REVIEW: MODELS OWN GLITTER GEL

Glitter gel- Red Carpet, £4.99, Models Own  

If you read my blog often, you would have probably have seen countless Models Own review posts, and never a bad one!

 

I tend to get a lot of my nail polishes from Models Own as they have so many collections, with totally unique products at such affordable prices. For Christmas I decided to buy one of their 'glitter gel' polishes. The hypergel formula works to create high shine and a gel like finish, along with a lot of sparkle!

 

Although at first I was a little sceptical that the gel- like appearance would be gloopy, I found it was just like an ordinary polish, but set as a gel. I also love that this polish stayed chip resistant for at least a week on my nails! At £4.99 I tend to find models own products also last ages, so they are well worth a try. Along with this polish I also bought a pink polish from the colour chrome range, which I am yet to try!

 

Don't forget... Models Own are launching a 50% off online promotion between the 28.01.16 and 03.02.16, so don't miss out!

 

BLOGMAS #14- MODELS OWN POP UP

Yesterday I finally completed my Christmas shopping, well, started it- so getting it all done in one day was fab! As usual, I headed to The Metro Centre in Gateshead- which as you can imagine was heaving, but as I had a mental list of what gift I needed for what person it wasn't too much of a painful experience, especially when I had to also find an outfit for my work Christmas party on Friday...

 

Anyway, on my way out I spotted the Models Own pop-up outside of Topshop and as many of the nail polishes I had on my wish list are sold out online I had to pay it a visit! I absolutely love their Glitter Gel and Diamond Luxe ranges- especially 'Red Velvet', 'Radiant Pink' and 'Oval Plum'. They have some gorgeous metallic and glitters in the range which are perfect for the festive season, and although they are £5.00 a bottle, I always find they last ages! PLUS they are currently 3 for 2...

 

P.s- How are we already on blogmas day FOURTEEN....

 

BLOGMAS #13- FESTIVE NAILS

Just a quick post to share with you some Christmassy nail ideas! I always keep my nails quite simple, as I am totally rubbish at nail art, however seen as its almost Christmas I thought it high time to splash on some glitter!

The two nail polishes I have opted for are from the Maybelline Color Show range, in the shades Burgundy Kiss, and Rose Chic. I thought these were the percent combo, also who doesn't love a burgundy berry colour and a rose gold glitter at this time of year?! 

I bought them both from ASDA who had them on offer for just £2.50 each- although don't hold me to it! 

I would love to give some nail art a go, so if you guys have any nail posts or ideas please share in the comments below!!

HALLOWEEN NAILS

Ok I might have mislead you, i'm guessing that by the title you thought that I was going to be showing you some fantastic Halloween nail art- as much as I would like too I'm actually useless! I just thought that this nail polish I picked up at the weekend was an absolutely perfect shade for both Halloween and autumn!

 

The nail polish is by Maybelline, from the color show 60 seconds range- shade 357 burgundy kiss. I would say it is a very deep shade of purple/ red and is less burgundy but is such a beautiful shade. As for claiming to dry within 60 seconds, I completely agree! It is perfect if you need to paint your nails in a hurry, I also noticed that not only does it dry quickly, but I also didn't have the problem of getting those little prints and idents in my nails straight after as they were completely dry.

 

I am still waiting to see how chip resistant this polish is, as I only applied it on Saturday, but so far, so good!

 

The color show range has so many nail polishes in it containing so many beautiful shades, I bought this one along with rose chic, a metallic rose gold glitter- of course I couldn't resist! The color show polishes are on offer at the moment in ASDA, Wilkinsons and Savers... not sure if Boots or Superdrug are running this offer! The plain colours such as burgundy kiss are reduced to £2.50, and the glitter polishes such as Rose Chic are now £3.50, I was very confused as to which polishes were which price so make sure to double check!

 

What do you think? What shade are you opting for this Halloween? Have you managed to do some crazy nail art? Leave me a comment below!

