Pretty Perfect Twist and Out Instant Nail Polish Remover

The name is a bit of the mouthful but this is a great little product.  I got it for the bargain price of 89p in Savers.  To all intents and purposes it is a much cheaper version of the Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover but at a fraction of the cost.

 

Basically this is a plastic pot filled with a piece of nail polish remover soaked sponge, to remove your polish you simply pop your finger into the hole in the middle of the sponge, twist a few times and then pull it out, free from polish.

Considering the price this is a pretty effective product, I removed my 4th of July manicure using it and although it didn't take off all the layer with one twist it didn't take very long at all and was pretty mess free.  Considering I had 3 coats of polish, a top coat, a coat of extra thick stamping polish and another 2 coats of top coat this little bargain made pretty quick work of removal.

I'm fairly certain this wouldn't work too well on hard to budge glitter polish but on regular creams it works like a dream and for 89p it definitely won't break the bank.

Nautical, but nice.

Cheesy title!  Today's Nautical themed nails using Betty Blue from No7 and some stickers I picked up in a Chinese Bazaar in Spain.

Revlon - Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey & Rendezvous

The blogging world has been full of chat about these since they launched in the US and now they are available here too, currently on offer at £5.99 in Superdrug (normally £7.99) or on 3 for 2 in Boots which works out cheaper if you will definitely use three shades, in hindsight I should probably have waited and gone to Boots to buy three but I was too excited when I saw them and had to grab a couple to try.

I chose Rendezvous, a bright coral orange, and Honey, a nudey pink: 

Since I've only had these in my grubby paws for just over an hour I can't give you an extensively tested view just yet but so far the colour pay off seems good.  I'm not sure how much of a stain they leave but there is a good strong colour on the lips when they're applied and Rendezvous is bright!

One thing I found slightly off putting was the smell, it's minty which I was hoping would be a nice change from all the flowery sweet scents that have been in lip products recently, unfortunately this mint smells very much like it's still growing in the ground rather than being a clean medicinal mint scent.  It's not horribly over powering but it's also not as nice as I was hoping it would be.  I assume they contain some sort of menthol as there is definitely a slight tingle when these are applied.

Here are some on the arm swatches of my two:

I found both of the colours I have to be a similar opacity to Revlon Lip Butters, so not as full as a regular lipstick but pretty highly pigmented for something called a balm.  Overall I'm please, these are a nice looking, quality feeling product and don't require a sharpener which is a bonus.  As a poor man (or lady)'s Chubby Stick they are a great alternative and definitely worthy of a spot in my make up bag, whether I'll like them enough to go back for other shades remains to be seen.

Sk:n Facial Exfoliating Cleanser (for Oily skin)

A friend of mine bought this exfoliator and had good things to say about it, she picked me up a couple of samples and from trying them I thought it seemed to suit my skin quite well, at the same time Boots had a 33% off sale on all Sk:n products so I bit the bullet and purchased a full size.

This cleanser is supposed to exfoliate the skin using Glycolic and Salicylic acid so although it doesn't feel grainy or like it is sloughing off dead skin in the way a lot of exfoliators do the chemicals in it should be doing the same job.

I am still in two minds about this product, although it does feel like it's doing something to my skin and seems to leave it feeling smoother and softer I often find that the day after I use it I get quite a few spots and break out rather badly.  While many products can cause you're skin to break out as they clear it up I am not so sure this one should be doing that. 

The cleanser shouldn't be used every day, in fact it's recommended to only use it 2 or 3 times a week due to the fairly harsh chemicals, which means I feel like I can't get into a good routine with it and carry on through any initial breakouts which appear, whatever face cleanser I use on the days in between seems to improve my skin and then this one breaks it out again.

It could be that my skin is just being particularly troublesome at the moment but the effect that the Sk:n cleanser has been having on my face means I am far more likely to reach for something else in the evenings when cleansing my face.

It wasn't a cheap product so I think I'll retire it for now and go back to it once my skin is in a more settled mood in the hope that the breakouts are coincidence and I can get along with this product.

BeauBelle Snail Cream - The Update

A while ago I blogged about BeauBelle Snail Cream which I bought on eBay, this is a follow up post now that I have had the chance to use the product for a while.

