Great Magazine Beauty Freebies & Ciate Bon Bon NOTD

Make up and beauty freebies for all readers are about the only thing that magazines still do better than blogs and this month there are quite a few fab finds on the mag racks and I'm bringing you a couple of my top picks.  

Glamour continued its glorious association with Benefit which is shaping up to be an annual event and this year brought us pocket-sized BadGal Lash mascara, That Gal primer and the one we've all been waiting for - The Porefessional!

If you haven't grabbed yours yet move fast as the shelves are emptying out.  I always find the mini BadGals to be a bit of a dud - while it's a full sized brush, the formulation is always pretty scarce and much drier than the full size.  I personally don't find That Gal much use as I need a primer to stop rather than enhance my...er...natural glow.  

The Porefessional is normally £23.50 for the full size 22ml which is for me is little eyewatering.  However having tried out this mini version I'd definitely consider buying it when I run out as it really does mattify and smooth your skin, drastically reducing the appearance of gaping pores.  I like it under liquid foundation but you can achieve totally passable skin with this and a swipe of something like MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural.  If you've got an eye for a bargain, picking up 3 Glamour Mags will get you 22.5mls of the glorious substance for the handsomely cheap sum of £6.  I've picked up about 7.

Marie Claire has bumped uglies with Ciate again to bring you two lovely shades, a lilac called Purple Sherbet and BonBon a taupey neutral the likes of which I cannot resist! 

What beauty freebies did you nab this month? 

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My Nail Polish Top 10 - And I'm Not Even That Into It!

Trust me, I'm as surprised as you are! Who knew I was such a nail polish junkie?!  I keep my stash on their side (I know, I know!) in a pink drawer and there's no way I thought it contained almost 70 bottles of the good stuff!  I even forgot to include my Barry M clear top coat (more of it later) as it just lives by my bed most of the time.  I must have more nail polish than anything else, and if anything I'm more a perfume and eyeshadow nut.  I might have to blog sale some of these soon!

Pretty prettiness...I'm seeing a trend here...a very pink, purple and nude trend!

In fairness I would say I received over half of these polishes free with magazines or No7 offers and there are lots of cheap and cheerful Rimmels, Collection 2000s and Primarks in there.  I only have a handful of OPI and no China Glaze or Essie (except the free magazine mini).

So here are my TOP 10 picks from my collection:

In no particular order (click links for my reviews/more pics):

Primark Nails Glo Baby Glo in (I've thrown away the box it came in so I don't know the name m'fraid!)
Primark Nails Glo Baby Glo in Fondant
Ciate Paint Pots in Dangerous Affair (the colour is pretty standard, but the finish is immaculate)
GOSH in Frou Frou
GOSH in Metallic Purple (love love love this with Frou Frou over the top)
Nails Inc. in London (free with Diet Cokes)
Nails Inc. in Hampstead Heath (free with Glamour)
MAC Nail Lacquer in Bad Fairy
Superdrug £1 MUA range in shade 15

Superdrug £1 MUA range in shade 7

I'm really into No7's Stay Perfect Quick Dry Nail Oil, I wouldn't pay the full price for it, but I got it for a couple of pounds with one of those £5 off vouchers.  It works pretty well, but isn't amazing.  I don't know why I took a pic of the cuticle oil, I have to say I hardly ever use it, but this Boots one isn't bad - and a million miles better than the e.l.f. cosmetics cuticle pen, which is worse than crap.

I had high high HIGH hopes for Seche Vite, and the first time I used it I thought it was holy grail material.  Alas, I've found that although it does give you a very glossy finish and seals over the paint underneath, you can practically 'peel' both off your nails, and so you lost large chunks of polish rather than tiny chips.  What really alerted me to its tendency to do this is that I use a clear polish to paint over names and numbers on my make up brushes, like the MAC 168 or 109, and I found I could literally peel the strip off.  So back I go to my trusty Barry M clear topcoat and nail hardener.  This stuff is the business and doesn't budge from my nails or my make up brushes!

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Little Weekend Haul & Fruity NOTD

I had loads of posts planned to do this weekend, but a combination of my blogging mojo being off kilter and a busy Mother's Day 'weekend' put paid to that.  But I do have a little haul for you...you know the drill - you go into Superdrug only looking for handwash and an invisible force draws you over to the makeup aisle, and haircare, and toothcare!  Batiste is almost easily my most used product, I always pick up a can whenever I'm in Boots or Superdrug.  I've known about Pearl Drops for at least 15 years but have seen some good things about it on blogs so want to give it a try!

