary lacquers: Green gables, laters baby and raspberry cordial.





Yum, yum, just look at all that holo goodness!!

My three new, amazing, Enchanted Polishes: I'm kind of a big deal, stay classy san diego and love the way you lilac.

Kind of a big deal has been a huge must have for me, from the instant that I laid eyes upon it! I have to say, that I have it on now and, it definitely doesn't disappoint!
 (blog post to follow soon!)

Next I have a few Beauty bargains to share with you-all of which have been collected from the £1 shop!! 

Famous by sue moxley-sparkling scarlet, revlon sweet tart, bourjois-unamed, revlon-sorbet, rimmel glitter topcoat and revlon-vintage.

loads of nail art goodies! 

Gemstone wheel, 2 filmo butterfly wheels, elegant touch hot pink nail wraps, tweezerman nail file, outdoor girl floral nail art wraps, girls with attitude couture nail art stickers, a french tip stamping kit and 2 diamante nail charms packs-bows and hearts.





Filmo butterfly nail art wheel closeup.




One of the girls with attitude nail art stickers, which I added to my Enchanted mani after a few days. See my post on the Enchanted HERE!!
 

Finally a post showing my mani with my beautiful new shoes in the background. I am obsessed with butterflies-Love them!!

Magazine Freebies!

Sorry that I have no piccies to show you, but I thought I would let you in on what beauty bits are available in July's magazines!

marie claire: Eyeko skinny eyeliner in black-RRP £8. Magazine £3.80 (i found it for around £2.50 in sainsburys).

Instyle: Rituals perfection volume mascara in black-RRP £8. Magazine £3.90.

Red: Ren mini skincare set: rose cleansing gel-10ml, frankincense revitalising night cream-3ml and vita-mineral day cream-10ml. Magazine cost £4.

Cosmopolitan: choose between 3 mini nip+fab products: dry leg fix/bust fix/365 body glow fix. Magazine cost £3.60.

Glamour: choose between 4 mini balance me products: shine on tinted lip salve RRP £12, super toning body wash-100ml RRP £9, pure skin face wash-50ml RRP £11, moisture rich face cream-30ml RRP £13. Magazine cost £2.

Harper's Bazaar: Mini pot of L'Occitane immortelle precious cream-RRP £15. Magazine cost £4.20.

Oh and I'll leave you with one last bargainious bit of news... The Body Shop have reduced all of their body butters to £6.50 and you can use the discount code: 40SHOP for 40% off and free delivery for orders over £5!! 

Have you stumbled upon any beauty bargains, so far, this month?

Thanks for reading, come back soon!
xoxo




Monday 22 July 2013

Blue for a boy or pink for a girl?!

The question on everybody's lips on this beautiful summer's day-Will it be a boy or a girl?! 


Of course I'm talking about the Royal baby, with a new prince or Princess on its way as we speak! 

So as we wait patiently, and feel a little bad for all the journos waiting outside the palace and sizzling in the sun, I've decided to do a slightly different post today! 

I've decided to show some of my manis from over a year ago (please excuse the shoddy paint jobs-i was new to the whole polish malarkey!) Of course I've stuck to the pink and blue theme and added in my jubilee manicure from before I even started this blog, as it seemed quite fitting for the occassion! 

Nails inc Neon Kensington Park road for a baby prince:




Or Nails Inc Topping lane for a baby Princess:




And finally something a little patriotic, my mani from the diamond jubilee. It's a long, long way away from being perfect but at the time I was thrilled with it, for my first nail art attempt. 

I used Leighton Denny Viva la diva (the best red ever-opaque in one coat!) and Nails inc Baker street. then I painted half the nail diagonally with Nails inc limited edition Jubilee and used a white nail art pen and an eyeliner brush dipped in Nails inc St James for the union jacks! All topped off with a generous coat of gelous.



close up of my Union jack thumbs (a little wibbly wobbly but I think people got the gist!)




I must admit I'm not even that interested by the Royal family, but this has got me quite excited! Now it's just a matter of waiting until the newest addition to the Royal family makes their appearance.

Do you think it will be a boy or a girl? 
For some reason, I'm going for a girl! 

thanks for reading, come back soon! 
xoxo

Friday 19 July 2013

Mint mani for Talia!

Friday Mint Mani in remembrance of Talia.



Talia is such an inspiration, who in her short time, accomplished so much as an accomplished MUA and nail artist. 
Talia was so brave and talented, she earned her wings on Tuesday 16th July 2013.


In honour of Talia some of us Nail bloggers have decided to dedicate Friday as mint mani day, which was her favourite colour.



I love the colour mint, so I had a lot of choice! I decided to choose the most special mint polish I own...

Enchanted polish Britney spearmint:


with flash-pre-cleanup.

in sunlight

in sunlight

in sunlight


In remembrance of Talia Joy Castellano
1999-2013

Thanks for reading and if you have a few moments please look at some of the other bloggers below, who are also sporting mint manis, maybe you too could also paint your nails mint in remembrance of such a brave and beautiful girl.

Also if you haven't already you can view her inspiring Youtube HEREwhich will go some way to showing why she touched the hearts of so many people.

Bloggers unite in showing their love and support for Talia and her family:

Monday 15 July 2013

Another gorgeous holo in the sunshine? ...Don't mind if I do!!

