OPI

Beauty Boxes

Birchbox Review June 2014 – Global Strikers

June 15, 2014

With a cheerful nod towards World Cup season, the June Birchbox has a “Global Strikers” theme and a cute bag emblazoned with the Brazil flag colours. I’m a huge fan of the World Cup, and in fact delayed writing this very blog post so that I could enjoy the England V Italy match fully (IE prepare many beers!). Unfortunately it was a loss for England, but I enjoyed every moment of it none the less!

Before kicking off (hur hur) the first impressions of what was in my box, I have to do a tiny whine and say that some people received a Beauty Blender in their boxes, which is a very desirable find in any box at £26! I didn’t get one, and of course that is the luck of the draw with beauty boxes, and it sort of took away from an otherwise great box knowing I -could- have received such a great item and didn’t!

Embryolisse Lait-Creme Concentre

First up is a moisturiser from French brand Embryolisse (who I will admit I haven’t heard of before!). It contains shea butter, beeswax, aloe vera and soy proteins and can be used as make-up remover, repairing mask, after-shave care and as a baby-care product as well as being a moisturiser, so a very handy product! A quick swatch has left me with high expectations as it make my skin feel very soft!

5ml Sample

£12.99 from Birchbox.co.uk

Silk + Honey Shea Butter Hair Mask

The constant bleach/dye cycle I put my hair through means I need to use this sort of thing quite often to stop it going brittle and keep it in good condition, so I will definitely be giving this a try soon. When I looked this up on the Birchbox webstore I realised that this is the end product of a kit where you make this hair mask yourself, how awesome! I’m really into home-made beauty treatments so I think I’d definitely enjoy whipping up a batch.

Sample

£55 for the set from Birchbox.co.uk

O.P.I – Next Stop The Bikini Zone

I was very excited about possibly getting a mini-OPI polish when I saw the June Birchbox spoiler posts, I love the formula and I adore the tiny bottles (which look very cute lined up on display!). I got Next Stop The Bikini Zone from the Brazil Collection, a metallic purple with flecks of shimmer. It looks lovely in the bottle, but unfortunately I found it quite sheer and hard to build up colour on the nail.

In honesty it’s unlikely I will get much wear out of this particular shade as I tend to favour solid colours.

3.75ml Mini

£11.95 for 15ml from Birchbox.co.uk

Yves Rocher Sheer Botanical Lipstick in Marron Glace

Lipsticks are one of my favourite make-up items to find in beauty boxes as I rarely seem to end up with shades that I won’t wear! I actually adore this lipstick already, Marron Glace is a brown toned nude, very my-lips-but-better! It has a gorgeous scent from the infusion of cherry oil, and left my lips feeling amazingly soft and moisturised. Will definitely be looking for a few more shades from this line!

Full Size

£9.90 from Birchbox.co.uk

Naobay Body Radiance Lotion

Finally an organic body lotion from Spanish brand Naobay. Full of natural ingredients and with a lovely light lemon scent this will definitely be making it into my festival mini-products bag.

30ml Sample

£14.00 from Birchbox.co.uk

LIFESTYLE EXTRA: Birchbox Brazil Inspired Keyring

I do like the little lifestyle extras you get with Birchbox (but I totes like it best when it’s food!). This very summery keyring is quite cute and very fitting for a summer filled with World Cup excitement!

Overall I’d say this -is- a pretty good box, but I can’t shake being miffed that some people got a £26 Beauty Blender and I didn’t! If you’d like to get one of your very own, a monthly subscription costs £10 (+P&P) from Birchbox.co.uk!

Totally not hellbent for being green with envy!

– Gem

Make-up, Nails

An Accidental Haul

October 24, 2013

We set out for our little shopping trip yesterday with a thrifty mindset and a small budget. Four hours later that all went out the window! We’ve added links where the items are available online, otherwise you’ll have to hit the highstreet and track them down yourself!

Red links are Amie’s treats and blue are Gemma’s treasure, black things we both picked up!

In our defence we did start off well so first up is the charity shop treasure we found. Our intention was to find things we could craftily turn into cake stands and we did at least succeed in that.

Candle stick – £1.50

Studded belt – £1.25

Glass plates – £1

After that it all started to go downhill (at least for our bank balances, our mood certainly went uphill!) when we dared to venture into Superdrug. 3 for 2 on cosmetics is too good of an offer to resist really isn’t it.

NYC Rock muse in Red hot – £1.99

NYC Rock muse in Gold Maiden – £1.99

NYC Rock muse in Rock Muse – £1.99 (Free)

NYC Disco Inferno top coat – £1.99

NYC In a New York Minute in Lexington Yellow – £1.79

NYC in a New York Minute in Prince Street – £1.79 (Free)

MUA Glamour Days eyeshadow palette – £4.00

MUA Stary Night eyeshadow palette – £4.00

MUA Pro-brow ultimate eyebrow kit – £3.50 (Free)

MUA Heaven and Earth palette – £4.00

NYC in a new york minute in High Line Green – £1.79

NYC Foil Explosion in Magic Earth – £1.99 (free)

technic party brights in Sunset Strip – £0.99 (from Bodycare)

Vaseline Paint The Town – £3.49

It was a complete accident that we fell into Sallys and happened to find two OPI Rock Goddess sets.We’ve been lusting over this for ages and it’s always out of stock so we grabbed them gleefully and spent the next ten minutes talking ourselves out of getting the Mariah Christmas sets too (with a promise that we will get them next time…)

OPI Rock Goddess -£12.95

The poundland search for Revlon nail varnish came up trumps as always and we chose two gorgeous shades at a massive discount.

