Autumn & Winter Nail Polishes

Each polish after 1 coat

Hello lovelies! I cannot believe how quick Summer has gone (in fact, 2013 is going way too fast!) and that I'm now thinking of Autumn and Winter kind of posts. If you read my blog, you may remember that I did a Spring and Summer nail polish post where I talked about my top 5 polishes of those seasons. I thought it would be good to keep these kinds of posts going and chat to you all about what nail polishes I'm going to be loving for the cooler months! I had a good rummage through my box of polishes and found a few that I'm really excited to start wearing again this Autumn/ Winter. I probably could have included another 5 berry shades and another 10 glitter polishes, but I narrowed it down to my top 5!

Butter London Nail Lacquer in "Shambolic"

I found this nail polish on sale last year and I instantly fell in love with it. It's a gorgeous deep golden purple glitter polish that works really well over other purple toned polishes. It has different sized bits of glitter in and can be built up to an opaque finish in a couple of coats. This is the type of polish I like to wear on my ring finger nails as an accent polish, but it can easily be worn on all the nails for a glitzy look!

Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in "Plum" | Review | LINK

I love deep, rich shades for the Autumn time and I think Barry M's Plum is going to be my go to purple shade this year! The thick and creamy consistency of this polish means it looks great in just 1 coat plus with the glossy finish, there's no need for a top coat. I think this will be a great partner for Butter London's Shambolic. 

Barry M Nail Paint in "Amethyst Glitter" | LINK

This polish is probably one of my all time favourites as it contains a range of gorgeously coloured glitters! Everything from pink to navy to gold, it's a glitter top coat that can work with a range of coloured nail polishes. Glitter polishes in the Autumn/ Winter time are a staple for me, especially around Christmas time! I think this polish will look it's best with a deep, navy shade.

Barry M Nail Paint in "Raspberry" | LINK

Yet another Barry M nail polish. I just think their colour and glitter ranges are amazing for this time of year and I'm really looking forward to their new collections for Autumn! Barry M's Raspberry is quite a popular nail polish, especially for the Autumn time as it's a gorgeous berry toned raspberry polish that looks stunning on the nails. I've been really looking forward to using this polish again and I've definitely missed using it through the Summer!

Nails Inc Nail Lacquer in "Chelsea Manor Street"* | Review

My final top nail polish for Autumn/ Winter is probably my favourite out of the bunch - Nails Inc's Chelsea Manor Street. Metallics are a really popular shade for this time of year and I think the gunmetal colour of this polish is gorgeous! Also, it has tiny specks of glitter in which makes this polish look amazing on the nails. It has a creamy and opaque formula and is one of my favourite nail polishes to use.

So these are my top 5 nail polishes for the Autumn/ Winter time! I really can't wait to start painting my nails with all different deep toned and glitter polishes, it makes a good change from wearing bright colours all the time. I hope you enjoyed this post and I would love to hear what your favourite polishes are for the Autumn/ Winter time!

What is your favourite nail polish for Autumn and Winter?

What do you think of my top 5 polishes?

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Nails Of The Day | Bikini So Teeny

Essie Nail Lacquer in Bikini So Teeny | £7.99

Hello lovelies, I hope you've all had a great weekend! The other day I ordered a new Essie polish called "Bikini So Teeny" from Fragrance Direct. Now, I'm pretty sure most of you have heard about this beautiful blue/ purple shade and I for one have been lusting after it for ages! So when I spotted this little beauty on the Fragrance Direct website for just £1.99 I immediately made an order and was so excited to finally try it out! It arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to put it on my nails, so I thought I would do a Nails Of The Day post for you all!

"Bikini So Teeny" is a gorgeous blue/ purple shade that is described as a cornflower blue on the website. It also has tiny bits of silver shimmer which I hope you can see in the photos above. This shade is so pretty for Spring and Summer and I love how it looks on the nails! I like how subtle the shimmer is and it adds a little something to the polish to keep it from looking flat on the nails. The formula is nice, applies well and has an opaque finish in 2 coats, but I added an extra third in the picture above to make sure it was completely even. I'm already in love with this nail polish and I'm so glad I finally have it in my collection!

You can still order Essie's "Bikini So Teeny" from the Fragrance Direct website HERE, so if you're on the hunt for it like I was, then be sure to snap one up as soon as possible!

Have you tried Essie's Bikini So Teeny? If not, what is your favourite Essie polish shade?

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Haul | Makeup & Nail Polish

Hello everyone! If you read my latest post or follow me on Twitter, then you would know that there have been a few bits and pieces of makeup that I have wanted to try out. This is a bit of a collective haul as there are some products that I picked up a couple weeks ago as well as some that I bought last weekend. Some of the main pieces I wanted to try were couple of blushers and the Sleek Face Form Palette, so I'm very happy to have found them and can't wait to try them out!