Enchanted Polish: Love The Way You Lilac




I am so pleased I managed to get hold of this beauty! Although I can understand why it could cause a little disappointment; as on its own it would take 3-4 coats to reach full opacity (a feat that I didn't  even try to attempt!) also the holo is slightly more subtle than I have grown to expect from Enchanted Polishes. In saying all that though, I absolutely adore it! 

I managed to find the perfect undies for Love The Way You Lilac, in the form of OPI, from their spring/summer 2013 collection: You're such a Budapest. I have included a quick swatch of this picture (pre-clean up, so please excuse the mess!) I have to admit that application left a lot to be desired! Not the normal perfect 2 coat formula I usually experience from OPI! Two coat left some noticeably bald spots and it was quite streaky to apply, however, all was forgiven as it is such a lovely colour! 




 And with one coat of the gorgeous EP Love The Way you lilac layered over the top:


with flash

with flash

with flash

with flash

with flash


indoors by the window.
(sorry about the phone stylus which has sneaked its way into the pic!)


natural light
The last picture is really what the colour looks like. Although under some lights it can lean towards looking more blue. As with all EPs topcoat does nothing to dull the holo goodness!

It looks like this gorgeous weather is here to stay-have you dug out any Holos to wear?? 

Thanks for reading, come back soon!
xoxo


Saturday 13 July 2013

How could a beautiful Summer's day get any better....

My July Glossy box arrived-that's how!!




This month the box has taken on a seaside splash theme and is turquoise with coral and starfish all over it. How apt, as today has been a scorcher! 


How Cute is this months packaging?!


The seaside Splash Magazine 


Finally here's the box:



Wow! I have to say I am quite impressed with this months box-is it my favourite? No, but it has a great selection of summery treats, 6 items-4 of which are full size and most I will use! 

As always I'll start with the item I was the most excited by-Essie Sleek long wearing nail stickers. My only disappointment was the fact I received the Zebra print design and I've been lusting after the blue and silver ones for ages! I will definitely try them out (see if it's worth the money, before I buy the blue ones!) the colour is metalic brown and black-not the most summery colours, eh? 
full size-one set: £9.99 

Next is the Anatomicals Spray misty for me facial spritz. I was really excited to use this, as I'd been sat in the sun and was feeling rather hot and bothered. Wish I had read the packaging first...I only read as far as peppermint but it also contains Lavender and this is quite overpowering (if like me you suffer with migraines, Lavender can be a trigger) Also it seems to have made my skin a little greasy and i'm not sure if it's the fact my face smells like an English garden but wasps and bees seem to really like me today...Eeek!! 
full size-100ml: £6.00

spf 20 Coola organic sun care collection-mineral sunscreen moisturiser for face. This may not be the most exciting item but it is definitely the most practical. I hate to admit that I don't really use a lot of sunscreen...and I only use a moisturiser that contains spf 15 so I will definitely try this! 
full size-50ml: £29.99
sample received-7ml: approx £4.20

Sleek Makeup Pout Paint x2 in 
158-rosette and 153-cloud 9
to start with I thought, really? A white lipstain?! Luckily the brochure explains that the white/silver is for mixing with other colours to intensify the shade; apparently blue was included in some boxes too (think white is the least scary!)
full size-8ml: £4.99 each

Finally Alterna Haircare Bamboo style boho waves tousled texture mist-that's a bit of a mouthful! I'm a sucker for anything that says boho as I really want my long, thick, straight hair to turn into beachy waves! However I'm not really into hair products as my hair gets oily so quickly and any hair stuff makes this worse. However I will give this a little try; but if i have to wash my hair straight after, I wont be happy!
Full size-125ml: £23.00
sample-25ml: approx £4.60

So all in all I have to say I really am quite pleased with this months box! A great mixed selection of everything from skincare to hair care and make up. My only real disappointment was the face mist as I have wanted one for a while, but can't use it because of the fragrance. The best bit about this months box? The value for money!! The box + p&p = £12.99 and the contents approx £34.77 -now that's what I call a bargain!! 

Thanks Glossy Box! 

Were you happy with your box? 
Did you receive any different items? 

If you are considering signing up to Glossy Box, I would love it if you would do so through my referral link: HERE! it just means that I get some extra glossy dots-thanks! 

thanks for reading, come back soon!
xoxo

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Enchanted Polish Congratulations-I couldn't think of a better name!

Could this be the most amazing polish ever...





Personally I think it could be! 
What's so special about this polish? Where do I begin... It's a duo chrome, linear holographic; which shifts from red to gold-with a whole spectrum of other colours in between. When I wore it I saw everything from a coppery mustard to a dirty mauve with flashes of pink. 

The polish, is of course, Congratulations by Enchanted polish, from the Time to pretend collection. I must have taken about 100 different pictures of this beauty and it looks different in almost all of them! I had full coverage in ONE coat! (yay for saving precious polish!) Topcoat did nothing to dull the holo effect and it lasted for just over a week as well!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the pictures of this polish certainly speak for themselves.

Sorry about one or two of them being pre-cleanup, but I got too excited and started taking piccies straight away.
Warning Very picture heavy!!



low indoor lighting

with flash


with flash

with flash

with flash

indoors, natural light. Showing the copper.

indoors, natural light.


indoors natural light.

with flash

with flash

with flash



with flash

low indoor lighting 

indoors, natural light.


with flash

indoors lighting.


Again sorry for spamming with a million pictures, but I think I have a new love- All I can say is 'Congratulations' to Enchanted for making such an incredible polish!
(pun intended!) 

Which Enchanted Polish Is your fav?

thanks for reading, come back soon! 
xoxo