Debenhams Fekkai Shampoo Exchange - 12th July!

Word on the street (well internet) is that selected Debenhams stores will be holding a shampoo exchange on July 12th. Simply take in any old shampoo (full or empty) to one of the participating stores*and it will be exchanged for a full sized Fekkai Advanced Salon Technician Colour Care Shampoo (usually around the £19 mark) for free!! It's such a great offer, just save one for me please. ;-)

*Participating stores are: Liverpool, Wakefield, Preston, Henry Street Dublin, Manchester, Glasgow, Metro Centre, Trafford, and Oxford Street – whilst stocks last!

Boots Extra Points Offer on Premium Brands!!

Buy any 3 premium brand beauty items and until Wednesday 27th July you'll also get 750 extra points on your Advantage Card - that's £7.50 back on your card to spend on something fabulous!

If that isn't good in itself, then don't forget that a lot of premium brands do multi-purchase gift with purchase offers so you could also bag yourself a ton of freebies in the process too if you choose wisely.

For instance you can currently get a free Alice Temperly gift with any 2 purchases from Lancôme (one to be skincare) - I got a Lancôme/Alice Temperly gift last year and still to this day use the fabulous bag (the products are long gone though)!

Gift Contains:
Trial Size Genifique
Galateis Doucier
Tonique Doucier
Jucy Tube
Hypnose Mascara
Alice Temperly Bag

Buy a further Lancôme to get your points and you'll also bag yourself a free Nutrics Hand Cream (100ml, above) to boot. Fab, yes?

Love it when Boots have multiple offers on to take advantage of (literally, pun intended) - will you be making use of any of these offers?

Boots Website!

I Can't Wait To Get...Chanel Fall 2011!

Illusion D'Ombre Shadows

And

I want all of the above, I saw some gorgeous swatches on Cafe Makeup and my bank balance is already weeping at my increasingly imminent shopping spree! Will you be purchasing anything from the collection?

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Sophie Ellis Bextor!

Another lipstick that I absolutely LOVE... can you tell yet that I really have fallen back in love with lipsticks in a MASSIVE way? Anybody know what it could be?

I also like the idea of her hair and where she was going with it, but I am not entirely sure it was executed as it should be?! I'm all for a messy up-do but this doesn't look as intentionally messy as I think it should, do you agree?

Upcoming Liz Earle QVC Today's Special Value - Friday 1st July!

I love a good bargain, I really do - then again, doesn't everybody? So for that reason, whenever I see one I always like to let you guys know too. Well this Friday there is a QVC Today's Special Value from Liz Earle, the Liz Earle 9pc Summer Radiance Collection, to be precise.

I am not entirely sure what it contains, but it will be roughly 20% less than the usual QVC price... which is also usually a bargain price in itself. I can't give the exact price until it goes live on air, but (without knowing the exact contents) so far it looks well worth a little peek... and possibly a purchase too!

Liz Earle are a widely known and well thought of brand so I will be very interested to see what's in this set - if I can find out any contents (and I will do my best) I will be back straight away with the scoop for you!

All TSV's are available through this link... although it will show the TSV for the particular day that you click on, so today's is a SodaStream offer.

Competition - Win TWO £5 Body Shop Vouchers (NOW CLOSED - Thank you)!

I've got a TWO £5 Body Shop gift cards that is valid until 8th July up for grabs - it's the one that came in InStyle magazine this month. I actually didn't think it would actually be included as I have a subscription and thus don't get free gifts - at least I didn't get the Nails Inc polish *hmmmph* but that's a whole other post.

Anyway all you have to do to win it is follow me via Google Friend Connect that looks like this:

... and leave me a comment with contact details (be it your Twitter name or an email address, anything that will allow me to contact you) in the comment box below, it's that simple!!

Competition ends on Friday 1st July at 12:00pm and I'll post out the card, first class post on Friday afternoon so you should get it fairly quickly as they expire on the 8th.

UPDATE: This competition is now for TWO £5 vouchers as the very lovely and generous Daniella from Madame Gourmand has said that I can include her £5 voucher from InStyle in the giveaway too as she has no use for it. Thank you, Daniella. x

OPI Serena Glam Slam - Rally Pretty Pink & Red Shatter (Pic Heavy)!

If you were a fan of ORLY’s Cosmic FX range then the new OPI/Serena Williams ‘Rally Pretty Pink’ polish will be right up your street! It has the same duo-chromatic qualities and the same kind of finish too!

I have to say, I love these finishes and I can sit looking at them for ages... even days after application. This is especially the case with these types as when the sun or any light catches them they sparkle and glisten beautifully.

The shade shows mostly as a definite pink on the promotional photographs but actually in reality I find it’s very a gold-y shade for the most part – of course this can also depend on your surroundings and lighting too as these can have a huge effect on the colours it reflects. You do get flashes of pink and even purple in there, but to my eye there are definitely a lot of gold tones in there.