You all know how much love I have for my rediscovered Max Factor Miracle Touch compact, so I was delighted to see Collection 2000 release a version.  There are only three shades, but the lightest - Ivory - just about works on me.

It's developed a darker, oxidised layer in the pan, but the product underneath is far lighter.  It was about £3.95 and came with a free nail polish, I chose a pretty pinky coral called Fruit Salad.  It has very handy mirror in the lid unlike the Max Factor one, but the coverage is much lighter.

I have a mania for matte light bronzers and I saw Wildkatmakeup on YouTube recommending this one so I gave it a whirl.  I've used it to contour my cheeks, and sadly it is slightly orange on me, but I'll get more use out of this in the summer when I tan up a bit.

I'm very impressed with the consistency, opacity, colour and finish of these Collection 2000 polishes.  I haven't bought any from this brand in ages but will definitely be checking out more of the Hot Looks range.  Very fast drying, no smudges (which is near impossible for me) and barely a chip even though I cooked a roast today and have done a fair bit of washing up un-gloved.  Result!

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day and spoiled your mummies or were spoiled if you are a mummy!

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NOTD: O.P.I (not so) Cuckoo For This Color

Sadly, I'm not cuckoo about this colour at all...I had hoped it would be something along the lines of Chanel's Black Pearl as it looks very dark in the bottle - under flash it appears a much 'lighter' dark green.

I was kindly invited by P&O Ferries to the naming ceremony of their new superferry Spirit of Britain last week in a beautifully sunny Dover.  The range of beauty shopping on board is hella better than many airports I've been through (I'm looking at you MIA International) and on average prices are 25% lower than high street.  There was an excellent Benefit range and I was so tempted to pick up the new Mr. Bright Kit or Bella Bamba but resisted and picked up my first full size OPI.  I'm glad it was on sale for about £6 as I'm so not keen, I'll probably only bust it out for Halloween, but I already have MAC's Mean & Green for that!

While I adore accessories in this gorgeous dark green teal, on my nails it's just not 'me' and feels a bit manky and unsophisticated.

Double Olympic gold winner Dame Kelly Holmes named the ship - I can't believe this woman is almost 41!  I'd like a few of her beauty tips! My director sat on her table at lunch and assured me she ate loads even though she's tiny...I'm thinking of taking up running! :)

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National Beauty Blogging Event 2011 + A Little Giveaway (CLOSED)

Yesterday morning I headed over to ExCel in east London with Angel (highheelsandlipgloss.com) for the National Beauty Blogging Event (check out her video on it here).  Despite London Transport doing its damnedest to thwart us, we somehow made it on time! The event took place in a conference room separate to the main Professional Beauty exhibition going on on the main floor which we got to have a look around after the talks.


First up was a makeup demo by celeb MUA Daniel Sandler on how to achieve the perfect natural looking complexion.  He had lots of interesting tips and tricks, such as just putting foundation on your eye lids to even out tone and freshen and open up your eyes without using eyeshadow if you want a natural look/are in a rush.  I think the model looks a little like Kylie.

Next up another celeb MUA, Jackie Tyson did rock chick look using a MAC paintpot to do most of the work to create a winged smoky eye look.  She's worked with Katie Perry, Lily Allen and Pixie Lott to name a few.

And then of course it was time to get ma nails did!  Kiss nails were one of the exhibitors and I forgot the name of the lovely lady who gave me a set of glue on french manicure nails.  One day later they're still going strong even though I'm very hard on my nails.  I can't believe how fast and easy they were to apply. Keep going for a mini nails giveaway at the end of this post!

I filed them down to make them more presentable for work.

There were six other speakers, Carol Churchill who is Emmerdale's Make Up Designer gave great insight to just how much planning and organisation goes into TV make up.  For me the most entertaining speaker was Gavin Duffy from Ireland's Dragon's Den who gave a hilarious recount of the journey of TanOrganic, the brainchild of Noelle O'Connor, from Den to shelf.  It's the first all natural, organic tan and his talk really got me thinking about those few weeks a year when I use St. Moriz.  There's no denying St. Moriz is pure chemicals and I always get extremely dry and irritated skin, especially on my legs, whenever I use it for more than three days in the row.

For me, TanOrganic's USP is that it's supposed to work well with Celtic (I say 'ginger') skin, resulting in a pleasant golden brown glow rather than orange Oompa Loompa effect.  TanOrganic's price point is slightly below St. Tropez at £29.50/34.99Euro for 240mls, and P&P to the UK is meant to be FOC, but on the website it looks like it's coming out at 1 cent - can't argue with that! I won't be cracking this open until early summer, or my next cruise, whichever's first but will definitely give a detailed review.

