My Current Favourites - Part 2: Nails

I have already shown you my current favourite make up products and today I'd like to show you what I've been using most when it comes to my nails.

First up is Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Cuticle Pen. I use this every time I change my mani, and brush the oil all over my nails as well as my cuticles. It helps make my cuticles soft and also conditions my nails which are quite fragile and peel easily. Since I started using this product many month ago, my nails have been in a much better state, the peeling has slowed down and my nails have become stronger.

See what other products I've been enjoying using after the jump!

NOTD: Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Ruby Diamond (Holographic)

Although school has now started, I've still been very busy trying to sort out my house, but it's all done now, so finally I will have some time to take pictures and swatch my new purchases (although there aren't that many actually), and also go shopping this week. But for now, I have a quick nail polish post for you.

Oh and don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY, it ends at midnight (UK time) tonight!

So this is Sally Hansen Nail Prisms nail polish in Ruby Diamond which is a bright fuchsia pink holographic polish. It took 3 coats for this coverage, the polish was very runny and also slow drying. I used a top coat between the second and third coat not to dull the holo effect, but still try and make it last longer. I had a tiny chip in the first 24 hours and a few more chips the following day. Still, it was very pretty while it lasted.

I believe Sally Hansen Nail Prisms aren't available in the shops anymore, in fact in the UK they never were, but there are quite a lot of them on eBay which is where I got all mine from. The prices vary depending on the shades, but I managed to grab mine for around £6-7 each.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Sally Hansen Fire Opal Nail Glaze in Flame Opal

This week is the second week of the Easter school holidays and I haven't had any time to take any photos of new products, in fact I haven't actually bought much make up lately. I've mainly been focusing on nail polish (yes, I know I was supposed to be on a nail polish no-buy, but that didn't happen). So while I take time off of testing and reviewing new products, I thought I might as well try and get through my long back log of nail polish pictures. Normal service will resume next week.

Today I have Sally Hansen Fire Opal Nail Glaze in Flame Opal to show you. I really love Sally Hansen Nail Prisms for their amazing duochrome quality and when I heard about the Nail Glazes, I thought I'd ought to try them. Just like the Nail Prisms, these are also very sheer and look best when applied on top of a black polish (by Barry M). The Nail Glaze was terribly runny and took 3 coats for a good enough coverage. It was nowhere near as duochrome as I expected it to be. Also it took forever to dry. And when I say forever, I mean it!

I applied it around 9 pm and it was still soft the following day, it never really dried down properly despite using a quick drying topcoat. As a result I ended up with a very messed up middle finger nail, the polish basically got scrunched up when I was getting ready for bed. Really not great. The only one positive quality of the polish was that it didn't chip on me for 2 days (which is a big thing for me).

These Sally Hansen polishes aren't available in the UK, I bought mine on eBay for a few dollars.

See more pictures after the jump!

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover Review

I had to pick up Bourjois's Magic Nail Polish remover after all the raves I saw on other blogs. When something says magic in the name, you just feel like you have to try it and see just how magic it really is. Well I do anyway. So I tried it out, both with regular and glitter nail polish.

But firstly, let me explain what it is. You get a plastic tub with a black sponge inside soaked in nail polish remover with a hole in the top that you put your finger in, then twist and remove to find all the nail polish has disappeared. Sounds magical, doesn't it?

Well, it doesn't quite do what it promises. With regular nail polish it works rather quickly, but I still need to put my fingers in for a second or even third time to get all the nail polish off. So make that more like 5-6 seconds. Which is about how long it takes me to wipe a nail with cotton wool soaked in nail polish remover. With glitter nail polish it takes a lot longer than 1 second, but I was expecting that. It probably takes about 30 seconds per finger and I need to keep putting my finger in and twisting and pulling out and again and again. What I like though is that unlike with cotton wool, it doesn't stick into the glitter as it dissolves. You do end up with a few flecks of black sponge, but that's all.

The product is heavily scented, the scent reminds me of raspberries, so it's not unpleasant, but rather heavy. I do not like the sticky, greasy residue on my hands afterwards though, I have to wash them a few times with soap afterwards to get rid of the sticky feeling it leaves behind. At least it's not drying, although I haven't used it long enough to see if it makes my weak, peeling nails better or worse in the long run.

All in all, I'm not blown over by this product and it's certainly not magic, but I can see it being very useful if you're travelling and don't want to bother with a bottle of nail polish remover and cotton wool pads. Plus it does work quickly, and it does make glitter nail polish removal much easier. However, due to the sticky residue I will be only be using it for glitter nail polish removal in the future. I'm perfectly happy with my Sally Hansen nail polish remover and a cotton wool pad for regular nail polish.

You get 75 ml which I believe is all soaked into the pad (as the pad goes all the way down) for £4.99 which makes it a lot more expensive than my regular Sally Hansen nail polish remover. It is available from Boots, Superdrug and whereever they sell Bourjois products.

