Rimmel Match Perfection foundation review

Hi Guys

This is another foundation that my mum has given to me.

As with the Wake me up foundation the shade is one too light but fine with bronzer. It is supose to have magic stuff in it to make it a flawless finish but personally I never believe in the PR bullshit. The only way your face will look flawless is if you already have 9% flawless skin. So far it does not seem to be reacting badly with my skin.

For the price point it is a good foundation but I haven't fallen in love with it.  The coverage is an ok medium but I find the product quite liquidy...not as thick as the wake me up foundation. It does have a nice finish - neither dewy or matt - a nice in between. 

I think that this foundation is a 7/10 - I think the problem is me! I have some sort of ideal in my head and this just doesn't meet it, but it's definitely ok and I' happy to use this as my current everyday work foundation.

Have you tried this? Any other high street foundation recommendations?

Rimmel Wake me up foundation review

Hi Guys!

My mum has become a youtube addict. Addicted to beauty gurus to be exact. I have no idea where this has come from - prior to this she only wore make up at my graduation. As a result of her new found hobby she has purchased a few make up bits and pieces but inevitably she gets bored of them (since she doesn't wear make up duh!!!) and I get the hand me downs - for which I am really grateful.

Ok that was a long spiel. Basically, my mum gave me this foundation - Rimmel's Wake Me Up (shade 201 classic beige). I won't talk about shade too much as obviously this was for my mum's skin tone but actually it's not too off from me, maybe one shade too light, but nothing a lot of bronzer and shizzle won't fix!

Ok - so what do I think of the foundation?

I don't like it for one main reason - it broke me out really bad within a week - left me with horrid red and painful (ooooowwwwwww) bumps all over my face. So yeah, that's a bit crap.

Aside from that, it was an ok foundation for the price point. Buildable to a good medium coverage, lasts the working day with touch ups, not a cakey finish. I didn't like the shimmer shimmer but I think for other people that's part of the selling point.

If this hadn't broke me out I wouldn't have repuchased anyway but I would have happily finished off the bottle. (And since we're on the subject - I love the bottle, pump and lid.)

Have any of you tried this? Anyone have a bad reaction?

May and June - Nail of the Day

Holy crabsticks!!!!

Ahoy there blog readers!

Woah it's been a long time - how is everyone doing? Apologies apologies - I've lost my blogging mojo. I haven't really found it but I'm suppose to be doing something and so I've decided to procrastinate and blog. Makes sense to me!

Let's just keep it simple and talk nail polish. I love nail polish. I remember being in primary school and Mrs Flowers' saying to my mum that I had prostitute nails (my fav at the time were baby blue with rainbow glitter and a neon orange). Anyways, just wanted to share my nail of the days for May and June.

[Above - Claire's polishes]

I was walking past Claire's (formally Claire's Accessories) and there was a massive poster in the window proclaiming that the nail polishes were all £1. I felt very awkward (OLD) when I walked into the crapped and messy store but nothing will keep me away from £1 polishes!!! I've not tried Claire's polishes before but I am not fussy so was happy to pick up a few. Aren't I exciting and brave?! These polishes didn't have an official name or product number (that I can see) so I'm just going to call it as I see it... and please forgive my nasty naked nails; I was really excited to swatch (two coats).

[Above - nasty swatches ;)]

 First up we have a leather look polish in black (RRP £4). As you can see from the horrendous swatch, ,it's grainy. That's the best word I can think of. I don't know what sort of leather they were aiming for - a cow's bumhole?! Definitely not Chanel lambskin. It's black and matt and grainy. You wouldn't think it was an in-your-face nail look but a lot of people stopped and asked about my nasty nails. It probably didn't help that I was sporting talons when I decided to wear this look. It's very cool and I swayed back and forth between love and hate. At times I hated the texture; the graininess made me want to puke and sent shivers up my spine, but the 'on trend' look had me waking up at 2am googling for more leather look polishes. Overall? For £1 I am happy enough and glad I got to try it out.

Next we have blue (RRP £2.25). Blue isn't really a colour I like to incorporate into my clothes or nail wardrobe - but I am on a hunt for a dupe of Nails Inc's Baker Street. I've gotten to the point where I've purchased so much crap that I should have splashed out the £11 but that's easy to say in retrospect isn't it. I haven't worn this properly but the swatch impressed me. The first coat was horribly watery and sheer but as you can see the second coat made it beautifully deep and glossy, and true to the bottle colour. As a nail polish it's good - not great but not at all bad - but probably not something I needed for my collection at all.

Lastly we have...a nude with bits in it. I can't describe it but I love it. I wore this to a wedding and it was a perfect mix of lady like with an edge. The 'bits' are not glittery at all which for someone my age (OMG have I reached that age where I can say that?!) is great. RRP is only £2.50 and after using it I would be happy to pay the full price. This polish was definitely the bet out of the bunch and worth the trip into Claire's.