I got some great skincare and can't wait to give it all a try.  If there's anything outstanding I'll do a review.

Of course I couldn't walk around hundreds of beauty stands without buying something, and since I've been lusting after the Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt, and I got it in a set for £25, while this product along normally costs nearly £30.  I almost bought a 'pro' Clarisonic for £80 (although the first time we inquired about the price they said it was £70).  I'm glad I resisted though as I'm trying to cut back on frivolous spending :)

I've wanted the SPF30 Liquid Layer For The Longest Time.  It's a really fast absorbing, non greasy facial SPF.  Can't wait to crack it out when we finally get some rays!  At the moment I'm making do with SPF15.

Crown Brushes had a stand and I was less than impressed.  They had lots of 88 eye shadow palettes and brush sets which I've seen on coastalscents.com for much cheaper, even factoring in the hefty shipping fee.  The brushes weren't great quality, except for this slim duo fibre which I picked up for £7.  I'm going through a cream blush mania and this brush should give me perfect application.

Well done if you've made it this far!  For your dedication I'm giving away a couple of Kiss Broadway Nail sets.

To enter: ensure you are a Google Friend Connect public follower of this blog and leave a comment below saying 'enter me' or something to that effect.  Please include some way for me to contact you (e-mail or link to your blog) so I can contact you if you win.

The giveaway is open worldwide. 

If you are under 18 years old, please get permission from your parents before entering. 

If you win you must be willing to provide a postal address. 

One winner will be selected at random from all valid entries using Random.org 

The giveaway closes on Friday 11th March at Midnight GMT

I will announce the winner and contact them on Saturday 12th March 2011.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

Good luck! x

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NOTD: O.P.I Rising Star from the Burlesque Collection

I donned O.P.I Rising Star for NYE.  It's described as a lustrous, shimmering gold.  Click here for my post on the whole mini teasers set and where you'll see what one coat of this stuff actually looks like - not great.

The first time I tried this I put it under Take The Stage which is more of a burnt orange colour, but I needed about four coats to get opacity.  This time I applied two coats of it over 'London' by Nails Inc. as I figured it needed a neutral base colour to show up well against.

This is my first dalliance with OPI and I'm definitely not impressed by the coverage of their glittery polishes, but if you work with it, you can get a nice effect.

NOTD: Nails Inc. Elizabeth Street

Without flash

I picked up Elizabeth Street with as a Glamour mag freebie a while back and it's my ideal French manicure colour, even though I didn't bother with the white tips here.  However you do need about three coats to make it look opaque.  I have no idea where Elizabeth St. is, but I like what it does to my nails!  I wouldn't pay the full Nails Inc. price for it, but as a freebie, it's all good...

With flash

What's you favourite French manicure nail polish? 

Free Nails Inc. with December's Glamour Magazine

Yet another nail varnish magazine give away that I had every intention of resisting (I'm looking at you Maire Claire & Ciate ¬_¬) but got to the shop and broke down...

December's Glamour magazine, with Charlotte Church (love her make up) on the cover comes with one of four Nails Inc. polishes: Jermyn Street, Saville Row, Hampstead Heath and I don't know the name of the fourth but it is a light baby pink which probably goes on very sheer.  I have a very similar one to it called South Molton Street which I picked up with a previous Glamour mag.

I mainly had my eye on Jermyn Street.  It's like a more intense version of 'London' which was one of the free Diet Coke promotion shades.  It's a taupe-greyish-brown.   Compared:

Hampstead Heath reminds me a lot of Picadilly Circus which Glamour gave away around this time last year, it's a dark red raspberry colour.

Saville Row is a dark black cherry/purple colour, I wish I'd had it for Halloween!  Dark shades don't often work with my pale freckled skin, but this one does.

Each polish is worth £11 each and Glamour is £2, so that's a nice little saving.  I wouldn't fork out full price for Saville Row or Hampstead Heath, but would for Jermyn Street.

I've said it before but I'll say it again - I LOVE Nails Inc., let me extol its wonders:

* Fabulous colour range and very beautiful and non-tacky shades.
* Great quality of brush (unlike MAC polishes)
* Very fast drying
* Chips the least of any other brand I've tried
* Two coats and your DONE: beautiful opaque, almost 'plastic' looking coverage
* Glossy finish
* Love the branding - I love London and all it's places
* Sleek and stylish bottle design
* I have a some bottles which are a couple of years old and they haven't gone gloopy.