Nails - my new obsession!

If you follow me on Twitter I think you'll have noticed that my latest obsession is my nails!  And, I'm also obsessed with nail varnish at the moment too ... but not just any polish, I'm mainly obsessed with holographic ones ...

This is the collection I have of them so far.  I blame Mizzworthy, if she hadn't tied me down and forced me to buy  introduced me to the OPI Designer Series Celebration polish (2nd from the left there) then I wouldn't have this lemming for holographic polishes, because I wouldn't have known they existed!

My nails are currently painted with OPI Extravagance (3rd from the right) which is a gorgeous purple with red, yellow, orange and green holographic glitter:

 

Love the depth of colour in this polish, and also love that it's quite subtle from a distance:

I've tried China Glaze and OPI holo's so far, but I'm REALLY looking forward to Nubar releasing their holo-polishes at the end of January ... they'll be available from Beauty Shed, and I'll be picking up at least a couple ...I found the swatches here, and I can't wait!

Organic Wednesday - Voya

Q: Why is the beach wet?

A: Because the sea weed!

Look, it's the first Organic Wednesday since Christmas, that's my only excuse for the terrible joke, I think I accidentally memorised my nephew's 101 Terrible Jokes book over the break! Luckily, this week's products aren't terrible, and I just hope Voya - a family run Irish company who specialise in luxurious seaweed based products - will forgive me ...

Have three products to talk to you about, conditioner, shower gel and a body lotion, and I have a guest blogger again, but first, a little bit about the company:

About Voya

Based in Strandhill, Ireland, the company runs one of the few remaining seaweed spas in Ireland, and they have a great love of organics, they've spend a lot of time over the last ten years or so developing their product range, for example, it took them six years to figure out the process of drying seaweed in a manner that merely puts it into "stasis" rather than killing it off entirely, as they say:

"Seaweed (an algae) dries when the tide goes out, and to prevent it from dying and keep its cell structures intact, it has developed a natural defence against this: slowly reducing its water content and entering a period of stasis or dormancy. Because of our ability to replicate this, we don’t have to treat our seaweed with harmful preservatives, and so the full recuperative power of wild seaweed is brought to you in each product."

Their products are entirely organic, and the company's philosophy is this:

"Inspired by the breathtaking natural beauty around us and the long-standing traditions of the area, VOYA has adopted organic and sustainable ways of creating our products. We use only sustainable harvesting practices to ensure that we don’t damage the delicate coastal environment that provides us with our certified organic seaweed. We then combine this with the best organic ingredients from around the world to bring you a unique seaweed bath experience and a range of products that not only heal the body but leave the skin silky smooth."


The Products

Forget Me Knot hair conditioner 

Because of my recent keratin treatment, hair products aren't something I'm experimenting too much with at the moment, so I invited another blogger (and my lovely housemate)  McTofu to try this one out for me.

Voya say:

"Forget Me Knot uses an express delivery formula that includes our organic seaweed and both vitamin B5 and vitamin E to add moisture, shine and protect hair from environmental damage. An effective conditioner with essential oils and natural active ingredients to help repair, protect, de-tangle and replenish the hair. As our organic formulations don't use harsh chemicals, you can use this product daily."

McTofu says:

"One advantage of living with a beauty blogger is that quite often some lovely products come my way. One such product is Voya ‘Forget Me Knot’ organic conditioner. Made from hand harvested seaweed, I was expecting it to smell of the sea, but no, it had a pleasant spicy, woody smell. Now, I’m a gal that is used to sweet smelling hair products, so I was not overly impressed with the scent when I squeezed a 50p sized blob onto my hand.

It spread through my hair evenly enough and I left it on for my usual time of about 3mins. It rinsed through easily and when dry, my hair seemed to comb through well without too much trouble from tangles. Once dry, I didn't notice that my hair was any glossier or smoother as it promised on the pack, however the scent really grew on me throughout the day. Voya Forget Me Knot is a nice product but it is slightly out of my price range for an every day conditioner, I liked it but don’t think it is a product that I would buy for myself."

 Get Lippie says:

The instructions for this product say to leave the conditioner in place for 15 minutes, another housemate has tried this product too, and really liked it, and she also commented on the unusual and pleasant smell.  Both testers have coloured and porous hair, the conditioner (which I'd actually consider more of a mask than a daily use product, owing to the long time it's recommended to leave it in place) is very thick, rich and seems to be really suitable for dry, coloured and/or processed hair.