Valentines Nails

NO7 STAY PERFECT NAIL COLOUR (NAIL POLISH BAUBLE)- £6- BOOTS

Well this post is definitely a little bit late considering valentines day was actually on Saturday, but I was so busy over the weekend I just didn't have time to write this post! I actually bought this nail polish bauble in the sale last month, when Boots had 70% off all their Christmas gift sets! I think I only paid £1.80 ish for this which was a total bargain, but I've had a look and you can still get hold of this colour which is '4-DAMSON DREAM' by Boots no7 for £6.

While getting myself ready for my boyfriend coming on Friday evening, I spotted this polish in my drawer and realised how pretty it was and perfect for valentines day, so I instantly had to try it out. One thing I would say about this is that the colour actually changes depending on lighting etc, so it can go from looking quite pinky purple to a deep red, but I think the colour is meant to be magenta? I could be wrong! But this colour is absolutely my fave, I can tell I won't be changing it any time soon!

The nail polish also glides on perfectly, is quite resistant to chipping and has a lovely metallic effect to it which I absolutely love. I had never tried any of the no7 stay perfect polishes as I must admit I never really pay more than £4 for a nail polish, but I do think the polish definitely lives up to its title, the coverage is fantastic and it has stayed perfect for days now. 

I would love to know if you have tried any of the stay perfect range, what do you think of this one? Leave me a comment below! :) 

KIKO| Real Glare nail lacquer

KIKO MILANO REAL GLARE NAIL LACQUER 06 'Exciting dark brown' £4.90

I had never even heard of KIKO cosmetics until a couple of months ago, I spotted a store in London and I instantly wanted to go in, the store is just filled with beautifully laid out cosmetics, they have literally everything! Anyway, my boyfriend moved to Guildford around 6 months ago and while I was visiting the other day we spotted a KIKO store, I'm kind of assuming these stores are mostly located in the south? Anyway, they had a sale on so of course I went for a little browse.

I have long been wishing to try a black polish but never felt brave enought, but since I'm wearing quite a lot of monochrome outfits at the moment I decided to try it. This one in particular is shade 06 Exciting dark brown, however I honestly thought it was black, it really doesn't look brown at all. I love this nail polish as it has a little shimmer within it, however I couldn't resist adding my own added extra sparkle to it by adding a touch of Models Own 'Blizzard' polish on top.

As for the price, you can definitely find cheaper polishes, however this one was on offer for £2.40 which is a complete bargain, I've had no chipping so far, the effect is beautiful and I just love the gold top and box! It looks like such an expensive product but is so affordable! I also had a little browse around the rest of the store and found that they have a very large selection of other polishes and their lipsticks and glosses are not to be missed, you should definitely give KIKO a visit if you have a store near you!

Have you bought anything from KIKO? Do you reccomend any of their products in particular? Leave me a comment below! :)

#Blogmas Day 13| Festive Nails #2

 "Little angel"- £2- Claire's  

This is the second of my festive nails posts, what?! I never change my nails this often! Really.. I literally change my nail polish colour every month minimum, but seen as its Christmas I have so many lovely Christmassy nail polishes, I just want to try them all out. This one in particular is from Claire's Accessories, now if like me, you used to spend all of your pocket money on Claire's hair scrunchies, sparkly hair clips, fluffy purses and garish eye shadow palettes when you were younger, you probably stopped shopping at Claire's a long time ago. However, after popping in there on a couple of occasions recently, I remembered just how much I loved it. I am such a girly girl so I can't resist their jewellery and most importantly, their nail polish collection.

 

I have been looking for a snowflake effect nail polish for quite a while but don't really have the money to spare for a Nails Inc one, so when I found 'Fluffy' on their shelves I just had to have it (I probably should have included it in this post but never mind!) Anyway for £3 I thought it was an absolute bargain, and on that day all of the nail polishes were in the sale for just £2 EACH. This is when I decided I would try 'Little Angel'- a glittery pink polish, right up my street.

