Avon Arctic Goddess Limited Edition Nailwear Pro+ Nail Enamels

These are the limited edition Arctic Goddess collection nail polishes by Avon, from left to right; green goddess; arctic waters; chilling teal. They cost £6 for 12ml and are currently half price on Avon's website.

Green Goddess is a deep olive green with metallic gold running through it, a really beautiful shade. It took one coat of this to get it looking perfect but I chose to do two out of habit. It lasted well over the claimed 10 days for me. I also love Chilling Teal which is a very light mint shade with silver sparkle, it takes me 3-4 coats to get opaque colour from this, it's very pretty, like an icy shade for Winter. This also lasted me well over 10 days! The final shade is Arctic Waters, a deep sky blue, this has a very small amount of metallic silver/purple running through it I think, it's definitely not only a blue colour on its own. Again this lasted very well on me and took one coat for even colour. All of the shades apply evenly and go on very well.

Overall, I think these shades are amazing value for me, Avon's website also says that all of their Nailwear Pro+ shades have been fortified with acrylic gel. They last very well, and I felt as though they improved the condition of my nails too, I wore base and top coats with all shades by various brands and also trialed them without top coats, with or without they lasted about the same amount of time and did not chip at all.

I would definitely repurchase and I am looking forward to trying out different shades, I've already tried the shade called Inky Blue which you can read about here.

Have you tried any Avon nail enamels? What did you think?

Avon Limited Edition Arctic Goddess Collection

This is the collection by Avon for Autumn/Winter available this month, prices start from £6 and products can be found online or in their catalogues.

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures at the event so I can't really show you how amazing it was, I got to meet Alesha Dixon - Avon's Beauty & Empowerment Ambassador and the Pixiwoo sisters! I think I was a little more excited to meet the makeup ladies I've been watching for so long!

I have tried all of the products and I do like them overall, I will have individual reviews up very soon. I will however add that I'd never used any Avon products before this and I definitely think I will be trying out more!

I believe there are more items in this collection that I've managed to miss (from reading other blogs) but as far as I know the five items above make up the Arctic Goddess collection; eyeshadow quad in Arctic Goddess; nail enamels in Green Goddess, Arctic Waters and Chilling Teal and finally a lipgloss in Pink Icicle.

Have you tried any of these products? Do you like the look of anything? What did you think?

Avon Nailwear Pro+ Nail Enamel in Inky Blue

Last month I was fortunate enough to be invited to the launch of Avon's new Arctic Goddess collection, (available in November, will post about it soon) and was lucky enough to get a few products to try and review. This shade is the one I chose for my mini-manicure and I love it!

Unfortunately the pictures do not do it justice, it has lovely shimmery bits in it and it's a very deep inky blue, it's name suits it perfectly! I think this would be a great shade to wear over the Autumn/Winter months as it is so cold it'll match the dark nights well! I do think it would pretty much suit every skin tone. It costs a very reasonable £6 for 12ml from Avon, you can order online here or through one of their catalogues. At the moment these are on a 2 for £8 offer or 3 for £10 offer, making them £3.33 each if you go for the latter. I'd never tried these before and think they are truly amazing nail polishes, I would definitely repurchase and try some of the other colours!

It lasted just over a week on me without any chips or looking "worn", I do think it would have lasted longer if my life didn't require lots of manual work! 2 coats is perfect, it doesn't go on streaky and evens out well, dries very quickly too - something very important in a nail polish for me!

Have you tried any Avon nail enamels? What did you think?

Challenge: No Nail Polish

The state of my nails is horrible, they are stained, much weaker than they used to be and now peeling as well. I put this down to the obsession I have with constantly changing my nail colour and using so many different products on my nails. So I have come to the decision not to wear any nail polish for the next few months to allow them to grow out, stop being yucky and orange-yellow and hopefully it'll improve their condition too. The only things I'll be using is either cuticle creams or nail and cuticle creams...(same thing really hmm...)

I'm not sure how long I'll last because I always feel less confident without my nails painted but I think it's best for my nails to leave them alone and to "let them breathe" for a bit!

What do you think? Would you be able to stay away from nail polish?

Marie Claire Freebies!

