Selena Gomez Collection from Nicole by OPI

I don't even know who Selena Gomez is, aside from some kind of Disney poppet, so I have no idea what I was expecting from this collection.  Certainly what I was expecting was a collection of uber-brights!

From left to right here we have: Love Song, Spring Break, Pretty in Plum and Hit The Lights. 

Love Song is a saturated lilac with a white-ish base.  Spring Break is a pretty cool bright pink.  Pretty in Plum is a shimmering royal purple (not quite enough red in the formula to be a real plum-shade), and Hit the Lights is YELLOW.

The colours are rich, glossy and deeply saturated with pigment, and whilst I'll realistically only wear the pink and plum shades from this collection, I was surprised at how much I like the colours! 

So, um yeah.  Selena Who? 


The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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Sally Hansen Autumn Collections

This collection doesn't scream autumn to me, but it's an unusual collection of lovely shades and some fashionably "ugly" shades ...  It's actually a couple of collaborations in conjunction with several fashion designers, but, as I am a bad, bad, blogger, I have to admit that I care more about the colours than the designers involved.  I am so NOT fashion, dahlinks.

 From left to right we have 
Stocking Nude
Coat of Arms
Loden Green
New Wave Blue and 
Night Watch 

Stocking Nude is a lightly greyed pink.  Coat of Arms is a platinum with slight hints of gold, Loden Green is a deeply browned khaki, New Wave Blue is a gorgeous blue with a greenish tinge, and Night Watch is a medium navy, which isn't quite dark enough to appear black on the nail.

The Sally Hansen Salon Manicure is said to have a lot of nail benefits (currently my nails are far too raggedy for public display, hence the nail wheels), has anyone tried these formulas?

Any of the shades catch your eye? I'm thinking New Wave Blue might make a great holiday pedicure ...

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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Comparison: Black Sugar by Tom Ford, Sulfurous by Guerlain and Facet by Illamasqua

I was picking out my favourite polishes for autumn, and when I had  made my list, I realised that Black Sugar by Tom Ford, Sulfurous by Guerlain, and Illamasqua's Facet are quite similar, so I thought a comparison might be in order. 

When I got the bottles together, I realised that they were quite different, but possibly not *that* different.  

First up, Bottle impressions:

Tom Ford Black Sugar.  This is a browned-taupe, with a quite beautiful red shimmer visible in the bottle which is almost impossible to photograph, in my experience.  Not the end of the world though, as it's impossible to see on the nail too, as it turns out.
Guerlain's Sulfurous is more of a shimmering charcoal in comparison to the other two, and is much, much darker than either. 
Illamasqua's Facet is a softened medium dove-grey, enlivened with lots and lots of bronze shimmer.

On the nails:

Black Sugar has the thinnest formula and is a little prone to dragging.  This isn't helped by the super-long brush handle, which is required because of the super-tall bottle.  If you're a cack-handed muppet like myself, it's the least easy polish to apply in the bunch.  That said though, the Tom Ford nail polish formula is a good one, and the shades tend to wear very well indeed.  It's a nice, slightly flat, browned taupe on the nails, a cooler version of Chanel's Particuliere, in fact, and none the worse for that. It dries a little darker than it appears in the bottle.

I've reviewed Guerlain Sulfurous before, and it's clear I really like the deeply complex shimmering charcoal of it.  I notice in macro-mode, however, that it's a little brush-strokey, but this isn't visible in real life.  It has a wide brush which makes application easier. 

Facet by Illamasqua is an unusual colour on the nail, being not quite grey, and not quite bronze, whilst appearing also not quite khaki too. Whilst it lacks some of the complexity, and (in my eyes) beauty of Sulfurous, it has its own unique loveliness, which I really like.  The brush is a standard round brush, and the formulation is a little thinner than the Guerlain, but spreads really nicely over the nail.  Illamasqua polishes also tend to be extremely hard wearing.

So, all very similar, and all rather different too.  Personally, if I could only have one, it'd be Sulfurous by Guerlain, but the other two are very beautiful too.  Which would be your choice? 

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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Silent Sunday ...

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Win an entire year's supply of Alpha H Liquid Gold!

Anyone who's read my blog for any length of time knows I'm a big fan of the Alpha H brand, Michelle, the brand owner, is a wonderful woman who I admire greatly, and I'm always aware that the products in the range are ones that have her own personal seal of approval, Michelle knows great skincare*!  They get my seal of approval too, so when Alpha H asked me if I'd like to give away a year's supply of their cult (and hero) product, Liquid Gold, I leapt at the chance!

Featuring ingredients such as glycolic acid and licorice, Liquid Gold is an overnight treatment with a slight difference.  It looks and feels like a toner, but will exfoliate and smooth your skin a treat - there's nothing quite like the Alpha H tingle before bed! Oh, and you don't need a separate night cream, either, so so faffing.  I love waking up to skin you can really tell has had a difference made to it overnight! 

