Tag: red

Free Nails Inc Polishes with Colgate MaxWhite ONE

Freebie alert!

Colgate has teamed up with Nails Inc to create two exclusive shades of nail polish – Luminous Red Gloss, and Luminous Red Metallic – limited edition shades which are FREE when you purchase the new Colgate MaxWhite ONE Luminous toothpaste from Boots.

Colgate MaxWhite ONE Luminous contains new SmartFoam technology which bursts foam in your mouth – enabling even between your teeth to get clean and white. It contains White Accelerator microcrystals which release ingredients similar to those used by your dentists as you brush. Colgate claim that by using this toothpaste, your smile will be one shade whiter in just one week!

It seems a great deal that you are getting not only this fab sounding toothpaste, but a full sized nails inc polish for only £3.99. There are two shades to choose from – Luminous Red Gloss, and Luminous Red Metallic.

Luminous Red Gloss is a gorgeously glossy post-box red – Luminous Red Gloss, it’s metallic sister – exactly the same shade, but with a metallic finish to the polish. I found it really easy to apply – maybe it’s because I’ve been dabbling in textured polish recently, but it went on like a dream!

These are only available while stocks last – so go go go! Good luck!

Nails of the Day – Eve Snow Poppy

I’m so used to hearing nail polish brands boast that they are ‘3-free’ (DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde), that when I heard that new nail brand, Eve Snow’s polishes were ‘3-added’, I was left confused. The 3 additions to the polishes, aren’t, thankfully, the harmful chemicals that are eliminated by 3-free polishes, but are Vitamin E, Argan Oil and Ginko Biloba – all of which are good things to be on your nails! It’s nice to know you can be conditioning your nails at the same time as them looking lovely.

I tried out Poppy, a bright post-box red colour which was extremely glossy and wore nicely. In fact, on the tube last night the girl sitting next to me asked me what it was as she loved the look of it so much! There must be something special in that polish!

The lid, similar to Butter London’s polishes, comes into two parts – so you can screw off the main, square lid to reveal a thinner lid underneath if you find it easy to apply it that way. The brush is wide and the formula feels just right – it was nice and easy to get an even coat of polish over the nail and two coats left it gorgeously opaque.

They’re a new brand so have a fairly small range of colours at the moment (16 if I counted correctly) but after this one polish – I’m impressed and look forward to the expansion of their range… lipsticks are coming soon too!

Eve Snow polishes are available at www.evesnow.com priced at £12

Nails of the Day – Essie Bordeaux

Well, not actually today (well maybe!) I am writing this post in advance as I am currently in Russia… where the weather is no doubt more than twice as cold as London. Brrrr.

This colour, I think, is the perfect compliment to this cold weather – the dark, rich, reddy tones feel warm and comforting. I love dark nails, but sometimes it feels wrong in the warmer months – particularly when that’s the time I want to go crazy with the brights and pastels. Bordeaux is a classic colour that would look great on any skin tone.

This is the first time I have tried Essie since the reformulation of their polishes and the new brushes for their at-home range which features 70 of their shades. Can we stop for a moment to appreciate the brush? This is seriously the absolutely most fantastic amazing brush I have ever used in my life. It’s so much wider than the standard Essie brush. On top of the width, it fans out perfectly, so all you need is one swipe along the nail and the whole thing is covered. I am IN LOVE.

Seriously!

The ‘old’ style brush, that I am used to – is in fact the professional range of polishes – the ‘new’ one I am floored by is for the consumer collection, although the way it applies means it looks really sleek and neat on the nails, and it’s easy to get a nice line close to the cuticle making it look professional, in your own home.

Still can’t get over that brush!

Essie at home polishes are available to buy at Boots and Superdrug for £7.99 each.

Seriously!

ncLA I Am Your Muse Nail Wraps

I’ve never really got on with nail wraps – they always end up crinkly, dont fit my nail properly and peel away from the tip of my nail, so I was kind of expecting these to follow suit. I was pleasantly surprised that they are different from the rest – they actually worked!

ncLA have a wide range of special edition designer nail wraps from the fairly simple to amazing, whacky, creative designs. These are the ‘I Am Your Muse’ wraps – which are a metallic red with a black lace design on them. You get 22 wraps in the pack, as well as a nail file. The only extra thing you need is a clear nail polish and then you’re good to go!