InStyle - Nails inc Polishes in "It's Red, Babez" and "You're A Peach" [£3.90 each]

Now, if you read my blog on a regular basis then you would know I'm obsessed with Nails inc polishes! I think they're brilliant quality, the colour range is amazing and they're definitely my favourite brand of nail polish! With this month's InStyle magazine, there is a choice of 3 Nails inc freebies. I chose the red and peach shades as I have far too many pinks in my collection to need another one! So far I'm really liking these polishes, especially "You're A Peach" - a definite must have colour for Summer!

Elle - Benefit They're Real! Mascara [£4.00] LINK

I'm pretty sure every blogger and their dog either own this magazine freebie or have at least heard about it. I have tried the They're Real! mascara before and wasn't 100% sure whether I liked it or not. It felt quite dry and uncomfortable on my eyes, but I loved the way it made my lashes look. I thought that for just £4, I may as well give it another try; hopefully it'll work better this time!

Marie Claire - Avon Super Shock Gel Eye Liner in "Black" [£3.90]

Believe it or not, I have never tried a gel eye liner before despite hearing so many good things about them. I spotted this liner in Marie Claire and thought for around £4, it was worth a try. I'm so impressed with this liner! It's incredibly pigmented and black and literally stays on your eyes all day! If you're in need of a new black liner, definitely give this a go!

Sleek Face Form Palette in "Light" [£9.99] LINK

I have been searching for a contouring kit for a while now and had my heart set on trying this little palette. The Face Form Palette comes with a matte bronzer, a shimmery highlighter and a blusher in "Rose Gold". I thought this kit would be perfect for travelling with, especially on holiday, as it's so compact and contains everything you need for contouring. The 3 shades are very pigmented and I cannot wait to try this out! 

Also, a few people said to me that the original Contour Kit is discontinued - it's not! When I asked the lady in Superdrug to help me find this palette in "Fair" I actually saw a load of the Contour Kits in the drawers underneath the stand. I asked why they weren't out and apparently it's because they didn't have enough display space! So if you want to try the Contour Kit (£6.49) and can't find it, just ask someone in Superdrug to have a look for you!

Topshop Cream Blush in "Head Over Heels" [£6.00] LINK

Finally, I have dipped my toes into the world of Topshop blushers and I have to say, I love them! This is a gorgeous bright coral shade and looks beautiful once blended out into the skin. I can see this being perfect for Summer as it gives my cheeks a pretty, natural orange glow. I have now added the shade "Flush" on my to wish list (will this list ever end haha?) which is a very pretty rose pink.

Bourjois Cream Blush in "Healthy Glow" [£7.99] LINK

After reading way too many raving reviews, I finally caved and picked up one of the new cream blushers by Bourjois. At first I thought these were way too small to be worth £7.99 and that I didn't want to waste my money. However, I was able to pick it up for free in the Superdrug 3 for 2 sale so I wasn't too fussed. I haven't tried this blusher yet, but I can't wait to see how it looks on my cheeks! I don't think I'll be picking up any of the other shades as at the moment because I think they're quite over priced, but you never know, I could change my mind!

Makeup Academy Mosaic Bronzer in "Sunkissed Glow" [£2.50] LINK

This is another product that I've read a lot of reviews about and thought I should finally add one to my collection. I don't own many bronzers so I thought this would be a nice one to try out, especially that it has pinks and lighter shades in. "Sunkissed Glow" gives a really healthy glow to my skin and works well as both a bronzer and blusher!

Real Techniques Stippling Brush [£10.99] LINK

Real Techniques brushes are amazing, I already own the Core Collection set and thought I should branch into the other brushes they have to offer. As I've been wearing and buying cream blushers recently, I thought the best option was to go for the Stippling brush. The bristles are very soft and apply my cream blushers like a dream! I'm so glad to finally have this brush in my collection and think it was well worth investing into.

Milani Eye Shadow Quad in "04 Earthly Delights" [£1.00]

 I have never tried the brand Milani before but I've heard some good things from American bloggers. I found this little eye shadow quad in my local Poundland and thought I would give it a go. The shades are all very neutral, earthy colours and I think they all work very well together. The shadows are nicely pigmented so this will be a handy little palette to have in my collection.