[Above - Leighton Denny in Just Perfect]

[Above - Leighton Denny in Zero Gravity]

The above two Leighton Denny polishes were gifted to me by my lovely buddy N (same N who gave me a shit load of BB creams which I posted about maybe 1-2 years ago!)). I got loads more of Leighton Denny goodies from her but there's only so many hours in a day to paint my nails lol

As I've said earlier, I am not fussy about nail polish - as long as I like the colour I'm happy - but OMG I have to say that Leighton Denny's polishes are on point. Colour-wise, love the two colours above but that's not what I am head over heels about. I am in love with the formula. I think these retail around the £11 price point which is the same as Nails Inc and Ciate but that's where the similarities end. Nails Inc chips like a bitch and Ciate is not as opaque after 2 coats that I would expect for the price. But LD? Wow wow wow. As soon as I painted my first nail my heart was doing back flips. It's thick but not gloopy. It's smooth and opaque. And it dries super duper fast. This is a lady's polish - all glossy and grown up. Just Perfect (a gorgeous pinky peachy apricot?) got me so many compliments. I wore it for about 2 weeks (I did have to touch up but 2 weeks?!) because I didn't want to take it off. I am in a horrible dilemma now (hash tag firstworldproblems) - the bottle of Just Perfect is a tiny 4.6ml (the full size zero gravity is 12ml) - do I seriously purchase a full sized? How could I not?

[Above - LA Colors in Pink Bubbles]

[Above - LA Colors in Summertime]

Back to Earth now. My Cinderella moment has come to an end and the coach is now a pumpkin again. Went out with Cee and ended up in Beauty Base (despite me begging her not to let me go inside). I said I was there to repurchase my fav shade Moody Red but I ended up with 4 polishes (at 99p each dude come on!!!). 

First one I tried out last week was Pink Bubbles and I love it. The picture does it absolutely no justice at all - this is a young and bright pink, almost neon, but not as neon as Lightning (Cee finds it funny that I know the names of polishes but these are my babies and parents remember their babies names). Pink bubbles got a lot of attention and compliments from random strangers but I think the fact that my nails were in a really good shape contributed to that. This is definitely one of my favs. 

The polish I am wearing right now was chosen by Cee and it's Summertime (bit of a slap in the face considering it's raining as I type) - its a pretty bubble gum pink; very similar to Rimmel's Urban Princess and ELF's bubble gum. I'm really glad with this purchase because the two aforementioned polishes are getting dry and gloopy so I found this at just the right time. My nails were getting so long that I couldn't do stuff (put in my contact lenses, type, open bottles or jars) so I had to cut them. Even though I like my nails long, shorter nails allow me to wear brighter colours and one of the other colours waiting to be tested out is a neon green so I look forward to sharing that with you all soon. 

Wishing everyone a great week xoxox

NOTD: Dark skies and palm trees

Hi Guys!

Just did my nails; please forgive the messy edges but I thought I'd quickly post before I tidied them up.

For the first time I used a base coat - to be honest I don't usually bother, I don't see the point but for some reason my last nail polish (Nails Inc's London) stained my nails so thought I'd be safe rather than sorry with this dark nail choice.

So anyway!! I've got on Elf's Dark Navy. I've had this for maybe a year but only just used it now. I thought it was shimmery but it's actually a gorgeous deep, dark navy with a sheen but no glitter. When I first painted in on I thought it was black but once tried it is def navy.

On a random finger per hand I've also used LA Colors palm trees for a bit of fun and I also think it helps the navy to 'pop'.

In real life the contrast is lovely and represents the weather we should be having vs the sunshine we have been having. No idea what outfit this is going to go with tomorrow which is another reason why I've been avoiding the navy polish. I guess I could wear a yellow dress and red lippy and I'd be like a colour wheel!

Review: Natural Collection & Rimmel's matte finish

Hi Guys!

So a few weeks ago I purchased some stuff from Boots and I just wanted to let you know what I thought about them.

[Above]

3 items from Natural Collection, Boots. Cost me £3.98 for all 3 items because of a 3 for 2 promo.

But anyway, what did I think?

Foundation: Frankly, this was crap, but RRP £1.99 who cares! I just wanted to have something in my bag to refresh my face if I was out and this does the job. I think that if you had great skin (which I do not) this would actually be an ok product. But for me, I could not use this in the morning, it wouldn't be enough for me, I would scare grown men. The consistency is a bit runny and so coverage isn't great. I actually really liked the colour and dewyness (is that a word?!).

