Review: Elegant Touch Flawless French Manicure Kit

As you may have seen on one of my previous posts, my Mini Superdrug Haul, I purchased the Elegant Touch Flawless French Manicure Kit as I loved the idea and the concept of it (as I am hopeless at painting the white tips on myself), so thought I would give it a go whilst it was half price. I was waiting for my nails to get a little bit longer before I used this kit so that they would look nicer and so the other day I decided to give it a go! 

I was really quite disappointed with this product! Once applied they look really nice and just like false nails, so at this stage I was really pleased with them and planned on buying another box so that I could wear them regularly. However after just 24 hours the tips began to fall off and so I was left with little white bits all over the tips of my nails which just looked a total mess! 

I don't think that I did anything wrong to cause this to happen as I used plenty of glue and held the tips on for long enough to allow them to stick to my nail. I also tried applying the recommended number of coats of nail varnish and then tried applying more to see if thicker coats would make a difference but they still just fell off. 

I haven't included a picture of my nails with this kit on as they started falling off before I had the chance to take one! So hopefully you can imagine what they looked like for yourselves!

Have you had the same problem with this kit or is it just me?

Please comment and leave me a message so that we can chat or leave me a link to your blog so that I can check it out :) 

♥

February 2013 Wishlist!

1. Topshop: Knitted Textured Crop Jumper in Burgundy - Available here 

I recently bought a pair of high waisted disco pants (a bit late on the whole disco pants trend I know!) and I have been loving wearing shirts/blouses tucked into them as well as pairing them with crop tops. I think this cropped jumper would be perfect to pair with my disco pants while the cold weather is still here! 

2. Topshop: Lipstick in Saint - Available here 

So I have a bit of an obsession with nude and pale pink lipsticks, I tend to wear no other colour at the moment! I love the colour of this lipstick and the topshop lipsticks are such good quality. I also like the look of the topshop lipstick in the shade Nevada which is a nude colour. 

3. Missguided: Mia Chronograph Watch in Rose Gold - Available here

Over the last few months I have seen so many people wearing rose gold watches, with quite a lot of them being the Michael Kors Rose Gold Watch which I absolutely love, but unfortunately for me, cannot afford! I really like this watch, it looks pretty similar and is only a fraction of the price of most others. The other thing I really love about this watch is the cute cross, heart and peace sign detailing on the display.

4. Smart Buy Glasses: Ray Ban RB2132 New Wayfarer 710 - Available here 

I love Ray Ban sunglasses and have previously owned a pair of their avatar sunglasses, but my favourites at the moment are these brown-colour wayfarer's which I think would be ideal for the summer. Ray Ban's can sometimes be quite pricey so I love that this store has discounts on all of their sunglasses as this definitely makes them much more affordable!

Would you pick any of the items from my wishlist?

♥

Review: Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara

I am always buying a different mascaras as I like to try them all out and see what effect they have on my eyelashes. Jordana was a brand that I had never heard of before as it's not widely available in the UK, until I was watching a youtuber that I regularly watch and they mentioned that this was their favourite mascara. This intrigued me as their eyelashes were really long and looked amazing so I looked at the reviews of it online and they were all good so I did some research into where I could buy it from and eventually bought it from Beautyjoint, where it was $3.59 which is just £2.31! Although you do have to pay postage/shipping to the UK so you may wish to buy a few other items at the same time like I did! The Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara is also available from other online stores such as Cherry Culture and the Jordana website which also charge postage/shipping to the UK. 

I LOVE this mascara! As you can see from the picture above the wand is a pretty simple, standard mascara wand..none of these fancy designs like some mascaras now have! It is a quite wet mascara and it does get quite a lot of product on the wand so I do sometimes have to wipe some of the product off on the top of the tube so as not to waste it. The wand is quite long and thin which means that it is easy to get in both the inner and outer corners of the eye and make sure that you've got all of your eyelashes and not missed any out!

