Nails Of The Day | Edinburgh Feathers

Nails Inc Feathers in Edinburgh* | £11

Today, I want to show you a nail polish from Nails Inc's new limited edition collection "Feathers". There are 4 different polishes to choose from: Edinburgh, York, Chester and Cornwall, which contain tiny feather like particles that come in a range of pastel colours, perfect for Spring! The shade I have is Edinburgh, which contains pale blue and peach strands. I'm loving textured nails at the moment, anything from glitter to unusual effects like this polish, so I've been really excited to try this polish out!

In the photo above, I have layered 2 coats of Edinburgh over a nude nail polish. I found that this polish was very easy to layer up and create an opaque finish. You can also wear the feather polishes alone with 2-3 coats and it will build up to a similar effect. I really love the finish of this polish and if you can get most of the particles to lay in the same direction, it does remind me of a bird's feathers! I find it so interesting to look at and I like how it's incorporating 2 different Spring shades into 1 polish. I also like how the effect isn't so "in your face", so is absolutely perfect to wear on all of yours nails like I've done! In terms of how long it lasts, the strength is like a glitter polish so it won't chip easily and takes a bit more effort to remove with nail polish remover.

The packaging of the "Feathers" polishes is lovely. On each of the bottle's lid there is a bird which has the corresponding feathers as to what colours are in the bottle. I think that's so cute and looks really nice amognst my collection!

Overall, I do like this nail polish! It's very different to anything I've tried before and it's a nice way to have simple yet colourful nails. I would also like to try the shade Cornwall as I'm loving blue nail polish at the moment and I can imagine this to be very pretty!

You can buy Nails Inc Feathers Polishes for £11 from lookfantastic.com with free delivery!

Have you tried the Nails Inc Feathers polishes? If not, would you like to?

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Haul | Beauty & Jewellery

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a lovely Monday and that going back to school wasn't too much of a struggle! Throughout half term, I've been popping into town and larger shopping centres and been doing a bit of shopping. Naturally, I bought far too much makeup and beauty bits, but this does mean I can show you a little haul post! Unfortunately this isn't everything, my camera is awful at taking photos of clothes close up, but hopefully I will get back into the swing of making "outfit of the day" posts again!

One of the first shops I went to was Superdrug to look at the MUA stand and see if there was anything new I needed to pick up! I was able to get my hands on the last Undress Me Too palette on the shelf (yay!) which is meant to be a good dupe to the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette. I thought that for £4, I may as well give it a try! I've used it a few times and will be doing a review on it soon. Next I picked up the MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter. I don't actually own very many highlighters at all so I thought this would be a lovely extra to my collection! I also love the embossed pattern which is meant to be quite similar to a MAC highlighter. Finally I picked up a MUA blusher in Shade 5 Dolly. I've been after an orange toned blusher for quite a while and I thought this was a natural shade that I could wear everyday. It's nicely pigmented and builds up well on the cheeks!

Next I went to Boots to pick up a few nail polishes. I've wanted to try Barry M's Blue Moon and Nude for a while and luckily they were on a special offer of buy 2 and get £1 off! I've been really liking blue nail polishes at the moment and I think Blue Moon will be perfect for Spring! Me and my mum also picked up the new L'Oreal Top Coat Confettis to share. It reminded me of Illamasqua's egg shell nail polishes when applied over a pastel polish. I really recommend picking up this polish as it's a great dupe for about £10 less than the Illamasqua ones!

I also picked up an Angelica glitter polish in Crystal 09 from Primark for just £1. I actually use these polishes in my nail kit at college so I know they're really nice quality for such a good price! The glitter in the polish shines all differently pastel colours so I thought this would be lovely to use in the Spring and Summer!

Next, I managed to find a few beauty bargains in Poundland (where else?!) including the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure polish in Lavender Cloud. This is a white polish with a tiny hint of lilac and I think this will be lovely for the Summer when I have more of a tan. I also picked up 2 CoverGirl TrueShine lipsticks in Lavender Shine and Peach Shine. I believe these are discontinued products and as there are so many in my local Poundlands at the moment, I decided to try them out. They don't offer a lot of colour, more of a tinted sheen but they apply really well.

Finally, I picked up a jewellery set from Miss Selfridge, my favourite shop to buy from! I've been trying to find some pretty stud earrings and this set had 3 rings with matching earrings for only £2. I love the bow and rose designs the most!