Concealer: Firstly, I could have probably gone a shade darker but that's not Natural Collection's fault. Similar complaint as the foundation - too runny. It takes the redness out of my spots/blemishes but it's not hard core enough for me. I got this as a possible replacement for my clinique concealer but I am def going to have to invest in a new concealer.

Blusher: YAY!!! Love this blusher!! The colour is really pretty, just pink and gorgeous. Surprise surprise the staying power isn't great, but I don't mind reapplying. Great cheapy item to have. I've been using this everyday. I think I will get the other colours.

Overall conclusion: You get what you pay for. I am not put off Natural Collection at all. I would recommend this for people with great skin who just want to wear make up rather then people who depend on make up (i.e moi!). Also, i think this would make a great starter kit if you are just getting into make up. Safe pretty colours and nothing too fancy.

[Above]

Rimmel's Matte Finish.

What can I say? I love it. Totally happy I finally bought one. I will review this in two parts:

Rimmel: This is a Rimmel product (obviously). You can get a matte finish topcoat from quite a few brands now. I am glad I want for Rimmel as I love the maxi brush, especially for a topcoat where you can just plop it on; perfect!

Matte Finish: I love the matte look. But there are two things you need to know if you are venturing into matte nail world:

1) matte chips easier then 'normal'. Just a heads up!

2) the matte top coat fades. E.g I painted my nails last week and finished off with a matte topcoat. At the beginning of the week my nails were matte green and pink leopard print, by Wednesday they were shiny green and pink leopard print. There are two things you can do about this: i) reapply the matte topcoat, easy peasy ii) embrace the change, i just see it as a 2-in-1 nail look!

****************

NOTD: Green & Pink matte leopard

[ABOVE photo with flash - LA Colors in Palm Tree]

Hi Guys!

I've finally chopped off my talons and given them some love.

My friend at work sweetly left me a gift on my desk Friday; LA Colors in 'palm tree'. Pic above is 2 coats. LA Colors is a bargain at £1 and I have a few colours from them already and most of them are really good for the price (my beloved silver glitter is from LA Colors).

I wanted to do a strawberry or watermelon design on my nail (I like to optimise my short nails before they turn back into talons) but.....too lazy and stuck with what I knew.

[ABOVE photo L-R 12345] These are the polishes I used and the order I used them in:

1) Painted all my nails in palm tree, 2 coats

2) As you can see I've progressed from using toothpicks and blu tack. This time I used a bobby pin (photo BELOW) to draw on my uber messy leopard pattern . I poured collection 2000's ebony into a vaseline tin lid and dipped a bent out bobby pin to use as my tool. I used the yellow bobby pin for the next step...

3) I used Elf's 'fluorescent pink' to make little blobs inside my leopard pattern.

4) I then used Elf's 'clear' to seal

[ABOVE photo with flash - without matte finish]

and then

5) My new baby, rimmel's matte finish to make everything matte

[BELOW with flash - with matte finish - the final NOTD]

NOTD: matte temptation

Hi Guys!

Finally I got my hands on a matte finish polish :)

(Matte finish is used like a to coat, pop it on top of a nail colour and it will make it look matte).

Been wanting something like this for ages but wasn't sure if it was worth the bother. Well, I've had it for a day and a night and I am happy I got it.

FYI Boots are having their 3 for 2 event on beauty products (also baby products and hair products) so I grabbed two matte finishes (one for me, one for EK) and I also got a 2-in-1 top and base coat. RRP £4.59 each so I got 3 for £9.18, which equals £3.06 each.

(I was initially going to get 17's matte finish (under £4 btw) because it was the cheapest and had decent reviews, but when I saw rimmel's version I had to get it because I love the rimmel maxi brush polishes)

Anyways, enough with the words; typing is wearing down my nail tips lol ;)

As you can see, the matte finish is a...murky whitish colour. It does not lighten your polish, just makes it matte and bang on trend ;)

[BELOW PHOTO] Top thumb is with the matte finish, bottom thumb is without the matte finish...

[ABOVE photo] - Revlon's Tropical Temptation (a corally type shade) on it's own (2 coats)

[BELOW photo] - With one coat of Rimmel's matte finish

Last pic [ABOVE] taken by my mummy, both hands together.

Conclusion?

Ok so it's not curing cancer or ending world hunger but I think it's great and (hopefully) it'll encourage me to use more of my polish collection and it gives all colours a second life. And for me personally, a matte finish is the style I want - crackle top coats, nail art and glitter is all very well (and bloody fun) but matte finish in my opinion is cool and toned down, and with the right colour is, ironically, very grown up and polished.

Have you tried this? Interested or just another fad?

Nude nails: Review of Mushroom and Beige Style

As we all know, I've been obsessed with nude, taupe etc tone nail polishes recently. My regular readers will know how nuts I was abo9ut getting my hands on Boots No7 Beanie (which i still don't bloody have!!!!) but I've done my best in trying to fulfill that need.

