Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel Review Part 1!

Hi guys!

Look I'm back already! My last post reminded me just how much I love blogging so I'm determined to get a couple more done before I have to get back to exam mode :L

So the other day I was perusing the beauty aisles of Boots (as I like to do every so often to see what’s new) and noticed that Revlon now have a little section dedicated just to Revlon nail varnishes. As a nail varnish lover I naturally went over to take a closer look and as I did a lovely Revlon Lady working on the aisle came up, complemented me on my Union Jack Nails (:D), then proceeded to tell me all about Revlon's new nail varnishes, 'Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel'.

Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel in Red Carpet

These are a new range of nail varnishes basically designed to be like a DIY version of a Gel manicure. They are meant to "provide high impact color and gel-like shine in fashion forward range of shades and finishes" and to "provide flexible, shatterproof color with excellent color retention and gloss". Basically it's meant to be a really long lasting, good quality nail varnish. The lady in the shop told me that it can last up to 11 days, which is really good seeing as most nail varnishes only last around 3-4 days, and that the reason for this is that the formula bends with your nail unlike normal nail varnish.

Now I don't know about all that technical kind of stuff, but I'm going on holiday to Italy (which I am extremely excited about! :D) for one week in about four weeks time, and so my mum, sister and I were all planning on getting Shellac manicures before we went so that we didn't have to take nail varnish and nail varnish remover with us etc. However, for all of us to have them done would be quite expensive so I thought why not try this nail varnish out instead?

So, we picked a nice bright colour called 'Red Carpet' which actually looked more coral in the shop, but on is definitely a very vibrant red, and decided that we would try this instead seeing as it was only £7.99 which is a fraction of the cost of what 3 Shellac manicures would have cost us, and which we will get more use out of because we can use it again and again.

Obviously, we didn't want to go on holiday and find that it doesn't work, so this week I am road testing it! I applied it this morning, and so every day, I am going to take a picture of it, then after the eleven days is up, or however long it lasts for if it doesn't manage the eleven days, I will do a post with the results and all the pictures so you can see the state of it through the duration of wear.
I have to say, I wasn’t overly impressed with the application of this nail varnish. It's very thick and like most longwearing nail varnishes, takes forever and a day to dry so if you have no patience, or have a tight schedule then it's just a bit frustrating! Eventually what I ended up doing was painting the base coat (I used the Sally Hansen Base coat that I always use) and first coat last night, then finished it off with the second coat and top coat (I used Natural Collection Clear Top Coat) this morning. That made sure that it had all dried thoroughly and stopped me from getting really bored whilst I waited for it to dry!

Anyways, I'll be back with the pictures from each day and a review of its durability in approximately 11 days! I'll try and do another post between times though, I'm not sure what on yet but I'm sure I'll find something!

As always thank you so much for reading!

xxx

Right Royal Nails: Union Jack Nail Design!

Hi guys! 
 It's been a long time since I last posted - I'm sorry! But unfortunately I'm right in the middle of my GCSE exams at the moment so I've been very busy studying for those. But fortunately I now have a week off from exams so I thought I'd get cracking on a nail design for you all!
 For those of you who have miraculously missed out on the thousands of adverts for the Jubilee weekend, or for those who live in other countries and so are unaware, this weekend is the weekend of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrating 60 years on the throne. Now I have to admit, I’m not really into royalty much but this seemed like a good opportunity for a nail design so I thought why not?!
 I did think of crowns or English roses for the design but then I decided it just doesn't get much more British than the Union Jack so that's what I went for! It's a really simple, easy design to create as long as you have a steady hand (or a friend who does!), however it is far easier if you have a thin nail brush as this creates a smooth straight line far more easily.
 For the design you will need a blue nail paint (preferably a royal blue but it doesn't really matter), a white, and a red nail paint. I actually didn't have a royal blue in my vast collection so I used Collection 2000 Hot Looks in BMX Bandit instead which is a slightly paler blue, but I still think this looks just as good. I used N.Y.C Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 134 French White Tip for the white and Rimmel London 60 Seconds in 430 Coralicious (which is technically pink not red but I don't actually own a true red as I have yet to find one) with BarryM Nail Paint in 150 Red Glitter over the top to make it a bit more red and also to add a bit of sparkle, it is the diamond jubilee after all!

