Maxfactor Gel Shine Lacquer

I was recently sent these gorgeous Maxfactor Gel Shine Lacquer polishes. They are “high shine and intense colour that lasts, for an instant glamour transformation”.

These polishes claim to give “intense colour pay-out with high shine and up to 7 days wear”.

I am immediately drawn to any polishes that have gel in the title or promises to give the same results as any UV gel polish.

I didn’t test all the colours unfortunately, I didn’t manage to try the brighter colours before I got Shellac on my nails. I had Sheen Merlot on my nails for over a week though so I think I have a good idea of how they work.

 

I chose Sheen Merlot (Burgundy) over Vivid Vermillion (Neon Orange) and Twinkling Pink (Bright Fuchsia) as I am forever drawn to plums and reds.

It does have a very high colour pay out as it didn’t take too much for the nail to be completely covered without seeing any of the nail bed. By the end of the week I only had one or two chips which I was really impressed by.

The only thing I was disappointed by was the fact that I didn’t seem have a very gel like finish. It could have been that colour though because I did swatch the other colours and they did seem a bit thicker on the nails than Sheen Merlot.

I did love the colour I tested and while it didn’t have too much of a gel look it was very pigmented and did last for almost a full week which I was really impressed by. They retail for €10.39 each.

Do you think you’ll buy them?

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah

Barry M Aquarium Collection Review

I absolutely love Barry M polishes, they always have amazing colours and collections. When I saw these two from the Aquarium Collection I fell instantly in love with them. One is a colour polish and one is a glitter polish and suit each other perfectly. The polish is in Arabian, an amazing 2 toned turquoise colour and the glitter polish in Mermaid, a clear polish with flecks of blue, gold and green.

You’ll need at least two coats of the Arabian so not to see any of the nail bed and I put a few coats of the Mermaid on to get a good amount of the glitter flecks onto the nail as I didn’t want it too sparse looking.

The colour probably goes better with a tan, I think I’m a bit pale but it still works. It didn’t take too long to dry but the Mermaid took a while as I put a lot of product on my nail.

I love these colours they’re probably more suited for the summer so I should only get another month or so out of it.

The collection is still available in boots and it comes in few more colours too. I love how they’re so cheap only €5.99 and the great thing about boots is that they’re currently in a 3 for 2 offer!

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Rouge Louboutin

  

When I first heard that Christian Louboutin was going to bring out a nail polish the same colour as their signature soles I knew I needed to get my hands on it. The closest thing I’ve got to a pair of Louboutins was a pair of oversized fake sparkly ones that I ended up giving away and I know it’s likely that I won’t ever be able to afford a real pair.

When I first heard that the prices of the varnish would be €45 I was in a bit of shock but then figured this will be the closest I will ever get to owning something from Louboutin, luckily for me though I had a voucher for Brown Thomas so it only cost me €20.00 and I feel like I can justify that as it’s is still cheaper than the my YSL varnish.

As soon as I bought it I took it out of the tissue paper it was wrapped in and looking at it for the first time it honestly felt like Christmas for me, it is just so beautiful and huge! It’s designed to look like a heel of one of the Louboutin shoes and it must be from a shoe Lady GaGa would wear because this is super high and the point could literally kill someone. The bottle is glass in an ombre black and red effect and the handle is the pointed “heel”, which is a bit awkward when trying to get a grip on it for application.

It is super red and it is an exact match to the sole of the Louboutin shoes. It applies super easy and only needs one coat, I applied two coats on one or two nails but it didn’t make any more of a difference so I left it at one coat. It also doesn’t chip either, I’ve had it on my nails for nearly a week now and I have no chips what so ever. 

Is it worth €45 I’m not sure, but you do get a lot of product in the bottle, the packaging is so impressive and the formula is pretty amazing so I do think it is worth more than what you would usually pay for a bottle of varnish but I’m glad I didn’t pay €45 for it I would have felt so guilty if I did.

So what do you think, is it worth €45 for a bottle of varnish or not?

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Collection Lasting Gel Color | Review

I bought these during my Boots Haul last week. They were on offer – 2 for €6.50 or €3.99 each, so obviously I had to buy the two. I love gel effect nails so I was excited to try these, I had tried the Models Own Hypergel polish and wasn’t impressed at all so the fact that these where much cheaper than the Models Own I my expectations weren’t too high but still optimistic at the same time.