To use them, you start by painting your nails with a clear polish, then once it’s dry, pick out the wrap which fits best for your nail. You stick the rounded side to the base of your nail, then stretch it up over your nail, pressing it down to stop any wrinkles or air bubbles. The key here is stretching. The first couple I put on I didn’t stretch, just pressed, and there were a few wrinkles. The ncLA wraps seem to be a lot stretchier and a better thickness than any others I’ve used before. You then use the nail file to remove the excess of the wrap from the tip of the nail, then paint with the clear nail polish again to seal the wrap and for extra glossiness. The nail file is really high quality, which again, is something I haven’t seen in any of the other nail wrap kits I’ve tried. So good that I’m going to keep it in my nail stash for filing my nails. 

You can see in the photo the first finger has some wrinkles – that’s from not stretching the wrap as I applied but you can only see this up close. I am really happy with how they turned out – it’s a really simple way to add really interesting nail art to your nails.

ncLA nail wraps are available from CutECOsmetics priced at £12.50 per pack.

Sisley Hydrating Long Lasting Lipstick

I posted a couple of weeks ago saying how impressed I was with my first ever venture into the world of Sisley with their beautiful nude lipgloss. I now have in my possession two of the lipsticks I fawned over in that post – they certainly have not failed to impress and now I’m having an ‘OhMyGodIThinkINeedEverythingSisleyHasInItsMakeupRange’ moment!

The lipsticks in the Hydrating Long Lasting Lipstick range are housed in a decadent golden case which feel very robust and high quality. They are protected by a suede cover, which adds to the whole luxury lipstick feel. 
The tip of the bullet is diamond shaped, which spirals round the whole of the lipstick – this is the first time I have used a product shaped like this and it really helped with application, particularly as they are such bold, bright colours.
The two shades I have are L25 (Geisha Red) and L30 (Mandarine). The moment I first touched them to my lips, I fell in love.
They glide onto the lips easily – there’s no dragging involved – and such a gorgeous pigmented punch of colour immediately. They leave a satin finish to the lip, and as they contain Calendula and Vitamins C & E, they actually hydrate your lips at the same time as prettifying them! They are also extremely long lasting which means that you don’t have to touch up constantly throughout the day (or night!) and when they do start to wear off, they fade down beautifully.
L25 has zoomed straight to the top of my Favourite Red Lipstick list – it’s the most divine rich, bright yet deep red. 
L30 is just so… orange! I love this as an alternative to the red lip for a bold lipped look, and will look stunning with a tan.
They are a little more pricey than I would normally spend, at £32 per lipstick – but they are such great lipsticks, of such high quality that they are definitely worth it. 
Seriously, if you haven’t tried Sisley yet, you need to! I’m just gutted I left it this long….

Nails of the Day – Nails Inc Marble Arch – Concrete Polish

I promised that the next nail pic I uploaded would be of one of the new Nails Inc *concrete* polishes…. so here it is! The shade I have is Marble Arch – a very bright red with a tinge of orange. If it wasn’t for the texture I’d say it’s a very summery colour.

So… concrete…. it basically dries like there are tiny grains of sand in the polish, leaving a slightly bobbly texture and semi-matt finish. The raised ‘concrete’ parts are matt, and the base polish still has a hint of shine. From a distance it looks like matt red polish, it’s not until you see it up close that you see the detail in the texture. It feels very rough to the touch too.

Because of the finish, you can’t use a topcoat with it, which I was a little worried about – although even with two coats (which left my nails completely opaque) it dried pretty quickly and I managed to not smudge them at all – yay!

Please excuse the state of my middle nail, I managed to break it really far down and it’s very sore!

And there you have it! What do you think of this texture? Will you be wearing it?!

Concrete polish from nails inc will be out in December, for £12 each in four shades – Marble Arch (tomato red), Stonehenge (cobalt blue), London Wall (nude) and Monument (lime).

MAC Marilyn Monroe Haul & Swatches

MAC have just released their latest limited edition collection – the Marilyn Monroe collection. It came out online in the UK on Monday, where many pieces are already sold out, and comes into MAC stores tomorrow. It was released last week in USA.