Unfortunately my opinion isn't great.  In the last week to 10 days I have used the cream fairly regularly and sadly I haven't noticed much difference at all.  Although it doesn't seem to be doing anything bad to my skin it doesn't appear to be doing much to help it either.

As I said before the 'cream' feels much more like a lotion to me, it's quite thin and watery and once it's applied to the skin it doesn't feel particularly moisturising, in fact I usually have to apply a moisturiser right after it as my skin feels quite tight.

There definitely haven't been any radical changes in the firmness of my skin or in the scars that I have which led me to look into Snail Cream in the first place, in fact, pretty much everything which the cream claims to do on the packaging it doesn't really seem to, so no snail related miracle here.

I'm still interested to try out another brand of Snail Cream and see if that is any better but unfortunately this seems to be one of those times where buying the budget version of a pricier product doesn't work out too well!

If you've tried out any other brands or have a recommendation I would love to hear it!

No7 Total Renewal Micro-dermabrasion Exfoliator

I bought this product during a 3 for 2 promotion for No7 without having read or heard much about it, it seemed to get reasonable reviews on the Boots site, I was after a new exfoliator and I'd heard a lot of good things about various microdermabrasion products so I decided to give it a go.  It's normally £11 for 75ml but I bought mine while there was a 3 for 2 on and then repurchased with a £5 off voucher so it's easy enough to get at a very reasonable price.

I've never tried any of the No7 skin care range before and I have to say I wasn't expecting too much from it but I was very pleasantly surprised.  It leaves my skin feeling wonderfully smooth and really well cleansed and it seems to be helping to keep breakouts to a minimum too.  The only downside is that I want to use it more than the recommended twice a week!

It's a very simple to use product, you simply massage it into your skin for a minute or two and then rinse off.  While it's on the skin you can feel it working in that it has a very fine grainy texture and does feel like it's exfoliating your face as you massage it in, however it doesn't feel harsh or full of big lumps like a lot of exfoliators can.  I get mild tingling occasionally when using it but nothing severe.

The best recommendation that I can give this product is that despite the fact I bought it without having high hopes it has become a bathroom staple for me over the last few months and I reach for it over several other, pricier, microdermabrasion products I have in my bathroom cabinet and I've repurchased a second tube before the first runs out.

If you're after an exfoliator that is both gentle and effective and you don't have a massive budget then I would definitely to give this No7 one a try.

4th of July Manicure

Happy 4th of July!  Here is my attempt at an Independance Day manicure, it looks a bit more Wonder Woman / Captain America than flag like but I still like it and I think it turned out reasonably well.

Another Gradient Manicure.

I am mildly obsessed with gradient manicures at the moment, they're fairly simple to do and I love the look they give.  I'm still not 100% sure about the best way to go about doing them yet but for the moment I am sticking with putting all the polish onto the sponge at the one time rather than trying to sponge on each colour separately.

Here is my set up for gradient sponging:

For this particular look I used Kiko 331 & 339 and Barry M Blue Moon (NP317) and here is how they turned out:

I think once I get this technique perfect, or as close to perfect as I can, I might do a full tutorial showing each step, I've picked up a few little hints along the way which I think make it easier so it might be nice to share them with everyone.



Stamping

I decided to try some stamping over my manicure from last week before I took it off.  I used one of the Bundle Monster plates from their first set, while I love the pattern the first Bundle Monster set's full nail designs were very small so it's not always possible to fully cover your nail, even when they are short like mine are at the moment.

I love the Bundle Monster plates but the fact that the full nail designs on the first set are so small is a major disappointment, thankfully when they released their second set they made the full nail designs larger which has helped with the issue.

Her is Barry M Gold Foil over Models Own Scarlet Sparkle:

Models Own Scarlet Sparkle

I love this polish, it's so hard to photograph though.  In real life it's like Dorothy's ruby slippers in nail form but the shine and sparkle just doesn't show in pictures.

This is 3 coats but it was pretty much opaque in 2, the base is a red jelly with loads of tiny red glitter peices through it.  It's definitely one of my favourite glitters and totally smooth with just one layer of top coat.