 

I love the brush, it’s wide and gets the full nail pretty much on one swipe a bit like the Rimmel 60 Seconds nail polish or the YSL polishes, I hate really thin brushes they never work the way I want them too.

 

Firstly as a beauty blogger I want to try everything at once and as I’ve had Shellac on for so long I couldn’t wait to get my nails painted and polished again so I put one colour on each hand. 

On my left hand I tried Vixen Red, from the bottle it looks like a deep burgundy red but when applied it has more of a plum hew to it. With the application I applied two coats to get a full colour, one coat was too thin. With this hand I applied a top coat when I was finished and the drying time was very short, it almost instantly dried to touch but it needed a short few minutes before it was fully dry. I love these kinds of colours especially for the autumn.

 

After over a week’s wear the red had hardly chipped other than looking a bit dull around the tip of the nail.

 

On my right hand I had the colour Raspberry, it’s like a hot pink but a little darker another one of my favourite colours but this one is more suited for the summer. On this hand I didn’t put any top coat on just to see if it made any difference having it with or without it. Again after a week there is literally just one obvious chip and a little dulling around the tip of the nails.

 

The application on the colour was much better than the Vixen Red, the colour is thick enough and only needed one coat but I put two on just for luck.

 

I’m so impressed by these polishes, they have a high shine that has stayed for the week, no chipping with or without a top coat and they are a bargain at only €3.99. They look more like a normal polish on the nails rather than having gel on the nail but I’ll let that slide as the overall quality is really good.

 

Thanks for reading 🙂

Love Sarah xoxo

Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen

Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen

This was the worst nail buy I have had in a looooooooong time!!! It was an absolute impulse buy, I just saw the pictures that they had advertising the pens and thought what I saw was what I was going to get. I suppose there should be some blame on my part for buying a product I didn’t know anything about but that’s what happens when you’re in boots during a 3 for 2 sale and just put stuff in your basket without thinking.

Firstly I thought what I was buying was a pen with a small brush tip, because to me that’s what the pictures looked like it was but what I got was a hard tip like you would get from a felt tip marker!

When I got home and tried them out, it took me forever to get any product out and when I did it was a pretty miniscule amount.

I wish I could find a picture of the advertisement that I saw in boots when I was buying the pens to show you how I thought it was going to look because it really made it out to be a really flowing varnish with a very easy movable tip.

In the end I was just really disappointed with the pen and in the end I didn’t like them because:

They were too difficult for the product to come out

The colour came out very opaque and for a nail pen I would want something more pigmented

Too expensive, at €8.95 per pen that is just too expensive for myself, especially on something I won’t be using again.

So that’s what I think about these oul pens, I won’t be buying them again and for such a good brand like Sally Hansen I thought they would have been so much better.

Thanks for reading and if you have bought these pens too then let me know what you thought about them.

Love Sarah xoxo

Nails Inc. 2 in 1 Color & Pop Art | Review

If you follow me on Facebook or on Instagram you’ll have seen my pictures of my new Nails Inc 2 in 1 Color and Pop Art varnishes. I had bought them at the start of March and only properly got around to using them this week.

They have 3 to choose from in their collection:

Angel & Upper Street

Sheraton St & Cavendish Place

Knightsbridge Place & Sloane Street

I was only going to buy one but I couldn’t choose between two colours so figured I just had to buy two, the sales guy must have seen the struggle of what to do on my face and came over to help me. Anyway I ended up getting all three thanks to the salesman, he told me if I bought 3 then I would get a free manicure so I really couldn’t deny a freebie. You’ve got to love a good splurge.

Luckily for me when it comes to Nails Inc. I love all their products and the majority of my nail polish collection is full of the stuff, so when I did splurge I didn’t feel too bad as I knew I was going to be getting a good product and you do get what you pay for my darlings!!!

So last Sunday I sat myself down and dug these beauts out, I only used Angel & Upper Street and Knightsbridge & Sloane Street as I was going for a pink look.