One of the things I love about this mascara is that it makes my lashes longer and more voluminous without causing clumping, which is what everyone wants from a mascara right!? To prevent clumping I tend to apply one coat of mascara and then give it a chance to dry before applying another, otherwise they can clump together. It is also very long lasting and stays put all day without having any fall out or causing panda eyes!

As far as I am aware the Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara only comes in one colour and that is 301 Black. The colour is another thing that I love about this mascara as I think it is possibly one of the blackest mascaras that I have ever come across! This is great because it makes your eyelashes really stand out and it means that you don't have to apply numerous layers of mascara to build the colour up. 

I would definitely recommend this mascara, especially for the cheap price tag!

Have you tried this mascara? What do you think of it?

♥

Review: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat

Say goodbye to the blowing on your finger nails that comes with painting your nails!

I have never really enjoyed painting my nails as I always found it too fiddly and time consuming waiting for them to dry, but despite this I am forever painting them as I get bored of them so quickly and like to change them up. This means that I spend a LOT of time not being able to do anything because of wet nails! Until now....

This is the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat which claims to help prevent your nail polish from chipping, fading and discolouring which I can say that it definitely does. It also makes my nails look noticeably more shiny which I love. 

To use this product you apply one layer of the Insta-Dri top coat two minutes after applying your colour nail polish and after just 30 seconds it's dry and you're ready to go! I wouldn't say that it's as quick as 30 seconds but it is considerably quicker than using no drying top coat at all. I tend to find that it stops my nails from being wet and smudging after about a minute but it does still leave them 'soft' before they have set properly and so you do have to be careful until they are fully dry. 

I purchased this product from Boots for just £5.99 which is a very reasonable price and doesn't break the bank like some polishes and top coats which is always ideal! 

I would give this product about a 8/10 and I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a good drying top coat at a cheap price.

Have you tried this top coat? If so what do you think of it? 

♥

Mini Superdrug Haul

I was on the Superdrug website about a week ago and was just browsing  and looking at the different products when I noticed that they were offering free standard delivery for every order until the 14th February (which means it's still available!) and so I decided to make the most of the free delivery and order a few things.

The first thing I bought was this Flawless French Manicure Kit by Elegant Touch. I had never seen this product before but I wear false nails all the time so I was looking at the different false nails that they had and noticed that all of the Elegant Touch false nails and some of their other nail products were half price. I liked the look of this product and thought it would make a change from wearing normal false nails (and also give my nails a break!) As well as this it seemed to have good reviews so I decided to try it out. 

I bought this Flutter Belle French Manicure Set because I needed a new white nail polish so I was looking to buy one and spotted this set which was in the sale of the leftover Christmas gifts for only 99p! Yes, 99p for three nail polishes! This was cheaper than any of the other single white nail polishes so I decided to buy this set instead.

The final item I bought in my mini Superdrug haul was this Salt Spray by Superdrug. I had been looking for a cheap salt spray for my hair for ages because I am a big fan of quick, messy hair as I naturally have quite flat, straight hair. This salt spray was £2.49 for one bottle or there was an offer on two bottles for £3.49 which worked out as only £1 for the second bottle so I thought why not!

I haven't tried any of these products out yet but if you would like a review on any of them then please leave me a comment and I will do that once I have tried them :)

Have you tried any of these products? If so, what do you think of them?

♥

Primark Haul!

So I went into Primark at the weekend because I had a few things that I needed to get, and I ended up buying a lot more than I went in for - I just can't help myself! Whoops!

The first thing I went into Primark for was a pair of the plain black dolly shoes as I wear these all the time because they're just easy to throw on and go with pretty much everything! I've owned so many pairs of these and my old ones were starting to look  a bit knackered so I figured it was time for a new pair and these were only £5! 

The next thing I went into Primark for was a plain white cami/vest because I have one of these already and I wear it all the time as it goes with everything and it's ideal for layering under other clothes, especially in the winter, so I needed to buy another one so that I had two of them to choose from! Plus they're only £2!