Topshop Lips Lipsticks in "Ditsy" and "Crystal" [£8.00 - £9.00 each] LINK | LINK

  My two final products I picked up are my new Topshop lipsticks in "Ditsy" and "Crystal". You may have already seen "Crystal" (right) in my What's inside my beauty bag post, but I thought I would include it in this haul too. This lipstick is a glittery pink shade reacts to the PH of your lips to create a unique shade of pink that suits you. This is a gorgeous lipstick and looks amazing in the tube! "Ditsy" (left) is a lipstick that I haven't seen or heard much about but I decided to give it a go. It's a beautiful hot coral shade that applies so smoothly to the lips. I can't get enough of this lipstick, it's just so lovely to wear! I highly recommend you to pick up both of these shades for this Summer, I think they're going to look amazing!

So this is all the makeup and nail polish that I have bought recently. I hope that you enjoyed this post, sorry that it was super long! As usual, if you have written a haul post recently please do leave the link the comments below, I love reading them!

Have you bought anything the same as me? What are your thoughts on it?

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Giveaway | Christmas Thank You ♥ CLOSED

Hello everyone!

Oh yes, it's that time again! Time for another giveaway, and this time it's for Christmas! 

This time of year is about giving to those you love and mean something to you. You guys all mean something to me as you have supported me and my blog over the past few months. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, this is a little something I want to give back to you to say thank you.

This giveaway will be running for 1 month from Monday 5th November 2012 12:01am EST to Wednesday 5th December 2012 12:01am EST (this is 5:01am GMT time). This way I will have time to send your prizes to you near Christmas time. 

The Prizes

You may use this photo if you create a blog post about this giveaway. Please link it back to my blog.

 Nails inc. London nail polish in Glamour Glitter
 Revlon Nail Enamel in 120 Hushed Blush
Revlon Nail Enamel in 762 Plum Attraction
Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips in 110 Cry Baby
Makeup Academy Lipstick in Shade 8
Sweet & Snuggles Chocolate Vanilla hand cream
A reindeer shaped shower gel
2 Montagne Jennesse face masques

The Rules

There are 3 simple rules about this giveaway and entering it!

1. This giveaway is for UK residents only.

2. Be a public GFC follower of my blog. Any new followers and entrants are welcome!

3. Leave a comment on this blog telling me what you would like for Christmas! I think it's nice to see what others are hoping to get! 

Please can you also leave either your Twitter or email address in the comment so I can contact you if you win.

Extra Entries

The next options will allow you extra entries to the giveaway!

♥ You can follow me on Twitter @beautybelleamie.

♥ You can tweet "I have just entered @beautybelleamie 's Christmas giveaway! Enter here: *insert link*".

♥ You can like my Facebook page "Belle-amie".

♥ You can follow me on Instagram @amiehaffenden.

♥ You can create a blog post about this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for entering and good luck!

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Nails Of The Day | Raspberry

So I thought I would do another nails of the day post with one of my favourite Barry M nail paints! This is Raspberry, a lovely pink toned red which I think is great for Autumn. Here I have 2 layers of this polish to create the opaque and glossy finish. In real life it's a bit darker and I compliments my skin tone much better than a post box red does. If you haven't picked up this nail polish yet, now's a great time because it's such a nice colour for the cooler months!

You can buy Barry M nail paints from Boots, Superdrug and Barry M's website.

What's your favourite nail polish for Autumn?

Amie ♥

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Nails Of The Day | Beach Party

Left to right: Ciate Paint Pot in My Fair Lady, Models Own Hed Kandi Polish in Beach Party and Natural Collection in Crystal Clear

Ring from Accessorize

It may be near the end of Summer, but I still wanted a bright pop of colour on my nails whilst there is still some sun left. I searched for ages to try and find Beach Party (even rummaging through the stock drawers under the makeup stands), and luckily one day I found one left on the shelf at Boots and I was so excited to try it out! I haven't worn this as much as I would like because it's a 'highlighter' shade of orange, completely neon, I shy away from wearing it.

Here I have a nude base coat of the My fair Lady, as without one, this nail polish will most certainly turn your nails a horrible shade of yellow! I then applied 2 coats of Beach Party. Now, I have a love hate relationship with this polish as I find it quite messy to apply. I really have to concentrate when I apply this! As long as you have some cotton buds and nail varnish remover to hand, you should be fine! Finally I put a layer of Crystal Clear on top to keep the polish from chipping.

Does anyone else own Beach Party? Do you like the neon trend?

Amie ♥

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Review | Sally Hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Pen

Sally Hansen Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Pen in 01 Silver Chrome

1 layer of the nail polish

I came across this product in Poundland (haul linked HERE) and thought this would be an interesting nail polish concept to try out. I've tried a few Sally Hansen nail polishes before and I have been impressed so I was expecting great results from this too.