Marie Claire (September 2011 issue) are giving away a choice of 2 Ciaté paint pots and 2 Dove Express Treatment Conditioners along with the sachets inside the magazine! The magazine retails at £3.60 and the nail polish alone is worth £9. The 2 shades available are a deep metallic purple with shimmer (Wait Until Dark) or a nude light peach/cream colour (My Fair Lady).

I picked up 2 of Wait Until Dark with the Dove Nourishing Oil Care Express Treatment conditioner, I did think of trying My Fair Lady but I'd just received Beach Melba also by Ciaté in my July GlossyBox, and it's a very similar shade.

I'll review and do some posts about both products and possibly even about the Sanex sachet included!

Thank you for reading!

What do you think of the shades available? Have you picked yours up yet?

GlossyBox - July 2011

My GlossyBox arrived today so I thought I'd put up a quick post about my first thoughts on it!

The 5 things it contains this month are:

- Illamasqua Pure Pigment in Conquer (1.3g/0.04oz)
- Xen-Tan Weekly Self-Tan (30ml/1oz)
- Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Body Oil (100ml/3.4fl oz)
- Ciaté Paint Pot in Beach Melba (13.5ml)
- 2 Etat Libre D'Orange Eau De Parfum (1.5ml x 2)

I love the Illamasqua Pure Pigment, Conquer is a deep green shade and looks very pretty. I've never used any Illamasqua products because I am trying to spend the least I possibly can on makeup because my collection is very large now! This is also a full-sized pigment worth £15.50, very impressive!

I have no interest in the next product, the Xen-Tan Premium Sunless Tan because I dislike tanning! Therefore will be thinking of what to do with it... The sample size is great though - 30ml.

The Weleda Body Oil looks interesting, but the claims "Indulgently firms and renews" imply that this is for an older target audience, but I'll give it a shot and if I don't feel like it's doing anything for me, hand it over to a lady older than myself! This is another full size product worth £19.95!

The Ciaté Paint Pot is another great product but I have too many pale pink/nude shades so I would have liked a different shade! This is worth £9 and is another full sized product!

Finally, the Etat Libres D'Orange are very small samples of 2 different perfumes, that upon first "smelling" smell great!

Overall I am very impressed with this month's GlossyBox, it contains 3 full size products worth £44.45 together without the self-tan and tiny samples, although I expect the perfume samples would be free anyway. So a £44.45+ box for £10 and free delivery, I'm impressed! I give this month's GlossyBox a 8/10! Products will be reviewed individually too.

The last point I'd like to make though after seeing a few other GlossyBoxes I would have much preferred the UltraSun sunscreen instead of the tan! A nice little bottle of Orla Keily instead of the random perfume samples and a coloured Ciaté Paint Pot! GlossyBox should get a move on with their profile-creating!

Thank you for reading!

Have you got your GlossyBox this month? Like it? A fail? Let me know in the comments below!


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My first ever GlossyBox! June 2011

Hi!

Sorry I haven't been posting as frequently as I'd like to, I've had many busy days and some very lazy days so no blogging gets done! This post is going to be a little snapshot of what I got in this month's GlossyBox and my first impressions of the box, its contents and Glossybox in general.

This is my first ever GlossyBox, I ordered on 6th May and the email I received said I would receive a GlossyBox on 6th May! So I asked GlossyBox on twitter what this meant and it turned out that I wouldn't be getting one until June...I was very disappointed. I think as a brand new company it should have been prepared for such a high demand for the service and been able to provide for all those interested! When you usually order things, they are in stock unless stated otherwise and depending on delivery are received pretty quickly. I was very excited to receive my first box...

Onto the contents of this month's box and my first impressions:

There's a small leaflet(?) explaining what's in the box along with some discount codes on separate pieces for the brands in the box.

Here we have this month's 5 luxury samples... I could honestly go off on one about how damaging and unthoughtful it is for GlossyBox to have placed a £1.52, 50ml bottle of Batiste Dry Shampoo in Original, in the box but I will say so politely. GlossyBox advertise themselves to provide luxury samples, from luxury brands, Batiste is not a luxury brand. I cannot emphasise enough how disappointed I am again, especially as this box is/was a lot of customers' first box.

Next up, is an eau de parfum by Perles de Lalique, definitely a luxury brand thank goodness. The bottle is beautiful and I loved the packaging too, it's only 4.5ml but looks like a lot of perfume. Eau de parfum is the most concentrated form of scent available so it would be the most costly if bought alone, £68 for 100ml. The only issue I have with this is the scent itself, it's a sophisticated scent, but one for a much older lady in my opinion, so I'm not sure if I'll be keeping it or just using it up when I can.

