Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover

Well the name's truly in the title folks, this stuff is magic!

As anyone who knows me will testify, I hate removing nail polish. It's such a messy process, it leaves a nasty smell and taste on your fingers and it's a surprisingly time consuming process. At least it was for me, so when I saw this new Bourjois product pop up on the Bloggersphere imagine my relief! This stuff promised to remove the nail polish in one second without the need for messiness or any pesky cottom buds/pads. I went to Boots really hoping to see it on the shelves but alas it had not yet been stocked. I went back about 2 weeks later and spied it on the shelves. There was just one left (obviously a popular product) and I immediately snapped it up. It retails at £4.99 which I would say was about mid-range price for nail polish removers. I can now say with confidence that it was worth every penny.

The way it works is that you twist open the lid to see a huge black sponge with a little hole in the middle. You dip your finger in, twist, pull it back out and voila! Clean Nails! I must admit, when I tried it for the first time I was a little sceptical but it really does work. I'd say the 1 second is a tad ambitious, I find that I have to do a good few twists before all the polish comes off, but it isn't that far off. Overall I'd say the whole process takes 2-3 minutes tops.

Now then, because the entire sponge is doused in the magic nail polish removery stuffy, the tops of my fingers did come out damp. "Great" I thought, "I knew that there had to be a catch," low and behold however, they dried instantly and my faith was restored. Also (I'm assumming this is because of the almond oil in the product) both my hands and nails felt really nourished and smooth. So you're not just removing your nail polish, you're also giving your nails and fingers a little pampering! Plus the smell left behind by the product is lush, the bottle says the product contains "Red fruit & vanilla fragrance". To me it's quite a sweet smell, so much nicer than the usual paint-stripper smell most removers have, the vanilla notes really come through and oh *squeal* it's just lovely!

I honestly cannot rave about this product enough! It makes the nail polish removing process so much easier and convienent. Also if you run out of time to change your nail polish before you go out (as I frequently do) it makes the process of removal and re-painting them so much easier. The only downsides to this product is that it can't really be used to make little corrections and if you have any broken skin on around your nails it can sting a little . Plus it can't really be used on toe nails. Don't let this put you off though as I can't imagine ever having to go back to the soaked cotton pad method of removal ever again. This product gets a huuuuuuge thumbs up from me!

You can buy this product from Boots

OPI Mini Stash (Including Nicki Minaj)

I'm going to talk about my nails again. Although I haven't bitten them in ageeees, sadly the damage from all the years has seriously taken its toll and they keep breaking and peeling. I'm gonna give OPI's nail envy a whirl as everyone raves about as a fix everything solution. Before the breaking started though, I made a few sneaky purchases and bought a few more OPI minis. This time in the shades "Russian Navy", "Big Apple Red" and Nicki Minaj's "Fly". I cannot gush enough about these shades, especially one of them! As I said in my Dutch Collection review, I really like the OPI minis and find the brush easy to work with and perfect for my little hands. Now on with the individual shades:

First up Russian Navy, this is exactly what it says on the bottle, a very rich navy with a shimmering finish. Out of them all this was probably the one I was least fond of. The colour is gorgeous however I found it to take a few coats to really bring it out as it's quite sheer. The other problem I found is that it was quite streaky so I had to be quite careful when applying it.

Next up Big Apple Red, now this is a proper red shade. There's no pinky/corally/orangey undertones, it's red through and through. I love this colour! It has a matte finish and applies like a dream. One coat and you're pretty much good to go and unlike the previous shade there was no streakiness at all. This is honestly the perfect red shade for me and I'm so glad I found it as I am a big fan of red. Along with "Russian Navy" this shade is part of the "OPI Best of the Best" collection (which was sadly limited edition and doesn't appear to be retailing anymore however some are still kicking round eBay).

And last but certainly not least is the shade "Fly" which is part of the collaboration with Nicki Minaj. Now then Nicki Minaj has definately done some questionable stuff over the past few months (from her performance at the Grammies to deleting her Twitter) however all is truly forgiven. The pictures seriously do not do this shade justice. With two coats I got the most gorgeous colour ever though it's definately got a more green tint to it than the picture above suggests. I'd say it falls somewhere between a teal and turqouise. I honestly cannot rave enough about how pretty this colour is and have actually recieved a few compliments on it. It's the perfect summer colour.

Anyway that's all for now, sorry for another nails post but I'm hoping to get some more posts, with a bit more variety, done over the next few days. This depends if my camera decides to play ball however!

Collection 2000 Shimmer Shades - Way To Glow

 

Naughty Boots and their 3 for 2 offer, I had 2 of the new Revlon Lip Butters in my hand and realised that I needed something else. After the Collection 2000 concealer turned out to be a complete gem I decided to head to the Collcection 2000 stand to see what else they had to offer and found the Shimmer Shades. I chose "Way To Glow" which has 4 different shades, I'd say 2 blushers and 2 bronzers. 