 

I knew I wanted to go for a full glitter nail but I know that with some glittery nail polishes it can take quite a while to apply layer upon layer of glitter until it starts to even become noticeable, and by that point you've put a big squishy dent in them anyway. So, I used a plain pink nail varnish as my base colour (you can see it on bits of my fingers in the picture as I forgot to clean it off) but this helped to provide a base in which to apply the glitter, it only took 2 coats! It also dries quite quickly and the effect is beautiful, and exactly what I wanted, although the picture makes it look a little darker than it is.

  Have you seen any great glitter nail polishes that you think I may like? What polish are you wearing at the moment? Leave me a comment below! :) 

#Blogmas Day 1| Festive Nails

I am especially excited about this post as it is my first #Blogmas post! I have been wondering the past couple of days what all this #Blogmas is about, turns out it is simply blogging everyday until Christmas or through December if you like! Admittedly I am 2 days late getting up to speed with this but hey ho I still want to do it!

 

I am a huge fan of Christmas, like literally I am festive all year around and make sure everyone else is too! So anyway, my first post is going to be all about how to make your nails ready for the festive season! Admittedly I haven't found some crazy Christmas nail stickers, or drawn some fantastic patterns with nail art pens, but I've added a sprinkle of glitter to my everyday nails, and in my opinion that's festive!

 

I actually found these nail polishes from last Christmas the other day so decided to retry them out on top of my every day nail polish- No7 Stay Perfect nail colour in 'Me Me Me', the two glitter polishes are by Models Own, Fireworks collection 'sparkler' and mirror ball collection 'hot stuff'. I absolutely love the combination of different glitter types and colours, they perfectly complement each other and would also look fab on separately if combined with other colours! I love this combo as it is super girly, I am a sucker for sparkles!

 

I always find that Models Own have such a wide range of different collections and colours to choose from, and they are such fab quality at such a low price, just £4.99 each, I can't wait to get some more! :)

 

What's your fave polish brand? Do you use Models Own? Leave me a comment below! :)

Wish List: The Beauty Edit

 

(Left to right) Advent Calendar- candy coated countdown, £60, Benefit| Nails in figment, £6, Topshop| No7 midnight lash mascara, £13.50,  Boots| Lolli Balm, £14.50, Boots| Glitter pot in space cowboy, £4, Topshop| Bourjois little round pot blusher rose pompon 37, £7.99, Superdrug| Zoella blisfull mistful, £8, Superdrug| Sleek face contouring kit Light, £9.99, Superdrug| Royal brush 12 piece brush kit love is trusting, $39.99, Amazon.com| Nail polish in velvet goth valerian, £5, Models Own.

 

I have never been a massive fan of spending lots of money on hair and beauty products, personally I would rather spend my money on clothes! However, since moving in with my house mate Sophie- http://sophiesclosetxo.blogspot.co.uk/ (fellow shop-a-holic), I have become more and more interested in makeup!

 

Whenever I am shopping with Soph there is rarely a time when we don't pop into Boots or Superdrug for a cheeky browse, and she very much likes to have really good quality makeup and takes her time to make sure her makeup looks perfect... honestly the other day she tried to teach me how to contour, I was absolutely puzzled! Anyway, I will admit that now she is motivating me to mix up my makeup a little, as I tend to follow the same routine day and night for my makeup, the only thing I tend to change up is my lipsticks, I know, so bad.

 

But now I have had a little browse of what's on offer, I must admit that I really had no idea at all of what a range of products there actually is out there. I am now willing to experiment with different brushes, primers, creams and contouring palettes so if any of you have any video tutorials that may help me a little, please share them in the comments section below!

 

For now I have made a little wish list of some of the bits and bobs that have caught my eye recently, when I think about it, it is actually probably less expensive to have an addiction to buying beauty products rather than clothes, with brands such as Sleek, Collection, Seventeen, W7 and natural collection who can complain about price?!