I didn’t use any top or base coat so I did have the fear that they would chip off within the next day but they didn’t and there was a great shine on them even without a top coat.

The varnishes are duos so on one end you have your colour and on the other you have the clear coat with glitter. These are limited edition for Spring/Summer 2014 and the shades have been chosen to reflect the pastel and pop colours for this season.

I love the ideas of these duos and they last ages without chipping. I have one problem and that’s when removing the glitter, they don’t budge. I use my Maybelline Express Remover as it’s the only remover that I’ve used to get glitter off but it still didn’t work, I chipped them off with my nails which probably isn’t the best for my nails.

But other than that I love these little things, they are a bit pricey at €16.80 in Debenhams; I think they’re £14 in the UK.

Review | Rita Ora And Rimmel

I’m a big fan of Rimmel, I have been since I was a young girl, not so much of Rita Ora especially since she’s been cast as Mia in 50 Shades (still won’t stop me seeing the movie though), so when I heard they were bringing out a nail collection together I was interested to see what they would come up with. Rita has collaborated with many great artists since she came on the scene but I think creating a nail collection with Rimmel is the best collaboration yet.

In this collection there are 12 Shades altogether (€4.99 each)

 Lose your lingerie – a pastel pink

Raw as night – a hot pink

Don’t be shy – Barbie pink

Let’s get nude – a lovely little nude

Midnight rendezvous – a dark purple

Hot White Love – plain and simple white but so on trend

Blindfold me blue – a sea blue

Pillow talk – a pastel blue

Do not disturb – a sea green

Breakfast in bed – a pastel green

Rita rouge – Pillar box red

Orgasm – (the rudeness) an orange

She also has 10 shades of Colour Rush lipsticks but I have enough lipsticks so I decided not to get the lippy, although I have enough nail varnishes too but they really excited me!!

I bought mine in Boots; they had a 3 for 2 offer so I got six of the following:

All of the above where given a single coat and they dried really fast. My favourite of the ones I bought where:

Rita Rouge – After trying it out it’s a gorgeous burgundy red, I love colours like that on my nails and lips

Hot White Love – It’s a brilliant white, but you will need to give a perfect application on the nails to get the perfect manicure. This one will be great with a tan.

Raw As Night – This is a really light bright red, when I applied it to my first few nails I didn’t think I was going to like it but it definitely grew on me, I usually love dark reds so this one surprised me.

I love all the colours and I can’t wait to get the rest in the range. They are so affordable and I love how they actually dry quickly, I hate when some polishes claim to dry quickly and really don’t. I’ve only ever bought one or two of the Rimmel polishes years ago so I couldn’t remember if they where good or not, but I’m pleased to say that they are amazing and I will be buying them in the future!

If you don’t believe me you will have to try them for yourself!

Love Sarah xoxo

Review | Tanya Burr Nail Collection

I love watching Youtube for tutorials, hauls and to see what vloggers think of the latest products, so when I saw that one of my faves Tanya Burr had released her own range of lip glosses and nail polishes I knew I had to get them.

For this post i’m just going to write about the nail polishes. There are 10 polishes in total and each of them have their own unique names that Tanya chose herself.

Penguin Chic – a taupe like grey

Riding Hood – such a lovely pillar box red

Mini Marshmallows – a light baby pink

Peaches and cream – a peachy cream colour

Midnight Sparkles – a dark sparkly purple

Bright and Early – bubble-gum pink

Be Bright, Be Happy, Be You – a little hot pink

New York Night – a dark purple

Mischief Managed – a pinkie red

Little Duck – a pastel green

I bought my 3 on www.cloud10beauty.com, I chose Riding Hood, Midnight Sparkles and Be Bright, Be Happy, Be you. The quality of these polishes are really good, I paid €7.50 for each polish which I think is reasonable enough for what you get.

Be Bright, Be Beautiful, Be You and Riding Hood: 

When I first put these colours on my nails I was blown away firstly by the shine and secondly from the coverage. Even from just one coat there was such a high coverage.

The shine is just amazing and the coverage is so thick it almost looks gel like. I really love a wet look nail so this really ticked the box for me.