Now onto (reviewed together underneath images):

Squeaky Clean body wash

 Voya says: 

"...Infused with the natural purifying properties of wild organic seaweed, sourced from Ireland’s untamed Atlantic coastline. Squeaky Clean captures the energy of this coastal environment in an invigorating body wash that will stimulate both your skin and senses. Our mild but effective organic foaming body wash contains essential oils and naturally-derived cleansing and conditioning agents to help soften the skin and leave it feeling clean, fresh and revived. The active seaweed extracts help to relieve muscle stress and fatigue. Use while showering for a real organic indulgence that will leave your skin refreshed and gently cleansed..."

And:

Softly Does It body lotion

Voya says:

"When it comes to taking care of your skin, our silky blend of wild seaweed extracts and organic essential oils provides a completely natural, deep moisturising experience that can help prevent signs of ageing and cellulite as well as improve skin tone and elasticity. Blended with basil and lime, patchouli, clove, mandarin and lemon organic essential oils, Softly Does It is best when massaged into your skin after showering or bathing, and offers a real organic indulgence that will keep your skin moisturised and feeling luxuriously smooth."

Get Lippie says:

I tried these, and I really liked them.  The shower gel is a clear gel-product, it doesn't lather overmuch (due no doubt to the lack of SLS and other nasties) but leaves you feeling fresh and clean and delicately scented with the unusual, but very lovely, mixture of sweet basil and clove that the entire range has.  It doesn't appear to leave my skin dry, and I'm not flaky after using it.

The body lotion is a medium-weight cream that I found took a fair bit of rubbing to absorb, but it's not a chore to use.  The scent does last, but not in an overpowering kind of way, so I don't think you'd have too much trouble with clashing smells if you use this. The softening effect is lovely, and appears to last for a while.  They're definitely products I'll continue to use!

Voya products are available from http://www.voya.ie/default.aspx and start at around nine euro.  The range includes skincare, bodycare and haircare products as well as candles and teas ... Seaweed teas sound kind of interesting, don't you think?

The small print: The products were provided free for review purposes.  All reviews remain impartial regardless of the source.

Not, quite, beauty products ...

... but still beautiful.

I love candles, I was lucky enough to be made a gift recently of some from Jonathan Ward ones recently.  I have them in Nightingale's Jasmine, which is a delicious scent that makes the entire bedroom smell wonderful - whether you've lit them or not! They're paraffin-free, and made from an organic wax base.  There is a special offer on several of the candles at the moment where you can get two for the price of one!  If you like candles, you'll love these.

Another range of home-scents that I like is from Kenneth Turner who also makes body products.  I, in particular adore the scent of Blue Tangerine, which has to be one of the sexiest scents I've ever noticed in a candle.

Or a shower gel. Or body lotion.  Or air freshener.  Or hand cream ... I buy this stuff by the bucket load, the range isn't organic, and it doesn't promise anything amazing will happen if you use the products, but, the scent!  Oh, how I love it.  I have a tube of the handcream in my office, and I adore it. If the reed diffuser was in stock on the website, I'd have them all over the house! Even though reed diffusers strike me as the middle class alternative to Airwick these days ...  The range has an orangey-minty smell, but so much more that paltry description implies, deep, sexy and clean.

Finally, I had a chance to pop over to ARK Skincare on Kensington Church Street recently, and have a sniff of their "Loving" range of spa products, unlike many spa scents, this one is warm and spicy, and wonderfully cosy, it strikes me that it's a perfect scent for these wintry days.  This scent is available in everything from reed diffusers to a very luxurious-looking bath oil that I'm dying to try:

I'll be popping back to ARK soon, they have an offer on at their Kensington Church Street  store at the moment, where if you book a facial you get one free, the staff are super-friendly so I'm looking forward to trying their services out!  In the meantime, if anyone wants to get me anything for Valentines day (and before you all groan, there are Creme Eggs in the shops at the moment, and that's not till April!) I'll be happy with anything from this page here  hint, hint.

How do you keep your home smelling sweet?

MORE bargains! Stila

After my last (dreadful) experience with Stila, I was in two minds whether to pick up any more, but these were such a bargain that I thought even if they're awful, it's not too much of a loss.  I picked up four loose shadows and a smudge post in Jade for just £10! Thank goodness for the random bargains you can find in TJ Hughes ... Then I discovered that I'd actually bought two shadows which were the same colour, but hey ho ... look out for it in a giveaway soon!

Onto the swatches etc, first the loose shadows:

I have numbers 7, 3 and 12, as you can see they're all very shimmery, 7 is a nice metallic taupe, 3 is a very pretty lilac, and 12 is a soft copper.  Here's how they look on the skin:

 

 

As you can see, they swatch pretty sheer, but the colour pay-off is still better than last time. These have been swatched dry over bare skin, I expect if swatched wet, or over a primer they'd be a lot more vivid.

Here's the smudge pot, I like this mossy green a great deal, and I'm a bit annoyed they didn't have any other colours that I could find:

 

The colour pay-off in this is excellent, and it blends well.  I'm really looking forward to getting on with some FotD's with these.