This shows the pinky purple colour flashes best!

This post is picture heavy for this reason, as the light caught it in so many different ways, I couldn’t not show you them all!

The swatches show 4 coats but I could have managed with 3 and the wear time has been great, I'm on day 4.5 with minimal tip wear and a slight chip where I scraped it against the metal part of my desk by accident that was easily hidden because of the nature of the polish and its finish!

I wouldn’t say the shade instantly makes me think ‘SUMMER’ but it does look beautiful in the sunlight as mentioned, and doesn’t look out of place when wearing it in the summer either. Plus, with it being so spangley, I think would also be a perfect polish for the Christmas party season too – especially with the red shatter over the top!

The red shatter is lovely, and it isn’t quite as matte as the black shatter either, which is a good thing for me... and also good when using it with the Rally Pretty Pink polish too as I wouldn’t normally use a topcoat with this kind of polish finish!

It shatters well, leaving plenty of the polish underneath still showing, but to me appears a bit darker than I expected it to be – it’s not a bad thing though, it still looks great and possibly would appear lighter on top of a different polish (I shall experiment and post up as a NOTD feature)!

Available as a set from Lena White for £20.50!

Celeb Sunday - January Jones!

It occurred to me that my 'Speechless Sundays' were never really all that speechless, so I've renamed the feature to make it somewhat more appropriate! What do you think?

There's no doubting  how stunning Mad Men's January Jones is... she manages to look so glamorous, yet to me she still kind of retains the 'girl next door' look too. She rocks the tousled/tonged hair look effortlessly, her make-up always looks impeccable and her skin, flawless! I'm a bit jealous!

Leighton Denny Large Crystal Nail File!

This week my local Boots store finally moved from the tiny store they’ve had for many years into a larger, new retail unit and to celebrate they have been giving away vouchers for £3 off a £15 spend. Never one to turn down the chance of a bargain, I happily took a voucher and promptly spent it on a Leighton Denny Crystal Nail File, a large one (195mm)... bringing the price down from £15 to just £12, which is basically the same price as the small one.

It’s said to be ‘The Rolls Royce of Nail Files’(all be it by Leighton Denny, himself)and boasts that it will ‘glide smoothly and evenly along the nail edge, turning the excess nail to dust while leaving the newly filed edge completely smooth and sealed’ I have no argument against this statement, at all. Honestly, I couldn’t agree more.

This file gets through my nails like a hot knife through butter turning it to fine white powder before my very eyes (see below - sorry they're not the most glamorous photographs). Filing nails can be such a chore, trying to make sure the edges are smooth and neat, well this file almost does all the work for you!

 Nail Powder.

It’s also a much more pleasant experience, if you’re a bit nail file phobic (is there a real phobia name for this?) then this should really help you as it’s such a smooth action with no ickyness (I’m not nail phobic but I can understand why people could be)!

It made such light work of my nails and it even passed the toenail test, filing them nicely without any damage to the nail edge... and well, I don’t know about you but for me, trying to file my toenails usually either ends up with me totally contorting myself to get the right angle to file at, or risk having scratchy, rough nail edges which is not nice, at all!

The nail file after use.

I think it helps that you can file back and forth with these files without worrying about the nail not being sealed or smooth... something I’m still getting used to, but a welcome advantage.

The only (very, very minor) downside to this file is that unlike the smaller file, the larger one didn’t come with a proper (and protective) case which is a bit disappointing, but I’m thinking maybe I need the smaller one for in my bag and keep the larger one for home use?!?!

The price, whilst seemingly more expensive than your average nail file actually is a lot more reasonable than you’d think; considering this file (and its smaller counterpart) comes with a lifetime warranty. Now this doesn’t mean you can snap it and have it replaced, but what it does mean is that if you look after it (including rinsing it in warm water from time to time to clean and restore performance) but find that the quality of the filing surface diminishes (at any time), it will be replaced for free – good eh!

This means that your £12 or £15 nail file should last you for your whole lifetime which seems pretty reasonable to me and should more than cover the cost compared to all the cheaper nail files you’d otherwise buy in your lifetime... so long as you don’t lose the file, of course!

I am so pleased with this purchase and I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this item to you. It’s available from so many places so is easily purchased, the cheapest place I’ve found so far for the large one is Amazon.co.uk (correct as of Saturday 25th June 2011) for £12.97.

A Little Blog Makeover... Whaddya Think? Suggestion Welcome!

As you may have noticed, the background image from the blog has now gone – this is just the start of a little makeover of the blog as I felt it was all getting a little bit cluttered and busy, don’t you think?

So, this post is basically to let you know what’s going on, in case any of you catch it in ‘testing’ phases and think something is wrong. I also wanted to take this opportunity to ask you what you’d like to see on here; be it in terms of design (bright/neutral/a mixture/larger photographs?), content (more swatches, reviews, specific brands you might like to see) or anything else that you can think of.