Now as there would appear to be no official names for each shade I have just decided to number them as shown above. (1 being the lightest and 4 being the darkest). In describing these shades I would say that 1 is a very pale nude pink, 2 is a more peachy pink, 3 is an orangy brown and 4 is a darker bronze/gold. They all have a glittery shimmery finish but 4 is especially shimmery. Now for swatches:

(L-R 1-4 in artifical light)

(All shades blended together in Artificial Light)

(L-R 1-4 in Natural Light)

(All shades blended together in Natural Light)

As you can see above all shades have decent pigmentation however 1 is quite clearly a lot sheerer and I had to use quite a bit of product to get enough to show on camera. The other 3 shades give decent colour payoff, especially shade 4 which is a gorgeous bronze shade (I think it's my favourite)! I also tried blending them all together which gave me a lighter bronze. If I was looking for a light dust of colour I would probably recommened using this method even if that does seem a tad contradictory with the light dust sentiment.

Sadly, when putting the product to actual use it disappointed me quite a bit. While the swatches show it to be quite pigmented. I had to use quite a bit of product to get the colour to show on my face and sadly when it did the shades came out a bit garish for my liking. (That could however just be my skintone). Also the staying power was not very good. I'm not sure exactly how long it lasted but I do know that after about 3 hours you couldn't tell I had ever worn it. 

I will continue to practice with these shades in order to find the best way to work and for the price bracket they're decent enough but I can see these falling into the back of my makeup drawer pretty quickly. I'm still on my search to find the perfect bronzer.

MAC Haute & Naughty Lash Mascara

MAC's Haute & Naughty Lash Mascara landed on my doorstep this morning (another sneaky BuyaPowa puchase) and I couldn't wait to try it out. The main selling point of this product is that it has two seperate ends: the pink one and the purple sparkly one. (Although they use the same wand for the purpose of this review, I have decided to refer to them as the purple wand and the pink wand). The pink wand uses less mascara so that you get a more understated daytime look while the purple wand will ramp up the volume and give you a look more suitable for going out. I was worried that this would be a bit of a gimmick and in practice wouldn't work out very well however after comparing each applicator side to side it's clear that there is a difference. The "daytime" wand will only darken and slightly lengthen your lashes whilst the "nightime" wand will add both length and volume.

  p.s. if eyes make you squeemish it's best you don't look at the pictures below

Daytime/Pink wand

Nightime/Purple wand

A direct comparison: daytime on left/nightime on right

As for the actual mascara itself, it does a decent job. It's not the best mascara I have ever used but it's far from the worst. It hasn't created spider-lashes which is always a plus. Though, while I only tend to wear one coat of mascara, I did notice that the purple "nightime" wand has the potential to go clumpy, especially if layered, which could be a bit of a downside. 

Overall I wouldn't rush out immediately to buy this product however if I was in the need of a good new mascara I would definately give this one a second glance.

OPI Dutch Collection

Since I was little I've always wanted "pretty princess nails" (as my Mum used to call them) but alas I had a hopeless nail biting addiction. Fast forward 18 years and I finally have paintable nails! This will probably mean an abundance of nail posts over the next few weeks as I work my way through the rainbow so sorry in advance.

Anyway this one's going to focus on the OPI Dutch Treats Mini Collection which RRPs at £12.95 but I got them at the bargain price of £8 (Mega thanks to BuyaPowa!) It features 4 colours: "I Have a Herring Problem" (A shimmery grey/blue) "Red Lights Ahead... Where?" (A bright corally red shade) "Kiss Me On My Tulips" (A hot pink) and "Pedal Faster Suzi!" (A shimmery pale pink).

Personally I really like the OPI minis as I have never made it through a full bottle of nail polish so I feel much less wasteful using these. I also have very tiny hands & fingers which has resulted in me having quite tiny fingernails so I like having a much smaller brush to work with and find my results turn out a lot less messy.Anyway on with the pictures and reviews!

(Sorry for the upside down picture, still getting used to this!)
First up "I Have a Herring Problem". Sadly I found this to be quite a disappointment, it took 3 coats to get a decent colour payoff but even that didn't overwhelm me. Rather than the Shimmery blue/grey I was promised, it came out more like a faded grey. I also found it chipped really badly and within two days it would need to be re-done. Not good!

Now on to "Kiss Me on My Tulips". Now then this is the exact opposite of above, they must have used a different formula or something! The colour payoff is amazing and if you were in a rush you could easily get away with just one coat. I however always put on two coats and that just made it even better. The colour itself is an amazing hot pink which with two coats becomes slightly neon. I personally love it and so far there has been no chippage! So happy!

Next up is Red Lights Ahead... Where? This is a bright red with strong coral tones. It's the perfect colour for Summer and I had no problems with applying this or chippage. The colour payoff is great and two shades is more than enough.

And finally we have Pedal Faster Suzi. This is very sheer, in the picture above I'm actually wearing 4 coats. Two is enough if you're just wanting a sheen but if you want a full colour then I'd recommened four. The colour is very pretty, a baby pink which I found to have just the right amount on shimmer and so far there's been no chippage and I love this as a springtime polish.

Overall I would say this is a very nice set with good quality polishes and a good range of colours. It's fairly decent value for money especially if you can catch it on Buyapowa! The only disappointment for me was "I Have A Herron Problem" but it was nowhere bad enough to make me regret my purchase and the other three lovely shades made up for it.