 Then the design is easy: First paint a coat of the blue over your entire nail and leave to dry. Then take your thin brush or cocktail stick, whatever you may be using, dip it into your white, and paint a cross on your nails then add the diagonal cross so that you end up with like a star on your nail. Remember to make these lines slightly thicker as your red has to run down the middle of it and make sure to take this right to the edges but don't worry about being too neat, sometimes a bit of scruffiness adds to the look! Leave this to dry. Next, dip your brush into your red and paint a thin line down the middle of the white lines. Leave to dry, add a top coat if necessary or a bit of sparkle if you feel like it and et voile - you have patriotic Union Jack nails!

 Of course you can put your own twist on this design, perhaps using other colours, maybe go for neons, brights or metallics. Or maybe just swap one colour, such as using silver instead of white. Maybe you could just do French tips instead of the whole nail! Whatever you choose to do, have fun with it!

 All that’s left is for me to wish you a happy Jubilee weekend - hopefully I'll be back relatively soon with another post but I'm not going to be able to promise anything unfortunately!

 Oh and as always, thank you so much for reading.

 xxx

Easter Chick Nail Tutorial!

Hi guys! Happy Easter Sunday!

First off, I am so sorry for having been gone so long! It’s been ages! However, I am back now and I have an Easter nail art to make up for it which I hope you’ll all enjoy!

So I was sat up last night at like midnight or something and felt like doing my nails, and came up with this Easter Chick design. It’s really, really simple to do so perfect if you have a spare 20 minutes and fancy taking a break from eating Easter Eggs!

To create these little Easter chicks is ridiculously simple so here are the quick steps:

1.       Paint your nails yellow. Yes, I know, yellow is not a colour you generally reach for to paint your nails but in this case, it’s the perfect colour. However, if you don’t have a yellow, you could go for a cream, a neutral or a pale pastel colour- experiment and see what you think looks good. I used Rimmel London’s I <3 lasting finish in 055 sunshine, which I’ve had for quite a while now so I don’t know if they still do it, but I’m sure there are plenty of other yellows around.

2.       Grab a cocktail stick/toothpick/nail art pen and dip it into some white nail polish. Then use the tip of the cocktail stick, or whatever it is you’ve found to use (hairgrips work quite well actually too) to dot two little white circles next to each other near the top of each nail.

3.       Then, whilst the white is drying, take your cocktail stick and dip it into some orange nail polish. Or, if you don’t have any orange nail polish, because I know it’s not that much of a common colour, you could use a red or pink instead. Then use your cocktail stick to dab a little triangle in the centre underneath the two white circles you have created. The easiest way to make a triangle is to do three dots and just sort of merge them together.

4.       Then, take your cocktail stick and some black nail polish and add little black dots onto each of the white dots, creating little eyes!

5.       Add a quick topcoat of clear nail varnish and you’re all done! Perfect Easter Chick Nails!

Then, if you wanted to get even more creative, you could add legs at the bottom of your nails for the chicks. Or, you could use this to create other animals. For instance, if you change the background colour to grey, change the nose from an orange triangle to a black circle, and add a mouth with some two white rectangles for teeth, you would have an Easter Bunny!

I hope this gives you some inspiration for your own nails - whether you choose to follow my design or get creative with your own design!

I will be back soon, but for now, have an EGGcellent Easter Sunday (I’m sorry- I had to add in an Easter pun somewhere!), make sure to eat your own weight’s worth of Easter chocolate and have fun creating your nail designs!

xxx

The Body Shop 40% off online discount sale!