 

My wish list includes mainly products I want to try, such as the Sleek contouring palette, and the glitter pot, and also products that are such a must have, including the Topshop and Models Own  nail varnishes, Zoella body mist (I have the body lotion and it smells divine), and Benefit Lolli-Balm which looks so amazing I just need to try it, and also the makeup brushes are so pretty, at a fraction of the price of Real Techniques makeup brushes for example. Finally the beauty advent calendar is an absolute must have, firstly; you avoid the calories of eating a chocolate filled calendar, it saves a lot of money on products that at full size would be very pricey, and finally, what is better than being treated with a beauty gift every day until Christmas?! £60 may seem like a lot but honestly it is such a saving for the amount of products you get!

 

What products have you all been using recently? Remember to leave me any makeup tutorial video links below! :)

Models Own Pop Up

 

Ok, I will be the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of nail varnish, it's not that I am not completely transfixed and in love with all of the nail varnish shades that I find, it is just that I don't have the time to re- paint my nails a different colour, I am 100% guilty of keeping the same nail polish colour on for weeks and even months at a time... I know, so bad. When it comes to nail art I haven't even attempted it, way too time consuming and complicated!

 

Anyway, I must admit that when I visited The White Rose shopping centre in Leeds the other day, I was very excited to see the Models Own pop up! We were invited in and were met with row upon row of colour coordinated polishes, honestly my mind is blown at how many shades of pink polish you could possibly have... Honestly, if I do ever buy nail varnish it does actually tend to be Models Own, although they are £5 + plus, in comparison to other brands such as Essie, Revlon and Sally Hansen, they are well worth it!

 

The thing I love best about Models Own is that they have so many different collections, at the moment I am particularly obsessed with the diamond luxe collection, the nail polishes contain actual diamond dust and the colours are simply beautiful! I will definitely be putting a couple of them on my wish list! Not only did we get a free Models Own mirror, they also had an offer of 6 nail polishes for £20, which saves you £10! Although I was tempted to grab handfuls of bottles I am desperately trying to cut back on my spending so I didn't actually buy anything, but if you come across the pop up in a shopping centre near you I highly suggest you snap up their fantastic offer!

 

Have you seen the Models Own pop up yet? What is your favourite nail varnish brand?

Nail Polish Review: No7 Me Me Me

 

I'm wearing: No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour (Me Me Me), £6.00, Boots.

 

I just love reviewing beauty products, and in particular I love playing around with nail varnishes. I am definitely not one of those bloggers who is crazy good at designing different nail art for their nails every day of the week, in fact, I tend to wear the same colour for weeks on end before being bothered to change it! I actually got this one when I came across the buy one get one half price offer on No7 in Boots this week, I just loved the bold pink shade!

 

I must admit though that I was mortified to see the price of No7 products, I don't know about you but I just expected Boots own brand to be a little less pricey! This nail polish cost £6 which is affordable but their lipglosses cost around £9! Maybe I am just a cheapskate...

 

So, not only does this colour live up to its name 'Me Me Me' by standing out really well with just one coat, it also stays on really well with no chips so far! I also think that the bottle size is larger than the usual nail polish, I don't know maybe its just me. But anyway, I seriously recommend buying one of these in whatever shade, although being massively girly I had to have pink! If you would like to have a look at the other shades in their 'stay perfect' collection, you can find them on the Boots website HERE.

 

Have you tried No7 nail polishes? What is your favourite brand of nail polish? :)

Recent Buys!