The collection is supposed to embody everything about Marilyn Monroe – being sexy and glamourous. It’s a fairly big collection, with lashes, brow products, liners… but the main players for me are the lipsticks – one nude, and four red shades. It was hard to not buy all of them, but in the end I went for Deeply Adored and Love Goddess.

I also liked the look of the blushes, The Perfect Cheek being more pinky, and Legendary more coral – I went for the latter.

The packaging is black and sleek and has images of Marilyn Monroe on it. I heard that these images are ones that have never been seen before and MAC has bought the exclusive rights to be able to use them for this collection.

Once you slip off the outer housing of the lipstick packaging, it looks like a normal box, except there’s a little red lip print in the inside of the lid – cute!

The plastic is glossy rather than the standard black, and the lipstick casing is black all over, rather than silver at the top.

The blush, Legendary, is really pretty. It’s a very pale peachy coral which works well on pale skin. I am NC15 in MAC, and I think it could look very ashy on people with darker skin tones. That said, for paler people it’s gorgeous. As it looks quite light in the pan I thought I’d have to be heavy handed with application, but it’s very pigmented on my skin and the colour pay off is great.

The lipsticks I chose were Love Goddess (on the left) and Deeply Adored (on the right).

I have swatched them next to some other red toned MAC lipsticks for comparison.

Next to the other reds, Love Goddess looks very pink – on the lips it definitely looks more red but I like that it has a hint of pink to it – combining my two most favourite lipstick shades! It is satin in finish and I’ve seen elsewhere that it lasts a really long time (I’m unable to comment yet as these literally just arrived through my door!)

Deeply Adored is a much deeper, darker colour, bang on trend for the berry lip craze at the moment. One of my favourite red lipsticks is Ruby Woo, particularly because it’s matt in texture, and I think this one will follow suit.

And that is my little haul!

Have you got your eye on anything in the collection, or have you ordered anything? Let me know what you got! I was very tempted by one of the eyeshadows – I don’t know if I should go in store and get it, so let me know what you got and your thoughts!

Nails of the Day – Orly Rock-on Red

I’m carrying on my Orly love-fest at the moment, and currently sporting Orly’s Rock-On Red. It’s quite unlike any other red I own. It’s a pinky red – not pink enough to be ‘pink’, but I don’t think it’s a proper ‘red’ either. Dark magenta maybe?!

It’s the kind of polish that would look great all year round as it’s so warm and bright.

It has a creme consistency, and once again, was perfect with just one coat. I did two just because I can’t not!

It’s lasted really well without chipping – the more I try Orly polishes the more impressed I am!

Do you like it? What colour would you say it was?!

Nails of the Day – Barry M Bright Red

Barry M’s Bright Red is exactly how you’d imagine. Bright, and, errrr… red! Absolutely gorgeous at that!

It went on easily and was opaque with just one coat – I did two just for good luck – it turned out gorgeously glossy and strikingly sexy.

If you’re after a red nail polish – this is a *proper* red. I’m always amazed at how fab Barry M’s polishes are – you can pick up 2 for £5 quite regularly in Superdrug, and are definitely one of my favourites!

What do you think about Barry M polishes? Do you like this red?

Nails of the Day – 17 Risky Red

I have to admit, it’s been a while since I tried a polish from the 17 range… a while since I bought anything from them actually, but the ‘Supreme Shine – up to 10 day wear’ range looked rather promising, and grown up.

Today I am wearing Risky Red, which is a lovely bright blood red colour. You may notice that it’s a little bit messy – I found it tricky to apply! The formula was great – really glossy and opaque with just one coat – but I found the brush quite hard to work with. It is short and fat but very dense. On one hand it’s fab as you can get so much of your nail covered in just one swipe of the brush, but on the other I found it hard to get to the sides of my nails without either leaving a gap, or getting it on my fingers! That said, the colour is gorgeous, and it is definitely supremely shiny, as it says on the bottle, which I love!

I’m on day 2 of wearing it and there is very very slight tip-wear to my forefinger, which is always the first to go. Nail polishes don’t tend to last for long on my nails anyway – but I certainly don’t think it’ll last the full 10 days. The polish is only £3.99 (and 3 for 2 at the moment) – it’s great value for money.

Have you tried any of these polishes? Do you have the same brush issue, or is that just me!?