Have you picked up any of the new MUA makeup recently?

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Review | Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm

Straight from tube | Fully blended out 

Used as a primer under my foundation

 Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm* | £23

Before trying the Urban Decay beauty balm, BB creams to me were just an orange, oily substance that didn't appeal to me. I never saw the hype and hated the ones by Garnier and Rimmel. However, when I heard that Urban Decay had launched the new beauty balm, Naked Skin, I was very interested to see how this worked for me. This lovely product has changed my outlook on BB creams and now I can say I'm a proud user of one!

Urban Decay claim that this is a multi-purpose beauty balm that has 5 different uses: that it hydrates, primes, protects, perfects and treats your skin. They also say that this is a "miracle worker" which makes your skin instantly look better and delivers serious results in just 8 weeks! In this time, your skin is meant to look more youthful by reducing lines and improving elasticity. It is also a demi-matte finish balm that has SPF 20 in, which means it gives you protection from the sun's rays all year round. The coverage of the product is very sheer, despite being rather orange in the tube, and is suitable for almost any skin tone. As it contains optical blurring technology, this balm isn't designed to cover up blemish, but "blur" them. I'm not 100% sure on this as I can still see the imperfections on my face, but if you have normal and clear skin, this would be a brilliant product just to even out your skin!

Now, I don't have mature skin so I can't really comment whether this would actually reduce the appearance of lines and wrinkles. However, I have been loving what this beauty balm has done for my skin. Within a week of using it everyday, my skin feels much softer, especially after applying it. As Naked Skin is light weight and oil free, I am using it as a face primer under my foundation and on lazy days, just on it's own. I apply a small amount with my fingers and I've found it allows my makeup to apply evenly and last all day. I've also found that when I use this as  primer, I only need one layer of foundation over the top and I'm good to go! With other primers, I still felt like I needed that second coat to achieve the flawless finish, but with Naked Skin, I could do this with just one! I think for the Summer, this would be a lovely product to wear alone with some mascara and lip gloss for a natural look! Another thing I personally like about this product, which others may not, is the smell. It's very fresh and has slight scent of mint to it. I feel like the smell refreshes my face and I just really like it!

As for the packaging, I think Urban Decay has done very well. The tube comes in a shiny bronze box that has a purple floral print on the inside. The tube itself is very sleek and the same shiny bronze colour with a silver/ purple lid. The tube has a nozzle at the end, so you have to squeeze the amount of product out which you need, which is only a pea sized amount for your whole face.

Overall I really love this product. I think it would be perfect if it has a little more coverage, but you don't really expect it with a beauty balm. I'm really enjoying Naked Skin and has now become my first step in my makeup routine!

You can buy the Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm for £23 from lookfantastic.com with free delivery!

Have you tried the Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm? What is your favourite BB cream?

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Soap & Glory Favourites

For ages, I lusted after trying the ever-so-famous Soap & Glory products, but only got round to trying a couple of them. For Christmas last year, I received the Soap & Glory "Best Of All" set which contained 9 full sized products ranging from makeup to body washes, I was so excited to try everything out! Ever since then, I've found myself reaching for some of the products more than others, ones I would declare my absolute favourites to use! So this post is to show what these products are and why I'm loving them so much!

♥ Smoothie Star Deep Moisture Body Milk £10 LINK

This will probably come as no surprise if you read my blog! This body lotion has made it into 2 of my monthly favourites posts, which goes to show how much I love it! The main thing I love about this product is the smell, it's absolutely gorgeous! It has ingredients such as: almond, cocoa, yogurt, oats and honey, which together make a sweet (almost like cake) sort of smell. The scent also lingers on your skin for a good amount of time. As it's a body milk, this lotion sinks into your skin really fast and leaves you feeling super soft (and smelling amazing!). I use this daily after my shower or bath and I seriously look forward to using it! Never thought I could love a body product this much!

♥ Clean, Girls Skin Softening Body Wash £6.00 LINK

Now, I know that most people will prefer the Clean On Me body wash, but I think the scent of this one is much nicer! It has notes of: blackcurrant, magnolia, vanilla fruit and orchid extracts which makes this body wash smell lovely! I also find this lathers up really nicely with 2 pumps and actually leaves my skin feeling clean and soft (hence the name!). I love how the body products have pumps as well as I usually find myself going through body washes like there's no tomorrow, so this way it's more economical.