[Pictured below we have: (L-R) Barry M's Mushroom (rrp £2.95), Rimmel's Beige style (rrp....under a fiver) and Nail Inc's London (rrp freebie with 2 bottles of diet coke). Please see older post for review on Nail Inc's London. ]

(EDIT: In the phto Beige style and London look the same but they are not. London has a slight lilac tinge to it once on, esp with just one or two coats, Beige style is pretty much beige)

Barry M's Mushroom: Generally speaking I am a fan of Barry M's nail paints. A good price for the colour range available and in the past I've found the quality pretty good. I say 'in the past' because my latest nail paint purchases (mushroom and f*cking lemon icecream) were a let down. I've already ranted about lemon ice cream (and I went easy, I could easily have put in about a million curse words!) and now it's the turn of mushroom...not really, it's not that bad!

Basically I went in Superdrugs and it was the last day of the Barry M nail paint 2 for £5 promotion and amazingly they had mushroom in stock which I've been wanting for ages, and so I picked up lemon ice cream (which i was also mini lusting over for a short while) - never turn down a bargain! Got home very excited and put on lemon ice cream first, and we all know how i felt about that. Then I put on mushroom on my toes......

....what do i think? Well....I haven't tried it on my finger nails yet and I find that what works (or doesn't work) on toes might not work on fingers and vice versa but at the moment I'm so-so. Colour wise its much darker on application than in the bottle and it's a very 'on trend' colour and personally it goes with my skin tone well. I was a bit disappointed in the consistency of the nail paint because it seemed a bit watery but I can't really pass judgement until I put it on my hands. I don't regret picking up mushroom but I am not over the moon about it either. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, only the crazy nail polish people like myself.

Rimmel's Beige Style: I LOVE IT!!! It is not the colour I thought it would be but it's a colour that I have always wanted in the back of my mind. This is a true true nude, absolutely gorgeous. HOWEVER, this enthusiasm comes from a nail polish junkie. For some it may clash with their skintone and for others I fear it may be a bit too bland and blaaah. But for me I think it's beautiful and consistency wise it's worth the money (not absolutely fantastic but its under a fiver so *shrugs*).

I think the fact it comes with Rimmel's new maxi brush really helps the application too. With one coat you have a nice clean look. Two coats you have a nice nude, everyday sort of colour and with 3 coats you have a on trend sexy nude. Below I've taken a picture of the regular Barry M brush (on the left) and the Rimmel maxi brush (on the right).

I am trying to ease off the nude/taupes colours now because I think at the moment I have enough. For me red's have really fallen off the radar but I'm thinking red toes and nude nails are the way to go, or today I've got mushroom on my toes and urban princess (pink) on my finger nails and people are making nice comments.

I think that because I am such a plain jane when it comes to colour in my wardrobe having a pop of colour is important and shows that I've made a thought...or maybe I'm thinking about this too much! lol

For me, buying and wearing a pretty nail colour is a easy and relatively cheap way to brighten my mood. People ask me why I am so smiley: well, you can't be miserable if you have nails the colour of cupcake icing!!!

Nail Polish: Rant and Rave

I didn't intend it this way but this blog is a rant and rave on some bright arse nail polishes!!! (Beige style and mushroom review to follow in another post).

So the first two pics (below) are just pictures of colours I've reviewd before, namely....erm i can't remember the names!! (Barry M mint patty dupe, sorry! and Collection 2000 BMX Bandit?! Brain has gone blank...too lazy to go and check)


Above we have Barry M's Lemon Ice cream. I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT!!! I've blogged about what a let down this is a few posts ago so please go and read up. Do not waste your money on this. The colour would be beautiful but in the pic I've got 5 yes FIVE coats on and you can still see my nails!!!!! :(

Above we have Rimmel's Urban Princess. I didn't think it would be that great but actually I love it and this is what I wore on my nails to work today. It's cute, fun, flirty and pretty. This would be a perfect toenail colour. I can't wait to try it!!! I did two coats today which in person is fine; this is one of the colours with the new 'maxi brush' and can i just say, i LOVE the maxi brush!!!!!
This also promises up to 10 days wear....but I don't wear one colour that long anyway, so not bothered about that.
Lastly and randomly I want to rave about my new favourite handcream. Below is the amazingness that is Wilkinson's own brand Skin Therapy Ultra Intensive Hand and Nail Cream. This product is a) under 60p!!!!!! and b) when you use it, even after you wash your hands your hands still feel moisturised!!!! What else is this good and is under 60p!? If you live near a wilkinsons I really recommend you get hold of this. I suffer from contact dermetitis and this is a life saver!