In the little pouch is the Bioeffect EGF Serum, the wondrous skincare product from Iceland. This sample is worth £30, and a full sized 15ml vial is £125 and 5ml for £49. I would expect this to be for an older lady again but the leaflet does say it is for any age and any skin type so I will be trying this and hopefully reviewing it soon.

Next is the small designer nail lacquer by OPI in Coronation, the other one available was Extravagance. I really like this colour and the application seems to be good too, I will review this too, but very happy with this item!

Finally in my box was a 100ml bath and shower gel by Abahna, in the white grapefruit and may chang scent. I haven't much to say about this product as I have yet to try it out, so will put it in a review for you. For 250ml it is £17 so a luxury product for sure. Instead of the bath and shower gel there were many other possibilities of various items that could have been in the box, one of which being a Rouge Bunny Rouge lipgloss, that I wish I'd got!

The box itself I am impressed with, the sturdiness and classy décor is something I also love. It's perfect for storing various bits and bobs, and depending on future contents of GlossyBoxes I'd love to have a little stack of these filled with various items. They could also be used to house presents for other people. Love the box itself.

Finally, GlossyBox overall. Disappointed with the fact that I didn't receive a "May box" when I ordered in May, very upset with the £1.52 worth of Batiste - clearly not a luxury brand, disappointed again with the increase in price of GlossyBox from September, to £12.95, the extra £2.95 for P and P - no indication of this was given when advertising the box. Happy with the box itself and most of the items. For June, I give GlossyBox a 5/10. I will review items separately too.

Thank you very much for reading! :)

What was in your GlossyBox? Love/Like/Hate?

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17 Nail Bar in a Bag

Hello!

Here's the post about 17's offer/GWP. Purchase any 2 17 items and receive this for free! It includes 2 nail polishes, 1 nail file and nail art stickers. I got mine when I bought the Miami Pop Collection and I picked up some more nail polishes too! (I love 17 and nail polish...can you tell?)

Here's an image of what's included in your lovely gift:

The 2 nail polishes included are Pink Grapefruit and Knockout Red. Then there's the nail file and nail art stickers. I've been messing around with the file and stickers and they both seem of great quality, the nail art stickers I didn't think I'd like at all because of the animal print (I hate animal print), but they look surprisingly good on nails!

I've yet to use the nail polishes, but as soon as I have a few times I'll definitely stick a review up on here! Not to worry ;)

Overall I think this is a great deal, I bought 2 nail polishes and got this set, making the deal essentially BOGOF plus extra bits! I generally find that 17 products are of a high quality too and have yet to experience any problems with them so I was very happy with this! I would have preferred it if there were different shades of nail polish available, maybe 3 different sets and you could go on a collecting mission...but I'm very happy with my purchases and my free gift(s).

Thank you for reading! :)

What do you think of this set? Have you picked yours up yet?

Nails Inc. and Fabulous Offer Alert!

I blog to alert you of an amazing offer Fabulous Magazine (found in News of the World) have on starting from today! Sunday 19th June 2011, to land yourself these 2 beautiful nail polishes by Nails inc. worth £22 for free all you have to do is collect 3 tokens from the News of the World! In addition, you will receive a code for 20% off products at http://www.nailsinc.com/ and you can treat yourself to a half price manicure for £14, usually £28 at participating Nails Inc. salons. (T&Cs apply.)

These two fabulous (pun intended!) colours have been created exclusively for the magazine and are aptly named Atomic and OMP! (Oh My Pink!) - the perfect shades for summer!

How to get your beauty mitts on these:

 - Cut out and collect 3 differently numbered tokens being printed over the next 4 weeks (starting today!)

- Take them along to any participating Tesco Extra or Tesco supermarket between July 3rd-11th to pick up your free Nails inc. polishes!