Revlon Scented Varnish in Grape Fizz – £1.00

Revlon Matte Suede in Fire Fox – £1.00

We then realized that all the charity shops were closed and that we had sort of diverted from our immediate task with the promise of cosmetics, so we decided a quick peek around home bargains might bring us some last minute treasure.

Gemspa body butter in Calming Amber – £0.99

Halloween shot glasses – £0.59

Craft storage box – £0.59

Star cookie cutters – £0.99

Drawer dividers – £0.99

Seeing as we DID get what we set out for, and found a whole host of treasure all at super bargain prices I don’t think we did too badly! A whole bunch of swatches and reviews will be coming very soon!

Totally hellbent for shopping trips with a bad influence

– Gem & Pants

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Nails

O.P.I Tiny Treats

September 26, 2013

It took me a while to get into O.P.I.

As a lover of a bargain I always thought the RRP of £13.95 for a single polish was a bit much, but after dipping my toe(nails!) into the range I’ve now found myself a bit of an addict and the polishes worth every penny!

My latest purchase was this adorable Tiny Treats set containing mini 3.75ml ChipSkip, Nail Envy Natural Nail Strengthener and RapiDry Top Coat, a 30ml Expert Touch Lacquer Remover and 25 Expert touch Nail Wipes in a super-cute travel bag.

The nail treatments are a dream, and I love that I can take this on the road with me (there’s still room inside the bag for one or two full size polishes too) and have everything I need to touch up or re-do my manicure mid tour. Of course with the ChipSkip the likelihood of me needing to touch up is minimal – what a product!

The full sizes of all the treatments have gone straight onto my wishlist, but I doubt I would shell out £7.60 for the 120ml size Expert Touch Lacquer Remover. Though it took my varnish off quickly and efficiently my Sally Hansen remover does the job for a fraction of the price at £2.34 for 200ml with added nutrients and a not-too-unpleasant smell.

Same with the wipes, they work great but you can pick up the exact same product much cheaper without the O.P.I price tag!

Overall I think this a great little set if you want to try the nail treaments but don’t want to invest in the full sizes without trying them first, or like me if you travel about a lot and want to be able to keep your nails looking great!

Available from Fragrance Direct for £5.99

Totally hellbent for tiny treats (and big treats too!)

– Gem

Make-up, Nails

A mini haul and some unsuccessful shopping!

September 23, 2013

I had to pop to my local shopping mall today to pick up a birthday card and present for my sister and though I’m trying to save money (and thus stop buying lots of make-up!) I promised myself one treat.

I headed straight for Sally and peered helplessly at the O.P.I stand till a clerk came to ask if I needed help. Seems this was due on today’s delivery but she “wouldn’t know till she had sorted it all, so come back tomorrow”.

Drats!

I started lusting after the O.P.I Rock Goddess set the moment I spotted it on-line. Admittedly more for Rolling Bones and The drummer’s hot (and the free bracelet!) than the other two shades, but at a RRP of £12.99 for four O.P.I shades and an extra gift I wouldn’t complain at Yellopalooza and Stand in lime for days as I don’t own any similar shades.

HOWEVER. My lust was not be sated with this delicious treat today so I moved on and picked myself up a few bargains in it’s place. I’ll return for the varnishes next time!

Another Poundland bargain. I picked up two Revlon Top Speed polishes in Ignite and Black Star. RRP is £5.99 so a few pennies saved there!

Also how cute is the butterfly wrapping paper I picked up for my sisters gift!

Bodycare had slim pickings today, but I saw this Chubby Stick style Technic lipstick in a gorgeous pinky purple (shade 16) for only £1.19 and was sold! On that note I definitely need some purple lipsticks – how is it I don’t own a single one!

I popped into Superdrug in search of the new MUA Pro-Brow Kit, but alas the shelves were looking very empty. As my current brow palette is completely out of gel, I settled for going old school and bought a clear mascara to set them. At only £1 I figure it’s not much of a loss if it doesn’t work!

Finally honourable mention goes to these ADORABLE mini animal sticky-notes that arrived in the post this morning. Only 99p from Ebay! You can’t pick which set you get (I was totally hoping for the ones with the zebras!) but they are all quite adorable so worth the risk!

So there you go, a mini budget haul of four cosmetic items for only £4,19!

Totally hellbent for saving pennies

– Gem

Nails, NOTD

NOTD – OPI I don’t give a Rotterdam & Revlon Stunning

July 17, 2013

This was my first OPI varnish and I have to admit it was the name, not the colour that sold it to me. I purchased “I don’t give a Rotterdam” purely on the basis that I missed my boyfriend (who lives in Rotterdam!) and the name cheered me up!

Luckily I found it on Fragrance Direct for £3.99 so managed to grab a bargain with full RRP at around £11.50!

It’s a lovely bluey grey with a light shimmer, a really unique shade that I’ve never seen elsewhere. It applies as well as you would expect an OPI shade to, and is quite lovely alone.

I decided however that I needed to up the game a little, so added two layers of Revlon Stunning for a little extra va-va-voom! Stunning is a mix of micro and hexagonal glitter that is slightly holographic. I found it in a local Poundland saving myself a few pennies, and it is quickly becoming my new favourite glitter varnish.

Finally a touch of Sally Hanson Clear for take-off to stop that horrible scratchy glitter feeling! This is a great top-coat, both fast to dry and long lasting. You can find it here on Amazon for £6.99.

Totally hellbent for giving a Rotterdam about fabulous nails!

– Gem