I am completely open to suggestions – in fact I welcome them as I really want you to feel that you want to come back and visit! :-)

In other news... here's a cute photo of a baby seal, just because!

Accessorize Lipstick - Shade 7, Velvet Pink!

I got this Accessorize lipstick a little while ago, just before I regained my love of lipsticks and I didn’t really take a huge amount of notice of it until just before I went on holiday, where it actually had a decent amount of outings! Please excuse my silly lips, I still don't know what to do with them/myself when taking these photographs - ha!

The finish is kind of satin-y/frosty which catches the light but doesn’t look overly glossy, and the colour is lovely; it’s kind of a very slightly coral-y pink and depending on how the light catches it, I find it can lean either more towards pink, or coral... both of which look great in my view! It smells of coconut to me, a bit like sun cream to be honest – but not in a bad way, I quite liked it.

 Pinky Coral

 Coral-y Pink

Pink!

It’s not very moisturising and can look a bit, well crap on dry lips but I do still like it on the days where my lips are in better condition. Wear time is actually better than I expected, but not as good as my more expensive lipsticks (my Tom Ford one especially) although saying that, when it does wear off, it seems to do it fairly evenly which is always a bonus!

Pigmentation is fine, it’s not heavily pigmented but you don’t have to layer it on to see the colour either. The photo below shows just a very light sweep of it over my lips whilst I was on holiday (hence the even wonkier lips than usual as I wasn’t expecting it would be used on the blog) which I liked equally as much as the full colour – great for wearing with a heavier eye, which is what I was doing here!!

The lipstick is only £5, and for this price I think it’s actually quite a bargain and would happily buy another if I saw a colour that took my fancy!

Available from Superdrug and Accessorize websites and in store too!

Essie Summer 2011 (Part 2) - Resort!

Another Essie collection for summer 2011 is the 'Resort' collection, a seemingly safari-themed set that comprises of 4 shades:

"Lion Around: peachy shade
Da Bush: khaki green shade
Your Hut or Mine: sparkling golden poppy pink
Fair Game: Blue metallic Tahitian pearl sheen of platinum"

My favourites from the promotional photographs are Fair Game and Your Hut Or Mine, but that could all change when I see the shades 'in real life' so to speak as I do actually think they all look like colours I'd wear!

Fancy any of these?

Essie Summer 2011 (Part 1) - Braziliant!

Essie's scorching summer 2011 collection, the Braziliant collection looks absolutely beautiful, I wholeheartedly concur with the ‘brilliant’ reference as I am coveting at least 4, probably 5 of the collection already!

Colours that stand out to me (ie the ones I *really* want) are Super Bossa Nova, Braziliant, Too Too Hot, Meet Me At The Sunset and possibly Smooth Sailing too! The only one that didn’t really grab me is Absolutely Shore... just because I have enough pastel-y green shades currently (I probably have enough of most shades but that’s beside the point)!

What do you think, are there any colours that you must have in your life?

Wordless Wednesday - Cameron Diaz!

How amazing does Cameron Diaz look here?! Her hair is beautiful and that lipstick is lush... anybody know what it could be, or of a dupe? Regardless, it all works perfectly with her bronzed skin and piercing blue eyes  stunning.

I think I might have a little girl crush on her in this photograph as it's such a great shot of her, don't you think?

Also loving her hair in the photograph below!

MAC Fluidline - Sweet Sage!

I’m just getting to grips with gel eyeliners, my hand can be a bit wobbly but this doesn’t stop me buying the liners and practicing like mad. I especially love coloured liners, adding a pop of colour along my lash line is perfect for the summer... or it would be if we actually got ANY summery weather here, anyway!

MAC’s Sweet Sage is a beautiful shade of green, a goldy-green if you will and one that has a lovely glisten to it. I love that whilst it is obviously a colour, it’s also one that could very easily be worn during the day, without anybody batting an eyelid as this means I get so much more use out of it. I do, on occasion wear this over the lid as a base colour and it works a treat - and yep this does happen more often when my wonky hand has been in force, ha!

I understand it is now discontinued; however I still really wanted to show it for the product itself, as much as for the colour.

One of the reasons why is because of how well this product lasts on the skin, it does not budge once applied... hence why I show a faded one on my hand, this is after wiping with a baby wipe (much harder than I would do on my eye, of course) and whilst it has faded, this never actually happens on my eye. Of course this does mean that I have to remove the product with a very good eye make-up remover, but this is no big deal to me as I would use that anyway!

These liners are prone to drying out a little bit after opening, but I’ve found that you can bring them back using either a little MAC Fix+ or even just saline solution (that you’d usually use for contact lenses etc) and working it into the pot. Go slowly though, you don’t want to make it watery.

Fluidline sells for around £13.50 and I would not hesitate in buying this product again (in any colour) as it is fab!

MAC Website!