It's so easy! I was kindly sent both shades as a sneak preview of the kit, I put OMP! on my left hand and Atomic on my right hand, one coat each first, then 2 coats afterwards. This is the first time I have tried the brand and I've only used these for one day, just to let you know! Here are my thoughts:

- Very thick, vibrant, glossy nail polishes, Atomic is slightly streakier than OMP! when used alone
- Application is quite easy, one coat is enough but I personally prefer two
- 2 coats tends to last longer, I experienced chipping after washing lots of dishes with Atomic (one coat)
- Both colours dry very fast, something I LOVE
- Will look gorgeous on all skintones

I didn't put any swatches up because my hands have tanned very deeply (even more so than usual!) in comparison to my natural skintone and I don't like tanning...I'm weird I know...sorry about that! Colours are exactly the same on the nail as shown in the nail polish bottle though, what you see is exactly that you will get!

Disclaimer: I was kindly sent this pack by News of the World PR

So what do you think? Yay or nay? Will you be rushing out to get yourselves these gorgeous nail polishes?

Review: No7 Stay Perfect Nail Top Coat

Just ergh. The most horrible disgusting useless top coat I've ever tried, and it's from such a reputable brand. it costs £7 and is available at Boots if you want to give it a go.

Now I'll explain why it's the worst top coat I've ever come across.

- It's gloopy - on the brush it's gloopy and gunky, the consistency isn't nice enough for you to want to polish your fine manicure with.

- It's bubbly - it creates bubbles, micro, tiny, yucky bubbles on my nails which completely ruins them.

- Drying time is FOREVER - it takes forever to dry, even after about 2 hours, you may think that your nails are ready to touch and you can continue your daily chores but NO! If you touch a nail you will have a splodge or a nasty fingerprint left on whichever pretty colour you've chosen to paint your nails with.

- It's Sticky - this isn't really to do with the nails exactly, but if you accidentally do manage to place it somewhere else, it sticks and is very hard to get off or even smooth down to a level of near invisibility.

- It leaves strings - this is a really unattractive, it leaves strings while transporting it onto the nail from the bottle, like honey leaves trails on a spoon!

Basically this top coat sucks, in every way possible. It gives nothing required of a top coat apart from the shine if you manage to get 1 little nail done properly with this.

This really baffles me because I adore No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colours, and they're of a good consistency and wear pretty well. It's just this top coat that ruins my nails completely and does nothing useful. Sorry, it does do one useful thing, once on and if you've managed to dry it well it does keep the colour of your nails going strong, but you may not want colour locked onto your nails with bubbles on top! Most of us don't!

I wouldn't pay £7 for this or even £2 with the £5 off vouchers, I remember it being £6.25...just in awe at the increase in prices now!

But this is a definite no no on my part, have you ever tried this? What did you think? Am I the only one?!

Thank you so much for reading! :)

Review: BeautyUK's Glam Nails Nail Polish - Mauve Flash No34

I L-O-V-E this nail polish :) I wish I could stop there and end this post and that would be enough convincing for you to go out and try it...I'll continue for all those that need more convincing though. It cost me £1.99 from Superdrug which rockets the value factor by 1000x! For 9ml of nail polish...wow.

So onto the convincing now...I'm sorry I haven't posted any swatches of this (and for saying convincing 3x already!), all the pictures I took came out really shoddy and didn't do the beautiful colour enough justice.

It's a very bright summery pink that would look very pretty on nails in the summer, fingers and toes.The brush is lovely to work with, fans out enough and doesn't allow the formula to "gloop" on it, the wear is chip resistant for about a week and looks absolutely perfect, which is oh so difficult to find in a nail polish nowadays. I took mine off a bit sooner though because as the nails grow the cuticles become worse so I end up flaking/scratching picking at my nails until the colour came off, otherwise I reckon it would have remained perfectly for longer. I wore a top coat on top which completely "glooped" and left bubbles on my nails, yet the colour still shone through. I also put on 3 coats but I think 2 coats were enough, it's opaque enough for 1 coat as long as you pick up a lot of polish on the brush.

I know this isn't a typical transition colour from winter to spring but I needed some cheering up and this polish really did and has cheered me up :)

And there we are, a perfect nail polish for £1.99...shocking I know! A very big well done to BeautyUK for making such a perfect nail polish, I would like it to be a bit more opaque on its own and I have yet to try wearing it alone to further test out the chip-resistant, stay-pretty for ages quality it has, but I give it an 8/10 for now.

Thank you for reading :)

Question: How often do you change your nails/nail colour?

I was wondering this because a lot of beauty gurus/bloggers seem to change their nails everyday, I don't have time to do that but I try to change them at least once a week and if we're lucky twice!