FINALLY I can actually do a post like this again, not only have I had 0 pennies for ages and so couldn't afford a splurge, my phone was also stolen by a scumbag and I only just got a new one, hence why nearly all of my recent posts haven't been my own pictures, I apologise! Anyway, today I thought I would share with you some bits and pieces that I have added to my collection of clothes and accessories recently :) Firstly I have a couple of nail polishes, a mint green colour which is such a fresh colour which I just love for spring, and also a lilac Models Own nail polish, which also comes with little flower stickers (comes in different colours and sticker versions). I also have some new accessories from River Island, I didn't realise till now how cheap River Island jewellery really is! I bought these cute flower earrings firstly because they are beautiful and secondly because they were only £2! I also just love this plastic flower necklace, an instant purchase was made. The little pink purse below is also from River Island, and even though it is small, it is absolutely perfect for a night out if you want to take a bit of money and your ID without carting all of your important cards around. Finally I have also bought a few things to add to my wardrobe, this floral lace embellished crop top is so simplistic and summery I just had to have it, also the candy pink long sleeved top is perfect for the weather now as it is still a bit early for crop tops, yet the colour injection still makes you feel so summery! Last but not least is my new floral top from ARK, I never really go for prints but this floral top is so bang on trend and so pretty! What have you all been buying recently? :)

(Left to right)
1. Dainty flower earrings- £2- River Island
2. White and black plastic flower necklace- £5- River Island
3. Barry M nail effects polish (Ridley road 310)- WAS £2.99 NOW £1- River Island
4. Sticky fingers nail polish (Pastels Petals)- £5- Models Own
5. Mini pink purse- £5- River Island
6. Petite cropped floral trim top- £18- Topshop
7. Floral print zip back top- £16.99- ARK
8. Long sleeve crepe top- £16- Topshop

LONDON FASHION WEEKEND

This one is a super long post guys! But hey, I have a lot to talk about today! Sorry that this post is a little late, but I have been super busy in the past few days and haven't really had time to upload pictures and write this post so anyway, here it is. Last Friday I decided to go to London Fashion Weekend at Sommerset House, it was amazing. Honestly it really was one of the best days of my life, not only did I have the rare opportunity to go to London, but I got to take a look down Oxford Street, took a look around the sights, hiked across Soho, browsed some georgeous designer clothes AND attended a catwalk show! Busy day ey. Yup my train from Leeds was 8:45 am and I only got back into Leeds at midnight, so I was veryyyy tired, but it was really worth it. So to begin this post I thought I would share with you a few pictures of the day...

Below are some more pictures of the catwalk. The show featured 4 trends, (I covered these trends a earlier this month).

 

1. Precious Metals from Antonio Beradi, Balmain and Marni designers. This was my favourite trend as the models looked so amazing in their metallic, and it just showed that anyone can carry it off, depending whether you want a bold and daring look, or a quite subtle look, there is a way to wear metallic for everyone to try!

2. Flower power designed by Erdem, Jonathan Saunders and Preen. They designed vibrant floral printed garments which definitely got me excited for the spring.

3. Lace Embrace designed by Christopher Kane, Diane von Furstenberg and Oscar de la Renta. Gorgeously designed skirts, tops and dressed which had some gorgeous textures, such a wonderful trend, and so girly!

 

4. Finally,  the catwalk ended with a trend called Good Sport. It is a style designed by designers such as Alexander Wang, Peter Pilotto and Stella McCartney. The clothing style gave something very masculine a feminine feel, broad shoulders were created and big sport jackets were a highlight, keep your eyes peeled for rah rah skirts! 

 Next is some pictures of some of my favourite items I found while browsing the designer clothes. The event allowed us to look around Sommerset House to look at all sorts of designer clothing and accessories, which to be honest were very out of my price range, but hey, it was so much fun browsing very expensive garments! Some of my particular favourites where floral and tropical prints, metallic, pastel and bright colours and silks, as well as the huge array of bags, purses, sunglasses, shoes and jewellery!