The final thing I initially went into Primark for was a pair of jeggings because again, I already own a pair of Primark jeggings and I wear them quite a lot so I needed another pair to give me two pairs to choose from! I got these in the colour indigo which is just a dark blue colour and they were £7.

I had been wanting a denim shirt for a while now because I've seen so many people wearing them and I think they're good for layering so I bought this one because I really loved the pale denim colour and I thought the poppers to fasten the shirt were really pretty! 

The next thing I bought from Primark was this really cute vanity case. I loved the quilted pattern on this and the cute pink bow on the front so I bought this because I thought it would be ideal to store all of my make-up in as my old case that I used to use is now too small due to the fact that I keep buying more and more make-up! 

I bought this gold statement necklace as I love wearing necklaces like this with simple tops as it's a simple way to make an outfit look more interesting. I had also seen this on a lot of people's blogs and thought it looked really nice so I decided to add it to my collection!

I had seen a lot of double fingered cross rings in places such as topshop but decided not to buy them because of the price, so when I saw this ring in Primark I decided to buy it straight away! I also love the fact that it's adjustable as I have really skinny fingers and so the fact that it's adjustable means that I don't have to worry about it fitting my fingers! They also had this ring in silver.

The next thing I bought from Primark were the french nails. I had never seen these in Primark before but I thought I would give them a try because they were only £1 and if their false eyelashes are anything to go by (which are also £1), then I have high hopes for them! They also had a variety of both different coloured nails and patterned nails.

The final thing I bought from Primark was this set of four nail polishes. I have never bought any of the Primark nail polishes before because I have always been a bit sceptical of the quality due to the fact that they're only £2 for four nail polishes, but the colours of these along with the really cute packaging really drew me in and so I decided to give them a try!

Have you been into Primark recently? If so, what did you buy?

♥

Review & Swatches: Makeup Academy (MUA) Heaven & Earth Eyeshadow Palette!

I had been looking for a cheap, good quality, neutral eyeshadow palette for so long and I have found it with the MUA Heaven & Earth Palette! I LOVE this palette which I bought from Superdrug for just £4 after reading really good reviews, hearing people rave about it and comparing it to more expensive high-end palettes such as the Urban Decay Naked Palette. It can also be bought from the MUA Website. This palette lasts me for a long time and I just repurchase it whenever it runs out. It contains 12 beautiful shades, all of which contain a shimmer, although some are more shimmery than others. For me this is the only downside to the MUA Heaven & Earth palette, as it contains no matte shades, so if you do not like eye shadows with a shimmer then this palette probably isn't for you. As well as this it also comes with a double ended sponge tip applicator, although I prefer to use my own eyeshadow brushes. All of these eye shadows are very pigmented and give a good colour at the same time as being very soft and easy to blend without giving a large amount of fall out like some eye shadows! Every one of these eye shadows stays on all day and only fades a little without a primer and with a primer the eye shadows stay on all day with the colour not fading at all and looking exactly the same at the end of the day as it did when it was first applied in the morning!

The top row

The top row swatches

The top row in this palette contains six shades including two pale, quite sheer colours that are good for base colours or a highlight, two gold colours, a pale brown/bronze colour and a dark brown colour. The pale white/cream colour on the far left is my favourite colour to use as a brow highlight and as a highlight in the inner corner of my eye whereas the gold colour on the far right is my favourite colour to use all over my eyelid as I find that it is the shade which makes my blue eyes 'pop' the most.

The bottom row

The bottom row swatches

The bottom row also contains six shades including one pale, quite sheer colour, a light brown colour, and four different dark brown colours, some of which have a more reddish tone to them. All of the darker brown colours are good for crease colours and for creating a brown smokey eye look, which is a look that I do daily!

This is an amazing palette for creating a variety of different everyday eye shadow looks and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes natural colours and shimmery eye shadows! Overall I would give this product a 9/10 just purely for the fact that it does not have any matte shades which lets it down slightly!

Have you tried this palette? What do you think of it?

♥