Boots Mini Haul

I really shouldn't be spending money at the moment, but i'm a real sucker for makeup, and with Boots having their 3-for-2 offer on at the moment, my willpower just disappeared!

Here's what I picked up...

Collection 'Extreme' Coloured Lengthening Mascara - £2.99

I came across this by chance (i.e. I was crouched down looking at something else, and this happened to be in my eyeline!), and decided to try it, as i'm on a mission to find eye products that make my brown eyes (cheesy beauty expression coming up) 'pop'. I've used it once, and whilst it isn't overly obvious i'm wearing purple mascara, I quite like the subtlety of it as I don't want to look like an 80's throw back!

Collection Lasting Perfection Conclear - £4.19

I think everyone and their gran know's about this, so i'll not say too much about it - basically I had ran out and needed a new one!

Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Pomegranite - £3.99

One of the newer Barry M products, I've seen these 'gelly' nail varnishes on various blogs, so decided to try one out for myself. Compared to the other Barry M range shades that are available, the shades in this particular new range are a bit limited, and a tad...gaudy for my liking, but i'm sure they'll launch more.

Collection Glam Crystal gel eyeliners in Hustle and Le Freak - £2.99 each

I have been dying to try these ever since it was mentioned by Pixiwoo that Leona Lewis' makeup artist used these on her for one of her recent X-Factor performances. They are AMAZING. Hustle on initial impressions just looks like a silver gel, but on closer inspection is actually made up of different multi-facited pieces of glitter, not dissimilar to Model's Own Juicy Jules or even the Gosh Holographic nail varnish. Le Freak (love the name), on the other hand, is a beautiful bright turquoise that I have been wearing on my upper lid (it really does bring out my green eyes!)

Collection Extreme 24 Felt Tip Eyeliner in Purple- £2.99

I knew I had to go back and buy this after swatching it one day and finding that it did.not.budge from my hand! I really like felt tip liners, and whilst this isn't the finest of tips, it still helps me achieve a more accurate application than the tradtional liquid eyeliners.

Have you bought anything from the 3-for-2 offer?

NOTW: Essie Island Hopping and Barry M glitter polish

This post is unbelieveably late/overdue (so much so that i've since changed my nail polish) due to Blogger having a bit of a fit and not letting me create/edit posts since Tuesday, but it was such a pretty nail combination I thought i'd share it with you.



I'm going through a bit of a glitter polish obsession at the moment (such a magpie), and it was all I could do not to coat all 10 of my nails in glittery sparkly lovliness, but I managed to just go for the one 'Lady GaGa' nail that seems to be so popular at the moment (although I am loving Karris' slightly different take on it where she's painted her index finger nail instead).

Island Hopping is only my second Essie nailpolish, and one which I got a while ago from a blog sale.

When I received it I wasn't too keen on it for some reason (goodness knows why) and it has been languishing in my nailpolish box for some time.

However in a bid to get through some of my nailpolishes (and reduce the ridiculous amount I have), I decided to whack this shade on, and I have been LOVING it.

It's the perfect 'inbetweeny' shade (i.e. between Winter and Spring when the weather is still a bit naff): a lilac/mauve/grey/burghandy combo which I can only be described as very sophisticated!

I then of course had to bring out the glitter...

You can buy Island Hopping from the likes of Ebay, and despite the prices of Essie being around £9 (and the brush, which I find too small/thin), I am really tempted to buy more as the formula is excellent and really hardwearing.

Do you recommend any Essie polishes?

Boots Beauty Bargains!

Whilst having a sly look through the Gatwick Airport North Terminal branch of Boots I happened to notice (as any good beauty addict would) that they had quite a few good offers on.

As i'm unable to resist (what I consider) a bargain, I picked up a few treats...

Deal One: Buy Healthy Mix/Healthy Mix Serum Foundation and receive a free full-sized mascara

(Looking on the website, this deal seems to have ended and has been replaced with a 3 for 2 on all Bourjois products)

I had been umm-ing and aah-ing over the Healthy Mix foundation for some time, and decided to bite the bullet and just try it, especially when a free mascara was up for grabs!

I got the palest shade 01, which has turned out to be the perfect match for me.

(Full review to come)

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation, RRP £9.99

For the free mascara, there was a choice between Coup de Theatre 2 in 1, or Volume Glamour Ultra.

I opted for the former, on a whim - again watch this space for a review!

Bourjois Coup de Theatre 2 in 1 Mascara, RRP £9.49

Deal Two: Free gift when you spend £6 or more on Barry M products

(At the airport this free gift was the limited edition glitter nail polish - below right - but on the Boots website this is now a Barry M lipgloss)

How pretty?!

Barry M Nail Effects Polishes, RRP £3.99 each

Crackle nailpolishes don't interest me at all, but I was desperate to get my hands on the foil effect polishes, so I got the silver and gold. And of course the magpie in me squealed with delight when I saw you got a free glitter polish...

Have you came across any beauty bargains recently?

Melanie x

P.S. Watch this space for my giveaway coming soon - i'm so excited I've reached 50 followers!



NOTD: Barry M 318 Peach Melba

(Please excuse the horrendous state of my cuticles - nail appointment has been made!)

Peach Melba seems to be the 'must-have' Barry M shade of the moment, therefore when I saw one solitary bottle of it in my local Superdrug for the bargainous price of £2.99 I decided to snap it up.

Like the name, this particular shade is a really pretty peach pastel (bit of alliteration for you there), but it does need a couple of coats to avoid streaks and get a uniform colour.

The problem with this (as with most Barry M nail paints), given that the polishes have quite a thick consistency to begin with anyway, is that the more coats you apply, the thicker the finish of your polish, and thus the greater liklihood of it peeling off!

I also find that Barry M polishes usually need a top coat in order to achieve a high-shine finish, but other than these minor points, I really like the range of paints available for a really affordable price.

Melanie x

NOTD - Barry M Nailpaint 310 Mushroom

Evening ladies, hope you're doing well.

NOTD post for you tonight (I say Nail of the "Day", when in fact this was from the other day before I got my Shellac re-done!), featuring the amazing Chanel Particuliere-dupe that is Barry M Nailpaint in Mushroom:

As you can see from the pic below, the Barry M version is practically the same without the hefty RRP of £22!

What nail polish are you rocking?

Melanie x

NOTD - Barry M Nail Paint in 279 Bright Pink

Hello again pretty people,

Another post for you, this time just a quick one to show you what polish i've got on my paws today: Barry M Nail Paint in shade 279 "Bright Pink" (not very imaginative, eh?)

This is a fabulous Barbie pink, and for a secret Barbie at heart (I may be brunette but I do think I was born with the wrong hair colour sometimes!) I looooove this colour.

I keep meaning to buy more Barry M products, the nail paints in particular, as there's such a varied and beautiful range now available.

Any recommendations?

Melanie x