 I should probably also mention my OOTD. One of my most favourite aspects of visiting London Fashion Weekend was that as soon as I walked in, there were people everywhere dressed in the most beautiful outfits I have ever seen, some outfits were perfectly styled and others were very daring, from huge head pieces to tiger head rucksacks, it was evident that everyone there had made a super big effort! As for me, the outfit I chose to there was not my idea outfit, as I had to travel all the way from Leeds to get there it firstly would not have been practical, secondly I really didn't have the time to get ready and thirdly, I think I would have felt a little bit silly wearing a fancy outfit on a train, tube and buses! So I finally decided to go with a monochrome look, my boxy top was cream with a zip back and textured material, my black jeans had a silky gloss finish, I wore my favourite cut out boots, beloved leather jacket as it was a little chilly, my big tan bag and finally accessorised with a chain and gem necklace and my trusty Michael Kors watch.

Leather jacket- Topshop/ cream zip back boxy top- New Look/ black jeans- New Look/ cut out boots- Ark/ necklace- Dorothy Perkins/ watch- Michael Kors/ bag- Topshop

 

So to end this post I am also going to share with you the bits and bobs I picked up while shopping, I couldn't go to London and come home empty handed now could I? Firstly with my London Fashion Weekend silver ticket I managed to get a free tote bag designed by Julien Macdonald, which was filled with all sorts of goodies. Firstly there were pamflets and cards for money off and discounts, then there was coffee from LFW sponsor Lavazza, free 'beauty bar' that tasted so nice (and was surprisingly healthy) from their other sponsor, and most importantly I got some free beauty products including a mini Essie nail polish which is a lovely glittery shade of green, a Maybelline baby lips lip balm in cherry, and some dry shampoo from the catwalk sponsor Label M, luckily I managed to get the one especially for brunettes, I am yet to try it! On entry I also received a free lanyard with a map and schedule of the catwalk which I will definitely use again!  If any of you went and got the gold ticket, I am intrigued as to what was included in the goodie bag for that ticket?

When shopping I also picked up an eos lip balm from Selfridges which I love. Seriously it definitely lives up to the hype. The scents are beautiful, the design is so cute and they are perfect to pop in your handbag, also they come in many different colours, being me I chose pink of course! And finally, I had a mini splurge and bought a Ted Baker purse which I picked up for £65, very expensive I know and being a student I definitely could not afford it, but hey it is my new favourite accessory! As this comes in many different colours I was torn between the nude pink and the mint green, as I am so indecisive after at least half an hour of consideration I went with pink, which has a cream leather interior and silk money pouch and such a cute clasp. Did you visit London Fashion Weekend? :)

 

Inside My Nail Polish Box....

I have been meaning to do one of these posts for a while now, but I have only just got round to getting a clear colour wheel to use, so anyways, in a half hour of boredness I decided to get on with this post! Basically, this post is about the contents of my nail polish box, and I have used the colour wheel to show you the colours, it's just not the same in the bottle! It may not be a huge collection, but honestly it was a lot bigger, unfortunately when I came to look through this box a lot of them had unfortunately dried out over time. As you can see from the pictures below, there is a distinct set of colours that I tend to go for when I am choosing my nail varnishes, when I am out shopping the colours that tend to catch my eye are pink, glitter, purple and red, and there a couple of blues thrown in there too! Anyway, I wasn't really sure how to edit the image so that I could display the nail polish brands and colour names, plus it would have taken forever considering that there are 18 of them, so I have included a mini list below with reference to the bottom right colour wheel, starting with the gold and working round to the right. What is your favourite nail varnish? Leave me a comment below, I love reading your comments! :)

(Bottom right image starting with the gold and working around to the right)
'suffuse'- Topshop/ 'blue moon'- Barry M/ 'cyan blue'- Barry M/ 'purple haze'- Models Own/ 'St James'- Nails Inc/ 'cobalt blue'- Barry M/ 'daredevil'- Topshop/ 'jem'- Topshop/ 'raspberry crush'- Models Own/ 'luna love' space dust- Rimmel London/ 'magenta divine'- Models Own/ 'toggle to the top'- Essie/ 'silver fox'- Models Own/ 'gold finger'- Models Own/ 'what's up'- Topshop/ 'peach melba'- Barry M/ 'pink flamingo'- Barry M/ 'pink flamingo' color show- Maybelline.