Please leave your comments below :)

Review: Bourjois Une Seconde Nail Enamel (One Second Nail Polish)

These nail polishes and colours are amazing! I had to talk about them on here! Unfortunately I haven't been able to swatch them and I really want to get lots of posting done before the year is over!

Availability: Boots, Superdrug
Price: £5.99
Colours/Types: many!



Shades, L to R, 2, 9, 8

The nail polishes aren't named properly, they have just been given numbers, even though they are absolutely amazing. They claim to dry within a minute or just over and they do! This is shocking news for me because I always manage to get fingerprints on mine regardless of how many claims the companies make about drying quickly.

The flat brush is very innovative and very helpful during application of the nail polish - something I wish all brands would use, it becomes very easy to cover the entire nail in a few strokes and it is an efficient way to save time and yet look pampered.

I also like the packaging and the bottle shape, I think it allows the polishes to stand out from other brands. The colours are all very vivid with just one coat - which again is a pleasant surprise, do not chip for at least a week on me - without any top coat, and of course dry quickly. The texture of the formula itself I find to be nice too, as I don't find it to be heavy or too sticky as I have found with other nail polishes.

Overall I love these nail polishes and wish there were more colours and more brands adapting to the shape of the brush, formula and the quick drying time!

These are most definitely my favourite nail polishes, and at the moment Bourjois are 3 for 2 at Boots! And possibly Superdrug too if I'm correct...

Please do not hesitate to comment below with any questions or comments in general! Thank for reading as always,

Nav x

Beauty to Watch: September 2010

Hi!

Welcome to this feature of my blog which I will post at the beginning of each month, letting you know about 10 products I will (and you should! - if you want...) watch out for in the month of...and for this month it's September. It's not in any particular order of preference though!

1) Benefit's POREfessional pore minimiser

This is something I came across a while back online but didn't realise it would be out so soon, it is actually already available at Debenhams for £23.50, (but not yet at Boots).

WHAT IS IT?

Benefit have described this to be "A translucent, lightweight, silky primer that diffuses the appearance of pores and fine lines for an 'airbrushed' finish."

It can be used as a pore primer before makeup and for light touch-ups which should be handy. I have yet to buy and try this so cannot say whether it is worth trying or not.

2), 3), 4), 5) Revlon's Autumn Winter Range

OK so this is 4 different products that I think look interesting and I haven't rolled them into 1 otherwise I would be talking about 10 different ranges!

Eyeshadow quad in 'Silver Fox' £7.99 each

Revlon Superlustrous/Matte Lipsticks, £7.29 each

Nail enamel in 'Berry' and 'Emerald' £6.29 each

This isn't the entire range but a reasonable "swatch" of it, and it is available at Boots from now! I can't wait to try out the nail enamels...at the moment Boots have a "2 for £8" on the nail enamels and "2 for £12" on the eyeshadow quads and other selected Revlon. An even better reason to buy and try!

6) No7 Autumn Limited Edition Eye Palette

This is definitely a bold step from Boots, considering that this is an Autumn palette. With the weather becoming more and more dreary and miserable everyday, No7 have launched a "bright" eyeshadow palette.

From top left clockwise, "purple haze", "red lead", "chrome green" and "indigo blue".

Packaged in a lovely snakeskin textured compact

I think this is a very interesting launch as typically one would associate such vivid colours with summer, available only at Boots for a reasonable £10.50, equating to about £2.63 per shadow. Boots claim the shadows are very pigmented and soft so should be worth a buy.

7) Lady Million by Paco Rabanne

A new perfume by succeeding "One Million" for the man, now Paco Rabanne releases one for the woman.

8) Guilty by Gucci

A very seductive, sensual scent by Gucci for the woman...

9) Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in a TUBE!

Urban Decay have finally heard all their fans and put the primer potion in a tube. Yippee! :)

This equates to 150% of product and is available on their website.

10) Origins Zero Oil Anti-Blemish Range

This is the new range from Origins to help clear up blemishes and oily skin. Origins is known for its use of natural ingredients over synthetic ones or chemicals. I haven't tried this range yet, but would like to sometime in the future. Its selling point is that it does not contain any oil and is available at Boots.


That's all for this month and I hope you enjoyed reading this feature, I'm very excited about it and I hope it has been of some use to you. Please leave a comment if you have tried any of these products or even if you haven't!

And as always, thank you for reading!