♥ Peaches & Clean Deep Cleansing Milk £7.00 LINK

Even though I really like this face cleanser, this isn't my everyday one. I still use my Pink Grapefruit cream cleanser by Neutrogena as I find it more gentle on my sensitive skin. If I'm having a bad skin day or feel like my skin needs a deeper cleanse, this is when I will reach for the Peaches & Clean cleanser! With 1 pump this cleanser gets rid of any makeup and feels like it's deep cleansing my skin. It leaves my skin soft and reduces the appearance of my blemishes. The one thing I wasn't sure whether I would like is the smell as it smells of peach schnapps and I didn't want that scent on my face! Luckily, the scent doesn't linger so that is why I really enjoy using this cleanser.

♥ Thick & Fast Super Volume Mascara in Super Jet Black £10 LINK

This was the first ever product I used by Soap & Glory after receiving one for free in Elle magazine about 2 years ago! Ever since then, this is my go-to mascara. I love how it makes my lashes thicker and longer as well as really black. The brush is also really big which I prefer in mascaras as I find they give the lashes the most volume! If you want to read more about this product, I have a review post you can read HERE.

♥ Sugar Crush Body Scrub £8.00 LINK

I think this is my most favourite product from Soap & Glory I have ever used (so far). This is a body scrub with brown sugar and macadamia grains that will gently exfoliate away any dead skin leaving you with amazingly soft skin. It also has sweet lime, which adds to the amazing smell of this product, and almond oil, which also leaves your skin feeling soft. I love the scent of this product so much that if I see the pot on my dresser, I will instantly want to smell it! I really want to try the body wash version of this, but I have so many at the moment, I'm going to wait until I need one! If you need a recommendation of what Soap & Glory product you need to try next, this is what I will suggest to you. It's seriously amazing stuff!

And that is my Soap & Glory favourites! I think Soap & Glory is an amazing brand and even though the price tag is a little higher than your usual body care line, I think the amazing quality definitely justifies it! The packaging alone is so pretty and makes me want to display everything in my bathroom! I hoped you liked this post and helped you pick out what product you want to try next.

What is your favourite Soap & Glory product?

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Review | Wella SP Luxe Oil

 Wella SP Luxe Oil* £24.99

I never used to think hair oils were a vital part of my hair care routine. I thought I could get the same benefits from a standard hair mask or leave in treatment, but since trying this product, I was so wrong! The Wella SP Luxe Oil has become one of my favourite products to use and has totally transformed the condition of my hair.

This is a luxurious hair oil that helps nourish dry, damaged and chemically treated hair. The oil comes in a golden glass bottle with a pump dispenser which makes this feel like a high end product! Wella claims this oil transforms the structure of your hair and protects existing keratin within the first use. With ingredients including: Argan, Almond and Jojoba oil, it leaves your hair feeling soft, smooth and conditioned. I absolutely agree with this! Ever since I first used this oil, my hair has felt so soft and in amazing condition. Also, as my hair's been nourished with the oils, my split ends have been reduced meaning my hair has been less prone to breaking. This is great as my hair is ombre (half bleached), so is very weak and snaps easily.
The oil is also very light weight so for me this leaves my curls defined and frizz free which means I can leave my hair completely natural. It also means that it's a perfect product to use on fine hair as it will not weigh your hair down and keeps your natural volume.

You can use this oil on either wet or dry hair so can fit anywhere in your hair routine. The bottle suggests using 1-2 pumps depending on the thickness and condition of your hair, so it will vary how much you use.
If my hair is feeling very dry, I will apply around 2 pumps of the oil to the mid-lengths and ends of my hair after washing it. The oil will absorb into your hair and smooth down the cuticles which allows your hair to become frizz free and really soft.
If I want to add shine to my hair as well as softness, I will use it on dry hair. I'll apply 1 pump on to the mid-lengths and ends of my hair. Even though it's an oil, using this product on dry hair doesn't leave your it feeling greasy at all, just super soft. This is my favourite way to use the oil as it leaves my hair feeling incredible and smelling amazing! That's another thing about this product, the smell is gorgeous! It's quite sweet (kind of like dolly-mixture with a hint of almonds) and reminds me of products hairdressers use in the salons.
I have been using this product nearly everyday for a month and as you only need to use a small amount, it's lasted me ages! On days where I don't use the oil, my hair still feels really soft so I do think this is helping restore my damaged hair! This is a definite life saver product.