Midnight Sparkle:

The varnishes promise to be chip resistant and they live up to that. I didn’t put a top coat on my nails just to see how long they would last on their own and after a week there was only minimal chipping so I presume if I put a top coat on it will last for a good few days.

I love the packaging although I did have a hard time opening 2 of the polishes and had to get my dad to open them because i’m so weak.

Overall I do love them and if I see them in my local stores maybe I’ll buy them, it’s just a bit of effort to buy them online.

Enjoy your weekend girls and keep an eye out over the next few days for my review on Tanya’s lip glosses.

Love Sarah xoxo

Models Own Hypergel Review

Hello Hello!!

Nails! Apart from lip products anything to do with nails is definitely my second love.

Last year I went month’s getting gel nails but I could tell that they were starting to ruin my real nails underneath so I had to take them off. The result was hideous paper thin nails, fortunately after a lot of hand cream, cuticle oils and some repairing nail varnishes they are finally starting to get back to normal.

Now I’ve never had Shellac nails but my friend raves about them so when I saw that Models Own had brought out a nail varnish that gave the same type of effect for only €7.65 I was intrigued. I had seen some reviews from other bloggers about the varnish that spoke well about it and figured I’ll have to try them. Boots where doing a 3 for 2 offer at the time so I bought Coral Glaze – a lovely peachy coral, Cerise Shine – a hot Barbie pink and Cornflower Gleam – a baby sky blue.

They have 10 shades altogether containing lotus flower oil and the result should be a high shine gel finish.

The first time I put the Cornflower gleam on my fingers and I immediately noticed that the colour is so pigmented and really only a single coat was needed without seeing any of the original nail. Now I did this while sitting in my room about a half an hour before I was going to get into bed, thinking it would be enough time to let them dry. Well was I mistaken, usually I’ll give nails a good ten minutes before I start doing anything so after a half an hour of me bouncing around my room to Beyonce I figured they would be bone dry, but they started to come off when they got hit, they smudged and basically it was a hot mess.

I tried it again for a second time the next day, leaving it a little longer but the same result happened but to a lesser extent, as you can see in the picture below.

So for the 3rd time I tried the Cerise Shine on my left hand and the Cornflower Gleam on my right (I left the Coral Glaze in work so haven’t tested that one yet). I took my time on this occasion, knowing that they take forever to dry I sat down and made sure I had no distractions. Initially I was happy with the result, it’s a high shine and they did look like they had gel on them.

    

 

After nearly an hour and a half of doing my nails and letting them dry I noticed that the smooth sheen was gone and replaced by bubbles, the only time I had seen this happen was when I got cheap gel nails done! I Googled it thinking maybe it was something I had done wrong but I couldn’t pin point anything.

After an hour I decided it should be OK to move around again but as soon as the nails touched off anything they did get dented. I’m not usually one to moan too much about a product but after 3 times of putting the varnish on this really has to be one of the worst varnishes I’ve bought for my nails. It could be that it’s thicker and it is only a new product so maybe they just need to do a few more tweaks, but I like to be able to put on my varnish and go. After an hour I really should not be worrying about my nails not being fully dry.

The only positive I can come to are that the pigments are amazing, the colours do really pop and will compliment your spring wardrobe and if i’m honest that’s the only plus I can think of 😦

Love Sarah xoxo

My buy of the week

Morning Beauty Bunny’s!

So on Valentines Day I decided to treat my self to a little V-Day prezzie, and what says I love you more than YSL!!

I love anything Yves Saint Laurent, unfortunately for me it’s rarely in my budget but i decided to splurge on their new Spring 2014 La Laque Couture Spicy Collection, and by splurge I mean by one nail varnish. At €24 a pop it is a bit steep but when I saw the colour I knew I had to have it.

It wouldn’t be everybody’s cup of tea but it made me think of the sun and with the weather we’re having we all need a little bit of sunshine in our lives. I chose it in No.44 Ambre Gingembre – it’s a dark orange and will look even better on once I get a tan. It goes on like a dream, the applicator is just perfect and dries pretty quickly – I didn’t use a top coat so it did chip after a day or two but I was too excited to wait and had to put it on pretty much straight away!

So this was my top buy of last week and I think it will be my go too spring/summer colour 🙂

Love Sarah xoxo