This product is a nail polish with a built in brush so has easy and convenient application for your nails. To disperse the product you have to press the coloured bottom several times, especially for the first use, until the brush has also turned the colour of the nail polish. You then simply paint your nails with the brush. I find that the colour comes out very opaque and, as long as you don't overload the brush, very evenly. If you don't disperse enough product it can be thin and scratchy to apply, so you need to test it out before so you have the right amount of product on the brush. I also found that it wasn't as messy as I thought it would be to apply. I thought that because the brush seemed quite big and not tapered that the nail varnish would go on to my skin a lot more than it actually did. As you can see I have a couple bits of the nail polish on my skin, but that can easily be cleaned up with a cotton bud and nail polish!

Also, I found that it was very quick to apply this nail polish, I painted my nails within a minute and didn't have any messing around with having to go over areas or having any product drip down off the brush and create blobs on my nails! To add to the quickness of this product, the nail polish actually dries quite quickly like the packaging suggests, so going on to the second coat will not take much time either! I haven't found the nail polish left on the brush after use to dry up yet, so the brush hasn't gone stiff so it is still soft enough to apply the nail product. 

My only issue is that there wasn't a huge selection of colours at my Poundland because I really want to try some more colours! My mum picked up the 07 Fuchsia Chrome one, so I do have that one to try out too!

So overall I really like this nail polish product! I think It will be great for nail art, such as half silver and half pink (for example) nails, because the brush can be easily controlled. If I see any more of these in my Poundland then I will be sure to pick them up! They are also sold on eBay and Amazon with prices ranging from £2 to £10, so getting them from Poundland is a great bargain!

Hope this review was useful! Have you tried the Sally Hansen Color Quick nail polish yet?

Amie ♥

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Cosmopolitan's Missguided Nail Polish Freebie

I am loving magazine freebies at the moment and next on my list was the Missguided nail polish from Cosmopolitan's magazine. there were 3 shades to choose from worth £5 each: Missmatch - a neon orange, Misstify - a neon pink and Misslead - a neon yellow. As I have plenty of pink nail polishes and am not a fan of yellow ones, I went for the orange colour as I love orange/ coral this Summer!

August 2012 issue

Each polish comes in its own cute box packaging.

Missmatch

I wore this nail polish on the 22nd for a BBQ (2 coats)

The magazine is worth £3.50 so you save £1.50 off of this nail varnish, which isn't a huge amount but it's still saving some money. I've been on the hunt for some bright orange nail polishes recently so when I saw this I thought I may as well give it a go. I've never tried anything by Missguided before but I do love their online website, there are so many pretty clothes (especially dresses) that I want! I'm not planning on getting the other two colours but the pink does look very pretty!

Have you been able to try the Missguided nail polishes?

Amie ♥

Revlon Nail Polish Collection

Here is another nail polish collection by Revlon that I wanted to share with you! Again, I don't have a lot of Revlon nail polishes because I usually buy them from Poundland and I haven't been there enough to build up a proper collection. Also they do not always have a great colour selection and I do only buy colours that I think I will wear like pinks and coral. If you want to see past nail polish collections by Barry M click HERE and Rimmel London click HERE!

099 Effervescent Opal

229 Demure

914 Tropical Temptation

570 Vixen

762 Plum Attraction

038 Ruby Ribbon

Star

As you can see I really love plum and wine coloured nail polish, especially for Winter! The colour Demure didn't look massively appealing in the bottle but I thought I may as well try it out and I'm glad I did. It's a very pretty orange toned pink that I thought wouldn't suit my nails, but it does! All of Revlon's nail polishes are a great consistency and you can get a great opaque nail look with 2-3 coats.

Amie ♥

Rimmel London Nail Polish Collection

I've seen a few bloggers making posts on their nail varnish collections and to follow on from my Barry M nail polish collection, I've decided to show my Rimmel nail polish collection! I don't have hundreds of their nail polishes, just a fair few, but I do love the quality of the products and there's always a huge variety of colours to choose from!

270 Hot Shot

060 Hot & Spicy

260 Funtime Fuchsia

819 Green With Envy

331 Speed Dating

622 Star Kissed

623 Wishing On A Star

628 Twinkle

628 Be A Star

627 Movie Star

875 Zeitgeist

My favourites are Hot & Spicy and Speed Dating, they're such easy colours to wear and have a lovely colour pay off. The only one I'm not sure on is Zeitgeist, it's the 'petrol' type of effect where it's green, yellow and pink depending on the lighting. It looks quite fun in the bottle, but just doesn't look nice on my nails.

If you'd like to see more nail polish collections let me know!

Amie ♥