I absolutely love this product and is a miracle oil in a bottle. It feels like a salon treatment at home and I think for the results, the price is very reasonable, especially because it's going to last me a very long time. I really recommend you trying this hair oil out because it's totally transformed the condition of my hair for the better!

You can order the Wella SP Luxe Oil from lookfantastic.com for £19.89 plus free delivery!

Have you tried the SP Luxe Oil, if not, what's your favourite hair oil?

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Review | Mavala Nail Colours

Mavala Nail Colours in Metallic Grey* & Peacock Green* £5.55

Mavala is a Swiss nail polish brand that I had heard of a couple of times, but never got round to buying. Recently I was able to try 2 of the nail polishes from the Arabesque Collection, which features 4 metallic shades inspired by the Autumn/ Winter 2013 season. The shades you can collect are: Copper Gold, Shimmer Violet, Peacock Green and Metallic Grey (I have the last two). Metallic shades are also in for Spring 2013, so I was really excited to try these shades out!

Each polish comes in little glass bottles with golden handles that holds 5ml of product. This isn't much compared to other brands, in actual fact it's half the amount to a Barry M Nail Paint. However, I rarely find myself finishing a nail polish so I know this will still last me a long time.

The first shade is 192 Metallic Grey, which is a light grey/ light lilac with silver iridescent shimmer. You can't really see the shimmer on your nails once it's applied as it's very subtle, but it does look pretty in the bottle. The second shade is 191 Peacock Green which is a beautiful emerald colour with shimmer. Both of the polishes are very easy and smooth to apply. However I do find them to be a little streaky with just 1 coat, but applying 2 coats makes them look perfect. The brush is quite small and flat which means you can get right to the cuticle without flooding it and making a mess.
The finish of each polish is glossy and shiny so look great without a top coat. The drying time is also quite quick, which I was pleasantly surprised about. Once dry, your nails feel very smooth which was an added bonus!

In terms of how long they last without a top coat, both polishes started to chip after the first day. By the second day, my nails were looking a bit tatty so I think it's essential to wear a top coat with these polishes. I also found that with Peacock Green, one of my nail's polish peeled off quite easily. This could be because I applied it thicker than I did with Metallic Grey, but I did only do 2 coats which is what it needs! However, I don't think this will put me off wearing these polishes again! I really love the colour of Metallic Grey as it gives my nails a simple yet pretty finish. Peacock Green is also a really pretty colour and I love how shiny it is on the nails.

Overall I really like these nail polishes, the formula is nice to work with and the range of colours is great! The next shade I want to try is Blue Mint as I think it will be perfect for the Spring time!

Mavala Nail Colours are available on the lookfantastic.com website for £4.30 plus free delivery!

Have you tried Mavala Nail Colours before?

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Mini Haul | Makeup & Nail Polish

Revlon Lip Gloss Palette £1 | Barry M Nail Paints in Blueberry, Prickly Pear & Clear £3.99 & £2.99

Rimmel Lasting Finish Kiss & Stay Lip Gloss in 080 Cherry Blossom £1 | Makeup Academy Lipstick in Shade 1 £1

So I recently went to 3 of my favourite shops to pick up some beauty products: Boots, Superdrug and Poundland! I managed to pick up a couple items that I've wanted to try for quite a while plus some extras that "accidentally" fell into my basket.

The first things I picked up was a Revlon Lip Gloss Palette from Poundland. I've never seen this product before but because I like Revlon, I decided to give this a go! This little palette has a mini brush and 5 different lip glosses (there is one underneath which you can just about see) which consist of: a hot pink, a sheer white, a sheer glittery white, a nude/ brown and a vampy purple. The texture of the 4 lip glosses on top are quite gloopy, but once on the lips they blend out nicely and give a hint of colour. The consistency of the purple shade is much drier and harder to blend, which I really don't like. I don't think I'll get much wear out of this palette, but it was quite nice to try out and has a good selection of lip gloss shades.