QVC like it so much that they've made Liquid Gold their product of the month, and to celebrate, there's a special "supersize" 200ml edition available at the bargain price of £37!  ml for ml, this would normally cost £63, so this is a heck of a saving, if you ask me.  Which you didn't, but keep reading anyway.

However, you could win an entire year's supply, for free, simply by answering this simple question in the comments on this post:

"Other than Glycolic Acid name the key ingredient in Liquid Gold, known for it’s calming and anti-inflammatory properties, that could be mistaken for a traditional confectionery sweet?"

Please leave your answer, your name, and an email address you can be contacted on in the comments on this post before 8pm on Friday 30th August. 

If you're not lucky enough to win, you can pick up your own supersize bottle of Liquid Gold here, but be quick, as the offer ends as soon as the month does!  Good luck!

Winners will be drawn at random by an independent party on 30th August, and the prize will be delivered by a third party.  Editor's decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.  Email addresses will not be used for any purpose other than to contact the competition winner, and will be removed from the post as soon as the draw is made.

* She also knows origami, but I've been told not to mention that in this post, so just forget you read this, okay?

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Aesop Shine Oil

I've been styling my hair curly recently, and I've found that it always tends to lead to dryness at the ends.  Luckily, this turned up recently, and I'm a little bit in love with it.

It's an extremely lightweight oil, that spreads easily in the hair - you just need two or three drops which you spread over your palms, then smooth lightly through the mid-lengths and ends of your hair.  It doesn't build up, and - best of all - it doesn't contain silicones.  Far, far, far too many hair "oils" on the market are basically cocktails of silicones with just the scantest addition of argan oil or something, it drives me crazy, as some silicones can build up and actually make the condition of your hair worse.  Not to mention that a lot of them can be heavy and lead to greasiness if you overapply, as what they're actually doing is forming a coating on the outer layer of your hair (therefore making it look smoother, and shinier), rather than being absorbed by it and conditioning your hair from the inside.

Ironically, actual oils are less greasy!  Counter-intuitive, I know. But if you just use a couple of drops, your hair should absorb the oil, and make it less dry or brittle from the inside.  And I do mean DROPS, btw, if you need more just add it drop by drop until you feel like your hair has softened up.  When I style my hair straight, two drops is enough, but when I've had it curly for a day or two, then three or four would be more in order.

You can also use a full pipette (or two), as a pre-wash conditioning treatment.  The oil is chock full of conditioning ingredients such as borage, sweet almond, olive and jojoba oils, and smells lovely, herbal, and somehow fresh at the same time.  You can leave the oil on overnight, or just an hour or two before washing it out.  Whilst it hasn't cured my dry hair problems overnight, (I need a protein treatment or two, I think), it sure has made it less of an issue.

Aesop Shine hair oil will be available from Aesop very soon.

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Shiseido Lacquer Rouge RD 413

 

I'm not a huge fan of liquid lipsticks in all honesty.  I'm a cack-handed muppet and there's a lot of scope for messy liplines when it comes to liquid products, when you add in the fact that one side of my upper lip is fuller than the other, well, liquid lipsticks are an entire world of pain for me.  However, some shades can be worth the pain, is this red from Shiseido one of them?  Let's see.

 I like the sleek and tactile packaging, which mirrors the camellia on the packaging.  RD413 is a bright tomato red, which is a little scary in the tube, even for a bright lip-lover like myself:

To my eye, this looked rather light and bright to me, and I was worried that even I wouldn't be able to carry off the shade.  However, I was reassured a little on swatching, as, whilst it's a rather sheer formula (surprisingly), it's also a beautiful colour:

 
The red is a little on the orange side (my camera is definitely pulling out the orange tones here), but it's definitely a red, and it's beautiful in wear.  However, I do have a couple of issues with the formula, it's sheer and glossy (oh so very, very glossy), but as a result, the pigments can appear a little patchy in close up:

  
In real-life it is less of an issue, as my lips aren't actually THIS BIG. Nearly, admittedly, but my head actually isn't three feet across, so you don't really notice the streakiness so much when my lips are in 3d rather than on a computer screen.

It's comfortable to wear, and non-drying, but it doesn't really have any lasting properties.  The sheerness of the pigment make it more like a gloss than a lipstick, so it needs fairly frequent reapplication.  However, some of the shades in this range are rather more pigmented, so I suspect this problem would be limited to this shade in particular.

Overall, this is a beautiful shade, but has it won me over to the liquid lipstick side?  I don't know.  I'd definitely try more from the range as it's a good, comfortable formula but for £23.50 a pop, well ...

The Fine Print: PR Sample.

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