See another picture after the jump!

Finished! The December Edition

Another month over, another post about products I've finished. There are a few included that I have reviewed a few times on here, so I will just link them to some earlier reviews instead of repeating myself.

First up - a confession. I'm probably the only person in the blogesphere that doesn't know what the big fuss is about Clarisonic. I got a Clarisonic Mia a couple of months ago and I've been using it religiously, but in all fairness, I just can't see what it does to my skin. My skin isn't clearer, my pores are still clogged up, nothing has really changed to be honest. I don't hate it, but I do wonder what on earth I spent all the money on. Okay, there, I said it. Let the stone thowing commence. Right, onto the products. I got this cleanser with my Clarisonic and I didn't like it. Luckily it was only a small sample, so I used it up, but it smelled funny and it did nothing to my skin. Won't repurchase (I don't even know if you can).

 See what other products I finished after the jump!

My Ever Growing Nail Polish Collection Part 3 - GOSH, Models Own, Dior, Chanel

As promised, here's the third and final part of my nail polish collection overview. If you missed part one and part two, you can check them out here and here.

So let's just get on with it shall we? Any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments!

My GOSH nail polishes

See more pictures of my collection after the jump!

NOTD: Models Own Beetlejuice Aqua Violet + Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal

A little while ago I was browsing as usual and found the most beautiful nail polish I had ever seen, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Turquoise Opal, a gorgeous duochrome (or rather multichrome, if that's a word) that transforms from pink to purple to blue to pretty much every colour of the rainbow. Having done a quick search on eBay I realised that it was a very coveted shade and was retailing for quite a lot of money. Bummer. About 5 minutes later I found out that Models Own was coming out with a new nail polish line, Beetlejuice, that also offered gorgeous duochrome nail polishes. So I excitedly waited for the 1st November to be able to get my hands on what looked promisingly similar to Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal.

And here it is, the lovely Aqua Violet. A turquoise shade that changes to blue and purple depending on how the light hits it. In direct sunlight or under bright indoor light it is mostly turquoise, but there is definitely some blue and purple in there. Perhaps not as strong duochrome as I hoped, but a nice shade nevertheless. The formula is pretty good, a little bit on the runny side, but easy to work with, it dries quite quickly. On me it chipped after 24 hours, but I always add that everything chips on me within 48 hours, so it's not necessarily that bad. Of course some are better than others and this little beauty was certainly on the worse side for chipping. It costs £5 for 14 ml which is very reasonable and is currently only available from Models Own website.

Of course I ended up buying the Sally Hansen nail polish on eBay and it turned out to be so gorgeous, it actually spoilt Aqua Violet a bit for me. It just couldn't live up to my high expectations. Before owning Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal I probably would've loved Aqua Violet, but it has been overshadowed I'm afraid. It still a pretty polish and definitely my favourite of the Beetlejuices, so I can recommend it wholeheartedly.

Have you tried the new Beetlejuice nail polishes? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

See lots more pictures of Aqua Violet and also Turquoise Opal after the jump!

Finished! The July edition

Here are the products I finished in the month of July. Not to shabby, although sadly only 3 make up items.Still, my collection of cleansers/scrubs need using up as well. Let's have a look at what I managed to finish last month, shall we?

First up is Maybelline Dream Satin liquid foundation in 020 Cameo. I have reviewed it already, you can read my review here. I don't love it, it doesn't really work for me, it's greasy and leaves my face quite shiny too, so won't be repurchasing this. I still have another half a bottle though, so you can expect that to appear in another Finished! post soon. Available from Boots, Superdrug, etc. £8.19 at Boots with a 3 for 2 offer currently on.

Keep reading to find out what other products I have finished this month!

My amazing US haul

Hello! I'm back! In case you didn't guess from my post a week or so ago, I was in Orlando with my family. We did loads of fun stuff, Disney's Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Sea World, Aquatica... and some shopping! There are some amazing outlets in Orlando as well as the massive Florida mall, so I ended up buying a LOT of stuff. I was also interested in checking out some drugstore brands we don't get in the UK like Physicians Formula, and finally managed to buy myself the lovely Revlon lipgloss I'd been eyeing up for weeks - for much less as well! I know I went a bit crazy. I haven't actually added up how much I've spent, but you can tell it was a lot.

My entire beauty haul

However, I did find some amazing buys, including 3 Mac Volcanic Ash Exfoliators (there were actually a lot more in one of the CCOs, but I couldn't really pick up more), the Tom Ford Black Orchid set, and there was an excellent freebie offer at Lancome with 6 free samples and a gorgeous make up bag, so I couldn't resist.

Details will follow shortly. For now, here are some more pictures of my haul. Let me know if there are any particular brands or products you'd like me to show you in details.