The next product I bought from Poundland was the Rimmel Lasting Finish Kiss & Stay Lip Gloss in 080 Cherry Blossom. This is one of the nicest lip products I've found in Poundland! This is a combination of a cherry red lip stain and a clear lip gloss. The formula of the lip stain is amazing, it's very pigmented, opaque and creamy to apply. As it dries quite matte, your lips do feel dry but the clear lip gloss gives you the shiny finish. I find the gloss isn't the best in the world, so I usually pair it with a different one like Barry M. This lip stain also lasts a really long time and is actually quite hard to remove so is perfect for a night out as it won't transfer on to your glass or budge when you eat!

Next from Superdrug, I picked up a Makeup Academy Lipstick in Shade 1. You may be able to tell that I'm loving red lips at the moment, so I thought I would pick up yet another one to add to my collection! I love MUA lipsticks (you can read my review of them HERE) and this shade is no exception! The pigmentation is incredible and the formula is so creamy. I haven't bought a MUA lipstick in quite a while, but I'm glad to see they have made the bottom of the lipstick twist off so you have a mini pot of the product to use!

Finally, I was sucked into the 3 for 2 offer on all Barry M products at Boots. I've wanted to try the Gelly Hi-Shine Gel Effect Nail Paints for quite a while so thought this was a good of a time as any to pick some up. I chose Blueberry and Prickly Pear because I think these colours are so pretty for Spring and Summer! I have tried these and, despite the fact the colours are gorgeous, the formula isn't so great! With 1 coat these nail polishes are streaky and thin, so they definitely need 2 coats to make them look decent. As for the free product, I picked up the Basecoat, topcoat & nail hardener in Clear. I've been in need of a new top coat and nail hardener, so thought I would try this out! So far I really like it and has definitely stopped my nails from peeling and breaking as much - finally!

Have you tried the Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Gel Effect Nail Paints?

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Review | Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette* £20

I'm a huge fan of Urban Decay and when I heard about this new eye shadow palette, I was really excited to try it out! I already own the Naked original palette and absolutely love it, but I felt that it didn't offer a lot of matte shades to make a simple everyday look. This is where the Naked Basics Palette takes the spotlight. This little palette offers 5 matte and 1 satin finish eyeshadows that are perfect for creating that everyday look.

As you can see from the photo, the Naked Basics Palette is half the size of the Naked original making it great for popping in your hand bag and using it on the go, especially when you're travelling. The Naked Basics has 6 full sized eye shadows including 4 exclusive shades to the palette:

Venus - (New) an off-white satin finish shadow which is perfect for highlighting.

Foxy - a creamy biscuit matte finish shadow which is a lovely lid colour.

Walk Of Shame - a very light nude/ brown matte finish shadow which again, is a great lid colour.

Naked 2 - (New) a taupe matte finish shadow which can be use in the crease for day time or as a lid colour for a night time look.

Faint - (New) a warm, dusty brown matte finish shadow which is great for the outer corner or crease.

Crave - (New) a deep, dark brown/ black matte finish shadow which is perfect for the outer corner. 

All of the shadows are soft, pigmented and so easy to blend. I do find Crave to be chalkier than the rest, but it is still very easy to work with. With an eye primer, these shadows last me all day, even through working long hours in the college salon. By the time I'm going to bed, I can still see I'm wearing the eye shadows, but they're just less intense than when I first put them on. I find that Venus wears off quite quicly when placed in the inner corner, but the rest have amazing staying power, which I would expect nothing less from Urban Decay. All of these shadows are really wearable and you can mix and match between the palette and still end up with a pretty eye look. The only problem I have with this palette is that the first 3 look very similar in the pan and when on the eye, however I know I will get a lot of wear out of all of these colours.

As for the packaging, Urban Decay definitely stuck to the "Basics" theme and kept it as simple as possible. The outer packaging is slightly rubberised and is a lovely bronze colour. It also comes with a large mirror which takes up the whole lid if the palette, so is perfect to use on the go! Unlike the other two Naked palettes, this one doesn't come with a brush or a mini freebie. Personally this doesn't bother me as it's much cheaper than the other palettes and contains the 4 new eye shadows.

Overall I think this is a great palette that I now use in my everyday makeup routine as I find the shades so wearable. If you're into creating neutral eye looks with matte shadows or just want to expand your eyeshadow collection, this palette would be great for you!

You can order the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette from lookfantastic.com for £20 plus free delivery!

Have you tried the Naked Basics Palette?

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