Hi guys!
So I'm really, really sorry for the lack of posts recently but unfortunately my GCSE work is getting heavy now and I'm seriously stressing but I will try and get a proper post up soon. Also I think I'm going to try and write a few extra posts over Easter so that I won't totally disappear when it comes to my exams too so hopefully all will go well and I'll be able to manage to keep putting up regular posts... well that's the plan anyways... :L

Anyways, so today, I just wanted to alert you all to the fact that The Body Shop has 40% off all products online including sale products so if you like The Body Shop, or want to try out some new products then now is a good time to stock up!

Also, if you read my review of The Mango Body Butter (linked here) then you might want to try that, so if you do, then you might be pleased to hear that it is now: £7.50 for 300ml and £9.00 for 400ml with the 40% taken off.

If you've read my review then you will know that I definitely reccommend this body butter which is why I thought I would let you all know about the discount offer!

Here is the link to The Body Shop online and the code is EXTRA40.

Enjoy and feel free to comment with any of your Body Shop buys if you want!

I promise to get a review up soon...ish,

Bye for now!

xxx

The Body Shop: Mango Body Butter Review

Hi guys!

Hope you’re all well and having a good week!

So, in my last post about the Soap and Glory: The Righteous Butter, I mentioned that I had just tried a new body moisturiser that I thought might be even better and that I would do a post on it soon. Well, here is that post, and the body moisturiser is (Drum roll please!): The Body Shop’s Mango Body Butter!

I bought this quite recently from their website when they were on offer and so managed to get this 300ml pot for a bargainous £3! I was only intending on getting a small pot, but at £3, I just couldn’t resist, and I’m glad I didn’t! The full price for a 300ml pot normally is £18.75 which is quite frankly ridiculous but The Body Shop do pretty much consistently run offers and deals so it’s worth keeping an eye out for these so that you can get it for a much better price. You can also buy a 50ml pot for £5, 200ml for £12.50 or 400ml for £25 at standard prices.

The packaging of the body butter isn’t anything special but it is bright, simple and also, practical. I hate impractical packaging such as squirty tubes because you always end up wasting so much product but with a tub you don’t have this problem, and also, once you’ve used up all the product in the tub, you can always use it to store other stuff! So the packaging gets a thumbs up!

The smell of the product I have to say I was doubtful of when I ordered it. In fact,  I probably wouldn’t have chosen this scent if I’d had more choice, but there wasn’t much stock left in my favourite scents from The Body Shop so I just picked mango, despite not having smelt it before. However, I am extremely glad I did as it is a beautiful, light, fresh, summery scent and I just love it! I know it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and usually I wouldn’t have thought it would be mine, but it really is gorgeous! It will be even more ideal when we eventually get some sunny weather! So I’m definitely glad I took a chance on the mango scent.

Then, the product itself; I’m not entirely sure how to explain just how moisturising this is, it is literally like a drink for your skin, I’m guessing it would be like the equivalent of drinking like a gallon of water! I always put my moisturiser on at night and I will still be able to physically feel the moisture in my skin when I wake up the next morning, and even right through to the evening. It’s just amazing how moisturising it is – I really have never come across anything like it, even Soap and Glory’s The Righteous Butter. Also, because it’s quite a liquid-y formula rather than a really thick one, you don’t really need to use that much product at all, so although a big pot is very expensive, it will last you a long time and if you want to make it last even longer, you don’t really need to use it every day either because it is so moisturising. I would say that you do need to leave your skin for a good while before getting dressed because it does need a while to sink in, but, considering how moisturising it is, I think it can be let off for that!

So, overall, obviously, I am definitely recommending this! However, I wouldn’t advise buying it at full price because that is extremely expensive and if you’re patient a deal will come along sooner or later!

As always, thank you so much for reading and remember to subscribe or follow me on twitter (@megankathleenm) if you want to keep up to date with my posts!

Bye for now!

xxx