Whee! Squared ...

150 followers, wow!  As a little gesture of thanks, I'll put together a giveaway for you soon ....

You're all great, thank you so much! Incidentally, if you have a blog and I'm not following you already, leave me a comment on this post, and I'll get around to updating my blogroll very soon!

Makeover: Helen

Ah ... back in the makeover swing of things after the Christmas break, it's nice to have them back!

Please welcome Helen, here she is giving it her best "Prisoner Cell Block H" pose:

Helen wanted a very simple, daytime look that she could easily replicate herself, that would make her look more "polished".  We picked some nice, neutral shades to suit her skin-tone, and that would be easy to apply in a rush.

As always, we started with the base, we thought that using a tinted moisturiser would be the best thing, so we wouldn't have to "mess about" with moisturiser and foundation and powder.  I used Benefit You Rebel in light, with a little light concealor under Helen's eyes to even out the little dark circles she has there:

This left us with a nice, sheeny glow.  Then we moved onto the eyemakeup. We had picked out the Paul & Joe eyeshadow I bought recently in 95, which is a lovely rose-gold shade, as we thought it went very well with Helen's eyes:

As you can see from the picture above, it's very natural-looking.   I applied it in an almond shape all over the eyelid, up to the brow-bone, then replicated it on the other eye:

 

 

 

Helen seemed quite impressed!  In order to emphasise the  blueness of Helen's eyes, I used a Chanel chocolate-brown eyeliner on the top lid, and added a tiny amount of Clinique liner in charcoal under the bottom lashes.

Once I'd finished off the eyes with a smudge of Clarins Wonder Perfect (currently my HG mascara) on the lashes, I applied a dab of Cargo Illuminator in Wind to Helen's amazing cheekbones:

Then I realised it needed a bit more blending in, so taking a soft fluffy brush, I did just that!  To give a llittle sheen to Helen's lips, I applied a layer of Clarins Joli Rouge in fig, which is a lovely soft reddish shade, with a lot of illuminating particles:

 

 

I think she liked it!

Here's the before and after:

It's a very simple look, with a minimum of fuss and products used, but I think it polished Helen up a  treat.  What do you think?

Review - By Terry Or De Rose Baume

Oh, this looked like a little pot of gorgeous in the store:

It smells delicious, looks pretty, and makes all kinds of wonderful claims on the packaging, so I bought it.  Oh, when will I learn?  This is the limited edition version of the fast-becoming-a-cult product By Terry Baume de Rose, which, according to Space NK (yes, them again) is a "Rejuvenating, reparative, strengthening, nourishing and anti-ageing" wonder product that works on lips, cuticles and, well, practically anywhere else you want to put it.  So, a bit like 8 Hour Cream then, only without that gross "liniment" smell that can sometimes be so off-putting.

I got some SpaceNK vouchers just before Christmas, and I splurged on a pot.  This costs £45!  Now, I'm no stranger to expensive lip balms (my Holy Grail lipbalm remains Sisley Nutritiv, and that's £33 a pop!), but this shocked even me.  I guess it's because that lovely sparkly effect you can see in the second picture there is made by lots of flakes of pure 24k rose gold.  But ... even so.

And actually, it's those rose-gold flakes that make this product a bit of a duffer, if you ask me.  Now, the thing I like about pot-balms (as opposed to sticks) is that they tend to be more versatile, meaning you can use them in places you wouldn't dream of putting more traditional balms.  I use 8hr cream (and my Badger Balms) like some people use Vaseline. I stick it on scrapes, cuts, burns, zits, cuticles, in my hair, around my eyes, and on the odd occasion, I've even been known to use it as a lip product.  But this stuff is GLITTERY.  Really, very GLITTERY. And that glitter gets EVERYWHERE.  And it's scratchy glitter too.  Urgh.

Don't get me wrong, as a lip product it's ... well, it's okay. It's not as moisturising as some other balms (Sisley, Badger Balm, and 8 Hour Cream all knock it into a cocked hat for that), but it's not a dreadful one either.  It is better than many Nivea or Blistex products, for example.  But my problem is that damn glitter!  You can't use the balm on your cuticles unless you want to shed glitter onto any porous material you come into contact throughout the day, and you can't put it anywhere on your face - except your lips - unless you want to look like you like you let a 3yr old with ADHD and a Barbie obsession put on your makeup.  Apparently, the balm (sorry, baume) is meant to give you a sheeny glow, but glitter is not glow, and I wish cosmetic firms would stop mistaking the two.  It's a shame really, as I own a couple of By Terry products, mainly eyeshadows, and they're very good.

It does, however, make an excellent base for lipstick, but at £45 a pop, I won't be re-purchasing.  Ever.